I Tell Ya' Herbie

 It's our weekly look at college football, which we like to call I Tell Ya' Herbie!

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            The biggest surprise in week one saw Florida State, coming off a 3-9 season, batter top-ten Alabama into submission.

Florida State not only defeated the Tide, but they also bullied them, as Bama hadn't been pushed around in years.

Alabama allowed 230 yards in rushing, and while I'm open to this being week one jitters, it's possible the Tide lost the punishing defense that was such a force during the Nick Saban era.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             Still, it's reasonable to see the week one results, which are often overexaggerated, and think back to Florida State's week zero loss last year to Georgia Tech.

It was a major shocker at the time, but when the season ended, Florida State finished 3-9 and Georgia Tech 7-5, so a game that looks huge at the time often is meaningless by the end of the season.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            It may not have national implications, but I'm happy to see Kansas and Missouri playing each other for the first time since 2011 and the Tigers' move to the SEC.

This is a huge rivalry and was so filled with animosity (mostly Kansas towards the departing Missouri) that the Jayhawks refused to play the Tigers in any sport for years.

The teams will play in Missouri this season and return to Kansas in 2026, but I am not aware of any further commitments.

At a time when regional rivalries are dying due to conference realignment, it's nice to see games like this played, even if only for a short time.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             Another one of my favorite rivalries appears to be a potentially important game come playoff selection time, as Iowa and Iowa State meet for the Cy-Hawk Trophy in Ames.

This is usually a fun rivalry, and with both teams having playoff hopes, a big non-conference win could go a long way come selection time.

Plus, with the added attention for Kirk Ferentz, who needs one win to become the winningest Big Ten coach in history, the Cy-Hawk is a game worth watching.       

Cleaning out the Inbox

   Cleaning out the inbox returns with several nuggets that hopefully will catch one's eye for a few minutes of interest!

Mike Oravec sends this ESPN article on Gary Davidson and the World Football League.

Davidson was also involved with the creation of the ABA and WHA but it was the WFL that Davidson was most involved in and served as the league's commissioner.

It's a long article with interesting portions on how and why the Memphis Southmen targeted Paul Warfield, Larry Csonka, and Jim Kiick to poach from the Miami Dolphins, the always hilarious financial stories, the only World Bowl and others...

The Athletic has been working on a series based on football programs that have struggled to reach the level of their previous success.

The Texas Tech article discusses the Red Raider's struggles since the departure of Mike Leach and the three coaches that have tried to win in Lubbock Post-Leach and how they (Tommy Tuberville, Kliff Kingsbury, and Matt Wells), how they managed to not win with Patrick Mahones, and the hopes that Joey McGuire can return to Texas Tech at least a perennial bowl team.

The article on Arkansas might have been even better as it wrote about the Razorback's steep decline from the day that Frank Broyles took the Hogs from the now-defunct Southwest Conference for the trip to the SEC.

One fact that I didn't know and always wondered about was a claim by the now-deceased Broyles that had Arkansas not headed to the SEC and waited for the eventual Big 8 to add four SWC teams (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Baylor) which would have seemed to be a better fit with long-time rivals than the SEC, Arkansas would not have been invited to join the new Big 12.

I didn't know that and it would have sent Arkansas to either an independent or group of five status in the AAC.

While the Razorbacks may have struggled on the field since joining the SEC, the financial coffers swelled by multiples over what they would have received had they decided to pass on the opportunity.

The article on Kansas shows just how easy it is for a program to go south with one or two wrong decisions.

It details how then-athletic director Lew Perkins was determined to fire head coach Mark Mangino, who has been the only coach in the last fifty years to get any kind of momentum going in Lawrence (Mangino actually finished 12-1 and won an Orange Bowl? I still can't believe that a decade and a half later) and hired Turner Gill over Jim Harbaugh, who actually interviewed for the job!

Kansas would later run through Gill, Charlie Weis, David Beaty, and Les Miles before their current hiring of Lance Leipold.

It's a great series and there are other schools written about as well.

The Athletic scores again as Brendan Quinn writes about what it is like for the regular everyday golfer to play at Augusta National during Masters week.

The Masters holds a media lottery each year before the tournament and allows the winner to play the course.

Quinn writes of his round, how the experience felt, and took questions from his readers.

Fred Landucci sends this from the New York Post as columnist Phil Mushnick writes of just badly the analytics crowd is damaging baseball.

I could write about the awful changes to the game that I once loved but Mushnick does a better job and hits all points as the Ivy League invaders that think that they are revolutionizing a game that they are actually slowly choking to death.

ESPN writes of the thirty-year anniversary of the basketball film "White Men Can't Jump", which I haven't seen in years but always enjoyed the many times that I have viewed the film.

