Category Archives: Kansas State

Crib Sheet: Running Some Gassers

footballpractice

Practices are rocking this week as the schools are getting ready for some real hitting here in a couple of weeks.  Some may think that we’ve been practicing every week in this but column but it’s been prime time, every time.  We are still deliberating as to whether or not we’ll continue the Crib Sheet in the regular season.  Feel free to drop a comment below to let us know.  Here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:

  • The Michigan Defense couldn’t mow him down last year, so Appalachian State’s quarterback Armanti Edwards did it himself.  Yup he’s out a couple of weeks with a foot injury.
  • The 12th Man talked a Montana punter to transfer to Texas A&M.  Ken Wood was big on the NFL Seattle Seahawks and when A&M sued them for the use of the 12th Man moniker.  Wood saw this and fell in love.  It’s great, too, because the punter will probably be the MVP on that team this year.
  • The USA Today Top 25 Coaches Poll for the preseason came out today and Florida eats the top spot.  Big 12 wise we have Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Nebraska at 2,3, 11, and 22 respectively.  That’s great and all, but the better poll/list for the week was put out by Fox Sports in their Top 10 most annoying fans list.  Oklahoma’s number 4 on that one.  It’s a good list even though it trends to teams that have been traditional powerhouses, sans Clemson.
  • Speaking of Clemson, they are docked two practices for a non conforming uniform modification under NCAA rules.  The crime?  Wearing girdles at  practice.  Let’s hope they don’t catch them wearing leggings or panties.  Yikes!
  • Dezmon Briscoe from Kansas is no longer stupid.  Er, no longer too stupid not to play football that is.  He completed summer courses and can play this fall for the Jayhawks.  He’s sorely needed, too, as he is expected to be a top receiver in the conference this year.
  • Bobby Bowden wants another national title before he retires from Florida State in a couple of years.  Bobby, it’s not gonna happen but we wish you the best of luck.  If only your conference was stronger.
  • There’s a great article about Kansas State quarterback Carson Coffman.  Carson comes from a long lineage of NFL tight ends, with his dad Paul and now his older brother Chase.  So this version of Coffman will try his hand a quarterback this year, but don’t be too excited because he has alot of transferred competition coming his way.
  • Utah spend the offseason crying to everyone that would listen about how they were screwed out a title game and now they a shutting off communication for ‘instantaneous reports’ from any staff and media.  BYU is doing it too.  So, are they breeding whiners or hypocrites up there?
  • Everybody is high on Notre Dame this year, but Charlie Weiss is more interested in walk than talk.   That’s kinda paradoxical when you think about it.  Then again, he was running his mouth from day one so let’s see if a quieter Weiss will help the Fighting Irish live up their hype.   Maybe he’s learning all about walking from his new-found buddy, St. Louis Cardinals’ player Albert Pujols.
  • Ron Prince and his lawyers are asking for an additional $3 million on top of the $3 million he’s already owed by Kansas State after they canned him last year.  The reason?  They state that the school knew of the buyout terms and even went as far as saying that the school wanted Prince to keep terms of the contract confidential.  With that much money on the table originally, it would seem very weird that top brass overlooked that.  Plus it’s punitive.  The way K-State is trying to weasel out of the deal forced Prince’s hand.   This is very ugly indeed.  A contract is a contract no matter how insane it is.  The quicker this goes away the better it will be for the school.  With this lawsuit, the chances are it will stick around for a long, long time.

The Crib Sheet: The Light at the End of the Rain Tunnel

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Record heat flies by and the next thing you know, a tropical storm drops in outta no where.  The rain was swirling from all directions and it almost seemed like a tornado or hurricane was brewing right over Kansas City.  I snapped a couple of pics to document the torrential rain.   It looks like the light is at the end of the storm.  That’s where we are at in college football.  We still must weather the baseball season, but basketball and hockey is over.   There’s still some storms a brewin’, especially in Manhattan, but we know we are getting ever so closer.  Here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:

