In Response to a Twitter Message

From time to time we get comments or questions sent to us through NBL on Twitter, that require a little more thought and response than the character count on everyone’s favorite social networking/personal exhibitionism site will allow. This question was submitted by on of our voyeurs…er followers:

“Can USC rebound from that crushing defeat?”

The answer to that question, my friends, is absolutely they can rebound. If college football has taught us anything over the years besides how to drink and curse, it should have taught us by now that even the best teams to ever take the field will sometimes disappoint. It’s kind of like a watching toddlers being potty trained…sometimes they make it to the bowl, and sometimes they drop a big ole’ smelly one right on the floor. In both potty training and college football, the difference between success and failure is discipline and determination. You gotta love double-D’s. Getting taken to the shed by a lesser team isn’t new to the game, and neither is bouncing back. Case in point, when Florida took one on the chin by Ole Miss last season, that wasn’t the end of the Gator’s. Weeks later after inspiring speeches and even more inspiring on-field performances, Florida takes home a BCS Title. Of course teams can rebound, and USC is no exceptions.

The problem that USC faces is that I think they may still think they are USC. It almost seems that every year the Trojans have one of those games where they feel like they just need to show up and claim their win, only to get completely humiliated by the other team, and there are still several teams on their schedule that can provide a generous dose of humility this season, specifically Cal, Oregon State and Oregon, but at this point I’m not prepared to throw a check in the win column for USC against Notre Dame or Stanford either. USC needs to regroup at this point, swallow their pride and get to work. To listen to Pete Carroll, he is confident in his team and says his team is confident in themselves, and with Matt Barkley slated to back in action, all excuses should be gone. We will know really quickly on Saturday if USC is going to step things up. It’s hard to get up for games against weaker opponents, even coming off of a loss. If the intensity isn’t there this week, you can take USC off the grill in my book, because they are done. If they come out and play Washington State as if they are playing for the BCS title, then there is certainly hope for Trojan fans for the rest of this season.

Enough to Make a Man Sick

Lying in a hospital bed with nothing to do but enjoy the welcomed hydration of an IV drip, gives a man a lot of time to think. Yes, folks, I was forced to make an early morning visit to the emergency room. We, of course, were not entirely sure what had caused me so much pain and abdominal discomfort, so when the triage nurse asked me what I thought had made me so sick, I naturally told her it was obviously the way that Georgia Tech had played against Miami which took place just a few hours prior to my night spent laying on the bathroom floor. For some reason, the doctor and nurses didn’t think that was the cause of things, so they ran some tests. Apparently, I had come in contact with some sort of nastiness on a recent trip that decided to sit dormant for about a week before turning my digestive system into a war zone. Occupational hazard, I suppose, since I do spend a lot of time filming in hospitals, healthcare facilities and other such places that are full of little critters just itching to make an otherwise healthy man cry like a baby and beg for a quick death.

So, like I said, with time on my hands I began recalling the other times that I had been to the hospital and they had all be related to sports injuries…elbow fracture, stingers, separated shoulder, meniscus tear, ACL strain…wow…I’ve had a few injuries in my short career. The most recent of these was related to my knee heading into my senior year of high school. Man it sucks to come down with a preseason injury. You wonder how long your going to be out, if you are going to have your starting position when you return…hell, if you are even going to play. How’s your team going to do? Is there any chance for a scholarship if I have to miss a few weeks? Do colleges even recruit players who have been injured in fear that they will always be susceptible to injuries? But that is on a personal level. What about the team? What’s a team to do when someone like Sam Bradford goes down and is out for a few weeks?

One of the things that has baffled me over the years at they youth and even the high school level, is that many coaches fail to properly prepare those lower on the depth chart. It amazes me to no end to find out that some of these players will get no reps during practices other than on scout teams. If you’re one of those 2^nd or 3^rd deep players, scout team is fine and it keeps you playing, but it’s pretty much like dry humping…you get to go through the motions, but it isn’t the real thing and not near as much fun. And while the extra reps may seem to be good for your starting team, all this goes right out the window when one of them gets injured and a 2^nd stringer has to step in and perform.

