Shawn's Favorite Five: College Football

     Shawn's Favorite Five will be a series that looks at my five favorite coaches from a sport that isn't my choices for the five greatest or best coaches; it's a list of my five favorites.

College Football is the focus of this version of our series. 

1: Barry Switzer, Oklahoma

Switzer is one of three coaches to win a national championship and a Super Bowl (Jimmy Johnson and Pete Carroll are the others) and is responsible for making Oklahoma the top program of the seventies.

Switzer's Sooners may not have invented the Wishbone offense (Texas did in the late sixties). Still, they perfected it, winning three national titles and numerous Big Eight championships with an unstoppable offense unless forced to pass.

Switzer always played the part of the lovable rogue, and his Sooners may have been the first team that was a "love or hate" team on a national level.

I had no problems loving them.

2: Woody Hayes, Miami, Ohio, and Ohio State

Hayes was brought to Ohio State over former Buckeye coach ( and two-time Hall of Fame inductee) Paul Brown, and then became the most controversial coach of his tenure.

Woody's comments and behaviors were always controversial, and his offenses gave the term "three yards and a cloud of dust" a synonym for dull. Still, his manner of dealing with the rivalry with Michigan is largely what has made it the biggest in college football, if not all sports.

During Hayes's tenure, Ohio State may not have been a love them or hate them team, but Woody Hayes certainly was as a coach.

3: Jim Tressel, Youngstown State and Ohio State

Tressel combined the love of keeping recruiting based around the state of Ohio with a surprising gambling streak for someone who appeared so straight-laced.

Tressel loved basic football, and I'm not sure if he would have been as effective in the current game, but he represented Ohio State well.

Plus, it was Tressel who reestablished Ohio State's domination of Michigan after John Cooper ran the series into the dirt for Buckeye fans!

4: Chris Petersen, Boise State and Washington

Known for bringing Boise State to national prominence, Peterson's trick plays and innovative offense made the Broncos a fun team to watch.

Petersen also rebuilt the Washington program, taking them to the BCS and laying the foundation for the team (under Kalen DeBoer) that would make the national title game in 2023.

5: Bill Snyder, Kansas State

Snyder took one of the country's worst programs and turned it around-TWICE!

Snyder took "Futility U" almost to the verge of a national title. After retiring, K-State fell back to the bottom under Ron Prince before Snyder returned for another decade to rebuild the program back AGAIN!

Barry Switzer once said of Snyder  and the job that he did at Kansas State, "He's not the coach of the year or the decade, he's the coach of the century!"

Cleaning out the inbox

As I still attempt to clean things up after being so far behind, it's time to clean out most of the inbox!

We start with The Athletic and a lengthy oral history article on the 50th anniversary of the St.Bonaventure Bonnies and their run to the 1970 Final Four.
St. Bonaventure lost only one game in the 1969-70 season and won the East Regional, but lost their star center Bob Lanier in the regional final against Villanova to a torn knee ligament.
The injury to Lanier cost viewers a Lanier vs Artis Gilmore showdown at the Final Four as Gilmore's Jacksonville Dolphins would defeat the Bonnies on their way to a title game loss to UCLA.
Lanier would be the first selection of the 1970 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons and would eventually be inducted into the basketball hall of fame.
The article covers all four seasons of Lanier's time with St.Bonaventure and is very extensive in talking to all the key players of the time.

The Athletic returns with an article written by former major leaguer Lars Anderson on his attempt to use Adderall as a PED when he was playing in Japan.
Adderall is a drug used by baseball players legally only with a valid medical prescription and should you use it without one, a player would be eligible to be suspended.
Anderson, who writes an occasional article for The Athletic, writes about the MLB testing policies, the pros and cons of Adderall, and why it can help players, but not in a physical sense.
It's an interesting article from the players' point of view, which isn't often heard from other than when players deny the use of various outlawed drugs or in talks between baseball and the union.

