IMHO: College Football Uniforms are Sacred

I guess it's only fitting that my previous entry was at the end of the last college football season, and this one is celebrating the beginning of this one.
I don't know about you, but it's the same for me every year... on opening weekend of the NCAA College Football season, I simply can't get Andy Williams' jingle, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," out of my head.

The first weekend is already behind us, so any preseason-like predictions are almost obsolete, though I will say that of the most anticipated games of the season-openers, nothing particularly surprised me as far as outcomes go.  I expected Boise State to beat Georgia.  I expected LSU to beat Oregon... yes, I did...  I just didn't expect them to do it in such dominating and emasculating fashion.  I expected Auburn to beat Utah State - a team that was 1-10 versus SEC teams and that win came in 1970 against Kentucky.  I did not, however, expect Auburn to get a come-from-behind victory in the last three minutes of the game.

But what really caught my attention was, unfortunately, some attention-grabbing uniform changes.  The Oregon Ducks have had, without a doubt, the ugliest uniform combinations for the past few years.  It's surprising, really, that NIKE was the guilty designer behind that futuristic atrocity.  This year they came out against LSU looking Darth Vader-chic - black on black with black accents and black trim uniforms (pictured left), and despite an improvement on previous years, they still looked about as un-collegiate as a college uniform could look -- ABOUT as un-collegiate.  They were trumped by the new-look Georgia Bulldogs (pictured right).  There's really no diplomatic way to put it... the Bulldogs looked ridiculous.  They weren't just ugly, they looked like soldiers from a bad sci-fi movie.  I mean really... striped face masks???

While Oregon looked kind of cool, and Georgia looked completely laughable, they both looked like fictitious professional football teams from Oliver Stone's appallingly bad critique of American football, Any Given Sunday (which incidentally is a long, loud, exhausting waste of time).

What happened to the good ol' traditional college look?  Much of college football is wrapped up in tradition, but programs are beginning to jettison tradition for more marketable fan-gear, or perhaps programs are buying into the psychology that a tougher look yields tougher play.

Whatever the case, IMHO college football uniforms are a sacred part of longstanding tradition... and shouldn't be messed with.
 
 

15 Reasons Auburn Will Rout Oregon in the BCS Championship Game

The Oregon Ducks meet the Auburn Tigers on January 10, 2011, in a highly anticipated match-up of high-octane offenses, the Ducks' ugliest uniforms in sports history, and Auburn's controversial, unstoppable Heisman-winning QB.

If history is any indication of what the outcome will be, this could be a very disappointing and lopsided championship game - not disappointing for the victor's fans, but disappointing for those hoping for a good game.

Here are 15 reasons why Auburn could very well run away with this one in a rout:

15. History Says So (as just mentioned):

The last four BCS National Championship Games were all won by SEC teams... in dominating fashion.

The four SEC victories came by a combined 67 points, which translates to an average margin of victory of 16.8 points per game. If history is any indication, then Auburn should win by double-digits.

14. Auburn Can Come from Behind:

We haven't seen the Ducks overcome much adversity this season, but the Tigers have made a living off of coming from behind.

Auburn has trailed in eight of its 13 games this season, but still managed to win those games (some in blowout fashion), including an 18-point victory over Georgia and a 22-point victory over Arkansas.

Even if Auburn stumbles early, they've proven they can rally back and score a boatload of points in the second half.

13. The SEC Championship Game:

This one is pretty simple.

Did you see the way Auburn played against South Carolina in the SEC Championship Game?

That was as impressive of a performance as any team has had all season, and the Gamecocks entered the game with the SEC's No. 1 rushing defense.

12. The Passing Game:

Since Auburn averages 287 yards per game on the ground, it's easy to forget about the team's passing attack. But the Tigers can pass the ball.

Cam Newton throws for about 210 yards per game, and Darvin Adams has come on strong of late, catching seven passes for more than 200 yards and two touchdowns in the SEC Championship Game.

With Oregon trying to key in on the run, Newton and Adams could have a big day through the air.

11. Ball Control:

Oregon doesn't need the ball a lot to score—the Ducks lead the nation in scoring at 49.3 points per game despite having an average time of possession of less than 28 minutes.

But Auburn is one of only a few teams who can keep Oregon off the field.

Of the quality teams the Ducks have faced, only Stanford's rushing attack is comparable to Auburn's sixth-ranked rushing offense.

