Cleaning out the Inbox: Football Rivalry Edition

     The end of the college football season usually brings rivalry games and The Athletic took a week-long look at some of the rivalry stories that make the game so great.

We begin with the Slab of Bacon, a trophy fought for between Wisconsin and Minnesota from 1930 and 1942 but disappeared in 1943 before being found in a Wisconsin storage closet in 1994.

The odd thing about the disappearance was that when the slab was found, the scores on the trophy had been filled in up to the 1970 season.

To this day, no one knows how the trophy disappeared in 1943, who filled in the scores in 1970, or how the trophy wound up in the storage closet in the Wisconsin Sports Information Department.

This article covers the Iowa Hawkeyes' various football rivalries (and the Hawkeyes certainly seem to lead the nation in legitimate rivalries) with one Iowa memory or note for each school in their wheelhouse.

For my money, the Floyd of Rosedale trophy between Iowa and Minnesota is the best in the game with the Paul Bunyan's Axe between Wisconsin and Minnesota a close second.

One rivalry that is especially fierce but doesn't always come up as one of the more bitter battles is between Arizona and Arizona State, which will be taking its rivalry to its fourth conference next year when both schools join the Big 12.

The battle for the Territorial Cup started in 1899 between the Wildcats and Sun Devils but had been missing from 1970 until being found in a church vault in 1983.

The Cup still didn't become the official trophy until 2001 and even today, the actual cup is delivered quietly to the winning trophy a few days after the game.

A same-size replica is awarded to the winning team for the post-game celebrations.

You don't really think of Houston and Central Florida as rivals but the deeper that you dig into the common history of the space program, Houston and Orlando (the home of UCF) have been rivals for a long time.

This ESPN article goes over the facts and history of NASA and how it could eventually be part of a rivalry between the two Big 12 schools.

After reading this article, the potential for a rivalry seems strong as it seems that the space folks have some legitimate disdain for the other from each side.

And it wouldn't be a TRS post on trophies without mentioning the Civil Conflict trophy, the much-derided rivalry idea of former UConn head coach Bob Diaco for the Huskies and Central Florida, which the Knights had literally no interest in fighting over.

The trophy that UCF abandoned on the field after a 2016 win in the rain, has rarely been seen again but there is what some claim to be the trophy but it has some differences in font and wood, which has been attributed to the rain damage needing to be repaired from the 2016 "Conflict".

The article tells the story of how the trophy was acquired and kept by UCF, the school that wanted nothing to do with the trophy and rivalry in the first place!  

I Tell Ya' Herbie

    Back for more thoughts on the world of college football with the latest post with I Tell Ya' Herbie.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:  

                             Ole Miss's upset of LSU was interesting for a few reasons.

One is the sudden loss of defense in Baton Rouge, another is how once every year or so Lane Kiffin pulls one of these upsets, and yet another is why Ole Miss doesn't use those light blue jerseys and helmets more often but there is another going back before my time.

Why didn't Ole Miss become the power that Alabama did?

Both southern state schools were without pro sports, with tradition up to the early sixties, and both were hampered at that time by refusing to recruit African Americans.

Ole Miss had a top coach in Johnny Vaught, was Bear Bryant that superior in building a program?

Vaught's record against Bryant was 6-7-1, far from being dominated, which makes me wonder just how two programs made such a divergent change in fortunes?

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            One coach that I often see mentioned in coaching rumors although rarely at the top of the list is N.C.State's Dave Doeren and I'm trying to figure out why.

N.C.State is arguably the ACC school that has the most potential and just when they seem to be ready to make the big move they disappoint.

This wasn't expected to be one of those seasons but more had to be expected from the Wolfpack than a 3-2 start with a 13-10 home loss to Louisville and close wins over weak squads Connecticut and Virginia.

