Less than a week to go before high school football kicks off. So, naturally, our unusually mild and not-humid summer has departed in favor of the usual August swelter.
I'm not complaining! Well, too much, anyway. As I've told a couple of people recently, now that we're into late August (and this is the first time the thermometer has threatened 90 degrees all summer), even if it does get beastly hot and sticky, you know it can't hang around for all that long. Fall isn't very far away. Unfortunately, we do know what follows fall, but after last year maybe the gods of snow and ice and frigid blasts of wind and all that will take pity on us. Maybe?
Plus, I just checked the forecast for next Friday, and the National Weather Service is calling for a pleasant day with highs in the upper 70s. Just about perfect for outdoor activities, including high school football. So I hope you will partake in a game somewhere - preferably with me on the air on KMRY radio, but since the Xavier-Dowling game is going to be delayed until after Kernels baseball, you can catch a game live before you listen. Solon and Iowa City Regina is a big one in this area. You've also got Cedar Falls-Iowa City High and Cedar Rapids Kennedy-Iowa City West. A lot of interesting contests to open up the 2014 season.
I was at Xavier's scrimmage last night, at least for a bit. Naturally, you can tell almost nothing from the scrimmage, except that the first team looks better than the second team. There is a lot of size on the freshman team, I'll say (although not a huge number of players). The sophomores looked pretty good. I wonder what Coach Schulte and his wife are feeding his family, because Bryce (the sophomore who has an excellent chance of being the starting quarterback) is a big, tall dude for a sophomore. I saw his brother Reggie (two-year starter for Xavier, now entering his sophomore year at UNI) out there watching as well. You have to admit, that's a pretty sharp football family.
Anyway, Xavier starts the year with about 70 players on the varsity roster. That's a tremendous number for a 3A-sized school, even though it's down from over 80 players last year. Just in comparison, Cedar Rapids Jefferson, one of the three large public high schools in Cedar Rapids, is thrilled to have about 50 kids out for football total this season. I'm not sure if that counts the incoming freshmen, but I'm almost positive that does include the upper three grades.
But numbers alone don't guarantee success. It's the 22 players on the field, more or less, that determine how the game goes (by more or less I mean you're going to have some guys playing both ways, plus special teams is still an important part of the overall game. With a 70-player roster, you can afford to get guys some good playing time and contribute on special teams). And that's anybody's guess at this point in the season. The Saints return only four starters from last year's state 4A runners up - Nic Ekland on the defensive side (who was the team's leading tackler last season, so that's good) and fullback Jay Kortemeyer and linemen Louis Hasley and Tim Otting on the offense. Hasley, at least, looks to be starting on the defensive line, from what I saw last night (I imagine he'll go both ways, although there are some good-sized juniors listed on the roster that should see plenty of time on the field playing offensive line).
Anyway, you can't tell a lot from the open scrimmage. What will tell a lot is the first game, particularly when you're going up against a senior-dominated squad that already won the 4A state title last season. Dowling is a formidable opponent. How Xavier performs against the Maroons will prove a good measuring stick as to their overall quality and readiness to play this season.
The game is set for around 7 pm Friday, August 29 at Valley Stadium in West Des Moines. Again, KMRY radio will have the play-by-play that night on a delayed basis after Kernels baseball (probably around 9:30 - 9:45ish). You can also listen online at kmryradio.com, or the TuneIn app on your mobile device. I hope you can join us! It's going to be a fun ride this year.
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Friday, August 8, 2014
In A Big Country by Big Country on Big Country records and tapes
I'm dragging out a pop song from the 80s (oh, those college years) because travel is on my mind. Especially so since tomorrow morning I'll be off on a 1000-mile one-way road trip. Well, one-way road trip ... I am going to come back home, it'll just be via air.
I recently heard a saying to the effect that, while Americans have little sense of history, Europeans have little sense of distance. And that's true, in a way. America is a go-go, new is better, get rid of that old stuff and build something shiny type of place. Heck, hardly anything west of the Appalachians is more than 150 years old at the most anyway. By contrast, a century-old building in Europe can be considered a crass newcomer, when they have structures and monuments and things right in the middle of their day-to-day lives that are over a thousand years old.
