College football playoff
With 11 days left in the college football regular season - wow, there are less than two weeks left in the college football regular season (sigh) - Kirby Hocutt and the college football playoff crew shared their thoughts last night.
(Side note: That is how the coverage of that announcement should be done every week. Rece, Joey, Booger, Kirk - and thankfully a noticeably Desmond-free zone - in 30 minutes and the spontaneity brought on by the crew not knowing the top six was refreshing. Extra side note from the side note: Joey Galloway loves, Loves, LOVES him some Auburn Tigers. War Joey.)
The top four, and really, the top seven, went about as we expected and conveyed our collective thoughts of Tuesday. Here's the committee's top 10:
1. Alabama
2. Clemson
3. Miami
4. Oklahoma
5. Wisconsin
6. Auburn
7. Georgia
(And the folks who need help to get into the four)
8. Notre Dame
9. THE Ohio State
10. Penn State
My top four would have been slightly different, in that I would have had Miami at No. 2, but I have thought the 'Canes have been undervalued through the entire process. In the end, there's really no difference between 2 and 3 when those teams are going to play in 18 days anyway. Here are some other takeaways:
We still believe the top seven control their own fate, considering the criss-cross of Clemson and the Canes and the Southern Triangle of Saban, Smart and formerly Sweater-vested Gustav Malzahn. A perfect world for the committee - and for those of us who want to delay the playoff expansion for as long as possible - would be the SEC champ (be it Alabama, Auburn or Georgia) and the ACC champ claim their crowns convincingly and Oklahoma and Wisconsin win out. That's four conference champs in the four spots, with the Pac-12, which has its highest ranked team sitting at 11 with USC, rightly sitting on the curb.
The ACC now has the best track to having two in the final four. If Miami and Clemson handle their BID-ness, and Clemson nips Miami in a close ACC title game, leaving them both 12-1, well, game on. Yes, that scenario is strengthened if Oklahoma and or Wisconsin lose some time between now and then, because you have to think the committee would be plenty content putting the SEC champ, Miami or Clemson, a one-loss, Big 12-champ Oklahoma, and and an unbeaten, Big Ten champ Wisconsin.
We'll certainly get Paschall's expertise on this today on Press Row, but we believe the best way for the SEC to get two in is for Auburn to edge Alabama in Jordan-Hare and then beat Georgia in the SEC title game. Yes, that scenario would still need help, especially from the ACC, considering Clemson's win over Auburn looks better and better by the week, but that looks to be the best way for the SEC to get two.
It's really hard to see Notre Dame getting back into the four. If it's going to happen for the Irish, Miami and Georgia - teams who beat the Irish - would need to win their conference titles, and Miami would need to beat Clemson every bit as convincingly as it beat Notre Dame. Also, the Irish would need Georgia to lay waste to whomever in the Atlanta. ND would also need Wisconsin to fall, preferably to Michigan, because if THE Ohio State thumps the Badgers, maybe THE Buckeyes could jump ND. And Oklahoma losing would help too. So, in short, Notre Dame needs a lot of help, but if any team is in line to get a lot of help. Cue Rudy Notre Dame our mother, Pray for us.
Everyone behind Notre Dame really has similar scenarios and need as much long-shot help, especially considering all the cross-pollination losses between teams in the top 15.
Jon Gruden (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)Grumors
Everyone seems to be weighing in on the notion that Jon Gruden will coach their team.
The social media world went buzzing when Gruden made his regular appearance on Mike & Mike Wednesday and said no one had contacted him from the University of Tennessee. (The Twitter responses then went crazy as the fans of the Jets, Bucs, Giants and Cowboys all said they believed Gruden to be the top name on their job boards, too. Man, it must be nice to be that much in demand.)
Yes, it's true that Gruden has not coached on the college level since being the receivers coach at Pitt in 1991, and yes, it's true that he has not been on the sideline since walking away as the Tamp Bay head coach after the 2008 season.
But, we're certain that his hiring - for an NFL team or a college program - would be an overwhelming home run for its fans. We also believe that his hiring would be a home run for the future of whomever hires him.
That said, as TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer noted this morning, who knows what Gruden will do as Tennessee fans look longingly at the man affectionately known as Chucky because of his intense resemblance to the murderous doll in the "Child's Play" franchise of films.
