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

Weighing in on Wahoo

The Cleveland Indians won't be wearing Chief Wahoo on their uniforms or hats after the 2018 season.
This felt like an inevitable outcome for years and for whatever I felt about Bud Selig, from the day that Rob Manfred took over the commissioner's duties, one of the targets in the sights of Manfred was Wahoo and no matter how much the Indians tried to fight it off ( and I do believe that the team gamely tried to do so as long as possible), as long as Manfred was running MLB and that appears to be the case for a long time, this was going to happen sooner or later.

It appears (no matter how much each side denies this) that MLB (and Manfred) finally was able to strongarm the Indians with the 2019 All-Star Game-as in this "we wouldn't want to have any reason to have to take that game somewhere else. Not that we would be doing it for any particular reason, mind you".
Hopefully, the compromise can be the return of the 1970's "crooked" C, which brings the Indians name more to mind than the bland and seemingly overwhelmingly disliked on social media current "Block C".

Here is where MLB smacks of hypocrisy, (I blame MLB because I truly believe that the team was forced to do this and did not want to make this move), the team and MLB will still sell Chief Wahoo hats and shirts, so if you prefer Wahoo, you can still wear his items, it's just that the Indians won't be after 2018.
The argument from baseball is that they have to sell items or the trademark on Wahoo will expire and others can claim and "use it in ways that MLB won't be able to control".
How noble.
It wouldn't have anything to do with being able to continue to rake in dollars from the more popular logo while being able to look politically correct and appearing to take the moral high road, now, could it??
Nah...

As for me, personally, I have mixed feelings.
I always liked Chief Wahoo and considered him the face of the franchise, which might be why so many people were bothered by him now that I think about it, and my generation's Wahoo isn't nearly as bad as the original Wahoo, which even I have to admit is pretty offensive to almost anyone that even has a hint of an open mind.

Wahoo was a part of my childhood and on that summer day in 1979 when my dad pulled up to Cleveland Municipal Stadium and saw the huge Chief Wahoo sign on top of the Stadium leaning on his back foot, getting ready to pull a fastball into Lake Erie, it was one of the great thrills of my childhood.
Wahoo has also meant Cleveland baseball in other ways.
When I was a kid and only was able to see the Tribe when I visited Ashland for games on WUAB (Lorain Cleveland of course) along with their games against the Orioles back in the days when the televised games meant the Orioles TV games were only the road games, I have two Wahoo memories.

One was from the local TV guide when the Orioles were on the road and the TV guide would have an ad for that night game it would have the Oriole bird fighting in some manner in a cartoon against that night's opponent and I remember quite a few times seeing Wahoo leaping off the point of the Oriole bird's bat in the TV guide!

The other was from those summer trips to Banning Avenue in Ashland for those few cherished Tribe games with my grandfather.
I didn't always get lucky because we had to come out on a weekend when the Indians were on the road in order for those games to be on television in those days before regional sports network days that televised all the home games.
There were the WUAB commercials with the catchy "Indian Fever" jingle that the Indians would take over for themselves down the road with a few changes and the intro as well with the always present smiling Wahoo with those Indians teams that were a .500 team that finished in 6th in the brutal A.L. East in a good year and dead last with close to 100 losses in a bad one.
However, there was always Wahoo in good times or bad, whether he's on the cap and jersey or not, those memories don't go away.
I wish he would stay, but I understand the wave against him.
Things could be far worse- he could have been the laughing Brave...

Boxing Challenge:Usyk slips by Briedis

Photo Credit; World Boxing Super Series

The boxing weekend featured the World Boxing Super Series unifying two titles and giving viewers more than they could have expected and then HBO gave their subscribers one of the worst cards that they have offered in years to end the day with an utter waste of time...

The first semi-final in the cruiserweight division of the World Boxing Super Series in Riga, Latvia looked to be an interesting matchup as two titles would be unified, but some thought it might be more of a world-class battle of chess.
The pleasant surprise saw the early leader for fight of the year (hey, it's January) as WBO champ and top seed Oleksandr Uskyk took the WBC title away from the home country hero and third seed by as hard-fought of a majority decision as you'll see and advance to the finals.
A great fight with ebbs and flows that I scored even at 114, but it "felt" like Usyk edged it out by a hair, yet when you added it all up, I had it even.
It's one of those fights that is screaming for a second viewing (and scoring).
Usyk will face the winner of next week's fight between IBF champion Murat Gassiev and minor beltholder Yunier Dorticos in what is sure to be an exciting fight from Russia.

The problem is seeing these fights because American television isn't picking them up, the streams are struggling to work and it's tough to find them.
It's too bad because once you do-it's really high-level stuff with the cruiserweights (the super middleweights haven't been as strong thus far).

