November 4, 2009
Muddled thinking
Everyone who follows football around these parts is feeling bad for Texans' TE Owen Daniels, who blew out an ACL in this past Sunday's game against Buffalo. He is done for the remainder of the season.
At the time of the injury, Daniels was having the best season of his four-year career and was leading NFL tight ends in receiving yardage.
But what is really bad about Daniels' situation is that he and his agent rolled the dice and rejected the Texans' offer of at least $15 million in guaranteed money for signing a multi-year contract before the beginning of this season. As a result, Daniels is playing this season under a one-year club tender called for by the collective bargaining agreement that pays him $2.8 million.
Daniels and his agent apparent rationale in rejecting the offer was that the Texans were low-balling in comparison to what other first-tier tight ends have received over the past couple of seasons. So, they decided that Daniels should take the risk of injury and play well this season so that, after the season, he could force the Texans either to match a higher offer from another team or let him go to the higher bidder.
But given the high risk of injury in the NFL, how could Daniels and his agent leave at least $12.2 million on the negotiating table? What were they thinking?
Now, Daniels will probably not be able to a complete season at full strength until the 2011 season. And there is no certainty that another lucrative offer will be awaiting him then even if he fully recovers from the injury and plays well.
I don't like the NFL compensation system. I believe it is far too highly-regulated. The system wrongly prevents the players who endure terrible physical risk and create most of the wealth for the owners from offering their services to the highest bidder.
But what I like even less is muddled thinking that results in a huge financial loss for a talented young man such as Daniels.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
November 2, 2009
2009 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Don Heupel; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)
The Texans (5-3) dominated the game, but somehow found themselves trailing the Bills (3-5) after three quarters.
Previous Texans teams probably would have folded, but this one seems to be improving on defense enough that the offense can shoot blanks for awhile and the game will not be lost (but remember, this is the Bill's offense that we're talking about here). The Texans' offense finally straightened things out in the fourth quarter, hammered away at the Bills' tiring defensive front and the Texans won this one going away with three rushing TD's in the final quarter. All in all, not a bad way to prepare for next Sunday's showdown at Indianapolis against the Colts (7-0).
A couple of notes. Backup RB Ryan Moats played really well (23/126 yd/6 rec/63 yd/3 TD's) in relief of fumble-prone RB Steve Slaton. Somewhat surprisingly, there did not seem to be any drop-off in production in going with Moats over Slaton and, if anything, it appeared that Moats hit the holes quicker and with more authority than Slaton. And without the fumbles.
Also, the Texans lost their second-best receiver -- TE Owen Daniels -- to what appeared to be a serious knee injury that will probably end his season. Will we now have a James Casey sighting?
Finally, for some reason, CBS did not show a replay of how Daniels got hurt (he was not involved in the pass on the play in which it occurred). However, Coach Kubiak was furious with the referees on the sideline at the time. Why on earth did the CBS announcers simply ignore how Daniels' injury occurred and why Kubiak was so upset?
Texas Longhorns 41 Oklahoma State 14
As noted last week, I expected the second-ranked Longhorns (8-0/5-0) to beat the Cowboys (6-2/3-2) relatively easily if the Horns' offense did not give the game away. As it turned out, the Horns' rugged defense forced five Cowboy turnovers, returned two of them for TD's and generally suffocated Okie State's high-powered offense. An impressive performance, indeed.
Despite this story line, ABC's absurd television production subjected viewers to dozens of shots of QB Colt McCoy and his parents, plus non-stop blather about McCoy's Heisman Trophy prospects.
Note to ABC -- McCoy specifically, and UT's offense in general, is not having all that good a season. Yes, McCoy had a very good season last year. But that was last season.
This season, there are at least a dozen QB's in major college football who are having a better season than McCoy. Yes, Texas remains undefeated, but that is largely the result of its stout defense and the fact that the offense has not stunk it up so badly in any game so far to blow one (although they were close to doing so in the OU game).
So, please. Give this "McCoy for Heisman" stuff a rest.
The Horns have a non-conference scrimmage next Saturday in Austin against Central Florida (4-3/3-3) of C-USA before finishing the regular season at Baylor (3-5/0-4), at home against Kansas (5-3/1-3) and at A&M (5-3/2-2). With its probable opponent in the Big 12 championship game being either Kansas State (5-4/3-2) or Nebraska (5-3/2-2), the Horns appear to have the easiest route of any of the top teams to the BCS National Championship game.
Houston Cougars 50 Southern Miss 43
15th-ranked Houston (7-1/3-1) QB Case Keenum's legend continues to grow.
This was one of those back and forth Houston games in which the opposition -- this time a pretty good Southern Miss (5-4/3-2) team -- couldn't stop the Cougar offense while the somewhat undermanned Houston defense was having trouble slowing down the other side.
Nevertheless, Houston usually wins these games, except when it turns the ball over more than the opposition, which it did in this game. So, when Southern Miss scored the tying TD with only 51 seconds to go, this game looked as if it was headed to overtime.
But Keenum proceeded to direct a five-play, 78 yard drive in about 30 seconds to pull out the win in regulation. His stats on the day -- 44 of 54 for 559 yds, 5 TD's and 1 interception. As I've noted many times, Keenum is playing at the highest level of any QB in major college football this season.
The Coogs face another tough test next Saturday at Tulsa (4-4/2-2), which is looking to bounce back from a home loss on Saturday to SMU. After the 70-30 shellacking the Cougars put on Tulsa in Houston last season, expect the Golden Hurricanes to be primed for an upset next week.
For the second straight week, the Aggies (5-3/2-2) generated a productive, balanced offense and won going away against the outmanned Cyclones (5-4/2-3). In their final four games, the Ags have two games in which they could win their sixth game and become bowl eligible -- at Colorado (2-6/1-3) next week and home against Baylor (3-5/0-4) on November 21st. The other two games -- OU (5-3/3-1) and Texas (8-0/5-0) -- appear to be long shots for an Aggie victory.
Thus, next week's Colorado game appears to be critical for the Aggies' season. The Ags will probably handle Baylor, which is playing out the string after losing star QB Robert Griffin for the season. A loss to Colorado would likely mean a 6-6 season for the Ags and a marginal bowl bid. Despite its poor record this season, Colorado is not without talent, so the young Aggies will have their hands full in Boulder next Saturday. But 7-5 final record sure looks better than 6-6.
Rice (0-8/0-4) was idle this past weekend. The Owls have a tough game at SMU (4-4/3-1) before returning home to play Tulane (2-6/0-4), which appears to be the Owls only remaining realistic chance for a victory this season.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
October 26, 2009
2009 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Dave Einsel; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)
The Texans (4-3) inched above .500 for one of the rare times in their eight season history with the win over the 49ers (3-3), but the way they accomplished it indicates that the team has a ways to go before becoming an above-average NFL team.
The Texans built a commanding 21-0 lead after a half, but let the 49ers come back behind their backup QB Alex Smith to have a chance to tie or win the game in the final two minutes. The Texans defense, which bottled up the 49ers in the first half -- became passive in the second half, allowing long TD drives in three of five second half possessions.
Meanwhile, the Texans offense -- which really was not hitting on all cylinders this day -- had only one sustained drive in the second half. The combination of defensive breakdowns with an offense that could not keep the defense off the field is usually a prescription for failure in the NFL.
But a win is a win in the brutal NFL, so the Texans head to next Sunday's game against the rugged but offensively-challenged Bills (3-4) with a legitimate shot at going into Indianapolis the following weekend at 5-3. They better beat the Bills because it does not currently look as if the Texans have much of a chance of slowing down the red-hot Colts (6-0). Thus, a 5-4 record going into the Week 10 bye-week is probably the best the Texans can realistically hope for.
How do you explain the Aggies (4-3/1-2) beating the spread by 43 points in defeating Tech (5-3/2-2), which had just blasted a team (Kansas State) by 52 points two weeks ago that pummeled the Aggies by 48 last week?
You simply can't. That's one of the endearing characteristics of college football, folks.
As noted earlier here, the Aggies have a bunch of talented players, but most of the them are playing either their first or second season of major college football. As a result, there are wild swings in their performance level, as reflected by the results of the past two games.
However, if the Aggies can win the turnover battle and their generally over-matched defense can keep the game close enough so that A&M can rely on a balanced offensive attack, then the Ags have a good chance of winning three (Iowa State, Colorado and Baylor) of their final five games (only Texas and Oklahoma look to be out of reach). A 7-5 mark in Coach Mike Sherman's second season at the helm would be a major success in Aggieland.
Surprising Iowa State (5-3/2-2) is up next for A&M at College Station this coming Saturday.
In a game that was not as close as the score indicates, the 3rd-ranked Longhorns (7-0/4-0) staked out a 21-0 first quarter lead and a 35-7 halftime lead over the Tigers (4-3/0-3) before slipping into cruise control in the second half.
The Texas offense showed signs of life as QB Colt McCoy finally had a decent game (26/31/269 yds/3 TD's/1 INT), but this simply is not the Horns' offense of last season. McCoy is not close to operating at the level he was last season or as the top QB's in the college game are this season (such as Houston's Case Keenum).
This Texas team wins games with a suffocating and hard-hitting defense, which is equally effective against the pass or run. With that defense, McCoy and the rest of the offense probably need only to be competent for UT to win out and play for the BCS National Championship.
The Horns game of the season to date is next Saturday night at Oklahoma State (6-1/3-0). If the Horns play in a similar manner as they did against Mizzou, then my sense is that they will win by at least two TD's.
As I've noted throughout this season, 15th-ranked Houston (6-1/2-1) QB Case Keenum has been among the best QB's in college football. Like a coach on the field, Keenum saw early that SMU (3-4/2-1) was dropping 8 and sometimes 9 defenders into coverage, so he patiently attacked the Mustangs with the running game and short flank passes.
The result was that the Cougars built a comfortable 24-3 halftime lead in a workmanlike manner. Thus, when WR Tyron Carrier took the 2nd half kickoff 92 yards for an electrifying TD, the Cougars had this one in the bag and essentially held serve for the remainder of the second half.
Although Keenum did not have a gaudy game statistically, his excellence was nevertheless apparent. When the Ponies closed to 31-15 with about 9 minutes to go, Keenum calmly directed the Cougars on a six minute, 11 play, 78 yard TD drive to put the game away without question. Impressive, indeed.
The Cougars face a tough test next Saturday afternoon against Southern Miss (5-3/3-1) at Robertson Stadium.
The Owls (0-8/0-4) are experiencing just how good the trio of QB Chase Clement, WR Jarett Dillard and HB James Casey were over the two seasons prior to this one. It now appears that the Owls only realistic chance for a victory this season is in three weeks against Tulane (2-5/0-4) at Rice Stadium. After a bye-week next Saturday, the Owls travel to Dallas to play SMU (3-4/2-1) on November 7th.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 24, 2009
Inspiration for a football Saturday
Still one of the finest endings in the history of cinema. Charles Dutton as Rudy's mentor Fortune, Jon Favreau as D-Bob and Ned Beatty as Rudy's father steal the scene.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 19, 2009
2009 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Donna McWilliam; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)
Texas Longhorns 16 Oklahoma 13
In an entertaining but sloppily-played game, 3rd-ranked Texas (6-0/3-0) rode their hard-hitting defense to tense victory over the now-reeling Sooners (3-3/1-1), who have a real chance at losing five games in a season for the first time since Coach Bob Stoops' first season at OU in 1999.
The Horns are good, but the inconsistent offensive production has to be a big concern for the Longhorn fans who are hoping for a return to the BCS Championship game.
QB Colt McCoy is not having a good season, the offensive line has been mediocre for most of the season and the wide receiving corps -- thought to be a strength at the beginning of the season -- was led on Saturday by true freshman Marquise Goodwin.
Despite UT's stellar defense, the Horns are likely going to need more than 16 points to beat Oklahoma State (5-1/2-0) the week after next in Stillwater.
The Longhorns play at Missouri (4-2/0-2) next week in an ABC Saturday night game.
The Texans (3-3) beat the Bengals (4-2) surprisingly easily, although all four of Cincinnati's wins this season have been nailbiters than could have gone either way. QB Matt Schaub pitched 4 TD's on 28-40 passes for 392 yards, although he also threw his seemingly obligatory bonehead interception that set up a Bengals field goal that allowed Cincy to seize the lead at the half.
The Texans had a good game plan against the Bengals. They used quick passes from Schaub to their talented group of receivers to set the pace, and then worked in periodic runs from RB's Slaton and Brown to keep the defense off-balance. This is essentially the approach that the Patriots have used successfully for years, so the Texans -- who have a smallish offensive line -- would appear to be well-equipped to emulate it.
But the more encouraging development for the Texans is that, for the second week in a row, the defensive unit shut down an opposing offense with a seasoned QB for the entire 2nd half of the game. NFL defenses tend to improve in spurts, and it would not surprise me that the Texans' unit -- which is sprinkled with high draft picks -- is starting to show signs of coming together. Given the potency of the Texans' offense, if the defense can mature into even a middle-of-the-pack NFL defensive unit, that could well be enough to vault the Texans to their first winning record in franchise history.
The Texans host the 49'ers (3-2), who are coming off their bye week, next Sunday at Reliant Stadium before hitting the road against the Bills (2-4) and the Colts (5-0) leading up to the Texans' Week 10 bye week.
There is something odd about playing in the cavernous Superdome in front of the tiny crowds that Tulane (2-4/0-3) attracts. As a result, Houston (5-1/1-1) seemed to sleep walk through the first half of this one before QB Case Keenum directed the Coogs' offense to five straight TD second-half TD drives and an easy victory over the Green Wave.
The 17th-ranked Cougars return home next Saturday to play much-improved SMU (3-3/2-0), which lost a heartbreaker in overtime to a good Navy team on Saturday. The Mustangs are still looking for the signature upset in the second-year of Coach June Jones' rebuilding program, so the Cougars better be ready to play on Saturday night.
Kansas State 62 Texas Aggies 14
Oh my.
In a game that was not as close as the score indicates, the Aggies (3-3/0-2) took a giant step backward from the overall progress that the young team had shown for much of the season in rolling over and playing dead to a mediocre Kansas State (4-3/2-1) team.
A&M has gone from looking like a reasonable candidate for winning 7 games this season just one week ago to wondering whether they can win another game. It is reasonably certain that a win will not come next Saturday when the Ags travel to Lubbock to play Texas Tech (5-2/2-1), which scorched Kansas State 66-14 just one week ago.
My sense is that the A&M administration is going to be patient with head coach Mike Sherman. However, if the Ags roll over and play dead to Tech as they did against Kansas State, will the Aggie tradition of unceremoniously dumping coaches overwhelm Sherman?
The Owls (0-7/0-3) looked a bit better this week on offense (faint praise given the offense's impotence this season), but the Owl defense took a hike against a rather pedestrian East Carolina (4-3/3/1) offense. I still think the Owls can win a couple of games this season, but their winnable games begin next Saturday at home against Central Florida (3-3/1-2). So, it's time for the Owls to start producing.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 16, 2009
"Why, those sorry bastards"
During football season, two Clear Thinkers favorite subjects are the annual Texas-OU game and former Texas head coach Darrell Royal (here, here, here, here and here).
So, this Barking Carnival post on the epic 1976 game -- Royal's last as Texas' coach -- is a must read on the eve of this year's game. The comment referred to in the title of this post was Royal's reply to former OU coach Barry Switzer's response to Royal's allegation that the OU coaching staff was spying on Texas practices.
The raw emotion of the game -- arguably the most severe of any rivalry game already -- rose to a boiling point in the '76 game as a result of the animosity between the coaching staffs.
Get ready to rumble!
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
October 13, 2009
Gameday Saturday in Death Valley
I went over to Baton Rouge this past Saturday with my friend John Stevenson and his family to visit my old friend Dan McCarney -- who is now the Assistant Head Coach of the Florida Gators -- and to attend the SEC showdown between the 4th-ranked LSU Tigers and the no. 1 ranked Gators. The Gators won 13-3 in a defensive slugfest.
Gameday Saturday in Baton Rouge is a special cultural event. The entire state of Louisiana -- which produces more NFL players per capita than any state in the U.S. -- takes special pride in its flagship university and its football team. A record Tiger Stadium crowd of over 93,000 attended the game, but tens of thousands more milled around outside the stadium in hundreds of tailgating parties (which feature splendid Cajun and New Orleans-inspired cuisine) spread throughout the campus.
The atmosphere for a big Saturday night football game is so intimidating for the opposition that the stadium was nicknamed "Death Valley" years ago. The Florida win on Saturday night snapped a 32-game winning streak for LSU in Saturday night games at Death Valley.
Here is slideshow that will give you a glimpse of Gameday Saturday in Baton Rouge. It is one the special experiences in college football. Enjoy!
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 12, 2009
2009 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)
The Texans 3rd loss in the fifth game of their eighth season (2-3) was actually four games in one:
The first 28 minutes, which the Texans were lucky to lose only 7-0;
The second was the final 2 minutes of the first half in which the Texans were pummeled 14-0;
The third was the first 23 minutes of the 2nd half, which the Texans dominated 21-0; and
The fourth was the final 7 minutes of the game, which the Texans lost 7-0 on a poorly-thrown pass that was returned for a TD and the failure to punch in a TD from the 1-yard line three times in the final minute of the game.
The message here is that, for whatever reason, the Texans do not play most games without breakdowns such as they suffered in the first, second and fourth games above. It's not clear to me that they are capable of doing so on a consistent basis.
The Texans travel to Cincinnati (4-1) next Sunday to play the red-hot Bengals before returning home the week after to play the 49er's (3-2).
Oklahoma State 36 Texas Aggies 31
Despite the NCAA's best efforts to help the Aggies (3-2/0-1) by suspending Oklahoma State's (4-1) best player (WR/PR Dez Bryant), the Cowboys prevailed as the Aggie defense -- exposed last week in the loss to Arkansas -- again could not stop a hard-chargin' marching band, much less the potent Cowboys.
The Aggies travel to Manhattan, Kansas next week to face Kansas State (3-3/1-1) and then to Lubbock to face Texas Tech (4-2/1-1). The Kansas State game is winnable for the Aggies; the Tech game does not appear to be.
Texas Longhorns 38 Colorado 14
If the Longhorns' (5-0/2-0) offense tries to hang another performance next week in Dallas against Oklahoma (3-2/1-0) like the one they got away with last Saturday against lowly Colorado (1-4/0-1), the 3rd-ranked Horns can kiss their dreams of an undefeated season and a national championship good-bye.
The Texas defense is very good. At this point of the season, the Texas offense is not.
Houston Cougars 31 Mississippi State 24
The 23rd-ranked Cougars (4-1/0-1) rebounded from their disappointing loss to UTEP by beating a BCS Conference opponent for the third time, which is the most of any non-BCS conference team this season. Despite throwing an interception for a TD, Cougar QB Case Keenum continues his amazing season, generating 434 yards passing (39-52) and 4 TD's. There is simply no QB playing in college football at a higher level of efficiency than Keenum.
The Coogs play Tulane (2-3/0-2) at New Orleans next Saturday before returning home to host SMU (3-2/2-0) and Southern Miss (3-3/1-1) in successive weeks.
Yeah, it's hard to prepare in a week for Navy's (4-2) idiosyncratic triple-option attack. But it's not that hard. The Owls (0-6/0-2) gave the first indication in this game that they are a team capable of losing every game season. I still think they will win a couple, but not if they play as they did against the Middies. The Owls travel to East Carolina (3-3/2-1) next Saturday.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 5, 2009
2009 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Dave J. Phillip; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)
So, what happens when the NFL's worst defense meets one of the NFL's worst offenses? Well, this time, Raiders (1-3) QB JaMarcus Russell is so bad that the Texans (2-2) defense dominated the game and propelled the local club to an easy victory.
The Texans potent offense played reasonably well in the first half, but after the Texans defense and special teams generated 9 points in about 10 seconds early in the third quarter (a safety and resulting Jacoby Jones kick-return for a TD), the offense simply held serve as the heretofore porous Texans defense held the Raiders to 165 total yards. The lack of offense from both teams made the final half almost unwatchable.
Prediction -- Russell will not be a starting NFL QB after this season. Maybe even before the end of this season.
The Texans now enter a tough stretch in their schedule in which they play four out of the next five games on the road before the Week 10 bye-week. First up is the Cardinals (1-2) coming off their bye week in Phoenix.
Note to the Texans defense -- Kurt Warner is no JaMarcus Russell.
This one was essentially two games -- the first was the initial ten minutes of the game in which the inspired Aggies (3-1) stunned the Razorbacks (2-2) and led 10-0.
Unfortunately for A&M, the other game was the remaining 50 minutes in which the Hogs blitzed the Aggies 47-9.
Look, the Aggies are not without talent, most of it quite young. But when a team is starting a true freshman at left offensive tackle, and mostly freshmen and sophomores comprise the two-deep roster, the reality is that such a team is going to get manhandled from time-to-time by more seasoned squads.
That's what happened to the Aggies yesterday. But I saw nothing in the game that indicated to me that the Aggies are a lost cause. On the contrary, give this bunch another year of maturity and sprinkle in another group of solid recruits, my sense is that the Aggies will again be competitive with all but the top flight programs (i.e., Texas and Oklahoma) in the Big 12. Even this season, the Aggies could win four more games (@Kansas State, Iowa State, @Colorado and Baylor). The others -- Oklahoma State (next week at home), @Texas Tech, @Oklahoma and Texas -- appear to be more problematic.
In the meantime, I'm picking Aggies QB Jerrod Johnson to be the QB on my sandlot team.
How does a team such as UTEP (2-3) that didn't generate 58 yards total offense in its game last week (a 64-7 loss to Texas) turnaround and score that many points in handing formerly 12-ranked Houston (3-1) its first defeat of the season?
The answer is in my first weekly football review of the season:
The trick for the Cougars this season will be to figure out how their young defense -- which lacks depth from several seasons of under-recruiting on the defensive side by previous head coach, Art Briles -- can maintain the type of gritty effort that the unit displayed against OSU's potent offense. UH defensive coordinator John Skladany is a master at getting the most out of undermanned defensive units (he was the DC for my friend Dan McCarney during Iowa State's bowl run earlier this decade), but he will have his work cut out for him in the coming weeks. If the Coogs defensive unit can consistently play at the level it did against OSU, and the team can avoid injuries to key personnel, the Cougars are likely to be a top-20 team.
The Coogs' defensive unit held up reasonably well against Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, but a hot UTEP squad exposed it for what it is -- a young and not particularly physically-imposing group that simply cannot play at the same level as Houston's high-powered offense.
The difference in this particular game was that Houston's defense was not able to force any turnovers, which it was able to do in both the OSU and Tech upsets. When the Cougar offense uncharacteristically failed to score on a couple of 2nd quarter trips into the UTEP red zone, that plus the lack of turnovers gave the Miners the edge they needed to pull off the upset.
By the way, even with the upset, Houston QB Case Keenum continues to play at the highest level of any quarterback in the nation through five weeks of the season.
The Cougars will not be able to lick their wounds for long as they take to the road again next week to play tough Mississippi State (2-3), which almost upset 5th-ranked LSU two weeks ago. After that, the Coogs ease into the main part of their Conference USA schedule, which should allow the Cougars to get back on track.
In the latest edition of the bitter Todd Graham Bowl, the Owls (0-5) continue to struggle on offense while their defense plays well enough to keep the score respectable. My over/under for Rice wins this season continues at two, and that may be a bit optimistic. The Owls host the potent Navy (3-2) triple-option attack next Saturday.
The Texas Longhorns (4-0) were off this weekend before starting the meat of their schedule next week at Colorado (1-3). Following that game, the Horns play in successive weeks 19th-ranked Oklahoma at Dallas, at 24th-ranked Missouri, and at 15th-ranked Oklahoma State.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
October 1, 2009
What price for taking on this risk?
I've never really understood the basis of the widespread criticism that professional football players are paid too much. In light of the pubic disclosure of the findings of a National Football League-sponsored study regarding the high rate of dementia in former NFL players, it occurs to me that the players aren't paid enough for the risks that they take.
Moreover, what happened to star Florida QB Tim Tebow last weekend underscores that the professional players in big-time college football are even more grossly underpaid than NFL players. Although an entertaining form of corruption, the NCAA's regulation of compensation to the athletes who largely create the wealth for university college football programs is nonetheless stunningly brazen corruption. That the mainstream media and much of the public stand by and continue to allow this parasitic system to flourish does not reflect well on us.
There is nothing wrong with universities being involved in promoting minor league professional football. If university leaders conclude that that such an investment is good for the promotion of the school and the academic environment, then so be it. But let's be honest about it. Allow the players who create wealth for the university to be paid directly, let's allow the universities to establish farm team agreements with NFL teams, and let's cut out the hypocritical incentives that are built into the current system.
Not only will it be fairer for the players who take substantial risk of injury, it would obviate the compromising of academic integrity that universities commonly endure under the current system.
Shouldn't that be enough incentive to reform the current system?
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
September 28, 2009
2009 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Dave J. Phillip; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)
Houston Cougars 29 Texas Tech 28
In one of the most entertaining games of the young season, the now 12th-ranked Cougars (3-0) pulled out the victory over Tech (2-2) with a magnificent 95-yard TD drive late in the 4th quarter engineered by QB Case Keenum, who has played better than any QB in the nation through the early part of this season. The Coogs did not play as well in this game as they did in knocking off then fifth-ranked Oklahoma State two weeks ago, but a plucky defense and the cerebral Keenum -- combined with a boneheaded decision by Tech Coach Leach to eschew a chip shot field goal in the 4th quarter -- were enough to propel Houston to victory. The Cougars travel to El Paso next week to face a UTEP (1-3) team that is licking its wounds after being hammered by Texas.
The Texans (1-2) continue to be plagued by a generally horrendous defense, although a horrific penalty call nullified what should have been a game-tying TD with about two minutes left. Although the Texans' offense looks to be productive enough for the club to have a decent shot at winning half their games, the lack of defensive development through three games raises a legitimate question of whether Head Coach Gary Kubiak has the depth necessary to correct the Texans' chronically deficient defense (anyone else think that Mike Nolan looks like a really good hire by the Broncos?). When an NFL defensive team that is comprised of multiple high draft picks still cannot stop the run or put pressure on the opposing QB, that's usually a sure sign that something is seriously wrong in the coordination of that unit. The Texans better even their record next Sunday against the Raiders (1-2) at Reliant because four of the following five games are on the road.
I mean really -- what are the second-ranked Longhorns (4-0) doing playing opponents such as UTEP (1-3)? The Horns' third-team could have beaten the Miners by 30. Incredibly, the Horns' defense held UTEP without a touchdown and to a total of 53 yards on 51 plays. Texas has an off-week before facing under-performing Colorado (1-2) in Austin on October 10th and then 8th-ranked Oklahoma (3-1) the following weekend in Dallas.
