Jim Tressel: Rodney Dangerfield of College Football

Back in the old days when everything was so simple, famous comedian Rodney Dangerfield was on top of his game in the funny business. The line that made him famous, "I get no respect", made millions laugh throughout his career. Dangerfield ended up receiving the respect he deserved but his catchy line may also describe an elite college football coach that doesn't get the respect he deserves.

For the past two years, the Ohio State Buckeyes have steamrolled through the Big Ten with ease. Before the 2006 season, there were doubters to whether or not the preseason favorite, Ohio State can go through the season undefeated. OSU would have to replace three All-American linebackers in A.J. Hawk, Bobby Carpenter and Anthony Schlegel along with most of their secondary. Added to the fact that they had to go to Austin for a rematch with Texas and the always tough Big Ten would make it difficult for OSU to go undefeated.

In 2006 though, the Buckeyes proved there doubters wrong and won the Big Ten title by going undefeated. In the National Championship game against Florida, OSU got thumped, losing 41-14, making OSU the laughing stock of college football for the whole summer.

Then before the 2007 season, the majority predicted the Buckeyes to place third or fourth place in the Big Ten. Most of the pundits said they would have a rebuilding year. Can you blame them though? They did lose most of their offense including Heisman winner Troy Smith and first round draft pick Ted Ginn. Not only that but OSU had a rough schedule, as they had to travel to hostile environments such as Washington, Penn State and Michigan (well Michigan isn't that hostile but it's still Michigan). There was real no mention of OSU when discussing who the Big Ten favorites are. Instead, everyone liked to talk about how Michigan was stacked on offense or how P.J. Hill was going to carry Wisconsin to a Big Ten championship.

In the end though the Buckeyes proved the experts and fans of opposing teams wrong by going 11-1 and winning the Big Ten title...again. Just like the previous year though they lose in the National Championship to another SEC team in LSU which fueled fans even more to rag on OSU.

It's becoming a formality now. The doubters doubt OSU every season if they lost a lot or if their schedule is tough. Opposing fans say 'they can't do it again', 'this year they'll be mediocre', 'they'll be soft this year'. In some years that's understandable like last year. OSU wasn't supposed to be good and were supposed to go through a tough rebuilding year. They lost Troy Smith, Antonio Pittman, Ted Ginn, Santoino Holmes, Alex Gonzalez and the list goes on and on. But for the Buckeyes it didn't matter, it never matters. Somehow, some way they always find a way to be one of the best in college football. It doesn't take long to find the man that's responsible for all this. The man that always has OSU prepared no matter. That man is a well known coach in Jim Tressel.

Jim Tressel knows what it feels like to be doubted. Before taking the head coach position at OSU, Tressel was a head coach at Youngstown State where he won four Division 1-AA National Championships and showed up in nine of them. However, when OSU made the decision to hire Tressel as their head coach, Buckeye nation wasn't too excited about the hire. After they fired John Cooper for his poor record against rival Michigan, OSU fans were looking for a big named coach to come and take the reigns. With Tressel though, they didn't get a big name coach and it took many years for OSU fans to finally accept Tressel as their coach for the future.

A big reason why OSU reloads over year is because Tressel is been a madman at the game of recruiting. According to Scout.com, OSU has had a top 15 class for five years except for one year where they finished with the 16th best class. Add this year where Tressel and OSU plan to bring in at least a top three class. Arguably the most important aspect of college football is recruiting. Bringing in the top players that will make your team competitive year in and year out is something that coaches spend hours upon hours a day doing.

So far in his career, Tressel has been one of the best in college football at recruiting. Filling the needs for his team with blue-chip recruits every year is the norm for OSU classes. Tressel first started recruiting mainly in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Now he dips into the big recruiting states like Florida, Texas, Louisiana, etc. Tressel's recruiting is a big reason why OSU is in BCS games every year and considered part of the 'elite' college football programs.

However, his astonishing recruiting sometimes goes unnoticed because OSU has been blown out of two straight National Championship games. Yes, I do realize that National Championships mean a lot more than recruiting classes, but let's give the man his due every once in a while. Sure his team has been embarrassed the past two years but at least he led his team there which is a lot more than almost everyone else can say.

