NBL Pre-Snap Read 11/25/2008

Welcome Bootleggers, once again to the Naked Bootleg’s Pre-snap Read where you will always get an unabashed, unbiased, and uncensored view of college football. Another week of big rivalries are coming our way this week and we will of course be covering many of them. This episode we will take a brief look West Virginia as the head to Pitt to take on the Panthers, Georgia Tech takes on Georgia between the hedges, the boarder war between Kansas and Missouri, Florida is at Florida State and another battle in one of the oldest west coast rivalries, as Oregon heads to Oregon State in Pac10 action. We’ll also dive into other key match-ups as Maryland heads to Beantown to take on Boston College in a pivotal ACC battle, and the Bedlam game out in Stillwater as Oklahoma takes on Oklahoma State. All this and an additional observation or two along the way.
OK…the good news and the bad news in the world of college football. We’ll start with the good…

The AP is reporting that “Penn State coach Joe Paterno was released from the hospital on Tuesday, two days after undergoing hip replacement surgery.

The 81-year-old coach had surgery to fix a sore hip that prevented him from pacing the sidelines. He coached the final seven games of the regular season from the press box.

Paterno was released early from Mount Nittany Medical Center, the school said in a statement. The team doctor called the surgery a success.”

Apparently Joe has also been quite vocal in his pronouncement that he is still in charge, still making preparations for his team’s Rose bowl appearance.

OK…now for some unfortunate news.

As being reported on ESPN “North Carolina senior linebacker Mark Paschal, the team’s leading tackler, suffered a cervical spine injury on Saturday in the Tar Heels’ loss to NC State and the UNC sports medicine staff advised that he no longer play football, the university announced Tuesday.

Paschal was examined on the sideline in the second half and had an MRI on Sunday. He is expected to make a full recovery with no long-term effects.

This is a devastating loss for Paschal and his team, as Paschal has not missed a game in his career and is currently the Tar Heels’ leading tackler with 103.

… Alright…On to this week’s scouting report

West Virginia @ Pitt
Eric’s Pick – WVU
Randy’s Pick – WVU

Ga. Tech @ Georgia
Eric’s Pick – GT
Randy’s Pick – GT

Kansas @ Missouri
Eric’s Pick – Missouri
Randy’s Pick – Missouri

Florida @ Florida State
Eric’s Pick – Florida
Randy’s Pick – Florida

Oregon @ Oregon State
Eric’s Pick – Oregon State
Randy’s Pick – Oregon State

Maryland @ Boston College*
Eric’s Pick – Boston College
Randy’s Pick – Boston College

Oklahoma @ Oklahoma State*
Eric’s Pick – Oklahoma
Randy’s Pick – Oklahoma State

NBL Two Minute Drill 11/23/2008

Welcome Bootleggers to the November 23rd edition of the Two Minute Drill. Tonight we’re talking about the latest BCS standings, the Naked Bootleg Top 20 and the action from this previous weekend including the ass whoopin that Oklahoma laid out on Texas Tech. We’ll also take a few minutes to run down the conference championship game match-ups. It’s time now to get to our unabashed, unbiased and uncensored view of college football.

After Texas Tech’s floundering in Norman there isn’t too much of a surprise that there is a shakeup in the BCS rankings. Here are the current standings.

1 Alabama
2 Texas
3 Oklahoma
4 Florida
5 USC
6 Utah
7 Texas Tech
8 Penn State
9 Boise State
10 Ohio State
11 Georgia
12 Oklahoma State

Things cleared up this week in the championship game races, at least in the ACC and Conference-USA. There are some chances at three-way ties in the MAC and the Big 12. Here are the current rundowns.

Big 12 North: Missouri has secured the Big 12 North.

Big 12 South: Texas, OU, and TT all need to win and be the highest in the BCS Rankings. A loss by any of them trigger head to head rules.
ACC Coastal: Virginia Tech wins and they are in. If Virginia Tech loses then Georgia Tech gets in.

ACC Atlantic: Boston College wins and they are in. If Boston College loses then Florida State gets in.
C-USA East: ECU has secured a spot in the C-USA game, but most likely will not host the game.

