RANDOM RANTING

NOTRE DAME TO JOIN A CONFERENCE FOR FOOTBALL?

Much has been made over the years about Notre Dame’s affiliation with the Big East conference. In 1995, the conference allowed Notre Dame to join in all sports but football leaving them as an independent. Since that time rumors have swirled that the Big Ten would like to get Notre Dame to be its 12th team (they would probably still go by the Big Ten even with 12 teams considering all they did when Penn State joined was change the design of the logo). There has also been a strong push from Big East fans and schools to force them to join the conference in football, or to get rid of them altogether. Big East fans need to worry no more. After last Saturdays home loss to UCONN, Notre Dame officials have been told by the Big East that they are not welcome into their conference for football in fear it would hurt the conferences national perception. If you recall Temple was kicked out of the Big East in football because they could not compete at a high enough level, which seems to be the case with the Irish as well. Over the past two seasons, Notre Dame is 0-4 versus Big East teams with three of those losses coming in South Bend. Big East teams have been scheduling games recently with the Irish to try to get easy wins to help their win total in efforts to become bowl eligible. Here is a look at Big East teams with Notre Dame on their schedule trying to get easy wins:
Pitt – home and home series every year through 2015
South Florida – plays at Notre Dame in 2011
UCONN – plays 6 times in seven years between 2011 and 2017
Syracuse – plays 4 straight years in a home and home series between 2014 and 2017
Rutgers has also been trying to schedule a game in the 2011 season to be played at Yankee Stadium with the Irish.
All told, this would be 18 wins for the Big East against Notre Dame in the coming years.

Not all is bad for Irish fans though, Temple is currently 7-0 in conference play and in first place in the MAC East, I’m sure if you ask nicely the MAC would find room for you somewhere in the MAC West division.


4th AND 2

I didn’t get to put my two cents worth last week about the bonehead call made by Bill Belichick, so I will do it now, and it is really simple. HE IS NOT A GREAT COACH!

I know this will shock everyone that someone would even have the gull to utter such a phrase, but lets look at things a little closer before we put him on the Mount Rushmore of NFL Coaches. Belichick was blessed with the luck of having Tom Brady fall into his hands as a compensatory pick in the 6th round (drafted #199 overall) in 2000. Tom Brady is without a doubt a fantastic QB. He is top 3 in the NFL now and that might not be high enough. But let’s see what Billy did before this Joe Montana of this generation showed up on his doorstep.

Bill Belichick is currently in his 15th season as an NFL head coach. His career record in regular season play is 145-89. His record in the playoffs is 15-4. His record without Tom Brady as his starting QB is 51-62. Err..what?! Yes, EXACTLY! He has had two winning seasons as a head coach without Tom Brady leading the show. In his 7 years as a head coach with Tom Brady under center he has had winning seasons in all seven, in the 7 without him he has 2. He had an overall record as the Cleveland head coach (how many people forgot he coached in Cleveland?) of 36-44 in five seasons with one winning season before being fired after the 1995 season. It is also not like he had this great insight to make Brady his starting QB, he started him by default after Drew Bledsoe was bleeding internally after a hit in the 2001 season. Brady took a team that was 0-2 and they finished 11-5.

Now, let us look at the Bill Belichick coaching tree. Normally you can tell how good of a coach someone was by the success of his or her understudies. Nine coaches learned under Belichick and went on to become head coaches elsewhere. Here are their coaching numbers:
NFL COACHES:
Romeo Crennel, Cleveland Browns, 2005-08, 24-40
Al Groh, NY Jets, 2000, 9-7
Josh McDaniels, 2009, 6-4
Eric Mangini, NY Jets and Cleveland Browns, 2006-2009, 24-34
Nick Saban, Miami Dolphins, 2005-06, 15-17
Jim Schwartz, Detroit Lions, 2009, 2-8
NCAA COACHES:
Kirk Ferentz, Iowa, 1999-2009, 80-53
Al Groh, Virginia, 2001-2009, 59-52
Pat Hill, Fresno State, 1997-2009, 92-61
Charlie Weis, Notre Dame, 2005-2009, 35-26
Nick Saban, Michigan State, LSU, Alabama, 112-48-1

Of the NFL coaches not one had a winning record that coached more than a season and only two fo the six are still with their original job and those guys are both new this season. In college, he has done much better. All of these coaches have winning records and are still currently employed (both Al Groh and Charlie Weis are rumored to be fired after this season.)

So, maybe that bonehead 4th and 2 call wasn’t that much of a surprise. Tom Brady executed it, and put the throw on the money, but it just was not enough. Maybe is was just a bad play call by a bad head coach.

KINGS OF KENTUCKY

Can we please stop the National Title talk for the Kentucky Men’s Basketball team?! First of all, what is all this talk based on anyway? The fact that they where .500 in conference play last year and did not make the NCAA tournament? Or maybe it is the way the team played in their tough loss to Notre Dame in the third round of the NIT last year. Or it could be that they return their leading scored, Jodie Meeks who averaged 23.7 ppg, oh wait, he is not on this team!

So what is it that makes this team so improved? Is it the coach? Yes, John Calipari is a fantastic coach and a great recruiter, but he has never won ANYTHING in his coaching career. Is it the fact that they brought in a ton of young talent, yeah that probably does not hurt much either, but let’s be honest, this team needed a buzzer beater to beat Miami OH in the second game of the season. They are 4-0 against bad competition and struggled in three of the four games to put the teams away. That same Miami team lost to Towson by 11, Louisiana Tech by 8 and New Mexico by 25.

I’m sure given a couple of shady recruiting classes, Calipari will have Kentucky playing in Final Fours, but can we all settle down on already saving a spot for them this year in Indianapolis this year?

IF YOU AIN’T RUBBING YOU AIN’T RACING

Okay, I do not watch NASCAR. I am sorry, watching a bunch of men making left turns for 3+ hours just does not do it for me. However, I am aware of what goes on in the sporting world and all week all anyone was talking about was Jimmie Johnson winning his unprecedented 4th straight Cup Championship. All he had to do was finish 25th or better to hold off 50-year old Mark Martin. So here is my question, why did not someone on Mark Martin’s team put Johnson into the wall on the first lap of the race? Is it an unwritten rule in NASCAR that you do not wreck each other? I see guys fighting with each other for that exact reason every Sunday on SportsCenter. Maybe I am a dirty sport. Maybe I do not appreciate the sportsmanship of racing. But maybe these guys just are not as competitive as I would hope they would be. You are talking a championship for your sport being on the line, you don’t think other sports have guys doing whatever it takes to win titles? Come on guys a title is on the line, you should being laying it all on the line too!