Browns select Dylan Sampson

     The Cleveland Browns picked lower in the fourth round than originally expected as they flipped fourth-rounders in the Travis Hunter trade with Jacksonville.

In Tennessee running back, Dylan Sampson, the Browns landed a quality player who many draft boards rated as comparable to their second-round pick, Quinshon Judkins of Ohio State.

Sampson was named All-American and the SEC player of the year for the Volunteers, and he is the breakaway threat that Judkins is not.

Last season, Sampson rushed for 1,491 yards and tied for the national lead with twenty-two rushing touchdowns, both all-time records at Tennessee.

It's fair to consider the Browns drafting two running backs, but Sampson's skills (much like TreVeyon Henderson with Judkins at Ohio State) may complement those of Judkins, and he is talented enough to perhaps push aside incumbent Jerome Ford.

Sampson will run inside, but is a speed runner more than a power back, and he's not known for his receiving skills, but he can learn to be better in the passing game.

The Browns drafted a quality player and an explosive back who offers different strengths than Quinshon Judkins.

The question for me is this- the Browns have so many needs (wide receiver to name one) to address, why two running backs now?

Unless the answer is that the Browns are going all in on the ground game and plan on using Judkins, Sampson, and Jerome Ford as the offensive focal point.

If that's so, I understand it.

If that is not the game plan, then one back or the other may be a luxury that a bad team cannot afford.

Ohio State hammers Tennessee in CFP Opener

        The Ohio State Buckeyes may not receive a second chance to defeat the Michigan Wolverines this season. Still, they will have a revenge opportunity against the Oregon Ducks, as Ohio State dusted off the Tennessee Volunteers in the first round of the CFP 42-17  at the Horseshoe in Columbus.

Will Howard threw for over three hundred yards and two touchdowns to Jeremiah Smith (six catches for 103 yards) to lead the passing attack and TreVeyon Henderson ran for two scores and eighty yards on ten carries.

Ohio State will meet Oregon in the "Rose Bowl"/ CFP Quarter-Final on New Year's Day.

Olentangy Offerings

1) This game wasn't as close as the final score which says a lot.

Ohio State scored touchdowns on their first three possessions for a 21-0 lead and were on their way to another score before Will Howard's only interception of the game in the end zone. 

2) I wasn't worried even as Tennessee closed the gap to 21-10 at halftime.

It took a few bad calls and breaks for Tennessee to score those points and their drives were so long that I didn't think the Volunteers were capable of multiple drives to cut into the lead further.

3) The call on the end zone interception by Tennessee's Will Brooks was questionable on two fronts.

The first is that Jeremiah Smith was clearly interfered with and should earned a penalty for pass interference.

The other is that I don't think Brooks had full control of the football when he landed with his foot in bounds.

Those are minor quibbles after a 42-17 win but they didn't feel minor at the time.

4) Tennessee's only touchdown drive of the first half, Ohio State appeared to have snuffed out the drive on an interception by Davison Igbinosun before a very light roughing the passer penalty on Kenyatta Jackson allowed the drive to continue.

Just a terrible call on that one.

5) Ohio State played looser and with abandon and it was easy to see from the start as the play calling was aggressive and kept hammered on Tennessee, no matter the situation.

Ryan Day coaches better when he is aggressive rather than timidly and it's my biggest complaint with Day.

6)  Jeremiah Smith became the first Ohio State freshman to exceed one thousand receiving yards in the win.

More players will achieve this goal as seasons lengthen, so it was nice that Smith took this in twelve games.

7) Ohio State's offensive line had been maligned throughout the season but they bullied a Tennessee defense that was expected to stuff the Buckeye ground game.

Ohio State outrushed Tennessee 156-152 beating the Vols at the game that was expected to be their best chance at victory.

8) TreVeyon Henderson ran for eighty yards and caught four passes for fifty-four yards as he continued his late-season push to surpass Quinshon Judkins as Ohio State's lead back.

Henderson's career started with so much promise but injuries caused a downturn in production.

Henderson's late-season play has revitalized his career and I bet he will be starting for someone in the NFL next season.

9) Jack Sawyer and J.T Tuimoloau dominated the Tennessee offensive line with Tuimoloau and Sawyer combined for three and a half sacks.

These two are playing the best football in their career at the right time for both the Buckeyes and the players just as they are ready to move to the pros.

10) Tennessee brought an estimated 30,000 fans to the game as Ohio State's ticket department had their discount code leaked early. Volunteers fans scooped up tickets happily as disgruntled fans from the Michigan loss were too slow to get started.

That combined with a drivable distance (357 miles) gave the visitors a major presence in the Horseshoe.

Give Tennessee's crew credit for their craftiness and for coming out but OSU caused much of that.

11) As happy as I am with the win, it's frustrating to think of just how easily this team could have cruised past Michigan had they played half as well on offense as they did vs Tennessee.

As hard as it is to accept that, the title is in reach and the Buckeyes will be motivated against Oregon.
Should be a good one.

Road Trip: Wrapping it up

     The final day of the final leg of the road trip season was here and it started at Buc-Ees, the legendary gas station (don't call them a truck stop, no trucks are allowed) directly off I-40.

I'm not sure words can describe the activity all around when you enter a Buc-ees and that's before considering the mass of items, all of which seem to have the face of a very pleased beaver!

I had a list of things to bring home for Cherie, Rachel, and Posey, including their famous beaver nuggets, which are bigger versions with extra sugar of Kellogg's Sugar Corn Pops cereal.

I found all of their requested items but one and I used the rest of the time to check out the available food options since we would be stopping back for lunch.

The next drive was to Knoxville, home of the Tennessee Volunteers, to stop by Bargain Antiques.

Bargain Antiques is yet another former department store that has found new life with antiques.

