College Football 2014: 3 Games To Watch in Week One

Week One of college football is finally upon us, and there’s some great football spread across the whole weekend, through into Monday. But, if you only have time to watch a few games, here’s a handy little guide to set you up for the best of the weekend’s action!

No. 13 Louisiana State vs. No. 14 Wisconsin
NRG Stadium (Houston, Texas)
11.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD

Nothing is more hyped in college football these days than the SEC’s incredible dominance over the Big Ten. It’s the story of a power conference taking on a conference that would like to believe it’s a power conference, and on Saturday night on a neutral site – NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas – one of the upper echelon of the Big Ten, Wisconsin, get chance to change the tide of SEC vs. Big Ten contests with a win against Louisiana State.

Gary Andersen’s Badgers are the Big Ten West favourites, but won’t find it easy against Les Miles’ Tigers, whose big and athletic defense will look to stop Wisconsin’s resident 1600-yard rusher, Melvin Gordon. It’s always been about the ground game with the Badgers, and that certainly won’t change entering Andersen’s second season in Madison.

Whether Gordon can gain ground against a very good defensive front is a giant question mark. As is the ability of the Badgers to stop the LSU offense. Granted, the Tigers have lost a lot of talent – QB Zach Mettenberger, RB Jeremy Hill and WR Odell Beckham Junior – but the Badgers defense only returns three starters (and, crucially, none in the front seven) and Miles has brought in a tremendous recruiting class, with offensive talent for days. One guy in particular, highly-touted RB Leonard Fournette is meant to be a gun. We’ll see on Sunday morning.

Fearless Prediction: LSU by 14

No. 16 Clemson vs. No. 12 Georgia
Sanford Stadium (Athens, Georgia)
7.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD

Last year’s game was an absolute corker, ending 38-35 in favour of Clemson, but not before offensive fireworks on both sides, and banner days for both quarterbacks, Tajh Boyd for Clemson and Aaron Murray for Georgia. Both those guys are gone, as are other offensive weapons on both sides (including the double receiver threat of Sammy Watkins and Martavius Bryant for Clemson), so it’s something of the great unknown for Clemson this year.

Not so much for Georgia, who are ready to welcome back receiver Malcolm Mitchell and injured running back Keith Marshall. Georgia’s uneven year in 2013 had a lot to do with Aaron Murray’s injury-plagued campaign, but the upside going forward is that 2014 starter Hutson Mason isn’t exactly a novice coming into this one. At least to a certain extent, he’s been there, done that and knows what he’s doing. That’s a major confidence builder.

The Georgia offense looks potent. Clemson’s defense figures to be one of the best in the ACC, but whether it can stand up to the myriad threats that the Bulldogs offense is another question. Offensively, what shape will the Tigers take? Will they require a few games to really get rolling? Most likely. Should still be an entertaining contest, and probably a high-scoring one.

Fearless Prediction: Georgia by ten.

Michigan vs. Appalachian State
Michigan Stadium (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
2.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD

The last time Appalachian State, an FCS (read: Division II) powerhouse, came into the Big House, they departed with one of the more improbable victories in the history of college football. It was seen as something of an aberration then – after all, week one’s traditionally provide monumental upsets – but was actually a harbinger of things to come for the Wolverines, who struggled through uncompetitive years under Rich Rodriguez and are now rebounding, at least to a point, under Brady Hoke.

The biggest story for Michigan’s season isn’t really even to do with the Wolverines. It’s the fact that Ohio State’s QB Braxton Miller is out for the year, which makes the Big Ten race wide open, and there’s a school of thought that, perhaps, Michigan’s quarterback Devin Gardner is now the best in the conference.

How Michigan’s offense looks against Appalachian State, who are probably better, on their day, than a lot of Division I schools, is going to provide a key to how they’ll look heading into Big Ten play. New offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier, over from Alabama, has made an immediate impact on the team. With Notre Dame on the docket next week in South Bend, this game is an important tune-up for the Wolverines.

You get the feeling – at least, I do – that 2014 represents a make or break year for Hoke, which means the Wolverines need to take a massive run at a Big Title and, probably, record wins over Notre Dame, Michigan State and Ohio State. Oh, and improved defence wouldn’t hurt either. It all starts at the Big House against Appalachian State.

