Friday Favorites: Jan. 29 Edition

This will be a new feature here, I’ll post it every Friday. It will be my way to recap the week in sports.

Here we go:

Friday Favorites

Quote of the week: “I know he’d like to win the first for British tennis since what is it, 150,000 years?” – Roger Federer, talking about facing Britain’s Andy Murray. Britain has not won major singles men’s title since 1936.

Federer is talented, witty and has just the right amount of arrogance. I enjoy him immensely.

Story of the week: Colts and Saints in the Super Bowl. This is a complete reversal of the BCS national title game this year, where I didn’t really want either team to win. Now, I don’t know who I want to win, because these teams have my two favorite quarterbacks in the NFL. I have followed the careers of Drew Brees and Peyton Manning since they were in college. The Saints and Brees are my sentimental pick, but a second Super Bowl title for Peyton Manning pretty much cements his legacy as the greatest quarterback the game has ever seen.  I guess I’ll be happy either way.

Videos of the week: While we’re talking about Peyton Manning…

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4590458&categoryid=2378529

Peyton Manning and Kenny Mayne combining forces makes my life better. So does Manning speaking Gaelic. That is all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeyGNsmIcn0

I don't watch the show, but this Jersey Shore spoof with the Kansas women soccer team is fantastic.

Friday Fails…

Swimsuits already out at Target. There isn’t a female in the world (fine, Megan Fox, but I’m certain she doesn’t shop at Target) that’s thinking about swimsuits right now. Not physically, not emotionally, not at all. So please, stop making us feel bad about how we’re not in swimsuit shape right now. Or for some of us, how we’ve never been in swimsuit shape.


Gilbert Arenas: it’s a failure on several levels, OBVIOUSLY. Maybe this should be not just a Friday fail, but a year-long fail, or a life fail. Just some seriously bad choices made by Arenas and Javaris Crittenton.

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Tales of a running hater: Part I

I don't have a picture of me running (thankfully), so my shoes are all you get. 

If running were on facebook, we would not be friends.

Running in a soccer game? Sure. Hustling from first to second base? I’m fine with that. Otherwise, running is not high on my list; unless that list is, “Things I don’t like doing.”

Use the words “running” and “Amanda” in the same sentence to any of the girls I played club or high school soccer with, and immediate laughter would ensue.

Running and I just don’t see eye to eye, despite my efforts to see the good in it. One agonizing sophomore year of high school, I even ran on the cross country team. The people on the team were wonderful; you really won’t find better people in sports than those who run cross country. But when the coaches would casually say on race day, “run a mile warm up before the race and a mile cool down after,” I could not imagine they were actually serious about that. That probably explains why I never did it (if you ever read this Coach DeLong, I’m sorry).

I made up this motto during my time on the team: “it’s good to suck and it sucks to be good” (it’s weird, I don’t get any calls to be a motivational speaker).The better you were, the more you ran, so why would I want to be good?

In spite of all of this, I started a running program this week. My resolution for 2010 is simply, “finish what you start,” because I tend to get started on projects or books or working out and not stick with it. Writing about it once a week, I hope, will help me stay on track.

I needed a program that was simple and something that wouldn’t be too much torture. So, I did what any self-respecting person would do in my situation: turned to iTunes.

The “Couch to 5k” running program started by Cool Running seemed to be the best choice (even though I don’t happen to agree that running is cool). There is no specific 5k race I’m training for or anything, but I just want to be in shape enough to where I could run about three miles and not look and feel like I just completed some ultra marathon. It’s only three days a week, and about 30 minutes a run. I think I can handle that. My days to run will be Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Robert Ullrey created a podcast for the program with music mixes to use while completing the runs, which are a really helpful.

Tomorrow is my last run of this week, and it’s been OK so far. I haven’t hated it, which is a step in the right direction.

Maybe, just maybe, running and I can be friends.

I make no guarantees. 

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Olympic Q & A: Bobsled time with Emily Azevedo

                       Emily Azevedo,  who will be competing in the bobsled for the 

                       Winter Olympics in Vancouver which start Feb. 12. Photo 

                        courtesy of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation.

