Recapping Everything About The 10-1 Colorado State Rams

Welcome to the 86th edition of Tuesdays With Mitch, where I’m interrupting my vacation to come through with what actually turned into a pretty good-sized post. Happy Thanksgiving week. Let’s get into it…

Dee Hart cruises over the goal line for one of his six touchdowns on Saturday. Scoring six touchdowns is probably pretty cool. Andy Cross, Denver Post

I’ll start with some quick thoughts on Colorado State football after the 58-20 route of New Mexico that improved the Rams to 10-1. The CSU Rams are 10-1. That’s amazing.

The story of this game was Nick Stevens’ fourth-quarter performance. The back-up quarterback completed three of seven passes for 17 yards in garbage time to close out the game.

Oh, and Dee Hart had a decent afternoon, too. He rushed for 230 yards and five touchdowns. He had 42 more yards and another touchdown receiving. My math tells me that’s 272 yards from scrimmage and six total touchdowns.

Yes, New Mexico’s defense sucks, but that was one of the most impressive single offensive performances I’ve ever seen.

Hollywood Higgins kept doing his thing as well, with 10 catches for 167 yards and two touchdowns. He now leads the nation in receiving yards, receiving yards per game, and touchdowns. His incredible year continues

And Garrett Grayson, on Senior Day, in what could be his last game ever at Hughes, completed 23 of 29 passes for 389 yards and three touchdowns. If it turns out to be his last home game, (hope not) it was a fitting end for the most prolific passer in the history of Colorado State football.

Here’s a pretty cool Vine from CSU of Hart’s first TD of the day. WEEEEEEE!

After the big, dramatic Boston College win, I wrote this about the Rams’ remaining schedule (a screenshot from this September 30th post):

Hey look I found a typo!

Now, two months later, the Rams are 10-1. All that stands between them and that 11-1 record is a win at Air Force on Friday. Earlier in the year I was under the impression that Air Force wasn’t very good. I’ve changed my mind after watching them go 8-3, including going 5-0 in Colorado Springs. Troy Calhoun is a hell of a coach and has led a very impressive turnaround after last year’s 2-10 campaign.

This game scares me quite a bit even though the Rams are favored by seven in Vegas. Air Force didn’t look all that good on the road against a mediocre San Diego State team on Friday night in their first game without leading rusher Jacobi Owens, who is out for the season. But Air Force is still 5-0 at home. They will be jacked up for this game. The Rams have a short week with the Friday kickoff. The Falcons, who played SDSU on Friday night, do not.

So there’s some cause for concern, but there is also a big reason for Rams fans to be confident. His name is Jim McElwain. McElwain and his staff have had his players prepared for every game this year.

The Rams’ defense will be tested again against an option offense. They certainly held their own against New Mexico, limiting them to 301 yards rushing, though much of that was in garbage time. (For reference, the Lobos rushed for 505 yards against a good Boise State team.) Having the best linebacking corps in the Mountain West can sure help defend the option.

Air Force’s home field advantage could be mitigated some by playing a team that also is comfortable at altitude. A whole lot of green in the stands wouldn’t hurt either. See y’all on Friday.

In the rankings, the Rams jumped up to #21 in both the Coaches poll and the AP poll. They should be ranked by the College Football Playoff committee later this evening, but the committee has shown complete disregard for any non-Power 5 teams, so who knows. I’m not actually sure if the committee is aware that there are dozens of other teams in other conferences at this point.

Okay, time for your weekly record update thing even though by now I think we all get the point and this is getting redundant I don’t care I’m going to keep doing it anyway! Colorado State is now 10-1 in 2014. They’ve won nine in a row. They’re 14-2 in their last 16 games going back to last season. 16-3 in their last 19; 17-4 in their last 21. Those are some crazy-ass numbers, folks.

Of course the other game of almost equal importance this weekend goes down a day and a half after the Rams play Air Force when Utah State heads into Boise. By now you know that a Boise loss coupled with an CSU win would give the Rams the Mountain Division title and the opportunity to host the Mountain West Championship at Hughes on December 6th.

Utah State is pretty good. They’re the only team to come into Hughes this year and not get blown-T-F-out. But Boise is favored by nine in Vegas, largely because Boise is 90-4 at home since 2000, which is decent. Utah State has the best defense in the Mountain West and should be able to slow down the Broncos’ offense. The question will be whether or not the Aggies can muster any points on offense.

