A few people have written about the new digs, and a couple people even hunted me down and posted the url on the sidebar. I've been writing somewhat incognito at the new site for a few days, but it's only now getting to the point that it looks like it's' [...]
I wish there was a way to figure the number of posts I made to this version of SMQ since moving from the original site two years ago, just prior to the start of the 2006 season, without spending hours in the archives, counting on my [...]
Part of SMQ's "Farewell Week."
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Regular readers have been incessantly hammered with my criticism of the BCS as a soulless corporate cabal and unwavering advocacy for a true playoff, and within that argument my firm opinion that the sport has been defined over the last' [...]
Part of SMQ's "Farewell Week."
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I only knew him from television, not his newspaper (or its Web site, or his blog), and I didn’t think a lot of his last book, but news of Tony Barnhart’s impending departure from the Atlanta Journal Constitution last week' [...]
Part of SMQ's "Farewell Week."
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Recruiting fans will know Josh Jarboe as both a sought-after receiver recruit out of Atlanta and as the kid who was charged with two felony counts for bringing a loaded gun to his high school about a month after signing with' [...]
A week-long look at SMQ’s preseason ballot.
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5. Georgia
There are no questions here about the defense, which wreaked all kinds of havoc down the stretch and returns basically everybody (with the notable exception of Marcus Howard and his 9.5 sacks in the last six), or [...]
A week-long look at SMQ’s preseason ballot.
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10. Wisconsin
There has to be a second banana in the Big Ten, and with Michigan presumably on a temporary hiatus from Rose Bowl ambitions, I don’t see a better candidate than the Badgers. No other Big Ten team [...]
This time the last two last years, in two very different preseason poll environments (2006 was a mashup of unworthy-looking, poor man’s contenders; 2007 was all USC, all the time), I’ve assessed the rogue mythical championship insurgents over roughly the last dozen years, teams that finished at or near the [...]
A week-long look at SMQ’s preseason ballot.
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15. Texas Tech
Well, they can throw -- have you heard? -- and with a lot of people paying fairly close attention for a change, I imagine a rapid ascent from the mid-to-low teens into the top ten [...]
A week-long look at SMQ’s preseason ballot.
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20. Illinois
The Illini are a mixed bag: on one hand, they lose two of the best players in the conference, Mendenhall and Lehman, and carry the stigma of a one-hit wonder. But the Zook recruiting boost has dramatically [...]
Fans who recall Miami's surprisingly well-regarded recruiting class in February -- surprising because many of the most sought-after athletes in the country apparently looked hard at a program that's 12-14 over the last two years, with a relatively small, notoriously fickle fan base, no on-campus stadium, and fatal shooting [...]
Tomorrow’s All-Americans Today
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The rules for this team: all players are second or third-year guys -- no incoming freshmen or JUCOs -- set to start for the first time this year, or otherwise to contribute heavily after a redshirt year or a season (or two) as a [...]
A week-long look at SMQ’s preseason ballot.
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There’s always a debate about exactly what a preseason poll is supposed to be. In this case, rather than a "power poll" that attempts to order teams according some abstract notion of inherent strength, the goal is to predict as [...]
From the looks of things, Michigan will not exactly be sniffing around a Big Ten championship this year, and in fact takes the field with only a handful of fifth-year guys (most prominently, defensive starters Tim Jamison, Chris Graham, John Thompson and Morgan Trent) who rode the bench as [...]
People love the redemption story, the second-chance-made-good, even if they’re often very unwilling to endorse that chance to begin with. Certainly Kentucky partisans had little but good will in their hearts toward Curtis Pulley, Kentucky’s high school player in the year in 2004 and the best quarterback prospect out [...]
Charlie Weis, after his son threw out the first pitch for his fifteenth birthday (a real man-child of the people, clearly), gets the royal treatment during the Seventh Inning Stretch at Wrigley Field, from fans who know from losing:
Say this for Weis: he kept his cool, kept doin'' [...]
There's a reason this week has been a rather ad hoc affair instead of the precise, disciplined preview laser I promised a couple weeks back: in the interim, I became a short-timer. After a couple months of wary circling, CorporateBehemoth.com swooped in and made and offer your poor, grad-schoolin' [...]
