(UPDATED WHENEVER I FEEL LIKE IT - BUT USUALLY ON TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS) 
December
31, 2004 "Never attribute to malice
that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
General Perry Smith, USAF (Ret)
2004 CLINIC PHOTOS :ATLANTA CHICAGO TWIN CITIES DURHAM PHILADELPHIA PROVIDENCE DETROIT DENVER NORTHERN CAL Click Here ----------->> 
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NEW!A LIST OF SOME OF 2004'S TOP DOUBLE-WING HS TEAMS
HAPPY NEW YEAR! NAVY WON AND OREGON STATE WON. THAT'S ALL I ASKED FOR.
GO MICHIGAN. TEXAS HAS BETTER TALENT, BUT NOW THAT TEXAS HAS SIGNED OLE MACK TO 10 MORE YEARS AT $2.5 MILLION PER, HE'LL FIND A WAY TO LOSE ANOTHER BIG ONE.
I AM NOT A BIG OU FAN, BUT - SORRY, PAC-10 - I SIMPLY CAN'T BRING MYSELF TO ROOT FOR USC. NIRVANA FOR ME WOULD BE WATCHING USC AND NOTRE DAME BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF EACH OTHER, 11 TIMES A SEASON.
AND I HOPE ALL THOSE LAME DUCK COACHES WHO SO GRACIOUSLY CONSENTED TO STICK AROUND AND COACH THEIR OLD KIDS FOR ONE MORE BOWL GAME (AND A BOWL BONUS) BEFORE BEATING IT OUT OF TOWN GET THEIR ASSES BEAT BAD. (ACTUALLY, I GUESS THAT WOULD BE NICK SABAN, BECAUSE WITH WALT HARRIS AND URBAN MEYER BOTH COACHING IN THE SAME GAME, IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN TO BOTH OF THEM. BUT IT COULD BE BOBBY PETRINO, TOO. HE'S PROBABLY ALREADY PACKED AND READY TO GO TO BATON ROUGE, BUT HE DOESN'T WANT ANYBODY TO THINK HE'S DISLOYAL. YET. )
SPEAKING OF PETRINO, I BELIEVE THAT LOUISVILLE IS GOOD ENOUGH TO BE IN THE BCS DEAL, BUT I ALSO BELIEVE THAT BOISE STATE CAN BEAT THEM.
HOW DID BOSTON COLLEGE LOSE TO SYRACUSE?
*********** In all the stories about the earthquake/tsunami that hit Southeast Asia, has anyone read or heard any American speaking out against helping? I mean, after all, a lot of those victims are Muslims. One of the nations hardest hit is Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. Yet here we are, helping the very people whose radical fringe has declared war on us and our culture. (Although I have heard that some nations plan to refuse assistance from Israel.)
Americans are mobilizing to assist in innumerable ways. Large pharmaceutical companies (you know - those greedy, heartless monsters that get rich off America's old folks and AIDS victims) have already donated millions of dollars worth of drugs and supplies. Charities are gearing up to funnel money and aid to people in great need of assistance. Individuals are calling around to see how they can help.
Why? Why do we do these things? Well, for the same reason that after all the atrocities that Germany and Japan visited upon the world, we then helped those nations rebuild. For the same reason we've sent young American men overseas to fight in wars that many said "aren't our fight."
It's simple. We're Americans, and when somebody needs our help, we're there.
But I would like to see an American flag stamped on every package we send over there. I know, I know - it shouldn't matter who gets the credit. But it galls me to know that government-controlled news agencies in many of those countries will do their best to conceal the information that help is coming from the very nation that they've been calling the Great Satan. (None of this United Nations crap, either - what's the point in turning U.S. money over to a corrupt bunch of thieves that will first take a large cut of everything, and then take all the credit, while calling us "stingy?")
*********** Hugh,
"Yeah, right. Stupid me.....Forget the loyalty of Mr. Petrino."
