Goblins Fight for BOB Lives

Is this a Golden Goblin?

In the first weekend that sees all the BTFF teams wearing their regular hemlets in over a month, the Golden Goblins are on their last legs. Sitting at 3-4, the Goblins need a win to keep any hope of a return trip to the Blue Ox Bowl alive. If the Goblins win and the Spitfires get their first victory of the season against the Goodgers, the Goblins would be right back in the thick of the Blue Ox Bowl race, just one game behind second place Goodgers. Worst case, a win this week would put the Goblins 2 games back from both the Goodgers and the Farmers with 3 weeks to play in the regular season. But a loss likely means that the Blue Ox Bowl runner up for the last 2 seasons will not be making a return trip this year.

It would also mark the earliest that the BTFFL has seen the Bowl schedule settled -- last season went down to the final week before it was clear that the Goodgers would face he Goblins.

Rosters and Transactions Updated

The Rosters and Transaction pages have been updated to reflect the flurry of trades and pick ups in the last few days. Wow, that took me a really long time. Thank God the trade deadline is here!

The Trades Assessment

Jezebel Analyzes Recent BTFFL Trades

Bucky’s Goodgers:

Gave Up: Mario Manningham, Maurice Wells, EB Halsey, 9th round Pick

Got: Lawrence Maroney, Chris Taylor, 18th round pick

Bottom Line: Lawrence Maroney is the top prize at the trade deadline. Manningham might have made the Goodgers keeper list but he might not. Wells and Halsey not Seniors but not keepers, either. So really BGs give up a 9th round pick for the 4th highest scoring player in the BTFFL. Maroney is only a Junior – all signs point to him leaving early but stranger things have happened. Taylor some cheap RB insurance.

Fighting Farmers:

Gave Up: Anthony Morelli, 7th round pick

Got: Chad Henne, Mario Manningham

Bottom Line: Farmers get a needed starting QB, although a mediocre one. Manningham, a player who has now been on every team in the Big Ten Fantasy Football League, will likely be a keeper on this team, so this is not merely an attempt to add muscle for the Blue Ox Bowl run. The price is Morelli, the heir apparent to the now powerful Penn State offense and a relatively high seventh round pick (Pittman, Hinkel, Robinson and Cupito in 2005).

Halifax Spitfires:

Gave Up: Maroney, Taylor, Henne

Got: Morelli, Wells, Halsey, 7th round pick, 9th round pick

Bottom Line: As long as Maroney goes pro the Spitfires gave up almost nothing to get a possible keeper in Morelli and 2 extra, relatively high draft picks. Wells and Halsey have talent, so it is possible, although unlikely, one could get a chance due to injury as the season comes to a close and worth getting on a winless team. They are certainly worth more to the Spitfires than Chris Taylor. The Spitfires may regret flipping Freshman Michigan receiver Manningham as he could be a 3 year keeper – or maybe not.

This assumes that the trading flurry is over ...

Farmers Line Up

Powers
Henne
Calhoun
P. Thomas
Avant
Holmes
Manningham
Schlicher

Farmers transaction

Dropping Ed Hinkel and Kendrick Jones.

Wednesday Predictions on Thursday

Penn State -- 41
Illinois -- 3

Ohio State -- 35
Indiana -- 17

Michigan -- 14
Iowa -- 21

Northwestern -- 38
Michigan State -- 42

Purdue -- 17
Wisconsin -- 31

This is Why I Hate Wisconsin

Michigan fans claim UW students grossly inappropriate at game

Trade Announcement!

Spitfires send their brand new wide reciever Mario Manningham packing after being with the team for less than 24 hours.

The Halifax Spitfires trade WR Mario Manningham and QB Chad Henne to the Minnesota Fighting Farmers for QB Anthony Morelli and a 7th round pick in the 2006 BTFFL draft.

The Spitfires are in disarray and are unloading their players for draft picks in the hours before the trade deadline. The trade leaves the Farmers with 19 players on their roster...an announcement on the player that is being cut is expected shortly. The Spitfires, on the other hand, are a player short on their 18 player roster, and are expected to pick up a reciever in the next 24 hours.

Here's my suggestions for this weeks pick-em games

#3Virginia Tech at Maryland -Thursday
Syracuse at Pittsburgh
Nebraska at Missouri
OKLAHOMA STATE AT IOWA STATE
Texas A&M at Kansas State
Wyoming at Colorado State
Rutgers at UConn
#10Texas Tech at #2Texas
#17Tennessee at #5Alabama
Vanderbilt at South Carolina
North Carolina State at Wake Forest
Utah at UNLV
#20West Virginia at South Florida
#16Auburn at #7LSU
Marshall at UTEP
Washington State at #25California

Plus the Big Ten games of course
Thoughts? Good, bad?

