Cleaning out the inbox

It has been a while since I have cleaned out the inbox as between football, boxing, and hockey when possible this is the busiest time of the year.

Hence, the inbox is bulging with notes to be notated and with the Browns playing on that dreaded Thursday night, I decided to work on this today.
This edition is VERY the Athletic heavy with the first five articles, so if you aren't a subscriber I apologize and if you aren't and you want to be-let me know as I can send you a link and add TRS twenty-five dollars in Amazon cash!

The lovely picture above of Bill Belichick in those oh so nineties NFL Properties clothing items, reminded me of the Athletic article that looked back on Belichick's Cleveland tenure and how it ended.
It was written by a Boston based reporter and such has a mild-Belichick slant, but it still is a good article as the reporter talked to several people, including players that played in Cleveland during that period.
The fallacy is that Belichick in Cleveland was going to be an eventual success and I'm not sure that would be the case.
The Browns had one winning season in his five seasons there, made one playoff appearance with one win and Belichick's draft record really wasn't all that great.
Eric Turner was a hard hitter that saw his career and life ended far too soon and Steve Everitt was a solid center, but not a perennial Pro Bowler and they were the best first-round picks by Belichick.
Tommy Vardell, Antonio Langham, Derrick Alexander, and Craig Powell were the other first-rounders and disappointed as they ranged from busts to average players that didn't live up to what you expect from your first-round picks.
One other great note from the article discusses the release of Bernie Kosar and notes the immobility of Kosar with his pass accuracy, resembling the skills of the QB that Belichick kept in New England (Tom Brady), while in Cleveland, Belichick kept the physically talented, yet disappointing Vinny Testaverde, while with the Patriots Belichick moved the similar Drew Bledsoe to Buffalo.
Perhaps the case might be made that without the failures in Cleveland, the successes of the New England Patriots may not have been possible?

The Athletic writes of the football program's growth and the surrounding area at Appalachian State with its effects on the town of Boone, North Carolina.
The article is essentially a history of the Mountaineers football program with discussions with the various coaches at Appalachian State that traces back to and includes Mack Brown in the 1980s.
I found one segment interesting with the topography of Boone and how that has to figure in with every expansion and improvement for their athlete facilities as well as their rivalry with Georgia Southern, who has been the only team to defeat Fred Landucci's favorite team in the last two seasons.

This one from the Athletic writes the story of how Gonzaga has built itself a perennial power that is more than the dominant team in a mid-major conference, it is one of the top programs in the country.
The Gonzaga story is an amazing one of how a program can be sustained without football income and without power five (and Big East basketball) attention and cash.
Mark Few's achievements of completing and exceeding what Dan Monson started in Spokane is arguably the long term (I.E. not counting a one season miracle ) underdog story of the last 50 years in college basketball.

Our final piece from the Athletic is an oral history of Jake Plummer's years at Arizona State.
The Plummer years ended seconds away from a possible national title in Tempe, had Ohio State not pulled out the Rose Bowl in 1997 over the Sun Devils.
The term that his teammates used that seemed like described Plummer best was "Calmly Intense" and some of these stories bear this out.
I've always liked the form of oral histories because it tends to allow the subjects to speak for themselves, rather than be filtered through the lens of the writer.

ESPN ends our run of The Athletic links with a look at the newest Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach in Lindsay Gottlieb, who the team hired from her head coaching position at California.
As someone that doesn't follow women's college basketball closely, I didn't know very much about Gottlieb's background but reading this article I found her mix of old school basketball with the new wave from the analytical side very intriguing.
I also found it interesting that she was a seldom-used player at Brown in her college playing days and worked her way through the maze to move to the NBA.
After reading this article and with the massive amount of respect that I have for John Beilein and his knowledge of the game, I'll state this- I wouldn't be against placing a small wager that when John Beilein retires, Lindsay Gottlieb will be the next coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

We wrap with this note from Fred Landucci, who sends this article from Baseball America's Joe Sheehan.
Sheehan's column is entitled "How to lose a baseball fan in four months" and discusses teams drop in attendance and uses it as a parallel between teams that have attempted to compete and those that have moved their stars along and have slammed that proverbial window of attempting to compete for playoff positions shut.
It's interesting to see how that is working out for the various clubs and how the teams that decided to cash in their stars saw an attendance decrease.

I Tell Ya' Herbie

Another day and another edition of
I tell ya' Herbie where I give my takes on various news in college football.


