When’s the last time two colleges took their next head coaches from one another? From ESPN-
The icy roads, daunting upcoming schedule and tough conference affiliation might have scared away many potential candidates.
But not Paul Rhoads. He made a head-long charge into his new job as Iowa State’s new coach, before vowing to create a blue-collar mentality of hard work central for his new team.
Paul Rhoads, a former assistant at Iowa State, is returning to the Cyclones, this time as head coach.
The former Auburn and Pittsburgh defensive coordinator and one-time ISU defensive coach was introduced Saturday as the 31st head football coach in the school’s history.
And he couldn’t be more excited for what he termed as “a dream job” where he will coach only a couple of long touchdown passes away from the Ankeny, Iowa, area where he was born and raised. His father, Cecil, is a member of the Iowa High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame.
“There are deep roots here,” Rhoads said. “My youngest was born here. I was born 10 miles down the road. The group over here . . . I have more support and they are all family. I could see myself here for a long time.”
Those words were soothing for Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard, who was burned when Gene Chizik packed up and left the Cyclones for Auburn after twice telling Pollard he would stay. Chizik compiled a 5-19 record in his two seasons with the Cyclones, leaving with a 10-game losing streak that is tied for the second-longest among all FBS teams.
The merry go round between Auburn and Iowa is amusing. Rhoads better be a miracle worker, for Iowa State is in need of a major reclamation project before it becomes even a .500 team.
The Dallas Cowboys played one of the most embarrassing games in franchise history tonight, in a game that was supposed to honor the legacy of a franchise that has won five Super Bowls and been to two more since Texas Stadium opened its doors in 1971. Â Never has a team with so much talent achieved so little. Thankfully, the game was on the NFL Network, which most fans don’t get.
To be sure, the Baltimore Ravens are a good team. And the blowout loss against the hapless St. Louis Rams earlier this season was more pathetic on paper. But the season wasn’t on the line and we had the excuse of Tony Romo being out with an injury. There was no excusing the complete collapse of the offense, defense, and special teams tonight at home in a must-win game.
Romo was awful, giving up two picks, taking unnecessary sacks, and overthrowing receivers all night long. The play calling was worse. Even though Rashard Choice was running surprisingly well and Romo was off — yet again — Jason Garrett continued to call for long bombs and passes into traffic that his QB clearly didn’t have in his bag tonight. So much for the Head Coach in Waiting.  It appears that the real genius behind last year’s offense was Tony Sparano, who’s helped engineer an amazing turnaround of the Miami Dolphins.
The vaunted Wade Phillips Defense was a joke. Sure, they held the Ravens to field goals most of the night and got a bunch of sacks on rookie Joe Flacco. But they gave the game away with not one but two long touchdown runs in the closing minutes. They should be ashamed.
The special teams have been a joke all season, with the exception of Nick Folk’s field goals. (And Folk has been less than mediocre on kickoffs.) The coverage is embarrassingly bad and the return teams are awful. Why Bruce Read still has a job, I’ll never know.
Phillips should never have been hired. He’s a solid defensive coordinator but the Staypuff Marshmallow Man simply doesn’t have what it takes to be a head coach. And everybody but Jerry Jones has known that for years. He’d won precisely zero playoff games in four previous stops as a head coach. The fifth time wasn’t the charm.
One hopes he’s embarrassed the star for the last time.
A hard throwing lefty, he was on two world series rosters with the Los Angeles Dodgers but never appeared on the mound. Two interesting notes about his career.
He was sold and repurchased by the LA Dodgers in less than seven months.
More notably, he was traded by the California Angels to the New York Mets in 1967 for Jack Hamilton. This set in motion the beaning of Boston Red Sox slugger Tony Conigliaro later in the season. Jack Hamilton was the pitcher whose pitch helped destroy that promising player’s career. Thought I would share that trivia. RIP Nick.
Nick Willhite, a hard-throwing left-hander for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1960s, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 67.
Willhite, who grew up in Denver and starred in baseball and football at South High, died Sunday at the home of his son Monty in Alpine, Utah, the son said Friday.
Jon Nicholas Willhite pitched for the Dodgers from 1963-66, and was a member of their World Series championship teams of 1963 and 1965 along with Hall of Fame pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. Willhite also had stints with the Washington Senators, California Angels and the New York Mets, finishing with a career record of 6-12 in 58 appearances.
Monty Willhite said his father struggled with alcoholism over the years, but ultimately became a Utah-based alcohol counselor and a coach at a youth baseball program at Brigham Young University.
A native of Tulsa, Okla., Willhite also had minor league coaching jobs with the Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees.
Mississippi Rebels coach Andy Kennedy has filed a defamation of character lawsuit against the man who accused him of assault and a witness to the alleged incident, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
The suit, filed Friday, seeks more than $25,000 from cab driver Mohamed Moctar Ould Jiddou and Michael Strother, a valet who told police he witnessed the incident.
