Archive for September, 2009
Poor Christian Ponder plays with Female Wide Receivers
Have you ever gone out and throw a football around with a girl that has never really done it before? Have you ever noticed how, even if you throw the ball up high towards her face she can’t figure out how to properly turn her hands, and will either try to catch it like an alligator jaw or try to catch it with the palms of her hands facing up, as if the throw was down around her ankles?
Christian Ponder is very familiar with this, because it’s something he has to deal with every week when he steps onto the field for Florida State. No less than three passes in Monday’s game against Miami, including the last two passes of the game, hit Jarmon Forston in the facemask because he does not possess the natural football wherewithall to turn his hands over when the ball is above his waist. It’s something that comes as naturally to anyone that grew up throwing the ball around as using a fork, but Forston has to fight his natural inclinination to cradle the ball in his gut, just like your wife or girlfriend would do if you took her outside and tried to toss the rock with her right now.
FSU’s loss, at home, to Miami on Monday has put a pretty big damper on their season. They will likely get pounded at Florida later in the year, making them 0-2 against their major rivals this year. But there is good news. Christian Ponder went 24/41 for 294 yards and 2 TDs Monday against Miami, and frankly, he looked even better than that. Had he played with some male WRs, Ponder likely would have finished with around 400 yards passing and 4-5 TDs on the day, that’s how spot on he was. Several deep passes hit the turf that should have been big plays.
I counted no less than three 40+ yard passes that should have been big plays for the Noles, but the receivers let him down. They may have looked like tough catches as they were typically falling down or making adjustments to the ball, but these are catches any WR at a major university like FSU should be able to make in their sleep. One, in particular, on a go-route down the sideline on a key third down, may have been the pretiest pass we’ll see thrown this year. Forston was covered like glue, but Ponder made an unbelievable pass, placed perfectly over Forston’s outside shoulder right around the goaline, which proceeded to hit Forston – you guessed it – in the facemask.
FSU has struggled for years to find a QB to bring them back to the age of Busby and Kanell and Weinke, and with Ponder they may finally have one. The trouble now is, maybe it’s time to focus on recruiting some skilled male receivers, rather than just fast girls.
The Big 10 May be even worse than Normal this year
As bad as they’ve been the last few years, this year might REALLY be the down year for the Big 10, if week 1 is any indication. Of all the Big 10 teams to play, only Penn State looked like a real football team. I realize week 1 of the college football season in unpredictable, but this was worse than normal. Iowa needed two blocked field goals in the final seconds to defeat the mighty Northern Iowa. Minnesota narrowly escaped the mighty Syracuse Orange who have what, a combined 1 win in the last two years? Even the mighty Ohio State was a mere 2 point conversion away from going to overtime with, of all teams, Navy.
The good news for the Big 10 is that all these teams that struggled still managed to pull out wins against their supposedly inferior opponents, and a few weeks from now (or if Ohio State knocks off USC next week) people will forget about it. The bad news is that style does matter in college football, and the worse news is that this could be an indication of future troubles to come for the conference. When games against Northern Iowa, Navy, and Syracuse actually make for good TV, that doesn’t exactly bode well for the games against real compeition on their schedule. And we’ll just forget about even mentioning that Illinois/Missouri debacle…