How Things Could Have Lined Up

What if Pat White wouldn’t have injured his thumb?
If White hadn’t injured his thumb in the 2nd quarter of the Backyard Brawl with Pitt would the Mountaineers offense have stumbled so profoundly. WVU lost by 7, wouldn’t the dual-threat Heisman Candidate White have scored at least those 7 points, if not more? With White still in the game and WVU possibly winning it leads us to another thought.

What if West Virginia won?
I think it’s pretty obvious, West Virginia, then number two would have moved up to number one after Mizzou’s loss to Oklahoma, and thus would be playing in the National Championship, most likely against (current) number one Ohio State. If that’s the case then LSU would not be in the National Championship led by Les Miles which again brings us to another point.

What if LSU was not in the National Championship?
There wouldn’t be as much pressure on Miles to make a decision. And reading into his original words in the pre-game , “Thank you very much, Have a Great day” speech before the SEC Championship, he said “I am the coach at LSU” not necessarily I will be the coach next year. LSU had made him an offer, but he had not signed it yet. Michigan, his dream job, had also made an offer. Had LSU lost that game I’m about 40 (stay)/60 (leave) on whether he would be in Purple and Gold or Maize and Blue next year. Even if they won that game they would not have been in the National Championship, does Les stay or go?

How does this affect West Virginia?
If Les traded in his purple tie for the block M, Rodriguez would still be at West Virginia. Would LSU have offered him to replace Miles? Probably not, he would, most likely, still be in Morgantown.

How bad is Rodriguez leaving for WVU?
Pretty bad, not many people saw Rodriguez leaving for Ann Arbor. He met with Michigan on Friday, he signed with them yesterday. This coming after Rodriguez said he wasn’t going to leave for Alabama last year and that his alma mater (WVU) was his place. This was a shock to many and there is no possible way that West Virginia was prepared for this. Now they are in full panic mode. They have to find a coach to fill in at WVU and most of the programs looking for coaches, have already picked a lot of the market. And if Rutgers coach Greg Schiano isn’t going to Michigan, why would he go to Morgantown. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few Mountaineer recruits who haven’t signed their Letters of Intent yet, dropping out soon. Especially if they were looking forward to playing in the WVU spread.

When all is said and done, you can’t trust a coach until he signs something, and the buyout clause that Miles has in his new LSU contract should start popping up in all contracts. Erickson isn’t destined to stay more than his typical 3-5 in Tempe, he’ll walk out, Saban can’t stay in one place too long as we’ve seen. Rodriguez actually was the most honest of all of these guys, but he’s just another in the line of coaches who leave after saying they won’t. What is the point in even signing contracts in this day and age in college sports. Other than the guys who are long termers (JoePa, Tressel, etc) these guys get fired before their contract is up or leave for somewhere else before their contract is up. It’s a sick fact in today’s game. I guess when it’s over Rodriguez will be in Ann Arbor, and if he needs someone to show him around, he can call former WVU/current Michigan basketball coach John Beilein.
More after the jump...

A Few thoughts on the Day

Well, the last few weeks have been crazy busy, and finally I can sit back, relax, and induldge myself in sports again. There's alot of thoughts running through my mind and I have decided to just compile these thoughts in one master blog as apposed to stringing them out.

Anthony Smith v. Patriots

Scene 1: Anthony Smith guarantees a win against the New England Patriots making the statement that the Brady Bunch is totally overrated.

Scene 2: Patriots say that they are a proud team and the pitiful words of a opposing defensive back is not worth their time. Randy Moss is offended.

Scene 3: The Brady Bunch stomp the Steelers, emphasizing the sheer mediocrity of Smith by picking on him throughout the game. Big Daddy Tom Brady decides to throw some lip service to Smith in the endzone. The Big Balls contest begins.

Scene 4: Post-Game Press Conference. The words spoken towards the Patriots are brought up, and contradicting what the Hoodie said prior to the game, he admits to being affected by the word lashing. Oh by the way, Belicheck said and I quote,

"We've played against much better safeties than him"

Scene 5: Smith is still talking. Vows redemption when the Steelers meet the Pats next.

