Random Commentary and Satire About Interesting and Sometimes Pathetic Stuff
Oregon State manhandles #1 USC, 27-21, dominating far more than the final score reveals. The evil Trojans fall to the Beavers for the second straight time in Corvallis. It’s also the second time the Beavers knocked off a number 1 Trojan team.
Oregon State never trailed and made all the clutch plays when they needed them. Jacquizz “Quiz” Rodgers had a huge day, greatly aided by his brother.
It is the day of miracles.
Some misguided sports commentators are calling Kansas’ 75-68 overtime victory over Memphis last night in the NCAA final a classic.
It was no classic … except to Jayhawks fans. For them it is rightly so. And, yes, that was an amazing comeback and an incredible 3-pointer to send it to OT.
But any game at this level that is decided by free throws, where one team throws up wildly errant attempts—from the charity stripe—and the bricks hopelessly clang off metal repeatedly … where one team chokes, over and over and over again from the free-throw line no less, can’t be called a classic.
I am not a fan of Memphis or Kansas. It didn’t really matter to me who won. And there was a certain amount of excitement. But how can Memphis even lift their heads after producing such woeful attempts when all they needed was one more miserable free throw to win the nation’s championship?
No, Memphis deserved to lose. They shot free throws like little boys chunking deflated orbs at a hoop with no net in a playground pick-up game.
Fans deserve better.
The one thing this game made famous is the strategy that won it— Hack-a-Tiger.
A few sports writers are acting like prognostigating oracles for correctly predicting Florida Quarterback Tim Tebow would win the Heisman trophy last night. Hey, guys, everybody knew this. Tebow had to win.
Now if only the NCAA national title were as clearcut. But it’s not, no matter who wins which games.
Give us playoffs for the title!
The Not-so-big Red lost its last chance to avoid a losing season on a day when they put up 51 points. They gave up 65 to Colorado. Both teams came in at 5-6, guaranteeing the winner a break-even season and the loser a losing record and no bowl bid.
The 116 points scored are not the result of the phony stats invoked by overtime games; they were put up in regulation. There is sorrow in Lincoln as the once proud Huskers were lit up for 60 points for the second time in a month.
What now for Bill Callahan? I’m guessing his fourth year was his last.
Oklahoma is just the latest top-5 team to be defeated by an unranked one. Sooner QB Sam Bradford was knocked out of the game early with a concussion making a tackle on a fumble return and never returned to the game, won by Texas Tech, 34-27.
Graham Harrell seized the opportunity to become the game’s centerpiece, throwing 72 times with 47 completions, including two touchdowns. He also ran for a score.
The game against the #4-ranked Sooners was not as close as it seems by the final score. The Red Raiders once sported a 34-10 lead and seemed in command before a frantic comeback by the Sooners fell just short.
Amazing, surprisingly dominant Red Raiders!
Wyoming coach Joe Glenn made a very bad decision in the midst of his team’s 50-0 drubbing at the hands of Utah Saturday. Moments before, Utes coach Kyle Whittingham had also made a bad decision.
Ahead 43-0 and kicking off following a field goal, the Utes executed an unsuccessful onsides kick, an obvious attempt to run up the score. Glenn flashed his middle finger at Whittingham, a surprising loss of good judgment for an NCAA coach.
Glenn had more than one reason to be embarrassed. Besides being down 43-0 at the time, he was clearly replaying in his head the tape of him guaranteeing a victory over Utah at a school function earlier in the week. This is also a surprising loss of good judgment for an NCAA coach.
Glenn was reprimanded by his conference. Today he apologized. He initially claimed he didn’t remember the gesture, but eventually acknowledged it. “I met with my team on Sunday and apologized to them for the gesture I made toward the Utah bench during the game,” Glenn said. “I also want to apologize to all fans for that action. Football is an emotional game, and I let my emotions get the best of me. I felt it was appropriate for me to let my team and all fans know that I am truly sorry for that emotional moment.”
For his part, Whittingham also acknowledged the onsides kick while up 43-0 was indeed a “bad decision.”
Both of these coaches get bad marks for character. Forgiveness, when asked, should be given. But both of these guys need to make some kind of positive contribution to the character of the young men they lead, to make up for the bad influence their actions conveyed.
NCAA coaches are big boys. They should know better. And they should care more about making a positive impact on young lives than throwing an obscene tirade at an enemy or trying to grind a guy’s face in the dirt for something he foolishly said.
Now, having apologized, Joe Glenn and Kyle Whittingham need to do some “community service.” They need to make some kind of clear positive contribution to make up for their childish antics. And they both need to grow up.
In games just finished, the #16 Missouri Tigers dominated #24 Texas Tech, 41-10, racking up more than 200 yards on the ground.