The Ags (3-0) won their third straight against creampuff competition, so the jury is still out on whether the Ags will be competitive against the better teams of the Big 12. Nevertheless, the Aggies are halfway toward qualifying for a bowl game for the first imte in three seasons and those chances improved markedly over the weekend with Baylor's loss of star QB Robert Griffen (torn ACL) for the season. The Ags take on an Arkansas (1-2) team next weekend in Dallas that has to date not been able to stop a hard-chargin' marching band. But at least the Razorbacks are an SEC opponent. That counts for something.
You know that the renaissance in Rice (0-4) football is over when the local media emphasizes that the Owls defense played really well in holding Vandy (2-2) to a 10-10 halftime tie. The reality is that the Owls are playing with an inexperienced group of QB's with a new offensive coordinator. This has not gone well and the next three opponents -- Tulsa (3-1), Navy (2-2) and East Carolina (2-2) -- are unlikely to allow the Owls to turn it around. My current over/under on Rice victories this season is two.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
September 15, 2009
Does anyone take John McClain seriously?
Please indulge me one last Texans-related post for the week.
John McClain, the lead Chronicle sportswriter covering the Texans, condemned this past Sunday's Texans' loss as the worst in the team's history.
Now that normally wouldn't be all that unusual. I mean, the Texans really did stink up Reliant Stadium.
However, McClain said the same thing about the Texans' loss to the Ravens just 10.5 months ago.
But even that wouldn't be so absurd except that, in between those two "worst" games, McClain generally dished up this type of blather about how good the Texans are poised to be this season.
I mean really, with far superior blogosphere sources such as Stepanie Stradley, Lance Zerlein and Alan Burge around to provide coverage of the Texans, does anyone take McClain seriously anymore?
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 14, 2009
2009 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Dave J. Phillip; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)
Well, as one salty high school football coach used to put it, "That went over about as well as a fart in church!"
In a home opener that was arguably as bad as the one in the their disastrous 2-14 Year Four season, the Texans had their collective ass kicked by a Jets team that was led by a rookie coach and QB. The Jets defensive front manhandled the Texans' offensive line, which is supposed to be one of the team's strengths.
Key tip of the day: Don't even think about listening to sports talk radio shows in Houston this coming week.
The reality of early-season games such as this is that the Texans (0-1) probably aren't as bad as they looked and the Jets (1-0) are probably not as good as the Texans helped make them look.
However, what should concern Texans owner Bob McNair is that Head Coach Gary Kubiak and his supposedly experienced and top-notch staff were clearly out-coached in preparation for the game and in making adjustments during the game. To his credit, Kubiak admitted as much during his post-game interview. But coming in his fourth season as a head coach, these types of debacles have to be wearing thin on even the extraordinarily patient McNair. And let's face it, despite their reasonably respectable 8-8 record last season, the Texans were only 3-7 going into their 11th game on November 24th.
The Texans face the Tennessee Titans (0-1) next Sunday in Nashville. Anyone who watched any of the Texans-Jets game already know the Titans' defensive game plan.
Houston Cougars 45 Oklahoma State 35
As I noted several times last season, the Houston Cougars (2-0) under second-year coach Kevin Sumlin are an endearing and fascinating team to follow. Thus, although the Coogs were a 16-point underdog at fifth-ranked Oklahoma State (1-1) on Saturday, anyone who has followed the Cougars under Coach Sumlin was not shocked (pleasantly surprised, yes) that Houston pulled off the upset of the Cowboys.
Behind third-year QB Case Keenum, Houston sports one of the best offenses in the country. Oklahoma State eventually figured out how to slow it down a bit in the 2nd half, but they were never able to stop it. Keenum throws the screen pass better than any college QB that I've seen in years -- his 32-yard TD pass to WR/Sprinter Tyron Carrier on a middle-screen play just before the half against OSU will be used by offensive coaches around the country for the next several years as the quintessential example of how to execute that particular play.
The trick for the Cougars this season will be to figure out how their young defense -- which lacks depth from several seasons of under-recruiting on the defensive side by previous head coach, Art Briles -- can maintain the type of gritty effort that the unit displayed against OSU's potent offense. UH defensive coordinator John Skladany is a master at getting the most out of undermanned defensive units (he was the DC for my friend Dan McCarney during Iowa State's bowl run earlier this decade), but he will have his work cut out for him in the coming weeks. If the Coogs defensive unit can consistently play at the level it did against OSU, and the team can avoid injuries to key personnel, the Cougars are likely to be a top-20 team.
The Cougars take next Saturday off before taking on high-powered Texas Tech (2-0) at Robertson Stadium late on Saturday, September 26th. Now that is shaping up to be one wild affair.
Earlier in Texas Head Coach Mack Brown's tenure at UT, this is a game that the Horns (2-0) could have lost or at least sweated until the very end. An inexplicably bad offensive game plan, poor special teams play, a below-average 1st half performance by star QB Colt McCoy, only 30,000 or so fans watching the game in a far-off locale -- those were all elements that could have led to an upset of the Longhorns under Brown five or six seasons ago.
But things are different for the Texas program now. Not only does Texas have as much NFL-caliber talent as any program in the country, the Longhorns of this part of Coach Brown's era at Texas play rock-ribbed, tough defense. Accordingly, against the likes of Wyoming, Texas now can under-perform for a half on offense and still win the game going away.
Now, the Horns won't want to risk that approach against Oklahoma, or even Texas Tech (2-0) next Saturday in an unusual early-season Big 12 Conference game. But my sense is that they won't. If the Horns can find a consistent running back out of their four or five good prospects at that position, then this team will be very difficult to beat.
Through two blowout losses, this season is shaping up to be a very difficult one for Rice (0-2), particularly after last season's success.
Undecided at the QB position and working in a new offensive coordinator, even an Owl defense that held the potent Tech offense to 14 points in the 1st half wilted during the 2nd half as the Owl offense continued to struggle.
And things don't get any easier for Rice over the next month. They face an angry Oklahoma State (1-1) team at Stillwater next Saturday, then they have consecutive home games against Vanderbilt (who gave LSU a good game last Saturday night in Baton Rouge), Tulsa (2-0) and Navy (1-1).
This could be a very long season for the Owls.
The Texas Aggies (1-0) were off on Saturday after last week's blow-out win over a poor New Mexico team (0-2, scorched by Tulsa 44-10 on Saturday). The Aggies take on Utah State next Saturday at College Station.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 11, 2009
Houston Texans, Year Eight
Year Eight of the Houston Texans begins this Sunday with a home game against the Jets, so it's time for my sixth annual preview of the team (previous annual previews are here).
Largely ignored amidst the inexplicable interest over the absurdly over-long NFL pre-season training camps is the harsh reality that the Texans have the worst record of any expansion franchise in the modern National Football League history.
As is usually the case in football, there are many reasons for the Texans' poor record, not all of which are the fault of the Texans' management and players. Nevertheless, Texans' management bears a substantial responsibility for the relative futility of the team over its first seven years, so it's helpful to review the team's journey in evaluating whether the Texans are finally ready to make the leap to being in contention for the NFL playoffs.
The Texans were the toast of Houston for their first three seasons during which Houston football fans were simply happy to have an NFL team again and didn't really have much in the way of expectations. Texans management and the local mainstream media trumpeted the party line that Texans were building a playoff contender "the right way" -- that is through prudent drafting and development of young players while eschewing the temptation of short-term rewards provided by over-priced veterans who were on the downside of their careers. The progressively better won-loss records in the first three seasons (4-12, 5-11, and 7-9) -- plus the drafting of young stars such as WR Andre Johnson, RB Dominack Davis (or whatever he ended up changing his name to) and CB Dunta Robinson -- seemed to indicate that the Texans' plan was working.
Unfortunately, those progressively better won-loss records distracted Texans management from recognizing the fact that the Texans' overall personnel was not close to contending for an NFL playoff spot. The best evidence of that was that the Texans entered each of their first four seasons with the same two core problems -- the Texans' offensive line could not protect the quarterback and the Texans' defensive front could not pressure the opposing team's QB.
Former Texans GM Charlie Casserly never could solve the offensive and defensive line problems (remember LT Tony Boselli, the flirtation with LT Orlando Pace, and the thoroughly unimpressive DT Anthony Weaver?). The 2005 draft was an absolute disaster (DT Travis Johnson as the 15th pick in the first round?) and initial Texans head coach Dom Capers' changes to the offensive and defensive systems between Years Three and Four proved equally disastrous. After the Texans limped home with a desultory 2-14 record in Year Four, Texans owner Bob McNair mercifully dispensed with Casserly and Capers.
Subsequently, McNair decided to blow up his original Texans management model and surprisingly hired Gary Kubiak, who promptly made (acquiesced to?) a whopper of a blunder in his first major personnel decision as Texans' coach -- retaining QB David Carr even though it was reasonably clear as early as before Year Three that Carr was unlikely to develop into an above-average NFL QB.
Kubiak -- who is a quick study in evaluating talent -- promptly soured on Carr during the early stages of Year Five, which was part of the reason why the Texans had one of the worst offenses in the NFL that season. As a result of enduring that Year Five offense, Kubiak arguably overpaid for QB Matt Schaub before Year Six and clearly overpaid for over-the-hill running back Ahman Green. Not much improved through 12 games of Year Six as even the local mainstream media cheerleaders were questioning whether Kubiak was the proper coach to right the Texans' ship.
Then, the Texans showed some spark and won three of their last four games to finish with an 8-8 record for Year Six, the first non-losing record in franchise history. The Texans' offense -- even without Schaub and star WR Andre Johnson for five and seven games respectively -- improved to 12th in the NFL in yards gained and 14th in points scored, by far the best finish of any Texans offense. That was enough to give the cheerleading local mainstream media and long-suffering Texans' fan base hope that things might finally turn around for the franchise in Year Seven.
Unfortunately, Year Seven amounted to running-in-place for the Texans. A solid season-ending win over the Bears allowed the Texans to finish at 8-8 again, but the team did not contend for a playoff spot and suffered several demoralizing defeats. Given that the team had a 7-9 record after Year Three, a reasonable case could be made that not much progress had been made from the end of Year Three through Year Seven. The offense was better, but the defense was worse than it was after Year Three. Had the deck chairs simply been rearranged on the Texans' Titanic?
On the other hand, several clear signs in Year Seven indicated that the Texans are headed in the right direction. The offensive line and the receiving corps were far-improved and have more depth than at any time in franchise history. Despite being somewhat brittle, Schaub showed the talent necessary to be a consistently above-average NFL QB. Likewise, RB Steve Slaton emerged as a game-breaking back who will only get better if another complementary back steps up from among a group of talented backs that the Texans have accumulated on their roster.
Moreover, although the Texans' defense did not improve statistically last season, the Texans have a nucleus of young defensive players who -- with proper coaching and sensible personnel adjustments -- are likely to gel into a reasonably effective unit sometime over the next couple of seasons. Improvement in NFL defensive units generally gestates over several seasons as young players gain needed experience, so I expect the defense to improve under new defensive coordinator Frank Bush, who is clearly a favorite of the players (unlike Kubiak's prior DC, Richard Smith).
Although I'm still not sold that Kubiak is the coach to take the Texans to the playoffs, I have always been impressed by his willingness to recognize mistakes, cut losses and make changes. He does not seem to be burdened with the stubbornness that often undermines NFL head coaches. In fact, that characteristic was a big part of why Dom Capers failed as the first Texans head coach.
Continuity in coaching staffs and personnel are the most common elements of successful NFL teams. Accordingly, absent a total meltdown similar to Year Four, my sense is that the eternally patient McNair will continue to endure blunders such as the Ahman Green deal in the hope that maintaining stability will ultimately reward him with a consistent winner. McNair certainly deserves it given the stellar support that he has provided to the Texans football operation.
So, are the Texans ready to contend for a playoff spot this season? Hard to say given the lack of defensive improvement during Year Seven. As I noted several years ago in defending the Texans' first-pick-in-the-draft selection of DE Mario Williams against almost universal mainstream media criticism, a common thread through NFL teams that take the step from mediocrity to playoff contention is that they find the right mix of defensive players that make it difficult for the opposition to mount a consistent rushing attack. The Texans have not found that mix yet, so playoff contention would appear to be a long-shot until they do.
However, given the high number of variables that play into a successful NFL season, picking NFL playoff teams is an extremely speculative endeavor. Almost all NFL playoff contenders are just a couple of key injuries away from the scrap heap. The Texans have accumulated enough talented football players on the offensive side of the football that they are in a position to seize the playoff opportunity if the variables tilt in their favor on the defensive side. But defensive improvement will likely be the key to whether this season is a breakthrough season or another disappointment. My sense is that the over/under for Texans' wins this season is eight, the same as last season.
Now that the sports blogosphere is matured, there really is little reason to rely any longer on the mainstream media for Texans news and analysis. The Chronicle sportswriters provide extensive coverage of the Texans, but the coverage lacks meaningful insight. Far superior coverage and analysis is provided in Stephanie Stradley's excellent blog, which she updates frequently, and Lance Zerlein's blog, which he updates several times a week. Moreover, the Houston Examiner's Alan Burge does a much better job of covering the Texans than the Chronicle sportswriters. I will continue my tradition of providing a 2009 weekly local football review each Monday during the season.
Finally, the following Texans blogs also provide superior analysis to that in the local mainstream media: Texans Gab; Battle Red Blog; DGDB&D (for "Da Good, Da Bad & DeMeco"); In the Bullseye.com; and Houston Diehards.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 27, 2009
The incredible lightness of the Chron's pre-season Texans coverage
This past Sunday's edition of the Chronicle marked the beginning of what is arguably the most mind-numbing portion of the sporting year -- the five-week period of media coverage of football practice prior to the start of the National Football League season in the second week of September.
Putting aside for a moment his delusions that the Stros actually have a legitimate chance of making the National League playoffs this season when 3/5th's of their starting rotation are well-below NL-average pitchers, the Chron's Richard Justice dusts off his Texans' cheerleading garb and lays this piece of fluff on us:
At least we've gotten beyond the basic issues that smothered the Texans for so long. There should be few questions about the coach or general manager. Gary Kubiak and Rick Smith have done their jobs well.
They inherited a 2-14 mess three years ago and rebuilt it breathtakingly fast. To go from 2-14 to 8-8 in two off-seasons is an amazing accomplishment.
Of course, this is the same Richard Justice who was saying the following just last October (2008):
Wouldn’t you love Bob McNair to start holding people accountable? Wouldn’t you love it if he acted like he cares as much as all those people who write the newspaper and phone the talk shows?
Do you think he understands he’s why this football team stinks? In the end, he’s the guy in charge and every stinking loss starts with him. [. . .]
Coaching isn’t just drawing up a running play that works. Coaching is instilling the right mindset in a team.
It’s getting players to understand what’s important. Don’t think for a moment the Texans don’t care. They do.
Rosenfels cares. Chester Pitts and Ephraim Salaam and DeMeco Ryans and Johnson care.
Those mistakes aren’t a statement about how much they care. They’re a reflection that somewhere along the way, this organization has gotten way off track.
If it was one game, or one series of mistakes, that would be one thing. This is year after year of mistakes, of figuring out different ways to write the same ending.
In fact, what Justice is saying about the Texans now is quite similar to what he was saying about the Texans under the Casserly-Capers regime immediately before the disastrous 2-14 season in 2004:
The Texans have made good use of their honeymoon. They've drafted wisely and spent shrewdly on free agents. They've assembled a front office admired around the NFL. Their players seem to be quality people. [. . .]
The danger for them is that their greatest strength could become their greatest weakness. They've done so many things right and have built such a model operation that it's impossible not to put expectations on a fast track. [. . .]
So far, it's impossible not to be impressed with what the Texans have done. They are run as efficiently as any sports franchise I've ever been around.
Just before the start of training camp, Casserly gathered his employees and thanked them for all their hard work. Then he went down the list of different departments and explained some little thing each had done that made the team - and the organization - better.
That's the kind of thing the people who run sports franchises almost never do, and it left every person who was mentioned proud to be associated with the Texans.[. . .]
Capers believes it's vital to emphasize doing things right because "if you ever slip, you can never get it back."
So far, the Texans haven't slipped in any significant way.
Meanwhile, the blogosphere continues to bail the Chronicle out. Stephanie Stradley, who pens the Texans Chick blog for the Chronicle, has just completed a series of blog posts (the first one is here and the final one with links to the other four posts is here) that provides more astute analysis of good information on the Texans than anything that I've ever read by the Chronicle sports staff. Another Chron blogger, Lance Zierlein, also does a better job of analyzing the NFL than any of the Chron sportswriters.
Given Stradley's competence in regard to professional football, guess what Justice thinks of her?
It's going to be a long NFL pre-season.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 16, 2009
Big Fan
I suspect that the NFL would prefer that you watch something else going into this upcoming season, but Big Fan looks interesting.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
April 30, 2009
McClain keeps mailing it in
This really was not meant to be my "bash the Chronicle" week. I mean, really -- the local newspaper already has enough problems.
But what else can one do when confronted with this blather from the Chronicle's lead NFL columnist, John McClain?:
Let’s cut to the chase: The Texans should make the playoffs for the first time. We all know it.
The Texans are better than they’ve ever been. Their offense was terrific when Matt Schaub returned from his knee injury and won three of his last four starts. The Texans have got a better running game.
With Frank Bush as the new coordinator, the defense should improve dramatically with the addition of nine free agents and draft choices competing for playing time.
Just six months ago, this is what McClain was saying:
I picked the Texans to beat the Ravens by three. Many of you said, in so many words, that I was a moron to pick the Texans. I was. I've learned my lesson. After getting every pick right this season, I blew this one. I won't make that mistake again this season.
After watching Sunday's game against Baltimore, I think the Texans are fully capable of losing the rest of their games and finishing 3-13. It's time to start preparing for the draft. Gary Kubiak's third season is over.
The Texans are a joke, an embarrassment to themselves, the organization and to the city. They put on a wretched performance at Reliant Stadium on Sunday when they quit in the fourth quarter and allowed the Ravens to humiliate them 41-13.
Under the circumstances, I believe this was the worst loss in team history. A victory at home over a team with a rookie head coach and a rookie quarterback would have made them 4-5. Now they're 3-6 with road games against Indianapolis and Cleveland, two more struggling teams that'll be licking their chops at the prospects of playing such a putrid team.
The Texans were horrible on offense and terrible on defense. Everyone on the team — indeed, everybody in the organization — should be embarrassed to say they participated in or witnessed this debacle.
Anyway, you saw what I saw. There's nothing left for me to say about this abomination . . .
Despite McClain's despair, the Texans somehow pulled themselves together to finish 8-8 on the season.
Of course, the above outburst came over a year after McClain had breathlessly anointed Coach Kubiak as the second coming of Bill Walsh.
And that came after years of McClain columns in which he extolled how former Texans GM Charlie Casserly and head coach Dom Capers were "building the Texans the right way." McClain quickly changed his tune when Casserly and Capers' "effective building" resulted in a disastrous 2-14 record in the Texans' fourth season.
Frankly, the Chronicle's NFL citizen-bloggers Stephanie Stradley and Lance Zierlein are much more measured and analytical than McClain in their coverage of the NFL and the Texans.
Does anyone in Chronicle management even notice?
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
April 7, 2009
Is this really the best that the Chronicle can do for its lead sports columnist?
Remember awhile back when Chronicle lead sports columnist Richard Justice defamed Stephanie Stradley, a very good local blogger on the Texans and the NFL who now blogs at the Chronicle?
Well, ol' Richard is at it again.
This time the subject of Justice's venom is Alan Burge, who pens a very good blog on the Texans for the Houston Examiner.
Burge recently made a comment on one of Justice's blog posts regarding Texans GM Rick Smith, who Justice has been belittling for months because Smith fired Justice's friend, former Texans strength coach, Dan Riley.
At any rate, after Burge commented (he goes by "AJ" in the comments) on Justice's blog post, Justice responded by belittling Burge's comment. Burge responded by again challenging Justice's statements regarding NFL contract provisions. Justice responded by continuing to belittle Burge and concluded by accusing Burge of stealing "from others and calling it research."
Inasmuch as Justice has previously removed some of his defamatory statements from his blog site after publishing them, I copied four of Burge's comments and Justice's replies to them before Justice could remove or edit them (he has, in fact, done so now). Burge's comments and Justice's replies are set forth in the document below. Also included in the document is a comment from another commenter who was appalled by Justice's comments toward Burge and Justice's reply to that comment.
With "top" talent such as this, is there any hope for the Chronicle?
Richard Justice Comments
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
March 9, 2009
The real reason why the Texans re-signed David Anderson
I don't keep up on the market in the NFL for back-up wide receivers, but I was still surprised last week when the Texans matched Denver's $4.5 million offer (including a cool $1 million up front) to restricted free agent David Anderson.
$4.5 million for a back-up wide receiver and special teams guy? Really?
But now I know the real reason that the Texans re-signed Anderson -- he keeps the other players loose in the locker room. And based on the video below, he is well worth the $4.5 million. Check out Anderson's imitation of ESPN's NFL Gameday analyst Ron Jaworski. Absolutely spot on.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 20, 2009
IMG's bad week
The late Mark McCormack must be spinning in his grave. His baby has had a very bad week.
McCormack was the attorney who parleyed his friendship with PGA Tour star Arnold Palmer to create the world's leading management firm for professional athletes and celebrities, International Management Group, now known as IMG. In addition to Palmer, McCormack represented such icons as Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev and Pope John Paul II, to name just a few.
McCormack died in 2003 after suffering a major heart attack and his shares in IMG were sold in connection with the administration of his estate. With his death, the oversight of IMG passed on to a new generation of managers led by über-agent, Ted Forstmann.
Well, that new generation of managers just hit a serious bump in the road.
First, although a relatively small deal, IMG suffered a disproportionate amount of horrendous national publicity over its handling of the contract negotiations of eccentric but successful Texas Tech football coach, Mike Leach.
Not only did IMG alienate the decision-makers at Tech to the point that the university seriously considered firing Leach, IMG's handling of the matter forced Leach to resolve the contract impasse himself in a face-to-face meeting with Tech's chancellor yesterday afternoon. What is Leach paying IMG for, anyway?
At any rate, Leach's resolution of the impasse over his contract at least saved IMG from facing the prospect of a $10 million-plus malpractice damage claim from Leach for fouling up the negotiations.
But it appears that IMG may not be as fortunate with regard to its relationship with the major business fraud of this week, Stanford Financial Group.
Check out this NY Post article (H/T Joe Weisenthal at Clusterstock):
The Post has learned that IMG quietly agreed to steer clients looking for investment advice to Stanford Financial Group, potentially exposing them to millions of dollars in losses resulting from the financial firm's alleged fraud.
According to three sources with knowledge of the situation, IMG and Stanford have a quid-pro-quo agreement under which Stanford Financial pays IMG a low- to mid-seven-figure consulting fee in exchange for IMG advising its clients - which include golfers Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, David Toms, Sergio Garcia and others - to have their money managed by Stanford.
The backroom bargaining has exposed IMG to charges of double-dealing, and is raising questions about where the firm's allegiances lay: with Stanford Financial or its athlete clients. [. . .]
IMG's deal with Stanford Financial involved the management firm advising the now-tarnished financial firm on where to spend sponsorship money, particularly related to golf tournaments.
Stanford's alleged fraud could cost IMG north of $10 million in fees, as well as any clients who got burned in the scandal.
For the time being, IMG is denying that it parked some of its clients' funds at Stanford in return for Stanford hiring IMG as a consultant. But IMG's denial raises as many questions as it answers, such as how did IMG's clients find Stanford if IMG didn't point them in that direction? You can rest assured that, if IMG was in fact consulting for Stanford while recommending that its clients invest money with the firm, IMG will probably just open up its pocketbook and reimburse those clients for any losses attributable to Stanford's demise.
Any other approach to the Stanford problem would be an even bigger public relations fiasco than what IMG has suffered over the Leach-Tech contract negotiations.
Frankly, regardless of whether IMG had a consulting deal with Stanford, that IMG may have recommended that at least some of its clients invest funds with Stanford raises serious questions about the firm's judgment. As noted earlier here, the Houston business community widely-knew for years that any investment in Stanford was an extremely risky bet.
IMG's immediate and vehement denial of any conflict of interest in regard to Stanford and its other clients reflects that it is taking this problem seriously. We all know what happens when a trust-based business loses the trust of the market.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
February 16, 2009
What are Leach and IMG thinking?
This earlier post noted the fascinating contract dispute that has arisen between Texas Tech University and the most successful coach in the school's history, Mike Leach.
Now, with the university and Leach at loggerheads, and a university-imposed February 17th deadline looming to get a deal done on a proposed modification and extension of Leach's contract, the real issue ought to be this -- why has IMG, Leach's agent in these negotiations, allowed the negotiations to reach impasse?
Well, it probably is not all IMG's fault because Leach has a law degree and is likely highly-involved in the negotiations. But one has to wonder about the judgment of the agent and the coach who would allow a five-year, $12.7 million contract go up in smoke over a few contractual details that simply should not be deal breakers.
To put this in perspective, the contract that Tech has offered Leach is one of most lucrative in big-time college football, almost certainly one of the top 10 or 15 contracts in terms of compensation. What makes that all the more remarkable is that Tech -- with a relatively modest athletic budget of a bit less than $50 million a year -- is not close to being one of the most lucrative football programs in college football. By way of comparison, Texas' annual athletic budget is over $100 million and Oklahoma's is about $75 million.
In short, a distinct possibility exists that the eccentric Leach will never receive another offer as lucrative as Tech's current one in his coaching career. How on earth is Leach -- who is a good but not great coach -- thumbing his nose at that kind of scratch?
In short, because IMG and Leach don't like several contractual details of the university's proposed contract. For example, IMG and Leach want it to be relatively inexpensive for another program to swoop in and hire Leach away from Tech. Not surprisingly, Tech wants it to be relatively expensive for another program -- at least during the first three years of the new deal -- to hire Leach away from Tech.
Similarly, Tech doesn't want to have to pay an arm and a leg to buyout Leach's contract if it wants to make a change, while IMG wants Tech to pay Leach a buyout equal to 40% of the remaining compensation due Leach under the contract at the time Tech elects to fire him.
The other two issues are so minor that they barely merit mentioning. First, Tech wants Leach to pay a penalty of $1.5 million if he interviews with another school during the term of the contract without Tech's consent. The other issue is that Tech wants to have any outside income that Leach arranges approved by Tech and run through the athletic department.
Having been involved in a few of these rodeos, here's why I think IMG and Leach are foolish if they allow this potentially lucrative deal to evaporate on Tuesday.
First, it's simply not unreasonable for Tech -- which does not have a particularly wealthy football program -- to hedge its risk of losing Leach to another program by requiring a substantial buyout of the contract. The purpose of such a buyout is to allow Tech to mitigate its loss by using the buyout funds to hire a good coach to replace Leach. Moreover, the amount of Tech's proposed buyout will not deter a bigger program that really wants Leach. IMG and Leach ought to recognize this reality, negotiate the least amount of buyout that they can, and move on.