But Americans know their road trips. They know what it means to cross vast distances, stopping only for gas and physiological needs, vaulting across deserts, mountains, prairies, hills, cities and empty spaces ... and still being in the same country they started in. Cross-country from New York to San Francisco (the old Lincoln Highway route, by the way, which I think is totally awesome) is about 3000 miles. You know where you'd end up if you traveled 3000 miles from London? Baghdad, that's where. You'd pass through maybe a dozen different countries, with their own cultures and histories and ethnic memories and all that ... in the same distance an American can pass through, well ... America.
So yes, around here we appreciate distances, and the relative ease with which we can travel them. Bringing me to my point: a thousand-mile trip in a car is a pretty long way, particularly when you're trying to do it fast.
A couple of months ago my wife and I accompanied my son on a pretty quick road trip from our home in Iowa to North Carolina. It was an apartment-hunting trip for my son, who is starting graduate school in NC in just a couple of weeks, now. We left on a Thursday when I got off work; stayed overnight in Indianapolis; covered the rest of the way on Friday; saw about four or five apartments on Saturday and happily put down a deposit on one, since they were going like hotcakes, then started partway back on Saturday afternoon (having spent about 20 hours total at our destination); then made the last, long, drive from West Virginia to Iowa on Sunday. Let me tell you, that's a lot of driving in essentially four days.
Now, there was lots to like on that trip. The mountains and forests of West Virginia and Virginia were immensely cool, as were all the trees throughout North Carolina. I mean, we have trees in Iowa, but you can still see through and around them most of the time. In North Carolina, the trees (and kudzu) are everywhere, and you don't get much of a distant view, at least not at ground level. When anticipating this trip, I recalled earlier drives I had made from Iowa to Florida. From southern Illinois all the way to Georgia, the view is very scenic, with various types of forests, plus the Smokey Mountains in southeastern Tennessee. Now, from Atlanta to Florida there just ain't much there, but I still was anticipating a pleasant, scenic drive through a good portion of our trip to North Carolina.
Nope. As I said, from West Virginia on, it's beautiful and there's plenty to look at. Unfortunately, that's only about a third of the trip. From Iowa to southeastern Ohio, it all literally looks the same. Exactly the same. You really wouldn't know you had traveled very far at all unless you looked at your odometer ... or felt the ache of your muscles being strapped into that seat for some 10-plus hours. Gaaah.
Why is this coming up now? Well, starting tomorrow, I am making the trip again. Only this time, in a 16-foot Budget truck with the various accouterments of a young adult male staking his claim on a one-bedroom apartment in North Carolina. My son will be coming along in his own car, stuffed to the gills with clothes and golf clubs and whatnot, so we can't even share the thoughts and emotions of the drive. Thanks to my daughter, though, I do have a way to play my iPad music in the truck. I've got my GPS to help if there's trouble on the route. Saturday and Sunday hotels are already reserved. I've made a plan to go longer on Saturday, so Sunday shouldn't seem quite so long. Plus ... we've driven it already. AND, I don't have to drive it back. That was a really, really long trip back from NC the last time.
So, once again, I'm doing the American thing. Road tripping, with a real purpose, though, of getting my son delivered to his next stage of life. Just think, if I drove this far from London, I'd be in Warsaw or somewhere in that vicinity. That sure seems like it should be longer than Iowa to North Carolina...
I recently heard a saying to the effect that, while Americans have little sense of history, Europeans have little sense of distance. And that's true, in a way. America is a go-go, new is better, get rid of that old stuff and build something shiny type of place. Heck, hardly anything west of the Appalachians is more than 150 years old at the most anyway. By contrast, a century-old building in Europe can be considered a crass newcomer, when they have structures and monuments and things right in the middle of their day-to-day lives that are over a thousand years old.
But Americans know their road trips. They know what it means to cross vast distances, stopping only for gas and physiological needs, vaulting across deserts, mountains, prairies, hills, cities and empty spaces ... and still being in the same country they started in. Cross-country from New York to San Francisco (the old Lincoln Highway route, by the way, which I think is totally awesome) is about 3000 miles. You know where you'd end up if you traveled 3000 miles from London? Baghdad, that's where. You'd pass through maybe a dozen different countries, with their own cultures and histories and ethnic memories and all that ... in the same distance an American can pass through, well ... America.
