Campus Confidential

By Adam Abramson

I had about 25 comments from the weekend and I wanted to pull out some points and address them. It's not real in depth, but I'm going to talk a lot about BCS picture/what a playoff would look like and the Heisman tomorrow, so I'm going to be cracking on that all night.

It's a beautiful thing when the Rangers, Islanders and Knicks are off. And A-Rod doesn't create any news.

Adam,
I'm sitting here watching the 3rd OT of the LSU - Arkansas game. I'm in a disagreement with a buddy about the wisdom of Nutt deciding to start the OT on defense. My buddy says you always pick "D" so you know whether you need 3 or 7. I'm thinking when your the underdog and run a better offense than a defense - it often makes sense to go on offense first. Make the other guy play catch-up.
What do you think?

I'll address this at length at a later date, but soon. I think this is a great topic for discussion. My first instinct is to always take D first, but let me stew on it some.

I had the chance to see Pryor play while eating a Primanti Bros. sandwich on Friday afternoon and actually passed through his hometown on the way to the wedding this weekend. I have no idea how good Beaver Falls is, but Pryor made them look like the Little Giants at their first practice in the Pennsylvania state championship games. He was a man among boys and any school should instantly benefit from his presence on the roster.

And I finally made it up to Mt. Washington…great, GREAT view.

The way things are going, is it possible that USC & Ohio State could end up playing for the championship? Heck, maybe even Hawaii & Kansas or Missouri or LSU or Oklahoma. You guys get the point. Of course, just think how great all of these arguments would be if there was a playoff. What do I know, clearly, nothing, I am still smarting from the beating last night. The only thing at this point is will Hawaii-Boise State be higher scoring than Colorado-Nebraska?

At this point, I am going to refrain from assuming just based on this while season. It really could be anyone, and when computers are running the show, who knows what will happen on December 2. Logic gives us a clear idea, but we'll have to wait and see.

As for USC, I watched the Trojans play Arizona State and what stood out to me most was the youth at the skill positions. Joe McKnight really looks like he can be a version of Reggie Bush next season or the year after and those receivers are going to torch secondaries for a bit, but the whole group just needs some polish.

I'll throw up a post about this more within 12 hours.

Oh, by the way, with all of the upsets again, and the weekend is just starting (A&M/Arkansas), if Hawaii wins out, they have to go to a BCS game, don't they?

Yes. The win over Boise earned them that right. But we'll talk more about this tomorrow. There's just a lot to digest.

Adam, if you haven't seen it yet. This is the best penalty ever called in college football. Worth embedding if you're bored.

I'm bored.

By Adam Abramson

Let’s answer some reader questions about the Week 4 poll.

These are paraphrases.

Rutgers over WVU? You’re insane!!!! – Black N’ Gold
Yeah, Rutgers over WVU. Here’s why. The Louisville theory. I’m not sold on WVU’s defense. I woke up on Tuesday thinking South Florida could even beat the ‘Eers this weekend, but I’m rethinking that. What I won’t rethink, assuming Rutgers keeps on winning, is that White, Slaton & Co. will beat the Scarlet Knights. The boys from Piscataway can play some defense and they’ve proven their offense is much improved from last year. WVU will run, run, run. But can they stop the run, run, pass, run, run, pass? We’ll see.

You still have a bias. And South Florida? You’re insane!!!! – Paul
Paul, I’m trying my best. I really am. I know you’re a Sun Devils guy and they’re so close. I will admit, I have not seen ASU play yet, but neither have the coaches and they vote. I will make every effort I can to watch them play against Stanford (although I feel like that might be difficult, maybe FSN?) As for South Florida, back to the Big East? Must mean they’re legit. We’ll talk South Florida football more after Friday night. As for the bias, I swear I’m working on it.

LSU over USC? You’re insane!!!! – Faw Bills
Yup. You’re the guy who said South Carolina would beat LSU and you still want to hate on LSU? Did you not see the fake field goal?

You were wrong about Oklahoma. We told you. YOU ARE INSANE. – The entire state of Oklahoma (& Justin)
I know. I know. I’m insane. But crow is so tasty.

I’m video editing all Wednesday morning, but I’ll hit you with the Heisman watch when I have 45 seconds to breathe. To bed, TO BED I SAID.

By Adam Abramson

Afternoon,

Still waiting for Mitch Mustain, USC said he should be stopping in today, if so, they'd try to get him on the hook with me.

