Instead of recognizing the inferior quality of its officiating, the Southeastern Conference adopts a bunker mentality.
Earlier this week, SEC commissioner Mike Slive played the role of bully, warning that any coach who criticizes the referees will now be subject to a fine and/or suspension. He must have been so proud of himself.
We're constantly amazed how sports leagues can get away with squashing the first amendment rights of its employees, how they can exist in a vacuum above the law.
We wonder what would happen if a coach were to challenge a fine or suspension in court. Maybe they figure it wouldn't be worth the bother.
Of course, this is just one example of the controlling, micro-managing SEC playing the role of big brother.
It already has legislated fun out of its contests by preventing fans from running on to the field to celebate dramatic victories.
This, of course, is part of the college experience, but no longer in the SEC. The SEC says it is protecting fans, players and coaches from potential injury, but we find that to be utter nonsense. Rarely, if ever, does anyone get hurt in these celebrations. And, if someone does get hurt, it's their own fault.
Therefore, we wonder what the SEC's reaction was when the fans at Washington stormed the field to celebrate the Huskies' win over USC earlier this season.
We didn't hear anybody complaining about how unsafe the environment was at Huskies Stadium. The wild scene at the end of the game is what college football is all about. Too bad the SEC has forgotten that.
Anyway, the SEC's heavy-handed approach is why we always root against the league, and will continue to do so.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Notre Dame now chasing Michigan for top winning percentage
Here's something for Notre Dame fans to sink their teeth into:
On Wednesday, the NCAA officially began its investigation of the (sc)UM football team regarding allegations that coach Rich Rodriguez and his staff surpassed the allotted mandatory workout hours (Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis never will be accused of over-working his troops because that would mean pushing back his dinner reservation, which is why his getting fired would be the worst thing for the South Bend economy).
Let's suppose the violations are so egregious that Michigan has to forfeit all its win under Rodriguez, who is in his second season in Ann Arbor (three last season and five so far this year).
That means that Michigan would lose at least eight victories, and Notre Dame would jump back over the Wolverines into its rightful place as the winningest program in NCAA history, at least in terms of winning percentage.
The NCAA, of course, will not hand down such a harsh penalty even if Michigan is found to be guilty of the charges, as it likely would determine the violations to be secondary in nature. But we can all fantasize.
Anyway, we do keep track of such things as winning percentage. A few years ago Michigan overtook Notre Dame in winning percentage due to the Fighting Irish's extended run of mediocrity.
Here's how the schools stacked up at the start of the season:
1. Michigan -- .73982 872-295-36
2. Notre Dame- .73639 831-289-42
Here's how the schools stack up now:
1. Michigan -- .73905 877-298-36
2. Notre Dame- .73625 836-286-42
The winning percentages of the Wolverines (5-3 this season) and Fighting Irish (5-2) have dropped slightly.
Michigan finishes at Illinois, home for Purdue and at Wisconsin and Ohio State. We could certainly see the Wolverines losing their final two games and a bowl contest, which would leave them at 7-6 for the season. Their winning percentage would be:
1. Michigan -- .73766 879-301-32
If the Fighting Irish were to run the table (Washington State, Navy, at Pittsburgh, UConn, at Stanford) and win a bowl game to finish 11-2, they would virtually catch Michigan if the Wolverines finished 7-6:
2. Notre Dame -- .73761 842-286-42. (However, ND would have to win at Pittsburgh and likely beat a higher ranked bowl opponent).
A 10-3 finish (lose at Pittsburgh and win a bowl game, or win at Pittsburgh and lose a bowl game, would leave this:
2. Notre Dane -- .7367 841-287-42
A 9-4 finish (lose at Pittsburgh and lose a bowl game - we're assuming ND will win its other four games); would leave this:
2. Notre Dame -- .73588 840-288-42
Here's a sobering stat for Irish fans, since Lou Holtz went 11-1 in 1993, Notre Dams is just 113-75, a winning percentage barely over 60.
Doing some quick math reveals that ND had an all-time mark of 723-211-42 following the 1993 season for a winning percentage of .762. In just 16 seasons, the Irish have fallen from .762 to .736
On Wednesday, the NCAA officially began its investigation of the (sc)UM football team regarding allegations that coach Rich Rodriguez and his staff surpassed the allotted mandatory workout hours (Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis never will be accused of over-working his troops because that would mean pushing back his dinner reservation, which is why his getting fired would be the worst thing for the South Bend economy).
Let's suppose the violations are so egregious that Michigan has to forfeit all its win under Rodriguez, who is in his second season in Ann Arbor (three last season and five so far this year).
That means that Michigan would lose at least eight victories, and Notre Dame would jump back over the Wolverines into its rightful place as the winningest program in NCAA history, at least in terms of winning percentage.
