Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 691 of 1503)

      What’s wrong with BYU’s offense?

      October 3, 2009 /

      Despite turning the ball over three times, No. 20 BYU defeated Utah State 35-17 on Friday night to improve to 4-1 on the season. A 48-yard touchdown reception by Luke Ashworth from Max Hall broke a 7-7 tie in the second quarter, then Manase Tonga scored on a three-yard touchdown to give BYU a 21-7 halftime lead. The Cougars never looked back.

      Junior running back Harvey Unga rushed for 118 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries to lead BYU, but BYU’s offense struggled on a whole.

      The Cougars were held under 300 yards for the second straight game and Hall continues to struggle under center. He’s now thrown two or more interceptions in four of his last five games and has 10 interceptions to 11 touchdowns on the season.

      Thanks to Unga’s second straight 100-yard rushing game, BYU was able to overcome Hall’s issues moving the ball in the passing game. But what happens when the Cougars have to play TCU in a couple of weeks? The Horned Frogs have one of the fastest defenses in the nation and BYU isn’t going to be able to turn the ball over three times against TCU and survive.

      The good thing for Hall and head coach Bronco Mendenhall is that the Cougars have UNLV and San Diego State over the next two weeks to figure things out. But the Mountain West Conference is going to come down to that October 24 matchup with TCU, so BYU needs to iron out its issues soon.

      College Football

      Forget Vick – you too Nike.

      October 2, 2009 /

      The Washington Post asked me to participate in their NFL blog “The League” for the 2009 season. Below is a recent post I wrote for the site about whether or not Nike should endorse Michael Vick again.

      I’m over what Michael Vick did.

      That might sound jarring or cruel to some people, but I am – I’m over it.

      For the record, I think Vick is inhumane for what he put those dogs through. Reading what transpired on Moonlight Road made me sick and I think the punishment fit the crime.

      But let’s move on. What’s done is done and he served his time, so let him rot in Philly as a backup quarterback, Wildcat formation specialist or Andy Reid’s personal dry cleaning assistant. I don’t care – and neither should Nike.

      When “the swoosh” got word that Vick was involved in an illegal dog-fighting operation two years ago, they did the only thing they could: They dropped him like a bad cell phone connection.

      Just recently, Vick’s agency announced that its client had struck a new deal with Nike, although the manufacturer claims that it has only agreed to supply product to Vick, as it does with numerous other athletes who are not officially under contract with them.

      Either way, why should Nike bother endorsing Vick period? Because he used to be an icon? Because he used to make people’s eyes pop out of their head every time he escaped from the pocket? He went to jail – his opportunities of being endorsed by anyone should be over.

      Read the entire article at the Washington Post.

      NFL

      Lab used Ted Williams’ head for batting practice

      October 2, 2009 /

      The New York Daily News is reporting that workers at an Arizona cryonics facility mutilated the frozen head of baseball legend Ted Williams by dismantling it from his body and then using it for batting practice.

      Here are some of the bizarre details:

      In “Frozen,” Larry Johnson, a former exec at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz., graphically describes how The Splendid Splinter” was beheaded, his head frozen and repeatedly abused.

      The book, out Tuesday from Vanguard Press, tells how Williams’ corpse became “Alcorian A-1949” at the facility, where bodies are kept suspended in liquid nitrogen in case future generations learn how to revive them.

      Johnson writes that in July 2002, shortly after the Red Sox slugger died at age 83, technicians with no medical certification gleefully photographed and used crude equipment to decapitate the majors’ last .400 hitter.

      Williams’ severed head was then frozen, and even used for batting practice by a technician trying to dislodge it from a tuna fish can.
      The chief operating officer of Alcor for eight months before becoming a whistleblower in 2003, Johnson wrote his book while in hiding, fearful for his life.

      Johnson writes that holes were drilled in Williams’ severed head for the insertion of microphones, then frozen in liquid nitrogen while Alcor employees recorded the sounds of Williams’ brain cracking 16 times as temperatures dropped to -321 degrees Fahrenheit.

