Gratuitous Super Bowl Post

For a blog where I scribble about football, it is odd that I’ve written not a word on the NFL playoffs or even the Super Bowl. I actually started a post about the conference championship games, but the whole coaching carousel and my scout wannabee “work” was more fun. Still, I should write a few things about the U.S.A.’s early February holiday.

I’m expecting the Patriots to beat the Giants by 10-17 points. No, not very exact, but I’m not a betting man and anyone expecting me to set a line is fool. I think the Giants get out to a ten point lead, which they hold until the Patriots tie things up at halftime.  The teams go back and forth in the third quarter before the Overteam pulls away.  The 1972 Dolphins spend the future pointing out Don Shula was never fined by the NFL for filming the Jets.  Really nerdy Mammal-Fish fans go on-line to see if Earl Morrall or Bob Griese have stranded any women as single mothers.  My guess for game M.V.P. is Laurence Maroney for carrying the load on a proverbial back-breaking drive.  Dark horse candidates for the award are Kevin Faulk for his usual third down work, and Randy Moss having a signature game for his career.  It’s odd to tab Moss as a dark horse, but I’m expecting the Giants to contain him and Wes Welker until the second half, so his production will be modest, by his standards.

The Tom Brady boot thing was a news filler for last week, which further convinces me that 24 hour sports news coverage is a bad thing.  I doubt the injury bothers him enough to hamper his performance.  The clock gets to midnight for Eli Manning.  He doesn’t have a meltdown game, just a mediocre second half.  This is enough to get the more nihilistic Giant fans mumbling the ‘b’ word about Eli again.

I thought was Eli overhyped a tad because of his genetics.  He was a very good college QB and a worthy top 10 pick who isn’t as good as brother or his dad.  He has a good Dave Krieg-level career ahead of him.  He’s been playing over his head these last few weeks, but if you’re going to do that, this is the time.

That’s all for now.  Let’s see if I can get yet another Redskins HC search post up and a Senior Bowl round-up.

Winged helmet news!

Sadly, not as much fun as I hoped. Apparently a communication mix-up between Joe Flacco and the University of Delaware equipment manager is why Flacco wore the white helmet for the early practices at the Senior Bowl. So it was not the result of losing some kind of pecking order thing to Chad Henne.

Large and thus automatically attractive to NFL teams WR Limas Sweed from Texas had to go home with an injury. He was replaced by the much smaller and faster Dexter Jackson from evil Appalachian State. Notre Dame S Tom Zbikowski, who I thought graduated two years ago and was off playing minor league baseball or something, is still actually playing in the Senior Bowl. Shows you how little I’ve been paying attention to the Golden Domers recently.

Assistants in Action

With the negative fan reaction to the putative Fassel hiring in Washington and the ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reporting the Lane Kiffin is in danger of being terminated in Oakland, the NFL Head Coaching searches won’t die down. I’m going to take a break from that and look at some assistant coach moves:

