See Ya Charlie!! but who's next?? and is it too much to ask T.O. to attempt a block??

Hello all,

To start this week I want to give big ups to my man Cortland Finnegan for locking T.O. down in the Titans 41-17 beatdown of the Bills this weekend. I actually took the 2.5 hour trek up I-65 (yes, 2.5 hrs- nice work JS) to Nashville and got to watch Cortland battle T.O. for most the day in person. We got to see a little bit of everything: lock down man to man D, T.O. finding a couple of holes in the zone to get some catches (3 for 81 yards on the day), trash talk after almost every play, and T.O. absolutely refusing to run block or run full speed if he wasn't the primary route on a play. Having never seen T.O. play in person before, I was amazed by this part of his game. We watched the DB come from his side to stop the run countless times throughout the day; I mean not only did he not consider making contact on a block but didn't even move enough to get between the man checking him and the ball to at least alter the defenders path. It's a tribute to how great Cortland was to rattle T.O. to the point where T.O. was scared to block him on runs.... I've always thought T.O. was a super competitive guy who didn't know how to control his emotions on the sideline; but, after watching the game Sunday, I think he is just a numbers guy who would rather have a big game and lose than have low numbers and win- because winners throw blocks (which is why Hines Ward has 2 rings and T.O. has none!). Overall, good win for the Titans and great game by Cortland....

So, what do Charlie Weis, Bob Davie and Ty Willingham have in common?? The same winning percentage (.583) as the head coach of Notre Dame... Davie and Willingham were fired; but, so far Weis has kept his job when his record compared to the other two is actually way worse. If you look at Weis' tenure in South Bend, his first two years (9-3 and 10-3) were clearly his best; and as everyone knows, his success during these two seasons clearly rests on the talent handed to him by Willingham's stellar recruiting- in the 10-3 2006 (His best season by far!!!!) Sugar Bowl season, he had 8 pre-season all-americans (Brady Quinn , Jeff Samardzija, Darius Walker , Tom Zbikowski, Ryan Harris, Victor Abiamiri and John Sullivan)- NONE of which were his recruits. Even this time underachieved, ranked #3 in the pre-season polls, the only ranked team they beat was #19 Penn State and they were absolutely blown out it all 3 of their other games against ranked teams (47-21 at home to #15 Michigan, 44-21 at USC- to a team who just lost Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart, and 41-14 in the Sugar Bowl against LSU- which brings up the question why the hell did they get a Sugar Bowl Bid???). So, if you look at his record without the 1st 2 years because none of the players were his, he stands at 16-19 (seriously... and he is still there???)!!  His teams have suffered some humiliating losses over this stretch as well- in 2007, a Weis coached ND squad lost to Navy for the first time in 43 years (yes, 43 years, and the game was in South Bend!), and again in 2009- now I'm not knocking Navy because I respect the hell out of every one of those guys, but ND has a such a crazy recruiting advantage over them (average difference up front is 46 lbs) that this game shouldn't be close and losing should be out of the question. In 2008, Weis lost at home on senior day to an 8-loss Syracuse team with a lame duck head coach. His record against winning teams (not even ranked but just winning) is a brutal 8-19, Willingham's was 12-15, Davie's was 18-22. Against teams with a losing record: Weis is 19-2 and just to compare it to a good coach-  Lou Holtz's was 47-1, Ty Willingham was 9-1- which brings up another point- Weis has the same winning percentage as Ty Willingham despite playing a much easier schedule (twice as many games against losing teams!!!)... Also, even though Weis was brought in under the "offensive genius lable" because of his time as the Patriots coordinator, he has been shut out 3 times so far at Notre Dame (with 2 Heisman candidate QBs I might add), which is the same total of shutouts they had from 1965-2001!!! Right now they are sitting at 6-4 with two losable games left (they have a chance against UCONN but are going to get steamrolled by Stanford) and despite being picked by many people to go to a BCS bowl and by at least one moron (who works for ESPN) to win the national championship, they'll probably finish at 7-6 with a minor bowl appearance and will lose their QB to the NFL draft after the season. So, why is Weis still at ND?? Because they might not be able to afford to fire him. As you may remmeber, 7-games into his ND career and after a 34-31 LOSS (yes, you read this right, a loss) to USC (remmember the game when Reggie Bush pushed Leinart over the goal-line on the last second sneak play- and he still has never beaten USC by the way), he was given a 10-year 30+ million dollar contract extension of which he still has 6 years at over 3 mil per year left... Notre Dame is still paying Ty Willingham about $700k a year, so if you combine that with the 1.5-2 mil per year Chuck would probably get and the 2-3 mil per year it would take to get a top flight coach- that is getting pretty expensive (yes, even for Notre Dame). But, they certainly can't afford to keep him either...

