Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Gameday Recap

Week Four
September 22, 2007
Tuscaloosa, Alabama - Georgia at Alabama

I don't want to complain or anything, but there's no way of writing this without sounding this way... I've got to find a way to make these recaps shorter. They take far too long. Been dreading doing this one all week. Perhaps if the hosts of the show said more intelligent things?

  • Opener with statue of Bear Bryant. CF: no coach in any sport for any team casts a longer shadow than Bear Bryant. Fade to clips of Saban's arrival, packed spring game, win over Arkansas.
  • Fowler says the crew receives a chilly reception (compares themselves to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) because every time they show up, the Tide lose. Corso says they have nothing to do with it.
  • Corso says according to a study, Birmingham has the biggest fans of college football, Columbus, OH is second. KH says that's a shocker.
  • Review of the Alabama-Arkansas game. Quick interview with Wallace Gilberry, before the foot was placed in his mouth.
  • CF: a few weeks ago, 8 wins for Alabama sounded good, now they're thinking championship.
  • Corso: SEC teams on the road have big tests.
  • KH: Penn State-Michigan winner will make a run to the B10 championship. Also, Alabama is more excited now than they were in 1992 when they won the MNC.
First Commercial Break
  • Pan of crowd. 3 "OJ stole my tickets signs" are visible.
  • USC-Washington State talk. Actual football analysis by KH here (USC pass rush vs. WSU passing game).
  • USC-LSU talk. More football analysis. LC says to expect screens and reverses from LSU.
  • UF-Ole Miss talk. CF says the Gators are on letdown alert and it's a sandwich game (correct)
  • MSU-ND talk. Let it be said that there were quite a few games involving ranked opponents that were not covered, while Notre Dame gets some discussion 12 minutes in.
  • Iowa-Wisconsin talk.
  • Penn St.-Michigan. Some injury talk, watch ballhandling.
  • Corso (after mentioning that he coached in the Big Ten, in case you didn't know) says Michigan is like the horse Rags to Riches, which fell down and then got up and won the Belmont. Herbstreit says Michigan was down for good after the Oregon and Appalachian State games, but then agrees completely with Corso.
  • Fowler says Rece Davis has accused Herbstreit of smoking/drinking something because he has Penn State #5 in the country.
  • Fowler says the Ivy League is starting today with the first night game ever at Harvard. Corso and Herbstreit look at him like he was speaking another language.
  • Todd McShay's preview, says Matt Ryan is the most underrated QB in all of college football.
Second Commercial Break
  • Piece on Boston College. Pie chart on how little BC is covered in the Boston Globe. 12.5% compared to over 40% for the Patriots and Red Sox.
  • CF: compare Alabama to Boston College. At Bama the third string long snapper is treated like royalty, while in Boston people don't know the coach, conference or QB. Man on the street interviews. Might this piece not prove that BC doesn't get enough attention, but rather that Bostonians are just morons?
  • Todd McShay breaks down Matt Ryan's film. This segment is awesome. Best part of the show.
  • Desmond Howard joins the set to talk about Matt Ryan and BC. Howard doesn't know if BC is the best team, but says the most impressive ACC win so far is Duke's over Northwestern. Ha Ha. Also says about Miami's win over A&M, "I haven't seen a beatdown like that since I left the hood." The question was "who is the best team in the ACC?" and Howard says that he's not sure it's Miami or BC, but that Miami gave the best performance.
  • KH: Miami/Clemson and maybe BC is the best in the ACC. 'Bama fans boo Clemson.
  • Corso actually answers the question and says BC is the best in the ACC.
  • Fowler says "there was a team in Orange that plays in the Orange Bowl that nobody's mentioned yet" not 45 seconds after Herbstreit mentioned Miami, and not 90 seconds after Howard mentioned them. The rest of the crew mocks Fowler appropriately for it. Also, nobody mentions how Miami got annihilated by Oklahoma just a couple of weeks before.
Third Commercial Break
  • Fowler again says how Florida needs to be careful with Ole Miss. KH talks about how Florida's defense has locked teams down.
  • Some quick Tim Tebow hyping.
  • Timeline of Spurrier wins over SEC powers at USC.
  • Fowler says how LSU struggled for 40 years in day games at home. Was that true?
