Maddux Sports Blog

So much for that Heisman trophy clarity I was hoping for from last night’s game. Tony Pike reinjured the arm he broke last week just before the half. That means that he missed all but a couple of plays of the second half, and will very likely miss at least one more game – Louisville next week. Pike hadn’t played great before the injury, either – he had thrown for two touchdowns, but but had completed less than half of his passes. That’s the end of another Heisman campaign.

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I’m very intrigued by tonight’s Big East showdown. Cincinnati has a pretty clear road to the BCS if they beat South Florida, and the Bulls have the same if they win. For South Florida that’s especially surprising because stud QB Matt Grothe is on the sideline for the year. There is all sorts of intrigue in this one – is Cincinnati for real? How about South Florida’s surprisingly stout defense? Can Cincy QB Tony Pike put himself into the heart of the Heisman race with a big performance here? How about Cincy receiver Mardy Gilyard? Do the Bearcats deserve national championship consideration? How much of a joke is the Big East? This is probably the highest profile Thursday night game we have seen yet this year. Last week we saw Nebraska, and Ndamukong Suh made a big leap into the Heisman race thanks to that game, so anything can happen here. I really respect Cincy coach Brian Kelly and tend to think that he has things going in the right direction with this program, so I am hoping for them. It’s a tough team in tough location, though, so it certainly won’t be easy.

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1. The Toronto Maple Leafs are a truly awful team right now. Incomprehensibly bad. Like Oakland Raiders bad. They are theoretically rebuilding, but the signs of progress are slim right now. Their top two goalies are hurt, most of their offense is either hurt or benched, and coach Ron Wilson seems to have a tenuous grasp on the team. Incredibly ugly.

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I didn’t watch much of the Florida game today because Michigan was playing at the same time, but what I did see was less than thrilling. It was a typical SEC defensive battle. Maybe it’s a personal fault, but that style of football generally bores the hell out of me. TimTebow didn’t look particularly good in his return to action after his concussion, but he was far better than his counterpart and he got the win. Florida finally proved themselves against their best opponent yet, but I still don’t believe that this is the best team that there is.

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It sucks to be Matt Holliday right now. Last night’s Cards loss to the Dodgers is one of those rare cases where a loss can be pinned solely on one player. It’s as simple as this – if Holliday hadn’t bobbled the line drive that hit his gut instead of his glove then the Cards would be tied in the series instead of down by two games. Holliday probably feels like killing himself, but he shouldn’t beat himself up too much – the team only played as well as they did down the stretch because of the play of Holliday. He’s a good player who had a bad day. That’s all. It will be very interesting to see how he bounces back from this setback.

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An interesting stat I saw today – the three teams that fired their offensive coordinators right before the season (Bucs, Bills, and Chiefs), have combined to go just 1-11 so far, and that one win only came when two of them met (the Bills beat the Chiefs). That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for making a change. Of course, it’s not likely that they would have been significantly better with the original OCs still in charge. We’ll have to wait longer to properly analyze this one.

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How bad could it get for the Sooners? They started out with reasonably high hopes this year, but the fates have conspired against them and they are just 2-2. After seeing them lose to a good but not great Miami team you really have to wonder how bad it could get for this team. A lot probably depends upon the status of Sam Bradford, but I think it has been clearly established by now that he doesn’t have the tools to work with that he did last year. Just looking at the schedule, I find it hard to believe right now that they will beat Texas. Kansas is playing very well right now, and they get the Sooners in Lawrence, so Kansas wouldn’t even have to pull off a major upset to win that one. Nebraska is also playing tough, and also gets to host Oklahoma. They also have to travel to pesky Texas Tech. And then the season ending game against Oklahoma State looms. I don’t want to suggest that it is going to happen, but it is certainly possible that a team that started the season ranked third overallcould wind up as bad as 6-6. 9-3 or 8-4 seems more likely, but no matter what this is not how Sam Bradford saw this season going when he decided to come back.

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Here are the storylines that stand out for me this week in college football action:

Michigan (+2) at Michigan State – The Spartans have been terrible so far this year. The Wolverines have yet to play on the road, and have gotten worse defensively as the season has progressed. This is a big rivalry game, and one team is going to wind up very disappointed.

South Florida (-6.5) at Syracuse – Was last week’s stunning upset a fluke, or is B.J. Daniels ready to do big things at South Florida. And will GregPaulus continue to take strides forward?

Alabama (-16.5) at Kentucky – We saw what the Gators did against Kentucky last week, so this is a way to get a very rough estimate of how the top two teams in the SEC measure up.

Penn State (-7) at Illinois – Both teams need to bounce back from embarrassing performances last week. Illinois really needs to find a way to pull off a win this week in an attempt to get a once promising season back on track.

UCLA(+6) at Stanford – One of these teams has a good chance of being a factor in the Pac-10 race. This game will give us a good sense of which one.

LSU (+3) at Georgia – I really don’t believe in either of these teams. A decisive win by one of them would be a sign that they achieve their rankings. For now, I think both are badly overrated.

Washington (+13.5) at Notre Dame - The Irish need a convincing win over someone to prove themselves. Washington needs to bounce back from last week and prove that their USC performance was no fluke.

Oklahoma (-7.5) at Miami – Will Sam Bradford play? How well? Can Miami bounce back from last week’s humiliation, or are they exhausted from their ridiculously tough opening string of games?

USC (-5) at Cal – Two weeks ago you could have argued convincingly that this game was for a spot in the BCS championship. Now it’s next to impossible to know what we have from either team. This could be a great game, or it could be a train wreck, but it will be interesting either way.

Houston (-16) at UTEP – I will be watching Houston closely all the way through this season. They have a couple of impressive wins already, so if they could remain undefeated they could create a real headache for the BCS. Besides that, they are just so much fun to watch.

Injuries are always a big story in football – it’s the nature of the game. This year is no exception. Both the college and the pro games have been hit with an amazing number of key injuries that have to be seriously considered in betting decisions. Here’s a look at some of the more important ones:

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I know that it is Sunday morning and this is clearly NFL time and all, but yesterday’s college football action was so bizarrely interesting that I can’t help but touch on it one more time before we move on. We’ll still have plenty of time to talk NFL – I promise.

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