I found a few things, a Kroger cloth grocery bag for Cherie, who always likes to pick up bags from grocery stores away from home, a small Green Lantern key chain ( from a booth with ninety percent off that cost me only fifty cents), and a Tennessee basketball program.

What I found most interesting was the parking lot which was so slanted that parking at the bottom of the lot must have felt like hiking up a mountain!

We hopped back on I-40 for lunch at Buc-ees, and because we had stopped by twice, we had some ideas about the food offerings.

Buc-ees has an amazing number of different sandwiches among other made-to-order items and I decided to try two different sandwiches in the smaller size.

I ordered a fried chicken sandwich (similar to Chick-fil-A) and a turkey sandwich.

The chicken was very good and the turkey was good but a bit chewy.

Driving home on a sunny day allowed us to take our time and make a few stops along the way with the best stop at Snoopers Antique Mall in Wytheville, Virginia.

I found two items there, two Topps posters from 1970's releases.

In the 60s and early 70s, Topps usually had an insert of some type in each pack of that season's baseball cards and in 1970, it was posters.

The 9x10 posters were printed on very thin paper and needed to be folded into eighths in order to fit the posters into a standard pack of baseball cards.

As a result, there are few in outstanding shape today as even if you haven't touched them since 1970, the materials are still vulnerable, which is the main reason that I never tried to collect the posters (or the other years that Topps used posters as the bonus prize).

However, for the price (four dollars each), and the condition (the seller had them flat and in plastic), I could not resist adding a Hawk Harrelson ( with the Indians and their red wishbone C caps) and Don Mincher (in the Seattle Pilots uniform that would not see the field in 1970) to my collection.

There were a few other shops in the area but I found nothing that I purchased, so the trip was over other than rolling the final miles out for the trip home. 

2024 was a good season for me.

I saw seven new ballparks in Portland, Maine, Worcester Massachusetts, Somerset New Jersey, Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio, Florence Kentucky, and Omaha, Nebraska to raise my total to eighty-nine.

It's starting to become harder to add stadiums with few close enough now for a day trip.

The closest stadium to the north (Non-MLB) is the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (in Manchester) with the exception of Brooklyn and Staten Island as there is no way I'm fighting that type of traffic for a minor league ballpark!

There are preliminary plans to add New Hampshire early next year along with a stop in Boston at Fenway Park, so that would move me to ninety-one but unless a longer trip comes into the picture (unlikely at this writing), New Hampshire and Boston may be the only new additions for 2025.

The closest stadium to the south that I need would be in South Carolina (Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Charleston, or a new stadium opening in Spartanburg for 2025). the nearest to the northwest would be any of the Indiana fields (Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, or South Bend), and the adjacent southwest stadium is even farther away in Memphis!

I've also added quite a few to the visited states list in 2024 with stops in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas for the first time.

However, the states that could be feasible to see for the first time are becoming fewer in number.

I suppose if I ever made the drive to Omaha again and if I wanted to drive somewhat out of the way, I could add Minnesota and/or Wisconsin.

South Dakota is only two hours away from Omaha, so I guess that could happen, and if I ever decided to add a Georgia park (or the new stadium coming to Chattanooga Tennessee), it wouldn't take much to add Alabama but as you can see, the low-hanging fruit has been picked!

It's been a surprisingly good road season with many memories made, and some cannot be repeated.

2025 has a high standard to meet. 

Road Trip: Tennessee

     The final trip of the 2024 baseball season was to Kodak, Tennessee for the last visit to Smokies Stadium. 

The Chicago Cubs AA affiliate will move thirty miles to Knoxville for the 2025 season.

The move will leave Smokies Stadium without a tenant in 2025.

The stadium opened in 2000 after the franchise left Knoxville's Bill Meyer Stadium, allowing East Tennessee to retain Double-A baseball.

Smokies Stadium sits on a hill overlooking the area and interstate and other than a Bass Pro Shop shopping area across the street, the area was known essentially for being the exit to the vacation areas of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge when I made my first visit to the area.

Now it's congested, and the area between the exit and the tourist traps has filled in and it's more like visiting a metropolitan area's traffic than what you would expect in East Tennessee.

It was well, Smoking hot on the day of the game and I was disappointed that I missed my friend Corey White while we were at the game.

Corey left us tickets but we missed communication and I wasn't able to see him, although I thanked him for the tickets via messenger.

We decided to leave after a few innings due to the heat and started hitting the antique mall circuit.

One massive facility was open for the first time on a visit so we stopped by and it was more of a flea market than an antique mall.

No judgment but flea markets rarely produce the type of additions to the collection unless you collect black hair coloring or car air fresheners and while this one didn't find any purchases, I did see someone I knew as I walked by one collectible booth.

Eric Esch, popularly known as "Butterbean" was once known as the "king of the four-rounders" after a career spent in the "Toughman" contests transitioned into a somewhat legitimate boxing career against preliminary boxers before finally fighting a legitimate heavyweight in aging former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes and losing a one-sided fight.

Esch is remembered for his quick icing of WWF Brawl for All victor Bart Gunn in thirty-four seconds at Wrestlemania XV but I didn't see much action from Esch, who recently starred in some videos from former wrestler Diamond Dallas Page covering Esch's attempt to drop weight and improve his mobility.

It was pretty sad seeing Esch have trouble moving around and no one asking him to sign anything, just sadly sitting in a chair.

We ran through a few places where I didn't purchase anything before finding the Green Olde Deal in Sevierville.

I did find a few programs there at very affordable prices,  1964 Baylor at Texas, 1984 N.C.State at Maryland and a 1981 Bluebonnet Bowl program with Arkansas playing Florida.

Dinner was a return to Captain Jim's Seafood House, where I had eaten before with Fred Landucci and Lefty Koch, the last time I visited Tennessee.

