October 23, 2009
By Norman Rey

Friday 8:00 PM ESPN2
Rutgers at Army

There’s no baseball until Saturday. No real golf. Exhibition NBA two days before the regular season starts. For the New Yorked-based and lovers of our Armed Services, the Rutgers at Army football game is an appetizer for the main course of the weekend. Rutgers is favored by 10. It’s the closest thing to a geographic rivalry until pushover scheduler Greg Schiano adds Penn State, Notre Dame or Delaware as one of his Subdivision opponents. Perhaps the most newsworthy thing about this game is that its scheduled to be played in the New Yankee Stadium in 2011 and its the Black Knights against the Scarlet Knights.

Still, for those starved for competitive Top 25 football in New York metro, these teams hold the best bets. Army, long saddled by military restrictions, has a new coach, an offensive guru from California
named Rich Ellerson, who leads the 3-4 Black Knights into Michie Stadium, with a freshman running quarterback (Trent Steelman), a spread offense with a unsettled offensive line and a talented senior receiver (Alejandro Villaneuva) with a lack of receptions, but not touchdowns. Defensively they utilize their speed and have a key-sack-rusher in junior DE Josh McNary.

Army was hoping to catch some Paul Johnson in their hire of Ellerson and Rutgers coach Greg Schiano (50-53 in nine years), has trouble with coaching match ups. Especially guys smarter than him. Last week’s game plan against Pittsburgh was a typical overthought, overcoached failure that only Schiano and his dual coordinators can come up with. Somehow they thought that the good running of Joe Martinek (29 yards) would keep up, but he seemed to stick in the crowd in the middle all day long. Jourdan Brooks was not used, a player much better suited for that terrain. They had no answer for their half-assed recruiting try at NJ prep recruit Dion Lewis, or his ability that ran over them for 180 yards. The story goes that an offer would have landed Lewis in New Brunswick, but RU was concerned with his size. Now he’s the best running back in the nation, let alone best freshman running back.

Schiano’s offensive braintrust countered with a surprise “wildcat” utilizing RU freshman Mohammed Sanu. That lasted 4 tries for 29 yards. They brought in Jabu Lovelace for more of what he’s been doing all along in that formation (1 attempt for 3yds, 13 for 59 yds on the season). There was no response to why Rutgers freshman De’An Williams, a similar back to Pittsburgh’s Lewis, didn’t shake an idea down into the polycephaly (two-headed) braintrust that makes up the Rutgers offensive direction. Williams, like Brooks was a DNP.

Rutgers is out of its quest to win its first Big East Title and a real bowl, so it has set its sights on just getting to another bowl. Thank god, they’ve added about four more to the mix that already numbers in the 60s. At 4-2 and assuming they can get by Army tonight (not a bet I’d make, giving ten), they have five remaining Big East games with only Syracuse and Louisville away looking somewhat favorable to the win column. UConn, USF, and West Virginia look less favorable and a 7 and 5 record, with all those tomato cans on the schedule, just might find the Scarlet’s bowl streak in jeopardy.

Saturday
October 24, 2009

College Football

The noon time games merit a remote control review of games to determine if any surprises are in line. In the Big Ten, Minnesota is at Ohio State on ESPN. Illinois at Purdue on ESPN2 and Indiana at Northwestern on BIG TEN. Don’t expect Minnesota to do much at the horshoe, but they are a fledgling team with some talent and looking for a signature win. Trouble is, OSU coming off on upset loss will be in no mood to entertain here, even with Terrelle Pryor’s struggles with his arm, the way he’s used and his penchant for mental mistakes….Ron Zook has knocked the juice out of what was supposed to be a competitive team that was starting to leverage his recruiting skills. Juice Williams plays more like a ‘wimpin’ than a weapon. Purdue coming off controlling Ohio State looks to continue….Indiana which has played competitivelty enough to win games, only to lack that next step, travels to Michael Wilbon’s disappointing Northwestern Wildcats where more is at stake than meets the eye. A very possible Indiana win in Chicago would turn the Wildcats fortunes upside down. With Penn State and Iowa staring ahead and a 4-3 record going into homecoming with the Hoosiers, Wisconsin and Illinois are speed bumps in the way of bowl consideration…. Only one game from the hallowed SEC will be broadcast at noon, Arkansas at Mississippi on MSG. OLE MISS is favored at home by 6 1/2 and which Arkansas team shows up, the one that hung with Florida last week or the one that got clobbered by Georgia and Alabama?…As much as people want to malign the Big East, two games will show a lot about the league’s prestigious bowl chances. South Florida at Pittsburgh gives PITT a chance to move up, while the hopes of a solid season for the 4-1 USF Bulls hinge on avoiding back-to-back losses in the Big East….UCONN at West Virginia also factors a key Big East collision. UVA is favored at home by 7, but UCONN (4-2) will be inspired by the tragic stabbing death of freshman DB Jasper Howard. Both teams need this win to position themselves for BCS bowl consideration. WVU is 5-1 and goes to Cincinnati in early November. UCONN’s road will be a bit bumpier with Cincinnati followed by a scheduling high profile game with Notre Dame.

