The Allure of College Gameday

It's getting to be that time of year folks. Spring games are over, College Football Live is back on the air (albeit with rehashed stories every blogger has already beaten to death), and the Coors Company is busy stocking up for the last weekend of August. A few short months from now we will all rise on Saturday morning, throw some 'dogs on the grill with a beer in hand, and turn on the TV to honor the holy trinity of college football known as the Gameday Crew. The Gameday Crew, consisting of Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit, are a staple of college football, and any campus they visit turns into an instant party. I was personally in attendance for College Gameday's first visit to Autzen Stadium in Eugene, OR; and even though it was still dark out when taping began at 7am, the scene was epic.

The allure of Gameday can be found in it's cast of characters. There is Lee Corso, who reminds everyone of their senile grandpa after shotgunning 4 or 5 Pabst Blue Ribbons and shouting profanities and racially insensitive remarks. Lee is the quintessential antithesis of cuddly little Lou Holtz. Lou is the sweet little old man who you pat on the head and give a Werthers caramel to every time he manages to string together a coherent sentence. To combat the beast that is Corso, Gameday also employs the beauty- Ohio State nobody quarterback turned ESPN heartthrob Kirk Herbstreit, also known affectionately as Herbie. Herbstreit legitimizes the show to wives and girlfriends everywhere, and throws a little bit of sanity into the crazy pot that is Lee Corso. And finally, there is Chris Fowler, the personality deprived host who's only contributions to the show are 30 second intros to pre-taped segments narrated by any number of ESPN peasants. Throw these three in front of a camera and you have television gold.

In just 113 days, college football fans around the world will all tune in to watch the madness of another season of college football unfold. Surely we will do a double take over something Corso says in a moment of stupidity, and without fail our wives and girlfriends will find a spot on the couch with us the moment Herbie starts making love with the camera (Editor's note: I know I got my spot ready). The characters of College Gameday help define the college football season. They are the opening act for the rock concert that is the college football season. I, for one, cannot wait.

Aaron Brooks: Red is the new Black

If I were Aaron Brooks, I might've stopped at 20 points in Sunday's game against the Lakers if it meant I wouldn't have to be seen on national television in this suit. Unfortunately (or not) for Brooks, he scored a career high 34 and became the star of the game as well as the post-game press conference. Apparently he is claiming he was tricked into it by one of his teammates, but I'm not so sure... One thing is for sure though, if I had scored my career high after wearing this suit I would probably wear it again for the next game. We'll see if Brooks thinks the same way on Tuesday.

Mark Cuban Hates Mothers

After Saturday's controversial Game 3 matchup between the Nuggets and the Mavericks, Mark Cuban, Dallas' owner and giant douchebag, reportedly had an exchange of words with the mother of Denver's Kenyon Martin. After Carmelo's game winning three, Cuban stormed the court arguing, an event that is not uncommon for him, before heading to the locker room, where he encountered Lydia Moore along the way. Reports are that as Dallas fans were yelling and calling Denver player thugs, Cuban looked at Moore and said "That includes your son," in reference to Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin.

Don't worry though, because Cuban totally has a good reason that vindicates his comment! Cuban, who has no problem running his mouth at officials, players, and now player's family, responded to the incident by saying Moore threw some "trash-talk-type comments" at him after one of the previous playoff games.

Stay classy, Mark Cuban and Happy Mothers Day Lydia Moore.

Larry Scott's Summer To Do List

If you haven't heard, Larry Scott was announced as the new Pac 10 commissioner. He will take over the position, currently held by Tom Hansen, on July 1st. At first glance, Scott appears to be a great hire by the Pac 10 conference. His background is mainly in marketing and television and most recently he has been praised for his work as the CEO for the Women's Tennis Association. He even helped the WTA land a $88 million sponsorship from Sony Ericsson, the biggest sponsorship ever in women's sports. This fact alone leads me to believe he will be a great fit for the Pac 10. After all, who really wants to watch women's tennis anyways?

All joking aside, Larry Scott has a lot of work to do to improve the state of Pac 10 athletics. Here is a list of things I would like to see him improve starting this summer on July 1st.

1. Officiating -
For the past several years, football officials from the Pac 10 have been a punchline in the other Division 1 conferences around the nation. From the UO/Oklahoma onside kick fiasco of 2006 to last years UW/BYU excessive celebration call, Pac 10 refs have proven to the nation how horrible they are. It has gotten to the point where other conferences are wary of playing Pac 10 teams on the road. This lack of respect is certainly not helping the perspective that most outsiders hold of the Pacific 10 conference as a whole. Scott needs to take action immediately to improve the officiating and bring respect back to this conference.

