FIU Football Preview

My own personal Panther preview.  If the last 2 seasons are any indicator or if the trend continues, we should win 2 games this season (0 wins in ’06 and 1 in ’07).  Rivals.com has the Golden Panthers ranked 120^th out of 120 Division 1-A teams and says that merely doubling our win total from last year is a legit goal.  I’ve got loftier expectations.  We have four conference home games and I say we win three of those, with our lone conference home loss likely being to Middle Tennessee (Rivals #100).  On the road, I think we steal a win at either North Texas (#115) or Louisiana-Lafayette (#97). 

FAU (#74) is once again picked to win the conference and in the Shula Bowl they are likely to squeak out a win but you can never predict a rivalry game.  Now some of you may be asking, “What is this guy smoking?”  Yes, FAU has Rusty Smith who at 6-5/215 is a future NFL prospect.  Smith threw for 32 TDs last year and is likely to improve upon that number this season, especially throwing to his favorite target, junior WR Cortez Gent.  But the Golden Panthers’ strength this season will be its secondary and like I said, it’s tough to predict rivalry games.  Another positive for the Golden Panthers is that they face FAU and their 2 new starting safeties at the end of the season after the offense has had plenty of time to master Bill Legg’s spread offense.

The question is, who will be calling the plays in the huddle? Paul McCall got us our only win last season and his stats were pretty impressive (35/63, 55.6 comp. %, 413 yards, 5/1 TD/Int., 133.64 passer efficiency rating and 1-0 as starter) but I don’t like to make assumptions based on stats.  On one hand, his lone start was against the second worst team in the conference.  On the other, he did force FAU to put their 1^st string defense back in after replacing an injured Wayne Younger during the second half of the Shula Bowl.  I attended the Spring Game and one of the fall scrimmages before coach Cristobal closed them to the media and public and McCall seems to have a grasp on Legg’s offense.

Wayne Younger (121/265, 45.7, 1357, 9/17, 87.05, 0-11) is returning from an injury and not likely to give up his position without a fight.  He led the team in pass yards and touchdowns as well as being second in net rushing yards.  Unfortunately, for most of the season he was the leader of an offense that finished next to last in the nation in total offense.  Wayne, based on his mobility, is probably the better fit for this offense.  Spread offenses require a mobile quarterback and Younger is definitely that.  The biggest question mark with Wayne is whether or not his down time while recovering from the broken collarbone hampered his ability to master this intricate offense the way Paul McCall has.

From what I saw during the scrimmage that I attended, the wide receiver position should be a concern.  We have a lot of speed guys but none of them seem to be able to hold onto the ball.  I saw too many dropped passes for an offense that will be pass heavy.

We also have a lot of talent at the tailback position.  Julian Reams, A’mod Ned and Daunte Owens should get the lion’s share of the touches, meaning we have experience and speed in the offensive backfield.

The strength of this team though will be the defense, especially the secondary.  We are stacked with talented corner backs and safeties and the competition for playing time among them will only make them even better.  Jeremiah Weatherspoon, who should be the next FIU alum playing football on Sundays, is back from injury and leads a talented crop of defensive backs.  On the line, freshman Kambriel Willis spent so much time during the fall scrimmage in the offensive backfield that I thought he was just a really big fullback.

During the scrimmage, the defense was dominant.  That could mean one of four things: our defense is that good; our offense is that bad; both the offense and defense are bad but the offense is so bad that it makes the defense look good; or that the offense is really good and the defense is very good.  Let’s hope for the latter. 

            I’m predicting a 4-8 2008 campaign although I’m hoping for a 12-0 season and a BCS Bowl berth.  Hey, a guy can hope.  I’ll see you at The Cage!

            BTW, FIU is getting next to zero respect on the FIU vs. Kansas message boards.  One person predicted a 62-0 blowout.  Go over there and show the Panthers some love.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/conversation?gameId=282432305

 

                I’m leaving for Atlanta this afternoon and probably won’t be posting again until next week.  Have a good weekend everyone.

-ELI3

Like That's Like, So Like, Totally Annoying!

Listen to this.  I was like, in class yesterday and I saw this girl and she was like, "Hey!" and I was like, "Hey back!" and then we were like talking and stuff and then our professor was like, "Excuse me," and then we had to like stop talking and all that but it was like so cool.

