College Football – A Season of 2 Games: One Becomes Abject Heartache, The Other Extreme Joy – Part 1

Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley

This is a story about the life of a college football team’s season in only two games—one was an abject heartache, and the other an extreme joy. The team was the University of Washington this season.

Charles Dickens penned this famous line in his novel “A Tale of Two Cities”—”It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .,” and the Husky football players experienced these two events in reverse order.

The Huskies ended their 2008 season with a winless 0-12 record. They opened their 2009 season at home against the then 11th-ranked Louisiana State University Tigers. Having lost 14 straight games over two seasons, the Husky faithful could be forgiven for expecting the worst.

Washington surprised everyone, and especially LSU, be taking the opening kick-off and marching down the field to score a touchdown. The Huskies were fired up under new head coach Steve Sarkisian, who would quickly become known as “Sark”

LSU entering the Super Dome to hurry and beat that other team, and go party
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Online Football Wagering Offers Sizzling Doubleheader Thursday Night!

Two teams with BCS Bowl aspirations continue their journey this Thursday night and with a simple click of your mouse, you can do some online gambling from the comfort or your home or wireless computer. In order to bet on these games it’s wise to arm yourself with some pertinent information so as to give you the best opportunity to pad your account.

Fort Worth, Texas will be the first stop as the surging TCU Horn Frogs welcome the Mormon boys of BYU. Coach Gary Patterson has been lobbying anyone who will listen for more respect for his troops. After disposing of the high flying Texas Tech Red Raiders he certainly has the sports betting public’s attention!

In winning their 13th straight game TCU’s winning streak is the longest in NCAA Division I-A, and one short of the school record. The record streak included the Frogs’ undefeated national championship in 1938, when quarterback Davey O’Brien won their only Heisman Trophy.
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LSU became the first team to win 2 BCS national championships in 2003-04 and 2007-08 against #1 Oklahoma and #1 Ohio State

2010 Missouri Tigers: BCS Predictions and Odds

The 2010 Missouri Tigers are just 3 seasons removed from being ranked number one in the nation heading into championship game weekend and just 2 seasons removed from starting out as a preseason favorite in college football betting picks to contend for the BCS title. This season the Tigers have 8 starters returning on both sides of the line and are a 70-1 longshot to win at online sportsbooks to win the national title in 2010 college football odds, which could prove to be a bargain value. Mizzou is coming off their 5th consecutive winning season and bowl game although their finale at the Texas Bowl was a disaster as they were blown off the field by Navy 13-35.

But the Tigers are a confident group heading into 2010 college football picks as quarterback Blaine Gabbert returns to lead the offense after passing for close to 3,600 yards with 24 touchdown passes. The top running backs all return led by senior Derrick Washington, who had 909 yards last

Big Ten Conference Universities: Quality and Pride in Action

The Big Ten Conference, which is the oldest athletic conference in the country, is widely respected and generally recognized as one of the nation’s leading conferences. What is it about the Big Ten that sets it apart from most other conferences? Well, there are undoubtedly many contributing factors, but in this short article I will discuss a few key qualities of the member institutions that largely account for the stature of the Big Ten.

First of all, the quality of the faculty and students is first-rate. Many of the faculty at Big 10 universities are leaders in their field, having achieved national and international recognition for themselves and for their institutions. Faculty at Big 10 universities are not only held to high standards for teaching, they also are expected to conduct leading edge research in their respective fields, and their writing appears regularly in books and in the most highly-respected and most exclusive scholarly journals. Read more..

BCS Bowl Trends ? 2010 BCS Bowl Games and BCS Bowl Predictions

BCS Bowl Trends – 2010 BCS Bowl New Year Games at Online Betting: Alright! We’re into the meat of college football’s bowl schedule.

The NCAA will ring off 2010 with two BCS bowl games on New Year’s Day.

The No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes will battle it out with the No. 7 Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl at Pasadena and the No. 3 Cincinnati Bearcats will go head to head with the No. 5 Florida Gators in the Sugar Bowl under the Superdome in Louisiana.

In “The Granddaddy of Them All,” online sportsbooks have the Ohio State Buckeyes as 5-point underdogs with a Total set at 50.5.

OSU fans are only too aware of this, but for everyone else we need to note that the Buckeyes haven’t won a bowl game in the past three seasons, going 0-3 straight up.

Ohio State could have trouble ending the three-bowl game losing streak though as starting QB Terrelle Pryor is banged up.

