NBL Pre-snap Read 08/28/2008

Welcome Bootleggers to the premier episode of the Pre-Snap Read for the 2008 season. Each and every week here on the pre-snap read we will be looking at a few key matchups for the upcoming weeknd and this episode will be no different. Some of the matchups we will be taking a look at in this episode include Utah @ Michigan, Florida Atlantic @ Texas, Michigan State @ California, Washington @ Oregon an Fresno State@ Rutgers. We will also be going in depth with our preview of matchups between Alabama and Clemson and the Illinois/Missouri game, as well as any news around the world of college football.

The AP is reporting that Indiana defensive end Greg Middleton, who led the nation with 16 sacks last season, and three other players have been suspended for one game for undisclosed disciplinary reasons.

Middleton was first-team All-Big Ten and a third-team All-America selection.

The suspensions, announced Tuesday by coach Bill Lynch, will be for the Hoosiers’ season-opening game Saturday against Western Kentucky. Ryan Marando, who had six sacks last season, will replace Middleton in the starting lineup.

The other suspended players, none of them starters, are tight end Troy Wagner, safety Brandon Mosley and freshman defensive end Kyle Kozak.

Utah @ Michigan

- Big question is will Michigan start off as poorly this season as they did last year?

- Michigan still has to be second guessing their coaching choice

- Utah is not a demoralized team, un-like Michigan, and they believe they can win

- QB Brian Johnson will have the game of his life against a patchy Michigan defense

- Michigan is going to take one right on the chin in their own house

Florida Atlantic @ Texas

- Although I am high on FAU, it is a tough win to get when playing at Texas, even if the Longhorns are not near the team they were in previous seasons

- It’s going to be interesting to see how the new 4-2-5 alignment works against a likely pass happy Florida Atlantic team

- Texas offense may be a little softer, but Colt McCoy still can make things happen, but the Owls have probably the best defense in the Sun Belt and should make a pretty good play at stopping the Longhorns

Michigan State @ California

- Spartans are taking a young team to Berkley…especially their offense. Brian Hoyer has to have the game of his life at QB and young players like Fred Smith have to step up quickly for the Spartans to leave week 1 with a win

- Newcomer Kevin Riley is going to get the start at QB for the Bears. This is too important of a game for the Bears and it sets the stage for making their way through a tough season schedule. Rest assured that If Riley has a great game, like will be looking up in Berkley, but should the Spartan leave with a win, Coach Tedford will hear it all the way from Tightwad Hill that he should have played Longshore more.

Washington @ Oregon

- Can Jake Locker and his young backs and receivers get past 8 returning defensive starters from last year’s Oregon team?

- How bad will Oregon miss having Dixon in the lineup and will the fresh legs of Justin Roper be able to carry the offense?

Fresno State @ Rutgers

- For those that like to watch two passing teams go head to head, I think we can expect to see it

- Fresno State brings back 10 offensive starters and will look to come out passing the football with Todd Brandstater running the show from under center and a solid crop of receivers

- Rutgers is going to have to look to the pass if for no other reason that they are missing Ray Rice from last season. Mike Teel should have a good season though, but he won’t get much by the Fresno State defense.

Illinois @ Missouri

- Overall Observations

• Rematch of last year’s even matchup
• Last year may have gone differently had Illinois not had 5 turnovers, one of which was a fumble retuned for 100 yard TD
• This year, Ron Zook’s team will not have any of that.

- Illinois

• The big difference this year for Illinois is that they do not have Rashard Mendenhall in the lineup, who in last years game delivered two of the Illini’s touch downs
• Illinois will be looking to Daniel Dufrene and Troy Pollard to try to step into Mendenhall’s shoes, which may not be out of the realm of possibility as Dufrene did manage a little over 6 yards per carry last season, including nearly 10 yards per carry against Missouri in last season’s game
• Illinois also returns Juice Williams, who I think settles down a bit this season and show well against Missouri. Keep in mind that last year, he did complete  2/3 of has passes against Missouri and didn’t throw any picks

- Missouri

• Missouri, of course, returns some potent offensive firepower in Chase Daniels, who I would be very surprised if he didn’t climb again towards the top of a lot of peoples Heisman list this season.
• In last year’s matchup against Illinois, Daniels threw for 359 yards and 3 TD’s, so there is no reason to doubt his ability to find weaknesses in the Illini defense and exploit them
• And he did so by spreading the ball around to several receivers, most of which will be returning this year.
• Where Missouri suffers is on the defensive side of the football, where they have had several injuries and other setbacks that have thrown off their spring and offseason a bit.
• This is most critical at the linebacker position, where if they do not step up against the veer offense that Zook has put together at Illinois, the Tiger defense may find themselves flatfooted and have a tough time keeping the Illini in front of them.

