I haven't had much time for long posts lately, but here's a few notes on some things in the local sports scene:
I really don't understand all the local controversy over the playoff fate and performances of LaDainian Tomlinson and Antonio Cromartie. They are irrelevant now. It makes for some media fodder, but that's about it...My sources tell me there is not going to be any substantive news about the potential new downtown stadium for the Chargers for a while. All the action is in LA. However, the conditions levied on the LA City Council by Philip Anschutz may be too much for them to handle, so that's no sure thing.
Kind of funny reading stories about how tough BYU's Marriott Center has been on the San Diego State basketball team over the years. Irrelevant, also. The Pit and Huntsman Center have been rough on the Aztecs, as well, and you've seen what's happened there...I think SDSU is as likely to win Showdown No. 1 on Wednesday night because they're a better team and, despite the record, I'm not sure BYU is as good as it was last season...If you think this town is going Aztecs crazy, wait until after they beat the Cougars. If they do, you can paint this town red and black...The football team's offensive coordinator is going to be Andy Ludwig, who directed Utah's attack in their undefeated season a couple of years ago. Wow! Just wow! It's all going good...I'm pleased to see former USD head coach Kevin McGarry was hired to handle the linebackers. His separation from USD was handled horribly by the school. It's great to see him land on his feet.
Speaking of USD, I last week heard some serious anti-Bill Greer sentiment for the first time in other areas of the media. My criticism has always been over the way predecessor Brad Holland was let go, putting pressure on Greer to perform. And you've seen how it has gone. But Greer is certainly going to get another year.
Like Jason Bartlett and Orlando Hudson, I'd have preferred to see Jorge Cantu a few years ago. Now is a little late...If Tim Stauffer is pitching well through May, I'd spring for a multi-year contract...I can't complain about the pitching moves, though. Throw out the 2010 ERA of the latest bullpen pickup, Chad Qualls, because he's been very solid throughout his career.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Rocky Smooths Over Fans, Prepare for 18-1
Here's one coach who didn't take long (pun sort of intended) to win over his fan base.
In one fell swoop, Rocky Long undid 24 hours of despair by San Diego State fans and restored their self-worth. Even the best of psychologists would have taken years and charged thousands to accomplish such a feat.
While Jim Harbaugh and Les Miles and, apparently, Jon Gruden were saying no thanks to Michigan, former Aztecs coach Brady Hoke was slobbering over athletic director Dave Brandon's shoes. For all the great things he accomplished here, Hoke personally and the SDSU football program were diminished as a result.
Then defensive coordinator Rocky Long stepped to the plate and said SDSU was where he preferred to be and that the program was in better shape than that of the Wolverines. What he lacks in football sense is made up by his ability to spot a higher quality of life. Nothing could have picked up the program, and its backers, more.
The two things I did not expect Monday night were for Hoke to leave and for me to be happy about it because of the replacement. Hoke's regime at State was never all about him, to his credit. The strength was in the staff as a whole, particularly in the core of Hoke, outgoing offensive coordinator Al Borges, Long running the defense, QB coach Brian Sipe and strength and conditioning coach Aaron Wellman. While State will be worse off for the breakup of the staff, they're better off at the top. That surprises me.
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I don't understand the animosity of fans toward Hoke for leaving. These things are always ugly, but the vast majority of it can land at the feet the former chief Aztec was licking. For God's sake, Hoke took our run-down wreck of a program and turned it into a bowl winner in less than three calendar years. If you remember 2008, what happened this past season was a miracle.
Yeah, Hoke could have handled it better, but some of the complaints, like him not meeting with the SDSU players, hold no water -- the example because the students don't return to campus until next week.
I thank Hoke, and his staff, for what they accomplished here and I'm happy for him that he got his dream job. He has a big job ahead of him, and the stakes and pressure will be much bigger than they ever were here.
Meanwhile, the Dominoes Pizza airplane flew from Ann Arbor to Baton Rouge to Hilton Head, S.C., back to either Ann Arbor or Baton Rouge -- at any rate, it was in the Louisiana city again somehow -- to Ann Arbor to Orange County and finally to Ann Arbor again. I think someone may have noted a stop in Phoenix along the way. All in service of finding a head coach for Michigan. I wonder how many poor teens in Detroit could have been given part-time jobs for the money spent just in fuel.
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San Diego State's first loss will be Saturday at New Mexico, and 18-1 still looks really darn good. I just don't think the Aztecs can win two bruisers in a row, the second following a long plane trip. They're also in a typical mid-season slump, having had to resort to winning ugly the past couple of weeks. Former SDSU basketball teams would have lost some of the recent games. It's a sign of the high level of the current team that they're winning, sometimes easily, when they aren't playing their best. But this is an annual thing. Coach Steve Fisher, who gained his 400th career victory in the UNLV game, always has his team ready for the madness at the end of the season.