• Tennessee Titans - Norm Chow fired as OC, Mike Heimerdinger returns to the job. As someone of Chinese ancestry, I’m a bit sad to see Chow get canned, but I was skeptical he could make his offense work in the NFL. Combine that with the extra task of adapting the system to Vince Young’s skills, while teaching Young to be a NFL QB (it would have been different if Young were a veteran QB in a bad pro system) and seeing the results, Chow had to go. Heimerdinger left as Tennessee OC with some HC buzz, but settled into an AHC job in Denver, working, with decent success, on Jay Cutler. I’m puzzled contractually, how Heimerdinger returns to Tennessee as OC. Perhaps the Broncos are just being nice or his contract was just up.
• Dallas Cowboys - Hudson Houck OLC. I found this move amusing because Houck lost his job in Miami due to the arrival of incoming HC Tony Sparano. So Houck goes to Dallas and gets Sparano’s (and his) old job.
• Miami Dolphins - Karl Dorrell WRC. I’m always interested in what happens to HCs who lose their jobs. So here is the former boss at UCLA. Good luck.
• Buffalo Bills - Ray Brown AOLC. Miami Dolphins - Todd Bowles AHC. Couple of old Redskins here. Brown had been working for Comcast Sports Net Mid-Atlantic on the Redskins post-game show after retiring two years ago. He’s probably the only guy who has played for both Joe Gibbs’ tenures in Washington and did a credible job starting in his forties. Bowles was a strong safety for Gibbs 1.0 and was secondary coach in Dallas (oh, the shame) before his contract expired and he went to Miami with Sparano. Even Bowles couldn’t turn Cowboy Roy Williams into cover safety.
• Miami Dolphins - Paul Pasqualoni DC. Another dethroned college HC, Pasqualoni has been in the NFL since losing the Syracuse job, which he had for most of the 1990s and half of this decade. He’s been working as a position coach for the last three years which I found surprising. Maybe the Dolphins can lure Lloyd Carr out of his assistant athletic directorship at Michigan?
• Baltimore Ravens - Cam Cameron OC. Where he should be, as a high assistant, not in charge.
• San Diego Chargers - James Lofton fired as WRC, Charlie Joiner returns to the job. In another amusing move, one old Air Coryell WR replaces the other old Air Coryell WR. Joiner first had this job right after he retired from the NFL in 1987. He also coached Lofton in Buffalo during the 1992 season. It’s just so very strange to see one of the great WR duos in NFL history like this. Can we make it a trio and bring Bobby Duckworth in as an assistant or something? Washington sports radio yak-head Steve Czaban, speaking on his national Fox Sports Radio show, speculated the Lofton firing was Norv Turner trying to distract attention from his shortcomings. Normally, I’d be all for piling on Norv, but Lofton’s dismissal makes sense. Since the time when pro’s pro Keenan McCardell left and until pro’s pro Chris Chambers arrived by trade mid-season, the Charger wide-outs have been big underachievers. Lofton is on his way to Oakland next week to interview for a job on the Raiders’ staff.
• Washington Redskins - Al Saunders fired as OC, Jim Zorn replacing. As bass-ackwards as the Redskins have handled the Gibbs’ resignation, it is completely unsurprising that their first hire is not a GM or HC, but an OC. Snyder apologists have characterized this move as being similar to Dallas’ promotion of Jason Garrett to OC before hiring Wade Phillips. Two points: First that was an internal move on the Cowboys’ staff, while Zorn is coming in from Seattle. Second, I thought that move was crazy, it just panned out for the Cowboys. That said, the move itself (and perhaps the putative HC candidate(s) wanted Zorn anyway) is fine. For the nothing that it is worth, Zorn was a better NFL QB than Garrett. More worth noting, Zorn has done a good job developing Matt Hasselbeck in Seattle, and Charlie Batch in Detroit.
• Baltimore Ravens, Oakland Raiders - Rex and Rob Ryan, DCs. Weird times for the Sons of Buddy. Rob, the one who looks most like a Metallica roadie, was the subject of media rumors that Raiders HC Lane Kiffin wanted to fire him, possibly replacing Ryan with Kiffin’s father Monte, longtime DC in Tampa Bay. The elder Kiffin got an extension from Tampa Bay, the Raiders management announced that Ryan would remain DC and Kiffin the Younger wouldn’t talk about it while he was coaching the North team in the Senior Bowl. Rex was fired by the Ravens but was interviewed for their HC job, as well as the Atlanta HC job. Sundry media reports then said he was going to Washington as DC, but then he said he only wanted to leave Baltimore to be a HC. Even though he technically didn’t have a job with the Ravens. In any case, Ryan won’t be DC in Washington because….
• Washington Redskins - Gregg Williams fired as AHC-D, Greg Blache “promotion” to DC. The word “promotion” is in quotes, as Blache already had the DC title here in DC, officially working as Defense Coordinator/Defensive Line Coach under Williams’ Assistant Head Coach - Defense. In itself, a sensible move, Blache has done very good work as a coach. This was about all that could be done for relative stability with the existing staff. I hope for Blache’s sake he isn’t in some kind of Ritchie Petitbon-like situation. As for double ‘g’ Gregg, well he and the Redskins odd HC situation get a post of their own.

