Should he have stayed or should he have gone
Well, that's that. (And yes, breaking news at 9:30 is tough for the ol' 5-at-10.)
The most successful run in the modern era of UTC football just lost its architect. Russ Huesman agreed to take the Richmond job, according to this report from TFP UTC beat ace Mean Gene Henley.
Huesman had to ponder whether to stay and take a $75,000 pay raise to coach his alma mater or head to Richmond for roughly a $200,000 pay raise and coach the Spiders.
Either way, it's going to be a banner Christmas for the Huesman house either way. So what should he do?
The most successful senior class in UTC history just graduated and for the first time since the Mocs became the annual league favorite in the Southern Conference, UTC would have a litany of offseason holes to fill.
And now the biggest hole for the 2017 is atop the UTC football food chain.
It's easy to think what you want your coach to do, but in whatever field you work, if you were faced with a similar scenario, what would you have done?
And now that's done, what say you Johnny Mocs Fans, who do you want as the next coach? And considering where the Mocs are compared to where they were, there's really no way to overstate the importance of this hire.
Names like former OCs Jason Simpson and Marcus Satterfield will be mentioned rather quickly whether they are legit candidates or not. So too will Will Healy's name for that matter. (And we'll say that if there is one shining light in this dark-cloud day for UTC, it's that it happened while David Blackburn is still manning the wheel of the athletic department. Blackburn has earned great praise as his work as the UTC AD< and he has delivered home run after home run when faced with hiring new coaches.)
Wake Forest's Tyler Bell (27) is pursued by Louisville's James Hearns (99) during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley) Rude a-Wake-ning
Man, this whole Wake Forest story is surreal, right?
Tommy Elrod played at Wake. He coached at Wake for 11 years in a variety of roles. He has been on the radio broadcast team since 2014 coach Dave Clawson took over the program. And now Elrod has been fired and banned from campus after Wake Forest concluded that he provided - or at least attempt to - confidential game preparations to opponents. This practice dates back to 2014, the school claimed in in a statement Tuesday.
This is bad, on a lot of levels.
First, let's try to explore motive. It seems there's really only two that make plausible sense.
Either Elrod was so wickedly bitter that Clawson did not retain him on staff that he tried to sabotage Wake's efforts. Or it's believable that Elrod did this for the money, either from payment from opponents or in an attempt to sway games and make wagers against Wake.
The easiest way to wrap this one up would be for Elrod to be a bitter, angry former coach looking for short-sighted vengeance. If it was about the money, well, things could get sticky.
If Elrod was doing it for a gambling edge, he's facing serious jail time. If Elrod was selling it to opposing schools, well, then there are all sorts of ramifications.
Let's also flip the pregame sheet - remember this case was cracked when documents that showed specific Wake Forest plays were found in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium before the Deacons played Louisville - and ask this question that could find itself in a business ethics class:
If you were coaching the opposing team, and you were presented a list of your opponents plays, would you use them? (Of course, Louisville coach Bobby Petrino is a bastion of ethics and nobility, so there's no, No, NO way he'd use them right?)
Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman (25) and Earl Thomas (29) break up a pass intended for Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones (obscured) in the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016, in Seattle. The Seahawks defeated the Falcons 26-24. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)Thursday night thunder
Say what you want about Seattle defensive back Richard Sherman.
Dude can really pay. Dude can really rub people the wrong way. But you'll never hear mean people say, "I wonder what Richard Sherman thinks about." any topic.
The latest Sherman sound-off took the NFL's Thursday night experience to task.
Sherman and the rest of the Seahawks will host the Rams this Thursday night. Sherman said the team did not return from its road game Sunday night until the wee hours on Monday morning. He also said there's no way his body will have time to completely recover, saying he believes he'll be roughly 50 or 60 percent.
And that's not all he said. Sherman called Thursday night games a "poopfest" and said it's the "middle finger" from the NFL.
While those words caught headlines, his more in-depth point has merit. Sherman said if the league is truly about safety then Thursday night games - with short recovery time and preparation time - are hypocritical to that mission.
He's right, too. But that's under the false pretense that the league cares about safety.
