Wednesday, October 24, 2007

SPLOG Wednesday

The World Series is about to begin, the Rox vs. the Sox. I doubt I'll watch a great deal of it, but I'll tune in to hear the scores every once and again. As for my pick, my heart is with the Rockies, but my head is with the Red Sox. I'm a National League guy, and I have a general distaste for nor'eastern sports teams. I suppose I'll reluctantly pick the Sox in six since they've been there, and the Rox have had 8 days to cool off.

At first, I was slightly disappointed that Tony La Russa (aka TLR) returned to manage the Cardinals. Now that I've had a couple days to process it, I'm actually ok with it. It's nice to have a manager and team display this kind of loyalty. TLR is the Cardinals' all time winningest manager. He's been the manager for more than a third of my lifetime, and I welcome him back with open arms. Next step for the Cards, CHRIS ANTONETTI FOR GM. He'd be a perfect fit.

The Dolphins are trying to steal the #1 pick away from my Rams. Miami's starting QB is out for the year with a "concussion", and now their starting RB has a "torn ACL" and is done for the year. Maybe if the Rams work a little harder (or maybe less hard, as the case may be), they can attain the #1 pick, and stave off those pesky Dolphins.

On last week's predictions, I ended up 6-4 (3-2 in each college and the NFL). I'll take that. The plan is to make 10 picks every week between the college games and the pro games until college is over, then I'll figure something else out. But here's the thing, you aren't getting any fluff picks from the SPLOG. These picks will be the Lexus of picks, the créme de la créme. On to this week's picks:

NCAAF
California over Arizona St.
*Looking to get back on the winning track, and disrupt Az. St.'s thusfar perfect season.
Penn State over Ohio State
*#1 goes down at one of the toughest venues for opponents to play to an in-conference rival.
USC over Oregon
*The once highly touted USC still has title hopes. They just have to contain Heisman hopeful Dixon.
Connecticut over South Florida
*No more #2 ranking for USF. No more perfect season. No more magic.
Florida over Georgia
*I know aren't supposed to play connect the dots in College Football, but Tennessee stomped the Bulldogs, and Florida stomped TN.
South Carolina over Tennessee
*Spurrier looks to recover from his bad loss to Vandy. TN gets walked over again.
NFL
Denver over Green Bay
*GB is solid, but Denver's a tough place to play, as I said last week.
Buffalo over NY Jets
*Jets are reeling. Buffalo's due for a couple of wins after those close losses.
Chicago over Detroit
*Bears out to prove they're still among the NFC elite.
Philadelphia over Minnesota
*Battle of the 2-4s. The Iggles can outgun the Vikes. Who is Tavaris Jackson, anyway?

I've created a system for ranking my Heisman candidates, which I've dubbed the SSS (Stephen Scoring System). It takes into account Total TDs, Total Yards, Comp. %, Comp./400 ATT, Yards/400 ATT, TD/400 ATT, INT/400 ATT, opponent win%. Part of the thinking behind it is:
*Some teams throw a lot more than others, so making the stats per 400 tells what each candidate would do if they threw the same amount.
*Some schools have a significantly weaker schedule than others, so that should be taken into consideration.
*I've plugged in total yards and TDs to include throwing and rushing stats to show an all around depiction of their impact on the game.
*The reason for only QBs... I honestly believe the top 6 candidates are QBs. Hart and McFadden are next on my list and they're not having Heisman-caliber years, in my opinion.

I'm sure it's a far from perfect gage on ranking players, but here're the scores that I've given each player. The lower the number the better the score, you know, like golf:
1. Tim Tebow, FL, 2177
2. Graham Harrell, TT, +165
3. Andre' Woodson, KY, +484
4. Dennis Dixon, OR, +583
5. Colt Brennan, HI, +1615
6. Matt Ryan, BC, +2023

4 comments:

erin said...

GO, Dolphins! :)

Your picks will help me to pick my teams in Pick 'Em, so thanks.

Anonymous said...

Looking at your college picks, I would say two things. One, Arizona State is a really good team and given they've had a bye to get ready for Cal and Cal's coming off of two heartbreaking losses, I think Arizona State is in prime position to win that game.

Two, given how much I don't like either team (USC or Oregon) I will say that Oregon has the more explosive offense and USC doesn't right now. Plus the game is in Eugene and they have some of the loudest fans in the Pac-10. Oregon's still got a great chance to win the Pac-10 (At this point I think it's between them and Arizona State) so I think the Ducks will beat the Trojans on Saturday.

Do you think Sage should start this Sunday? I think Mr. Rosenfels is due a start after that perfomance this past Sunday

stephen said...

I need to see Arizona St. beat a team of consequence before I'm a believer. Longshore tore them up last year.

My question about Oregon again goes to who they've played. They beat a Michigan team when they were down. They lost to the only ranked team they've played (Cal). Granted that doesn't mean they're not good or can't beat a ranked opponent. They're just not battle tested.

Both of these were hard games to pick and really could go either way. We'll see how good some of these teams are when they start to get to the tough part of their schedule.

Anonymous said...

Go Gators!
Ok, that's all I know about sports. My brother told me Gators Rule! And he would't lie to me, would he?