We can take a couple of more days to draw up a preview of each conference and then roll the dice on how the bowls will shore up but that would take way too much time and reach far out of our happy little niche. So what we are going to do instead is spit up some predictions for what’s going to happen this year in college football. We may talk about your favorite conference, we may not. Chances are we’ll predict the title winner, but we may over look the Outland Trophy Award winner. Who knows? We’re loading up our straws (or empty pens) and seeing what sticks to the wall for 2009.
Most folks outside of the midwest believe that the Big 12 Conference is 2nd nationally amongst conferences in terms of football strength. Much of the talk points toward the Big 12 South. As we roll into the 2009 season, we find some teams reloaded, some teams are out of ammo, and the rest either misfired or are shooting blanks. We’re gonna see where they all stack up and how they will finish in 2009, according the Purple Yeti’s crystal ball. There are some shifts in power, but the top stack will stay the same and most of the close calls will still be close. Hopefully the crystal ball pulls through.
The year of Kansas State wasn’t so much of a year as it was an eternity. There were mediocre hopes going into the season, despair running through the season, mania during the end of the season and into the offseason, then back to a numbed out mediocre hope of building a solid team. There are still burn marks on my belly from the selt belt holding me in from the ride the Wildcats took me on in the last year. Right now, they are known as the Mildcats. They brought back an old legend to patch up the nuclear meltdown and now are looking to rebuild. Let’s take a look and see how they will stack up coming into the 2009 season.
Here we go people! We’re strapping on the helmet and hunkering down for another season of college football. To get us ready, we have a cavalcade of previews and a new redesign coming down the pipe. Until then we’ll produce another news heavy Crib Sheet for all of you to digest. Depending on the schedule, we may be dropping the Crib Sheet here and there during the season. There’s always news to munch on. So grab a bib and some silverware and chow down on this week’s Crib Sheet:
It’s the wave of the future for the Texas Longhorns and monitoring football players. They make select players swallow temperature pills to make sure their body temperature doesn’t get too high during practice. The NCAA should take a look at these little doo-wops for all of the players that have a high risk for sickle cell disease.
There’s a big jumble and shuffle going down in Manhattan. Kansas State coach Bill Snyder is moving around transfer Daniel Thomas from quarterback to running back, among other movements that also saw running back Logan Dold moving to safety. It seems that ‘Wildcat’ might mean more than just a team this year in Snyder-land.
It seems Florida State is getting a head start on the 2 game series with Oklahoma by being the snitcher on old guy type linebacker Mike Balogun. Balogun is suing the NCAA for eligibility because of some issues with semi-pro playing before he joined Oklahoma. One of the Seminole officials noted the story of Bolgun during last year’s national championship game and dug further after the Big 12 was okay with Oklahoma’s ‘light’ investigation. Ruh roh. Seems like there will be some major unsportsmanlike penalties in this two game series.
Oklahoma State has gone dark until the week of their opener against Georgia, at least to the media. They need to prepare all they can for the big game because it will set the tone for the Cowboy’s whole season. It should be a great game and has the potential for being the game of the week.
Oklahoma backup linebacker Tom Wort went down with an ACL injury and is out for the season. Combine that with the questions of Tom Balogun’s eligibility and we’re looking at a depleted linebacking core for the Sooners. This may affect their chances of going all the way this year.
Joseph Kassanavoid, redshirt freshmen quarterback for Kansas State, up and got arrested for domestic battery. Officials for Kansas State stated that the incident will be handled internally. We won’t be surprised if this guy gets booted from the team. Tune in to find out.
The Associated Press Top 25 Preseason Poll came out over the weekend and in the biggest non-surprise of the year, the Florida Gators are number one, followed by the Big 12’s Texas and Oklahoma. Everyone and their mother are picking the Gators but the ball is up in the air for who will meet them in the title game. We’re not sure who will be there, but tune in for our preview in the next couple of days.
Meanwhile, Lou Holtz gives his analysis on the AP poll and pulls a prediction of all predictions out of his always sounding drunk mouth. According to Holtz, Notre Dame will be in the national title game. Give to Lou for being a homer. He makes a good case pointing to 11 returning offensive starters, 7 home games, and a weak opponent’s schedule. The schedule is going to kill them and we’re not to sure they are that big on offense. Nice to hear Lou slur his words again, though.