The article tells the stories of the casting, filming, and the many bets that were placed during filming on the Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson led cast including the many bets placed on Harrelson's ability to actually dunk and how the bests were actually settled.

We wrap with this Washington Post article on Chiney Ogwumike, who not only plays for the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks but spent her off-season this year on ESPN's NBA studio show as an analyst and I was impressed with her performance and besides her future with the Sparks and judging by this article Ogwumike has an excellent head on her shoulders and certainly has a future outside of basketball when and if she chooses to travel that path. 

Cleaning out the Inbox

   Lots of links to clean and with what has been (so far) consistent Cavaliers and Devils coverage has left me with not as much time for inbox cleaning, passings, and posts like yesterday's on the situation with the Houston Texans.

Since the inbox security guard cannot be working forever, I suppose I should get to work!

The first four of these are all from The Athletic.

We start with Kelly Holcomb looking back on the Browns only previous playoff appearance of the "New" Browns in 2002, which saw the Browns rolling over the Steelers in Pittsburgh before tremendously dumb moves on both sides of the football that allowed the Steelers to rally for the victory.

Holcomb talks about the game, the 2002 season, and the competition with Tim Couch after the 2002 season and it's really interesting.

As for the dumb moves, I'll leave those for another post.

Mike Lombardi is someone that I've never thought highly of as a football executive.

If you have been reading TRS for a long time, you'll remember how loudly I protested the Browns hiring of him years ago, but he gets this right as he writes about the Dwayne Haskins situation in Washington.

The former Ohio State quarterback and 2019 Washington first-round pick was released by the Red and Yellow during the season and Lombardi's argument that while Haskins has more than a little blame for how his tenure turned out, the team that selected him must take a decent percentage of the blame as well.

Washington was the worst team to select a player that had really played one year of college and combined with the distractions of being his hometown as well, one couldn't design a better way to manufacture a bust.

Haskins has signed for Pittsburgh for next season and if there is any hope of salvaging his career Haskins needs to be on a team that has a veteran quarterback that is preferably a pocket passer and would be willing to help Haskins develop a bit.

All of that assumes that Haskins has learned from his errors in Washington.

The 1984 Olympic basketball team might be the most talented basketball ever aside from the "Dream Team" and it certainly was the most talented in the all-amateur era, but the stories about the players that didn't make it and why make those trials a fascinating story.

Between Bob Knight, the talent at the trials, and questions to this day of why Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, and John Stockton didn't make the team and the likes of Steve Alford, Leon Wood, and Jeff Turner did, it is an interesting read about the trials and the always mercurial Bob Knight.

The final link from The Athletic looks at one of the corniest hype videos that you will see from 2012 from students at Missouri- "We Are Mizzou"

I had never heard of this until this article, but as corny as the video is, the even better version is the parody "We are KU"!

Fred Landucci sends me this video with 10 facts about Have Gun Will Travel, which ranks near the top of my favorite shows period, let alone of its era/genre.

It literally lists ten interesting facts about the show, its star Richard Boone and the character Paladin.

Have Gun Will Travel was televised by CBS from 1957-1963.

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 edition of I tell ya' Herbie where I sift through a few grains of sand through the hourglass that is college football.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          What the hell got into Iowa's Kirk Ferentz last weekend in Ann Arbor?
The 10-3 loss to the Wolverines was befuddling mainly because of Ferentz and his Hawkeyes' refusal to do what they do best- run the football and take advantage of what the other team gives them- an inability to stop the run.
Iowa threw 40 times and only ran 28 and yes, Michigan did better than expected in stopping the run.
However, Iowa threw away the biggest advantage that they had- using their big strong offensive line to wear down Michigan and repeat what Wisconsin did so successfully.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                           I'm not sure what to think of Miami, who fell far back against Virginia Tech, who we noted last week had was coming off a 35 point loss to Duke, rallied from 21 points down midway through the fourth quarter to tie with three minutes to go before allowing the Hokies to march down the field for the winning score.
It seems like Miami has tried about every style of coaching background that you can think of and seemingly none has been able to do the job returning the once-powerful Hurricanes to prominence.
The problem could be this- the work that was accomplished by Howard Schellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson, and Butch Davis at a private school with barely more male undergrad students than Duke, might be the best run of its type for a school in its size ever and that's what might make returning to that level daunting, if not almost impossible.
After all, when similar-sized Duke even makes a bowl, it's treated as a big deal, yet Miami supporters believe anything short of national title contention is a wasted year.
I understand with their type of tradition from that tremendous two-decade run (I'm adding the first few years of the Larry Coker years with Butch Davis recruits) that they expect more, but it may not be feasible, particularly when you consider that several schools in Florida that now play division one football that did not during the Miami heyday.
It's possible that Miami may have seen its best days and will be elite only to an aging fanbase that remembers when.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          Is there a bigger avatar for a miserable fan base than in this article about Kansas football?
It's a picture of a student sitting all by herself knitting in the stands and not seeming to remotely care (turns out she truly didn't, read the article) about the game at all.
Les Miles has maybe the toughest job in college football right now between little talent, weak facilities in the Big 12, and no tradition to excite an apathetic fan base that looks at Kansas football as barely a diversion before basketball season.
The Jayhawks likely won't win another game this season, but the fan base certainly looks fired up by the looks of this fan!