 Emily Azevedo took the next logical step after her track and field career.

Bobsledding.

OK, so maybe it’s not logical for you or me, but that’s only because we couldn’t pull that off.  The 26-year-old happens to have rocked that transition in a short amount of time.

In the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, Azevedo was watching the bobsled events on TV and thinking it looked like something she might try. Four years later, she’s the brakewoman for driver Bree Schaaf in one of  three American bobsled pairs headed to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

She was kind of enough to answer some questions via e-mail about why she took up bobsled, the training differences for bobsled and track and what she likes to do when she’s not in a bobsled.

CS: You are pretty new to the sport of bobsled. Why did you decide to get into it? What do you like about it?
EA: I was looking for the next step in my life and I was not ready to be finished with my athletic career.  I love competition and what better team to compete for than Team USA?  I love the thrill of the ride and the competition.  I also like how technical everything is as I feel I am constantly learning new things and new push form.

CS: You used to do track and field. Has it been weird to transition from a warm weather sport to a cold weather sport?
EA: Honestly, I am not a huge fan of the cold, but I am able to train in warm weather during the summer which helps to make up for the cold during the winter.

CS: What are you most looking forward to about the Olympics?
EA: I am most looking forward to walking in Opening Ceremonies.  I cannot imagine the thrill of representing my country on such a large stage.

CS: What are your goals for the Olympics?
EA: I think every athlete goes into the Olympics with a goal of a medal.  Special things seem to happen at the Olympic Games, so I think it can be anyone’s day.

CS: What events did you do in track and field? How is the training for bobsled similar and/or different from track and field?
EA: I was a hurdler at the University of California, Davis.  Bobsled training is similar to track training because we still have to have speed and do sprint workouts, but it is different because we are more focused on short bursts rather than long sprints.  The longest we will sprint is about 60 meters.  We also do a lot more weight lifting then is done in track and field.  We want to be as strong as powerful as possible, so we focus on a lot of Olympic lifts and squats. 

CS: What does a typical training day for you look like?
EA: During the off season a typical training day consists of waking up, eating and then heading to the track to do a sprint workout.  After the sprint workout I take some time to rest and refuel before going to the weight room for a lifting session.  During the season we have long hours at the track where two training runs can take hours to complete.  On top of sliding we have to find time in the day to lift and keep up with our strength training.

                                     Photo  courtesy of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation.

CS: What is your routine on the days of competitions? What do you eat before races?
EA: I first attempt to eat some breakfast and then I get mentally prepared for the race and try to stay as calm as possible.  I often have a hard time eating the days of races, but the night before ideally I would have steak, potatoes and broccoli or green beans. 

CS: Do you enjoy cooking? If so, what do you like to cook?
EA: I do not really cook that often as I am mostly on the road or at training centers, but when I do I like to make Mexican food.

CS: What is your guilty pleasure food? 
EA: I love to eat and I love food.  Any kind of good food is my guilty pleasure, but I mostly love dessert.

CS: What do you enjoy doing when you aren't training or racing?
EA: I like to spend my time doing craft projects.  I also like to play cards with my teammates and watch movies. 

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Thanks Emily and good luck in Vancouver!

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Taste of the Town: Vancouver

  Gnocchi at Amarcord, an Italian restaurant in Yaletown. Photo courtesy of Geoff Peters.

My mom always calls me a planner.

While most of my family is perfectly happy to make things up as we go, that makes me want to run around and scream. I like to have a plan. You know, for like, everything.

This includes my restaurant choices when I’m in an unfamiliar area. When there’s no plan in place (NOOOO!)  we invariably end up at some boring fast food  becarestaurant use no one can agree on what to eat.

I don't want this to happen to you. So, if you are heading to Vancouver for the Winter Olympics that begin Feb. 12, I want to make sure you know your food options before you get there. That way, I won't have to worry about you not having a plan.

It's a sickness. I know.

