When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers.

Hoosierteacher stood before the crowded lecture hall at MHR University. Styg, Guru, Zappa, mdierk( the A students) were all in the front row, eager to learn. Firstfan was in the back with his dunce cap on. All of the students were there. Super7 and Jon Tollerud were hoping for an in-depth discussion of the now famous 3-3-5 defense. But instead Hoosierteacher had some unusual items in front of him.

When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large, empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. Hoosierteacher then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full . They agreed it was.

Hoosierteacher next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “yes”. Hoosierteacher then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. All the students laughed except for Trinidad Jack who cried.

“Now,” said Hoosierteacher as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things---the Broncos, your family, your children, your health, and your friends---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.The sand is everything else---the small stuff, things like the guy who cut you off in traffic or oakland or Phyllis and his Merry men.

Guru jumped up and shouted “I get it! If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important like the Broncos and MHR.” All of the other students were awed by Guru’s wisdom.

“Exactly right!” said Hoosierteacher “'Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Teach them to love the Broncos. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Learn of your Bronco roots. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner and explain the advantages of the 3-4 over the 4-3 given our current personnel. Spend more time on the computer with MHR. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

Then from the middle of the room Broncofanstuckinsd raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. Hoosierteacher smiled and said, “I'm glad you asked. The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of Beers with a friend to talk about the Broncos.”

This adaptation of an old Bronco folk tale, passed down from father to son, was submitted by the guy in the back row with the dunce cap and was based on an email from Danver.

SEC stands for Speed Earns Championships. Actually, it stands for Southeastern Conference, but the former is just about as true. If you think I'm kidding, just ask the Ohio State Buckeyes, back-to-back national runners-up to the University of Florida Gators (2006) and Lousiana State University Tigers (2007). Though the SEC is college football's flagship conference now, it also has a storied history.

The SEC began play in 1933, founded by 13 universities that broke off from the old Southern Conference in order to shine on their own. Three original members have since left (Sewanee in 1940, Georgia Tech in 1964 and Tulane in 1966) and two others (Arkansas and South Carolina) joined for play starting in 1992. After that expansion, the conference divided its twelve teams into two divisions (Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Vanderbilt in the East and Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Lousiana State, Mississippi and Mississippi State in the West) with the winners of each matching-up for a championship game in Atlanta's Georgia Dome prior to the bowl season every year. This rich tradition, fueled by passionate support, leads to top-notch competition.

In the South, college football is the unofficial religion. Saturday is the true Sabbath, stadiums are their temples and sinners are separated from saints by the scoreboard and the standings. Average capacity at an SEC home stadium is 78,115 and they sell out with ease. They have TV ties to CBS on a national level and various other local channels throughout the region. There are 25 official rivalries involving SEC teams, some of which are inactive or not very competitive at the moment, but most of which are red-hot. I'll delve into them more in detail at a later date, either before the games are played or in a single, separate post prior to the start of the season. Sufficed to say for now: the SEC is home to some of the most intense rivalries in all of sports. Teams and players that make it out of this conference are among the best in the land and they often prove just that in the postseason and beyond.

SEC schools have laid claim to 24 national championships in football, including six since 1992 and three since 2003. The conference was dominated by Florida, Tennessee and Georgia in the 90's and by LSU, Florida, Georgia and Auburn so far this decade. Though the dredges have at times been among the weakest squads in the nation, the conference is typically very deep and nothing short of elite at the top. Great teams are usually lead by great players and the SEC has had no shortage of either. In 2007, for instance, four star athletes (QB Tim Tebow of Florida, RB Darren McFadden of Arkansas, OC Jonathan Luigs of Arkansas and DT Glenn Dorsey of LSU) combined to win 9 of college football's 25 prestigious individual awards; meanwhile, Dorsey and his Tigers won the conference's second consecutive national title. The SEC has also fared well at the next level, in both the NFL draft and on the playing field.

