We recently came across this article about Texas Tech coach Mike Leach potentially using as his kicker this week a guy who won a halftime contest at a game earlier in the season. Apparently, Matt Williams made a 30-yard kick to win a contest a few weeks back and Leach decided he might be their best option to put one through the uprights.

Our inside source managed to get a word with Coach Leach and ask him how he was able to get Williams to agree to even try-out for the team. Leach’s answer was quite in depth:

“Well, uh, we went somewhere causal to begin with because you don’t want something real formal in the beginning. So, for some place casual, I chose Cagle’s’s Steakhouse, which is very casual. The other thing that’s great about it is there’s very little salad there at Cagle’s, so the my potential place kicker was forced to eat in front of me, which is something that I hear kickers hate. But if you can make them do it, then the earlier the better - the more they’ll conversate and show their true self and make extra points. I’m a big movie guy - I was hoping to do it the way I did when I was Matt’s age, going to the Stars and Stripes drive-in theater because that’s what they had in Cody, Wyoming. But no drive-ins here that I could find. Otherwise, the movie theater was pretty good, but I wanted to end it somewhere at some cool coffee shop kind of place where there’s bizarre-looking characters going in and out, so in case the conversation wasn’t going well I could reference some of the different characters you see coming and going from the place. And then since it was a huge night and we were really having a good time, we tried to trade, uh, computer schemes and emails and all that mischief people are up to nowadays, but those are things which I know nothing about.”

We are delighted to see that Coach Leach followed his own advice. And we really hope this new kicker works out for the Red Raiders. Confused? Check the video below…

Interactive Tuesday has been revived!  We thought it was dead after ESPN decided to place Rece Davis and company on the scene a few weeks back.  But Todd Harris and Ray Bentley were back this Tuesday for the awesome match-up between Ohio and Temple.

We’re starting with the first quick highlight, as apparently Temple was doing things a little differently.  We’re not sure if this strategy will work, but the Temple crowd was trying a “pink out” in an effort to wipeout breast cancer awareness.  Hang on, what?

Yes, thank you for that moment Todd Harris.  Putting an end to breast cancer awareness is a worthy cause!

We’d like to give some quick praise to our favorite mustache in college football.  That’s right, Dave Wannstedt.

Congratulations, coach, on winning your first ever college game following a bye week!  Yep, Wannstedt had been 0-5 in his previous 5 games following a bye.  But that streak was broken with a resounding 42-21 win over Navy on Saturday.  We know, 1-5 never felt so good.

Wannstedt: “Thank you, thank you very much.”

If Joseph Heller was still alive today, we think he would be amused by the current rankings system in college football. Of course, Heller was the brilliant author of the book Catch-22. For example, here’s a passage from that great work:

“Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them.”

You see, these lines remind us of the way the BCS works. The pre-season ranking don’t matter at all, except that they really do. Make sense? This year in college football is an excellent example of how messed up the college football ranking system really is.

If you look at the pre-season rankings for this year’s top-5 in the BCS, here’s what you will find… Read the rest of this entry »

We weren’t aware of this, but apparently those awful Buffalo Wild Wings commercials are filmed live. You know, the ones where the manager brings in the bad pitcher, or the ref sends the football game into overtime. Yep, filmed live. How else do you explain this?

Every now and then on this site, we try to offer up some praise to someone. It may be a writer who published a nice article, a celeb doing good, or an athlete being a stand-up guy. This time around, it’s an athlete… Kansas City Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez. (Yes, we know we made a post making fun of the Chiefs yesterday.)

Tony Gonzalez is the real deal all the way around.  Two weeks ago he became no. 1 on the list in receiving yards for a tight end. He has played his entire career for the Chefs and has played no less than 15 games in a season for them.  But why praise Tony now?

Because he was not traded by the Chiefs.  Here’s how it went down: Gonzalez quietly asked the KC owner to try to trade him to a team contending for the playoffs.  Tony’s getting older and the Chiefs are clearly rebuilding, so he wanted a chance to get to the Super Bowl.  He didn’t make a show, mouth off to reporters, start half-assing it on the field.  He just asked the owner to try to trade him so he could have a chance at a title.

