Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Wednesday 12/12 A.M. Quickie:
Petrino, Petrino, Petrino and More!

Today's Names to Know: Bobby Petrino, Kosuke Fukudome, LeBron James, Tim Tebow, Rex Grossman, Jamie Mottram, Twitter, College Bowl Mania, More!

Bobby Petrino quits the Falcons to go to... Arkansas? Wow. That's huge. He lasted all of one season in the NFL. And, boy, was it one shitty season. (He didn't even last the entire season.)

First, that's kind of dickish on Petrino's part. If he didn't want to leave college, he never should have taken Arthur Blank's millions. (Fans all saw the college-to-pro failure coming a mile away.)

Meanwhile, by leaving Louisville last year the way he did, he totally screwed over Brian Brohm and a team that had national-title aspirations, but ended up a middling 6-6.

He moves to an Arkansas team that is losing superstar Darren McFadden and is coming off years of being a run-first offense; Petrino specializes in high-octane passing offenses. It will be an interesting transformation for a team in need of one in the post-McFadden era.

(Wow: How much of a chump does former Arkansas QB prodigy Mitch Mustain look like now? Instead of, say, playing QB for Petrino, who developed Brian Brohm into a Top 10 NFL Draft pick, he'll battle for PT at USC.)

And the SEC gets yet another ridiculously high-profile coach. In the SEC West alone, that's Bobby Petrino, Les Miles, Nick Saban, Tommy Tuberville, Houston Nutt and Sylvester Croom. Wow.

Obligatory Michigan angle: Hmm, Petrino would have looked awfully good as the new head coach at Michigan. And yet he was signed to coach Arkansas. Yet another humiliation (and failure) for Michigan and its AD, "Buffoon Bill" Martin.

Speaking of which...

Les Miles-to-Michigan rumor flares up, then is quashed by Miles himself, who said he was only "helping" the search. If he was so helpful, why didn't he tell them Petrino could've been available?

(Wasn't it in Miles' best interests to make sure Petrino didn't end up in the SEC... in Miles' own division, no less?)

News flash to increasingly stupefied Michigan fans: Miles ain't coming back. No good coach is coming. Your top candidates are unqualified assistants and a heartily unqualified guy from Ball State.

MLB Hot Stove: Cubs get Kosuke Fukudome, the high-profile outfielder from Japan.

Meanwhile, MLB gets a sneak-peek of the Mitchell Report: Would they leak any of it to try to mitigate damage control? No word... yet.

AP CFB All-America Team: Tebow is the QB, McFadden is the RB (a two-timer, along with Long, Dorsey and Laurinitis). Texas Tech freshman WR sensation Michael Crabtree made the team, as did former walk-on Jordy Nelson, a WR from Kansas State.

Nice to see the uber-talented Jeremy Maclin make the team as an all-purpose player. On defense, nice to see Kansas' Aqib Talib make it (he should have won the Thorpe), along with Arizona's Antoine Cason (who did win the Thorpe).

Big Ten moving to a 13-week schedule: Wow, it's almost like they were... envious that the leagues with a conference title game got all the juice while the Big Ten season ended weeks before. No!

(Surprise, surprise: Jim Tressel and Lloyd Carr were the only two coaches who supported keeping the season as-is.)

NBA: David Stern won't punish the Knicks or Isiah Thomas. That's too bad. Stern was fans' last best hope to see the team rid itself of Isiah and turn the corner.

(Isiah on the Knicks' troubles as the fans' fault: I haven't talked about this this week, which is my bad. What a story: Yeah, blame it on the fans. That has to qualify for the stupidest thing to say of 2007.)

NFL: Mike Ditka will get rid of his fund to help NFL alums, after it was uncovered that his charity didn't, y'know, give out any.

More NFL: If Rex Grossman is done for the season, is he done in Chicago, too? His contract is up, and he might just need a change of scenery. Wow, couldn't the Jags use him to bring a little FLA-vor?

