Pryor Finally Speaks

14. June 2011  - Published by Dan Clasgens

Former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor officially declared himself eligible for the NFL supplemental draft in a press conference on Tuesday.

Just days after hiring agent Drew Rosenhaus, Pryor spoke to the media for the first time since the scandal broke at Ohio State.

FINAL TAKE: Despite Rosenhaus' rants, there is no chance that Pryor is going to make it as a quarterback in the NFL. His apologies to Tressell sounded good, but would've been better if they came before his agent put together a speech for him. In the end Pryor will get what he deserves which is not much.

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Pryor Going Pro, But Where?

8. June 2011  - Published by Dan Clasgens

From ESPN.com

Entering the NFL's supplemental draft is Terrelle Pryor's "desire," according to his attorney. But might he be better off first playing professional football in the United Football League?

A well-placed UFL source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter Wednesday that Pryor would benefit from the coaching in the league, which includes high-profile former NFL coaches such as Marty Schottenheimer, Dennis Green, Jim Fassel and Jerry Glanville. The source said he believes there's "a decent shot" Pryor could wind up playing this year in the UFL.

The former Ohio State quarterback hasn't yet applied with the NFL for the supplemental draft, attorney Larry James told ESPN's Joe Schad Wednesday.

An Ohio State spokesman told ESPN on Wednesday: "We anticipate that Terrelle will be eligible for the NFL supplemental draft.

COMPLETE ARTILCE

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Preseason Polls Are Rubbish

6. August 2010  - Published by Chris Murdico

Winning NFL picks, odds and power rankings all from our friends at Doc's Sports Service...

I'm not a believer in preseason polls at all. How can you rank any team before they actually play a game? I'm a firm believer that the polls shouldn't come out until around the beginning of October. By then every team has played four or five games, and are about to enter conference play. Preseason polls can really hurt teams that have stellar seasons but started out the season ranked too low to make a move to the top of the rankings. At the same time it can both help and hurt those teams that get top rankings. It can help them in the way that as long as the teams don't lose, they don't drop, even if teams below them are undefeated and beating better teams. But it can also hurt them. If a top ranked team loses, especially early in the season, they could slide pretty far down the rankings and have to fight their way back to the top, hoping to get a lot of help along the way.

With all that said, today the USA Today Coaches' Poll was released. It counts for 1/3 of the overall BCS rankings at the end of the season. Its no surprise that last year's BCS champ, Alabama, sits atop the rankings with 55 of the 59 first place votes. They are returning 10 of 11 starters on offense from last year and are definitely considered to be the favorites to take the title again this year. Behind them sits the the Ohio State Buckeyes, who received four place votes. With Heisman hopeful, Terrelle Pryor leading the charge, the Buckeyes could see themselves back in a national title game come January. Rounding out the top five is Florida, Texas, and the surprise to the party, Boise State. This is the highest the Broncos of the "Smurf Turf" have ever been ranked in preseason polls. While Boise State isn't in a BCS conference, its a very good possibility that they could crash the party this year. Their fate could very well be decided after their first game this year when they take on No. 6 Virginia Tech.

A complete listing of the USA Today Coaches' Poll is listed below:

1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Florida
4. Texas
5. Boise State
6. Virginia Tech
7. TCU
8. Oklahoma
9. Nebraska
10. Iowa
11. Oregon
12. Wisconsin
13. Miami (FL)
14. Penn State
15. Pittsburgh
16. LSU
17. Georgia Tech
18. North Carolina
19. Arkansas
20. Florida State
21. Georgia
22. Oregon State
23. Auburn
24. Utah
25. West Virginia

*For those of us here in Cincy, the Bearcats are on the outside looking in at No. 26. Odds are they will be in the top 25 at some point this season, most likely after the first week if they beat Fresno State and one of the lower rank teams get upset and fall out.

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College Football Weekend Preview

9. September 2009  - Published by Rick Broering

Game of the Week:

USC vs Ohio State
8:00 ESPN


It doesn't get any better on a Saturday night...Two of the top programs, two of the most dynamic quarterbacks and two of the largest fan bases.

The key will be to watch how USC Freshman quarterback Matt Barkley handles the big stage on Saturday night on the road. If he is able to remain poised the way he was last week then expect USC to come out on top of this one.

