Heisman

Congratulations to Robbert Griffin the 3rd who won the 77th Heisman trophy!! He beat out early season favorite Andrew Luck who is sure to be the number one pick in this years draft by showing off his ability to not only throw, but to run the ball effectively and led his team back to national rankings. He is one of very few juniors to win this prestigious award!

While all five candidates were very good choices, i personally believe that Montee Ball from the University of Wisconsin should have won the award. Both Montee and Russell Willson were prolific players, Montee finished just behind Barry Sanders for most touchdowns in a season by scoring 38 times!! That is an average of just under3 touchdowns a game!! On top of all that, Montee averaged 6.5 yards everytime he touched the football! That is over half of a first down everytime he touches the ball, and he ended the year with 1,622 total yards!! I also believe Russell would have been another good choice as he had the difficult task of changing schools and learning a new offense, and he excelled at it. Willson threw for a total of 2,692 yards and 28 touchdowns passes, while rushing for 325 yards and five touchdowns.

Next on the schedule is the Rose Bowl!! The badgers will face the always tough Oregon ducks who are lead by their coach Chip Kelly and their running back LaMichael James who has had 3 straight 1,500 rushing yard seasons. Last year in the Rose Bowl the badgers lost a heart breaker to TCU, but this year i think they have the talent to put it to Oregon and come away with a huge win for the Big 10.

Tim Tebow!!!

I want to talk about the Denver Broncos. They are now have 8 wins and 5 losses and have won 7 of their last 8 (with the one loss by the lions!!) game all with a quarterback that nobody thought could win games in the NFL. Tim Tebow has been criticized about how he throws the ball since he was in college, but yet he somehow still manages to win games. The wins have not been pretty, most by less then 7 points and even a few in overtime but somehow he manages to find a way to win games. Most teams attempt between 25-40 passes in the course of a game, but Tebow has thrown games where he was only attempted 8-10 passes!! This is unheard of in a game in which there has been more and more passing every year in attempt to make more explosive offenses, but still he find a way to win. The wins have not been all because of Tebow, most games the opposing team has been held to less than 15 points! That is amazing for a defense to be so good for so many games in a row to allow their team to come away with a win. The Broncos have 3 games left against the Patriots, Bills, and Cheifs and look like a sure bet to win their division. I personally hope the Broncos make a deep playoff run just to show everyone that a super star quarter back is not needed to win games, but instead defense can win you the game.

Hail Yes!!!

After 2,926 days it is finally over. This weekend The U of M football team finally beat their arch rivals the OSU Buckeyes after losing the last 7 straight. The win came from great leadership and coaching from U of M's coach Brady Hoke and quarterback Denard Robinson who ran for two touchdowns and threw for three more! It has been hard the last few years watching OSU win close game after close game and this year looked as if it might turn out the same way. The game was a shootout with teams scoring constantly and not having one team stay on top. Overall the game was very intense and for the short time i watched i was constantly on the edge of my seat eagerly waiting to see who would come out on top and i feel bad for anyone who missed out on this game for the ages. Now Michigan has to sit and wait to see which bowl game they will play in and who they will play against. Early projections has the Wolverines playing against 12-0 Huston who is ranked number 6 because of their quarterback Case Keenum who is setting all kinds of records for passing this season and averages around 4 or 5 touchdown passes each game. I think that would be a perfect game for Michigan to play in because it would be a great measuring stick to how much the team has improved over the season and its a chance to knock off a top 10 team which every team wants a chance to do.

As of now OSU has a lot of rebuilding to do after a 6-6 season. Coaching great Jim Tressel is out after a controversial season due to NCAA violations that may lead OSU to be sanctioned, which means they could lose scholarships, practice time, and even a chance to play in bowl games the next few years. This can hurt a program for years to come because schools with violations make it harder to recruit new student athletes coming in because they dont want to play for a team that cannot go anywhere because it is being punished. But OSU looks like they are on the right path by possibly hiring Urban Meyer who took last year off of coaching due to health issues and wanting to spend more time with his family, but it looks like he is ready to get back into coaching. Overall i think the Michigan/OSU rivalry may be back to where it was many years ago when it was the biggest rivalry in college football.

MVP!!!!

Today Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers was named the American League Most Valuable Player. He is the first pitcher since 1992 to win both the AL Cy Young award for the best pitcher and the MVP. It was a clear choice that Verlander was the MVP because every five days he dominated the opposing team and went very deep into the game allowing the bullpen to rest and be fully ready for the next few days. All season long he was able to bounce back from losses the previous day to come back strong with a win, he actually went 16-3 pitching the next day after a tigers loss. Along with dominating every better he faces with his high speed fastball and crushing curve ball, he led the AL in every major pitching statistic winning the triple crown for wins, earned run average, and strikeouts. He is also the third Detroit Tigers pitcher to ever do this along with Willie Hernandez in 1984 and Denny McLain in 1968.

How about them Lions??? Once again i turned on the radio shortly after the game had started this Sunday only to hear they were already losing, and it was getting worse. I was very disappointed about this so i shut it back off until i got home, where i turned the tv on to see the Lions actually playing football. They made an amazing comeback with the help of running back Kevin Smith. Kevin was released by the Lions before due to injury issues and he was relieved to hear the Lions wanted him back to play. Smith payed the Lions back for having faith in him with his 140 yards and 2 touchdowns which was a career high. Now the they just need to continue playing with passion when they play the Green Bay Packers who are 10-0 so far this season on Thursday!! So everyone eat a lot of turkey and cheer on the Lions!!!

Bad Bad Weekend

Today Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon died Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He was involved in a fiery 15 car pile up shortly after the race started. He was 33 years old and had won two races in the Indianapolis 500. The crash happened when two cars bumped tires and caused many more cars to collide. This was tragic for the sport of racing as it is for any sport that has someone pass away while competing
The Detroit Tigers lost in the ALCS to the Texas Rangers 4-2 in a best of 7 series which means they are done for the year. It was a tough loss since they got pounded 5-15 it just seemed like nothing could go right, but over all it was a great season with the tigers winning their division for the first time in a long time. I think if they can go into the off season and keep most of their good players they will be just as good next year.

Also the Michigan Wolverines lost to their in state rivals the MSU Spartans this weekend. It was the Spartans 4th win in a row against the Wolverines. The Wolverines play against Purdue next Saturday and they need to regroup from a tough loss and have a great game to get back on track so they can crush Ohio State the last week of the season.

To top off the horrible weekend the Detroit Lions were given their first loss of the season my the San Francisco 49'ers in a great game that ended up with a score of 19-25. The Lions have been making come backs all season and they finally came up short, and i think this will make them realize they can be beat and now they need to play hard so they can win the rest of their games and make the play offs!