January 14, 2009 Link Dump

Larry Fitzgerald is a "renaissance man"

A pretty interesting article on, in my opinion, the best receiver in the NFL.

Kurt Warner suffers against the Eagles

Jim Johnson apparently has Kurt's number...

East-West Shrine game practice report

Chase Daniel apparently can't hit the deep out throws.

Michael Crabtree Officially declares for NFL Draft

Did anyone NOT see this coming? Will he get picked up by the Seahawks?

Texas vs. The Nation Roster

Drew Willy out of Buffalo (Nation) and David Johnson out of Tulsa (Texas) should tear it up!

2008 Season Final AP Poll Standings

At the end of the year here's who the Associated Press considers to be the top teams in the country for the 2008 season.

1 Florida (48)
2 Utah (16)
3 USC (1)
4 Texas
5 Oklahoma
6 Alabama
7 TCU
8 Penn State
9 Ohio State
10 Oregon
11 Boise State
12 Texas Tech
13 Georgia
14 Mississippi
15 Virginia Tech
16 Oklahoma State
17 Cincinnati
18 Oregon State
19 Missouri
20 Iowa
21 Florida State
22 Georgia Tech
23 West Virginia
24 Michigan State
25 Brigham Young



Ok so now on to the useless analysis!!

Of the twenty five teams 8 of them did not have more than 10 wins: Ole Miss(9-4), Oklahoma St.(9-4), Oregon St.(9-4), Iowa(9-4), Florida St. (9-4), Georgia Tech(9-4), West Virginia (9-4), Michigan St. (9-4).

4 teams had only one loss: Florida (13-1), USC(12-1), Texas(12-1), and Boise St. (12-1)

One team has NO losses: Utah(13-0)

Here's how the conferences did:
Big 12: 5 (3 South, 2 North)
SEC: 4
Big 10: 4
Pac 10: 3
Mountain West: 3
ACC: 3 (1 Atlantic, 2 Coastal)
Big East: 2
WAC: 1
(No teams from CUSA, or Sunbelt, and no Independents)

Guy who placed USC as #1: Lee Corso.

Neutralize Ed Reed?

It's no secret that Ed Reed is one of the best safeties in the game and he has the potential to be a game breaker in any game that's played which is why I have chosen to respond to Scouts Inc.'s Matt Williamson article entitled "Five Ways to Neutralize Ed Reed"

1. Use his aggression against him. Obviously Ed Reed is an extremely aggressive player who breaks on the ball instantaneously and covers a ridiculous amount of ground. However, if your quarterback is very adept at manipulating coverage and looking off the safety or is very good with ball fakes and selling play action, there is a chance that Reed will bite and attack with passion in the wrong direction. However, he is a top-notch student of the game and will bait quarterbacks.

2. Have a true superstar wide receiver on your side. The Ravens' cornerback play is improved from a year ago, but a truly elite wideout will often force Baltimore to roll Reed over the top of that respective playmaker. This gives you a better chance because it makes it easier to throw away from him. The problem is that not all teams have players like Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss or Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson.

3. Feature the tight end. Game-changing tight ends are also few and far between, but if you can run your passing game through a playmaker like Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez or Chargers tight end Antonio Gates, then Reed can be taken out of the equation in deep pursuit or matched up against a much bigger man. Reed is adept at handling opposing tight ends in man coverage, but the quarterback at least knows where he is and how to throw away from the star safety.

4. Run at him. While the Ravens prefer to use the strong safety as the extra man in the box to stop the run, Reed does get that duty on occasion. When he becomes the extra defender in the box, the best way to neutralize him is to run right at him. While he is a very tough run defender, he doesn't have great size to take on much bigger blockers and he can be swallowed up at the point of attack. However, running away from Reed allows him to use his terrific pursuit skills to track your ball-carrier down from behind.

5. Run him off. If Reed is in the deep middle of the field, it is wise to line up your best or fastest receiver close to the formation in the slot. Then, have him run as deep as possible to take Reed out of the play and open up the middle of the field. This will let your quarterback be more comfortable attacking the intermediate zones without having to worry about Reed.

Hm...Interesting. Well let's break it down by point.

