Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Wednesday 01/09 A.M. Quickie:
Carroll, Gossage, Rice, Gibbs, Rod, More

Today's Names to Know: Pete Carroll, Goose Gossage, Michael Adams, Roger Clemens, Ray Rice, Mario Manningham, Ryan Mallett, Mike Martz, Joe Gibbs, LeBron vs. Durant and More!

Pete Carroll to the NFL's Falcons? The team is interested in HIM... but is HE interested in the job?

I just don't understand why he would want to leave one of the Top 3 jobs in college football (perhaps even No. 1), not just to return to the NFL (where his experience kind of sucked), but to the Falcons, a team that isn't just rebuilding, but needs wholesale renovations.

Presumably, Carroll will entertain the notion for about a minute, then stay at USC, where he has built up a perennial contender and rules the roost like no other coach in college football.

Nevermind the fact that top college coaches going to the NFL (and vice versa), even with previous NFL coaching experience, is a bad idea. For Carroll specifically, it makes no sense.

(The Falcons were also given permission to interview Titans D.C. Jim Schwartz, whose Q-rating is hardly at the level of Carroll's.)

Meanwhile, who is Dan Snyder going to hire to replace Joe Gibbs? Do the players want Gregg Williams? Eh: With names like "Pete Carroll" being thrown around by his owner-colleagues, Snyder can't be satisfied.

Baseball Hall of Fame: Goose Gossage was the only one to make it, with Jim Rice falling JUST short. (Oh, just let him in already.)

Gossage threw down the "steroids are SO not over" gauntlet, as a bonus. (Question, Goose: Ever take greenies to "goose" your tireless relief performances?)

Snubs: I can't believe Tim Raines only got 25 percent of the vote; how the hell do these voters keep their status? (Andre Dawson came in a strong 3rd, suggesting that he will eventually make it in.)

Meanwhile, here's my question: If Gossage wasn't good enough for you last year or before that, how/why is he suddenly Hall-worthy?

(Oh: Mark McGwire? Same vote total as last year. Which is to say: Not even close. Cripes: All the guy needs to do is admit his PED use and pledge to spend the rest of his life battling PEDs in youth sports.)

How about this: You get one year of eligibility, with an up-or-down vote from the Hall voters. (When will the Hall of Fame tell the BBWAA that they no longer control this, creating a new panel from scratch?)

CFB Playoff Watch: Georgia president Michael Adams backs 8-team playoff. Note that his openness to a playoff coincides with his own awesome team missing out on the title.

His plan would have the winners of the four major bowls play semifinals a week later and a title game after that.

What he doesn't seem to do is explain how he would fairly pick the 8 teams: Conference limitations? Non-BCS exemptions?

Nor does he explain how he would get the Rose Bowl to buy in to not only dropping its beloved Pac-10/Big Ten default, but to be a quarterfinal game. Ain't gonna happen, even if they promised the Rose Bowl could host one of the semis AND the title game every year.

Scoreboard: Positive points for going public supporting a playoff; negative points for his blatant opportunism; net-zero points for lack of details.

Clemens Watch: You're either with Clemens or with McNamee. For his part (and for whatever it's worth), David Segui is with McNamee.

NFL Draft: Ray Rice turning pro. He was the cornerstone of Rutgers' turnaround, and he became the most reliably productive running back in college football over the past two seasons.

More: Michigan defections. WRs Manningham and Arrington going pro. And, in a move you could see coming the moment Rich Rodriguez joined the program, lumbering 6-6 pocket passer Ryan Mallett, one of the most highly recruited QBs a year ago, will transfer.

As floated in this space a few weeks ago off a theory from a reader, I have to believe Rick Neuheisel will be all over that kid for UCLA, and don't discount June Jones seeing if Mallett wants to come back to Texas to start the revival at SMU.

Are Texas and Texas A&M moving their annual game to Thanksgiving night?

More NFL: 49ers hire Mike Martz as offensive coordinator. Get ready for the Alex Smith Renaissance!

Joe Gibbs returning to NASCAR? .

NBA: LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant. The Cavs won the game, but KD outscored the King. Durant had to leave the game with an ankle sprain. But just wait until their head-to-head battle in, say, 2016.

TV Ratings: BCS ratings were down 17 percent from last year. Was it Ohio State fatigue? Lack of enthusiasm for non-obvious title teams?

-- D.S.

7 comments:

The Mark Show said...

You'd think the Falcons would be steering clear of college coaches at this point. I know Carroll isn't the same breed as Petrino and Saban but still.

BCS TV ratings...it was the non-obvious teams. Why are people supposed to care about a supposed national championship game when arguments can be made for a bunch of other teams?

Unknown said...

Here's a way to get an 8 team playoff, using the bowl system, and maintaining the Rose Bowl tradition of Pac 10 vs. Big Ten. Go back to the original bowl affiliations:
Rose: Big Ten champ vs Pac 10 champ
Fiesta: Big 12 champ vs ???
Orange: ACC champ vs ???
Sugar: SEC Champ vs ???

You give an automatic bid to the Big East to maintain the 6 BCS conference champions with bowl births, and then 2 wild card bids. This past year, I would have given Georgia and Hawaii the wild card bids. So the pairings (Rankings pre bowl games) would have been:

Rose: Ohio State (1) vs USC (7)
Sugar: LSU (2) vs Hawaii (10)
Orange: Va Tech (3) vs WV (9)
Fiesta: Oklahoma (4) vs Georia (5)

Based on seedings and to keep the possibility of an all SEC semifinal (but not final) I would have the Rose vs Fiesta and Sugar vs Orange.

This could work!

todd said...

Mike Martz to SF = Smith being broken into even more pieces by the barrage of sacks he is about to eat. SF already gave up more sacks that Detroit (which I find unbelievable, especially considering Det aired it out 15% more often) in what could not possibly have been a more sack-happy scheme than Martz's.

John said...

The Baseball HOF voting is a joke. Clearly some writers don't take it seriously when players like Chuck Finley, David Justice, Chuck Knoblauch and Travis Fryman get a vote. If the HOF won't change the system (which they really should), then they need to remind the writers that it's not required to vote someone in every year. So what if you go a year or two without someone getting elected? That just makes it more special when someone does get in. The HOF should only include the best of the very best. Borderline players that make it after being on the ballot for multiple years shouldn't be in. If you have to debate whether or not someone is a HOF'er, then they're not a HOF'er.

JR said...

Dan - was that overall ratings or championship game ratings that were down?

Honey Brown said...

As a Michigan student I'm said to see Mario and Adrian go, but indifferent about Ryan. Now we really really need to pull down Terelle Pryor to have any hope of doing anything decent next year. Hopefully Pryor will see Ryan's exit as a chance for immediate action and he'll jump at the opening.

Brian in Oxford said...

Mark McGwire is just Dan Kingman on steroids....literally!