Soft Pretzel Logic

I didn't forget... I just... uh... well, anyway.

The Inquirer's Ray Parrillo reports on Rutgers' 34-11 win over Buffalo, witnessed by the third-largest crowd in school history and quite a different football culture from the last time those two teams met.

Shannon Ryan reports that Anthony Morelli is playing the role of nocturnal sheep as well as Penn State quarterback for Joe Paterno, then asks and answers five questions about this year's Nittany Lions squad. Elsewhere in State College, Anthony Scirotto is working his way through the legal system.

But that might all be irrelevant around here if people can't see Penn State's games. The Big Ten Network isn't available on Comcast Cable -- and probably won't be for a while.

In the Daily News, Mike Kern previews the Temple-Navy game, even though it's the second half as I write this.

Dana Pennett O'Neil predicts that Penn State will beat Florida International tomorrow 42-0.

And Steve King reports on the state of things at the Orange Bowl as Randy Shannon takes over at Miami.

(NOTE: Updated below...)

I got the feeling that something was going on when the parking lot at Lincoln Financial Field I drove into was jammed full of RVs, tailgaters and variously decorated schoolbuses.

At least outside the stadium, it sure felt like a pretty important football game was about to happen.

Now I'm inside the press box, and while the place isn't close to full, I'd still put the crowd at around 20,000 or so. And most of them are Temple fans, which might be even more impressive.

There's a section or so full of Temple students almost exactly down below me, which is a little annoying because the way this place is built I can't tell just how many people there really are. Nonetheless, they seem pretty into it, even if they know their history.

There are two sections of Navy fans across the field, one of which includes the dress-whites-bedecked marching band. The press box here is enclosed, which is normally a good thing, but on this occasion it would be nice to hear "Anchors Aweigh" at full blast. The Navy folks are certainly familiar with this place.

Above all, you can at least get something of a sense that there's a Division I-A football game taking place in Philadelphia tonight. I know the organizers of this game wanted that as much as anything else, so let's start there and see what happens over the course of the rest of the night.

UPDATE: It's now almost halftime. The lower bowl is probably 3/4 full, mostly along the sidelines. Make it three and a half section of Navy fans, and pretty well the entire side of the field I'm on full of Temple fans. The crowd seems pretty lively on the whole.

The score, on the other hand, ain't so great. 21-10 Navy with a minute to go before the whistle, and the Midshipmen are at the Owls' 9-yard line.

I was at the Phillies game today. I consider that a valid excuse for not posting today's stories until this late. I'm sure you saw it too, but that was definitely the game of the year. Just unbelievable from start to finish.

(Jim Salisbury's video take on it is here. I was behind the camera.)

Anyway, Rutgers is playing its first football game of the season as I write this. The Inquirer's Ray Parrillo profiles Scarlet Knights defensive tackle Eric Foster and the pipeline from Florida to Piscataway that he's been part of.

Kevin Tatum takes a look around the Mid-American Conference, which is definitely trying to stick its neck out there this season, and Joe Juliano surveys the local smaller-college scene.

In the Daily News, Mike Kern pulls double duty with Temple and Villanova previews.

That's it. I'll be at Temple-Navy tomorrow night, so you can look forward to that. And let me know if you're going, and what kind of a game you think it will be.

Alright, folks. Let's see whether this thing can fly. Remember, the Spectacle of the Week isn't necessarily the biggest game, but the game that has the best atmosphere -- pregame buzz, bands, big crowds, that sort of thing.

Right now, I have three nominees:

-- For obvious reasons: East Carolina at Virginia Tech (Saturday, 12 p.m., ESPN2)
-- The prime-time showcase: Tennessee at California (Saturday, 8 p.m., ABC)
-- The Bowden Bowl: Florida State at Clemson (Monday, 8 p.m., ESPN)

I'll take nominees the rest of the day and tomorrow morning, then put up the poll tomorrow afternoon.

What do you think?

