KU says it's still planning to have the Gridiron Club for 2010

Fresh off the heels of hiring Turner Gill s their new football coach, KU officials say they still expect to have the new high end Gridiron Club built for 2010, despite the fact just $4 million of the $34 million dollars has been raised.  

Who is Big Ten looking to add?

So the Big 10 is finally moving into the 21st century and has figured out they actually need a conference championship game to remain relevant in the final weeks of college football’s regular season.  For that they need to add another team.  They also need to be able to count, but that’s another matter.

Over the weekend word first leaked from Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez that the Big 10 would be looking into adding another school.  Tuesday the conference made it official, putting out a statement to that effect.  So now the guessing game begins.

the last time there was discussion about this, Notre Dame was invited to join but said no and inked a lucrative deal with NBC for themselves.  This time around, most Big Ten coaches have taken a screw you approach to issuing another invitation to the Irish. So where will they go and how might the dominos fall if they do attract a 12th team and break into two divisions like the Big 12?

There have been rumors for years that the Big Ten would like to have Missouri in their conference a rumor usually floated by Missouri and Tiger fans like to state that they’re educational philosophy is more in line with Big Ten schools.  That’s all well and good, but this is about money, not education.  College sports moved past that a long time ago.

A more likely scenario is that the Big Ten looks east towards West Virginia or Pitt.  Bringing in the Mountaineers would bring in a natural border rival for Ohio State and they have the football and basketball programs to compete.

Same goes for Pitt.  Asking the Panthers to join further secures the Pittsburgh television market and surrounding areas of Philly and New York, brings in a football and basketball power and a natural rival for Penn State.

Don’t be surprised if they also take a look at Syracuse or Rutgers.  This is all about TV markets and producing revenue, remember.  Missouri can bring St. Louis, but that pales in comparison to the northeast.

What if Missouri went to the Big Ten?  Where would the Big 12 turn?  Look no further than TCU.  They now have a powerhouse football team, they’ve been good on and off in basketball and they would further secure the Dallas-Ft. Worth market.  They’d  be made to play in the north division, but would jump at the offer.

If Pitt or West Virginia left the Big East, they’d probably go after Memphis or maybe try and lure Boston College back from the ACC.  It all becomes a shootout at the OK Corral. This is all conjecture at this point in time, but the picture will get clearer in the next year to 18 months.

Super Bowl picks? San Diego and Minnesota

With three weeks remaining in the regular season, the carcasses of Super Bowl hopefuls are already littering the sidelines.  The defending champion Pittsburgh Steelers have watched their chances disappear  and with their performance Sunday against San Francisco, Arizona doesn’t look like they’ve got another magical run in them.

The same can be said for the Baltimore Ravens, the team a good majority of the experts felt were ready to take that next step.  The problem is that next step was backward in 2009.

So who really are the favorites to win it all as we sit here today talking about it?  Well as much as I admire the job that Jim Caldwell has done taking over for Tony Dungy and leading the Colts to a 13-0 record, I don’t think they’re the team to beat in the AFC.  Too many flaws on the defensive side of the ball and too much youth surrounding Payton Manning when it comes down to making the plays when it counts in the playoffs.

Throw in the fact that the weight of being undefeated will keep the pressure on them as the regular season winds down.  No, the team to beat is San Diego.  The Chargers have it working this year and the only thing that can get in their way is a failure to be able to run the ball in critical junctures of a game.  They aren’t the running team they once were, they rely on Phillip Rivers and his receiving corps, but Ladainian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles must be able to run when necessary for the Chargers and Norv Turner to reach Miami.

In the NFC all signs would seem to point to New Orleans.  Drew Brees is having another spectacular season, the offense is nearly unstoppable at 35 points per game and the Saints have a defense most everyone else in the NFC would be thrilled to have.  But there’s that undefeated monkey on their back as well.  In the last two weeks they’ve survived by the skin of their teeth, so a loss appears to be coming and how they react to that may determine how they play in the playoffs, They need that home field advantage though and it looks like they’ll get it.

Philadelphia has proven time and time again they can make it happen in playoff time.   Despite the fact they destroyed the Giants last week, they won’t have home field advantage to help them when it counts

Minnesota and Brett Favre are having a magical season as well and with Adrian Peterson to carry the rock, they can survive indoors and out.  With a defense led by sack man Jared Allen, as long as coach Brad Childress remembers to run football and just have Favre lead and throw when necessary and not all the time, the Vikings should win the NFC.  Favre can take them to the Super Bowl promise land, but Minnesota doesn’t want to force him to win games unless they have too. 

This will be a running week to week commentary the rest of the way, so my picks could change.  Who do you think will make it?

Have Chiefs fans already blacked out the Browns game in their minds?

After three consecutive ugly losses, the Chiefs get some good news this week with the return of Dwayne Bowe to the roster.  Bowe has been missing in action the past four weeks thanks to an NFL mandated suspension for use of an illegal substance.

His absence has been felt.  Just when he was finally playing at his best this season he disappeared as a part of the Chiefs offense, which he’d become a major part of.  In the meantime, Jamaal Charles has stepped up and taken on a load from the running back spot, but no one has done anything to help Matt Cassel as far as receiving goes.

The Chiefs continue to lead the league in dropped balls and the passing game in general is a mess.  It’s unlikely that the return of Bowe will dramatically change that.  Coach Todd Haley isn’t even certain what type of player he’ll have back this week against the Browns and how much he’ll be able to do after a month’s absence although Haley says he looks like he kept himself in good shape.

As bad as the Chiefs passing attack has been, Haley doesn’t really have the option to go more to a ground based attack, despite Charles fine play.  The second year player from Texas has taken a beating.  Last week he touched the ball 27 times and accounted for 181 yards, that’s more than Haley wants him to have because he knows Charles can’t take the pounding week in and week out.

The problem is there’s no one else to help take some of the rushing burden off of Charles shoulders despite the teams ability to move the ball on the ground.  Therefore it’s to the air, where as Woody Hayes once said, “Three things can happen when you pass and two of them ain’t good.” 

Make that three of them when you consider the Chiefs have allowed 44 sacks this season.  Interceptions and dropped passes have plagued the Chiefs and the failure to produce touchdowns even when the offense has moved the ball effectively is particularly frustrating to Haley and the team. 

The Browns come to town Sunday and it would appear this will be the first game blacked out in KC since 1990.  Who can blame the fans?  As bad as the Chiefs offense has been this season, the Browns is worst.  Doesn’t this sound like a fun game?  Well maybe it ends up a 38-37 shootout like Cleveland and Detroit  a few weeks back. One can only hope. 

Gill will change the culture at KU, but can he win?

The Turner Gill era began in ernest yesterday as the former Nebraska football star was named head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks.

While there’s question on some fronts about his 20-30 record at Buffalo, his rebuilding challenge with the Bulls was certainly as great or greater than the one Mark Mangino faced when he arrived at Kansas 8 years ago.  Mangino’s first four years concluded with a 19-29 mark and he didn’t win a conference title like Gill did.

There’s no question that Athletic Director Lew Perkins chose a coach who would be a dramatic contrast to Mangino when it comes to personality and coaching style.  Gill is a self described player’s coach, but where I think Kansas will see it’s greatest change will be inside the day to day operations of the athletic department.

Where Mangino was known for his rough, intimidating style even in the office, I think we’re going to quickly hear a great deal about the change of culture and the lack of tension in the halls of the football facilities. 

Gill has brought in veteran coordinators with head coaching experience in Carl Torbush and Chuck Long.  He’s set his priorities on recruiting and recruiting more.  He broached the subject of whether he looked at KU as a stepping stone to a football dynasty, by saying emphatically no, he wanted to build a football dynasty at KU.  Jayhawk fans should feel good about that.

Might he leave if Bo Pelini implodes and Nebraska comes calling in two or three years?  Sure.  But how many Kansas fans thought Jim Harbaugh would stay for a decade if he came?  Same goes for Tommy Tuberville or Skip Holtz.  You never know.

Gill has a challenge on his hands in Lawrence, but the foundation is set.  Nebraska AD Tom Osborne, Gill’s college coach and mentor, says the 47 year old has never been motivated by the same things most people are, money and fame.  He just lives in the moment and works to make the situation he’s in the best it can possibly be.  Could Kansas fans ask for more than that?

Ingram not my pick, but a deserving Heisman winner

I said that last week’s Heisman watch would be my final story of the year on it since the award was handed out Saturday night, but I decided I’d at least offer my thoughts on the final vote.

Sophomore running back Mark Ingram won the Hesiman in the closest vote ever over fellow running back Toby Gerhart with Colt McCoy finishing third and Ndamukong Suh ending up fourth.

I don’t have any real argument with Ingram getting the trophy, as I predicted last week, the vote would be very very close.  Ingram certainly did a fine job when his name was announced to regain his composure after the emotion of it all and gain the where-with-all to thank everyone in the Crimson Tide nation for their help in getting him there.

He remembered everyone’s name from the trainers and strength coordinators to the school president.  Not bad for a 20 year old sophomore speaking on national television. In winning, he becomes the third straight sophomore and first ever winner from Alabama.  

His story itself is one of challenges.  On the night of his greatest achievement, his father, Mark Sr., a former NFL star was sitting just five miles away in a federal prison, convicted of money laundering and bank fraud.  He’s a deserving young man who will hopefully do great things in the future.

For Gerhart, who finished 2nd, it was a case of not being well enough known early and playing for a west coast team.  Despite his spectacular numbers that were better than Ingram’s, he narrowly lost the voting in the east and the Mid-Atlantic states from voters that probably never saw him play.  That was the difference.

McCoy was hurt by the split in voting with Suh in the midwest and western regions and of course to a certain extent by fifth place finisher Tim Tebow.  Colt will go down in my book as the greatest college quarterback never to have won the Heisman.  If there was a career award, it would be his.  In what was actually his worst year in the past three seasons statistically, he still finished a close third and has a chance to win an national title and go undefeated.

Suh was a longshot to begin with.  As we know, defenders don’t win the Heisman, but in a year when there was no clear cut offensive favorite, Suh recorded the most votes ever for a fourth place finisher.

I have no quarrel with the outcome I felt any of the top four would have been deserving and they all have my respect for their performances on the field this year.

Offense sputters again in loss to the Bills

A lot of football fans may have been wishing this game had been blacked out after all.  Certainly most who had tickets didn’t show for this messy affair, a 16-10 loss to Buffalo.

KC couldn’t take advantage of early turnovers by the Bills. A fumble forced by Mike Vrabel on a sack of QB Ryan Fitzpatrick midway thru the first period gave KC the ball on the Bills nine.  Three plays later they faced a fourth down from the one, but Matt Cassell was dumped for an 7 yard loss trying a naked bootleg. 

The Bills then went 93 yards keyed by a Marshawn Lynch 47 yard run and 9 yard TD reception Terrel Owens for a 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. 

A 13 play drive by the ended with a chip shot field goal by Ryan Succop. 

Brandon Carr then stripped Shawn Nelson and recovered at the Bills 49 but KC couldn’t capitalize as Cassel failed to connect with an open Mark Bradley in the end zone.  KC had 30 first half plays in Bills territory and just three points to show for it.

Ryan Lindell hit 41 yard FG with 1:12 to go to make it 10-3 Bills.  

Just when Cassel looked to be playing better he made a poor decision to not throw it away while under pressure and was intercepted at the KC 25, but Brandon Flowers responded with his own interception of Fitzpatrick in the KC end zone to snuff out  potential score.

After a Bills field goal to make it 13-3, Jamaal Charles burst 76 yards up the middle for the Chiefs longest run of the year with 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and it was 13-10.

A critical turnover by the Chiefs came when Cassel was picked on a deflection by Paul Posluszny and returned it to the KC 35. The Bills converted it to another field goal and a 16-10 lead midway through the fourth Q.  

With just over two minutes to go on third and 10 at the Buffalo 22, Cassel hit a wide open Chris Chambers at the three but he dropped the ball.  Can't anybody catch a freakin' ball?

On fourth down Jairus Byrd picked off his league leading 9th pass of the year on a deflection, Cassel’s third pick of the half. A last second Chiefs attempt in the end zone ended in Cassel’s fourth interception.

Jamaal Charles rushed for 143 yards on 20 carries, Cassel was 26 of 43 for 224 and 4 picks. Glenn Dorsey left game with an apparent knee injury and did not return.

So after two straight wins, it’s three straight losses with Cleveland coming to KC for the final home game of the year.  Thank God.