(Late Saturday edit: ain't it nice being wrong. 19-0. Wow!)
I liked the towels, mainly because the wife and kids had fun with them...Maybe it's me, but I'm seeing Malcolm Thomas moving ahead of DJ Gay and Kawhi Leonard for team MVP. He's been a huge force lately...I figured out why Billy White is so inconsistent. He has no rhythm, so he can't dance. Check him out in the huddle during pre-game introductions sometime. He looked like a computer science major before the UNLV game...The equipment manager might want to check with the Marines for body armor before they go to Vegas for the UNLV rematch.
In one fell swoop, Rocky Long undid 24 hours of despair by San Diego State fans and restored their self-worth. Even the best of psychologists would have taken years and charged thousands to accomplish such a feat.
While Jim Harbaugh and Les Miles and, apparently, Jon Gruden were saying no thanks to Michigan, former Aztecs coach Brady Hoke was slobbering over athletic director Dave Brandon's shoes. For all the great things he accomplished here, Hoke personally and the SDSU football program were diminished as a result.
Then defensive coordinator Rocky Long stepped to the plate and said SDSU was where he preferred to be and that the program was in better shape than that of the Wolverines. What he lacks in football sense is made up by his ability to spot a higher quality of life. Nothing could have picked up the program, and its backers, more.
The two things I did not expect Monday night were for Hoke to leave and for me to be happy about it because of the replacement. Hoke's regime at State was never all about him, to his credit. The strength was in the staff as a whole, particularly in the core of Hoke, outgoing offensive coordinator Al Borges, Long running the defense, QB coach Brian Sipe and strength and conditioning coach Aaron Wellman. While State will be worse off for the breakup of the staff, they're better off at the top. That surprises me.
---
I don't understand the animosity of fans toward Hoke for leaving. These things are always ugly, but the vast majority of it can land at the feet the former chief Aztec was licking. For God's sake, Hoke took our run-down wreck of a program and turned it into a bowl winner in less than three calendar years. If you remember 2008, what happened this past season was a miracle.
Yeah, Hoke could have handled it better, but some of the complaints, like him not meeting with the SDSU players, hold no water -- the example because the students don't return to campus until next week.
I thank Hoke, and his staff, for what they accomplished here and I'm happy for him that he got his dream job. He has a big job ahead of him, and the stakes and pressure will be much bigger than they ever were here.
Meanwhile, the Dominoes Pizza airplane flew from Ann Arbor to Baton Rouge to Hilton Head, S.C., back to either Ann Arbor or Baton Rouge -- at any rate, it was in the Louisiana city again somehow -- to Ann Arbor to Orange County and finally to Ann Arbor again. I think someone may have noted a stop in Phoenix along the way. All in service of finding a head coach for Michigan. I wonder how many poor teens in Detroit could have been given part-time jobs for the money spent just in fuel.
---
San Diego State's first loss will be Saturday at New Mexico, and 18-1 still looks really darn good. I just don't think the Aztecs can win two bruisers in a row, the second following a long plane trip. They're also in a typical mid-season slump, having had to resort to winning ugly the past couple of weeks. Former SDSU basketball teams would have lost some of the recent games. It's a sign of the high level of the current team that they're winning, sometimes easily, when they aren't playing their best. But this is an annual thing. Coach Steve Fisher, who gained his 400th career victory in the UNLV game, always has his team ready for the madness at the end of the season.
(Late Saturday edit: ain't it nice being wrong. 19-0. Wow!)
I liked the towels, mainly because the wife and kids had fun with them...Maybe it's me, but I'm seeing Malcolm Thomas moving ahead of DJ Gay and Kawhi Leonard for team MVP. He's been a huge force lately...I figured out why Billy White is so inconsistent. He has no rhythm, so he can't dance. Check him out in the huddle during pre-game introductions sometime. He looked like a computer science major before the UNLV game...The equipment manager might want to check with the Marines for body armor before they go to Vegas for the UNLV rematch.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Hoffman, Hoke and Rivera
It's quite a sports day in San Diego when two football teams lose important coaches and they aren't the top stories of the day.
That honor goes to Trevor Hoffman, the former Padre fan favorite, who recognized the end of his effectiveness and announced his retirement to mlb.com. He will speak to other reporters at Petco Park on Wednesday. Hoffman has 601 career saves, 42 more than Mariano Rivera of the Yankees on the all-time list.
Two interesting points in the article:
1. He will join the Padres in a front-office role.
2. He apparently still carries some animosity toward the club for how they parted ways two years ago. He said time heals wounds, and that he likes how the Padres -- with many new faces in the executive ranks -- have reached out to him. But he turned down a chance to sign with the Padres for a day to retire as a friar. I think that last part is something he will regret as he gets older.
