Friday, December 16, 2011

December 17th Bowl Games

Temple vs Wyoming:
  • This game is simple Wyoming can't defend against the run allowing 230 yards a game and 5.1 yards an attempt (for the 6th worst rush defense in the NCAA)
  • Temple can run the ball averaging 257 yards a game and 5.26 yards an attempt
  • Temple is a 7 point favorite and will win this one easily
Ohio vs Utah State
  • Utah State rushes for 277 yards a game on average at a 5.81 yards an attempt.  
  • Ohio beat Temple 35-31 (who is also good at the run), except Temple ran for over 300 yards at 6.8 yards an attempt.
  • Basically that means that this game will be a toss up, but due to Utah State's rushing abilities and Ohio's show of a lack of rushing defense against a very good rushing team means that I am going to go with Utah State in this game
San Diego State vs Louisiana-Lafayette
  • My prediction in this game is that San Diego State has a big defensive play (most likely an interception) that will be the game changer that allows San Diego State to put this one away.
  • San Diego State is a 4 point favorite and I believe that they are able to put this game away.

I get it that these are not in depth previews over these games..its the first three games and so lets just see what happens...and anyways the big game is going to be in the morning anyways where the Pittsburg State Gorillas are taking on Wayne State, so I'll be done paying attention after that.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Life after Pujols and LaRussa


Pujols has signed a 10 year deal worth $250mil with the LA Angels...good for him...bad for us?  Well its certainly not good for us as you are not going to be able to replace arguably the best hitter the game has ever seen, but its not difficult to see how the Cardinals get by.  Wanna know why??? well heres a bulleted list by some pony thats speculating on EVERYTHING!!
  • First of all, Berkman now doesn't have to walk all the way to the outfield so he is probably thrilled...and now we don't need to find a solution on how to sneak Allen Craig into the lineup cuz an outfield spot opened up so there we go
  • We now gots some moneys to pay a left handed reliever...our bullpen wasn't the playoff bullpen all year long so we need to improve the bullpen.....BULLPEN!  LEFT HANDED BULLPEN!! Who?!?! idk George Sherill?! I can make up names of players that are left handed and throw a ball as well as the next pony, but I won't, John Grabow!?
  • We could always use a Jose Lopez (I had him on my fantasy teams back in the day) and he can hit some home runs for a second basemen, third basemen, first basemen, shortstop...wherever we end up throwing in a random guy
  • We need to resign Furcal or you know we could get Jimmy Rollins whatever floats our boat but it would be nice to have a shortstop that we could count on.
Basically the cardinals are going to be fine, we are going to have a dominant pitching rotation and if we can improve on our bullpen that would be fantastic.  We are not going to have Albert in our lineup anymore, but that is done. Deal with it.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Andrew Luck for Heisman

 

Here are my reasons why Andrew Luck should win the Heisman, which if you told me I was going to have to do this at the start of the year (other than for the just pure fun of it) I would have been shocked.
  1. Stanford lost their coach (who seems to be doing alright for himself in the NFL) and their top 2 wide receivers (with the third being hurt most of this year) meaning that several questions marks came up at the start of the as to whether or not the team could win on the back of Luck.  They went 11-1 and ended up 4th in the BCS on their way to a second BCS game.
  2. His passing stats are almost identical to what they were last year (which was good enough to get 2nd in the heisman race).  The big difference came in his rushing stats which went down...which shouldn't be a surprise when the main receiving threats for Stanford became tight ends.  He is 5th in QB Rating, 24th in passing yards, 5th in passing touchdowns, and 9th in completion percentage (all of those rankings are behind Griffin III).
  3. He has Heisman moments.  The triple overtime game versus USC is your big game to look at for Luck's Heisman hopes.  He threw a late interception that got returned for a touchdown to put Stanford behind and could have easily been the end of everything for them.  Yet, he immediately came back out and lead a late 4th quarter drive to tie the game back up as Stanford ended up being USC in triple overtime.  He also had a one handed snag that was really something Stanford shouldn't have been doing at any point in the season.
Reasons why I have Andrew Luck over Robert Griffin III
  1. Stanford went 11-1 and is playing in a BCS bowl game.  Baylor went 9-3 and is playing Washington in the Alamo Bowl.  
  2. Robert Griffin isn't Cam Newton; his team is not undefeated, they are not playing for the National Championship, and he didn't rush for 1400 yards, he rushed for 644.  Andrew Luck would have won the Heisman last year with similar stats to his this year, the only person that got in his way was Newton and Griffin is not Newton.
  3. Why does this matter? In 2009 Stanford had a running back finish 2nd in the Heisman race named Toby Gerhart he lead the NCAA in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns as part of an 8-4 Stanford team that looked far better than they had in the past beating teams like USC and Oregon.  He lost though to Mark Ingram who had good stats and was part of a team that was playing for the National Championship, so obviously stats are not the only aspect of the Heisman winner, and just bringing a team that wasn't expected to do much to some kind of good play isn't enough either.
  4. Now am I saying that this a direct comparison? Of course not.  But, it does speak to the idea that the guy that wins the Heisman isn't usually a part of a team that goes 9-3. And also whether or not that transfers to quarterbacks from running backs I am not sure, as that seems to be an argument more for why people are talking about Richardson over Ball.
Reasons why Andrew Luck over Trent Richardson 

LaMichael James 2010 Stats
  • 294 attempts for 1731 yards
  • 17 receptions for 208 yards
  • 21 rushing touchdowns and 3 receiving
  • Record: 12-0
  • 3rd in Heisman (behind Luck)
Trent Richardson 2011 Stats
  • 263 attempts for 1583 yards
  • 27 receptions for 327 yards 
  • 20 rushing touchdowns and 3 receving
  • Record: 11-1

If you have anything that you would like to discuss with me as to why Luck shouldn't win the Heisman, I will gladly tell you why you are wrong.....if you would like to tell me how right I am feel free to say so as well.