As a fan, you can tell when this happens, and to be honest, it isn’t because of the talent level now on the field. The tip off is almost always missed assignments or errors cause by inexperience. A prime example of this is with Landry Jones of Oklahoma right after Sam Bradford’s injury in the BYU game. Now please understand, we have some tough rules we hold ourselves to at thenakedbootleg.com regarding the critique of players. We don’t come down an players for things like missed tackles or blown coverages. We will skewer you if you come out and act like a jackass or your off the field demeanor isn’t too becoming. We realize these guys are student athletes. That means two things to us. One, they are not professional athletes. Their futures are likely to be in professions similar to yours or mine. And two, they are students…which means they are still learning and developing. They are going to make mistakes. It happens. Coaches are a different issue for us. They are professionals, and although you are always learning something new about the game of football, they are paid to be experts. Back to the case of Landry Jones. He didn’t exactly have the game of his life in the second half against BYU. One particular play sticks out in my head where he was not able to get the snap off in time and having to take a delay of game penalty on third and goal on the one yard line. This put the Sooners back on the 6 where they ended up kicking the field goal, A touchdown here would have made a difference.  But one play isn’t a game breaker here. A few sacks hurt badly. Again, the old adage, “throw the ball to the tuba player if you have to, but don’t take the sack” sticks out in my head.  But again, I have to say, I’m not really laying the blame on Jones. I place this one on coach Stoops. It was pretty obvious that Jones wasn’t as prepared as he needed to be for this one. I just don’t believe he got the reps he needed with the starting offense to be effective on the field. Need more proof? Look at how much better Jones performed in week 2. Now don’t give me this he was playing against Idaho State mess. Sure, that might have made his path a little easier to walk, but he certainly clicked better with his offense.

And that is the key in this one…HIS offense. This is on longer Sam Bradford’s offense. This is Landry Jones’ offense. At least until Bradford is healthy again and ready to play, Jones will control the tempo of his offense and set the tone for things on the field. He will get the reps with the first string. And he will play his role on the field for now, certainly to return to the sidelines when Bradford returns in a couple of weeks. His time at the top of the depth chart is coming. He is just a freshman after all. But as a freshman, this should be all the more reason to continue getting reps with the first string. Stoops and his staff should realize this when Bradford returns.

Now maybe I’ve been making some pretty big assumptions about Oklahoma and they way their practices are run, but I’ve seen this happen too many times over the years to give me cause to wonder. If you really want one of those eye opener moment, just go out an check the injury report for all FBS teams. You would be amazed at how many players are listed, which means that there are an awful lot of players that are going to have to step up a notch in the depth chart. How many of these players are ready for this? I mean really ready? And the other question is, how many teams are ready. It is the coaching staff that is responsible for preparing the team each week, and by team, I am not referring to the 1^st string offense and defense. I mean every man on the game roster, and every man that doesn’t travel because they are only on the scout team. A team means everyone…not just the top of the depth chart.

As it is likely to happen at some point this weekend while you are watching one of the many college games, someone will suffer an injury and someone will step in to fill their position. Keep an eye on their performance and honestly ask yourselves how prepared they look. Not how talented they are…but how prepared. Just remember…success equals opportunity plus preparation, and I assure you that the most successful players, and likewise the most successful teams, will have been prepared when those kinds of opportunities happen. Quite often it makes the difference between a win and a loss or even a championship.

Now, a big thank you goes out to all the people at All Saints Medical Center and for identifying the nasty little critter and treating it appropriately. Apparently they saved me from a good 7 to 10 days of excruciating pain had I let this thing run its course on it’s own. And while I still insist that the poor performance by Georgia Tech on Thursday night may have had something to do with it, I’m not sure the pain killers and antibiotics they have me on is going to plug the holes in the Yellow Jacket defense. As if  I would give up may painkillers, anyways!

The Things We Ponder When Traveling

This week has certainly been quite the odyssey…on many fronts. As many of you know, I travel with some frequency to some of the more exotic destinations one can travel to. Places like Kokomo, Indiana and Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Occasionally, I’ll get out to Las Vegas or some other city that has some sort of nightlife. Not that Kokomo didn’t have a night life…they had two 24 hour convenient stores! So, I’m on one of my great adventures to the ever impressive Johnstown, Pennsylvania via State College. Oh yeah, maybe I can stick around for the Penn State/Syracuse game, I said to myself.

Uh…no, said the merciless gods of airports and rental car companies. I get diverted to Pittsburgh due to some mechanical issues and have to rent a car one way from Pittsburgh to State College, with a 2 day stop in the ever impressive Johnstown, since I’m still scheduled for a return flight out of State College. Wouldn’t you know the only car they had available for a one-way rental was a 12 passenger van. Darn Steelers fans flying in from all over for the NFL season opener rented all the nice cars. So, I, and I alone, begin the sojourn in my 12 passenger van to the ever impressive Johnstown, but I don’t mind. There might be a bus full of Hawaiian Tropic’s bikini models who need a ride because their bus broke down, or there might be a small group of Mexican mariachi hitchhikers who can accompany me as I sing “Mockingbird”. I know what I’m talking about here, folks…I saw Dumb and Dumber.

