Pure Awesomness!

Quick Thoughts

• That was a pretty sweet finish to the US-Costa Rica soccer match last night. I watched the last 25 minutes, just enough time to watch the US come back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the match. Thanks to Costa Rica's putzing around at the end of regulation, there was 5 minutes of stoppage time and the US scored on a corner kick in the 95th minute. Yah, it was pretty exciting, even for someone who isn't that in to soccer. A lot going on in this match even though the US was already qualified for the World Cup. There was the emotion of playing for their teammate who almost died in a traffic accident on Tuesday and the fact that Costa Rica would have qualified for the WC with a victory. All in all, a pretty exciting 25 minutes of sports right there.
• In other news, should a top flight US national team lose to Costa Rica in any sport?
  
• Last night's episode of South Park was great. Butters becomes a pimp. It was probably a 9 out of 10 on the Miller High Life Watchibility Scale. And yes, I am 32 and still watch South Park.
• Peal Jam played 4 concerts out in LA last week. At one of the concerts Chris Cornell joined the band on stage for a Temple of the Dog reunion and sang Hunger Strike while Alice in Chains leader Jerry Cantrell came out and played the final guitar solo on Alive. That would most likely be the best concert ever.
• I really hope we don't have a Phillies-Yankees World Series. Angles-Dodgers is what I am hoping for, but please, just not the Phillies-Yankees.
• Game of the year for the Badgers on Saturday. If they win, they have a great shot at going 11-1. After Iowa the play at Indiana, vs. Purdue, vs. Michigan, at NW and at Hawaii. A loss and they still have a good shot at going 10-2, but it doesn't mean much when you lost to the only 2 good teams you played.
  

Parenting 101?

Emmett has a 4 year old son. The staple beer in the Fitz-Hume house is High Life Light. Earlier tonight, Emmett needed beer. Emmett and Emmett Junior head into the party mart, walk past the bottles of liquor, and reach numerous refrigerators chilling impressive amounts of beers along the back wall. Before we even stop, Emmett Junior runs to the familiar blue and gold box (shown above) and says: "Daddy, here's your beer!" with a huge grin on his face - extremely proud with his quick find. There's only 3 possible way's Emmett Junior could recognize High Life Light among the other 100s off beers so quickly...I mean, he's only four:

1) Emmett Senior drinks waaaaaay too much High Life Light (Probable).

2) Emmett Junior is well on his way to being an alcoholic. (Possible)

3) Emmett Junior is a kid-genius. (Doubtful)

So, Emmett is not sure what to make of this. Good, or bad, parenting...you be the judge.

Badgers in Minnesota - Let's Block a Punt!

Since Erik isn't getting married this Saturday, I can actually watch Minnesota piss away the game live this year!

Hey, in case you have not heard, there are a couple of big games going on up in Minneapolis this weekend. And I am not talking about that exciting Royals/Twins series closing out the Twins run at the Metrodome. The game I am most interested in is the Badgers/Gophers game in which the Badgers attempt to maintain possession of the Paul Bunion Axe for what I believe will be the 36^th straight year (or something like that divided by 6).

Anyhow, this game kicks off the most critical stretch of games for the Badgers this season and a win would go a long way in keeping up the momentum gathered in the first four games. After this game the Badgers go to Columbus and then face Iowa at home. I don’t expect the Badgers to go undefeated through these three games, but if they come out of it 2-1, I would be thrilled. 1-2 would not be good, but not the end of the world. 0-3 would be vomit inducing.

Wisconsin will look to continue to ride their balanced offensive attack. Tolzein has obviously been a heck of a QB so far this year. He has a great presence in the pocket and is aware of his surroundings. I think I read somewhere that Wisconsin has only given up 2 sacks so far this season. That has helped Tolzein’s confidence in the pocket. Minnesota would be wise to attempt to bring guys up the middle in an attempt to flush Tolzein out of the pocket. He has not had to throw on the run much this year and it would be interesting to see how good that aspect of his game is. He can run if needed, but can he throw on the run? The key to the passing game is how the Gophers attempt to defend Graham and Kendricks. If they try to double up on these guys, the Badgers have the receivers to get open against man coverage and do some damage after the catch. Tolzein hit a ton of passes in the flat early against MSU. When they brought guys up to defend against that, he hit Toon and Anderson deep. Tolzein is the first QB since Stocco who can throw a solid deep ball.

