HOW MANY HEAD COACHES DOES IT TAKE TO COACH A FOOTBALL GAME?

Throughout the history of college football bowl games, there cannot be another scenario that matches the strangeness surrounding the Sugar Bowl between Florida and Cincinnati when it comes to the coaching arrangement.

You have to sharpen your pencil and be ready to connect the dots. Ready? On New Year’s Day there will be no less than six, yes six, head coaches connected to just these two teams.

Most of you are aware that head Gator Urban Meyer resigned on Saturday, Dec. 26th only to change that decision to making that a leave of absence for health reasons. To quote Urban, “it’s full speed ahead” for him to coach through the Sugar Bowl. Once the game ends Florida’s offensive coordinator, Steve Addazio, takes over for Meyer as interim head coach for an undetermined amount of time. Gator defensive coordinator Charlie Strong accepted the head coaching job at Louisville the week after the SEC title game but the agreement included Srong prepping and coaching the defense in the Sugar Bowl. So, that's three for the Gators.

Flipping over to Cincinnati, Brian Kelly led the Bearcats to unprecedented success over the last three years and parlayed that into becoming the new head coach at Notre Dame. Because Kelly accepted the job at the Golden Dome in the second week of December and he needed to move on to assemble a staff, get a handle on recruiting, and further organize his new program the Bearcats placed Cincy’s offensive coordinator, Jeff Quinn, in charge as interim head coach for the bowl game. Now we are up to five head coaches.

Lastly, as Kelly departed the Queen City for South Bend the Bearcats carried out their search for a permanent head coach. Enter Butch Jones, who coincidentally succeeded Kelly three years ago as head coach at Central Michigan upon Kelly’s leaving for Cincy. Jones will be watching his new team with a keen eye as they go about tangling with the Gators while being coached by other people than his own.

I am not sure if this has any effect on the game itself, but it certainly is unusual. So, there you have it. Connect the dots. Six versions of head coaches all tied to two teams in just one bowl game.

Christmas Gift Comes Early for Some Bowl Teams

Christmas gifts came early for several college football teams when they were selected to play in a post season bowl game. With the long-play version of the bowl season kicking off this weekend it is worth noting (or maybe not) the background on some of the recipients of these gifts.

Sat. Dec. 19 New Mexico Bowl Wyoming (6-6) vs. Fresno St. (8-4)
Wyoming staggers into this game winning just two of their last six games and they struggled to beat a poor Colorado St. team, who lost their last nine in a row, 17-16 in the finale.

Sat. Dec. 26 Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl Marshall (6-6) vs. Ohio (9-4)
For those of you who thought the Pizza Bowl was Laverne DeFazio’s father’s bowling alley/pizza shop on that goofy 70’s TV show, you are right, but they are not the title sponsor of this bowl game in Detroit. Marshall (not Penny) fired their head coach at the end of the season and will play this game with a lame duck staff unless the interim head coach actually gets named head coach. To get the minimum of six wins for bowl eligibility Marshall defeated Southern Illinois, Tulane, Bowling Green, Memphis, Tulane, Alabama-Birmingham and SMU. Impressed? They lost to a 4-8 UTEP team 52-21.

Mon. Dec. 28 Independence Bowl Texas A&M (6-6) vs. Georgia (7-5)
A&M started off 3-0 and then went 3-6 the rest of the way, including 3-5 in a softer Big 12 conference this season. The Aggies were a roller-coaster team evidenced by their 62-14 loss to Kansas State, who didn’t have enough Division I wins to be bowl eligible.

Tues. Dec. 29 Eagle Bank Bowl UCLA(6-6) vs. Temple (9-3)
This would make for a good basketball match-up, but not necessarily on the gridiron. UCLA backed into this game. If Army had beaten Navy in the season’s wrap-up game last weekend then Army would play Temple. Thanks to Navy, UCLA will play in the nation’s capitol against the Owls. The Bruins started 3-0, then lost five in a row before closing with three wins in their last four outings. UCLA was 3-6 in the PAC 10.

Thurs. Dec. 31 Insight Bowl Iowa St. (6-6) vs. Minnesota (6-6)
Glancing at this match-up you might think what lure does this game have? A winning season! It’s obvious that the winner of this game can say they had a winning season, which they can’t say just yet, whereas the loser has a losing season…pretty simple. Each team had a not quite, but near-signature win. ISU was granted eight turnovers by Nebraska in barely edging the Huskers, 9-7. Three of their other five wins were over North Dakota St., Kent State and Army. The Goophers, or excuse me…Gophers, beat Northwestern. Both teams finished 3-5 in their league play.

Fri. Jan 1 Gator Bowl Florida St. (6-6) vs. West Virginia (9-3)
The bowl committee decided to let Coach Bobby Bowden go out on a high note by taking the Seminoles over much more-deserving, higher ranked teams for this traditional New Year’s Day bowl. After 34 years as a head coach and being ranked second all-time in career wins he deserves the benefit of the doubt . FSU was the model of inconsistency. Early in the year they barely got by Division I-AA Jacksonville State, 19-9, they then headed out to Provo, UT to pound BYU, 54-28, only to return home to lose to South Florida who had a red-shirt freshmen starting his first game at QB. FSU finished 4-4 in the ACC.

As a thank you to the bowls who selected them it will be interesting to see which teams cease the opportunity presented to them. By making the most out their post-season practices and putting their best product on the field they can quiet the nay-sayers who may have thought they weren’t bowl worthy.

A Tale of Two Mark Ingrams

Whether you watched the 2009 Heisman Trophy Award presentation live Saturday night, or maybe saw a short video report, or even read about it in your Sunday sports section, the story was as much about Mark Ingram’s acceptance speech as it was his winning the award.

Mark Ingram, Jr. became the first player in the storied history of Alabama football to win the coveted award. He did this in just his sophomore season of competition while leading the nation in rushing yardage totals and helping drive his Crimson Tide team to the national championship game on January 7th versus Texas.

A very solid, conscientious student, Ingram gave an emotional speech where he thanked all of the right people in his life from family members right down to the individual staff members at Alabama who have helped him develop his abilities. He noted his love and appreciation for his mother and grandfather who were in attendance. He did the same for his father who was such a strong factor in him becoming who is today.

Ingram, Sr. was not present at the nationally broadcast ceremony in New York City because he is in a Queen’s, NY correctional facility. The only good thing about the settings being within close proximity is that the two Mark Ingrams had a chance to spend a little time together when the son visited his father.

Turning back the clock, I was just a young 27 year-old college coach at Northwestern University, under head coach Dennis Green, when in the winter of 1982-83 I was dispatched to Flint, MI to recruit a talented wide receiver at Flint Southwestern High School. Because Coach Green was known for his offensive mind, especially the passing game, there was a strong mutual interest between Mark Ingram, Sr. and us. After flying aboard a small regional turbo prop plane into Flint, I visited with Mark at school and then at home with his family. He wanted to come to Northwestern in the worst way. As it turned out his college board scores were not as high as required for admission to NU, so he took Michigan State’s offer and went on to a great college career for the Spartans. Mark’s career blossomed and he became a late first-round pick of the NY Giants where he played from 1987-92 (including winning Super Bowl XXV) and finished his 10 year career in 1996 after playing for four different teams.

What happened after that time is a whole lot of bad decisions and just plain no good for Ingram, Sr. Possession of counterfeit cash, breaking and entering while stealing credit cards, as well as money-laundering are some of the reasons he has had to pay, and will continue to pay even more of a debt to society. In the Queen’s correctional facility he is awaiting sentencing for skipping bail late last year on charges of bank fraud and money laundering, for which he was originally sentenced to more than seven years in prison. While serving time Mark Sr. has kept regular communication between he and his son as they speak three to four times per week by phone and he has seen most of his son’s games this year on television.

When interviewed exclusively on the CBS Evening News last Friday he said this about his son, “He'll tell you. He'll say, 'My dad made a mistake, and he's paying for it and he's moving on and we're moving on,' and that's it," Ingram Sr. said. "You can't do anything else about it, and he can't let it affect him. What I'm going through, he can't let it affect him. He has to be his own person, be his own man, take and learn from what I've done, the mistakes that I've made, the experience that I had off the field, the experience I've had off the field and take it and use it to his advantage."

Mark Jr. acknowledged how his father, in a good way, was tough on him in his younger years and instilled in him the values of mental toughness, competitiveness, and the ability to stay focused on achieving through hard work. All of that combined with a great blend of speed, agility and power helped him win college football’s most prestigious award.

Such is the story for two Mark Ingrams. For Sr. we hope that the love, values and attitude which he used as a father to help raise a terrific son will help him through this rough patch in his life. For Jr. we hope that he continues to stay as well-grounded, focused and hungry to do the right things as he has shown to this point in his young life. If he does so, there will be more nights for him to humbly celebrate his outstanding successes.

