BOTCHING STRATEGY BY SECONDS CAN CAUSE COACHES A LIFETIME OF MISERY

This week’s Wannstedt Award for clock and game management goes to Giants coach Jim Fassel. Fassel had the right general idea, kicking on an early down while leaving yourself time to call a timeout in case of a botch or a block. But he clearly left too much time. Run it down to 8 seconds or so, leaving you time for one more play after using your timeout following a mistake, while not giving the Cowboys the ticks that allowed them to get into field goal range. Of course if Matt Bryant, who kicks a football for a living, just delivers an in-bounds kickoff the strategic mishap wouldn’t have been an issue. A few years ago in Atlanta, Georgia Tech beat Georgia when a 3rd down field goal was blocked, but holder George Godsey jumped on the ball and the game winning field goal occurred on the next play. Ironically, the losing quarterback that day was Quincy Carter, who was the winning signal caller on Monday night.

On Monday night Al Michaels throws it to the sideline to Lisa Guerrero, who reports that New York Giant Keith Hamilton is injured and unlikely to return. Simple enough, right? Then why did she need to pause and search her notepad in mid-sentence to find Keith Hamilton’s name? Yikes. That poor girl is in for a long year. Incidentally, when Guerrero was a New England Patriots cheerleader her name was Lisa Coles. She took her mother’s maiden name to “honor” that side of the family. Certainly had nothing to do with making herself more marketable in the TV world, did it? Maurice Clarett is involved in academic fraud, lies to police about the value of items stolen out of his “borrowed” luxury vehicle, reporting that two built-in television monitors and stereo equipment worth $5,000, $800 in cash, $300 in clothing and 300 compact discs were stolen, and his best option is considered by many to be what? Attend a historically black school that plays 1-AA football. When you say, “this guy’s trouble, so send him to Grambling (or wherever)” doesn’t it insult the named school, implying that they have no standards of personal behavior?

If you live in Vegas or you’ll be there on Friday night, September 26th, stop by the Stardust Sports Book at 9PM. Yours truly will be competing that night in the Stardust Invitational handicapping tournament. Say hello and mention that you’re a Midweek Musings reader. Thanks to Bob Scucci and the Stardust sports book staff for inviting us.

Pro athletes are renowned for creating foundations for no reason other than to have a golf tournament, a celebrity hoops game, and a tax dodge. That’s why it is so refreshing to see what former Phoenix Suns start Kevin Johnson has done. KJ’s alma mater, Sacramento (California) High School was a miserable failure of an institution. This far-too-typical urban school was wrought with academic underperformance and discipline problems. Johnson’s group The St. HOPE Foundation, convinced the local school board to close it down and allow the organization to open up a charter school. With new leadership, a new curriculum, and some new teachers in place, 1,500 students in an assembly to open the school hailed KJ as a conquering hero, cheering him wildly. Things are going well at the new Sacramento High, although their resources are being drained somewhat by the necessity of fighting off legal challenges from the teachers unions, who value jobs for their members over the education of kids in Sacramento. Imagine if more athletes followed Johnson’s lead and use their prominence, wealth, and influence in such an overwhelmingly positive fashion?

Now back to the negative side of the NBA ledger. Celtics mega-money bust Vin Baker, who was suspended last year while he sought alcohol treatment, has announced he is an alcoholic. No kidding? In a related note, I have announced that I eat too many fatty meats. The dreaded “statement of support” has reared its ugly head early this season. That’s the Arizona AD propping up John Mackovic after successive blowout home losses to LSU and Oregon by a combined 107-23. Mackovic is, of course, as good as gone. The Wildcats fired Dick Tomey for this? You can be sure that the boosters in Tuscon are vocally reminding the administration that at the same time that Mackovic was hired two years ago, up the road in Tempe they were hiring Dirk Koetter, who will be the Arizona State head coach just as long as he wants to.

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Let’s take a deep look into a college football game for this week. Coach Paul Johnson enters his second year at the Naval Academy. Johnson was the offensive coordinator here and did great things in the mid-90’s. The Navy program dropped off the map after he left for Georgia Southern. They started slow last year but late last season had a 19-point cover vs. Notre Dame, a 24-point cover against Wake Forest, and drubbed Army 58-12. With 13 returning starters (that’s a bunch for a service academy), Navy has covered their only lined game, leading TCU 3-0 at halftime before the homestanding Horned Frogs came back to win 17-3. Their strength, the running game, was shut down in Fort Worth, but remember that TCU had the top run defense in the nation last year, with opponents only averaging 65 yards per carry on a miniscule 2.0 yards per rush. After a week off, Navy has an opponent that will be far more compliant. Eastern Michigan hung with Akron, 24-17, but was outgained 471-284. In three games this year, EMU’s only win is against 1-AA East Tennessee State. In that game EMU had to come back from a TD deficit in the second half to win 28-21. In between ETSU and Akron, the Eagles were destroyed 34-12 on their home field by Western Illinois, one of the nation’s better 1-AA teams.

Navy will win the rushing yardage in this game by a huge margin. In their three games, two against 1-AA competition, Eastern Michigan has only 138 rushing yards. Teams that win rushing big win and cover games and we’ll look for Navy to do that here. There are two things that keep us from considering this to be a stronger play, however. Navy’s slowish secondary has largely been responsible for their defense allowing 34 points or more each of the past three years. EMU QB Chinedu Okoro has shown some proficiency through the air. Also, Navy has not demonstrated much of a home field advantage. The Midshipmen are 4-17-1 against the spread since the start of the 1998 season. Still like the matchup, and look for Navy to win by 21.

Indiana Pacers general manager Larry Bird is part of an investment group seeking to open a casino in his hometown of French Lick, which was a gambling haven back in the prohibition days. What do you think David Stern will have to say about that? I like ESPN /ABC’s Gary Thorne. The few times a year that hockey hits our TV we enjoy him and don’t mind him at all for baseball either. But it was jarring to hear the voice of TV hockey doing the Auburn at Georgia Tech and Georgia Tech at Florida State games the past two weeks. After all, you don’t hear Keith Jackson doing events from Maple Leaf Gardens. Thorne’s a crackerjack broadcaster and all, but can he be slotted for the Big Ten, Big East, and Big 12 North? Then again, with the legendary Jackson staying close to home by doing only Pac Ten games there aren’t really any play-by-play men who sound as though they have gravy with their biscuits.

For free picks and analysis this weekend call our free hotline at 1-770-649-1078. It is updated every football game day so check it out if you can.

The Giants and Redskins both played wild, high-octane games last weekend. Washington beat Atlanta 33-31 and the Giants lost a heartbreaker in overtime to the Cowpokes 35-32. How often do you see a team play in a game that wears out the scoreboard and then come back the next week and play a snoozer? There’s added line value as well, as the line adjusts to reflect these higher scores. We’ll look for these clubs to revert to their opening week form, when they both played under the total by double digits. Take under 43 with the ‘skins and Jints.

Thanks for reading. Good luck this weekend. Be careful.
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