Categories
College Football

The Pirate Master is not a happy sailor


In case you thought that Mike Leach’s harsh comments didn’t extend beyond the four walls of the team locker room, guess again. The Texas Tech football coach went off in another press conference tirade on Saturday as he questioned the officials’ official officiating during the Red Raiders 59-43 loss at Texas.

Last year in this incidence, I bit my tongue and I regret it,” Leach said. “This whole, ‘Do everything status quo’ and ‘Oh my gosh, the conference might fine you’ – you know, sometimes it’s just the right thing to do. Sometimes nothing’s going to get changed until someone steps up and says something.

“I don’t know if this will impact anything or not. I want to make sure that I do my part to impact it the best I can. I’ve got players out there – we work hard, we try hard for years, days, weeks. There’s no defense if somebody doesn’t stand up and say something. People have to know. People have to be aware, and people have to quit being afraid of fines. People have to say something.

Leach was really ticked about a third quarter drive that saw numerous official reviews and calls go against Tech.

Unless this can change, the Big 12 Conference needs to take a serious look at having out-of-conference officials officiate the Texas-Texas Tech games and perhaps other games where there is proven to be a bias by officiating,” Leach said. “It’s unfortunate, and does the bowl picture enter into it? I don’t know. Does the money enter into it? I don’t know.

“Am I condemning the crew? Hell, yeah, I’m condemning the crew.”

Leach said Tech got “atrociously bad calls” in a 35-31 loss to Texas in Lubbock last season, in which the Longhorns erased a 21-point deficit.

“Perhaps there’s [a bias] for Texas,” Leach said. “Perhaps somebody that’s higher bowl-wise gets preferential treatment. I don’t know. I can’t guess the motivations, but I’m convinced it needs to be solved. If we get nicked like this again, we’ll have another talk.

Leach was even defensive about a referee who resides in Austin and who just so happens to have also officiated the game.

That can be argued in a variety of directions,” Leach said. “Maybe it is something as simple as guys sitting over the water cooler in their office, in Austin, talking to their friends about the great game they are going to see, the great players they are going to see. Perhaps a preconceived notion has developed how it’s going to come out.

Players, fans, staff, media, refs: nobody is safe from irate Big 12 coaches this year.

Links:

[Statesman.com]: `Incompetence or bias?’
[DallasNews.com]: Tech’s Leach rips officials after loss to Texas

Categories
College Football

Mike Leach break his arm while bicycling…wait, bicycling??



We always took Leach as a scooter
guy for some reason.

Oddly enough our oddball injury of the day goes to one of college football’s biggest oddities, Texas Tech coach Mike Leach. We’d like to say that it involves a pirate ship, a parrot and a plank, but that would just be wishful thinking.

Leach said today (Monday) he broke a bone in his right arm. He hit the pavement after falling from his bicycle Friday.

Leach says he got a flat tire and tried to fill it with enough air to make it to his destination, but “it proceeded to run out of air. I took a routine turn, then went into a slide, so then it broke the arm.

While Leach takes the cake for stupidest boo-boo, Limas Sweed gets the nod for most demoralizing Big 12 injury.

Just days after losing to rival Oklahoma, the Longhorns wide receiver found out that his college career is over. Sweed needs surgery to repair ligament damage in his wrist stemming from a preseason incident.

I knew it was an injury I would be dealing with going into the season and I did everything I could to play through the pain and help the team,” Sweed said.

“I’ve aggravated it a couple of times and again last week and have probably been in more pain than I let anybody know,” he added.

If you thought Mack Brown was throwing a fit after Colt McCoy took a late hit in the game against Oklahoma, you know that the furniture is flying in his office today. After all, considering Texas’ running game is virtually nonexistent, without Sweed in the lineup, Brown chances of Leachin’ it up and getting 500+ yards per game through the air just lost all sorts of steam.

Links:

[KCBD.com]: Texas Tech coach Leach breaks arm in bicycle crash
[SportingNews.com]: Horns lose Sweed to wrist injury

Categories
College Football

Arkansas St. coach says Big 12 admits they’re Indian givers


Michigan became the laughing stock of the college football world when they fell to Appalachian State in the Big House over the opening weekend, but it turns out that they might not have been the only gridiron powerhouse to get upset if it hadn’t been for those pesky refs bumbling up the calls.

Arkansas State coach Steve Roberts claims that the Big 12’s coordinator of officials admitted that the zebras goofed when the overturned an onside kick that was recovered by the Indians with 56 seconds left in what eventually went down as an extremely unimpressive 21-13 Longhorns victory.

