Cleaning out the inbox

We clean out another inbox with an all football edition, so if the pigskin is not your plate of choice, hang in there there are some fun reads in here anyway!

We start with an excellent piece from ESPN as the "Worldwide Leader" looks back at one of those sports stories that not only is a fascinating "What If" tale but one of the rare stories that the story has not been told from the participant or one of their confidants.
Twenty years ago, Bill Belichick resigned as head coach of the New York Jets after holding the position for all of one day after Bill Parcells "retired" for the third time ( there would still be one more for Parcells and Belichick was promoted to head coach via a contractual obligation that was signed when Belichick joined the Jets as defensive coordinator under Parcells.
Various people commented that were with the Jets at the time and quotes are taken from a book that was written by Parcells about the 1999 Jets season, but not Belichick or anyone close to him.
It's an interesting read and you'll wonder what could have occurred had Belichick stayed as "the HC of the NYJ" rather than leave for the Patriots, but the true reasons and story might have to wait until Belichick's retirement.

Another 20th anniversary was recently marked and ESPN was there again as the Music City Miracle was remembered.
The Miracle talks to the players and coaches involved with "Home Run Throwback", which saw two laterals for the Tennessee Titans result in a touchdown with only seconds remaining to eliminate the Buffalo Bills in the AFC playoffs.
The article talks about the play, how it was drawn up, and why certain players were selected to be involved with the play.
It also talks with the players about the play, how it affected them thereafter and what they are doing currently.


One final ESPN story writes about the effect that the 2019 season had on the LSU Tigers with the National Championship won last Monday with a win over Clemson.
The article writes about the historic offense and Joe Burrow's SIXTY touchdowns passes, but it also looks back at Tiger history, which was interesting to me with the portion that I did not know about the influence of  Huey P. Long on the importance of building LSU as a football power.
Long's antics included telling coaches to run particular plays, giving halftime speeches in the locker room, promising players jobs if LSU rallied to win a particular game, and moved players into the locker room!
Imagine the NCAA fun with that happening today!
I enjoyed reading about the Tigers tradition but considering that LSU had won national titles in 2003 and 2007 (that one over Ohio State), I'm not sure I'll buy that their fan base has suffered that much in the last twenty years.

The Athletic takes over with an article on the Cleveland Browns and the people that they referred to as the "Sons of 1-31".
The Browns have only five players remaining from the 2016 and 17 Browns that combined for one win in thirty-two games and of those five players, most could be former Browns by next season.
Joel Bitonio is locked up under a long-term contract and long snapper Charley Hughlett will likely remain, but Christian Kirksey has missed a lot of time for an expensive player, Joe Schobert could sign elsewhere if the analytics group decides that his value isn't what their numbers say that it is and I would have thought that Rashard Higgins would have been on his way out after being buried by Freddie Kitchens, but it is possible that Higgins may stay, especially if Andrew Berry is the choice as general manager that I think he will be as Berry was part of the team that drafted Higgins.
The article talks to each of the five about 1-31, the disappointment of the 2019 campaign, and what and where their future could go.

The Athletic is again with a Browns draft pick, but it's the story of a Browns player that never played a game in Cleveland.
Ifo Ekpre-Olomu was the top-ranked cornerback for the 2015 NFL Draft, but a devastating knee injury in a practice for Oregon's Rose Bowl saw Ekpre-Olomu fall to the bottom of the seventh round to be drafted by Cleveland.
Ekpre-Olomu would spend the 2015 season rehabilitating the knee but was released before the 2016 season by the incoming regime (this one was the Sashi Brown version).
The Dolphins claimed him off waivers, but another knee injury in Miami ended his career without playing in even an exhibition game.
The article also discusses his background from Nigeria and what he's up to today as he is about to start a job with Nike as an athletic trainer.

We wrap with a football goodbye as George Perles passed away at the age of 85.
Perles was an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers for all four Super Bowl championships that the "Steel Curtain" won in the 70s, serving as the defensive line coach for all four teams and the defensive coordinator for the final two champions in 1978 and 79.
Perles would later become the head coach at Michigan State for twelve seasons and his 1987 team that won the Rose Bowl is the final Michigan State team to win an outright regular-season Big Ten title before the conference championship game era.
Perles left the Steelers to become the head coach of the Philadelphia Stars of the USFL in 1983, but before training camp opened for the Stars, Michigan State fired their head coach, Muddy Waters, and with Michigan State as the alma mater of Perles, Perles asked to be relieved of his obligation to the Stars, who reluctantly allowed Perles to leave and hired the then-unknown head coach Jim Mora.