So yes, around here we appreciate distances, and the relative ease with which we can travel them. Bringing me to my point: a thousand-mile trip in a car is a pretty long way, particularly when you're trying to do it fast.
A couple of months ago my wife and I accompanied my son on a pretty quick road trip from our home in Iowa to North Carolina. It was an apartment-hunting trip for my son, who is starting graduate school in NC in just a couple of weeks, now. We left on a Thursday when I got off work; stayed overnight in Indianapolis; covered the rest of the way on Friday; saw about four or five apartments on Saturday and happily put down a deposit on one, since they were going like hotcakes, then started partway back on Saturday afternoon (having spent about 20 hours total at our destination); then made the last, long, drive from West Virginia to Iowa on Sunday. Let me tell you, that's a lot of driving in essentially four days.
Now, there was lots to like on that trip. The mountains and forests of West Virginia and Virginia were immensely cool, as were all the trees throughout North Carolina. I mean, we have trees in Iowa, but you can still see through and around them most of the time. In North Carolina, the trees (and kudzu) are everywhere, and you don't get much of a distant view, at least not at ground level. When anticipating this trip, I recalled earlier drives I had made from Iowa to Florida. From southern Illinois all the way to Georgia, the view is very scenic, with various types of forests, plus the Smokey Mountains in southeastern Tennessee. Now, from Atlanta to Florida there just ain't much there, but I still was anticipating a pleasant, scenic drive through a good portion of our trip to North Carolina.
Nope. As I said, from West Virginia on, it's beautiful and there's plenty to look at. Unfortunately, that's only about a third of the trip. From Iowa to southeastern Ohio, it all literally looks the same. Exactly the same. You really wouldn't know you had traveled very far at all unless you looked at your odometer ... or felt the ache of your muscles being strapped into that seat for some 10-plus hours. Gaaah.
Why is this coming up now? Well, starting tomorrow, I am making the trip again. Only this time, in a 16-foot Budget truck with the various accouterments of a young adult male staking his claim on a one-bedroom apartment in North Carolina. My son will be coming along in his own car, stuffed to the gills with clothes and golf clubs and whatnot, so we can't even share the thoughts and emotions of the drive. Thanks to my daughter, though, I do have a way to play my iPad music in the truck. I've got my GPS to help if there's trouble on the route. Saturday and Sunday hotels are already reserved. I've made a plan to go longer on Saturday, so Sunday shouldn't seem quite so long. Plus ... we've driven it already. AND, I don't have to drive it back. That was a really, really long trip back from NC the last time.
So, once again, I'm doing the American thing. Road tripping, with a real purpose, though, of getting my son delivered to his next stage of life. Just think, if I drove this far from London, I'd be in Warsaw or somewhere in that vicinity. That sure seems like it should be longer than Iowa to North Carolina...
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
The Wide, Wide World of Tape Delay
It's not often I can compare my on-air work covering Xavier football to TV coverage of the Olympics ... but I'm gonna do it anyway.
Just like the Olympics in Sochi, or London, or Beijing, or pretty much anywhere outside the Western Hemisphere, the early season of Xavier Saints football on KMRY is going to be "time shifted." Better known as tape-delayed. So does that make me Bob Costas? Without the pinkeye, hopefully.
I recently posted a rumor that KMRY might broadcast the Saints opening game against defending state 4A champion West Des Moines Dowling live on Friday, August 29 - even though the Cedar Rapids Kernels are playing that same night. KMRY has carried the Kernels for the past several seasons, and with the end of the baseball season overlapping with the start of high school football, there have often been conflicts in late August/early September. That means the Kernels go on live, with Saints football airing on a delayed basis after football.
There was indeed discussion of changing that on August 29, with the notion of carrying Xavier-Dowling live over-the-air and the Kernels streamed online only. That Friday is the Kernel's last regular season game, though, and Fan Appreciation Night. So it was decided to keep baseball live and carry football afterwards, just as in previous seasons. I just wanted to make sure and clear that up, since I had the rumor out there already.
