SIDELINE
Observations, Opinion & Occasional Silliness by Richard L Gale
USF: COVERING THE SPREAD September 27, 2007
While this weekend's TV highlight for many
North American sports fans will be the NHL season opener between the
LA Kings and the reigning Anaheim Ducks (NASN 5pm Saturday and
Sunday), it does offer a treat for football fans who have Sky but
don't subscribe to NASN. The subscription channel is having a
'freeview' weekend, meaning access to As-Live coverage of the Friday
game between the West Virginia Mountaineers and the South Florida
Bulls (shown 9am Saturday morning UK time).
This one's worth catching. In a meeting of
unbeaten and ranked teams, each gets to defend against variations on
the spread offense that has been keying their wins and making stars
of their quarterbacks. For West Virginia, Pat White, 617 yards
passing and a 71% completion rate, 286 yards rushing, and 6 TDs each
way. For South Florida, Matt Grothe, 652 yards passing and 4 TDs, 88
yards rushing. Neither has thrown an interception yet.
Obviously, with RB Steve Slaton (502 yards,
9 TDs) alongside White, the Mountaineers enter the game as favorites,
but this is a different sort of game from the ones when these teams
get to unleash the unfamiliar spread on people (the way Appalachian
State and Oregon did on Michigan). There are no cheap yards to be had
in this one.
And of course, this is a Big East
conference game. While Rutgers (3-0) and the (apparently defenseless)
Louisville entered the season as BCS Bowl contenders along with West
Virginia, some people forgot the Bulls, who beat West Virginia at the
end of last season, and lost to Rutgers by only two points.
If West Virginia win Friday night, it'll be
just another non-Saturday win to underwhelm poll voters and get lost
in the Saturday results. But if South Florida wins, it could be the
dawn of any age when the likes of Miami and Florida State have to get
used to being Nos. 3 and 4 in the state of Florida.
Fantastic Football September 27, 2007
For many coaches, this is the most anxious week of the football season.
It requires special concentration and some difficult choices as all
the work since the draft begins to take shape.
Yes, it's the first bye week, and fantasy
football coaches across the world will be shuffling back-ups into the
line-up in the hope of making it through without some key player, or
secretly hoping that a specific NFL starter suffers a short-lived but
significant injury so that the backup (the one-week replacement on
their own fantasy team) gets some start-quality numbers.
Listen, if you're a fantasy football fan,
be warned: I'm humoring you here. I joined a 'keeper league' last
year against my better judgment just so I could bond with you guys
(and gals) and get a taste of... well, whatever it is that's so
addictive about it.
So, I've got Carson Palmer as my starter
and Tony Romo as my back-up (yeah I used two of my five keepers to
hold onto that glorious investment), and my backs are Shaun Alexander
and Jamal Lewis. I just had to have TJ Who's-ya-mama and... er, hey,
where are the rest of you going? No really, this'll be interesting.
Guys?
Well at least my fellow fantasy fans will be interested in my team, won't you?
Hello?
Ah, whadda YOU know? You'll be laughing on the other side of your faces
when my guys win the pretend Superbowl.
Observations, Opinion & Occasional Silliness by Richard L Gale