CURTAIN DROPS THIS WEEKEND ON COLLEGE FOOTBALL REGULAR SEASON

The curtain will drop this weekend on college football’s regular season. There are some awfully good match-ups that are either legitimate conference championships, or games that are disguised as essentially the same thing. It kicks off tonight, Thursday for those of you who don't open your email promptly.

Due to having to work a real job for a living I apologize for not getting this out sooner in order to add some much-deserved hype to tonight's big-time PAC-10 intra-state battle in the great Northwest--Oregon vs. Oregon State. Oregon has gotten a lot more publicity, in large part for their stumble out of the gate at Boise, and then their complete dominance of USC about a month ago. But, OSU Coach Mike Reilly has another rough and tumble group and he has his black and orange clad Beavers playing with an attitude. You didn't hear it here, but the Ducks of Oregon could go waddling home unless they bring their "A Game" in all areas of tonight's game. Also know as the Civil War, this game is also the War of the Roses in terms of bowl implications.

Cincinnati at Pittsburgh—This is not a conference championship game like the others, but it is going to determine the league champion. Cinderella Cincy has been rolling along undefeated (#5 ranking) whether it be with their #1 QB Tony Pike or #2 man Zach Collaros. They can score quickly and in bunches, plus they have a special teams return game that can help out, too. Unfortunately, the Bearcat defense is not on the same level as their offense. They are solid, have some good athletes and play hard, but they are by no means a physical, “shut-down the run” type of defense that matches up well with Pitt. The Panthers, #14, stubbed their toe last week in the Backyard Brawl at West Virginia, but by knocking off UC they can still win the Big East. Dion Lewis is a pleasure to watch as a freshman running back sensation and Jonathan Baldwin gives the Panthers a big, downfield threat. Pitt’s defense plays a lot of man-to-man coverage and will match-up pretty well vs. UC, but all it takes is a half-step by any Bearcat receiver against such coverage and it usually will result in six points. Pitt’s defensive line has great “sack-ability”, but knowing how quickly Cincy’s QBs get rid of the ball, the rush may not be as big of a factor as one would think. Be aware of poor weather and field conditions with the game being played at Heinz Field.

Nebraska at Texas—The Longhorns are essentially playing a home game at Jerry Jones’ palatial stadium home to the Cowboys. As the #3 ranked team in the land the ‘Horns are prohibitive favorites, and rightly so with Heisman hopeful Colt McCoy leading a potent offense. Mack Brown's defense is no slouch either. Texas is the only team in the land to be ranked in the Top 10 in both total offense and total defense. Although Nebraska’s strength is their gritty defense, they can’t afford to be on the field all night. I am doubtful that the Huskers aerial-challenged offense can run it consistently enough all night and produce enough points to outlast Texas. With a win Texas will vault itself into the national championship vs. the SEC winner.

Florida vs. Alabama—This is pretty much a national championship game in itself, similar to last year, with the top two ranked teams going head to head for a conference crown.. The defending champion Gators will have to rely on their stellar defense to slow down ‘Bama’s powerful running game. Due to the Tide’s own salty defensive unit Gator defenders will be asked to get a turnover or two in order to help provide the Gator offense with a short field. This is a classic match-up—two outstanding defenses and two solid, but not great offenses. So where is it decided? Kicking game. Florida’s punter can change field position and their punt block and kickoff return units are very solid. The kickers cancel each other out. Special teams, if everything else holds true, tilts this toward Florida. With the game at the Georgia Dome, weather and wind is no factor.

Clemson vs. Ga Tech—The ACC championship game is at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa (why, I’m not sure, but let’s see if it’s more than half-full). The 12th ranked Yellowjackets and #25 Tigers hooked up once earlier this year with Tech kicking a late field goal to win. We all know Tech features Coach Paul Johnson's option-oriented offense and the key is being able to stop their fullback and not give up deep play-action passes off of their heavy basic run passes. A second time around for the Tiger defense should prove to be an advantage in defensing that tricky offensive scheme. Clemson has more overall skill and speed at their RB/WR positions, but their QB, also a baseball player, still hasn't shown the consistency week in and week out to give the Tigers a clear edge in this one. With the first meeting way back in the early portion of the season, and with another shot this time around, a minor upset could be brewing in Tampa.

New Year's Day Football Just Ain't What It Used To Be

Now that we are heading into the final week of the regular season for most college football teams, attention turns to the jockeying for post-season bowl slots. While stirring up my own memories of watching bowl games as a kid, it prompted me to do some homework. The research unearthed some very interesting facts. The following bullet points were found on Wikipedia. So I really didn’t have to dig too far, nor too hard. Nonetheless, from a historical perspective, I think you’ll find some of this pretty amazing.

 The first bowl game was the Rose Bowl game. The Tournament of Roses sponsored a game in 1916, but it wasn’t until 1923 that the game bearing the title we all have come to know was born. Thus, “the Grand-daddy of them all.”
 By 1930 the Rose Bowl was still the only post-season college bowl game
 By 1940 there were four games—Rose, Sugar, Orange and Cotton
 1950 saw a growth to eight bowl games and that held true through 1960
 By 1970 the bowl count increased to just 11 games
 1980 shows 15 bowl games and by 1990 the bowls expanded to 19
 The new millennium began with a major bump to 25 bowl games
 Today there are 34 post-season bowl games (yes, not a misprint)

As legend goes, bowl games surrounding New Year’s Day were brought about in areas of the country to promote tourism in warm weather climates. Due to long distance travel for many cold weather fans that followed their teams, building the games around holiday time made sense. Until some time in the 1950’s all games were, in fact, on January 1st.

Today, with 68 teams needed to fill the 34 bowl slots, the prestige of going to a bowl isn’t quite what it used to be. After all, there are 120 Division I college football teams, with over half of them going to a bowl. Bowl teams were a very exclusive group in the old days. As the number began to climb, there was still a very strong feeling of achievement and prestige associated with earning a bowl berth. Even as recent as 1990 only 38 teams advanced to fill the 19 bowl games. Now, the whole concept is a bit watered down. Whereas it once required being a conference champion, or a strong runner-up or third place finisher to play in a bowl game, we now have minimum qualifiers with a 6-6 overall record and bottom half of the league finish.

I guess it depends on what you call “near the holiday”, but I am not quite sure how the model of building bowl games around holiday travel fits the very early start of this year’s bowl season. Both the New Mexico and St. Petersburg bowls play on Dec. 19th. Does “made for TV” ring a bell for you here? Of course it does. ESPN owns both of these bowl games along with several others which are played prior to Christmas. ESPN plugs these games into their programming schedule helping whet the appetite for upcoming bowls that carry a little more cachet.

The bowl schedule stretches all the way to the BCS title game on Jan. 7th. Of the original four bowls, only the Rose and Sugar will be played on their traditional New Year’s Day. The Orange Bowl is Jan. 5th. On Jan. 6th, guess who fills the void between the Orange and the BCS title game two days later; come on, take a shot…the GMAC Bowl in Mobile, of course!

As many a player and coach will tell you, there is no bad bowl game because it beats the alternative of not going at all. The post-season game provides another 12-20 practice opportunities to develop younger players, it gives alumni and fans one more game to anticipate and enjoy, and it is important for coaches to be able to speak of bowl games and national TV appearances to potential recruits.

Through the 1970s and even up into the early '90s there were a whole lot more teams sitting at home watching the smaller select group who got to play on or about New Year’s Day. Today, if you are one of the 52 Division I schools not going to a bowl game, there’s a lot of pain sitting at home watching more than half of your associates still playing ball.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS OF COLLEGE FB WEEK #11

After this past college football weekend there was no change within the top eight Bowl Championship Series (BCS) rankings. Florida continues to lead fellow unbeatens Alabama, Texas, Cincinnati, TCU, and Boise St. One loss Georgia Tech and two-loss LSU are seventh and eighth, respectively.

As noted here before, despite not posting pinball game-like offensive numbers, the Gators just continue to win. Being the defending national champ and going 10-0 to this point is no small feat. Florida must subscribe to the old mantra made famous by the eccentric owner/general manager of the Oakland Raiders, Al Davis. Back in their 60’s & 70’s hay-days--“Just Win Baby” was the battle cry echoed by Davis and others among the Black & Silver. A side note, also forever part of their official logo is the tagline “Commitment to Excellence.” Unfortunately, the Raiders have not fulfilled that commitment in recent years.

SIGHTS It was great to see the Stanford Cardinal continue their magical ascent (see last week’s posting below) literally bowling over USC, 55-21 in the LA Coliseum. In doing so, Stanford scored the most points EVER recorded against a Trojan team. The Cardinal has come out of no-where to achieve a #14 BCS ranking. But, Oregon, who has two losses and was a victim of the Cardinal just a week ago, is ranked #11...make sense? Uh, no.

