Blood on the Beef ””O”” Brady’s Bowl dance floor

When I think of dancing, the cities that most quickly come to mind are Louisville, KY and Hattiesburg, MS. So is it any wonder that Louisville and Southern Miss, the teams squaring off in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, had an impromptu dance off?:

The intensity of the dance off was of the real world variety, not that fake Hollywood crap you see in any given “Set It Off” movie. It got so intense that the two sides nearly came to blows:

After the fracas was avoided, players from both schools blamed the other side for instigating the flare-up.

“Someone said something disrespectful, did a little jawing after the dance contest … it’s all good,” Louisville linebacker Dexter Heyman told the Old Northeast-Downtown St. Pete Patch. “It’s just a little too close to game time, ya know.”

However, a Southern Miss player, who asked not to be identified, told the same source: “They started talking trash about us being in Conference USA, [that] we can’t dance… it was stupid. We’ll do our talking on the field. A friendly dance competition and they take it all serious? It’s ridiculous.”

The dancing competition was part of scheduled three-hour event called Beach Bash. (The Sporting News)

If you’re interested in the actual game being played between the two teams tonight, Mark Ennis provides an excellent preview right here.  However, his accuracy must be called into question for not including the superfluous apostrophe that the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s people are so hell bent on keeping:

Thankfully for the Big East, Louisville’s players didn’t come close to embarrassing the league the way the USF and UConn baseball teams did back in 2009. I refer to this legendary dance off as the “Let’s See Who Can Look Less Heterosexual Jam”:

Maryland was right to send Ralph Friedgen packing

In a move that’s surprising in a not really that surprising kind of way, Maryland has forced football coach Ralph Friedgen out the door.  This is the same guy who was recently named ACC Coach of the Year for leading Maryland to an 8-4 regular season record.

At the start of the season, the school had a succession plan in place where Friedgen would pass the baton to offensive coordinator James Franklin. As of today, neither of those guys is still with the school, with Franklin having taken the Vandy job last week.

That succession plan was the brainchild of former Maryland AD Debbie Yow, who’s now doing the same job at NC State. So it’s not really that big of a surprise that current AD Kevin Anderson was in no mood to honor the agreement engineered by his predecessor. To that end, I won’t criticize Anderson, because I never viewed Franklin as a guy who would usher in a new era of football glory at Maryland.

As with most coaching changes, this affair wasn’t exactly a painless process. Maryland wanted Friedgen to retire, while he wanted to keep on coaching. This is sort of like that time you dumped that needy chick you had dated for a while but she still kept drunk dialing you every weekend. Breaks can never really be nice and clean, can they?

Steve Yanda of the Washington Post provides a few more details of how Maryland tried to get Friedgen to play ball with them:

Maryland offered many things in an attempt to entice Friedgen to retire, such as putting his name up on the Ring of Honor at Byrd Stadium, the source said, but such offers were insufficient.

Buyout talks ended for good around 10 a.m. Monday morning after Bayly asked one final time whether Friedgen had changed his mind. The answer: No. (Washington Post)

It’s not exactly common practice to fire a guy who just led a school to an 8-4 regular season.  Therefore, it’s understandable why a respected coach like Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer would come to the defense of his old friend Friedgen.  Here’s what Beamer had to say about the situation in his weekly teleconference:

“We’re close, but whether we’re close or not, I don’t think it would change my thoughts. I do know Ralph and I know he’s a heckuva football coach; I know he’s a heckuva person. It’s unusual that a guy could have the year that he had and be coach of the year and having the coaching performance that he had and then all of a sudden he’s not going to be your coach”

“I know the season-ticket sales are down, but to me, that came off of last season. I would think next season when he’s got a young team — he’s got a lot of those starters back that performed well; he’s got his quarterback who was rookie of the year coming back — I would think it would help those season-ticket sales. I would think it would sell some of those suites. I understand all that.”

“What’s happened this year when you think of guys that had winning records and now they’re not going to be the coach of their team next year, I think of West Virginia, Pittsburgh, I think about Miami, about Maryland and knowing how hard it is to win.”

