Simulated Gameday Experience

To understand what’s going on with the Tennessee QB situation, it makes sense to go back a few years. 2010 was going to be a season of reckoning as most of the players we thought were going to be stars were upperclassmen of some form or fashion going into 2008. (In the case of Eric Berry, that’s a non-issue; we knew he was gone after 2009 anyway.) Four-year starter Erik Ainge departed after a successful 2007 season, so it fell to talented but largely unproven Jonathan Crompton to shepherd the team through the ’08 season. And then things fell to shit. (more…)

Let’s start with the obvious; those of you who have been following my writing for years should’ve noticed a distinct lack of any discussion on the NBA. Considering I watch pretty much any team sport that’s broadcast in the US (and a few that aren’t – hello, handball!) you figure I’d follow professional basketball, and yet I never really got into it. I’d watch it occasionally, but never really with any conviction or particular interest in results or players. And yet, I’m drawn to LeBron’s Game 6. (more…)

So the Nats’ Opening Day was on Monday. That isn’t necessarily news, but the crowd composition ended up making the most headlines. A group (and by “a group”, I mean “more than a few thousand”) Phillies fans ended up crashing Opening Day in DC, turning the game into a virtual home game for the Phillies. Those of you who are aware of foreshadowing are probably smart enough to figure out where this is going. (more..)

So I get the idea that Spring Training is supposed to be a time for hope, rebirth, and warm fuzzy feelings that make you excited about watching baseball for the next six months. My problem is that the franchise I’m dumb and/or crazy enough to follow decided to spend most of their offseason talking about moves that were progress and great for the franchise and generally the kind of treading-water crap we’ve come to expect from the likes of Baltimore and Pittsburgh. I should be excited over these guys? (more…)

In retrospect, it’s my own fault I saved the Papa John’s bowl for last; of course I’m having issues with motivation when a bowl is pitting a couple of 7-5 teams against each other. The most notable on-field incident between South Carolina and UConn is UConn’s triple-OT win over Notre Dame, made famous because of a) the name of the team they beat and b) the significance of their first win following the tragic death of Jasper Howard. Aside from that, it’s a long way down; (more…)

In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have posted as quickly about the Leach firing as I did. Since that post went up with my initial thoughts, there have been a few developments: (more…)

The Liberty Bowl has fallen off a bit from its 2004 Louisville – Boise State clash-of-the-mid-majors tilt; sure, it reeked of an undercard, but for a bowl who’s typically sitting around second-level status, it counts as glory days. Since then, Conference USA got raided by the Big East and the Mountain West backed out of the picture; the Liberty Bowl capitalized on that by bringing in some essentially random mediocre SEC West team (note: capitalized is only used in the highest irony possible). Under this scenario, it’d make East Carolina and Arkansas squaring off wholly unexciting. (more…)

I can’t shake the feeling that the Capital One Bowl is a generally vague disappointment this season. Both Penn State and LSU opened the season as fringe BCS contenders who needed a bit of help to make the national title game; they finished the season 1-3 against teams in the Top 25 when they played them and more importantly 0-5 against teams that are currently in the top 25. Somehow these teams are ranked 11th and 13th in the BCS for reasons that quite frankly pass understanding to me, although they’re somewhat similar. (more…)

So this was supposed to be yet another preview article about both teams, their seasons (including their one combined loss) and, well, who’d have a shot to win this. There’s one heck of a stylistic matchup between Florida’s defense and Cincinnati’s offense that’s probably worth blowing 1,000 words on in its own right. Then again, that was also before the coaches decided they were going to up and leave town – since the end of the season, we’ve had both head coaches and both the coordinators in the main matchup bail for either various other head coaching gigs or for personal reasons. For clarity’s sake: Urban Meyer is going on vacation, Brian Kelly is at Notre Dame, Charlie Strong (Florida’s DC) is at Louisville, and Jeff Quinn (Cincinnati’s OC) is at Buffalo. Of the four, Meyer and Quinn will be acting head coaches for their respective sides and Strong will be a DC for one final game before moving on- only Brian Kelly won’t be around for this one. (Incidentally, incoming HC Butch Jones won’t be on the sidelines for either Cincinnati or his former Central Michigan outfit. Apparently there’s a pipeline between CMU and UC, who knew?)

It’s a complete shame that all the coaching activity ended up drastically overshadowing the storylines on the field, since as far as matchups go this is pretty solid. (more…)

From the annals of the truly bizarre comes Mike Leach’s termination, effective immediately. Leach is a bit of a character in his own right; as I’m writing this I’m half-staring at a pirate flag across the street, which is doing nothing but reminding me of Leach and his fascination with pirates. That, along with a prolific passing offense and tendency to act a bit bizarre at times (sometimes that qualifies as understatement), is why we’ve heard of Leach.

That, not coincidentally, is why he ended up getting canned. On some level, this came down to a he-said he-said argument; Adam James (and, by extension, Craig James, and, by extension, his employer ESPN, albeit acting as a platform only and not with any sort of agenda – would’ve made it a wee bit awkward had James gone through with broadcasting the Alamo Bowl, which TTU is a part of) assert that Leach treated him unfairly while he was injured. Leach, of course, denies this, although he does assert that he did take disciplinary action. I’m not going to get into all the details here. What’s important right now are two factors:

- Mike Leach is now available as a coach, at least in theory

- Texas Tech brass, Leach, and possibly the James family are about to get embroiled in one heck of a legal mess

(more…)