February 2012
4 posts
That’s all, folks | Dr. Saturday - Yahoo! Sports →
Well shit…we’ll miss you Matt.
January 2012
2 posts
Joe Paterno: Bury A Man, Keep The Statue -... →
As he so often does, Spencer Hall sums up a overwhelming event in college football with wit, style, and substance.
If I could add anything, it would be that the legend and the man became one toward the twilight of Paterno’s career, even perhaps in his own mind.
Joe had absolute power in Happy Valley, and as we all know, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Even for a man of...
Michael Weinreb on Alabama, LSU, the BCS National... →
Yup. Fuck this season. Bring on 2012!
December 2011
9 posts
ESPN Grants Craig James Leave to Consider Senate... →
YAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!
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Well, That Happened 2011 - BCS Edition
So it’s a rematch.
Never mind that Alabama already lost to LSU.
Never mind that Alabama didn’t win their division.
Never mind that Alabama didn’t play in their conference title game.
Never mind that only three of Alabama’s wins came against teams that ended the season with a winning record.
Never mind that Oklahoma State beat seven teams who ended the season with a...
GUYS CALM DOWN WE'RE GONNA BE FINE - Every Day... →
Why doesn’t this make me feel any better?
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My Best Guesses 2011: Championship Week
I know I’m late on this again. I also know that I didn’t get a chance to pick the Pac-12 championship game. Oh well. UCLA made it a little more interesting than people thought it would be, but I chalk that up to Oregon completely overlooking them.
Let’s go to the conference title games as well as two Big 12 games that really matter; Bedlam- which has BCS title game...
NFL: The All-22 Football Footage the League Won't... →
So that’s why I find myself so interested in soccer matches, even though I barely understand how strategy works on the pitch, because it’s FUCKING FASCINATING TO BE ABLE TO FIGURE SHIT OUT FOR YOURSELF AND WATCH A TEAM PLAY AS A SINGLE, COHESIVE UNIT.
November 2011
13 posts
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So, That Happened 2011 - Week Thirteen
I give up.
The #2 team in the BCS has been eliminated from it’s conference championship game. As has the #4 team in the BCS. The #3 team doesn’t even have to play in a conference title game. Meanwhile, the #1 team in the land has to play in their conference title game and win just to hold on to their ranking.
How is this not a broken system? The conferences have title games, but...
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My Best Guesses 2011: Week Thirteen
Gobble-gobble. It’s Thanksgiving and this year, we have so much to be thankful for-
a BCS system that is in utter chaos
Case Keenum putting up silly-ass numbers
Lee Corso
…and that’s about it. College football is a mess, the SEC west is atop the BCS, whether we like it or not (NOTNOTNOT!!!) and every other conference in the country is a tire fire of varying dimensions. In...
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Heisman Talk: Darkhorses Abound
Much has been made over the past few weeks, once the BCS started to go into the crapper, that we don’t have a clear Heisman trophy front-runner this year. For awhile, it was Stanford’s golden boy, Andrew Luck. Then it was Alabama’s bruising Trent Richardson. After that, the talk was all about 28 year old gunslinger Brandon Weedon from Okie State. Peppered around these mentions...
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So, That Happened 2011 - Week Twelve
Almost on cue, the season starts to get wackier and wackier. Wacky enough to kill a horse, even. Wait, that doesn’t make sense. Aww, fuck it.
From the early week MACtion that kept the smattering of crowds at the games on the edge of their seats - 41-38 Northern Illinois comeback, 29-28 Ohio win with a field goal as time expired, and Western Michigan’s 24-21 win.
It didn’t...
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My Best Guesses 2011: Week Twelve
Chaos is upon us. Just two undefeated teams remain and only one of them has a legit shot at the title game. Pundits are getting themselves all in a tizzy because there’s no clear Heisman front-runner (I’ll have more on that next week). In the meantime; Joe Paterno has lung cancer, Oklahoma State lost two of their women’s basketball coaches, and just as I type this, Chris Fowler...