SIGHTS Purple-clad TCU Horned Frogs faithful armed with one of those long telephone pole-like timbers we used to see in the ancient history movies, as they storm the door to the BCS castle. The Horny Toads dismantled their nearest competition, the Utah Utes 55-28, and made them look more like "the two Utes" from the movie, "My Cousin Vinnie". TCU is doing all they can to impress voters and overcome their non-BCS conference handicap.

SOUNDS A loud collective, “Aw, darn it”, from the salt of the earth Iowa fans. Their magical quest for a Big Ten title was still alive late in their game at Ohio State’s famous “Horse Shoe.” The Hawkeyes had already written multiple feel-good chapters in their nine-win season heading into Columbus. Now, with their starting quarterback sidelined with an injury, and a red-shirt freshman from Radar O’Reilly’s fictitious hometown of Keokuk, Iowa at the helm, Iowa trailed the Buckeyes by seven in the waning minutes. Then Lady Luck made another appearance. On their game-tying drive James Vandenberg, the rookie signal-caller, threw a screen pass right into the hands of a Buckeye linebacker who promptly scooted 20+ yards for what looked like the deal-sealer. But, an off-sides penalty against OSU negated the play. Fast forward just a few plays in the same drive—Vandenberg throws a pass intended for star tight end Tony Moeaki deep along the right sideline. Ohio State’s cornerback makes a perfect play defending, goes up to catch the ball, and the gift-wrapped deflection falls into the welcome hands of Moeaki for a startling big play. Iowa, by virtue of these two breaks, goes on to tie the score, only to lose a heart-breaker in overtime. Whew, and we thought having to block two consecutive field goal attempts to beat D-I-AA Northern Iowa was lucky. This one would have topped that.

SOUNDS The grinding process of our brains. Just like the thought process that tells us there is not a truly dominant football team this year, the same is true for the Heisman Trophy race. The early front-runners—QBs Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy are still alive. Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford has been driven to the sidelines with upcoming shoulder surgery. Alabama’s RB Mark Ingram began making a move in October and lately Clemson’s talented C.J. Spiller, who has caused a few opponents’ hearts to skip a beat with his big play ability as a runner and return man, is making a recent charge. Houston QB Case Keenum is putting up ridiculous numbers, but his Cougars have been upset twice—by UTEP and UCF. It’s hard to get enough Heisman votes losing to those schools. Then we have the surging Toby Gerhart, face of the Stanford power running game, who has helped lift the Cardinal onto the national stage.

I can’t honestly make a decision until all regular season games are completed. In recent years, because of wide-open passing attacks and spread offenses that allow the QB to produce eye-popping numbers, it has become a quarterback-dominated award. On some level I would like to see another position get it, but only if deserving, of course. Seeing incredible offensive production numbers by QBs has become almost all too common. I get the same feeling as when watching MLB’s Home Run Derby. Maybe you are like me in finding yourself ooing and ahhing for the first few long blasts, then after a while it’s a little more ho-hum. It’s the same thing with routine QB total yardage numbers.

IN OTHER SPORTING NEWS—It’s becoming increasingly clear that some of our talking heads on football broadcasts, especially a few of the “analysts”, are wannabees. Wannabee what you ask? I am not sure, perhaps corporate execs. Over this past weekend I heard three different broadcasters refer to a certain player’s “skill set.” Wait a minute, are we talking about a football player or about the next administrative assistant you need to hire? There’s no need to bring lingo better suited for a Fortune 500 company’s Human Resources department into football. The old coaching acronym—KISS—Keep It Simple Stupid—applies here. Let’s not try to be something we are not.

Lastly, has anyone noticed the terrible hair color/dye job Pat Sajak is sporting on Wheel of Fortune? Come on, keep it real, Pat.

College FB Radar Picks Up Stanford

It's really a shame that our great country is so vast that it spans three time zones. For the most part, people east of the Mississippi River aren't aware of what is happening in the PAC-10 Conference. The school that is home to some of the brightest minds on any college campus, and has football lore that includes Coach Bill Walsh and great QBs like John Elway and Jim Plunkett to name just two, has now shown up on the national college football radar.

Do you remember two weeks ago when Oregon humiliated USC, 47-20? Oregon rose to #7 in the national rankings...until they ran into the new bully on the block, the Stanford Cardinal. Stanford rolled to an impressive 51-42 win last Saturday, thus becoming bowl eligible and bumping them into the national rankings for the first time since 2001. Some of you unfamiliar with the nickname might ask, "isn't it cardinals, like the bird?" No, it's the color. It's a long story, but years ago they were the Indians. Then came the sensitivity issue and they went from Indians to the color of their jerseys--AND their mascot is now a tree. So, they've got that going for them.

Seriously, what they really have going for them is a rising star for a head coach, the nation's toughest running back, and a rookie QB who could rank with the all-time Stanford bests when he is all finished. Stanford's athletics director, Bob Bowlsby, did a little outside the box thinking when he hired Jim Harbaugh as head coach three years ago. Harbaugh is, in fact, that same guy who starred at Michigan as a quarterback for Bo Schembechler, finished third in the Heisman after being Player of the Year in the Big Ten, and was taken in the first round of the NFL draft by the Bears. Harbaugh built a name for himself over his 15-year pro career as a fiery competitor, great leader, and someone who found a way to win. He's doing exactly that in Palo Alto.

The Cardinal boss cut his head coaching teeth at a non-scholarship Division I-AA school--the University of San Diego--for three years. He posted a shiny 29-6 mark and then was offered the chance to rebuild the Cardinal program. In his first year, 2007, Stanford knocked off USC in the LA Coliseum and also defeated co-conference champ Cal. The solid foundation continued to be built last year as the Cardinal played a better brand of football and came up just shy of a bowl opportunity. This year Stanford has taken on even more of their coach's personality and are playing great football, proven by last week's upset of previously ranked #7 Oregon.

Given a rich history in throwing the football, it's a wonder what Harbaugh is doing with his offense. Running back Toby Gerhart is #2 in the nation with 1,217 yards and a 135 yds/game average. He's a 6'1, 235 combination of power and agility. Who knew a school known for academics also could get big, tough kids up front to block for him? Gerhart is such a good athlete that he is a starter in the outfield for the Stanford baseball team that went to last year's College World Series and he was 12-12 in stolen bases.

Harbaugh's offense is extremely well-balanced rushing for 211 yds/game and passing for 232. They have produced over 500 total yards in each of their last three games. The person passing the football so well is a young guy. Andrew Luck, a red-shirt freshman and son of former University of West Virginia star and Houston Oiler quarterback Oliver Luck, is playing like a poised veteran. With Luck's talent and Harbaugh's coaching, young Mr. Luck is #1 in the PAC-10 in passing efficiency and #9 in the nation. Luck has thrown only three INTs all year versus his 11 TD passes. He's mobile enough to carry the ball, too, boasting a 5.2 yard rushing average on 44 attempts.

The Cardinal now sits at 6-3 overall and 5-2 in the conference. This weekend they have another opportunity to provide for great Monday morning coffee shop talk when they travel to USC. Sure, the Trojans will remember what took place two years ago when the upstart Cardinal shocked them in the game's waning seconds. But this is a more mature, more physical, and far mentally tougher group than what Harbaugh had in his inaugural season "on The Farm."

Playing with the confidence, energy and swagger of their head coach, let's see if the Cardinal can prove last week's pinball scoring shootout with Oregon wasn't a fluke.

Two Big Gripes Surrounding World Series

The NY Yankees' Robinson Cano had just made the easy throw to first baseman Mark Teixeira for the final out, thus sewing up the 2009 World Series Championship. Yankee players and coaches emptied the bench in a sprint to rejoice with their teammates on the infield. But, as the FOX TV cameras tried to capture the joy of the human spirit and celebration, did you see something strange? I did.

Literally, less than 10 seconds into the start of the traditional team jumping up and down and piling on one another, here comes some non-athlete in a business suit. He rushes toward the players with an extended arm's length full of t-shirts. You know the t-shirts, the ones that you can buy so you, too, can wear the post-game celebratory shirt just like the pros? Right in the middle of congratulatory hugs between Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada comes this bozo trying to toss the official garb for the players to display. Then you see another logo-pushing, entry level marketing character distributing the official championship hats. Lastly, and not nearly as prominent, was someone else with the faux newspaper, complete with headlines proclaiming the Yankees' 27th World Series title.

Can't we give these guys just a little bit of space to enjoy the moment, something they had worked towards since spring training in February. After 162 regular season games and a total of nine more post-season games, do they have to have their party crashed by people wanting to hawk MLB promotional material? What would happen if they waited for the team members to settle down just a little bit before presenting them with these things for the post-game press conference and trophy presentation...they wouldn't sell as many t-shirts and caps? Come on people. It's sad that genuine spontaneity and emotions have to yield to someone trying to make money off of such cherished moments.