  • Social Networking is big here at the KCCGD which is why it’s great to see stuff like Darius Darks of Iowa State using Facebook to garner support for the him and the team.  We’re surprised we don’t see official football pages on facebook now and hope that some schools pick it up for the future.
  • Former Alabama Crimson Tide coach Bill Curry will play his former team in 2010 as the head coach for the first year program Georgia State.  It’s always good to see former coaches go against their team.  Chances are this game will be out of hand, but an upset would be nice.
  • Iowa offensive linemen Kyle Calloway got the hook from the cops for tooling around town on a moped while intoxicated.  So Kyle will lose a game and get some counselling for running into a barricade on the little bike.  The image of a big drunk linemen on a tiny moped is hilarious.  Kids:  don’t do that at home.
  • So after the Ron Prince debacle, it seems another former official for the K-State athletic department is getting a sweet deal.  Pile that on top of a nasty audit, and what we have here is a good ole fashion free for all in Manhattan.  The Purple Yeti will be clutching his checkbook tightly for the next year or two until this gets settled.
  • Help William & Mary find a new mascot!  Since April 1 they’ve been taking submissions and it’s growing everyday.  As we’re sure you know about the Mascot Monday here and how mascots are near and dear to our hearts.  Take part and let’s see who wins!  I’m voting for the question mark.

Crib Sheet: Fathers and Football

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Father’s Day is this weekend and we’d like to take a minute to thank all of the dads out there for being dads.  One of the best father/son experiences you can have is watching your favorite college team take on a rival on a fall Saturday.  Whether it’s running to fridge to get your dad a beer or arguing at each other who was a better college player over nachos, the experience helps cement the relationship so critical to a young boy’s (and girl’s) development.  Here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:

  • Tom Osborne will be the Athletic Director for Nebraska indefinately.  He took over after the last guy got fired 2007 and was responsible for bringing in gum chewing Bo Pelini as head coach.  Considering the slow turnaround they are experiencing, chances are Tom will stick around until a Big 12 title game and/or championship.
  • Two long time administrators were suspended from the Kansas State athletic department Wednesday with no reason given.  The speculation machine fired up and is pointing at the secret deal that former AD Bob Krause had with former coach Ron Prince.  That’s probably why but it really does not matter now.  What we’re wondering is if Ron Prince intentionally tanked the football season so he could get the long term pay out.
  • News came out that now again Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder had a chance to run for office in Kansas in 2005.  It seems Kathleen Sebileius tapped him for a lieutenant governer position and Bill considered it.  Too bad, because he would’ve crucified Ron Prince and Bob Krause for the terrible job they did and for screwing over the Wildcats.
  • Bob Frederick, former Kansas Athletic Director, died from complications due to a bike accident last week.  It’s a shame he had to go that way.  This is probably why Mark Mangino never took up bike riding, beside the obvious reasons.
  • Somebody’s impersonating coaches up in Nebraska.  Tim Griffin of ESPN reports that someone is hitting up a Kansas high school coach asking for recruiting information by stating they are offensive coordinator Shawn Watson.  The coach was suspicious and phoned the proper authorities.  It’s easy to fake identity online so it’s a good thing that the coach made the phone call.  Remember, if the email is something like ‘[email protected]’ watch out.
  • Chris Harper is transferring to Kansas State in the hopes of become the starting quarterback.   He left Oregon due to the position being locked up there, and brings a couple of rushing and catching touchdowns with him.  It should be an interesting camp when he vies for the position between Carson Kauffman, former South Florida quarterback Grant Gregory, and JuCo transfer Daniel Thomas.
  • Charlie Weiss Twittered that he can’t use Twitter recruit.  It’s a good thing he’s getting healthy use of the service.  If they don’t make a bowl, heck a BCS bowl, this year he may need to use it  to recruit himself for a new head coaching position.

Mascot Monday: Sparky

Sparky

It’s College World Series time and while we aren’t too hip on college baseball yet we do want to congratulate the Big 12 on getting EIGHT teams into the College World Series.  On a more local note, Kansas State is still alive as they play Rice tonight for a chance to move on to the super regionals.  Feeling inspired by that and  the scorching weather, this week’s Mascot Monday will take a look at an advancing, number one seeded, Arizona State’s Sparky the Sun Devil.  From the iterations of mascots before to the family friendly inspiration of the current Sparky, we can see that this top party school has one spicy meatball of a mascot.  So while we are waiting for the football season to start, under 100 days to go by the way, and while we endure the massive ting of the aluminum baseball bat, let’s numb the senses with Sparky.