And TFP sports editor Stephen Hargis has a detailed story here about what appears to be some communication - be it behind the scenes or even back-channels - between the UT camp and Gruden.
As for what Gruden told Mike & Mike this morning, here's a recap from TFP UT beat ace Dancin' David Cobb.
And as every UT fan is trying to find silver linings in the non-denial coy words picked by Gruden, you can pick apart all of his quotes and, not unlike a verbal Rorschach Test, see (and hear) what you want out of it. To wit, here's the complete transcript of Gruden's comments, taken from the @MikeAndMike Twitter account, and you can watch it here on espnchattanooga.com:
"You know what, Mike? I haven't talked to anybody. All I really have in my life is my family and football. That's about it, And I'm real sensitive to the coaches who are out there coaching, so I don't speculate.
"I just love football. I'm trying to hang on to the job I have. I am very fortunate to be with the people I'm with. I don't know what's going to happen in the future.
"I just know this I'm going to continue to give my best effort to the game, stay prepared. I love Monday Night Football and don't plan on leaving.
"But, as you know in life, you never say never to nothing."
OK, there's a lot of innuendo and things to splice. Or there's not.
For the Johnny Vols Fan hoping to welcome Gruden back to Rocky Top, where he started his coaching career, where his wife went to school and where his son now attends, well, here are a few things those JVFs are clinging to:
He did not deny it. No one may have contacted him, but he did not say anyone had NOT contacted his agents. He mentioned family, and he has family in K-Town. He referenced trying to "hang on to the job" he has, and we all know that he is ESPN's highest-paid on air talent and that layoffs are coming to Bristol sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
So, let's plan the parade, right?
Well, on the opposite side of that is the clear thing that if he has an eye on returning to coaching, he has said for years that he would prefer to return to the NFL for a number of reasons. Also, "being sensitive to the coaches who are out there coaching" does not really apply to UT since they have already pulled the plug on Butch.
That said, this was a very well-played, open-ended answer that leaves Gruden's options completely limitless. Same said for the imaginations of Gruden-longing and forever hopeful Johnny Vols Fans everywhere.
Sports enforcement
Have you ever heard of golfer Grayson Murray? Yeah, me neither.
Well, it appears that the most electric club in his bag is his Twitter profile. Apparently Murray had to walk away from the social media device earlier this year after sending an inappropriate Tweet to a teenager. ("Idk but I hate the fact you are in high school. You are pretty.")
Well, Murray picked up the Twitter again and immediately caused a stir in the PGA HQ by taking pot shots at the Champions Tour. "Does anyone really care is the real questionThese guys were relevant 10 plus years ago" was shot one; "You will never see Phil, Tiger, Furyk ever play on it! The tour subsidizes it every year. Loses a lot of money" was fired from the second barrel.
Zinger.
The Tweets have since been deleted and chastised by a lot of the other players and caddies on Tour, including some who believe he'll get a call from the PGA Tour's principal's office.
Now, the fact that Murray's 100 percent right likely won't have anything to do with it. And he is a 100 percent right. Name a Champions Tour event? Did you know that Bernhard Langer at 60 is Michael Jordan and Mike Tyson rolled into one on the Champions Tour? Did you know that at the turn of each round, the players eat tapioca pudding and have a Metamucil? OK, we made that last one up, but you get the idea.
The Tour's biggest beef with Murray assuredly will be bad-mouthing a product that is struggling and has an unknown future. (And if he's right and Phil and Tiger skip that thing all together, well, we're not really all that stoked to see Alex Cejka and Stewart Cink and Brain Gay and Rod Pampling and Retief Goosen and K.J. Choi make their Champions debuts in the next five and six years.)
Bad-mouthing the mothership is rarely a good idea, regardless of your operation.
Still, we'll watch this one carefully for a few reasons.
First, it would be a little disingenuous to punish Murray for spitting truth, all be it an uncomfortable truth for the PGA, on Twitter when no one publicly did anything with his creepy, social-media version of, "Hey kid you what some candy?" take before.
