FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[OzJohnnie]

Wow, I see that there are massive new facilities for SJU.  No pavilion for the Stiftungfestivities, though.  Shame.

[sfury]

Nice article in the Times today about the depth at wide receiver for SJU

http://www.sctimes.com/article/20110423/SPORTS04/104230002/SJU-football-Duo-will-lead-SJU-receiving-corps?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Umbrella

Reding's returning. He played for Johnny "Blood" McNally originally, right?

[OzJohnnie]

It's been a blistering first quarter of football and Hawthorn leads Geelong by one point, 33 - 32.  It's a beautiful day for football and the teams have not let down the 80,000 fans that turned out.  Face paced and very hard at the ball, this game today.  The break is almost over and the players are back out taking their positions.

[OzJohnnie]

The Cats came out and dominated the Hawks, but failed to capitalize on the scoreboard.  The Hawks took their shots at goal for maximum points and came into the major break with a nine point lead, 62 - 53

[OzJohnnie]

Carved. Us. Up.  The third quarter is the championship quarter and boy did the cats play with discipline.  We played like minor league hacks.  Two late goals, the result of individual effort, have kept the Hawks in the match, but it has to be a different team that takes the field after the third break.  Cats lead 88 - 78.

[OzJohnnie]

Well, the same team took the field.  We got within one point about ten minutes into the period off, again, individual effort but then Geelong upped the tempo and we started, again, with the skills errors and bad decision making.  We just don't have the discipline and commitment to step up a level.  Geelong win running away, 117 - 98.

Unless some teams gel, it looks like a Collingwwod and Geelong year.  Wankers. 

[tmerton]

Four posts about another Hawthorn loss, er, game, and no use of wankers?

I've always fancied Geelong myself; better name.

[faunch]

Nice article in the Times today about the depth at wide receiver for SJU

http://www.sctimes.com/article/20110423/SPORTS04/104230002/SJU-football-Duo-will-lead-SJU-receiving-corps?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Umbrella

Max Forster should make an impact too. 
John and Jim need to get the quarterback situation figured out early.  Ries has had a few opportunities the last couple of years but the Bruns kid could be the guy for 2 or 3 years.

[57Johnnie]

Things are slow - over 10 days on one page  

Oops - I turned it 

[OzJohnnie]

Man, what's up with those tornadoes?   Crazy.  And tragic.

[badgerwarhawk]

What makes it worse is the fact that May is month with the most tornadoes. 

[skunks_sidekick]

Man, what's up with those tornadoes?   Crazy.  And tragic.

Hmmm...let's see.  If you talk to a right-wing religious nut it's a sign of the end days.  If you talk to a left-wing environmental nut it's a sign of global warming. 

If you talk to just about anyone else it's a sign of some crappy, sucky, tragic weather.

[57Johnnie]

Man, what's up with those tornadoes?   Crazy.  And tragic.

Hmmm...let's see.  If you talk to a right-wing religious nut it's a sign of the end days.  If you talk to a left-wing environmental nut it's a sign of global warming. 

If you talk to just about anyone else it's a sign of some crappy, sucky, tragic weather.

........ and the Viking brass are       religious thinkers ...............

[OzJohnnie]

I don't know if they're religious but they sure are nuts.  So, will this new qb be any good?

[hazzben]

When I watched them pick Ponder I literally groaned. But upon further review, I'm not so sure it wasn't the right move.

First, they definitely reached for him at 12. His scouting report is clearly not lottery pick material, maybe not even first round material.

Thing is, they simply need a quarterback. Desperately. After years of mishandling the position, from T-Jack to Gus to the Favre band-aid, they needed to quit the stopgap approach and find someone who had some longterm potential. When they couldn't trade back, they had to make a move because there was no guarantee they'd get someone later in rd 2, at least not as ready to start as Ponder.

I think Locker was definitely their top choice (because I'm sure they assumed they had no chance at Newton or Gabbert). But none of those 3 are locks either. No QB's in this draft are. What they get in a Ponder is a very intelligent kid (finance degree in 2.5 yrs and two masters degrees...sounds like a DIII student-athlete) who is obviously tough. He played through a senior season riddled with injuries that killed his draft stock. But I love the fact that he played through them all. He's got some gristle, which he'll need as starting rookie qb.

The major knock is he doesn't have elite arm strength. Wait, so he's no Jamarcus Russel, Ryan Leaf, Jeff George, et. al?!? Give me a super accurate, highly intelligent, qb with underated athleticism over a guy with a monster arm and other issues any day.

Now he might be a total bust, and I'm guessing 95% of the QB's in this draft will be. (You really just had a perfect storm with tons of mediocre/non-franchise QB talent and tons of teams with a desperate need at the position) But they obviously had him rated higher than Dalton (who I actually like as well - a redheaded qb would fit the Vikings franchise history perfectly) and Mallett needs tons of seasoning before he's ready to play (he was a Ryan Leaf fiasco waiting to happen if he landed in a play from the start situation).

With the weapons around him at RB, WR and TE, he's in a pretty good situation. He won't have to be Drew Brees or Tom Brady this year. It'll at least be fun to watch either way.