Since expanding to its current size in 1992, the SEC has had, on average, over six (6.19) players selected in the first round of 16 NFL Drafts. They've had four players chosen in the top 11 picks in three of the last four years. On the NFL's Opening Day in 2007, the SEC had more players (263) on active rosters than any other conference. The Denver Broncos currently have 19 players from the SEC on their roster, including at least 11 that will garner significant playing time in 2008 and beyond. Jason Witten (TE, Cowboys/Tennessee), Alan Faneca (OG, Steelers/LSU), Albert Haynesworth (DT, Titans/Tennessee), Patrick Willis (ILB, 49ers/Ole Miss), Fred Taylor (RB, Jaguars/Florida), Jason Peters (OT, Arkansas), DeMeco Ryans (ILB, Texans/Alabama) and our own Champ Bailey (CB, Broncos/Georgia) were former SEC standouts that were named to the NFL's 2007 All-Pro teams. Keep in mind that that list doesn't even include other stars like Chris Samuels (OT, Redskins/Alabama), Tony Ugoh (OT, Colts/Arkansas), Marcus McNeill (OT, Chargers/Auburn), Lito Shepard (CB, Eagles/Florida), Will Witherspoon (LB, Rams/Georgia), Marlon McCree (S, Broncos/Kentucky), Jospeh Addai (RB, Colts/LSU), Eli Manning (QB, Giants/Ole Miss), Eric Moulds (WR, Titans/Mississippi State), John Abraham (DE, South Carolina), Peyton Manning (QB, Colts/Tennessee) and our own Jay Cutler (QB, Broncos/Vanderbilt), as well as dozens of others who played their college ball in the SEC.

I have been a fan of the Florida Gators, and by extension SEC football, since the 1994 season or so. It will be my pleasure to share my knowledge of this college football conference with you all in 2008 and perhaps even beyond. Moreover, I am currently a sophomore at the University of Florida, so I may even be able to scout some of the Gators games in person as well. I will analyze the SEC's games, stats and highlights, in order to uncover potential future Broncos in the making. Hopefully you will find this interesting and entertaining, because it will certainly be that for me. Welcome to the SEC, my friends: this is college football. Cheers!

The Pro-Football-Reference Blog  has a short post on Al Davis and his infatuation with 1st round picks. 

My favorite part of the article shows that of the two teams on which he had 22 former 1st-rounders, both were 4-12.  It's amazing to see how a team can stockpile so many 'talented' players, yet be so poor.  We can only hope the Darren McFadden pick continues the trend.

Enjoy the read!

First a false positive from Henry and some sorrow and regret from that angle and now a dropped case on the cocaine charges from Thomas?  I'm liking what I see here.  Marcus is going to be something else going into the year...and he's young.

The Florida state attorney's office has dropped its case against starting Denver Broncos defensive tackle Marcus Thomas.

Thomas was arrested in March in Clay County, Fla., for cocaine possession. However, formal charges were never filed. According to the Clay County clerk's Web site, the case was abandoned Friday.

Thomas' attorney, Charlie Truncale, said Friday night that he had spoken with assistant state attorney James Boyle earlier in the day and was told the case had been dropped.

"It's over," Truncale said. "I'm so pleased for Marcus."

This is intended to be a basic primer for the ACC, which will give a little bit of background info that will allow you to better understand the later posts which will include more specific discussion of the conference.

 ACC is short for Atlantic Coast Conference, also known as the birthplace and home of college basketball ;) (I’m sorry, but basketball affects everything that happens in the ACC).  It is a conference consisting of 12 schools strung along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, centered in the Mid-Atlantic region and the Carolinas.  What most people don’t realize is that the ACC is actually a fairly decent college football conference in addition to their basketball prowess.  While it has been several years since there has been a national contender out of the ACC, there is typically fierce competition in-conference, and the ACC has posted about a .500 record in bowl games for the past few seasons.  The main problem that has recently faced teams in the ACC has been a deficiency in quarterback play.  Since 2004, when both Matt Schaub and Phillip Rivers were drafted, the ACC has really only had one good quarterback (Matt Ryan from Boston College who was picked 3rd this year) and the teams have struggled to find even adequate players at the QB position (for examples, look at Miami and Florida State’s struggles for the past few seasons).

Continue reading this post »

To start off, we are going to introduce the different conferences to those who have never watched or participated in College football. We will start with the history of each conference and then move to the rivalries of each team in the conference and finally the final "primer" piece of each will be the styles of play for each team in the conference. It is a lot to digest so we will break it up into different pieces for each without further ado...

PAC 10 History

Continue reading this post »

Another Updated List. Maybe someone on the list would be willing to switch to one of the Conferences not taken? Thanks for the help guys I will insert myself in here somewhere. Want to Help? Let me know!