2. Bowl Contracts -
Within the last decade, UO,Cal and ASU have all been left hanging out to dry when the BCS committee decided to go with a less-qualified team from another conference in their place. When it comes down to it, USC is the only Pac 10 team that seems to get the benefit of the doubt during bowl selections. This costs the conference millions of dollars and untold benefits of the national respect that comes with having two BCS bowl teams. The Pac 10 as a whole gets about as much respect from the BCS as the MWC. What is worse, apart from the “Granddaddy of them all”, the Pac-10 bowl tie-ins suck. As a whole, the Pac 10 gets less money from its bowl contracts with only one January bowl game. We consistently get the short end of the stick when it comes to bowl opponents and level of competition. With Scott's marketing background, hopefully he can work his way into a couple of better bowl contracts and bring some more respect to the Pac 10.

3. TV Contracts-

Four of the top fifteen television markets are in Pac 10 cities: Seattle, Phoenix, LA, and San Francisco. Compare that to the two in Big 10 cities (Detroit and Minneapolis) and you can start to see how poor the Pac 10's current TV contracts are. Right now the Pac 10 has weak deals with ABC/ESPN and CBS and regional deals with FSN and VERSUS. In general, ESPN picks up the game of the week and FSN and VERSUS are left to fight for the leftovers. Both FSN and VERSUS receive horrible ratings compared to ABC/ESPN and neither regional network does anything to promote the Pac 10's perception around the nation. Often times, Pac 10 teams are forced to move games to Thursday nights in order to receive more television exposure. If the Pac 10 is to improve its national image, it will have to get more games on television during hours when the rest of the nation is watching. Whether this is through a new Pac 10 network, or a better contract with CBS or NBC is for Larry Scott to decide.

Post-Spring Pac-10 Football Predictions

Spring practices in the Pac-10 came to a conclusion as Oregon and Oregon state wrapped up on Saturday with their annual Spring Games. Here are my post-spring predictions on the conference standings and All-Pac 10 teams:

Conference Standings:
1. USC Trojans 11-1 (8-1)
2. Oregon Ducks 10-2 (7-2)
3. California Golden Bears 9-3 (6-3)
4. Oregon State Beavers 8-4 (5-4)
5. Stanford Cardinal 7-5 (5-4)
6. Arizona Wildcats 7-5 (5-4)
7. UCLA Bruins 5-7 (4-5)
8. Arizona State 5-7 (3-6)
9. Washington Huskies 3-9 (2-7)
10. Washington State Cougars 1-11 (0-9)

Awards:
Offensive Player of the Year: Jahvid Best, Cal
Defensive Player of the Year: Taylor Mays, USC
Freshman of the Year: Vontaze Burfict, ASU
Coach of the Year: Chip Kelly, UO

Pac-10 First Team:

OFFENSE:

QB: Jeremiah Masoli, Oregon
RB: Jahvid Best, California
RB: Jacquizz Rodgers, Oregon State
WR: Damian Williams, USC
WR: James Rodgers, Oregon State
TE: Rob Gronkowski, Arizona
OL: C.E. Kaiser, Oregon
OL: Jeff Byers, USC
OL: Kristopher O'Dowd, USC
OL: Gregg Peat, Oregon State
OL: Chris Marinelli, Stanford

PK: Thomas Weber, Arizona State


DEFENSE:

DL: Dexter Davis, Arizona State
DL: Brian Price, UCLA
DL: Stephen Paea, Oregon State
DL: Everson Griffin, USC
LB: Spencer Paysinger, Oregon
LB: Vontaze Burfict, Arizona State
LB: Keaton Kristick, Oregon State
DB: Walter Thurmond III, Oregon
DB: Syd'Quan Thompson, California
DB: Taylor Mays, USC
DB: Alterraun Verner, UCLA

P: Keenyn Crier, Arizona

Oregon State Spring Football Winners and Losers

With the Oregon State spring football game now in the books, its time to take a look at the major winners and losers of the last four weeks of spring practice.

Winners:

Sean Canfield - With Lyle Moevao sitting out spring practices due to recent surgery on his rotator cuff, Canfield was given the large majority of the reps with the first team offense. This is almost the exact opposite situation from spring practice last year when Canfield was the one recovering from surgery and Lyle got all of the repetitions. In the first scrimmage of the spring Canfield completed 12 of 21 passes for 278 yards and 4 touchdowns including a pair of 70+ yard touchdown passes to projected starter Darrell Catchings. It appears, at least for the moment, that Canfield has taken a strong hold on the starting quarterback position and will carry that title into fall practice.