Like Tressel really needs the attention. He knows that he doesn't need the respect that he deserves because he'll get it in the fall. He knows that even though he's been embarrassed the past two years on the big stage, he'll just go out there and go undefeated again. In fact, dis-respect toward Tressel fuels him ever year. Sure the experts can diss OSU all they want, but in the end Tressel proves them wrong time after time. I'm surprised no one has got it yet. OSU does not rebuild, they reload. The term 'rebuilding', isn't in Tressel's vocabulary. So go ahead everyone, doubt Jim Tressel and Ohio State. Make the predictions that they'll finish in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten. Chances are that Tressel will show why he likes the "I get no respect" treatment.

Jim Tressel is one of the elite coaches in college football, we all know that. His recruiting and coaching strategy has placed him in the upper echelon of college football coaches. However, compared to many other coaches like Urban Meyer, Pete Carroll, Bob Stoops and so on, Tressel doesn't get the respect he deserves.

Baseball Needs Replay To Up Its Image

If baseball in America were to be described in two words, it would be described as 'old school'. Baseball doesn't have the glitz and glamour that football or basketball does. Players don't use smack talk to intimidate each other nor do they have the colorful players that everyone likes to rave and talk about. No, in today's world of baseball everything from the stadium to the players is old school. Some like the simplicity of the sport and it's old school nature.

Unfortunately though for baseball being old school can have its setbacks that brings the sport down.Last week New York Mets first basemen Carlos Delgado smacked a fly ball to far left field against the New York Yankees. The ball hit the bottom black part of the yellow foul pole and the umpires initially ruled it fair for a home-run. After a couple minutes of talking it over, the umpires changed the call to foul. This happened when a national audience watched the umpires make a blatant mistake by calling the first ruled home-run, a foul ball.

Later on in the week it happened again as Yankees third basemen Alex Rodriguez hit a home run that barely cleared the wall. However since the umpires saw the hit distance away, it looked like the ball bounced off the wall so it was ruled a double.

This then started a frenzy of angry fans crying out for replay. On television and radio sets across the country, sports talk shows argue and discuss the possibilities of replay in baseball. Many argue that baseball needs to install replay so that calls, like home runs, are correct. That is true and the main reason for replay is to get the calls correct so that a team doesn't get 'screwed over'. However, another reason why baseball needs to install replay is to start to shy away from its old school image.

Replay is in almost every sport. It's used in football, basketball, and hockey, and even though all three sports do it differently, it's still efficient. In sports today technology is being used to its fullest by the invention of replays. MLB needs to get their act together and enter the 21st century with the rest of the major sports. With the use of instant replay, no longer are the days where teams get slighted over a bad call.

However in baseball, teams sometimes do get slighted for wrong calls which upsets the fans. Baseball has the technology to make the calls right and make the game fair. For easy-to-see-home-runs-on-television, it only takes ten seconds to realize that it's either a home run or not. It's not rocket science in most cases. All it takes is one look and a decision is easily made.

The use of replay doesn't even slow the game down. In fact, it speeds it up. Instead of watching a manager spit at an umpire for two minutes, technology would make that two minutes into ten seconds and then further continue the game. For any way to speed up the game would make fans more willing to watch it. The normal fan doesn't want to sit for four hours watching a game. Sure the fan wants to watch a good amount of baseball to feed their appetite. But they don't want to sit there forever to watch the conclusion of the game. It's something that has turned off so many fans in the past. If any shape or form, the MLB can speed the game up faster is nothing but a positive.

Reports are that MLB will experiment the use of replay in spring training next year. There are also reports that the use of replay may not be implemented into baseball until 2010.

Why can't they install it now? Why can't they figure out a solution in the matter of days? Why do they have to wait for 2010 to put it in?

This is what is frustrating sports fans across the country. The lack of doing the most simplest tasks right now is driving fans away from baseball.

Here's a solution to the problem. Do what the NFL does and have one umpire as the replay official up in the booth. Any 'Joe Schmo' could've come up with that. In fact, many analysts have come up with that idea as that has been the majority idea/plan by many baseball experts. It's these little snippets about the decision making of the head officials in baseball that is making baseball a more unpopular sport today.

I'm not saying that replay would fix all that is wrong with baseball. I'm also not saying that it won't erase the 'old school' image in baseball. What I am saying is that if the MLB keeps ignoring this issue and doesn't address it appropriately, it'll will still enforce the idea that baseball is still behind other major sports.

Boston Paper Champions?

Rebuilding a franchise is the most difficult and stressful aspect of being a general manager. If a GM does it wrong, it could take a decade to recover from previous screw ups. In order to rebuild a team back to being competitive, management must draft well and make the appropriate financial moves. Sometimes that means trading away old players and stocking your team with some 'young guns'. In today's world some franchises purposely tank to receive a high draft pick in order to select that "franchise player" who then is expected to build your team to greatness.

