These are Gary’s thoughts from the week. Grab your WCE shirts for the season here.
This weekly post (it’s usually on Thursdays – this week it’s Friday) is exactly what it says it is: my thoughts on stories that have popped up through the week.
The best thing about this piece is that there’s no set number of topics I have to cover, and I can talk about anything that is entertaining, regardless of whether or not it is sports-related (although I’ll always attempt to keep it limited to the realm of sports).
There are tons of stories out there that I could write individual articles on, but I’m not interested in writing an entire post on things that have already been well covered by other media outlets.
If there is a topic that is not being covered adequately, then I’ll research it and write about it. But for this weekly post, I’ll give my opinion on what I think is interesting, and we’ll go from there.
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1. I don’t believe Finebaum knows when the NCAA will announce Ole Miss’s sanctions
I’m working on an article about this topic to be released later.
Finebaum is right about one thing. It’s ugly between Ole Miss and Mississippi State right now, and it’s only going to get uglier. I’ll explain more in that article later, but I had to go ahead and address this here.
2. Hot Seats are getting even hotter
Article: www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mac-engel/article174596706.html
At the end of 2018, I could see as many as 11 new coaches in the SEC.
The hottest seats right now are [1] Butch Jones (at Tennessee) and [2] Kevin Sumlin (at Texas A&M).
Jones showed last week that he couldn’t coach his way out of a paper bag, and Sumlin showed in week 1 at UCLA that he cannot switch on the fly and find other ways to win games… even when up 44-10.
[3] Gus Malzahn (at Auburn), [4] Barry Odom (at Missouri), [5] Bret Bielema (at Arkansas), and [6] Jim McElwain (at Florida) are really really warm as it is, and bad seasons would make things scorching.
If [7] Mark Stoops (at Kentucky) doesn’t beat Florida this weekend, how patient will Kentucky continue to be with him? [8] Ed Orgeron (at LSU) only signed a 3 year contract, and he’s already racked up a 30 point loss to Mississippi State – something that is not supposed to happen to LSU. Orgeron was an emotional quick hire by AD Joe Alleva, and it could end up costing him his job as well.
[9] Matt Luke (at Ole Miss) is just an interim, and after a double-digit loss at Cal last week, the natives are completely out on him. Totally understandable because they’ve got the worst rushing offense in the SEC and, aside from Tennessee’s performance against Georgia Tech in Week 1, the worst rushing defense, as well.
On top of that, if [10] Derek Mason (at Vanderbilt) overachieves with the Commodores this year, and [11] Dan Mullen (at Mississippi St) beats Georgia this weekend and contends for the SEC West, both of those coaches could be picked off by bigger programs either in this conference or in different conferences (Notre Dame, Nebraska, etc, could be looking for coaches after this season).
That leaves Will Muschamp (at South Carolina), Kirby Smart (at Georgia), and Nick Saban at Alabama as the only ones on solid ground even through next season.
3. Is College Gameday in New York this weekend because of a cable company dispute?
ESPN’s College Gameday announced last week, before they even made the trip to Louisville on Saturday, that they would be in New York City on Sat, Sept 23rd.
That’s before we had 2 games between Top 25 teams (TCU @ Oklahoma St & Mississippi St @ Georgia, and that doesn’t include Washington @ Colorado, Penn St @ Iowa, etc). There’s plenty of reason for Gameday to hit a campus this weekend that they may not get another chance to (Iowa, Colorado, Georgia, etc).
So what’s the deal? Why are they setting up in Times Square in NYC? Well, Gameday claims it’s because of all the alumni bases in NYC that don’t get the opportunity to come out to Gameday sites. Sounds great, right? The stars of the show have gotten to do all kinds of cool promo events in the Big Apple this week, and that’s fun to see.
But Gameday is awesome because it’s on location at the site of the biggest game of the weekend every single Saturday.
So what’s the real reason?
Disney’s contract with Altice USA ends on Sat, Sept 30th. ABC/ESPN are in contract disputes with Cablevision – the cable carrier in New York – which is owned by Altice. NBC’s Claire Atkinson reported “Disney is asking for a “gigantic” pay rise for its package of channels, according to one source.” Sometimes, during these disputes, cable subscribers can lose channels (in this case, ABC channels, and the ESPN family of networks) for a few days, or up to a few months, until the dispute is settled.
It looks like ESPN is trying to make a power play here to force Altice’s hand and get them to agree in negotiations.
4. What in the world is going on with LSU’s Derrius Guice?
Article: www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/sports/lsu/article_203e431a-9f25-11e7-8832-abd136289ba9.html
Earlier this week, Derrius Guice posted a picture on his instagram of him and his mom in front of a brand new Range Rover.
Not a good look just a couple of months after it was reported that LSU boosters offered mega-money for Leo Lewis to sign with them.
Very soon after that, he took the picture down. Interesting, right?
Even more interesting is that Ed Orgeron ruled him out of the Syracuse game due to an undisclosed injury. The trainers said he wouldn’t be ready to play.
But, 23 hours later, Coach O said he will be playing – that he had asked to practice because “he was feeling better.”
I don’t get it, but it looks like things are getting crazy in Baton Rouge. Be ready for some more crazy stories this season.
5. Big 12 extends contract for commissioner through 2025… why does that year have relevance?
Article: www.sbnation.com/college-football/2017/9/22/16350026/bob-bowlsby-big-12-commissioner-contract
2025 is the year the Big 12’s television deals end. Or their “grant of rights” deal. Either way, Bowlsby will be with the Big 12 until Texas joins the Pac-12 or Big 10, Oklahoma joins the SEC, and the rest of the Big 12 is split up into the other 4 majors… giving us the perfect recipe for the 4 team playoff.
6. Penn St’s offensive coordinator is the hottest coordinator in football
Article: www.si.com/college-football/2017/09/20/joe-moorhead-penn-state-offense-fordham
Penn St offensive coordinator, Joe Moorhead, is, probably, the hottest coordinator in college football right now.
And he used to be a sportswriter.
James Franklin hired him from Fordham. Yes, you read that right.
Dude is legit. And Bruce Feldman did a fantastic job with this article. Go read it.
7. Clemson loses kicker for the year
Guess we get to find out exactly how important a kicker is to teams that appear to be on the same level as Alabama.
Clemson’s kicker tore his ACL in practice and is out for the rest of the year.
They haven’t needed him just yet… but what happens in some bigger games coming up? Lane Stadium against Virginia Tech? Florida St? The Playoffs? If nothing else, it’s an interesting development out of Clemson.
8. The GET THAT MONEY Gambling Picks are up!
Article: winningcureseverything.com/get-that-money-gambling-picks-092117/
16-0, baby. 10 CFB winners. 6 NFL winners. I went 5-2-1 last week. Keepin that run going this week.
