Breaking News: In a move to prevent injuries, the NFL will Move to 2 Hand Touch in 2011

Well obviously the head line is a joke, but if the NFL keeps on putting restrictions on hitting we will wind up playing two hand touch in a few years.  Maybe it's because I'm a defensive player, or maybe it's because I have always loved the aggressiveness of contact sports, but now the NFL has gone over the edge with preventing players from hitting each other. The quote from the NFL office "Head shots and devastating hits will now be subject to suspensions." Ok fine with the head shots, I have no problem there, but what the hell does the NFL mean by a devastating hit?  Does that mean if Laron Landry and Ray Lewis hits a player shoulder to shoulder and plants that sucker into the ground Landry and Lewis will be suspended?  That's my interpretation of this statement by the NFL.  To me that is not football at all.  Even before I started playing football I had seen my share of devastating hits on TV, and when I strapped up the pads for the first time I would dream about me making one of those bone jarring hits not only did I dream about it, but every defensive coach I've had as encourage to make big hits, but not head shots.  My d-coordinator in high school would always say "Go for the whoo hit." 

Now the NFL is trying to take hitting out of the game.  In every contact sport I've played in the coaches have always said "If you don't wanna play football or, any other contact sport,  go play soccer, swimming, track etc."  I think Rodger Goodell didn't get that message.  Every time someone puts a football helmet on, steps in between those white lines they are at risk for a concussion.  Prime example from this weekend Chris Cooley didn't get hit in the head at all and still suffered a concussion.  Concussions are a risk that you may face when you play contact sports and unfortunately, they happen and it's an unfortunate part of the game.  With these new so called restrictions, what are hard hitting defenses such as the Ravens, Redskins, Jets and Steelers going to do now.  They have always practiced hitting hard now they are going to have to learn how to slow up in the middle of the season.  That's outrageous.  This may also put the defensive players more at risk cause players may start slowing up to avoid a suspension and in any level of football if you're not going 100% you increase your injury risk by 200%.  Imagine trying to tackle Brandon Jacobs, Chris Johnson, LT at half speed.  You will easily get a separated shoulder if try to tackle those guys and almost anyone else in the NFL at half speed.  I understand that players are bigger, faster and stronger today, but helmets are also a hell lot more protective to.  Improvements are being made every year to make helmets more protective, there is never going to be a helmet that prevents all concussions, but helmets today help protect players from these big hits and this adds another point of why the NFL is being to cautious with the hitting.  


Yes head shots are wrong, they don't deserve to be in any part of the game and players that spear and launch there head at an opponent should be suspended.  But the NFL needs to remember that this is a contact sport and to me as long as its a shoulder to shoulder hit, that's a clean hit to me.  Big hits draw as much people as shootouts do, but now with defensive players afraid to hit there maybe a rise in shootouts and separated shoulders due to players only tackling at 50% so they won't get suspended.

Here's a few examples of what I think are clean "devastating hits."








Personally, out of the so called illegal hits this weekend, I only thought the Brandon Meriweather hit on Todd Heap was the only illegal hit. Dunta Robinson's hit on Da'Sean Jackson was fine, it was shoulder to shoulder. Now would I show Robinson's hit when teach how to tackle? Hell no Robinson tackled with his head down that's why he suffered a concussion, but at the same time it was clearly shoulder to shoulder. Just because a player gets hurt doesn't mean that it's an illegal hit I know that's a harsh thing to say put players can get hurt by shoulder to shoulder hits also. The first video is the illegal hit from Brandon Meriweather on Todd Heap and the second is montage of legal and illegal hits, sorry about the poor video quality in the 2nd video.





To me, there's 3 illegal hits in this video. This first hit of the video is illegal as the Auburn player lead with his head, which is spearing, and also hit the UGA player head to head. At the 1:15 mark of the video the OSU player obviously hits the player head to head and at 2:44 in what looks like a high school game the player clearly speared. Those are what illegal hits are to me and the rest of the hits are just a part of football.

Unless football wants to move to 2 hand touch, the best that football coaches can do is continue to teach the right way to hit during practices. Maybe to avoid the headshots, coaches should start teaching players to aim for the waist instead of aiming for the numbers. Because when your flying in the air to make a hit, your body is going to naturally rise up, and when your taught to aim for the numbers and your rise up you hit the head. If you aim for the waist you'll hit the player in the numbers. That's the solution I have and also to continue to do research on helmets and how to make them safer and maybe one day someone will find a concussion proof helmet.

Never A Stress Free Sunday

Are the Redskins trying to kill me of a heart attack from watching them?  Sure seems like it.   In McNabb’s return Philly, the Skins jumped out to a 17-7 lead, looked dominate in the first half and all signs were pointing toward a blowout of the Eagles, but nope this is the Redskins they always have to win the hard way.  The Skins scored 0 points in the 2^nd half and almost lost the game.  But regardless the Skins held of the Eagles final drive and got the win 17-12 and have a share of first place in the division.  Here’s the grades.

Offense C+:  The offense finally looked like a Mike Shanahan offense as the Skins rushed for 169 yards and Ryan Torain lead all Skins rushers with 18 carries for 70 yards and a touchdown.  Torain split time with Clinton Portis until Portis pulled his groin in the 2^nd half.  Now granted the Eagles are ranked 23^rd in rushing defense, but this should build the running games confidence.  In the first half the offense looked great and almost unstoppable.  But then the same problem that lost us the Houston game, where the hell was the offense in the 2^nd half?  0 points after easily scoring 17 points in the 1^st half? You have got be kidding me if the offense does that in the next 2 weeks, vs GB and Indy, we are going to get run out of the building.  This team needs to be able to play 60 minutes if they are going to be a contender for the playoffs.

Defense B: Defense came out hard hitting and only gave up 12 points, great improvements were made from last week’s shit show.  Michael Vick coming early might had something to do with that and it’s going to be interesting, if Vick is starting, to see how this game will go at Fed Ex in November.  But the D basically played the bend but don’t break style of defense today and that’s just fine, yes they did give 352 yards of total offense, but only 12 points.  The only problem, same thing that happened during the Cowgirls and Texans game, the 2 min defense is still awful and I today this fell on Jim Haslett.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the point of a 34 defense is to BLITZ!!! Sure didn’t happened Kolb lead the Eagles on their scoring drive in the 4^th qtr.  Haslett was basically just calling cover 3 and cover 4 that whole drive.  Vick left the game in the 1^st qtr why the hell are you afraid to blitz Kevin Kolb.  Out secondary is our weakest part of the D, why would put the game on the secondary’s shoulders makes no sense at all.  Hopefully we blitz more next week cause that should be the reason they made the switch to the 34.

Game ball, Philly fans for not booing McNabb:  So Philly fans do have some class, they actually cheered the man they booed for 11 years and rightfully so.  I’m pretty sure that if McNabb was not the QB of the Eagles the Eagles would’ve not gone to 5 NFC championship games and 1 Super Bowl appearance. 

Serious Game ball, Donovan McNabb:  Now McNabb didn’t have the best stat line of his career, 8 of 19 125 yards 1 TD 1 INT, but he won coming back to Philly and made a key scramble on 3^rd and 4 with 3 minutes left to keep the ball and run more time off the clock. It’s things like that that make McNabb a great QB.   