Continue reading Mascot Monday: Sparky

The Crib Sheet:

allergies

The heavy loaded week of allergies couldn’t stop the KCCGD crew from sneezing and coughing their way through another week of news.  We’re loaded up on all sorts of over the counter goodies to help bring you the latest in the greatest sport ever, college football.  Bring some kleenex, because either the fantastic writing or huge pollen count will bring tears to your eyes.  We hope its the former.  Here’s this week Crib Sheet:

  • Ron Prince, former Kansas State head coach, must be laughing pretty heartily right now.  Kansas State made known the details of a ‘secret agreement’ that would dump an extra $3.5 million on a company that Prince created in the case that he would be fired without cause.  This was signed with his contract extension last year by former athletic director, Bob Krause.   Krause resigned because of the situation.  Prince’s lawyer says the lawsuit is without merit, and Prince couldn’t be contacted for comment.  Because you can’t really talk while gut-laughing to the point of puking.   This whole situation makes me want to puke.  Wefald’s legacy is tarnished and K-State as he gave his ‘old friend’ the job in the first place.  What ‘old friend’ keeps this part of the deal secret?  I talked about how much of a dunderhead Krause was when they fired Prince and know we’re seeing just how far and deep his ineptness set the program back.  The Kansas City Star also has filings.  It’s  sad day to be a Wildcat fan.
  • The Big 12 athletic directors (the real ones) met last week and decided to punt the 3 way tiebreaker rule that the coaches passed to them on.  So it seems the rule is here to say, while they open up for more discussion and waffling on the issue.  The chance is so small anyway that once the season starts and ends, people will forget about the unique rule.
  • Meanwhile, the SEC coaches are bickering down in Florida for their annual meeting.   The main mouth work comes from Tennessee’s Lane Kiffin and South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier.   Yes the New Ball Coach versus the Ole Ball Coach.  They are still duking it out over the cheating question Spurrier asked.  The other coaches ducked and it seemed like they were heading to the bars to scope out the chicks or something.  Very strange comradery indeed.  Time to circle the matchup on the schedule.
  • Looks like the Big 12 won’t sit down the officials if they perform poorly.  That’s a shame really because after the last couple of years of bad calls, the Big 12 could use some consequence over there.
  • The Big 12, however, will pay out a record $130 million earned last year in athletic payouts.  It seems being the 2nd best conference in football and having a national champion in basketball helped.  Let’s hope they use that money to make them number 1 in football.
  • The final USA Today coaches poll next year will be anonymous.  Typically that final vote helps to decide who will play in the national title game.  Chances are that’s a good thing for the coaches.  It will help avoid any death threats for deciding votes.

The Crib Sheet: Making Sense of Commencements

Not much happening this week in the ways of college football.  The kids are graduating and commencement speeches are happening all over.   That just means we are a few more months away from some serious college football.  Speaking of the football side of college, some players have left and more of the bigger named ones are coming back.  What does that mean?  A potential repeat of last year’s championship game.   Or Texas might slip in and take on Florida again.  Who knows?  We’ll have our predictions coming up later.  For now, congrats to the graduates as you take a new step into the real world and out of the 4 year party that is college.  The hangover will be real short, trust me.  Here’s this week’s news:

  • Greg Paulus made up his mind and he’s heading to Syracuse to be an Orangemen.  The rumor, along with other rumors and visits,  started when the hype around this guy did.  I’m sure he’ll be happy for a year out in the Big East.  And no, Syracuse doesn’t matter anymore.  He might show some flashes but he’s really just Syracuse’s main recruiting tool now.
  • The guff Big 12 officiating has gotten in the last couple of years may have an old solution, thanks to Nebraska athletic director Tom Osburne.  He wants to introduce and old Big 8 rule to bench officials that are performing poorly.  If the stripes know they could get benched and docked a week’s worth of pay that may help them pay just a little more attention to the action on the field.
  • John Currie is your new Kansas State athletic director.  Straight out of Tennessee, Currie brings some youth and vigor to the position that was briefly held by an internal, pencil pushing, bumbling amateur in Bob Krause.  Hopefully Currie will make his mark when he helps choose Bill Snyder’s successor in a couple of years.
  • The old ball coach in Steve Spurrier is jabbing a spur in the saddle of both his former employer’s coach Urban Meyer and current Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weiss.  Surrier went on radio and seeded the rumor that if Meyer has another big year, he may take over as the head coach in domerland.  We already laid down the ultimatum on Weiss and this little double jab only deepens the severity of Weiss’s challange this year, lest he be heckled by President Obama or they erase his history.  Now whether Meyer will actually do it is another thing because he turned down the offer before.  But if Tim Tebow reigns in another title there may be nowhere else to go for glory.

