It’s Independence Day weekend coming up and we’re getting ready to rock out and blow up some cans with Black Cats. So in preparation of the the fireworks menagerie, we’re gonna give you more bang for your buck on this week’s Crib Sheet. Before everyone goes out to stick explosives into other containers and shoot bottle rockets off, please remember to be careful, especially your hands. They need to be healthy to handle the frosty beverages over the weekend and later on in the fall for college football. Now here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
Texas student assistant coach Matt Nader got a big ole gun pulled on him at the golf course last week. Apparently he was arguing with a Texan and he later showed up with a gun ready to go. Seeing as this all took place in Texas, I’m not too surprised. Crazy thing was the gun toting Texan was 73, talk about a cranky golfer.
After another death and settlement from complications due to sickle cell traits at Rice University, the NCAA will start recommending that test for sickle cell issues be conducted at universities. After this and the death of former Missouri Tiger Aaron O’Neil, it would make more sense to require the testing of players for these issues. The NCAA and schools make bank off of these kids, let’s make sure they get taken care of while they promote the schools on the field.
Look out Missouri Tigers, the kid of a maybe future NFL Hall of Famer is coming your way in Derrion Thomas. He wasn’t high up on anyone’s radar due to only one year of playing high school ball, but he does look and play like his dead dad. Let’s hope this walk on will do well over in Columbia. My advice to Derrion: remember to wear a seat belt.
USA Today has a profile of Kansas quarterback Todd Reesing. It looks like it’s another one of those, short Big 12 quarterback come from behind stories. The difference this time is Kansas might actually have what it takes to win the big game. They did it on the Orange Bowl, maybe it’s their year this year. Sorry Chase Daniels, have fun trying to play for the Redskins.
Virtually thumbing through the Athlon pre season Top 25 for college football (yes it’s out already), the eyeball rested gently on the the 18th ranked Cincinnati Bearcats. What was a Bearcat? Why was a team from the Big East in the top 25? Did Hannah Barbara have something to do with this? Or maybe it was Al Gore that had a hand in its construction. Why wasn’t the mascot more prominently shown during events? Why am I asking you? Ignoring the lame attempt at a Spaceballs reference, let’s find out all of the answers to the above questions.
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.
In the blistering heat of the summer, one can only dream of being in cooler places. Frozen strawberry margaritas help take you there, but actually being there is so much better. Usually this time of the year see the North being the ‘just right’ temperature. Thinking of the chilly north and the strawberry red margarita, it makes sense that this week’s mascot would be none other than Wisconsin’s Bucky Badger. We try to take a cool look at this feisty fella and hopefully stop sweating while doing so.
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.
Through the last couple of months, we’ve looked high and far to bring you many different types of mascots here for Mascot Monday. We emphasize diversity and welcome all types of mascots from every conference, even the Big 10. So when we stumbled across the Campbell University Fighting Camels, we knew that we had to include their mascot. There is only one type of mascot, as the university advertises, they employ. Campbell University takes great pride in employing this mascot. So we follow camel toe and step in introducing to this week’s mascot: Gaylord the Camel.
Usually when the tempature gauge rockets into the 90’s, it tells you many things. First, time to turn on the A/C. Second, time to hit the pool. Lastly, college football season is right around the corner. So while you are out there baking in the sun, please remember to wear sun screen and to think of the short time left before kickoff. Here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
Looks like the Nebraska Cornhuskers are getting support from all sides as Tim Griffin reports on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ love for the Huskers and his influence on recruits. Judge Thomas sounds like he know about more about the Huskers than the law, unless he thinks they rule or something.
Still on the Nebraska side, Bo Pelini is standing up for his hometown fellow, LeBron James. It seems LeBron was a little unsportsmenlike when he choked away the playoffs last week. People have been ragging him since and Bo decided to stand up for King James and defend him, in all of his open mouthed, gum chewing glory.
Ivan Maisel did a little piece about smaller schools taking big cash for playing major opponents from major colleges. It does tilt the competition in the favor of the major schools. The smaller schools do get money they would otherwise not see for their athletic program. The shadiness of the AD’s not having confidence in their team does seem to be a concern. But then again we wouldn’t see major upsets like Appalachin State over Michigan. It can happen you know.
