Friday, September 2, 2011

THE JETS AND COLLEGE FOOTBALL

College football season starts tomorrow and there are a lot of high hopes for a number of different college programs and there are some question marks for a great number of others. I think the fan of college football is sitting and waiting to see where the next scandal will arise.

I will watch and root for the UCLA Bruins. Their cross town rivals, USC, are not bowl eligible because of their NCAA violations. If the Bruins were as great a team as USC was, I will guarantee you, there would be an investigation into Neuhisel. (Not like that hasn't happened before to him) My point is this, college football is a great game with a lot of problems behind the scenes. They have great games and rivalries but it just gets annoying, year after year, finding out that this college or that college has violated some rule.

Which brings me to an interesting Division that I have followed for years and just enjoy watching their games. I really like Ivy League football. You snicker and that is fine but hear me out. Here is a league that has been around forever.  You have the Bears of Brown University,  the Lions of Columbia University,  Big Red of Cornell University,  Big Green of Dartmouth College,  the Crimson of Harvard University,  the Quakers of the University of Pennsylvania,  the Tigers of Princeton and the Bulldogs of Yale. Each of these teams have student athletes, they are there to get an education and then play football. They do not go to bowl games and the majority of the players know that this is their last hurrah at the game of football as they know it. But each and every Saturday, they come out on the field and play football with a passion like no other. They are playing football because they love it. Plus, each and every one of these schools has no easy majors. Just look at the GPAs and the majors for these rosters.

I pull for the Crimson of Harvard because I like to say Harvard with a Boston accent. The truth of the matter is that we were in Cambridge, Mass. on the day that they were playing Brown. The atmosphere was great and it felt like you were attending a Ohio State/Michigan game. So from that time on, I root for the Crimson of Haved.

Haved's first game is next week at Holy Cross and then they come home to play Brown. Next week is also the start of the NFL and there are some questions that Rex needs to answer before September 11.

Rex needs to figure out who he can plug into the O-Line if a starter goes down. His depth at that position was cut short after Robert Turner broke his leg. They have been trying Vladimir Ducasse and he just isn't working. He took  three penalties against the Eagles and that just drives an offensive line coach crazy. The Jets running game so far has been abysmal. If your O-Line is having problems, so does your running game. I always say, your offense goes where your O-Line takes it.

Greg McElroy hurt his thumb during the Eagles game, so Brunell needs to get his calf better. Ryan needs Brunnell to be the back-up to Sanchez.

These things have to be worked out over the next week before opening day against the Cowboys.

1 comment:

  1. Yo Brooklyn! Hope u are well. I would like to say that DIII football is the greatest. Like their Ivy League brothers, they also play for the love of the game. There are over 200+ D-III schools throughout the U.S. There is no athletic scholarship $$, just academic scholarships. They also have a national championship playoff system. Thats all! Go Redlands.

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