by Jack Kerwin | ydkjack1@gmail.com Not a fan. It’s one thing to scare the bejeebers out of communities up and down the East Coast, causing mass evacuation in the Carolinas and their neighboring states, but to play havoc with my college football schedule? That’s an outrage. Just get lost, Hurricane Florence. Kidding aside, the Category 4 storm that is bound for landfall sometime late Thursday/early Friday is nothing to snicker about, and you can’t really blame officials at university’s likely in its path for opting to be safe now rather than sorry later when it comes to their student-athletes, coaches, fans and anyone else potentially associated with sporting events slated this week. So, kudos on the calls that canceled the West Virginia-N.C. State, East Carolina-Virginia Tech and Central Florida-North Carolina games that had been scheduled for Saturday. Which means we won’t be witnessing two of the better quarterbacks in the country playing this weekend — WVU’s Will Grier and UCF’s McKenzie Milton — or an upset or two, as all three games appeared ripe for a surprise. For those hoping to see some monsoon action, check out Boston College at Wake Forest on Thursday evening. Though having moved up the start time two hours to 5:30 p.m., those involved are still rolling the dice. For now. KEEP AN EYE ON ... Perusing the schedules before the season, took note of this week’s nonconference tilt between my one alma mater, Illinois, and South Florida. USF, routinely one of the better non-Power 5 schools in the county, if only on talent, seemed to be a safe bet — you know, if that’s your thing — to emerge victorious. Comfortably even. But, two games in now, you have to wonder. Both the Illini and Bulls are 2-0. But here is the caution flag with giving the “automatic W” to USF before kickoff even happens Saturday at Soldier Field in Chicago: the ground game. As in the Illini’s rush offense vs. the Bulls’ rush defense. Yeah, USF just faced Georgia Tech, the best running team outside of Navy every year, so the numbers may be skewed. But it also got rolled in that regard by Elon the week before. As of now, USF ranks 113th in the country in allowing 305.5 rushing yards per game. Illinois, which spreads it around pretty good among several backs (sophomore Mike Epstein averages 8.6 per carry), ranks 27th in the country in posting 258.5 yards per game — a remarkable number considering it never racked up more than 230 in a single game last season. This could get interesting. REALITY CHECK Like the guy, even from his quarterbacking days way back when at Louisville. But, gotta say, the red flags already were up last season for me when all the experts started going cuckoo for Jeff Brohm as he led Purdue to its first bowl game in five years and its first winning record in seven during his first season at the Boilermakers’ helm. All good stuff, but it masked what the team’s real problem was, and had been: lack of talent. Brohm’s predecessor, Darrell Hazell, may be a good guy and did a nice job at Kent State, but he was out of his element in West Lafayette, posting a 9-39 record in four forgettable seasons and left a pretty barren cupboard for Brohm. So, this back-to-Earth reality check being witnessed in a 0-2 start for the Boilers in 2018 is not exactly the biggest surprise. Until the second-year coach rights the ship for the long, let’s chill on the human-interest pieces on his car and the silly boasts about benching players for picking up penalties. CHIP OFF THE OL' BLOCK? Interesting to note that Penn State got a commitment from the son of former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker and current assistant coach Joey Porter on Tuesday. The younger Porter, also named Joey, is smaller than his father was during his playing days (187 pounds to 250), mans a different position (safety) and, if the listed 4.69 40-yard dash number is correct, slower than “pops,” too. What really pops out, though, is that Junior is the top-rated prospect in Pennsylvania (he’s a senior at North Allegheny High in Wexford), but that only gets him four-star status and the No. 300 spot in the country. In-state “rivals” Pitt and Temple both offered scholarships as well, as did dad’s alma mater, Colorado State. | |
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by Jack Kerwin | ydkjack1@gmail.com Been too long. Oh, college football, how you have been missed. Fortunately, when you return, you never seem to disappoint, either – save, of course, a stomach-turning effort usually given by one of my alma maters. So, without further ado, we take a look at Week 1 — the real Week 1, not the half-baked, less than a handful of games, preseason-ish one offered in the final stages of families cramming in vacations before the start of school. HEISMAN HYPE It’s pretty much become a QB-only award, so looking at the first full weekend of action, this is what we know: West Virginia’s Will Grier (career-high 429 yards passing 5 TDs in 40-14 win against Tennessee) and Central Florida’s