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Alabama Football “Under The Lights” On SportSouth
Posted by Air Hernandez on Jun 10, 2008
The last showing of Alabama Football “Under The Lights” will air on Thursday, June 12 at 10:00 p.m. ET. This well done documentary shows Nick Saban in spring practice rebuilding one of the nation’s all time great football programs. Saban talks about the tradition at Alabama when he says, “It’s great to be back in college football. There is a great tradition here. There’s a tremendous passion, support, and pride. The tradition here is …there’s no place that’s won 12 national championships and 21 SEC championships. There’s uniqueness in that accomplishment, and most of it was Bear Bryant, but there’s uniqueness in Bear Bryant, in maybe being the best football coach of all time.”
Saban also comments on the importance of spring practice. He says, “The most important thing about spring practice to me is improvement. You want to try to get the best players and after you get this improvement, where do these players fit the best?”
Javier Arenas, Antoine Caldwell, and John Parker Wilson are all interviewed during the show. Javier Arenas spoke about Saban and his leadership by saying, “He’s one of us. That sums it up. He’s one of us. He understands what we are going through, off the football field, in the classroom, from a personal standpoint, he can relate. It makes it easy to communicate, and that is half the battle right there. I love his coaching style. I love him as a coach.”
Maybe this is why he is able to pull in the top recruiting class in the nation after a 7-6 season. Click play below to see a 2 minute teaser.
Patriots Fans Are Not Happy People
Posted by The Danza on May 16, 2008
Mr. John Tomase, you should probably pack your bags and get out of Boston. Judging by the 400+ comments (update: now over 800) written regarding your apology to the Patriots and its fans, I’d say your life is probably in danger. I read about 20 pages of the 40+ pages of comments and did not find one positive comment, and I’m sure these comments have been tamed since they’re on a newspaper’s website. All of the physical threats and vulgarity probably didn’t make it through moderation, meaning there could have been anywhere from 400-100,000 comments that weren’t published.
For those of you that don’t know, Tomase is the writer for the Boston Herald that broke the story on February 2, 2008, regarding the Patriots having taken film of the Rams’ walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI. Well, after Matt Walsh turned in the tapes and none of them had the aforementioned walkthrough, Tomase had to do some serious insert-foot-into-mouth backtracking and apologizing, and a lot of it.
His apology is very in-depth and walks you through his thought process and “fact”-gathering. Unfortunately, his source turned out to be someone he was having a casual conversation with that said a friend of a friend told him that it was rumored that the Patriots had taped the walkthrough. Ummm….ok. What’s this I keep hearing sportswriters and journalists say regarding sports bloggers? That they have no sources, responsibility, or accountability? Well, you know where I’m going with this. Goodbye, Mr. Tomase. I didn’t even know who you were before February 2, 2008, nor do I care about the Patriots, but as an outside observer, I think it’s time for you to end the relationship with Patriots and its fans. The next article with your name in it in the Boston Herald might very well be your obituary.
Holy Friggin’ Crap!: Pete Carroll/Tim Floyd = Rick Neuheisel?
Posted by The Danza on May 15, 2008
As some of you may know, I have written a couple of articles regarding Reggie Bush’s NCAA infractions and ESPN’s general ignorance of the issue. Well, I have to give ESPN props for its breaking of the OJ Mayo story as well as its no holds barred style of investigating (as opposed to the Reggie Bush investigation where it seemed ESPN was satisfied sitting on the sidelines and letting Yahoo! Sports do the investigating on what could be the biggest story in college football since the death penalty was levied against SMU). But I digress…..
The main point of this post was only to post a link that I found today that shows the extent of USC’s problems under the current coaching staffs and athletic department. It is truly amazing what has happened to USC since 2001 when Pete Carroll was hired. Sure, this laundry list of issues was produced by a Bruins fan, but it’s all well-documented and linked, so everything checks out. Read up.
