Archive for the ‘College football’ Category

Russell Wilson: He'll be wearing red as a Badger, too. (AP photo)

Well, here’s one one-year quarterback Auburn didn’t get. Russell Wilson, formerly of North Carolina State, committed Monday to Wisconsin, which was big news, since the last Immediate Impact Free Agent in college football landed at Auburn, where he stayed a few months and left with a BCS title and a Heisman Trophy.

This isn’t to say Russell Wilson will make the same splash as Cam Newton. (I say again: Cam Newton was the second-best collegiate player I’ve ever seen, trailing only Herschel Walker.) But Russell Wilson has already done far more as a collegian than Newton had upon his Auburn arrival, and he could have been the difference between the post-Cam Tigers falling from 14-0 to, say, 7-5.

But Wilson, who visited Auburn, opted to go elsewhere,  and there’s now a chance the Badgers will enter the season as Big Ten favorites. Michigan has a new coach, and so does Ohio State, and Nebraska is still in relocation …

Continue reading Former N.C. State QB Wilson picks Wisconsin over Auburn »

Even Frosty is coming inside for the game. (Photo by M. Bradley. Snowman by Mrs. Bradley)

Update: The live blog is now open for business and can be accessed here. Sorry to make you switch channels, as it were.

With this weather, you’re not going anywhere tonight — and if you are, the only place you should venture is the insane asylum. The BCS title game is on, so here’s what you should do: Watch your TV and hang out with me. (Figuratively speaking.)

We don’t usually do live blogs off games not involving a local team, but we’re making an exception for this one. Because Auburn is semi-local and Cam Newton is absolutely local and … well, because I just feel like it.

We’ll get going around 8 p.m. — toe-meets-leather time is set for 8:30 or thereabouts — and we’ll keep going until somebody has claimed the semi-mythical national title. (TCU, my heart bleeds for thee.) And I do want to offer one bit of terrible news for AU fans up front:

I think the Tigers will win.

That aside, I …

Continue reading Fair warning: I’m blogging live off the BCS game, and I like … »

We can argue. We will argue. Heck, we’re arguing already. But the way has been cleared for Boise State to play for the BCS title.

The Broncos did what they needed to do to make their case. They traveled cross-country and beat a good Virginia Tech team on a neutral field that wasn’t all that neutral. They came from behind to win at the end, and now the burden of proof is on the BCS — the voters in the two human polls and the computers — to keep Boise out of Glendale, Ariz.

We’re going to hear about strength of schedule. We’re going to hear that Boise has only one real chance to lose — against Oregon State on Sept. 25 — the rest of the way. But an undefeated Boise would be awfully hard to deny no matter what else happens anywhere else in college football. And if a place in the title game comes down to an once-beaten Alabama or a once-beaten Iowa against a never-beaten-for-two-years Boise … well, that’s the decision the BCS dreads.

Because if Boise is the choice then a lot of …

Continue reading The debate begins: Does Boise belong in BCS title game? »

People hated Al Davis when his Raiders were winning. People hated Red Auerbach because his Celtics hoisted banners on an annual basis. People hated George Steinbrenner because he spent big and bought seven World Series rings for his money.

The common thread: People hate winners.

Which only goes to show how remarkable it is that Lane Kiffin, with a career record of 12-21 as a head coach, is the most despised man in American sports. A (partial) list of loathers:

• The aforementioned Davis, himself once the most hated man in sports.

• Raider Nation, a fan base that models itself after a biker gang.

• Urban Meyer, one of the two best coaches in college football.

• Recruiting analysts, who saw Kiffin’s ballyhooed Big Orange class of 2009 fall apart before it could get on the field.

• NCAA investigators, who are sick of hearing the words “secondary violation.”

• Mike Slive, the most powerful man in college football.

• Tennessee fans, who were left brokenhearted by this …

Continue reading The most hated man in sports is the raging brat Lane Kiffin »