ESPN=Evangelical Suckers Promoting Nonsense

So the Detroit Lions were allegedly mocking Tim Tebow's prayer pose. Tebow denies it. A holier-than-thou ESPN columnist Jemele Hill does though: "Lions disrespected Tim Tebow's faith"!

Detroit linebacker Stephen Tulloch openly mocked Tebow's prayer pose -- a new phenomenon known across the Internet as "Tebowing" -- after sacking Tebow in the second quarter.

Tulloch explained directly after the game and on Twitter that he was just having some fun at the quarterback's expense.

"Football is a form of entertainment," Tulloch tweeted. "Have a sense of humor. I wasn't mocking GOD!"

(...)

Tulloch and Scheffler probably didn't intend to disrespect Tebow's faith with their celebrations. But if Tebow were Muslim or Jewish, would Tulloch and Scheffler have been so quick to execute a prayer parody? Would columnists, such as my friend Dan Wetzel -- whom I respect a great deal -- encourage those who were offended by Tulloch's and Scheffler's Tebowing to just lighten up?

"I think the linebacker for the Lions was attempting to not mock God, but to mock Tebow and have fun with it," said Gordon Thiessen, the director for training and resources for the Nebraska Fellowship of Christian Athletes, "but it was still in bad taste and inappropriate, at best."

(...)

Prayer is a sacred component of any religion. Making fun of someone else's spiritual connection is on par with ridiculing them about their family. You don't have to be a Christian to get that, just someone who understands the concept of respect.

Ms. Hill, c'mon. Have whatever religious beliefs or none as you want...no one is obligated to agree with those beliefs. Can't you tell the difference between attacking people and attacking ideas? Religion deserves to be criticized and ridiculed even though it is a constitutional right in the US. Go ahead and believe in hell or practice witchcraft if you want. I'm never ever going to embrace that superstitious nonsense. It's frustrating that most mainstream media voices such as Hill are quicker to defend religion instead of considering that religion isn't as positive and inspiring as it promotes itself. I wish PZ Myers, Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris had more media exposure to their ideas.

Does believing in God and following the Ten Commandments have ANY, I repeat, ANY objective connection with being able to throw complete passes or make defensive stops? NO. BTW, thank you to ESPN.com commenters (the most liked comments are critical of Hill's commentary). Furthermore, Tebow had the audacity to lose his face in the Super Bowl before the 2010 draft with an incredibly stupid Super Bowl commercial for the Christian fundamentalist group Focus on the Family in which he essentially credits his promise to a great football career to his mother choosing to carry him to term despite recommendations otherwise from doctors.

Now on to Tebow's performance as an NFL player. Tebow is now in his 2nd professional season with the Denver Broncos. As a rookie, he played 9 games and started 5; he completed 50% of his passes over 654 yards for 5 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Passes averaged 8 yards each. Ran for 6 TDs too. 82.1 rating. Thing is, will Tebow have a great NFL career or will he become a bust a la JaMarcus Russell or a mediocre and at age 30 will become a motivational speaker or preacher? Let's compare Tebow's rookie stats with those of other great QBs (source: NFL.com player profiles):

• John Elway (also played for the Broncos) in 1983: 47.5% completed over 1,663 yards. 6.4 yards/pass. Passed for 7 TDs and ran in 1. 54.9 rating.
• Drafted in 1987, Rich Gannon played his first season as starter in 1990. He had a 52.1% completion rate for 16 TDs and 16 INTs. 68.9 rating.
• Drafted in 1991 by Atlanta Falcons, Brett Favre played as a starter the first time in 1992 with the Green Bay Packers. 64.1% completed over 3,227 yards for 18 TDs and 13 INTs. 85.3 rating.
• Aaron Rodgers of the Packers played his first 3 pro seasons as Favre's backup before starting all 16 games of 2008. Stats: 63.6% for 28 TDs and 13 INTs. 93.8 rating.

So far, Tebow hasn't broken out big early in his career like Elway, Gannon, Favre, and Rodgers have.

Guess what, Jemele Hill and other brainless Christian apologists? This isn't a Christian nation anymore, and fewer and fewer in America want to be associated with such uselessness. Yes I know I'm gonna get spam from godbots and anger from narrow-minded fundies. But still. It's the 21st century and we should be over this idiocy already.

Very last minute WAC picks for Oct. 29

Personal reasons including midterms made me procrastinate all the way 'til 2 hours before SJSU/Louisiana Tech kickoff!

San Jose State (3-4, 2-1 WAC) at Louisiana Tech (3-4, 2-1 WAC): SJSU Spartans by 3. On Nov. 27, 2010, Louisiana Tech Bulldogs beat San Jose State 45-38 after a last-minute interception to prevent a San Jose State opportunity to tie the game. A better-than-ever Spartan team comes to Ruston, La. off a dramatic comeback victory against Hawaii in homecoming a few weeks ago. Back then, SJSU relied on mainly a passing game against La. Tech and was outrun 374-26. However, with Brandon Rutley gaining much crucial yardage every game for the Spartans, the Spartans can play a close game against the Bulldogs. However, comparing the running stats of SJSU and LT, it is important to note that La. Tech has on average outrun opponents and has a slight edge in averages:

• Average ypg: LT 138.3, SJSU 129.6
• Average yards per carry: SJSU 3.9, LT 3.3
• Rushing TDs: LT 14, SJSU 10

Thus, as coach Mike MacIntyre has acknowledged it's important to stop LT's running back Lennon Creer, this game might be the Battle of the Running Backs. The last time San Jose State won in Ruston was in 1993, and SJSU last won an away conference game in 2008. SJSU's defensive line should be accounted for especially with the critical defensive plays vs. Hawaii (which beat La. Tech 44-26 on Oct. 1) including forcing 5 Hawaii turnovers and blocking a point after for a 2-point safety return.

Hawaii (4-3, 2-1 WAC) at Idaho (1-6, 0-3 WAC): Hawaii by 20. Idaho has lost 5 in a row and has won only against the I-AA North Dakota. Unless Bryant Moniz throws 5 INTs again like he did against SJSU, Hawaii definitely has the offensive advantage (stats: Hawaii, Idaho). SJSU faces Idaho in San Jose on Nov. 5. Will be on ESPN3 from 5PM Eastern.

Nevada (4-3, 2-0 WAC) at New Mexico State (3-4, 1-2 WAC): Nevada by 9. NMSU's strength is in the passing game, as this is the one offensive area with NMSU has edged opponents including 14.7 yards per catch (Nevada has only 13.5). In Nevada, freshman QB Cody Fajardo is taking over as main QB while senior Tyler Lantrip is relegated to backup. Fajardo currently has a 72.7% completion rate but has thrown 4 INTs over 2 TDs, while NMSU's starter Matt Christian (in for the injured Andrew Manley) 8 TDs for 1 INT.

Quick WAC picks for Oct. 22

Sorry people I've been really busy the past week especially with midterms and just a few minutes before the first WAC football game of the weekend I'll make some really quick picks for the weekend. Anyway, SJSU made a 4Q comeback in a roller-coaster game last Friday night to beat Hawaii 28-27 and has today off. I'll post more on that game later.