McKenzie Milton (346, 5 in 56-17 win at Connecticut) are for real, Arizona’s Khalil Tate probably is not … and the jury is still out on Penn State’s Trace McSorley and Oregon’s Justin Herbert. A couple newcomers to keep an eye on are Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, whom the media will push relentlessly, much in the Saquon Barkley mold of last fall, and Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins, who actually shined brighter than Double-T on Saturday. For me, it was Grier and everyone else coming into the season … and he only cemented that belief against the Volunteers. HARD 2 BELIEVE It’s not often you see a team lose when it has a quarterback toss two TDs (with no INTs), a running back bust loose for 168 and two TDs (on just 11 carries) and a receiver rack up 104 yards and two TDs. But by 46 points? C’mon, Oregon State. Ohio State is potent, for sure. Especially at home. The Buckeyes, though, also trotted out a new starter behind center, a new leader on the sidelines and have an entire nation of “should’ve” moralists casting a scornful eye in their direction. Johnathan Smith’s first year directing the Beavers may be his only one doing so if such efforts prove the norm in 2018, regardless of his high standing among the administration and alums with his being a former star signal-caller for Oregon State. UMM, YEAH, ABOUT THAT Much was made of fast-rising Florida Atlantic’s visit to Oklahoma prior to Saturday’s game, mostly in the context of “hmmm, wouldn’t be surprised if the Lane Kiffin’s crew went up there and upset the Sooners.” Just in case some weren’t convinced by halftime at what a farce those thoughts were, OU posted the first two scores of the third quarter to go up 56-0. Baker who? ENJOY IT NOW Long-struggling Illinois barely got by potential Mid-American cellar-dweller Kent State, but the Illini at least got to witness the emergence of two standouts in a 31-24 victory. Fifth-year transfer QB AJ Bush was a revelation, throwing for 190 yards and rushing for 139 more and showing a subdued confidence that belied this being his first start. Meanwhile, sophomore LB Jake Hansen played like the second coming of Dick Butkus, registering 15 tackles, including a program-record six for losses. That last stat posted would have led the team’s defense for the entire 2017 season. ENOUGH ALREADY We got it. Nick Saban heads the top program in the country and Brian Kelly leads the most recognizable one around the globe. They have some serious cachet, and with that, a lot of rope, too. Still, cut out the egomaniacal crap, guys. Ahead by an insurmountable five scores against Louisville and Saban goes off Saturday night on one of his Alabama players — way past the point of making a point — for committing a completely inconsequential penalty. Later, Kelly provides his typical condescending commentary after Notre Dame posts a “meh” 24-17 win over equally overrated Michigan. All, of course, for the national-TV audiences to soak in — despite the claims of not caring by both. Yo, just give it a rest.
by Jack Kerwin | ydkjack1@gmail.com
Don’t mind the high praise for the kid. Don’t mind declarations of impending NFL greatness for him. Or the favorable comparisons to others, past and present. Saquon Barkley is a special talent, an elite athlete and, the trigger that pushes all buttons, a tireless workout warrior hellbent on proving doubts, including his own, wrong. He deserves the attention, the accolades and the faith from his followers. It’s just you won’t catch me genuflecting at the “best player in the 2018 draft and surefire Hall of Famer” altar anytime soon. Sorry, just have seen the can’t-miss, chiseled out of granite/faster than a speeding bullet, well, miss before. Quite a lot, actually. Plus, Barkley – or at least expectation of what he will be – comes with a legit red flag for me, and we’re talking performance between the lines wise, not off-the-field silliness stuff. What, pray tell, could that possibly be? Pretty simple. He’s been rubber-stamped as the ultimate, every-down back that any professional team would covet … without showing he is capable of being that. Oh, he can run, run with power, with speed, with shiftiness. He can catch. He can block. He has shown all that. In spurts, though. Just spurts. This is not a wear-down-the-defense kinda guy here, people. Yeah, he looked fantastic in shorts and tank top, strutting that 6-foot, 233-pound frame around the combine. Hell, he looked great in a Penn State uniform, too. But he never was a start-to-finish player for the Nittany Lions. He’s a timebomb with no timer – bound to go off for a play, maybe two, in a game and that’s it. There is no consistent production history within the context of most games he has played since departing Whitehall High in the Lehigh Valley. Now, frankly, that may be enough to satisfy, if not thrill, the New York Giants, their fan base and Barkley worshippers the globe over. Yo, no doubt home-run hitters are great to have and Barkley