Category Archives: Sports news

What to call college football's big game?

I might be breaking some new ground here, but a thought occurs to me regarding the Big Game set for Monday night to determine the best college football team in the country.

The game doesn’t have a catchy name. You know, like the Super Bowl?

My Oregon Ducks are going to play the Ohio State Buckeyes in the first-ever college football playoff championship game. It needs something catchy.

Let’s flash back for a moment to the first Super Bowl, played in 1967. It wasn’t even called the Super Bowl. It carried the clunky name of “AFL-NFL Championship Game.” The American Football League champs that year were the Kansas City Chiefs; representing the National Football League were the Green Bay Packers.

The Pack won 35-10 at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, which was about two-thirds full for the biggest game in pro football history.

The AFL and the NFL played three more interleague championship games before the leagues merged in 1970. But someone came up with the name “Super Bowl” in time for the 1968 game between the Packers and the Oakland Raiders.

I’m open for suggestions on what to call the college football equivalent of the Super Bowl.

Heck, college basketball has its March Madness and its Final Four; Major League Baseball has its World Series; college baseball has its College World Series; hockey fans know the title series of their sport simply as the Stanley Cup.

The NCAA has come up with a marketing winner with this college football playoff. It figures to smash TV-viewing records Monday night.

So … let’s give college football’s big game a name to make it — and us — all proud.

Oh, before I forget: Go Ducks!

 

Still waiting on explanation for Seminoles' departure

The media have reported — as they should — on the crummy conduct of three University of Oregon football players who chanted “No means no” while celebrating the Ducks’ win over Florida State in the semifinal game of the college football playoffs.

The chant was aimed at FSU quarterback Jameis Winston’s alleged sexual assault a couple of years ago.

Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich has said the players will be disciplined for their demonstration.

Good.

Now … what about the Seminoles’ conduct at the end of the game? Three-fourths of the team left the field before the final gun sounded to end the game, which ended with a 59-20 score in favor of the Ducks.

It’s customary for the coaches to meet at midfield, hug each other’s neck, shake hands and congratulate each other for a great game. The players do it, too.

It didn’t happen that way New Year’s Night in the Rose Bowl. The Ducks took congrats from a few FSU players. One of them was Jameis Winston, the 2013 Heisman Trophy winner, who hugged the 2014 Heisman winner, Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. The two young men exchanged kind words.

Not a word — that I’ve heard, at least — has come from FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher about the conduct of his players.

Isn’t there a code of sportsmanship and decorum that’s supposed to be followed here? Has that code been lost on players who got walloped on the field, but who then haven’t learned how to take their defeat like grown men?

And what kind of leadership are they getting when their head coach doesn’t own up to his players’ disrespectful behavior?

 

Looks like the Buckeyes belonged after all

I’ll be candid. I was one of those who thought a team other than Ohio State should have rounded out the four-school playoff bracket to determine the best team in college football.

My favorite for the No. 4 seed was Baylor.

It didn’t happen. Ohio State got in, I guess, on the strength of its schedule.

I’m no expert on this, but it appears that the selection committee that picked the Final Four got it right.

OK, so I’m basking a bit in the glow of my Oregon Ducks’ big win over defending national champ Florida State in the Rose Bowl. Oh, did I mention it was a serious beat-down of a very good football team — by an even better football team?

Well, I digress.

Ohio State finished off the night of playoff football by defeating the top seed, Alabama, which was representing the vaunted Southeastern Conference, where loyalists proclaim it to be the premier football conference in the nation.

Maybe it is. However, on New Year’s Night, the Crimson Tide failed to do the one thing it needed to do, which was score more points than the Buckeyes.

The No. 1 seed proved to be, well, quite mortal.

I am not going to try to dissect what happened in the Sugar Bowl. The Buckeyes outplayed the Crimson Tide on the one night that it counted. And on that night — last night — Ohio State proved that it belonged in the Final Four.

What now? Well, Ohio State will play the Oregon Ducks for the national championship.