No. 12 Cal, bitten by turnovers for the second straight week, was upset by UCLA at the Rose Bowl, 30-21, to pretty much remove them from returning there for the Rose Bowl in January. It may be a home game for UCLA as they are first in the conference at 4-0 with Arizona State. The Bruins have two non-conference losses to none for the undefeated Sun Devils. Cal is toast and a Bruin-Sun Devil match-up later should decide the Rose Bowl.
No. 14 Florida handled #8 Kentucky, 45-37, behind star quarterback Tim Tebow, a dominant force. A week after knocking off then-#1 LSU in triple overtime, Kentucky couldn’t end their 20-game losing streak to the Gators, the defending national champions. It now stands at 21. The Wildcats will drop from the top 10.
Lots of changes coming to the rankings.
The Bulls of the University of South Florida fell to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, 30-27, at Rutgers. So this wacky NCAA season continues, with another highly ranked team falling to an unranked opponent. The number two team will fall in the rankings. Cinderella season is over.
After USC narrowly defeated Arizona (20-13) Saturday, a team they should have handled easily, USC coach Pete Carroll surprised members of the press by launching into an incredibly accurate impersonation of a valley girl.
“To get a good win and finish it strong at the end was really cool,” Carroll said.
Did he say, “really cool“? That’s what all that time in Southern California will do for you.
The blue smurf turf at Boise State saw 136 total points scored and nearly 1,300 yards of total offense yesterday during a rare nationally-televised Sunday college game.
The difference was a 2-point conversion by Boise State that couldn’t be answered by visiting Nevada in the fourth OT. The final was 69-67. If the 2-point try wasn’t mandatory on the fourth OT, they might still be playing.
Exciting? Sort of. At least as exciting as … yawn … a hockey shootout.
This game is being called a classic. It is an artificial classic that was rife with articficial excitement. How exciting is it to get a touchdown when each team is given the ball virtually on the goal line? The system, known as the Kansas Plan (not exactly an honor for the state), gives teams the ball repeatedly at their opponent’s 25 yard line on equal possessions until there is a point differential. This OT system is not just flawed, it’s downright immoral. College teams and players break records and run up their stats simply because they happened to play a tie game and the refs keep giving them the ball near the goal line. These artificial stats are a blot on the college game and deserve the same fate as NCAA schools that have forfeited games or seasons. This is not real football. It’s bocce ball, a penny a pitch.
The NCAA needs a real overtime system for its biggest sport. And it’s not sudden death. I’ll deal with what’s wrong with the NFL version of OT in a future post.
In short, get rid of this insane OT system, and throw out the inflated stats … and maybe throw out the blue turf while you’re at it.
The unexpected is always good for sports, just not for the fans of the teams on the short ends of unexpected occurrences. Today that means LSU and Cal fans. The Kentucky Wildcats upsetting the opposing felines, the Louisiana State Tigers, leaves Cal sitting pretty. Oh, but then there’s this bonehead play by the Cal stand-in QB. And a sure tie that would force OT is frittered away by failing to stop the clock. The Golden Bears become the Bad News Bears and lose by 3.
As they say, “That’s what makes a ball game.”
But redshirt freshman quarterback Kevin Riley, he of the bonehead, has no Cal fans feeling sorry for him, at least not after this winner of a quote: “It’s just part of the game. I was in the middle of a play, and I thought I could make one.”
No, doing incredibly stupid things are not “just part of the game.”
Here’s what happened:
Kentucky had beaten No. 1 Louisiana State in triple overtime. Cal, ranked No. 2 in the nation, and favored to beat the unranked Oregon State Beavers, had only to do that to procur the university’s first No. 1 football ranking in 70 years.
With Cal down three and near the Beavers’ goal line, overtime was the worst outcome they expected. A field goal would be a sure thing. Then Riley, knowing he was out of timeouts made an error that let Oregon State’s 31-28 lead stand as the final score. On the 12-yard line with 14 seconds left in the game, Riley got cocky and greedy, scrambling for the end zone instead of throwing the ball away for the guaranteed OT field goal kick.
“I thought I saw some green grass in front of me,” he said. “I thought I could make a play.”
You made a play all right, a really bad one. And worse, in knocking your team from the ranks of the undefeated and costing them a once-in-70-years chance at number one, you said it was “just part of the game.”
Redshirts should be seen and not heard. And they should learn that when fate puts them on center stage, it’s not about them; it’s about their team.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers were embarrassed today on their home turf in Lincoln, losing to the Oklahoma State Cowboys by a whopping 31-point margin, 45-14. It was the worst home loss for the Huskers in nearly half a century.