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Having spent most of my life around athletics, it makes me sick to hear the vulgar chants that have become so commonplace at a lot of stadiums and basketball arenas around the country. Why do we have to have organized cheers by so-called fans that are strictly directed at demeaning the opponents? Weren't we taught some kind of sportsmanship at a younger, more impressionable age? Weren't we taught to cheer for our own team, support our team, and let the opponent's fans have the same opportunity? What happened to all of this shaking hands after youth sports competition...doesn't it carry through to adolescence, the teens, then adulthood?

You know the chant to which I am referring; you heard it in Philadelphia in each of the three WS games there..."Yankees Suc__...Yankees Suc__". Yankee fans are not saints, but they know baseball and they know how to best support their team. You didn't hear "Phillies Suc__...Phillies Suc__" in Yankee Stadium.

Most younger people who enjoy yelling this stuff have no idea from where the "S" word originated. Suffice it to say it that the term has sexual overtones--not exactly what we want to have our young people promoting in public, especially among other fellow numbskulls that they don't know.

It's senseless, classless, and shows absolutely no kind of support for their own team.

Along the same line of thinking, if we can get the young college basketball fans on campuses around the country to give up on their infamous chant of "Bullshi__, Bullshi__, Bullshi__" when they disagree with a referee's call, we'll be moving in the right direction.

If we don't get this corrected we can look forward to more generations of idiot fans. What do you say parents, school teachers, principals, and civic leaders...can we get that done? I hope so.

DUCKS' QUACK ATTACK VAULTS OREGON INTO TITLE TALK

Oregon's thrashing of USC 47-20 Saturday night proved that the Ducks are playing as good a brand of football as anyone in the country, thus further stoking the fire leading up to the Bowl Championship Series. The "Quack Attack" is much improved on defense and their offense made the Trojan defense look like a rag-tag group of non-scholarship players rather than the traditionally dominant defense on the west coast.

This leads to a very natural question--if Oregon runs the table and finishes 11-1, and Boise State, the yearly non-BCS Cinderella story, who topped the Ducks 19-8 in the season opener, finishes undefeated, will the Broncos be able to hold off Oregon in the BCS rankings and bowl game selections? Oregon is the highest ranked one-loss team in the Top Ten and they are climbing faster than a popular smash hit on Casey Kasem's 1970's top 40 countdown

This week's rankings have Boise State just .021 ahead of Oregon (.786 to .765). The Top 10 is: 1. Florida 2. Texas 3. Alabama 4. Iowa 5. Cincinnati 6. TCU 7. Boise St. 8. Oregon 9. LSU 10. Ga Tech.

There are four games remaining in the regular season for most teams. Some of the super conferences have a championship game, such as the Big 12, SEC, and ACC. But, neither Oregon nor Boise St. have to worry about that. The Ducks travel to Stanford, host Arizona St., go to Arizona and are home to Oregon St. The Broncos go to La Tech, play host to Idaho, head to Utah State and finish at home with Nevada.

With all of the wild ranking calculations and formulas in action, there is no doubt that strength of schedule helps Oregon. There is no clear-thinking, non-partisan college football person who can say that Boise State's schedule is anything close to Oregon. Oh, but wait...what about head to head? Boise proved they are the better team in the season opening game, 19-8, right? That's where I believe Oregon can be given "a mulligan", a do-over if you will, will you?

Oregon at Boise State the first weekend of September was, in essence, the Broncos bowl game. Yet, for Oregon it was just an opening game on the road with a brand new coaching staff. Because Boise just doesn't get BCS conference schools to take a road trip to Idaho, it was THE biggest game on the Bronco's schedule. It consumed everyone even remotely tied to the football program, the city of Boise, or anyone who had even passed through the state of Idaho.

Give them their due, Boise State played well enough to win that night. The Ducks' head coach, Chip Kelly, was taking the reins from long-time successful coach Mike Belotti, for the very first time. He had his new, hand-picked staff which was operating under game conditions together for the first time. Sure, the opening game was a big deal for them, too. After all every game is a big deal. But, for Kelly's program it was first time doing things his way. Everything from how they traveled, to what they ate on the plane, to what hotel they stayed in, what routine they had with meetings, meals and walk-throughs at the team's hotel leading up until kickoff. It may seem trite, but when a bunch of new coaches, and players who are getting used to new coaches, get together for a season opener on the road, there is more to winning than just playing the game. It's about knowing what to expect. Football coaches and players are creatures of habit. It's a game built on repetition after repetition. This trip was not routine; it was all new.

Unfortunately, there is no pre-season or exhibition game in college football. When you tee it up for the first game, it counts. This is especially tough for programs who have new staffs. The old adage that football teams make the most improvement between game one and game two is especially true for teams with new staffs. Oregon, rolling off seven straight wins in rebounding from that flat opening night, has done nothing but get better and better and better.

Just ask Pete Carroll and USC. They were never in the game. Oregon put the biggest whooping on the Trojans in the Carroll era. A defensive guru, Carroll's troops were completely overwhelmed as they yielded...get ready for this...613 yards!

Who knows where this all will lead; only the computer rankings know. One thing is for certain, all of this makes for great conversation as we head into the final one- third of the season.

Hughes Important Bridge to Yankees' Title Hopes

The 2009 edition of the World Series is now knotted at one game apiece after the Yankees disposed of the Phillies, 3-1 Thursday night in New York. The series moved down I-95 about 90 miles for the next three games on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

The first two games have been dominated by starting pitching. Cliff Lee operated with surgeon-like precision in the Phillies opening game, 6-1 win. His counter-part, CC Sabathia, pitched well enough to win, but his offense couldn't’ solve Lee and once he departed the back end of the bullpen allowed the Phils to extend their 2-0 lead.. In game two, AJ Burnett, more volatile than the 2008 stock market, rose to the occasion for NY by striking out nine and allowing just one run in seven strong innings. For the Phils, love’em or hate’em Pedro Martinez kept Yankee hitters off-balance with his effective mix of change-ups, curve balls, and tailing fastballs before getting the hook in the sixth inning.

A most revealing move for the Yankees was when manager Joe Girardi, desperately needing a win so as to not head to Philly down two games to none, decided to bring in the most trusted name in post-season relief, Mariano Rivera, to pitch both the eight and ninth innings. Rivera, the most heralded closer in baseball post-season history, usually specializes in getting just the last three outs. There have been occasions when he was asked to pitch part of the eighth and perhaps close it out with the last four or five outs. But, usually managers give the ball to their “set-up man”, an eighth inning guy, who then turns the game’s fortunes over to the closer in hopes of wrapping up the win.

The set-up man is commonly called a bridge to the closer. Girardi must have felt that by risking having to wait for Rivera to pitch the ninth, the bridge for the eighth might prove to be a bridge over troubled waters—why else would he by-pass set-up man Phil Hughes, or even Joba Chamberlain? This was a must win, plain and simple.

In Game 1 the previous night, Hughes continued his pattern of poor post-season pitching by walking the only two batters he faced. Hughes was very solid the second half of the season showing the way to Rivera to the tune of a 3.04 ERA. But, this post-season Hughes looks like a bad impersonation of himself. He has retired only 14 of the 27 hitters he has faced.

According to a recent story on the official Yankees MLB website, Hughes' five post-season runs allowed over just 4-2/3 innings are more than he allowed in 38 eighth-inning appearances during the season. It's also the equivalent to his combined earned run total in June, July and August -- a stretch of 30 games. In seven postseason appearances Hughes has allowed nine hits and four walks, leading to a bloated 9.64 ERA. Troubled waters indeed.

The Yankees’ faithful hope that Hughes’ post-season jitters have worked their way out of his system. With more close ballgames sure to come on three consecutive days in Philly, Girardi will certainly not be able to spend two innings of Rivera relief in one game again. In order for the Yankees to win their 27^th world championship Hughes needs to be able to recapture the form that allowed him to be that very solid bridge to Rivera. If not, the water that lies beneath the bridge could be troubled again.

TELEVISED GAMES STRETCH TO NEW, RECORD LENGTHS

Long before there were a zillion cable TV stations and pure movie channels, three networks existed. They would occasionally run a movie which was categorized as a “made for TV movie.”

That was the beginning. That was when TV executives sensed that, to a large degree, they could manufacture and control something that was originally intended for a certain live audience and display it over the airwaves.

Obviously, that spilled into our world of sports. For the most part, the way it started off was good. It got even better throughout the years with advanced technology and more outlets to show the games. But, like lessons learned from ancient wealthy societies--over-doing it, greed, gluttony, you name it—can ruin a good thing.