Now, seeing as I have never had the pleasure of visiting Vancouver myself, I enlisted some help. Geoff Peters runs an awesome food blog on the Vancouver restaurant scene, called http://www.dineouthere.com/restaurants/ which also has fantastic photography (you already saw one at the top of the post, and there's more to follow).

Geoff says if you are staying near all the Olympic action, you won’t have to look far for some incredible restaurants. There are two “outdoor celebration sites” (as deemed by the City of Vancouver) for the Olympics, Livecity Yaletown and Livecity Downtown. We are going to be focusing on the Yaletown area. Geoff said all of his suggestions are within a 10 minute walk of Livecity Yaletown.

So, when you hit that point when you need to stop your “outdoor celebrating” and get your grub on here are some ideas. If you want more info, check out Geoff’s blog. All photos in this post are courtesy of Geoff Peters.

Hamilton Street Grill (1009 Hamilton Street): You can order the traditional steakhouse food at this spot, like steak and salmon. But the item Geoff mentioned that stuck out to me was the Lamb Burger with curly fries. Check out Geoff’s review of Hamilton Street Grill here.

 

Capones (1141 Hamilton Street) : This jazz club has everything from New York-style gourmet pizza to pastas to beef tenderloin to halibut. Bonus: there’s live jazz every night.

Urban Thai Bistro (1119 Hamilton Street): If you are jonesing for authentic and affordable Thai food, check this place out. Read Geoff’s review here.

Amarcord (104- 1168 Hamilton Street) Geoff calls this spot “truly great and unpretentious Italian food.” He also suggests you try the Gnocchi, which he calls “mouthwatering.” You can read Geoff’s review here, if for some reason you need more convincing to visit this restaurant.

There are also several chain restaurants in the area that Geoff suggests:

 Milestones: They serve salads, pastas, steaks and have several locations around Vancouver.

Earls: This spot serves burgers, pasta, pizza among many other things and there also several locations in the area.

Cactus Club Café: This restaurant serves salads, steaks, sandwiches and also has several locations.

Keg Steakhouse: I think the name is pretty self-explanatory. Check out their website for locations and more information.

Thanks for your help Geoff! And, for any of you lucky enough to be headed to Vancouver for the Olympics (or for any reason, really) eat well. By the sounds of it, that shouldn’t be too hard.

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Olympic Q & A: Shooting the breeze with Tim Burke

Tim Burke working it in the kitchen. Photo courtesy of Tim Burke

With the Winter Olympics less than a month away, I thought it would be fun to track down some Olympic athletes and find out more about them as they gear up for Vancouver.

Often times we only get to see these athletes when the Olympics roll around every four years, and that’s a shame; they work ridiculously hard and many of them have incredible stories about what they went through to achieve their goals.

So, here at the Concession Stand, we want to give them their much-deserved due.

We’re starting out with Tim Burke, a New York native who competes in the biathlon. This event is fascinating to me because it combines two things I’ll always be colossally bad at; skiing (I have some fairly disastrous stories) and shooting (never done it, but my aim suggests I should stay away from guns in any form).

Now, the 27-year-old Burke is not just any biathlete. He’s one of the best in the world currently, and possibly the best America has ever produced. So you know,  he's kind of a big deal. He’s currently competing in the biathlon World Cup right now, sitting in fourth place after this weekend’s race in Ruhpolding, Germany.

Even though Burke is super busy taking the biathlon world by storm, he was nice enough to take some time to answer some questions for us via e-mail about how he got into biathlons, his training routine, and achieving something no American has ever done before. 

CS: How did you get into competing in biathlons?
TB: Living in Lake Placid it of course made it easier to start in some kind of winter sports. I tried a lot of things, also alpine or ski jumping. But in the end it was the excitement and difficulty of biathlon that I really wanted to feel and train for.

CS: For Americans who maybe aren’t as familiar with the sport, put your achievement of taking the lead in the World Cup standings in perspective.
TB: That never happened before. Over the years the US athletes were always the underdogs in biathlon. There were some Top-15 or Top-10 finishes but to get the yellow bib is a different kind of achievement. You have to stay on top of your game over a long time and gain enough points to stay up front there.