However for the Boston Celtics it only took one trade for them to become the doormat in the NBA to one of the best in the NBA. On a late July day, Celtics General Manager Danny Ainge shocked the basketball world when he pulled off possibly the biggest trade in NBA history. The Celtics traded for future hall of famer Kevin Garnett and one of the most accurate 3-point shooters in the game, Ray Allen.

The media had a field day on this as most were predicting this Celtics team to be one of the greatest teams ever. With all star Paul Pierce already on the roster added with Garnett and Allen, the Celtics were dubbed as 'loaded' and 'stacked'. They had three potential hall of famers, all in their primes playing on the same team. It would be a tremendous disappointment if the Celtics don't make the NBA Finals, especially in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics were nicknamed "The Big Three" before the season even started. To give them a name like that already shows that this team was expected to do something incredible this year.

Just like they were expected to, they came out of the 2007/2008 NBA season like gangbusters, winning 20 of their first 22 games. The dynamic trio were the main cause for the eruption early on. It was evident there were no chemistry issues between the three. The bond right away was tight and washed away all the questions such as "can they play together?" The hot streak continued throughout the rest of the season as the Celtics notched up the best regular season record in the NBA. They never went on a losing streak more than three games and even their one three game losing streak only occured once. Going into the playoffs the Celtics were as close as a lock to making it to the NBA Finals as you'll ever see. The media hype for a 'Laker/Celtics' showdown was and still is flowing. The Celtics show though that not all games are played on paper...

It's the Atlanta Hawks. The Atlanta Hawks team that has no experience in the playoffs, is extremely young and even had a losing record going into the playoffs. By everyone's account (except for some Hawks fans), this series was going to be a walk in the park for the Celtics. No way would the Hawks even stand a chance against "The Big Three". No way would this series go past four games, let alone five games meaning the Hawks would win at least one. The Celtics were expected to dispose the Hawks like no other. In fact, not only were they expected to beat the Hawks with ease, they were expected to do the same for the next round, until maybe the Eastern Conference Finals.

However the Celtics proved once again of that old sports cliche - "Games are not played on paper". As the Celtics throttled the Hawks in the first two games as expected, they had to play and 'finish up' in Atlanta. Unfortunately for Boston, NBA fans found out that the Celtics couldn't finish it up in Atlanta. Instead they lost both games three and four and a game six would be guaranteed. The Celtics would win game six after an easy victory over Atlanta in game five right? Once again, the Celtics can't pull out a victory on the road. Once again, there would be another game guaranteed to be played which would be game seven in which the Celtics crushed the Hawks in. So in the end, the Boston Celtics, "The Big Three" had to suffer a seven game series, in what should've been a four game series.

"We have to play better under stress, there's no doubt about it," Celtics head
coach Doc Rivers said per Boston.com.

It's understandable that maybe the Celtics would come out flat for a couple games. Garnett, Allen and Pierce all have playoff experience, but not together as a team. No one would be surprised to see the Celtics may be coming out a bit rusty on the road against Atlanta. But to have their own coach say "we have to play better under stress," with the players that they have and the experience they've gained in the NBA is inexcusable. It's especially inexcusable when you're playing against the Atlanta Hawks. If the Celtics were to be playing, oh let's say the Detroit Pistons and had some struggle under stress, then it's understandable against a team like them. However, being required to play better under stress by your coach against a bunch of 'kids' that are the Atlanta Hawks when your team has three all stars and a good bench is a disgrace. If Rivers truly believes his team needs to play better against the Hawks, he's in for a world of trouble if the Celtics do move on to play the Pistons and, or the Western Conference winner.

After the Atlanta series, most expected the Celtics to come out fuming against the Cleveland Cavaliers in which they did. They beat down the Cavs in both games one and two, just like they did against Atlanta. Just like the Atlanta series though, the Celtics were deaf-ted by the Cavaliers, twice on the road. The Celtics 'witnessed' what LeBron James can do to a team that's not confident, which on the road the Celtics aren't. It's clear that the Celtics aren't confident in themselves when they play in opposing teams arenas. Even Garnett is showing lack of confidence after James dunked on him. So far the Celtics are 7-0 at home but 0-5 on the road. Not a good omen for a team that has been 'poised' to win the NBA Finals all year long.

