The Swivel Arm

The Tim Tebow Thing, Or: Why Brady Quinn Shouldn't Have Gone to ND

2011-10-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

Permit me for weighing in on the Tim Tebow Thing. And sharing a perspective that will have almost nothing to do with whether Tebow actually will be a successful NFL quarterback (my bet: not bloody likely).

Something hasn't stopped bugging me about the Tebow Thing the last few days. And, like you'd expect, it involves Notre Dame. If you tend to think any opinion held by an ND fan on matters involving college football is invalid - and I know more than a couple of people who do - you probably just ought to stop reading. Unlike most opinions I hold, this one's not all that strong, and I'm posting this blog more to explore the topic than because I really believe in anything I'm writing.

Mainly, the Tebow Thing has made me wonder if any good player - anyone who desires to be a pro - really ought to go to Notre Dame. More specifically, anyone at a skill position, and particularly at quarterback. Because of one big reason.

Basically, because Brady Quinn was sort of Tim Tebow before Tebow was Tebow.

No, this is not a direct comparison. It may not even be a good one. But to a guy who followed Quinn's career as closely as anyone's career, it seems that there are similarities.

Both players entered their schools in the early years of a new coaching regime (although in Quinn's case, that regime ended quickly). Both were beloved by their fans just as much, if not more so, for the way they carried themselves and the effort they gave as for the results they brought. Both received mountains of hype. Both had visceral haters emerge in response to that hype. Both were leaders. Both were demonstrative. Both were men of faith (Tebow more overtly so, of course). Both returned for their senior year when there was a chance they could have gone pro after successful junior seasons.

The main differences between them are obvious: They possessed different skill sets, with Quinn being a passer and Tebow being more of a hybrid. And of course, Tebow won national championships on loaded teams, while Quinn led flawed teams that didn't merit the hype they received, falling well short of the goal of a title.

Before they ever joined the professional ranks, each player had the NFL spotlight trained firmly upon them. But I noticed something about the run-up to each draft, the 2007 and 2010 drafts respectively. The two were not treated the same.

Everyone was after Quinn's flaws in '07. His lack of arm strength. His inability to 'win the big one'*. And...well, that was pretty much it, it seemed like. Any criticism of Quinn seemed to be vague.

* - Leaving aside the fact that the media seemed to determine retroactively which games were 'the big ones', leaving aside the fact that ND's defense gave up 30+ points in each of these media-appointed 'big ones' and leaving aside the fact that the same media who crucified Quinn for coming up short in big games were blasting ND for being an overrated team which couldn't recruit top-tier talent. There was no apparent cognitive dissonance in the media's collective mind on that point.

Criticizing Quinn wouldn't in itself have been noteworthy except for the fact that the guy being propped up at Quinn's expense was a man named JaMarcus Russell. Now, for some who might forget, JaMarcus Russell was a very large man who had never exhibited the kind of drive for football necessary to win in the pros. He also had a big arm - big enough to throw long bombs to his LSU teammates who would run wide open past slow secondaries. Slow secondaries like Notre Dame's. In the Sugar Bowl. Although Russell could make no other throws of note, everyone quickly tossed Quinn aside for Russell on the strength of Russell's performance against a horrible defense, and on the strength of Quinn's poor performance against a dynamite defense (with a pitiful offensive line, no less).

Russell, of course, was an unmitigated disaster in the pros for the Oakland Raiders. He didn't win. He wasn't accurate. He didn't care to improve himself. He basically ate himself out of the league. By the time his THIRD SEASON was over - absolutely unheard of for a guy who had as much invested in him as Russell did - he was done. Out of the league. No team had any interest in him. (Now, granted, Quinn has been a failure in the pros too, considering his draft status. No question of this. But Quinn is still in the league, which makes him the best QB selected in that 2007 first round, which is my only point.)

Alright. At this point the blog appears to have a fixation on Quinn. Quinn is my favorite collegiate athlete of all time to this point, so this happens a lot. I'm going to try, with monumental effort, to move to the topic at hand.

...and...here we go.

The 2010 draft. Tim Tebow.

Now, I had a vested interest in the media's opinion of Tebow as well, as it so happened that Jimmy Clausen, Quinn's successor at ND and a solid college QB in his own right, albeit one trapped on horribly coached Charlie Weis teams, was in that draft, a projected first-rounder. I was following all the QBs in that draft because of this.

I was utterly shocked at how Tebow's flaws were swept under the rug. His ridiculous throwing motion, which he claimed to have revamped (his NFL game tape shows this was a complete farce). His horrible accuracy. His happy feet. All in the name of "he's a winner!!!". His flaws were so blatantly ignored that he ended up being a first-round pick, as Denver's moronic coach Josh McDaniels (fired a year later, by the way) traded a bunch of picks to move up and get him, out of fear that he'd have been drafted by someone else...apparently, even though there was no indication another team was looking to take Tebow that high. Clausen, meanwhile, fell to the 2nd round for no other apparent reason than 'character concerns' that were vaguely expressed by no one with enough guts to put their name behind them - except of course Todd McShay, who was being less gutsy than legally retarded by doing so. Of course, Clausen appears to have crapped out as well, getting my Carolina Panthers Cam Newton in the process.

I will never stop wondering why Tebow, an overtly religious man, a demonstrative individual, and the same kind of intangibles-laden hype machine that Quinn was in college, was - and is - practically beatified by the football community when I have no doubt that Tebow's act would have earned him nothing but vitriol had he been wearing ND blue and gold.

Think about it. Consider an alternate reality where Clausen does what he probably should have done and just goes to USC, where you can do whatever you want and no one will evidently care, and your pro prospects won't be derailed by vague whispers about character even though you have a nearly-spotless record in all respects except the part where you're not supposed to think you're good even if you are.

Consider an alternate reality in which Tebow (who admittedly never considered ND to my knowledge) decides that with Clausen not going to South Bend, his chance is clear to become a star after Quinn graduates. Tebow has the exact same career, winning two titles (again, alternate reality, folks) and generating a cult of personality in South Bend instead of Gainesville.

Is there any way - ANY way - that Tebow's sanctimonious overt religion, his viewing of himself as a pseudo-prophet even though he plays football, his demonstrative behavior on the sidelines, and all the hype about the 'spark' and 'energy' he brings to the ND team does NOT result in him being universally loathed, not to mention lambasted by the ESPN machine?

I say no. And this is the sad conclusion (or happy if you hate ND): Why would any quarterback hoping to achieve NFL fame go to a place that seems so doomed to inspire so much vitriol? People who achieve the position of ND quarterback are so festooned with hatred that it seems a scarlet letter. I don't know why it is, but it seems clear that it does.

Just a thought or two - and again, don't take me seriously, because this is just a theory, and a half-baked, ridiculously biased theory at that.

D-Rose Raises the Stakes

2011-05-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

Too few people get to see special seasons from their teams. I mean, truly special seasons.

I’m of the belief that the most fun sports seasons to follow are ones that were unexpected. Not necessarily from nowhere, though that would be even better, but reasonably unexpected. The best recent example I can come up with is the S.F. Giants’ 2010 championship season, which was SF’s first playoff appearance since the Juiced-Up Bonds Era after seven years of fielding reasonably competitive but never contending teams.

I have gotten to witness two sports seasons that I would qualify as truly special. One, the 2008 Cubs team that won 97 games, saw literally every player on the team be prominently involved in a game-winning play at some point, and proceeded to inexplicably turn into the Cubs of old in their three-game playoff series, were the first. The second’s outcome is TBD.

The 2010-11 Bulls were supposed to be good. It was well-documented before the season began that Chicago had done a splendid job rebounding from their failed pursuit of LeBron James and/or Dwyane Wade. The team regrouped and used their massive cap room to net one slightly smaller fish – Carlos Boozer – then surrounded Derrick Rose with role players such as Keith Bogans, Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer, and others. Most outfits – Sports Illustrated notably excepted – chose the Bulls to win the Central Division and most expected the Bulls to be a present but hardly threatening foil to the Magic, Heat and Celtics’ further domination of the Eastern Conference.

But none of the pundits – and certainly not me – expected what happened to Rose.

In terms of raw numbers, it was a noticeable but not mind-blowing leap. Rose went from 20.8 points a game to 25, six assists a game to nearly eight, and 77 percent free throw shooting to 86.

But Rose’s rise couldn’t possibly be explained by numbers. Emboldened out of the rejection of the big stars, the removal of all the remaining veterans that preceded him (save Luol Deng) on the Bulls, a new coach in Tom Thibodeau, or some combination of the three, Rose became The Man overnight. This new status meant that Rose took more shots (was effectively forced to take more shots out of necessity) and his shooting percentage took a hit, going from 49 percent in his 2^nd season to 44.5 percent. This earned him some criticism from some statheads, who preferred LeBron James’s usual sterling numbers to be rewarded with an MVP award rather than Rose – a natural reaction to the freight train of Rose’s MVP candidacy that shot from nowhere midseason.

But LeBron James had consciously chosen a situation where he didn’t always have to carry the load. He had Dwyane Wade to take big shots here and there. He could choose to distribute in big moments rather than put it on his own shoulders. Rose had no such luxury. Not only is there no one else on the Bulls’ team who can consistently make big shots, no one else wants to even try.

I haven’t even mentioned to this point that Rose pulled this rise off while missing two of his most important sidekicks. Carlos Boozer missed the first month and a half with a broken hand, and before you had even gotten used to seeing him in the Bulls’ lineup, Joakim Noah followed with hand surgery (what is it with the hands on this team?) that kept HIM out until the All-Star break. Rose played essentially the first 55 games of the season without his whole team – and incredibly, that was his best stretch of the season.

And now, after a couple of tough playoff series with Indiana and Atlanta, the Bulls find themselves in the center of a morality play. James, Wade and the Heat are coming to town in a series that no less a basketball mind than ESPN’s Bill Simmons has repeatedly dubbed a series that will test everything he ever knew about basketball. A well-constructed team built around one star and a bunch of guys who know their role versus a couple of studs.

The series begins Sunday. Will my magical season continue?

Inspiration

2011-01-19T18:47:00.001-08:00

What inspires people?

Everyone is inspired by different things. I am inspired mainly by two things: the sports teams at the University of Notre Dame, and seeing good things happen to my college classmates.

I have definitely seen a lot of the latter. It seems like every time I look around, another awesome thing has happened to someone I graduated with. A slew of people I graduated with are now on their second job; ironically, in most cases, their first job is one I'd have killed to have. Hell, someone who graduated a year behind me (albeit from Notre Dame, a much better school than my own) just got promoted to his second position, barely a year and a half out of college.

It's not like I never want good things to happen to my classmates. After all, many of them are my friends - according to Facebook at least, they all are. The selfish part of me feels alone, though, because none of those professionally good things are happening to me. Hell, one of my friends who can barely write at all got a job which includes a weekly sports column. It is in North Dakota, granted, a state I have no intention of going to ever, and I'd probably rather just live here with a shitty job the rest of my life than go there. But the simple fact that anyone out there would rather employ someone besides me when I'm a better writer stings.

I recently applied to a position in Maryland, a position that wasn't yet open but was expected to be. The present occupant of said position was expected to be going to grad school, but did not get in. I wouldn't have gotten the job anyway, but it was indicative of the marketplace - people are trying to get out of it, and I still can't sneak in. I've almost completely given up on the idea of having a sportswriting job and now I'm kind of just hoping I can get a 9-5 job that would allow me to have a family and continue to be a sports fan. It's a sad turn of events in a life that most people once believed had such potential.

Perhaps I've been wrong all along to view being a sports fan as my real calling. I have placed too much emphasis my whole life on being the best sports fan I can be and not enough on making myself employable. I suppose, in a way, this whole situation is my fault. I have long prefaced any complaint I had about my life by saying that no one is more responsible for the predicament than I am. And it's true, unfortunately. It'd be nice I guess, to blame someone besides me for what my life is, but I can't, because it wouldn't be true.

I'm not sure what set me off on this off-topic post except that I ought to keep this blog alive, if only for my own self-interest. Maybe the occasional personal entry isn't such a bad idea.

Brady Quinn Redux

2010-10-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

For the second year in a row, a Notre Dame alum calling signals in the NFL has been yanked from his job partway through his third start and benched.

Guys like Kyle Boller, Jason Campbell and Rex Grossman were allowed to murder NFL franchises for years, and ND quarterbacks apparently get less than a fifth of the season.

No further comment.

The Agony of Being Irish

2010-09-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

Being a Notre Dame football fan used to be easy. It used to be the thing that got you accused of the most egregious offense a sports fan can commit - 'fair-weather fandom'. You were the fans everybody loved to hate. Your team always won, your team never got in trouble with the law or the NCAA, and your team did all of it without compromising its unique place in college football.

Those days are long past. In my opinion, since the end of the 1993 season, when Notre Dame had a national title stolen from it so that the pollsters could give it to their buddy Bobby Bowden, there is no more tortured fan base than Notre Dame football's.

If you're not interested in the self-serving whining of a Notre Dame fan, read no further. This is way too long for you to enjoy, I'm guessing.

It's a laughable thing to say on the surface. But look closer at this claim. What are the ingredients to being a tortured fan base?

Well, first, there is the obvious: losing. Notre Dame hasn't exactly been awful since 1993, but they have performed far below the usual standard. And I mean FAR below. Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis combined to notch three of the worst winning percentages in the history of Irish football - Davie and Willingham tallied identical .583 winning percentages, while Weis, who was actually fired post-UConn last year with the same winning percentage as his predecessors, coached and lost one extra game to lower his mark. The only coaches to do worse than those three are Terry Brennan and Joe Kuharich (the only losing coach in ND football history apart from interim coaches).

The Irish haven't won a national title in 22 years now, the longest stretch without a title since ND notched their first one in 1924. They have only competed three times in BCS games since that term was introduced to the public in 1998, and they have lost them all by an average of 24.3 points a game. They only have one bowl win since 1993, as a matter of fact, and that one was a meaningless Hawaii Bowl that they probably shouldn't have even bothered playing in, since they were 6-6.

The second ingredient to being a tortured fan base is agonizing losses. Notre Dame has that market cornered. Against Michigan State alone, the Irish have suffered 4 of the most soul-crushing defeats in history in just the last 11 meetings.

Soul-Crushing Defeat 1: In 2000, ND coach Bob Davie, for reasons unknown to me to this day, blitzes his safeties on 4th and 10 with the Irish up by a point and less than 2 minutes left. The Spartans complete a pass to Herb Haygood, who races between two ND defenders and all the way to the end zone. The Irish lose 27-21.

Soul-Crushing Defeat 2: With the game tied late the very next year and the Spartans facing a crucial 3rd and long, Davie inexplicably, unforgivably, unbelievably blitzes the safeties again. In a near-carbon copy of the play the year before, Charles Rogers gets the ball and races all the way for the winning touchdown. The final is 17-10. This was also known as the "DAVIE, YOU SUCK!" game, because of a clearly audible yell from the student section during an injury delay in the second half. This loss, combined with the next week's pathetic showing at Texas A&M which gave ND its first 0-3 start ever, probably sealed Davie's fate.

Soul-Crushing Defeat 3: In 2005, Charlie Weis was taking the college football world by storm after his team clobbered Pittsburgh and Michigan on the road in back to back weeks to open his first season. The Michigan State game was expected to be a coronation for Weis, but instead it turned into a nightmare. About everything that could go wrong did for ND. Brady Quinn turned the ball over a few times. Asaph Schwapp fumbled at the MSU goal line on a play that probably should have been whistled dead for forward progress being stopped. ND's defense, solid to this point in the year, turned into a sieve. The Irish trailed 38-17. But they roared back, led by Quinn's school-record five touchdown passes, and tied it up. They even had a chance to win in regulation after recovering a fumble, but weren't able to get a drive into field-goal range.

The familiar script unfolded from there. ND kicked a field goal in overtime, and lost on MSU's first play - on an option pitch, no less. I'm pretty sure over half of ND's OT games have ended when they kicked a field goal and the other team went in the end zone. MSU plants a flag at ND because the win is their 5th in a row at the stadium, another 'first' in ND football history.

Soul-Crushing Defeat 4: This one you all know, because it's fresh in your minds in 2010. ND plays a sloppy, uninspired game at Michigan State but manages to get the game to overtime and kick a field goal for the lead. Michigan State proceeds, on 4th and 16, facing a 46-yard field goal attempt, to win on a fake field goal touchdown. I am not sure how much more gonad-kicking a loss can be than that one. It's such a big win for MSU that their coach has a freaking heart attack that night - and thankfully, is now perfectly healthy.

Again, that's just Michigan State. There are a whole slew of kicks to the nuts I could reel off since then:

