Being to Nice?

Football is a rough game. You get hit, chopped down to the ground, sometimes punched, or even thrown to the ground. Most players have to spend a lot time in ice baths to help the body recover. As a fan of this great sport, I marvel out how these athletes deal with the rigors of their beloved game.


These athletes have a competitive vibe in them that makes them perform at the highest level of college football and the NFL. They have to look their opponent in the eye and tell them "you will not beat me today." or "my will is going to beat down your will today.". They go a hundred miles an hour during the game to make tackles, block other players, run by them, make a long pass, or any number of things that occur during a game. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that they have to make adjustments to what is going on DURING the game. They take that information and try to make their play on the field that much better. There is not a lot of time for being tranquil or nice during a game.


However, that is not to say that you have to be a jerk to be able to be an effective football player. I have seen plenty of solid, All-American, All-Pro football players lace up their pads and cleats and become the best football players on the planet. Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, or Drew Brees are just some of the players whom I would call nice and were able to "flip the switch" into competitive football players in college or in the pros. This brings me to a player that is being called to nice to be an NFL quarterback. Marcus Mariotta of the Oregon Ducks.


I know NFL teams do a lot of background checking on their potential employees. They want the best athletes, the smartest athletes, the athlete that stays off the 5pm newscast. I recently heard a conversation on a nationally shown sports talk show and they were talking about how some NFL scouts were saying the Marcus Mariotta might be to nice to play the position. My ears did a double take with that comment. Really? A guy who just wins, has a better than average arm, is smart, humble, runs like deer, and has the size to be a winning NFL quarterback is going to be to nice to play? I say, oh hell no.


If he is going to be to nice, then he can go talk to Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Joe Montana, or even Steve Young and find out how to be nice and have a successful career in the NFL. This is so ridiculous to me and it should be to you.


With the current climate in the NFL, teams should be clamoring for a guy like Mariotta. He's not beating girlfriends, behind on child support, carrying guns, or standing up in the middle of the student union at the University of Oregon and shouting obscenities out loud (we know the reference here). He could be the face of your franchise for years to come. Kids gravitate towards athletes such as this, fans love players like this, and reporters love guys like this because they won't be rude or even condescending toward the media. Owners will love this guy because, like I said earlier, he won't be on the news for a negative reason.


There are plenty of over hyped, rude, news making thugs in the NFL as it is. Isn't it about time we start looking at the players that are the antithesis of this? I know it's a pie in the sky attitude, but saying a player is to nice to play at the highest level is just ridiculous. Here's hoping that Marcus Mariotta wins all sorts of Super Bowls, All-Pro honors, and has many positive stories about him on the news. 

Big Game Devils

Sun Devil fans have what they want now. They have a team that is playing at a high level, winning, and making the fans believe that they can do something special at the end of the season. Saturday night at 8pm they will have their shot at continuing this great season.




When you look at their opponent in the Utah Utes you have a team that will try and run the ball on you. They have a very good running back in Devontae Booker who has had 100 yards in over four straight games and with a good game manager in Travis Wilson they will be a lot to game plan for. The defense of the Utes will be attacking Taylor Kelly and the offense. They sacked Brett Hundley 10 times, so Utah won't be intimidated by Sun Devil Stadium and the fans. They will bring the heat on the Sun Devil offense. They have won four of their road games, including one at The Big House in Michigan and one at The Rose Bowl, granted Michigan is not that good, but still for a team like Utah and the struggles that they have had since coming to the Pac-12 a win at Michigan is a great win for them. Then going to The Rose Bowl and winning says something as well. This is a team that can't be taken lightly by the Devils.




However, this is different type of Devil team. They have had to go through some rough times, losing Taylor Kelly to a foot injury, having to mesh with back up quarterback Mike Bercovici quickly, getting embarrassed at home by UCLA, and having Taylor Kelly come back to start while many fans wanted Bercovici to keep playing. I've been impressed the Devils ability to stay the course and do what they believe is right for the program and not what the fans want.




