Monday, August 10, 2009

Shannon's how to get rich backup plan: help Nigerian prince who emailed him get money out of country

Everyone who knows Cornelius Ingram was saddened to hear that he had torn his left knee's ACL again at Philadelphia's training camp. This does reinforce that Urban Meyer and his staff absolutely made the correct decision in not letting Ingram play in the national title game. He looked just fine in workouts, but they said no to even a few snaps in the big game. If this had happened before Ingram got himself at least some pro money, it would have been a disaster. It's particularly bad news for Ingram that he tore the same knee - assuming they took the graft out of his patella tendon the way they did when I tore mine, it takes five years to regenerate. He'll likely have to get a cadaver graft now, which carries its own set of risks. Hopefully things will eventually work out for him - CI's a good guy.

Bobby Bowden said yet again yesterday he wants to go out on top with one more national title. I want Shakira to come to my house and reenact her dancing from the "She Wolf" video. We have an equal chance of getting what we're after. More importantly, Mickey Andrews says he's going to be done after this year. Since no one believes Bobby's calling it quits before he's forced to after 2010, what's going to happen with that defensive coordinator spot? Does Jimbo Fisher make the hire, or does Bowden? Everyone in Tallahassee knows Fisher wants to completely remake the defensive staff, so there's no way he's going to be on board with doing something like promoting Chuck Amato for the season. This will be a very interesting test of the "coach in waiting" concept.

I read with great amusement the Miami Herald's piece about Randy Shannon's supposed genius decision not to accept a contract extension yet because if the Hurricanes go 9-3 or 10-2 like he thinks they will then he'll really be able to cash in. I see a couple of slight problems with that plan: 1. They won't go 9-3 and 2. Even if they did, Shannon won't make much more than he would if signed an extension today because UM has no money. If they did, they would never have hired Shannon in the first place. The article notes Shannon "won't make that leap" to Urban Meyer's four million a year pay level without winning a national title. Gee, you think? The Canes couldn't keep the championship coaches they did have back when the price of the NCAA poker game was a lot cheaper than it is now. Also, exactly who would drive up Shannon's price by coveting the services of a head coach who is terrible with the media as the public face of the program and changes coordinators the way some people do their socks?

When word came down on Friday that Boston had designated John Smoltz for assignment to the minors, I thought he was done. At minimum, no one could put him out there as a starter again. He's been a disaster this year, and at 42 that's not likely to suddenly turn around. Astoundingly enough, ESPN reports lots of teams are lining up to grab Smoltz if they can. I hate to see this - it reminds me of Steve Carlton pitching for the White Sox, Giants, Cleveland and Minnesota in less than a year and a half when he was clearly used up. It would have been better if Smoltz had retired and been able to potentially go into Cooperstown in the same class as Greg Maddux and (should he not try again to pitch in MLB next year) Tom Glavine. His competitive desire wouldn't let him. Hopefully it won't compound the problem by leading Smoltz to prolong this year's embarassment.

I won't rehash the death of John Hughes since I wrote about it Friday, but I strongly encourage you to read this blog post by a woman who was pen pals with Hughes as a teenager if you have not done so already. It's an extraordinary story which perfectly explains why Hughes's films spoke to my generation so well.

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