Tag Archives: college football

Bowl Pick ‘Em: Dénouement

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With Bama’s drubbing of Notre Dame in the National Championship, the inaugural (Or did we have one last year?  You tell me.  Seriously, tell me.) ALDLAND Bowl Pick ‘Em Challenge is over.  I promised I would write a post about the winner, and so here I am, writing something again for the first time in what seems like forever.  The actual winner was blog founder AD, who is widely believed to have cheated to win.  Just kidding, I don’t want to tag him with that kind of label because it might one day adversely affect his candidacy for the Bowl Pick ‘Em Hall of Fame.  Since you know everything there is to know about AD already (quick recap: is a brony, believes he has a pen pal in Burkina Faso, although in reality it is just Chris Cunico humoring him, favorite athlete of all time is Bobby Higginson) I am going to write about the runner up DRTAZ 1.

DRTAZ 1 is an interesting guy . . . or girl.  The reality is that we don’t know anything about him . . . or her.  An APB was put out on the tweet yesterday which received no response, so I am just going to make stuff up, much like I just did about AD (or did I?).  DRTAZ 1’s name derives from his or her favorite Looney Toons character of all time, the Tasmanian Devil.  Interestingly enough, DRTAZ 1 hates Dizzy Devil, the Tasmanian Devil analogue from Tiny Toon Adventures as he or she thinks that Dizzy Devil destroys the integrity of the Tasmanian Devil.  Let’s be real, DRTAZ 1 is totally right about Tiny Toons.  That show suuuuuuuuuuuucked.  It was all about Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain, am I right?  Anyway, DRTAZ 1 can often be seen wearing gear with the Tasmanian Devil on it and has many Taz stuffed animals lying around the house.

Now, you might have heard “stuffed animals” and said, “I know who DRTAZ 1 is: popular podcast humor fodder, Bad Jeremy!”  I can confirm that Bad Jeremy is not DRTAZ 1, because he knows absolutely nothing about college football.  Furthermore, he is not allowed to use the internet so he couldn’t fill out a bowl pick ‘em entry.  He is also not a doctor, which DRTAZ 1 obviously is.  DRTAZ 1 graduated at the top of his or her class from the University of Miami’s medical school, where he or she was best friends with Marvelous of 7th Floor Crew fame.  After graduation DRTAZ 1 decided that he or she did not want to practice medicine and instead embarked on a career making art using those little plastic things you put on a peg board and then iron so that they make a shape.  Contrary to what you might think, DRTAZ 1’s favorite subject for little plastic thing art is not in fact the Tazmanian Devil, rather it is the Busby series of video games.

I don’t have much to say about DRTAZ 1’s entry.  It’s linked above, so you can check it out for yourself.  He or she simply picked better than everyone except AD.  As such, he or she is entitled to a receipt signed by AD as well as a signed Andy Brink head shot.

What team would you rather have seen play Alabama last night?

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I think we can safely say that Notre Dame wasn’t up to the task of competing for a college football national championship. The game was by some accounts “boring” and others “hilariously disastrous.” People tend to like to see these championship games be competitive affairs. What team other than the Irish do you wish played Alabama last night? 

Another question: Do or should any AP voters vote Ohio State #1?

The most essential national championship preview

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If there’s one outcome-determinative piece of information I can give you in advance of tonight’s college football national championship game between #1 Notre Dame and #2 Alabama, it would be this: Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron brought along thirty pairs of shoes for the occasion. Everything else you’ll read is nonessential.

That said, I’ll add my prediction, which is Continue reading →

ALDLAND Podcast

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So the holidays are over.  The BCS games were mostly boring.  The NFL wild card games were also mostly boring.  You are probably sitting around pondering if life is even worth it any more.  Don’t fear, loyal listener(s), it is.  There’s a new ALDLAND podcast for you to listen to in which we discuss all that boring stuff and make sense of it.  As the great philosopher John L. Smith once said, “SMILE!”

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Download the ALDLAND podcast at our Podcasts Page or stream it right here:

Bret Bielema is a mirror on the true state of college football

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As reported everywhere yesterday, Bret Bielema is leaving his head coaching position at Wisconsin to become the head coach at Arkansas.

