Show of hands, please: who doesn't hate Lane Kiffin? If you raise your hand, you are probably not from the state of Tennessee.
The former coach at the University of Tennessee and current coach at USC is the target of a new lawsuit. This one is from his newest employee's former employer, the Tennessee Titans. That is Titans as in NFL Tennessee.
The Titans hired a chap name of Kennedy Pola on February 1, 2010 to coach their running backs. He is a former (and now current) Kiffin assistant. Training camp for the Titans starts a week from now. Kiffin hired him on Saturday as USC offensive coordinator, leaving the Titans with an void on their staff.
From the story: The lawsuit accuses Southern California and Kiffin of violating Pola’s contract that required him to have written permission to discuss a job with anyone other than the Titans.
Maybe one of our readers who is of the legal persuasion can explain why they're suing Kiffin and USC instead of Pola. My guess is the hope to get some cash, as it seems unlikely that the courts will force Pola to work in Tennessee.
Of course, they might just want to take a poke at Kiffin 'cause they're PO'd, like the rest of the state of Tennessee.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Big 10 Quarterbacks
College Football News profiled the Big 10's likely QB's for this fall and stirred up some intrigue. The top ranked guy is -who else- Ohio State's Terrell Pryor. No argument here. Pryor threw for 1,300 yards as a freshman and 2,100 yards as a sophomore, so expect a powerful air attack at OSU this fall during Pryor's 3rd season. CFN posits there is a lot of pressure is on Pryor. I think that's not a big issue for a veteran--as long as nothing goes wrong early in the season. The Buckeyes open with four consecutive home games : Marshall, Miami, Ohio and Eastern Michigan. Only the Hurricanes are likely to make things even interesting, so Terrell isn't likely to pitch a complete game prior to the start of the Big 10 season on October 2 at Illinois.
CFN's #2 is Wisconsin's Scott Tolzien, a grad of Palatine's Fremd H.S. Tolzien, a JR, blossomed last year, but I'm not sure he's all that just yet. He did put up some outrageous numbers last year: 2,700 yards passing on 211 completions, a UW record. Tolzien might have 200 completions by the time the Big 10 season starts; UW opens at UNLV, then comes home for San Jose State, Arizon State and mighty Austin Peay. What that means for the Big 10 season is...not much.
CFN puts Sparty's Kirk Cousins in the third spot. Nice numbers last year, but this is a big uncertaintly to me. MSU has 5 in a row at home to open (the second of the five is in Detroit), but not so bad competition: Western Michigan, Florida Atlantic (yea! Howard Schnellenger!), Notre Dame, Northern Colorado and then Wisconsin. Cousins won't see a big defense between the opening game and game 5 vs the Badgers, so he can either put up hero numbers or get Sparty nation started to mumbling.
Iowa's Ricky Stanzi is at #4, and the description from CFN is right on. He starts fires, then puts on the white hat and rides like the wind to try a heroic rescue. Great fun to watch, Stanzi is, and the Hawks are always competitive. Four of their first five at home: Eastern Illinois (nolo contendre), Iowa State (big!), @ AZ (tough!), home for Ball State (burp) and the conference opener vs Penn State. No cakewalk for Ricky and the Hawkeyes.
Rated next is Indiana's Ben Chappell, and I think they put him this high just because he's a SR. He's followed by Michigan's Tate Forcier, who's up this high because...I have no idea. I think that everyone wants to be the first to predict the renaissance of Michigan. Even a broken clock is right twice a day (except a digital clock, which is just a broken clock, but I really like colloquial image of an analog clock, so back off, tough guy...).
Adam Webber from MN follows at #7, and the four year starter could have a huge year or be dead in the water after a month. Biggest reason: everyone's favorite receiver, Eric Decker, now wears the colors of the Denver Broncos. MN opens away at Middle Tennessee State (no cakewalk here), comes home for 4 in a row: South Dakota (they're no Middle Tennessee State, haha), USC (the Trojans will be out for blood), Northern Illinois (always tough, and the week after USC) and Northwestern to start the Big 10 season.