Fearless Prediction: Michigan by 28

Opinion: USC Has Handled the Josh Shaw Situation Incorrectly

Disclaimer: I'm a USC fan. 

Yesterday, it was the feel-good story that made cable news headlines and appeared in sports pages across America and around the world – even reaching Australian shores – because Josh Shaw, one of the team captains on the 2014 USC Trojans football squad, was a hero. He’d sustained two high-ankle sprains that will certainly sideline him for a fair few weeks, but it was the way he’d taken those injuries, jumping off a balcony to save a seven-year-old cousin who, so the story went, was drowning at a family party.

Cue plenty of talk about what a good person Josh Shaw was. The USC website was quick to jump on this story, and you can’t blame them. I mean, there’s nothing like painting one of your star players as a hero off the field as well as on, and the Trojan media camp quickly rolled out quotes from new head coach Steve Sarkisian and Shaw himself.

Overnight, media outlets were inundating Shaw for interviews. They apparently also wanted to speak to the cousin he’d saved. A funny thing happened thereafter. Shaw didn’t speak at USC training, but Sarkisian dead, and he made the startling admission that there’d been some calls coming through to USC that directly conflicted what Shaw had told his coaches, his teammates and, by extension, the rest of the world.

Suddenly, USC was investigating the situation. Sarkisian used the word “vet” at least once, and promised that once the school had completed it’s investigation, they would let the rest of the world know.

That in response to unfounded rumours on social media that have been flaring for most of the day, concerning Shaw and suggesting that he was actually running from the Los Angeles Police Department following a domestic violence incident, nowhere near the Los Angeles suburb of Palmdale, where his heroic act was said to have taken place. Running from the cops or saving a family member from drowning. Talk about your complete role reversal.

Here’s the thing: why is the University just now getting around to vet the story? I mean, this is USC and for a long time, they’ve been the biggest thing come fall in Los Angeles, which happens to be one of the biggest media markets in the world. The PR folks on campus aren’t idiots. They are a crack team, used to dealing with big-time prospects and scandals.

So why did the school’s official website go live with this heroic story of Josh Shaw when they hadn’t confirmed anything he’d said. I’m dumfounded by this. These days, with the advent of social media, news titbits fly around like crazy. It’s much harder to spin a false story than it used to be, because there are so many more ways for things to be confirmed. Sure, you wait a day and you’re not getting an exclusive, but is an rushing to press for an exclusive more important than getting the facts right? Apparently.

You know that old saying about where there’s smoke, there’s fire when it comes to these sorts of stories? Well, in my experience, it’s not just one of those sayings. It’s a real thing, and it may rear it’s ugly head and make the entire university look pretty silly.

If the story continues down this track, someone – or, really, a lot of someone’s – are going to have egg on their faces. Who’ll look like fools if the domestic violence rumour is confirmed as fact? Well, certainly Shaw will (and that might be the least of his problems) but so will Steve Sarkisian, Athletic Director Pat Haden, the school’s president and whomever allowed the story to go out into cyberspace.

You can understand the rationale. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, some free press to highlight the nature of these kids, who happen to be good football players, too, but now the worm is turning, and the opposite is happening. We’re getting the first hints that Shaw is, far from being a hero, a guy at the complete opposite end of the scale.

USC is getting a lot of press out of this. The story is on the Sydney Morning Herald website again today, a publication who wouldn’t know Josh Shaw if they ran over him on the streets of Sydney this afternoon, and there’s another old saying that comes to mind now: there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Actually, there is, and this is the worst sort.

The school, no stranger to football controversy, could not look any worse than they do. At the moment They’ve gone all-in to bat for Shaw, believing his story – granted, there’s never been anything to make anyone, myself included, not believe what the star cornerback said – and done so in the most flowery manner imaginable, the University of Southern California name and brand is going to be tied to this. Unfairly tied? Yeah, I’d say so, but, sometimes, you make your bed and you have to lay in it. The Trojans hooked their wagon to Shaw before validating all of his claims, and now they’re going to have to batten down the hatches.

If nothing else, regardless of which way it swings, this incident makes a wonderful test case for other media groups in college and pro sports. In a day and age where events can be dissected in the most minute manner, it’s a really good idea to make sure you have all your facts straight and important, too, that there aren’t any skeletons in the proverbial closest to jump out and scare you.