You know where my heart lies. Go Ducks!

***

And while I’m on the subject of the Ducks, take a look at John Canzano’s excellent column in The Oregonian about the post-game press conference featuring college football’s two most recent Heisman Trophy winners. I believe it will explain a lot why the Ducks belong in the playoffs, too.

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2015/01/canzano_jameis_winston_vs_marc.html#incart_maj-story-1

 

Sportsmanship lacking on both sides

Collegiate student-athletes must lose with class and they must win with it, too.

The Oregon-Florida State college football playoff semifinal game was fun to watch — particularly if you’re an Oregon Ducks fan, as I am. The Ducks blew out the Seminoles 59-20, ending FSU’s 29-game winning streak and dispelling the notion that the Ducks aren’t tough enough to play at this level of collegiate football.

The end of the game, though, produced some decidedly unattractive behavior.

With about a half-minute to go in the game, about two-thirds of the Seminoles walked off the field toward their locker room. They didn’t stay to shake the Ducks players’ hands, wish them well, congratulation them on the game they played. They skulked off the field, shaken by the battering they had taken.

You need to lose with class, yes?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/02/oregon-jameis-winston-no-chant_n_6405182.html

Then came the Ducks’ display of bad manners. About three Oregon players began some kind of chant about “No means no,” referring to FSU quarterback Jameis Winston’s off-the-field trouble involving a woman who accused him of raping her. Winston was never charged with a crime.

Second-year Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich said the players would be “disciplined internally,” adding that their conduct reflects poorly on the school and the football program.

Yes, you also need to win with class.

 

Did one team just 'quit' tonight?

First things first. I’ll stipulate up front that I am no expert on college football. I’m just a fan who likes to cheer for my favorite teams.

The Oregon Ducks currently are my favorite team and they did not disappoint this big-time fan with a 59-20 demolition of the Florida State Seminoles. The Ducks are Rose Bowl champs for the second time in four years.

It’s a huge deal. Now they’ll await the winner of the next football playoff semifinal game between Alabama and Ohio State. I have zero preference in that game.

I think the most stunning thing said tonight by the ESPN announcing crew came late in the game when Kirk Herbstreit, a former Ohio State quarterback, accused FSU of quitting. He said it twice after the Ducks went up 52-20.

I know that Herbstreit is an expert on football. Again, I am not. I’m betting that once the fellow’s statement finds its way to FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher’s ears that the coach and the announcer are going to have a few four-letter words.

It’s hard for me to put myself in the minds and hearts of dedicated athletes who’ve just been blown apart by a superior foe on the field. Did the Seminoles quit? Did they lie down and give up? Or was that defensive unit just plain exhausted after trying — mostly in vain — to stop the Oregon offense led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Marcus Mariota.

It might be that Florida State simply had nothing left.

Do I pity the Seminoles? Hardly. It’s tough to feel sympathy for a team in which 75 percent of its members walk off the field after a game without congratulating the winners, which the FSU players did tonight after the Ducks put that serious beat-down on them. You need to win and lose with class.

Still, to call them quitters? That’s a very tough thing to say. Kirk Herbstreit had better be ready to defend himself.

But … what the heck. My team won tonight — huge! One more game is left to play.

Go Ducks!

 

Yes, we're Texans now … but, go Ducks!

My wife and I moved to Texas more than 30 years ago to allow me to advance my career in journalism.

It worked out pretty well for us since we landed in Beaumont, where we lived for nearly 11 years before moving to Amarillo just shy of 20 years ago.

Even though we now call Texas home, I remain of Oregon, the state of my birth, land of tall trees and mountains, a rugged coastline, a major city with a glorious downtown district — and from time to time, college football teams that capture the nation’s attention.

This year, the Oregon Ducks are front and center.

They have a Heisman Trophy recipient, Marcus Mariota, calling plays as their quarterback. They have a talented corps of receivers who catch Mariota’s bullet passes, some fleet running backs who can pick ’em up and lay ’em down, a defensive front line that has emerged as one of the best in the nation and a homegrown head coach, Mark Helfrich, who is working the job of his dreams.

