Please be Patient, Its going to be a fun ride

If there is at all a silver lining the Rutgers' opening day loss to Cincinnati it was the play of true freshman QB Tom Savage. After being build as the biggest recruit in the history of the school, the true freshman from Philly showed the crowd what they have to look forward to for the next four years.

His performance made the coaching staff notice and the gave the reigns to offense for their upcoming game against Howard on Saturday. All fans in the stadium on Monday were asking for the Golden Boy to take the field and we all now have our wish.

While its hard to predict his performance because he is so young, one thing is for certain its going to be bumpy ride. There are going to be times where, as fans, we are going to go nuts about a throw Savage makes or a decision he makes, but there are going to times where fans are going to look around and go "what was he thinking.'' In order to play Savage, us as fans have to realize that he is in no way the finished product and we have to be patients. So as a season ticket holder I'm asking my fellow season tickets holder to please don't boo the Golden Boy, let me develop and lead this program into the future.

Its going to be a fun ride, so everyone please buckle up.

Look out South Africa, The Tree Lions are comings

The field for the World Cup is slowly coming together and the Three Lions booked their place in the event with a 5-1 win over the Croatia yesterday, while in South American the unthinkable could really happy the World Cup could be without mess. Argentina could be on the outside looking next summer.

Here is how some papers covered it

The Times (England)

La Nacion (Argentina)

Professional Tailgating: The Great Disappointment

A revamped stadium, a record crowd, and a terrible game. That is the best way to sum on Labor Day Mondays game between Rutgers and Cincy. The OTWT Tailgating Crew was there to enjoy the event.

Before they started arriving at the RAC, this guy tried to learn how to parallel park and he was terrible

The day did not start well for Endy in the Outfield. He was beaten by a high school sophomore at washers

While the game was not class the food was, filet mignon

Rutgers take the field for the first time in their revamped stadium

The new closed end of the stadium looked great, too bad the team did not

C. Vivan Stringer is honored for being elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, I wonder if Imus was there too.

Despite the loss, the crew will be there again this week for Scarlet Knights game against Howard. Can not wait for the Howard band at half time.

No better person to save your job then your son

In the toughest of times people usually turn to their family for help. With North Texas head coach Todd Dodge that was no different. During his first two years as coach as the Mean Green, Dodge won a grand total of three in his first two years being the head coach.

So before the start of the season Dodge turned to family to help him save his job in Denton. Dodge named his son Riley to be the starting QB and after one game it could not be going better. Riley lead to the Mean Green to a 20-10 win over Ball State on Thursday night. During his first collegiate start Riley threw for 216 yards and also ran for another 76 yards.

Hopefully the Dodge Team will be as successful a team as it was in high school at South Lake Carroll in Dallas. The pair won the 2006 5A state title with a 43-29 win over Austin Westlake in the final. As a junior Riley passed for 4,184 yards and 54 touchdown passes as well as gaining 1,119 yards and 13 TD on the ground. Riley first committed to Texas but soon changed his mind and joined his dad. Riley high school career legendary and its summed up by this performance in the 2006 state title game when he threw up through his face mask.

When times are tough the best people to turn are your family and that is exactly what Todd Dodge did and it may end up saving his job in the end.

DARK KNIGHT

So the stadium looked great, the team in red on the field did not. So its the day after Rutgers dropped the ball against Cincy. Here is how some local New Jersey newspapers covered event.

The Star-Ledger

The Homes News Tribune

The Asbury Park Press

Will be posting photos, video, and commentary of the game and the parking lots in the coming days.

The Chelski Transfer Effect

Fifa ruling against Chelski today could have far reaching economic ramifications on the football world in the coming years.

Chelski are banned from signing any new players until 2011 after they were found guilty of illegally inducing a French youth international to sign in 2007. The ruling from Fifa's Dispute Resolution Chamber also banned the 18-year-old attacking midfielder Gaël Kakuta (pictured above), considered the cream of the club's academy talent, for four months and fined him €780,000 (£681,000).

