Northeastern University Cuts Football Sunday, November 22, 2009

Northeastern University has apparently cut football. It's all over twitter and a few posters on UMasshoops.com I trust claim to have the official press release. As I'm typing this blog post, the Boston CBS affiliate, WBZ, just confirmed it.

This upsets me greatly. As much as I hate Northeastern (and I hate them a lot), the fate of the Huskies and the Minutemen football teams are not independent. Northeastern is was a short road trip every other year, possibly the shortest trip, and I'd assume, one of the least expensive.

My question becomes, where does it end? UMass is by far one of the most successful FCS teams in the Northeast, in terms of both wins and attendance (ok... so maybe not wins this year at 5-6, but we're talking historically), and we have alumni who are always dying to cut football in hopes that the extra funding will make basketball a power house. I'm willing to bet alumni who want to cut football are more numerous at the other northern CAA schools, and I wonder if Northeastern cutting it is the first of many dominoes.

Case in point, a UMass beat writer named Matt Vautour posted the following article recently about copying something BC and Notre Dame do pretty successfully. Everyone knows about the football game the two play, but they also play a hockey game the night before in the same school the football game will take place, and the attendance is boosted greatly at hockey since all the football fans are there anyway. Long story short, the writer suggested Hockey East and CAA football did the same thing in hopes of increasing attendance for both (Note to Hockey East and CAA, I'm waiting for something like this before I go all the way up to Orono. Just saying.). I posted this on a college hockey board I frequent, and the responses from Northeastern fans was "we hate our team, they're an embarrassment, cut them." The response from Maine and UNH fans was "since when have we had a football team?"

Will Maine and New Hampshire keep football if no one cares about it? What about Rhode Island? Hofstra? If these teams all get rid of it, who is there left for UMass to play?

It might be time to seriously consider making the jump to the MAC/Sunbelt/CUSA/Whatever FBS conference will take us. Yeah, it's pretty dumb playing for TheBigFootballBlog.com Bowl (no offense to that excellent web page), but I'd rather be playing football in a meaningless bowl game (or trying to get to a meaningless bowl game) than not playing football at all. Just saying.

As a side note, I'm upset with Northeastern. When I was at UMass, the football conference was called the Atlantic 10, which is the conference UMass plays in for all sports. Rhode Island and Richmond were the only other A-10 teams in the conference (compared to 3 America East teams, 5 CAA teams and 1 Big East team), so it didn't really make sense, but I was happy with it. Then Northeastern switched from America East in all sports to CAA in all sports. That gave the CAA 6 football teams (NU, Delaware, JMU, Townson, William & Mary, and Hofstra) enough to make it's own league. Immediately, the CAA teams left the Atlantic 10 conference and formed their own conference. They then robbed the A10 further, luring Richmond away. This killed the A10, as you need 6 members. Thankfully, the CAA invited the rest of the A-10 into the conference, and without much of a choice, all accepted.

So, why does it matter? A rose by any other name will still have thorns, right? WRONG. The CAA is a Virginian based conference (for the most part). By CAA rules (EDITED BASED ON jackman's comments), full CAA members get in the football conference automatically until 2017. Old Dominion, in Virginia, took advantage of this and started up a program and will join the South in '11. Not a big deal. Georgia State (guess where that is), starts up a program in 2010 and will also take advantage of this, will join the North in '12. Big deal.

Why put Georgia State in the North? Well, because it is an expensive plane trip for all of us in the conference. The Southern teams don't want to take a plane to Georgia every other year. As they have the voting rights (the CAA voted to let Georgia Southern in as a full time member, the football only affiliates had no say), they're sticking us with the team they voted to accept. I think it's revenge for the Civil War or something.

It's Northeastern's fault, and they're bailing on us without having to pay for them at all. Northeastern University is officially dead to me.

Patriots @ Colts Sunday, November 15, 2009

Any other coach in the NFL would be justifiably fired for losing that game. It's now officially the worst coaching job I've ever seen. Even though to me it looked like Faulk caught the ball past the first down mark, it's still terrible, especially knowing you couldn't challenge cause you ran out of timeouts. I just watched Belichick's post game press conference. He said he was trying to win the game. That's pretty much all I want to say right now about the game.

Larry Johnson to Green Bay makes the most sense. Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The Houston Texans, who made more sense than anyone else for Larry Johnson, have stated they will not sign him. On Dan Patrick's show yesterday, Larry said he doesn't get to choose where he goes, but someone with at least a .500 record makes sense. After all, Larry's team problems had a lot to do with the Chiefs losing every week, much like Randy Moss with past teams. And only a strong organization can take in Larry considering his actions towards women and his homophobic slurs.

