Week 1 Review

One week in the books, and we're setting records already.

TAIT NELSON is this week's winner at 13-2...yeah, not cool Tait.

Here are the official results from week 1:

W L %
TN 13 2 86.7%
MH 10 5 66.7%
MR 10 5 66.7%
SS 10 5 66.7%
CP 10 5 66.7%
MC 10 5 66.7%
GR 10 5 66.7%
RO 9 6 60.0%
MS 9 6 60.0%
MO 8 7 53.3%
MT 8 7 53.3%
AW 8 7 53.3%
LW 7 8 46.7%
JR 7 8 46.7%
GT 7 8 46.7%
JH 7 8 46.7%
JG 6 9 40.0%

For the week we hit 58.4% for the week - not bad at all.

Last place call-out for my guy JG - he was too busy worrying about which 5-6 song gap he was going to sleep through at PJ on Sunday!! Even so, 6-9 is not a disasterous start.

Tait only lost on his ORE pick and his MIZZOU pick - the rest were money in the bank. Congrats.

I will be sending out the slate for Week 2 in a moment.

Thursday Night Results

Day 1 of the season is over, I hope you all got a chance to watch some of these games last night...here's a quick recap.

First, the leaders in the clubhouse after 1 night:
MC = 4-0
AW = 3-0
MR = 2-0
TN = 2-0
MS = 2-0

I took a brutally bad beat last night in the WF-SYR game. WF up 26-14 with a 1st and goal at the 3, and their QB gets hurt. So they can't punch it in and get a FG for a 29-14 lead. Still feeling safe, but I was wrong...SYR scores twice and gets the 2 to tie the game. So I'm sitting with +6 and about 3 minutes left and the WF backup throws a pick in his own territory so SYR sets up for a GW FG. Of course WF can't just let the 3 pt loss happen and they block it! So we head to OT...all WF needs to do is lose the toss and score first at +6 to give me almost a guarantee. Nope, win the toss, play D, give up 7, and then not score on their possession. 7 pt loss...that hurts. Probably the only bad beat I'll have all year...

UNLV looked tough against Becky...I thought we were going to see an all-timer of a back door with UNLV scoring late, but Becky held on for a narrow 1.5 pt cover. My daughter, not quite 5 yet, has already figured out how we treat Becky. She says, "let's cheer against them, then we'll show them our butt and throw fire at them." It was a proud moment.

Other than that I watched a beauty of a game to close off the night between WKY-UK. 15 punts for nearly 700 yards and 7 combined turnovers...fun stuff.

A few more games on tap for tonight...good luck!

Week 1 Preview

17 men are entered, only one will leave with the cash for Week 1:


PICK SUMMARY
JR: FIU WF UTST NW WMU HOU ND BYU ARMY NMST BOISE ORE HAW WV MARY
JG: ND MARY UNLV IDAHO TCU KENT MICH ARKST MN FSU CLEM SJST RICE OK GEO
MR: OK GEO MISST WIS AUB OHIOST ALA USC STAN PITT FLA OKST TEX SC LSU
AW: WIS TEX ND TCU MICH MN FSU FIU HOU BYU ORE SYR MIZZ FRES A&M
GR: WIS ORE OK GEO MISST ALA USC OKST SC MARY NW BAY PUR ILL USF
MH: WIS ORE ALA SC MARY NW ND TCU MN AUB BOISE HAW UCLA OLE CAL
MC: WIS ORE ALA MARY NW UCLA MISST FIU BYU UTST NMST BGU COLST SOMISS COL
SS: WIS ORE ALA NW BYU COLST SC ND CAL OK USC TEX STAN PITT WV
RO: ALA ND CAL TEX WV UCLA SOMISS TCU MN AUB OLE GEO ILL MICH A&M
TN: WV MN WIS ORE NW SC OK MARY MISST BOISE BAY FSU MIZZ OHIOST BALLST
MT: OK ALA ND CAL TCU MICH USC STAN HAW PUR SYR LSU BC IND MIA
GT: ALA TCU USC STAN SYR ORE FSU TEX BGU OKST HOU WMU UK ECU LT
MS: TCU SYR OKST CAL MICH LSU MIA MN WIS BOISE MIZZ UCLA BYU FLA AKR
CP: CAL WIS UCLA BYU AKR USC STAN ORE BC WV BAY A&M UTST USF MIAOH
LW: USC STAN OKST MICH FLA ALA FSU ECU OK ND PUR OHIOST NMST ARKST RICE
JH: USC MICH ND UCLA BYU AKR A&M TCU SYR LSU MIA IND COLST CLEM MEM
MO: UNLV TCU NW OHIOST PUR KENT MICH ILL MN OLE STAN ECU ORE HAW MARY

Besides this each preview week, I like to throw in a few opinions and fun facts to keep it interesting.