I had enjoyed my previous visit but there had been a few recent poor reviews, so even up to pulling into the parking lot, I was wondering about my decision, so as I was getting out of the car, the person parked next to us was leaving, so I asked him what he thought.

He said it was great and would return but if he did, he wouldn't get the crab legs addition as he thought there were plenty of items and for the extra twenty-five bucks, he didn't receive his money's worth.

I followed his recommendation, bought the non-crab legs buffet, and was quite pleased.

It takes a decent amount of time to navigate the Sevierville version of the Las Vegas strip and near our hotel was the famous Buc-ees, the gas station that has to be seen to be believed..

I mainly wanted the lay of the land of Buc-ees (like I could eat anything after Captain Jim's) for the next day when we would eat lunch there and purchase requested swag for the girls.

After returning to our hotel, next to the stadium and one that hosted the Smokies opponents, who could walk to work each day, I watched the Newcastle-Bournemouth match on replay from Peacock, and drifted off to sleep or what passes for it in my world.

On the next installment, time to wrap it up with Buc-ees, Knoxville, and a nice find in Virginia on the way home! 

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.
                       

Things I think: College Football

Time for the weekly thoughts on college football and even though it seems like even when I try to get away from Fred Landucci's beloved Tennessee Vols, I just can't after this excellent ESPN article looking back at Lane Kiffin's one year in Knoxville.

1) The ESPN article on the crazy one season spent by Lane Kiffin was not only excellent, but it also made me think about what could have happened had Kiffin remained as the coach of the Volunteers.
Looking at the various messes since with Derek Dooley, Butch Jones and currently Jeremy Pruitt, I'm not sure that things could have been worse for Big Orange. but I'm not sure that they would have been much better either.
Kiffin was only 34/35 years of age as head coach of the Vols and I'm not sure he was mature enough to be a top-notch head coach.
Tennessee would have likely recruited well under Kiffin and that would have helped give them a chance at success, but could they continue to recruit well if the drop off in record occurred?
My guess as to the most likely result? Tennessee wins some games that they likely would have been the underdog in, lost others to teams of lesser talent and would have had lots of entertaining media events and clashes with other teams.
I would think that Lane Kiffin would have a shorter shelf life even with success and he would be unlikely to still reside in Knoxville.

2) The Arizona State-Michigan State game from East Lansing (10-7 ASU ) was a snoozer until the last three minutes or so, but two notes on the contest.
Mark Dantonio might need to either accept that offensive schemes for Sparty need to be updated because what the Spartans have been doing over the last three seasons just isn't getting the job done.
Dantonio might be so stuck in his Jim Tressel-like ways that he may not be able to make the changes that need to be completed, but Michigan State needs to at least talk to him about those potential moves.
The officials botched the final field goal attempt after Michigan State seemed to have tied the game at 10, a review saw Sparty called for 12 men on the field and another field goal try to tie the game.
On that kick, the kick drifted wide, but Arizona State had a player that should have been called for leaping, which would have given Michigan State another chance to force overtime.
The visiting team's conference provides the officials, so the mistake was by Pac 12 officials and an apology issued, which as always is too late.

3) The big run by Maryland sputtered to a stop after a 20-17 loss in Philadelphia to Temple.
It's not only the loss to a group of five school, but it is also that after showing a great deal of offense against Syracuse, the Terrapins had multiple chances to win this game.
Temple slammed the door twice on Maryland back Anthony McFarland from the one-yard line with three and a half minutes to go and again stopped Maryland at the ten with seconds remaining.
Now the conference schedule starts for Maryland against Penn State this Saturday and even though Maryland's four games that follow Penn State are all possible victories (at Rutgers, Indiana, at Purdue and Minnesota), the end of the season is brutal as they finish up with Michigan, at Ohio State, Nebraska, and at Michigan State.
The season's not lost, but it feels like a missed opportunity for Mike Locksley's first Terrapin team.

4) And there is the ACC, who deservedly pats itself on the back for the number one rated team in the nation in Clemson, but collectively appears to be about as competitive as the Washington Generals against the Harlem Globetrotters.
Other than 25th ranked Virginia (3-0) the conference doesn't have another ranked team and other than Wake Forest, doesn't have another undefeated team, which is pretty sad only three weeks into the season.
Last Saturday saw N.C. State lose at West Virginia by 17, which isn't a terrible loss, but also saw Virginia Tech need a rally in the fourth quarter to defeat 1-AA Furman, Pitt throw away a chance to upset Penn State and the two worst losses of the day with I-AA Citadel defeating Georgia Tech at home and Kansas, who hadn't won a road game against a power five team in eleven seasons, crunching Boston College by 24 in Boston!
I would say it is very likely to that the Clemson opponent in the ACC title game will have three losses and possibly four.
Not a great matchup to attract fans to your title game.

5) The hottest coaching seat has to be occupied by USC's Clay Helton after the Trojans road loss to BYU in overtime.
It's not just the loss to the Cougars, it's the next three games, all against ranked teams (Utah, Washington, and Notre Dame) that they will be underdogs against and two on the road.
A 2-4 start isn't out of the question for Helton and with a new AD to be hired soon after the resignation of Lynn Swann, Helton is more likely to be shown the door than stay around for 2020.

6) I found it interesting that former Northern Illinois and Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill has been brought on staff at Virginia Tech as a special assistant to Justin Fuente.
Kill was forced from the Gophers head job after 2015 by doctors that recommended he leave coaching to avoid neurological damage from epileptic attacks.
Fuente's Hokies finished 6-7 last season and their 2-1 record is less than impressive with a near loss to Furman and a road loss at Boston College, who as mentioned earlier was blasted by hapless Kansas at the same stadium.

Things I think: College Football

Time for things I think from the college football world.
BTW- Very open to someone coming up with a name for this, preferably college football oriented, especially if I decide (time permitting) to start an NFL version.

The winner will receive the TRS version of the Marvel No-Prize.

