Gridiron Fanatics

I think the Free Press writers need to jump again

I apologize for being a little late to the party with my opinions on this Michigan Football practice time fiasco. Many articles have been written about the topic so I am not really going to dig into the details of the story. You should all be familiar with them by now. If you are not and want a solid recap of the events and how the Detroit Free Press basically presented the story in an unfair, biased way MGoBlog did a great job of reporting the actual facts behind the story. I like how these reporters “jumped to conclusions” and say players are practicing for 12 hours a day, just because they are at the practice facility, without mentioning that not every activity they do during those 12 hours counts towards the NCAA limit. It is because of this vague twisting of the NCAA rules verbage that I do not fully believe everything that was written. I do believe that Michigan was working within the rules and if there were any violations they will be only minor ones. I am just going to sit back and see what happens with the ongoing investigations and reserve judgment until then.

My real problem with this whole situation is that it could have even come up in the first place. Ever since day 1 Rich Rodriguez has not been making many fans with his move to the University of Michigan. There was the lawsuit with West Virginia, the paper shredding incident at WVU’s athletic department, players bad mouthing the program while transferring, the stepping on Michigan’s traditions by giving out the #1 jersey to a freshman, which he later took back, and of course the 3-9 disaster last season. Which was Michigan’s first losing season since 1967 and first ever 9 loss season. Many alumni and Michigan fans did not want to hire a coach outside of the Michigan family. Many wanted to lure LSU’s Les Miles back home to Ann Arbor. With a botched coaching search by AD Bill Martin we had to settle for Rich Rodriguez and the first non “Michigan Man” since Bo Schembechler was hired in 1969. It seemed as soon as he was named head coach there was one negative story after another surrounding the Michigan football team.

Are you all in for Rich Rod?

Because of all the negativity and some what of a media circus surrounding Rodriguez’s arrival in Ann Arbor it was easy for his detractors to point out all the mistakes he has made. Even with some people not wanting him as a coach many fans and alumni were at least willing to give Rich Rod and his spread offense a chance to succeed. We knew we were in for a rocky year last year and were willing to give him 3 years to install his system and get his players to run it. However, as the number of negative stories about Michigan football continue to grow with Rich Rod at the helm my leash for Rodriguez is starting to get a little bit shorter. I seriously fear that Michigan may become the next Notre Dame, Nebraska or University of Miami. A once proud and storied program that has been driven into a world of mediocrity with a myriad of coaching changes. A quick way to turn a once patient fan base into a torch wielding lynch mob is to lose 9 games at Michigan and run the school’s name and reputation through the mud. We may be able to handle one or the other but certainly not the two together.

My advice to Rich Rodriguez on the quickest way to right this ship and get more people to go “all in for Michigan” is to put together a winning season and get Michigan football in the national spotlight for the right reasons. Or else it may be a short lived career with the Leaders and Best.

College football finally gets under way this weekend and with that my first installment of a weekly college football picks column. Here are my college picks for week one. (All lines taken from Sportsbook.com).

Baylor at Wake Forest -2.5, Sept. 5th, 3:30pm EST

Wake Forest returns a 4 year starting QB in Riley Skinner along with a very experienced O-Line. Baylor was 104th nationally against the Pass last year which is Wake Forest’s strength on offense. Wake’s Defense was 29th against the rush last year but is only returning 4 starters and missing standout LB Aaron Curry and CB Alphonso Smith. I expect Wake Forest to be able to exploit Baylor through the air while coming up with enough stops on defense to win a close game. I’ll lay the 2.5 points and take Wake Forest at home.

Nevada +14.5 at Notre Dame, Sept. 5th, 3:30pm EST

Nevada travels to South Bend to take on Notre Dame to open the season. Notre Dame has struggled recently in home openers losing to Ga Tech 33-10 two years ago and beating lowly San Diego State by only 8 points last year. The pressure is on for Charlie Weiss to turn in a winning season at Notre Dame as he has ample time to recruit his players and install his system. Nevada is an above average Offense led by QB Colin Kaepernick. They also run a pistol offense that could give Notre Dame trouble. The opening line for this game was ND -10 and the public money has moved this line to ND -14.5. I like Nevada to keep it close while fading the public. I’ll take Nevada and the points.

Va Tech +6.5 at Alabama (Neutral Site) Sept. 5th, 8pm EST

Va Tech takes on Alabama in the game of the week Saturday night. One thing you can always count on with Virginia Tech is good defense and special teams. Generally speaking good defense and special teams play wins games early in the season while offenses take time to jell in game situations. Expect Virginia Tech to pound the ball with their stable of running backs and keep this game close. Take the 6.5 and Virginia Tech in this match up of two top 10 teams.