Should be a pretty good game. ESPN 2; Saturday; 8:15. Go Aggies.

It would be some unspeakably bad luck for CSU to go 11-1, enter the national rankings and gain some national notoriety after years of futility and not even play in a major bowl game, let alone win the conference, let alone participate in the conference championship game. Guess we’ll see what happens.

The Coloradoan’s Kelly Lyell did a good job laying out the Rams’ different bowl scenarios. There are plenty of moving parts, but I’m reading it with these being the three most likely possibilities.

• Fiesta Bowl, Glendale, AZ., December 31st against a big name, top-15 school. This only happens if everything breaks in the Rams’ favor. A win over Air Force. Utah State beats Boise State. Rams win the Mountain West Championship game. Committee has the Rams ranked ahead of Marshall. This is the ideal scenario, but there’s a pretty good team up north on a stupid blue field that provides a large obstacle.
• Las Vegas Bowl, in… uhh… Las Vegas, December 20th against a decent Pac-12 team. If Boise beats Utah State and wins the Mountain West, they’ll be picked by the committee as the highest ranked Group of Five team and would head to the Fiesta Bowl. The Las Vegas Bowl, which is scheduled to host the Mountain West champion, could then pick any Mountain West team to take their spot. One would have to imagine they would choose CSU. So at this point, I think the Vegas Bowl seems like the most likely.
• Poinsettia Bowl, San Diego, December 23 against Navy. Navy should become bowl eligible in either of the next two weeks. When they do, they’ll be playing in this game against a Mountain West team. If Las Vegas doesn’t pick the Rams, the Poinsettia Bowl will.

Again, that’s a lot of speculation on my part, but I’d circle those three dates on your calender.

In other very, very, very important news, it sounds like the new on-campus stadium is pretty much a lock with an announcement coming soon.

I was planning on talking about the Broncos next, but I ended up writing more on CSU than I thought I would. This was supposed to be a shortened holiday post!

But I’ll just say I thought the Broncos played pretty well against a good team. They got the ‘W’ and that’s all that matters. That was the #2 overall defense in the NFL and the Broncos scored 39 points, even though it felt like they struggled quite a bit.

The offensive line played really, really well a week after playing really, really poorly. So that was an important development. The Broncos were stubbornly committed to the running game and they had success with it, which greatly changes the dynamic of the offense.

The defense was excellent if you ignore two long, easy touchdowns drives from Miami. Can you do that? No? Okay, so that was a bit of a mixed bag.

Special teams pretty much sucked again. That chip-shot missed field goal immediately followed by a fumble from the no-name punt returner dude just about cost the Broncos the game.

But they overcame their mistakes and won a game against a pretty good team.

So we don’t have to push the panic button yet.

Also this gif of Ramirez and DT reacting to McManus’ chip shot field goal is awesome.

SB Nation

They react just like us! Cool!

Hey look, the Broncos just signed Connor Barth and waived McManus. Had to do it.

Off to the weekly departments…

Stud of the week:

Let’s talk about Odell Beckham Jr. Obviously, you’ve already seen this. (I could watch it like 50 times in a row.)

Deadspin

But let’s put some perspective on who we’re dealing with here. Because what this dude can do is absolutely amazing.

Here is Beckham warming up before Sunday night’s game. NBC showed this almost immediately before his incredible catch, which worked out pretty perfectly.

(I also encourage you to check out those catches in super slow-mo here. It’s hypnotizing.)

And here’s a different, perhaps even more amazing, warm-up routine from three weeks ago.

And here he is at LSU catching a FREAKING TOUCHBACK– without looking– with one hand like it’s a ping pong ball.

The Big Lead

Yeah. He’s cool.

A bunch of other stuff from around the internets:

This Vine is the most Raiders Vine ever. Two dudes celebrating like 15 yards in the offensive backfield while a play is about to start. Love it.

Coaches are in good moods after they play CU.

Mississippi State weirdo gave me a good chuckle.

Jameis Winston pushing a ref is awesome because it’s Jameis Winston. And he’s pushing a referee. That’s really pretty amazing when you think about it.