Closet? With this gaffe, USC might’ve just opened Pandora’s Box.

Opinion: 5 Things To Watch in Week One of College Football

Ohio State without Braxton Miller: The best player on the Buckeyes team – who also happens to be both a team captain and their quarterback – went down with a season-ending injury more than a week before the first snap-in-anger of the 2014 season, throwing Ohio State’s plans into considerable disarray and throwing the Big Ten conference race wide open.

Head Coach Urban Meyer said recently in the press that he’d unconcerned with Miller’s absence, and that the Buckeyes are still a good team, and that might be the case, but there’s no doubt in the minds of anyone who saw Miller tear it up last year, that the Buckeyes aren’t going to be the same offensive threat without him under centre.

The beneficiary of Miller's injury is J.T. Barrett, a redshirt freshman who has suddenly been handed the keys to the Buckeye offense, and who will be expected to make it is own quickly, before Big Ten play starts. Barrett’s backup is redshirt sophomore Cardale Jones, who’s thrown a grand total of two passes in his Ohio State career.

A lack of depth and experience at the quarterback position should be a huge worry for the Buckeyes. Sure, there’s plenty of good offensive weapons around Barrett, but there could be a corps of the best NFL receivers out there, and that wouldn’t matter if Barrett can’t hit targets. If the kid struggles, the running game for Ohio State becomes their biggest weapon, and defenses are going to drill down on it going forward, daring Barrett to throw. The question is: can he make the plays?

Blake Bell at Tight End for Oklahoma: Remember a few seasons back when the lumbering dude they call the “Belldozer” was a destructive force in goal-to-go situations for the Sooners? I mean, defenders had as much chance of stopping the Belldozer from the one yard line as they had stopping a runway truck, which was what Bell often resembled.

When Landry Jones departed the school, Bell was one of two quarterbacks Bob Stoops tried, and it’s fair to say that as a quarterback in general play, he didn’t exactly set the world on fire, though his short-yardage work was as good as ever. Of course, that’s where Bell could use his bulk to force his way into the end zone.

So, during the off-season, Bell switched to tight end and has impressed his coaches so much that he’ll be the starting TE for the Sooners, and that spells trouble for opposing defenses. Good luck tackling him in the open field when he gets a run on. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him used as a quarterback in short-yardage situations, either. Bell at tight end represents another nice wrinkle in the Sooner offense, and a good way to keep a talented guy on the roster.

Texas A&M’s offensive output: How do you replace the mercurial Johnny Manziel? Well, you don’t, not really, but sophomore QB Kenny Hill faces a daunting challenge to carry the Aggie offense onward and upward. Their first game is against a tough South Carolina side, and rolling through SEC play, things won’t get any easier for A&M.

Manziel was king of making big plays. Incredible escapism was his trademark, as was putting up eye-popping numbers. It’s not exactly a-grade analysis to suggest that the Aggies aren’t going to be as offensively robust this year as they were a season ago, but there are still weapons on the field for A&M and charting their total offensive numbers this week and going forward, will be interesting.

Big Ten vs. SEC: There’s a lot made of the vast gulf between the SEC and the Big Ten in recent years. It’s been just about one-way traffic in Bowl games between schools from these two conferences – which some like to term a match-up between the power conference and the conference that wishes it was a power conference – in recent seasons.

Saturday night, the Big Ten’s Wisconsin Badgers have a golden a chance to start off a new era of college football in a rather strange way: that is, of course, beating an SEC opponent. They face Les Miles’ Louisiana State Tigers at NRG Stadium in Houston.

Ominously for Wisconsin, the Tigers are playing a ranked, non-conference opponent at a neutral site to start the season for the fourth time in five years. Even more ominously, Miles has never lost a season opener and just happens to be undefeated against ranked, non-conference opponents in the regular season.

Not good reading for Wisconsin fans, is it? Look, even if they don’t win, I’d love to see them play a competitive game – the Tigers and Badgers are ranked thirteenth and fourteenth respectively in the AP Top 25 to start the year – and, on the field, they look pretty well-matched. Surely there’s no better time for Wisconsin, under second-year head coach Gary Andersen, to pop up and make a bit of a headline. Beating LSU is nothing to sneeze at, and it’s going to be a nice season primer for the Badgers if they can get it done.