1. Use his aggression against him: Ok well according to the article this might work if your QB is very adept at manipulating coverage or at selling play action. The problem here is that Ed Reed plays for the Ravens and the Raven's blitzing schemes don't really allow the quarterback much time to be back there "manipulating coverage." Overall though...this MIGHT work...if the QBs line gives him enough time, and the QB is indeed that good.

2. Have a true superstar wide receiver on your side: As the article states not many teams have this, and even the ones who do can't afford to have that player be completely eliminated from their game plans. The Ravens also shut down elite receivers such as T.O., Andre Johnson, Plaxico Burress, and Braylon Edwards this year....now looking at the playoffs I think the only team who can afford to do this is maybe the Cardinals considering Boldin and Fitzgerald are both beasts and Breaston isn't too bad either.

3. Feature the tight end: Textbook. Feature the tight end and bring down the Safety then you can throw away from him. Again though, not many teams can afford to do this. However playing with the Ravens I would trust the LBs to be able to cover the tight end, so this might not work at all, as evidenced when the Ravens faced Witten and Kellen Winslow this year.

4. Run at him: This COULD work if the Ravens used Ed Reed as the extra man in the box more often, but it doesn't really happen.

5. Run him off: Once again...Textbook. This definitely works when you're playing a top safety. But your QB needs to have enough time for it to work and your slot receiver has to be enough of a threat to work.


So in summary, teams playing the Ravens have a huge obstacle to overcome in Ed Reed. All the strategies above seem good but they all remove one weapon from the offense. Furthermore the whole Ravens D is very very good so this might not work.

Original Article Source: ESPN

Knowshon Hurdle? Not so great.

We've all seen this over and over this past week talking about how AWESOME Moreno is...and honestly there's a bunch of players out there who can do that, and have done that, and DO do that.



One of these guys is Sam McGuffie who's at Michigan now and made a habit out of hurdling opponents to the point where players stopped going low on him because he always jumped over them...ok maybe not. Anyway there may be some of you out there who say that McGuffie did that in highschool and not in College so it's different well to you I present you the following...



BAM! Reggie Bush does it in the NFL.

The point is stop making a big deal out of this hurdle, ten bucks says we'll see a hurdle at least once more during the season.

What a way to start the week

Make no mistake, I think Laron Landry is a BEAST and I idolize him in all the extension of the word. So you can understand how surprised I was when I saw him get run over by the Giants' Brandon Jacobs....check it out...




BAM! What a way to start the season. The Giants really did look like the Super Bowl champions and throughout the whole game never let up and pressured Washington incredibly. They never got a first down until nearly the end of the first half. Eli looked better than he did most of last year, and Justin Tuck will have everyone saying "Strahan Who?" all season long....but for now the moment that everyone will remember is that nasty hit by Jacobs who had Landry saying "Who done it?"

College Football Week 1

Every Monday I'm gonna come in here and talk about what I liked most, or what I consider to be the most interesting stuff that happened this week. Now in the words of the greatest judge in the land...Let's Get it on!

I told everyone Clemson wasn't that good!! I Told you! But no one believed me everyone kept talking about all this "Clemson speed" and what not they didn't look fast at all against 'Bama. Nothing seemed to click for the Tigers, not even their all star QB Cullen Harper looked as good as he is. This naturally raises the question...is Alabama THAT good? Easy...nah. They're good, but not Florida or Georgia good, Clemson was just incredibly overrated.

In more bad news for the ACC Virginia Tech lost to ECU after the Pirates blocked a punt to seal the win. To be honest I was really pulling for ECU, last year they came really close to beating Va Tech and were in the top three teams of C-USA. Their defense is suprisingly good which is going to make for a pretty interesting match up againts Pat White and West Virginia come week two...one more thing, them Holtz boys can coach!

If you haven't gotten it by now it was not a good week for the ACC, North Carolina state got SHUTDOWN my the gamecocks of South Carolina, their offense just couldn't get anything going and it's not going to get much better considering their starting QB Russel Wilson got injured.