I tell ya' Herbie:
                          The game of the week is down in Memphis, home of Elvis Presley, Keith Lee and Jerry "the King" Lawler- none of which are football players, although two did attend the then-Memphis State, now University of Memphis.
The AAC West lead is the prize as 8-0 SMU travels to 7-1 Memphis with the winner taking a step forward to winning the division.
SMU has been the surprise story of the season behind former Texas quarterback Shane Buechele, while Memphis keeps rolling along with their offense and head coach Mike Norvell, who seems destined for a Power Five job whenever he finds the right fit.
SMU still has to play one-loss Navy, while Memphis has the 6-1 and undefeated in the AAC Cincinnati Bearcats waiting in their final game, so the winner hasn't locked up a championship berth yet.
What could be the most important part of all about this game?
With a lighter schedule as far as impact games this Saturday, SMU-Memphis will be the Saturday night game on ABC and give the AAC a rare chance to show their product on a national stage.
Considering that both teams score plenty of points and have been in exciting games all season, this game is the game that I am most excited about this weekend.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          I'm writing this early Friday morning from the road office and watched the Georgia Southern upset of undefeated Appalachian State 24-21 as the Eagles held off a late rally from the Mountaineers in beautiful Boone, North Carolina.
The loss not only kicks Appalachian out of the hunt for the Group of Five spot in the New Year's Day bowl games but also dropped them into a tie in the loss column for the division lead in the Sun Belt East division with Georgia State and Georgia Southern.
The defeat snapped the thirteen game winning streak for Appalachian State dating back to 2017 where they lost to... Georgia Southern.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          Let's give some credit for a coaching hire that I wasn't crazy about, but has turned out well thus far in Les Miles at Kansas.
Now, to be fair, it wasn't that I dislike Miles as a coach, it was that at Miles' age (Soon to be 66) Kansas was such a disaster that he would be better suited to spend his borrowed time elsewhere.
Miles has won three games in Lawrence, beat Texas Tech last Saturday on a wacky play at the end of the game and lost at the gun to Texas on the previous Saturday. which wouldn't be a big deal at most places, but in Kansas it's noteworthy.
I'm not sure that the Jayhawks can win three of their final four to qualify for a bowl, but this is still better than things have been in years.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          I know it's a cute story with the Minnesota Golden Gophers at 8-0, but looking closer at the schedule shows that record is tissue paper soft with no one near the top 25, two close wins in non-conference over Fresno State and Georgia Southern and drawing what might be the best five teams to play in conference for a fast start with three teams with losing records (Purdue, Maryland, and Rutgers), disappointing Nebraska at 4-4 and catching 4-4 Illinois before they seemed to turn their season around.
P.J. Fleck's campaigning to bring ESPN GameDay to campus before next Saturday's game against fellow undefeated Penn State could backfire if the Gophers get rolled as I think they will.
The Gophers hold a two-game lead over Wisconsin and Iowa, but I don't think that they can hold it with games against Penn State and the two teams trying to catch them in their final four games.
Still, if Minnesota does manage to pull off their first divisional title, I think they'll be toast against any of the still eligible teams from the eastern division- Ohio State, Penn State or Michigan.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          There might not be a worse conference at the bottom of their league than Conference USA, which has three teams with a combined two wins with Old Dominion, UTEP, and Rice.
Sadly, Old Dominion doesn't play UTEP or Rice, but in the final week of the season UTEP, which has one win (a two-point win over Houston Baptist) will battle winless Rice in the type of game that makes you think of last week's awful game of the week (Hmm, perhaps an addition to the PPM out tomorrow?) between Connecticut and Massachusetts that was part of "Herbie" last week.
Connecticut defeated Massachusetts 56-35 in just the sort of game that I imagined it to be!
Please, football gods, televise UTEP-Rice somewhere and not against a team that I need to watch!

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          One thing about Group of Five football that gives it a minor league look is the lack of attendance.
I understand why this happens when you have a bad team and are getting killed every week with facilities that are often less than great.
I wonder why some of these teams that don't have long traditions (MAC and Mountain West, which has almost all the heritage of the old WAC) even try and could be better suited to drop to a 1-AA football level.
Conference USA and the Sun Belt would be better off combining the best of each league for football only, allow the weaker sisters to play in their own league for football only in 1-AA, and then return to their normal leagues for the other sports.
This would result in a stronger league for the Group of Five and give schools that don't invest as much money into their football programs (at the G-5 level) a chance to compete for a national title in 1-AA.
I'll expand on this in another "Herbie" down the road, but here is an example of the struggles for some teams.

Want to attend a Conference USA game between 1-7 Old Dominion and 4-4 Florida International in Miami-Dade County?
According to this ad on ESPN as I looked up the records for C-USA, you could attend this game for three dollars.
Tough to make money like that.