Meanwhile, the Bears HAVE to be thinking "franchise QB" with a Top 10 pick in a draft loaded with great QBs. (Unfortunately, as many as 5 teams ahead of them could use a new franchise QB, too.)

CBB: Southern Illinois beats newly minted Top 25 St. Mary's in a terrific non-conference game between two big mid-major programs. One of those "Remember that in March" games.

NBA Stud of the Night: LeBron James... 6th Man of the Year?

TJ Ford injury: Here's to a full and healthy recovery to one of the best injury-comeback stories in sports of the decade.

Sports Media: Jamie Mottram has been at Yahoo Sports running their blogs and social media programming, and the results are starting to show: Yahoo Sports suddenly has one of the best NBA blogs around, hubbed by two characters you need in a great multi-voice blog product:

Kelly Dwyer, whose fanatically detailed knowledge of the NBA has been on display for a while as a TrueHoop fill-in, and Rod Benson, who is the NBA D-League's version of Gilbert Arenas and a rising star. Definitely worth keeping an eye (or RSS feed) on. Great start, guys.

CFB: Final fan voting for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year is open until this Saturday, December 15. The 10 finalists are listed for I-A, with 5 finalists each for 1-AA, DII and DIII. Go to coachoftheyear.com to vote (and, while you're there, check out the special blog I did with them).

Twitter Experiment: So I've been dabbling with Twitter off and on for the last however long, and I'm finally going to give it a real effort, which will hopefully supplement the signature morning post. If you are into Twitter, see the link to the side to get the subscriber info.

College Bowl Mania: Don't forget to use the link on the right to sign up for the College Bowl Pick 'Em game (through ESPN.com). Group name, as always: Daily Quickie Readers. And, as always, no password needed; it's a public group. Hope to see you in there!

(I just made my picks yesterday. I'm fine on the picks themselves; I'm sketchy on the "confidence" ranking. If I'm so sure LSU is going to wax Ohio State, shouldn't I give that my highest confidence rank and roll the dice?)

-- D.S.

14 comments:

The Mark Show said...

Oh, Les Miles said he was only "helping?" Well, given that college coaches always tell the truth to the media, then yeah, that absolutely quashes the rumor of him going to Michigan. Please, after what we've seen from Saban, Petrino and your boy Billy Donovan, anything can still happen. I'm not making any predictions, just saying that Miles saying he was only helping (and what the hell does that even mean?) doesn't mean he's staying at LSU for sure.

C Gally said...

Why is there so much hate for Petrino? He left because he should have left.

Imagine starting a job, getting all these perks up front, then having your company Porsche taken away from you. Not only that, but even the Honda Civic was traded to the Texans. I'd have high tailed it out of that situation before it even began

Dave Kern said...

Why would Grossman be a good fit at Jax? After boldly getting rid of Leftwich, David Garrard has looked great! I don't understand what Grossman would be doing there besides holding a clip board.

mike said...

I can't possibly see Jack Del Rio and the Jags wanting to take on the gunslinging headcase that is Rex Grossman. They already have a very good QB, name of David Garrard.

David Garrard, whose QB Rating of 103.3 is third in the NFL, trailing only Tony Romo and the immortal Tom Brady.

David Garrard, who currently sports a 13-1 TD/INT ratio.

David Garrard, who this season has won AT Denver, AT Kansas City, led his team to wins over the surging Chargers and Bills.

And we're talking about Rex Grossman. Rex Grossman, who during his career year in 2006 completed only 54.6% of his passes, barely threw more TD's than INT's (23-20), and had a worse QB Rating than David Carr (82.1 to 73.9).

The Jags don't need Rex Grossman. And frankly, I don't know if they would want him even if they did. He is who Denny Green thought he was.

JDM said...

No mention of the injury to T.J. Ford...or your boy Al Horford's involvment, even if unintentional?

todd said...

Geez Dan, I think you hate Michigan more than the OSU fans do, which is pretty amazing.

