Category: College Football (Page 24 of 296)

      Matt Barkley returns to USC for senior season

      December 22, 2011 /
      USC Trojans quarterback Matt Barkley passes under pressure by Oregon Ducks linebacker Boseko Lokombo (25) during the first half of their NCAA football game in Los Angeles, California, October 30, 2010. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)

      USC quarterback Matt Barkley just announced at a 1 PM PST news conference that he will be returning to play for the Trojans in 2012 and will not enter the 2012 NFL Draft. Barkley felt that he was ready for the NFL but stated that he had “unfinished business” at USC. The USC marching band was on hand at the announcement so that took away some of the suspense leading up to his announcement.

      This is great news for a top-flight program that has had to endure a two-year bowl ban and the loss of 30 scholarships over three years. But even with that USC finished with only two losses in 2011 under Lane Kiffin and destroyed UCLA 50-0 in its last game of the season, leading to the resignation of Rick Neuheisel and the hiring of Jim Mora.

      Barkley posted some huge numbers this season and had NFL scouts drooling in what was shaping up to be an epic year for quarterbacks in the NFL Draft. He completed 308 of 446 passes for 3,528 yards, 39 touchdowns vs 7 interceptions and with a completion percentage of 69%. Barkley worked in a pro-style offense at USC which made him even more attractive to many scouts.

      Without Barkley in the draft, Robert Griffin III will get even more buzz as the likely #2 quarterback taken after Andrew Luck. Many teams like the Miami Dolphins, the Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Browns might be looking hard at a quarterback in the first round so it will be interesting to see how Griffin does at the combine and how tall he measures out at (he’s listed at 6′ 2″). There are other prospects as well like Landry Jones, but with Barkley there seemed to be real debate developing over whether teams would prefer him or Griffin after Luck.

      Barkley enters to 2012 season at USC as one of the clear favorites for the Heisman Trophy, so this golden boy will be all the rage next year. USC has 17 starters coming back for next season so the Trojans will be in the mix for the Pac-12 championship. Also, Barkley can purchase up to $5 million in insurance under the NCAA’s Exceptional Student-Athlete Disability program.

      College football needed some good news in an otherwise lame 2011 calendar year of bad news, so this is an early holiday gift for fans.

      College Football, News, NFL

      Robert Griffin III makes a statement

      December 7, 2011 /

      Everyone knew that Robert Griffin III was a great athlete coming out of high school, and that his athleticism would make him a very good college quarterback. But his improvement this year with accuracy in the passing game has thrust RG3 into the Heisman Trophy discussion and is also putting him in the first round of the NFL draft according to draft experts like Mel Kiper, Jr. and Todd McShay.

      RG3 was a track star in high school so he got a lot of attention from big schools coming out of high school. When Griffin makes plays with his legs observers aren’t surprised. Draft experts saw him playing in the NFL but thought he might have to change positions as other athletic college quarterbacks have done in the past like Josh Cribbs. They underestimated Griffin’s work ethic and determination as he kept working on his game.

      Griffin had plenty of success at Baylor heading into the 2011 season but he also faced serious adversity as well. In his sophomore season, RGIII suffered an isolated tear to his ACL in his third start of his sophomore year. He had to miss the entire season. While we’ve seen many players come back from ACL injuries, you never like to see a speedy athlete suffer that kind of injury.

      Griffin came back of course, but heading into the 2011 season, few people expected much from Baylor, and Griffin wasn’t being discussed as one of the best quarterbacks in college football. But Griffin showed tremendous improvement this year as a passer. His accuracy became a real weapon, and suddenly Baylor became a force in the Big 12. He capped off his amazing season with a 48-24 thrashing of the Texas Longhorns. Texas has a tough defense, yet RG3 had a brilliant game.

      Griffin connected with Kendall Wright for a 59-yarder on the first play of the game. Texas hadn’t given up a TD pass of over 20 yards all season. Griffin was 15 of 22 passing for 320 yards and two touchdowns. He ran for two more touchdowns.

      Robert Griffin III and the Baylor Bears are a great story in what has been a tough season for college football. Experts thought Griffin would be a good, yet one-dimensional player. Now those same experts are arguing he deserves the Heisman Trophy and might go in the first round of the NFL draft due to his passing ability. He still has that great speed, but now everyone is talking about his arm.

      Are you an overachiever too? Click here to find out how you can get free college tuition courtesy of Dr. Pepper.

      College Football, External Sports

      The BCS hits a new low

      December 4, 2011 /
      Oklahoma State Cowboys Joseph Randle (1) celebrates his first quarter touchdown with teammate Tracy Moore against the Missouri Tigers at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri on October 22, 2011. Oklahoma State won the game 45-24. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

      Has there ever been a worse year in college football? Even before the season started all we heard about were stupid scandals involving silly things like tattoos. Then we had the tragic events at Penn State. And now we have the annual joke called the BCS, though this year it’s worse than usual. While many of us will concede that the SEC has been producing the best teams in recent years, do we really need to watch two of them play for the national championship?