So who is going to replace him?? I've heard of several names. One being former super bowl winning coach Jon Gruden, who like Weis has no college experience but unlike Weis was a very successful HEAD coach in the NFL and is known as a great motivator. However, Gruden agreed to a contract extension as an analyst with ESPN yesterday, the timing of which seems to cast doubt on his level of interest. But, I'd love to see "Chucky" (I mean look at that picture) at ND and watch him go crazy on NBC. Next is Urban Meyer- I'm not even going to address this one- there is no chance he is going to leave the perfect set-up he has at UF. Chris Peterson has a great record (32-3) at Boise State, is known as a great recruiter and his players love him- but he not known on the national stage and if Notre Dame is willing to eat over 20 mil to fire Weis, I couldn't see them not going after a bigger name... Could that be Brian Kelly who has led Cincinnati to the national spotlight and has a 147-54 career record??

Charlie Weis' futility as a head coach, combined with the flops of Eric Mangini and Romeo Crennel brings up another point- how good is Bill Belichick?? and how much of a role do his assistants actually have? I know many people (including myself) are questioning his move to go for it on Sunday night, but the Pats have constantly contended every year (even last year without Tom Brady) for the past decade which is amazing in a sport with a salary cap...

Sir Elton John and Billy Joel have postponed their tour once again due to a medical illness...

Jay-Z has cancelled the remaining dates of his 2009 tour due to "scheduling conflicts". He was supposed to appear in Lubbock and Albuquerque before the finale in Austin, TX. He plans on expanding his 2010 tour... Wow....

Kanye returned to the stage last night in London which marked his first high-profile appearance since the VMA disaster....

The SEC championship with a BCS title game berth on the line will match up Alabama with Florida on December 5th, plenty of good seats availible...

As always, please post any shows, events or news you know of. And be sure to check out the "near you" tab on our homepage, www.roosterfly.com for a list of concerts, sporting events and shows in your area!

Till next time,

MN

Safin wants agassi to give titles back... and aerosmith without Steven Tyler????

Hello all,

To start this week, I learned that Steven Tyler has left Aerosmith and even more amazingly the band actually thinks they can go on without him after reading this in Rolling Stone. Apparently their break up is messy- their has been tension it the band since their summer tour disaster when Tyler fell and broke his shoulder on stage. During their last several stops (which Tyler only played in because of contractual obligations) he traveled separately, refused to rehearse and left November 1st after their concert in Abu Dhabi without talking to anyone in the band planning on launching a new solo "Brand Tyler". Now, the band has split before- in 1979 and 1981 guitatists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford left the band and were replaced (but the band was completely unproductive during this time), but returned in 1983. To me, this is very different. Aerosmith without Steven Tyler would be like the Rolling Stones without Mick Jagger (which no one would want to see!)- his voice is the heart and soul of the band (combined with other things of course) and very distinct. Joe Perry has compared this to Led Zeppelin continuing after the tragic loss of John Bohnam. However, Bonham was the drummer, not the lead singer. Their have been some bands that have successfully endured a lead singer change (Pink Floyd twice, Alice in Chains, Deep Purple, Styx, Van Halen, Genesis, AC/DC) but there also have been lots that haven't- The Doors actually released 2 albums and toured following Jim Morrison's death (but neither album has even been re-released on CD and getting air play is completely out of the question if that tells you anything about their success....). Given their success (best-selling American hard rock band of all time with more than 150 million albums worldwide, hold the record for the most gold and multi-platinum albums by an American group, 21 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, nine #1 Mainstream Rock hits, four Grammy Awards, and ten MTV Video Music Awards) I have a hard time believing they will stay spilt- but if they do- please follow the path of the Foo Fighters (formed by former Nirvana members after Cobain's death) instead of Journey... Besides is anyone else sick of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker Band that tour around with no original members??