Then again, if your team is doing well, why bring in a distraction like Larry Johnson? It only makes sense if you're in serious need of a running back. That's why the Texans made the most sense, since they seem to have little confidence in Slaton and Moats. (Man I'm glad Slaton slipped through my fingers in my fantasy draft this past August.)

That's why I'm wondering why the Steelers' name has been thrown around. They have quality running backs. Even if Parker stinks, they're not going to cut him midseason and Mendenhall and Moore are running and blocking with the best of them. I wonder why the Packers or Giants haven't been mentioned. Both teams are contending but are a little desperate right now, and, in my opinion, either one could use another back. I suppose you could put the Giants in the "quality organization" category that might not be seen signing a character like Johnson. (Besides, I doubt he could maneuver the media there.)

So why not Green Bay? Grant is good but has no one with credibility behind them, and the Packers could certainly use a spark. The Giants could use a spark too, and are on a bye week.

On further review, Wallace outplaying Harvin Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Percy Harvin, Minnesota Rookie WR, 1st round pick:
28 receptions, 369 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 fumble, 39 yards rushing, 6 plays of 20 yards or more

Mike Wallace, Pittsburgh Steelers WR, 3rd round pick:
25 receptions, 437 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 fumbles, 43 yards rushing, NINE plays of 20 yards or more, Sunday evening news show personalities with same name: 1

Mike Wallace is the current Rookie of the Year, although you'll hear almost no national media taking notice. Wallace isn't even a starter and he's outplaying Harvin.

Steelers-Broncos Review: Defense shines without starters

The Steelers pounded the Broncos 28-10, and the winning margin would have been wider if not for a couple stupid turnovers when the Steelers were rolling.

Ryan Clark, Lawrence Timmons, Travis Kirschke, and Aaron Smith (IR) were out for the Steelers but the defense didn't miss a beat. Last time we lost DE Aaron Smith to IR in 2007, the defense crumbled. I've been impressed this year, and that's without Ziggy Hood getting much playing time. Nick Eason sured up the DL. The average age of our defensive line is 32, and features guys that have had unremarkable careers. Tomlin, LeBeau and John Mitchell have done incredible jobs there.

The linebackers have come on strong the past couple weeks. I would like to have Timmons healthy but Keyaron Fox is proving he deserves a starting spot too. It's a great problem to have. Harrison was steady as always and LaMarr Woodley is finally waking up from his first half slumber. I'm not sure what Woodley's problem has been. Maybe he had some life-problems that disrupted his play emotionally. He was much better last night. The tackling by everyone on defense was almost textbook perfect.

And of course Tyrone Carter played great in Ryan Clark's absense. We'll be hearing lots from the media this week about what a great "replacement" Clark was, but the national media doesn't realize that Tyrone Carter spends a lot of time on the field even when Clark and Polamalu are both healthy. He's a steady veteran, and Clark's position is obviously more replaceable than Troy's. Good thing since Clark is a free agent after the season. But expect Ryan Mundy, not Carter, to take over starting duties in 2010.

Roethlisberger and Ward continued their dominance, Rashard Mendenhall has (thankfully) proved me wrong, Santonio had a great game and Mike Wallace would garner rookie of the year consideration if Percy Harvin wasn't tearing it up in Minnesota. But the story of the offense has been the offensive line. These guys are so improved from last year. They are now a strength and a component of the team that can be relied on. Max Starks deserves to start in the pro bowl at left tackle.

The special teams have regressed to 2007 quality, but overall the Steelers are playing great football right now and look better than the 2008 Steelers who dominated on defense but were often impotent on offense. A lot of that has to do with Mendenhall, who still has room to improve but has effectively ended Willie Parker's career.

No time to rest, though, as the Steelers face the division-leading Cincinnati Bengals in five days. I have confidence that the Steelers are the better team but they need to play their best football to make sure they don't give Palmer and his troops a chance at the end like last time around. It's the most important game of the season by far.

Hats off to Brandon Marshall, who cannot be contained. The rest of the Broncos did not impress. The defense looked good in the first half and fell apart. Worst of all, in post-game quotes the Broncos sound like they're merely conceding that the Steelers are a great team and are not pointing the finger at themselves and the ways they need to improve to be true contenders. It looks to me like the true AFC contenders are the big three (NE, IND, PIT) plus the Steelers' little brothers in the AFC North (CIN, BAL).

