Category: College Football (Page 296 of 296)

ESPN has fired Trev Alberts, the opinionated college football analyst, after Alberts refused to show up for work. Alberts reportedly complained about playing “second fiddle” on the popular GameDay program.

This is a huge surprise. Alberts and his sidekick Mark May sometimes sounded like two idiots on their College Football Scoreboard program, but they were entertaining and they loved to ridicule each other’s opinions on the show. Does Alberts really think he can get a better gig? He had it made at ESPN. So what if the GameDay guys got most of the publicity. It looks like he let his fragile ego get in the way. What a sap.

Alberts was known for making bold statements and predictions with absolute certainty, which often made him look foolish when he was wrong. For example, in 2002 he was one of many “experts” who claimed that Ohio State had “no chance” of beating Miami in the National Championship game, but he said it so loudly and often that he practically became a villain in Buckeye country.

Alberts and May are the kind of analysts college football fans love to hate. As for Trev, it looks like his off-air personality is just as obnoxious as his on-air personality.

Most of the college football nation was shocked to see Notre Dame dominate Pitt on Saturday. We shouldn’t have been that surprised. Charlie Weis showed that he’s not just a great offensive coordinator. He just might become a great head coach as well. On the other side of the ball, Dave Wannstedt demonstrated again that he’s a mediocre head coach.

Weis is one of the reasons everyone is calling Bill Belichick a genius. Belichick let Weis run the New England offense, and Weis responded by helping the Patriots win three Super Bowls. He’s a brilliant play-caller, and his offense is much easier to implement than the complicated West Coast system favored by Tyrone Willingham. He aslo inherited some serious talent at quarterback and tailback, making the transition to college much easier. Pitt was supposed to have a good defense, but Notre Dame ran and passed the ball like they were playing a high school team.

We also saw a glimpse of how Weis runs a team. He does not tolerate mistakes, and he let one of his defensive players have it on the sidelines in the fourth quarter.

The question now is whether Notre Dame can do some damage to the heavyweights on its brutal schedule this season. I think they can. Michigan is up this week, and Weis must be licking his chops after seeing the Michigan defense give up over 400 yards to Northern Illinois in week one. I like this matchup for Notre Dame.

Reggie Bush has been getting plenty of well-deserved hype as the most exciting player in college football. Pat Forde, however, points out that Bush might be challenged this season by Ohio State’s Ted Ginn Jr. Last season Ginn touched the ball 59 times and scored 8 touchdowns. Naturally, the Buckeyes will be sure to get the ball in his hands even more this season. Ginn might be the fastest player in college football, and the Buskeyes will be a much better team this year, so look for Ginn to give Bush a run for his money.

If SI’s Steve Mandell is correct, we’ll be treated to a Bush vs. Ginn matchup in the Rose Bowl, as he predicts that USC will face Ohio State for this season’s National Championship. That’s not a bad prediction, and it would be a great game. We’ll know early if Ohio State can meet the high expectations, as they host #2 Texas in Ohio Stadium on September 10th.