Sunday, September 12, 2010

Only interesting to me

Peter King of Sports Illustrated has a topic buried in his Monday NFL column called "Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me". Love him or hate him his column is excellent. So I'm going to rip him off here and go on talking about things that I find interesting as I settle in Ohio's "gray season" (autumn and winter).

(and most of Spring).

1. JMU beats Virginia Tech in Lane Stadium? Yes!

In the world of college football it doesn't get any more embarrassing then this for the Hokies. I had lots of friends go to VT. I've visited the school a couple times. I like where it is and like that good engineers come from there... I've just never liked their athletic teams or fans. Loud, boastful, arrogant. They are always ranked high to start the season but find ways to drop down like loosing to JMU. Maybe I just don't like them because they were allowed into the ACC. They belong in that dirty conference full of "known for sports only" schools. The Big East.

Another thing I have mixed emotions about is that they enter the stadium to a Metallica's Enter Sandman like some pro wrestler. It seems to be what they are known for these days. Nice work Hokies. This VT tradition dates way back to the year 2000 when a vote was taken. It was Sandman or Welcome to the Jungle. I wish the students choose neither. But, they did.

All that meanness said; the environment this song creates out there in the mountains, especially on a cool and soggy night, has probably made a few opposing players piss their pants (note: no JMU player wet their pants yesterday. **Nor do the blue bloods over at UVA ever soil their britches**). Their entrance has it all. The song is like catnip for Hokies. I have to admit - seeing Virginia's flag run out on the field with tens of thousands of fans going nuts to a backdrop of fire works gives me the duck bites. Sic semper tyrannis!


I like how people spill onto the field. It's one of these things that blurs the line between sporting event and battle field. I know that I shouldn't, but I love that it exists.

2. Ohio State is having trouble with special teams.
2a. Terrelle Pryor is a "weapon" not a QB.

I am expecting the Buckeyes to run the table this year and meet up with a school like Alabama (if they can survive the SEC). Bama is a much better team.

3. "Let's show these northern boys how Southern Boys play football!" - McElroy, Alabama Quarterback before their game against Penn State.

McElroy of Alabama is a Rhodes Scholar applicant, Sigma Alpha Epsilon member, his father is a VP in the Dallas Cowboys organization and he hasn't lost a game he has started since the 8th grade. I stood up when ESPN rolled that quote clip of him stating the above quote. They ended up stomping Penn St in a game where they pulled up in the 3rd quarter (out of respect for Penn State, if I may be so bold).

4. I hope ESPN removes the "crawl" of sports updates at the bottom of the screen during games soon.

It's not necessary. It's a hangover from days before the internet me thinks. Also, while I'm at it employ the "less is more" theory of design with time and score graphics that are ever present at the bottom of the screen. I'm looking forward to the day when I have the option of dropping that and watching a clean feed and only pulling it up when I want it and where I want it. So called on demand statistics during games is where a sport like baseball can be become king again. It'll happen so says I.

**My thoughts on the difference between a Hokie fan and a Wahoo is thus: VT fans feel they have to win. When they don't, they get all pissed off and down. UVA fans? Pretty even win or loose.**

1 comment:

Unknown said...

strange thing about VT (and i was listening to the game on the radio) is that i went to JMU and still was rooting for Tech. when i was in h-burg the team was horrible. i went to 3 games in the 3 years i was there. going to Tech games was quite a bit more fun, mostly watching jay hoot and holler like a mad man.