Jim Mora out,Pete Carroll in?

I thought today would finally be the day that I could look at the Browns win over Jacksonville,but instead the Seattle Seahawks released Jim Mora as head coach and the hot rumor is that the new boss of the Hawks will be USC coach Pete Carroll.

Mora led Seattle to a disappointing 5-11 record that saw the Seahawks stagger down the stretch with a four game losing skid that saw only the final game against Tennessee as remotely competitive.
I am not sure on how to feel about this firing.
On one hand,one year is not a ton of time (see Eric Mangini) to determine,but on the other,Seattle seems to be a team that needs a complete overhaul after trying to do patchwork fix its and do I really want Jim Mora as the guy that will determine if the Seahawks are on a two year aberration of disappointing football or begin a multiple year long run of being a bad football team.
I think not and whoever gets the GM should have the right to hire his coach,unlike the Browns dropping the ball last year with the coach being hired first.

The Seahawks are also looking for a new general manager and the Eagles Tom Heckert canceled his scheduled Seattle interview after interviewing in Cleveland with the Browns.
Could that mean Heckert will be the new GM in Cleveland?

The next two hires might be the most important in Seattle for years as the Seahawks need a new quarterback as Matt Hasselbeck is shot in my opinion,running back could use upgrading and a few years of hoping Walter Jones could play more has left the Seahawks vulnerable at the most important position on the offensive line.
The draft with Seattle holding their first rounder and Denver's will go a long way towards determining the future of the franchise.

I cannot say that Pete Carroll does a lot for me after two NFL failures and I have no idea why Carroll would want to leave USC,but I discussed it with Ryan and he brought up a point that I had not considered-Could Carroll be looking for a way out before USC gets nailed for some of the various things that the NCAA is investigating?
Makes sense for Carroll to strike while the iron is hot,although whether it is a good move for the Hawks is very debatable.

All and all,a quick hook for Jim Mora,but likely the best thing for the team when you consider the entire picture and while I kinda hope that it isn't Pete Carroll as the new head man,one cannot think that even that would be a totally destructive hire.

Photo Credit-Unknown

Eric Mangini returns

In a move that few thought imaginable five weeks ago,Mike Holmgren has decided to retain Eric Mangini and (reportedly) his assistants for the 2010 season.

This is a surprise to some (me to a certain degree) as many thought that Holmgren and Mangini's football belief system would not be compatible and Mangini would not be able to handle his reduced organizational influence,but Eric Mangini has survived for the 2010 term.

I must admit that Mangini's late season rally had tempered my opinion a bit,although I would not have had too much to say had he been released,however this is a no lose situation for the Browns.
If Mangini indeed has won the players over with his program ,weeding out the malcontents and do-littles and began the process of turning the corner than Holmgren looks smart for retaining him.
BUT ( and this is a big one) if the late season win streak turns out to be a mirage,then Holmgren almost gains a year in goodwill from the fans as Mangini (if the losing begins anew) will be even more unpopular and letting him go will bring tons of positives from the supporters.
That then allows Holmgren then to have free reign to redesign the franchise in any way he sees fit without having a public backlash (as minor as it would be right now) for axing Mangini.

This also brings a possible reason that I haven't mentioned before for the retention of Mangini to the table.
Could it be possible that the person that Mike Holmgren really would like to bring to Cleveland isn't available yet?
Maybe Jon Gruden wants another year with the family to recharge the batteries or perhaps John Fox of the Panthers (2010 is his last contract year) is the guy and by waiting a year,Fox could be brought in for nothing instead having to compensate Carolina,either of those could make sense.
Or could there be a chance that Mangini is a stalking horse for Mike Holmgren to hire....Mike Holmgren?

No matter how you slice it,Eric Mangini will not be making very many personnel decisions from here on out and that looks very good for the future of the Cleveland Browns.
I am hoping that the Browns hire the Eagles Tom Heckert as the new GM,but I was hoping that was who they would hire last season and instead selected George Kokinis.
Heckert's personnel background is solid and the Eagles generally draft well along with being a free agency player as well.
However,Heckert didn't want to work with Mangini last year and may not want to again,although he could have assurances from Holmgren that the working relationship would be different than the one that the Browns would have offered last season.

The one thing that I wish that Holmgren had insisted on was the removal of Brian Daboll as offensive coordinator.
Daboll seems overmatched in the job and might need more seasoning before trying again as a coordinator down the road.
I would not be against Daboll staying on staff as a position coach,but a new coordinator needs to brought on board,especially if Holmgren wants to tweak the offense more to his liking.

On the whole,I can see both sides and cannot say this is a pro or con,but this would have been so much easier without the four game winning streak to make a decision.
At least,it was not Marty Mornhinweg!
And no,the picture was not Eric Mangini and his people sitting around the draft room in 2009!
Let the talk begin-Eric Berry to Cleveland!!!