The O-line is still coming together for the Badgers. John Moffit got his first start of the season at guard last week and the rust showed. He picked it up in the second half but was relatively brutal in the first half. 3^rd string center Peter Konz has been solid in the middle. Ogelsby appears to be having problems with speed rushers off the end. However, as mentioned above, the line has only given up 2 sacks this season (thanks to Tolzein’s pocket presence) and the pass blocking has been solid. The run blocking is not what it has been in the past for Wisconsin teams. However, sending the same guys out there on back to back weeks for the first time will help. The run blocking is coming together and the RBs need to do a better job of hitting the hole when it is there.

Speaking of running backs, I am still waiting for John Clay to have that truly big breakout game. I’m talking a 200-yard, 2 TD game. Last week against State he ran well but it seems he left some yards out on the field. However, the key was that he didn’t leave the football out on the field. I think the fumbles in the Wofford game were an aberration and this isn’t a guy with a fumbling problem. John needs to do a better job of finding the holes the line creates. I am excited to see him get in the open field and use his 250 pound frame to just blow up a DB. Zach Brown will get his touches as well. He did destroy the Gophers two years ago in the dome, but honestly, he is just a guy in terms of Big Ten running backs. A solid back up for sure, but not the workhorse.

The Badgers’ D has improved as throughout the season. The line is getting better now that guys are coming back from injury and a set rotation is in place. They are making plays in the backfield and getting to the QB off the ends. The problem is that they have no big run stuffer in the middle. Against the run game, they are vulnerable up the middle but do a good job of running to the boundaries. MSUs big runs were all up the middle. The Linebackers have been playing great. Schofield has been lights out all 4 games and the Freshmen Taylor and Borland really played well last week. Lot of young guys on this D that are getting playing time and will only get better.

The D-backs are still a work in progress but are getting better. Did a good job of containing the Spartan passing attack for 57 minutes last week. The ability to get pressure up front helps out this secondary immensely. There has been a lot of talk about the play of Chris Maragos. He has made some clutch plays and has had a handful of picks so far this season. However, he is no Jim Leonhard. Maragos is a solid player with good hands, but he doesn’t have the greatest speed and gets out of position sometimes.

The special teams have been solid this year. They don’t appear to be the best blockers in the world, but Gilreath came close to busting one last week. The kick coverage has been good so far this year. After a couple early misses, Welch seems to be back on track after bombing that 57-yarder against Fresno State.

After all that rambling about what Wisconsin has, lets actually get to the game. It will be Wisconsin’s first road game of the season and it comes at an unknown venue. How will Tolzein and the rest of the young team react in the first game on the road? Normally this wouldn’t be an issue in Minnesota since the crown is usually 40% Badger fans, but that will not be the case this season. Wisconsin has also done a piss-poor job of closing out opponents at home so far. Will the slip ups they have had cost them on the road?

From all reports, it sounds like Minnesota got their running game going last week. This will be big because if Wisconsin has to respect the run, it will be harder for them to generate a pass rush to help out the secondary. Also watch out the academic wizard MarQuis Gray running some out of the backfield. He has only gotten a handful of touches in the first few games but I am wondering if they were not holding him back a bit to unleash him against the hated Badgers.

It will also be interesting to see how Nutpunch Decker fairs in this game. He suffered an ankle injury in last year’s game. Last week, the Badgers shut down Blair White but MSU was able to work the ball to the other receivers. If the Badgers take away Decker (a humongous if) will Weber be able to find anybody else. Decker leads the team with 35 receptions and the next closest guys have 10. Hopefully Aaron Henry can step up his game and limit Decker.

