The numbers are in, and the Hawaii/BSU game last Friday night was the highest viewed of all the ESPN or ESPN2 Friday night games this season. It was also ESPN2's highest share for all of 2007. Over 2 1/2 million households watched the game.
Those numbers are great for the WAC in general, and should give Karl Benson plenty of ammo when the next negotiations with ESPN come up in 2010.
The Academically Adjusted Football Rankings
Collegio (the betting software/service) recently reported an academics-adjusted Top 25.
According to Collegio:
The purpose of Sophos Software's Academically Adjusted Football Ranking is to stimulate thought and discussion about how well institutions balance winning on and off the football field. In short, how accurate is the term Student-Athlete at any given college or university? Toward such a measurement of the successful blending of the "curricular" and the "extracurricular," Sophos Software has developed a scaled metric known as the Student-Athlete Blend. This metric ranks football programs based upon their ability to succeed in athletics without sacrificing academics.
Once again, BSU is listed close to the top. According to this ranking system, here's how a few teams of interest this year fared (our opponents in bold):
# Team Football (Rating) Academics (HWD) Student-Athlete Blend
1 Stanford 14.7 103.9 74.2
2 Boise State 59.9 81.1 74.0
3 Vanderbilt 28.1 93.6 71.8
4 Boston College 46.5 82.8 70.7
5 Penn State 52.2 75.4 67.6
6 Cincinnati 55.7 73.4 67.5
7 Wake Forest 30.1 85.0 66.7
8 Nebraska 26.0 86.5 66.3
9 USF 51.2 73.0 65.7
10 Ball State 29.5 83.1 65.2
11 Ohio State 79.1 58.0 65.1
12 Texas Tech 44.2 75.4 65.0
13 Oklahoma State 34.0 79.2 64.1
14 San Diego State 20.5 85.5 63.8
15 Northwestern 26.3 82.1 63.5
16 Arizona State 54.8 67.1 63.0
17 Kansas 75.6 56.6 62.9
18 Duke 7.8 90.3 62.8
19 Clemson 58.9 64.3 62.5
20 Oregon 58.7 64.0 62.2
23 West Virginia 67.3 59.1 61.8
24 Southern Miss 27.3 78.0 61.1
30 Oregon State 34.9 69.3 57.9
31 TCU 31.5 70.7 57.7
35 USC 50.9 59.8 56.8
45 Hawaii 51.8 56.6 55.0
46 Notre Dame 7.0 79.0 55.0
53 Utah 39.8 60.6 53.7
62 Louisiana Tech 19.1 69.1 52.4
66 Washington 20.2 67.5 51.8
79 New Mexico State 19.0 63.8 48.9
81 Fresno State 30.3 57.5 48.4
96 Idaho 8.4 60.3 43.0
97 Arkansas State 20.6 53.5 42.5
98 Wyoming 25.3 51.1 42.5
101 UNLV 14.4 55.5 41.8
102 San Jose State 17.0 53.9 41.6
105 BYU 47.4 36.6 40.2
112 Nevada 26.9 38.3 34.5
114 Utah State 0.0 49.0 32.7
Not bad. Not bad at all
Thursday, November 29, 2007
TV Ratings Soar
Posted by Walt at 12:01 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Rose Bowl Bound?
Just kidding. But, if academics mattered, it would be a possibility.
According to ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook, if academics mattered, Boise State would be pitted against Auburn in this year's Rose Bowl, and the Hawaii Warriors would be left out completely (click this link to read the complete article).
Using a complex formula that combines football prowess combined with a number of academic ratings compiled by Lindsey Luebchow, a policy analyst of the New America Foundation, here are the pairings:
Allstate BCS Championship Game:
Boston College (127.80) vs. Cincinnati (97.25)
Rose Bowl Presented by Citi:
Auburn (73.15) vs. Boise State (68.90)
FedEx Orange Bowl:
Virginia (60.45) vs. Virginia Tech (60.15)
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl:
Clemson (59.35) vs. USC (51.65)
Allstate Sugar Bowl:
West Virginia (47.85) vs. Arizona State (46.35)
Exiled to the bottom of the A/BCS and the pre-New-Year's bowls named after lawn equipment and mufflers:
21. LSU (29.95)
22. Ohio State (28.55)
23. Oregon (8.35)
24. Texas (7.85)
25. Hawaii (-2.35)
Posted by Walt at 7:39 PM 0 comments
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Congratulations Hawaii Warriors
Hawaii 39, BSU 27. As predicted by quite a few, first team to 40 wins it.
