Coaching Vacancy

Steve Mariucci may have been fired less than a week ago, but like every Lions fan, I am looking forward to next season. Because that’s all we have. So here is my crazy attempt at finding my favorite NFL team a new leader.

Dick Jauron: He’s the interim head coach now, but there’s no way he is offered the position full time.
Urban Meyer: He’s definitely been getting calls from NFL teams for a year or two, but his offensive system is definitely designed for college. Plus, let’s see what he can do with Florida for a few more years.
Bob Stoops: He knows defense really well, but I think the Lions need someone with a good offensive scheme. Plus there’s no way they steal him from Oklahoma.
Jim Mora: He seemed to run the Colts Offense well, right? He’s still an analyst, which means he will still listen to an offer if it is good enough. Plus, we will have another chance to hear that now famous “PLAYoffs?!?!”
Pete Carroll: He’s said in the past he’s happy staying at USC, but would there be anything left to prove if they win the championship again?

I'm confident none of those people will be selected. Since there is no rush at this point to fill the spot, the Lions should take some time and develop a strategy, interview a lot of coaches, and ultimately select a coach with an offensive scheme that would play to our offensive players' talents (geez... what an idea!!). They need to bring discipline to this team and bring in a good offensive line coach. But part of the Lions' short term strategy needs to be losing. They have a lot of ground to make up in the 2006 Draft sweepstakes. Here's there competition in the race to get Matt Leinart or Reggie Bush (c'mon... he's not coming back to college):

Houston: With Dominack Davis and David Carr, they really don’t need a QB or a RB. What they need is an offensive line and something called a defense. I think they'll keep losing (as evident by their complete turnaround vs. the Rams) but they'll trade down a few spots in the draft
San Francisco: They could probably use a RB, and Reggie Bush could stay in state. But wouldn’t that make their selection of Frank Gore a waste?
NY Jets: Curtis Martin is aging and Chad Pennington is too injury prone. Leinart or Bush would have a great opportunity to learn a little here before taking over.
Green Bay: Aaron Rodgers is the heir apparent to Brett Farve, but Bush could understudy Ahman Green for a little while.
New Orleans: They have a QB and a RB. What they need is a home. And a defense to compete in the D-Happy NFC South.
Baltimore: Taking Leinart means they’re giving up on Kyle Boller. But QB seems to be their weakness.

...which leads us to
Detroit: I wish they had a chance at Leinart, but they need to stop winning. With games on the horizon against Green Bay and New Orleans, they can improve their chances with an L. Just think: Leinart passing to Mike Williams once again. But we all know they’ll take the best available WR.

Before I wrap this up, I wanted to say it is absolutely ridiculous Dre Bly didn't get fined by the Lions. By complaining about Joey, he did the same thing that T.O. did. He hasn't been as problematic as Owens has in the past, but he should have at least been handed a fine by the team to send the message that complaining to the media is unacceptable.

Numbers Don't Lie

John L. Smith's Record at MSU

2003
Start 7-1
End 1-4

2004
Start 4-3
End 1-5

2005
Start 4-0
End 1-6

I don't think that John L. should be fired this offseason. He should be given one more year to prove himself. A successful MSU coach needs to have the team in contention in November. The way to do it is... is....
(Adam was about to begin solving the difficult challenge of fixing the MSU football program. However, he doesn't feel like writing a blog that long, so he quit halfway through; much like his beloved Spartans. He did leave a message: "Basketball season begins Saturday")

Go P's!

I was inspired by last night's comeback victory over the Celtics to write about how excited I am about this year's Pistons. First of all, I love that they still seem to be using the "we get no respect" thing as motivation. They appear to be set out this year to prove Larry Brown was not the reason for their success. I thought that they took Flip Saunders because he was best available, but he is already having an impact on the team.
"L.B. is a more technical coach, who wants you to run your sets, but Flip says that if we see an opening, we should go ahead and attack." - Rasheed Wallace
"I started to feel it, so I got aggressive. This is absolutely due to Flip's style. Just look at what we can do when we start forcing turnovers." - Chauncey Billups
I picked up on the Celtics game in the third quarter right as the Pistons started their comeback. Chauncey had a monster game, but Rip and Rasheed also scored over 20 points. The team is hot right now, hopefully they won't cool off.

