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      Vitale: Pete Carroll “beat the posse”

      January 9, 2010 /

      During the broadcast of the Georgetown/UConn game on ESPN, Dick Vitale commented on the report that Pete Carroll has signed a deal to coach the Seattle Seahawks.

      “Well, you know, to me, he beat the posse. Posse coming after him down there, the NCAA. He takes the money, the program gets hurt in the future. I really have a problem with that. These guys go on, they leave the program, take their cash and run. Because, you know, the NCAA is still investigating them for Reggie Bush. And I just feel that he beat the posse, got his cash, and off he went.”

      — Dick Vitale, during Georgetown/UConn broadcast (1/9/10)

      College Basketball, College Football, Rumors & Gossip

      Report: Seahawks hire Pete Carroll

      January 9, 2010 /

      Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports that Pete Carroll has reached an agreement to become the next head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.

      Carroll was fully expected to be introduced by the Seahawks as early as Monday, assuming they comply with the Rooney Rule this weekend.

      The hangup could be locating a candidate to interview that would put the Seahawks in compliance with the rule, which requires teams to interview a minority candidate for head-coaching hires.

      But the bottom line is, Carroll’s agreement with Seattle is “100 percent done,” one NFL source close to the situation said.

      In a text message to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen on Friday, Carroll said, “You know I haven’t responded to a NFL question in two years.”
      But a league source told Mortensen that Carroll was trying to persuade USC offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates to join him in Seattle — as opposed to Bates pursuing the same position with the Chicago Bears.

      First and foremost, I don’t think Dan Rooney had this situation in mind when he and the league established the “Rooney Rule.” It’s crap that a minority will be brought in to interview for a position that he has zero chance of getting and therefore, the Seahawks should be fined just like the Lions were in 2003 when they hired Steve Mariucci without complying with the rule.

      As far as Carroll goes, we can speculate all we want about why he chose now to leave USC and pursue the NFL again. Maybe it was money, maybe it was the perfect situation, or maybe he’s running from something. Either way, he’s going to be on the Seahawks sidelines next year and if I were a fan, I’d have mixed feelings about the deal.

      There’s no doubt that Carroll is an outstanding college coach, but he’s already failed twice at the pro level. That’s not to say that the third time won’t be a charm, but I would have my doubts if I were a player or a fan, because his methods haven’t worked before. Granted, he ran a pro style system while at USC so in terms of game planning, he should be fine. But his ra-ra approach didn’t work with the Jets or Patriots, so it stands to reason that it won’t work in Seattle.

      There’s already a rumor making its way around the net that Carroll might target Matt Leinart to be his quarterback. But as of right now, that makes little to no sense. First of all, the Cardinals aren’t going to trade within the division and secondly, Kurt Warner is nearing the end of his career and Arizona probably still has some hope that Leinart can be “the guy.” The rumor makes little sense, but we’ll see how this whole thing transpires.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      College Football, NFL

      It’s going to be a big Saturday in sports

      January 9, 2010 /

      Earlier this week, I took a look at the sports schedule for Saturday and asked my wife, “Please don’t volunteer me for anything on Saturday. It’s a huge day in sports.”

      I live in California, so things start early for me. Those of you on the East Coast or in the Midwest have a few hours in the morning to get the husband/boyfriend duties out of the way. Here’s your Big Saturday itinerary:

      12 PM ET / 9 AM PT: #13 UConn @ #12 Georgetown (ESPN)
      Sure, Georgetown’s loss at Marquette on Wednesday takes a little sting out of this matchup, but a home date with UConn should get the Hoyas plenty focused. Georgetown has a balanced attack (three players averaging 14+ ppg) while UConn is The Jerome Dyson-Stanley Robinson Show. (Side note: The Huskies still haven’t won a game away from home this season.)

      1:30 PM ET / 10:30 AM PT: #4 Purdue @ #20 Wisconsin
      The Boilermakers face a tough test on the road against the Badgers’ stingy defense. Sadly, this one isn’t on national TV. Bummer.

      2 PM ET / 11 AM PT: #5 Duke @ #17 Georgia Tech (ESPN)
      Another top 5 team faces a tough road test. This time, it’s The Team That Everyone Loves To Hate who visits a good Georgia Tech squad in Atlanta. The Yellow Jackets’ feshman big man Derrick Favors (currently projected to be the #2 pick in the draft) will battle the Dookies inside.

      4:30 PM ET / 1:30 PM PT: Jets @ Bengals (NBC)
      The Jets come in surprisingly confident (considering they have a rookie QB who has thrown 20 interceptions this season) after thrashing an uninspired Cincy team in Week 17. Look for the Bengals to play well and take advantage of Mark Sanchez’s inexperience. The Jets have a great defense, so this should be a low scoring affair.

      7 PM ET / 4 PM PT: Hawks @ Magic (Fox Sports South)
      I know, it’s the NBA regular season, but if the Jets/Bengals game gets out of control, this Atlanta/Orlando matchup features two of the top four teams in the East.

      8 PM ET / 5 PM PT: Eagles @ Cowboys (NBC)
      All eyes will be on Dallas tomorrow night as the Cowboys try not to suffer another late season meltdown. The Eagles looked terrible in Week 17 — could they possibly play that bad back-to-back? We’ll see. The Cowboys are one of the hottest teams in football right now, but game smells like it will be a close one.

