Anyone who has followed the Big Ten Football for the past 10 years surely remembers the name Adam Taliaferro. Adam was a freshman cornerback at Penn State when he broke his neck and was paralyzed in a game versus Ohio State. I still remember watching that play over an over again on ESPN and thinking at how innocent the entire play looked. It didn't seem like that much damage could have been done in the snap second tackle.
But alas, Adam was paralyzed and his struggle to walk again was highly publicized. He provided motivation to teammates and ignited fans in Happy Valley with every appearance. And now, nearly 8 years after that tragic day, Adam is persevering again and getting his law degree.
From those of us at F&BT, congratulations Adam!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Bad News First...
There's usually only two types of news stories to come out of a college football program this time of year...recruiting news, and current players getting into trouble. Unfortunately for the Big Ten, this week brought two stories from the latter category.
Bench warrants were issued for two former Iowa players for sexual abuse charges. These are some pretty serious charges, so we'll hold off on the jokes about the players. But that won't stop me from making fun of the school...do you know what IOWA stands for? Idiots Out Wandering Around. Fitting, isn't it?
Also in the news this week, Minnesota released its speedy return man Harold Howell due to academic reasons. If you've been following Tim Brewster's recruiting the past few years and you're surprised....well, then you've probably never figured out what the Gopher fans were spelling after they sing their fight song.
Bench warrants were issued for two former Iowa players for sexual abuse charges. These are some pretty serious charges, so we'll hold off on the jokes about the players. But that won't stop me from making fun of the school...do you know what IOWA stands for? Idiots Out Wandering Around. Fitting, isn't it?
Also in the news this week, Minnesota released its speedy return man Harold Howell due to academic reasons. If you've been following Tim Brewster's recruiting the past few years and you're surprised....well, then you've probably never figured out what the Gopher fans were spelling after they sing their fight song.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Click with Caution
WARNING: This may enduce extreme excitement and strange feelings in your pants.
http://www.easports.com/downloads/easports/ncaa09/images/Wisconsinallred.jpg
Graphics look nasty. I can't wait.
http://www.easports.com/downloads/easports/ncaa09/images/Wisconsinallred.jpg
Graphics look nasty. I can't wait.
From the "I Wish I Would've Proposed This Myself" File
The Big12 commish proposed getting rid of a redshirt year in college football and giving all student athletes five years of eligibility.
I'll admit it, when WildHawk first emailed me this story, I thought it was brilliant. Why doesn't this make sense? But after thinking about it for a while, I thought that maybe I had overreacted to another football article while passing the time at work. This happens often, and I wouldn't have been surprised if my initial reaction was too extreme in this case as well, but I've been thinking about this all day now, and it just makes sense. Period. Let me explain.
The main argument to redshirt a player is that they are not prepared for the elite level of college football, or that their position happens to be stocked with talented upperclassmen and must wait their turn for stardom. This bothers me for a few reasons, but mostly that it pigeon-holes a freshman player after only a few weeks on the college football scene. It gives that player no chance to prove himself after the first 2-3 weeks of training camp. We can all agree, college football is a big jump from high school ball, and takes time to adjust for most freshman. But players progress throughout the season, and allowing players 5 years of eligibility gives them the opportunity to progress throughout their freshman year and a chance to possibly improve their standing on the depth chart. Maybe even enough to get some PT towards the end of the year, and put themselves in a much better position to succeed later in their careers with more game experience.
Now, having said all that, there are some negatives I see. You know those players that seem like they have been around for 10 years, but it's really only 3? Well, imagine if that 3 years was actually 5. I would have hated the Mike Hart's, Chad Henne's, Paul Posluzny's, and Kyle Orton's of the world at least 10 times as much. At least. But you know what, college football would be better for that. Think about it, without players and teams to hate, college football wouldn't be as fun. And if that hate can be increased by having those annoyingly-old-but-not-yet-graduated-players play an extra year...well, I'll take it. On the bright side, the players that are pure college players...the ones with no shot at the NFL, but they give so damn much on the football field that they become great college players...those guys will get to play longer. And I'm all for that. Plus, I won't have to waste hours trying to decide who to redshirt in Dynasty mode of NCAA Football 2009.
