MySports Today

Wow – Head Coach Charlie Weis seemed to have saved his job with the 27-21 win over Navy last week in Baltimore. Weis received positive feedback from first year Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick after the close win at Navy and he avenged Navy’s win at Notre Dame last season, a win that snapped a 43-game winning streak for the Irish in the rivalry.

But with this latest loss on Senior Day at Notre Dame Stadium to a horrible Syracuse Orangeman squad that had just fired its head coach, alum all across the country will be screaming for Weis’ head. Weis’s 5th loss of the season set up the Irish for a .500 season (assuming a loss at 28-point favorite USC on Saturday) and quickly put his name back in the mix for “fired Notre Dame head coach”.

First the game – Notre Dame was a 20 point favorite at home against the 1-8 Syracuse team. Notre Dame led 23-10 at the start of the 4th quarter. Cameron Dantley, son of famous Notre Dame hoops star Adrian Dantley, threw the game-winning touchdown against the Irish – an 11-yard pass to Donte Davis with only 42 seconds left in the game. Dantley completed only 13 of 25 passes for 126 yards, but did just enough to steal the victory from the Irish. Notre Dame had a chance to win the game on a 53-yard kick by Brandon Walker, but his attempt came up just short as time expired. Walker had already missed 2 field goals during the contest, and ended the day making only 3 of his 6 field goal attempts.

Jimmy Clausen had another productive day as Notre Dame’s quarterback. Clausen completed 22 of 39 passes for 291 yards. He threw 2 long touchdown passes to wide receiver Golden Tate, who ended the day with 7 catches for 146 yards. But it wasn’t enough.

The 24-23 loss to Syracuse marked the 1st time in school history that Notre Dame lost to a team with 8 losses. The 14 losses in Charlie Weis’ 2-year span in 2007 and 2008 is the most ever in school history. Notre Dame is 28-20 under Weis – good for a 58% winning percentage. Bob Davie (after 5 years as Head Coach) and Tyrone Willingham (after only 3 years as Head Coach) were both fired when their winning percentages hit that 58% mark. So is Weis’ job on the line?

Weis has recruited well the last 2 years. His 2009 class is also expected to be one of the best in the country. With talented players on his teams now, the poor results on the field might mean that Weis is a bad coach or that he has surrounded himself with a poor coaching staff. Either way, that falls directly on Weis. If the guy can’t coach, he needs to be replaced. Problem is, with the new 10-year contract extension, the buyout of Weis is astronomical – some reports have it close to $20 million. Can Notre Dame justify firing Weis for that dollar amount only 4 years into his stay at Notre Dame?

My recommendation – let him stay one more year – he’ll have 4 years of recruiting under his belt, as the entire 2009 team will be players that he has personally selected. The current team has several players that will likely play on Sundays once their collegiate careers are over (Floyd, Clausen, Tate), so Weis should be able to develop and coach the 2009 team to an 8 or 9 win season. If not, thank him for his efforts and start lining up candidates to replace him as soon as the season ends. With the talented crop of players awaiting the new coach, AD Swarbrick should have plenty of suitors looking to sign on to coach the Irish in 2010.

The latest Associated Press Poll is out.

1. Alabama

2. Florida

3. Oklahoma

4. Texas

5. USC

Oklahoma crushed Texas Tech 65-21 in the big game of the week on Saturday night.  The win catapulted the Sooners from 5 to 3 in the poll and put them in line for the BCS Championship game barring a loss to Oklahoma State on the road next weekend.

Alabama and Florida will face off in the 1st ever 1-2 SEC title game in 2 weeks time.  The winner will play in another 1-2 match up in the BCS Championship Game in Miami.

Texas is on the outside looking in right now.  Although Texas beat Oklahoma on a neutral field earlier this year, it looks like voters like the way Oklahoma has dominated teams of late.  Texas recently lost to Texas Tech and has not looked as impressive as Oklahoma.

Stay tuned – the next few weeks should be interesting and answer a lot of questions…

After a positive start to the young NBA season – 6-6 after 12 games – the Knicks reverted to their turbulent ways with 2 trades and a player boycott before its 104-87 drubbing at the hands of the Bucks in Milwaukee on Friday night.

First the trades:

The Knicks sent guard Jamal Crawford to the Golden State Warriors for Al Harrington.

Just hours later, the Knicks traded Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins to the Los Angeles Clippers for Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas.

The moves were made to clear salary space and attempt to pacify disgruntled guard Stephon Marbury.

As for the salary cap space, the Knicks are looking to get under the cap within 2 years in order to clear room to sign a big-name free agent during the summer of 2010. That free agent class could include with likes of Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, and the Knicks would love to sign one of those players in order to turn the franchise around.