My rankings of the Gopher Football seasons that I remember (1991-2005)

	Overall	Big Ten	Conf. Finish
2003	10-3	5-3	4th	Win Sun Bowl v. Oregon
1999	8-4	5-3	4th	Lose SunBowl v. Oregon
2002	8-5	3-5	7th	Win MusicCityBowl v. Arkansas
2004	7-5	3-5	8th	Win MusicCityBowl v. Alabama
2000	6-6	4-4	5th	Lose Micronpc.com Bowl v. NC St.
2005	5-2	2-2
1998	5-6	2-6	7th
1993	4-7	3-5	8th
2001	4-7	2-6	10th
1996	4-7	1-7	9th
1992	2-9	2-6	10th
1995	3-8	1-7	10th
1994	3-8	1-7	11th
1997	3-9	1-7	9th
1991	2-9	1-7	10th

last week's pick'em winner

Hey, these standings look familiar!

Shawn 7 missed .75 winnings
Jay 8 missed
Matt 9 missed .50 winnings (pre-jay included victory)
Andy 10 missed 1.25 winnings

BTFFL Blockbuster!

The Halifax Spitfires and Bucky's Goodgers announced that they have just finalized the last details on a trade that has been brewing for weeks. The last place Spitfires will send their star player, Lawrence Maroney, along with Chris Taylor and a 2006 18th round draft to the Goodgers for Mario Manningham, Maurice Wells, EB Halsey and a 2006 9th round draft pick.

The Goodgers acquire highly productive Maroney. Coach Wendelberger was said to be uncomfortable all season long without a Golden Gopher Running Back on his roster and getting Maroney changes that. "We feel like Lawrence is the final piece in a championship puzzle. Our kids, our organization covet the Blue Ox and we have never been shy about going the extra mile to get it." Maroney follows former teammate Marion Barber III to the Goodgers, "There's only one name on the Ox, and I plan to help keep it that way. I talked to MB3 about Coach and he told me what to expect. Nothing against the Spitfires and Andy but I'm excited, worst to first baby!" When told the Goodgers were not in first place, Maroney reportedly said, "That's only a minor technicality."

In Manningham, the Spitfires hope that they now have the next big Michigan receiver. Manningham has been a pleasant surprise on a underachieving Michigan team. The Spitfires have endured one of the worst seasons ever and looked to get some value for Maroney before he turns pro.

Breaston Sent Packing a Second time: To make room on their roster, the Spitfires have released Steve Breaston. Breaston was perhaps the biggest disappointment in the BTFFL. He was kept by the Goodgers who had extremely high expectations for him but in the end he was cut after week 5. The Spitfires tried to revive the WR career but in the end, he never showed any of the ability he flashed at the end of last season.

Coach Wendelberger's Cat visits Vet

Jezebel

In other Goodger news, Coach Wendelberger's Cat Jezebel made an unexpected visit to the Vet today with an injured tail. "She's been walking around with her tail down for a few days. We had to get it checked out." Jezebel was put on a steroid regimen to aid in the healing of what doctors have called a "sprained tail." Jezebel reportedly hissed several times when her tail was touched, indicating that it is quite sore.

Fire Carr?

Should Michigan Fire Lloyd Carr (or kick him up to AD)? What do the Gopher 3 think about Carr's tenure at Michigan?

Fire Tiller?

Should Purdue fire Joe Tiller? What do the Gopher 3 think about the status of Joe Tiller?

Fire Mason?

Should the Gophers Fire Glen Mason? What do the Gopher 3 think about the hottest topic in the Northland?

We're getting down to it: Conference USA

1.UTEP (By far my favorite team in this shitty conference)

2.Marshall (They're ok, they had Randy Moss)

3.Memphis (They're fine...nice uniforms)

4.East Carolina (meh...don't care)

5.Alabama-Birmingham (I'm not even going to talk about any of the rest of these teams. I don't like any of them at all, but I also have no hate towards any of them because they all suck)

6.Central Florida

7.Houston

8.Southern Miss

9.Tulane

10.Tulsa

11.Rice

12.SMU

Blue Ox Blog Power Rankings

Everyone has beaten everyone else. Many close games -- it's all pretty random now.

1 Ohio State I guess
2 Wisconsin I guess
3 Iowa Could be surging
4 Penn State Would be far and away 1 if they had stopped one play
5 Northwestern Sneaking up
6 Michigan State
7 Michigan
8 Minnesota
9 Purdue
10 Indiana
11 Illinois This one I'm sure of.