Football Preview for The Defending ACC Champs (Wake Forest)

It doesn't feel like it (at least to me), but the college football season opens this weekend. Maybe it's because it seems like Sports Illustrated sent out their college football preview weeks ago, or perhaps it's because the only thing that matters to ESPN is providing wall-to-wall NFL coverage. (It's actually made me like the NFL a little less; kind of like if someone force-fed me Popeye's chicken every night. I love me some Popeye's, but not for every meal.)
Anyway, defending ACC Champs Wake Forest (man, that sounds awesome to say) open the season up in Chestnut Hill against Boston College. The last three times these teams have met, they've played instant classics. Will they make it four in a row?
As usual before a BC/Wake game (football or basketball), I took some questions from Bill over at the fine BC blog Eagle in Atlanta. A few of my answers appear below; for the rest, click here to visit Bill's site.

Under Grobe the offense has been able to plug anyone off the bench and keep on trucking. Not so much on the defense. With the players lost to graduation, the NFL and grades, what can we expect from the Wake defense this year?
One of the Fox Sports regional stations that I pay $5 a month to get, yet never watch, was showing a replay of The Orange Bowl last night. In addition to being surprised that Wake was up 3-0 early in the 2nd quarter, I was pleasantly reminded of how crisp the team's defense was. They flew to the ball, tackled in swarms and largely played mistake-free football in that game, and all season.
It's tough to imagine the Deacs D repeating that in 2007. They return just five starters after the unit's physical and emotional leader, Jon Abbate, inexplicably skipped his senior season to enter the NFL Draft. (Most forecasts had him pegged as a late-round pick, but Abbate went undrafted and is now trying to catch-on with the Texans as a fullback. Abbate built up such goodwill at Wake during his junior season based on his play and inspirational story so he hasn't gotten much flak for bolting, but he kind of deserves some. He had the wrong people telling him the wrong things, and now he's fighting for a roster spot instead of leading his team into Chestnut Hill on Saturday.) Aaron Curry will take his place in the middle for the Deacs. He has more of the prototypical linebacker size than Abbate, but I've seen him described as "high-energy" in two places, which is oftentimes the football equivalent of hearing that a girl has a "nice personality".
Considering Abbate's early departure and the graduation of safety ballhawk Josh Gattis, the Deacs would seem to have a tough road to replicating their defensive success from 2006. Of course, one year ago nobody thought Abbate or Gattis would be first team All-ACC either. They adhered to the system and shined. There are any number of players who could do the same this year; including personal favorites Boo Robinson (DT) and Alphonso Smith (S). (Although Smith was pretty awesome last year, so that’s not much of a stretch.)
(Incidentally, when perusing through the ACC Media Guide trying to find last year's preseason all-ACC teams, I came across this startling fact: The ACC team with the most recipients of the Player of the Year award is Duke, with 10. That'd be like finding out Keanu Reeves had won the most Oscars in history.)

Last year was the "perfect storm" season (bad ACC, most breaks going Wake's way, injured players being replaced by even better players) for the Deacons. Can it happen again?
My mantra during last year's magical run was that Wake Forest was three plays away from playing a bowl game in Boise and being a nice story rather than one of the most unexpected stories in recent college football history. If you read my blog last season, or read my take on the BC game on this site, you'll know that I picked against Wake every step of the way, figuring that they couldn't possibly keep winning. In truth, though, the Deacs were only "exposed" against Virginia Tech. Their lateral running game worked against normal defenses, but against VT's speed, Wake couldn't get anything going on the ground.
Tech isn't on the schedule this season and neither is Miami. The quickest teams Wake will see are Florida State and Clemson. The Deacs crushed the 'Noles last season in what was Bobby Bowden's worst home loss ever. Against Bowden's son, the Deacs held a 4th quarter lead before imploding following a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown.
For as many breaks as Wake got last season (Duke missing a short, game-winning FG; a batted away goalline pass as time expired against UNC and the BC game that I won't discuss here), that Clemson game was well within their reach before a relatively unlucky play that turned the tide. Luck tends to even out over the course of many games, but football seasons are short. It’s unlikely that good fortune will continue to shine upon Winston-Salem, but not impossible. With 12 games on the schedule, seven of which are toss-ups, I'm going to say that Wake will win 7 or 8. They could challenge for the Atlantic Division title, but I think they'll fall short. However, any amount of wins from five to ten wouldn't shock me.

The BC-Wake games have been classics. What is your prediction for this year's game?
My first prediction is that I'm going to be livid if the guide on my DVR is correct and ABC is showing the Nevada/Nebraska game instead of Wake/BC at 3:30 on Saturday. The only thing I'd want to see Nevada and Nebraska do against each other is - sorry, I really don't know how I intended to finish that joke.
Holy crap, did Matt Ryan really throw the ball 57 times in the Wake game last year? That's a lot. If he does that again, I'd like Wake's chances. As it is, though, I'm predicting that the series stays true to form, with the home team winning a close game. In 2004, Wake won on a last-minute 40-yard TD pass. The next year, in a driving downpour in Chestnut Hill, Wake choked away a 17-0 lead and a 31-20 lead with 3:29 left. (I still contend that the refs deserved much credit for BC's win, but that doesn't matter now.) And we all know what happened last year. Three years, three close games, three wins by the home team. I say BC makes it 4-for-4; but I've been wrong before. And that's just fine with me.

Update: My buddy Scott has sent the good word that Wake/BC will be on in the D.C. area, according to the always-interesting ABC regional coverage map. After checking that out, I scanned ahead on the guide to find that they now concur.

Chris's Sports Blog NFL Preview Extravaganza: Day 1
Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet - Running Backs

#1) LaDanian Tomlinson - San Diego Chargers
Sometimes, having the first pick of a draft isn't all that great. Michael Jordan found this out during the 2001 NBA Draft when he was forced to pick from an exceptionally weak crop of players and ended up taking the weakest, Kwame Brown. It's not M.J.'s fault that Kwame was merely one of many bad options, though. Nor would M.J. have deserved praise had the Bullets nabbed the top spot in one of the next two years when Yao Ming and LeBron James went #1, respectively.
This happens in the NFL too. Some years you get an Alex Smith, others you get Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart or Vince Young Mario Williams. (Seriously, it's still unbelievable to think that the Texans took Mario Williams. I don't think this will ever become not amazing.)
This Fantasy year can be categorized as a LeBron year. Since I started playing fantasy football in 1999, there hasn't been a single year where having the #1 pick has been as important as it is this year. In any season, Tomlinson would be the no-brainer top-pick. But with this year's uncertainty and unusual depth, nabbing Danie becomes all the more important.
Consider: Last year LaDainian Tomlinson gained over 2,300 yards from scrimmage and scored 31 touchdowns (and he also threw for two more), en route to a 422-point fantasy season, a total which bested the next-best running back (Stephen Jackson) by exactly 100 points.
I'm pretty sure Tomlinson's 2006 was the best fantasy season of all-time, by a wide margin. Without doing too much research, the only seasons that I could think of that would have come close to it would have been Emmitt Smith in 1994 (364 points), Marshall Faulk in 2000 (374 points) and Priest Holmes in 2002 (373 points). Danie leaves them in the dust. (I didn't bother looking up QB scores, but I imagine Peyton Manning and Daunte Culpepper's 2004 were in the high-300s as well.)
For as big as fantasy football is, you would think Danie's historic season would have garnered some attention. But I guess the different scoring systems found throughout fantasy make it tough to set a concrete fantasy total. Either way, though, Danie's 2006 was the best of all-time.
What does this all mean? Pray for the top spot and enjoy watching LaDanian get in the endzone 20+ times. And, while you're at it, pray that I don't get the top pick in either of my leagues, because if I do, Tomlinson is guaranteed to experience a season-ending knee injury in week 3.