The Tigers can hold the ball for a big chunk of the game with that run-first mentality, which wouldn't bode well for the Ducks.

10. Oregon Has Played Weak Competition:

Outside of Stanford, Oregon has played a ridiculously weak schedule.

The Ducks have only faced two other teams who are headed to bowl games—Arizona and Tennessee—and those schools have a combined record of 13-11.

In fact, eight of the 12 teams Oregon faced in 2010 finished the regular season at or below .500.

9. 3rd-Down Conversions:

Auburn is one of the nation's best teams at converting on 3rd downs.

The Tigers have converted 77 of 145 3rd down attempts, or 53.1% of the team's tries.

Oregon has converted one more third down (78), but has had 170 chances - 45.9%.

It's a slim advantage, yes, but one that could play a huge role in determining the game's outcome.

8. Nick Fairley (Lombardi Award Winner):

With the exception of Oregon State's Stephen Paea, Oregon hasn't faced a dominant inside presence like Nick Fairley all season. He's one of the most disruptive defensive linemen in the country.

He won't make it easy for Oregon's offense when he's clogging up the middle on running plays or going after Darron Thomas on passing plays.

7. Second-Half Defense:

Auburn's season numbers on defense aren't going to "wow" very many people, but the Tigers have really stepped up on that side of the ball during their two most pivotal games.

In the regular season finale against Alabama, and the SEC Championship Game against South Carolina, Auburn allowed just two field goals in the second half.

That unit could be peaking at just the right time.

6. Auburn is Battle-Tested:

Auburn hasn't strolled its way into the national championship game. The Tigers have had one of the toughest schedules in the nation.

They've faced eight schools who were ranked at some point during the season, they've knocked off five top-20 teams, and they've beaten four top-12 teams, including last year's national champion (Alabama) and the current No. 7 team in the BCS (Arkansas).

5. Auburn's Defense:

Oregon's defense gets a lot more love because it forces turnovers, but Auburn's defense isn't far behind.

The Tigers have forced 18 turnovers and rank 34th in total defense (335.3 yards per game) while the Ducks rank 31st in total defense (331.6 yards per game).

So Auburn's "Achilles heel" may not really be one at all.

4. The Turnover Battle:

Oregon's defense may lead the nation with 36 turnovers, but the Ducks have also turned the ball over 22 times. That's eight more times than Auburn, which has just 14 turnovers in 12 games this season... and Cam Newton has thrown just one interception in the team's last seven games.

3. Auburn's Rushing Attack is not JUST Cam Newton:

Despite popular opinion, Auburn's rushing attack is more than just "let Cam Newton run and see what happens."

Michael Dyer, Onterio McCalebb and Mario Fannin have combined to rush for 2,108 yards and 19 touchdowns... and they've done that on just 310 carries, which translates to 6.8 yards per carry.

2. Auburn's Rush Defense:

Auburn's rushing offense gets a ton of publicity, so the team's rushing defense often gets overlooked, but not many teams can run on the Tigers.

Auburn boasts the nation's No. 7 rushing defense, allowing just 99.7 yards per game, and limiting its opponents to a measly 3.4 yards per carry.

1. The Heisman Winner:

You're probably getting sick of hearing about Cam Newton, but no one has been able to stop him for an entire game all season. Alabama did it for a half, but then he exploded... and not many other teams have even had a chance.

It seems next to impossible to stop this guy, as he's put up video game-like performances all season long.

Why should this game be any different?

This is all based on history, stats and analysis, but anything could happen, and... that's why they play the game.

Book Review: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

…all stores of food had given out and murder was everywhere upon the land. The world soon to be largely populated by men who would eat your children in front of your eyes and the cities themselves held by cores of blackened looters who tunneled among the ruins and crawled from the rubble white of tooth and eye carrying charred and anonymous tins of food in nylon nets like shoppers in the commissaries of hell.

Such is the world created by Cormac McCarthy in The Road, a brutally bleak post-apocalyptic scenario wherein a father and son struggle to stay alive from hour to hour as they plod along a devastating and pointless journey to the coast.

McCarthy’s ultra-stark, minimalist writing style (if you can call it style) takes some getting used to. It almost seemed pretentious at first – abandoning the use of quotation marks and his eccentric vocabulary – but the jarring nature of the writing supports the utter simplistic and immediate tone of this desolate world.