Don't be too hard on yourself Coach. After all, in a game where there are no ethics rules, you, as a person of "stones", can occasionally be wrong. Looks like Coach Petrino, after negotiating a higher salary out of Louisville, has managed to get an even larger raise (or should it be rise?) out of LSU.
It never ceases to amaze me the way people/places/things with money will hit their competitors over the head with even more money for something they perceive as important. Not that good college coaches grow on trees, but do they really believe there aren't dozens of guys out there like Bobby Petrino? BTW, how about using "we are LSU" as a selling point instead of the gazillion dollars!
Matt, Montgomery, New Jersey (What pisses me off most is how these big-money guys pontificate about all the life lessons football teaches their "kids." Yeah - like breaking commitments to your employers and the people who depend on you. And maybe to your wife, if something better comes along.
I'll bet Bobby Petrino used the word "commitment" hundreds of times in preaching to (and demanding totally loyalty from) his players. I suspect that he's never used the word "integrity," because I doubt that it's in his vocabulary. HW)
*********** By the way, Pat Forde writes in ESPN.com that even if Petrino doesn't go to LSU, nobody should be too surprised if Louisville turns him loose anyhow. His constant flirtation with other jobs - from his sneaky meeting with the Auburn boosters last year to his openly coveting the Florida and Notre Dame jobs this year until the last straw, his going after the LSU job before the ink on his new contract has dried has simply become too big a pain in the ass for Louisville followers.
They're tired of playing Hillary to his Bill, and rumor is that they're so pissed they'd gladly come up with the funds to buy him out.
*********** A late Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Year!
Just finished reading the News this morning and have a couple comments.
1. I think that Indiana University football is in good hands with Terry Hoeppner. He is an Indiana native, graduated from Franklin College in Indiana, was an Indiana high school head coach and while at Miami of Ohio never lost touch with Indiana. He seems to be a class man and while an assistant coach at Franklin College was willing to spend time with a high school assistant coach who really didn't know a-lot. I believe that Rick Greenspan's firing of Gerry DiNardo was premature. Coach DiNardo was doing the right things to make I.U competitive again. One was Coach DiNardo's decision to spent time attempting to heal the breach between I.U football and Indiana high school coaches that came after Bill Mallory was fired by visiting every high school in the state. I was able to spend over an hour in the lobby of my high school with Coach DiNardo talking football. Coach Mallory was a great coach and a fine man. Coach Mallory always made time for a high school coach, if you were there then Coach Mallory was available. Every spring he took his staff around the state to put on mini-clinics. He was also the winningest coach in I.U. history. While struggling in the Big Ten he succeeded in taking the Hoosiers to 6 bowls games in his 11 years at I.U. Sorry for the rambling but I sincerely hope that I.U. has a head coach in the mold of Bill Mallory.
2. Go Navy! The Wishbone lives!
God bless! Dennis Metzger, Fountain City, Indiana
I recall hearing from Indiana coaches about the way Joe Tiller and Purdue stole the state from Cam Cameron and IU - both men hired at the same time - by reaching out to HS coaches while Cameron closed his practices.
So I admire Gerry DiNardo for what he attempted to do. Actually, I admire the man. Period.
And I despise Rick Greenspan for the way he handled Bob Sutton at Army. I called the shot on Gerry DiNardo, even early in the season, right after the Hoosiers had upset Oregon.
I also despise Rick Greenspan for the way Army football went totally into the toilet thanks to his hire.
But I must give him credit for this hire. I do believe that Terry Hoeppner is a good coach, and he certainly was a good hire for Indiana.
*********** Dear Coach Wyatt
I hope you had a Merry Christmas, that your boy Ed and his wife made it or at least called. He was awful nice to me in May 2003 when I was in Melbourne. This is John Grimsley, once of Gaithersburg Maryland. Now I live in Moncks Corner South Carolina, I have had a busy busy fall and never got the time to check the website or get an email off to you. I did accept the teaching job in South Carolina at Timberland High School(Wing-T football school) in St. Stephen South Carolina. THS is a 3A school, I assistant coached B-Team football(5-2) and am now helping coach boys basketball(5-2 as of this note). I also teach U.S. History, World History, Government, and Economics.
