11.28.2010

UK Football

I was OK with Papaw Brooks ‘building’ for a few years during and after probation but three of the last four years (this year counts as one) UK has underachieved PERIOD and someone needs to be held accountable!!! If that is the product UK is going to put on the field year in and year out (since the 1960’s I might add) than just disband football and all the non-revenue sports it supports and just be a basketball school period (men’s and women’s)…

UK is 15 & 25 against the SEC in the last five years in football and 12 and 23 when you throw out Vandy (3 and 2 against Vandy is also PATHETIC)… That would get any other coach in the SEC or any other conference fired, PERIOD!!! WTF!!! Bunch of Bullshit!!! If that is the best you can do than YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO BE IN THE SEC IN FOOTBALL!!!

Spend some damn money on getting the facilities upgraded and then bring in an experienced head coach or DISBAND the damn program!!! Does not have to be high paid coach but a coach with experience as a head coach at a lower level like Dooley at The Orange Team down south would work (that guy is going to do a good job at UT)… Gotta go into it telling the fans to COMPETE IN THE SEC IT IS GOING TO COST MORE MONEY FROM THE FANS because it IS so they need to understand!!!

No way UK or any 6 and 6 teams deserves a bowl game!!! Very pitiful year for the Operation Win crew whatever that BS was Joker tried to sale the fan base…

Prove me wrong Joker, Prove me wrong!!! I dare you to prove me wrong!!!

A TDC to Remember

In the 21 years the TDC golf tournament has been held there have been some unique situations… We have had injuries, a no show or two (I am guilty of one of those via an administrative error), near arrests, substitution players for said injuries and even once had a sub because one of our players was best man at a Caribbean island wedding… This year we had a first…

With Thanksgiving Day you never know what type of weather conditions you are going to get at the golf course… We have played through some very cold conditions, some very wet conditions (with some light rain), light sleet and snow and even a couple of times where it was actually warm enough for short sleeves… It is interesting to note that the temperature at tee off and the highs for the day are almost the same for the 21 years we have played…

The talk this year prior to the tournament was weather and the surgically repaired defending champs (both were coming off major surgeries)… It looked like it was going to be a bit warmer than usual, was going to rain on Wednesday all day and than have thunderstorms on Thursday… Possible contingency plans were put in place that included all of the following possibilities:

1. Go to one of the par threes and the winner would be a closest to the pin shot
2. Have a chip off around one of the greens (possibly even a multiple spot chip shot from nine different locations with a putt included and low score wins)
3. A 100 yard dash relay race
4. A three legged race
5, A Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament

In the end weather was not the issue (it did rain all day Wednesday and all day on Thursday)… We arrived at Audubon at 8:00 AM and waited around until 9:00 AM and no one ever showed up to open the golf course for us… At that point we had no contingencies in place for a no show… As luck would have it Craig’s neighbor had opened up The Players Club on this day and he said come on over… We convoyed right on over and prepared to play…

Once we finally teed off it was raining very hard and the course in general was a muddy, watery mess (I have never played golf in this type of conditions)… It was as wet as I had ever seen a golf course in my life!!! We discussed playing only six holes but decided that as long as there was no lighting we would play nine (good call)…

The event kicked off with another successful hitting of the ceremonial gold golf balls (successful means we did not lose either ball once again) and than off we went…

The weather did not seem to impact the scores as four of the six teams shot a 40 in those conditions… I cannot speak for the other teams but I know with my team we could have easily shot three to four strokes better if we would have only made putts and made some better chip shots… The wetness did not seem to impact our drives or approach shots to the greens and I was surprised in general how far the ball traveled in such wet conditions (there was not allot of wind in general)…

As always the tournament was very competitive event… Kevin and Paul secured the first three skins on #3 (a par five) with a par… According to Kevin the drive they had to use was not even passed the women’s tee on the hole so to make a par was quite an accomplishment and the other five teams should be completely embarrassed that they did not make a par on that hole…

The next five holes were a push with pars and again I cannot speak for the other teams but I know that Bolin and I missed a great birdie opportunity on hole number fifteen from just inside 15 feet and it is unfortunate that neither one of us even scarred the hole on our putt attempts (we missed an earlier birdie putt from about the same distance on #11)…

The tournament victory was secured on hole #17 when Scott and Craig teamed up to get to the green in three and Craig drained an eight foot putt to secure the championship... The final hole was a push and the skin money for this hole was donated to the course for letting us get out and play and continue our tradition… Congrats again to the victors and congrats to Craig for becoming a multiple championship winner…

Now moving forward we had two items to make some decisions… Do we move back to Players Club??? The advantages there are we can have breakfast catered to the course, there is no threat from Robo Cops (the tournament participants are the only ones who will understand that one), we have eighteen holes to choose from (I like playing the back nine at Players), we can start on the back nine and not interfere with other people who may be playing that day and they are an alcohol friendly facility…

The other is what to do with the trophies that have been retired… My vote is we move back to the Players Club and that we purchase two large shadow boxes that are capable of holding six trophies… We would place one of those shadow boxes at Gene’s Restaurant and the other at the Players Club (or an alternate location)…

Best line of this years TDC that I heard??? My partner Steve Bolin forgot his rain jacket and I had an extra so here is Mr. Indiana Hoosier wearing a UK jacket… About three quarters of the way through the event he said, “Man I know why this UK Jacket is so waterproof and keeping me dry… It keeps UK Fans dry from all the crying you all do…” Pretty good one…



Pro Football

I have not had a favorite team or watched allot of pro football since the mid 80’s… I like the playoffs and the Super Bowl each year but the regular season just literally bores me to tears… If I did not have a fantasy football team each year I would probably not pay any attention at all…