So, I was kinda suprised by the strong reaction of Marat Safin who angrily asserted that Andre Agassi should forfeit his career titles and prize money after confessing he used crystal meth during his early playing days. Agassi tested positive for crystal meth is 1997 and avoided a 3 month suspension by duping the ATP into believing his story that he accidently drank one of his assistant's spiked colas. While I find the ATP's acceptance of his BS story and willingness to sweep it under the rug disgusting, I have to say I think Safin is a moron who is bitter Agassi's career was far better than his (Agassi won 8 grand slams including the career grand slam and over $31 mil in prize money which is 3rd all time; Safin won 2 grand slams) even though Safan was a very good player and ranked #1 in the world at one point. My reasoning is this, while taking crystal meth is a big deal the fact of the matter is it is not a performance enhancing drug (and it does a hell of a lot of harm) like Barry Bonds took. Agassi was known as an arrogant, wild, brat during his early playing days but matured into a different person as he aged.  There are plenty of professional athletes that have been linked to recreational drug use, none more decorated that Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, who justified his pot use as a way to control his migraine headaches (and I have never heard someone say that Kareem needs to return his 6 NBA championship and 3 NCAA championship rings!).What about the Pittsburg drug trials and the cocaine use that plagues baseball in the 1980s (Tim Rains admittied to keeping a GRAM of cocaine in his back pocket during games!!!)? Dave Parker was one of the players suspended for the season, only to have it dropped when he agreed to do community service, and believe it or not he got to keep his 2 world series rings and 1978 NL MVP award. So, by following this precedent- Agassi has done more than enough to clear his name by now and show he has changed since his earlier days. Roy Johnson thinks Agassi is the most charitable athlete of this generation, Agassi has founded a K-12 school for disadvantaged youth which has a 100% college acceptance rate, raised over $60 million for disadvantaged youth through his foundation, founded the Cottage for Medically Fragile Children, dounded Athletes for Hope and has been awarded the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award- I would say that qualifies as community service. Let's blame the ATP too for this- if they bought Agassi's excuse so easily, how many other players could have been taking other drugs and getting away with it?? And what's equally disturbing is that the ATP recently dropped a cocaine related suspension of Richard Gasquet, who won his argument that his positive test was due to kissing a woman in a nightclub in Miami. Apparently, in this case, history repeats itself when it comes to the ATPs ability to enforce its drug related policies. And I got to give props to Gasquet for his creativity in coming up with his excuse...

Jay-Z will be in Nashville, TN on Friday (Nov 13) performing at Vandy....

Blues legend B.B. King has announced the whole schedule for his 2009/2010 tour. B.B. is 84 years old this year and still going strong, amazing...

In NFL action, the Pats and the Colts renew their rivalry on Sunday with the Colts undefeated record on the line. These teams have had so many memorable regular season and playoff games over the past few years (including my favorite: the 21-6 New England playoff win when the fans started a "Cut than meat" chant that lasted the entire 4th quarter in response to Peyton's mastercard commercial) and it is always a treat to watch the 2 best QBs in the game square off...

Alabama and Florida both try to stay focused on their current opponents with the SEC championship looming... Should be a great game with a national championship berth on the line, be sure to check out us for tickets if you are going...

As always be sure to post any good upcoming shows and events you know of, and be sure to check out the "Near You" Tab on our homepage, http://www.roosterfly.com/, for tickets to upcoming events in your area.