A rather full load, at work at 6:30 am and home by 7 or 8 each evening, but I'm happy with my chosen career. Many people my age (I'm 27) can't believe how long I work and all the time I put in to teaching and coaching. Yet I sleep well at night, I've seen some young people step it up in my classes and I've seen young men on the field and on the court get knocked down and jump right back up. I'm a realist and know some children won't make it, but I'm happy to say some boys and girls have learned a little something from me.
I could tell you some horror stories about teaching in a rural poor community but I won't. I knew what I was signing up for and have no regrets. The varsity football defense coordinator gave me two sayings to live by as a teacher. "Don't take anything personal" and "You can't reason with an idiot" I have lived by these sayings. I've had less stress in the last two months than in a long time.
I've rambled on but I felt I need to up date you on what was going on with me. Congratulations to Madison High football, the players and the coaches on a winning 2004 and may the Senators have a successful 2005. Thank you for the wonderful Christmas wish on the webpage. Have a Happy New Year Coach, and God Bless.
Sincerely, John Grimsley, Moncks Corner, South Carolina (Anybody can teach and coach at a beautifully-furnished suburban high school where all the kids are expected to go to college. Those places have their own problems, too, of course, but I think you're far better prepared for a career in teaching and coaching if you spend time in a community where the material ingredients for success aren't always at hand. It isn't about facilities, anyhow - it is about people. This experience will serve you well wherever your life takes you.)
*********** After its first four games this year, Iowa was 2-2.
And then Brian Ferentz returned to the offensive line, and the Hawkeyes won seven in a row, to finish 9-2.
Yes, Brian is the son of Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz.
He told reporters that his return to the lineup and the Hawkeyes' proceeding to run off seven straight were just coincidental.
"I'm lucky, I've got good timing. I really think it had nothing to do with me," he said. "If you ask guys who watch tape, I'm a very average player, and I do very average things. I think I just stepped into the lineup at the right time."
Asked if his son's description of himself was accurate, Dad asked, before replying, "Is his mom going to read this stuff?"
*********** Happy New Year, Coach. Wife and I returned Tuesday from Detroit after witnessing the UConn Huskies win their first bowl game, 39-10, over a depleted Toledo Rockets team. We would have beaten them anyway, even if Toledo had played at full strength. I don't know how the Vegas geniuses could have made UConn a 3-point underdog in this game. I watched the MAC championship game between Miami and Toledo, all the while thinking that UConn could handle either one of these teams. The Huskies were just more physical, more "athletic", and had more team speed than did the Rockets. UConn is now 9-1 against MAC teams over the past three seasons, not to mention 1-0 in bowl games.
We arrived in Detroit from Charlotte on Sunday and checked in to the Hyatt in Dearborn, which was the official UConn hotel. Also, this is where the team had been staying all week leading up to the game. The players would hang out in the lobby at times and sign autographs for the kids and pose for pictures with the fans. All of the players we spoke with were very polite, articulate, and respectful. I think Coach Edsall has done a great job with these kids, both on and off the field. Did you know that, in 2004, UConn was the only public university in Division 1-A football to have a 90% graduation rate? Sorry if I sound like a recruiting brochure, but I'm still a little pumped from the whole experience.
We caught a charter bus into Greektown, Detroit's "entertainment district", the night before the game. It is safe to say that the urban renaissance movement has not yet caught up to Detroit, despite the flashy (and smoky) casinos and downtown monorail. We did find a great place for dinner (Fishbones) where I had some fine jambalaya and the best red beans and rice I've ever had. On game day, we were bussed to Ford Field four hours prior to game time for a rally-reception, then found our seats on the 40-yard line 35 rows up from the field. Ford Field is beautiful, and makes the Motor City Bowl a far preferable bowl game to attend than say, oh…the MPC Computers Bowl in Boise. It is estimated that UConn had about 10,000 fans at the game, and they were loud and proud. The Toledo fans far outnumbered us, being only an hour's drive away, but sat on their hands the whole game. I've never seen anything like it.
