0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/24/2015
It became a favorite joke of bloggers on #CollegeFootballTwitter a few years ago. The University of Miami announced a crowd of 40,000 for a game in Sun Life Stadium, when no more than 20 to 25 thousand fans could have been in the joint. Announced crowds often exaggerate the actual walk-up crowd to a considerable […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The number 17 is not the over-under for Saturday’s Foster Farms Bowl between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the UCLA Bruins in Santa Clara, California. The number 17 isn’t the spread by which UCLA is favored against its 5-7 bowl opponent from the Heartland. Could it be the number of thousands of people which will attend […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/23/2015
Monday night, I was supposed to appear on a podcast produced by the All Sports Discussion website. The co-founders, whom you can find
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Groundhog Day keeps happening over and over for Duke football — it’s enough to make Bill Murray mad. No, not THAT Bill Murray… the other one. * Before Caddyshack and Ghostbusters; before The Royal Tenenbaums and Lost in Translation; before Bill Murray established himself as one of the great comic actors of our time, another […]
0 comments by Terry P. Johnson
In its first game under new head coach Jason Candle, Toledo capped off a very successful season. The Rockets also gave us a glimpse of what appears to be a very bright future for the program. Make no mistake about it: the 2015-’16 campaign was Toledo’s best in over 15 years. Sure, the Rockets failed […]
0 comments by Bart D on 12/22/2015
In case you haven’t noticed, college football and ESPN have been running advertisements reminding you that college football playoff games are on New Year’s Eve, and at one point in the lyrically-challenged remake of Auld Lang Syne, they say that “missing out is not an option,” because nothing says “I can’t miss this” like someone […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The 1981 college football season marked a very different time in the life of the sport. At this point in its evolution, college football was defined by defenses and by the old maxims about running the ball, playing defense, and being fundamentally sound in the kicking game. The poll-and-bowl system wasn’t all that close to […]
0 comments by Allen Kenney
Say the name “Trevor Knight” to the average fan and the first thing that comes up will probably be the 2014 Sugar Bowl. Knight played superbly in Oklahoma’s upset win over Alabama, strafing the Crimson Tide’s defense for 348 yards passing and four touchdowns. It looked like a coming out party for a redshirt freshman […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Roughly 90 years ago, the Alabama Crimson Tide established themselves as the signature program of the Southern United States. Today, a second straight appearance in the College Football playoff — following three BCS national championships and a full-fledged revival of the program under Nick Saban — has reaffirmed Alabama’s place as the South’s ultimate program… […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Think of the many long droughts which still exist in modern American sports. The Chicago Cubs’ World Series dry spell is number one. The Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions failing to make any of the first 50 Super Bowls would also rate highly on the list of parched-earth portraits. The city of Cleveland’s professional sports […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Sooner Magic — it’s what Oklahoma found in the 2001 Orange Bowl, and it’s what the Sooners will try to recapture when they face the Clemson Tigers in the 2015 Orange Bowl, which doubles as a College Football Playoff semifinal. The Orange Bowl is simultaneously the place of Oklahoma’s greatest triumphs and its most stinging […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/20/2015
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham had a lot to prove on Saturday. Had this game been suspended or called after one quarter, Whittingham would have looked pretty good. As it is, though, teams have to play four full quarters. Yes, Utah still defeated archrival Brigham Young in the 2015 Las Vegas Bowl, but the way the […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/19/2015
On a Wednesday afternoon just before Christmas, many Americans will be working, either in offices or in preparation for their holiday feasts and celebrations. The Northern Illinois Huskies and Boise State Broncos will be working on a field in San Diego, thrown together in a battle of two of college football’s best little-guy strivers and […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Given the strength of the American Athletic Conference in 2015, to the diminishment of the other four conferences in the Group of Five, it’s easy to think that the Temple Owls and the Toledo Rockets exist in different places as the Boca Raton Bowl approaches. The AAC dominated the Group of Five race this season. […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/18/2015
It’s not Cape Canaveral, but Miami is the Florida city where launches of a different sort occur. A year ago, the first Miami Beach Bowl pitted BYU against Memphis. Bronco Mendenhall coached against Justin Fuente, in a wild game with a ridiculously entertaining overtime finish, marred by a messy and far-ranging brawl. Now, Mendenhall and […]