1998 at Michigan State: Not included in the prior list because it wasn't an end-of-game loss, but with ND fans on top of the world after blowing out defending champs Michigan to open the season, the Spartans knock ND off its mountain with a first-half blitzkrieg unlike any ND has ever seen. The Irish trail 42-3 at halftime and end up losing 45-23.
2000 vs Nebraska: With a chance to jump legitimately into the national title conversation with a win over top-ranked Nebraska, ND struggles due to Arnaz Battle breaking his arm partway through the game ("luck of the Irish") and somehow continuing to play QB. But two special-teams touchdowns in the second half tie it and ND goes to overtime thanks to a gutless decision by Bob Davie to run the final minute-plus off the clock in regulation rather than try to kick a field goal. Needless to say, ND kicks a field goal in OT and Eric Crouch scores a TD for Nebraska.
2002 vs Boston College: With the entire college football world loving Tyrone Willingham's undefeated 8-0 team*, the Irish have risen all the way to #3 in the BCS rankings going into an unremarkable matchup with 4-3 BC. Willingham, for some unbelievable reason, pulls out the green jerseys for this stupid game, pumping the Eagles up. ND's offense puts the ball on the ground a ridiculous six times, and the officials call an Omar Jenkins TD catch out of bounds when he clear as day catches the ball in bounds. ND goes down 14-7, and the shine comes off Willingham for good. ND only wins two more games, having to come back late to beat a pitiful Navy team and then creaming hapless Rutgers two weeks later.
(* - It figures in today's environment that ND had to hire a black coach to get any media love - and naturally, when they fired him two years later because he sucked, they were accused of racism even though racists wouldn't have hired said black coach to begin with. Moral: If you don't want to be accused of racism, just don't hire a black coach, because if you fire a white coach after 3 years because he sucks - see Ron Zook of Florida, Keith Gilbertson of Washington, Walt Harris at Stanford...the list goes on - no one bats an eye. And for the record, that 2002 team had a horseshoe up its ass all season and was the exact kind of lucky-to-be-unbeaten team that would've been castigated if Charlie Weis had been coaching them.)
2003: This pitiful exhibition gets its own entry. ND somehow manages to lose two games (Michigan and Florida St) 38-0 and 37-0 respectively, USC cleans their clock in South Bend 45-14, and the final insult comes when they go down in flames 38-12 to a bad Syracuse team in the final game, punctuated by Willingham taking knees to end the game.
2004 at BYU: Tyrone Willingham doesn't even take Darius Walker on the team plane to open the season at BYU, a game moved from October 30th to early September by savvy athletic director Kevin White to give the Irish a tune-up game before playing Michigan. ND's offense is toothless and the Irish go down 20-17. Walker, of course, runs for over 100 yards in essentially a half when a desperate Willingham plucks him off the bench the next week against Michigan.
2004 vs Boston College: Willingham punts from the BC 34-yard line at one point, then later sends D.J. Fitzpatrick out to try a 60-yard field goal with ND down a point on the final play. That sums up this game, and the Willingham Era, frankly, in one sentence.
2005 vs USC: I don't think I even need to describe most of this game for you, so I'll skip to the end. ND gives up a 4th and 9 conversion, a timekeeping error results in the Irish and their fans thinking they've stopped USC's 27-game win streak, the field is cleared, and then the Trojans win on a blatantly illegal shove in the back by ineligible player Reggie Bush on a QB sneak with 3 seconds left. Ultimately, this costs ND what almost certainly would have been, assuming all else remained equal, a shot at Texas in the Rose Bowl for the national title (in which they would have gotten stomped, but still).
2005 vs Ohio State - Fiesta Bowl: The "ND sucks" narrative is always that the Irish got blitzed in this game, but the truth is, the game didn't end until just over a minute left when the Buckeyes scored on a long TD run to make it 34-20. The Irish could have easily won the game if not for replay officials inexplicably ruling despite no video evidence that Anthony Gonzalez's fumble, which is returned for a TD by Tom Zbikowski to give ND a 20-19 lead, is an incomplete pass.
2007: Again, a pathetic season gets its own entry. The Irish start 0-4 for the first time ever (and then 0-5 too), give up more sacks than any team in the history of college football, go through three quarterbacks, lose to MSU at home for the 6th straight time, lose two games (Michigan and USC) 38-0, lose to Navy for the first time since 1963 when Weis inexplicably eschews a makeable field goal to go for it on 4th and long late in regulation, and notch the worst season in Notre Dame history. In a touch of irony after years of being blasted for soft schedules (a ridiculous gripe in any case), ND faces an absolutely brutal slate in which their first TEN opponents attended bowl games. The Irish beat their only two nonbowl opponents, Duke and Stanford, to end the season. (Side note: There will never be a worse matchup that aired on national network TV than 1-9 ND vs 1-9 Duke in November 2007.)
2008 at North Carolina: Being a freshman, Michael Floyd, instead of going down with his first-down catch on the Irish's final drive, giving ND a chance to get down the field and spike the ball before the clock starts again (there were 4 seconds left), inexplicably tries to lateral the ball. UNC recovers for the win.
2008 vs Pittsburgh: The Irish blow a double-digit lead (they did this 3 times that year for L's) and lose in quadruple overtime because they settle for one too many field goals and unreliable kicker Brandon Walker can't come through (in his defense, he nailed a 48-yarder in double OT to save the game for the moment).
2008 vs Syracuse: ND loses to an 8-loss team for the first time ever, as already-fired coach Greg Robinson celebrates a victory when his team erases a double-digit deficit. National media runs with a rumor that ND students were firing snowballs at their own players when in fact they were just throwing them around in general. Somehow, Manti Te'o decides he wants to come to ND after visiting for this game, a minor miracle.
2009 Part 1 - at Michigan: Probably one of the most blatantly stolen games in the history of football officiating. Replay review overturns an Armando Allen TD with absolutely no video evidence at all, costing ND 4 points in a game they lost by 4. Golden Tate is allowed to be mugged the entire game by Michigan defenders without a single flag. Eric Olsen is punched in the face after a play by a Michigan defender with no repercussions. Allen is flagged for taunting for making the "shh" gesture, probably the first time that has ever happened. Michael Floyd gets hurt on Michigan's field, leading to true freshman Shaq Evans missing a catchable ball that would have clinched the game. Tate Forcier leads Michigan to the winning score. The officials practically tackle Greg Mathews on the winning score to ensure he can't commit a penalty that they'd be forced to flag (seriously, watch the tape, they grab his arms as he's headed to the goalpost to dunk the ball). When Weis tries to get some answers regarding all of this, the refs race into the tunnel and ignore him (video of this exists as well). It was a robbery, plain and simple, and a script that would repeat itself two weeks later at the Big House when Michigan played IU.
2009 Part 2 - vs USC: ND by all rights should never have been in this game, as the Trojans dominated the first three quarters. But a surprise rise-up by a previously overmatched ND defense and the offense finally waking up leads to ND actually having the ball with a chance to tie the game. With Jimmy Clausen, who has led game-winning drives in the previous four games (the Michigan one was stolen from him but I'm still counting it), ND fans are confident. Clausen drives the Irish down to the red zone, helped by some nice plays by his wideouts. He throws what could have been a TD pass to Kyle Rudolph, but replay review rules that he did not have control with a foot down (in about the most bang-bang of plays you will see). After a second is put back on the clock after a 3rd-down incompletion (shades of 2005), Clausen hits Duval Kamara for the tying TD on a slant. Or he would have if Kamara hadn't slipped on his route. ND loses.
2009 Part 3 - vs Navy: With a BCS bid still a remote possibility with four wins to end the season, ND begins one of the most shameful November swan dives ever by losing to Navy, a loss punctuated by Clausen being sacked for a safety in his own end zone BY FREAKING NAVY. ND loses, of course, by 2.
2009 Part 4 - at Pittsburgh: ND plays like crap but somehow still has a remote chance at the end thanks to a Golden Tate punt return for a score. On 3rd and 16, Clausen is under heavy pressure and has his hand hit as he is getting rid of the ball to throw it away. A Pitt player scoops up the ball well after the play is blown dead. Somehow, replay review rules the pass a fumble even though video evidence clearly shows Clausen pushing the ball forward with his hand to get it out and even though THE PLAY WAS FREAKING BLOWN DEAD FIVE SECONDS BEFORE ANYONE TOUCHED THE BALL. (You might notice that ND gets shafted on replay reviews here and there.)
2009 Part 5 - vs UConn: Two stupid fumbles by Michael Floyd and Armando Allen keep UConn in a game they have no business being in, and ND once again loses in overtime after kicking a field goal to lead things off, then giving up a touchdown. Weis is fired the Monday after the game, though this doesn't become public knowledge for a while after that.
2009 Part 6 - at Stanford: In a classic Weis game to send off the outgoing coach, the offense plays brilliantly as the mastermind empties his bag of tricks, knowing he has no reason to hang on to any of them. But the defense is epically bad and in the final insult to Weis, he is forced to tell his defense to lay down and give up the winning TD in faint hopes that Clausen can use the final 45 seconds to get his team down the field and tie it. He actually may have come close if not for his offensive line allowing him to be sacked early on and then committing a penalty later. But ND loses and with Clausen and Tate already decided to go pro and with no coach or offensive coordinator, the Irish don't go to a bowl at 6-6. Naturally, they are criticized for their arrogance for this decision because apparently you are obligated to go to a bowl at 6-6 no matter how little sense it makes for your program.
2010 vs Michigan: Denard Robinson becomes the latest ND opponent-turned-Heisman-favorite by ripping off over 500 yards of offense, but the Irish still could have won. Dayne Crist randomly not being able to see out of one of his eyes for a half is one of the all-time "luck of the Irish" nonsensical things ever, and Brian Kelly's eschewing a chip-shot field goal to give his backup QB a chance to score a TD with 3 seconds left was absolutely nonsensical. Naturally, the Irish were in field goal range on the game's final play, but because of the decision not to kick it at halftime, were down 4 instead of 1. Take the freaking points, Kelly. Crist wings the final pass well out of the end zone and ND loses again.
2010 vs Tulsa: First of all, we were playing freaking Tulsa, which is a travesty. But anyway, ND gives up a pick-six, a punt return TD and a blocked PAT return for 2 points. ND is still in a position to win at the end despite having to insert Tommy Rees after Crist suffers a season-ending injury early in the game. They have a makeable field goal in front of them and a perfect kicker on the sideline. But repeating his mistake from the UM game that year, Kelly elects to chuck it into the endzone. With a true freshman QB. Rees throws a pick, ND loses, and I give up on Brian Kelly for the time being. (He might, slowly, be winning me back.)
2011 vs USF and at Michigan: ND has 5 turnovers in each game, so despite being far and away the better team in every other respect, they lose. I cannot describe how frustrating these games were to watch, particularly Michigan, which seems to be fated to find more insane ways to defeat ND in the final 30 seconds every year. In the Michigan game, BTW, they fumbled a ball near the goal line but it bounced right to Denard Robinson ('luck of the Irish') and he took it into the end zone for a TD.

And after that long list of pain, we are brought to the third reason Notre Dame fans are the most tortured fan base of the last nearly-20 years: the hate. Notre Dame is now hated perhaps more universally and more uniformly by college football fans than they ever have been before, and the brunt of that hate is directed towards any ND fans that those haters happen to be friends with. The PTI-ification of sports opinion has led to anyone's like or dislike of anyone being amplified significantly, and social networking sites have given sports fans the chance to make their opinions known whenever they feel like.

The problem for Irish fans of my age and younger is that they didn't get to see any of the winning that brought this hate about. I was two when the Irish won their last national title and seven the last time they were in the mix going into the season's final weeks. It feels like you're being blamed for something your older brother did when other fans trash Notre Dame. As a fan you feel obligated to defend your team, but in the back of your mind you keep thinking "I don't deserve this. I didn't see any of the winning."

I have tried my best to be as logical as possible regarding my defense of ND in recent years, because other fans' vitriol towards ND has basically necessitated it.

The accusations and claims hurled around about Notre Dame grow more ridiculous every year, such as the claim that ND has an easy road to the BCS.

(The road for ND is actually more difficult, in terms of ranking needed to get an auto-bid, than it is for other non-automatic qualifiers. And why does ND get blasted as having an easy road when ACC teams with eight wins seem to get into the BCS every year, and when teams like Illinois get to go to the Rose Bowl just because they happen to be in the Big Ten? Truth: Eligible Irish teams have been passed over for BCS games twice - 1998 and 2002 - and no ND team with more than two losses has ever played in a BCS game.)

There are hypothetical scenarios thrown at you that you can't really even defend against because there's no way of knowing what would happen. Fans hurled accusations pre-season that even with ND's softer-than-ever slate, that a 12-0 record would result in a title bid, deserved or not. This despite the fact that there's really no reason to believe that an unbeaten ND would vault an unbeaten SEC team (certainly not with all the media love bestowed on that league these days) or an unbeaten Texas or Oklahoma or Ohio State (schools with much less baggage being hurled at them than at Notre Dame). This is all of course an academic issue since the Irish have again fallen short of their fans' hopeful expectations.

ND fans are always accused of arrogance for the expectations they have of their team. I'm not quite sure where this came from. Irish fans are so hospitable at South Bend that I think it comes to the detriment of their home-field advantage. ND Stadium is not intimidating anymore because the powers that be have priced out the real fans, leaving old people and people that don't really care as the only ones that can afford to come in. Even the student section isn't that great anymore, since none of the existing four-year students have seen a winning regular season and they are now jaded. Certainly there are some bad ND fans - there are more fans of ND in the country than any other college football team, so it would stand to reason there are more bad fans of ND than there are of any other college football team too. But to dismiss the entire fan base as arrogant is ridiculous. I, for instance, hate Michigan more than just about anything and most of my experiences with them have been bad. But one of my friends is also a Michigan fan and for the most part he's just fine. That doesn't mean I won't still joke about Michigan fans being awful, it just means that that's what they are - jokes, and not serious accusations like the ones hurled at ND fans.

The truth: ND fans just want to win. They are quick to jump on the bandwagon when the team is good, probably just as quick to jump off when the team is not. The ones that aren't quick aren't in denial - they're just more hopeful. The Irish fan base's desire to win doesn't come out of arrogance - it comes out of wanting to freaking win, just like everybody else. ND fans aspire not to be the dominant force in all of college football again, because most all of them accept that they will never be able to be what Notre Dame once was. But they do want to be, perhaps, what Florida, Alabama, USC, Ohio State, etc. are now - consistent contenders. And frankly, there's no reason they can't be. They just need the right coach.

Remember, all four of those programs I just mentioned were pretty much nonentities on a national scale before they got the right coach. Zook, Mike Shula, Paul Hackett, John Cooper - those were the dudes that preceded Meyer, Saban, Carroll/Kiffin, and Tressel, the giants who now rule their programs. ND's struggles are probably due much more to the fact that they hired two guys without any big-time coaching experience (Davie and Weis) and one who wasn't really any good at it to begin with (Willingham) for three straight coaches than they are to the 'fact' that ND can't win big anymore. That's a ridiculous idea. The Irish have great facilities, a great tradition, and the best TV exposure in the country. They're as equipped to win as anybody.

Will Brian Kelly turn out to be the guy to turn around that agony? Early returns say no. But Lou Holtz also started 1-3 at Notre Dame. Then again, so did Bob Davie.

And that stat in itself shows you the Jekyll and Hyde nature of being a Notre Dame football fan.

A New Era Begins for the Panthers, and for My Sports Fandom

2010-09-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

After an ugly and occasionally depressing 0-2 start, the Panthers made the only move they could make on Monday, installing Jimmy Clausen as the new starting QB and benching Matt Moore.

The move wasn't a shock, but the rapid decline of Moore has been. The Panthers spent the off-season handing the keys to Moore, cutting Jake Delhomme as well as basically anyone else over the age of 26 on the team. Then, in April, Jimmy Clausen fell into their laps because of the gold helmet he wore in college. (That was also the last entry I wrote in this blog, due largely to a very uninspiring summer turned in by the Cubs and the Bulls not collecting any of the big prizes in free agency.)

And thank God he did, because Moore has fallen off the face of the earth. Whether this would have happened without Clausen on his tail as the backup quarterback, we'll never know, but the Panthers would have had no other option if it weren't for Clausen appearing at pick 48 in April.

For me personally, Clausen's first start against Cincinnati on Sunday represents a bit more than the normal week 3 game with an 0-2 Panthers team would for me. Clausen is sort of my sacred cause as a football fan. Like a pitcher stuck on a horrible baseball team who sees his win/loss record suffer, I found myself defending Clausen just as vehemently during and since the 2009 Notre Dame season as I once did Brady Quinn - only this time, I was even more certain of myself.

I've always been outspoken in my belief that Jimmy Clausen was the best college football player in America in 2009 for what he did with a Notre Dame team that by all rights was awful and should have won 2 or 3 games. Were it not for errors by his teammates and/or outright corruption from officials at various points in the 2009 season, the Irish could and should have finished with 10 wins or perhaps even 12, but because Duval Kamara slipped on a route against USC, because the refs flat-out stole the Michigan game and ended the Pitt game before Clausen had a chance to work magic, and because his teammates played so badly at times against Navy, UConn and Stanford that one could be forgiven for wondering if they were on the take, Clausen was denied what in my opinion should have been a Heisman Trophy.

Through all this I vehemently defended him further against accusations of cockiness and attitude, pointing out (correctly) that the cocky prick he was accused of being would have never shut up about how he basically never screwed up (he threw 2 interceptions that were his fault all season) and how his teammates and coaches were incompetent. But there isn't a single quote to be found that includes Clausen complaining - not about the 2007 offensive line that tried to get him killed, not about the 2009 defense that cost him wins he rightfully earned, and not about the incompetent coaching staff that allowed both things to happen.

Anyway, on Sunday the day will come for all that defending I did of Clausen to be proven right or wrong. He's said and done all the right things since being drafted (and frankly since Christmas Eve 2008 when he announced his awesomeness with the greatest bowl performance in ND history, albeit against Hawaii), but now it's prove-it time.

I thought I was going to be a genius about Brady Quinn, until he broke a thumb in his 2nd start against Buffalo and was never (given the chance to be) the same as the promising player he looked to be through 6 quarters of being the Browns' starting quarterback. He's riding pine now in Denver and unless some sort of miracle occurs, he will probably never start another meaningful NFL game. He's started 12 times. It happens that fast in the NFL.

Now's the time for Clausen. And the stakes are doubled this time because it's my pro team that took a chance on him. His destiny is intertwined with the Panthers', the team I've been rooting for throughout their entire existence - a fact that gives me something of a closeness with them because I can't say that about any other team I pull for. And on Sunday, my Panthers fandom will change forever.

Good luck, Jimmy.

When College and Pro Alliances Collide...How Sweet It Is

2010-04-25T21:02:00.000-07:00

It's not too often that your favorite pro team uses a high draft pick on one of your favorite players from your favorite college team. It's something that I wasn't sure I'd ever see. Other than a brief, albeit successful, flirtation with Rocket Ismail in the latter stages of his NFL career, my team had never had a notable Notre Dame player on roster. I didn't expect that to change last weekend during the NFL draft. Every indication was that Carolina was going to select either a possession wideout or a defensive player with their first pick in the 2010 draft, neither of which portended an Irish player.

Watching the draft, I was much more concerned with where two of my all-time favorite college players, Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate, were headed than I was with Carolina's pick. I'm rarely enthralled with the Panthers' early picks - DeAngelo Williams in 2006 excepted - although often I turn out to be wrong.

The most shining examples of this wrongness came in 2005 and 2008, when I wanted different players at the same position as the Panthers drafted in round 1. In '05, I was smitten with Derrick Johnson and was thoroughly bummed when Carolina selected fellow linebacker Thomas Davis one pick before Johnson. In '08, I wanted Rashard Mendenhall instead of our pick, Jonathan Stewart. As of now, Davis is a Pro Bowler and Stewart is part of one of only four double-1,100 yard rush tandems in NFL history, while Johnson has been virtually nonexistent and Mendenhall has been good, but not as good as Stewart. Since then I've generally trusted the front office's judgment.

Anyway, it didn't even occur to me, even when Clausen slipped out of the first round mostly due to the fact that he wore a gold helmet in college, that the two rooting interests would intersect. I had good reason not to suspect this.

For one thing, entering this year, Carolina had not selected a quarterback before the FOURTH round of the draft since their first-ever draft pick of Kerry Collins back in 1995. (Impossible for me to believe, but true.)

For another, coach John Fox and general manager Marty Hurney are in the last years of their contract, and both would probably have been fired three months ago if not for the looming lockout, and our owner's reluctance to potentially be paying two different coaches and GMs during it. With that factor in play, selecting a rookie quarterback, pretty much the only position where the media will freak out on you if you dare to play a rookie, seemed impossible.

I could write a whole article about how asinine it was that Jimmy Clausen, the most accurate quarterback I've ever witnessed play (that's college OR pro, and yes, I'm going there) was still available at 48 when Sam "My Throwing Shoulder Is Held Together by Spellotape" Bradford is going to get $50 million guaranteed and the Denver Broncos traded half their draft to select Tim "I've Never Used My Current Throwing Motion in a Game" Tebow. But luckily for me, I don't have to, because the very, very fine folks at WalterFootball.com wrote one for me. It was written pre-draft, but it's still a very enlightening read.

Back on topic. I was so certain that Clausen would not be taken when pick 48 rolled around and he was still there that I posted a Facebook comment on a friend's "Carolina will get a QB" status stating, basically, that I'd love to be wrong, but I didn't see any way we were going to do it.

About a minute later, I received a Tweet on my feed that I will never forget. It came from ESPN's Chris Mortensen, who had been among the handful of people occasionally Tweeting draft picks, or at least predictions, before they were made. The Tweet read simply, "Clausen to panthers #nfldraft".

I had to read it like 3 times before I registered it. This could not be true. Clausen, the guy who I vehemently defended for the last 3 years? Clausen, who both Mel Kiper Jr. and myself had both basically stated that if Clausen couldn't succeed in the pros, no quarterback could? Clausen, a QUARTERBACK?

Sure enough, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell emerged a couple of minutes later and read the pick. It was Jimmy Clausen. My team, for the first time since Collins, had a legitimate franchise quarterback.

I'm pretty sure I blacked out. When we picked Williams in 2006, I ran around my dorm room pumping my fist. When we picked Clausen, I'm not quite sure what I did. I think I got up and did a little dance. I'm not even sure. I do know that I sent my mom, a die-hard ND fan whom I was updating on the proceedings, an all-caps text with the news. I then fielded at least 4 Facebook wall posts congratulating me, as well as a call from my best friend, Mark, congratulating me as well.

Let me tell you what this means. This is a game-changer for the Panthers' franchise. Up until now, I wasn't sure where Carolina was headed. They had spent the off-season slashing costs by cutting highly-compensated veterans. Our entire QB corps has a total of 8 starts (all by Matt Moore) among them. We had some building blocks - a good offensive line and secondary, and of course Williams and Stewart - but nothing indicated that this was going to get put together this year.

Well, it still probably isn't getting put together this year. After all, I'm the biggest Jimmy Clausen fan without a blood relationship on the planet, but even Peyton Manning was pretty bad his rookie year. (Then again, Manning didn't have the benefit of said offensive line and running backs.) But the future of this franchise is set. And Jimmy Clausen is the man to guide it. Coach Fox was quick to inform Clausen that Carolina's offense is all but a carbon copy of the offense he ran under Charlie Weis at Notre Dame - no surprise, since Jeff Davidson, the offensive coordinator, is a Weis disciple.

So by the end of 2010, expect the Jimmy Clausen era to begin at Carolina.

I still have to pinch myself that I get to write that sentence.

Go Irish. Go Panthers. Go Clausen.

A Bracket in Tatters

2010-03-24T10:05:00.001-07:00

Luckily, my bracket is not among those in tatters after Northern Iowa shocked Kansas, the tournament favorite (roughly 40 percent of ESPN.com users picked the Jayhawks to win it all). I had much more trouble picking the Midwest Region than any other bracket, struggling with my pick of Ohio State-Georgetown (that one was taken care of for me) and Ohio State-Kansas.

For no discernible reason I went with the Buckeyes, a pick that looks prescient now that OSU seems to have a sweetheart draw to the Final Four (a Jekyll-and-Hyde Tennessee team, followed by either UNI or a depleted Michigan State squad). I ended up with OSU as champion, and I was outspoken in my belief that the winner of that presumed Kansas-Ohio State matchup would win the title. Now that matchup won't happen.

A portion of my bracket that's not so hot? The South, of course.

The most befuddling region in the tournament due to Duke's placement as a #1 seed and the seedings that appear to have been determined via drunken darts, the South proved my downfall. The total number of games I will get right in that region, out of 15? The answer is 5.

Duke, Villanova, Baylor, Texas A&M and St. Mary's. I picked those 5 teams to win in round 1. I missed EVERY OTHER GAME in the region. This was due in equal parts to my catastrophic pick of Louisville to the Sweet 16 (bet on Good Louisville showing up and instead got When's-Tip-Again? Louisville), Notre Dame to the Sweet 16 (complete homer pick, should have known better) and Villanova to the Final Four (I would've had them out in round 2 in almost any other draw). I also bet on Purdue to go out to Siena - something I should have known wouldn't happen because I wanted it to. Generally, my least-favorite team in the tournament does spectacularly well, whether it's UNC (almost always), or this year, Purdue. All bets are off with them, and frankly the more I root against them, the better their chances get.

Still, I stand in decent shape. Both of my title game participants are intact, something only 6 of the other 17 people in my bracket pool can claim. (Half our pool - 9 people - had Kansas to win the whole thing.) Only one of my Final Four - Villanova - has been dispatched. Only one person in our pool has an intact Final Four, and his Final Four includes Butler, so that will last about 1 more day.

But brackets aside, the first weekend, as has been beaten to death by the national pundits, was spectacular. Game after game seemed to come down to the wire. Friday was a relative clunker, but the other 3 days of the Dance proved to be unreal. The only regret was that neither Gus Johnson (marooned in Buffalo, where no game came down to the final minute) nor Bill Raftery (in Providence where Nova/Robert Morris proved to be the only great game) were there for the most exciting shots: Farokhmanesh, Lucious, and Danero.