Last week up in Seattle they showed me something as well. The conditions at Husky Stadium were brutal to say the least with the high winds swirling on the field. You would figure that the Huskies would have been the team to be accustomed to dealing with adverse weather conditions, but it was the Devils who dealt with the high winds very well. Getting big plays, controlling the line of scrimmage, and playing solid defense is the recipe for success at any level of football.




Now, the Devils need to step up their game this week. I think the Devils can certainly win this game because I think their offense is a little more dynamic than the Utes. They have great wide outs, especially with Jaelen Strong, have a great combo back/receiver in DJ Foster, and have a very mobile quarterback in Taylor Kelly. There is a question with Taylor Kelly's availability because of  concussion protocol. The trainers had to take Kelly's helmet from him on Saturday night, but I expect him to be playing against Utah.




The next thing that needs to happen is that Sun Devil fans need to get into the stadium early, be fired up, and make things difficult for the Utah Utes. The fans have to be raucous, crazy, and nuts for their Devils. This is a big game and the fans have to act like it.




It's time for the big game Devils to get the job done and continue on this hot streak and see what heights they can attain in this 2014 season.

The Week in the Pac-12

Pac-12 fans are used to this by now. The Pac-12 is crazy with parity and a little bit of chaos. Teams that were thought to have been the dominators in the conference have been shown to not to be as good as advertised, while the other teams that were under the radar have shown surprising results (Utah Utes).


This week in the conference showed us that we will have some big conference games next week.. (ASU/Utah). I, for one, is already looking forward to next weekend. I'll be at the Sun Devil and Utah game.


For more on what we learned this past weekend go to www.cfbroundtable.com....

Is Stanford back?

After last week in Tempe, people were ready to write the obituary for the Stanford Cardinal.  I was in attendance at the Stanford/Arizona State game and witnessed something I didn't expect to see. A Stanford team taken apart physically.


The Stanford team I saw in person couldn't do anything against a smaller, faster team in Arizona State. Kevin Hogan had no arm strength, his running back couldn't must anything on the ground, the receivers didn't help their quarterback at all, and the play calling seemed boring and very predictable. I knew that the Cardinal had some young skill guys and it was going to take some time to feel comfortable in the offense, but not like this. Lets fast forward to today.


Watching the Cardinal play against an Oregon State team that had also taken a heartbreaking loss at home against a very upstart Utah Ute team. It was apparent right from the start today that the coaches at Stanford had shortened the playbook a little bit and put in a bit of no huddle to change things up and not seem so predictable. They were still going to line up and hit you in the mouth with their strong offensive line and knock you back on defense.


They were running power and sweep plays in any direction they wanted. They were throwing the ball around the yard much better than last week. Even though Hogan threw two interceptions early, they kept with the game plan and tried to find that balance. They did. They were up 28-7 at the half. The game was over at that point. The Beavers didn't have anything to challenge the Cardinal today and the Cardinal was not going to let them come back in anyway.


Here's the question. Which team is Stanford? Are they the smash mouth team that I saw today? Are they the predictable team I saw in person against the Sun Devils? Those are two things I am wondering as Stanford heads into their big match up with the Oregon Ducks. David Shaw needs to keep doing what he is doing this past week. They looked like they have the past few years at Stanford. However, going into the Oregon game they can not be this up and down with their play on the field. Oregon is not the team to be so unsure with in regards to your play because they will take that uncertainty and blow you out by 40 points.


Stanford is a good team, they are not great like they have been the past few years because of youth and bit of inexperience. I hope the Stanford team that played today is the one that shows up in Eugene next week. The one thing I do know is that the Ducks and their crazy fans will be waiting for them with open feathers.

Sun Devil aspirations

I hear people talking about it a little bit right now, but if the Sun Devils win this week in Seattle against the Huskies there will have to be a pretty big bandwagon to hold everybody.


