Today's Thoughts
Bobby Petrino’s leaving Louisville and the speed with which Steve Kragthorpe was hired demonstrates how both these deals were in the works for a while. Probably explains why Kragthorpe was hardly mentioned for an opening like Arizona St.
Old habits die hard. We all know what a precious commodity the remote can be when dealing with roommates. To this day, I still absent-mindedly carry the remote with me to another place in the apartment which leads to me looking around for it for a few minutes.
What is with all the athletic director’s hiring search firms for coaching candidates? Shouldn’t it be the top job of an AD to always have possible coaches in mind if one of their employees leaves? Why do they need a firm to say ‘maybe you should check out this guy’?
Anytime your football coach and basketball coach are fired in the same year that should mean an automatic firing of the AD. Minnesota athletics is just a mess.
I know the never graduate ads are humorous but lets get over the North Carolina – Duke and Michigan – Ohio St angles. There are other great under-publicized rivalries that would make that commercial funny and informative.
The best commercial on TV is the Manning family getting a tour of ESPN. The line about how you have to walk from the control room to the screening room is Niles Crane like understated humor. John Anderson simply has nothing to say. Cracks me up every time.
BC got a verbal commit from Chris Johnson – a dual threat QB from New Jersey. Think Jeff Blake for a comparison.
Have to give ND some props. Kicking McAlarney out of school showed the administration has their priorities straight also.
Kentucky basketball has officially fallen off the map. They have not competed for a title in years and are nothing more than a solid team this year. The press never discusses Tubby Smith as about to get the heave-ho though.
Many people know that Wisconsin guard Kammron Taylor looks like Chris Rock but he sure as heck sounds like him also.
The way Kevin Durant has been playing I would not be surprised to see a team take him over Oden.
Most raw, unheard of player that I have seen this year is Joe Alexander from West Virginia. Great athleticism and is just learning the game.
Thoughts on the National Title Game
We need a boycott. We need a boycott that hits Fox hard. It is absurd that the national title game was on January 8th. I spend every Saturday in the fall watching college football so I am as involved as it gets in the beauty that is college football but even I was not enthusiastic about last night's game. My anticipation had waned to the point where if they canceled the game I would not have cared. Of course, since they did not stop the game, I watched or at least flipped channels as Ohio State got flat out embarrased. Lets get this game back where it belongs, on January 1st. Since I slept through the class on passive resistance in college any ideas as to how to proceed would be great.
Lets get back to the whooping that occurred last night. In retrospect why was this surprising? Outside of Michigan, who did the Buckeyes play? Texas was rebuilding this year so that does not count and Wisconsin was not on their schedule so they really did not play anyone else. The rest of the Big 10 was pretty pathetic to say the least. The Buckeyes lack of experience finally caught up to them on defense and without Ginn, they had no chance on offense. Florida was fast but I think Ohio St. had speed on their roster but could not use it as they were out of position the whole night. The BCS should be tweaked again. This time they have to take into account the SEC as the premier conference. Auburn being left out a couple of years ago makes continues to look worse. After watching all the bowls, I have to conclude that the next best team was LSU and they would have beaten Florida in Gainesville if they could have just held on to the ball. The even more scary thing is that the Florida program is only going to get better. Florida was athletic but they have had better athletes in the past than this year's team. When Urban gets those guys back its going to be theirs to lose. The only thing that may keep them from being a dynasty is the SEC itself where road games can lead to losses against teams that you may be better than.
Fox Sports as a whole just needs to go to . I do not know the announcers and they just end up pissing me off. The guys on Fox are second rate for the very fact that they work at Fox. If you could, wouldnt you work somewhere else if your job is to do college athletics. As one friend wrote me ,"Charles Davis needs to be banned from commentating on games. He spoke after every single play and claimed to have forseen the Florida blowout when Thom Brenneman asked the rhetorical question before the half - "did anyone see this coming?" Davis said "Not to this extent, but..." Shut up!" - Great call
USC has to be your leader in the clubhouse for next year. Florida and LSU have to break in new QB's so that may cost them a little. Tim Tebow may have to throw some instead of diving forward and jumping up in the air after every three yard run. Did everyone see that little Simms has decommitted from Louisville. He bolted hours after Petrino. Its safe to say he was going to Louisville strictly for Petrino's offensive skills and not for any collegiate experience. He may be just a name recruit but expect BC and Rutgers to be vying for his services.
Pac 10 Basketball
With the emergence of Washington St. and USC, the Pac 10 looks solid from top to bottom. The national media is giving the conference their due also, going out of their way to say there is no East Coast bias.