The Crib Sheet: Black Hole Sun News

Black Hole

So some news outlets are saying that May is the black hole of news for college football.  We here at the KCCGD are diligent in digging up interesting news and actually found enough to fill a column this week.  We’ll weather this storm together and hopefully ride out into June when practices start.   For now let’s do our best to ignore all of this lame-o baseball, weak basketball and hockey playoffs, and a post NFL draft hangover.  Here’s this week’s ration:

  • Holey Toledo!  Some football players including some basketball players from the University of Toledo were indicted on point shaving charges.  Nobody likes to see players go at it light.  Especially if they are getting paid for it.  Okay, I give in.  I just wanted to say Holey Toledo!
  • The Big 12 coaches decided to keep the tie breaking rule.  Huh?  Bo Pelini goes on the comment about how no matter what the 3rd team left out will get the shaft.  Okay, that’s understandable.  Is there a better way to break the tie?  We say rock, paper, scissors.
  • It looks like the Utah Attorney General is trying to push for a Senate run with his latest comments about the BCS.  Let’s look at it from a point of view perspective.  An undefeated team in football and no national title.  They have the right to be upset.  The way they are going about it?  Mmmm not so much.  A more clever way would be to rally support from all the non BCS conferences and begin to push as a whole on the BCS conferences.  If you really wanted to shake their boots, don’t schedule games with them.  Play outside of the BCS.  The BCS conferences would then freak becauces of the lack of weak team warm ups at the beginning of the season.
  • Sam Keller, a football alum from Nebraska, is suing EA Sports and the NCAA for using the likeness of athelets to make money off the games.  This is a hard one to call.  More and more the argument is growing for student-atheletes to be paid for promoting the school through sports.  While there is a pandora’s box of enabling that, surely the least they can do is up the stipend in terms of the scholarship and toss in a couple of Xboxes to boot.
  • ESPN blogger Tim Griffin takes us on a trip to the past and review a lesson taught to us by Mark Mangino of Kansas.  The old quote talks about how Mangino wanted to keep the spirit of the rivalry in tact.  Now that the tables are turned it seems that maybe this rivalry will be alive an well in Manhattan this year.  Snyder and Mangino go at it again.  I was at the game last year and as a Wildcat fan it stung hard.  Now there’s a fresh start and we hope that at the very least it is competitive because Kansas is the definite favorite.
  • So someone is selling a 2005 Rose Bowl ring belonging to former Texas Longhorn lineman Austin Sendlein on eBay, including his 2004 ring.  It looks as though he left it in the hotel room he was staying at in Columbus, Ohio to watch his brother play.  Seems that Buckeye fans don’t take to kindly to Longhorn folk.  Although he did goof and leave it in the hotel room.  Linemen are supposed to be smart.

The Crib Sheet: Does Someone Feel A Draft In Here?

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It’s a draft frenzy this week for the Crib Sheet.  Weeks after signing day, college football rosters and chopped down when the big ole NFL axe comes to cut away talent for the next level.  Not many surprises in this year’s draft.  We didn’t get caught up in the fanfare this year and all we really did was thumb through the pick run down.  Maybe next year something crazy will happen but for now we’re happy that it’s one more milestone away from the holiest of holy seasons that is college football.  Here’s this week’s news:

  • Looks like Greg Paulus will land in Syracuse next year.  It seems the hometown team exhibited more interest than the Michigan Wolverines did.  So when he lines up for the Orangemen next fall and then fall flat on his face, remember that we called it here.  He should have a shot in NBA when he’s through. But wait!  There’s more!  Lincoln Journal Star reporter Brian Christopherson says Paulus might drop by this week to talk to Huskers.
  • The Topeka local tv station put a post previewing the Kansas State Football season.  The run down pretty much talks about Josh Freeman leaving and some movement of positions for some players.   They have a long way to go and we won’t see them bowl bound for a good 4 years.
  • Colorado QB Tyler Hansen broke his throwing hand thumb at the Buffalo spring game.  He traded snaps with the coach’s kid Cody Hawkins last year.  Whether or not it will affect him later this year we don’t know.  What we do know is that it will affect a Colorado turn around next year.
  • The swell is starting to bubble over on the “Will Bill Snyder turn it around, again?”  question in the sports media.  They’ll review is mutant work ability and then wonder aloud what kind of clean up they have to do after Ron Prince.  Already, the scheduling knock is coming with rumor of Kansas State wanting to bail on their home game against UCLA in 2010.  So for the story to happen again, they need a weak schedule and that’s getting lined up.  But they also need another 6 years from Snyder and he does not have that in him.
  • The NFL Draft was last weekend and ESPN’s Tim Griffin has a nice run down on his Big 12 blog.  The big news around the area is that Mizzou had a record number of players to go, Josh Freeman from Kansas State was nabbed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Kansas was skunked.  Out of all who got drafted, I think Jeremy Maclin will do the best.
  • Are we feeling teh Twitter storm yet?  Apparently big time college football coaches are.  It seems the likes of Ron Zook and Pete Carroll have signed up on the new online trend and are looking to nab some college ball players the ole internet fashion way.  T-minus 1 year before they ban this as well.  If you want to know what the hub bub is follow us at twitter.com/kccgd.
  • Cody Glenn just admitted the suspension he got last year at Nebraska was not for selling tickets.  He won’t give it up but he must’ve done something naughty to keep it quiet between him and Bo Pelini.  We’re not sure if the Washington Redskins care so much after they just drafted him.