The rest of the field in the Big 10: Purdue's Robert Marve (trying to restart his college career), Northwestern's Dan Persa, a JR (keep an eye on him, he's a keeper), Kevin Newsome, a SO at Penn State (seems there's always a SO coming up at PSU) and Nathan Scheelhaase starts the post Juice Williams era at Illinois.
The state of Illinois (new license plate motto: "Fiscally and Morally Bankrupt") has the 2 guys with the most contradictory expectations, Persa at NU and Scheelhaase at Illinois. Persa's predecessor, Mike Kafka, first ran and then passed his way into the record books, a huge performance on New Year's Day at the Outback Bowl and now an NFL career starting in Philadelphia. How's the new man follow that?
Meanwhile, down I-57 in Champaign, awaiting Nathan Scheelhaase is an indifferent Illini fan base, emotionally cauterized by the roller coaster years of Juice Williams. Juice is a primo athlete, but he ain't no QB ("ain't no"... nice, eh?). If Scheelhaase can use the assets that surround him (a lot of that is up to the coaches, sure, but they can't afford a whole new bout with talent myopia in Champaign), he can bring the Illinois students out of the bars and back to the stadium on game day.
CFN's #2 is Wisconsin's Scott Tolzien, a grad of Palatine's Fremd H.S. Tolzien, a JR, blossomed last year, but I'm not sure he's all that just yet. He did put up some outrageous numbers last year: 2,700 yards passing on 211 completions, a UW record. Tolzien might have 200 completions by the time the Big 10 season starts; UW opens at UNLV, then comes home for San Jose State, Arizon State and mighty Austin Peay. What that means for the Big 10 season is...not much.
CFN puts Sparty's Kirk Cousins in the third spot. Nice numbers last year, but this is a big uncertaintly to me. MSU has 5 in a row at home to open (the second of the five is in Detroit), but not so bad competition: Western Michigan, Florida Atlantic (yea! Howard Schnellenger!), Notre Dame, Northern Colorado and then Wisconsin. Cousins won't see a big defense between the opening game and game 5 vs the Badgers, so he can either put up hero numbers or get Sparty nation started to mumbling.
Iowa's Ricky Stanzi is at #4, and the description from CFN is right on. He starts fires, then puts on the white hat and rides like the wind to try a heroic rescue. Great fun to watch, Stanzi is, and the Hawks are always competitive. Four of their first five at home: Eastern Illinois (nolo contendre), Iowa State (big!), @ AZ (tough!), home for Ball State (burp) and the conference opener vs Penn State. No cakewalk for Ricky and the Hawkeyes.
Rated next is Indiana's Ben Chappell, and I think they put him this high just because he's a SR. He's followed by Michigan's Tate Forcier, who's up this high because...I have no idea. I think that everyone wants to be the first to predict the renaissance of Michigan. Even a broken clock is right twice a day (except a digital clock, which is just a broken clock, but I really like colloquial image of an analog clock, so back off, tough guy...).
Adam Webber from MN follows at #7, and the four year starter could have a huge year or be dead in the water after a month. Biggest reason: everyone's favorite receiver, Eric Decker, now wears the colors of the Denver Broncos. MN opens away at Middle Tennessee State (no cakewalk here), comes home for 4 in a row: South Dakota (they're no Middle Tennessee State, haha), USC (the Trojans will be out for blood), Northern Illinois (always tough, and the week after USC) and Northwestern to start the Big 10 season.
The rest of the field in the Big 10: Purdue's Robert Marve (trying to restart his college career), Northwestern's Dan Persa, a JR (keep an eye on him, he's a keeper), Kevin Newsome, a SO at Penn State (seems there's always a SO coming up at PSU) and Nathan Scheelhaase starts the post Juice Williams era at Illinois.
The state of Illinois (new license plate motto: "Fiscally and Morally Bankrupt") has the 2 guys with the most contradictory expectations, Persa at NU and Scheelhaase at Illinois. Persa's predecessor, Mike Kafka, first ran and then passed his way into the record books, a huge performance on New Year's Day at the Outback Bowl and now an NFL career starting in Philadelphia. How's the new man follow that?