      Johnson writes that the head was balanced on an empty can of Bumble Bee tuna to keep it from sticking to the bottom of its case.
      Johnson describes watching as another Alcor employee removed Williams’ head from the freezer with a stick, and tried to dislodge the tuna can by swinging at it with a monkey wrench.

      The technician, no .406 hitter like the baseball legend, missed the can with several swings of the wrench and smacked Williams’ head directly, spraying “tiny pieces of frozen head” around the room.

      Johnson accuses the company of joking morbidly about mailing Williams’ thawing remains back to his family if his son didn’t pay his outstanding debt to the company.

      I don’t even know where to begin with this. How can somebody be so sick, twisted and inhumane? Forget for a second that this was one of the greatest baseball players of all time – the actions of these people are just downright sick and creepy.

      This is something straight out of a freaking Quentin Tarantino movie.

      MLB

      Should Oregon reinstate Blount?

      October 2, 2009 /

      Remember LeGarrette Blount?

      Of course you do – he’s the Oregon running back that was viewed as a potential Heisman candidate before he decked Boise State’s Byron Hout in the face following the Ducks’ 19-8 loss to the Broncos in the opening week of the season. He was subsequently suspend for the rest of the season by head coach Chip Kelly, although not it appears that Oregon could allow him to be reinstated as long as he meets certain conditions.

      Per ESPN:

      Kelly said he set down academic, behavior and football-related “ladders” that Blount must achieve for possible reinstatement, which would not come before Oregon’s Nov. 7 game against Stanford.

      “There’s a distinct possibility he’ll never play football here again,” Kelly said. “But the ball is in LeGarrette’s court.”

      Blount hasn’t endeared himself to many within the Oregon program with his actions over the last two years. But I happen to think that this was a good move by Kelly.

      If Blount has nothing to work for, what’s from stopping him from continuing to get into more trouble? Kelly is giving him the opportunity to play football again as long as he succeeds in the classroom (positive), doesn’t misbehave (positive) and puts in hard work at practice (positive). If he screws up again, then he’s done for the rest of the season, just as he was before. But if he succeeds, then he proves to himself that hard work and good behavior can get him what he wants in life.

      Granted, some may look at this as Kelly going back on the suspension in order to get his star player back onto the field now that Oregon has rattled off three straight wins. But Kelly said the earliest Blount could return is November 7, which means the running back would miss the next four games (including USC on October 31) no matter what. I hardly view this as a sign that Kelly’s only mission is to get Blount back in uniform.

      It’ll be interesting to see if Blount can meet Kelly’s requirements and turn a negative situation into a positive one.

      College Football

      Bradford officially ruled out against Miami

      October 2, 2009 /

      Oklahoma head coach said Friday that freshman Landry Jones will start at quarterback for the Sooners this Saturday against Miami. Sam Bradford, who suffered a shoulder injury against BYU in the opening week of the season, was making progress throughout the week but Stoops didn’t feel as though Bradford was ready yet.

      From Tulsa World:

      “Sam has made daily progress, but we don’t feel like he’s quite where he needs to be yet,” Stoops said in a press release. “Our team has a lot of confidence in Landry’s ability and we’re looking forward to going into the game with him at quarterback. Our approach will be the same that it has been in the last two games.”

      “No one’s gonna play if they’re not healthy and ready to go,” offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said on Tuesday. “. . . A guy coming off an injury, if there are throws he can’t make, you either take those throws out or you say, ‘Look, if you can’t make the throws, the guy doesn’t play.'”

      In a Wednesday report by CBS Sportsline columnist Dennis Dodd, Bradford’s father, Kent Bradford, said he didn’t see the harm in his son waiting another two weeks before returning to the starting lineup. That would put Bradford in the center of the storm for the Oct. 17 showdown with No. 2-ranked Texas.

      This is absolutely the right move. If there’s any doubt about whether or not Bradford is ready to play, then he’s not ready to play and I applaud Stoops for not rushing him back onto the field.

      Jones has more than enough weapons around him to succeed and Oklahoma’s defense has been fantastic this year. As long as the young QB doesn’t try to force the action by trying to make things happen in the passing game, he should be fine.

      College Football

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