Smack Zone

At Smack Apparel we pride ourselves on being an “everything sports” company. With the World Cup coming up next week we wanted to make sure our Smack Fam is ready for some office talk around the water cooler.

Here are some quick facts about USA Soccer that will have you going from clueless to sounding like Ted Lasso.

Youthful Energy

This year USA will feature the youngest team in the entire tournament but don’t let their age fool you, these kids can ball. While we may be young, this is the first time in the history of USA;s men's soccer that the roster consists of players who are playing in the four biggest leagues in the world.

Here to Play

Not to get too technical but this year’s team is going to showcase a total philosophical change in the way US Soccer goes about their business. In years past the US soccer model was to play really structured defense and hope they could score a goal on a corner kick, a free kick or on a counter attack. This new USA has other plans. Expect to watch a team that isn’t afraid to take risks (for better or for worse) and wants to have possession of the ball more than they want to defend.

This new philosophy is more in line with how the rest of the world plays and the US is making a conscious effort to adapt to the world’s game.

Matt Turner

There’s a new man in goal for the US Soccer team and his name is Matt Turner. Turner has an incredible story as his rise to the number one goalkeeper in this country was anything but traditional. Turner didn’t start playing soccer until the age of 16 and only started playing so he could stay in shape for other sports. He was a quick study and decided to fully commit to soccer when he walked on to the soccer team at Fairfield University. Turner had a solid collegiate career which awarded him a try out with the New England Revolution in Major League Soccer.

Turner made the team, eventually won the starting job and since then his career has taken off like a rocket ship. Turner made the move to England this summer and is the number two goalkeeper for Arsenal in the English Premier League. He is capable of making big time saves which is important because he will have to stand on his head if the US has any chance of making a run

Gio Reyna, Christian Pulisic

Here are two names to jot to memory as we think these are the most important players on the roster. Gio Reyna (son of former US National team player Claudio Reyna) is arguably the best player that US Soccer has ever rostered. His name isn’t in the headlines as much because he has dealt with a rash of injuries but when he is on the field he is a complete difference maker.

Christian Pulisic aka Captain America is a name that should sound familiar to even the least knowledgeable sports fans out there. He was the first US Soccer player of this new generation to make the leap overseas straight out of highschool and has been playing in the spotlight for nearly six years now. Pulisic is the face and heartbeat of this team and this opportunity is one he personally has been waiting for a long time after missing out in 2018. We fully expect Pulisic to stand out and have a hell of a tournament.

Should We Believe?!

You're damn right we should! While we may be young the US soccer team has a swagger about them we haven’t seen in a long time. These kids go up against the best players in the world on a weekly basis when they are playing for their club teams and show zero fear when they all get together and represent our country.

Of course USA winning a World Cup is a long shot but crazy things in sports happen all the time and this year's team might just be crazy enough to pull off the miracle!

1) THE NFL MISTAKE-TURNED-OVERCORRECTION

Two weeks ago (and rightfully so) the talk of the football world was around Tua Tagovailoa and the concussion protocol debacle in Miami. Let's start by stating that there’s no debating if Miami made the wrong decision when it came to letting their franchise quarterback play Thursday night against Cincinnati. Just four days earlier, Tua went down and anyone watching could see that he’d suffered a concussion, or some sort of head trauma. Playing Tua in the Thursday Night Football game was bad for the player, the team and the league.  

And so, bring on the classic NFL overcorrection in Week Five.

In light of what happened to Tua and the widespread criticism, the NFL implemented stricter rules to further protect the quarterback. Now, any “excessive slamming” that could cause potential harm to the defenseless player would result in a “roughing the passer” penalty.

We saw this rule implemented a few times this past week and frankly it was over the top. The clearest example was a roughing the passer penalty called against Atlanta, late in the game against Tampa Bay and the NFL’s Golden Boy, Tom Brady.

As a Bucs fan, I loved the call because it saved the game. As a football fan, it was laughable.

The NFL does this all the time. The media uproars, player safety is top priority again, so they implement a rule that changes the way football is played.

I don’t expect this to last long. Refs will never hear the end of it, players and coaches will speak out, it’ll result in some unlucky ending to a season and so when the season closes, NFL will revert back to the old rule. 

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

2) PUT SOME RESPECT ON JIMMY G’s NAME

I mean, how wrong was the media all off-season long about Jimmy Garoppolo? The saga of Jimmy G and his contract situation in San Francisco was a key talking point throughout the summer and after all we’ve seen, I can’t figure out why he was taking so much heat.