      This system is so lame and corrupt that you have to be either a complete idiot or an overpaid hack on one of the BCS bowl committees to defend it.

      Hopefully T. Boone Pickens will start throwing some money around and pull every political string he has to change this system. A real playoff system might be too much for the corrupt conference hacks to muster at this point, but at least we should get to a plus-one system. In the future a final four could easily be expanded to an 8-team playoff.

      College Football, External Sports

      Oklahoma State should get a shot at the BCS title

      December 4, 2011 /
      Oklahoma State Cowboys quarterback Brandon Weeden throws the football in the first quarter against the Missouri Tigers at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri on October 22, 2011. Oklahoma State won the game 45-24. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

      Oklahoma State proved Saturday night that it, not Alabama, should be playing for the BCS national title against LSU.

      The Cowboys thoroughly dominated their rival Oklahoma, which just so happened to be a top 10 team. Offense, defense, you name it, OSU dominated it. The win was the kind of performance we needed to see from a team in the one-loss pack, as someone needed to distance themselves from the others.

      Well, it should be that way, anyway. I’m doubtful it will, however.

      It was decided when Oklahoma State lost to Iowa State that Alabama and LSU would be playing each other again in the BCS title game, and nothing was going to change the voters minds to change that. Not even this blowout victory. It was well before the Iowa State/OSU game, however, that folks decided Alabama and LSU were the two best teams in the country, and many said it wasn’t even close.

      That very well may be true. LSU’s schedule, which includes a neutral site win against Oregon and a road win against West Virginia, helps prove that it is undoubtedly the top team in the country this year. The Tigers are also the country’s only unbeaten team, which helps make things easy.

      But Alabama’s best win is an overtime loss to LSU. Seriously. The Tide beat Arkansas, and did so handily, which was also a big win. Outside of that, the Tide have two wins against teams with winning records (Auburn and Penn State). Oklahoma State, meanwhile, has six wins against teams with winning records. Sure the Iowa State loss was bad, but it also came on the road and the day after Oklahoma State lost two women’s basketball coaches in a plane crash. It’s awful to use that as an excuse, but it’s certainly something to think about.

      Beyond that, however, there’s also the fact that the BCS’ goal is to crown a national champion. They say the goal is to find the top two teams, but in reality, it’s to find the top one, and we already know that’s not Alabama. The Tide had their chance to knock off LSU, and had it at home, but couldn’t do it. In a college football world where big-time nonconference games are a rarity, we’ll never know who the best team is if we allow divisional rematches in the BCS title game. Especially when there are deserving teams, capable of beating other top 10 teams by more than 30, sitting out there, waiting for their opportunity.

      College Football, External Sports

      Houston loss has big-time BCS implications

      December 3, 2011 /

      It didn’t take long today for the Bowl Championship Series to get a significant shake up. Sure, we already know who’s going to play in the national title game — because if we’ve learned nothing this year, it’s that every game matters … unless you play in the SEC — but the other games still were up for grabs today.

      Houston, which had gone through the season unbeaten and found itself in the top 10, had the inside track to the Sugar Bowl as the top non-AQ school in the country with a ranking inside the top 12. I’m not sure if today’s loss to Southern Mississippi would knock the Cougars outside of the top 12 (it probably should), but it doesn’t matter, as they’re not Conference USA champions, meaning they’d have to get in as an at-large. Good luck with that.

      So who gets the spot? Well, if Houston falls behind Michigan, it’s likely enough to get the Wolverines into the top 14, making them a shoe-in for an at-large spot. Then again, Michigan is likely to get there anyway, and most projections have them playing in the Sugar Bowl against Houston already. TCU would be the non-AQ school with the best chance, as it sits at No. 18 in the BCS standings right now, and only needs to get to No. 16 to earn an auto-bid. Head spinning yet? If a non-AQ school wins its conference and finishes in the top 16, it can get an automatic berth in a BCS game provided the champion from at least one AQ conference is ranked below it. Thank you, Big East.

      If TCU doesn’t jump two spots (which is possible but not all that likely), then an at-large selection would fill the slot. The most likely choices are Boise State, Kansas State and, if it loses today, Oklahoma State.

      As for the Big East, Cincinnati’s win against UConn leaves a three-way tie at the top of the league, so the final BCS standings will determine who gets the bid. Barring something crazy, that will be West Virginia, which is currently the only Big East team in the top 25, sitting at No. 23.

      College Football, External Sports, News

      « Older posts Newer posts »

      © 2026 The Scores Report – The National Sports Blog

      Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