  • Clip of Spurrier's press conference talking about how loud SEC stadia are. Spurrier says they're all loud, about the same. I was surprised to see him list Georgia.
  • KH: LSU sacks people a ton, USC has had serious protection problems, but Spurrier will come up with something. Breakdown of some USC pass plays where WRs break wide open. Herbstreit thinks USC will hang around and Corso agrees.
  • Corso thinks South Carolina has a lot of confidence. More breakdown clips.
  • Some injury talk regarding LSU.
  • Howard previews his piece on Andre Woodson, says he's about to hop on the bus to start up his blog. Is it a blog or a chat? I can't say I've ever hopped online on a Saturday morning to see it happen.
Fourth Commercial Break
  • Montage of Darren McFadden looking like a freak of nature.
  • Kentucky-Arkansas talk. Lots of players mentioned, good highlights.
  • Extended Piece on Desmond Howard interviewing Andre Woodson while playing pool.
  • Fowler mentions some roster changes for Arkansas.
  • KH likes Arkansas close in a shootout.
Fifth Commercial Break
  • Highlights from Friday's Oklahoma-Tulsa game. KH says Oklahoma is taking advantage of their opportunities to shine for the BCS.
  • Buy/Sell???
  • Fowler points out how wrong Herbstreit and Corso were on last week's Buy/Sell.
  • Texas: LC buys but advises to sell before Oklahoma. KH says sell now because of Oklahoma.
  • Fowler offers $100 to anyone that could name the coach of Rice.
  • Arizona State: LC buys because of Erickson. KH buys now but says sell before USC and Cal.
  • Air Force: LC is buying because they won in Utah already. KH is selling them because he doesn't know what TV channel they're on and hasn't seen them. This is weak because (a) he works for a network that has satellite hookups with every network, and (b) I find mockery of competitors to be unseemly.
  • Purdue: LC is selling because they are successful against cupcakes but they've got tough competition ahead, and he includes Notre Dame among them. Immediately, we all may stop listening to anything Lee Corso has to say because of that idiotic statement. KH says buy because nobody is talking about Purdue.
  • Iowa-Wisconsin talk. Fowler calls it a defensive struggle.
  • Wisconsin: LC says buy now but sell before they play good teams. Apparently KH can't buy/sell Wisconsin because he's calling their game tonight. That's ridiculous. Might he call a Purdue, Texas, or Arizona State game sometime? He's not even picking the winner of the game. That's stupid. KH does say that Wisconsin needs to start playing up to the expectations that people in the media have placed upon them.
  • Corso says Iowa still isn't over the Iowa State loss, so he's picking against Iowa.
Sixth Commercial Break
  • Man on the street interviews with Notre Dame students rationalizing and complaining.
  • "If we can just keep the win streak against Navy alive, I think we'll consider this season a victory." Wow. Wow. Wow. Fowler acts like this was sarcastically said. I didn't sense that at all.
  • Shelley Smith reporting on how Notre Dame is starting over. Calls Weis an "offensive guru." Amid a montage of sacks, there was a clip of Clausen, after a sack, of getting some dude's balls right in his face. He looked perturbed.
  • Michigan State-Notre Dame talk. Clips of recent games.
  • WIRED!!! with Mark Dantonio. This one is only slightly less dumb than usual, because we get to hear the piped in crowd noise during MSU's practice.
  • Interesting graphic - ND has 46% of their offensive plays go for 0 or negative yards.
  • Regis Philbin at the ND pep rally. He's fired up. And wrong.
  • KH decides to take the approach that ND's current failures can be excused because of youth, cites how many 5 star recruits Tom Luginbill has listed as ND bound. Nicely, KH does pivot to say that MSU is a good story.
  • KH says if ND didn't beat MSU, they definitely will start 0-8.
  • LC breaks down some MSU blocking and rushing offense. Thinks ND covers.
  • Howard is online. Says people think ND will score, not win. Then he picks ND to win on defense. Nick Saban is in the bus with Desmond Howard and Alabama fans are happy.
Seventh Commercial Break
  • Clip from Georgia-Alabama in 1990, showing Chuck Carswell intercepting the pass to clinch it for the Dawgs. Chuck Carswell!!! A Walton Raider has made an appearance on College Gameday. I never thought I'd see the day!
  • Fowler talks about Larry Munson for a second.
  • Some Auburn talk. Bad offensive numbers. They don't mention whom Auburn is playing.