Watch for the same-old-same-old headlines out of the south if the Tigers get over the Badgers, particularly if it’s a convincing win.

Boise State’s new era: long-time head coach Chris Petersen has departed Boise for the potentially-greener pastures of Washington, and former offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin takes over, promising, basically, more of the same from the Broncos.

Regardless, it will be interesting to see how Harsin, a former BSU quarterback who was offensive coordinator under Mack Brown for the last few years, before returning to become Broncos head coach, will take a team that underperformed last year as compared to previous seasons.

A decline wasn’t unexpected, not with the talent that they’ve lost over the last two years. Still, the Broncos have gone 19-7 since Kellen Moore departed Boise. That’s a pertinent stat, given you’d swear that the wheels have fallen off the Bronco bus since the record-setting quarterback departed.

Harsin and his team has a great shot at a Mountain West Conference title in his first season in charge on the Blue Rug (the Broncos went 8-5 last year), but it’s a stern test first up, taking on Bo Wallace and Ole Miss in Atlanta on Thursday night.

Going forward, all eyes will be on Harsin’s ability to get back to those giant-killing ways. 8-5 was once a good season in Boise, but it’s an underachieving one now. The development of jittery senior QB Grant Hedrick will be key to BSU’s chances of a big season and, their chances of starting 2014 1-0.

Opinion: Grading ESPN’s 2014 College Football Broadcast Teams

It’s a transitional year for college football, as the sport – arguably America’s second most popular, behind the all-conquering NFL – moves from the controversial BCS system to a more favoured four-team playoff, which will end with the two best teams in the nation playing for the National Championship in January 2015.

ESPN is the key broadcaster of college football and it’s the self-professed Worldwide Leader in Sports who provides the bulk of coverage for hours and hours on Saturdays (Sundays in Australia) via various outlets including ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, ESPNU and the new SEC Network.

As players and coaches move about during the off-season, some leaving and some arriving, so do the broadcasters. With new faces in new places for the ESPN, here are my gradings of the on-camera teams who will bring football games to life on our screens from late August through early January:

Grade: A+

Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Heather Cox: Out goes Brent Musburger and in comes the host of College Game Day, Chris Fowler, to work with Herbie and Heather mostly on the primetime ABC game – ‘Saturday Night Football’ – each week (but sometimes on ESPN, too). It may prove to be a long season for Fowler and Herbstreit, preparing for a game and the GameDay broadcast, but this should be a potent combination.

Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe: This returning trio will mostly call the top ESPN game of the weekend, but sometimes an ABC game, and there are few better combinations in broadcasting. Nessler is excitable but doesn’t go crazy, Blackledge is an excellent analyst – and his Taste of the Town segment is great – whilst Rowe does the best she can with a thankless job.

Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman and Todd McShay: McDonough and Spielman being reunited a few seasons back was one of the smartest moves ESPN has ever made. McDonough’s call is dramatic and exciting and Spielman, whilst perhaps not the most technical X’s and O’s guy, is certainly enthusiastic, and his genuine, overriding love of football really shines through whenever he talks. You tune in weekly to see what these two will come up with – great chemistry between two guys who’re obviously friends. Despite McShay’s presence here, this team definitely rates an A+.

Grade: A

Dave Pasch, Brian Griese and Tom Luginbill: Stuck mostly on a midday ESPN game, this trio doesn’t get enough love. Luginbill, a mainstay on ESPNU for years before a promotion to the mothership last year, is more of an analyst than a reporter, and nicely complements the well-spoken Griese and Pasch, whose work with ESPN, especially calling NBA basketball, is top notch. Love listening to these guys.

Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, David Pollack and Samantha Ponder: The crew on ESPN’s big Thursday night match-up reminds me of a group of friends getting together to make comment on a football game. Palmer and Pollack aren’t short of things to say, and Davis, freed from the studio once a week, is as good at directing their traffic as he is at producing an exciting call. Really thought Davis would get GameDay when Fowler went to Saturday Night Football, but he’s obviously still a valued employee at ESPN. Ponder, like most sideline reports, doesn’t add much.