The NCAA, of course, will not hand down such a harsh penalty even if Michigan is found to be guilty of the charges, as it likely would determine the violations to be secondary in nature. But we can all fantasize.
Anyway, we do keep track of such things as winning percentage. A few years ago Michigan overtook Notre Dame in winning percentage due to the Fighting Irish's extended run of mediocrity.
Here's how the schools stacked up at the start of the season:
1. Michigan -- .73982 872-295-36
2. Notre Dame- .73639 831-289-42
Here's how the schools stack up now:
1. Michigan -- .73905 877-298-36
2. Notre Dame- .73625 836-286-42
The winning percentages of the Wolverines (5-3 this season) and Fighting Irish (5-2) have dropped slightly.
Michigan finishes at Illinois, home for Purdue and at Wisconsin and Ohio State. We could certainly see the Wolverines losing their final two games and a bowl contest, which would leave them at 7-6 for the season. Their winning percentage would be:
1. Michigan -- .73766 879-301-32
If the Fighting Irish were to run the table (Washington State, Navy, at Pittsburgh, UConn, at Stanford) and win a bowl game to finish 11-2, they would virtually catch Michigan if the Wolverines finished 7-6:
2. Notre Dame -- .73761 842-286-42. (However, ND would have to win at Pittsburgh and likely beat a higher ranked bowl opponent).
A 10-3 finish (lose at Pittsburgh and win a bowl game, or win at Pittsburgh and lose a bowl game, would leave this:
2. Notre Dane -- .7367 841-287-42
A 9-4 finish (lose at Pittsburgh and lose a bowl game - we're assuming ND will win its other four games); would leave this:
2. Notre Dame -- .73588 840-288-42
Here's a sobering stat for Irish fans, since Lou Holtz went 11-1 in 1993, Notre Dams is just 113-75, a winning percentage barely over 60.
Doing some quick math reveals that ND had an all-time mark of 723-211-42 following the 1993 season for a winning percentage of .762. In just 16 seasons, the Irish have fallen from .762 to .736
Monday, October 26, 2009
Missing the Scooter as Yanks prepare for first World Series without him
The Yankees will play in a World Series for the first time since his passing. He has been gone a little more than two years now, but I can still hear his voice calling from the past, from some time in the late 1960s.
I hear the sound of so many of my baseball summers over the crackling static coming through a transistor radio in the back yard on a lazy July or August afternoon that seemed to last forever. No cares; just a boy, a radio and a baseball game.
I began listening to Phil Rizzuto when I was eight years old and he became a huge part of my life for the next 30 years. But even Scooter couldn’t live forever, though I actually thought he might.
The voice finally was silenced on August 13, 2007, a few weeks shy of his 90th birthday and 11 years after he retired. His 40th and final season as a Yankees’ broadcaster in 1996 coincided with the rookie season of a fellow shortstop named Derek Jeter.
It is a funny thing perhaps. Born in Brooklyn, New York on September 25, 1917, Phillip Francis Rizzuto had no tangible affect on my life. I never even met the man, and yet I feel as though I knew him personally. I think there are tens of thousands of Yankees’ fans who feel exactly as I do. When Scooter finally headed off to that big baseball diamond in the sky, I think he took with him the final link to my youth.
Through all those summers, all those seasons, he was my baseball companion. On the beach. In the car. Under the pillows. Along with my dad, Scooter taught me a sport I love more than any other. After helping get me through some of the darkest days in Yankees’ history in the late 1960s, he thrilled me during the return to glory in the 1970s.
Scooter called Chris Chambliss’ pennant-winning home run in 1976 on WPIX channel 11, the Yankees’ long-time television home before the days of cable.
As Scooter screamed, “THE YANKEES WIN THE PENNANT!” I screamed right along with him, waking up my parents. I remember the exact time of Chambliss’ home run – 11:13 p.m. on October 14. I was a senior in high school about to see the Yankees play in a World Series for the first time since 1964.
In the 1970s, New York baseball fans were blessed with two of the best broadcasting teams in the major leagues. For the Mets, there was the trio of Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner. For the Yankees, there was the threesome of Rizzuto, Bill White and Frank Messer, who worked together for 15 years from 1971-1985. The Yankees’ broadcasts were priceless. As former players, Rizzuto and White played off each other, with Messer seemingly serving as the straight man.
There is little doubt that Rizzuto stayed a few too many years and his on-again, off-again talk of retirement did become a little tiresome. He called it quits after missing Mickey Mantle’s funeral in August of 1995 to do a broadcast in Boston.
Rizzuto walked away at the end of the 1995 season but was coaxed back into the broadcast booth for the 1996 campaign. At the end of that season, he retired for good.
Technically, Rizzuto probably couldn’t be called a great broadcaster and he was not without his critics who accused him of being too much of a homer. He didn’t have the golden voice of an Ernie Harwell in Detroit or a Chuck Thompson in Baltimore, nor could he tell a story or wax poetic the way Vin Scully did in Los Angeles, and he certainly wasn’t as bombastic as Harry Caray in St. Louis and Chicago.
