It's done, LT is gone.
As I suspected, the Chargers moved quickly to release LaDainian Tomlinson, letting him go Monday, barely two weeks after the Super Bowl. The Bolts front office had every reason to wait and try to get a late-round draft pick or some other player for him in a trade, but those post-season comments that took back everything he'd said previously forced their hand. The move had to be made sooner rather than later.
The bitterest pill is sometimes the best. Both sides can move on. The Chargers can scout college ball-carriers and Tomlinson will have plenty of time to look for a new employer. Making the move now prevents the hard feelings that could develop if the episode were to drag out. When the time does come, Tomlinson will have no qualms retiring and entering the Hall of Fame as a Charger.
Otherwise, Chargers fans should be grateful that this talented player and special person spent nine seasons here, sharing himself with the fans and the community at-large. Hopes for the best for him in the future.
---
I have no idea if San Diego State's mens basketball team will win at BYU Wednesday or make the NCAA Tournament, but I will go out on a limb and say that this season has been Steve Fisher's best coaching job in his 11 years at SDSU. For him to mold three high-profile transfers who were disgruntled at their former schools, two major high school recruits and a couple of holdovers into a quality team as quickly as he has is an amazing piece of work.
Former Pepperdine players Malcom Thomas and Tyrone Shelley came here believing they were huge stars who would carry the team. Heck, Thomas was even tempted to try to take a shot at the NBA. Shelley always had the "big scorer" rep but came into the season injured and lost his shooting touch. To mold those egos into a team concept and to give each of them a role has taken time, but the work has paid off. Brian Carlwell from Illinois didn't have the ego but has been a vocal team leader who has clearly helped with his teammates' transition. Fisher also allowed freshman Kawhi Leonard to become a star and fellow first-year player Chase Tapley to be a solid contributor.
Add to all that DJ Gay taking the point after spending most of his first two seasons as a 2-guard. The transition was rough at times, but since about mid-January he's been effective.
The Aztecs now have a chance to beat BYU and a solid shot at the Big Dance. I don't know if they'll accomplish one or the other, or hopefully both, but the idea that both are within their grasp is solid evidence of the quality of Fisher's work.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
College Baseball Starts, Padres, Olympics
My statement to Rich Hill and Tony Gwynn is: "Now show me what you got."
The head coaches of the two major local college baseball teams at USD and San Diego State have something to prove as their seasons get underway Friday. For Hill and his Toreros, the question is whether they can reclaim the mantle after an injury-ruined 2009? For Gwynn and the Aztecs, the issue is whether there is any staying power after making the NCAA playoffs for the first time in 18 years.
College baseball can be a tough sport to scout, so I can't sit here and write that I know the answers. Let others do the talking:
-- Collegiate Baseball has USD ranked 24th nationally in its preseason Top 40, with no West Coast Conference rivals ahead of the Toreros. SDSU is in "others receiving votes," well below Number 15 TCU.
-- Baseball America has the Toreros 19th and SDSU unranked in its preseason Top 25. Even scarier for the Aztecs, TCU is 11th in this publication.
-- In conference predictions by coaches and media, USD was picked first in the WCC and SDSU third in the Mountain West behind TCU and New Mexico.
Clearly, the experts believe Hill has a better chance of overcoming last year's obstacles than Gwynn does of making it to another regional. Part of Gwynn's trouble, of course, is losing pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg. But he also lost his two other weekend starters.
Both are undertaking the interesting experiment of converting all-star closers to Friday starters: Hill with Grossmont High alum AJ Griffin and Gwynn with Addison Reed. Think trying to make Heath Bell a starting pitcher and that's what you have. It'll be interesting to see if those moves work out, and whether either of these programs still have something in the tank.
---
Ah, pitchers and catchers report for pro baseball's spring training. It's a wonderful time of year.
One of the really interesting guys to watch in Peoria this year will be Lance Zawadzki, the big-hit no-field former Aztecs second baseman who batted .289 for AA San Antonio in 2009. He's the type of kid who will rip the ball in exhibition games and make you think really hard when the final cuts come down. I'm not sure he's built for Petco Park, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see him as part of a trade package for another quality player who is a better fit.
I only see one available spot for Padres position players, and that will probably be filled by bench veteran Matt Stairs, unless he shows he's done. If that happens, another interesting name is OF Aaron Cunningham, who enjoyed cups of coffee with Oakland in 2008 and 2009.
---
Curious how TV ratings for the Olympics zoomed up after the Opening Ceremonies. We like the competition, I suppose, even in warm San Diego. Just about everyone I know is talking about the Winter Games. So far, I think my favorite part was watching Lindsay Vonn winning gold in the women's downhill after so many competitors crashed. It was kind of like watching NASCAR, but thankfully no one was hurt.
I think the story of these games might end up being how we're pushing the limits of the events, particularly for the women. You look at the speed of the luge run, the crashes in the downhill and even some of the accidents in the women's half-pipe, and it makes you wonder whether we humans are capable of much more.
---
I didn't watch the Tiger Woods news conference. So he apologized. Who cares what he has to say, really? What he does over the next few months or even years is what counts. It's like politicians. What they say in their speeches is almost irrelevant, it's their actions that are important. I want to see how Woods conducts himself. Over the course of time, perhaps many years, we'll be able to judge whether his affairs describe the true Tiger Woods or proved to be a youthful indiscretion.
The head coaches of the two major local college baseball teams at USD and San Diego State have something to prove as their seasons get underway Friday. For Hill and his Toreros, the question is whether they can reclaim the mantle after an injury-ruined 2009? For Gwynn and the Aztecs, the issue is whether there is any staying power after making the NCAA playoffs for the first time in 18 years.
College baseball can be a tough sport to scout, so I can't sit here and write that I know the answers. Let others do the talking:
-- Collegiate Baseball has USD ranked 24th nationally in its preseason Top 40, with no West Coast Conference rivals ahead of the Toreros. SDSU is in "others receiving votes," well below Number 15 TCU.
-- Baseball America has the Toreros 19th and SDSU unranked in its preseason Top 25. Even scarier for the Aztecs, TCU is 11th in this publication.
-- In conference predictions by coaches and media, USD was picked first in the WCC and SDSU third in the Mountain West behind TCU and New Mexico.
Clearly, the experts believe Hill has a better chance of overcoming last year's obstacles than Gwynn does of making it to another regional. Part of Gwynn's trouble, of course, is losing pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg. But he also lost his two other weekend starters.
Both are undertaking the interesting experiment of converting all-star closers to Friday starters: Hill with Grossmont High alum AJ Griffin and Gwynn with Addison Reed. Think trying to make Heath Bell a starting pitcher and that's what you have. It'll be interesting to see if those moves work out, and whether either of these programs still have something in the tank.
---
Ah, pitchers and catchers report for pro baseball's spring training. It's a wonderful time of year.
One of the really interesting guys to watch in Peoria this year will be Lance Zawadzki, the big-hit no-field former Aztecs second baseman who batted .289 for AA San Antonio in 2009. He's the type of kid who will rip the ball in exhibition games and make you think really hard when the final cuts come down. I'm not sure he's built for Petco Park, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see him as part of a trade package for another quality player who is a better fit.
I only see one available spot for Padres position players, and that will probably be filled by bench veteran Matt Stairs, unless he shows he's done. If that happens, another interesting name is OF Aaron Cunningham, who enjoyed cups of coffee with Oakland in 2008 and 2009.
---
Curious how TV ratings for the Olympics zoomed up after the Opening Ceremonies. We like the competition, I suppose, even in warm San Diego. Just about everyone I know is talking about the Winter Games. So far, I think my favorite part was watching Lindsay Vonn winning gold in the women's downhill after so many competitors crashed. It was kind of like watching NASCAR, but thankfully no one was hurt.
I think the story of these games might end up being how we're pushing the limits of the events, particularly for the women. You look at the speed of the luge run, the crashes in the downhill and even some of the accidents in the women's half-pipe, and it makes you wonder whether we humans are capable of much more.
---
I didn't watch the Tiger Woods news conference. So he apologized. Who cares what he has to say, really? What he does over the next few months or even years is what counts. It's like politicians. What they say in their speeches is almost irrelevant, it's their actions that are important. I want to see how Woods conducts himself. Over the course of time, perhaps many years, we'll be able to judge whether his affairs describe the true Tiger Woods or proved to be a youthful indiscretion.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Olympics, Aztecs Basketball
I enjoy the Olympics, not so much because I'm so interested in the Nordic Combined but to provide something to watch on television's vast wasteland at the end of the evening. I actually prefer the winter games because of the unusual sports I usually don't see. That made it curious to me that early TV ratings of the Vancouver games have been so poor in Sun Belt cities like San Diego. The difference is what makes it interesting.
True, the Summer Olympics are far more San Diego-oriented than their cold-weather counterparts. Ya gotta figure there will always be some locals in water polo and beach volleyball. So it was pretty humorous last week to read in the newspaper the local connections among the U.S. athletes in BC to compete for gold. We all know about Shaun White Inc., headquartered in Carlsbad. That figure skater Rachel Flatt to this day lists Del Mar as her hometown, despite not residing here for ages, gives her a strong connection that she created herself. Everything else is a reach. Alpine skier Bodie Miller is not of the local foothills community of Alpine, but he has a child in Escondido. Fellow Alpine skier Lindsay Vonn's sister attends USD. A couple other folks have toured the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista and a few more have vacationed here and tried a fish taco.
I'm taking perverse pleasure in the lack of snow and other weather-related problems at Cypress Mountain and Whistler. As much as I enjoy the competition and the dedicated athletes, I can't stand the self-absorbed Olympic officials. Something going wrong allows me to tweak them a little bit, and God knows they're deserving. I hope it snows like crazy soon, anyway, because I do want to see a legitimate downhill.
Have you ever done this, think of how San Diego could host a Summer Olympics, and which venues could hold which sports? It won't happen in an official manner until 2024 at the earliest. London is next in 2012 and Rio de Janiero in 2016. Rumor has it that Africa is next. With a new stadium for the Chargers, it could be done. The problem would be housing the athletes. The venues would be here, and while small, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the money is getting so big that we'll be seeing scaled-down games in the future. Those TV ratings might be an earlier indicator.
No way it'll happen, of course, but it's kind of fun to think about. City officials are putting their eggs in the basket of soccer's World Cup. That's still our planet's biggest international athletic competition.
---
We learned two important things in Saturday's 10-point win by San Diego State's men's basketball team over UNLV.
1. SDSU can win the Mountain West Conference Tournament next month. Let's face it, we didn't know that before. They were close to BYU at home and New Mexico on the road but didn't get over the top on either one. Now the Aztecs look like an improving ballclub, especially with F Billy White appearing to be healthy again. Pitch in G DJ Gay finally finding comfort at the point and freshman F Kawhi Leonard aiming for the All-MWC first team and you really have something.
2. If they fall short in the conference tourney, which I think they need to win to get to the NCAA Tournament, they might have made their case for a second-straight top-seed in the NIT. Yeah, yeah, that little dance, not the big one. For something like the fourth year in a row. But don't discount the NIT this year because it could be a lot of fun. The bracket could include a pair of Pac-10 teams that never want to play SDSU at Viejas, USC and UCLA. They might be forced to come here and if they do, the Aztecs will beat them into a pulp. That would be a lot of fun to watch even if its only a consolation.
BTW, there's very little chance the Mountain West will get more than three teams in the NCAA Tournament. BYU and New Mexico are locks if they continue to win at their current rate. UNLV is more likely than SDSU because of quality non-conference victories. Many of the so-called experts who predict the NCAA brackets have only one Pac-10 team getting in. I say that based on last year's disappointing experience, there will be no way that the selection committee gives the MWC more entries than the Pac-10, which will get Cal and the two best finishers between Arizona, Arizona State and Washington. An also-ran winning their post-season tournament, like USC did last year, would roil the waters and guarantee three spots. It's all about money for the big conferences.
True, the Summer Olympics are far more San Diego-oriented than their cold-weather counterparts. Ya gotta figure there will always be some locals in water polo and beach volleyball. So it was pretty humorous last week to read in the newspaper the local connections among the U.S. athletes in BC to compete for gold. We all know about Shaun White Inc., headquartered in Carlsbad. That figure skater Rachel Flatt to this day lists Del Mar as her hometown, despite not residing here for ages, gives her a strong connection that she created herself. Everything else is a reach. Alpine skier Bodie Miller is not of the local foothills community of Alpine, but he has a child in Escondido. Fellow Alpine skier Lindsay Vonn's sister attends USD. A couple other folks have toured the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista and a few more have vacationed here and tried a fish taco.
I'm taking perverse pleasure in the lack of snow and other weather-related problems at Cypress Mountain and Whistler. As much as I enjoy the competition and the dedicated athletes, I can't stand the self-absorbed Olympic officials. Something going wrong allows me to tweak them a little bit, and God knows they're deserving. I hope it snows like crazy soon, anyway, because I do want to see a legitimate downhill.
Have you ever done this, think of how San Diego could host a Summer Olympics, and which venues could hold which sports? It won't happen in an official manner until 2024 at the earliest. London is next in 2012 and Rio de Janiero in 2016. Rumor has it that Africa is next. With a new stadium for the Chargers, it could be done. The problem would be housing the athletes. The venues would be here, and while small, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the money is getting so big that we'll be seeing scaled-down games in the future. Those TV ratings might be an earlier indicator.
No way it'll happen, of course, but it's kind of fun to think about. City officials are putting their eggs in the basket of soccer's World Cup. That's still our planet's biggest international athletic competition.
---
We learned two important things in Saturday's 10-point win by San Diego State's men's basketball team over UNLV.
1. SDSU can win the Mountain West Conference Tournament next month. Let's face it, we didn't know that before. They were close to BYU at home and New Mexico on the road but didn't get over the top on either one. Now the Aztecs look like an improving ballclub, especially with F Billy White appearing to be healthy again. Pitch in G DJ Gay finally finding comfort at the point and freshman F Kawhi Leonard aiming for the All-MWC first team and you really have something.
2. If they fall short in the conference tourney, which I think they need to win to get to the NCAA Tournament, they might have made their case for a second-straight top-seed in the NIT. Yeah, yeah, that little dance, not the big one. For something like the fourth year in a row. But don't discount the NIT this year because it could be a lot of fun. The bracket could include a pair of Pac-10 teams that never want to play SDSU at Viejas, USC and UCLA. They might be forced to come here and if they do, the Aztecs will beat them into a pulp. That would be a lot of fun to watch even if its only a consolation.
BTW, there's very little chance the Mountain West will get more than three teams in the NCAA Tournament. BYU and New Mexico are locks if they continue to win at their current rate. UNLV is more likely than SDSU because of quality non-conference victories. Many of the so-called experts who predict the NCAA brackets have only one Pac-10 team getting in. I say that based on last year's disappointing experience, there will be no way that the selection committee gives the MWC more entries than the Pac-10, which will get Cal and the two best finishers between Arizona, Arizona State and Washington. An also-ran winning their post-season tournament, like USC did last year, would roil the waters and guarantee three spots. It's all about money for the big conferences.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
A Faster Goodbye to LT
Spare us the long goodbye, LT. Thanks for the memories, and see ya!
At the end of the Chargers playoff loss to the Jets, the saddest thing outside another blown Super Bowl opportunity was that fans could not accord LaDainian Tomlinson a proper send-off, since everyone assumes the superstar running back will not return for the 2010 season.
Just a few weeks later, I'm more than ready for him to leave and, more to the point, to cause as little angst as possible on his way out. A story this week in The San Diego Union-Tribune quoted him speaking in a very negative way about his teammates and how the locker room was not very close. That went completely against his prior comments about how this was a pretty tight bunch that he enjoyed. So which is true? Some players responded to LT's assertions by saying the "team atmosphere" seemed pretty good. There was little to suggest there was any strife, something farther down the negative side of the scale than LT was suggesting.
Now, there are things with this group of players you can criticize with their off-field antics. But much of that stuff never seemed to filter into the locker room. Even Vincent Jackson's playoff morning citation that resulted in his car being impounded drew more laughs than anything, and it was Philip Rivers who completed his travel to the stadium.
I viewed Tomlinson in recent years as a guy a bit separate from the rest of the roster. His stature was elevated to that of icon years ago, which would make him stand out if not stand apart. The last couple of seasons, particularly as he fought injuries, he really became more of a loner. He obviously felt like he wasn't a major ingredient in the mix anymore, and he might have been right.
On the heels of the morning newspaper came an afternoon online story in which he said, without a corroborating club announcement, that "I'm not coming back."
Ya think?
It probably wasn't AJ Smith who told him that. Probably a whole bunch of angry text messages from teammates during the day was a pretty good indication to LT that the time has come to cast his lot elsewhere.