Meanwhile, down I-57 in Champaign, awaiting Nathan Scheelhaase is an indifferent Illini fan base, emotionally cauterized by the roller coaster years of Juice Williams. Juice is a primo athlete, but he ain't no QB ("ain't no"... nice, eh?). If Scheelhaase can use the assets that surround him (a lot of that is up to the coaches, sure, but they can't afford a whole new bout with talent myopia in Champaign), he can bring the Illinois students out of the bars and back to the stadium on game day.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Costume Party
The combatant schools finally announced that it's official: USB (no, not thumb drives) and The U (no, not the TV channel that shows all ancient reruns) announced a "renewal of their famed rivalry". Notre Dame and Miami have signed contracts to play each other three times. They'll begin in Chicago at Soldier Field, then go back where they belong to South Bend, and then go somewhere else, probably Florida, I don't recall, because I don't really care all that much.
In other words, this is a marketing thing.
Neither of these two programs is all that important on the national landscape at this point (sorry, Doc, but it ain't all about the U) and what better way to insert oneself into the national conscience than to dust off some old press clippings and reinvigorate a few ancient TV announcers who can ruminate endlessly about the incredible atmosphere of "Catholics vs Convicts", the way it was. I can almost hear Barbra and "The Way We Were". Ugh.
Why Chicago for the first game? Don't believe for a moment that it is unrelated to the resurgence of Northwestern, the prominence of NU's young coach, Pat Fitzgerald and the scheduling of NU vs Illinois at Wrigley Field this fall (by the way, the summertime tenant at Wrigley is to be commended for doing their best to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible, but jeez it's only July!). USB has enjoyed the dormancy of Northwestern for years and years, and scheduling this game at Soldier Field is a means of reasserting USB's claim that Chicago is their turf.
Speaking of turf, this game is just what the Chicago Bears need, another football game on that catbox of a field that they deal with every fall and winter. We have field turf at our high school, and we run youth sports on field turf at a local park district, so why does Chicago's weird looking major market big time downtown stadium still have a shitty, chewed up grass field?
Anyhoooo...get ready for the newspapers and the TV news guys to start their breathy coverage of the impending tilts. Maybe by the time the games are played, there will be something worth getting excited about.
Or you can always switch to the Three Stooges Marathon on The U.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Never saw this before...
USC is stepping up and taking its lumps like a big boy.
As a result of the NCAA's findings in the Reggie Bush payola scandal, the university has to vacate the victories it won in the games for which R Bush was declared ineligible and remove Reggie's stats for those games from its record books.
Yesterday they fired athletic director Mike Garrett after 17 years of service, as he presided over the tainted years.
Then they announced that they would return the Heismann trophy that Bush won for his efforts during the payoff season. That's never been done before.
The latest reports have former coach Pete Carroll still safely at work for the Seattle NFL club and Reggie still wearing his NOLA Saints uniform, and each is still collecting 7 digit compensation for their respective efforts, and USC made about a zillion dollars during that season. Show me the money, Jerry. That part isn't changing.
As a result of the NCAA's findings in the Reggie Bush payola scandal, the university has to vacate the victories it won in the games for which R Bush was declared ineligible and remove Reggie's stats for those games from its record books.
Then they announced that they would return the Heismann trophy that Bush won for his efforts during the payoff season. That's never been done before.
The latest reports have former coach Pete Carroll still safely at work for the Seattle NFL club and Reggie still wearing his NOLA Saints uniform, and each is still collecting 7 digit compensation for their respective efforts, and USC made about a zillion dollars during that season. Show me the money, Jerry. That part isn't changing.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The Season Has Begun
Sing with me : Cheer, cheer for old U S B...
Thank Notre Dame for starting the season for me. The headline was "11 Irish Arrested for Drinking". Not realizing at first that this was a sports related story, I wasn't sure that it was newsworthy...
The South Bend police department (who must just love making these kinds of arrests) responded to a report of a fight at an off campus location (of course it was off campus, who wants to get blasted and fight within walking distance of where you're going to pass out?) and hit the jackpot: 11 of USB's pride and joy--including a half dozen who haven't even started there yet. Train 'em right!
A party in South Bend was busted by police overnight, sending 43 people to the county jail.
