The Blue Workhorse

Louisville Regional

1. Louisville Cardinals (44-15) vs 4. Indiana Hoosiers (32-25)
2. Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders (43-16) vs 3. Vanderbilt Commodores (34-25)

Winner to take on champion of Fullerton Regional.

The 2009 Louisville Regional may prove to be one of the most interesting tournaments in this year’s road to Omaha. This region contains four teams that are all solid but does not have a team that is clearly dominant.

The top seed Louisville is certainly the favorite on paper with solid pitching and a high octane offense; however, the explosive lineup of the #2 seed MTSU Blue Raiders stand ready to make their presence known in 2009.

That being said, the pitching advantage of this tournament likely belongs to the lower seeds, #3 Vanderbilt and #4 Indiana. So, if you adhere to the old adage that pitching wins championships, you certainly cannot count these teams out. Does good pitching beat good hitting more often than not? This regional should go a long way in answering that question in this extremely well balanced set of teams.

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All we heard about this college football season was the gunslingers from the West and the high-powered, high-oiled Big 12 South offensive machines. Choke-lahoma regularly scoring 40 in the first half, the resurgence of Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and the “Air Raid”, Texas and Colt McCoy putting up massive numbers.

Every Saturday night (it seemed), we had to watch each installment of the Big 12 South showdowns. Brent Musberger roaring about the offensive proficiency and how good these teams seemed to be. This season was the Big 12’s moment. This was their time to shine….

Until the bowl season came upon us.

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It has been a while since I’ve been free on a Saturday and able to make my weekly college football observations. I’ve only had like two days off in the last 3 1/2 weeks, so needless to say, I haven’t had an overabundance of free time.

This week, I tried to make some observations, but I also had to fight off the sleep from working the night before and having to work Saturday night as well. What that amounted to was my viewing of the entirety of the early games, the very beginning of the midday games, and a little bit of the late games before heading back to work.

There were some huge matchups for the top 10 teams, including Oklahoma’s dismantling of Texas Tech, but here are 28 observations about certain players and teams from 7 of Saturday’s games I was able to catch in between napping and work:

While their weren’t any true marquee games this week, Oregon State did beat Cal positioning themselves even further for the Pac-10 title. Coach Mike Riley has quietly put together a solid season after the Beavers started terribly slow.

In other conference races: no one wants to win the ACC; the Big 10 is Penn State’s to lose; the SEC & WAC races are already over; and the Big East, Mountain West, MAC, Sun Belt, and Big XII could be all but determined this weekend.

Congrats to Rosenblogger and his Vanderbilt Commodores as they have become bowl eligible for the first time in his lifetime. Bobby Johnson is a great coach who wins the right way, and we applaud his accomplishment.

Another week means another re-evaluation, and thus, we give you our new The Blue Workhorse College Football Top 25 after Week 11.

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Growing up in Nashville, Tennessee, I have always been a fan of Vanderbilt athletics. I know that for many of you living outisde the middle Tennessee area, the idea of an actual Vandy sports fans is a myth. Believe it or not, I was actually a season ticket holder for three sports up until I left town to attend college.

Like myself, all Vanderbilt fans have certainly experienced many tough times over the past quarter century, especially on the football field. I, for one, am two years removed from graduating college, and have still yet to, in my life, witness the football team record a winning season (the last occurring in 1982).

However, 2008 looked like it was going to be the year.

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Last week’s predictions were almost as good as the week before (my best week yet). I only missed three games, but each were within grasp in the final moments of the game: the Florida State/Georgia Tech back-and-forth battle that FSU should have won (Marcus Sims fumbled into the end zone with 45 seconds left and Tech recovered to save the 3 point win); the Northwestern/Minnesota Big 10 battle (won by NW when Brendan Smith returned an interception in the final 15 seconds); and Tulsa losing to Arkansas.

I did tell you Texas Tech would upset Texas thanks to huge numbers by Graham Harrell. I picked Florida (even against my own Bulldogs). I also predicted the “upsets” of South Florida and Oregon and said Michigan State would “edge” Wisconsin (the Spartans won on a last second field goal).

So what kind of predictions do I have this week? Probably not any good ones, but here they are:

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With their blowout of Missouri, Texas solidified the #1 spot (if anyone was wavering last week) and Colt McCoy showed he is Heisman material. A lot of teams at the back end of the Top 25 suffered upsets this week, so there are a number of new teams and teams re-entering the Top 25.

Another week means another re-evaluation, and thus, we give you our new The Blue Workhorse College Football Top 25 after Week 8. Some things to note from this week’s rankings:

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So you want to know who is going to win the big games this week? You’ve come to the right place.

There are some huge games this week that definitely have national title implications and other games that will have conference title implications.

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