My wise parents always told me to never burn my bridges when a situation ended, even if it was difficult. They were right. It's sad for LT, who meant so much to San Diegans, to be leaving with scorch marks on the path behind him.
---
Give San Diego State football coach Brady Hoke and his assistants passing grades for their first full recruiting class. By any objective standard, this class is no better than a C-plus. But considering that the Aztecs are coming off so many years of futility and community apathy, and had so many needs on the roster, grading them on the curve results in an A.
On the recruit-geeks' five-star rating system, anything three and up is pretty darn good. The new Aztecs include a whole bunch of three-star guys. The one four-star player, JC transfer DE Perry Jackson, is coming off a knee injury, so projecting his effectiveness this fall will be more difficult than usual.
The biggest eye-opener was the signing of five players from state bowl champion Oceanside High. However, only one of them, WR/CB JJ Whittaker, was nabbed from another school that anyone would respect (Arizona). The must-have Pirate was DT Thomas Molesi, who went to Oregon State because he wanted to go to college away from home. Opening the pipeline is good for the future, but the immediate impact is questionable.
Of immediate interest will be whether several JC transfer offensive linemen can make it onto the two-deep right away, or even start. I don't think they'll all be available for spring practice, but the performance of even just a couple of them will be our first clue as to how things might play out. A number of questions will be answered, such as whether last year's blockers were as weak as they appeared and have they improved at all. The JC kids sliding immediately into starting slots won't entirely be good news.
The individual signing I like the most is of JC transfer PK Abel Perez. The product of Castle Park High and Southwestern College has a booming leg who can put kickoffs into the end zone, something SDSU has lacked for ages. I don't know if he will be any good kicking FGs, but if he can force the opponent to start possessions at its own 20, he'll be worth his 217 pounds in gold.
My extremely early forecast for the Aztecs is that they'll again be on the 6-6 bowl game bubble. Getting DeMarco Sampson back for another season increases my confidence. If Hoke and his staff lead them into the post-season, those four-star guys will start coming. This time next year, we might leave the grading system behind to simply gawk. One can dream, huh?
At the end of the Chargers playoff loss to the Jets, the saddest thing outside another blown Super Bowl opportunity was that fans could not accord LaDainian Tomlinson a proper send-off, since everyone assumes the superstar running back will not return for the 2010 season.
Just a few weeks later, I'm more than ready for him to leave and, more to the point, to cause as little angst as possible on his way out. A story this week in The San Diego Union-Tribune quoted him speaking in a very negative way about his teammates and how the locker room was not very close. That went completely against his prior comments about how this was a pretty tight bunch that he enjoyed. So which is true? Some players responded to LT's assertions by saying the "team atmosphere" seemed pretty good. There was little to suggest there was any strife, something farther down the negative side of the scale than LT was suggesting.
Now, there are things with this group of players you can criticize with their off-field antics. But much of that stuff never seemed to filter into the locker room. Even Vincent Jackson's playoff morning citation that resulted in his car being impounded drew more laughs than anything, and it was Philip Rivers who completed his travel to the stadium.
I viewed Tomlinson in recent years as a guy a bit separate from the rest of the roster. His stature was elevated to that of icon years ago, which would make him stand out if not stand apart. The last couple of seasons, particularly as he fought injuries, he really became more of a loner. He obviously felt like he wasn't a major ingredient in the mix anymore, and he might have been right.
On the heels of the morning newspaper came an afternoon online story in which he said, without a corroborating club announcement, that "I'm not coming back."
Ya think?
It probably wasn't AJ Smith who told him that. Probably a whole bunch of angry text messages from teammates during the day was a pretty good indication to LT that the time has come to cast his lot elsewhere.
My wise parents always told me to never burn my bridges when a situation ended, even if it was difficult. They were right. It's sad for LT, who meant so much to San Diegans, to be leaving with scorch marks on the path behind him.
---
Give San Diego State football coach Brady Hoke and his assistants passing grades for their first full recruiting class. By any objective standard, this class is no better than a C-plus. But considering that the Aztecs are coming off so many years of futility and community apathy, and had so many needs on the roster, grading them on the curve results in an A.
On the recruit-geeks' five-star rating system, anything three and up is pretty darn good. The new Aztecs include a whole bunch of three-star guys. The one four-star player, JC transfer DE Perry Jackson, is coming off a knee injury, so projecting his effectiveness this fall will be more difficult than usual.
The biggest eye-opener was the signing of five players from state bowl champion Oceanside High. However, only one of them, WR/CB JJ Whittaker, was nabbed from another school that anyone would respect (Arizona). The must-have Pirate was DT Thomas Molesi, who went to Oregon State because he wanted to go to college away from home. Opening the pipeline is good for the future, but the immediate impact is questionable.
Of immediate interest will be whether several JC transfer offensive linemen can make it onto the two-deep right away, or even start. I don't think they'll all be available for spring practice, but the performance of even just a couple of them will be our first clue as to how things might play out. A number of questions will be answered, such as whether last year's blockers were as weak as they appeared and have they improved at all. The JC kids sliding immediately into starting slots won't entirely be good news.
The individual signing I like the most is of JC transfer PK Abel Perez. The product of Castle Park High and Southwestern College has a booming leg who can put kickoffs into the end zone, something SDSU has lacked for ages. I don't know if he will be any good kicking FGs, but if he can force the opponent to start possessions at its own 20, he'll be worth his 217 pounds in gold.
My extremely early forecast for the Aztecs is that they'll again be on the 6-6 bowl game bubble. Getting DeMarco Sampson back for another season increases my confidence. If Hoke and his staff lead them into the post-season, those four-star guys will start coming. This time next year, we might leave the grading system behind to simply gawk. One can dream, huh?
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Chargers Stadium, Aztecs Hoops, Garland
I attended Wednesday's presentation by a Centre City Development Corp. consultant on the recent history of new stadium construction around the United States, basically background on how various teams and municipalities "got it done."
Here are the key points:
1. Stadiums are now too costly to finance privately by a team, or publicly by just one jurisdiction. All 11 stadiums built or renovated from 2002 on have included a mix of private and public financing, with the public part in some cases being multiple jurisdictions -- like a city and state, several counties, etc.
2. Each city is different. Officials in each town managed to make use of particular assets in their financing plans. San Diego will have to come up with its own.
3. As bad as the economy has been, some stadium projects have received financing, and more lenders are willing to take on such big projects.
4. Of the 11 stadium referendums rejected by voters -- and the Chargers project will go on the ballot -- 10 stadiums were eventually built in some manner.
The stuff presented to the CCDC was encouraging for those who want a new stadium here, but there was nothing specific presented about the Chargers plans or the proposed downtown site. The Bolts are going to have to get very creative to find a financial plan that will appeal to voters, but it can be done.
---
San Diego State men's basketball reached the big time over the weekend. Yeah, yeah, don't remind me about the 2-point loss to BYU. They gained something much better, an elite point guard who will carry the Aztecs into the future.
Coach Steve Fisher had been after LaBradford Franklin of Great Oak HS in Temecula for a while, and the kid verbally committed after taking in the crazy scene at Viejas Arena last Saturday night. From the jam-packed seats to the loud cheers to the students dressed up in white shirts, ties and bicycle helmets, Franklin was obviously very impressed with what surrounds Aztecs basketball.
On the court, he saw a team that hung right to the end with what's become an amazingly good BYU bunch that's leaving its football program in its dust. Franklin must have thought something like this, several times: "all SDSU needs is a point guard who can shoot, and they'll be a Top 25 team, too."
All that was enough, and he'll sign up in April unless another school pays him more (snicker).
Here's how his commitment pushes SDSU into the big time. Fisher for years has built his program on athletes, transfers and the forgotten. When I ran my old Web site, I wrote repeatedly that Fisher's dependence on athletes over basketball players would not push him to the top of the Mountain West, and indeed he's only won the conference regular season once in eleven seasons. Last year -- arguably his best and most accomplished team, came in fourth. This year, his athletic Aztecs, with no point guard nor true full-time center, are fifth after six conference games (and will be tied for fourth if Utah loses at Wyoming tonight). No matter how good his athletes are, they'll very rarely contend for a conference crown. Transfers are fine to a small degree but many come with issues and need to adjust to a year off. His best recruits only came to State because Fisher stuck with them while something caused others to back off: Brandon Heath's grades, Kyle Spain I think broke his leg in high school, etc.
Franklin is none of these. He's said to be a great point guard with strong on-court management skills and a good outside shot. He's coming as a true freshman and has no background issues that caused other programs to back off. His GPA is said to be 3.8.
Small time programs don't get players right out of high school like LaBradford Franklin. He's a serious basketball talent that for years, because of SDSU's complete lack of hoops tradition, Fisher couldn't get -- thus his reliance on athletes. Now he's got Franklin, whose arrival might not convert a string of NIT appearances into selections to the Big Dance, but it doesn't hurt. Now let's go get a real center next year.
---
I'm okay with the signing of journeyman Jon Garland by the Padres. One of my off-season priorities has been acquiring a front of the rotation starting pitcher, and he has a chance to be that guy. He ain't no Peavy, but he could be another Kevin Correia, which would not be so bad. If he can make 30 starts and keep his overall ERA under 3.75, GM Jed Hoyer will have struck gold. His career ERA is 4.42, but he'll have a pitcher-friendly home ballpark for the first time in his career, so such a goal is reachable.
The rotation, as I see it, looks like this: Chris Young, Correia, Garland, Mat Latos and Clayton Richard.
That's solid if Young can return to health after two injury-plagued years. There are no stoppers there unless Latos emerges, but as Black said after the Garland signing, the Padres should be able to keep games close on most nights. They ought to at least get winnable games to a bullpen led by Heath Bell and Mike Adams. That's a lot more than can be said the last couple of years.
Even if Young can't return to his old form -- and my natural skepticism says its about 50-50 -- the Padres have a bunch of young arms waiting in the wings. Okay, I'll admit it, the cynic in me also has me worried about Richard, too. I'm not sure he's all that good, but I'm willing to go into the season with him as a fifth starter with some young pups breathing down his neck.
So things aren't perfect, but they're a darn sight better than this time last year. With the Kouzmanoff trade and signing of Matt Stairs, I think this has been one heck of an off-season.
Here are the key points:
1. Stadiums are now too costly to finance privately by a team, or publicly by just one jurisdiction. All 11 stadiums built or renovated from 2002 on have included a mix of private and public financing, with the public part in some cases being multiple jurisdictions -- like a city and state, several counties, etc.
2. Each city is different. Officials in each town managed to make use of particular assets in their financing plans. San Diego will have to come up with its own.
3. As bad as the economy has been, some stadium projects have received financing, and more lenders are willing to take on such big projects.
4. Of the 11 stadium referendums rejected by voters -- and the Chargers project will go on the ballot -- 10 stadiums were eventually built in some manner.
The stuff presented to the CCDC was encouraging for those who want a new stadium here, but there was nothing specific presented about the Chargers plans or the proposed downtown site. The Bolts are going to have to get very creative to find a financial plan that will appeal to voters, but it can be done.
---
San Diego State men's basketball reached the big time over the weekend. Yeah, yeah, don't remind me about the 2-point loss to BYU. They gained something much better, an elite point guard who will carry the Aztecs into the future.
Coach Steve Fisher had been after LaBradford Franklin of Great Oak HS in Temecula for a while, and the kid verbally committed after taking in the crazy scene at Viejas Arena last Saturday night. From the jam-packed seats to the loud cheers to the students dressed up in white shirts, ties and bicycle helmets, Franklin was obviously very impressed with what surrounds Aztecs basketball.
On the court, he saw a team that hung right to the end with what's become an amazingly good BYU bunch that's leaving its football program in its dust. Franklin must have thought something like this, several times: "all SDSU needs is a point guard who can shoot, and they'll be a Top 25 team, too."
All that was enough, and he'll sign up in April unless another school pays him more (snicker).
Here's how his commitment pushes SDSU into the big time. Fisher for years has built his program on athletes, transfers and the forgotten. When I ran my old Web site, I wrote repeatedly that Fisher's dependence on athletes over basketball players would not push him to the top of the Mountain West, and indeed he's only won the conference regular season once in eleven seasons. Last year -- arguably his best and most accomplished team, came in fourth. This year, his athletic Aztecs, with no point guard nor true full-time center, are fifth after six conference games (and will be tied for fourth if Utah loses at Wyoming tonight). No matter how good his athletes are, they'll very rarely contend for a conference crown. Transfers are fine to a small degree but many come with issues and need to adjust to a year off. His best recruits only came to State because Fisher stuck with them while something caused others to back off: Brandon Heath's grades, Kyle Spain I think broke his leg in high school, etc.
Franklin is none of these. He's said to be a great point guard with strong on-court management skills and a good outside shot. He's coming as a true freshman and has no background issues that caused other programs to back off. His GPA is said to be 3.8.
Small time programs don't get players right out of high school like LaBradford Franklin. He's a serious basketball talent that for years, because of SDSU's complete lack of hoops tradition, Fisher couldn't get -- thus his reliance on athletes. Now he's got Franklin, whose arrival might not convert a string of NIT appearances into selections to the Big Dance, but it doesn't hurt. Now let's go get a real center next year.
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I'm okay with the signing of journeyman Jon Garland by the Padres. One of my off-season priorities has been acquiring a front of the rotation starting pitcher, and he has a chance to be that guy. He ain't no Peavy, but he could be another Kevin Correia, which would not be so bad. If he can make 30 starts and keep his overall ERA under 3.75, GM Jed Hoyer will have struck gold. His career ERA is 4.42, but he'll have a pitcher-friendly home ballpark for the first time in his career, so such a goal is reachable.
The rotation, as I see it, looks like this: Chris Young, Correia, Garland, Mat Latos and Clayton Richard.
That's solid if Young can return to health after two injury-plagued years. There are no stoppers there unless Latos emerges, but as Black said after the Garland signing, the Padres should be able to keep games close on most nights. They ought to at least get winnable games to a bullpen led by Heath Bell and Mike Adams. That's a lot more than can be said the last couple of years.
Even if Young can't return to his old form -- and my natural skepticism says its about 50-50 -- the Padres have a bunch of young arms waiting in the wings. Okay, I'll admit it, the cynic in me also has me worried about Richard, too. I'm not sure he's all that good, but I'm willing to go into the season with him as a fifth starter with some young pups breathing down his neck.
So things aren't perfect, but they're a darn sight better than this time last year. With the Kouzmanoff trade and signing of Matt Stairs, I think this has been one heck of an off-season.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Chargers: LT and Future
The tragedy of the Chargers playoff loss to the New York Jets Sunday was that fans were not given the opportunity to say a proper goodbye to RB LaDainian Tomlinson. The fans deserved the chance, Tomlinson deserved the honor, and he should have been able to thank his supporters, too.
Like many people, I saw this recently concluded season as the final one for LT as a Charger. He's past his prime, there's no doubt about it. This isn't sending away Michael Turner a few years ago to become a featured ball-carrier somewhere,it's letting a guy go away to become a backup somewhere. A backup is not necessary here.
A starter, a positive force, is what the Chargers need. If they're committed to having a mediocre offensive line, then they better have someone who can make the most of it. I think Stanford's Toby Gerhart will be an excellent NFL back, but I don't think he's the Chargers style. Georgia Tech's Jonathan Dwyer might be. But I think there's a really good chance GM AJ Smith will take a running back with his first pick.
I don't think there will be a housecleaning, like after the playoff choke against the Patriots a few years ago. There are no Drayton Florences on this team. Vincent Jackson got pulled over before the game because he was a black guy driving a nice car with the radio too loud. He shouldn't have been driving at all on a suspended license, of course, but his 7 catches for 111 yards proved it was not a distraction.
The sloppy play, penalties, fumbles, interceptions, etc., were as much a product of the pressure placed on them by the Jets than their own immaturity. When you're getting beat, you tend to look pretty bad, and that's what happened to the Chargers. The decorum on the field was merely a sideshow.
The Chargers simply need to get better, mainly in the trenches. I've been saying it for years, and I said as this season got going that their deficiencies along the lines would prove costly in January, and that's what happened. Too bad, being right is not all it's cracked up to be.
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One other thing to put to bed: whether the loss will dampen enthusiasm for a new stadium, a la the Padres and Proposition C. Give it a couple weeks and there will be no connection. Besides, the mayor says there will not be a vote before 2012, and there could be a Super Bowl trophy at Chargers Park by then.
The bottom line, as Mark Fabiani was quoted as saying in the paper, if a package is put together that makes economic sense for the taxpayers, then the stadium will be built, no matter what the team does on the field. I think getting such a deal together will be more difficult since East Village has already been built up, but it's not impossible.