Wyoming basketball might be pretty damn good this year. Here’s their best player, Larry Nance Jr., throwing down in an upset over CU.

Dunk of the Night: Wyoming's Larry Nance Jr. throws down the nasty alley-oop jam that would make dad proud. http://t.co/88oEejJdWL

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 23, 2014

Jimmy Fallon mentioned former CSU Ram Weston Richburg in his “Most Likely To” segment:

Jimmy handed out some rare awards to a few NFL players! #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/flw7g4gm6P

— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) November 22, 2014

A couple links worth sharing:

• “The Amazing True Story Of My Exploding Balls” Drew Magary’s humorous account of his vasectomy and the gross complications thereafter is pretty great.
• One of my hundreds of thousands of loyal readers sent me this ESPN The Magazine story on Carson Palmer’s knee surgery. Pretty compelling read.

And finally, JaVale McGee would like to wish you and yours a happy Thanksgiving. I love him.

Happy Tuesday everybody. Thanks for reading. Have a tremendous Thanksgiving. Go Utah State. See ya next week.

***

Comment on any of this stuff below, or email me at mdhahn1@yahoo.com with post ideas, videos or other media I should know about. Subscribe at the top right of this page. Follow me on Twitter @TuesWithMitch.

Thoughts On The Broncos and Patriots (And CSU)

Welcome to the 83rd edition of Tuesdays With Mitch, where I am completely indifferent to Daylight Savings Time and don’t care about how you feel about the time change. Let’s get into it…

This is a pretty accurate representation of Sunday afternoon. (Steven Senne/AP)

I think it’s time we all acknowledge that the Broncos are the best team in the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE!. And right now, it doesn’t seem like anyone else is particularly close.

-Mitch Hahn, Tuesdays With Mitch, October 28th 2014

So… about that. Did you guys know that certain portions of my post last week were written as satire? Totally joking! Got y’all good.

Sunday’s beatdown in New England made it pretty clear that the Broncos are not standing alone as the best team in the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE!. The best team in the league might be the Patriots. Or someone else. I guess it could still be the Broncos. But the Patriots were definitely the best team on the field on Sunday.

And because of that, the Broncos’ regular season just became much more interesting. I’m always using this space to stress that the Broncos are in the middle of a 17 week preseason and none of these games really matter until the playoffs begin. I still feel that way to an extent, but right now it sure looks like getting the one-seed in the AFC is crucial.

Because the Broncos do not look like a team that can beat the Patriots in Foxborough.

So after nine weeks of the NFL season, the Broncos are 6-2. The Patriots are 7-2.

Here is the Broncos’ remaining schedule:

screenshot via ESPN.com

And here is the Patriots’ remaining schedule:

screenshot via ESPN.com

The Broncos have five road games and three home games. The Patriots have four road games and three home games (and a bye). Both teams go to San Diego. Both teams host Buffalo. Both teams have what appear to be tough road games.

So you can examine each game on each team’s schedule and try to predict each outcome, but that’s pretty pointless. The bottom line with all of this is that both teams have a whole lot of football to play and a lot of different scenarios can play out. It’s reasonable to foresee either team having home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Naturally after Sunday’s debacle, the thought process around town is that THE SKY IS FALLING and THE BRONCOS SUCK AGAIN. But as disheartening as Sunday afternoon was, I’m always careful not to invest too much into one game. Especially when that game takes place in early November in week nine.

I wrote last week that the Broncos were probably not going to go 15-1. I was right about that. And while playing in New England gave the Broncos an opportunity to make a statement and gain a solid grip on the AFC, it is just one loss. Really! It is! I checked the standings and everything.

The Broncos are still the Super Bowl favorites in Vegas. That kind of surprised me, but Vegas knows more than everyone and they’re not overreacting.

After watching the second quarter on Sunday it’s safe to say the Broncos had no shot beating New England. But– and stick with me here– if the Broncos don’t give up a fairly flukey punt return for a touchdown, and if their kicker kicks the ball six inches to the left and if Wes Welker catches this pass instead of gifting it to the other team, we’re watching a very different football game.

@cjzero

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of reasons for Broncos fans to be concerned. The pass rush wasn’t there. The defense couldn’t get off the field on third and long. The running game couldn’t establish itself. Julius Thomas is essentially a non-factor these days (two targets, two catches, one TD). Wes Welker is essentially a non-factor these days (94 total yards receiving the last four weeks). They don’t seem to have a right tackle. They don’t seem to have a kicker.

