College Football 2007: Week 3

Okay, so I'm lazy ass and didn't write a week two CFB roundup. So what?

USC fans enjoyed a 'perfect' weekend, as the Trojans rolled and the Domers and Bruins were thoroughly embarrassed. The Trojans looked particularly impressive on the ground against the Huskers (did I say 'impressive?' I meant 'ridiculous.' When your fullback can rumble for 50 yards on a dive play from your own three-yard-line, that's ridiculous). Their defense did allow Nebraska QB Sam Keller to throw for more than 300 yards, and I don't care what the online accounts say, that wasn't the second-string secondary in there during garbage time. The Trojan passing game struggled, diminishing John David Booty's already flagging Hesiman campaign, but much of this can be attributed by a still uninspiring receiver corp. Patrick Turner, long expected to become JDB's favorite target this year, made his return to the lineup this week and did...well, exactly what Patrick Turner has done his first two years at USC. Drop passes and refuse to block anybody. If anyone is to become the next Dwayne Jarrett (although I' prefer the next Mike Williams), it'll be the hulking David Ausberry. If USC can run this effectively all year (and did I mentioned they started a true frosh at center? Again, ridiculous), they'll cruise to a BCS bowl. But if someone can exploit the secondary and shut down the Trojans' ground attack...


The Genius Charlie Weis is apparently nothing without his Mr. Perfect (Brady Quinn). Notre Dame couldn't beat Mater Dei H.S. at this point. Duke and the service academies are licking their chops after ND's utter destruction at the hands of (twice-embarrassed) Michigan. Willingham is laughing his ass off right now. And at what point do the Domer faithful turn on the Genius? My guess is next year, but why they're more patient with Weis than with Willingham is a mystery (insert race joke here) to me. Maybe the Genius threatened to eat Paul Hornung's grandkids or something, who knows? Big-time programs don't just go from BCS bowl to toilet bowl in one season without there being something seriously wrong with their recruiting.


UCLA. Oh my, UCLA. I can't say I've been a Karl Dorrell apologist, but up until now I've been willing to give him a fair shake. He seems like a nice guy and has a pleasant even-keel attitude that serves as a nice counterpoint to Pete Carroll's ADD style of coaching. But after getting spanked by a winless Utah team 44-6, I have to say that was the last straw. Dorrell's teams have been plagued by wild inconsistency over the past fours years, and you can attribute that inconsistency to a leadership void on the coaching level. Who's doing the motivating here? Where's the preparation? Maybe this is where Dorrell's NFL training hurts him; he treats the kids like professionals, like adults...well, college kids are immature adults at best, and elite D-1 college athletes...well, let's just say their immaturity is enabled a bit more than average student. Adding to this mediocrity is an over-reliance on the West Coast offense (which simply can and will not work in CFB (see also present-day Nebraska and late-nineties USC), there's too much accuracy required from a college QB, and the roster turnover year-to-year is simply too great for players to gell), a lackluster 'play not to lose' conservative mentality, and QB Ben Olson's lack of noticeable improvement He's still suffers from accuracy issues, locks onto receivers, and holds onto the ball far too long. I know beating USC in 2006 was a big deal (and many a career has been made by even almost beating SC--see Genius in above paragraph), but it's time UCLA fans start asking themselves if the program is any better today than it was in 2002 when they fired Bob Toledo.

Pitt lost to a decent Michigan St. team, but they might have the next Reggie Bush up their sleeve. True freshman RB LeSean McCoy was electric on Saturday, juking defenders and displaying some Bush-like quickness and acceleration. Pitt's not going to have a good year with all the injuries they've suffered, but McCoy is the future.


So when does Auburn coach Tommy Tubberville go back on the hot seat? It's been a few years, but his chair was quite warm after a disappointing 2003 campaign. He rebounded with an undefeated 2004 and successful '05 and '06 seasons. Now Auburn, sans QB JaMarcus Russell, is struggling again, losing to lowly Mississippi State (Croom!) after falling to South Florida last week. With rival Alabama resurgent under Nick Saban, how long before the 'For Sale' signs start cropping up on Tubberville's lawn?

My Top 10:

01. USC
02. LSU
03. Florida
04. Oklahoma
05. Rutgers
06. Ohio St.
07. West Virginia
08. Cal
09. Texas
10. Penn St.

Alright, that's it for now as I attempt to perform roster add/drop CPR to both my fantasy football teams.

College Football 2007: Week 1

Some quick notes after a big weekend of College Football.

#1 USC looked strong but completely uninterested in their 38-10 win over Idaho. Funny how the Trojans two biggest question marks, WR and RB, were their strengths, with Davis Ausberry and Vidal Hazelton making some nice catches and Stafon Johnson, C.J. Gable, and Joe McKnight running pretty well. The defense looked very fast on the edges, but I have a feeling all that overpursuing will make it weak up the middle and vulnerable to misdirection plays. Saturday night also saw the return of the fullback, as Stanley Havili made the start at 2006's cursed (I think the Trojans lost four FBs to injury) position, and was promptly made a primary target by John David Booty. Anyone notice USC quietly added Reggie Bush's #5 jersey to their ring of Heisman-winners at the peristyle end of the Coliseum? Perhaps another sign that the NCAA's investigation of Bush is truly DOA.