1) As bad as Tennessee football seems to have fallen after a loss to BYU that looked to have had a win in the bag followed by a blown coverage, I'm not sure if bringing Phil Fulmer in from the AD"s chair is a winning strategy.
I might buy Fulmer finishing the season if Jeremy Pruitt has to be fired (and that's not an easy thing to do when you consider the buyout), but giving the job back to Fulmer has its downside with Fulmer's age, time away from a changing game and wonders about his ability to recruit, and that's putting aside the point that Fulmer was let go eleven years ago for a losing record of 5-7.
The bigger question could be that with seemingly every national college football writer banging out notes about this topic this week is this-If Fulmer is actually considering this, could he be scared off by some of the negativity towards that idea?

2) The Mountain West continued to grab some power five scalps this week as San Diego State took out UCLA in Los Angeles and Hawaii dropped Oregon State at home.
Add to that Boise State's win on Friday over Marshall, who is one of the two favorites to win Conference USA and Fresno State's near-miss against Minnesota and I think it's pretty clear that the Mountain West might have a say this year against the American for the best conference in the group of five.

3) The LSU-Texas game was a good battle and two notes on that.
Texas may or may not be "back" but with Sam Ehlinger at quarterback, the Horns are going to score a lot of points and I'm awfully excited about Texas-Oklahoma from the Cotton Bowl on October 12th.
As for the Tigers, who grabbed a huge win on the road, this might be the first LSU team in a while that just might do more than give Alabama all they wanted on the defensive end.
LSU's defenses have battled on close terms against Bama, but haven't been able to produce on the offensive end, but with Joe Burrow maturing and a passing game that hasn't been seen in Baton Rouge since Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry were running patterns there, this could be the type of Tiger team to perhaps defeat the Crimson Tide.

4) It's only been two games, but you cannot help but be impressed by the Maryland Terrapins whipping over Syracuse.
I had questions about the hiring of Mike Locksley as their head coach after his terrible stint as head coach at New Mexico, but their squeezing of the Orangemen was not only unexpected but perhaps showed the Terrapins to be a surprise team in the making.
Maryland has scored 79 points against and 63 against Syracuse this season along with a memorable near-miss late last season against Ohio State where they scored 51 in a loss that wasn't decided until the final play in overtime.
Maryland plays at Temple this Saturday and then gets a week before a visit from Penn State in a game that might be the biggest game in College Park that's meaningful for both teams in a long time.

5) The shocker of the week would have easily been Army over Michigan, had the Cadets kicked a long field goal at the end of the game before losing in double overtime and tell me why teams decide to get cute with plays when they are dominating doing one particular thing?
Army threw a pass at Michigan's five with a chance to go up 14 in the third quarter, which of course was intercepted.
Sometimes coaches outsmart themselves.

6) SO we need a shocker of the week and let's go to Seattle, Washington as Greg Thomas hit a short field goal with eight seconds to go to give unranked California a 20-19 win over number 14 Washington.
The Cal defense looks very legitimate for a Pac 12 conference that usually isn't loaded with strong defensive clubs and they could be the surprise team in the West.
As for Washington, highly touted Georgia transfer Jacob Eason didn't set the world on fire with just 162 yards and an interception in a one-point loss and didn't look like the quarterback that had been so heralded at Georgia.

7) Since I repeated a Mountain West point from last week, here's a bonus item.
The ACC looks pretty bad.
Syracuse was thumped by Maryland, Florida State lost to Boise State and defeated UL-Monroe in overtime by a Warhawk missed extra point that would have forced a second OT, Miami is 0-2 after a loss to North Carolina and there is only one non-Clemson ranked team with Virginia at number twenty-five.
Other than the surprising 2-0 start by Mack Brown at North Carolina, the ACC doesn't have any interesting positive notes.
Could it be that Clemson's 24-10 win over Texas A&M might be their closest test of the season until the playoffs?
There is usually someone that will step up for one game, but looking at this schedule and Syracuse's, who plays Clemson this week and was thought to be the toughest opponent before being crushed by Maryland, woes- that could be the case!

Road Trip: Tennessee

Day three saw our trip move over to Tennessee (Every time, I think of that I keep hearing Jimmy Hart screech "Memphis, Tennessee Babay!) and our almost annual visit to Corey White and the Tennessee Smokies.
Fred, of course, had met Corey a few times in the past, but Lefty had yet to have the pleasure.
I told Corey later that he had met all of my autographing friends, but one (Mike Oravec) and I will have to take Mike to Sevierville soon to finish the set!

When you go over to Tennessee from Asheville (about 90 minutes away), you have to plan how you'll spend your day.
You either stay in Asheville and go closer to game time or spend your day in the Knoxville area to kill the time because doing something in the middle of those choices aren't an option.
The choice made by Fred was to visit Knoxville and check out Neyland Stadium for some Tennessee Volunteer items.
This followed his choice not to last year and he's regretted it ever since, so I knew that this was going to be the outcome!

Fred wanted to go inside Neyland and look around or at least grab some swag.
The problem that there is very little parking around the stadium, even when school isn't in session and after some failed attempts to find the parking lot and a memorable exchange with a passer-by ("you can park here, but if they catch you-they will tow you"), I dropped Fred off and while he looked around in the store, Lefty and I stopped in a space, ever vigilant for the parking czar to avoid a ticket!
After a handful of minutes of this, Lefty began to look for Fred in the store as I waited outside.
Fred and Lefty emerged with a beaming Fred with a new Rocky Top shirt among others and we wove our way out of Knoxville and back towards Kodak, home of the Smokies.
I snapped a picture of the Sunsphere, the symbol of the 1982 World's Fair that was held in Knoxville, as we sat at a traffic light.
I could not tell where any World's Fair has been located since 1982, but if you were alive in 1982, the relentless pounding of constant commercials for that World's Fair was constant and with the Sunsphere being the symbol, I remember that to this day!