#2) Larry Johnson - Kansas City Chiefs
Here's what I wrote about Johnson last July:

Larry Johnson will be the biggest fantasy bust of all-time. This has been a theory of mine seven months in the making, but its probability (no, that's not the right word) was heightened today by Willie Roaf's retirement. I'm telling you there haven't been this many red flags waving since Stalin marched in Red Square.

Despite the fact that Johnson was the consensus #1 player in the 2006 preseason, I ranked him 4th among backs and warned owners not to take him too highly because of coaching changes, personnel moves and the rigors of a full season. Thusly, it goes without saying that I've never been a fan of Larry Johnson. And that I was partially wrong. Johnson was awesome, but he wasn't a better choice than LDT.
Still, I can't believe that amount of LJ-hating that seems to have been going on this off-season. While I was browsing through fantasy magazines at Barnes & Noble during my vacation, I saw one mag that had Johnson rated #6 behind the likes of Joseph Addai and Brian Westbrook. The knock on him, it seemed, was that the 400+ carry season would catch-up to him and that opposing defenses would stuff the box to stop LJ because of the Chiefs poor play at quarterback.
Those are very valid critiques. I would know, as I made the exact same ones last year. However, didn't Johnson prove that those factors didn't matter too much in his overall production? Sure, in light of Tomlinson's year, LJ's 2006 seemed pedestrian. Looking at it in a broader scope, though, Johnson still finished the year as the 3rd ranked back, just one point behind Stephen Jackson.
But he's still guaranteed to get almost all his team's carries (barring injury) and will get all the goalline nods as well. The 400 carries will catch-up to Johnson in a few years but, for now, he's still well-under 1,000 for his career. As for the QB play, Damon Huard played last year and it didn't seem to affect LJ's production.

#3) Joseph Addai - Indianapolis Colts
The #2 back on the Colts' depth chart is DeDe Dorsey. For real.

#4) Stephen Jackson - St. Louis Rams
Let's say you have the #2 pick in your draft. You have every single player in the NFL on your draft board at your disposal, with the exception of LDT. The pick you make has to serve as a reliable anchor to your team; a reliable point-producer every week. On bad games, this player needs to put up numbers in the low double-digits. On good days, he should win you your fantasy game by yourself. When your roster is complete, his is the name that should jump off the computer screen and make you excited about your team's prospects. He is your star.
Imagine that. Do you really want Stephen Jackson to be that player?
Look, I like Stephen Jackson and think he's a fine #1 back for any fantasy team. I just wouldn't want to be hitching my wagon to his dreadlocks. If he fell to me at #4 (or even #3, where I'd certainly consider taking him), I'd be thrilled. But taking him #2 is to bank an awful lot on a player who scored 25% of his fantasy points in the final two (meaningless) games of the season.
(Note: After the DeDe Dorsey comment, I might as well mock the Rams backup RB too. Behind Stephen Jackson on the St. Louis depth chart is a guy named Brian Leonard. He's white. On Leonard's Wikipedia page, it says he began his 2006 at Rutgers as a Heisman Trophy candidate, but eventually took a backseat to Ray Rice. However, I think that was some creative editing my college buddy Craig in an attempt to hype-up a fellow Gouverneurian.)

#5) Brian Westbrook - Philadelphia Eagles
I'm going to regret putting forth this theory, but here goes: For years Fred Taylor was the poster-child for injury-plagued running backs. Everyone had a nickname for his injurious ways (mine was Fragile Freddy Tay-Tay) and Taylor's selection in a Draft led to a cavalcade of wisecracks pertaining to the amount of cartilage left in his knees. However, Taylor has "only" missed eight games over the past five seasons. In four of the last five years, he's played 14 games or more.
Brian Westbrook has the same rap. We all knock him for being fragile, but he played 15 games last season despite being a constant presence on the Eagles' injury report. I think Westbrook will stay healthy again and will thrive after Kevin Kolb takes a floundering Eagles team to the brink of the playoffs following the inevitable season-ending injury to Donovan McNabb. I don't necessarily want him on my team, but I'll be worried about whichever team he ends up on. In fact, I'm so confident in his ability to stay healthy, I'm not going to make another joke about Westbrook's daintiness ever again.

#6) Frank Gore - San Francisco 49ers
At some point in the early first-round, Gore becomes an unavoidable pick. He's a nice guy to start your roster with and I would do so in a heartbeart. But I know that I wouldn't feel too comfortable having my #1 back be a guy who is more brittle than a Fabrege Egg in Brian Westbrook's solarium. (Dammit.)

#7) Laurence Maroney - New England Patriots
I'm in bed writing this with the Eagles/Steelers preseason game on mute. About two minutes ago, I looked up and NBC had a closeup of the Steelers late-game QB (there's about 3:25 left in the fourth quarter as I write this) and he had the most blank expression on his face I've ever seen. He looked like Jack Nicholson after the lobotomy in Cuckoo's Nest. I kept watching and every time they showed this guy's face, he had the look of someone out for a Sunday stroll in the park. And by someone I mean a bum and by Sunday stroll I mean panhandling for change outside the Duane Reade. This got me thinking about how any coach could possibly look at this guy and think he could really be an NFL quarterback. I mean, granted, he's probably the third-string QB trying to make the team, but I can say with some certainty that he won't be around long. Instructions of "red-40-right" would probably be met with the same vacant glaze and a query as to the location of the Cheetos. I kept trying to read his name off the back of his jersey, but they never had a good shot of it. Finally, he turned around quickly enough for me to catch a glance. Why was I not surprised that the blank stare that filled my television screen belonged to ex-Virginia Tech quarterback Bryan Randall.
I really like Maroney this year.