The Crib Sheet: Easter Football Egg Hunt

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We were starting to get worried here at the Crib Sheet that this week’s news would be weak.  Wednesday rolled around and we were totally saved.  Perhaps Easter had something to do with the slow news over the weekend.  This week we sift through some practices and look at some red tape a danglin’ around.  Here we go:

  • Bo Pelini is spitting out chewing gum again in Lincoln.  He’s fired up after a bad practice and is telling everyone on the block about it.  It seems to work fine up there as Nebraska is turning the corner and it’s nice to see some passion from a coach when you’re living with the Pinkel/Mangino/Snyder non speak on a daily basis.
  • Mike Leach is a definite oddball and his practice tactics are proving it.  Making players study on the field in the snow and some high balancing is unique enough.  Still I’m not sure if it will work this year after losing Michael Crabtree.
  • Glen Winston is going to jail for 6 months for kicking the tar out of fellow Michigan State athlete A. J. Sturges.  I thought hockey players were supposed to be tough?  I guess not.  Then again, he was up against Winston and Michael White from the football team.  Two football players > one hockey player.
  • Texas is trying to lure the College Football Hall of Fame away from South Bend, Indiana.  Both Dallas and Arlington have put together proposals to build a hall as well as convention center in support of the move.  Traditionally Notre Dame is king for football but recent years have shown the Fighting Irish’s prominence waning.  Now is a good time to snatch the hall, especially in a state where people eat, sleep, and crap football.
  • Other universities are interested in Kansas Atheltic Director Lou Perkins and the Jayhawks are willing to pay up to keep him.   That makes sense.  The guy produced a national champion basketball team and built and honest to goodness football team down there in Lawrence.  So another $750,000 goes to Lou.  I’m sure it will eat into Mark Mangino’s Ho Ho fund.
  • Bill Snyder still has no clue who’s gonna quarterback the Kansas State Wildcats.  It’s a tough job to replace the overrated Josh Freeman.  Chances are we’ll see all three start next season and the one who does a better job with the option will get the nod.
  • Legal documents stuffed in the AP’s pocket show that the Missouri Tigers officials and staff failed to follow proper steps to keep Aaron O’Neil from collapsing and eventually dieing back in 2005.  The director of sports medicine for the athletic department apparently even rejected suggestions from concerned players to check up on O’Neil.  Yet another example of the Tigers dropping the ball, off the field even.
  • Former Duke basketballer Greg Paulus, after trying out for the Green Bay Packers, sat down with Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez to explore the possibility of using his one year of eligibility to play college football.  So the Rich must be feeling the heat already because even the Duke football doesn’t want him.  Both Paulus and Rodriguez are starting to look a little silly here.

The Crib Sheet: Coaching Up

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The Crib Sheet returns!  Now that we’ve finally shaken off basketball, congrats North Carolina, we can start focusing on college baseball.  Psyche!  We’re still talking football.  This last week saw some interesting cruft float by.  Springs practices are going on and we’re starting to get some news trickle out about who’s doing well and who’s tanking.  But more on that later.  Here’s what else that happened in the past week:

  • Rugby is making its presence known in college football with the Texas Longhorn’s punter Justin Tucker.  Last year he tried some rugby styled punts and it proved successful.  So this year they are asking him and the rest of the punters to try it again both right and left footed.  It’s a little dizzying indeed, but it’s great to see some innovation come out of a kicking meme that’s been around forever.  Now all Tucker needs is some knocked out teeth to fully bring the rugby pain.
  • Tim Griffin reports that a top quarterback recruit from the Wichita area, Blake Bell, has committed to Oklahoma.  This stings a little more because he’s right in K-State’s backyard.  Oklahoma is the mean machine in the Big 12 so why not go there.
  • The New York Times has a piece about Army’s new football coach Rich Ellerson.  Apparently his orders are to win now.  Seems easy, right?  I watched Army play Navy last Thanksgiving and their camoflague uniforms were tight.  That’s the only reason I’m rooting this guy to succeed.  It sounds kinda gay so don’t tell Rich.
  • Chase Daniels looks good as a coach.  He was hanging out at the Mizzou practices helping out the new offensive coordinator, Dave Yost.  He’s not really gonna make it in the NFL so coaching would be the next best thing for Chase.  Just don’t teach them how to eat boogers.
  • The Texas Longhorns assistant coaches feel like champions today.  They pocketed an extra bonus for the Big 12 Championship, even though technically Oklahoma won the title.  Apparently the athletic director talked the school president into the pay.  Mack Brown didn’t dip into his bonus.  They are sounding a lot like Utah when it comes to titles and championships and such.

The Crib Sheet: Fools Gold for News

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It’s a slow slow week for the Crib Sheet and we’re scrambling to come up with something interesting.  Basketball is all over the place so the college sports attention is clearly focused on that.  We here at KCCGD are also .seriously resisting the urge of playing along with April Fool’s Day festivity.  We almost expected to see something about Utah seceding from the Union and declaring war on the United States for allowing the BCS to continue.  At any rate, here’s the news:

  • From two Heismans to a national title, Tim Tebow has already accomplished so much.  Now a speech he said last year will be engraved on Florida’s new football facility.  If he runs for president and wins, I’m leaving the country.  He’s already being talked about becoming the new leader of the Republican Party.
  • Nick Sheridan for Michigan is out for the rest of spring drills due to a broken leg.  Looks like the battle for QB up there is hobbled.  Will it be enough competition to get the Wolverine offense ready for the big season two Rich Rodriguez turnaround?
  • Deon Murphy and Edward Prince left the Kansas State football program.  This year’s Wildcats are gonna be bad.  Real bad.

The Crib Sheet: Not Quite Sick Enough

Sick

Wow, we’re still feeling the effects from last week.  As a matter of fact, last week’s festivities led to a nasty little cold.  That’s better than some of the after effects some college football players ran into last week.  Never fear, the Crib Sheet remedy is here!  We’re dropping this in some Sprite and popping some NyQuil so hold on and go for the ride.  Hopefully we’ll be 100% next week.

  • In the descendant department, Joe Montana’s kid Nick tackled some scholarship offers from Alabama, Flordia State, and Notre Dame.  The son of a qb who’s a qb too might get better luck if he goes somewhere other than the Fighting Irish.  The shoes would be too big to fill and so far the quaterbacks coming out of dome town aren’t living up to the past.  Nick Cool doesn’t work, how about Nick Sweet?
  • Somehow Columbia, Missouri landed in the top 10 on Forbes list for top college sports towns.  Well I guess Lawrence was too pretentious and Austin is more of a party town.  Manhattan doesn’t even come close.  I guess it’s cool that they are on the list, but they need to win a championship somewhere to deserve top 10 status.
  • The Bryce Brown saga continues after a couple of swerves.  The NCAA is investigating Brian Butler, the mentor for Brown, to figure out if he’s more of an agent than a mentor.  The former rapper has been representing Wichita football players and pimping them on his website.  Not sure there’s much mentoring there.  Meanwhile, some rumor mongering points to Oklahoma being on the sweepstakes for Brown.  I’m not sure they’ll pull him in late, but the fact that Kansas State is on the list still is laughable.  Maybe Brown will lose so much cred out of this that he’ll walk on to Wildcat territory, only to regain his rep.  In my dreams.   In my dreams.
  • Speaking of Wildcat territory, it seems some old friends are coming back to Manhattan to help Bill Snyder 2.0 out.  Jonathan Beasley and Joe Gordon are coming back  to fill out some spots left open by some movements.  Thankfully, Bill is going to former players to help rebuild the tradition (however small it may be) of the Kansas State Wildcats.
  • So a Division II school in Newberry dropped their mascot name, Indians, under pressure from the NCAA.  That’s fine and all, but where is the pressure for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish?  If the NCAA is going to go with regulating names then it needs to be consistent across the board.  Now Illinois dropped it, but Florida State got the write from Indians to use it.  So is it really worth going after, or is it a PR stunt to make everyone feel good about themselves?
  • Let me tell you somethin’ dude, the Kiffster is gonna run wild over you!  Well, maybe not that but one of the tactics he’s using at Tennessee is encouraging his coaches rip off their shirts a-la Hulk Hogan.  So whatcha gonna do?  WHATCHA GONNA DO?
  • What’s up with all of the football players being arrested in the offseason.  Yeah they’re young and in college, but they’re the leaders of the campus.  There’s a time to party and a time to get ready for some football.  The way I see it, the only players that can party now are the ones from Florida.
  • So we finally figure out why Andy Ludwig left Kansas State after 2 months to go back to Cali.  His family all lives on the coast out there.  I would call shenanigans if Tim Griffin didn’t point out that he’d be eating some salary in the deal (cost of living wise).  Oh well.

