chowderhead9

Week 3: Top 25 Media Poll Very little movement in the rankings this week. In fact, the top 8 spots remained the same, led by the USC Trojans maintaining their hold on the #1 spot with their 45-7 win over the Kansas Jayhawks. The only move into the top-10 was The Ohio State Buckeyes who jumped from the #13 spot up to the #9 spot. The biggest jump in the polls went to the Buckeyes (#13 to #9) and the Purdue Boilermakers (#29 to #25); each rising 4 spots. There are 2 ranked match-ups in the upcoming Week 4 schedule.

Week 3: Recap The Week 3 schedule was pretty light in meaningful match-ups, as most teams were gearing up for the start of their Week 4 in-conference games. As such, there were no games between ranked teams this week. The #1 ranked USC Trojans (3-0) took on the Kansas Jayhawks (0-2). The Trojans jumped out to a 24-0 lead at the half, a cruised to a 45-7 win. Star outside linebacker and All-American candidate Taylor Denning had, by his recent standards, a down week; totaling 6 tackles, 2 pass deflections, and 1 forced fumble. The blowout game of the week honors went to the 14th ranked Miami Hurricanes as they crushed the Maryland Terrapins 68-3. The Canes cranked out 519 yards in total offense and 8 TD's. A close second went to the 11th ranked Washington Huskies as they walloped the Wyoming Cowboys 70-13, generating 558 total yards and 10 TD's. Top player performances are shown below.

San Jose State 13 --- South Alabama 10 It wasn't pretty, but a win is a win. For nearly 3 quarters, the Jaguars (0-3) kept the Spartans (1-1) off the scoreboard but you can only keep a good team down for so long; or that's at least what I've heard. With 2:58 left in the 3rd quarter, Tony Lima connected with John Moreno on a two yard pass to bring the score to 10-7. The score stayed that way until the Spartans came up with a big 3rd down stop that forced the Jaguars to punt the ball with 4:37 left in the game. Over the next 3:43, Lima marched the Spartans down the field (going 4 for 6 for 48 yards) to get within field goal range. With 0:54 left on the clock, Neville Larry drilled a 34 yard filed goal to tie the score at 10-10. Overtime: The Jaguars got the ball first, but consecutive penalties pushed them back to the 46 yard line. The 64 yard field goal attempt fell short, turning the ball over to the Spartans. With a few quick short passes and runs, the team got the ball down to the 9 yard line. A 27 yard chip-shot by Neville Larry gave San Jose State its first win of the season. #howsweetitis

Week 3: Preview of South Alabama v. San Jose State Week 3 is here and the Spartans (0-1) take on the South Alabama Jaguars (0-2) in front of the San Jose State faithful. While I am hopeful the team can play well for the home crowd, the preview analysis expects the Jaguars to have the much better offense, and better special teams play. Their run game looks decent, have some speed at the WR position, and the defensive line is led by Earl Edwards whose 4 sacks currently leads the Sun Belt Conference. We have been informed that 2-star rated WR Brett Saenz (207th best WR in the nation) accepted our invitation to visit the campus and see the Spartans in action.

Week 2: Top 25 Media Poll With their stunning loss, the Crimson Tide dropped from 1st to 6th in the media poll. With the top spot now up for grabs, the USC Trojans leapfrogged the Badgers to take over the #1 ranking. You've got to hand it to the Trojans, they did not shy away from a tough early-season schedule and their 2 wins against ranked opponents have them sitting in the cat-bird seat. The biggest jump in the polls went to Oklahoma State (6 spots from #21 to #15) and Texas (also 6 spots from #26 to #20). Both Alabama (#1 to #6) and Auburn (#6 to #11) fell 5 spots in the polls.There are no ranked match-ups in Week 3.

Week 2: Recap Week 2 featured 5 games between ranked teams. The top match-up saw the #3 ranked USC Trojans traveling to play the #6 ranked Auburn Tigers. While the teams traded field goals in the first half, USC was able to put a couple of drives together in the 3rd quarter to finally put the Trojans up for good; winning 20-13. Taylor Denning followed up on last week's great performance by adding 2 more sacks on his 10 tackle, 2 pass deflection day. Denning now has 7 sacks in just 2 games. The blowout game of the week honors went to the 10th ranked Georgia Bulldogs as they annihilated the Arizona State Sun Devils 54-6. The upset of the week came when the #1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide blew a 10 point lead in the 4th quarter and lost to Rutgers 34-27. Bama just had no answer for the passing attack led by Peter Almeida that put up 343 passing yards and 4 TD's. #wowdidnotseethatcoming Top player performances are shown below.