The ruling will not only make it hard for the Chelski to rebuild their aging squad but it will have a negative impact on the economy of football. By banning Chelski from signing any new players until 2011, it will take one of the footballs real money team out of the equations. Teams like Lens, Blackburn, Wigan, and various other count on teams like Chelski, Real Madrid, and Inter to buy their up and coming players for inflated transfer fees to stay competitive. Since 2003, Chelski has spent approximately 600 million pound on players.

With football continuing to feel the effect of the world's struggling economy taking another one of the big transfer out of the equation might spell doom for some. If you look around the transfer market this year the only large spenders where Real, Manchester City, Barca, and Liverpool. While Chelski might not have spent a ton they are always willing to.

While I'm not saying that they do not deserve to be punished for their action, I have this feeling that FIFA did not do their full home work in looking at the effect that this ruling will have on teams that count on transfer fees from big clubs to stay competitive.

College Football all weekend long

It's finally here and OTWT will be tweeting all weekend on all of the games going on this from tonight's Oregon/Boise State game to the Rutgers vs. Cincy game, which the tailgating crew will be at. So follow us on twitter.

Baby Quarterbacks are taking over

Last years it was the year of the freshman wide receiver with AJ Green, Julio Jones, Michael Floyd, and DeAndrea Brown. This year its shaping up to be the year of the true freshman quarterback with programs such as USC and Michigan turning to the baby quarterbacks.

At USC, the Trojan National has pinned its hopes on the baby face of Matt Barkley. Barkley comes with one of the biggest reputation in the American and hopes to follow in the great line of USC quarterbacks.

While at the mess that is know as Michigan, Rick Rod is turning to two true freshman to run his spread offense: Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson. Last year Michigan used two quarterbacks that had little chance of running the spread offense.

Rutgers and Georgia could also be added to the list of teams that could have baby face quarterbacks under center in Tom Savage at Rutgers and Aaron Murray at Georgia.

Starting true freshman QBs can either be really good or a total mess. For every Matt Stafford there is a Kris Heavner. The chart below from Yahoo shows how some baby faced Qbs did in their first year.
While starting at true freshman can be fun to watch it also can turn into a very stressful experience.

Maybe Spurs are for real

Start the jokes now Spurs are leading the Premier League, I know some people think that its too good to be true but maybe its not and their win over Birmingham City earlier today showed that. In the past Spurs would have packed up and settled for the point, but not this versions of the whites, they kept pressing and finally got the winner after former Spur Stephen Carr fell and allowed Aaron Lennon to break in and score.

People brush off the thought of Spurs keeping this pace up, but its not out of the question. Spurs have talent and toughness to do it.

Modric struggled at times last year, but this season so far his true class has shown. On the opening day against Liverpool, Modric did a great job creating chances and he did the same thing today.

For years Spurs have lacked a hard man in the middle of the park and now they finally have one in the Wilson Palacios. Palacios allows Lennon, Modric, Keane, and Defoe to go forward and not have to worry about defense, which leads to great attacking football.

One thing that people fail to realize is that Spurs have depth and might have as much as any title contender. Spurs have four good strikers and a ton of talent in the midfield. While they might be lacking a little depth in defense, they have players that can move back to play there in a pinch, like Huddlestone. Spurs depth was on display during the opening weekend of the season, when they played Liverpool. The Spurs bench featured Crouch, Bentley, Hutton, O'Hara, and Pavlyuchenko; compared to Liverpool's bench which featured Benayoun, Voronin, Dossena, and a bunch of kids.

People are all talking about how great Manchester City are and how they are going to challenge for a Champions League spot but maybe we should pay a lot more attention to Spurs as a challenger for a Champions League spot.

Its towel time

You never know what you are going to find in the garage. While looking for a towel to clean out one of our tailgating coolers, I came across this towel from our trip to the 25th anniversary game of the McDonald's All American Game. During the game we got to see three future Tar Heels that would win a national title: Felton, May and McCants. As well as other players that would fall flat on their face.