Photo Credit-New York Times

Reviewing the Tape-Rose Bowl

A later than expected tape review of the Rose Bowl features today's post of the Ohio State 26-17 win over the Pac 10 champion Oregon Ducks.
Ohio State football is on hiatus until the 2010 season begins on September 4th against Marshall at the Big Horseshoe.

Buckeye Branches

1) Terrelle Pryor was a deserving MVP,but give some credit to Jim Tressel for loosing up the offense a bit and giving his prize player a chance to open up a bit.
Tressel's play calling was a welcome change from the usual "Tressel Ball" and was a major factor in the victory.

2) Pryor looked as good as he has all season and his determined running on a few key third downs were a key as well.
Pryor still needs plenty of work on his passing,but with continued progression,he could be a Heisman contender next season.

3) Underrated stat of the day-time of possession.
41:37 to just 18;23 in favor of Ohio State and it wasn't a deceiving stat either.
Sometimes it just means that you are giving up quick scores or touchdowns off turnovers.
Not on this day as Ohio State was able to keep the ball and use their offense as part of the defense.

4) Nice games for recievers DeVier Posey and Dane Sanzenbacher as they combined for 17 of Pryor's 23 completions and Posey caught one of Pryor's two touchdown passes.

5) What great catch by tight end Jake Ballard in the fourth quarter drive that put the game away!
Ballard leaped into the air and hauled in a high Pryor toss on third and 13 to keep the drive alive.
I have always thought Ballard was underused in the OSU offense and I wouldn't be surprised to see him as a NFL starter down the road.

6) I thought the biggest play of the game though was LeGarrette Blount's fumble out of the end zone in the third quarter when it appeared that Oregon was beginning to take command of the game.
Instead,the fumble gave the Buckeyes the ball and pretty much ended Oregon's day as far threatening.

7) Of all the deciding factors in the win,one that most might have missed was the play of linebacker Ross Homan.
Homan was the player keying on Duck quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and made Masoli hand the ball off more than Oregon likely would have preferred and eliminating the options that make their offense so dangerous.
Homan has announced that he will be back in Columbus next season.

8) Ohio State lost one of their star underclassman defensive linemen,but it wasn't the best one in my opinion.
Thaddeus Gibson announced his intent to apply for the NFL draft,but Cameron Heyward is staying in what could only be described as great news.
It appears that Gibson will be the only Buckeye underclassman to go pro as of now.

9) Wideout Lamar Thomas,who was the main kick returner in the Rose Bowl has announced plans to transfer to a school that he hopes will play him at running back and wide receiver.
Good luck in that.

10) Seldom used safety Rocco Pentello is moving on as well.
Pentello will be transferring to Ashland,where he will have two years and immediate eligibility.
Pentello will return to his high school position of quarterback and duel with former Ashland Arrow Taylor Housewright for the starting passing job with the Eagles....

11) The Big Ten should hear less from the critics this off season after a 4-3 bowl record that saw the conferences top four finishers (OSU,Iowa,Penn State and Wisconsin) all nab wins with others coming close with near misses.
Northwestern took heavily favored Auburn to overtime,Minnesota lost by a point to Iowa State and Michigan State acquitted itself much better than expected against high powered Texas Tech.

Photo Credit-Marvin Fong -Cleveland Plain Dealer

Devils dim Stars 4-0

After a week that saw the New Jersey Devils split a pair of road games (losing in Chicago,defeating Minnesota) the Devils returned to action with a 4-0 whipping of the visiting Dallas Stars.
Martin Brodeur had 28 saves in the shutout win,while the Devils received goals from Patrik Elias (9 & 10),Zach Parise (18) and Travis Zajac ( 10 power play).
The Devils return to action Friday against Tampa at the Rock before traveling to Montreal on Saturday.

Hell Raisers

1) Patrik Elias was the player of the night with two goals,but Elias showed unusual fire when he dropped the Stars Steve Ott (A Sean Avery playalike) with a crosscheck that earned Elias two minutes in the box.
Jacques Lemaire wasn't thrilled with the penalty,but since the Devils killed the two minutes,it was a good thing in my opinion.
Elias standing up for himself and earning respect can do nothing but help.

2) Elias also made the penalty look better by charging from the box and joining a rush that instantly became a 3 on 2,ending in an Elias goal.
Good hustle and that two minute segment was the backbreaker of the evening for Dallas.

3) Martin Brodeur's shutout was his third in his last seven games and he was sharp all evening.
Brodeur robbed Mike Ribiero and Loui Eriksson each on shots that normally have an excellent chance of going in.