Till next time,

MN

Les Miles outcoached again, LSU gets dominated in the 4th quarter by SEC west champ Alabama...

Hello all,

First two important stats: 452-243 and 142-9.

Those are the total yardages for the game and the 4th quarter in the Alabama-LSU game yesterday. Yes- LSU mustered just 9 total yards in the 4th quarter while Alabama had 142 and oustscored them 14-0 to set up a rematch of last year's SEC title game against the Gators. My final thoughts after watching the game yesterday were: 1) Alabama is a much much better, deeper, more prepared and more in shape team; and 2) Les Miles is a beyone horrible in-game coach and I can see why LSU fans are still so distraught about Saban's arrival to the capstone- because Saban dominated his former team. Les did not have a good game yesterday and had several bad decisions that really hurt the Tigers.  For one, I strongly strongly disagreed with Miles’ decision to go for 2 after Stevan Ridley scored on an 8-yard touchdown run and the 15-10 lead. Listening to the audio of Miles, he initially said “1” then changed to “2, 2” after players and coaches in front of him turned to him saying “2”.  If they kick the extra point, LSU has 16 points, Alabama then wouldn't have gone for 2 on their TD, it would have been 23-16 and LSU down just one score at the end. Miles has alway been a gambler (as all Auburn fans know) but this one cost him. There is no way, in any calculation or on any chart, that they should have gone for 2 here. But Les let the moment get the best of him (isn't it the coaches job to be the voice of reason when everyone is going crazy?? umm... yess but then again this is Les Miles we're talking about....) and made a horrific decision which really hurt his team. LSU also may have had a better chance to come back if they had any timeouts left late in the game but Les burned them all less than 5 minutes into the fourth quarter. Don't get me wrong, every now and then people get confused but having to burn 3 timeouts early in the 2nd half of the biggest game of the season shows general lack of preparation. I've always thought Les Miles is probably the poorest in game coach in the SEC, but has won on having superior talent, which Nick Saban laid the foundation for, in the past. Here's a great list of the 7 worst decisions Les has mad thus far in his stint in Baton Rouge.

How bad was LSU in the fourth quarter yesterday?? I'm pretty sure getting outscored 14-0 and outgained 142-9 pretty much sums it up. Here are LSUs 3 drives in the 4th quarter:

				3 plays	9 yards	Punt
				3 plays	-8 yards	Punt
				5 plays	8 yards	Interception

9 yards- the whole season on the line and all they could come up with was 9 yards... But, to me, the 4th quarter is when coaching is the most evident and clearly Alabama had LSU's defense off balance by establishing the pass first and then pounding the run. LSU's offense on the other hand was 1 dimensional and never a threat which brings up another point: Why was Jarrett Lee in the game?? Didn't CBS sum his reign at the helms best when they played the "pick 6" video when he entered the game?? Jordan Jefferson looked pretty healthy to me on the sidelines so just another interesting move by Coach Miles...

How good was Mark Ingram yesterday in the 2nd half?? He gained 106 of his 144 yards after the half to continue to mount a strong campaign for Heisman Trophy consideration. I was a little confused by his lack of touches in the first half; but he certainly made up for it by being the best player on the field in the 2nd half. I thought Alabama's offensive line pushed LSU around the whole 2nd half and especially in the 4th quarter. At this point in the season, no player in the country has been better or more valuable to their team than Ingram; and, to me, it would be a tragedy if he continues his stellar play and is not given serious Heisman consideration....