C-USA West: Houston beats Rice and they’re in. Tulsa needs to beat Marshall and Rice to beat Houston. Rice needs to beat Houston and Tulsa lose to Marshall.
Mac East: Buffalo has secured a spot in the MAC Championship game.

Mac West: Ball State gets in with win over Western Michigan. If WMU beats Ball St and CMU loses to EMU then WMU is in. If WMU and CMU win next week then there is a three way tie which will be determind by the strength of schedule of their cross-division opponents. We’re too lazy to calculate which one is the winner of this tie-breaker.

It is no surprise that for the next six weeks we’ll be hearing all kinds of rumors about who is going to which school to fill the coaching vacancy du jour, but there have been some interesting by-products that many have yet to considered. While Chuck Long is out at San Diego State after receiving a vote of confidence which was really Michael coming up and kissing Freddo, and Joe Glenn has been ousted at Wyoming there is an odd undercurrent in these troubled waters that no one has yet mentioned. What am I talking about? The coach-in-waiting is surely to become popular over the next decade and before long we will see two bad byproducts. First, how will the remainder of the coaching staff going to take the news of not being the heir-apparent, and secondly how long will it be before the coach-in-waiting is used to put pressure on a coach as a reminder that he is expendable.

On to this week’s NBL Top 20

1 Alabama
2 Oklahoma
3 Florida
4 Penn State
5 Texas
6 Texas Tech
7 Utah
8 USC
9 Ohio State
10 Boise State
11 Missouri
12 Georgia
13 Oklahoma State
14 Ball State
15 BYU
16 TCU
17 Cincinnati
18 Boston College
19 Michigan State
20 Oregon State

Receiving Votes: Georgia Tech

Honorable Mention: Pat White and the rest of the West Virginia Mountaineers offense for not only thrashing Louisville and racking up 500 yards of total offense, but for breaking the NCAA record for career yards rushing by a quarterback that had been previously held by Brad Smith of Missouri. Pat also beat Donovan McNabb’s Big East total touchdown record.

As always you can write in and leave us feedback on the website at any time. This past week, a person using the handle “R Word” left us the following comment on the site in response to last week’s Two Minute Drill “Just listened to the latest Two Minute Drill and wanted to mention that the LSU Troy game was suppose to have been September 6 but was moved due to a hurricane. Plus the fact that Troy always puts up a fight no matter who the play.”

Thanks for sending that in, and yes, Troy has given many teams fits over the past few years. We’ve seen them take out both Missouri and Oklahoma State, and then have that commanding lead over LSU. Personally I wouldn’t be surprised if Troy jumped out of the Sun Belt Conference and tried to join Conference-USA sometime down the line. They certainly have played well enough to warrant joining a better league, but there aren’t any foreseeable openings at this time.

I have a few games I want to talk about from this weekend before we review all of the games we talked about on our last episode of the Pre-Snap Read.

North Carolina State upsets North Carolina
Purdue destroys Indiana in Joe Tiller’s last game
Syracuse upset Notre Dame
Ole Miss topples LSU out on the Bayou
Northwestern seals a losing record for the promising Illini
Iowa shuts out Minnesota 55-0
Stephen F. Austin loses to Northwestern St, so State retains Chief Caddo which is the largest trophy in college football. Chief Caddo stands 7′6″ and was selected since the towns of the two schools were named for Caddo tribes, Nacogdoches for SFA and Nachitoches for Northwestern. I would like to point out to Reece Davis though that if he is going to try and sound like he knows what he is talking about maybe he should find things out before hand. Kawliga might be a wooden indian and there might be some obscure cover by Charlie Pride, but it is most certainly a Hank Williams song and everybody from Montgomery to Nashville should write him and let him know that he should stick to football since it is obvious that he don’t know Hank.