4) The goal for Travis Zajac snapped a 12 game run without a goal for the Devils first line center.
While that is entirely too long,it does show just how well the Devils have been playing to continue to win without Zajac and Zach Parise scoring many goals.

5) Bryce Salvador and Pierre Luc LeBlond each returned to the ice after layoffs.
While Salvador's was just two games,LeBlond hadn't been in action since November.
LeBlond hit a few Stars and tried to get Steve Ott to throw hands,but Ott wisely demurred.

6) David Clarkson will miss another two to three weeks after aggravating his right leg injury.
Here is hoping Clarkson gets all in order this time and this nagging injury goes away.

7) I missed the road swing due to late starts and work,but wanted to give a late tip to Jamie Langenbrunner,who scored the only goal in the Chicago loss and added his first ever hat trick in defeating the Wild.
Add that to two assists last night and the Captain is having quite a run.

Photo Credits-Rich Schultz-AP Photo

Pigskin Ponderings

A chance to catch up on some different football topics all at once today.

Best bowl game that I saw?
Has to be the Humanitarian Bowl between Bowling Green and Idaho.
I didn't see the Outback bowl between Northwestern and Auburn,which looked like a good one and the Alamo between Texas Tech and Michigan State was a close but not quite winner,so the Humanitarian it is.
Both teams had comebacks from 14 points during the course of the game,big plays and each team scoring in the last minute of the game were just a few of the highlights.
Idaho then marches down the field with just 28 seconds to go to score what looked to be the tying TD,but Idaho coach Robb Akey goes for two and gets it for the 43-42 Idaho win.
Great game between two schools that likely would not have gotten chances to play in the past.

Games like the Humanitarian are the reason that I like the smaller bowl games that others seem to delight pissing on.
So many complain about the insignificance of small bowls,but they are a big deal to the kids on the field and fans of programs that have no shot at larger bowls,let alone the BCS.
You don't like them,don't watch.

Freddie Barnes of Bowling Green was the games star with 17 catches for 219 yards and three touchdowns.
Barnes isn't as fast as NFL scouts might like,but with hands such as he possesses,he will find a roster spot somewhere,even if he isn't drafted as high as he would like.

Idaho coach Robb Akey was quite a character in his talks with Heather Cox.
Between the voice that sounded like the linebacker in the Waterboy and his playing to the camera telling fans that they were going to see some wild stuff in the second half,Akey looked like a fellow having fun with his first bowl appearance.

Last year going into the draft,the Seahawks and Browns were back to back at the 4 and 5 slots.
Little changes this season as again they are back to back in the 6 and 7 positions.
Seattle needs a quarterback badly and I am rooting for the Browns to get Tennessee safety Eric Berry,who I see as the Browns finally being able to answer Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed with a hitter and playmaker at safety.

No word yet on the future of Eric Mangini in Cleveland,but I would lean more towards a dismissal today.
I just don't think a Holmgren/Mangini combo is going to work and Mangini's hopes for a future top spot might be better served by walking away classily from a conflict of football philosophy and a four game win streak than keeping the job,stumbling to a bad start and being released in mid-season.

One thing that does scare me about a Mangini firing is one of the top two names mentioned as a replacement.
Marty Mornhinweg (Eagles offensive coordinator) is a known Holmgren favorite and could be one of the top choices.
This scares me as Mornhinweg was the first coach hired by noted franchise destroyer Matt Millen in Detroit and won just five of 32 games there.
Mornhinweg also is notorious for his decision to kickoff after winning an overtime coin flip.
I am not a Eric Mangini fan and I don't think he is compatible with Mike Holmgren,but given the choice between Mangini and Mornhinweg-I'll take Mangini.

Time to answer a few questions from the handful of readers here on football.

First is-why did the Seahawk coverage disappear?

Well,time became short with the increased time away at work,something had to give and sadly that was Seattle coverage.
We will have a Seattle year in review later this month and of course the draft preview.
Hopefully,this will be a temporary hiccup.

Next,How many college teams do I really like?

Well,there are a few that I root for unless they play my top teams,but overall,I would say four or five.
Ohio State rules the roost with Texas Tech and Bowling Green rounding out the top three.
I used to like Maryland and Tennessee more than I do now,but I have lost interest in ACC Football (excepting Wake Forest,who runs some option football and I like Jim Grobe,the coach there) and the hiring of Lane Kiffin at Tennessee hurt my interest in the Vols.

What conferences do I watch the most other than the Big Ten?

Big Ten football is the conference that I watch the most of,but I also watch the occasional MAC game when I can and I love the Mountain West conference as well.
The Big 12 South division games are usually high on the list as I was a big fan of the late Southwest Conference and the divisional games there brings back such good memories.

Finally,Not counting the Browns and Seahawks,what NFL teams can you root for?