How many of us can actually we enjoy watching all that goes into a modern day baseball play-off game or big-time college football game on TV? Broadcasts have gotten w-a-a-a-a-y too long, bordering on 3:30 – 4 hours. Though I don’t have even a touch of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), I do have HD (high definition). Yet, even that can’t always keep me fully engaged. In no particular order, here are some things that make me want to just fire a 90 m.p.h. fastball at the TV with my remote control.

Officials/Umpire Reviews—again, what started out as a good idea now stinks. In college football, unfortunately every play is reviewable. What it has done is take away far too much of the human element and added a whole lot of commercials to be run while “the previous play is under review.” It’s sad that the officials on the field have lost their self-confidence and are now running scared. They will often not make a call because they figure the replay official will cover for them. What are they getting paid for anyway, to be second guessed by the booth? The time factor is absurd and completely takes away from any flow of the game. Baseball has only a limited number of situations that allow for official replay/review to intervene. Let’s keep it that way. Lord knows we don’t need to slow baseball down any more than it’s already chilled-out, natural mosey-along pace.

Too Much Production—because we have such great technology in TV studios, production people have to show their stuff. That adds more time to the games. No matter what sport it is, as the sleep-inducing run of commercials end, now we have to endure some kind of rock or rap music playing over the top of highlights from earlier in the broadcast. The music & sports industries are in bed together. You notice that they are promoting these “artists” by having their name and the name of the song on the lower left of the screen, like a rock video. What happened to end of a commercial, a live shot of next play, and the announcer saying, “Welcome back. 1^st and 10 for the Bombers at their own 20 yard line” and the play begins. We don’t need to waste another minute promoting music sales. Let’s remember, it’s supposed to be about the game, what’s happening on the field, not what has been created in the production studio.

Everything is Sponsored—I always chuckle remembering the original “Rocky” movie when Sylvester Stallone’s title character entered the ring wearing his robe which proudly carried his sponsor, “Shamrock Meats”, on his back. I used to laugh at race car drivers, who despite spending hours cooped up in their cars, once out of the vehicle they are walking billboards for sponsors. Ah…everyone has their price. Well, we have all of that and more today in the so-called traditional sports on TV.

In both football and baseball there are major sponsors’ logos super-imposed on the viewers’ TV screen to make it look like it’s actually on the field. The yellow first-down line that TV produces on the football field for viewers is sponsored. The time-outs are sponsored. The net behind the goalpost that catches every field goal or extra point is sponsored. The paper cups that players drink out of on the sidelines are sponsored. There is more, but my time is not sponsored, so I won’t go any farther. You get the idea. Again, what is important is the game itself. But we have so much other stuff going on during the game that you can easily get lost and begin to question if you do, in fact, have a touch of A.D.D.

Commercials, Commercials, Commercials—we all understand that commercials are necessary to pay the bills (and make money, too). But, can we do something to NOT take away from the momentum and flow of a game, in particular a game as emotional as football? This is situation is not uncommon. A team is driving for a score and one of the two teams calls a timeout. Commercial break. A play is run, then “officials’ review of previous play.” Commercials. The offense scores and kicks the extra point. Commercial break. Ensuing kickoff and return. Commercial break. Finally, we get the start of next offensive series. Unbelievable.

Injury. Hey, a chance for MORE commercials. It used to be when a player was injured the medical training staff hustled out, administered to the fallen player, propped him up on the shoulders of two assistant trainers and the idea was to escort him to the bench as quickly as possible—game continues. Now, every player that goes down, for whatever reason, must be getting instruction to just lie there so the networks can break for commercial. I have never seen so many players flat on their backs for multiple minutes, then a commercial break, then we come back to see them walking off under their own power! Are you kidding me? Did they bring in one of those Sunday morning faith healers? As they used to say back in the day—“tape an aspirin to it and keep moving.” This is not to slight those who are legitimately hurt, but we are way too cautious and treat every injury as though these players are (cue the eerie angelic music) going toward the light. It’s football, people. Keep the broadcast on the field. This is not an automatic commercial break. Get the player off and get his sub in the game. Sheesh!

As stated earlier, once the “made for TV movie” was born it led to a whole new world of TV execs manufacturing and controlling shows. For us sports devotees, at times it seems like we have sold our souls to the devil. We will put up with whatever they want to throw at us. For the teams playing in the game, as well as the viewers, TV says, “You will all play by OUR rules.” We all pay some kind of price for free TV.

Plenty of Football Yet To Be Played Before Settling Who Is No. 1

One thing is apparent after this past week's college football games. No matter what the polls say, there is no apparent, lead pipe lock for a #1 team. There are several really good teams that have a chance to be national champs, there are some teams that often look good but are not terribly impressive in doing so, and there are some who put up wins and good stats, but the perception of their overall body of work is jaded because they lack strong weekly competition.

What makes college football so much fun is its unpredictability each weekend. What makes college football so maddening is attempting to interpret the value placed on wins and losses, and the effect that value has on rankings.

The first BCS rankings of '09 came out today and the top five are Florida, Alabama, Texas, Boise St., and Cincinnati. The defending national champion Florida Gators were afforded the top spot in all polls all the way from pre-season right through this weekend while SEC counter-part Alabama continued to gain ground in votes for the top spot.

By virtue of a late fourth quarter FG Saturday afternoon, Florida narrowly escaped defeat, 23-20 at home against an improving Arkansas team. A week ago the Gators went into the hostile environment of LSU to pass their biggest test of the season vs. the Tigers. But, sloppy turnovers in the red zone by their offense and an uncustomary yielding of a couple of big plays with their defense, the Gators provided a shadow of a doubt for BCS voters to allow Alabama to be within shouting distance. Over the last two years Florida's offensive production looked like video game numbers. With two key skilled offensive players (Louis Murphy & Percy Harvin) from last year's team now playing for pay in the NFL, the Gators offense has not had that "point a minute" potential like last year. The defense returns everyone from last year and expectations are extremely high for that unit.

'Bama does not have a player who already owns a Heisman Trophy like the Gators' Tim Tebow, but they do have a running back who is beginning to get enough national attention to enter the conversation for this year's award. Mark Ingram rambled for 246 yards against South Carolina last night. Ingram, his offensive line, and a talented defensive unit helped lift their team to a 20-6 win. The Crimson Tide overcame four turnovers and 10 penalties against the #22 ranked Gamecocks. An oddity is that in this age of inflated passing stats and the game geared to offenses throwing the ball, the Tide passed for just 90 yards on a beautiful, dry night against South Carolina. The question is, can Alabama throw it effectively if they are forced to do it? There's nothing wrong with winning with a strong running game, a stingy defense and a solid kicking game, it just doesn't get you those style points--it just allows you to win! But, if needed, can the Tide move it through the air?

Third-ranked Texas managed to get by a depleted Oklahoma team in the Red River Rivalry, 16-13. The 2008 Heisman Award winner, OU QB Sam Bradford, was knocked out of the game with another throwing shoulder injury, leaving after just eight plays. Longhorns QB Colt McCoy, who was a Heisman finalist last year, is having a good, but not great year, to date. Can the Longhorns continue their quest for an undefeated season and a Big 12 title? Only time will tell. But, if the 'Horns don't pick it up right away, it won't be a shock if they stub their toe with so much conference football yet to be played.

The general concensus is that #4 Boise St., because of their weak confernce schedule, would not be granted a ride in Cinderella's coach to the championship game. Cincinnati, also on a magic carpet ride of their own, still has a couple of challenges in the not-so-intimidating Big East. Unless they pour on a ton of style points and some teams above the Bearcats get toppled, Cincinnati's place in the top five is just a nice story like Boise's.

Iowa appears to be the best in the Big Ten at this point, but what does that mean when pre-season favorite Ohio State loses to a 1-5 Purdue team? Even though they suffered an upset on the road at Washington, USC is still lurking at #7 . By beating a solid Notre Dame team in South Bend Saturday, USC showed that if they finish strong and someone above them takes a hit, they could step right into the championship picture.

One thing to keep in mind is that some of the bigger "super conferences" have a 13th game which pits their two divisional champs against each other for the outright conference title--i.e. the ACC, the Big 12 and the SEC. Teams like USC of the PAC 10 and undefeated Iowa of the Big Ten would not have to prove themselves in a 13th game like a Florida, Alabama or Texas.

Whereas last year Florida was the wire to wire winner, the excitement this year is really just beginning to simmer. There are clearly some very good teams, but there is not a great deal of separation between those teams and some of their better conference rivals. The top teams all wear a big target on their back each week. Every one of their opponents zeroes in on their preparation in order to give their best effort and performance when they play the top-ranked teams. A lesser school from within the same conference as these top schools can make their entire season with a big upset victory. Let's stay tuned the next 5-6 weeks and see how it all develops.

The Term"Professional" Can Be a Stretch for Some NFL Teams

There’s an old saying that “even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.”