Does anyone else think that sounded absolutely ridiculous?  I am not joking when I say that I had a girl in one of my summer classes that talked like that.   Only she may have used "like" even more than I did in my example.  Listening to her talk was as painful as violently dragging my testicles across a dull, rusty cheese grater.  It might have been more painful since I've never actually tried to grate my testes, meaning I have no frame of reference on which to base my comparison.  Needless to say, I was very pleased to see her in one of my classes yesterday.  Not only was she in one of my classes, but she was trying to get the professor to let her into another.

The problem is that she isn't the only person I hear talk like that on campus.  Its everywhere.  I hear it while waiting in line at Starbucks, when I'm cruising the aisles at Target or at home watching so-called "reality" television. 

Now I know some of you readers might be saying, "They're just kids, just out of high school.  They'll grow out if it."  

I don't think so.  These are upper division literature classes, meaning this girl, based on the fact that she's been in at least two of them and I saw her trying to get into a third, must be majoring in ENGLISH!  Not only is she most likely majoring in English, but she's into her upper division course work which means she isn't some kid fresh out of high school deserving of the benefit of the doubt.

I don't just hear this from the kids either.  In another summer class I had a teacher that talked liked that.  Everything was "like this" and "like that,"  and it scares me.  It just proves my theory that the standards are being lowered.  I used to feel safe in knowing that, if someone were to escape college unprepared and enter the real world, they would be exposed during job interviews, providing they could even get them.  

I can see the interview now.

"So tell me why you would like to work for the advertising firm of Smith and Jones," the interviewer would ask.

"Well, its like, ever since I was like a little kid, I would like see beer commercials and stuff and think to myself, 'Hey, like I bet I could do that.'" Our rocket scientist would answer.

To which the interviewer would respond, "Well, we do make more than beer commercials."

"Yeah, but like the beer commercials are the coolest."

I used to feel safe knowing that an interview that went down like that would surely result in the applicant's resume being filed under N for Never, S for Stupid or B for Burn.  But now it appears that the clowns might be throwing a coup and taking over the circus.

I'm becoming Mr. Hand and the world is full of Spicolis.

    

Back to School

So my two week school break is done.  Tomorrow it is back to the grind.  I feel as if I've gained 10 lbs in those two weeks since I haven't been to a spin class or to the gym. 

I am excited for my first fall semester at college.  Sure, I was excited for spring too but fall is when most of the excitement is.  Fall is when the majority of the new students are coming in.  It is also a return from summer break, which is the longest break.  Winter break is only a couple of weeks and doesn't create the sense of truly being away the way that summer break does.  Most importantly, fall means football.  Not just any football either, college football.

Now is the time to break out the portable grills, face paint and rally towels.  I couldn't care less that my beloved Golden Panthers--there is a rumor going around that they will be dropping the Golden--are 1-23 over the past two seasons and not expected to be much better this season.  Personally, after seeing the strides they've made between the spring football game and this summer's scrimmages, I'm rather optimistic about this season.  I plan on tailgating my happy little rear end off this year.  All of our home games are 7 p.m. games, which leaves plenty of time for tailgating, grilling, drinking, tossing around the old pigskin and whatever else comes to mind.

As far as school goes, I've coordinated a perfect Tuesday-Thursday schedule.  My first class starts at 9:30 and the last one ends at 3:15.  That allows me to attend a 7:30 spin class at the gym with plenty of time to shower and stop at the campus Starbucks on my way to my first class.  It also means that I can beat traffic on the turnpike and be home by five o'clock on school days to help Tina with dinner.  On top of all that, only having to drive to campus two days a week saves a ton on gas and allows me three whole week days to devote to studying.

Top priority right now is this weekend because I am Atlanta bound.  For the last two years my friend Mike and I have been going to Tuscaloosa, Alabama for the Crimson Tide's season opener.  You see, the first weekend of college football always falls on or around Mike's birthday.  His wife, Amanda, or his mother usually get him tickets to the opening game and we make the road trip.  Lat year we were joined by Mike's brother as well as their childhood friend Ron.  

This year, the game is being played in Atlanta as some kind of SEC vs. ACC challenge and the Tide are playing Clemson.  Ron will be joining us again.  I can't wait.  I am leaving Thursday following school, spending Thursday night in Jacksonville, driving up to Atlanta on Friday, going to the game on Saturday and flying home on Sunday.  Should be tons of fun.  I'll try to take tons of pictures to post.  

Food! Glorious Food!

