Lack of Activity

sorry for the lack of activity lately, i'm bombed at work. transitioning a couple of my clients to someone else and taking on some new clients.

here's what is bouncing around in my head:

- superbowl - both superbowl teams play straight up defense. no gimmicks, no blitzing. for me, it reinforces the notion that JJ's scheme is flawed.

- signing day - penn state managed to eek into the top 25 (24) in rivals.com's rankings for their recruiting class, but this is how bad it's gotten for them: a) as big dog mentioned, joe pa is losing the battle in NJ to rutgers. RUTGERS! b) broderick green (rated the 14th best running back in the nation) chose USC over PSU even though USC also signed two guys who not only are the number 1 and 2 RBs in the nation but some also consider the two best players in the nation. meanwhile, PSU's RB stable is bare and green would have had a chance to start right away. gah.

- sixers - this is just awful. this team is just perky enough to get into the playoffs in the awful east. the sixers are blowing their chance at getting either difference making player. i can't stand it. billy king is on TV preaching some nonsense about not tanking because he has to be concerned about teaching the players how to win. hey billy, here's how you win. it's pretty simple -- have the best freaking players.

- phillies - still getting really excited about the team. watched the meet the phils show the other day. haven't done that in years. i'm with ben this year, win or lose i'm along for the ride. give pat some credit here, he's converted an unlikeable team into a likeable one pretty quickly.

NCAA Makes Me Want to Vomit

president of the NCAA claims they deserve their tax-exempt status because their primary goal is education.

college basketball thoughts

the ncaa tournament is the most exciting event in sports... at least that's what the general consensus seems to be and what the pundits are constantly saying. the brackets, the gambling, the upsets, the number of games -- they all combine to make the tournament very unpredictable and entertaining.

wanna know why the perception stays that way? because most people don't actually watch the games. college basketball games suck -- both teams clanging shots left and right, missing layups, being very "active" on defense but not actually playing very good defense, dumb coaching moves.

the ncaa tournament is exciting, but it's not very good basketball.

Signing Day

good article in today's inquirer about what a great job larry johnson sr. did in maryland -- signing virtually every top recruit in the state. looks like some good times ahead for penn state fans.

PSU Revival Continues

apparently pat devlin is going to penn state! seems like the turnaround is going to be more than just a one year thing and continues the trend of high profile local recruits starting to choose psu again.

the downslide for penn state started when the best players from their traditional recruiting base (pennsylvania, new jersey, virginia, maryland) started choosing other schools. i've always thought that moving to the big ten was a strategic blunder for penn state for a few reasons:

- it's better to be the big fish in a little pond. in the big ten, penn state will never be more than the third biggest fish -- at least in the big ten universe. they'll never have the cachet of michigan or ohio state and will have a much harder fight toward a national championship whenever they are a contender.

- losing recruits to east coast teams. what does a kid from new jersey or virginia care about iowa or wisconson or northwestern? penn state was the 600 lb gorilla of college football in the northeast, so they dominated recruiting in the east. moving to the big ten allowed teams like boston college and virginia tech to convince recruits to stay closer to home.

- losing recruits to big ten teams. moving to the big ten allowed michigan and ohio state establish a bigger prescence in pennsylvania since michigan and ohio state have a strong national recruiting presence.

- not gaining recruits from big ten states. penn state recruited primarily in the mid-atlantic region, so they didn't gain many recruits by moving.

it's no coincidence that the recent change in fortunes started with their ability to start getting commitments from the best players in the area instead of letting them escape to other schools. maybe the concerns i listed above were really just a short term hit? i hope so/it seems so. there is a nice positive trend recently (derrick williams, justin king, dan connor).

Better QB = Wins

one thing that last night's rose bowl re-confirmed for me is my belief that simply getting mcnabb back healthy and happy is going to make the eagles a playoff team again. the QB position, probably 10 times more than any other position, can itself decide the outcome of a game by itself. if the talent on two teams is close (or even remotely close), the team that gets the better QB play usually wins.

this notion that the talking heads are always spouting about running the ball and defending the run winning championships is hogwash. if you can't pass the ball, you can't win... or at least it's *very* difficult to win.

you *can* win a superbowl with a great running game and an all-time type of defense (2000 ravens and 1990 giants), but those kinds of teams are few and far between and one of those teams had a great QB (simms).

personally, i don't think teams can afford to take a running back with the number 1 pick in the draft unless it already had a stud QB in place -- and any team that passes on young, should he choose to come out, to take reggie bush is nuts. a team can win a superbowl with a stud QB and not much else (81 niners with montana and nothing else), but i can't think of a team that won a superbowl with a stud running back and not much else.

imo you can win in the nfl with just these four things:

- QB
- offensive line
- defensive line (replace defensive line with linebackers for a 3-4 defense)
- secondary

you contend for superbowls when you start adding in difference makers at the other positions.

this season's eagles were lacking in the top three items on that list. i think they'll be fine once they get mcnabb and the o-line healthy and are able to address the issues on the d-line.

i am not saying that they don't have other problems to correct. i think they do have issues to address, but i do think that they still have the foundation of a good to great team once they get everyone healthy and fix the d-line.

Orange Bowl Thoughts

holy moly that was a long game last night. maybe it wasn't well played, but it was a close and exciting game from start to finish.

- it seemed to me like joepa definitely wanted to see kelly kick the winning field goal as it didn't seem like they were trying to score a TD on that last possession

- penn state o-line got manhandled after the first quarter. it seemed like there was at least one florida state player coming free on every play.

- what's with this joepa and bowden are such good friends routine? everything i've read says that joepa *hates* bowden and thinks bowden represents everything that's wrong with college football. paying players, not suspending them for getting arrested, not graduating them. i've read that joepa has hated him back to bowden's west virginia days. now all of a sudden they're best friends?

- i've also read that joepa is none too happy with bowden's wins in I-AA counting toward his total

- hope poszlusny's knee isn't wrecked

- i think tamba hali hurt his draft position last night as he had only a minor impact on the game. the tackles dominated in the middle though.

- seemed like the fla state coaches did not trust weatherford to throw in the middle of the field. every pass play was to the outside where penn state was waiting

- if anwar phillips wasn't a pro prospect before last night, he certainly should be now. that's probably the best performance by a penn state corner i've seen in a long time. maybe ever.

- all in all, i'm glad that penn state didn't go undefeated and make the rose bowl. beating the criminoles is a much more satisfactory ending than getting creamed by USC.