I apologize and beg your pardon.  I have been busy securing my new site, dfwfootball.net.  Never fear, I will not stop updating Collegefootballtopten.com.  Alas, there will be some changes to CFTT.  I will, however, be pondering the direction of CFTT as dfwfootball.net is now my main work.

Changes to CFTT include a new theme.  The theme is Mimbo v. 3.0  designed by Darren Hoyt.   Darren has become my new favorite theme designer.  The theme is specifically designed with the look and feel of a magazine.  This should make some of my feature areas of the blog easier to find.  I also use one of the older Mimbo themes for dfwfootball.net.

I will focus more on fun and humor in my writing here at CFTT.  I do plan on running the DFW Pickem in the fall once again.  We had a lot of fun and it was helpful in establishing traffic at my site.

There will be no more Dallas-Fort Worth football at CFTT.  That is because I have moved all of that to dfwfootball.net.  I might occasionally mention one of the three DFW teams in the course of my blogging.  TCU became very relevant at the end of the year last season finishing number 7 in the final BCS poll.  However, if you are looking for a press release or any particular news, I encourage you to mark dfwfootball.net in your browser bookmarks.

There will be direct advertising opportunities.  I will continue to use Yardbarker and Google Ads, however, I am going to offer a cross site package of advertising which will include dfwfootball.net and other future website projects.  This will help advertisers be able take advantage of the most traffic possible.

As 2009 begins, it is that time of year when Collegefootballtopten.com starts to give out its end of the year awards.  In this post, we introduce you to the first annual “Book End” Awards.  Since I have had so many reviews at CFTT this year, I am going to do a segment handing out awards to the top five books that I have read this year.

I looked back on the year and I counted at least nine books that I read and reviewed.  That seems like a lot, but it is not quite one a month.  However, considering all of the writing I am doing and my full time job, I suppose it is not to bad.

In order to evaluate the books and choose the top five books, I have decided to use a four-fold critera for evaluation.

1) Inspirational.  Does the book inspire me to be a better person in some manner or another?

2) Enlightening of the game.  Does the book tell me something about the game, particularly college football?  Any part of the game is needed such as a book that tells me something about recruiting in college football.

3) Historical/Perspective.  Does the book reveal history to me about the game and the context in which the story lived?  Does it give me a larger perspective about football, or football in the context of life in gereral?

4) Writing Style.  How is the writing style?  Is it very descriptive and easy to follow?  Is it humerous?  Is the author creative, and does he/she not use to many clichés?

Top Five Books

5.  Walk-On by Thom Gossom
This is a memoir of Gossom’s experience being an African-American athlete at Auburn University in the early 1970′s.  This book is a 2008 publication.  Read the CFTT Review.

4.  Season of Life by Jeffrey Marx
This book is truly one of the most inspiring books I have read this year.  The book was previously published in 2003.  Read the CFTT Review.

3.  Meat Market by Bruce Feldman
Bruce has left us a treasure here.  Bruce allows us to listen as he sits in on recruiting at Ole Miss in 2006.  This book was originally published in 2007.  Read the CFTT Review.

2.  Rose Bowl Dreams by Adam Jones
Adam does a great job of capturing a fan’s perspective of this madness we call college football.  This book was a 2008 publication.  Read the CFTT Review.

1.  The Galloping Ghost by Gary Andrew Poole
Hands down, this was my favorite book of the year.  It truly gave me insight in to football in the 20′s and 30′s.  One should read this along with Jim Dent’s Twelve Mighty Orphans to understand more about football during that time period.  And then, watch the movie Leatherheads.  This book is a 2008 publication.  Read the CFTT Review.

That’s right!  You can Christmas shop right here from Collegefootballtopten.com.  Until January, I will have a page up which can direct you to the gifts for the college football fans in your life.  You can shop for tickets to games, by jerseys, books, etc. You can also get CFTT Gear from our CFTT Shopppe.  There are tons of different gift ideas that you can come up with simply by logging on to our Christmas Shopping page.  Plus, you will be supporting your favorite college football website.

Just visit the Christmas Shopping Page at Collegefootballtopten.com.

Introducing the Collegefootballtopten.com Flickr Gallery.  I have a few good pictures, and I am looking to add more.  If you have some pics from a game you attended, or if you have a pic of you wearing Collegefootballtopten.com gear, send it to me and I just might add it to the Gallery.

CFTT Flickr Gallery

email:

inbox <AT> collegefootballtopten.com

There is a big game tonight in Fort Worth, TX between the 8th ranked BYU Cougars and the TCU Horned Frogs.  Collegefootballtopten.com will be live blogging during the game tonight.  If you’re going to be watching the game from home, log on to Collegefootballtopten.com to join in the conversation.  My big question, since the Andy Dalton question has already been answered, is, “will the Frogs make use of the “wild frog” tonight?  The “wild frog,” which we named here at Collegefootballtopten.com and in an article I wrote for PegasusNews.com, is a formation where Jeremy Kerley, who played QB in high school, lines up as a QB in the shotgun formation and runs the zone read.  I am sure TCU has other options for him out of the set.  I can see it being a real “change of pace” at just the right time.