It's starting to look up

On field the Nationals are still terrible, but there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel. At the last minute the Nationals brain trust got a deal done for Stephen Strasburg and then they named Mike Rizzo as their full time GM, while people might be saying big deal to a Nationals fan this is a big deal.

Coming off the disaster that was Aaron Crow negotiations last year, getting Strasburg signed had to get done and it did, not just for the on the field performance but for the fan base. Strasburg gives us hope that things might turn around. But the draft is not just about Strasburg. At the end of the day it was showing fans that they cared and that is exactly what the organization did. The Nats spent $10.8 million on bonuses for their first 11 picks in the draft that is 32 percent above what the commissioner suggested for those slots, according to Baseball America.

After the disaster that was Jim Bowden, the Nats now have a full time GM that can read birth certificates, Mike Rizzo. It might not be the sexiest name out there, but its someone that we know has the best interest of the team at heart.

While their record is that not good, this summer has given us signs that things might be looking up in the nation’s capital.

Maybe better then before

Sometimes getting rid of your best player makes you better and other times it does not. But for Lyon getting rid of striker Karim Benzema might have been the best thing that they could have done. During the summer the super talented striker traded Lyon for Real Mardrid. The transfer fee was priced at €35 million with the fee rising to as much as €41 million based on incentives.

Instead of pocketing the money, the Lyon board decided to splash the cash in hopes of regaining the Ligue 1 title. They brought in forward Bafetimbi Gomis from Saint-Etienne for a fee of €13m; Defender Aly Cissokho from Porto for a fee of €15m; Brazilian defender Michel Bastos from Lille for a fee of €18m; Argentinean forward Lisandro Lopez from Porto for a fee of €24m. In all told they spend 70 millions euros on improving their squad. The talent added plus the continued development of play maker Miralem Pjanic has made Lyon a force.

So far the plan seems to be paying off. During the first four games of the season Lyon has scored 11 goals including a 5-1 win over Anderlecht in the first leg of their Champions League Playoff. During their first leg win, Bastos, Gomis, and Lopez scored and the team played with a flair that was not present in Europe over the last couple of years. The speed they showed during the game was amazing, they looked like the fasted team in Europe.

In the past, Lyon dominated the French League and then failed when it came to getting to the Champions League Final. With the moves that they have made and the continued development of Pjanic, Lyon might be closer to being in a Champions League Final then ever before.

WSD is no more

Citing the on going attacks from Liverpool fans, World Soccer Daily is no more. Steven Cohen made the announcement at the start of the show today that Friday would be the last show. Saw them in Philly last year and had a great time. Thanks for doing a great show and this is a sad day for American Soccer.

I've seen this story before

In the fall of 2006, a hot shot freshman quarterback from Dallas enrolled at Georgia with the hope of one day leading the bulldogs. The hot shot freshman was future number one pick Matt Stafford. Instead of picking Stafford to lead the dogs out of the gate Georgia head coach Mark Richt decided to have senior Joe Tereshinski III lead the team. JT's run at qb did not last long as he got hurt in the second game and Stafford took over for good.

I know what people are thing, what is the point of this. The point is that a similar situation is developing at the State University of New Jersey.

Today Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano named senior Dom Natale as his starter over a group that includes a hot shot from Philly, Tom Savage. I could see a situation developing where Natale struggles and Schiano turn to Savage just like Richt did three years ago. I hope Natale does a good job and he might, but its always worth remembering the situation at UGA a couple years and how it ended up.

I would say it turned out well, Stafford after all ended up being the first overall pick in the draft.

Tale of Two Signing Days

Once a year college football fans and baseball fans hold their breath for one day. For college football fans its National Signing Day. While for baseball fans its draft deadline signing day, I know that it does not have the same ring yet, but its getting there.

National Signing Day has developed into one of the most important days on the college football calendar. The day schools and fan bases around the country celebrate Johnny Five Star coming to their school. The day also gives fans bases hope for the future. College football fans sit in front of their computers waiting for players to put on the hat of their favorite team from USC to Notre Dame to Alabama.With message boards, twitter and other Internet sites National Signing Day has become a can't miss day on the college football calendar.

