Tag Archives: nashville

The college football season starts tonight, and ALDLAND takes you to the action this weekend

Posted on by
1

High schoolers have been at it for a couple weeks, and now it’s the undergrads’ turn. Conference play doesn’t begin for a few weeks, but opening weekend of college football has its share of high-profile matchups.

It all starts tonight, when in-state basketball rival Murray State kicks off in Louisville at 6:00 pm. Two top-25 teams, Wisconsin and Mississippi State, are in action against unranked opponents on a busy Thursday as well. Two more games are scheduled for Friday night, when Youngstown State heads to East Lansing and TCU scoots down to Waco to face Baylor.

College football is all about Saturdays, and Saturdays in the fall are all about college football. This Saturday’s schedule has a number of highlights, including Oregon against LSU in Arlington, TX, Boise State in Athens to face Georgia, and Rice against Texas for the visually challenged debut of the Longhorn Network. 

Vanderbilt hosting Alabama in 2007

The big game on Saturday night is in Nashville, though, and ALDLAND staff will be in Vanderbilt Stadium as the Commodores open the James Franklin era against FCS/I-AA powerhouse Elon. This game has been thoroughly previewed at Open ‘Dores and Vanderbilt Sports Line. As the 6:30 pm (central) kickoff approaches, check here, twitter, and flickr for multimedia updates of the gameday atmosphere.

The rest of the week one schedule includes two in-state pairings on Sunday– Marshall at West Virginia and SMU at SEC-to-be Texas A&M— and an interesting-because-they’re-in-trouble game in College Park, MD on Monday between Miami and Maryland, which got questionable back-to-school outfits this year.

Check out the full extended weekend schedule, including broadcast availability, at http://espn.go.com/college-football/schedule.

The Weekend Interview: Chris Johnson

Posted on by
1

After heading north of the border for last week’s interview, it only seemed right to turn things around and seek some warmer weather and talk to a current– if temporarily, but willfully inactive– player named Chris: Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson.

Arguably the league’s fastest and best running back since the Titans drafted him out of East Carolina University prior to the 2008 season, Johnson currently is holding out from this year’s lockout-compressed training camp in the hopes of securing something around $30 million in guaranteed money.

This isn’t CJ’s first contract dispute either. 2009 was a record-setting year for him (2,006 rushing yards, 2,509 total yards, 14 touchdowns, 5.6 yards/carry), and he demanded a restructured contract before the 2010 season, and the Titans ultimately gave in. Johnson’s prediction that he would shatter Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record (2,105 yards) by rushing for 2,500 yards in 2010. Instead, he had 1,364 yards on the ground (1,609 total), well short of the record and his personal goal, though still good numbers.

For this imagined interview, I agreed to meet Johnson for lunch at McDougal’s in Nashville…  Keep reading…

Philadelphia dreamin’, on such a summer’s day

Posted on by
3

It’s been over a year since “The Decision.” Thirteen months since Miami’s “Big Three” hit South Beach. Two months since the Heat lost in the NBA Finals. One month since the NFL lockout ended. In other words, it’s time for the media to reprise the dream team motif that paid their bills through the NBA season. NFL free agency, though compressed, has been slow, with one exception. Keep reading…

First Friday

Posted on by
2

Perhaps improbably, ALDLAND has survived its first week. I am happy with the content so far, and I’m looking forward to getting some more folks on board, hopefully starting next week. (As I’ve said from the beginning, if you’d like to be a part of this group, send me a note: aldland[dot]com[at]gmail[dot]com. Would love to have you.)

Maybe not for every Friday, but definitely on the first Friday, I thought it would be good to start things off with a Friday-themed jam. Once I got the idea, there really wasn’t much choice as to which one to go with for the inaugural ALDLAND Friday groove: