Gill being interviewed, but Harbaugh is KU's choice

Yeah, I know.  Turner Gill is coming to Lawrence Sunday for an interview for the Kansas football job.  If Gill ended up as head coach, I wouldn’t be shocked and he’d be a fine selection, but he’s not Lew Perkins number one choice.

Interviewing Gill serves two purposes.  First, he’s a solid candidate and could end up being the next KU coach if the first option doesn’t work out.  Second, he fills the minority interview requirement at the same time Kansas tries to strike a deal with top choice Jim Harbaugh.  

If the information I’m hearing from several sources is true, Perkins is trying to work a deal with Harbaugh before Stanford even has the time to make an extension and raise offer.  Kansas will offer more than the Cardinal are willing to pony up since Harbaugh is presently making less than half what Mark Mangino was making.

If Stanford doesn’t announce a new deal with Harbaugh in the next day or two, consider it a sign that he’s coming to Kansas.  Why would he make what many might consider a lateral move to Kansas?  In addition to the money, which would be substantial, he would be coming to a school that has significantly better facilities.

Yes, the Michigan job might open up a year from now and they could come calling, but maybe it doesn’t.  Good coaches know to strike while the iron is hot when it comes to job changes or new contracts and Harbaugh is hot and KU is calling with a lot of cash and an AD who doesn’t want to see his football program fall apart after an investigation and a seven game losing skid.

Harbaugh might pass and KU might end up turning to Gill or Kevin Sumlin or someone else, but Perkins is going to take his best shot at getting a big name this time around and he just might pull it off.    

Sorry Tim, but it's all over

Back to basics for Chiefs against Denver

As the Chiefs prepare to play host to the Denver Broncos tomorrow at Arrowhead Stadium, they face a Denver team that has to keep winning to keep pace with the San Diego Chargers.  

After a pasting at the hands of San Diego last week the Chiefs took a rather large step backward after two consecutive wins.  Their secondary was burned repeatedly and unless they can find a way to get pressure on Bronco quarterback Kyle Orton, they run that risk again this week.  The saving grace for KC is Orton is not very mobile after an ankle injury a few weeks back.

Coach Todd Haley says he’d love to see his team get off to a fast start for once, but more than that, Kansas City must get back to not turning over the football.  Running back Jamaal Charles’ fumble last week opened the floodgates for the Chargers.  And Matt Cassel didn’t play well with constant pressure in his face.  This week he’ll have sack man, Elvis Dumervil, who has 14 on the year, trying to tear his head off.

Charles will be relied on heavily as Kolby Smith was placed on injured reserve for the rest of the season with an ankle injury.  With Dantrell Savage out as well, that leaves the likelihood that fullback Tim Castille might see some time as well as Javarris Williams who's been activated from the practice squad. 

KC has a history of success at home against the Broncos, but they need to play mistake free football and have the defense step up and play like they did against Pittsburgh two weeks ago.

Jayhawks moving quickly to try and hire Harbaugh

The search for KU’s new football coach is heating up quickly.  Multiple sources have told me Stanford’s Jim Harbaugh is Athletic Director Lew Perkins top choice and Perkins is aggressively pursuing a deal.  

Stanford’s football banquet is schedule for Sunday night and the word is that if Stanford doesn’t announce an extension and raise for Harbaugh tomorrow night, the odds are good that he’s on his way to Kansas.

If Harbaugh passes on the Jayhawks, Houston’s Kevin Sumlin is the next most likely choice.  He’s reportedly set to be interviewed tomorrow.  His Cougar team fell to East Carolina in the Conference USA championship game Saturday afternoon 38-32.  

Longhorns will roll in Big 12 title game

Unbeaten Texas and north division champion Nebraska face off Saturday night for the Big 12 Championship.  As game time draws closer prognosticators keep wanting to make this a close game between these two teams.  Personally, I don’t think so.

Yes, the Longhorns showed some vulnerability with their defense against Texas A&M last week, but the Cornhuskers offense doesn’t come close to comparing to the Aggies and Zack Lee is no Jerrod Johnson at quarterback.  

The Huskers want to control the ball with their running game and not turn over the ball, but they don’t have a passing attack to help open up things for the run against Texas and even after getting gashed on the ground for 227 yards, 126 from Johnson, the Longhorns are still ranked number one in the country allowing just 61 yards per game.

Nebraska will need a superhuman performance from the black shirts defense to stay in this one.  Ndamukong Suh will be doing everything in his power to disrupt the line, and pressure Colt McCoy, but McCoy proved last week he can run nearly as well as he can pass and he has just too many weapons to go to.

Special teams tend to play a role in these games as well and Jordan Shipley and Marquise Goodwin are two of the best return men in the country for Texas.  While these championship games sometimes tend to be filled with nerves and mistakes early on helping to keep the score down, In front of a Texas crowd in the Cowboys football palace, the Longhorns will roll by at least 20 in my book. 

If you're a KU fan you may like this picture

Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh in KU gear.

The guessing game begins for the next Jayhawk coach

While everyone will point east to Randy Edsall as the likely candidate to fill the KU head coaching job, in large part due to his connection with KU AD Lew Perkins, there are a lot of ways this could go.

Turner Gill, who has performed miracles in Buffalo of all places, could bring his Big 8 roots to Lawrence.  In 2008 he led the Bulls to their first ever MAC conference title.  This season his team struggled early and finished 5-7.  He’s got a big name in the Big 12  and would be a terrific hire.

Jim Harbaugh has just finished his third year at Stanford and went 8-4.  He has one of the top players in the country in Toby Gerhart and engineered back to back wins over Oregon and USC this season.  His wife’s from Kansas City, if that helps at all.  He’s intense like Mangino, but he’s a big name who would present a different image than Mangino.  But the Michigan job could open next year and they’ll come after him hard.

Kevin Sumlin has made a big name for himself at Houston in just two seasons.  His team is set to play East Carolina in the Conference USA Championship Saturday with a 10-2 record.  The Cougars feature a high powered offense led by the nation’s passing leader, Case Keenum.  He fills the Jayhawks need for recruiting connections in Texas.  Previously, Sumlin was an assistant at Oklahoma and Texas A&M.

Former Kansas great Nolan Cromwell is the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M and has turned that team’s offense around, but he has no head coaching experience and most of his coaching career has been spent in the NFL.

In four seasons at Boise State, Chris Petersen, is 46-4 and his team can go unbeaten for the second time with a win over New Mexico State Saturday.  He’s had six NFL draft picks in the last two years and a memorable upset of Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl in 2006.  He’s the real deal, but the fact his predecessor Dan Hawkins has struggled at Colorado could hurt him.

Then there’s Edsall.  The head coach at UConn was hired by Lew Perkins 11 years ago to lead the Huskies into NCAA Division 1-A play.  They’ve joined the Big East and been to three bowl games.  His team is 6-5 with one game to go this season despite the tragic murder of Jasper Howard a little more than a month ago.  The Huskies also won a huge game at Notre Dame two weeks ago that sealed Charlie Weis’ fate.  He’s also a class act.

Other names are being tossed around as well.  Philip Fulmer, former Tennessee coach, sports the best record at 150-51.  Skip Holtz at East Carolina and Larry Fedora at Southern Miss are other possibles.  

Whoever KU hires, I expect it to be fairly quick.  They’ve got the money and the facilities to lure any of the coaches mentioned.  Something that couldn’t be said when Mangino was hired.

Ode to Mark Mangino-For those who hate to see him go

http://bit.ly/7W5F89

Mangino resigns at KU (what he really did was accepted the buyout offered him)

After eight seasons as head coach, Mark Mangino resigned effective immediately early Thursday evening.  Athletic Director Lew Perkins informed the players and the coaching staff and spoke to the media about the resignation, but wouldn’t address the issue of whether or not Mangino could have remained at the school.

What is clear is that Mangino and the KU Athletic Department reached a conclusion to their negotiations over what sort of buyout the 2007 National Coach of the Year would receive.

Mangino had been under investigation the last two weeks for charges of verbal and physical abuse of players during his tenure as coach.  While no mention was made of the investigation, Perkins made a point of saying that Mangino resigned and was not fired. 

He also went out of his way to praise Mangino. “Mark did a great job.  He did some things that needed to be done and our university and football program is much better today than it was the day he came in here.”

Mangino finishes 50-48 at Kansas with his 2009 team losing its last seven games after a 5-0 start.  The search now begins for a new coach.  Names most frequently mentioned are Randy Edsell at UConn, Turner Gill at Buffalo, Kevin Sumlin at Houston, Jim Harbaugh at Stanford and Nolan Cromwell, offensive coordinator at Texas A&M. 

Like I said, he's lost control of the situation

This is just the beginning. Gotta laugh at this remix jam of Tiger's voice mail.  

There'll be a lot more to come. http://bit.ly/7LRPU0

Tiger in situation he no longer has control over

So, Tiger Woods ran his car into a fire hydrant and tree.  In the scope of life, not much of a big deal.  Unfortunately for the most recognizable sports star in the world the circumstances around the fender bender are the bigger news.

If this had occurred to Tiger while he was headed to the golf course and had been caused by a spilled cup of coffee in his lap, everyone would have forgotten about it in a day as long as he wasn’t injured too seriously.

But this happened as he was leaving his house at 2:30 in the morning on Thanksgiving night going who knows where for who knows what reason.  As my momma always said, nothing good happens when you’re out after midnight.

Just a couple of days before there was a tabloid report of an affair with a New York party girl.  Wife Elin told police she had to break out car windows with a golf club to get him out of the car, a dubious explanation at best.  Although perfectly within his rights, he’s refused to meet with police to talk about it.  His statements released to the media raised more eyebrows than answered questions.

Personally, I could care less if the richest athlete in the world is cheating on his wife and she got mad and wacked his car with a golf club as he was leaving after an argument.  I’m just speculating here, but you’d think given how Tiger closely guards his privacy and controls everything that goes out in public about his personal life, someone in his highly paid entourage would been smart enough to say there’s a better way to handle this.

For once in his life, Woods has no control over the situation.  It’s gone viral.  There are too many loose ends out there.  It’s a story that won’t go away until he helps it go away or he’ll become a Roger Clemens PR disaster.  

There’s the alleged other woman who’s hired a hire profile attorney to help deny everything in the media.  There are the Florida police who’d still like some answers.  There are tabloids willing to pay big money to get someone to talk.  And there are the fans, who won’t stop asking questions until he gives them an answer that satisfies them.

Tiger’s yacht is named Privacy, something he’ll get little of until he decides to come forward with something more than cryptic statements. 

Miscues and turnovers are back and it ain't pretty

After two straight wins, the Chiefs reverted to the form today that has made them one of the worst teams in the NFL over the past three seasons.  Three first half turnovers accounted for 21 points as the Chiefs found themselves down 28-7 at the half on their way toward a 43-14 loss.

Matt Cassel was pressured all afternoon by a San Diego blitz.  He was intercepted when a pass hit a lineman’s helmet, gave up a TD when the ball slipped from his hand while throwing, was called for grounding while in the end zone causing a safety and had two balls snapped over his head for turnovers.  Yeah, it pretty much sucked.  

You have to look hard for the bright spots.  Jamaal Charles had 93 yards rushing and 53 receiving, but his first half fumble was part of what caused an avalanche of mistakes that accounted for a 28 point run by the Chargers.  Chris Chambers had 7 receptions and a score against his old team, but that was it.  The only other thing you can add is the team played hard to the end, but there are no moral victories.

With the defense providing little pressure, Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates repeatedly hit the Chiefs for big gains and two TD’s.  Gates finished with 118 yards on 7 receptions.  Rivers had 317 yards passing.

Ladainian Tomlinson only rushed for 39 yards, but has now passed Marcus Allen and Edgerrin James on the all time NFL rushing charts to move into 10th place.

Today was a step backward, but KC has three straight games at home with Denver, Buffalo and Cleveland and a chance to re-establish the momentum they had. 

Thanksgiving weekend gives Heisman hopefuls a chance to shine

When the Heisman race is tight, Thanksgiving weekend is always a great time to state your case.  A lot of football fans and the media have the opportunity to see your game when they otherwise might not.  Three players stated their cases emphatically and one saw their hopes take a shot over the holiday.

It all began with my choice, Colt McCoy on Thanksgiving night showing the country he’s not only the best passer, but a pretty darn good runner as well.  In addition to throwing for 304 yards and 4 TD’s against arch rival Texas A&M, McCoy rushed for a career high 175 yards, including a 65 yard TD run that left defenders in his wake.  He’s continued to improve as the season has gone on and now his Longhorns get Nebraska in the Big 12 title game.

Alabama’s Mark Ingram was the favorite of a lot of people, but against the 80th ranked rush defense in the country, he managed just 30 yards on 16 carries and was on the sidelines late in the game against Auburn with freshman Trent Richardson in his place.  Not what you’d expect of a Heisman candidate with an undefeated season on the line although it may have been due to a bruised hip.

Tim Tebow said farewell to Gator fans in the swamp by having one of his best days of the season in a win over Florida State.  Tebow threw for three TD’s and ran for two scores with 221 yards in the air and 90 on the ground.  He’ll no doubt be back in New York for the award ceremony.

Stanford’s Toby Gerhart keeps reaching in and trying to grab the trophy from the big three.  He put on a Heisman show in a thrilling come from behind win against Notre Dame.  The senior rushed for 205 yards on 29 carries, added three more TD’s to up his total to 29 to lead the nation and he threw for a score as well.  He ran over, around and through the the Irish defense making a closing statement of his own that he deserves to be considered.  He’s finished the regular season with 1736 yards rushing.

It was a showcase weekend and players stepped up.  My vote today, is McCoy, Gerhart and Tebow in that order.  Next week won’t change it.