Ball State @ Central Michigan
Michigan State @ Penn State
Stanford @ California
Boston College @ Wake Forest
Pittsburgh @ Cincinnati
Florida State @ Maryland
BYU @ Utah
Texas Tech @ Oklahoma

Eric is now 53-40 on the year
Randy is now 52-41 on the year

NBL Bowl Outlook 11/24/2008

This is the point in the season where things settle down as to who is going to be bowl eligible and not, but with the addition of the two new bowls this year there is a possibility that we might not have enough teams to fill all the slots. With Illinois’ unexpected loss to Northwestern and a few other untimely losses I am currently projecting that there won’t be a single team the reaches bowl eligibility and not receive an invitation.

National Champtionship	Oklahoma	Florida
Rose Bowl	Penn State	USC
Orange Bowl	Virginia Tech	Cincinnati
Sugar Bowl	Alabama	Utah
Fiesta Bowl	Texas	Ohio State
Cotton Bowl	Missouri	Ole Miss
Gator Bowl	Florida State	West Virginia
Capitol One Bowl	Michigan State	Georgia
Liberty Bowl	Tulsa	Vanderbilt
Sun Bowl	Nebraska	Oregon State
Chick-Fil-A Bowl	Boston College	South Carolina
Holiday Bowl	Oregon	Texas Tech
Independence Bowl	Central Michigan	UL – Lafayette
Outback Bowl	LSU	Northwestern
Insight Bowl	Kansas	Wisconsin
Champs Sports Bowl	Minnesota	Miami, FL
Las Vegas Bowl	TCU	Arizona
Alamo Bowl	Oklahoma State	Iowa
Motor City Bowl	Western Michigan	San Jose State
Humanitarian Bowl	Fresno State	Wake Forest
Music City Bowl	Georgia Tech	Kentucky
GMAC Bowl	ECU	Ball State
Texas Bowl	Arkansas State	Memphis
New Orleans Bowl	Troy	Houston
Hawaii Bowl	Boise State	Rutgers
Emerald Bowl	California	Maryland
Meineke Car Care Bowl	Notre Dame	North Carolina
Armed Forces Bowl	Rice	Air Force
Poinsettia Bowl	BYU	Nevada
Papajohns.com Bowl	Florida Atlantic	South Florida
New Mexico Bowl	Louisiana Tech	Colorado State
International Bowl	UConn	Buffalo
Congressional Bowl	Navy	Clemson
St. Petersberg Bowl	Pittsburgh	NIU

Top 20 for November 23rd, 2008

After the drubbing that OU put on Texas Tech we aren’t surprised that Oklahoma made a big leap. Each week Eric and I vote independently and come up with the Top 20, and the top 3 were unanimous in the order listed. In discussing it Eric and I both came to the conclusion that Oklahoma’s signature win over Texas Tech was better than Florida’s win over Georgia, and OU’s loss to Texas was against a stronger opponent than the Gator’s loss to Ole Miss.

1 Alabama

2 Oklahoma

3 Florida

4 Penn State

5 Texas

6 Texas Tech

7 Utah

8 USC

9 Ohio State

10 Boise State

11 Missouri

12 Georgia

13 Oklahoma State

14 Ball State

15 BYU

16 TCU

17 Cincinnati

18 Boston College

19 Michigan State

20 Oregon State

Receiving Votes: Georgia Tech

Honorable Mention: Pat White and the rest of the West Virginia Mountaineers offense for not only thrashing Louisville and racking up 500 yards of total offense, but for breaking the NCAA record for career yards rushing by a quarterback that had been previously held by Brad Smith of Missouri. Pat also beat Donovan McNabb’s Big East total touchdown record.

Woody’s Picks Week 14 (Saturday Final)

Two great weeks; let’s go for three.  Early this week (Sunday night while watching UConn @ USF) b/c of travel plans for the holidays.  I’ll take the opening number on any line indicated w/ “??”.  I’ll provide details Monday and Tuesday.

LW 27-19-2.