And I have no idea how to stop Rob Gronkowski. Look at this freak! He changes everything about the Patriots’ offense dramatically.

@cjzero

So I’m not Mr. Everything-Is-Fine again this week. Especially when I watch those two GIFs. But I’m not ready to crown the Patriots either. And I still think the Broncos have a pretty good shot at hosting each round of the playoffs.

And if they do that, their chances of returning to the Super Bowl are pretty darn good.

Subject change…

Garrett Grayson played through a groin injury to lead the Rams to another road win. (AP photo)

Colorado State won again. They won on the road. They won despite battling some injuries. They won despite giving up some big plays. The Rams just know how to win.

We have apparently reached the point in the rise of Colorado State football when fans can say, “Yeah they won the game BUUUUTTT it was closer than it should have been. They actually kind of struggled.”

I suppose this mindset is a good thing because it indicates how much expectations have risen, but you won’t find me complaining about anything after this one. Like I said a couple weeks ago, a road win in conference that comes without any major injuries is never, ever, ever a bad thing.

Speaking of injuries, for a while it looked like the Rams might have suffered two substantial ones. Garrett Grayson was hobbling around with a hurt groin seemingly all game. Rashard Higgins left the game with a shoulder injury. Neither injury is believed to be too serious, though Higgins may sit out Saturday vs. Hawaii.

But I have to give more props to Grayson for coming through with another ballsy performance. He could hardly move out there and had to ride the stationary bike to stay loose when he wasn’t on the field. And the stationary bike sucks. Screw that. But even with all the visible pain and unnecessary cardio, you could tell he wasn’t about to come out of that game. He seems to be a pretty tough dude. Keep in mind he’s also been battling a hurt throwing shoulder for much of the year.

Grayson finished with 290 yards passing and touchdown to Higgins, who still leads the nation in receiving yards and touchdowns after his 8 catch, 143 yard, 1 TD performance. Dee Hart had the best night of the bunch with 104 yards rushing and four touchdowns.

The Spartans were able to make things interesting. They even pulled within one score in the final minutes and were driving with a chance to tie before the Rams came up with a fourth down stop to seal the game. But I think that’s a little deceiving. The Rams had a 14-point lead and came up with an interception that looked like it was going to put them up by 21 with five minutes left untill Trent Matthews fumbled on his 25-yard return. San Jose State would later score on that drive. Then there’s the onside kick San Jose State recovered with just over two minutes left. Onside kicks are always complete flukes and I will never be convinced otherwise. And it helps when the refs don’t let players catch balls while they’re clearly running out of bounds.

The Rams took care of business against a mediocre team on the road in a game that I was actually pretty concerned about. And that’s really all that matters.

Time for your weekly record update! Colorado State is now 8-1 in 2014. They’ve won seven in a row. They’re 12-2 in their last 14 games going back to last season. 14-3 in their last 17; 15-4 in their last 19.

Looking ahead on the schedule, for the Rams to finish 11-1 they just need to beat two awful teams at home– they’re favored by 18.5 against Hawaii on Saturday and I expect a similar line vs. New Mexico in a couple weeks– before heading down the road to Air Force. Air Force has improved quite a bit over last year’s 2-10 team so I’m not taking that one for granted.

Last week I laid out some different bowl scenarios for the Rams. A quick update on those: East Carolina lost on Saturday, which dropped them from the national rankings. So the only things keeping CSU from a New Year’s Bowl are three regular season wins of their own, a Boise State loss, and a Rams’ win at home in the Mountain West Championship game. (If this scenario plays out, I can’t see Marshall being ranked higher than CSU, even if they’re undefeated.)

That Boise State loss though… still doesn’t seem overly likely. Their remaining schedule:

screenshot via ESPN.com

Maybe the ‘Pokes will do CSU a favor in Laramie. Maybe Utah State can go into Boise and get the job done. All the Rams can do is keep winning and see what happens.

Off to the weekly departments…

Douche of the week:

One last thing on the Coloroado State Rams: Being 8-1 in the Mountain West with your only loss coming in Boise in week 2 and not cracking the national rankings is a complete load of shit. That is all.