#8) Shaun Alexander - Seattle Seahawks
My disdain for all things Alexander is well-documented, which is why that I'd begin to feel nervous after the fourth or fifth pick of a fantasy draft this year. The depth at RB is unprecedented, but it's going to be a crapshoot to get a solid #1 back in the middle part of the first round.
As much as I don't like Alexander (different o-line than during his heyday, getting old, only cares about himself/contract), he wins points because there's absolutely nobody behind him in Seattle. Maurice Morris might be one of the worst running backs in the NFL. It's baffling that the Seahawks are going into the season with a fragile/unmotivated Alexander as the only legitimate back on their roster. Say what you want about the Redskins front office (and I have), but at least they were smart enough to realize that signing Ladell Betts to back-up Clinton Portis was absolutely necessary.
Honestly, I don't know why Alexander is this low. I'd probably pick him over Westbrook, Maroney and Gore.

#9) Rudi Johnson - Cincinnati Bengals
Johnson had a fairly disappointing year in 2006 but still managed to finish as the #9 overall running back. I have to say, I'm kind of impressed. He doesn't catch the ball, he's not a big-play threat and his YPC is under 4.0. But he seems to be the model of consistency and will get plenty of touches in the Bengals offense. With defenses focusing on Carson Palmer and the Cincy D continuing to be terrible, Johnson is a nice late-first round pick.

#10) Willie Parker - Pittsburgh Steelers
Check out Parker's totals from last year: Against the Jags, Falcons, Ravens, Bucs and Ravens, Parker scored 2, 4, 3, 8 and 2 fantasy points, respectively. He did have a nice game against the Broncos (25) and held his own in San Diego (13), but I'd be concerned having Parker as a top back due to his poor performances against good defenses. (The fact that the Steelers play four games against the Browns and Bengals is pretty nice, though.)

#11) Maurice Jones-Drew - Jacksonville Jaguars
#12) Reggie Bush - New Orleans Saints
#13) Travis Henry - Denver Broncos
#14) Deuce McCallister - New Orleans Saints
#15) Clinton Portis - Washington Redskins
Jones-Drew was a breakout fantasy star in his rookie season, but there's widespread doubt that he can do it again. His size, apparently, is a red flag. They said the same thing about Willie Parker after his rookie season too, and all he's done is rush for 2,400 yards and scored 18 TDs since then. I have a man-crush on Reggie Bush, so he might be a little high. Expect more steady production from him this year. Travis Henry has nine children from nine different women, thus I expect him to try to hit those performance incentives in his contract. This is the first time Denver has had a true #1 running back in a few years so Henry could put up big numbers behind the Broncos' dirty cut blocks and cheap shots. Portis is as low as #25 on some rankings because of his injuries and the presence of Ladell Betts, a 1,000 yard rusher from last year. If CP's knee can stay healthy (the renowned Dr. James Andrews seems to think it will), he'll be the best #2 RB in your league. (If you do take him, spring for Betts a little earlier than usual, though.)

#16) Cedric Benson - Chicago Bears
#17) Willis McGahee - Baltimore Ravens
#18) Ronnie Brown - Miami Dolphins
#19) Marshawn Lynch - Buffalo Bills
#20) Edgerrin James - Arizona Cardinals
It's only preseason, but the Ravens o-line made the Redskins d-line look good. Even Andre Carter was getting to the quarterback. This doesn't bode well for McGahee, maybe the most consistently overrated fantasy player not named Jeremy Shockey. His replacement in Buffalo, Marshawn Lynch, is a popular sleeper. If you take him as your #2 RB, be prepared to take a #3 RB with your next pick just in case.

Dissecting the ACC Basketball Schedule

* The ACC press release mentions that 89 of the league's 96 conference games are televised. Because I couldn't sleep last night (and was, admittedly, quite curious), I looked up which games weren't. Not surprisingly, the newer ACC members (Florida State included) dominate the list, as Virginia and Wake Forest are the only original ACC members to play non-televised games.
Clemson, Miami and Florida State lead the pack with three non-TV games each. The list:

1/12 - Florida State at Clemson
2/2 - Boston College at Clemson
2/6 - Florida State at Miami
2/6 - Georgia Tech at Wake Forest
2/9 - Miami at Virginia Tech
2/23 - Virginia at Florida State
2/27 - Miami at Clemson

It seemed strange that there would be two non-TV games on February 6, but it looks like that's due to the fact that there are four ACC games being played that night (the only time that happens all year during the week), including the first matchup of Duke and Carolina at 9:00.

* There are 15 conference games on ESPNU; bad news for Comcast subscribers who can't get that channel on any tier of service. It's especially frustrating when you spring for the ESPN Full Court coverage and are unable to see ESPNU games even though you've paid $129 to get "all the college action you can get." Next time I want to pay to see all the college action I can get, I'm just getting Girls Gone Wild.

* Whither Longwood? The ACC's favorite doormat is still on two team's schedules (BC and UVA), but for the first time in years the small Virginia school isn't playing one of their patented "why the hell did they schedule this" games in the middle of the ACC regular season. In fact, a cursory glance at the master schedule shows that no team is playing a meaningless game during their second ACC bye. Other than Duke's regular tip with St. John's (time to cross that one off the schedule, Mike) and an interesting Georgia Tech/UConn game, ACC teams seem to be using their byes for what they were intended: Rest.

* I don't care what it takes to get it done; but the BB&T Classic in D.C. needs to figure out how to get Georgetown to come and give the afternoon of games a true Washington-area feel. Until the Hoyas can join Maryland and George Washington (and now, George Mason), the Tournament will only be as good as the national teams they can convince to come.

* Clemson plays at Alabama on New Year's Day at 4:30. I know January 1 isn't as big as it used to be in college football and that with Nick Saban aboard, Alabama hopes to be playing a little later in the month, but still... I'm thinking Bear Bryant would eat his houndstooth hat if he knew that the Crimson Tide was scheduling basketball games on college football's most holy day. (It seems to be a tradition. I still say it's stupid.)

* Maryland's non-conference schedule is about as weak as me on the bench-press: Lehigh, Illinois, VCU, Morgan State, Ohio, American, Delaware, Savannah State, UNC-Charlotte (I thought they were just Charlotte now), Holy Cross and Northeastern.
If things go right in the CBE Classic, they could meet Michigan State or UCLA in the later rounds, but those Tournaments always have a funny way of working out. (Kudos to whoever at CBE had the balls to advertise Missouri as one of the "major" teams in that Tournament. Alright, I just saw that the Tournament is in Kansas City, but I still am leaving that last sentence in because I, like Abraham Simpson, have nothing but hatred for Missouri.)
Except for Tournaments, Maryland has no good non-conference game on their schedule, as Illnois and VCU are part of the ACC/Big 10 Challenge and BB&T Classic, respectively. Although, come to think of it, that VCU game could be pretty fun. Hopefully that's the late game of the BB&T and I can head over to Verizon Center to watch it after the Redskins improve to 10-2 following a win against the Bills.

