1. Kellen Moore, Boise State
This week's Rankonia throne-holder comes from blue-turf enthusiast Chuck Klosterman: "Has anyone ever gotten jammed so much in one week? Boise loses one game to TCU ... yet gets sent to the unseen MAACO Bowl to play totally irrelevant Arizona State. Moore ends his career as one of the five most successful college QBs ever and doesn't even get an invite to the Heisman ceremony in New York. It's almost like the NCAA is trying to erase them from existence."
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Tuesday.
After months of drama and uncertainty, sources indicate that the Big East is set to add Boise State, San Diego State, SMU, UCF, and Houston to the conference roster. No word yet on whether they'll keep the name "Big East" as an ironic little relic, or just change it to "Crapville, USA" right away.
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Wednesday.
Harrison Barnes scored 20 points as the no. 5 UNC Tar Heels bounced back from their loss against UNLV with a 60-57 win over no. 7 Wisconsin. I promised UNC coach Roy Williams that I'd let him write the joke if his team won, so here he is, folks, Roy Williams: "Em dadgern Badger fellers play 'at baskertballin ' so dang slow I 'uz fixin' to tie a randy mule to one dem sass-frass hitchin' posts and watch 'at sumbitch walk round 'til he got Gypsy tied and circle silly!" (Jesus, Roy, that's not even really a joke. Thanks for making me look like an idiot.)
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Tuesday.
In the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, no. 2 Ohio St. embarrassed no. 4 Duke 85-63. The Buckeyes dominated every facet of the game, and Jared Sullinger led his team with 21 points. After the game, 95 percent of Duke alumni agreed that overly strict government restraints on big business were responsible for the loss. The other 5 percent were working late on Wall Street and missed the game.
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Monday.
Drew Brees threw for four touchdowns and ran for another as the Saints routed the Giants 49-24. After the running touchdown, he tried to dunk the ball over the goalposts, but was forced to settle for a finger roll when his legs failed him. In related news, Drew Brees is now Jason Kapono's favorite player.
Welcome to the first edition of Rankonia, The Triangle's power rankings. Usually these kinds of things celebrate team or individual excellence. We're going another route here — we're celebrating athletes, teams, and coaches whose performances, on or off the field, speak to us in a deep, profound way that we can only articulate through the format of ranking. If you have any nominations for next week, by all means, take it to that start-up site, Facebook, or shoot us an e-mail. To the rankings!
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Monday.
Mike Napoli's two-run double in the eighth inning gave the Rangers a 4-2 win over the Cardinals and a 3-2 lead in the World Series. Napoli, a righty, hit his double off left-hander Marc Rzepczynski, but he should have been facing righty closer Jason Motte. Cardinals manager Tony La Russa called for Motte twice, but both times bullpen coach Derek Lilliquist misheard him due to crowd noise. Lilliquist later admitted to being embarrassed at his mistake, but was pleased to have won $300,000 gambling on a Rangers victory.
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports last weekend.
Derek Holland gave up just two hits in 8 1/3 innings as the Texas Rangers evened up the World Series at two games apiece with a 4-0 win over the Cardinals. It's tempting to call his performance an "opus," but it's not worth dealing with the angry phone calls and letters from Richard Dreyfuss.
While much of the news out of the San Francisco 49ers 25-19 win over the Detroit Lions centers around the Jim Harbaugh-Jim Schwartz handshake-of-doom, there is another storyline to consider: The 49ers' close win. The victory was another step in the resuscitation of 49ers quarterback Alex Smith's career, which is not a complete surprise given that his coach, Harbaugh, was once an NFL quarterback himself. Yet Harbaugh hasn't brought a quarterback-dependent throw-it-around-the-stadium type of offense to San Francisco. Instead, he's doing what he did to rejuvenate Stanford, which seems to be to channel his old college coach Bo Schembechler's tough, physical approach to the game. And against the Lions, Harbaugh's 49ers didn't get their yards by running outside or getting the ball in space. Instead, the game plan was simple: run the ball right at Detroit's vaunted defensive line, led by Ndamukong Suh.
Here’s your Tuesday whip-around on the stories dominating the headlines and lingering in the margins of the NFL. No pads needed.
Colts quarterback Peyton Manning just got off the PUP list and, man, is his neck tired. When pressed on how he was feeling following his neck surgery, and how his condition has impacted his throwing motion or his ability to be disappointed in his receivers, Manning humorously invoked his right to privacy under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. “I don't know what HIPAA stands for, but I believe in it and I practice it. I'll leave it at that,” he said. Upon hearing the statement, backup QB Curtis Painter began to frantically look for the “HIPAA Set” in the Colts’ playbook.