Georgia at Oklahoma State -4.5, Sept. 5th, 3:30pm EST

Georgia goes on the road to take on Oklahoma State in this intriguing match up. Ok State has high expectations with their high powered offense. Georgia’s offense should slip a bit early on with the losses of Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno. However, their defense should improve a bit from last year’s squad. I am just not sure if that defense will improve quick enough to stop that potent Cowboy offense on the road. I’m laying the 4.5 points and taking the Oklahoma State Cowboys in this one.

Minnesota -7 at Syracuse Sept. 5th, 12pm EST

I’m making this the “‘Smooth’ Jimmy Apollo Lock of the Week”:

'Smooth' Jimmy Likes Minnesota -7

Syracuse is awful, and I mean AWFUL. They are 10-38 over the last 4 years and now have a starting QB who has not played football in 4 years. I’ll take my chances backing a bowl caliber Big 10 team to win by more than a TD against a team that has a Point Gurad as their quarter back and is a terrible team to begin with. This pick is Minnesota -7.

YTD: 0-0 +0 units
Lock of the Week: 0-0 +0 units

Don’t forget about Sportsbook.com’s half juice Fridays. All bets are -105 odds which means you only need to wager $105 to win $100 instead of the standard $110 to win $100. Get your picks in today!

This week I present College Football Hotties of the Week. I’m officially moving to SEC country. Geaux Tigers!

College Hotties from LSU

Well that didn’t take too long now did it? Cell Block D and Eli and Peyton’s Anal Contriband Smugglers take an early lead in the National Felon Fantasy League. If you missed the first post explaining how the National Felon Fantasy League works click here.

Cell Block D scored 2pts for Brandon Marshall’s amazing practice habits. While Eli and Peyton’s Anal Contriband Smugglers also get 2 pts for Chad Ocho Cinco’s affinity to accessorize.

Current Standings:
- Eli and Peyton’s Anal Contraband Smugglers – 2pts
- Cell Block D – 2pts
- Oz – 0pts
- Jailbait Jerkers – 0pts
- The Bengals – 0pts

We are off to a fast start with many more fines, suspensions and arrests to come. Make sure to bookmark this page so you do not miss any updates. Or you can follow us on twitter as well.

In honor of Plaxico Burress’ guilty plea and subsequent two year jail sentence gridironfanatics.com would like to introduce to the world wide web the “National Felon Fantasy League.” A new kind of fantasy football league where points are not awarded for personal accolades on the field but rather for the stupid, idiotic, illegal things that your favorite players can not seem to stop doing.

Just think about how this game will change your life. Pretend you are a NY Giants fan last year and your team is cruising in the standings looking prime to repeat as Super Bowl Champs, when along comes a report that your star wide receiver was shot in the leg last night. First reaction is “oh, no! I hope he is going to be ok.” But as the story starts to develop it turns out your star wide receiver was the Lee Harvey Oswald in this case. He shot himself in the leg and is now facing federal gun charges. Your thoughts turn from sympathy to anger as this r-tard just cost your favorite team their season. But what if you had Cheddar Plax on your “Felon” team? You would be ecstatic as he would have just secured the league trophy for you.

“Cheddar Plax’s” latest stunt was so stupid I am actually going to make him honorary commissioner of the league:

Meet your commish...Cheddar Plax

Look if these players are not going to stop committing all these crimes (watch pacman jones make it rain) then why don’t we start to have a little fun with it? Something good ought to come out of Tank Johnson having a small artillery.

The National Felon Fantasy League will work slightly different than your standard fantasy football league. Instead of playing against a different opponent week to week, fantasy points will be accumulated over the course of a season with the objective of scoring the most total points. Players will score points based on the following categories:

- Felonies = 30 pts
- Sexual Assault = 15 pts
- Physical Assault = 10 pts
- DUI = 5 pts
- Drug possesion = 5 pts
- Suspension for testing positive for an illegal substance = 4 pts
- Fined for any violation of team rules = 3pts
- Any other Misdemeanors = 2 pts
- Fined for any action during a game = 2pts
- Fighting a teammate resulting in a suspension = 2 pts/game
- Any other suspension = 1 pt/game

Teams will consist of 10 players and can be filled with players from any position. There is a waiver wire in place with a max of 2 waiver wire moves that can be made per week unless a player on your roster is injured during the week. In which case you may drop that player and pick up someone off of waivers to fill his roster spot immediately. This will not count against your two allotted waiver wire moves for that week either. However, this might not be the best move to make as I would love to have Chris Henry on my team with a couple weeks of free time on his hands. Who knows what minor he could be seen with.

