Here at KCCGD headquarters, we are drawing up game plans and doing walkthroughs for the upcoming football season. We have some goodies coming up in the next couple of weeks, including analysis, predictions, and some new looks. We’re busting a major sweat and pouring it out into everything we do here to make KCCGD the best place to go for you Kansas City college football needs. Be on the lookout. Until then, here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
Kansas State’s lawyers are bringing the full “he said, she said” stating that no such attempts were made to quiet Ron Prince, which his lawyers accused the school of. This is a real bad case of a coach and school parting ways. It’s only gonna get worse. Please remember to hug a coach and a school official today.
Backup Nebraska quarterback Cody Spano is out for the year with a torn ACL. The Husker’s projected starter is Zac Lee and if he goes down there really is nobody left behind him. Plus, it’s his first year as a starter. Husker fans need to hope Zac stays healthy if they want to live up to the pre-season hype of a projected Big 12 North title.
15 Duke football players have symptoms of the swine flu. Usually colds and flus make their way through teams and then move on. What’s interesting about this article is that Heather Dinich called it the swine flu. Not H121. Way to go Heather! We like realistic names and not ones deemed okay to say by Congress.
Oregon football players (or as new ESPN sportscaster Jon Gruden calls it, OrEEgon) are now wearing cameras on their helmets during practice. The more tape, the better. Our guess is the next step in the evolution of video games will include this footage. Then, in turn, football players could practice by playing the video game. Geekery abound!
Colorado cornerback Ben Burney had his blog axed after the first draft. Being the blogging realm we are disappointed to see such speech revoked. Although the kid probably shouldn’t have touted how well in the sack he is. That’s not quite the inside look people are looking for in football.
New Mexico State is asking fans to pitch in for snacks for the football team after practice. Seriously? We know the economic downturn is affecting everyone, but what’s the deal with a school not springing for orange slices and Capri-Sun after a workout?
Mike DeArmond from the Kansas City Star profiles Missouri’s defensive secondary. They were the worst in the Big 12 last year and are looking for a turnaround. With many of the offensive players from last year drafted away to the NFL, the defense needs to step up and help shoulder the load (and transition).
Speaking of defense, bot the Topeka Capital Journal and the Manhattan Mercury talk about Kansas State’s defense. There’s no place to go but up for the defense as they ranked below 100 in the terms of total defense last year. To help the attempted turnaround, they are featuring nickel defense much more this season. Hopefully that will help counteract the explosive offense most of the Big 12 teams bring into the year.
Former Duke basketball starter Greg Paulus will now be the starter for the Syracuse Orangemen. We’re not sure if it’s because he’s super talented (he was a five star football recruit in high school) or if the rest of the quarterbacks on the team stunk. At any rate, the school will sell more tickets because of this guy and that’s a good thing.
Former Rivals #1 recruit Bryce Brown and Tennessee are under investigation by the NCAA for alleged violations in his recruitment to the university. The question is whether funds raised for Brown’s trip out to Tennessee was legit or not. Brown, a Wichita native, tread the news waters earlier this year when he was waffling back and forth between schools after his commitment to Miami expired, including Kansas State. This guy smells like trouble and chances are he won’t turn out well.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