  • Nick Saban joins the set, calls the crew "a class organization". He's wearing a pink shirt. He's also talking really quickly.
  • No questions really pressed Saban, but I suppose that'd be asking too much.
  • Teasing the upcoming piece, Russell Crowe says he'd fight to the death for Lloyd Carr.
Eighth Commercial Break
  • Game Face has no face paint. Wouldn't expect that in Tuscaloosa.
  • South Florida-UNC talk. CF: a test of "maturity".
  • Syracuse-Louisville. Fowler and Corso both kind of laugh about Syracuse sucking. Graphic on how bad Syracuse was.
  • West Virginia-East Carolina. Fowler says ECU has contained WVU well in the past few years.
  • Extended piece on Pat White and Steve Slaton. Interviews and highlights.
  • The question on the screen is "How good is West Virginia?" and Herbstreit only talks about Rutgers. Corso likes Louisville, but actually answers the question and then says WVU should look out for the South Florida game on Friday.
  • Fowler says people are writing off Louisville, but they can still win the Big East.
  • Herbstreit says the Big East is the third best conference behind the SEC and Pac 10 (but there's a big gap).
Ninth Commercial Break
  • Another clip from a past UGA-Alabama game, and it's another UGA win (Man Enough game in 2002).
  • Extended piece on Alabama conditioning program. Sounds like Wendi Nix reporting. I wish they'd tell us what the program actually was, but this was better than most extended pieces.
  • Fowler talks about Georgia for a moment. "Matthew Stafford 'allegedly' has a strong arm". Corso thinks Georgia will throw the ball downfield, but then later talks about how young the line is.
  • Herbstreit notes the incorrect highlight clip that was on during Corso's bit a second before.
  • KH says Bama won't be dominant until Saban can recruit on defense.
  • Wallace Gilberry quote is mentioned.
Tenth Commercial Break
  • Pac-10 discussion, fans boo.
  • Oregon-Stanford. KH says it's "name your score" for Oregon.
  • Cal-Arizona. Not much said here.
  • USC-WSU. Corso likes USC big.
  • Howard looks at USC's schedule and talks about where USC might trip up. Howard says maybe Oregon State, Arizona State.
  • KH calls Howard out because Oregon State sucked against Cincinnati.
  • KH thinks USC is only getting better offensively, but they won't lose a game this year.
  • Corso disagrees, because USC has lost 5 road games in 5 years, just like he's said 2 weeks in a row. Thinks they'll lose a late game on the road somewhere.
Eleventh Commercial Break
  • Michigan-Penn State talk.
  • Extended piece on Russell Crowe and Michigan. Chris Connelly (of course) reporting. Lloyd Carr looks happy as a pig in shit on the dais with Crowe. Surprisingly good work by Connelly, whose pieces are usually the worst on the show. For a puff piece, this actually had some informative value.
  • Then the set shows a clip of 3:10 to Yuma. Really?
  • Some highlights of past U of M - PSU games.
  • Press Conference with PSU receiver, who, like Steve Spurrier, isn't intimidated by road games. If nobody's ever intimidated, how come people make a big deal about road games?
  • Some play breakdowns of the Penn State rushing defense and pass rush.
  • KH says Michigan will realize that they have a second opportunity to start the Big Ten season. I don't know what that means. Picked Penn State.
  • LC breaks out the NSFMF, which has kind of been missing this year. Corso breaks down some Michigan passing plays. Corso calls Mallett one of the best freshman QBs in the country. Picks Michigan because Penn State hasn't played anyone.
Twelfth Commercial Break
  • Erin Andrews at WVU game.
  • Pontiac Game Changer. LC - Ryan Mallett. KH - Brandon LaFell at LSU. CF - Matt Grothe. Fowler gets it again...
  • Saturday Stupid Selections: LC: Notre Dame to cover, Florida "big", USC to cover, Arkansas, Alabama. KH: Penn State, Florida "huge", USC to cover, Arkansas.
By far their best show of the season. This episode took an hour less to recap than last week's. So I sort of take back what I wrote at the start. Even the puff pieces were decent. No fisheye lens tearjerkers. Probably double the "actual football analysis" they had the first three weeks. Much improved show. Good for them.

Next week is a trip to Eugene for Cal-Oregon. The early morning shows are usually quiet and calm, but it's definitely an important and good game, so it's good that they're going there. It's bad that that game won't be on nationally, though.

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