You're Ben Mauk. In high school, you called your own plays, led your team to back-to-back state championships and obliterated national passing records by accounting for more than 7,900 total yards and throwing 76 touchdown passes as a senior. Still, you were kind of small and just an [...]
There’s a pretty strong consensus so far about how things are going to play out in the Big 12 North:
Switch Nebraska and Kansas State (which lost to the Huskers by six touchdowns in one of the conference’s many bizarre November shootouts), and this is exactly the order [...]
This fall is Joe Tiller’s farewell tour after twelve years at Purdue, more than any other active Big Ten coach except the immortal Paterno, and in relative terms -- if you were looking forward at his record on the day he was hired in 1997 -- his tenure has been an [...]
Not that you'd ever need to go there, especially in the summer, but if for some reason you have tried to access any part of the official Web site of the Bowl Championship Series, BCSFootball.org, since last week, you've probably come across an interesting surprise:
Surely there is [...]
When I called for votes a couple weeks ago to close out this season’s Absurd/Anticipatory preview series, I got a couple of expected responses from Northwestern fans in my inbox and in the comment thread, where one enthusiastic Wildcat backer pulled out "most exciting team in the Big Ten," [...]
‘Steal’ is an operative word: can something that belongs to no one be ‘stolen’? By any measure, Virginia Tech has owned the Coastal so far, and the ACC at large: VT has won the division twice in its three-year existence and blew out the eventual champion the year it finished [...]
I wasn’t alone when I picked Florida State to win the ACC last year, again, but I knew then it was wrong, like a sucker who keeps doubling down instead of cutting his losses, or maybe like the defeated voice at the beginning of Ryan Adams’ Heartbreaker album, who [...]
Mid-major discussions these days seem to quickly devolve from the real, modest goals of obscurity -- a conference championship, a bowl game, a decent crowd at homecoming -- to the big picture analysis of "BCS Busting," as in "Fresno St. has BCS-game talent," or "High expectations for Boise State," [...]
The non-binding previews are finished (Arizona State is the last one, damn them all), and I finally got around Monday to picking up this year's copies of Phil Steele and The Sporting News. As much as I rely on the Web now for most of the stats, [...]
A too-soon look at next fall, sans the inevitable injuries, suspensions and other pratfalls of the long offseason. By popular demand.
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What’s Changed. Mike Pollack was all-conference and the only center picked on the first day of the draft, and tackles Brandon Rodd, Julius Orieukwu and [...]
The most interesting matchups of the season, chronologically.
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If the new Big East came of age post-Miami with West Virginia's blitzkrieg over Georgia in the 2005/06 Sugar Bowl, its sudden, surprising maturity risks becoming a short-lived footnote on the long term slide toward irrelevance everyone predicted when [...]
The most interesting matchups of the season, chronologically.
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If the new Big East came of age post-Miami with West Virginia's blitzkrieg over Georgia in the 2005/06 Sugar Bowl, its sudden, surprising maturity risks becoming a short-lived footnote on the long term slide toward irrelevance everyone predicted when [...]
A too-soon look at next fall, sans the inevitable injuries, suspensions and other pratfalls of the long offseason. By popular demand.
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A too-soon look at next fall, sans the inevitable injuries, suspensions and other pratfalls of the long offseason. By popular demand.
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What’s Changed. The quarterback, significantly, but more significant are persistent rumors of a move to something PSU partisans have dubbed the "Spread HD," a spread/read [...]
The most interesting matchups of the season, chronologically.
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There aren't many teams more vexing from a preseason standpoint than Nebraska, though the stark divide between the Huskers' talent and results under Bill Callahan -- and, honestly, in the last two years of Frank Solich's administration -- has [...]
A too-soon look at next fall, sans the inevitable injuries, suspensions and other pratfalls of the long offseason. By popular demand.
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What’s Changed. Cal has a high-flying rep under Jeff Tedford, but the Bears have produced at least a 1,200-yard rusher every year of his tenure [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
Writers of all stripes are generally in the business of being right, or of convincing readers they're right, or explaining why they should have been right, if only voters or executives or armies or the unfathomable circuitry of the universe had hewn to the prescribed course. These are the instincts [...]
