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Consider a Division 1 career in football a thing of the past
Posted by The Late Spider Moltisanti on Feb 18, 2008
Jeremy Elder, a freshman defensive lineman at the University of Alabama who redshirted for the 2007 season, has most likely ended any chance of playing D1 football at a major school. Mr. Elder has been arrested and charged with two counts of first degree robbery. It seems that a scholarship was not enough and Mr. Elder wanted more from the school and its students. He is still sitting in jail pending a $120,000 bond and…wait, wtf? $120,000 bond…either that judge is an asshole or this boy has a past with the law. More on this story as it develops.
Washington Huskies don’t lie to parents when they say they are committed to winning!
Posted by The Late Spider Moltisanti on Feb 15, 2008
What price do we pay when our favorite team is winning? We all assume everything is legit and is on the up and up, but is it? Do we even want to know? If we don’t want to know are we condoning morally and ethically questionable behavior? Do we have a responsibility, as fans, to care about how our team is winning in order to keep the unwritten system of checks and balances in society intact? All good questions and I don’t have the right or wrong answers, because the good part about being a fan is it’s all personal preference. There are no rules to follow in order to be a fan other than to just care about your team. What happened at the University of Washington during their 2000 season, in which they won the Rose Bowl and finished #3 in the nation, might change what it is you care about in your team.
University of Washington is in the business of giving you the business…and giving players many “benefits”.
Posted by The Late Spider Moltisanti on Feb 4, 2008
I am in the process of reading a story coming from si.com and when I get done I will write a full post but this crap is deep. Stewart Mandel is doing some fine investigative journalism over there and guess which total sports network has yet to cover this story? Can ESPN really have a West Coast Bias rather than an East Coast bias? By the way, its good to be back.
Evaluating our Favorite ESPN On-Air Talent
Posted by The Late Spider Moltisanti on Jan 16, 2008
With Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic of Mike & Mike In The Morning on ESPN Radio getting roasted last weekend in Atlantic City, it got me thinking. What about the rest of the talent at the world’s largest sports provider? What do we really think about them? So I decided I would evaluate some of the good, bad, under- and over-rated personalities at ESPN. This is totally unbiased and my own personal opinion (read biased and spewing with hatred) of the on-air talent from Sportscenter and the other sports related highlight shows. Around the Horn and PTI will not be included in this talent evaluation and neither will anything related to Golf, Tennis and Horse Racing (in fact no racing of any kind), so sit back and enjoy.
Running Diary: Independence Bowl featuring Alabama Crimson Tide and Colorado Buffalos
Posted by The Late Spider Moltisanti on Dec 30, 2007
As Always all times are Central Time Zone
Interesting match up here, two mediocre teams from major conferences. This is how you decide which conference is better; have two mid tier teams (Bama from SEC and Colorado from Big 12) play each other, it’s not the top teams that determine how good a conference is but the teams that are played each week by the top teams.
7:07 - Kickoff and Alabama has it. Gotta admire Nick Saban’s decision to receive the ball to start the game. His QB John Parker Wilson hasn’t played well since about mid season and he puts the ball in his hands to start the game. Might be the best way for JPW to get his confidence back or it might be the best way to give Colorado and early takeaway. We shall see.
Richie Rod To The Big House
Posted by The Late Spider Moltisanti on Dec 16, 2007
Both Yahoo! and ESPN are reporting that Rich Rodriguez will be leaving as head coach of West Virginia’s football team and take the same position with Michigan. A press conference has been scheduled for Monday morning to announce the hiring.
This looks be a great hire for Michigan and the Big 10 conference. Rodriguez’ spread offense will infuse life into a team conference that has struggled to compete with the fast athletes and big play offenses of other conferences. Michigan is always one of the top teams in the Big 10 and now maybe other schools will follow suit by converting to high powered offenses, either by coordinators or head coach, in order to keep pace. Auburn just hired Tony Franklin of Troy to be its new offensive coordinator. Franklin has run a spread offense at Troy University successfully to the point that the Trojans hung over 40 on Oklahoma State and stayed competitive with a tough Georgia team. Could we be seeing a trend developing in college football? We’ll see.
Michigan Looking Into Richie Rod (or so ESPN says)
Posted by The Late Spider Moltisanti on Dec 14, 2007
Just watched College Football live on ESPN and Rece Davis, Desmond Howard and Joe Schadd just said that Michigan is targeting West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez to fill its head coaching vacancy. This is ESPN, so you will forgive my skepticism as I say I’ll believe this when I see him in front of a podium with a Michigan M emblazoned curtain behind him singing “Hail to the Victors” with the rest of the room and all the male cheerleaders (I wanted to throw up watching Bobby Petrino do that at Arkansas. Seriously, Male Cheerleaders on the podium with the new head coach?) More on this story when it develops or is reported to be false.
David Cutcliffe Reportedly Hired to Coach Smart Kids
Posted by The Late Spider Moltisanti on Dec 14, 2007
David Cutcliffe, former head coach at Ole Miss and offensive coordinator at The University of Tennessee, has reportedly agreed to go coach those smart kids on the Duke football team. This seems to be a good hire as Cutcliffe once made Eli Manning look like a great quarterback and a number 1 overall draft choice. He did the same for Eli’s brother as the offensive coordinator at UT, you might know him from those ads on TV and from Saturday Night Live (I think his name is Peyton). If he can work such magic with the Manning’s gene pool, then I am sure he could do well with student/athletes at a basketball school such as Duke. No word on whether Phillip Fulmer will have “getting me donuts from Krispy Kreme” as a requisite to be a coach on his staff.
Mitchell Report Reportedly Coming Out Thursday
Posted by The Late Spider Moltisanti on Dec 11, 2007
Sen. George Mitchell’s investigation into performance enhancing drugs will reportedly be released to the public Thursday, December 13, 2007, a day that will either crush the steroids talk around baseball or set them off to another level. While we sit and wait MLB executives and team officials get to view the report over the next 48 hours. This is likely a move to give league and team public relations departments enough time to prepare for the impending doom. But, will the Mitchell Investigation solve anything? I don’t have that answer, but Howard Bryant over at ESPN has an interesting take on what the Mitchell Investigation has been and where it will take Major League Baseball. We here at TH&L have some inside sources, but admittedly Bryant’s are a little better. If you care about the state of baseball, are a baseball fan or just plain hate Barry Bonds then I suggest you read both Bryant’s article and the Mitchell Investigation. More on this after Thursday.
Auburn’s Al Borges Resigns, Troy’s Tony Franklin Already Interviewed
Posted by The Late Spider Moltisanti on Dec 11, 2007
With all the catchy names for the behind the scenes escapades at Auburn (think Leargate), should we call this one the Trojan Horsegate? Auburn’s offensive coordinator Al Borges resigned Tuesday morning, and at 1:06 Central Time, the Birmingham News is reporting Head Coach Tommy Tuberville has already interviewed Troy University’s offensive coordinator, Tony Franklin, for the position. Did Auburn’s Athletic Department already know Borges would resign and have the interview set up? Was the interview set up without Borges’ knowledge, only he found out and decided to leave? Did Tony Franklin sneak in under the cover of night and interview for the job while the announcement of Borges’ resignation had yet to be made? Stay tuned as we will bring you more when it becomes available.