Four 3:30 games offer some possible intrigue. Tennessee at Alabama on CBS is a match of a building team looking for a signature win playing maybe the best team in the nation….Boston College at Notre Dame on NBC should allow the Irish to shine the dome. Although BC has played this game in the past with surprising outcome, this game will serve as Jimmy Clausen’s chance to solidify the hype he has built up over the past few weeks. That pass into the end zone with one second on the clock against USC was a moment legends are made of and like Nick Swisher, he missed his chance….Penn State at Michigan on ABC should not be too much of a game. This is where Michigan matches a PSU team loaded with talent from four+ consecutive recruiting classes with a two-class lineup. Still, Michigan has its youthful firepower, home field and PSU’s ability to play down….Clemson and Miami hookup on ESPN with a top ten team, 7-0 Miami, going against a conference rival with three losses by a total of ten points. It’s a dangerous game for Miami and will depend upon which believes the season is special and which may think its over.

The night games feature Florida at Mississippi State on ESPN at 7:30, Auburn at LSU on ESPN2, a BCS pretender match with TCU at BYU on Versus and ABC features ranked Texas at Missouri. Keep your remotes handy for an upset watch, but you’ll probably be parked on FOX with Game 6 of the American League Championship Series from the New Yankee Stadium…

Major League Baseball

Saturday October 24, 2009
8:07 PM FOX

The Lefties Andy Pettitte for the Yankees and Joe Saunders for the Angels match up in the Bronx with a forecast for rain, but reasonable temperatures ranging from the mid-fifties to the low sixties. The home crowd will be welcome and a win there for the Yankees will bring out the horses. Still, planted in the back of their heads are historic troubles getting that elusive closing game. Even with the Yankees prolific offense, they have gone up and down for innings at a time and have a very poor success record with RISP. The Angels hanging on 7-6 to force the plane ride doesn’t bode well for their state of mind. Having to win two by clawing it out doesn’t seem to be in the Angels tank. Meanwhile the Yankees are loose, Texeria seems to be out of his slump and the lower part of the order has started to contribute.

The Angels best hope is to get to the place where they were when they got their first win….Joe Girardi’s deep bench. Alfredo Alceves pitching, Jerry Hairston in left and Freddy Guzman pinchrunning, with Eric Hinske inactive. Alceves remains the most hittable pitcher on the Yankees staff and a figment of the Yankee trust’s imagination that includes scouts, front office personnel, announcers and coaches. Hairston is a good utility guy, but not a defensive outfielder, who could have caught Mike Mathis’ game-winning double off the wall and gone down in Ron Swoboda/Sandy Amoros infamy, instead of looking like Joe Frazier getting hit by George Foreman in Jamaica. Guzman is a waste of space with Brett Gardner already on the roster. By activating Guzman, Girardi has traded running a base for a hit that Hinske could provide. Now if Guzman could run, hit and chase down balls in the outfield, Girardi might have something.

The Yanks will look to clobber and ride Pettitte into the 6th or 7th. Phil Hughes is coming off a goof, Joba hasn’t been lights out and Mo Rivera will need to be utilized carefully in case of a Sunday game. It all makes for good watching on a Saturday night.

Sunday

October 25, 2009

National Football League

It’s a double header day with your locals going at 1 and 4 on CBS and FOX and the Giants welcoming the Super Bowl Cardinals to the Meadowlands on Sunday night on NBC. There is one game worth watching in this format and that’s at 1 on FOX when the unbeaten Vikings go to Pittsburgh.