Alabama @ Clemson

- Overall Observations

• Alabama had a hellava off season, garnering the best recruiting class this year, so chalk it up to Nick Saben doing his job and maybe a fair bit of BAMA tradition
• The reality is that a good recruiting class does not constitute a top 25 rating and I’m really not sure what the “experts” are seeing in this Alabama team
• Of course, this is a neutral game, so tiger fans are not able to look forward to holding funeral services at Death Valley, though the Georgia Dome may act as a surrogate since Clemson is the official home team

- Alabama

• Bama truly has their work cut out for them, especially after finishing their season with a demoralizing defeat against Louisiana-Monroe and yet another loss to Auburn.
• In spite of returning 9 offensive starters, the offense will likely be under greater pressure to produce, and without Caddell, Brown and Hall pulling in the passes, QB John Parker Wilson may struggle a bit…not for his lack of veteran play and leadership, but for lack of support
• Fortunately, Bama brings a tight and tough O-line to the game that should give the pass time to develop and ideally open up the run a bit for Grant and Coffee

- Clemson

• For Clemson though, this is by far their best team in years
• It is tough to find anything bad to say about the Tiger offense, anchored by Cullen Harper at QB, Aaron Kelly catching passes and James Davis and C.J. Spiller running the ball.
• If anything is a question mark at this point, it is whether or not the offensive line has come together or not. The tigers are breaking in 3 new starters up front which is always a scary situation for an offense, even with high caliber talent at the skill positions
• Defensively, Clemson looks solid, including a larcenous secondary that returns 4 starters, and quick defensive ends that should put some serious pressure on QBs

All music on today’s podcast was graciously provided by Rising Conviction. Please check out their website at www.risingconviction.com. The Pre-snap Read is brought to you by The Naked Bootleg.com and Twelve October Productions. All Rights Reserved 2008.

Woody Registration Fixed

There was a slight hiccup for those trying to register to get Woody’s content for about a half hour today. Thanks to (name withheld, but you know who you are) for letting us know so we could promptly fix this problem and bring you the content you crave.

We’ve Got Woody!!

Woody Johnson is back this year to provide you his expert insight into college football. The first week’s picks have just been posted. To access the entire post you will need to register with us. It is painless and easy, and as always we will not share or sell your information without previous consent.

Woody’s Picks – Week 1

WEEK 1

The start of a new season brings new hope for all teams, and for those of us watching the lines on the games a fresh, clean slate. As is the case every week, these picks are for entertainment purposes only. Utilize my advice at your own risk.

YTD 0-0

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Be patient

Randy is still figuring all of this out… it’s 1:00 in the damn morning and I have a lovely meeting at 10:00 tomorrow…

Randy’s uneducated guesses

Finally the season is upon us. If you haven’t been listening to the Pre-Season Blitz Podcasts then I’d like to know just what the hell you’ve been doing for the past month.

As is my tradition (remember, if you’re an Aggie and you do anything once, it is a tradition) I have sat down and guessed out the schedule for all of the teams for the entire season.

I know… I know… this is absolute lunacy, but this is what I do and how I try and prepare myself for the season. As the season progresses I fill in the results of games and adjust any predictions and then use these guesses to plot out the bowl predictions.

This year, I’m giving you a behind the scenes look at my thoughts going into the season. Enjoy.

Key:     We=Expected Wins     Le=Expected Losses     Win Exp %=Expected Winning Percentage

NBL Preseason Blitz 08/25/2008

In this final installment of the Preseason Blitzfor hte 2008 season, Randy and Eric will be featuring an indepth look at the SEC and the Sun Belt.