The buyout of Leach is the toughest issue, but not all that difficult to resolve. IMG's 40% proposal, particularly during the early years of the contract, is unrealistic given the size of Tech's resources, so they should come off those amounts. On the other hand, Tech's proposal for the buyout in the later years of the contract is relatively paltry, so Tech should come up considerably on those amounts. By both sides giving a bit in those areas, a deal can be reached.
The other two problem provisions are easily resolvable. On the outside compensation issue, Tech has to regulate that income under NCAA regulations, so requiring Leach to obtain Tech's approval is not an unusual or unreasonable demand. Leach and Tech should simply agree that Tech will have the right to approve any such outside comp and that such approval will not be withheld unreasonably. For his part, Leach should agree that he will report and account to Tech for all such outside income so that Tech can comply with its obligations under NCAA regulations.
Finally, Tech would probably waive the proposed $1.5 million penalty if Leach would simply agree that he won't interview for another job during the term of the contract without Tech's approval, which Tech should agree would not be unreasonably withheld. Then, if Leach were to do so anyway, Tech could elect to fire Leach for cause, which means that it wouldn't have to pay him anything further under the contract. That would resolve that issue.
So, if the foregoing is all that it would take for Leach to become a multi-millionaire, then why are IMG and Leach thumbing their noses at Tech's attractive offer?
The only answer I can come up with is that sometimes pride and emotion really can overwhelm good judgment during the heat of negotiations.
Having said that, I still think cooler heads prevail and a deal gets done. There is simply too much for Leach to lose by not doing so. Leach may be eccentric, but he is not stupid.
And IMG didn't become the world's most successful agents by recommending that their clients reject very lucrative contracts.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
February 8, 2009
Is Leach worth it for Tech?
A fascinating dispute between Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach and Texas Tech University highlights the tension in the relationship between the business of big-time college football and academia.
According to this Examiner.com article (a more-detailed Don Williams/Avalanche Journal article is here and a Double-T Nation blog post is here), Leach and Tech have agreed on the financial terms of an extended contract, but are hung up over several issues relating to termination and buyout of the contract, including Tech's demand that Leach agree to pay the school $1.5 million if he interviews for another head coaching job without Tech's permission.
Thus, despite Leach being Tech's most successful football coach, Tech isn't all that secure about Leach. And despite Leach's success at Tech, Leach isn't all that thrilled about being at Tech, which is evidenced by his continually seeking other head coaching jobs. Tech apparently thinks that Leach's wanderlust makes Tech look bad, so Tech is seeking to restrain Leach's efforts to obtain another job by making it expensive for him to do so. However, by making such a demand, Tech reinforces to Leach that he really would prefer to be somewhere else.
So, Tech is caught in a conundrum. On one hand, Leach has generated profitable attention for Tech; thus, it makes sense to pay big money to keep him. However, on the other hand, Leach turns around and disparages Tech in the coach marketplace by continually trying to leave. Why pay big money to someone who is diminishing the value of your product?
Nevertheless, Tech is probably over-thinking this issue. Leach is a good coach, but not the best diplomat. Pay him a salary commensurate with Tech's financial capability and Tech's position in the Big 12, and then require a hefty buyout to compensate Tech if another program hires Leach. Don't worry much about Leach's wanderlust -- a large buyout will deter most programs from pursuing Leach. Trying to restrict Leach's wanderlust by imposing a penalty is counterproductive in that it forces Tech to endure a coach who really does not want to be there while reducing the chance that Tech will realize a windfall from another program hiring Leach and paying Tech the buyout.
Having said all that, is Leach really worth it for Tech? Could Tech's program do about as well with another (and likely, far less expensive) coach who is truly content with his position at Tech?
It sure would be refreshing to see Tech decide to find out.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 1, 2009
A solid Super Bowl Ad
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 28, 2009
Evaluating the NFL QB's and RB's
As Super Sunday approaches, check out this Dave Berri post on his final quarterback and running back ratings for the 2008 season.
A few observations:
The Texans' QB Matt Schaub had the 10th best season among QB's and rookie RB Steve Slaton had the 4th best season among running backs. Three of the seven QB's selected for the Pro Bowl rated worse than Schaub. All six of the Pro Bowl RB's rated worse than Slaton!
QB Chad Pennington, who the Jets discarded in favor of Brett Favre, finished 3rd in the rankings. Aaron Rodgers, who the Packers kept instead of Favre, finished 11th, one behind Schaub. Favre finished 27th, which was among the worst performances in the league. Favre, not Pennington, Rodgers or Schaub, was invited to the Pro Bowl. John Madden does very good PR for Brett Favre.
One of the only five QB's who rated worse than Favre this season is the Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger, who just happens to be QB'ing the favored team in Sunday's big game. Kurt Warner, the opposing QB in the Super Bowl, finished in 9th place, one slot ahead of Schaub.
Finally, Berri makes an important distinction between the highly interdependent nature of football in comparison to baseball and basketball:
[W]e must remember that systematic analysis in football is extremely difficult. Unlike basketball and baseball -- where player performance is largely independent of his teammates (at least for hitters in baseball) -- the performance of football players depends on the performance of the player’s teammates. These interaction effects severely hamper the objective analysis of the game.
And that can be seen when we look at how much time I devote to discussing football. Like I did with basketball, I also have a model to measure performance in football. But the measurement of performance in football really only tells one story. The interaction effects in football cause the performance statistics to be inconsistent. So the players we see perform well today are not necessarily going to perform well tomorrow. Although I like telling that story, it’s really about all I ever say about the NFL.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 18, 2009
The Hardest Job in Football
As you settle in to watch today's two NFL conference championship games, be sure to check out Mark Bowden's excellent article in this month's Atlantic on the enormous human and technological resources that to into the television production of a typical NFL game.
Sort of makes a two-minute offense at the end of a game seem a bit mundane in comparison, wouldn't you agree?
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 12, 2009
2008 Weekly local football review
(previous weekly reviews are here)
Texas Longhorns 24 Ohio State 21
In a not particularly well-played, but nevertheless highly-entertaining Fiesta Bowl last Monday night, the Longhorns (12-1) used some more QB Colt McCoy magic with 16 seconds left to pull out the victory over upset-minded Ohio State (10-3).
After arguably his worst half of the season, McCoy (41-59/414 yds/2 TD/1 INT) rebounded in the second half of the game to lead the Horns to a 17-6 third quarter lead, then engineered the spine-tingling comeback in the final two minutes after the Buckeyes had rallied during the fourth quarter to take the lead. WR Quan Cosby had a monster game (14 receptions for 171 yds and 2 TD's) and capped his Longhorn career with a spectacular catch and run for the game-clinching TD.
In many respects, this Longhorn team was the product of the best performance by head coach Mack Brown during his tenure at UT. With Oklahoma's (12-2) loss to Florida in the BCS Championship game, the win over tOSU gave the Horns the best record and the highest national ranking of any Big 12 team. The Horns survived a brutal mid-season stretch of games against highly-ranked teams and came within a dropped interception in the final minute of the Texas Tech game of playing in the BCS Championship game. Given their improvement on defense this season over the 2007 season, the stability of the coaching staff and the return of McCoy next season, UT's future remains bright, although the failure of a dominant running back to emerge this season is cause for some concern.
UT's troubles against Ohio State, Texas Tech's embarrassing loss to Mississippi in the Cotton Bowl, and OU's loss to Florida reflects a trend of Big 12 teams having problems against top-tier defenses of non-Big 12 teams. The Longhorns' lack of a consistent rushing attack was a problem against the salty Ohio State defense and that inconsistency could leave the Horns vulnerable next season to the tougher defenses that they will face against a top tier team in a bowl game.
In fact, the lack of top-notch defenses overall in the Big 12 should be at least a moderate concern for conference coaches and officials, who appear to have swung the pendulum too far in favor of the offenses in an effort to create exciting, high-scoring games. Texas Tech's offensive linemen looked absolutely shocked during the Cotton Bowl when referees from another conference actually called holding against them a couple of times during the game. Tech's offensive linemen rarely endured holding calls this season from Big 12 referees.
Such small problems aside, things are definitely looking up for the Longhorns next season. With a much more favorable schedule, the Longhorns will begin the 2009 campaign as a consensus top 3 pick in the national polls. Inasmuch as OU will probably have to replace their star QB Sam Bradford, the Horns will probably also be the consensus favorite to win the Big 12 championship.
It's all good these days in Longhorn Country.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
January 5, 2009
2008 Weekly local football review
(WRMSOX photo; previous weekly reviews are here)
As expected, the Owls (10-3) rolled to an easy win in the Texas Bowl last Tuesday as star QB Chase Clement (30-44/307 yds/3 TD's/12 carries for 72 yds/1 TD/1 catch/13 yds/1 TD) and the potent Rice offense overwhelmed the Western Michigan defense (9-5). Any further question why Notre Dame opted for the Aloha Bowl over facing the Owls in the Texas Bowl?
The victory gave the Owls their 10th win in a season for the first time in almost 60 years and their first win in a bowl game since the 1954 Cotton Bowl.
Inasmuch as I've been watching the Rice offense develop over past three seasons under Clement, I was not surprised by the Owls' performance this season. Clement, WR Jaret Dillard and WR-TE-RB James Casey were as talented a trio of offensive players on one team as any in the nation.
The problem that the Owls face is whether they can sustain that level of performance.
Clement and Dillard are both seniors, as is a substantial part of the Owls' offensive line. Casey is a likely NFL draft choice, so it is unlikely that he will take the risk of uncompensated injury by returning for another season at Rice. Tom Herman, the Owls' offensive coordinator who really ignited Rice's spread offense over the past two seasons, left Rice last week to take the same position at Iowa State.
So, Owls head coach David Bailiff is going to have his hands full trying to maintain the performance level that the Owls attained this season. I hope he can, but I have my doubts.
Houston Cougars 34 Air Force 28
The Cougars (8-5) completed a successful first season under new head coach Kevin Sumlin with a victory over a plucky Air Force (8-5) squad on New Year's Even afternoon in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth.
The game should not have been as close as it was. The referees inexplicably took away a second half TD from Houston even though it was clear from the replay that RB Bryce Beall had possession of the ball while breaking the plane of the goal line before fumbling (see picture above). Also, the Air Force's only second-half TD, which allowed the Falcons to narrow the Coogs' lead to three, was set up by star Cougar TE Mark Hafner allowing an easy pass reception to ricochet off his chest into the hands of a Falcon defender. But for that blown call and Hafner's gaffe, the Coogs would have won this one going away.
Nevertheless, the Coogs will take the victory, their first bowl win in nine tries since their last bowl win the 1980 Garden State Bowl. Beall, the Cougars' true freshman RB, was the star of the game as he shredded the Falcons' defense for 135 yds on 22 carries (6.1 ave) and a TD, while catching four screen passes for an additional 92 yds.
Meanwhile, Cougar QB Case Keenum managed the Cougar offense magnificently (no college QB sets up and throws a screen pass any better), guiding the Coogs to over 400 yds total offense while spreading the ball around to seven different Cougar receivers.
And as noted above, the Cougar defense -- which has been the team's weak point all season -- really stepped up in the second half and did a fine job of containing the Falcons' wishbone offense.
With almost all of their offensive playmakers returning, the Cougars should possess one of the most potent offenses in college football next season. The challenge will be to upgrade the defense, which has suffered the past two seasons from several years of under-recruiting by former Houston coach Art Briles' staff. Given the probable productivity of the Cougars offense, even a relatively small improvement in the Cougars' defense next season is likely to vault Houston to the top tier of non-BCS Conference football teams.
The Longhorns (11-1) take on Ohio State (10-2) in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl at 7 p.m. tonight in Phoenix on FOX. The Vegas line on the game began at Texas minus 11, but it has since moved to Texas minus 8 and, at a couple of casinos, Texas minus 7.5. Take that for what it's worth.
As predicted, head coach Gary Kubiak didn't waste any time after the conclusion of the season in firing defensive coordinator Richard Smith and two of his assistants.
As noted since his hiring, I'm not convinced that Kubiak is the best fit as a coach to develop the Texans into a playoff caliber team. However, I am impressed with his willingness to recognize mistakes and take actions to attempt to correct them. Stubbornness is a common characteristic of unsuccessful NFL coaches and Kubiak does not appear to be afflicted with it. Hopefully, he will hire a seasoned NFL defensive assistant who can develop the Texans' young talent into a unit that is as productive as the Texans' offense.
On the other hand, I couldn't help but note the following passage from this NY Times article on the recent firing of long-time Denver Broncos head coach and Kubiak mentor, Mike Shanahan:
Although [QB Jay] Cutler gave the Broncos hope for the future, Shanahan was ultimately undone by an increasingly leaky defense, something a revolving door of defensive coordinators could not seal, and a string of questionable draft picks and free-agent signings that Shanahan made as the team’s executive vice president for football operations. In Shanahan’s absence, the Broncos are in the market for a general manager as well.
The Broncos’ defense was ranked among the league’s top seven in seven of the nine seasons beginning in 1997. In the last four years, however, the defense plunged to middle-of-the-pack status, then to No. 29 in 2008.
If Kubiak hires a Denver retread as his new defensive coordinator who doesn't improve the Texans' defense markedly, then similar words will be written about him within a year or two.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 3, 2009
Football or P.R. Genius?
Richard Justice has already deemed him a genius.
Earlier this month, he visited President Bush in the White House and, on Sunday night, he will be profiled on CBS-TV's 60 Minutes.
Even Michael Lewis has bought in to the genius story.
But after a middle-of-the-road SEC program thoroughly manhandled his Texas Tech squad in the Cotton Bowl yesterday, Mike Leach looks more like a public relations genius than a football one.
Look, Leach is a reasonably good coach with an innovative offense. However, he is not close to being the savant that Tech's breakout season is leading some folks to suggest.
In fact, an objective evaluation of Leach's Tech career reveals that his teams run up big offensive numbers, but are not particularly impressive against teams with comparable or better talent.
After Tech's 11-2 record this season, Leach has a 76-39-0 record in his nine seasons at Tech, which works out to a salty 66% winning percentage. Although that is the best mark of any long-time coach at Tech over the past 70 years, a substantial part of Leach's success has been his 29-5 (85.2%) regular season mark against non-Big 12 opponents, which have been mostly sacrificial lambs.
Of those 34 non-conference games, only five have been against other BCS-conference teams -- Ohio State (loss), Mississippi (2 wins) and North Carolina State (2 losses). The last time that Tech even played a non-conference regular season game against a BCS-conference opponent was in 2003.
Meanwhile, Tech under Leach has feasted on such sacrificial lambs as Division 1-AA teams Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston State, Indiana State, Southeastern Louisiana, Northwestern State, Eastern Washington and UMass, as well as undermanned Division I-A outfits such as SMU and New Mexico. Eleven of Tech's non-conference wins under Leach have been against SMU and New Mexico. Winning over 85% of those games isn't particularly impressive.
On the other hand, Leach's Big 12 conference record is another story. Even after this season's 7-1 Big 12 record, Leach's record in Big 12 play is 42-30 (58.3%). Leach-coached Tech teams are only 4-14 against Texas and Oklahoma, including this season's 65-21 embarrassing loss to the Sooners that removed Tech from any serious consideration for a BCS Bowl game.
Indeed, Leach's teams have had only a 4-4 Big 12 conference record in four of of his nine seasons at Tech, including two of the last three. With yesterday's loss in the Cotton Bowl, Leach's bowl record at Tech is a decent, but certainly not superlative, 5-4.
Finally, Leach has used extremely poor judgment in some of his public remarks about assistant coaches on his staff, and he has exhibited a selective memory in his comments about game officials, too.
So, given Leach's prolific offense, why aren't his teams better against big-time opponents?
The main reason is that the defenses on Leach's Tech teams have been generally dreadful, a quality that has not been helped by Leach's tendency to place his defenses in awkward field position situations by taking bizarre fourth-down chances and throwing high-risk passing plays deep in Tech's side of the field. This is genius?
Having said all that, Leach has done an admirable job at Tech. Producing a consistently winning team and going to nine straight bowl games is a noteworthy accomplishment at Tech.
However, Leach's record at Tech is simply not extraordinary and not indicative of the genius label that many are attaching to him. And it is unlikely that he will ever do better than he has this past season because the nature of his system makes it difficult for him to recruit the defensive talent necessary to compete at the highest levels of the big-time college game.
Frankly, my sense is that it's more likely that another innovator of offensive football -- Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson -- will get his team to a BCS Bowl game before Mike Leach.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
January 2, 2009
Summing up the New Year's Day Bowls
Says TigerHawk:
"Until I witnessed Brent Musburger's love of USC, I did not think it was possible for a journalist to love a subject more than Chris Matthews loves Barack Obama. Now I am not so sure."
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
December 29, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Dave Einsel; previous weekly reviews are here)
Well, at least this time, the Texans (8-8) beat the Bears' (9-7) first-string rather than the Jags' junior varsity to achieve only the franchise's second non-losing season in seven NFL campaigns. The win also allowed the Texans to match my pre-season prediction for wins this season.
As usual, the Texans were led by their star WR Andre Johnson, who had 10 receptions for 148 yds and two TD's. QB Matt Schaub finished 27-36 for 328 yards, the two TD's to Johnson and, most importantly, no interceptions.
After the Bears jumped off to a 10-0 lead in a desultory first quarter, the Texans' offense pretty well had its way with the Bears' defense, rolling up 455 yds total offense. Surprisingly, after looking defenseless during the first quarter and losing stud DE Mario Williams to a pulled muscle for most of the second half, the Texans' defense rebounded from the first quarter to hold the Bears to under 300 yds total offense.
So, another season, another 8-8 record for the Texans. There are definitely two ways to look at the Texans at this point in time.
On one hand, with another non-winning season, the Texans continue to be one of the least-successful new franchises in the history of the National Football League. Inasmuch as the team had a 7-9 record after its third year, one can make the case that not much progress has been made over the past four seasons. Yes, the offense is better, but the defense is arguably worse than it was after Year Three. Have the deck chairs simply been rearranged on the Titanic?
On the other hand, several signs indicate that the Texans are headed in the right direction. The offensive line and the receiving corps are far-improved and have more depth than at any time in franchise history. Schaub appears to have the talent necessary to become a consistently above-average NFL signal-caller. Rookie RB Steve Slaton is an excellent back who will only get better if the Texans can bring in another running back to take some of the load off of him in coming seasons.
Meanwhile, although the defense has not improved statistically from last season to this one, the Texans have a nucleus of good, young defensive players who should be able to gel into a reasonably formidable unit over the next several seasons.
What changes do the Texans need to make during the off-season? As I've noted several times during this season, the defense has not improved as much as it should have over the past two seasons based on the number of draft picks that the Texans have used on that unit. So, a case can be made that changes in the defensive coaching staff are justified.
However, what is the market going to be for defensive coaches during this off-season? It doesn't make sense to make such a change and risk what could be gradual improvement in a young defensive unit that usually results from coaching staff continuity unless there is a reasonable probability that the new coaches will generate even more improvement.
Either way, as predicted before this season, the 2009 season is the one in which the Texans should emerge as a bona-fide playoff contender. If not, then owner Bob McNair will have harder decisions to make than merely whether to alter his defensive coaching staff.
Longhorns, Cougars and Owls
The Rice Owls (9-3) begin the local teams' bowls season with the Texas Bowl at Reliant Stadium on Tuesday night (7 p.m., NFL Network) against Western Michigan (9-3).
The Houston Cougars (7-5) follow up on Wednesday afternoon (11 a.m., ESPN) in the Ft. Worth Bowl against Air Force (8-4).
And then the Texas Longhorns (11-1) take on Ohio State (10-2) a week from tonight, January 5th (7 p.m., Fox) in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 27, 2008
Are you ready for some football?
The football rivalry between the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners is one of the most passionate in college football. The intensity of that rivalry has led to some highly competitive recruiting battles between the two schools for the best football talent in Texas over the years.
With that backdrop, the NY Times' Thayer Evans ran this lengthy article on his bird's-eye view of the recruiting fight between UT and OU over the services of blue-chip Lufkin High School defensive tackle, Jamarkus McFarland, who orally committed to OU on Christmas day.
McFarland and his mother cooperated with Evans closely over the past several months in helping him chronicle the twists and turns of the recruiting battle. The article does not paint a pretty picture of the recruiting process, particularly of UT's efforts to land McFarland. NCAA investigations have been commenced over less.
However, the story doesn't stop there. Turns out that Evans is an Oklahoma native and apparently a long-time OU fan (he also used to write for Sooners Illustrated). Evans has written extensively about OU's football program over at the NY Times collegiate sports blog, the Quad, and almost always quite favorably. Neither Evans nor the Times disclosed any of this in connection with running the story on McFarland's recruitment.
Meanwhile, Longhorn supporters are already poking some big holes in Evans' story (see also here). And the NY Times continues to lose money hand-over-foot.
So it goes.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
December 22, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/George Nikitin; previous weekly reviews are here)
Amidst the Chronicle cheerleaders becoming enraptured again during the Texans' (7-8) first four-game winning streak, the local team reminded us today against the Raiders (4-11) why they have been among the worst-performing new franchises in the history of the National Football League.
Basically, the Texans stunk. The progress that had been exhibited by the Texans' defense over the past four games seemingly evaporated into thin air as the unit allowed the Raiders offense to do about anything it pleased. Minimal pressure on the passer combined with lax pass coverage and arm tackling is a pretty good prescription for a defeat in the NFL.
Meanwhile, the Texans' offense looked as if it had never seen a two-deep zone pass defense. QB Matt Schaub's poor passing statistics (19-36/234 yds/0 TD/1 INT) would have looked even worse but for WR David Anderson turning a short crossing route into a 65 yd reception late in the second quarter. Moreover, despite the Raiders loading up to stop the pass, the Texans' offense was incapable of running the ball consistently against one of the worst run defenses in the NFL.
And, to make the Texans' effort completely intolerable, the special teams allowed an 80-yard punt return for a TD late in the third quarter that -- given the way the Texans' offense was moving the ball -- essentially put the game away for the Raiders.
However, the worst part about the Texans' feeble effort against the Raiders is that -- after a month-long reprieve during the the four-game winning streak -- we'll have to endure another week of Chronicle sportswriter John McClain doing his absurd impression of a crusty, old football coach disappointed with his team.
The Texans attempt to salvage a .500 season next Sunday at Reliant in the season finale against the Bears (9-6), who are still vying for a playoff spot. Given the Texans' tepid improvement on defense over the past two seasons relative to the number of draft choices used on that unit over the past three drafts, my sense is that off-season changes will be made on the defensive coaching staff.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 15, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip; previous weekly reviews are here)
The Texans (7-7), who most everyone in these parts had left for dead a month ago, won their fourth straight game for the first time in franchise history by handing the division-leading Titans (12-2) only their second loss of the season.
The slugfest win certainly was not picturesque. It came about through an odd combination of stellar play from WR Andre Johnson (11 catches for 208 yds and a TD!) and rookie RB Steve Slaton, who slogged his way through the rugged Titans defense for 100 yds on 24 carries, an abysmal day by Titans QB Kerry Collins (15-33/181 yds/1 INT/0 TD's, another impressive performance for the most part by the Texans defense (holding the Titans to 281 total yds) and an odd go-for-it on 4th down call by Titans' coach Jeff Fisher in the fourth quarter when a 49 yard-field goal would have given the Titans the lead with two minutes to go. Collins overthrew the 4th down pass, as he pretty much overthrew everything all day, and that was the ball game.
So, will the Texans beat my pre-season over/under prediction of eight wins? Only the Raiders (3-11) next Sunday in Oakland and the Bears (8-6) at Reliant the following week stand in the way of the Texans first winning season.
I must say, these Texan players under Kubiak do not give up.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
December 8, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Morry Gash; previous weekly reviews are here)
Could the Texans actually be turning into a reasonably dangerous team so long as they hang on to the ball?
Despite four turnovers, the Texans (6-7) rallied late and beat the Packers (5-8) on a Kris Brown 40 yd field goal in the last minute.
But for the Texans' turnovers, this game would not have been close. The Texans rolled up 550 yds of total offense, including 414 through the air from returning-from-injury QB Matt Schaub (28-42/414 yds/2 TD's/1 INT). Schaub cooly engineered a 75 yard, nine-play drive in the last two minutes to set up Brown's game-winning field goal.
Meanwhile, Texans stellar rookie RB Steve Slaton rushed for 120 yards on 26 carries and caught three passes for 40 yards, cementing his place among the top five players selected in the 2008 NFL Draft.
And, although bearing no similarity to the Ravens or the Steelers, the Texans defense continued its improved play overall, including a key sack that set up the Texans' final drive.
So, the Texans are on somewhat of a roll as they prepare for next Sunday's game at Reliant Stadium against the Titans (12-1). They then travel to Oakland to play the Raiders (3-10) the following week before returning home to close out the season against the Bears (7-6), who may still be in the playoff hunt at that point.
Win two out of those three games and the Texans will finish with the same 8-8 record that they finished with last season. Few people (including me) were predicting that just three weeks ago.
Moving on to the college game, with Oklahoma's (12-1) expected demolition of Missouri in the Big 12 Championship Game, the Texas Longhorns (11-1) lost out on playing in the BCS Championship Game. So, the Horns will face Big Ten co-champ Ohio State (10-2) in the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix on January 5.
Rice (9-3) will play Western Michigan (9-3) in the Texas Bowl at Reliant Stadium on December 30 at 7 p.m., while the Houston Cougars (7-5) will take on Air Force (8-4) in the Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth on New Year's Eve afternoon.
And the Texas Aggies stay home during bowl season once again.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 1, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Harry Cabluck; previous weekly reviews are here)
Texas Longhorns 49 Texas Aggies 9
As predicted in the previous weekly review, the Longhorns (11-1/7-1 Big 12) hammered the Aggies (4-8/2-6 Big 12), but still ended up behind Oklahoma (11-1/7-1 Big 12) in the Bowl Championship Series standings, so the Sooners will represent the Big 12 South in the Big 12 Championship Game next Saturday against Missouri (9-3/5-3 Big 12) in Kansas City. That gives OU the inside track to the BCS Championship Game.
if OU beats Missouri expected, then the Horns will have to settle for another BCS bowl game, probably the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe against Ohio State (10-2) on January 5th.
However, if Mizzou pulls off the upset, which is certainly possible given OU's tough stretch of big games and last Saturday night's injury to star OU QB Sam Bradford (he will play with a cast on his left hand against Mizzou), then the Horns would be a virtual lock for the BCS Championship Game against the winner of the Alabama-Florida SEC Championship Game.
As usual, QB Colt McCoy (23-28/311 yds/2 TD's/0 INT/11 carries/49 yds/2 TD) was the star for the Horns, but what was most interesting about this game was how uncompetitive the Aggies were. First-year Aggie coach Mike Sherman certainly did not distinguish himself this season and his dubious decision-making in this game raises questions as to whether he has what it takes to rebuild the Aggie program.
For example, Sherman's decision to have the Aggies kick a 2nd quarter field goal was close to coaching malpractice. Faced with a 4th down and less than 1 yard with under 2 minutes left in the half, Sherman had what seemed to be an easy decision.