With still plenty of time to kill, Smoky Mountain Knife Works obviously sells about every kind of knife that you can imagine among other gimmicks for hunters and fans of various genres like Game of Thrones, but the highlight for me was the Relic Room with tons of collectibles from many many countries.
Now how many of the items are legitimately what they say they are is open to conjecture, but there are lots of interesting display cases that would take a significant amount of time to see everything and even just looking can be fun.
Fred even bought a limited edition Tennessee Volunteers Swiss Army Knife.
I've always been a fan of the multiple-use knives with Swiss Army and other companies and I'm pretty sure that had they had an Ohio State version, it may have been going home with me!

We hadn't eaten lunch yet and we began to process of looking for lunch and riding through the strip of Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge was very similar to riding through that of Myrtle Beach.
The same types of touristy stores (Everything 9.99!), gaudy hotels, things to do, and tons of places to eat in a long traffic line on both sides of the street.
It was kind of fun to see all the stuff and even though I still wonder about a large number of pancake eateries around the area, it was cool just looking around.
Still, I had seen a billboard or two for some interesting places and I just wasn't seeing them, although some of the places did make me consider them, I wanted something different.
Finally, I saw it in Captain Jim's Seafood Buffet.
I pondered and looked at the buffet and reluctantly chose the non-crab leg version over the more expensive with crab legs.
It was very good and Lefty graciously paid for everyone's meal over Fred and I's objections.
Very nice of him to do and I must admit it was fun going to these places and looking them over.
Sure, it was everything cliche' that you can think about "tourist trap', but there is a reason people travel to areas like this- because they are fun.

After our drive back through Pigeon Forge etc to the home of the Smokies after a stop at the beef jerky outlet, where surprisingly I didn't buy anything for me, although I did buy some pepperoni sticks for the ladies at home, my good friend Corey White was waiting for me with the cards that he had worked on me throughout the season.
Lots of great stuff that included several additions to the top 100 sets and a team set of the Mobile Bay Bears (Angels), who are in their last season before moving to a suburb of Huntsville, Alabama and change their name to the Rocket City Trash Pandas among many great cards.
As we sat in the parking lot, I ordered two team sets of the next team to play in Smokieland, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Marlins).
I usually buy one set for me and one for Corey for him working on them.
Not sure how many times I can do that each year due to expense, but I'll certainly try for that for the initial season of the ahem Trash Pandas next year.

We enjoyed the game as I worked on the visiting Biloxi Shuckers, the AA team of the Brewers and
one that even though they didn't have a top 100 card for the set as Corey Ray was promoted a few days before the trip, I still had the team set and some cards from the Carolina Mudcats set that I didn't finish for various reasons.

I was able to get most of them finished, but I did leave a few for Corey to finish up for me and we waited outside for quite a while for rehabbing pitcher Brent Suter, who now is back with the Brewers.
Suter took over an hour, but once he left the locker room, he was very accommodating, signed everything for everyone and talked for a bit as well.
However, I got Suter's cards signed and talked to him, but the conversation that I really enjoyed was with Shuckers batting coach Chuckie Caufield.
Caufield had played for the West Virginia Power back in the early days of my autographing hobby back in 2007 with players that still play in the bigs today such as Michael Brantley and Jeremy Jeffress, and prospects of the time such as Matt LaPorta.
Chuckie and I must have talked for about fifteen minutes about that team, their players, the SAL and of course his memories of Hagerstown.
It was really cool talking about those times and I got the feeling that Chuckie enjoyed being remembered too.

We didn't return to the hotel in Asheville until about one in the morning, but what I carried with me is Lefty telling me that no matter the autographing in Tennessee, the trip still would have been a great one because he met Corey and Corey's other friends Wayne and Delmar.
That's always the fun part of doing anything- being with your friends and the people that you meet on the way.

Next time, we move to Hickory North Carolina and my return after 12 years.

Things I think- College Football

I want to try to write a small notes column each week on college football or even the NFL if I have time.
That's my intent anyway and with baseball season being over, football is the most plausible weekly column to write, so even with Buckeye and Brown reviews to hammer out every week, I'm going to try to work on this project.

1) I'll wait until we complete a season before listening to the usual easy media narrative that one of the following schools is "Back"!
Michigan, Nebraska, Texas, Notre Dame, etc all have great traditions and it makes sense for the networks to hope that schools with large alumni bases and fans will watch their games more, but those schools are hyped overboard in August and September and usually disappoint.
I know Notre Dame made the playoff last season, but every "good" win the Irish had last season looked far worse in hindsight and I'll wait for consistency with them.
Looking forward to their game with Georgia in week three.

2) Which one of the "Back" teams might be really back?
I lean towards Texas with a solid head coach in Tom Herman, but injuries seem to have decimated the Horns early in the season and I'm not sure that Texas has the depth built up yet to handle those losses in Herman's third year.
The Longhorns home game against a top ten LSU team Saturday night will go a long way in seeing how good they might be.

3) Shocker of the week?
Georgia State's stunner of Tennessee that not only saw a Sun Belt team that finished 2-10 last season come from behind to drop the Volunteers, but they did so without a running back that reached 100 yards on the day and a passing game that didn't throw for 200!
Tennessee is a program that is trying to work itself back into where it once was and there will be growing pains, but a loss like this will give Jeremy Pruitt and Phil Fulmer a little less tolerance from a once rabid fan base.

4) Two more Rocky Top points- Tennessee wrote Georgia State a check for 950,000 dollars to come in and upset them.
Bet this series will not continue further!
Keep in mind that UT fired athletic director John Currie, who supposedly had Mike Leach on board after an admitted misreading of the fan base in almost hiring Greg Schiano before Leach to clear the warehouse for Jeremy Pruitt.
Let's not consider Pruitt a failure yet, but I have a feeling Mike Leach doesn't lose to Georgia State.