The owner’s price was a bit too high and no deal was worked out.  Of course, Gonzalez was not thrilled that he will remain in KC, but he has said that he will do his best to help out the young guys on the team and move the team forward as best he can.

Compare this to…

(1) Terrell Owens getting the ball thrown his way 18 times and having the nerve to say the Cowboys were  not getting him the ball enough.

(2) Chad Johnson giving an interviews about his potential touchdown dances, despite having scored only one touchdown all season.

(3) Adam Jones doing all his “Pacman” things, no matter how many second chances he gets.

(4) Plaxico Burresss getting suspended for a game because he cannot show up for team meetings on time or even call in.

(5) Steve Smith punching his own team in the face and sending him to the hospital.

And then there’s Tony Gonzalez.  Yeah, Tony was in the news during the off-season… for saving a man’s life in a restaurant.  You can check here to read about Gonzalez helping a man who was choking to death in restaurant in Huntington Beach in July.

It’s just too bad that mostly what year in the NFL are the mouths of guys like T.O. or the actions of guys like Jones.  Or heck, event hat stunt Manny Ramirez pulled in Boston.  He wanted a trade, so he started walking down the first baseline and claiming phantom injuries.  Not Tony’s style, and he should be commended for that.

We’ll end with the following quote from this article on FoxSports about Gonzalez.  We can’t even fathom those yahoos we listed up above even having a thought like this enter their selfish brains…

“But you know what? I can’t cry about it. If anything, this has motivated me even more. I’m a Chief, will be happy to be a Chief and will bust my butt for the Chiefs. I was never not happy being a Chief. I just wanted the chance to spend my last couple of years winning a title, not rebuilding. But I’m here to help rebuild, I’ll work with all our young guys and get after it like I always have.”

(1) When your star tight end asks for a trade so he can have a chance at a Super Bowl and it does not happen, the headline on your newspaper’s website says that the tight end’s teammates felt bad for him not being traded.  As in this story, which leads with “Chiefs Players Feel For Gonzalez.”

(2) Just below the story about your star tight end, there’s the “question of the week” regarding your team’s quarterback.  And here’s exactly how that question reads:  “When Brodie Croyle returns to the lineup on Oct. 19 against Tennessee, how long before he suffers an injury that will sideline him again?”  Notice, the question is not “if” he will get injured, but “when.”  The poll had 53% of voters saying the first game back, while 9% lied to themselves and voted that he would stay healthy.  At least they are assuming he will be sidelined due to injury and not poor play.

(3) Herm Edwards is your head coach.

We were looking over the Harris Interactive poll earlier today, as this poll matters since it counts in the BCS standings. Here’s what stood out to us: Michigan received 17 votes. Michigan! The team that just fell to 2-4 with a home loss to Toledo. There were people voting in this poll that felt Michigan deserved to be ranked. And it’s these same people that help determine who plays for the national championship. Is there any chance they get it right?

To us, there is just absolutely no possible way that any person who is qualified to vote on college football polls could think Michigan is one of the 25 best teams in the country. Some of the teams behind Michigan in votes for the Harris poll are: Connecticut (5-1 record), South Carolina (5-2 with 4 wins in a row), Cincinnati (5-1 record), Notre Dame (beat Michigan 35-17), and Illinois (beat Michigan 45-20).

Yet, there were still voters out there that thought Michigan deserved to be ranked. Michigan!

It seems highly likely at this point that voters will be deciding amongst a number of teams on who will play for the title. the chances of just 2 undefeated teams in the top 2 spots is not of high probability. Which means that these voters will be the ones deciding who gets that shot at a championship. And some guy out there will be filling out his ballot in December that right now thinks Michigan is a top 25 team. Are those voters relatives of Rich Rodriguez? Die hard Michigan alums?

There’s really no explanation for it. Yet, the same guy that thinks a 2-4 team is a good team is the guy who will send your team to the Fiesta Bowl instead of Miami.