The future looks bright for USC football. By Bobak Ha’Eri (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

After an extremely disappointing season in 2012, not many people projected the USC football to do much of anything in 2013. Starting off the season 3-2 with losses to Washington State in the Coliseum and a blowout loss to Arizona State, USC’s season looked like it was going nowhere. The Trojans struggled mightily with play calling and leadership and it showed on the field. The offense looked pathetic and the defense looked tired from having to bail the offense out so often.

So Pat Haden decided that it was time to cut ties with coach Lane Kiffin, a move that was a long time coming.

The school promoted assistant coach Ed Orgeron to Interim Head Coach and all of a sudden, the entire atmosphere of the program changed. USC went 6-2 over the last eight games, only losing to Notre Dame on the road and UCLA in the final game of the season. USC even knocked off Stanford, which was ranked fourth in the nation at the time. Led by quarterback Cody Kessler and Marqise Lee on offense, the Trojans under showed how good they really could be. It’s clear that getting a new leader into the locker room (Orgeron) was the right move by management.

Prior to the bowl game, it was announced that USC would not be retaining Coach Orgeron and that they had hired Washington coach Steve Sarkisian. Upon hearing that he would not return as head coach, Coach O resigned from his position did not coach in the Las Vegas Bowl. Without Coach O, and with Sarkisian looking-on from a box, USC took on a tough Fresno State team but easily defeated them 45-20 to become the Las Vegas Bowl champions. It may have not been the bowl game they had hoped for but it was a good win nonetheless. After losing Coach Orgeron, the team could have laid down and had nothing to play for but they came out fighting and dominated from the start.

Trojan fans should be encouraged. The future looks bright for the USC program and hopefully they can regain their position as one of the top teams in college football where they belong.

Just about two months ago I, like most other people, was imagining an Alabama-Oregon National Championship game. Auburn and Stanford, though, had other ideas. Stanford upset Oregon for the second straight year and Auburn defeated Alabama very shockingly. As crazy as college football can be at times, how many people can say honestly that when the season began they predicted an Auburn-Florida State National Championship game? I know that I didn’t…

Florida State and Auburn will be battling for this trophy come January 6th 2014 in Pasadena. By User:Nikonmadness from the English Wikipedia, via Wikimedia Commons

Florida State Seminoles: (13-0, 8-0 ACC) Beat Duke in ACC Title game

Ranked #11 to start the season, not many people saw the Seminoles jumping to the #1 ranking by year’s end. Redshirt freshman quarterback Jameis “Famous” Winston is the frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy and for good reason. He has posted 38 touchdowns, 10 interceptions and 3,820 passing yards. His explosive offense ranks 14th in passing and 27th in rushing in all of college football. Florida State’s defense also ranks first in college football only allowing 10.7 points per game. People may question the level of competition that Florida State plays being in the ACC but not only does Florida State beat their opponents, they dismantle them. Two examples are a 51-14 beat-down of #3 ranked Clemson at Memorial Stadium in Clemson and a 45-7 win against Duke in the ACC Title game. The Seminoles deserve to be in the National Championship game and they will look to break the SEC streak of seven straight National Championships.

Auburn Tigers: (12-1, 7-1 SEC) Beat Missouri in SEC Title game

After going 3-9 overall (0-8 in the SEC) last season, nobody saw Auburn coming except for maybe Auburn. Being unranked normally doesn’t bode well to make the Championship Game but the last two seasons an unranked team has made it (Notre Dame and Auburn). Coach Gus Malzahn took over the Auburn program after such a disheartening season and has rebuilt them within a year to make them title contenders once again. Led by their top-ranked rushing attack, Auburn is a force to be reckoned with offensively and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Every season there seems to be a team of “destiny” in the national title mix, and Auburn is most certainly it this season.

After an incredible Hail Mary win over Georgia to keep their title hopes alive, nobody thought Auburn could pull out another miraculous win but to the disbelief of college football fans everywhere, they did. Trailing by a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, Auburn tied the game at 28. Alabama then drove the ball down the field only to set up what would be the game winning field goal. The field goal was wide right and was improbably returned for a touchdown by returner Chris Davis to win the game and stun the college football world. They would go on to face Missouri in the SEC Title game, beating them 59-42 to secure their place in the National Championship game. Auburn now has a chance to keep the SEC dominance alive and win the school’s second National Championship in four years.