Joe Tessitore, Brock Huard and Shannon Spake: Like Gus Johnson in his CBS March Madness games, it’s pretty much guaranteed that if you assign a game to Joe Tessitore, it’s going to be crazy/wild/exciting. Think back to some of the most insane games in recent memory and it’s a pretty fair bet that Tess was calling it. Thankfully, he’s been released from the disaster that is Matt Millen, upgrading to Brock Huard and former NASCAR reporter Spake on the sidelines.

Brent Musburger, Jesse Palmer and Maria Taylor: A shame to see ‘Big Game’ Brent relegated from primetime ABC to relative anonymity on the just-launched SEC Network. But at least he’s on TV somewhere so we can hear his gambling references and, of course, “You Are Looking Live at…”. Musburger certainly hasn’t lost his step, and will team nicely with Palmer for the SEC Network’s biggest game each week.

Grade: B

Mark Jones, Rod Gilmore and Jessica Mendoza: An broadcast team that isn’t going to grab anyone by the scruff of the neck, but, at the same time, they’re not going to create any controversy, either. It’s all about football here. Jones calls a solid game, conveying all important information, and Gilmore gets better as an analyst each season. Can’t understand the social media hate for him.

Beth Mowins, Joey Galloway and Paul Carcaterra: The only female play-by-play commentator in college football is well complemented by former star receiver Galloway, and ex-lacrosse star Carcaterra does what he can on the sidelines. Mowins is streets ahead of the other female who’s recently called college football: the truly awful Pam Ward. This is a solid combination.

Dave Lamont and Desmond Howard: Always liked Lamont, and Howard, a Michigan legend, has become a big part of the all-conquering College GameDay. The two will team up for occasional weekday games, most of which will be high-powered MAC contests. Should be fun listening to them broadcast that MACtion.

Grade: C

Mike Patrick, Ed Cunningham and Jeannine Edwards: I like Cunningham and I feel sorry that he’s been saddled with Patrick in recent years, after some good work with veteran Ron Franklin. Honestly, I can’t get excited about a game Patrick’s calling, though he is prone to strange turns – remember when he asked what Britney was up to? – so this could be labelled train wreck television. Not my favourite broadcast team. I’m only watching if they’re calling USC.

Dave Flemming, Danny Kanell and Allison Williams: A new combination on Friday nights, most of which, outside of the occasional PAC-12 contest, I don’t watch much. Kanell’s Captain Obvious moments annoy me. Better to say nothing than say something that’s so glaringly in-your-face obvious that you look like an idiot. ESPN seem to like him, because he’ll be working the ABC Saturday Night Football studio this year. No idea why. Then again, ESPN seemed to love Matt Millen, too, so there’s no accounting for taste.

Grade: D

Bob Wischusen, Matt Millen and Quint Kessenich: Obvious Wischusen, the radio voice for the New York Jets, has upset someone at ESPN, because he’s been saddled with arguably the worst analyst in the game. Matt Millen hands this team a D grading. The former Penn State lineman has zero redeeming features as a broadcaster, except, perhaps, that his frequent stupidity allows those of us who love social media to go to town. Wischusen is a great play-by-play guy and deserves more. Kessenich is solid.

NCAA Football 2014: Week One Australian Foxtel / ESPN TV Guide

The long summer is over, and college football is about to explode back into stadiums across the United States. 2014 marks the debut of the new college football playoff season, which should be a giant improvement over the controversial BCS system.

As far as television goes, with ESPN now part-owner of the SEC Network (home of the legendary Brent Musburger) we might get more of a look at the best conference in the nation.

Week One has some great games to get us going, including appearances by some big programs: Michigan, Alabama, Wisconsin, Louisiana State and the reigning National Champion Florida State Seminoles. College GameDay is in Fort Worth for the Florida State vs. Oklahoma State game AT&T Stadium.

Alright, let's get into it!