In a few hours, the Ducks are going to play Florida State in the Rose Bowl. The Ducks have been to the Granddaddy of Bowl Games three times since 1995. The game Thursday marks No. 4. They have a chance not only to win the game, but to advance to one more game. The Big Game. The one that determines the national champion of all of college football.

The Ducks played for the championship in 2011, losing to Auburn in a thriller.

This time, it feels a bit different. They enter the game as the favorites, although that doesn’t mean squat. As the saying might go: You play the game anyway. FSU is undefeated and has escaped its share of close scrapes this season.

And that makes me modestly — and cautiously — confident about the Ducks’ chances against the Seminoles. They’ve got a Heisman winner, too, last year’s pick Jameis Winston at QB. He’s a good one as well. They’ve got a stout defense and a freshman running back with tremendous balance.

I won’t make any predictions here. I’m not smart enough to pretend to know the ins and outs of a complicated sport.

The next big game will be against either Ohio State or Alabama, who will play later Thursday in the Sugar Bowl.

So, with that I plan to watch a little college football Thursday, starting around 4 p.m. Texas Panhandle time.

The Oregon Ducks need some love. I’m just one transplanted Oregonian sending all the love I can muster. Any additional love and good karma would be much appreciated.

 

UIL to end steroid testing of athletes

Texas athletic officials enacted a steroid-testing program for high school student-athletes thinking that they would discover widespread abuse of the muscle-building drug.

It didn’t happen. The state looked high and low, tested thousands of youngsters and found virtually zero steroid use.

Therefore the state is likely to end its testing program, saving Texans a lot of money.

Good deal.

The University Interscholastic League, which governs extracurricular activities for Texas public high school students, reports finding two — that’s it, two! — cases of steroid use in 2007-08. The UIL tested more than 10,000 students.

There you have it.

The rampant plague of steroid abuse among student-athletes doesn’t exist. Consider it the same as the weapons of mass destruction that were supposed to have been stored in Iraq prior to our March 2003 invasion; our troops arrived, looked for the WMD and didn’t find a thing.

It’s good that the state is heading toward ending the steroid-testing program. It’s even better to learn that despite the hype and hoopla that the state’s high school athletic community isn’t full of juiced-up freaks looking for any edge they can find.

 

Coach Strong seeks to be an educator

You could hear just a bit of grumbling coming from Austin when the University of Texas hired Charlie Strong to be the head coach of the school’s football team.

He wasn’t the favorite of some high-powered, well-heeled alumni. They wanted a proven big-time winner to restore the Longhorns to gridiron glory. Strong? Good guy, but can he win?

The jury is still out on the winning part, but he’s embarking on an effort that should get the attention of universities across the nation.

He’s trying to teach the young men of his football program how to become good men.

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2014/12/can-a-university-teach-integrity-to-its-athletes.html/

More power to you, coach!

As the Dallas Morning News blogger Jim Mitchell noted, “I don’t know whether it is possible to teach values to a college athlete if the player didn’t arrive on campus with a pretty clear understanding of right, wrong and personal responsibility. But I’m intrigued that the University of Texas is going to try.”

Strong took over from former coach Mack Brown and began tossing players off his team for what’s cryptically called “violation of team rules.” I was wondering at the outset whether Strong had come to Austin to imbue a certain kind of ethic in the players. One of the dismissed players hails from Amarillo, so it was a bit of a disappointment to see a local athlete caught up in this min-purge.

Strong’s efforts will be comprehensive, according to Mitchell: “Now comes a groundbreaking effort called the Center for Sports Leadership and Innovation, which UT-Austin officials say will ‘leverage UT Austin’s expertise in academics and success in athletics to change the culture at a time when national headlines remain focused on high-profile athletes’ behavior and responsibilities.’”

