A Not So Small Disappointment

This weekend found some disappointing news in this small corner of the world. My favorite college football blog- Sunday Morning Quarterback- is pulling the plug and moving to greener pastures. He’ll probably get paid too.

Aside for the fact that SMQ had the best blog tagline going: Second guessing college kids under extreme duress since 2005- it was a joy because it actually gave pithy, witty, knowledgeable insights to mid-major programs. It was unique- not LSU and Florida and USC all the time. For the C-USA fan, "Mid-Major Monday" was the must-read of the weekend news and analysis. A reader of SMQ would know about Matt Forte and our pathetic "Signing Day Blog".

As a good example, here is his Tulane assessment from last year- written with his trademark insight & cynicism that only a semi-rival (Southern Miss) can generate:

As a partisan of a school that can almost count Tulane as a sorta de facto rival, grudgingly, when we think about it, SMQ can attest that there is no joy in beating Tulane. From a Conference USA perspective, there is only that relief when the light is on - the game is done, victory in hand - and of course Tulane was no match and the world remains in its recognizable order. Regardless of your experiences with Tulane in the past, there is that constant apprehension that the worst is possible. Because that actually happened, once, a long time ago, an undefeated season so weird it's almost a myth. The deal here is that, once in the career of every player who redshirts and hangs around Tulane long enough, the team manages to scrape together enough wins to deem itself mediocre, and no fate could be worse than victimhood on this path. This is what makes Tulane in many ways the most pitiful program in any sport SMQ can think of. Not pitiful in the sense that it's inept - though it almost invariably is - but that it's rarely so inept in its own way that it might reach that rarified level of complete, utter, hopeless futility, when the concept of defeat at its hands becomes too impossible even to manifest itself as a nagging doubt. No team with the slightest self respect can consider the possibility of losing to Tulane under normal circumstances, but only the biggest, baddest kids might dare deep down to actually laugh the Wave out of the stadium before the deed is done without risking debilitating hubris.

Anyway, he was also the only C-USA voter (representing Southern Miss) in the BlogPoll besides myself- and basking in his reflected glow, listed next to him on many blogrolls, was something I never tired of. Anyway, check out his last few posts. I’m sure there will be a C-USA preview before he goes next month. And enjoy for free for a few more weeks some of the best college football writing going.