Coast to Coast Blogging: We’re Talking About Practice

Just to get you in the correct mood for this post, watch this first:

First we start in the nation’s heartland where new coach Bo Pelini has visions of bring back Nebraska football to the way it was in the mid 90s, but don’t expect any miracles to happen for this year. That doesn’t mean there is not optimism for the Husker fans. There have been reports that fans have paid in excess of $95 to see a practice game. Seriously, we’re talking about practice here, not a game, but practice. Corn Nation has a list of the teams for the practice game over on his site. Sometimes I wonder about that guy, he would rather watch how the hogs are doing up front than the skilled guys.

Mitch couldn’t beat out Sanchez

Keeping in the Big 12 North, the Missouri Tigers might not even have enough players to field a team for their spring game. The latest is backup O-Lineman Austin Wuebbles got arrested when the cops found marijuana and a metal marijuana smoking pipe. It doesn’t end there, Wuebbles also had a fake ID and beer in his car. Instead of having football practice, maybe the Tigers’ coaching staff should hold practice on how to act like a normal adult. But I got to hand it to Big Head, even when faced with all this trouble for his team, he still knows how to rub one in on his rival.

The players over at UCLA must have a little bit of Allen Iverson syndrome since the seniors thought they were too good to practice. Actually it is a time honored tradition where the Seniors skipped a practice, but most of Bruin Nation, including offensive coordinator Norm Chow, isn’t laughing at all. I thought all that Senior skip stuff was only done in High School? Maybe it is a sign to Bruins fans that this year’s team might resemble a high school one. But even with the missed practice. head coach Rick Neuheisel has seen enough of the quarterback battle to name Patrick Cowan the starter over Ben Olson.

One way to get out of practice is to not attend class and get ruled ineligible to participate in practice in the Spring. That was what happened to USC’s Joe McKnight. McKnight dropped a class in the Spring and that put him below the 12 credits needed to participate. This should have no bearing on his fall eligibility though. Unlike McKnight, Mark Sanchez took full advantage of his time on the field last year and in spring practice this year. So much so that Pete Carroll named Sanchez the starter for the fall over Mitch Mustain. I don’t think this is much of a surprise given that Sanchez has been with the program for awhile, and has game experience. But one has to wonder if Mustain is second guessing his decision to transfer to USC and not another team with a quarterback situation that would’ve better suited him.

Ryan doesn’t need practice!!

If you are envious of Joe McKnight not having to go to class and therefore forfeiting his right to practice, Ryan Perrilloux has one upped McKnight. Not only did Perrilloux not practice with LSU much (if at all) this spring, he got in trouble at a local bar, he was suspended due to violating team rules, and has academic problems (says Miles). One writer says that LSU should dismiss Perrilloux for these violations, but we all know that won’t happen, especially in the SEC. One would think that a player that has gotten into so much trouble would either have to work in practice to get his job back, or be off the team all together. No way, Miles tells us that it was all a misunderstanding, no one knows what is going on inside his team but him and that Perrilloux is key to the success of the Tigers.

In Hawaii I am sure they are longing for Yesterday, but without Colt Brennan and his cast of characters, including June Jones, the Warriors are trying to find out in practice what kind of team they will have this year. This team will have to travel to Florida to play the Gators early in the season, ouch! This Hawaii football blog is a good source of info for the Warriors and how they are progressing through the 2008 Spring practice drills.

Finally, I will be heading up to State College to watch the annual Penn State Blue and White practice Game. One of the battles I have been watching closely is the quarterback one. Both Daryll Clark and Pat Devlin have looked good in practice, and even though many think it is Clark’s to lose due to Paterno’s allegiance to the older one, I think this will continue into the fall. And maybe into the season. This is a case where I believe we could seen another two quarterback system in Happy Valley, like in 1999 with Kevin Thompson and Rashard Casey. For more coverage of the happenings in the Valley, check out the Blue and White Roundtable.

Well all in all I got 18 practices in, not bad but no where near as good as Mr. Iverson.