It's May. I don't have any gripes with May; it's a good month in my humble internet opinion.
SABAN ON SEC/B1G DIFFERENCE. Nick Saban spoke at a fundraiser in Mason, Ohio yesterday and was asked how long it will take the B1G to get to the SEC's standard. After joking he "wanted to be politically correct with this one," the talk turned stern.
From The Cleveland Plain Dealer:
“I think you have great high school football here in Ohio, but there’s a lot of really good players in the Southeast and I think there’s a lot of passion for those players, and as that league has accomplished a lot of success through the years, more and more people on a national basis want to come there,” Saban said. “So it’s created a real competitive conference. But I think the Big Ten has great institutions and are certainly capable of all those things and I think you almost have to nationally recruit in this day and age.”
[...]
“Everybody grows up a college football fan,” Saban said. “There’s no Cincinnati Bengals fans. There’s no Cleveland Dawg Pound. There’s no other choice for people in terms of how they grew up. So that passion for athletics, especially football, is really, really strong. In the Southeast, the school is still the center of a lot of communities. So there’s a lot of positive self-gratification for people to be involved in programs.”
[...]
“I think we have a little bit of an advantage when it comes to the recruiting base we have in the Southeast,” Saban said. “But I think the Big Ten is a really good conference. And I want to be quoted on that.”
[He also told his Woody Hayes story.]
I suppose this is fair. I want to bitch about this... but this is a fair take.
*glares at Purdue and Illinois*
JAMEIS WINSTON IS SINKING JAMEIS WINSTON'S DRAFT STOCK. Unless you totally disconnected yourself from the American sports realm yesterday, you're aware Jameis Winston was pinched for lifting ~$32 in crab legs and crawfish from a Publix. (Teammate Rocki Lay had a theory as to why Jameis stole the food in the first place.)
Anyway, here's some of a Bleacher Report article in which a bunch of NFL people act like murders, rapists and drug dealers haven't enjoyed long, storied careers in their league:
"We're talent whores. But we're not total whores. It's almost impossible, at this point, to trust Winston."
[...]
Said Bleacher Report draft expert Matt Miller: "Jameis Winston may want to check and see if Major League Baseball scouts are willing to look the other way on character concerns, because NFL teams will not. [...] Winston's off-field transgressions will only magnify the fact that he's not a very polished quarterback. His long, slow release must be sped up to survive in the NFL, and when you look at the amazing talent around him at Florida State, you have to wonder how well he translates to a pro-style offense."
[...]
And, finally, one last scout: "This reeks of entitlement. Nothing more."
I agree on the entitlement. It's one thing to steal something on which to subsist, it's another to just walk off with $30 worth of seafood. You can't even hide something like that, and I'd be shocked if that was Winston's first rodeo at that Publix.
Speaking of Jameis Winston and entitlement, what was it Winston said last off-season that earned rave headlines?
"If I get [Johnny] 'Manziel disease,' I want every one of y'all to get your mics and just start [hitting me] on the head," he told reporters.
Ah. Okay.
DEATH TO PRESEASON POLLS. I hate the slow beat of news in the off-season, because it makes me cover things like this. Sporting News, which it should be noted pays Matt Hayes thousands of dollars to type things into the internet, released their preseason poll yesterday.
| School | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma |
| 2 | Oregon |
| 3 | Florida State |
| 4 | Alabama |
| 5 | Auburn |
| 6 | Stanford |
| 7 | Baylor |
| 8 | UCLA |
| 9 | Ohio State |
| 10 | South Carolina |
This does not end well for Oklahoma, does it?
And I don't want to get fired up about a preseason poll in May, but SLEEP ON MY BUCKEYES AT YOUR OWN RISK, YOU FOOLS.
SELECTION COMMITTEE NOTES. ESPN has the full breakdown on playoff selection committee parameters over here, but here's something I found most interesting; TAKE IT AWAY JOEY SCHAD:
Jeff Long says it's not most DESERVING teams, but the focus is the BEST four teams that shall get into the bracket
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) April 30, 2014
CFB Playoff selection criteria includes: record, SOS, conference champIonships won, head to head and record vs. common opponents.
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) April 30, 2014
College Football has always stated desire for four BEST teams in playoff; nothing new; they dont use other phrase (deserving) thats all
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) April 30, 2014
Just wait until an SEC team gets snubbed; the flood from Southerners' tears will be biblical.
... Wait this is totally going to be used to railroad a three-loss SEC team into the playoffs, isn't it?
DONTE HITNER WILL NOT BE JOINING US. Newly-minted Cleveland Browns safety Donte Whitner had expressed his desire to legally change his name to Hitner. Sadly, this won't be happening. From ESPN:
After pondering changing it, Cleveland Browns safetyDonte Whitner has decided to keep his name.
What dissuaded him was the notion of having to change all his legal documents, from car titles to mortgages to credit cards.
"All for one letter change?" Whitner said Wednesday at the Browns' second day of minicamp. "I'd rather not."
I guess this makes some sense. It also reinforces just how crazy Chad Johnson was for changing his name to Ochocinco.
Still, I think I would've scrounged some money together and traded it for a Hitner jersey. (The only other man's name I've worn on my back since graduating high school is Tim Couch's. And yeah, you're damn right that jersey is still pearlin' in my closet.)
BIELEMA: STILL THE WORST. I will admit I miss having the most detestable figure in college football in the conference. Wisconsin was much more fun to hate and to beat with this walking colostomy bag at its helm:
Bielema: Hog-a-nese is a word I created. It's like Japanese, Chinese, Lithuanese ?? Huh?
— Thomas Murphy (@TomMurphyADG) April 30, 2014
The whole language is probably guttural grunting and fart noises.
THOSE WMDs. The craziest, most terrifying intersection in the world... My favorite Jameis Winston-related joke from yesterday... How a troubled romance fueled 80 arsons in rural Virginia... Why I Fixed Fights... What Caesar Told His Centurions: Lessons of Classical Leadership and Discipline for a Post-modern Military... The Murders at the Lake... This is one of the more baffling ads I've ever seen... Remembering when Eddie George ruined Lou Tepper's life... World War I documented in photos... Rolling Stone on ESPN's Bill Simmons...