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So, That Happened: 2011 Week Eleven
Yesterday brought clarity out of chaos in this college football season. When all the dust fell, only three undefeated teams remain; Oklahoma State, LSU and Houston. Only Okie State and LSU with a chance to play for the BCS title, with Houston simply being Case Keenum’s vehicle to a higher draft spot in the 2012 NFL draft. The logjam has shifted to the one-loss teams, of which there are...
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My Best Guesses 2011: Week Eleven
So, yet another week where I’m under the gun, time-wise and will sadly have no further insight into this weekend of college football (or the ongoing Sandusky/Penn State mess, as if you need more of that…) for you this week. I’m sure you’re devastated. Please try to hold it together. I hate to see you this way. It’s okay, it’s okay, please don’t be so...
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Paterno
One of my first vivid memories of college football is the Snow Bowl, the 1992 game at Notre Dame Stadium between the Irish and the Penn State Nittany Lions. At the time, my love for Notre Dame football was still in it’s infancy. I had only been watching college football for a few years, catching games here and there after Saturday morning cartoons were over.
The game was the weekend after...
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So, That Happened - 2011 Week 10
Wow. What a day. It had everything; upsets, gritty games by underdogs, a titanic defensive struggle, a surprising shootout, and some top teams just taking care of business. Easily the best weekend of football so far this year, in my opinion. It may just take more than just eight numbers to encapsulate what we learned from yesterday’s games.
Alabama and LSU should NOT rematch in the BCS...
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My Best Guesses 2011: Week Ten
I’m picking six games, because I refuse not to pick the Notre Dame/Wake Forest matchup, despite the fact that it’s going to be completely buried behind all of the other marquee night games on tap this weekend. So, strap yourselves in, it’s a backloaded schedule on Saturday.
Seriously, there are very few games worth watching until the night games. It’s kind...
October 2011
10 posts
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Well, That Happened 2011 - Week Nine
I said in my picks column that I thought this would be a week of either blowouts or upsets. Turns out I was right, but they didn’t happen where I expected.
I thought Kansas State would be able to take advantage of a Oklahoma team on a down week after their loss to Texas Tech last week. I wasn’t sure that the Wildcats would win the game, but I wasn’t surprised at the 23-17...
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My Best Guesses 2011: Week Nine
This weekend is a quiet one in college football. Very much a pu-pu platter of games that have potential to be interesting, but also wouldn’t surprise you if they were all blowouts. I actually had trouble even picking five games this week. I would pick five, stare at the screen for a few minutes, take one off and replace it with another, stare at the screen, take another off, walk away from...
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So, That Happened 2011 - Week Eight
First off, this happened last night-
…but while that was happening, down in Norman, Oklahoma, the Sooners were down to Texas Tech, 31-7. And, only about a half hour earlier, Notre Dame gave up another 90+ yard fumble return for a touchdown.
It was a weird night, to be sure. It also capped off a terribly boring day, full of blowouts and uninteresting games galore. Oregon vs. Colorado?...
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MBG 2011 - Week Eight Picks
So I skipped last week’s picks and wrapup columns. I’m sure you noticed. I’m sure you cared. Part of my laziness could be attributed to Notre Dame having a bye week, but a bigger part could be attributed to sheer forgetfulness.
Yup, I simply forgot. Must be that dementia setting in early. I really need to get that checked out.
But until then, I’ll keep making picks....
TBS' Ernie Johnson spends October bedside, not in... →
You and your family are in our thoughts, Ernie. Stay strong, EJ.
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MBG 2011 - Week Six Picks
After a wild and wooly week five, we have the Red River Shootout to look forward to this weekend, where a highly overvalued Texas squad goes up against a juggernaut Oklahoma team. Plus, Florida heads to Death Valley with a true freshman at the helm. That should go well…
I think this is the week where we might start to see some separation and once the dust settles the Top 25 for the second...
Checking In On NBA Players At The Lockout Meetings... →
This is brilliant.
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S, TH - Week 5
I think most of us went into this weekend thinking that there were a handful of marquee games with the rest being mildly interesting filler, at best.
Boy were we wrong, huh?
