Redskins Beat Cowboys 13-7

The first half ended with a fumble returned for a touchdown. The second half ended with a touchdown that didn’t count. Nothing less should be expected from a game between the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys. The cast might change with new quarterback Donovan McNabb and new head coah Mike Shanahan into the mix, but one thing is eternal: This Redskin/Cowboy rivalry will always have some memorable finishes.

The Redskins came out on top this time, winning 13-7 in Sunday night’s opener even though Tony Romo completed a 13-yard pass to Roy Williams in the end zone on the game’s last play. Alas, the score was negated because tackle Alex Barron was whistled for holding linebacker Brian Orakpo, stopping the Dallas celebrations in their tracks and giving Washington a victorious start in its new era with quarterback McNabb and coach Shanahan.

“I knew he held me, but as soon as I seen him throw it to Roy, I’m like `Are they gonna call it?”’ Orakpo said. “Then I looked up and saw the yellow flag on the floor. Hey, it’s game, set and match. Game over, it’s celebrating time.”

The Redskins didn’t get to celebrate much last year, going 4-12 under coach Jim Zorn and 0-6 in the NFC East. They didn’t score a touchdown in either game against the dreaded Cowboys. For that matter, they didn’t score an offensive touchdown Sunday night— cornerback DeAngelo Hall was the only Redskins player to find the end zone—but that hardly seemed to matter.

Virginia Colleges Rank High

The University of Virginia is the top non-military-academy public university in Forbes Magazines "America's Best Colleges" rankings, released Wednesday.

U.Va. ranks 44th overall among the 610 schools on the Forbes list, which was compiled with the assistance of the Center for College Affordability & Productivity. The only public institutions rated higher are the United States Military Academy (No. 4), the U.S. Air Force Academy (No. 11) and the U.S. Naval Academy (No. 29).

In total, 88 of the top 100 schools on the Forbes list are private. Trailing U.Va. among public schools in the top 100 are the College of William & Mary (No. 46), Virginia Military Institute (No. 60), the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (No. 62), the University of California, Berkeley (No. 65), the University of California, Los Angeles (No. 71), the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (No. 92), the University of Florida (No. 93) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (No. 97).

The top-rated school was Williams College, followed by Princeton University, Amherst College, the U.S. Military Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Forbes rankings have a heavy consumerist influence. In explaining its methodology, the business magazine wrote: "Americans spend more money on college education than nearly any other investment. Just as they want home inspectors to evaluate possible house purchases, and Consumer Reports or J.D. Power and Associates to help guide car purchases, they look to information providers like Forbes to assist them in their choice of colleges and universities."

To that end, rankings of student satisfaction – chiefly from RateMyProfessor.com – account for 27.5 percent of the score. Postgraduate success, including alumni salaries, are weighted 30 percent, and measures of student debt account for 17.5 percent of the score.

Also factored in are the four-year graduation rate (17.5 percent) and competitive awards won by students (7.5 percent).

The commonwealth of Virginia was well represented, with 17 schools appearing on the Forbes list. Besides U.Va., William & Mary and VMI, other Virginia schools listed included Washington and Lee University (No. 37), the University of Richmond (No. 84), Sweet Briar College (No. 87), Randolph-Macon College (No. 103), Virginia Tech (No. 156), James Madison University (No. 169), Hampden-Sydney College (No. 205), the University of Mary Washington (No. 208), Hollins University (No. 267), Randolph College (No. 272), Emory and Henry College (No. 278), George Mason University (No. 297), Roanoke College (No. 433) and Longwood University (No. 462).

In a separate ranking of "America's Best College Buys," Forbes rated U.Va. 43rd overall. Those rankings were derived by dividing each school's overall quality score by its 2008 tuition and fees.

The rankings do not take into direct account financial aid – though student debt factors into the overall quality score. In the Princeton Review "Guide to the 373 Best Colleges" released earlier this month, U.Va.'s financial aid program, AccessUVa, was rated second in the country.

Forbes released its rankings days before Tuesday's expected announcement of the closely watched U.S. News and World Report rankings.

Hot Time in Washington!!!

Why "Pink Floyd" Still Rocks

　　

Happy Memorial Day

National Marine Museum

The National Marine Museum in Quantico, Virginia is worth a visit. The displays are great and life-like of U.S. Marine history.

Monday Morning Quarterback

It's Spring and almost time for baseball to start, so time to look at how the winter sports have done.

The Maryland Terps Men's basketball team had a very good year, finishing the regular season with six wins in a row and a tie for the ACC Championship(13-4) and 24-9 overall.. The Terps did OK in the NCAA's and should have beaten Michigan State(they were lucky to hit a 3-pointer with just .3 seconds left in the game). Michigan State is now in the Fnal Four, and it should have been Maryland.

Gary Williams earned "Coach of the Year" and Greivas Vasquez was "Player of the Year" in ACC basketball and both were very deserving of the honors.

The Maryland Terps Women basketball team were very young this year with three freshman and a sophomore starting most games. They still finished wih a 21-13 record and should be back in the playoff picture next year with an excellent recruiting class for 2011.

The Washington Wizards had a diaster of a season both on the court and off the court. The team never played to its potential. Owner Abe Polen passed away and star player Gilbert Arenas got into a lot of trouble for bringing guns into the locker room and was suspended for the rest of the season. The team decided to trade away all-stars Antwan Jamison and Caron Butler along with cneter Brendon Haywood. The future does not look good for the Wizards.

The Washington Capitals ice hockey team continues to dominate the NHL and are seriously looking to make a run at the Stanley Cup in April. Ovie Ovetchkin looks to win his league MVP for third year ina row.

And the football team Washington Redskins always make news during the winter off-season. They have a new cach in Mike Shanahan and a new approach to building a winning team. Making slower and not as "splashy" moves as they did in past off-seasons. We'll see how this goes.

Back to Spring and baseball. The Washington Nationals signed the best college pitcher of the past decade, Steven Strasburg, and he pitched like it during Spring Training. So, The Nats decided to send him to the minors for "seasoning". He should be "sesasoned" by May and up in the big leagues. The Nats didn't improve the team from last year so I am not expecting them to do much better than last year when they lost 102 games. Going to be a long summer, except on days that Strawsburg pitches.