The Saints' second game, Thursday September 4 at Davenport Assumption, might face the same fate. Should the Kernels make the Midwest League playoffs - which is looking more likely by the day - the opening round of the playoffs might conflict with that Thursday game. I believe that date would be Game 3 (if necessary), so it might not be a broadcast conflict if that first round finished in a two-game sweep. But there's no way to know that until Game 2 is actually played on September 3.
Ah, the uncertainty of live sports! It's almost like the thrill of victory - and the agony of defeat. On tape delay.
Just like the Olympics in Sochi, or London, or Beijing, or pretty much anywhere outside the Western Hemisphere, the early season of Xavier Saints football on KMRY is going to be "time shifted." Better known as tape-delayed. So does that make me Bob Costas? Without the pinkeye, hopefully.
I recently posted a rumor that KMRY might broadcast the Saints opening game against defending state 4A champion West Des Moines Dowling live on Friday, August 29 - even though the Cedar Rapids Kernels are playing that same night. KMRY has carried the Kernels for the past several seasons, and with the end of the baseball season overlapping with the start of high school football, there have often been conflicts in late August/early September. That means the Kernels go on live, with Saints football airing on a delayed basis after football.
There was indeed discussion of changing that on August 29, with the notion of carrying Xavier-Dowling live over-the-air and the Kernels streamed online only. That Friday is the Kernel's last regular season game, though, and Fan Appreciation Night. So it was decided to keep baseball live and carry football afterwards, just as in previous seasons. I just wanted to make sure and clear that up, since I had the rumor out there already.
The Saints' second game, Thursday September 4 at Davenport Assumption, might face the same fate. Should the Kernels make the Midwest League playoffs - which is looking more likely by the day - the opening round of the playoffs might conflict with that Thursday game. I believe that date would be Game 3 (if necessary), so it might not be a broadcast conflict if that first round finished in a two-game sweep. But there's no way to know that until Game 2 is actually played on September 3.
Ah, the uncertainty of live sports! It's almost like the thrill of victory - and the agony of defeat. On tape delay.
Friday, August 1, 2014
The BCS - Was It Really So Bad?
The now-departed BCS gets a bad rap from a lot of college football fans. While I'm excited about this season's four-team playoff (and hoping the greedheads of college football don't decide to expand that sucker past eight), I think the BCS didn't do all that badly in its history. Remember, the only goal of the BCS rankings was to select the top two teams to meet for a championship game. Well, it was a de facto championship game between 1999 and 2006, but from 2007 on it became an official non-bowl championship.
By my own personal count, I say the BCS got things right in eight of the 16 years. In four other seasons (bowl/championship games of 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008) they didn't have a clear choice for the top two, but I think they could have done a better job. Four times (2004, 2005, 2009, 2012) they got things miserably wrong.
Let's look at the history:
1999 - Tennessee over Florida State.
Tennessee and Tulane were the only undefeateds (and you're not going to see Tulane in a BCS bowl).
Florida State had one loss, along with Kansas State, Ohio State, UCLA, Arizona and Wisconsin. Kansas State was the only one of those teams ranked close to FSU in the BCS.
I say the BCS got this one right.
2000 - Florida State over Virginia Tech.
FSU and VT were the only undefeateds left, except for Marshall.
This was an easy one. The BCS got it right.
2001 - Oklahoma over Florida State.
OU was the only undefeated team.
FSU, Miami, Washington, Virginia Tech, Oregon State and TCU all had one loss. Only Miami was ranked anywhere near FSU.
The BCS had to basically flip a coin between FSU and UM, but heck, I won't count this one.
2002 - Miami over Nebraska.
Miami was the only undefeated team.
Nebraska, Oregon, Illinois and Maryland all had one loss. Even a two-loss Colorado was ranked close to Nebraska and Oregon.
I won't give the BCS this one either. Who knows if Oregon or Colorado might have given the Hurricanes a better game.
2003 - Ohio State over Miami.
These were the only two undefeated teams.
Again, a no-brainer, but the BCS didn't mess this one up.
2004 - LSU over Oklahoma.
Everybody had a loss this season, including USC, Miami (Ohio), Boise State and TCU. USC is the only team that might have a real beef with the BCS.
Chalk it up as a miss.
2005 - USC over Oklahoma.