In the meantime (all these games will be live on ESPN3.com):
- Louisiana Tech (2-4, 1-1 WAC) at Utah State (2-4, 0-1 WAC): Utah State by 10. All four of the Aggies' losses (most recently last wk against Fresno State) came by losing leads in the 4Q. It's less likely to happen this time around as Utah State, with the 29th-ranked defense in D1 football (vs. La. Tech's 78th) also has a huge edge in its QB Chuckie Keeton who's yet to throw an INT in 2011 (LT's Nick Isham has thrown 7 INTs) and thus Keeton has a 147.3 rating vs. Isham's 117.3. The Aggies' running unit has produced nearly twice as many rushing yards (1,793 over LT's 882) and 22 TDs (LT 12 TDs). (Source: ESPN.com statistics on the teams)
- Fresno State (3-4, 2-0 WAC) at Nevada (3-3, 1-0 WAC): Nevada by 6. The Wolf Pack have the edge in rushing and defense (13 TDs in 1,493 yards, and defensively 354.6 yards per game), but Fresno State has strengths in its passing game. Note that Nevada's QB Tyler Lantrip has thrown 6 INTs and 5 TDs thus far, while Fresno State's Derek Carr 12 TDs and 5 INTs and that Nevada Wolf Pack's average passes span 12.9 yards while Fresno State Bulldogs 11.8. In its three road games so far, the Bulldogs lost 2 (to the mediocre Pac-12 Cal Berkeley and ranked Big 12 team Nebraska) and won against the struggling WAC Idaho. Also interesting of note, both teams will relocate to the Mountain West Conference beginning in 2012. If Nevada wins it'll definitely confirm critics' predictions (i.e. Bleacher Report) that Nevada will again be the top WAC team this year like in 2010. These teams are generally predicted to be the best: Sports Illustrated projected that Fresno State would be the top.
- New Mexico State (3-3, 1-1 WAC) at Hawaii (3-3, 1-1 WAC): Hawaii by 17. Returning to Manoa, the Warriors look to redeem themselves following a shocking loss against the San Jose State Spartans on national television last Friday. Indeed, New Mexico State should be an easy team to beat as Bryant Moniz completed 63.5% of his passes for 17 TDs and also threw 4 INTs; NMSU's Matt Christian 59.4% for 6 TDs and 1 INT. It's doubtful that this will be a repeat of the SJSU/Hawaii Turnover Show (both teams had each around 5 turnovers) as Hawaii in addition to home field advantage also can gain much yardage against a 93rd-ranked NMSU defense (Hawaii has 28th).

Weekly Spartan and WAC football review and picks

October 8: Brigham Young beat San Jose State 29-16 in a game televised on ESPNU. The factors? (Sources: Box score, play by play)

• SJSU gets the ball after Keith Smith recovered a Riley Nelson fumble at SJSU's 3 yard line, pre-empting BYU's first scoring attempt. However, a bad snap sent the ball flying to the end zone and a safety for BYU. BYU then gets the ball and scores a TD and goes up 9-0. On his weekly radio show on KLIV-AM, coach Mike MacIntyre explained that the BYU fans sitting behind end zone were so loud that the snapper misheard directions and promised that this would never happen again.
  
• However, SJSU did get a field goal and TD off both times when BYU's Nelson threw interceptions.
• An inept Spartan defense let BYU's punter get a rest: Never in the game did BYU ever have to punt on 4th down! It was either scoring or turnovers for the BYU offense.
  
• Furthermore, SJSU's leading rusher Brandon Rutley sat out the game due to ankle injury but will return on Friday night v. Hawaii. Without Rutley, SJSU was outrushed 70-224. In contrast, in the past 2 wins with Rutley, SJSU ran for 230 yards (against New Mexico St) and 137 yards (Colorado State).

However, Rutley's fellow backup running backs Jason Simpson and Tyler Ervin did provide the backbone for the SJSU scoring drives that did exist. Simpson ran 39 yards; the freshman Ervin 40. Tight end Ryan Otten continued to be a reliable receiver having caught for a total of 108 yards; regular WR Noel Grigsby caught for 88.

Furthermore, SJSU will have to put up against a powerful defense much more cunning and intimidating than BYU's. According to USAToday.com:

• Hawaii's defense is ranked 27th of all FBS teams and has allowed an average 327 yards per game, 5.14 yards per play, and throughout the year 18 touchdowns.
• Colorado State: 33rd, 344.00 yards/game, 5.18 yards/play, 17 TDs.
  
• BYU: 43rd, 351.33 yards/game, 5.58 yards/play, 16 TDs.
• SJSU: 92nd, 414.50 yards/game, 5.98 yards/play, 22 TDs.

Bryant Moniz, the starting QB for the Hawaii Warriors, currently has a greater quarterback rating (150.7) than SJSU's Matt Faulkner (126.4) and slightly edges Faulkner with a 64.6% completion rate in contrast with Faulkner's 62.8%. And Moniz has thrown 15 TDs in contrast with 1 INT; Faulkner has 4 each of both TDs and INTs. SJSU defense will have to scare and pressure Moniz...and should he get injured, Moniz' backup David Graves has been pretty reliable so far with a 70% completion rate of 20 passes over 111 yards.

Hawaii's running unit has generated much production: 8 TDs over 435 yards, while SJSU took 804 yards to score 9 TDs.

Many in the SJSU community are hyping this game as it will be ESPN's Friday night game of the week; kickoff will be 6PM Pacific. Other outlets broadcasting the game will be ESPN3.com (the live streaming arm of ESPN) and local radio stations KSJS-FM 90.5 (pregame 5:30PM followed by the game in entirety) and joining in progress at 7PM KLIV-AM 1590. (KLIV is a news station, I guess they insisted on playing the news at six in the evening in competition with the TV stations.)

If Hawaii in Ruston, La. could beat Louisiana Tech , ranked higher than SJSU in both passing and rushing, 44-26 on Oct. 1, it will take a strong-willed defense for the Spartans even to get close to beating Hawaii. In fact, in September, Hawaii lost 40-20 on the road to UNLV, whose statistics and overall record are even worse than SJSU. UNLV choked Hawaii to only 6 yards of rushing that game and forced 4 turnovers! Indeed, Hawaii has specialized its game in passing instead of run plays. So with hopes that the Spartan defense can stop Hawaii at its tracks at times with interceptions and forced loss fumbles, I regretfully must pick Hawaii to win by 15 on Friday night. Still I will be watching on ESPN3.com to see how SJSU fares on national TV, should be an extra motivation.

Other picks:
New Mexico (Mountain West Conf., 0-5...when will they ever win?) at Nevada (2-3): Nevada by 21. Nevada last week blew out its in-state MWC rival UNLV 37-0, that game was in Reno. This is an offensively well-rounded Wolf Pack team vs. a New Mexico team leaning towards pass/receive. Nevada's runners have average 4.8 yards per carry, NM 3.5, and Nevada's Mike Ball 4.7 vs. NM (freshman) Crusoe Gongbay 4.0.

Idaho (1-5, 0-2 WAC) at New Mexico State (2-3, 0-1 WAC): NMSU by 13. In completing passes, NMSU Aggies QB Andrew Manley finishes 56.9% with 6 TDs and 3 INTs, Idaho's Brian Reader 51.1% with 9 TDs and 6 INTs. NMSU offense also has the edge (Rushing TDs: 5-3, Received TDs: 11-9). Will be on ESPN3.

Utah State (2-3) at Fresno State (2-4, 1-0 WAC): Another ESPN3 game. Utah State by 7. With a 64.8% completion rating and 157.0 overall QB rating, Chuckie Keeton can definitely create a fast edge in offense in contrast to Fresno State's Derek Carr, who has completed just 60.5%. Keeton has yet to throw an interception this season, while Carr has thrown 6. Both teams have very similar reception averages around 12 yards each, but Utah State again has another offensive edge in rushing: 6.4 yards per carry vs. Fresno State's 4.0 yards/carry.

