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Sunday Morning Quarterback

Sunday Morning Quarterback

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY, SMQ!
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Yes, friends, it seems like only yesterday Sunday Morning Quarterback was making its entry into the blogosphere cold, lonely, ignorant even of the existence of college football finery already on display across the wide virtual swatches of the fruited plain, typing in complete anonymity - in third person, even! - and offering up after some hemming and hawing and place-setting his first legitimate post, a humble call to abolish coaches' votes from official polls, exactly one year ago from today.

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Woooo! SMQ breaks out the virtual bubbly!


Since, the story of SMQ has been one of moderate highs (links! nice comments) and embarassing lows (omnipresent typos and erratic predictions), and above all inconsistency, both self-inflicted and at the heed of the primal violence of the earth itself. Two prolonged absences have been most notable: in late August, Hurricane Katrina completely destroyed so much, the least of which was access to post on this space. Most of that wreckage remains visible, barely cleaned, not even begun to be restored to anything resembling the bustling civilization that it wiped away in a matter of hours, but it was only a few weeks, mid-September, before very fortunate SMQ regained electricity and internet and was posting again. Though his home, and his childhood home two hours away, where he lived in limbo for more than a month afterwards, in the storm zone were mercifully spared serious damage, it would be mid-October before a new job and home a few hours to the north offered the stability to consider Sunday Morning Quarterback a (more or less) daily proposition.

The other hiatus was one of mere ennui on the part of the host. From mid-January, following the Rose Bowl and some formatting problems, through the start of April, the only sign of life was a couple of half-hearted stabs at projecting the success of Eric Crouch in Canadian "football" and of various early draft entrants in the NFL. It wasn't until the introduction of his "Absurdly Premature" preview series and weekly regulation of "The Rap Sheet " that SMQ was able to get back into a regular rhythm amidst the droll offseason comings and goings that are handled with so much enthusiasm and creativity elsewhere.

So: one year! Kind of! If you don't count missing a couple months at a time!

SMQ normally tries to avoid self-referentiality, but it's only appropriate on this occassion to present the following, which represents in his estimation the best of this inaugural annum:

SMQ spent the entire month of July 2005 counting down his preseason top 25, a list that was right about Penn State's resurgence (if not about its virtually unprecedented extent) and virtually nothing else: like everyone, he had Tennessee and Purdue vastly overrated and, unlike everyone else, Texas severely underrated amid his insistence the the 'Horns would lose, again, to Oklahoma. Er, moving on...

In August, SMQ responded to ESPN's Pat Forde by issuing his own list predicting what was hot and what was not for the 2005 season.

Returning from the hurricane-induced leave of absence in September, SMQ took conventional wisdom and, more specifically, Bob Davie to task following LSU's home loss to Tennessee by refuting his pre-game claim that Tiger Stadium was the toughest place to play in the nation, as LSU had only the fifth-best in-conference home record in the SEC over the past five seasons at the time.

In early October, now-unemployed SMQ used his abundance of spare time to produce a "Thursday Morning Quarterback" preview column that shoehorned Wile E. Coyote, a for real physics equation, Ric Flair and the most ill-fated prediction in the name of pride in online prognostication history.

Later in the month, SMQ took on racist imagery at a certain institution in his home state.

Following the lead of SI's John Walters, SMQ defended Fisher DeBerry from the PC police following the coach's unfortunate decision following his team's loss to TCU to state publicly what everyone associated with the sport at all levels has said without hesitation in private for decades.

In December, SMQ broke down Oregon's case for a big money New Year's Day bid, and found the Ducks lacking compared to their competition for the slots.

Later in the month, he crunched the numbers in a three-part series to determine that the best defensive teams, and teams that were better on defense than offense, generally fared slightly better than their more high octane competition in the win column.

This April, SMQ found himself more than a little skeptical about West Virginia's prospects for living up to their Spring hype this fall.

After the Reggie Bush housing mini-scandal broke, SMQ responded to a radio host's question: Why do we care about this?

In May, SMQ went back to the economics well against much better brains than his - the "most interesting mind in America," in fact - to punch holes in the alleged freakiness of the latest "Freakonomic" theory of talent vs. work, and how the combination relates to real-world success.

Most recently, earlier this month, SMQ took a few hits at the CFB blogosphere's favorite virtual punching bag, Heisman Pundit, not for his assertion that the PAC Ten was the king of the conference hill in a season which is months away from beginning, but because of his quack methods for making such a determination.

Thanks for everybody who stopped by, and keep on coming for the next year. SMQ promises he won't go away again! Unless, well, you know...
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Permalink

6:33 AM

Comments:
[sniffle]It's been a good year, sir.[/sniffle]

Query: what happened to that soccer post this morning? I was halfway through my rebuttal when it disappeared. Perhaps you were rethinking some of the arguments made within? (Perhaps making my rebuttal irrelevant...)
 
I took the soccer post down. It was up for about a half hour maybe (shouldn't have still been up this morning). I didn't like it, thought it was a petty retread and not useful in any way. If people like soccer, fine. These are their days. My distaste for the socialist offside rule and a few borrowed insights from others isn't ammunition enough to pick a fight I don't really care about, anyway. Excitement will die down here, I'm guessing, unless the U.S. rebounds from its choke job Monday and stuns Italy. I'm assuming, with my international soccer knowledge encapsulated entirely within the year 1994, the only time I've ever paid much attention, that would be as great an upset as the Cup has ever witnessed.
 
Congrats.
Don't feel bad about the missing months.
I don't remember entire years in the 90's but I still count them in my age.
 
