Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Wednesday Odds and Ends

Some thoughts that didn’t make it in Monday’s blog and some stuff I just have to get off my chest:

Auburn – Bama Redux – Play-Off thoughts:  Bama fans, get a grip.  No one, and I mean NO ONE cares (at this point anyway) about how you feel and how this is the last time in your life time that “a college team could have achieved a three-peat”.  Seriously.  The world has bigger problems than Bama losing to Auburn.  Yet, somehow, there’s a whole bunch of fans that don’t see it that way.  I’m really curious to see what happens and wondering if Satan sees how bad it can get if the Bama mob turns on him.  Right now, they simply hate Cade Foster and the rest of the kicking team for either missing all his field goal attempts and not covering Davis coming out of the end zone.  I’m curious as to what’ll happen when Bama loses 1 or 2 games early in the season sometime in the future and it’ll be fun to watch as the torch and pitchfork crowd really gets rolling.  That’s Bama…they love you when (and only) if you’re winning…but if you’re losing, get your lame ass out of town so we can go hire the last National Title Winning Head Coach because he’s the new guy that knows how to get it done.  In case you were wondering how absolutely insane (were talking beyond SLAPPY) it’s been down in the land of Crimson Tide, there have been:
  1.  Death threats involving Cade Foster (Kicker who missed all the figgies)
  2. One fan (woman) shooting and killing another fan (another woman) at a party for laughing about the loss and not taking it seriously enough
  3. And there’s a group of Bama fans (and they are  actually trying to collect signatures) that are telling the school to “reject” any bowl offer the school receives and boycott the BCS process due to the fact that if this were 2014, Bama would automatically be “in” the Final 4 and part of the 4 team playoff with a shot to win the National Title.
Think about that last one for a minute.  These fans are trying to convince a bunch of money grabbers to forego the cash that a bowl represents...but even more important:  Bama loses to their ARCH RIVAL, doesn’t have to play in the SEC Title game, and if this were next year, no worries.  They get another shot at the title.  Which harkens back to my original concern with the 4 team play-off and that the only way to qualify should be that you HAVE TO WIN YOUR CONFERENCE!  Period!  I don’t think, for example, if Sparty were to upset ohio, that they should be denied a spot in that 4 team play off (I know, I know…That last line was really hard to type).  In fact, for the sake of argument, my 4 team play-off this year would look like:
  1.  FSU – Duke Winner
  2. Sparty – ohio winner
  3. The SEC champ – Auburn or Mizzou
  4. Stanford-Arizona State winner
I hear you Big 12….But you don’t have a conference Championship and you don't have an undefeated team…It’s not my fault.  This is “fair” and doesn’t have anyone involved that hasn’t won their conference.  Gotta love that word “FAIR”…doncha’???  Where this ends up going is that I foresee an 8 Team play-off with Conference Champs (domers part of the ACC if they finish ABOVE the ACC champion) and anywhere between 1 and 3 at large teams included. 
Auto Bid Conferences Include:  B1G, Big12, SEC, ACC, Pac12 Champions.   One of the following:  AAC, Conference USA, MWC or MAC champ (whichever conference champ finishes higher in final rankings) and then 2 at large bids (or keep the big boys happy and make it 3 at large bids – sorry AAC, USA, MWC and MAC).  Of course, that would probably still allow Bama in…but at least there’s a reward for winning your conference.  Strangely, great minds think alike on this as right before I posted, I happened to read Frank the Tank’s latest blog entry where he discusses in financial detail theinevitable 8 team play-off.  But my thoughts still stand. 
B1G Championship:  In case you haven’t heard, The Italian Stallion just threw some “GREAT” bulletin board material out there saying that whoever wins the B1G Championship should play in the National Title Game.  While I get what he’s saying, he’s saying it WAY TOO EARLY.  You gotta love Dantonio and some of those mini-stroke moments that he has that must be a result of the heart attack he suffered a few years back where he simply must be thinking, F!*#% It, I’m saying what’s on my mind.  And he does.  And thank you, Mark.  We love ya;’ buddy!
Winston:  I haven’t brought it up simply because I think it’s a legal issue and should be dealt with that way.  But now, the delay in the Jameis Winston charges is clearly going to have an influence on the Heisman.  And while I think the trophy is much ado about nothing (unless a Michigan Guy wins it), I do think Jameis deserves a fair shot at getting the award assuming that he’s not going to have any charges pressed against him.  I don’t know how to read the tea leaves on this one.  Is it taking so long because there’s simply nothing there or is it taking so long because they have to throw the book at him?
Fred & Barney:  I know I said I was going to call for at least the canning of Barney this week.  I reneged.  I’m sorry about that and I had a complete list of reasons that are frankly still valid: 
  1.  Multiple games with obvious offensive play calls that were just wrong
  2. Two of the worst rushing totals in two games in Michigan History
  3. 12 consecutive quarters where Michigan didn’t score an offensive TD
  4.  and the list goes on…. 
And then I thought to myself:  Who or which O-Coordinator do I want for this team?  What, ideally, do you want in an O-coordinator?  I want an X’s and O’s guy that can make things happen, regardless of the talent he has at his disposal.  I want a coordinator that thinks out of the box and uses the talent he has to it’s fullest.  One team came to mind this year that in the past had been a running team that passed a bunch this season, LSU.  But I didn’t know who the O-Coordinator was for The Hatter, so I looked it up.  Cam Cameron – a former Michigan Man.  Damn…I wish Michigan would have thought of him a little sooner.  LSU’s problems weren’t on the offensive side of the ball this year..they just let everyone else score too much. 
So, where does that leave me?  I dunno – but I highly doubt that LSU is giving up Cameron…When Borges had Denard, things were not great, but I was still blaming the personnel…this year, I have to lay the blame of at least two losses at the feet of Barney.  I’ll give both Fred and Barney one more season and next year, it’ll be time to make the call. 

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