I tell ya, Herbie

Time for another installment of  "I tell ya' Herbie", where I offer various thoughts on teams and issues in college football.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                           Maryland football looked like it had finally begun to work its way back from beyond just a few weeks ago when it blasted nationally ranked Syracuse 63-20.
With hindsight, we now know how awful the ACC is and that victory at home was deceiving in its quality, but at the time it looked huge for new coach Mike Locksley and his Terrapins.
Fast forward a month and the Terrapins lost to non-power five school Temple before an off week and resulting home game against "rival" Penn State in what Maryland fans were referring to as the biggest game since entering the Big Ten.
Even though Maryland (and Rutgers for that matter) look at Penn State as their rival ( like Penn State does Ohio State), both schools are dismissed by the Nittany Lions as such ( in the same manner that Ohio State scoffs at a Penn State rivalry), so to Maryland it was a huge game, while to Penn State it was just another conference game.
Penn State led 38-0 at the half, the Maryland student section had cleared out so completely that by the end of the 59-0 loss, Penn State's traveling fans had moved down and taken over the Maryland student section!
So much for that return to prominence.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                           Tennessee has been a staple of this column since I started it this season, but this time it makes sense as athletic director Phil Fulmer ruled out a return to the sidelines after the rumor mill had run rampant that Fulmer would take the reigns of the program should the Volunteers continue to struggle as they are expected to do under Jeremy Pruitt in SEC play.
Fulmer announced today that he will not take over and in the dreaded "Vote of confidence" said that he is fully behind Pruitt.
I'll believe that when I see it, but even if it isn't Fulmer as the replacement, Pruitt will have to finish strong as the 1-3 Vols will be underdogs in their next three games (Georgia, Mississippi State, and Alabama) before the schedule somewhat softens down the stretch (South Carolina, UAB and Vanderbilt at home with road trips to Kentucky and Missouri) in order to feel safe about returning for 2020.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          Our weekly hit on the ACC continues as Georgia Tech continues to embarrass the league, this time with a 24-2 loss to Temple.
The Yellow Jackets awful play does have an excuse for a year as Geoff Collins changes the offense from the spread option favored by former coach Paul Johnson while having most of his talent recruited to play in the old offense, but two points against Temple after a home loss to the Citadel isn't going to win Collins a lot of goodwill.
Meanwhile, Pitt had to rally for a three-point win over Delaware at home and the stunning deterioration of the Virginia Tech Hokies (a 35 point loss at home to Duke can do that) eats away at a league's credibility that needs a different reputation other than Clemson, a few has-beens, and a bunch basketball schools.
Only the surprising 5-0 start by Wake Forest, who climbed into the top 25 this week, has been any decent news for the league.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          I was asked about the early Heisman race and the fast start by Alabama transfer Jalen Hurts at Oklahoma that has placed Hurts at the forefront after the first month.
I don't generally have favorites this early, but the Hurts scenario is interesting to follow.
Assuming that Hurts can continue his current level of play, here is what I find interesting- Will Heisman voters be more likely to give him their votes because he has a great story with leaving Alabama and then competing for the Heisman against the player that took his job?
Or will the same voters have a backlash against Oklahoma quarterbacks after giving the award to OU passers in the previous seasons (Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray) and begin to consider the system in question as very player friendly?
I don't have an answer or opinion yet, but it's interesting to consider.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          I mentioned Appalachian State's win over North Carolina last week and I thought about the Mountaineers as the week moved on.
What are the chances that Appalachian State, should they run the table and go undefeated, grabs the group of five bid to the "New Years Day" grouping of games?
Well, the Sun Belt is the least regarded of the group of five leagues, although I wouldn't argue that they are, but they certainly will have their problems leaping a one-loss UCF (that loss being a one-point loss at Pitt) and maybe even a one-loss Boise State, should the Broncos slip up (they are currently undefeated) in what looks to be a very strong year for the Mountain West, but keep this in mind- Should Appalachian State go undefeated, they would have to defeat South Carolina in Columbia, but should they do that, they would have not only two wins over Power Five opposition, both would have been on the road.
That would be a nice resume' and would make a decision very interesting.
                       

I tell ya' Herbie

Things I think, our weekly column on college football has been proven to be popular thus far (OK, one person has mentioned it) and I'm enjoying it, so it stays for at least as long as I remember to write it. that is!