South of the Great Salt Lake is a rallying team, and north exists one that easily loses leads

Last post I picked the Utah State Aggies to beat the Brigham Young Cougars by 7. Unfortunately, thanks to a last-minute touchdown catch off a deflection, BYU won 27-24. (WatchESPN has the game in its entirety here.) Now if you don't get my title, here's why:
- Utah State University is in Logan, Utah, a city about 60 miles north of Salt Lake City and on the north side of the Great Salt Lake. Brigham Young University is in Provo, Utah, around 30 miles south of SLC and thus south of the Lake.
- The Utah State Aggies, a Western Athletic Conference team, played tonight at BYU, a longtime regional rival that became a Division I-A independent after about a decade in the Mountain West Conference. In 2010, Utah State beat BYU in Logan, 31-16. Utah State last beat BYU in Provo in 1978. Today's loss puts Utah State at 1-3, and all three of USU's losses so far have all been of 4 or fewer points and after USU led the other team in the 4th quarter. The other losses came against Auburn (the national champions) and Colorado State.
- In contrast, the BYU Cougars are now 3-2, and all 3 of their wins were decided in the 4th quarter. BYU rallied from a 4Q 13-0 deficit in its opener at Mississippi to win 14-13. Later in Provo, BYU won against Central Florida 24-17 having trailed 10-3 after halftime and drawn 17-17 after 3Q. Tonight, Utah State once held a lead of 24-13 in 4Q before their defense fell asleep and let BYU score 2 TD's.

Utah State kicker Josh Thompson unsuccessfully attempted to fake a field goal since he didn't want to kick from 48 yards (his longest this year is 41). As seen at the 2 hour 53 minute mark of the linked video, the ball bounced off the hands of tight end Tarren Lloyd. After USU lost the ball on downs, 7:51 remained in 4Q. BYU has the ball but fumbles in USU territory and now 3:53 left. USU advances the ball only 1 yard and punts all the way to BYU's 4-yard line with 2:36 left. This drive confirms that USU defense really slacked off in the final quarter as BYU's tight end Marcus Mathews would fetch the ball in the end zone after USU's cornerback Will Davis deflected it (this play is in the 3 hour 17 minute mark of video). ESPN replayed BYU's TD from an angle looking at the uprights, and it seems that Davis probably could've eyed Mathews:


Oh, it seems that J.J. di Luigi of BYU also deflected the ball. Had Davis gotten both hands on it it would've been like when Nevada made a last-minute interception to seal its 17-14 victory over SJSU 2 weeks ago.

The implications for SJSU's games against BYU, USU:
San Jose State plays BYU at Provo on Oct. 8. I'll be able to make a better prediction after SJSU plays Colorado State tomorrow, but for now it looks like BYU will steamroll the Spartans. Meanwhile, SJSU will play USU later in the month, and we'll see if USU can learn how to defend leads (which SJSU has been able to do this year, see last week against NMSU).

A tardy little SJSU post game analysis and WAC picks for the weekend

I went to last Saturday's SJSU/NMSU football game, and SJSU won 34-24. Once again RB Brandon Rutley was a fugitive from the defensive justice. In the Spartans' first possession, he scored a 66-yard rushing touchdown; the Aggies scored a field goal on their first possession after the Spartans forced a 4th & goal from the 1-yard line. Although SJSU ended the 2nd and 3rd quarters with ties, SJSU scored a touchdown and field goal in the 4th and didn't allow any Aggie scoring to seal the win. Watch the full game on WatchESPN here.

Spartan QB Matt Faulkner threw no interceptions that day, and SJSU lost only one fumble, compared with the 3 lost fumbles vs. Nevada and the last-minute end zone interception that sealed the win for Nevada. However, the one interception that Aggie QB Matt Christian threw in the 3rd the Spartans returned for a TD to go up 31-24 in the 4th. While both teams (box score) had very close receiving yardage (NMSU 238, SJSU 236), the Spartans had the edge in rushing, 230-185, after falling behind to Nevada 138-261. This will be one key for the upcoming away game at Colorado State: outrushing wins games. Most telling of all: the Aggies racked 8 penalties for a loss of 76 yards, while SJSU had only one 5-yard penalty on an ineligible downfield pass. Two of those penalties came after SJSU 3rd downs, and one of them was during an SJSU scoring drive.

Preview: SJSU at Colorado State
On Saturday, SJSU plays the Colorado State Rams in Fort Collins, Co. at 2PM Mountain Time (1PM Pacific too). Listen on the radio at KLIV 1590 (either on the air or streaming online) or if you have DirecTV watch on the MountainWest Sports Network "the mtn." I think the mtn is available in HD. So what's my pick for that game? Well, Colorado State's quarterback Pete Thomas will be quite a challenge for the Spartans, with a whopping 67.7% completion rate in 4 games! The last time the Spartans faced a quarterback with a 60%+ rate, they lost...56-3 to Stanford on the first season game, whose QB Andrew Luck had a 65.3% completion rate.

The Colorado State vs. Utah State game
However, keep in mind that the Rams' last game (in Logan, Utah) was against another WAC team, the Utah State Aggies, and Colorado State won by one only because Utah State's 2-point conversion after a TD failed. In that game, Pete Thomas completed 16 of 28 passes (57.1%), and Utah State's Chuckie Keeton completed 9 of 15 (60%). Utah State, who last year narrowly beat SJSU 38-34 in a roller coaster back and forth game, outrushed Colorado State 281-124 but lagged in receiving 86-108. In fact, although USU led CSU 21-13 with about 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter, CSU scored the tying touchdown and 2-point conversion after USU's Eric Moats fumbled a kick return, and while Utah State managed to score TD's on both its OT drives, Utah State's 2-point conversion in its final drive for the win was unsuccessful. (That game was also on ESPN3, watch in full here.) The Rams' only loss so far was 28-14 in an away game against in-state rivals Colorado Buffaloes (who joined the Pac-12 this year after being in the Big 12). Similar to the Utah State game, Colorado State won 14-10 against the still-winless New Mexico Lobos over a 4th-quarter go-ahead TD.

New Mexico Bowl champs
Here's another interesting historical tidbit: in the 2008 New Mexico Bowl, Colorado State rallied in the 4th quarter to beat Fresno State 40-35. SJSU won the 2006 New Mexico Bowl over New Mexico, 20-12.

The quarterbacks
And regarding quarterbacks: so far Matt Faulkner's only thrown interception was the end zone one vs. Nevada that prevented SJSU from taking a lead with one minute left. Meanwhile, CSU's Pete Thomas threw 3 interceptions in CSU's victory over Northern Colorado, and his completion rating has fallen each game from a high of 84% in the opener to 57% against Utah State. Against New Mexico State, Faulkner completed 63% of his passes.

Misc.
So far, SJSU has never blown a lead to lose a game in 2011, but did in 2010 three times: against UC Davis (a I-AA team), New Mexico State, and Utah State. Colorado State has won two games on comebacks: the one against New Mexico and another in OT against Utah State. The factor that made the Aggies slide down the Rockies was the fumbled punt return by Moats. So far, SJSU has never fumbled a kick return. The Spartans' victory v. NMSU was a heavier victory than SJSU's one victory in 2010 - a 16-11 win over the I-AA Southern Utah decided by a last-minute TD run by Lamon Muldrow. SJSU's two victories in 2009 were in low-scoring contests: 19-9 over the I-AA Cal Poly and 13-10 over New Mexico State.

