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Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden to announce his retirement

The Tallahassee Democrat has the scoop-

Bobby Bowden’s legendary coaching career at Florida State University is expected to end Tuesday, the Tallahassee Democrat has learned.

Bowden is expected to announce his resignation by way of a statement to be released Tuesday, sources told the Democrat.

As part of his retirement, Bowden is expected to be offered a non-coaching position at FSU for an unspecified amount of time. In addition to any settlement compensation that may be negotiated as part of his retirement, Bowden is also entitled to $1 million upon his retirement as part of a clause in his coaching contract that was agreed upon at least 10 years ago.

It is unclear if Bowden will coach the bowl game or not, but sources have said if he does coach one last game then the Gator Bowl may try to select FSU for its Jan. 1 game.

I’d be surprised if Bowden isn’t allowed to coach the Seminoles one last time. He has been the only football head coach the school has known for 34 years. When Bowden took over FSU was a wreck. A independent that schools big and small were beating up on. It was either 1972 or 1973 that the Seminoles went without a win for the year(The Florida Gators had a similar year in 1979 but had one tie). Bowden quickly reversed the school’s football fortunes. In his second year FSU went 10-2, in his 4th year the Seminoles went 11-0 and received an invitation to the Orange Bowl to play Oklahoma. Florida State got its ass kicked 24-7 on Jan. 1st 1980, but the next year pulled stunning road upsets at Nebraska and Ohio on the way to a second straight OB engagement with Oklahoma. The second time around was a great battle that only saw the Sooners win 18-17. Bowden had established the Seminoles as a Division One football in five years.

FSU football fans won’t soon forget Bowden and his legacy. Assistant Coach Jimbo Fisher is expected to be named Bowden’s replacement.

 

Florida Goalie Tomas Vokoun suffers head injury

This is certainly the weirdest twist for the Panthers during the 2009-10 NHL season. Florida is playing the Atlanta Thrashers in Atlanta. The game is early on, and Ilya Kovalchuk just scored a goal to put Atlanta ahead 2-1.

After the play was over, Florida Panther defensemen Keith Ballard swung his stick at the goal net in frustration. In the process he hit Tomas Vokoun in the head. Vokoun has been down on the ice for approximately five minutes now.

Vokoun is being taken off the ice on a stretcher now. Scott Clemmensen is in goal now, and I expect Alexander Salak to be down from Rochester(Florida’s top minor league team) in time for Wednesday’s game. I want Florida to do well, but right now my greater concern is for the health of Vokoun.

The Panthers are 10-11-4 for the year, and the season has seen some wild swings. I just never expected one to be a serious but dumb injury to our #1 Goalie because of the actions of one of his teammates.

Update- AP reports Vokoun has a ear laceration and is alert.

Here’s the video of what happened.

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Notre Dame fires coach Charlie Weis

This news don’t surprise me in the least.

Saying its expectations on the field have not been met, Notre Dame fired coach Charlie Weis on Monday after five seasons.

A brash offensive coordinator with the NFL champion New England Patriots when he was hired five years ago, Weis excited the Irish faithful with back-to-back appearances in BCS bowl games in his first two seasons.

Since then, one of the nation’s most storied football programs has gone 16-21.

“We have great expectations for our football program, and we have not been able to meet those expectations,” Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick said in a statement announcing Weis “will not be retained.”

“As an alumnus, Charlie understands those goals and expectations better than most, and he’s as disappointed as anyone that we have not achieved the desired results,” Swarbrick said.

Weis, who has six years left on his contract, was 35-27 in South Bend. His .565 winning percentage is worse than the .583 marks that got his two predecessors, Tyrone Willingham and Bob Davie, fired.

Weis will be working in the NFL again in 2010. I read a report that several teams had already approached Weis.

As to who Notre Dame will hire next, I haven’t a clue. All that I will say is- The school shouldn’t sign any coach to a contract lasting more than 5 years.

 

Carolina QB Jake Delhomme has a broken finger

The Panthers are 4-7 and coming off a loss to the New York Jets. From AP-

A broken finger — not coach John Fox — may bench struggling Carolina Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme.

Fox said Monday that Delhomme fractured a finger on his throwing hand late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the New York Jets and may be replaced by untested Matt Moore next week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Delhomme threw four more interceptions against the Jets, completing only 14-of-34 passes for 130 yards with a passer rating of 12.7. The Panthers (4-7) didn’t score a touchdown in the 17-6 loss that virtually eliminated them from playoff contention.

Delhomme has a career-high 18 interceptions this season, tied with Detroit Lions rookie Matthew Stafford for second-most in the NFL behind the Chicago Bears’ Jay Cutler (20). Fox considered benching Delhomme a month ago after he threw three picks in a loss to the Buffalo Bills but decided against it.

Moore hasn’t started a game since 2007. I expect him to be the Panthers QB for the rest of 2009. Carolina is not going to make the playoffs this year. At this point, I’d be surprised if they finish 8-8.

 

Sweet 600- North Carolina beats Nevada 80-73

For the second consecutive day, some NCAA Basketball coaching history was made. From AP-

Roy Williams’ milestone victories are starting to blend together for North Carolina

The Tar Heels gave their Hall of Fame coach his 600th career win Sunday night, an 80-73 triumph over pesky Nevada behind a career-high 23 points from Deon Thompson.

Ed Davis added 16 points, a personal-best 15 rebounds and a pair of momentum-changing blocked shots late for the Tar Heels (6-1).

Williams became the 33rd coach to reach this milestone, and the 3rd quickest. As I noted yesterday, the ever lengthening College Basketball season is the root cause of this.

