Street & Smith Preview

I have before me the recently released Street & Smith 67th Year College 2007 Football Official Yearbook. Well, I think that's the title, at least. Featured on the cover thereof, our very own Steve Slaton and Patrick White, sans face masks, which looks rather odd. But hey, it is a "Collector Edition".

Perusing said 'zine, I'm pleased to discover that Steve Slaton was included in S&S's first team pre-season all american list and Patrick White has been included on the second team all-americans.

Finally, the top 25, abbreviated here to Top 10 for brevity sake, reads USC, West F'n Virginia, Wisconsin, LSU, Michigan, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, the Chokies and Louisville. Top 25 analysis with respect to WVU reads so:

With a quarterback like Patrick White and a running back like Steve Slaton, along with another favorable schedule (Ed: 21st toughest = favorable?), the Mountaineers look like a prime candidate to make a national-championship run.

With respect to Louisville at #10, we get:

Enter Steve Fraglerock Kragthrope from Tulsa, who inherits both a Heisman-candidate quarterback and a national-championship contender. Well,nation-championship-contending offense, anyway. The defense needs work.

Rutgers falls in at #19.

S&S has a very nice section on cheerleaders. Despite my well-trained eye (I wear a pirate's patch over the other), I was unable to spot any resemblance to desert footprint makers. (Although the hottie from ND sure is trying.)

The Big East break down goes WVU, LU, RU, USF, Cinci, Porn-stache, 'Cuse and, lastly, UConn.

Seein's how we have an intellectual property lawyer on staff, I won't plagerize too much more. Go buy it for yourself and read if you're big into completely baseless speculation.

On a side note, in my feeble attempt to find some WVU cheerleader T&A photo to add to this rather dry post, I was saddened to discover that even the all-powerful google was unable to find any decent photos. It may be my mission, a mission given by God himself, to photojournalistically (I can coin words, I'm on a mission from God), um, journal the WVU squad this year. Or at least the female members thereof. When we get press passes. Sorry God. So the girls above are from collegehumor.com and allegedly WVU girls. I think they'll do just fine for now.

Eh? A Game? Last Night? Are You Sure?

In case you haven't yet heard, Troy Smith and Ted Ginn, Jr. are BFF. Troy Smith had some kind of hard luck life and Ted Ginn, Sr. helped raise Troy Smith. One of Ohio State's linebackers was sired by Animal (or Hawk, it doesn't matter). Troy Smith won the Heisman. Troy Smith is Mr. Everything (I thought that was Calvin Johnson?). And whatever other kind of garbage human interest story the media poured upon us relentlessly concerning tOSU players. I nearly died of dehydration from all the vomitting. At least we didn't have to hear about Tom Zbikowski and his boxing.

Then, those magical fascinating Buckeyes faced some inferior, uninteresting team from some place as undesireable as a Swamp. Just a bump in the road to immortality, right? Not exactly.

Ted Ginn, Jr., Ohio State's most dangerous receiver, missed 90% of the game due to some mysterious injury, if by "mysterious injury" you mean "crippling embarrassment caused by wearing a condom as a hat". Don't get me wrong, those doo-rags or whatever aren't that bad, but his was white, translucent, rolled down, and ribbed for her pleasure.

Troy Smith was simply unable to adjust to an actual pass rush. Apparently no one told him the Big 10's rule requiring D-lineman to count to 3-mississippi before rushing the quarterback didn't apply in the National Championship Game.


Someone also forgot to tell Ohio State that when you play Tampa 2 Zone or a NFL style Cover 2 Zone, the middle linebacker has to stay somewhere in the 10-15 yard range for at least a few seconds. My understanding of that D, which is essentially what tOSU played for most of the game, is that in theory, you allow receivers to run underneath and make catches, but punish them with insane hits, either dislodging the ball or making the receiver think twice next time he comes across the middle. Unfortunately, the linebackers were so deep, Leak merely completed 6-15 yards passes at will. Even when the backers and safeties reached the receiver after the catch, I only recall one legitimate tackle. Time and time again, a Florida receiver would catch the ball a few yards short of the first down and get hit, but drag the tackler(s) a yard or two to convert the third down. It was like clockwork.


More generally, Florida was entirely too fast on defense and entirely too prepared on offense. Ohio State came out flat on both sides of the ball due, perhaps, to a 50-some day lay off. A larger difference I see, and one which concerns me with our beloved Mountaineers, is that when you play one tough opponent out of 12 during the regular season are you as prepared mentally as if you had played, say, 4-5 Top 25 teams?


Anyway, congrats to Florida and Urban Meyer, but considering Leak's odd fascination with the crystal football, I sure hope no one left him alone with it. "Hey! This didn't have a hole in it earlier!"

Note: Work in progress.