The moves were also done to show troubled guard Stephon Marbury that there would plenty of minutes for him to get the playing time he desired (he has yet to play this season due to a riff with team management and new head coach Mike D’Antoni). Marbury responded by refusing to play in protest of the trades. He took his seat on the bench as he had done for the first 11 games of the season.

As a result, D’Antoni had only 7 players at his disposal for the Bucks game on Friday night. All 5 starters each played at least 37 minutes, with Chris Duhon shouldering the load with almost 43 minutes. Ouch. Th team shot only 34% from the field and were out rebounded 60-46. The Knicks are not expected to have the 3 incoming players until Tuesday night’s clash with the Cavaliers at the Garden. Tonight’s game against the Wizards could be a brutal affair, except for the fact that the Wizards have won only 1 of 10 games so far this season without their star Gilbert Arenas. If Marbury decides to play, the Knicks should run away with this one. If not, the Wizards could pull off the upset and pick up their 2nd win of the season.

Stay tuned for more Knicks drama…

WOW – I almost didn’t believe it when I saw it. Texas Tech outscored East Central 167-115 in a NCAA college basketball game the other night. Going into the contest, East Central head coach Terry Shannon had a simple game plan – make Texas Tech play an up-tempo game with his running Tigers. Well he got his wish. Texas Tech took advantage of the game plan – the Red Raiders had 10 players score in double-digits. Trevor Cook led the team with 20 points. John Roberson and Alan Voskuil each scored 17 points and Wally Dunn and Mike Singletary each scored 16 points. The Red Raiders took 113 shots from the floor and hit 59% of their shots, including 52% from 3-point range.

Texas Tech led 77-57 at halftime. Texas Tech topped the 100-point mark for the first time in 3 years. The 167 points scored by the Red Raiders and the combined 283 points scored in the game were both school records. The previous school record of 128 scored by the Red Raiders in 1994 was done in double overtime.

Mike Mussina announced his retirement from the Major Leagues the other day. During his 18-year career, Mussina pitched for only 2 teams – the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees, he started 536 games, he amassed 270 wins and he had a career 3.68 ERA. At age 39, he became the oldest player to win 20 games for the first time in his career (Mussina’s friend Jamie Moyer had previously held that honor when he won 20 games in 2001 at the ripe old age of 38). With a 34-start, 200+-innings pitched, 3.37 ERA season under his belt during the 2008 MLB season, it appeared that Mussina had plenty of juice left in his tank to hit the “all-important” 300-win milestone.

So why retire now? As ESPN’s Buster Olney writes, Mussina is not like most super star athletes who seek the limelight and always want to be remembered for their achievements and awards. Mussina would rather retire to the Quiet Life in Pennsylvania, surrounded by the beautiful Pennsylvania landscape and watching his own children make names for themselves in their respective sports. What a nice way to be able to go out…

In today’s day and age, we are so used to hearing about all of the illegal acts done to get an edge over the other team or opponent in sports. Bill Belichik of the New England Patriots illegally videotaping opponents’ players and coaches during games in order to gain an edge. 2006 Tour de France Winner Floyd Landis being stripped of his yellow jersey for doping infractions. Players in the NFL and MLB continually pushing the limits to gain a performance edge and testing positive for illegal drug violations. These are all so common place, we are almost numb to the fact when we hear about them.

That’s why J.P. Hayes’ story from the weekend is such a pleasant surprise to all of us, despite its harsh ramifications for the former PGA Tour player. During the second stages of the 2009 PGA Tour qualifying tournaments, J.P. Hayes unknowingly used a “prototype” golf ball that hadn’t been approved by the PGA on 2 of his shots on the 12th hole of the 1st qualifying round. As he went to mark his golf ball on the green (he had used the ball on his tee shot and chip shot into the par 3 hole), he noticed that the golf ball was not the same model he started the round with. He notified an official of his rules violation, took a 2-stroke penalty because of the infraction, finished out the hole with the “wrong” ball (as required by PGA rules) and then resumed play with the original model golf ball. He finished both rounds of this 2nd qualifying stage in good shape to advance to the final qualifying stages in December. But after completing both rounds, he questioned whether or not the golf ball was even on the approved list. If it was not on the approved list, he would be disqualified altogether from the qualifying stages and he would not gain a card for the 2009 PGA Tour. No one would have known about the infraction, and as it turned out, the prototype golf ball was not on the PGA’s approved list, and Hayes’ honesty cost him the tour card.

