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NCAA Football: Pac-10 lacking talented teams, Trojans on top — Pacific coast squads consistently overrated by fans, local media
By Chris Tavarez
July 28, 2009
The Trojans have long been the class of the Pac-10, winning two straight national championships before falling to Texas in 2006.
Ah, do you smell that? It’s the smell of freshly cut (or installed) grass, a freshly painted field, a stadium finishing up renovations.
Yes, it’s the smell of college football. If you want further proof just tune in to your local news station — SEC media days were last week (in case you somehow managed to miss them), and the Big 12, ACC and Big 10 all started theirs Monday.
So with the new football season quickly approaching, it’s time we take a look at the big six BCS conferences, starting with the Pac-10.
When anyone thinks of football on the west coast, their first thoughts will be USC, and when the Pac-10 does a quick evaluation of its conference, it’ll start and end with the Trojans because that’s all they have.
USC has traditionally been a team that doesn’t have to rebuild, they simply reload. But with the loss of quarterback Mark Sanchez to the NFL and another eight starters on defense to graduation and the draft, the men of Troy may be in one of those strange rebuilding years. With a tough game in the horseshoe against Ohio State, and the traditional blown conference game that USC loves to lose every season, they could be looking at their second multi-loss season in three years.
Could the empire be crumbling? No, but it should be a down year by USC standards.
But even so, just because you have a perennial top-10 team, doesn’t mean you have a strong conference. Just look at the opposite end of Pac-10, and you’ll find the lowest of lows.
Washington State and Washington combined for a total of two wins last season (it wasn’t a 50-50 split, either), and one of those came in the Apple Cup, when Wazzu beat the Huskies in overtime. These are the two worst teams in all of the BCS conferences, and may even be the worst in all of the FBS. They are for the Pac-10 like the Big 12 tiebreaker was for Texas last season — totally useless.
And in between the inept and the dominant you have the rest of the mediocre Pac-10. Teams like Cal and Oregon, and maybe even Oregon State this year will help bring some positive light upon the conference, but overall, they’re just a weak league with little to offer.
The fact that a team like OSU or Stanford can sneak up and topple USC every season doesn’t show parity in the league, it just shows that USC thinks the league is a joke, and they can sleep on whoever they want. And the truth is, they usually can do so and get away with it. Heck, not even half of the teams could even finish the season with a winning record in ’08.
Aside from USC, the only thing keeping the Pac-10 afloat as a legitimate conference (Big East aside) is the West Coast media bias. With nearly half of the conference’s teams residing in the state with the second-largest city in the nation, and two of them actually in that city itself, it’s easy for the conference to get constant national media coverage thanks to the pro football-less LA fanbase.
But just because you have one good team and even better media coverage doesn’t mean you’re a good conference.
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Pryor can benefit from one more year outside oven
By Dave Curtis
July 28, 2009
CHICAGO, IL — Ohio State tight end Jake Ballard had sat for 90 minutes now with hands folded and answers flowing. He had come to represent the Buckeyes before a few hundred media members.
But he ended up representing his most talented teammate, the player with the most potential in college football.
"Probably about half of them," Ballard said of the percentage of questions he fielded about sophomore QB Terrelle Pryor. "Wait, maybe more than that. I'd say 75 percent, actually. "There's been a lot of that here."
Ballard has an easy draw compared to the seniors Ohio State will bring to these Big Ten media days next year (if typical OSU behavior holds, Pryor, a junior in 2010, will stay in Columbus). By then, they'll be dishing on Pryor, the heavy preseason Heisman Trophy favorite and the guy under more heat than anyone in college football.
Pryor receives a pass this year from the Heisman/national title microwave — the trio of Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow get that all to themselves. He can remain a curiosity for one more year, learning more about how to throw and when to run and maybe even scoring his first victory over a thriving powerhouse program.
But assuming the kid develops as most Buckeyes do, and assuming he continues to avoid injuries as if it's a defensive back in space, Pryor a year from now will lead the nation in popularity. And talent. And in receiving comments so full of praise that these words will seem like an insult.
"He's the most athletic guy we played against," Northwestern safety Brad Phillips said Tuesday. "He's big, fast, got a good arm. We brought a lot of pressure, and he made the plays we didn't make."
Or, as Wildcats coach Pat Fitzgerald said of Pryor earlier in the week, "he single-handedly beat us last year."
They thought similar things at Wisconsin, where Pryor took the Buckeyes 80 yards in the game's final seven minutes for a winning touchdown. Ditto for Michigan State, where he helped bury the Spartans with a touchdown run and pass in the opening 11 minutes. And at Minnesota, where coach Tim Brewster still looks at Pryor and sees a clone of Vince Young, whom he recruited to Texas a few years back.
"On film, he's very dynamic," said Garrett Brown, one of Brewster's defensive tackles. "Then you see him, and for his age, he's a big boy. More power to him."
A sophomore, Pryor already has the measurables to romp through opponents and wow pro scouts — he's 6-6, a few cheeseburgers over last year's 235-pound playing weight, and he owns an electronically-timed 4.33 40-yard dash, according to OSU coach Jim Tressel. That might as well be a 3.33 against some of these Big Ten defenses. The signals of his youth come in his performance, namely the one-hop passes that tainted an otherwise impressive freshman year.