“I think a perfect example is Texas. They play for the national championship last year. They’ve got good players. They’ve got good coaches and they just got on a bad run and it’s hard to win. I think people think, ‘Hey, let’s just change the coach and everything’s going to be alright.’ But usually it goes deeper than that. I know what’s real and I know Ralph’s a heckuva football coach and I thought he did a heckuva job and deserves better than he got.”

That’s an extremely classy move on the part of Beamer to make that kid of statement in support of Friedgen.  But in terms of on-the-field interactions between the two, Beamer wasn’t nearly as kind. In head-to-head competition, he he was 4-0 against Friedgen’s Maryland teams with an average score of 36-9.

And therein lies a big reason why Maryland chose to hand Friedgen a pink slip.  In recent years, where were the program’s signature wins?  There really weren’t any, that is unless you count the 35-27 victory over Cal back in ‘08.  The trouble with that is the fact that Maryland lost the return game the following year by a 52-13 count.

Hell, even while Bobby Bowden was crapping the bed during the last few seasons of his tenure at Florida State, Friedgen couldn’t even take advantage of that.  Before being shoved out the door despite a desire to coach some more (sound familiar?), Bowden had won three straight against Friedgen.

Overall, Friedgen’s record in ten seasons at Maryland was 74-50.  When comparing those numbers to the program’s record of 37-73 in the 10 seasons before that, it’s pretty much night and day.  But here’s the problem with Friedgen’s record at Maryland: it’s incredibly front loaded.

If you recall, he showed up in College Park in 2001 and promptly coached the Terps into the Orange Bowl his first season.  His first three seasons were all 10-win campaigns, with a total record of 31-8.  So if you do the math, he’s 43-42 since then.

Hey, that’s not as bad as his predecessors did, but how many fan bases are satisfied with a seven year run like that?  That’s a long time to wait for a guy to recapture the magic.  And at a certain point, it’s apparent Friedgen’s employers thought he never would.

You can’t show up in a kitchen and cook filet mignon and the most killer garlic mashed potatoes that anyone has ever eaten, then turn around and serve them bologna sandwiches and Fritos the rest of the time.  In essence, that’s failing to meet a standard of excellence that you yourself helped establish.

If you believe the rumors, then Mike Leach is the choice of Under Armour founder and Maryland mega booster Kevin Plank.  And if you don’t believe that Plank wields some influence within the Maryland athletic department, then guys like Phil Knight, Jimmy Rane and T. Boone Pickens would appreciate your continued blissful ignorance.

Actually, this sort of thing is nothing new at Maryland, especially in the case of its freshly fired coach.  According to John Feinstein, Friedgen was hired by Yow when a group of influential Maryland alums (including former Terp quarterback Boomer Esiasion) threatened to boycott the program if she didn’t.

So while hiring Leach would be a splashy move that would undoubtedly spur season ticket sales, it’s not without its negatives. First off, he consistently won 8 or 9 a year at Texas Tech, a Big 12 school with little tradition and moderate expectations. His lone 10-win season there was in ‘08, which means he’s still two behind Friedgen in that category.

Therefore, is there any guarantee that Leach can do any better at Maryland? Keep in mind that while at Texas Tech, he could get the state’s middle tier recruits and still field a decent team. Why? Because the recruiting riches are just that ridiculous in the Lone Star State. But if Leach ends up attracting only middle tier recruits from Maryland and Virginia, he’ll end up with a team about as talented as James Madison.

And that’s just the on-the-field stuff.  Leach is still suing Texas Tech for breach of contract following his termination over Shedgate. And even before that, the guy was a major league headache for the administration in Lubbock. In the midst of contract talks back in 2008, Leach was only more than happy to express his interest in job openings at Auburn and Washington.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that he’s batshit nuts:

In the end, I think Anderson and the powers that be at Maryland had to make a move, even if it doesn’t come off as the best way to treat a loyal alum like Friedgen. But if Leach is his guy, then Anderson’s job is going to get exponentially more complicated.