Now comparing other statistics between the Spartans and Rams. Meanwhile, Colo. St.'s leading wide receiver, Crockett Gilmore, averages 11.3 yards per catch as opposed to SJSU's Noel Grigsby with 8.5 yards per catch. However, SJSU's Rutley has 388 rushing yards and 5.7 yards per carry while CSU's Raymond Carter has only 245 (5.2/carry). Three Spartans (Rutley, Ryan Otten, and Jabari Carr) have had receptions/runs of 60 or more yards, a feat no Ram has yet. Defensively, as the SJSU preview article points out, in the past 2 games the SJSU defense has allowed 0 4th quarter scoring by opponents in both the past 2 games.

In coach Mike MacIntyre's second year with the team, the Spartans have now won a truly hard-fought victory with little flaws or carelessness. Still, the 3-1 Colorado State Rams appear to have the edge, and it is doubtful that San Jose State can really pull off an upset victory unless they continue improving. Still, at my most optimistic, my pick will be San Jose State by 3.

Other WAC Games...
Utah State at (I-A independent) Brigham Young (Friday at 6PM Mountain/8PM Eastern on ESPN and ESPN3.com): Utah State by 7. BYU has yet to win a game by more than 7 points this season and appears to be on the decline ever since leaving the Mountain West after 2010. BYU's victories over Mississippi (14-13) and Central Florida (24-17) both came following deficits. Meanwhile, Utah State appears to have promise this season. In its opener, the Aggies nearly beat the defending national champions Auburn Tigers...IN AUBURN, ALABAMA TOO!...but lost 42-38 after Auburn's successful on-side kick and subsequent touchdown. In that game, Aggie QB Chuckie Keeton's strong arm contributed to Utah State's surprisingly high score with 21 of 30 completed passes, and Keeton has an overall 66.7% completion rate this season compared to BYU QB Jake Heaps' 55.6%. Additionally, Utah State has scored 15 TD's on running plays, 13 more than BYU has this year.

That's the only Friday WAC game this weekend. All others on Saturday.

Nevada at (#4) (Mountain West Conf.) Boise State: Boise State by 10. As the currently 3-0 Boise State, which moved from the WAC to MWC this year, continues to rack high rankings and victories, Nevada is coming off a 2010 season from being the top WAC team to a possibly mediocre season. Boise State Broncos QB Kellen Moore is going to hunt down the Wolf Pack with his 79% completion rate and will give much advantage to the Broncos' receiving unit that has scored 13 TD's on receptions, while the Wolf Pack has only 3 receiving TD's as of now. In 2010, Nevada came back from behind in the 4th and beat Boise State 34-31 in OT.

Idaho at (Atlantic Coast Conf.) Virginia (will be on ESPN3): Virginia by 14. Besides the obvious competitive differences between the WAC and ACC, with 10 rushing TDs so far in 2011 and QB Michael Rocco having a 62.2% completion rate the Virginia Cavaliers will put their rushing game at an advantage. Furthermore, Idaho's only victory has come against the I-AA North Dakota.

Hawaii at Louisiana Tech (ESPN3): Hawaii by 7. Hawaii has yet to win any road games this season, and while both the Rainbow Warriors and Bulldogs QBs have completion rates in the 60 percent range, given how the Rainbow Warriors have scored 11 TDs on receptions they can put up a great offensive threat against LT.

New Mexico State at (MWC) New Mexico: New Mexico State by 9. With regular starter Andrew Manley out for the season due to injury, NMSU Aggies QB Matt Christian showed much potential in his first game of 2011, the loss to SJSU, with 17 for 28 completed passes. In 4 games, New Mexico Lobos have yet to win a single game...and are so bad they even lost to the I-AA Sam Houston State in OT! Furthermore, Lobos RB James Wright averages only 3.2 yards per carry over 114 yards, while Aggies RB Kenny Turner averages 7.

(Southeastern Conf.) Ole Miss (Mississippi) at Fresno State: Fresno State by 3. I was about to pick Mississippi alone on being an SEC team, but given how the Fresno State Bulldogs have a wide receiver (Jalen Saunders) who averages 30.5 yards per catch, I'd be a bit hesitant.

My WAC football picks for Sept. 24

New Mexico State (1-2) at San Jose State (0-3, 0-1 WAC): SJSU by 7. The two teams meet for the first time since October 30, 2010 when NMSU scored a touchdown with 0 seconds left to beat SJSU 29-27 in Las Cruces, N.M. While NMSU has not appeared in a bowl since 1960 and has yet to have an above-.500 season since joining the WAC in 2005, SJSU has a better track record of: 3 bowl appearances in the 1980s (as a member of the Pacific Coast Athletic Association including winning the 1986 California Bowl), winning the 1990 California Bowl (while in the now-defunct Big West Conference of football), and winning the 2006 New Mexico Bowl (as a WAC school). Since joining the Western Athletic Conference in 1996, SJSU has had three above-.500 seasons: 2000, 2006, and 2008. Additionally, from 2005-2010, SJSU is 5-1 against NMSU (the 1 being that ugly loss in 2010). Oh, if you wanna see highlights of that game, the New Mexico State Aggies YouTube channel has them:



One cause for concern though is NMSU's unlikely victory last week over the Big 10 team Minnesota that included the seizure of Minnesota Golden Gophers coach Jerry Kill (who was taken to hospital). Additionally, NMSU sophomore quarterback Andrew Manley has a 59% completion rate...higher than Matt Faulkner's 53%, and has passed for 892 yards compared to San Jose State's 477 among 3. However, SJSU has the edge in rushing, averaging 4.0 yards per carry in 367 yards and 4 touchdowns in contrast with NMSU's paltry 1.7 yards per carry in 155 with just 1 TD. While SJSU has yet to score a touchdown by reception (they almost did last week until that interception) in 477 receiving yards with an average 10.4 per catch, in 892 yards and 14.4 per catch NMSU has scored 6. NMSU's receivers are going to be the Aggies' driving force, and SJSU's defensive line needs to watch out and restrict yardage and break up as many passes as they can.

Elsewhere in WAC football...
Fresno State (0-2) at Idaho (1-2): Idaho by 4. A tough one, as both teams have extremely close stats in rushing, passing, and receiving (FS, ID). The Fresno State Bulldogs beat the Idaho Vandals 23-20 in 2010 at Fresno. Idaho needs to look out because Fresno's running back Robbie Rouse has been on the loose all season with an average 4.6 yards per carry in 365 and 3 of the 4 rushing touchdowns by the Bulldogs. Ryan Bass, the Vandals' RB, average 4.0 yards each carry in only 117, and his longest run was an 18-yard TD. Idaho, however, has a slight edge in receiving with six TDs in 666 (EVIL) yards vs. Fresno's 4 TDs in 639.

Louisiana Tech (1-2) at Mississippi State (SEC) (1-2): Mississippi State by 9. Don't let Miss State's 1-2 start fool you: the Southeastern Conference Bulldogs are coming off a breakout 2010 season that ended with a blowout victory over the Big 10 Michigan Wolverines in the Gator Bowl. Meanwhile, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs...dang, this is the Battle of the (southern) Bulldogs right here!...have suffered two close losses to southern-region Conference USA teams: 19-17 at Southern Mississippi and 35-34 vs. Houston. In both games, La. Tech blew leads in 4th quarter. Mississippi State's 694 rushing yards far outweighs La. Tech's 522 and will play a greater role for the Bulldogs' offense than La. Tech QB Nick Isham's greater passing depth of 693 yards vs. Miss. State's Chris Relf at 493.