[...]
Among those arrested are eight Notre Dame football players, including Nate Montana, the son of football great Joe Montana and back-up QB; Lorenzo Wood, a cornerback and incoming freshman; Chris Watt, a sophomore offensive guard; Robert Toma, an incoming freshman wide receiver; Nicholas Tausch, a sophomore kicker; Ta-iler Jones, an incoming freshman wide receiver; Steven Filer, a junior outside linebacker; and Tate Nichols, an incoming freshman.
A little further research yielded corrected numbers: there were 44 arrests, 28 of whom were USB student/athletes. There was an incoming freshman basketball player, an incoming freshman hockey player and some other kid. The transient guests of the county jail included offensive lineman Chris Watt from Glenbard West HS (heralded as one of the four best recruits from the Chicago area two years ago) and Steve Filer, a linebacker from St. Rita HS (one of the anointed from the year before), so Chicago was well represented.
The Brian Kelly era is officially underway.
Thank Notre Dame for starting the season for me. The headline was "11 Irish Arrested for Drinking". Not realizing at first that this was a sports related story, I wasn't sure that it was newsworthy...
A party in South Bend was busted by police overnight, sending 43 people to the county jail.
[...]
Among those arrested are eight Notre Dame football players, including Nate Montana, the son of football great Joe Montana and back-up QB; Lorenzo Wood, a cornerback and incoming freshman; Chris Watt, a sophomore offensive guard; Robert Toma, an incoming freshman wide receiver; Nicholas Tausch, a sophomore kicker; Ta-iler Jones, an incoming freshman wide receiver; Steven Filer, a junior outside linebacker; and Tate Nichols, an incoming freshman.
A little further research yielded corrected numbers: there were 44 arrests, 28 of whom were USB student/athletes. There was an incoming freshman basketball player, an incoming freshman hockey player and some other kid. The transient guests of the county jail included offensive lineman Chris Watt from Glenbard West HS (heralded as one of the four best recruits from the Chicago area two years ago) and Steve Filer, a linebacker from St. Rita HS (one of the anointed from the year before), so Chicago was well represented.
The Brian Kelly era is officially underway.
Monday, July 19, 2010
A Time Out
Yeah, you're right. I've been taking it easy, linking up bits of information and launching an occasional bit of actual thought, but for the most part just trying to get through the offseason and not let you all wander off as summer wanders on, never to return (you, not summer). I'll start researching shortly for the upcoming football season. Today, however, I'm opining and sharing an experience.
The World Cup, every one else's football championship, has come and gone. Two Gun even made us a couple of bucks by listening to his sagacious soccer advisor, one of his grandchildren. Other than learning about the existence of those big kazoos with funny name (and the-got-to-be-dumb-as-a-stump people who toot on them for hours on end), nothing happened during El Copa Mundial to make me care about soccer.
Be honest: neither do you. It's ok, we are safe for a few more years until it starts up again.
As for American football, our raison d'être, I confess that I'm having trouble getting enthused. The reason is that for the first time in a lot of years, my son isn't playing this season. The injuries and the contempt he developed for the attitude of his coaches (quite justified) have quelled his competitive flame, a series of events that I regret immensely. The greatest lesson he has learned in high school: high school coaches aren't always concerned with the well being of the students.
All the activities upon which we place so much importance were given a new perspective for me this past week. We spent a vacation week in Mazatlan, Mexico, where they don't seem to care about much of anything. They acknowledge the existence of American football there for the occasional opportunity to sell the tourists a shirt or blanket that has some American football team's name on it (licensing? We don't have to pay no stinkin' licensing) and the stuff is made in China anyway (just like the Mazatlan embroidered hat I bought). As for soccer, the Mexicans were out of the tournament, so the locals didn't much care about that much, either.
I didn't get the results of baseball's All-Star game until two days after that "event" was done, so you can see that baseball isn't big news there. I looked up the Chicagoland NASCAR results right after I looked up the baseball news. Riding in the shuttle bus to and from the airport is far more thrilling than NASCAR, I assure you.