* Every ACC school issued a boilerplate press release yesterday announcing their 2007-2008 schedule, complete with details of highlighted games and throw-away quotes from the head coach. Wake Forest did the same. Strangely, at least to me, the Deacs release didn't mention Skip Prosser in any way. The only reference to the coaching change at Wake Forest was when the second paragraph begins, "Head coach Dino Gaudio will open his first season with the Deacons on Friday, Nov. 9 against Fairfield in Joel Coliseum. "
I'm not criticizing whoever wrote the release, per se, I'm just saying that it was weird not to see any mention of the chaotic events of the past four weeks. Clearly, mentioning the death of Prosser in a press release designed to generate enthusiasm about the upcoming basketball season would have been awkward, but no more awkward than everything is going to be for Dino Gaudio and his team this season. At some point, there should have been a mention of Prosser. Ignoring the delicate situation isn't going to make it any less difficult.

* Chris's Sports Blog NFL Preview Extravaganza begins Monday. A tentative schedule:

Monday - Fantasy Preview - RB
Tuesday - Fantasy Preview - QB
Wednesday - Fantasy Preview - WR
Thursday - Fantasy Preview - TE
Friday - Fantasy Preview - The Rest
Monday, 9/3 - NFC East & South Preview
Tuesday, 9/4 - NFC North & West Preview
Wednesday, 9/5 - AFC East & South Preview
Thursday, 9/6 - AFC North & West Preview
Friday, 9/7 - Playoff Predictions and Week 1 Picks

I Plead The Fif

Update: Vick has pleaded guilty to all charges except gambling on the dogfights. You can bet Roger Goodell won't be taking Vick's word at face value though. I think he's going to be suspended for a lot longer than people think.

It's amazing how listening to two different people on the same network can give you two entirely different points of view about a situation. I was getting ready to turn off my computer for the night when I saw a crawl on Michael Vick go across the screen. Apparently, sources say Vick will only plead to one count of dogfighting on Monday, but will not admit to killing dogs or gambling.
Confused by this baffling move and the effect it would have on the proceedings, I turned on ESPN to find Roger Cossack and Chris Mortensen discussing the breaking news. Both made it seem like this change of strategy meant that this development greatly improves Vick's legal troubles. Sure, he'd do his light sentence in jail on the dogfighting, but when he came out he'd be allowed to play and could regain his image because he said he never killed those poor dogs. By not giving a plea on the two most explosive charges, Vick helped himself greatly, they said.
This made no sense to me. My only knowledge of the law come from reading the Cliff's Notes for To Kill a Mockingbird and skimming through decisions on freedom of speech cases while in college. But, still... How could Vick plead guilty to just one of the things he's being charged with and expect that to fly. It'd be like a guy (say, Marcus Vick) getting charged with murder, cocaine possession, possessing an illegal firearm and a stealing a car to admit to just the stolen car and expecting that to exonerate him from all the bigger crimes.
So, I went in search of Lester Munson's analysis to see what the real deal was. He's been the one guy on ESPN throughout this whole Vick saga that shoots it straight and clearly knows what he's talking about. My buddy Jaf and I speak of him in reverent tones usually reserved for Bret (present) and Jemaine (here).
Not surprisingly, Munson's take was a whole lot different from the his ESPN colleagues. He broke the recent events down and said, essentially, "this is wishful thinking on the part of Vick's lawyers... I can't imagine the Feds will fall for this, especially with the other three guys testifying that Vick did, in fact, commit these acts. Vick's lawyer has no leverage here. This puts the plea in jeopardy, so much so that we might not have a guilty plea on Monday."
He said all (or pretty much all) of that in a tone that suggested he didn't appreciate having to get woken up at midnight to talk about how stupid Michael Vick was being... AGAIN.
It's amazing that Munson and Cossack are covering the same case sometimes. Put me firmly in Munson's camp. I can't imagine that the Federal prosecutors will let this fly. I'd imagine that Vick will either have to sign whatever statement the Feds prepared for him or go to trial. It seems that the Michael Vick saga is far from over.

ACC Basketball Schedule Released

See the team-by-team schedules here. Check back tomorrow for some thoughts on the games, including Maryland's Syracuse-like non-conference schedule and Wake Forest's brutal February.

Chris Answers PTI's Questions

Whose side are you on: Tiki Barber or Eli Manning
The only thing men love more than football is a good ol' fashioned catfight. (Yeah, yeah, catfight...) It's rare that the two ever combine, but our good friends at the New York Giants have done just that with this snipe-fest between Tiki Barber and Eli Manning.
Let me explain... No, that'll take too long... Let me sum up: On his first night working on NBC's Football Night in America Tiki Barber took potshots at Eli Manning's play and said the young quarterback's leadership was "almost comical". In response to those words, Eli sarcastically praised Tiki's own leadership last season when he called out Tom Coughlin and announced his retirement in the midst of a Giants playoff run.
As anyone who had read this blog know, I can't stand Eli Manning. I predicted he'd be a bust when he came out of college, think he's done nothing to prove himself as an adequate NFL quarterback and believe him to be the most overrated player in the league (although that changed last year when Eli lost some of his luster in the media.) I have little doubt that Tiki Barber's description of Eli's leadership is spot-on. It's a mentality I've said Eli has had since college; namely, that he always looks like he'd rather be anywhere else but on a football field.
That being said, I hope Tiki is enjoying the glass house he's been living in. Eli was also exactly correctly when he characterized Tiki's attitude during last season as adrift and only focused on Tiki. (Eli even wins some points with me for the complete sarcasm that dripped from his statements. This will be the only time I'll ever praise Eli Manning, so read that sentence and now forget about it forever.)
On SI.com, Dr. Z blames television producers for this spat, and I agree. Remember, during his first apperance on NBC, Jerome Bettis "broke" the news that Bill Cowher was planning on retiring after the season. It was a mild controversy at the time that was forgotten about soon after, but it bears noting that Bettis was correct, just like Tiki.

Stephon Marbury thinks dogfighting is a sport. What do you think?
Watch this video of Starbury on a New York-area sports show. Do yourself a favor and watch all nine minutes of it.

Now, ask yourself, should anybody really care what Stephon Marbury thinks? (Unless you're looking for some really good weed, that is.)
For my money, my favorite part of the video is when his phone rings and he says "it's my better ho - I mean, my better half, um, my wife." Gilbert Arenas, on his blog, writes of his love for the clip too. I tried to paraphrase Gil's words, but that'd be like trying to sum up Shakespeare, so here's Gil's entire entry on the Marbury interview:

Usually I give out awards at the end of the year, but somebody won the “Best Interview of the Century” award this summer. If you guys haven’t seen it, you need to search “Marbury interview” on YouTube. If you don’t think this is the best interview in history, something is mentally wrong with you. It was so good, I watched it 12 times just to make sure that what I was watching was actually real and I wasn’t imagining it.
He’s like, “I’m going to average 10 points, 11-12 dimes, four assists …” And I’m like, “What? Last time I checked, dimes and assists were the same thing.” Then he answers his cell phone in the middle of the interview. And at the end he just starts screaming, “Do it with me now! Do it with me!” I had to rewind it just to make sure it was really Stephon Marbury on there. So, I present Steph with the "Interview of the Century" Hibachi Award!

