Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Barkley Or Forcier – A Roundtable Discussion













Along with having a weekly vote in the CBS Sports BlogPoll comes the opportunity to participate in roundtable discussions with other members of voting blogs. College Game Balls is hosting this week’s discussion and did an excellent job of coming up with some thought provoking questions.

1. Which freshman impressed you more last weekend: the California dream Matt Barkley who quarterbacked USC over tOSU or white lightening Tate Forcier who slashed through Notre Dame? Which one would you like to have on your team? Feel free to write in another worth candidate.

While there’s certainly to be a ton of quality discussion over this it’s a no-brainer to me. USC’s Matt Barkley completed less than 50% of his passes with an interception and no touchdowns. Meanwhile Michigan’s Tate Forcier completed almost 70% of his passes (69.7) for 240 yards with a 2:1 touchdown to interception ratio. You didn’t even have to watch the games because just a simple look at the stats shows that Forcier had the more impressive performance.

Before you throw out the Barkley played in Prime Time at the Horseshoe let me quickly remind you that Ohio State is a failed two-point conversion away from possibly being 0-2 at the Shoe this season. Barkley also has the better supporting cast and you could make a great argument that USC’s come from behind win had more to do with Joe McKnight than Matt Barkley.

2. Let’s play a game of pretend the unthinkable happened. Commissioner __________ of your conference has been forced to resign after he was caught canoodling with some harlots. Great news, you’ve been chosen to succeed him. To make your mark you decide to make a big change. What is it going to be?

If I had to step in for Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe I really can’t think of a whole lot of changes that I’d make to the conference because I believe that the Big 12 is one of the best run conferences in the country. The two things I would do are to secure a warm/controlled climate for the conference championship game and continue to seek new bowl options.

I’ve set in Arrow Head Stadium for the Big 12 Championship Game and while I’ve witnessed the Sooners win there I was still miserable because I couldn’t feel my fingers and toes. With the new Texas Stadium and Edward Jones Stadium in St. Louis there is no reason for any Big 12 fan to suffer through that again.

3. This week the quality of games is kicked up a gear. Other than your own, which game are you most looking forward to?

The two games I’m anxiously awaiting this weekend (other than OU’s intriguing match-up against Tulsa) are Georgia Tech at Miami this Thursday night and Nebraska at Virginia Tech on Saturday.

4. What mascot and/or tradition would you thieve from another school if it was socially acceptable?

I’ll take the East Carolina Pirate for my mascot.



As for tradition I’ll take Texas A&M. Who wouldn’t love a crowd that sways, a band that carries swords and a kiss after every touchdown?