All times AEST

Friday August 29

No. 21 Texas A&M vs. No. 9 South Carolina (8.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
College Football Countdown (9.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Wake Forest vs. Louisiana-Monroe (9.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Boise State vs. Mississippi (10.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)

Saturday August 30

Brigham Young vs. Connecticut (9.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
UNLV vs. Arizona (12.30pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Penn State vs. Central Florida - from Ireland (10.30pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
College GameDay (11.00pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)

Sunday August 31

College GameDay (12.01am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
No. 7 UCLA vs. Virginia (2.00am/ ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Appalachian State vs. Michigan (2.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
West Virginia vs. No. 2 Alabama (5.30am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
No. 16 Clemson vs. No. 12 Georgia (7.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 1 Florida State vs. Oklahoma State (10.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
No. 14 Wisconsin vs. No. 13 Louisiana State (11.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
College Football Final (2.00pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)

Monday September 1

MEAC/SWAC Challenge - Alabama A&M vs. North Carolina A&T (1.45am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)

Tuesday September 2

College Football Countdown (9.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Miami-FL vs. Louisville (10.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD

Opinion: 2014 Looks Like a Year of Quarterback Uncertainty in the SEC

When you look back through the recent and storied history of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), it’s hard to pick a more even year at the sport’s most important position.

For the first time in more than a decade, there’s been a giant generational change at quarterback, as the SEC – this despite Florida State of the Atlantic Coast Conference coming in as defending national champions – enters a season that will lack so many of the signal-callers who have come to underline recent SEC dominance.

Gone are Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel, Georgia’s Aaron Murray, Missouri’s James Franklin and Alabama’s AJ McCarron, and in their places come a bunch of relative unknowns.

Of course, star players leaving campus is nothing new, but I can’t remember a time when a group more important and established quarterbacks have all left at the same time. The importance of a quarterback cannot be overstated, and this year, as we enter a five-day countdown to the first snap of the 2014 season, it’s anyone’s guess as to what might happen.

Schools who’ve known quarterback stability for at least a few seasons – Georgia and Alabama, particularly – have had two- or three-horse races for quarterback between players so unfamiliar to most of their fan bases that some fans wouldn’t know these potential stars if they ran them down on the streets of, say, Tuscaloosa or Athens.

Alabama, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Georgia and the surprise packets of 2013, Missouri, will all be putting new or relatively new faces under centre when the season begins on Friday morning in Australia). As far as returning stars go, you could argue that the biggest ‘name’ is Auburn’s Nick Marshall.

That’s pretty ironic, given that, a season ago, Marshall – and, indeed the entire Auburn program – was an unproven commodity. No one was sure whether Marshall would turn out to be the next Cam Newton or morph into a middling-type quarterback in a league overflowing with talent. One year, Marshall’s a guy no one knew, and the next he’s the focal point of a Tigers team who had one of the most incredible seasons in SEC history.

Marshall is as good an example as Johnny Manziel in that a guy can be a nobody coming into fall camp and, come the first weekend in December, be standing in New York City holding the Heisman Trophy aloft. That’s how it went for Manziel. Sure, there were some rumblings about how good the kid they’d always called Johnny Football was, but good on the high school gridiron and good in the SEC are two different things – how often have we seen highly-touted high school prospects, particularly at quarterback, crash and burn spectacular in college? Plenty.

Manziel was one of those exceptions to the rule, and he’s a pretty good indication of what a guy coming in as a mostly-unknown player can do. That’s the brilliant thing about college football. You can go from an anonymous guy on campus to a national superstar almost overnight. In the SEC, a quarterback’s profile is arguably more enhanced than anywhere else in college football.

If you’re after experience at quarterback, then look no further than South Carolina and Georgia, who both have the luxury of slotting fifth-year seniors into their offenses. These are guys who’ve been around the program a long time, which means there’s little that’s going to surprise these signal-callers when they get into the game.

The Gamecocks have Dylan Thompson, who saw sporadic play last year for Steve Spurrier as backup to Connor Shaw, and he showed some flashes of talent. You know, if there’s one not to question, it’s Spurrier’s ability to recruit and nurture quarterback talent, so if the ‘Ol Ball Coach is happy with Thompson, then so am I.

Across at the Aaron Murray-less Bulldogs, head coach Mark Richt has tabbed Hutson Mason, who actually started in place of the injured Murray – the star Bulldog had blown out his knee – last season in a last-gasp win over, Georgia Tech, and again in the Gator Bowl against Nebraska. Mason put up big numbers there, but couldn’t lead his team to a win. Still, he showed enough to provide hope to the large Bulldog fan base.