Apprising Mazatlan as a destination, it was the least seductive of the places we have visited in Mexico, conveying a rather apathetic attitude toward everything that makes one visit a place for a holiday. Not dirty, just not clean. Not unattractive, but definitely not visually stimulating. It offered up the usual seaside attractions, but they were just there, blah. It was kind of like being in the Milwaukee of Mexico. Nah...that's not giving props to Milwaukee. Maybe more like Memphis on the Pacific, if you can assemble that concept.
So, this week I'll put on my Outback Bowl NU cap and start researching the upcoming college football season, aware that there are a lot of people in Mazatlan who don't care. I am not offended, 'cause they dont' care about much of anything.
Hey, amigo, wanna buy a Baltimore Ravens sombrero?
The World Cup, every one else's football championship, has come and gone. Two Gun even made us a couple of bucks by listening to his sagacious soccer advisor, one of his grandchildren. Other than learning about the existence of those big kazoos with funny name (and the-got-to-be-dumb-as-a-stump people who toot on them for hours on end), nothing happened during El Copa Mundial to make me care about soccer.
Be honest: neither do you. It's ok, we are safe for a few more years until it starts up again.
As for American football, our raison d'être, I confess that I'm having trouble getting enthused. The reason is that for the first time in a lot of years, my son isn't playing this season. The injuries and the contempt he developed for the attitude of his coaches (quite justified) have quelled his competitive flame, a series of events that I regret immensely. The greatest lesson he has learned in high school: high school coaches aren't always concerned with the well being of the students.
All the activities upon which we place so much importance were given a new perspective for me this past week. We spent a vacation week in Mazatlan, Mexico, where they don't seem to care about much of anything. They acknowledge the existence of American football there for the occasional opportunity to sell the tourists a shirt or blanket that has some American football team's name on it (licensing? We don't have to pay no stinkin' licensing) and the stuff is made in China anyway (just like the Mazatlan embroidered hat I bought). As for soccer, the Mexicans were out of the tournament, so the locals didn't much care about that much, either.
I didn't get the results of baseball's All-Star game until two days after that "event" was done, so you can see that baseball isn't big news there. I looked up the Chicagoland NASCAR results right after I looked up the baseball news. Riding in the shuttle bus to and from the airport is far more thrilling than NASCAR, I assure you.
Apprising Mazatlan as a destination, it was the least seductive of the places we have visited in Mexico, conveying a rather apathetic attitude toward everything that makes one visit a place for a holiday. Not dirty, just not clean. Not unattractive, but definitely not visually stimulating. It offered up the usual seaside attractions, but they were just there, blah. It was kind of like being in the Milwaukee of Mexico. Nah...that's not giving props to Milwaukee. Maybe more like Memphis on the Pacific, if you can assemble that concept.
So, this week I'll put on my Outback Bowl NU cap and start researching the upcoming college football season, aware that there are a lot of people in Mazatlan who don't care. I am not offended, 'cause they dont' care about much of anything.
Hey, amigo, wanna buy a Baltimore Ravens sombrero?
Monday, July 12, 2010
I Invested Six Minutes This Year, and Now This
This isn't going to be college football today. It's about the game in which I am least interested, pro basketball. Least interested makes it last on the list. For example, this past season, I watched a total of about six minutes of the NBA on TV. That includes the home town team's regular season, the playoffs and the championship game, said championship game involving Boston and LA. I state the combatants because it is likely the last time I will remember who played for the championship.
It's not the games on the court that have been newsworthy, it's the game that the anointed king of pro hoops has been playing. Another momentary digression is warranted here. While LeBron James is acknowledged everywhere as the king, it is important to mention that he has, at this time, absolutely zero championship trophies on his resume. I might apply for the title, because I, too, have zero basketball championships on my list of life's accomplishments. I would like to further clarify that were it not for the jumping and the running and the shooting and the tallness thing, I too, could have been an NBA star.
James is the king of hoopla, hands down, and that's what has fascinated me these last couple of weeks.
Everyone had an idea about whose emblem would be on James' chest for the next few years. It was debated incessantly. The Chicago media argument was my favorite. James was coming here, the predominant argument ran, to assume the mantle of greatness that #23 had left behind, to resurrect Chicago as championship central, to construct a legacy that would forever put to rest the #23 vs LeBron debate.
