Tracer Bullet

except you'll get those power-tripping officials that will call it seemingly at random just to be dicks. I guess there's a silver lining to Golden Tate leaving early. If all his antics on those 50+ yard TDs got reversed...well, it would have absolutely no effect on CFB as a whole.

is it an auction draft? if not, it should be.

Is this the league I finished 2nd in, even though I won the regular season for the 3rd year in a row?

bad timing. It's my son's birthday and I'm leaving work at noon Eastern that day. Will this be the first year I get lucky and get the call within the first hour? Not likely.

you'd think a team with a pretty average payroll would be concerned with not blowing out the arm of a fairly young quality pitcher that's under team control for a couple more years even before the big contract.

10 of his 35 games he reached 120+ pitches or more. 19 of his 35 games he reached 115+ pitches or more 24 of his 35 games he reached 110+ pitches or more 30 of his 35 games he reached 100+ pitches or more In the month of September he threw 126, 112, 104, 128, 126, 129, and 120 pitches. His gamelog from this past season looks like something taken from Mark Priors 2003 gamelog but he's shown durability, he's got a good pitching motion, and he doesn't have a history of injury... That all may be bunk. I'm just messing. But if I were a Tiger fan, those lines would scare me. But Leyland is still a god in some eyes around here.

shaky deal for the Tigers. Lots of fans were pissed when Grandy was dealt and cried about the team just shedding payroll. So they sign Valverde and then drop $80m for Verlander? DD's run in Detroit has not been spotless.

hope his dad enjoys his new job

Yeah that seems to be more of an SEC trait. USC, UCLA and even UW landed some studs that hadn't announced before today. So did ND. It's not an SEC trait. It's just not common that those guys end up at Iowa. I can understand why it's not exciting for an Iowa fan. I'm a big Iowa fan and I ignore most of their recruiting. In part b/c I think Ferentz can coach up just about any team to compete in the Big Ten, but mostly b/c so few great recruits are going there. It's more exciting for the ND fan in me.

Happy with ND's class, all things considered. James was a huge get at OT, Nix was crucial at DT, solid QB depth and depth at DB, some goods athletes too. Now Kelly's got to work some magic.

Who should we be following? depends on what team(s) you're following. There are 2 great twitter feeds for ND signings. I'm not sure if there's one or more that cover the entirety of CFB. I'd guess that's too much and the ones that have the scoop on the biggest uncommitted players are going to make that premium content.

twitter is a fantastic tool for NSD

how could anyone actively hate twitter? Signing Mauer long term is obviously good for MN at almost any cost.

good point. no one's been talking about football these last two weeks. they've been talking about the championship game, which is the most important game of the season. Trying to make people excited about the LEAST important game of the season at the same time is a losing strategy. What would happen if you put the MLB all star game between the LCS and WS? right, but that's not the same as "after anyone cares about football." it used to be after the SB, when your statement would have been true. So they moved it up to right before when NFL popularity is at it's peak. If you want to drum up interest and having it in the middle of the year isn't an option, this week is as good as it gets.

your biggest rival has the best class they've ever had and you don't think it would be scary? I doubt Mizzou's class is scary for you, personally, but I don't think snood much cares. It's not Florida's class (which is scary by any definition), but it makes perfect sense from a KU fan's perspective.

good point. no one's been talking about football these last two weeks.

it's not even close. in baseball, the odds of getting hurt while playing at full speed are relatively small - most pitchers just get hurt in long-term stuff and a lot of position players get hurt in random hamstring pulls or getting hit by a pitch. there's no contact so basically pitchers throw the same pitches at the same speeds that they do in "regular" games and hitters try to do the same things that they do in "regular" games. the scores of mlb all-star games are very similar to scores of other baseball games - some are high-scoring, some are low-scoring, but if you take the long-term average, it's very close to the average scoring in games. nfl, nba and nhl all star games are have very little of the contact and defensive commitment that characterize "normal" games in those sports, and scoring is far higher than in regular season games. I'll agree the ASG is better, but not to the extent that it's significantly better than the Pro Bowl. My point isn't so much to bash the ASG - because I watch and enjoy the ASG. Maybe it's just personal preference, but I don't see the huge difference in the quality of the games. You clearly really love NFL football, but I can't believe you're really making these arguments. I guess it's just personal preference. I don't really get that excited for any of the all-star games, so maybe that's clouding my judgement. Sure, everyone likely has a preference. But I'm just surprised that someone watching last night's pro bowl would argue that it's comparable to the MLB ASG. I wouldn't say either is "exciting," but the ASG more accurately reflects an actual MLB game. Pedro striking out McGwire, Sosa, and whomever with nasty stuff 10 years ago. Bonds being robbed of a HR (and then picking Hunter up in jest afterwards). There are all-out efforts in almost every MLB ASG. In the Pro Bowl players just can't do that.

it's not even close. in baseball, the odds of getting hurt while playing at full speed are relatively small - most pitchers just get hurt in long-term stuff and a lot of position players get hurt in random hamstring pulls or getting hit by a pitch. there's no contact so basically pitchers throw the same pitches at the same speeds that they do in "regular" games and hitters try to do the same things that they do in "regular" games. the scores of mlb all-star games are very similar to scores of other baseball games - some are high-scoring, some are low-scoring, but if you take the long-term average, it's very close to the average scoring in games. nfl, nba and nhl all star games are have very little of the contact and defensive commitment that characterize "normal" games in those sports, and scoring is far higher than in regular season games. I'll agree the ASG is better, but not to the extent that it's significantly better than the Pro Bowl. My point isn't so much to bash the ASG - because I watch and enjoy the ASG. Maybe it's just personal preference, but I don't see the huge difference in the quality of the games. You clearly really love NFL football, but I can't believe you're really making these arguments.

That was just a thing, Andy. He's not going to show up at ND and pursue nothing but 2-stars. He's still going to go after top guys. He just needs to actually land a few. Who knows how things will shake out, but I don't think anyone else jumps ship. Hopefully he can add a few more guys at positions of need, including Matt James, who is a must at OT. Letting Barr slip to UCLA and then Leuders go to Stanford was not a great week, but those things happen in a coaching change. We'll see how he does the next couple cycles.

I'm in the mid-70,000 range. But I don't want to have tickets anytime soon and I sure wouldn't want them now. I'm hoping my number comes up sometime around 2030 and the Cubs are good and I can afford to buy the tickets and go to a bunch of games.

girlfriends are a killer. Maybe the biggest recruiting loss associated with losing Weis.

All such debates would end if those that disagreed with me would just admit they are wrong. Seriously though - I agree with Tim. I'm not sure it's realistic to try to completely contain such discussions to one thread. They're going to come up again and again. We can try to keep threads from veering off topic, but there's a balance between allowing a thread to grow and move through different topics and acting like the gestapo squelching all discussion that isn't directly on point with the original post in a thread.

The best part of that series is just how doochey Matthew Stafford is. Wait a second, you made a comment about that Matthew Stafford picture without mentioning the girl to his right? Those are all very nice looking young ladies. But this is the internet age. The standard for "omg...look at her!!!" is pretty freaking high.

The best part of that series is just how doochey Matthew Stafford is.

overflow. nobody pulls tail like Heupel http://graphics.fansonly.com/schools/okla/graphics/auto/josh_heupel_105.jpg