 

Don’t just stand there- NJ Nets fire coach Lawrence Frank

The team is 0-16 and nearing the end of a 4-game Western Conference road trip. From ESPN-

The winless New Jersey Nets have fired coach Lawrence Frank with immediate effect.

The Nets announced the move Sunday shortly after ESPN.com’s report that Frank would not coach the Nets in Sunday night’s road game against the Los Angeles Lakers, when New Jersey tries to avoid matching the worst start in NBA history.

Nets assistant coach Tom Barrise will coach the game in L.A., but the Nets’ announcement said that Frank’s permanent replacement has not yet been chosen.

Sources with knowledge of New Jersey’s thinking told ESPN.com that the Nets — mired at 0-16 after Friday’s loss in Sacramento — wanted to delay the widely anticipated coaching change until after the team returned from its four-game West Coast trip. Yet it appears that Nets management determined that it had to make the move before facing the Lakers after reports became more widespread that Frank’s dismissal was imminent.

I don’t see what effect the firing of Frank will have on the team as they play Los Angeles. The Lakers will still mop the floor with the Nets.

Frank, who has worked for the Nets for over a decade, became the Nets coach in 2003-04 and had accumulated a record of 225-241. His contract was up at the end of the year. A new coach isn’t going to change New Jersey’s fortunes. In fact, I predict them to get to at 0-18 before the Nets get a win. After Los Angeles comes Dallas for the NBA’s worst team.

 

Throw it away- NY Jets beat Carolina Panthers 17-6

Today’s win was only the second for New York since October began. From AP-

Darrelle Revis returned one of the Jets’ four interceptions 67 yards for a touchdown and New York overcame an injury scare to quarterback Mark Sanchez before holding on to beat the Carolina Panthers 17-6 on Sunday.Panthers Jets Football

Thomas Jones had a 3-yard touchdown run as the Jets (5-6) won at home for the first time since beating Tennessee in Week 3. New York also kept its slim playoff hopes alive by sending Carolina (4-7) to its second straight loss.

Sanchez left for four plays in the third quarter with an apparent injury to his left leg that at first looked serious. After being worked on by trainers, Sanchez tested the leg and returned for the next series.

It’s still early, but my gut tells me Matt Sanchez is going to be the next disappointment at Quarterback for the New York Jets. For over 30 years the franchise has been seeking the next Joe Namath. Richard Todd, Ken O’Brien, Chad Pennington, and now Sanchez were drafted in pursuit of that goal. Sanchez may prove me wrong, but at the moment he looks more Art Woodall than Broadway Joe. The Jets were the team of my youth, and I still pull for the team(except when they play Miami. Then my loyalties are divided)but I’m pessimistic at present. Too many draft disappointments make a fan that way and Sanchez’s passer rating of 61.1 don’t help either.

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Virginia Cavaliers fire Coach Al Groh

The 2009 season was Virginia’s worst in 27 years. From AP-

Virginia has fired Al Groh after nine seasons as football coach at his alma mater.

Groh’s dismissal Sunday comes less than 24 hours after the Cavaliers (3-9, 2-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) finished their worst season since going 2-9 in 1982 with a 42-13 loss to rival Virginia Tech.

Virginia lost its final six games and finished with a losing record for the third time in four years. Groh beat Virginia Tech just once in nine games during his tenure.

It seems clear Virginia had regressed the last few seasons. The need for a new coach in Charlottesville looks justified IMHO.

 

Tiger Woods accident story- Will it ever be reported right?

Dan Le Batard of the Miami Herald sums up the last 36 hours of Tiger Woods news.

The news-gathering landscape has mutated so quickly and so absolutely, at once enhanced and contaminated by the immediacy of everything from texts to Twitter to TMZ, that America’s most famous athlete this weekend went from suffering a serious injury in a car accident . . . to suffering a minor injury in a car accident . . . to being “fine,” according to his agent . . . to reportedly being unfaithful to his wife . . . to maybe having his face scratched by his angry wife . . . to being rescued by his helpful wife from his crashed car with a golf club . . . to having his car smashed up by his betrayed wife and her golf club . . . to not being any kind of “fine” at all.

Not all of that can be true, obviously, but who cares?

Truth is one of the many things that gets trampled today when boring facts can’t keep up with the media’s need to feed instantly and the public’s appetite to be fed faster than that.

Actually sports celebrity news bores me. I blogged about the news of Woods accident but refrained on speculating about its cause. That kind of restraint is not normal in either the news business or blogging now. I rather not make a fool out of myself by talking about 2nd or 3rd hand error prone news.

If someone wants to make the case I’m a fool, there’s over 4 years of blog posts out on the internet ready and waiting for them.

 

Eastern Illinois Asst. Coach Jeff Hoover dead at 41

He had been the Panthers Offensive line coach for three years. RIP.

Note- Just a little under a month ago, Eastern Illinois Assistant Basketball Coach Jackie Moore, died from a heart attack.

A coroner says an assistant football coach for Eastern Illinois has died following a car crash that happened as he returned home from a game.

The team had a playoff game against Southern Illinois earlier Saturday. Effingham, Ill., county coroner Leigh Hammer confirmed early Sunday that offensive line coach Jeff Hoover was killed in the accident.

Athletics spokesman Rich Moser had said a coach, staff member and family had been traveling back home from the game when the car apparently swerved to avoid a deer.

Hoover was in his third season as Eastern Illinois’ offensive line coach. He had previously worked at Portland State University, Henderson State and UC Davis.

 
 


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