Hey everyone.  Today we will start our countdown to the premiere of 24.  It took me forever, but I finally figured out post videos from YouTube.  So without further adu, here is a tribute to Jack Baur.

Fiesta Bowl reaction

Wow... what a great game.  Definitely thought I was going to throw there for a second.  The main thing that stood out was how great Quan Cosby is.  I think he got overshadowed a lot this year with the whole "Jordan Shipley and Colt McCoy are roommates" thing, but Cosby had a great season that capped off a great career.

I was worried a bit for a minute, especially after Ohio State got the ball back looking to take the lead.  It just felt was things were going to slip away and our season was going to be all for naught.  But I forgot about Colt McCoy.  Stupid me; how do I forget about the most clutch QB in the NCAA. Well he made the plays and got UT another win and a possible shot at a split national title, right?

Sadly, probably wrong.  Texas needed a dominant performance to have a shot at a split.  What I ultimately think will happen is that Texas will actually get jumped by USC and finish at 3 or 4.  Still a great season considering UT was picked to finish third or fourth in the Big 12.  But any talks a share of the title probably went away with the close game to Ohio State.

Fiesta Bowl Preview

Tonight we have the third matchup of the BCS, the Fiesta Bowl matching the Texas Longhorns against the Ohio State Buckeyes.  Most are predicting a beat down of OSU.  They have not faired well in their past two BCS games, getting embarrassed by both Florida and LSU in the past two national championship games.  The Big 10 as a whole hasn't faired well this bowl season either, going 1-5 this year.  Well, I think those trends are going to continue.  As I've noted, I'm a huge Texas fan and attended all of their home games this season.  I also have watched many Ohio State games this season, so I feel like I have a decent gage on their team.  My prediction for tonight: Texas 41-Ohio State 13.  The difference in this game will be the Texas's defense against the inexperienced Tyrell Pryor.  Pryor is a very good quarterback who I think will eventually lead the Bucks past their recent BCS woes to a national championship.  I just don't see that happening tonight.  Texas's defense is too fast and will take away Pryor's ability to get outside the pocket and make plays.  This will allow the Texas D to focus on Chris "Beanie" Wells.  This should be over by halftime with tomorrow's talks shifting to how Texas deserves to be number one in the AP poll, and no I'm not just saying that because I love Texas, but because of the way the media has discussed USC and Utah after their wins. An x-factor for tonight is Malcom Williams, the sophomore receiver for the Longhorns.  I think he will have a huge game gaining over 100 yards receiving and a TD.  

I'm out.  I'll be back tomorrow with my post game wrap-up and also the beginning of a week long countdown to the premiere of 24

Later and Hook 'em Horns

Quick thoughts on tonights action

1. If I'm NBC, why in the world do I bring in Matt Millen for pregame work.  Actually, he wasn't that bad.  He even broke down a play the Cards ran with Boldin going into motion in the backfield and then having Warner throw it to him on a swing pass which Arizona ran in the first quarter.  But if I were him and he ever did get a booth job, I would demand in my contract that my contract to never have the whole Lions fiasco mentioned. It just ruins his credibility and makes whatever he says sound like "Blah blah blah, Charles Rodgers, Mike Williams, I hate Johnnie Morton!"

2. The Arizona/Atlanta game was pretty entertaining.  Matt Ryan looked great in the second quarter; too bad he looked like a rookie the rest of the game.  And Arizona played a really good game defensively, especially against the run.  One thing that annoyed me, though, was Cris (who spells there name that way anyway) Collinsworth going on and on about Arizona shutting down the run and forcing the game into Matt Ryan's hand in the first quarter with the score 7-0! Come Cris, the game just started.

3. The Indy/San Diego game was also really good but had a crappy ending with Indy shooting themselves in the foot with all of those turnovers that put the Chargers in such good field position for the winning score.  Darren Sproles was playing great, a lot like he did against Oklahoma in the 2003 Big 12 championship game.  Great game for him and probably just earned himself a larger role in next year's team.  Looks like a timeshare situation for LT and Sproles next year.

The Utes establish themselves as "elite" and Wild Card Weekend thoughts

If you saw last nights game between the Utah Utes and the Alabama Crimson Tide, some may have saw the classic David and Goliath underdog game.  But that's not what it was.  No, last night was Utah establishing itself as one of the nations top programs.  As I noted in my first post (I'm sure if you scroll down, you can check it out) to me, to be an elite program, you need to win big games on the road and at neutral sites.  Well Utah has done that a few times now.  They ran the table in 2004 in route to a beat down of a pathetic Pittsburgh team in the Fiesta Bowl to become the first team from out side the BCS conferences to win a BCS game.  They completely dominated their opponents winning every game by at least 17 points.  And this season's undefeated run was even more impressive.  They started the year by beating Michigan in The Big House, came back and beat a TCU team that should finish in the top ten, and capped off the undefeated year by dominating Alabama last night in the Sugar Bowl.  What impressed me most about the win was the way Utah withstood Alabama's attempt at a comeback from about the mid-2nd quarter mark to the third when Utah went up by 11 and were able to hold them off.  Alabama got within four points mid way through the 3rd, but Utah, which looked stunned during the stretch when Alabama scored its 17 points, was able to gather itself, and make the necessary plays to finish off the Crimson Tide and finish the season undefeated.  That's how you become an "elite" program.

