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Fall Ball Nuggets of Infinite Insight

The Twitter machine tells you all kinds of important stuff.

By Hoya Suxa
Rob Carr - Getty Images

I wasn't able to get out to any of the scrimmages this weekend, mostly because my Jeep is like the fury of a woman scorned because you told her that her face looks like a foot. I mean, I have never in my life owned a vehicle that refused to actually work like a vehicle, instead choosing to become a static kind of performance art in which no performance actually occurs. I really want to lace it with dynamite, play the 1812 Overture, and proudly celebrate America by exercising my right to make explosions happen while sipping an Old Fashioned and wondering what kind of charges I'll face when the police finally arrive.

Luckily, the Twitter machine helps fill in the blanks when I'm disposed. The thing about fall ball scrimmages -- and I believe this to be pretty universal -- is that there isn't a universal approach to these games. There are things to watch out for -- which teams are hustling, which teams are willing to run some depth to see what they have, how are teams adjusting to new rules and new faces in new places -- but the actual outcomes mean very little. That's why I like Twitter in these instances: It's just an unvarnished echo of what happened and what actors think need to happen at the end of the fall period.

Let's knock around a bit and see what was out there:

Colgate technically didn't win its two scrimmages this weekend -- the Raiders played to an 11-11 draw against High Point and lost to Villanova, 11-8 -- but that doesn't really matter and Baum understands that. Colgate's vision for 2013 lies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, not in Folsom, Pennsylvania. The Raiders had an opportunity to run a lot of bodies out on the field and see what they had, not necessarily to win, but to prepare an approach for the spring. Even though the pathos of Baum's statement is that the fall doesn't matter despite the results, the ethos and logos is built around something bigger: We're not even on the launching pad; we're going to the moon -- at least that's the plan -- and we're still figuring out what our rocket will look like.

Year Two, Class One. I doubt much that Paul is freaked out about dropping games to Marist and Mount St. Mary's. Michigan is still competing against itself at this point. It's good to hear that Michigan is seeing year-over-year development -- especially considering how young they are -- while also building a Division I culture. I don't know where the Wolverines are going to be in the spring, but they are still the model for all these programs coming in behind them.

Yup. Also: of course. Kevin Warne is condensed intensity. Love that guy (in a very plutonic, intensity-makes-the-fields-grow kind of way).

"So, is this the new part of the game where the referees let loose a bunch of alligators on the field to try and get everyone moving and speed up the game? Where are the alligators? There are no alligators. I don't understand this. My son told me -- and he uses the Internet all the time and was on top of these new rules -- that alligators would be released on the field and because of that he thought that these new rules were bunk. Now? No alligators. We were promised alligators. HEY MISTER REFEREE! WHERE ARE THE ALLIGATORS?!? They said, I swear to God, that the game needed to be faster; alligators hunting human prey were the answer. Now? No alligators. I don't understand this. The NCAA isn't good for anything."

Dom Starsia hasn't been afraid this fall to run all kinds of combinations out on the field this fall to see what he has. I thought that this tweet was especially interesting, consdering the potential line-mixing that Virginia may go through to establish its attack and midfield combinations.

Attention Syracuse fans: The monsters have been eradicated from under the bed; your persistent nightmares are now over.

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