      There you go — East Coasters can go to bed while those of us living on the West Coast can take our ladies to a late movie. Good times.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      College Basketball, NBA, NFL

      NFL Playoff Preview: Saturday games

      January 9, 2010 /

      New York Jets at Cincinnati Bengals
      4:30 pm ET
      TV—NBC

      Last Sunday night, the Jets closed out the actual regular season history of “old” Giants Stadium the way the Giants wanted to the week before, turning a win-and-in situation into a rout against the Bengals, 37-0. The Jets and their # 1 pass defense held the Bengals to zero passing yards for the game. That’s right, ZERO passing yards. That’s not likely to happen again today, when the Jets visit the Bengals for a rematch that will determine who goes home and who moves on to the divisional round of the playoffs. Bengals’ head coach Marvin Lewis held RB Cedric Benson out of the Week 17 game, and only let QB Carson Palmer play a few series before letting some bearded guy named J.T. O’Sullivan take over. Lewis didn’t want to show too much, but what he may have shown in the process was that his team is fading fast and may have won games early in the season with smoke and mirrors. The Bengals’ defense is also solid, ranked #7 against the rush and #6 against the pass, but if they allow Thomas Jones and the Jets’ running game to control the clock again, this could very well be another dominant performance by the Jets. And don’t forget the way Jets’ all-world CB Darrelle Revis shut down WR Chad Ochocinco on the field and then on Twitter. The hotter Jets should prevail again, but either way, this is a game featuring two of the NFL’s best defenses, so it’s likely to be ultimately determined by who makes the least mistakes.
      THE PICK: JETS 17, BENGALS 13

      Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys
      8:00 pm ET
      TV—NBC

      For as surprising as the Jets’ thrashing of the Bengals was last weekend, the fact that the Cowboys shut out the Eagles may have been the biggest surprise of Week 17. Sure, the Cowboys have been on a roll since handing the Saints their first loss of the season a few weeks back, and haven’t given up a point since then. But the Eagles had won six in a row and were (insert cheesy line here like “flying high” or “soaring”). Despite having Brian Westbrook back, the Eagles have fallen to 22nd in the NFL in rushing offense and have been living by the big pass play most of the season, with second year WR DeSean Jackson changing games by himself on offense and special teams. The Cowboys, however, have beaten the Eagles twice this season, and their only losses came to the Giants twice (in games that could have gone either way), Denver, Green Bay and San Diego. They can run the ball (7th overall), pass with Tony Romo, Miles Austin and Jason Witten (6th overall) and they can stop the run (4th overall). The only blemish for the Cowboys is they are prone to big pass plays, but they seem to have remedied that recently, and with DeMarcus Ware coming off the edge, Donovan McNabb has to have eyes on the side and back of his head at all times. This game will certainly be close, and maybe come down to a field goal. And in that case, would you rather have David Akers or (gulp) Shaun Suisham as your kicker? That’s what I thought.
      THE PICK: EAGLES 27, COWBOYS 24

      NFL

      Why did the Boise State Broncos finish #4?

      January 8, 2010 /

      One Bronco Nation Under God put together an interesting breakdown of the final AP vote for the 2009-10 college football season.

      Why is it interesting? Well, Alabama finished #1, as they should. But it was Texas, not Florida, that finished #2. The Gators finished third and the Broncos finished at #4. The site points out a couple of voters who actually had the Broncos ranked lower than #4:

      [Craig] James was far and away the most anti-Boise AP voter of the bunch. Voting Boise State at No. 7 is inexcusable. Voting TCU at No. 14 is just as bad.

      The worst part is that the Broncos only finished four points behind Florida in the AP poll. Hmm, where might you find four extra points? If Craig James had voted like a rational human being, the Broncos could have at least got three more points (if James put them at No. 4).

      James had Ohio State, Penn State and Iowa ahead of the Broncos. I guess he’s a big fan of the Big Ten.

      Then there’s the case of the only other writer in the country to put the Broncos lower than #4 — Kirk Bohls, of Austin, Texas.

      He dropped the Broncos below … wait for it … THE Ohio State University. We’ll laugh about this later. I swear we will. Bohls and James were the only ones with OSU in front of BSU. Had Bohls swapped the Broncos and the Buckeyes, Boise State would have picked up an extra AP point and been tied with Florida for No. 3.

      In addition to James’ #7 ranking and Bohls’ #5 ranking, 22 voters had the Broncos at #2, six ranked them #3 and 30 voters had Boise State at #4, so it appears that the voters are split into two camps: 1) those that believe that the Broncos belong (ranking them #2 or #3), 2) and those that still don’t think they are as good as one-loss BCS teams like Texas and Florida (ranking them #4 or lower).

      The bottom line is that nothing has changed. A Colt McCoy-less Texas squad looked good enough against Alabama to stay at #2, while Florida thrashed a head coach-less Cincy squad in the Sugar Bowl. Boise State played TCU in the Fiesta Bowl, which made for a “fun” (i.e. non-BCS) matchup, but neither team got the opportunity to play against the big boys.

      And that’s exactly the way the BCS wanted it. If Boise State and TCU got matchups with BCS schools this bowl seasons and won (or at least made it a game), it would add more fuel to the we-need-a-playoff fire.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      College Football

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