I caught a terrible cold riding the germ tubes around the East Coast, but it's great to be back home. Now looking forward to watching Carolina and BC today in the Continental Tire Bowl from Charlotte. I hear it's a sellout. Go Heels!
Alan Goodwin, Warwick, Rhode Island (Someday, I'm going to adopt a team and go to its bowl game, just for the experience. It's got to be a blast. As a Yalie, I will never find out. Not that I can picture myself partying with a bunch of Yale lefties, anyhow. How could an early-round playoff game be as much fun for fans as a bowl game? I would even go to Boise. In all seriousness, Boise is a nice city with a nice stadium - maybe not Ford Field, but nice enough - and I would imagine you could have a lot of fun there, too. HW)
*********** The Continental Tire Bowl pointed out why NFL-brand offensive football sucks. North Carolina builds an exciting offense around a kid like Devin Durant; Boston College does the same with Paul Peterson. But the NFL won't bother trying. It will cut them both.
Meantime - how about Peterson, the injured warrior, applauding BC's great fake field goal-TD as he's being wheeled off the field with a broken leg?
*********** I don't know about you, but it bugs the sh-- out of me to miss the start of a game because the one preceding it went longer than the TV network expected. Like they should be surprised that it did. Like nobody's noticed that as the game of football has tilted more and more toward the pass, games have gotten longer and longer. The solution is very simple - time to stop awarding timeouts for incompetence. No more stopping the clock after incompletions.
*********** Damn shame that you just can't win running the ball at the D-IA level. I know it's true because I heard Mark May say so on ESPN. The AD at Nebraska said as much last year when he let Frank Solich go, and so did the genius who just got hired as AD at Syracuse, on firing Paul Pasqualoni.
But all the same, Navy, ahead by 12 with just under two minutes to play in the third quarter, stopped New Mexico a foot short of the goal line, then drove 94 yards in 26 plays, before kicking a field goal that put them 15 points up, 34-19. When they kicked off to the Lobos, just 2:15 remained to be played. In that one drive, the Middies ate up 14 minutes and 26 seconds - nearly an entire quarter.
Okay, you say. Maybe you can win that way. But even so, a running game is so boring.
Tell that to the Navy players and 16,000 or so Navy fans at the game.
*********** Years ago, a guy named Steve Harvey wrote a a very popular weekly syndicated column called the "Bottom Ten," in which he very caustically listed the worst major college programs. I can remember him putting "The Pentagon" on his list, when all three service teams were bad. He also featured a Crummy Game of the Week, and every year, you could count on Kansas-Kansas State being one of them. There was a time when they were both really bad. (He noted that K-State and Northwestern both wore purple and both were called Wildcats. In view of the fact that they were both bad, too, he called them the "Mildcats.")
I have to admit that at the time I thought it was funny. But that was before I had been coaching very long, before I realized what a crummy thing that weekly column was for the players and coaches caught in situations often beyond their control.
Now, ESPN.com is doing the same thing, only with basketball teams. Ha-ha. Very clever.
Now, it's one thing if a private guy wants to do something like that, and he's clever enough to find a way to get papers to buy it. But it sucks when ESPN, which has a symbiotic relationship with the better teams, the ones it televises, does something like this to disparage the lesser teams.
*********** If Randy Johnson were to approach me on the street, and I didn't know he was one of the best pitchers in baseball, I'd swear he was some homeless guy.
*********** Coach -
Happy New Year, glad you were able to enjoy Christmas with your family in Denver.
I just read last night of Coach Paul Pasqualoni's dismissal by the new AD. I have a Masters from SU and grew up there. Used to be a fan and had season tickets for a while until we moved to TX.
Coach Pasqualoni graduated 70% of his players. 70%...
Given the outgoing Chancellor's incompetence/ arrogance (Buz Shaw) who thought the ACC Big East defection was a 'southern political plot' and SU, now in a soon to be non-BCS conference, kids are not all that inclined to look at SU or the Big East any more. SU recruiting under Coach P probably reflects some of that. SU is -- and will continue to be -- a Tier 2 D-1 school.