Pro football is just completely high drama to me and has turned almost into reality type TV show or a Soap Opera which is why I think so many more people follow the sport and why I do not (of course this is media driven)…

Brett Favre, Brad Childress, Vince Young, Jeff Fisher, Jerry Jones, Chad Ocho Cinco, TO, Mike Vick (although is a good story at this point) and Al Davis, just to name a few are all the things that I see wrong with Pro Football in my eyes… At this point I would rather watch paint dry than watch a pro football game, read a story about Pro Football or watch a program about pro football… Yuck, Yuck, Yuck…

Of course TV coverage and the internet has allot to do with the coverage and drama that is presented with today’s NFL and the fact that there are allot of Americans that this type of drama appeals to makes it must see TV… Again, YUCK, YUCK, YUCK…



Boise State and TCU

Look in a one game situation any team can win… Villanova basketball in 85, Jets in 69, Utah in the Sugar Bowl and Boise a few years back in the Fiesta are some of the greatest examples of this in sports…

Facts are facts and although some of this is my opinion I think most reasonable college football fans will admit that if Boise State or TCU played an SEC schedule that they would finish with more than one loss (Of course Nevada took care of Boise)… Probably would be the same if they played in the Big 12 or the Pac 10 but in my opinion they could possibly run the table in ACC and I believe with little they would go undefeated against a Big East schedule this year but or course anything could happen in a one game situation…

So the question is if two teams like Boise and TCU end up undefeated will they get or deserve a shot??? Not this year for Boise… I personally do not believe that either team deserve a shot unless Auburn and or Oregon end up with a loss than they could be in… I believe that a one loss SEC team (although I think if South Carolina beats Auburn than both Auburn and LSU are out this year), a one loss Big 12 Team (there will be not be one this year) or a one loss ACC team (there will be one this year) or a one loss Pac 10 or Big 10 deserves a shot over an undefeated Boise State or TCU type team (this is why a small playoff is needed)…

Put it this way if you think Boise or TCU deserve a shot this year as an undefeated team than that means you think an undefeated Akron, Marshall, Western Kentucky, Alabama-Birmingham, Troy State, New Mexico, Louisiana-Monroe, Navy, Wyoming, or Army deserve a shot if they go undefeated… Look I am a Navy fan and if they ever go undefeated they do not deserve a shot at a National Championship…

Please do not use the NCAA Basketball tournament argument... Name me a small school that has won the NCAA Championship since the tournament expanded to 64 teams??? Please do not use the argument that the big schools will not play these two schools in football in a home and home situation… Look if you are an SEC Team or Big 10 team why would you schedule either one of these teams when you already have a difficult schedule already...

There are two options I see…

Option 1... On the second weekend in December this year you have the following seeded match ups:

Big East Winner(8) at Oregon(1)
At Large (6) at TCU(3)

ACC winner(5) at Big Ten Winner (4)
Nebraska(7) if they win the Big 12 at Auburn, if they win the SEC Championship Game(2)

No conference can have more than two participants in the eight team tournament…

From there the four winners move to the next round and the four losers also move New Years Day bowl games (The Rose, Sugar, Fiesta and Orange would be the bowls)… The two winners from the winners bracket than play a National Championship Game ten days later at a Neutral site (I say the same site every year)…

The other option is the Big 12, Big 10, SEC, ACC, PAC 10 and Big East break away from the NCAA, form their own Football League and form there own playoff format… The other schools would than do the same (the smaller schools)… This is the format I prefer because it would create three leagues with playoffs (besides D2 and D3)…

Either way I think it is a great idea to leave all the other bowl games in place… It is a great thing that 64 teams get extra practice and play extra games and it is also great for the fans and the cities who host these other bowls…

Regardless there is going to be some change in this format in the next few years… The one thing that I know for sure is the Federal Government needs to stay the HELL OUT OF THIS PERIOD!!!


Random

- The Big East conference for football is awful this year!!! I am not sure they deserve an automatic BCS bid…

- I have decided that not only is Colin Cowherd a complete turd but so is Skip Bayless… These type of journalist are just as bad as the people who post the idiotic negative banter on opposing teams message boards… Saying something negative or taking a negative just to get people fired up is irresponsible…

- Way to early to tell much about UK Basketball… What I think to this point is UK does not look like they are very good unless both Knight and Jones are on the floor… I do think there is allot of room for improvement with this team but without Kanter I am not sure they can make a deep run in the tournament but the names Carmelo Anthony and Syracuse come to mind… Jones is for sure the type of player Anthony was in college and there are some shooters on this team also…

- The recent drama in the NCAA with Cam Newton has an NFL feel to it for sure... I am not naïve enough to think that the Cam situation (if it is true) does not happen more than just this instance… Happens all the time within the rules and outside the rules in all college athletics…

- The Miami Heat… WOW… No one expected this… Could they be cursed??? Could Lebron have cursed himself??? Will be interesting to see how all this plays out the next six years…

- At the end of the first quarter I wrote… Looks like Auburn was/is a pretender… Hell UK almost beat them… Wrong……….. If Auburn beats South Carolina than they will play for the National Championship… BTW how did UK play with Auburn??? Auburn go pass happy for a while in the second half…

- I turned off the Boise and Nevada game at half time because I thought it was over… Thought the Bama Auburn game was over in the 1st quarter but when Mark Ingram fumbled in the 2nd quarter you could feel the momentum shift…

- Bama fans have to be crying the blues… I know I am disappointed but as a Bama fan outsider I thought their defense was a step or two below last year…

- Look SEC fans love him or hate him (I am not a fan) it is good for Pearl to be coaching for the Orange Team down south… It is good for the SEC that this school has a good basketball team each year…