The criminal complaint, filed Thursday in Municipal Court after Kennedy and Mississippi basketball operations coordinator Bill Armstrong were arrested, alleged that Kennedy assaulted Jiddou and “punched victim with a closed fist while shouting racial slurs.”
Kennedy pleaded not guilty to the charges and vehemently denied the accusations. He was charged with misdemeanor assault; Armstrong was charged with disorderly conduct.
Weirder and weirder. If the racial slurs were made up, I think in these days of the internet where news spreads so fast, that the the price of the damage to Kennedy would be more than just $25,000.
Looks like a classic sports case of “I really screwed up and because of that I will continue to screw up’.* From AP-
Washington Capitals goalie Jose Theodore came off injured reserve Friday, and Simeon Varlamov was assigned back to AHL affiliate Hershey after winning his first two NHL starts in net.
Theodore injured his hip last week and returned to practice Wednesday. He has struggled this season after joining Washington on a $9 million, two-year contract, going 8-6-1 with a 3.08 goals-against average and .888 save percentage.
The 20-year-old Varlamov led the Capitals past the Canadiens 2-1 on Dec. 13 — the first NHL goalie since 1978 to win his debut at Montreal — then helped beat the St. Louis Blues 4-2 on Thursday.
The Russian is 10-3 with a 2.34 GAA at Hershey.
Theodore’s 3.08 GAA is not very good and not at all out of line with how this Goalie has played in his career. Look at Theodore’s stats in Colorado He’s at best a average backup Goalie.
Varlamov has the potential to be a Goalie much better than Theodore. If the Caps were wiser or not afraid to dump a higher priced(4.5 million a year is outrageous for a goalie of Theodore’s quality) veteran player, they would give Varlamov a longer look at the NHL level now. Since Washington is in the same division with the Panthers, I won’t complain too much at the team’s dumb personnel decision.
*- Team pays tons of money for player who then stinks but team won’t bench or get rid of the player because they paid so much for them in the first place only compounding the original mistake.
I remember Ellis from his days pitching with the Pirates. He was a good pitcher, an excellent one in 1971. The story of his pitching a no-hitter while on LSD just doesn’t sound credible. The effect of that drug on people can make even simple activities impossible. RIP.
Dock Ellis, the former major league pitcher best remembered for his flamboyance and social activism as a member of the great Pittsburgh Pirates teams of the 1970s, died Friday of a liver ailment in California, his former agent, Tom Reich, confirmed. Ellis was 63.
His wife, Hjordis, told The Assocaited Press he died at the USC Medical Center in Los Angeles.
“It’s a tremendous loss to the family,” she said. “He’s been struggling for about a year with the end stages of liver disease.”
In his autobiography, “Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball,” Ellis revealed that he threw a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres in June 1970 while under the influence of LSD.
In May 1974 — in an effort to inspire a lifeless Pittsburgh team — Ellis drilled Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and Dan Driessen in the top of the first inning. After walking Tony Perez, Ellis threw a pitch near Johnny Bench’s head and was lifted from the game by manager Danny Murtaugh.
Ellis also gave up Reggie Jackson’s memorable home run off the Tiger Stadium light tower in the 1971 All-Star Game in Detroit.
Off the field, Ellis spoke freely about racial issues, once telling reporters that he wouldn’t start against Oakland’s Vida Blue in the All-Star Game because Major League Baseball would never start “two soul brothers” against each other.
Ellis went 19-9 in 1971 for the Pirates, who beat the Orioles in the World Series.
“Dock Ellis was my first client in baseball, and he gave me as much joy as anybody outside of my family,” Reich said. “He was so unique. He was viewed by some people as an outlaw, but he was far from that. He was so ahead of his time. He was so intuitive and smart and talented and independent. And he wasn’t about to roll over for the incredible prejudices that existed at the time.
“He was a very special person and he had an absolute army of fans and friends. He was at the cutting edge of so many issues, and he never backed down. I was proud to be his friend and stand with him.”
Ellis suffered from cirrhosis of the liver and was placed on a list to receive a liver transplant in May. The Los Angeles Times wrote that Ellis had no health insurance, but received help paying his medical bills from friends in baseball.
Bill Scaringe, an agent who represented Ellis after he retired, said Ellis worked for years in the California department of corrections helping inmates transition from prison back to the community. He also ran a drug counseling center in Los Angeles.
You may say Anaheim’s net minding last night was not at all like Swiss cheese. From AP-
Jonas Hiller figured that all the Edmonton Oilers’ shots he faced kept him sharp.
The Swiss goalie matched the Anaheim record with 51 saves, and turned aside three shootout tries in the Ducks’ 3-2 victory over the Oilers on Friday night.
*****
Corey Perry scored in regulation and added the shootout winner in the Ducks’ first game on a five-game trip. Rob Niedermayer added a short-handed goal to help the Ducks improve to 18-12-3 with their fourth victory in six games.
