Hooked?

By: Dooley’s Cane

Fired? Retained? Retired? Whatever Mack Brown’s status at Texas is, it certainly doesn’t look positive for the Longhorns HC. New athletic director Steve Patterson has been on the job in Austin nearly a month and, per multiple reports, still hasn’t spoken with the head football coach. At a football school. In Texas. Something about that just doesn’t seem positive. Rumors went flying early Tuesday afternoon that Brown was stepping down after 16 seasons at the helm. Then… he wasn’t. Apparently Brown was unaware that he was retiring. Of course, these rumors weren’t just started by any yahoo off the street; they were started by Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com, the same man that reported former AD DeLoss Dodds was stepping down a few days before he did. The writing’s on the wall for Brown, and if Texas is indeed searching for a new lifeline to revitalize the ‘Horns blood, here’s a few names Patterson should look to:

1. Nick Saban

Undoubtedly the top coach of the past decade, Texas is, quite frankly, the only school with enough money that could lure Saban from Alabama. Alabama can negotiate a $7 million per year deal with Saban, but Texas could dwarf that if it wanted to, because black means more than crimson. And by black, I mean oil. Texas could feasibly become the first university to give a football coach $10+ million a year. But will it? For the chance to be back on top of the college football landscape? It should.

2. Art Briles

Gus Malzahn will most certainly be bandied about as a possible replacement, and why wouldn’t he? The guy transformed Auburn in just one season, leading them from 0-8 in the conference, to another BCS Championship appearance. But Briles made Baylor relevant IN FOOTBALL. Not only relevant, but the best football team in the state. Briles is a Texas guy, through and through, so this hire makes the most sense here.

3. Kevin Sumlin

Sumlin is every bit as good a coach as Briles, but is he willing to leave the SEC after just two years? He may, if Johnny Manziel does the predictable and leaves for the NFL. His name will probably never be hotter than it is right now, so if he wants a big time job, he should make the jump. Then again, Texas A&M has become bigger than Texas, and that’s mostly due to he and JF. Maybe the pride of keeping his own creation rolling is enough to keep him in College Station.

4. James Franklin

People will argue that Franklin is a “better coach” than Briles and Sumlin because he “wins at Vanderbilt.” Yes, he has notches in the win column, but let’s not act like those Ws have come against the top-notch SEC talent that usually comes the names attached. Georgia, Florida, Tennessee… those teams weren’t just utterly decimated, they were shells of their former selves, so it’s not really fair to give him credit for being an extraordinary coach when he hasn’t quite proved that. And there’s still the whole rape case going on that could easily prevent him from getting the job.

5. Mark Dantonio

Michigan State’s head coach doesn’t get nearly the recognition he deserves: he went undefeated in the Big 10, toppled Ohio State in the Big 10 Championship, led Sparty to a Rose Bowl, and always seems to have a dominant defense with coordinator Pat Narduzzi. If I’m Texas and I go this route, I tell Dantonio to bring Narduzzi, no matter the price. Narduzzi’s sure to get some head coaching offers this offseason, but this has to be a package deal. It’s a little off-the-radar, but if Texas strikes out in the first three options and steers clear of a coach with legal entanglements, there’d be reason to celebrate hiring Dantonio.

Coaches I Doubt Would Leave:

1. David Shaw, Stanford

2. Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State

3. Les Miles, LSU

4. Jimbo Fisher, Florida State

5. Any Harbaugh or Gruden

Coaches That Would Love It, But Won’t Get Offered

1. Bobby Petrino, Western Kentucky

2. Lane Kiffin, formerly USC

3. Jim Tressel, formerly Ohio State

4. Phil Fulmer, formerly Tennessee

5. Will Muschamp, Florida (He’s still coach-in-waiting, right? RIGHT?!)

Iron Bowl Aftermath

By: Monte Knox

I’m sure by now everyone has seen the ending to this year’s Iron Bowl.  Nick Saban pulled starting kicker Cade Foster in favor of freshman kicker Adam Griffith to attempt a 57-yard field goal to win the game in regulation.  Griffith’s attempt was short, and Chris Davis returned it 109 yards for a touchdown…winning the game for the Tigers 34-28.  Foster missed two field goals during the game, a 44 yarder and 33 yarder…and had another 44 yard attempt blocked.  Had he made just one of these field goals Alabama wins the game.