Happy birfday. Keep up the fine work and keep bangin'
 
Happy Anniversary SMQ! Keep it up!
 
From someone who only comes over for the occassional article, thanks for the great quality. Clearly, a lot of hard work goes into the blog, and I'm a smarter college football fan for it.
 
Happy Anniversary SMQ. Ours is tomorrow. Keep up the great work.
 
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WELCOME...
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And don't let the name fool ya - second guessing the phenomenal athletic feats and split-second decisions of college kids under extreme physical duress is for every day of the week.


AWWW!! The totally nicest people, like, ever!...

How much football does he watch? Dude's got insights on -everybody-, and by everybody, I mean everybody. Throw in some of the best writing in the blogosphere, and we're talking about a daily must-read.
- Burnt Orange Nation

SMQ starts to sound more and more like the Gregg Easterbrook of our ideal memories every day - whip-smart, systematic, omnivorous in his intellectual tastes and yet unafraid of the cheap joke.
- Every Day Should Be Saturday

Sunday Morning Quarterback is one of our favorite football blogs on the internet.
- State Fans Nation

Sunday Morning Quarterback is a killer football blog if you are a college football junkie. It is run by one of the most thoughtful, intelligent, and analytical writers in the college football blogosphere...The guy is thorough and detailed and provides a level of analysis you are not going to find anywhere else .
- Bruins Nation

Just another hack writer who hasn't done one lick of research... - SOT2

...the pride of Southern Mississippi ever since Brett Favre turned into an ESPN soap opera, has the sort of prose knack that can keep you riveted to a preview about any one of D-IA's scrubbier members ... should be given gifts.
- MGoBlog

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e-mail Sunday Morning Quarterback at sundaymorningqb@yahoo.com

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PREVIOUSLY FROM SMQ:

2006 Preview
Anatomy of an Underdog
BlogPoll: 1-10/11-25/Roundtable
The ACC
The Big Ten
The Big XII
The Sun Belt

Running Departments
The Rap Sheet
July 29/Aug. 1/Aug. 9/Aug. 16/Aug.19/Aug. 25/Sept. 28/Oct. 4/Oct. 5/Oct. 18/Oct. 26/Nov. 2/Nov. 7/Nov. 8/Nov. 28/Dec. 2/Dec. 8/ Dec. 11/Dec. 18/Dec. 21/Feb. 6/Feb. 10/April 7/April 14/April 21/April 29/May 6/May 12/May 19/May 26/June 2/June 10/June 16/June 24/June 30/July 8/Aug. 4

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SMQ-APPROVED
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PAGES

News from the Big Guys
ESPN/ College Football News Wire
Sports Illustrated
FOX
CBS Sportsline
USA Today
Opinion: Columnists and bloggers
Around the Oval (Ohio State)
Badger Sports (Wisconsin)
The Blue-Gray Sky (Notre Dame)
Block U (Utah)
BoiFromTroy (Southern Cal)
Bruins Nation (UCLA)
Burnt Orange Nation (Texas)
The Corporate Headquarters of the San Antonio Gunslingers
Dave Sez (Virginia)
Dawg Sports (Georgia)
ESPN: Ivan Maisel/Pat Forde
Every Day Should Be Saturday (Florida)
FOX: Pete Fiutak
Golden Tornado (Georgia Tech)
Heisman Pundit
I'm a Realist (Georgia)
Journalism is for Rock Stars (Alabama)
Mark May Be Wrong
MDG CFB (Fresno State)
Mountain Lair (West Virginia)
MGOBlog (Michigan)
Orange::44 (Syracuse)
Paradigm Blog (Michigan)
Paul Westerdawg (Georgia)
Pitch Right (Navy)
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer (Alabammer)
Section Six
Sexy Results (Virginia)
SI: Stewart Mandel/John Walters
Sporting Fools (Florida State)
Straight Bangin' (Michigan)
Texas A&M and Baseball, In No Particular Order (Texas A&M)
The 614 (Ohio State)
The House That Rock Built (Notre Dame)
The Sporting Gnomes (Clemson)
Tiger Pundit (Clemson)
We Must Ignite This Couch (West Virginia)
The Wizard of Odds

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The Blog Poll

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WANNA DO SOME RESEARCH? NERD! HERE'S SOME QUICK REFERENCES:

College Football Data Warehouse
College Football Research Center
College Football News
cfbstats.com
Football Commentary
THE STANDINGS
THE POLLS

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Passing
Receiving
All-Purpose
Scoring
Tackles
Sacks
Interceptions
Tackles For Loss
Field Goals
Punting
Kickoff Returns
Punt Returns
TEAM STATISTICS
Rushing Offense
Passing Offense
Total Offense
Scoring Offense
Rushing Defense
Passing Defense
Total Defense
Scoring Defense
Turnover Margin

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Past Seasons
2005
Thursday Morning Quarterback
Sept. 29/Oct. 6/Oct. 20/Oct. 27/Nov. 3/Nov. 10/Nov. 17/Nov. 24/Dec. 1
Sunday Morning Quarterback
Oct. 2/Oct. 23/Oct. 30/Nov. 6/Nov. 13/Nov. 27
Stat Relevance Watch
Part One/Part Two/Part Three
SMQ Bowl Blitz
New Orleans/GMAC/Las Vegas/Poinsettia/Motor City

SMQ's [Hurricane-Abbreviated] 2005 Preview
Top 25 Countdown/Methodology
All-America Team
ACC
BIG EAST
BIG TEN
BIG XII