It's because of blog entries like this that I might cry if Gilbert doesn't re-sign with the Bullets after this season... And I don't even like the NBA that much!

Is the NFL hypocritical in regards to alcohol?
A quick primer: Bengals LB Odell Thurman was suspended following multiple arrests, including one for DUI in which he blew twice the legal limit. During his ruling, Thurman's judge said that the NFL is hypocritical for suspending Thurman for the DUI while still taking in millions of dollars from beer companies in advertisements.
To answer the question, the NFL is quite hypocritical in many regards, but I don't follow how taking money from beer companies exonerates Odell Thurman from driving drunk. The last I checked, drinking beer was legal, as is getting drunk enough to have a blood-alcohol content of .16. But it's never legal to drive after doing so.
This judge is part of a growing segment of our population who always want to place blame on others and not hold individuals accountable for their actions. Gregg Easterbrook did this with Michael Vick in his increasingly-petulant "Tuesday Morning Quarterback", but he's far from the only one. (To counter, on the same site as Easterbrook's smarmy Vick-defense was published, Jemele Hill wrote an excellent open-letter to young, black men that essentially said; Michael Vick made his own bed, now learn from his stupidity.)
Odell Thurman shouldn't have driven drunk. Period. It's not Roger Goodell's fault or Budweiser's or Miller Lite's. The responsibility lies with Thurman. Know the law. Don't break it. And if you do, look in the mirror when placing blame.

Brandon Webb says his scoreless innings streak isn't a big deal. Do you believe him?
(Note: Webb's streak of 42 straight scoreless innings was snapped tonight.)
I believe Webb about as much as I believe golfers who say that playing with Tiger Woods on Sunday isn't a big deal. Because; what else are they going to say? They're not lying, per se, they're just giving the only answer they can give. How did you want Webb to answer? "This is really huge. If I break the record I'll get more endorsements and cash-in big-time when I'm a free agent. Plus, it'd be really cool to break one of the most hallowed pitching records." Those are thoughts that he's almost certainly thought about (pitchers have a loooonnnng time to think about things playing every five days), but thoughts that don't necessarily consume him either.
I'd say the same exact thing if I was Webb, by the way. I don't believe that the streak isn't a big deal to him, but he also seems laid back enough where it's not an all-consuming thing the way it would be with, say, Roger Clemens.
Webb is a great (and vastly underrated) pitcher who toils in relatively anonymity out in Arizona. He will likely win his second straight Cy Young this year, but gets about one-tenth of the press that the fifth-best pitcher on the Yankees (the aforementioned Clemens) does.

Is the U.S. Basketball team the best in the hemisphere?
Considering that Argentina has finished ahead of the U.S. in the past two major world competitions, I'd say no. As always, the U.S. team should win, but collections of talent have a tough time beating cohesive units in these basketball competitions.
I'll be rooting vigorously for everyone but the Americans because I root for good stories and the U.S. Basketball team missing out on the Olympics is a great one. (They need to get to the Finals of this tournament in order to qualify for Beijing. I'm not positive, but I think they can still get in somehow if they don't make the Finals, but don't quote me on that. Wilbon and Kornheiser stated the opposite as fact today, when I'm not so sure.)

Role Play
Not that I don't like dressing up, except, yeah, I don't like dressing up. When I was young I had three different Halloween costumes that I cycled through: Redskins player, construction worker (I had a hardhat because my dad works for a construction company) and skeleton. That was it. Other kids were showing up as M&Ms, Rubiks cubes and Joe the Policeman from the 'What's Going Down' episode of That's My Momma, but not me. My disdain for costumes, clearly acquired from my mom, sticks with me today, as every time I'm forced to dress in one (whether it be for Halloween or a costume party), I go as an old man who dispenses unwanted advice to everyone.
In light of that, I won't be diving into the roles as Tony and Mike do. Instead, I'll be providing third-party analysis of said questions through subtle changes in pronoun usages and plural possessives.

Orange Bowl: The U is ditching it for Dolphins Stadium. How does that make you feel?
True story: When I went down to Miami for the 2002 Orange Bowl, we got in a taxi outside our hotel in Miami Beach and I told the cabbie we wanted to go to the Orange Bowl. He said, "you mean the game?" and I said, "yeah, The Orange Bowl," figuring The Orange Bowl was played in the stadium called The Orange Bowl. Apparently, I was wrong and The Orange Bowl, as well as some big University of Miami games are played in what was formerly called Joe Robbie Stadium (home to the Dolphins and Marlins). It turns out that the Orange Bowl was, in fact, held at the Orange Bowl up until 1996, when it was moved to the larger stadium across town.
I guess The Orange Bowl (the stadium) is pretty run-down and the move was a long-time coming, but it's not like Dolphins Stadium is the Shangri-La either. That place made The Meadowlands look like, um, Shangri-La.
At least this is fodder for me to rip on Donna Shalala, the disingenuous Miami president who lied through her teeth during the ACC's courting of her school. Apparently, Shalala (whose name, despite drawing ire from me every time I hear it, is quite fun to type - try it sometime, you won't regret it) had been saying that the school would make every effort to stay at The Orange Bowl but then bolted to Dolphins Stadium at the drop of a checkbook.

Lovie Smith: Admit it, he secretly want to pull Rex, doesn't he?
I think Lovie would rather Rex stop looking like a complete spaz every time he steps under center. Last year, Rex made it easy for Lovie. A coach can't get criticized too much for sticking with the quarterback of a winning team. But with an opening slate of @SD, KC and DAL, Lovie might not have much of a choice if Rex plays poorly and the Bears open with a 1-2 record.

JaMarcus Russell: Peter King reports that he doesn't want to play in Oakland. Is that true?
The Michael Vick saga isn't about race, as much as people would like it to be. The lack of media attention towards JaMarcus Russell, on the other hand, is about race... And some other stuff too.
When Brady Quinn was holding out at the start of training camp, you couldn't go to a sports website or put on ESPN without hearing about it. While on vacation (pretty much the only time I'll sit through a full late-night Sportscenter,) they talked about it every night. I might have heard Russell's name once or twice during those blatherings, and he was the #1 pick, taken 21 spots ahead of The Mighty Quinn.
Part of the lack of attention is due to the fact that Russell was never on the national radar until late in the college season, while Quinn has been on national TV every week for four years. It also has to do with the fact that Russell probably isn't all that good and in a few years we'll be wondering why he was ever taken so highly (a la Tim Couch, Akili Smith, Ryan Leaf, etc.). And you can't ignore the fact that Russell is all the way out in Oakland, trying to sign with a team that nobody really cares about. But maybe just a little of the lack of attention is due to the fact that Russell is black and Quinn is white.

