The Semi-Athletic Second Baseman's Thoughts on Sports

It was quite the weekend in college football, college basketball, and the NFL. The Colts remain undefeated after the Texans fold once again in Houston, Florida State’s second half surge and Solomon Alabi’s late basket are enough to beat an obviously tired Marquette ballclub, and Tim Tebow’s swan song in Gainesville turned out to be an old fashioned ass-whooping of FSU.

The game of the weekend however, was neither in the college ranks, nor the professional ranks. It was the Indiana 5A state championship football game. I very rarely find myself yelling “OH MY GOD!” and raising my hands up in the air during non-Colts/Pacers/Cubs/Marquette games, but this was certainly one exception.

For those of you who did not see it, here you go:

Warren Central went on to convert their 2 pt. conversion to send it into OT. Carmel didn’t convert in the 2nd OT and Warren took full advantage, scoring on a QB sneak and stepping on the already sore throat of all who enjoy/participate in Carmel athletics.

It doesn’t take fantastic vision to realize the Warren WR wasn’t close to staying in bounds. As far as the “force out” call is concerned…..does anyone think that the WR would have kept one foot in if there were no CB there in the first place??? It was terrible reffing overall and I feel bad for Carmel. Their coach seemed like he overreacted in the Indy Star a bit when he said they were “robbed”. You can’t call out the refs like that in high school. Even some of the Carmel players said they should have won in OT if they had deserved to win state. Damn, they accidentally just made their coach look kind of bad.

OK, pick of the night:

PATRIOTS (+1) over Saints

Look, the Patriots are still pissed off after losing to the Colts. The Jets felt the wrath, now the Saints and their weak secondary is going to as well. Gostkowski boots one through the uprights with no time left to break the tie. I’m thinking a point or 50 will be scored in this game…I’ll put it at 37-34…..leaving the COLTS as the lone undefeated football team in the National Football League.

Stay tuned tomorrow for some college hoops picks and maybe some BCS discussion?? Enjoy MNF…I know I won’t.

After reading the title of this post, one might think that this could be a fluff piece for USC.

Fortunately, this is the exact opposite.

In today’s 28-7 destruction of UCLA, coach Carroll and the Trojans decided that they officially don’t care about the fact that they have NO class anymore. The Trojans had the ball when it was 21-7 with 44 seconds left, and Rick Neuheisel decided to call a timeout. Hey, it’s a long shot, but you never know what can happen. USC had the game wrapped up, and all they needed to do was kneel it a couple of times and those UCLA timeouts would prove irrelevant.

Carroll thought it would be prudent to go deep on the next play to WR Damian Williams for a 48 yd touchdown, further sinking the Bruins fans in their respective chairs. Carroll celebrated on the sideline like that pass won him a national championship. The ENTIRE Trojan sideline in unison came out on the field to taunt UCLA. The Bruins obviously didn’t like this and they began their trek over towards USC’s bench. Things got a little hairy, and it was finally resolved after awhile.

There really wasn’t that much fighting and nothing got too far out of hand, but all I could think about was when Miami literally beat up on a lesser opponent when it really wasn’t needed.

My favorite part is when all the U players lift up their helmets in triumph. Kicking FIU’s ass was probably the noble thing to do, and I’m sure all of Miami was happy during that moment. Larry Coker had as much control over that team as Mark Mangino has over his hunger.

Anywars, look, I know this is a rivalry game, and things like this happen. I’m just really sick of Carroll thinking that he is so much better than everyone else. Hey Petey, what were those scores vs. Oregon and Stanford again this year? I could NEVER imagine why Coach Harbaugh decided to go for 2 against you to put up a cool 50 points! Pretty soft defense, don’t you agree?

Carroll’s tenure at USC has focused on one thing: Winning. At any cost. No matter how many people you piss off in the process. But right now, it seems as if this recklessness is coming back to bite you in the ass, Mr. Carroll. Everyone wants to blow USC out while laughing in the process. And, for once, not one BUT TWO teams did it this year!

Let me be the first of many to express my supreme pleasure in regards to USC not participating in the BCS this year. This postseason will be much better without them raining on everyone else’s parade.