Husker running back Quentin Castille was dismissed from the Nebraska squad due to team rule violations. That’s a shame as it will hurt their chances to live up to the preseason Big 12 North title prediction. Even ESPN Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin is switching his prediction. Indeed, maybe the media were drinking the red kool-aid, but there are questions all over the North this year. Again tune in for our Big 12 predictions in the next couple of days.
Media days are over and the flood gates have opened up for college football news. Practices start this week and the preview magazines are all over the place. We are so close and the Crib Sheet has made it so far. We’re not sure yet if we’ll continue this in the regular season or not, but for the next couple of weeks prepare to get bombarded with news from all sides. Bring a snorkle, here is this week’s Crib Sheet:
Wrapping up Big 12 Media we have K-State and Bill Snyder still angry about the audits after Jon Wefald left. Bill, it happens after every school president leaves. Relax. The sad thing is people are talking about that and not his return at the media days. Maybe he is spending too much time keeping up with technology.
Colorado coach Dan Hawkins backtracked from the 10 win guarantee and stated that it was a challenge to his team to win 10 games. There is no way he is going to achieve that goal. The way the North is looking in the Big 12 and the toughness blowing up from South, it would be hard pressed for this Buffalo team to compete.
Sergio Kindle from Texas made a surprise appearance at the media days. Awhile ago he crashed a car into an apartment complex apparently while texting. We think he was drunk. He got away and Mack Brown will make sure he leaves the phone at home from now on.
Big 10 media days happened as well. The big surprise is they might adjust the schedule to pad some games at the end of the season. They need that to actually compete in the big bowls that happen around the start of the year. The not so big surprise is that Joe Pa is not going to retire soon.
Steven Sipple seems to be the only one crying about the new Cowboys Stadium in Texas. He makes a good point but the massive complex might help draw more money for the league. Yes, it would continue the South slant perception in the Big 12, but that’s a perception and not a reality.
Hawaii coach Greg McMakin apologized about a remark he made at the WAC media days when the Rainbow Warriors played The Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Hawaii Bowl. He essentially said the Fighting Irish danced like they were little things that the British call cigarettes. Yeah, he probably shouldn’t have said it in a press conference. But it’s a little ridiculous that he is now suspended for 30 days with no pay.
Looks like Jake Trotter polled 29 of the 38 football players at the Big 12 media days and found that Ralphie is the most favorite mascot, followed by this week’s Mascot Monday entrant Bevo. We here at the KCCGD think that maybe the football players polled should take a better look at some of the local talent (Willie the Wildcat, Truman, Big Jay, and Baby Jay) before they plunk down their choice.
Looks like Oklahoma will be playing Army for a 2 game series in 2018. No, they won’t be playing at Yankee Stadium, it will be at each team’s home field. We’re gonna go out on a limb and say that Army will be competitive by then, either from the Black Knights rising or the Sooners dropping. Hopefully they’ll keep those cool camo uniforms for the game.
It seems recovery from the float trip took longer than expected. Well, that and KCCGD headquarters purchased a new laptop that’s in the middle of indoctrination. The radio shows are starting to talk more college ball and the preview magazines are popping up on the stands. We have about a month and a half to go for the big show and the new laptop will help us in getting ready for the relaunch. In the meantime, here’s this week’s belated Crib Sheet:
Looks like people are making bank from student athlete autographs on eBay. The NCAA is trying to lock it down but we don’t see the issue. They are already building a fortune off of these kids, why not let some other small entrepreneur make a couple of bucks from an autograph?
As expected, the cheap ticket deal for K-State and Bill Snyder’s return blew up all over. John Currie commissioned more tickets and it looks like they were snatched up fast too. I’ve been to games there and a $9 ticket versus a $50 tickets makes a world of difference. Currie should really do more tickets because the game wouldn’t sell out otherwise.
Erin Andrews will now skirt the sidelines in video game form for EA’s NCAA College Football 2010. Apparently she spend days recording insightful comments to be dropped during the game. That’s great. We wonder if they did her up a 3D modeling suit for better precision on microphone holding. Oh to be that suit…….or in the hotel room.
