untitled (Formerly Coooper's Corner)

Here it is, the much anticipated, much talked about, and much speculated on return of the column formerly known as Cooper's Corner.


Lately people have been asking “why haven’t you written for Luke’s pinko commie rag lately?” Well to be brutally honest, I find no interest in watching baseball or the first 8 weeks of the CFL schedule and then painstakingly writing about it. You may be asking yourself right now what kind of dedicated sportswriter is this guy? And to that I say, I am neither a sportswriter, nor am I dedicated. However the Labour Day weekend is when I come back to life. Not only with the Labour Day Classic, but more importantly the kickoff of College football, oh and the countdown to the NFL kickoff in 2 days. This morning I feel rejuvenated, like a Phoenix rising from Arizona!

First off I will get this out of the way. That Rider game was fantastic; unfortunately I was working and only got the play-by-play from Rod Peterson and Carm Carteri who were great as always. They really should be moved up from the ranks of CKRM and up to TSN or CBC and let the country hear what good and knowledgeable commentary is. The game sounded fantastic and when I saw the highlights OH MY GOD, the retro jerseys with the retro helmets! They looked GREAT!! I am getting ready to order my Joe PaoPao retro jersey as we speak. They should stay with the retro look for the rest of the year, hell they should make it the permanent look. Note to the Bombers coaching staff. When against a mobile QB who likes to run, you might like to use defense that employs a spy. Just a thought.

Now on to some real football. This past Thursday marked the beginning of the college football season. All Saturday I had that same feeling I had when I first stopped short with a girl and she let me get away with it. You know the one. I mean the feeling, not the girl. You wouldn’t know her; she went to a different school, 3 towns over. I am all fired up about the start of college football, from the fans to the marching bands, the Bowden Bowl to the Iron Bowl and all the other bowls in between, including the Egg Bowl. From JoePa to Lee Corso, seeing Texas and Oklahoma fight it out for a golden cowboy hat in The Red River Shootout to Minnesota and Iowa battle it out for a bronze statue of a pig named Floyd of Rosedale (A personal favorite of Luke and I). The utterly dominating wins to the unbelievable upsets, and oh what an upset there was.

Unless you have been living under a rock I am sure you have heard about 1-AA Appalachian St. defeating the #5 Michigan Wolverines, one of the favorites to with the national championship, in Michigan, in front of 110,000 screaming Michigan fans. They call their home field “The Big House” for a reason. For those of you unfamiliar with how big of an upset that is that would be like Boise St beating the Indianapolis Colts. I have no vested interest in either team, however watching a nobody beat up all game long on the winningest football program in the history of college football, blocking 2 field goals in the final 2 minutes, one of which was a game winning field goal attempt with seconds left was just thrilling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_LnLiv99Ys

I find it ironic that the play-by-play man in this game was the same guy who did the Boise St upset of Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl earlier this year. He must have some sort or karma. Also I have to say when you are beaten by a team whose university sends out this video to players they are recruiting (I kid you not) it is truly an embarrassment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVENWl8uBeg

Millions of Michigan fans have now seen their national championship hopes go right down the crapper.

Later on in the day there was the classic rematch between the Tennessee Volunteers and the California Golden Bears. A Rocky-esque like game with each team throwing haymaker after haymaker, and one of the greatest punt returns I have ever seen by Cals DeSean Jackson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPXSzia2Zfg

The game was capped of by the great play-by-play commentary of ABC’s Brent “Muskrat” Musburger and his colour guy Kirk Herbstreit. Musburger is no Keith Jackson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQJWtgF60A4 or http://www.splendad.com/ads/show/49-Gatorade-Origins but he is a close second.

What makes watching college football even more thrilling is watching it when you have money riding on the games, which is what I had this weekend. I would like to thank the Cal Golden Bears for their 4 play, goal line stand and holding on in the 4th quarter and beating the spread, thus netting me a cool $548.00. I hope to do the same this coming weekend. If allowed by my editor in chief I will post my weekly picks on Saturday NCAA games so you as well can win some cold hard cash!

Also a note to the brass at Virginia Tech and ESPN. Maybe having an athletic facility and filming ESPN Gameday Live from said facility which just happens to be called “Michael Vick Hall”, is not such a great idea with the recent happenings…..just a thought.