Bowl Mania Update

We are through 4 games this bowl season and there's been lots of excitement. Ohio had a thrilling comeback to beat Utah State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise. Trailing the whole game, Ohio scored with under a minute left. Louisiana Lafayette nearly let go a big lead late to come back and beat San Diego State with a 52 yard field goal as time expires. This is why I love bowl season, every team plays like it's their last, playing their hearts out until the final whistle. It's awesome to see the little schools get some attention they rightfully deserve. Plus, I'm 3-1 on picks on ESPN's Bowl Mania. With confidence points involved, I currently have 47 points, with Temple being my big winner, giving me 31 points. My loss wasn't bad at all, I had San Diego State as my 2 confidence pick. There are still plenty of points yet to give, and some noteworthy games will either make or break me. I have West Virginia over Clemson with a confidence pick of 34 and Kansas State over Arkansas with a point value of 28. It's the most wonderful time of the year, let us rejoice and be glad!

Bowl Mania

It's the most wonderful time of the year. No, I'm not talking about Christmas, although it is my favorite holiday. Tis the season of the college football bowl games, the last chance for teams to salvage a season or make it magical. The hype of having 35 bowl games in 23 days is more than hype, it's a great time to sit back, stay inside next to the fire, and watch some good old fasion football. It's like Thanksgiving and March Maddness combined! Like March Maddness, you can pick the winners and even go further and give how confident you are on the outcome. It also puts teams against one another that usually wouldn't play (execpt for the BCS Championship this year). You don't see Penn State and Houston play very often, neither do you see Wyoming play Temple. It brings new matchups that are hard to predict and always seem to be entertaining.  I like the bowl system rather than a playoff system because it gives more teams a chance to be noticed on national television. It does wonders for recruiting, allowing the top players to see their top college choices play within a couple days and possible influence their decision. It's also good for a lot of teams like Iowa, who are a bowl game's dream. They play hard, clean football, their fans travel well, and they are never involved in blowouts. Iowa is one of the best teams in the country in preparing for bowl games and it allows them to salvage a season. I like that like March Maddness, upsets happen more regularly, making for exciting games. Who wouldn't like to see a team from the Mountain West or WAAC beat a team from the SEC or PAC-12? It makes for good television and something to do during Christmas break. The playoff system might be the best for college football, but the bowl games truly are the best time of the year.

The NBA: Who Cares?

The NBA lockout is over now and the worst professional sport is on again. Sorry to all the NBA fans out there, but the NBA is the least entertaining sport I've ever watched. I can't sit down and watch a game because all it is are superstars taking shot after shot and no one plays defense. Plus, there's not a lot of run and gun, making the tempo slow and puts me to sleep. I honestly may watch one game of the Finals, usually the clinching game, and that's it. Lebron, Kobe, and all the other stars are going to own the show every night, so there really aren't any surprises. In baseball you at least have a new pitching matchup every night and the chance for a perfect game or no hitter. The NBA, like a lot of other professional sports, are full of babies. They're complaining about not getting more money even though they already make several million dollars a year. If I could make bank like that, I definitely wouldn't complain. How could you not like making that kind of money?! It's not just the players that contribute to the sorry reason for a professional sport. David Stern has made some questionable decisions that make the league even worse. A couple years ago he banned tights, something Lebron tried to get popular. I honestly couldn't care less if my player wore tights or anything else during the game. Why make such a big deal about the littlest things? Then he blocked the Chris Paul trade to Los Angeles. Paul clearly said he wanted out of New Orleans so why would you deny his trade? He didn't deny the Big 3 forming in Boston and Miami, so why block the Paul trade? Lamar Odom wanted out of LA, so it's not like the the Lakers would be building some kind of unstoppable team. The NBA through the years has continued to make itself look bad and provide lackluster entertainment. I was really hoping the NBA would have been canceled this year, it's a boring waste of time.

