Tons of business to handle today.
First, there are rules, and this one is the story of the day locally — heck, maybe the story of the 423 sports year — as McCallie rallied from a three-TD hole to snatch a 27-21 state title win over rival Baylor last night at Finley. Wow. Here’s Hargis on prep football, because rules are rules.
Speaking of rules, here’s Paschall on UT football as the Vols try to put the finishing touches on a national top-10 class.
As for the Rushmores, let’s roll this way:
› Rushmore of “Little” — Little Debbie, Chicken Little, “Little Giants,” a tremendous family sports film about the O’Shea brothers and peewee football (don’t mess with Icebox), and the proverbial little bird that apparently knows all and tells most of it to others. This one was hard, because Larry Little deserves a mention, as does Dr. Doolittle and others.
› Rushmore of potatoes — Mr. Potato Head (who was perfectly voiced in “Toy Story,” Hot potato, “One potato, two potato …” and of course mashed potatoes. Who doesn’t love mashed potatoes?
› Rushmore of Seinfeld cameos — Again, this not the side characters or recurring roles like Jackie Chiles or Buddy or the parents of George and Jerry, but more the famous folks who played themselves, so Keith Hernandez is a dunk for the magic loogie episode, Bette Midler, Jon Voight and Marisa Tomei.
› Rushmore of all-time QBs with one Super Bowl or less — Dan Marino, Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre, Drew Brees.
A couple of other tidbits that are worth a morning glance:
› Lonzo Ball more than hinted that his leg, knee and foot injuries that have cost hims multiple seasons could be because of the “Big Baller Brand” shoes he wore to help his father’s apparel brand. Interesting.
› The Detroit Lions are them, and the simple fact that Dan Campbell not only knows the analytics, but acts on them is a) wicked smart, and b) confidence-inspiring for his entire Lions roster. Since the Falcons stink, I’m team Lions this playoff run. Who’s with me?
To the mailbag.
Question from Jay
Hi, regulars, longtime writer, occasional question-asked, but wanted to share this dilemma we referenced above:
So, if you are a Falcons fan — or a Titans fan or even say a Carolina Panthers fan, if there are any left — and your NFL team does not make the postseason, is it OK to adopt a team to follow through the ‘ry’ months to the Super Bowl? Discuss.
Jay (and friends)
Great question, you are a wise and kind soul, who also is sneaky handsome.
I say, yes, but with a couple of caveats.
First, if the Falcons sneak in, you’re committed, right? (Of course.)
Second, it simply can’t be an NFL team from your division. A Dolphins fan can’t adopt the Bills. This is an Uncle Buck-level of “In the books.”
The dicey part here is you are hopping on the bandwagon of the Super Bowl favorite, which makes it look like we are front-runners.
But the Lions’ history of torment — and how they got bounced last year — gives you a pass on that this year. Plus, that entire team is very likable, and those blue-on-blue unis last night were sweet.
Thoughts?
On the playoff rankings …
From MocsColts
Jay – do you not think that if SMU losses, they still have a chance to be in? Also interesting fact UTK only defeated ONE SEC team (Bama) that finished with an over .500 SEC record. They did not have to play Texas, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, South Carolina or LSU, then had an extremely weak non-conference schedule. That might be the new formula for SEC teams with the 12 team CFP. I think unless it expands to 24 teams, SEC COACHES will not want to go to 9 conference games.
From Chas
For the Friday bag: Jay, which of Bama, SC, Ole Miss and Miami would you have chosen for the playoff spot?
MC,
I concur, the SEC coaches are not going to want to go to nine conference games for the money and for the better resumés. In fact, now that hundreds of millions is at stake on getting four (or more when it expands again) teams in the dance, no way Greg Sankey is going to force that issue on anyone.
Hard no SMU. The ACC this year has a true championship game, just like the MWC and the Big 12.
If Miami had not stumbled last week, they could have a hard argument, but they did and now they don’t.
I can’t help but wonder what’s the future of the conference title games considering when they expand again, you are now talking a possibility of what, 17-plus games?
Chas, I’m not sure, but Bama has the better resumé but two very ugly losses. Oklahoma is not good, and while Vandy was a fun story, losing to Vandy should almost make you not eligible for the playoff considering Vandy lost to Georgia State. (Do the seven degrees of separation on that one and see where it lands.)
And South Carolina is currently playing better than Alabama, head-to-head or no.