YTD 89-92-4 (49%)

(All info ATS unless noted)

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Woody’s Picks Week 13 (Saturday Final)

Editor’s note: These are the Woody J picks for the Saturday matchups for the weekend. To see the games from Tuesday through Friday night please see the previous post. More picks will be added throughout the day

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NBL Bowl Outlook 11/17/2008

At this point it is still anyones guess as to who the actual champion will be from the ACC, but we do know they won’t be playing in the national championship game. Things should be settling down in the bowl picture, but rumor has it that even with five losses the Gator, Cotton and Sun Bowls are all considering Notre Dame which could really screw up the bowl picture.

National Champtionship	Florida	Oklahoma
Rose Bowl	Penn State	USC
Orange Bowl	Virginia Tech	Cincinnati
Sugar Bowl	Alabama	BYU
Fiesta Bowl	Texas	Ohio State
Cotton Bowl	Missouri	LSU
Gator Bowl	North Carolina	West Virginia
Capitol One Bowl	Michigan State	Georgia
Liberty Bowl	Tulsa	Auburn
Sun Bowl	Nebraska	Arizona
Chick-Fil-A Bowl	Florida State	Ole Miss
Holiday Bowl	Oregon	Texas Tech
Independence Bowl	Rutgers	Kentucky
Outback Bowl	South Carolina	Minnesota
Insight Bowl	Kansas	Iowa
Champs Sports Bowl	Wisconsin	Wake Forest
Las Vegas Bowl	Utah	Oregon State
Alamo Bowl	Oklahoma State	Northwestern
Motor City Bowl	Western Michigan	Illinois
Humanitarian Bowl	Fresno State	Maryland
Music City Bowl	Georgia Tech	Vanderbilt
GMAC Bowl	ECU	Central Michigan
Texas Bowl	LA – Lafayette	UTEP
New Orleans Bowl	Troy	Houston
Hawaii Bowl	Boise State	Ball State
Emerald Bowl	California	Boston College
Meineke Car Care Bowl	Pittsburgh	Miami, FL
Armed Forces Bowl	Rice	Air Force
Poinsettia Bowl	TCU	San Jose State
Papajohns.com Bowl	Florida Atlantic	South Florida
New Mexico Bowl	Louisiana Tech	UNLV
International Bowl	Notre Dame	Buffalo
Congressional Bowl	Navy	Clemson
St. Petersberg Bowl	UConn	Memphis

The teams left on the outside looking in are Arkansas State and Nevada, both with 6-6 records

Top 20 for November 16th, 2008

This will probably be the last time this season that we have this little change in the Top 20. There are just too many good matchups over the last three weeks of the season to think that there won’t be huge changes between now and then.

1 Alabama

2 Florida

3 Oklahoma

4 Texas Tech

5 Texas

6 Penn State

7 USC

8 Utah

9 BYU

10 Ohio State

11 Boise State

12 Missouri

13 Georgia

14 Michigan State

15 Oklahoma State

16 Ball State

17 Cincinnati

18 TCU

19 LSU

T-20 Boston College

T-20 Pittsburgh

Receiving Votes: Oregon State

Honorable Mention: This week we have two Honorable Mentions.
Eric: The Miami Hurricanes
Randy: Virginia Military Institute (VMI beat Kentucky 111-103 making 14 of 31 from beyond the arch) last Friday night in Lexington.

NBL Pre-Snap Read 11/19/2008

Hello bootleggers and welcome again to the Naked Bootlegs Pre-Snap Read, where you will always get an unabashed, unbiased, and uncensored view of college football, and tonight you will get that view live as a key matchup between MAC contenders takes place. We will be providing the occasional live look in to the Ball State/Central Michigan game and provide a quick commentary or two. We will also be looking at other key matchups taking place this weekend including Michigan State at Penn State, Stanford at Cal, Boston College at Wake Forest, Pittsburg at Cincinnati, Florida State at Maryland and of course deep dives into BYU and Utah and yet another Big 12 battle between Texas Tech and Oklahoma.

And now it is time for Quick Hits!

The AP is reporting that …

“Texas head football coach Mack Brown and Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds announced Tuesday that first-year defensive coordinator Will Muschamp will be signed to a new long-term deal that not only keeps him in his current role, but designates him as Brown’s successor.”