The Cleveland Browns, the blind squirrel of the NFL, went into Buffalo over the weekend and managed to find just six points. As it turned out, it was three more than the home-standing Bills, thus providing loyal, suffering fans of the Pumpkin Heads their first win of the year. The Browns are now 1-4 under Eric Mangini, who is in his first year on the shores of Lake Erie after being relieved of similar duties the previous three seasons with the NY Jets.

A couple of interesting notes: the Blind Squirrels or, excuse me, the Browns have failed to score a touchdown in three of their five games this season. Clevelanders know that with their baseball Indians having packed up their belongings a couple of weeks ago, it had to have been the Browns who won Sunday’s game 6-3. Mangini was hired by the Jets in 2006 and, at age 35, became the youngest head coach in the NFL. He wowed them in that rookie season with a 10-6 record and was tabbed “Mangenius” for his work. But, the Jets flight path took a 180-degree turn in 2007 to a 4-12 mark. Last season “Gang Green” started off 8-3, but suffered a late season swoon to the tune of 9-7, which kept them out of the play-offs. Mangenius was dismissed. But, Cleveland said, ‘Hey, we want that guy.” Well, now you’ve got him.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 0-5 and often times look even worse than that. They are a great example of having people within their organization empowered with decision-making responsibilities, but they don’t know how to do just that—make good decisions. Here are just some samplings from the Bucs sad song book.

At the end of last season long-time defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin left to join his son who had become the head coach at the University of Tennessee. Early thirty-something defensive backfield coach Raheem Morris was elevated to defensive coordinator replacing Kiffin. About a month later Bucs ownership fired Jon Gruden and decided to give Morris an elevator ride all the way to the top by naming him head coach. Keep in mind his only significant coaching assignment with any degree of advanced responsibility was one season (2006) as defensive coordinator at Kansas State University.

So, the Bucs handed the keys to the car to their kid, who was just 32 at the time of the promotion. The Bucs head coach and administration proceeded to hire a new offensive coordinator last winter, former successful Boston College head coach Jeff Jagodzinski. But, later, much later, they decided that wasn’t going to work and they fired him one week before the season’s first game! Was it case of being hood-winked by Coach Jags in the thorough interview process conducted by the Bucs, or was there a philosophical difference? It doesn’t matter. This doesn’t happen to well-run organizations. What’s even funnier is that Tampa Bay replaced him with a guy who was on staff with Gruden, Morris, and the Bucs last year, and he interviewed for the very same job Jagodzinski was given. Huh? Why wasn't he hired the first time around? Did he become smarter or more qualified between his February interview and the start of the season in September?

After releasing last year’s starting QB Jeff Garcia, the Bucs brought in veteran free agent Byron Leftwich to compete with back-up QB Luke McCown for the top job. They also drafted Josh Freeman with their valuable first-round pick, paid him millions in signing bonuses, and tabbed him as their “future of the franchise player." Succession planning was that either Leftwich or McCown would keep the seat warm until Freeman is ready.

Pay close attention now. McCown was traded to Jacksonville right at the end of the pre-season and Leftwich was given the starting job. With little talent among his supporting cast, and Leftwich having even less pocket mobility to go along with his slow passing delivery, he was benched after three games. Your guess is that first-round pick Josh Freeman will get the ball, right? No. The Bucs named another Josh (Johnson), who was a rookie on the practice squad a year ago, as their starting QB. With Leftwich, McCown and Freeman around all of the pre-season Johnson got very little work in the practices. How could he when he was the fourth-string QB? And, he got minimal playing time in late fourth-quarter mop-up duty.

Further demonstrating their business acumen, the Bucs are still paying off both Gruden and their former general manager Bruce Allen. They added to that debit list the fallen Jagodzinski, who never made it to his first regular season game. The latest decision with financial repercussions was cutting place-kicker Mike Nugent. Nugent had been signed away from the Jets in the off-season to come in and compete with veteran Matt Bryant and, hopefully, provide a stronger, longer leg when it came to kickoffs and field goals. Nugent won the job by default because Bryant never got to kick in the pre-season, as he nursed a muscle pull in his kicking leg. Nugent, in the Bucs’s eyes, was ineffective enough in four games to warrant dismissal, yet still be paid his $2 million salary. It’s not hard to see the calculator totals lighting up.

The Bucs are 0-5. Do you wonder why? If this real-life drama continues, don't be surprised if the Glazer family, owners of the team, begin entertaining offers from reality TV show producers.

Please Tell Me--Why Go Wild Over the Wildcat?

Is it because we have grown tired of talking about and cheering for the exciting and effective one-back, shotgun formation, spread offense? Or is it because we don't know any better and something new to us just has to be the buzz?

I am talking, actually don't want to be talking about, the Wildcat offense--the latest gadget/innovation that has risen to popularity amongst fans and sports pundits faster than you can say West Coast Offense. There is some uncertainty as to who really gets credit for its modern day origin (or re-birth). When current Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams was tearing it up collegiately at Memphis a few years ago he said they started it. At about the same time when Darren McFadden was brutalizing SEC defenses at Arkansas, before heading onto the Raiders, they brought a lot of attention to their version, the Wild Hog. In the NFL, supposedly the Dolphins want to claim the innovation title by having used Ronnie Brown in this attack.

So what's this all about? Folks, it's really much ado about nothing. I'll tell you why.

Way back, pre-WWII days, when football was a much simpler game and played without face-masks there was an offense where the ball was snapped directly to the running back. Heck, even in 1967, when I was a chubby 12 year old playing tackle football for my team, the Geneva Packers, our QB got hurt and couldn't take a direct snap from the center, who happened to be me. Our coach decided we would just snap it directly to the backs and off they went. I certainly didn't think that was a big deal. Was I a party to pioneering the Wildcat offense in 1967? Maybe. Who knew?

Decades later, in an effort to help the quarterback read his receivers and the defensive pass coverage better, along with pre-aligning him for a drop-back pass, the Shotgun formation permeated the game. Today it is a part of every offensive playbook on the college and pro level, and most high schools use it to some degree.

So WHY ARE people going wild over the Wildcat? It is primarily a run formation where someone besides the QB lines up in the shotgun formation and takes the snap from center and runs the ball. Big deal. Some offenses try to deceive the opponents by lining the QB up as a wide receiver and use the WR or RB as the QB to execute this "wild, exotic formation".

Bottom line, the Wildcat formation is nothing more than a shotgun formation that has someone besides the QB getting the ball and running it. Yes, that's it--there is no more. When Houston Nutt was head coach at Arkansas he found that McFadden could also pass the ball pretty well. So, run and pass he did. That was something different. That was something effective as well as exciting. That was something that kept defensive coaches up at night wondering how to defend it.

We are only two weeks into the college football season and one week into the NFL season. Yet, in pre-game shows, during the game broadcasts themselves, and throughout the week, chatter surrounding the game is bound to bring up some reference to the Wildcat. Please, find something worthwhile to talk about.

Growing up, I remember young kids would get a little scared at some of the Sci-Fi movies and they would be comforted by an adult or older sibling saying, "Don't worry, it's just a movie." For opposing defenses, unless the offense proves they can, and will, pass the ball effectively out of the Wildcat formation, I send similar words of comfort your way--"Don't worry, it's just another run play."

NOW WAIT JUST A PIGSKIN PICKIN' MINUTE

As we head into the second week of the college football season there are some games that pose interesting match-ups and cause for concern for the betting line favorites.

Wake Forest is a field goal favorite at home against Stanford. I believe Stanford is a certainly a program on the rise. The only thing keeping me from jumping in with both feet for this one is the fact that as a team on the rise, they have to be early risers for this game! The Demon Deacons showed their smarts by scheduling this as a Noon (EDT) kickoff, translating to a 9 a.m. kickoff for the west coast-based Cardinal. If the Cardinal can get up and get moving on such an early schedule I still like them to upset the Deacs.

The Iowa Hawkeyes and are almost a touchdown favorite as they travel to face their in-state rival Iowa State Cyclones. Coach Kirk Ferentz is firmly implanted for the foreseeable near future as Iowa’s coach, but had he not recently signed a new contract this game would be exerting great pressure on him and his team. The Cyclones have won 4 of the last 7 in the series, but they are coming off of a dreadful 2-10 season last year. Iowa stumbled around last week and had to block two consecutive field goal attempts on the game’s last plays to avoid the biggest of upsets against Division I-AA Northern Iowa. In a lot of pre-season picks they are a sleeper for the Big Ten title race. My thoughts are this is a must for Iowa to show what they have in preparation for Arizona and Penn State in the upcoming weeks and I look for them to do so.