It doesn't. The league only cares about legal deniability when it comes to player safety. And it's going to be difficult for the players in general to have a stance too critical of that position and the hypocrisy of the Thursday night because simply put, the players are not overly concerned about their safety either.
It's the diabolical downward spiral of this entire issue.
Players lie about their injuries, especially head injuries because they do not want to leave the field because a) they want to play and b) they want to get paid. Teams allow this as long as they feign the song-and-dance of concern for the safety of the game.
And that applies to Thursday night.
Now Sherman did allude to the fact that in the next round collective bargaining, he thinks Thursday night games will be a big topic for the players. Well, maybe it will, and while the owners crave every platform and portal to post and project their prized pigskin properties, if the ratings continue to fall, then Thursday night games will go away.
And that's as safe a bet as there is in sports.
This and that
- Hmmm, this kind of smells. Oklahoma wide out Dede Westbrook was twice arrested for domestic violence complaints before he join the Sooners. Westbrook allegedly threw the mother of his two kids to the ground in 2012 and was accused of biting her and punching her in 2013. Westbrook came to the Sooners before the 2015 season from Blinn Junior College. Oklahoma coach Bob Stopps said he was unaware of Westbrook's history despite the fact that the Oklahoma program uses an outside agency that runs background checks on prospective players. Here's what Stoops told the Tulsa World when asked if Westbrook's history slipped through the cracks: "I'm not part of that. I'm not sure how that happened. We do a thorough job and it's helped us in many occasions make different choices. In the end, how that happened, I can't speak to it." Well, it's been our experience that creates known as big-time college football coaches are involved pretty much with every aspect of their programs, especially with something as prominent as domestic violence after the Baylor University nightmare of the past 18 months. And if the agency didn't catch Westbrook's past, since the '12 charge was dropped and the mother of his two children refused to cooperate in '13, then why wouldn't Stoops simply say that. Of course this is the same program that took in star running back Joe Mixon after his domestic assault case - Mixon was suspended for the 2014 season - and also welcomed in transfer Dorial Green-Beckham after his domestic violence arrest at Missouri.
- Jim Harbaugh has instructed his team to ignore the 'lies' about his alleged NFL interest.
- According to this informal ESPN poll, Tom Brady is the clear leader to be the NFL MVP. So there's that.
- Sad news that Alan Thicke died of a heart attack. He was 69. Thicke was best known for his role as the dad to the Seaver kids in "Growing Pains." Considering we lost Florence Henderson earlier this year too, man some of the parental figures from some beloved family TV classics, well, here's hoping that the dad from "Family Dies" and the mom from Cosby are taking every precaution.
- Speaking of Thicke, here's an interesting story from Billboard on some of the top TV theme songs Thicke wrote, including the "Diff'rent Strokes" theme and the lead-in to "Facts of Life."
- There are a lot of news items that have come the transition team for president-elect Donald Trump that have raised eye brows. Here's one that cross the streaming sports. Apparently The Donald is leaning toward picking Bobby Valentine as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan. Yes, the same Bobby Valentine who managed the Mets and once, after being ejected from the game, tried to return to the dugout in a fake mustache and glasses.
- Wow, it's hard to believe it's been four years since the Sandy Hook tragedy.
Today's questions
We have several, including the two mingled in above.
We also wonder how many people know all the words to the "12 Days of Christmas" and since we are in the 12 days till Christmas path, would day be the first day of Christmas or do you countdown from 12 to 1?
Did you know that NASCAR was founded on this day 69 years ago? Did you know that this is the 25th anniversary of Desmond Howard winning the Heisman and the 20th anniversary of Danny Wuerffel doing the same?
On this day last year, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" had its world premiere. On this day Bill Buckner was born and George Washington died, but not in the same year of course. Another famous George kicked the bucket on this day when former Notre Dame legend George Gipp died in 1920 at the age of 25.
So we're dealing with a lot of stuff.
Let's do a George Gipp Rushmore and name the sports people who are legendary far beyond their accomplishments. (Of course, Rockne's "Win one for the Gipper" speech makes George Gipp a no-brainer on that list.)
If you need to go another direction, on this day 39 years "Saturday Night Fever" premiered in New York City. What would Travolta's Rushmore look like, and yes "Pulp Fiction" is far left?