See you next year

There aren't many firings that really catch people by surprise in sports anymore. It seems like most moves have been discussed/preducated for weeks before they finally happen. Mike Shanahan getting cut loose was that rare one few saw coming. Shanahan is a good coach still, but he probably will benefit from a change of scenery. With a good personnel guy to keep him from ignoring the defense, he could immediately turn a team around. I'm fascinated to see who the Broncos think will be better than what they had in Shanahan. I think he deserved some significant criticism for the last few years, but if they made this movw without having a plan in place I think Broncos owner Pat Bowlen has made a major mistake.

Someone actually started a rumor that Jim Tressel could be a candidate for the Cleveland Browns job. He says he's not interested. In what universe would Tressel make sense as an NFL coach? Let's see... runs a boring, predictable offensive system at his current level, loses in the most critical games repeatedly, and college coaches have been almost universal failures in the NFL recently. Other than that, it makes perfect sense! Shanahan or Eric Mangini might work, but not this.

I've mentioned before here that Robert Marve doesn't impress me much as a college quarterback. Apparently Randy Shannon's terrified of him though, because the terms he put on Marve's transfer release are ridiculous. Marve can't go to an ACC or SEC school or to any school in the state of Florida. Compare that to Florida letting Brock Berlin transfer to Miami when the Gators were playing the Canes the next two seasons. College sports is allegedly about the kids - exactly how can Shannon justify denying Marve a shot at a place like Mississippi State when the Canes aren't scheduled to play them at all?

Part of Lane Kiffin's super duper staff at Tennnessee was supposedly going to be former Ole Miss head coach Ed Orgeron. Even though Orgeron was a punchline for his work as a head coach, no one disputes he's a terrific recruiter, a good DL coach and gave us the best coach TV commercial ever. All those things are what made him a desirable hire for... LSU, according to reports. This will make LSU's talent even better, even though Les Miles and Orgeron likely won't be able to utilize it too well. Meanwhile, a guy who worked with Lane Kiffin at USC has turned his back on him in favor of The Hat. Not a very impressive recommendation from Coach O about Tennessee's chances under Kiffin.
As for UT's offensive coordinator, Kiffin is apparently about to hire former Purdue OC Jim Chaney but still will call plays himself.

The next blog post will likely be January 5th, as I've got South Carolina's 11 AM kickoff for their Iowa game tomorrow to deal with and then travel to south Florida to begin UF BCS coverage after an early show on Friday. Most of you likely have the days off anyway and probably won't be spending lots of time on the web, so I'm going to take a break unless something huge I want to write about happens.