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| Black, black and more black and then there's Maryland—uni's inspired by drop cloth. |
Worst uni of the week: Maryland, again. The inspiration for these striking costumes came from a house painter’s drop cloth.
Journals, kernels, knickknacks and notes:
• Johnny Football will make many thousands of dollars whether he plays a down in the NFL or not. With a copyrighted name, he’ll be signing autographs and selling T-shirts from the day he leaves the little school on the banks of the Brazos for years to come.
And from our “WTF Department”: J. Football said recently that he’d like to party with Charlie Sheen, Rob Gronkowski and Tiger Wood. Great choice of role models. If he does, he and Gronkowski will be buying the drinks. Sheen is still paying fines and lawyer fees for his misdeeds, and Woods dedicates everything to alimony. And, BTW, how did the question, “Who would you like to party with,” come up? Is that a football question?
• We’ll probably see a lot more franchising of player names in the future. Watch for Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, DB at Alabama, to jump on the copyright bandwagon next. That is if he can stay on the roster for a couple years. He has already been suspended for immature antics.
What was his mother thinking about when he popped out? She was laughing, right? Like the old joke about how Indians get their names. The first thing the father sees after the baby is born becomes the name. Ha Ha’s father saw Ha Ha’s mother laughing. Maybe she knew what she was doing. Lot of money to be made on T-shirts and souvenirs and autographs.
• Miami skated after a two-and-a-half year investigation into “irregularities” in their athletic programs. They lose only nine scholarships in football and three in hoops. And three former coaches are suspended for a game here and there, one from his present employment with Mizzou.
There are no post-season sanctions for the ‘Canes, so they can go for the gold. Many of their former players already got their gold from boosters.
The NCAA has said to Miami and to DivOne college football, “That does it, slaps on the hand for known cheaters.” And it took two-and-a-half years to get that verdict.
The NCAA was also in charge of security at the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya. “That does it, stiffer fines for these guys who keep shooting people.”
• Lowest ranked team in DivOne: Georgia State at #124. Lowest ranked from a major conference: UConn (0-7), American Athletic, #115. Lowest ranked from a major conference of any significance: Kansas (2-5), Big 12, #98.
• Number One Alabama beat #124 Georgia State*, earlier this season. When there’s that much of a mismatch, should it count as a win? The asterisk stands for cupcake.
Early bubble alert:
• Bo Pelini, Nebraska. Corn Fairy boosters grow restless. ‘Huskers are 5-2 but have no quality wins, and blowing leads late in games won’t be tolerated by the Children of the Corn. Pelini’s sideline temper tantrums haven’t helped his image.
It will be necessary to beat Michigan and Michigan State in upcoming weeks to secure his continued employment in Lincoln. And, oh, NU will also need to win the Legends Division of the Big 10 and beat Ohio State in the Big 10 Championship game.• Kirk Ferentz, Iowa, has hung on in spite of declining results, recently. After going 11-2 in 2009 and beating Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl, the Hawks have gone 8-4 in 2010; 7-6 in 2011; and 4-8 in 2012. At least they were invited to—and won—bowl games in 2010 and 2011. Like Mack Brown, Ferentz is a “good guy,” which buys some time but there are malcontents around every program who say, “What have you done for me lately.” Opportunities to beat Wisconsin, Michigan and Nebraska await in November. There is much to be decided, yet.
• Paul Rhoads, Iowa State. The Cyclones have pulled off some big upsets in recent years, knocking off the likes of Texas and Nebraska in surprise endings, but they haven’t put together back-to-back winning seasons since 2004/2005.
Rhoads is 27-33 in five years in Ames and Iowa State is dead last in the Big 12. After a close one-point loss to Texas, and a one-TD loss to Tech earlier this season, the ‘Clones lost their mo’ and were abused 71-7 by Baylor and 58-27 by Oklahoma State. Losing is one thing, losing big is another.
• Dave Christensen, Wyoming. Cowboys are 26-32 since Christensen arrived in Laramie. It’s hard to recruit to the wide-open spaces. Fred Akers, Pat Dye and Dennis Erickson coached at Wyoming, but all moved on, quickly: Dye after six years, Akers after two, Erickson after only one. Two bowl games give Christensen some cred, but both trips were to the New Mexico bowl, which barely pays expenses. Boise State and Utah State stand in the way if Wyoming wants to win the Mountain West's Mountain Division.
• Bobby Hauck, UNLV. Rebels were 6-32 under Hauck at the outset of the season but are 5-3, now; however, the three losses were big and were to Minnesota, Arizona and Fresno. Most noteworthy of those is division leader Fresno. Rebs need to win out and go to a bowl game. They haven’t been to one since 2000 and that was their own venue, The Las Vegas Bowl.