While not as old as National Signing Day, baseball draft signing day has developed its own special place in the sport. With all of the drama surrounding Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals this year the day has been made a little bigger. This is the first time in the history of the draft that a top pick had left it to that late before deciding on what his future holds. Heading into the day, the top three picks were not signed, adding a little more to the drama of the day. Baseball fans were glued to web sites, twitter, espn, and MLB Network all day to find out if their teams top picked signed. Maybe in the future this day will turn into something similar to National Signing Day.

It's funny how a days that don't involve on the field play mean so much to a sport.

Its all over

The deadline has passed and the Nats have gotten our man. Stephen Strasburg signs a MLB deal worth $15.67 million over 4 years, according to Baseball America.

A good deal for the Nats considering the numbers that Scott Boras threw around where in the $50 million range. This is a day of hope for Nats fan around the country, they broke the signing bonus record but did not go above $20 million, which is a good deal. In honor of this I will be rocking the Nats polo tomorrow for work. Now off to bed.
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Madden 10: Mike Vick Style

After two days Michael Vick is ready for Madden 10. Here he is in the game getting ready to run by Antonio Pierce just like Route 36 did in last year in the playoffs. Here are others photos of Vick with the Eagles in Madden 10.

The Cover Story: Mike Vick Style

Few signings of back up quarterbacks generated this much interest. Here is how some papers covered the introduction of Michael Vick as an Eagle on Friday. Some people are still not happy about it.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Philly Daily News

The Morning Call

The Atlantic City Press

The Vertical's EPL Picks

So Endy went with a shocker and picked Chelski over his beloved Liverpool. Now its my time to give my picks. So here goes.

1. Chelski: The only thing that scares me is that there is really no cover if any thing happens to Drogba.
2. Liverpool: Might have the best starting 11 in the league last year. But a lack of depth killed then and letting Alonso go to Real Madrid means that they are still stuck on 18 titles.
3. Manchester United: Ronnie and Carlos are both gone, so this will be a year of transition for United. Maybe an FA Cup. But the 2010/2011 season you will see another championship side developed.
4. Arsenal: Its going to be close with them and City, but in the end Wenger knows what he is doing and Hughes does not.
5. Manchester City: see above. How about spending more money on a manager.
6. Aston Villa: Love the way this team is being built, through young English players.
7. Spurs: Crouch and Defoe, I think I saw this at Portsmouth.
8. Everton: Moyes might be the manager in premier league.
9. Sunderland: They spend a lot of money over the summer maybe they will show improvement on the field.
10. Fulham: Being in Europe will be a test for Fulham.
11. West Ham: Zola will have the hammers playing some good football, but in the end will not have the quality to get into the top half of the table.
12. Blackburn: Big Sam can always save teams from going down.
13. Wigan
14. Stoke City
15. Wolves
16. Birmingham City
17. Bolton
18. Burnley
19. Hull City
20. Portsmouth

First Manager to get the sack: Paul Hart Portsmouth
Best Signing: Mike Owen, Manchester United. They signed him for nothing and he could score double figures.
Golden Boot: Torres.
War of Words be Sir Alex and Rafa starts: I'm going to say that it has already started.

Endy in the Outfield's EPL Preditions

The Premier League Season is set to start in less then a day, so its time for OTWT resident Liverpool Fan Endy in the Outfield to gives us his thoughts the marathon that is the premier league.

1. Chelsea
2. Liverpool
3. Manchester United
4. Arsenal
5. Manchester City
6. Fulham
7. Tottenham
8. Everton
9. Aston Villa
10. Blackburn
11. West Ham
12. Wigan
13. Sunderland
14. Stoke City
15. Bolton
16. Birmingham City
17.Wolverhampton
18. Burnley
19. Hull City
20. Portsmouth

First manager to get sacked: Phil Brown, Hull City
Best signing: Carlos Tevez, Manchester City
Golden boot: Fernando Torres, Liverpool
War of words between rafa and sir alex start: Week of Sept 19th.