2010 College Football Preview and Predictions
It’s officially that time of the year again! Football is back! Maybe not the NFL just quite yet, but Jeff will argue that College Football is better. We won’t hold it against him. Here are Aaron and Jeff’s “educated” predictions on how the season will turn out. Dave will be sitting this one out, as he would probably admit, he knows more about the NBA than College Football. Here we go, and enjoy
Aaron: 
This program is completely turned around and ready for another run at a great bowl game. Florida’s best athletes are surging to the Canes once again, and I expect the seniors in this group to come out insanely pumped up yet still with a chip on their shoulder because of UF.
Jeff: 
Behind senior quarterback Tyrod Taylor and a quite balanced defence, “Beamer Ball,” shall prevail in the ACC. Their schedule will be pretty demanding, as they kick off the season against Boise State, and have road testers against ranked UNC and Miami, but no one can ever doubt the abilities Frank Beamer has in game preparation.
Aaron: 
Last year, the Huskies could have finished with a much better record but lost a number of games by 5 points or less. It was also a devastating season on a personal level. This year, it’s all business for UConn, and I see a very disciplined team taking the conference by storm.
Jeff: 
The Big East should be a tough conference to pick this year. Very crowded at the top, between Rutgers, Cincinnati, UConn, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh. But, in the end, I believe Pitt will get their redemption this year, after melting down defensively last year against Cincinnati, with a BCS trip on the line. Behind one of the top running backs in the league, Dion Lewis, Pitt should be able to outscore anyone. The question is, will their defensive veterans progress after last year? I believe so.
Sixers hire Rod Thorn as team president
The transformation of the Sixers continues. The team hired Rod Thorn as the team’s president Thursday morning.
Thorn, 69, previously worked with Ed Stefanski who was the president before Thorn’s hiring but will remain the team’s general manager. The two worked in the same roles with the New Jersey Nets. New Jersey and Thorn parted ways on July 16 after they brought in a new owner.
“We has seven pretty good years in New Jersey,” Thorn said of their shared time with the Nets in his introductory press conference Thursday morning.
Thorn has been all over professional basketball. He played as a guard from 1963 to 1971 with the Baltimore Bullets, Detroit Pistons, St. Louis Hawks, and Seattle Supersonics. From 1986 to 2000 Thorn was the NBA’s Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations.
As the Sixers look to rebuild Thorn joins a cast that includes coach Doug Collins and second overall pick Evan Turner as they hope to revitalize a Sixers organization that has struggled mightily since 2001 when they went to the NBA Finals.
“We’re looking to take steps forward,” said Thorn.
Thorn enters with what appears to be a great attitude and is very hopeful of the Sixers future.
“The fans don’t owe you anything,” said Thorn. “You own the fans.”
Cote retires to join Phantoms coaching staff
Riley Cote likely would have been with the Phantoms this season anyway, but today he cemented it. The 28-year-old enforcer has retired from the NHL and will become an assistant coach with the Flyers’ AHL affiliate Adirondack Phantoms.
Cote played in 156 NHL games, all with the Flyers, and recorded 411 penalty minutes.
He had only one goal in his career over four seasons with the Flyers, but he will certainly be missed in the locker room. Cote was always one of the biggest voices in the room always pumping up his teammates between periods and is one of the nicest guys in the sport despite his on-ice demeanor.
Cote will join head coach Greg Gilbert in Glen Falls, NY along with former Flyer Kjell Samuelsson on the Phantoms bench.
If I could be Homer for a day…
Not sure what is with me and ellipsis today, but as I’ve been standing out on the football fields of Lehigh University, shooting videos of Eagles training camp the same thought keeps coming to mind.
“How long until it’s hockey season?”
I can’t help but think about the team the Flyers have right now on paper and how confusing it is. Is this the best team the Flyers could put together? I don’t think anyone believes that to be the case but due to the NHL’s salary cap it is quite possible that this is the team that heads to Voorhees on September 17 when the Flyers begin training camp.
GM Paul Holmgren has had a busy offseason, but could he be done already? (Comcast Spectacor)
There’s a lot of pressure on the shoulders of GM Paul Holmgren. He’s made quite a number of moves and while some impress (squeezing a third-round pick out of the Penguins for the rights to Dan Hamhuis when Homer knew Hamhuis wouldn’t sign with anyone until July 1) some don’t (trading the team’s longest-tenured player in Simon Gagne for essentially nothing), but the one thing he’s shown is that he isn’t afraid to make a move. So with that in mind, here’s what I would like to do if I could be Homer for a day.
I’ve taken some flak for this, but I totally agree with the Flyers bringing back Michael Leighton and having full confidence in him as the team’s starter in the 2010-11 season. Leighton was clearly the reason the Flyers were able to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals last season.
If it weren’t for his desperate play, coming off waivers and hoping to impress someone to the point where he could have a steady NHL career again, the Flyers may have just closed up shop in January after they really began to struggle and the injury bug bit Ray Emery among others.
So having said that, I do not think the team should make a move to trade for a goalie like Huet, Bernier, or otherwise.
I was hoping (although I knew there wasn’t a shot in hell it would happen) the Flyers would trade up on draft day and take Jack Campbell and properly groom him to take over the position in a few years. But it’s the Flyers. They don’t like grooming goaltenders. Read more…
Our sincerest apologies…
So we haven’t posted in…..a while. We’ve missed a lot of things since the Simon Gagne trade, but Aaron and I are both working hard at the Reading Phillies and Philly.com respectively.
Because the content we produce is exclusive property of our employers, we can’t just copy and paste our work and re-post it here on the ADD Show. We can however, provide links. So to prove to you just how hard we’ve been working, check out these masterpieces…
Aaron celebrated a birthday on June 20 with the R-Phils. Three days later, I celebrated my birthday and realized I share the occasion with NY Giant center Shaun O’Hara at the NFL broadcast boot camp.
Phillies fans had been calling for Domonic Brown pretty much all season. Aaron wrote in late June how he’d hate to see Dom leave his Reading Phillies, but saw a need for the organization’s highest prospect to move on. Well Brown didn’t get called up until July 28, but the day before that I landed an exclusive interview with him for Philly.com.
A little out of order, but before Brown got the call, Aaron worked the AAA All-Star game in Lehigh Valley. Speaking of All-Stars, I met up with all three of the Phillies finalists for People Magazine’s All-Stars Among Us; Darlene Sullivan, Harry Leong, and the eventual winner, Marci Schankweiler.
So that’s just some of what we’ve been up to recently. We wish we were able to post more, but these are our belated excuses. Hopefully as the NFL season approaches, our schedule will allow us to post, tweet and record more content.