What makes the lack of ease finding the WBSS even frustrating is when you have such issues and then HBO, the network that has been the Cadillac of boxing television for so many years, puts on a card like they did Saturday night from the Forum in Inglewood California.
I know HBO has hitched its wagon mainly to Golden Boy Promotions (along with a few other "independents"), but this looked like a card better suited to their ESPN deal (where it would have been a nice "free "show) and not worthy of an HBO slot.

In the main event and in one of the dullest non-Erislandy Lara or Guillermo Rigonedeaux main events that you'll see, Lucas "The Machine" Matthysse continued his comeback with a knockout of unknown Tewa Kiram in the eighth round after seven rounds that had the live crowd booing and the Twitter followers disgusted with the dreadful fight.
I've always been a Matthysse fan, but he looks like a fighter that unless you match him against someone that stands directly in front of him and engages, he might be a shot fighter.
Matthysse picked up one of those WBA minor belts that we don't recognize, which means he could eventually be forced upon Keith Thurman, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen, but he mentioned a Danny Garcia rematch (Garcia won their first match against a prime Matthysee off his jab, I fail to see why rematching a faded version changes anything) or a Manny Pacquiao pipedream, which might be a more fun fight to watch but considering Matthysse's still potent power is a high-risk low reward for Manny.
As for Kiram, the less said the better and I really don't need to see him again period, let alone on HBO.

In the co-feature, challenger Mercito Gesta tried hard and lasted the distance with WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares, but other than winning a few early rounds was clearly outclassed by one of the two best lightweights in the world.
The problem for Linares is that the other best lightweight in the world, WBC champ Mikey Garcia talks a lot about fighting him, but doesn't seem actually interested in signing a contract to make the fight happen.
That is one of many baffling business decisions from Garcia, who I'd favor to defeat Linares, who still considers himself more of a businessman that boxes than a boxer that makes solid business decisions,
I thought Linares was two cuts above Gesta, who wasn't deserving of a title shot and that's about how it turned out as I scored it a perhaps overly generous (for Gesta) 117-111 win for Linares.
It's just hard for me to believe HBO turned down rights to great stuff like Usyk (who they have televised in the past)- Breidis and next week's likely barnburner between Gassiev and Dorticos to buy fights like these and then have the head of their boxing department (Peter Nelson) actually try with a straight face before the card to portray these as "50/50 fights".
Just plain awful...

In the boxing challenge-Ramon Malpica earned six points for the weekend to my four to move ahead in the overall standings at 8-7.

Ramon earned three points from Lucas Matthysee's win and KO (Bonus point for round), two from Jorge Linares, and one from Oleksandr Usyk.
I received two from Matthysee and one each from Linares and Usyk.

Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge rolls on with a three-fight weekend with two of those on HBO, but the biggest of the three doesn't have an American home as of this writing.

The World Boxing Super Series returns from Latvia with the first of their two semi-finals in their Cruiserweight tournament as the WBC and WBO titles will be unified as WBC champion and hometown hero Mairis Briedis faces the top seed in the tournament WBO kingpin Oleksandr Usyk.
Usyk in being the top seed does show some flaws in the tournament as he not only faces the third seed (he should face the 4th), the top seed goes on the road for the second time in the tournament (he defeated Marco Huck in Germany in the first round).
So much for the advantages of the top seed of the tournament and if this is how things are going to done, seeding doesn't seem to have any use for future tournaments.
Briedis isn't the most exciting fighter, but I think he steps his game up against Usyk out of necessity and this is a more action-packed fight than some think.
Check the WBSS website or their Twitter page for last minute television information.

HBO Boxing televises their debut card with a less than thrilling card from Los Angeles.
Lucas Matthysse returns for a minor title against unknown Tewa Kiram, who has fought no one and I've never seen, so who really knows what he brings.
I've read some reports that give Kiram a chance against Matthysse, who has been vulnerable in the past against fighters that are durable enough to take his booming punch, but who really knows with an unknown commodity.

Jorge Linares returns off his tight split decision win over Luke Campbell to defend his WBA lightweight title against Mercito Gesta in what is one step above a squash match.
Gesta was thought to be a prospect at one time, but in his only loss (and the only time that he stepped up against world class opponents) to the slick boxing and dreadfully dull Miguel Vazquez, Gesta was badly outclassed and Linares is a full class ahead of Vazquez.
Unless Linares is suddenly a shot fighter overnight, this fight is not an HBO quality fight...

The boxing challenge is at 3-2 in my favor against Ramon Malpica

WBC-WBO Cruiserweight Title Unification/World Boxing Super Series Semi-Final. 12 Rds.
Mairis Briedis vs Oleksandr Usyk
Both: Usyk Unanimous Decision

Welterweights. 12 Rds
Lucas Matthysse vs Tewa Kiram
R.L: Matthysse KO 8
TRS: Matthyhsse KO 11

WBA Lightweight Title. 12 Rds
Jorge Linares vs Mercito Gesta
R.L: Linares Unanimous Decision
TRS: Linares KO 9

Todd Haley in as Browns Offensive Coordinator

The Cleveland Browns must have been serious about wanting to upgrade the offensive playcalling as the Browns didn't delay in hiring the recently fired Todd Haley from the Pittsburgh Steelers as their new offensive coordinator.