Look for the Pistons to have a little trouble in December. They have a four game road trip early that could give them problems and they finish out the month with games against the Spurs, Heat and Cavs in the last week. I predict they will finish the 05-06 campaign with the same record as last year's Suns: 62-20.

BCS Mess

I’ve decided to change my blog. I like writing about sports more than I do myself because it is debatable, it is my number one hobby, and it is my profession. I am going to keep talking about a lot of different sports, fantasy football, and the sports business. To really feel like I changed my blog, I switched from to this new layout.

The first thing I want to talk about is the BCS. The Daily Quickie on espn.com today talked about how BCS haters have only a few more days to complain before the controversy ends with an Alabama loss. He’s right. I predicted the end of the controversy last week by correctly picking Miami over Va Tech and I think Alabama will lose this weekend. USC and Texas won’t lose another game because USC is almost an NFL team and Texas is in the NFC North of the NCAA. But the BCS still has been controversial every year except for 2002. The people in favor of the system argue it makes regular season games more important and teams can’t afford to make a mistake. Let’s review a little history:

In 1998, Tennessee (1) and Tulane (10) were undefeated. There were six teams with one loss including Florida State (2) and Kansas St (3).

In 1999, Florida State (1), Virginia Tech (2), and Marshall (12) all went undefeated. This isn’t as controversial, but who’s to say Marshall couldn’t have pulled an upset? They didn’t lose a single game, so shouldn’t they have had a shot?

In 2000, Oklahoma (1) was undefeated. There were six teams with one loss including Florida State (2) and Miami (3).

In 2001, Miami (1) went undefeated. Four teams, including Nebraska (2) and Oregon (4) Illinois (8) and Maryland (11), had one loss. Colorado (3) had two losses but was still ranked higher than two teams with one loss.

In 2002, only two teams were undefeated; Miami (1) and Ohio State (2). This is the only year that the BCS worked properly with no controversy.

In 2003, six teams had one loss including Oklahoma (1), LSU (2), USC (3), Miami (OH) (11), Boise St (17), and TCU (18).

In 2004, five teams went undefeated including USC (1), Oklahoma (2), Auburn (3), Utah (6), and Boise State (9).

Florida State and Oklahoma have benefited the most when there’s controversy. I know that Kevin would say that the controversy is good because it makes the games more exciting. But the system leans in favor of the major teams in the major conferences. If Michigan State, Oklahoma, and Miami were all undefeated, who do you think will be left out? If they opened it up to an 8 team playoff system, it would be less controversial because it would include more teams. The system has encouraged teams outside of the six BCS conferences to put better teams on their non conference schedule to get national respect. If they had more of a chance, they would have even more of a reason to play better teams. Then we would be able to tell how good an undefeated Utah or Boise St really is.

So what they really need to do is eliminate conference championship games and have the first round of the tournament in its place. The six conference champions get automatic bids and then there are two at large spots. The semi finals would take place around December 30 and the final bowl game is still around January 7. Is that too much football for them to be playing? Perhaps. Then just make it a 4 team tournament. Will it make less money than the current system? I don’t see how more games would make less money. Will it be more exciting? Definitely.

Midseason Review II

Before talking about my projections, let me just say that this was a bitch to post because it doesn't recognize spaces. Sorry if it is hard to read. Anyways, lets see how bad I did.

NFL - Lions
Team (Prediction) Result
Green Bay Packers (Loss) Win
@ Chicago Bears (Win) Loss
@ Tampa Bay Bucs (Win) Loss
Baltimore Ravens (Loss) Win
Carolina Panthers (Win) Loss
@ Cleveland Browns (Win) Win
Chicago Bears (Win) Loss
@ Minnesota Vikings (Loss) Loss

...So I was 2 for 8 because I correctly predicted they'd beat the Browns and lose to the Vikings. OUCH. I estimated that they'd have a record of 5-3 and their record is 3-5. Let's see if I can make up for it in the 2nd half.

