College Football 2008 (Sep. 7 - Sep. 13): Tour of Duty

[JohnBM01]

A memorable week awaits us this week. However, it's for the wrong reasons as we look back on the horrific September 11th attacks on America. College football teams are usually on their own tours of duty to battle for National Championships in all four divisions of NCAA football. Report for duty, college football fans! I'm John. I am your commander-in-chief for college football.

The NFL starts up their season this weekend. I'll have results from around the NFL in my NFL Focus. You came for college, but I want to do you a service by covering the NFL along with college. You could see people like Tim Tebow making jump passes for any of the 32 NFL teams.





(no FBS scores - starts Thursday)
Thursday night game on ESPN: North Carolina at Rutgers (somewhat of a salute since Piscataway, NJ represents the greater New York area).





--- Division 1: FCS Scores ---

Washington, D.C. ~ Basketball Power Meets an HBCU for Supremacy in D.C.
* Georgetown {Hoyas} at Howard {Bison}
A friend of mine from one of my high schools graduated from Howard University. She's a proud Bison to hope their boys beat up on lowly Georgetown. Did you know Georgetown University has a football program? Too bad the Hoyas aren't as good in football as they are in basketball. The Georgetown Hoyas bested

New York City, New York ~ It's the Ram Bowl!
* Rhode Island {Rams} at Fordham (Rams)
Both teams are known as the Rams. The Fordham Rams defended New York City from the University of Rhode Island's Rams. (16-0; FORDHAM)

Conway, South Carolina ~ A Game Postponed by Hanna is Finished Today
* Colgate {Raiders} at Coastal Carolina {Chanticleers}
The Raiders of Hamilton, New York's Colgate University took on the Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina. The Raiders raided the Chanticleers with an amazing 20-point rally. (23-19; Colgate)





--- Division 2 Scores ---
How about a little black college football? You have to love the Battle of the Bands deal from a lot of these HBCUs. We got four of them to compete against each other in two games. How did they do? Read along.

* Morehouse at Fort Valley State (38-35; Morehouse) <<< was tied 35-35 late
* Johnson C. Smith at Virginia State (43-16; VIRGINIA STATE)





--- Division 3 Scores ---
Only one game went final. Have a look.

* Hampden-Sydney at North Carolina Wesleyan (33-23; Hampden-Sydney)





Now for the 2008 debut of my NFL Focus.

--- NFL Focus ---
The first weekend of NFL games that matter. I usually begin with my Texans, but let's begin in Foxboro.

Foxboro, Massachusetts ~ Pats on the Backs of Kansas City[/B]
* Kansas City Chiefs at New England Patriots
Tom Brady went down with left leg injury, but the Pats still got it done against the Chiefs. (17-10; NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS)

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ~ So Far, So Bad
* Houston Texans at Pittsburgh Steelers
The Texans' campaign to make the playoffs begins this season at Pittsburgh. Not very good place to start a season. Well, not a good way, day, or place to begin a playoff campaign as the Away team. (35-17; PITTSBURGH STEELERS)

Nashville, Tennessee ~ They Can Beat Each Other Down for AFC South Supremacy
* Jacksonville Jaguars at Tennessee Titans
The Titans cashed in a money win against the Jags. Thanks for coming! (17-10; TENNESSEE TITANS)

Atlanta, Georgia ~ Two Lackluster Teams Get Their Shine On in Hot-Lanta
* Detroit Lions at Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons soared higher than Detroit as the Lions couldn't tame the Falcons. (34-21; ATLANTA FALCONS)

Indianapolis, Indiana ~ Colts Welcome New Stadium as Chicago Comes to Town
* Chicago Bears at Indianapolis Colts
Lucas Oil Stadium is a lovely retractable stadium in America's fastest city (as I call it because of the Indy 500). Though Indianapolis are all fueled up and ready to go, the Colts got mauled by the Bears at Indy's new home. I just hope this report doesn't invigorate Indy to pound my Texans when we head up to Indy. (29-13; Chicago Bears)


Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ~ The Gateway to Football Supremacy Winds Through Philly
* St. Louis Rams at Philadelphia Eagles
I've never had a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. I love the blue and gold colors of St. Louis. But, the Rams weren't exactly golden when they came into McNabb's house. St. Louis had only three wins last season. Pretty sure not the start FoolKiller's Rams wanted. (38-3; PHILADELPHIA EAGLES)

Miami, Florida ~ Brett Favre Makes His First Start for a Different Green Team
* New York Jets at Miami Dolphins
Brett Favre's debut went very well for the Jets as the Jets never cooled their jets in taking down the Miami Dolphins (20-14; New York Jets)

San Francisco, California ~ Niners Seek to be a Perfect Ten Hosting Arizona
* Arizona Cardinals at San Francisco 49ers
The beautiful Bay Area is home of one dump of a stadium (other than that stadium across San Francisco Bay). The 49ers had an ugly loss as the Arizona Cardinals looked absolutely beautiful in a mediocre stadium. (23-13; Arizona Cardinals)

Baltimore, Maryland ~ The Debut of Chad "Ocho Cinco"
* Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens
Michael Wilbon of ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" said he applauded Chad Johnson for coming up with a news story outside of "stupid, meaningless preseason games." Now the games matter. Unfortunately, Chad "Ocho Cinco" and company couldn't knock the Baltimore Ravens out of the sky. The Bengals fall flat by seven. (17-10; BALTIMORE RAVENS)

Monday Night game: Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers





Remember that I'll have my big look at the Patriot League as well as a look at service academies in college football this season on Thursday. Have a great week! I'm concerned about Hurricane Ike and how that may impact games in Louisiana as well as areas close to immediate coastal Texas.

 

[JohnBM01]

East Carolina knocks off Virginia Tech and West Virginia (embarassingly). Let's meet this school.



John's Profile School: East Carolina University
East Carolina University can be found in Greenville, North Carolina. It is home to the Pirates. The school began life as East Carolina Teachers Training School in 1907 to eventually become East Carolina Teachers College. The names then evolved to East Carolina College and since 1967, becamse East Carolina University. When not taking the (sports arena), the Old Gold and Royal Purple of ECU is a public university that is even a sea grant university. A few proud Pirates include (but not limited to) Ron Clark, Sandra Bullock (attended), James Maynard (Golden Corral founder), and the alum I'm most familiar with- WWE Chairman Vince McMahahon. This is the third-largest school of North Carolina as part of the University of North Carolina system. It may even be safe to say they're the best team in North Carolina... perhape even including South Carolina schools.



Meanwhile, the Pac-10 is still defending their call of Jake Locker's unsportsmanlike conduct foul with two seconds left in the game. Still fuming over the FIA's bad call from the Belgian Grand Prix? People still are fuming over the foul called by the Pac-10 of the Jake Locker deal. It was still a no-call as people like Lou Holtz, Mark May, Michael Wilbon, and others ripping Pac-10 refs. Care to comment?



Games will take form on Thursday.

 

[JohnBM01]

Now I'm VERY concerned. Hurricane Ike is heading towards the upper Texas coast. The projected forecast track as of right now takes it around Port O'Connor and Matagorda Bay. Outer bands of Ike will deliver intense winds and heavy rain. Fear for me is that this may end up being as much of a rainy event as was the remnants of Tropical Storm Allison back in 2001. Anyone who have seen T.S. Allison's damage to Houston know why I'm concerned heavily. I live in about Southeast Houston, miles away from the Texas coast. A lot of football games this weekend could be threatened. One of those is Arkansas at Texas this Saturday (about a 2:30 PM start). Houston will host Air Force. That game could be moved. Perhaps even the game in which the Houston Texans will host the Baltimore Ravens could be altered.

I want you all to know that I may not be able to deliver scores this weekend. If I am still able to deliver scores to you all, I'll try my best to give you as many scores as I can. That's even if I do RAPID FIRE. There may not even be Winners and Losers until I get a general idea as of who beat who. I just want to offer you this post to alert you on the condition of Hurricane Ike. I live here in Texas, so I'm as concerned as any other Texan from or along the Gulf coast.

That's my heads-up for today. Thursday should be fine for me to report as North Carolina heads up to meet Rutgers in the Thursday Night game on ESPN.