Haley's creative play calling has always been one of the problems (well, along with the talented offensive players that the Steelers possess) in stopping the high powered Pittsburgh offense since Haley took over after being the head coach in Kansas City (where he took the Chiefs to the playoffs once in four years) and production for the Steelers was not the issue in Haley leaving the Steel City.

The problem has always been a less than smooth relationship with Ben Rothlisberger and in a time when the Steelers are in some turmoil in the locker room and trying to keep Rothlisberger to continue to play and not retire, it was Haley, who was the dispensible product compared to the star quarterback and the head coach Mike Tomlin.

In any event, Haley brings the most proven offensive mind to Cleveland since the return of the team in 1999 (Bruce Arians and Kyle Shanahan's best OC work would come after leaving Cleveland and Norv Turner's track record might have might been mildly better than Haley's, but his best days were well past) and should give whatever quarterback takes the snaps next season and the skill players the Browns will have for that player to use a coordinator of quality to work with.

Haley will have to develop a quarterback and that's something that he didn't have to do in years in Arizona (offensive coordinator), Kansas City (head coach) and Pittsburgh (offensive coordinator), so that will be interesting to follow, but I love the hiring of Todd Haley and I think a motivated Haley should bring plenty to Cleveland.

The bigger question for me is not with Todd Haley, it is with Jimmy Haslam and the Browns.

Jimmy Haslam was quoted in Pittsburgh as saying that Hue Jackson hadn't lost his "Magic at calling plays", so that brings this to mind- If Jackson was such a play calling wizard and that Haslam believed in his skills so highly, why did the Browns hire Haley to call plays?

And if the Browns needed Haley after two years of Hue Jackson's play calling that led to 1-31, why is Jackson still here?

There is so much that I like thus far about the Browns front office hires, but I still question Jimmy Haslam keeping Hue Jackson.

Back later for the weekend boxing challenge...

Giants sign Austin Jackson, Indians lose Austin Jackson.

The San Francisco Giants still needed a centerfielder after the Andrew McCutchen trade and the team at least partially did so with the signing of veteran Austin Jackson to a two-year contract worth six million dollars.
The contract can rise to as high as 8.5 million with various performances bonuses and contract escalators and with or without the bonus clauses, is reasonable enough to add a veteran outfielder and still keep the Giants under the luxury tax hit.

The 31-year-old Jackson hit well last season for the Indians (.318/7/35) but struggled to stay healthy as he has had in the past and played in just 85 games.
I was hoping the Indians would be able to re-sign him, but part of what (up until now at least) has been the lost Indians offseason has been players that played well being allowed to leave Cleveland even when it seemed as the cost of keeping them (with the exception of Carlos Santana) would not be oppressive.
Jackson would have been a helpful role player for the Indians, but I'm still furious about the decision to keep the brittle Michael Brantley over the sturdy Jay Bruce over a million dollar difference (OK, the contract that the Mets gave Bruce was over three years, while the Tribe simply accepted an option on Brantley).
Jackson wouldn't have cured what is a worrisome outfield situation for me that seems to rely upon the hopes of Bradley Zimmer  being the real deal as a prospect ( I hope, but no prospect is a sure thing), Lonnie Chisenhall (I've never been as big of a fan of his as others are) to put up his half season 2017 numbers over an entire 2018 campaign and as mentioned above Brantley to stay healthy and just approach past performance, but he would have added a veteran bat to the depth chart and gave the Indians a little bit of wiggle room.

As for the Giants, I think the Giants are setting the righthanded-hitting Jackson up to share time in center and do not plan on handing him the full-time job there.
I think that they would love for it to be rookie lefty batter Steven Duggar that splits the job with Jackson because they really like Duggar, he'll be cost-conscious (rookie minimum) and he is very strong with the glove.
The question that Duggar brings to spring training is basically this- will he hit enough to be able to carry him right away and will the spring tell the Giants enough to know?
After all- Duggar has a grand total of 59 at-bats above AA ( 54 with AAA Sacramento and 5 with the Giants), so they will need to feel good about that answer either now or later before making the decision to go with Duggar, keep the glove first Gorkys Hernandez (they'd rather not since he's a righthanded hitter like Jackson), mine the dollar store free agent outfielder bin, perhaps sign a 4A type outfielder coming into April or make a trade soon, but no matter the decision, one thing is certain-whatever the decision, it will be someone that bats lefthanded.

Next post- Barring breaking news, I plan on writing about the Browns hiring Todd Haley as the new offensive coordinator and more importantly the play caller...