CS: What has changed, if anything, for you over the last couple of years to lead to your World Cup success?
TB: It all started with hiring our coach Per Nilsson in 2006. He is from Sweden and introduced us to a new kind of training. Until I met Per I thought I trained hard. After meeting him I got to know what hard training really looks like!

CS: What do you enjoy most/enjoy least about the Olympic experience?
TB: It’s nice to see athletes from all over the world coming together to compete at one event. We see the biathlon family all year long so it will be nice to catch up with friends from different sports again. It probably will be amazing to compete on the American continent. The only Olympics I’ve been to were in Torino so I think Vancouver will be somehow like a home game for us.

CS: What are your goals for Vancouver?
TB: Of course I want a medal but we’ve seen it at the last Olympics: The Games have different rules. Just because you’ve been on the podium (during) the season does not ensure you a podium at the Olympics.
 
CS: What does a typical training day for you look like?
TB: Under the World Cup we get up in the morning and drive to the stadium together. What kind of training I do is decided beforehand with the coaches. Either we work some more at the shooting or I’ll do intervals on the tracks. It really depends what you’re working on. After that we’ll have lunch and rest a bit, maybe do some running or skiing later on, before we head to dinner.

CS: Do you pay careful attention to your diet? If so, what foods do you feel are beneficial to you competing at your best? 
TB: Of course we cannot eat whatever we want. The nutrition is quite important for a professional athlete. We have a good rich breakfast and often salad and pasta for lunch or dinner. It really depends on which World Cup location we are at. But the hotels do a pretty good job serving the teams what they want these days. So no one can complain about that.
 
CS: Do you enjoy cooking for yourself? If so, what do you like to cook?
TB: If I have the time I of course like to cook for myself. But again it depends on the time you have. We like to cook ourselves when we’re on training camps but in the winter it’s not that easy to find some time cooking. After the World Cup in Oberhof I made a big American breakfast at my German girlfriend’s house. She really liked it!

CS: What is your routine on days you compete?
TB: Getting up and getting in shape basically. On normal days you have breakfast, head to the stadium and start zeroing. But sometimes the competitions are in the evening so we do some small workouts in the morning.
 
CS: When you don’t have to worry about what you are eating, what is your guilty pleasure food?
TB: Probably Pizza in Europe or some good barbecue back home.


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If you want to keep up with Burke, he writes a blog at www.timburke.us/. Good luck in Vancouver Tim! We'll be watching!

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Lessons from Haiti

I have been so moved by this country’s incredible generosity in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake.

For all the complaining people do about America (inside and out of it) I feel like few other countries rise to the occasion like we do. OK, I’ll admit that’s biased. But I think as Americans, we realize that no matter what we have or don’t have, we possess so much more than people around the world.

Still, it’s hasn’t been a fun stretch here for Americans. Many have lost jobs or been forced to move out of their homes. There’s little extra money lying around to spend even on ourselves or our families, but still, we did our best and gave what we had to help people in Haiti. People donating just $10 via texting have raised millions for the Red Cross to bring aid to the devastated country.

It’s strange how the worst of times seem to bring out the best in people. I certainly don’t want bad, catastrophic events happening all over the place, but I wish the world could maintain this approach at all times, good and bad. When something bad happens that we don’t expect, we all seem to look around and say, “Hey, nothing else matters right now except for the fact that we need to help each other get through this.”

Really, it’s how we should always behave. We all come from different places. Not all of us agree on healthcare or gay marriage or religion or politics. But under that all, we are all humans. There can be no better reason as to why we should treat each other with respect.

So while I wish this horrible earthquake never happened, I do hope we learn something from it. I hope we remember that if former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and current President Barack Obama can unite for common cause, anyone can.  I hope we remember to help people in need, not just when something catastrophic happens. I hope we remember that even when we feel like we can’t do any more, we usually can.

For anyone who has courageously flown down to Haiti to help in the relief efforts, anyone who has donated money or supplies, or to anyone who has simply offered up a prayer, thank you.