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Chargers unit grades:
Quarterbacks: A - Philip Rivers is not the best, but he's darn close.
Running backs: C - Not given much chance to shine, and they didn't.
Receivers: B - I also told you about Malcom Floyd.
Offensive Line: D - They can't fuel a running game or protect Rivers enough.
Defensive Line: C - The Make Shift actually did pretty well, but needs draft attention.
Linebackers: B - Depth makes things work.
Secondary: B - Corners are very good, safeties aren't the best.
Special Teams: B - Solid everywhere, great in some spots, but those misses ...
Like many people, I saw this recently concluded season as the final one for LT as a Charger. He's past his prime, there's no doubt about it. This isn't sending away Michael Turner a few years ago to become a featured ball-carrier somewhere,it's letting a guy go away to become a backup somewhere. A backup is not necessary here.
A starter, a positive force, is what the Chargers need. If they're committed to having a mediocre offensive line, then they better have someone who can make the most of it. I think Stanford's Toby Gerhart will be an excellent NFL back, but I don't think he's the Chargers style. Georgia Tech's Jonathan Dwyer might be. But I think there's a really good chance GM AJ Smith will take a running back with his first pick.
I don't think there will be a housecleaning, like after the playoff choke against the Patriots a few years ago. There are no Drayton Florences on this team. Vincent Jackson got pulled over before the game because he was a black guy driving a nice car with the radio too loud. He shouldn't have been driving at all on a suspended license, of course, but his 7 catches for 111 yards proved it was not a distraction.
The sloppy play, penalties, fumbles, interceptions, etc., were as much a product of the pressure placed on them by the Jets than their own immaturity. When you're getting beat, you tend to look pretty bad, and that's what happened to the Chargers. The decorum on the field was merely a sideshow.
The Chargers simply need to get better, mainly in the trenches. I've been saying it for years, and I said as this season got going that their deficiencies along the lines would prove costly in January, and that's what happened. Too bad, being right is not all it's cracked up to be.
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One other thing to put to bed: whether the loss will dampen enthusiasm for a new stadium, a la the Padres and Proposition C. Give it a couple weeks and there will be no connection. Besides, the mayor says there will not be a vote before 2012, and there could be a Super Bowl trophy at Chargers Park by then.
The bottom line, as Mark Fabiani was quoted as saying in the paper, if a package is put together that makes economic sense for the taxpayers, then the stadium will be built, no matter what the team does on the field. I think getting such a deal together will be more difficult since East Village has already been built up, but it's not impossible.
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Chargers unit grades:
Quarterbacks: A - Philip Rivers is not the best, but he's darn close.
Running backs: C - Not given much chance to shine, and they didn't.
Receivers: B - I also told you about Malcom Floyd.
Offensive Line: D - They can't fuel a running game or protect Rivers enough.
Defensive Line: C - The Make Shift actually did pretty well, but needs draft attention.
Linebackers: B - Depth makes things work.
Secondary: B - Corners are very good, safeties aren't the best.
Special Teams: B - Solid everywhere, great in some spots, but those misses ...
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Chargers Playoff Loss, Aztecs, Padres Trade
When your absolute best and most reliable friend does something wrong, it's hard to be mad for long. When the most accurate field goal kicker in the history of the NFL misses three field goals to cost you the game, where do you direct your anger? Kaeding is the guy, today, tomorrow and next season. You can't be mad at him, you just can't.
My fears about the matchup with the Jets in particular, and overall concern about the Chargers to succeed in a playoff environment ended up being well-founded. The Jets pass rush overwhelmed the Bolts' mediocre offensive line, sacking QB Philip Rivers a couple times, pressuring him on nearly every pass play and forcing a pair of INTs. The defensive line, which held up as the Make Shift most of the past couple of month, held up reasonably well against a top-notch Jets running game, but it was not enough.
I'd rather this loss was more about the Chargers mild shortcomings than the failures of Kaeding. But despite the problems posed by 10 penalties and three recovered fumbles, the Bolts had a chance to tie the game or win. It's too bad.
Now GM AJ Smith gets to spend the off-season rebuilding the lines.
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This will be the week which could make or break the season for San Diego State's men's basketball team, which is just 2-2 after the first couple weeks of Mountain West play. The Aztecs travel to Salt Lake City to play Utah, 2-1 in league but just 9-8 overall, and then come home to play BYU, which is off to a 3-0 MWC start.
Sweep and you're sitting pretty, especially with Colorado State and Air Force ahead on the schedule. Split, which is most likely, and you're no worse than when you started. Get swept, and the regular-season is as good as over.
I lean toward a split. Utah is playing better than its overall record right now and the Aztecs have proven to be a poor road team. Beating even a ranked BYU team at Viejas Arena, which has become nearly impenetrable for both men's and women's opponents, would be no shock.
The thing that's in the favor of the Aztecs is the emotion of how they pulled out Saturday's 67-62 win over TCU, with a comeback sparked by pushing and shoving in the second half. If that pulls some sort of fighting spirit out of these guys, that will bode well.
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I'm okay with the Padres trade of 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff for OF Scott Hairston. My question is, isn't this the guy who was mysteriously traded away last season? Correcting a mistake is a good thing, I suppose, especially when the kind of right-handed power hitter who does well at Petco Park is involved.
I also listed as an off-season priority finally nailing down the Kouz-Chase Headley dilemma at 3B. This trade was fueled in large part by money, with an arbitration-eligible Kouzmanoff likely to get a raise of millions of dollars. I don't like money trades, but in this instance, it will free some dollars to sign a desperately needed veteran starting pitcher.
Suggestion for Channel 4 San Diego: we know Headley will make far more than Kouz' three errors at the hot corner because he will get to a few more balls. It would be cool if they were to go threw tape and come up with a "range finder" graphic to show on a Headley error whether his predecessor would have even gotten a glove on the ball.
My fears about the matchup with the Jets in particular, and overall concern about the Chargers to succeed in a playoff environment ended up being well-founded. The Jets pass rush overwhelmed the Bolts' mediocre offensive line, sacking QB Philip Rivers a couple times, pressuring him on nearly every pass play and forcing a pair of INTs. The defensive line, which held up as the Make Shift most of the past couple of month, held up reasonably well against a top-notch Jets running game, but it was not enough.
I'd rather this loss was more about the Chargers mild shortcomings than the failures of Kaeding. But despite the problems posed by 10 penalties and three recovered fumbles, the Bolts had a chance to tie the game or win. It's too bad.
Now GM AJ Smith gets to spend the off-season rebuilding the lines.
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This will be the week which could make or break the season for San Diego State's men's basketball team, which is just 2-2 after the first couple weeks of Mountain West play. The Aztecs travel to Salt Lake City to play Utah, 2-1 in league but just 9-8 overall, and then come home to play BYU, which is off to a 3-0 MWC start.
Sweep and you're sitting pretty, especially with Colorado State and Air Force ahead on the schedule. Split, which is most likely, and you're no worse than when you started. Get swept, and the regular-season is as good as over.
I lean toward a split. Utah is playing better than its overall record right now and the Aztecs have proven to be a poor road team. Beating even a ranked BYU team at Viejas Arena, which has become nearly impenetrable for both men's and women's opponents, would be no shock.
The thing that's in the favor of the Aztecs is the emotion of how they pulled out Saturday's 67-62 win over TCU, with a comeback sparked by pushing and shoving in the second half. If that pulls some sort of fighting spirit out of these guys, that will bode well.
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I'm okay with the Padres trade of 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff for OF Scott Hairston. My question is, isn't this the guy who was mysteriously traded away last season? Correcting a mistake is a good thing, I suppose, especially when the kind of right-handed power hitter who does well at Petco Park is involved.
I also listed as an off-season priority finally nailing down the Kouz-Chase Headley dilemma at 3B. This trade was fueled in large part by money, with an arbitration-eligible Kouzmanoff likely to get a raise of millions of dollars. I don't like money trades, but in this instance, it will free some dollars to sign a desperately needed veteran starting pitcher.
Suggestion for Channel 4 San Diego: we know Headley will make far more than Kouz' three errors at the hot corner because he will get to a few more balls. It would be cool if they were to go threw tape and come up with a "range finder" graphic to show on a Headley error whether his predecessor would have even gotten a glove on the ball.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
World Cup, Whittaker
Big news Tuesday if you're a soccer fan. It's just been announced that San Diego is one of 18 cities as finalists to hold World Cup matches if the United States is selected as host country in 2018 or 2022.
That's still not a sure thing and it's still far away, but it's progress.
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I don't know if this will start a dam bust, but this week's commitment of Oceanside High's JJ Whittaker to the San Diego State football team is huge. He becomes the fifth Pirate to announce he's coming to SDSU, and in so doing, he decommitted from another up-and-coming program at Arizona. Aztecs fans are also hot for Oside defensive tackle Thomas Molesi, who remains committed to Oregon State. But for how long? The other kids must really be on him. Molesi has repeatedly said he wants to go away to college, which is only natural for someone his age. Hopefully he makes the right decision for his own sake, whether that means staying home or not.
That's still not a sure thing and it's still far away, but it's progress.
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I don't know if this will start a dam bust, but this week's commitment of Oceanside High's JJ Whittaker to the San Diego State football team is huge. He becomes the fifth Pirate to announce he's coming to SDSU, and in so doing, he decommitted from another up-and-coming program at Arizona. Aztecs fans are also hot for Oside defensive tackle Thomas Molesi, who remains committed to Oregon State. But for how long? The other kids must really be on him. Molesi has repeatedly said he wants to go away to college, which is only natural for someone his age. Hopefully he makes the right decision for his own sake, whether that means staying home or not.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Chargers and Jets, Coyell, Dillon Baxter
As good as the Jets looked in beating up on the Bengals this weekend, aren't you glad the Chargers don't have to face the Ravens?
Yep, as expected, those teams coming out of the wildcard round of the AFC playoffs look awfully dangerous, Jets included. In fact, the Ravens appeared so good in crunching the Patriots Sunday that they look quite capable of beating the Colts in Indianapolis. That would be way cool, allowing the Chargers to host the AFC Championship Game -- if they indeed make it that far -- but the idea right now of that team being the roadblock to the Super Bowl ... oh, shudder. Especially when you know the Ravens have already won at Qualcomm Stadium this season.
I think the Chargers have the NFL's best collection of skill talent, but I worry that the Jets are going to keep the ball on the ground the whole game and try to keep Mark Sanchez from throwing more than 20 passes. The strategy worked to near perfection as the rookie completed 12 of 15 throws for 182 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions.
It helped quite a bit that Shonn Greene and Thomas Jones combined for 169 yards on 36 carries. I'd like to say they can't do that against the Bolts, but I won't go that far. They might with the league's top rushing attack going against the Make Shift. That scares me. There's also talk that the Jets blitz-happy defense will be eaten alive by QB Philip Rivers. That's possible, too. But imagine them sending pass-rushers around T Marcus McNeill, who struggled at Tennessee, and right side colleagues Brandon Dombrowski and Jon Runyan. That scares me, too.
The Chargers ought to be good for enough big plays on offense and defense to survive. The odds are better than not. But the margin suddenly looks dangerously slim.
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Wouldn't it be nice to see Don Coryell make the Pro Football Hall of Fame? The former Chargers and San Diego State head coach made the final 15, from which the honored will be chosen on Feb. 6.
Coryell is already a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, which he richly deserves. He revolutionized the college game while at State -- really, what we saw during the 1980s and 1990s and into the 2000s before the Spread took over were versions of his offense. He then moved into the NFL with the St. Louis Cardinals before returning home to San Diego. In those days, as now, taking the Cards to the playoffs twice in five seasons should alone be enough to make the Hall of Fame.
The offensive system had already been introduced to the pro game by the time Coryell arrived, thanks to Al Davis and John Madden, but it really became popular when QB Jim Hart and RB Terry Metcalfe cranked up the Cardinals offense after that franchise had been awful for years, and QB Dan Fouts took "Air Coryell" to new heights here. Oldsters can tell you how bad the Bolts were in the early 1970s before he arrived.
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Darn, why did I have to live through an SDSU team blowing a huge lead to lose to Wyoming, again!? You can point to all kinds of reasons for the football and basketball meltdowns, but players counting their chickens before they hatched were a biggie. I'm tired of this kind of crap. Really, how stupid can you be? If the players wonder why SDSU athletics have little local support, its because setbacks like Saturday's collapse against a lesser team have become the expected.
If it sounds like I'm losing patience, I am. Quickly.
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Advice for Dillon Baxter, the Mission Bay HS star who might de-commit from USC in the wake of coach Pete Carroll's pending departure to Seattle:
1. It's not like USC won't attract a good coach to replace Carroll. Even if you're unsure about the head guy, your position coach will almost certainly be of high quality.
2. That said, the NCAA's hammer is coming down on the Trojans because of violations committed under Carroll. The NCAA could come down hard, or could turn squishy when up against a powerful program. Who knows? But if you stick it out, be prepared to be banned from at least one bowl game while you're there.
3. If you really want to play for Carroll, maximize your potential and he'll draft you in a couple of years.
4. It's less than a month until letter-of-intent day, but time is on your side. That's only the first day for you to sign. You can make your decision when YOU want to, not when someone else says you do.
5. Give Brady Hoke a shot, but don't go to SDSU unless you can get some of your fellow de-commits, especially Palomar CC T Brice Schwab, to go with you. It's too bad you're not a year younger, because at this time in 2011 the Aztecs will be a legitimate option on their own.
6. Keep your eye on what's important: whether you like the coaches and teammates, the environment of the campus, and a school that won't sell you short on academics. If you're as good a football player as everyone thinks you are, the bright lights will come.
Good luck, whatever decision you make.
Yep, as expected, those teams coming out of the wildcard round of the AFC playoffs look awfully dangerous, Jets included. In fact, the Ravens appeared so good in crunching the Patriots Sunday that they look quite capable of beating the Colts in Indianapolis. That would be way cool, allowing the Chargers to host the AFC Championship Game -- if they indeed make it that far -- but the idea right now of that team being the roadblock to the Super Bowl ... oh, shudder. Especially when you know the Ravens have already won at Qualcomm Stadium this season.
I think the Chargers have the NFL's best collection of skill talent, but I worry that the Jets are going to keep the ball on the ground the whole game and try to keep Mark Sanchez from throwing more than 20 passes. The strategy worked to near perfection as the rookie completed 12 of 15 throws for 182 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions.
It helped quite a bit that Shonn Greene and Thomas Jones combined for 169 yards on 36 carries. I'd like to say they can't do that against the Bolts, but I won't go that far. They might with the league's top rushing attack going against the Make Shift. That scares me. There's also talk that the Jets blitz-happy defense will be eaten alive by QB Philip Rivers. That's possible, too. But imagine them sending pass-rushers around T Marcus McNeill, who struggled at Tennessee, and right side colleagues Brandon Dombrowski and Jon Runyan. That scares me, too.
The Chargers ought to be good for enough big plays on offense and defense to survive. The odds are better than not. But the margin suddenly looks dangerously slim.
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Wouldn't it be nice to see Don Coryell make the Pro Football Hall of Fame? The former Chargers and San Diego State head coach made the final 15, from which the honored will be chosen on Feb. 6.
Coryell is already a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, which he richly deserves. He revolutionized the college game while at State -- really, what we saw during the 1980s and 1990s and into the 2000s before the Spread took over were versions of his offense. He then moved into the NFL with the St. Louis Cardinals before returning home to San Diego. In those days, as now, taking the Cards to the playoffs twice in five seasons should alone be enough to make the Hall of Fame.
The offensive system had already been introduced to the pro game by the time Coryell arrived, thanks to Al Davis and John Madden, but it really became popular when QB Jim Hart and RB Terry Metcalfe cranked up the Cardinals offense after that franchise had been awful for years, and QB Dan Fouts took "Air Coryell" to new heights here. Oldsters can tell you how bad the Bolts were in the early 1970s before he arrived.
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Darn, why did I have to live through an SDSU team blowing a huge lead to lose to Wyoming, again!? You can point to all kinds of reasons for the football and basketball meltdowns, but players counting their chickens before they hatched were a biggie. I'm tired of this kind of crap. Really, how stupid can you be? If the players wonder why SDSU athletics have little local support, its because setbacks like Saturday's collapse against a lesser team have become the expected.
If it sounds like I'm losing patience, I am. Quickly.
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Advice for Dillon Baxter, the Mission Bay HS star who might de-commit from USC in the wake of coach Pete Carroll's pending departure to Seattle:
1. It's not like USC won't attract a good coach to replace Carroll. Even if you're unsure about the head guy, your position coach will almost certainly be of high quality.
