MSU ISSUES A STATEMENT ON NEWTON, DENVER LB GETS ANOTHER DUI & WHO WILL COACH IN DALLAS?
Auburn & the Newton family are saying "No comment" or aren't saying anything at all. With all the accusations flying, the silence is deafening. Tonight Mississippi State issued a statement claiming the Newtons were looking for a "pay for play" deal & they broke off their recruiting & reported the story to the SEC, which passed it on to the NCAA.
So now there is John Bond, Bill Bell, Kenny Rogers & Mississippi State making claims the Newtons wanted to cash in if they wanted Cam to play for them. The FBI is now actively involved, investigating an extortion charge. Since this mess covers 5 states, the Feds became involved.
For a long time I thought this was a load of crap designed to rattle Newton & Auburn. Now I'm leaning toward the proverbial "where there's smoke, there's fire" theory. I hope I'm wrong.
Don't look for running back John Clay in Wisconsin's backfield tomorrow against Purdue. Unless I'm way off, Clay or no Clay, the Badgers should be able to handle the Boilermakers in their street clothes.
The Boise State Broncos continued toward a BCS bowl bid by smoking Idaho tonight 52-14. It wasn't as close as the score might indicate, Boise was ahead 45-0 early in the 3rd quarter when Chris Peterson called off the dogs. There was little to criticize about Boise's performance, their 3 for 12 third down conversion rate wasn't up to par & the 4th quarter fumble that was covered in the endzone for an Idaho score was about it. Now they'll wait & see if Oregon, Auburn & TCU can remain unbeaten. Home games with Fresno State & Utah State plus a tougher road game in Reno against Nevada are the only speed bumps left for the Broncos.
Current ESPN color man, Mike Belotti, admitted he has spoken with Colorado officials about the coaching vacancy now that Dan Hawkins has been canned. Belotti was the head coach at Oregon until 2-years ago when he stepped down to become the athletic director & Chip Kelly became the head man. I doubt CU will shell out enough dough to get Belotti to come to Boulder. I also doubt Oregon would be too thrilled to have him back in the PAC-10 conference heading a competing program.
It will be interesting tomorrow morning to see just how Kansas State intends to attack Missouri offensively. The Wildcats threw only 4 passes last week in their 39-14 beatdown of the Texas Longhorns. Both completions were to RB Daniel Thomas for 9-yards. Mizzou has held 6 of 9 opponents under 100-yards on the ground. It's also senior day in Columbia, the entire secondary, 2 linebackers & the punters are the only significant loses. The Tigers have recruited very well, six of the 2011 recruiting class are back-7 defenders. All 15 of the oral commitments are rated as 3 or 4-star recruits by Rivals.com. It should be noted, the famous recruiting website has but two 5-star recruits at this time. I'll give you a list of all 15 very soon.
Denver's leading tackler, linebacker D.J. Williams, was arrested & charged with driving without headlights & DUI this morning just before 3 AM. An oncoming police officer saw a car traveling with no headlights on & swung around for a traffic stop. Williams was booked & later made bail. He arrived at the Bronco's practice facility in Dove Valley around noon & then left in less than 15-minutes. No official word from Josh McDaniels as to whether Williams will be allowed to play this Sunday against Kansas City. This is Williams' 2nd DUI since he's been a member of the Broncos.
Bernard Pollard is falling out of favor with the Houston coaching staff after being a major impact player for them last season. He's given up seven touchdown passes this season. Pollard has been thrown at 29-times with a staggering 22-completions. Pollard is still a force against the run, but he's getting beat too often in pass defense.
Jacksonville's leading pass rusher, Aaron Kampman tore his ACL in a Thursday practice & will miss the remainder of the season. The Jags have a pretty poor pass rush with Kampman, but without him, they don't have a defender with more than 2-sacks.
I don't see any tears coming from the Titans about Kampman's injury. It appears Kerry Collins will again get the start for Vince Young this Sunday. VY's knee & ankle still aren't right. Jeff Fisher said he would be a game time decision, but I doubt Young plays. Remember this will be Randy Moss' debut with the Titans.