All in all this should be a good game. I don’t see it as a blow-out either way. Will Wisconsin block any rugby style punts? Who knows, but it is always fun when these two teams play and your team wins. Wisconsin has won the past 5 meetings, so it has been pretty fun lately. I see that streak continuing this year. Wisconsin’s balanced offense will steal the show and the badgers will put up a 31-24 victory, but not before enduring some tense moments at the end of the game. I give this bad boy a 10 high lifes out of 10 high lifes on the Miller High Life Watchability Scale. Granted, that is for me. If you live outside of Wisconsin or Minnesota, this one would probably rank a 4.

Badgers vs. Spartans - The Wisconsin Take

Yesterday we provided you with a great preview of this weekend's Wisconsin-Michigan State tilt from or local Michigan State expert, Sparty Tom. As a side note, in the future, Sparty Tom will provide us with a step-by-step guide on how to set fire to a couch. Anyhow, today you are going to get a less accurate preview of the game from a Badger alumni, Roger Murdock.

This is a great game to kick off the Big Ten season. Both teams are trying to figure what exactly they have and the result of this game will go a long way in setting the tone for the Big Ten season for both teams. Here is what we know so far. Wisconsin is 3-0 with a balanced offensive attack, but has definitely shown warts in their first three games. Scott Tolzein has been a wonderful surprise for all Badger fans. He throws a great ball and is willing to stand in the pocket and take a hit to deliver the ball at the last possible moment. The Badger's JS beat writer told me that Tolzien gained a ton of confidence last season in his few mop-up appearances and it is definitely showing in his play this year. The running game is not off to the greatest start ever, but I am not as down on these guys as a lot of people are. One of the biggest things slowing down the running game is the fact that the O-line is still coming together. With Bill Nagy and John Moffit out for most of the first 3 games, the best O-line has not been on the field yet. It probably won't be out there on Saturday either, but the guys playing have had 3 games to gel, so that is a plus. Everyone knows about Clay's fumbling issues last week. Maybe he was wearing the Ahman Green Memorial Wet Leather Arm Sleeve. At any rate, Clay wasn't a big fumbler last year, so hopefully this is just a blip on the radar. Brown has been ok. Nothing flashy, but that is what you get out of Zach Brown. Erik Smith looked good against Woffard, but in the Big Ten he looks to be nothing more than a 3rd down/change of pace type guy.

The Badgers defense looks solid up front but relatively brutal in the secondary. I almost wish Soup Campbell and B.J. Tucker were out there. OK, maybe not so much on Tucker. Anyhow, O'Brien Schofield has just been a beast this year. He has 6.5 tackles for loss so far this season and just always seems to be flying towards the ball. By far and away the defensive MVP so far this season. The Badgers seem to be getting a decent push up front this year. May be attributed to better D-line depth. The secondary got torched by Fresno State. Aaron Henry still seems a bit unsure following two knee surgeries and an illness. By all accounts he is a great person and was a great talent prior to the injuries. Let's hope he can get back the groove this year. In general, the D-backs seem to be lining up in no mans land. They are plying too far off the line for bump and run coverage but not deep enough to hang with receivers on deep routes. This unit really needs to step it up starting now.

MSU comes in to the game at 1-2 but could easily be 3-0. Hey, losses to MAC teams occasionally happen. It stinks, but losing to Central Michigan wasn't the end of the world for the Spartans. Central Michigan needed to recover an on-sides kick and then have an off-sides penalty on Michigan State on the missed game-winning field goal attempt before they hit the actual game winning FG. The game last week against Notre Dame should have, at minimum, gone into overtime. Cousins missed a wide open receiver in the end zone and on the next play throws a terrible pick when the Spartans were easily in FG range. So, this team could easily be 3-0.