I'm of the opinion that Ali Farokhmanesh's shot should be revered perhaps above all the others. Farokhmanesh's chuck (I predict the shot gets remembered simply as his last name, with no other description needed) defined what the tournament is all about - underdogs playing to win, playing as if they have nothing to lose. As one sportswriter (Pat Forde or Seth Davis, can't remember which) said, Farokhmanesh wasn't in a 'nothing to lose' situation. Most great tournament shots were made by people for whom a miss wouldn't have been blamed on them, given the circumstance. After all, no one ever blames a loss on a last-second miss (unless it's a layup or something). But Farokhmanesh was in a spot where the 'on paper' play is to run more clock. If he missed, and UNI lost, it would've been on him. But he saw an opportunity for greatness, and he took it. Really inspiring stuff. I'll never forget "the Farokhmanesh", just like I'll never forget Murray and Michigan State's buzzer-beating wins. Great stuff. One can only hope Cornell, UNI and St. Mary's can carry the mid-major banner even further.

Selection Sunday: The Good (6 Seed?) and the Bad (Quinn Dumped for Two Footballs and a Helmet)

2010-03-15T21:33:00.001-07:00

For Notre Dame fans, as with many fans, the good often comes with the bad. And of course, because they're Notre Dame, it's usually magnified in both cases.

Selection Sunday was slightly different, because the good involved the Irish hoops team, which has been much less polarizing than the football team due mostly to its lack of historical success and its conference membership. The bad - Brady Quinn's trade, which may or may not signal the death knell for his starting hopes - was played down somewhat due to its proximity to Selection Sunday.

But for me, they were the top stories of the day.

Notre Dame's seeding was truly shocking. After ND's run to end the year (see prior post), I was thinking ND was headed for a 10 or 11 seed, with some thinking the Irish needed to win a Big East tournament game to even make the field. The Irish cruised by Seton Hall to end that discussion, upset Pitt in the quarterfinals, then took West Virginia to the wire in the Big East semifinals to place themselves firmly into the field. The apparent bad news was that ND had played themselves squarely into position for the 8/9 game. A clear majority of bracketologists placed the Irish on the 8 seed line - and with Syracuse a presumptive 1 seed, that left, for most, a 2/3 chance that ND would be matched up with Kansas or Kentucky, the 2 teams I fear most, in round 2. Some people had WVU as a 1 seed (something I endorsed and believed should happen) which meant Notre Dame would've had to play KU or UK in the 2nd round.

After a lot of talk and a lot of deliberation (my own message board did a mock selection committee of a small group of people that would end up getting 64 teams correct and placing 61 of those within one seed line, much better than most of the major bracketologists, for what that's worth), the selection show was on. I, as I do every time ND makes it, sat at rapt attention to see where the Irish would end up.

And quickly, something weird became clear. The first bracket was revealed, the Midwest region. And only one Big East team - Georgetown - was in it. To this point, the committee had never placed more than two league teams in the same region (avoiding a potential conference game before the Elite 8), so alarm bells quickly began going off. I realized this after the 2nd bracket was revealed - only 3 league teams had been shown so far. This meant one thing to me: Someone got left out. Louisville, who had been mentioned in passing as a bubble team, was first in my mind, but...could it be?

After all, this is the same selection committee that placed a 14-4 Big East team on the 5 seed line. The year before, that selection committee underseeded Notre Dame to 6, THEN dramatically underseeded tournament darling Winthrop to ensure they faced the Irish in round 1. Could ND have somehow been left out?

To make a long story short, no. It turned out the goofs on the committee placed 3 Big East teams in the South bracket - one of whom was Notre Dame. The Irish, the last matchup revealed, were shown as a 6 seed against Old Dominion.

Now, Old Dominion is a good team, probably underseeded, so Notre Dame is effectively getting a 7, but still. Baylor seems pretty good for a 2nd round matchup compared to the 2 seeds ND could have drawn (KSU, Ohio St) or Kansas or Kentucky if it'd been a 1. The seeding of ND has been panned by most, although many have bigger complaints about the bracket (Cal as an 8 and Duke's ridiculous path to Indy among them). Three weeks ago, ND was 6-8 in the Big East, so a 6 seed is absolutely mind-blowing considering the big picture. I have high hopes. My bracket places ND in the Sweet 16, but I think ND could go anywhere from home Thursday afternoon to the Final Four. They're unpredictable, and so is the South region.

The bad thing? Oh, the Quinn trade.

You know my opinion of Quinn. I'm a blue and gold bleeder and always* will be, and I feel like he got the screw job in Cleveland.

(*I will - WILL - bail if the Irish join a conference, unless they truly are forced to by the creation of superconferences. If they join when no real change occurs, I will bail because the leadership will have hoodwinked us into it with their hideous scheduling. Anyway, that's neither here nor there.)

The Browns married themselves to a bad QB who had a fluky season and didn't let Quinn play until halfway through year 2. A broken thumb submarined a really bright start to Quinn's career, then the Browns fired their coach. The guy they brought in, Eric Mangini, is a grade-A d-bag (no one argues this). He didn't give Quinn any confidence whatsoever, and when Quinn floundered early on a team that had jettisoned all their talent against good defenses, he was unfairly benched at halftime of game 3 for Anderson. Quinn was then left on the bench as Anderson continued to suck, and it was clear as day that the Browns were keeping him there simply to keep Quinn's contract escalators from kicking in. Then, when he returned, Quinn showed a bit (a fantastic performance against the Lions) but mostly struggled again - on a talentless team. He would later get hurt again to end his season.

The Mike Holmgren era began as GM and Holmgren was noncommittal on his QB situation. We now know it was because he disliked both - he cut Anderson and shipped Quinn off for two third-day draft picks and a backup RB. Quite a haul for a guy you burned a first-round pick on, and gave 12 starts to before pitching him.

The trade, particularly the nothing that Denver surrendered for him, makes me think Quinn may be done as a starting QB - something that would be among the bigger injustices in the history of young NFL quarterbacks, in my opinion. (And Cleveland is now rumored to be after Jimmy Clausen - if that happens I'll start to wonder if the league has it out for ND quarterbacks, because Clausen, though more talented than Quinn, will flounder just the same way if presented with that mess.)

Kyle Orton is a beat-out-able quarterback, but he did little last year to lose his job. Quinn will now be working with a Weis disciple (Josh McDaniels succeeded him as Patriots' offensive coordinator), but Romeo Crennel worked with Weis too and that didn't seem to be enough to give Quinn a look for quite a while. We shall see, but my hopes aren't high. It's a sad saga for my all-time favorite college football player (for personal reasons more so than on-field reasons).

Either way, it was an eventful Sunday for Notre Dame.

Carleton Scott Explodes, Luke Harangody Watches, and Notre Dame Defines the Ewing Theory

2010-03-07T15:59:00.000-08:00

In my sports fan life, the list of miraculous in-season turnarounds I've been privileged enough to witness as a fan of the team involved is incredibly short.

The 2004-05 Chicago Bulls started 0-9 before finishing the year winning 45 of their last 73 games, making the playoffs for the first time in 7 years.

The 2007 Chicago Cubs were as many as 8.5 games behind Milwaukee in late June before a 5-run comeback, capped by a walk-off Aramis Ramirez home run, propelled the team to the best 15-month stretch I've ever had in my sports-fan life, as the team ripped off the best record in baseball the rest of that season to win the division and the best record in baseball the following season to win another division. Typical of the Cubs (and for that matter all of my teams in important games), they failed to win a playoff game either time, but that's not the point.

Well, add the 2009-10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish to that list. And, incredibly, it all began with their best player (and one of their top 5 players ever) being injured - proving, again, the Ewing Theory perfected by Bill Simmons reader Dave Cirilli. This theory follows around players whose teams 'inexplicably' play better when they are injured or unavailable - but there are usually good reasons why. In Harangody's case, the injury forced Carleton Scott into the lineup full-time, forced Jack Cooley into Scott's spot as the 7th guy in the rotation, and made ND more athletic, bigger and better on defense. In addition, Mike Brey decided to go Princeton on us, slowing down ND's pace rather than trying to outrun people. It's a move that coach Mike Brey claims was in the works prior to Gody's injury, but because of the injury made ND a team that had more energy at the end of games.

It started with the Irish at 6-5 in the Big East going into the Seton Hall game. To that point, ND had been relatively disappointing, showing flashes of brilliance (an incredible 1st half that propelled them to a key win over West Virginia early in Big East season, for instance), but for the most part seemed, just like the 08-09 model, to be playing below their talent level. Stupid losses to Cincinnati (horrible FT shooting by a usually-good free throw shooting team) and Rutgers (RUTGERS?) had ND fans scratching their heads and wondering if it was OK to call for Mike Brey's ouster just two years after a 14-4 Big East season.

Naturally (because bad things just happen to the Irish hoopsters without explanation), Jeremy Hazell chose that game to shoot out his ass, making at least four wild off-balance three-pointers and scoring, I believe, 35 points on 20 shot attempts or something insane. The Pirates not only won, but their arena was the site of Luke Harangody's deep knee bone bruise when he landed wrong attempting to get a rebound. The injury would keep him out the next five games.

It looked like ND was screwed regarding its latent NCAA hopes. Even more so when the team managed to lose at home to St. John's, thanks to a horrid game from Tory Jackson, to fall to 6-7 in the league. Without Luke, the five games that remained - @Louisville, Pittsburgh, @Georgetown, UConn, @Marquette - looked like a gauntlet. The team needed 4-1 to even consider a tournament bid, it appeared. And 1-4 (or 0-5) looked a hell of a lot more likely.

Instead, Notre Dame did something neither I nor any other close observers thought possible - they toughened up on defense, they slowed down their pace, and they didn't miss a beat whatsoever. In fact, the Irish got better. A lot better.

I confess to having skipped both the Louisville and Pittsburgh games. They conflicted with what I thought were more important Ball State home games. Both teams would go on to make me look silly for feeling that way, but anyway. Herewith, a game by game recap of the team that (appears to have) changed everything.

Game 1: ND loses to Louisville in double OT

ND went on to fight their butts off against Louisville, losing only because 1) Ben Hansbrough missed 4 free throws at the end of regulation and 2) Samardo Samuels was allowed way too much latitude, resulting in every ND big man fouling out of the game. (This info is gleaned from the ND board I frequent, so take it with whatever sodium substitute you choose.) So many Irish fouled out that we were left with four people who were no taller than 6'2" in the game towards the end of double OT. The game sadly ended when ND failed to get a shot off on their final possession, stepping out of bounds. At this point the Irish were 6-8 in the league and were essentially out of tournament consideration. Only sweeping their final four games would even broach the attention of the selection committee - ND's nonconference schedule, as it has always been the last few years, was too weak for ND to be considered at 9-9.

Game 2: ND blows out Pittsburgh at home

Again, I skipped this game. Although impressed by the Irish's gutty performance against Louisville, I prioritized Ball State's game against Eastern Michigan - Senior Night - above this one. Pitt came in as the hottest team in the league and I assumed a beatdown was forthcoming for my Irish.

Instead, the Irish blasted Pitt. The final was 68-53, but 15 was about as close as Pitt had come the entire second half. The Irish physically dominated Pitt (a sentence that I never thought I'd write about a basketball game). Four Irish scored in double figures, and ND outrebounded Pitt by nine. It was a command performance by Notre Dame, but for the time being, it seemed to serve as little else but a reminder that these Irish should have been a lot better than they were. After all, ND still had two road games left against top-notch Big East competition, and they had to this point won exactly once at an opposing team's venue.

Game 3: ND handles Georgetown in Washington, DC

Georgetown played the toughest schedule in the league this year, their RPI is in the top 15, and as a big, tough team, they are a matchup nightmare for Notre Dame, a team that makes a living out of being quicker and getting open shots. This would seem impossible for ND against a bigger team. Austin Freeman was sporadic and ineffective - we would later find out he had diabetes - but this seemed like a minor stumbling block.

Notre Dame shot 57 percent from the floor and blocked 7 shots. I sat for much of the game in a state of shock. This was a Notre Dame team that was unlike any team the Irish had turned in since I had begun following them at the turn of the century. Carleton Scott was, quite simply, the best player on the floor, scoring 21, blocking 3 shots, absorbing a blatant cheap shot from Greg Monroe of Georgetown, and playing beyond his experience level. ND had 12 offensive rebounds. Georgetown had 12 defensive rebounds. Ben Hansbrough fought off the only serious Hoya threat late in the game by canning a 3. Suddenly, Notre Dame had two winnable games left (in fans' eyes), and a tourney bid was, impossibly, in our sights.

Game 4: ND earns revenge on UConn

UConn can be described using the old adage 'million dollar talent, ten-cent heads'. UConn is a talented team. UConn plays like a "bunch of retards trying to hump a doorknob out there", to quote Patches O'Houlihan. UConn chucked 14 3's, many long after it became obvious it wasn't going to work (they only made three). ND, of course, was 3/15 themselves, but they fought their butts off. Although UConn was so much bigger than the Irish that ND couldn't have a rebounding advantage, the Irish managed to keep UConn's advantage to 1.

Carleton Scott, so much a non-factor early in the season that he actually quit the team for a time (he missed the WVU game), had another double-double, with 12 and 14. And Tory Jackson, quite possibly the most unappreciated player in Notre Dame history, had 22 points in his final home game. Jackson has led the Big East in assists 3 times in his 4 years in South Bend. He has received all-Big East mention zero times. How is this? You tell me.

Game 5: ND pulls off a heart-stopping win at Marquette

I must confess something: At no point in this game did I think Notre Dame was going to win. At no point whatsoever. I wasn't comfortable with the way the game was going, Lazar Hayward is a ninny who always seems to save his best performances for us, Luke Harangody was back (which against all odds was not something I was looking forward to, considering the last two weeks), and Maurice Acker, who transferred from Ball State, is precisely the kind of player who would haunt Notre Dame. Acker already had by randomly lighting us up for 11 points in the 2nd half of Marquette's Big East tourney win over ND in 2008 that probably knocked the Irish down a seed line (or two).

ND couldn't shoot - again - so they were reduced to scrapping - again. Gody played but a few minutes, scoring 5 points and generally trying not to mess up his new team's flow. (I have to say, I admire the way Gody has handled all of this. It would be easy for a guy like him to get selfish after 3 straight years of carrying ND on his back, but when it was announced this weekend that he will continue to come off the bench the rest of the year, he was more than happy to do it. He knows that he has a chance to reinvent his legacy somewhat here at ND, and helping the Irish to a Sweet 16 bid - even not as the focal point - would simply add to his legend. Gotta love him.)

Tim Abromaitis hasn't been able to shoot in weeks, but showing why I love him so much, he powered his way to 18 points anyway. Tyrone Nash quietly had 13 and 9. The Irish outrebounded a bigger, faster, more athletic Golden Eagles team by TWELVE. Still, I doubted, doubted and continued to doubt, right up until the last four seconds, where, with ND down three and Marquette unbelievably refusing to foul despite plenty of opportunities, this happened.

The Carleton Scott 3 might end up going right in there with the Aramis Ramirez walk-off homer in 2007 and the Ben Gordon running floater at the buzzer to beat the Knicks in 2005 as moments that changed everything for me as a fan for quite some time. I've watched the clip of Jack Nolan losing his mind at least 15 times and I will watch it at least 30 more. From that moment, I knew ND was going to win, and sure enough, they did.

ND's now 10-8 in the Big East and pretty much a shoo-in for the NCAA tournament, barring some very surprising occurrences in Championship Week. It's an in-season turnaround that defied all description. And for once, it happened to my team.

Go Irish, and watch out, you 6/7 seed types that may end up drawing Notre Dame in round 1.

The Legacy of Clausen

2009-12-10T09:32:00.000-08:00

The legacy of Jimmy Clausen is that of a missed opportunity in Notre Dame football history.

After all, he might well be the best quarterback ever to suit up in the Notre Dame blue and gold. And yet, he leaves without ever winning more games than he lost in a regular season.

Jimmy Clausen's brilliance has been well-documented. If the Heisman Trophy could be awarded in a vacuum, without paying attention to team records, Clausen would have a really good shot at winning it and would quite possibly be in New York City this weekend for the presentation. It sounds ridiculous because he plays for a 6-6 team, but the fact of the matter is, Jimmy was the best quarterback in America this year. It really wasn't particularly close.

Statistics can't tell the story of Clausen, but they're a start. 3,722 passing yards. 68 percent passing. 28 touchdowns. Four interceptions, two of which were tipped and the other two of which were catchable balls (if poor decisions). Stats, though, don't capture the fear of God that was put into any team when Jimmy had a chance to win the game. I can only imagine what USC fans probably felt like as Jimmy was dissecting the Trojans' defense on his team's final drive on October 17th, or the relief they probably felt after Duval Kamara slipped on his route to prevent Jimmy's perfect pass from hitting him between the numbers for a game-tying touchdown that may well have turned the tide of the Irish season.

That USC game did turn the tide of the Irish season - for the worse. Although ND escaped a mediocre BC team and clobbered a hideous Washington State team in the two weeks after that, the Irish were never the same. And it was because the shine was off Clausen. It wasn't his fault, but ND's failure to deliver a victory against SC at the end put a dent in Jimmy's aura of late-game invincibility that he couldn't undo.

If it weren't for his supporting cast failing at the end of all four November games, Clausen would probably have a 10-2 record and a BCS bid to show for his efforts, but he doesn't. Clausen won ND games they probably shouldn't have won against Michigan State, Purdue and Washington with three consecutive game-winning drives, all on a painful turf toe that he did his best to pretend wasn't there (the way he walked when not being chased by defenders gave him away). If his defense had a pulse, it would've been four, as Clausen engineered what should have been a game-winning drive at Michigan. For that matter, if his defense had a pulse, ND would probably be 12-0 - ND scored at least 21 points in all six losses this year.

November made things pretty bad for Jimmy. His offensive line was so pathetic late in the game against Navy that he ended up being sacked for a safety that locked up the game for the Middies. The following week against Pitt, Jimmy was chased around by the Pitt defense while attempting to lead his team back and ended up having the chance to win it being stolen away from him by a replay official who inexplicably ruled an incomplete pass that had been blown dead well before anyone from Pitt picked it up as a fumble - one in a long line of ridiculous replay decisions that have gone against ND in the Weis era. Against UConn, everyone but him seemingly screwed up, as two late-game fumbles by Michael Floyd and Armando Allen helped UConn to OT and ultimately to the win. And in the final insult, ND allowed Stanford to score the go-ahead TD because it was the only way to ensure a chance to win it with Clausen. Jimmy once again got betrayed by his O-line but got ND within striking distance before running out of time.

Clausen will probably be shredded by the media pundits for his team's poor performance, just like Brady Quinn was (and still is in Cleveland). They'll ignore that Clausen is one of the most insanely accurate passers to ever walk this earth - I swear that more of Jimmy's incompletions than not were the product of throwaways or receivers failing to make a play on a ball they needed to make. Ultimately, he'll probably get picked behind a quarterback he's obviously better than, like Quinn was, and he'll probably get pigeonholed by whatever team takes him and unfairly benched behind someone he's obviously better than, like Quinn was. And none of that will ever take away from my memories of him - just like with Quinn.

Why Notre Dame Still Matters

2009-10-07T08:51:00.001-07:00

The haters want you to believe Notre Dame doesn't matter. Every year Notre Dame struggles, the haters race to anoint the Irish irrelevant.

"They don't matter," say the haters.

The haters are wrong.

The Irish may not be 'mattering' for the right reasons in the last decade, but they still matter.

Why else was it a huge story when Notre Dame axed coach Tyrone Willingham after three seasons because of poor performance and even worse recruiting? The haters came up with every racist excuse in the book to try and get on the Irish for the firing. Never mind that the 2007 season - when the players Willingham recruited (and didn't recruit) were the upperclassmen - was an exercise in futility, due mainly to the fact that the Irish were forced to play a talented but not-ready-to-play-these-games freshman and sophomore class almost exclusively. The haters don't care about that. The haters didn't care that Willingham didn't even bring the team's best running back (true freshman Darius Walker) on the trip to BYU for the 2004 season opener. ND lost, a humiliating performance. A week later, Walker ran for over 100 yards in about a quarter and a half when a desperate Willingham pulled him off the bench against Michigan. He led the Irish to an upset win.

That was the thing about Willingham. Even when he brought talented players in to ND, he didn't know how to handle them. Jeff Samardzija didn't catch a TD in his first two years at the school - under Ty. Brady Quinn, who only came to ND after Quinn's HS teammate Chinedum Ndukwe's father convinced Willingham to look at him while recruiting Ndukwe, was a 50 percent passer his first two years at ND. Walker saw the second-most carries, behind Ryan Grant, even though every Irish fan could plainly see Walker should be getting the bulk of the work. Walker went on to be one of the best backs in Irish history in '05 and '06.

When Washington axed Willingham halfway through his fourth season at U-Dub for hideously pathetic performance - the Huskies went 0-12 in his last season - there was almost no talk. No one dared call Washington racist. Because just like at ND, he basically ran the program into the ground with horrible recruiting and bad in-game decisions. It is a mark of Steve Sarkisian's skill as a coach that he has taken Willingham's players and beaten USC. Although the Huskies are 2-3, their losses are to LSU, Stanford and ND - the latter two on the road. All three are solid teams, and all three will probably play January bowl games this year.

Anyway, I could talk about Ty Willingham for hours. This article is not about him.

Why else does Notre Dame matter?

The Irish have essentially decided four Heisman Trophies this decade. Unfortunately, none have been ND players.

2002: Carson Palmer. Palmer shreds the Irish, then ranked top 10 under Willingham, to separate himself from the field (Brad Banks, Larry Johnson, Willis McGahee). If you ask me, just looking at the numbers, Banks or Johnson would've been better picks. But the media hype machine surrounding ND and its opponents carried the day.

2004: Matt Leinart. Leinart shreds the Irish in Willingham's last game as ND coach to separate himself from the field (Adrian Peterson, Jason White, Alex Smith, Reggie Bush). If you ask me, Peterson should have won, but he was a freshman, so he was basically ineligible. Once again, the voting distribution was small enough that one can assume that the media hype machine surrounding ND carried Leinart to a Heisman.