SEC Overview

Florida – most complete team in the SEC
Georgia – toughest schedule in the nation? Can’t live up to the pressure from Georgia fans
South Carolina – Spurrier teams are always scrappy, and they’ll upset Georgia or Florida and maybe Clemson
Tennessee – Fulmer struggles without Cutcliffe around, but still has a good, not great seaon… will lose 3 games amongst SoCar, UGa, FL, Aub
Kentucky – Natural drop off after the loss of Andre Woodson, Jacob Tamme and Wesley Woodyard. 4/5 top rec gone
Vanderbilt – New O Line for Vandy means its going to be a long season. Have both Duke and Rice at home, but may not beat both.

Auburn – Rodreriqus Smith need to be a clutch receiver, but thanks to a down year in the West, its a managable schedule for the Tigers.
LSU – No Hester, Flynn, or Perriloux.
Ole Miss – New players and new coach for Ole Miss. Excited about the Houston Nutt era.
Alabama – John Parker Wilson needs to find solid targets in the passing game. Top 3 rec gone.
Mississippi State – Croom is a great coach. Miss St. has exp in the air and on the ground. D will be solid like in the Joe Lee Dunn days
Arkansas – Petrino isn’t the answer at Arkansas, and they’ll regret losing Nutt. Losing McFadden and Jones has a more immediate impact.

Sun Belt Overview

FAU – Schnellenberger is DA MAN. 10 returning starters on O. Will not scare Texas. Will beat Minnesota @ MN.
Troy – No more Omar means a step back for the year…. but just for this year
UNT – Todd Dodge ignites the squad from Denton. Riley gets his chance to shine.
ASU – Decimated O line and Secondary.
ULL – Michael Desormeaux is the biggest dual threat West of the Mississippi.
FIU – 18 returning starters of Florida Talent should be an improved squad, but will their record be better???
MTSU – More experienced this year. If Dasher hits a sophmore slump you can go ahead and write the season off.
ULM – Warhawks take on new identity, but still keep their losing ways.

We would also like to give one additional plug to Mur Lafferty. Her book hit Amazon today, and as of our recording time, Mur is #16 in book sales according to the sales charts. This is certainly an impressive feat and we’re glad that we were able to do our small part in helping Mur get the word out.

Today we’re going to leave you with a new promo for Seth Harwood’s Young Junius. Drop us a line and let us know what you think about our taking the time to find these podcasts and playing their promos on our show. Of course, you can always leave us feedback through our contact form on this website.

All music on todays podcast was graciously provided by Rising Conviction. Please check out their website at www.risingconviction.com. The Preseason Blitz is brought to you by The Naked Bootleg.com and Twelve October Productions. All Rights Reserved 2008.

NBL Preseason Blitz 08/20/2008

Hello Bootleggers, and welcome back to the Pre-season Blitz. The Naked Bootleg brings you two podcasts each week so you can git your fix of our unabashed, unbiased and uncensored view of college football. This is episode 6 and we’ll be banging out the Big East and MAC previews.

In our Top 20 episode earlier this week, we mentioned that we had been working on a special project for Mur Lafferty. In the run up to the release date of Mur’s book Playing for Keeps, she has re-opened the “Stories of the Third Wave” to members of the podcasting community and asked them to come up with some creative tie-ins to her 7th City saga. We decided that the best way to tie the NBL in with Mur’s hero novel was to stage a radio production where we were out at a football game, and a villian from 7th city attacks during the game, thus “Ruckus at Lafferty Field” was born. The concept and story was developed by Randy, with audio production and post-production produced by Eric, and we must say that It turned out better than we could have hoped. We don’t have a release date yet for our story, but once we do we’ll fill you in. You’ll be able to download our story, as well as the Playing for Keeps podiobook and Stories of the Third Wave by going to playingforkeepsnovel.com and we’ll be sure to have the link in the show notes. Just a reminder that you can purchase the Playing For Keeps novel starting August 25th from Amazon.com.

And now for the Big East Preview:

USF – 10 returning starters on an already potent offense. Groethe is the man – hopefully no more Gro-hawk. Geroge Selvie leads the D.
West Virginia – Noel Devine should shine with Pat White running less. Defense is really depelted, with the strength in the linebacking corps in their 3-3-5 alignment
Rutgers – Mike Teel to Kenny Britt is a call we’ll be hearing all year. Only losing 3 starters on D is a huge asset heading into this loaded conference.
UConn – Randy Edsel’s team improves bit by bit each year. They need a big play receiver, but they do have a solid O. LY the D held 10 of 13 to under 20. If they do that this year, they win 9 games.
Cincinnati – Biggest question is the starting QB, which might be a battle throughout the season. Bearcat D is strong, especially in the middle.
Louisville – Decimated Defense and O line. Several transfers into the program should help.
Pittsburgh – Largest weakness is going to be the O and D line… you can’t win if you can’t control the trenches
Syracuse – Greg Robinson’s last year in the Carrier Dome. Even with 3/5 O line returning they gave up 54 sacks last season. Biggest strength is the return game.