There is an East Coast bias however and the reason has to do with television. If the Pac 10 could figure out how to get their football or basketball games on ESPN then maybe people would be familiar with their teams. Why can't they get a PAC Thursday night like the other conferences have with Big Monday and such?
I mean how many people are watching Fox Sports to catch any of these games? The Pac 10 needs to move into modernity and allow the sport elephant to broadcast its games.
Thoughts
Everybody should be reaching out to all Notre Dame fans that they know to 'discuss' last nights ass-kicking. Even Domers must now wish they get a 3rd loss in the regular season to save the automatic shoe-in they get to the BCS and the ensuing embarrassment that comes with it. Here is a classic graph that was passed along to me from an unofficial BC site.
http://www.bceaglesfootball.com/ndfan.htm
How pissed are you if you are Wisconsin? They only lose in the Big House and now that most of the bowls have been played, they have a valid argument for the spot that Notre Dame took from them.
If you are up by 15 with like 9 minutes to go in the game, do you think going for 2 makes just as much sense as going for one? 3 scores vs two scores and the other team would still have to convert one 2 pt opportunity.
Nick Saban is making 4 million. Guaranteed. For 8 years. That’s insane. It’s probably worth it. I bet Alabama had heard that university donations might taper off.
Does Tom O’Brien really think he can win at NC St.? He is bringing more-conservative than-a-Christian radical offensive coordinator Dana Bible with him and if the mans MO has not changed in 10 years of play-calling then what are better athletes going to do if you are running fullback outs and draw plays all game long. Now, he gets to recruit against Spurrier and Butch Davis in his own backyard. If you were a recruit, where would you go?
Steve Logan is an awesome hire for BC. His teams at East Carolina were offensively exciting and produced David Garrard and Jeff Blake. He built that program to a level that had not been seen before and was let go. East Carolina has never recovered. Cant wait to see his wide open offenses.
Dwayne Jarrett is a punk. How he did not get called for taunting after his catches I do not know.
Name a team other than Oregon that gets worse as the year goes on. They start off hot and then completely collapse.
I think its great that one Catholic school has the longest bowl winning streak and the other the longest bowl winless streak. I heard that over 80 teams had won bowl games since ND last won one. If that’s true, that’s hilarious.
Poor Rutgers. They have their best season ever and the game is on the NFL network. Good work by the Big East commissioner.
The most improved player from the regular season to the bowls had to be Tony Morelli. The Penn St QB made his team a completely different animal.
Do not have to say much about Boise and Oklahoma. The emotional swings in those few minutes were like getting hit by Ferris when he is drunk only to be hit by his soft underbelly as he tries to make room for himself a moment later.
Cant wait to see how Jeff Smith gets utilized next year.
Lets also hope Matt Ryan does not continue his regression.
Looking back on my bowl picks, I can not believe I took Clemson with as much conviction. They have underachieved all year. Why would the bowl game be different?
Everybody geared up for the Cincinnati bowl game on Sunday?
I love how Charlie Weis gets mentioned for every job still. He has not done more than Willingham yet for crying out loud.
I wonder if Nebraska is near turning the corner. They have better athletes but probably a ways to go before competing with the big boys.
The Big 12 got flat out embarrassed in their bowls. This conference needs to be derided more.
Riley Skinner is a gamer. I love this kid. He is so cool in remaining in the pocket. Wake Forest wins that game if they can just hang on to the ball.
I would love to see a Hawaii—Boise St. rematch. They should make this the end game for both teams in that conference each year.
How does a team beat USC and then get blown out by Florida St? I don’t get that one.
I have zero rooting interest in Florida and Ohio St.
Early call – BC beats North Carolina in the ACC title game.
Rumors on the Internet say that Mark Whipple was told that he would need to retain Spaziani which he did not agree to. That opened the door for Jags.
I think a safe pick in this year’s NFL draft is anyone from LSU. So many big, fast guys.
Next year will be the 3rd in the Ron Zook era at Illinois. How fast has he fallen?
Where will ND be in the final rankings? Where would you rank them?
The announcement I am looking most forward to in the offseason is that the clock will not start on a change of possession now.
Replay has changed so many things this year and reversed some terrible calls but I still want it to go away. We are watching games that often hinge on momentum. Some calls took 5 minutes to overturn. By that point, I have forgotten who has the ball.
Kind of funny that Miami hired internally with Randy Shannon. You usually don’t promote from within when the program is in turmoil.
You know what stat I hate? Larry Coker’s track record. How he is one of the five winningest coaches in 5 years or something. They are missing the point. The program was on a downcycle and there was no sense for optimism. This is not your older brother’s Miami team. By the way where did would be brawl-basher Lamar Thomas end up?