We got a confirmation … (Tuesday) that they missed the call,” Roberts said.

The Indians were flagged with 56 seconds left in Saturday’s game for an improper formation. Texas recovered the second onside kick and ran out the clock.

Roberts said the game film showed the Indians had enough players on both sides of the ball before the kick.

“There’s nothing you can do about it now,” Roberts said. “I don’t have a reaction because a reaction’s worthless.

A Big 12 spokesman refused to confirm or deny that a conversation occurred concerning the call. Texas was ranked fourth in the nation going into the season opener. While it’s obvious that the Horns were clearly overrated coming into the season, this really is a moot point because nobody is going to be lining up the final 56 minutes of the game to see if Texas could stop Arkansas State’s last ditch effort. At this point, the only thing were concerned about is if the ref in question is of any relation to Tim Donaghy.

Links:

[ABC13.com]: Arkansas St. coach says Big 12 acknowledged bad call in Texas win

Categories
College Basketball

Does Kevin Durant already have a Nike shoe deal on the table?



Already sporting Nike

If there’s any question whether Kevin Durant is going to go pro this season, a phone call from Kobe might have sealed the deal. According to Chip Brown of the Dallas Morning News, Kobe Bryant called Nike on behalf of Nike to pitch a shoe deal between $30M to $50M. (“Hey Kevin, I can’t wait till you come into the league so I can elbow you in the head. Oh, by the way, Phil Knight wants to give you $50M. “)

Based on the NBA rookie salary scale, Durant will make about $11M-$12.5M his first three years in the league. And here comes Nike throwing three times that just for promoting a shoe. It’s not LeBron’s $90M deal but it’s almost a guarantee that he will leave Texas.

We think they should let players get their own shoe deals in college. This way they won’t have to leave early so that they risk injury in the college game. What would Rick Barnes rather have? A team wide shoe deal for the Longhorns or Kevin Durant for 3 more years?

Links:
[Dallas Morning News]: Sneaker deal could be deciding factor if Durant is one-and-done

Categories
College Football

Tidbits From The Tailgate: Beware of Road Warrior Animal

1.  Beware the progeny of “Road Warrior Animal”.

Who can forget the song “Iron Man” blaring in the background as “The Road Warriors” hit the ring to pound on two chumps?  They were without a doubt the most physically dominating tag team in wrestling history.  And now…..the spawn of “Animal” is arguably the best defensive player in the country.  Lost in the story of Ohio State’s whipping of Texas was the game James Laurinatis had.  Animal Jr. registered 13 tackles (10 solo), 2 forced fumbles (one of which Ohio State recovered to stop a sure Texas score), and an interception.  I like Troy Smith, but he was not the best Buckeye on the field.  Just a true sophomore, Laurinatis has a chance to be better than A.J. Hawk as Hawk was not nearly this good this early in his career.  

2.  So that’s why you’re going #1 in the NFL Draft.

Brady Quinn shredded the Penn State defense on Saturday afternoon.  It was like an 18-year-old coming back from college to put a whipping on his 7-year-old younger brother in a game of pick-up hoops.  Quinn ended up with 287 yards, three touchdowns, and the Heisman vote of everybody who tuned into the clinic he provided.  

3.  That’s right….I’m from Boise, Idaho.  I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’m pretty good.

Apparently everybody who votes in the AP and USA Today Coaches poll skipped the Boise State-Oregon State game on Thursday night, because Boise State was unjustly left out of the polls.  Ian Johnson was spectacular as he ran for 240 yards and five touchdowns.  How Pac-10 schools missed the sophomore running back is a complete surprise.  All I can assume is that in high school he was like Rachel Leigh Cook in the beginning of “She’s All That” and that now at Boise he’s the version of Cook with the glasses off and the low-cut dress on.

4.  OK, I’m done screwing around this time.  I promise…..

This goes out to Florida State who almost followed up on their win over Miami with loss against Troy.  Down 17-10 in the fourth quarter, Florida State had to rally to win 24-17.  Had Troy pulled the upset it would have been the biggest shocker since Brian Worth improbably advanced to the Final two on “Average Joe 2” and came within a hair of scoring Larissa Meek (an absolutely raging hottie).

(On a sidenote, people forget about how utterly incredible Brian Worth’s run on “Average Joe 2” was.  He went from basically never having touched a girl to making out with a supermodel.  Toss in that he seemed like a genuinely nice guy and it was just a stirring month of television.)

5.  If it’s any consolation, you sirs definitely have a set of balls.

To Air Force for going for two and trying to win the game against Tennessee in regulation.  I love the call even though it failed.