Perhaps Doeren's name could be better placed on a hot seat than one positioned to take another job as he has been one of many mentioned for Michigan State.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            Michigan State looks pretty weak and the Mel Tucker fiasco hasn't helped things any but with all of that understood, the Spartans gave a strong effort in Iowa City in a loss to the Hawkeyes that was not decided until late in the game.

I'm not sure if that was a result of a better-than-expected game from Sparty or yet another edition of Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz's ineptness in keeping a game closer than it should have been?

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            Is it time to consider Fresno State head coach Jeff Tedford for a bigger job should he have the interest?

Tedford may not have ended well at California but the Golden Bears' years under Tedford were the best times for that program in decades.

Tedford then finished 10-4 and 12-2 at Fresno State before a 4-8 season that saw Tedford leave at the end of the season for health reasons before returning last season with a 10-4 record and a 5-0 start for the Bulldogs.

Tedford is 61 years old and that could play into consideration for some programs and maybe even for Tedford himself but I am surprised that I don't hear more about him in the coaching silly season.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            If there is a game that you need to look up highlights from last Saturday, it has to be Baylor's come-from-behind win over Central Florida!

Central Florida led 35-7 in the third quarter only to have the Bears rally for a 36-35 lead late in the game.

Then perhaps the play of the year- fourth and long, UCF quarterback Timmy McClain scrambled from his own thirty-yard line under the Baylor rush to eventually reach his end zone and yet still made the first down to the Knights forty-six-yard line!

UCF would miss a fifty-nine-yard field goal at the gun that would have won the game but what a play from Timmy McClain!

                            

                            

                            

Cleaning out the inbox:College Football

Cleaning out the inbox returns with another college football edition.

First, I have a series coming on college football that I think you'll enjoy.
If you listened to FightHeads on Monday, you know what it will be about and if not, you'll have to wait!

Also, I'm planning a podcast over the weekend on college football with all of these crazy movements and in one case that seems very close to happening- ridiculous hirings...


I'm firmly a Big 10 fan and the SEC isn't always my brand of fish, but I watch the Paul Finebaum Show all the time and learn a lot about the southern conference because of the show.
As much as I am a Big 10 fan, the Big 10 network hasn't managed to produce a program anywhere nearly as interesting as the Finebaum show or I'd be watching it!
Much of that is likely because of the length of time Finebaum has had to refine the show through the years on radio, but give all of his supporting cast credit-it's a smooth-running machine and is an entertaining few hours (unless you are Rachel, who doesn't find it such as all) each day.
John Crist of Saturday's Down South does a tremendous job for that site (I read his work almost every day) and Crist writes of his day spent behind the scenes with the Finebaum show with Finebaum, part-time co-host Laura Rutledge and producers John Hayes and Mark Kubiak here.
It's a great look at Finebaum, the show, and Rutledge, who you might remember from our recent Confessions as our pick for the next breakout star on ESPN.
Give John Crist a Twitter follow, even if you like college football and not the SEC, and try the Finebaum show on ESPN2, which is a one-hour preamble to the main course on the SEC Network.

Bill Landis of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has a great idea for the Ohio State-Michigan game and it would hopefully mean the end of these alternate uniforms in the game for the Buckeyes.
Have each team wear their home uniforms like both teams do in the UCLA-USC game with their red and blue.
The two teams apparently did this until the mid-'50s and haven't done it since,
It's a great idea to add to the rivalry by adding a throwback aspect to it-I'm all for it!

Michael Weinreb of the Athletic discusses undefeated Central Florida, their league-the AAC, and how the system is truly rigged against the Group of Five schools.
I've always thought the best system is an eight-team tournament-five conference champions, one from the group of five and two at-large selections.
I also wouldn't be against the group of five setting up an eight-team bracket from their schools as a "group of five" championship.
I think that might be even more fun to watch than the actual current championship!

Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes of the Ashland Eagles of my old hometown and their budding Division II powerhouse in the D-II football tournament.
Of course in the classic sense, right after getting some publicity, coach Lee Owens team was eliminated in the quarter-finals.
Owens has been at Ashland for 14 years after being fired by Akron and even though I have read nothing about Owens being a contender or even mentioned for their opening, I wonder if Kent State would be interested in Owens and if offered the job would he take it??
Chris Vannini of The Athletic discusses the pros and cons of the Kent State job here.

I'm just beyond words at the seemingly about to happen hiring of Herm Edwards at Arizona State.
Edwards hasn't coached for ten years (2008, but it'll be ten years when ASU next plays a game) and hasn't coached college football since 1989 and never has been a head coach there.
Considering all of that, Edwards age (63) and that Edwards has never been considered a great X and O guy-college football hasn't seen a disaster like this since Lovie Smith with his current struggles at Illinois and there are tons of parallels- Older NFL coach that hasn't coached in college in years, looking to cash in with one more big retirement check and schools that are often thought of as "sleeping giants" as in schools that should be so much better than they are and are desperate enough to move up the chain to make a hire such as this.
Unreal...

Cleaning out the inbox-

Photo Credit: Hartford Courant

Chipping away further on the inbox cleaning, we move to this past weekend's game for the Civil Conflict Trophy between undefeated Central Florida and Connecticut, which UCF won 49-24.

As most of you that read here know that I absolutely love silly stuff like the Civil Conflict Trophy, which was created by now-former Connecticut coach Bob Diaco in an interesting, but unsuccessful attempt to make someone care about two conference teams that are over a thousand miles apart that are forced to play each other every year (for now anyway) as part of the shifting tectonic plates are known as conference alliances in college football.
Central Florida had no interest in Diaco's idea and after they defeated the Huskies last year, left the trophy on the sideline (in the picture, it is the small object around the 40-yard line) and abandoned it.
Now the question is- where is the trophy?
UCF left it, UConn claims to have searched all over and can't find it, Diaco was fired and when contacted, acted like he was recalling kidney stones and no one has stepped forward with ideas on its current location.
ESPN writes about the situation here and the Hartford Courant has a version here.
Diaco did have a point in trying to create something with the American conference being so spread out and needing some ideas to help fan interest, but this was doomed from day one all things considered.
Here's the classic explanation at the press conference following the UCF win by Diaco on the "rivalry"


Eleven Warriors is my go-to site for Ohio State news and while they didn't break any news this cleaning, they did write this piece on the former home of Buckeye basketball - St.John Arena.
The now-61-year-old arena still hosts the Buckeye volleyball teams, gymnastics teams, and the wrestling team, but hasn't hosted the team since the Schottenstein Center opened in 1998.
Arena's like St.John are so much more "home court friendly" than the latest wave of new arena's and Ohio State (much like Maryland) may have gained in dollars and facilities with the move up, but lost so much in competitive advantage.

This is a few weeks old, but the Milwaukee Bucks used a replica of their 1970's court at the Mecca for a game vs Boston.
I wish more teams would do things like this, but two notes on this- first off, every time I read an article on the Mecca and it mentions the designer Robert Indiana, I cannot help but think of the horrible "The Office" character "Robert California", who almost singlehandedly ruined the show's eighth season.
The other?
The noted expert on everything Kyrie Irving, who insisted that the Bucks were using the original court because "in three steps I could tell the difference in my knees".
I would expect nothing less from a person that believes that the Earth is flat and that men have never walked on the moon.

Most of you know my love for Group of Five (football)/Mid-Major (basketball) sports and you are currently seeing with Houston (AAC) and Boise State (Mountain West) and before joining the Big East Xavier in hoops, but I didn't if I've mentioned being a fan of Wichita State Basketball before I wrote earlier this year about Wichita joining the AAC.
I was asked recently while talking about this with someone (I cannot remember online or in-person) that asked about choosing between Wichita State and Houston.
My answer was easy, Wichita State doesn't play football and I really dislike Houston's scandal-plagued coach (at multiple schools) Kelvin Sampson, so problem solved!
ESPN writes about the Shockers starting the season ranked in the top ten and their move to the AAC from the Missouri Valley.

