KSU football kicks off

Ahh. I just returned home from the first KSU home football game of the 2008 season. K-State had a good outing and looks much improved from the rather discouraging state at the end of last season. Because I could talk/blog about my post-game notes for quite an extensive time, I will restrain myself and limit this blog to only one highlight and one criticism.

Let's start with the not-so-great: tackling. It was a little rough. Not the worst, but should have been much better against the likes of North Texas. It wasn't just that we were missing tackles, it was that we seemed slow of of the line of scrimmage, slow off our blocks. We should be bigger, stronger, and markedly faster than a team like NT and they were definitely beating us around the outside. They didn't even really try to go up the middle and they certainly didn't try to go around Ian Campbell (because he's awesome and back playing his natural DE position...yay!). Still they were beating us to the outsides and we were missing tackles because we were trying to chase them down, instead of staying with them. Now, they do have an incredible QB/receiver combo that teamed up for quite a lot of yards last year...our objective was to keep the receiver in front of us, sacrifice the shorter yardage so as not to give up longer plays. We were successful in that.

Now, the positive: offensively we were much more efficient than I expected us to be. We rarely lost yards in a play. There were even a couple of QB miscues (one bad hand-off for Freeman and a mishandled snap for Kauffman) that could have easily turned into big losses but still resulted in positive yardage. For the most part, we moved forward. We had very few penalties, very few turnovers, we were efficient in 3rd down conversions, and our first team offense scored on 6 out of 7 offensive series. Encouraging. This week's vote for most improved player: LaMarc Brown (#7). Proved he indeed had very good hands and could become a big time play-maker and this due to hard work. He sticks around after practice to catch an extra 40 or 50 passes from any person willing to throw to him. Well done.

Ok. So there was a lot of in-between...but I'm sure that will surface in my blogs as the season continues. For now, this is all I have to say (I know, self-editing...shocker).

the incident

well, we closed on our house on friday and promptly began working so that we can get moved in! we are painting, refinishing cabinets, buying appliances, varnishing window sills, tearing out old shelves and dry wall from the basement, cleaning, trimming bushes, etc....the major things that we are trying to get done before we move in are the painting and refinishing cabinets (or at least the sanding part). so, we're at the house on friday night working and i'm painting the crown molding in our living room white. suddenly, the quart of white paint slips out of my hands and upright on the hardwood floor! no sooner do i think, "whew! that was close! at least it landed upright!" then i look down to see a volcano of white paint shooting up at me. it splatters my face, hair, the ceiling, my arms, the window, and the floor! i didn't know whether to laugh or cry. plus, it was a lot of paint and i hate wasting good paint! so, kirk and my friend nancy started cleaning up my mess while i went to clean myself off. feeling badly because they are cleaning up my mess, i hurry back to help them. they are almost finished wiping up the paint from the floor. i grab a step ladder that is in my way so that i can help them. unfortunately, the very same cursed quart of white paint is sitting on the lower step of the ladder. it proceeds to slip off of the ladder, tip on its side, and fall onto my foot and the floor. i don't know what was wrong with me. it was bad. the irony: i got more paint on the floor that night than i did on the wall.

training camp week...and ken griffey, jr.

to my friends who do not give a rat's behind about sports but love me and my crazy-competitive-sports-analyst self: please forgive the following ranting blog. you all know me...no need to explain.

i would like to take a moment to celebrate that it is training camp week for the NFL. this means that football season is officially beginning. important news from training camp thus far: the chiefs, sadly, are not going to be very good. we are not surprised. and jared allen is causing problems [refusing to practice, threatening to cause harm to chief's offensive linemen if he is forced to practice, etc.]. um, quit being a giant man-baby. secondly, my favorite of all time, brett favre has been reduced to a very unfortunate, non-starting, starting QB. sad.

on other sports news, my ken griffey, jr. has been traded from the Cincy Reds to the White Sox. this is devastating. although i wanted to live and teach in south chicago, this does not make me a Sox fan. in fact, i loathe konerko and pierzynski. i wish they would go away. now i am torn. can you love the player and hate the team? can you want griffey, jr. to continue to be amazing yet hope for his team to meet their pennant demise? oh the agony.

disclaimer: to all of you who think that i am just a band wagon jumper who loves only the big name celebrity athletes....i have been a favre fan since the first time i saw him run head first into an on-coming linebacker like a fullback in a QB's body. this was before he was a celebrity...this is what made him a celebrity. griffey, jr. has pretty much always been a celebrity [due to the name "griffey"], but i have loved him from the beginning, since the mid-90's, at least. so, give me some credit. no, i did not just become a football fan because of fantasy football. i despise fantasy football. i spit on it. i listen to sports talk radio. i know that most of the radio personalities are men, and men who think that women only became interested in football because of fantasy football. i do not fall into this category. i've been a sports fan my whole life. amen.