By the way, this 'Buz Shaw' kicked the Boy Scouts out of the Carrier Dome and prohibited them from carrying the flag during the National Anthem because they are part of a non-tolerant hate group. I can say with 100% certainty my folks will never attend another SU event because of that, nor will I ever contribute a nickel to them as a grad... because of that...
The new Chancellor comes in a few weeks ago, says Coach P is in next year and then 3 weeks later... gone. Nice ethics. SU will suffer a fate worse than Nebraska's with a "College and Pro Experienced Coach" to replace Coach P.
So, here's the new AD, and Coach P must go... gooooood luck, Syracuse, you'll need it.
Mark Bergen, Keller, Texas
p.s. - While I'm disappointed for Coach P, he won't be unemployed long -- he's a good, solid Coach and a good man. He was to be the head of the AFCA. Hope he gets hired soon and gets that honor...
I am really pissed at the way Syracuse brought in a new chancellor and a new AD - whose first order of business was to fire Paul Pasqualoni. The man had one losing season in 14 years. His last two years, his teams played .500 ball. Overall, he was 107-59-1. And he is sent packing, just 23 days after the brand new (female) chancellor implied that he would be back for another season. But then the new AD - it took her all of amonth to hire him - handed Coach P the black spot, and the chancellor began backtracking on her earlier statement, giving her version of what the meaning of is is.
I think Syracuse should be ashamed. What they did was far worse, far more treacherous, than what Notre Dame did. The fact that there was so little uproar shows how little anyone cares about Syracuse anymore.
So the hot shot AD from USC speaks out on what it's going to take:
"Defensively, Syracuse needs to become a place where if you're going to play defense and you want to go to the NFL and get a great education, you've got to go to Syracuse... Offensively, we've got to be wide open and we've got to be proactive with an NFL pro style that is entertaining, productive and fun. If you play fun, exciting, fast-paced offense, your fans will come out.
"I'm telling you, this place has great potential. Let's make it fun. Let's make it fun and market it all over the place. Let's have Syracuse mentioned with the top teams in the country. I think it can happen."
So that's it. Syracuse makes a huge mistake by sticking with the Big East, and now, finding themselves way down the ladder on a lower rung with a lesser product to sell, they expect their football coach - more specifically, his offense - to be the focus of their marketing program.
*********** New Syracuse AD Daryl Gross said that he's going to get a coach who has both college and pro experience.
"There are some great candidates out there, folks," he said. "I have somewhat of an advantage in that I'm aware of the community of football coaches in both college and pro. That will help the process along."
I nearly laughed my ass off at some of the people listed in the Syracuse Post-Standard as meeting Gross' criteria. Some of them are currently employed as head coaches elsewhere.
Read them and laugh along with me.
Kirk Ferentz. Yeah, right. Like the chance to coach at Syracuse in a second-rate league is going to entice a guy to leave one of the best programs in the Big Ten. Randy Edsall. Yeah, right. Like a guy who's building a first-rate program at UConn (granted, in a second-rate league) is going to make a lateral move to work for a guy with the ethics and scruples of Daryl Gross.
I mean, if you already had a good job, would you leave it to work for a guy like that at a place like that? (Go to syracuse.com and read some of the stuff this guy Gross says. He is on a major ego trip.)
Wait - what's this? Butch Davis is on the list! Bingo! There's your guy, Syracuse! He'll be perfect for Syracuse. His word is no better than the Chancellor's. Of course, he'll only stick around until something better comes along, and then he'll stick it to you. If you don't stick it to him first.
*********** You mark my words - Daryl Gross will hang himself. Gross, the new Syracuse AD is very full of himself, and it is so crucial to him that he let people know how much he knows that he is unable to keep his mouth shut even though the situation demands that he do.
A week ago last Tuesday night, Gross was in the press box watching Syracuse get hammered by Georgia Tech. Well, actually, he didn't do much watching - he was busy being interviewed, running off his mouth about the Syracuse coaching job and whether or not Paul Pasqualoni's job was safe. (Just two weeks before, the new chancellor had said it was.)
