University of Michigan Quarterback Denard Robinson --- Is He For Real?

As a college football fanatic, I love watching young men play a game that has more weekly twists and turns than a Formula-1 auto race. I see more big plays per game in college football than the NFL by a long shot and many are just jaw dropping.

But how often do you see a relative unknown player make play after play from the quarterback position that either make you exclaim “Wow!” or leave you speechless? I'll bet not often, but after 2 weekends of play, there has been one such player that has gone from anonymity to household name to potential Heisman Trophy candidate.

Let's meet Denard Robinson, University of Michigan quarterback.

According to Bleacher Report, Robinson was highly recruited out of Florida high school football by such schools as Florida, Georgia, Kansas State, and Michigan. The sophomore signal caller was the backup to incumbent Tate Forcier last season before wresting the job this season.

Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez recruited Robinson because he believed he could run the spread option offense much like his former star quarterback Pat White when he was the head man at the University of West Virginia.

Why have coaches, opponents, teammates, and fans alike gone gaga over this young man? Let's look at the first 2 weeks.

In the Wolverines season opener at home versus Connecticut, Denard completed 19 of 22 passes for 186 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 197 yards on 29 carries for a total of 383 yards of total offense. Michigan defeated Uconn 30-10.

Last week at Notre Dame, Robinson broke the single game total offense record by toting the ball another 29 times for 258 yards and completing 24 of 40 passes for 244 yards. That's 502 yards of total offense...Five hundred and two! That's also believed to be a single game record in FBS history.

In a USA Today article written by Nicole Auerbach, Florida head coach Urban Meyer proclaimed Robinson as the best player in the country, or one of them. Said Meyer, "I haven't seen everybody play, but I watched that one. That was ridiculous. We recruited him hard, too. We knew he was a dynamic player and a good person."

After Connecticut's loss to Michigan, Huskies' boss Randy Edsall quipped, "Denard Robinson is going to make people look bad."

Wolverine coach Rich Rodriguez was asked about Robinson's heavy workload. His response was, "Everybody says you can't run your quarterback 20-something times a game." Then Rodriguez fired, "Well, do they say that when you hand it off to Barry Sanders? 'You can't run Barry Sanders 20-something times a game.' If you can handle it, you can handle it."

What do I think of Denard Robinson? I believe that he is a dynamic runner and a good field general. Like many spread option quarterbacks, he could improve his passing accuracy, although his numbers tell a different story. My greatest concern is that he could wear down under the rigors of such Big Ten defenses, particularly Iowa, Penn State, Wisconsin, and arch rival Ohio State.

As far as the Heisman Trophy? I would think not this season, but in 2011, he will definitely be a top candidate
for the award.

Enjoy!

Dick

Send email to dlafrance2@207me.com

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Louis Oosthuizen ... Unlikely Open Champion

The Open Championship, or the British Open, annually produces odd and unlikely circumstances and results. Twenty-one year old phenom Rory McIlroy shot a major tournament record tying 63 in the opening round only to balloon to an 80 in Friday's wind driven second round. That second round alone saw delay of play for 66 minutes due to wind gusts in excess of 40 miles-per-hour and the winds were consistently 20 to 30 mph throughout The Open wreaking havoc for all players … except for a wee 27 year-old South African whom not many people outside of the European Tour had known.

Meet Louis Oosthuizen --- Champion Player of the Year

Oosthuizen, a product of fellow South African and former Open champion Ernie Els's golf foundation, entered The Open Championship as the world's 54th ranked player, winning his first European Tour tournament this spring in Spain. He is known to European players as a straight hitter who hits the golf ball a long way for a player diminutive in stature.

But to dominate a star-studded field that included the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, Paul Casey, and others? Oosthuizen had no history to suggest anything of the sort. He had missed cuts regularly in past majors struggling on the world's grandest stages including Augusta National and most recently Pebble Beach.

What Louis managed to accomplish better than all other competitors was to find fairways and greens consistently. As wide as the fairways are at The Old Course in St. Andrews, many players were out of position, especially on holes 12 and 17, the famous (or infamous) Road Hole. Just ask Mickelson and Casey about the 12th hole.

I believe that Oosthuizen won The Open on that wind driven second round in which he fashioned a bogey free round of 67, five-under par while the majority of the field struggled mightily. From there, Louis never looked back.

From watching Oosthuizen, he never seemed to get rattled or disillusioned by what few bad shots he hit. Steady and strong was Louis while all others showed angst and frustration. And his swing was so fluid, due to his great balance while playing in the wind. Boring as it may have been, watching young Louis Oosthuizen play golf was a joy unto itself.