Well there was one conference that had a worse week than the ACC...and that was the Sun Belt. Good ol' Sunbelt you can always trust them to make the rest of the country forget how far FSU and The U have fallen. Of the 8 teams in the Sun Belt only two of them won...one of them was Troy againts Middle Tennesse(conference opponent) and Arkansas State who beat Texas A&M! Changing mascots from "Indians" to "Red Wolves" seems to have done the team some good. This is the first time this school beats a team from a BCS conference, furthermore they put an end to a 20 season opening game winning streak for Texas A&M.... The 12th man was too busy working the fields and was not available for comment. Also South Lake Carroll Highschool, I mean, North Texas got whooped on by KSU 45 - 6...nice job coach Dodge.

New year same problems for the UTEP Miners. New Defensive Coordinator's Osia Lewis 3-3-5 Defense has always been good at New Mexico and was hailed as the saving factor in reedeming the Miner's 117th ranked defense from last year. Well if the 42 points the Buffalo Bulls scored on UTEP are any indication that won't be the case, the secondary continues to be a HUGE weakness for the Miners, also it seems like Trevor Vittatoe who last year was one of the country's best Freshman QBs has been hit by the sophomore slump right in the mouth, as he threw three interceptions after being incredibly accurate all of last season....Hopefully the Miners get in shape as they receive the Longhorns in week 2.

The Top 3 are for real!!! Georgia's offense was impressive and Matthew Stafford looked very good as the Dawgs scored 45 on Georgia Southern. Florida took care of business and in a real good sign had four different players rush for TDs none of these players were Tim Tebow. USC is scary good, Rey Maulaluga leads a defensive squad which just smothered the Cavaliers and Mark Sanchez looks poised and ready to lead quite possibly the most talented offensive squad of the country.

Michigan lost another home opener to a non BCS team.....well atleast this one was a Div I school. But seriously they weren't even close, still I expect big things from the Wolverines especially Sam McGuffie in the future. Let's stay in the Big 10...Ohio State shut down Youngstown state but Heisman candidate Beanie Wells got injured, depending how serious the injury is the Buckeyes are going to look to Terrelle Pryor who had a real easy time running it in for a TD. The Illini came on the short end of a shootout with Chase Daniel and the rest of the Mizzou Tigers, it was a very exciting game hopefully the Illini find their defense as the year goes on. Finally PJ Hill tore it UP! (and get me gobs of fantasy points in the process) If Wells is out, look for PJ Hill to grab some national attention and maybe even some Heisman Consideration??




Alright that's it for this week....any comments or hate? or suggestions?? Fell free to email me: l2odnunez@gmail.com

This could be awesome...

Remember that above? When Chad Johnson put "Ocho Cinco" on the back of his jersey to honor Hispanic heritage month, then later on demanded that reporters address him as Ocho Cinco? Well.....according to Miami sport's radio station 790 The Ticket Chad Johnson has legally changed his last name to "Ocho Cinco" meaning his name is now "Chad Ocho Cinco" which means that now he should be able to put that on his jersey without getting penalized....HAHAHA, Chad Johnson is crazy but this is just hilarious, imagine the media calling him Ocho Cinco? It's too much!!!

Source: Hashmarks

UTEP should join the Big 12 Conference

I have noticed in the past couple of years that many BCS conferences have been looking for teams to add to make the conferences even better than what they are now, this includes the Big 12. Which is why I raise the case for the University of Texas At El Paso. I am saying this because over the past couple of years the UTEP football team has gone up against a football team from the Big 12. Over the past two years UTEP gave Texas Tech a run for the money both in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, as well as in Lubbock last year. This year they will be playing the University of Texas on Sep. 6 in El Paso, and will try and show the country they have what it takes to pull of the upset. Next year this UTEP team will be going to Austin, to take on the Longhorns, while the Kansas Jayhawks will be going down to the Sun Bowl to take on the Miners. Not to many non BCS teams can say they are going to play two Big 12 teams in one year. If UTEP can show a strong showing against in the next two years I believe that they can replace a team such as Baylor in the South. I know this is off the subject but not only does this happen in football but over the last couple of years the UTEP basketball team has gone up against A&M in College Station and Tech both in Lubbock and in El Paso. The change would not only good for UTEP but for the Big 12 Conference as well.