Almost Game Day

Well, it's almost game day. Some quick thoughts.

-- ESPN, HD, thank God. I'll be looking forward to waking up at 9am to instant entertainment. I'm not feeling completely comfortable with this game yet. Flying cross-country, getting adjusted to the time difference, and playing on grass are all small things that can throw off a football team. However, once the game starts, it won't be long before we start flexing our strengths. I anticipating a big day from Jhavid Best and for some of our receivers to have a breakout game (Boateng, Calvin, MJ).

-- Comcast spells Jhavid's name as "Dhavid". Seriously. I predict over 200 all purpose yards from Best tomorrow and that will for sure throw his name into the Heisman race.

-- Chris "Beanie" Wells won't play on Saturday against USC. Big shocker.

Pac-10 Football

- UCLA shocks Tennessee. Wow, no matter how much a don't like the baby blue bears, I have to tip my hat off to them. It's a nice win for the Pac-10, as just about everyone and their mommas thought that Tennessee was going to come in and just flat-out embarrass UCLA. This just brings me up to another point. I hate the SEC bias. There is a serious biased strain of thought that says that the SEC is heads and shoulders above every other conference and that it just simply not true. Some say that it doesn't matter. Oh, but it does matter. It affects the voting and the voting is what determines the BCS bowls at the end of the season. It's the same strain of thought that robbed CAL from a Rose Bowl bid in 2005. Believe what you want, but facts are facts. Since the inception of the BCS in 1998, the Pac-10 is 10-6 against the SEC and 6-2 when the games are played on the West Coast. To put it simply, we win more than we lose. So, they lose more than they win. It can't get anymore simple than that. But whatever, SEC this SEC that, excuse me while I go and throw up.

- CAL doesn't crack the top 25. Whatever, it's better this way; it keeps the Bear's nice and hungry. You don't want success to come too fast.

- Mark my words, Chris "Beanie" Wells is more hurt than Tressel leads us to believe. Did you see him writhe in pain on the floor? Looked like a serious injury to me. They're all in denial right now. Why else do you think that there is no official word yet? Because the word is that's bad. No, it's worse than you thought. He's out for a while. USC? Not even a chance. Think about it, if the diagnosis was good, wouldn't they immediately release the news that Wells is A-OK and ready for USC in 2 weeks? No, of course not, instead they keep his foot in a huge protective boot...and say that he's day to day. More like day to day to day to day...you get what I mean.

Final MSU Game Thoughts

Watched the game film, and here are my final thoughts:

- Our secondary is suspect. We have a new defensive back coach and I think there's a lot of promise there, however, he gave up way too many yards through the air. SQT looks great, but the other corner spot is what makes our secondary pretty average at best (at the moment). Darian Hagan beat out Chris Conte for the starting corner spot. He was notable recruit out of high school and I remember watching his press conference on TV when he picked up the Cal hat and committed to the Golden Bears. He has speed and athleticism, but is young and inexperienced. It was clear that Hoyer was just throwing to anyone that wasn't covered by SQT and Dell had about 200 yards on us alone. Hagan had about 5 missed INTs, which is crazy. Does that mean that he put himself in the position to make the play but just didn't execute? Or were it just a freak of nature type game. Seriously, how often do you get 5 chances for a pick in a game? SQT had like 1 chance, and he made the INT and tiptoed the sideline to make sure he was in. But anyways, I was never ever ever ever a fan of Conte, and I'm glad Hagan is there; we just have to wait and see if he's going to live up to his potential.

- Riley threw about 17 billion screen passes. This is reminiscent of how Aaron Rodgers played in the game against USC where he was like 23 for 23, but most of them were screens and dump-offs. It's fine because this allows Best and Vereen to get the balls in space, where they are extremely dangerous. Riley's emotion really shows on the field, he looks like Favre as a rookie, just hoopin and hollerin all the time. On the fake handoff-rollout-TD pass to Morrah, Riley threw his hands up signaling touchdown right after the ball left his hand. What a baller.

- Boateng had 2 drop passes that lead to a punting situation. From the field, I couldn't tell if it was a bad pass or a drop. After reviewing the play, it was clearly Boateng's bad. While they weren't perfect passes, they were easily catchable. One play, Boateng should have caught the ball with his hand, but instead let it come into his body and it bounced away. Does Boateng have small hands? I remember THA10 had gigantic hands. Literally had the hands of a 6'5 guy on a 5'9 body. It's no wonder THA10 caught everything...maybe it's the same reason why Boateng is missing everything.

- Layrelle Cunningham had 1 drop that lead to a punt and one ball that flew over his head. See, I'm not a fan of LC. He's the only guy that played last year out of the WR corp and I think he just got the starting job because Tedford wanted some experience in the offense. But seriously, the guy looks like Urkle. Skinny, not that fast, hands are suspect. Can we get a starting corp of Sean Young, Michael Calvin and Marvin Jones please?

- Alualu was causing havoc everywhere. When they realized they couldn't contain him one on one, they would double team him or put the fullback on his side. No sacks, but countless hurries and knockdowns. What a soldier.

- Special teams, seriously, that kickoff kicker walk-on sucks. I don't even know his name, it's #40. Gerogio or something like that. He's on the team for 2 days and is kicking freakin potatoes down the field. I think Seawright should give it a go. Seriously, if we continue to kick it to the 20 yard line and have them return it to the 35-40 every possession, we're going to be in trouble. However, field goal and punt teams look good.

- Tau'o'fu. Oh my god. I didn't even know how well he played. Well, first of all, he got his first career touchdown as a Senior, which was awesome. Two plays really stood out. #1, he totally creamed the outside linebacker that lead to a big game by Best down to the 5 yard line that set up his own touchdown on the screen pass. #2, he took out the linebacker AND defensive end on Vereen's 81 yard touchdown run. Best and Vereen should take him out for some top dogs, considering how many times he's going to spring them for big gains this year. Hoo rah!