2. That said, the NCAA's hammer is coming down on the Trojans because of violations committed under Carroll. The NCAA could come down hard, or could turn squishy when up against a powerful program. Who knows? But if you stick it out, be prepared to be banned from at least one bowl game while you're there.
3. If you really want to play for Carroll, maximize your potential and he'll draft you in a couple of years.
4. It's less than a month until letter-of-intent day, but time is on your side. That's only the first day for you to sign. You can make your decision when YOU want to, not when someone else says you do.
5. Give Brady Hoke a shot, but don't go to SDSU unless you can get some of your fellow de-commits, especially Palomar CC T Brice Schwab, to go with you. It's too bad you're not a year younger, because at this time in 2011 the Aztecs will be a legitimate option on their own.
6. Keep your eye on what's important: whether you like the coaches and teammates, the environment of the campus, and a school that won't sell you short on academics. If you're as good a football player as everyone thinks you are, the bright lights will come.
Good luck, whatever decision you make.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Chargers Playoff Worries, SDSU Puts Up
I know a lot of Chargers fans are pricing out plane tickets to Miami, but I'm probably the one guy in town who remains skeptical about their chances of making the Super Bowl.
My worry isn't Indianapolis, against whom the Chargers are comfortable. The Bolts certainly never fear playing the Colts on the road. If they make it to the AFC Championship Game, then I'm happy to take my chances.
I'm worried about that first playoff game, most likely against the Patriots or Ravens.
The Patriots are still the Patriots even without WR Wes Welker -- maybe not what they once were, but still a serious threat. The Ravens have won at Qualcomm already this season, and took three of their last four games after struggling in November. Both are the kind of big, strong teams that the Chargers sometimes struggle with.
I do think the Chargers are the best team in the best conference, so if they can get past a potential first-game matchup problem, they might not only get to the Super Bowl, but win it.
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There was quite a bit of talk about Nick Canepa's column in The San Diego Union-Tribune, a sort of "told you so" piece about GM AJ Smith and coach Norv Turner. I've backed Turner from the get-go. My issue with Smith is he ignores the line of scrimmage until there's a crisis, then he tries to plug the leaks. Sometimes, like this year, it works. If the Bolts are de-railed by the Patriots or Ravens, it will be because they aren't Super Bowl caliber in the trenches.
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Tuesday night's contest between San Diego State's basketball team and 15th ranked New Mexico was a "put up or shut up" match for the Aztecs. That they won by 10 points, 74-64, even with Billy White going down to a high ankle sprain in the first half and some foul trouble, shows they're ready for business after early stumbles.
The game against the Lobos was their 15th, plenty of time for new players to jell. Early losses to Saint Mary's and Pacific came while everyone was learning their roles. A more recent setback at Arizona State was just something that happens on the road sometimes. Fine, but by the beginning of conference play, it's a matter of whether or not you're good enough. It appears the Aztecs are.
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A few weeks ago, I said the Aztecs would lose no more than three games the rest of the season. The loss in Tempe was one, and it was something I accounted for in my thinking. So we're on track. On the other hand, that means the Aztecs have to go 14-2 in a tough Mountain West Conference. Still could happen. We'll find out Saturday just how hard the road games will be when they play at Wyoming.
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After the turmoil of a 7-9 non-conference schedule, I think the USD men have a solid shot at third place in the West Coast Conference behind Gonzaga and Saint Mary's. The competition will be Portland and, surprise, Loyola-Marymount. Bigger surprise, LMU might be the stiffer competition.
The Pilots have really tailed off after their 5-0 start. The Lions, however, have won six straight games, with victims including pretty good teams in Notre Dame and Long Beach State.
The Toreros host Portland next week but don't travel to LMU until the end of the month. Those are the first two of four games between USD and their competitors that will be critical to conference tournament seeding.
My worry isn't Indianapolis, against whom the Chargers are comfortable. The Bolts certainly never fear playing the Colts on the road. If they make it to the AFC Championship Game, then I'm happy to take my chances.
I'm worried about that first playoff game, most likely against the Patriots or Ravens.
The Patriots are still the Patriots even without WR Wes Welker -- maybe not what they once were, but still a serious threat. The Ravens have won at Qualcomm already this season, and took three of their last four games after struggling in November. Both are the kind of big, strong teams that the Chargers sometimes struggle with.
I do think the Chargers are the best team in the best conference, so if they can get past a potential first-game matchup problem, they might not only get to the Super Bowl, but win it.
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There was quite a bit of talk about Nick Canepa's column in The San Diego Union-Tribune, a sort of "told you so" piece about GM AJ Smith and coach Norv Turner. I've backed Turner from the get-go. My issue with Smith is he ignores the line of scrimmage until there's a crisis, then he tries to plug the leaks. Sometimes, like this year, it works. If the Bolts are de-railed by the Patriots or Ravens, it will be because they aren't Super Bowl caliber in the trenches.
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Tuesday night's contest between San Diego State's basketball team and 15th ranked New Mexico was a "put up or shut up" match for the Aztecs. That they won by 10 points, 74-64, even with Billy White going down to a high ankle sprain in the first half and some foul trouble, shows they're ready for business after early stumbles.
The game against the Lobos was their 15th, plenty of time for new players to jell. Early losses to Saint Mary's and Pacific came while everyone was learning their roles. A more recent setback at Arizona State was just something that happens on the road sometimes. Fine, but by the beginning of conference play, it's a matter of whether or not you're good enough. It appears the Aztecs are.
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A few weeks ago, I said the Aztecs would lose no more than three games the rest of the season. The loss in Tempe was one, and it was something I accounted for in my thinking. So we're on track. On the other hand, that means the Aztecs have to go 14-2 in a tough Mountain West Conference. Still could happen. We'll find out Saturday just how hard the road games will be when they play at Wyoming.
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After the turmoil of a 7-9 non-conference schedule, I think the USD men have a solid shot at third place in the West Coast Conference behind Gonzaga and Saint Mary's. The competition will be Portland and, surprise, Loyola-Marymount. Bigger surprise, LMU might be the stiffer competition.
The Pilots have really tailed off after their 5-0 start. The Lions, however, have won six straight games, with victims including pretty good teams in Notre Dame and Long Beach State.
The Toreros host Portland next week but don't travel to LMU until the end of the month. Those are the first two of four games between USD and their competitors that will be critical to conference tournament seeding.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
The Decade's People in Local Sports
We San Diego sports fans were treated to the exploits of a lot of interesting people over the past decade. Here's my look at some who played a major role in the local sports scene from 2000 to 2009:
LaDainian Tomlinson and Drew Brees - The running back from Texas Christian and quarterback from Purdue came seemingly as a package deal in the 2001 draft and double-handedly rose the Chargers from the near-dead. Both were immensely talented and, perhaps more important, were quality people. The Chargers began the decade 1-15. By 2002, when Brees took over, they improved to 8-8 and by 2004 were in the playoffs. Tomlinson rushed for more than 12,000 yards, caught more than 500 passes and scored 153 touchdowns to make himself a cinch first-ballot Hall of Fame selection. Brees was run off after the Bolts slipped to 9-7 in 2005, but he made himself a fixture in New Orleans and might himself be enshrined in Canton one day.
Trevor Hoffman - "Hells Bells" has moved to Milwaukee, but there's some interesting stats about the all-time baseball saves leader. His 591 saves are the most ever, of course. Of those, 552 came with the Padres, which is still the most ever. The Yankees Mariano Rivera is second on the all-time list with 526 as of the end of the 2009 season. Some things you won't know if you're not a stat freak are that his career ERA of 2.73 is second among active pitchers behind Rivera, his ratio of walks and hits to innings pitched is also second to Rivera, and his ratio of hits allowed for every nine innings pitched of 6.884 ranks first for active players and fifth all-time. 326 of his saves came in this decade, if my addition is correct. You have to figure he has another year or two left in him, and it would be really nice to see him retire as a Padre.
Jimmie Johnson - The El Cajon native won NASCAR's championship four straight years, and always seemed to be back home the next day visiting a school and handing out gifts. He's like the guy who always returns the shot in tennis or ping-pong, he just drives without mistakes and let's his opponents fail. Now he's the first driver to be the AP Athlete of the Year.
John Lynch - It is easy to criticize 1090 XX Sports, but I think if we didn't have this guy, we might not have any local sports on the radio dial. We didn't when XTRA 690 was scrapped early in the decade, and it was Lynch who stepped up and made a deal with 1090 to put sports on the radio other than the horrible ESPN station that had no local content. His station has been extremely inconsistent and hard to listen to, but it's to his credit that it's there in the first place. No one said he was a programmer and I think some people have taken advantage of him by not working as hard as they could. He's someone who knows how to make something happen, and he did with local sports.
John Carroll - the head coach of the highly successful football team at Oceanside High, Carroll has succeeded legends like Herb Meyer and John Shacklett as the face of the local prep game. This year's team was clearly his best, with Division 1 players across the lineup, especially on defense. But he has generally won without overwhelming talent and depth. You won't read this anywhere else because he keeps a low profile, but Sean Doyle of Cathedral (former USDHS), is close to being on the same level.
Candice Wiggins - There are stories of kids who survive the sins of their parents, and then there are stories of those who thrive. Wiggins, the former La Jolla Country Day star from Poway, is one of the latter. Her father, former Padres second baseman Alan Wiggins, was a hard-headed drug addict who died of AIDS. Her mother must have been pretty special, because she raised some pretty special kids, of whom Candice is the best known. Local girls basketball was never better than when she played, and the level of talent has diminished greatly when she left. Even with a bunch of great competition, she was the best. She now plays with Charde Houston of San Diego High for the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx, and is spending her off-season playing for a team in Greece.
Shaun White - He's to this decade's kids what Tony Hawk was to those who grew up in the 90s, a legend in athletic pursuits a lot of us geezers don't really understand. The Carlsbad product won a gold medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics and is a favorite to win at least another in Vancouver in 2010. Indeed, recent performances indicate that he's stepping up his game. He's claimed a stratospheric celebrity status that might even surpass Hawk's.
Mark Fabiani - Everyone above is notable for success. Not Fabiani. The former special counsel to President Clinton has been tasked for most of this decade with coming up with a site for a new Chargers stadium, and so far he's failed. I cannot imagine why this guy remains employed by the Spanos family -- and no one should take this personally because I've talked to him a few times and he is personable and friendly with reporters. Perhaps the fact that the Chargers aren't building a new facility now isn't his fault, but he has yet to succeed, either. The proposed downtown site, news of which I broke over the summer with Mark's help, now looks like a bust, too, for reasons not quite so apparent at the time. It seemed like a good idea. Oceanside and Escondido never seemed liked good ideas. The pursuit of a new stadium, after more than half the decade, appears to be back at square one.
LaDainian Tomlinson and Drew Brees - The running back from Texas Christian and quarterback from Purdue came seemingly as a package deal in the 2001 draft and double-handedly rose the Chargers from the near-dead. Both were immensely talented and, perhaps more important, were quality people. The Chargers began the decade 1-15. By 2002, when Brees took over, they improved to 8-8 and by 2004 were in the playoffs. Tomlinson rushed for more than 12,000 yards, caught more than 500 passes and scored 153 touchdowns to make himself a cinch first-ballot Hall of Fame selection. Brees was run off after the Bolts slipped to 9-7 in 2005, but he made himself a fixture in New Orleans and might himself be enshrined in Canton one day.
Trevor Hoffman - "Hells Bells" has moved to Milwaukee, but there's some interesting stats about the all-time baseball saves leader. His 591 saves are the most ever, of course. Of those, 552 came with the Padres, which is still the most ever. The Yankees Mariano Rivera is second on the all-time list with 526 as of the end of the 2009 season. Some things you won't know if you're not a stat freak are that his career ERA of 2.73 is second among active pitchers behind Rivera, his ratio of walks and hits to innings pitched is also second to Rivera, and his ratio of hits allowed for every nine innings pitched of 6.884 ranks first for active players and fifth all-time. 326 of his saves came in this decade, if my addition is correct. You have to figure he has another year or two left in him, and it would be really nice to see him retire as a Padre.
Jimmie Johnson - The El Cajon native won NASCAR's championship four straight years, and always seemed to be back home the next day visiting a school and handing out gifts. He's like the guy who always returns the shot in tennis or ping-pong, he just drives without mistakes and let's his opponents fail. Now he's the first driver to be the AP Athlete of the Year.
John Lynch - It is easy to criticize 1090 XX Sports, but I think if we didn't have this guy, we might not have any local sports on the radio dial. We didn't when XTRA 690 was scrapped early in the decade, and it was Lynch who stepped up and made a deal with 1090 to put sports on the radio other than the horrible ESPN station that had no local content. His station has been extremely inconsistent and hard to listen to, but it's to his credit that it's there in the first place. No one said he was a programmer and I think some people have taken advantage of him by not working as hard as they could. He's someone who knows how to make something happen, and he did with local sports.
John Carroll - the head coach of the highly successful football team at Oceanside High, Carroll has succeeded legends like Herb Meyer and John Shacklett as the face of the local prep game. This year's team was clearly his best, with Division 1 players across the lineup, especially on defense. But he has generally won without overwhelming talent and depth. You won't read this anywhere else because he keeps a low profile, but Sean Doyle of Cathedral (former USDHS), is close to being on the same level.
Candice Wiggins - There are stories of kids who survive the sins of their parents, and then there are stories of those who thrive. Wiggins, the former La Jolla Country Day star from Poway, is one of the latter. Her father, former Padres second baseman Alan Wiggins, was a hard-headed drug addict who died of AIDS. Her mother must have been pretty special, because she raised some pretty special kids, of whom Candice is the best known. Local girls basketball was never better than when she played, and the level of talent has diminished greatly when she left. Even with a bunch of great competition, she was the best. She now plays with Charde Houston of San Diego High for the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx, and is spending her off-season playing for a team in Greece.
Shaun White - He's to this decade's kids what Tony Hawk was to those who grew up in the 90s, a legend in athletic pursuits a lot of us geezers don't really understand. The Carlsbad product won a gold medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics and is a favorite to win at least another in Vancouver in 2010. Indeed, recent performances indicate that he's stepping up his game. He's claimed a stratospheric celebrity status that might even surpass Hawk's.
Mark Fabiani - Everyone above is notable for success. Not Fabiani. The former special counsel to President Clinton has been tasked for most of this decade with coming up with a site for a new Chargers stadium, and so far he's failed. I cannot imagine why this guy remains employed by the Spanos family -- and no one should take this personally because I've talked to him a few times and he is personable and friendly with reporters. Perhaps the fact that the Chargers aren't building a new facility now isn't his fault, but he has yet to succeed, either. The proposed downtown site, news of which I broke over the summer with Mark's help, now looks like a bust, too, for reasons not quite so apparent at the time. It seemed like a good idea. Oceanside and Escondido never seemed liked good ideas. The pursuit of a new stadium, after more than half the decade, appears to be back at square one.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Many Decade Highlights at Torrey Pines
I've never been a big fan of golf. Of the more genteel past-times, I've always preferred tennis to both watch and play. However, I have to say that over the past decade, many of the local sports highlights have taken place on the links at Torrey Pines Golf Club. Consider:
-- the U.S. Open simply being here was a thrill, and then Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate go and kick it up a notch with their exciting playoff. A couple days after the tournament, people went bananas at a sale of memorabilia at a Miramar warehouse and several people needed to be hospitalized.
-- Phil Mickelson became the first three-time winner of the Buick tournament when he survived a three-way playoff with Frank Licklighter and Davis Love III.
-- Woods posted a four-stroke win in the Buick following knee surgery.
-- John Daly and Woods both also won in three-way playoffs. Daly's came when there were six other players just a stroke behind after four rounds, and Woods' victory made him the first four-time winner.
-- Woods extended the second-longest tournament winning streak in PGA history to seven with yet another Buick victory.
Golf been berry berry good to us.
Some other highlights:
-- the development of the Chargers franchise from 1-15 in 2000 to annual AFC West champion and Super Bowl contender,
-- the development of San Diego State men's basketball from arguably the worst major program in the nation to an annual 20-game winner and post-season entrant,
-- three appearances by local teams in the Little League World Series, by Oceanside, Rancho Buena Vista and this year's championship by Chula Vista's Park View,
-- Stephen Strasburg comes to SDSU's baseball team from West Hills High as a fat and lazy hurler with a decent fastball and leaves as a strapping and dominant power pitcher who becomes a first round draft pick and college baseball's Player of the Year,
-- USD's men's basketball team wins the West Coast Conference tournament in a championship upset over Gonzaga in a madhouse at the Jenny Craig Pavilion and presses Stanford hard in the NCAA tourney,
-- and a couple years later comes back to upset UConn in the first round of the Big Dance,
-- Tony Gwynn's retirement ceremony and enshrinement in the baseball Hall of Fame along with Trevor Hoffman's achievements. Jake Peavy's Cy Young.