 

[JohnBM01]

Let's chat. A number of games will be affected by the arrival of Hurricane Ike here in Texas. That includes a lot of the following matches:

* Arkansas {Razorbacks} at Texas {Longhorns} - moved to September 27th
* Air Force {Falcons} at Houston {Cougars} - moved to SMU's stadium
* Stanford {Cardinal} at TCU {Horned Frogs}
* Washington State {Cougars} at Baylor {Bears}



I'm just letting NCAA Football 09 (PS2 version) play on my screen. The PS2 version seems pretty unchanged fundamentally. Lot of the music, sounds, graphics, and others are mostly unchanged. I guess something I've missed about NCAA Football games past was how Brad Nessler would discuss the history of rivalries as well as announcing bowl games. If EA's going to really expand upon the NCAA Football series, I think they need to include FCS playoffs. Otherwise, you're just playing FCS teams just to beat them 56+ to nothing. EA needs to include many more FCS schools. There are a number of teams not even included ever since I've played NCAA Football 2004. These EA Sports game often lack any real evolution. That's what you can expect with yearly titles like this.

Here are some of the schools I haven't seen in EA Sports games. Of all of them, I know that East Tennessee State discontinued football (rumors report they could bring back Buccaneers football in the coming years). Anyhow, here are a number of schools that have football teams that I don't think has EVER been featured:

* (any Patriot League school besides non-football school American University)
* Campbell (recently resumed football)
* (any Great West schools except non-football schools)
*

Among most or all of them, I'd love to play as the University of San Diego and remind San Diego State why their football team sucks. You may as well hope that 2K Sports gets back into college football though their college basketball games are deeply rich and even includes many more fight songs than what EA Sports' college games are putting out. Ever realize that schools like Connecticut, Stanford, (almost any FCS school), Northern Illinois, Kent State, Eastern Illinois (which has one of my favorite fight songs), and schools like these STILL haven't had fight songs? Maybe the latest schools added to NCAA Football games are Florida Atlantic and Florida International back in NCAA Football 2005. Everything else has just been roster updates as well as logo updates. I remember differences in logos such as with Central Florida and Buffalo among others. Buffalo had this blue bull with smoke blowing from its nostrils. The newer Buffalo logo is this bull standing its own ground and even colored beautifully in blue. A thing I do like about NCAA Football 09 is how they are a few facts on certain schools. For example, I set up Air Force at Houston under heavy rain and heavy wind (to simulate Hurricane Ike. You know, if the game was played at Robertson Stadium in these terrible conditions). A little screen says that Houston's nickname was "created" by someone of Washington State, also known as the Cougars. And is it any coincidence that Washington State's Cougar mascot almost looks exactly like Shasta (Houston's mascot)? I once made a team in an NCAA Football game with Shasta as the mascot, but who I thought was Shasta was Washington State's Cougar!





--- John's Student Lounge ---

* I believe in prayer and spiritual guidance. So I'll be sure to pray for my family and friends here in Houston as well as all other people in the immediate path of Hurricane Ike. I especially hope the eye doesn't hit the immediate Houston/Galveston area. One woman shown on TV talked about how Houston was "due for a major storm." Almost as if every city has its turn for a major incident. I immediately thought she was completely inconsiderate and disrespectful in that it's our turn to receive a terrible storm or situation. NEVER say a city or group of people is due for ANYTHING as if the Heavens are trying to punish us for something.

* I was a little sick overnight. I rubbed some Vicks Vaporub and went back to sleep in the morning around sunrise. I'm mostly fine now.

* I was thinking to finally take on the 24 Hours at the Nürburgring in GT4. I'm attracted to getting an F1 car. I can be a bit picky at times. Blue is my color, so maybe a blue car would be nice or even a red Formula Gran Turismo car. I've never gotten an F1 car since getting that F/686 car in GT3. I had bought the Ford Falcon Australian V8 Supercar as my racing machine. I'm almost want to chance over to my Amuse S2000 GT1. I still want a proper race car for this job. I'd love to see a few Australian V8 Supercars teams maybe take on this race. Imagine a DTM vs. Australian V8 Supercar matchup.