The Crib Sheet: Signing Day/Week Aftermath

Ouija board

It was a big week of news and the Crib Sheet is back this week to tell you what mattered.  It was Signing Day last week and the ouija board nearly broke from producing signatures sprinkled out across the whole nation.  There were some surprises, but most of what was expected came to be true.  We mixed in some political goobery and a little bit o’ smack talk to keep things fresh.  My guess is the next couple of weeks are going to be dry news wise, so let this be the spike before the long lull.  Here’s the crib:

  • Newly appointed Jesus of Tennessee Lane Kiffin is crying wolf over Urban Meyer trying to hit up one of his recruits.  Lane still got the guy, but maybe the rub off from Al Davis’ fragile shoulders are showing up in Volunteer-land.  It’s nice you got the recruit, Lane, but talking smack on Urban will produce some nasty results.  Just talk to Georgia.  Oh and he apologized.
  • Kansas State expectantly showed weakly recruitng wise.  Ron Prince poisoned the recruiting and Bill Snyder is going to have an uphill battle for the Wildcats.  It’s going to be a big time reboot in Manhattan
  • Kansas on the other hand, nabbed a couple of quarterbacks and some other high profile recruits to lead into their highest rated recruiting class ever.  Will it show up on the field?  Mangino’s shown that he can recruit well and make some talent pay off so look out of the Hawks in the next couple of years.
  • Missouri too, had a pretty good recruiting class.  They promised some tight end play to Sheldon Richardson but realy this kid is defensive tackle all the way.  At any rate, look for them to compete for the North and then choke at some point.
  • Nebraska signed about 21 kids to fill out the black shirts.  Look out for these guys.  With the walk on program back on and some key pick ups, Nebraska will be well on their way to almost going back to the Big 12 Championship game.
  • Conference wise, Texas and Oklahoma went 1 and 2, again.  Hey they do that every year so get used to it.  Colorado had a top 4 conference recruiting ranking last year and look at how they finished.  Sleep tight, Texas A&M.
  • Bryce Brown is hanging out and making everybody speculate the hell out of him.  Everybody else is down and signed but this guy just likes making everyone wait.  Also, the big rumor is he might turn pro in some other league.  Really, Bryce is a huge tease.
  • James Franklin, the Maryland offensive coordinator, was named last Thursday as the successor to Ralph Friedgen.  Overlooking the fact that Maryland has done crap the last couple of years, this pick makes sense.  If the school is satisfied with mediocrity then they should continue in it.
  • Mike Leech is culling his old lawyer skills and is still banging out a contract with Texas Tech.  So the Red Raiders are apparently pulling a Boston College and telling Leech he can’t talk or interview with other teams during his contract.  If they break off now, look for him to be somewhere else after this year.  Come Texas Tech, fumble this one away!
  • Okay, this is getting redonkulous.  Now all of Utah’s lawmakers are sending a resolution to PrezBama to blow away the BCS and give in to the power of playoffs.  Now with football players on hand!  Please somebody tell the whole state of Utah to get over it and focus on getting the Mountain West the automatic bid.  Going the political route won’t work.
  • Missouri pulled in LSU tight ends coach Josh Henson.  It looks as thought some SEC cred might be seeping into the Big 12.  Recruiting wise, this will help out the Tigers immensly.  Tim Griffin’s already saying they’re going after Bryce Brown too.
  • Dana Dimel is coming back to K-State.  So he did a great job for Mike Stoops and reviving some offense and it looks like he’ll be doing the same at K-State.  Let’s hope that it will be more than Ron Prince’s “Throw-everything-up-and-see-what-sticks” offense.
  • In sign of bi-partisanship, Rep. Joe Barton (R) from Texas is siding with PrezBama in setting up a college football playoff.  Does he really need the votes?  Plus, this guy’s an Aggie.  Shouldn’t he be working more toward making Texas A&M a real football team instead of playing up to the playoff people?