Alas, no swimsuit models or wandering mariachi bands. So after I got bored of singing “Mockingbird” by myself, I began to ponder all of life’s mysteries…it’s a long drive into the ever impressive Johnstown. One of those mysteries is why sports writers, fans, coaches, players, swimsuit models or mariachi bands give any credibility to preseason polls. Those of you Bootleggers that have been struggling to understand the complex rambling’s of Randy and I should have at least picked up on this one thing in the last few seasons…we hate preseason polls. We do not even release our own until after week 2. There are just way too many things that can happen in the lead up to the start of the season, and in week 1, to be accurate. Also, many teams don’t even play till week 2. We see no reason to favor or burden a team with a top 20 ranking until they have shown us something on the field. Yes, I said burden. Tell me you haven’t looked at the preseason polls and named a number of teams that you believe to be highly over-rated. Case dismissed. However, aside from the guesswork of rating teams based on last years results, this season’s recruiting and reports from spring and summer camps, we really do learn so much from how teams perform in week 1, and how just like my journey to the ever impressive Johnstown, week 1 is often full of head-scratching moments that can quickly lead to demise. A few specific things come to mind…injuries, special teams and experience.

I’ll start with injuries since it is the easiest to understand. A ranked team in the preseason loses a quarterback early in the game in week 1 and not only the momentum of that game shifts, but their entire season as well. Who could we be talking about here? Obviously, I’m talking about Oklahoma losing Sam Bradford to an injury that is going to keep him out for a few weeks. Not that BYU isn’t a worthy opponent, but speculate if you will a healthy and effective Sam Bradford playing the full game against BYU. The rankings probably look mighty different. Knock a Big 12 team down in the polls and take away one of the best quarterbacks in recent years and it’s tough to reclaim that lost ground, even when you do eventually return to a healthy roster. Week 1 injuries are to be expected. They happen every year and quite often it is the “skill” positions that are heavily impacted. Largely I attribute this to the fact that teams avoid full contact on these players in the offseason, for fear that they will get hurt before playing a single down in season. Now, I’m a bit old-school on these kinds of things, and by old-school, I’m talking leather helmet old-school. As much as some people would like to think this is truly a skill game…all about strategy, it is in fact a physical and violent game. That’s one of the reason’s we are so drawn to it. When you think of off season conditioning, most people think about running gassers or hills or some other such nonsense. Real conditioning doesn’t just mean you can run down after down without sucking wind. It means that you can physically play and finish the game. Injuries are going to happen. It’s football. But I truly believe you do as much of a disservice to your players, particularly your quarterbacks, by throwing a red or green shell over their practice jersey and enforcing a no touch rule in practice. If your body is not use to getting hit in the offseason, it is not going to know how to take the hit and recover during the season. By no means do I think you need to send out the head hunters on your field generals during practice, but even quarterbacks know this is football and they need to be worked out just like the rest of the team. I can’t say for certain that this led to Bradford’s injury, but it sure wouldn’t surprise me, nor will it surprise me to see this kind of thing happen again this week, and yet another preseason goliath drops in the polls.

Another one of those giant-killing weapons in week 1 tends to be special teams. It is absolutely amazing to me how may missed assignments, blocked field goals, blocked punts, on-site kicks recovered and such happens during the first couple of weeks. Now, I haven’t seen any specific stats on this, but I would be willing to bet that you will find a lot more of these in the first few weeks than you will in the later part of the season. And the reason for this unfortunately is that special teams are almost an afterthought coming into the season. This is understandable, but not excusable. What often happens is that teams are forced to invest so much of their time into adapting to new offensive sets, figuring out key personnel issues, or even preparing for one of a number of week 1 rivalry games, that special teams instruction and strategy becomes a bit too cookie-cutter. Although not a giant-killer play, a perfect example of this is the bit of trickery Georgia Tech pulled off against Clemson. Clemson was left with their thumbs up their rear on that play. These kinds of plays catch teams off guard quite often in earlier weeks…mainly because they don’t prepare for these things. Probably a more telling example is the extra-point attempt after Boise State scored their 1^st touchdown. An (over-rated?) Oregon team failed to line up appropriately, Michael Choate pretty much walked into the end zone for the 2 point conversion, and the rest was pretty much all Boise State. Oh…and Oregon didn’t stay ranked after that loss either.

