It's been way too long since the last time I updated the blog... but the past week's been as hectic as any I can remember.

I said a couple posts ago that we're now a two-person staff.  That means when either Jeff or I are out of the office, it makes things very difficult for the person left behind.  Such has been the case the last three weeks.  I was on vacation for four days until Jeff left for Indianapolis with Bowling Green East Little League.  The next week, I was out Tuesday through Friday with BG East and this week Jeff's been on vacation.  All the while we've been keeping up with WKU football and our high school previews, which has required us to constantly be traveling to shoot previews and practices.  Today, I went to Muhlenberg South and Muhlenberg North and didn't return till after 6:00, meaning my entire 6:00 sportscast had to be complete by 2:30 (save for the Muhlenberg South preview).  Tomorrow, it'll be off to another school... just nine more to go before the season starts a week from Friday.

This weekend, it started to feel like football season to me.  I don't know why exactly... might've had something to do with shooting WKU's scrimmage Saturday.  The Hilltoppers have a lot of questions to answer between now and their trip to Indiana... with who'll be starting quarterback foremost among them.  Conventional wisdom says either sophomore K.J. Black or senior David Wolke will be the man, but head coach David Elson insists junior Brandon Smith is very much a part of the competition.  No matter what, the choice under center has a lot of work to do for the Tops... the offense managed just one touchdown in Saturday's scrimmage (and that came with true freshman Kawaun Jakes at QB).  The offense moved best (at least according to my untrained eye) when led by Black, but mistakes like dropped snaps thwarted any real advances.  As for Smith, he doesn't give the same feel of the other two quarterbacks - he's much more comfortable running the football than passing, which isn't exactly a bad thing in WKU's run-based spread offense.  The one concern might be whether Smith can hook up with a relatively inexperienced receiving corps enough to keep defenses honest (he could not on Saturday - although he started with the 1st team offense, his performance didn't even get a mention in the school's post-scrimmage release).

The Olympics are more than halfway done and Michael Phelps is still the story of the games.  His eight gold medals is a reachable feat by those who come afterward, but you'd expect it'll be a long while before anyone tries to break Phelps' record.

Having said that, I still don't think Phelps' eight championship swims are in contention for the most dominating single performance of these Games.  That honor, in my opinion, belongs to Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt's 9.69 second blistering of the men's 100-meter dash.

Full disclosure: I'm a track and field guy.  I ran distance events (poorly) and triple jumped (not quite as poorly) in high school, so I take at least a passive interest in track even outside the Olympic games.  My favorite lifetime Olympic moment remains Michael Johnson's 19.32 in the 200 at the 1996 Games in Atlanta... so track certainly has a place in my heart.  Having said that, people may need to understand the difference between what Bolt did this week and what Phelps did.

In comparison to Mark Spitz (with whom Phelps will be forever linked), Phelps' performance was the stuff of lore.  The two competed in three of the same individual events at their respective Games and Phelps completely destroyed Spitz' times (all of which were world records).  Phelps swam nearly four seconds faster in the 100 butterfly, nearly nine seconds faster in the 200 butterfly and nearly TEN seconds faster in the 200 freestyle.  All are eye-popping numbers.  But swimming has undergone tremendous changes in the last 36 years: suits are more buoyant and aerodynamic, swim caps have become en vogue, tremendous scientific research has gone into determining what makes a pool "fast" (such as depth and temperature).  An argument could be made the two aren't really playing the same game.

Track and field, on the other hand, has remained largely the same.  It's true that research goes into trying to make tracks "faster", and that on-track apparel (shoes and singlets) has made some difference in times... but not with nearly the same results as in swimming.  Take the afore-mentioned 200-meter world record set by Michael Johnson in 1996.  The record in that event was broken three times in 1968... it's been broken three times in the 40 years since.  In fact, the record stood at 19.72 until Johnson broke it twice in 1996.  In a matter of six weeks, Johnson lowered the record by four-tenths of a second.  The same record hadn't been lowered that much in TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS!  That, my friends, is dominating.

Which brings us back to Bolt.  You might be familiar with his story: 6-feet-5, primarily a 200-meter runner but runs the 100 to avoid training for the 400, set the world record during one of his first tries ever at the 100.  He ran 9.69 in these Games, breaking his own record and winning a gold medal despite celebrating 20 meters from the finish line.  Ato Boldon, who was an Olympic medalist in the 90s from Trinidad and Tobago, said in his analysis of the run for NBC that Bolt could've run 9.59 if he'd run hard to the finish.

That would've been .13 seconds faster than the previous record - a record that had only been lowered by 14-hundredths the previous 17 years.  That's the kind of domination Johnson displayed in Atlanta.  It also makes me excited to see this week's 200.  Kentuckian Tyson Gay, who was 100 and 200 world champ last year but failed to qualify for either final in Beijing because of a tender hamstring, says Bolt could run 19.1 in the 200.  The second 100 is always faster because it comes with a running start, so if Bolt runs the curve (the first 100) in 9.8, he could conceivably go lower than 19 flat - Johnson ran his second 100 in 1996 in 9.19.

I don't know how many readers appreciate how fast that is, so consider this: a 9.19 second 100-meter run is a 2:27 mile, or about 24.5 miles per hour.  A human being nearly breaking the speed limit in a school zone on his feet.  Amazing.

We'll see if Bolt has the same type of magic... I know he won't come close to matching Johnson's fashion statement of bright gold shoes in Atlanta though.

Talk to you soon.

James