Busy weekend of football and sports overall. Just a number thoughts on these:
First of all, Black Monday in the NFL. I generally am not surprised by some of the names I see that went on the chopping block. The Bears, Falcons, Jets and 49ers will all be looking for new head coaches. I'll get to the other three in a moment but first a thought on the Harbaugh situation.
As most sports fans may have heard already, not even 24 hours after agreeing to part ways with the Niners, Jim Harbaugh is already set to take the vacant head coach position at the University of Michigan, his alma mater. You could see it was going to happen when he was hugging his players on the sidelines at the end of the San Francisco/Arizona game Sunday.
How this impacts the 49ers will be interesting. There are still a lot of good players on the team, and Harbaugh left a great foundation, but replacing a guy like that will be very tough. The Niners are very committed to winning, so I am sure they will hire the best man for that position.
As far as how that affects Michigan and the Big Ten, I would say this as far as the rest of the Big 10, including Ohio State is concerned; be afraid, be very afraid. Harbaugh walks that line a lot in so far as being as fiery as Bo Pelini is, and sometimes crosses it. But there is no question the man can coach at a very high level and I see no reason to believe that he can't do it in Ann Arbor.
Especially with the talent Hoke left him. Hoke could recruit but lacked ability to coach. That will not be a problem with Harbaugh; he is going to give Urban Meyer heartburn on a yearly basis. Ohio State still has a great program do not get me wrong, but things are going to get tougher for them immediately.
Elsewhere, I see that Rex Ryan and general manager Izdik were both let go by the Jets. I am not surprised, but I feel bad for Rex Ryan. He was never really given a chance to develop an offense due to a terrible front office in New York, and kept the Jets competitive due to his great defensive background. He will land on his feet somewhere.
On the Bears? No surprise there. Trestman is not a very good coach; I remember when he was coaching Jake Plummer for three years way back when both of them were with the Cardinals and he stunk then too, and he still stinks now. Way in over his head as a head coach.
As far as Mike Smith in Atlanta, not surprised there too. The Falcons with the exception of a couple of seasons have underachieved greatly and barely made it to the NFC Championship a couple years ago. They have gone downhill ever since.
As far as some other conclusions from the National Football League in week 17:
The Texans did well to go 9-7, especially since they ended up playing a fourth string quarterback because Fitzpatrick was terrible, and Mallett and Savage got hurt. Both JJ Watt and Bill O'Brien did a great job to get the Texans to a winning record. They are one quarterback away from returning to the playoffs IMHO.
The Chiefs did well to go 9-7 too, especially since they did not have A SINGLE touchdown catch by a wide receiver this year. Seriously, that is an outrageous stat. Much like O'Brien in Houston, Andy Reid did a tremendous job with the Chiefs this year. The Chiefs need a home run receiver, badly. DeAnthony Thomas is nice, but not a reliable home run threat right now.
Buffalo beat New England in Week 17 which may not sound like much since the Patriots were obviously disinterested, but two things this did; one, it gives Buffalo a winning season, even though no playoffs. Two, it breaks a 14 year losing streak in Foxboro.
The Vikings beat the Bears in Trestman's last game 13-9, which got them their seventh and final win of 2014. It may not be that significant, but Bridgewater did a heck of a job coming in and helping them get to seven wins. He needs more help around him, but did fine for his rookie season.
Regarding the first round of the playoffs, I'm taking every home team except Baltimore. The Cowboys should win, the Colts will win (after all, the Bengals never win playoff games these days) and the Panthers will beat an Arizona team that limps in with Ryan Lindley as its starting QB. Baltimore and Pittsburgh should be a great game but because of the experience of Flacco and Suggs and the question of LeVeon Bell's availability, I think the Ravens can win this game.
Now, on to the college scene...
On the Nebraska bowl loss to USC, I am proud of the effort the players gave. They left it all on the field and gave themselves a chance to beat a very talented team. That having been said, there are no moral victories at Dear Old Nebraska U. When we hit the field, we should play to win and have the pride and passion necessary to win.
Now, I mentioned Jim Harbaugh earlier. How does this relate to Nebraska? It means this, and let's be honest, Nebraska peeps: Things are going to get a lot tougher for the Big Red in coming years. Nebraska had a certain window of opportunity when it entered the Big 10 with Ohio State dealing with sanctions and Michigan searching for an identity.
It had an opportunity to gain a foothold, and some respect. It has done little of either; indeed, Nebraska has become much more like Wisconsin, Iowa or Minnesota than Ohio State. Those teams aren't all that talented but with Pelini as the coach at UNL, they all did the little things better than Nebraska did.
With Harbaugh going to Michigan, things become much tougher. Wisconsin has a good program, as we sadly have found out first hand. Minnesota has a program on the rise. Ohio State is still Ohio State, and Michigan will come back under Harbaugh. Penn State is a program on the rise as well. Let's just put it this way: we're here (puts hand at certain level), Minnesota and Wisconsin are up here (points up a notch or two) and Ohio State and Michigan will be way up here (points about one or two notches more).
Not only does Riley have this to deal with, and not only does he have to do a hell of a job recruiting to keep Nebraska somewhat afloat in today's college football, maybe the most concerning thing to me is that he has to get the Pelini poison out of the players' heads. I don't know what Bo did to them, but they were fiercely loyal to him and Riley is going to have a tough time getting them to listen to him. I was really struck by a story I saw last Saturday prior to the Holiday Bowl where the players left a seat for Pelini as if he were still coaching. I think Riley CAN do it, but whether he WILL is no guarantee.
As far as the other bowl games, my biggest takeaway is that the Big 12 is not a very good conference. 0-3 and the two biggest flagship names of the conference, Texas and Oklahoma, got annihilated Monday night. Texas I guess I can somewhat understand, they were completely outmanned and Arkansas cares a lot more about beating Texas than Texas does about beating Arkansas (for those who don't live down here and are not familiar, that's an old Southwest Conference rivalry that is somewhat dormant, but older Arkansas fans still see Texas as their most disliked team by far, even though the Hogs have spent over 20 years in the SEC).
But Oklahoma, good gracious. Losing by 40, to a mediocre team from a mediocre league in Clemson. With a backup QB, too. I respect, but have never liked Oklahoma and never will (seeing Sooner Magic too many times would do that to any Husker fan). I pretty much root against them no matter who they play. But I almost felt sorry for Sooner fans Monday night. I almost wonder if Bob Stoops is just mailing it in these days. How in the world did this team beat Alabama about a year ago?
And look at what's coming down the pike for Big 12 bowl teams: Ole Miss, a very good SEC team with a tough "Landshark" defensive unit. Michigan State, a tough, physical Big 10 team (good thing for Baylor that this game is in Arlington). A very good Pac-12 team in UCLA, and a beatable but Chris Petersen coached Washington squad. Yes, Baylor and TCU should be motivated. And they will need to be.
Couple of last basketball notes: Not surprised Kentucky beat Louisville in college basketball's Bluegrass battle. Louisville has a good squad but I'm surprised they don't just call the season at this point. Kentucky is so deep and so talented that if they don't win the title this year it will be quite a shock to most fans who follow the sport. They may lose a game or two, but it will be a regular season game where their heads aren't in the game (and that does happen in sports). When UK is focused, no one will beat them.
As far as the Rockets, they are a good team, but they still have some issues to fix that could prevent a deep run in the playoffs. They are a good team, but not the kind of team I would predict to go deep in the playoffs, not yet anyways. I will touch on that in another post soon.
Until next time....
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