Review of Baton Rouge Trip

I finally did it, I got to see a game at LSU something that I had wanted to do since I first saw a game on tv there.  Besides the 17 hour drive it was a great experience.  Pulling into the lot we thought we were going to find some of our WVU buddies, but with 92,000 people tailgating it was pretty hard to find them.  So we started walking around the stadium, we received a little heckling by chants of "Tiger bait, Tiger bait," but it was all good.  We passed bye a lot, near the track stadium, and they had a tv up that had the Arkansas Bama game on.  We watched in the back for a little bit, then some of the LSU fans noticed us and actually said hey guys come over have some food and beer.  So we had grab a beer and some food and though that would be it for the night, but surprisingly they told us have as much beer and food as you want to.  So obviously I dug in, had a variety of different beers, cold cuts,  hot stuffed peppers wrapped in bacon sausage and cream cheese.  Some of the best food I had in a while, the only problem was we didn't come past any gumbo or jambalaya.  Despite not having purple with the going with the gold, almost all of the fans were extremely friendly; we talked to the LSU fans about there history and what not, and they told us "if you want to take our 2007 national championship banner back to Morgantown with you, you are more than welcome to."  They hate Rich Rod as much as we do up here, the LSU fans basically told us that Rich Rod blew that Pitt game for us.  

After eating some good and some good drinking, we found our way to the seats and settled in to watch the game.  We sat in row 4 of the upper deck and the seats weren't bad at all.  Then there was one drunk LSU fan sitting about 4 seats down from us that was chanting "We are Marshall" at us which of course made no sense, but that was the only heckling we received throughout the night. Honestly I thought the crowd would be louder than it was Saturday night, but then again it wasn't an SEC game so that might of been a factor.  The crowd was about NFL stadium loud. 

On our way to Baton Rouge the road took us through Tuscaloosa, AL, the home of the national champion Crimson Tide.  So of course we stopped by to see the stadium.  As soon as we hit the actual campus we saw a frat house bigger than some of the academic buildings at WVU, don't know if that's bad about WVU's academics or good for Alabama's partying.  After the frat house we drove over the hill an lo and behold a giant ass space ship pops up. Bryant Denny Stadium all 105,000 seats this was definitely the biggest stadium I've saw.  The gates were closed so we were only able to take pics outside the stadium.  

 







Overall it was a great experience, I finally got see what my favorite sport is really all about by going to a game at a SEC stadium.  From the tailgating to the passion of the fans it was great, and if I did live in the south I would most likely go to LSU or 'Bama.  

 

Podcast Week of 9/23 - 9/30

This week we recap the Redskins loss to the Texans preview the Rams game and start talking some Capitlast enjoy.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/807207448f6e6ac8/ Part 1: Skins week 2 recap

http://www.zshare.net/audio/80720945b2e28152/ Part 2: Skins week 2 recap

http://www.zshare.net/audio/80720989c257b107/ Part 3: Skins week 3 preview

http://www.zshare.net/audio/8072107054e35135/ Part 4: Caps training camp talk

Week 2 Recap: 17 Point Lead Blown

Well the first half was impressive as hell, but as the saying "that's why they play 60 not 30."  So lets start with the good part, Donovan went for 426 yards and threw 1 TD, in his 3rd career 400 plus yard passing game, the Redskins D held Arian Foster to just 69 yards and no TD's and the D had 5 sacks.  The Skins racked up 20 points in a half for the first time in a while.  Now to the bad, 18 rushing yards in total, Schaub 497 yards passing, we knew that Andre Johnson was going to get his yards Kevin Walter had 144 reviving yards himself.  Look I know its week 2, and we really aren't supposed to make to much noise in the playoffs this year, alot of the so called experts predicted us to lose this week, but unless if your playing Peyton Manning there's no excuse for blowing a 17 point lead in any game.  Here's my grades and game ball.

Offense C+: First two drives of the game looked great, but the redzone blues continued as instead of the score being 14-0 the score was 6-0 as the Redskins kicked two field goals and as it played out that turned out to be part of the reason why we lost.  Even a one TD and one FG would've been fine, but like I said all last week our like of TD's in the redzone is going to come back and bite us in the ass and it did today.  Now to the rushing game, 18 total rushing yards in a Mike Shanahan coached offense? The age of Clinton Portis definitely showed today there were at least 2 times that if CP was 3 years younger he could've broke long runs, and age might shown to when CP tripped in the redzoned that eventually lead to a blocked field goal for the Texans.  Time to go after a RB in the draft next year.  And the offense in the final qtr awful as they could not put away the Texans.  Now I'm pretty sure McNabb knows that when you have an opportunity to put that final nail into the coffin you do it.  Maybe McNabb needs to gel with this offense more before we start seeing the Skins put teams away for good.   Now to the good, maybe the Redskins should move to a spread offense because Donovan McNabb is finding his main reicvers in Chris Cooley and Santana Moss combined they had 153 yards and 1 TD.  McNabb also found the caveman Mike Sellers 4 times and 2nd year wide out Anthony Armstrong 2 times for 36 yards.  And o year McNabb went for 426 today.  If the running problems still continue hopefully Mike and Kyle Shanahan will start throwing more.   

Defense C:  Like the Redskins as a whole, the D played well in the first half and were able to limit Andre Johnson's big plays in the first 30 min.  Then the Texans woke up and decided to go after Reed Doughty, I wasn't surprised that the Texans did this infact I knew that the Texans were going to attack Reed Doughty I'm surprised that they didn't do it earlier.  Reed Doughty is by far the weakest starter on the Redskins and it is time for Chris Horton to be inserted back in the lineup and we need to find a FS to compliment Landry in the draft this year.  Doughty was the one the Andre Johnson out jumped to catch the game tying TD.  The Skins gave up 497 in the pass game which shows that our secondary is almost as weak as the o-line, this is the second week in the row that the D has let an opponent back into the game, not a good sign, especially when we play the Colts in October.  Then once again Carlos Rogers drops a game winning pick with about 2:20 left.  How long is this going to last yes Rogers plays CB cause he can't catch but when its the second week in a row that Rogers drops a game winning and ending pick, there's a problem there.  Hopefully a game against the Rams next week will help the D fix the problems.  The good part about the D was they were able to limit Arain Foster to 69 yards and the Skins had 5 sacks on Schaub.  At least we are now getting pressure on the QB and forcing them into bad throws at times, but we still need to get more picks and turnovers.

Game ball, Donovan McNabb:  Really this was a no decision 28 of 38 for 426 yards and a TD, McNabb is turning Cooley and Moss back into starts and this week he spread the ball around as Joey Galloway, Mike Sellers, and Anthony Armstrong all had multiple receptions.  Armstrong might of only had 2 receptions, but both of them were for big gains and possibly McNabb can turn Armstrong into a deep threat and take all of the attention away from Moss, whose had an outstanding year so far thanks to Donovan.  

Keys and Key Matchups for Redskins vs Texans

 Ok time to get over it, the Dallas win was nice, but like I have been saying all week much more work is needed.  This Sunday, at Fed Ex Field our beloved Redskins will be playing host to the other Texas team, the Houston Texans.  The Redskins lead the all time series with the Texans by 2-0.  The last time the teams met was in Houston, in 2006.  Clinton Portis rushed for 85 yards and 2 TD's while QB Marc Brunell completed an NFL record 22 consecutive passes in a  31-15 victory for the Burgundy and Gold.  That was then, this is now the Texans are coming off of a very convincing 34-24 win over the Indianapolis Colts last week.  The Texans win was due to RB Arian Foster's performance as he rushed for 231 yards and 3 TD's last week.  But just because the Texans ran the ball a ton last week doesn't mean that they have forgotten about Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson.  On the defensive end rookie, for the Texans, LT Trent Williams will have another big job as he will go up against DE Mario Williams as he had 1 sack and 4 tackles last week.

Key Matchups:

Trent Williams vs Mario Williams: In the battle of the trenches this week, the key battle will be on left side of the ball as rookie LT Trent Williams will have his hands full for the second week in a row against DE Mario Williams.  Trent Williams did a fairly good job last week against Damarcus Ware, but Ware got injured in the 2nd half so Williams received somewhat of a break.  I highly doubt that Mario Williams will get injured and sit out the rest of the game so if Mario Williams is in the whole game, this will be the first complete test for the rookie Trent Willaims.