All hail the new king (at least until next fall :). It had to happen sometime. Boise State is no longer the reigning 5 year WAC champs. I thought we'd lose it in '05 - we needed a bit of help to retain it that year. In '07, it was ripped from us by a very talented - definitely NOT overrated - Hawaii team.
No excuses. I don't believe BSU played it's best game against Hawaii, true, but Hawaii has to be credited with playing great. Their offense was unstoppable, and their defense stopped the Broncos when it needed to. Our special team "victories" were not enough to make up the difference.
Golly gee whiz, smash-mouth football in the WAC. Who would thunk it. Hardest hitting game I've seen in quite awhile.
Attention Warriors - finish the job! A loss next week against the Washington Huskies would make everything you've accomplished this year for naught. You need to beat the Huskies, get the automatic BCS berth, and beat whomever you get matched up against. The WAC will be well represented in the bowls this year overall.
And I promise I won't call you the Rainbows anymore. You've earned that at least.
Posted by Walt at 10:10 PM 1 comments
Labels: Game notes, Hawaii, WAC championship
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Trick Plays or Just Good Football?
Once again, I was wrong. During the first quarter of the Bronco/Vandal rivalry game, which the Broncos won with an impressive 58-14 all-around effort, I leaned over to my wife and said, "I think their staying very vanilla today so Hawaii won't have anything to look at from this film". Ha. Stupid me.
A couple minutes later punter Kyle Brotzman, instead of actually punting the ball, shovel-passed the ball to (I think) Tanyon Bissel for an 18 yard game. After that we saw the direct-snaps to the running backs and receivers with the quarterback as a wide-out, and all of those other nightmare formations for the opposing defensive coordinators. There was even some razzle-dazzle during a kickoff return.
Which begs the question - if so-called trick plays are all standard features of your offensive package, can they truly be called trick plays? If you definition of football is to line up head-to-head and see who can beat each other up the most, then I guess they are trick plays. But if the idea is to gain an advantage over the opponent in any fashion possible, then Boise State's "trick plays" are just good football.
Posted by Walt at 5:23 PM 1 comments
Monday, November 12, 2007
Inverted Records
So, what do the Idaho Vandals bring to the table this week? Well, besides a record the exact opposite of BSU (the Vandies are 1-9), how about a little locker room fodder? That's exactly what Idaho coach Robb Akey did with his comments last week about the importance of the "Donkeys vs. Vandals" rivalry.
So, let me get this straight - you are on the road, with your extremely over-matched team, traveling to your traditional rival's home turf, where you know they simply don't lose, on senior day. Whew. He's got guts, that's for sure.
Rumor mill has it that the Vandals used their bye week to prepare a new offensive scheme for their trip to the Blue - the wishbone. I'd really like to see that. Of course, rumor mills are rumor mills, and I doubt very much that the Vandals will try it. More power to them if they do - at least it will show a smattering of creative thinking on the part of the coaching staff.
Broncos own Aggies
An interesting fact surfaced yesterday that I had not really considered. Combining the scores against New Mexico state (58-0) and Utah State (52-0), gives us a total of 110-0 against any team this year called an "Aggie". Funny, eh?
Posted by Walt at 3:41 PM 2 comments
Labels: banter
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Game Notes
Uh, 52-0 on the road. 'Nuff said.
I know everyone wanted to vote Taylor Tharp MVP for the game after his outstanding 26 of 29 passing effort, but I have a different idea. I have to award my game ball to Orlando Scandrick. He blocked one Utah State field goal attempt, and came inches from blocking a second one. I think the kicker shanked his second attempt because he saw Scandrick coming again, and he hurried it up. It begs the question - how many freakin' kicks is he going to end up blocking by the time his career is over?
Ian Johnson looked like he was back up to speed. Which is good, because freshman Jeremy Avery didn't even make the trip because of a bum ankle. The special teams were superb, and the defense played very well. I saw a number of new wrinkles on offense - Coach Pete and Coach Harsin continue to fine-tune as the season continues. I'm not sure - at this point - if anyone outside of the top 10 could slow down the BSU offense.
Posted by Walt at 4:14 PM 0 comments
Labels: Game notes
Tick, tock, tick, tock......
OK, so all bets are off. Last week I was not very optimistic regarding the possibility of Boise State getting into another BCS bowl game. Now, it seems far more possible. Yesterday's losses in the top 20, coupled with the Broncos 52-0 beat-down of lowly Utah State (first road shut-out for BSU in 31 years), the BCS landscape has once again shifted.