Stud of the week:

The story of Lauren Hill is one of the most moving stories of the year. She played in her first college basketball game on Sunday. If you’re unfamiliar with her story, start with these few paragraphs I pulled from this Yahoo! Sports article, describing Hill scoring the first basket of the college basketball season.

It was the simplest of plays, yet so much had to go right for it go off without a hitch.

Hill, the Mount St. Joseph College forward with an inoperable brain tumor, first had to live long enough to play in Sunday’s game against Hiram College, no small feat since doctors have told her they expect her not to make it through December. The 19-year-old freshman also had to summon the strength to make it up and down the floor despite the constant headaches and bouts of dizziness and nausea that have plagued her more frequently in recent weeks.

And as if that weren’t enough, there was the little matter of Hill having to attempt the layup with her off hand because the right side of her body is too weak for her hoist it to the rim with her dominant arm. Hill has practiced shooting with her left hand for weeks, but she still missed just as many layups as she made in practice the past two weeks — and that was without a sellout crowd of 10,000 fans standing in her honor and tens of thousands more watching at home from their sofas on national TV.

And this SportsCenter Featured from Tom Rinaldi and ESPN might make things a little dusty.

(If YouTube takes that video down, head here to watch.)

Hill was named the conference player of the week on Monday.

Good, sad, happy, touching, powerful, moving stuff.

And a bunch of other stuff:

I actually really like this play. If you can nail the timing things could go well. If not, this happens:

And here’s a GIF with a different angle.

Uproxx

I never want to meet this creepy guy. Or his eyebrows.

I’m not sure why the Dolphins are giving their coach an ice water bath in week nine and neither is this ref.

The Army band had some fun with Halloween:

This Army band member is playing a leg. We repeat, this Army band member is playing a leg! #AFvsARMY pic.twitter.com/jRyXaPqlRl

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) November 1, 2014

A couple links worth sharing:

• The New York Times tracked down Madison Bumgarner’s dad in the Bumgarners’ hometown on the nights of games six and seven. Really good read here.
• Roger Angell writing about the postseason was a treat. Here he is on Bumgarner after game seven.
• Sports Illustrated picked Colorado State basketball to finish third in the Mountain West.
• “A heartbreak like no other: On love, loss and OIe Miss football” is a pretty powerful read.
• Jose Canseco shot his finger off while trying to clean his gun because he’s a huge idiot.

And finally, this completely incompetent Chevrolet employee absolutely stole the show on Wednesday night after game seven of the World Series. Yes, I’m late to the party on this again this week. (The MLB Postseason schedule did not align favorably with weekly posts on Tuesday.) But this is too good to leave out. An all-time cringe-inducer here.

Chevy Guy’s most famous line, of course, was “Technology and Stuff”:

And props to Chevy, who ran with it and turned it into a legit marketing campaign.

Truck yeah the 2015 #ChevyColorado has awesome #TechnologyAndStuff! You know you want a truck: http://t.co/0NcEoDRSUZ pic.twitter.com/RMiRic8ATF

— Chevy Trucks (@ChevyTrucks) October 30, 2014

Happy Tuesday and stuff everybody. Thanks for reading and stuff.  See ya next week.

***

Comment on any of this stuff below, or email me at mdhahn1@yahoo.com with post ideas, videos or other media I should know about. Subscribe at the top right of this page. Follow me on Twitter @TuesWithMitch.

Colorado State (Eventually) Dominates Colorado

Welcome to the 75th edition of Tuesdays With Mitch, where I have a fairly short post about five hours later than usual. Apparently watching Colorado State beat the hell out of Colorado, then having three more days to party can really take a lot of a guy. (And I didn’t want to wait til Wednesday to “publish”.) Let’s get into it…

Dee Hart ran all over the Colorado Buffaloes. Might he be a top-level talent after all? (Doug Pensinger, Getty Images)

That was a fun one.

Hey, I tried to tell you about Dee Hart. Okay, in fairness I said I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Alabama transfer. But I also said he could be a season-changer. And after one game, that seems to be the case. I did not; however, tell you about JuCo transfer Trey Jarrells. That dude pretty much came out of nowhere. The two combined for 260 yards and three touchdowns against CU.

