BenMaller.com - Ben's Takes

BenMaller on FoxSports.com

Ever wonder what a college football program would be worth on the open market? Ben Maller sat down and gave his thoughts on the powerfull FoxSports.com website. Keyword: Big Ben

Ben also tells you who's going to play in the BCS title game at the Fiesta Bowl.

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Ben Maller's College Football Picks for 2002

ACC

Florida State: A year after slipping, the Seminoles are ready to go back on top. Chris Rix will put up monster numbers, because the FSU machine has been fixed. Florida State's defense has to step up. LB's Kendyll Pope and Michael Boulware are big time players but they can't make all the plays by themselves.

MAC

Marshall: Bryon Leftwitch is said to be the best NFL prospect among the quarterbacks. Leftwitch is the early favorite to be the top pick in the 2003 draft. The Thundering Herd win this conference every year.

Big 12

South: Oklahoma: DT Tommie Harris who's just a sophomore leads the best defense in the country. If Bob Stoops can get just average play from his offense, then the Sooners have a chance to win every game. TE Trent Smith and WR Antwone Savage are going to have to be the playmakers.

North: Kansas State: The K-State defense will lead the Wildcats back on top in the Big 12 North. CB Terence Newman, LB Terry Pierce and DT Tank Reese are all big time players. The Wildcats are going to need QB Ell Roberson to play like he did in the Oklahoma game last season.

Conference USA

Louisville: The Cards have a pair of the nation's best players. Senior QB Dave Ragone is not going to win the Heisman but NFL scouts like his size (6-4/250) and arm. The Red Bird's best player is really junior DE Dwayne White, is one of the best pass rushers in the nation. White has 27 career sacks.

SEC

East: Tennessee: The Vols can count on WR Kelly Washington and QB Casey Clausen to make plays on offense. The questions are on the defensive side of the football, because John Henderson and Albert Haynesworth left for the NFL. Eddie Moore, the hard hitting LB, who led the Vols in tackles last year, is back. Jabari Greer is a big time player at cornerback.

West: Mississippi: Eli Manning will lead the Rebels to their first SEC West title. The key is the Old Miss defense. Can they make enough plays to win the West? LB Eddie Strong might have to make 200 tackles for the Rebels defense.

Big 10

Ohio State: RB Maurice Clarett and the Buckeyes look ready to roll through the Big 10. QB Craig Krenzel is not going to win any games by himself. Ohio State's three best players are on defense. SS Mike Doss, DT Tim Anderson and DE Will Smith are all big time players.

Big East

Miami: The Hurricanes will not be in the Fiesta Bowl this season, but they are still better than Virginia Tech. The Canes' best players are on defense DT William Joseph and LB Jonathan Vilma. Joseph is expected be the first defensive lineman taken in the NFL draft, and Vilma has been a monster.

Pac 10

Washington State: The best player in the conference is QB Jason Gesser of Washington State, so I'm jumping on the Cougars' bandwagon. Oregon RB Onterrio Smith is going to have a huge season, so don't count out the Ducks.

Mountain West

Utah: RB Marty Johnson is the man who will run the ball behind a massive offensive line. Jordan Gross, an OT, is supposed to be one of the first offensive lineman picked in the NFL draft. Garrett Smith is the stud on the defensive side of the ball. Some think that Utah can be this year's version of Fresno State. I don't buy that, but they should have no problems in the Mountain West.

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Tuesday, August 27, 2002

Money Week in Baseball

By Ben Maller

If there is a baseball strike on Friday, then this could be the last week of the baseball season for 2002. I happen to think a deal will be worked out before the deadline but the chance remains that regular season is just days away from ending. The pressure is on the Dodgers, Giants, Mariners, A's, Angels, Red Sox, Cardinals and Astros get into playoff position right now.

If the strike happens and takes a long time to end, Bud Selig could decide the standings after Thursday are final. That would mean that those who are in first in the division and wild card races are going to the playoffs if they have them after the work stoppage.

So if your the manager of one of the teams in the playoff chase you better play every game like it's the last week of the season. That means using everyone on your pitching staff and not leaving a starter in who stinks it up early in a game.

Here are the teams with important games during this strike week as of Tuesday morning.

Boston: Have no chance to catch the Yankees but are just three games out in the wild card race.

Oakland: They have a 2 1/2 game lead over the Mariners in the AL West.

Seattle: Hold a half game wild card lead over the Angels.

Anaheim: Half game back of the Mariners for the wild card.

St. Louis: Leads Houston by three games in the NL Central

Houston: Trail the Red Birds by three games in the Central

Los Angeles: Holds a 2 1/2 game wild card lead over the Giants.

San Francisco: Two and a half games back of the Dodgers in the wild card race.

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Monday, August 26, 2002

Big Ben's Weekend Thoughts

By Ben Maller

Maurice Clarett has the chance to be the next great Ohio State running back. If Clarett can play the Texas Tech front seven every week he'll win the Heisman this year.

