Time to clean out the inbox with an all football version.
The nation's best player (apologies to Ohio State's Nick Bosa) gets a Sports Illustrated cover, albeit a regional one as Houston's Ed Oliver reigns supreme on the southwest cover.
Yes, I will be trying to procure one of these for the collection, so if you are reading and have one, let me know!
ESPN writes of the 50th anniversary of Emory Bellard's designing of the Wishbone offense at Texas in 1968.
Bellard came up with the idea and the Longhorns rolled over everyone in sight-Until Darrell Royal (Texas head coach) for some reason told Bellard to open his books and the keys to his offense to a struggling Chuck Fairbanks at rival Oklahoma.
It took a little while before the Sooners were able to run the bone on all cylinders, but once they did, it was the Sooners that became dominant with the offense for close to 20 years under Fairbanks and Barry Switzer.
Bellard would eventually leave Texas for the head coaching job at another UT rival, Texas A&M.
Eleven Warriors writes of the most memorable Ohio State football finishes over the last ten years.
I always like these types of pieces as it gives me a chance to look back at some exciting games and their endings.
SWC Roundup writes of the craziest conference title race ever in 1994 in the SWC.
A record five teams (Texas, Texas Tech, TCU, Rice, and Baylor) tied for the title with a record of 4-3 in the conference after NCAA banned Texas A&M was ruled ineligible for the championship.
It's a four-part series, links at the bottom of the page will send you to the other parts of the series.
I'm all for parity, but having watched many of those games, this took it to a huge extreme!
ESPN is back with an article on Mount Union and its new reputation as the "cradle of coaches".
Mount Union's staff has already produced two division one head coaches in Iowa State's Matt Campbell and Toledo's Jason Candle along with numerous coordinators and assistants.
It all traces back to the machine that retired Larry Kehres built and the article looks at the program along with just how it is producing so many excellent young coaches.
The Athletic finishes us off with a post about the American Athletic Conference and how despite adding themselves to the "Power Six", they still have plenty of streets to walk down before they truly are perceived that way.
The conference will have to find a new television contract and this looks at just what the league needs and possibles suitors along with expansion, as in the American adding to their stable or even the possibility of losing a star school or two as other conferences grow larger.
Still, plenty in the inbox as we will have an all baseball version and a non-sports edition coming up soon.
The inbox is just overflowing with items and it's funny how that works out sometimes.
Sometimes it takes me a few weeks to build an inbox and others a few days is enough to build up a sports and a non-sports version as it is currently.
We'll start today with the sports version and two articles on our favorite college football player that didn't play for Ohio State in years-Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver, who is as dominant a defensive lineman as I've seen in years.
I've written before about Oliver and the amazing things that he does on the field and you'll only hear his name more and more in the future.
Oliver is almost sure to be (barring injury) a top-five selection in the 2019 NFL Draft and I have to admit I'm already dreaming of a Browns defensive line with Myles Garrett on the outside and Ed Oliver up the middle.
Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports writes of the working background of Oliver and it seems like his family sure isn't going to allow fame and prosperity to go to the head of the Houston Cougar star.
ESPN writes of the legend of Ed Oliver and asks can Oliver win the Heisman?
I don't think he has a chance even though he'll be the best player in the game as the bias against defenders for the award and playing for a Group of Five team should take care of that-deserving or not.
Don't believe the hype (Think about how many times you have read me overhype someone and get back to me)?
Watch this video with some of the plays that I've raved about in the past...
ESPN is back with an article on Kinston, North Carolina and the large amount of NBA stars that Kinston has put into the league.
It seems like every few years, another Kinston product makes it big in the NBA and the article looks at the city of Kinston and all of the problems that the city has dealt and continues to deal with.
It's quite interesting and makes you realize what it takes to make the big time and the issues that players have to overcome, even in a small city the size of Kinston.
Eleven Warriors writes of an idea, which is unlikely to happen, but would be terrific if it did- in creating the Ohio Classic, an event that would include all thirteen of the Division I basketball teams in Ohio.
I'd love to see something like that as I've been a proponent of Ohio State playing Cincinnati and Xavier for years, but I can't see a tournament that large happening.
I'd be pleased with an annual four-team tournament with Ohio State, Cincinnati and Xavier joining a fourth team that would either rotate or have the team with the highest power ranking from the year before earn the fourth slot, but the Ohio Classic would be even better.