Notre Dame travels to the Big House in Ann Arbor as a field goal favorite. Even though Michigan’s win over Western Michigan last week deflected some of the negative press surrounding Wolverines coach Rich Rodriguez, only wins over big-time programs will earn him the good graces of M Go Blue loyalists. My hunch is that ND’s defense will come after the young Michigan quarterbacks early and try to unnerve them—kind of like Mike Tyson throwing a bunch of bombs against a heavyweight opponent right from the opening bell, as opposed to the proverbial “feeling each other out” first round. ND’s offense can throw it deep and accurately, as well as run it efficiently enough to be respectable. Golden Domers should leave Ann Arbor happy.

Army is a slim one point favorite at home vs. Duke. On the surface, this game certainly doesn’t draw any national attention. But, if the Black Knights of the Hudson can defeat Duke in this battle of have-nots, they will move to 2-0 and be well on their way to a winning season. Optimism is running high at West Point, not because of the new option attack being employed—although that plays a role—but, (don’t tell anyone) due to their super-soft schedule. Army opened with a terrible Eastern Michigan, they have a mediocre Duke team this week, and have such other traditionally below average teams like Iowa State, Tulane, Temple, VMI and North Texas further down the road. Legendary West Point gridiron figures that have passed on must be turning in their graves looking at this cream-puff schedule. Let’s go with Duke in a big upset!

JUST FOR FUN--In the blowout city games of the weekend, who will score more points and have a bigger spread in their victory...Texas at Wyoming, Alabama hosting Florida International, Florida hosting Troy, or Boise State welcoming Miami of Ohio? The Longhorns and Tide are favored by 34, the Gators by 36, and Boise State by 37!

Think of it; we are talking about a five (5) touchdown difference here.

College Football Season Openers Not What They Used To Be

It's really kind of sad that the start of the college football just ain't what it used to be. With the NCAA adding a 12th game to the schedules back in 2006 athletic administrators were scrambling to fill that extra date, and with little time to do so. Thanks to that, the much-anticipated season kickoff just doesn't measure up to expectations.

Division I schools need every win they can get to keep their post-season hopes alive. Why would they want to schedule a potential loss when there is little reward for doing so? A win is a win, right?

When the scheduling race kicked in there was a tremendous "supply & demand" issue. D-I schools needed a game, and a win, and smaller schools were happy to deliver--at a price. Division I-AA (aka Football Championship Series) and smaller D-I schools (whose conference champ does not get an automatic slot in the post-season Bowl Championship Series) pocket a minimum of $400,000 for filling those dates. That's why we see names roll across the scoreboard that seem pretty foreign to a lot of football fans.

A sampling from I-AA would be the likes of Charleston Southern, Wofford, Liberty, and a whole bunch of directional schools. Just some of the D-I schools supplementing their budgets with the scheduling bonanza are Florida International, Florida Atlantic, Troy, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe and more directional schools. These are not household names, but with the pressure on coaches and administrators to deliver a winner, schools like these will continue to dot the early pre-conference schedule for the major schools.

Seeing these "match-ups" (using the term loosely) makes me remember when there were many less bowl games and the bowls were tied to conference champions and a handful of at-large teams with great records. If you didn't win the Big Ten or Pac-8 you didn't go to the Rose Bowl or just about any other bowl. If you didn't win the old Southwest Conference and go to the Cotton Bowl chances were you would be staying home for the holidays. The same goes for the Big 8 and the Orange Bowl.

Unfortunately, at the risk of not getting to a bowl, or not reaching an upper tier/bigger name bowl that will provide for larger pay day and more exposure for their programs, or possibly even playing for the national title, the early season weekends with a full slate of great inter-sectional games has passed. This past weekend there were a handful of head to head early conference clashes and a couple of border or intra-state rivalry games that sparked some interest. But, aside from that all we had was Oklahoma St.-Georgia, Oklahoma-BYU, Alabama-Va Tech, and LSU-Washington with Florida State-Miami yet to come, as of this writing.

Let's take a look at some high profile football programs' schedules over the years--this year and then 5, 10, 20 & 30 years ago. Penn St. has only been in a conference since 1993, so they drop out as the years go further back. See for yourself how the scheduling philosophy, based upon degree of difficulty, has changed (or not) for these teams.

2009

FLORIDA--Charleston Southern, Troy, Florida International, Florida St.

MICHIGAN--W. Michigan, Notre Dame, E. Michigan, Delaware State

PENN ST.--Akron, Syracuse, Temple, E. Illinois

TEXAS--Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming, UTEP, Central Florida

LSU--Washington, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, Tulane

USC--San Jose St., Ohio State, Notre Dame

2004

FLORIDA--E. Michigan, Middle Tennessee, Florida St.

MICHIGAN--Miami (OH), Notre Dame, San Diego St.

PENN ST.--Akron, Boston College, Central Florida

TEXAS--North Texas, Rice, Arkansas

LSU--Oregon St., Arkansas State, Troy

USC--Virginia Tech, Colorado St., BYU, Notre Dame

1999

FLORIDA--Western Michigan, Central Florida, Florida St.

MICHIGAN--Notre Dame, Rice, Syracuse

PENN ST.--Arizona, Akron, Pitt, Miami

TEXAS--N.C. State, Stanford, Rutgers, Rice

LSU--San Jose St., North Texas, Houston

USC--Hawaii, San Diego St., Notre Dame, Louisiana Tech

1989

FLORIDA--Louisiana Tech, Memphis, New Mexico, Florida St.

MICHIGAN--Notre Dame, UCLA, Maryland

TEXAS--Colorado, SMU, Penn St.

LSU--Texas A&M, Florida St., Ohio U.

USC--Illinois, Utah St., Ohio St., Notre Dame

1979

FLORIDA--Houston, Ga Tech, Tulsa, Miami

MICHIGAN--Notre Dame, Kansas, California

TEXAS--Iowa St., Missouri, Rice

LSU--Colorado, Rice, USC

USC--Texas Tech, Minnesota, LSU, Notre Dame

How Lucky White Sox Fans Are To Have Ozzie Guillen

In our present world of sports journalism coaches and athletes are prepped on how to avoid making controversial or inflammatory public statements. They calculate their choice of words like a skilled liar on the witness stand. But, shining through all of that dull, lifeless, gray blah-blah-blah is a beacon of light.

Ladies and gentlemen, for your enjoyment let me present Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. Whether you follow major league baseball closely or not, you have to love the entertainment Guillen provides. He’s certainly not like Casey Stengel, who for decades was the lovable “Old Professor” of baseball, known for his cock-eyed views on life as well as his quotes. Casey often left listeners with their heads tilted and brows wrinkled in their effort to comprehend what he had just said.

You may know that Guillen concluded his playing career in 2000 after having played 12 of his 16-years as a shortstop for the White Sox. In 2004 he got his shot to manage in the majors by being named skipper of his beloved Pale Hose. Just one year later Guillen became the first Latin-born manager to lead his team to a World Series title.

A native of Venezuela, Guillen has a passion for the game, his Latin blood runs hot, and he is not afraid to speak his mind. That’s what makes Guillen both entertaining and refreshing at the same time.

Unlike Stengel, there is nothing left to interpretation with Guillen. It’s all pretty plain and clear. For example, in early August, after Guillen’s team had three of their batters hit by opposing pitchers in one game, he went on a rant. He put the rest of the American League on notice. You hit one of his guys, you’ll pay. Not only will it be an eye for an eye, but it might be a two for one proposition! Guillen went so far as to say that he doesn’t care if the league fines him for ordering his pitchers to retaliate for his players being hit. He was essentially taunting future opposing teams, as well as the league office. When I saw the video clip of this it reminded me of one scene in the silly comedy movie classic, “STRIPES”--when Francis “Psycho” Soyer repeatedly threatened Bill Murray, John Candy, and the other military goofs in the barracks, “If you touch me or my stuff…I’ll kill ya.” As for Guillen, if you throw at him or his team, you’re going down!

Last weekend the Yankees swept the ChiSox in a 3-game set at Yankee Stadium and each of the games provided opportunity for Guillen to sound off. When the Sox were limited to just one hit and committed three errors in a 3-0 loss to the Bronx Bombers Guillen offered this summary:

"I'm embarrassed,'' Guillen said. ''And everybody in that room should be embarrassed. If they're not embarrassed, they got the wrong job or they're stealing money from baseball. I feel like I'm stealing the money from [board chairman] Jerry [Reinsdorf]. And that's a shame. When you got more errors than hits, you better look yourself in the mirror and start second-guessing yourself.

''I was looking at the Little League game this morning, and they were playing better than we did. It was more fun ... this is not major-league baseball. Sorry.''

''If we had a B Game against us, we might tie,'' Guillen said. ''Nobody is going to win. I feel that way, and I hope my players and coaches feel the same way.”

