Wow, there's a lot to get to today friends. Lots.
Weekend winners and losers, college coaching carousel edition. From the "Talks too much" studios, it's go time.
Weekend winners
Auburn and Gus Malzahn. Midway through the season Malzahn was sitting on Bunsen burner. At 5-2 after an inexplicable second-half collapse at LSU, it was widely believed that Malzahn's time was all-but-up. Normal Sunday practices were cancelled and there were reports of a full day of closed-door, coaches-only meetings the Sunday after LSU, and whatever was discussed and aired certainly has paid dividends. Since then, Auburn is 5-0 with wins over then-No.1 Georgia and then-No.1 Alabama last Saturday. Wow. Merry Christmas to the Malzahns, who likely will see a monster extension on his desk sooner rather than later. A nice raise made even more nice by the whispers that Malzahn is Choice Numero Uno for Arkansas. (Side note: If Kerryon Johnson can not play Saturday in the SEC title game against Georgia, well, that would assuredly hurt Auburn's chances.)
Matt Luke. We mentioned this on Press Row last week, that if he won the Egg Bowl to finish 6-6, Luke, the former Ole Miss player, had a chance to keep the job. Winning six games - Ole Miss is out of the postseason because of self-imposed penalties - considering the defensive holes and the loss of your star quarterback was amazing. Beating a ranked Mississippi State team in the rivalry game was a big feather too. Luke, simply put, is a dude that worked his tail off in an untenable situation and landed his dream job. Will he succeed long term? Who knows? But here's betting the resumes on Ross Bjork's desk to replace the disgraced Hugh Freeze were not exactly blowing anyone's hair back.
UCLA. The zaniness all around the college football realm this weekend kind of relegated the Bruins landing Chip Kelly to the back-burner. But know this: Kelly has a no-doubt, walk-off, pedigree and has a Nick Saban-type of ceiling at UCLA. Know this: Dude was 46-7 at Oregon with three-star talent. In the fertile recruiting land that is Southern California, what will Kelly do with four- and five-star talent with the Bruins? Plus, after suffering through the blahs of Jim Mora (every Falcons fan is nodding his or her head, whether they are aware of it or not), Kelly presents a brand new day.
College football playoff chaos. Rivalry weekend continued to prove that all of the unrest and uneasiness and un(whatever) is unneeded along the way to finding the four. Now, after Auburn beat No. 1 and Pittsburgh beat No. 2 Miami, there is a relative clarity for everyone involved. The winner of the SEC title game is in. The winner of the ACC title game is in. Oklahoma and Wisconsin, if they win in the Big 12 and Big Ten title games, respectively are in. If TCU or THE Ohio State win in those title games, then there will be discussion about whether Alabama gets in or whether a two-loss Pac-12 champ deserves a shot. (Somewhere the committee - and those of us who never want it to expand beyond four - really need the Sooners and the Badgers to win so the four are four conference champs, nice and neat. Because the drumbeat from the TV sponsors and the Finebaums will assuredly want Alabama in the mix for eyeballs and interest.)
November college basketball. Wow, the play has been very entertaining - the Gonzaga-Florida game late Friday night was amazing - and there looks to be a lot of teams with a lot of talent. Two things that jumped out to us: First, Collin Sexton, the Alabama freshman who dropped 40 on Minnesota as the Tide reshot the "My team is on the floor" scene from Hoosiers at the end of the game, is a beast. Second, man, how about Jim Foster's UTC women, who now have won five straight that includes wins over Indiana, Northwestern, Georgetown and Auburn.
New England Patriots. The Eagles are rolling people. Yes, the Titans took the lead in the AFC South. Yes, the Falcons and Panthers won as the Saints lost to tighten matters in the NFC South. And yes, the Steelers prevailed Sunday night in a game that had no business being that close. And yes, for those wondering, Team Greeson landed a big win in the Weston Wamp fantasy league to move into first place in our division. But if you are looking for a winner from the NFL weekend, look no further than the class of the league, the New England Patriots. The Patriots toppled the Dolphins to secure a winning season. That's the 17th consecutive winning season for the Patriots, the longest streak of its kind since the AFL and the NFL merged.
Tennessee athletic director, John Currie, is seen before an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)Weekend losers
John Currie. Yes, we have more on that below, but he had to be mentioned right? Wow, what a nightmare, and how badly was that handled all the way around.