We are at #15 in both the coaches and Harris polls - not sure why. I'm truly surprised at the bump we got for beating a team with no wins. I guess it must be the total domination in all facets of the game? Or the respect we gained last year? Even Craig James has us in his top 20. And Hawaii is conspicuously missing from his vote.
Speaking of Hawaii, during the first half of their game with Fresno, I have to admit I was a bit concerned. The Warriors were scoring at will, and Fresno was unable to get any pressure on Colt Brennan. In the second half the story changed, though. Fresno was able to really slow down the Warriors. If Fresno's offense was not so banged up, and if they had not stalled on a couple of drives because of bone-head decisions, they may have very well won that game.
I see some very obvious chinks in Hawaii's armor. Can't wait.
Posted by Walt at 12:18 PM 0 comments
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Taylor Tharp
I think it was while I was waiting for the Fresno vs. BSU game to start on ESPN. The announcers were bantering on about what this game meant in the grand scheme of things, and one of them mentioned BSU quarterback Taylor Tharp. That's when it hit me -- I really hadn't thought that much about Taylor since the Southern Miss game. For the first time in - oh - three years, I was not fretting about whether the quarterback would have a poor game or a great game. I was actually thinking more about BSU's injury status... and freshman running backs... and the defense... and special teams... than I was about the QB making bonehead decisions and stupid errors.
I'm not knocking Zabransky. He was a heck of an athlete, and he did lead the offense to wins during some very close games. But it's almost a blessing to have a QB who disappears under the radar like that. Then, the coaches and fans can all concentrate on what's happening in the other skill positions. And, from a fan's viewpoint, it really is more fun.
Taylor has been the model of consistency, and has been playing pretty much mistake-free. It would be nice if he was a better runner, but that's just not his forte. In fact, he may actually be better because of it. He makes up for a lack of mobility by making great decisions of the field. I like to think of him as a director or conductor rather than a "field general". He understands his role in the offense perfectly.
On the lighter side, Taylor had some pretty good smack going on with Coach Petersen the week prior to the San Jose state game. Taylor started it with a comment about how good the Broncos offensive line was - he said even Coach Pete could run for 10 yards behind it. When asked about it, Coach Pete said he could do it, but Taylor hadn't yet (Tharp's longest scramble prior to that was for 9 yards). The two of them traded barbs over the course of the week. Then, on the first play from scrimmage against the Spartans, Taylor saw the opening and scrambled for 11 yards and a first down - thereby "winning" the smack-off.
Posted by Walt at 11:35 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
I'm baaaack!
Well, after a lengthy hiatus, I am reposting to this blog. (Actually, I had completely forgotten this blog - I decided to give Blogger another try, and the New "Beta" Blogger seemed so nice, I'm back with it).
Note - If you read anything in this journal prior to this post date you are going back a year or two. Those posts are neither current nor relevant.
Here's a few quick hits to get started again.
Coach Pete is on the watch-list for the Bear Bryant award for coaching excellence again this year (niiiice!). And why not? His team has lost a total of one game in two years - and this is only his second year.
Could this game (v. Utah State) be a trap game? Personally, I was worried more about San Jose last week. They did give Hawaii all it could handle (albeit at home), and they are definitely one of the harder hitting teams in the WAC. Utah State, on the other hand, has little to brag about regarding their defense, but their offense has shown signs at times of being fairly potent - streaky, but potent. BSU gives up 24 points to the Aggies. I believe they will cover.
Who would have believed you could hear a pin drop smack dab in the middle of 30,000 noisy football fans. But, that's exactly what happened during the San Jose State game. Big number 99 for the San Jose Spartans was lying on the turf after a play was finished. He wasn't moving. As the minutes passed, and trainers from both teams huddled over him, it got quieter and quieter. I have never heard a more silent stadium in my life.
Fortunately, for everyone, Justin was declared OK after cat scans and MRIs at the hospital. The diagnosis was a spinal cord concussion, and there is a 50-50 chance he can play again this season. Kudos to the BSU fans whoe treated him with kindness both during the ordeal on the field and later after he was released from the hospital.
Well, that's it for right now. I promise to be more consistent.
(Edited - P.S. - I forgot to mention - CFN and Fox still project BSU in the Rose Bowl)
Posted by Walt at 4:13 PM 2 comments
Labels: quick hits