Tag Archives: Mike Leach

Football: Game Time, Get Up

Football, , , , ,

End over end the ball will tumble into the arms of a young man. He moves swifter and in directions I cannot fathom but with his movements marks the beginning of the collegiate season. Eight months of your team on a near weekly basis has returned (c’mon, hoops counts). I think there’s a word for it: AWESOME. Conjecture and projections are a thing of yester-broadcast (yeah right).

Mark Helfrich now has to be the lead man. Kevin Hogan has to play a full season. Someone has to carry the ball in Johnathan Franklin’s stead. Will Sutton’s gotta pop somebody. RichRod has to start someone. Kiff, too. Mike MacIntyre has to re-instill a fear of Ralphie. Sark has to…well I think Sark’s gotta win more? Kiff, too. The OSU secondary has to pick somebody off. Il Pirata and his Cougs must try again to outrush Ka’Deem Carey. Brian Johnson (Utah OC) has to coach up Travis Wilson to do something no QB has done in SLC since…Brian Johnson (lead the Utes in passing in back-to-back years). Sonny’s Air Raid has got to get bearish.

Johnny Manziel must play 21.5 halves of football.

It’s game time, game day and yet to bid your Saturdays adieu is inappropriate.

Hello. Shalom. ¡Hola! 你好. Hallo. привет. Hujambo. העלא. Bonjour. Sup? This is the beginning you’ve eagerly awaited since the last buzzer sounded in a hoops arena and you emerged to a steroids ridden baseball season.

And at this point you’ve received the alumni Facebook invite to join your fellow [insert mascot here] at [insert opportunistic bar with drink specials for anyone adorning that school’s attire but in reality it’s just one dollar off a bucket of still overpriced C-minuses]. You’ll experience the highs and lows of the season inside that bar and that T-shirt the student section passed out when you were a touch younger. Arrived is the familiarity of fandom and the unknown promise of a season ahead. Your squad might pull the big Thursday night upset. You might hook up with a recent grad. Your 2014 could start Rosy.

So much promise awaits.

End over end the ball will tumble into the arms of a young man. He could go left. He could go right. But he’ll be going.

Get up.

Football: My Questions for Pac-12 Football Media Day

Pac-12, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today is Pac-12 Football Media day. It is being held in Los Angeles and all twelve teams are reportedly in attendance. There’s already been media buzz about the Conference of Champions as Arizona’s Hard Edge series has drawn attention and Mike Leach was Mike Leach.

But today, of course, marks the pageant. The day the conference rolls itself out on their own accord, putting their best foot forward to jump start the 2013 season.

Now please note that I am not in attendance. I will be in SoCal today but not Los Angeles. I do, however, have questions for the leads of this conference’s football teams. And if I were at media day, I probably would not ask these questions. But a boy can dream.

Follow the whole thing on twitter. The prescribed hashtag is #Pac12FB.

Pac-12 South Questions:

For Rodriguez – It’s rumored Javier Bardem has signed on to play the villain in Hard Edge III. Can you confirm this?

For Graham –  [audible chuckles] Pittsburgh [audible chuckles]

For Whittingham – Why did Urban do that to Aaron? Too soon? Too soon. Duly noted Mr. Whittingham.

For MacIntyre – You turned around a 2-10 San Jose State team in two seasons. You now inherit a 1-11 team. What the f*** were you thinking?

For Mora – Comeon…you guys threw that regular season finale to the ‘Furd didn’tya. Didn’tya. AMIRIGHT SIMERS??

For Kiffin – What’s Layla doing today?

Pac-12 North Questions:

For Shaw – Can you please just state your name and title as smugly as possible? Repeatedly.

For Dykes – Is your last name real? Nonono, I’m kidding. But seriously? No I’m joking. Bear Raid, huh?

For Helfrich – Born in Eugene and now the Head Football Coach at Oregon, who do you think will be the Philadelphia Eagles’ starting quarterback?

For Riley – Coach…any thought to losing the pleated pants look? It’s 2013.

For Leach – Go. Just start talking.

For Sarkisian – You named your boat “Noah Sark.” Great play on words. But does it infer you are escaping irreparable evil deeds and the world is about to end? **cough cough…ChipKelly…cough

Larry Scott’s Pac-12 Network Will Change Your Life

Pac-12, , , ,

Larry Scott spent his summer making sure your future Falls, Winters, and Springs were chock full of Pac-12 sports.

Now, this isn’t news but it’s undoubtedly worthy of a reminder, especially as we roll out of the OOC schedule and into Pac-12 play. You see, I live in San Francisco and have not had television access to three of Cal’s ten games and two of Stanford’s nine. Additionally I couldn’t watch an Arizona football game while home for Thanksgiving. These anecdotes also don’t account for games that are aired on obscure networks like MountainWest Sports and Root Sports.

When the Pac-12 Network debuts – August 2012 – fans of the Conference of Champions will have unprecedented access to their favorite teams. By unprecedented, I mean every football and men’s basketball game will be aired. Nationally.

Pause. Let that sink in for a second. Get excited.

Guaranteed 330 games broadcast across four providers (Time Warner Cable, Cox, Bright House, and Comcast). The math puts that at 45 million households or roughly the population of Ukraine. There are continued negotiations with the satellite providers and subsequently more households.