CLEAN OUT THE SAVINGS
This is my guarantee lock of the century of the week pick for Week 1....

Week 1 is tricky for this, but I'm going with OREGON +3 over LSU. I still think the Duck offense is too much for most everyone to handle, even if you have 10 future NFL guys on your defense. Early in the season on a neutral field...I really don't like the Tigers chances Saturday night. The Jefferson suspension doesn't help them, but I don't think it necessarily hurts them either. The guy does just as much harm as he does good for the Grass Eater. Prediction...DUCKS 31 GRASS EATER 17.

HEAD SCRATCHER OF THE WEEK
I started calling these out last year, and pretty much every time I called you out for making what appears to be a questionable pick in my mind, it would work well for you. So despite me calling out a questionable pick in this section - it tends to work in your advantage and you will likely win. Let's see if the trend continues this year...

This week the lucky winner is HAMMER and his pick of MEM over MISST (-24). 4 other guys are on MISST, and Hammer is alone on his Tiger love. MEM has been worse than bad the last couple of years, and MISST beat them last year in the opener 49-7. MISST has basically the same team back from last year and I don't see any reason that they won't house MEM again.

GOOD LUCK ON THAT ACE...
With 17 guys each picking 15 games this week it's a rare occasion that only 1 guy would be on a team by himself...but we have a few. These could actually make or break the week for these guys, it's a win that you can add that nobody else will have, but it could also work against you...time will tell.

JH - MEM
JR - WF
JG - IDAHO
GT- UK
CP - MIAOH
JG - SJST
AW - FRES
TN - BALLST
JR - ARMY
GT - LT
MC - COL

GOPHERS at USC
I have a Gopher addiction, so each week I will throw out my opinion on their game, the Purple game, and anything else that might be relevant that week. For this week, I have an opinion on every game but I've only got the time to tell you about this one. The Jerry Kill era kicks off at USC at 2:30 Saturday and the line has grown from 18 to 23.5. Not a lot of love from the public for the Maroon and Gold. However, Colin Cowherd has MN +23.5 as one of his top 2 best bets for the week, and Pat Forde straight up called for the upset W for Kill and company on Saturday. I think a line right around 3 TD's is accurate, but I have a hard time putting a team with a coach in his first game on my list this week. I think the offense will be working the kinks out, the D will look okay but it's still USC and they'll score some points. I like a cover on the 23.5 number so I'll say USC wins 28-10.

My official season call on the Gophs is 6-6 with wins coming in the next 3 non-conf games, and then going 3-5 in the B10 with wins over PUR, ILL, and IOWA. I also don't hate our odds against MICH, NW, and Sparty. NEB and WIS are the "class" of the conference...or at least that's what all the experts keep telling me. NEB I agree with, even though they might have the toughest B10 schedule of them all. WIS looks to be in-line to be elite again, but I'm not 100% sold on Wilson as their QB. He's was solid at NCST, but this is a totally different animal. He's not exactly accurate and he has had INT issues in his past...let's hope both of those show up once again and he bombs for the Beckys. I'll call NEB over PENNST in the innaugural B10 Title game.

I'll send out a recap of the action on Monday (maybe Tuesday this week because of the Holiday).

Enjoy the games!! Good Luck!!

Still need picks from...

Every THUR morning I'll send out this reminder in case you have not turned in your picks yet. The deadline is NOON TODAY, so I still need picks from the following guys:

ROE
HEINERT
CORCORAN
SETNICKER
L.WENDLANDT

Everyone else is in already - thanks.

I also still need some cash from the following guys - please get it in the mail as soon as you can so we can be done with the collections and start the payouts:

HEINERT
ROE
L.WENDLANDT
OG
CORCORAN

Everyone else is all paid up and ready to go.

I'll send out the Week 1 Preview once I have collected all the picks.

Official Week 1 Lines - return picks by NOON Thursday

The wait is over - week 1 is here. Week 1 in the Football Challenge is a little different since we have no NFL on tap this weekend, so please send me your 15 NCAA picks for this week. I just need the team you are picking not necessarily who they are playing - whatever format works best for you.

I also still need $$$ from the following:
HEINERT, CORCORAN, ROE, PEYTON, LUKE W., OG, HAMMER

Only 7 stragglers out of 17, not too bad. Please try and get it to me before Thursday.