Isiah Thomas Has Got To Do Some ‘Splainin
Posted by The Danza on Apr 10, 2008
It appears that new Knicks President, Donnie Walsh, is not as convinced as Isiah Thomas is that the Knicks are headed in the right direction and well question Thomas regarding the lack of success recently in the organization.
“You can say I have an open mind as far as any conversation I’m going to have,” Walsh said. “I still don’t think we’ve played well, there’s a lot of things I want to talk about. So it’s not totally open. It’s not like I’m going in saying, ‘Well, this has all been great, so what do you want to talk about?’”
This is probably how the conversation will go between Walsh and The Smiling Assassin: Read the rest of this entry »
DeBracketed: The Departed Meets NCAA Tourney Office Pools
Posted by The Danza on Apr 4, 2008
PREDICTIONS ARE BACK! Week 3, Auburn Tigers… (UPDATED!!!)
Posted by The Chosen Blogger on Mar 28, 2008
Well…predictions are back people! I apologize for the delay but my job made the research and thought that goes into this endeavor prohibitive. Because of my rather hectic schedule, I will not be able to go into the written detail that went into the previous two entries. Nevertheless, you can trust that I have researched each team and my predictions are still binding…that is you can heckle me endlessly next season if my predictions prove to be bunk.
So here we go with the new format!
Reasons they will be good: Tony Franklin sure looked good with his spread attack against Clemson. Kodi Burns looked more than capable of leading a spread offense through a tough SEC schedule. They have a lot of returning starters on both the offensive and defensive line…which is huge in the SEC. Quentin Groves…Pat Simms….who are they? Marks and Coleman are more than capable of filling those big shoes. The SEC West is going to be down and Auburn should be more than talented enough to win a lot of games this year.
Reasons they will choke: IF Kodi Burns can hold off Chris Todd, DeRon Furr and Neil Caudle (that’s a big if), can the guy navigate a full SEC season……remember……Clemson didn’t have game film of this new spread offense….other teams will be better prepared. Auburn has a history of choking when they have the personnel to have a good season.
The Season:
8/30 - La. Monroe (Auburn, AL) - Auburn 41-10
9/6 - Southern Miss (Auburn, AL) - Auburn 32 - 7
9/13 - Mississippi State (Starkville, MS) - Auburn 24 - 14
9/20 - LSU (Auburn, AL) - Auburn 31-10
9/27 - Tennessee (Auburn, AL) - Auburn 21-14
10/4 - Vanderbilt (Nashvegas, TN) - Auburn 31 - 17
10/11 - Arkansas (Auburn, AL) - Auburn 41 - 17
10/23 - West Virginia (Morgantown, WV) - Auburn 28 - 17
11/1 - Ole Miss (Oxford, MS) - Auburn 24 - 17
11/8 - Tennessee Martin (Auburn, AL) - Auburn 45 - 3
11 / 15 - Georgia (Auburn, AL) - Georgia 31 - 24
11/29 - Alabama (Tuscaloosa, AL) - Alabama 27 - 20
Record: 10-2
Wins: La. Monroe, Southern Miss, Miss. State, LSU, Tennessee, Vandy, Arkansas, West Virginia, Ole Miss, UT Martin
Losses: Georgia, Alabama
Conclusion: Auburn has a strong season which is a result of their returning talent and the relative weakness of the SEC West. They should coast through most of the season, but they will run into a juggernaut on November 15th in Georgia. As for Alabama, the Tide will be finishing strong by the end of the season and Auburn will still be reeling from a thrashing by the Bulldogs (the game will not really be as close as the score suggests) and even with a week off, Alabama will be shouting “fear the finger” after winning a thrilling SEC West championship game.
UPDATE! (3/29/08, 12:38pm) So the ever controversial sports journalist Paul Finebaum has decided to take a page from the Chosn Blogger and predict Auburn’s season. Here is how his prediction stacks up against mine.
Finebaum predicts an 8-4 season with Auburn losing to Georgia, Alabama, West Virginia and LSU. I obviously do not buy into the notion that LSU is going to be any good next year. Furthermore, I strongly believe that West Virginia’s streak is over. Auburn will have a formidable defense returning next year…and that will equate to more than 8 victories.
