HORRIBLE BLOGSPOT/BLOGGER TECH ISSUES TODAY. SORRY!
I'm still filtering last night's result. (And sincerely trying to avoid the type of gloating or other insufferable opinions that so many of you think I will display and/or have earned. Come on! This morning, the biggest post-game storylines seem to be:
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*Troy Smith's abysmal game that completely re-wrote his legacy as a big-game QB. (And Chris Leak's amazing game, completely re-writing his legacy as an uninspired fizzler.)
*Jim Tressel's early decision to go for it on 4th-and-1 from inside his own 30, which was less about the resulting points than about how Meyer had thrown the normally unflappable Tressel completely off his game.
*That Harris Poll voter Jim Walden who picked the Gators as No. 1 back when the BCS title-game matchup was set.
*Ohio State's 51-day layoff (which is the flimsiest excuse, but is yet one more reason the Big Ten should schedule the Ohio State-Michigan game for the same day as the other conferences play their title games.)
*What about
*And what about that CFB playoff? The BCS honcho came out in favor of a four-team playoff with a "Plus-One" title game, but as I point out below, this season exposed that plan with its own problems.
I'm going to post separate items for my final CFB Top 10 and thoughts on a playoff, because I want your Comments on them, specifically. Coming shortly.
Baseball Hall of Fame Vote: Ripken and Gwynn are locks. The biggest question is how close to unanimous it will be. We know for sure that it WON'T be unanimous: There's a dipshit voter named Paul Ledewski out of
The other huge
The biggest winners in the 2007 NFL Draft will be the Tampa Bay Bucs, picking third but likely to end up with the draft's top talent – WR Calvin Johnson – because there's no way that the Raiders and Lions (picking 1st and 2nd) take him. (We've seen this before: Both Braylon Edwards and Larry Fitzgerald were the top talents in their drafts, but passed over because they were WRs.)
NFL Coaching Search(es): Wait: What if Pete Carroll left for the Dolphins AND Carroll's top assistant Steve Sarkisian left for the Raiders? And what is happening in
-- D.S.
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17 comments:
Now does this prove that the SEC is the best conference in the nation? I mean, if Florida has to be scrape by to win it's regular season games, then dominates when it plays another conference, doesn't that say something?
- I just don't see this game as rewriting Troy Smith's legacy. He's still a big-game winner. But no big game winner wins them all. 'cept maybe Joe Montana and Michael Jordan, but that's a different argument.
- Kragthorpe did say he would stay at Tulsa. But wasn't that last year? A year later should be a different story. There shouldn't be backlash if he goes to L'ville.
- You can gloat Dan. You're a fan. Go for it. The annoying thing are people who completely turn around and say that OSU was overrated, no good, etc. Troy Smith is awful, etc. To do so undermines the Gator win.
- I still think Russ Grimm is the guy for the Steelers. So I can't agree with ya ma4tt. Whisenhunt...I just don't feel like he's the guy to lead the whole team. I think he'd try to change the Steeler philosophy and take the team in a direction that it doesn't need to go.
- CFB is over for another year. Normally I'd be ok with this, but my standby sport between CFB and Baseball isn't shown in Virginia! Damn the Versus channel! Yeah, I like hockey.
As a lifelong OSU fan and an alum, I have to say that Florida freaking DOMINATED that game. We had no answers for anything, and they were clearly superior that night. Congrats.
I have a few questions about OSU's game plan. Why the heck was up with the rush 3 guys from the first snap defense? Where was the pressure on Leak? And how can you have 8 guys dropping back in coverage and not have anyone covering the flats?
I started at OSU in 1999, so I lived through 2 years of Steve Bella-sorry and I'm telling you he was infinitely better than Troy Smith was last night. What a shame.
Ok, that's my little rant. Congrats Florida. Enjoy it!
BTW, the 'annoying little must talk to minority candidate thing' isn't so annoying or little. If there's one team that wouldn't just go through the motions, its the Steelers. Rivera and Tomlin are real candidates for the job. I'd actually take Rivera over Whisenhunt.
Lance, neither Ripken or Gwynn will be unanimous. As Dan posted, one writer already said he turned in a blank ballot. One reason he gave was that if none of the all-time greats werent uninimous, then neither should Cal and Tony. That is complete Bullshit. I agree with you that Seaver or any number of stars should have been unanimous, but to use that as a reason to keep it going is assinine. It just shows how out of touch these writers are. They think they are these gatekeepers, when they are just looking for attention and to tout their own (imaginary) self-importance.
Already there are some posts saying Ripken is overrated. I was going to post a list of his accomplishments, but that would be too long. But here is what Mr. Sabermetric (Rob Neyer) had to say when asked if Ripken was overrated:
Rob Neyer: (1:40 PM ET ) Umm, the Streak was nice and it's what people remember about Ripken. But when I evaluate his performance, it's irrelevant. If you forget the Streak and just look at the numbers, he's obviously one of the top three shortstops ever.
