On Tap (The day after too much Scotch edition)

Helping you get your weekend viewing priorities straight since 2007


Thursday

8:30 (ESPN) West Virginia @ Colorado. I have a sneaky suspicion that Colorado will win 17-14 in OT, just a feeling.


Friday

8:00 (ESPN2) Baylor @ Connecticut. Another one of those Friday night football games that you hope you are only watching it cause it is on in the background at whatever bar you happen to be in. Key Fact: This would be a better game if it were basketball.


Saturday

12:00 (BTN) Troy @ Ohio State. Troy has played top 25 teams tough the last few years, had they been catching the Buckeyes after a big win in SoCal I would say that they had a shot at an upset. Instead, they are running into an angry Ohio State team that has something to prove. Needless to say, this game is close going into the fourth before Ohio State pulls away. Key Fact: Troy’s mascot is the Trojan, that is enough to make me scared of them.

12:00 (ESPN) East Carolina @ NC State. East Carolina came close to coming back down to earth after barely getting past a pesky Tulane team on the road. They should get back on track knocking off a third team from a BCS conference. Key Fact: Listening to Lou Holtz talk (and by talk I mean slur) about his son’s team and getting almost teary eyed is probably the best part about him on ESPN.

3:30 (CBS) Florida @ Tennessee. One of the biggest rivalry games out there, although it seems that Florida has had the Vols number lately. Phil Fulmer’s seat could get a little hotter if Tennessee does not show up and at least give Florida a game. Key Fact: This game won’t be close and Urban Meyer will continue to run up the score cause he is a prick.

3:30 (ABC) Notre Dame @ Michigan State. This should be a surprisingly good game. Michigan State’s defense has looked solid and ND looks like there is some life in their offense. Notre Dame fed off of Michigan’s mistakes last week, hopefully MSU can make ND prove that they can win. Key Fact: It pains me to admit it but I am going to be rooting for Notre Dame to win, but that is only cause I want them to be undefeated so that their fans get back to the annoying levels that we all know and love just in time for me to travel to South Bend and watch Purdue shut them up.

7:00 (ESPN2) Wake Forest @ Florida State. FSU has lost two in a row to Wake Forest. Yes, you read that correctly. Last time Wake visited Tallahassee they walked away with a 30-0 win. It shouldn’t be that easy this go around, even though FSU has only played games against 1-AA teams. Key Fact: Has any team that has fallen off the college football map shown more early season promise year in and year out for us only to find out they still suck than Florida State.

7:45 (ESPN) LSU @ Auburn. Even though this game did not get the prime ABC billing it will probably be the best game of the night. Both teams are ranked in the top 10 and the winner puts themselves in the lead of the SEC west. Key Fact: Expect this to be low scoring (not 3-2 low scoring).

8:13 (ABC) Georgia @ Arizona State. This game lost a little bit of its luster when ASU could not get past UNLV. A few people (crazy people) have said that the PAC is one of the better conferences in the county, last weekend’s 0-4 performance against the Mountain West slowed that talk. Coupled with a shellacking at home by Georgia should effectively end it. Key Fact: Dennis Erickson is two years away from having the appropriate number of criminals on his team to compete for a BCS bid.

all times eastern

Fail

AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

Let's just not talk about this.

On Tap

No time for a real write up, just some games that should be good (or hideously awful)

Friday

8:00 (ESPN2) Kansas at South Florida (good)

Saturday

12:00 (BTN) Montana State at Minnesota (awful)

3:30 (ABC) Oregon at Purdue (good)

3:30 (NBC) Michigan at Notre Dame (awful)

8:00 (ABC) Ohio State at USC (Oh how I hope it is good)

10:30 (ESPN2) Wisconsin at Fresno State (good)

On Tap

Helping you get your weekend viewing priorities straight since 2007

Nice and abbreviated this week (and somehow the font and size got all jacked up and I don't have the time to deal with it)

Thursday

8:30 (ESPN) South Carolina @ Vanderbilt. Another Thursday night with Steve Spurrier.

