It’s the year of FCS upsets so far. The first week saw North Dakota State upsetting Kansas and Jacksonville State putting one on Ole Miss. Then last weekend, James Madison beat ranked Virginia Tech. It just goes to show you that the competition can be heated on any given Saturday. If a team gets too big for itself, it may overlook another opponent. That’s just enough to tilt the victory meter away from them. We are always humble with our conference powerhouse that is the Crib Sheet, so check it out:
- We’re heard of strange injuries before but having a ‘bowel injury’ takes the cakes. That’s what Arkansas Razorback Dennis Johnson had that left him out of Saturday’s game against Georgia. We hope he can plug it up for next week.
- What two better teams to play in Jerry Jones’ Cowboys Stadium to kickoff the season than LSU and Oregon. Huh? That’s right, the ‘Cowboys Classic’ will be held by two teams not in the Big 12. Doesn’t make sense at all.
- We see reports of crime all the time in the Crib Sheet. Like another arrest for Missouri’s Derrick Washington. Sports Illustrated’s Jeff Benedict points this out as well. We think we’ll keep it on the down low from now on. Maybe just police blotters for the Big 12. Unless it’s some kind of harmless, whacky crime.
- Oh by the way. The lawsuit between former K-State coach Ron Prince and the university will be moving back to the courtroom. It looks as though both sides want an immediate judgement. Not sure if it’s gonna happen. We’ll keep you posted.
- All signs are pointing to Colorado joining the Pac 12 in 2012. They wanted to move earlier, but the stars couldn’t align just right. Maybe after the California whupping put on the Buffaloes pushed them back a year.
- The plane carrying McNeese State had to make an emergency landing on the way to the Missouri game. Apparently, a tire blew out on take off. That would scare the heck out of me. No wonder those kids didn’t fare to well against the Tigers.
- The New York Times points out that the Big 1o makes its money because of the fans. And the fans who would pay a massive premium to see the Big 10 games. So the Times points out what we know already: control the college sports in the conference and you can make some major bank.
- It looks like Villanova is looking over an invitation to the Big East. This would be an upgrade in the football program as they were FCS last year. They are a part of the Big East in virtually every other sport. We hope this helps keep the conference together for a little bit longer.
- One of our favorite football people, former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach, will get his own radio show on Sirius. He’s doing that and CBS. Will he ever be back to the sidelines? Maybe after these gigs pay off his lawyer fees for his suit against Texas Tech.
- A bunch of Missouri football players formed a rap group. The Kentucky Boulevard Boys look to take over the scene like they take over the football field. Yeah, whatever. Call me when they get a recording contract. Oh, and try to focus on the playbook and not your lyric book for the next couple of weeks. We know it’s a cakewalk schedule but you need to be getting better now, not in a month.
- Michigan’s Denard Robinson is your Heisman leader after two weeks and it makes real sense. He single-handedly carried the Wolverines past Notre Dame last Saturday. If he gets his wheel injured, the whole season is over for Michigan.
- Reggie Bush, on the other hand, will forfeit his Heisman. It seems the pressure and guilt for playing with a bunch of ineligible players in 2005 was just too much. Vince Young, the runner-up, tweeted that he will be happy leaving it vacant, even though he said he wanted it earlier this week.
- Speaking of Twitter, Miami of Florida’s head coach Randy Shannon just banned it for his players. It seems the beat down Oklahoma gave the Hurricanes was enough to warrant this punishment. Maybe the team can play their way back into getting access?
- The new NCAA President Mark Emmert wants to get tougher on the rule breakers. Yet, he wants to make sure the pro sports leagues and players’ unions are happy. Let’s face it. The NCAA is irrelevant. It seems all they do is choke the players from making money so they can make more money. A free education is great for these athletes, but they are stopping adults from making adult business decisions. Someone needs to stop these guys, they are like cassette tapes.
- Who will win the kicking battle in Manhattan? Will it be Athony Cantele or Josh Cherry? One thing is for sure, one of these two will lose a game for the Kansas State Wildcats.
- And it looks like the WAC is suing Nevada and Fresno State so they can stay in the WAC for the 2011-2012 season. You know, with the way expansion has been handled in the offseason, wouldn’t the WAC have some sort of contingency in place? Instead of suing, why not invite a couple of Big Sky schools in? Nope, because they are a sub par conference, they will sue their way around things. This conference will die a slow burning death.
Summer’s in full swing and we are heading straight into one of the most celebrated holidays of the year: Independence Day! It’s been quiet for the last couple of weeks so we are anxious to roll out some explosives and blow some stuff up. If anything, it will help put a sparkly glow on the news we have for you this week. It seems the aftermath of expansion is an unending line of duds on wet bottle rockets. So fire up the grill and we’ll fire up the display of news to blast in front of your patriotic eyes. On to the Crib Sheet:
- So we knew that Texas A&M received an invite from the SEC, but now it turns out that Oklahoma also got one. The SEC was real quiet in all of the expansion frenzy and it seems they prefer to strike like a ninja instead of a minutemen. At least we know their strategy the next time this happens.
- Chip Brown has been the Woodward and Bernstein in the expansion saga, and Sports Illustrated gives him his due. Brown went from sports writer at the Dallas paper to professional blogger and he’s well on his way to becoming the premiere one, next to us of course.
- The Kansas Jayhawks hired an auditor to help police the ticketing scandal that came out in the last couple of months. They could hook up with StubHub, as they are becoming the front door internet-wise for school specific ticket sales. Ain’t technology grand?