2005: Reggie Bush. Bush ripped ND to shreds in the biggest game of the regular season, USC's 34-31 escape at South Bend. Media pundits, once again, caught up in the ND hype machine, basically announce the Heisman decided. Vince Young and Matt Leinart never have a chance, and Brady Quinn, the best quarterback on the field in that ND/USC game, is eliminated for his defense's failings. Now, this season, Bush probably is the best player. One can make an argument for Young, but Bush was phenomenal. But is he good enough to justify the biggest voting differential from 1 to 2 in Heisman history?

2006: Troy Smith. Smith didn't play ND in 2006. But he did play the Irish in the Fiesta Bowl the year before and enjoyed a solid performance thanks to ND's pathetic defense. The hype machine began for Smith almost immediately. Because Ohio State didn't lose a game in 2006, Smith was given the Heisman by a ridiculous margen over Darren McFadden and Quinn. Smith, facing actual defensive pressure for the first time all season in the BCS title game Jan. 8th, submits one of the worst performances in the history of the quarterback position against Florida.

In addition, Notre Dame made JaMarcus Russell the No. 1 overall draft pick by allowing LSU receivers to get wide open against them in the Sugar Bowl following the 2006 season. Russell, despite doing nothing but chuck the ball deep for wide-open receivers the entire game, despite the fact that LSU's own fans wanted Russell benched for Matt Flynn at points in the '06 season, is made the No. 1 pick by the hype machine. Brady Quinn struggles against a real defense and free-falls to pick 22. Russell is currently one of the biggest train wrecks of a quarterback in the NFL. Quinn...well...let's not talk about it.

Notre Dame still matters. They're still on NBC for all their home games. They still get talked about, year in and year out, more than any other college program. Not one, but both of ESPN's studio analysts for college football coverage are essentially there to wage war about ND (May and Holtz). And when an ND signal-caller plays as well as Jimmy Clausen has this year, they are (albeit bedgrudgingly) placed in the thick of the Heisman race.

No, Notre Dame is not irrelevant. The day the Irish win a game and no one complains or whines about it except the opposing team, or the day ND loses and the only team fan base that's happy about it is the opposing team's - that's when they'll be irrelevant.

Don't hold your breath.

Late Night Last Night

2009-01-16T07:15:00.001-08:00

Sorry about no post this morning. Didn't get back from my 'other' job until nearly 3 am.

In the meantime, how about Pete Carroll basically tossing Mark Sanchez under a Hummer at his jumping-to-the-pros presser? I'm reading a lot about it and I'm kind of surprised. Mr. Player's Coach turning on a player? Especially a QB when USC is absolutely loaded with them? There's got to be more to this story. Keep your eye on it...

The Rundown: January 15th, 2009

2009-01-14T21:32:00.000-08:00

NCAAB: Loads of Top 25 action.

Nothing overly notable happened last night in the world of college basketball, but there was a boatload of ranked teams in action, and it made for a great night of hoops. Syracuse fell to Georgetown in Big East play, while Pitt and Wake Forest remained undefeated.

Top 25 scores:

#1 Pittsburgh 75, South Florida 62
#2 Duke 70, Georgia Tech 56
#3 Wake Forest 83, Boston College 63
#12 Georgetown 88, #8 Syracuse 74
#10 Michigan State 78, Penn State 73
Texas A&M 84, #21 Baylor 73
Illinois 66, #24 Michigan 51

Stephen Curry also had 39 points in a Davidson win over Elon. Ho-hum.

Tonight's action: Three national games tonight. None of them are particularly great matchups, but all involve Top 20 teams on the road. So you never know. Watch UConn/St. John's and UNC/Virginia in a doubleheader on ESPN at 7, or catch Purdue/Northwestern at 7 on ESPN2.

NFL: Lots of news for a day off.

Leading it off, obviously, is talk from Cowboys' and league sources that T.O. may be cut for chemistry reasons. Ironically, T.O.'s theatrics in Dallas are probably less severe than anything he did in SF or Philly. The clear follow-up question: Where does he go next? (Plax's future in New York is also in question.)

Scott Pioli, the new Chiefs' czar, says that Herm Edwards may be back as head coach. The entire Chiefs' fan base would like to respectfully offer to chug a gallon of brake fluid if that turns into reality.

Anquan Boldin practiced Wednesday and plans to play in the NFC title game.

I caught a very odd blurb in Awful Announcing about Michael Irvin having a gun drawn on him, then proceeding to get sucked into a friendly discussion on the Cowboys with his assailant. This world is crazy sometimes.

In draft declarations: Sam Bradford back to OU, Mark Sanchez off to the NFL.

MLB: Owners calling for a cap?

Oh, boy. Maybe baseball would or would not be better off without a salary cap, but it seems calling for one just because the Yankees signed a ton of free agents again (literally if you include Sabathia) would strike many fans as penis-envy. In any case, nothing is likely to be done about it now: The collective bargaining agreement ends after 2011, so maybe something will happen then. I'll have forgotten about it by that point, of course.

The Last Word:

The NBA won't fine Portland for threatening to sue the hell out of anyone who signed Darius Miles (Memphis did). Let's hope that's the last time the league has to rule on "should we punish a team that threatened lawsuits against any team that picked up our horrible contract?".

The Rundown: January 14th, 2009

2009-01-14T00:06:00.000-08:00

NCAAB: Meeks-mania!

I confess when I woke up this morning I didn't know a damn thing about Kentucky star Jodie Meeks. Considering he had already had a 46-point game, I should have. I am failing my duties as a sports fan these days.

But I sure know who he is now after he broke Dan "Go Drink Another Beer" Issel's single-game Kentucky scoring mark with FIFTY-FOUR at Tennessee to move the Wildcats to 2-0 in SEC play, 90-72. It was the highest SEC scoring game since Chris "Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf" Jackson dropped a double nickel for LSU 20 years ago.

The most remarkable thing about this performance - which got Meeks mobbed on a road court by his teammates, which was an odd sight to see on live TV - was that it was insanely efficient. Meeks attempted only 22 shots, which is fewer than your average leading scorer in a game. Meeks was aided by a red-hot 10/15 showing from the 3-point line and he netted all 14 free throws. He's top five in the country in scoring. Maybe it's time to throw this guy in with Curry, Harangody, Hansbrough and Griffin in the National P.O.Y. discussion.

Oh yeah, and Ohio State clobbered IU. Like you didn't know that would happen.

Tons of Top 25 action for Wednesday night. Three games are nationally broadcast and unfortunately, the two really worth watching will both happen at the same time. If you have to pick between #2 Duke at Ga Tech (7 pm, ESPN) and #8 Syracuse at #12 Georgetown (7:30 pm, ESPN2), watch the Big East game. Obviously. But check the Duke game at breaks. Top-ranked Pitt hosts USF too, but that should be an easy one.

Hot Stove: Braves sign Lowe for 4 years and $60 million. Wow. That's a lot of money, especially for the Braves. Not sure about that move at all for the long term, but Lowe should be pretty good - he's a ground ball pitcher in a pitcher's park (Turner Field). For now, he'll be fine. Also, Guillermo Mota signs with L.A. (the real ones, not the ones who changed their name to L.A. for no reason) and Jay "Monkey-Face" Gibbons will sign a minor league deal with Florida.

NFL Draft Declarations: Texas Tech WR Michael Crabtree, Ball State QB Nate Davis (Sniff, Sniff). Percy Harvin and Mark Sanchez are also expected to go (via ESPN), Colt McCoy, as you already know, is supposedly staying, but Sam Bradford is still undecided. Interesting.

And in other NFL news, Scott Pioli jumps to K.C. Of course, he was supposedly headed to Cleveland early this off-season. ESPN.com thinks this means the end for Herm Edwards (he should've been out anyway), with Giants' defensive wizard Steve Spagnuolo probably the favorite to replace him (he'd be a great hire).

The Last Word:

To delve away from sports, does anyone watch How I Met Your Mother? It's probably my favorite show - it's the sitcom that's not a sitcom. It's a half-hour comedy with a laugh track, but it's above most typical sitcomminess, and its callbacks to prior episodes are the best way possible to reward longtime viewers.

Last night they had an interesting episode, where Ted and Robin, exes who now live together, decide to solve their roommate arguments by having sex casually. This is a typical sitcommy plot, and I was worried that HIMYM (him-yim) would revert to typical sitcomminess with it. However, they spun it beautifully into more of a story about Barney's newfound affection for Robin than anything else, and as the narrator - older Ted - said, "Someone did get hurt. It just wasn't one of us."

I love that show. And I just bored 80 percent of anyone who reads this, but you need to watch it. Give it a look, soon.

The Rundown: January 13th, 2009

2009-01-12T20:15:00.000-08:00

NCAAB: A very Big Monday.

It was just another Big Monday on ESPN last night, as ND and Louisville battled into overtime and Oklahoma dispatched Texas.

Louisville clobbered ND in overtime to get a much-more-impressive-than-it-really-was 87-73 win over the Fighting Irish. The Irish were clearly gassed, scoring just one field goal in overtime after scoring only four in the final seven or so minutes of regulation. Mike Brey loves to never play his bench, but clearly, something needs adjusting. ND will get worn down by teams like Louisville every time if that keeps up. Luke Harangody put up a Herculean effort again - 28 and 13 - but didn't score in the final 11 minutes of the game. The Irish fall to 3-2 in the Big East, and both those losses could and should easily have been wins. Louisville is 3-0, one of four unbeatens in league play.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma cruised over Texas 78-63. The Horns got as close as four early in the second half but never competed after that. Blake Griffin 'only' had 20 and 10, but it was good enough for his 14th double-double, and for the Sooners' first win over Texas in seven tries.

Those were the only two top 25 games last night. Tonight we don't have any ranked teams in action, but if you'd like, ESPN has a Super Tuesday doubleheader of Indiana/Ohio State and Kentucky/Tennessee starting at 7 pm.

NFL: Dungy's gone.

Tony Dungy retired Monday. I've always thought his firing in Tampa was completely unfair - he turned a laughingstock into a contender and damn near brought them to the Super Bowl in 1999. He then took the Colts and won 87 games with them in seven years. That's productivity. I liken him to Phil Jackson, in that yes, he had probably the best player of his generation (Peyton Manning in this case) and a great supporting cast to work with. However, few coaches can keep such a group hungry enough to be a contender year in and year out. Under Dungy, the Colts went to the playoffs every year. The Colts won six division titles in his first six years. A home playoff game was almost affixed to the end of the team's schedule each year.

Tony Dungy is something that seems almost impossible to become in the NFL these days: an institution. You think of the Colts, and you will think of Dungy. For a long time to come. It's no small feat.

Other news: Marvin Harrison may or may not have been holding a gun during that shooting incident from April...Jeff Fisher calls the missed delay of game call in Saturday's Titans loss to Baltimore "unacceptable". I bet this becomes a reviewable call in 2009.

MLB: About time for Jim Rice.

Jim Rice finally made it into the Hall of Fame Monday. Along with Rickey Henderson, which of course was a foregone conclusion. Rice was a great player. I didn't watch him, so I can't make any real observations or judgments, but at this point, with idiots like Phil Rizzuto and Bill Mazeroski in the Hall of Fame, borderline guys might as well be in. What Rice's selection really does is leave Ron Santo as, pretty much indisputably, the best player not in the Hall. I join the rest of you in awaiting Rickey's induction speech, of course.

No real Hot Stove news to report. Gabe Kapler signed with the Rays, and Mike Scioscia signed a contract extension with Anaheim.

NBA: Pierce and the Celts are back?

Paul Pierce scored 39 and Boston (gasp) won a game, over the Raptors. It's a start. The Bulls got Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng back and it did no good as they lost again. And T-Mac will be out two more weeks to rehab his injury.

The Last Word:

Ok, I'm a Ball State alum, and the snakebitten bad luck of the men's basketball team is getting ludicrous. Peyton Stovall, the best player I had the privilege of watching suit up for our team in my four years, missed an entire season due to injury. The Cards lost an incredible ten games by seven points or less last year, many that came down to the last second, and lost them in just about every way imaginable. Among the close losses was a nine-point defeat to Georgetown at home in which BSU had the ball down six with a minute to go, and ended up losing by nine, with no one taller than 6'4" (or taller than me, to put it in perspective) on the floor. Considering everything that happened when we tried to hire a Thompson to coach Ball State, I can honestly say it was probably as proud as I've ever been to watch a Cardinals team play. And that still stands true now, even after the football team won all 12 regular season games this year.

Anyway, our best player, Anthony Newell, has broken his leg and will miss the rest of the season, and his career. Newell also broke a bone in his foot last year and missed most of the non-conference slate. The poor kid has been robbed of essentially a whole season of his career and won't get it back. BSU might actually have had a shot of winning the pathetic MAC this year (they're 6-7, 1-0 in the MAC), but won't do anything without Newell. At least they won't set another team record for losses, as they have the last two years in a row.

Thanks for dealing with the venting. Back here tomorrow.

The Monday Rundown: January 12th, 2009

2009-01-11T21:06:00.000-08:00

NFL Playoffs: Um, what?

Three of the four road teams won in the divisional playoff weekend. Two six seeds beat the top seeds for the first time ever. The unanimously considered worst team in the playoffs absolutely plastered one of the believed-to-be playoff-readiest teams. Home teams have won 3 of the 8 games so far.

Yeah, it's a weird NFL season.

So here we are. The Arizona Cardinals are hosting an NFC championship game. Baltimore and Pittsburgh will meet up in the AFC title game. I think one thing you can say is that these both look to be entertaining, up-in-the-air matchups. Right now, my gut's telling me all-Pennsylvania Super Bowl. But that could change.

The Panthers were clearly not ready to play for whatever reason. It took Steve Smith nearly three quarters to get a reception. Jake Delhomme had five interceptions and probably could have had ten. The Cardinals threw to Larry Fitzgerald with impunity because Carolina was more than happy to single-cover him and see what happened, even though Arizona didn't have anyone else worth covering on their team (don't give me Breaston - as my friend Mark would say, he is a 'prospect of the system'). Gotta give Arizona their due though - they played hard-nosed defense, forced Jake into some horrid decisions, and took advantage of the mistakes. They've proved a lot of people wrong this postseason.

The Chargers game was the only one that went about as expected. San Diego didn't have the answer to Pittsburgh's defense's question: How can you beat us? Expect the under on that AFC game (33 is the O/U right now).

Off the field: The Broncos are allegedly about to hire Josh McDaniels, offensive wunderkind from New England, as head coach. Gutsy move. Smart move? We'll see.

NCAAB: UNC 0-2, ND 45.

North Carolina's now 0-2 in the ACC. How about that? This one wasn't nearly as surprising as the BC defeat - Wake Forest is a top 5 team and is unbeaten. But this is still incredible. Everyone's pick to go unbeaten has gone USC football on us and dropped two in a row. The Tim Tebow of football (good player, charismatic, horrendously overrated by absolutely everyone), Tyler Hansbrough, went 3/12, but did shoot eleven free throws to tally a 17/11 double-double. Somehow, I'm not remotely surprised that "Psycho T" won his points from the line. He's basically Luke Harangody except the refs call fouls against his opponents.

Speaking of Harangody, his team stretched their nation's-longest home court winning streak to 45 games over the weekend by staving off Seton Hall by nine. The Irish were helped immensely by a stupid play by the Pirates' Jeremy Hazell. After putting Seton Hall up by four on the second of back-to-back steal-and-layups, Hazell yelled at the Irish's Ryan Ayers for no reason, drawing a technical. ND proceeded to sink two free throws, then a bucket, to tie it back up, and Seton Hall never gained control. Harangody struggled mightily at times from the floor, shooting 8/23, but scored 30 points, grabbed 16 rebounds (7 offensive) and earned himself a prickly defense from his normally easygoing coach, Mike Brey.

Brey talked after the game about the general media opinion that the national player of the year race is essentially down to Hansbrough, Oklahoma's Blake Griffin and possibly Davidson's Stephen Curry. He said, "It pisses me off. How the hell is that possible?" (Gotta say, the dude's got a point. The man's averaging something like 28 and 15 in conference play so far.)

In other business: Duke overcame a 19-14 first half (yes, that was the score) to beat FSU on the road...Clemson is still unbeaten too...Louisville edged Villanova on the road (they host ND tonight at 7 pm on ESPN)...Purdue finally won a Big Ten game over Wisconsin.

Watch tonight: Both Big Monday games on ESPN. Louisville will host ND at 7 in a huge Big East game for both (kicks off a stretch of five ranked teams in the next seven for the Irish), while Texas and Oklahoma go head to head at 9. Get a good look at Griffin, who is more than deserving to be in the discussion with Harangody and Hansbrough for national player of the year consideration.

NBA: The Bulls stink.

I'll be honest, the NBA is rapidly approaching NHL levels for me, only it's on TV so I can't avoid it. I follow the Bulls because I always have, but I can't stand to watch them these days because it's Derrick Rose and a bunch of crap. Actually, the rest of the Bulls sully the good name of crap. Chicago managed to lose - at home - to two of the worst teams in the NBA this week, Minnesota and Oklahoma City. They managed to beat two other bad teams, the Kings and Wizards, in the middle of that sandwich, but they're a joke. They've gone from team that was largely favored to win the East to complete laughingstock in just over a year. Good job, Paxson. Good job.

Other news: Al Horford's out a while with a knee bruise...a proposed three-team deal with the Mavs, Bobcats and Thunder seems to have fizzled.

Hot Stove: No real news. Pedro's talking with the Marlins, but they were supposed to get Manny too. Michael Young's apparently demanding a trade from Texas, but we'll just see what happens with that.

The Last Word:

Tim Tebow's coming back. Good for him. I was hoping he would. As I alluded to above, I think Tebow is very overrated, but it's always nice when a college star stays in college. I've grown to love college sports far more than their professional counterparts, and guys like Tebow - who, let's be honest, won't ever be a traditional quarterback in the NFL - are the reason. College allows things like Tim Tebow to happen. You can say it's lesser-quality football, and bemoan their lack of a 'true' national champion, but damn it, it's just entertaining.

Florida should be prohibitive favorites to win the national title again with Tebow back, especially if Percy Harvin comes back too, which some reports say he's leaning towards.

Happy Monday...

Divisional Playoff Weekend II

2009-01-11T08:31:00.000-08:00

Well, that went well. I was 0-for-2 on my picks, my team got blown out of the water by a team universally considered the worst of the final eight, and that team didn't even have their top wideout. I don't know that I've ever felt quite so gut-punched by the Panthers, even when John Kasay kicked the ball out of bounds in the Super Bowl.

It felt a lot like the 2005 NFC title game, when Carolina came into Seattle as a popular underdog and just got blitzed 37-7. Steve Smith was triple-teamed the entire game, but proved his worth by returning a punt for a TD in that game. I was actually reminded of it because Mark Jones broke a couple of good kick returns but didn't take any back, and I don't think Carolina has a kick return of any type for a TD since that game.

Anyway, take two:

Eagles at Giants (1 pm, Fox)

The two teams split the regular-season meetings, and the Eagles owned the Giants the second time around. New York just hasn't been the same since Plaxico Burress and Antonio Pierce went out clubbing. Except for one game (oh, against my Panthers, of course), they really just have not been the offensive team they were prior to that incident.

Meanwhile, the Eagles are one of the hottest teams in the league. They are 5-1 since the McNabb benching and were about a half-yard away from having a chance to be 6-0. Brian Westbrook is the best player on the field in this game, and I'm a big proponent of picking the team with the best player on the field unless there is a compelling reason not to (like, say, Tarvaris Jackson). That's why, in an upset, I'm taking the Eagles. Meaning Arizona will host an NFC title game. Oh, boy.

Chargers at Steelers (4:30 pm, CBS)

If San Diego were to win this game and Philly wins theirs, two teams that were a combined one game above .500 in the regular season would host conference title games, which would probably be the single most insane thing to ever happen.

But I don't see it. I don't see Darren Sproles ripping off 300 yards of yardage again. I don't see Phil Rivers being able to dissect the Pittsburgh defense, certainly not in that mud heap Pittsburgh plays on. I don't see Pittsburgh folding in a big spot like the Colts did in overtime and to a lesser extent, in the fourth quarter. I don't see "Seven" making a game-changing mistake or getting rattled by pressure. And I don't see San Diego beating the Steelers today. After all, at least one home team has to win, right?

More later, including Mike Brey's unusually prickly defense of Luke Harangody and UNC possibly going 0-2 in the ACC (???). Enjoy the games.

Divisional Playoff Weekend

2009-01-10T12:51:00.000-08:00

Well, this should be fun.

Ravens at Titans (4:30 pm, CBS)

This is probably the game I'm least sure about for the weekend. The Ravens' defense is really, really good, but I don't trust rookie quarterbacks on the road in the playoffs. Ed Reed is ridiculous. This is all stuff you've heard before.

If you make me pick someone, I'm taking the Titans. I think Kerry Collins will do just enough to win, and I'll take Chris Johnson to have a decent game against Baltimore's D, which is about as good as you can ask anyone to be. That one is about to start. We shall see. As I type this, Pac-Man Jones is on the CBS pregame show to talk about his being 'wronged' by ESPN, and he looks a little like Kimbo Slice. Without the giant beard anyway.

Cardinals at Panthers (8 pm, Fox)

This is my team - the Panthers. And I'm nervous. Everyone in the world thinks Carolina's going to kill the Cardinals because of their 8-0 home record, because of the Cardinals' East Coast ineptitude, and because of our running game. In my experience, when there's an on-paper playoff mismatch, it never turns out that way (18-0 Patriots, for example).

However, I still think the Panthers win. I'm just a little nervous that everyone thinks the game is over already, that's all.