But I figured I'd do a quick drive-by post before the mayhem begins tonight at the office. Loyal reader John dropped me an email this afternoon about something I thought on for a long while yesterday:

You have to appreciate JoePa having his players clean the stadium this fall....
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=dw-paterno052207&prov=yhoo&type=lgns&expire=1

Now do you honestly think the Canes or Seminoles (or any other power for that matter) would be doing this?

A couple of things came to mind. Feel free to weigh in on any of them.

1. I think it's unfair to the guys on the team who may be walk ons, work their tails off in class and do it the right way (I'm sure plenty of scholarship players are doing it the right way as well). But then again, that's what a team is all about. They have to be accountable for each other. So, I don't think it's a bad thing.

2. I think there'd be a cold day in hell before Randy Shannon (or Larry Coker before him, for that matter) implemented such a policy at Miami.

3. From experience, Frank Beamer tried to set a policy at Virginia Tech where if you screwed up with the law, the classroom, film, lifting, personal fouls during a game, anything...he fined you by taking away bowl stipend money (players can get up to $500 for big bowls). I thought this was a good system, making each player accountable for themselves. Now, a simple infraction didn't cost you money, it started with things like running gassers after practice, etc. However, Beamer was RIPPED in the media (PTI, Around the Horn, newspapers, etc.) but most seem to love Joe Pa's policy. Am I crazy for thinking there's a double standard here?

Discuss.

By Adam Abramson

Here's a short recruiting mailbag. I had hoped to get some more discussion going about 2002 and 2003, but I got enough to respond with a post, so here we go. The first topic I wanted to address was guys I left off my lists. Two of my readers mentioned Utah quarterback Alex Smith and Penn State linebacker Paul Posluszny.

I actually wrote back to the reader saying Alex Smith was a great pull, but I shortly realized after that he was a 2001 guy. However, had he been 2002, what an oversight. After researching him for a bit it seemed he didn't accrue many accolades coming out of Helix High School in California (played with Reggie Bush). If he had been a 2002 guy, what an oversight he would have been. Remember, he finished 4th in the Heisman race.

Posluszny is tough because one recruiting service had him at a 4-star, ranked the #20 linebacker in the country. Another had him as a 3-star. However, he far exceeded both rankings. I think it's pretty fair to say he was an oversight, but it's not like he was unheard of coming out of high school. I'll address this more below. But another great mention. Another one for 2002 is Levi Brown. I think it's fair we give him AT LEAST an honorable mention. The dude is a beast (big-time 4-star coming out of Norfolk, VA).

Someone asked me if I felt NFL scouts should look at recruiting information for when a player is coming out of high school, and I actually think that's kind of a wise idea.

I get into the discussion over the validity of recruiting rankings a lot because of the school I went to. Virginia Tech is notorious for recruiting guys, getting them into the strength and conditioning program and turning them into studs. Many Tech followers don't believe in the rankings/stars system. But think about this...how many GREAT Virginia Tech NFL players are there?

Michael Vick: Underrated coming out of HS, but not unheard of by any means

Kevin Jones: No. 1 RB in the country coming out of HS

DeAngelo Hall: Rated the #2 player in the state of Virginia in 2001

There are other solid players in the NFL from Virginia Tech that are young. Guys like Seahawks DE Darryl Tapp and Falcons DB Jimmy Williams were three-star guys that earned All-American honors.

But I've always thought 99.9% of NFL players have "it"...call it what you will. Many times, this is recognizable on the prep level so it's no wonder these guys are blue chip prospects and succeed on the college level. Many times these guys fail because of academic, personal or legal troubles. It's not common for a blue chipper to arrive on a campus and fade into obscurity due to a lack of talent.

Also, just because a prospect is given three stars by most recruiting services doesn't mean he has "it." Williams and Tapp are key examples. Both played in the toughest divisions in the state of Virginia and dominated their level of competition back then. It's clear that it's a very objective system, but I think there's a ton of validity in it.

The point is that I'm comfortable saying there's a much higher chance of a five-star panning out over a three-star panning out.

Therefore, I think it's really wise to see how an NFL prospect measured up coming out of high school. If his track record was good 6 years prior to draft day, I would think his chances of being a legit contributor are increased...