Once the 49ers made the decision  to go with Lance, the market for Jimmy G was ice cold – and the media loved to infer that teams couldn’t win with him. To me, that was a head scratcher.

When he’s healthy, the quarterback WINS. He’s made a Super Bowl, an NFC title game and is consistent year in and year out. Indiannapolis, Denver, Carolina and other QB hunting programs went a different direction and the results have been pretty abysmal.

Now that Trey Lance is injured, Jimmy G was forced to restructure his deal in San Francisco to a one year deal and the veteran quarterback is playing lights out. Good for him.

I hope Jimmy G leads the 49ers to the NFC title game, loses to Tampa Bay and demands an even higher price tag for these teams that didn’t give him the time of day this past offseason.

3) TEXAS IS BACK

I know it’s fun to say and laugh at later, but this time it’s for real. Led by a healthy Quinn Ewers, Texas ran over the Oklahoma Sooners this past weekend, and if we remember back to Week Two, they also went toe to toe with Alabama. 

Would the Longhorns have shocked the world if Quinn Ewers didn’t get hurt in that Bama game? We’ll never know… but my guess would be yes. At 4-2, Texas is a longshot to make the playoffs, but if they can win out and win the Big 12 Title, perhaps we see the Longhorns in the mix at the end of the year.

Ewers is locked in, and the Manning bloodline is headed to Austin. For the first time in a long time, I feel confident saying that Texas football is well on its way back.

Shout out that Matthew McConaughey NIL money.

4) THE NEW MLB POSTSEASON ROCKS

This year Major League Baseball added two more Wild Card teams in each division, and did away with the Wild Card one game format. Instead of only two Wild Card teams getting their shot, this October we’ll get six.

As exhilarating as the “winner take all”  format was, it was never fun that fans would experience the emotional toll of a 162 game season, only to see it come crashing down after nine innings.

With more teams, and the best-of-three format, fans get to watch a few more days of the season, ultimately suffering in a more drawn out process…The way being a baseball fan was meant to be.

5) FANS NEED TO SIT THEIR A$$ES BACK DOWN.

Hand up – I once left one of the best comeback games to ever happen.

For those that don’t know the legend of Game 162 down in Tampa Bay, I’ll spare you the details, just Youtube it. .

I left the game when the Rays were at their depths. I was fed up and didn’t want to suffer any longer. As history would have it, the Rays came back to win the game, make the playoffs and experienced one of the most exciting nights in Tampa baseball history.

This past weekend, Broncos fans left before overtime and St.Louis fans left a playoff game after their team gave up the lead in the ninth. The latter is more offensive, but my point is for all fans: stop leaving early. In the world of sports, you just never know what might happen.

I live with regret of leaving Game 162 every day of the season, and it’s a regret I wouldn’t wish on any fan out there.

1) Maybe Georgia isn’t indestructible…?

Hand up, I’ll admit that I was POTENTIALLY wrong about Georgia cruising to another National Championship. In the last two weeks, Georgia had a tough time putting away Kent State at home and had to make a fourth quarter comeback against Missouri. Of course a win is a win, but if I’m a Georgia fan, I’m starting to feel a little uneasy.

Now a few weeks in, their schedule doesn't look as simple as it seemed before the season started. This version of Tennessee is a top 10 team, Mississippi State is starting to show some life, and facing Kentucky on the road will be a tough test. Throw in that Billy Nappier will have his Florida team fired up for the World’s Largest Cocktail Party and I’m starting to see more than one hurdle in their quest to go back to back.

2) Chip Kelly will have UCLA ready for the Big 10.

The impact has taken a lot longer than everyone expected, and to be honest I kind of forgot all about good ol’ Chip Kelly. When UCLA announced Kelly as their new head coach a lot of people expected immediate results. Looks like turning around the second best football program in Los Angeles isn’t as easy as one may have thought, but I think we can all now say that Chip is on his way. UCLA got their first big win of the Kelly era this past Friday with the manhandling of top 15 Washington. Yet more importantly than the win, is the fact that you can finally see Kelly’s stamp on this roster.

Initially it seemed as if UCLA was the Los Angeles afterthought within the Big 10 merger, but they might be clawing their way to primetime.

3) Stay away from the Dabo coaching tree.

