mid-day thoughts

I think Zook has already given up on the season- god this game is painful to watch. Hey, drop those Illini players so you can make room for more tight ends!
How can Sheets have minus 27 yards rushing?! Is it possible to lose points? I think that is a bad omen for me.
Well, I did it. I just bet 100 bucks on Iowa to win today. Nothing like risking 100 to win 6. Is it free money or a foolish wager?
How good is VT this year? They look vulnerable. Or maybe Rutgers is a top 20 team this year.
I really hate the Illinois uniforms. All white jerseys with a sort of orange blob stripe on their pants. Yuck! On the other hand, Rutgers uniforms look pretty decent. Nothing great but certainly better to look at than Illinois. So I guess the better looking team is winning- there is some justice in the world.

Juice

Looking forward to getting a look at Juice. Brasic throws a pick. The time may have already arrived for the Illinois team to make the permanent change ...

a sucker

I am the first sucker to pick-up a tight end this year (insert disgusting sigh here). I must drop Kim Thompson and pick-up Matt Spaeth (0). I assume that no one else is eager to claim him. I guess i'd rather have four catches for 40 yards than a broken foot.

Week 2 Starters

The ridiculously exhausted Fighting Farmers start;
QB Cupito
RB the Plow
RB Ringer
RB Caulcrick
WR Ginn
WR Williams
WR Wheelwright
K Melhoff

Here come the Goodgers

QB Drew Stanton
QB Curtis Painter
RB Mike Hart
RB Albert Young
WR Dorien Bryant
WR Steve Breaston
WR Herb Grigsby
K Kevin Kelly

Spitfires Starters - Week 2

Here we go.....a win this week maybe? Please?!
The Spitfires try to reach .500 for the first time in 3 years!

QB - Anthony Morelli
QB - Mike Kafka
RB - P. J. Hill
RB - Pierre Thomas
WR - Mario Manningham
WR - Jerramy Scott
WR - Jordan Norwood
K - Austin Signor

Week 1 Reflections

After one week, here's an assesment of what happened.

Things generally went well for Bucky's Goodgers. Painter and Stanton put up big points. Gotta feel good about the starting RBs. Mike Hart gets the vast majority of carries. It seems it was only chance that Hart didn't get 1, 2, or even 3 scores. Kevin Grady did look good but he also fumbled. That helps. Albert Young the focus of Iowa offense and Damien Sims doesn't break off an 80 yard TD. The one negative is the Indiana running game -- neither Thigpen or McCray appear ready to take over at Indiana. Dorien Bryant is huge, Steve Breaston has a decent game.

The Fightin' Farmers have to be worried about the QB position. Cupito has a terrible game considering the competition. Put another way, if Cupito can't pass for 200+ yards against Kent State, what opponent will he? Chad Henne looked worse than last year. The Fightin'
Farmers hope clearly came from the Running Back position this past week. Of course, the Plow had to be the story of the BTFFL week. Chris Wells sees playing time and looked good. No reason to think Javon Ringer won't get a ton a work. Tony Hunt's mediocre day is a cause for concern but he did get into the end zone. Ted Ginn had a great day, DWill and the PSU offense looked good.

Oh the Spitfires. Max Powers disappoints, we all know that. At least Anthony Morelli has a good day. Pittman has a good game statistically but Spitz has to be worried about Chris Wells appearance in the game. Illinois running game looks good. Mario Manningham catches a late TD but Herbert and Scott do nothing. PJ Hill a bright spot but doesn't appear to have the kind of ability Calhoun had to carry a fantasy team.

The Golden Goblins have to be excited. They get a huge game out of Troy Smith and a decent game from Drew Tate. Tyrell Sutton has a mediocre outing. If Mike Kafka, or CJ Ba-shay, can't throw the ball down field Sutton could have trouble all year. Kory Sheets has a bigger game than anyone imagined possible -- could Tiller actually utilize a feature back this year? James Hardy does okay but Max Powers could be looking to screw up more than one team. Butler looks good right out of the gate.

