The Cover Story: College Basketball

It seems like only yesterday that North Carolina cut down the nets at Ford Field in Detroit, but a lot has changed since they did that, Coach Cal went from Memphis to Kentucky and North Carolina reloaded.

In honor of midnight madness tomorrow night here are the covers of the Sporting News College Basketball preview issues:

Washington

California

Arizona

Texas

Kansas

Michigan

Illinois

SEC

Tennessee

Miami

Kentucky

North Carolina

Pittsburgh

Washington DC

UCONN

Why Not

During the past week, people from all over the spectrum have been weighing in on Rush Limbaugh joining a group that features former Knicks executive Dave Checketts to purchase the St. Louis Rams. Many have said allowing Rush to be part of the ownership would be a terrible move for the NFL, but I on the other hand say why not.

Al Sharpton was on Morning Joe this morning saying that he has not right to own a team. His comments are below

Here is the deal, you do not have to like the owner of your team. All the owner has to do is field a team that wins and the fan base could careless what the ownership group stands for. People are talking about ownership groups like they are saints and that is not true at all. Take a look at Al Davis and he has his black marks as a person and everyone says that is just Al being all. Sure Rush's views are the not the popular ones, but would that mean that he could not own a team, I don't think so.

Sure will some players say no to playing for the Rams because Rush is part of the ownership group yes, but that does not mean that he can not be part of an ownership group that wants to purchase the team. That is a separate issues itself.

Under the proposal I don't think that Rush will be the face of the ownership group, that is going to be Checketts, but if he is just going to be a money person in the deal why not.

Professional Tailgating: The Second Leg

Round two of the OTWT Tailgating tour made a stop at the Linc to see the Eagles take on the terrible Bucs, yes they are that bad. So far two games down, two to go. Its going to be hard but I think that I can get through it.

Nice bike, who would not love an Eagles bike

Former Polk High School great Al Bundy stopped by to watch the action.
Chickie's and Pete Crabfries what a great lunch

A wood worker makes carves an eagle out of wood

An inflatable Eagle dances with the cheerleaders.

A fan in the section under us leaders his group in singing Fly Eagles Fly

Professional Tailgating: The start of something special

A game against a Division 1AA team usually does not mean anything, but for the OTWT Tailgating Crew the Rutgers vs. Texas Southern game meant the start of something special. The game started a stretch of four football games in eight days. Two college, two pro game. Its going to be a tough, but I think that I can get through it.

Heading to the game, someone is not happy with the Prez winning the Noble Peace Prize

The Fire Marshall Bill of the Rutgers parking lot is always on guard

People enjoy some adult beverages before the game

20 minutes before the game, there were still some good seats around, but they all filled in as the game started

Blowout means being the car at 5:09, for a game starting at 3:30, and being home for the Florida/LSU game. Not a bad day

The second game of the group, was the Eagles and the Bucs. I will post my complete report from the Linc tomorrow.

It's a Shore Thing

Growing up along the Jersey Shore can only mean a couple of things boardwalk fries, Three Brothers Pizza, liking the Boss, and the Shore Conference. The Shore Conference is home to my old high school, Toms River South and a variety of state powers in the many different sports including baseball, football and basketball. But over the last month, the conference has been the home to three professionals that have made their debuts in a pair of sports.

In football the conference has produced running backs Knowshon Moreno and Donald Brown.

While at Middletown South, Moreno led his team to three Central Jersey Group III championships. He rushed for 1,629 yards on 153 carries and scored 28 TDs in 11 games as a senior. He finished his high school career with 6,268 career rushing yards, 128 touchdowns, and 728 points. His rushing yards are second all-time in New Jersey. He also rushed for 420 yards and 7 touchdowns in one game against the Neptune Scarlet Fliers. He also rushed for 6 touchdowns against the Monmouth Regional Falcons. During his time at Middletown South, he also was a top tier sprinter during the indoor and outdoor track seasons. Moreno was a first round pick of the Denver Broncos. After starring at South, Moreno went on to star at Georgia. On September 27, 2009, Moreno scored his first career NFL touchdown with a 7 yard run against the Oakland Raiders.

Brown attended Red Bank Catholic and stared as a running back. During his senior year, Brown rushed for 2,032 yards and 27 touchdowns. Brown was a first round pick of the Colts.