Game (Prediction) New Prediction
Arizona Cardinals (Win) Win
@ Dallas Cowboys (Loss) Loss
Atlanta Falcons (Loss) Loss
Minnesota Vikings (Win) Win
@ Green Bay Packers (Loss) Loss
Cinncinati Bengals (Win) Loss
@ New Orleans Saints (Win) Win
@ Pittsburgh Steelers (Loss) Loss

I originally predicted them to end the season 4-4, but I think another 3-5 is more likely. If they do finish 6-10, they will miss the playoffs and axe Harrington and Rogers.

Conference (Previous Prediction) Current Prediction
NFC East: (Philadelphia Eagles) New York Giants
NFC North: (Minnesota Vikings) Chicago Bears
NFC South: (Carolina Panthers) Carolina Panthers
NFC West: (St Louis Rams) Seattle Seahawks
Wild Card: (Falcons, Seahawks) Falcons, Rams

AFC East: (New England Patriots) New England Patriots
AFC North: (Pittsburgh Steelers) Cincinnati Bengals
AFC South: (Indianapolis Colts) Indianapolis Colts
AFC West: (San Diego Chargers) San Diego Chargers
Wild Card: (Chiefs, Bengals) Broncos, Steelers

MVP: (Peyton Manning) Edgerrin James
ROY: (JJ Arrington) DeMarcus Ware (I have no idea)
AFC Champ: (Colts) Colts
NFC Champ: (Vikings) Panthers
NFL Champ: (Colts) Colts

3 Bold Second Half Predictions
1) The Vikings are gonna make a run. Brad Johnson told his WRs to run their routes correctly and the ball will be there. Their timing against the Lions looked good. They started the season 3-5, they'll go 5-3 in the second half.
2) The Colts will lose their first game in week 11 in Cincinnati. Did anyone else realize Indy has 3 Monday night games? Is that fair? Yes, yes it is.
3) I will defeat Mike's dad in the finals of our fantasy football league! HA!

Midseason Review

Let's take a look at some of my College Football predictions

1) There won't be two Big Ten BCS teams this year. They are all going to beat each other up over the season. The BCS team will be Ohio State, U-M, or Iowa. I pick U-M, but they won't be headed to the National Championship game.
There is no way two Big Ten teams will make BCS bowls. The BCS team won't be any of the three. Penn State, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and U-M will finish with two conference losses. Penn State will go to the BCS bowl game since they will have beaten Wisconsin and OSU.

2) Michigan State will go 7-5. They will lose to: Notre Dame, Ohio State, Northwestern, Purdue, and Minnesota.
I was right about two of the three losses. They will beat Purdue this weekend, lose to Minnesota, and finish the season with a win over Penn State. Their 7-4 record will earn them a spot in the Music City Bowl.

3) Michigan State will beat U-M. If you think about it, MSU has a potent offense (if Drew Stanton is healthy) with multiple talents at WR and RB. U-M's defense is good, but not impossibly good. The game is at MSU, which sways it in our favor. MSU's crappy defense will hold up just enough to not lose the game.
Wrong. Stanton was healthy, but the defense was not good enough to win the game. Next.

4) The Heisman race will be between Bowling Green's Omar Jacobs, Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, and Chris Leak. And another RB not named Adrian Peterson. That's pretty easy to say after week one.
Jacobs has been pretty quiet this year. Leak's campaign was brief. My mom could've predicted that Bush and Leinart were going to be candidates again this year. I believe Reggie Bush wins it over Leinart. Remember... he's scoring a touchdown every 8.3 times he touches the ball.

5) USC will win the National Championship again this year over Texas.
Finally, a prediction I can really stick by. Virginia Tech will lose this weekend and Alabama will lose next weekend, thereby ending any BCS controversy. If Va Tech beats Miami and runs the table, it's hard to imagine Texas holding on to their point lead.

Next time, a look back at my NFL predictions. It's not pretty.