5) Give it up for the Mountain West conference, who defeated four Power Five schools with Boise State rallying past Florida State, Nevada shocking Purdue at the final gun, Wyoming upsetting Missouri, and Hawaii holding off Arizona's final charge at the one-yard line.
When you add Utah State losing to Wake Forest by three and Fresno State making USC sweat to the end of the game, this looks to be a very strong year for the Mountain West, who is always in battle with the American conference for the best league of the Group of Five.

6) The coach that I really like that I think is going to prove to be a great hire?
Scott Satterfield at Louisville.
I thought he did a great job at Appalachian State and considering that Louisville ran through Bobby Petrino twice, they needed an energetic and positive coach, I think they have that in Satterfield, who was impressive with Appalachian State in their transition to Division I.

Road Trip: The Rain, A Park and Other Things..

We expected rain on day two and lots of it.
Rain that in the amount that we expected could cost us several stops on the trip.
Rain is part of the risk of baseball road trips and you know that going in, so you cross your fingers and hope for the best.

It had started to lightly rain as we checked into our hotel the night before.
When I woke up, it was pouring and when Fred and I talked, we thought there was absolutely no way the Lexington-Asheville game was going to be played that night.

We figured that the game was going to be called, but I wanted to see McCormick Field for some pictures and some shirts for my ladies here, while Fred had never visited the home of the Tourists and he wanted to put it on his list of "Been there but not for a game".
My list of those used to be very long, but I've whittled that list down to one- Myrtle Beach.

We drove to McCormick Field, where the forecast was dire and asked the Tourist employees if we could walk around, take some pictures etc and then stop at the team shop.
They said sure as long we didn't step on the field, which we were happy to follow that direction!
We wandered around the field, snapping (old school term) pictures and looked at a park that is older than Hagerstown's, yet had the charm that the Muni has always seemed to lack.
The right field wall still read Ingles just as it did eleven years ago in my first visit to Asheville with Ryan and Battlin' Bob and there didn't seem to be too many difference since then, although McCormick Field has been well maintained and shined up a bit as all old parks need to shown care for and it comes across as such a neat throwback to the past with enough of the present to get you through.
McCormick still has their concessions away from the field (nothing short of a complete reconstruction would change that) like Hagerstown which doesn't allow you to watch the game while waiting for your food.

We walked back to the souvenir area, where we talked to the employee about Hagerstown, showed them some pictures of the Muni and talked about the other stadiums in the SAL.
This is where I saw a really cool baseball with the Tourists that looked like it was made of wood (it wasn't) and with another recent baseball from Lexington (full Kentucky Blue) in mind, it hit me.
What if I bought a logo ball from each stadium that I visited?
The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea and I gave myself a few parameters.
The first was that I had to have visited the stadium and the second was that (with an occasional exemption given by me) that I would have to return to the stadium to purchase.
I gave myself two immediate exemptions-Buies Creek (last year as a team and no plans to go there this year) and Delmarva ( a real pain to get to and I'm not sure I'll get there again), purchased the ball and I was off.
I bought the ladies at home some Tourists shirts (I try to ask them before a trip which team that they would like to have an item from), so it was time for lunch for Fred and I as we laughed in the rain, but did not hold hands as longtime Battlin' Bob favorite Neil Sedaka once sang and the decision was Rocky's Hot Chicken Shack.

Rocky's was the type of local place that I always try to look for whether on the road with Fred or any of the other travel buddies that I hit the road with.
A local favorite with various degrees of heat for their chicken, I tried a sample of their hottest spice and while it was plenty of hot, I didn't find it all that flavorful, so as I do at wing/chicken place went with the second hottest chicken, ordered the daily special (jalapeno chicken pot pie) and two sides (Potato Salad and Cole Slaw).
The Potato Salad was quite good, a subtle mix between an Amish style and mustard version, but the slaw was a little bland.
The pot pie was shaped like those Hostess fruit pies and was good, but not nearly as hot as I expected.
The chicken was very good but wasn't nearly as hot as anticipated.
In hindsight, if Rocky's had combined the flavor of their second hottest, with the heat of the top-notch burner, they might really have something!
We returned to the hotel through the rain resigned to a night that would be highlighted by evening and I sat around for a while wondering where the time had gone from the first time I visited Asheville.

However, as I dozed off for a nap and woke up, I wondered about the weather in Kodak, Tennessee.
The next day, we had planned a noon game with the Tennessee Smokies hosting the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.
Fred called the Smokies (on the other side of the mountain and about 90 minutes away) and they had lighter rain throughout the day but planned to play.
With a schedule adjustment, we moved the Smokies into the evening slot and we were on our way on an hour and forty-five-minute drive to Sevierville.

Arriving in Sevierville, we sent an email to Corey White, who was scheduled to meet us the following day at Smokies Stadium about the change and hoped he'd see it.
I had cards to send to Corey and Fred wanted to meet one of the people that I trade with that he has heard so often about.
In the meantime, with an early arrival, we had time to check out the Beef Jerky Outlet.
This store has all sorts of unique jerky's, sausage's and "meat sticks" and a few hot sauces.
I settled for a package of their hottest jerky "The Reaper" (it wasn't THAT hot, but had some heat), package of maple jerky for Rachel and a package of Elk meat sticks (think Slim Jim's) that I ate some of on my trip to Charleston.
Corey called us back, said he would be at the game and had a friend of his (Again, I cannot remember his name) allow us to go in with him early with the season ticket holders.
Very kind of them to help us out and I've always thought it was so cool to be inside an almost empty stadium and just watch the scrambling and prep work to have the stadium ready for a game night.