Belichick: 10 Teams Get It, 22 Don't Friday, November 6, 2009

Jason Cole of Yahoo Sports interviewed Patriots Coach Bill Belichick on everything football.

The whole interview is really interesting, coming from a guy who seems to be interested in nothing BUT football. My favorite part was the end, where Belichick talked about Jimmy Johnson's theory on what it takes to win in the NFL:

“You’re really only competing with about 10 teams a year. If you just say out of the way, the other 20 teams will screw it up themselves. Whether it’s ownership or personnel or coaching or some combination of factors.” Ego, internal struggle, something will happen to two-thirds of the teams, that was Jimmy’s theory. That leaves you with about 10 teams that you’re going to have to really battle with. Those teams have it together. They’re going to make good decisions and if you play bad football, they’re going to take advantage of it. They’re going to find some undrafted guy or some middle-round pick or some veteran free agent who is going to spark their team. Pittsburgh is always going to be there. Indianapolis is always going to be there. They may not win it, but they’ll be there. You’re going to have to beat them. Philadelphia is going to be there. Yeah, [quarterback Donovan] McNabb might get hurt one year and they might go 7-9, but they’re going to be there. You’re still battling them on every front."

I really like the theory, and perhaps more than any other sport, in the NFL, there are organizations who get it, and organizations who don't. Here's my list of the 10 teams who get it, in order: New England, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York Giants, Tennessee, Denver, Miami (under Parcells)... Wow, that's it. I could only find nine, and the last two are a stretch.

I suppose if Cowher, Holmgren, Gruden, or Shanahan return next year, we could see more teams who know what they're doing.

UMass Recap Sunday, November 1, 2009

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.

When I last showed up, UMass was in controll of its own destiny, having just given the Wildcats their first conference loss and were about to travel to Richmond to (hopefully) give them their first loss. It didn't quite work out that way. I only listened to the first quarter, but I'm told the defense played great, but the offense played terribly. Havens got benched in favor of red shirt senior Scott Woodward as a result of throwing too many interceptions and UMass lost 30-something to 12. There was talk about starting Woodward yesterday on umasshoops.com, but Coach Morris stuck with his guy.

Yesterday, the game was on TV, which was great since it's in Orono, Maine which I've never been to. Why? Because I'm told it takes like 6 hours to get there. I'm waiting for the Hockey Team and Football team to both be there in the same weekend. Then I figure I could get a hotel and make the trip worth my while.

Anyway, the defense played ok, the offense played terrible again. Havens was benched again at halftime after throwing 1 pick and losing a fumble. Woodward didn't play too much better, throwing 3 picks (though two of those were in the last couple of minutes on fourth downs where he was just trying to avoid a sack and keep UMass playoff hopes alive). Maine beat UMass 19-9. The only bright spot was UMass picked off a 2pt conversion and returned it for 2pts of its own.

UMass is now 4-4 overall and 2-3 in the CAA. While I suppose it is possible to make the playoffs at 7-4 (I think UNH was a 7-4 playoff team a couple of years ago), it's highly unlikely. Especially cause the Football team hasn't won a road game all year. The one quality win is against UNH. As JMU stinks this year (though they just beat Delaware yesterday to get their first conference win), there aren't any quality opponents left. I just don't think the resume is good enough for the post season.

UMass clearly has an issue at quarterback. As much as I like him, Havens has thrown 14 interception to 8 touch downs. That's not getting it done. It doesn't really matter what Woodward does, as he's gone next year, but he has 5 interceptions to 2 touchdowns. The other quarterbacks on the bench haven't played yet.

I hate to say it, but it's time to look ahead to next year. Is Havens the quarterback of the future (as in, next year)? If so, play him in hopes he learns not to turn the ball over every other possession.

If not, I'd play Octavious Hawkins, a red shirt sophomore UMass has, able to run really well. You'd have to run a more option style offense, or at least put a few option plays in for him. I don't like the option. I find it boring. But I dislike losing more than I dislike the option, and if it gives UMass the best chance to win, I'm all for implementing it. You have to play him to see what you got.

If neither of these two are the solution, UMass does have some freshman I've never heard of on the bench. They could give him a shot. The only other alternative is to recruit a new quarterback, either an FBS transfer or else a freshman out of high school.

In the mean time, no matter who is at quarterback, I think UMass should also focus on running the ball more. Both Tony Nelson and Jon Hernandez are among the conference's leading rushers. Use them. Run the ball down the defense's throats, keep possession of the ball, and rely on your defense (which has been pretty good) to win field position battles.

Northeastern is next week. They stink. UMass should beat them easily.