I tell ya' Herbie

Time for another edition of I tell ya' Herbie where I sift through a few grains of sand through the hourglass that is college football.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          What the hell got into Iowa's Kirk Ferentz last weekend in Ann Arbor?
The 10-3 loss to the Wolverines was befuddling mainly because of Ferentz and his Hawkeyes' refusal to do what they do best- run the football and take advantage of what the other team gives them- an inability to stop the run.
Iowa threw 40 times and only ran 28 and yes, Michigan did better than expected in stopping the run.
However, Iowa threw away the biggest advantage that they had- using their big strong offensive line to wear down Michigan and repeat what Wisconsin did so successfully.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                           I'm not sure what to think of Miami, who fell far back against Virginia Tech, who we noted last week had was coming off a 35 point loss to Duke, rallied from 21 points down midway through the fourth quarter to tie with three minutes to go before allowing the Hokies to march down the field for the winning score.
It seems like Miami has tried about every style of coaching background that you can think of and seemingly none has been able to do the job returning the once-powerful Hurricanes to prominence.
The problem could be this- the work that was accomplished by Howard Schellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson, and Butch Davis at a private school with barely more male undergrad students than Duke, might be the best run of its type for a school in its size ever and that's what might make returning to that level daunting, if not almost impossible.
After all, when similar-sized Duke even makes a bowl, it's treated as a big deal, yet Miami supporters believe anything short of national title contention is a wasted year.
I understand with their type of tradition from that tremendous two-decade run (I'm adding the first few years of the Larry Coker years with Butch Davis recruits) that they expect more, but it may not be feasible, particularly when you consider that several schools in Florida that now play division one football that did not during the Miami heyday.
It's possible that Miami may have seen its best days and will be elite only to an aging fanbase that remembers when.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          Is there a bigger avatar for a miserable fan base than in this article about Kansas football?
It's a picture of a student sitting all by herself knitting in the stands and not seeming to remotely care (turns out she truly didn't, read the article) about the game at all.
Les Miles has maybe the toughest job in college football right now between little talent, weak facilities in the Big 12, and no tradition to excite an apathetic fan base that looks at Kansas football as barely a diversion before basketball season.
The Jayhawks likely won't win another game this season, but the fan base certainly looks fired up by the looks of this fan!

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          The feel-good story of the season so far might be the SMU Mustangs, who at 5-0 are one of two undefeated teams remaining in the American conference.
Sonny Dykes has patched together several transfers to add to a better than expected holdover group from former coach Chad Morris and the Mustangs are ranked for the first time since 1986.
SMU's comeback from down 21 in the 4th quarter with touchdowns on the final three possessions of regulation to force overtime against Tulsa, where SMU would win in three overtimes.
Assuming SMU can win their next two games, which aren't gimmes (Temple at home and at Houston) and Memphis can do the same (they have three games before SMU).
The Mustangs and Tigers could hook up in a battle of undefeated teams for the game of the year in the American West.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          The game of the year in the American East may have already been played as last week's Cincinnati-Central Florida game will more than likely decide the East champion after the Bearcats 27-24 win.
The Knights had won 19 conference games in a row before the defeat and Cincinnati's door to the title looks open with lesser teams ahead until the final two games of the season against Temple and Memphis.
Cincinnati was thought to be a contender for the Group of Five bid before the season, but a crushing 42-0 loss to Ohio State looks far better now than right after the game and defeating the defending champion Knights puts them in the drivers seat for the division title and maybe that G-5 bid isn't out of the question after all.

I tell ya' Herbie,
                          I generally don't have a favorite team in the SEC, it's the conference (along with the Pac 12) that I generally move around through the years depending on who's coaching a team and don't have staying power.
I've rooted for Georgia, Tennessee, and LSU in the conference at various times and now back to LSU with the Tigers starting Ohio State transfer Joe Burrow at quarterback.
I'm a Joe Burrow fan, not because he is a former Buckeye, but because of how he became a former Buckeye.
Burrow competed with Dwayne Haskins for the starting job in the spring of 2018 and when he came out on the losing end by a narrow margin, Burrow decided to transfer to a place when he could play.
That's completely understandable, but Burrow left with his head held high and filled the air with compliments towards Ohio State, which is quite a contrast to how so many players leave schools in this day and age.
The 5th ranked Tigers host number seven Florida this Saturday night and it is a Gator team that is coming off a win over Auburn, who entered that game also in the top ten, so this is a huge game at the conference level as well as nationally.

Finishing Up Strong- with our top five in the Power Five and the Group of Five.
This is a combination of how you are playing and who have you beaten, so keep that in mind before screaming at me about being a homer.

Power Five        Group of Five
1: LSU                1: Boise State
2: Ohio State      2: Cincinnati
3: Alabama         3: SMU
4: Georgia           4: Memphis
5: Clemson          5: Appalachian State