Terrence Williams answers his wake up call while Shamari Spears misses his

You might have already gotten wind of this, but the New Jersey Nets’ Terrence Williams bought himself a recent demotion the D-League Springfield Armor (yes, that’s the actual team name) when he couldn’t figure out how to show up to practices and meetings on time. While in Springfield, Williams had an epiphany courtesy of a 13-year old ball boy:

Usually, life changing motivational speeches aren’t given by punk kids but are instead administered by stern looking middle aged men with booming voices:

Well, at least that’s the way it’s done in Hollywood. Speaking of Hollywood, I expect Carlos Gonzalez Jr. to have his own advice-oriented talk show any day now. It was Colin Stephenson of the Newark Star-Ledger who first broke the news of Gonzalez’s power of inspiration:

Williams said when he first was told he was being sent down he went to sleep. He thought it was a dream. Even as he was driving the two-and-a-half hours to Springfield, Mass., it still didn’t seem real. The reality hit when his mother called him, crying, asking if he was kicked out of the NBA for good. The reality also hit when he had to practice bright and early that Monday morning - at 9 a.m.

But it was his mother’s tears and the words of a ball boy for the Armor that really drove the point home for him, Williams said.

“One of the ball boys there was 12 years old,” Williams recalled. “I started the first game, I was like, ‘Do you watch the NBA?’ He said, ‘Yeah, you’re one of the players I (like to) watch. Why would you blow it?’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘Why would you want to have an attitude, and be late – the simplest things you can control? And you get to be in the NBA? I would die to do that, so don’t blow it.’”

“That’s a 12-year-old telling me that,” Williams said. “So I think that, and my mom crying was what really got to me. So down there, I decided to take everything serious, like I was here, as far as practicing and playing in a game.” (Newark Star-Ledger)

Unfortunately for college player Shamari Spears of the Charlotte 49ers, he never got any sage advice from a 13-year old to help set him straight.  Back on November 27, 49ers coach Alan Major suspended Spears indefinitely before his team’s game with Radford:

It’s not the first time trouble has found Spears, a 6-foot-6 senior forward from Salisbury who transferred to Charlotte last season from Boston College. After being suspended by former 49ers coach Bobby Lutz for the first game of the 2009-10 season, he went on to have a successful individual year, making third-team all-Atlantic 10.

But Spears was then again suspended by Major in this season’s first game - a loss to Gardner-Webb - before Saturday’s latest disciplinary action.

There have been signs from Spears that have indicated he and Major might not be getting along. After Charlotte lost on Wednesday to Oregon State - a game in which Spears played just two minutes in the second half despite not being in foul trouble - he said on his Twitter account that he had never considered quitting, but was “on the . . . edge.” (Charlotte Observer)

Word came out today that Spears has now been kicked off the team. Honestly, is it that hard to just show up on campus, play some hoops and go to class?  While Williams appears to be on the road to salvaging his pro career, Spears looks like he’s pretty much torpedoed his own.

Recapping a wacky weekend full of coaching moves

Just when you thought that your college football viewing weekend would feature nothing but service academies and a bunch of FCS teams you don’t give a shit about, a torrent of FBS coaching changes saved your ass. Let’s recap what went down:

◊ Florida hires Will Muschamp

Hats off to Florida AD Jeremy Foley for not dragging things out with his search. He identified a hot commodity that would satisfy his fan base and went out and got the guy.

In Will Muschamp, Florida has an ultra intense coach who will literally cut his face in the process of ripping his headphones off. No, seriously, he’s done that before:

It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Muschamp is the second coming of Bob Stoops. Well, Texas fans used to say that about him when he was still their coach in waiting. I can imagine they’re saying something a little different this week.

As a head coach, I think the guy’s going to be sound byte gold. He’ll never be more than a couple of minutes away from an outburst like this:

◊ Miami hires Al Golden

Everyone says Miami crapped the bed with this hire. But when the hell has Miami ever gone out and hired the sexiest candidate available?

Before coming to Coral Gables, Jimmy Johnson was a moderately successful coach at Oklahoma State. Dennis Erickson’s claim to fame before taking the Miami job was a 9-win season at Washington State. And Butch Davis, Larry Coker and Randy Shannon weren’t exactly Hall of Famers before they all took their turns leading the ‘Canes.