The next day, Gross was back in LA, where for the last 14 years he's been an assistant AD, and if Paul Pasqualoni had seen that day's USC Daily Bulletin, he'd have put his house up for sale and started packing.
As the paper reported,
"While passing through the lobby, USC senior associate athletic director Daryl Gross saw Trojans offensive coordinator Norm Chow and joked, 'Hey Norm, you coming with me?'"
*********** You tell me this isn't a black eye for Syracuse?
A few days ago, Paul Pasqualoni was the head coach at Syracuse, and getting ready to become President of the American Football Coaches Association at its convention in Louisville next week.
Now, he is neither.
Now, according to AFCA executive director Grant Teaff, Coach Pasqualoni's dismissal by Syracuse means he can no longer serve as AFCA President. (AFCA by-laws require that the President must be an active coach.)
"Paul has such great respect within our profession and within the association," coach Teaff said. "It's just a shame."
As just one small member of the AFCA, I move to suspend the by-laws to make it possible to honor a good man - a man of high standards - with the presidency of our association.
*********** That guy who roughed the Texas Tech punter on fourth and one... how did he get into Cal?
*********** It's only Thursday night, and with 12-1/2 games to go, I'm already tired of hearing the word "athleticism."
*********** Coach, Sorry it's taken so long to let you know how we did. We ended up 6-5. We won our first round play off game and were knocked off by the team that won the superbowl in our second.
I want to thank you for taking what is a very detailed oriented complex offense and reducing it to terms that even first year guys like me can understand. As Rush always says, "the definition of true genius is the ability to reduce complex ideas to their simplest form". I'm paraphrasing I'm sure.
I started out with 16 kids at the beginning of the season and at the end had 13. We played 2 of our games with 12. Nobody went out with an injury in those games. I explained to the kids if anybody went down we would have to forfeit. They hung tough.
We ran T88-99SP like a champ. Over and over and over. Then I would hit them with 47C. That was it. Oh...and of course the Wedge. It truly is gratifying to see a group of 7 yeat olds pulling and walling off.
I get 9 back next year. My C back will return. Lost A,B, and QB. They were my only 8 year olds. My entire line returns.
Our team is the prime example of how your offense can take a group of kids who shouldn't win a game and make them a better than 500 team.
Thanks! Dennis Cook, HV Pee Wee ( 7-8 ) Titans, Roanoke, Virginia
*********** It sounded like one more in the long, dreary list of guys dropped from a bowl squad for breaking an "unspecified team rule." But after closer inspection, it cried out - shrieked, you might say - for answers to at least two questions: (1) Why do they keep people like him around at all? (2) Why do they recruit them in the first place?
The story was datelined Tempe, Arizona, and it said that Arizona State running back Hakim Hill, the team's leading rusher, wouldn't be playing in the Sun Bowl, after being kicked off the team for "violating a team rule. In fact, the school announced that although he is a junior, his career at ASU is at an end.
Now, you take a look at this guy's rap sheet, and tell me you'd have recruited him...
While in high school, he was convicted of shooting joggers with paintball guns. (Stolen guns.)
The next year, he was convicted of drunken driving and fined $1,000 and sentenced to two days in jail.
Two months later, he was charged with sexual assault on a 15-year-old girl at his high school, but he avoided jail time by copping a "Ruben Patterson plea," in which he did not actually admit guilt, but did acknowledge that there was enough evidence against him to convict him if the case were to go to trial. (I name this legal dodge for the Portland Trail Blazer who, although he must now register in Oregon as a sex offender, escaped a prison term in Washington state for sexual assault on his children's nanny.)
Perhaps because Hill is a legacy - his father is former ASU and NFL wide receiver J.D. Hill - he wound up at Arizona State.
In any event, it does not appear that he changed his ways all that much upon his arrival at ASU. He missed the entire 2001 season at Arizona State, on suspension for "violating a team rule."