The Blue Ox

This Week's Pick'em games


Oregon State- b/c the shine is off BSU
Pitt- they are on the rise!
VT- NC stinks...again
Rutgers- Could be their best season 34-30
Michigan-Not impressive last week- Carr's last season 38-10
Missouri- I just hate Ole Miss.
Army- Kent State cannot recover from the gopher beat down
Penn State- Notre Dame is overrated - should have lost to GT 27-24
Wisconsin- Talk about a soft schedule 56-7
BC- This could be the game of the week- I'm on the fence- went with the home team
Michigan State- Beat Idaho by 7- what a joke! 31-13
Wash. State- Idaho is not that good, MSU is a sinking ship
CSU- Co. lost to Montana St.(ha ha) so the the smart pick is Co. this week but I am not that smart
LSU- AZ. continues to baffle and disappoint me
CAL- Mn should stay fairly close as Cal is clearly overrated but in the end the Mn D is still Wackerish. I like Cal 41-27. Take my advice and visit tradesports.com and buy all the Cal you can afford.
Georgia- SC needs another year
Ohio State- Should have won last year- smith plays entire game this time- worried about OSU D 26-24
Texas Tech- UTEP has poor D
Oregon- could be close
Northwestern- 35-14 - I know nothing about NH
No. Texas- B/c I like North in their name
BYU- It's the safe pick
Purdue- No D lots of O- 34-20
Iowa State- They will play better this week...I hope
Indiana- 23-21 I do not think Indy has made any progress and the Powers mystery injury will hurt their O. An upset here would not surprise me.

The Blue Ox

The BlueOx

Blake scheduled to play for Spitz this week

I was unaware of this, but apparently the luck of the Spitfires continues with the injury to Blake Powers.

Ho-hum, Jay was right....AGAIN.....I really should have taken Ted Ginn instead of Powers. Well, hopefully P.J. Hill will go for 200 and 4 scores against W. Illinois. Ah, who am I kidding...I'm screwed aren't I?

C'mon Guys! Who's Disappeared now?

No posts, no picks for the pick 'em, nothing? I work 11 hours today, throw me a bone. It's only 8:00 and I'm already desperate for some Big Ten football discussion. Oooh, I know what I'll do. I'll add more elements to the pick 'em contest.

Where is the Commish?

I'm not one to talk when it comes to periodic dropping out of sight but has the Spitfires week one performance dampened our intrepid commissioner's excitement so much that the web site he so diligantly improved and set up prior to the season has gone fallow so quickly? This is a man that made real football helmets for each fantasy team in the league over the summer, rounded up a PA system for the draft and did at least 18 mock drafts to prepare. Yet the web site still shows each team with 0-0 records. I'm worried!

Goodgers in Post Season Form

Bucky Beatwriter

Bucky's Goodgers flexed their muscles a bit on the opening weekend of the BTFFL season. The champions three years running appeared to not miss a beat from last season's squad. Curtis Painter looked to take over the leadership of this team with a 32 point output, other returning players seem to set to push for a 4th Blue Ox Bowl Title, including Dorien Bryant, Albert Young, Drew Stanton and Mike Hart.

"It is only the first game," coach Wendelberger told reporters after the game, "but we feel good about what we saw and did out there this Saturday. But you all know around here being good isn't good enough, we have our eyes on the prize, again." You can't win them all without winning the first one and the Goodgers have won the first one.

Notes from around the League

*It was only against Kent State, but Alex Daniels is making Farmer's coach/AD Kennedy look like a fortune teller. It appears that Daniels has taken a hold of the starting Running Back job in Minnesota and may very well be a very highly rated RB in the 2006 BTFFL season. He was the 24th Running Back selected and, as of the end of the first week, the highest scoring player in the BTFFL. Of course, he has to be in the line up to earn those points.

*The great debate of the draft continues into week 2, who is the better WR at Penn State, Dion Butler or Derrick Williams? Well, it is all even right now, as the two players produce exactly the same stats and fantasy points. 50 yards and 1 TD for each in their 2006 BTFFL debut.

*Some young players saw significant action on Saturday. Beanie Wells was the third Ohio State RB in the game on Saturday but the first one to score a touchdown. He did look good and if he plays and Daniels plays, the Farmers could be in for a return trip to the Blue Ox Bowl. Juice also got into the Illinois game. He is the future and maybe the present.

*Who is Austin Signor?

*Steve Breaston 8, Mario Manningham 10, Herb Grigsby 0.