While in hockey, former Christian Brothers Academy star James van Reimsdyk (photo right from World Junior Championship) has made an immediate impact with the Philadelphia Flyers. Van Riemsdyk attended CBA before transferring out after his sophomore year to play for USA Hockey's National Development Team. In his final high school game for CBA he scored the game winning goal in overtime to defeat the Delbarton School and star goaltender Michael D'Urso in the 2005 Parochial state championship. After playing for the National Development Team JVR went on to star at New Hampshire for two years. In his first three games as a member of the Flyers JVR has tallied three points.

Its good to see to players from the high school conference you grew up in make an impact so quickly.

And you thought American Announcers were bad

The Bulls and Jazz met in a preseason game in London last night and the BBC was there to capture the action. Just take one listen to it and hear how terrible they were, hey they did not even know the rules to the. Just when you think American announcers are terrible with soccer just remember this video.

The Next One

On Saturday night, the college football world was treated to two things. The return of the U and the introduction of the next great Miami safety. Wearing number 26, the same numbers as former U great the late Sean Taylor, Ray Ray Armstrong let the world know that he is for real. During the game he ran all of the field making plans and showed the world who he was.

Here is a highlight video of the true freshman, when he was in high school last year.

At the end of his career Armstrong will be adding his name to the list of great Miami safeties that includes Ed Read, Taylor, and Kenny Phillips.

The money making power of soccer

This has been a big year for soccer in the United States. First the US Men's National team beats Spain at the Confed Cup, then ESPN starts to show La Liga and the Premier League and finally Dicks Sporting Good decides to dedicate a section of their stores to soccer gear and not just balls and shin guards but jerseys and jackets to. Having leagues on ESPN is a big deal but having their merchandise in stores might be bigger because it shows that money making power of soccer in the United States.

Liverpool Jacket at the Dick's Sporting Goods in Stafford

Champions League Ball at the Dick's Sporting Goods in Mays Landing
Barcelona ball at the Dick's Sporting Goods in Mays Landing

Arsenal ball at the Dick's Sporting Goods in Mays Landing

Manchester United ball at the Dick's Sporting Goods in Mays Landing

Professional Tailgating: Someone Returns Home

Most of the OTWT Tailgating Crew took the week off, Rutgers was not playing, but one member made a trip to his old stomping grounds. Quincy Carter's Coke Habit returned to his home the University of Georgia for their game against LSU. Here are some of the sites from tailgating in the SEC, the best conference in the country, hell on the big Big 10 plus 1.

LSU fans make a nice batch of gumbo

It's the SEC, so that means couches and TV inside of tents before games, it might be heaven.

The OTWT Tailgating crew needs this set up for next season

Really sweet seats for the game, to bad he did not like the ending of the game as LSU beat the Dawgs on a touchdown in the last minute.

A Philosophical Question

There have always been great philosophical question out there from: ""If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around does it still make a sound'' or "Is there a Supreme Being? If so, what is His nature? Did He create the universe?''

This week the Eagles created their own NFL style philosophical question. "'When is a Wildcat Offense not really a Wildcat offense.'' During the game on Sunday, the Eagles used Mike Vick as their Wildcat quarterback in different situations.

Last year, Ronnie Brown and the Dolphins made the Wildcat formation popular and took the league by storm. In the Wildcat a running back or a skill position players lines up under center and then runs or passes the football.

If you look at the Eagles in the Wildcat with Vick, there is one thing that is different. Vick is a quarterback and if you play him at quarterback does that make him a Wildcat quarterback or just a quarterback playing in different situations. I know its a small question, but it has been bothering me since talk of Vick in the Wildcat started to come up. How can it be a Wildcat if he is a quarterback.

Professional Tailgating: All of this for a backup QB

The OTWT Tailgating Crew head to the Linc to take in the Eagles Chiefs game or as it will be know as the Mike Vick game. The Eagles won comfortably but the fun of the day was season debut of Mike Vick, ya the back up quarterback.

A gang of 10 people protested stood outside of the Linc

An OTWT friend posses for a photo with the group

One of the many Vick Eagles jerseys at the Linc

Vick warms up before the game
A new take on a Mike Vick Falcon's jersey
Oh by the way the seats were great and the eagles played really well without McNabb, Westbrook, and Curtis. It was like the 2011 version of the bird with Kolb, DJ and Shady McCoy

And you thought soccer was not growing

On Wednesday the home office of OTWT received a shocking call from Endy in Outfield. At first I could not believe what I was hearing, it sounded like something tragic had happened. After talking to him, I try to figure out what was going on.