Friday

7:00 (ESPN) Navy @ Ball State. Somehow I have the feeling that Navy is going to run the ball, a lot.

Saturday

12:00 (ESPN2) Miami (OH) @ Michigan. The Wolverines need this win to avoid starting 0-2 for the second consecutive season.

12:00 (ESPN) Ohio @ Ohio State. No Beanie should be no problem against the Bobcats.

3:00 (FSN) BYU @ Washington. Washington got stomped last week by the Ducks and things are not going to get much easier against a BYU team that is looking for a chance to play in a BCS bowl.

3:30 (ABC) Cincinnati @ Oklahoma. I have heard some experts say that this game has upset potential. I think Brian Kelly is a fine coach at Cinci, but I just can’t see them going into Norman and knocking off the Sooners.

3:30 (ABC) Oregon State @ Penn State. The Oregon State Beavers travel to Beaver Stadium to take on Penn State. I think it is just too coincidental for the Beavers not to pull a mild upset in Beaver Stadium. Then again OSU lost to Stanford last week and that is never good for any team.

3:30 (NBC) San Diego State @ Notre Dame. Talk about a great team to open up against for ND. SDSU lost to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo while giving up 263 yards on the ground and gaining only 27 for themselves. As much as it pains me to admit ND should have a much better year, as a result of a year of experience and a much more generous schedule.

4:30 (ESPN) WVU @ East Carolina. Can ECU knock off a second ranked team in a row? The Big East has been hurting early this season and a loss here would do nothing to help their credibility. A win for ECU makes them yet another non-BCS conference team dreaming of a big January 1^st pay day.

8:00 (ESPN) Miami (FL) @ Florida. Florida has not beaten Miami since sometime in the mid 80’s. If there was every a year to end that streak this should be it.

all times eastern

Beer of the Week

Week of September 1st --- Beer of the Week


Dinkel Acker CD-Pils



I always like a good German beer, and the Dinkel Acker fits that mold perfectly. It has that good crisp refreshing beer flavor without any annoying overbearing aftertaste. Apparently it is a close second (and rising) to Beck's in popularity of German beers in America, but after the publicity it gets here I am sure that it will shortly fall back to third.

Preview Time

I put up a quick run down of how I think things will finish in college football this year over at Just Rub Some Sugar On It.

Like I said there, it is probably wildly off the mark, but I don't see your predictions anywhere.

The Return of On Tap

Helping you get your weekend (football) viewing priorities straight since 2007


Thursday


8:00 (ESPN) NC State @ South Carolina. Technically not the first game of the season, but the first game available to the masses. I will generally tune into any game that Steve Spurrier is coaching a team other than Florida just to see how frustrated he gets with the inferior talent that he has.

9:00 (ESPN2) Oregon State @ Stanford. Get your Cardinal season tickets, if they suck too badly for your liking they will refund your money (but only if you give the tickets to the USC game back).


Saturday


12:00 (BTN) Youngstown State @ Ohio State. I get the Big Ten Network?? I mean, I get the Big Ten Network!!!!!! Oh how I can’t wait for the mid week Northwestern – Indiana women’s volleyball match.

12:00 (ESPN) Virginia Tech vs. East Carolina (Charlotte). I have nothing special to say here, other than a noon game available to people with out the BTN (does anybody not get the BTN?).

3:30 (ABC) Utah @ Michigan. The beginning of the RichRod era at Michigan. As much as I hate people piling on the Big Ten I can’t help but hope Utah wins this game. I can’t stand Rodriguez. As I read somewhere (can’t remember or I would cite it) “Lloyd Carr could not coach his way out of a paper bag, but he was always a class act”. I miss Lloyd and his gray sweatshirt already.

3:30 (ABC) USC @ Virginia. Of course since scUM will be dominating the airways in the Midwest I will not be able to watch this game. USC should pound UVA but it is nice to see them go on the road to play a non-conference BCS team the first week of the season. And stranger upsets have happened in week 1s past.

