Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Login-facebook
Around SBN: Jeremy Lin Sets Assist High In Easy Win Over Sacramento

TMQ FAILS TO ENRAGE US ADEQUATELY

Jew-hatin' Gregg Easterbrook sometimes deigns to write about college football, and oh how do we love to attempt to bring out the sharp knives when he does that. I mean, when he writes shit like this...

In Division I, coaches are little gods, the players are for the most part obedient, and the football-factory schools hold such huge advantages in recruiting and gimmick schedules that an orangutan could coach a Top 25 team to bowl eligibility. In Division I, coaches throw clipboards if they don't win by five touchdowns.

...I mean, how can he...

Oh. Um, nice little piece there, Gregg. Walking on, not looking up, hey, don't you want some coffee (whistling)...or we would walk straight by if NASA-porn fan Easterbrook hadn't included this blatant and complete falsehood a bit further down.

On the flip side, consider that Penn State under Joe Paterno never runs up the score.

The data set for countering this point is decades deep, but most recently Florida International would like to raise a strenous objection to this statement. With that point refuted, we now allow TMQ to go back to masturbating to the Hubblecast. Ohhhh, the resolution is so...clear...AHHHHHHH....

Comment 29 comments  |  0 recs  | 

Do you like this story?

Comments

Display:

I thought Nick Saban had the trademark rights to The Weasel. We need a ruling from Swindle Industries on this.

by yoyofutbawl on Dec 19, 2007 1:29 PM EST reply actions  

Of course if Penn State didn’t beat Florida International by 59 everybody would have said “See! Penn State’s not that good!” and the arguments about Penn State’s mediocrity would arise from…..oh wait, they are mediocre.

by Kevin McGuire on Dec 19, 2007 1:30 PM EST reply actions  

Orangutan, Coach Dept:

Why insult the poor simians?

by Stacy Keibler Luvs Me on Dec 19, 2007 1:33 PM EST reply actions  

So…um, a Rolls golfcart?

by Biggus Rickus on Dec 19, 2007 1:37 PM EST reply actions  

ROLFCART, perhaps?

by kleph on Dec 19, 2007 1:39 PM EST reply actions  

The fuck is gimmick scheduling?

Did I miss Petrino Bobble-Contract night?

by Jerkwheat on Dec 19, 2007 1:42 PM EST reply actions  

He must be a good recruiter, his ride don’t even have Dubs and 22’s.

by Brian on Dec 19, 2007 1:44 PM EST reply actions  

I like the NFL too. But the talent is so even that it’s almost sterile.

I think the difference between CFB and NFL football can be summed up as follows: NFL games are decided by the losing team making more mistakes, while college games are decided by the winning team making more plays.

Obviously there are exceptions, but I think these generalizations hold some validity.

by TIGERinATL on Dec 19, 2007 1:51 PM EST reply actions  

i’m sure when he was coaching UF, his golf cart had a hemi.

by john r on Dec 19, 2007 1:56 PM EST reply actions  

NFL games are decided by the losing team making more mistakes,

So Reggie Ball was an NFL-caliber QB then?

by DC Trojan on Dec 19, 2007 1:56 PM EST reply actions  

DC Trojan,

Based on some of the guys who have logged starting time this year, maybe.

by Biggus Rickus on Dec 19, 2007 1:59 PM EST reply actions  

#2: Um, Kevin? Yes, well, Penn State isn’ t that good anyway.

by UgasTexan on Dec 19, 2007 2:03 PM EST reply actions  

Penn St. never runs up the score? That’s funny, considering there’s a Penn St. football blog called “Run Up the Score.”

*facepalm

I used to enjoy Easterbrook…before I decided that NASA, Star Trek and 5,000 word treatises weren’t always the best components of a football column.

by OpenTheKomodo on Dec 19, 2007 2:05 PM EST reply actions  

I saw in the headline that he had bothered to address the college game and chose to ignore his column like I always do. Thanks for reminding me why that was a good decision.

