Prepare Ye

A couple of thoughts on last night's Super Bowl. One of the commentators on ESPN asked where the Steelers rush was. It was on the other side of the Packers OLine. Other than a few times the Steelers got to Rogers, the Packers OLine did a great job. I especially want to single out Bryan Bulaga, the rookie out of Iowa. Beyond a couple of plays early in the first quarter, LaMarr Woodley was invisible. When Wood did get pressure, Bulaga wasn't blocking him. I coached against Woodley when he was in high school. I couldn't figure out how to get him blocked. I watched when he was playing for Michigan, and no one figured how to block him. Bryan Bulaga did. Congrats young man. The Steeler running game was almost unstoppable when they were running the Power O. But because that play requires a lead blocker, either a FB or the TE blocking the EMOL (end man on line), when the Steelers wanted to go 4 wide, they took their best running play off of the table.

Today, (February 8, 2010) the day after the Super Bowl, there are several writers who are writing apologies or rationales for Peyton Manning walking off at the end of the game without acknowledging any of the victorious Saints. And I call BULLSHIT. They say shaking hands after a loss is disingenuous. They say walking off isn't a sign of poor sportsmanship. And I call BULLSHIT. Whether it was LaBron James, Bill Belachuck or my beloved Detroit Pistons Bad Boys, it is classless, poor sportsmanship and just lame to go running into the tunnel at the end of the game. It is a poor example for younger players and it shows outright cowardice. You stand in the arena and do battle. When the contest is over, you congratulate the other person or team because IT IS JUST A GAME. Losing hurts. Losing sucks. But someone is going to lose when you play a game. When it's your time to be on the fuzzy side of the lollipop, suck it up and go over an congratulate the winner. Show som...

NBC hired Matt Millen as a "Football Expert" for their play-off coverage. Mr. Millen drove the Detroit Lions franchise from mediocrity into being a global laughingstock. Having Matt Millen commenting on championship football is worse than: * Oprah commenting on maintaining a steady weight. * Al Gore commenting on being care-free and relaxed. * Sarah Palin giving elocution lessons on words ending in "g." * Memphis coach John Calapari giving lessons in free throw shooting. * GW Bush teaching how to "be a uniter, not a divider." * Bernie Madoff lecturing on honest investment schemes. * Paris Hilton on making it on your own. * Dick Cheney talking about open government. WDIV in Detroit ran a crawl below Millen whenever he spoke on the telecast. God Bless 'em!

Before I head back to Michigan, here are my predictions for all of the college bowl games. I have them listed in confidence order (for the ESPN Bowl Mania contest). So I am most confident in the outcome of the XXXX Sports bowl in Orlando on December 28, and least confident about the Independence Bowl. I'm not listing any corporate titles unless they make a donation. 32 XXXX Sports - Boston College over Michigan State (sorry Sparty) 31 Fiesta - Oklahoma over West Virginia 30 Sun - South Florida over Oregon 29 a pizza company.com - Cincinnati over Southern Mississippi 28 Las Vegas - BYU over UCLA 27 Orange - VaTech over Kansas 26 XXXX Car Care - UConn over Wake Forest 25 Rose - USC over Illinois 24 Humanitarian - Fresno St over Ga Tech 23 XXXX Steakhouse - Tenn over Wisc 22 Music City - Florida State over Kentucky 21 Cotton - Mizzu over Arkansas 20 Holiday - Texas over Az State 19 credit card - Florida over UM (Sorry, Lloyd) 18 Hawaii - Boise State over East Carolina 1...

No post yesterday, because I was out fellowshipping with my fellow students until early this morning. I realized yesterday what I've missed about coaching football. It is the celebration & satisfaction of seeing someone you've worked with doing it right and succeeding. I found that joy here yesterday. In our Intro to Homiletics class (Preaching with training wheels), most of the class gave mini-sermons. (I did mine before Turkey Day, the text is archived here .) I have to let the ELCA churches know, trade for draft picks in the 2011 draft. You WANT to draft preachers from THE LTS in 2011. The Spirit is at work here. And for my Lutheran brothers of the Missouri and Wisconsin persuasions, you guys are missing out on SOOOOOOO much. My new preaching hero used this for the jumping off point on a sermon for "Who do you say that I am?" Every day, I see something out of one my classmates where I just want to give them a high 5. That sense of accomplishment and seeing some...

Quick Random Football Notes The BCS should be abolished. The OSU deserves to be in the title game, but making a case for LSU, Oklahoma or USC is very easy. I hate the ESPN whiners saying how tough a playoff would be. I think the sweater vest can use the extra resources at The OSU in a playoff a little better than he did at Youngstown State where he won 3 National Titles in 1AA. If division 3 non-scholarship teams can play a 16 game tournament, so can the megabucks schools. Michigan will be better off for not having Les Miles. Why Brian Kelly is not on any list amazes me. I'd love to see GoBlue call the sweater vest and offer a blank check. The Pats beat the Ravens to stay undefeated. The Ravens whine about "phantom calls." Mugging isn't a phantom crime. Losing your composure isn't a phantom crime. Having an "offensive genius" run an offense that has held back an all-time defense isn't a phantom crime. Billick is the only person in the NFL who need...