One one hand, he could have had the Ags go for it. If they made the first down, then the Aggies would have continued the drive, which would have ended in a FG attempt, a TD or a turnover. Regardless of the outcome, if the Ags had made the 4th down, then Texas probably would not have gotten the ball back with enough time to do much of anything. Thus, a successful 4th down attempt meant, at worst, the Aggies would have gone into the locker room down 14- 7, 14 - 3, or 14 - 0.
On the other hand, by kicking the field goal, Sherman gave the Longhorns enough time to drive for another TD before halftime, which is precisely what they did, putting the Aggies down 21 - 3 and placing the momentum squarely with the Longhorns.
Inasmuch as A&M already has the poorest-performing football program in major college football relative to the size of the football budget, the Aggies don't need poor coaching decisions piled on top of their other problems.
Again, as predicted in the previous weekly review, the Owls (9-3/7-1 C-USA) had too much offensive firepower for the Cougars (7-5/6-2 C-USA).
Neither team's defense could stop the other's potent offense, so the game was essentially determined by turnovers. The Coogs lost a fumble and an interception on a tipped ball, plus had a short TD pass dropped on a 4th down play. On the other hand, the Owls recovered all three of their fumbles (all of which were inside the Rice 20 yard line), so the Owls prevailed.
Despite the lack of defense, the game was certainly entertaining. Houston and Rice combined for 1,225 yards, 98 points and 57 first downs. Three different players combined for 11 touchdown passes and four different receivers went over 100 yards. The Owls' James Casey and the Cougars' L.J. Castille caught three touchdown passes apiece, and Casey also had a TD pass and a rushing TD. He is truly a man playing among boys.
Despite the Owls victory and fine season, my sense is that the Cougars are in a better position for continued success going forward. Rice loses the amazingly productive QB Chase Clement (28-41/381 yds/5 TD's/0 INT/13 carries/58 yds/1 TD) and All-American WR Jarrett Dillard, who will be very difficult to replace.
On the other hand, the Cougars' potent offense remains largely intact. If first-year Cougars coach Kevin Sumlin can correct UH's deficient recruiting of defensive players over the past several years, then the Cougars appear to be in a position to continue contending for the C-USA title.
Although bowl arrangements will not be finalized for a couple of days, Rice appears headed to the Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth on New Year's Eve against Air Force (8-4), while the Cougars will probably play either Fresno State (7-5) or Western Michigan (9-3) in the Texas Bowl at Reliant Stadium on December 30th.
The Texans (4-7) host the Jaguars (4-7) tonight in Monday Night Football at Reliant Stadium before going on the road to the frozen tundra of Green Bay to face the Packers (5-7) next Sunday.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 24, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Tony Dejak; previous weekly reviews are here)
A win is a win, right?
Well, maybe. But the reality is that the Texans (4-7) finally found a team in the Browns (4-7) that is more inept than them. The Browns served up five turnovers to the Texans, which allowed the bumbling Texans to win the turnover battle by +3.
Toss in a fairly balanced attack (383 total offense/271 yds passing/112 yds rushing) and a absolutely horrid Browns passing attack (13-32/143 yds/3 INT) and you have the Texans' first road victory in over a year.
The Texans have an extra day to prepare this week for their first Monday Night game, the Monday after Thanksgiving at Reliant Stadium against the under-performing Jaguars (4-7).
The Cougars (7-4/6-1 C-USA) are an endearing team this season.
They've had to overcome an undermanned defense that is the product of former coach Art Briles' tendency to emphasize offense over defense in recruiting. They likely lost two games (Air Force and Colorado State) because of outrageously bad decisions by their athletic director at the time of Hurricane Ike. Finally, the Coogs had to endure a demoralizing and unnecessary injury to one of their best players.
Nevertheless, after beating UTEP (5-6/4-3 C-USA) in their third miraculous come-from-behind victory of the season, the Coogs are now poised to win a berth in the Conference USA Championship Game if they can figure out a way to slow down cross-town rival Rice (8-3/6-1 C-USA) next Saturday at Rice Stadium.
My sense is that Rice's potent offense is too much for the Cougars' defense to handle. But I won't be surprised if this plucky Cougar team somehow pulls it out. And make no doubt about it, they will definitely make a game of it.
As usual, Cougar QB Case Keenum led the frantic 26 point 4th quarter comeback, finishing with 480 passing yards and connecting on 23 of 24 passes in the second half, including all three of his TD passes. Keenum's second pass of the half was incomplete, then he completed his last 22 while going 16-for-16 during the fourth quarter. Cougar freshman RB Bryce Beall also had a huge day, rushing for 167 yards (including a key 71 yd TD dash in the 4th quarter) and 96 more receiving as the Cougars rolled up over 700 yds total offense.
O.K., so Marshall (4-7/3-4) slowed down the Owls (8-3/6-1 C-USA) for the first half.
But QB Chase Clement (25-41/315 yds/4 TD's/1 INT/10 carries for 58 yds and 1 TD) sorted things out at halftime and then proceeded to lead the Owls to four second-half TD's and a decisive win over the Thundering Herd.
In Clement and Houston QB Chase Keenum, two of the best QB's in major college football (who few folks outside of Houston know about) will square off at Rice Stadium next Saturday to determine the Conference USA West Division representative in the conference championship game.
But in a bittersweet twist, a Rice victory over the Cougars will result in a tie between the Owls and Tulsa for the C-USA West Division title, which will send the Golden Hurricanes and their coach to the C-USA title game because of Tulsa's win over the Owls earlier in the season.
Damn!
The Texas Longhorns (10-1/6-1 Big 12) and the Texas Aggies (4-7/2-5 Big 12) were off this past Saturday as they prepare for their annual rivalry game on Thanksgiving night in Austin.
Although the Horns almost certainly will hammer the Aggies (the Horns are favored by 34!), it's probably not going to make much difference with regard to the Horns' flagging National Championship aspirations.
Inasmuch as Oklahoma's (10-1/6-1 Big 12) decisive victory over Texas Tech (10-1/6-1) vaulted them into a virtual tie with Texas for second in the Bowl Championship Series standings, it's almost certain that OU will be rated higher than the Longhorns next week if the Sooners beat 12th-ranked Oklahoma State. If OU goes on to win the Big 12 Conference Championship game against Missouri the following week, the Sooners will be the Big 12's representative in the BCS Championship Game.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 20, 2008
Talking football in Texas
Football is an integral part of Texas culture. So, when a big game is around the corner, it seems as if everyone around here is talking about it. And some of the talk can get pretty entertaining.
The big game this Saturday pits the undefeated and 2nd-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders (10-1) taking on the 5th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners (9-1) in Norman, Oklahoma.
The game has generated added interest in these parts because the 3rd-ranked Texas Longhorns (10-1), who lost to Tech a couple of weeks ago on a last second TD, could bolt back into the BCS Championship Game picture if the Sooners beat Tech.
And frankly, many Texans are pulling for Tech to beat the Sooners and remain in contention for the BCS Championship Game because Tech has never reached such heights before.
But that support doesn't immunize the Red Raiders from some good-natured razzing, such as the following OU message board comment about the above Tech promotional picture for the game:
"Why is Yosemite Sam attacking Guymon?"
Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the college football spectrum, perennial cellar-dwelling Baylor's decisive win last Saturday over the Texas A&M Aggies has also generated a fair amount of conversation in Texas football circles this week.
As has been noted many times on this blog, the devotion of many Texas A&M University alumni to the A&M football program is an endearing part of Texas culture that has generated some rather awkward moments over the years.
The A&M fan base overwhelmingly considers losing to Baylor in football as another such awkward moment. To make matters worse, the A&M football program has fallen on such hard times over the past several years that, relative to the size of the football budget, the A&M program is currently among the poorest-performing in major college football.
So, with that backdrop, check out the following post that a Baylor fan posted on an Aggie message board earlier this week (the post was quickly taken down by the owners of the Aggie board; thank goodness for Google Cache). On the heels of Baylor's big win over the Aggies, the Baylor fan's post passes along some key tips to the Aggies from the "hit" book, How to Handle Being The Worst Team in the Big XII South:
I wanted to share some thoughts from the hit book "How to Handle Being The Worst Team in the Big XII South". This book, originally authored by fans of Baylor University, with foreword by Oklahoma State, has been a work in progress for 25 something years now.
Now that we have handed that prestigious torch off to your school, and it looks like it will stay that way for quite some time, you and your Aggie friends may want to really get into this material. Here are some highlights:
Chapter 1 - Bring up past records when discussing your program with friends. The best way to do this is to start from the present and go back through the past until you can find where you have more wins than "x" team. Inconsistencies in time frame does not matter - it can be 5 years for one team and 45 for another.
Chapter 3 - Find other parts of your athletic program that you can be proud of and meticulously learn and promote their accomplishments, no matter how embarrassing the sport. Baylor has done this recently with women's basketball, tennis, and most notably, track and field (Olympic gold medalist anyone?). Rumor has it that your men's club lacrosse team is pretty awesome. Just throwing that out there.
Chapter 5 - Find a couple of solid scapegoats and complain tirelessly about them. Your fan base has already advanced far in this area, with "Shermione" and "$Bill" taking the brunt of this effective relaxation technique.
Chapter 10 - Pick a team to hate and root for their failure. For Baylor fans, this has been you, and look how well it's worked! It's like The Secret - the power of positive thinking. It's very refreshing to change the channel from a frustrating loss and watch your sworn enemy fail. You may have to really dig deep here - you want a team that is average to pretty bad. You losing and them winning is a double whammy, so don't set your sites too high (UT/Tech). Arkansas is a good start, they're down this year.
Chapter 11 (THIS IS A BIG ONE) - Focus on moral victories. This chapter has a lot of content, so really pay attention to it. Within the umbrella of the moral victories chapter you'll find subsections such as: a) Don't pin your hopes on winning the game, pin your hopes on covering the spread. The spread is key, and beating the spread will bring you years and years of joy. b) Get excited about first downs. These may be harder to come by than you think, so really cherish them. c) Find remote stats that can highlight your improvement. Really dig into improvement. This should be a buzzword to use in the coming years.
Chapter 12 - Talk about the other redeeming qualities of your school. This is tricky, because it's actually really dorky to engage in academic smack talk, but, if done correctly, can deflect the focus of a conversation away from your school's crappy football program and onto other areas where the playing field is more level. Now, I'm tailor making this to A&M a little here, but I would recommend you focus on your strong engineering and business school reputation, and don't forget to bring up your various traditions! People never get tired of hearing about this.
Chapter 14** - Find another school to support on the side. This chapter is very controversial and was only added in later editions. I myself never went down this road, but several of my friends found a great deal of relaxation and comfort in finding a side school. While immediate family connections are the best (father graduated from Penn State or mom and dad met at Florida), it is also valid to dig deep into your family's history to find that great aunt that went to Alabama or that second cousin who got a masters at USC. The further away the school, the better. Claim that you have been watching them for years, especially as a little kid growing up. This helps ward off eye rolls and front-runner accusations from your friends. **Note: though highly successful, this chapter can be very dangerous, and is probably the only method that will incur hatred from fellow alumni and students. Use Chapter 14 at your own risk. Advanced students only. I'd say you'll be there en mass around 2013, although seeing how your fan base is bailing after 3 losing seasons out of the past 24, you may be there as early as 2010. Talk about advanced students!
That's it folks. I'll send you a copy for free - we're so excited to share this with a team not named Baylor. And you may read this and think: "Wow, Baylor is pathetic. This is really sad stuff." No, no! This is you! This WAS Baylor and now IS your school! I'm talking about what you and your fan base will be and have already started saying and doing.
I want to leave you with this. This can be your chance to practice, right now. Skim some of the material above, and go ahead and start using it on me. I would say the record route is the obvious way to go, but don't be afraid to be creative. Angry phrases like "F off" and total dismissal of my thread also work. Have fun, and I'll critique some of your responses as we go . . .
Football in Texas -- you gotta love it!
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
November 17, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Michael Conroy; previous weekly reviews are here)
Texans (3-7) backup QB Sage Rosenfels (13-18/192 yds/0 TD/1 INT) had another "Sage moment" (i.e., "what the hell was that?") when he threw his only interception of the game as the Texans were attempting to drive for a game-winning TD in the last minute. However, this loss was squarely on the shoulders of the Texans' defense, which gave up almost 500 yards total offense and basically had no hope of stopping the Colts (6-4) after their receivers stopped dropping passes (they dropped at least a half-dozen in the first half, after which the Texans led 13-9). All Texans defensive coaches should have their résumés updated.
The Texans travel to Cleveland next Sunday to play the Browns (3-6) before returning home to play the Jaguars (4-6) on Monday Night Football the Monday after Thanksgiving.
In one of the biggest upsets of the weekend, the Cougars (6-4/5-1 C-USA) vaulted back into contention for the Conference USA Championship with a stunningly easy 70-30 romp over 25th-ranked Tulsa (8-2/5-1 C-USA).
Cougar QB Case Keenum (24-37/402 yds/6 TD's/0 INT/43 yds on 4 carries and 1 rushing TD in 3 quarters!) continued his record-setting season, but the real story of this game for the Cougars was Olympic Trials sprinter Tyron Carrier going Donnie Avery on the Golden Hurricane, scoring 3 TD's (2 receiving plus another on a 95 yd kickoff return) and generating almost 300 yds total offense (127 yds on 6 receptions/142 yds on 4 kickoff returns/23 yds on 4 carries).
By the way, there is almost universal joy around Houston that current Tulsa coach and former Rice coach Todd Graham got his rear-end handed to him by the Cougars. After his less-than-statesmanlike departure from Rice, Graham is not a particularly popular fellow in Houston football circles. The post-game handshake at midfield between Graham and Cougar coach Kevin Sumlin lasted about a split second.
The Cougars host UTEP next (5-5/4-2 C-USA) next Saturday afternoon before taking on Rice (7-3/5-1 C-USA) at Rice Stadium the Saturday after Thanksgiving in what is shaping up to be the game that determines the C-USA West division representative in the C-USA Conference Championship game.
The Longhorns (10-1/6-1 Big 12) did an impressive job in taking care of business under difficult conditions in Lawrence against dangerous Kansas (6-5/3-4 Big 12). Now, the Horns get to sit back and watch the outcome of next Saturday's big game between 2nd-ranked Texas Tech (10-0/6-0 Big 12) and Oklahoma (9-1/5-1) in Norman and then prepare for what is shaping up to be a butchering of undermanned Texas A&M (4-7/2-5 Big 12) in Austin on Thanksgiving night.
I'm not sure what's worse for the A&M (4-7/2-5 Big 12) faithful. That the Aggies were over a touchdown underdog to perennial Big 12 doormat Baylor (4-7/2-5 Big 12)? Or that the Aggies are so bad that they couldn't come close to beating the spread against the Bears? Rest assured that the spread will be in substantial double-digits when the Aggies travel to Austin to face the Longhorns on Thanksgiving night. The Mike Sherman firing watch has already begun in College Station.
The Rice Owls (7-3/5-1 C-USA) were off this weekend. The Owls host Marshall (4-6/3-3 C-USA) next Saturday before ending the regular season in the annual big game against their cross-town rival, the Houston Cougars.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 13, 2008
Can you spare $350 million?
And you think the Texans' season is going badly?
Get a load of what Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is facing, and I'm not talking about whether to fire head coach Wade Phillips (H/T Brad Humphreys):
Industry watches as Cowboys look for loan
The Dallas Cowboys are seeking to borrow $350 million by Dec. 1, according to numerous finance sources, in one of the worst credit environments in the nation’s history.
The club’s proposed deal would refinance $126 million the team borrowed last year through the now-imploded auction-rate securities market, as well as add new debt to cover cost overruns at the team’s $1.2 billion stadium that is set to open next year, the sources said. [. . .]
For the Cowboys, getting out from underneath the auction-rate debt is a pressing concern. They are one of four NFL teams to have borrowed from the auction-rate securities (ARS) market, a market that allowed companies to borrow cheaply and continue to reset the interest rate with auctions of the debt weekly and monthly.
In February, the ARS market seized up, and debt auctions failed, which automatically triggered significant interest rate hikes. [. . .]
The Cowboys estimated the stadium would cost $650 million when they announced the project in 2004. With $350 million of public funding and $76 million from the NFL, it looked like a choice deal for the team.
The club arranged to borrow at least $450 million through Banc of America Securities for its portion, with the first $126 million through the ARS market. But Jones agreed to cover cost overruns as part of the team’s share, and like many stadiums in this period, the price has spiraled.
H'mm. I wonder whether the Cowboys will apply for a portion of the TARP fund, too?
Posted by Tom at 12:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 10, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/David Einsel; previous weekly reviews are here)
Oh my. It's going to be a long week for Houston sports talk show hosts this week.
The Ravens (6-3) manhandled the Texans (3-6) in the 4th quarter Sunday afternoon to put away the victory. The Texans had pulled to within 19-13 by the end of the 3rd quarter and really should have been leading by a point but for a bonehead Sage Rosenfels (23-38/294 yds/1 TD/4 int) in the first half.
But then the chronically shaky Texans defense allowed the Ravens to drive 78 yards on nine plays to go up by 14 and then Rosenfels set up the final two Ravens scores by throwing interceptions deep in Texans' territory.
So, where do the Texans stand midway through Year Seven of their existence?
Unlike the Chronicle cheerleaders (at least one of whom is now leaving the booster club), I've always thought that the decision of Texans owner Bob McNair to hire Gary Kubiak was a questionable one under the circumstances. Now, over two and a half years into the Kubiak era, the defense still stinks, the QB play remains inconsistent and the Texans are staring straight at the probability that they will win only 4-6 games this season.
But who knows? The Texans looked dead in the water after 12 games last season before winning three of their last four to finish 8-8.
My sense is that Kubiak survives for at least another season, but that McNair will require assistant coaching changes on the defensive side. The Texans now go on the road the next two Sundays at the Colts (5-4) and the Browns (3-6) before returning home to face the Jaguars (4-5).
First, the good news -- 5th-ranked Oklahoma (9-1/5-1 Big 12) showed A&M (4-6/2-4 Big 12) the type of talent that the Aggies are going to have to attract to College Station in order to contend in the Big 12 South.
Now, the bad news -- OU may be only the third best team in the Big 12 South!
The Aggies travel to Waco next Saturday in the battle against Baylor (3-6/1-5 Big 12) to avoid the Big 12 South basement. The Aggies opened as an 8 point underdog.
After a brutal four-week run against high-ranked teams, the 3rd-ranked Longhorns (9-1/5-1 Big 12) put together a workmanlike effort to put away the feisty Bears (3-6/1-5 Big 12). The Horns have another reasonably tough game next Saturday against explosive Kansas (6-4/3-3 Big 12) in Lawrence before resting a week for their annual Thanksgiving Day rivalry game against the Aggies.
Note to the Owls (7-3/5-1 C-USA) -- unlike some other teams, Army (3-7) does not quit when they are behind by 24 points. Owls QB Chase Clement (21-38/377 yds/3 TD's/0 Int/10 carries for 84 yds) remains the best QB in the country that no one outside of Houston knows about. After an off week next Saturday, the Owls face Marshall (4-5/3-2) at home the following Saturday before hosting Houston (5-4/4-1 C-USA) on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to close out the regular season.
Amazingly, Rice could win 10 games this season.
The Coogs (5-4/4-1 C-USA) began their final stretch of four games in Houston to close the season by generating almost 700 yards total offense (and 143 yards in penalties!) in pounding hapless Tulane (2-7/1-4 C-USA).
Cougar QB Case Keenum extended a University of Houston record with his 10th straight game passing for more than 300 yards (29-40/384 yds/4 TD's/1 Int). That's quite an achievement given the prolific passers that have played at UH over the years (Ware, Klingler, Clements, Kolb, etc).
The Coogs take on high-flying, 23rd-ranked Tulsa (8-1/5-0 C-USA) next Saturday in what may be the highest over/under number of the season.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 3, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/LM Otero; previous weekly reviews are here)
Texas Tech 39 Texas Longhorns 33
As predicted, the top-ranked Horns (8-1/4-1 Big 12) were not able to run the table through four straight games against top-10 ranked teams.
The loss dropped Texas to fourth in the BCS rankings, behind Alabama, Tech, and Penn State. Florida and Oklahoma are close behind the Horns.
The Horns remain in the hunt for the BCS Championship Game, but by a thread at this point. Alabama will probably lose to either LSU next weekend or to Florida in the SEC Championship Game, and Tech and OU must both play each other as well as Oklahoma State.
However, Penn State has a much easier schedules the rest of the way and is not likely to lose another game. So, the Horns will need help from other teams and probably a victory in the Big 12 Championship Game to attain a BCS Championship Game berth.
Now, to the game. Normally, when the Horns' defensive unit gives up almost 600 yards, 30 points (the Horns' offense gave up the other 9) and the game-winning TD pass with one second left, you would be inclined to blame the defeat on them. However, playing Texas Tech (9-0/5-0 Big 12) is anything but normal.
Truth be known, the Horns' defensive unit played well enough for the Horns to outscore Tech and win the game. However, Texas' offensive unit was completely flummoxed by Tech's defense for almost the first three quarters of the game, and that lack of productivity ended up being the difference in the game.
Tech's defense played a soft zone pass defense with two safeties deep and either five or six defenders playing between 5-7 yards off the line of scrimmage. Then, Tech would run a series of stunts with the three or four defensive lineman who were essentially pass-rushing on every play.
The strategy effectively took away Texas' mid-range passing game. Moreover, through almost three quarters, Texas inexplicably played into Tech's hands by failing to force the Red Raiders to defend the running game, which was there for the taking with so many Tech defenders running around in the defensive backfield. As a result, the Horns fell behind 22-3 and 29-13 before closing to within 10 at the end of the third quarter.
After finally forcing Tech to defend the running game toward the end of the third quarter, the Horns moved the ball at will against Tech's defensive unit in the fourth quarter and almost pulled the game out. However, it's simply unreasonable to expect a defensive unit to do much better than hold Tech's explosive offense to 10 points in a half, which is precisely what the Texas defensive unit did in the second half on Saturday night. The Horns' failure to score double-digit points in the first half cost them this game.
The Horns play resurgent Baylor (3-6/1-4 Big 12) next Saturday in Austin before traveling the following weekend to Lawrence to face a dangerous Kansas (6-3/3-2 Big 12) squad.
The Texans (3-5) modest three-game winning streak ended with a resounding thud in Minneapolis as the Vikings (4-4) cruised to a 21-7 halftime lead and then easily repelled a late Texan comeback. The Texans are now 12-40 all-time in games played away from Reliant Stadium, 4-24 since the 2005 season, and 4-16 in 2.5 seasons under Head Coach Gary Kubiak.
If it's not one thing with the Texans, then it's another. In this game, the Vikings' DE Jared Allen dominated off the left edge where he ran past rookie LT Duane Brown and veteran LT Ephraim Salaam as if they were statutes. The result was that Texans QB's were sacked five times and pounded at least another half-dozen times.
Starting QB Matt Schaub was hurt in the first half and didn't play in the second, and backup QB Sage Rosenfels was running from Allen for much of the second half. Such harassment elevates the risk that the Texans' inconsistent QB's would make bonehead errors, which occurred on three occasions -- a costly fumble by Schaub and bad interceptions in the red zone by both Schaub and Rosenfels. Former Texans QB David Carr would have felt right at home.
Meanwhile, the Texans defense, although pretty bad in the first half, played reasonably well in the second half. Vikings RB Adrian Peterson still had no problem running for 140 yards on 25 carries (5.1 yards per carry), though.
The Texans return home next Sunday to meet another stout defensive unit in the Ravens (5-3) before going back on the road to meet the Colts (4-4) and the Browns (3-5). Without better QB and defensive play, it's getting harder by the week for me to see how the Texans are going to win more than five games this season.
Despite being out-gained by a considerable margin, the plucky Aggies (4-5/2-3 Big 12) won the turnover battle decisively (A&M freshman safety Trent Hunter had two interceptions in the second half) and put away another Big 12 win that looked unlikely just a few weeks ago.
The Aggies offense is actually rounding into decent shape behind QB Jerrod Johnson. freshmen WR's Ryan Tannehill and Jeff Fuller, and freshman RB Cyrus Gray. However, the Ags face Oklahoma (8-1/4-1 Big 12) on Saturday and Texas in two of their final three games. They have a winnable game against Baylor in between those two.
Thus, either a 5-7 or 4-8 record is the likely result of Coach Mike Sherman's first Aggie team. That's not what the Aggie faithful had in mind when A&M hired Sherman.
The Owls (6-3/5-1 C-USA) continued their remarkable season with another comeback victory, this time over UTEP (3-5/3-2 C-USA) in El Paso. Rice QB Chase Clement, WR Jarett Dillard and H-Back James Casey are three of the best college football players in the country, but nobody outside of Houston seems to realize it.
The Owls now return home for their final three games of the season against Army (3-6), Marshall (4-4/3-1 C-USA) and Houston (4-4/3-1 C-USA), which are all winnable. How does a 9-3 record for the Owls sound?
Marshall 37 Houston Cougars 23
The Cougars (4-4/3/1) predisposition to start slow and finish fast finally caught up with them last Tuesday evening in Huntington, W.Va. as the Thundering Herd rolled to a 30-3 third quarter lead and cruised to an easy victory.
The loss should come with a footnote, however, With the Coogs closing in on a third quarter TD that would have closed the score to 23-10, the Cougar players had to endure watching their teammate Patrick Edwards be carted off the field with a grisly compound leg fracture resulting from an awful collision with an inexplicably-placed metal cart just outside the end zone at the Marshall Stadium.
The Cougar QB who had thrown the incomplete pass on the play in which Edwards was injurred promptly fumbled a handoff while going in for the TD, Marshall recovered and marched quickly to another TD to make the score 30-3. Game, set, match. At least Edwards has a good chance of winning the personal injury-negligence lawsuit against Marshall.
The Coogs now return home for their final four games beginning with Tulane (2-6/1/3) a week from Saturday.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 29, 2008
What's worse?
Although not many people care much, the 2008 World Series has turned into a first rate mess.
Game Five is currently suspended while the Phillies and Rays players sit around Philadelphia waiting for the inclement weather to end. This after they nearly injured themselves while inexplicably being forced to play 5.5 innings during a driving rainstorm on Monday night. The remainder of the Game Five might be played tonight.
Moreover, Game Four began at 10 p.m. EDT because of rain most of the day on Saturday. That game finished sometime after 2 a.m. Sunday on the east coast. Not exactly the way to keep the young fans interested in the game.
Meanwhile, the umpiring in the series has been atrocious, with multiple of MLB's supposedly best umpires blowing easy calls and routinely calling strikes on pitches that are clearly out of the strike zone.
And just to make matters utterly unbearable, Fox Sports imposes senseless announcers Joe Buck and Tim McCarver on the few folks watching on television. These two babble on endlessly describing the utterly obvious without ever saying anything remotely insightful. Often, they say things that are simply flat wrong.
