Sports thoughts on this Friday

Some sports thoughts heading into this weekend…

Miami (OH) wins GoDaddy.com Bowl, finishes season 10-4
The Miami Redhawks have had a turbulent offseason to say the least. In the days after winning the MAC Championship game over Northern Illinois they found out their head coach, Mike Haywood, was leaving to go coach the Pittsburgh Panthers. Lance Guidry was named the interim head coach. Haywood was arrested on New Year’s Eve, fired one day later as Pitt coach, and on New Year’s Eve, Miami announced that they were hiring Michigan State offensive coordinator, and Miami alum, Don Treadwell.

Enough to make your head spin.

Haywood’s turnaround of the Redhawk program was the best one-year turnaround of any FBS team this season, as I mentioned in December. Miami defeated Middle Tennessee State in the GoDaddy.com Bowl in Mobile, Ala., last night to improve their record to 10-4, ending a bowl season of ups and downs on an up.

By the way, UC football fans can take solace in the fact that the Bearcats whipped the Redhawks at Nippert in early October, 45-3.

UC beats XU in Crosstown Shootout
UC fans can also take solace in the fact that their basketball team is better than Miami’s, and another, bigger rival of theirs.

Cincinnati native and Withrow High grad Yancy Gates was recruited by both UC and Xavier in high school. In his three seasons at UC, Gates had never beaten XU. Until last night.

UC ended a three-game losing streak to its cross-town rival by beating the Musketeers 66-46 in the 78th edition of the Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout. I had to watch the game in class and have to deliver a full game report (which I’ll attempt to post here later today or tomorrow).

Andrew Luck staying in school
All those teachers that told us, “Stay in school, it will only help you,” were right. Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, one of the top pro prospects in the country announced yesterday he was staying in school. According to ESPN’s Joe Schad, Luck wants to remain in school and get a degree.

“I am committed to earning my degree in architectural design from Stanford University and am on track to accomplish this at the completion of the spring quarter of 2012,” Luck said in a statement.

In a world of kids who leave college early to get paid millions, Luck passed on the guaranteed big bucks to get something a lot more worthwhile: a college degree. That’s something that makes me want to stand up and applaud Andrew Luck.

If only more guys were like Luck.

LeGrand talks with ESPN
Rutgers’ Eric LeGrand, who was injured on a kickoff return in the Scarlet Knights’ Oct. 16 game with Army, has now regained some feeling in his entire body. He was paralyzed from the neck down after hitting Army’s Malcolm Brown on the kickoff return.

LeGrand’s first interview aired an hour ago on the 9 a.m. episode of SportsCenter. He revealed his thoughts with ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi.

“Fear of death, that's the biggest fear that I got because I couldn't breathe the way I was breathing and I couldn't move,” LeGrand told the ESPN reporter. “Laying out on the ground, motionless, not being able to breathe was the hardest part in thinking, can I die here?”

LeGrand also says he feels he will one day walk again, and is optimistic about his chances of recovery.
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I’ll have much more as the weekend rolls along. Tomorrow, with 43 days until the Daytona 500, I will discuss “The King,” Richard Petty, and his role in NASCAR, along with a preview of his team Richard Petty Motorsports. Sunday is Mark Martin’s birthday, so I’ll offer some thoughts on the man who has been my hero since I began watching the sport nearly two decades ago.

And on Monday, I’ll give you one reason why I’m rooting for Oregon to win the National Title game, and it has nothing to do with what happens on the field, but rather, with an Oregon player who is paying tribute to one young man who lost his life this college football season.

Stay tuned, have a nice Friday and thanks for reading.

Big East football schedules: Week 6-“Opening Week”

Week six is the beginning of the Big East title chase as four Big East schools begin their quest to knock off the Cincinnati Bearcats and become Big East champions.

But it’s also the first Big East test for the two-time defending Big East coach of the year—Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly, who welcomes to South Bend the last Big East team he faced, Pittsburgh. I know Jake is itching to talk about his two favorite teams, so here’s the schedule.

Week 6 Big East Schedule
Fri Oct 8-Rutgers vs Connecticut
Sat., Oct 9-USF vs Syracuse
Oct 9-Louisville vs Memphis
Oct 9-Cincinnati vs Miami (OH)
Oct 9-Pittsburgh at Notre Dame
Oct 9-West Virginia vs UNLV

AN: I can already hear the call, “Live from Notre Dame Stadium, fulfilling a lifelong dream, this is WPTS Sports Director Jake Meyer.” Does that sound accurate to you?

