The Morning Wood - 01/04/2007

Stud: Rohan Davey
Err, I mean JaMarcus Russell. Sweet name by the way. Apparently “Marcus” didn’t say “I’m not Caucasian enough”. Anyway, Russell burned the most overhyped team in the land for 332 yards and 3 total TDs and might have opened a nice little competition as to who is the first QB taken next year (this reeks of Young/Leinart). In related news, Charlie Weis has been storing a top ten recruiting class in his man pouch so look for Notre Dame to once again be media darlings next year only to fall in a BCS game when they can’t avoid playing someone other than the Armed Forces teams.

Dud: Pat Riley
Now I understand that this leave of absence has something to do with your health and I wouldn’t want to tear into a person who was trying to look after their well being. That being said, wouldn’t it have been nice if you hadn’t completely run the last coach out of town roughly a year ago? I honestly don’t know if the Heat would have won their championship last year with Stan Van Gundy as the head coach but I do know that now the move looks extremely short sighted. And for the person who just said something about “he wanted to spend time with his family”, you probably also believe that Saddam Hussein was involved with September 11th.

Talk Around the Cooler...
I am sick of tired of hot shot college coaches coming to the pros, not succeeding because they can’t seem to adjust (Rick Pitino, just realize I’m looking in your direction even though I’m discussing football coaches) and then fleeing back to a different college program. The latest is Nick Saban, whose exit was all the more ugly due to his swearing that he wasn’t going to be the University of Alabama coach roughly 13 seconds before becoming the University of Alabama coach. At least Pete Carroll stunk enough in his turn with the pros to realize that there is no better situation for him than loving the sun and talent at USC. I’m starting to think that there should be some type of anti-tampering agreement set up between the NCAA and the NFL at this point. It will be interesting to see if Jason Taylor’s potential retirement is affected one way or another by Saban’s quitting. My brother, a person who appreciates some solid chaos, is rooting for Charlie Weis to take the Miami job and for Romeo Crenel to grab the Bills job and create an AFC Belichick division. I have my fingers crossed.

Quick Hits:
The only number more ridiculous than this will be Rex Grossman’s playoff QB rating. Well this certainly isn’t going to help his cause either. Larry Merchant had it “even” after one round. Must be that 1.0625 to 1 TD/Int ratio that sealed the deal.