5:00 (ESPN) Appalachian State @ LSU. Something like only the fourth time that two outright champions from different divisions have played each other in the year following their championships (good to know huh?).

8:00 (ABC) Alabama vs. Clemson (Atlanta). Another BCS conference match up in the week one slate. Clemson should have a solid chance to win the ACC and Bama is looking to build off the 7 point loss at home to Louisiana State (and Louisana-Monroe two weeks later).

8:00 (ABC) Michigan State @ California. A win for MSU would help start changing the national perception of the Big Ten. A win for Cal would not mean a whole lot, but a loss would just be a start to another season of underachieving.

8:30 (ESPN) Illinois vs. Missouri (St. Louis). Arguably the best game of the day, depending on whether or not Juice Williams shows up to play more than just an over glorified running back for the Illini. Mizzou is looking to kick off there season in attempt to win not just the Big 12 but possibly a shot at the national title.


Sunday


3:30 (ESPN) Kentucky @ Louisville. A great big battle of who the f cares, but it is Sunday and it is football.


Monday


4:00 (ESPN) Fresno State @ Rutgers. Fresno State starts their campaign to be the third straight WAC team to crash the BSC. Rutgers just hopes to enjoy the last year of Greg Schaino before he heads off to resurrect Penn State.

8:00 (ESPN) Tennessee @ UCLA. I have no idea what to think of these teams. UCLA should be at least interesting (in a scandal sort of way) with Rich Neuheisel at the helm, and I keep hearing grumblings about the new offense at Tenn is supposed to liven things up. I just don’t know how the quarterback is going to get this signs with Fat Phil Fulmer clogging up the sidelines.

Beer of the Week (or beer of the second half of August)

Date Irrelevant --- Beer of the Week

Stroh's





So I have never actually had a Stroh's, but I was told that I should bring some to the family reunion this weekend. If my family supports the beer it most likely means that it is...

1) Cheap

2) Probably not spectacular (never stopped me from drinking a beer before)

C) Had it's quality or lack thereof argued about for hours on end with neither side giving in

IV) Consumed in mass quantities

This is the part where I will pretend like I will comment on the quality of the beer after I have had one (or 12) but everyone knows I am far too lazy to follow up on that.

Beer of the Week

Week of August 11th --- Beer of the Week

Kokanee




I am posting this as fast as I can to sneak the post in between intermittent internet access here in Montana. Go get yourself some Kokanee, the best of the Canadian beers.

Beer of the Week (On the Road Edition)

Week of August 4th --- Beer of the Week

Newport Hurricane Amber Ale



Reporting to you live from Newport, RI on the first day of a 15 day excursion to the furthest* reaches of America.

The beer of the week is going to be tough for you to find (and by you I mean the 4 people who might read this) being that as I understand you can only get it in New England. If you have nothing better to do take a trip to the nearest purveyor of Newport Hurricane Amber Ale, and remember it comes highly recommended after 3.5 hours of sleep, 10 hours of travel, and far too much talk about science.



*Not Technically

How many days until college football?

That many

So Long Bearded One

Beer of the Week (on schedule even)

Week of July 28th --- Beer of the Week

Sweaty Betty





Good beer, better name. Sweaty Betty is a solid blonde wheat beer that is ideal for drinking on a hot summer day. If you are a connoisseur of the wheat beer this is one you will need to add to your catalog.

Beer of the Week (Friday Edition)

Week of July 21st --- Beer of the Week

Brooklyn Summer Ale





Good summer beer, light enough to drink at lot and just hoppy enough to keep me interested.

Beer of the Week

Week of July 14th --- Beer of the Week

Double Simcoe IPA





The Double Simcoe IPA is a hoppy beer. Hands down the hoppiest beer I have ever had and at 9% ABV is also packs a potent punch. After the first three drinks I was pretty sure that it was going to be a struggle to drink the whole thing. But after passing it around, making everyone else at the shindig try it, the taste really grew on me. There was only one problem, after drinking the Simcoe every other beer for the rest of the night tasted mostly like water (and I was not drinking coors light).