Associated Press golf writer Doug Ferguson, in a column for USA Today, asked Oosthuizen about his first night with the claret jug which Louis replied, "I put it next to my bed last night, and I woke up this morning and I looked at it, and I immediately grabbed the phone and texted Chubby Chandler, my agent, saying, 'I've got this funny old jug next to my bed.'”

“Man, oh, man. That was special waking up next to it.”

All this while the 139th playing of The Open Championship ended just a day ago and marked 150 years of major championship play in golf.

While the golf world hails Louis Oosthuizen as the Champion Player of the Year, I have one burning question...

What will be put into and poured out of the claret jug?

Dick

Send email to dlafrance2@207me.com

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An Easy Explanation for the BCS --- Take Out the”C”

If you are a fan of major college football, you know that there is one method determining the two teams playing for the national championship within the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). It is a system that weighs 2 polls, computer rankings, and has a unique formula to determine standings or rankings. It also is a source of frustration for most college football fans due to 2 reasons --- its complexity and some of the qualifications. I will give a synopsis of the system that some say is BS.

Welcome to the Bowl Championship Series, better known as the BCS.

There is only one question to ask … How are teams selected for BCS games?

To answer that, there are teams that automatically qualify for a BCS game, namely the champions of the following conferences: Atlantic Coast (ACC), Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern (SEC) throughout the 2013 regular season.

Easy enough, right? Now there are provisions for non-Automatic Qualifiers.

The conference champions of Conference-USA, Mid-American (MAC), Mountain West, Sun Belt, and Western Athletic (WAC) will earn a berth at a BCS game if one of two events occur:

One of these teams is in the top 12 in the final BCS standings OR
One of these teams is a top 16 BCS team and is ranked higher than a conference champion of an automatic qualifier.

Okay, that may not be so confusing --- but then there's this little piece of information that must be considered:

Notre Dame will earn a BCS berth should it finish in the top 8 in the final BCS standings.

But what happens if 2 or more non Automatic Qualifying teams fulfill these provisions? Well, only one team can go to a BCS game and that will be the higher ranked team in the final BCS standings while the other team(s) may earn a BCS bid should it meet the previously mentioned criteria.

There are other provisions too, but it becomes complicated so I won't elaborate.

Such an easy concept --- yeah, right!

The next provision is that of at-large eligibility. If there are not 10 teams that automatically qualify for BCS berths then the following criteria must be met to get an At-Large bid.

Teams must have 9 regular season victories, AND
Is in the top 14 in the final BCS standings.

There are other provisions should there not be enough eligible teams, but yet again, it is complicated and not worth my breath.

For most college football fans, there are obvious facts. One is the top 2 teams in the final BCS standings play for the National Championship and that certain conferences are contractually committed to host bowl games. Those being the ACC for the Orange Bowl, the SEC for the Sugar Bowl, the Big 12 for the Fiesta Bowl, and the Big Ten and Pac-10 hosting the Rose Bowl.

Should a bowl game lose a host because that team is in the National Championship game, it shall be replaced by either an Automatic Qualifier or an At-Large team. And yes, there are other provisions should certain events occur.

A pain in the neck about now!

Now to the BCS standings and how they are compiled. More fun!!!

The BCS standings are comprised of the Harris Interactive College Football Poll, the USA Today Coaches Poll, and computer rankings (SIX of those!) of which each has an equal third of weight. To get the percentages of each, all teams get an inverse point total, such as 25 points for #1, 24 points for #2, and so on.

The percentages of the two polls are calculated by dividing each team's point total by a maximum 2850 possible points for the Harris Poll and a maximum of 1525 points from the USA Coaches Poll. The computer rankings percentage is calculated by dropping the highest and lowest ranking for each team and then the remaining total is divided by one hundred. Included in the six computer rankings are strength of schedule, of which I haven't a clue on how that's determined. I'm guessing that each provider has it's own formula to derive that.

Finally, the BCS Average is formed by averaging the percentages of the Harris and USA Coaches Polls and the computer rankings. These averages are ranked to get the BCS Standings.

Let's see, all of that to determine the BCS National Championship Game participants, determining any other Automatic Qualifiers, and establishing the pool for At-Large teams.

Go at it you math majors!

Now we all know the workings of the BCS...well, some of it. It's complicated and it's made major college football a sham to some. Of course, you can get more information on the BCS at the official BCS site within the links provided. It's a lousy read --- really it is.