I'll be back later today most likely with a post about today's college hoops action.

The Rundown: January 9th, 2009

2009-01-08T22:20:00.000-08:00

Today's top stories:

NCAAFB: Chomp, Chomp...the Gators are kings again.

So it wasn't a shootout. It wasn't even particularly well-played. But when the dust settled, Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow had their 2nd national title in 3 years, 24-14 over Oklahoma.

Heisman winner Sam Bradford became something like the 35th Heisman winner in the last 37 years to lose his bowl game (I exaggerate. Slightly), and threw two interceptions against only two scores and 256 yards - pedestrian compared to his usual numbers. Tebow also threw two picks, but history will remember his jump-pass game-clinching TD to David Nelson and his most outstanding player award.

I find it interesting that the Gators have now won three national titles - and all three seasons have included a loss. Maybe Florida should go ahead and lose a game next September just to get it over with?

There's going to be a lot of talk of whether Tebow will go pro after this game (and to a lesser extent whether Bradford still should - it seems to be assumed that he will). If you ask me, Tebow - if he has a brain, and all indications are he does - should know that he's probably never going to be a true NFL quarterback. His best bet to take snaps would be in a system like the one he was in with Chris Leak in 2006, as a modified Wildcat-type QB. Therefore, why not come back? After all, no quarterback in college football history has ever been on three national championship teams. That seems like a pretty ideal goal for Tebow to shoot for - and with the talent the Gators will have coming back, it's more than possible.

Come back, Tim. Shoot for three!

MLB Hot Stove: Hoffman to Milwaukee.

Hope for the Brewers' sake that this works out better than their last attempt to sign a closer that was past his prime... one year, $6 million with an option for 2009, according to ESPN sources. Seems like a pretty good deal for Milwaukee if Hoffman does in fact have anything left. At worst he can't be worse than Milwaukee's pen last year...can he?

NCAAB: Minnesota pulls it out 52-49.

The Gophers needed to beat Iowa - probably more for their own confidence than anything. Should be interesting to see how they respond now, given the Big Ten looking like it may be more competitive than last season. Minnesota was down 13 in this game - sign of tenacity for coming back or sign of weakness for being down 13 in the first place?

Other Top 25 action last night:

#16 Arizona St 69, Oregon St 38 (ouch)
#18 Xavier 70, St. Louis 44
#20 Butler 64, Wright St 48

No Top 25 games scheduled for Friday night.

NBA: A.I. is back in Denver tonight with the Pistons.

Does this really mean anything? Anymore, guys make return visits to their former teams every other game. Iverson is hardly known as a Nugget. I think the real story here is Chauncey Billups, Denver's hometown boy, hosting HIS former team, the Pistons. You want to bet the Rocky Mountain fans will come out in force to re-emphasize that Billups is theirs now?

Oh, and: Boston/Cleveland tonight (8 pm, ESPN). Not quite the same luster since the Celts have dropped six of eight, but the Cavs are unbeaten at home. This is a good measuring stick for Cleveland - currently boasting the best record in the East. Big game for LeBron and Company...

The Last Word:

Check out Dana O'Neil's profile of Kent State's Tyree Evans. As a proud MAC alum, it's nice to see a MAC school getting some national play, even if it's for taking in a troubled recruit. And anything to take the conversation away from the 0-5 MAC football bowl showing...

Happy Friday!

Not a whole lot else going on in the sports world today, friends. Have a good Friday.

The Rundown: January 8th, 2009

2009-01-07T20:52:00.000-08:00

Trying something new here. The biggest stories for your morning, delivered the night before!

Today's top stories:

NCAAFB: The FedEx Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game is tonight!

And don't try and say that whole event's name before the game begins. The champ will be crowned before you're finished.

There's been plenty of intriguing discussion back and forth on this game. I think most would agree that, if nothing else, it's the most up in the air title game we've had since probably the 2003 LSU/Oklahoma(/USC) tilt. People forget this when breathlessly calling the 2005 USC/Texas game the best ever, but a lot of people, myself included, figured USC would win that one rather easily. This time around, the general opinion seems to be that Florida will win (ESPN's vote, I believe, has the Gators favored about 60/40), but I'd say most of us don't really know what's going to happen. Florida has a very good defense and a very good offense, led by the speedsters Jeff Demps, Percy Harvin and Chris Rainey, and that guy who won a Heisman once too. Brandon Spikes leads the Gators' D, and he's also the one taking part in the back and forth smack talk with Oklahoma. ("Sam Bradford hasn't faced an SEC defense." "Well, Tim Tebow hasn't had to beat a Big 12 quarterback!")

Oklahoma counters with this year's Heisman winner, Sam Bradford, and the highest-scoring offense in college football history. Oklahoma scored 60 pretty much every time they stepped on a field this year, but I really doubt they're expecting that to happen against Florida. However, Oklahoma is incredibly formidable offensively, and they're absolutely loaded with weapons. DeMarco Murray, Chris Brown, J

Seriously, though: When did conference pride become such a big deal? I don't remember a lot of this prior to 2006, but ever since Florida crushed Ohio State in that year's title game, it seems like every conference's fans go overboard trying to outdo each other in the trash-talk department, with SEC fans generally agreed to be the most ridiculously over the top.

Anyway, tonight's game (8:30 pm, Fox), should be a very good, very close game. I'll take the Gators to win. My bowl confidence picks (which are in shambles), have five confidence points on the Gators, with a tiebreaker score of 35-31. So I'll go with that. Should be a heck of a show.

Other news: BC fired Jeff Jagodzinski after all after he interviewed with the Jets...Urban Meyer says he's in favor of Mack Brown of Texas, Kyle Whittingham of Utah, Pete Carroll of USC, and pretty much anyone else who feels like it voting their own team #1 in the coaches' poll after the national title game even though it violates their agreement...Georgia's Matt Stafford and Knowshon Moreno, both first-round locks in the NFL draft, are going to jump...Navy's coach, whose name is impossible to spell, got a contract extension.

NCAAB: The Big East rules the roost in college hoops.

Now, in college basketball, the conference pride thing becomes a much, much bigger deal. Your schedule has a huge effect on where you're seeded, which can have a direct effect on your chance to win the national title. Yes, it's true that in college football your conference plays a part, but for the most part, teams can control that by simply winning all their games. In college hoops, you can be a top-of-the-heap team in your league (say, the SEC), but you're still probably not going to get thought of as highly as a 5th or 6th place team from a better league (the Big East or ACC, most years).

That's why I feel comfortable saying that the Big East rules the roost in college basketball. During the Duke/Davidson game last night, the ESPN ticker for in-progress games involving ranked teams was all Big East teams except for Boston College's game with Harvard. (Which the Eagles lost, giving the Crimson their first-ever win over a ranked team. Good job.) Of course, with nine ranked teams in the league, ESPN has little choice but to run such a ticker. Nine of the top 22 teams in the country, in fact, hail from the Big East. Oddly, no other teams from the league are receiving votes in either poll, but seriously: NINE.

All that needs to be said on the subject is that Georgetown opened Big East play by visiting Connecticut, hosting Pitt, and traveling to Notre Dame, all in the period of a week. All those teams are in the top 13. The Hoyas are 1-2 in league play after that stretch. Care to wonder how often that happens with other conferences? Another "the Big East is ridiculous" note: Notre Dame will play seven out of eight games during one month-ish long stretch against ranked teams! (Full disclosure: One of those is against non-league foe UCLA.)

It should be very entertaining to see what develops in this war-of-attrition league. League teams will have a few breaks in between the gauntlet (Rutgers, DePaul, South Florida, St. John's), but even those are not gimmes. (ND has already lost to the Red Storm, and the Scarlet Knights gave top-ranked Pitt a fight.)

Also of note from last night: How about Michigan coming back from down 20 to take down IU in overtime? The Hoosiers have now played pretty well in a losing effort twice in league play. You have to figure the wins will come, but this was nothing less than a choke job on their parts. The Wolverines have as many good wins as anyone in America, but playing like this is a good way to keep them out of the big dance. Luckily for them they stole the win anyway, thanks to IU shooting 2/7 from the line in the extra frame.

Last night's Top 25 scores, with the home team in bold:
#2 Duke 79, Davidson 67 (Steph Curry had 29 points)
#3 UNC 108, College of Charleston 70
#9 Syracuse 85, DePaul 68
#15 Marquette 81, Rutgers 76
#21 Louisville 71, South Florida 57
Harvard 82, #24 Boston College 70
Gonzaga 89, #25 Tennessee 79 (OT)

Game to watch tonight:
#19 Minnesota at Iowa (7 pm, ESPN2). Not a lot going on tomorrow in the world of college basketball, but if the Golden Gophers want to be taken seriously nationwide, they need to win games like this: where they're clearly the better team but are playing a league road game. Tubby Smith's done a good job rebuilding Minnesota quickly, and starting 2-1 in the Big Ten would be a good way to get things rolling in preparation for what they hope is a berth in March.

NBA: What's up with Boston?

The Celtics were not only roundly considered the best team in the NBA and favorites to repeat after the first month and a half of the season, but talk was that they'd break the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' record of 72 wins after they won 19 in a row at one point. Well, that's down the drain after they lost yet again last night, this time at home to Houston and some guy named Von Wafer who hit a game-winning trey. It's their sixth loss out of eight and sends them to eight losses overall, so talk of record-breaking is up in smoke. In fact, Boston is in danger of falling to the 3 seed in the Eastern Conference if the season ended today. They're already behind Cleveland and are only a half-game up on the best team no one knows, the Orlando Magic.

If you ask me, it's not a big deal. The Lakers won three straight titles without really trying in a game before April, so a few regular-season losses aren't going to kill Boston. It's worth asking the question of whether it may affect their playoff aura of invincibility, but then again, this team was taken to seven games by an under-.500 team last spring.

Other NBA notables: Danny Granger had 37 points and the game-winning three to single-handedly beat Phoenix out West...Randy Foye scored 32 and led Minnesota (?) to their fourth win in a row...Dwight Howard fell just short of a 20-20 game, but his team beat Atlanta on the road anyway.

What to watch for tonight:

Only two games tonight, and neither of them are of note (Knicks at Dallas; Clips at San Antonio). Take the night off if you're an NBA fan I guess.

NFL: The Mangenius got another job already.

Eric Mangini was unemployed only about a week until the Cleveland Browns snapped him up. After their short-lived Bill Cowher hopes went away, Mangini was probably the best option Cleveland had left. He can't really be judged on last season in New York, if the reports that he wasn't a big fan of the Brett Favre thing all along are true. It is humorous that Cleveland replaced the former Patriots' defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel with...another former Patriots' defensive coordinator.

Cleveland was an underrated soap opera last year (as a Brady Quinn fan, I kept a close eye on the situation). It wasn't quite as bad as Oakland, but between the Derek Anderson fiasco, Kellen Winslow, Jamal Lewis saying his team quit, Braylon Edwards dropping anything that came his way, and Phil Savage dropping f-bombs on e-mailers left and right, it was quite the circus. I sometimes wonder if Braylon dropped his bottle of 5-Hour Energy numerous times during filming of his incredibly wooden commercial for the product.

Despite all this, there's talent there. A lot of it, in fact. There's a reason Cleveland was supposed to be good. You know, before failing to score an offensive TD in the final six games of the season (!!!). Mangini has a franchise QB, a good wideout if he ever learns how to catch, and one of the league's most explosive tight ends, in more ways than one, to work with. We'll see what he can do.

Other news: The Pac-Man era is over in Dallas: he was released...Tomlinson almost certainly won't play in Pittsburgh this weekend with a torn groin tendon...Anquan Boldin may miss the Cards' round 2 game in Carolina...Brian Westbrook is a go for the Eagles/Giants game.

MLB's Hot Stove: Smoltz to Boston.

At this point, it's just getting ridiculous. Any remotely desirable free agent appears to be a lock to go to Boston or New York. If you ask me, as long as neither team makes the World Series, as occurred in 2008, they're not overly relevant. The Sawx are also apparently going to sign Rocco Baldelli, which is an interesting move. Baldelli's well-publicized condition should make for interesting material as he heads to Press Heaven, Boston.

Other signings: The Dodgers may grab Trevor Hoffman...Jason Giambi's headed back to Oakland!...the Reds sign Jerry Hairston Jr...and Baltimore imports a Japanese pitcher.

Last Word:

Sadly for the NHL, the Jarko Ruutu biting incident isn't even a new low for the league. Ruutu was suspended two games for taking a bite out of the Sabres' Andrew Peters. Does anyone even notice anymore? Apart from the Winter Classic (a fantastic idea), the NHL just doesn't seem to matter anymore. That's too bad, because hockey is fun as hell to watch in person.

Enjoy your day, everyone.

Ball State Gives Up On Football, Lets Hoke Walk

2008-12-15T18:13:00.000-08:00

I'm so very disappointed in my alma mater today.

As wonderful, incredible, amazing as the 2008 football season was to watch Ball State rise as high as 12th in the polls - almost assuredly as high as they will ever go - it is just as disheartening to see that Ball State's leadership has absolutely no intention of keeping it going, or even attempting to.

Brady Hoke, the coach and architect of the 12-0 start, bolted BSU for San Diego State over the weekend. It is, at best, a lateral football move and is probably more like a downgrade. Hoke's salary will be more than twice what it was at BSU, so he has that going for him. But all reports are he would've stayed if Ball State had done one simple thing...give his assistants the raises they deserved.

The offer on the table for Hoke was 390,000 dollars a year (SDSU will be paying him 700k a year for 5 years). But when Hoke asked president Jo Ann Gora about raises for his assistants - you know, like Stan Parrish, who's only one of five finalists for the national asst. coach of the year award, or Mark Smith, who, as much as he was shredded by people like me the last few years, actually put together a pretty solid defense this year - Gora said no.

That was it. Hoke was gone. A Ball State alum. A great guy. Exactly the kind of person Ball State should have representing their football program and their university. Done.

This was the equivalent of Notre Dame saying thanks but no thanks to Frank Leahy after the four straight undefeated seasons in the late 1940s. Florida dumping Steve Spurrier after he won the 1996 national championship. Nebraska chasing out Tom Osborne after his back to back titles in the mid-1990s. Simply a humiliating day.

Ball State should be ashamed of itself. They could get a new coach who's better. I really doubt it. This university has shown no aptitude for achieving anything in athletics. Ronny Thompson saga, firing the women's volleyball coach after his 1st losing season out of EIGHTEEN, pick your humiliating move. This school, for all its talk of achieving, seems to have no desire to achieve what would give us the most publicity.

One-Line Bowl Breakdowns

2008-12-08T10:56:00.000-08:00

EagleBank Bowl - Navy vs Wake Forest:
Triple option and the home field in DC? Advantage Middies.

New Mexico Bowl - Colorado St vs Fresno St:
Anytime, anywhere for FSU coach Pat Hill means Albuquerque this year.

magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl - Memphis vs South Florida:
Not exactly where USF wanted to be playing a 'home' game this bowl season.

Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl - BYU vs Arizona:
Chance for the Cats to make a name for themselves by winning the first bowl with a ranked team.

R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl - Southern Mississippi vs Troy:
Ten bucks if you can name one player on either of these teams without looking.

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl - Boise St vs TCU:
After Ball State's loss, this is now the "not in a BCS bowl" national championship game.

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl - Hawaii vs Notre Dame:
This is what ND's reduced itself to - a bowl game off the mainland on Christmas Eve.

Motor City Bowl - Florida Atlantic vs Central Michigan:
CMU in Detroit for the 3rd year in a row in a real yawner of a matchup.

Meineke Car Care Bowl - West Virginia vs North Carolina:
I remember when bowl games at least used to have a real name after the sponsor's name.

Champs Sports Bowl - Wisconsin vs Florida St:
Wisconsin almost lost to a I-AA team - FSU was almost ranked at the end of the season.

Emerald Bowl - California vs Miami:
I thought this bowl was in Seattle (Emerald City) for a couple of years. Nope - it's Emerald Nuts.

Independence Bowl - Northern Illinois vs Louisiana Tech:
6-6 MAC teams should never, ever, ever get a bowl bid.

Papajohns.com Bowl - NC St vs Rutgers:
Rutgers started the year 1-5 and I'm impressed with their in-season turnaround.

Valero Alamo Bowl - Missouri vs Northwestern:
Both these teams should be in better bowls but got passed up for more name teams.

Roady's Humanitarian Bowl - Maryland vs Nevada:
I can't imagine any scenario in which a fan of either school would go to Boise for this.

Texas Bowl - Rice vs Western Michigan:
I'm guessing few new subscribers to the NFL Network earmark this one as the reason.

Pacific Life Holiday Bowl - Oklahoma St vs Oregon:
First bowl of the year with two ranked teams, and this should be a very good one.

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl - Houston vs Air Force:
Gotta think this bowl jumped at the chance to get an academy, given the name.

Brut Sun Bowl - Oregon St vs Pittsburgh:
It's a long way from Pasadena to El Paso for OSU. And from Miami to El Paso for Pitt.

Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl - Boston College vs Vanderbilt:
There are many bowls with essentially a home team this season, and this one might be the oddest.

Insight Bowl - Kansas vs Minnesota:
Minnesota has no right to be in a bowl despite their 7-5 record. This should be a massacre.

Chick-fil-A Bowl - LSU vs Georgia Tech:
The Jackets might be the best team no one is talking about right now - they ended up BCS-eligible.

Outback Bowl - South Carolina vs Iowa:
Pretty good matchup of under-the-radar teams from the SEC and Big Ten.

Capital One Bowl - Georgia vs Michigan St:
The annual matchup of 'teams that look good until you realize that they beat no one who matters.'

Konica Minolta Gator Bowl - Clemson vs Nebraska:
Gotta give Dabo Swinney credit for getting the Tigers here.

AT&T Cotton Bowl - Ole Miss vs Texas Tech:
A tremendous job by Houston Nutt to get the Rebs here, but their prize is a beatdown loss, assumedly.

AutoZone Liberty Bowl - Kentucky vs East Carolina:
Why is this bowl on Jan. 2nd? Answer me that. The spate of post-New Year's crappy bowls annoys me.

International Bowl - Connecticut vs Buffalo:
See what I mean? This one's on Jan. 3rd. Toronto thrilled to get two nearby teams.

GMAC Bowl - Tulsa vs Ball St:
BSU might have ended up here regardless of their MAC title game defeat.

Rose Bowl - Penn St vs USC:
Is anyone going to take PSU in this game?

FedEx Orange Bowl - Virginia Tech vs Cincinnati:
The Orange locking itself into the ACC champ is why there's never a good Orange Bowl matchup.

Allstate Sugar Bowl - Alabama vs Utah:
This might be the best bowl matchup besides the national title game.

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl - Texas vs Ohio St:
A 3rd straight BCS humiliation for the Buckeyes as Texas takes out their Big 12 snub on them.

FedEx National Championship Game - Florida vs Oklahoma:
The last good matchup in the national title game was three years ago. This one might end that streak.

Charlie Weis's Resignation Speech

2008-11-22T16:59:00.000-08:00

Jason Whitlock was more right than I was. He was right for all the wrong reasons, but he was still right. Charlie Weis will not make it at Notre Dame. That's obvious.

That's why I have written Charlie up a resignation letter. It looks an awful lot like his hiring speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen, right now we're a 6-5 football team. That's not good enough for you, and it's certainly not good enough for me. And that's why I'm resigning."

"The attitude of the head coach has been permeated through the players. We couldn't get up for a Senior Day with a New Year's Day game on the line. Our guys ran out of the tunnel and didn't look like they gave a shit. And they didn't play like they did either."

"If you hired me here to go .500, you got the wrong guy. I'm resigning so you can get the right one."

Rebutting Jason Whitlock - Again

2008-11-12T15:28:00.000-08:00

I haven't even read this article yet, but I hear Jason Whitlock is bashing Charlie Weis again. Even though I'm not so sure how I feel about the guy myself after two ridiculous losses to Pittsburgh and Boston College, I am positive that my fellow Cardinal alum Whitlock has once again made a bunch of ridiculous, if not patently false, assertions regarding the fourth-year Irish coach - see a couple posts down for what happened the last time he tried to do this.

Again, Whitlock in bold italics.

It is very brave and quite magnanimous for The Great Weis Hope to throw his offensive coordinator under the bus by publicly announcing his decision to reclaim leadership of the Notre Dame offense with defensive powerhouses Navy and Syracuse on the Irish schedule.

This "Great Weis Hope" business has to stop. It's never going to catch on. No one besides Whitlock even probably gets the reference. And Whitlock is blatantly ignoring the reason given for Weis taking play-calling duties for the week: Mike Haywood, the offensive coordinator, is going to be missing practices to be attending a family funeral. Granted, I think (and I don't want to make light of a family tragedy) this is as 'convenient' a reason as many others do given the ND offense's struggles, but I have to, for the sake of integrity, assume outwardly that this is the real reason.

And in case Whitlock missed it, ND faced a terrible defense LAST WEEK. BC had given up 27 points to CLEMSON AT HOME THE PREVIOUS FREAKING WEEK...and Notre Dame got shut out. With Haywood calling the plays. Funeral or not, clearly something needed shaking up.

Too often, I waste column inches blasting Charlie Weis, Notre Dame and the lifetime contract awarded to an unproven blowhard. I never take the time to point out the good side of "Pear Bryant."

You certainly do waste column inches. Maybe you should stop. And now Whitlock is making fat jokes. That's rich. How much do you weigh, Jason? That's what I thought.

I cannot deny the courageousness and nobility of Weis embarrassing offensive coordinator Mike Haywood following Notre Dame's 17-0 loss to Boston College over the weekend.