ACC- HAI17 and FLABRONCOFAN

Big 12- GIANTS9107 and SLAMDUNKTHEFUNK

Big East- FLABRONCOFAN and RUSS

Big 10- PHANTOM818 and TEDBARTLETT905

Conference USA- MattR

Independents- MN Bronco

Mid-America-

Mountain West- DISCO STU

PAC 10- GIANTS9107 and ZAPPA and ELWAY4PREZ and MIKE CLARK

SEC- EJRUIZ and TEDBARTLETT905

Sun Belt-

Western Athletic- MIKE CLARK

In this edition of our PAC 10 "primer" we will look at the different rivalries that are within the PAC 10. Some of the schools have out of state/ conference rivalries. These are the football rivalries and does not take into account the different rivalries that are throughout the different sports. On to the rivalries...

Continue reading this post »

The Broncos had just finished up a 13-3 playoff season third in the league in points allowed.  Denver fell to the eventual Super Bowl champion Steelers in the AFC Championship, but not before taking two interceptions off of Tom Brady in a 27-13 home victory the week before.  The Broncos had five Pro Bowlers that year, three on defense.  Jake Plummer passed for 3,366 total yards, 18 touchdowns, and a 90.2 quarterback rating.  Plummer’s offensive counterpart in the Pro Bowl was Rod Smith, with whom the QB had hooked up with for six touchdowns.  The Broncos couldn’t get any better, right?

Wrong.  A successful 2006 draft brought in Javon Walker via the trade and Denver decided to take a chance on the injury-ridden star in order to provide some help for Rod Smith.  Plummer and Javon immediately connected, and the former Packer finished with 1,084 yards receiving and eight touchdowns.  Not only did the draft bring veteran help, but it also began to usher in a new era of youth for the Broncos.  Talk about a draft current Broncos fans still go crazy about.  Shanahan and the Broncos made a bold move trading up four spots to acquire Jay Cutler, the quarterback of the future.  Little did the Denver Broncos know, that future would come very soon.

The Broncos hit on pretty much every pick that year, getting the back-up tight end they needed in Tony Scheffler.  Brandon Marshall, Elvis Dumervil, and Domenik Hixon came next in the fourth round and Chris Kuper followed in the fifth: quite a productive draft despite the lack of a third rounder.  By the way, Dumervil recorded 8.5 sacks his first season, Scheffler caught four touchdowns, and Marshall caught two of his own for 309 yards.  You get the picture.  Although the Broncos missed out on the playoffs in 2006 with a 9-7 record, they had to feel good about themselves.  Of course, that 2006 season saw a quarterback change that many fans questioned.  How could you oust a guy that had led the team to an AFC Championship the year before for this young gun?  It turns out Plummer didn’t like the move much either and soon left the Broncos, stubborn and frustrated, and soon retired thereafter.  That 2006 season certainly got the wheels in motion.

Continue reading this post »

Welcome to the MHR Scouting Services for 2008

We are just starting out and are looking for volunteers to help with the project. There are a few of you who have volunteered already so this will just be a quick note as to what we are looking to accomplish.

What this project is attempting to accomplish is scout through college teams for guys who we feel would do well as a Denver Bronco. If you have never watched a College game or dont understand the rivalries and lingo as well as all the stuff connected with College Football, dont worry, the MHR Scout team with the help of the editors are going to put together articles on What it takes to be a Bronco from Quarterback to Kicker, THe Lingo of College Football and Scouting as well as Introductions to Conferences, Rivalries and the teams themselves. We will also be giving a list of prosepects from each division so that you are not out there scouting Freshman who will not enter the draft and so forth. Once all this gets into place we are hoping to start the scouting. Are you interested? Feel free to sign up at the bottom or contact myself or the editors. We are hoping to at least cover the Big Schools and give each person no more than 6 schools to cover. The more people who join the less work for others! Join today!

ACC- HAI17 and FLABRONCOFAN

Big 12- GIANTS9107 and SLAMDUNKTHEFUNK

Big East- FLABRONCOFAN and RUSS

Big 10- PHANTOM818 and TEDBARTLETT905

Conference USA- MattR

Independents-

Mid-America-

Mountain West- DISCO STU

PAC 10- GIANTS9107 and ZAPPA and ELWAY4PREZ and MIKE CLARK

SEC- EJRUIZ and TEDBARTLETT905

Sun Belt-

Western Athletic- MIKE CLARK