The website Allballs.com earlier this week posted a list of the Top 10 Greatest Sports Movie Motivation Speeches. With one exception, I agree with the list. Here is the link to their site where clips are imbedded. I'm listing the movies with clickable links to YouTube or other sites to watch the clips. 10- James Caan in The Program (60 minutes) CAUTION - Strong Language 9- BillieBob Thorton in Friday Night Lights (We will win State. Can you be perfect?) 8- Dawson in Varsity Blues (Let's be heroes) CAUTION - Strong Language 7 - Coach Boone in Remember the Titans (Titans were greater than the gods.) 6- Rocky in Rocky IV (If I can change ... ) 5- the Groundskeeper in Rudy (There are worse things in the world ...) 4- Ronald Reagan in Knute Rockne All American (the classic) 3 - Gale Sayers in Brian's Song (This is the one I disagree with. Right movie, wrong scene. It should have been the scene where Gale accepts the Rookie of the Year award. He says, "I love Bria...

Just to share, The Ghosts of Wayne Fontes (best blog name EVER!) has a post comparing bad NFL teams to bad consumer marketing ideas. ENJOY!

My football team should, better, have won and qualified for the playoffs. All it took for them to turn the program around was getting rid of me. : ) You Are a Little Scary You've got a nice edge to you. Use it. How Scary Are You?

For those who have never watched the show (shame, SHAME!) here is a 3 minute catch-you-up video on "How I Met Your Mother." It joins with the promising "Big Bang Theory" and "Heroes" to form "Watch My GPA Plummet" Monday. Coming off the bench in case of turnovers are Monday Night Football, Dancing with the Stars and the Holy Rosary with Mother Angelica . I may need to get an extra VCR shipped out here just for Mondays. Mad Props to Michigan for making it safe for me to wear Michigan football apparel again. And a shout out to the Sparties for making the top 25. But my football weekend was spoiled on Sunday. I move to PA and STILL have to watch the Lions????? Damm you Matt Millen! DAMM YOU!!!! (I do like the Eagles throwback look -- Go Team Sweden!

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I've been up to my eyeballs in work. Another week, another 250 pages to read, 10 pages to write, 20 sentences in Greek to translate, 2 songs to learn and a new church to attend. Such is the life of a first year seminarian at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. But, here are some things to get off my mind to clear shelf space. Notre Dame should be preparing to fire Charlie Weiss. They fired Tyrone Willingham in his third year for going 6-5. Weiss will get NOWHERE near that. Did he not realize that his offensive line was going to be horrible and not recruit any HS All Americans or transfers? I really like my classes. I'm not so fond of all of the reading, but I enjoy what I'm reading. I especially enjoy the readings in Homiletics (Preaching) and Worship. Discovering more about the practices of the Church is enlightening. Being able to read (almost) the original writings of the New Testament in Greek shows a layer of complexity and...

Wow. First, 1AA App State. Now the Ducks. Can Charlie Weiss install the spread offense in a week?

WARNING: THIS VIDEO HAS VERY EXPLICIT LANGUAGE After a freshman showboats by diving into the endzone in Kansas' 52-7 trouncing of Central Michigan, Kansas Head Coach Mark Mangino rips the player a new oriface. The video has Coach Mangino's unfiltered comments to the player. While the language is extreme, this is the only way to end the "SportsCenter"ization of showboating that young players see and think they need to emulate. I place the decrease in class and sportsmanship squarely on the doorstep of the World Wide Leader in Sports front porch in Bristol. If ESPN would stop showing this crap in their highlights, college and high school kids wouldn't do this crap.

For the first time in 12 years, I'm not blowing a whistle and coaching football. I haven't blogged about football because I've been too busy packing, moving, driving, unpacking, studying and everything else involved in moving two states away to an area without front yards and bizarre liquor laws. I truly miss coaching. I miss working with kids. I miss the camaraderie of a coaching staff. I miss the bizarre excuses players come up with. I miss the parents who think they're son who has only played one year of flag football can come out for the team as a junior and get a scholarship. I miss watching the same play over and over and over to figure out who forgot to block the 6' 4 285 lb. player we spend all week teaching them to block with 2 people. I miss sweating through a shirt by just standing outside during practice. I miss seeing that kid who you never expected to play working hard all season and making a big play late in the year. I miss being on one knee, hol...

I'm going to be moving to Gettysburg the next few days, so there won't be any positing for a few days. (Not anything earth shattering.) The next time I post, it shall be from my apartment. Before I go however, its time to empty the mental mailbag . I'm glad I didn't order the Big Brother feeds. I've been watching the shows and following the feeds and this year's housemates aren't that interesting. Maybe they're not interesting because there is a jerk/bully who's dominating the show. Dick (his real name) is a tyrant who seems to have a 3 year old's fit anytime someone has an opinion or does not follow his directives. I'll pay attention when I see someone has the spine to nominate and evict him. The Tigers (MY Tigers) are in a funk and can't seem to get out of their own way. But fortunately, the Tribe is right there blowing games along with them. I'd love to see them trade for a relief pitcher, but it doesn't look like it will happ...