Look, most college coaches of reasonable character and integrity would've stripped Haywood of his control of Notre Dame's offense privately. A low-key, moderate-ego coach would've kept the behind-the-scenes maneuvering behind the scenes.

I will have to read further into it to see Whitlock's rationale for saying that Haywood is being embarrassed, but I've missed that to this point. Weis has not even mentioned Haywood by name this week as being a problem. He has just said the offense needs to improve - repeatedly. I don't think that after a zero-point showing that this can really be argued, but since Haywood is black, like Whitlock is, he'll probably find a way.

(EDITED TO ADD:I just noticed after re-reading that Whitlock never does say that Haywood is black in this article. Considering your background, Jason, that seems a pretty dishonest thing to do, especially since your dislike for Charlie seems largely predicated on his whiteness vs. another guy's blackness.)

And I don't think there's any coach in America that would do something as radical as take over play-calling duties for a week without telling the media about it. But I wouldn't want to get in the way of an uninformed bash session, would I?

But Weis has virtually no ego. He is arguably the most ego-less coach working today.

That's why he made it crystal clear to anyone who would listen that he will be responsible for any offensive success the Irish have when they face defensive juggernauts Navy and Syracuse.

I am once again awaiting actual evidence that Whitlock has to back this up. So far, all we know is that Weis is taking over play-calling duties. In fact, Jason hasn't even specifically said that, lest he miss out on an opportunity to make a fat joke and/or use a stupid nickname for Charlie. All we've got from him is "reclaiming leadership of the Notre Dame offense".

The undersized Middies are giving up just 27 points per game to Division I opponents. The 2-7 Orangemen are nearly as stingy, surrendering just 37 points per outing.

As you can see, a week after battling the nation's 10th-best defense (Boston College), it's extremely noble for Weis to alert the media of his plans to fix Notre Dame's offense.

Yes, we know the next two opponents are bad on defense. Got it. And BC is not the nation's 10th-best defense. They are ranked 10th on defense, but that is thanks to a ridiculously easy schedule. This team is TWO AND THREE IN THE ACC, possibly the worst league of the BCS six. Stop building them up to be some incredible force that poor Mike Haywood could not have hoped to gameplan against.

I'm sure the same media members who championed Weis' lifetime contract will once again sing his praises when the Irish show remarkable improvement and climb to 7-4 before getting waxed by USC.

Again, Notre Dame's progress and Pear Bryant's greatness can best be seen by analyzing Washington's failure under Tyrone Willingham. You must remember that Tyrone Willingham's recruiting is what destroyed Notre Dame football, and as long as Tyrone is recruiting — no matter the school — Notre Dame won't be any good.

STOP. DEAR GOD, STOP. No one has even MENTIONED Ty Willingham since he finally got his unceremonious axe from Washington. Not one Domer, not one Irish subway alumni, not anyone wearing the color green on any occasion in America. STOP TRYING TO PANDER TO THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR. Dear God. And, I ask what I asked last time, who exactly "championed" this contract extension? Everyone in America is basically calling this extension an anvil around ND's neck at the moment.

That has to be the explanation. I realize The Great Weis Hope is in his fourth season and has a roster flush with mature talent he recruited. And I realize that Boston College coach Jeff Jagodzinski made a point to remind his players that none of them was good enough to be recruited by Pear Bryant. (I must admit I stole the Pear Bryant nickname from an e-mailer.)

I'm not going to defend Weis's work the last couple of weeks. It's not worth trying, because he has not done a good job. Calling the ND roster "flush" with "mature" talent is probably not entirely accurate, but there is plenty enough talent on this team (as Jagodzinski did point out last week) that Notre Dame has no business losing to the Eagles.

I love how Whitlock didn't even come up with the ridiculously unoriginal "Pear Bryant" name himself. That's even more pathetic than using it a billion times after coming up with it yourself (see: Great Weis Hope).

You would think that superior talent and the decided schematic advantage that Weis promised upon his coronation as Notre Dame messiah would allow the Irish to at least kick a field goal against Boston College. That's naive thinking. You don't understand the damage being caused in South Bend by Willingham's recruiting in Seattle.

This is sickening. It really is. It was one thing when he attacked ND fans for being overly willing to blame the last couple years on Ty. He was overdramatizing it, but at least he had a point. This is just wailing away on a dead horse. No one has even alluded to Ty in weeks. It has not happened. I know Whitlock is a good writer. Crap like this is not why.

And if you can't understand that, then you surely can't grasp the self-serving motive of Weis retaking over his offense with two weak opponents on the schedule.

You see, now I'm actually starting to believe that Jason thinks this was a calculated move. Which is even more pathetic, more ridiculous, more jaw-droppingly STUPID, than this whole sarcasm-laced tirade was.

It's no secret. I dislike Charlie Weis and despise the free pass he was given by the media when he was handed a huge contract extension for doing less than Willingham.

Weis is a bully and a coward, and his well-timed announcement that he would abandon this "head coach stuff" so he could bail out his offense proves my contentions.

There is no "free pass". This never happened. Most of your former colleagues at ESPN spent the 2005 season alternately blasting Notre Dame's schedule strength and reviving the racism accusations against ND for handing Weis a contract extension. Whitlock is openly making things up. And your deciding to assume the worst about Charlie when he decides to try and win a damn football game any way he can proves nothing except your open racism. Yes, I'm calling it racism. Because this is ridiculous. If Weis was black, you'd love him.

He's planning on the Irish averaging 35 points the next two weeks and selling his impatient fan base on the myth that he's making real progress. He's hoping the media will assist him in selling this lie.

Unless you have access to Charlie's brain, you can't say this with any degree of certainty. And since ND's season freaking high for regulation-time points is 35, I doubt he's banking on averaging 35. But I bet he wants to average more than 0.

Weis is an average college head coach with horrendous people skills. That's not a good combination. Bobby Knight had poor people skills, a brilliant mind and a superior work ethic. Nick Saban is a football Bobby Knight.

Weis probably does have horrendous people skills, and there's some evidence out there of that being true. But have you ever met Charlie, Whitlock? I'd venture to say you have, but I may be overestimating your ability to face up to people you've spent years trashing behind a computer screen. And Charlie has an incredible work ethic, or maybe you haven't taken a look at: A) his recruiting classes, or B) his daily itinerary that begins with getting to work BEFORE FIVE IN THE FUCKING MORNING, a time at which I assume you are still sleeping/digesting pizza (hey, I can make fat jokes too!).

Weis might be a reverse of Pete Carroll, who bombed in the pros and excelled in the collegiate game. Coaching in the NFL is easier. Everyone is on more equal footing. There are fewer variables. You can hire someone else to evaluate talent. College coaches have already developed the talent.

Maybe he is. I don't believe he'd be the first. This paragraph is probably the only one in the entire column that I don't have a gripe with. Coaching in the NFL is not "easier" in terms of the hours, but the other stuff is true.

Weis is in over his head coaching the college game.

You can't prove that, though you aren't the first to claim it, so I'll let it slide.

There are rumors that Notre Dame might pull the plug on The Great Weis Hope if he loses to Navy.

Rumors that were debunked today by Notre Dame A.D. Jack Swarbrick (for the readers, not for Jason).

I'll be rooting for Notre Dame this weekend. I want Charlie Weis at Notre Dame as long as I'm a columnist. His failures and the rationalizations offered up by Notre Dame fans are worth two to three columns a year.

Yeah, you're hilarious. For all this talk about rationalizations, I haven't seen you print one comment from anyone to prove it. Maybe you just don't want to distract from your own writing "brilliance" on this topic, or maybe you don't want to give idiots a forum (though you could just make the comment anonymous if that were the case), but I don't know how much of these so-called rationalizations aren't inside your head.

Hell, I've written two this month and could easily get a third if Navy pulls an upset. Stay tuned.

If Navy pulls the upset, I will probably give up on Charlie. Not that that means I'd let you get away with making things up for another column, but I would give up on Charlie.

Till next time.

Ball State vs. Northern Illinois

2008-11-04T17:47:00.000-08:00

The mighty Cardinals, ranked 17th in the nation by the BCS and, of course, my alma mater, are back in action tomorrow night on ESPN2. Watch the game (the College Football Final gang of Rece, Mark and Lou will be there for your entertainment) and read my preview on FansKnowBest.com.

Go Cardinals!!

Rebutting Jason Whitlock

2008-10-31T17:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in nearly a month, but what better reason to do so than in a post that links my two favorite schools?

Rebutting Jason Whitlock isn't all that popular to Ball Staters, because Whitlock is a proud BSU alum who mentions the Cardinals whenever possible. He even wrote an entire column before the season about how the mighty bird would crash a BCS bowl game.

I confess that I used to HATE Whitlock. I thought he was just another one of those race-baiting big black dudes that play the race card all the time whether it makes sense or not. I now know better - he doesn't play the race card all the time. He does so too much, and even when he doesn't, he considers it, but he's not just another one of 'those guys', and is an open disliker of one of the guys who is - Scoop Jackson. Naturally, in ESPN's wisdom, they dumped the guy that's not and have kept the guy that is.

Anyway, he wrote an article this last week after Tyrone Willingham was finally fired at Washington, a move that would've taken place last year if UW wasn't scared of getting the business from the media about firing him after three years like Notre Dame did. This, of course, would never have happened because Washington is not Notre Dame. Now we have L.A. Times columnists actually saying, "Ty deserved to get fired from Washington, but he was still wronged by Notre Dame".

I am a huge Notre Dame fan, as most of you know, so I feel I need to clear things up.

Deconstructing Whitlock's article on, as he calls Charlie, "The Great Weis Hope" v. Ty Willingham (Whitlock in bold):

Here's what Notre Dame football fans don't seem to comprehend:

1. I've never stated that Tyrone Willingham was a great (or even good) coach; 2. I never blasted Notre Dame for firing Tyrone Willingham; 3. My problem with Charlie Weis and Notre Dame is the premature, undeserved lifetime contract he received after proving nothing and the reach-around Notre Dame and Weis received from most of the media during his first season.

Fair enough. I didn't read Whitlock at the time of Willingham's firing, so I couldn't say if he blasted ND or not, but he's not the type to just lie, so I'll buy it.

However, I consumed more media than I ever have in my life during the 2005 football season and saw little evidence of this "reach-around" ND supposedly got. Most personalities - Jim Rome, both "PTI" co-hosts, everyone on "Around the Horn" - were busier trying to justify why Notre Dame should not have gotten a BCS bid over Oregon, ignoring that a) it wasn't the BCS's choice (under existing rules, the Irish got an auto-bid by being ranked top 6) and b) Oregon played a horribly weak schedule, even weaker than ND's surprisingly toothless 2005 slate. It was all about 10-1 (Oregon) vs 9-2 (ND).

But I can understand why Whitlock thinks of it as a reach-around, given that he's an ND-hater (and I suspect he was before this whole thing happened).

I have never disagreed with those who believe Weis's contract extension was undeserved, but I have also never gotten any indication from anyone in the know that the extension was for any reason other than Weis wanting to diffuse any "he's going to the NFL" rumors. People forget this now (the anti-ND media doesn't want to say so), but Adam Schefter of NFL.com - a Michigan alum, by the way - floated a story before the extension that Weis was headed to the Giants after the season to replace then-embattled Tom Coughlin. This rumor was later debunked, but it was the catalyst for the extension. Weis, who is ironically a lot like Whitlock, is a very honest and open guy who I don't believe would tell the media his extension was to avoid negative recruiting by others if it wasn't true.

Notre Dame fans are having trouble grasping either column. They somehow think that Willingham's failure at Washington justifies giving Weis a record contract at Notre Dame.

This is simply wrong. ND fans are not trying to justify giving Weis a record contract. I can personally say that my open rooting against Ty during his entire Huskies tenure had nothing to do with it, and in fact often forget about the contract fiasco entirely until someone else brings it up.

ND fans' hatred of Ty stems from most of the media harrassing ND for being racist after firing Willingham. The media spreads lies like "violated a contract", when Ty's contract had mutually agreed-upon buyout terms after the third year. They ignore proven facts like Willingham having met with Washington about their upcoming vacancy during the bye week before ND's 2004 matchup with USC (instead of, you know, recruiting), or Willingham's utter refusal to fire horrible defensive coordinator Kent Baer having played a large role in Ty's axe. (The ever-loyal Ty would eventually axe Baer anyway at Washington.)

Their/my hatred of Ty stems from an interview that played on ABC before ND faced Washington in 2005 - the first Weis/Willingham matchup. Here's a link to the transcript. John Saunders - who, by the way, is a skunk and is the lowest form of "journalist" - blatantly floats racism accusations against ND to Ty. Willingham - who is also a skunk - coyly doesn't confirm or deny the accusations (keep in mind Ty knew damn well why he was fired and that it had nothing to do with racism). This enabled Ty to keep the heat on ND without coming off bitter. It was played brilliantly by the man, who knows how to spin the P.R. machine in his favor. He still does not receive his share of blame for his horrid recruiting at ND, which helped contribute to the historically awful 2007 season (look at the starting depth charts from those games and play Find the Upperclassman). And now he is getting largely let off the hook for his horrible job at Washington, where recruiting has been even worse and Ty will leave as the worst coach - by percentage - in Huskies history.

So, Jason, that's why we hate Ty. Has nothing to do with Charlie's contract.

(Ty Willingham replaced a guy who got fired after 20 games at UW. Keith Gilbertson. He was white. No one defended him. Not one person.)

Even with the Irish sitting at 5-2, every word in those columns still rings true. Notre Dame and a hefty percentage of the sports media overreacted to Weis' hot start, and Weis' complexion played a role in the overreaction.

Did the media overreact to Charlie's hot start? Probably. At the time, we didn't know how bad the teams he was beating were, though.

Did Weis's being white have anything to do with it? Bullshit. Absolute 100 percent pure non-alcoholic bullshit. I will give anyone 1,000 dollars if they can name a black coach at any school or pro team in the entire universe who is a good coach and doesn't get enough credit for it. If everything else at ND were exactly the same, except Willingham was white and Weis was black, I guarantee nothing ND would've done changes.

As of today, we have little evidence that Weis is a better college football coach than Willingham.

This is one of the worst and most indefensible sentences that Jason Whitlock has ever written. Charlie took two ND teams to BCS games his first two years. Yes, he was using Ty's recruits, but he was also GETTING PERFORMANCE out of Ty's recruits that Ty never even came close to getting. He was using guys like Jeff Samardzija, who caught like 14 passes in Ty's two years with him. And Darius Walker, who wasn't even taken on the team plane to BYU for his first game (ND lost by three) before running for 100 yards in like a quarter against Michigan. Hell, Walker never did get the starting job from Ryan Grant, even though he proved himself to be better repeatedly in 2004.

Even this year, Charlie is 5-2 with a team that still has virtually no senior presence, thanks largely to Willingham. Against a weak schedule, yes, but imagine what would be happening if Ty were still here (hint: look at Washington's 2008 season so far).

Meanwhile, Ty has a career record that hovers around .500, has never done anything of consequence except for taking one Stanford team to the Rose Bowl in a horrible Pac-10 football year, and can't recruit ANYBODY. Whitlock should be ashamed of himself for writing this sentence.

Notre Dame fans are repeating the same mistake they made in 2005 when the school overpaid for Weis. They're turning conceited based on a glossy record compiled against weak competition.

San Diego State, Michigan, Purdue, Stanford and Washington — ND's victims — have a combined record of 9-32. Only Stanford, 4-4, has more than two victories.

No argument here. As I just wrote, no one is denying ND's schedule thus far has been pretty weak. Although I don't know many Irish fans who are getting "conceited" about it. Rooting against our former coach, who tried his best to destroy the program, is not being conceited.

I'm not saying that the Irish haven't made progress. Hell, a year ago the Great Weis Hope finished 3-9 and lost back-to-back games to Navy and Air Force. Although, if you listen to Notre Dame fans, those losses, like all ND losses under Weis, were a byproduct of Weis having to play with Willingham's pathetic recruits.

The "all ND losses under Weis" addendum is an unnecessary and false potshot at Irish fans. ND's loss to Navy last year might not happen if Charlie Weis decides to kick a makeable field goal of 42 yards with Brandon Walker instead of going for it on a 4th down. That was what led to the now-infamous flying sack of then-QB Evan Sharpley. ND ended up losing in triple OT, because of another poor Weis decision, running Travis Thomas off-tackle on ND's two-point attempt.

See? I just blamed an ND loss on Weis without any potshots at the guy I hate. Was that so hard, Jason?

However, as much as Whitlock doesn't want to hear it, ND's 3-9 season WAS caused in part by "Willingham's pathetic recruits". Now, if Charlie had done a better job with that team, it would not have been the embarrassment it became, and I think Charlie, if forced to take truth serum, would tell you that himself. But you take away essentially two years of decent recruiting and replace them with upper-echelon MAC-type classes, and try and play ND's schedule, and yes, you're gonna have problems. I doubt even the best coach could've done much more than 6-6 or 7-5 with that ND team. People forget the first 10 teams the Irish played in 2007 were bowl teams (including "Navy and Air Force"). ND beat the only two nonbowl teams they played, Duke and Stanford, in the final weeks of the season.

You know, Navy and Air Force routinely pluck four- and five-star recruits from across the country. A great coaching mind like Weis' couldn't be expected to overcome ND's obvious talent deficiency against the service academies.

More unnecessary potshots, but point taken.

Has The Great Weis Hope so lowered expectations at Notre Dame that a 5-2 team incapable of cracking the top 25 is worthy of celebration and I-told-you-so e-mails?

No. Your buddy Ty Willingham did. With some help from Bob Davie. Davie could at least recruit though. He was just an idiotic coach.

Charlie claimed he'd never get outcoached, he'd never lose to Michigan State again and that after his first 5-2 start every team in the NFL was ready to fire its coach and land the offensive coordinator who carried Bill Belichick and Tom Brady to the Super Bowl.

The MSU comment came at an alumni function. Come on, man. And you find me the quote where Charlie said every NFL team wanted him. You find it, and I'll apologize, Jason.

Stoops won a national championship in his second season at Oklahoma. Carroll won titles in his third and fourth seasons.

As I've gone over, both those guys had much more well-stocked cupboards than Charlie did. Easier schedules, too. While you're at it, why not bring up Urban Meyer, who won one in his 2nd season at Florida? (He replaced Ron Zook, who entered Florida coaching the same year Willingham came to ND. Zook was fired half a season before Ty was. What color is Zook's skin?)

Notre Dame fans need to get over their fixation on Tyrone Willingham. He's not their problem anymore. His inadequacies don't strengthen Weis' resume. Willingham's resignation at Washington isn't going to make Notre Dame a national-title contender or justify Weis' bloated salary.

He does have a point here. Some ND fans care far too much about Ty. I myself like to laugh at him and will miss that. Did you know he once ended a statement about this season and how it's gone wrong with "...but not everything is microwave popcorn?" Apparently that's a well-known simile I just missed somewhere. Willingham was fired, by the way. Not resigned.

He can begin to do that over the last month of the season. Notre Dame's last five opponents — Pittsburgh, Boston College, Navy, Syracuse and USC — own a combined record of 22-14.

He certainly can. This five-game stretch (six with the expected bowl game) is very big to ND and laying the groundwork for what many Irish fans expect to be a possible title-contending team in 2009. Take out pathetic Syracuse from that quintet, by the way, and the record is 21-8. Whitlock and I agree on this thought.

If he goes 3-2, I'll consider it a passing grade and abstain from taking another potshot at him until next season. If he goes 4-1, I'll call it progress and agree that he's the coaching equivalent of Frank Solich. If the Irish overcome Weis' shortcomings and run the table, I'll strongly consider writing an apology column.

I personally think ND's going 4-1 to end the season. The Pitt game is at home and the Panthers will be without their starting QB. BC is not very good, Navy should be a layup for the remainder of Charlie's tenure (although they have a road win at Wake on their resume) and Syracuse is Syracuse. I like the backhanded compliment of calling Weis Solich's equal. Very nice.

If they fall on their face and lose three or more games, I'd speculate that most Irish fans would prefer Willingham be named Notre Dame athletic director than read my follow-up column.

Notre Dame would have to refrain from getting on the team plane to BC and Navy to do that in all likelihood. But if that somehow happens, I'll be ready for you, Jason.

Learning About Your Team

2008-09-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

You learn a lot about your team when things are going worst. Case in point: Both of my favorite schools' games that were played on Saturday.

Notre Dame at Michigan State

The Irish ran on their first six offensive plays. They got seven yards. That's about how it went the rest of the game. ND's 2-0 start wasn't quite a mirage, but it certainly was not a sign that the struggles of 2007 were gone forever. When almost your entire starting lineup is freshmen or sophomores, crap happens. Jimmy Clausen throws dumb picks. Duval Kamara allows balls to be wrestled away from him in the end zone. Michael Floyd flat-out drops the ball in the MSU red zone. Armando Allen runs with a lack of vision that is almost shocking at times. Underclassman linebackers bounce off MSU's Javon Ringer like a bowling ball. The Irish lost 23-7 but were never legitimately in the game.

We learned: that Jimmy still hasn't made the leap. That for all the potential and talent that Michael Floyd has, the only legitimately unstoppable playmaker on the ND offense is Golden Tate. That Tate is going to be a legitimate national star very soon - that 3rd and 17 effort play to squeeze out of tackles 10 yards short of the first and get it anyway was unreal. That ND's offensive line still is not very good. That the Irish might not have a single running back that can truly get the job done.

The other one was a little happier.

Ball State at Indiana

This 'worst' was a little more serious than mere football issues. Dante Love took an inadvertent helmet to helmet shot early in the 2nd quarter, lost the ball, and had it returned for a score by IU that cut the Ball State lead 14-13. But things soon turned somber when Love didn't move. For a long time. He was immobilized and finally carted off the field. Turns out he suffered a cervical spine fracture and underwent a 5-hour surgery to correct it. He does have feeling in all his limbs and all indications are that he will not suffer any lasting damage from the hit. But he's done playing football.