This is easy,but convoluted.
Lets break down the tiers like this with the Browns and Seahawks at the top.

2) Teams that I usually hope to see win unless they play the top two
Saints,Packers,Chiefs,Titans (until Jeff Fisher leaves) and Jets (until Rex Ryan leaves)

3) Teams that I can root for,but are kinda blah for me
Colts,Cardinals,Falcons,Texans,Bills,Raiders,Lions,Rams

4) Teams that I don't hate,but rank under tier three
Chargers,Vikings,Bengals,Panthers,Jaguars,Buccaneers,Bears

5) Teams I dislike
Eagles,49ers,Broncos,Giants,

6) Teams I hate
Cowboys,Dolphins,Redskins,Patriots,,Steelers.

7) Worst of the worst
Ravens

Back later with a look at either the Rose Bowl or the Browns-Jaguars unless news on the status of Eric Mangini comes in.

Photo Credits
Barnes:BGSUFalcons.com
Berry:Harry How-Getty Images

Mike Leach

I begin the long process of using the next three days to catch back up from being down sick.
I hated being away with all of the things around that I wanted to write about, but I had to use my energy to be able to go to work, as much as I would have rather been writing...

I have been unsure of what to think of this Mike Leach firing at Texas Tech.
I have seen and heard so much information that seems to contradict both sides that one could see their head spinning, but I do know this-Texas Tech has proven one thing-they truly are not committed to being a Big 12 power.

Oh, I believe that Tech wants to win and make bowl games as that makes the school money, but the price of dealing with a Mike Leach isn't worth the difference in going to a larger bowl when they can save and go to the smaller bowl games.
After all, the Raider fan is loyal and they will travel to whatever game that Tech plays in, no matter how minor.

I am a CNA but make no claims on how to properly deal with concussions from a medical standpoint, and other than suffering two, I would not say that I know anything more than how it affected me.

I do know that I was tired, wanted a quiet, dark place, and felt generally out of sorts, so there it seems that Leach could have been on the right track.

But he still was either making an amateur diagnosis or punishing Adam James and in either case, seems to have been making a mistake.
Now whether the error was a mistake or a deliberate punishment seems to be the biggest question.

I suppose it depends on whom you believe Mike Leach or Craig James, but I also feel that James used his position at ESPN to tip the scales of public opinion in favor of his son.
Please also excuse me for scoffing as a man that was paid (one of many to be fair) during his college career to the point of his school being the only school ever to receive the "death penalty" being put up as a bastion of credibility.
Put ESPN's behavior in the matter aside for another column because they showed all the journalistic credentials of the National Midnight Star in this entire affair.

The truth likely is in there somewhere in the middle.
Did Mike Leach get tired of a lazy, soft player that had a father bugging him all the time? 

Yep.

Would Mike Leach have minded a bit if Adam James left his program? 

Likely not.

Is it possible that Leach was trying to hassle James more than he would another player to get him to move on?
Possibly.

Did he take things to an extreme beyond what is reasonable to expect?
Maybe, but the facts are ambiguous and we will likely never know the complete and entire truth.

In case, fans of Red Raider football as I have been for over 30 years now are realizing that the days of Texas Tech as a legitimate Big 12 contender are likely finished.
Considering the location of Tech and the issues that the Red Raiders have to face in recruiting the state against both in and out-of-state powerhouses, Texas Tech appears to be on the long-term slide, although it may take a year or two to see those results.

As far as the new coach goes, I usually am against the hiring of an assistant that has never been a head coach for a BCS job like Texas Tech, but after seeing defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill in the Alamo Bowl win over Michigan State, I would have fewer concerns than usual with a McNeill hiring.

Not because of anything that he did in the game, because he took gambles that he would have likely never taken in a game that wasn't an audition, but because he seemed like a genuinely nice and caring human being in his pre and post-game interviews with Heather Cox (Points to ESPN for using our favorite sideline reporter more during bowl week this year).

McNeill looks to me to be the type of coach that cares about his players as people and I came away impressed with him on my first time seeing him speak.

Does that mean that I think he will be successful? The odds are against him, but I would not be against giving him his shot.


For more insight on the whole Raider situation, click here to visit Double T Nation for all the information that you could want on the new coach at TT.

Photo Credits
Leach:Sam Greenwood-Getty Images
McNeill:RedRaiders.com

Slow Start

Hasn't been a Happy New Year as I battle off a flu virus,but things are getting better and I hope to be back either Monday or Tuesday to catch up with all the news that I have missed.
From the Ohio State Rose Bowl win to the final Browns game along with the Mike Leach firing,the best bowl game I have seen all season and Devils hockey,we will have it all.
In addition,I hope to have more on the late Steve "Dr.Death" Williams as well...
Thanks for the patience.

Photo Credit-National Poison Control Center