WHOOOOOOOOO, GOOOOOO GATOOORRRSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!! And yeah, I scream like a banshee, haha. THAT’S MY GATOR SPIRIT RIGHT THERE ‘YO!! XD
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Teddy Bridgewater: Bringing The U Back

The Miami Hurricanes football program, especially in the 1990s was the talk of the college football world, the gold standard of which a program should be, dominating year in and year out, winning numerous championships. In recent seasons, Miami has fallen behind the 8-ball a bit, and has taken a step back, not really being in discussion for the national championship, or any BCS title games. That all may change, for next season, 2011, as the Hurricanes have scored perhaps the best quarterback in the land, Teddy Bridgewater, to helm the program in 2011.

Bridgewater will play his senior season for Miami Northwestern High School this season, but as a junior, he tore things up. Bridgewater threw for 2500 yards and 32 touchdowns, while also rushing for 500 and 5 touchdown as well. Bridgewater is a dual threat quarterback, something that Miami has been lacking for the last few seasons. Bridgewater was the only QB recruited by Miami for the 2011 season, showing that

2010 Mountain West Football Predictions

Even though the Mountain West Conference is not considered a BCS bowl conference, they have made their presence known the past two seasons with Utah stunning Alabama in the Sugar Bowl in 2008 and TCU nearly beating Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl last season. Both teams figure to be very good again in 2010, and either could wind up playing in a BCS bowl game again this season, but the question remains if a team from this conference will ever earn enough credit to play for the National Championship.
 
One of the bigger stories surrounding the MWC this season will be the future departure of Utah, who has accepted an invitation to play for the Pac-10 starting next year. The Utes will have to beat a very good TCU team if they want to go out on top in their final season of MWC play. It was all TCU in 2009, as the Horned Frogs cruised to a perfect 8-0 conference record, and it looks like they are going to be the team to beat again in 2010. Here is a look at my

Missouri Tigers 2008 College Football Team Preview

Missouri is coming off a 12-2 season in which they lost both meetings to Oklahoma. The Big 12 title game loss to the Sooners ruined Missouri’s chance to play in the national title game. The Tigers did rebound to beat Arkansas, 38-7, in the Cotton Bowl. Missouri should once again have a shot to play for the National Championship.

It all starts with senior quarterback Chase Daniel. Daniel, fourth in Heisman Trophy voting last season, threw for 4,306 yards and 33 touchdowns in 2007. Under Daniel’s direction, the Tigers scored at least 36 points in their 12 wins and they reached the 40-point mark eight times.

Running back Tony Temple and his back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons are gone. The rushing duties will likely be handled by senior Jimmy Jackson and sophomore Derrick Washington. Washington played in 12 games as a true freshman and displayed big-play potential. Jackson has appeared in 38 collegiate games, tallying 636 yards and

3 Most Important Games With Title Implications

Although the BCS system itself is flawed, and many fans and media members, and even coaches and players are clamoring for a playoff in college football, one thing that the BCS does do is magnify the importance of the regular season, and bring more meaning to each game, each week on the field. This season is no short of any intense matchups, but I am going to look at the 3 most important games that have BCS title implications.

The first big matchup on September 6th between the Boise State Broncos and Virginia Tech Hokies, might have the most national title implications. Boise ran the table last year, but was left out of the big game due to a lack of quality opponents. So, to answer that, they scheduled Virginia Tech to kick off the season, another major program with big hopes. It is going to be a high scoring game, filled with offense as both teams have playmakers that are going to be sure to put points on the board. It’s going to be a back and forth battle, but

BCS Rankings – Alabama and Texas Meet For National Title

Final Projected BCS Rankings: Alabama and Texas Meet For National Title

We waiting weeks for this weekend to come, hoping that it would deliver the drama and intrigue that the rest of the season was missing, and it did not dissapoint.

Texas, playing in what was supposed to be a cakewalk of a Big 12 Championship Game instead needed instant replay on the clock and a 46-yard field goal that just sneaked in the uprights to clinch victory and a likely shot at the national title game.

Alabama and Florida were supposed to play in the season’s most intriguing game. Instead what we got was an Alabama romp, blowing out the Gators and likely clinching their shot at the national title.

So it’s likely that we’ll get that SEC Champ vs. Texas game when the last BCS standings are released tomorrow.

But it could have been much different.

If Texas had lost, we would have entered one of the