Kansas and Georgia Tech will meet for the first time since 1948 for the next two years. This should beef up their non-conference schedule. They aren’t exactly pulling a K-State, but they are following toe in line for what many of the major FBS conferences are doing.
Joe Montana’s kid Nick will commit to Washington. Looks like the Steve Sarkasian rub is working full time up there. Will USC miss Steve? Who knows, but it will be interesting to see if Nick can live up to his dad. It’s a lofty task and other former NFL quaterback kids usually don’t live up or beyond, with the exceptions of the Mannings. Chris Simms anyone?
Summer’s about here and it’s under 3 months before the kickoff of the 2009 football season so we’re gonna hit the mascots hard into the big time and the Oklahoma Sooner’s Sooner Schooner. Sure there are two horses named Boomer and Sooner, but the rickety ole wagon still carries the tradition that we see while we hear the same song over and over again. Last year the Sooners were 2nd in the nation as they were booted by the Florida Gators in the BCS National Championship Game. This year, they hope to do better (and they have a good shot, too) and they’ll be riding the Sooner Schooner the whole way.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, is this week and we here at the KCCGD have always enjoyed getting our game on. News wise there wasn’t anything too exciting in terms of college sports going on down there. Wii Sports Resort looks pretty good and the UFC game coming out also looks pretty tight. We waggle our joystick to the great EA College Football game and there’s a soft spot in the heart for USC because of the National title run we had way back in 2004. Now let’s waggle our joystick for college football news:
ESPN College Football Analyst Lee Corso recovered from a minor stroke due to small blocakge in the artery. He issued a press release filled with many of his coaching quips. My guess is all of the mascot heads he put on in his career let to the stroke.
Colorado lost a big time receiver Josh Smith to the lure of big time hip hop. It seems everyone wants to be a star and apparently the shine is on music instead of football. Let’s face it, he was playing at Colorado. No offense there.
The rivalry for Mizzou against Illinois will stop in 2010. Apparently Illinois doesn’t like the neutral site aspect of the series. Either that, or they’ve been getting walloped in the series. It’s not good news for Mizzou because that game was a rivalry they could actually win.
To help with the economy, Kansas will have split season tickets available this year. This is something the Kansas City Chiefs started doing a couple of years ago and look how it turned out for them. Uh Oh.
Big time Missouri recruit Sheldon Richardson will be heading to a Juco this year due to really bad grades. Seeing as everyone either graduated or jumped to the draft, the Tigers will be weak this year. It might be a good time to sit out a year and beef up for next year.
A small change in the BCS that goes into effect after the 2010 season means that if either a Pac 10 team or Big 10 team gets to the BCS National Championship Game, they have to give a Rose Bowl slot to a Mid Major Conference. This is a peace offering for the yelping we’ve been hearing about the BCS and mid majors recently. Whether or not it’s a big deal, we’ll find out. At this point it’s fine because the both conferences don’t have a conference championship.
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.
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.
This Memorial Day we figured we would take a look back into one of the oldest mascots while paying our respects to the military with a retrospective of the Army Black Knights mule and the more recent Blackjack. The prospects of Army playing at the new Yankee Stadium also influenced our pick this week, admittedly. The inclusion of the mule for the Black Knights football team is a great story and the addition of a costumed mascot is a nice side dish to the main mascot course. KCCGD pays its respects and we hope you take some time today to do as well.
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.
Flipping through the Sunday paper, I couldn’t help notice how light it seemed. Not just the whole paper, but specifically the comics section. I remember back in the day there were at least 8 full pages of colorized comics to pour through. Being a kid at the time was great. Nowadays it may be four and many of the classics moved aside to make room for the ‘parents with a newborn’ comic copycats. What does this have to do with mascots? When researching some candidates, I discovered that this week’s inductee just happens to be inspired by a classic comic strip. After reading some more on Peter the Anteater, I knew we had to tell this mascot’s 3 paned story.
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.