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          The feel-good story of the season so far might be the SMU Mustangs, who at 5-0 are one of two undefeated teams remaining in the American conference.
Sonny Dykes has patched together several transfers to add to a better than expected holdover group from former coach Chad Morris and the Mustangs are ranked for the first time since 1986.
SMU's comeback from down 21 in the 4th quarter with touchdowns on the final three possessions of regulation to force overtime against Tulsa, where SMU would win in three overtimes.
Assuming SMU can win their next two games, which aren't gimmes (Temple at home and at Houston) and Memphis can do the same (they have three games before SMU).
The Mustangs and Tigers could hook up in a battle of undefeated teams for the game of the year in the American West.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          The game of the year in the American East may have already been played as last week's Cincinnati-Central Florida game will more than likely decide the East champion after the Bearcats 27-24 win.
The Knights had won 19 conference games in a row before the defeat and Cincinnati's door to the title looks open with lesser teams ahead until the final two games of the season against Temple and Memphis.
Cincinnati was thought to be a contender for the Group of Five bid before the season, but a crushing 42-0 loss to Ohio State looks far better now than right after the game and defeating the defending champion Knights puts them in the drivers seat for the division title and maybe that G-5 bid isn't out of the question after all.

I tell ya' Herbie,
                          I generally don't have a favorite team in the SEC, it's the conference (along with the Pac 12) that I generally move around through the years depending on who's coaching a team and don't have staying power.
I've rooted for Georgia, Tennessee, and LSU in the conference at various times and now back to LSU with the Tigers starting Ohio State transfer Joe Burrow at quarterback.
I'm a Joe Burrow fan, not because he is a former Buckeye, but because of how he became a former Buckeye.
Burrow competed with Dwayne Haskins for the starting job in the spring of 2018 and when he came out on the losing end by a narrow margin, Burrow decided to transfer to a place when he could play.
That's completely understandable, but Burrow left with his head held high and filled the air with compliments towards Ohio State, which is quite a contrast to how so many players leave schools in this day and age.
The 5th ranked Tigers host number seven Florida this Saturday night and it is a Gator team that is coming off a win over Auburn, who entered that game also in the top ten, so this is a huge game at the conference level as well as nationally.

Finishing Up Strong- with our top five in the Power Five and the Group of Five.
This is a combination of how you are playing and who have you beaten, so keep that in mind before screaming at me about being a homer.

Power Five        Group of Five
1: LSU                1: Boise State
2: Ohio State      2: Cincinnati
3: Alabama         3: SMU
4: Georgia           4: Memphis
5: Clemson          5: Appalachian State

15 College Football Games that should be happening 1-5

It's been longer than I intended, but I did want to finish the series of 15 college football games that should be happening that currently are not before time moved too far along and I forgot to finish the series!!!
6-10 are here and 11-15 here.

Anyway, here are my top five that need to be played every year...

1) Texas vs Texas A&M

The top game that needs to be played and still isn't on the schedule ruined the college Thanksgiving tradition between the Aggies and Longhorns over issues between the schools ranging from the Longhorn Network to Big 12 problems and eventually sent Texas A&M out of the Big 12 and into the SEC.
The bad blood is so thick between this two that the series that made so much money for the pair went by the wayside and doesn't seem to be returning anytime soon.
Neither seems very interested in renewing the rivalry, but neither's attempts to replace it on Thanksgiving weekend (A&M vs LSU on Thanksgiving Saturday and Texas alternating years with TCU and Texas Tech on Thanksgiving Day) have clicked as anything more than secondary rivalries.
This one really needs to return...

2) Kansas vs Missouri

The hard feelings in this one might be even worse than Texas-Texas A&M even though the situation was similar as Missouri left the Big 12 for the SEC.
This longtime border war likely will be DOA until ironically the person that seems to have taken this the hardest leaves-Bill Self of Kansas-the BASKETBALL coach!
Neither of these teams are generally football powers, in fact, Kansas usually stinks and Missouri is a mid-level SEC team on an average to good year, so it's not like losing this game costs anyone national implications.
Still, this is a game that is huge to Missouri, a team without a natural rival in the SEC and costs Kansas one of the two teams that their fans considered rivals, so it is still a loss to the game...

