Summers Will Kick No More

Chris Summers had the worst display of placekicking I have seen in college football. He did not make a single kick. Summers missed 2 field goals, 36 and 45 yard attempts, and an extra point. Are you kidding me? He missed an extra point. Those are gimme points. Middle school kickers can even make those. Boilermaker fans were booing Summers when he failed to hit anything during the 20-6 loss to Penn State over the weekend.

Head coach Joe Tiller says that Chris Summers will not kick against the number 11 Ohio State Buckeyes this weekend, but that he will still be the punter since he has been doing a great job at that so far. Freshman Carson Wiggs will be the starting placekicker for the Boilers from now on. It will not be his first appearance however. Wiggs has been kicking off for Purdue all year. He also came in to attempt a 60 yard field goal a couple weeks back. He barely miss it too. The kick was on target but was a couple yards short. Tiller states that Wiggs has a big leg and has faith that he can get the job done.

Joe Tiller even said that Summers has been struggling more than just in games, but in practice as well. He has missed several field goal attempts in practice. How is a kicker suppose to hit a big time field goal if he can't even make one in practice without pressure or anyone trying to block the kick? He can't, and that is why Carson Wiggs is the Boilermakers kicker. We will have to watch Purdue play Ohio State this weekend and see if Carson Wiggs is up to the challenge.

Painter Benched?

Purdue suffered a rough loss of 6-20 to Penn State over the weekend. The Boilermaker offense struggled to get anything going their way. Senior Curtis Painter was eventually pulled out of the game in the fourth quarter and replaced with the fan favorite, junior Joey Elliott.

Painter continued to struggle throughout the game, not being about to make any big plays through the air. He only completed 13 passes out of 22 attempts. He was able to produce 112 passing yards, but he threw no touchdowns and 1 interception. With this letdown by the star quarterback, head coach Joe Tiller decided to put in back-up quarterback Joey Elliott to try and jump start the Boilermaker offense. This was a start. Elliott completed 3 passes out of 5 attempts resulting in 46 yards and set up the only touchdown that Purdue was able to produce all game which was a 1 yard run by running back Kory Sheets. If you were at the game, you could tell that the fans wanted Elliott on the field instead of Painter. Purdue fans were booing Curtis Painter when he would make a bad choice or a horrible throw, especially after his interception. I remember at the game, as soon as Elliott made the completion near the end zone and Sheets was able to power run it in the end zone for six, the Purdue student section began cheering "Joey, Joey, Joey."

Since Curtis Painter is leading the Big Ten conference in passing yards, head coach Joe Tiller says that Painter is still his starting quarterback since he has the most experience and gives Purdue the best chance to win football games. The Boilermaker football fans may disagree, but he is the coach and gets to decide things like that. We will wait and see if Joey Elliott makes another appearance and replaces starter Curtis Painter.

MIDNIGHT MADNESS ANYONE!!!!

Okay if any of my fellow Boilermaker fans are getting pissed at how poorly the Purdue Football team is then now’s your time to get excited for Purdue Basketball. On Oct. 17^th there is the midnight madness or inner scrimmage of the Purdue Basketball Team. After this scrimmage I will be writing a very long type of hype up/scouting report of the Purdue Basketball Team. I should also have an Interview with John Hart (freshman SG) of the Purdue Basketball Team. So be ready for the Interview…I promise it will be good.

Michigan's Big Comeback

The Michigan Wolverines struggled in the first half against the ranked Wisconsin Badgers. Going into the second half the Wolverines were down 19-0. I guess their offense decided to show up in the second half. With about 2 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, Michigan began to get hot and was on a roll. They scored 3 touchdowns in just 12 minutes and hung on to outscore the Badgers 27-6 in the second half. Michigan's come from behind upset is the second biggest comeback in school history. When the team looked like they were out of the game, the Wolverine defense came up big by shutting out the Badgers in the 3rd quarter and only letting them score 1 touchdown in the 4th, however, the Michigan defense came up big again to stop the 2 point conversion that gave the Wolverines that 2 point edge over thier opponents that eventually was the deciding points in the game. And we cannot forget the defensive touchdown in the 3rd quarter that set the tone for Michigan to go on and win the game. The team showed that they are capable of scoring points in the clutch when they really need it. Wisconsin is a good football team, and it takes some talent to score on them that quickly and easily. With the final score 27-25 in favor of the Wolverines, Michigan may be able to turn their season around with this win. Do not count Michigan out just yet. They may come back and surprise many teams yet to come.