This was the Auburn/Utah year, where all four of these teams were undefeated, as well as Boise State.
Can't give this one to the BCS, although three teams are gonna be ticked off regardless.
2006 - Texas over USC.
These two were ranked 1 and 2 for the entire season.
Give this one to the BCS.
2007 - Florida over Ohio State.
Ohio State was undefeated, as was Boise State. Florida had one loss, along with Michigan, Louisville and TCU. Michigan really couldn't complain, since they lost to Ohio State.
Could Boise State have beaten Ohio State in the championship? Was BSU better than the Gators? We'll never know ... I guess that's why I can't give the BCS this one, although it's close.
2008 - LSU over Ohio State.
Ohio State had one loss, LSU had two. A one-loss Kansas team got left out.
Again, could Kansas have knocked off Ohio State? Was Kansas better than LSU?
Too many questions to give the BCS full credit.
2009 - Florida over Oklahoma.
Utah and Boise State were undefeated ... what a BCS title game that might have been, huh?
Florida and OU were part of a one-loss parade that included Texas, Alabama, USC, Texas Tech and Penn State.
This is a year where you should have had the last two unbeatens face off. BCS Fail.
2010 - Alabama over Texas.
In addition to these two, Cincinnati, TCU and Boise State were all undefeated. Given those five, I think the BCS chose well.
Give the BCS this one.
2011 - Auburn over Oregon.
Both undefeated. The only other unbeaten was TCU.
The BCS gets this year.
2012 - Alabama over LSU.
The rematch year. The SEC/SEC/SEC BCS game. I hated the fact that the BCS rankings put these two on top.
The only other one-loss team that was ranked close to these two was Oklahoma State, and in my opinion they should have gone to the title game (thanks a lot, Cyclones!). Other teams with one loss were Stanford, Boise State and Houston.
BCS Fail, big time.
2013 - Alabama over Notre Dame.
The Irish took a lot of flak for making the title game this year, but they were the only undefeated team. Other one-loss teams were Florida, Oregon, Kansas State and Northern Illinois, and only Florida was even close in the BCS rankings.
Yes, I give the BCS this one.
2014 - Florida State over Auburn.
FSU was the last undefeated team in the rankings.
Other one-loss teams were Alabama, Michigan State, Baylor, Ohio State, Central Florida, Louisville, Fresno State and Northern Illinois. Ohio State could have made this all moot by, you know, winning the Big Ten championship game, but ... they didn't.
Given the outcome of the Big Ten and SEC, I think the BCS ended its time by choosing well again.
So, you could say the BCS "only" got things right half the time. Or ... you could say the BCS only screwed things up four years out of 16. Either way, I wouldn't call it an utter failure, as some critics might.
But I don't miss it. This season's four-team playoff ought to be a blast. Can you imagine the TV ratings? That's the reason, I fear, the bigwigs in charge are going to be champing at the bit to expand to 8 or 16 or (heaven forbid) more playoff teams in the near future. Four is pretty much ideal. How many of the seasons listed above had more than four teams who you would say had a real, valid, legitimate claim to being the best? Not very many. Eight teams would be okay, but a bit messy time-wise. I would not be in favor of going past eight, no way, no how.
Unfortunately, I don't think anyone is going to be consulting with me about it.
Four weeks away from football! Catch the pigskin fever!
By my own personal count, I say the BCS got things right in eight of the 16 years. In four other seasons (bowl/championship games of 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008) they didn't have a clear choice for the top two, but I think they could have done a better job. Four times (2004, 2005, 2009, 2012) they got things miserably wrong.
Let's look at the history:
1999 - Tennessee over Florida State.
Tennessee and Tulane were the only undefeateds (and you're not going to see Tulane in a BCS bowl).
Florida State had one loss, along with Kansas State, Ohio State, UCLA, Arizona and Wisconsin. Kansas State was the only one of those teams ranked close to FSU in the BCS.
I say the BCS got this one right.
2000 - Florida State over Virginia Tech.
FSU and VT were the only undefeateds left, except for Marshall.
This was an easy one. The BCS got it right.
2001 - Oklahoma over Florida State.
OU was the only undefeated team.