Now that you know how the league will work it is time to talk a little strategy. When drafting your team or, “cell mates” in this case, do you go for the home run and try to draft the next Michael Vick or Dante Stallworth? Both of whom would have scored major points in the National Felon Fantasy League and single handedly brought home the championship. Or do you go with the slow and steady approach and draft players like Ed Reed and Chad Johnson because you know there is a 99.9% chance they will get fined during the season?

Let’s see what our GM’s did when selecting their teams during the league draft which was conducted earlier this week with the following order:

Team #1 – Eli and Peyton’s Anal Contraband Smugglers
Team #2 – Oz
Team #3 – Jailbait Jerkers
Team #4 – The Bengals
Team #5 – Cell Block D

If I were to give out grades for this draft I think all the teams would get an A but my team, Cell Block D, is bound to have a few of it’s players wind up on a police blotter somewhere. There is no way that all of these guys can stay out of trouble during the course of the NFL season.

It is going to be a fun and exciting innagural season for the National Felon Fantasy League. You can follow all of the action by bookmarking this link National Felon Fantasy League.

Check back often as the stats and standings will be updated regularly.

With the start of the NFL season right around the corner and a few preseason games under our belts it is time to start and look at teams and predict what kind of a season each one will have. Sportsbook.com has their NFL season win totals up and a few of the season win lines jumped out at me. Below are the six lines that I liked the best and felt there was the most value associated with these picks.

Jacksonville – Over 8 – Favorable schedule of @SEA, STL, KC, @NYJ, BUF, @SF, MIA, @CLE all of which are winnable games. Throw in a win or two against division opponents at home and you have an easy cover.

Will the Lions win a game this year?

Det – Under 4.5 – Still a terrible team with a pretty tough schedule for a team that went 0-16 last year. A real good chance this team starts out 0-6 and I predict a 3-13 year.

Dallas – Over 9 – A healthy Romo and Roy Williams will only help this year’s team. The Cowboys started to unravel when Romo missed a few games in the middle of the season and were forced to start Brad Johnson. It was also learned that Williams was battling plantar fasciitis while trying to adjust to a new team and playbook. I expect both players to bounce back this year and have solid seasons. The Cowboys should win 10 or 11 games.

Miami – Under 7 – I feel Miami caught a few teams off guard last year with their wildcat offense. Now that defenses have had an off season to game plan for the wildcat they should not be able to sneak up on too many teams. 7 wins seems a little high to me. I’d say something more like 5 is a good number for Miami this year.

Can Pittsburgh repeat as Super Bowl Champs?

Pitt – Over 10.5 – Healthy QB, Healthy O-Line should make for another good year for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Throw in the fact that they are playing the two weakest divisions outside of their own in the NFC North and AFC West another double digit win season should be order for the Steelers.

Tampa – Under 6.5 – This is my favorite bet of them all. Tampa does not have a quality QB on their roster. Derrick Ward might be their best offensive player which isn’t saying much. He was a good change of pace back in NY the last two years but can he be an effective feature back? Last year the Buccaneers were 3-5 on the road with 2 of those wins coming at KC and at Det. The schedule makers did not do them any favors by putting the NFC East on their schedule. I expect Tampa to have a 4 or 5 win season.

If you like money I recommend going to Sportsbook.com and placing the above wagers. You will be thanking me when you are sitting back Sunday afternoons watching the profits roll in.

This week we highlight the finer, um, parts of Arkansas.

Arkansas Football Hottie

WOO PIG SOOIE!!!!

Which could also be one of the weirdest rituals in all of college football.

There are a lot of different draft strategies you can have going into your fantasy football draft. In recent years the optimal draft strategy was to pick a running back in the first two rounds of the draft. With the idea being that because running backs are generally the most consistent point getters in fantasy football you will stack your team with 2 of the best ones. However, this might not be the best idea with more and more teams turning to a running back by committee styled offense. Also, with the adoption of the wildcat offense will feature running backs are getting less carries these days than in years past. With this in mind I believe I have come up with the optimal draft strategy to take into your fantasy football draft based on your draft position. All strategies are based on a 10 team league.

Early draft position:
If you are drafting in spots 1 through 5 I think it is best to take a player from the following positions in this order.
Round 1 – RB You are taking a top 5 RB here. (Players to target) Adrian Peterson, Michael Turner, DeAngelo Williams,Matt Forte, Chris Johnson
Round 2 – RB Can get another top 10 RB here. (Players to target)Brandon Jacobs, Brian Westbrook, Ronnie Brown
Round 3 – WR You have to make sure to get a top 5 WR. (Players to target) Greg Jennings, Marques Colston, Reggie Wayne, Steve Smith
Round 4 – QB The top 3 QBs should be off the board by this point. I like to select one from the second tier in this round. (Players to target)Aaron Rogers, Phillip Rivers,Tony Romo
Round 5 – TE Looking to land a top 3 TE here. (Players to target)JasonWitten, Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez. Take another WR if those 3 are gone and grab a TE in round 6
Round 6 – WR Have to get your second WR before they are all gone. (Players to target)Braylon Edwards, Eddie Royal, Lee Evans
Round 7 on – Best Available
Look to target a def in round 10 or 11.