Darrell Catchings - The number one beneficary of Canfield's hot spring has been Darrell Catchings, the projected replacement for Sammie Stroughter at wide receiver. In 2007 Catchings earned a starting role as a true freshman due to injuries and a lack of depth. However, with the return of Stroughter and the emergence of Shane Morales last year, Catchings was relegated to role player status. Judging by the way he's been playing this spring, it looks like he's ready for a breakout year. Through the first two spring scrimmages Catchings had 13 catches for 423 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Defensive Front Seven - After losing four of the starting front seven from 2008, one of the focal points of spring practice was finding the impact starters to replace them. It looks like OSU may have done that with the way the defensive front played this spring. Newcomers Kevin Frahm and Ben Terry look like carbon copies of 2009 NFL draft picks Slade Norris and Victor Butler. Both players have great speed off the edge and will likely pile up the sacks in the upcoming season. Meanwhile, returning starters Keaton Kristick and Stephen Paea have appeared on a couple of preseason watch lists and will anchor the defense up the middle.

2008 Senior Class - In this years NFL draft OSU had a school record 7 players chosen. In order they were: Andy Levitre (Buffalo), Keenan Lewis (Pittsburgh), Victor Butler (Dallas), Slade Norris (Oakland), Brandon Hughes (San Diego), Al Afalava (Chicago), and Sammie Stroughter (Tampa Bay). Since then former wide receiver Shane Morales and former tackle Tavita Thompson have signed free agent contracts with Arizona and New York (Jets) respectively.

Losers:

Secondary - Replacing the four starters in the secondary proved to be a tough task for the beavers this spring. On most days the first and second team offenses took turns running circles around the new corners and safeties. If OSU hopes to be competitive in the QB heavy Pac 10, their new secondary will have to take a couple of large steps forward before games start. However, if the spring game was any indication, it appears they may have started figuring things out with the three interceptions recorded by the starting unit during the scrimmage.

Running Backs - Before spring drills even started OSU was made aware that they would be without backup running back Jeremy Francis who is helping his mother recover from a heart attack in Florida. Francis was a capable backup and played an important role in OSU's Sun Bowl victory last season. Meanwhile, Jacquizz Rodgers was held out of all contact spring drills as a precautionary measure while he recovers from a cracked scapula suffered in last years victory over the University of Arizona. This left the bulk of the first team carries to Ryan Mccants. However towards the end of spring practices, Mccants suffered a knee ligament tear and will need offseason surgery. Due to these injuries the spring game primarily featured redshirt freshman Jovan Stevenson and true freshman Jordan Jenkins at running back.

Knees - As it turned out Ryan McCants was not the only player to suffer a bad knee injury in spring drills. Backup MLB Tony Wilson and WR Kaulin Krebs will both need surgery to repair torn ligaments in their knees as a result of injuries suffered in practices leading up to the spring game. To make matters worse, projected starting tackle Timi Oshinowo went down with a knee injury during the game and will have an MRI to find out how bad it is.

Marketing - It started last year with the "Let it rage" marketing campaign. This spring it transformed into "I am orange". I know we have a bunch of players that wear orange uniforms as members of the OSU football team, but I don't think I've seen any players that are actually orange. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, the slogan that goes with it is: "I am gone before they hear the thunder." What does that even mean? And what the hell does it have to do with being orange? Maybe somebody could explain to me how this ad campaign improves the image of our program but I highly doubt it.

Oregon Spring Winners and Losers

Oregon's spring football practices came to a close with the conclusion of Saturday's Spring Game at Autzen Stadium in front of a crowd of 12,000 people. Here are my winners and losers throughout the spring practices and game:

WINNERS:


Jeremiah Masoli and Justin Roper: Oregon's top two QBs showed that the position should be in good hands over the next two years as both players shone in the spring game saturday. Masoli was 15/22 for 215 yards and TDs with no interceptions on the day and provides hope to Duck fans that his superb play from late last season will roll over into the fall. Roper, the game's MVP, led the White to victory on his 22/34 passing with 311 yards. He accounted for all of the Green team's scores with three TD passes.

Kenyon Barner: Barner, who has practiced has a corner most of the spring, assumed the starting role in the spring game after injuries forced him to change positions. The former high school running back responded well, leading all rushers with 54 yards on 10 carries and showed some nifty moves in between.

Kenny Rowe: Rowe is the frontrunner to replace Nick Reed and start opposite Will Tukuafu at the other DE spot. Rowe constantly disrupted the backfield in the spring game accumulating 4 tackles, with 2 for a loss along with forcing other hurried throws.

Aaron Pflugrad: Pflugrad, who was my personal vote for MVP, led all receivers on the day with 107 yards and 2 TDs. Oregon is in desperate need for a WR to step up and Pflu looks like he can provide some consistency to a group that lacked it last year.