Why the new name?
Well, Ryan and I often break into full Brent Musberger mode and usually use the phrase most often associated with Brent and his former boothmate Kirk Herbstreit- "I tell ya, Herbie", so being that college football should be in full Musberger I thought the phrase was a perfect fit.
Even if Musberger never actually said it that way (Keith Jackson never actually uttered Whoa, Nellie, you know) it sounds like Brent and what better way to salute one of the announcers that make college football great as well as my son, with whom I've shared so much in sports.

I tell ya, Herbie:
                           Jim Harbaugh's gimmick has once again worn out its welcome at a coaching stop and even though it's not a firm conclusion, Michigan and its fans are at least thinking about life after Jimbo following the Wolverines dismal effort in a 35-14 loss to Wisconsin that was not as close as the final score indicates.
It's more than Harbaugh though, as his Alabama import for offensive coordinator Josh Gattis has had his bumpy spots this season and the once renowned defensive coordinator Don Brown has never recovered after Ohio State slapped 62 points on his defense last November.
Entering this season, most figured that this was Michigan's year to beat Ohio State with OSU using a new head coach, a freshman quarterback and getting the Buckeyes in Ann Arbor with the notion that if they couldn't do it under those conditions, when would they?
Suddenly, that looks less likely a month into the season than when it started and Harbaugh could need that game to keep his job, should this season continue to spiral downward.

I tell ya, Herbie,
                          I'm not sure where Michigan goes, should they decide to part ways with Mr. Harbaugh.
The last three hires have been an "Offensive Guru" (Rich Rodriguez), "Old School Michigan Man"  (Brady Hoke) and now the "Michigan Man Savior" in Harbaugh and even though Michigan hasn't become Minnesota under any of these coaches, none of them have brought the program to what it once was.
Put Harbaugh's hefty salary (7.5 million a year, second only to Nick Saban) aside and the cost of buying him out of his contract at the end of this season would be a heavy fifteen million more off the grid and ask-Just where do they go?
A big name coach might be leery after watching Harbaugh and a smaller level coach might cost the school donations, so I'm not sure what would make the fan base happy unless they try what they did in basketball (hiring Juwan Howard without head coaching experience) and throw the hail mary with a former big-name star off television like Charles Woodson and pray for the best.
I don't like saying this, but keeping Harbaugh around might be their only hope.
Who has it better than them, indeed?

I tell ya, Herbie,
                           The transfer portal with its accompanying new rules isn't working either and needs to be tuned up or rehauled completely.
I'm not against players being allowed to play four games without it counting against a players eligibility and a resulting redshirt, but we have moved from a system that was totally controlled by the schools (forcing players to sit out a year and controlling what schools the player could transfer to) to one totally controlled by the players.
Let's take the case of D'Eriq King, the quarterback for Houston, who recently announced his intention to redshirt as a senior after the Cougars stumbled to a 1-3 start under new coach Dana Holgorsen.
King stated that he will return to the Cougars for next season, but there is nothing to hold him to that decision and should we continue to travel down the road of players cashing in seasons because the team is not playing well?
If Houston signs off on this and King does return, I suppose it wouldn't be totally bad, but still, I wonder how fair it is to the seniors that aren't the marquee players that have to trudge through a bad final season without that option?
When you add the issues of players in the transfer portal that get approved for transfer to avoid sitting a season that doesn't seem to be always viable reasons for immediate eligibility, you have a system broken differently than the previous one.
Ohio State profited from this as much as anyone in enabling Justin Fields to eligible for this season, but that still doesn't make it the right thing.
The NCAA really needs to do some corrections for next season or for 2021 at worst.

I tell ya, Herbie
                          Bowling Green for years has been one of the better teams in the MAC along with Northern Illinois and rival Toledo, but at the group of five level, if you make one poor decision in coaching as Billy Beane said in "Moneyball" you hit the floor with a thud and not a bounce.
After two successful seasons under Dino Babers throwing the football using his version of the Air Raid, the Falcons hired Mike Jinks, who was an assistant at Texas Tech but had never been either head coach or coordinator at the college level.
MAC schools often have to hire first-time head coaches, but the coaches are usually from the midwest where MAC schools have to thrive in recruiting, so relationships and connections with high school coaches, etc are perhaps more important than in any conference in the country.
Jinks lacked all of those with his entire coaching career being spent in Texas and it's going to be a tough sell for Texas high schoolers to play for any Ohio school that isn't named Ohio State.
Jinks was fired midway through last season with a record of 7-24 and the Falcons with new coach Scott Loeffler are still paying for the hiring and mistakes of the Jinks era.
BG whipped I-AA Morgan State in their opener, but since was shutout at Kansas State 52-0, came home to face Louisiana Tech for a 35-7 homecoming loss and a humiliating 62-20 loss to Kent State, who entered the game with one win- an overtime win at home over Kennesaw State.
And who waits next for Loeffler's Falcons- Notre Dame in South Bend on national television.
Bowling Green will cash the check and pray Irish coach Brian Kelly is merciful as after all if you give up 62 to Kent State what will you allow to Notre Dame?
It will take time for Loeffler to turn things around and if he can't, it could be quite a while before the Falcons return to MAC prominence- A thud, not with a bounce.