Does this mean that interloper season has officially begun? Somebody tell Mitch Albom it’s time for his two cents again…

by Reed on Dec 19, 2007 2:34 PM EST reply actions  

TMQ does have a point about about over-valuing (and over-paying) coaches. But, what the hell else are we going to talk about during our 30-some day layoff?

Oh, and fuck Mitch Albom in the eye.

by Mr. Wrong on Dec 19, 2007 2:51 PM EST reply actions  

Eye fucking! That explains those ridiculously long ears!

by Sherlock Hemlock on Dec 19, 2007 3:20 PM EST reply actions  

He’s got some sound points, usually. He’s also an ass.

He’s doubly an ass this week for thinking that Mike Price is a job-bouncing opportunist. Aside from the Alabama mess, he’s never coached anywhere less than seven years (not counting UTEP, 2004-present). The strip club fiasco didn’t exactly make him look good, but it had nothing to do with job-hopping either.

by Erik on Dec 19, 2007 3:40 PM EST reply actions  

I never knew there was such animosity for the TMQ. I’ve been reading his column since he was over at salon. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite weekly article but it’s always at least an interesting read and on Tuesday I usually have the spare time.

Near as I can tell, Gimmick scheduling would be the football factory schools scheduling so many weak opponents that they are guaranteed a bowl game. Of course college football fans don’t call that gimmick scheduling. They just call it scheduling. That’s one of the few places where I really agree with him on college football. I’d still like to see a college football world where each team plays 10 or more games per year that they have a reasonable shot at losing.

by Dante on Dec 19, 2007 4:09 PM EST reply actions  

If “gimmick scheduling” were outlawed and your “10 losable games” rule instated, then who would mid-majors ever play? They would have to become a new 1AA and the current 1AA would be 1AAA.

by TIGERinATL on Dec 19, 2007 4:16 PM EST reply actions  

//Penn St. never runs up the score? That?s funny, considering there?s a Penn St. football blog called ?Run Up the Score.? //

In all seriousness, and this is not an “in all seriousness” blog, so it’s pretty moronic to post something serious in the comments section of of said blog, but PSU doesn’t run up the score. Thus the reason RUTS did a good job naming his blog. Its the reason they lost the MNC to Nebraska in the 90’s (see Indiana game).

The fact that the score was lopsided has a lot to do with FIU being an airport and not a college. Besides that, they might be the 150th best football team in the ncaa this season, maybe. Three QBs and like 47 running backs played during the second half of that game for PSU, you can only do so much to not score.

by Big 11th Blog on Dec 19, 2007 4:41 PM EST reply actions  

The weird part is, there’s a line in the PSU fight song that says “We’ll hit that line, roll up the score”. And I didn’t even use that. I just like the concept of running up the score, whether the victim is a keg of Yuengling, a garbage full of weed (Bam Morris, call me!) or Coastal Carolina.

Anyway, Paterno tends to avoid RUTSing if at all possible, and I don’t think that the FIU game is a particularly good example. It’s not like Paterno suddenly invoked the spirit of Spurrier — four of the last five TD drives were less than 40 yards.

A good data point in this discussion is the 2005 Illinois game. Penn State didn’t throw a single pass in the second half.

by Run Up The Score on Dec 19, 2007 5:55 PM EST reply actions  

Also, that would be “garbage bag”. Or garbage can. Or even a truck.

by Run Up The Score on Dec 19, 2007 5:56 PM EST reply actions  

#19, are you joking or are you seriously touting that as a reason not to play tougher schedules? I fail to see the downside there.

In an ideal world, there wouldn’t need to be a rule, just athletic directors concerned with making sure each game is competitive. It would be kind of fun to have an “X losable game” rule even if X is a low number just because the bigger teams are going to have to label some of their games not losable and that label would have to be sanctioned by the NCAA. That’s got to be some locker room motivation for the underdogs.

by Dante on Dec 19, 2007 9:14 PM EST reply actions  

Every Easterbrook column written:

blah… don’t blitz… blah… Science fiction bitch and moan… blah… go for it on fourth down.. blah… cheerleader… blah… use words like animadversion that ensure I never get laid.. blah.. repeat ad infinitum… blah.. cash ESPN check.