Johnny Manziel. Johnny Football. Heisman Winner.

Whatever you want to call him, he is still the reigning freshman Heisman trophy winner and nothing that people say about him is going to ever change that. Recently Manziel has been accused of receiving a large sum of money for his various autographs, which is a direct violation of the NCAA. If found guilty of this, Manziel would have lost his eligibility to play in the 2013-2014 season. But no evidence was found and all Manziel was given was a half game suspension against Rice in Texas A&M’s season opener.

With all the offseason distractions, can Johnny Football lead Texas A&M to a National Title? By Shutterbug459, via Wikimedia Commons

I am totally fine with the rule that the athletes can’t be paid to play like in the professional league but at least let the kids make some money.

College athletes risk injury every time they step onto a field, court, etc… . They, in turn, should be allowed to go out and get some income for themselves. Manziel isn’t the first and sure as hell won’t be the last college athlete to have to deal with the NCCA’s ridiculous rules. Unlike others, though, he escaped them with just a slap on the wrist.

Many people will question how this happened because it seemed almost certain that Manziel was guilty. He doesn’t portray himself as a good standing college athlete unlike most of his other competition. He has been ridiculed for “partying” or just being a college student but that is exactly what he is — a college student.

We tend to forget that these kids that play the college sports we love oh so much are just 18-22 years old. Yes, they are representatives of huge institutions of higher learning and as such are under pressure to portray mature and respectful attitudes. But they are still in college, and we shouldn’t forget that. I doubt the people who are writing about him acted professional while they were in college and while most of those writers were not a “star athlete,” I don’t think it should make a difference.

Manziel is going to make mistakes. He is going to rant about things that don’t make sense on social networking sites, and he is going to be late for things sometimes. It will either affect his draft stock and ability to play in the NFL or not, but either way, people need to get over this overblown “story.” Give the kid a break. He won the Heisman as a freshman and I believe could win it again this season.

Just because he doesn’t fit into society’s expectation of an all-American quarterback from Texas doesn’t mean you have to ridicule him for every little thing he does. And to me, since Manziel has come to college, especially after winning the Heisman, he has basically been flipping the bird to the NCAA.

Paul Brown Stadium would be a great home for Manti Te’o next season. by Derek Jensen, via Wikimedia Commons

Over the last ten years, the Cincinnati Bengals have taken chances on players. Most of the “chances” they’ve taken have been due to questionable character of their draftees. Some examples are Adam “Pacman” Jones and offensive lineman Andre Smith.  For years the franchise was mocked as the “Bungles” instead of Bengals for all the arrests of players on their roster combined with their average-at-best play on the field. But recently the “Bungles” talk has calmed down and the franchise has matured. Former quarterback Carson Palmer helped the Bengals by leading them to the playoffs in 2009, but never made the “next step” into being true contenders. After making the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time since the early 1980s, this team is poised to make that true next step toward contention. Despite early playoff exits, both coming against the Houston Texans, the Bengals future looks bright and they can make it even more exciting during the upcoming NFL draft.

The Bengals defense is one of the best and youngest defenses in the NFL and showed signs of what they are capable of last season ranking seventh in allowed passing yards and twelfth in allowed rushing yards. With weak pass coverage from linebackers, many tight ends torched the Bengals for big yards including Owen Daniels of the Texans in the postseason. The middle linebacker position is one place the team should target in the draft. As I said above, the Bengals have had a history on taking chances with players and I think they should look into taking a chance on former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o. After a great season on the field, Te’o and the Fighting Irish were embarrassed on national TV during the BCS Championship Game by Alabama, where many people questioned Te’o’s true ability. Yet Te’o did finish with ten tackles and you can’t blame the loss on him entirely. The entire Notre Dame team didn’t show up plus they were playing Alabama, who has won three of the last four National Championships. I didn’t think Notre Dame deserved to be in the title game in the first place and they showed exactly why, and thankfully the NCAA has taken measures to start up a playoff system in 2014.