JM: Yeah, that’s about right. I’m really looking forward to calling this game and can’t wait for Saturday. This is a very interesting matchup of two of the biggest underachievers in college football so far this year. The Panthers have won the last two meetings between these teams, including a four-overtime win at Notre Dame Stadium in 2008. Pitt’s struggles have been much documented in this forum, and they will face another tough test this week.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame has is still a work in progress. There’s some serious growing pains going on in South Bend as QB Dayne Crist’s play has been inconsistent so far as he learns Brian Kelly’s offense. However, Crist is a very capable passer and has some tremendous targets to throw to in wideouts Michael Floyd, Theo Riddick and T.J. Jones as well as maybe the best tight end in the country in Elder alumnus Kyle Rudolph.

Pitt’s defense is facing its fifth straight opponent who runs some variation on the spread offense and Pitt has struggled to stop the short passing of these teams. The onus in this game will be on Pitt’s secondary, namely cornerback Antwaun Reed and Ricky Gary, with the latter struggling mightily at times. One interesting position of note is the weakside linebacker position, where strong safety Dom DeCicco will get the start for the second straight week.

DeCicco’s presence should provide a boost to a linebacker corps that has struggled in coverage against spread teams and has trouble running with the wide receivers they are often forced to cover. Pitt’s run defense has been solid, but their ineffective pass defense makes it hard for the defense to get off the field. Look for Pitt to try to pressure Crist with Jabaal Sheard into making poor throws.

Defensively, Notre Dame has improved over last season and is a better unit than they are given credit for. The Fighting Irish held a lackluster Boston College offense to 13 points last week, six of which came after the Irish turned it over deep in their own territory. ND’s defense is led by sophomore inside linebacker Manti Te’o, who recorded 21 tackles in a loss to Stanford two weeks ago. Pitt may struggle to run the ball against the Irish defense, despite the presence of your favorite coordinator Bob Diaco and his 3-4 scheme. If Pitt can’t run the ball, Pitt will not win this game. Tino Sunseri has struggled mightily at times, but has also shown flashes of potential. However, at this point, he is not ready to carry the offensive load for Pitt, especially given the shaky pass protection Pitt’s offensive line has provided him.

Since I’m calling the game, I won’t make a prediction on the winner (you know, that whole journalistic integrity thing), but I will give two key matchups. First, it’s Dayne Crist versus the Pitt secondary. Can Pitt cover well enough to break up ND’s passing game? Second, it’s Dion Lewis, who returns after missing last week with an injury, and Ray Graham, who rushed for 277 yards in Lewis’ place last week. Pitt has to get those two guys going early.

Adam, how do you think your Bearcats will fare in the Battle for the Victory Bell?

AN: All in all, it was a little rough for UC last year in Oxford, but there were two shining stars in the Battle for the Victory Bell in ’09. Armon Binns had a coming out party, leading UC with five catches for 83 yards and one score, and Jacob Ramsey became only the second player to rush for over 100 yards in the Brian Kelly era. Ramsey rushed for 103 and three scores on the day, and became the first Bearcat since Butler Benton rushed for 100 plus against SEMO in 2007.

The Battle for the Victory Bell is UC’s first rivalry game of the year, and Butch Jones has made it a point that one of the program’s goals is to, “Beat our rivals.” I have a feeling that only Miami grad Ben Roethlisberger could help the Redhawks in this matchup, and even then it’d be tough for UC to lose.

However, Miami played it close with Florida in week one, and although they got demolished by Gary Pinkel’s Mizzou Tigers two weeks back, they could be a dangerous team. Just not as dangerous because UC will be able to use a loud and raucous crowd to gang up on Miami.

Which game other than the Pitt/ND game do you have circled on your calendar Jake?

JM: Well, it’s not a great schedule in the Big East this week, but the best game on the slat is that Rutgers-UConn game. UConn had very high preseason expectations which have been dampened somewhat after an opening week loss at Michigan. Meanwhile, Rutgers is struggling despite its powder puff schedule, losing at home last week to Tulane. Ouch. Both teams need a win to open conference play. I think UConn wins.