As far as the 4th quarter replay call yesterday, I disagree with Anthony Statler, all the e-mails I have gotten and all of the LSU fans that this was another part of the SEC's conspiracy to get Alabama to Atlanta undefeated. As you guys know, I am always looking for a chance to jump on this bandwagon and critisize the refs (see past examples); however, I thought in this case the call was the correct one. HWM and I were watching the game on a 56 inch LCD with TEVO and after looking at the replay about 50 times during a commercial break- we still couldn't tell if he was in bounds or not. The fact of the matter is that it has to be concrete visual evidence to overturn a call- which there wasn't- and if the call on the field had been an interception it would have stayed that way. If the LSU fans are looking for someone to blame- blame CBS for not providing a goal-line based camera that would have looked straight down the sideline and provided an angle we could actually tell if he was in bounds or not. That, to me, is the real issue with this play. Every play is supposed to reviewable but there are plently of times where either technical difficulties or poor camera angles prevent overturns which is BS because each game should have the exact same set of rules. And this is not the first time this has happened nor the biggest stage as all USC fans know (the infamous 3 botched replay calls due to technical issues which cost them the national title vs. texas).. However, I also want to point out the previous play would have never happened had the refs not made one of the worst calls I have ever seen by calling "running into the kicker" instead of "roughing the kicker" on a blantant lack of discipline by LSU.... But really, instead of blaming the refs, blame the defense for allowing Julio Jones to practice for track season by giving him a free 73 yard lane down the field.... Also, Mark Ingram was pretty darn close to the McElroy's pass attempt that was ruled intentional grounding and resulted in a safety.

Speaking of Julio, It was great to see him make such a big play after being missed by McElroy in the 1st half for what would have been a wide open tochdown and make a crucial drop on the 8 yard line to set up the safety on the next play. I guess Saban almost drilling him with his headset woke him up....

One last thought, does LSU need a new conditioning coach? Never have I seen a college football game have to be stopped more because of cramps. The only thing I can think to compare it to is the flopping that occurs every time the Italian National team takes the pitch. I understand that football is a very viscious game and I am in no way disrespecting the need to tend to the people with real injuries; but after watching that game yesterday I think that players should be forced to stay on the sideline for a fixed period of time after they have a cramp (like 5 minutes of clock time or a set number of plays). I strongly disagree with pccoder that the LSU players were faking these cramps (which, by the way, I will once again blame Les Miles' poor coaching for burning all 3 timeouts so early which is fueling these kinds of rumors); but the bottom line is it's not fair to the fans or the teams to have the momentum of the game constantly broken by the same player to have to be stretched out (in the middle of the playing field) with the same cramp every other play...

But one thing for sure- the SEC championship is going to be a heavyweight fight between two great football teams and I can't wait!!!  Check out our site if you are thinking about going!

Till Wednesday,
MN

Can Pedro do it again????

Good afternoon everyone,

Is anyone else as excited as I am about tonite?? So, I hate the Yankees, love Pedro Martinez, respsect the hell out of Andy Pettitte and can't wait to watch these to pitching legends go at it in the Bronx to see if there will be a game 7 tomorrow night. It's hard to know what to expect from Pedro- he looked great against the Dodgers and pretty good for the first 6 innings the other night. He has been solid overall this season posting a record of 5-1 with a 3.63 ERA since the Phillies signed him in mid-July. Pettitte, is one of the greatest and most experienced post-season starters ever. Tonight will be his 40th career post-season start and 13th in the world series; and has won 17 of them- the most in baseball history. However, he is pitching on 3 days rest while Pedro is fully rested. Pettitte hasn't pitched on 3 days rest since 2003 and has a mixed record for his career on 3 days rest. In his postseason career, Pettitte has made five starts on three days' rest: three exceptional (World Series Game 2 in 2003 and Game 5 of both the ALCS and World Series in 1996), one mediocre (1997 ALDS Game 5) and one terrible (2000 ALDS Game 5). He's also made 14 career regular season starts on short rest, going 4-6 with a 4.15 ERA. But he's 37; one can also look at CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett who pitched the last 2 games on 3 days rest- both with a noticable velocity drop. Pedro has also has a mixed result against the Yankees in the playoffs over the years- his  ERA of 4.69 (well more than a run and a half higher than his overall regular season mark of 2.93) in seven appearances against them- but would you wanna bet against the best pitcher of this generation in the biggest game of his career???

I can't wait to see if he has enough magic left to force a game 7 tonight!!!
MN