Utah promotions. How many times can we have the same issue with this same issue? Utah is the latest school to have a half-court shot go in and now find some loophole not to pay. Charlie Caine hit a half-courter and expected $5,000. Well, Charlie is 17 and Utah claims those under 18 are not eligible. Shouldn't that be solved before the shot? Utah reportedly claims its has reached out to Caine, but stay tuned. In the words of Teddy from Rounders, "Pay that man his money." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwEIjbfOHD0
Florida. The Gators - and God bless the full throng of U of F fans that filled the Swamp to watch that anemic offense - were whipped by an equally underwhelming FSU on rivalry Saturday. That happens. But then the Gators were left holding the bag by Chip Kelly, who picked UCLA over Florida despite the fact that Florida is the better job and had been courting Kelly longer. Yes, it may be Kelly's comfort-level out West, but it's still being left at the alter by your first choice. (That said, I think Dan Mullen is a good hire, but he's
Arkansas. Seriously, you needed to fire Bret Bielema walking off the field after Friday's season-ending loss to Missouri, a game by the way, in which the Hogs fought like heck for their embattled coach. (Side note: With all the craziness going on around college football, this P.R. nightmare on Friday was long-forgotten by Sunday evening. It was as if Arkansas shouted across the SEC, "Y'all think you can botch coaching decisions?" And then John Currie told friends, "Hold my beer.")
NASCAR numbers. Yes, we have openly admitted that our NASCAR fandom is at an all-time low. As one of our loyal regulars noted this time last week, we didn't even note the NASCAR season-ending championship race in Miami. And you know what? We were not alone. Here are the staggering numbers - and numbers that will only decline next year with crowd-favorites and one-name stars Dale Jr. and Danica behind microphones rather than behind a wheel: The final, championship-deciding race that was Earnhardt's final ride as a full-time driver drew a 2.8 rating, which was down 20 percent from a 3.5 last year and almost 40 percent from a 4.4 rating in 2015. The complete season on NBC, NBCSN, FOX and FS1 averaged 4.1 million viewers, which was down 11 percent from last year and 18 percent from 2015.
Sunday, bloody Sunday
We have said for a while that the clock on John Currie's time as the University of Tennessee's athletic director started when he dragged his feet in handling the Butch Jones decision.
He waited. He got behind. He pledged a quick move after firing Butch - or in Currie's words, telling Butch he's stepping down, which seemed weird at the time - and was not hiring a search firm.
Then he panicked. He signed a memo of understanding with Greg Schiano, THE Ohio State defensive coordinator and former Rutgers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach, on Sunday. And then social media hell broke loose. Completely and unfiltered.
Twitter became a fire hydrant of blowback from almost every corner of the Big Orange Nation. Protests arose on campus. The Rock was painted to reflect the thoughts that Schiano was part of the cover-up at Penn State when Jerry Sandusky was molesting children.
(Let's start with the caveat. Which side of the Schiano knew/Schiano didn't know debate you fall on matters in this. One former Penn State coach in sworn depositions says Schiano knew; another in a sworn deposition says Schiano didn't. Schiano of course has denied it, and even as slimy as Urban Meyer can be, we have a hard time believing that if there was some evidence beyond conflicting stories about Schiano in that nightmare THE Ohio State would not have explored it or found it and then ignored it. Hey, everyone is entitled to their view of that story and the utmost evil that in portrayed, even to the point that if Schiano didn't know, everyone shares in some of the horror that it was happening right under their noses and they didn't know. There are no winners in that Penn State time. Only losers, whether they knew or not, in my view.)
And that became the rallying point that turned the Big Orange Masses into a difference-making social media mob.
They started on Schiano. Then it turned to Currie. Then state legislators and local politicians and candidates for major Tennessee offices got involved, and raised questions about the unrest and outrage brewing within the fan base.
It was a college football fan social media revolt, and there's really no other way to describe it.
The timeline was surreal: Around 10 a.m. there was a CBSsports.com report that Gruden was still potentially in play. Then, right around lunch, news started circulating that Dan Mullen and Florida - a leading contender and non-Gruden favorite of the UT Nation landing with a chief rival - were close to a deal. Around 1 p.m., national media outlets started reporting that Currie was finalizing details to make Schiano the next Vols coach. Twitter erupted, first at the thought of Schiano - who was .500 at Rutgers and ran out of Tampa for a multitude of reasons - and quickly at his connection to Penn State.
By 2 p.m., the movement and momentum was truly growing. Phrases like "Never set foot in Neyland again" and "sell my UT tickets and gear" and ultimatums were growing. Retweets showed support; local media types were reporting on the outrage.
By 3:30 p.m., the national college football media started throwing stones at the Tennessee fan base. Kirk Herbstreit, Dan Wolken, Dennis Dodd and several others were weighing in and throwing haymakers in regard to the UT fans. And the UT fans could not have cared less, throwing haymakers right back. In fact, the national attacks appeared to only galvanize the UT fans and their social media efforts. By dinner Sunday, Schaino reportedly was "spooked" and by 8 p.m. the deal was cooked.
Amazing.
Now, as for the fall out.
Currie could not have handled this worse, from beginning to end, and in this view he deserves to be fired for cause.
