College Football Preview: Tebow, Tebow, and more Tebow!

Coming into this college football season, it seems like the name 'Tim Tebow' is included in any sort of Heisman, SEC, or National Championship conversation. And rightfully so. Tebow is poised to cap off his career at Florida and become one of the best players in college football history (not to mention he has the best William Wallace impression in college football).

Think about it: If Tebow's Gators win the National Championship this year, he'll leave school with three national titles and a Heisman trophy. If the Gators somehow don't win it all, but Tebow takes home the Heisman, he'll have two national titles and two Heisman trophies. And apparently winning college football hardware has its perks...

NO ONE has those kind of college football credentials. Archie Griffin is the only player to win the Heisman Trophy twice, but he never won a National Championship. Red Grange, listed by

ESPN as the best college football player of all-time, won a National Title for Illinois in 1923, but didn't have a trophy case close to that of Tebow's.

Arguments can be made as to whether Tim Tebow will end up as "The best college football player to ever live." But after this season, Tim Tebow very well may end up as "The most decorated college football player to ever live."

Here's a conference-by-conference breakdown the 2009 college football landscape:

SEC Champion: Florida Gators.

- The Southeastern Conference is the best in college football. The Gators return Tebow and a host of others, with the only major loss being that of Brandon Spikes on defense. If the Gators can survive a road trip to LSU (Oct. 10), I see them going undefeated.

Big 12 Champion: Texas Longhorns

- The 'Horns got screwed over last year, with a couple ridiculous tie-breakers leaving them out of the Big 12 championship game. Colt McCoy returns after bulking up in the off-season (I hear he's added 10-15 pounds) and looks to take Texas back to the promised land. The loss of Brian Orakpo on defense hurts, but if the Longhorns can take care of Sam Bradford and Oklahoma on October 17th, look for them to run the table.

Big Ten Champion: Penn State

- The Big Ten is a two team race this year between Ohio State and the Nittany Lions. The return of Terrell Pryor makes the Buckeyes dangerous, but with the loss of Beanie Wells and Michael Jenkins, I gotta give the nod to Penn State (It's not like this conference has any clout, however, losing their last four trips to the Rose Bowl and Ohio State losing twice in National Title games).

Big East Champion: South Florida

- In a mediocre conference, I gotta go with the team with the two biggest names - Matt Grothe and George Selvie. West Virginia and Cincinnati may challenge the Bulls, but look for South Florida to end up on top (unlike the Big Ten, the Big East has won three of its last four BCS bowl games).

PAC 10 Champion: Oregon

- Somewhat going out on a limb here and picking against USC, mainly because of the QB issues in Southern Cal. Oregon has

an X-factor under center in Jeremiah Masoli, which could be the difference between the Ducks and Trojans this year.

BCS Buster: TCU

- The Horned Frogs are ranked in the top-20 of both major polls. They have two tough games on their schedule - September 12th at Virginia, and October 24th at BYU. If they can win both of those games, look for Texas Christian to break into the BCS bowl party.

Greg Paulus - Orange Savior?

By now, everyone knows the story of Greg Paulus. The multitalented Syracuse native is now the starting quarterback for his hometown Orange, and in charge of leading the "Cuse back to the promised land of college football.

The big question lingering now is this - how high should we set the bar for Paulus? What are reasonable expectations for him this season?

After playing basketball for four years at Duke, it is fair to assume that some rust had gathered on that cannon of a right arm that slung 152 touchdown passes during his high school career. Cuse fans have to hope that the rust is all but gone after the past couple weeks of practice. So, then, what exactly is Paulus? A legit QB threat? Or essentially a freshman who is still learning the "ins and outs" of college football?

I believe the big question for Paulus will be his mentality. Sure, his college football experience is zero, but he HAS been a college athlete for four years. The guy played in one of the toughest venues of college basketball (Cameron Indoor) and held his own (and he's also put up with some of the craziest fans in college basketball). So it's not totally fair to label him as a freshman - but yet, he still has no experience under center at the college level. If Paulus's maturity can quickly reduce the QB learning curve, then I believe the Orange can realistically look at five or six wins this season.

Regardless of what happens this season, I think the "Paulus effect" has already been positive for everyone associated with the Orange, including the fans. Think about this for a moment: The

Syracuse Orange football team has been absolutely DISMAL for the better part of a decade now. Long gone are the days of Paul Pasqualoni, Donovan McNabb, Marvin Harrison, and Dwight Freeney. Fans have been searching for positives over the past half dozen years, and they certainly have been hard to come by (the Orange's 24-23 victory over Notre Dame last year is probably the highest note of the past six years). Greg Paulus has brought to the Orange nation what has been missing for so many years: HOPE. Fans look at Paulus as someone who could POTENTIALLY bring the program back. The key word here is POTENTIALLY - but even potential is something that has been missing for the Orange in recent years, which is why the Greg Paulus experiment is a good thing for Syracuse.

No one knows for sure how Syracuse will perform this season with Paulus under center. All I know for sure is that I'll be tuning in on September 5th when the Orange open their season at home against Minnesota.

Brett Queener living the life

Brett Queener (Penn Yan/Albany lax alum) pretty much has what I would consider THE dream job - go around to different lacrosse camps during the summer and teach kids the game, and occasionally video tape random stuff from the camps. Oh yeah, and when he's not at camp, he plays professionally for the Toronto Nationals. Here's another installment of his famed "Queener Cam" from his time at UAlbany's "Top Dog" Lacrosse Camp.

Fantasy Football sleepers

Denis Leary on "Mike and Mike in the Morning"

For all of you who missed it, Denis Leary filled in for Mike Golic this morning on "Mike and Mike in the Morning." Not only was he funny, but his thoughts on Brett Favre couldn't be more accurate...

Vick becomes an Eagle

The Philadelphia Eagles have signed Michael Vick to a 1-year contract with an option for a second year. As I sit here typing, I'm still not sure how I feel about the move...

So I'm just going to forego any journalistic style or manners and straight up tell you all what I'm feeling. Hopefully some of it will make coherent sense:

Donovan McNabb has been dealing with unfair questions for the majority of his career. Whether it be injury issues, Rush Limbaugh, the drafting of Kevin Kolb, or the whole T.O. ordeal, McNabb has faced his fair share of scrutiny. And he has persevered through it all. Because of this, I'm not sure what the Vick signing will do to McNabb mentally. McNabb apparently lobbied in favor of the Eagles signing Vick, so that makes me believe that this won't be that big of a deal. But once the questions start coming about Vick getting reps at QB (and they will certainly come at some point), what is McNabb's answer going to be? Will he get sick of dealing with all of the hoopla and media attention being paid to his relationship with the convicted felon? Or will he be able to brush it aside and continue being one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL?

On the field, this signing could make the Eagles one of the most dangerous teams in the league. Imagine this sort of play for a moment:

"McNabb drops back...pitches the ball to Vick on an end-around...now Vick throws back across field to McNabb...now McNabb looks deep downfield, (DeSean) Jackson is all alone in the end zone...TOUCHDOWN PHILADELPHIA."

Keep in mind that the Eagles still have Brian Westbrook, LeSean McCoy, and Jeremy Maclin to add into the mix. Once upon a time, Philadelphia's playoff chances were dependent on the health of McNabb and Westbrook. I'm not debating the importance of a healthy number 5 and 36, but I am saying that with the signing of Michael Vick, the Eagles are now deeper and full of more offensive threats than they have been in years.

So there are my two main thoughts on the signing of Michael Vick. I guess I'll label my mindset as "cautiously optimistic" - the on-field results could be huge, but I'm still waiting to see how Vick will be used in the offense, and what his impact on McNabb will be. Vick's first practice with Philly is today at 1:30, so I'm anxious to see how that goes.

-I'd like to write more about Tiger and the PGA Championship, but I gotta run. Check back in Monday or Tuesday for a full recap/reaction.

MLB news and notes; Crabtree has no brain

It has been far too long since I have updated, mainly thanks to an incredibly busy and eventful week. But I'm back to discuss some baseball news and some noise out of Michael Crabtree.

- I'll start by looking at some of the MLB trade deadline moves that are paying HUGE dividends. Cliff Lee has bee spectacular in two starts for the Phillies, winning both decisions while pitching 16 out of 18 possible innings and surrendering only two earned runs. I'm looking forward to the battle between the Phillies and Dodgers for National League supremacy down the stretch.

The second biggest addition has to be Freddy Sanchez heading from Pittsburgh to San Francisco. Sanchez has already produced for the Giants, hitting .388 since the trade and has also scored a run in each of his first four games with the Giants.

If Sanchez is the second biggest addition, Ryan Garko has to be 2a. The first basemen is 6 for 14 at the plate since moving from Cleveland to San Francisco, and has helped the Giants win 8 out of their last 10 games (hmm...I'm pretty sure someone predicted that the G-men would make waves in the second half of the season...).

I'll put Victor Martinez at number three, only because the Giants have been extremely hot lately and the Red Sox were beaten badly last night by the Yankees. Martinez is hitting just under .500 with five RBI's since joining the Sox, and drew three walks in last night's contest. Sick numbers, but with the Red Sox 3.5 games back of the Yanks, I gotta limit him to number three.

To wrap up my MLB thoughts, I'll take a second to discuss Jason Giambi, who was released today by Oakland. Giambi has been injured for most of this season, and his production has been way off compared to previous years. This could potentially be the end of his career, and I gotta say that I give the (to quote John Sterling) "Giam-bino" alot of credit for the things he has accomplished in his career. Many will say that his numbers will be tainted due to his admission of steroid use, but I give the guy props for coming out and admitting what he did, and that he was wrong.

- Michael Crabtree is not at San Francisco 49ers training camp. In fact, he most likely will not be there anytime soon. He may even possibly miss the entire regular season. Here's what I have to say to that: Michael, get your head out of your butt.

Sure, maybe this is a case of someone around Crabtree (in this case, his cousin) saying something ridiculous that doesn't really reflect the mindset of Michael himself. But what I'm arguing is that Michael has to realize that this is only killing his reputation, putting him on a one-way train toward the title of first-round BUST.

If Crabtree was smart, he would come out HIMSELF and publicly deny these comments. Better yet, he could put his ego aside, sign a contract, and then report to camp. Maybe then he could prove himself on the field, and maybe then people would start to think "holy smokes, maybe this guy really IS worth a crapload of money."

But that's not what the NFL is about anymore. The NFL is about money, being paid, and generating revenue. I just wish Crabtree would take the opportunity to prove me wrong.