The week in news- SEC Mudslinging, BCS Busters and Bully Accusations
by whiskey OFD on Jul 17, 2009 4:44 AM EDT
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Urban Meyer responded to last week's allegation by Paul Fienbaum that he would be the Head Coach at Notre Dame in 2010 this week stating "I'm not going to Notre Dame. Ever." This recurring discussion always gets the ND faithful riled up and several of the great ND Bloggers in my right side bar have already weighed in on the issue. HLS mentions the internal conflict involved and TDS doesn't buy Meyer's statement for a minute. I personally tend to think the whole thing is a non-issue in the immediate future. I think the Irish are going to turn the corner in 2009 and Charlie's seat will cool off. But whether the Irish are looking for a new coach in 2010 or 2020 I think there is a very real possibility that Meyer will be in the discussion. Never say never.
Not content to rile up just one opposing fan base Paul Finebaum jumped right back on the horse this week and fired a shot at Ole Miss. In short he not so eloquently predicts that despite all the media attention and expectations he expects to see the Rebels flame out before they even really get started. Finebaum reasons that the lack of winning tradition post color barrier, overall "history of choking" and other really logical reasons like "Since the '60s, Ole Miss hasn't been No. 1 in anything except throwing whiskey bottles" as evidence to bet the house against the Rebels in 2009. After reading this I'm not sure whether I think this is funny or disturbing. Either way the article is a train wreck but human nature took over and once I looked I couldn't stop thinking about it. One thing is for certain I definitely want to go to Oxford some time to check out a tailgate in the Grove.
I checked out this story on the WWL expecting it to be the standard glossy BS about Bowden and Paterno being coaching legends, this infraction ruins the wins chase, blah, blah blah. I actually ended up really just watching the video. Much to my surprise Coach Bowden actually made some pretty good points in a rambling old southern guy sort of way. Regardless I think FSU will win the appeal. Doesn't everybody?
Kansas State is damn near giving away tickets to get folks into Bill Snyder Family Stadium to see Snyder himself return to the sidelines. I guess the Snyder reunion tour isn't exactly having the desired effect so far.
After a few months of speculation Texas Tech DE McKinner Dixon is officially off the team. New QB Taylor Potts isn't worried about it. "I don't think he'll be missed at all. We'll pick up where we left off last season and be even better." They must have been pretty tight. Bold prediction by the way.
I think Southern Miss is going to have a good football team this year, perhaps even good enough to be a BCS buster, but they are going to need all world wide receiver DeAndre Brown in the mix to make a run at it. Brown had a huge season as a Freshman before he suffered a gruesome broken leg in last year's bowl game. Brown is apparently back in a boot this week and there was a little back and forth regarding the reasons why between the WWL and Coach Larry Fedora. In other Southern Miss news they let Nike redesign their uniforms. I can't wait to see their head to toe version of bright yellow.
Speaking of BCS Busters The Quad covered #48 Nevada this week and predicted that the Wolfpack will lose to Notre Dame on opening weekend then rip off 11 straight wins. Needless to say it is an interesting read. Hot on their trail Dr. Saturday's Chris Brown banged out another interesting article about the Nevada Pistol. For what it's worth I played the ND vs. Nevada game two nights ago as my test drive game on NCAA 2010 and cruised to a 41-10 Irish victory. The Nevada D was terrible and the pistol was relatively easy to contain in the Nickel. Just throwing it out there.
One of the best articles I saw all week was an interview with recently retired Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen in the OC Register. The most interesting part is Hansen reflecting on how Texas considered joining the Pac-10 in the early 90's after Arkansas left the Southwest Conference for the SEC. The guys over at Barking Carnival are all over this one with a great post that sums up the Texas politics that linked Texas, Texas A&M;, Baylor and Texas Tech into a package deal that killed the Pac-10 deal for the Horns and was ultimately sold to the Big 8 to form the Big 12. It does make me ponder what the current college football landscape might look like if Texas had slipped away solo and joined the Pac-10. Can you imagine the ripple effect of that? It is too strange for me to even fathom.
I'm a big fan of the spreadsheet. For those of you that stop by here on a pseudo frequent basis you probably already knew that. As far as I'm concerned there is no pile of information that can't somehow
be made better in Excel. On that note College Game Balls put a spreadsheet together of all FBS records for the last 5 years. I could study this thing for days. Good stuff.
be made better in Excel. On that note College Game Balls put a spreadsheet together of all FBS records for the last 5 years. I could study this thing for days. Good stuff.
The Notre Dame commitment wave remained strong this week with North Carolina Linebacker Kendall Moore and Florida Cornerback Spencer Boyd jumping on board the class of 2014. Most of the great ND Bloggers linked in my right side bar have detailed write ups on both players for those that looking for them.
Former UCONN Football Player turned journalist/ blogger Rob Lunn wrote an article this week titled "Notre Dame bullies UCONN with new football contract." The title pretty much sums up the article where he goes off about how the Huskies are getting juiced in the deal with no real home games. Lunn is obviously a passionate UCONN guy and I can appreciate that but I think his ire here is misguided. The horrible truth is there are a few programs out there that have the leverage to make deals like this and Notre Dame is obviously one of them. That leverage is based on a body of work that spans more than a hundred years. Like it or not this is a good opportunity for UCONN to potentially help themselves get to the next level. But if you want to be mad about the deal get mad at the UCONN AD or the athletic department as a whole. They obviously thought it was in their best interest to sign the deal. Notre Dame isn't bullying anybody. If UCONN passed ND would have most likely gone down the road and found a similar team that was willing to do it. That's just life. It isn't "fair" not even in college football.
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