Finally...here are the games. Bottom team is the home team, a minus obviously means they are giving that many points and no minus means they are getting that many points. Once again, these are the opening lines from the USA TODAY website.

PLEASE RETURN YOUR 15 PICKS BY NOON THURSDAY TO ME.

NTEX
FIU -12.5

MISST
MEM 24

UNLV
WIS -32.5

WF
SYR -6

BGU
IDAHO -8.5

WKY
UK -18

TCU
BAY 10

UTST
AUB -28

NW
BC -7

MIAOH
MIZZ -19

AKR
OHIOST -33.5

MDTN
PUR -15

KENT
ALA -33.5

WMU
MICH -14.5

UCLA
HOU -4.5

ARKST
ILL -15

MN
USC -18.5

ULM
FSU -28.5

USF
ND -8.5

TROY
CLEM -13

BYU
OLE 1

SJST
STAN -28

BUFF
PITT -26

COLST
NM 3.5

FRES
CAL -6

FAU
FLA -31

BALLST
IND -6

ULL
OKST -34

RICE
TEX -22

ARMY
NILL -13

ECU
SC -15

OHIO
NMST 10.5

TULSA
OK -22

BOISE
GEO 2.5

ORE
LSU -3

LT
SOMISS -11.5

COL
HAW -7.5

MARSH
WV -19

SMU
A&M -13.5

MIA
MARY 4

College Football Comedy

Can you tell it's getting close to the season - I'm starting to write on this thing everyday. But some of this stuff is so good, it just had to be shared.

1. CY-HAWK TROPHY...scrapped?!?

Well, that didn't take long! The new Cy-Hawk trophy has apparently been voted down by everyone and will be scrapped. So this year's classic Clone-Hogeye game will be played for an interim trophy or no trophy at all. I guess they'll be going back to the drawing board to try and get more creative this time around...here it is again:

2. EDSBS Blog
Every day should be Saturday is a great blog for anyone with any kind of interest in College Football and they will be guaranteed to make you laugh everyday...check it out when you get a chance. Today they had their Big East preview, the best part was the graph they used to preview the always exciting Uconn Huskies:

That's awesome...UCONN football in graphical format.


3. TENNESSEE MOTIVATION?

I like Derek Dooley and think he'll do a fine job at Tennessee, but you have to question him on this door painting. I think he's trying to motivate, but a little proofreading might have saved him some embarassment...I think the intent was to say we have all this potential and the opportunity is now here and it's time to fulfill it...but when you put it too close together it makes it look like Dooley is hopeless for his squad:

4. PERSA AND THE PIMP WALK
Dan Persa, Northwestern QB, tore up his leg in the WIN over Iowa last year - but it was so worth it. Anyway, he's on the rebound and a potential All B10 QB this season. However, he's still not fully recovered from the injury and is walking with a limp. Coach Fitz, when asked about the limp, said "one man's limp is another man's pimp walk." Odd choice of words, but I think this could stick with Persa going forward. The Purple NW colors could fit it quite well with his pimp image...I see some photoshopped comedy coming in the future for Mr. Persa.


Jerry Kill is also 50 today - anyone else surprised by that? Doesn't he seem a lot closer to 65 than 50?

8 more night without football...

17 Players!

And we've added another...Jeremy Hammon, another LeRoy native, will also be joining in on the fun for this year. So that gives us a nice round number of 17. Payouts will change as follows:

Still $50/wk to the winner.

$350 for overall 1st place
$100 for overall 2nd place

$250 for post-season 1st place
$100 for post-season 2nd place

Reminder to get me your $$$ by the first game (SEPT 1st - Thursday night), which is only 10 nights away!!

Send a check to my house, drop off check/cash to me at work, paypal it to me from your bank account, or any other way you can come up with that works. I'd like to have everyone paid up before we start the games.

Thanks!!

Football Challenge 2011 - The Players

16 guys lined up for this year - here's what I know about each one to help give you an idea of what you are up against. One other quick note before I get into the players, all the communicado you get from me is posted at a blog for the league which you should be able to link to through any of the emails. Check it out if you accidentally miss or delete something - or just send me a note and I'll get you what you need. Alright, on to the players!

1. JR (James Rollins)
- Alligences: GOPHERS, VIKES
- Blindly optimisitic about the Maroon and Gold every year
- Hawkeye HATER, Badger disliker
- Never done well in this contest before, but continue to run it year in and year out because it's too much fun to quit now. I think it might finally be my year!
- LeRoy, MN native...go ahead, be jealous.