Many times when writers from larger cities or even national media write about minor league baseball, they miss so many of the details because they already have decided the angle of their feature or they simply don't bother to dig into the facts and as a result miss so much of the actual picture.
I cannot say that about Washington radio station WTOP's website in their article about the campaign of MLB against minor league baseball.
The writer visited both Hagerstown and Frederick, talked to members of the front office of both the Suns and Keys, discussed the issues with fans, organizers of efforts to keep the two teams, and politicians that want to help teams stop the MLB barrage to eliminate 42 teams.
It's very well written and researched and is the type of article on the topic that you don't read very often.

The Athletic is back again with an article on Chris Petersen, who recently resigned from Washington after their Las Vegas Bowl win over Petersen's former school in Boise State.
The Stewart Mandel penned article talks about Petersen's rebuilding work with Washington, his role in building Boise State into its role as one of the group of five powerhouses, his work outside the game, and the grind of being a major college coach in the game today.
Petersen has been overlooked a bit as one of the better coaches in college football over the last decade and as I read more about Peterson the person, I'm not sure that we'll see him on the sidelines again.

The Detroit Free Press writes of the plight of former NHL star Joe Murphy, who lives on the streets of Kenora, Ontario, Canada after an NHL career that ended with what some believe will eventually be diagnosed as CTE.
CTE cannot be diagnosed until after death, so it is suspected and not confirmed in the case of Murphy, but the personality change, drug use, and a lack of life structure certainly point in that direction, especially when you discover that Murphy suffered from concussions many times during his NHL career.
Even if CTE isn't the eventual reason for Murphy's problems, there does seem to be some sort of mental illness issue with Murphy, who like so many in the homeless community, sees "angels and ghosts" and talks to people that aren't there.
Author Jeff Seidel traveled to Kenora and followed Murphy around to see what an average day is like and got a feeling for Murphy's routine or lack thereof.
Murphy was the first overall selection in the 1986 NHL draft by the Red Wings and played for seven teams, scoring 233 goals with his best seasons spent with the Blackhawks.

That cleans out the regular articles from the inbox, although sadly there are plenty of passings still to note.

Boise State nips Washington

I watched the Boise State-Washington game with mixed emotions.
I've became a Boise fan over the years of their little uprising vs the national powers and became a big Chris Petersen fan because of it.
As a result of Petersen,I started to pull for the Washington Huskies as soon as he went there, as you could have seen last season as I added Washington to the PPM,so I wasn't sure how I would handle watching Petersen's return to the blue turf with his Huskies in tow as the underdog,despite their Power Five conference status.

It wasn't tough in the end,as I rooted for Boise State in a less than thrilling 16-13 win.
Yes,there was a heartstopper at the end when Washington's Cameron Van Winkle's 46 yard field goal attempt just missed with seconds to go that could have forced overtime,but it was otherwise was not the best game that I ever watched.

It had to be emotional for both teams and I doubt that you will ever see another game between Petersen and Boise State,
This wasn't a crazy crowd fueled with anger,it was more of a respectful crowd that was thankful to Chris Petersen for his part in building Bronco football,yet realized that time marches on and his time had passed.

Each team dominated a half and as a result,you had a close game that went to the end,but the Broncos do have some things that they need to address..
Most notably of these is special teams,which allowed a punt return for a touchdown,a punt block that gave Washington another three points and had an extra point blocked,that would have taken the long field goal try out of play with a conversion.
Take special teams out of play and this game looks very different as the Boise State defense allowed just six points and both of those off bad field position.
I liked what I saw out of Jeremy McNichols as the running back replacement for Jay Ajayi with 89 yards and two scores,but I wondered about some of the play calling,which was pretty conservative.
Perhaps this was a result as the familiarity with Chris Peterson and this happens sometimes when staffs that know each other well,so it will be interesting to see how that plays out over the next few weeks.

The Boise State defense is going to be very tough to beat in the Mountain West,if they play anything like they did against Washington in allowing just 29 yards rushing.
I'm already looking forward to seeing the Broncos against the option of Air Force,who gave Boise State their only conference loss last season.

I'm not going to have regular coverage of Boise State or anything,but perhaps on occasion,I'll type out a post especially on non-Saturday games.
PC is still rolling for now,so if I can keep on line,I have another post planned for tonight....