Champion's League

Finally got to watch my first two Champion's League matches this season. Wender Bremen hosted Barcelona, and Real Madrid hosted Dynamo Kiev. Real didn't look that great, but still won by a wide margin. I don't see them going all the way, especially with their play in the back. They'll miss Cicinho. I was disappointed with Barca as well. Nobody came to play, and now they've lost Eto'o for 5 months. Still plenty of talent there, but I came away impressed with Bremen. Loved Naldo and Diego, and Klose is about as good a striker as you'll get. I really think if Brazil had called up Naldo and Diego and actually had the marbles to play them instead of superstars like Ronaldinho and Lucio things could've been different. Oh well.

Sticking with CL, one team I really hope to watch is CSKA Moscow. They've got a couple of Brazilians who are playing really well. They're my dark horse team in the CL. I like Lyon and Valencia as well to make a deep run.

Speaking of Brazilians, out of the 32 teams in group play, there are 86 Brazilians! That's unbelievable!

That's enough soccer talk for me. My parents will be dropping by Saturday for a little bit and I need to clean up the place before they get here...

Taking a look around...some Oconee boys

Read a pretty neat article on ESPN yesterday about Clayton Matthews. He led my alma mater, Oconee County High School, to a Georgia state championship in football, in 1999. This was the same team with Tony Taylor and Tyson Browning and some other very good players. Clayton went on to James Madison to follow his father Mickey Matthews, a former UGA coach. Clayton was productive there, but after his senior year he got in not one but TWO car accidents, each one breaking his neck. He's now paralyzed, is still leading a very productive life. Clayton is now the receivers and kicking coach at James Madison, all in his wheelchair. Really puts things in perspective after all our bitching and complaining about little things, here's a kid that had nearly everything taken away from him and still hasn't backed away from his dreams and has never complained about it.


The Cover Two has started an initiave to retire Tony Taylor's number at Oconee County - in ALL sports. Tony is one of the most gifted athletes I have ever seen and had the pleasure to coach, and will likely be playing Sundays this time next year. He was a great athlete that did everything in football (punting, rushing, returning, playing LB/S), had a great basketball career (had a quadruple double once and always had to guard the other team's best player (whether it was a PG or C). But few people know of his soccer antics. Coach Rock talked him into playing his sophomore year, partly because one of his football buddies (TJ Stephens, who was a walk-on CB at UGA). He learned the position that year, and his junior and senior seasons he was a beast of a goalkeeper. Before his senior season he even made it into the GA Soccer Coaches "Top 25 to Watch" list. So good that a top soccer school like Clemson wanted him to go play for them. I believe if Tony had played baseball or tennis or lacrosse he would've done the same thing and would've been just as successful. He's probably the best athlete Oconee Co has ever seen and deserves his jersey retired.
Oh, and Tony probably deserves the game ball for his efforts last week vs Colorado. He was everywhere.

Speaking of soccer, former Oconee Co standout David Bell is making a splash his first year at Clemson. The junior transfer from Berry has started most of the games for the undefeated and number 1 ranked team in the nation. Living in Greenville I've been able to watch him play against then #1 Maryland and on tv against then #5 UNC (both wins). David is playing very well at the top alongside Jamaica international Dane Richards and Brazilian "Mooje".

Still following Oconee soccer alumni, Robbie Galvin is in his second year at Presbyterian. They're 6-1-1 and he's started half the games, scoring a goal. Down the road from my house, Ben Stephens began his first year with Furman Paladines. They're 5-4-1, and have some pretty good depth so I think Ben will redshirt this year. And up north, Stephen Fragaszy also started his second year at NYU. They're 8-1, and Stephen has played in one game as a backup, not allowing a goal.

Dawg Thoughts

Been a while since I've written, but I think I'll write a little more now that Heather is in a more difficult rotation and will be around less. Have to keep myself busy, maybe this isn't the most productive way, but at least its not (too) harmful.