The Hardball Times writes of the 50th anniversary of the 1968 season in baseball, known as the "Year of the Pitcher".
The article is about baseball, but it discusses most the ineffectual commissioner of the time, General William Eckert and how baseball handled the in-season assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy,
It's interesting to see how it was handled then and wonder how it would be handled today in the 24/7 news cycle climate...
Hardball Times finishes the inbox with Bruce Markusen's look back at the late Oscar Gamble, who passed away in late January.
Gamble was best used as a platoon outfielder against righthanded pitchers in his best years with the Indians and Yankees, especially in Yankee Stadium where Gamble could take advantage of the short right field dimensions.
Gamble's career year though came in 1977 with the White Sox with 31 homers for a team filled with one-year contracts that surprisingly contended for the American West title and won 90 games.
However, what most fans of the time (especially younger ones like me) remember was the massive Afro from his days in Cleveland that appeared on Topps cards in 1974,75,76 before being forced to cut the Afro upon his arrival in New York.
The 1976 Topps Traded card is a longtime favorite of collectors of the age with the Afro shown with an airbrushed Yankee hat on the card.
Thanksgiving Friday often is thought of as "Black Friday", but I have always thought of it more as Rivalry Friday as there are usually rivalry football games or at minimum-important games.
I miss the days of some of those games from days gone by (I have a great idea on this for a post next week), but it is still a great day and the perfect setup for the next day with even more rivalries-especially The Game.
I've been working a lot of late, so I've been pretty tired, but I took a nap and got up at noon to see the newest team that I pull for as the Houston Cougars hosted the Navy Midshipmen.
I've been very effusive in my praise for Cougar defensive lineman Ed Oliver, who I think deserves the Lombardi and the Outland trophies for the top lineman in the nation.
Oliver is just a sophomore and is so dominant that I love watching Cougar games just to see him play.
Oliver was the dominant force in this one, a 24-14 win finishing with 14 tackles,3.5 of those for losses and two sacks and forced Navy to run away from him and run almost exclusively to the outside because they couldn't get the fullback to do anything against Oliver.
Oliver is so dominant that there is talk of a rule change involving blocking below the waist when a player is being blocked by multiple players because Oliver is being double and triple-teamed on every play!
Oliver injured his knee against Temple on one of these blocks and played through an injured ACL for a few games (This video is the week AFTER the MCL injury and Oliver is running downfield chasing down running backs!), so it has only been the last few games that he is back to full speed.
My favorite two Oliver plays are plays that I have to find a video of, but here's a description-
Against Texas Tech, late in the half, Houston put TEN guys back to defend against the deep pass and rushed only Oliver.
Oliver vs the Tech offensive line and yet it's Oliver who forced a hurry and just missed a sack-1 on 5!
The other came in the loss to Tulane (I think anyway) where Oliver is being blocked by multiple blockers, gets held and dragged to the ground, gets up and chases down the quarterback for the sack anyway!
If you like football and couldn't care less about Houston-watch their bowl game anyway, just for Ed Oliver.
I'm already making plans to see the Cougars when they visit Navy next year.
I always talk about when Ryan and I saw Randy Moss when he played for Marshall against Kent State live.
I want to say the same about seeing Ed Oliver live too.
It's been an interesting year to watch Houston. They finished 7-4 and will be in a bowl game, but it has been an odd 7-4 in the first year under Major Applewhite as the replacement for Tom Herman.
Big wins over South Florida on the road and this win over Navy at home are countered by inexplicable losses to bad teams on the road in Tulsa and Tulane.
And had they not collapsed against 25th ranked (as of today) Memphis in blowing a ten-point lead with less than seven minutes to go -it would be the Cougars traveling to Orlando next week for the AAC title game and an attempt to ruin the undefeated season of Central Florida.
I'm a newer Cougar fan because going back to their days in the SWC, my team there was always the Red Raiders of Texas Tech.
The Red Raiders have slotted into every other year's Thanksgiving game against the Texas Longhorns since Texas A&M left for the SEC.
The Longhorns insist on always being at home for their Thanksgiving day game since the Aggie's departure, so Texas Tech plays Thanksgiving at Texas in odd years with TCU getting the slot in even years.
Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury was thought to need a win to possibly save his job as the Red Raiders entered at 5-6 and needed a win to be bowl eligible.
