Customer Reviews

Saturday Rules: A Season with Trojans and Domers (and Gators and Buckeyes and Wolverines)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Great running commentary on the 2006 season, mostly from the perspective of USC and ND, but great insights into Ohio St, Michigan, and Florida. I would definitely enjoy reading a similar book about any season.

The book is not great and I lost interest in it near the half way point. If you want to read good books on College Football, go with Dixieland Delight by Clay Travis or Bowls,Polls, and Tattered Souls by Stewart Mandel. Leave Saturday Rules at the store. It is not worth it.

The run up to the NCAA national championship always has many stories about the difficulties and travails of the athletes, coaches and fans who all seek the elusive Number One ranking. There may be a few souls out there that know more about the X's and Os of college football but none of them can match Austin Murphy's dry wit, keen insights and the human stories behind the scenes. This book explains that we don't need a Playoff System because we already have more than enough drama. Like everything that this veteran SI Road Warrior puts out there, we have laughed more and are a bit wiser than before we started. Keep it coming!

Much like college rankings, Murphy takes half of the chronicled season before the book begins to feel coherent. While I'm a longtime Sports Illustrated reader familiar with Murphy's weekly college football coverage, there's something lost in the translation from magazine page to "Saturday Rules"--the play-by-play coverage of games drags on forever, and fails to bring the season alive. The behind-the-scenes access that Murphy has makes this book required reading for Notre Dame, USC, Michigan, Florida, and Ohio State fans (all of which are covered in-depth). Most other fans can pass on this one.

I was excited to see Austin Murphy had written a book about the 2006 college football season. His college football articles in SI are solid, typically containing cool backstories that you would not find anywhere else. I also read his earlier book on D3 fooball in Minnesota (St. John's I believe) and found it very funny and insightful.

As a Buckeye homer I didn't get everything I wanted. Obviously Austin did not write this for me, and the 2006 season did not end well for tOSU, so I'd still rate this a 'strong buy'.

If Coach Tressel ever allows it, Austin Murphy would be the writer I'd want to write the book on Buckeye football. He makes Charlie Weiss human for goodness sake! If a writer can take the most egotistical and foul mouthed coach in football and make him somewhat of an interesting person then that's quality writing.

The Michigan program is portrayed as expected: paranoid and ill tempered. Columbus is going to miss you Llllloyd!

I'd have preferred more of the stories behind the stories vs. game recaps. I understand why the game summaries were needed however as they are the spine of the book.

If you are a college football fan you will enjoy this book. If you are a true fanatic (Go Bucks!) it won't be exactly what you want because it's not about a single team. SC and Domer fans will enjoy it the most as they get the best treatment from the writer. Again, it's likely deserved as their Sports Information Departments appear to embrace this project and hook the author up with the necessary access.

Finally from what I can discern in the text, if you ever get the chance to have a drink with the author definitely take him up on it. He's experienced some great college football moments and some stories he shares from when his brother played for BC are tremendous.

This super eye-opener of a book transports its readers into the midst of the inner workings of some of the top-notch NCAA football powers. The author's ability to translate the excitement, tenseness, electricity and sheer fun of the college game onto the written page is outstanding. Amidst tales ranging from great hilarity to those of mind-numbing disappointment, he paints vivid pictures of why "Saturday Rules." This is a great read for football lovers of all ages.

Not the most fascinating subject but Murphy's writing rises above the fairly mundane topic. The premise that the college game beats pro football ignores four hour bowl games that carry into mid-January. That said, Murphy finds the humor in anything and has a real knack for people that comes across in his writing. His earlier books are five star efforts so this is, as they say, wide left.

I had great expectations for this book in that it was written by an author (Austin Murphy) who has reported for 23 yrs. at Sports Illustrated on College Football and has done so very, very well.

This is why it is so surprising that for one with such access to College Football Programs and Insight/Knowledge as to the detail of how things work would write such an uninspiring accounting of them.

I never understood where he was going as the book just rambled and made no coherent sense. We are taken through the '06 season without any direction.

It was as if someone with no access or knowledge had written the book and taken the facts from articles written from S.I. instead. You or I could have done this work based upon what we have access to.

Bottom line: I expected much, much better for $24.99 than this from an writer that has established himself as a talented authority on the subject of College Football and should have given us more than what is there.

Rent this book at the local library. Don't spend your $ on it!