Tomas Verde is a journalism student at the University of Florida and proprietor of 4th and Fail.

I may sound crazy for saying this, but here it goes: Florida is on upset alert Saturday night in Starkville against the Mississippi State Bulldogs. shiver. Honestly, I hope I’m wrong and it’s a blowout, considering Florida is a 22.5-point favorite, but there are plenty of reasons to be apprehensive.

For starters, Florida hasn’t won a game in Starkville since 1985 when they came away with a 36-22 victory. Since then, the Gators have gone winless at Mississippi State. That stretch includes some monumental losses, like the 31-38 failure that finally got Ron Zook axed. However, to these Gators streaks don’t mean anything, right? After all, Florida nonchalantly brushed away LSU on Saturday night earlier this season.

the bells, stop the bells

Past failure is hardly the only cause for concern for Florida. The Gators are coming off of a physically draining game against Arkansas, which wound up being too close for comfort, especially for me. Also, there’s got to be some distraction and looking ahead to their annual matchup against the other Bulldogs next week in Jacksonville. Continue Reading “Gators Are On Upset Alert Against Mississippi State” »

This is our new Thursday night thread. We hope YOU our readers and friends in the blogosphere pop your heads in and engage in a little conversation.

This is a weekend of under cards, but let’s take a look at the inner beauty.

Florida State 28 @ North Carolina 26 – To date this is the least exciting Thursday night game of the season. FSU is fighting for bowl eligibility and North Carolina needs a big win at home to feed their fan base. The ‘Noles have proven they can put up points while North Carolina has struggled  to find their groove. FSU’s defense has been suspect, but is good enough to hold the Heels in check.

South Florida 13 @ Pittsburgh 20 – Don’t punch me in the balls Wanstache.

Georgia Tech 27 @ Virginia 17 – From here on out, for obvious reasons, I’ll have my eye on Georgia Tech. For those who turn a blind eye to ACC football, Virginia Tech needs our engineering brethren in the Dirty to lose so we control our own destiny in the ACC again. The Jackets haven’t won in Charlottesville since 1990, but unfortunately their offense will be too much for the Cavs to handle. They’ll grind out the clock and UVA will waste half of their precious possessions.

Boston College 27 @ Notre Dame 30 – Brian and Jeff took some time away from knitting new tights for dance class to take a look at the history between the Eagles and Irish. The Eagles are riding a six game winning streak into South Bend, but we’re picking the Irish because Boston College has been outscored 21-73 on the road this year. The winner will receive representation in the Jesus graphic above. Current Jesus Cup standings have been provided for your convenience.

Continue Reading “Divine Predictions. Thursday Night Open Thread with Jesus.” »

This is our new Thursday night thread. We hope YOU our readers and friends in the blogosphere pop your heads in and engage in a little conversation.

Cincinnati 30 @ South Florida 21 – I’m taking Cinci because of Tony Pike, Tony Pike and Tony Pike. He’s been a machine and the Bearcats have won on the road in a tougher venue (Corvallis, Oregon [St]). I’ll be focused on the play of B.J. Daniels and how he responds playing in his first major home game. The boys in green over at Sparty like Cinci too.

Oklahoma 38 versus Texas 31 – I haven’t been impressed with Texas lallygagging against Wyoming, Texas Tech and Colorado. I have a man-crush on Sam Bradford; respect the golf skills. On the outside (and I stress outside) chance VT runs the table we’ll need helping getting to the MNC and a Sooner win would be just that. So my pick is based 25% with my head and 100%heart, because I’M ALL HEART BABY. And for shits and grins: know your rivalry.

Continue Reading “Divine Predictions. Thursday Night Open Thread with Jesus.” »

Welcome to the first ever afternoon edition of ATI.  As of late our lives have been a shit-storm of hustle and bustle and we apologize for the delay in programming.

Mr. College Football. The Barnhart is college football media and Sparty and Friends scored a bitch’ interview with him. Our favorite question and answer.

What is the best game day atmosphere in college football?
Wow. There are so many good ones that people ask me what’s my favorite stadium to go to and I say you’re asking me to pick among my children.

The entire interview is must read. READ NOW! Tony also blogs about the possibility of Notre Dame-Georgia Tech at the Dome. Give me Jo-Jah Dome, give me Jo-Jah Dome.

LSU’s commemorative Bud Light can. These cans are decorated in purple and gold and designed to withstand the rigors of a Tiger tailgate. They’re perfect for going up a chicken’s ass for roasting, weighted for maximum hurling and feature an extra wide opening for pissin’.

Dave Curtis plays devil’s advocate and lists his six teams that are going undefeated in 2009 to rain down CHAOS upon the BCS. Even for the sake of the argument GT isn’t going undefeated. No one in the ACC is. Worst of all he picks Notre Dame. Bwah!? Did they substitute USC for Virginia? Look for our post 120 teams that won’t go undefeated in 2009 coming never.

NCAA 10 rosters have dropped. Take that Sam Keller!

A self deprecating Big East preview. We agree with Rutgers (schedule) and Pitt (returning talent) to have strong seasons. We totally oppose the claim that WVU will win 9 games in the regular season. And we’ll go on the record now that Syracuse will win at least four games.

Adam Caparell details how Notre Dame-Army at the new Yankees Stadium came to be. It’s amazing how a well written article can get us interested in a game that when it was announced we cared nothing about.