On paper, hiring a coach away from a perennial National Championship contender makes complete sense… Let’s review though:

• Longtime Clemson Defensive Coordinator Brent Venebles took his dream job at Oklahoma this offseason. However, bad losses to Kansas St. and TCU, where his defense was gashed for four straight quarters, may have him re-thinking his schemes that previously worked so well in the ACC. 
• Former Clemson wide receiver coach, Jeff Scott, has been at the helm of the University of South Florida for three years now and managed ONE win against a FBS team. ONE. Not much more to say about.
• It’s a little too early to get a read on Virginia’s ‘Clemson hire’ Tony Elliot, but sitting in seventh place with a 1-4 record can’t be what the Cavalier Brass had in mind when they plucked Elliot from the Dabo tree.

4) Some college program is about to hit the Matt Rhule lottery. 

Matt Rhule in the NFL hasn’t worked out, it just hasn’t. Carolina is going to move on from Rhule at the end of this season, if not sooner. What’s the NFL’s trash will be a college programs treasure.

Rhule made the jump to the NFL, and who could blame him? Rhule more than proved himself in college, and it seemed like a natural next step. Unfortunately, not all dreams go to plan.

The Matt Rhule superpower seems to be that he can turn around any college program, no matter how dire the situation. Which college program wins that jackpot?

At one point in his coaching career, Rhule had Temple in the top 25…TEMPLE. He also took the helm of a heavily sanctioned Baylor football program on the brink of exile, and lead them back to a top 10 program on the path to a Big 12 title. 

No known suitors yet, but if I’m a program desperate for hope, I’m backing up the Brinks truck for Matt Rhule. 

5) The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Let’s simply soak in that this is the best time of the year for sports fans:

• the MLB playoffs “pitch off” this weekend with the new Wild Card three game matchups 
• college football conference games are upon us 
• one month into the NFL season and the universe is beginning to separate contenders from pretenders 
• NHL and NBA are right around the corner
• MLS Playoffs start in two weeks 

What a time to be alive.

1. Don’t Sleep on the “Basketball Schools”

Let’s play a game. Headed into Week Four of college football season, what do these seven “basketball schools” have in common?

• Syracuse
• Kentucky
• Indiana
• Duke
• UNC
• Kansas
• UCLA

Give Up? How about that they’re all undefeated. That’s right, these perennial powerhouses of basketball and usual doormats of the college football universe are all off to HOT starts this season.

Some of these of course were to be expected. You have Mack Brown running the show at UNC, and Mark Stoops has been slowly turning around that Kentucky program, so those shouldn’t surprise you. But Duke? Syracuse? Kansas?! These programs are off to hot starts with no signs of slowing down.

Duke’s schedule hasn’t been anything crazy, but given that they easily beat Temple and handled the Big 10’s Northwestern, they deserve some credit.

Syracuse knocked off Louisville opening week, and beat Purdue in what might have been the “game of the week” in Week Three.

The Kansas Jayhawks, whose win total was previously listed at 2.5 for the entire season, has wins against West Virginia, and knocked off preseason top 25 Houston.

However, all good things must come to an end when Duke and Kansas will go head to head in Week Four, but keep an eye out for these seven programs. If these schools all end up bowl eligible come December, it’ll be time to start putting some respect on the name of these football programs.

2. ALABAMA... I Mean Georgia

We’re only three weeks into the season, and I addressed this after Week One, but the time may have come for Alabama to pass the crown.

Georgia not only beats teams – they embarrass them. Everything that we’ve thought about Alabama for the last decade is now what we should believe about Georgia.

Stetson Bennett is putting up numbers we haven’t seen since Patrick Mahomes and looking like CFB’s top QB this season. The defense that was due for a drop off after losing players to the NFL somehow improved – they didn’t rebuild, they reloaded.

Kirby Smart has built something in Athens that people will be talking about for a long time, and we anticipate watching the Dawgs go for several more national titles in the foreseeable future.

3. Time to give the PAC 12 real respect.

For the last few months, the PAC 12 has been the laughing stock of college football, and admittedly, I was a critic too. In Week One, Utah and Oregon both lost to SEC schools on national TV, and things were looking rough. BUT you have to give credit where credit’s due.

Since Week One, the PAC 12 has quietly become a force to be reckoned with. If you note some of the wins they’ve managed, it’s time to consider the PAC 12 may be the second best conference right now. (We know this sentiment won't last once the playoff conversation starts, but at least I can suggest it now.)

