Football, Glorious Football
I’m an Ohio State fan and alumni. I bleed scarlet and gray and really could care less about every other college team on the planet. But I watched every single play of the USC/VTech game last night like it was the National Title game. I thought USC did what they had to do to win–and in football the best team always wins, but hoo boy that PI call sure was a momentum changer, wasn’t it?
MAN…it’s good to have college football back. The Bucks play UC on Saturday and I will be there, and for every other OSU home game this year, so if weekly Buckeye ramblings really annoy you, well, I suggest not reading the blog on Saturday or Sunday this fall. I’m so pumped and excited that I can hardly stand it. USUALLY I’m able to relieve some if this anxiety by playing NCAA 200x, but, well, this year is the exception. I expect a 9-3 season for OSU this year, so we’ll see how it pans out. I’d really like to switch schedules with West Virginia, though.
Is that allowed?
I live an die with OSU on Saturday, and then I torture myself on Sunday with the Browns. No one, and I mean no one thinks Cleveland will win more than 6 games in 2004, but I’m surprisingly optimistic about our chances for a winning season. If you have watched or at least paid attention to the Browns preseason games, you’ll note that they can do one thing that they have not been able to do since returning to the league in 1999:
The Browns can run the football.
I haven’t seen this in Cleveland since the glory days of Mack and Byner. Lee Suggs and William Green have combined to average 8.1 yards per carry in the preseason. Yes, 8.1 per carry. Last night Green raced 42 yards down the sideline on the 1st string KC defense and on the next play Suggs went 28 yards for a TD. Lee Suggs isn’t a fluke, folks. He went in the 4th round because of injury concerns but I’d hope everyone remembers just how good he was at VTech. Suggs can flat out play and Willie Green is finally looking like the back we drafted in the first round. So if you can run the ball, you have a chance to win. If Garcia stays toegther, and we keep running like this, combined with Winslow opening up the middle of the field…who knows? If the Browns defense picks it up..the AFC North isn’t a very tough division..so you just never know.
That said, Sunday night and maybe into Monday will be Browns ramblings. Just a warning. Of course with all of the sports games being released this fall, there will be plenty of things to talk about; I don’t want to give you guys the impression this is turning into a Buckeye/Browns/Dan’s Politics blog. 
But the blog will be theraputic to me during the football season, especially when and if we lose.
August 29th, 2004 at 1:36 pm
I wish USC had to play that kind of competition all season long.
-Sig
August 29th, 2004 at 4:11 pm
I don’t know if this info has reached you here yet, but in NCAA, have you tried turning off Home Field Advantage…turning it off makes if play almost like 2004, where everyone caught everything.
Try it, and see it what you think.
August 29th, 2004 at 4:36 pm
Yep. I turned off HFA and the screen shake after a week of playing it and I didnt see any difference at all. But the dropped passes are only the tip of the iceberg of problems in NCAA 2005.
August 29th, 2004 at 7:31 pm
I’m with you on the OSU thing. But I’m a Bengals fan, so I suppose I will just refrain from laughing at your Brown’s ramblings too hard this season. You guys need to fire that idiot head coach you’ve got.
August 30th, 2004 at 12:00 pm
I can’t believe you brought up the PI call… as if it wasn’t overplayed enough by the announcers. I like how they replayed it 5 times, and then brought it back at the end of the game to show it again. The PI call killed a drive, it didn’t cause the VT defense to give up two bombs for TD’s.
scasmflop
August 31st, 2004 at 1:03 pm
Bill, I had the same impressions of NCAA that you had early on. I even traded in the game thinking that I would never play it again. However, I got the itch again and repurchased it a few weeks later. I am now loving it. I am using Jistic’s(from OS) AA sliders and the game is playing just as good as last year. I especially love the running game this year.
Are you planning on trying the game again? Maybe you didn’t put enough time into it.