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.
The eyes of the college football season are upon us and we are beginning to wipe the eye boogers away to gaze into the crystal ball and see who will come out on top. Last year, there was a three way tussle in the Big 12 South that left the Texas Longhorns out of the Big 12 title game and out of the National Championship race. This year they are back with their Heisman runner up in Colt McCoy and are one of the sexy picks for a national title run. We thought it would be fitting in the last couple of weeks of this year’s Mascot Monday to take a look at the final Mascot we’ll do from the Big 12 from the school that has the best title shot. So we present to you the famed Bevo and a couple of other mascots that barely have any press or history.
This week finds us smack dab in the middle of Big 12 Media days. This is the week of the year where all of the schools congregate and spit words into a hungry set of microphones in preparation of a new college football season. Next week camp starts and before you know it, it’s football time! But to sum up this week so far, Kansas was media voted #2 in the north and they have a chip on their shoulder, Missouri is regrouping, Nebraska doesn’t feel like number 1, the South teams are the bomb, and nobody is really interested in the new head coach for Iowa State (Paul Rhodes). We’ll talk a little about the teams left next week. For now, hold on tight because we just exited the gate and are starting to build steam to a new season. Here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
Pittsburgh State football player Joe Windscheffel is out for the season with an arm injury due to a Zebra charge. He needed to paint a fence and had to move some zebras. The male zebra charged and he’s out for the season. Be careful childrens, animals are wild.
If you are tired of SEC talk, then cover your eyes for this one. The SEC is striking deals with regional television stations to broadcast games, most notably in regions that cater to the Big 12 and the Big 10. The hype machine is in full swing and they have the national titles to back them up. I guess we’re gonna see more and more of the SEC until some other conference pins them down.
So last week, we talked about Army playing Yankee Stadium in 2010. Welp a couple of days after news of that came out, they announced that they will be playing there for the next 4 out of 5 years. Great stuff. They used to play there every year and now they are bringing back the tradition. Let’s hope they keep the new tradition of camouflage gear.
Our favorite analyst Kirk Herbstreit is suing the IRS for taxing Herbsreit on a burnt down house. So Kirky wanted to build a new house on his current and caught wind of the local fire department needing some training. He ‘donated’ the house to the fire department and they promptly torched it. Now he thinks he should get the tax credit for the donation but the IRS is saying no way. What a dumbass. Quoting Kritter, “He should fire his accountant.”
Looks like some team from the Mountain West Conference manned up and is scheduling some big time schools. Boise State will play Virginia Tech next year. Welp if the Broncos go undefeated next and beat Va-Tech, then they should have a shot at the title game.
Lou Holtz and his Notre Dame alumni beat up on Japan this year in the Notre Dame Japan Bowl. It’s nice to see some aged alumni hit the field and play again for the Irish. We wonder if the folks over in the land of the rising sun though Lou was drunk the whole time he was there. Don’t worry guys, he sounds that way all of the time.
The Rose Bowl tweaked some rules with the current BCS contract to allow non BCS schools to play in to the bowl. If one of the automatic qualifiers for the Rose Bowl goes to the national title game, then the slot is open to anybody. That’s a break from how things were done in the past. It used to be only Big 10 and Pac 10 teams. This is a good first step and this should help to even things out just a little bit more.
This week on the good ole Mascot Monday we thought we would take a look out west and hit up Athlon Sports’ Pre Season Top 25 Oregon State Beavers and their mascot Benny Beaver. Benny’s been through a couple of changes and we here at the KCCGD can get down with that. But he’s been adding and dropping baggage here and there that makes us wonder just a little bit. From the first appearance to the creepy little addition today, Benny’s been all over the block. One thing for sure is, with them big chompers Benny will continue to lay it down on any wood that’s out there.
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.
When coming up with this week’s mascot, we decided to go with a somewhat big time program. How we settled on Florida State’s Chief Osceola and Renegade was much more of a journey. Was it the recent news of sanctions the NCAA put on Florida State that would vacate some victories and take away from Bobby Bowden’s record? Nope. Was it former player and WWE wrestler Ron Simmons and news of his induction into college football hall of fame? Nope. Actually it was the pit stop we made on the way down to our annual float trip. Yup. Thank you Osceola Cheese for this week’s Mascot Monday. DAMN!
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.
Independence Day came and went and we escaped with a couple of scratches, bruises, and about six pounds of weight. While we are recovering, we are reminded that we are inching ever closer to start of the new college football season. Sooner or later, I have to get started on some site improvements and my previews. Until then, we keep on chooglin’ to another Crib Sheet:
Former Hawaii, and record breaking, quarterback Timmy Chang was arrested for robbery. I completely forgot the guy. When that happens, one can guess that crime is heading their way. Especially since he fizzled out like he did. It’s pretty terrible that a record holding qb gets released from a Canadian football team.
The New York Times is now profiling the case that Sam Keller filed against Electronic Arts and the NCAA. He makes a good point about players being used to take in bucket loads of cash for EA Sports and the NCAA. If he wins, it may open the door to some other types of compensation for the players.
ESPN’s Tim Griffin points us to a company that sifted through the stats to produce the five common traits BCS Championship teams and which teams fall under that for this year. Texas is in the mix but so is Iowa, surprisingly. Florida’s there too, however. The safe bet I guess is Texas vs Florida this year.
So another hearing on Capitol Hill took place the pitted Senator Orin Hatch from Utah against the BCS. It stunk very much of grandstanding, and nothing came of the hearing. Many columnists gave their reaction, so I will give mine. This will continue on until the start of the college football season and then it will go away. Hatch is rattling swords for his state and really thinking so much of the other smaller schools. The best part, that Tim Griffin pointed out, was when Hatched asked Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman what more could Utah do and Perlman suggested that Utah play a tougher schedule. Utah president Michael Young responded that the school wishes Nebraska would play them. Tim Griffin points out that Utah backed out of a chance to play Texas last year. End of story. Case closed. The roar of the crowds on opening day will overcome the whimpers and cries coming from the state of Utah.
It’s the after 4th of July recovery and we’re inching ever so close to the start of the 2009 college football season. Since we are getting close and Mascot Monday is reserved for the off season, we are going to profile the mascots of the Big 12 teams favored to win their division, starting with the Kansas Jayhawks very own Big Jay and Baby Jay, with the other Big 12 team coming next month. A Jayhawk has no known animal classification, but stands for something that happened before the Civil War. We’ll figure out what they were thinking way back when and lay a couple of eggs on the way. Get ready, Kansas City, here’s Big Jay and Baby Jay.
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.
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.