• USC looks like a powerhouse
• Washington has a legitimate quarterback in Michael Penix Jr, and embarrassed a once-considered Top 10 Michigan State
• Washington State went on the road to beat Wisconsin
• Oregon bounced back in a big way and dominated BYU
• Utah is STILL one of the best teams in the country, despite the loss to Florida
• Oregon State is no slouch
• UCLA is undefeated (they don’t look great, but still)

The PAC 12 is deep and they deserve some national respect for what they’ve done so far.

4. The future of the NFL is in good hands.

Look at this list of quarterbacks:

Lamar Jackson

Tua Tagovailoa

Jalen Hurts

Josh Allen

Kyler Murray

Patrick Mahomes

Justin Herbert

Joe Burrow

Buckle up, fam – I think we’ve got some good years of NFL ahead of us.

5. The Detroit Lions should be everyone’s second favorite team.. (outside of Green Bay, Minnesota and Chicago fans, of course)

There are very few times in sports that the loveable loser franchises can captivate a country. The Chicago Cubs. The Boston Red Sox. The Buffalo Bills of the 90’s. Similar to those franchises, this Detroit Lions team has the makeup of a team that makes it hard to root against them.

Head coach Dan Campbell is a man of the people. He’s emotional, he’s down to earth and more than anything, he just seems like a funny human. The Detroit fan base in itself is likable. They understand their franchise has been irrelevant for the better part of their existence, but year after year, they still show up and believe hard. Even quarterback Jarrod Goff is likable. He was shipped out of Los Angeles, only to watch his replacement have instant Super Bowl success after one season. It’s hard not to root for a guy like that.

I believe Detroit will have captured the hearts of America by the end of season. Good luck to ‘em!

Get your picks in!: Smack Apparel College Pick ‘Em

This week our panel of “Experts” are joined by Oregon football legend and former Heisman candidate, Joey Harrington. (Let us state for the record, he should have won.)

Joey laid out his picks for 10 of the weekend’s biggest games and gave us some insider analysis of arguably the biggest game of the week, #12 BYU at #25 Oregon. For the full video and breakdown, head on over to our YouTube page.

As far as our “Experts” go, The Bear is leading the way with a 15-4 overall record, followed by Wayne Dawg at 12-7, while Jeff and Kenny are both bringing up the rear at 11-8. 

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Football. Obviously.

Georgia at South Carolina, Noon – ESPN

On paper this shouldn’t be much of a game, but on the road in the SEC, you just never know what to expect. I’m interested to see if the new-look Gamecocks can use their home field advantage to keep things close against the best team in the country. My guess is no, but in the Sandstorm, anything is possible.

Prediction: Georgia 52 - South Carolina 24

Last year the Tigers went into Happy Valley and played the Nittany Lions close, but ultimately came up short. This year Auburn is hoping to return the favor in what would be one of the biggest program wins they’ve had in a while.

Penn State on the other hand, is aiming for a climb up the top 25 rankings and cementing themselves as a contender. There’s no doubt that Jordan Hare Stadium will be ROCKIN for this one, but at the end of the day, I think Penn State has too much talent and the atmosphere is nothing Penn State’s sixth-year quarterback Sean Clifford hasn’t seen before.

Prediction: Penn State 20 - Auburn 17

By now everyone knows Texas A&M was embarrassed last week by Appalachian State. Since then, they’ve named a new starting quarterback, and spent the last week trying to defend their program and weird traditions on the internet. This feels like a must-win for Jimbo Fisher if he wants to keep his oil money boosters happy.

For Miami this is the first big test of the Cristobal era, and a win here would no doubt have those “donors” feeling good about their investment.

As much as I love our “Sucks to be U” shirts, I think it’s going to be a “Sucks to be Us” for Texas A&M fans, as last year’s Alabama win fades further into Aggieland memory.

Prediction: Miami 24 - Texas A&M 17 

OTHER GAMES TO KEEP AN EYE ON

• Oklahoma at Nebraska, Noon – FOX
  First game in the post Scott Frost Era
• BYU at Oregon, 3:30pm – FOX
  Potentially huge playoff implications out West early in the season
• USF at Florida, 7:30pm – SEC NETWORK
  No reason other than that we have some USF graduates in the Smack house, and avoiding embarrassment at the hand of the Gators would be a win.

No love lost between these two rivals! Chicago is 1-0, while Green Bay is off to another slow start. Should be a fun one to finish the weekend! 

Enjoy your weekend, Smack Fam! Keep an eye on our socials for gametime Smack talk! 

To celebrate Friday, enjoy 15% off the entire website with promo code: SMACK 

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