Caray claimed that he was the first to use the signature phrase “holy cow” on the air and that Rizzuto stole it from him. Rizzuto says he used the expression when he was a kid growing up in Brooklyn as a way to avoid cursing.
But Rizzuto brought a talent to the booth that few broadcasters have mastered or understood. While he may not have been proficient at providing all the details -
when he missed a play, he wrote “WW” in his scorebook,which stands for “wasn’t
watching” – his greatest gift as an announcer is that he personalized his broadcasts.
Rizzuto brought you into his life. He wasn’t speaking to his entire audience but to each and every listener or viewer,like he was having a cup of coffee with you at a late-night diner.
You learned about his beloved bride, Cora, whom Scooter seemed to talk to on the air. (“I’m coming home soon, Cora”). You learned of his love of Italian pastries and his fear of lightning and anything that crawled.He sprinkled his play-by-play with birthday greetings and get-well wishes and reviews of his favorite Italian restaurants.
Then, of course, there was his quirky habit in later years of leaving in the seventh inning to beat the traffic across the George Washington Bridge back to his home in New Jersey.
In his book “Voices of the Game,” which is an anthology of baseball broadcasting, author and baseball historian Curt Smith quoted an Associated Press story written by Will Grimsley about Rizzuto:
“Housewives love him. The kids all think he’s terrific. And the only man of the house, who normally likes his baseball straight and spiked more with statistics than levity, wouldn’t swap the one hundred and fifty-pound pundit for a ton of those data-sprouting encyclopedias often found behind the mike. Too bad Scooter’s act is confined to the upper East Coast. He is a refreshing departure from the norm. He ought to be a national commodity.”
Rizzuto seemingly complained about everything on the air.It was too hot,too cold; there were too many bugs in the booth. He was everybody’s favorite hypochondriac. You couldn’t do anything but laugh. He was like your eccentric old uncle. If someone did something to annoy Rizzuto, that person would be called a “huckleberry” but in a good-natured way:
“Hey, White, do you know what that huckleberry did to me? Holy Cow!”
Rizzuto’s banter with his broadcast partner was beyond hilarious.There was one
time during an intro when Rizzuto, reading from a teleprompter, appeared to forget his name: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, this is Bill White.” White, standing right next to Rizzuto, began laughing hysterically – and all this was going live over the air.
Rizzuto had the rather odd habit of referring to his broadcast partners by their last names.
It wasn’t “Bill” or “Frank” but “White” and “Messer”. White once joked, “How would
you like to work with a guy for 15 years and he still doesn’t know your first name?”
Rizzuto was the master of the non sequitur. It was almost as though his brain didn’t have an edit button. He’d think of something to say, then say it before
realizing he said it. Does that sentence sound like something Yogi Berra would say? But part of Rizzuto’s charm, of course, was that you were never quite sure what was going to come out of his mouth when he fell into that stream of consciousness.
There was this comment to Bobby Murcer, one of his broadcasting partners in the
later years:
“Oh, those Yankees can get the clutch hits, Murcer. I might have to go home early. I just got a cramp in my leg.”
On August 5, 1985, the Yankees honored Rizzuto during a ceremony at Yankee Stadium when they retired his uniform No. 10. As part of the celebration, the Yankees brought on to the field a bovine with a halo around it’s head – a real live holy cow.
What happened next was a classic Rizzuto moment as the cow knocked him over, sending a 67-year man sprawling to the ground, head over heels. It seemed part of the script, something that could only happen to Rizzuto. He was not injured, just embarrassed – and 50,000 people laughed at his expense.
I decided that if Rizzuto ever got inducted into the Hall of Fame, I would have to be there, so when the day finally came on July 31, 1994, I drove five hours to Cooperstown.
It was a great day, sitting in a field amid the rolling hills of upstate New York, listening to the speeches and baseball songs.
Most younger fans, myself included, remember Rizzuto only for his broadcasting career which began in 1957, the year after he retired as a player. Rizzuto enjoyed a 13-year playing career with the Yankees that was interrupted for three seasons by World War II, winning seven World Series titles.
Rizzuto was overshadowed by bigger names like Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra, and his career numbers weren’t great: a 273 lifetime batting average with 38 home runs and 563 RBI. But Rizzuto was a durable shortstop known more for his bunting skills and base running ability. He did win the MVP award in 1950, when he batted a career-high .324 and recorded 200 hits.
Not everyone shares the opinion that Rizzuto is worthy of the Hall of Fame. However, Boston Red Sox great Ted Williams claimed Rizzuto was the glue that held those great Yankee teams together. Nearly 40 years after his played career ended, Rizzuto was voted into the Hall of Fame by the veterans committee. His legion of fans said an injustice finally had been righted.