The reason we are taking a Running back with our first two picks here in early draft position is because of the way the snake draft works. In most online mock drafts the top WRs and QBs are being taken in the late 1st round and early 2nd round which will drop another top 10 fantasy RB into your lap when selecting in the first 5 spots. When the order snakes back around we get to pick early in the 3rd we are still getting a top notch WR to go with our two stud point getting RBs. In the 4th round you select a QB from what I call the second tier of quarterbacks. The top tier consists of Drew Brees, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. After that I think the next best group of QBs that are slightly better fantasy QBs than the rest of the league are Aaron Rodgers, Tony Romo and Phillip Rivers. After those 6 players most of the QBs score the same amount of points and it does not really matter who you have on your squad. In round 5 we have to try and get one of the top TEs to make up for the fact that the rest of our WRs will be rather mediocre from here on out. We are looking to make up any lost points by our 2nd starting WR with this TE pick and it is why we will select one at this spot. Select your #2 WR in round 6. I would be happy getting Braylon Edwards or Lee Evans in this spot. From round 7 onwards select the best available player until round 10 when we will take a top 3 Def of Pitt, Baltimore, Minnesota.

Here is my strategy when drafting in late position, spots 6 through 10.
Late draft position:
Round 1 – RB (Players to target)Chris Johnson, Steve Slaton, Steven Jackson
Round 2 – WR (Players to target)Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, Moss, Calvin Johnson
Round 3 – WR (Players to target)Reggie Wayne, Anquan Boldin, Terrell Owens.
Round 4 – RB (Players to target)Joseph Addai, Kevin Smith, Clinton Portis, Ryan Grant
Round 5 – TE Looking for that top 3 TE. (Players to target)Jason Witten, Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez. If they are not available take a QB in this spot
Round 6 – QB (Players to target)Tony Romo, Donovan McNabb, Kurt Warner
Round 7 on – Best available
Target your def in round 10 so you can assure a top 3 def and make up a few points lost on your lower QB draft spot.

It is when drafting in a late position where are our new strategy of not selecting a running back in the first 2 rounds will be deployed. Just like the WRs I feel that outside of the top 5 running backs the next group of starting running backs can be interchangeable when it comes to fantasy football. You still want to get a top 10 RB with your first pick but when the draft snakes back around for round 2 we are going to hopefully select a top 3 WR. Look to pick up Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, Randy Moss or Calvin Johnson in this round. Round 3 we will select another WR so we have a solid receiving corp instead of selecting a ho-hum RB here which would lead us to grabbing another mediocre WR in a later round and being stuck with an several average players on our team. Round 4 is where we will take our second starting running back. You should be able to get a decent starting running back here out of Addai, Kevin Smith, Clinton Portis or Ryan Grant. Again, in round 5 we are looking for that top tier TE to help make up some ground from our slightly weaker 2nd RB. In Round 6 we can take a QB and get a decent starter on a pass happy team. Tony Romo, Donovan McNabb or Kurt Warner should be available in this spot. For Round 7 on you will draft the best available player. Also, like the other draft positions you should target a top 3 def in round 10 so you can win the point battle at that position week in and week out.

I believe that using these two draft strategies will allow you to draft the strongest overall team based on your draft slot. When drafting in late position thinking outside of the traditional “running back with the first two picks” box is essential to building a winning fantasy football team this year. By drafting the top guys in other positions you should be able to overcome the lack of a steady point getting running back that the first picks of your draft will enjoy.

I hope you find these strategies helpful and give me some credit when you take home your leagues prize money.

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This week’s College football Hottie brings us to the SEC and the South Carolina Gamecocks.

South Carolina Football Hottie

It looks like the Gamecocks might have some talent after all.

Denver may be the sunshine state to Mitch Martin but it has not been that “gorgeous” for Kyle Orton.

Orton was booed at practice after throwing two interceptions and a handful of other poorly thrown balls.

Bronco fans did not stop there as they also booed kicker Matt Prater when he missed consecutive 43 yard field goals. Even the punter, yes the punter, Brett Kern was not protected from the scrutiny as he was jeered for two poor punts.

All I have to say to the bronco fans is RELAX. I know your team traded away their pro bowl QB for no good reason. You started 4-1 last year and failed to make the playoffs behind an 8-8 Chargers team. So all of this has you riled up and ready to voice your displeasure. But it is still the first week of August. You do not want to burn yourself out. You have five more months of this to look forward to:

Kyle Orton Interception Face