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Straight from the Commish's mouth

             Joe Cahn, middle, is the self-proclaimed Commissioner of Tailgating. 

      Left, is a guy who demonstrates why I don't mess with Philly fans. Photo courtesy of Joe Cahn

                             

Let me start out by saying I’m incredibly jealous of Joe Cahn’s “job.”

He travels the country, meets tons of cool people, and grubs with them.

That my friends, is what we here at the Concession Stand call a dream job.

Cahn travels around as a professional tailgater (is there a website where I can apply for this job?) and has tailgated at more than 500 stadiums and traveled some 500,000 miles on this 14-year journey. The Fort Worth resident (and New Orleans native) also has his own TV show now on TLC called “Tailgate Takedown” where he searches for the country’s top tailgaters.

Cahn, 61 (“24 in tailgate years” he says) was kind enough to chat with me about being the Commissioner of Tailgating, this weekend’s playoff match ups (watch out for brisket vs. bratwurst), what NFL city would win the Super Bowl of tailgating, and he also gives us a recipe to try.Oh, and by the way, the guy used to run a cooking school in New Orleans. He knows a thing or two about good food.

CS: Will you be at any of the games this weekend?
JC: I went to the Dallas (vs. Philadelphia) game last weekend. I had some great BBQ. But this weekend I’m going to see how it is to watch it on multi televisions in a sports bar and save everything for the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl.

CS: If there was a Super Bowl of tailgating, which NFL city would win and why?
JC: Well, I would think you would have places like Houston, which has really embraced tailgating with the Texans and there’s probably more family tailgates than any other city. It’s more families, more children, more young children and more people who are coming to the tailgate who don’t have tickets (to the game); Texas hospitality to visitors and fellow tailgaters alike.

Kansas City, you can see the smoke rise on the horizons. Planes can’t fly over the stadium because of the smoke.

CS: Really?
JC: No. I made that up. But it sounds good.

Green Bay, it’s bratwurst and hospitality. Just about every city, it would be close; whether it’s San Francisco, Oakland or San Diego, whether it would be New England or Miami or Philadelphia or Chicago. They are all in the hunt for the Super Bowl of tailgating. Too close to call, but I’d like to be the referee.

                  Cahn, left, stirs up a big pot of jambalaya. Photo courtesy of Joe Cahn

CS: Out of those eight cities (left in the playoffs) what was your overall favorite tailgating dish you had and why?
JC: Baltimore has regional food, we’re talking about crab cakes. We put the crab cakes against Midwestern food meat and potatoes (for Indianapolis). Hard to handicap that one. It comes very close.

We go up to Minnesota, playing Dallas, it’s brisket vs. bratwurst. It could slightly favor brisket but I don’t know...

I am New Orleanian. I’m from New Orleans and I have to favor New Orleans over anybody. It has its own cuisine. But Phoenix has some incredible Tex-Mex and incredible Southwestern cuisine. But I’d give the edge there to New Orleans.

San Diego and the Jets  is a toss up.  You can’t get any further away than that. It’s a lot of skirt steak and a lot of guacamole (in San Diego). With the Jets, every ethnic group is represented, whether it be Italian or Irish or German, the Jets’ stadium is virtually a smorgasbord. The Jets and Giants probably lead the league in diversity.

CS: What gave you the idea to be the Commissioner of Tailgating?
JC: This is my 14th year. I have been to over 500 stadiums and covered over 500,000 miles. Tailgating has become the new American social. We don’t have block parties anymore, 4th of July picnics…the community (now) gathers in a parking lot, whether it be pro, college, or Nascar or polo, or Jimmy Buffet concerts. It’s all about the socialization of America eating well.

CS: Did you ever imagine tailgating would lead to so many opportunities for you? You have a TV show now right?
JC: "Tailgate Takedown." In the beginning it’s what I wanted to do. In 1996 I went to every NFL stadium in a season and wanted to do a TV series on the road in my motor home. This is before the food channel and everything else. After the first three or four years I didn’t want a TV series. When I signed the contract with TLC I was asked 'are you excited?'