There will be six regional networks – Pac-12 Wash, Ore, NoCal, SoCal, AZ, and Mtn – meant to deliver content specific to those teams. Example: Pac-12 classics. Arizona is heading to Seattle this weekend to battle Gonzaga. What’s that I see on P12-AZ? Oh, it’s a replay of the 2003 Second Round, NCAA double-OT thriller featuring Arizona and Gonzaga. Can you say Friday nights on the couch?

No matter whether you’re in Gainesville, Columbus or Austin you’re going to see every single game that you want to. If you want to watch Utah-Idaho State (this Friday’s match-up), you can! If you want to watch Cal-Presbyterian (a non-broadcast football game), you can! You’ll also get to watch 40 women’s hoops games and select Olympic sports. Pac-on.

Then there’s the monetary aspect. The contract is a $3 billion deal spanning twelve years. Some elementary division shows us that’s at a little more than $20M per school, per year. In layman’s terms: lots.

(Everything you want to know about the deal can be found here. Jon Wilner at Mercury News owns it)

And if you don’t think that’s significant, already without a single television dollar collected, Washington State shelled out 214% more money to new head football coach Mike Leach than newly ousted head coach, Paul Wulf ($11M vs. $3.5M). For a little more perspective, the new deal will pay each school about 285% more annually ($20.8M vs. $5.4M).

Of course these figures are big picture. Finitely, there will be buildup to the large sums with the bulk of the payout on the back end of the 12 year deal. Semantics.

What I’m getting at is, unlike a Ben Howland suspension, the Larry Scott deals will be impactful. From the way your school spends to the games you’ll get to watch, your Pac-12 life is about to drastically change.

The intangible benefit of the increased revenues and national exposure is what this will do to the talent levels secured by Pac-12 schools. Is it any coincidence that the SEC has the best football programs (or at least reputations) while simultaneously holding the richest television contracts? The ACC and hoops? Expect the Pac-12 to shake the low talent stigma and reality, a slight erosion of East Coast Bias (especially if Scott can secure web-based broadcasting like espn3), and a few more trophies on the West Coast.

Increased money, increased eyeballs, increased everything.

And if that’s not enough for you, after recently being let go by CBS, Gus Johnson has joined Fox and subsequently will call Pac-12 football and basketball games. You’ll recall that he did a helluva job with last year’s Pac-10 Championship basketball game (COLD BLOODED) and if you watched this year’s Pac-12 Championship football game, you know he can make anything exciting.

Now, if you can’t get behind the dollars, the air time, and Gus, well then, you’re not a fan, have no business watching even the Olympic sports, should probably find a new hobby, and not call me up.

I’ll be busy watching the game.

While They Were Sleeping: Coaching rants and low riders

Pac-12, , , ,

USC 56, UC Riverside 35: You hate it. I hate it. Kevin O’Neil loves this crap. He’s got his strewn together squad of transfers and misfits playing just how KO wants. Like the low riders of San Francisco’s Mission (follow that link, good stuff from my buddy Trevor Traynor) KO’s got his boys “slow and low.” Slow: 60.4 possessions per 40 minutes is the fewest in the conference and 341st fewest in the country. Low: 57 points per game is the lowest in the conference and 326th lowest in the country. That’s KO ball. If you’re looking for flashy in the Galen Center, watch the sweatered cheerleaders or KO’s red, glistening dome or Lane Kiffin’s wife. But hey, winning is winning and KO can get that done. Somehow this has turned into a Kevin O’Neil review so back to last night’s game. The Trojans held UCR to just 11 points in the second half which is impressive regardless of how bad an opponent they’re playing. Offensively (giggles), the reigning Pac-12 POW, Maurice Jones, scored just 6 points while struggling from distance (0-6 from three) but dished 7 assists. Impressively, in such a defensive struggle, the Trojans committed just 10 fouls.

Washington St 69, Grambling St 37: Perhaps basking in the glory of the hiring of Mike Leach to guide their maligned football program, Ken Bone’s squad took it to GSU (On the topic of Mike Leach, consider this: he’s about to make $2.2M a year in Pullman, WA. That’s a a 360% raise from what Paul Wulf was making. That pay increase is all Larry Scott and his new TV deal. More to come). In this battle of large breed cats, the Cougars held the Tigers to 25% shooting and just 16% from three. That said, maybe the Cougs had less to do with the poor shooting than we’re giving them credit for? Grambling is now 0-6 and shooting a sweltering 27% as a team, the worst shooting percentage in college basketball. But here’s a Grambling fun fact: sophomore guard Rondale Lucas, through six games, has played every minute but eight. He’s the smallest of the Tigers at 5’10” but is second in rebounding (5.7 rpg). But enough about the SWAC, we’re about the Pac and Brock Motum is rolling. Dare I consider a “Brock for POY” campaign? He went for 11 and 10 last night and is averaging 15 and 7 thus far. I’m telling you, keep an eye on the Motum.

Colorado 64, Colorado State 65: Rivalry fail here. The Buffs, just as we thought they were maybe turning a corner, go and lose to their arch rivals. I suppose one could chock this up to the fact that often rivalry games are a toss up, but Colorado really had a talent advantage here and squandered it. Of course, it never helps to shoot 45% on 29 free throw attempts. Think that makes a difference in a one point game? Also, the high flying Andre Roberson scored all of one point in thirty three minutes.  He did grab twelve boards but when there’s NBA hype, you gotta score more than one point. Sigh – this was yet another Pac-12 fail.