After a great statistical season and finishing second in the Heisman race, Te’o seemed to have high stock in the draft. But after a very strange scandal dealing with his fake girlfriend and him getting catfished, Te’o has seen his likeability and credibility drop. He went from being one of the most loved players in America to being one of the most hated in a matter of mere moments and I feel for the kid. I’m not going to say that I know what happened but I believe he was victim of a terrible prank that went terribly wrong. Being said, I don’t think that Te’o and his football career should take a hit just because he was a little too trusting and let his stupidity get in the way of his emotions. He still is a good football player and his off-the-field issue should be looked at as second rate to his actual skills. The Bengals drafted middle linebacker Rey Maualuga in 2009 out of USC in hopes of him being their linebacker for the future. Maualuga has been decent but decent isn’t enough for the Bengals this year. Both Te’o and Maualuga had similar college careers statistically with Te’o edging Maualuga by a slight margin. The Bengals like the type of player Maualuga is and Te’o is a very similar type player to him, only better. Te’o would not only bring his skills to the Bengals but also his leadership. You don’t lead a team to a National Championship Game without some leadership qualities. Here is a look at the final colligate statistics for both players:

Manti Te’o:

437 total tackles

34.0 tackles for loss

8.5 Sacks

7 Interceptions

Rey Maualuga:

273 total tackles

22.5 tackles for loss

9.0 Sacks

5 Interceptions

1 Interception returns for TD

The Bengals should take a risk and select Manti Te’o with their 21^st overall pick in the upcoming draft, assuming he is available then. He would be a great addition to an already-good defense and I believe he is worth the risk. In the case that he didn’t pan out as a player in the NFL then at least the Bengals took a risk and selected him. The alternative is not good for them. What would happen if they miss out on him and the championship game and the odd scandal were minor bumps in his career and he turns out to be a great player. It’s a higher reward than risk for the Bengals who are used to taking chances. It may not be the “sexy” pick at this time but I believe in a few years if the Bengals were to take him, they wouldn’t regret it. For now all we can do is wait and see if Manti gets his name called in the draft and hopefully for the Bengals sake, they do it before some other team does.

What do you think? Is Manti Te’o even a first rounder in your mind? Give us your thoughts below.

Tonight, the 78^th Annual Heisman Memorial Trophy for the 2012 NCAA Football season will be presented at the Best Buy Theater in Times Square, New York. While four finalists are usually showcased at the presentation, this season only has three finalists. They are quarterback Collin Klein, quarterback Johnny Manziel, and middle linebacker Manti Te’o.

The ESPN experts usually have some idea who the front-runner is for the award. This year seems to be wide-open though. Each of the three players deserves to win the Heisman, but unfortunately in this competition (and in sports) there can only be one winner. Here’s a quick break-down.

When all is said and done, Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel should be the winner tonight. By Shutterbug459 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Collin Klein (Kansas State University):  The Senior quarterback for the Wildcats passed for 2,490 yards and 15 touchdowns while also rushing for 890 yards and 22 touchdowns.  He completed 66.2 percent of his passes during the year, only throwing seven interceptions. He is also second in Kansas State history in scoring with 336 points and third in career yards with 7,028. Klein has led the Wildcats to what is probably the best season in school history.

Manti Te’o (Notre Dame): The Senior Middle Linebacker for the Fighting Irish would be the second defensive player to ever win the award. He helped lead his team to an undefeated season (12-0) with 101 tackles and surpassed a school record with his seven interceptions. He ranks third in Notre Dame history with his career 427 tackles and he would become the eighth Notre Dame player to win the award.

Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M University): The quarterback for Texas A&M passed for 3,419 yards and 24 touchdowns while also rushing for 1,181 yards and 19 touchdowns. He is the first quarterback in SEC history (and the fifth player ever in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision) to have 3,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in the same season. He completed 68.3 percent of his passes, only throwing eight interceptions. Oh and I also forgot to mention that Manziel or “Johnny Football” is only a freshman.

The Verdict: All three of these players had incredible seasons and all could easily win this award but only one can actually call themselves Heisman trophy winners. For most of the season, Collin Klein was the frontrunner, but once his team lost to Baylor, his chances dropped dramatically. Te’o and the Fighting Irish were the only undefeated team this year and him being a defensive player, and to make it this far in the Heisman chase is incredible. But the fact remains that a freshman in the SEC threw for over 3,000 years and 24 touchdowns while also rushing for over 1,000 yards and 19 touchdowns.

While Klein and Te’o are both great players, what Johnny Manziel has done is simply amazing and shouldn’t be overlooked just because he is a freshman. Manziel should win this year. When all is said and done, Johnny Football should be posing in New York tonight.