Now, over to the MAC:

CMU – Dan LeFevour is best QB since Roethlisberger in the MAC. Chippewas have inside track for 3rd MAC championship in a row. Game @ UGa will be ugly, but might be able to upset Purdue
WMU – 16 returning starters with the biggest Qs on the O line. Brandon West should have another 2000 All-purpose yards season. CB Londen Fryan is 2x All-MAC.
Buffalo – 1st winning season for Turner Gill and his Bulls if the D front 7 can come together as a unit and QB Drew Willy stays healthy
Ball State – Offense will be explosive with Davis, Love and Hill. D Line is inexperienced but will get acclimated through a soft early season schedule before going to Indiana
Temple – Tons of returning talent for this Owls team. Defense is already solid, the offense needs to come up from its #112 overall ranking.
Miami, OH – Inside track on MAC title game, but a tough November MAC schedule might prevent it. Need to find a sold starter at tailback
NIU – Duo of Clanton and Anderson at TB should be trouble for most MAC opponents. Need to improve on their -17 TO margain which ranked #117
Kent State – 16 returning starters on a team that scored 21.6 ppg but gave up 29.2 ppg does not spell a recipe for success.
Ohio – Bang-up secondary should help in pass happy MAC, but dueling QBs could spell trouble, especially with an O that ranked #83 overall last year.
Akron – Running a 3-3-5 in the MAC is wise, but all 5 DBs are new (including former RB Bryan Williams). Strong O line should ease transition of new RBs and Recvs
EMU – LY EMU had +11 TO margain and still only managed a 4-8 record. Daniel Holtzclaw is the shining light on this defense with 125 tackles LY.
Toledo – Defense ranked #116 last year in scoring. If that doesn’t improve it doesn’t matter what QB Aaron Opelt and his stable of receivers do.
Bowling Green – Defense has to improve on giving up over 200 ypg on the ground. Tougher schedule this year for the Falcons.

One quick mention before we go. A few shows ago, we mentioned the Young Junius story by Seth Harwood. The first episode of this new podiobook has been released, and the story was better than we expected it to be, and with Seth’s stories, expectations are always high. Seth even took a minute to give some Palms Father love to us here at the bootleg.

Thank you for taking your time to join us today. All music on todays podcast was graciously provided by Rising Conviction. Please check out their website at www.risingconviction.com. The Preseason Blitz is brought to you by The Naked Bootleg.com and Twelve October Productions. All Rights Reserved 2008.

NBL Preseason Blitz 08/17/2008

On today’s show we’re taking a break from our conference preview’s to bring you the Top 20 games of September, and if you want to be technical, there might be one or two from August on the list as well. Now I know there are still some conferences that we haven’t previewed with you yet, so if you are wondering why you favorite team or a particular game you are excited about didn’t make this week’s episode, it may be because certain conference implications or a number of other reasons. Some of the games to keep an eye on in the early season include:
8/30 – Michigan State @ California
8/30 – Illinois @ Missouri
8/30 – Fresno State @ Rutgers
9/6 – BYU @ Washington
9/11 – UNC @ Rutgers
9/12 – Kansas @ South Florida
9/13 – California @ Maryland
9/13 – SMU @ Texas Tech
9/13 – Oklahoma @ Washington
9/13 Georgia @ South Carolina
9/13 – Ohio State @ USC
9/13 – Wisconsin @ Fresno State
9/17 – K-State @ Louisville
9/20 – Wake Forest @ Florida State
9/20 – Mississippi State @ Georgia Tech
9/20 – Florida @ Tennessee
9/20 – LSU @ Auburn
9/20 – Miami @ Texas A&M
9/27 – Maryland @ Clemson
9/27 – Illinois @ Penn State

All music on todays podcast was graciously provided by Rising Conviction. Please check out their website at www.risingconviction.com. The Preseason Blitz is brought to you by The Naked Bootleg.com and Twelve October Productions. All Rights Reserved 2008.