I tell ya, Herbie,
                          And then there's Arkansas.
A once-proud program that looked to have a good hire before 2018 with Chad Morris.
Well, the Morris era isn't looking too hefty right now as his Hogs lost to another Mountain West team in San Jose State at home.
Arkansas fell behind 24-7 before rallying to tie the game and then allowing the Spartans to march down the field for the winning score with less than two minutes to play.
Arkansas was a 21 point favorite and one final kicker?
Arkansas paid San Jose State 1.5 million to come to Fayetteville and beat them.
Arkansas always says they have nothing to gain in playing Arkansas State, they could have played them and kept that 1.5 million in-state.

I tell ya, Herbie,
                           I ripped the ACC last week for being weak and Pittsburgh did give the ACC a big win with their late one-point victory over Central Florida but ranked Virginia struggled with Old Dominion, Boston College didn't dominate Big 10 doormat Rutgers and once-powerful Miami wobbled to a 17-12 win at home over Central Michigan.
At least those teams won though, as Mack Brown's Tar Heels lost to Appalachian State 34-31 in Chapel Hill.
Appalachian State is the perennial bully of the Sun Belt and looks to be a school that will likely be a possible chip that moves to a higher conference (still group of five) when the next shuffle of realignment occurs, but still, Appalachian State shouldn't be defeating North Carolina at home.



                         

Cleaning out the inbox-Sports Edition

Time for the sports version of Cleaning out the inbox and we'll start with Bruce Markusen of the baseball hall of fame website from the card corner there.

Bruce's column's often find their way here and his latest on the Seattle Pilots former manager Joe Schultz was a must.
The post covers Schultz's big league career as a backup backstop,his days of coaching before his one year pitstop with the much remembered 1969 Seattle Pilots of Ball Four fame and his coaching days after Seattle.
The two most interesting points that Markusen covers are Schultz's pro debut as a player at the age of 13 and Schultz's 1972 meeting with Ball Four author Jim Bouton.
Bouton refers to this meeting in one of his Ball Four addendum's,but this is the first time I've seen Schultz's reaction to the incident....

Underdog Dynasty posted a oral history of what they called the "biggest upset in college football history",the 2007 Appalachian State upset of (Snicker) michigan.
It's very interesting as they spoke to several members of the team,the play by play man for App.State as well as the sports information director.
Funny,no michigan 'men' available for comment...

Kudos for doing the right thing to UAB athletic director Mark Ingram for doing the right thing and opening up Legion Field in Birmingham for two different games this week for teams in the way of the incoming Hurricane Irma.
UAB is doing the right thing and credit to the school and Ingram for their gesture.
Ingram has experienced this type of thing first hand as his family in North Carolina has suffered through hurricanes in the past.
Sometimes college sports are not always about money...

Ben Hill (I met Ben this year at Altoona) writes about minor league baseball and his various travels to ballparks.
This article writes about one of the strangest mascots in the game-Mr Celery in Wilmington.
Mr.Celery's history is here and it's a funny story!



We've written before about our belief that Olivia Harlan is the next huge star in televised sports reporting,mainly because of her background with her dad being play by play veteran and one of our favorites in basketball in Kevin Harlan,which gives her experience and nuance that few if any of her age has.
Harlan is engaged to Los Angeles Clipper and more to importantly to Ryan,the world's biggest Wisconsin fan,former Badgers star Sam Dekker.
A recent interview by Harlan with Healthy Magazine talks about the grind of the road,eating right and an interesting note on how hard it is for players to eat healthy,despite food being provided for them.
I would think teams with all the money invested would put some more thought into this area of what's best for their players..

The Bristol Pirates are going through a miserable season in the Appalachian League (current record 17-49),but their 5-5 play of late boosted things a little.
The local paper in Bristol-the Herald-Courier writes of the last team in town that was this bad-the 1996 Bristol White Sox.
The late rally of the Pirates means that one win in their final four games avoids the worst mark in team history,but the article talks to players and coaches from that White Sox team and it's interesting to read the perspective of players that never got out of the lowest level of the game with their thoughts on all the losing as well..