The play surely put Ball State in a daze for a while. But barely two minutes later, Nate Davis - who is legitimately among the top dozen or so quarterbacks in the nation, any class, anywhere - rolled out under pressure from Indiana's defensive line. Heading for the sideline, he chucked a long ball - 45 yards in the air, that is - to Myles Trempe, the guy who replaced Love. It was right on the money. It was one of the most incredible throws I've ever seen anyone make. Davis makes it seem routine anymore. Touchdown Ball State. The Cardinals pretty much cruised from there, 42-20.

They showed guts and heart. They showed incredible talent. They showed a strong front four defensively and a stronger front five offensively, paving the way for MiQuale Lewis to crack 166 yards and 4 scores and bust into the Cingular All-America player of the week balloting. And they showed incredible poise. Ball State can go 12-0. They may not - but last night proved that they can.

You learn a lot about your team when things are going worst. Some are good, and some are bad. But you learn.

Just So We're Clear...

2008-09-17T20:50:00.000-07:00

USC is NOT a shoo-in for the title game - even if they go undefeated.

This depends on some other circumstances, but if you click on my Dan Shanoff link in the blogroll you'll see. Basically, if an SEC and a Big 12 team go unbeaten...why should USC get in?

The Trojans are great, but as of now it looks like even an unbeaten USC team wouldn't have a win better than Ohio State - and there's no evidence thus far to suggest they're really that special. In fact, the way things are going, the only other ranked team USC might face - and they'd have to keep winning, obviously - would be Notre Dame. Now, an ND fan myself speaking, the Irish might well be good. We don't know yet. But they sure don't have a shot in hell of beating USC and they're probably not good enough for a title contender to be touting them as their second-best win.

This weekend is back to the September norm for college football - a lot of mismatches and not a lot of hotly anticipated games. Notre Dame/MSU, Georgia/Arizona State, and yes, Ball State/Indiana are among the games that should be pretty good this weekend. Check 'em out. College football is the greatest sport in the world - even on mediocre slates like this one. It demands your attention.

College Football Thoughts So Far

2008-09-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

East Carolina. Not much else to say. First you Beamerball Frank Beamer and beat Virginia Tech at a semineutral site, then you simply own West Virginia and hold Pat White and Co. to 3 points. The Pirates are currently ranked 14th in the nation after those victories, which is - without doing any research whatsoever - probably the highest they've ever been ranked. They have no one left on their schedule that should take them down if they play their best, meaning there may be more than one BCS-busting possibility. Speaking of...

Ball State. Yes sir, the old alma mater is 2-0 for the first time since 1995 after beating Navy 35-23 on national TV (ESPN) last Friday night. There are two legitimately scary games left - @Indiana, because the Cards have never beaten a BCS conference opponent, and @Central Michigan, because Dan LeFevour owns us. Of course, between the aforementioned Pirates and the already-ranked BYU, it seems spectacularly unlikely that Ball State would get into the big prize even if they went 12-0, especially considering their schedule. But BSU is setting themselves up nicely.

Ohio State. Color me unimpressed. The Buckeyes handled I-AA Youngstown State well enough, but trailed after 3 quarters against MAC nonentity Ohio and needed the Bobcats to fumble a punt and then foul up coverage horribly defending another to get their 26-14 win. They'll go to top-ranked USC next week. Good luck with that.

Notre Dame. Had to be mentioned. The Irish also trailed an inferior opponent entering the final quarter, down 13-7 to San Diego State before scoring 14 straight and outgaining SDSU 146-5 the rest of the game. This one was nearly really embarrassing since the Aztecs fell at home to I-AA Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo the previous week, but ND escaped with their lives. They'll host equally unimpressive Michigan (lost to Utah then edged Miami of Ohio) on Saturday. As an ND fan, I feel obligated to tell you I'm not that worried unless the Irish struggle again this week. Until then they're just one of many teams that had first-week issues, albeit magnified because they're ND and because they're coming off 2007.

Not much uncertainty. Other than ECU, the thrilling UCLA/Tennessee upset and the odd Akron-over-Syracuse style game in the first two weeks, things are more or less going according to script. I have a feeling by the end of the week of 9/20 we'll have a really good idea of what's going on around the country, but for now, all we know is USC is looking much better than everybody else, the ACC still blows, and the SEC is still awesome.

College Football Is Better Than Pro

2008-09-04T20:54:00.001-07:00

Is it a popular sentiment? Probably more so than you might think, but it really isn't. But the fact is, in my mind, college football is just better than the pros. Pro football has become increasingly about Brett Favre or the Madden Curse. Pro football has exorbitant fines if your uniform isn't exactly right (to paraphrase Peter Gibbons, the Nazis made the Jews wear uniforms, too). Pro football has free agency, veterans being cut left and right, and Daunte Culpepper not being able to find a job.

College football for the most part has few team changes. The games don't fit into some insane bit of history. There is no Spygate. Whereas the NFL has Spygate, college football has supposed offensive genius Charlie Weis guiding the nation's worst offense in 2007. The college game is about what happens on the field, not what happens on the sidelines.

The college game has multiple threats like Percy Harvin or Terrelle Pryor. In the NFL, one guy becomes a multiple threat (Hester) and everyone thinks it's the greatest thing ever.

I have disjointed thoughts about this, and part of it is assuredly that in college, I root for one of the most talked-about and legendary programs ever (Notre Dame), and in the pros, I root for one of the most completely irrelevant and mediocre franchises (Carolina Panthers). But here's the simple truth: I will watch college football day to night, no matter whether ND is involved or not. I cannot stand to watch NFL football in the same fashion. College football is different from the NFL, and in my mind, different is better.

Much better.

Befuddlement

2008-09-03T21:52:00.001-07:00

Baseball makes no sense. No one can deny this. But try to make sense of Randy Wolf getting shredded by Cubs bats on May 12, then tossing a shutout at Wrigley on September 3rd, and you really are going to have a thinker on your hands.

You would think jet-setting to 85-50, the best record the Cubs had had since 1945, would have been enough to take the sting out of losses like the ones in the last five games. It doesn't. It makes them worse. When Lou Piniella inexplicably goes to Bob Howry after Carlos Zambrano leaves the game after five (don't get me started on him) and Bob immediately puts the game out of reach. Or so you think, until the Cubs launch one of their famous comebacks, capped by Jimmy Edmonds finally going deep again to tie it. Then Geoff Freaking Blum caps a banner day of Gold Glove plays by hitting the game-winning two run homer in the 11th.

And then there was tonight's debacle, in which the only time the Cubs got a runner to third, it was on his way home to get thrown out at the plate. At 85-55, with a Baseball Prospectus-calculated 99.5 percent odds of making the playoffs thanks to a 10-game cushion on the wild card runner up right now, we shouldn't care. But we care more than ever.

Then there's Zambrano. Left injured after five. Claims to be hurt. Goes to the doctor today, skips the MRI portion of his check-up, then doesn't show up to the game. You'd think the Cubs would take better care of their 90 million dollar investment. You'd think Zambrano would have outgrown this ridiculousness by now. And you'd think that of former reliever Ryan Dempster, walking injury report Rich Harden, and Zambrano, that Z was the least likely to go down.

That's baseball.

Greatest Sports Quote Ever That May Not Have Actually Been Said

2008-08-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

"I'm fucking done with St. Louis TV and radio and I'm fucking done with the Cardinals."
- Jim Edmonds last Friday to members of the STL media seeking an interview, after he hit 2 homers against STL, sending the game to extras in a game the Cubs eventually won

He disputes actually saying the quote, but even if he didn't say it, it has spread to the point where he may as well have.

Bravo, Jimmy.

Bravo, Cubs.

The Cubs enter today at 73-47, their best mark since the end of the 1984 regular season. Mind-blowing.

(Of note: Jimmy's .610 slugging percentage since joining the Cubs, were it eligible for consideration, would be the highest slugging average IN BASEBALL.)

The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Cubs

2008-08-07T16:14:00.000-07:00

This is a long-overdue post.

The 2008 Chicago Cubs have proven to be the most fun, enjoyable, entertaining and probably the best sports team I have ever followed on a day to day basis (a Bulls fan, I was only a kid when the team was dominating and didn't have the same access to the team that the Internet and regional TV networks have given me now).

It became obvious rather quickly that this team was a little different from previous incarnations of the lovable losers. Not necessarily on Opening Day, when Kosuke Fukudome had the most incredible debut in the history of the team with 3 hits, a walk, and a game-tying, bottom of the 9th inning homer. After all (no one remembers this), but not only did the Cubs lose that game, but they lost the next one. It took a while for things to hit critical mass.

However, when the team managed to keep afloat despite getting virtually nothing from two of their best hitters (Aramis Ramirez was awful in April, and Alfonso Soriano was so terrible that many fans legitimately wondered if he'd ever be good again), things were pretty obviously different.

It was mid-April when things became clear. By that point, Reed Johnson had wrested the starting job from Felix Pie in center field, quite possibly spelling the end of the former top prospect's Cubs run. The New York Mets, widely considered one of the NL favorites, invaded Wrigley for a two-game set. The Cubs proceeded to destroy them by a 15-2 margin, with exclamation points provided by - Felix Pie and Ronny Cedeno? Yep. Pie had a three-run homer in game 1 and Cedeno a grand slam in game 2 to cement Cubs victories in both games. The games showcased the Cubs' massive amount of depth.

May brought a three-game sweep of the other presumptive NL favorites entering the season, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Reed Johnson was the hero for the Cubs in game 3 of this series, creaming an eventual game-winning three-run homer. May also saw the Cubs begin an absurd 14-game home win streak, including the final blow to the doubters - an incredible comeback from down 9-1 to beat the Colorado Rockies 10-9. Everyone was now officially on the bandwagon.

And that's the way it's remained. With the possible exceptions of Jason Marquis and Bob Howry, every single Cub is beloved for one reason or another. The clubhouse chemistry of the team has to be as high as any team's in history, as evidenced by the umpteen 'secret handshakes' that take place in the dugout before each game - so many that the television cameras can't get them all. Carlos Zambrano and Mike Fontenot have one. Ronny Cedeno and Mark DeRosa have one. Zambrano has one with Kosuke Fukudome. Aside from the handshakes, there is manager Lou Piniella, who is less than savvy on the field at many moments (at times excessive hit and running; the horrible misuse of Carlos Marmol this year) but is good enough that his quirky personality overrides his managerial weaknesses in the eyes of many.

More than anyone, Lou probably realizes what is on the line this year. Other than 2004's team, whose faith from the fans was probably misplaced, this is the best chance Cubs fans have had to witness a World Series winner since 1969. Lou, and everyone involved with this team, will become legends in Chicago forever if the unthinkable happens. With the best record in the NL by five games, and only the overachieving Angels holding a better one, this could be, finally...well, it's too cliche to say, but you know what two words were going to finish that sentence.

The faithful's hopes are as high as ever. St. Louis is coming to town this weekend for what should be an emotionally charged series - and for the Cardinals, possibly a season-breaking one, as only 44 games remain for them to catch the Cubs after this series. They trail by 6 games coming in.

Let's get it on.

The Ballad of Brady Quinn

2008-07-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

Most of you probably don't want to feel sorry for Brady Quinn.

After all, he's your typical 'pretty boy' who's making money for, at this point, doing more or less nothing. He's dating a hot former soccer player from Miami (OH). He's a member of his hometown team and probably the most universally liked backup QB of any NFL team's.

But that's the problem - he's a backup QB.

After drafting Brady with a first-round pick they acquired from Dallas in the 2007 draft, Cleveland was stunned to see Derek Anderson explode onto the scene as a viable QB in 2007. Anderson completed 56 percent of his passes for nearly 3,800 yards and 29 TDs to go with 19 interceptions and nearly led the Browns to their first playoff berth in nearly a decade. Quinn played one series in the final game of the season when Anderson was momentarily injured and threw a TD pass that was dropped by Kellen Winslow.

Anderson subsequently signed a 3-year contract extension with Cleveland and Romeo Crennel, the coach whose job Anderson probably saved last year, has been adamant that there is no QB competition this season, although don't tell that to Quinn. Anderson's lack of success at the college or NFL level prior to last season would seem to be evidence (along with his somewhat unsettling amount of interceptions in 2007) that he's a flash in the pan. Maybe something clicked for him, or maybe he was in the right place at the right time. We find out this fall.

Quinn should be used to being in the wrong place at the wrong time by now. After verbally committing to Notre Dame as soon as they showed interest (which they didn't do until fellow Notre Dame commit Chinedum Ndukwe's father convinced then-coach Tyrone Willingham that Quinn might be ok - sharp guy, that Tyrone), Quinn was forced into the starting job early in his career due to a total collapse by previous Irish QB Carlyle Holiday. Quinn's debut is notable in that he threw a Notre Dame-record 63 passes against Purdue, in a game the Irish lost, and that he was smoked over and over again by Purdue defenders treating the ND o-line like a sieve.

It is also notable that Quinn never mentioned this fact when asked questions afterwards.

In fact, in four years Quinn never complained about poor protection, even when his still-horrid-after-all-these-years offensive line probably cost him a Heisman Trophy - and his team a shot at the national title - in a horrifyingly awful display against Michigan his senior year in 2006.

He never complained about being given the absurd label of 'can't win the big game' despite performing very well against USC in 2005, and despite the fact that his defense allowed 47, 44 and 44 points in the 'only the almighty media can decide what is a big game' big games that ND played against Michigan, USC and LSU in 2006.

He never complained that Ohio State QB Troy Smith got a Heisman ahead of him basically because his team was good enough to not lose a game with him at QB (nor about finishing 3rd behind Darren McFadden, voted ahead of him mostly because SEC writers always assume that the best player in the SEC is the best player in football), and he never snarkily mentioned that the only game the entire season that Smith faced significant pressure - the national title game against Florida - Smith played one of the most god-awful games in the history of the QB position.

He's never complained about being taken behind JaMarcus Russell in 2007, whose most prodigious talent, so far as I have seen, is throwing long passes to wide open receivers who have slow DBs beaten by at least three steps. Nor has he wondered why Matt Ryan, who wasn't one-fifth the college QB Quinn was, got taken in the top five mainly because he threw a ridiculously ill-advised pass against Virginia Tech that was miraculously caught by one of his receivers.

None of this is brought up when talking about Quinn, who is by turns known as A.J. Hawk's brother-in-law, the most overrated college football player of all time, or gay, if you believe some bloggers.

Perhaps I'm trying too hard to make you feel sorry for Quinn.

But considering the mainstream opinion of him, maybe you should.

7/12/08: Got a Hard-on for Harden

2008-07-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

Rich Harden made his Cubs debut today. And it was beautiful. 5 1/3 innings pitched, 5 hits, 3 walks, 10 strikeouts, and the beautiful goose-egg next to runs. The Cubs led 7-0 when he left the game, after a strikeout with men on 1st and 2nd. At no point, it seemed, were any Cubs fans worried that Harden might not succeed. He overmatched hitters with an array of fastballs and changeups that bordered on the ridiculous. He even dialed it up to 98 mph to get one K. He was everything that he was advertised to be.

However, the game, as is usually the case at Wrigley, was not over.

The Cubs gave up 2 evidently meaningless runs in the 8th, then Lou Piniella - who evidently thinks every game needs a dose of Marmolade - served up Carlos Marmol once again in the 9th. Marmol leads the world in innings by a reliever, mostly thanks to Piniella's fear of using anyone else. And I do mean anyone.

This would be fine if Marmol were currently as good as he was in April and May. He isn't. He gave up 5 runs, all in increasingly ugly fashion. At one point, Marmol fell down while attempting to make a pick at first base on an attempted double play. That didn't work. He booted a routine grounder into foul territory on another play. On still another, shortstop Ryan Theriot tried to get on ESPN by throwing to second base from his back after fielding a hot shot. He threw it ten feet over second baseman Mike Fontenot's head for the tying runs.

Somehow, Marmol managed to get out of the inning before the go-ahead runs scored. I missed how because of my heart attack.

After being escorted back to the apartment for the free frames, I saw Sean Marshall, who at one point was ready to go in the 9th and should have been put in, pitch the 10th and the 11th flawlessly. I saw Marshall lead off the 11th with a single, I saw Mark DeRosa coax a walk to get him to scoring position, and then I saw Piniella attempt to lose the game once again by sacrifice bunting with Fontenot, who only has been on base roughly 82 straight times at the plate. With a pitcher at second, he was naturally thrown out at third, basically wasting an out.

When Reed Johnson, who sports an OPS below .700 for the year against righthanders, stepped to the plate, I immediately attempted a reverse jinx by announcing that there was no chance at all that Johnson came through. Lo and behold...

So now the Cubs are 57-37 - best record in baseball. They have unequivocally the best rotation in the NL (Zambrano, Harden, Dempster, Lilly and Marquis, with Rich Hill seemingly on his way back from his mental breakdown early on), though with Brandon Webb and Dan Haren in the same league, the title of 1/2 punch - which means everything in a short series - is up for grabs.

But I'd go into battle with that group of 25 any day.

Yeah. That Just Happened.

2008-07-08T20:38:00.000-07:00

The Cubs acquired Rich Harden today, along with "6th starter" Chad Gaudin.

The Cubs gave up Matt Murton, Sean Gallagher, Eric Patterson, and minor league catcher Josh Donaldson.

The move came just a couple of hours before CC Sabathia made his debut for the Brewers, having been acquired a couple of days before. Harden will make his Cubs debut either Friday or Saturday, and is the owner of a 2.34 ERA this season in 9 starts.

Game on, NL Central

What Happened All Week? Or: The Bulls Take Rose and the Sox Bitch-Slap the Cubs

2008-06-29T20:47:00.001-07:00

So, as I hoped and expected, the Bulls took Derrick Rose with the top overall pick in this year's NBA draft. A huge move for the team, who needed a dynamic guard. Granted they also need an inside scoring presence, but they're closer to getting that from Drew Gooden than they are to getting guard play from Hinrich/Gordon/Duhon/pu-pu platter. Rose can come in and be an impact player immediately a la Chris Paul.

In the baseball world, the Cubs followed their sweep of the White Sox by losing 2 of 3 to the Orioles at home, then getting swept by the same Sox to plummet to 49-33. Still good, but since the wildly overachieving Cardinals refuse to remember that they suck, it's only good for a 2.5 game lead. The Sox, meanwhile, maintain their 1.5 game lead on the red-hot Twins.

Not much else going on, but with me starting a new and less inconsistently scheduled job tomorrow, we'll see if I can't get better about consistent posting.

Gone For a Week???

2008-06-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry about being MIA all week - especially in one of the biggest Chicago sports weeks in recent memory. I was rip-roaring drunk for Sunday Night Baseball, worked 12 hours on Monday, then found out I had another job, and on top of that traveled to Chicago from Tuesday to Thursday to watch the Cubs and O's. I worked again yesterday, work again today, and bought a new computer. Basically the busiest week of my life. I promise a full post tonight.

What Happened Today? 6/21/08 Or: One Way or the Other...

2008-06-21T22:02:00.000-07:00

In case you hadn't noticed, I have decided for the time being to make this a Chicago sports-only blog. Figure I might as well give this baby a focus.

So today, the Cubs found a new way to win at home: fall behind early, then bury the opponent with a one-inning explosion. The lovable winners scored 9 runs in the 4th inning today against the White Sox, including 2 homers by that guy, Jim Edmonds, to score an 11-7 win and clinch the first round of the Crosstown Showdown. The win improved the Cubs to an unfathomable 31-8 at home, including 13 straight wins. The Wrigley magic lives.

Tomorrow, it's Sunday Night Baseball. Jon Miller overpronouncing Aramis Ramirez's name and Joe Morgan preaching how Ryan Theriot "plays the game the right way". Are you ready?

Let's go get the brooms.

(Also of note: We are very close to the Bulls' No. 1 pick selection. All indications are that it will be Derrick Rose. And I could not be happier.)

What Happened Today? 6/20/08 Or: Of Course They Did It Again

2008-06-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

Ironically, this morning when I woke up, a friend of mine who is a Sox fan IM'ed me about this series. A battle of first-place teams is always intriguing, and despite my feelings about it (see below), an intracity series adds a little spice to things. He cracked that he was circulating a petition to keep the Cubs from playing the bottom of the 7th inning today due to their penchant for coming back in that inning, especially at home.

Sure enough, that afternoon, Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez went back to back in the bottom of the 7th, erasing a 2-run deficit and leading to Ramirez continuing his legend as one of the great big-situation hitters in Cubs history with a walk-off to center field to lead off the 9th. It was a win the Cubs absolutely had to have after the demoralizing 3-game sweep to the Rays, and in retrospect seems even bigger after Jason LaRue, Skip Schumaker and an on-the-take Red Sox defense led the Cardinals to yet another ridiculous win over a superior opponent tonight.

The Cubbies have won 12 straight home games, are a nearly unfathomable 30-8 at Wrigley and send Jason Marquis to the mound tomorrow for Game 2 of a series that all of a sudden seems sweepable.

In perhaps even better news, Carlos Zambrano's MRI revealed only a minor shoulder strain. It is likely that Z will miss two starts, then be back in the saddle. It is rumored that Z agreed to miss the 2nd start largely because it would be at U.S. Cellular Field, meaning he wouldn't be able to hit for himself. He's just too hilarious.

In other Chicago sports news (well, kinda), NBC has agreed to extend their exclusive contract with Notre Dame football for five more years, through 2015. Mike Wilbon smartly pointed out on PTI today that NBC has pretty much boxed themselves into a corner with the Irish - since all the major conferences now have deals with other networks, NBC is left with ND. Fine by me.