(I said) I am excited…but to tell you the truth it cuts into my tailgating time. It’s not work work, but it’s cutting into my tailgating time. I don’t get to be with my friends, I don’t get to walk around as much, and that’s very important to me.


CS: Do you actually go and see the games afterwords?
JC: What game? There’s a game after tailgating? I was wondering where everyone was going. I gotta write this down and put it on my website. (laughing)

Very rarely do I go in and the reason I don’t go in is I’m a fan of every team. I root for the home team. Wherever I am, I am a fan of that team. I have jerseys from every team. I have learned not to go inside because I go nuts.

CS: Why do you think food is so intertwined with sporting events?
JC: We have something in common. Normally a sporting event — that’s what makes football so ideal — normally it’s on a weekend where we have leisure time. No. 2, there’s a big area for this to happen; there’s a big parking lot that we can bring our grill, bring our tables. It is a very large area. We come out and we celebrate the team; not only the team, but the city. We come out to Baltimore we not only celebrate the Ravens, we celebrate Baltimore and the area of Baltimore. It’s an ideal place to have sports as the catalyst for the city.

Football is so ideal also because the time of year. It’s fall. Sociology and anthropology show it’s a time of year that we have to fatten up ourselves for the winter. So we have the fattening up that is still very much, I think, active in our brains.


CS: One recipe on your site I should try?
JC: They’re all really good. The simplest one is my jambalaya recipe. It’s an easy dish to do and feeds a lot of people. You can make it with anything. You can make anywhere from a vegetarian jambalaya to a seafood jambalaya and everything in between.

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The Concession Stand would like to thank the Commissioner of Tailgating for taking the time to talk. If you'd like more info on "Tailgate Takedown" or more recipes from the Commissioner, check out his website at www.tailgating.com/ 

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Pete Carroll leaving = bad for college football

I have to admit, I’m sad to see Pete Carroll go.

As an Arizona alum who grew up in Los Angeles as a UCLA fan, I’m usually all for USC getting knocked down a peg or two.

But Carroll was just so good for college football. No, he was great for college football.

His leaving such a great gig for the NFL makes me worry about the future of college football. I’m starting to wonder if being a college coach isn’t all it is cracked up to be.

I thought he did one of the best jobs I’d ever seen of balancing what college football should be about. He recruited incredible talent. They became a program everyone wanted to beat. But they had an incredibly good time doing it. He had an incredibly good time doing it. College football shouldn’t be such a serious affair (check your thesaurus for synonyms of humorless, and Nick Saban is undoubtedly on that list).

Yes, USC got a little brash. Obnoxious, even.  I’m not here to dispute that.

Carroll won national titles. Groomed Heisman Trophy winners. He earned plenty of money and lived in one of the best cities in the country (if you asked me, it’s THE best city in the country, but I’m biased). Now, he’s leaving to run the Seattle Seahawks as the president and head coach, a huge risk and an even higher pressure situation.

Why?

Well, I won’t even discuss here the possibility of sanctions that could be coming and he’s running away. Let’s just say that isn’t the case.

Have we set up college football coaches to fail? They have these incredibly crazy rules they have to follow and a one-loss season mostly likely eliminates any shot at a national title.

I love college football, but that’s crazy.

Take Ohio State this season. They lose to USC at home on the final drive of the game after a hideous offensive performance on both sides. The Buckeyes are essentially done for the year. Sure, they still have the Rose Bowl to play for. But their hopes for a special season are immediately ruined, no matter what they do the rest of the year. It doesn’t make sense.

Is that something that’s going to force more quality coaches out of college and into the NFL?

College football needs Pete Carrolls. They remind us of what college sports should be about. I hope the current set up of college football doesn’t make it simply a pit stop en route to the NFL.

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 I hate when I hate both teams in a championship game.

OK, hate is a little dramatic. But today, Alabama and Texas will face off in the BCS national title game, and I don’t really want either of them to have the glory that comes with winning this game.