Nevada (1-1, 1-0 WAC) at Texas Tech (Big 12) (2-0): Texas Tech by 14. Another WAC team goes to the football-loving state? And it's sure telling how the defending WAC champions couldn't even play a BLOWOUT game against the worst WAC team of 2010 (no I'm not still gloating I'm just observing). The Wolf Pack's Tyler Lantrip has NOTHING (57.1% completions in 331 yards) against the Texas Tech Red Raiders' Seth Doege (81.8%, 727). These two teams diverge greatly in advantages of rushing (Nevada 544 yards and 4 TDs, Texas Tech 335 and 5) and receiving (Texas Tech 794 and 10, Nevada 395 and 1). In their last meeting, Texas Tech beat Nevada 35-19 in Reno on September 6, 2008. And that was when Colin Kaepernick (now with the NFL's San Francisco 49ers) was the starting QB!

Colorado State (Mountain West Conference) (2-1) at Utah State (1-1): Utah State by 6. The Utah State Aggies, otherwise not an extremely well-storied football team, showed some promise in its opener when it held 1st-half leads against the defending national champs Auburn Tigers but lost 42-38. Colorado State has had 10 bowl appearances since 1992 (the latest being a win in the 2008 New Mexico Bowl). (Before 1999, Colorado State was in the WAC.) Utah State, since 1998 and through 4 affiliations (Big West, independent, Sun Belt, and now WAC) has never had an above-.500 season since losing the 1997 Humanitarian Bowl. In both rushing and receiving, Utah State (6.7 and 12.2 vs. Colorado State's 4.2 and 8.8), and in rushing, Utah State has produced twice as many TDs as Co. State has.

UC Davis (I-AA) (1-2) at Hawaii (1-2): Hawaii by 10. Bummer. ESPN.com lacks stats for the UC Davis Aggies. Of course I-AA teams are easy wins for I-A WAC teams (unless it's SJSU in 2010 vs. UC Davis...)

Another blown opportunity for the Spartans

San Jose State lost 17-14 to the defending WAC first-place team and defending Fight Hunger Bowl champion Nevada Wolf Pack on yet ANOTHER last-minute end zone interception. Similar thing happened in 2010 in the Spartans' game against Utah State. So far, SJSU is 0-3 including 0-1 in the WAC, and I initially got a bit heated and (sorry if it offended you on facebook) and predicted a winless season. HOWEVER...in terms of scoring deficits, SJSU is improving, having lost in week 1 to Stanford by 54 (57-3) and in week 2 to UCLA by 10 (27-17). In the UCLA game 2 weeks ago SJSU had tied the game 17-17 after 3 quarters then completely shut down afterwards. Yesterday v. Nevada, both teams were tied 7-7 after the first, then Nevada led 17-7 after 3 quarters, and then SJSU's Brandon Rutley made a 4th-and-1 touchdown run fighting off a pile of Nevada defenders to put the score where it ended up being. With just over a minute left in the 4th, SJSU had driven 69 yards all the way to Nevada's 15 yard line. Noel Grigsby caught Matt Faulkner's 1st-and-10 pass in the end zone out of bounds, so it was an incomplete. The dagger in the Spartans' chest came in Faulkner's 3rd-and-9 pass targeted to Chandler Jones that got intercepted by Nevada's Duke Williams. At least SJSU had 2 interceptions, including Peyton Thompson's 1st-quarter one at the end zone to disrupt Nevada's first touchdown attempt. Also, SJSU stopped Nevada on one of its two 4th-and-1 plays.

Some other statistical highlights:
- SJSU again improved in passing yards with a 152-112 edge over Nevada in contrast with last week when the Spartans trailed the UCLA Bruins by 30 yards (115-145). SJSU averaged 4.6 yards per pass v. Nevada, 1.1 better than against UCLA. Accounting for this improvement is the return of senior quarterback Matt Faulkner who recovered from concussions after sitting out the previous game. Redshirt freshman quarterback Dasmen Stewart had some playing time vs. the Wolf Pack during the 1st half.
- However, SJSU slipped in rushing with just 138 yards yesterday vs. 202 against UCLA.
- Still, San Jose State quarterbacks have yet to complete a touchdown pass.
- Two of the three lost fumbles by the Spartans led to Nevada scores. First was in the beginning of 2nd quarter, game tied, and Pompey Festejo intercepted a Nevada pass and returned it for 30 yards only to fumble it in Nevada's 43, and Nevada scored a touchdown + extra point off that recovery. Also in the 3rd quarter, Dasmen Stewart fumbled on a 1st-and-10 (no he didn't rush 70 yards contra what ESPN play by play says), and Nevada scored a field goal off the recovery and led 17-7.

BTW, the whole game is available in its entirety at WatchESPN.com. (SJSU's final drive begins at 2 hrs 57 mins in the video.)

Elsewhere in WAC football...
The ONLY Western Athletic Conference team that won on week 3 was...Fresno State! A 27-22 win over the I-AA North Dakota. Two of my six picks from Friday were correct in terms of win/loss...I was almost right about UTEP/NMSU (UTEP won by 6, I thought NMSU would win by 3), almost right about SJSU (I picked SJSU by 7...almost was really SJSU by 4), and totally wrong about Hawaii/UNLV (I picked Hawaii by 17, but it ended up really UNLV by 20). NMSU's loss to UTEP could provide some relief and confidence for the Spartans, who face the Aggies in San Jose on Saturday afternoon. NMSU was the second-worst WAC team in 2010, and in that season the Aggies beat the Spartans 29-27 on a no-time-left touchdown; SJSU did rally from a 17-3 deficit to lead 27-23 with just under 4 minutes left. If SJSU does indeed redeem itself and beef up its defense and stop throwing interceptions and committing so many penalties it might earn its first victory of 2011 against last year's undesired foe. Otherwise it'll be yet another horrendous season and possibly lead to the firing of second-year head coach Mike McIntyre.

My WAC football picks for Saturday

Nevada at San Jose State: SJSU by 7. SJSU has gone 8-2 in its past 10 home openers including last year a barely won contest against the FCS Southern Utah 16-11. As of now on ESPN.com, SJSU QB Matt Faulkner, a jr. college transfer who went to high school in Texas, has a passer rating of 113.3 compared to Nevada's starter Tyler Lantrip with 110.6. SJSU's backup Dasmen Stewart showed much promise last week against UCLA (15 of 31 completions, 111 yards) and has a rating of 72.4 vs. Nevada's backup Cody Fajardo (29.4). Both are redshirt freshmen! Brandon Rutley's 65-yard touchdown carry from last week notwithstanding, Nevada has an edge in rushing (average 5.5 yards per carry vs. SJSU's 3.8). Same with receiving, but no one in Nevada has outdone Noel Grigsby (with a high of 24 yards) or Jabari Carr (high 64 yards).

Idaho at #9 Texas A&M (Big 12): TAM by 28. Too easy to predict a regular national powerhouse is going to run over a mediocre mid-major conference team. Just like all those lopsided SJSU games vs. Stanford (lost 57-3) this year or last year v. Alabama (56-3).

Houston (Conference USA) at Louisiana Tech: Houston by 7. The C-USA Houston Cougars are coming off an abnormally mediocre 2010 season after being in bowls from 2005 to 2009. This game should come off similar to last week's UCLA/SJSU game where SJSU, coming off two very poor seasons, showed much potential against UCLA, whose 2010 season was also mediocre despite many bowl appearances in recent past seasons. In its opener, La. Tech faced another C-USA team, Southern Mississippi, and lost 19-17 following a 49-yard field goal by Southern Miss' Danny Hrapmann with 2.5 minutes remaining. Southern Miss is another routine bowl school like Houston...and Brett Favre went to USM!