Some of my favorite moments of the decade came in the first few years when I was covering high school sports:
-- Monte Vista topping star-laden El Capitan in a tense and well-played baseball semifinal match at Southwestern College,
-- In boys basketball, Lincoln downing Christian with a three at the buzzer in the first game of a semifinal doubleheader at Cuyamaca College only to be followed with a huge upset by Bishop's over Horizon in the nightcap thanks to a three-quarter court shot at the buzzer,
-- In girls basketball, Mount Carmel going to overtime to dethrone El Camino.
-- In football, Helix outscoring Ramona in a playoff game with future Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush and Dartmouth's Jason Bash trading long touchdown runs.
Got some more?
-- the U.S. Open simply being here was a thrill, and then Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate go and kick it up a notch with their exciting playoff. A couple days after the tournament, people went bananas at a sale of memorabilia at a Miramar warehouse and several people needed to be hospitalized.
-- Phil Mickelson became the first three-time winner of the Buick tournament when he survived a three-way playoff with Frank Licklighter and Davis Love III.
-- Woods posted a four-stroke win in the Buick following knee surgery.
-- John Daly and Woods both also won in three-way playoffs. Daly's came when there were six other players just a stroke behind after four rounds, and Woods' victory made him the first four-time winner.
-- Woods extended the second-longest tournament winning streak in PGA history to seven with yet another Buick victory.
Golf been berry berry good to us.
Some other highlights:
-- the development of the Chargers franchise from 1-15 in 2000 to annual AFC West champion and Super Bowl contender,
-- the development of San Diego State men's basketball from arguably the worst major program in the nation to an annual 20-game winner and post-season entrant,
-- three appearances by local teams in the Little League World Series, by Oceanside, Rancho Buena Vista and this year's championship by Chula Vista's Park View,
-- Stephen Strasburg comes to SDSU's baseball team from West Hills High as a fat and lazy hurler with a decent fastball and leaves as a strapping and dominant power pitcher who becomes a first round draft pick and college baseball's Player of the Year,
-- USD's men's basketball team wins the West Coast Conference tournament in a championship upset over Gonzaga in a madhouse at the Jenny Craig Pavilion and presses Stanford hard in the NCAA tourney,
-- and a couple years later comes back to upset UConn in the first round of the Big Dance,
-- Tony Gwynn's retirement ceremony and enshrinement in the baseball Hall of Fame along with Trevor Hoffman's achievements. Jake Peavy's Cy Young.
Some of my favorite moments of the decade came in the first few years when I was covering high school sports:
-- Monte Vista topping star-laden El Capitan in a tense and well-played baseball semifinal match at Southwestern College,
-- In boys basketball, Lincoln downing Christian with a three at the buzzer in the first game of a semifinal doubleheader at Cuyamaca College only to be followed with a huge upset by Bishop's over Horizon in the nightcap thanks to a three-quarter court shot at the buzzer,
-- In girls basketball, Mount Carmel going to overtime to dethrone El Camino.
-- In football, Helix outscoring Ramona in a playoff game with future Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush and Dartmouth's Jason Bash trading long touchdown runs.
Got some more?
Sunday, December 27, 2009
San Diego Sports Rising Toward Next Decade
Maybe I'm mathematically challenged but to me, 2010 ushers in a new decade. The purists say the new decade begins with a one. Poppycock, we're just placing the one in the tens column and doing so for the first time, so it's a new decade and that's all there is to it.
So, as the year/decade come to an end, there will be a series of posts that look back on the previous 10 years, the highs, the lows and some of the people who made the San Diego sports scene what it is. The first five years, of course, included my attempt at operating SanDiegoSportsTown.com, which gave me a close look at everything that was going on around here and provided some perspective when I became a more casual observer in the succeeding years.
I will say this. I like where we are heading into 2010 much better than going into 2000. If there were a president of San Diego sports, that person would be overwhelmingly re-elected. Things are really looking up. Consider where we were 10 years ago:
-- the Chargers had Ryan Leaf at quarterback and were in the midst of a period in which they and the Bengals were the worst franchises in the NFL,
-- the Padres were barely a year removed from a World Series appearance and were heading downhill.
-- the SDSU football team was headed for collapse and the basketball programs were among the nation's worst,
-- all of the USD athletic programs were mired in mediocrity.
Happily fast-forward to the present:
-- the Chargers have a legitimate shot at the Super Bowl behind a team that's still relatively young and with better line play has room for improvement,
-- the Padres have promising new ownership and an interesting foundation of young players to build around,
-- the SDSU football program is on the comeback trail and the basketball programs are now annual conference contenders and post-season participants,
-- all of the USD athletic programs are mired in mediocrity (but the middle of the decade was so good that .500 is no longer acceptable).
Things aren't perfect. As noted last week, the annual PGA tournament lost its sponsor and marquee player, the women's tennis tourney is no longer and the Holiday Bowl will struggle to maintain relevance. But I trust the Century Club and Holiday Bowl folks to come through, because they always do, and everything else is just so good right now.
I'll come back Monday or Tuesday with a list of some of the decade's memorable moments.
So, as the year/decade come to an end, there will be a series of posts that look back on the previous 10 years, the highs, the lows and some of the people who made the San Diego sports scene what it is. The first five years, of course, included my attempt at operating SanDiegoSportsTown.com, which gave me a close look at everything that was going on around here and provided some perspective when I became a more casual observer in the succeeding years.
I will say this. I like where we are heading into 2010 much better than going into 2000. If there were a president of San Diego sports, that person would be overwhelmingly re-elected. Things are really looking up. Consider where we were 10 years ago:
-- the Chargers had Ryan Leaf at quarterback and were in the midst of a period in which they and the Bengals were the worst franchises in the NFL,
-- the Padres were barely a year removed from a World Series appearance and were heading downhill.
-- the SDSU football team was headed for collapse and the basketball programs were among the nation's worst,
-- all of the USD athletic programs were mired in mediocrity.
Happily fast-forward to the present:
-- the Chargers have a legitimate shot at the Super Bowl behind a team that's still relatively young and with better line play has room for improvement,
-- the Padres have promising new ownership and an interesting foundation of young players to build around,
-- the SDSU football program is on the comeback trail and the basketball programs are now annual conference contenders and post-season participants,
-- all of the USD athletic programs are mired in mediocrity (but the middle of the decade was so good that .500 is no longer acceptable).
Things aren't perfect. As noted last week, the annual PGA tournament lost its sponsor and marquee player, the women's tennis tourney is no longer and the Holiday Bowl will struggle to maintain relevance. But I trust the Century Club and Holiday Bowl folks to come through, because they always do, and everything else is just so good right now.
I'll come back Monday or Tuesday with a list of some of the decade's memorable moments.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Rating the San Diego Sports Franchises
There are so many of those "Rate My ..." sites on the Internet these days I thought it would be a fun thing here in the holidays to rate our local teams and other sports efforts. So, from one to 10, from bad to good, here we go:
9 - Holiday Bowl. They live right, there's little else that can be said. Arizona-Nebraska is a great matchup that sold out within hours of the teams being announced. The game never fails to entertain. Next year, they sink in the pecking order, but that's a problem to be dealt with later. For now, enjoy one of the premier bowl events in the nation.
8 - Chargers. There's not much more to prove for the Bolts, annual division titlists and Super Bowl contenders. They have just have to get to the final game and win one. Unlike 1994, making it will not be an upset and they'd have a chance to win. Yes, the lines still need improvement, a deficiency that might be costly next month, but everything else seems to work.
7 - San Diego State men's basketball. They're kind of like the Chargers although the Aztecs are somewhat flying under the local radar. No question there's work ahead for Coach Steve Fisher, who needs a reliable point guard and a regular with a consistent outside shot. But you can't knock annual 20-win seasons and tournament appearances. To get to an 8 like the Bolts, they have to win an NCAA Tournament game.
7 - USD baseball. The Little Team That Could is ranked again in the preseason, all you need to know about a program mired in mediocrity when Coach Rich Hill took over. The Toreros have been regular-season wonders in beating top programs like Texas, but have performed poorly in the NCAA Regionals. Hoping last season was but a hiccup.
6 - San Diego State women's basketball. I would have been tempted to place the Lady Aztecs a notch or two higher before the season, but there is something wrong internally with Coach Beth Burns' team. G Jerica Williams quitting is a sign to me that there were some personality clashes early in the season, leading to a couple surprising blowout losses. Let's hope that this week's romp over Loyola-Marymount is a sign that Burns has put things back together.
6 - Poinsettia Bowl. That sixth draw out of the Pac-10 is turning into a bit of a dud, especially when you figure such a team has to face the second- or third-place team from the suddenly powerful Mountain West Conference. As predicted on this blog on bowl announcement day, the game would be a rout in favor of the Utes, and it was. Attendance is a problem, with both schools this year only selling half their allotments and local fans saving their money for the Holiday Bowl. On the other hand, the last two games, TCU-Boise State and Utah-Navy, have been stellar.
6 - USD men's basketball. Coach Bill Grier maximizes his talent, enough to get the occasional win over a name school like Oklahoma. Trouble is, there's not enough talent on this squad and while he's been able to attract recruits, none are exciting. The Toreros are no longer the consistent program they were under Brad Holland and if the West Coast Conference season doesn't go well, they'll be at a crossroads.
5 - USD football. Never would have rated the Toreros this low back in the high-flying Jim Harbaugh days, but they're coming off a 4-7 season, 3-5 in the Pioneer Football League. Coach Ron Caragher had two great years following Harbaugh, but the trend is now heading in the wrong direction. Chalk up part of the problem to injuries. But another losing season next year will put Caragher on the hot seat.
5 - San Diego State baseball. Okay, now that Strasburg is gone, show us what you've got. The college baseball Player of the Year carried the Aztecs to their first regional in a ridiculous 19 years, obscuring the fact that they only finished fourth in the Mountain West Conference, which is not the power it has become in football and basketball. Can Addison Reed do a Strasburg impersonation? We'll see.
4 - San Diego State football. The Aztecs came a long way in Coach Brady Hoke's first year, and a strong recruiting class is being put together. This coaching staff knows what it is doing, and the results will show in time. It still amazes how low this program sank under Hoke's predecessors. To think how close they came to a bowl game in 2009 is stunning.
4 - USD women's basketball. The Lady Toreros are coming off two strong runs in the WCC Tournament, one which got them to the NCAAs, and have compiled two straight 19-13 records. Yet, Coach Cindy Fisher hasn't seemed able to build on her success, with the Toreros only 6-6 heading into Christmas. Just like the men, they seem capable of more, and the low rating expresses my desire for them to step up their game a notch.
3 - Padres. New General Manager Jed Hoyer has his work cut out for him. As said before, I like the foundation of young players, but it's only a base, not a finished product. Right now, they're only capable of challenging for .500 next year, which is not good enough considering the high cost of attending games and inconvenient stadium location. I'm willing to watch Hoyer build this franchise up, but mostly from in front of my television.
3 - Golf. The Century Club lost Buick as a sponsor and now goes into next month's event at Torrey Pines without scandal-plagued Tiger Woods. Good luck with that. On the other hand, we did finally get the LPGA back with a September tournament.
0 - As in no professional tennis tournaments.
Arrows Up: Chargers, SDSU men's hoops, SDSU football.
Arrows Down: SDSU women's basketball, USD football, USD women's basketball.
---
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to my readers!
9 - Holiday Bowl. They live right, there's little else that can be said. Arizona-Nebraska is a great matchup that sold out within hours of the teams being announced. The game never fails to entertain. Next year, they sink in the pecking order, but that's a problem to be dealt with later. For now, enjoy one of the premier bowl events in the nation.
8 - Chargers. There's not much more to prove for the Bolts, annual division titlists and Super Bowl contenders. They have just have to get to the final game and win one. Unlike 1994, making it will not be an upset and they'd have a chance to win. Yes, the lines still need improvement, a deficiency that might be costly next month, but everything else seems to work.
7 - San Diego State men's basketball. They're kind of like the Chargers although the Aztecs are somewhat flying under the local radar. No question there's work ahead for Coach Steve Fisher, who needs a reliable point guard and a regular with a consistent outside shot. But you can't knock annual 20-win seasons and tournament appearances. To get to an 8 like the Bolts, they have to win an NCAA Tournament game.
7 - USD baseball. The Little Team That Could is ranked again in the preseason, all you need to know about a program mired in mediocrity when Coach Rich Hill took over. The Toreros have been regular-season wonders in beating top programs like Texas, but have performed poorly in the NCAA Regionals. Hoping last season was but a hiccup.
6 - San Diego State women's basketball. I would have been tempted to place the Lady Aztecs a notch or two higher before the season, but there is something wrong internally with Coach Beth Burns' team. G Jerica Williams quitting is a sign to me that there were some personality clashes early in the season, leading to a couple surprising blowout losses. Let's hope that this week's romp over Loyola-Marymount is a sign that Burns has put things back together.
6 - Poinsettia Bowl. That sixth draw out of the Pac-10 is turning into a bit of a dud, especially when you figure such a team has to face the second- or third-place team from the suddenly powerful Mountain West Conference. As predicted on this blog on bowl announcement day, the game would be a rout in favor of the Utes, and it was. Attendance is a problem, with both schools this year only selling half their allotments and local fans saving their money for the Holiday Bowl. On the other hand, the last two games, TCU-Boise State and Utah-Navy, have been stellar.
6 - USD men's basketball. Coach Bill Grier maximizes his talent, enough to get the occasional win over a name school like Oklahoma. Trouble is, there's not enough talent on this squad and while he's been able to attract recruits, none are exciting. The Toreros are no longer the consistent program they were under Brad Holland and if the West Coast Conference season doesn't go well, they'll be at a crossroads.
5 - USD football. Never would have rated the Toreros this low back in the high-flying Jim Harbaugh days, but they're coming off a 4-7 season, 3-5 in the Pioneer Football League. Coach Ron Caragher had two great years following Harbaugh, but the trend is now heading in the wrong direction. Chalk up part of the problem to injuries. But another losing season next year will put Caragher on the hot seat.
5 - San Diego State baseball. Okay, now that Strasburg is gone, show us what you've got. The college baseball Player of the Year carried the Aztecs to their first regional in a ridiculous 19 years, obscuring the fact that they only finished fourth in the Mountain West Conference, which is not the power it has become in football and basketball. Can Addison Reed do a Strasburg impersonation? We'll see.
4 - San Diego State football. The Aztecs came a long way in Coach Brady Hoke's first year, and a strong recruiting class is being put together. This coaching staff knows what it is doing, and the results will show in time. It still amazes how low this program sank under Hoke's predecessors. To think how close they came to a bowl game in 2009 is stunning.
4 - USD women's basketball. The Lady Toreros are coming off two strong runs in the WCC Tournament, one which got them to the NCAAs, and have compiled two straight 19-13 records. Yet, Coach Cindy Fisher hasn't seemed able to build on her success, with the Toreros only 6-6 heading into Christmas. Just like the men, they seem capable of more, and the low rating expresses my desire for them to step up their game a notch.
3 - Padres. New General Manager Jed Hoyer has his work cut out for him. As said before, I like the foundation of young players, but it's only a base, not a finished product. Right now, they're only capable of challenging for .500 next year, which is not good enough considering the high cost of attending games and inconvenient stadium location. I'm willing to watch Hoyer build this franchise up, but mostly from in front of my television.
3 - Golf. The Century Club lost Buick as a sponsor and now goes into next month's event at Torrey Pines without scandal-plagued Tiger Woods. Good luck with that. On the other hand, we did finally get the LPGA back with a September tournament.
0 - As in no professional tennis tournaments.
Arrows Up: Chargers, SDSU men's hoops, SDSU football.
Arrows Down: SDSU women's basketball, USD football, USD women's basketball.
---
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to my readers!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
San Diego Sports Moments of 2009
The Top 10, as I see them:
1. Chula Vista Park View Little League Wins World Series: The Bombers were on the verge of elimination at some point every step of the way, but when the dust cleared, they were the best group of 11, 12 and 13-year-old baseball players on the planet. The South Bay was energized, and the rest of San Diego County captivated, by their spirited play. Their impact was made obvious by the reception the players received upon their return, when they were accorded rock star status for more than a week. It was the first local team to win a Little League championship since the 1961 El Cajon-La Mesa Little League. Aside from indoor soccer, it was the first national or world championship for a local team since the 1973 SDSU mens' volleyball squad.
