It's NFL time.

[jimAKAblue]

Who thinks their team is heading up? Or down?

I'm a die-hard Lions fan. I wore my Lions hat proudly in their 0-16 season. This year, I am more fired up than any time in my long life.

I predict that the Lions will go 10-6 and get into the playoffs as a wild card. After that, anything can happen.

The Lions have arguably one of the top defensive front four in the NFL. They are deep. They will be able to rotate quality subs into that line and guys like Suh and Vanderbosch will be fresh late in the game. They shored up their linebacking corp with two solid linebackers and their secondary will be adequate, and a little more experienced: this is the third year in a row with the same offensive and defensive co-ordinators.

The Lions will be eating up QBs and disrupting the timing of all their slow developing passing plays,

How are your teams doing?

[Rob Powell]

My team, the Panthers, SUCK. They were the worst team in the league last year and will be in the running for worst again. But hey, it could be worse. The NFL could relagate the worst teams to a lower division like the English Premier League. Bye bye Panthers and Bengals.

[Hoover]

My local team is the Patriots but I cannot stand them. I just follow various team based on their playing style and the style of some players. The NFL is fine but college football is the berries. If they can get the thing fixed and get a playoff system it will be the greatest sport hands down.

[jimAKAblue]

Lol Rob.

I know how you feel. Take heart though because one of the benefits of having the worst team in the league is that you get great draft picks. Additionally, you get the first shot at the waiver wire.

In Detroit, we picked up some excellent players from the waiver wire. We are now in the middle of the pack so everyone is picked over before we get a chance.

[JayNos]

My teams are the Giants in the NFL and Rutgers University in college ball. I'm pretty sure both teams will be a disappointment.

[Hoover]

My teams are the Giants in the NFL and Rutgers University in college ball. I'm pretty sure both teams will be a disappointment.

The giants will be in the thick of things. Probably not a top 5 team but on the edge of the playoffs. The problem with Rutgers is your coach is waiting for Joepa to retire then he's going to Penn State.

P.S. Thanks for taking the patriots out in '07, the fans are insufferable as it is but with a perfect season it would have been horrible. Seeing the zombies walking around in the weeks after that superbowl was funny. They all thought it was in the bag from the start, the fans thought it was an easy win. They ate crow and it was sweet.

[jimAKAblue]

I'm also a Michigan fan. The Rich Rod era was dreadful. I had high hopes for the spread offense but it just doesn't work in the big ten, which is dominated by big bodies and power football.

Brady Hoke took over this year and all signs are pointing to a very long era of solid smash mouth football. He hired Greg Mattison away from the Baltimore Ravens and the MI defense, with a little more experience and a LOT more toughness might return the program to it's former defensive glory.

Hoke and Mattison have exploded the recruitment process and the 2012 group is rated near the top.

This season might still be tough because most of Rich Rodiquez's recruits were too small to play in the prostyle system but Hoke is still demanding a Big Ten championship as their benchmark.

Of course, we still have Denard Robinson. He ran for 1700 yards last year and passed for more than 1500: that was the first time in NCAA history that anyone has done that. Denard will be taking more snaps from under center but Hoke plans on getting him 10 -15 running plays per game. I expect Robinson to break some very long runs on busted plays. He's impossible to corral.

I'm pretty excited about the Wolverines but we might have to wait a year for them to make their big move back into national prominence.

[parkwest]

Go boise state!!!

[jimAKAblue]

I love Boise State. I love their coach. I've always loved innovative coaches; and hard nosed coaches; and players coaches; and well, I love the coaching profession.

How well do you thing Titus Young will do for the Lions?

[m beezo]

What is NFL?

[parkwest]

Boise State 35 Georgia 21

We don't get to watch the Lions on TV too much out here... just the Thanksgiving Day game usually. I hope Titus does well for the Lions.

[always-learning]

What is NFL?

It stands for Nutty F-in Lunatics....



You know those people who get insane over a uniform that either wins or loses



;-)

[jimAKAblue]

Boise State 35 Georgia 21

We don't get to watch the Lions on TV too much out here... just the Thanksgiving Day game usually. I hope Titus does well for the Lions.

I don't see many Lion's or Tiger's games out here in Texas either; not on the television anyways.

I watch most of the games that I want to see here: http://www.firstrowsports.eu/ Occasionally, some of them wont be available in a format that works on my computer but most of them are: probably 99% of them. I'm not sure if the NFL will be blocking it during the regular season but I suspect not.

If the NFL blocks the site, due to copyright violation, i'll subscribe to the NFL package on the computer for $39 per year. I suscribe now to the MLB gameday (radio version) for $19 per season. I can now listen to all the Tiger's games from their Detroit broadcast. It makes me feel like I'm back home again. Baseball's a good radio sport. It's easy to multitask while listening to a ball game.

[jimAKAblue]

I saw a little of the Boise State game last night: about 5 minutes worth.

The first games of the season, in college, are usually just tuneups: David and Goliath adventures. Of course, with MI's recent woes, the tables have been turned LOL.

MI looked like they were going to lose to a pretty good Western Michigan team, who plays in the MAC, a second tier division. Their QB Carder was chewing us up until Mattison (defensive co-ordinator) started sending all out blitzes. All of a sudden the tide turned and Carder had a tipped pass become a 94 yard INT TD return. The cat was out of the bag and W MI never figured out how to deal with the all out blitz. MI ended up winning 34-10 in a lightning shortened game.

MI will lose to a lot of the Big Teams if they can't find a way to be more effective on defense, especially with their front four. W MI was big and they did a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage.

[parkwest]

Here's a funny story. I grew up just outside of Ann Arbor. My dream my whole life was to play for the Maize and Blue some day, ever since I used to "usher" at the games as a boy scout.

Senior year of high school I never heard from Bo. I was so upset that I turned down an opportunity to play linebacker for Notre Dame.

About ten years later I was boarding a plane out of Atlanta wearing a Georgia Tech T-shirt. A guy came up, introduced himself as a college football coach returning from a recruiting trip and wanted to know if I played for GT. I told him I didn't play college football and told him the story about having my heart broke by not playing for U of M. He asked my name then.

He tells me he was an assistant at U of M under Bo at the time and they knew all about me but said I didn't fit Bo's personality profile for his kind of players. He said Bo wanted guys who would walk thru fire without asking questions and they had me pegged as a "free spirit"

Funny part is if I had gone to Notre Dame, they won 2 National Championships ('73 & '77) and Joe Montana was the QB during that stretch.

I always told my kids, when opportunity knocks at least answer the door. LOL.