Urban Meyer: His university if offering up dinner with him for $1 million. Is he worth it?
Only if Meyer uses that $1 million to lure Demi Moore into a late-night tryst with Billy Donovan, only to have Donovan agree and subsequently back-out at the last second because of concerns about his family.

Tim Donaghy Must Have Had the Over


Headed into the top of the sixth inning tonight in Baltimore, the Rangers led the Orioles 5-3. Four innings and 25 runs later, Texas had set a major modern league record as 30 men crossed home plate. It's always easy to put things in an instant historical contest, we do it all the time. That was the best game I've ever seen, or LeBron's 4th quarter was the greatest ever, yada, yada, yada. This one is different. There have been over 300,000 Major League Baseball games played since 1900, meaning over 600,000 teams have had a chance to put 30 runs on the scoreboard. Before tonight, nobody had. That is history.
Not since Chicago scored 36 in 1897 had a team put 30 on the board; but Texas did so by posting nine runs in the 7th, 10 runs in the 8th and (a measly) six runs in the 9th.
Nice timing by the Orioles too, as today it was announced that interim manager Dave Trembley would be extended through the 2008 season. I shudder to think what the celebration would be like if Trembley ever takes the O's to the playoffs.
If the Redskins score 30 just once this year, I'll be a happy man.

Where's PETA Now?

AP: Dogs seized in Vick investigation face deadline, could be euthanized

ESPN is an NAACP Shill

This morning, the president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP said that admitted criminal Michael Vick should be reinstated to the NFL because of his ability to "bring hours of enjoyment to fans all over this country." Also taking place earlier today, I tied my shoe. Despite the utter meaninglessness of both events, only one of them is the top story on ESPN.com right now.



If you take a look at SI.com or Sportsline.com, you won't find the NAACP-for-Vick story on either of their front pages. Yet ESPN chose to put the blatherings of some press-hungry suit whose only agenda is to advance his own atop their page. Without media attention, the words of idiots like R.L. White are rendered meaningless. But when major news outlets deem his ignorance as newsworthy, other morons give them credence.
Some of the highlights of White's statement:

As a society, we should aid in his rehabilitation and welcome a new Michael Vick back into the community without a permanent loss of his career in football.

Seriously, this is what the president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP is doing with his time? He's backing an admitted felon? In 2004, Atlanta had 48.1% of all black children living below the poverty line. You would think the plight of those children - getting them fed, an education, clothes, etc. - would be the center of R.L. White's focus instead of some dog-killing millionaire who was so fucking stupid that he threw away his entire career to watch some dogs fight. And then, when it was clear he was caught, continued to lie about it to everyone, including the people of Atlanta.

Michael Vick has received more negative press than if he had killed a human being.

He actually said this. For real. There's nothing I can say that will make that comment any more absurd, so I'm simply going to move on.
In an August 2 interview with Newsweek, White made the following statements:

The coverage of Michael Vick’s situation has been very negatively skewed, skewed to the point that we don’t believe the whole story is getting out. What we’re asking is that people not make judgments until he has had his day in court.

Alright, R.L.... Vick's going to have his day in court Monday when he will admit to all the things you were defending him on. So, according to your statement from three weeks ago, we are now well within our rights to make judgments about him. But today you said we should still support him anyway? Even though he's going to admit to the very things you claim the media was "negatively skewing"? I'm confused. You must know the feeling well.

[PETA] has done whatever they’ve done to bring negative attention to Michael Vick, and at that point it wasn’t about Vick as much as it was about getting publicity for themselves. We feel that’s wrong.

I hate PETA just as much as R.L. White. They are thrilled over at PETA about these dogs getting killed because it allows them to further their own agenda and gives them a national platform on which to do it. The irony that White is doing the exact same thing is clearly lost on him.

He’s been told he cannot come to work because of this because the NFL wants to see if he’s violated the code of conduct, when all the evidence has not yet come out. We think that’s wrong. That’s not due process.

Thank you, Oliver Wendell Holmes. But the NFL doesn't have to concern itself with the laws of the United States. They make their own laws. Playing in the league is a privilege, not a right and before his guilty plea, the league determined Michael Vick wasn't worthy of that privilege. They are allowed to ban him for breaking their personal conduct policy. They aren't (and weren't) interested in due process. The league is only interested in its own image. And having a dog-killing liar isn't the image Roger Goodell wants to put across.
Back to White's comments from today, he finished off by saying of Vick, "his crime is, it was a dog." Finally... The first sensible thing R.L. White has said in weeks. Yes, the dog was the crime. And that's why Michael Vick will be spending 2008 in prison. Now, please, will somebody find out what Al Sharpton thinks about all this?

The Herpes Rate at Federal Prisons Just Went Up

Refreshing isn't a word often used to describe the Michael Vick case, but in an age where a city prosecutor can unjustly bring about a race war in order to win re-election and a self-promoting windbag can stir up a national debate to get a radio host fired for a bad joke, the handling of Vick's repulsiveness kind of is.
The federal prosecutors did their job by putting Vick and his cohorts in prison. Vick's lawyers did theirs by negotiating a plea. And Vick managed to do probably the first intelligent thing in his life by taking his medicine and accepting a jail sentence. The right thing is rarely done in bad situations, but the right thing was done by everyone here. Well, after all the dog-killing, that is.
That being said, all these people on various television stations and web sites who are congratulating Vick for "admitting his mistake" (a direct quote from John Clayton) are morons. Drunk driving is a mistake. Getting into a bar fight is a mistake. Fleeing from the scene of an accident is a mistake. Developing and funding a dogfighting operation for six years is not a mistake. Killing dogs is not a mistake. It's a way of life.
Vick didn't do the honorable thing by pleading guilty, he did the only thing any rational human being would do. His lawyers explained he didn't have a chance in hell of winning his case and that risking trial would almost certainly lead to a much longer jail sentence. That's not honor.
As The Wolfman just wrote in an email, "next time I watch Law and Order, I'll think about what a stand up guy that murderer is for taking a deal instead of going to trial and potentially going to jail for a lot longer."

* It's going to be very interesting to see how the media covers the Virginia Tech football team this season. Back in May, it appeared that the Hokies would be portrayed as a courageous team lifting the spirits of their school after a brutal massacre. But now that the face of Virginia Tech football is headed to jail, how can any member of the media possibly look at Hokie football players as saviors of a school?
Frank Beamer's program has a long history of lawless behavior. The above-the-law attitude carried by Vick likely existed far before he got to Blacksburg, but Beamer and his staff did nothing to change it. Michael Vick is Virginia Tech football. His guilty plea to horrific acts of brutality have a lot more to do with that team than the fallout from a tragic massacre. I'm guessing we'll still be subjected to the football-as-healing treacle, but that it will be a lot more muted in the light of the #1 Hokie going down the river.