Andrew McCutchen

The final part of the Andrew McCutchen series talks about the loss of the player to the fan base of the Pirates and just how it's yet another hit to a team that seems to be settled in as the third franchise in a three franchise city with fans that are possibly leaving not long after returning...

Andrew McCutchen wasn't just a good player for the Pirates, he was an ambassador for the team in a city that was looking for a representative.
The Steelers had theirs in the Rooneys, Mike Tomlin, Ben Rothlisberger etc and the Penguins had Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and their stars, but where was the face of the Pirates?
For the most part, it was either the deceased Roberto Clemente, Manny Sanguillen sitting out in right field, Steve Blass telling stories in the booth or the beautiful ballpark.
Years of bad baseball had led to even average players with career seasons being pushed as Pirate stars and the awful track record with drafting and trades by general managers Cam Bonifay and Dave Littlefield had left the organization and minor league system filled with less than sterling talent.
Most years in the draft even when the Pirates picked in the top five (remember Bryan Bullington and Daniel Moskos?) the Pirates found a way to draft a low ceiling college player that wouldn't cost as much as a more talented player at the same draft position.

Only once, did Dave Littlefield break with this philosophy with McCutchen in 2005's in tabbing Cutch as a high school prospect out of Florida.
When you look at the 2005 draft, I can see that knowing how Littlefield liked to draft, he had to feel like he was taking a real risk on McCutchen as the only college position player that panned out following the Pirates pick at 11 (Which for the Pirates at the time was a pretty low pick) was Jacoby Ellsbury at 23 to Boston.
The high school choices were not plentiful either as only Jay Bruce, who the Reds took out of a Texas high school with the next pick had anything more than an average big league career, so give Littlefield credit for arguably the only great thing that he managed to do in his entire Pirate career.

Pirates fans could tell from the day he was drafted that McCutchen was different than the usual Littlefield pick and were excited to hear about him as he moved through the minor system.
That's how Cutch became one of the TRS favorites.
Cutch was drafted in 2005 right around the first full year that I started going to minor league games all the times and autographing, so I was excited to hear about this Pirate prospect that was going to be appearing in Hagerstown soon.
In 2006, my nephew Jeff was a Sun's batboy and he worked for the visiting team, so he talked to Cutch throughout the series and I have a few pictures of Jeff getting Cutch to sign a ball after a game for me.
Seems so long ago and I guess 12 years can be both long and short, but Cutch was a good signer and a nice guy even then, a bit quiet, but nice.
The picture above is a picture that Ryan took with a camera of the day (take note of the time stamp) during one day of the series and we had an 8 x 10 made the next morning to have Andrew sign that night.
That process alone shows the difference in twelve years!!

McCutchen skipped the then Pirates High A affiliate in Lynchburg (missing Frederick, the easiest place to graph on the circuit then) and would spend his 20-year-old season with AA Altoona, which is an awful challenging assignment for a high schooler.
Andrew was solid enough,but unspectacular (.258/10/48 in 118 games), but considering his age, a fair season and in two years, he was in Pittsburgh for good at 22.

Andrew McCutchen was the player that helped Pirate fans fall back in love with a franchise that had decayed away with a management that seemed not to care.
I compare those Pirates in some ways to the Browns (although the Browns have a much larger and more rabid base of supporters) in that there are/were people that still care, but were/are just so beaten down by losing, dumb moves, cheapness etc that they've become numb to it all.
Cutch was the start of those people and he was the start of me getting into this crazy hobby and fun business of caring and learning more about minor league prospects.
Andrew McCutchen also backed up on the field and for a small market team, he was what they so often need-a bankable superstar that gives that teams fans someone exciting to watch win or lose to go and see live or on television.

Now, he's gone and he would have likely been gone after the season anyway, but what the Pirates have said is that money is a little more important than winning.
What are the chances the Pirates make a big run this season with McCutchen and Gerrit Cole?
Less than average when you consider that their division is a strong one, but you could make a case that with a signing or two to a one or two year deal, that a playoff contending team wouldn't be out of the question.
Instead, the Pirates moved those players and didn't get one blue-chip prospect in return-not one.
Interesting ones?
Yes, I like Joe Musgrove and Kyle Crick could be a future closer, but none are top of the line, blue chippers and the Pirates chose to punt the season rather than even try.
What does these types of decisions always bring to my mind?
An obscure 80's teen movie called Three O'Clock High.
The premise is that this huge street fighter (Buddy Revell) is going to fight this average guy (Jerry Something) at three o'clock and the film follows the school day leading up to the fight with the hi-jinks that entail of how the fight is tried to be avoided etc before they fight.
This scene below features Buddy Revell asking Jerry how it feels after he pays him off not to fight him.-That's what I feel about the Pirates and especially so after losing Andrew McCutchen...
They didn't even try...