But as bad as the World Series has been, it's nothing compared to legendary Baylor and Chicago Bears linebacker Mike Singletary's first game this past Sunday as interim coach of the San Francisco 49'ers. Coach Singletary's post-game performance has already become an overnight YouTube sensation and is being touted as one of the all-time great coach tirades.
AP sportswriter Greg Beacham summed up Coach Singletary's bad first day at the office well:
Mike Singletary ended his head coaching debut by apologizing to 49ers fans above the locker room tunnel. Tight end Vernon Davis got sent to the showers like a petulant teenager, QB J.T. O’Sullivan was benched after his 11th fumble of the season, and the San Francisco defense let a 242-pound fullback catch two long touchdown passes.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 27, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Dave Einsel; previous weekly reviews are here)
The Texans (3-4) won their third game in a row for the first time in franchise history by drubbing the Bengals (0-8), who are truly dreadful. The Texans still have not beaten a good team this season, so it's not time to start printing playoff tickets just yet.
However, one thing struck me about this game and almost every other one that the Texans have played during the 2+ years of the Kubiak era -- the Texan players appear to play hard, if not particularly well all the time, for Kubiak. That effort reflects that at least the players think that he is the man to lead them to greater success. In contrast, it is clear that a number of Bengal players have packed it in on Bengal Coach Marvin Lewis. The Texans attempt to even their record next Sunday against the Vikings (3-4) in Minneapolis.
Texas Longhorns 28 Oklahoma State 24
The top-ranked Longhorns (8-0/4-0 Big 12) survived a rough-and-tumble offensive shoot-out with the rugged, ninth-ranked Cowboys (7-1/3-1 Big 12), who should be moving up in the BCS rankings as a result of their stellar performance rather than down. Texas continues a murderous stretch of games next Saturday night against undefeated and sixth-ranked Texas Tech (8-0/4-0 Big 12) in Lubbock, which makes it four straight weeks that the Horns will be playing in one of college football's elite games of the weekend.
By the way, there has to be a great deal of concern in Longhorn coaching circles this week on how Oklahoma State's offense carved up the Longhorn defense and special teams (217 yds rushing/200 yds passing/137 yds on returns). Tech's offense is OSU's on steroids.
The Aggies (3-5/1-3 Big 12) won their first Big 12 game of the Mike Sherman era over Iowa State (2-6/0-4) in a performance by both teams that set back the concept of football defense by several decades. At this juncture, the Aggie defense could not stop a hard-chargin' marching band. However, the Aggie unit is still better than Iowa State's absolutely atrocious defensive unit, so that's essentially why A&M won the game.
At least the Ags' offense continues to develop and appears to have enough firepower to give A&M a legitimate chance of beating Colorado (4-4/1-3 Big 12) and Baylor (3-5/1-3 Big 12) in College Station down the home stretch of the season. Meanwhile, can anyone explain to me again why Iowa State did this?
The Owls (5-3/4-1 C-USA) continue to make my pre-season prediction look good as they dominated the Green Wave (2-5/1-3 C-USA) in the first half and then cruised home for an easy victory.
The bottom line is that any team that plays Rice better be prepared to score a ton of points because the Owls' offense behind QB Chase Clement is a good bet to score at least 35 points in most games. The Owls go to El Paso for a Saturday night game this week against UTEP (3-4/4-1 C-USA) before returning home to play their three final games of the season (against Army, Marshall and Houston) in Houston.
The Houston Cougars (4-3/3-0 C-USA) play Tuesday night in Huntington, W. Va. against Marshall (3-4/2-1 C-USA) before returning home to play their final four games (Tulane, Tulsa, UTEP and Rice) beginning a week from Saturday in Houston.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 25, 2008
Different directions
Newspapers are under siege. This Henry Blodget post reports on the continuing financial deterioration of the New York Times, which looks to be in real trouble.
Meanwhile, the blogosphere continues to thrive. For example, this Stephanie Stradley post about the chronically under-performing Houston Texans defense is far more insightful than anything that I've read in years from the cheerleaders, er, I mean, reporters who cover the Texans for the Houston Chronicle, which continues to layoff employees by the droves.
And to think that one of those Chronicle cheerleaders -- whose most recent piece is this fawning salute to the manager who was mainly responsible for blowing the 2003 NL Central pennant for the Stros -- had the audacity to defame Stradley recently.
Any wonder why newspapers and the blogosphere are going in different directions?
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
October 20, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Dave Einsel; previous weekly reviews are here)
Texans (2-4) continue to be a work-in-progress. They hammered the atrocious Lions (0-6) for three quarters and looked to be on their way to an easy win.
But then Houston's chronically inconsistent defense gave up a 96 yard TD play while the offense went into a 4th quarter phone booth so as not to reprise the Colts debacle. Before you knew it, the Lions had pulled within a TD and the Texans were working the clock, which is not one of their strong points.
At any rate, the Texans pulled it out without too much trouble. Despite the lack of a killer instinct, the Texans now can win their third in a row for the first time in franchise history next week at Reliant Stadium against the hapless Bengals (0-7).
Texas Longhorns 56 Missouri 31
So much for the theory that the top-ranked Longhorns (7-0/3-0 Big 12) were primed for a letdown after their big win against Oklahoma last week. This one was basically over midway through the 2nd quarter as the Horns cruised to a 35-0 lead against a pretty darn good, 15th-ranked Missouri (5-2/1-2 Big 12) squad.
Texas generated 591 yards on the Mizzou defense, averaging 8.1 yards a play, while converting 10 of 12 third-down chances and scoring on six of seven chances in the red zone. The Horns really didn't play any significant competition over their first four games, so we'll dispense with stats from those games. But in the three subsequent games against solid Big 12 competition, Horns QB Colt McCoy (29-32, 377 yds, 3 TD's) has been extraordinary, connecting on 80 of 97 passes (82%) for 876 yards, 5 TD's and only 2 interceptions.
Meanwhile, the Texas defensive line continues to dominate the line of scrimmage and put heavy pressure on the opponent's QB, which gives Texas the luxury of dropping seven defenders into coverage on most pass plays. That is the main reason the Horns have improved so dramatically this season against the spread passing offenses that have bedeviled Texas over the past couple of seasons.
The Horns still have three very difficult games over the next month -- 6th-ranked Oklahoma State (7-0/3-0 Big 12), @ 8th-ranked Texas Tech (7-0/3-0 Big 12), and 23rd-ranked Kansas (5-2/2-1 Big 12). I still don't think Texas will come through those games undefeated, but I'm not so confident that I would bet on that hunch. This Texas squad is a very good college football team.
The Aggies (2-5/0-3 Big 12) played their best game of the season in giving the 8th-ranked Red Raiders (7-0/3-0) a genuine scare. Although they led at half 23-20, the Aggies left at least 12 points on the field in that half by kicking short field goals rather than making TD's. Those points would have likely made a big difference in the outcome.
Despite the better-quality loss, the Aggies continue to be the worst-performing college football program in the country relative to the size of the athletic budget. Based on Jeff Sagarin's ratings of all U.S. college football programs, the Aggies are ranked better than only two BCS-conference schools — No. 117 Washington and No. 120 Syracuse — and are ranked below 12 Division I-AA (now called Football Championship Subdivision -- "FCS") teams. Wofford (5-1) is rated three spots higher than the Ags and Rice (4-3) is rated 36 slots higher.
The Ags now try to build on this effort next Saturday at Ames against fellow cellar-dweller Iowa State (2-5/0-3 Big 12). If the Aggies can win that one, then five wins this season might be attainable. That would be a moral victory the way things have been going in College Station this season.
As predicted last week, the Cougars (4-3/3-0 C-USA) had trouble with rapidly-improving SMU (1-7/0-5) because of another slow start, but a 21-3 4th quarter surge pulled it out.
The good news is that QB Case Keenum (28-36, 404 yds, 2 TD's, 1 INT) continues to be spectacular as the potent Houston offense again rolled up over 500 yards. The bad news is that the Houston defense gave up over 560 yds! The Coogs travel to West Virginia a week from Tuesday to play Marshall (3-4/2-1 C-USA) and then return home to play their final four games of the season in Houston.
The Owls (4-3/3-1 C-USA) continue to impress with their prolific offense and a defense that slows the opposition just enough to allow the offense to pull out victories. This game was particularly noteworthy because the Owls' All-American WR Jarett Dillard had 7 receptions for 141 yds and 3 TD's, yet he wasn't even the best receiver in the game -- Southern Miss' DeAndre Brown caught 12 passes for 221 yds and 4 TD's! Rice has key road games over the next two Saturdays at Tulane 2-4/1-2 C-USA) and then UTEP (3-4/3-1 C-USA).
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 17, 2008
The maturation of A&M football
One of the many endearing cultural characteristics of Texas is the devotion of most Texas A&M University alumni to the A&M football program.
Although the intensity of that interest has generated some rather awkward moments over the years, the A&M game-day atmosphere is one of the best in college football and an essential experience to gaining a thorough understanding of Texas culture.
Alas, the A&M football program has fallen on hard times over the past several years. Relative to the size of the football budget, the A&M program is currently among the poorest-performing in major college football.
Given that, the prospect of high-scoring Texas Tech invading College Station tomorrow probably to put up a record opponent's score at Kyle Field would normally generate enormous trepidation among the Aggie faithful. However, as the video below reflects (H/T Jay Christensen), the Aggies are now fighting back as best they can -- holding auditions to play the role of iconoclastic Tech coach, Mike Leach.
College football in Texas -- you gotta love it!
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 13, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(Previous weekly reviews are here)
Texas Longhorns 45 Oklahoma 35
In the most entertaining college football game of the season to date, the Longhorns (6-0/2-0 Big !2) vaulted to No. 1 in the AP, Harris and Coaches Top 25 polls with their win over the Sooners (5-1/1-1 Big 12).
Texas prevented OU's prolific passing offense from getting too far ahead for three quarters of the game and then eventually wore down the Sooners to pull the game out in the fourth quarter. Although QB Colt McCoy (28-35-0/277 yds/1 TD) and his receivers get most of the publicity, I thought that the Longhorns' offensive and defensive line play in the second half -- particularly in the fourth quarter -- was the difference in this one.
The Horns better not rest on their laurels, however, as they face a killer schedule down the stretch -- 11th-ranked Missouri (5-1/1-1 Big 12), 8th-ranked Oklahoma State (6-0/2-0 Big 12), 7th-ranked Texas Tech (6-0/2-0 Big 12), and 16th-ranked Kansas (5-1/2-0 Big 12) in four of the next five weeks. The Horns are solid, but I don't see them going undefeated through that stretch.
In an entertaining but not particularly well-played game, the Texans (1-4) finally won their first game of the season by beating the Dolphins (2-3) on QB Matt Schaub's draw play with 3 seconds remaining.
With a bit of luck, the Texans could be 3-2 and in position to contend for the playoffs. However, the reality is that they aren't ready for that yet -- Schaub is still a relatively inexperienced QB and the defense, although improving over the past three games, still has too many lapses to produce a consistent winner. The fact is that the Texans are in the vast expanse of NFL teams that are below the elite teams and above the truly hideous ones. That means that the Texans will probably win about as many as they lose against teams of their caliber and may pull off an upset of an elite team every once in awhile. They simply aren't consistent enough yet to be a viable playoff contender.
The Texans have eminently winnable games the next two Sundays at home against the winless Lions (0-5) and Bengals (0-6).
Geez, think how bad this would have been had the Cougars (3-3/2-0 C-USA) had shown up for the first half against UAB (1-6/0-3)? If the Coogs pull that sort of performance next week at SMU (1-6/0-4), the Ponies -- who just gave conference leader Tulsa (6-0/3-0) its first scare of the season on this past Saturday night -- might just feast on the Cougars for their first conference win of the season.
Kansas State 44 Texas Aggies 30
The woeful Aggies (2-4/0-2 Big 12) basically allowed Kansas State (4-2/1/1 Big !2) to score at will. At least the Ags showed something on offense as they rolled up almost 550 yards of total offense on the Wildcats.
There is simply no telling how many points 7th-ranked Texas Tech (6-0/2-0 Big 12) will put up on the Aggies next Saturday in College Station. Suffice it to say that it will likely be a record score against the Ags in Kyle Field. The Aggies will be lucky to win two more games this season.
Rice (3-3/2-1 C-USA) were off this weekend. The Owls play Southern Miss (2-4/0-2) at Rice Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
October 6, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip; previous weekly reviews are here).
The following was a conversation that I had with another long-suffering fan of Houston sports teams after the Texans (0-4) became the first team in NFL history to blow a lead of at least 17 points in the final five minutes of regulation:
"Well, this loss wasn't as bad as the University of Houston's last-second loss to Joe Montana and Notre Dame in the 1979 Cotton Bowl."
"That's right. It wasn't even as bad as the deciding Game Five of the 1980 National League Championship Series when the Stros tied the score in the sixth, took a 5-2 lead in the seventh, fell behind 7-5 in the top of the eighth, tied the game again in the bottom of the eighth, and finally fell when the eventual World Series champion Phillies scored on two doubles in the 10th."
"And at least it was not nearly as devastating as the University of Houston's Phi Slamma Jamma losing to Jim Valvano and North Carolina State on a tip-in at the buzzer in the 1983 NCAA Basketball Tournament National Championship Game."
"Well, come to think of it, it wasn't nearly as bad as the Oilers' 1991 NFL playoff loss to the Broncos on John Elway's last minute 98 yard drive."
"And don't even suggest that this was even close to being as bad as the Oilers' 41-38 overtime loss to Buffalo the 1993 NFL playoffs after leading at halftime 35-3."
"Really, this wasn't even as bad as the Houston Rockets' 1997 Game Six Western Conference Final playoff loss to the Jazz on John Stockton's last-second 3 pointer."
"Actually, this doesn't even come close to being as bad as when Brad Lidge served up that gopher ball to Albert Pujols in the 2005 National League Championship Series when the Stros were one out away from the World Series."
But then my friend concluded before hanging up:
"However, this loss was right up there with those other ones."
Although there will undoubtedly be much gnashing of teeth around Houston this week because of the way in the Texans lost the game, remember that the game was lost primarily because a backup QB was trying too hard to win rather than not taking the risks necessary to win. I take some solace in that. The Texans host the revived Dolphins (2-2) next Sunday at Reliant Stadium.
Texas Longhorns 38 Colorado 14
The Longhorns (5-0/1-0 Big 12) were impressive in dismantling the Buffaloes in Boulder. About the only blemish in the Horns' performance was that high-performing QB Colt McCoy was picked off twice despite going 23-30 for 262 yds and 2 TD's. The price of poker now goes up dramatically as the 5th-ranked Horns turn their attention to the game of the 2008 college football season to date next Saturday afternoon in Dallas against No. 1 Oklahoma (5-0/1-0 Big 12).
Oklahoma State 56 Texas A&M 28
The woeful Aggies (2-3/0-1 Big 12) must be satisfied with moral victories these days, such as holding the 21st-ranked Cowboys (5-0/1-0 Big 12) to less than 60 points and scoring 28 themselves (tying a season high). The Aggies host Kansas State (3-2/0-1 Big 12) next Saturday in one of the relatively few games in Big 12 conference play that A&M has a decent chance at winning. This could get much worse for the Ags before it gets better.
The Owls (3-3/2-1 C-USA) hung with Tulsa (5-0) for a half, but then the four turnovers and the high-powered Golden Hurricane offense buried Rice in the second half. Tulsa is the type of team that is Rice's Achilles Heel -- a team with a good enough defense to slow down the Owls' potent offense a bit with an offense that can overwhelm Rice's undermanned defensive unit. After an off-week next Saturday, the Owls host Southern Mississippi (2-3/0-2) the following Saturday (October 18th) at Rice Stadium.
The University of Houston had a well-deserved day off on Saturday and hosts UAB (1-5/0-2 C-USA) in a Thursday night game this week at Robertson Stadium.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
September 29, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Phil Coale; previous weekly reviews are here).
Jaguars 30 Texans 27 (OT)
If it isn't one thing, it's another for the Texans (0-3).
After pretty much stinking it up in the Texans' first two games, QB Matt Schaub was outstanding in this one, leading the Texans to scores on their five consecutive possessions (three TD's and two FG's, including Kris Brown's 51 yarder with a second left that sent the game into overtime). Schaub was 29-40 for 307 yds with 3 TD's and no INT's. WR Kevin Walter had two TD's reception and rookie RB Steve Slaton caught 8 passes for 83 yds and a TD. Can't ask for much more than that.
On the other hand, after playing a decent first half, the Texans' defense was horrible in the second half and overtime. For the first three quarters of the game, the Texans' defense inexplicably allowed the Jags to complete slant passes at will. Then, when the Texans' defense finally took away the slant pass in the fourth quarter, they forgot to maintain containment on Jags' QB David Garrard, who proceeded to make three key runs out of the pocket on the final TD drive in regulation. The poor defensive performance was punctuated by poor tackling in OT, which allowed the Jags to set up a chip shot field goal to win the game.
About the only good thing that can be said about the defense is that it may have been better than the Texans' coverage teams, which were absolutely awful. They provided the Jags with good field position throughout the game.
Finally, how is it that the Texans' coaching staff and players were the only ones watching the game who did not realize that the Jags had kept their offense on the field in their initial punting situation of the game? The gift-wrapped TD that the Texans' punt-return team gave the Jags might have made a difference in the final score, don't you think?
The Texans finally return to Houston for their first home game of the season next week against the well-rested Colts (1-2) and QB Peyton Manning, who carved the Texans' defense up like a holiday turkey the last time the teams played. Ay, yi, yi.
Houston Cougars 41 East Carolina 24
The feel-good story of the weekend was the Cougars (2-3 overall/1-0 C-USA), who lost a couple of close games over the past two weeks after being jacked around by their own AD during Hurricane Ike and its aftermath. Although they were double-digit underdogs to 23rd-ranked East Carolina (3-2; 1-1), the Coogs manhandled the Pirates and would have won the game by an even larger margin but for four turnovers and two missed field goals. The Cougars offense rolled up 625 yds of total offense and literally had the ECU defense gasping for air by midway through the second half. Houston has a well-deserved day off this Saturday before hosting Alabama-Birmingham (1-4/0-1) on Oct. 9 in a Thursday night game.
Texas Longhorns 52 Arkansas 10
Back when the fifth-ranked Horns (4-0) scheduled Arkansas (2-2) several years ago, they figured that the game was going to be a competitive tune-up for Big 12 play. Alas, it was not, so the Longhorns remain largely untested as they prepare for their Big 12 opener next week at Boulder against Colorado (3-1). Nevertheless, QB Colt McCoy is playing at a consistently high-level and the Horns revamped defense appears to be flying around the field pretty well. They will need to be next week as Colorado is pretty good and it would be easy for the Horns to be peeping ahead a week for their big game against No. 1 Oklahoma.
The most amazing thing about this game is that there was no scoring in the fourth quarter! As I've been saying all season, Rice's (3-2 overall/2-0 C-USA) offense is the real deal and gives the Owls a legitimate chance to win in any game in which the Owls' defense can slow down the opposition. Rice now prepares for their annual Revenge Bowl next Saturday against their former one-year coach, Todd Graham and the Tulsa Hurricane (4-0/1-0). Here's hoping that the Marching Owl Band makes the road trip to Tulsa.
After the Aggies (2-2) were not able to generate 300 yds total offense at home against a very bad Army (0-4) team, a commentator on one of the Aggie message boards described the five stages of coming to terms with the Aggies' current status as a football doormat:
Denial: "Give Fran Time."
Anger: "Fire Fran!"
Bargaining: "A different coach will make the difference."
Depression: "Why even bother to post on TexAgs."
Acceptance: "We are terrible."
The Aggies might not win another game this season. Oklahoma State (4-0) is a decent bet to put 60 points on the Aggies next Saturday night in Stillwater.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 22, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/John Russell)
After a week off in deference to Hurricane Ike, the weekly local football review is back (previous weekly reviews are here).
OK, it wasn't as bad as the Week One loss to the Steelers, but that's faint praise. The Texans (0-2) defense was actually better against the Titans (3-0), but the offense continues to hit on far fewer than all cylinders. Rookie RB Steve Slaton looked promising(18 car/115 yds/1 TD), but QB Matt Schaub (17-37/ 188 yds/ 3 INT's) and Pro Bowl WR Andre Johnson (2 receptions for 29 yds and two dropped passes in the end zone) looked awful. The road to a first 2008 victory doesn't get any easier for the Texans next week as they travel to Jacksonville to play the Jaguars (1-2), who handed the Colts (1-2) their second loss in three 2008 games on Sunday. And guess who the Texans get after the Jags? The Colts at Reliant Stadium. The Chron's Lance Zerlein sums up the state of the Texans after two games here.
Aggie RB Michael Goodson started the game off with an electrifying 62 yard TD catch and run, but then Miami tied the game four plays later and never looked back. The score was 41-10 by late in the third quarter, so this game was a blowout well before the Aggies scored two meaningless scores late. The Aggies (1-2) better get a win next Saturday at College Station against Army (0-3) because their next legitimate chance for a victory after that game is a month later against Big 12 doormat, Iowa State (2-2), and that's by no means a sure thing. My, how low can it go in Aggieland?
As the Owls (2-2) served up their annual sacrificial lamb offering to the Longhorns (3-0), does anyone else think the Horns' soft schedule may make them prime meat for an upset at Boulder by Colorado (3-0) two weeks from now? The Horns play a bad Arkansas (2-1) team next Saturday in Austin, while the Owls will have a scoreboard-burning free-for-all against North Texas (0-3) at Rice Stadium.
Colorado State 28 Houston Cougars 25
Given that UH players and coaches were inexplicably forced to play last week while many of their families were enduring peril from Hurricane Ike, and then spent most of last week trying to get back to a largely power-deprived city in the aftermath of the hurricane, I am almost inclined to give the Cougars (1-3) a pass on this loss. That is until I discovered that Colorado State (2-1) struggled to beat Sacramento State (!) two weeks ago. The Coogs better get their mojo back quickly because they travel next Saturday to Greenville, North Carolina to play East Carolina (3-1), which was the 15th-ranked team in the country before they were upset in overtime by North Carolina State on Saturday. A 1-4 start is not what new Cougar coach Kevin Sumlin had in mind as his introduction to the Houston sports community.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 17, 2008
A day in a life after Ike
Just jotting down a few observations throughout the day of living in an area that just experienced a major natural disaster.
FEMA, take note
Although The Woodlands did not suffer as much damage as many other parts of the Houston metropolitan area, it's interesting in my travels around town over the past several days that I have seen no evidence whatsoever of any federal relief.
For example, it seems to me that there are a couple of basic things that the federal government could do to facilitate recovery efforts. First, move as many portable generators to selected service stations throughout the region so that citizens can become somewhat mobile again. The primary problem at this point is not lack of gasoline. Rather, it's lack of power to operate the pumps to get the available gas into cars.
Even though large swaths of Houston remain without power, many areas are getting power back by the hour. Folks in areas without power can be much more productive if they can travel to areas that have it and work. Unfortunately, as it stands, there is no gas to get to those areas and then return home.
Another irritation is that no one in an official capacity attempts to do anything to facilitate communications for the citizens directly affected by a natural disaster such as Ike. Ever since the storm, cell phone usage has been spotty in most residential areas, and serviceable in only a few commercial areas. Perhaps damage to the cell network equipment is the cause of the poor service, but I haven't heard anyone contend that such is the case.
Galveston
Just as the deadly hurricane of 1900 changed the nature of Galveston, my sense is that Hurricane Ike has done the same thing in 2008.
Prior to the 1900 hurricane, Galveston was Texas' largest city, port and commercial center. The devastation from that storm put into the motion the changes in Texas' development that resulted in Houston becoming the major port and cities such as Houston and Dallas-Ft. Worth becoming the major commercial centers. As Houston grew into this region's major center of commerce, Galveston evolved into a tourist center and a weekend beach getaway for folks in Houston.
Despite that tourism development, the City of Galveston has been slowly dying for years. Jobs and commercial activity largely revolve around the tourism industry (even the port is now owned by the Port of Houston Authority). Most young people now move away from the city after high school, so older folks constitute an unusually high percentage of the "town folk."
My sense is that Galveston will come back as a weekender community and a modest tourist vista, but that commerce not related to the tourism industry will continue to decline at an accelerated rate. My sense is that what we might see in 20 years is a community comprised of a few high-rise condos and resorts along the seawall, the ubiquitous weekender homes on the West Beach and not much else.
It will certainly be easier to evacuate such a community.
Radio anchor people
As a general rule, I do not listen to much radio. Maybe an occasional traffic report or Charlie Pallilo's sports talk show in the rare event that I am driving somewhere during it.
But I've been shocked at how bad the radio anchor reporters have been on KTRH, the main station providing disaster information to the public. Although a number of the KTRH field reporters are OK, the anchors often sound as if they are blithering idiots. It seems as if they aren't asking inane and non-challenging questions to "experts" or public officials, they laughing and making bad jokes at inappropriate times or in regard to serious issues.
Walter Cronkite, where are you when we need you?
Houston sports teams
I noted in this earlier post in the run-up to Hurricane Ike that the high number of variables that become involved in reacting to hurricanes often generates some abysmal decisions in reaction to the storm. That observation was certainly validated by a couple of decisions that were made with regard to Houston sports teams.
From University of Houston Athletic Director Dave Maggard's absurd decision to have the University's football team play in Dallas while the storm was still hammering Houston (!) to Major League Commissioner Bud Selig's equally preposterous decision to haul the Houston Astros players and coaches away from their families (to Milwaukee of all places) the day after a terrible natural disaster left the players and coaches' families without power in a devastated city, it's hard to imagine the fractured thought process that went into either of those boneheaded decisions.
Sports competition at the major-college and professional level requires a high level of concentration. Given the circumstances under which these games were played, it is not surprising in the least that the Houston teams lost each one of them. How could the players and coaches be concentrating on a damn game?
It's only God's grace to both Maggard and Selig that no family member of either a UH or Stros player or coach was hurt or killed in the aftermath of the storm. Why do either of these fellows still have their respective jobs?
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
September 8, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar; previous weekly review is here).
Geez, that Texans' performance certainly didn't make this preview look very good.
Getting one's ass kicked in the first game of the season is never pleasant, but the most troubling thing about this debacle is its similarity to the season opener from the Texans' disastrous Year Four in which the team lost 14 of 16 games. This Texans team appears to have much better personnel than that Texans team, but it's still not clear that this one is any better coached, particularly on defense where that unit appears incapable of stopping a hard-chargin' marching band. Lance Zerlein breaks down what went wrong.
The Texans face another dominating defense next Sunday at Reliant Stadium against the Ravens (1-0), so Kubiak & Co. have their work cut out for them. Rookie OLT Duane Brown better grow up fast or QB Matt Schaub will find himself on the injured list this season even quicker than last season.
The plucky Owls (2-0/2-0) were dominated by the Tigers for a half, but QB Chase Clement got warmed up in the 2nd half as Rice closed with 29 4th quarter points to pull out the victory (Memphis went from 15-up with 8:33 left to 7-down at the end -- Ouch!). The game winner was a thrilling 66 yard interception return for a TD by Rice DB Chris Jammer with 11 seconds left.