Alright, so what do I mean by experience being a difference maker in week 1. The obvious perspective is that you have young players that are stepping up for the 1^st time in their college career. Young players make young player mistakes. But that’s not actually what I am talking about. I’m going to use the near catastrophe that Ohio State almost experienced at the hands of Navy. I do not believe that Navy is that great of a team, at least not on par with Ohio State. So…why so close? Teams spend the spring scrimmaging against each other. Their summer is spent on OTA’s (organized team activities), which are quite often types of unsupervised mini-scrimmages. Then you have official team practices, where you scrimmage against each other even more. You see where we are going here, right? Of course you do…even the little Amish dude driving his buggy that I passed on the way to the ever impressive Johnstown gets it. Even when you are facing the scout offense and scout defense, it is still the same people you have been playing against since last season. You know their talent level and who can do what. Let’s face it, no scout quarterback can do what a 3 year starter does. So, by the time you hit week 1, it’s no wonder an Ohio State can struggle against Navy, because it is highly likely that Ohio State takes the field and expects to be playing their scout team instead of a group of determined first string athletes from another FBS program . Sometimes it takes a week 1 scare to convince a team they have to go full tilt.

All three of these things are at least somewhat avoidable, what isn’t avoidable is the impact that these stupid preseason polls have on the make up on the national rankings all the way through the season. Even as I sit here at the State College airport, having finished this stretch of my journey and now hopefully returning home, I’m surrounded by Penn State fans sharing their frustration with me that their Nittany Lions are ranked lower than Oklahoma State in the AP poll. My answer to them is that I understand their frustration, especially since I already have my doubts to how Oklahoma State is going to do against Houston this afternoon. Regardless of any one particular game, I assure you of one thing, sports writers, coaches, fans, bikini models and mariachi bands all over will be re-evaluating their pre-season rankings after week 2, the same they did after week 1. So hang in there, my fellow State College travelers, justice will be served…eventually. Now, does anyone here waiting to get on this plane know the harmony to “Mockingbird”?

It’s Like Christmas!!

One of my absolute favorite movies of all time is A Christmas Story. No…please keep reading. I’ve always liked the movie, but I began to like it even more a few years back when I was working on a project down at a film studio in Miami. When I arrived I noticed all kinds of photos and art work of the Santa Clause from the movie. I came to find out that the guy that played the not so jolly old St. Nicholas had started that studio years before. He had passed away recently, so I never got to meet him ,but at that point I began to seem to appreciate the cult classic so much more for some reason. I was reminded of that movie the other day for some reason…probably because it is barely September and up here in Wisconsin it seems to be about as cold as it gets in December (Al Gore…you are a moron). And with that, I will pay homage to one of my favorite holiday films as I apply my commentary to this coming college football season.

“Only one thing in the world could’ve dragged me away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window. ” – Ralphie as an Adult

How amazing it is that the term electric sex has evolved since the film was made…ahhh, but nonetheless, the prospect of college football to any true should be enough to make you at least bookmark the electric sex and turn on the TV, although I can promise you will never contract a computer virus by watching a college game on TV…you pervs.  I look forward to the next college football season from the moment the previous season ends. I’m addicted…a junkie. And now that opening weekend is upon us, I dare you to try to pull me away from the TV. Yes…I have a DVR. No…it’s not near as much fun to me. Out of necessity, I will proudly enjoy the wonders of time-shifting my college football content, but only after the 1^st week. Like any addict, I need an immediate fix! Sure, there are games that keep you pacing and screaming and there are others that are not too exciting and your left trying to figure out why this is even being broadcasted. But you watch it anyways, because you’re a fan…thus is the life of college football…and electric sex, I suppose.

“I have since heard of people under extreme duress speaking in strange tongues. I became conscious that a steady torrent of obscenities and swearing of all kinds was pouring out of me as I screamed.” – Ralphie as an Adult

Ok fans..we all do it, and as a Georgia Tech fan, I have done it probably as much as anyone. There are just going to be those moments when your wife walks into the room, see you standing on top of the couch with your shirt torn off, screaming the top of your lungs as if the coach can hear you from 920 miles away. What…you don’t do that? At least 3 times a season month week…uh…day, my wife has to wonder why she married such a kid. I fear for the day that I have to say to my 3 year old son “WHERE DID YOU HERE THAT WORD!?!”. Yeah, I’ll already know the answer to that one. But at least I have managed to pretty much relegate my foul behavior to the Georgia/Georgia Tech game, so my wife and kids will probably be staying with the in-laws that weekend.  Yes…I do actually look forward to these moments. It is well worth the Life Buoy soap in the mouth.

There are dozens of other one liners, and I assure you they are all relevant to college football…it’s a football movie after all. Heck, even Santa tried to encourage Ralphie to get a football instead of that stupid gun. You don’t loose your eye by getting hit by a football…let’s hope not at least. Ok, so maybe it being a football movie is a bit a bit of a stretch, but my excitement for this season certainly is not, and seeing how its is Friday morning there will be plenty of opportunity over the next coming days to indulge my addiction. Now, back to my electric sex…uh…work.

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