Secondly, the PGA needs personality in a monster way. Do you have a favorite golfer among today's stars, and if you said Phil and/or Tiger, then that screams even louder for golf's need for connectable and engaging personalities. And to make that statement even more pertinent in today's game, if you did not say Phil and/or Tiger, you most likely added one of the young guns.
And from that crew of Jordan, Rory, Rickie, Dustin, Jason and maybe Justin, what do you really know about them other than bright wardrobes and smokeshow significant others?
Finally, it's pretty doggone interesting in the divide between the levels of expectations and acceptability in the sports realm between sports that are unionized and those that are not.
Football can't make players stand for the anthem; golf has a player apologizing for telling the truth.
And yes, to be fair, someone like Rory or Dustin saying that would a) carry way more weight, and b) be handled way more privately, considering the Tour needs those guys more than they need the Tour these days.
So it goes, and here's betting ol' Mr. Murray takes a very bland - maybe even a tapioca pudding - approach to Twitter for the foreseeable future.
This and that
- Speaking of golf, as we were looking up some ages for the item above, we notice the money list through five events of the 2017-18 season. Yes, it's been a big story around these parts of the four former Baylor School stars who have cards on the men's PGA Tour. All have made some coin so far, and three are in the RSM Classic this weekend at St. Simon's Island. (It's the last main event before the start of the new year in the Tour's relatively new cross-over schedule.) Stephan Jaeger (who has made three cuts in four events and pocketed $108,778.04), Harris English (who has not made a cut yet this season) and Keith Mitchell (who made his first cut as a card-carrying member last week and has made $14,129 this season) will try to make some hay before Thanksgiving.
- More golf: The former Baylor School star not playing this weekend is Luke List, who has been red-hot to start the season. List has made the cut in four of the first five tournaments including a top-10 finish. He has earned $522,950 this season, which ranks No. 25 on the early money list and his 198 Fed Ex Cup points ranks 26th. List is the No. 127-ranked golfer in the world, up 72 spots from the end of the 2016 season.
- Not sure you saw this, but in addition to Papa John apologizing about his "divisive" comments about the NFL and the protests and what it has done for his BID-ness, more bad news for the ratings was made clear last night. The Monday Night game was the fourth-least watched in the history of ESPN showing the game. (Crazy to think that ESPN has had the game since 2006, right?) Now comes news that the Cowboys-Falcons game on Sunday was the lowest rated Week 10 national window game since 2002 and the least-watched since 2006. The ratings were down 18 percent from 2016 (Cowboys-Steelers) and 20 percent from 2015 (Patriots-Giants). The Sunday night game of Patriots-Broncos was down 20 percent to the Week 10 Sunday night game (Patriots-Seahawks) from '16. Sunday night's 11.5 matches the lowest rating for a Patriots game on NBC (which only has prime time and playoff NFL games) since 2008 against San Diego.
- Fun night in college hoops. Duke's Grayson Allen was amazing as the Devils downed No. 2 Michigan State. (Side note: Duke toppled the next best team in the country without Marvin Bagley III, who may be the best player in the country.) Kansas beat Kentucky. Also of note: Alabama hammered Lipscomb in the debut of Collin Sexton, who is legit friends.
Today's questions
OK, we'll offer it out there, and now is the time to make your thoughts know:
Will Jon Gruden be the next UT football coach? Why and why not?
As for birthdays, well, Chad Kroeger - not related to the grocery store folks or Larry Kroger (aka Pinto from Animal House) - is 43 today. He's also the lead singer of Nickelback. So there's that.
(And feel free to insert your cheesy Nickelback joke here, but know that cheesy music pays well. Kroeger's net worth is north of $60 million.)
Also on this day, Christopher Columbus notes the first recorded reference to tobacco.
Speaking of famous moments for former UT football coaches, Erwin Rommel was born on this day in 1891. Derek Dooley couldn't coach his way out of a phone booth, but he was an excellent interview.
Randy "Macho Man" Savage would have been 65 today. Beverly D'Angelo, who will always be remembered as Clark Griswold's wife to this generation, but who is amazingly talented (check her out singing the parts of Patsy Cline in "Coal Miner's Daughter") is 66 today.
As for a Rushmore, Sam Waterson is 77 today. Would Law & Order stalwart Jack McCoy make the Rushmore of TV lawyers?
Go, and get a jumpstart on the mailbag.