After starting the season with two C-USA games, the Owls now have three straight non-conference road games, next week against Vanderbilt (2-0/1-0) in Nashville, then against the Longhorns (2-0) in Austin and then against North Texas (0-2) at Denton. The Owls' offense is so potent that, if they can avoid injuries to key players such as Clement, WR Jarett Dilliard and RB-WR James Casey, Rice has a chance to be one of the surprise teams of the season.
The Cougars (1-1) actually led this one 16-14 at halftime, but then the Cowboys (2-0) took advantage of several Houston mistakes to roll up 28 points in the 3rd quarter and turn the game into a rout. Houston QB Case Keenum continues to shine (35-61, 397 yds, 4 TD, 0 INT, 81 yds rushing), but there is not much to say complimentary about a defensive unit that gave up almost 700 yards of total offense. And it sounds as if there might be some competition in the Cougar camp this week for the long snapping job. The Cougars play a couple of Colorado opponents over the next two weeks -- first against Air Force (2-0) at Robertson Stadium and then against Colorado State (1-1) at Fort Collings -- before opening C-USA play against nationally-ranked East Carolina (2-0) in Greenville, N.C.
The Longhorn caravan rolled into El Paso for the first time in 75 years and pounded the hometown Miners (0-2) in what amounted to a controlled scrimmage for Texas (2-0). The Horns now return to Austin next Saturday afternoon to face Arkansas (2-0), which has struggled to beat Western Illinois and Louisiana-Monroe in its first two games under new coach Bobby Petrino. By the way, over the next month, the Razorbacks face Texas, Alabama, Florida and Auburn in succession. Welcome back to big-time college football, Coach Petrino.
First, the good news -- Texas A&M (1-1) won its first game under new coach Mike Sherman.
But now, the bad news -- the woeful Lobos (0-2) out-gained the Aggies by 371 total yards to 235, had more first downs and a better 3rd-down conversion rate. In fact, about the only statistical category in which the Aggies out-performed the Lobos was turnovers -- the Lobos shot themselves in the foot with four, including an interception that Aggie DB Jordan Peterson returned for the first TD of the game. If A&M's performance in its first two games of the season is any indication, It appears that it's going to be a long season in Aggieland.
The Aggies have a week off before taking on Miami (1-1) in College Station in a nationally-televised Saturday night game on September 20th. Having watched Miami's formidable defense do a pretty good job of containing Florida's very-good offense yesterday, the punchless Aggie offense will have difficulty generating 200 yards of total offense against the extremely quick and talented Hurricanes.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 6, 2008
The difficulty of making it in the NFL
Although I normally eschew the NFL pre-season, this year's pre-season has captured my interest more than usual because of a friend's effort to make the roster of one of the NFL's best teams. Monitoring his efforts has reminded me of just how incredibly talented the athletes are in the NFL.
Danny Amendola, a former star receiver at The Woodlands High School and for the Texas Tech Red Raiders, has been a rookie free-agent trying to make the Dallas Cowboys 53-man roster during this pre-season. He has had a good camp (including making a nice reception in the pre-season game against the Texans), but he was released this past week in the Cowboys' final cut down to 53 players.
However, after cutting Amendola, the Cowboys re-signed him a day later to their practice squad after no other NFL team elected to assume his free-agent contract. Inasmuch as a couple of the Cowboys' receivers who made the final roster are dealing with minor injuries, Amendola has a good chance of being activated off of the practice squad for the Cowboys opener this week against this Browns at Cleveland.
For several years, I coached Amendola in both youth baseball and basketball here in The Woodlands. I used to kid Danny's father, who is a long-time Houston area high school football coach, that at least I didn't screw up his son's football career.
Amendola was the best athlete that I coached in youth sports -- strong, fast, quick, graceful, relentless and extremely coachable. There is no doubt in my mind that he could have also played both baseball and basketball at the major college level if he had chosen to develop his skills in those sports, and I believe that he could have played baseball professionally, too.
Yet, this extraordinary athlete is not yet good enough to make a final 53-man NFL roster. Frankly, it's mind-boggling to me that there are roughly 120 or so WR's in the NFL who are better than Danny Amendola.
Amendola's story in attempting to make the Cowboys this pre-season has been a big part of the HBO series Hard Knocks, so he has become somewhat of a television star in addition to being a local sports celebrity. Here is the part of the final segment in which Amendola elects to accept the Cowboys' offer to play on their practice squad. His good fortune couldn't happen to a nicer fellow.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
September 5, 2008
Houston Texans, Year Seven
Year Seven of the Houston Texans begins this Sunday with a road game against the Steelers, so it's time for my fifth annual preview of the team (previous annual previews are here).
Largely ignored amidst the ubiquitous mainstream media optimism about the Texans is the harsh reality that the local franchise has the worst record of any expansion franchise in the modern history of the National Football League. As with most things in football, there are many reasons for the poor record, not all of which are even the fault of the Texans' management and players. Nevertheless, Texans' management bears a substantial responsibility for the relative futility of the team over its first six years, so it's helpful to review the team's journey over that time span in evaluating whether the Texans are ready to improve.
The Texans were the toast of Houston for their first three seasons during which Texans management and the local mainstream media trumpeted the party line that Texans were building a playoff contender "the right way" -- that is through prudent drafting and development of young players while eschewing the temptation of short-term rewards provided by over-priced veterans who were on the downside of their careers. The progressively better won-loss records in the first three seasons (4-12, 5-11, and 7-9) -- plus the drafting of young stars such as WR Andre Johnson, RB Dominack Davis and CB Dunta Robinson -- seemed to indicate that the Texans' plan was working.
Unfortunately, those progressively better won-loss records distracted Texans management and the mainstream media from recognizing the fact that the Texans were not close to contending for an NFL playoff spot. The best evidence of that was that the Texans entered each of their first four seasons with the same two core problems -- the Texans' offensive line could not protect the quarterback and the Texans' defensive front could not pressure the opposing team's QB.
Former Texans GM Charlie Casserly never could solve the offensive line (remember LT's Tony Boselli and then Orlando Pace?) and defensive line (remember Jason Babin?) problems. Similarly, former Texans head coach Dom Capers' changes to the offensive and defensive systems between Years Three and Four proved disastrous as the Texans limped home with a desultory 2-14 record in Year Four.
After dispensing with Casserly and Capers, Texans owner Bob McNair blew up his original Texans management model and surprisingly hired Kubiak, who promptly made (acquiesced to?) a whopper of a blunder in his first major personnel decision as Texans' coach -- retaining QB David Carr even though it was reasonably clear as early as before Year Three that Carr was unlikely to develop into an above-average NFL QB.
Kubiak -- who is a quick study in evaluating talent -- promptly soured on Carr during the early stages of Year Five, which was part of the reason why the Texans had one of the worst offenses in the NFL that season. As a result of enduring that Year Five offense, Kubiak arguably overpaid for QB Matt Schaub and clearly overpaid for over-the-hill running back Ahman Green before Year Six. 
Not much had improved through 12 games of Year Six as the Texans' performance had been so inconsistent that even the local mainstream media cheerleaders were questioning whether Kubiak was the proper captain to right the Texans ship.
Then, the Texans showed some pluck and won three of their last four games (the loss was a real stinker to the Colts) to finish with an 8-8 record, the first non-losing record in franchise history. The Texans' offense -- even without Schaub and star WR Andre Johnson for five and seven games respectively -- improved to 12th in the NFL in yards gained and 14th in points scored, by far the best finish of any Texans offense. That was enough to give the starving local mainstream media and long-suffering Texans' fan base hope that things might finally turn around for the franchise in Year Seven.
But is that optimism truly warranted? My sense is that it finally is.
Although I'm still not completely sold that Kubiak is the coach to take the Texans to the playoffs, I am impressed by his willingness to recognize mistakes, cut losses and make changes. In so doing, he does not seem to be burdened with the stubbornness that often undermines NFL head coaches.
Moreover, continuity in coaching staffs and personnel are the most common elements of successful NFL teams, so my sense is that Kubiak has shown enough coaching acumen over his first two seasons that the eternally patient McNair will endure blunders such as the Green deal in the hope that maintaining coaching staff stability will ultimately reward him with a winner. McNair certainly deserves it given the excellent support that he has always provided to the Texans football operation.
Interestingly, despite the Texans continuing problems at running back, I expect the Texans offense to improve again this season. Part of the reason for this is that the nature of running the football has changed in the NFL. The old saw that a team "has to establish the run" to win in the NFL has been pretty well demolished by the success of the Patriots and the Colts, both of which use prolific passing attacks to build leads and then just run the ball well enough to work time off the clock in the latter stages of the game to preserve victory. Moreover, running backs in the NFL are so injury-prone that virtually every team in the league is now manning the position with a "running back by committee" approach.
Thus, the fact that the Texans do not have a dominant running back isn't as big a concern as the mainstream media makes it out to be, particularly given the improvement of the Texans' offensive line and the potential explosiveness of the Texans' passing game. Besides, rookie RB Steve Slaton played in a blocking scheme in college at West Virginia that is based upon the one that the Texans are using, so I would not be surprised if he is a productive back for the Texans right out of the chute.
Meanwhile, the bigger question mark revolves around the Texans' defensive unit, which is the key to the Texans becoming a bona fide playoff contender.
Somewhat frustratingly, the Texans have used a large number of high draft picks on defensive players over the past several NFL Drafts and have precious little to show for it. Football Prospectus has rated the Texans' defense 32nd, 31st and 30th in the NFL over the past three seasons.
Nevertheless, the Texans have accumulated a nucleus of talented young players -- DE Mario Williams, CB Dunta Robinson (currently injured), CB Fred Bennett, MLB DeMeco Ryans, and DT Amobi Okoye -- that points toward an improved defensive unit. Getting enough consistent pressure on the opposing team's passer to relieve a somewhat undermanned secondary (at least until Robinson's probable return at mid-season) is the biggest challenge that this defense still needs to overcome.
Inasmuch as improvement in NFL defensive units generally gestates over several seasons as young players gain needed experience, I expect the defense to make major improvement this season so that it becomes a unit capable of making Texans a viable playoff contender in the 2009 season. If that improvement does not occur this season, then Kubiak will likely replace defensive coordinator Richard Smith or, at very least, bring in an experienced assistant head coach to coordinate the defensive unit.
So, are the Texans ready to contend for a playoff spot this season? Probably not, given that the division-rivals Colts and Jaguars are still better teams on paper and the first third of the schedule is brutal. My sense is that the over/under on Texans wins this season is eight, which will not be enough to make the playoffs. A playoff push in 2009 is a better bet.
But given the high number of variables that play into a successful NFL season, picking NFL playoff teams is an extremely speculative endeavor. Almost all NFL playoff contenders are just a couple of key injuries away from the scrap heap. For the first time, it appears that the Texans have accumulated enough talented football players that they are in a position to seize the playoff opportunity if the variables tilt in their favor. Given where the Texans have been, that's real progress.
As the blogosphere continues to develop, there really is little reason to rely any longer on the mainstream media for Texans news and analysis. The Chronicle's coverage of the Texans is extensive but lacking in meaningful insight outside of Lance Zerlein's blog, which is updated only once or twice a week.
I will be providing the 2008 Weekly local football review again this season, but the following blogs also provide superior analysis of the Texans over what the Chronicle offers:
Stephanie Stradley's blog on the Texans over at AOL Fanhouse;
DGDB&D (for "Da Good, Da Bad & DeMeco");
Battle Red Blog of the SB Nation family of blogs;
Keith Weiland's In the Bullseye.com;
Texans Tail Gate; and
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
September 2, 2008
Richard Justice crosses the line
As regular readers of this blog know, I have often wondered why Chronicle sports columnist Richard Justice is writing about sports. He is highly subjective in his views, does not back them up with objective facts and doesn't reason well. Beyond that, he does just fine.
As a result of the foregoing, Justice is a controversial fellow among Houston sports fans. His blog is a rollicking place where mostly anonymous readers who comment on Justice's blog posts regularly engage in competing insults with Justice. Not my cup of tea, but different strokes for different folks.
At any rate, after the Texans' meaningless pre-season loss against Dallas a couple of weeks ago, Justice published this post in which he harshly criticized Texans offensive line coach Alex Gibbs -- who is widely-regarded as one of the best offensive line coaches in the NFL -- for yelling at his players. The post was odd, but nothing out of the ordinary for Justice, who had applauded the hiring of Gibbs this past January. Inasmuch as Justice noted that Gibbs has a policy of not talking to the media, many readers commenting on the post speculated that Justice's criticism of Gibbs was simply sour grapes for Gibbs' refusal to talk with Justice.
However, one particular reader who commented on Justice's post was not interested in engaging in the usual name-calling that is common on Justice's blog. Stephanie Stradley, who previously blogged on the Texans for the Chronicle and who now blogs on the Texans over at AOL Sports Fanhouse, posted a comment to Justice's post in which she challenged the factual basis of Justice's assertion that Gibbs' players were tuning him out because of his yelling. Stradley is a first-class blogger who analyzes the Texans much more objectively and effectively than Justice does.
In response to Stradley's comment, Justice responded with shrill comment (since deleted) in which he reiterated his point about yelling and then insulted Stradley. Despite Justice's insult, Stradley inquired in a subsequent comment about the basis of Justice's contention that Gibbs' players did not respond to him, to which Justice responded with another condescending comment. Tasteless, but again nothing out of the ordinary for the often childish nature of Justice's blog.
But what Justice did next may very well have crossed the line. Inasmuch as Justice's criticism of Gibbs was so poorly-reasoned, readers continued to mock Justice in the comments to his blog post, prompting Justice to post a follow-up post to defend his position. But in so doing, Justice made the following comment (scroll down to comment at 9:49 AM) in response to a reader who suggested that he owed Stradley an apology for his earlier tasteless comment:
I don't know what Stephanie's real name is, but she creeps me out. She writes a little too often, wants to discuss and debate. She has her own blog, so why is she so interested in mine? Ask yourself that question. Maybe I've watched Fatal Attraction too many times. If something happens to one of my rabbits, she's going to be in big trouble.--Richard
Incredibly, if that weren't bad enough, Justice followed up that libelous comment with this one in responding to another reader's comment (scroll down to comment at 10:13 PM):
Oh so you only use English when you feel like it? Be sure and put that on your resume. Listen, Cronkite, don't get into an insult contest with me. You'll end up in a fetal position whimpering and begging me to ease up. Find something you're good at and dedicate yourself to that. I don't know what that would be, but this ain't it. Go hang out with that Glenn Close woman. She'd probably find you fascinating. Speaking of Stephanie Stradley, I woke up this morning and saw our rabbit cage was empty. ''Stephanie!'' I screamed. Turns out, the little feller was sleeping beneath a chair.--Richard
In a patient and classy manner, Stradley recounts the entire bizarre episode here.
But beyond their utter tastelessness, both of Justice's comments associating Stradley with a homicidal maniac appear to meet the requirements of defamation per se. As a result, Stradley has viable damage claims against both Justice personally and the Chronicle.
Ironically, Justice's Monday blog post asserts that many Stros fans owe GM Ed Wade an apology. Absent the Chronicle and Justice heeding his advice and issuing an immediate public apology to Stradley, I hope she tees off on both of them.
The Chronicle has some very good reporters. But in these challenging times for newspapers, can the Chronicle survive the likes of Richard Justice?
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
September 1, 2008
2008 Weekly local football review
(Previous weekly reviews from the 2004-2007 seasons are here).
As noted earlier here, I think the Owls (1-0/1-0 CUSA) are a good bet to surprise this season. They have an excellent and experienced QB in Chase Clement and an All-American caliber senior WR Jarrett Dillard. The Owls' offense is explosive and difficult to defend. As usual, the defense is undermanned, but they executed reasonably well in defending SMU's new Run 'N Shoot-type offense and really just need to play well enough to give the Owls' offense an opportunity to outscore the opposition. The Owls travel next Saturday to play another CUSA opponent, Memphis (0-1). Don't be surprised if the Owls start out 2-0.
New Houston (1-0) coach Kevin Sumlin unleashed the Cougars' new spread offense on undermanned Div I-AA Southern and the result was over 600 yards of total offense and a convincing win. The Coogs have an experienced and talented QB in redshirt sophomore QB Chase Keenum (33-43/390 yds; 5 TD's) as well as a deep receiving corps (11 different receivers caught passes during the game). The Cougars defense also has some playmakers, to this team has the potential to contend for the CUSA title if it continues to develop. The price of poker goes up next week, though, as the Cougars travel to Stillwater to take on a talented Oklahoma State (1-0) team that dusted off Washington State in Seattle over the weekend.
Texas Longhorns 52 Florida Atlantic 10
Key tip to Florida Atlantic coach Howard Schnellenberger -- if you really think that the Horns are soft and can be intimidated if hit hard, keep it between you and your team. The Texas Longhorns (1-0) perfectly-named QB Colt McCoy completed his first 13 straight passes and finished 24-29 for 222 yds and 3 TD's, as well as 102 yds on 12 carries, in leading the Horns to an easy win over overmatched FA. The Horns soft spot -- a young and inexperienced defensive secondary -- gave up 226 yds passing in the first half, but settled down as the game wore on, giving up only 27 yds in the second half. The Horns have another scrimmage next Saturday in El Paso against UTEP (0-1) before returning home on September 13th for a widely-awaited game against former Southwest Conference rival, the Arkansas Razobacks and their new coach, Bobby Petrino.
Arkansas State 18 Texas Aggies 14
Oh my. I don't think think an opening loss to a mid-level Sun Belt Conference team is what the Aggies (0-1) had in mind as the start of the Mike Sherman era. However, the reality is that the Aggies have a young and inexperience offensive line, one of the worst QB's in the Big 12 conference, few proven receivers, an undermanned defense and an inconsistent placekicker. Beyond that, everything is just peachy in Aggieland. The Aggies travel to Albuquerque next Saturday to take on New Mexico (0-1) before facing Miami (1-0) on September 20. Inasmuch as the Hurricanes warm up for A&M by taking on Florida, the Aggies better get every win they can before taking on the likes of Miami and their Big 12 opponents. Five wins may be the best this Aggie team can do.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
August 30, 2008
"Darrell, I don't think we could go through that again"
With the beginning of the college football season this week, it just feels right to pass along this OU Insider interview of one of Texas' legendary college football coaches -- Emory Bellard, the inventor of the Wishbone offense.
Numerous National Championship teams from Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma used the Wishbone during the two decades after Bellard implemented the formation as an assistant coach with the Texas Longhorns during the 1968 season. Although Bellard went on to a mercurial tenure as the head coach at Texas A&M in the 1970's, he is best remembered for developing the Wishbone, which was a devastatingly effective triple-option offense (Paul Johnson at Navy and now at Georgia Tech runs a variation of the Wishbone today). OU Insider interview focuses on Bellard's memories and thoughts about the Wishbone, which include the following pearls:
On the criticism that the Wishbone was an ineffective passing offense:
". . . The biggest mistake I made in the passing game was assuming that we needed something short, but we didn’t. We just needed to throw deep. We did not need to throw short because everybody was coming up this way trying to stop the run. So as long as we kept out deep threats, post patterns and the streak patterns — that’s what we should have been placing the emphasis on."
On what happened after Bellard implemented the Wishbone at UT in 1968:
"So we put it in [1968] and we tied the first game and lost the second one and then we won the next 30."
On his misgivings about teaching UCLA's Pepper Rodgers the Wishbone:
"You can’t imagine the number of colleges that were at our spring practice. We conducted a darn coaching clinic every day; it was the biggest mess I ever messed with. I got so tired of talking to people."
"Pepper Rodgers, he came down from UCLA and they had had a bad year. Mark Harmon, the young actor, he was to be the quarterback and he was a good one, too. Ended up being a good one."
"But I spent about a week and I’d go back up to the office and talk with him at night and that jackass went back out and put the Wishbone in at UCLA and had a book published before Christmas. Boy, that takes a lot of gall there, now. I just, that really…"
And finally, on legendary UT head coach Darrell Royal's decision to teach the Wishbone to other programs, including arch-rival Oklahoma. OU refined the formation during the late 1970's and 80's to win National Championships and to dominate Texas after UT abandoned the Wishbone when Royal retired in 1975:
"[E]verybody in the country was looking to run the Wishbone. And it became the winningest formation in the history of the game of football for quite a while there. We gave it to Alabama, we gave it to Oklahoma. I mean, their execution knowledge and so forth of the offense came from us; we gave it to Oklahoma."
"I just saw Barry [Switzer] the other day. He was offensive coordinator at Oklahoma and Chuck Fairbanks was the head coach and Darrell came into my office one day and we’d already just wore Oklahoma out a couple years and he said, “Chuck is in trouble, he’s gonna lose his job and they want to put in the Wishbone. Barry is gonna be calling you, help him all you can.”
I shook my head, I said, “Darrell, you got to be joking?” He said, “No, I wanna help him.”
I said, “Well, I can admire your wanting to help somebody but I said, gosh darn, not them.” That’s true, too, because they got to where they had so much speed it was hard for us to catch them.
He [Royal] called me about four or five months ago. He calls every now and then and I call him every now and then. But anyhow, he called and said, “You know, I was just sitting here thinking, I might not be as benevolent if I had it to do over (again).”
I said, “I hope not, Darrell. I don’t think we could go through that again.”
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
August 28, 2008
Justice fumbles again
Even when chronically-wrong Chronicle sports columnist Richard Justice gets something right, he immediately follows it with more poorly-reasoned blather.
In this blog post, Justice pays tribute to former Texas Tech football coach Spike Dykes, who is truly one of the nicest men ever to be a successful head coach in the big-time college football. But rather than leave well enough alone, Justice proceeds to engage in more myth-making about current Tech head coach, Mike Leach:
Not many Division I schools would have hired Mike Leach, either. Not many Division I coaches look or sound like him. He's funny, arrogant, off-the-wall and occasionally infuriating.
He's also a great coach. He wins games and graduates his players. His ninth season begins with high hopes on the South Plains. The Red Raiders are 12th in the AP poll, the highest they've been at the start of a season in 31 years. Tech has sold every season ticket for the first time in the 84-year history of the program.
The Red Raiders have 18 starters back, including WR Michael Crabtree and QB Graham Harrell. There's depth all over the place on offense, and if Ruffin McNeill's defense plays the way it did after he took over last season, Texas Tech could be in the BCS mix.
Where to begin? In his eight years at Tech, Leach has a 65-37-0 record, which works out to a 63.7% winning percentage. Although that is the best mark of any long-time coach at Tech over the past 70 years, a substantial component of Leach's success has been his 25-5 (83.3%) record against non-Big 12 opponents, which have been mostly sacrificial lambs.
In fact, of those 30 non-conference games, only five have been against other BCS-conference teams -- Ohio State (loss), Mississippi (2 wins) and North Carolina State (2 losses). Moreover, the last time that Tech even played a non-conference game against a BCS-conference opponent was five years ago in 2003.
Meanwhile, Tech under Leach has feasted on cupcakes such as Division 1-AA teams Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston State, Indiana State, Southeastern Louisiana and Northwestern State and undermanned Division I outfits such as SMU and New Mexico. Heck, ten of Tech's non-conference games under Leach have been against SMU and New Mexico. That Tech wins over 80% of such games is certainly no feather in Leach's cap.
On the other hand, Tech's Big 12 conference record under Leach is another story -- 35-29 (a 54.6% winning percentage). Leach-coached Tech teams are only 3-13 against Texas and Oklahoma and his teams have had only a 4-4 Big 12 conference record in four of Leach's eight seasons at Tech, including the last two.
Finally, Leach has used extremely poor judgment in some of his public remarks about assistant coaches on his staff.
In short, objective evaluation of Leach's career at Tech reveals that his teams run up big numbers, but they don't often beat teams with comparable or better talent because those teams can control the ball enough to keep Tech's offense from scoring a winning number. And despite what Justice suggests, Tech's defense under Leach has never stopped any good offensive team.
Tech is rated highly this season in pre-season polls (14th in the USA Today Coaches Poll), but their non-conference schedule is again largely a joke -- two D-1AA teams (Eastern Washington and UMass) and a rebuilding SMU should again be easy wins for the Red Raiders. In an unusual twist, Tech will have a reasonably difficult non-conference game this season when they travel to Reno on September 6 to play a well-seasoned Nevada Wolfpack team from the Western Athletic Conference.
But I'll wait to see how Tech fares in the Big 12 before conceding that the Red Raiders have reached a new level under Leach. So far, Leach's success at Tech looks more like good public relations to gullible sportswriters such as Justice than any major elevation of the program.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
August 24, 2008
The Quad reviews UT and LSU
The Quad -- the NY Times' excellent college sports blog that has been the subject of these previous posts -- continues its excellent review of each of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision ("FBS") football programs by profiling the two best football programs in this neck of the woods, the 8th-ranked University of Texas Longhorns and the defending BCS National Champion, the Louisiana State University Bengal Tigers.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
August 21, 2008
The NFL's next flagship stadium
Reliant Stadium in Houston is a nice and comfortable place to watch sporting events, but this Wired Magazine article reports that the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington looks to take the stadium experience to an entirely new level.
"The Dallas Cowboys are moving house — Texas style. When the team's new arena opens next year, it will be the largest, most tech-laden stadium in the NFL (and one of the biggest sports facilities of any kind on the planet). Its $1.1 billion price includes the most ginormous retractable roof ever built, massive end-zone doors, and the world's biggest hi-def LED screens." Not to mention locker rooms that include "power outlets, data ports, and televisions at each locker, plus ceiling-recessed projectors in the center of the changing rooms for reviewing plays." Or that "the giant arches holding up the stadium will measure 1,225 feet from end to end - roughly the length of the Empire State Building.”
Damn!
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
August 14, 2008
Cowboy business
The Texans are the toast of their local cheerleading team, but the unquestioned NFL team of Texas remains the Dallas Cowboys. This Glenn Hunter/D Magazine interview of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones confirms that the Cowboys business model is performing very, very well:
With the Cowboys, you’re said to lead the league in corporate sponsorships. Can you give me an idea how much those relationships are worth each year?
We’ve got significant, long-term relationships with Dr Pepper, Miller Lite, Pepsi, Bank of America. If you would aggregate those key, basic long-term sponsorships, that would exceed $50 million annually. We have smaller relationships through our broadcasting, radio and television.
And for merchandising, would $50 million be a good number?
The wholesale-merchandising area is a very, very proprietary number that has a lot involved with it. Let’s see, how to say this? Our wholesaling and retailing combined, as far as financial viability is concerned, is on par with what we do with sponsorships. They are equal in their contribution to the Cowboys.
For the team as a whole, what are you looking at for revenue this year? A few years ago, the figure was north of $200 million; are you going up every year?
Yes, we are. I think it’s fair to say that we will be north of $300 million.
