It has been a couple of months since I've written a blog, but I've been back reading and responding to a few other blogs in the past few weeks. I guess I just got a little burnt out on writing or just didn't have the time to write. Anyway, here are a few random thoughts on some semi-current sports stories coming out of my empty head:
I didn't know Southern Cindi well, but I know that this blogosphere has lost a fighter, a writer, and a true lady. From what I could see, she never had a negative thing to say about anyone nor did she ever let cancer get her down. By all accounts, she was an amazing woman. What also amazed me were the people here who showed her love and respect and helped her in any way they could over the past year that I've been around. You all know who you are and you all are amazing people! Rest in peace, Cindi.
Congrats LSU on your BCS Championship. That puts the SEC at 7-2 in bowls this season. Maybe I won't have to hear about conference superiority again until next year.
How many more days until the NFL Draft? I'm ready for it!
My dad and I went to Nashville over New Years to attend the Music City Bowl. My beloved Wildcats beat a shorthanded FSU team to win their second consecutive game. I was recovering from bronchitis while down there, but still had a great time at my first bowl game. The worst part: I was in bed before midnight on NY Eve and lost my cell phone while there. I feel naked without it!
I still don't know what to make of Roger Clemens in this Mitchell Report. Of all the names mentioned and people who have denied allegations of using performance enhancing drugs, he's the only one who has taken it out of the court of public opinion to a court of law. There's something to be said for him trying to prove his innocence through this defamation lawsuit.
Everyone's been talking about the Patriots wonderful season, but this is the playoffs. Jacksonville looks scary good in the AFC! It should be a great weekend of playoff football coming up.
It has been a disappointing season for UK basketball to say the least. Tubby left the cupboard bare, what decent players he had brought in have been injured most of the season, Billy Clyde is a hard #### in practice (so the rumor mills say), and he hasn't exactly endeared himself to the media and fans. The honeymoon ended with a loss to Gardner-Webb in early November and at 6-7 it isn't getting better. The biggest question in Kentucky basketball right now is why doesn't Billy Clyde have a contract? He has a "Letter of Understanding" with the university. Who knows what will happen after this season. One season isn't long enough for a coach to prove his worth. But no one knows the contents of that letter.
Well, that's about all for now. Hopefully before too long I can get some more blogs written. Hope everyone had a great holiday season and hope everyone has a prosperous new year.
I just got home from Commonwealth Stadium where my incredible Kentucky Wildcats just slammed the door on the soon to be formerly number one ranked team in the nation 43-37. That place was going NUTS!! I've never seen anything like it and that includes this season's huge win over Louisville. It's the first time in 47 years that UK has beat a number one team and this game will be talked about for years!
Only 12 times a year does someone get a chance to beat a number one team in college football. I am so proud of this team. They played their butts off from the first snap to the last when Braxton Kelly stopped LSU's Scott on 4th and 2 in the 3rd overtime. It's an amazing thing to be standing there watching a football game next to people you don't know from Adam, yet when the game was finally over I found myself hugging the young man next to me and then his wife joined in to make it a group hug. Next up was my dad who works for UK as an usher in their 101 Club. A special thanks to my dad for the season ticket! Please don't ever quit that gig!
I am a man who puts my family first. I love my wife and kids, but there's no place else I'd rather have been than Lexington, KY tonight!
Perrenial Top 10 program Louisville Cardinals just lost to the Syracuse Orange(men) 38-35. That's two weeks in a row Louisville has lost to an unranked opponent. What have we learned from this Louisville team, one which many football "experts" thought would go undefeated:
Preseason polls don't mean jack squat & the experts are usually wrong.
Louisville's defense may be worse that UK's was thought to be.
Don't underestimate your opponent. Syracuse had the 4th worse offense in the the FBS (NCAA 1-A) and I believe Louisville was a 37 point favorite against the 'Cuse.
Lousiville didn't learn anything from their loss at UK.
I guess it's time for me to quit piling on Louisville, they're dealing with things that as a UK fan I've dealt with my whole life. My last question is this: Are Louisville fans now asking "How many more days until basketball season?" A typical quote during football season for UK fans.
Having been out of Kentucky for from 2001-2006, I missed a lot of the #### that happened to the UK football program first hand. I hadn't been to a game at Commonwealth Stadium since Tim Couch was there, that's been too long.
Sitting in Commonwealth Stadium with 70,856 other people--probably 65,000 of which were UK fans--I was witness to an absolutely incredible football game from the opening kickoff to the final play.