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In order to keep the Spectacle of the Week poll at the top of the page, I'm amending the post with today's stories to read.

Start with Mike Jensen's College Football Preview. It ran only in the print edition of this morning's Inquirer, but I managed to get a graphical version of it up on to the site this afternoon. Check it out (it's a .pdf) by clicking here.

Ray Parrillo of the Inquirer profiles Rutgers star Ray Rice, while Kevin Tatum tries to figure out what position Temple freshman stud Daryl Robinson will play. Plus Shannon Ryan reports that both tight end Andrew Quarless and defensive end Willie Harriott will miss "the next three to four weeks" after being hit with underage drinking citations.

In the Daily News, Dana Pennett O'Neil also reports on the suspensions, while Bernard Fernandez's Penn State season preview focuses on wide receiver Derrick Williams. Plus there's the ever-present info box on the Nittany Lions, and a Fernandez profile of Michigan coach Lloyd Carr.

And two stories on the national front, one with a local connection. First an ESPN.com investigative piece about football point shaving at Toledo that includes this link to Temple:

• at Temple, Sept. 17, 2005. Final score: Toledo 42, Temple 17. The Skinny: A late touchdown by a woeful Temple team resulted in the game's final score landing exactly on the betting line number, meaning both sides won their bets. Gaming sources said there was unusually substantial wagering and movement in the betting lines on both this game and the Fresno State game 10 days later, which is a warning signal for some gaming experts. Gradkowski missed part of the second half against Temple after suffering a hit late in the first half.

And I couldn't leave out the season's first Forde Yard Dash. It is what it is.

Yes, I should have done this earlier in the day, but I was the guy behind the camera for the Eagles video on Philly.com and I did the post-production (as such) as well.

Penn held its football media day yesterday. If Villanova's main storyline is its quarterback and Temple's is what Al Golden can do this year, the single biggest theme regarding the Quakers this season is the kicking game.

You might (or might not... or probably don't, to be honest) recall that Penn set a rather dubious mark last season by becoming the first team to ever lose three straight overtime games -- at Yale, at home to Brown and at Princeton. I covered the two road games for the Inquirer and believe me when I say that on any given kick, there was a pretty good chance of all heck breaking loose.

At Yale, Derek Zoch missed a 23-yarder in the second quarter. In the fourth, with the game tied 14-14, Bagnoli was so worried on a fourth-down play that he chose to go for it instead of having Zoch kick a 42-yarder into the wind. A bit of a hazardous kick? Yes, but wouldn't you take your chance with the points?

Does that change when I tell you that in the overtime, Zoch put one off the upright?

No surprise, then: Joe Juliano focuses on the kicking game in his story in today's Inquirer.

Mike Kern notes that it's been four years since Penn last won an Ivy League title. The Quakers' four conference losses last season were by a combined 11 points. That's less than a field goal three points a game. Or something like that.

At the I-A level (one rule of this blog: I will not call it the BCS Subdivision or whatever its name is), Dick Jerardi writes about Rutgers' renaissance under Greg Schiano, and also writes a useful info box. Meaningful college football in the Northeast Corridor is a pretty nice thing to have, isn't it?

Ray Parrillo profiles Conwell-Egan grad and West Virginia superstar Steve Slaton.

Shannon Ryan writes up Penn State tight end Andrew Quarless' suspension. In an update this afternoon, Ryan reports that Quarless could be out 3-4 weeks. The Nittany Lions also got a commitment from defensive end Jack Crawford.

Notre Dame DT Derrell Hand, a former West Catholic star, has been suspended three games for propositioning a prostitute and will miss the Penn State game. Just reporting the facts here, folks.

And finally, if you still want to read more, the Daily News' Ed Barkowitz compiles 50 -- yes, fifty -- things you should know about the college football season.

That should tide you over until tomorrow.