* I'd be remiss if I didn't give my standard shout-out to John Swofford today. It takes a special man to ruin the integrity of a conference after geting blackmailed by a governor in order to bring a team into a conference just to get a football game that nobody cares about. Bravo, John.

* The Washington Times reports that the Redskins are in talks to trade QB Mark Brunell to the Falcons.

Jim Bowden: The Frank Lloyd Wright of Baseball

The Washington Nationals just acquired "slugger" Wily Mo Pena from the Red Sox in exchange for a player to be named later. Knowing Jim Bowden, that player will probably be Ryan Zimmerman.
Last week The Boston Globe reported one NL general manager was interested in Wily Mo, but didn't name which one. Anyone familiar with the egomaniacal, logic-defying enigma that is the mind of Jim Bowden had no doubt who that was. Not surprisingly, Bowden confirmed as much today.
Bowden was with the Reds when Wily Mo broke into the Majors and has always professed his high regard for Pena's penchant for flailing wildly at all pitches, regarless of location. Because Bowden is much smarter than everyone, he believes that he knows something we don't. Like that Wily Mo is actually a diabolical super-genius who planned to suck all season, thus forcing the inevitable trade to the Nats just in time to be the catalyst that will lead the team to the stratosphere (or, in this case, fourth place in the NL East).
Actually, depending on who the Nats have to part with, this trade isn't too terrible. Wily Mo has shown flashes of competence before while in the National League. Maybe he'll thrive in the low-pressure atmosphere at RFK. Or maybe he'll keep swinging at balls two feet out of the zone.
Bowden acquired some of his former Reds players last year also, to varying degrees of success. Felipe Lopez has been an adequate middle infielder, but Austin Kearns is a huge disappointment. (That he has chosen Kenny Chesney as his "at-bat music" surely has no effect on this.) Pena is low-risk, but this, again, depends on the player traded. Seeing as how the Sox wanted Wily Mo out of Boston as soon as possible, I can't imagine Bowden is going to have to send over too much. Of course, this is also the man who signed Cristian Guzman to a four-year, $16 million deal, so maybe Zimmerman, Chad Cordero and the lease to the new stadium will have different owners by the end of the evening.

Who Deserves More Jail Time...

...Michael Vick or Tim Donaghy? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Since You've Been Gone

Wake Forest hires Dino Gaudio
Wake Forest Athletic Director Ron Wellman had no choice but to look in-house for Skip Prosser's successor. Due to the timing of Prosser's death, finding a high-quality coach willing to move jobs just 60 days before the start of basketball practice was a near impossiblility. Lucky for Wellman that it worked that way.
Had Wellman had the realistic option of luring an Anthony Grant or Gregg Marshall to Winston-Salem, it might have been a better basketball-only move, but in the wake of a coach's sudden death, Wellman had to concern himself with more than the game. Had a new coach tried to come in and replace Prosser, he likely would have been met with the same defiance that the boyfriend of a widow does when trying to interact with her father-less chilren. Wake's players wouldn't have been receptive to change at this delicate juncture. That's why Dino Gaudio was absolutely the right man to follow Prosser.
Gaudio knows the players and the system. He knows how Prosser ran the team. And he's close enough to the situation that he will be able to serve as a leader

Bonds Hits #756
Maybe it’s because I was at the beach and didn’t have internet access, but it felt like Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron’s homerun record was met with a collective yawn from the country. I stayed up to watch the Giants/Nationals game, mainly because it was a chance to see the Nats on ESPN, but ended up falling asleep early on because I’m like an old man at the beach; early to rise, early to bed, frequently complaining about the heat while golfing and surreptitiously wearing sunglasses so I can privately ogle the Russian chicks pushing the frozen lemonade carts on the beach.
Granted, it was a late game on the east coast, but the next day nobody seemed to know (or care) that Bonds had broken the record. Hell, a full two days later I overheard two young guys talking in a bar and one asked, “did he break it yet?” I’m sure being at the beach played a role in this, as a disconnect from the world seems to increase the closer you get to sand, but still. This was one of the most hallowed records in sports and a young guy had to ask 48 hours later whether it had fallen?
There’s not much that can be said about Bonds now; the record fell and no amount of complaining about the sanctity of the game is going to bring it back.

Shrill-Voiced Woman is Giants PA Announcer
Listen, I’m all for San Francisco being a progressive, liberal city, but that’s still no reason to let that annoying woman serve as PA announcer for the Giants. It was terrible. There are many, many, many things women are better at than men. Announcing batters at a baseball game is not one of them.
(This is more for my own amusement than anything, but every time I heard that shrill “now batting, Barrrrry BBOONNDDS!” it reminded me of the intro George Harrison got at the Bob Dylan 30th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in 1993. Until a few minutes ago, I had only heard this on CD, but thanks to YouTube, I found the clip and realized that the introducer is Chrissie Hyde of The Pretenders (I think), which sort of makes her voice less annoying, but only somewhat. Either way, I think if Chrissie Hyde were a PA announcer, she’d probably sound like the Giants chick, only she’d be way more cool

Tim Donaghy Pleads Guilty
Almost everything worth saying about this scandal has already been said, but I have one gripe with how the perception of NBA refs has changed due to this. Because it appears that no other refs were involved in this scandal, Donaghy’s situation has turned his former colleagues into helpless victims, as portrayed by the media.
Every few days you’ll see a story with an anonymous NBA referee pouring his heart out to a reporter about how difficult it is been being associated with a criminal like Donaghy and how the 99% of honest officials will always be looked at with skepticism now. They say that all refs are under the specter of Donaghy’s misdeeds and how they’ll never be looked at the same. And that’s fine; I get it. It’s unfortunate when one person gives others an underserved bad name.
Except, in this case, I think Donaghy is actually helping give other NBA refs a better name. Look beyond the self-pity for a second and realize that regardless of Donaghy, officiating in the NBA is still a complete and utter joke. Those other refs might not be crooked, but they sure are shitty. And Donaghy has essentially made that point moot.
All that matters now is that the other refs aren’t on the take. That they arbitrarily call traveling, have no consistency on whistling fouls in the paint and cater to superstars is of no consquence because they’re not crooked.
Now, after Dick Bavetta misses an obvious foul at the end of an important game he can say, “I tried as best as an honest man can do,” or when Dan Crawford puts LeBron on the line 26 times in a playoff game next April he can say that he did it with integrity. It’s like the CEO of Hewlett-Packard placating stockholders after another quarter of sub-par earnings by saying, “hey, at least we’re not Enron.”

Preseason Football Begins
With each passing year my loathing of preseason football increases. It’s getting to the point where it’s even difficult to watch Redskins games. Peter King is absolutely right when he says that NFL teams charging full-price for preseason games is absurd.