SEC may have half its teams in the Top 25, but the Big East has three teams in the Top 10. ACC is nowhere in sight. A 1-loss Florida should have won all its games if it wanted to play in the NC. Winning by 1 at home against an unranked team should not be rewarded.
-“Rich the alum”

Well, technically, the ACC isn’t “nowhere in sight.” Half of the ACC is ranked in the top 25 (Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Maryland, Clemson). I know the highest ranked of the ACC half dozen is No. 14, but it shows that the conference has depth, especially considering Miami and Florida State are nowhere to be found. The Big East’s three ranked teams are legitimate power houses, no denying that, but you can’t make a solid case for anyone else (Pitt is such a hot/cold team, I’ll give them half credit).

As to the second part of the comment…first, margin of victory doesn’t matter in the eyes of the BCS. So, Florida’s one-point win against an unranked South Carolina SHOULD be no different than a 30-point win. South Carolina is no slouch either. The Gamecocks’ five losses have come against then-ranked opponents (and four of the times were in position to tie or win late in the game). I’ve said this before, but I don’t like playing the so-and-so beat so-and-so by so much, so that means such-and-such. Nobody has had a cakewalk this year, Rutgers beat South Florida by a score of 22-20. South Florida is an unranked team with no quality wins either, and I know the game was on the road, but I watched it and wouldn’t call Tampa a hostile environment.

However, I don’t hold this against Rutgers. The most important stat is winning. And, if Rutgers finishes with more wins (and less losses) than Florida, Southern California and Notre Dame, then the Scarlet Knights deserve to play in the national championship game. Done deal.

Two things: One, I’m a little disappointed you didn’t already own “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.” And, two, I know it’s football season, but what do you think about the Bobby Knight incident on Monday?
Jeff F.

Alright, I should have owned it. It’s one of the greatest movies of all time. But, I own it now, and I watched it again this morning. If you haven’t seen it, shame on you, go buy it now (IMDB.com has it ranked No. 5 on it’s Top 250 list). I also purchased “City of God” yesterday. I haven’t seen it yet, but I hear good things and I think it’ll be a good addition to my young, but growing movie library. If you ever want to talk movies, or recommend one, drop me a line.

Now, about basketball. 1. I love college basketball. 2. This blog will slowly make the switch to college basketball, but more so after the football national championship game. 3. I have news to report. Higher ups say I must share access to my blog with some staff writers who cover Hofstra and Stony Brook here on the Island. I’m not exactly thrilled, but at least the guys are great writers, and Hofstra has a great college basketball program, so it’ll be interesting stuff. Stay tuned.

As for Bobby Knight. I don’t think what he did was wrong. I go back to when Frank Beamer slapped Ernest Wilford on his helmet during the West Virginia game in 2003. The time for coddling is over when you get to college. Now, there’s a very fine line, but an incident like the one on Monday night is in the heat of competition, and it wasn’t out of aggression. If everyone is backing up Knight, including the athletic director and player, then what’s the problem. The last report I read he was telling his player to “keep his head up out there.” No harm done.

How about them Emory and Henry Wasps? I know you were following.
-Jake the Snake

Great point. I haven’t addressed this yet, and I should. My college buddy Rob, who was my guest on my Louisville-West Virginia game diary (and will be a guest in the future), is part of the new coaching staff down at Emory and Henry, a Division III school. After going 1-9 last year and not having a winning season since 2000, the Wasps turned it around to go 6-4 this year (and were pretty darn close to a 9-1 season). Hell of a job, boys.

Great call on the field winning you should thank the kid from Louisville being offsides.
- Roger Dorn

It was a great call. Thanks. And thank you to the kid who jumped offsides. I did not want to be responsible for the jinx.

Who’s going to win on Saturday? You know what I’m talking about.
- MLM

I do know. I’m in a little bit of a pickle here. I’ve had Ohio State as my national championship winner all year long, but I really think Michigan can win this game with defense. That said, I’ll take Michigan to cover the 6.5 its getting and give me two more days to pick the winner. I’ll have a pick by Thursday.

Alright, real work calls. Everyone called in sick here today. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. I’ll be back tomorrow with a piece about Saturday’s big game.

Well, the Yankees are out, meaning my work is cut in half, theoretically.

Between that and my computer programs running slower than molasses because of a Windows Update (it’s gone up 15% in 90 minutes…help me please), I figured I’d respond to some comments recently left for me. So, thanks to those who read and wrote. And, if the response continues, I’ll do this more often (how often depends on the amount of responses).

And finally, I plan on doing some more recruiting stuff because I received good feedback. So stay tuned, and tomorrow I'll do my Heisman watch for Wednesday and my weekend preview on Friday after I return from Boston.

Onto the comments/questions: