Glenn "Mr. Outside" Davis

Half of the famous duo known as the "Mr.Inside" and "Mr.Outside" Glenn Davis was born in Clermont, CA on the date of 12/26/1924. His career with Army begin in 1943, he enrolled at the Military Academy and as a freshman fullback he gained 1,028 yards in 144 attempts. When his backfield mate Doc Blanchard came to Army in 1944, the 5 foot 9 170 lbs Davis moved to halfback. From that year on history would begin, they both became three time All-Americans and became the only backfield duo to win the Heisman Trophy. Davis finished second on the ballot in 1944 and 1945, 1945 being the year Blanchard won the prestigious award. By then Davis nearly became the first double winner but in 1946 he would have his glory winning the Heisman. With the help of Davis's swift running and Blanchard's power running, Army would go undefeated from 1944-1946 finishing with a career record of 27-0-1 through that span. Most notably with routes of a highly respected Notre Dame teams, 59-0 in 1944 and 48-0 in 1945. He has held NCAA records for yards gained per play in one season, 11.5 yards per carry in 1945. Also he held the record of 8.3 career yards per carry. Blessed with Olympic speed in the 100 yard dash, he often admitted he didn't like to run unless it was running in a team competition. Davis scored 59 touchdowns between 1944-1946, averaging almost 1 touchdown every 9 plays. Davis rushed for 2,957 yards and passed for 855 yards on his way to three national championships. Teamed with Blanchard they scored 97 touchdowns through the 3 year span. A record that stood until 2005 when USC duo Lendale White and Reggie Bush amassed 99 career touchdowns. After graduating Davis spent 3 years in the military before joining the Los Angeles Rams. his career was cut short with a knee injury in 1952. Though he didn't have an illustrious professional career, Davis played for one of the best teams in college football history. Glenn Davis passed away after a long bout with prostate cancer on 3/9/2005, he was 80.


(Mr.Outside left, Mr.Inside right)

(Davis being tackled in a traditional Army-Navy game)

BCS Rankings as of October 28, 2007

Ok here is the only Ranking that matters this time of year.

Conference Breakdown

ACC - 5
BIG 10 - 3
BIG 12 - 4
BIG EAST - 3
PAC 10 - 3
SEC - 5
WAC - 2

RK TEAM BCS PR
1. Ohio State .9756 1
2. Boston College .9559 2
3. LSU .8879 3
4. Arizona State .8493 4
5. Oregon .8390 5
6. Oklahoma .7920 6
7. West Virginia .7759 7
8. Kansas .7723 9
9. Missouri .6100 13
10. Georgia .5820 18
11. Virginia Tech .5240 8
12. Michigan .4258 20
13. Connecticut .3801 23
14. Hawaii .3627 17
15. Texas .3444 19
16. Auburn .3296 22
17. Alabama .3251 24
18. South Florida .3217 10
19. USC .3177 12
20. Florida .3146 11
21. Wisconsin .1607 NR
22. Boise State .1545 NR
23. Virginia .1535 15
24. Wake Forest .1407 NR
25. Clemson .1353 NR

NFL Week 8 Recap

So I got 10 out of 13 games correct this week. Considering how easy this week should've been that isn't as good as it looks.

Indianapolis at Carolina - Correct
Cleveland at St.Louis - Correct
NY Giants at Miami - Correct
Philadelphia at Minnesota - Wrong
Pittsburgh at Cincinnati - Correct
Detroit at Chicago - Correct
Oakland at Tennessee - Correct
Buffalo at NJ Jets - Correct
Jacksonville at Tampa Bay -Wrong
Houston at San Diego - Correct
New Orleans at San Francisco - Correct
Washington at New England - Correct
MNF
Green Bay at Denver - Wrong

WVU @ RUTGERS 10/27/07

It had been raining constantly for the last 3 days prior to the game. Game day morning, it is still raining. We decided to head down to the game anyway, however we didn't arrive till halfway through the 1st quarter. On the way down the rain continually pelted the car and would not let up. Usually a very pleasant ride turned into a frustrating ride, straining to see and water splashing up from the other vehicles added on to the situation. After an hour ride that turned into a two hour ride we arrived at Rutgers Stadium.

When arriving at the stadium we quickly got our things together and headed in. We had excellent seats section 107 row 1 and right on the end. We where sitting behind WVU's bench but more towards the end of the bench. When we sat down the game was already 14-0 by this point and that was the tone of the day.

(White having fun at end of game.)
As the rain continued through the first half the game was getting intense. Rutgers had driven into WVU redzone a few times but a couple of dropped touchdown passes, turned into an Ito field goal. West Virginia answered right back to make the score 17-3 right before the half. Coming out to begin the second half Rutgers held WVU in check for some of the 3rd quarter. Then QB Pat White engineered a couple of beautiful drives. Starting off with a pass to the flat to Owen Schmidt he leaped a RU defender and jaunted down field picking up a quick 20 yards. After a couple of penalties and a long 3rd down they converted by throwing a short pass to Slaton and he quickly turned it into a 51 yard completion. It set up a easy Slaton score off left end. Now pushing the gap to 24-3, by then the RU faithful had started leaving in a mass exodus. Rutgers managed to get inside WVU's redzone twice but turned the ball over on a couple of Mike Teel interceptions. After stopping them the first time in the redzone early in the 4th quarter WVU drove the ball 66 yards into the endzone, mostly behind the legs of Pat White gaining 50 yards on one attempt leading to a Slaton 6 yard score. That would result in a final score of 31-3.

(Slaton being gang tackled.)
The game came across as one team being dominated physically. RU didn't have an answer for White either as he piled up 300 total yards (144 passing, 156 rushing) as a team they gained 254 yards on the ground. Rutgers Ray Rice had another great outing though 142 yards on 30 carries but was not able to reach the endzone, mostly because they where trying to score quickly through the air. Rutgers suffered their 3rd loss of the season and now are 5-3 and 2-2 in the Big East. West Virginia is now 7-1 and 2-1 in conference play.

(A trio of WVU players.)
As a result of going to the game, we have a few pictures from the game. You can find a few more on the link given here.

http://bleedblueandwhite2.blogspot.com

NFL Week 8

Here are my picks for week 8 of the NFL season.

Indianapolis at Carolina - To much offense, defense is playing well too.
Cleveland at St.Louis - I think the losing streak continues for the Rams.
NY Giants at Miami - They can play this game on mars, Giants still win.
Philadelphia at Minnesota - A.P. handles the clock and the D.
Pittsburgh at Cincinnati - Pitt bounces back, hate to pick against my own team.
Detroit at Chicago - Passing game has been slowed, should awake here.
Oakland at Tennessee - It's Oakland, Need I say more.
Buffalo at NY Jets - Bills play their style, good defense and control clock.
Jacksonville at Tampa Bay - Long day for 2nd QB, Jones-Drew is questionable.
Houston at San Diego - SD needs this win, Teaxans aren't stopping them.
New Orleans at San Francisco - Won 2 in a row, should be 3 after 7:30 PM eastern time.
Washington at New England - Washington's secondary might pose a challenge.
MNF
Green Bay at Denver - "The Genius" goes for 2 in a row in spolight games.

Atlanta Falcons

Well their season is pretty much looking to shape up into a 4-12 maybe 6-10 season, if they're really lucky. Well after all the Michael Vick controversy, Deangelo Hall is making news again. Earlier in the season he was seen arguing with his head coach Bobby Petrino and now he is calling Petrino out. With the release of Grady Jackson, a 35 year old nose tackle, he accuses Petrino of going into the tank for the season already and preparing for the 2008 season. Hall was quoted saying "they need to cut all 53 of us, because obviously no one is playing where we should be playing." He also related his outburst because he felt they are singling out Jackson because he is an older player. Jackson led the league last year with 13 tackles for lost and his stat line this year read 21 tackles 5 1/2 for a loss and 1 sack. Hall who has already been fined 100,000 dollars this year, is in the last year of his contract.

Red "The Galloping Ghost" Grange

Born in Forksville, PA on 6/13/1903 he was a halfback for the University of Illinois between the years of 1923-1925. Wearing the number 77 Harold "Red" stood 5 feet 11 inches and weighed 175 lbs. Though not big in stature, his talents led him to be picked for the all century team. He earned the nick name the Galloping Ghost because no one could catch him, he was very fast and elusive. He was football's greatest open field runner up to his time. One of his most notable performances include his debut against Nebraska scoring three times, from 50, 35, and 12 yards out. October 18,1924 The Ghost galloped to his way to 402 yards on 21 carries against Michigan. In the first 12 minutes he scored four touchdowns on runs of 95, 67, 56, and 44 yards respectively. That same year on a cold November day, Grange ran for 300 yards and passed for 177 against Chicago. Another notable date in his playing days, October 31,1925. On this day he amassed 363 yards on 36 carries and recorded two 65 yard TD runs against Penn. Only playing 20 collegiate games he put up astounding numbers, 31 touchdowns and 3,362 yards. Over his entire career dating back to college and his time in the pros he had 4,103 rushing attempts and gained 33,920 yards, that's 8.4 yards per carry. His umber 77 was retired in 1925, the only other number to be retired in Illinois history was Dick Butkus's 50. He was inducted into the college hall of fame in 1951. Red passed on January 28, 1991 he was 87 years old.


(Red without his helmet)


(Red scampering off to a long run)

Throwback Tuesdays

On Tuesdays I will be incorporating a spotlight for players of the past. Mostly College Hall Of Fames and possibly even NFL Hall Of Famers and Legends. It pretty much goes hand and hand with some players. I absolutely love the players of the old, they helped mold the game to what it is today, also I think the whole "star players have nicknames" back then is pretty cool and fun. Well here goes the first one and definitely not the last. Information on some might be harder to find than others but i will do the best to produce adequate information, so bear with me please.

World Series

I see that the Boston Red Sox have punched their ticket to the world series last night. Well I am going to stick with The Rockies pulling this one out in 6. I've been called everything from crazy to stupid for this call but I refuse to change up like most do. Pitching is huge during this time of year, it's basically essential the whole year but this is when it get's magnified. I feel that if the Rockies are still hitting good like they've done most of the year, the Red Sox's pitching truly won't matter. Beckett seems like the only true ace in the playoffs, Schilling had a good 2nd game against the Indians and last night they where hitting off of Dice-K but he survived the 5th. Some even say the Indians blew the series? I haven't really watched to much of the series to say if the Indians blew it or not. So time will tell what happens, just wanted to state my pick in case they do pull it out.

Monday Night Football

I'm looking forward to tonight's game but is it me or is Kornheiser extremely annoying? I really enjoy the show PTI but to me everytime I watch MNF he's always saying the dumbest crap. Seriously if you get to go to the game and annouce it why must you talk like you've never seen a football game???

Heisman Hopefuls

The Heisman Memorial Trophy is College Football's biggest honor. As the season wears down each week, the race is still pretty open. This year there doesn't seem t be a clear cut winner this year. Almost every team is going to finish with at least one loss, so team's wins and losses shouldn't play that big of a role. With that being said here is my list of Heisman Hopefuls for week 8. I will not have them in any specific order though.

Dennis Dixon, QB Oregon - Led his team to a dominating win over Washington. Threw for 196 yards going 19 for 30 with a TD. Accounted for 99 yards of the team's 465 yards on the ground on 62 attempts. On the year Dixon is 137 for 198 at 69.2% for 1,721 yards and 16 TD and 3 int. Also has 75 attempts for 423 yards and 7 TD.


Matt Ryan, QB Boston College - Has his team in good position so far in the National Championship picture. Had a bye this last week but shouldn't have hurt him, he has great numbers this year on a very good BC team. Ryan has thrown for 2,143 yards so far this year. He is completing at 63.2% 192-304 along with 17 TD and 6 int.


Darren McFadden, RB Arkansas - Off to another good year, helped his team down Ole Miss big. He contributed 22 carries for 110 yards without a touchdown. On the year he has 169 carries for 932 yards and 7 TD. He also has 1 touchdown through the air for 42 yards. McFadden's numbers might be higher already, considering his teammate Felix Jones has 81 attempts on the ground.


Tim Tebow, QB Florida - Is having a good year for being a first time starter. In his last game he had a combined 334 yards and 5 TD. He still has his team in the BCS race despite 2 losses, they're 11th. On the year Tebow has done it through the air or the ground game. Tebow is a pretty efficient passer he has 1,711 yards, 115-174 for a 66.1 completion percentage and 17 TD and 2 int. He also has 125 carries for 578 yards and 10 more TD.


Andre' Woodson, QB Kentucky - Despite 2 losses Woodson is having a phenomenal year. His team is still in the BCS ranking 14th in the race. Woodson was flawless in a losing effort to Florida, completing 35 of 50 passes for 415 yards and 5 TD and no interceptions. On the year Woodson has 2,201 yards at 64.7% completion percentage(191-295). He has 29 TD on the year 3 by rushing and only 4 int.

AP Top 25 Rankings for week 8

1.Ohio State(57)8-0
2.Boston College(2)7-0
3.LSU(5)7-1
4.Oklahoma 7-1
5.Oregon 6-1
6.West Virginia 6-1
7.Arizona State(1)7-0
8.Virginia Tech 6-1
9.USC 6-1
9.Florida 5-2
11.South Florida 5-2
12.Kansas 7-0
13.Missouri 6-1
14.Kentucky 6-2
15.South Carolina 6-2
16.Hawaii 7-0
17.Texas 5-2
18.California 5-2
19.Michigan 6-2
20.Georgia 5-2
21.Virginia 7-1
22.Alabama 6-2
23.Auburn 5-3
24.Penn State 6-2
25.Rutgers 5-2

Dropped from AP Top 25 Rankings
Tennessee 20th
Texas Tech 22nd
Cincinnati 23rd
Kansas State 25th

()- Are 1st place votes recieved

10/18/07 Piscataway, NJ

On a beautiful thursday in the month of October my father and I set out to see Rutgers welcome the No.2 ranked team to Scarlet nation. On our way down we reminesced about what we witnessed last year on Novemember 9th, Rutgers upset then No.3 Louisville. I came to the unerstanding that this was not going to be as much of an upset as last year, besides the National Ranking. Mostly because Louisville came in as a juggernaut, we all know they had a big offense and scored quick and played good defense under Petrino. Now with USF all I've witnessed on tv was a win over WVU, which they negate their speed with their own speed. So with WVU being almost practically one dimensional with running read options and throwing short passes which is basically like a long pitch, it was hard to observe USF's talents.

We arrived at the stadium around 6 pm, it isn't a bad ride for us we live in between Quakertown and Philly. Now upon getting there we scalped tickets. It's truly not bad my dad payed 50 bucks for 2 tickets last year and just 60 for two this year. Now upon getting tickets we entered the stadium around 630 or so and watched warmups. We laughed as we watched the student section chant "Overrated" over and over in rythmic pattern. I could relate since they're around my ripe old age of 21 lol.

Now it's 740 pm and its game time baby!! Everybody is all hyped up for the game and the atmosphere is great. Rutgers gets the ball first and they are stopped temporarily. Schiano took a shot and faked a punt and got them inside the 5. Fromt there though they where able only to muster a fg. On the ensuing drive USF scored on a fg. Then they held Rutgers to a stop and proceeded to follow up with a Grothe scramble left for an 18 yd score. I must say the observation I read on Grothe was to the point, he wont amaze you or wow you but he does what it takes to move the chains. He was great at distictive running the read option, he would get his pads down search for a hole and do a good job at splitting between two defenders. He would somehow freeze the two defenders before attempting to split them. I must say it was truly a treat watching him run the read option and also he is an underrated passer. Now the 2nd quarter it went back and forth a bit. Rutgers scored after a long drive to put 7 on the board and USF answered with a fg, then Ito punched one through for RU. Going into the half it was 17-10 and truly the game looked wide open. Now the 2nd half Rutgers stepped it up a bit. They stopped USF on their opening drive then scored on a 69 yd td strike to Underwood, it was a short pass and he bounced out wide and took it to the house. On their 2nd scoring drive of the half Rutgers pulle dout some more trickery, they scored 15 yds out on a fake field goal. Nearing the end of the 3rd quarter USF mustered a fg. For the 4th quarter RU only got a fg up, but USF scored with 9 minutes left to make the score 27-30. I give Rutgers defense tremendous credit though, Rice had a rare fumble on thier own 40 and they stopped USF dead in its tracks with 4 minutes to go. The game ended 27-30 as you all know by now but I wish the refs would have left them play on that 4th and 22 play. That was sad, the team converts a 4th and 22 with 30 something seconds left on the road and you call a penalty, keep your flag in your pocket man. They pulled that last year when the kid from Louisville jumped over then back. I'm not discreding RU for playing good games, I just wish refs would stay out of things.

So the verdict is in, USF was the typical No.2 team in the country this year and therefore was upset. It isn't much of an upset as it looked though, Rutgers matched up well against them. USF also did not take a few advantages they could have had. They did a great job running the read option in the 1st half with Grothe. The 2nd half though Rutgers defensive line created pressure on the pocket forcing Grothe to stay in and when he did flush they caught him behind the line or for a short gain. This was a pivotal part of the win. Grothe is listed at 6 ft even but reality is he is prolly 5'11 maybe even 5'10. Now height plays a part because he would have a hard time seeing over that line when forced in the pocket, BINGO Rutgers makes a great adjustment. Now as I sit here and watch these 1st couple of USF series I am waiting for them to make their adjustment to this. Yes they keep Grothe in the pocket, flsuhed him when they wanted to not when he wanted to but Rutgers was leaving a wide open middle of the field. I was waited for Leavitt or his Offensive Coordinator to make the adjustment. They would come out in 5 wide and rutgers would rush 6. Now with the middle of the field open I was waiting to see them distinguish a hot read and tell him to flash to the middle right? Nope never happened, which interested me greatly because in the first half RU was man to man and they scored off of a short slant over the middle. The man converage gave their WRs the ability to make a play, hence break a tackle and take it to the house like Hester did for his 2nd qtr score. I am not discrediting Rutgers they played a good game, I'm just curious how things would have turned out if they did make that change.