It's been said before on recent sports talk shows that the Celtics don't ever need to win a road game in the playoffs because they dominate at home. They're right, the Celtics do dominate at home, everyone has seen the destruction they do to teams in the Boston Garden. However do the Celtics really want to depend on winning all their home games? Especially against a team like the Detroit Pistons or in the NBA Finals against possibly the Los Angeles Lakers. It's not going to work against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. They have the ability to beat the Celtics at home. With the Celtics incredible road woes, it could only take one win for the other team at Boston for the Celtics to lose a series. Now that's obviously easier said than done as Boston has been tremendous at home. But with a team of that caliber, with Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce is unacceptable. Championship teams have to grind out the tough road wins, no matter the opponent, especially when those opponents have been the Atlanta Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It's unknown whether or not the Celtics will move on to the NBA Finals. Some people are doubting it and even if they do make it all the way, who's to say they'll be able to just keep winning at home? Even with the tandem of Garnett, Allen and Pierce, it'd be hard to win all four games at home against Bryant and the Lakers. The Celtics main goal this year was to win a championship and right now, they still are the favorites. However if they keep sliding the way they are on the road, it'll end up costing them in the near future and they'll be labeled as the biggest 'paper champions' we will have ever seen.

Missed Opportunity For Perrilloux

Examples of student-athletes in college sports especially in college football is fading. Sure there are some good student-athletes that represent their university and themselves appropriately. But now more than ever, the players that receive all the media hype and attention are the ones that most likely find themself in trouble. Schools that usually maintain great reputation have been dealing with troubling players that don't care to commit themselves to their team nor their universities. It's not a matter of having fun with your friends or getting a little crazy. It's a matter of so called "student-athletes" committing serious crimes and doing the most idiotic acts that you wouldn't imagine a person of that age doing.

The most recent case of a "student-athlete" getting into these stupid acts is now former LSU quarterback Ryan Perrilloux. Throughout his short career Perrilloux failed to meet academic and conditioning requirements set by Les Miles. Plus he was late to practice on most occasions. Perrilloux, however made his decision not to meet these requirements several times. He was warned and warned again but unfortunately for him he decided to not commit himself to the team. Perrilloux was given all the chances in the world but he didn't take advantage on any of them. It was clear that Miles wanted and possibly needed Perrilloux on the team by the way he kept believing he would do the right thing. Miles believed that he would actually attend class, be on time for practice and get his conditioning down. For some odd reason Perrilloux had other plans whatever they might've been.

Perrilloux "didn't fulfill his obligation as an LSU student-athlete," Miles said in a statement. "Ryan was given every opportunity to be a part of this football team," per ESPN.com

It's a shame though. In the few occasions when Perrilloux would sub in for Matt Flynn he showed many signs of greatness. Perrilloux was a big, physical and mobile QB who was receiving comparisons to former LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russel. Perrilloux instantly became a fan favorite in Baton Rouge with his elusive moves and strong arm. College football fans began to take notice of Perrilloux's talents. SEC coaches not only had to gameplan for Flynn but they also had to gameplan for Perrilloux when he would make an appearance. The potential that he possessed was incredible. However in the later months the potential he had sustained would be completely wiped out....

Talk about a wasted opportunity. Ryan Perrilloux had it but let it slip through his hands. He was easily LSU's front runner to be the starting quarterback going into next season. If he could keep improving and play up to the potential Tiger nation was waiting to see, he would've had a great shot at the pros as well. His elusiveness and football instincts were going to take him far. However his instincts outside of football is what led him to being kicked off the team. It's confusing to most that he would give up an opportunity like this and not commit himself to LSU football. He had a chance to be the quarterback and leader of a elite college football team. He had a chance to lead LSU back to the national championship again where they were last year. Perrilloux also threw out millions and millions of dollars out the window as well. NFL teams love big quarterbacks with strong arms and good mobility. That's what Ryan had. Instead he didn't take care of himself. Instead he decided to be lazy and not care nor commit himself.

I have to commend Les Miles for doing this. Kicking a player off the team with Perrilloux's intangibles and talent isn't an easy thing to do. Especially now that LSU will have to either go with redshirt freshman Jarret Lee or Harvard transfer, junior Andrew Hatch, both whom have no experience. In college sports you don't see this often where a coach has the courage and confidence that his team will be fine without said player. Good job Les.

This isn't all about Ryan Perrilloux either. This is about LSU fanbase and university. Perrilloux let not only himself down but LSU down as well. They were counting on this kid just like every other fanbase counts on their quarterback to lead them to the promise land. As anyone who watches college football knows that college students are one of the most hostile group of people you'll ever see. Perrilloux won't see LSU forgive him for this, nor forget about this either. Hopefully someone gives Perrilloux some advice to not show his face around Baton Rouge or the LSU campus because the hatred spewed at him will be relentless. Perrilloux's laziness and effort less style will have him pay the consequences. For the rest of his life no one will ever live this down to him.