FSU, Miami, Washington, Virginia Tech, Oregon State and TCU all had one loss. Only Miami was ranked anywhere near FSU.
The BCS had to basically flip a coin between FSU and UM, but heck, I won't count this one.
2002 - Miami over Nebraska.
Miami was the only undefeated team.
Nebraska, Oregon, Illinois and Maryland all had one loss. Even a two-loss Colorado was ranked close to Nebraska and Oregon.
I won't give the BCS this one either. Who knows if Oregon or Colorado might have given the Hurricanes a better game.
2003 - Ohio State over Miami.
These were the only two undefeated teams.
Again, a no-brainer, but the BCS didn't mess this one up.
2004 - LSU over Oklahoma.
Everybody had a loss this season, including USC, Miami (Ohio), Boise State and TCU. USC is the only team that might have a real beef with the BCS.
Chalk it up as a miss.
2005 - USC over Oklahoma.
This was the Auburn/Utah year, where all four of these teams were undefeated, as well as Boise State.
Can't give this one to the BCS, although three teams are gonna be ticked off regardless.
2006 - Texas over USC.
These two were ranked 1 and 2 for the entire season.
Give this one to the BCS.
2007 - Florida over Ohio State.
Ohio State was undefeated, as was Boise State. Florida had one loss, along with Michigan, Louisville and TCU. Michigan really couldn't complain, since they lost to Ohio State.
Could Boise State have beaten Ohio State in the championship? Was BSU better than the Gators? We'll never know ... I guess that's why I can't give the BCS this one, although it's close.
2008 - LSU over Ohio State.
Ohio State had one loss, LSU had two. A one-loss Kansas team got left out.
Again, could Kansas have knocked off Ohio State? Was Kansas better than LSU?
Too many questions to give the BCS full credit.
2009 - Florida over Oklahoma.
Utah and Boise State were undefeated ... what a BCS title game that might have been, huh?
Florida and OU were part of a one-loss parade that included Texas, Alabama, USC, Texas Tech and Penn State.
This is a year where you should have had the last two unbeatens face off. BCS Fail.
2010 - Alabama over Texas.
In addition to these two, Cincinnati, TCU and Boise State were all undefeated. Given those five, I think the BCS chose well.
Give the BCS this one.
2011 - Auburn over Oregon.
Both undefeated. The only other unbeaten was TCU.
The BCS gets this year.
2012 - Alabama over LSU.
The rematch year. The SEC/SEC/SEC BCS game. I hated the fact that the BCS rankings put these two on top.
The only other one-loss team that was ranked close to these two was Oklahoma State, and in my opinion they should have gone to the title game (thanks a lot, Cyclones!). Other teams with one loss were Stanford, Boise State and Houston.
BCS Fail, big time.
2013 - Alabama over Notre Dame.
The Irish took a lot of flak for making the title game this year, but they were the only undefeated team. Other one-loss teams were Florida, Oregon, Kansas State and Northern Illinois, and only Florida was even close in the BCS rankings.
Yes, I give the BCS this one.
2014 - Florida State over Auburn.
FSU was the last undefeated team in the rankings.
Other one-loss teams were Alabama, Michigan State, Baylor, Ohio State, Central Florida, Louisville, Fresno State and Northern Illinois. Ohio State could have made this all moot by, you know, winning the Big Ten championship game, but ... they didn't.
Given the outcome of the Big Ten and SEC, I think the BCS ended its time by choosing well again.
So, you could say the BCS "only" got things right half the time. Or ... you could say the BCS only screwed things up four years out of 16. Either way, I wouldn't call it an utter failure, as some critics might.
But I don't miss it. This season's four-team playoff ought to be a blast. Can you imagine the TV ratings? That's the reason, I fear, the bigwigs in charge are going to be champing at the bit to expand to 8 or 16 or (heaven forbid) more playoff teams in the near future. Four is pretty much ideal. How many of the seasons listed above had more than four teams who you would say had a real, valid, legitimate claim to being the best? Not very many. Eight teams would be okay, but a bit messy time-wise. I would not be in favor of going past eight, no way, no how.
Unfortunately, I don't think anyone is going to be consulting with me about it.
Four weeks away from football! Catch the pigskin fever!
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