Not Arrogance, but Excellence

So this weekend brings me the first really great problem with being away from home. This weekend is the start of the college football season, the one I've been waiting for since USC (the real one, the one in LA) leave its tire marks on top of the group of people who appeared at the Orange Bowl in Oklahoma Sooner uniforms. Unfortunately, because New England is, well, different from the Midwest with regards to college football, I've gone from being surrounded by discussions of Notre Dame and Chad Henne to discussions of how Jerry Remy's announcing effects the Red Sox. This means that this Saturday, the real opening day of college football, instead of seeing Michigan at 3:30, its BC and BYU. Now don't get me wrong, I respect BC, in fact I think they'll wing the Atlantic Division of the ACC over FSU, and it'll be good to see BYU wearing their old uniforms again, rather than the bibs, but come on. And, to make things worse, XM, which is supposed to carry Big Ten football games, doesn't have any Michigan broadcasts (or Ohio State), which makes me think that there's a problem getting the rights. Now, beccause they are Michigan, I'll probably still be able to watch quite a few games (ND and OSU come to mind, plus the ESPN games) but what concerns me will be my ability to watch games like Iowa or State, where I might end up having to watch a lame ACC game instead of Michigan. I may just resort to calling in to TKA and asking to listen to the feed from WJR. This is the height of poo.

A couple of weeks ago, myself and the Adams agreed to join a Salmon Press Fantasy Football League. While I originally was not totally into it, as the draft approached last Sunday , we, as a group started having stategy sessions, and got a draft plan together. Seriously, we took a lot of time and planned everything out. Sunday, we made our way to Meredith, witnessed an accident directly behind us, and then made our way to the draft. We did pretty well, considering that this was our first real draft, and our startaegy sessions/gameplan seemed to pay off. Here's our team- Our league requires 3 QB, 4 RB, 4 WR, 2 TE, 2 defenses/special teams and 2 kickers

QB
Peyton Manning
Carson Palmer
Kyle Boller

RB
Stephen Jackson
Willis McGahee
Carnell Williams
Thomas Jones

WR
Chad Johnson
Nate Burleson (sorry John)
Michael Clayton
Darrell Jackson

TE
Dallas Clark
Randy McMichael

Defense-Special Teams
Chicago
Denver

Kickers
Matt Stover
Shayne Graham

One last football related thing. Yeah, I watched the game Monday. It was bad, really bad. One thing I'm noticing, and frankly, we should have seen it when he was hired, but Steve Marriuci is one of the primary things holding the Lions back. Among the many teams that run some version of the West Coast Offense, the Lions' is by far the most conservative. Teams like the Packers and Broncos run rush heavy versions of the WCO (or the Cincinatti System, as it should be called, since that's where Walsh developed it for Ken Anderson) but also go downfiel often. The Vikings and Cardinals both run a version using three wide recievers. Even the Rams and Chiefs' offeses carry elements of the West Coast Offense. With the three wide receivers, the Lions should have an exciting, vertical style of offense. But they continue to dink and dunk. They run 4 yard patterns when they need five yards, or they give to the fullback on fourth and one. Marriuci, for one reason or another wants to stick to perhaps the most outdated version of the offense, without fully utilizing the potential of his receivers or his quarterback. if the Lions aren't in three-wide sets at least 35% of the time this year, and they lose, it shouldn't be on Joey. It should be on Mooch for taking bullets out of his own gun.