Redskins Secondary vs Andre Johnson:  Despite what was a good defensive performance, the pass defense in the final minute of the game looked like complete shit last week.  And Reed Doughty looked like complete shit the whole game.  D Hall will most likely be matched up with Johnson for most of the game, but if Johnson is double teamed or blanketed over the top in cover 2, it'll most likely be Reed Doughty doing those duties and will have to do them well or else its going be a long day for the Skins secondary.



Donovan McNabb vs Texans Secondary: Last week the Texans gave up 419 and 3 touchdowns to Peyton Manning and last year the Texans pass defense was ranked 18th in the league.  This should be a huge plus for Donovan McNabb since it looks like McNabb will be going to Chris Cooley and Santana Moss alot this year.  If McNabb can keep finding Cooley and Moss, look for him to have a big day and just maybe the Skins red zone blues will be cured.

Redskins Front 7 vs Arain Foster:  Despite going up against a very bad rushing Defense in the Colts last week, the Redskins will still have to respect Arain Foster until they prove that they can stop him.  The Skins did do a great job last week of stopping Marion Barber and Felix Jones as they held the Dallas rushing attack to just 103 yards.  I'm going to go out and say that the Skins should not have to much problems stopping Foster, but if they can't it'll be one of those days in Landover on Sunday.

Keys for a Skins Victory:

1. Stop Arain Foster: I'm alot more confident in the Skins rushing defense than I am in their pass defense and this shouldn't be to big of a concern for the Skins, but they still have to stop Arain Foster if they are going to win on Sunday.  It's going to be up to Ma'ake Kemoeatu, London Fletcher and Rocky McIntosh  to clog up the middle and Andre Cater and Brian Osackpo to shut down Foster on the outside.  If the Skins can do this then the D will have to only worry about one thing.



2. Stop Andre Johnson: This is the biggest threat I see to the Skins defense on Sunday.  Like I said earlier the Skins D didn't look to hot in the final minute last week and Reed Doughty didn't look to hot period last week.  This week Doughty is faced with helping cover one of the best, if not the best receiver in the league.  Just because the Texans abandoned the pass last week doesn't mean that they will do the same this week.  Houston mainly ran the ball because the Colts rush D is god awful and to keep Peyton Manning off the field.  Johnson could have a huge day against this somewhat weak secondary.  If the Skins can shut the run down then they will know that all the Texans will do is just pass the ball and that plays right into the hands of Carter and Osackpo.

3.  Continue Passing:  Donovan McNabb was able to find both Chris Cooley and Santana Moss alot last week and don't be surprised if McNabb goes back to them again this week and for the rest of the season.  The Texans had the 18th rated pass defense last year and gave up 400 plus yard last week to Peyton and  company.  If McNabb is able to get protection and find his recievers this should be a big day for him and should go a long ways in being part of a win for the Skins.

4. SCORE A MOTHER F$&*ING TD!!!!: Seriously this is starting to get really annoying, yes it's a new offense and it's going to take time for everyone to get everything down.  But look at they way the Skins were able to move the ball last week, they moved it well until they got to the red zone, inside the 20 its as if Jim Zorn never left.  Maybe this is starting to be mental with the offense since they have struggled in the past, but if this continues its going to be another long fall in DC.









 

Podcast: Skins Review of Week 1/Preview of Week2, WVU vs MD Preview

Redskins get a win over the hated Cowgirls, now time to focus on the other NFL team from Texas, the Houston Texans.  And a rivalry renewed in Morgantown this weekend.  Once again because the computer in the studio is a piece of shit we had to split it up into 6 parts, hopefully the computer problems will get fixed but thats highly doubtful, so this is the best I can do. Enjoy.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/804722041096229d/ Part 1 Redskins Cowboys review Defense

http://www.zshare.net/audio/8047267892790987/ Part 2 Redskins Cowboys review Offense

http://www.zshare.net/audio/804728940d8056a9/ Part 3 Redskins Texans Preview

http://www.zshare.net/audio/80473260b0190a13/ Part 4 WVU MD preview MD O, WVU D

http://www.zshare.net/audio/80473506c8c58cfb/  Part 5 WVU MD Preview MD D, WVU O

http://www.zshare.net/audio/804736019607be5e/ Part 6 WVU MD Preview, Predictions

Nice Win, but Work Is Needed

What a way to start the season!!! Beating the rival Cowgirls on opening night on national TV, the stadium was the loudest probably since the playoff game vs the Lions, the defense played great besides the final minute that’s all great stuff to build off of, but holy shit there is some stuff that really needs work.  Here’s the recap from the week 1 win.

OFFESNE GRADE C-: The offense seemed to move pretty well until once again we got to the red zone.  Donovan McNabb was able to move the ball and get the ball in the hands of former pro bowlers Santana Moss and Chris Cooley a combine 12 times and 157 yards.  This is what we expected McNabb to do, get the ball back into Moss’ and Cooley’s hands and possibly turn these two players back into pro bowlers.  That was all good until and old foe came back to bite the Redskins in the ass, red zone offense.  Once again the Skins offense failed to score a touchdown and the performance in the red zone almost cost us the game.  Moving down the field in the 3^rd qtr leading 10-0 the drive was going all good and it looked like the Skins were going for the nail in the coffin due to the Cowboys multiple penalties.  Once we got into the end zone McNabb went to 4^th string WR Anthony Armstrong twice in the red zone.  The first time Armstrong looked like he had the ball  then the next play the pass goes long of Armstrong.  Then going for the chipshot field goal, the snapped is botched and the score remains 10-0.  If this team is ever going to get back to the playoffs they need to convert their chances in the redzone.  I guarantee next week if we can’t score TD’s, against the Texans, we are going to lose by a lot.  For those of you thinking that the Skins are a playoff team this year remember this, this is once again a new offense it’s going to take time for this offense to develop, but that’s still not an excuse for not finding the end zone on offense.

DEFENSE GRADE B-: Well the 3-4 did the job for most of the game, getting pressure on Tony Homo.  While I would’ve like to have seen more sacks, the pressure did cause bad throws and holding penalties.  The defense pass rush was excellent for most of the night and as team gets more comfortable with this scheme the sacks and turnover should come. LaRon Landry was put back in his natural position at SS and boy did he make an impact as he led the team with 13 solo tackles on the night.  Landry was flying from 12 yards back to stop the run and short passes all night long.   DeAngleo Hall’s forced fumble and return for a TD was key to the game as it became the only TD of the game, but with every great play D Hall makes comes a bad one.  In the 3^rd qtr it was D Hall once again missing a tackle on the edge on 3^rd down and the drive eventually led to a TD for the Cowboys.  D Hall also made mistakes in coverage, but he wasn’t the only one that messed up in coverage.  Reed Doughty was burned multiple times and once again showed why he should not be starting in the NFL.  Another problem was the defense in the final minute of the game given up the big plays a lot were targeted toward Reed Doughty’s way, but also at fault Carlos Rogers who once again drops a pick which could’ve sealed the game.  Shocking Rogers drops another fing pick, this has become a theme since he has been here and if this continues this will once again cost the team games and I don’t see Rogers coming back next year if it does continue.

GAMEBALL BRIAN ORAKPO OSACKPO:  I guess Landry and maybe McNabb could’ve received this award, but if it weren’t for him it would’ve been a 14-13 loss to our rivals.  Orakpo didn’t have the best game stat wise, but the 3-4 isn’t about stats.  Not only did Orakpo draw the holding call that ended the game, he drew at least one other holding call possibly 2 others throughout the night.  If you’re a player that is consistently getting held, you have something special and I guarantee because it was a holding call that won the game for us tonight, teams are going to play Orakpo with caution and the sacks will start coming for him later in the season.

Key Match Ups for Skins vs Cowboys

Since we didn’t have time to go in depth on the podcast about this week’s game here some of the keys to this week’s game.