Crazy game last weekend. I was expecting a tough game, but I wasn't expecting the complete dud that it was for 3.5 quarters. I knew the Buffalos had a pretty good defense and that their offense just wasn't executing well to win games...but that they would put that all together soon. And I knew they'd be well coached and hungry. That's a proud program that has won the Big XII North 4 out of the last 5 years and they were going to be tough. But I'm also one of those pessimistic fans and I was also (sorta) worried about Western Kentucky and UAB. I knew it would be tough but figure in the second half we'd pull away.
Here are some thoughts on the Colorado game, just for some closure:
Depth: I think that's what won us the game. You can tell the Buffs defensive line was getting tired towards the end of the game.
RBs: Lumpkin looked the best, but don't count out Thomas Brown. The holes weren't there for him, all year really. And they've been tackling him well. He's been strong in kick returns and receiving so I expect him to bounce back and have a big game soon.
QBs: Didn't help Stafford that the wide outs kept dropping balls. Staff was playing well, but as his receivers started to grease their hands, his confidence went down. And that's where you saw him throwing behind guys or overthrowing balls. Cox came in the guys started to play better around him. Maybe its leadership, who knows. But neither played bad and both deserve playing time this week.
WRs: They did catch the ball and make plays towards the end of the game, including the maligned MoMass. Moved the chains when we had to.
TE: Glad Millner had that catch. He's had it pretty tough past couple of years, with dropping passes and making special teams mistakes, and I'm glad he made a big catch. Hopefully that will get his confidence up and he'll play up to his potential.
Def: Tony Taylor gets a game ball in my opinion. He was everywhere, in the backfield and had the interception to seal the game.
Special Teams: Improved as the game went along, and that's good. We've got to remember that we have a lot of freshmen there too, with guys like Prince Miller getting a lot of PT in punt coverage.
Coaching: We got outcoached, but Richt made the right decisions when he had to. I like the bravado and 'marbles' that he showed going for it on 4th and short twice in the second half...but if he had gotten 3 both of those times the game would've bee a little different. Yes, it's easier to say it now that I know we didn't get the first down, but I wanted points of any kind. But I do like the aggressiveness. Yanking Staff was the right choice at the right time, but there were a couple of Richt of 2001 clock management blunders that irked me. First was the timeout for the extra point. We've got one of the best kickers around, so take the 5 yard penalty. We might have needed the timeout more than those 5 yards. And second, the timeout at the last drive that Cox called, when the clock was stopped anyway because MoMass ran out of bounds. It did work out thogh, I think the TD came in the very next play. Defensively, I thought we did a poor job of adjusting to Colorado's scheme. Yes, we only allowed 3 points after the half, but it took us too long to adjust. Should've been done in the first quarter, not the third. We came through when we had to.

So that's behind us now. We showed a lot of grit and won against a decent team (don't look at the record) on a tough day even though we played like crap for most of the game. Hopefully that's a good wake-up call, and good for those youngsters to learn how to win.

This week: Ole Miss
It's a late night game in Oxford (9:12pm kickoff) and you know the Rebel fans will be drunk and obnoxious and hungry for an SEC win. This is a team like Colorado, that has some talent but is seriously underachieving. I don't think we have a letdown like last week, and hopefully come out guns blazing. Our lines should be much better and it won't matter who's handing the ball off to our running backs.
One thing I do hope to see is Blake Barnes late in the game. The Mississippi native has stuck around and taken being the 3rd QB very well so far, and he deserves some playing time, especially when Oxford is less than an hour from his hometown.


Top 25
I think I've waited long enough before ranking teams. Here's my top 25:
1.Auburn - Toughest schedule so far, and toughest defense around.
2.Ohio State - Defense is playing really well right now, which is scary.
3.Southern Cal - Looks like Jarrett's injury isn't that serious.
4.Michigan - Playing as well as anyone right now.
5.LSU - Assuming Auburn is #1, this team is right behind them.
6.West Virginia - Poor game against ECU last weekend, they still have a lot to prove.
7.Texas - QB play will improve as the year goes along. Don't think they lose again.
8.Florida - Showed some toughness at Tenn, but they have a brutal schedule and don't think they can go unscathed.
9.Louisville - Not the best game last week, but this team keeps on winning.
10.Virginia Tech - Front runner to win the ACC.
11.Oregon
12.Clemson - Special teams mistake cost them a perfect season...but they could still win the ACC.
13.Georgia - Undefeated, but a lot of questions...
14.Oklahoma - Should be undefeated, if not for officiating blunders in Eugene.
15.Iowa - Won't be undefeated for too much longer.
16.Tennessee
17.California - Playing very well lately
18.TCU - Haven't seen them play, but winning big vs Texas Tech is good.
19.Notre Dame - Got away with one last week. They'll probably win out until USC and still make it to a BCS bowl.
20.Nebraska - Big XII up for grabs.
21.Georgia Tech
22.Florida State
23.Missouri
24.Boise St
25.Boston College

Others: Texas Tech, Rutgers, Wake Forest, Penn St, Purdue

Heisman Watch
1.Troy Smith - his team will keep winning and he'll keep making plays.
2.Adrian Peterson - will have to beat Texas to have a shot.
3.Calvin Johnson - Sky is the limit for him, well actually a really short and erratic QB is what limits him right now.
Give some love to: Garrett Wolfe - has been piling up stats against bad competition, but has proven he can get it done against the big boys.
Thanks for playing: Brady Quinn - he didn't lead the comeback last weekend. His defense did. He looked awful with exception of two series in the fourth quarter.