Hope your are ready for the New Year, and on Thursday we’ll be asking for some resolutions if you want to share. (And if you want to toss them out now, well, go get it.)
From the “Talks too much” studios, let the games begin.
In this Monday, Dec. 28, 2015 photo, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly listens to a question during a news conference at the NFL football team’s practice facility in Philadelphia. The Eagles fired Kelly with one game left in his third season, dumping the coach after missing the playoffs in consecutive years. Kelly was released Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015 just before the end of a disappointing season that began with Super Bowl expectations. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Chip Kelly out
Philadelphia has canned Chip Kelly.
Yes, it was a bit of a shock to almost everyone outside of the Eagles complex – including Kelly.
By all accounts he had very few allies within the building. (Which is not unlike what Saban and Spurrier and other uber-successful college coaches experienced when trying to take their successful college dictatorship to the whorl of professional football. Saban was a touch different in that if the Dolphins’ team doctors had signed off on Saban’s plan to sign Drew Brees and his sugerically repaired back, Miami would be standing toe-to-toe with New England in the AFC East and Alabama would not be dominating college football. Stupid Miami team doctors.)
Kelly’s methods caused him to lose the locker room and any support from management. Those methods are intriguing, and often different can be scary for those who only know another way to do things.
Yes, Philly got housed at times, but this has way more to do with off-the-field interactions that football.
Kelly was 26-21 with two 10-win seasons heading into the final game of his third year. That’s not great, but it’s not terrible either. (Side question: Is Philly running Andy Reid the NFL version of UT running Phillip Fulmer? We think there are very comparable scenarios. Somewhere Johnny Georgia Fans are forced to take deep breaths and hope for the best.)
Kelly’s record is far superior to Jacksonville’s Gus Bradley, who is 12-35 over the same timeframe and is coming back next year, or Jeff Fisher, who is 27-35 in his fourth year in St. Louis. And let’s not forget that Kelly’s last seven seasons as a head coach ended with in the Rose Bowl, National title game, Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, NFC East title, 10-6 and then 6-9 this year.
That’s fine. Maybe Kelly would not surrender player personnel control. Maybe he had completely lost the locker room to the point of no return. Maybe he didn’t wash his hands after going to the executive wash room.
Whatever, the NFL’s a big-boy league and coaches get got all the time.
The thing that makes this one more interesting than most is the obvious question of where will Kelly’s next gig be.
We had multiple folks on Twitter (@jgreesontfp) ask whether Auburn should fire Gus now and go after Kelly. We had a few more ask if the Titans would go after him. We wonder if those types of conversations aren’t happening in the football offices at Texas or Texas A&M or LSU or even Oregon, the place where Kelly used his high-powered space-eating office to make his mark in the game and make the Ducks a power.
So with the Kelly canning, a big shoe just dropped and where it will fit will be a solely entertaining experience. (See what we did there Spy?)
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Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 12/18/15. Chattanooga’s head coach Matt McCall watches as his team plays Kennesaw during their matchup at McKenzie Area on Friday. How good can UTC be?
That’s right, we’ll ask it.
Seriously, Matt McCall’s first 13 games have been nothing short of outstanding.
We threw out an A+ grade for his first of three semesters (non-conference, conference, postseason), and that’s only because there was nothing higher. (Seriously, the A+++ people are the same folks who say, “Well, we gave it 120 percent.” Did you really? Great, who are you Scottie from the S.S. Enterprise. Everyone in their best Scottish accent, “We’re giving it all she’s got, Captain.”)
UTC has handled all comers of all sizes in its 11-2 start. The losses are at Iowa State, which is a legit Final Four contender, and the other was an upset loss after a difficult road trip to UL-Monroe.
This bunch has embraced McCall, and McCall has embraced them and allowed their strengths to influence his system every bit as much as the other way around, which is the mark of wise coaching. McCall said multiple times over the preseason that this group’s strength was their togetherness – a fact that comes through with the way the Mocs share the basketball (UTC is tied with BYU and Belmont for 42nd nationally with 16.7 assists per game) and with the fact that they have had seven players lead UTC in scoring in 13 games.
Now, know that the Mocs have succeeded without all-SoCon center Justin Tuoyo and SoCon player of the year candidate Casey Jones during various runs this season.
It’s impossible not to be impressed with UTC’s depth – nine guys average more than 14 minutes a night – and balance – eight guys average 7.2 points or more, with only Jones averaging double figures despite missing the last five games with the high ankle sprain.
Here’s the story from last night’s thumping of Lipscombhttps://www.timesfreepress.com/news/sports/college/story/2015/dec/30/mocs-fun-away-lipscombs-bison-80-56/342486/from TFP UTC ace Mean Gene Henley.
So we’ll ask it again – and with the knowledge that UTC has already toppled Georgia, Illinois and Dayton on the road – how good can UTC be heading into the SoCon schedule?
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Bowl contest standings round 2
Many props to Ted P., Dwayne B., and Mark W. for churning a lot of points in the latest round of picks in the Bowling for Bowls of Bowl Game Success (Bowler optional). There were several sheets that had 24-plus points, and that’s highly entertaining on the final two two-pointers, the entire eight three-pointers and the first two four-pointers. (The maximum points on the first number was 18 and the maximum number for the second category is 36. The perfect sheet would have 54, and a whole lot of entertainment vouchers.)
Here are the standings, and we will update them Friday morning so you have an idea where you are going into the weekend.