Clip this boys and girls so you can do something more interesting with your lives like watch paint dry.

by bevo on Dec 19, 2007 9:40 PM EST reply actions  

I very seldom read TMQ and now I remember why. The first part of that column about giving too much credit and blame to coaches was dead on though.

#19: I see no problem with that scenario.

If I were supreme potentate of college football, I’d say that any game against a 1AA team can’t count towards bowl eligibility. I think the only conference who handled the recent expansion of the schedule the right way was the Pac 10. Making every school play an extra-conference game rather than a cupcake was the correct decision. It does make the league LOOK worse in the conference pissing matches though since 1/2 the teams have to pick up a loss rather than them all just crushing cupcakes (except for the occasional HOT HOT HOT upset of course).

by oc phil on Dec 20, 2007 2:59 AM EST reply actions  

#24

And : my 12 year old knows the rules better than officials blah, blah, blah, I coach a kids’ football team better than NFL coaches, blah, blah, blah.

The only good thing you can say about him is that Peter King is worse.

by Not a Fifer on Dec 20, 2007 5:31 AM EST reply actions  

[pedant mode] It looks like a Rolls Royce grille, but with an eagle rather than the Flying Lady; so either a half-arsed attempt or avoiding RR IP issues.[/pedant mode]

by Not a Fifer on Dec 20, 2007 5:35 AM EST reply actions  

#s 23 and 25

Look, I don’t like scheduling 1-AA teams AT ALL – and my school has scheduled its share, for sure. I’m all for outlawing those games all together, or maybe not allowing any team that scheduled one to play in a BCS bowl, which would wipe it out from the big-boy schools (where is is most rediculous) all together.

But teams in the upper half of the major confrences couldn’t even play 8 conference games without having at least 4 practically guaranteed wins. Hell, the Big T(elev)en only has 3 ranked teams in the whole league.

I would also like to see the mid majors be split off somehow, because those teams really have no national championship they can even play for. Perhaps, if we ever get a D1A playoff, we can have a D1A NIT for those schools — NIT games in the afternoon and Big Boy tourny at night.

But if we cut off scheduling of CUSA, MAC, WACC etc. by BCS conference schools, then I hope you like the idea of the national champion having a 0.750 winning percentage, which is what you’ll get. Maybe that would be best. I don’t really know.

by TIGERinATL on Dec 20, 2007 8:59 AM EST reply actions  

When you see names like Larry Federoff and Graham Zug in the box score, that should tell you Penn State wasn’t running up the score on anyone….

by dmoney350z on Dec 20, 2007 5:50 PM EST reply actions  

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Because College Football is too important to be left to the professionals.

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recommended FanPosts

Img_0172_small
DICK TALK WITH JASON WHITLOCK
Sg_head_small
The Time A Kentucky Fan Saved Me From Being Raped and Murdered
Fbimgp0931_small
Thanks commertariat (and Spencer)

Recent FanPosts

Small
Yes Emma, there is a Jayhawk
227210_10150231884830560_734255559_9012780_1389568_n_small
Deep Thoughts with BamaTaxMan
Rotate-3_small
Climate Change and its First Effect on College Football
Turd_small
Dear Commentariat: HELP ME OUT
Small
A Year in the Life of a College Football Fan
Hangover_small
Six Nations Rugby - mud blood guts & beer
Small
To my Dawg friends

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >


Managers

Img_0172_small Spencer Hall

Small Orson

Screen_shot_2011-08-18_at_2 Holly Anderson

Editors

Lzprofilepictwopointoh_small Luke Zimmermann

Me_tuscaloosa_small Doug Gillett

Trex_small Run Home Jack