It happened to me in the World Series this year too. The Phillies embarrassed my Dodgers (I’m still not ready to talk about it) in the NLCS, and as a life rule, voting for the Yankees is unacceptable. But the pain the Phillies caused me won out (in one game I actually blurted out, “come on A-Rod, get a hit here.” It gave me my answer of who I was voting for, but I was horrified that just came out of me. I think my boyfriend nearly broke up with me).

Ahem, but we’re talking about college football. My baseball issues are for another time. I’m still working out those issues.

It’s not that I have a huge distaste for the Crimson Tide. Sure, their fans are a little crazy obsessive passionate, but my main issue is simply that I’m tired of the Southeastern Conference. There’s no doubt it’s the best conference in the country. However, it makes me crazy that they play no one of consequence in their pre-conference games and take almost no risks. I understand why they do it, but how fun is it for football fans when Tim Tebow faces Charleston Southern?

The last non-SEC team to win the national title was USC in 2004. It’s time for some other teams to step up here. I’d even take Ohio State at this point (just kidding, I wouldn’t. But some other Big 10 team might be nice). Having a non-USC Pac 10 team would be nice too. But after the conference’s horrid bowl performance this year, I can’t even bring myself to entertain the thought.

So I’m very lukewarm about Alabama. Texas on the other hand, I just plain get annoyed by.

Now, I should mention that I like Mack Brown a lot, and think he does a great job. As a former sportswriter, I like the way he handles himself with the media. But the burnt orange. The HIDEOUS cheerleading outfits. I can’t bring myself to root for them, even though nothing would make my dad happier. Except of course, if I decided to become a Dallas Cowboys fan, but that would never happen in this reality. Ever.

I guess I’m rooting for Alabama and hoping for a better college football season next year. One where I actually want someone to win the title.

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The defense rests in the Pac 10 (or really, just doesn't tackle or generally make stops)

Over the last week or so, I’ve been plagued with several questions.

Questions like, why is the airport gate for my flight ALWAYS the very last one at the end of the row and thus I must schlep my bag much longer than I want to? Or, is fudge an acceptable breakfast option? These are things I think about.

But, the question that has crossed my mind most is:

What in the name of Pete Carroll happened to the Pac 10 in bowl games?!

I suppose I’m writing this to therapeutically work through that horrifying 33-0 loss my Arizona Wildcats suffered to Nebraska on Dec. 30. I spent my undergrad time at Arizona watching some pretty bad football. However, I don’t think I EVER watched a game where they mustered less than 50 yards of total offense (you can’t see me right now, but I’m cringing). That was bad, even for Arizona football. I may need to seek professional help.

But seriously, what happened to the conference as a whole? It wasn’t just Arizona that tanked (they just found an epically bad way of doing it). Oregon State and Cal lost to Mountain West teams, for crying out loud. Oregon’s ridiculous offense forgot how to score in a loss to Ohio State.

The answer may simply be in the lack of defense in the Pac 10.

The Pac 10 pretty innovative offensively (see: Oregon) but it’s no secret the conference isn’t defensive minded. It’s more fun to watch that way and gave us some ridiculous shootouts this season in conference play. Unfortunately, that doesn’t translate to bowl success.

Quick, what Pac 10 team do you think was the best in total defense? Did you guess Arizona State? They are 12th nationally. The next closest Pac 10 team is Arizona at 21st. Oregon (the conference champion) at 33rd nationally. This, to put it mildly, is not a good sign.

In fact, through Dec. 26th, in 14 statistical categories for defense on the NCAA Web site, only three have a Pac 10 team in the top 10.

So, it’s two-fold. The Pac 10 teams weren’t used to facing good defenses, and thus scored wildly. When they come up against legit defenses (see: Nebraska) they couldn’t score. And, their defenses couldn’t stop the other team from scoring.

Now, I'm not a football strategist or a mathematician (in all honesty, the former would be more likely), but here's my mathematical breakdown of why the Pac 10 was so horrendous in bowl games this year.

Not scoring + not stopping the other team from scoring = Pac 10 looks awful.

That's all.

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