As of right now, the Sun Devils have a shot at the getting to the Pac-12 Championship and even an outside shot at getting to the college football playoff. The Devils are definitely hot right now and with the return of quarterback Taylor Kelly, who knows what will happen. It will certainly be exciting to watch the Devils....


For more on this... go to www.cfbroundtable.com

Arizona: contender or pretender?

Now that we have entered the "meat" of the Pac-12 schedule, there are many questions out there in terms of which teams are legit contenders and which ones are pretenders. One of those teams to me is the Arizona Wildcats.


At the beginning of the season many people thought that Arizona was going to be ok, not great, just average. They were going to be playing a very young quarterback, a inexperienced running back, and the defense was going to be suspect. Well, sometimes things work out a little differently than first thought. They get the wins over their weak non-conference opponents like they are supposed to and then comes the California game. A game in which I said California would win, but it would be close because it was a home game for the Cats and that the Golden Bears were an unproven commodity. The game was close. However, it took a monster effort by the Cats to come back and a Hail Mary pass at the final gun to win the game for the Wildcats. That is momentum that is hard to quantify with a young team.


Many times you don't know how a team, especially a young team responds to that kind of drama. They responded very well to the win. It gave them a surge of confidence that they can score when they want, they just have to put it together for an entire 60 minute game.  For the next couple of days they enjoyed the crazy Cal victory. Next up was Oregon.


Oregon presented a whole basket full of issues for the Cats. This game was up in Eugene, not at their friendly confines of Arizona Stadium. Oregon was wanting payback for the thrashing they took last year at the hands of the Wildcats. No payback was issued. The Wildcats made plays when they had to and their defense took control at the end when they needed to and brought the little quackers to their knees for the second year in a row. They left Autzen Stadium with a win and left Duck fans scratching their collective heads again. Here come the Trojans...


The Trojans came to the desert with a lot of talent. Young, inexperienced talent, but plenty of it. They had beaten Stanford up in Palo Alto at the beginning of the year. They looked impressive on paper and on the field. They were my darkhorse team from the Pac-12 South division. This looked like a "trap" game to me for the Wildcats and that is what it turned out to be. The offense didn't move like it did against the Ducks, they were letting the Trojans move up and down the field. USC could throw it and run it whenever they really wanted to, but the game was close. However, the playmaking ability was not their when it had to be. The Cats miss a game winning field goal at the end to lose.


I'm not sure which team is going to show up in Palouse this weekend. Washington State is a dangerous team at home. Their quarterback throws for a ton of yards which means he has great confidence in his skill players. He threw for over 700 yards against California and lost. Now, I am not saying he will be putting up those kind of numbers against the Wildcats, but with a young team like the Wildcats have it raises questions about the Cat defense being able to defend the pass of the Cougars.


I am not totally sold on the Wildcats being that team that challenges for the South division title just yet. They are a little green behind the ears for me. The youth and inexperience have got them this far, but in the last six games of the season I could easily see them going 2-4, maybe 3-3 at best. Now, that still gets them at best to an 8 win season, but after starting out so blistering hot, the cooling of the Wildcats may just be around the corner. I'll have to put them in the pretender category for now. The South division for the next few years will be a dog fight and with so much talent in the south division who knows who will come out of it. I would like to see the resurgence of "Desert Swarm" in Tucson because it adds a lot to the Pac-12 and college football in general. Once these players at Arizona get a little more experience, watch out Pac-12 Conference.

Pac-12 Expansion

Here is something that does not get talked much about anymore. Expansion. Like anything else in college sports these days, expansion is a money grab for the conferences that are wanting to expand. However, the expansion that a conference may do doesn't always work out for the conference.


Case in point, the Pac-12. They brought in Colorado and Utah and it really hasn't worked out the way they wanted it too.


To ready more about the Pac-12 expansion... go to www.cfbroundtable.com