Rams Yet To Be Tested

Once again the Shepherd University Ram football team demolished its opponent this weekend. This time, the Golden Eagles of the University of Charleston was served up for the Rams.

While the Rams have made it to 4-0, they have yet to face a team that is of high quality. In other words, the teams they have been playing they BETTER beat this badly.

Of the Rams first four games (Shippensburg, St Josephs, Seton Hill, Charleston) the opposing team has entered the game with a winless record. The Rams have yet to score less than 45 points in a game and have given up only as many as 27 to Shippensburg.

The Rams season doesn't finally heat up until week 6. The only other undefeated team in the WVIAC Conference is West Virginia Wesleyan College. Shepherd will face them on their field week 6.

Fairmont State is another in-conference game that the Rams should have circled. They will face Fairmont State week 11 at Fairmont.

Another team that could potentially ruin the Rams perfect season is Bowie State. The Bulldogs are 3-1 and have outscored opponents 129-67. The Rams will play the Bulldogs week 9 in an out of conference home game.

The Shepherd University Rams are the class of the WVIAC Conference. They are 4-0 and have outscored opponents by a lucrative 221-51. The worst thing the team can do is play an opponent and expect another blowout win.

While much of the schedule after WVWC looks favorable, the last thing the Rams can do is take a break. This past season the Rams entered the final game undefeated and lost to Glenville in a thriller.

If Shepherd continues to come out flat to start games like they have so far this year, you can expect that to happen again.

The Rumblin' Rams

Want to hear something scary? The Shepherd University Ram football team beat Seton Hill 64-7. The scary part? They didn't even play their best game. Yeah, I know, you're frightened.

The last thing I want to come out of this write up is for the team to get ego's the size of the field itself. But, let's be honest, this team is pretty impressive when you think about it.

Four times the offense had to settle for a field goal instead of a touchdown while in the redzone. Four times! Four! That's 28 points! Let's do some math!

64 - 9 (one kick was missed) = 55 + 28 = 83!

Wait? 83?! Really? That's incredible. The Rams had the opportunity to score 83 points.

Seton Hill had no chance in this football game. They never did. The Rams came out fast and they didn't slow down.

The offense did, however, play a sloppy a game. Multiple times they marched into Griffin territory and committed costly penalties and were forced to punt. That's more points right there!

This team that Coach Monte Cater has is one of the best I have ever seen at this level. Multiple players are being scouted by the NFL and many others probably should be.

The defense is a lean, mean, wrecking machine. Seton Hills offense was held to just 84 yards and ran 67 plays. Let me put that in perspective. The Ram offense ran 72 plays (just 5 more) and racked up a total of 542 yards of total offense. Yeah. That just happened.

If you are scheduled to play the Rams in the future, I'd just skip it. If you don't bring you're A-game you're just going to get smashed. These Rams are furious and they don't mess around. The safest place to be when they're on the field is in the stands.

This fall the Rams should be gunning for nothing less than an NCAA Division 2 National Championship. Anything less would be a failure of a season.

Does the "Prevent Defense/Offense" Work?



Here's a quick answer: No! It does not work! It never has and it never will! We see it every Saturday and Sunday and if it ever works...it's once in a blue moon.

Every coaching staff that has the prevent defense in their playbook should quit. Now. I would never tell my defense to go out there and play soft. "Go ahead guys. Give them a little, but don't let them score." Here's what I would tell them: "We're up! I want to be up by more! Go smother 'em!!"

Case and point.

Last Friday night the Baylor Bears were beating the TCU Horned Frogs 47-23 going into the fourth quarter. Baylor was showing no signs of letting up. Enter the Prevent Defense/Offense.

Baylor then backed off the pressure on the TCU offense. They moved the linebackers back off the ball and the conerbacks off the receivers. The point? To play against the deep ball. The problem? TCU recognized that and utilized the short yardage passing game. The outcome? Touchdown, Horned Frogs.

Let's move onto the offense. Baylor came out in the beginning of the fourth quarter and did nothing but run the ball. The point? To take time off the clock. The problem? Everyone on the planet knew it was coming. The outcome? Very quick three-and-outs that took maybe 2:30 off the clock.

Back to the defense. Baylor was shutting down TCU's deep ball all game long. So here's my question. If you've been stopping it all game, why would you change up your defense? Baylor's defense ended up being so concerned with the deep ball, that they gave up the short passes and allowed TCU to march down the field.

Offense! Or lack there of. If Baylor continues to run the offense that scored them 47 points, they win this game 70-30.

Baylor played Prevent through the fourth quarter and the final score came out to be Baylor 50, TCU 48.