He obviously was so out of touch with his fan base that he believed this to be the right decision. (And if reports are true that this has the Haslam's A-OK, then, well, Currie then ranks somewhere behind Kermit and Fozzy and ahead of Madam on the list of talented puppets around.) And if he believed it to be the right decision - as bad as that was - he sealed his fate by becoming a wind-blown sheet at the beck-and-call of doing the bidding for the boosters without the back-bone to sell it to the fan base.
Nevermind the fact that there are reports out there that UT may owe Schiano some serious coin for breaking off the deal after MOUs were signed. (One report claims Schiano could be owed as much as $20 million.)
And if you still think Currie was put in a tough spot, imagine how tough that spot will be the next time he tries to hire a coach.
Currie: "We think you would be perfect on the Hill, coach."
Coach: "Do you? What happens if the fans start Tweeting that I need to be fired."
Currie: "Yeah, about that"
This is no longer about Schiano. The UT fans spoke and got what they wanted. Yes, right now there is a lot of back-and-forth from each side - national media is going to take shots about the tail wagging the dog; UT fans asking what's wrong with the customers having a say in the direction of its franchise - and Booger McFarland blasted UT fans and Currie (calling him gutless and spineless) this morning on Golic and Wingo.
How crazy is the place UT now finds itself: UT got hammered by Vandy on Saturday to lose eight games in a season for the first time in its proud history, and Sunday was worse.
How surreal are the decisions made by UT leadership (and know this, if Beverly Davenport didn't know about Currie's actions, then OK, but if she did and signed off on them, then this may land on her desk, too)? There were signs during the impromptu protests Sunday that said, "Bring back Butch."
Yep, that Butch, as in Butch Jones.
It was an unbelievable day, and one that will be remembered as the first time a fan base truly revolted and prevailed.And if we know anything about today's online world and the passion of college football fans, it will not be the last.
This and that
- How crazy and underground is MMA? There was no mainstream media coverage of a UFC guy being brought up on bribery charges for agreeing to fix a fight. Now imagine if that happened with a MLB/NBA/NFL etc. player?
- Wow, amid the football craziness it was hard to keep up at times. Well, for the second consecutive week, we pulled a complete Jerry Seinfeld on our picks. Our college picks went 3-3 (and after a 3-0 start and with two semi-bad beats Saturday evening) and that was disappointing. It also was disappointing that two of the picks we eliminated at go time last week were Washington and Georgia, but alas, everyone's picks are perfect in retrospect. And to complete the so-middle-of-the-road-the-yellow-line-is-surprised results, the NFL picks went 2-2 too. NFL picks are 19-20-2 on the season; college picks are 43-31-1 and at 58.1 percent and under 60 percent for the first time in a long time.
- We have often heard the back and forth about players missing this event or that game for the birth of a child. Hey, we were there for each of the 5-at-10 tots' first day. Heck, Phil Mickelson was prepared to miss the U.S. Open because of it - and missed this year's because of a high school graduation. But you hear it less and less with football players right? (We always wondered what would happen if a playoff quarterback's first child was born on the Sunday of the conference finals, what would happen?) Well, here's the story of Everson Griffen, the Vikings defensive lineman, who in before the game on Thanksgiving, watched online as his third child was born. Then, after a sack, raised his shirt looking for name suggestions. Good times.
- Well, thought this was an interesting response from Jeff Passan, a Hall of Fame voter, to Joe Morgan's letter last week. Discuss. Jeff Passan on the Hall of Fame vote and Morgan's letter.
- Golic and Wingo took to the airwaves this morning, replacing the stalwart that was Mike & Mike on ESPN Radio. Here's a quick early morning recap.
Today's question
From Darren Rovell's Twitter, thought this was very interesting: This Week, 60 Years Ago: Bear Bryant signs a 10-year contract with Alabama worth $17,500 a year. That's $150K a year in today's dollars, which Nick Saban made every fives= days this year.
Speaking of numbers, here are the buyout numbers for the jobs that have been opened: Arizona State owes Todd Graham $12.3 million; UCLA owes Jim Mora $12 million*; Texas A&M owes Sumlin $10.4 million (within in the next 60 days); UT owes Butch Jones $8.2 million*; Nebraska owes Mike Riley $6.6 million*; Arkansas owes Bret Bielema $5.9 million*. (* - that sum is reduced by the salary of any future jobs over a set time frame.)
Happy Cyber Monday. If that's your thing, go crazy. We prefer to actually go to stores for our Christmas shopping.
On this day in 1895, Alfred Nobel's will establishes the Nobel Prize.
Bruce Lee and Jimi Hendrix were born on this day. That's two pretty boss individuals in their chosen professions, friends.
On this day in 2006, Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock divorced. Man, we really thought they might make it. Sigh.
As for a Rushmore, let's in honor of Eddie Rabbit, who would have been 76 today, do a Rushmore of famous people with an animal in their name.