UTEP (C-USA) at New Mexico State: NMSU by 3. UTEP used to be in the WAC but joined C-USA in 2005. Last time these two teams met (Sept. 3, 2005), UTEP won 34-17 in Las Cruces, N.M. However, UTEP has struggled in C-USA and made runner up bowl appearances in 2005 and 2010 and otherwise had below-.500 seasons the other times. In rushing, NMSU has the edge (2.3 vs. 1.3) and same in receiving (15.5 vs. 13.4).

North Dakota (Great West, FCS) at Fresno State: Fresno State by 21. What's more to say about a Division I newcomer and unimpressive FCS team that lost to the WAC's Idaho 44-14?

Hawaii at UNLV (Mountain West): Hawaii by 17. The U of Nevada Las Vegas team has had a HORRENDOUS several seasons recently compared with the WAC's U of Nevada RENO. And Hawaii has also been a regular WAC hotshot. To the bookies and gamblers in Sin City, it's obviously stupid to bet on the home team just because.

SJSU football week 2: another parallel to 2010?

So SJSU just lost its 2nd game and is now 0-2 after a hard-fought 27-17 loss to UCLA at the Rose Bowl. I notice a parallel between the first 2 games of 2010 too.

In 2010:
9/4/10: @Alabama (the defending BCS champions): SJSU lost 48-3
9/11/10: @Wisconsin (ranked #14 that week and Rose Bowl runners-up): lost 27-14

However, SJSU played its home opener on 9/18 and came from behind to beat Southern Utah 16-11.

In 2011:
9/3/11: @Stanford (defending Orange Bowl champs): lost 57-3
9/10/11: @UCLA (unranked, 0-1 from losing to the Conference USA Houston): lost 27-17

Next Saturday, SJSU plays its home opener against Nevada. Although Nevada is the defending WAC champion and defending Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl champion, its top quarterback Colin Kaepernick was drafted this year by the NFL's San Francisco 49ers. Furthermore, Nevada got steamrolled today by BCS runners-up Oregon 69-20. Now this looks like Nevada's SJSU/Stanford game, except with a little inflation due to the factor of Nevada coming off a 1st place WAC season v. SJSU being the worst in the 2010 WAC and Oregon being 1st, Stanford 2nd in the 2010 Pac-10 (the last season as Pac10, the Pac12 now has former Mtn. West schools Utah and Colorado).

End of rant, the interesting thing about the Stanford game was that both SJSU QB's threw no interceptions. In contrast, Nevada's senior QB Tyler Lantrip threw 2 INT's v. Oregon. A really telling, outlying statistic in Stanford's grand stomping of the Spartans. Notice these ratios too (again citing the linked box scores):
- Passing yards: Stanford 232, SJSU 210; Oregon 331, Nevada 233. Wow, Oregon's passing advantage (42%) far outweighed Stanford's (10%).
- Rushing: However, SJSU's rushing play may need some calibrating, as Nevada held a slight 283-272 edge v. Oregon. In contrast, Stanford outrushed SJSU...141-27!

In tonight's game, SJSU against was out passed 140-116. And also the flipside in rushing, 268-202 (a far cry from last week's 141-27). Meanwhile, nearly a year ago against the RANKED Wisconsin, SJSU had the advantage in passing yards, 252-191, but trailed in rushing 212-55! Furthermore, tonight against UCLA, SJSU had ties at two instances and scored in the first 3 quarters. Against Wisconsin, SJSU scored its 14 points only in the 2nd half. And how, do you ask, did SJSU lose tonight? Despite an exchange of turnover plays between the two teams as they were tied 17-17 (since 3:14 left in the 3rd), UCLA scored a field goal off an interception (20-17), and SJSU totally gave up and let UCLA get a TD to seal the deal.

However, much credit to Spartan QB Brandon Rutley for that 65-yard TD run late in the 3rd quarter to tie the game.

Here's hoping for continued improvement and competition against the now stripped-down Nevada next week! Although these first two games mirror the first two of the disastrous 2010 season, the statistics tell a rather positive story.

Once again, the Heisman Trophy predicts the BCS champ

In 2009, Alabama quarterback Mark Ingram, Jr. won the Heisman Trophy, and the #1-ranked Alabama beat #2 Texas in the BCS National Championship Game to close out the season. The next season, Auburn quarterback Cam Newton won the Heisman, and on the BCS game on Monday evening #1 Auburn won the game in the final seconds with a field goal that broke a 19-19 tie to beat #2 Oregon, 22-19. I was personally rooting for Oregon, so it was disappointing seeing such a subpar Oregon performance on Monday.

Backstory of Auburn and Oregon
Auburn's last national championship was in 1957 season. Its last undefeated season was in 2004, when Auburn also won the Sugar Bowl over Virginia Tech 16-13. Both Auburn and Oregon have been bowl regulars in the 2000s, and Oregon last won a bowl in 2008 (Holiday Bowl over #13 Oklahoma State, 42-31.)

Heismans vs. BCS
Before 2009, the last time the Heisman winner's team won the national championship was in 2004: USC quarterback Matt Leinart (now with the NFL Houston Texans team) won the trophy, and #1 USC beat #2 Oklahoma, 55-19 in the Orange Bowl (2005 season and before, BCS picked specific bowl games to be the championship game, and since 2006 BCS championship has had its own game). However, in the wake of the USC scandal in 2010, USC vacated its 2004 championship pending appeal. The next two years though was the opposite. The 2005 Heisman winner was Reggie Bush, running back for USC (although he later forfeited it after NCAA ruled he received improper benefits while in college), but #1 USC lost the Rose Bowl to #2 Texas, 41-38. Bush went to the New Orleans Saints of the NFL and won a Super Bowl with the Saints after the 2009 season, but sadly the Saints got eliminated from the Wild Card by the Seattle Seahawks 41-36, coached by Bush's former college coach Pete Carroll in his first year with Seattle.

The 2006 postseason bowl game began a 5-season streak of SEC championships. Although Ohio State and now San Francisco 49ers QB Troy Smith won the 2006 Heisman, his top-ranked team ended up losing the BCS to #2 Florida, 38-24. The following champs? #2 teams Louisiana State (2007) and Florida (2008). Even though Florida QB (now in the Denver Broncos) Tim Tebow won the 2007 Heisman, Florida won the BCS next season (when Oklahoma's Sam Bradford won).

Questionable calls sunk Oregon
Regarding the game, there were some questionable reviewed calls that screwed Oregon. First there was an intercepted out-of-bounds catch by Oregon that was upheld as incomplete Auburn pass because the Oregon player didn't have both feet inbounds. Then at the way end of the game, with the score 19-19 and around a minute or two left, Michael Dyer almost got tackled in his own team territory but not quite (his run started at the Auburn 40):

Dyer, who chose jersey No. 5 because that's how old his brother was when their father died in a car accident nearly two decades ago, took the handoff from Newton and ran off right tackle for what looked like a 6- or 7-yard gain. Nothing routine about this one, though. He wasn't sure his knee hit the ground, so, urged by his coaches on the sideline, he popped up and kept going. Almost everyone on the field had stopped playing, but the referee never blew the play dead. Dyer made it to the Oregon 23. An official's review ensued and the replay showed that, indeed, his knee had never touched the turf.

