best game ever!

[Olympic Fan]

With a lousy NFL game on last night, I was planning to watch the baseball game, but early on I started sneaking peeks atthe ESPN college football game. It wasn't supposed to be that good -- Boise State is the best team in the WAC, while Nevada is a second-division team, which had a freshman quarterback starting his first game.

Wow, was I wrong. By the end of the first quarter I was mesmerized.

Dean Smith used to say after a dramatic game, "It must have been fun to watch, if you didn't care who won." Well, in this case, I didn't care and it WAS fun to watch -- probably the most entertaining football game I've ever seen.

The two teams went back and forth all night -- 28-21 Boise at the half; 44-41 Nevada with three minutes left; 44-44 all at the end of reguation and finally 69-67 Boise after four overtimes.

The game featured more than 1,300 yards of offense and 10 touchdowns of 25 yards or more! Boise, as we remember from the Fiesta Bowl last year, was the same offensive juggernaut ... the kid Ian Johnson (the same RB who scored the winning points against Oklahoma, then ran over to propose to his cheerleader girlfriend) rushed for more tha 200 yards and caught a bunch of passes.

But the real revelation was Nevada's freshman quarterback. In his first start Colin Kaepernick (remember that name, even if I might have spelled it wrong), threw for 243 yards and ran for 170-plus more. His arm strength was unbelievable -- one of his TDs was a 60-yard bullet. More impressive was his running. The announcers hailed him as another Vince Young ... he's not nearly that strong, but he's much, MUCH faster. He reminded me of Mike Dunn as a runner -- a tall, slender (he's listed at 6-3, 215) jet.

I know the game was relatively meaningless, but it was fun to watch. I was wondering if anybody else saw it?

[Jarhead]

I didn't see the game. Forgot all about it. Since early last season, I have watched every Boise State game that I could find. They know how to play the game, and Ian Johnson is still my favorite for the Heismann, sooner or later. I guess you could say that I am a Boise State fan. Makes being a long term Duke fan a bit easier to take.

[hc5duke]

The announcers hailed him as another Vince Young ... he's not nearly that strong, but he's much, MUCH faster.

You don't get to be Vince Young until you perfect that Uncle Rico style throw either.

http://www.utopia.com.au/sections/toys/images/13.uncle_rico.jpg

[billybreen]

You don't get to be Vince Young until you perfect that Uncle Rico style throw either.

http://www.utopia.com.au/sections/toys/images/13.uncle_rico.jpg

How much you want to make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains?

[Tommac]

Being as I had to go to work this morning, I finally gave up at the end of the third OT. Wish now I'd stayed up 10 minutes longer. What I saw was very entertaining.

[throatybeard]

That's up there with those SEC 4, 5, 7, OT games, in recent years, Bama-UT, Arky-OM, Arky-UK.

[jimsumner]

Boise State certainly gives folks their money's worth.

[wilson]

You don't get to be Vince Young until you perfect that Uncle Rico style throw either.

http://www.utopia.com.au/sections/toys/images/13.uncle_rico.jpg

If coach woulda put me in in the fourth quarte, we woulda been state champions, no doubt in my mind...I woulda gone pro.

[gvtucker]

The announcers hailed him as another Vince Young ... he's not nearly that strong, but he's much, MUCH faster. He reminded me of Mike Dunn as a runner -- a tall, slender (he's listed at 6-3, 215) jet.

Vince Young came out of high school with a 4.4 40 to his name.

I just looked up Kaepernick, and he was listed as having a 4.90.

Now I know that scouting services have a lot of inherent errors, and 40 times are notoriously unreliable, but they're not THAT far off. Even at the Nike camp, Young ran a pure 4.49. There weren't too many players as fast as Young.

At a Scout combine, Kaepernick ran a 4.84. Vince Young is much, MUCH faster than Kaepernick.

[mapei]

Who is Mike Dunn?

[jimsumner]

Mike Dunn was a very gifted Duke quarterback in the middle-late 1970s. Had exceptional seasons as a sophomore and junior, fell off as a senior because of injuries. One of the few African American QBs at Duke and the only one who was truly a star. Big (6'4"), fast, good arm.

His game didn't really translate to the NFL, at least not the 1970s NFL. But for two seasons he was a great college quarterback.

[Bostondevil]

Sports junkie that I am, I saw the last quarter of that game plus all three overtimes. I made my oldest son (13) go to bed after 2 overtimes though. I hope he forgives me someday.

As an aside, I'm rooting against undefeated teams this season just because of the idiotic thing the did on ESPN where they had all these 'analysts' predict the season and they said stuff like 'Here we are at week 9 with 6 undefeated teams, blah, blah, blah!' I decided I wanted to see all of them lose. I've changed my mind about South Florida and maybe BC, but the rest of them? I love watching them all go down. Who's left? Ohio State? Hope they lose. The downside of all of this was I was rooting for Florida to beat LSU two weeks ago. That felt wrong. Thanks Kentucky! Hmmmm, something's wrong with that sentence, wonder what?

A national championship game featuring BC and USF! Yes!

[dkbaseball]

Vince Young came out of high school with a 4.4 40 to his name.

I just looked up Kaepernick, and he was listed as having a 4.90.

Now I know that scouting services have a lot of inherent errors, and 40 times are notoriously unreliable, but they're not THAT far off. Even at the Nike camp, Young ran a pure 4.49. There weren't too many players as fast as Young.

At a Scout combine, Kaepernick ran a 4.84. Vince Young is much, MUCH faster than Kaepernick.

Maybe so, but I just watched part of a replay of the game and I'm pretty sure the announcer said Kaepernick was "at least a 4.5..." He certainly looked that fast, and did remind you of Vince Young.

[gvtucker]

Maybe so, but I just watched part of a replay of the game and I'm pretty sure the announcer said Kaepernick was "at least a 4.5..." He certainly looked that fast, and did remind you of Vince Young.

Yeah, I heard that, too, but I think he just appeared to be fast because you were seeing the contrast with a horrid Boise St defense.

He wouldn't look that fast against LSU.