The obvious question now is whether he should be a Hall of Famer. I think so, though only one career reliever is enshrined in Cooperstown, Bruce Sutter. I'm just not sure about voters elsewhere in baseball who only saw him humbled in his All-Star appearances. As in everything, it depends who else is eligible in a given year, but he should get in at some point.
---
The drama involved in whether Brady Hoke would remain the head football coach at San Diego State in 2011 was such that when we went to bed Monday night, it seemed all but certain that he would stay. When we woke up Tuesday, we learned that LSU's Les Miles decided to stay in Baton Rouge rather than take the head job at Michigan.
That left Michigan AD Dave Brandon left with a choice between a drawn-out national search during the height of recruiting season, or picking the guy who has been raising his hand and crying out "Me! Me! Me!" over the past month. The choice, gulp, became obvious, and now Hoke is set to be introduced Wednesday as the Wolverines new head coach.
I have no problem with Hoke leaving for his dream job. Good for him. I appreciate how he came to a rotten situation at SDSU, turned around the sinking ship and refloated it. Some people saw Hoke as a job-shopper, but not me. He said early on Michigan was the place he would leave for, and it was simply unfortunate that the job in Ann Arbor opened when it did. With defensive coordinator Rocky Long set to succeed him on Wednesday, the Aztecs could come out of this not much worse for wear.
The big danger is a loss of continuity with assistant coaches following Hoke. Their number will almost certainly include strength and conditioning coach Aaron Wellman -- as responsible as anyone for turning around the program -- and running backs coach/recruiting coordinator Jeff Hecklinski, my choice to stay as head coach. The list could expand to include offensive coordinator Al Borges.
Now that Long appears to be the choice, I think it is important to promote QB coach Brian Sipe to offensive coordinator, so senior QB Ryan Lindley won't have to face his third system in four years. Plus, there a lot of young receivers to break in this year. Changing things radically won't be good at this point.
We're about to find out what AD Jim Sterk is made of...Ironic that SDSU travels to the Big House in September, and could have a legit chance to beat the former coach...While Hoke is replaceable, the timing could hardly have been worse for SDSU, making me wonder if there are grounds for seeking extra compensation from Michigan...I'd trade Hoke to Michigan for basketball coach Steve Fisher any day.
---
If all that is not enough, the Chargers will be greatly hurt by the loss of defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, the new head man at Carolina. The Chargers didn't blow this past season because of defense. Various names are being floated as a replacement, so we'll see how it works out.
That honor goes to Trevor Hoffman, the former Padre fan favorite, who recognized the end of his effectiveness and announced his retirement to mlb.com. He will speak to other reporters at Petco Park on Wednesday. Hoffman has 601 career saves, 42 more than Mariano Rivera of the Yankees on the all-time list.
Two interesting points in the article:
1. He will join the Padres in a front-office role.
2. He apparently still carries some animosity toward the club for how they parted ways two years ago. He said time heals wounds, and that he likes how the Padres -- with many new faces in the executive ranks -- have reached out to him. But he turned down a chance to sign with the Padres for a day to retire as a friar. I think that last part is something he will regret as he gets older.
The obvious question now is whether he should be a Hall of Famer. I think so, though only one career reliever is enshrined in Cooperstown, Bruce Sutter. I'm just not sure about voters elsewhere in baseball who only saw him humbled in his All-Star appearances. As in everything, it depends who else is eligible in a given year, but he should get in at some point.
---
The drama involved in whether Brady Hoke would remain the head football coach at San Diego State in 2011 was such that when we went to bed Monday night, it seemed all but certain that he would stay. When we woke up Tuesday, we learned that LSU's Les Miles decided to stay in Baton Rouge rather than take the head job at Michigan.
That left Michigan AD Dave Brandon left with a choice between a drawn-out national search during the height of recruiting season, or picking the guy who has been raising his hand and crying out "Me! Me! Me!" over the past month. The choice, gulp, became obvious, and now Hoke is set to be introduced Wednesday as the Wolverines new head coach.
I have no problem with Hoke leaving for his dream job. Good for him. I appreciate how he came to a rotten situation at SDSU, turned around the sinking ship and refloated it. Some people saw Hoke as a job-shopper, but not me. He said early on Michigan was the place he would leave for, and it was simply unfortunate that the job in Ann Arbor opened when it did. With defensive coordinator Rocky Long set to succeed him on Wednesday, the Aztecs could come out of this not much worse for wear.
The big danger is a loss of continuity with assistant coaches following Hoke. Their number will almost certainly include strength and conditioning coach Aaron Wellman -- as responsible as anyone for turning around the program -- and running backs coach/recruiting coordinator Jeff Hecklinski, my choice to stay as head coach. The list could expand to include offensive coordinator Al Borges.