The Thursday Night match will be North Carolina at Rutgers. Because of Hurricane Ike, getting you all my reports between now and maybe Monday could be in jeaprody. Please remember that you all are allowed to come in with your own score reports as well as questions and comments. Remember, DO NOT wait for my report! Just check into my threads and offer your comments at will. Until then, hope us other Texans will be fine from this terrible hurricane including myself.

 

[JohnBM01]

My look at the service academies as well as the Patriot League has been cancelled. The Houston area has been bracing for Hurricane Ike as it's expected to make landfall on early morning Saturday. My house may lose power. So I want to say that after this post, my college football coverage will be suspended. It isn't like I have a laptop with me to continually look up scores. Likewise, I still don't have a USB wireless network adapter. So after this report, my college football report will be temporarily suspended.



And because of Hurricane Ike, I will only show you links as to who won as opposed to my usual detailed reports. Games that took place on Thursday include North Carolina at Rutgers, and Division 2 matchup- Southwest Minnesota State at #15 Minnesota-Duluth. So visit the following links to see who won on Thursday and every day this weekend:

--- Division 1: FBS Scores ---
* http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/scoreboard;_ylt=AsOguoMCa.kwEVr6.RA8JLkcvrYF <<< the source I usually use
* http://www.ncaasports.com/football/mens/scoreboard (alternative)

QUICK RESULT: North Carolina at Rutgers ~ North Carolina led 38-12 with 13:50 left in the game. North Carolina proving that they are definitely for real. It was 44-12 (North Carolina leading) with 2:58 left. North Carolina embarassed Rutgers. So far, Rutgers is a disappointment compared to a Rutgers team that made successive Bowl games. They (Rutgers) even circled this as a guaranteed win. Makes you look stupid when you circle a guaranteed win... and get blown out by that same team. (44-12; North Carolina)

DID YOU KNOW...
...that this is North Carolina's first win outside the state of North Carolina since 2002?





--- Division 1: FCS Scores ---
Quick scores:

* Concordia (AL) at Tennessee-Martin (Skyhawks) (87-21; TENNESSEE-MARTIN)
* Tennessee Tech {Golden Eagles} at Southeast Missouri State {Redhawks} (29-27; Tennessee Tech)

Visit < http://www.ncaasports.com/football/mens/scoreboard/1AA > for score updates from FCS.





--- Division 2 Scores ---
Quick scores here:
* Southwest Minnesota State at #18 Minnesota-Duluth (43-21; #18 MINNESOTA-DULUTH) <<< aired on CBS College Sports
* New Greenville at #23 Newberry (41-3; #23 NEWBERRY)
* West Alabama at Arkansas Tech (26-24; ARKANSAS TECH)

In case I'm not on for a while, take a look at this link for the latest D2 scores: < http://www.d2football.com/scores >.





--- Division 3 Scores ---

Quick score here as well.

* Texas Lutheran {Bulldogs} at Trinity (TX) {Tigers} (26-0; TRINITY UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS) <<< Trinity (TX) was a Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the year nominee

Visit < http://www.d3football.com/schedule.html > for more D3 scores in my abscence.





Athletic activities have been cancelled for Stephen F. Austin State, Sam Houston State, Texas Southern, Houston Baptist, Prairie View A&M, and other places like that.

I may not even get to come along with Winners and Losers. I will update everything when I am able to return back. I could even return to this thread with my picks for Winners and Losers once I get as much information as I can. I would like for you college football fans to come into this thread and discuss the weekend's games as well as looking forward to next week. Back in 2005 when [what would have been] Hurricane Rita came along, I was on my mother's laptop posting score results from the weekend including a little preview of the one game between LSU and Tennessee that Monday. You may even offer your own winners and losers from this weekend.

Pray for all of us here in Southeast Texas. That even includes eastern Texas and Southwestern Louisiana. There won't be any college football coverage on GTPlanet if I'm gone. As far as other sports, the Houston Texans will play the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night while the Astros' home series with the Cubs will be rescheduled. I wouldn't be surprised if we have a double-header or triple-header (if there is a such thing in baseball).

That's all from me. Hope to return to GTPlanet whenever I can actually return.