It's worth noting also that Jay Mariotti, the windbag of windbags, has had about enough of Ozzie Guillen. Mariotti ripped his colleagues at the Chicago Sun-Times for being what he called "brainwashed" to believe that Guillen's periodic rants is just Ozzie being Ozzie. Mariotti is not a fan of that, calling Guillen "one of the great crackpots in the history of professional sports". Welllll...this could be interesting.

What Happened Today? 6/19/08 Or: The Least Secure Best Team In Baseball Ever

2008-06-19T21:09:00.000-07:00

So, Cubs fans, not only have we lost Carlos Zambrano for at least one start, but for the first time in 2008, the Cubs will be entering a series coming off a sweep. The Cubbies choked away a 3-1 lead in the 7th inning in Tampa tonight, as Carlos Marmol walked 2 and hit 2 in the only 4 batters he faced, followed by Scott Eyre immediately giving up a grand slam to Carl Crawford followed by about 17 more line shots - I lost count after a while because I was washing the gushing blood from my eyes.

Next up for the free-falling but still best-in-baseball Cubs is a home set against the White Sox. There will be literally thousands of articles published about how the teams are "archrivals" in the next few days, but the fact is, they are just not. Apart from the minor annoyance of Sox fans paying far too much attention to a team that has literally zero effect on their playoff hopes, I could give a rat's ass about this weekend's series. Sure, the Sox annoy me, but no more so than any other team on the schedule does once the game starts. Tomorrow's pitching matchup, John Danks vs. Ted Lilly, could be an even one if the Cubs get the Lilly of the last few starts or could be wildly mismatched. Who knows. All I know is the Cubs need wins, no matter who they're against. Luckily, they're headed back to Wrigley, where the team is nearly invincible. (By the way, if you want Len and Bob rather than the completely unwatchable Hawk and DJ to call the game, watch Comcast Sportsnet Chicago tomorrow and WGN on Saturday - and NOT the reverse.)

Elsewhere in sports:

He's out! The latest manager to join the unemployment lines is Mariners skipper John McLaren. This makes far more sense than the Randolph axing, as Seattle is the worst team in baseball and McLaren had already gone through his prerequisite meltdown press conference a couple of weeks ago. Taking the reins will be former Cubs manager and ex-Mariners bench coach Jim Riggleman. That should go well. Rumors are swirling that the M's aren't done with their reshaping, even after dumping their G.M. and their manager.

Shocking - Chicago native wants to play in Chicago. Derrick Rose, he who has already said he believes Michael Beasley is the best option at the top of the draft, is now publicly asking the Bulls to take him. I'm on record as wanting this since I found out about the Bulls' being handed the #1 pick by a desperate David Stern...err....I mean, catching a lucky break with the lottery balls. Rose is a franchise PG. As has been proven over and over again, a franchise PG means everything, provided you aren't stocked with stars at other positions. And the Bulls are not. What they do have, however, is two pretty good players - Luol Deng and Drew Gooden - in the spots Beasley would be playing in. Not quite as good a fit.

Last Word: But seriously, to quote one of my friend's Facebook statuses, in what universe do Sox fans care if the "Cubs are swept by the Rays", let alone "walking on air" about it?? If anything, they should be unhappy - the Rays would be the White Sox's chief competition for the wild card should they fail to win the AL Central division. Ah, the mind of a Sox fan.

What Happened Today? 6/18/08 Or: Here We Go Again, Cubs Fans

2008-06-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

Yep. Things were just going too well. A couple of days ago, the Cubs were 45-25, the best team in baseball and pulling away from the Cardinals. Sure, Soriano was on the DL for a few weeks, but the Cubs could absolutely get through without him.

Now, the Cubs are 45-27. Still the best team in baseball. However, the injury train is coming, Carlos Zambrano got hurt tonight - and he may well have been hurt for a while, There's no telling where he's headed. Half the Cubs' outfielders have gotten hurt in the last 24 hours.

Granted, St. Louis is still down to us 3.5 games, and after spending most of the season defying any statistical reason why they should be good, they've lost two in a row at home to the Royals. But bad things seem afoot...

Also of note, Tiger's done for the year. This vaults his U.S. Open to a whole new level of brilliance - the MJ Flu Game times about 150. He was playing four weeks before he should have even been MOVING. Incredible.

Image Credit: AP

What Happened Today? 6/17/08 Or: We Have New Champions But From the Same Old City

2008-06-17T22:53:00.001-07:00

I will confess to having watched nearly none of tonight's deciding 131-92 Game 6 blowout to give the Boston Celtics their record 17th NBA title. I was addicted to a rather exciting Cubs game (and baseball always takes precedence over hoops to me), and by the time it was over, so was the NBA Finals game. The Lakers didn't even bother showing up to try and take the NBA crown. Boston laid the smack down, so much so that Kevin Garnett, who I swear put up the most unimpressive double-double average in a Finals ever, piled up a 26/14 in his winning moment.

The person I'm happiest for is Finals MVP Paul Pierce, who toiled on a terrible team for much of his career, and in an amazing twist of fate, found himself with two worthy sidekicks in one off-season. Maybe we were aiming the praise a little too heavily in KG's direction this year, maybe not. But Paul Pierce is a legitimate badass.

Either way, it's nice to see Boston win one. That city's had a really rough sports year.

Not a whole lot else happened today, except that Willie Randolph got canned. Probably not justified, but as I said the other day, it was probably time to make a change and these things just seem to happen a lot these days in sports. Of course, the Mets lost the debut of interim manager Jerry Manuel - the ex-White Sox manager.

More tomorrow. Congrats, Celtics.

Image Credit: Getty Images

What Happened Today? 6/16/08 Or: Tiger Flips the Script

2008-06-16T21:39:00.000-07:00

Usually, it's complete domination. The inevitable playoff charge followed by the opponent cowering in Tiger's wake.

Today, it was neither. Rocco Mediate, an unlikely competitor (he would've been the oldest first-time major champion ever), played very well in the 18-hole playoff, and Tiger looked highly uneven. Mediate did struggle late with some bunker shots, but contrary to his usual work, Tiger did not roar forward and destroy the universe. Maybe he wasn't even capable of it with his bad knee. But Mediate was given extra chances all over the place, and ultimately, it was Rocco himself that handed out the extra chance when he missed an entirely makeable putt that would've clinched the Open on the 18th hole. He followed that by a disaster of a sudden death playoff in which he beached his first shot, then put his 2nd nearly into the gallery, forcing him to take a drop. Tiger easily two-putted in for the title.

In the end, it was major No. 14, and I'm guessing the great one takes a month off before the British Open after this trying endeavor. He clearly was not 100 percent.

Elsewhere:

The completely insane Hank Steinbrenner. Chien-Ming Wang of the Yankees will be out until at least September after hurting his foot running the bases yesterday at Houston. This is not the major news. Hank Steinbrenner took the opportunity to blast the NL for playing without the DH. "My only message is simple. The National League needs to join the 21st century," Steinbrenner said. "That was a rule from the 1800s." Well, the AL didn't have the DH until 1972, and for another thing, Hank, the FREAKING FIRST RULE OF BASEBALL in the book is that baseball is a game of "9 against 9". What the AL is doing is technically not even baseball. This is why I'm an NL fan pretty much exclusively.

Everything else that happened today in baseball is here.

Draft business. Mario Chalmers of Kansas will stay in the draft. So will Joe Alexander of West Virginia, whose stock skyrocketed in the final month and a half of the season. But the big news is that three Tar Heels - Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green - are coming back...this sounds like a UNC title in 2009.

More Euro-madness. If you weren't flipping back to ESPN2 here and there while the U.S. Open playoff was going on, you missed out on a classic Euro 2008 game. Turkey's Nihat Kahveci scored two goals in less than two minutes (87th and 89th minute) to lead his team into the quarterfinals with a dramatic 3-2 win over the Czech Republic. The first goal came when Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech flubbed a ball coming right at him straight into Kahveci's foot, then the Turk fired a perfect shot into the very top of the net in the 89th minute.

The Last Word: I have to give it to Mike Mussina, talking about the 'plight' of AL pitchers playing with no DH: "We run in straight lines most of the time. Turning corners, you just don’t do that.”

What Happened Today? 6/15/08 Or: Too Much For One Headline

2008-06-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

This post is a few hours late. Oh, well.

With two great headline-worthy stories, I've elected to spotlight both of them.

We start with Tiger, of course. Down one shot going into the 18th hole, with Rocco Mediate, looking to become the oldest U.S. Open champ ever, waiting in the clubhouse, was there any doubt Tiger was going to birdie? Even though The Man beached his tee shot, he managed to get up to the green in 3 shots and sank his birdie putt, setting off the loudest celebration I've ever seen in golf from the gallery. Mediate was shown on NBC saying, "I knew he'd make it", immediately after the shot. As I write this, they're in an 18-hole playoff and tied at +1 through 5 holes.

Also in the headlines: The Lakers fought off another late Celtics rally to salvage Game 5 and force the NBA Finals back to Boston. Not to be overlooked, however, is a brilliant performance by Paul Pierce, who put up a mind-boggling stat line of 38 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists to try and lead his team to the title on L.A.'s floor. Also not to be overlooked is the sheer mediocrity of Kobe Bryant's second half. Apart from his steal-should-have-been-a-foul late in the 4th quarter, the guy who's supposedly compared to MJ was decidedly un-star-like. No way that the greatest player ever would be allowing this nonsense to happen in the Finals.

Also in the news:

At least he didn't get the 'vote of confidence'. Mets manager Willie Randolph got no reassurances from his G.M. Omar Minaya that he will be leading the team much longer going into the Mets' West Coast trip. Two games under .500, the Mets are in 4th place in the N.L. East with the daunting Phillies starting to pull away. For a team that was among the N.L. favorites, that just doesn't work. It might be time to fire Randolph if for no other reason than to get rid of the everlasting distraction involving his job security.

Oh yeah, racing's still going on. My attention to NASCAR normally begins - and ends - with the Daytona 500 each year. But it is noteworthy that Dale Earnhardt Jr. finally won his first race in his new Hendrick Motorsports car by smartly saving some gas for the final few laps. 76 races was the winless streak that Little E had had before finally taking the checkered flag at Michigan International Speedway.

Save our Sonics. The trial to determine if the gasbag Clay Bennett can move his team immediately to Oklahoma City begins today. This is one of the saddest stories in sports this year - a team being ripped from its home and its fans for no real reason. Supposedly they need a new arena, which is a joke because their current one is about 15 years old and was roundly praised at the time as one of the best in the league. The lawyer for Seattle says that a deal was made that would keep Seattle there until the year 2010 at least, and Bennett must uphold that bargain. We'll see how it plays out. Good luck, Seattle.

The Last Word: Who will come up and immediately start raking for St. Louis after Yadier Molina likely hits the DL? The unfortunate reality is that Cubs fans are forced to be bitter towards the Cardinals due to their incredible ability to get good years out of players that are not good (Skip Schumaker, Ryan Ludwick, Todd Wellemeyer, Kyle Lohse, Braden Looper, etc.) Hopefully Molina is ok after his neck injury yesterday.

What Happened Today? 6/14/08 Or: Eldrick Roars To the Top

2008-06-14T22:23:00.000-07:00

Well, my allusion to Tiger being atop the leaderboard after round 3 of the U.S. Open proved correct today. The man, the myth, and the legend sunk an eagle putt from about 20 miles away to bring the gallery to its feet and to take a one-shot lead on Lee Westwood (after being down 5 with 6 holes to play) heading into Red Sunday, as Tiger would like to call it. Just an electrifying experience to watch this man play golf. I don't even follow the sport much, but you have to appreciate this level of greatness from an athlete. Inspiring to see.

Also from the wires today:

Replay debate lives on. Today's word is that umpires, not managers, would be responsible for initating any replay review that is required during the course of a baseball game. Umpire crew chiefs, to be exact. That's always comforting. If we trusted the umpire's judgment, would we be using replay to begin with? I think we should stick with the whole 'challenge' thing - easier, more fan-friendly, and also leaves less to the umps' discretion.

These Cubbies don't lose twice in a row. At this point, it's safe to say the Cubs own Roy Halladay. Three years ago, Cubs scrub Sergio Mitre managed to beat Halladay when the Jays visited Wrigley during interleague play. In 2008, Jason Marquis, who is no better certainly than Mitre was, beat Halladay. Yes, sample size, but it's fun to see. And kind of unbelievable. Former Blue Jay Reed Johnson hit a 3-run homer - and got a standing O from the Canadians - to spark the Cubs to the win, and Marquis lasted into the 8th before needing to be pulled. Very nice work.

In the amateur ranks... I don't really follow college baseball either - except for the occasional foray into my alma mater's fortunes - but a surprising result today as top-ranked Miami fell to Georgia 7-4 in a CWS game. The Dawgs scored 4 in the 9th to capitalize on Canes' closer Carlos Gutierrez's throwing error to nab the victory. The Canes now need to play their way out of the loser's bracket while Georgia gets Stanford next.

He's tired from carrying KG? Young Celtic Kendrick Perkins is reportedly heavily favoring a strained left shoulder and didn't practice Saturday in L.A. He still says, though, that he's likely to go in Game 5 tomorrow night, a possible clincher. Personally, I think it seems likely the NBA will assign Dick Bavetta, now-unemployed Tim Donaghy, and Magic Johnson to officiate Game 5, the better to send the series back to Boston.

The Last Word: Anyone like soccer? I've grown to enjoy it a little more, and Euro '08 is going on now. David Villa of Spain, who already boasts a hat trick in the tournament, scored a goal in injury time to beat Sweden 2-1 today, a big win for the Spaniards, who, if I'm correct, were not exactly favorites to compete in the tournament. Meanwhile, defending champ Greece (I remember this happening, because it was such a giant upset) has already been eliminated, being dumped by Russia 1-0.

Image Credit: AP

What Happened Today? 6/13/08 Or: Remember That Tiger Guy?

2008-06-13T23:01:00.000-07:00

Was there ever any doubt, good denizens of the blog universe, that the great Tiger Woods would shrug off his knee injury and begin his charge today in the 2nd round of the U.S. Open? Shooting an impressive 68 at Torrey Pines - one off the best score of the day (that pesky Padraig Harrington fellow fired a 67) - Woods climbed into a tie for 2nd place at the year's 2nd major. He trails Stuart Appleby by a stroke halfway through the tournament. I'm guessing this will change by about 9 holes into Tiger's Saturday round...don't you?

In other news:

What is this devilry on my television screen? Those perpetually behind-the-times, crochety old men, pick-whatever-silly-generalization-you-like guys at Major League Baseball might be picking up instant replay sooner than you think. Like, this year, if you believe the always-trustworthy "two sources familiar with the discussions". Maybe this will put an end to the recent spate of blown home run calls...maybe not.

Meanwhile, on the field...um...the Cardinals suck. Those of you waiting for the insanely overperforming Cardinals, led by the suddenly-great-for-the-first-time-at-29 Ryan Ludwick, to come back to earth probably enjoyed tonight's 20-2 shellacking at the hands of Philadelphia a bit too much. The Phillies' Big Three - Utley, Howard and Burrell - went back to back to back in the 1st inning and it's safe to say the Cardinals never threatened from there. The archboys even sent infielder Aaron Miles out to the mound at one point, always a fun time for everyone. The Cubs lost as well, though, leaving STL 3.5 games out of first.

I won't make an eye joke, I promise. Chipper Jones, the latest guy to take a hack at Ted Williams's claim to being the last player to hit .400, might be angering the Baseball Gods or something. After limping through Atlanta's last series with the Cubs, Chipper took a ricocheted BP pitch to the face today and was a late scratch from the Braves/Angels game, which the Braves...umm...bravely gathered together to win anyway.

The Last Word: Sad day for sports fans and nonsports fans alike. Sportscaster Charlie Jones, who worked the first Super Bowl as a broadcaster, and more recently was the voice of one of the defining football games of my young fanhood - the 1993 clash between #1 Florida State and #2 Notre Dame - passed away today of a heart attack. Meanwhile, anyone who loved seeing Tim Russert expertly wield his white board during NBC's presidential election coverage the last couple of times around is saddened by his passing today after collapsing in the Washington, D.C. bureau he was the head of. As an aspiring journalist myself, I look to Russert as one of the best examples of impartiality and pride in the media. Sad to say he is gone.

Image Credit: Getty Images

What Happened Today? 6/12/08 Or: The Lakers Take the Driver's Seat and Fall Asleep at the Wheel

2008-06-12T22:45:00.001-07:00

After the 1st quarter of tonight's Game 4 of the NBA Finals, it looked like the Celtics' goose, for the moment, had its head in the oven. They had missed their opportunity to take control of the series by allowing the Lakers to take Game 3, thanks largely to incredibly bad performances from Paul Pierce (2/14 shooting) and Kevin Garnett (6/21). They were the proud owners of the largest end-of-1st-frame deficit in the history of the NBA Finals. And L.A. was doing it all without the services of Messr. Kobe Bean Bryant.

But, in the 3rd, the Celts made their inevitable run, ripping off a 21-3 run in the final 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter, and the Lakers never responded. Bryant posted an underwhelming 19 points on 6/19 shooting, Ray Allen continued his run for a Finals MVP award, and Pau Gasol continued his quest to lull me into a false sense of security by not impressing me in any game I watch him play.

The Lakers never really showed up in the 4th, and when they graciously allowed Allen to make a pretty much uncontested layup with 16 seconds to play, that pretty much shoved the fork into the Lakers. They lost the game 97-91. Now Showtime is down 3-1 in the series, with 2 games left in Boston. No team has ever come back from down 3-1 to win the Finals. Maybe there's a first time for everything, but I doubt this year is it.

Other stuff that happened today:

The Cubs win - no matter what year it is. Full disclosure - I'm a Cubs fan. There will be a post very soon describing the incredible surreality of the 2008 season for me. Today was yet another example of how the Cubs make the once-impossible late-inning comebacks seem like a formality. While the team celebrated 60 years of WGN baseball with throwback uniforms and 2 innings of black and white 'retro-style' broadcasting, the most recent hero was Jim Edmonds, who found the basket in the LF bleachers to tie the game at 2 in the 9th inning. In the 11th, after the Cubs loaded the bases with no one out, Reed Johnson pinch-hit for Edmonds against the lefty pitcher Jeff Ridgway of Atlanta. Ridgway promptly hit Johnson to end the game with his first pitch. The win gives Chicago a 43-24 record - the best in baseball by two games - including a completely ridiculous 29-8 record at Wrigley Field. Although Alfonso Soriano is still out a while with that fractured hand, I have a feeling they'll be alright.

Billy, Mr. Randolph would like a word with you. A few days ago, Billy Wagner was fine as closer of the Mets. He was 13/15 in save chances, was sporting an 0.36 ERA and was generally regarded as one cog in the underperforming Mets' machine that didn't need to be worried about. Well, Wagner has blown three straight saves, all multiple-run leads to boot, and today's was perhaps the most damaging, as NY lost to the D-Backs 5-4, falling to three below .500, 7.5 behind Philadelphia, and also 7.5 out of the wild card. For a team that was universally considered to be Arizona's biggest threat to keep them out of the World Series this year, it's not working out so well there. At least Randolph's job's not in jeopardy, right? Umm...right?

You don't care about steroids, but here it comes anyway. Although baseball fans - including myself - have pretty much decided to ignore that anything steroid-related has ever happened (except for making fun of any fans of a team whose player gets caught), the news keeps leaking out. Today comes word that Congress wants to hear more from Bud Selig and Don Fehr, who the lawmakers suspect may not have been entirely truthful in the original 2005 steroids hearings. Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Tom Davis (R-VA) are particularly intrerested in passages of the Mitchell Report that claim "that the random testing program was suspended for a large part of the 2004 baseball season" and "that players may have been told of upcoming tests". Hmmmm.

Chad Johnson shows up, but is he healthy? As he promised to do a while back, that master of celebration Chadwick Johnson arrived on time for Bengals minicamp today. But he never said he'd actually do anything. Johnson claims to have bone chips in his ankle, although the Bengals' medical staff gave him a physical and found nothing of the sort. Bengals QB Carson Palmer (remember those other guys on the team?) tellingly refused to talk about Johnson, saying he's pretty sure everyone's "sick of hearing about him, so I'm not going to talk about him". I dunno about you, Carson, but I'm never sick of hearing about Mr. Johnson.

Here's to you, Alex Ovechkin. The most electrifying talent in the NHL this side of Pittsburgh, as expected, took home the Hart Trophy as the league's MVP tonight, receiving 128 out of 134 first-place votes. Speaking as someone who can name no other Capital despite their division championship this season, that sounds like a pretty good choice. Ovie said he has his sights set on a Stanley Cup, though. We shall see...

Last Word: Is anyone remotely surprised that with all the Tim Donaghy crap going on that the Feds are looking to see if there are any more crooked refs? And is anyone remotely surprised that in their hunt for crooked refs, the Feds are honing in on the one and only Dick Bavetta, universally considered the worst remaining ref in the NBA?

Image Credit: New York Times

I'm Back

2008-06-12T22:32:00.001-07:00

In a previous world, I had a sports blog with this same title but never had time to work on it - pesky college life.

Now, I do. So I'm reviving it.

The new Swivel Arm will aim to have a post each night running down the day's top stories, as well as other content uploaded whenever I feel like.

A long-time sports fan, I now feel the time is right to have a blog, because I am following sports now more than I ever have. Through the magic of MLB.TV, multiple other sports blogs, and message boards a go go, I have my finger on the pulse of the sports universe (or at least the universe I care enough to follow).

So enjoy, everybody.