Now that I'm finished, I need some Advil for my headache, sore neck, and sore fingers. Perhaps I may need a hospital stay to go into traction.

Send email to dlafrance2@207me.com

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Hip Arthroscopy, Not Just For Major Professional Athletes

As many people know, hip pain can be just that ... a pain. This type of pain can affect anyone in any walk of life from major professional athletes to weekend warriors and right down to the every day working person. In the past, people either just hoped that the pain would either subside, be treated with medicines, physical therapy, or eventually hip replacement surgery. But what if someone is diagnosed with a torn labrum in the hip? Fortunately, there is a fairly new and popular surgery that more orthopaedic surgeons are using to cure the pain and allow people to be active again without having hip replacement surgery..

Welcome to Hip Arthroscopy.

We know about this surgery performed on two high profile major league baseball players, New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez and Mike Lowell of the Boston Red Sox.. It has worked amazingly well for ARod and also quite well for Lowell. But what is hip arthroscopy? A doctor can describe the surgery much better than me. Therefore, I will take snippets from a press release passed on to me by Mr. Andrew Russell, for Ethos Marketing and Design in the Portland, Maine area.

The press release is about a golf professional in Portland, Maine that was diagnosed with a torn labrum in one of his hips. The operating doctor is Dr. Benjamin H. Huffard, an orthopaedic surgeon at the state of Maine's premier orthopaedic practice, OA Centers for Orthopaedics in Portland, Maine.

All in bullets are from the release.

***PORTLAND – Ron Bibeau first felt the pain in his groin last year. The pain made it difficult for him to swing a golf club – an alarming prospect since he’s the head pro at Portland’s Riverside Municipal Golf Course.

Bibeau thought he had a hernia. His primary care physician suspected nerve damage. Finally, Bibeau met with Dr. Benjamin H. Huffard, an orthopaedic surgeon at the state’s premier orthopaedic practice, OA Centers for Orthopaedics in Portland. Huffard diagnosed Bibeau with a torn labrum, and identified him as a prime candidate for a new type of hip surgery.***

***Bibeau underwent surgery on Jan. 5, 2009. Today the 48-year-old South Portland resident is pain free and playing the best golf of his career. He won the first two out of three tournaments he played in this year and has consistently ranked among the top six in all his contests this summer.

In Maine a growing number of people are taking advantage of Dr. Huffard’s skill in hip arthroscopy at OA Centers for Orthopaedics. Dr. Huffard studied the surgery with A-Rod’s doctor, Marc Philippon, at the Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail, Colo. He says the surgery offers hope to patients who historically had to live with the pain until they needed a hip replacement.***

A quote by Dr. Huffard,

***“For a long time there have been young people who have had hip pain, and the only thing we could do was wait until they were old enough to have their hip replaced,” said Dr. Huffard, a 2001 graduate of Yale University School of Medicine. “Now there are good, effective treatments that make it so we can get people back to athletics.”***

Here is a synopsis of what hip arthroscopies are:

***Hip arthroscopy allows surgeons to diagnose and repair the injuries through tiny incisions in the hip instead of larger incisions like those needed for replacement. This less invasive approach usually means less pain and a quicker recovery for the patient.

The best candidate for the surgery is someone who is relatively young, with no arthritis in the hip, and wants to return to heavy activity. And it’s more than just athletes who benefit: some people are bothered by sitting, or driving in a car. Sometimes the pain is so severe that simple things like climbing the stairs or bending to tie shoes are difficult.***

Some more information and a quote from Dr, Huffard:

***Since joining OA Centers for Orthopaedics in 2007, Huffard has done about 120 hip arthroscopies and now averages 1-2 surgeries a week, the most in Maine. Hip arthroscopy was recently featured in an article in USA Today. The injuries to Lowell and Rodriguez have also focused attention on the surgery. “It seems like there are more patients every month,”***

Since having hip arthroscopy, Bibeau has won 2 tournaments and has been in the top six in all his events. Bibeau quotes; ***“The surgery was the best thing I ever did,” he said. “I feel better now than I did when I was 25.”***

As you can see, hip arthroscopies can be a far better alternative to hip replacement surgery. For more information about Dr. Huffard and about OA Centers For Orthopaedics, follow the hyperlinks provided within the blog.

If you would like a copy of this press release, email me at the address provided a the end of the blog.

Again, I thank Mr. Andrew Russell, for Ethos Marketing and Design in the Portland, Maine area,for allowing me access to the press release.

Send email to dlafrance2@207me.com