So here's my point: the preventive approach never works. Teams end up being too cautious and shoot themselves in the foot. If you're a coach and reading this, here's my advice: just let your team line-up like they have been all game and just keep playing tough football. If you are in a position where you need to use the prevent defense, you've obviously been doing something right all game. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Redskins Cut 9

Picture from examiner.com

Ryan O'Halloran reported today that the Washington Redskins have cut nine more players from their roster. Most notable is Malcolm Kelly. For much of his short Redskins career Kelly was plagued by injuries. Of the ten players selected by the Redskins in the draft three years ago, only four of them remain on the team. Way to go, Vinny! You know how to pick 'em!

The list of players cut by the Redskins today looks like this:

DB Dante Barnes
QB Ben Chappell
OL Xavier Fulton
DB Tyron Grant
WR Malcolm Kelly
LB Eric McBride
OL Corey O'Daniel
K Clint Stitser
TE Joe Torchia

The Redskins still have 80 players on roster and they are expected to put defensive end Jarvis Jenkins and the season ending injured reserve list due to a knee injury.

Judgement day for most third and fourth string players comes after the final preseason game. The Redskins will then need to delicately trim their roster of 80 players down to 53 for opening day.

Strasburg Returns

Picture from beat.bodog.eu

Davey Johnson reported today the Washington Nationals pitching ace Stephen Strasburg is scheduled to make his first major league start of the season. Strasburg is coming off of Tommy Johns surgery to repair his elbow in his throwing arm. He will return on September 6th versus the Los Angeles Dodgers at Nats Park. That's right, next Tuesday. Mark your calenders!!!!!

This Thursday night Strasburg is expected to make one more rehab start for Class AA Harrisburg. If all goes well, expect him to be on the mound against the Dodgers.

This return has been much anticipated for Nationals and baseball fans everywhere. Strasburg is one of the most infamous players ever to be drafted onto a Washington DC sports franchise. I expect Tuesday nights game turnout to be nothing less than his first career MLB start.

The Nationals have handled the rehab of Stephen Strasburg well. He has had multiple rehab starts in all levels of the minor leagues and is looking like that pitcher that made us googly-eyed when we first saw him.

My advice? If you plan on attending this game, you may want to go get in line now at the ticket box. This will be one that you will not want to miss. However, I wouldn't quite expect the Nationals to let him try and pitch a complete game. This game won't really help their chances of making the playoffs and they do not want to cause further harm to their Ace.

Strasburg Pitches For Hagerstown

In his fourth rehab start tonight Stephen Strasburg pitched 60 pitches over 3 solid innings.

After his dismal performance in his last outing Strasburg returned to form tonight. Over 3 innings Strasburg allowed 2 runs off 2 hits and struck out 6 batters. The phenom had the hitters on their heels all the while.

Even though Strasburg allowed an uncharacteristic 2 runs, he still showed a mental skill that is key to him becoming a standout major league pitcher: He was able to put his past appearances behind him and move on. Top major league pitchers need to be resilient and should be able to come back stronger and better than ever in their next outing.

The road to recovery is slow but patience is key for how the organization handles Strasburg. Rushing him back too soon will only add further injury and waste one of the greatest talents to ever come through Washington sports...period. However, they appear to be handling him well and everyone is excited about his return to the Washington Nationals rotation.

College Football Playoff

So I'm sure we all agree that the NCAA needs a playoff to determine the national champion for division one college football, but how will they do it? I have got the answer! Follow me on this one...

While sitting at work discussing this topic with a coworker I had a real life epiphany. I have figured out a way to have a college football playoff system AND keep the bowl season. Please, read on...

The way to a college football playoff goes through the conference championship game. Year in and year out we see a football team from a conference that has an official game that determines the winner of the that conference wins the national championship. What if we took the conference champion from each of the conferences that have a conference championship game and put them in a playoff.

Currently, there are eight NCAA Division 1-A conferences that have a conference championship game to determine the conference champion. Take the winners of all eight games and put them into a playoff. There will only be eight teams in the playoffs. Not too long and not too short.  Once we have all eight teams determined, they are reseeded to determine who will be seeded first to eighth. Those eight teams then battle it out in a single elimination bracket style format to determine the NCAA Division 1-A Football National Champion.

The next question becomes what will we do with the losers of the conference championship games? Bingo! There's the new BCS!! Those other eight teams get automatic bids into one of the five BCS bowl games. But wait, that leaves one game open. In the fifth BCS bowl game you put two at-large teams that don't belong to a conference with a conference championship game. After the BCS, there will be upto around 15-20 bowl games left. I say we keep up to 10 of them and 20 teams that deserve to be in bowl games will play in those games.

Let's say you're a fan of a team that doesn't belong to that type of conference. Too bad! Guess your team should suck it up and join a REAL conference! Sorry! No National Championship for you if you don't want to play in a real conference! Not happy about it? Oh well! Don't say I left you out of the equation!

This idea is very rough. Keep in mind that with the transition to this type of format it means that teams could add upto three games to their schedule. This type of format will allow the NCAA to keep the bowl season, BCS, and give the fans what they want: a fair way to determine the national champion.