He played very little in 2002, but started four games in 2003.
This past season, he rushed for 566 yards 10 games for the Sun Devils, and scored five of the team's six rushing touchdowns.
But he did miss the UCLA game when he was suspended after an altercation with the strength coach.
***********
Coach Wyatt, I've attached a picture of the Black Lion
winners from our recent end-of-season party. From left to
right, Joe Riley, West Point Cadet and Football Player, Ryan
Crane, A team winner, Trent Smith, B team winner, and yours
truly. I certainly am in some pretty impressive company in
this photo. My great assistant coach Lt. John Buckley summed
it up best....."Ryan and Trent exemplify what this award is
about. They are 2 unselfish boys whose quiet leadership
brought their teams together." Thanks as always for your
support.
Happy New Year. Kind regards, Rick Davis, Duxbury Youth Football Pee Wees, Duxbury, Massachusetts
*********** I will start by confessing that I am not a Notre Dame fan. It hasn't always been this way. I did like and admire the Irish when Ara Parseghian was their coach, and I did root for them, grudgingly, in recent years - only because Tyrone Willingham was their coach.
But I resent the way Notre Dame chose to go it alone as an independent, nevertheless demanding - and getting - special consideration by the BCS. And I resent the way Notre Dame set up its own TV deal with NBC, and the way the weekly Notre Dame game turns into an Irish infomerical, in which even the bumper music (the music they play when they go to commercial) is an arrangement of the Notre Dame Victory March.
So I really ground my teeth during the Insight.com Bowl, when the announcers allowed two full series of action on the field to pass without comment, while they inflicted on us another Notre Dame informercial - a telephone interview with new Irish head coach Charley Weis.
*********** Coach Wyatt, The Corso clan did it again...if you weren't watching the Alamo Bowl. They spent the entire first half praising the Ohio State QB who is not in San Antonio due to a suspension which will extend through the first game of next season (I believe it had something to do with money, but I haven't found the real story yet)... get this... they said he provided great leadership.. and showed excelent charecter.... meanwhile his backup is playing his heart out with a badly injured hamstring, and lighting OK State up for 23 first half points...t hese guys are total idiots... and they still can't identify a jet sweep..they actualy called it a Wide Receiver End around reverse at one point...everytime OK State runs it they call it by a different name....hard to believe Corso was once a coach...how times change. How sad it is that the new all time leading scorer for Ohio State is the kicker....hell has officialy frozen over. Gabe McCown, Piedmont, Oklahoma
*********** Maybe they meant something else...
While Charley Weis chatted on the phone with the Insight.com Bowl broadcast team, the folks at ESPN popped a few graphics on the screen. One of them said - my wife is my witness - "1st Notre Dame grad to become head coach" (of Notre Dame, presumably).
Now, I'm shocked that ESPN, an organization that prides itself on being thorough and knowledgeable, didn't do enough research to uncover the names of Knute Rockne, Hunk Anderson, Elmer Layden, Frank Leahy, Terry Brennan, Joe Kuharich and Hughie Devore - a non-stop string of Notre Dame grads spanning 46 years from 1918 until 1964, when Ara Parseghian became the first non-graduate since Jesse Harper to coach a Notre Dame team.
Hmmm. Those guys all played at Notre Dame as well as coaching there. Maybe they meant Weis is "1st Notre Dame grad to be Notre Dame coach - who didn't play football at Notre Dame."
*********** Just in case you think that the major college recruiters are always right... If you watched the Oregon State-Notre Dame game, you may have noticed OSU's Mike Hass. He was their second-leading receiver in the game, behind 6-7 tight end Joe Newton. A few weeks ago, he was named All-Pac 10.
Although he had an excellent high school career at Portland's Jesuit High School, not a single Pac-10 school offered him a scholarship. Mike Hass, Oregon State's top receiver this season, was a walk-on.
*********** Sideline reporter Jill Arrington, talking about Ohio State's Ted Ginn, Jr. to Ted Ginn, Sr., his father and high school coach: "They're underutilizing him." Dad: "Oh, no question." Yes, I know Dad sounds like he's second-guessing the coaches. But you know what? He's right.