As I mentioned, this game should be interesting. I think it will be a close game throughout with plenty of scoring. Michigan Sate is going to rely on their passing attack and go after the Badgers secondary. If they start hitting on some plays early, it could be a long day for the Badgers. I hear Cousins has looked good so far this season and there is no reason it shouldn't continue on Saturday. To combat this, the Badgers are going to have to bring some pressure and make Cousins uncomfortable in the pocket. If the line can get good pressure and force him to throw the ball before he wants to, this will help out the secondary greatly. Look for the Badgers to blitz a bit more than usual.

I look for the Badgers running game to step it up this week. Look, I really don't care who the starter is, Clay and Brown will get the same amount of carries. I almost like having Brown start and having Clay come in later in the game and using his size to just run over some guys when they are tired. The running game will rack up solid yardage and Tolzien will continue to impress against a suspect MSU secondary. Cousins and Tolzien will both rack up some good stats, but in a game where the last team to have the ball may win, I look for Tolzein to come through in the clutch with a pass to Toon or Graham.

Michigan State needs this game badly. They play at Michigan next week. A team that had New Years Day bowl aspirations at the start of the season cannot tolerate a 4 game losing streak. The Badgers have motivation for this game as well. They will remember last year's vomit-inducing loss at State and be out for blood. I am going to call this a 31-28 victory for the Badgers and give the game a solid 6.5 High Lifes out of 10 High Lifes on the Miller High Life Watchibility Scale.

Both Sparty Tom and I will be at this game so hopefully one of us can produce a solid recap next week.

Badgers vs. Spartans - The MSU Take

Our friend Sparty Tom is back to give us a look at this weekend's Big Ten Opener between the Badgers and the Spartans from a Michigan State viewpoint. Sparty Tom will be attending the game this weekend so we hope to get a wrap up of his trip to Madison some time next week. Also, look for my take on this game from a Badger perspective sometime tomorrow. I am sure you are all anxiously awaiting to see where this rates on the High Life Watchibility Scale.

On to Sparty Tom's preview:

The Spartans must win this game, plain and simple. For a team and fans that had preseason expectations of Big Ten Championship contention and a New Year’s Day Bowl game, falling into a 1-3 hole could be the beginning of a lost season. Although Wisconsin has enjoyed a light early season schedule, the fact that the Badgers are 30-3 at Camp Randall since 2004 doesn’t make the Spartan faithful feel any more comfortable. Wisconsin will be looking to avenge last year’s 25-24 heartbreaker at the hands of Sparty in East Lansing. Wisconsin has more talent on offense this year and will be geared up for their first real test of the 2009 season.

On offense, Michigan State will look to expose a Wisconsin defense that has some new faces this year. Head coach Mark Dantonio has said in his weekly press conference that he will continue to utilize both Kirk Cousins and Keith Nichol at the quarterback position (…and to inject my personal feeling on the matter, this circus needs to stop. Kirk Cousins leads the Big Ten and ranks 14th in the NCAA in passing efficiency. He completed 70% of his passes against Notre Dame, throwing for over 300 yards. He was voted team captain and leader of the offense….let him play). The return of senior center Joel Nitchman, along with junior wide receiver Mark Dell for a second week should also give the Spartans a boost on offense. On the other side of the ball, Wisconsin will have to shore up its running game for this one. The Badger running backs had problems with fumbling against Wofford, and junior Quarterback Scott Tolzien will also have to be sharp against a blitz-happy MSU defense (at one point during the ND game, MSU blitzed 26 consecutive times).

Anytime the Badgers and Spartans line up, it promises to be a typical hard hitting Big Ten slugfest. Both teams take pride in winning the battle of the trenches. Although both have struggled with the run game early on, don’t expect them to completely abandon their style. Big Ten openers are hard to predict because emotions are running high on both sides. However, I think MSU just has too much to lose in this one and will be playing with more desperation.

Prediction: MSU – 27 WIS - 17

Starship Troopers is Hilariously Bad

It's Friday afternoon, so I know this post will probably be read by 2 people. So, I figure it's as good of time as any to mention that I watched about 10 minutes of the movie Starship Troopers last night. Now, I saw this movie on VHS back when it came out and I can only remember three things about the movie:

• It was so bad it was funny,
• NPH was in it, and,
• The red headed chick got naked.