Hiller, in goal with Jean-Sebastien Giguere on leave in Montreal following his father’s death, tied the franchise saves record set by Mikhail Shtalenkov against Ottawa in March 1998 and matched by Giguere against Detroit in March 2004.
Saving that many shots has to be fatiguing. Which is one of the worries I have with my favorite team, The Florida Panthers. Tomas Vokoun and Craig Anderson have been regularly asked to stop 40 shots in a night. Can they keep it up?
The Tampa Bay Lightning keep finding ways to lose hockey games.
Milan Hejduk was awarded the lone goal in a shootout when Tampa Bay goalie Mike Smith was penalized for throwing his stick as the Colorado Avalanche beat the Lightning 2-1 on Thursday night.
Smith’s stick came loose when he was making a save on Hejduk’s backhander. After discussing the play for several minutes, the officials awarded the goal.
“They huddled to make the decision to see if they felt the stick was thrown,” NHL senior vice president of hockey operations Mike Murphy said in a phone interview from Toronto. “And if a stick is thrown, as outlined in Rule 26.4, they can award a goal and that’s what they did in this case. There was a strong feeling that his stick was thrown.”
Tampa Bay’s players and head coach Rick Tocchet weren’t happy with the call. I didn’t see the play, so I can’t pass judgment. It has to be a tough year for Tampa area hockey fans.
Update- Here’s a video of the play
It is my opinion the referees badly blew the call. Puck Daddy has more.
He died of a heart attack Wednesday. I remember Smith very well, especially his work in the 1986 NLCS against the New York Mets. He was a underrated reliever who didn’t gain much notoriety except in 1986. RIP.
Dave Smith, a former All-Star closer who holds the Houston Astros record for games pitched, died Wednesday. He was 53.
Former big leaguer Tim Flannery said Smith apparently died of a heart attack but the official cause of death wasn’t known.
“He’s gone. My tears are the rain,” Flannery, the San Francisco Giants third base coach, told The Associated Press.
A woman who answered the phone at the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office said the body of a man named David Smith, with a date of birth matching that of the big league pitcher, was brought into her office earlier in the evening. The woman said she could not give her name.
Smith was an All-Star with Houston in 1986 and 1990. He had 216 saves in a 13-year career. He played with Houston from 1980-90 before finishing his career with two seasons with the Chicago Cubs.
His 563 outings with the Astros is tops on the club’s list, and his 199 saves ranks second.
“The Houston Astros are shocked and saddened,” the team said in a statement Thursday. “Dave was an integral part of the club for 11 seasons and will be remembered as an All-Star reliever on the field but most notably as a valued leader, teammate, and friend. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time.”
Flannery said he spent time Wednesday afternoon with members of the Smith family in northern San Diego County. Flannery and Smith worked together on the San Diego Padres’ coaching staff from 1999 until Smith resigned in June 2001 to spend more time with his family. Smith missed the first month of the 2001 season to complete an alcohol rehabilitation program.
“He was the most giving, unconditionally compassionate man anyone ever came across,” Flannery said. “Everybody’s got Dave Smith stories. Usually it’s him reaching into his pocket and pulling out $100 to give to someone selling newspapers for a quarter.
“Going back to his playing days, he was one of the great closers and a fierce competitor,” Flannery said. “He also had a zest for life; reckless abandon at times. He’s gone at 53. He earned every moment of his life. He packed a lot into it.”
Former teammate Joe Sambito said Smith’s personality stood out.
“He was a good guy. He was a really good guy,” said Sambito, who played with Smith in the early 1980s.
“You just remain close to them,” Sambito said about fellow relievers.
“It is with great sadness that the San Diego community learned that it has not only lost a great baseball man, but a great friend to so many of us here,” Padres general manager Kevin Towers said in a statement. “He was an integral part of the Padres for many years, as a minor league instructor and coach and later as our major league pitching coach.”
It is claimed he punched a cabbie and used racial slurs against the man. From AP-
Police arrested Mississippi men’s basketball coach Andy Kennedy early Thursday after a cab driver said the coach punched him while calling him “bin Laden” and other racial insults.
A pretrial hearing has been set for Jan. 16. Kennedy was charged with a first-degree misdemeanor count of assault, which would carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail if he is convicted.
Kennedy denied the allegations and his attorney, Mike Allen, entered a written plea of not guilty in Hamilton County Municipal Court on Thursday.
Kennedy, a former assistant and interim head coach at Cincinnati, was set to coach the Rebels against No. 9 Louisville in the SEC/Big East Invitational later Thursday.
*****
The complaint filed in Municipal Court alleges that Kennedy assaulted Mohamed Moctar Ould Jiddou and “punched victim with a closed fist while shouting racial slurs.”
Truly bizarre. If Kennedy is convicted or cops to a plea deal, Ole Miss would be justified in firing him.