1.       Dallas O-Line vs Skins front 7:  Dallas will have two offensive linemen out this week.  RT Marc Colombo and LG Kyle Koiser will be sitting out tomorrow night. 6 year vetran Alex Barron will be taking Colombo’s place while 8 year vet Montrae Holland will start in place of Koiser.   Barron has started 75 games in his career while Holland has started in 48.  The questions with this years Cowboys team has been around the o-line and these injuries won’t help at all.   If Jim Haslett can get his run blitzes to work and can get pressure on Tony Homo, I mean Romo, this will be a great advantage for the Redskins and play a big key into getting the win for the Skins.  Over the past years the Skins have struggled to create turnovers on D, switching to 3-4 will help get more pressure on the QB and hopefully cause more turnovers this year.

2.      Donovan McNabb vs Cowboys Secondary:  Donovan McNabb has been known as a QB that can make plays, even though he is older now and can’t scramble like he used to, he still has the pocket presence and if he gets the protection needed from the o-line he can tear up a Cowboys secondary that only has Terence Newman has a shut down threat.  McNabb may not have the star receivers besides Chris Cooley, but if he can get the ball in the hands of Santana Moss, Joe Galloway, Devin Thomas and Fred Davis, McNabb could have a decent day passing.

3.      Redskins O-line vs Marcus Spears and  DeMarcus Ware: First round draft LT Trent Williams is going to get welcomed to the NFL very quickly as he goes up against Marcus Spears and when the Cowboys blitz, the rookie might be assigned to all pro DeMarcus Ware.  Last Year Ware had 11 sacks.  Sine Williams is a rookie, mistakes will be made during this game and during the season. The question is when are these mistakes made? Are they going to be made in the 1^st qtr or in the 4^th qtr during a game winning drive?  If Williams can minimize his mistakes McNabb will be fine on his blind side.  For the rest of the o-line, can they solve last years problems and get protection on the QB? The addition of Artis Hicks and Jamal Brown will be great on the right side of the ball as long as they can stay healthy.  This team lacks depth at O-line so if we have multiple injuries on the O-line again, DC fans will start looking forward to Ovechkin and John Wall sooner than later.

4.      Redskins Secondary vs Cowboys WR’s:  The Skins don’t have that great of a secondary either, Carlos Rogers drops to many pics and DeAngleo Hall seems to play only when he wants to play.  LaRon Landry is back at his natural position at SS, which might explain why he was burned do many times at FS last year.  With Landry back at SS he’ll be able to make those big hits instead of worrying about having the deep part of the field.  If the Skins have problems getting pressure on Romo this week, then it will be up to the secondary to stop the likes of Miles Austin, Roy Williams and rookie Dez Bryant.   With this talent of wide outs the boys have big plays will be given up from time to time, but if the secondary can minimize those big plays the Skins will have a chance to win this game.

Podcast 2010 Redskins Season Preview

Sorry for the long lay off between posts but now we have a podcast up and will be updated every week.  This week we preview the Redskins season, everything from the off season to getting ready for the cow girls.  Sorry its 6 parts but its the only way the comuter would up load it. Its about 50 minutes if  you listen to all 6 parts.  It may take a minute or so to load that's why it may sounded choppy at the start.

part 1: http://www.zshare.net/audio/80270946828a4126/ (Shanahan, Bruce Allan, Donovan McNabb)

part 2: http://www.zshare.net/audio/80271722b2fb4c7f/ ( Fat Ass aka Haynesworthless)

part 3: http://www.zshare.net/audio/802717660c459a7a/ ( QB's O-line)

part 4: http://www.zshare.net/audio/802718115fbd200f/ ( RB's, WR, TE)

part 5: http://www.zshare.net/audio/80274429a37fa648/ (Defense Preview)

part 6: http://www.zshare.net/audio/802744965f14fe43/ (Season Prediction and Cowgirls Prediction)

2010 Redskins Training Camp Preview

Well football season is finally upon us, in a few days whistles, screaming coaches, pads hitting and everything else that comes with training camp will fill the air in Ashburn VA. After a dismal 4-12 season last year the Redskins have somewhat cleaned house. Gone is Vinny Cerato and Jim Zorn, replacing the two are Bruce Allen as the GM and 2 time Super Bowl champion Mike Shanahan and I almost forget Donavan McNabb is the Skins’ quarterback. Here’s a look at position battles and storylines as camp unfolds.
Offensive Line:
Right now the Redskins starting o-line looks like this, from LT to RT, Trent Williams (#4 overall draft pick) Derrick Dockery (7th year), Casey Rabach (8th year), Artis Hicks (8th year) and at RT Jamal Brown (5th year) who comes off of an injury plagued year. As you can tell we have a very old and experienced o-line. This can be good and bad, the experience can play a key role if this team is somehow in the playoff race come December and the experienced guys can show the young guys the ropes ( after the rookies carry their pads and because we ain’t no cowgirls our rookies will carry the vets pads). Ok time to stop with the optimism, its training camp I can be optimistic, but now back to reality. The truth is that when you play in the NFC East, one of the toughest divisions in football, injuries are going to happen and usually the team with the most depth usually comes out on top. Our o-line backups Selvish Cappers, Stephon Heyer, Kevin Barnes, Will Montgomery and Edwin Williams just to name a few. I don’t know about you but I only recognize one or two of those names, not good for an offensive line that went through multiple injuries last season and will most likely have injuries again this year as aging linemen have trouble staying healthy through 16 games. What to look for during the o-line drills this August is to see if these backup linemen can do the job, watch to see how they do in one on one drills vs the d line, in scrimmages and pre seasons games. If these guys can hold their own in one v one drills and in games the Skins will not have the same JV offensive line they had last year, but if they struggle in August be prepared to start goggling names on the offensive line like last year and be ready for another long season.
Donovan McNabb:
When the rumors came out that the Eagles were thinking about trading McNabb to the Skins, I thought now way would the Eagles trade their star QB, for the past decade, to a NFC East rival. Little did I know as I turned on the TV to see that the Eagles had traded their boy to the hated Redskins. Now a QB that I have hated for the past 10 years (respectively) is going to be playing for my favorite sports team, I still can’t picture McNabb in burgundy and gold. With that said McNabb’s leadership is very valuable to this team as the Skins have not had a true leader on offense in a while. McNabb has already brought out receivers to his home in Arizona for “hell week” as McNabb and receivers worked out together and hopefully developed a rhythm with each other. McNabb can also make people around him better like he did with Todd Pinkston in Philly. Maybe McNabb can do the same with Malcolm Kelly and or Devin Thomas so Santana Moss isn’t doubled teamed all the time. At camp look for any type of rhythm with McNabb and receivers if this is present early the Skins can have a legit offense for the first time in a while.
Runningbacks:
Well Dan Snyder said that he would change his ways and let Bruce Allen and Mike Shanahan run the show, the signings of Larry Johnson Willie Parker and possibly Brian Westbrook seem like classic Snyder signings to me as these backs are old and passed their prime. By the end of this year all 3 RB’s (Larry Johnson, Willie Parker and Clinton Portis) will all be 30 or older in age, not good when the average career of a NFL RB is 2.5 years. I’m not throwing out the possibility that Shanahan wanted these players, since it’s been rumored that he initiated the Portis for Champ Bailey trade, but why isn’t Shanahan stocking up on young RB’s through the draft like he did in Denver? Anyways, Portis, Johnson and Parker are our backs for this year. Portis comes into camp as the #1 back, but if he’s injured at any point this year Johnson or Parker could come in and take his role or even during training camp if Portis decides to sit out because of fear of injury. Another interesting storyline that can unfold with these guys is if anyone’s gonna bitch and complain about not getting carries. All of these backs have been starters before and all 3 most likely think they can start on this team, if someone starts complaining this could cause turmoil in the locker room and become another problem for the Skins. During camp look to see if the backs get after each other in drills and if Portis does sit out see if Johnson or Parker will take over that starting role.
Haynesworthless:
I’ve already expressed my opinion on this matter, so all I’m gonna say is that it seems he is coming to training camp, apparently he’s lost 30 to 40 lbs, maybe he will come in shape and we’ll see if he goes through camp without an “injury” and if he does that means he really was in shape. I still think the Skins will try to trade him if the right opportunity is there as his teammates have already turned on him and the organization as whole as moved on from him.