The Fans: It's spring football at Autzen Stadium, whats not to love about it?


LOSERS:


The Kicking Game: Oregon's kicking game was all over the place missing three kicks and having another three blocked.

The Snapping Game: A handful of snaps resulted in a loss of yards, including one when the white team was in the redzone that could have cost a touchdown. Errant snaps were also prevalent on field goal tries. Oregon continues to try and find a replacement for Max Unger on the offensive line.

Darron Thomas: Thomas was inconsistent today, underthrowing or completely missing some receivers and lacked in decision making skills at time. The sophomore should be able to redshirt as long as Roper and Masoli stay healthy and have another year of learning year under Chip Kelly.

The Fans: At least those that sat on the North side of the Stadium and had to brave the elements for most of the game.

Oregon Sping Game 1st half thoughts

First half of Oregon's spring game is in the book as the White team, led by Jeremiah Masoli, leads the Green team by a score of 14-7. Both of the White team's scoring drives ended with Aaron Pflugrad touchdown receptions of 60 and 17-yards, respectively. The Green team's lone score came from a spectacular one-handed diving catch by Chris Harper in the 2nd quarter.

A few players have stuck out after 30 minutes of play, the most impressive being Aaron Pflugrad. Pflugrad has caught just about everything thrown his way, and has also showed some nice ball skills once he has the ball in his hands. Meanwhile, on the Green offense, Chris Harper and Kenjon Barner have showed some nice glimpses of what they can do with the ball in their hands. Harper has been the most productive receiver for the Green team, while Barner has been impressive for a RB who has been taking reps as a DB all spring.

Defensively Chad Peppars and Josh Kaddu have stuck out. Peppars has been all over the field and made multiple tackles, including a blocked FG attempt. Kaddu has been effective at disrupting the backfield when he blitzes and had a hard hit on Chris Harper. On the Green defense, Walter Thurmond has done a good job against Jamere Holland, limiting him to one catch. Kenny Rowe also has two tackles for loss.

Speaking of Holland, his speed is impressive and stands out. Though he only has one catch, he burned TJ Ward twice on the last drive of the half, but Masoli overthrow him both times.

Problems in the first half were errant snaps by both offense's centers and poor kicking by the FG units.

Obligatory Erin Andrews post

As a sports blog, it is our duty to relay information and our thoughts to you in an educated, well-thought out way. However, there is also another unwritten rule for which all sport blogs must follow: fawn over Erin Andrews. While we here at Turf Burns enjoy Miss (we hope) Andrews sideline reporting as much as anyone else, our focus on this blog will stay to sports, and not so much those attractive females that cover it. However, one Erin Andrews post is a necessity as a sort of rite of passage for every sports blog. So without further ado, our obligatory Erin Andrews post:











We also enjoy Erin Andrew's younger, and just as attractive sister, Kendra:

Well done, Dan. Well done.

NBA should suspend Rondo

In case you haven't seen it, here is the video from Thursday nights game 6 between the Celtics and Bulls.



Rondo basically throws Hinrich into the scorers table after Hinrich made a good boxout. After the foul, Hinrich shoves Rondo and Rondo attempts to throw an elbow but doesn't make any contact. And the result? Rondo gets called for a flagrant foul and Hinrich gets a technical.

If this were the first example of Rondo's disrespect for his opponent and the game of basketball, I would not think that he should be suspended. Unfortunately, this is not the first instance where Rondo was obviously playing with the intent to hurt someone. In game 5 of this series, in the last minute of overtime, Rondo had another "hard foul" against Brad Miller that probably won the Celtics the game. I say "hard foul" because the refs didn't have the balls to call it what it should have been: a flagrant foul.



Rondo claims he was going for the ball, which makes a lot of sense for a guy who has only 11 blocks for the year and is giving up 11 inches and 90 lbs to Miller. Apparently Rondo got the ball confused with Miller's head, because it wasn't even close.

Between these two plays separated by a mere 12 minutes of game time, Rondo is quickly earning a reputation as a dirty player. Perhaps its coming out of frustration at the realization that not everything is going to be handed to him like it was last year. When it comes down to it, Rondo is a slightly better than average point guard with a great supporting cast. And he's quickly realizing that the Celtics are moving downhill while the rest of the league passes them by. This has made him a spoiled, angry player that has begun taking out his frustrations physically on the Chicago Bulls. It's time that the NBA sent a message that this behavior will not be tolerated - especially from a third year player. Rondo should be rightfully suspended for game 7 of this series for the safety of all of the players on the court.