By now, we all know what happened. CU jumps out to 10-0 and 17-7 leads and things aren’t looking particularly awesome for the Rams. Then the CSU running game just takes over and Colorado State dominates for 24 unanswered points.

I incorrectly predicted that quarterback play would make the difference. Turns out it was the line play. CSU’s offensive line won them this game. A new unit that was assumed to be a weakness dominated a Pac-12 (haha) defense. And– AAAAND!– that all happened after losing Ty Sambrailo in the first quarter. He’s only a possible first-round NFL draft pick and maybe the most important player on the team. And as we all assumed, the Buffs couldn’t run the ball all that well either.

So the offensive and defensive lines of Colorado State decided this year’s showdown. Big ups to them.

Of course, it would behoove all Rams fans to keep this game in perspective. Don’t get me wrong, live it up. Party your ass off. Troll the hell out of CU. But remember, it’s impossible to gauge what a win like this means for the team over the course of the regular season. It’s always wise not to invest too much into a single game, but that is especially true after beating Colorado.

The Buffs could be decent this year. Or they could really, really suck. I’m not going to have fun berating everything about CU again this week, but would anyone in the world be shocked if they went 1-8 in the Pac-12 again?

There is a distinct possibility that CSU just beat one of the worst teams in the country.

We’ll find out a lot more about where CSU stands when they travel to Boise on Saturday Night. The Broncos got their asses kicked by Ole Miss on Thursday, but Ole Miss is hoping to contend for the SEC title and could be a top-10 caliber team.

For all serious Rams fans, a win over Boise State would be much bigger than one over CU. BSU opened as about 10-point favorites, by the way.

Stud(s) of the week:

The Colorado State student section. Holy crap, guys. This was my ninth consecutive showdown. I spent five or six (actually maybe seven now that I think about it) of them sitting in the student section. albeit, sometimes as a graduate disguised as a student. Anyway, I watched the CSU student section from a distance this year and that was, without a doubt, the most packed and loud and active student section I’ve ever seen for the Rams. They definitely made a serious impact on the outcome. Ram Ruckus, the “Official Student Spirit Group of Colorado State”, announced that the student tickets sold out and it sure looked like it:

@NolanLees

It was that packed on all three levels. They were awesome. Let’s hope they stick around for the rest of the year.

Douche of the week: Michael Hancock

I don’t know if he’s really a douche (probably not), but I want to use this space to talk about the interaction between Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Jim McElwain, which was pretty hilarious.

Larry Brown Sports

That’s coach McElwain grabbing the microphone from Hancock as the mayor is addressing the crowd. McElwain is somewhat forcibly saying, “My name’s coach McElwain.” Hancock called him coach “MacIntyre” (that’s the name of the CU coach, of course) and then stuttered the sound “Mac” a few times before McElwain took over (video here). Later, in a press conference, McElwain made it clear he was still pretty pissed.

“I will say one thing,” he said. “I do understand where we are on the food chain from a relevance standpoint because the mayor doesn’t even know my name.

“The guy needed help, man. Somebody pointed that out, that nobody thinks much of us, even though how many alums do we have in the Denver area? Like the most of any university there is? And yet the mayor doesn’t even know the head ball coach’s name.

“I guess that really shows where we are and where I am as a program. . . Boy, that makes a guy feel good. Guy giving you the trophy and can’t spit your name out. Shows you how much they care about Colorado State, right?”

I think it’s awesome that McElwain is standing up for himself and his program. Not backing down… leaning on the “scrappy underdog” angle… Calling out local politicians who don’t know what they’re talking about… It’s all good with me. I like this guy more and more each week, man.

Of course, both men made nice via Twitter.

.@MayorHancock On behalf of Ram Nation, thanks for your message. Really proud of our team – looking forward to next year's game in Denver!

— Jim McElwain (@CoachMcElwain) September 2, 2014

Hey also one more thing how cool is this little image from the CSU marketing folks?

Props to the people behind that one.

Subject change…

Of course, the Broncos season kicks off on Sunday night. There’s no need to add me to the list of people you don’t care about breaking down every game on the schedule. (If they lose in two months does anyone say Oh yeah that one talk show host/blogger/columnist predicted this two months ago!) But overall, you can put me down for 12 or 13 wins.