Top 10 Dumbest Moves by Dan Snyder

This needs no introduction the title explains it all, please let me know if I missed any other dumb moves I'm sure there's plenty more out there.

Honorable mention:

-2010: After seeing more Ovechkin, Strasburg, John Wall jerseys and even more DC United apparel than Redskins apparel at Fed Ex field, Dan Snyder decides to ban all Washington sports apparel, besides Redskins apparel to be worn at Fed Ex field to promote more of a “team spirit atmosphere.”

- 2002 Signs Jeremiah Trotter:  This was this year’s big signing as Danny and company Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter to a 7 year $35.5 million dollar contract. Trotter only played 2 out of the 7 year contract before heading back to Philly.  Stats as a Redskin:  150 solo tackles, 2 interceptions and just 1.5 sacks 

- 1999 Hires Vinny Cerrato as VP of Football Operations:  Ok I know some are going to say this should be in the top 10, but I’m like FIFA I like controversy, jk, but let’s take a look at this Cerrato and Snyder were basically butt buddies and the only reason why Cerrato was hired by Danny boy was because Danny knew that he could make all the moves he wanted with Cerrato as the VP.  The one main thing Cerrato can be solely responsible for is for trading away draft picks and not so great drafts at times.

10. 2004 Trades Champ Bailey for Clinton Portis: Still not sure if this trade was by Danny or if Joe Gibbs initiated this trade to get his 2000 version of John Riggins.  Here is where the biggest problem with this trade lied; Champ Bailey is a shutdown, once in a lifetime cornerback.  He was mentored by one of the best in Darrell Green and offenses never throw his way because the ball will most likely end up in his hands.  At the time of the trade, Clinton Portis had produced in Denver as he rushed for 3,099 yards and 29 touchdowns in 2 seasons as a Bronco.  Thing is, a good running back is easy to come by the draft, something that Snyder and company don’t know about, and a shutdown corner like Champ Bailey is  not easy to come by.  Snyder and or Gibbs could have easily picked up a RB through Snyder’s favorite market free agency or by drafting a running back and kept Champ Bailey. 

9. Near Future:  After getting cut from the Washington Wizards Dan Snyder decides to give Gilbert Arenas a 6 year 30 million contract to play PR and WR for the Redskins.  Plan backfires when Gilbert shows up at Albert Haynesworth’s house jokingly pointing a gun at his head for not showing up to minicamp and OTA’s.

8. 2009 Bans signs being brought into Fed Ex Field:  The 2009 season was the breaking point for Redskins fans with Dan Snyder.  Fans had it before with Daniel Snyder, but after a 19-14 loss to the Detroit Lions, who had loss the 19 previous games, this was loss that broke Redskins fans backs.  After this loss back at Fed Ex Field, it did not take much for fans to start booing their beloved team and signs saying sell the team and others bash Dan Snyder signs popped up .  Since those signs were hurting Danny feelings he decided to not let signs be brought into Fed Ex ticking off Redskins fans even more.

7.  2009 Signs Albert Haynesworth: Dan Snyder signs Haynesworth to the largest D tackle contract in history at $100 million over 7 years.  As we speak right now the plan is backfiring.  Haynesworth is the ONLY Redskin that did not show up to minicamp and to OTA’s this whole off season.  Why? Because in a 3-4 defense poor little Haynesworth is not going to have great stats since his job will be to clog up both A gaps.   O so now Haynesworth is worried about stats, yea sure cause 4 sacks and 38 tackles (Solo and Assist) last season was a lot.  Haynesworth is exactly what I thought he would be a fat lazy piece of shit!!! In his 8 year career he has never played a full 16 game season.  Haynesworth is a perfect Nose Tackle for a 3-4, he has the size to clog both of those A gaps, but he’d rather just remain busy in the Tennessee woods with his yacht and monster truck instead being with the team and being in shape for once.  Yea sure this guy is definitely worth $100 million. 

6. 2009 Sues fans for dropping season tickets:  Surprisingly enough this one is not made up, yes good old Danny boy attempted to do this.  In a tough economy some Redskins fans had get out of their season ticket plans because they couldn’t afford it anymore, including a 72 year old woman close to bankruptcy.  What did Snyder do? Sue them even the 72 year old woman.  If you didn’t think all Snyder cared about was making money you should think that now.  Who does something like this, not even George Steinbrenner sued fans for dropping season tickets when they moved to the new stadium.  Snyder just cares about how much money and could not give two shits about the fans who waste their hard earned money to watch a below average franchise.  Obviously this didn’t go through, but you have to be a money hogging whore to try to attempt something like this, what does Snyder need the money for anyway? He’s already a billionaire.  Maybe it’s because of Snyder there are so many Cowgirls fans in the DC area, and who can blame them.

5. 2001 Firing Marty Schottenheimer:  After one 8-8 season Snyder decides to fire Marty Schottenheimer, why? Because Snyder wanted full control of his team he wanted to be the coach and Marty was not having any of that he even fired Snyder’s buddy Vinny Cerrato as the VP of football operations that firing proved to be another reason for the firing as Snyder hired Cerrato back the next season.  8-8 is not a bad season and does not lead to a firing, after this it was obvious that Snyder and Cerrato were going to run things with the Skins weather it was good or bad, but mostly bad.  

4. 2006 Off Season: Signs Adam Archuletta, Antwaan Randle El, TJ Duckett and Brand Loyld: Ah yes one of the greatest spending sprees by Dan Snyder, the 2006 free agent class, the only thing that is keeping this from being in the top 3 is that Danny boy did sign Andre Carter for a 6 year $30 million contract. Carter has lived up to his contract as he has only missed 2 games in a Redskins uniform, mmmmm sounds a lot different than another defensive linemen for the Skins cough cough, anyways Carter’s stat line as Redskins is 31.5 sacks and 162 tackles in 6 years.

 Now to the bad part about this free agent class, let’s start with Adam Archuletta, Snyder signed Adam Archuletta to a 6 year $30 million contract making him the highest paid safety in NFL history.  Let’s just say that his performance on the field did not live up to his contract, Archuletta had 0 INTERCETPIONS yes 0 , just 49 tackles and started a whopping 7 games so much for $30 million and after the 2006 season Archuletta left DC for the windy city, so much for 6 years. 

Next Antwaan Randle El, Randle El was signed to a  7 year $31 million contract.  This was a classic Dan Snyder signing as Randle El had been a key player to the Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl  while he was a key to the Steelers, Randle was expected to be a #2 receiver in  DC, but he didn’t turn into that in DC as teams continued to double Santana Moss and Randle El did not produce when given the opportunity at WR or PR.  Randle El finished is sting in DC with 186 receptions for 2,202 yards 8 receiving touchdowns and 2 passing touchdowns.  Randle El slowed in age during his final 2 years in DC and definitely was not worth $31 million.  Rundle El this year will be back in Pittsburgh playing for the Steelers.

Brandon Lloyd was traded to the Redskins from the San Francisco 49ers and in return the niners received a 3^rd round draft pick in the 06 draft and a 4^th round pick in the 07 month, trading away draft picks something Danny boy is known for.  Whatever made Snyder like Lloyd we’ll never know, then again we’ll never know about half the moves he makes anyways, Lloyd put average numbers in San Fran with 1,510 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns.  When he came to DC, his production dropped and went Joe Gibb’s dog house right way as he only started 13 games in 2 years.  Lloyd stats as a Redskin were a whopping 25 receptions for 379 and an astounding 0 touchdowns.  Once again a major waste of draft picks.