Random Senior Bowl Observation

I like watching the post-season college all-star games, but this year I have been busy and missed the Hula Bowl and most of the East-West Shrine Game. Fortunately NFL Network is doing a daily report from the Senior Bowl, so unlike ESPN.com’s coverage, I don’t have to pay for it in any direct way.

So part of yesterday’s observations was that the three North Team QBs: USC’s John David Booty, Michigan’s Chad Henne and Delaware’s Joe Flacco all looked good. I’m a bit surprised about Booty, I had him pegged as a future Jesse Palmer, but maybe I’m wrong.

Anyway, as with most all-star games, the guys wear their school helmets, which in the case of Henne and Flacco means two QBs with the “winged helmet” design and very similar colors. Unfortunately Flacco has to wear a generic white helmet. I guess the bigger school wins the argument. I recall Michigan and Delaware guys playing together in either the Blue-Gray game or the Senior Bowl and both wearing the winged helmet, so maybe the white helmet is to keep coaches from getting confused in practice.

NFL Head Coach searches done for now

Atlanta is supposed to hire Jacksonville DC Mike Smith as their new head coach, not waiting for Giants DC Steve Spagnuolo. My previous post answers its’ own question, with Jim Fassel being the Washington “Mystery Candidate Who is Not Russ Grimm” and presumed next head coach.

Smith has six years as a coordinator and the Jaguar defenses have quietly been very good, so the Falcons don’t appear to have made a mistake here. I can’t say I feel the same for my Redskins. Fassel has some coaching talents; getting that 2000 Giants team to the Super Bowl was one of the great overachievements by in recent NFL history. Likewise, that he got some good games out of Kerry Collins and Danny Kanell is impressive.

Still, I found his Giants teams to be unimpressive and he (kind of like Gibbs 2.0) has a roughly .500 winning record. Fassel, like Marvin Lewis and Brian Billick is a genius coordinator who arrives at a HC position and his teams do the exact opposite of what made him a genius. Frankly, I found the Arizona teams he OC’ed to be a bit overhyped, heavily dependent on throwing 800 screen passes to Larry Centers, with the occasional bomb to Rob Moore. In the Jersey swamps, Fassel ended up running a weak version of the strangleball that Bill Belichik used to run in Cleveland. I won’t, however, hold Fassel’s recent failure as OC in Baltimore against him. Kyle Boller is not a NFL QB and is missing out on a fine career as a H-back.

In returning news, Mike Holmgren has decided to lame duck himself in Seattle and finish out this upcoming final year of his contract and then quit. Jim Mora, Jr. is not publicly named successor. My B-team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, gave Jon Gruden a three-year extension as HC, which I find reasonable. I just hope he figures out who the Bucs QB of the future is this year.

The 2008 Head Coach picture focuses. Some.

So the following HCs are in place: John Harbaugh to Baltimore, Tony Sparano to Miami.  Harbaugh has been Eagles special teams coach for most of his time in the NFL until this past season when he coached the secondary.  Eagles teams units were pretty good under Harbaugh, though having alternately Brian Mitchell or Brian Westbrook as a return guy is helpful.  Sparano got some early buzz last year for HC work and his lines in Dallas have generally been very good except for Andre Gurode’s poor snapping, which begs the question of why he is the NFC center for the Pro Bowl?

Tony Dungy comes back for this next year in Indianapolis and is granted an elaborate set of privileges to partially live in Florida during the season.  Jim Caldwell is publicly named successor, whenever Dungy quits.