NBL Preseason Blitz 08/13/2008

This is episode 4 and we’ll be banging out the Big 12 and the Mountain West Conferences

Big 12 Preview

North

• Mizzou – Far and away the best team in the North. Great targets for Daniel.
  
• Nebraska – Solid front 4 on D, but no real experience at LB, traditionally a strong point on Neb Ds. Joe Ganz has a great year.
  
• Kansas – Good team, but a brutal B12 sched forces them to take a step back. Talib won’t be missed as much as McAnderson.
  
• Colorado – Need to solidify the O line. Tougher schedule this year.
  
• Kansas State – Ron Prince can’t quite get them over the hump. Need to find replacements for Jordy Nelson and James Johnson
  
• Iowa State – Gene Chizik’s team isn’t able to build on last year, esp after losing Bret Meyer and Todd Blythe.
  

South

• Oklahoma – Deep stable of backs. Solid line. Great QB. Some questions as to who will start in the secondary, but still plenty of depth.
  
• Texas – Will Muschamp will need to revitalize the Texas D if they want to do better than 9-3. Colt McCoy is solid, but I still haven’t bought into all his hype. Depth needed at WR.
  
• Texas A&M – Only 1 conference road game against a team predicted to have a winning record (Texas).
  
• Texas Tech – Most overrated team in the U.S. O will be spectacular, but they can’t beat OU on the road, and the D will not be an unknown commodity like it was last year.
  
• Oklahoma State – 4/5 returning on the O line. Lack of depth at WR. Lack of experience on the D line.
  
• Baylor – Art Briles will turn this program around, might win 2 conference games this year (ISU, @OKSt) for the 2nd time since 2000

MWC Preview

BYU – The biggest questions have to do with the secondary as the offense should be better than last years 14.7 YPP
Utah – High powered O and solid D give them a chance to compete in the Big House for the season opener
TCU – Most returning starters since 2002. Solid ground game.
Air Force – Lots of questions at the skill positions, and only 8 starters returning. D line has the most experience of any unit, and will have to be solid if they want to take the C-I-C this year.
New Mexico – Strong Secondary should keep opposing offenses at bay, but the O line has a lot of new faces.
San Diego State – 8 returning starters on D, but they gave up 34.4 ppg last year.
Wyoming – Both the offensive and defensive lines are strong, returning all eight starters. Biggest question is K.
Colorado State – Start rebuilding with a solid ground game with 4/5 OL returning as well as Top 3 rushers returning.
UNLV – Phil Steele has them as his 4th best team in the WAC, but I don’t them coming up from the cellar. Offense has 9 returners, but the D will take a step back.

This episodes concludes with a  promo for Seth Harwood’s new project Young Junius. For those unfamiliar with Seth’s body of work, Seth has written a trilogy of novels called the Jack Palms series. Here is a brief synopsis of the first book in the series, Jack Wakes Up that is coming out in May 2009

“What does a movie-star one-hit-wonder and ex-drug-addict do when he’s cleaned up, down on his luck, and running out of money?
In the three years since Jack Palms went clean  – no drugs, no drinking, no life? He’s added fourteen pounds of muscle, read 83 books, and played it as straight as anyone can ask him. Now, when an old friend from L.A. calls, he hits the streets of San Francisco to help a group of Czech drug buyers make one big score, a single drug deal that he hopes will set him up for life.
But when people start turning up dead, and an old nemesis on the police force calls, Jack finds himself with just 24 hours to track down San Francisco’s biggest drug supplier or face charges that will put him behind bars.
Only an Oscar-caliber performance will get him through this alive. “

The Young Junius project is an off-shoot of the Jack Palms series focusing on a young gang-banger named Junius Ponds. Like all of Seth’s work, Young Junius is sure to be full of action, drama, women and drugs. As Seth would say, “This isn’t fit for your mini-van, so get those ear muffs on your kids.” Please check out Seth’s work at sethharwood.com

All music on todays podcast was graciously provided by Rising Conviction. Please check out their website at www.risingconviction.com. The Preseason Blitz is brought to you by The Naked Bootleg.com and Twelve October Productions. All Rights Reserved 2008.

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