My gut reaction when looking at the Broncos’ big picture is that they probably won’t go to the Super Bowl again, because going to the Super Bowl is a hard thing to do. But when I look at the AFC, not much scares me. Unless the Broncos seriously regress– and there’s not much reason to think they will– they should be the heavy favorites to win the AFC, and according to Vegas, they are. The Patriots weren’t that close last year. The Colts don’t scare me much outside of Andrew Luck. (I bet Sunday is another Opening Night blowout.) Who else? The Chiefs? Chargers? Mnneehhh.

If the Broncos stay relatively healthy, they should be playing in February. Of course, crazy things happen in the NFL all the time, so this outlook may change.

Off to the (other) weekly departments…

Tweet(s) of the week:

Filed to ESPN: Broncos WR Wes Welker has been suspended four games for use of amphetamines, per sources.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 2, 2014

Source: Welker took Molly at the Kentucky Derby. It had been cut with amphetamines. Same situation as Orlando Scandrick.

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) September 2, 2014

So… that’s some big news. No time to break it down, but damn!

Vine(s) of the week:

Check out the wheels on the Auburn ball boy.

And here’s a very happy young man screwing with a news anchor by waving a… Well you can probably figure that out. People messing with news anchors by making idiots out of themselves like this will never get old.

He’s just so happy.

The picture of the week this week is actually just a screen grab of my favorite sign at a sporting event in a long, long time.

SPORTS pic.twitter.com/A5tmwsTfOs

— SB Nation GIF (@SBNationGIF) August 30, 2014

A couple links worth sharing:

• Ben Hochman’s Sunday feature on the Air Force football team “adopting” a child with brain cancer as part of the “Friends of Jaclyn” program is required reading. Very moving stuff.
• So is this piece from Greg Doyel on a coach reliant on multiple kidney transplants. This is actually a couple weeks old now, but it’s still worth your time.

And finally, uhhh…. I don’t have anything for this space this week so here’s a music video. I’m going to see these gentlemen in a couple days so it seems fitting. I guess. Whatever. (Actually a really awesome performance though.)

Happy Tuesday everybody. Thanks for reading. Enjoy the first great football weekend of the year. See y’all next week.

***

Comment on any of this stuff below, or email me at mdhahn1@yahoo.com with post ideas, videos or other media I should know about. Subscribe at the top right of this page. Follow me on Twitter @TuesWithMitch.

Dee Hart Transfers and Your Weekly Roundup

Welcome to the 71st edition of Tuesdays With Mitch, where we’re officially in the dog days of summer. That usually means there’s not much to talk about. But the internet provided plenty of material this week. Let’s get into it…

Dee Hart is now a Ram. (USATSI)

We’re jumping right into the weekly departments after a few words on someone I’m hoping is a future Stud of the Week.

Colorado State football just made an interesting move that could potentially change their 2014 (that’s the upcoming one!) season dramatically. Yeah, I’m talking a little college football. We’re getting close.

Colorado State needs a running back. Kapri Bibbs left with two years of eligibility remaining to try to make an NFL roster. Donnell Alexander, who is also pretty damn good, transferred to Akron in a strange story that seemed to involve his family clashing with the coaches. (Or something like that.) So the Rams didn’t really have anyone to tote the rock this year. They might have found one.

It was announced this week that Alabama running back Dee Hart is transferring to CSU and will be eligible to play immediately, since he already has his degree from ‘Bama. Hart is a former 5-star recruit from Orlando, who didn’t find much playing time with the Tide after tearing his ACL in his sophomore year and re-injuring it on a punt return a year later.

This could turn out to be a huge move. Garrett Grayson has turned into a stud at quarterback and the receiving corps figures to be the deepest and most talented we’ve seen in years. Having a capable running back can provide some important balance.

Now, I’m not saying the Rams have found the next Kapri Bibbs or anything, but I do think this could prove to be an important pick-up. If Hart can earn the starting job and just be a solid player, the Rams would all of the sudden be set at all of the offensive skill positions. A couple hundred carries for 800 or so yards and 12 touchdowns would go a long way for this team.

Nobody knows if this move will even work out for the kid, but if it does, it could be one that changes the landscape of the Mountain West.

So that would be cool.

I hope to have some sort of Colorado State football preview in the next few weeks to break things down a bit more. PINS AND NEEDLES, AMIRITE?!