Heck, I’m kinda surprised Sankey did convince Alabama and South Carolina to commit to play Saturday at noon before the Texas-Georgia game for the final spot.
Tells you who does not have a leg to stand on is Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss.
Thoughts?
From Pat
One, if I’m on the mound and there’s that golden at bat rule in play, that golden guy is getting it in the ribs. Stop me, Mr. Commissioner. Sacks are loaded … I don’t care. I’ll give up one instead of three or four. I’m drilling the guy. And don’t think that isn’t getting discussed by pitchers right now.
B, you been to Cameron Indoor for a Duke basketball game? Is that a bucket list check-off? I’ve been to Cameron, but not for a basketball game.
Pat
Great point about the very flawed Golden At Bat rule.
(The perfect description of this idea came from John in an email earlier this week. “Golden AB: Crap covered crap with crap filling …” Sounds about right.)
And I concur, I’m plunking Soto or Ohtani or Mookie Betts or whoever comes up, and not even giving the chance to go all Kelly Leak and smoke a bad ball into right center.
Have not been to Cameron, and it is one of the last bucket list items I have, but it’s falling down the list quickly.
› I’d like to go to the next Open at St. Andrew’s;
› I’m going to play Pebble Beach at some point, just have to pony together 12 pay checks to cover the fees;
› I still need to see a game at Dodger Stadium;
› And in a few years when the Lil’ 5-at-10 turns 21, I’m taking him to Vegas for the first weekend of March Madness.
As for the rest, been pretty blessed to have crossed off more sports bucket list items than most. Have I mentioned I’ve played Augusta National recently?
From several of you
Jay, really enjoy the 5-at-10, but over the last couple of weeks, you have referenced stories like we should already know them. What was the Jimmy Dean story? What happened with Frank Beamer?
C’mon man.
Gang,
That’s on me, and a little behind-the-scenes content: Most mornings I am pushing the envelope of my 9:30 deadline pretty hard. I get up before 5:30 almost every day because I make the breakfast, feed the dogs, make the kids lunch and get everyone up and running as I am doing research and preparing the 5-at-10. It gets crunched.
So, sometimes, my best intentions get skipped or time-constrained.
So we had the Jimmy Dean story earlier this week, and here’s the Beamer story. Enjoy.
So, I was the young and relatively new sports editor of the Marietta Daily Journal around Atlanta in the very early 2000s.
George O’Leary was the head coach at Georgia Tech, and they had a media event at Reynolds Plantation over a couple of days with golf and great food and tons of prizes.
So in the meet-the-media news conference, O’Leary is taking questions from the crew, and they are asking football questions about a Tech team that is going to be really good and going to start the season against Frank Beamer and a very good Virginia Tech team.
So the questions are about positions and players and possibilities. Then from the back comes “Coach, what are your first five offensive plays and first five defensive calls against Virginia Tech next month?”
The room went silent because there’s no way O’Leary would ever answer that, and he may snap, so everyone looked back to the question-asker.
It was Frank Beamer, who owned a home on Lake Oconee and was sitting in the back smiling from ear-to-ear.
O’Leary laughed out loud. Pretty sure that was the only time I ever saw him laugh.
From MJ
Were you more surprised to learn that Mike Norvell still has the authority to hire people at FSU or by his decision to hire Gus as OC?
Is Jesse Palmer the most fortunate fellow in history? Which of his dynasties best represents his talents — the Bachelor? Rooms to Go? ESPN color commentator?
MJ
First, we will not stand for Jesse Palmer slander around these parts.
He’s a fine fellow — and yes, very fortunate considering his career path after being a cog in the Ol’ Ball Coach’s Florida machine and an NFL afterthought — and likable.
(His Rooms to Go commercials are fine. Having some trouble with the Dan Orlovsky one wanting autographs from the Geico crew, however.)
As for FSU, did Mike Norvell just let the fox into the hen house, because despite the overwhelming FSU run in 2023, this year put Norvell 100% on the hot seat. What a disaster.
And now going to get OC like Gus Malzahn to be the de facto head-coach-in-waiting/interim name is strange.
That said, I firmly believe Gus up-and-walked away from $5 million per at UCF because he a) has made a lifetime of money his kids’ kids won’t be able to spend, b) just wants to coach ball and call ball plays and c) is tired of the outside football obligations coming from being the HC.
And not unlike Chip Kelly at THE Ohio State, I think this trend will only continue to grow for guys who are financially set and want more football than all the other headaches, you know?
Have a great weekend, friends.