I didn't have a lot for either team, I had sent a few things to Corey earlier, so most of the heavy lifting was finished, but Fred doing the Shrimp (Doesn't that sound like a dance from a 60's surf movie?) added former Brewers and current Marlins (acquired in the Christian Yelich trade) Isan Diaz and Monte Harrison for me.
Too bad the Top 100 was a few days away from being released because Harrison is in this year's set.
Diaz was in last season's (I added him in Winston-Salem last year) but missed the cut this year.
I worked on a few Smokies with Corey with the most important being Eddy Martinez on his Carolina League top prospect card.
The Carolina League is always the league prospect set that comes out latest and that works against getting some of the players signed.
That set sometimes is so late that graphers pass on buying it due to that fact.
It started to rain in the third inning and we watched a few innings from the concourse before we decided to make the drive home.

Back at the hotel and the closer that we traveled to Asheville, the more rain fell on the roof and we looked at the forecast for the return home, the forecast didn't look great.
Normally, I would add a final day post, but considering things with the inbox etc, I'm going to condense the final day as follows.
We expected lots of rain and got it as we traveled north, passed Johnson City, Tennessee and Fred was gracious enough to stop by and allow me to buy a Johnson City Cardinals baseball, stopped in Bristol Tennessee for another Mad Greek stop and a Yee Haw beer stop to bring home for Miguelito as we rolled towards Lynchburg, Virginia for the Winston-Salem Dash and the homestanding Hillcats.

Lynchburg is about an hour off I-81, so it's two hours of extra traveling round trip.
We were hoping to either play the game or call it early,
The Hillcats did us that favor and called it early, so we saved that time and rolled on up the road to go home.

All things considered with the forecast getting three games in the books wasn't so bad and traveling with Fred is always a good time.
Fred's a great person to travel with because he always asks for an opinion and listens to what your opinion is.
I really enjoy our trips together.

Now, I still have a day trip to Charleston for the Giants Low A team, the Augusta Greenjackets and the Giants top pick in 2017, Heliot Ramos, but that will have to wait for a little bit because we still have Cavalier playoffs (I saw the game one win on delay after returning from Charleston) and that bulging at the seams inbox to try to whittle down.

15 College Football Games that should be happening! 11-15

Today on conference championship
Saturday, I wanted to start our three-part series on games in college football that should be happening, but are not on a consistent basis.

A few parameters:
First, some of these games are actually scheduled or even have happened in the last year or so.
However, our argument is that they should be on schedules every year or at least every other year and either home and home or at a neutral site that would make sense.

Second, there are some schools that either are playing would be rivals already or simply don't have a suitable school in line to play, but some have multiples that would make sense.
For the purposes of this series, a school can be only used twice on the list.

11) Arkansas vs Arkansas State
A rivalry that has the potential to be a great one, but has never happened because of a long-standing policy by the Razorbacks to refuse to play in-state opponents in any sport.
The Red Wolves have become a perennial powerhouse in the Sun Belt with a parade of coaches that move up to the next level with success such as Gus Malzahn, Bryan Harsin, Hugh Freeze, and their current coach Blake Anderson is likely to join that list soon.
Arkansas is a small state that could gain by these two teams playing each other and I get the Razorbacks would have more to lose in the short term, but in the long run, this game could be a huge help to both schools.
Added bonus points, if they play the game in the above pictured (somewhat ) neutral field in Little Rock!

12) Cincinnati vs Louisville
These two schools have played each other often through the years, 53 times in fact, and played for a trophy as well- the Keg of Nails.
These teams moved together through four conferences through the years, building a great rivalry with the cities connected by I-71 and it ended by one thing-conference realignment.
Both the Bearcats and Cardinals tried to get into the ACC after the Big East breakup (the football schools formed the American Athletic with the basketball schools staying in the Big East), but only Louisville managed to get there and the series was last played in 2013 in the last season before the Cardinals joined the ACC.
I know Louisville has one rivalry in non-conference play (Kentucky), but Cincinnati doesn't- this one really needs to return...

13) Akron-Youngstown State
The only all smaller school game on the list, these teams used to be heated rivals from nearby cities and also played for a trophy- the Steel Tire incorporating the two manufacturing items that the cities were known for.
There is, even more reason for heat between the schools dating back to the late '90s (the last game between the two was 1995) when Youngstown State applied for MAC membership and was denied in favor of Marshall ( who left after a few years) and Buffalo.
Perception is that Akron and Kent State were involved to keep 1-AA Youngstown State from moving to D-I for recruiting reasons adds to the discontent and the resulting decision by the MAC to refuse to have their schools play road games at 1-AA schools to keep 1-AA schools from appearing to be at the same level killed the series.
Either with YSU in Division One or not (and there really isn't a lot of difference between the MAC and the better 1-AA schools other than depth), these teams should be playing each other.

14) Arizona-New Mexico
The neighboring Wildcats and the Lobos hooked it up every year for the Kit Carson Rifle from 1920-77 until Arizona joined the then Pac 10.
The two have played just six times (two of the six were bowl games) since then, most recently a 45-37 Arizona win in the 2015 New Mexico Bowl, haven't played in the regular season since 2008 and neither appear on each other's schedule in the future.
This article tells more about the history of the rivalry that was and should be again.
Each though has options for a cool non-conference rivalry if they REALLY don't want to play each other.
Arizona could establish a series against San Diego State (recruiting hotbed) or UNLV (neighboring state), while New Mexico could try Arizona State or go to their state to the east and try Texas Tech or even better- former WAC rival UTEP in what could be a fun series of games.

15) Tennessee-Virginia Tech
The Vols and the Hokies played just last year inside the Bristol Motor Speedway and it was a huge success.
I'm not sure if the speedway would want to make this an annual thing, but it would be a great thing to have these two play a schedule where every three years, each team gets a home game and Bristol gets the third game.
Bristol is halfway between both schools, neither has a non-conference rival (VT had rivals become conference games when they joined the ACC and they do have a game with West Virginia, but I have other plans for the Mountaineers later), it boosts the power rating with a Power five team every year.
This works all the way around...