Alabama fans immediately took to Twitter to vent their frustration at Foster:

“@Foster_43 please die” – @DenmanRTR

“Drink bleach @Foster_43” – @_CTaylor8

“Die @Foster_43” – @dc2kool_

“@Foster_43 I’m coming for you you gonna die tonight.” – @Hov_Sean

“Alabama as a team played awful but Cade Foster if you don’t kill yourself I will” – @BIGPOMP56

This is just a small sample of the tweets that were sent out in the moments following Auburn’s win.  Other tweets were too vulgar and violent to post.  Some included threats to not only Cade Foster, but his family.  Most of the users have since deleted their tweets or accounts all together after sensible Alabama fans called them out for these horrible tweets.

This next part of the Iron Bowl aftermath is tragic.  Here we go.

Adrian Briskey was upset over the game.  She was upset that others around her were not upset, so she grabbed a gun and started firing.  Michelle Shepherd was killed.  

Below is an article on the incident from Fox News:

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. –  A woman charged with killing a fellow Alabama fan after the end of last weekend’s Iron Bowl football game was angry that the victim and others didn’t seem upset over the Crimson Tide’s loss to archrival Auburn, said the sister of the slain woman.

Adrian Laroze Briskey, 28, was charged Monday with murder in the killing of 36-year-old Michelle Shepherd.

Hoover police Capt. Jim Coker said both Birmingham women were Alabama fans and at the same party for the annual game between intrastate rivals. With no time left on the clock, Auburn returned a missed Crimson Tide field goal more than 100 yards for a 34-28 victory, dashing any hopes of Alabama playing for a third straight national championship.

The victim’s sister, Nekesa Shepherd, said she witnessed the killing and had no doubt it was about football, even though it was unclear to investigators whether the violence was motivated by the game.

“That’s one of the things we are investigating,” Coker said Monday.

Nekesa Shepherd said Briskey flew into a rage when she saw the sisters and others joking that the Crimson Tide’s loss wasn’t as bad as if the NBA’s Miami Heat had lost a game.

“She said we weren’t real Alabama fans because it didn’t bother us that they lost. And then she started shooting,” Shepherd told The Associated Press.

Shepherd said she and her sister were invited to the party by a mutual friend who also invited Briskey. About two dozen people were on hand.

Shepherd, the mother of three, was shot to death in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover and the women did not know each other before the party, Coker said.

Court records were not available to show whether Briskey has a lawyer. She has only had a couple of speeding tickets in the past, records show.

Coker said alcohol might have been involved, but investigators are awaiting the results of toxicology tests to make a determination.

Shepherd said Briskey drank multiple shots of liquor during the game and “went crazy” when she heard people joking after Alabama lost.

“It was over a football game,” said Shepherd. “I’m never going to forget it because she died in my arms.”

College football is a game.  Sure, in the south it seems like so much more.  But no matter how your favorite team fares on Saturday, it is a game.  I know every fan base has crazy fanatics and it’s not just the Alabama fan base, but come on people quit with the death threats and don’t pull a gun on anyone.  Football should be nothing more than a friendly rivalry between fans.  Next time your team loses a close game, use your head.  Shake your rival’s hand and tell them you’ll get them back next year.  As a Tennessee fan, I’ve had to do a lot of that the past few years.  A football game should never result in loss of life.

Ohio State, Florida State both should sit at home for National Championship

Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer hasn’t lost a game since taking over the job….he also hasn’t faced a quality opponent either.

By: Monte Knox

The fact that Ohio State and Florida State could be playing for the national championship absolutely sickens me.  But it would be a fitting end to the BCS era.  Both of these teams have played cupcake schedules that have them in prime position to steal the last BCS championship.

The ACC and Big 10 are two of the most pathetic conferences in the country.  Would anyone disagree that they are both behind the SEC, Pac-12 and Big 12?  The quality of football just isn’t there anymore.  Clemson and Duke…DUKE! are the only two teams other than Florida State worth anything in the conference.  I know Coach Cut has Duke playing the best football in the history of the program…but you know the ACC is down when the Blue Devils have a shot at the ACC title.  Kind of like Missouri winning the SEC East.  Then you take a look at the Big 10…some of the worst football in the country.  I’d argue that Wisconsin and Ohio State are the only two quality teams in the conference.

Ohio State has the slightly harder schedule, but that’s not saying much.  6 opponents with winning records, 6 with losing records. The toughest team the Buckeyes have played all year is a 3 loss Wisconsin squad….while Cal and Purdue have combined for a whopping 2-22 record.  OSU can’t control their conference games…I get that.  But when your out of conference games include Buffalo, San Diego State and Florida A&M, you get no love.  Go out and schedule Vanderbilt or something.

Then you have Florida State who looks like they scheduled high school teams for their out of conference match ups.  Bethune Cookman? Idaho? Nevada?  Give me a break.  Their only quality win comes against Clemson…and Clemson losing to South Carolina drops them out of the top 10.  I have less of a problem with Florida State going to the title, but that’s only because FSU beat their JV football opponents better than Ohio State.