Roger Goodell Means Business, Says Roger Goodell
Am I the only one who’s not very impressed by Roger Goodell? (Although it seems like Michael Wilbon has been taking veiled shots at The Commish on PTI and in recent columns in The Washington Post.) I applaud his effort to try and restore legal order to the league by handing out long suspensions, but I’m not sure kicking out Pac-Man Jones for a year is going to have any effect on whether or not a Cincinnati Bengal is going to drive home drunk from a club with weed in his glove compartment next Christmas. These guys think they’re above the law and I think until something happens to them, they’ll continue to do so.
Goodell's handling of the Michael Vick situation has been inconsistent and confusing. Multiple reports suggest that Goodell is most upset by the fact that Vick lied to him in April when the Falcons QB said he wasn’t involved in the dog-fighting. The words is that Goodell was "hurt" by the lies and it is somehow affecting his handling of Vick's case. If that’s true, Goodell is, at best, naïve and, at worst, somebody who can't put personal conflict aside for the good of the league.
Also, Goodell’s plan to extend the season by one game and placing those 16 additional games in foreign countries is ridiculous. The NFL in Europe is like soccer here: As a novelty (Pele, Beckham, World Cups), it can succeed. But the World League showed how little interest outside the military bases in Germany there really is for American football overseas.
This makes Goodell's proposal to move the Super Bowl out of the United States even dumber. I guess next we'll just move Thanksgiving dinner to Sri Lanka.
If Bud Selig made similar suggestions for baseball, he’d be eviscerated in the press. But the NFL is Teflon, so Goodell gets the benefit of the doubt. At this point, I don’t think he deserves it.

Tiger, Tiger Woods, You All
The past seven years, Tiger Woods has been on the second-most dominant streak in sports history. Only Babe Ruth's 1920s is better. We take Tiger's dominance for granted (too much so, for when he has a "bad stretch" we're all subjected to stories about whether he's lost it) because he's been doing it for so long. But every time he wins it's another page of history being written.
Consider that it's all but a given that Tiger will surpass Jack Nicklaus' total of 18 majors. In order to do that, though, Tiger will need six more major wins. Six major wins is twice what Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els have. It's more than Byron Nelson ever won in his career. Six is the total number of majors won by Hall of Famers Nick Faldo and Lee Trevino. Think of it this way; if Phil Mickelson wins six more majors he'll end up being considered the 3rd greatest golfer of all-time.

I'm Back, Baby... Just In Time For Red Tape and Invasive Dental Procedures

Like Nixon in '92, I'm back - tanned, rested and ready. The summer is almost over and the sports calendar turns a page to the most exciting time of the year: The WNBA playoff push. Can the Lynx hold off the Fever? Will the Mercury upset both the Sun and the balance of our solar system in one fell swoop? These answers will be dealt with in the forthcoming days.
For the next few weeks, though, we'll be tackling a less interesting topic here at Chris's Sports Blog: The National Football League. Namely, the 4th annual Chris's Sports Blog NFL Preview Extravaganza. You'll be sujected to fifteen straight days of my understated thoughts on the subtle nuances of the sport, blistering treatises about the ramifications of revenue sharing and Brady Quinn jokes. Lots of 'em.
We'll start Monday with my Fantasy Football Cheat Sheets, then move on to division previews on the week of the 27th, leading up to the final push before Indy and New Orleans kick-off on Thursday, September 6.
This week I'll recap some of the events that happened while I was on vacation, look back at some of my previous NFL predictions to see how I fared and probably mention how the people over at EA screwed the Redskins with low ratings once again. I might post something in a little, but seeing as how my morning consisted of waiting in line for two hours at the MVA followed immediately by a root canal, I figure I might as well take my puppy over to Michael Vick's for a playdate, just for symmetry's sake.

Right Near The Beach

I'm headed to the beach early tomorrow morning, so I won't be posting until Monday, August 13 when I'll begin Chris's Sports Blog Annual NFL Preview Extravagnza and, inevitably, picking the Redskins to go way too far in the playoffs.

Finding Skip Prosser's Successor

It has been six days since Prosser died suddenly of a heart attack after an afternoon jog at Wake Forest's Kentner Stadium. Yesterday was Prosser's funeral; held in Clemmons, NC and attended by over 1,000 mourners including many current and former Wake players and ACC coaches. After a flight to Cincinnati, Prosser will be laid to rest on Saturday.
Once that happens, Wake Forest Athletic Director Ron Wellman will have to start the sensitive process of searching for Prosser's replacement. With the shock of the coach's unexpected passing, the reality that basketball practice begins in 75 days has been far out of the minds of those in Winston-Salem (for good reason). But life, and the basketball season, will go on without Prosser. Wellman now needs to figure out with whom.
It should be an easy job for a slew of reasons; namely that it's nearly impossible to snag a big-name basketball coach in August. Wake Forest is a good job, especially for up-and-coming mid-major coaches like Anthony Grant and Gregg Marshall. But Wake Forest in August after Skip Prosser's death isn't nearly as enticing.
Even if Wellman could snag a coach like Grant or Marshall, that might not be the best move.
This is going to be a difficult season in Winston. Before every game players will deal with questions about their former coach; they'll hear kind words from opposing coaches, get ovations at road arenas and be subjected to the inevitable sappy Chris Connelly piece on SportsCenter. To have an outsider come in before such an emotional season would threaten the family-atmosphere that will likely be necessary in order to get through said season. It's a lot easier to look at your head coach and know that he can empathize with how you're feeling because he lost someone important too.
That's why Wellman only has two logical choices to replace Prosser: Current Wake Forest associate head coaches Dino Gaudio and Jeff Battle. Both had been with Prosser for years; Gaudio since Skip's days in high school and Battle since Prosser's brief stint at Loyola (MD). They know the current Wake team, helped recruit the players and know how Prosser ran things. In a year when familiarity might be the best medicine (even if that might lead to zero offensive imagination and little defense), hiring from within makes sense.
An added benefit to keeping Gaudio or Battle (I imagine Gaudio will likely get the job, as he has previous head coaching experience at Army, with Battle staying on as his top assistant), the three big 2008 recruits who committed to Prosser might stay on as well. Most times, assistants handle the early-part of recruiting and the head coach comes in after progess has been made. I don't know how Wake handled the recruitments of Ty Walker, Tony Woods and Al-Farouq Aminu, but I'd imagine most, if not all, are familiar with Gaudio and Battle. It's anybody's guess as to whether the three young men will keep their verbal commitment and sign with Wake on November 1, but keeping things stable is likely the best way to ensure that they do. (They say they are, which is admirable. Still, I'll believe it when they show up on campus and won't blame them if they don't.)
The main goal of this season will be to stay competitive in the ACC, honor the memory of Skip Prosser by playing basketball he'd be proud of, and getting Walker, Woods and Aminu to honor their commitments despite the loss of Prosser. To do so, Wellman should quickly hire Dino Gaudio as the interim head coach, with the possibility of shedding the interim label if Gaudio proves his worth. Hopefully, he will.