Cowboys’ OC Jason Garrett went to second interviews with Baltimore and Atlanta before returning to Dallas for a large raise and a promotion to AHC.  Smart move by him.  Baltimore is a better team on paper than Atlanta, but neither team has a promising QB (Troy Smith is merely interesting) and it is risky for someone as short on high-level coaching experience as Garrett to take on the challenge of mentoring a young QB.  Bizarrely, I think the one extra year in Dallas, combined with playoff-time improvement from Romo, will make Garrett ready.

Washington has foolishly done a second interview with the overrated Jim Fassel, though it’s possible he is interviewing for the OC job, something much better suited for him.  Jim Mora, Jr. removed himself from the interview pool last week, citing family reasons.  It’s not a big jump to assume he might think that Mike Holmgren is going to resign, giving Mora a shot at the HC job in Seattle.  I don’t know if he is a publicly named successor.  The identity of the Redskins’ “mystery candidate,” who was interviewed after Jim Schwartz, has not emerged.

Giants DC Steve Spagnuolo is now top choice in Atlanta.  He’s done a great job for Big Blue, but this is his first year as DC.  ESPN says Atlanta is going to wait until after the Super Bowl to interview him.

Coach Coach Revolution

Those more professionally run bastards up the road, the Ravens, have offered their head coaching job to former London Monarchs QB and current Cowboys OC Jason Garrett. This fan’s opinion is that the head coaching job should only be given to either unit coaches (offensive or defensive coordinator, special teams coach) or guys who have the assistant head coach title. In any case, I’d also want them to have held that job for at least three years. All this is based on my non-existent experience owning and managing NFL franchises.

So I’m generally uncomfortable with the Ravens doing that, except that it’s the Ravens and I like seeing them mess up. Eric “Mangenius” Mangini was the Patriots defensive coordinator for only one season before the Jets gave him their head coach job, but I didn’t like that move either. The results have been mixed for him; good rookie year, dreadful this year.

The Ravens interviewed another guy short on the high level experience I prefer, former Florida third-string QB and Jets OC Brian Schottenheimer, son of the Marty de Sade. The Ravens also have interviewed two other relatives of NFL people for the head coaching job: their own former DC Rex Ryan, son of Buddy, and Eagles secondary coach John Harbaugh, brother of Jim. I’m too lazy to figure out if fellow interviewees Jim Caldwell and Tony Sparano are related to anybody.

Meanwhile in Ashburn, Gregg Williams is on interview number four. Titans DC Jim Schwartz interviewed last Friday, and supposedly some “mystery NFL assistant who is not Russ Grimm” was interviewed over the weekend. The Washington Post implies the Redskins have given up on Colts assistant head and QB coach Jim Caldwell, who is waiting to see if he will ascend to Tony Dungy’s spot, but will interview Colts DC Ron Meeks. Another potential heir to his current boss, Seahawks assistant head coach Jim Mora, Jr., will be headed to either Redskins Park or the Snyder House today.

The Mammal-Fish, as expected, are hashing things out with Cowboys OL/AHC Tony Sparano, the subject of a mildly amusing ESPN piece featuring Kenny Mayne and the supporting cast of The Sopranos, for their HC job. I haven’t heard much from the Falcons recently. They hired a new GM, Thomas Dimitroff, over the weekend, though oddly Rich McKay stays on as team president. Ryan and Garrett are purported favorites and Pete Carroll was mentioned but declined. I think Carroll would be a fool to leave Southern Cal to come back to the NFL. It has been speculated Carroll is worried by the forthcoming Tarnished Heisman book, about shenanigans surrounding Reggie Bush’s Heisman run. Unless a NCAA Death Penalty is forthcoming, Carroll should be able to survive a book that documents corruption in big-time college football. College football fans mostly care about corruption when it involves other teams, particularly competitors.

 

 

What I Learned from the Bowls and Playoffs

I love these bowls that SEEM to primarily exist to make sure the local, OK university team has a game around Christmas time. Like the New Mexico (University of New Mexico) and Texas (University of Houston) Bowls. Still, I’m glad to see Boise State and Hawaii have had enough success and nationwide reputation to warrant invites to something besides their “home” bowls. Even if it means being humiliated by Georgia. Though BSU’s recent success gives us the odd spectacle of Georgia Tech and Fresno State going to Boise in December.