Now, in the 10 minutes I watched on TNT last night, the red headed chick did not get naked. However, that 10 minutes was astounding. The over-acting was stupendously great. I mean, I think the movie was meant to be corny, but they just knocked it out of the park. Plus, there was a fight scene between Caper Van Diem and a guy who could be best described as Chris Kattan's more human looking brother. I am pretty sure all the punches missed by a good 6 inches. Then, once the bugs started killing people, all thought of anybody "acting" just went out the window. You also have Denise Richards whose sole job was to just stand around and look retarded. The problem is, she was basically wearing a snow suit for most of the movie (or at least the 10 minutes I saw). This was rectified a year later with her appearance in Wild Things. Anyhow, 10 minutes of Starship Troopers rates an outstanding 10 High Lifes out of 10 High Lifes on the Miller High Life Watchibility Scale.

Also happened to catch a bit of Mallrats last night. Just a solid movie there. Little known fact: Mall shots were filmed in Eden Prairie, MN. Not sure if the 3rd nipple scene was filmed there.

Real Football Insight: Cal vs. Minnesota

Yet another game of national importance involving a Big Ten team is taking place up in Minneapolis this weekend. Cal is coming to the new TCF Bank Stadium to play the Gophers (11 AM ESPN). We can only hope the Gophers are not wearing their dehydrated urine/banana color unis this week.

As a life-long Badger, it pains me to say this, but I think the Gophers may be on to something up in Minneapolis. Sure, they struggled somewhat in their first two wins, but they did win on the road and stopped the option football of a decent Air Force team. This game is huge for the Gopher football program. A chance to knock off a Top Ten team in their new on-campus stadium that has the fans all juiced up. To be honest,I know dick about Cal but I think the Gophers have a decent shot to win this game. Since I am woefully uninformed about Cal, I won't make a prediction, but I am going to give this one a 7 High Lifes out of 10 High Lifes on the Miller High Life watchibility scale.

Since I don't have a good read on this game we will turn it over Gopher alum and season ticket-holder Gopher Bandanna Man, a.k.a. Torto for his take on this match-up:

Minnesota (2-0) will be hosting the # 8 Cal Golden Bears (2-0) this Saturday, while coming off an emotional win over Air Force and opening their new on-campus stadium. And while the nickname for the new digs is still up in the air (The Bank, the Vault, and the Brickhouse have all been thrown out there, but none have formally stuck yet…), what Minnesota needs to do to have a chance to beat Cal is not. Slow down running back Jahvid Best.

Best, one of the fastest backs in the NCAA, will likely end up a Doak Walker and Heisman Trophy finalist and has rushed for 280 yards in his first two games of 2009. The responsibility of slowing Best falls largely on the Gophers trio of senior linebackers, Simoni Lawrence, Lee Campbell, and national defensive player of the week, Nate Triplett. If they can keep themselves free to roam and shed blockers effectively as they did against Air Force, the Gophers can give themselves a chance to win. If they can’t and Best runs wild – it could easily be 28 – 0 by the half. The Gopher secondary has shown itself to be fairly competent, but hasn’t really been tested much as of yet. They could be the wild card in this game, particularly if Minnesota has some success in slowing Best down.

Offensively, quarterback Adam Weber and Co. has to show up for more than 1 quarter this week to make this a game. Both in the Air Force and Syracuse games, it took Adam Weber 3 quarters to shake off the hangover he appeared to have and move the ball. Wideout Eric Decker continues to pile up big numbers, but has yet to find the end zone in 2009. Look for him to get in this week, possibly multiple times. If the Gophers fall behind early, look for him to have even more inflated numbers while the team plays catchup. The ball-carrying duties will be shared by RB duo D’uane Bennett and DeLeon Eskeridge again. Their success is largely predicated on how well the offensive line can continue to gel. If the running game is stalled in the first half, the Gophs may fall back into their shotgun formations early. MarQuis Gray may or may not show up in the ‘Wildcat’ formation again. It all depends on whether Brewster is willing to have him on the field again this week after a bad fumble at a key point in the Air Force game.