The Bruins fared very well in their thrashing of a much-improved Stanford squad. Khalil Bell looked like a man among boys, bouncing off defenders left and right, plus it was nice to get Pornstache (Joe Cowan) back. Ben Olson looked strong, but he looked good in last year's opener, too (against Utah) before turning in a stinker of a performance against Rice, so I'm not quite on the Bruin 'offensive juggernaut' bandwagon just yet.

Washington broke in new redshirt frosh QB Jack Locker against Syracuse, and he looked pretty darn good running the spread offense. The Tim Tebow clone ran strong, threw well, and will be a unique force in the Pac-10 if he can stay healthy.

It's going to be a long season at Notre Dame and Florida St. ND looked downright awful (so awful their games against the service academies are far from sure things this year) against Georgia Tech, and Florida State looked unimpressive (hasn't QB Drew Weatherford been around too long to make bonehead mistakes?) losing to Clemson. Both teams have treacherous schedules that'll have them dwelling near or below .500.

Cal looked incredibly fast against Tennessee, but their defense is still undersized. The USC-Cal matchup at Berkeley should be a trackmeet in November.

And Michigan...well, what can be said that hasn't been said. No D-1A top 25 team had ever lost to a D-1AA team. Not even a #25 ranked WAC team, not even on the road, not even at a neutral site, and especially not in one of the hardest places to win in all of college football. Three days later, and Applachian St.'s win is still unfathomable.

Concert Review: Family Values Tour 2007 (Irvine Meadows) C+

Date of show: 9/2/07
Venue: Irvine Meadows (Verizon Wireless)

The 2007 edition of the Family Values tour stormed its way into Orange County over Labor Day weekend, and I was there, sweating to the oldies with KoRn and the gang.

Five Finger Death Punch (A-)

5FDP appeared on the "Guitar Hero" second stage, shredding through a brief half an hour set to a smallish but rabid crowd. Gone were former set stalwarts "The Way Of The Fist" and (much to my chagrin) "The Devil's Own," replaced with other album tracks like "White Knuckles." The band were tight as always, and frontman Ivan Moody controlled the audience well (which has grown quite impressively since the last time I saw them...that's what happens when your album actually hits stores), firiing a water cannon into the sweaty masses in between songs. After the set, the band pelted the fans with water balloons, a nice touch on a scorching, 100 degree-plus day.

Trivium (B+)

Trivium went on early over on the mainstage, and put together a workmanlike set that opened quickly with "To The Rats." The quartet added some nice surprises (playing "Tread The Floods" into "Rain" actually coaxed a few real-life raindrops to fall), including the thrashily cheesy "Becoming The Dragon." Overall a strong, but altogether too short, set on what frontman Matt Heafy called "the hottest show" they've ever played.

Hellyeah (B) - partial

I only caught about the first two-thirds of Hellyeah's mainstage act, as I rushed over to see 5FDP in their entirety, but what I did see was better than expected. Hellyeah sounded rather tight, which come to think about it, shouldn't have surprised me with the great Vinne Paul on drums. Surprise of the set was a cover of Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy," which sounded an awful lot like Metallica's cover of the same song. Hmmmm.....


Atreyu (D+) - partial

Caught the second half of the Orange County's emo-metal performance, and can someone explain to me how their brand of whiny/screamy metal-lite is so popular with the ladies? Strange. While I did appreciate one guitarist's 80s headband and Dokken T-shirt, I couldn't get over the whining (all sang by the drummer, weird) and an overall weak, underpowered sound.

Evanescence (F)


Amy Lee's Evanescence managed to do something the burning bright sun couldn't, sap the Irvine crowd of their will to live. Droning through a uninspired set comprised mostly of newer (read: crappier) tunes, Lee and her backup band did absolutely nothing to connect with the initially enthusiastic audience. Lee's voice sounded small, and was often overpowered by her band. A cover of The Doors' "People Are Strange" was at least a change in pace, if a bit awkwardly done. Best of all was the performance of the hit "Bring Me To Life," which is known for a strong duet-rap bit with a male singer...when I say "best of all," I mean "what the hell," because the band somehow omitted the coolest part of the song. They couldn't find some dude to do that part? There's like fifty bands playing on this festival, all of them have male singers, you couldn't have gotten one of them to sub in? How about one of your backing band? Lame.

KoRn (C) - partial(?)

Not being a big fan of their last two studio albums, I was afraid, really afraid of what KoRn might pull out setlist-wise. As it was, the setlist wasn't terrible, but it wasn't particularly great, either. It seemed for every 'good' song ("Faget," the opener "Here To Stay," "Beat It Upright," "Dead Bodies Everywhere") there was at least one 'bad' song ("Ass Itch," "Coming Undone") and at least one 'okay' song ("Hold On," a way-too-overextended "Another Brick In The Wall"). For the most part, despite only having three remaining original bandmembers (well, two and a half, how the hell did Fieldy get so damn skinny?!), everything sounded okay, thanks mostly to Jonathan Davis' strong vocals and Joey Jordinson's (Slipknot) drumming. However it is kind of weird seeing KoRn act like Slipknot, what with seven guys running around stage (the band now employs two backup vocal and percussion dudes). What really derailed the set and kept things from gaining any momentum, however, was the one to three minutes of minimalist electronic samples in between songs. No profanity-laced stage banter (well, not much anyways), no quick progressions from one song to the next. Instead, a couple of minutes of blackened stage and weird, non-KoRn sounding electronica in between each and every song. Let's just say that got old very quickly. Semi-bored, I left after "Blind," not really caring if the band came back for an encore, hence the (?) after partial.