Let me explain.

The sports media is there to show me a game or talk about a game. If there is some analysis, fine. Especially when it’s Charles Barkley or Charlie Sheen doing the analysis, and especially when they’re analyzing the game itself. The media should be, well, the media – a conduit – through which sports can be transmitted to my eyes and then into brain.

Charlie Sheen’s Baseball Analysis pt. 1

Charlie Sheen baseball analysis part 2

Love when Barkley’s on TV.

Sometimes, though, the media forgets their role. Sometimes they think they ARE the story. Sometimes, unfortunately, they report on themselves.

For people with dissenting opinions, there is one main time that it is OK for the ratings to be reported on—the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is an event bigger than just the game, so reporting on how many people watched it (over 100 million this year, according to Yahoo! Sports) is fine. The ratings for the Super Bowl are a newsworthy story.

Here is another example of where reporting on ratings is OK—in a magazine in the Business section. Ratings affect the business of advertising, and so it would be appropriate to have an article in the Business section of, in this case, Time Magazine.

Let’s look at inappropriate places to report ratings. The first, is on a sports page of a newspaper or a sports website. In this case, Yahoo! Sports reported on ratings like it’s something that should matter to me as a sports fan. In the story, they give the facts, that the viewership for the World Series was down this year. Great. What the hell am I supposed to do with that information? How should I interpret it?  Should I feel bad because I did not watch it (and am still trying to forget)? Should I feel badly for Major League Baseball? Should I have a worse impression of the sport because other people do not watch it? Should I be worried for the players? The owners? The network that carried that sport? Should I watch a certain network more, to make up for the guilt I feel from knowing that their ratings weren’t good?

Like everything else, there are shades of gray when it comes to reporting on ratings. A blurb like this one in the LA Times probably wasn’t in the Sports section, so might pass my litmus test of being OK. But again, it’s borderline. Crossing that border here, a Times blogger talks all about the ratings for Game 7. I like Diane Pucin and the Fabulous Forum, but it’s inappropriate.

The NCAA Basketball Tournament is reported-on, non-stop, for the revenue it makes the NCAA. If it is reported on as part of an illustration of the effect gambling has on viewership or to illustrate why NCAA players should be paid for their services, then that is fine. When it’s reported on just to be reported on, then we have an issue.

Print media reports on the ratings, but sports radio may be the worst of all offenders. When I hear someone making a point about sports by using the ratings that particular sport gets (here’s looking at you Herd), I can’t stand it. It is almost instant cause for station surfing. For someone to make the point, for instance, that College Football is better off without a playoff because regular season games get more viewers, is like saying it is better for someone to be heinously injured in a car accident because it causes more people to slow down and look.

If my career was in advertising, information about ratings might be meaningful and useful to me. I would consume it, then I would move on. If I was an “Advertising Fan” and not a “Sports Fan,” then I might even need the information about the World Series ratings or NBA Finals ratings, or overnight ratings after a big Sunday in the NFL. But I’m not an advertising fan. I am a sports fan.

Side note- I would love to see something along the lines of Terry Tate—Office Linebacker for fans of advertising… but I digress…

Ratings can be a good way to tell which sport is most popular. Here is a blog from the Washington Post talking about whether the Capitals or the Wizards get better ratings. Again, unless you’re trying to decide where to advertise, why would it matter?

As a fan, I either like the team/sport or I do not. I watch the team/sport or I do not. I will follow the team/sport or I will not. The more important question than ratings, is whether a sport is on TV and in this day and age, the answer is usually that it is. If not, I can probably find it online.

As a consumer of sports, I do not need ratings to tell me what to do. I will not watch sports based on its high ratings, nor will I not watch it if because other people don’t. This is not a popularity contest. It makes no difference to me and (for me) makes the sports websites that feature ratings articles, the equivalent of 24-hour news networks: in other words, media diarrhea. And media members that continue to spout out ratings stats to back up their opinions about sports either a) have an all-advertising industry audience or b) are narcissists. What other conclusion could I come to for a media that uses its power of reporting to report on… itself.

As I conclude, I wonder to myself, “If I hate media talking about ratings, isn’t my blog (when I post this) going to be media talking about media talking about the ratings?” We need to stop the madness. Please.