Most Hall of Fame inductees take their speeches seriously as they want to say
something poignant and memorable. They often hire people to help them write their
speeches. Not Scooter. I don’t think he had anything prepared. He just started talking off the cuff, like he did for 40 years on the air. He was all over the map, veering from one subject to the next.
It was classic Rizzuto. No one really had any idea what he was talking about, yet he had people eating out of his hands for 20 minutes. I have his speech, if one
could call it a speech, on tape. Occasionally, when I’m in a bad mood, I pop it into the VCR. Works like a charm every time.
Thank you, Scooter. You were - and still are - my all-time favorite broadcaster.
I fear Rizzuto was the last of a dying breed. The industry seems so bereft of true
characters. Announcers today all seem to sound alike, as if they are all cut from the same mold and following the same script. Many of them seem to think the game is about them.
Fox’s Joe Buck is a fine announcer – when he isn’t doing a stand-up comedy routine, when he doesn’t think he is a junior version of Don Rickles. The younger Buck is so unlike his father, the late Jack Buck, the legendary broadcaster for the St. Louis Cardinals. And Yankees fans have to suffer the arrogance of John Sterling, who may be the most pompous broadcaster in the business. His home run call – “it is high, it is far, it is gone” – - is so lame and contrived.
I feel bad for today’s kids. They never got listen to Phil Rizzuto. They have no idea what they missed.
I hear the sound of so many of my baseball summers over the crackling static coming through a transistor radio in the back yard on a lazy July or August afternoon that seemed to last forever. No cares; just a boy, a radio and a baseball game.
I began listening to Phil Rizzuto when I was eight years old and he became a huge part of my life for the next 30 years. But even Scooter couldn’t live forever, though I actually thought he might.
The voice finally was silenced on August 13, 2007, a few weeks shy of his 90th birthday and 11 years after he retired. His 40th and final season as a Yankees’ broadcaster in 1996 coincided with the rookie season of a fellow shortstop named Derek Jeter.
It is a funny thing perhaps. Born in Brooklyn, New York on September 25, 1917, Phillip Francis Rizzuto had no tangible affect on my life. I never even met the man, and yet I feel as though I knew him personally. I think there are tens of thousands of Yankees’ fans who feel exactly as I do. When Scooter finally headed off to that big baseball diamond in the sky, I think he took with him the final link to my youth.
Through all those summers, all those seasons, he was my baseball companion. On the beach. In the car. Under the pillows. Along with my dad, Scooter taught me a sport I love more than any other. After helping get me through some of the darkest days in Yankees’ history in the late 1960s, he thrilled me during the return to glory in the 1970s.
Scooter called Chris Chambliss’ pennant-winning home run in 1976 on WPIX channel 11, the Yankees’ long-time television home before the days of cable.
As Scooter screamed, “THE YANKEES WIN THE PENNANT!” I screamed right along with him, waking up my parents. I remember the exact time of Chambliss’ home run – 11:13 p.m. on October 14. I was a senior in high school about to see the Yankees play in a World Series for the first time since 1964.
In the 1970s, New York baseball fans were blessed with two of the best broadcasting teams in the major leagues. For the Mets, there was the trio of Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner. For the Yankees, there was the threesome of Rizzuto, Bill White and Frank Messer, who worked together for 15 years from 1971-1985. The Yankees’ broadcasts were priceless. As former players, Rizzuto and White played off each other, with Messer seemingly serving as the straight man.
There is little doubt that Rizzuto stayed a few too many years and his on-again, off-again talk of retirement did become a little tiresome. He called it quits after missing Mickey Mantle’s funeral in August of 1995 to do a broadcast in Boston.
Rizzuto walked away at the end of the 1995 season but was coaxed back into the broadcast booth for the 1996 campaign. At the end of that season, he retired for good.
Technically, Rizzuto probably couldn’t be called a great broadcaster and he was not without his critics who accused him of being too much of a homer. He didn’t have the golden voice of an Ernie Harwell in Detroit or a Chuck Thompson in Baltimore, nor could he tell a story or wax poetic the way Vin Scully did in Los Angeles, and he certainly wasn’t as bombastic as Harry Caray in St. Louis and Chicago.
Caray claimed that he was the first to use the signature phrase “holy cow” on the air and that Rizzuto stole it from him. Rizzuto says he used the expression when he was a kid growing up in Brooklyn as a way to avoid cursing.
But Rizzuto brought a talent to the booth that few broadcasters have mastered or understood. While he may not have been proficient at providing all the details -
when he missed a play, he wrote “WW” in his scorebook,which stands for “wasn’t
watching” – his greatest gift as an announcer is that he personalized his broadcasts.
Rizzuto brought you into his life. He wasn’t speaking to his entire audience but to each and every listener or viewer,like he was having a cup of coffee with you at a late-night diner.