Thankfully the playoff system will bail us out next year.  A one loss SEC team deserves to jump both of these programs.  Can anyone make a good argument about why one loss Auburn who beat Alabama doesn’t deserve to play for the national title?  Ohio State struggled to beat 7-4 Michigan.  Let’s assume Auburn beats Mizzou (which they should) and OSU and FSU both win next weekend.  Does anyone have a better resume for a spot in the title game than Auburn?  I don’t think so.

Let’s look at Oklahoma State too…they have an early win against Mississippi State, lost to West Virginia before they completely tanked, and destroyed Baylor last weekend.  If they beat Oklahoma next weekend they also need to be in the national title conversation.

BCS, it’s time for you to get something right for once…put Oklahoma State and Auburn in the national title game.

If Alabama backs into the BCS NC, I’m done with college football.

By Dooley’s Cane

After the utter jubilation concluding the Prayer at Jordan-Hare II, it took all of about five seconds to come to a sickening realization: Alabama, after choking away a game it had in the bag at halftime, could still play in the last iteration of the BCS National Championship.  Yes, it’s an outside shot, but look at how this college football season has gone… It’s been chaotic, to say the least. Is there any logical reason to conclude that this couldn’t happen? No. It absolutely could, and if it does, I’m done with college football.

I said this prior to the LSU/Alabama national championship game, and I’ll repeat it: If you don’t win your conference, much less your division, you shouldn’t be allowed to play for a NATIONAL title. I don’t care that it’s probably in the top two of teams in the country. Alabama had its shot and blew it. Every single player for the Tide realized the magnitude of the Iron Bowl. Every. Single. One. This was the most hyped Iron Bowl ever (which you probably could’ve figured out without hearing it from ESPN every three seconds) and Alabama just couldn’t quite cut it. In the second half, Saban’s vaunted defense couldn’t find a way to stop Malzahn’s mostly one-dimensional offense. And you know it’s just killing him inside.

That loss was 90% on Saban, and all for the last play of the game. Now, I’m very much a proponent of, “You play to WIN the game” philosophy, but that last play wasn’t thought out well at all. You have a placekicker who’s 0/3 on the day and an attempt at a 57-yarder to win the game. So what do you do? Oh yeah, let’s send out the backup who hasn’t kicked all day and only tried two on the season. That, folks, is how you lose ball games. AJ McCarron hits Amari Cooper for a 99-yard touchdown earlier in the game, and the thought there is to kick it from nearly midfield? You don’t see kids in Madden dumb enough to do that. I also understand the maximum protection on a kick like that, but did the great and almighty Saban not realize the risk in booting a 57-yarder with a backup? Did he not realize this kick could probably be short and would lead to a decent shot at being returned? Yes, it’s a flukey play, but that’s why coaches get paid millions of dollars– to account for these types of things. Perhaps it’s my Tennessee fanhood that sees the stupidity in a decision like this, because as the Vol fanbase can attest, we’ve seen just how terrible seemingly harmless plays can turn out.

After a bonehead decision like that, you deserve to lose the game, and because of the timing of it all, you deserve to lose your season. But is that going to happen? Sure, it’s likely, but if Florida State loses there’s a legitimate chance that Alabama could go to the National Championship.

And that is absolutely sickening.

As of this post, the BCS Standings haven’t been revealed yet, but it’s logical to assume that Florida State jumps up to No. 1, and Auburn or Ohio State would go to No. 2, followed by Alabama at No. 4. If FSU somehow stumbles against Duke (which is highly unlikely as long as Jameis Winston remains quarterback for the ‘Noles) that second spot in the title game is sitting right there, waiting to be handed to Alabama. I say handed to, because there’s nothing anyone can tell me that will derail my thinking of “no conference championship, no title game berth.” Not a damn thing. If Auburn wins the SEC and FSU loses, have them play an Ohio State team that barely deserves to be mentioned in the same conversation. If Missouri wins, much to my chagrin, they should leapfrog Alabama and Auburn for a spot in the title game. Hell, Missouri played one bad quarter of football all year, but people want to say Alabama deserves to be in the title game over them? And why? Simply because Alabama started the preseason polls at the top and Missouri had farther to climb? Preposterous. God forbid Florida State, Ohio State and Auburn all lose this weekend. That will really clear the way for Alabama to make the title game. And if that happens, I’m done with college football. I almost gave it up after 2012, thinking it was as much of a fluke as the way Alabama lost yesterday, but if it happens again, I’m turning my back on the only must-see TV in my house.