If you could sell college football programs as independent buisnesses, how much would Ohio State and Tennessee be worth? These are two of the schools that draw 100,000 people for their home games. That's 100,000 people, and they don't have to pay the stars of the show. I bet Bud Selig wishes that baseball was more like the SEC.

Florida State was one yard away from having their national title hopes go up in smoke. Iowa State QB Senneca Wallace came as close as one can come to knocking off the Sunshine State studs.

Bobby Bowden will go down as the winningest coach in college football history when it's all said and done. That fact didn't stop his Seminoles from thinking the game was over when they went up 24-0 over the Cyclones.

Iowa State coach Dan McCarney did the right thing after the game when he said that the close loss was not a morale victory.

Nebraska is the only team in the country that can win 48-10 and look bad doing it. The Huskers had just a 10-3 lead at halftime of their game against Arizona State. It's obvious that when big red has to play the heart of the Big 12 schedule they are in trouble. The tackling was horrible. The black shirts did not do a good job in coverage. It was just a bad day all around despite the 38 point win.

When I used to do a local sports talk show in Los Angeles, I worked at the UCLA station, yet always seemed to be in trouble with the publicity department in Westwood. I was called a homer for the Bruins by some and yet wasn't real popular with the big shots who feed the powder blue and gold PR machine. On the other side of town, USC still takes care of me even after all these years. I'll be covering the Trojans home opener against Auburn.

USC will be a top 10 team if they can beat Auburn, Kansas State and Colorado early on in the schedule.

The hardest thing to do in sports is to live up to preseason hype. That means Oklahoma has the toughest job in college football this year. Bob Stoops has to get his players away from the SI jinx and watching sportscenter.

Virginia Tech has the potential to be one of those suprise BCS teams. They have the best running back combo in the country with Lee Suggs and Kevin Jones and Frank Beamer always has a good defensive club.

I don't believe that there will be a strike in baseball. I also feel that even if they do stop playing, it will be a brief break. The players and owners must understand that they have to be playing on September 11th, 2002. What happened on 9/11 is bigger than anything they have to argue about.

The Minnesota Twins and Oakland Athletics will be the teams to pull for in the American League playoffs. Bud Selig would rather quit as commissioner of baseball then hand over a championship trophy to the small-money-win-alot clubs of baseball.

Don't ever count out the Yankees. David Wells said it best this week when he pointed out that no matter how much the Yanks staff struggles they will be ready for the playoffs.

Former Mr. Cub Mark Grace had a funny line about the late 90's cubbies. Grace said it was him Sammy Sosa and the Iowa Cubs in the lineup everyday. If Grace thinks those teams were bad, wait till next season when its going to be Sosa, Moises Alou and the Iowa Cubs...

I thought that Kevin Brown would be the key player for the Dodgers down the stretch. Brown looks like he's done. I hope he can come back but the odds are against him doing anything for the blue down the stretch.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are another example of the incompetence of Bud Selig and the other owners in baseball. Why does this franchise exist? Baseball spent lots of money doing research on which cities would support a Major League Baseball franchise. Tampa, St Petersburgh was awarded a franchise despite a stadium that was outdated from day one and a fan base that could care less about going to a ball game unless the Yankees came to town.

As good as Curt Schilling & Randy Johnson have been for the Diamondbacks one wonders about the rest of the team. How would you feel about putting BY Kim in a close game after what he did against the Yankees last season. Also do you really think the D'Backs lineup is going to be productive in the playoffs? I don't.

Steve Spurrier is the best thing to happen in the National Football League since the point spread.

I have a feeling that the Bengals will have a QB rotation this year. That said the defense and running game are good enough to make the playoffs.

Did you see Bubba Smith on the Best Damn Sports Show Period last week? Smith, who was a member of the Baltimore Colts who played in Super Bowl three, said again that this game was fixed in favor of the New York Jets to allow the AFL/NFL merger to go through.

Jamal Anderson will help the Patriots offense out. Antowain Smith has to be looking over his shoulder despite running for 1,157 yards and helping the Pats win the Super Bowl.

Tom Brady is set up to fall on his face this season. Did you know the New England QB had just one TD pass and one INT in three playoff games last season? The Pats had everything go right for them a year ago and that dosen't happen two years in a row. Ask the Baltimore Ravens or the Atlanta Falcons of a couple seasons ago.

I'm predicting one of the big stories of this NFL season will be a story breaking that an NFL team has decided to move to Los Angeles. The Chargers, Cardinals, Vikings and Raiders are all on the short list.

Troy Hudson is heading to the Timberwolves. Hudson was my neighbor when he played for the Clippers a few years ago. Since then he has played in Orlando and now Minnesota.

Do the Portland Trail Blazers really think that Arvydas Sabonis can help them? Sabonis looked done when he last played in the NBA two years ago. He's agreed to a one year contract worth $7 million.

Spending three months to hype up the 25,000th edition of sportscenter is one thing. Having Chris Berman, Dan Patrick, Stuart Scott and Bob Lee do promo after promo telling everyone to tune in at 11pm on August 25th, 2002 was annoying. To have the Sunday Night Baseball game between the Dodgers & Braves go late and end at 11:30pm eastern time was priceless. permalink