Stud(s) of the week:

Last week was full of crap and sad/annoying stories. We’re taking the opposite approach this week, with 5 different studs. Yay!

Speaking of Alabama football, all of their fans are freaks. But I love this video so much that these people all get a nod for their studliness.

Here’s the scenario: Fans line up with a chance to get an autograph from Nick Saban (who all of these hillbillies absolutely worship), but there’s only a limited amount of time (or something, I honestly don’t care to know the specifics) so they all hit the field at Bryant-Denny and really have to hustle to ensure their spot in line.

They do it every year. This is the first I’ve heard of it. And I fell in love before I even watched the video because it was introduced to me as “The Running of the Gumps”, which makes me laugh hysterically every time I hear it. THE RUNNING OF THE GUMPS!

All hail THE RUNNING OF THE GUMPS:

Okay…

Oooookayyyyy….

Okay. I wasn’t planning on doing this, but I need to break this down a little further. We gon peple wutchin’ n Tuscaloosa!

Determined GUMPS are prepared for the rain; or possibly wanting Nick Saban to sign a blue and white umbrella.

“Sir, Nick Saban will not sign a trash bag full of human heads. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Whassup baby?

Not enough old dudes with mustaches tuck their Alabama football T-shirts into black shorts.

The emotions vary greatly during THE RUNNING OF THE GUMPS.

I bet this lady runs the 40 in 10.6 seconds flat in those kicks.

Ten bucks says this dude tried to talk Saban into giving him a tryout.

Saban will be really confused when this guy asks him to sign a giant painting of his four cats. Wait, no he won’t.

These people are cheating. You are supposed to run, GUMPS!

I think this was the part of the video when I stopped and thought, “Seriously, WHAT IN THE HELL is going on?”

Your RUNNING OF THE GUMPS MVP

I just don’t understand how all of these people got off work on a Monday (haha). But seriously, can someone remind me to never go to the state of Alabama?

And to wrap this little segment up… An Auburn fan gave this whole scene a different soundtrack.

ROLLGUMPS!

THE RUNNING OF THE GUMPS is my new favorite holiday.

The Ray Rice story is still horrible, but the news producer who screwed this up gets some studly props. Perhaps my favorite news blooper of the year.

I also give props to the male anchor for making that face and casually pointing towards the screen he’s watching like Hmmmm….. I uhh…. I don’t think that’s the right video. Yeah. Yeah, that appears to be a fight between an old guy in a sweat suit and a guy in a spiderman costume. Definitely not Ray Rice. Right? Yep.

Absolutely hysterical.

More news bloops: Louis Slungpue: Absolute stud.

I have the sense of humor of a 12-year-old sometimes, so getting the phrase “took a really large dump” on the news is hero-level stuff.

Shifting gears to a more traditional stud, you ought to know I loves me some Vin Scully. So the announcement that he was returning for his 66th season (think about that) was a pretty awesome moment, even if all those Dodgers flags make me want to projectile on my laptop.

Well done and creative job by the Dodgers with this announcement as well. Vin is just an American treasure.

And this week’s true Stud Of The Week is Jim Kelly. Watch this SC Featured that takes an intimate look at his battle with cancer. ESPN is so good at this kind of thing. I can’t embed this one, but it’s available here. NBC also aired a powerful video on Sunday night during some stupid preseason game. It’s available here. They’re both worth your time.

Douche of the week:

I can’t think of anyone else, so we’ll go with Dick Monfort again, because why not?

Vine of the week:

Pretty sweet catch. (Kind of.)

Picture of the week:

This is what it looks like when 29 sumo wrestlers are all on the same flight.

機内ではこんな感じでした。
ぎゅうぎゅう状態です。#sumo pic.twitter.com/4vmXZQMHRy

— 八角部屋 (@hakkakubeya) July 30, 2014

A couple links worth sharing:

• Some disturbing news from the Air Force Academy, who is now investigating its athletic department. Good work from the Colorado Springs Gazette.
• Huh. I guess that’s all I got this week.

And finally, just look at this freaking catch from last night:

.

@cjzero

Play of the year in 2014.

Happy Tuesday everybody. Thanks for reading. Enjoy your preseason football. See ya next week.

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