Ryan Perrilloux Back on the Team at LSU
Posted by The Danza on Mar 27, 2008
Well, a little over a month after Ryan Perrilloux was suspended indefinitely by Coach Les Miles for “unspecified team violations,” he is back from suspension and could be practicing again with the team as early as Monday, according an AP report on Yahoo! Sports. These unspecified team violations were later revealed by his high school coach and family to be missing classes to attend his father’s funeral without telling his coaches and missing a mandatory team meeting for reasons not directly related.
On one hand, Perrilloux has been plagued with problems since last May, when he was cited for trying to gain entry to a riverboat casino in Baton Rouge using his brother’s ID. After being reinstated in August, Perrilloux began to play an important role in LSU’s offense as he gave the defense a different look than Matt Flynn offering a type of “Tebow Package.” However, Perrilloux was suspended from practice for the week before the Alabama game in 2007 for the participation in a nightclub brawl. The latest suspension would have seemingly been a third strike.
On the other hand, one cannot rush to judge the extent of his violations. First of all, if it is true what his family and former coach say about his reasons for missing class, then I will forgive that. True, he should have given the coach’s notice, but when something that tragic happens in your life, you are not likely to be thinking of collegiate athletics as first priority. I do not know the reasons for missing the mandatory team meeting, but that’s an internal matter to deal with at LSU and will only affect the team’s and coaches’ respect for him and Perrilloux’s learning progress. I do not feel that missing a team meeting would be grounds for complete expulsion from the team, even after the rest of Perrilloux’s issues in the past.
In an effort not to be judgmental, I give Perrilloux the benefit of the doubt on this latest suspension, but one has to believe that Miles will be quick to pull the trigger if anything else happens that could affect his team’s cohesiveness. While I don’t blame Miles for his decision in this case, one has to ask this question: if this was T-Bob Hebert, 3rd-string red-shirt freshman center, would he still be on the team?
Top 50 Universities…..In Terms of Hotness
Posted by The Danza on Mar 25, 2008
The Popcrunch Show, a celebrity tabloid, has made it to the top of the Digg Sports Group this week with their list of the Top 50 Universities Ranked by Hotness. Not surprisingly, the SEC had six teams in the top 10 and eight in the top 20. We tend to be the best at most things physically oriented. Mentally, we may be lacking a little as a whole, but damnit, our guys can outrun and tackle your guys harder and our girls can wear bikinis better than your girls can, and that might just be all that matters.
Sports Illustrated Opens Its “Vault” Containing All Articles Ever Written…..For Free!
Posted by The Danza on Mar 19, 2008
Have you ever wanted to reread that article about Michael Jordan in the April 1990 edition of Sports Illustrated that made you dream of playing in the NBA one day? Well, now you can. Actually, you can even read about “yachts, polo, and safaris” in the August 16, 1954, edition (the very first issue).
This Thursday, Sports Illustrated is opening its archives containing every article ever written by the magazine. This is an extraordinary commitment to the digital age for the sports magazine to make, and I, for one, applaud them for this. The fact that they’re making this service free is icing on the cake. My current subscription to Sports Illustrated costs much more than free, and I look forward to canceling supplementing my paper magazines with retroactive readings online of 42-year old articles about Bart Starr and Super Bowl I.
I know what the first thought that went through your mind was, and I have to admit that it was my first as well. As soon as I saw the headline of the article in the NY Times, I clicked on it and did a quick “Find in this page” search for “swimsuit” to see if they were going to make photos from all of the past swimsuit editions available. While it said that “many images” will be included in the Vault, nowhere in the article did it even mention the word “swimsuit.” Keep your fingers crossed.
Eagles-Jaguars Summit League Championship Mascot Fight
Posted by The Danza on Mar 14, 2008
In other news, Oral Roberts won this game, the Summit League Championship, and secures its spot in the NCAA Tournament, but who really cares?