Last time I checked, when you talked smack to another team, and they beat you, it's time to stop your yapping. He's like a retarded lap dog. How many lessons do you want to learn son? Now I'm not a huge fan of New England, mostly because I find Boston/New England more annoying than Fox Sports News announcers, but I do love cocky assholes getting god smacked.

Mayweather v. Hatton
Mayweather beat Hatton with a 10th round KO using his classic check hook. Surrounded by celebs. I haven't followed boxing since UFC was brought to my attention. I didnt even know people really still followed boxing except for The Contender. Mayweather is however unbeaten, props to that. However, the bigger news was that Beckham was at the match...interesting...

Vick and his new Home
There's talk that the sentencing of Vick was too harsh. I say absolutely not. I have to agree with Rome when he said "Vick's punishment fits his crime end of story". Some sports analysts are comparing this situation to the Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie jail sentences. In what way is multiple DUIs the same as A. supplying a medium for illegal Dogfighting B. Supplying a medium for illegal gambaling C. The killing of multiple dogs for not being "the best fighters". Not to mention his failed Lie detector test, failed drug test, and being caught lying to multiple authorities. Yah...totally comparable. Have fun converting to Islam.

Kyle Orton starting for the Bears
Are you SERIOUS? Just throwing in the towel like that?

Les Miles and Michigan
If you're not going to Michigan Les, why do you keep talking to them? And if you tell me you're just friends i'm gonna kick you.

With everything that has happened the past couple months in sports, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the debacles that are going on now. However my weakness is the fact that I relate everything to that thing called life....where things usually level out for a bit...but this up and down trend is more inconsistent than Amy Winehouse's sleep(unconscious) pattern.

P.S.
*http://www.hogwired.com

If McFadden wants to be the Heisman Trophy winner(if he decides to stay for his senior year) maybe he should consider dressing up as Tim Tebow next year.
More after the jump...

Musical Coaches...

So it's that time of year again, the leaves are turning, the weather is changing, in some parts of the country snow is falling. It's the most wonderful time of the year...ish. The college football regular season is coming to a close and every football program is figuring out ways to improve their teams which usually means firing or hiring coaches. With Carr announcing his retirement from Michigan, the game of musical coaches begins. Les Miles, a Michigan Alum, has been drawing all kinds of media attention involving leaving LSU, however with LSU sitting a top the BCS rankings there may an interesting debacle in Louisiana.

However, I speculate that Coach Erickson from ASU may be licking his chops at this Michigan job as well, seeing as how he loves leaving programs after quasi-developing them. For Erickson however, the Michigan job will be completely different from his normal jobs, seeing as how Michigan is hardly ever at the bottom of the Big-10 and usually already ranked in the top 25 at the beginning of the season. Honestly, I think that Glory-Hog Erickson would not last at Michigan or even make it past the first few interviews due to his lack of commitment to his prior programs, and if anything would bring shame to Michigan name seeing as how his predecesor controlled the helm for over a decade. Big-10 football is all about long-term legends, not short-term solutions.

Moving on to the Big-12, the Callahan debate is still going on. I personally respect the man for going down with the ship that is Nebraska football. Even though he's had a rough season, he's stuck with his team and defended his team through the rough times. However, as in most of the large football programs, the re-occurring question of "what have you done for me lately?" usually brings the ultimate demise of a struggling coach within 2 years. Bandwagon's are so selective these days...

Lastly, UCLA head coach Karl Dorrell's job is in jeopardy after losing out during the 2nd half of the season for the last 4 years. A disasterous turnout for the usually impressive Bruins. However, with this program in shambles and plagued with injury. The same can be said about Nick Saban, as this bridge-burner hasn't produced in one of the most high stress programs in the country. Expect his head on a chopping block by the end of the year, if not chased out of the state by people in white hoods.

Quite honestly, I think the coaching controversy is a huge bore, however extremely important for the programs. Apparently these job openings are also starting to affect the coaches in question...starting with Les Miles forgetting his alma mater is Michigan and pronouncing Arkansas as R-Kansas... whoops...
More after the jump...