2. San Diego State men's basketball vs. Saint Mary's: One of the three or four greatest nights in the history of Aztecs athletics in terms of what was at stake, the players ability to come through in the clutch and fan participation. If you weren't thereon March 25, you really, really missed something special. Can't forget Billy White's dunk or Patty Mills being forced to dribble the ball off his leg.
3. San Diego Chargers beat Indianapolis in the playoffs: Darren Sproles ran wild over the Colts in a 23-17 OT win at Qualcomm Stadium on Jan 12. The running back gained 328 total yards, including 178 on kick returns and 105 rushing. Key play was a late sack of Indy QB Peyton Manning near his own goal line, setting up a short punt that the Bolts converted to a game-tying field goal with 31 seconds left.
4. Stephen Strasburg: I'm not sure how you pick just one single event, but here goes. On Mar. 27, he took the mound in Fort Worth with temperatures in the mid-40s and a stiff breeze, facing Number 16 TCU. He proceeded to pitch 8 innings, allow just 2 runs and strike out 14 Horned Frogs. He allowed just 3 hits and 1 walk as the Aztecs raced to an 11-5 victory. It was a night that called for toughness, and he had it. No complaints about the no-hitter against Air Force, being drafted first or the $140,000 donation, either.
5. Everth Cabrera's Fireworks: Independence Day was perhaps the coming out party for the Padres youth. In a televised game that overshadowed that weekend's return of the Dodgers' Manny Ramirez from a 50-day drug suspension, Cabrera was spectacular defensively at shortstop and drove in three runs during a 7-4 win by the Friars. A month later, he hit a walk-off grand slam against Francisco Rodriguez of the Mets. The Padres also saw promise from outfielders Kyle Blanks and Will Venable.
6. Jeff Moorad Buys Padres: The local major league baseball team had stagnated under owner John Moores and conditions were not going to improve under an owner who had moved out of town. His divorce made things worse and prompted the sale. Good for us fans, sucks for them, of course, since you don't want to wish that on anybody. Moorad has provided some fresh energy and a new direction that appears positive on the surface. If it translates to the field, all the better.
7. West Hills Upsets Mt. Miguel in CIF Girls Division II Basketball Final: This is why people love March Madness. The Matadors were routinely the section champions and the Wolf Pack had never been. Mt. Miguel beat them by 11 the first time they played last season. So, of course, on March 6 they go down to the final seconds at the Jenny Craig Pavilion tied at 44, and Wolf Pack junior Sherika Miller scooped up a loose ball, drove to the basket and flipped up a shot that somehow went in with 1.3 seconds remaining.
8. Chargers Stand Turns Around Season: The Chargers were 4-3 and riding a two-game winning streak, but still chasing the Broncos when they traveled to the Meadowlands to face the Giants on Nov. 8. No one at the time imagined the Chargers would be where they are now, comfortably in first place in the AFC West and aiming for the second seed in the playoffs. The reason why they're where they are now is they didn't fold when an interception return set the Giants up at the Chargers 4-yard line in the fourth quarter. After allowing pressure on QB Eli Manning all day, a Giants lineman was called for holding. The Giants only got a field goal, and the Chargers drove for the game-winning touchdown. The rest, as they say, is history.
9. Girls High School Cross-Country National Championship: It made nary a blip on the local radar last weekend, but it did make national news as Megan Goethels of Rochester, Mich. and Chelsey Sveinsson of Dallas finished the Morley Field course in identical times of 17:07. Goethals led most of the 5K race but fell behind Sveinsson late during a pouring rainstorm. The Michigan girl had a great finishing kick and pushed ahead with five meters remaining and won by mere inches.
10. SDSU Women's Basketball Wins in NCAA Tournament: Beth Burns' Aztecs hosted the first two rounds of the women's NCAA Tournament and used the home court advantage to defeat DePaul 76-70, with unstoppable G Jene Morris tying her career high with 35 points. The home court advantage was the real deal, the victory ran the Aztecs home record to 15-0 that season before they fell to Stanford two nights later.
Other cool things: Eastlake High School's football team making Qualcomm Stadium for the first time and defeating Vista for it's first CIF crown despite playing most of the game without star Tony Jefferson ... Oceanside winning its sixth straight Division II title and having all the Southern Section teams above them in consideration for the state bowl lose, giving both the Pirates and Francis Parker bids ... Brady Hoke's SDSU football team nearly pulled off a miracle, coming within two quarters, or two minutes if that's how you want to look at it, of going to a bowl game. It wasn't to be, with last-minute losses to Wyoming and UNLV, but the coaching staff is recruiting much better than anyone at State in years, possibly enough to land a bowl bid next year ... SDSU's mens' soccer team hit the big time in September with a 4-2 win over sixth-ranked old nemesis UC Santa Barbara, and also scored big wins over Stanford and Cal (twice). They also twice tied UCLA, once when the Bruins were ranked second in the nation.
I'm sure I forgot something, or things. Feel free to comment and jog my memory!
1. Chula Vista Park View Little League Wins World Series: The Bombers were on the verge of elimination at some point every step of the way, but when the dust cleared, they were the best group of 11, 12 and 13-year-old baseball players on the planet. The South Bay was energized, and the rest of San Diego County captivated, by their spirited play. Their impact was made obvious by the reception the players received upon their return, when they were accorded rock star status for more than a week. It was the first local team to win a Little League championship since the 1961 El Cajon-La Mesa Little League. Aside from indoor soccer, it was the first national or world championship for a local team since the 1973 SDSU mens' volleyball squad.
2. San Diego State men's basketball vs. Saint Mary's: One of the three or four greatest nights in the history of Aztecs athletics in terms of what was at stake, the players ability to come through in the clutch and fan participation. If you weren't thereon March 25, you really, really missed something special. Can't forget Billy White's dunk or Patty Mills being forced to dribble the ball off his leg.
3. San Diego Chargers beat Indianapolis in the playoffs: Darren Sproles ran wild over the Colts in a 23-17 OT win at Qualcomm Stadium on Jan 12. The running back gained 328 total yards, including 178 on kick returns and 105 rushing. Key play was a late sack of Indy QB Peyton Manning near his own goal line, setting up a short punt that the Bolts converted to a game-tying field goal with 31 seconds left.
4. Stephen Strasburg: I'm not sure how you pick just one single event, but here goes. On Mar. 27, he took the mound in Fort Worth with temperatures in the mid-40s and a stiff breeze, facing Number 16 TCU. He proceeded to pitch 8 innings, allow just 2 runs and strike out 14 Horned Frogs. He allowed just 3 hits and 1 walk as the Aztecs raced to an 11-5 victory. It was a night that called for toughness, and he had it. No complaints about the no-hitter against Air Force, being drafted first or the $140,000 donation, either.
5. Everth Cabrera's Fireworks: Independence Day was perhaps the coming out party for the Padres youth. In a televised game that overshadowed that weekend's return of the Dodgers' Manny Ramirez from a 50-day drug suspension, Cabrera was spectacular defensively at shortstop and drove in three runs during a 7-4 win by the Friars. A month later, he hit a walk-off grand slam against Francisco Rodriguez of the Mets. The Padres also saw promise from outfielders Kyle Blanks and Will Venable.
6. Jeff Moorad Buys Padres: The local major league baseball team had stagnated under owner John Moores and conditions were not going to improve under an owner who had moved out of town. His divorce made things worse and prompted the sale. Good for us fans, sucks for them, of course, since you don't want to wish that on anybody. Moorad has provided some fresh energy and a new direction that appears positive on the surface. If it translates to the field, all the better.
7. West Hills Upsets Mt. Miguel in CIF Girls Division II Basketball Final: This is why people love March Madness. The Matadors were routinely the section champions and the Wolf Pack had never been. Mt. Miguel beat them by 11 the first time they played last season. So, of course, on March 6 they go down to the final seconds at the Jenny Craig Pavilion tied at 44, and Wolf Pack junior Sherika Miller scooped up a loose ball, drove to the basket and flipped up a shot that somehow went in with 1.3 seconds remaining.
8. Chargers Stand Turns Around Season: The Chargers were 4-3 and riding a two-game winning streak, but still chasing the Broncos when they traveled to the Meadowlands to face the Giants on Nov. 8. No one at the time imagined the Chargers would be where they are now, comfortably in first place in the AFC West and aiming for the second seed in the playoffs. The reason why they're where they are now is they didn't fold when an interception return set the Giants up at the Chargers 4-yard line in the fourth quarter. After allowing pressure on QB Eli Manning all day, a Giants lineman was called for holding. The Giants only got a field goal, and the Chargers drove for the game-winning touchdown. The rest, as they say, is history.
9. Girls High School Cross-Country National Championship: It made nary a blip on the local radar last weekend, but it did make national news as Megan Goethels of Rochester, Mich. and Chelsey Sveinsson of Dallas finished the Morley Field course in identical times of 17:07. Goethals led most of the 5K race but fell behind Sveinsson late during a pouring rainstorm. The Michigan girl had a great finishing kick and pushed ahead with five meters remaining and won by mere inches.
10. SDSU Women's Basketball Wins in NCAA Tournament: Beth Burns' Aztecs hosted the first two rounds of the women's NCAA Tournament and used the home court advantage to defeat DePaul 76-70, with unstoppable G Jene Morris tying her career high with 35 points. The home court advantage was the real deal, the victory ran the Aztecs home record to 15-0 that season before they fell to Stanford two nights later.
Other cool things: Eastlake High School's football team making Qualcomm Stadium for the first time and defeating Vista for it's first CIF crown despite playing most of the game without star Tony Jefferson ... Oceanside winning its sixth straight Division II title and having all the Southern Section teams above them in consideration for the state bowl lose, giving both the Pirates and Francis Parker bids ... Brady Hoke's SDSU football team nearly pulled off a miracle, coming within two quarters, or two minutes if that's how you want to look at it, of going to a bowl game. It wasn't to be, with last-minute losses to Wyoming and UNLV, but the coaching staff is recruiting much better than anyone at State in years, possibly enough to land a bowl bid next year ... SDSU's mens' soccer team hit the big time in September with a 4-2 win over sixth-ranked old nemesis UC Santa Barbara, and also scored big wins over Stanford and Cal (twice). They also twice tied UCLA, once when the Bruins were ranked second in the nation.
I'm sure I forgot something, or things. Feel free to comment and jog my memory!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Does Chargers Super Bowl Equal Stadium? Plus SDSU Hoops
Are we in 1998 again?
In that glorious year, the Padres pitched their way into the World Series and fans showed their appreciation by voting to approve a complicated deal between the franchise and city to build Petco Park.
Now, 11 years later, we find ourselves with the Chargers in need of a new stadium and might have a chance to energize the electorate the same way their baseball brethren did. The Bolts 20-17 victory over the Cowboys in Dallas, in a game that wasn't as close as the final result, established themselves as favorites along with the undefeated Colts to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. The Cowboys were as big a challenge as the they've had in a couple of months, and they came answered.
The fear coming into Sunday was the Chargers would be exposed as pretenders, with deficient lines or poor secondary play. No one is perfect, but those units played well enough to win. The final Chargers offensive possession too more than seven minutes off the board in the fourth quarter and resulted in Nate Kaeding's clinching field goal. They did it mostly running against a pretty good defense that knew the ball would remain on the ground. It seems like earlier in the season the Bolts couldn't run the ball even if the other team dropped 11 into pass coverage.
The Chargers are now solid contenders, not pretenders. And you know their history against the Colts, whether home or in Indianapolis. If they do go to the Super Bowl, and thrill the local fans, they might have a chance to get a ballot measure passed that includes taxpayer financing of their new digs. The Chargers now say taxpayer money will be needed if they're to build downtown, which appears to be the only available spot left in the county. In normal circumstances, they would have no chance. Coming off a Super Bowl appearance, such a proposition might pass.
"Might" is they key word. The argument in favor of spending taxpayer money on a new football palace is that it keeps the team in town -- the NFL is THE premier sports league and a franchise brings San Diego a significant national presence it can't afford to lose, and that the project will renew a blighted area, bringing tax dollars into city coffers that will cover for the initial capital expenditures.
All well and good, but the economy is down and city finances are in poor shape. It's hard to justify paying for a stadium, no matter how it pencils out, if libraries are being closed.
But you know those arguments. Here's two more:
1. The downtown site is quite close to Petco Park. The redevelopment of the East Village has essentially already occured, so any redevelopment or economic benefits of a new stadium will run into the law of diminishing returns.
2. Petco Park and the surrounding redevelopment might be fine for city coffers, developers and real estate agents. It's a lovely thing if you have a lot of extra cash immune to the economic downturn and can pay for $35 game tickets, $20 parking and expensive junk food. Otherwise, while Petco has been a pretty place to watch the Padres, it's been an economic drain on the average San Diego resident. How Average Joe feels about doing the same thing regarding the Chargers is questionable. The one escape valve the Bolts have is that the NFL has already priced itself out of reach of most common men. But it is common men who will be casting votes some day to fund a new stadium.
Yeah, it might be 1998 again, but the results of any resulting election might be different. If we can make the results of the Super Bowl different from the Padres WS experience, most of us would take it.
---
In the history of San Diego State athletics, Arizona has often been a marker. In football back in the 1970's glory days, the Aztecs struggled to beat good Wildcats teams in frequent meetings until they broke through in 1977 and 1979, the two best seasons in that decade.
Saturday, the basketball team finally broke through after years of frustration by crushing the Wildcats 63-46. SDSU won comfortably even though they didn't appear to play their best in front of a sellout crowd at Viejas Arena. There were a lot of sloppy turnovers and plenty of missed shots from close to the basket. The Aztecs could have won by 30. But no matter, the Cats never came close to making it a game. This isn't vintage Lute Olson Arizona -- they're now 4-5 with a very young team -- but they were the most athletic team on the schedule so far this year. That the Aztecs matched that athleticism, and raised them by a lot, is heartening for the rest of the season. Only Arizona State, next Saturday in Tempe, and UNLV can offer similar threats athletically.
The Aztecs are now 8-2. I'll make a dramatic prediction. They won't lose more than three games the rest of the regular season. They'll fall to either Arizona State or Drake, one of the UNLV games and one of the BYU games. No one else will touch them. Their top substitutes would start on most Mountain West teams. That gives them a final regular-season record of 25-5. That looks right, at least for now.
In that glorious year, the Padres pitched their way into the World Series and fans showed their appreciation by voting to approve a complicated deal between the franchise and city to build Petco Park.
Now, 11 years later, we find ourselves with the Chargers in need of a new stadium and might have a chance to energize the electorate the same way their baseball brethren did. The Bolts 20-17 victory over the Cowboys in Dallas, in a game that wasn't as close as the final result, established themselves as favorites along with the undefeated Colts to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. The Cowboys were as big a challenge as the they've had in a couple of months, and they came answered.
The fear coming into Sunday was the Chargers would be exposed as pretenders, with deficient lines or poor secondary play. No one is perfect, but those units played well enough to win. The final Chargers offensive possession too more than seven minutes off the board in the fourth quarter and resulted in Nate Kaeding's clinching field goal. They did it mostly running against a pretty good defense that knew the ball would remain on the ground. It seems like earlier in the season the Bolts couldn't run the ball even if the other team dropped 11 into pass coverage.
The Chargers are now solid contenders, not pretenders. And you know their history against the Colts, whether home or in Indianapolis. If they do go to the Super Bowl, and thrill the local fans, they might have a chance to get a ballot measure passed that includes taxpayer financing of their new digs. The Chargers now say taxpayer money will be needed if they're to build downtown, which appears to be the only available spot left in the county. In normal circumstances, they would have no chance. Coming off a Super Bowl appearance, such a proposition might pass.
"Might" is they key word. The argument in favor of spending taxpayer money on a new football palace is that it keeps the team in town -- the NFL is THE premier sports league and a franchise brings San Diego a significant national presence it can't afford to lose, and that the project will renew a blighted area, bringing tax dollars into city coffers that will cover for the initial capital expenditures.
All well and good, but the economy is down and city finances are in poor shape. It's hard to justify paying for a stadium, no matter how it pencils out, if libraries are being closed.
But you know those arguments. Here's two more:
1. The downtown site is quite close to Petco Park. The redevelopment of the East Village has essentially already occured, so any redevelopment or economic benefits of a new stadium will run into the law of diminishing returns.
2. Petco Park and the surrounding redevelopment might be fine for city coffers, developers and real estate agents. It's a lovely thing if you have a lot of extra cash immune to the economic downturn and can pay for $35 game tickets, $20 parking and expensive junk food. Otherwise, while Petco has been a pretty place to watch the Padres, it's been an economic drain on the average San Diego resident. How Average Joe feels about doing the same thing regarding the Chargers is questionable. The one escape valve the Bolts have is that the NFL has already priced itself out of reach of most common men. But it is common men who will be casting votes some day to fund a new stadium.