100% bullshit. The guy would have to be nuts to channel any of that nonsense.
Let's say you are a very large and very talented NBA type player. You can make the same dumpsters full of cash for working winters in:
a) Cleveland, Ohio
b) Chicago, Illinois
c) Miami, Florida
Duh.
Let's make the argument a little more complex. You have two amigos who also happen to be very large and very talented NBA type players. Each of them has shared their preference to avoid working in the frozen tundra and indicated their respective desire to toil amidst the palm trees and warm breezes. You would choose to:
a) Be loyal to Lake Erie because you really prefer walleye fishing.
b) Go to the winter weather suckfest capital to show your individuality.
c) Find a house on the intercoastal that comes with a big boat that you can use year 'round.
The bleating that arose from the rejected cities' press after James solved the riddle of the ages and announced he was going to work in Miami was an illustration of how gullible sports fans can be. The same guys who spent all that time creating the drama attacked the phoniness of James actions after he made his choice.
Duh again.
James is a sports mercenary. Anyone who thought otherwise was deluded. There's nothing wrong with going to work hard for the most money you can get, and you can only work for one team at a time. Everybody but one would come up short.
I could rail on, but I have to confess that this entire show has worn thin for me. I am pleased that I am not one of the people from Cleveland who seemed to be so emotionally vested in this decision, as they have some genuine problems that need to be addressed.
For the rest of us, we must hurry to enjoy the summer here in the winter weather suckfest capital and decide later how our bleak lives will be tolerable without LeBron. I may cut back on my annual six minutes of NBA watching.
It's not the games on the court that have been newsworthy, it's the game that the anointed king of pro hoops has been playing. Another momentary digression is warranted here. While LeBron James is acknowledged everywhere as the king, it is important to mention that he has, at this time, absolutely zero championship trophies on his resume. I might apply for the title, because I, too, have zero basketball championships on my list of life's accomplishments. I would like to further clarify that were it not for the jumping and the running and the shooting and the tallness thing, I too, could have been an NBA star.
James is the king of hoopla, hands down, and that's what has fascinated me these last couple of weeks.
Everyone had an idea about whose emblem would be on James' chest for the next few years. It was debated incessantly. The Chicago media argument was my favorite. James was coming here, the predominant argument ran, to assume the mantle of greatness that #23 had left behind, to resurrect Chicago as championship central, to construct a legacy that would forever put to rest the #23 vs LeBron debate.
100% bullshit. The guy would have to be nuts to channel any of that nonsense.
Let's say you are a very large and very talented NBA type player. You can make the same dumpsters full of cash for working winters in:
a) Cleveland, Ohio
b) Chicago, Illinois
c) Miami, Florida
Duh.
Let's make the argument a little more complex. You have two amigos who also happen to be very large and very talented NBA type players. Each of them has shared their preference to avoid working in the frozen tundra and indicated their respective desire to toil amidst the palm trees and warm breezes. You would choose to:
a) Be loyal to Lake Erie because you really prefer walleye fishing.
b) Go to the winter weather suckfest capital to show your individuality.
c) Find a house on the intercoastal that comes with a big boat that you can use year 'round.
The bleating that arose from the rejected cities' press after James solved the riddle of the ages and announced he was going to work in Miami was an illustration of how gullible sports fans can be. The same guys who spent all that time creating the drama attacked the phoniness of James actions after he made his choice.
Duh again.
James is a sports mercenary. Anyone who thought otherwise was deluded. There's nothing wrong with going to work hard for the most money you can get, and you can only work for one team at a time. Everybody but one would come up short.
I could rail on, but I have to confess that this entire show has worn thin for me. I am pleased that I am not one of the people from Cleveland who seemed to be so emotionally vested in this decision, as they have some genuine problems that need to be addressed.
For the rest of us, we must hurry to enjoy the summer here in the winter weather suckfest capital and decide later how our bleak lives will be tolerable without LeBron. I may cut back on my annual six minutes of NBA watching.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
4th of July
Bet you didn't know: under federal law, I cannot write anything meaningful today as it is a holiday.
That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.
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