Pryor spent much of the offseason honing his delivery and improving his accuracy — he'll never be Sam Bradford, but his coaches say he works hard enough to throw as well as Young and Michael Vick did against college defenses. And along the way, he learned how to lead veterans.
Even after Pryor engineered a trip to the Fiesta Bowl last January, some Buckeyes wondered whether senior Todd Boeckman deserved the starting quarterback job over The Kid. Pryor's yards and touchdowns won over last year's group; his weight room work and attitude have him in charge of this year's team already.
"He's shown enough production that guys are looking to him," Tressel said at media days. "They want to be led by him."
Next year, so will every other player in the country. After the Three Musketeers (Te-Coy-Ford? Mc-Brad-Bow?) take a curtain call in January, the sport will need a superstar to replace them.
Enter Pryor, a better passer, a firm leader, and an unmatched talent.
Come next summer, Pryor will sit in perfect position to potentially inherit his state's championship thirst from free agent and maybe ex-Cleveland Cavalier LeBron James. In the fall of 2010, he'll face a most manageable schedule — retooling Miami and three MAC schools come to Columbus in the nonconference, as do Penn State and Michigan in conference play. An undefeated season is a decent bet, with Pryor bobbing and weaving and chucking his way to New York City in December.
Pryor, though, wasn't here Tuesday to discuss that future. He's a good bet to be absent again next summer. But other Buckeyes will show up, more prepared to spend 75 percent of their day talking about the most exciting player in their game.
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Alabama asks NCAA to restore vacated football wins
By The Associated Press
July 28, 2009
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama formally asked the NCAA to restore 21 vacated wins to the football program in a 29-page appeal on Tuesday.
The appeal said the penalty was "so excessive as to constitute an abuse of discretion."
The Committee on Infractions' levied the penalty stemming from 201 student-athletes in 16 sports obtaining textbooks they weren't entitled to under their scholarships.
The appeal also argued that the penalties in football and men's tennis and women's track were a departure from precedent in similar cases and in vacating wins.
The violators included 22 "intentional wrongdoers" — among them seven football players — who obtained more than $100 in supplies for other students.
The university noted that those 22 athletes were suspended and had to seek reinstatement from the NCAA to compete again, and that all the students with eligibility remaining were required to pay restitution for the books and materials.
Alabama also contested penalties vacating the records of 15 athletes in men's tennis and women's track.
"The appeal we've filed is consistent with the feelings that we shared in our statements following the original ruling," athletic director Mal Moore said in a statement. "I think it reflects valid points we felt needed to be expanded upon and I'm hopeful that the Committee will consider the appeal fairly and with care."
Alabama, which self-reported the violations, cited its cooperation and said none of the student-athletes profited and that they intended to take advantage of the university and its bookstore not to violate NCAA rules.
The NCAA's sanctions did not include scholarship losses or postseason bans.
Among the university's arguments were that the Committee on Infractions "arbitrarily, capriciously and irrationally departs from the penalties imposed in prior textbook, vacation-of-wins and other cases." The appeal also noted that there were no coaches or administrators involved.
Alabama's appeal cited four major infractions cases involving violations of the textbook rule, all since 2005. The schools — Ball State, Temple, Weber State and Texas State — did not have wins vacated.
All but Temple were cited for lack of institutional control. Alabama was found guilty of the lesser violation of failure to monitor.
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Game On! 'NCAA Football 10' keeps the hits coming
By CHRIS CAMPBELL
July 28, 2009
Game: NCAA Football 10
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PS2, PSP
Genre: Sports
Publisher: EA Sports
ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
Grade: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
I won't lie: The "NCAA Football" franchise is one of my favorites. Every year it's one of my most-looked-forward-to games - and also one of the most heavily scrutinized. Some people are Madden people; I am a college football guy. What can I say? Going to a Southeastern Conference school taught me well.
This year's edition has some wonderful improvements, while other aspects of the game remain unchanged beyond some new coats of paint slapped on the same old body. It looks like EA Sports' main goal was to make the game more accessible to newer gamers who may have little experience with previous editions while keeping it technical enough for vets to drill down into specifics both on the field and off.
The Road to Glory mode is just a souped-up version of the previous Campus Legend, only this time ESPN's Erin Andrews hosts. It's always a winner, and if you're a defensive player, the camera controls make racking up stats easier and more fun.
The Dynasty mode is the real highlight here. While choosing an existing college is just fine, the gem is creating your own team from scratch online to download and import into the game. This isn't just a generic generator, either. I easily spent more than an hour customizing my logo, jersey types and rosters before stepping on the field. Once loaded up, the game runs seamlessly with your new team. It even zooms in close on replays to show that your logo -- no matter how complex -- looks great.
Visually, the game is as strong as ever, despite occasional lighting snafus.
Using this custom team online and offline is fantastic, and makes leagues and dynasty modes much more engaging and personal. "NCAA Football 10" is the most complete football game yet. Don't hesitate to add it to your library..
(E-mail Chris Campbell at Game on Games)
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