Hayes tried to convince the media and fans that every other player during the qualifying stages would have admitted the same rules infraction, but I’m not sure that is true. Hayes should be commended for his honesty and his respect for the game he loves. Hayes has won a PGA Tour event twice, the last win coming in 2002. In 2008, Hayes made only 7 cuts in 26 events and earned just over $300,000 – good for 176th on the money list. Because of his “poor” performance, he had to compete in the qualifying tournaments in order to keep his Tour Card for 2009. Over his PGA career, he was earned more than $7 million in winnings, and he will still be able to compete in approximately ten 2009 PGA Tour events because of his past PGA tour wins and sponsor exemptions. So it’s not like Hayes is going to go into the poor house because of his disqualification. That being said, Hayes still took the high road in a difficult situation. He didn’t give into greed or deception, and he paid the price for his honesty. We should all be proud of Hayes’ actions and we should all cheer Hayes on in the 2009 PGA tour events in which he participates.

The Browns almost blew another 13-point lead as they needed a 56-yard field goal from Phil Dawson with only 1:39 left in the game to give the Browns a 29-27 win over the Bills in Buffalo. After streaking out to a 13-0 lead after 20 minutes, the Browns fell behind for the first time in the game on Trent Edwards’ touchdown run with only 2:25 left to play in the 4th quarter. The Bills led 27-26 and the Browns needed a heroic effort from Phil Dawson in order to pull out the dramatic win. Dawson had already connected on 4 field goals on the night – 40, 33, 43 and 22 – as the Browns offense continued to sputter when it reached the red zone. Dawson’s longest attempt on the night – a 56-yarder – sailed through the uprights with less than 2 minutes to play. Head Coach Romeo Crennel and the rest of the team had to sweat out the outcome, however, as the Browns defense actually allowed the Bills a last second chance to steal a victory on Rian Lindell’s 47-yard field goal attempt with 38 seconds remaining. But Lindell’s kick veered wide right, and the Browns ran out the clock and celebrated a much-needed victory.

Brady Quinn was mostly ineffective in his 2nd ever NFL start. Quinn completed only 14 of 36 passes for 185 yards. He did not throw a touchdown pass or an interception. Jamal Lewis pounded the ball 18 times for 65 yards but did not score any touchdowns. The Browns’ 2 rushing touchdowns went to Josh Cribbs on a 2-yard run in the 2nd quarter and Jerome Harrison on a 72-yard explosion on the 1st play from scrimmage in the 4th quarter. Braylon Edwards led the Browns’ receiving corps with 8 receptions for 104 yards. Kellen Winslow, Quinn’s primary target in the Browns’ loss last week against the Denver Broncos, had only 3 catches for 40 yards, and underwent a precautionary MRI on his injured shoulder on Tuesday.

Despite almost blowing the lead once again, the Cleveland Browns defense held the Bills offense to only 334 yards and forced the Bills into 4 turnovers. Trent Edwards was 16 of 26 for 148 yards and 1 touchdown, but he also threw 3 costly interceptions. Running Back Fred Jackson fumbled the ball twice for the Bills, one of which was recovered by the Browns.

The Browns ended a 2-game losing streak, and . Next up for the Browns are home games against the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts. Their chances of making the playoffs are slim, however, as the Browns still have road games at Tennessee, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The Bills are a team headed in the wrong direction. The Bills started off the season with a 5-1 record, and with Brady out for the Patriots and Favre still learning the new scheme in New York, the AFC East title looked within the reach of the young Bills roster. Since then, however, the Bills have lost 4 straight games, and sit in last place in the AFC East behind the Jets, Patriots and Dolphins. Chances of making the playoffs are slim to none.

Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals was named the 2008 National League Most Valuable Player. Pujols received 18 of the 32 1st-place votes, while Ryan Howard of the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies garnered 12 1st-place votes. Pujols topped Howard 369 points to 308 points. Milwaukee Brewers Left Fielder Ryan Braun finished well-behind in 3rd place with 139 points. Interestingly enough, Manny Ramirez, acquired in a mid-season trade by the Los Angeles Dodgers, finished 4th in NL MVP voting, while CC Sabathia, acquired in a mid-season trade by the Milwaukee Brewers, finished 6th in NL MVP voting.

It was the 2nd NL MVP Award for Albert Pujols, who also won in 2005. In 2008, Albert Pujols hit .357, with 37 home runs and 116 RBI’s. Pujols was walked 104 times during the course of the season and he led the NL in intentional walks issued. Pujols led the NL in slugging percentage and was 2nd in the NL with a .462 on-base percentage. Pujols also struck out only 54 times in 524 at-bats. Pujols was the only player on all 32 ballots of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. He battled a sore right elbow for most of the season and had surgery in mid-October to address the nerve irritation in the elbow that caused numbness and pain in his forearm. Pujols received a $200,000 bonus for winning the award.

Ryan Howard got off to a slow start on the year, but rebounded in a huge way as the season progressed. Howard led all of MLB with 48 home runs and 146 RBI’s. He had a .543 slugging percentage and a .339 on-base percentage, but for the 2nd straight year, he struck out 199 times.