Thanks for everyone for playing along, and wow, that Leonard Fournette is pretty good at tackle football.
* War Eagle Terry – 14 + 20 = 34
Dwayne B. – 8 + 26 = 34
*Justin S. – 10 + 24 = 34
* 5-at-10 – 9 + 24 = 33 (rest of my picks are MSU, Louisville, Kansas State, TCU, West Virginia, Auburn, USC, FSU, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio State, Stanford, Ole Miss, Georgia, Oklahoma, Alabama – Alabama)
* Mrs. 5-at-10 – 13 + 19 = 32 (yes, she picked it on her own, and yes, we’re hearing it a little less now)
Spy – 12 + 21 = 32
Robert K – 8 + 24 = 32
* Auburn Andy – 8 + 24 = 32
Blake J. – 8 + 24 = 32
Mark W. – 6 + 26 = 32
* Ted P. – 5 + 27 = 32
* Bama Bill – 7+ 24 = 31
* Josh T. – 8 + 23 = 31
* Todd G. – 9 + 22 = 31
Mr. Spud – 9 + 22 = 31
JonMac – 6 + 23 = 29
Todd C. – 11 + 18 = 29
* scole023 – 10 + 18 = 28
Joseph W. – 7 + 21 = 28
Larry C. – 8 + 20 = 28
Mark P. – 8 + 20 = 28
Jomo – 8 + 20 = 28
* Brent R. – 6 + 22 = 28
* Mark S. – 6 + 21 = 27
Dcrotty22 – 7 + 19 = 26
Sportsfan – 8 + 18 = 26
* Mr. Big – 9 + 17 = 26
* Killer – 11 + 14 = 25
Max – 8 + 17 = 25
* Mike P. – 6 + 18 = 24
* Scott P. – 6 + 18 = 24
* Tracy03 – 9 + 15 = 24
Brian E. – 9 + 14 = 23
* Patty H. – 5 + 18 = 23
McPell – 5 + 17 = 22
* J Stinks – 5 + 17 = 22
* VolFan – 6 + 15 = 21
* Tex B. – 6 + 15 = 21
Dawg747 – 6 + 14 = 20
Stroker Ace – 3 + 17 = 20
* Tommy T. – 6 + 14 = 20
* Shelley B. – 7 + 13 = 20
* Scooter H. – 6 + 14 = 20
* Roll Terry – 8 + 12 = 20
James B. – 7 + 11 = 18
* Randy C. – 6 + 12 = 18
* Big Shot Bob – 2 + 16 = 18
* Kevin C. – 3 + 15 = 18
Brandon E. – 9 + 9 = 18
* Joel C. – 8 + 9 = 17
* Frank C. – 4 + 9 = 13
* Sucker – 3 + 9 = 12
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This and that
– Major props to McCallie for winning the Best of Preps boys’ basketball tournament and Baylor for pulling through on the girls’ side. We throughly enjoyed our more than a decade as the sports editor of the TFP, and all of the things that we accomplished – beyond the awards or any anything else – founding that tournament is probably the one we’re most proud of. It has really flourished at Chattanooga State, too, and it looks like Stephen Hargis and the Sports Staff ran another excellent event this year.
– Intersting breakdown from CBSsports.com’s Jon Heyman of his baseball Hall of Fame ballot http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/jon-heyman/25430742/why-bonds-and-seven-others-got-my-hall-vote-though-not-clemens.
– Clemson sent three players, including starting wide out Deon Cain, home http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14463932/clemson-tigers-send-3-home-including-deon-cain for the dubious ‘violation of team rules.’
– GOP presidential hopeful George Patakihttp://news.yahoo.com/republican-pataki-drops-2016-presidential-bid-024900558.html dropped his bid for the nomination this week. With that news there are but three questions: a) When did Pataki enter the race; b) Who knew the guy from ‘Star Trek’ was a Republican; and c) Who will be next of the field of 427 to fall by the wayside.
– The SEC starts the bowl season 1-0 as LSU romps Texas Tech http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/leonard-fournette-scores-5-tds-as-lsu-runs-over-texas-tech-055013820.html.
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Today’s question
Tiger Woods (40), LeBron James (31) and Sandy Koufax (80) all celebrate a birthday today. Wow, that’s a pretty special sports trio on one day.
Side Koufax story: There was a category on “Jeopardy!” called ‘Jews in Sports’ and the answer was: ‘This former Dodgers pitcher was the youngest player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.”
Quick buzzer: “Who is Hank Aaron?”
Alex Trebek: “Ohhhhh, I’m sorry, Aaron was not a pitcher.”
So there’s that.
In addition to there greatness, those three have a real chance to share a dubious distinction of being among the best ever in their craft and still – because of their amazing skills and a variety of injuries or bad luck or personal troubles – actually leave us disappointed somewhat.
With that, we’ll tip our visor to Tiger today. He is the author of some of the most memorable shots in golf history, and is responsible for one of our shortlist “remember where you were” sports moments when he chipped in off the back of 16 at Augusta in ’05. (Yes, the one that played out like a Nike commercial with the logo on the ball stopping for a full second right in view of the camera that led to the most awkward sports celebration – his high five with caddie Stevie Williams – since Rocky and Apollo embraced on the beach in Rocky III.)
We’ll give you two options here:
Rushmore of Tiger moments? And if you had only one word to describe Tiger’s on-course career, whatcha’ got?
Go, and remember the mailbag, and enjoy the bowl madness.