One of the cool parts of the the sportsblog community is that it's, well, a community; inter-blog discussion happens on a regular basis, and it's generally seen as more of a than a competition. Except for now! Fight, puny humans! Fight for amusement's sake! To that end, the hulking steroid freaks of the "industry," being T. Kyle King, Orson, Brian, and Joel, have created the College Football Blog Awards (catchy name!). This is the award's second year of existence; Year 1 can be found here.
We're sure that these are not the right answers, per se; doubtless we're omitting some truly deserving winners. The explanation is twofold: 1) rather than handing everything to Orson*, we'd like to only award him half as many as he deserves, then showcase as many different blogs as possible; and 2) we're incredibly dumb. We're posting the first of three parts right now, and the rest will follow shortly. On with the show!
Best new blog
The Big Ten has seen a great influx of new bloggers this year, so picking one won't be easy. The Hoosier Report reads well, and we celebrate Lake The Posts' entire catalog. Even the three new Goofer blogs (PJS, Gopher Nation, From The Barn) are, y'know, fun to read. And that's just the Big Ten. So this is tough. We'll be slurping LTP later, so let's give a slight edge to PJS. He's gotten us to avidly keep up with Minnesota sports. That's a feat of Herculean nature, so congratulations to that fan of common vermin, and may he continue posting evermore.
Best community
Ohio State fans! Ha, ha, just kidding, you guys are fools and nobody likes you. As far as fostering a community, nobody does a better job than Orson at EDSBS; his commenters are far more witty and engaging than any other site, and the level of outside involvement in his blog was nonpareil. For that, we can offer our nomination and a humble "thank you."
Best writing
Nobody would bat an eye if EDSBS ran away with this award. Like Eddie Vedder's voice, Orson's prose is both unmistakable and inimitable. And also really fucking incredible, in case that wasn't clear.
We must award him the silver medal, however; SMQ is stirring in his appreciation for the game of football and his ability to impart unholy amounts of information and entertainment related to the sport. His readership numbers, while dwarfing ours, are still criminally low; that only 2,500 could read his site on a daily basis boggles the mind. Clearly he should just start referring to women as "poon." There's a hit machine.
And last, Brian dazzles us on a daily basis. Man, to think that of those three, one would necessarily have to be third-best is incredible. As a matter of fact, fuck it. EDSBS, SMQ, and mgoblog are our co-champions in this division.
Best post
This is insanely unfair. There is no one best post of 2007. There are dozens, if not hundreds of posts that made us weak with laughter or wide-eyed with admiration, and to single one out is a disservice to the rest of the great writing that took place this year.
Anyway, since a choice must be made, SMQ's "Requiem For A Triple Option," is the belle of the ball. Observe:
And thus descends the curtain on one of the college game's vintage pleasures. Archival footage confirms most teams ran a version of the wishbone from roughly 1972-88, with a few Big Eight holdovers into the early nineties. The era retreats steadiily with its practitioners in the face of pro-style generics. Army scrapped its modified, "flexbone" version of the veer option five years ago, followed by Nebraska forsaking its insanely successful I-based triple option for the West Coast stylings of NFL refugee Bill Callahan. The wishbone left Rice with Ken Hatfield, replaced last year by the ubiquitous 21st Centruy talent-masker, the spread. Now it takes its leave of its staunchest bastion, Air Force, leaving the Naval Academy alone to execute the bone-based option's subtle, nostalgic thrills: deception, timing, teamwork and sweet, sweet angles opening up as if on command, abstract design coming to precise fruition, occasionally culminating in football's most lethally unfolding, maliciously satisfying, dead sexiest tactic, the option pass.
Then he follows it up with 8 YouTubes of vintage triple option. Fucking outstanding.
Part II is here. Oh, and if you guys have seen anything that blows your skirt up, please do share it via the comments or email. Let's celebrate as much good writing as possible.
*Mr. Swindle has, of course, earned every ounce of praise he's received. We will not, not for one single second, begrudge him for it, as he's also one of the nicest guys in the biz.