The Crib Sheet: Cannonball Comin’

Jeremy Wolfert's Winning Dive

It’s the Crib Sheet today and this week we focus a little more on K-State.  What can I say?  Most of the news from the week exposed the Wildcats as a middle tier type college trying to be big time.  Speaking of making it to the big time, there’s rumblings again for some shake up,  BCS style.   This argument will die down again when March Madness hits and probably won’t pick up again until August.  So consider this the last hurrah for the BCS/playoff argument for awhile.  In the meantime, the Crib Sheet’s got your paper for the week:

  • Apparently there was a big rift at K-State between Jon Wefald and Tim Weiser.  I kinda wondered why they gave Ron Prince an extension last year.   As well as know, reality hit and they realized he sucked so they bought out his contract.  Wildcats out over $3 million.  Good job Ron.  Hopefully the administration in the Little Apple will quit trying to be big time and let the athletic department do its thing.
  • Because of the nasty little tidbit, we get a resignation from Bob Krause, the current AD.  I knew this guy was out of his league when listening to the press conference on Ron Prince’s firing.  This guy had greenhorn written all over him.  He really botched the firing and hiring of K-State’s head football coach.  If this guy had a tighter lid 0n things, we may be seeing Gary Patterson instead of Bill Snyder 2.0.
  • Florida is not a unanimous champion, well at least in Congress.  Congress passed a resolution recognizing the Florida Gators as national champions in college football, but some members voted “No” and some members voted “Present”, including all of the Senators from Utah.   It’s nice to see that in this economic climate, the nation’s leaders are sticking their nose in college football.  You know, they did that for Major League Baseball and look how that turned out.  Yes We Can!  Well….Maybe that is.
  • Now ex-kicker for Mizzou Jeremy Wolfert will rejoin the dive team to help out his swimming buddies.  It seems after finishing his illustrious career as a kicker (and missing some important tries) J-Dog will go back to the team to help win the Big 12 in swimming.  Hey, didja see the missed kick he had against KU?  He doesn’t win.  Make sure he doesn’t miss the pool wide right.
  • So you figure a Big 12 Congressman would be all for the BCS, but some guy in Texas wants a law for a playoff.  Excuse me?  Aren’t we in one of the worst economic times evar?  So why are politicians introducing bills for college sports when they need to save their butt on real domestic issues?  Clearly it’s a play for votes, but this kinda stuff that bubbles up actually influences the opposite position for me.
  • The Mountain West Conference is ready for the big time!  With Utah going undefeated twice and winning their BCS games twice, they have legitimate beef.  I’d say give them the auto-bid to replace an open bid.  Either that or demote a weaker conference down.  ESPN thinks it should be the Big East.  Let’s face it, the contract is all about the current big conferences so any changes that affect the big guys probably won’t come until it’s time to renew the contract in a couple of years.
  • Hi my name is Josh Freeman, I’m overhyped and I like Lil Wayne and Garth Brooks.  Let’s do a couple of more – How many years in the NFL will I play: 3 (riding the bench for 2), My favorite target on the field:  The opposing player, if I’m under pressure,   Who I want to be most like in the NFL: Jamarcus Russell or Vince Young, The best thing I learned in college:  Could you repeat the question?

The Crib Sheet: One Spicey Meatball

Crib Sheet

We kicked off the off season with our first Mascot Monday here at the KCCGD and now we’re continuing the trend with our first edition of the Crib Sheet. Yup, it’s a weekly news round up of college football with our own little Jamaican Jerk style spice tossed on top.  Much like how a good number of student-atheletes need a crib sheet to get by the student part, well lay out what you need to know for college football news wise.  Chances are you’ll get better news elsewhere, but you won’t walk away from it with a minty fresh feeling like you would hitting up the Sheet. So buckle up because here we go:

Welp that’s it for round one of the Crib Sheet.  Well be back every Wednesday to spit up nuggets of news we chowed down on from previous week.  Until then, eat your vitamins and say your prayers, brotha.  Yup, the Yeti’s filling his time by watching a lil wrasslin’ Sunday by way of the Royal Rumble.  Hey, you gotta pass the time in the off season somewho.  As Ric Flair would say, “WHOOOOOOOO!”