One more note on Utah.  Their win last night as well as the strong showing by the fans at the Sugar Bowl might have opened the door for future BCS invites.  What last night showed was that these bowl organizers can count on the University of Utah to come and support their team and for the team to make a strong showing at the games.  Don't be surprised if Utah becomes the first school from a non-BCS conference to get invited with a loss and not just get invited because they fit the criteria for an automatic birth.

Now on the NFL. Wild Card Weekend is always an exciting weekend of football with more than it's fair share of entertaining games.  Here are my thoughts on the games this weekend.

• Atlanta Falcons vs. Arizona Cardinals: This probably will be the game where you're watching and wonder "who are these guys." Well I think that this could be one of the more exciting and high scoring of the games this weekend.  But let's break down the game really quickly.  Arizona is 6-2 at home this season and averages 30.25 points per game at home.  And Atlanta is 4-4 on the road this season, plus is starting a rookie quarterback in a playoff game, who are 2-6 all-time in playoff games.  So the stats seem to be point toward Arizona. Well I think Atlanta will pull this out because of said rookie quarterback Matt Ryan.  He'll have his coming out party tonight and establish himself as the next big thing at QB in the league.  Also, Arizona has really struggled over there final six games and won't be able to get any sort of running game going.  Atlanta gets the win on the road.
• Indianapolis Colts vs. San Diego Chargers: This one won't even be close.  I could throw out a bunch of stats and stuff, but the main one is that San Diego went 8-8 in one of the worst divisions in football.  They have a lot of talent, but they are really beat up and have one of the of the worst head coaches in the NFL.  Indy will roll in this one behind another strong performance by the league MVP Peyton Manning.
• Baltimore Ravens vs. Miami Dolphins: If you like defense and good smash mouth football, then this will be the game to check out this weekend.  What's intriguing about this game is that both teams utterly sucked last season, only to turn it around behind new head coaches and QBs who didn't have much expectations going into the season.  Baltimore leads the league in takeaways, so if they can get some early takeaways, then look for them to try put the game away early.  On a quick side note, my friend "Lanky" is the biggest Dolphins fan I know and couldn't stomach what happened to them last year.  This year however, he's in living it up as the Dolphins won the division and is currently in Vegas considering betting his life saving on a Super Bowl run. Lanky, don't waste your money on the Super Bowl, but enjoy a Miami playoff victory.
• Philadelphia Eagles vs. Minnesota Vikings: Let me let you in on a little secret: I hate the Eagles.  Donovan McNabb is one of the most overrated QBs in the league and I think Andy Reid is one of the worse coaches in the league.  They always seem to beat up on the teams that suck and blow the games they are supposed to win. But yet they always seem to beat my Cowboys, but that's another story.  Anyway, this is exactly the type of game that they will blow and lay a huge egg in. I know that Minnesota is exactly a powerhouse, but they do have a very good defense as well as Adrian Peterson.  He goes off and the Vikings move on to the next round of the playoffs

Okay, enjoy your football and your weekend.

Later

The beginning of a new era of blogging...

Or maybe not.  This is your blogmaster, "Rod" (I'm not going to give you my real name already) and this is my new blog, but I guess you sort of figured that out by now.  If you're wondering what you're going to get out of this blog, well then hopefully you like sports, because there is going to be a lot of sports from The Fighting Zos. But there will also be a look at my life and a lot of the things that I am going through.  I will try to update The Fighting Zos at least once a day, but we all know how crazy life can get.  But I'll try to do my best to give my insight on what's happening in the world of sports.

There are a few things about me that I will share however.  I currently attend the University of Texas at Austin and am a huge Longhorns fan.  I also root for the Cowboys (who are currently dead to me until further notice for obvious reason), the Astros, and the Rockets. So if I sound like a homer for these teams, get over it.  I'll try to be partial, but sometimes passion will take over, so for that I give you fair warning right out of the box.  As for my personal life, I'm engaged and getting married in a year-and-a-half, so there will definitely be some post about what's going on in that front. But besides that it will mainly be sports, as I hope that I can eventually be invited to vote for the Harris Poll and help determine the outcome of the BCS (but if they let this guy vote in the Harris Poll, then I'm sure I can get a vote as well)

Anyway, on to what I actually wanted to discuss.  And that would be Texas Tech Football.  All through late November and early December I heard that the reason Texas didn't deserve to be in the BCS Championship game was because of their loss to Tech, which somehow eliminated them (I know this is insane, but so is the BCS, so I guess that explains everything). Well after today's pathetic showing at the Cotton Bowl, I never want to hear Texas Tech say that they should be considered as one of the nation's elite programs.  You cannot be considered elite if you cannot win big games on the road or on a neutral site.  Every year I hear the same talk coming from Lubbock about how this is their year and how they are ready for the big time.  But what they prove every year is that they are a second tier program at best.  Every year they win a big game at home (i.e. beating Texas this year and Oklahoma last year) but always choke and play their worst football on the big stage away from Lubbock (as witnessed this year in their two losses as well as every other year).  So let's just face the facts Texas Tech fans: your team is a second tier program at best who will occasionally spoil the season of a really good team, like Texas this year.

Well, now that I have alienated one fan base already, check back later in the morning with my thoughts on Utah's upset of Alabama as well as a NFL Wild Card Weekend preview

Later