BCS, Big Trucks, and Curious Math

BCS

On Monday night Florida smacked Ohio State around to the tune of 41-14 in the BCS title game. Just about everyone was surprised, except a guy named Jim Walden, who used to coach at Washington State. He voted Florida #1 in the last regular-season poll, the only voter in the Harris poll to do so, and called this year's OSU team "one of the weakest No. 1 teams in 25 years." Every other #1 vote went to Ohio State. After the game, people were showering him with praise for picking the big underdog over the heavy favorite. Maybe he was prescient, maybe things just worked out for him. But he comes off looking like either a genius or a very lucky man right now.

Did I think Florida could win? Sure. They've got great athletes across the board, a tough defense, and a really, really good coach. Ohio State has the same, of course, but everybody gave them the edge because of Jim Tressel and Troy Smith. Earlier this season Lee Corso listed Jim Tressel's record in "big" games at 30-7. He regularly beats Michigan, and he pulled off a big upset against Miami a few years ago to win the BCS title. Troy Smith's bandwagon started to get full during last season's Fiesta Bowl, when he led OSU to a win over Notre Dame. It gained serious steam this undefeated season and a Heisman trophy.

So the two biggest surprises to me were:

1) Ohio State looked confused all game long, especially on defense. You would figure that with so much time to prepare, Tressel could come up with a defensive game plan to control Florida's offense. Didn't happen. It looked like guys were open over the middle all day long, and it looked like Florida was ready for whatever defensive looks OSU threw at them. Chris Leak played his best game of the season.

2) The pressure Florida's defense put on Troy Smith and the overall effect it had on the OSU offense. Heavy pressure from the ends and some creative blitzing early put Troy Smith on his back and got the Gators an interception. With the way Florida came out rolling on offense, they quickly built a big lead. Troy Smith was 4-14 for 35 yards for the whole game. Yowza.

If you're a Michigan fan, here's something that'll warm your heart:

Ohio State scored a touchdown on the opening kickoff of the game. Ted Ginn went 93 yards, 7-0 Buckeyes. What happens when he reaches the end zone? He gets tackled by two of his own teammates and hurts his ankle. I think he was back in for one play after that, then it was the sidelines for the rest of the game. The fastest player, the big-play threat, the dangerous returner, gone. And at the hands of his own teammates. My dad and I used to watch games and see stuff like a guy make great moves and go untouched to the end zone, then get hit--no, hammered--by his own guys, and we'd say, "I'd be really ticked off if I managed to run all that way without getting hit, and then get blasted by my own guys."

Big Trucks

Last night I went to the Monster Jam at the Verizon Center. You can see the pictures I took here. Most of them aren't that good. The video I got was much better. Observations:

LOUD!!

When those guys gun it and really go, it blows you back. There was a guy in the hallway giving away earplugs beforehand, and like a dope I think to myself, "Bah, it can't be that bad." After about 40 minutes my ears were actually sore. They do a pretty smart thing by breaking up the show into different segments so you're not constantly bombarded with the noise.

Just driving over the cars easily isn't what people want to see. You need to get high up into the air and come down hard. You know how gymnasts want to stick the landing? Here sticking it is boring. If you can almost flip over backwards or somehow lean forward on your front wheels and then rock back, that'll be pretty popular.

They have "Quad Wars", which seems like four-wheeler racing mixed with pro wrestling mic rhetoric. It's not as loud, but the fumes are stronger. Team DC beat Team Philly in the rubber match of three races when a nice-looking blonde girl crossed the finish line first.

They also add in motocross stunt jumping. Each time I was pretty sure that somebody was going to crash and endure a horrible trip to the emergency room. But those guys can do some pretty crazy stuff in midair, like headstands and letting go of things you'd think they would want to hold on to. It was pretty good.

Many moons ago, back when the world was young, I'd see some monster truck stuff on TV. I seem to recall that King Kong or Bigfoot was the big dog on the block. These days it's Gravedigger. It gets the biggest cheers and things seem to be set up for it to succeed. The announcer even calls it "everybody's favorite monster truck" or something like that.

All in all, it's a pretty good show. I'm glad I sat down close my first time, but I think I can settle for farther seats from now on.

Curious Math

I see before me coupons from Pizza Hut. One of them offers a medium pizza for $6.99. It also says "2 for $13.99". Doesn't that mean for two pizzas, they're charging you twice the amount plus one penny? If they charged the same amount per pizza for two as they did for one, the price would come out to $13.98. I may be wrong, but doesn't getting an additional product often come with a discount for the additional product? Something like "Shirts: $4 each or 3 for $10". I don't ever recall seeing a higher per-item price the more you buy. Curious.

In Other News

Congratulations to my good friend Sandy for finishing the Disney Half-Marathon. Good work, my friend. I'm proud of you, and I know I'm not the only one.