So I did make the bruschetta burgers tonight.  Only I made them with mozzarella rather than provolone.  DELICIOUS!  I didn't work from any recipe for it.  The idea just kind of popped into my head.  We head Mediterranean Tuna Salad last night and whenever we make a salad as a main course I make homemade croutons.  While I was cutting the baguette for the croutons last night I thought it would be nice to use the left over bread and make some bruschetta.  Well, that idea morphed into bruschetta burgers and voila, Saturday's dinner was born.

As a side to the burgers I made grilled seasoned fries, a recipe I got from Bobby Flay on the Food Network.  You see, in the two idle weeks I've had in between semesters I've spent quite a bit of time "relaxing" on the couch in preparation for a full semester of classes.  Part of my relaxation therapy has included plenty of TV, especially the Food Network.  Boy Meets Grill is my favorite show.  On one of  last week's shows he made Cuban-style burgers and grilled seasoned fries, both of which looked very good.  The Cuban burgers I'll hold off on for now' they were pretty in-depth.  For our other side Tina made her uber-delicious mac n' cheese and a side caesar salad.  Overall, dinner was a huge success.  I think I could have left the fries on the grill a few more minutes but hey, live and learn.

BTW, I haven't cracked open that bottle of wine yet.  Instead, I bought a 12 pack of Bud Light with Lime.  It's not too bad.

I was so extremely proud of myself for dinner tonight that I took a picture of it.  I hope it makes your mouths water.

Wine Snob

I used to get wine and champagne confused.  I never knew the difference.  Growing up, the parents would allow me to indulge in a sip of champagne on special occasions and I never really liked it.  The "fizz" always seemed to go straight up my nose.

Tina though is quite the little cultural and social butterfly.  She moved around a lot during her childhood and even lived and went to school in Egypt for a bit so she has experienced more culture in her lifetime than I have.  To me, cultural eating was going thru the Taco Bell drive thru or ordering delivery from Pizza Hut.

Sadly, if she ever wanted a nice evening out for wine and fine dining, she had to go out with her friends cause I wanted no part of it.  I was fine grabbing some BK, a six-pack and watching a game on the couch.  She always wanted sushi, thai, Mediterranean, authentic italian or some other kind of food I was uncomfortable with.  Now that I've grown up a bit I can admit that my apprehension was due to a fear of looking stupid while ordering.  It's a guy thing, much like asking for directions; we never want to expose our vulnerability to the ladies in our lives.

So fast forward to now and I'm the one that is rarely satisfied with in and out food.  She and I will drive around for hours, wasting countless gallons of gas in search of some small asian bistro, sushi bar or mom-n-pop italian restaurant.  She is an excellent cook and rarely makes the same dish twice unless I fall absolutely in love with something--like her Caribbean Jerk Chicken thighs.  Over the summer I really enjoy grilling and cook that way 2-4 times a week.  Tonight I'm thinking about making provolone-bruschetta burgers and probably tuna steak for her since she doesn't eat beef.  Did I mention that she's not the only one who enjoys cooking?

So, back to my original idea, over the years she has cultured me a bit.  I've become a food snob and part of enjoying nice food is enjoying a nice wine to go along with it.  I have fallen in love with riesling.  If I had my way we would drink a bottle a week but Tina thinks that is unnecessary.  She has yet to get me into red wines, they just aren't for me (I say that now but a few years ago I never would be drinking any white wine either).  Our favorites are Columbia Winery, Chateau Ste. Michelle and Dr. Loosen's.  The Chateau is probably the one we buy most frequently; Total Wine and More sells it for $8.97.  We try to buy a new brand about every other time.  Last week I bought a brand called Blitz.  It was a 2007 Riesling and I only bought it because it was in the fridge at TW&M and I didn't want to wait to chill anything else.  I thought it was OK but Tina really enjoyed it.  Usually when we buy a new brand we base our purchase on the coolness of the bottle or label, unless someone recommends something.  A few months ago we purchased a bottle of Eroica, which I was told was a collaborative effort between Dr. Loosen and Chateau Ste. Michelle.  It was a $20 bottle, which is a bit high for us.  We normally spend $9-14 per bottle.  We thought it was pretty good.

We've got a bottle of Chateau in the fridge right now.  I may pop the cork on it tonight.  How well does wine go with burgers?

Coming next week: COLLEGE FOOTBALL!  I am Atlanta bound for the Alabama/Clemson game.   

Annoying People, Part Deux

I took last week off from the Annoying People post mainly because of forgetfulness.  My one and only loyal reader, Miss Marie ;), suggested bad drivers as my next topic but I'm not quite sure how much bandwidth eblogger.com has; that topic would be endless.