You learned about his beloved bride, Cora, whom Scooter seemed to talk to on the air. (“I’m coming home soon, Cora”). You learned of his love of Italian pastries and his fear of lightning and anything that crawled.He sprinkled his play-by-play with birthday greetings and get-well wishes and reviews of his favorite Italian restaurants.
Then, of course, there was his quirky habit in later years of leaving in the seventh inning to beat the traffic across the George Washington Bridge back to his home in New Jersey.
In his book “Voices of the Game,” which is an anthology of baseball broadcasting, author and baseball historian Curt Smith quoted an Associated Press story written by Will Grimsley about Rizzuto:
“Housewives love him. The kids all think he’s terrific. And the only man of the house, who normally likes his baseball straight and spiked more with statistics than levity, wouldn’t swap the one hundred and fifty-pound pundit for a ton of those data-sprouting encyclopedias often found behind the mike. Too bad Scooter’s act is confined to the upper East Coast. He is a refreshing departure from the norm. He ought to be a national commodity.”
Rizzuto seemingly complained about everything on the air.It was too hot,too cold; there were too many bugs in the booth. He was everybody’s favorite hypochondriac. You couldn’t do anything but laugh. He was like your eccentric old uncle. If someone did something to annoy Rizzuto, that person would be called a “huckleberry” but in a good-natured way:
“Hey, White, do you know what that huckleberry did to me? Holy Cow!”
Rizzuto’s banter with his broadcast partner was beyond hilarious.There was one
time during an intro when Rizzuto, reading from a teleprompter, appeared to forget his name: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, this is Bill White.” White, standing right next to Rizzuto, began laughing hysterically – and all this was going live over the air.
Rizzuto had the rather odd habit of referring to his broadcast partners by their last names.
It wasn’t “Bill” or “Frank” but “White” and “Messer”. White once joked, “How would
you like to work with a guy for 15 years and he still doesn’t know your first name?”
Rizzuto was the master of the non sequitur. It was almost as though his brain didn’t have an edit button. He’d think of something to say, then say it before
realizing he said it. Does that sentence sound like something Yogi Berra would say? But part of Rizzuto’s charm, of course, was that you were never quite sure what was going to come out of his mouth when he fell into that stream of consciousness.
There was this comment to Bobby Murcer, one of his broadcasting partners in the
later years:
“Oh, those Yankees can get the clutch hits, Murcer. I might have to go home early. I just got a cramp in my leg.”
On August 5, 1985, the Yankees honored Rizzuto during a ceremony at Yankee Stadium when they retired his uniform No. 10. As part of the celebration, the Yankees brought on to the field a bovine with a halo around it’s head – a real live holy cow.
What happened next was a classic Rizzuto moment as the cow knocked him over, sending a 67-year man sprawling to the ground, head over heels. It seemed part of the script, something that could only happen to Rizzuto. He was not injured, just embarrassed – and 50,000 people laughed at his expense.
I decided that if Rizzuto ever got inducted into the Hall of Fame, I would have to be there, so when the day finally came on July 31, 1994, I drove five hours to Cooperstown.
It was a great day, sitting in a field amid the rolling hills of upstate New York, listening to the speeches and baseball songs.
Most younger fans, myself included, remember Rizzuto only for his broadcasting career which began in 1957, the year after he retired as a player. Rizzuto enjoyed a 13-year playing career with the Yankees that was interrupted for three seasons by World War II, winning seven World Series titles.
Rizzuto was overshadowed by bigger names like Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra, and his career numbers weren’t great: a 273 lifetime batting average with 38 home runs and 563 RBI. But Rizzuto was a durable shortstop known more for his bunting skills and base running ability. He did win the MVP award in 1950, when he batted a career-high .324 and recorded 200 hits.
Not everyone shares the opinion that Rizzuto is worthy of the Hall of Fame. However, Boston Red Sox great Ted Williams claimed Rizzuto was the glue that held those great Yankee teams together. Nearly 40 years after his played career ended, Rizzuto was voted into the Hall of Fame by the veterans committee. His legion of fans said an injustice finally had been righted.
Most Hall of Fame inductees take their speeches seriously as they want to say
something poignant and memorable. They often hire people to help them write their
speeches. Not Scooter. I don’t think he had anything prepared. He just started talking off the cuff, like he did for 40 years on the air. He was all over the map, veering from one subject to the next.
It was classic Rizzuto. No one really had any idea what he was talking about, yet he had people eating out of his hands for 20 minutes. I have his speech, if one
could call it a speech, on tape. Occasionally, when I’m in a bad mood, I pop it into the VCR. Works like a charm every time.
Thank you, Scooter. You were - and still are - my all-time favorite broadcaster.
I fear Rizzuto was the last of a dying breed. The industry seems so bereft of true
characters. Announcers today all seem to sound alike, as if they are all cut from the same mold and following the same script. Many of them seem to think the game is about them.