I squawked about the lack of a flag on the deciding pass play last night in Atlanta. I said Roddy White shoved Raven cornerback Josh Wilson to the ground allowing him to catch the winning touchdown pass from Matt Ryan. Well Roddy White admitted after the game he did in fact shove Wilson down & was really surprised he wasn't penalized for offensive pass interference. Glad I didn't have a wager on the game.
The league admitted to the Pittsburgh Steelers their officials made two incorrect calls in Monday night's game in Cincinnati. I pin pointed the calls Tuesday morning, a bogus roughing the passer call on Pittsburgh nose tackle Casey Hampton. They also called the phantom pass interference call on Ike Taylor that set up a Cincy touchdown the wrong call as well. As I said the other morning, Taylor never touched T.O., but Owens made such a convincing case, he got the late flag to set them up with a 1st & goal at the one yardline.
So Jerry Jones is now claiming "coaches that have won the Super Bowl have inquired about the coaching job in Dallas." Any chance Jerry is blowing smoke to keep his fans appeased? Let's examine the possibilities shall we? Coaches who have won the Super Bowl would include Bill Cowher, Tony Dungy, John Gruden, Dick Vermeil, Barry Switzer, Jimmy Johnson, Joe Gibbs, Mike Ditka, Bill Parcells, Mike Holmgren & Brian Billick. "Coaches" would mean more than one & honestly, I think he's full of crap. You can rule Johnson, Switzer, Vermeil, Parcells, Gibbs & Ditka out right away, none of these guys will will ever coach again. Cowher & Holmgren would want too much power, something Jones will never surrender. After all, he's listed as the owner/general manager. That leaves Gruden, Billick & Dungy. I think you can rule Dungy out as well, he said twice this week he had no interest in the job, he's very involved in his charitable work & he loves working for NBC. That leaves Gruden & Billick. I don't believe Gruden would work for Jones but I could be wrong. Billick on the other hand is just chomping at the bit to return to coaching & I don't know how particular he is about where the opportunity comes from. I neglected to mention Don Shula, who's 80, John Madden, a 74-year old who won't fly & Tom Flores, 73 & really not a possibility. So did Brian Billick inquire twice, qualifying as "coaches?" I don't think the line formed to apply for the Cowboy's job is going to be too lengthy.
So now there is John Bond, Bill Bell, Kenny Rogers & Mississippi State making claims the Newtons wanted to cash in if they wanted Cam to play for them. The FBI is now actively involved, investigating an extortion charge. Since this mess covers 5 states, the Feds became involved.
For a long time I thought this was a load of crap designed to rattle Newton & Auburn. Now I'm leaning toward the proverbial "where there's smoke, there's fire" theory. I hope I'm wrong.
Don't look for running back John Clay in Wisconsin's backfield tomorrow against Purdue. Unless I'm way off, Clay or no Clay, the Badgers should be able to handle the Boilermakers in their street clothes.
The Boise State Broncos continued toward a BCS bowl bid by smoking Idaho tonight 52-14. It wasn't as close as the score might indicate, Boise was ahead 45-0 early in the 3rd quarter when Chris Peterson called off the dogs. There was little to criticize about Boise's performance, their 3 for 12 third down conversion rate wasn't up to par & the 4th quarter fumble that was covered in the endzone for an Idaho score was about it. Now they'll wait & see if Oregon, Auburn & TCU can remain unbeaten. Home games with Fresno State & Utah State plus a tougher road game in Reno against Nevada are the only speed bumps left for the Broncos.
Current ESPN color man, Mike Belotti, admitted he has spoken with Colorado officials about the coaching vacancy now that Dan Hawkins has been canned. Belotti was the head coach at Oregon until 2-years ago when he stepped down to become the athletic director & Chip Kelly became the head man. I doubt CU will shell out enough dough to get Belotti to come to Boulder. I also doubt Oregon would be too thrilled to have him back in the PAC-10 conference heading a competing program.