And yes, Jones really is sorry for the way he handled the firing of longtime Cowboys coach, the late Tom Landry:
You really turned around the Cowboys franchise in the early 1990s, and to do it you had to shake up the status quo, including firing the longtime coach, Tom Landry. To this day we hear complaints from longtime Dallasites about that. If you could do things over, would you have handled that differently?
Yes. I understand the criticism; I actually understood it then. I didn’t have a sense of how significant the emotional attachment was to Coach Landry, and to some degree [Cowboys President and General Manager] Tex Schramm, but especially to Landry and the franchise. He had actually transcended the franchise. I actually had very prominent consulting people—not one but two firms, Hill & Knowlton, out of Washington D.C., and one firm from Dallas—that were advising me all during this time. And they advised me in many ways to do it the way I did it. Bum Bright—the individual I bought the team from—offered, to his credit, to make all these changes and to sell the Cowboys to me with no one here, a clean slate. But I was advised, and I concurred with it, that everybody knew the reason the changes were coming was because of me, so I should be a man and directly do it myself, as far as Coach Landry’s and Tex Schramm’s situations—in other words, do it face to face.
Having said that, it’s not something I would do that way again. I would have been more sensitive. I don’t know if I would have gone so far as having Coach Landry coach one more year, then having a transition period of a year. Or work longer with Tex; come in and let them kind of mentor you, show you the ropes, talk about their fundamental vision for the Cowboys. In hindsight, that’s what people say I should have done. But again, unfortunately, I’ve always tried to get there quicker and consequently, as I said earlier, taken more risk by getting on with things.
Finally, just what does Jones think about this whole QB Tony Romo-Jessica Simpson thing?:
Speaking of the quarterback position, does Tony Romo’s high-profile relationship with the entertainer Jessica Simpson bother you, like it does some Cowboys fans?
Tony’s relationship with Jessica Simpson doesn’t bother me at all. It’s good for the franchise—adding sizzle and show business and interest—and it doesn’t affect Tony’s performance in any way.
Maybe so, but I'm not taking a chance on Romo in my Fantasy Football League's draft. ;^)
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
August 1, 2008
Chasing rainbows
I enjoy watching football games, but I have never been able to understand the mainstream media's fascination with pre-season football practice.
I mean, really. Is there anything more boring than football practice? Well, maybe pre-season football games, but that's another issue. Yet, the local media cheerleaders are lined up each day to report breathlessly about the Texans' pre-season practices. The late night television news last night reported excitedly about the Texans' practice earlier in the evening in which the Texan players, without pads, ran through a series of drills that amounted to glorified touch football. Touch football!
At any rate, with all the media resources dedicated to covering pre-season training camp, an interesting piece of information does emerge every once in awhile. For example, this AP report notes that former Texans first-round draft pick and QB David Carr, now almost 30 years old, is trying to catch on as a backup QB with the Super Bowl champion New York Giants.
Despite being the Texans' first draft choice and the first player taken in the 2002 NFL draft, Carr turned out to be one of the worst QB's in NFL history, which is one of the many reasons that the Texans have been one of the worst teams in NFL history during their six year existence. It was reasonably clear even before the Texans third year (2004) that Carr was not the answer at QB, but the Texans cheerleaders at the Chronicle were still touting him as a potential top-tier talent deep into the Texans' disastrous 2-14 season in 2005. That same level of incompetence is generally displayed in almost all of the seemingly endless puff pieces that the Chron reporters (Chron blogger Lance Zerlein excepted) generate throughout Texans training camp.
Getting back to Carr, it sounds as if his performance to date in the Giants camp has been consistent with his performance in Houston:
Things have not started well for Carr. He hurt his foot working out a week before camp opened and missed some practice time. Since returning, he has thrown a couple of interceptions, fumbled two snaps and tossed a few questionable passes.
David Carr, first-round draft choice. A quintessential example of the NFL's mismatch problem?
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
July 29, 2008
Gearing up for college football
The beginning of the college football season is just a month away, so it's time to pass along some excellent web resources to prepare for the season:
The no. 1 college football resource on the Web is the Web Resources page over at Jay Christensen's Wizard of Odds, which is the best one-stop information source for college football on the Web.
This college football schedule template from the Strangest Brew allows you to prepare a page of schedules that you can tailor for your favorite teams and conferences. Very slick indeed.
The Joe Cribbs Car Wash provides this handy Paperless Preview Project that provides convenient preview information from various publications for all 120 Division I teams. Read about your favorite teams and their opponents, all in one place.
Finally, the NY Times' fine college sports blog, the Quad, continues its pre-season countdown analysis of all 120 D-I teams with no. 35, the Texas A&M Aggies (earlier Quad previews profiled Rice and Houston). Not much is expected of the Aggie football team this fall, so the best entertainment this season at Kyle Field may well be new Aggie defensive coordinator, Joe Kines. The video below is a halftime interview of Kines while he was serving briefly as Alabama's interim head coach during a bowl game after the head coach had been fired. As they say in the coaching business, Kines is an "original" and appears to have what it takes to become a beloved figure in the special culture of Aggieland.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
July 23, 2008
Take a tour of the Pac-10
Check out this cool Google Earth tour of each stadium in the Pac-10 Football Conference.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 9, 2008
The NFL confronts the Mismatch Problem
The pathological way in which National Football League teams annually evaluate college football players has been a common topic on this blog. So, I thoroughly enjoyed this New Yorker video (H/T Guy Kawasaki) of a recent talk by Clear Thinkers favorite Malcolm Gladwell in which he uses the NFL's new-player evaluation process as an example of a hiring practice that is undermined by the "mismatch problem" -- that is, the tendency of an employer to cling to outmoded employee evaluation variables despite the fast-changing nature of the employer's jobs.
Gladwell's point is that the nature and demands of jobs in American society are becoming increasingly complex. That complexity, in turn, drives employers to desire more certainty in making the right employment decision. However, in striving for that certainty, many employers continue to measure the wrong variables in evaluating prospects and finalizing their employment decisions. Gladwell is currently studying the mismatch problem and has some initial observations on how employers can minimize its effects. Check out his talk.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
June 29, 2008
The Quad previews the Coogs
In its countdown of the 120 Division I-A football programs, The Quad previews the 2008 Houston Cougar football team at no. 64.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
June 22, 2008
Expanding DKR Memorial
A couple of years ago, while attending the Texas-Iowa State football game (blog post here), I took the photo on the left of the horseshoe section on the north end of the University of Texas' Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium. After the 2006 season, UT began the process of replacing the horseshoe section with a more modern end zone section that is closer to the field and contains the now-ubiquitous luxury suites and club section that are a part of most big-time college football stadiums these days. The new section is now complete and ready for the 2008 season, so check out this cool time lapse video of the construction of the section. We get things done fast down here in Texas. ;^)
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
June 5, 2008
Counting down with the Quad
It's less than three months until the kick-off of the 2008 college football season, so in anticipation of the upcoming season, the New York Times' quite good college sports blog -- the Quad -- is providing an excellent summary each day of the 110 or so Division I-A teams. The Quad rates the Rice Owls at no. 104, which seems far too pessimistic to me given the Owls' returning offensive firepower. But the summaries are generally thorough and provide a decent perspective of each program, so they are a good primer for the college football season. In these parts, it's never too early to get ready for some football!
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
May 24, 2008
Opting out with meaning
Earlier this week, the owners of the National Football League elected to opt out of the final two years of the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement with its Players Association. The Mile High Report and Stacey Brook do good jobs of analyzing the impact of the owners' election and neither believe that a lockout or strike is likely before a new deal is struck. My sense is that they are probably right, but I did chuckle when I saw this AmLaw Daily blog post on the owners' decision in regard to hiring counsel for the upcoming labor negotiations:
. . . [The NFL owners] hired L. Robert Batterman of Proskauer Rose. Batterman is well known in labor circles for his National Hockey League work. It was Batterman who presided over the NHL labor negotiations that scuttled the league's 2004-05 season, making it the first North American pro sports league to lose a full year to labor strife. "Batterman bullied [the union] into submission," says one sports labor lawyer who requested anonymity. "If one accepts the conspiracy theory of collective bargaining, this means the NFL must be looking for trouble," says another. [. . .]
No official negotiations have been held. But the hiring of Batterman sent a clear signal to the union. Gene Upshaw, president of the NFL Players Association, told SportsBusiness Journal in April that his "concerns were heightened" when he heard Batterman had been retained, noting that NHL players crumbled before Batterman's hard line. The NFLPA's outside counsel, James Quinn of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, says that the owners "have this bizarre notion that they want to get tough, so they go get Bob Batterman." (Jeffrey Kessler of Dewey & LeBoeuf is also counsel to the NFLPA.)
Doesn't sound exactly as if the NFL owners are preparing to play nice, now does it? ;^)
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
April 19, 2008
Valuing the Stros
The Stros are not worth squat on the playing field this season, but the club continues to be among the dozen most valuable franchises in Major League Baseball.
Forbes' annual valuation of MLB franchises is out and the Stros come in at a respectable 12th among the 30 MLB franchises, down one slot from last year. Forbes thinks that the Stros ($463 million valuation) are doing about as well financially as they can do in this market. A list of the values and operating income for all 30 franchises is here.
Interestingly, although the Yankees have by far the most valuable franchise in MLB, they were dead last among the 30 MLB franchises in operating income at a negative $47 million. The World Champion Boston Red Sox were 29th in operating income at a negative $19 million, although the club's valuation of $816 million is behind only the Yankees ($1.306 billion) and the Mets ($824 million).
This post from last fall noted Forbes' most recent valuation of the National League Football franchise, which continue to be much more valuable than the MLB franchises. The least valuable of the 32 NFL franchises (the Vikings at $782 million) would be the fourth most valuable MLB club.
Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 28, 2008
I'm shocked, shocked! There is academic cheating in big-time college football!
The entertaining hypocrisy of big-time college athletics continues at Florida State University. (H/T Jay Christensen). Just like Rick's Cafe, everybody knows what's going on, too.
So, what level of embarrassment in regard to "academic integrity" is it going to take to prompt university presidents to reorganize big-time college football into the professional minor league business that is its true nature?
This imbroglio reminds me of an insight into academia that my late mentor, Ross Lence, passed along to me years ago. As regular readers of this blog know, A Man for All Seasons -- the story of Sir Thomas More's conflict with King Henry VIII -- is one of my favorite movies and it was one of Ross' favorites, too. Ross particularly enjoyed the scene early in the movie when Sir Thomas attempts unsuccessfully to persuade his student, Richard Rich, to eschew a political appointment for a teaching career. After rejecting Sir Thomas' advice, Rich takes a political appointment from Henry's henchman, Thomas Cromwell, in return for agreeing to betray Sir Thomas.
"Sir Thomas knew that Rich had a corrupt heart and would never be able to resist the corrupt temptations of politics," Ross observed to me once with a chuckle. "So he recommended that Rich become a teacher." Then, with a twinkle in his eye, Ross posited the question for discussion:
"But was Sir Thomas suggesting that a corrupt heart is not a problem for an academic?"
Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 7, 2008
The importance of recruiting classes
The institutionalized fanaticism that is college football recruiting reached its annual zenith yesterday as hundreds of the nation's best high school senior football players signed National Letters of Intent with various big-time college football programs. It never fails to amaze me how much interest the competition between big-time college programs for 17 and 18 year-olds generates among the supporters of those programs.
But as this earlier post noted, there is no doubt that it is important to the success of the programs. For example, over the past decade, the respective programs of the University of Texas and Texas A&M have mostly been going in the opposite direction, UT up and A&M down. This Suzanne Halliburton/Austin-American Statesman article reviews the past ten UT recruiting classes, while Ryan over at TAMABINP does the same here with regard to A&M's recruiting classes over the same period. As noted earlier here, A&M remains well a decided step below UT in the overall quality of its recruiting classes.
By the way, this website developed by three Stetson School of Business and Economics at Mercer University economists contains information about an econometric football recruiting model that predicts the collegiate choices of high school football players. Check it out.
Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 6, 2008
Waxing philosophic on bad announcing
My standards for announcers of football games are not high, but it seemed to me that the Fox Sports announcing team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman in last weekend's Super Bowl LXII game were unusually bad. For example, neither of them made much of Coach Belichick's dubious decision of going for it on 4th and 13 on the Giants 32 yard line rather trying a long field goal (49 yards) that is made easier by the pristine conditions in which the game was played. In particular, Aikman -- who has that annoying ability to say absolutely nothing of substance while reciting overlapping clichés -- could not bring himself to stop rhapsodizing about Tom Brady's "coolness under fire" despite the fact that Brady was missing badly on relatively easy passes while looking antsy in the pocket over the brutal pounding that he was enduring from the Giants' front seven.
Noting the same mediocrity in announcing quality, Michael Bérubé takes up another key call in the game and provides this imaginary dialogue between Buck and Aikman.
We can only dream. ;^)
Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
February 5, 2008
What was so super about that?
While most Americans who watched Sunday's Super Bowl XLII were thrilled with a close game that wasn't decided until the final seconds, Financial Times ($) Simon Kuper examines why American football does not translate well to other cultures:
. . . few foreigners watch American sports. The media agency Initiative tallies audiences for sporting events, counting only the average number of live viewers who watched from home, and not in places like bars. It estimated that of the Super Bowl’s 93 million live viewers in 2005, just three million were outside north America, including nearly one million in Mexico.Meanwhile, game four of baseball’s World Series in 2005 attracted about 21 million viewers in north America and Mexico, and fewer than one million elsewhere (all of them possibly American expats). And the last game of the NBA finals in 2005 drew fewer than one million live viewers outside the US, according to Initiative.
American sports suffer partly from having arrived late: the British empire got everywhere first. Kevin Alavy, an analyst at Initiative, says: “If people have been following the same sports for 50 or 100 years in a country, it’s hard to break into that.”
Furthermore, Alavy points out that, American football’s NFL has almost no foreign players, while baseball draws its foreigners almost exclusively from central America, Venezuela and Japan. Foreign fans elsewhere have no local heroes to root for. The British, by contrast, spread football so thoroughly that foreigners now generally outperform them. Consequently, English football’s Premiership features about 70 nationalities. Qiang Yan, Chinese author of a book on the Premiership, describes 100 million Chinese sitting up at 1am to watch two Chinese play in Everton v Manchester City. “That’s ridiculous, right?” he asks. The Premiership belongs to the Chinese, the French, the Israelis. [. . .]. . . The gross revenues of major-league baseball were $6.1bn last year, up twofold since 2000. The NFL, the US’s most popular sport, grosses a fraction more. And the average NBA team made pre-tax profits of $9.8m in 2007, says Forbes magazine.
But these sports earn peanuts abroad. That is worrying, because the biggest potential for growth is not in the US but in new markets such as China and Europe. That’s why the NFL staged a league game in London last October. And in 2006 baseball staged the “World Baseball Classic”. Unfortunately, the tournament demonstrated how far the game is from global conquest. Only about 10 countries fielded serious teams. The rest struggled: South Africa’s biggest name was a minor-league pitcher with Wichita. Italy’s star was a 37-year-old American with a Sicilian grandfather. Meanwhile many American fans grumbled that the “classic” was interrupting spring training. [. . .]
Global fans want global leagues, above all the NBA or the Premiership. It’s therefore wrong to think that Beckham will save American soccer by playing for the LA Galaxy. American soccer is alive and well and watching Manchester United on Fox Soccer Channel. This is a posthumous victory for the British empire.
Read the entire article.
Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
January 24, 2008
You think it's hard being a Houston sports fan?
As noted earlier here, it's not easy being a fan of Houston sports teams. But as difficult as that may be, it's nothing compared to the angst that long-suffering New York Jets fans are enduring as a result of having their two most-hated rivals in Super Bowl XLII:
Perhaps the only thing worse for Jets fans than watching their team finish 4-12 this season, is knowing the historic Feb. 3 matchup pits their big-brother co-tenants, the Giants, against Bill Belichick and the ever-villainous Patriots."I can't wait for this to be over," said [longtime Jets fan Ira] Lieberfarb, a 53-year-old auto-parts wholesaler and a regular caller on local sports-talk radio who attends virtually every Jets game, home and away. "Whichever team wins it, I'm going to suffer. I grew up in Sheepshead Bay getting abused by Giants fans and mostly everyone at my party will be Giants fans. I can't escape that. But I don't know a single Jets fan that could root for the Patriots and Belichick."
Which reminds me of the funny video below that chronicles the reaction of Jets fans to their team's horrible draft picks from over the years:
Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
January 23, 2008
Rating the recruiting classes
Now that the long college football season has finally ended, the more avid fans turn to the annual period of speculation (see previous posts here and here) as to where the top high school football players will end up playing college football. Along those lines, the Sunday Morning Quarterback blog provides this interesting post that attempts to correlate the top big-time college football programs' performance relative to the rating of their recruiting classes over the past several years.
The entire SMQB blog post is well worth reading and I don't want to give anything away, but let's just say that Texas A&M appears to have made the right decision after last season.
Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 18, 2008
Sizing up the Texans' needs
As At the beginning of the past two football seasons (here and here), I noted the trend of the blogosphere replacing the mainstream media as the more reliable and insightful source of information on the Houston Texans.
Now, as the Chronicle's Texans beat reporter writes about odd people who call into radio talk shows, Stephanie Stradley and Outlaw (see also here) size up the Texans' main personnel and coaching needs as the team enters the off-season.
As these posts reflect, the blogosphere is definitely rapping the knuckles of the Chronicle right now in the competition of providing meaningful information to the public about the Texans.
Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
January 10, 2008
Grading the coaches
Following on this earlier post on the most overpaid big-time college football coaches and now that the seemingly unending college football season is mercificully over (and the playoff proponents want to make it longer?), the College Hot Seat posts its final grades (related blog post here) for the big-time college football coaches.
No Texas coaches get an "A." Texas Tech's Mike Leach is the highest graded Texas coach at a B+.
Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 7, 2008
Say what?
Let's see now. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has had one of the best seasons from a performance standpoint of any QB in NFL history. He led his team to a 16-0 record, which is the best regular season record in NFL history. And someone still actually voted for Brett Favre over Brady as the NFL's Most Valuable Player?
I think I know who voted for Favre.
Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 4, 2008
Not much bang for the buck
A frequent topic on this blog (see earlier post here) is how the NCAA's hyper-regulation of big-time college football causes all sorts of financial disparities, not the least of which is that a part of the excess rents that should be paid to compensate players is paid to the top head coaches.
Well, not that big money paid to coaches is a hot topic on college campuses or anything, but I bet that the following performance of the five top-paid college football coaches will be the subject of at least a few conversations in faculty lounges around the country:
1. Charlie Weis ($4,000,000) - worst season in Notre Dame history.
2. Bob Stoops ($3,620,000) - fourth Oklahoma BCS bowl loss in a row.
3. Nick Saban ($3,503,000) - 'Bama avoided a losing record with an Independence Bowl win.
4. Urban Meyer ($3,384,000) - Gators have four losses with a Heisman Trophy winner at QB.
5. Kirk Ferentz ($3,030,000) - After finishing last season 6-7 with a bowl loss, Iowa finished this season 6-6 with a loss to a 5-7 MAC team and no bowl game.
H/T Get the Picture.
Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 31, 2007
2007 Weekly local football review
(AP photo; previous weekly reviews here)
The Texans (8-8) beat the Jaguars (11-5) junior varsity team to achieve their first non-losing season in the team's six year history. The difference in this one was two kickoff returns for TD's and a fumble recovery to set up another by Texans' WR Andre Davis, who the Texans picked up off the scrap heap just before the beginning of the season. Talk about a nice bargain buy.So, with the final game of the season in the books, now the season of unending media analysis of the Texans' sixth season opens. The lead-up to the game prompted yet another incoherent outburst from Chronicle sportswriter Richard Justice (compare that to this largely contradictory blog post from less than two weeks ago), whose inept coverage of the Texans over the past several years (see here and here) rivals fellow Chronicle columnist Jose de Jesus Ortiz's coverage of the Stros for sheer incompetence. For an even-handed and insightful evaluation of the Texans' season by position, see this Lance Zierlein blog post.
Despite their 8-8 finish, the harsh reality is that the Texans have not made much progress since the end of Year Three, when they finished with a similar 7-9 record and comparable statistics versus the league. Based on the steady progress of the Texans during their first three seasons of existence, former Texans coach Dom Capers made the ill-fated decision to make several fundamental changes on both offense and defense between Year Three and Four in an effort to elevate the Texans to playoff-contention status. As we all know now, those decisions had precisely the opposite effect, leading to a disastrous 2-14 record in Year Four.
That experience prompted Texans owner Bob McNair to clean house, change the management structure of the team and effectively start over with an untested assistant coach as the new head coach. Through Year Two of the Gary Kubiak era, there is still no clear indication whether the Texans will be any more successful under Kubiak than those first Texans teams were under Capers.
On the positive side, the defense has a nucleus of young players with potential, so with proper seasoning, that unit could develop into an above-league average unit over the next couple of seasons. Similarly, Kubiak & Co. have made a number of savvy personnel moves, particularly in improving the wide receiving corps. On the other hand, Kubiak's supposed area of expertise -- i.e., the offense -- has been plagued by a couple of really bad personnel decisions, initially the decision to keep QB David Carr, then the decision to go long on over-the-hill running back, Ahman Green.
Is Kubiak the coach to turn the Texans fortunes around? I don't know, but I am impressed by his willingness to recognize mistakes and make changes, which reflects that he is not burdened with the stubborness that often undermines NFL head coaches. Inasmuch as continuity in coaching staffs and personnel is one of the most common elements of successful NFL teams, my sense is that Kubiak has shown enough that McNair would be prudent to endure the mistakes of this young coach on the hope that such stability will ultimately be rewarded with a winner. Goodness knows McNair deserves it, given the excellent facilities and support that he has always provided to the Texans football operation.
But just don't count on big improvement next season. The better bet for a Texans playoff drive is the 2009 season.
Texas Longhorns 52 Arizona State 34
The Longhorns (10-3) dominated Arizona State (10-3) in an entertaining Holiday Bowl game that firmly established Longhorn Coach Mack Brown's son-in-law -- Chris Jessie (pictured above) -- as one of the most unlikely "almost-scapegoats" in the storied history of Texas football. Despite the satisfying win, the Horns have several big issues to resolve during the off-season, such as shoring up a leaky defensive unit and replacing star RB Jamaal Charles if he elects to turn pro. The Horns are loaded with talent, but it's unlikely that they can overtake Oklahoma in the Big 12 South without substantial improvement in their defensive unit.
Do you think it's possible that A&M's Alamo Bowl experience could have gone any worse?First, an Aggie Yell Leader at a pre-game pep rally exclaimed that legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was "on his death bed" and "needed a casket." Check it out:
The Yell Leader's bad judgment prompted embarrassed university officials to fall over themselves apologizing to Paterno, who was gracious in playing down the incident.Then, after taking a quick 14-0 lead in the game, the Aggies turned the ball over three times in allowing Penn State to dominate the rest of the game. The killer turned out to be a failed fourth-and-less than one yard call midway through the 4th quarter inside the Penn State five yard line. Rather than simply diving for the first down, Aggie QB Stephen McGee fell down for a loss on a busted option play while pile-driving 275 lbs RB Jovorskie Lane sat on the bench. That prompted Lane to break down crying (h/t Jay Christensen).
Thus, the demoralizing Alamo Bowl defeat was a fitting end to the disappointing Coach Fran era at A&M. New Aggie coach Mike Sherman has a number of pressing personnel issues to address, not the least of which is what to do about QB McGee, who returns next season for his senior season. A QB's performance is often adversely affected by peer effects, so McGee's poor showing this season may be the product of an obsolescent option offense and below-average WR's. But my sense is that McGee does not pick up secondary receivers well enough to flourish in the pro-style passing offense that Sherman wants to implement next season. As a result, don't be surprised to see a new QB under center for the Aggies next season.
As noted earlier here, it's far from clear at this point as to whether former University of Houston head football coach Art Briles made the right career decision in leaving UH to take the Baylor head coaching position.However, one thing is clear. Briles' decision to bail out on his UH team before its bowl game -- along with taking his top two offensive assistants with him -- probably cost the Cougars their first win in a bowl game in 27 years. The way Briles abandoned his UH team has hurt his reputation, particularly considering that new A&M coach Mike Sherman and new UH coach Kevin Sumlin both completed their responsibilities with their current teams before assuming responsibility for their new jobs. Briles will need his good reputation if things don't work out at Baylor, which is not an easy place to improve one's reputation as a football coach even under the best of circumstances.
Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
December 24, 2007
2007 Weekly local football review
(Michael Conroy/AP Photo; previous reviews here)
Call it the dog days of the long and arduous NFL season. The Texans (7-8) are a young and uneven team whose only motivation at this point is attempting to achieve the best record in franchise history (8-8), which isn't saying much. On the other hand, the Colts (13-2) coming into this game didn't have much reason to put out much effort given that had already clinched their fifth straight AFC South title, the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the playoffs. So, what was the result?
Peyton Manning carved up the Texans' defense like it was a holiday turkey in generating a season-high 458 yards and 33 first downs. The performance was a big step backward for the Texans' defense, which had been showing progress over the past month or so. Meanwhile, after a couple of productive games over the past two weeks, the Texans' offense reverted to form in generating only 299 yards, even though none of the Colts regular defensive linemen played and the Texans were playing against the Colts' reserves for much of the second half.
Oh well, the Texans still have a decent chance to achieve the best record in franchise history next Sunday at Reliant Stadium if they beat the Jaguars (11-4), who have also locked up their playoff spot and will be playing reserves liberally throughout the game. Another loss for the Texans would leave them at 7-9 for the season, which is the record I predicted for the Texans before the season. Regardless of the season-ending record, however, it's hard at this point to project that this team is going to make substantial improvement in its record next season.
Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 19, 2007
The remarkable story of Kevin Everett
Three months ago, Kevin Everett, a tight end for the Buffalo Bills who was born and raised in Port Arthur just east of Houston, suffered a serious spinal cord injury during an NFL game. At the time of the injury, there was grave doubt whether Everett would ever walk again.
As this Sports Illustrated article recounts, Everett's recovery from his serious injury has been nothing short of amazing. One of the interesting aspects of Everett's recovery is that it may have been fueled by the gutsy call of a 45 year-old orthopedic surgeon on the scene in Buffalo, but it was certainly facilitated by the remarkable rehabilitation services of the Texas Medical Center's Institute for Rehabilitation and Research (known as "TIRR") and the inspiring resolve of the 25 year old patient. TIRR is regularly ranked as one of the finest rehabilitation institutions in the U.S. and is one of the many reasons that Houston is among the world's finest medical centers.
