Two things this week made me realize college football is right around the corner. First, Phil Steele’s College Football Preview for 2011 went on sale yesterday. Second, the Crib Sheet has over 15 news items this week. It’s coming, so get ready. But first the Crib Sheet:
Continue reading Crib Sheet: It’s That Pre-Time Again →
It’s been a bear of a Spring down here, with temperatures being in the steady high 90s. The heat is melting my imagination so for this week’s Mascot Monday we’ll check out another bear at Montana, Monte. Okay, I was a little influenced by last week’s news of Nate Montana getting a DUI there, but I’m sweating my butt off right now. Monte’s been around for a very short time but he has put up some impressive numbers in mascot-dom. This week, we’ll find out just how full Monte is trophy case wise so let’s get cracking.
Continue reading Mascot Monday: Monte →
Back again and were in love. The Crib Sheet today reminds us that every single thing, including the offseason lull, makes up the whole of our love for college football. Now, I’m not going to get all smushy and corny, but I will say that if college football was a person, I would hand it a candied heart that says, “Don’t Stop.” Now on to the Crib Sheet:
- Surprise, surprise! Tate Forcier spurned Kansas State and signed with Miami of Florida. Dang I hate being right all the time.
- So a thrid party approached Wisconsin and TCU about a week and half after the Rose Bowl to see if they were interested in an opening day rematch next year. Wisconsin was all about it and TCU had better things to do. My guess that someone from the Big 10 couldn’t stand a mid-con whupping up on a stalwart in the hallowed gardens of the rose. This bit of news just made my day.
- An agent summit will happen at USC, of all places. Everybody from the college to the NFL to the agent ranks will be on hand for talks about how to hide more money from kids in college. Sheesh, this is the epitome of hyperbole. Heck even states are looking to cash in on this mouthfest.
- So instead of using students to make sure Kansas players go to class, the school is using really old people. It’s like the movie Red without the bullets and missles. I guess it’s a dream job for that retiree who wants to relive the glory days of Kansas and it’s great basketball team and weak football team.
- Congrats to former Kansas State alum Jordy Nelson on his Green Bay Packers Super Bowl win. The game was pretty entertaining as I watched with friends. Maybe Jordy took a chunk out of Cowboys Stadium like I did for Chowboys Stadium? INSERT PHOTO
- It looks like college football will once again try to emulate the NFL by adopting some of their rules again. The biggest one seems to be the 10 second run off rule. Let’s just hope that college football doesn’t adopt the ridiculous overtime rules the NFL had for the playoffs. INSERT LINK
- The crybaby donor for Uconn, Robert Burton, agreed to leave the $3 million in donations after meeting with officials. They must’ve given him a pacifier to match his bonnet.
- Ruh-roh. The Fiesta Bowl hired a lawyer that specializes in the federal crime defense. I wonder what’s going on here? Maybe that Playoff Action Committee is pushing the right buttons? Or is the fact that chairman John Junker being placed on administrative leave have something to do with it? It looks like he dumped some money on politicians. I’m not sure this will damage the BCS but this will get interesting.
- Jerry Gray took a the job as the NFL’s Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator, just weeks after taking a defensive backs position with the Texas Longhorns. That has to be the quickest turnaround in Austin. That’s okay, however, as Duane Akina came back to the defensive backs position he left for to work in Arizona. Coaching carousels are fun!
- Joe Montana’s son, Nate, left Notre Dame and will transfer to Montana University. I wonder if there’s a special deal where the school will change its mascot to Joe Cool or something like that. We wish Nate well.
- Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy has a bromance with Justin Bieber of all people. It seems Bieber has Gundy’s “I’m a Man! I’m 40!” rant as a ringtone and Gundy has a Bieber song on his. Oh that’s so cute.
Okay the holidays are over and we are in the middle of summer. College football is so close right now we can taste it. You know how we can tell? We have a buttload of news to go over in this week’s Crib Sheet. So enough jibba jabba, here’s the sheet:
- The Big House expansion set the new stadium attendance capacity at 109,901 for the Michigan Wolverines. Now all they need to do is actually when games to get it filled up.
- The hottest game coming into this year has to be Texas at Nebraska. David Ubben runs over the list of candidates for the name of this somewhat rivalry. Our pick? The Big Beef. The winner? The Big Beef.
- Speaking of the one time rivalry, Nebraska removed the end part of the video they put out earlier this year for their fan video. It said “Beat Texas.” The smack talk is already beginning and it’s not even the start of training camp yet.
- Dontavius Jackson will be transferring from Georgia after summer school following his DUI arrest. Goes to show folks, don’t get caught breaking the law if you are a football player. You might get your scholarship dumped.
- The two Kansas dudes who were indicted last week have plead guilty in court for the ticket scandal they covered up. Hopefully for Jayhawk fans, this will blow over and they can start focusing on rebuilding for the football season. Or focus on the start of basketball season.
- We’ve been trying for the last couple of days to come up with something exciting to attach to the release of EA Sport’s new NCAA College Football 11 game. It’s out. That’s it. Nothing exciting here.
- Lambeau Field and the Packers want to host a potential Big 1o Championship Game. Okay, this would be sweet. Lambeau embodies the Big 10 better than Indianapolis by far. The closest next match is Chicago with Soldier Field, but we think a title game in icy weather trumps all.
- Bob Krause, former Kansas State Athletic Director, described in a deposition how he got duped by Ron Prince at the last second, which then gave Prince a tasty buyout from his contract. So Krause was out of his league big time and now we see why.
- Ex Florida Gator Maurkice Pouncey was the subject of an investigation that addressed and allegation that he took about 100K from a middle man to an agent. If the investigation finds it to be true, Florida could lose the Sugar Bowl victory last year. It doesn’t matter to Pouncey because he is in the NFL right now. It seems agents have found a loophole to exploit kids in their senior year. The kids get paid and leave before any repercussions. Kinda like pulling a Pete Carroll. Stewart Mandel points this out and we just found out from Nick Saban that Alabama is investigating its own issue too.
- Missouri linebacker Tyler Crane was kicked off the team for violating team rules. Neither Crane or Missouri will say just what he did. It seems like he was a back up so it shouldn’t affect the Tigers this year that much.
- 11 Notre Dame athletes were arrested for underage drinking at a party last week, including Joe Montana’s son Nate. Doh! It’s nice to see the Fighting Irish are with the times in terms of off the field troubles. This tells us that they might be competitive this coming year.
- It seems an investigation will open in Arizona to see if current and former Fiesta Bowl employees made campaign contributions to politicians whom supported the bowl. The major issue is not the contribution but the reimbursement from the bowl. Ya, that’s a no no.
College Sports, Kansas City style