Just a few quick numbers that I want to run by you-
49-42, 27-24, 42-38*, 19-16, 38-35, 35-34, 31-23, 17-10, 48-41, 31-27, 38-31, 17-13*, 45-35, 21-20, 48-41, 36-35*, 16-13*, 38-31*, 40-33*, 26-22, 37-34, 31-27, 38-31.
...
September 2011
8 posts
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MBG 2011 - Week Five Picks
I’ve shortened up the title for my weekly picks column. “My Best Guesses” is now “MBG.” Deal with it.
Conference play is fully upon us and the undefeated teams started falling last week. There are a bunch of interesting matchups this week, too. It’s going to be a fun Saturday full of football, with good games in the early slate, afternoon slate and evening.
...
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My Best Guesses 2011: Week Four
I have laundry piling up, a cover letter to write and plans to make for my Friday night, so of course I’m sitting down to write my college football picks column, because that’s the most prudent way to spend my time.
It’s not procrastinating if you plan on doing the other things eventually, right?
Anyway, this is about college football. We’re already on the precipice of...
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Well, That Happened 2011 - Week Three
I’m going to try and keep this quiet, because those brave souls who stayed up to watch the Oklahoma State/Tulsa game are probably still asleep or never went to bed at all. In either case, loud noises might startle them.
I really can’t remember an odder start to a college football season in my lifetime. From the rain and lightning delays to the conference re-alignment hullaballo to...
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My Best Guesses 2011: Week Three
I’m still feeling the Notre Dame collapse against Michigan (UNDER THE LIGHTS!!!) and so my heart is not fully into the picks on week three. This is going to be succinct. I’m going through the motions at this point. Hopefully, the Irish can pick up the pieces, stop turning the ball over every other play, and turn their season around against a tough Michigan State team. But I’m not...
Oregon players warned to stop simulating Oregon’s... →
I think everyone knows this by now, but I had to put in my two cents; Mike Pereira is an asshat. In fact, he seems to be the textbook definition of the term.
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My Best Guesses 2011: Week Two
A shortened week and a very hectic Thursday have left me with little time to scramble and make some picks for the paltry matchups on tap this weekend. There are very few meaningful, genuinely interesting games and most of them are upset alert-type of games, like the Arizona/OkSt game tonight and the Mizzu/ASU game tomorrow night. Saturday is pretty barren, but we’ll make do. It is college...
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Well, That Happened 2011 - Week One
2010: 47-19
2009: 41-29
Those are my final records for picking games the past two years here at Fourth and Blog. Not too shabby, really. I finished 3-2 with my picks yesterday, with my favorite team and my home team both losing in shit-storm fashion, in one case, quite literally. Both Notre Dame and Oregon looked rusty and discombobulated on offense to start the season, but I have faith that...
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My Best Guesses 2011: Week One
So here I am, sitting in a hammock in my backyard, cool breeze caressing my bare feet as I take in the last bit of summer beauty tinged with the first crisp hints of fall.
Excuse me, I meant to say - FOOTBAWWWWW IS BACK!!!
The season is upon us. If you are anything like me, you probably spent last night watching the first quarter of Wisconsin’s beat-down of UNLV before switching to...
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A Just-in-Time College Football Preview
Holy shit! College football kicks off the 2011 season tomorrow. But, you already knew that. I did, too. But damn, somehow it snuck up on me. Even though I’ve been reading about fall practices, team projections, and various prognostications for weeks now, I feel like the last week just blipped away and now, here we are, one day away.
Maybe it’s because I cancelled cable over the...
July 2011
1 post
Eric LeGrand Stands: Paralyzed Rutgers Football... →
This makes me smile. Keep working hard, Eric.
June 2011
4 posts
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To Kickoff or Not to Kickoff, That is the Question
Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano saw firsthand last year the potential for kickoffs to go horribly wrong when Scarlet Knights’ player Eric LeGrand was paralyzed while making a tackle on the kick coverage team. Recently, he’s made wave in the college football world by starting to advocate for a major rule change, the elimination of kickoffs from the game entirely. Georgia coach...