I feel bad for Ryan Perrilloux, I really do. Someone with all the talents in the world just to never have any motivation to showcase said talents. To see an athlete with so much potential and for that potential to be wasted because the athlete didn't care is an unfortunate thing to see. Whether you feel bad for him or not, the kid made one of the biggest mistakes if not the biggest mistake of his life. This will not only impact him now but in the future as I'm sure the outlook on him will be much different. Hopefully the kid gets his head on straight and turns his life around.

Falcons Moving On

Falcons owner Arthur Blank, and new head coach Mike Smith have some work to do. Their project is to rebuild the Atlanta Falcons back to glory again. For the Falcons it'll be harder than most rebuilding plans. What the Falcons had to endure last season was something no professional sports team should go through. Everything from the Michael Vick situation to their head coach, Bobby Petrino, who they counted on rebuilding the Falcons, ditching them in the middle of the season. First order of business though is to tear apart from the Michael Vick situation. The Falcons will be able to do this with their first round draft pick, Matt Ryan.

Let's face it, Michael Vick was the murderer of the Atlanta Falcons this past season. His off field antics with abusing dogs completely destroyed the Falcons chance at even being remotely competitive in 2007. The Falcons ended up alternating through quarterbacks throughout the season with guys like Chris Redman, Byron Leftwitch and others. Plus hearing everyday about how Vick is doing in jail and the media bashing him didn't help the Falcons case either. Yes Vick committed a serious crime, but he has been a teammate to that whole roster for years now and it obviously hurt them inside to see the way Vick was treated. When most of the Falcons had been tight friends with Vick, and expected that he'll have a monster year as everyone expected out of him. Then only to see him get caught in that mess and not play the 07 season killed the morale of that franchise. When Vick got into trouble, it definitely showed that Vick hurt the Falcons by not even being on the field.

The issue with Vick is now vanished. The Atlanta Falcons are not only starting a new chapter in their organization but starting a new book. The first chapter of that new book begins with Matt Ryan. The Falcons could've drafted the explosive Darren McFadden or the 316 pound beast, Glenn Dorsey. Some of the "experts" even suggested that they should to improve the team first then worry about the Vick situation. As everyone knows, they didn't draft either of them but instead drafted Ryan, which was the smart move.

Drafting Matt Ryan is more than acquiring a quality quarterback. It says to the Falcons fans and the league that they have put the Vick situation behind them. It says that when Vick does come back in a year, it won't matter because they already have a new "face of the franchise". Vick did a lot of great things for Atlanta. Led them to the NFC Championship game back in 2004 and created excitement in Atlanta. However the Falcons don't need to go through the drama of deciding whether or not to bring Vick back. This is a professional franchise, they don't need to make decisions about players that are dangerous to getting into trouble off the field again. If Michael Vick was ever serious about leading the Falcons to anywhere he would've never did what he did. Now with the NFL being stricter as ever, the Falcons will put a hand up to Vick and say "no" because it's the right thing to do. If a player with the caliber of Michael Vick isn't serious about his game or the Falcons, then you don't need or want him on your team setting a bad example.

"I would characterize it this way; as we've been saying for a while, we have to move on, and we're moving on as if Michael is not here," team owner Arthur Blank said. "We retain his rights, and at the right time we'll deal with that," per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

I don't know if Matt Ryan will save the Atlanta Falcons, but he will definitely bring in a new mindset. It might even take a couple years before the Falcons become a decent team let alone a good team but at least now they have a direction. At least now the Falcons can be assured that they have a bright future with Ryan. He can be the star attraction for the fans of Atlanta and to players that might want to play with Ryan.

Ryan is the perfect pick for the Falcons. He may not be that "sexy" pick for a team. He's not different from any other quarterback in the league or in the draft. He doesn't have a rocket for an arm and he won't "wow" you with anything. But Ryan's a leader and a winner, and right now that's exactly what Atlanta needs. They already tried to bring in a hot shot star with Vick, and look where that left them. All the Falcons need for Ryan to do, and Ryan said it himself during draft weekend, and that is to "win games". With the Falcons situation, that's easier said than done but if Ryan can not get totally destroyed out there in his first season, the Falcons should be set with him for the next few years.