Now that Long appears to be the choice, I think it is important to promote QB coach Brian Sipe to offensive coordinator, so senior QB Ryan Lindley won't have to face his third system in four years. Plus, there a lot of young receivers to break in this year. Changing things radically won't be good at this point.
We're about to find out what AD Jim Sterk is made of...Ironic that SDSU travels to the Big House in September, and could have a legit chance to beat the former coach...While Hoke is replaceable, the timing could hardly have been worse for SDSU, making me wonder if there are grounds for seeking extra compensation from Michigan...I'd trade Hoke to Michigan for basketball coach Steve Fisher any day.
---
If all that is not enough, the Chargers will be greatly hurt by the loss of defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, the new head man at Carolina. The Chargers didn't blow this past season because of defense. Various names are being floated as a replacement, so we'll see how it works out.
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Hoke Could Stay After All
Three dots on San Diego State football...
After a very strange Tuesday, I'm now betting that Brady Hoke will roam the Aztec sidelines this fall. Michigan's decision-making over whether to fire Rich Rodriguez is at a very delicate stage contractually with buyouts and cost factors to hire a new coach. The Michigan athletic department can afford a lot of money, but paying off Rodriguez and buying out Hoke's SDSU contract may not leave enough money left for salaries...It seems like the pressure is hot on the Michigan AD to make a splash with a really big name, and Hoke does not fill the bill. Stanford's Jim Harbaugh is going to the NFL if he goes anywhere, and LSU's Les Miles is going to be expensive. As good a fit as Hoke would be in Ann Arbor, he might end up staying...The outsiders at Michigan see Hoke as someone who has had only two good seasons, without taking a closer look at what the programs at Ball State and SDSU were like before he arrived. Those seasons were miraculous on his part. On the other hand, he has yet to win a big game. In that 12-1 season with the Cardinals, the 1 was in the MAC championship game, and he was already here for their bowl that year. He arguably has not won a big game here, either. Air Force and Navy were nice, but they were out-manned service academies. The Missouri loss was strictly a coaching blunder -- forget the non-call on the Tigers game-winning TD. He blew a lead of something like 28-10 against Utah. This was a nice season, but we're still waiting for the "big win"...It would be a huge loss for the Aztecs if Hoke left, of course, but a real tragedy for QB Ryan Lindley if offensive coordinator Al Borges left. Can you imagine the kid playing for three OC's in four years? Ouch...I do not understand defensive coordinator Rocky Long interviewing for the head job at Texas State. It makes you wonder what really went on at New Mexico when he left...If Hoke does leave, I think the best move is to hire someone who wants to stay here for a long time. I'd check out running backs coach Jeff Hecklinski, who is the assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator. If you're going to lose your head coach and maybe coordinators, you at least want to keep the recruiting intact, and Hecklinski probably has built up as many contacts with local high school coaches as Hoke has. He is relatively young and has done a good job with his ball-carriers.
After a very strange Tuesday, I'm now betting that Brady Hoke will roam the Aztec sidelines this fall. Michigan's decision-making over whether to fire Rich Rodriguez is at a very delicate stage contractually with buyouts and cost factors to hire a new coach. The Michigan athletic department can afford a lot of money, but paying off Rodriguez and buying out Hoke's SDSU contract may not leave enough money left for salaries...It seems like the pressure is hot on the Michigan AD to make a splash with a really big name, and Hoke does not fill the bill. Stanford's Jim Harbaugh is going to the NFL if he goes anywhere, and LSU's Les Miles is going to be expensive. As good a fit as Hoke would be in Ann Arbor, he might end up staying...The outsiders at Michigan see Hoke as someone who has had only two good seasons, without taking a closer look at what the programs at Ball State and SDSU were like before he arrived. Those seasons were miraculous on his part. On the other hand, he has yet to win a big game. In that 12-1 season with the Cardinals, the 1 was in the MAC championship game, and he was already here for their bowl that year. He arguably has not won a big game here, either. Air Force and Navy were nice, but they were out-manned service academies. The Missouri loss was strictly a coaching blunder -- forget the non-call on the Tigers game-winning TD. He blew a lead of something like 28-10 against Utah. This was a nice season, but we're still waiting for the "big win"...It would be a huge loss for the Aztecs if Hoke left, of course, but a real tragedy for QB Ryan Lindley if offensive coordinator Al Borges left. Can you imagine the kid playing for three OC's in four years? Ouch...I do not understand defensive coordinator Rocky Long interviewing for the head job at Texas State. It makes you wonder what really went on at New Mexico when he left...If Hoke does leave, I think the best move is to hire someone who wants to stay here for a long time. I'd check out running backs coach Jeff Hecklinski, who is the assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator. If you're going to lose your head coach and maybe coordinators, you at least want to keep the recruiting intact, and Hecklinski probably has built up as many contacts with local high school coaches as Hoke has. He is relatively young and has done a good job with his ball-carriers.
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