Fox’s Joe Buck is a fine announcer – when he isn’t doing a stand-up comedy routine, when he doesn’t think he is a junior version of Don Rickles. The younger Buck is so unlike his father, the late Jack Buck, the legendary broadcaster for the St. Louis Cardinals. And Yankees fans have to suffer the arrogance of John Sterling, who may be the most pompous broadcaster in the business. His home run call – “it is high, it is far, it is gone” – - is so lame and contrived.
I feel bad for today’s kids. They never got listen to Phil Rizzuto. They have no idea what they missed.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Shaky defense overshadowing Clausen's superb season
We've been reading this week how Jimmy Clausen would have jumped up the list of Heisman Trophy contenders had he pulled off that comeback against Southern California.
It's funny, but we never thought of Clausen as a Heisman candidate, and that's probably because were so annoyed with a defense that still can't stop anybody.
Yes, the Irish made a spirited rally against the Trojans last week, but here's the bottom line - they allowed a freshman quarterback to put up 34 points. They gave up two many easy drives, as USC - at times - sliced through Notre Dame's defense like it was butter.
As far as Clausen goes, he is indeed having a spectacular season. This is the quarterback Notre Dame thought it recruited out of California three years ago. He has definitely come into his own while providing leadership and toughness (remember, he has been playing with a bad ankle).
Alas, Clausen can't win the games by himself, just as his predecessor, Brady Quinn, couldn't. Notre Dame is still in a position where it has to out-score its opponents to win, and that is a losing proposition.
NEVER BET THE IRISH! -- Notre Dame is an 8 1/2-point favorite this week against Boston College. However, we think you'd have to have your head examined to bet the Irish while giving 8 1/2 points.
Heck, we would not be the list bit surprised if they lost outright again. Of course, you only need to watch the last two minutes because every ND game is decided in the last two minutes (five in a row).
It's funny, but we never thought of Clausen as a Heisman candidate, and that's probably because were so annoyed with a defense that still can't stop anybody.
Yes, the Irish made a spirited rally against the Trojans last week, but here's the bottom line - they allowed a freshman quarterback to put up 34 points. They gave up two many easy drives, as USC - at times - sliced through Notre Dame's defense like it was butter.
As far as Clausen goes, he is indeed having a spectacular season. This is the quarterback Notre Dame thought it recruited out of California three years ago. He has definitely come into his own while providing leadership and toughness (remember, he has been playing with a bad ankle).
Alas, Clausen can't win the games by himself, just as his predecessor, Brady Quinn, couldn't. Notre Dame is still in a position where it has to out-score its opponents to win, and that is a losing proposition.
NEVER BET THE IRISH! -- Notre Dame is an 8 1/2-point favorite this week against Boston College. However, we think you'd have to have your head examined to bet the Irish while giving 8 1/2 points.
Heck, we would not be the list bit surprised if they lost outright again. Of course, you only need to watch the last two minutes because every ND game is decided in the last two minutes (five in a row).
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
It pains me to say it, but it's time for Brady Quinn to get out of Cleveland
I've always hoped that Brady Quinn could make it in Cleveland, just like I root for all Notre Dame players to do well in the NFL.
But it was more than that. I thought that it would be a story-book scenario if the Ohio native/matinee idol could star for the team he rooted for as a child. That's why I was thrilled when the Browns drafted him, even though it was painful watching the kid get hung out to dry as he dropped through the draft.
Now, however, I'm thinking it might be best for Brady to get out Cleveland, which is still a mess and will have trouble winning two more games (Last week's 6-3 victory over Buffalo has to be one of the ugliest games in NFL history.) Let him go some place more stable, which would be about 25 other teams in the league.
On Monday, a friend suggested the Browns react better to Derek Anderson. Is this the same Derek Anderson who completed the grand total of two passes against the Bills?
Last year, this same friend wanted Anderson benched (if favor of Quinn) because, in his opinion, the former was too prone to throwing interceptions. Such is the fickle nature of fandom.
This friend also says that Quinn never will be an NFL quarterback, which seems like a ridiculous assessment about a guy who has started six games in the NFL (of course, maybe the friend make that comment just to push my buttons, something he does quite well).
But Browns coach Eric Mangini pushed the gun by benching Quinn halfway through the third game of the season, a panic move if there ever was one. Of course, this is the same Mangini who fines players who don't pay for $3 bottles of water.
Apparently, the "Mangenious" hasn't learned his lesson after getting run out of New York. He is treating his players like junior high school students, and this is over-the-top behavior even for an NFL coach, all of whom are control freaks to some extent.
Mangini is going to lose his players, which is why the Browns will go 3-13 and Quinn needs to find a new address.
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Quinn has put his house up for sale, an indication he could be dealt by next week's trade deadline.
