Deep inside the Knight Kingdom

Since we were in Orlando, no trip would be complete without a stop at Huey Magoo's and CB&S bookstore up near the beautiful campus of UCF. After sitting down with our drinks to wait for our food (I ordered the snack plate with Magoo's sauce and Alex got the Magoos' Sandwich) we suddenly realized that sitting at the next table was none other than Head Basketball coach Donnie Jones and family. I guess a coach has to eat too. Thanks for the great season Coach and we eagerly anticipate the 2011-2012 basketball year!

Big East Expansion

I'm weary of all the Big East conference expansion speculation and am about to give up on ever hearing anything in the near and not so near future concerning which teams if any are going to be invited into their conference. It is good to know that we are always one of the teams that gets mentioned any time this topic comes up whether it is on a blog or some online sports site. I would bet that our name comes up at least as many times as the next two teams combined. I do not want to hold my breath anymore waiting for the BE to make a decision and I am officially going to stop waiting for it to happen.

Yes it is true that I am biased in my opinion that we should get an invite over other teams that we play against in Conference USA but I do not see how the Big East can go wrong with adding us into their league. We have won the conference championship in football two of the last four years, the men's hoops team was ranked for the first time ever this past season, the women's team took home the conference title for the second time in three years, we are the 2nd largest university in the nation, the football team finished in the top 25 for the first time in school history, and so on and so on......

I believe that in the end it will come down to which team can bring the biggest TV market to the Big East and that will probably be Orlando which has the 19th largest market in the US. Combine that with the Tampa market and the I4 corridor is probably in the top ten in the country. Hey those Big East guys love coming down to Florida, heck they just had their recent meeting in Ponte Vedra Beach and adding another trip to Florida would be well worth it for them on many levels. I don't understand what the cows over there at usf have against us joining the league. I've heard that it would hurt their recruiting.....What?....we've already out recruited you this year, are you saying it would actually get worse for you? OK cows who is your biggest rival right now in the big east? Is it Louisville or maybe West Virginia? (btw I don't think it is the latter, I have a friend who is a big WVU fan and the feeling is they don't respect you). You guys know when it comes right down to it you despise us just as much as we despise you and that is what makes a great rivalry.

Having said that, if the worst case happens and we do not end up in any automatic qualifying conference I won't lose too much sleep. I like the direction that our rivalries are heading with the likes of ECU, Southern Miss, and Marshall and competing with them for conference championships is very enjoyable to watch.

Go Knights!

Go Knights, Go Knights, Go, Go, Go!

The Knights go 2 and 0 in the CUSA tourney with a 6-4 win over the UAB Blazers. We take on top seed Rice tomorrow at 1:30 PM ET in a winner take all game - that is a spot in the conference championship game.

Link to CUSA baseball championship tournament page

Slugfest in Mississippi

Not a whole lot of pitching went on today from either side. But we eventually wore out the Memphis pitching staff to get the win. It did make for an interesting game though. I really dislike coming out on the losing end on a game like this, I am just glad we got some good pitching in the later innings.


Here is a recap from UCF athletics.

The bats wake up

I guess we made up for our lack of production last night by putting up 14 runs against the Noles tonight, including a 7 run inning in the top of the 7th. Tomorrow is the rubber match, hopefully we can come up with some good pitching to beat another Florida team.

Looking forward to 2011 season

Here is a video that displays at least two of the attributes that make Jeff Godfrey such a great QB.  Although he is small in stature he possesses not only an incredibly strong throwing arm but I believe one of the most accurate touches in college football today.

Corky's Barbecue and the first bowl win

Found this image on the desktop

I still get goosebumps watching all of the replays from that wonderful Knight in Memphis!

It's the reason God made Saturdays

College football is meant to be played on Saturdays.  I am a traditionalist and I love my Saturdays in the fall filled with a plethora of different games to watch and it just does not feel right when I can not see the Knights playing football on Saturday.  Having said that I understand why we choose to take the offer of playing games on "Non-Traditional" days to take advantage of the exposure it brings to the program.  National exposure on a week-knight is invaluable to any program that is trying to grow.  I guess that I am selfish and hate to give up my tail gating prior to the Saturday games, oh well I suppose I will have to try and be flexible for the Thursday Knight game against Tulsa on Nov. 3.

Not a good Knight in Tallahassee

I did manage to catch a little bit of the game (Audio feed) and it sounded like the pitchers had a bit of a rough Knight.  I was surprised to see Ben Lively get called on for relief.  I hope that Terry Rooney will have him start one of these games.  I am still relatively new to college ball and still don't understand the use of pitchers at this level.