Continuing with the theme of wasted draft picks, TJ Duckett, in a 3 team trade the Redskins gave up another draft pick to the Denver Broncos while the Broncos sent Ashley Lelie to the Atlanta Falcons and the Falcons sent RB TJ Duckett to the Redskins.  The Skins then signed Duckett to a 2 year $1.36 million contract.  Duckett only spent one year with the Skins with 38 carries for 132 yards and 2 touchdowns, all career lows for Duckett. 

3. 2002 Hiring of Steve Spurrier:  After going 122-27-1 and winning a national championship at the University of Florida , Steve Spurrier was hired as the head coach of the Redskins after Marty Schottenheimer was fired as head coach.  This hiring had disaster written all over from the start, Spurrier to decided to sign players that he had been successful with him in college, he signed former Heisman winner Danny Wuerffel and Shane Matthews both who had both been nothing more than backup QBs in the NFL.  Then he signed 6 former Florida WR and the results of the Florida alumni teams  12-20 in 2 season and 2 finishes in 3^rd place in the division after the 2003 season, Spurrier realized that he belonged at the College level and went on to coach at South Carolina.

2. 2000 Off season:  Signs Deion Sanders, Jeff George and Bruce Smith, after being on bad snap away from the NFC Championship game, the season earlier, Dan Snyder thought that all he had to do was just add a few players and the Skins would win their 4^th Super Bowl and many experts thought that the Redskins would be Super Bowl contenders.  Haha the 2000 season was far cry from that as the Redskins went 8-8 and the team 45 miles to the north won the Super Bowl.  Here’s who Danny boy signed to some outrageous contracts.

From the hated Dallas Cowgirls I mean Cowboys, Deion Sanders was signed to a 7 year $56 million contract after spending 5 seasons in Dallas.  Primetime had 4 interceptions, 38 tackles and 0 punt or kick return TD’s.  Best part of all was that he played only 1 out the 7 years of his contract.  After that season Deion retired then came back in 2004 with the Baltimore Ravens.   

Jeff George signs on as backup QB for $18 million over 4 years.  Talking about being paid to do nothing; over the 2 years he was in DC George only started in 7 games passing for 1,556 yards, 7 Touchdowns and 9 Interceptions.  George would then be a backup in Minnesota before hanging up the cleats.

Bruce Smith, after 15 years as Buffalo Bills, Smith left Buffalo to come to DC as he signed a 5 year $25 million contract.  Now stat wise, Smith had an ok stint in DC as he compiled 29 sacks and 137 tackles in 4 years.   But I’m sure Danny could have found a much younger D-end through the draft, then again Danny and company have no idea what the draft is.  Snyder would then continue to sign washed up free agents, a strategy that has not worked at all.

1. 1999 Becoming owner of the Washington Redskins:  Since Dan Snyder has become owner of the Washington Redskins; the Skins have compiled a record or 80-96, 6 coaches in 10 years and numerous starting QB’s.  Doesn’t sound like a winning formula at all and hasn’t been, signing big name free agents has not worked at all.  In fact any player that has made the pro bowl on their pervious team has not made the pro bowl as a Redskin, only 1 player has done that Santana Moss.   Not only has Snyder not given results on the field, he has shown that he could not care about the fans at all, going to a game at Fed Ex Field is one the biggest pain in the you know whats ever.  I remember as a little boy being able to take the metro to the Landover metro station then take a free bus over to the stadium.  Since Snyder took over that hasn’t been available, why? Because all Snyder cares about is making money, he doesn’t care about the fans.  The only way to get to a Skins game at Fed Ex is pay $100 + for a parking pass, pay $20 to walk 2 miles to the stadium or pay $40 to park 2 miles away and take a shuttle bus, wow Snyder you sure are making a killing you fucking ass hole.  To be a good owner Snyder just has to look right down the road to Ted Leonsis who isn’t afraid to answer questions to the media, takes fans questions on radio shows and even greets fans at the door before games.  Has Snyder done any of this HELL NO!!!! Snyder has now made a laughing stock out of a once proud organization and he doesn’t even seem to care that the Redskins are now the butt of every one’s jokes why? Once again because he’s making money and that’s all he cares about.  Snyder claimed at the end of the 2009 season that he will change his ways, so far I haven’t seen a change by the signings of Larry Johnson and Willie Parker and part of me thinks that they only reason why the Skins traded for McNabb was because Snyder knew he would get at least one primetime game this year.

What Type of Caps Drunk are You?

He is Who I Thought He Was

As of Tuesday evening all hell broke loose at Redskins Park in Ashburn. Albert Haynesworth is now refusing to attend a mandatory minicamp this week, after being the only Redskin not to show up at any OTA’s this spring, because the team is switching to a 3-4 defense this year, fat Albert doesn’t want to play in it because he won’t get his stats in a 3-4, yea sure 4 sacks and 30 tackles last year was a lot of stats. On April 1, Haynesworth took a $21 million check in good faith that he would attend this week’s minicamp. This deal was made earlier this year when the decision was made to switch to a 3-4 and the second half of the deal was that Haynesworth had the option to look at all other 31 NFL teams to go else were until April 1. Haynesworth supposedly looked, I doubt it from seeing his effort on the football field, and like the lazy piece of shit Haynesworth is he took the money and decided not to come, basically committing a theft from the Skins. Head coach Mike Shanahan put 100% trust in the fat ass that he would come to camp.

“When we owed him a check for $21 million dollars, we said, 'If you take that check, we do expect you to be the best defensive end, the best nose tackle--if we play you at free safety, we expect you to be the best free safety,' even though he'd have to lose a little weight. Whatever position we play him at, that he would have to do the best job he possibly could and make the commitment to be the best football player. Obviously he took the check. So I was surprised he wasn't here [at mini-camp], because I thought he did make that commitment once he took that check, that he wanted to be a Washington Redskin and he wanted to do the best thing for the Washington Redskins to help our defense and help our team win. Obviously it didn't go in that direction. So we're very disappointed."

The actions of Haynesworth do not surprise me at all, when we signed Fat Albert. I knew right away this was a mistake giving a player who has never played a full 16 game season a record contract of $100 million over 7 years. That stat alone should’ve been a red flag to giving him a contract like that, but as usual good ole Dan Snyder could not resist signing the biggest free agent of the 2009 class. Albert’s laziness was noticed throughout the season as he was sitting out in the 2nd quarter of games to get air. I knew this was going to happen all along and it didn’t surprise me at all when the fat ass was sitting out of games because he was out of shape, but if Coach Zorn or anyone on the team called him out he could go crying to mommy and daddy aka Vinny Cerrato and Dan Snyder. Fat ass can’t do that anymore now that a new regime is in town with Bruce Allen and Mike Shanahan and that’s another reason why he wants out because he can’t get his way anymore despite the fact that he is being way over paid to be sitting on the bench sucking in his inhaler. London Fletcher’s quote sums up Haynesworth easily “This is a situation that's really basically uncharted waters. Where a guy has gotten their money [and] it's not about contract, this is about 'I don't fit the scheme.' Well, you don't know if you fit the scheme because you haven't been here, so until you come here and see if you fit the scheme... . If they're gonna pay you what they're gonna pay you to be a 3-4 end or 3-4 nose tackle, come, be the best 3-4 end, 3-4 nose tackle that you can be, and at the end of the day we'll be happy with you." Fletcher went on to say that Haynesworth is selfish and mostly everyone on the team agrees.

So where do the Redskins go from here, it’s obvious now that this was a huge mistake, no pun intended, or is it? The Skins have a few options, trade him, cut him, buy his contract out or just let this play its self out. If this were under old management I would see the Skins letting this situation play out, thank goodness we now have two people (Allen and Shanahan) that know what they are doing. The Skins tried to trade him during the draft and that didn’t work out, maybe because the other 31 teams are smart and know that something like this can happen with Haynesworth. If there will be a trade the most likely scenario I see happening is come training camp a DT will get injured somewhere and that team will be making a phone call to the Skins. The Skins can definitely get something for Haynesworth, but after this showing of attitude I doubt we can get a 1st or 2nd round pick now. Depending on how ticked off Bruce Allen and Mike Shanahan are, they right now could be considering either buying out is contract or just cutting him straight up. Obviously a buyout would be cheaper for the Skins, but at this point it doesn’t matter how Haynesworth leaves just as long as he is not in a burgundy and gold uniform on September 12.