Tuesday night at the Gary Patterson Show at the Railhead Smokehouse in Fort Worth, I had Brian Estridge to ask Coach Patterson about if the Frogs have a name for the Kerley package and if TCU was going to use it more.  First, Patterson liked the “wild frog” name for the Kerley package, and second he said that they would be using the package more.  This is the right time to use it.  I think the perfect time is when the Frogs have a short field and want to take advantage of getting points.  It could likely confuse the defense and TCU could score before they really knew what was going on.  We’ll keep an eye out to see if TCU uses the “wild frog.”

By the way, if you are ever in Fort Worth, you should check out the Railhead Smokehouse for some of the best BBQ in the country, certainly in Texas.  My friend Manny will take care of you.  Of course, during the week the Railhead hosts the Gary Patterson Show, and it’s a lot of fun to grab some BBQ and watch the show live.  The next show will be on October 29, 2008.

Bob Lilly, former TCU Horned Frog and Dallas Cowboy, and, of course, NFL Hall of Famer, will sign copies of his book A Cowboy’s Life at the Borders Bookstore in Fort Worth on November 13, 2008.  Spitblood TCU ran a top 30 Frogs of All Time segment this summer, and Lilly came in at number 7.

Mark you calendars now for November 13th.  Lilly’s book, is now available at bookstores, including the Collegefootballtopten Bookstore as well as Borders.  The Borders store where Lilly will sign his book is located at I 30 and Hulen in the same shopping center with Central Market and across the street from Arlington Heights High School.

Collegefootballtopten.com has gone social.  Yep, in an effort to open more lines of networking, we now have profiles at MySpace and Shoutlife.  I hope that it gets us more networking, more readers.  If you have a profile on one of those two sites, feel free to add us a a friend.  We will need friends as well. I can’t just live off of Switchfoot.  You can find links to my profiles on the Blog Roll section of my left sidebar.  But if you are in a hurry, then here they are.

MySpace
Shoutlife

I have done this before.  It is becoming a tradition at Collegefootballtopten.com.  Since I rank a top ten, and I do a preseason top ten, then I narrow the teams down to twelve before diving into the specifics that seperate the final slots.  First, I did the durty dozen in 2006 as a part of my Toddler Top 10 blog.  You can also see it here.  Last year, I did a second Durty Dozen with a banner.

Finally, the moment we have all been waiting for.  These teams are not in any specific order.

2008 Durty Dozen Banner

• Oregon
• Clemson
• Missouri
• South Florida
• Georgia
• Florida
• Auburn
• Ohio State
• USC
• Oklahoma
• Texas Tech
• LSU

Honorable Mention Durty Dozen members for 2008 are Utah, Fresno State, Texas, Wisconsin and Penn State.

I am delaring a new feature at Collegefootballtopten.com.  Stewart Mandel has his famous Mailbag feature and others do the same.  In the name of reader participation, I here by declare a CFTT Inbox.  That’s right, I said Inbox.  In this day of emails and electronic communications ( I still don’t use text messaging), it is only appropriate to have an Inbox.  So, I will have an Inbox feature at CFTT.  I would like to do it every week, but it will be dictated by the number of emails I receive.  The first Inbox will be today.  Here goes.

Did you see this?
Georgia Tech is going to run the triple option!

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=831054
Lee Cochenour, Fort Worth, TX

It seems my friend Lee is excited about the return of the triple option.  Paul Johnson is the new coach at Georgia Tech, and he is known as an expert in running the option out of, what we used to call, a broken wishbone.  The halfbacks will line up at wing back spots or in the slot, etc.  Johnson used it successfully at Georgia Southern, Navy and now has his chance at Georgia Tech, a true BCS School.  I first remember a Johnson coached team at Georgia Southern, where he was the Offensive Coordinator, led by QB Tracy Hamm who seemed unstoppable.  Tech fans are hoping that the triple option works in the ACC.

Hi, MainStreet.com just put out an article about the college football teams that are deserving of attention this upcoming season. It is an informative article for college football fans and I think you and your readers will enjoy it, so I am providing you with a link to the piece!

http://mainstreet.com/college-football-teams-youll-need-watch

Amanda Beals

Thank you Amanda for your suggestion.  I will send readers over to check it out.  I looked to try to find out what MainStreet.com had to do with college football, but I really couldn’t tell.  Apparently, one of there writers writes about sports, so you might go over and check them out.  It looks like they have a lot of other kinds of articles too.

If you have something that you think readers might be interested in, or just a question, or comment for the CFTT Inbox, drop me an email.

inbox@collegefootballtopten.com

I am trying to have a little reader participation.  I am calling out to the readers of CFTT to help me with some content.  First, I launched a Favorite College Football Preseason Magazine poll.  The possible choices are Phil Steele, Athlon, Lindy’s, and Sporting News.  So far it has been overwhelmingly in favor of Phil Steele which has 80% of the votes and Lindy’s with 20%, but there are no votes for Athlon and Sporting News.  Take the opportunity to express your opinion by voting here.

Next, I am planning on doing my Top Ten Off-Season Stories Segment again this year.  Email me your vote at offseason[AT]collegefootballtopten[dot]com.

And finally, I want to do a Top Ten Returning QB’s.  I would like to get CFTT Readers’ input.  Therefore, email me at todd(at)collegefootballtopten(dot)com with your pick for top returning QB.