Oregon State TE Howard Croom is a cousin of Mississippi State Coach Sylvester Croom, Jr. I really should run a search engine check to see if former Patriots RB Corey Croom is his son or something. The broadcaster didn’t say what degree of cousins Croom and Croom are; it could be like Marshall and Kevin Faulk who are in the third to fifth cousin range.

Great work by Croom to get his team to contain UCF RB Kevin Smith. More below.

It’s really cool that Navy can get their option offense to post big scoring numbers without Nebraska quality athletic talent. Pre-Paul Johnson era teams struggled with that, hopefully the post-Paul Johnson era teams can continue that.

As a Michigan fan, I’ve had it in for Appalachian State for embarrassing the Wolverines back in August. I rooted against them in the I-AA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs. Here, they added more insults on their way to the National Championship, beating my alma mater, James Madison, a local-ish team, Richmond and finally the school with the same uniforms as Michigan, Delaware. I even rooted for Eastern Washington, a school I can’t fake any affinity for, but nothing could stop the Appalachian machine on it’s way to a third consecutive National Championship. Look out App. State! I’ve got an extra scoop of powder when I mix the Hater-ade for you guys next year!

Glad to see former Auburn star QB Dameyune Craig coaching at Tuskegee. I always like seeing former players go coach rather than scrap away for a fourth string NFL job.

Thanks Lloyd Carr. You had a great run at Michigan where you split a National Championship. Jim Tressel is a tough guy to beat. He has the job at Ohio State mostly because John Cooper couldn’t figure how to beat you. Carr is worthy of at least consideration for the College Football Hall of Fame.

I think the Rose Bowl had first pick of the BCS “free agent” schools this year and chose the traditional best available Big Ten vs. Pac-10, resulting in USC thumping an overmatched Illinois team. I like the Rose Bowl’s strange quirk for tradition. Really I do. Still myself and thousands more would have preferred a “Resentful Rose Bowl” between scorned Georgia and Southern California.

My fifth rate Mel Kiper observations, mostly based on ONE game:

U-Mass WR Rasheed Rancher - Against Fordham, “FCS” Playoffs, a bit sloppy route running, but receivers who are a lot bigger and than their opposition tend to do that in college. Can make some impressive catches, has good career numbers. It will be interesting to see how he fares in the draft.

Tuskegee QB Jacary Atkinson - Against Virginia Union, Pioneer Bowl (another loss for an Old Dominion school!), very good arm, pretty good runner, excellent TD-INT ratio, decent accuracy. He’s got another year of school to go and it’s a long climb into the NFL for Division II QBs, but I’ll be watching how Craig’s disciple does next season.

Central Michigan QB Dan LeFevour - Against Purdue, Motor City Bowl, Against Toldeo, MAC Championship, very good runner, strong arm, good accuracy, not so good TD-INT ratio. I need to see this guy play more. Also has two more years of school, but MAC QBs get looks in the NFL.

Maryland WR Darius Hayward-Bey - Against Oregon State, Emerald Bowl - another year, likely two, of being able to see this guy with the Terps. Imagine what he could do with a stable QB.

Maryland QB Chris Turner - Against Oregon State, Emerald Bowl - I get a kick out of his dad being one of the drummers in Ratt. So so QB, an improvement over Jordan Steffy, but that doesn’t say much.

Central Florida RB Kevin Smith - Against Mississippi State, Autozone Liberty Bowl, Against Tulsa C-USA Championship, looked dominant against Tulsa but ordinary against the Bulldogs who had the local crowd advantage. Then again UCF had home field advantage against Tulsa. Now that he’s declared for the NFL draft, let the View-Askew jokes begin.

Oregon RB Jonathan Stewart - Various regular season games, reminds me of Terry Allen. I’ll have to see where the real draft people have him ranked.