I feel the intangibles of this game relate back to last year a bit. The most obvious one is letting RU hang around and not taking care of business. They let them Linger around on a spotlight game on Thursday night at home, do your really think they would play flat all game?? I believe not. Now in this game dropped passes hurt them. I mean Grothe is truly an underrated passer, people only go on about his running ability but I seen him place some balls where only his guys could get it. It was impressive to see him operate the passing game as well as he did because all I heard was run this and that. It's the same thing that happened to them last year they jsut couldn't catch the ball against RU. Also they got flat out embarassed on National TV, to have 3 fake special team plays fool you is unbelievable for a No.2 team to let happen.

From observations it seems that the Big East is just that type of conference where everyone has everyone's number. I mean it's not like the SEC where its just a downright nasty tough confernece and you can lose almost any given saturday. I mean in the last 2 years Cincy beats Rutgers, Rutgers beats USF and USF beats West Virginia. It is intriguing to see this, it's basically a conference that's always up for grabs till the very end. Nw does it make for good suspense, sure it's fun to watch but I dont think we'll see a BCS championship team from this conference for a while.

Now this BCS thing truly has got to go. I'm fed up with them, they only want teams like the OSU's, Florida's, LSU's, Oklahoma's, Teaxas's and USC's in the National Championship game because obviously they generate the most money for them. The way college football is it's so up and down and a upset can go down any given week. They know if they formed a 16 team playoff system, taking the conference winners as automatic bids and then a select few maybe based on rankings, quality wins, and etc. that they would have to live with who makes it their and not push OSU in for beating no one like they do every year. Yes USF didn't play the best game at all and they deserved to lose but when are we the fans of college football going to realize this BCS is nothing more than a who's who of College Football. Now watch what happens to USF this week, they lost to RU which is a respectable program and let's see where they drop in the rankings high 20's if not out right? Now The USC Trojans lose to STANFORD with their 2nd string QB and they went from 2nd to 10th? Why is that? That loss should have meritted a possible drop out because honest to god they have no quality wins proior to that. My pont exactly, they hope USC can win out and they can throw an average USC team into the BCS title game and if The Overrated Substantionally every year University wins out there you go. They have the game they want. It's ashame because Boise State which I believed Oklahoma would be to pwoerful proved to us that upests are allowed to happen. It was an amazing game and to me that is what the game is about, the best team winning on that any given saturday not the most known team.

Now you are probably wondering why is a PSU fan attending rutgers games? Maybe not? Well my father would get credentials to games and shoot RU and Temple games( I know Temple lol) so as a young kid I would go along. He could always get me and my brother in, When Miami would come up here and kill Rutgers you could always see NFL talent and almost for free back then. Now I believe the best player I've seen right on the sideline had to be Michael Vick at Temple, yes he isn't to smart but anyways it was absoulutely crazy to see him making these moves right in front of you and being said field level is always alot of fun to watch a game. Ok well I witnessed history as the RU faithful say twice in a row. I'm looking forward to seeing West Virginia roll into town next week to take on the Scarlet Knights, once again I will be in attendance. Hopefully I will have pictures, my phone for a all that it cost doesn't get great pictures. So my dad will probably bring his digital cam and a lens with it so he can get pictures. Ok time to go socut some Suburban One hs talent ha ha, and wait for the Blue and White to play Indiana.

Star Player Evaluation

South Florida

Matt Grothe, QB- Looked unstoppable in the first half. Very Smooth runner, had good elusivness and kept the chains moving. Did a good job in placing the ball where only his recievers could get it. 2nd half held onto the ball to long when pressured. Was flushed out of the pocket on RU's Defenses terms, not his own.

Rutgers

Ray Rice, RB-Ray did a great job in keeping the chains moving with his breaking tackle ability. Almost broke a few runs to the house. Gained 189 yards on 31 carries, helping his team control the clock.

The endzone South Florida was warming up in before the start of the game.(Sorry my camera phone picks up so much light.)

Just getting started.

Well I enjoy covering sports and it's something I want to do in the future as a professional. So I have started this blog as just a practice to improve writing but to also cover sports for fun. It's a busy time of year but my favorite sport to cover will be Football. Feel free to leave comments on posts and pertaining to the topics at hand. Thank you and hope you enjoy your day.