I'll admit it, when WildHawk first emailed me this story, I thought it was brilliant. Why doesn't this make sense? But after thinking about it for a while, I thought that maybe I had overreacted to another football article while passing the time at work. This happens often, and I wouldn't have been surprised if my initial reaction was too extreme in this case as well, but I've been thinking about this all day now, and it just makes sense. Period. Let me explain.
The main argument to redshirt a player is that they are not prepared for the elite level of college football, or that their position happens to be stocked with talented upperclassmen and must wait their turn for stardom. This bothers me for a few reasons, but mostly that it pigeon-holes a freshman player after only a few weeks on the college football scene. It gives that player no chance to prove himself after the first 2-3 weeks of training camp. We can all agree, college football is a big jump from high school ball, and takes time to adjust for most freshman. But players progress throughout the season, and allowing players 5 years of eligibility gives them the opportunity to progress throughout their freshman year and a chance to possibly improve their standing on the depth chart. Maybe even enough to get some PT towards the end of the year, and put themselves in a much better position to succeed later in their careers with more game experience.
Now, having said all that, there are some negatives I see. You know those players that seem like they have been around for 10 years, but it's really only 3? Well, imagine if that 3 years was actually 5. I would have hated the Mike Hart's, Chad Henne's, Paul Posluzny's, and Kyle Orton's of the world at least 10 times as much. At least. But you know what, college football would be better for that. Think about it, without players and teams to hate, college football wouldn't be as fun. And if that hate can be increased by having those annoyingly-old-but-not-yet-graduated-players play an extra year...well, I'll take it. On the bright side, the players that are pure college players...the ones with no shot at the NFL, but they give so damn much on the football field that they become great college players...those guys will get to play longer. And I'm all for that. Plus, I won't have to waste hours trying to decide who to redshirt in Dynasty mode of NCAA Football 2009.
Don't Call It a Comeback
We were always here...but not really. Actually, since nothing quite football related has been posted on this college football blog yet, this is still considered our grand opening. What can we say, we have done a little too much celebrating the launch of our blog...rather than actually launching it. You'll notice that our last post was months ago. Our bad.
Actually, there are some legitimate reasons that we haven't posted.
1) We are lazy. Despite what you may think, this is a perfectly legitimate excuse in the blogging world. This isn't a 9-5 for us, and we are our own bosses in this little venture, so we fully reserve the right to be lazy.
2) We are not tech savvy. If you can't tell, the links to our very first post don't even work. In fact, I have even searched for our own blog and was not able to find the correct link. I paid $10 to GoDaddy.com for a domain that I couldn't even set up right. At least that money will help fund more of their wholesome commercials. (I'll be shocked if that link works, but thought I'd try.)
3)I moved across the country. Granted, this was more recent, but it's been in the works for a little while, and has been taking up a lot of my time. Have no fear, WildHawk is still located in the heart of BigTen country, and I promise to spend most of my time researching BigTen Football.
So there you go, 3 terrible reasons why the worst bloggers on the net have not posted a single football article on their college football blog. Although, I'm pretty sure no one has seen this site yet, so I don't feel all that bad. In the end, we subscribe to the Field of Dreams way of life...if you build it, they will come.
Originally, the "they" part was supposed to be readers. Turns out "they" are the actually blog posts about football. Stay tuned.
BuckBuck
Actually, there are some legitimate reasons that we haven't posted.
1) We are lazy. Despite what you may think, this is a perfectly legitimate excuse in the blogging world. This isn't a 9-5 for us, and we are our own bosses in this little venture, so we fully reserve the right to be lazy.
2) We are not tech savvy. If you can't tell, the links to our very first post don't even work. In fact, I have even searched for our own blog and was not able to find the correct link. I paid $10 to GoDaddy.com for a domain that I couldn't even set up right. At least that money will help fund more of their wholesome commercials. (I'll be shocked if that link works, but thought I'd try.)
3)I moved across the country. Granted, this was more recent, but it's been in the works for a little while, and has been taking up a lot of my time. Have no fear, WildHawk is still located in the heart of BigTen country, and I promise to spend most of my time researching BigTen Football.
So there you go, 3 terrible reasons why the worst bloggers on the net have not posted a single football article on their college football blog. Although, I'm pretty sure no one has seen this site yet, so I don't feel all that bad. In the end, we subscribe to the Field of Dreams way of life...if you build it, they will come.
Originally, the "they" part was supposed to be readers. Turns out "they" are the actually blog posts about football. Stay tuned.
BuckBuck
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