I absolutely support the idea of reminding these young men that they have responsibilities that go far beyond their athletic exploits. Many athletes view their athletic skill as a sign of privilege. They think they have some God-given right to behave as they see fit. “Normal” rules don’t apply to them. Coach Strong says that’s not the case, that their elevated status requires them to behave properly and to exhibit the kind of life skills that will carry them through the rest of their life.

What is so wrong with that? Not a single thing.

Go for it, Coach Strong.

Character seems to matter more

OK, one more comment about the Heisman Trophy presentation and I’ll be done.

I’ve been reading since Saturday night’s ceremony honoring University of Oregon All-Universe quarterback Marcus Mariota about the young man’s character.

It is exemplary. And it is made even more so in light of three of the past four Heisman Trophy winners’ own character.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2298454-marcus-mariota-is-the-heisman-winner-college-football-needed/?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial&hpt=hp_t2

College football needed someone like Mariota to win the Heisman Trophy.

His athletic exploits are — to borrow a term he’s used in recent days to describe his Heisman experience — utterly “surreal.” Football experts and casual fans of the game understand what he’s done on the field.

It’s the off-the-field stuff he does and things he does when no one’s looking that seems to matter more.

Auburn’s Cam Newton won the honor in 2010 amid a recruiting scandal; Johnny “Football” Manziel at Texas A&M won the honor two years later and has behaved in a less-than-gentlemanly manner all too often; Florida State’s Jameis Winston has those sexual abuse charges hanging over his head. In the middle of that Heisman sequence is Baylor’s Robert Griffin III, another fine young man.

Marcus Mariota? Well, he got a ticket for speeding several weeks ago. He paid the fine and apologized for messing up.

In truth, the other two finalists for the Heisman — Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon and Alabama receiver Amari Cooper — also fit the Boy Scout mode. Everyone’s a winner, as the presenter said immediately before announcing Marcus Mariota’s name.

I’m obviously glad for Mariota. I’m proud that a football program from my home state of Oregon can boast about one of its athletes’ high honor. I also am glad for college football, which has awarded its best-player-in-the-country trophy to a young man who’s a role model — and is proud of it.

 

 

Looking forward to watching this young man evolve

Watching the Heisman Trophy presentation to the University of Oregon’s Marcus Mariota leaves me with several takeaways.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/12025046/marcus-mariota-oregon-ducks-wins-heisman-trophy

* As a native of Oregon, it was great fun to watch the second Heisman winner come out of my home state. This one’s a bit different, though, from the first one. Oregon State quarterback Terry Baker won the award in 1962. He didn’t fare well with the pros and washed out after a couple of seasons. He then went on to law school, became a successful lawyer and has lived an exemplary life. Mariota hails from Honolulu; Baker, though, is a native of Portland — the same home town as yours truly. So I feel a bit more of an Oregon kinship with Baker than with Mariota.

* Mariota’s decided lack of flash is a wonder to me, given all the bells and whistles associated with the Ducks’ football program. It’s well-funded, chiefly by Nike founder — and Oregon grad — Phil Knight. Everyone talks about the vast uniform ensembles from which the Ducks choose to wear every game day. Their training facilities are the best in the nation. Their home stadium is among the loudest venues in the country. Mariota, though, chooses to avoid the spotlight.

* The young man is humble. I mean, truly humble. Watch his speech on the link I’ve attached to this blog and you will be convinced that his humility is genuine.

* Finally, I look forward to watching him turn professional. If he succeeds in the National Football League, then I will interested in seeing how his public persona develops, changes and evolves. He’ll be asked to speak — a lot — to the media. He’s a young man now, 21 years of age. He has his degree. He’s got one more year of football eligibility left at Oregon; do not expect him to stay, now that his classwork is done.

His remarks after receiving the Heisman Trophy tonight were truly remarkable.

Sap that I am, I wept just a little as I watched Marcus’s dad wipe the tears from his eyes.

Well done, Marcus. Now, it’s time to beat Florida State in the Rose Bowl.