I've never liked the Longhorns, although with Tom Herman taking the job as head coach there, my fondness for Herman has lightened the dislike for now.
I've been critical of the Big 12 for teams playing video game football with little defense, but there are some signs that there are a few steps in the right direction as TCU and Iowa State are playing decent defense and suddenly I'm seeing Tech play better on the defensive side of the football as it was the defense that stepped up made the plays (twice holding the Horns to field goals with drives that had first and goals inside the Tech five) to keep Tech in the game and then an interception by Justus Parker with just over two minutes to go that was returned 56 yards to the Texas 14.
That play allowed Nick Shimonek, the regular starter that didn't see the field until the 4th quarter to hit Cameron Batson for the game-winning score and a 27-23 Red Raider win.
After the game with Tech now 6-6 and bowl eligible, it was announced that Kingsbury would be returning for 2018.
I think that's a fair thing to do with the requirement to Kingsbury that 6-6 next season will not be enough to return for 2019.
Kingsbury's teams have never had problems scoring points, the problem has been a very porous defense even for the Big 12, which says a lot about the state of the Red Raider defense.
The tide may have turned in Lubbock with a defense that will return 10 starters and might be a sleeper team for 2018.
The question is which do I root for in September when the Cougars travel to West Texas for a rematch with the Red Raiders after this season's 27-24 Tech win.
I'll be back later with a quick boxing challenge for tonight's HBO tripleheader and of course later, we'll have our recap of "The Game"...
Back to the still overflowing inbox that has more non-sports content than sports, so I'll get the sports items out of there now and try to continue soon with the rest!
Sorry to hear of the passing of former Denver Broncos and Denver Gold head coach Red Miller at the age of 89.
Miller, who brought the Broncos to their first Super Bowl in the 1977 season, coached the Broncos to the playoffs in the first three seasons that he coached and his final year saw him go 8-8 before being fired.
I never understood why Miller got fired even then (I've noted I was a Denver fan as a kid) for the sin of going .500 one season and I've never been able to figure out with a record of 40-22 that Miller was never given another chance in the league.
Miller coached the Denver Gold in the first season of the league but didn't make through the season.
The San Jose Mercury-News and Daniel Brown has a great article on the search for the suddenly absent Tim Lincecum.
The former Giant ace, who struggled through a comeback attempt in 2016 with the Angels hasn't been in the public spotlight since.
Brown's travels took him to Lincecum's high school, college (University of Washington) and travels while writing about the pitcher's career.
I really enjoyed reading this...
Another Giants pitching star of the same age that has seen his struggles over the last few season announced his retirement today as Matt Cain will make his final start in the game with his Saturday start against the Padres in San Francisco.
Cain, who turns 33 on Monday, has struggled over the last few seasons and was just 3-11 with a 5.66 ERA in 2016.
The former Hagerstown Sun walks away with a career record of 104-118 and as the only Giant to ever pitch a perfect game- vs the Astros in 2012.
I may do a longer piece on Cain next week...
The attention in college football might be mostly going towards Sam Darnold of USC, Josh Rosen of UCLA and Penn State's Saquon Barkley, but the best player in college football just might not even play for a Power Five conference as the American Athletic Conference's Houston Cougars possesses a defensive lineman that makes plays that you just don't see every day or even year in Ed Oliver.
I've seen Oliver triple-teamed at times and during the Cougars game vs Texas Tech last week, saw ten men off the line of scrimmage and only rushed Oliver, who still managed to pressure the Red Raider quarterback and that's a semi-official pressure, not just a somewhere near the passer.
ESPN writes about Oliver, how the Cougars landed him and his commitment to the city of Houston.
On and off the field, Ed Oliver is going to be a fortunate addition to some city and franchise in the NFL soon.
This is over now, but the Buffalo Bisons recently found a way to boost income without playing a game as the team designed a golf course on (yes on) the outfield at Coca-Cola Field with nine holes with "different" stipulations for each hole such as wearing a football helmet, drinking a beer and sinking a putt with a Happy Gilmore inspired putter....
I'll wrap up with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's article on the DuraEdge playing surface or specially blended dirt and its base in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania.
DuraEdge is used by 21 major league teams as their infield surface and founder Grant McKnight says it saves many games each year with its terrific drainage system.
The article looks at how it's made,blended and how it actually plays on the field....