AP Changes Could Mean a Sweet November

The poll is very different than last week and all college football fans know what that means…Its going to be an interesting November. Sitting atop the AP poll this week is Oklahoma, who is actually deserving of this spot. I believe they deserve the number one spot because they have in my opinion on of the top five offenses in the nation because of their Heisman hopeful quarterback Sam Bradford who is in the number one spot for the Heisman as of this week; although Missouri’s quarterback Chase Daniels and Brigham Youngs QB Max Hall are closing in on him. Other teams that have moved up due to the losses of 9 teams in the top 25 are Alabama who moved from 8th to 2nd with the major win over the Georgia Bulldogs. Penn State also moved up six spots to the number 6th ranking in the nation. Other notables moving up were Brigham Young, South Florida, Texas, and a few others. This is all good for the teams that are moving up and just might set up one of the most datable BCS Championships of all time.

The BCS Championship bowl is decided by a computer that gives statistical rankings from human based polls scores of games blowouts and such to decide who are the two best teams in the nation and then these two teams play each other to be crowned the national champion. There is one tiny little problem with this system it really never does come up with the two best teams, because the computer or human usually pick the fan favorites such as USC, OSU, LSU, and so on. They do this I think to try and get better TV ratings because it is a game people would like to see more than let’s say Missouri. This is because big powerhouses make more money and have larger fan support throughout the nation than smaller school do. It’s like in High School all the big 4A and 5A schools get the TV time and the smaller schools don’t ever get to show what they have. The BCS this year is going to be very very interesting because of this weekend of losses. The losses mean that maybe we will have another 2003 BCS bowl with a number 2 facing a number 3. I mean Florida, USC, and Georgia could all still be title contenders even though they have lost one game. Georgia really has the best bet of making it back to the BCS because they lost to Alabama who was ranked in the top ten and is now ranked number 2. Although, since Florida and USC are big school powerhouses and the public really seems to like both of these teams they could also still be contending for the BCS Bowl bid. Really it all comes down to who is number one and number two…most of the time.

Improved Texas Defense

The Texas Longhorns have stepped up their defense incredibly since the season began. Over the weekend, they shut down the Arkansas Razorbacks offense since the opening kick off. Arkansas didn't even know what hit them. Texas's defensive line was able to contain the running back from getting anywhere.The Longhorns limited the Razorbacks to only 11 rushing yards throughout the entire game while Texas rushed for over 200 yards. Arkansas's quarterbacks, Tyler Wilson and Casey Dick, were under pressure the entire time and were sacked a total of seven times. The Razorback's quarterbacks had only a 50% completion rating for their passes and were limited to a season low of 191 total offensive yards. The only touchdown that Arkansas was able to score was a returned fumble recovery by the Razorbacks defensive team. Longhorns dominated the game and crushed their opposition in a blowout of 52-10. Texas has stepped up their defense in the last couple of games recording 14 sacks in the past 2 games. As long as the offense continues to put points on the board, consider this Texas defense to be a hard one to match up against.

What’s Happening in College Football?!?!

With USC, Florida, Georgia, Wake Forest, and Wisconsin all losing this weekend who will be number one in the polls. Well lets first explain how in the hell they lost. I mean Wisconsin and Georgia I thought would lose but not USC, Wake Forest and Florida. Come on USC never loses although I do believe they were overrated but not overrated enough to lose to the Oregon State Beavers I mean come on they are definitely not that bad to lose to a 1-2 team. Although they did, they came back after being down 21-0 after the first half to tie the game but then Oregon capitalized on a USC turnover late in the game and came away with the win 27-21. Now Florida’s loss is not as bad because Ole Miss is a reputable sports college and has been in the past years although they were 2-2 before the game against Florida. After the buzzer sounded the score was 31-30 with Ole Miss on top because of Florida’s turnovers and Tim Tebow’s lack of spectacular plays. Although, I can go and say that it was just Tim Tebows fault because Jevan Snead had one hell of a game. He threw for two touchdowns and ran for another it was as if him and Tim Tebow switched places. Wisconsin’s loss to Michigan was not as bad because Michigan has been a very sound team in the past years and has just fallen on some hard times. The main reason for Michigan’s win is that the ground game was definitely up and running against the strong Wisconsin defense. They had two touchdowns and the defense had an interception returned for a touchdown. Now, the Georgia game was a surprise to everyone but me. This is because I knew how good Alabama’s team actually was and realized that they may even be good enough to compete for the BCS Championship. They won the game 41-31 by outgaining and shutting down the Georgia offense. The Wake Forest game was probably the least popular game that was watched this weekend because they played Navy who has been a five hundred team the last couple years and have not beat a ranked team since 1985. Riley Skinner was the real difference maker in the game contributing to five of Wake Forest’s six turnovers and his thrown interception in late in the game sealed the victory for Navy and their first ranked-team win in twenty three years. This is how these teams fell from their spots in the AP (associated press) top 25 poll.