Emotions should ride high again for the Gophers this week, as they try and pull out a signature win for Coach Brew. Unfortunately, they may just be outclassed for this year’s matchup.

Predictions: Cal 31 – Minnesota 20

Cal Player of the Game: Jahvid Best rushes for 135 yards and 2 TDs

Minnesota Player of the Game: Adam Weber throws for 310 yards and 2

Excellent analysis there Bandanna Man. look for future Gopher related tidbits from Torto throughout the season. I also asked him to take some photos of anyone wearing Zubaz at the game, so hopefully we have a great recap of the game early next week.

Real Football Insight: Michigan State vs. Notre Dame

Since the Badgers are playing Wofford this week, I figured we could take a look at some other match-ups that may be of interest to the locals. Lets start off with Michigan State at Notre Dame (2:30, NBC).

Let me start off by saying I really dislike Notre Dame. However, after years of looking like crap (and an emu) Jimmy Clausen is looking like a pretty good QB this year. It helps when you have a beast like Michael Floyd running routes and catching balls for you. However, their coach is still Charlie Weis. His latest in douchbaggery came this week when he started his presser by complaining about the officiating in the Michigan game, saying that was all he was going to say because he had Big Ten officials this week, and then spending the rest of the presser talking about officiating. Hey, if you want to see bad officiating, check out a tape of the Packers-Bears game from Sunday night. I was convinced the officials were trying to see if there was any way they could digitally put a 12th Packer on the field during the fake punt review.

Anyhow back to the MSU-Notre Dame game. I know State was embarrassed last week by Central Michigan and Notre Dame played a good game against Michigan. However, I see the Spartans rising up and winning this one. As wildly inconsistent as MSU football has been for as long as I can remember, they always seem to play well against Notre Dame. I am going to go with a Michigan State win here. In terms of watchability, I am going to give this one 8 bottles of High Life on a 10 bottle of High Life scale.

For a better look at the game, lets see what a MSU alum, who I will dub Sparty Tom, has to say about this game:

MSU has beaten Notre Dame an unprecedented six times in a row in South Bend. No other team in college football history can claim that feat in the 78 year history of Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame is coming off a painful loss at the hands of the Wolverines in Ann Arbor, while Michigan State is trying to forget that embarrassment in East Lansing against the mighty Chippewas of Central Michigan last weekend. Jimmy Clausen figures to have a big day throwing the ball as Michigan State's secondary has been a weakness in the first few weeks of play. Pre-season All American Linebacker Greg Jones and the rest of the Michigan State defensive line hope to provide enough pressure up front to keep the Fighting Irish offense off balance.

On the other side of the ball, there is still a Quarterback controversy in the Spartan camp. Both Oklahoma transfer Keith Nichol, and redshirt sophomore Kirk Cousins have split playing time in the Spartan's first two games of the season. Nichol likes to use his quickness to leave the pocket make plays on the run, while Cousins is more of a drop-back passer who throws a more accurate ball. MSU coach Mark Dantonio has not revealed who will receive the playing time against Notre Dame. Either way, they'll have to deal with a Notre Dame defense that is looking to redeem itself after giving up too many big plays against the Wolverines last week. Irish head coach Charlie Weis has had his first team defense taking reps against the first team offense this week in practice to instill more toughness.

This is the type of game that will set the tone for the rest of the season for both teams. How will each team respond to an early season loss? For Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis, two early season losses will most likely resurrect calls for his job that were so prevalent at the end of last season. For Michigan State, this is the start of a 3-game stretch that will define their season (Notre Dame, Wisconsin, and Michigan). A loss would put them in a hole that they want no part of. Given the nature of the rivalry, this game promises to be one of the best battles of the weekend

Nice Work Sparty Tom. Look for more Sparty Tom analysis throughout this season as well as basketball season when we discuss Big Ten Championship basketball banners left rolled up in the rafters.