Sunday, September 06, 2009

The Weekend in Football

Football has kinda snuck up on me this year but now it seems like things are happening. A few quick observations:

  • The Big Ten isn't much better, is it? Ohio State almost got beat by Navy, Iowa should have been beaten by Northern Iowa and my beloved Badgers fell asleep against hated Northern Illinois. The Gophers won in overtime against Syracuse, but weren't exactly impressive, either. And Night Writer's Missouri Tigers kicked the Illini all over St. Louis. I don't think it's going to be pretty this year.
  • The watched parts of a few games yesterday and the best team I saw was Cal, which just hammered a pretty good Maryland team. Notre Dame looks much improved, too. Michael Floyd, the former Cretin star, was dominant. It's quite possible that in a few years, when Floyd hits the NFL, that he will be as good a wide receiver as another Minnesota product, Larry Fitzgerald.
  • By the way, isn't Cretin Derham-Hall just an amazing program? They have produced Paul Molitor, Chris Weinke, Steve Walsh, Joe Mauer, Michael Floyd and now Seantrel Henderson, who is ranked the number one potential recruit in the country. You'd be hard pressed to find another high school anywhere that has produced so many talented people.
  • The NFL starts next week and the biggest news were the cuts. Nothing too surprising happened with the Vikings. John David Booty wasn't good enough to be on the team. It will be interesting to see what the Vikes decide regarding the backup quarterback situation. The word was they were shopping Tarvaris Jackson, but it was wise not to trade him. I know that most Vikings fans doubt his ability, but I still think he has upside. If he'd been available on the waiver wire, I would have wanted the Packers to pick him up as a backup.
  • As for my beloved Packers, not too many surprises, either. Ruvell Martin has been a contributor for the past few years, but he was always the 4th or 5th receiver, so it's no shock to see that he didn't make the team. No one else that was a contributor last year has disappeared, either.

6 comments:

Gino said...

i think mater dei high school, in orange county, ca, has produced more champs.
among them right now in the NFL: matt leinhart and colt brennan.
there were others before them.

but then, south orange county has become a mill for NFL qb's in recent years. mark sanchez the most recent (mission viejo hs. and who my son played against, and sacked)

Mike said...

In addition to Mater Dei (a basketball powerhouse IIRC), I think Poly in Long Beach has produced more NFL players than probably any school in the country. I would have to imagine some high schools in Florida and Texas would have some say in the matter.

That said, Cretin-Derham Hall has a long track record of producing some outstanding athletes. It is definitely among the top programs overall in the state (I think Eden Prairie and Edina are probably the other two overall programs that would be closest).

Night Writer said...

I'd wondered how Mizzou would do after the graduations of Daniel and Maclin. Blaine Gabbert was excellent as the new QB, however, and is much bigger (6' 5", 240) than Daniel, who is barely 6'. (Daniel was waived in the last cuts by the Redskins but signed to the Saints practice squad, btw).

Margaret said...

Michigan seems much improved in the Big Ten (they couldn't do much worse than last season) although Western Michigan wasn't exactly a powerhouse to overcome. Michigan overcame their opening game jinx. Lets see who is most improved next weekend, ND or MI.

Night Writer said...

Well, Margaret, Michigan should be improved given all the extra practicing they've been doing! ;^)

Mr. D said...

I agree that Michigan looked much better, Margaret. Rich Rodriguez gives me the willies, though. And although I'm a Badger fan, I've always respected the Michigan program a lot.