Week 1: Media Top 25 Poll With the exception of TCU (bye week) and Notre Dame (loss to then #5 USC), all Top 25 teams got the Week 1 victory. To be expected, Alabama remains at the top spot and likely will for most (if not all) of the season. #rolltide

Week 1: Recap The game between USC and Notre Dame did not disappoint. In the week's only match-up between ranked teams, the Trojans relied on the tenacious defensive play of linebacker Taylor Denning to stop the Fighting Irish and pull out a 24-19 road victory. Denning's performance (18 tackles, 5 sacks) earned him National defensive player of the week honors. In the week's most lopsided game, the #8th ranked Clemson Tigers steamrolled Western Michigan 61-2, gaining 576 total yards and 7 TD's. On the other end of the spectrum, New Mexico State topped Appalachian State by the baseball-like score of 3-0. Week 1 games are always good for generating big individual numbers. Top player performances are shown below.

Connecticut 21 --- San Jose State 14 Not really the way I wanted to start the season. Despite taking a 14-7 lead into the 4th quarter, the Spartans simply could not stop the Huskies from moving the ball at will in the final minutes of the game. While the Spartans run game was effective (led by John Moreno's 135 rushing yards on 21 carries), the passing game was dismal. QB Tony Lima completed just 7 of 32 passing attempts for 118 yards, and was sacked 5 times. Will need much better performance if he has any chance of staying the starting QB. Because the Spartans struggled to consistently move the ball, punter David Edward was called upon 12 times, resulting in a 41.80 average (net 36.40). Something tells me that Edward is going to see a lot of action this year. #roughstart

Media Top 25 Preseason Poll Same old story. The powerhouse teams are right where you would expect them to be -- Top 25 heading into the start of the season. The SEC has 4 teams in the Top 10; the Big Ten has 5 teams in the Top 20; and the Big 12 and Pac 12 each have 4 teams in the Top 25. Looking over the list, the best match-up of Week 1 should be the #5 USC Trojans traveling to South Bend to take on the #14 Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. This shouldn't come as a surprise, but my San Jose State Spartans did not receive any votes for the Top 25. #gofigure

Good news is the league schedule already had 8 games set for me. Bad news was that I still had to convince 4 other teams to play me. After several offers and simming a few weeks, I was finally able to fill out the schedule. In addition to the 8 in-conference games, I lined up the following out of conference games. The Week 1 game has me traveling to take on Connecticut, a Week 3 game at home with South Alabama, a Week 14 game at Western Kentucky, and a Week 15 game at home against Coastal Carolina. Based on the current rankings and player projections of my team, I really doubt that I will be favored in any of the 4 non-conference games. My "Strength of Schedule" now sits at 123rd in the Nation. Not trying to sell the drama, but there is a fairly decent chance that I am going to have a lousy first year and it would not come as a total shock if I ended up going 0-12 on the season. And yes, the "Allow User to be Fired" setting is on. #herewego

As indicated above, I decided to take over the San Jose State Spartans and to see how far I can get with the team. While I don't expect to turn the Spartans into a national powerhouse, I am optimistic that I can get to a winning record and eventually parlay that into a coaching gig at a higher-rated school. As you can see, the Spartans are not good. They have a "Very Low" prestige rating of 20, a "Recruit Rating" of #128 in the Nation, and are projected to finish last in the Mountain West conference. The team is young, so hopefully I can get a couple of wins this season and build some momentum going into the next few years. Time now to schedule some opponents.

I first picked up a copy of BBCF many years ago. I really enjoyed the game and played it as often as family, work, and grad school demands permitted. Fast forward to this past Holiday season and I found myself with some vacation time, good bowl games to watch, and an urge to start up BBCF again. As a long-time member of the OOTP boards, I have been posting my ongoing "career" of leading the San Jose State Spartans . While I enjoy the OOTP game and its community, I didn't think it was appropriate for me to continue to post in a forum for what is sure to be at some-point an amazing FOF / OOTP collaboration. So with that said, I hope this community finds some enjoyment in following along with my San Jose State Spartans.