Tebow Time

Tim Tebow has been the talk of the NFL lately, bringing the Denver Broncos back into contention for the playoffs after a 1-4 start. Since then, Tebow is 7-1 as a starter and has created a lot of stir of whether or not he should be the franchise quarterback. I've always thought he would make it into the NFL and I think this is a no-brainer. Tim Tebow is a winner. Simple as that. He won in high school, college (twice) and now the NFL. To me personal stats don't matter, it's all about the championships. Take Kobe and Lebron for instance. Sure Lebron is a great player, but Kobe has 6 NBA championships, just as many as the great Michael Jordan. To me, Kobe is leaps and bounds ahead of Lebron because of that stat. Tim Tebow lead his high school team to their first state championship, lead Florida to two national championships, and now is taking the Broncos to a new level. He deserves a lot more credit than people give him. Yes, the Broncos have a great defense, but Tebow has stepped up in the clutch when it was up to the offense. His 20 yard touchdown run against the Jets was unbelievable, a play that only legends could make. His stats aren't pretty, but all he does is win. I would rather have quarterback that is last in the league in every statistical category and wins championships than an MVP quarterback that can't win in the playoffs. Tim Tebow is a stud and I think it would be very disrespectful of John Elway to go and get a new quarterback. Not only is he a winner but he is a great humanitarian as well and is a leader for the community of Denver.

Chiefs Fire Coach

The Kansas City Chiefs have fired their head coach, Todd Haley. The Chiefs have been a huge disappointment this year after winning the AFC West last year. There have been a lot of injuries that have hurt their chances, and they haven't really come together as a team. I think that Ricky Stanzi should get a shot at being the quarterback after Matt Cassel got hurt and Tyler Palko not being very consistent. Stanzi was a very patient quarterback his senior year and made good decisions, only throwing 6 INT, two of which came in the bowl game. He has all the intangables to be a starting quarterback, he just needs his chance. Since the Chiefs' coaching job is open again, rumors are bound to start about Kirk Ferentz bolting for the NFL. Sorry people, but it's not gonna happen. I know that Scott Pioli and Ferentz were good friends together when they worked for the Browns, but Kirk will not leave now. If he would have wanted to leave he would have left a long time ago, perhaps after the magical three year ride for the Hawks between 2002-04. He makes good money now (he's the highest paid person in the state) and he really likes Iowa City. Plus, he has a son that will be a senior next year at Iowa City High, and Ferentz has said he wouldn't like to move until his kids are through high school. He also has a son on the Iowa football team, James, who will be a senior next year. Ferentz is in his 13th year at Iowa, so some could argue that it's time for a change, but Kirk is starting to get later in his career. Not everyone can be a Joe Paterno and coach forever, and Ferentz definitly knows when he should retire. I'd say he might stay until 65 or 70 and choose to retire rather than join the NFL. He will have accomplished so much what else would there be for him to do? Now, if this came up five or six years ago, I could see him going to the NFL and for good reason. Now it's too late and he will never coach again in the NFL.

Norm Parker Retiring

Long time football coach Norm Parker is retiring after the Insight Bowl. He has been the Defensive Cordinator for 13 years at Iowa but has been coaching since the 1960's. He has had complications from diabetes for a while and last year had to get his foot amputated. This leaves the question of who will replace him? I think a good fit would be Mike Stoops, who got fired from Arizona this year. He played football at Iowa along with his brother Bob Stoops, who is the head coach at Oklahoma. I liked Mike Stoops' fire when he coached at Arizona. His crazy sideline antics that left him with his face reder than his hair most of the time may be a cause of concern for some people, but I think that the Iowa defense needs that fire and enthusiasm, something they've been lacking since Parker has been on restricted duties as defensive cordinator. He knows the west really well having coached in the PAC-10, and that could open up some new recruiting pipelines. I also wouldn't mind Dan McCarney, even though he was the head coach at Iowa State. He has a good defensive mind and has been around the program before as an assistent. My secret wish is somehow landing Paul Rhodes. I know he's the head coach at Iowa State and is starting something good, but he would make an awesome defensive cordinator. He has a strong passion for the game, really connects with the players, and has a great defensive mind. Iowa State finished the year giving up about 16 points per game. He has previous experience as a defensive cordinator at Auburn and Texas and I would love to see what he could bring to Iowa.

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