A similar situation exists in Columbia, Missouri, where sophomore Maty Mauk started four games for the Tigers last year in relief of an injured James Franklin, throwing eleven scores and only two picks in those games, and the Tigers, who surprised all and sundry in their second SEC season, barely skipped a beat.

Look, as much as everyone laments injuries – and, rightly so – there’s certainly something to be said for a quarterback’s development when he’s thrust into a starting gig unexpectedly. Mauk, Mason and Thompson will be better for the experience of having started on good teams throughout their career, albeit sporadically.

Those more experienced guys undoubtedly have a step on newcomers, and when you look down an SEC form guide, the number of quarterback wild cards at big programs, where pressure is as much a part of football as tailgating, really sticks out.

The cagey Nick Saban hasn’t given any word as to who will start Alabama’s first game against West Virginia on Saturday in Atlanta, still monitoring a battle between Jake Coker and Blake Sims. Whoever gets the nod, at least they’ll have some pretty good offensive talent to throw to, with proven performers like receivers Christion Jones and Amari Cooper and running back Kenyan Drake all back. The problem is: we don’t know much about either.

Sophomore Kenny Hill beat out freshman Kyle Allen during camp, and will lead Kevin Sumlin’s Texas A&M into battle. The Aggies open on Thursday night against South Carolina. Talk about a baptism of fire for the second-year player who beat out Allen, a highly-prized recruit coming into College Station. Sumlin has said that the battle may continue through the clash against the Gamecocks, but it’s Hill’s job to lose at the moment.

In Baton Rouge, sophomore Anthony Jennings will get the nod for LSU over freshman Brandon Harris, as Les Miles’ Tiger squad seeks to replace departed star Zach Mettenberger. Harris had a good spring, throwing for three scores and running for one, but former NFL coordinator Cam Cameron gets a chance to mould Jennings as he moulded and improved Mettenberger last season. It helps that LSU might have the best offensive line in the conference.

There’s also quarterback change at Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Tennessee, too – yeah, basically everywhere, and it’s not a stretch to say that the SEC is wide open in 2014. The conference enters a brave new world after years of stability. It should translate to some wildly entertaining conference play – and perhaps a few frustrating moments for fans – in which figures to be the most likely year in about a decade for a major shake-up in the nation’s premiere conference.

Book Review: "Pegasus Bridge" by Stephen E. Ambrose

Noted American historian Stephen E. Ambrose shines a light on one of the least-discussed but most important parts of the D-Day operation in a short, but important work detailing the heroic exploits of the small detachment of British glider-borne troops who were the first Allied soldiers to touch the soil of occupied France on D-Day - 6 June, 1944 - and had one of the more difficult tasks: the capture and subsequent defence of a vital bridge across the Orne River, behind the seaborne invasion zones, codenamed Pegasus.

Interestingly for someone whose previous works – Citizen Soldiers, Band of Brothers and Wild Blue, to name only a handful – have focused almost exclusively on the United Stated involvement in the Second World War, Pegasus Bridge barely mentions anyone other than the volunteers, former light infantry from the famous Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire regiment along with twenty sappers and glider pilots, twenty of them, from the Glider Pilot Regiment.

‘Deadstick’ was the codename for the operation that called for the glider pilots to land their fragile Horsa gliders almost right against the bridge, making the distance to be travelled by the attacking infantry much shorter than it might otherwise have been – they crash-landed as close as forty-seven yards from their target. It was a daring plan, the likes of which had never been attempted before, and one that caught the German garrison completely by surprise.

Capturing Pegasus Bridge meant stopping German armour from using it as a pathway to push into the eastern flank of the Allied landings at Sword Beach. It was as important a part of D-Day as, say, the landings at Utah Beach, and fraught with danger, due to the vagaries of glider-borne landings, the unfamiliar French countryside at night and being relatively lightly armoured infantrymen right in the middle of enemy territory, basically surrounded by incredible amounts of firepower.

Ambrose opens his book at the beginning of the raid, and goes back to detail the formation of the taskforce led by Major John Howard, their training, the important role played by the pilots, Howard’s mission briefing from his superiors and, here and there, information about the German soldiers and French civilians around the Bridge, who were entangled in Operation Deadstick.