Posted by Tom at 12:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 17, 2007
2007 Weekly local football review
(David J. Phillip/AP Photo; previous weekly reviews here)
It was the Mario Williams show last Thursday evening as the second-year defensive end dominated the line of scrimmage in leading Texans' (7-7) to a convincing victory over the Denver Broncos (6-8). Backup QB Sage Rosenfels chipped in with his second straight efficient performance in leading the Texans' offense to one of its best outputs of the season (358 yds total offense/200 yds passing on 16-27 passes/158 yds rushing). And no one should overlook the fact that the Texans' offense is a different unit altogether when WR Andre Johnson (6 catches for 86 yds) -- who missed eight games earlier in the season with a knee injury -- is punishing opposing teams' secondaries with his special combination of size and speed. About the only thing wrong with the Texans on Thursday night was their all-red uniforms, which made the players look like a bunch of rather large lollypops.But the real story surrounding the play of Williams has been the blogosphere's exposing of the vacuous, irresponsible and mostly unwarranted criticism of Williams over his first two seasons by much of the local mainstream media. When the Texans chose Williams over local favorite Vince Young and USC RB Reggie Bush as the first player taken in the 2006 NFL Draft, the local mainstream media crucified Texans management and Williams, even though a few of us in the blogosphere noted at the time that it was not an unreasonable selection.
Then, as Stephanie Stradley masterfully recounts here, the local mainstream media continued to criticize the Texans and Williams throughout the 2006 season and even much of this season. Although Williams pass-rushing ability was hampered during the 2006 season because he played the entire season with a painful injury (planters fasciitis), Williams actually played quite well against the run. Then, this season, with his mobility no longer limited by injury, Williams has continued to play well against the run and, over the past five games, has exploded into one of the best pass-rushers in the NFL. But until recently, much of the local mainstream media continued to characterize Williams as a bust, although Williams' spectacular play over the past couple of games has generated a number of mea culpas.
As distasteful as the local mainstream media's treatment of Williams has been over most of the past two seasons, it is indicative of something important that is happening in the information marketplace. Much of the mainstream media misrepresented Williams' perfomance in order to stoke controversy (and sell papers) over the Texans' decision to pass on Young and Bush in favor of Williams. It was blogs such as Stradley's and several others that provided an objective and accurate assessment of Williams' performance.Local mainstream media management better review what happened in regard to their reporting on Williams. Stoking controversy with inaccurate reporting may sell more papers over the short term, but it's no way to engender customer loyalty in the long run. Particularly not from customers who now can obtain better information from sources other than the mainstream media.
The Texans travel to Indianapolis to play the playoff-secure Colts (12-2) next Sunday before returning home to play the Jacksonville Jaguars (10-4), which probably will be playoff-secure by the time of that game. Inasmuch as both the Colts and Jags will likely rest and protect key players in those games for the playoffs, the Texans have a decent chance to set a franchise record for wins and finish the season with their first non-losing record in their six year existence.
The University of Houston hires Kevin Sumlin as its new head coach.
After a two-week search, UH Athletic Director Dave Maggard finally selected 43 year-old University of Oklahoma assistant coach Kevin Sumlin to replace Art Briles as the head coach of the Houston Cougars. Sumlin has been an assistant coach in a half-dozen major programs, but he really first made a name for himself five years ago when he was on R.C. Slocum's final coaching staff at Texas A&M. Three games into that season, Slocum named Sumlin to replace Dino Babers as A&M's offensive coordinator and Sumlin did a good job under those difficult circumstances holding A&M's offense together and then actually improving the unit as the season wore on. OU head coach Bob Stoops took notice and hired Sumlin, who rose up through the ranks of the OU staff over the past five seasons to become co-offensive coordinator. Stoops, who is a real "coach's coach," lobbied Maggard hard on behalf of Sumlin, which is a real feather in Sumlin's hat.Having said that, the performance of Stoops' former assistants as head coaches has been somewhat checkered -- we already have reviewed Mike Leach's uneven performance at Texas Tech; Mark Mangino had a great 2007 season at Kansas, but he is only 36-36 in six seasons there; Chuck Long is 7-17 after two seasons at San Diego State; and Mike Stoops is 17-29 in four seasons at Arizona where he is on the hot seat in 2008.
As with all head coaches, Sumlin's ultimate success or failure at UH will largely depend on the quality of the coaching staff that he puts together. Jack Pardee, the other finalist for the UH job, had already assembled an impressive group of assistants to serve on his staff had he been hired. Sumlin would be smart in filling out his staff to consider several of the assistants who Pardee would have hired.
Posted by Tom at 12:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 12, 2007
Say what, Jerry Jones?
So, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is lobbying the Texas state legislature to intervene on the National Football League's behalf in the league's dispute with the cable companies over carrying the NFL Network's slate of games. As I understand Jones' argument, the legislators should be upset with the cable companies because they are trying to make a killing by over-charging a few of their customers who would subscribe to the network rather than simply making the network available to all customers and spreading a more reasonable amount over all of them. Or something to that effect.
Based on the numbers contained in this Mitchell Schnurman column on Jones' new Cowboys stadium that is nearing completion in Arlington (options for top-line club seats are being offered for $50,000 each!), does anyone else find it at least a wee bit absurd that Jones is criticizing someone else for trying to make too much money?
Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 11, 2007
Making those holiday bowl game bets
The holiday bowl season tends to generate a few friendly wagers in my circles, so it's always helpful to have good information sources to check before finalizing those bets.
As noted earlier in the season, CollegeFootballSeason.com is an outstanding resource that provides the outcome of every game on every major-college team's schedule. It's a great way to check up on how competing teams fared against common opponents.
Also, Covers.com provides a ton of useful information, including this handy chart (H/T Jay Christensen) that shows the record of each major college team against the spread (Kansas led the nation this past season with a 10-1 record against the spread).
Get ready to rumble!
Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 10, 2007
2007 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip; previous weekly reviews here)
The Buccaneers (8-5) had the incentive of being able to sew up the NFC South Division title with a win over the Texans (6-7) on Sunday afternoon at Reliant Stadium. The Texans could manage to generate only 286 yards of total offense and had two turnovers. The Texans were playing their backup QB, their third and fourth-string running backs, and an offensive line that included a couple of third stringers because of injuries.
So, what happens? The Texans win by 14. So it goes in the wacky world of the NFL.
This was a plucky performance by the Texans, particularly the defense and backup QB Sage Rosenfels. Even though Tampa Bay had to go with their backup QB Luke McCown, the Texans' defense brought consistent pressure and, with the exception of one TD drive, never let the Bucs' offense get into rhythm.
Meanwhile, Rosenfels threw three TD passes and managed the game quite well, allowing the Texans to have a decided advantage in time of possession. Rosenfels still shows his lack of game experience from time-to-time by holding on to to the ball for too long and throwing into coverage. But he is a gamer and as tough as nails, and it's clear that his teammates rally around him. It's amazing to me (and not terribly encouraging) that Coach Kubiak and his staff didn't realize early on last season that Rosenfels was a much better NFL QB than former Texans QB David Carr, who will probably be out of the league after this season.
Finally, with the win, all is well again in Richard Justice's Texans world, who was in a quite different mood after last week's loss.
The Texans take on the Broncos (6-7) in the NFL's Thursday night nationally-televised game this week at Reliant Stadium before finishing up the 2007 season at Indianapolis and then back home against Jacksonville.
Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
December 7, 2007
BCS lunacy
A case can be made that the Bowl Championship Series has been bad overall for college football. On the other hand, a case can also be made that it is a reasonable compromise between a playoff system for big-time college football and scrapping the lucrative bowl system altogether.
However, regardless of what you think about the BCS overall, it's clear that the component of the BCS ratings that is based upon the coaches' poll of the top teams ought to be scrapped. If you have any doubts about that, read this Dan Steinberg post regarding the absurd ratings by various coaches in their latest poll. I know Missouri had a good season and all, but how does one rate the Tigers higher than Oklahoma, which beat Mizzou rather handily twice?
By the way, the Las Vegas smart guys contend that the BCS blew it by putting LSU and Ohio State in the title game:
If Las Vegas Sports Consultants oddsmaker Ken White was a matchmaker for the BCS, he said USC would be playing Oklahoma for the title. The Trojans and Sooners were tied atop LVSC's final regular-season poll."I think the third- and fourth-best teams in the country are playing for the title," White said. "We have to make USC a slight favorite over anybody except Oklahoma."
White said because of "public perception," the Trojans would be about 1.5 point favorites over the Sooners.
Walker said USC would be about a 7-point favorite over Ohio State.
"I still think USC would be favored over any team on a neutral field," Walker said. "This would be a phenomenal year to have a tournament."
Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 6, 2007
Cheerleading patience
As the Texans fade to their sixth straight losing season and fifth last place finish in their six year existence, head Texans cheerleader John McClain is preaching patience.
A year ago at this time, the Texans looked deader than a doornail and like a team that was not particularly well-coached. The Texans closed the season by upsetting the Colts and beating a bad Browns team to finish with a 6-10 record.
Then, after the usual pre-season cheerleading and despite the fact that the Texans continued to make questionable personnel moves in the off-season, McClain went batty over second-year coach Gary Kubiak after the Texans opened this season with wins over a bad Chiefs team and an even worse Carolina team.
Now, a couple of months later and a year later after the Texans looked deader than a doornail, the Texans again look deader than a doornail and like a team that is not particularly well-coached. The Texans will have to win two of the last four games against tough opponents just to finish one game better than last season's 6-10 record.
And McClain preaches patience.
Frankly, I'm quite patient with the Texans -- I don't think the team will improve much until Bob McNair is completely comfortable with a management model for the team, gets the right management and coaches in place, and that management quits making bad personnel decisions. However, I'm much less patient with what the Chronicle attempts to pass off as analysis from John McClain.
Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
December 3, 2007
2007 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey; previous weekly reviews are here)
Let's see here. The Texans (5-7) lose another game on their way to their sixth straight losing season and lose their starting QB Matt Schaub to injury. Schaub is injured after being brutally hammered two plays in a row when two different Titan defensive ends waltzed virtually untouched threw the Texans' offensive line, which has been a chronic weak spot of the team for its entire six year existence. Schaub has now had to leave three different games this year with injuries and missed one game entirely (Oakland) that the Texans won.
Viewing this landscapte, the Chronicle's Richard Justice reacts to all this by expressing concern that second-year coach Gary Kubiak might not be the right coach for the Texans:
Now the Texans are at another crossroads. They've got four games left in a season that's again going nowhere. I hope Bob McNair takes a hard look at his franchise and asks this question: ''Are we headed in the right direction? Are we getting the pieces in place? Are Rick Smith and Gary Kubiak the guys that can get us to the playoffs?''He can ask himself that question today, but he really should answer it at the end of the season. Kubiak and Smith have had two. That's enough to know whether they're what he hoped they'd be. When you see the turnovers and penalties, when you see leads consistently disappear, it makes you wonder.
Of course, this is the same Richard Justice who wrote the following only two months ago:
Do you think Gary Kubiak is the coach that will lead us to the playoffs? Not this year, but ever? Do you believe he is doing all he can do after the injuries to add talent to the team and positions?My point is that there are a dozen different ways to do it. All NFL head coaches have to be smart, and Kubiak is plenty smart. They all have to understand the game, and he certainly does that.
Successful coaches all have a strength--dignity? toughness?--about them. If the rumors about what Kubiak said to Mario Williams after the summer speeding incident are true, he's got plenty of toughness.
So in the things that can be measured--knowledge, organizational skills, etc.--he's got plenty of all those qualities. Does that mean he can put it all together and lead a group of men to the playoffs?
Based on what I've seen, I'd say he definitely can. He has to get the right kind of players. He has to get guys who care. He has to get talented players. But I think if the Texans do their job in the personnel department, Kubiak is plenty good enough to take them to the Super Bowl.
Of course, that was absolutely restrained in comparison to what Justice wrote about Kubiak just a week earlier:
Gary Kubiak is smart and Rick Smith is competent and Matt Schaub is on the fast track to the Pro Bowl. If they win this afternoon (against the Colts), the Texans will be the NFL's best story. [. . .]With two solid rookie classes and the addition of 10 veterans with playoff experience, this group isn't burdened by those past failures.
"That's right," Ahman Green said. "You've got people in here now who've won and expect to win."
Thus comes a cautionary tale. The Texans might have crossed one threshold but many more are ahead. [. . .]
That's the road the Texans finally have started down. They've put themselves in the conversation around the NFL. In other words, they're legitimate. Now comes the fun part.
And the foregoing doesn't even compare with how Justice was extolling the Kubiak regime before the season.
Of course, anyone who reads this blog regularly knew before the season that the Texans continue to make questionable personnel decisions and probably wouldn't improve much this season over the 6-10 record of last season. Frankly, I remain unsure whether Kubiak is the right fellow to be head coach of the Texans, but nothing that has happened this season has changed my view or been particularly surprising or unexpected.
The Texans return home next week to face a tough Tampa Bay (8-4) team, and then have Denver (5-7) and Jacksonville (8-4) at home sandwiched around a trip to Indianapolis (10-2) to close out the season. The way Justice's attitude about Kubiak goes up and down, the Texans better win one soon or else he will have soon have him in the same boat with Dom Capers.
Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Art Briles moves from Houston to Baylor
Art Briles resigned last week as head coach of the University of Houston football program and accepted the same position at Baylor University and the change generated the usual knashing of teeth some sectors of the UH community that typically follows such moves. However, Briles' move surprised no one, except for perhaps a few folks in West Texas who figured that he would hold out at Houston until Mike Leach at Texas Tech moved on and Briles could lay claim to his dream job.
Although Briles was reasonably successful at Houston, he never really seemed at home as the Cougars' coach. Most folks don't realize that Houston's program is still relatively young by college football standards and Briles never was comfortable with the multi-tasked job of leading the Houston program into a Bowl Championship Series conference. The Houston program burst on to the national stage during the 25 year tenure of Bill Yeoman, the outstanding and innovative coach of the Cougars from 1960-85. When UH hires a new head coach to replace Briles, that will be the sixth head coach in the 22 years since Coach Yeoman retired. And during that span, there have been even more UH athletic directors than football coaches.
In many ways, the UH football program reflects the struggles of the University overall. As noted repeatedly on this blog, the University of Houston is a relatively young state research university (only since the 1963) that the State of Texas has consistently shortchanged in financial support in comparison to Texas' two flagship research institutions, the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University. Inasmuch as the UH football program is also relatively young in comparison to the UT and A&M programs, it pales in terms of fan and financial support in comparison to its older and better-endowed competitors. Nevertheless, Houston's football and other athletic programs competed quite well with its better-endowed neighbors during the 20 year period in which UH participated in the old Southwest Conference. As with the University of Houston generally, the UH athletic program has produced more "bang for the buck" than any other athletic program in Texas over the past 50 years.
Despite that legacy, Houston's football program had been lagging badly for a decade coinciding with the demise of the Southwest Conference when Briles took over in 2003. Former Coach Yeoman campaigned hard at the time to have UH hire his former player Briles (who was a Texas Tech assistant coach at the time), even though it was clear even then that Briles had his eye on the Texas Tech head coaching job. Briles has been angling for the Tech head job for years because Tech Coach Leach apparently has been trying to get out of Lubbock almost continuously since he got there. Unfortunately for Briles and other prospective coaches for the Tech job, Leach doesn't seem to perform nearly as well in those pre-hiring interviews as he does while directing his high-powered offense on Saturday afternoons.
Thus, when the Baylor job came open, Briles elected to take it and stake his claim to a program in a Bowl Championship Series conference. And that's the real difference in the two jobs. Houston has the potential to be one of the top non-BCS conference programs, but Baylor is already in a BCS conference. Thus, Baylor has the advantage of having access to a share of the considerable sums of money that the BCS pays to the BCS-member conferences. As a result, even a downtrodden program such as Baylor in a BCS conference is likely to have more resources than a potentially better-situated but non-BCS conference program such as UH, at least for the time being.
My sense is that Briles is a reasonably good hire for Baylor. He is West Texas through and through, and that should fit in well in Waco. He did a good job at UH, although his teams' offensive flair was offset by often-poor defensive play.
Briles took over a UH program that had gone 8-26 in the previous three seasons, including an ugly 0-11 slate in former UH Coach Dana Dimel's second season in 2002. Briles immediately brought in talented freshman QB Kevin Kolb, around whom he built his innovative offense, which includes variations on the spread, the Wing-T and the Single Wing offenses. Briles and Kolb led the Cougars to a 7-5 record in that first season, including a close bowl loss to Hawaii. In 2004, the Cougars took a step backward during an uninspired 3-8 season, but bounced back the following season when they went 6-6 with a blowout bowl loss to Kansas in the Fort Worth Bowl.
In 2006, everything came together for Briles, Kolb and the Coogs as they went 10-4,won UH's second Conference USA championship and lost the Liberty Bowl in a close game to South Carolina. This past season, Briles led the Coogs to an 8-4 record and Texas Bowl berth in his first "after-Kolb" season, although Houston's progress appeared stunted late in the season around the time the Baylor job came open. I don't know if Briles' interest in the job had anything to do with that downturn, but Briles and a number of key members of his staff have bailed out on coaching the Cougars in the Texas Bowl. I'm reasonably sure that has not left a pleasant taste in the mouth of UH Athletic Director, Dave Maggard.
Although Briles' did a good job of turning around the UH program, it would be a stretch to say that his UH record was outstanding. Based on final Massey Composite ratings, Briles had one top 70 team at UH, the 2006 C-USA championship team. UH under Briles was 6-24 against teams that finished in the Top 75, including 1-8 against non-conference teams in the Top 75. Moreover, Briles tenure at UH coincided with a downturn in the quality of C-USA teams as teams such as Rice, Marshall, SMU, and UTEP entered the league and powers such as Louisville, Cincy and USF left. In C-USA games, Briles' teams were 5-14 against C-USA teams with a winning a record and won only one road game against a C-USA team that had a winning record. Briles' teams were 28-4 against teams that finished out of the Top 75 or were Division 1-AA, so his teams didn't lose much to bad teams -- about once a year. UH's best win under Briles was over Oklahoma State in 2006, but really Briles' record at UH is nothing out of the ordinary.
Whether Briles' decision made a good decision in taking the Baylor job is a tougher call. While Briles could have had as long a contract as he wanted at UH, Baylor has become a coaching graveyard. Recently-fired coach Guy Morriss is a well-respected coach within the profession and he couldn't get over the hump in the five seasons that he coached there. Briles' Baylor contract calls for $1.8 million annually over seven years, but a buyout of that contract is almost certainly far less than that. So, if Briles stinks up the joint in Waco over his first three seasons, then he could very well be looking at the same fate as Morriss while making considerably less than if he had simply stayed at UH.
Expectations at Baylor at this point are not the same as UH, so Briles first goal will simply be to get the Bears to a .500 season in the Big 12 South. Taking a peak at the 2008 Baylor schedule, that does not appear to be likely in his first season:
Aug. 30 Wake Forest (probable loss)
Sept. 6 Northwestern State (toss up)
Sept. 13 Washington State (toss up)
Sept. 20 at Connecticut (probable loss)
Oct. 4 Oklahoma (loss)
Oct. 11 Iowa State (toss up)
Oct. 18 at Oklahoma State (probable loss)
Oct. 25 at Nebraska (probable loss)
Nov. 1 Missouri (loss)
Nov. 8 at Texas (loss)
Nov. 15 Texas A&M (probable loss)
Nov. 22 at Texas Tech (loss)
Toss ups: 3
Probable losses: 5
Sure losses: 4
3-9 overall and 1-7 in the Big 12 looks likely, so Briles' honeymoon in Waco will probably be short. And the Big 12 South is not a friendly place in which to experience short honeymoons.
Who should UH hire to replace Briles? Within the coaching profession, the UH head coaching position is considered an attractive one, albeit not one without problems. My sense is that the UH should hire an experienced coach who has recruited in the Cougars' usual pipelines for players and who has experience in raising funds. The next big step for the Houston program is either the upgrade of Robertson Stadium into a decent college football stadium or the construction of a new stadium along UH's entryway on I-45. Either of such endeavors is going to cost between $60-$80 million, so hiring an experienced coach who is interested in working in Houston for the long term while being involved in a facilities fund-raising campaign makes a lot of sense.
Kind of makes you wish that there were still college football coaches like Bill Yeoman out there, doesn't it?
Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
November 29, 2007
The return of Coach Slocum on a Mobile
New Texas A&M football coach Mike Sherman was an assistant coach in the A&M program under R.C. Slocum, the folksy former head coach who was somewhat unceremoniously dumped when the A&M reached to hire Dennis Franchione five years ago. As one Aggie friend put it to me earlier in the week: "So, we endured Coach Fran for five years just to turnaround and hire one of R.C.'s former assistants? Why didn't we just do that in the first place?"
At any rate, Slocum had been exiled from the Aggie football program during the Franchione regime. Incredibly, Sherman's press conference earlier this week in which he accepted the A&M job was the first time that Slocum -- who still works for A&M in its alumni relations department -- had been in the new A&M Bright Football Complex. He apparently had never been invited before!
Nevertheless, Slocum is experiencing a rebirth in the A&M football program with the hiring of his former assistant Sherman. And one of the fringe benefits of that new level of involvement is the reappearance of the weekly segment that used to run on John Granato and Lance Zierlein's local morning radio show during Slocum's tenure at A&M, "Coach Slocum on a Mobile."
"Coach Slocum on a Mobile" is comprised of an impersonator doing an incredibly precise imitation of Coach Slocum's folksy East Texas twang as he provides often hilarious answers to questions tossed to him by Granato and Zierlein. Yesterday morning, Granato and Zierlein's new KGOW 1560 AM morning drivetime show carried its first segment of "Coach Slocum on a Mobile," which included the following gems:
On A&M's new offense under Coach Sherman:
"Well, we're bringing back the 'Gulf Coast Offense' with QB Randy McCown."
On A&M's 38-30 win over Texas this past weekend:
"Did you see (former A&M RB) Jamaar Toombs run over (former UT DB) Michael Griffin this past Friday? It was great!"
On the insecurity of big-time college coaching positions:
"You know, I've always said if you can go 7-5 and have the opportunity to go to Shreveport, maybe Houston, for a bowl game, you ought to keep your job."
The old "Coach Slocum on a Mobile" segments during Coach Slocum's head coaching days at A&M were classics, which included such pearls of wisdom as "1/2 of the teams in America lose every week and so I don't think there's any shame in losing," that the tight end position in the Gulf Coast Offense is a "supertackle," that "Baylor is the Notre Dame of the South," and -- channeling former UT coach Darrell Royal's observation about passing -- "Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of 'em ain't good."
If you want a taste of pure Texas football culture, then tune in to a few segments of "Coach Slocum on a Mobile." You won't be disappointed.
Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
That's what you call a plug
I thought what occurred to the football after the punt in the video below only happened to my golf shots on soggy courses. I guess that's what you get from re-sodding a football field immediately before a several-inch deluge:
Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 28, 2007
Todd Graham's Inferno
Rice University gave Todd Graham his first opportunity to be a head coach of a college football program. As noted earlier here, Graham in his first year on South Main led the Owls to their first bowl game since the early 1960's, was named Conference USA Coach of the Year, renegotiated his contract, and then announced a couple of weeks after the bowl game that he was leaving to replace his former boss as head coach at the University of Tulsa. By virtually all accounts, Graham handled the job change about as badly as possible.
Well, as predicted in my post at the time of Graham's job change, it was just a matter of time before Rice's notorious Marching Owl Band ("the MOB) would have an opportunity to comment on Coach Graham's antics, and that opportunity presented itself this past Saturday during halftime of the Rice-Tulsa game at Rice Stadium. The MOB performed a halftime show entitled "Todd Graham's Inferno," which concluded with the following comment over the stadium public address system:
You know, that reminds me of a joke: A priest, a nun, and a rabbi walk into a bar. Now, I forgot how the rest of it went, but I think in the end "Todd Graham is a douchebag."Ladies and gentlemen, the two-thousand seven Marching Owl Band. Please send all complaints to: your mom at mob dot rice dot E-D-U.
Childish for sure, but nothing out of the ordinary for the MOB. And it was certainly not even as clever as the MOB's theme for their halftime show during Rice's bowl game against Troy last year -- "Troy Loses. Read Homer"
So, how did the University of Tulsa respond? By doing precisely what the MOB probably wanted -- fueled the inferno by filing a complaint against the MOB with the C-USA commissioner:
The University of Tulsa has sent a formal complaint to Conference USA regarding Rice's halftime show during the Golden Hurricane-Owls football game on Saturday.The performance by the Rice marching band was titled "Todd Graham's Inferno" and depicted a search for the former Owls coach through different circles of Hell, based on Dante's "Divine Comedy."
After taking numerous jabs at Graham, the show ended by calling the Tulsa coach a "d-----bag" over the public address system.
"We filed a formal complaint with the conference and that's where it stands now," TU athletic director Bubba Cunningham said.[. . .]
When asked what he wanted the complaint to accomplish, Cunningham said, "We need to provide an environment where a student-athlete can participate and fans can enjoy college athletics in a very positive way."
Sportsmanship has been a point of emphasis in C-USA, the Tulsa athletic director said.
"When we don't meet those standards, we need to look at ourselves as a league and find how we can make that experience better," he said.
Yeah, that was real sportsmanship displayed by Cunningham and Tulsa last year when they lured Graham away from Rice right in the middle of recruiting season.
At any rate, all of this provides the opportunity to pass along again the following anecdote about football coaches that legendary Houston sportswriter Mickey Herskowitz tells:
In the mid 1960's, the Los Angeles Rams had hired George Allen off of the coaching staff of George Halas in Chicago.Halas was furious that the Rams failed to ask for his permission and threatened to take Allen to court. At a league meeting after the issue was resolved, Halas used the occasion to vent his anger at his former defensive coach.
"George Allen," Halas raged, "is a man with no conscience. He is dishonest, deceptive, ruthless, consumed with his own ambition."
At that point, Vince Lombardi leaned over to the owner of the Rams and whispered: "Sounds to me like you've got yourself a helluva football coach."
Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 27, 2007
The Sherman hiring
Well, Texas A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne's "nationwide search" for a new head coach to replace Dennis Franchione took a couple of days and extended all of about 100 miles southeast of College Station as A&M hired Houston Texans assistant head coach Mike Sherman as its new head coach yesterday. The deal is for seven years at $1.8 million per year. Ryan over at TAMaBINPO has a nice overview of Sherman's coaching career.
Although some in the Aggie nation were disappointed that A&M didn't hire a "big-name" coach de jour, my sense is that hiring Sherman is a reasonably good move. A&M is currently in the latter stages of a somewhat divisive search for a new president, so the A&M Board of Regents doesn't need more faculty flak from another flank. Moreover, A&M overpaid badly to hire Franchione, so the buyout of Coach Fran's contract is going to be expensive, even by A&M standards. Under these circumstances, eschewing a high-priced, big-name coach is certainly understandable.
Within the coaching profession, Sherman has an excellent reputation as a hand's-on coach, which frankly Franchione did not have when A&M hired him. The only negative comment that I've heard about Sherman is that he was not a particularly good evaluator of talent as Green Bay's general manager from 2001-04. That trait has certainly reared its head during his stint with the Texans -- Sherman was among those who blessed the questionable decision to pick up an expensive option to keep former Texans QB David Carr around for another year and he lobbied hard for the Texans to overpay old and injured RB Ahman Green. Those two decisions are costing the Texans big-time i