Wow, Oregon, way to forget the rules. I was watching it on ESPN3.com and noticed how Dyer just rolled over the defender and no one approached him assuming that the play was called dead. Eventually Auburn ran for a touchdown, but that call was reversed because Dyer was down at the 1-yard line instead of end zone. Thus Auburn ended up running down the clock for Wes Byrum to kick a 19-yard field goal for the win with 2 seconds and counting.

Both teams missed 4th & goal opportunities from 1 yard out of the end zone. First Auburn, trailing Oregon 11-7 in the 2nd quarter, decided to go for it on 4th & goal at the Oregon 1. A Cam Newton incomplete pass gave Oregon the ball on downs, but Auburn got the ball back after tackling LaMichael James in the end zone for a safety (2 more points). Then late in the 3rd quarter, with Auburn leading 19-11, Oregon was 4th & goal from Auburn's 1, having made a 4-yard gain on 3rd down. Kenjon Barner was stopped for no gain.

I've got to give credit to Oregon for making both 2-point conversions following both of their touchdowns, though.

Recruiting controversy looms over Auburn
The New York Times sports section reports: "For Auburn, Grimaces May Still Replace Smiles":

...Auburn cannot lock the crystal championship trophy in a case until the N.C.A.A. finishes the Newton investigation. The N.C.A.A. enforcement staff has been looking into Newton’s recruitment for at least four months. If it finds that he or his family committed violations, he could be ruled ineligible retroactively and Auburn could be forced to vacate its title.

In the aftermath of the N.C.A.A. ruling that Reggie Bush and his family received improper benefits from Southern California, the Trojans are expected to lose their 2004 title. The university is appealing the decision.

(...)

The actions of Cecil Newton put Auburn under the N.C.A.A. microscope. The N.C.A.A. and Auburn agree that he attempted to shop his son to Mississippi State for $180,000 in a pay-for-play scheme brokered by a middleman. The Mississippi secretary of state is looking into the case because of the involvement of the middleman, Kenny Rogers, who has financial ties to the N.F.L. agent Ian Greengross.

Ouch. I guess this might appease some Oregon fans. Note that the Kenny Rogers here is not the singer but is rather a former Mississippi State football player. This season, #21 Mississippi State beat Michigan in the Gator Bowl, 52-14.

My friend Alejandro Madrid, who attends USC and is very steaming mad over the idiotic, arbitrary rules, sharply criticizes the rules: "Commentary: NCAA Rules Need to Go", "Todd McNair Railroaded by NCAA, Again", and "Good News for USC: NCAA Makes Inconsistent Ruling, Again". This third mentioned post regards the NCAA decision to suspend five Ohio State players (including star QB Terrelle Pryor) for the first five 2011 season games but not for the Sugar Bowl - and guess what? #6 Ohio State ended up beating #8 Arkansas 31-26. The suspensions were for "selling some awards and exchanging autographs for tattoos". Alejandro comments:

The NCAA hoped to make USC an example and show it wasn’t messing around, but it has undone the message sent by its harsh punishments by creating loopholes in its own rulings. Does the punishment against Ohio State seem rather harsh? Yes. But the severity isn’t the issue. The fact that the NCAA is cherry-picking which games the players can miss doesn’t make sense.

To have the sanctions reduced, USC must prove the NCAA made procedural errors. The Ohio State case gives the Trojans ammunition because of the inconsistencies between the rulings. Proceed with cautious optimism. Today’s findings certainly appear to help USC, but when the NCAA is the appellate judge, the jury, the prosecutor, it is impossible to predict what they will do with the appeal.

He also told me recently that if the NCAA lets Auburn off the hook, USC gets even more ammo in its appeal.

Why show the BCS only on cable?
BeyondChron called the decision to show this season's BCS only on the cable network ESPN "disturbing":

This past New Year's Day many sports fans without cable or satellite TV were shocked to discover that unlike past years when New Year Day football games were on their local TV stations from early morning until late evening, only one game, the Outback Bowl featuring Penn State vs Florida, was on the local ABC affiliates. The five other bowl games on New Year's Day; the Capitol One Bowl, Gator Bowl, Rose Bowl, Ticket One Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl were all on ESPN. Thousands of non-cable subscribers expecting to watch the Rose Bowl and other New Year Day bowl games were sent into a state of panic as they contemplated options of visiting the local bar or dropping in on friends or relatives with cable. The games could be watched for free on ESPN's internet site, but fans who didn't have a broadband internet connection, or didn't realize the game was on the internet had to do without.

Last season, ABC showed the BCS. Thus I ended up watching the game on ESPN3.com, and that stream isn't always perfectly reliable as its resolution degrades at times and sometimes the stream freezes. This cable-only contract stretches until the 2014 game. By then, will more people be aware of different outside-of-television methods of watching the BCS? I wonder. But how could it be that such a notable sports championship game could be NOT shown on broadcast network?

Overall this year's BCS was a nailbiter throughout and amazing to watch, and I hope that Oregon can draw upon this to improve their game for 2011.

An interesting conversation with KOFY TV about broadcasting "widescreen standard definition" football

Tomorrow, KOFY-TV 20 in the San Francisco Bay Area will broadcast the San Jose State vs. Boise State football game. Currently, SJSU is 1-4 on the season and 0-1 in the Western Athletic Conference, while Boise State is undefeated 5-0 and 1-0 and is predicted to top Bowl Championship Series ratings. Although this is a home game, I'd like to stay home and just watch both the San Francisco Giants vs. Philadelphia Phillies opening game of the National League Championship Series in baseball on KTVU-TV and the SJSU game on KOFY. Given that the Boise State Broncos is the 4th ranked team that the lowly SJSU Spartans has played this season, and that SJSU fell to the national champions 48-3 and even lost to a Football Championship Subdivision (lower division than where SJSU is, the Football Bowl Subdivision) team UC Davis Aggies during the SJSU Homecoming game, 14-13 on 2 Oct., tomorrow night's score should be quite obvious.

I happened to catch the Boise State vs. Toledo football game last Saturday on KOFY, which is one of the Western Athletic Conference TV affiliates. While Boise State is undeniably a great football team, the broadcast format isn't. KOFY broadcast the match in 4:3 format as it does for all its programmes other than ABC7 News at 9. However, KOFY compressed a 16:9 picture into 4:3, thus making everything seem thinner than proportional. Thus, today I decided to ring up the KOFY switchboard over the phone, (415) 821-2020 pressing 4 for technical services, to ask the tech guy why. I left a message and promptly got a call back about 15 minutes later. The technical worker explained that Learfield distributed the football game in a widescreen standard definition picture format, and standard definition programmes must be broadcast in 4:3 format. In this case, as widescreen is the new normal format for television sets and broadcasting, the only realistic broadcasting choices that'd preserve the picture quality would either be: scrunching the picture (as I mentioned earlier) and leaving black pillars to the left and right of the screen, or letterboxing the picture within the 4:3 area and leaving the image proportional. The tech worker explained that "blowing up" the widescreen SD image just because KOFY does have widescreen capability would drastically reduce picture quality and defeat the purpose of high definition television.

So there you have it, if you're wondering why KOFY or any other WAC television affiliate is showing the football games in such a weird format. I'd suggest contacting Learfield Sports, which distributes TV/radio broadcasts of the WAC, and persuading them to start televising games in HD. I mean c'mon. If CBS could start broadcasting soap opera The Young and the Restless back in summer 2001, then why does Learfield have to broadcast football games in standard definition widescreen in 2010?