Yeah, it might be 1998 again, but the results of any resulting election might be different. If we can make the results of the Super Bowl different from the Padres WS experience, most of us would take it.
---
In the history of San Diego State athletics, Arizona has often been a marker. In football back in the 1970's glory days, the Aztecs struggled to beat good Wildcats teams in frequent meetings until they broke through in 1977 and 1979, the two best seasons in that decade.
Saturday, the basketball team finally broke through after years of frustration by crushing the Wildcats 63-46. SDSU won comfortably even though they didn't appear to play their best in front of a sellout crowd at Viejas Arena. There were a lot of sloppy turnovers and plenty of missed shots from close to the basket. The Aztecs could have won by 30. But no matter, the Cats never came close to making it a game. This isn't vintage Lute Olson Arizona -- they're now 4-5 with a very young team -- but they were the most athletic team on the schedule so far this year. That the Aztecs matched that athleticism, and raised them by a lot, is heartening for the rest of the season. Only Arizona State, next Saturday in Tempe, and UNLV can offer similar threats athletically.
The Aztecs are now 8-2. I'll make a dramatic prediction. They won't lose more than three games the rest of the regular season. They'll fall to either Arizona State or Drake, one of the UNLV games and one of the BYU games. No one else will touch them. Their top substitutes would start on most Mountain West teams. That gives them a final regular-season record of 25-5. That looks right, at least for now.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Super Chargers, Hoops
It is questionable whether Chargers-Cowboys on Sunday is a preview of the Super Bowl, but it is certainly the toughest test for the Bolts since they played Pittsburgh back in the first week of October.
Dallas is tied for the NFC East lead with Philadelphia at 8-4, having won six of their past eight games. Tony Romo is the 10th ranked quarterback in the NFL and none of those above him are slouches. Miles Austin is a ridiculous deep threat with an average of 17.8 yards on his 52 catches, nine of which went for scores. The biggest worry on any team facing the Chargers is the tight end, and Jason Whitten is second in the league at the position with 73 catches. The defense is fifth in points allowed.
What's more, the Cowboys really HAVE to win this game. They play the Eagles under the giant video board on the last weekend of the regular season. If it's to crown a division champ, they have to keep pace and the Eagles have two winnable home games before then. The 'boys have the Chargers and, gasp, New Orleans.
No doubt, we're going to find out how the Chargers stack up against a good team with a lot of incentive. It's been a while.
---
Remember the old NBA free throw rule of "3 To Make 2?" You had three chances at the line to make two shots. I don't watch pro basketball. Do they still do that? I don't think so.
Anyway, that's the position the San Diego State men's basketball team finds itself in as the weekend approaches. The next three games are huge, and the Aztecs have to find a way to at least win two of them to gain NCAA selection committee respectability in March, or the nice 7-2 start to the season won't mean much.
All most people have seen about SDSU hoops this year is the opening night setback at Saint Mary's and that the women got ranked for the first time in a decade and blew a gasket at a Thanksgiving tournament. Despite what's happened since for the males, perception won't change until they win some big non-conference games.
So here we go. Saturday at Viejas Arena against Arizona, the following Saturday at Arizona State and three nights later at Drake -- part of the first Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge. The Aztecs have to win two, preferably the first two. None of the three opponents are ranked or even drawing votes in this week's AP poll, so they're beatable. It's just that UofA and ASU have the big names that tournament selectors recognize in a hurry. The Wildcats at 4-4 just ended a three-game losing streak to ranked teams -- including UNLV of the MWC -- and haven't beaten any good teams. Jamelle Horne of San Diego High is their leading rebounder with more than 8 per game. The Sun Devils are 6-3 and have lost two straight -- to Baylor, a legit team as we saw last March, and at BYU, where it's tough to win. It's too early to size up the Bulldogs.
The Aztecs can win all three. They better take at least two, or we fans will be rooting for a return to Madison Square Garden again next March.
---
By the way, the possible transfer of UCLA C Drew Gordon to SDSU reported Thursday in the newspaper is old news, as is the potential move of football RB Ryan Bass here from Arizona State, reported a few days ago. The Gordon thing has been known for nearly a week and it is still very iffy as there's interest among some high-profile schools. The Bass transfer has been out there for about two weeks, maybe more. It shows how the new media is beating old journalism pretty badly now, and neither of these were wild Internet rumors.
---
With Brady Hoke telling the San Diego Union-Tribune that his SDSU football team was "woefully weak" physically during the 2009 season, it's interesting to see him pulling in some commitments from JC offensive linemen. Now if he can just get a few big guys to man the defensive front.
---
I fully understand 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff being the top man on the Padres trading block during the off-season. He's made himself a great fielder and he has occasional pop in his bat. He also makes himself attractive to other teams with a relative low salary, and the Padres have to decide between him and Chase Headley before the 2010 campaign begins. Makes sense. I just hope they get some quality for him.
What I can't buy is the Padres being willing to part with P Kevin Correia, who finally made himself into a quality starter last season. Sure, he might go to arbitration, but the Grossmont High product is never going to make enough money to break even the Friars' bank.
---
One of the better days on the local sports calendar is the high school football championships quadruple-header at Qualcomm Stadium Friday night. After quite a few years of shuffling the schedule based on the Chargers needs, it's nice to have the event on a Friday where it belongs.
Also, congratulations to Eastlake High School and coach John McFadden for finally reaching The Q. The Titans had really good teams when I was doing SanDiegoSportsTown.com and nothing changed afterward, so it's nice to see them in the stadium.
Good luck to all the teams.
Dallas is tied for the NFC East lead with Philadelphia at 8-4, having won six of their past eight games. Tony Romo is the 10th ranked quarterback in the NFL and none of those above him are slouches. Miles Austin is a ridiculous deep threat with an average of 17.8 yards on his 52 catches, nine of which went for scores. The biggest worry on any team facing the Chargers is the tight end, and Jason Whitten is second in the league at the position with 73 catches. The defense is fifth in points allowed.
What's more, the Cowboys really HAVE to win this game. They play the Eagles under the giant video board on the last weekend of the regular season. If it's to crown a division champ, they have to keep pace and the Eagles have two winnable home games before then. The 'boys have the Chargers and, gasp, New Orleans.
No doubt, we're going to find out how the Chargers stack up against a good team with a lot of incentive. It's been a while.
---
Remember the old NBA free throw rule of "3 To Make 2?" You had three chances at the line to make two shots. I don't watch pro basketball. Do they still do that? I don't think so.
Anyway, that's the position the San Diego State men's basketball team finds itself in as the weekend approaches. The next three games are huge, and the Aztecs have to find a way to at least win two of them to gain NCAA selection committee respectability in March, or the nice 7-2 start to the season won't mean much.
All most people have seen about SDSU hoops this year is the opening night setback at Saint Mary's and that the women got ranked for the first time in a decade and blew a gasket at a Thanksgiving tournament. Despite what's happened since for the males, perception won't change until they win some big non-conference games.
So here we go. Saturday at Viejas Arena against Arizona, the following Saturday at Arizona State and three nights later at Drake -- part of the first Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge. The Aztecs have to win two, preferably the first two. None of the three opponents are ranked or even drawing votes in this week's AP poll, so they're beatable. It's just that UofA and ASU have the big names that tournament selectors recognize in a hurry. The Wildcats at 4-4 just ended a three-game losing streak to ranked teams -- including UNLV of the MWC -- and haven't beaten any good teams. Jamelle Horne of San Diego High is their leading rebounder with more than 8 per game. The Sun Devils are 6-3 and have lost two straight -- to Baylor, a legit team as we saw last March, and at BYU, where it's tough to win. It's too early to size up the Bulldogs.
The Aztecs can win all three. They better take at least two, or we fans will be rooting for a return to Madison Square Garden again next March.
---
By the way, the possible transfer of UCLA C Drew Gordon to SDSU reported Thursday in the newspaper is old news, as is the potential move of football RB Ryan Bass here from Arizona State, reported a few days ago. The Gordon thing has been known for nearly a week and it is still very iffy as there's interest among some high-profile schools. The Bass transfer has been out there for about two weeks, maybe more. It shows how the new media is beating old journalism pretty badly now, and neither of these were wild Internet rumors.
---
With Brady Hoke telling the San Diego Union-Tribune that his SDSU football team was "woefully weak" physically during the 2009 season, it's interesting to see him pulling in some commitments from JC offensive linemen. Now if he can just get a few big guys to man the defensive front.
---
I fully understand 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff being the top man on the Padres trading block during the off-season. He's made himself a great fielder and he has occasional pop in his bat. He also makes himself attractive to other teams with a relative low salary, and the Padres have to decide between him and Chase Headley before the 2010 campaign begins. Makes sense. I just hope they get some quality for him.
What I can't buy is the Padres being willing to part with P Kevin Correia, who finally made himself into a quality starter last season. Sure, he might go to arbitration, but the Grossmont High product is never going to make enough money to break even the Friars' bank.
---
One of the better days on the local sports calendar is the high school football championships quadruple-header at Qualcomm Stadium Friday night. After quite a few years of shuffling the schedule based on the Chargers needs, it's nice to have the event on a Friday where it belongs.
Also, congratulations to Eastlake High School and coach John McFadden for finally reaching The Q. The Titans had really good teams when I was doing SanDiegoSportsTown.com and nothing changed afterward, so it's nice to see them in the stadium.
Good luck to all the teams.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Holiday, Poinsettia Matchups
One lesson that can be taken from this college football season is you can't base your bowl projections on logic.
The Holiday Bowl is the case in point. I simply don't understand why either Nebraska or Arizona are spending part of their December in San Diego. The Cornhuskers won the Big 12 North, played a great game before falling to Texas by a point in the conference championship game and have a huge fan base that travels and must be excited by the revitalization of the program. So the Cotton Bowl, which picks Big 12 teams before the Holiday, takes Oklahoma State. Huh? The Cowboys had a nice start to the season by defeating Georgia but had some injuries, lost star WR Dez Bryant over eligibility rules and just didn't excite anyone during the rest of the campaign like they did last year.
Nebraska is where the fun is in the Big 12 right now outside Austin. The Holiday Bowl, which always seems to live right, is getting a huge gift with the Cornhuskers.
The curiosity about Arizona is with the Holiday officials themselves. The Wildcats strike me as being the least marketable team of those they could take, the others being Stanford and Oregon State. As mentioned last week, the Cardinal has a Heisman candidate in RB Toby Gerhart and a local favorite in coach Jim Harbaugh. Oregon State has its own coach who is popular here in town, Mike Riley, and is led by a former Carlsbad HS quarterback.
The problem is I've never heard of OSU having a reputation of traveling well and Stanford fans absolutely don't. The Farm has a ton of alumni in Southern California, however. Arizona? Well, you don't need to say anything to a 'zonie to get them to pack their bags other than the words "San" and "Diego," in that order. They're close and they'll come. Look for a lot of slow and swerving drivers on I-8 in the week after Christmas.
All that said, Arizona as a football team does not lack for attractiveness. They beat the Beavers and the Cardinals. There's a worthy tiebreaker, but remember we're not going on logic here, right? Even better, those two games, along with their loss to Oregon, might have been the three most exciting in the Pac-10 all year. Throw out routs of weak Washington State and UCLA, the average margin of victory or loss in conference was a little over four points. Sophomore Nick Foles looks like an excellent quarterback.
Logical choices? No. Potential for a great game with an offense vs. defense matchup? Oh, yes. The Holiday Bowl lives right for another year.
The Poinsettia teams, Cal and Utah, were pretty much locked in by the order of finish in the Pac-10 and Mountain West, and the desires of other bowls. With Cal RB Jahvid Best likely out of the game because of a concussion, this one has the looks of being kind of ugly, just a year after being one of the best post-season matches of all with TCU's 17-16 win over Boise State.
So the game chosen on pure logic gets a yucky matchup. The game with selections that confuse me has one of the better pairings of the bowl season. Funny how it works.
---
My final Heisman ballot, if I had a vote:
1. Colt McCoy, Texas QB
2. Toby Gerhart, Stanford RB
3. Andy Dalton, TCU QB
4. Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska DT
5. Mark Ingram, Alabama RB
The media is so infatuated with the Crimson Tide this season that I bet Ingram wins the award, but Texas will handle 'bama by a couple TDs in the BCS championship.
The Holiday Bowl is the case in point. I simply don't understand why either Nebraska or Arizona are spending part of their December in San Diego. The Cornhuskers won the Big 12 North, played a great game before falling to Texas by a point in the conference championship game and have a huge fan base that travels and must be excited by the revitalization of the program. So the Cotton Bowl, which picks Big 12 teams before the Holiday, takes Oklahoma State. Huh? The Cowboys had a nice start to the season by defeating Georgia but had some injuries, lost star WR Dez Bryant over eligibility rules and just didn't excite anyone during the rest of the campaign like they did last year.
Nebraska is where the fun is in the Big 12 right now outside Austin. The Holiday Bowl, which always seems to live right, is getting a huge gift with the Cornhuskers.
The curiosity about Arizona is with the Holiday officials themselves. The Wildcats strike me as being the least marketable team of those they could take, the others being Stanford and Oregon State. As mentioned last week, the Cardinal has a Heisman candidate in RB Toby Gerhart and a local favorite in coach Jim Harbaugh. Oregon State has its own coach who is popular here in town, Mike Riley, and is led by a former Carlsbad HS quarterback.
The problem is I've never heard of OSU having a reputation of traveling well and Stanford fans absolutely don't. The Farm has a ton of alumni in Southern California, however. Arizona? Well, you don't need to say anything to a 'zonie to get them to pack their bags other than the words "San" and "Diego," in that order. They're close and they'll come. Look for a lot of slow and swerving drivers on I-8 in the week after Christmas.
All that said, Arizona as a football team does not lack for attractiveness. They beat the Beavers and the Cardinals. There's a worthy tiebreaker, but remember we're not going on logic here, right? Even better, those two games, along with their loss to Oregon, might have been the three most exciting in the Pac-10 all year. Throw out routs of weak Washington State and UCLA, the average margin of victory or loss in conference was a little over four points. Sophomore Nick Foles looks like an excellent quarterback.
Logical choices? No. Potential for a great game with an offense vs. defense matchup? Oh, yes. The Holiday Bowl lives right for another year.
The Poinsettia teams, Cal and Utah, were pretty much locked in by the order of finish in the Pac-10 and Mountain West, and the desires of other bowls. With Cal RB Jahvid Best likely out of the game because of a concussion, this one has the looks of being kind of ugly, just a year after being one of the best post-season matches of all with TCU's 17-16 win over Boise State.
So the game chosen on pure logic gets a yucky matchup. The game with selections that confuse me has one of the better pairings of the bowl season. Funny how it works.
---
My final Heisman ballot, if I had a vote:
1. Colt McCoy, Texas QB
2. Toby Gerhart, Stanford RB
3. Andy Dalton, TCU QB
4. Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska DT
5. Mark Ingram, Alabama RB
The media is so infatuated with the Crimson Tide this season that I bet Ingram wins the award, but Texas will handle 'bama by a couple TDs in the BCS championship.
Thursday, December 03, 2009
SDSU-USD Hoops, Enberg, Other Stuff
My reaction upon watching Wednesday night's "City Championship" college basketball game won by San Diego State 69-62 in overtime at USD, was that neither team is going too this season as presently constituted, and that both probably sat in their post-game locker rooms wondering why they didn't win by double-digits.
The Aztecs were unable to capitalize on strong starts to each half and eventually fell behind in both periods. They can't shoot consistently from the outside to bust zone defenses and have difficulty with patient, experienced squads that play as a team. They lost to two such teams, St. Mary's and Pacific on the road, and struggled at USD. They are fortunate that the road game at Air Force doesn't come until the season finale, when maybe they will have pulled things together.
Observations after seven games:
-- DJ Gay is becoming a quality point guard. He took his matchup with Toreros G Brandon Johnson personally, it appeared, and he became a better player for it. If he can bottle that feeling, the Aztecs will be a tough team to beat.
-- Just because Tyrone Shelley came with a reputation as a big scorer, it doesn't mean he's a pure 3-point shooter, and he isn't. Coach Steve Fisher needs to find a way to get the Crawford/Christian alum the rock at mid-range.
-- You had to assume it would take C Brian Carlwell some time to get back in the flow after being hurt at Illinois and then sitting out a transfer year. Not this long, though. You have to think anything they get out of the big man this season will be gravy.
-- The best SDSU hoopster right now is G Chase Tapley. The freshman is somewhat hampered by a bad hamstring, but he is strong and has an eye for the basket on a team short on shooters. He might not be the best player at some other point, he's a freshman after-all, but he is right now.