Graham Harrell is heading to Canada. After not getting a sniff from the NFL, he will be smelling the brisk Canadian air for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Many say he’s a product of the Texas Tech system but we’d like to think his career path is going down the same road that Warren Moon went.
Get your tickets fast, folks, Notre Dame will play Army at Yankee Stadium. This has been rumored before and now they will play in 2010. Around the Kansas City area, Arrowheads plays host to some college games as well as the Big 12 Championship every once in awhile. Hopefully this will lead to more and more big time games being played in a large enough stadium.
University of South Florid kicker Maikon Bonani fell 35ft off a Busch Gardens ride. An employee was injured too while holding on to the door that he thought was unlocked. Apparently the ride took off and Bonani and the employee fell. Yeah, the Purple Yeti will not go on roller coaster rides.
This weekend is the annual float trip weekend and we are super distracted. The annual event down in the Ozarks leads to all sorts of cathartic releases and gets us ready for the football season to come. For those of you not in the know, a float trip is basically an all day canoe or raft run down a river with food and beverages. This can be known as a Booze Cruise. This year it’s running a little late, but thankfully the weather isn’t too bad, sans any chance for rain. If you ever get a chance, find the closest river and spend a weekend camping. It’s a great way to get away. Here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
Right after the Crib Sheet say the Mountain West Conference’s beef with the BCS wouldn’t be over until the beginning of the college football, a new press release came out last week stating that they finally signed with the BCS on the new television deal. Wow that was fast. So they trotted the BCS out to Washington with Utah buddy Orin Hatch to shake them up before finally giving in and signing. Trying to save face much? Time to dust the hands off of this topic.
Western Carolina junior defensive back Ja’Quayvin Smalls died after a voluntary workout last week. This may be along the lines of the sickle cell issue that have been the cause of the number one death among college football players in the last decade. Our condolences go out and we hope that this builds the case even stronger for mandatory sickle cell tests for colleges.
We’ve usually ignore player arrests here on the Crib Sheet because, let’s face it, a player or two gets arrested every week. Let’s take a look at this. We’ll give a nice even 100 for the number of division I football teams. There’s about 50 players per team. Those are both conservative numbers. So there are about 5,000 football players. Take that and add in college life. There’s about 6 months in the off season. Two players arrested per week is about 48 players. Or less than 1% of the total amount of players. That seems reasonable to us for the college population as a whole. So while it makes news, there’s nothing exciting about it except that they play a big time sport.
ESPN and ABC are switching up announcers this year. Michael Hiestand points out that Matt Millen will come to the fray and Paul Maguire will be out completely. WOO HOO! Maguire was about as bad as announcer as they come. There’s a reason they dropped him down on the field and didn’t allow him in the booths for the games last year.
It looks like after the fiasco of the Bob Krause/Ron Prince fiasco last year and the massive audit fiasco involving the university, Kansas State and their new athletic director John Currie will do what they can to rebuild the fan base. One such way is to sell 1,989 tickets for $9 at the home opener this year in Massachusetts, in honor of Bill Snyder’s first game as head coach. It’s a nice little ploy, but the opponent and the number of tickets for sale don’t do much in terms of a rebuild. It’s a nice start, but they’re going against a weak non-conference team so chances of a sell out are nill. Currie and Co. have a long way to go but it’s a decent first step.
Urban Meyer let the cat out of the bag this week and told the whole world he’ll never coach for Notre Dame. Never say never. Granted Charlie Weiss will have to make a bowl to keep the job, but with what Florida giving Meyer everything he wants, including national titles, an open Fighting Irish job and a pot of gold won’t be enough. Then again, he did say never.
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.
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.
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.
For some reason this week people are scared of the swine er h2n1 flu. It’s a flu, usually if you are really young or super old it will hurt you bad. The oncoming pandemic only points out that yes, the United States is a clean nation. Thanks to all of the pump bottles of disinfectant gels pushing out the very lifeblood of our safety, we can be fully prepared for a Real American Flu. Not some cheap Mexican knock off. So I say, lick and finger everything is sight! It’s okay! And while you’re at it, suck on this week’s Crib Sheet:
Looks like LSU head football coach Les Miles will be a Twittering away on the sidelines this year. He says it’s for a straight up recruiting hit. That make sense. The kids these days with their tweeting and twatting. My guess is this time next year Twittering will be banned for coaches.