So the hiring of Al Golden certainly seems to fit that pattern. And while the guy did a solid job of reviving a Temple program that had flatlined before he arrived, that doesn’t seem to carry a lot of weight with the pundits:

What Whitlock fails to grasp is the history lesson I just provided. Also, let’s be brutally honest in regard to Miami football: in terms of overall facilities and willingness to pay top dollar for a coach, it’s the third best job in its own state.

With that in mind, bringing in Golden makes a lot more sense. Sorry ‘Canes fans, there was never a possibility of a big name like Bo Pelini or Mike Leach taking that job.

◊ Louisiana-Lafayette hires Mark Hudspeth

There’s something I find a little peculiar about this particular hire. You’ve got Mark Hudspeth, who has spent the past two seasons as Mississippi State’s wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator.

Then you’ve got the body of work he’s put together recently: Mississippi State is currently ranked 92nd nationally in passing offense and finished 113th in that category in 2009. So what does UL-Lafayette do? They hire the guy responsible for that crappy output!

But you can’t judge Hudspeth on Mississippi State’s painfully average passing attack alone. Before taking the job in Starkville, he spent seven seasons at Division II North Alabama, where he went 66-21 with five NCAA playoff appearances. So he’s no stranger to leading a program.

◊ Vanderbilt may or may not have hired Gus Malzahn

Last night, the Washington Post reported the following:

Vanderbilt had reportedly offered Malzahn a contract that would pay him close to $3 million per year. He has verbally accepted the job, the source said, but had yet to sign a contract. (Washington Post)

Today, there are reports that Malzahn has actually passed on the job and will instead accept a raise from Auburn (in the neighborhood of $1.3 million a year) to continue on as the school’s offensive coordinator. Obviously, this situation is still extremely fluid.

People were basically calling Malzahn a raving nutbag when news of him taking the Vandy job initially broke. Why, everyone asked, would someone take a job at a school that’s essentially a coaching graveyard?

Well, I can think of 3 million reasons. You mean to tell me you wouldn’t initially jump at a job offer with that kind of salary attached, even if it wasn’t the position you’d always dreamed of? So give the guy a break, he’s only human.

My take on Malzahn is that the programs out there that actually win a game or two more than Vandy aren’t necessarily ready to hire him. Why? Because he’s only five years removed from being a high school head coach. Compare that to the nearly ten years that Muschamp has put in as an assistant at multiple BCS conference schools as well as one spent in the NFL.

Also, Malzahn’s got a hell of a job ahead of him with the Auburn offense in 2011. He’ll lose 4/5ths of his offensive line not to mention the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who operated behind it. So if he’s got a reclamation project on his hands, why not get paid twice as much to do it in Nashville?

I totally agree with those who believe that if he goes to Vanderbilt, he could very well not be heard from again. But who knows what Malzahn’s motivations are at this point.

Spurrier: “Can anyone teach me how to Dougie before I see Jadeveon?”

Steve Spurrier has never had the reputation of being a coach who promised the moon and stars to recruits.  Hell, when you were winning like he was at Florida, just showing up in a kid’s living room was damn near enough to secure a commitment.

But since arriving at South Carolina, Spurrier hasn’t exactly had SEC East titles and national championships to pitch to recruits.  As a result, the Ballcoach has had to get more creative in his methods.

Take the case of Marcus Lattimore, the stud running back who was a solid Auburn lean during most of his recruitment last year.  Lattimore’s mother Yolanda Smith shed some light on how Spurrier slipped in and swayed the blue chipper into becoming a Gamecock:

Smith also said South Carolina coaches Steve Spurrier and Jay Graham even did the Cha Cha Slide at Lattimore’s house during the recruiting process. “[Spurrier] had some smooth moves,” said Smith, who added that no coaches from any other schools were brave enough to dance for Lattimore.

“It sealed the deal,” Smith said about Spurrier’s dance moves. “I think dancing shows off your human side, and it showed us that he’s a regular person like the rest of us.”  (wistv.com)

You think Spurrier ever danced for Terry Dean?  Probably not.  Today, the Ballcoach has another important in-home recruiting visit with the bluest of the current blue chippers, Rock Hill prospect Jadeveon Clowney.  I wonder if Spurrier’s been watching the following on a continuous loop, trying to get the moves just right:

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