Ohio State will need to limit the turnovers against the fast and ferocious USC defense. Terelle Pryor will be throwing on the run a lot, so it's crucial that he makes good decisions and doesn't turn the ball over.


Other Games to Watch:

Notre Dame vs Michigan
Two of the more storied programs going at it in this one. It'd be huge for Michigan to pull off the upset.

UCLA vs Tennessee
UCLA knocked Tennessee off last year 27-24 in overtime. Tennessee needs to prove that last weeks demolition of WKU wasn't just them running it up on a helpless defense.

LSU vs Vanderbilt
These two teams kick off the SEC schedule. LSU should roll but they need to get off to a good start after finishing worse than .500 last season in conference play.

Upset Pick of the Week: Mississipi State over Auburn

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College Bowl Game Pick 'Em Breakdown

16. December 2008  - Published by Chris Murdico

The bowl games finally start this weekend. Fellow GetSportsInfo.com writer, Jeremy Fischer, and myself have put together our picks including how confident we are in them. In case you've never done a pick 'em game like this before, here's how it works. In addition to picking who you think will win the game, you assign a number to that pick as to how confident you think that pick is going to be right. There are 34 bowl games this year (way too many in most people's opinion, but that's beside the point), so the max number of confidence points you can give to one game is, yep, you guessed it, 34. The game you are least confident in you assign one point too, and fill in everything in between.

A lot of office pools are done like this and make it much more challenging than simply picking a winner for each game. As J-Fish states when it comes to doing a pick 'em game like this, "I have seen many strategies and I prefer the one that calls for using the higher confidence points on the bigger BCS games." He goes on to give his reasons as to why.

"Right or wrong, the larger conference teams get more coverage. The more information that is out there, the better informed pick you can make. The more informed you are, the more confident you'll be about a particular selection." Makes sense right? So picking the BCS bowl games really isn't as difficult as picking some of the more obscure games like the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl between Southern Mississippi and Troy that provide more difficulty in not only picking who will win, but deciding how confident you are in that pick.

J-Fish goes on to say, "Unless you fancy yourself as the next Jimmy the Greek, don't over analyze. The amount of games will definitely lead to paralysis-by-analysis." In my opinion, when it comes to picking some of the lower level bowl games, its almost more of a gut feeling when making that selection than anything else.

With all that said, let's get to the picks. What you'll find below is the bowl schedule starting with the first game on the docket all the way to the National Championship game on January 8th. With each pick you'll see both J-Fish's pick as well as my own with a little bit of analysis and how many confidence points (#) we have assigned to the pick we've made. Let's get to it with a look at the BCS games.

January 1st
ROSE - Penn State vs. USC
JFISH: USC (34) - Too much defense.
DICO: USC (32) - Too much USC! PSU hasn't seen anything like the Trojans this year. Ask OSU how things worked out for them. Plus this is a "home game" for the Trojans.

FEDEX ORANGE - Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech
JFISH: Cincinnati (22) - 1st BCS bowl berth will drive the Bearcats.
DICO: Cincinnati (10) - Special teams could be the difference in this game. Mardy Gilyard for the Bearcats is one of the best in the country in the return game. A chance to finish the season in the Top 10 will push the Bearcats to a win.

January 2nd
ALLSTATE SUGAR - Utah vs. Alabama
JFISH: Alabama (32) - Utah hasn't faced a defense like this.
DICO: Alabama (33) - See JFISH's comments...the Utes will have a hard time stopping the 'Bama offense as well.

January 5th
TOSTITOS FIESTA - Ohio State vs. Texas
JFISH: Texas (33) - Too much speed on defense, and the Horns will be playing angry because of the whole BIG XII, BCS screw job.
DICO: Texas (31) - QB Colt McCoy will be too much even for a good Buckeyes' defense. Terrelle Pryor will see what team speed on defense is all about against the Longhorns.

January 8th
FEDEX BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP - Florida vs. Oklahoma
JFISH: Florida (26) - Tebow/Harvin will find a way.
DICO: Oklahoma (22) - Bradford leads the most potent offense in the country. Even with the loss of DeMarco Murray at RB, the Sooners won't miss a beat. Expect a high scoring affair.

COMPLETE PICKS (ALL 34 GAMES) 

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