The newspaper reported that Quinn has been at odds with Mangini and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll since his demotion.
If Quinn, whose contract expires after the 2011 season, is not on the field for 70 percent of the snaps this season, he will lose $11 million in salary escalators. The Browns also have reduced his practice reps.
I can understand why the Browns would want to keep him off the field because that's a business decision.
Reducing his practice reps, however, seems petty. Then again, Mangini takes pettiness to a new level.
Look, it could be that my personal feeling about Quinn is preventing me from making an objective opinion about his ability.
I still think Quinn has the qualities (leadership, intelligence, certain amount of charisma) to be an effective NFL quarterback, if not a superstar. He may not have the strongest arm, but that didn't prevent Chad Pennington from directing the greatest turnaround in NFL history last season with the Dolphins.
Then again, I could be entirely wrong. Quinn may indeed be a failure as an NFL quarterback. You just can't make that conclusion after six games.
But it was more than that. I thought that it would be a story-book scenario if the Ohio native/matinee idol could star for the team he rooted for as a child. That's why I was thrilled when the Browns drafted him, even though it was painful watching the kid get hung out to dry as he dropped through the draft.
Now, however, I'm thinking it might be best for Brady to get out Cleveland, which is still a mess and will have trouble winning two more games (Last week's 6-3 victory over Buffalo has to be one of the ugliest games in NFL history.) Let him go some place more stable, which would be about 25 other teams in the league.
On Monday, a friend suggested the Browns react better to Derek Anderson. Is this the same Derek Anderson who completed the grand total of two passes against the Bills?
Last year, this same friend wanted Anderson benched (if favor of Quinn) because, in his opinion, the former was too prone to throwing interceptions. Such is the fickle nature of fandom.
This friend also says that Quinn never will be an NFL quarterback, which seems like a ridiculous assessment about a guy who has started six games in the NFL (of course, maybe the friend make that comment just to push my buttons, something he does quite well).
But Browns coach Eric Mangini pushed the gun by benching Quinn halfway through the third game of the season, a panic move if there ever was one. Of course, this is the same Mangini who fines players who don't pay for $3 bottles of water.
Apparently, the "Mangenious" hasn't learned his lesson after getting run out of New York. He is treating his players like junior high school students, and this is over-the-top behavior even for an NFL coach, all of whom are control freaks to some extent.
Mangini is going to lose his players, which is why the Browns will go 3-13 and Quinn needs to find a new address.
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Quinn has put his house up for sale, an indication he could be dealt by next week's trade deadline.
The newspaper reported that Quinn has been at odds with Mangini and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll since his demotion.
If Quinn, whose contract expires after the 2011 season, is not on the field for 70 percent of the snaps this season, he will lose $11 million in salary escalators. The Browns also have reduced his practice reps.
I can understand why the Browns would want to keep him off the field because that's a business decision.
Reducing his practice reps, however, seems petty. Then again, Mangini takes pettiness to a new level.
Look, it could be that my personal feeling about Quinn is preventing me from making an objective opinion about his ability.
I still think Quinn has the qualities (leadership, intelligence, certain amount of charisma) to be an effective NFL quarterback, if not a superstar. He may not have the strongest arm, but that didn't prevent Chad Pennington from directing the greatest turnaround in NFL history last season with the Dolphins.
Then again, I could be entirely wrong. Quinn may indeed be a failure as an NFL quarterback. You just can't make that conclusion after six games.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Notre Dame's defense remains hugely overrated
Can't we all just see it -- Notre Dame goes 9-3, qualifies for a BCS game - because it's Notre Dame and 9-3 is good enough - and once again gets waxed by an SEC team (Auburn or LSU)?
Maybe the Irish are better off going 7-5. That way, they will get invited to a lesser bowl and actually have a chance to win (see Hawaii in last year's Hawaii Bowl).
With a 4-1 record and three straight dramatic victories, Notre Dame no doubt is feeling good about itself heading into the bye week.
However, we simply cannot take this team seriously when it continues to have one of the worst defenses in the country (despite the goal line stands last week against Washington).
We find it amazing how often the Irish miss tackles and allow receivers to get open - even in the overtime last week.
On 3rd-and-19, the defense allowed a Washington receiver to get open inside the 5-yard line - the ball just went through his hands.
And, on fourth down, D'Andre Goodwin had position on a pass over the middle - though, in fairness, safeties Harrison Smith and Kyle McCarthy delivered a bar-jarring hit to cause the ball to come loose, which is what safeties are supposed to do.
We knew the Irish celebrated too prematurely when Jimmy Clausen's 12-yard TD pass to Kyle Rudolph put Notre Dame ahead, 30-27, with 1:20 remaining.
With Notre Dame's porous defense, that is much, too much left to start celebrating a victory. Sure enough, the Irish allowed Jake Locker to drive the Huskies for a game-tying field goal.