Pegasus Bridge is a fascinating story about a little-known part of D-Day, which reads like a great adventure fiction. You sometimes have to stop and remind yourself that the events contained within actually happened. The book is a fitting memorial to those who died in the capture and subsequent defence of the bridge. The first man to die on Pegasus Bridge was also the first man to die on D-Day. Yes, the Ox and Bucks were the vanguard of the mighty Allied invasion effort.

The capture of the bridge across the Caen Canal undoubtedly made the Allied landings much more successful. With Howard’s men holding until mid-morning on D-Day, withstanding counter-attack after counter-attack from German Panzer divisions. Who knows what might’ve happened if Major Howard’s force had not been able to hold the bridge. It’s very possible that the D-Day landings would now be talked about not as an overall success but as a disastrous failure.

Pegasus Bridge was indeed that important and Ambrose’s book is brilliant.
 

Photo Gallery: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary

Photos taken in November 2013

Alcatraz from San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf

Ferry dock on the far side of the island

After the prison was shut down, Alcatraz became the focal point of a native American Indian protest site.

As Sean Connery might say, "Welcome to The Rock!"

One of the many guard towers on the island

Not exactly luxurious accomodation

'Michigan Avenue'

Alcatraz from the mainland

 

Old cell blocks and guard tower

 

Light house

Decay everywhere, which makes Alcatraz an even more interesting place to visit

Water tower (complete with graffiti) sitting on the far side of the island

Beautiful views of the San Francisco Bay Area - inmates could apparently hear the sounds of the city from their cells. So close yet so far.

Book Review: "The Devil's Pact" by James Holland

The Devil’s Pact

Jack Tanner is back, in the latest adventure by historian/novelist James Holland, and the heroic British soldier, a member of the fictional Yorks Rangers, is caught up in the events surrounding the Allied invasion of Sicily.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

After time spent on the staff of General Patton, Tanner is the lone Brit involved in a risky covert mission into Sicily before the invasion begins, travelling with an American colonel whose job is to make contact – and then a deal – with the Mafia kingpin on the island, whose domination has been watered down by the advent of fascism and is looking for a way back to prominence, behind the American and British invasion, and the ousting of Mussolini’s troops from the island.

Herein lies the ‘Devil’s Pact’, the Allies needing mafia support to make a quick sweep through the countryside, and is the basis for this full-throttle adventure. Right from the outset, Tanner is in the middle of the big invasion, and it’s a relief that, a few chapters in, he returns to the Yorks Rangers and some of the great characters Holland has created and developed over the past four books – Sykes, Peploe, Brown and Phyllis. The opening to the book, with Tanner doing covert work with the Americans, didn’t feel quite right because he was without his usual sidekicks. When Skyes and co reappear, everything’s back to normal.

There’s a new enemy who, ironically, leaps out of Tanner’s past, Colonel Creer, a man Tanner knew from his previous army service in India – and was, there, a cohort with the murderous Blackistone, who had featured in an earlier novel – and Creer is aghast that Tanner, who had been about the only incorruptible soldier in India, is now an acting major, having been jumped up from the ranks.

Creer has earned the nickname ‘Croaker’ for his sudden ability to fall ill on the eve of battle, and is one of those classic officers who insists on discipline and good administration, but is nowhere to be found when the guns start firing. Of course, that puts him at odds with Tanner’s oversized heroics, and there is predictable but interesting friction between the two.

A little more of Tanner’s complicated and as-yet-mostly-unrevealed history, surrounding why he joined the army in the first place. The slow reveal keeps every book more interesting and Holland providing a few more small pieces of the puzzle here.

The spectre of the Mafia and the Allied involvement with them lurks in the background for the first half of the novel, which details the landing and early battles to secure a beachhead, and exploded when Tanner – as he is prone to doing – upsets a Mafioso boss once the fighting has died down, earning himself the enmity of the entire organisation. Of course, Tanner deals with things in his own way: like a bull at a gate. He also meets a widowed Sicilian woman who, herself, has entanglements with the Mafia.

Complicating matters is the Allies’ need for Mafia support and towards the end there’s an interesting plot twist that I didn’t see coming, and a fairly surprising conclusion that whet my appetite for the next installment.

If you enjoy World War Two fiction and over-the-top heroics against a backdrop of real and crucial events, The Devil’s Pact is for you.