Monday, November 24, 2008

Win and you're in

Some people are worked up about the BCS for Florida right now. Please do not be one of them. If the Gators win their next two games, they will play for the national title. Who they will play is what could get very interesting. If Oklahoma State beats Oklahoma this week and the other two schools atop the South win, it's Texas Tech versus Missouri for the Big 12 title with a Texas team that didn't win its division likely getting to the national game. The BCS system would look ridiculous again, and Florida would win the national title decisively again. I'm okay with both outcomes - go Cowboys!

The Bucs tried to tank against the Lions Sunday but they got away with it. Making a habit of spotting crappy teams seventeen points on the road was a really bad idea. The NFL as a whole was pretty blah Sunday, unless you care a lot about Donovan McNabb getting benched. But hey, at least soon you may be able to watch the Jaguars play like crap in 3-D!

Norv Turner should have been fired in the locker room after last night's San Diego loss to the Colts. Calling timeout with 1:35 left in the game as you're about to attempt a field goal, thus providing Peyton Manning the maximum possible time available to lead the game winning drive, is coaching malpractice. On top of that, Turner actually called a timeout to "ice" Adam Vinatieri. He tried that stunt with perhaps the most clutch kicker in NFL history and deserved what he go in return - Colts win on the 51 yard FG. Turner disproves the notion that good NFL offensive coordinators will likely make great head coaches, much like...

Charlie Weis has been doing from the time he got to Notre Dame. After Saturday's mind-boggling loss to Syracuse, firing Weis is now being openly advocated in South Bend. Weis's incredible arrogance in bragging about his "decided schematic advantage" - he's an NFL genius like Norv, and college guys can't possibly match wits with him - set him up for failure from the day he arrived. College football is a different game, and Weis still hasn't come close to figuring out how to motivate players or put together a proper coaching staff. It's all fascinating - ND expects to be great again, but there is no logical reason the football team at a Catholic university in South Bend Indiana should have ever been really good in the first place. Lots of coaches can get them back to eight or nine wins and a decent bowl, but I'm not sure there's more than about three I can think of who could get them farther than that.

Other schools are already making coaching moves, as San Diego State whacks Chuck Long after three seasons. This is madness. Long doesn't seem to be a good head coach, but he took over a program which was a disaster. People criticized UF for getting rid of Zook when his third year turned out to be a failure, but he took over a team which had been number three in the country the year before he arrived. SDSU wasn't even number three in Southern California! When schools like SDSU and K-State say win in three years or you're gone, fans have to expect coaches to act like mercenaries by leveraging any success at all for a bigger contract or outright cheating. Show no loyalty, get none in return. Speaking of K-State, they're bring Bill Snyder back. A seventy year old who hasn't coached in three years, ended with two consecutive losing seasons, and is returning to a conference that just had its best season in years.... great plan, Wildcats.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You'd be surprised by how delusional some fans up North really are. I was in Columbus two weeks ago and listening to a local sports show and a caller said that Charlie Weis is just too smart for the college game. That would have been fine--every show has its crazy listeners after all--but the two hosts actually agreed with him. Give the man credit, hes done a heck of a sales job. I guess if you talk about your own genius enough people eventually start to believe it...

Unknown said...

Oh, and did I ever tell you guys about the time when I got a perfect score on my SAT?