*********** Ms. Arrington, on the other hand, may be quite attractive, but down on the sidelines she defines the word "useless." I almost died laughing when, in the fourth quarter, she started to tell us, breathlessly, all about the Ohio State band and this tradition they have - she sounded as though she had just discovered the story and was passing it along, for the first time, to a national audience that had no idea - of forming a script "Ohio" ("they actually interlock and form 'Ohio'") and having someone with a sousaphone dot the "i". (I can just see her, frantically jotting down notes while some band guy told her about the tradition, thinking, "Whoa! What a story!")
Hey - I'm sorry, Jill, but if you don't know about the Ohio State band and the script "Ohio," you don't know jack-sh-- about college football.
*********** I'm happy for Mike Price and I'm happy for Gary Barnett. They've been through hell, not all of it of their own making.
*********** And by the way, remember Katie Hnida, the blonde, pony-tailed placekicker once described by Gary Barnett as "terrible?" Somehow, New Mexico never found a way to get the young miss into the game.
*********** Don't know why nobody can win at a college that sits smack in the middle of some of America's most fertile recruiting country, but San Jose State has to be one of the toughest of all major college coaching jobs. Just last year, there was a movement afoot to discontinue football. Yet there's Dick Tomey, willing to take on the job. He's been assistant head coach at Texas, and before that he was a successful head coach at Hawaii and Arizona. He deserves better - he had better at Arizona, until they very unwisely dumped him - but if anybody can keep the folks at SJSU from junking their program, he's the one.
*********** Coach Wyatt, I don't know if you saw the Brett Farve interview last week but the guy nailed it. My favorite was when he said that most NFL players have it wrong..they think they are getting paid to play on Sunday...he said that was the privilege, they get paid to show up on time, be kind to fans, practice hard, and represent the game in a positive manner...too bad there aren't more guys like that...I was dissappointed to see the Packers take two consecutive knees and then kick a field goal with time running out to win...it's a shame that a man like Farve is reduced to kneeling on a football and kicking a fieldgoal...but that's pro football for ya... Gabe McCown, Piedmont, Oklahoma
*********** Has any bowl team gone into a game with a worse game plan than Oklahoma State, a strong running team that decided to come out throwing? Is it possible that after all the tough teams they've played, they didn't think they couldn run the ball against Ohio State? Did they really intend to convey that message to their kids?
Whatever - the game was scarcely underway before the Cowboys threw an interception, setting up Ohio State for a quick touchdown.
The Cowboys never recovered.
They kept passing and got nowhere, then finally tried running - half-heartedly - and Ohio State kept answering with scores of their own, and soon enough, it was 23-0 and a running game was no longer a consideration. By halftime, the most life they'd been able to show offensively was a missed field goal attempt, and the game was as good as over.
*********** Not the best 24 hours Oklahoma State fans have ever spent: on Tuesday night, Gonzaga handed their basketball team its first defeat, and on Wednesday evening, Ohio State manhandled their football team. If you believe bad things happen in threes, better lock up Les Miles before he jumps to LSU.
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I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about. |
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HONOR BRAVE MEN - RECOGNIZE OUTSTANDING KIDS SIGN UP YOUR TEAM OR ORGANIZATION FOR 2003 "NO MISSION TOO DIFFICULT - NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT - DUTY FIRST" inscribed on the wall of the 1st Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois |
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BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD |
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In
our terminology, we would call it "Lee (split end left)
Right (Wing Right) Liz (Motion left by the Right Wingback)
5-X lead." When I ran the Delaware Wing-T, we always ran it
with cross blocking, and called in "5-G". It was a favorite
play.
PHILADELPHIA
- An hour after he had to hear the closing strains of
that damn Navy alma mater, Will Sullivan - 6-foot-3, 255
pounds, his crew-cut color an Irishman's red - was still
fighting back tears when he called out to Navy coach Paul
Johnson in the catacombs of Lincoln Financial Field.