Anyone that is a fan or is associated with the Washington Redskins has the up most right to be pissed off at Fat Albert. What Haynesworth basically did was just give one the biggest middle fingers to the Redskins organization that this team has seen. He’s already over paid to start off with then takes a check for $21 million to show up to minicamp and then doesn’t show at all. Haynesworth is saying F U to all of the fans that use their hard working money to pay for outrageous prices for tickets, food and parking at Fed Ex just to pay his fat salary and he can’t even get off his lazy ass and show up to just a minicamp? You have got to be kidding me, Haynesworth is the stereotypical athlete that just cares about how much he makes and could care less about his team. And the excuses he makes, “uh I was guaranteed that we were going to run a 4-3 defense when I came here” well guess what fat ass the NFL stands for Not For Long and you should’ve known that Zorn was not going to be there any longer. People that know me very well know that I always say “Excuses are like ass holes, everyone’s got them and the all stink.” Mr. Haynesworth your ass hole really stinks and I will celebrate like the Redskins won the Super Bowl when I see you leave town.

NCAA Conference Shake Up: Does it Mean Anything for Georgetown and Maryland?

Well it was rumored to be coming and it is almost now a reality, a major shakeup in the college football conferences. As it looks right now, the Big 12 Conference will soon cease to exist due to Colorado and Nebraska officially applying for memberships to the Pac 10 and Big 10 Conferences, respectively. This is now going to create a domino effect as the Pac 10 reportedly has a plan to raid the Big 12 South division by taking every team except Baylor, (teams taken would be Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State). With those teams being added, to the Pac 10 that would create a 16 team super conference creating a lot of money being brought into the Pac 10 or possibly soon to be known Pac 16. With reports about the Pac 10 expanding, there have been reports about the Big 10 expanding to 16 teams also; teams in that discussion have included Missouri, Rutgers, Notre Dame and Maryland. Mizzou is most likely headed to the Big 10 with Nebraska officially applying today.

Rutgers is sexy to the Big 10 because of the huge New York City TV market. As the New York market would bring in plenty of revenue from TV, merchandise sales, conference tournaments and so on would add to the current revenue already being brought by the Big 10 Network and other sales from the current 11 teams, but the question is can Rutgers compete in the Big 10 for both football and men’s basketball? (The NCAA’s 2 main money making sports) On the gridiron, since going 11-2 in 2006 they have had two 8-5 season and one 9-4 season in the Big East conference, where the level of play is a lot lower than the Big 10. Rutgers has been a non factor for a while in men’s basketball and has not made it to the big dance since 1991. The level of play for Basketball, in the Big 10, is just below the level of play in the Big East. While there would be a lot more money made by joining the Big 10, Rutgers would remain irrelevant in the Big 10 and would have a better chance of succeeding in the Big East for both football and men’s basketball, if the Big East remains intact. Remember it was rumored earlier this year that both the ACC and Big 10 would raid the Big East.

For Notre Dame, it would make sense for the Irish to move to the Big 10 based on geography if more than just the Big 12 dissolves, but get this Notre Dame’s contract with NBC helps them make $21.1 million to the Irish’s academic programs. Everyone knows that the school will not give up that money just to be in a conference. As long as the BCS exists, the Irish won’t join a conference because all they have to do is get 9 wins and they get into a BCS bowl. 9 wins will become even easier if there are 4 super conferences because teams will only have 2 non conference games and at least one of those games will be cup cake team, but right now Norte Dame maybe considered a cup cake to some of the top 10 teams so they may just get those games anyways. Now on to Maryland…..

For the Terrapins, it would be smart for one out of the two major college sports to move to the Big 10. Competition wise Gary Williams and company will be competitive in the Big 10 as the ACC is just a ledge higher than the Big 10 basketball wise. The question is Gary willing to break ties with their ACC rivals? Border wars with UVA and Virginia Tech have become traditional games and of course there’s the Duke rivalry and weather if Duke fans like it or not it’s a rivalry. Anyways, the point is Maryland is just as big of a part of the ACC as all of the North Carolina teams. For football the move would be complete insanity, the Terps would get destroyed by the likes of Ohio St, Penn St and Iowa. The Terps couldn’t even beat Duke, yes in football not basketball, last year and could lose to Navy in the Crab Bowl this year. The one plus for both football and basketball is that Maryland would be able to recruit from the east coast to the mid west giving them one of the largest recruiting bases in the country. Like with Rutgers, Maryland is in the same situation, do the Terps want to trade winning for money? Maryland draws from both Baltimore and DC markets which is why Maryland has been discussed for the Big 10 since the conference would get two markets with one school. Maryland is more of a basketball school than football, but the Terps have won the ACC before in football and they would have no chance at a conference title in football if they move to the Big 10.

For Georgetown, they have to pray that the four 16 team conferences don’t emerge from this realignment or that the Big East emerges as one out of the 4 super conferences. The biggest problem for the Hoyas is that they are I AA or FCS for football, but of course we all know how historic the basketball program is. If the Big East does implode, both Georgetown and Villanova will be looking for a conference that will just take them as basketball schools. Both the Hoyas and Wildcats are basically in a holding pattern right now, because they do not have a I A football team they would not have enough say in the realignment since all of this seems be surrounded by football.

Here’s how I see things shaping up, if the Pac 10 does raid the Big 12 south to create a 16 team conference; other conferences will follow suit because they would not make as much money as the Pac 10 would be making and may lose money if they don’t expand with the Pac 10. So I have taken all of the current 6 major conferences and created 4 super conferences with 2 divisions of 8 teams in each conference. Teams would play everyone it there division once a year and 3 teams from the opposite division leaving room for 2 non conference games, but if this were to happen I could see the NCAA expanding to a 14 game schedule that way there would be 4 non conference games. The biggest plus for 4 super conferences is that opponents of a football playoff system will say that the 4 conference championship games are basically the semi final games for the national championships and since the conferences are so big the regular season games would be like first round and quarter final games. A plus one system can also emerge from this with the conference championships being the default quarterfinal games and the bowl games being the default semi final games.

ACC: Clemson, Georgia Tech, FSU and Miami all leave the ACC to join their rival foes in the SEC. Unfortunately, I do not see the Big East emerging as one of the 4 super conferences due to only 8 teams in the conference for football. The ACC will take WVU, Pitt, Syracuse, UConn, Rutgers and USF from the Big East. For football there would just be 14 teams with 7 teams in each division as the ACC would grab Georgetown and Villanova for basketball only. You may think the ACC would lose money by just having 14 teams for football, but this has basically combined the 2 best conferences year in and year out in college basketball and has created a super power basketball conference. Any money lost from a 14 team football conference would be made up during basketball season. Imagine Duke vs Nova, UNC vs WVU, Syracuse vs Duke, Villanova vs NC State, the battle of DC with Maryland vs Georgetown, Georgetown vs Duke who have already had some good games between each other in the past few years so imagine what that game would be like every year. With match ups like these every night, money would be easily gained as there would be no doubt that this would become the best basketball conference in the country. In fact, there are 17 men’s basketball national championships between the teams in this super conference, most likely the most in any of the 4 conferences for basketball. Here’s how it would look for football.