2. JG (Jared Groehler)
- Alligences: GOPHERS, PURPLE
- Picks are predictable, for Gophers, against IOWA and WIS...for MIN against GB...that's 5 of his picks every week!
- 49.8% career player, 2nd worst all-time better than only JR
- One of the original 4 to start in the Football Challenge long ago
- Vices are Captain, Vanilla Vodka, and Jeremiah Weed
- Non-beer drinker who went to beer drinking festival this year
- Hutch Tiger

3. MR (Mike Roe)
- Alligences: GOPHERS, PURPLE (although he's quick to jump off the boat on both!)
- Man to beat year in and year out...lifetime 54.2% player, The Best Around
- Turns in picks late every week squeezing out every extra second he can
- Didn't take 1st last year for the first time since the Football Challenge began
- One of the Original 4 (only 3 of us are left)
- Half man, half chimney
- LeRoy native, so he's awesome

4. AW (Bomb)
- GOPHERS/PURPLE
- Very few actually know his name is Adam...he is Bomb
- 49.8% player, in the JG/JR range of bad
- Close to joining PGA Tour
- Crown is a separate food group for him
- Hutch Tiger

5. GR (Greg Rollins)
- GOPHERS/PURPLE
- My Dad, LeRoy native...we won't count those first fews years of your life when you were over the border
- 50.6% career player
- Has too many Iowa loving friends
- Provides balance too the force when in Vegas and the rest of us get retarded
- CC, Crown, Jamison

6. MH (Mark Heinert)
- GOPHERS/PURPLE
- BBY compadre
- Champion of the World for last year's Football Challenge
- spent all his winnings on diapers
- 52.1% career player...55.6% last year!
- Northfield native
- One of the lucky ones who got in on Gopher Tix before the inevitable shortage that's coming soon

7. MC (Mike Corcoran)
- GOPHERS/PURPLE
- Loves the MAC and SBC, and rocks at these picks!
- Never saw a mid-week game he couldn't win
- 51% career player
- Gopher season ticket holder
- former BBY guy

8. SS (Steve Schuft)
- Gophers / PURPLE
- Driving force behind picking more NFL games this year
- Hutch Tiger
- 52.4% career player (only 1 year)
- Eventual successor to Les Frazier

9. RO (Rob Olson)
- GOPHERS/PURPLE
- Gopher Grad
- Beat me down in matchplay in Brainerd
- 53.2% career player (1 year)
- Won way too many games last year for his first time

10. TN (Tait Nelson)
- 1st year player
- Tait, I honestly know nothing about you. Got referred to us by SS. From everything I hear, I think you'll fit in well.
- Feel free to provide any other relevant info that we might need in order to harass you in the future

11. MT (Mike Thomas)
- 1st year player
- BBY
- SPARTY/LIONS lover...finally a change-up!
- Expert PGA Tour tournament picker
- Witnessed the highlight of the Brew regime in person (Halloween Sparty victory)
- Michigan Native

12. GT (George Thomas)
- 1st year player
- former BBY guy
- SPARTY/LIONS lover as well
- Mike's brother

13. MS (Mike Setnicker)
-1st year player
- Mike, I got nothing on you...yet. Feel free to send across anything we all need to know.

14. CP (Cole Peyton)
- 1st year player
- USC TROJANS
- Oregon native, so he has Duck ties as well
- BBY guy
- NCAA lover, NFL hater
- Wife went to Iowa...you're lucky I even allow you in to this contest!
- enjoys $1 mini Coors light bottles

15. LW (Luke Wendlandt)
- 1st year player
- Gopher allegiance I think
- Brother to Bomb, forming the fearsome golf twosome "The Brothers Bomb"
- Hutch Tiger
- former UFC Champion of the World...or at least for a weekend in Vegas he was

16. MO (Matt O'Groske)
- 1st year player
- LeRoy native!!
- Hit 375 yard drive this summer
- Mentor is Craig Knight, former LeRoy hoops coach
- Enjoys Tequila as much as I do


That's all I got - I don't know some of you as well as I'd like to...but we can change that. The best way to do it is for you to join us on the Annual Vegas Trip. This year we're going OCT 7-8-9, leave on FRI morning and return on MON morning. It's 2 1/2 days of pounding drinks and watching and betting on football games, baseball games, playing cards, and seeing where the evening takes us. 4 of us are booked in for this year, but if you are interested in joining us we're staying at Harrah's and gambling at the Mirage across the street. We'll be there Friday morning. Make some arrangements if you want to come out - we'll be easy to find.

I hope you're all informed now of what you're up against. Enjoy the weekend fellas - we'll be getting down to business very soon.