So I was having a hard time coming up with my next annoying person to talk about, since I've been spending my 2 weeks off from school with my ass planted on the couch.  I did make it out of the house on Wednesday to go see Tropic Thunder--f'n hilarious, BTW--and I found this week's annoying person in the theater.

No, it's not the people that text during a movie, although those mother f'ers are annoying.  Do they not realize how distracting the illuminated screen is?  Nor is it the people who wait for the exact moment that the movie starts to open their Twizzlers, Milk Duds and Raisinets, with the plastic wrappers crinkling and crackling loudly throughout the entire theater.  It's not even the people that talk during the movie, although I would like to slap the Jesus out of them.

Nope, this week's annoying person is the jackass who, despite the fact that it's the middle of the afternoon and the theater only has 12 people in it and TONS of empty seats EVERYWHERE, has to come and sit down RIGHT NEXT TO ME.  Ever heard of personal space jackass?  There are entire rows that are empty, is the chair two seats down from me that attractive?  I mean, I am aware that I ooze sexuality and coolness (sarcasm).  Who wouldn't want to sit next to me?  Sometimes I wish I could f@@k myself I'm so hot (more sarcasm), but good GOD, don't sit right next to me in a movie theater that is 95% empty.  Do you realize how creepy that is? Uber!

Of course, had it been a hot young female that sat next to me I wouldn't be bitching.  Problem was, it wasn't a young hottie, it was Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. 

This is one of society's unwritten rules.  Like when men go to a public bathroom and there is a wall of urinals with only one or two guys occupying any of them, you NEVER, EVER, EVER go to an empty urinal that is right next to another guy.  You put at least one empty urinal between yourself and the next guy.  If possible, you put the entire wall of empty urinals between you and the next guy.  We are never taught this in any class, it is just instinctual, appropriate social behavior.  Some people just don't get it.  Those are the people that probably spent their high school years either stuffed in their locker or pulling their underwear out of their ass.

Well, enough ranting for today.

Later-ELI3 

 

Excuse me, I just Wooted!

Does anyone here use woot.com?  It's a pretty cool website that I discovered thanks to someone over at Fried Chicken.  Basically, they sell one highly discounted item per day.  Once it is sold out, that's it, you have to wait til the next day for the next item.  I stop by and peek at their offerings daily but until Friday had never actually purchased anything.

I popped in Friday and they were offering a Reebok heart rate monitor/calorie counter for $19.99.  It just so happens I've been looking for one for quite a while but a decent one is hard to find for less than $80, especially one with the calorie counter as well.  I've looked into the Polar brand as well as Nike and Timex but never a Reebok so I'm unaware of how it stands up to the other more established heart rate monitor brands.

I've recently gotten back into spinning twice a week and am often curious to know how many calories I burn in a 45 minute spin class.  I know that on an elliptical machine I burn around 600 in 45 minutes but I don't get my heart rate nearly as high on the elliptical as I do in a spin class.  Now, once my item ships in 5 days and school starts again in 2 weeks, I can see how many I am burning.  God I hope it's about 900+.

Last year, spinning 3-4 times a week, as well as a healthier diet helped me lose 30 pounds in a relatively short period of time.  But once I moved I stopped going to the gym until about 3 months ago when I started using the school gym on the days I was on campus.  Problem was, on my own I don't really work hard enough so being on the elliptical doesn't really help if I don't do what is necessary to get the old ticker pumpin.  So I decided to start getting to campus earlier so I could take a 7:30 a.m. spin class prior to my classes starting.

By the time I get out of spin, my shirt and hair are completely drenched and I am gassed but man do the results start showing quickly.  After about 2 weeks of being back in spin my shorts are hanging a bit lower on my hips and I have more energy during the day. 

Even though school is out for 2 weeks I plan on going to a spin class on Tuesday so that I can go ahead and get my books before the lines get out of hand.  While I am there I may also attend the football team's last open scrimmage of the fall.

Woot doesn't offer things I am necessarily interested in on a daily basis but I'm sure there are people out there who have no use for a heart rate monitor either.  Mostly they offer computers and other household electronics.  They also have links to other auction style websites offering similar deals.  Yesterday I found a 16G USB/Flash drive for $34.99 on one of their partner sites. 

So the moral of this story is shopping at woot.com can help you lose 30lbs.  I'm not receiving anything for this post either, just trying to share the savings.

Have a happy Sunday-ELI3