For Husker fans, who are among the most avid and faithful in the nation, it was a humiliation. It was the 287th consecutive sellout in Memorial Stadium, and it was homecoming. The Huskers didn’t score in the first half, trailing 38-0 at halftime.
Nebraska slipped to 4-3 overall and 1-2 in the Big 12 with the loss, while Oklahoma State improved to 4-3 and 2-1.
During the post-game press conference, Bill Callahan, who is an unacceptable-in-Lincoln 25-18 in his four years, did not seem to display a very strong sense of urgency.
I think that is something he needs to display … rather fast … while he still can.
Stanford came in 1-4, 0-3 in the Pac 10. They were up against the mighty USC Trojans … in L.A. USC started the game with 35 consecutive home game wins, 24 straight Pac-10 games at home. The Stanford Cardinal was the last team to beat them in L.A., in 2001.
Tavita Pritchard threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Mark Bradford and Derek Belch kicked a game-winning PAT with 49 seconds left, and the Cardinal had what may be the season’s biggest upset, upending the Trojans, 24-23, in the L.A. Coliseum.
USC coach Pete Carroll: “Jimmy (Harbaugh, first-year Stanford coach) had them ready to play. … To give it up like this is a shame, it is crushing to me. We made a ton of mistakes. We need to find ways to make plays and go back and find the right combinations. Give credit to Stanford.”
Huge upset? There are no superlatives strong enough. Yes, huge. Maybe even bigger than Appalachian State Mountaineers 34, No. 5 Michigan Wolverines 32.
And another step toward sports heaven, when “any team can beat any other team on any given game day.”
UCLA head basketball coach Ben Howland on John Wooden (March 2007): “He views himself as someone who’s been put on this earth to help others. He did that as a teacher, he did that as a coach and he continues to do it 30 years beyond when his career has ended. He answers every phone call and every letter, and everybody who reaches out to him. It’s just amazing how giving he is of his time and his wisdom, because he has so much to give in that respect.”
Colleges are for education.
Today, in “23 Florida State athletes accused of cheating,” the AP reported:
Two athletic department academic assistance employees have resigned and 23 Florida State University athletes were implicated in cheating on tests given over the Internet, school officials said Wednesday.
The athletes represent nine sports and 17 of the students are or have been on scholarship. Officials could not identify the students and could not say which sports are involved because of federal confidentiality restrictions.
University President T.K. Wetherell reported the findings in a letter to the NCAA. He indicated inquires are continuing although an internal investigation failed to find conclusive evidence of a more widespread pattern of cheating.
Cheating on the Internet? How hard can that be? The honor system is dead in big college sports. It’s time that colleges were used for education.
(Read the AP report here.)
Knute Rockne, a truly great coach … a greater coach than Bill Belichick (except to Tom Brady), said this:
“Win or lose, do it fairly.”
Knute, where are you when we need you?
“Sports do not build character. They reveal it.” —John Wooden (or journalist Haywood Hale Broun; not sure who said it first)
This is true at least when the bad guys get caught … like taping their opponents’ signals or something. Yes, that revealed a certain kind of character.
“The Patriots didn’t need to cheat against the Jets. They would have slaughtered them anyway.” This is a defense a lot of Patriot fans have been driven back to since Patriotgate. They are right. This is one of the things that makes this even worse. There have been coaches in the NFL (they’re known as “good sports”), like Bill Walsh, who refuse to run up the score on a hapless opponent who is already clearly defeated. Belichick, not being a “good sport,” is not in that category. What Patriotgate shows the world is that Belichick does not just want to win, he wants to humiliate the teams he knows he’s going to beat. He is trying to cement his own reputation as a great coach by unethically running up the score on lowly teams, much like big NCAA schools have done with lowly ones, at least until Appalachian State.
Bill Belichick is not a good sport … he is not a good coach … he is a talented coach. It will only be justice if he receives some of the humiliation he has been attempting to rain down on second-rate teams.
Taking a cue from fellow NFLer O.J. Simpson, Bill Belichick has decided to end his silence on the exact nature and extent of his cheating. Embarrassed when the franchise changed the name of his team to the Dodgers, reflective of his adept dodging of any and all questions regarding his malfeasance, Belichick has agreed to end his silence on two conditions: (1) That he be able to write the information rather than face the music, and (2) that he be able to pretend he didn’t do it by using the word “if.”
Thus was born the second recent volume titled If I Did It.
In other news, a new investigation has been opened up to look into new allegations of wrong-doing with regard to “The Tuck.” Our sources tell us that it is possible that an unprecedented ruling could eventuate forcing the Patriot/Dodgers to forfeit entire seasons, a la prior high-profile NCAA rulings. But the likelihood of this is remote.