Judging USD at this point is a little more difficult. They played SDSU very hard, and beat Stanford, Oklahoma and Houston. But they were crushed by Washington State in the Great Alaska Shootout final and probably should have defeated the Aztecs. Yet, they're just 4-3.
My thinking right now is they're nearly maximizing limited resources. That's not such a bad thing, because if the Toreros can handle New Mexico at the Phat Pharm next week, then they'll have a bunch of quality wins on the ledger -- assuming a decent conference record. It probably won't mean the NCAAs, but it could be enough for an NIT bid.
-- Johnson is still a great player despite only being 80 percent following last season's Achilles tear. You can tell he was gassed late Wednesday night after chasing Gay and trying to lose him all game. Can you imagine that guy healthy and at the point for the Aztecs. You'd have a Sweet 16 team, easy.
-- There are going to be games, like against SDSU, when they just won't have the athletes to match up. St. Mary's, Portland and Gonzaga will all be tough in the West Coast Conference. They do look good enough to be the best of the rest and, if they can steal one or two at home against the big guys, who knows?
---
Dick Enberg doing about 120 Padres games on television? Awesome! I hope things go this well under Jeff Moorad on the baseball field, and it might if this is a hint at how he plans to run his operations. Mark Neely, bless his heart, might be the poster child for the way John Moores ran the franchise the last couple years. Neely grew on me late in the season, but he is what he's about to become, a quality substitute ... I still can't believe the Cotton Bowl would pass on a Nebraska team playing for the Big 12 championship, but most news sources say the Dallas-based bowl will take Oklahoma State and Mississippi. That's the Holiday Bowl's gain ... They'll have their choice of Pac-10 teams tied for second at 6-3 now that Oregon beat Oregon State for the conference crown. The choices will be the Beavers, Stanford and the winner between USC and Arizona, and even Cal if they beat Washington in Seattle. I think you can safely eliminate Arizona and Cal no matter what happens. The Beavers are a legitimate pick with popular former Chargers coach Mike Riley and local prep QB Sean Canfield. Stanford has a Heisman finalist in RB Toby Gerhart. USC is a dream entrant. None have played the Holiday. Tough call ... Aztec football aside, was there anything more disappointing than the SDSU women's basketball team tanking at the Paradise Jam, going 0-3 vs. Notre Dame, Oklahoma and South Carolina? Losing to the number five Irish was one thing, but getting crushed by the Sooners and falling to the Gamecocks isn't acceptable for a team that was talking about some March Madness wins.
The Aztecs were unable to capitalize on strong starts to each half and eventually fell behind in both periods. They can't shoot consistently from the outside to bust zone defenses and have difficulty with patient, experienced squads that play as a team. They lost to two such teams, St. Mary's and Pacific on the road, and struggled at USD. They are fortunate that the road game at Air Force doesn't come until the season finale, when maybe they will have pulled things together.
Observations after seven games:
-- DJ Gay is becoming a quality point guard. He took his matchup with Toreros G Brandon Johnson personally, it appeared, and he became a better player for it. If he can bottle that feeling, the Aztecs will be a tough team to beat.
-- Just because Tyrone Shelley came with a reputation as a big scorer, it doesn't mean he's a pure 3-point shooter, and he isn't. Coach Steve Fisher needs to find a way to get the Crawford/Christian alum the rock at mid-range.
-- You had to assume it would take C Brian Carlwell some time to get back in the flow after being hurt at Illinois and then sitting out a transfer year. Not this long, though. You have to think anything they get out of the big man this season will be gravy.
-- The best SDSU hoopster right now is G Chase Tapley. The freshman is somewhat hampered by a bad hamstring, but he is strong and has an eye for the basket on a team short on shooters. He might not be the best player at some other point, he's a freshman after-all, but he is right now.
Judging USD at this point is a little more difficult. They played SDSU very hard, and beat Stanford, Oklahoma and Houston. But they were crushed by Washington State in the Great Alaska Shootout final and probably should have defeated the Aztecs. Yet, they're just 4-3.
My thinking right now is they're nearly maximizing limited resources. That's not such a bad thing, because if the Toreros can handle New Mexico at the Phat Pharm next week, then they'll have a bunch of quality wins on the ledger -- assuming a decent conference record. It probably won't mean the NCAAs, but it could be enough for an NIT bid.
-- Johnson is still a great player despite only being 80 percent following last season's Achilles tear. You can tell he was gassed late Wednesday night after chasing Gay and trying to lose him all game. Can you imagine that guy healthy and at the point for the Aztecs. You'd have a Sweet 16 team, easy.
-- There are going to be games, like against SDSU, when they just won't have the athletes to match up. St. Mary's, Portland and Gonzaga will all be tough in the West Coast Conference. They do look good enough to be the best of the rest and, if they can steal one or two at home against the big guys, who knows?
---
Dick Enberg doing about 120 Padres games on television? Awesome! I hope things go this well under Jeff Moorad on the baseball field, and it might if this is a hint at how he plans to run his operations. Mark Neely, bless his heart, might be the poster child for the way John Moores ran the franchise the last couple years. Neely grew on me late in the season, but he is what he's about to become, a quality substitute ... I still can't believe the Cotton Bowl would pass on a Nebraska team playing for the Big 12 championship, but most news sources say the Dallas-based bowl will take Oklahoma State and Mississippi. That's the Holiday Bowl's gain ... They'll have their choice of Pac-10 teams tied for second at 6-3 now that Oregon beat Oregon State for the conference crown. The choices will be the Beavers, Stanford and the winner between USC and Arizona, and even Cal if they beat Washington in Seattle. I think you can safely eliminate Arizona and Cal no matter what happens. The Beavers are a legitimate pick with popular former Chargers coach Mike Riley and local prep QB Sean Canfield. Stanford has a Heisman finalist in RB Toby Gerhart. USC is a dream entrant. None have played the Holiday. Tough call ... Aztec football aside, was there anything more disappointing than the SDSU women's basketball team tanking at the Paradise Jam, going 0-3 vs. Notre Dame, Oklahoma and South Carolina? Losing to the number five Irish was one thing, but getting crushed by the Sooners and falling to the Gamecocks isn't acceptable for a team that was talking about some March Madness wins.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Work Only Starting for Hoke on SDSU Football
The real work for Brady Hoke and his staff of San Diego State football coaches started around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, when their disappointing 4-8 debut season ended with a 28-24 loss at Nevada-Las Vegas.
The unfortunate fact of the matter is that Hoke and his assistants were prisoners of circumstance during the 2009 campaign. As do all first-year coaches, they came into the recruiting battle late and picked up a few nuggets, though not nearly enough. They spent the spring practice both trying to install fresh schemes and evaluating the players on hand. They went into the fall having to play with the hand dealt by fate.
The truism in football is you are what your record says you are. It's not something that necessarily applies early in the season but when you reach the last couple weeks, it's something you can't avoid. SDSU was a 4-8 football team in 2009.
Now it's time for Hoke, offensive coordinator Al Borges, defensive coordinator Rocky Long, and the rest of the assistants to get to the real work of building this program back to respectability and, hopefully, bowl eligiblity.
Here are some of the issues they have to deal with, as I see it:
1. Strength - this team remains physically weak on the offensive line and across the entire defense, though Long's attacking scheme contributed mightily to a reduction in injuries. The OL can't hold blocks and the defenders can't fight them off. Another off-season with heralded strength coach Aaron Wellman will help, but Hoke has to bring in some bigger, stronger kids -- hopefully a few from junior colleges who will be eligible immediately.
2. Speed - the other component of a good football player, and the Aztecs have little of it. An enduring image of this season will be CB Larry Parker scooping up a fumble at the goal line against Wyoming and returning the ball with no one around him at first -- and being caught easily by a couple Cowboys much bigger than him.
Consider for points one and two that the Aztecs ran a defensive system based on pressure, yet ranked 89th out of 120 teams with 19 QB sacks, and 76th in tackles for loss.
3. The secondary - this group was the unit that worried me most coming into the season and they delivered by being unable to defend any passes at all in the come-from-ahead losses to Wyoming and UNLV. They ranked 55th out of 120 teams in passing yards allowed per game, but in efficiency were rather low in yards per attempt and yards per completion.
4. Offensive line - they lose stalwart tackle Peter Nelson and guard Ikaika Aken-Moleta who, as hard as they worked, wouldn't have started on too many other Division 1 teams. Them getting regular playing time meant younger players couldn't beat them out. That doesn't inspire confidence about what's in the pipeline. The depth is mostly deadwood and the youth, other than G Nik Embernate, is not promising.
5. Quarterback - Ryan Lindley came out of El Capitan HS appearing to be a budding star, and his freshman year gave credence to such hopes. His rocky sophomore year gives one pause, however. The first half of the season, he had little blocking, no running game and both he and his receivers were struggling to get on the same page with a new offense. That was understandable and he hit his stride at mid-season. But the past four games or so he's regressed. The pass protection was reasonable, the running game a bit better and the receivers were stepping up. Trouble was, Lindley didn't keep pace. I'd take four Mountain West quarterbacks before I'd choose him right now. He has to get better, since he's unlikely to face challenge for his position.
6. Keeping the Commits - Much of the work ahead is in recruiting, where Hoke's staff has already made considerable headway, getting verbal commitments from a larger number of players with multiple stars by their names than did his predecessor. Coaches from other programs are coming in after their bowl games in hopes of poaching off some of these players. Hoke has to figure out how to keep their loyalty even though they'll be playing in a very large morgue the next couple of years. Most of the current commits are skill players. They have to add linemen, particularly from the JC ranks.
7. Community Interest - Which brings us to fan support, of which there is very little left. The Aztecs frittered away at their fan base with past teases of the sort that occured when they entered the Wyoming game with a 4-4 record. Hoke has made numerous media appearances, and he has to keep it up through the entire upcoming off-season. He should also re-open some of his practices to fans and the media. Nothing will beat winning.
I'm relatively pleased with things I saw this season. I think the coaches can get SDSU into a position to win football games, which is something I can't say about their predecessors. They simply have to upgrade talent, which is a long and arduous task. The way I see it, some stronger Aztecs will again flirt with 6-6 in 2010. By 2011, maybe they can challenge for an 8-win season. That will make things much better.
---
I still don't see the Cotton Bowl passing up fan-heavy Nebraska for Oklahoma State as the morning paper suggested, but it could happen I guess. Even after the Cowboys were skunked by Oklahoma Saturday? I don't know. I think the Pokes are back in San Diego to face the Oregon-Oregon State loser.
The Arizona-USC loser for the Poinsettia makes sense, as does BYU coming here instead of Las Vegas because they've been there so many times recently.
---
I have no problem with TCU being left out of the championship game picture if both Florida and Texas win their conference title games Saturday. As a traditionalist, I see the Gators as the undefeated defending champs who should keep that spot until knocked off, or if they clearly don't meet the eye test. None of those has happened. My own eye test's result is that the Longhorns are the best team in college football. Alabama does not pass the eye test. If it's Florida-Texas for all the marbles, fine by me.
With tons of returning stars, I do see the Horned Frogs as preseason number one in 2010, however.
---
My somewhat different take on the Heisman:
1. Colt McCoy - the Texas QB is the leader of the best team and deserves the award for his four-year body of work.
2. Toby Gerhart - the Stanford RB is the best in college football at his position and had a Kellen Winslow-type performance against Notre Dame on Saturday.
3. Andy Dalton - the TCU QB is playing as well as anyone, leading a team that is playing as well as any team.
Tebow has his award. So there.
The unfortunate fact of the matter is that Hoke and his assistants were prisoners of circumstance during the 2009 campaign. As do all first-year coaches, they came into the recruiting battle late and picked up a few nuggets, though not nearly enough. They spent the spring practice both trying to install fresh schemes and evaluating the players on hand. They went into the fall having to play with the hand dealt by fate.
The truism in football is you are what your record says you are. It's not something that necessarily applies early in the season but when you reach the last couple weeks, it's something you can't avoid. SDSU was a 4-8 football team in 2009.
Now it's time for Hoke, offensive coordinator Al Borges, defensive coordinator Rocky Long, and the rest of the assistants to get to the real work of building this program back to respectability and, hopefully, bowl eligiblity.
Here are some of the issues they have to deal with, as I see it:
1. Strength - this team remains physically weak on the offensive line and across the entire defense, though Long's attacking scheme contributed mightily to a reduction in injuries. The OL can't hold blocks and the defenders can't fight them off. Another off-season with heralded strength coach Aaron Wellman will help, but Hoke has to bring in some bigger, stronger kids -- hopefully a few from junior colleges who will be eligible immediately.
2. Speed - the other component of a good football player, and the Aztecs have little of it. An enduring image of this season will be CB Larry Parker scooping up a fumble at the goal line against Wyoming and returning the ball with no one around him at first -- and being caught easily by a couple Cowboys much bigger than him.
Consider for points one and two that the Aztecs ran a defensive system based on pressure, yet ranked 89th out of 120 teams with 19 QB sacks, and 76th in tackles for loss.
3. The secondary - this group was the unit that worried me most coming into the season and they delivered by being unable to defend any passes at all in the come-from-ahead losses to Wyoming and UNLV. They ranked 55th out of 120 teams in passing yards allowed per game, but in efficiency were rather low in yards per attempt and yards per completion.
4. Offensive line - they lose stalwart tackle Peter Nelson and guard Ikaika Aken-Moleta who, as hard as they worked, wouldn't have started on too many other Division 1 teams. Them getting regular playing time meant younger players couldn't beat them out. That doesn't inspire confidence about what's in the pipeline. The depth is mostly deadwood and the youth, other than G Nik Embernate, is not promising.
5. Quarterback - Ryan Lindley came out of El Capitan HS appearing to be a budding star, and his freshman year gave credence to such hopes. His rocky sophomore year gives one pause, however. The first half of the season, he had little blocking, no running game and both he and his receivers were struggling to get on the same page with a new offense. That was understandable and he hit his stride at mid-season. But the past four games or so he's regressed. The pass protection was reasonable, the running game a bit better and the receivers were stepping up. Trouble was, Lindley didn't keep pace. I'd take four Mountain West quarterbacks before I'd choose him right now. He has to get better, since he's unlikely to face challenge for his position.
6. Keeping the Commits - Much of the work ahead is in recruiting, where Hoke's staff has already made considerable headway, getting verbal commitments from a larger number of players with multiple stars by their names than did his predecessor. Coaches from other programs are coming in after their bowl games in hopes of poaching off some of these players. Hoke has to figure out how to keep their loyalty even though they'll be playing in a very large morgue the next couple of years. Most of the current commits are skill players. They have to add linemen, particularly from the JC ranks.
7. Community Interest - Which brings us to fan support, of which there is very little left. The Aztecs frittered away at their fan base with past teases of the sort that occured when they entered the Wyoming game with a 4-4 record. Hoke has made numerous media appearances, and he has to keep it up through the entire upcoming off-season. He should also re-open some of his practices to fans and the media. Nothing will beat winning.
I'm relatively pleased with things I saw this season. I think the coaches can get SDSU into a position to win football games, which is something I can't say about their predecessors. They simply have to upgrade talent, which is a long and arduous task. The way I see it, some stronger Aztecs will again flirt with 6-6 in 2010. By 2011, maybe they can challenge for an 8-win season. That will make things much better.
---
I still don't see the Cotton Bowl passing up fan-heavy Nebraska for Oklahoma State as the morning paper suggested, but it could happen I guess. Even after the Cowboys were skunked by Oklahoma Saturday? I don't know. I think the Pokes are back in San Diego to face the Oregon-Oregon State loser.
The Arizona-USC loser for the Poinsettia makes sense, as does BYU coming here instead of Las Vegas because they've been there so many times recently.
---
I have no problem with TCU being left out of the championship game picture if both Florida and Texas win their conference title games Saturday. As a traditionalist, I see the Gators as the undefeated defending champs who should keep that spot until knocked off, or if they clearly don't meet the eye test. None of those has happened. My own eye test's result is that the Longhorns are the best team in college football. Alabama does not pass the eye test. If it's Florida-Texas for all the marbles, fine by me.
With tons of returning stars, I do see the Horned Frogs as preseason number one in 2010, however.
---
My somewhat different take on the Heisman:
1. Colt McCoy - the Texas QB is the leader of the best team and deserves the award for his four-year body of work.
2. Toby Gerhart - the Stanford RB is the best in college football at his position and had a Kellen Winslow-type performance against Notre Dame on Saturday.
3. Andy Dalton - the TCU QB is playing as well as anyone, leading a team that is playing as well as any team.
Tebow has his award. So there.
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