These games just missed, so here are some honorable mention games in no particular order
Miami vs Florida- They do play each other every few years and it seems possible they could play even more in the future.

Nebraska-Colorado- Former Big 8/12 rivals renew a rivalry that was quite torrid in the Bill McCartney years in Boulder.

Notre Dame-Purdue- The battle for the Shillelagh Trophy was a casualty of the Irish's deal with the ACC to play five ACC opponents a year.

California-San Jose State or Fresno State-  Cal played San Jose all the time from 1962-1996, but the northern California schools haven't played since despite being just 45 minutes away from each other.
Fresno State is under three hours away, but yet have only played the Golden Bears three times and if they played now, it would be quite interesting with former Cal coach Jeff Tedford turning the Bulldog program around.

Houston-TCU- Former SWC rivals and former group of five bullies (TCU formerly, Houston currently) from the two biggest cities in Texas (TCU is in Fort Worth, but I'll still count it!) would make an interesting series and could incorporate their games against SMU into some type of three-game series for a trophy...

I'll have the Big Ten title game coverage later and look for part two of this later this week!

Stunner in Tennessee! Browns rally for 29-28 win!

I ,among many other suffered through a lousy first half of football for Cleveland Browns against Tennessee and said so at home and on Twitter.
Side note-If you root/watch for any of the teams,you really need to follow me on Twitter,I'm always there during games.
However,I had hope despite a 28-10 deficit for a few reasons-a late TD in the first half,The Browns strong rally in the last game that they were trailing like this (27-3 vs Pittsburgh at Heinz Field) and most importantly it was Charlie Whitehurst taking the snaps for the injured Jake Locker.
Not Jake Locker will not remind many of Jake Plummer let alone Warren Moon,but those of you that remember our Seattle coverage days will remember the ineptitude of Mr.Whitehurst.
Amazingly,in a sloppy game,Brian Hoyer capped off a day of 292 yards and three touchdowns with two touchdowns strikes to Travis Benjamin in the fourth quarter after a 4th quarter blocked punt by Tank Carder to lift Cleveland to a stunning 29-28 win over the shocked Titans.
Ben Tate rushed for 123 yards while Taylor Gabriel grabbed four passes for 95 to pace the Cleveland offense.
The now 2-2 Browns will host Pittsburgh next week by Lake Erie,..

Brownie Bits

1) There are tons of things to write about and I'm sure that I'll miss a few,but the key play of the game to me was knocking Jake Locker out of the game on a Buster Skrine blitz.
Locker injured his thumb on Skrine's helmet on the followthrough and was gone shortly after.
Charlie Whitehurst did throw two touchdowns in the second quarter,but was terribly bad in the second half.
Any type of offense from Tennessee in the second half wins them this game.


2) Why on Earth did Ken Whisenhunt go for it on 4th and 1 from the Titan 42 with 3 minutes to go?
I get the argument that with one timeout for the Browns that a first down wins the game,but your offense had done nothing all half-you punt the ball and hope for the long field to take its effect....

3) Had to love the stuff of Charlie Whitehurst on the above note,but the Browns allowed way too many rushing yards (175 yards and a average for a 4.9 yard avg) to a team featuring Shonn Greene and Bishop Sankey.
The run defense is going to have step up and fast!

4) Huge rejected punt by Tank Carder for the safety in the fourth quarter,
That block saw the ball go out of the back of the end zone for two points,but those points allowed the touchdown and extra point to win the game instead of having to go for two for the tie.
Carder went right up the middle untouched for the block and a change in momentum that you could tell that the Titans went into protect the lead mode thereafter.

5) I was ready to be all done with Travis Benjamin when he fumbled a punt that had Tennessee not committed a penalty,would have cost possession and valuable time.
All of which made me feel like an idiot when Benjamin would grab both fourth quarter touchdown passes and the game winner was a tightrope walk to stay inbounds.
So maybe if the Browns continued to use Benjamin as a wideout and used Jordan Poyer or Jim Leonhard as a punt returner that could be a better way to go...

6) I thought the Browns running game was dominant with Ben Tate rushing for 123 yards and getting another fifty plus from Terrence West and Isaiah Crowell.
Tennessee was pounded by the three backs and I would make an argument that the team didn't use them enough in the red zone,most notably the third quarter drive that saw Tate run for seven yards and throw two passes thereafter.
Sometimes you can outsmart yourself....

7) I have wondered about the Browns wide receivers and still do,but I like Taylor Gabriel.
He has shown an ability to get open down the middle and for such a slight frame,he is a tough little player.
I think he is going to be a weapon that the Browns can use more and more as the season goes on...

8) Joe Haden left the game with an injury and his status for the Pittsburgh game is unknown,which might be a good thing considering how Antonio Brown generally abuses him.
That's a little tongue in cheek and you never want to lose a corner of Haden's stature,but Haden has not gotten off to a great start....

9) Really-REALLY bad tackling in the first half that saw the Titans break tackles and fake Browns out of their pants.
Buster Skrine and K'Waun Williams both missed several tackles among others and that needs to upgraded across the board...

10) Justin Gilbert saw the field seldomly and accumulated no stats.
Not what you expect from a first round pick.
If Joe Haden sits on Sunday,Gilbert is going to see more time.

11) The Browns were 0 for 2 on fourth downs,but one of them was a bit of bad luck as Jordan Cameron was wide open for a touchdown,but a Tennessee paw batted the ball back to the turf.
I wouldn't put too much stock into that.

12) Finally,this win was the biggest in Cleveland Browns history and the largest ever for a road team in league history,
Now if they can just play a whole game like this!!!!