- The NCAA proposed to delay scholarships for athletes to July 1 before their senior year. This may help cut down on recruiting kids before they even hit high school. We’re sure Lane Kiffin is already finding away around this. He’s going to need it with the lockdown USC has for the next couple of years.
- Missouri might come out with their own TV network, not just Texas. This is one advantage the Big 12 (10) has over most other conferences. They have the freedom to create their own networks, not only for smaller sports but for arts, education, and other items. Think public access but on a larger scale. We’re going to see this trend quicker in the next couple of years and conference with television networks.
- We here at the KCCGD loves the Twitter (follow us @kccgd). We especially love how coaches are coming up with creative ways to recruit using the technology. Look at Jim Harbaugh. He could be quoting Greek mythology but he’s really talking about a recruit. Great stuff indeed.
- The Colorado Buffaloes are following Nebraska’s lead and are looking for a way to get out of the Big 12 (10) a year early. Will they eat the cost more or send in the sharks to find a way around the massive exit fees? No matter how it turns out, it should mean more cash for the remaining members of the conference.
- New Texas Tech head coach Tommy Tubberville thinks the Big 12 (10) won’t last much longer with the new deal. He goes back to the original argument about the uneven revenue sharing. Seeing as he came from the SEC, it makes sense that he prefers the older model. If he makes the Red Raiders a bigger winner than what it was before, he may change his tune though.
Much of the staff for the KCCGD (all one person of it) is knocked down under injury this week. Lower back pains are not an easy ailment to handle. Granted it’s no puke inducing concussion, but we know how limiting an injury can be. Usually a team would be lucky enough not to have any of their stars miss a game or two during the season. Usually you rest them at halftime or have them skip the easy games. In this BCS culture today though now you have to play your top guys all the time, even when hurt. So in that spirit, we achingly bring this week’s Crib Sheet:
- The College Football Hall of Fame is moving from South Bend to Atlanta. The promised attendance was never met in Irish-land and now they are moving down to Bulldog country. So let’s get this straight, they are moving from one program where expectations of a once great team were never met to another place where expectations of a once great team were never met? Hey, at least they’ll avoid nasty winters.
- Michigan University will no longer allow purses into the stadium for games. Sorry, RichRod, you will have to find something else to carry all of your crying tissues.
- The college football world gasped a big ole sigh when Tim Tebow went down with a concussion over the weekend against Kentucky. Apparently he was aleady sick when he took a sick hit from a Kentucky player. It’s a good thing Florida has the week off. Not for Tebow to recover, but the for the rest of the sports media to talk about the games. Hopefully.
- Sports Illustrated is attempting to bring playoff brackets into the mainstream with a half-cocked bracketing system to rank the top 16 teams and then place them in a bracket. Are they bummed that USA Today has the Top 25 Coaches’ Poll, the AP has their own poll, but they have nothing? That’s what we think. And this is the only ink we’ll give them.
- Baylor’s hope for a rise to bowl-dom blew up in their face Saturday when Robert Griffin went down last Saturday with a torn ACL in his knee. A veteran QB in Blake Szymanski will take over the helm as Baylor gets ready to head into conference play October 10. It really sucks for the Bears but will make thing easier for the North teams playing Baylor this year.
- Twitter rears its ugly head again as a couple of tweets from some Texas Tech players caused Mike Leech to ban it from the team. This was, of course, in reaction to some awesome tweets from newly suspended offensive lineman Brandon Carter and linebacker Marlon Williams. We miss it already.
- Speaking of Twitter, Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin is using his handle to retrieve 3 helmets stolen from Cougars players while storming the field during Houston’s dramatic win over Texas Tech. Twitter and Texas Tech just does not mix.
- Stafon Johnson, tailback for USC, had emergency surgery on his throat after a freak weightlifting accident. I’ve seen some bars fall with very heavy weight on them in the gym and it does not look pretty. How did it get on this guy’s throat? We hope he turns out okay.
- New Mexico head coach Mike Locksley pulled a Buddy Ryan (or a Tom Caple) on his assistant and busted his lip. We’ve seen some punches so far on the field at least once a week during the season, now we’re seeing it during coaches meetings. Oh wait, football is a violent sport. Check.
- Kansas will have condominiums in the stands in the form of seat mortgages. So while the kids are fighting on (and off) the field, the snooty rich people will be in the stands. Live sport spectating is becoming the privilege of the elite. This isn’t good at all.
- Ladies and gentlemen, we present the Yankee Bowl. The Big East #4 team and the Big 12 #7 team are signed up to meet at Yankee stadium beginning in the 2010-11 season. Granted they still need approval, but if you have the mayor of New York and the owner of the Yankees behind it, the proposal should pass. I for one wish that any ‘home’ team in New York gets beat.
- Missouri gets the dunce cap this week as the athletic department sold a box of old cell phones. Without wiping them. Hey, hook me up with an email address or phone number over here. I want some coaches to know about the blog.
Over the weekend in professional land (NFL), they held the draft and Matthew Stafford gained the honor of being the number one pick for the Detroit Lions. Stafford’s recently former school is the Georgia Bulldogs so this episode of Mascot Monday will take a peek at the dynamic duo of Hairy Dawg and Uga. Uga has a rich history and following. Hairy Dawg is relatively new compared to Uga, but he’s just now turning the corner of mascot-dom. Whether these two will be the number one pick in a mascot draft, we’re unsure of. But word from Kiper tells us they could go top ten.
Continue reading Mascot Monday: Uga and Hairy Dawg →
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