AN: At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’m definitely going to tune in to the Panthers and Fighting Irish. As intriguing as Rutgers and UConn could be on a Friday evening, nothing will be better than seeing Dion Lewis make Bob Diaco look silly again. On national TV, too.

Pitt’s power rushing attack made the 3-4 scheme Diaco uses look like Swiss cheese at Heinz Field in early December last year, as we all can attest to. As long as the grass isn’t too high (and with Kelly calling the shots with an uptempo offense, I doubt it will be) at Notre Dame stadium, Lewis and Ray Graham should have a field day. Even though Pitt has struggled this year, and Notre Dame’s defense has looked OK, I’m standing by that statement.

I liked Brian Kelly, but watching the Panthers run rampant on the Fighting Irish in 2010 will be a highlight worth replaying over and over and over again. Hopefully that will happen.

Pigskin a Plenty

That title sounds like some deal a restaurant should be running. I'm like the Kanye West of marketing. A genuis...

The Cincinnati Bearcats beat rival Louisville 41-10 on Saturday, handily keeping control of the Keg of Nails rivalry trophy for the second straight year. However, the joy of winning the game was quickly dampened by news that Texas Christian jumped the Bearcats 24 hours later in the USA Today Coaches Poll, which makes up part of the BCS standings.

Well, it isn’t even Halloween yet. So, I’m not too worried. Sooner or later this whole BCS conference thing will help us out. More on this week’s upcoming matchup against Syracuse later on this week.

-Pittsburgh is 7-1 overall and 4-0 in the Big East. They throttled USF on Saturday 41-14. Everyone remembers how fellow football fan, Pitt student and guest blogger Jake Meyer said the Panthers would go 4-1 in their non-conference games, right?

Well, I guess they’ll have to take care of business the day before my birthday against Notre Dame to take care of that. Oh, and I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I did say they’d lose to NC State at NC State. It’s rare that I’m right, so I’ll make sure to point it out. (http://adamniemeyer.blogspot.com/2009/03/big-east-football-schedules-pittsburgh.html)

-It was well noted by Rivals.com’s Mike Huguenin that the Naval Academy didn’t throw the ball once in their 13-10 win over Wake Forest on Saturday. They ran the ball 64 times for 338 yards. “The last time a FBS team didn't attempt any passes in a game?” he asks. “It was almost a year to the day: Navy did it last season, on Oct. 25.”

Everyone knows how much I love Navy’s system, but little did I know that Rutgers Head Coach Greg Schiano—whose Scarlet Knights faced a similar attack from Army on Friday night and defeated the Black Knights by 17—would like to run it one day as well. (Read more: http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/index.ssf/2009/10/rutgers_coach_greg_schiano_adm.html)

“I enjoy watching it,” he said last week. “It is definitely a science. There is no doubt about it. I enjoy watching it. I really do. Maybe when I am all done and ready to go coach some high school, I will employ that offense, I don’t know. I think it is very good. It really is a joy to watch.”

If you ever hear me talk about Navy and Georgia Tech, you’ll hear the same thing. I love the offense, I enjoy watching it run to perfection, but I’d hate playing against it.

Also, Georgia Tech (coached by former Navy head man Paul Johnson) is quietly sneaking up in the rankings. They beat Virginia on Saturday. The Yellow Jackets had three players rush for over 80 yards including two who gained over the century mark on the ground.

-In news that made former Ball State walk on wideout and UC video coordinator John Sells happy, the Cardinals won their first game this season. In other MAC news, the Miami Redhawks lost, again. You know how much that is hurting UC’s Strength of Schedule? A lot if I’m not mistaken.

-Oh, and one quick note about the BCS before I get going. USC beat Oregon State 42-36 at home on Saturday. UC beat Oregon State 28-19 in Corvallis earlier this year—in fact, on the same day that USC lost to Washington. UC has yet to lose. Who is ranked higher? USC. Makes sense right?

All I’m doing is prepping for the December 6th argument. Just getting my homework done ahead of time.

-And one quick note about NASCAR. Is it really over? That quickly? Jimmie Johnson won another Chase. Well, I’ll be starting my countdown to Daytona within a week or two. Wait, there’s still one more race? Well, we’ll see…