Bielema’s in his seventh year at Wisconsin, and he took the Badgers to a bowl game every year. When Wisconsin appears in the Rose Bowl this January, it will be the school’s third consecutive trip to Pasadena. Ten or fifteen years ago, a record and trajectory like this would cement the forty-two year-old Bielema’s (68-24 career record) destiny to become a legendary coach at Wisconsin and a top-echelon coach in college football’s historic conference. Today, it makes him plan B for a 4-8 team that went 2-6 in conference and itself lacks a consistent historical conference and regional identity.

To be fair, Arkansas was a top-five team last year, and had Bobby Petrino and his mistress not crashed his motorcycle, the Razorbacks probably would’ve contended for a national championship this year. Instead, another former Big Ten head coach rode the Hogs hard into the ground. (Then again, he’s got an acknowledged history of that.)

As much as Bielema’s decampment to Fayettville reflects the diminished stature of the Big Ten and affirms the completed rise of the SEC (and it’s hard to imagine the former’s recent expansion to fourteen teams didn’t play a role here), one has to wonder whether the Big Ten’s realization that the SEC is college football’s premiere conference actually indicates that we’re at some point on the downside of Peak SEC.

Whatever Bielema’s decision indicates about the state of college football, one thing seems  clear: any complaints from the new Hog coach about recruiting tactics are going to fall on deaf ears in SEC land.

College football bowl schedule released

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https://i0.wp.com/2.bp.blogspot.com/-ywpTJQBmo0A/TpxBEf7MsuI/AAAAAAAABcE/PUN9KPePxPk/s1600/bowlgames.jpg

The full bowl schedule, including times and broadcast networks, is here. Some highlights, in chronological order:   Continue reading →

News clips

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Spending all day on the road meant I got to hear all the daytime sports radio I could handle. Thrilling, I know. I did pick up a few interesting nuggets, though:

– If Johnny Manziel wins the Heisman Trophy this year, as experts now expect, he will be the first freshman to do so. He won’t be the youngest winner, though. That distinction belongs to Mark Ingram, Jr.

– Apparently there’s some sort of adderall flap surrounding the Philadelphia Eagles and other NFL players. All the obvious issues aside, ProFootballTalk.com’s Mike Florio said that he thinks the adderall story is a cover up. Because the NFL has a policy of not commenting or elaborating on players’ positive drug tests, the players are free to say whatever they’d like about the test. Florio thinks that adderall is the convenient cover story du jour for players who actually tested positive for a more controversial substance.

– Kentucky hired Florida State defensive coordinator Mike Stoops to serve as Joker Phillips’ replacement at the football head coach position. While Kentucky local sports talk radio listeners generally approved of the hire, citing the successes of the Stoops family and Mike’s own rapid improvement of the FSU defense, no one mentioned the only factor that matters right now for the future success of UK football: program funding. Don’t forget that the UK athletic department just spent more on a preseason basketball pep rally than it did on an entire year of football recruiting. For Stoops’ sake, I hope he negotiated a substantial increase in funding for the football program. If not, his pedigree and resume will be irrelevant.

– Before leaving Army for Duke, Mike Krzyzewski interviewed at Vanderbilt but didn’t take the job because the VU athletic director at the time, fearing media exposure of an ongoing search, wouldn’t let Coach K visit the campus.

ALDLAND Podcast

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The end of November is always exciting, as teams from the Big Ten and ACC take the court to decide which conference is superior.  The Big Ten is on a three year winning streak, and looks to continue its dominance with a few top five teams taking the court.  Listen as ALDLAND contributor Marcus Paschall and I break down the matchups and give our thoughts on who we think will win.  There’s also some discussion of how much longer James Franklin will continue to coach Vanderbilt.  I hope you will forgive me if the podcast sounds choppy at times, as I was cooking dinner while recording it.  Guy’s gotta eat, ya dig?

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Download the ALDLAND podcast at our Podcasts Page or stream it right here: