First Of Many

Welcome to Tommy Tuesday's first blog. The first of many, I fervently hope. These blogs will be mostly about things that just fry my ass! You know, the stories you read in the papers or see on the news that just defy all common sense. Or the ridiculous strategy by my favorite football team that cost us a game, or a season. (Nice going, Tressel!) Or just things that make no sense to me no matter how many different ways I look at it. Ah, what the hell, let's just start out on Tressel.
What in the name of Woody Hayes was he thinking? How do you bench a quarterback who took you to the national title game in a year when no one expected you to be there, including you? Not that I think Todd Boeckmann is a superstar, but the guy got the job done, for the most part, and he had a year of seasoning under his belt, so one would expect him to be much better this year.
Okay, I have heard all of the arguments about how immobile he is. So what? Want to hear some names of a few other quarterbacks who also weren't so nimble? Joe Namath, Dan Marino, Dan Fouts, Johnny Unitas, Roman Gabriel, Don Meredith, Peyton Manning and Sonny Jurgenson, to name a few. Being able to scramble for first downs is a wonderful attribute to have, but it is not necessary to be a good, or even great, quarterback.
Here's my theory. When Beanie went down, Tressel had no running game to speak of. He needed Pryor in the lineup because Terrell could supply the running threat. I can understand that. With no running game, Boeckmann would have been blitzed into oblivion. But why did Tress install Pryor as the starter and leave Boeckmann molding on the bench, when Beanie came back? Here's my theory:
Tressel sacrificed the entire season just to get his freshman phenom experience! He used this season to build for next season and the season after that. I can come up with no other plausible explanation. All you have to do is remember how awful Pryor was passing the ball in the Fiesta Bowl, and think about how much better Boeckmann would have been, and you can see my point. If Boeckmann is the qb in the Fiesta Bowl, the Buckeyes win, because Texas would not have been able to crowd the line-of-scrimmage to stop the run they way they did in the second half. They would have been forced to respect the passing game, especially the DEEP ball, that Pryor just cannot throw with any consistency at all! And let us not forget the middle of the season when we went TWO straight games without scoring an offensive touchdown, both with Pryor at the controls. And one was against Purdue, for crying out loud!! Not exactly your bastion of great defense, now, are they?
And what about Hartline and Robiskie? They were almost unheard of with Pryor at quarterback. Two of the better deep threats in the Big Ten, maybe in all of college football, and they were reduced to blocking for Pryor on keepers.
So there you have it. Three of the best playmakers in the Big Ten taken out of the game in one fashion or another just to get a freshman some playing time. A sacrificed season (after the USC debacle) that didn't have to be. Good job, Tressel. If you keep this up, Michigan will be back on top in no time!!