3) Penn State vs Pitt

This is one that is currently being played in a four-year contract (2018 will be year three), but there is not a future agreement and it's unknown if there will be another contract signed in the immediate future.
Penn State has been the holdup in the past as far as playing this game as they wanted to have two home games for every one home game for Pitt (similar to their past dealings with Temple on the eastern side of Pennsylvania), while the Panthers preferred the home and home series, which Penn State agreed to for the current four-game series.
Pitt has much prestige than Temple and isn't going to settle for a contract like that, so if that is the only offer, they aren't likely to play again for a while after 2019.
It's too bad as the best two teams in Pennsylvania need to play every season...

4) Pitt vs West Virginia

However, if that game cannot be played and Pitt is able to play the Backyard Brawl again every year against West Virginia, that's more than a good enough replacement.
The two neighbors in many ways are even bigger rivals than Pitt and Penn State, share former conference rivalries going back through multiple leagues and frankly just plain hate each other.
I'm not sure if you asked Pitt fans which they'd rather play each year that West Virginia wouldn't come out the winner in a fan vote.
As for the Mountaineers, who seem to think they are above their in-state rival in Marshall and pull on the Herd what Penn State tries to with to Pitt, they likely consider Pitt their biggest rival considering they are stuck in a league that the nearest team is the Iowa State Cyclones, not exactly a heated or passionate pairing there to develop anything at all.
This series was most famous for the 2007 game that saw the second-ranked Mountaineers needing simply a win at home in Morgantown over the visiting Panthers, who had a losing record, to play in the national championship game- only to lose 13-9.
The series is scheduled to return for four games in 2022, so hopefully, there can be a way to keep the rivalry continuing after that.

5) Nebraska vs Oklahoma

This rivalry dates back to the old Big 8 when it seemed like every Thanksgiving Friday the Sooners and the Cornhuskers hooked up in a battle of the Big Reds for the Big 8 title, the trip to Miami for the automatic Orange Bowl bid and often a shot at a national title.
The Nebraska-Oklahoma rivalry was cleanly played with respect, was developed out of two powers that played every year and knew in order to do anything on the national title scene, they would have to go through the other at the end of November.
When the Big 8 became the Big 12 and the two were placed in opposite divisions, the heat was placed off the stove a bit and when Nebraska left for the Big 10, the two schools haven't played since.
Considering that neither school has a natural non-conference rival, a long-term series between the two would be a great fit.
The schools will play home and home in 2021 and 2022 and then again in 2029 and 2030

Cleaning out the inbox

Time for another cleaning of the inbox as things begin to pile up!

We start with a really cool article from It's about the money about Clark Field,which was the home of the Texas Longhorn baseball team until 1974.
I never knew the story,but the field had a literal cliff in centerfield that the left fielder has to scramble up to flag down flyballs in the field of play!
1974 is over 40 years ago,but it seems like even then,a field like that should have been long gone.
Clark Field no longer exists having been taken over by a UT fine arts center.
There aren't many pictures of Ol' Clark,but there is a great article from Texas Monthly from the year that the Horns left the stadium with a few stories about the field!

SBNation has a terrific article on the former Atlanta Braves pitching coach/savant Leo Mazzone,who had so much success in Atlanta,but failed in a brief stint in Baltimore and has been unemployed ever since.
I am back and forth on Mazzone,who was extremely successful in rehabbing careers that had faded elsewhere,but it's also a bit easier to succeed when you have three hall of famers in your rotation as well.
I like Mazzone's philosophy and would be interested to see how it would play in today's game.

Hardball Times has some thoughts on the town of New Britain CT and how a baseball town deals with their team preparing to leave as the AA New Britain Rock Cats will be moving to Hartford for the 2016 season.
I am hoping to be able to get to New Britain for a game this season to add them to the stadium list,but this makes me wonder how it would play out,if Bruce Quinn ever got his way for the Hagerstown Suns...

The Guardian writes about the last major pro sports team to go under in the Cleveland Barons.
The article discusses the bad performance on the ice by the Barons,but also looks deeper than usual into the financial aspect of not just the Barons,but the NHL in general in the 1970's...

ESPN's 30 for 30 series has an online version of "Shorts" with films of 10 to 15 minutes and Colin Hanks (son of Tom) has just released one on the Giants Crazy Crab,who was the mascot to be hated in 1984.
My favorite Crab moment came years later when they rolled him out for the last night at Candlestick Park,had him in a Dodger jersey and expressed his undying love for Tommy Lasorda!

Grantland writes about the problems that David Beaty will have at one of the toughest places to win at in college football-the university of Kansas.
Kansas is a hard place to win at,but it can be done-look at their neighbor in Kansas State,but it is more about getting the right coach as Bill Snyder has shown....

Grantland finishes this edition on the final show of David Letterman.
I've written about Dave before and might discuss him on the next podcast or even write some more,but trust me-Dave will be missed....

Back tomorrow with the Cavaliers and Hawks game two