• Jim Grobe, Wake Forest. Coach is 77-78 in Winston-Salem going into his 13th year. Deacons had a run of three bowl years beginning in ’06 with the Orange Bowl but have only been to one post-season fray (which they lost) since 2008 and have had four losing seasons in a row. But it’s Wake Forest. Expectations and budgets for tackle football are low. The real pressure is on the hoops coach. Wake, like Kentucky, like Carolina, like Duke is a basketball school, no?
DDT sez: With the exception of Pelini, leave ‘em where they are. In this day and age of super powers and super budgets, the major conference programs with smaller budgets and the mid majors can only hope for miracles. Any super coach who wins instantly will surely move on to the get the big bucks—and can you blame them? Examples: Urban Meyer parlayed wins at Bowling Green into the Utah job, which he parlayed into the Florida job, which he parlayed into the Ohio State job; Brady Hoke parlayed wins at Ball State into the San Diego State job, which he parlayed into the Michigan job.
Win, move on, win, move on.
Mid majors should give their coaches ten-year contracts, just to give them time to build a program and send the message to players that the coach will be around after the ground work is done. The trick is getting the coach to stay.
But in the fast-gun world of college athletics, the ambitious need only look as far as Kansas, Colorado and Southern Miss to see what can happen: Turner Gill, two years at KU, not enough wins, fired—after only two years; Jon Embree, two years at Colorado, not enough wins, fired—after only two years; Ellis Johnson, one year at Southern Miss, no wins, fired—after only one year.
Big game, national implications, this week:
Miami at Florida State. Number three versus number nine. The winner remains in the national hunt. The loser, if anything else goes wrong and they don’t wind up with a BCS bowl, will lose millions in post-season revenue.
The rest of the Top Ten should remain unaffected this week, with four taking the day off.
‘Bama is off, Oregon is off, Ohio State is at Purdue, Baylor is off, Stanford is off, Auburn is at Arkansas, Clemson is at Virginia, Mizzou hosts Tennessee.
Of interest:
UTEP at Texas A&M. Jamiel Showers, UTEP QB and former backup to J.Football at TAMU, will return to college station. He’ll be hoping the Farmer’s D hasn’t improved too much, even though the Miner’s D will probably give up about 70.
KU at Texas. Good tailgate opportunity with happy endings for Longhorn fans as Texas collects style points before running the gauntlet of Oklahoma State, Tech and Baylor in the final three weeks of the season.
AzState at Wazoo in a Thursday night TV game. Nothing much at stake, but it's an opportunity to watch the Mad Pirate abuse a sideline announcer in those little on-the-field interviews.
The Academies: Off year for the future military leaders of the country.
Navy, 4-3. This week the Middies get Notre Dame. Anchors aweigh! With one exception, they've been close in their three losses.
Army, 3-5. Black Knights of the Hudson lead the nation in rushing offense, but their inattention to defense has cost them. No real quality wins, but they did stay up with Stanford. Cadets meet Air Force this week.
Air Force, 1-7. Falcons host Army.
In competition for the Commander and Chief’s Trophy, Navy has beaten Air Force. Army has yet to play either Air Force or Navy.
“When I cross the river, my last conscious thoughts will be of the Corps, and the Corps, and the Corps.”
—General Douglas MacArthur
This just in from DDT's West Texas A&M in San Antone bureau:
ABILENE, Texas – In what had the potential to be a high-scoring game, it lived up to the billing as No. 9/16 West Texas A&M scored its third-most points in school history in a 90-57 win at McMurry Saturday afternoon. With the win, WT improved to 7-1 on the year, while McMurry fell to 1-7.
In a game that saw 172 offensive plays and 1,401 yards of total offensive combined, WT senior quarterback Dustin Vaughan went 27 of 40 for 452 yards and six touchdowns with one interception. Senior running back Aaron Harris had a WT career-best 136 yards rushing on 11 carries and one score, while junior wide receiver Anthony Johnson had a team-high 97 yards and a score. Sophomore receiver Jarrian Rhone had a career-high two touchdown receptions.
As a team, WT had a season-high 242 yards on the ground on 31 carries for a 7.8 yard average per carry. The Buffs had 452 yards passing for a season-high 693 yards of total offense in 71 offensive plays.
"It was kind of a breakout game for both Harris and Alridge on the ground," interim head coach Mike Nesbitt said. "Our offensive line did a great job sealing up some holes and getting a good push, especially in the third and fourth quarters today."
WTAMU is 7-1 on the season, is tied for the lead in the Lone Star Conference and is ranked #15 in the DivTwo poll. Next contest: At home against Eastern New Mexico.
1 comment:
" Who would you like to party with"?
John Madden and the Oakland Raiders who played for him.
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