Why would Bill Martin want a coach who many think is a douche and you described as dickish? I doubt they would be interested in someone who has already shown TWICE IN ONE YEAR that they have no problem jumping ship for "greener" pastures.

And LOL to Petrino, have fun with Saban in the Coaches Killed by Hubris Society. Dan, maybe if you're lucky some more of your precious SEC teams can scoop up failed college-to-pro coaches next year. Lane Kiffin may be available...

Jason B. said...

I disagree that Michigan is somehow at fault because Petrino went to Arkansas. What School would inquire about a coach that is paid millions, is barely one year on the job and in what is generally considered the better league (pros)? Here's guessing Petrino couldn't hack it at Atlanta and reached out to Arkansas. Michigan is light years better without him. Was he a high profile candidate last year? Without a doubt. But just like Saban, the 180 after 1 year in the pros tarnishes him.

Boomhauertjs said...

As much as I love LeBron and hate on Larry Hughes (or is it Bruise), I gotta give Larry Stud of the Night with his 36 point performance. If he can give the Cavs more performances like that, he'll finally live up to his huge contract and responsibility to be LeBron's Pippen.

Eric said...

Speaking of Daily Quickie Reader groups, I'm winning the Daily Quickie Readers NFL Pick 'Em! That's me, the tastefully named Vick's Rape Stands®.

Unknown said...

I really like sports.yahoo.com.
I used to just go to espn.com but the stupid video clip is annoying and takes too long. I just want quick headlines and access to standings and scores, not a multimedia experience.

cbs.sportsline.com is also pretty good with some good football and NCAA analysis.

Cape-Clad Coder said...

sheesh -- 'bron would be nominated for coach of the year if you saw him helping a teammate out after a timeout.

i'm sure it was said in jest (geez, i hope), but the last time i checked, no one is anywhere near touching manu ginobili for sixth man honors.

CorrND said...

"Consider me bullish on Bobby Petrino's chances in Atlanta."

-- Dan Shanoff, 1/9/07

"Fans all saw the college-to-pro failure coming a mile away."

-- Dan Shanoff, 12/12/07

Dan Shanoff said...

that was AWESOME. love it! - dan

MW said...

hindsight = 20/20

1. petrino was hired to create an innovative offense centered around mike vick. no one in atlanta, and especially not bobby petrino, could have predicted that mike vick was going to throw away his career like he did. if anybody had known that, petrino and probably another half dozen coaches would have said "thanks, but no thanks" and atlanta would have a shitty coach with about the same credentials as lane kiffin. meanwhile, you yourself (as another commenter pointed out) wrote that you liked petrino's chances in atl, even after countless college-to-pro busts like spurrier, saban, and butch davis... and that's just in the last decade. perhaps fans may have seen it coming, but you didn't.

2. mitch mustain is not a "chump"; he had the same sort of feeling of "this ain't what i signed up for" in college as it appears that petrino did for his pro job. he was the top recruit in his class, they brought in his old coach to run the offense, he got to play for his favorite team, he goes 8-0 as a starter and then he gets replaced by casey dick, a mediocre qb, and then his old coach leaves... i'd be pretty pissed off if i'm the best qb out there, doing well, and then my coaches start to fuck around with a good thing... meanwhile, i don't think that mustain could have predicted last year that bobby petrino was going to be coaching arkansas his junior and senior years. if he did, he has more of a future in fortune telling than in anything else.

3. how the fuck was les miles supposed to know that bobby petrino was on the market? it would have been in miles's best interest to keep a good coach out of his division, yes, but unless les miles is bobby petrino in disguise (erm... no) or works for arkansas (erm... no) i don't think that he would have known that petrino was a candidate for the arkansas job. even if he did, it's not like he could have swayed arkansas or bobby petrino not to hook up. meanwhile, even if miles had known and did tell michigan to get off their asses and go after him, i doubt that petrino would have been stupid enough to take big 10 over the sec.