By now, most have seen the 57 yard touchdown pass from Andre Woodson to Stevie Johnson with 28 seconds left in the game to give UK the lead and victory 40-34. If you haven't seen it, my Brother in Blue, UKJedi, has a link to it on his blog. It was even better seeing it in person! As great as that play was in deciding the outcome of the Governors Cup, there were many other plays that stood out in my mind. Surprisingly, the UK defense could have easily been the star of the game. Here are my Top 5 plays of the game:
Andre Woodson to Stevie Johnson: OK, the defense was great, but I'd be foolish to say that this wasn't the play of the game. When Woodson threw the ball I turned to the lady sitting next to me and said "Oh my gosh, Johnson is wide open!". There was NO ONE within 15 yards of Stevie when that ball was thrown. He broke one tackle and hit paydirt with 28 seconds left to give UK it's first victory over Louisville since 2003, and more importantly it's first victory over a top 10 team since 1977.
Antoine Brown Recovers U of L Fumble: This play set the tone for the game early on. On the opening kickoff, Trent Guy fumbled the ball courtesy of a wallop put on by Brown who recovered the fumble as well. Although UK settled for a 36 yard Lonas Seiber FG here, it set up play of the game number 3.
Trevard Lindley picks off Brian Brohm: After the field goal and the ensuing kickoff, Brohm attempted a pass that was promptly picked off by Lindley and taken back 33 yards to the U of L 18 yard line. 5 plays later Stevie Johnson caught a 5 yard pass from Woodson for his first of two scores giving UK a 10-0 lead. After a U of L punt, Seiber nailed a 31 yard FG for a 13-0 lead. This lead was CRUCIAL for Kentucky. I don't have the stats in front of me, but it seems like every time they play that U of L jumps out to an early lead that UK can never overcome. This time we took the early lead and it proved to be the deciding factor.
THE Goal line Stand: About midway through the 4th quarter after UK had taken a 33-28 lead and U of L was driving. It was a drive that lasted 4:20 and took 10 plays for 64 yards that Louisville ended up turning over on downs. Louisville had 1st and Goal on the 7 and UK decided to "Bend, but don't break". After Anthony Allen drove to within the 1 yard line it was 3rd and Goal. Brohm took it up the middle for a score, but God bless the Line Judge who saw Illegal Shift by Harry Douglas and the 5 yard penalty negated the score and gave U of L the ball on the 6. On 4th down, Brohm completed a pass at the 4 yard line, but All-SEC linebacker Wesley Woodyard came up and stopped the receiver at the 2 yard line and got the ball back for UK. Although Louisville would score on it's next possession and take the lead, this defensive stand proved to be the one that helped UK win the game before play number 5 happened.
Oh Dear God, Not Another LSU: After the Stevie Johnson TD and 28 seconds on the clock, UK still had to kickoff to Louisville, who had a 100 yard kick return for a TD by Trent Guy on their first possession of the 3rd quarter. This time, UK stopped them within the 20, but with 22 seconds left, Brian Brohm had time to move the ball. Their first play was deep across the middle with UK playing 3 safeties deep. UK tipped the ball, to Harry Douglas, who in turn tipped it in to the hands of I believe Woodyard who couldn't hang on. 15 seconds to go. Woodyard completes one at the 50 to who else, Harry f'n Douglas. 5 seconds to go, Brohm throws the Hail Mary to the end zone. WAIT! Brohm has no arm strength now! A host of UK defenders are between the 10 and the end zone tipping the ball...not knocking it down a la LSU 4 years ago...where one again, Harry %$#*&@ Douglas catches it at the 10. I've never seen a sea of blue overtake a man so fast. Victory to the boys in blue!!
The goalposts came down, but this time they were brought down by employees of Commonwealth Stadium and surrounded by the Fayette County Sheriff Department. The last two times they came down was a victory several years ago over Alabama and I believe last season when UK upset Georgia. If a miracle of miracles happens and UK beats LSU at home on October 13 (that would be a heckuva birthday present for me!), there won't be enough sheriff's, state police, or Lexington-Fayette County Urban Government Police Department officers to keep those goalposts inside the stadium. They'll be somewhere on Woodland Avenue that night!
Next up for UK: A VERY upset Arkansas team that lost to Alabama last night. If UK pulls off that W and goes to 4-0, this may turn out to be the best UK team ever. I'm not joking there. They might not win the SEC championship, but they are going to spoil some teams chances who are favorites to win it. We just knocked U of L out of BCS contention, and we're not done yet!. Not to steal a closing from UKJedi, but GO BIG BLUE!!!