… Alright…On to this week’s scouting report

Mich State @ Penn State
Eric’s Pick – Penn State
Randy’s Pick – Penn State

Stanford @ Cal
Eric’s Pick – California
Randy’s Pick – Stanford

BC @ WF
Eric’s Pick – Boston College
Randy’s Pick – Boston College

Pitt @ Cin
Eric’s Pick – Cincinnati
Randy’s Pick – Cincinnati

FSU @ MD
Eric’s Pick – Maryland
Randy’s Pick – Florida State

BYU @ Utah*
Eric’s Pick – BYU
Randy’s Pick – BYU

TT @ OU*
Eric’s Pick – Oklahoma
Randy’s Pick – Oklahoma

NBL Two Minute Drill 11/17/2008

Welcome Bootleggers to the November 17th edition of the Two Minute Drill. Tonight we’re talking about the latest BCS standings, the Naked Bootleg Top 20 and the action from this previous weekend. There were a lot of close games and near upsets, but nothing really came about. I have a feeling though that the last three weekends will make up for all of the stagnation of this past weekend. We’ll also take a minute and run down the conference championship match-ups for conferences that have championship games. It’s time now to get to our unabashed, unbiased and uncensored view of college football.

With only 2 changes in the latest BCS standings there isn’t a lot of news to report. Over the next two weeks we’ll see how rivalry games influence the standings.

1 Alabama
2 Texas Tech
3 Texas
4 Florida
5 Oklahoma
6 USC
7 Utah
8 Penn State
9 Boise State
10 Ohio State
11 Georgia
12 Oklahoma State

We already know who will be playing in Atlanta for the SEC Championship but we need to take a moment and follow up on the other conferences. Things have become murkier in the ACC and Conference USA, but have cleared up some in the Big 12, and the Mac.

Big 12 North: Missouri has secured the Big 12 North.

Big 12 South: TT beats OU or OU loss to OK State and they’re in. If OU, TT, and TX wind up in 3 way tie the BCS standings will determine the winner. OK State is out, but could spoil OUs hopes.
ACC Coastal: Miami wins out and they’re in. VT wins out AND Miami loses out. UNC wins out AND Miami loses one game AND VT loses a game. Georgia Tech and UVa need miracles.

ACC Atlantic: Maryland or BC win out and they are in. FSU needs to beat Maryland AND for Maryland to beat BC AND BC to beat WF. WF needs to beat BC AND MD to lose out.
C-USA East: ECU win out; Mar needs to win out AND TWO ECU losses; Mem, USM and UAB need miracles at this point.

C-USA West: Houston needs to win out. Tulsa needs to win out AND HOU to lose. Rice needs to win out AND Tulsa to lose. UTEP needs to win out AND Rice to lost out AND Tulsa to lose one game.
Mac East: Buff gets in by winning out. BG needs to win out and Akr loss. Akron needs a miracle.

Mac West: CMU and Ball state get in by winning out. Possible three way tie with WMU, CMU and Ball State. WMU needs to win out AND TWO CMU losses.

On to this week’s NBL Top 20

1 Alabama
2 Florida
3 Oklahoma
4 Texas Tech
5 Texas
6 Penn State
7 USC
8 Utah
9 BYU
10 Ohio State
11 Boise State
12 Missouri
13 Georgia
14 Michigan State
15 Oklahoma State
16 Ball State
17 Cincinnati
18 TCU
19 LSU
T-20 Boston College
T-20 Pittsburgh

Honorable Mention: This week we have two Honorable Mentions.
Eric: The Miami Hurricanes
Randy: Virginia Military Institute (VMI beat Kentucky 111-103 making 14 of 31 from beyond the arch)

I have a few games I want to talk about from this weekend before we review all of the games.

Rutgers destroyed USF
Georgia and Auburn playing close
Florida was not kind to Spurrier’s Cocks
Troy implodes against LSU

Virginia Tech @ Miami
Cal @ Oregon State
North Carolina @ Maryland
Notre Dame @ Navy
Arizona @ Oregon
Buffalo @ Akron
BYU @ Air Force

Eric is now 48-37 on the year
Randy is now 47-38 on the year

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