It will be interesting tomorrow morning to see just how Kansas State intends to attack Missouri offensively. The Wildcats threw only 4 passes last week in their 39-14 beatdown of the Texas Longhorns. Both completions were to RB Daniel Thomas for 9-yards. Mizzou has held 6 of 9 opponents under 100-yards on the ground. It's also senior day in Columbia, the entire secondary, 2 linebackers & the punters are the only significant loses. The Tigers have recruited very well, six of the 2011 recruiting class are back-7 defenders. All 15 of the oral commitments are rated as 3 or 4-star recruits by Rivals.com. It should be noted, the famous recruiting website has but two 5-star recruits at this time. I'll give you a list of all 15 very soon.
Denver's leading tackler, linebacker D.J. Williams, was arrested & charged with driving without headlights & DUI this morning just before 3 AM. An oncoming police officer saw a car traveling with no headlights on & swung around for a traffic stop. Williams was booked & later made bail. He arrived at the Bronco's practice facility in Dove Valley around noon & then left in less than 15-minutes. No official word from Josh McDaniels as to whether Williams will be allowed to play this Sunday against Kansas City. This is Williams' 2nd DUI since he's been a member of the Broncos.
Bernard Pollard is falling out of favor with the Houston coaching staff after being a major impact player for them last season. He's given up seven touchdown passes this season. Pollard has been thrown at 29-times with a staggering 22-completions. Pollard is still a force against the run, but he's getting beat too often in pass defense.
Jacksonville's leading pass rusher, Aaron Kampman tore his ACL in a Thursday practice & will miss the remainder of the season. The Jags have a pretty poor pass rush with Kampman, but without him, they don't have a defender with more than 2-sacks.
I don't see any tears coming from the Titans about Kampman's injury. It appears Kerry Collins will again get the start for Vince Young this Sunday. VY's knee & ankle still aren't right. Jeff Fisher said he would be a game time decision, but I doubt Young plays. Remember this will be Randy Moss' debut with the Titans.
I squawked about the lack of a flag on the deciding pass play last night in Atlanta. I said Roddy White shoved Raven cornerback Josh Wilson to the ground allowing him to catch the winning touchdown pass from Matt Ryan. Well Roddy White admitted after the game he did in fact shove Wilson down & was really surprised he wasn't penalized for offensive pass interference. Glad I didn't have a wager on the game.
The league admitted to the Pittsburgh Steelers their officials made two incorrect calls in Monday night's game in Cincinnati. I pin pointed the calls Tuesday morning, a bogus roughing the passer call on Pittsburgh nose tackle Casey Hampton. They also called the phantom pass interference call on Ike Taylor that set up a Cincy touchdown the wrong call as well. As I said the other morning, Taylor never touched T.O., but Owens made such a convincing case, he got the late flag to set them up with a 1st & goal at the one yardline.
So Jerry Jones is now claiming "coaches that have won the Super Bowl have inquired about the coaching job in Dallas." Any chance Jerry is blowing smoke to keep his fans appeased? Let's examine the possibilities shall we? Coaches who have won the Super Bowl would include Bill Cowher, Tony Dungy, John Gruden, Dick Vermeil, Barry Switzer, Jimmy Johnson, Joe Gibbs, Mike Ditka, Bill Parcells, Mike Holmgren & Brian Billick. "Coaches" would mean more than one & honestly, I think he's full of crap. You can rule Johnson, Switzer, Vermeil, Parcells, Gibbs & Ditka out right away, none of these guys will will ever coach again. Cowher & Holmgren would want too much power, something Jones will never surrender. After all, he's listed as the owner/general manager. That leaves Gruden, Billick & Dungy. I think you can rule Dungy out as well, he said twice this week he had no interest in the job, he's very involved in his charitable work & he loves working for NBC. That leaves Gruden & Billick. I don't believe Gruden would work for Jones but I could be wrong. Billick on the other hand is just chomping at the bit to return to coaching & I don't know how particular he is about where the opportunity comes from. I neglected to mention Don Shula, who's 80, John Madden, a 74-year old who won't fly & Tom Flores, 73 & really not a possibility. So did Brian Billick inquire twice, qualifying as "coaches?" I don't think the line formed to apply for the Cowboy's job is going to be too lengthy.
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