Endy called me to let me know that my father, who is 60 and home recovering after being sick for two months, watched the first half of the Barcelona/Racing Santander match on ESPN. I know what people are thinking, so what is the big deal with this, everything is. My dad hated the beautiful game, even going as far as making fun of my brother and I for spending so many hours on the weekend watching, but now maybe that is changing.

So after hearing the astonishing news, I called my father to see how he was doing and all he wanted to do is talking about "the big white guy with the big nose'' or as everyone knows him Zlatan Ibrahimovic (pictured right). He said he really liked him and thought he was fun to watch, he also expressed great love for the slick passing midfield duo of Xavi and Iniesta or as he called them ""the two short guys that look alike.'' Then my dad went on to tell to me about Barcelona and wanted to talk about how entertaining they were. It was almost cool to hear.

Maybe ESPN is the key to making soccer successful in this country, if my father can watch the first half of a game and express interest, who knows what is possible.

It's a home game this weekend

Wow with Rutgers at Maryland this weekend, that can mean only one thing a home game for OTWT. On Saturday, I will spending the day at the home office watching all of the games going on and twittering my thoughts starting tonight with Ole Miss trip to South Carolina. Follow OTWT on Twitter here.

The First 100 are always key

The first 100 of anything are always key, from the first 100 days of a presidency to the first 100 hits of a major league baseball career. The 100 of any thing is a mark to both savor and both grade out someones performance.

On Saturday, Greg Schiano coached his 100 game as the leader of the Scarlet Nation. At the start of his tenure, few thought that he would see this day but now that he has lets grade the leader on his performance of the last nine seasons.

A 100 games in charge, wow after his first four season, in which he won a grand total of 12 game, few people thought that he would make it. The first four years of his career at the State University of New Jersey featured some embarrassing moments including dropping games to Villanova and New Hampshire. But the administration decided to stick with him and good thing they did.

Schiano started to get his recruits in during his fifth season the when the Knights went 7-5 and went to the Insight Bowl and loss 45-40 to Arizona State. But things were starting to look up. The next three season, Knights returned to bowl games.

Aside from the success on the field, Schiano has been a success off the field. After flirting with various jobs around the country, Miami and Michigan, Schiano pushed the administration to add on to Rutgers Stadium.

In addition to the stadium, Schiano has also made Rutgers relevant on the recruiting trail. Take the recruiting of New York defensive end Dominique Easley. Sure Easley selected Penn State, but Rutgers was in it to the end with programs such as Florida and Georgia. Take a look at the top 50 high school players from the region and you will see that Rutgers has been involved with most of them till the end. Under Schiano, Rutgers has been able to make inroads in places that they have never been able to like South Carolina. In the 2010 class Rutgers signed Chas Dodd a quarterback at the famed Byrnes High School in South Carolina. Imagine back about five years, the thought of a player coming to Rutgers from South Carolina was out of the question, now it has become a reality.

While Schiano has a 48-52 record during his tenure and has been a pain to the media, he goes down as the great coach in the history of the school. As for a letter grade, OTWT would have to give him an A, if he would have taken Rutgers to BCS Bowl then he would have gotten the plus. To take a program from where he got to now deserves all of the credit in the world.

This is a NFL City?

This is a photo, which came from a friend on facebook, from the press box Sunday at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, the home of the Jags. A ton of people decided to go to the game dressed as seats as you can tell. The attendance for the game against the NFC Champions Cardinals was 46,520, the stadium holds 67,164 for NFL games and 84,000 for college football games. It looks like all of the Jags home games will be blacked out this year.

This is another reason that the NFL does not work in the south. In the south people care more about the college sports then they do the NFL. Can you image seeing that many empty seats for the Georgia Florida game I think not.

Professional Tailgating: Sometimes it aint easy

So Rutgers did not look that great but in the end they beat Florida International, which brings them to 2-1 on the season. The real story was the tailgating as usual and the OTWT Tailgating crew being introduced to a new drinking game.

Our tailgating neighbors playing Stump, it involved a hammer and nails. So I decided to take a pass on it.

Stump in action

The new section of the stadium features a DJ booth, Rutgers might be the only school in american that has a pregame DJ.

The Wall of Victory, some interesting things on it.

Rutgers takes the fields and keeps choppin'

The hippies even came out to support the team

Rutgers will be on the road for the next couple of weeks and this will allow the OTWT Tailgating Crew to rest up, which is needed. The Knights return home Oct. 10.