ESPN finishes this inbox with what I thought was a really interesting article on how college teams take care of their live mascots.
The article covers six different schools, how they take care of the mascot and routines that are dealt with on gameday appearances.
I thought it was interesting and answered some questions that I've had through the years on just this topic.

Cleaning out the inbox

Time for a long overdue inbox cleaning and we start with an ESPN oral article on the career of Bill Belichick.
I found the part on Belichick's tenure in Cleveland with the Browns most interesting.
When you read books and articles on Belichick,there is always a part where people rave about what was being built in Cleveland,what was done in New England was going to happen in Cleveland etc.
I'm not sure how much I believe of that,those Browns were an older team,not built with youth,the drafts were nothing to rave about and it could have been that Belichick learned what not to do in Cleveland and applied it with the Patriots.

ESPN returns with another interesting article on the 1976 Oklahoma-Texas which came with spying accusations,old fashioned hatred,Gerald Ford and a 6-6 tie.
If you wonder why some rivalries are just so heated,it's stuff like this that builds that heat...

After months of schools selling themselves like political candidates and renovating facilities with big bucks,the Big 12 decided not to expand and delivered a seltzer water shot to all the schools that participated in the this roundup without a winner.
The two biggest losers were also the two biggest spenders as Houston and Cincinnati spent tons of money with nothing to show for it.
Cincinnati will have a tough time keeping things rolling with a planned renovation of Nippert Stadium and Houston,despite spending massively on sports infrastructure will now be hard pressed to keep head football coach Tom Herman when the biggest wallets in the game call on Houston to call on Herman to run their program.
The Big 12 is on borrowed time....

Two of our podcast guests each have some new work available.
Christian Guidice's book on Wilfredo Gomez has been released and I'm getting ready to read it as soon as I finish the book that I am reading right now.
Anya Alvarez penned a piece for SB Nation that looks at the skill and the competitors on the Long Drive championship circuit.
The long drivers are simply the players that crush the golf ball off the tee and what it takes to win this championship.
What I found most interesting was Anya's note that many of these players have problems breaking 90 on the course,showing that even in an individual sport like golf,there are specialists in the game...

The Civil ConFLICT trophy takes two bitter rivals in Connecticut and Central Florida places a trophy that can be awarded to the winner of the game.
I write that tongue in cheek as this is another game between two schools stuck in a mid-major conference that they don't really want to be in that has little on the line are playing a game that lacks a lot of passion,
Connecticut coach Bob Diaco started the trophy and tried to create a rival in UCF and instead saw his issues laughed at by the Knights.
Laughed at to the point of UCF tweeting "We have no involvement with the trophy or a rivalry with UConn",but that was was nothing with what was to come after the Knights grabbed a 24-16 victory in Hartford.
The Knights ignored any attempt to take the trophy and left the field-with the trophy NOT in tow!
I love trophy games as much as the next guy and I would have no troubles with a trophy being introduced to a series between teams with some sort of rivalry,but this smacks of all of those Joe Paterno attempts to fit in the Big Ten,when he signed up for various trophy games with half of the conference-Contrived and Manufactured.
Diaco seems like a high energy guy that was looking to add a little interest to just another game,but this is usually a bad idea when both sides agree,but it becomes hilarious when only one side cares..




We wrap up with Hardball Times and their discussion of the return to baseball to Kinston NC and how towns that lose baseball manage to keep things afloat in hopes of getting baseball to return to their town.
It is quite interesting in the lengths of that towns have to take to keep those hopes alive and it also looks back at Albuquerque,New Mexico and Pulaski Va and their time without the game with the results of their return to minor league baseball.
It also discussed the decision to not return the name "Kinston" to the new team in the Carolina League in favor of "Down East",which seems to me to be one of the dumber names in the game...