If anything: GO SPARTANS! GO GIANTS!

PS: At the SJSU student newspaper The Spartan Daily, one columnist opines that the Giants need a better offense to beat Philadelphia.

College so far

It's been a while since I've blogged about anything lately, so I should write about school so far.
- SJSU's football team sucks...so far recently lost 62-7 to Nevada and currently winless in WAC division. Only win was against Cal Poly in September. That's why I watch ABC college football coverage, usually USC, UCLA, Cal, Michigan, or whoever's game is being shown.
- However, according to the student newspaper The Spartan Daily, both men's and women's soccer teams have winning seasons.
- Currently building a robot for engineering class. The robot is programmed to simulate a search-and-rescue mission.
- Hardest classes=Engineering and calculus, chemistry and psychology in between, yoga easiest.
- In winter session I'm thinking about taking General Psychology to fulfill the Human Behaviour category of the General Education requirements.
- After consulting with the Computer Engineering major adviser tomorrow, I'll know what I'll take next semester. Right now I'm definitely aiming to take in the spring: CHEM 1A, ENGL 1B, CMPE 30, and MATH 42.
- Finals are nearly in a month. Gotta get my study on!
- Campus: Met some really cool people, overall a diverse student body.
- Joined the Democratic Caucus organization and will volunteer at setting up tomorrow's Health Care Forum. Tuesday, 5PM-6PM, Pacifica Room. Be there!
- I also got a job through that organization and will consult Career Centre to find others.
- Once I raise enough money for pledge fees I might join Alpha Phi Omega.

Everything that's wrong with Evergreen Valley High School

Well, an hour ago I got home from the EVHS football team's embarrassing Homecoming Game loss to Independence High School, 22-21. That came after the EV Cougars were leading 21-14 with about 10 seconds left in the 4th quarter, when suddenly defense slipped up in the rainy weather and allowed an Independence player to score a touchdown (6 points) and a 2-point conversion, thus concluding the game at that. At the same time, we learned that the Juniors got 1st place at homecoming and Seniors 2nd (and of course, Sophomores 3rd and Freshmen 4th). And the Associated Student Body (ASB for short) invested lots of valuable money and had its president testify before the District in its September board meeting for a permit for halftime fireworks tonight. Wow. In a time when the economy is sucking so bad it's under Great Depression status and public schools from Puget Sound to the Rio Grande to the Florida Keys are strapped in cash and raped in the behind by President Bush's incompetent No Child Left Behind Act, it is simply a disgrace for a school that was recently ranked silver by US News & World Report magazine as among the best American high schools and having led the whole damn district in API (Academic Performance Index) to look like this in what's supposed to be the happiest time of the year.

So when I got home, I laid back on my futon and watched a DVR'ed episode of The Steve Wilkos Show, whose title host is a former US Marine, Chicago Police Officer, and security director for The Jerry Springer Show. No, I'm not joking, Wilkos is the bald-headed guy you've seen on Springer since the mid-90s or so. The episode I recorded, "Tragic Tale of 2 Sisters", was from Thursday, about an 18-year-old woman who wanted Wilkos to help her 11-year-old sister stop having sex with teen boys (I'm not joking, it IS the plot of the episode). Steve Wilkos later talks with the sister & parents, who are divorced. Soon it's revealed that the father once sexually molested the older daughter, so Steve didn't let the father see the younger daughter. Meanwhile, Steve also punishes the mother for not looking out for and loving her younger, whoring daughter. In the end, the father is evicted from the stage (in Steve's popular "GET OFF MY STAGE!!!" cry) and Steve gets the mother and children counseling.

Now I'm here all angry about how low my school is sinking. Here's a rough list of everything that is wrong, wrong, incorrect, inaccurate, stupid, messed up, FUBAR, abominable, unbelievable, and silly about Evergreen Valley High School:
1. During the part of the 05-06 academic year when private colleges are asking for letters of recommendation and such, counselors were borderline deadbeat--Steve Wilkos might've beaten them up severely.
2. EVHS has acknowledged repeatedly its over-crowding controversy, but its solution--the off-campus Biotech Academy for 11th/12th graders--was killed late in 2006, thus resuming the bottleneck. This year, the overcrowding got so bad that some students were denied certain classes merely with the excuse that there wasn't enough space. One friend of mine passed the AP Calculus AB exam but was denied Calculus BC for that very reason, yet two FRESHMEN who took a shallow summer calculus I course at community college got in. And while she was repeatedly refused a seat in Calc BC, another student (a leadership student who got a 2 on the exam, a failing score) and another random student were granted space! This is affirmative action and disorganization gone WRONG. I've heard of seniors who were forced to repeat English 3 despite passing it with at least a B just because "oh, there ain't enough space". Yet I know that this year there are students in English 4 who got C/D grades in English 3.
3. EVHS made a terrible mistake by neglecting meritocracy in considering attendance priority. That's why it's more likely that a dirty ghetto kid from the borderline Mt. Pleasant/EV attendance area gets enrolled and eventually wastes our taxpayers' money by repeating Algebra 1 until eleventh grade. At the same time, a rich, hardworking student from, lessay the Silver Creek/EV attendance borderline is rejected because of..."overcrowding". Had EV used meritocracy on its borderline attendance areas, then we'd be chasing after Cupertino and Palo Alto high schools.
4. The ASB has gotten away with childish/just plain silly homecoming and battle themes.
5. An incident in November 2007 where a great mob of students hurled Skittles at each other and at staff members illustrated the students' dissatisfaction that the administration was going all North Korea on extracurricular activities. It took that much pressure for the principal to back off.
6. EVHS knowingly hired registered sex offenders in its arts programs! In November 2006, the drama teacher was arrested for sexual misconduct. Ditto with a former band teacher a couple years later. That teacher willfully allowed a registered sex offender to volunteer at the Band Boosters!!!!!!!!
7. Racism and imbalance is rampant in EVHS's course catalogue. Why can EV provide special ed yet not have foreign language classes beyond Spanish, French, and Vietnamese? Shouldn't we save our API and reputation and harbor off the special ed to Silver Creek/Mt. Pleasant for the sake of our achieving students? Also, EVHS refuses to hire a competent AP Computer Science teacher--the one right now is lying about his 67% pass rate by a HUGE margin, to be honest.
8. Gov. Ahnuld Arnold Schwarzenegger's struggle with the state budget was somehow a tolerable excuse for the school library not to be open before 6th period, but it's almost Election Day now and this still applies. Testimony from many many district parents/students/teachers was not enough either to persuade the district to finalise hours/budget for libraries!
9. I'm still angry at EV for not telling in advance that there'd be only ONE APCS section this year--so I couldn't get in AP English Language, which I planned to be a "backup" in case I didn't get APCS. When I appealed to the APLang teacher, she just gave me a "fuck you" (no, not really) and explained that I should've done the summer stuff. Still--both me and EV are equally guilty of arrogance.
10. EV has no problem with the Gay/Straight Alliance flamboyantly posting pro-gay propaganda throughout campus during "Gay Pride Week" or whatever that is. If a pro-Proposition 8 group were to come up on campus, the ICC would evict them, and if that group were ever to practice their First Amendment rights by posting their opinions in appropriate places, the Thought Police of EV would tear 'em down within minutes. Obviously, EV holds an agenda to brainwash all students with a perverted, blind message of "tolerance for all regardless or whatever" without critical thinking.

Sadly, these are only a few problems. I've got to go to sleep now. More will come later.