So if the greatest baseball stat geek of all time thinks Ripken is top 3, that doesnt include stuff like the streak.
bottlerocket:
Look at Bichette's stats. They are a lot better than you would think. That being said, that was my first thought also.
Man, Colorado helps
Congrats both on the Gator win and on calling it!
Can’t agree about the Petrino hire. Do you think he’s another Jimmy Johnson?
These are the men hired into their first NFL head coaching job from an NCAA head coaching job since Jimmy Johnson (plus team and year of hire):
Bobby Ross (SD 1992);
Denny Green (MN 1992) ;
Barry Switzer (Dal 1994);
Tom Coughlin (Jaq 1995);
Dennis Erickson (Sea 1995);
Rich Brooks (StL 1995);
Steve Mariucci (SF 1997);
Mike Riley (SD 2000) ;
Gary Moeller (Det 2000);
Butch Davis (Cle 2001);
Steve Spurrier (Was 2002); and
Nick Saban (Mia 2005).
The only SB win was Switzer’s (with Johnson’s team) and Ross is the only other get to the big game. None of those men are still in the positions mentioned above.
Now look at who these teams could have hired
SD 1992 Mike Holmgren (GB);
MN 1992 Bill Cowher (Pit);
Dal 1994 Jeff Fisher (Hou/TN);
Jaq 1995 Dom Capers (Car);
Sea 1995 Mike Shanahan (Den);
StL 1995 Ray Rhodes (Phi);
SF 1997 Dick Vermeil (StL);
SD 2000 Mike Sherman (GB);
Det 2000 Bill Bellichek (NE);
Cle 2001 Herman Edwards (NYJ);
Was 2002 Tony Dungy (Ind); and
Mia 2005 Mike Nolan (SF).
That group went 8-3 in Super Bowls by the teams that did hire them. Five are still with their teams today. Three others have moved on to other NFL head coaching jobs.
A good NFL assistant (even if he’s a former head coach who didn’t do so well the first time, like Shanahan or Bellichek) has a better chance at success in the NFL than does a straight-from-the-NCAA guy. (Not saying the Lions would have won three Super Bowls with Bellichek, but I doubt they’d be on their fourth coach in six years, either.)
I think Petrino’s likelier to be another Rich Brooks.
Why is nobody talking about the inherent conflict of interest in the HOF voting? The longer Big Mac stays on the ballot, the longer voters can write about why they are/aren't voting for him and other things about the issue. Put McGwire in, and there's a couple weeks to debate it, then the issue fades away and nobody really gives a shit anymore (see: Rose, Pete). Also, voters might be more compelled to vote for a player they know they can write stories about than a player that doesn't command such headlines.
The 4th-and-1 decision was the right one, in my mind...they were down what, 21-7 at the time? (might have been 24-14, I can't remember), and Florida had ALL the momentum...why not go for it, you've got better than a 50-50 chance of making it, and you can steal back a lot of the momentum.
Boise would have to be really lucky to beat Florida, or OSU, USC, or LSU for that matter...we saw them play Oklahoma, and I don't think you can say they were much better, as overall the game was pretty even, Boise just made the big plays when it counted. OU would be a double-digit underdog to Florida/USC/LSU, so why wouldn't Boise?
Notice on the day Dan could have spent gloating about Florida, blogger goes down to keep him in check?
Just a little karma? Mildly amusing, if nothing else....
So, that '78 playoff game, one out, bottom 9, one-run game, runners on first and second (not third, thanks to sweet lou's b.s. stab in the sun at remy's single)....Gossage against Rice....are you telling me that's NOT a battle between 2 future hall of famers?
(Rice flew out to deep right-center, but Burleson could only tag and go to third, not score, because of the play before....then of course f'ing Yaz pops up.)
Eric, alot of your arguments and many people's arguments saying Ripken are opinions. For example Sayers vs Bettis or hitters didnt fear hitting it to Ripken like Ozzie. The stats say Ripken is one of the top 3 hitting shortstops ever. The fact we are debating his defensive greatness shows that he is an all-time great. Here are his defensive accomplishments:
Career Range Factor of 4.62 per game...higher than Omar Vizquel whom some say is almost as good as Ozzie.
1990 Cal set the fielding percentage record for a shortstop.
Two Gold Gloves
Led the league in assists several times.
These defensive accomplishments are from one of the greatest hitting shortstops ever. Maybe he didnt get the press for his defense, but the stats show he was a much better than average defensive SS.
And being compared to Robin Yount is a compliment. The Baseball Analysts list Yount as the 5 greatest shortstop of All-time, just behind Ripken.
Cleveland needs line help.
Anybody want to apologize to Walden now?
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