If you got your Inquirer or Daily News today you noticed that both papers are running their college football previews this week. Here's a rundown of what they've had so far:

In the Inquirer, Shannon Ryan profiled Penn State's Dan Connor on Sunday. Today, Tom Wiedeman profiles Boston College QB and Penn Charter grad Matt Ryan.

In the Daily News, Ted Silary profiles Ryan as well, and has a great rundown of 15 Philly players expected to make names for themselves across the landscape this season.

And a quick bit of breaking hoops news: star women's player Elena Delle Donne, the top high school prospect in this year's senior class, will attend UConn. The Wilmington, Del., native was pursued hotly by Villanova as well as the Huskies.

So Temple and Villanova held their football media days yesterday. I wasn't at either because, as you might have noticed, I shot two videos for Philly.com yesterday that had nothing whatsoever to do with college sports. But as you've probably figured out by now, that stuff pays the bills and this stuff doesn't quite.

Anyway, the point is that college football season starts eight days from now, even though it's still August and temperatures are going to be in the 90's this weekend. I've been thinking for a while about how to cover the local college football scene, and I thought I'd share my plan for this season with you and the dust and the tumbleweeds.

Basically, there isn't going to be much. I'll do a few Temple games and maybe a Penn and a Villanova game here and there, but I'm not really sure what more than that there will be.

More importantly, I don't have the time or resources to get out to State College for Penn State. I'll cover the Nittany Lions when they come here to play the Owls, and I'll write about what I see on TV, but I'm not sure it'll go beyond that.

Here's the real thing with me and college football, though. I'm probably as much of a fan as anything else. I like watching the big-time games between the big-time schools because they are unmatched as pure spectacles on the American sports landscape.

I love the huge crowds, the marching bands, the theatrics of teams taking the field, and Brent Musburger's booming "You are looking live..." at the top of a telecast. I don't have any real affiliations to the big-time teams, so I just hope for good games and big plays.

The one thing I'd like to do on here related to that is run a poll each week that I'm temporarily calling Spectacle of the Week. Ideally, I'd combine your nominations and a few picks of my own on Monday and Tuesday, then launch a poll on Wednesday and ask you all to pick a winner. I'd then offer a few extra thoughts on that game's high points.

Does that make sense? Are there other things you'd like to see, aside from me generally shutting my mouth?

(Is anyone still reading this thing?)

Let me know.

So here I am at Eagles training camp, working on videos every day and not generally having that much time to consider the rest of the world beyond Barry Bonds, and somewhat out of nowhere Temple men's hoops releases one almighty non-conference schedule for this season.

The Owls open at Tennessee, which means Fran Dunphy and Bruce Pearl will be on a basketball court at the same time. That is cause for celebration in and of itself.

Then it's off to San Juan (in November... now that sounds good) for a tournament that involves, among others, Arkansas, Miami, Providence, Virginia Commonwealth, and the always successful TBA. Those games will be hard but I bet Temple could win a few of them, and that could carry them a long way.

I dare say that beating VCU could look best at the end of the year. Regardless, that will be a game with some great guards in it, with Eric Maynor, Dionte Christmas and Dustin Salisbery Mark Tyndale (thanks Ariel).

Right before New Year's, Temple goes to some soulless suburb of Miami (I've heard there's a hockey team there) to play Florida. I'm willing to bet a few Owls fans will head down for that one, but I'm also willing to bet that the hotels and flights will be obscenely expensive that time of year.

And then, January 9, what will probably be seen as the biggest game of all, even if it isn't: Duke at the Wachovia Center. I wonder when the last year was that Duke and North Carolina played in Philadelphia in the same season.

As for the Big 5 games, Temple gets both nonconference matchups at home: Villanova on December 9 and Penn on January 23. The Owls also go to the Palestra to play Drexel on December 15. Which is interesting because I'm not sure John Chaney would have ever agreed to that one.

So chew on that for a while, and if you're out there, let me know what you think. And read the Eagles blog... though I'm pretty sure you're doing that already.

(Man, I can't believe I said that. But it does pay the bills.)