Not to be completely hypocritical, but Congress last week rolled the BCS to tongue bath them in absurdity, trying to intimidate them to change the system for playoffs. Many, and we mean many, articles splashed across the net talking about this one. Here’s the gist: It’s about money and Congress doesn’t have time to do it. Even if they did, they would break current contracts. This of course was in between all the politiking and grandstanding.
Maybe while they’re down there, they can figure out why they play only 22.9% of their non-conference games against teams from other BCS conferences, the lowest among BCS conferences. Oh wait, most of the coaches in the league come from the Bill Snyder trunk of coaching. And Bill Snyder is back. Looks like weak schedules are here to stay. It’s really all about the conference competition. Seriously.
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.
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.
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 footballplayersbeingarrestedin theoffseason. 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.
Last night was Fat Tuesday and I’m still wiped out. The scene at the Power & Light district was much like a Baylor home football game. Desolate. The relocation to Westport served us right as we had our choice of primo talent floating around there. While we’re in the college football offseason, it seems some primo football talent likes to float around between commitments as well. But they all aren’t as floating as I am after inhaling the kalidescope of meds to make it through the day.
The recession is hitting everybody, including college football. Some schools won’t print media guides, some are taking the bus, and poor Ohio State’s coaching per diem went down from $65 to $45. I guess we all have to tighten our belts a bit and I look forward to seeing Jim Tressel grabbing a Whopper.
So Texas Tech and Mike Leach finally got it done. Leach will have to notify in writing about interviews with other teams and there’s no bank on the buyout. Good. Great. Rad! Wonderful! I was getting tired of writing about this.
Lou Holtz is turning Japanese and heading to Tokyo with a bunch of Notre Dame Legends to face an All-Japanese football team. Good luck to those guys, I hope they don’t break a hip or eat bad poi. This kinda reminds me of how Mick Foley went to Japan to help ressurect his career, if I may expose my wrasslin’ fandom.
Missouri’s Defensive Coordinator Matt Eberflus could be upgrading to the NFL in the form of linebackers coach for the Cleveland Browns. Um, the Offensive Coordinator I can understand leaving, but the Defensive Coordinator? Welp he’s not going to be an NFL coordinator so I guess I can see it. Still, Missouri’s defense is pretty weak.
We all know that Utah got hosed again this year, but the Mountain West Conference just won’t let it go. The conference commish rolled into Washington to raise awareness about how the BCS is flawed. Okay. We get it. But trying to use Congress in this economic time seems just a little too classless. Stop whiningn before you lose more precious cred that you just built up, Mountain West Conference.
In other coaching moves, Andy Ludwig was going to be the Offensive Coordinator for Bill Snyder at Kansas State, but after six weeks on the job, he took a similar position at California. Oh well, I’ve seen faster moves. Even Jolly clocks in at 3 days for a job. Hopefully the Wildcats will nail down a coach before spring practice.
But at least their schedule for the 2009 season is filled, as ESPN blogger Tim Griffin reports. Look out Tennessee Tech as your fearsome FCS status will be prepared to be rolled by Kansas State on September 26. Um yeah, actually this should be close.
The Mangino Baby makes a return as for some reason the Lawrence Journal World decided to do a follow up on the lil tyke. Basically, the kid was born huge and looks like Mark Mangino from Kansas. The picture itself is hilarious, but like all things Mangino, Kansas fans seem to embrace it and use it more as inspiration than poking fun at a fat guy. It usually helps when you win the Orange Bowl.
There’s some weird things going down in Nebraska. First, Patrick Witt’s transferring out of there because Bo Pelini couldn’t guarantee he could be the starter this year. To even things out, David Oku (a high running back recruit) enrolled at a school in Lincoln, Nebraska even though he supposedly committed to Tennessee. Welp a running back for a quaterback is not that bad but the way it happened was just plain ridiculous.