After another loss to the Yankees, where Chicago suffered from poor base-running, Guillen said, ''We had an opportunity to score some runs, we're not scoring runs. I never in my life, I don't remember someone getting thrown out at the plate 3-2 [count] with two outs. If you're a manager, you wonder what's going to be next. But when you see that [stuff], you're shaking your head like wow.

''We got picked off at third base once to lose a game, we got picked off at second base then we got thrown out on 3-2 with two out at the plate by 20 feet. Well, I don't give a [darn] who is managing this ballclub, they better check their [butt]. What are we going to do next? What should we do?''

The most gut-wrenching loss was when New York’s Robinson Cano delivered a devastating blow to Guillen’s club with a game-winning 3-run homer with two outs in the 10^th inning. The Sox skipper brought in lefty Randy Williams to pitch the 10^th. Williams was able to get both of the first two hitters, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez, out but back-to-back walks brought up Cano. Guillen lamented, ''What did he do, walked the next two on eight pitches, got behind Cano, game's over,'' Guillen said. ''That's the way we roll right now.''

The White Sox are fading from the Central Division pennant race, trailing the Detroit Tigers. They do have six remaining games going head to head with the Tigers, but Guillen is far from positive in his attitude of making the most of those six opportunities to catch Detroit. “What, they think we are going to sweep Detroit? They are full of (crap),” Guillen said in a Chicago Sun-Times story. “Don’t think Detroit is going to come in and say ‘Here it is.’ They are playing well, better than we do. It’s not going to be easy. If we continue to play like that, I don’t care how many games we play against Detroit, we can play 20 games against them, it’s not going to help.”

These are mere snippets of what goes on regularly for those who follow the Chicago South Siders. How lucky the people of Chicago are to be treated to this after each and every of the 162 games on the schedule.

In recent years it has become very unbecoming for coaches and players to air their dirty laundry in public, to throw someone else under the bus, or to throw gasoline on a small campfire. But, for those of us who enjoy a good rant, who appreciate people that wear emotions on their sleeve, for those of us who need a refreshing change from all the political correctness and “play nice together in the sand box” public people, Ozzie Guillen gives us all of that and more.

Where Are All The Good Arms?

Where are all of the quality arms? With the home stretch of the baseball season being played out daily and the approach of the football season picking up steam, has it occurred to you that there are a shortage of quality arms in the two major pro sports that require them?

Baseball aficionados will tell you that most teams don’t have enough quality starting pitchers. In this day of the 5-man rotation, most teams can muster a number one, a two and sometimes a three. But, most teams struggle to fill the fourth and fifth spots with someone who can give them a decent chance to win a game.

MLB teams are always looking to upgrade their starting rotation. Due to the lack of durable, strong starting pitching, there is a great premium put on pitchers to “set-up” (8^th inning) and “close” (9^th inning) at the back end of games. We all know that great closers make the same millions of dollars for their 1-inning appearance as the great starting pitchers who throw about four-times the amount of total innings over the course of a full season.

When you think of it, professional baseball in America draws talent from a global pool. There are guys from Mexico, South America, Asia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Canada and Australia-- and the 30 MLB teams still can’t find enough quality arms!

Moving to the gridiron…if there were enough quality arms in the NFL, not just average arms, we wouldn’t be hearing of the never-ending saga of everyone’s favorite (kidding) gray-beard, Brett Favre, returning to play. The Minnesota Vikings must feel strongly that the three quarterbacks on their roster were just not good enough to play winning football. Being on the threshold of the regular season, more than a handful of teams are still struggling to declare a starting quarterback. At this stage of the pre-season all teams want to have starting positions locked up so they can fine-tune preparation for the games that really count, the regular season.

Due to their relative lack of productivity and efficiency to this point, the 49-ers played “Eenie, Meanie, Miney, Moe” and settled on Shaun Hill over Alex Smith. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are holding off until after their third pre-season game to choose the man that will take the helm. Byron Leftwich and Luke McCown are currently leading rookie Josh Freeman in that QB derby.

In Detroit, where the Lions matched the Motor City automobile industry for having an incredibly bad 2008, rookie Matt Stafford, despite being the #1 pick in the entire draft, is not quite ready to take over for a recycled Duante Culpepper. Because of philosophical differences in Denver between Jay Cutler and the Broncos new 30-something head coach Josh McDaniels, the Broncos traded away one of the game’s strongest young arms in Cutler to the Bears for a very average Kyle Orton. To illustrate the level of mediocrity, Orton is in a battle with Chris Simms, who was once a promising 2^nd round pick in Tampa Bay. Simms has thrown only 494 passes in seven years in the league. You can do the math based on a 16-game schedule over that span. He was an emergency back-up in Tennessee for just part of last season.

The NY Jets have had a neck and neck race between first round pick Mark Sanchez and fourth-year man Kellen Clemens. It looks like Sanchez at the wire by a nose. Regardless of who gets the nod, the Jets are looking up at the rest of the AFC East when it comes to who is lining up under center. Lastly, in Cleveland the Pumpkin Head loyalists are still waiting to see if it’s going to be the former Golden Domer, Brady Quinn, or the less-acclaimed Derek Anderson. As goes an old silly saying, "same difference."

To sum it up, it seems that we have too many pro teams in both baseball and football to effectively stock the rosters with quality arms who can win games. If that is not the case, why do we keep hearing the same stories each year about not enough good pitching and not enough quality quarterbacks?

If your team happens to have a quality player regularly throwing the ball, consider yourself fortunate. There are many fans who are envious.

When a Coach Goes From First Name to Last Name

It’s very interesting to observe how, over the course of time, football coaches are addressed in the media, as well as in water cooler talks among fans, and on sports talk radio. There’s a potential evolution that could take place depending on the success factor.

Case in point is in Tampa Bay where a 32-year old rookie head coach is just a couple of pre-season games away from coaching his first NFL game that really counts. Raheem Morris had coaching responsibility for the Buccaneers defensive backs solely by himself for just two years. He was a defensive quality control coach and an assistant to the secondary coach for a few of years prior to that. In between he did run the defense at Kansas State University for just one year. Following the departure of the Bucs long-time defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin, immediately following the 2008 season, Morris was named to succeed him as the lead defensive coach for the 2009 season.

Then in a very surprising move, Tampa Bay ownership canned Jon Gruden as head coach in February and all of the sudden Morris went from not having coached a down as the defensive coordinator in the NFL to being the new head coach.

As an assistant coach, those around the Bucs practice fields knew him as Raheem or Rah. Media types also knew him by Raheem or Rah. He looks as young, or younger, and is as young or younger, than those with whom he is charged to lead as their head coach.

A question in my mind is when does Raheem become Coach Morris, and when does he become just Morris?

Right now it’s honeymoon time. The Bucs have not yet lost a game that counts on their 2009 record. He can be personable, quotable, and project an attitude of having fun while also being demanding. The players swear by him, love playing for him.

That’s all well and good. Right now there’s a buzz in Buccaneer Land that people like to hear. That’s because Morris is the “anti-Gruden.” Gruden, who has been scooped up by ESPN to serve as their Monday Night Football analyst and has looked good doing so, was often a little surly and curt with the media. He didn’t have the same music on his IPod as the players, like Morris, nor did he chest bump and celebrate big plays like Morris did with his defensive backs.

Despite winning a Super Bowl with the Bucs in 2002-03, his first year as their 39-year old head coach, Gruden never fulfilled the fans’ and ownership’s dreams of regularly making future play-off or Super Bowl runs. In the next six years they made the play-offs twice, losing in the first round each time. Therefore, he was let go for that reason and also so the Bucs could make a 180-degree turn in leadership.

If you were tuned into media talk and street banter the last couple of years, it was always “Gruden this” and “Gruden that.” This is my take on how coaches are addressed publicly. For such a long time it was common to refer to the head coach with some degree of respect by either “Coach Last Name”, or simply by using his first and last name. When things start to go sour, then it turns to last name only—kind of the way an old gym teacher talks down to a goofy kid reminding him to tie his sneakers.

Well, Morris actually is a step ahead of everyone. He has three possible levels to work through. He is already talked about like everyone’s buddy—Rah or Raheem. When it begins to slide a bit and people need to start being critical of him, they will get a little more serious and evolve to Coach Morris. Then, when they are really upset and frustrated he will just be referred to as Morris.

This is not a slam on Morris; it’s a slam on all those who create images for the average fan by the way they portray people in the media. Sadly, most average fans don’t have enough information to make their own judgment or create their own educated view, so they latch on to one they may have read on the internet or heard over the AM sports talk shows, which was created by some other person with hardly anymore insight than Joe Fan.

Buc fans and followers, let’s not speculate, get too high or too low as to how great or not so great the new 32-year old coach is. In just a few weeks you will begin to see for yourself. Make believe you live in Missouri, “the Show Me state”, and let things play out. Then you can form your own opinion.