College Football Time Is Almost Here!

I’m taking a break from my Southern Gospel posts today, but we are now less than a month away from the start of the college football season.  My alma mater, the University of Memphis, is mired in mediocrity, though there is always hope that this year will be better for us.  The other two teams I root for have more intriguing storylines this year.  West Virginia begins life in the PPW era (Post Pat White), so it will be interesting to see how much of a drop off they have.  I hope not much at all.  The Tennessee Volunteers have an entirely new coaching staff replacing the ousted Phil Fulmer.  Hopefully Lane Kiffin and Co. can get the Vols back to competing in the SEC.  Who are your teams, and how do they look this year?

Oh, and you can consider this an open thread as well.

It’s March: Let The Madness Begin

Tonight officially starts the NCAA Tournament, with the play-in game set to begin.  I haven’t even filled a bracket out this year, but I think that the committee has awakened a sleeping Tiger by giving my alma mater, Memphis, a #2 seed instead of a 1 seed.  I think I actually prefer it better this way.  John Calipari always seems to get the guys to play better when he can put a chip on their shoulder and play the “us against the world/no respect” card.  While I don’t think this team is as talented offensively as last year’s national runner-up team, I think they can make up for it on the defensive end of the court.  It’s been said that defense wins championships, if so, don’t count out my Tigers!

College Football 2008 Starts Tonight!

The 2008 college football season kicks off tonight with a featured matchup between NC State and South Carolina.  I’ve been waiting 8 months for this.  As far as my teams go, Memphis is a bit of an enigma, we could be really good, and we could be really bad.  West Virginia is poised for another great run with Heisman hopeful Pat White under center for his senior year.  Let’s get this party started!

Memphis In The Championship Game

After obliterating UCLA on Saturday by 15, the Memphis Tigers take on Kansas tonight for all the marbles in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game.  As trite and corny as it sounds, win or lose, this has been an amazing season, as we have already established a new NCAA record for victories in a season (38).  Kansas is a great team, and matches up very well against us, so it will be an interesting game tonight.  GO TIGERS!!!!

Congratulations Tigers!

With yesterday’s impressive victory over Texas, my alma mater, the Memphis Tigers, advanced to the Final Four for the first time since 1985.  Congrats guys and keep it up, let’s take down UCLA and UNC/Kansas to win it all!  Go Tigers!!!!

March Madness – My Final Four

My how time flies…March Madness is upon us once again. Here’s my Final Four: North Carolina, Wisconsin, Memphis, and UCLA. Wisconsin is my surprise pick, but I just think they will be so ticked off about getting a 3 seed instead of a 2 (Duke???) that they will be playing with a large chip on their shoulder. I know the Big 10 was down this year, but there’s still a good reason that UW is the Big 10 champion. In case you’re wondering, I have Memphis beating UNC in the finals, 84-79. Go Tigers!!!!

Go Tigers Go

I refrained from saying anything until we actually defended our position, but now that we’ve won at least one game, congratulations to my University of Memphis Tigers.  The U of M is now the #1 ranked basketball team in the country, and after surviving a scare last night to Tulsa, we have actually defended our ranking.  The last time we were ranked #1, we lost the same evening the rankings came out, effectively gaining and losing the #1 ranking the same day.  Last night’s game was scary, but should motivate them and I don’t think we’ll lose the #1 ranking anytime soon.  Go Tigers!

Congratulations Tigers

I haven’t done a sports post in a while, but after starting the season 2-4 and going 0-2 against the Sun Belt conference (!), my Memphis Tigers really turned the season around.  I’m still not sure Tommy West is the long term man for the job to build a solid football program here, but I have to give him some credit.  The Tigers finished the season 7-5, winning 5 of the last 6, including an improbable win over Southern Miss in Hattiesburg.  The Tigers are now New Orleans Bowl – bound.  Congratulations Tigers, it was a very challenging season, especially losing one of your own, but you rose to the challenge.  Kudos on a good year, and sending my little brother out with a bowl trip for his last year in the U of M Marching Band!

Congratulations Tigers

I just told reader DJM yesterday that I would do 90-95% SG posting on this blog, but the events of the last 72 hours necessitate another sports posting, so please just indulge me.  First, our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Taylor Bradford, a reserve defensive lineman for the University of Memphis who was murdered on campus Sunday evening.  It is a terrible and senseless act of violence, and since both of my siblings are still students at the U of M, more than a little unsettling.  In spite of the loss, the decision was made by the team to play last night’s scheduled game against Marshall.  With this the 3rd game in 11 days for Memphis, the emotion of the tragedy still fresh, and some still questionable playcalling, the Tigers managed to win 24-21.  This was a big win for the team, and may shed a little light amongst all the darkness of the past few days.

What’s up with the Tigers?

Ok, so you storm out to a 31-6 halftime lead, play on both sides of the football with fire and aggressive playcalling, and just basically take it to Ark. State. After halftime, you start running the same old conservative playcalling that has won you a whopping 1 of 3 games. End result? Memphis loses 35-31. At this point, with new coordinators and the same old problems, the time is now to start looking at the head coach instead. I like Tommy West, I really do, but he just isn’t getting the job done. Memphis should not be 1-3, and have a 2 game losing streak against Arkansas Stste. As an alum, I am not jumping ship, never will, but this is just embarassing.