Your daily college football news guaranteed to be a day late and dollar short. If you’d like your blog’s link to appear here contact us.

Over the weekend Vegas released the opening lines on 2009 win totals. Here’s what we like. No pushing allowed.

OVER Penn State 9.5: They only have one losable game among the first seven @Illinois. We think they open 7-0, but we’ll be conservative and take 6 wins. They’re going to win @Michigan, @Northwestern and home against Indiana. That gives us 9 and they’ll pick up the 10th against either OSU, @MSU or in a bowl.

OVER Duke 3.5: You can’t blame Vegas (0r anyone) for being so low on the Dukies. They’ve won 8 games over the last five years. The lowest of any division 1a team. But they’re winning at least 4 games. They play two 1aa teams (Richmond and North Carolina Central), have soon to be four-year-starter quarterback Thaddeus Lewis under center and are coached by a more than capable David Cutcliffe. Continue Reading “Over/Under: 2009 Win Totals” »

Here’s the actual news release from the Four-Letter-Dot-Com. And here are our thoughts.

Matt Millen, who will also provide analysis on ESPN’s NFL studio coverage, will work Saturday telecasts on ABC with Sean McDonough, who called select Friday and Saturday games last year, and reporter Holly Rowe who moves from ESPN’s Saturday prime time games.

Millen should be a spectacular fit. He can use insight from his playing experience to analyze the players and segue into how he would ruin a franchise by drafting them.

Todd Blackledge

NO ONE WANTS TO SEE YOU EAT!

Erin Andrews, who adds the Saturday game to her ESPN Thursday night series role.

Erin Andrews Thursday, Erin Andrews Saturday, Erin Andrews in NCAA 10 and Erin Andrews every-fucking-where. Is that a bad thing? No. You can never get enough of a body like this: Continue Reading “Your 2009 ESPN College Football Commentators” »

We’re previewing the six BCS conferences over the next six weeks by asking the twenty questions we most want answered. We’re looking for answers in the comments so feel free to pipe in.

1. Will Washington win a game?
2. Will Aaron Corp cede the starting quarterback position to Matt Barkley?
3. Will the Pac-10 be undefeated in bowl play, again?
4. Can UCLA win in Knoxville?
5. Will Oregon challenge USC for the conference title?
6. Will Tavita Pritchard quarterback Stanford to a bowl game?
7. Will a 10:00 PM ET kickoff give Cal the advantage this time around against Maryland?
8. How will Jake Locker play in Steve Sarkisian’s offense?
9. Is it possible for Wazzu to be anymore anonymous in 2009?
10. Will Arizona State be able to overcome inexperience (Danny Sullivan) at quarterback  by relying on a strong defense and ground attack?

Continue Reading “Twenty Questions: Pac-10″ »

We’re previewing the six BCS conferences over the next six weeks by asking the twenty questions we most want answered. We’re looking for answers in the comments so feel free to pipe in.

1. How far will Missouri drop off after losing Chase Daniel, Jeremy Maclin and Chase Coffman?
2. Is this the year Oklahoma wins a bowl?
3. Will Colorado win ten games?
4. If they don’t will we witness to another Dan Hawkins meltdown?
5. Will Kansas State notch at least one conference win?

Continue Reading “Twenty Questions: Big 12″ »

In case we all don’t know the concept of Bowl Mania I will take a second to explain. Pick the winner of every bowl game with a unique confidence (1-34) and earn those confidence points with each correct pick.  The highest total of points wins.

34. Cincinnati v Virginia Tech

Why?: Beamer will have the more talented Hokies ready to play on New Year’s Day.  He’s finally abandoned the bullshit “bowl games are a reward for the players mentality” and has set his sights on the Bearcats’ jugular.

Why Not?: Eat a dick Cincinnati you will not get any love here.

33. Georgia v Michigan State

Why?: Moreno, Moreno, Moreno.

Why Not?: Ringer, Ringer, Ringer.

32. Missouri v Northwestern

Why?: Chase “Booger” Daniel will be too much for the Northwestern defense to handle.

Why Not?: Pat Fitzgerald can coach ‘em up.

31. Ohio State v Texas

Why?: Colt McCoy should be more than enough of a difference maker, but the Longhorn defense will eat up the Buckeyes.

Why Not?: If he avoids the banquet scene, cough Troy Smith cough, Tyrell Pryor could be the big game QB the Buckeyes have lacked.

30. Memphis v South Florida

Why?: Uhhhh Memphis isn’t very good…

Why Not? Miracles do happen. I guess.

29. Boston College v Vanderbilt

Why?: Coach Jags and the Eagles play sound football and know how to go on the road and win big games.

Why Not?: The Dores are going to be keyed up for their first bowl appearance since 1982 and oh yeah they are playing at home.

28. LSU v Georgia Tech

Why?: The Ramblin’ Wreck has the perfect option. What else do you need to know.

Why Not?: The Bayou Bengals are a quarterback away from being a good football team and Les “Balls” Miles knows the right buttons to push.

27. Penn State v USC

Why?: The Trojans are the best big game team around.

Why Not?: JoePa hasn’t been coaching Penn State since ‘66 because he’s a slouch. I’m sure he and the rest of the Nittany (random note: my spell checker wants to replace Nittany with Nutting) Lions are tired of hearing about how USC is going to eat their lunch.

Continue Reading “CollegeGameBalls’ Bowl Mania” »