Tuna goes fishing in Big Ten pond
Posted on April 27, 2008
Filed Under Dolphins, NFL | 1 Comment
I’m not a big fan of the Big Ten. When I think of the Big Ten, the main words that come to mind are “slow,” “plodding,” “stodgy,” “snow,” “Keith Jackson” and “low-scoring.” Don’t let me forget one other word: “Overrated.”
I expect every Big 10 football game to end 14-10. Don’t even get me started on Big 10 hoops. Big 10 hoops should be outlawed. I’m not sure every game is like this, but whenever I do tune in, it ends up being a Wisconsin-Michigan State game that ends 48-44. I understand they play baseball in the Big Ten as well, in so much as college baseball even exists north of the Mason-Dixon line.
The people who run the conference can’t even count, apparently, because it’s really 11 teams, though Penn State hasn’t done anything in a decade that would make you notice it is around. But the Big Ten people at least are smart enough to know not to schedule a football conference title game, because then it might roadblock Ohio State’s easy path to the BCS title game every year.
As you can tell, I’m biased against the Big Ten because I’m an SEC guy. And the SEC rules at everything most of the time. (SEC hoops was no good this year, but we did win the last two titles at Florida you know.)
My philosophy on the draft is similarly biased yet I believe effective: Stick with players from the Southeastern Conference.
Bill Parcells, the Big Tuna at the head of my Dolphins these days, feels differently. He likes the Big Ten, apparently. He took Michigan offensive lineman Jake Long with the first overall pick and then used one of his second-round picks on Michigan quarterback Chad Henne. Parcells must have overdosed on game tape from the Citrus Bowl, in which both of those players had terrific games against a young and admittedly subpar Gators defense.
At least Michigan has a history of churning out NFL quarterbacks — Jim Harbaugh, Brian Griese, Todd Collins, Elvis Grbac, Tom Brady. Henne has an NFL arm, which he can use to get the ball to our Big Ten infatuation from last year, first-round pick Ted Ginn Jr. (and family). All you can say about the decision to take Ginn is that the guys who made the call to take him no longer have jobs, hence the coming of the Tuna.
I can only hope that Long is the cornerstone he’s been hyped up to be. The fact remains that Darren McFadden is the best player in this draft, which is of course why the Jets passed on him, too. There’s two things you can rely on to happen in any given draft: 1) The Dolphins will make a bad first-round pick; 2) the Jets will make a worse pick. Vernon Gholson? I was forced to watch a lot of Ohio State football the past two years, mostly in overhyped games against Michigan and in the two BCS title bowls they didn’t deserve to play in, and I can’t say I was overly impressed.
Four of the first 10 picks in this draft are SEC products, with Arkansas’ McFadden going to Oakland at No. 4, LSU’s Glenn Dorsey to the Chiefs at No. 5, Florida’s Derrick Harvey to the Jags at No. 8 and Tennessee’s Jerod Mayo to the Patriots at No. 10. I like those picks a lot better than our stash of Big Ten talents, but for the sake of the Dolphins I hope I’m wrong.
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Those who say the Big 10 is a weak conference are cherry picking facts to support a pre-drawn conclusion. If you put Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, USC or any other of the country’s so called “elite” teams in the Big 10 conference, they wouldn’t do very well, unless all their games were home games. Any team can build a pass-happy offensive scheme but they can’t pass for over 400 yards week after week when their fingers are numb from the cold and the football feels as hard as a rock. Speed backs and finesse backs are useless when they can’t keep their feet underneath themselves trying to run in the rain or snow. Big 10 teams have to play power football, which is “four yards and a cloud of dust,” because of where those teams are located. The Big 10 is the conference best suited for playing football in “football weather” and that hardly makes them the weakest. Unfortunately, for the purposes of making greater amounts of money, BCS bowl games are played in southern states where teams are coddled by fair weather throughout the season and spread offenses and speed on defense can be better utilized. So, to make it to a BCS bowl game, a Big 10 team must play better power football the entire season against the other Big 10 teams, then switch gears and travel to one of the fair weather states to play finesse and speed football against a team that has played in that kind of weather all season long. Do you think it’s mere coincidense that the Rose Bowl is played in Southern California and that USC has been to the Rose bowl more times than any other college? If all the BCS bowl games were played in northern states, the SEC would be considered the weakest BCS conference. If half the BCS games were played in northerns states, there would be no such stigmas for any conference. That’s why Joe Paterno referred to the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) as the BSC (Bull Shit Championship).