certainly is one. It’s just when it comes to projecting a legit future for him, most would be wise to think of him in the Albert Pujols as an Angel mold rather than in the Pujols as a Cardinal vein. In 38 games in college, including 36 as a starter, Barkley posted 15 games of 100 yards rushing or better. Umm, that’s not a lot for a feature back at that level, regardless of the type of offense. But it goes beyond that. It even goes beyond him being the second-best player in Penn State’s backfield the last two seasons. In his final game for the Lions, Barkley went for 137 yards on 18 carries against Washington. Great game, right? Not really. The kid ripped off one great run, a 92-yard touchdown jaunt, and went 17-for-45 the rest of the way. Against Michigan this past fall, in the “game that sealed the Heisman” that he never won, Barkley busted loose for a 69-yard score on his first carry, then could only muster 39 more yards on his next 14. Against Ohio State, a 36-yard TD run. The rest: 20 carries for 8 yards. Against Michigan State, a 36-yard run. The rest: 13 carries, 27 yards. Against Northwestern, a 53-yard TD run. The rest: 15 for 22. Against Indiana, he went 20-for-56. Against Rutgers, 14-for-35. Yeah, he’s dangerous. He will rip off a long one, either by taking a handoff, hauling in a pass, or, if the Giants dare to allow, by returning a kick. But he’s not a workhorse. Not in terms of being consistently productive at least. He will disappear. For long periods of time. In fact, if he doesn’t rip off a long one in a game, his productivity in that game, as history shows, will be nil or not far removed from it. That is the nature of his game. So praise him all you want. It’s just you might want to be aware of what, or who, you’re actually praising. by Jack Kerwin | ydkjack1@gmail.com Yeah, OK it’s the NIT, so it doesn’t matter. Unless you happen to support the Temple University men’s basketball program, or its former whipping post on the hardwood, Penn State. It has come to this for the Owls’ family: A loss, a blowout loss at that, is a win – a WIN – for the program. It’s beyond the kiss and make up stage with head coach Fran Dunphy. This painfully slow drifting into the abyss is forever locked under his reign. There is no turning back. There is no righting the ship. It is what it is now … a disaster, with no hope for change – without change at the top. A complete overhaul is needed. That begins with ousting Dunphy. A task that seems so monumentally impossible to the current administration as it applies silly values to such arbitrary things as “he runs a clean program,” “he represents the school so well,” “he’s a good man,” “he’s a likable guy,” and, apparently, the most critical of all, “he’s a Philly guy” that any sane-thinking person not affiliated with the program or the school or Philly would chuckle. Hell, probably more all-out guffaw. It is preposterous that Dunphy, on the cusp of his third 16-loss or worse season in the last five, remains at the helm now. No doubt he’s dealing with different parameters than John Chaney did in taking Temple’s long-ago, on-the-cusp-national-psyche from theory to reality during a Hall of Famer tenure, but that is no excuse for taking a program that reached five Elite Eights under Chaney and reducing it to irrelevancy. Such irrelevancy that it finds itself as a double-digit underdog to a football school. Oh, the humanity. Thing is, it is embarrassing, and to all the faux bleed-Cherry nitwits who cling to these nonsensical and out-of-date/out-of-touch beliefs about hating Penn State, and professing that “no REAL Temple fan would ever root for Penn State in any way, never mind against Temple,” yo, get a freakin’ clue. The only way your beloved Owls are ever gonna get headed back in the right direction is for Dunphy’s regime to completely implode, to the point excuses do not even exist, even in the most sublime, pathetically rationalized of ways. Temple wins tonight, in State College, that only further prolongs the agony, people. It’s not going to be a turning point. It’s just going to keep Dunphy in charge, and continue the step-by-step march to total dumpster fire. He is a good guy. He’s even a good coach. Just not at Temple. He was never a fit, and never will be. No shame in that. Why people cannot accept that, no idea. But the reality is, at this point, the best thing for Temple’s program is to lose, and lose big, tonight, tomorrow and any other time the Owls step out on the floor with Dunphy there … because it’s the only way he’s ever going to get outta there, and that’s the only shot the Owls have of becoming, first and foremost, relevant again. After that, then they could look at regaining some ground on a national scale and start positioning themselves, just as in the good ol’ days, as the proverbial “Daddy” to programs such as the one at Penn State. So, yeah, a loss would be a win here. Time to get on board and grasp reality my fellow Owls. |
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