The man and his son, who remain nameless throughout the story, are clearly the long-term survivors of an unspecified apocalyptic event, probably a nuclear war. The winters are getting worse, food and water are running short, the landscape is scorched, and the ‘men who stalk the road’ are of the vilest nature. These are the elements that father and son face on a daily basis as they trudge along their journey, pushing a shopping cart containing all of their essential belongings (blankets, a tarp, canned food, and some tools), as they follow a rotting map while all the while avoiding any and all other human contact.

Their situation seems most hopeless when you realize that the pistol carried by the father (containing only two bullets) is not for their protection, but for their own suicide, should they encounter a gang of fellow survivors – ‘road agents’, cannibals – and he has to shoot the boy and then himself. In flashback we’re informed that this was the fate his wife chose, for fear of these brutal tribes.

The mutuality of surviving is a powerful and important theme in the relationship between father and son. The boy needs his father to care for him, to protect him, to socialize with, an to love him; and the father is acutely aware that the boy’s very existence gives him purpose… a reason to keep living in an unreasonable world. The intensity of his love for the child (and being a father I can attest that it is appropriately intense) has come to bear all the possible meaning in his life. The boy is the personification of all motive and purpose.

McCarthy fashions their ongoing existence as a series of desperately repetitive circumstances – starvation to plenty to starvation; despair to hope to despair; safety to danger and back again.

The narrative has no chapter breaks. There is no reprieve, apart from the inevitable end. At the same time, there is no real progression; never are we invited to hope (emphasized by the gradual worsening of the man’s cough). Like the man, the reader never really gets anywhere… for there is nowhere to go. What there is, however, is loss and trembling and love precisely expressed. McCarthy is a fantastic writer with artistic command of his style and syntax that is always systematic in its eccentricity.

Top 10 Films of the Noughties (by year)

My Top 10 List from 2000-2009 (one per year):

2000 (Tie): Gladiator & O Brother, Where Art Thou?
O Man, I hate starting the list off w/ a tie, but I simply cannot choose between these two AMAZING films.

2001: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Whew! Now that one was way easier.

2002: City of God
I can't think of a better example of Orwellian doublespeak than the Brazilian housing project/slum for which this film is named. A rare glimpse into a world where the cheapest commodity is life itself.

2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
What?

2004: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Thematically, it was pretty straightforward, dramatizing the old axiom that it is better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all. But then throw in a layered emotional texture w/ Michel Gondry's MTV-esque metaphysical labyrinth of memory erasing, AND Charlie Kaufman's hilarious, provocative and tragic script (not to mention Jim Carrey's best turn to date), and you've got the best of 2004!

2005: Sin City
To be honest, 2005 was not a big year for me @ the movies. I didn't see Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Munich, Good Night, and Good Luck, or Capote. And though I'm sure Sin City was not better than these Oscar-winning/worthy films, it is one that I saw, and I'm sure not giving the best film of the year to King Kong.
Besides, the visual adaptation from Frank Miller's graphic novel(s) to the big screen was nothing short of incredible!

2006: The Departed

As much as I love Clint Eastwood fims (Letters From Iwo Jima/Flags of our Fathers) whether acting or directing, I'm going w/ Scorsese this year. The acting (from Jack Nicholson's Irish mobster to Matt Damon's undercover criminal) is top notch. And Leo DiCaprio as an undercover cop, and Mark Wahlberg as a hothead sergeant give the performances of their careers. Another crime-in-the-streets classic from Scorsese!

2007: No Country for Old Men

An instant reminder why the Coen brothers deserve to be ranked at the forefront of American filmmaking. While Ratatouille is the 2007 film I've seen the most (I have two young daughters), quite possibly the year's best was actually made-for-TV-movie, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a chronicle of how the (native) American Indians were displaced as the U.S. expanded west.

2008: The Dark Knight

This was a toss-up, but Batman just edged Slumdog. TDK was appropriately sinister and consistent with the tone and darkness of the DC comic book series Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight. And Heath Ledger's standout performance as mass-murdering psychopath, Joker, may just be what secured the top spot for 2008.

2009: ????

It's just too early to say. There are too many 2009 films I've not yet seen (since I usually have to wait for DVD release before seeing most films). Some that will be in the running are: Gran Torino, UP, District 9, Inglorious Basterds, and Avatar. Some I'd like to see before making a decision: 500 Days of Summer, Tyson, The Informant, and Where the Wild Things Are.