I didn't get to watch the game, but does it really matter? The scoreboard says it all. 34-32. Every Michigan player, coach, alum, professor, student and fan should be embarrassed and ashamed for their team losing to Appalachian State. Who cares if they are the 2 time defending NCAA I-AA champions? You shouldn't have had those "cupcakes" on your schedule to begin with. If you want to be a national powerhouse, play some powerhouses out of conference and leave the Appy States to play EMU & WMU. So much for that easy "W" to help your record.
As a result of this loss, I will not take Michigan football seriously until Lloyd Carr is gone. Here are some other possible repercussions of this game:
You have improved the recruiting for Appalachian State and your future recruiting under Lloyd Carr look dim.
You have embarrassed the Big 10 by making it look weak.
You have effectively removed yourself from a national championship game, not to mention a BCS game, period.
You damn well better completely drop out of the Top 25 and not come back until you have a couple of big wins.
What a sad day for big-time college football. By the way, congrats to the Mountaineers from Appy State. They deserved the win and what a way to end it with a blocked kick. You guys played your butts off.
I initially posted this on July 21, 2007 but due to an image issue I deleted the post and am reposting it now. Hopefully the image issue is resolved. I had 7 or 8 comments but did not copy those. If anyone who commented before would like to comment again, feel free to!
Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I BLEED BLUE! That will never change. In the five years I lived in Virginia I tried at all costs to hate Virginia Tech, but by the time we moved back to Kentucky, I was a VT football fan. It's hard not to pull for a team that is on every TV & radio station in southwest Virginia, and more importantly, they win. However, a recent decision I made has me reflecting on the last twenty years and wondering if somwhere inside of me is an Ohio State Buckeye fan waiting to come out of the closet, so to speak.
I graduated from high school in 1989 and at that time, college sweatshirts and hats were very popular. In fact, after our recent move I purged the last of my sweatshirts that were way to small. Out went Purdue, Michigan, Florida State and UK--all in size large. I'm an XXL now. As I got all these ready to go to Goodwill, I thought about the other sweatshirts I had in my collection back in the eighties: UCLA, USC (SoCal--not Carolina), Georgetown, and Ohio State to name a few. I remember when I decided to jump on the eighties fashion train and buy some college sweatshirts, I went to a store where they had them on sale for 3 for $33.00. I bought three of them that day: Ohio State, USC, & UCLA. I wore all of them many times, but Ohio State was worn more for some reason. Within a couple of months I had bought hats to go with all of my sweatshirts. The OSU hat & shirt were worn more than any other and that hat proved it.
That was twenty years ago. I've gone through a hundred hats and outgrew all of my sweatshirts. I never knew what happened to my OSU sweatshirt, nor did I have a second thought about my brief OSU obsession. Then, a couple of weeks ago I decided to get a new lunch bag. It's getting way to expensive to eat out everyday, and with my daughter starting preschool, my wife and I getting ready to buy another car, and just buying a new house I thought that I would try to cut some corners and start packing my lunch every so often. My wife and I were in our local not-so-friendly Wal-Mart superstore and I found an endcap with nice looking lunchbags for $4.00. What a bargain! I'm a cheap S.O.B. and thought this price was right up my alley. I didn't pay much attention to the one I picked up until a couple of days later when I went to pack my lunch. This is what I ended up with:
A freakin' white, silver, and red lunch bag! My palms started sweating and my eyes began to dialate. My heart was racing. The room started spinning and I swear I lost 60 pounds as a red and gray sweatshirt was forming itself to my much leaner than now body and a dirty red and white OSU hat, size 7 3/4 was sliding on my head. It was 1987 again and I was a junior in high school. I was back in the hallowed halls of Franklin County High School. All the chicks were wearing day-glo clothes and had some serious boofong hair being held in place by entire cans of White Rain hairspray (These ladies are the main reason for ozone depletion). Both guys and gals were wearing Guess? jeans and I heard someone's boom-box playing "Fight For Your Right" by the Beastie Boys. Thankfully, this daydream ended as quickly as it started. I sat there looking at my lunch bag and thought to myself, "Why didn't you look for a blue and white lunchbag, you ####?". I couldn't believe I did this to myself again. More OSU stuff. I thought this stuff ended years ago, yet here I was with a ham sandwich, barbecue potato chips, and a Diet Coke going in my unofficial Buckeye Bag.
As college football season approaches I find myself hoping that UK makes it back to a bowl game and wondering if I'll find myself watching Ohio State highlights and games with a renewed interest. My biggest fear is that I'll inadvertently go out and buy myself a sweater vest and start writing fan letters to Jim Tressel. If I do that, somebody just put me out of my misery!
Oh yeah, as an added bonus, the lunchbag only scanned up at $3.00!