So, is Notre Dame's defense vastly overrated, or is it poorly coached? This is the classic chicken-or-the-egg questioned that has vexed Notre Dame fans for years.
Anyway, the week off is needed - not for the team, but for the fans.
Following this team is not good for the central nervous system. At least, they'll be no aggravation this week.
Of course, the aggravation returns next week, when USC walks into Notre Dame Stadium and gives the Irish their annual beating.
Maybe the Irish are better off going 7-5. That way, they will get invited to a lesser bowl and actually have a chance to win (see Hawaii in last year's Hawaii Bowl).
With a 4-1 record and three straight dramatic victories, Notre Dame no doubt is feeling good about itself heading into the bye week.
However, we simply cannot take this team seriously when it continues to have one of the worst defenses in the country (despite the goal line stands last week against Washington).
We find it amazing how often the Irish miss tackles and allow receivers to get open - even in the overtime last week.
On 3rd-and-19, the defense allowed a Washington receiver to get open inside the 5-yard line - the ball just went through his hands.
And, on fourth down, D'Andre Goodwin had position on a pass over the middle - though, in fairness, safeties Harrison Smith and Kyle McCarthy delivered a bar-jarring hit to cause the ball to come loose, which is what safeties are supposed to do.
We knew the Irish celebrated too prematurely when Jimmy Clausen's 12-yard TD pass to Kyle Rudolph put Notre Dame ahead, 30-27, with 1:20 remaining.
With Notre Dame's porous defense, that is much, too much left to start celebrating a victory. Sure enough, the Irish allowed Jake Locker to drive the Huskies for a game-tying field goal.
So, is Notre Dame's defense vastly overrated, or is it poorly coached? This is the classic chicken-or-the-egg questioned that has vexed Notre Dame fans for years.
Anyway, the week off is needed - not for the team, but for the fans.
Following this team is not good for the central nervous system. At least, they'll be no aggravation this week.
Of course, the aggravation returns next week, when USC walks into Notre Dame Stadium and gives the Irish their annual beating.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Notre Dame ... Missing Tiller
As Notre Dame prepares for Saturday's contest at Purdue, Irish fans should reflect on how much they miss former Boilermakers coach Joe Tiller.
Ole Joe always seemed like one heck of a nice guy, but he might have been the only mentor in the Big Ten that Charlie Weis could out-coach. Tiller actually might have stressed defense less than Weis.
Of the three Big Ten teams that Notre Dame plays regularly, Weis has a winning record only against Purdue. He is 2-3 against Michigan and Michigan State - counting this season's results - and 3-1 against the Boilers.
Still, Notre Dame was only 7-5 overall against Tiller, as the Boilers have enjoyed more success against the Irish in West Lafayette, where they have won two of the last three meetings. Notre Dame has won 15 of the last 16 in South Bend.
Purdue may have hope, as in new coach Danny Hope, but the Boilers still aren't playing much defense. They allowed 31 points in a season-opening win over Toledo (52-31), 38 in a two-point loss to Oregon and almost 30 in last week's 28-21 defeat to Northern Illinois.
Still, Notre Dame is ripe to be beaten because we don't trust the Irish - and Weis - in any situation on the road.
Since Notre Dame has played two straight games in the 30s - 38-34 loss at Michigan and 33-30 win over Michigan - we see another high-scoring affair that will have Irish fans once again yelling at their televisions: Notre Dame 35, Purdue 31.
These hair-raising finishes don't seem to be causing our man Charlie to lose any weight. Actually, they might be having an opposite affect.
Ole Joe always seemed like one heck of a nice guy, but he might have been the only mentor in the Big Ten that Charlie Weis could out-coach. Tiller actually might have stressed defense less than Weis.
Of the three Big Ten teams that Notre Dame plays regularly, Weis has a winning record only against Purdue. He is 2-3 against Michigan and Michigan State - counting this season's results - and 3-1 against the Boilers.
Still, Notre Dame was only 7-5 overall against Tiller, as the Boilers have enjoyed more success against the Irish in West Lafayette, where they have won two of the last three meetings. Notre Dame has won 15 of the last 16 in South Bend.
Purdue may have hope, as in new coach Danny Hope, but the Boilers still aren't playing much defense. They allowed 31 points in a season-opening win over Toledo (52-31), 38 in a two-point loss to Oregon and almost 30 in last week's 28-21 defeat to Northern Illinois.
Still, Notre Dame is ripe to be beaten because we don't trust the Irish - and Weis - in any situation on the road.
Since Notre Dame has played two straight games in the 30s - 38-34 loss at Michigan and 33-30 win over Michigan - we see another high-scoring affair that will have Irish fans once again yelling at their televisions: Notre Dame 35, Purdue 31.
These hair-raising finishes don't seem to be causing our man Charlie to lose any weight. Actually, they might be having an opposite affect.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