South: Duke, North Carolina, NC State, USF, UVA, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest
North: Boston College, Maryland, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, UConn and West Virginia

SEC: The SEC would grab Clemson, Georgia Tech, FSU and Miami from the ACC. This move could draw protest from South Carolina, Georgia and Florida as those 3 schools are the only SEC schools in their respective states and draw a recruiting advantage from that. Obviously with 2 SEC schools in South Carolina and Georgia and 3 schools in Florida, SC, UGA and Florida could lose some recruits to their rival schools. On the other hand, now that rivalry games would be conference games; they would mean even more to the winner as the victors would not only have state bragging rights but a spot in the SEC championship game could be on the line when the rival teams meet up. Even with recruiting there would be a rivalry as coaches will most likely go after the same players for their teams and add story lines about how this kid said no to FSU but yes to Florida to add fuel to the rivalries. Here’s how the toughest football conference in America would shape up.

East: Clemson, Florida, FSU, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Miami and South Carolina
West: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Vanderbilt

I know a lot of you are saying shouldn’t UK and Tenn be in the same division? Let’s be honest here, Kentucky hasn’t beaten Tennessee in 25 years, yes there have been close games, but I couldn’t find any other way to form the divisions. I could’ve had all the Florida teams in the west and put UK, Tenn and Vandy in the east, but the west would be stacked with Florida, FSU, Miami, LSU and Alabama all in the same division. It may not make a lot of sense for Tennessee and Vanderbilt to be in the west, but they are closer to the other west teams than Kentucky Schedule makers will just have to put UK vs Tenn every year on the schedule as an opposite division game.

Big 10: The Big 10 may have to change its name to the Big 16; then again they didn’t change it to the Big 11 when Penn State joined. The Big 10 has already grabbed Nebraska officially and Mizzou will be most likely be soon to follow. The Big 10 will then get what is left over from the Big East by getting Louisville and Cincinnati. The last team that I can see joining is either Notre Dame or Iowa State since Notre Dame is stubborn and won’t join anyone’s conference the Big 10 will take Iowa State since Iowa is already in the Big 10, making that in state rivalry a conference game. Here’s how I see it.

East: Cincinnati, Indiana, Louisville, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Purdue
West: Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota, Mizzou, Nebraska, Northwestern and Wisconsin

Pac 10: For the Pac 10 simple, they get what they originally planned by taking Colorado, Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma state. Here’s what the divisions look like.

Coastal: California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington and Washington State
West: Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech

The New Big 8: Here’s the answer for everyone saying, “What about Baylor, Kansas and Kansas State?” In this scenario the Big 8 makes a return with 2 out of the original 8 teams in Kansas and Kansas State, also joining the Kansas schools would be Baylor, Boise State, BYU, TCU, Utah and UNLV. Football-wise this would be a competitive conference and this conference would also receive an automatic BCS bid since the only mid-major schools to make it to a BCS bowl are in the conference and there are 3 former BCS conference schools in Baylor, Kansas and Kansas State. Basketball maybe a different story as I see Kansas dominating for a long time until the other schools start getting better recruits which will happen from it being known as the 5th BCS or major conference. The rest of the teams from the Mountain West and WAC will form a 14 team conference. Yes, I know a little much for a mid-major conference, but the MAC has 13 and this will give a chance for the Mountain West and WAC teams to win a conference crown instead of getting beat up by Boise, BYU, TCU and Utah all the time.

Here’s where the rest of the Big East schools not picked by the super conferences would go. St. John’s, Providence and Seton Hall would join either the A 10 or CAA. De Paul will most likely go the MAC brining that conference to 14 teams. It will be sad to see all of the basketball history in the Big East go. Yes Providence, St. John’s and Seton Hall were part of the original Big East but none of those schools have division I A football and that would be a turn off to any super conference if that was to form. Georgetown and Villanova have a bigger profile and more money than Providence, St. John’s and Seton Hall, that’s why I see Georgetown and Villanova surviving the formation of super conferences. It’s a shame that all the NCAA cares about these days is making as much money as possible, the NCAA doesn’t care about many traditions that could be in jeopardy with the formation of super conferences and that is not right at all.

Heros Summer Lacrosse Preview: Team Beej

Well summer is here and nothing says summer in Maryland like Hero’s lacrosse and with play in the men’s league getting under way tomorrow night, one team looks to take the summer crown in the men’s league.  That team is Team Beej; the team is a combination of club lacrosse players and college varsity players.  Most of the players on this team are products of Spalding high school and other MD high schools.  Team Beej is coached by Brenden Jones who has spent 3 years as an assistant coach to former Spalding lacrosse head coach Zach Burke.  This will be Jones’ first stint as a head coach “I’m very excited to be coaching this team, I learned a lot as an assistant at Spalding and hopefully those lessons that I learned from Coach Burke will pay off with this team,” says Jones, “This team is very talented and the expectations of this team is to compete for the championship this summer.  Along with the talent, we have also worked very hard in practice.  We had 2 a day practices for the past 2 weeks and because of that both the offense and defense are running on all cylinders. We also have done a lot of running and I don’t expect us to lose a game at all this summer because of conditioning.  We had some tough morning practices due to people being hungover, but we were able to work through it.  Another plus is that due to having 2 a days this team has become very close to each other and from my experience as a coach, the teams that tend to be close to each other tend to win more games.”  Not only is Jones the head coach but he will also be a playing for the team “I think me playing in the games will help out the team a lot because everyone will be able to hear the calls instead of listening for calls from the sideline, that’s a huge advantage we will have over other teams.”

Offense:

On the offensive side of the ball Team Beej will feature two division 1 players in Andrew Scalley and Mike Poiter.  Scalley was a key part for the offense of Mount St. Mary’s as he was able to score 3 goals in MSM’s first round loss to UVA.  Scalley will once again be one of the go to men on Team Beej “Scalley has a tremendous scoring ability and we will look to use that this whole summer.” Says Coach Jones.  When teams start to focus in on Andrew Scalley, Team Beej will then look to Mike Poiter, a player on Maryland’s lacrosse team.  “Mike Poiter has a great shot from 10 to 15 yards, it’s almost unstoppable. I think that when you have two key offensive weapons that are pretty hard to stop, your offense becomes very hard to defend because you cannot just double one player then leave the other wide open.  Poiter and Scalley will definitely cause problems for opposing defenses.” Says Coach Jones.  Coach Jones will also be taking the Princeton offense used in basketball and make it into lacrosse offense “I’ve always been a fan of the Princeton offense and I think that it will work in lacrosse also.” At the faceoff X will be Matt King who will be playing at Salisbury this year.  “Matt is one of those faceoff guys that will beat with skill and speed not by power,” Says Coach Jones.

Defense:

On the defensive side of the ball, Team Beej will look to a variety of long polls and short stick d middies starting with Mike Jones aka Short Fat who will anchor the defense.  “Mike or Short Fat is a solid defender, he did a great job playing for Maryland club lax this past year and we will definitely put him on the other teams top scorer every week,” Says Jones and asked were the nickname came from for Mike, Jones says “It’s been a  joke since high school, we joke cause we love.”  Team Beej will feature two great short stick middies in Andy Bieler and Chris Haines.  Andy Bieler played club lacrosse at Villanova this past year and uses his speed to defend. “Bieler has great speed and will be useful to create fast break chances” Says Jones, “if the situation comes, Bieler may have to be a full time middie if we need him and that’s a plus to have a defensive short stick middie that can also play offense.”  Chris Haines is coming back from a 2 ½ year retirement from lacrosse as he was busy playing Rugby in Europe and for the US national team.  “It was apparent during the first few practices that Haines was a little rusty; he also came into camp over weight and has been working on getting back into shape.  Despite those two minuses, I really like Chris Haines’ heart.  He may not be the best player on the field, but he will out hustle you to every ball and isn’t afraid at all to lay down the wood,” Says Jones.  At long stick middie will be Tim Ryan who played his club ball at Notre Dame, “Tim is a great defender and will be seeing a lot of playing time as long stick middie as we don’t have anyone else that can play that position as of right now,” Says Jones.  In goal will be Salisbury product Mitch Meredith.  “Meredith did not see a lot of action at Salisbury this spring, but he can still can the job done for us this summer.”