Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica
Sports Quote of the Day:
"Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies." ~ Ann Landers, Syndicated Advice Columnist
By Billy Grayson
COMMENTARY | It has become an all too familiar tune for the Chicago Bears this season, as a season marred with injuries to key regulars continued.
All-Pro LB Lance Briggs is expected to miss at least four-six weeks with a small fracture in his shoulder, while starting QB Jay Cutler has a torn groin muscle and will miss a minimum of four weeks. Both injuries were sustained in Sunday's 45-41 loss to the Washington Redskins and, as of Monday afternoon, neither was expected to placed on Injured-Reserve.
The more significant of the two losses appears to be Briggs, as he is the signal-caller on a suddenly inexperienced and underachieving defense. Prior to Briggs' injury, the Bears had already lost DTs Henry Melton and Nate Collins and MLB D.J. Williams for the season and have seen fellow DT Stephen Paea and CB Charles Tillman battle nagging injuries of their own.
A franchise who preached defensive excellence in the past under former head coach Lovie Smith, the Bears now find themselves 25th in the NFL in yards allowed/game at 391. Their 6.2 yards allowed/play ranks third worst, and their 3rd down percentage allowed (44%, meaning 44% of the time a team converts on third down) ranks fifth worst.
Replacing the seven-time Pro-Bowler will not be an easy task, but Blake Costanzo appears to be the man who will be tasked with the job. Costanzo has primarily played special teams since joining Chicago in 2012, but does have an understanding of the scheme after being with the team all of last season.
As for the play-calling duties, expect either rookie MLB Jon Bostic or SLB James Anderson to be the man pressed with that task. Both of whom, by the way, are in their first seasons in Chicago.
As for Cutler, Chicago fans know what life is like when he isn't on the field.
In the 2011 NFC Championship Game against the Green Bay Packers, Cutler suffered a sprained MCL in the first half of that game. The Bears were forced to turn to Todd Collins and, eventually, Caleb Hanie before suffering a devastating 24-14 loss.
The following season, Chicago started the season 7-3 before Cutler fractured his throwing-hand thumb in week 11 against the San Diego Chargers. The loss started a tailspin for the Bears that saw them lose their next five games before salvaging a week 17 victory over the Minnesota Vikings to finish 8-8.
In 2012, Cutler led the Bears to a 7-1 first half entering a showdown with the then 7-1 Houston Texans. In that 13-6 loss to Houston, Cutler suffered a concussion that forced him out of action for the remainder of that game and the following week, a 32-7 drubbing to the San Francisco 49ers.
The Bears finished the regular season 10-6, but missed the playoffs. The results of that season eventually cost Smith his job as head coach.
Clearly, Cutler gives Chicago their best chance to win. His chemistry with the receivers, specifically WR Brandon Marshall, can't be replicated or built between now and their next game (Nov. 4 at the Green Bay).
But anytime you have a guy like the Bears do calling plays in Marc Trestman, you have to think your team has a chance. Expect a much heavier dose of RB Matt Forte and more quick throws to WRs Marshall, Alshon Jeffery, and Earl Bennett and TE Martellus Bennett.
In Cutler's place will be Josh McCown, the journeyman QB who will be given his first chance to be a starting QB since 2011 when he started in place of Cutler in the season finale against the Vikings.
McCown, a 2002 3rd-round pick out of Sam Houston State by the Arizona Cardinals, is an exceptional athlete. He ran a 4.57 40-yard dash and recorded a 38 1/2 vertical at the NFL Combine. In relief of Cutler on Sunday, he completed 14 of 20 passes for 204 yards and one touchdown while showing great scrambling ability.
But he isn't Cutler, the big armed QB who was playing for a new contract this season after GM Phil Emery refused to negotiate one this offseason. In order for Cutler to prove he has what it takes on the big stage to get it done, he'll need McCown, Costanzo, and the rest of the healthy Chicago Bears to keep the season going in the right direction until he and Briggs can return.
Chicago Bears: Jay Cutler's Injury Once Again Shows Flaw in the Team's Quarterback Selection. However, at CS&T/AA, We think McCown can get the job done as a capable backup.
By Brian Davis
Let's be honest here. The Chicago Bears' defense has been responsible for planting seeds of doubt in optimistic Bears fans' heads all season. The most-recent seed was planted via their 45-point, 499-yard nightmare effort against the Washington Redskins, which resulted in a 45-41 Bears loss.
But the unquestionable story was the injury to quarterback Jay Cutler -- reportedly out "at least" four weeks with a torn groin muscle. And while fans can (and do) argue the legitimacy of Cutler's ability to lead the Bears to something special, inserting Josh McCown doesn't exactly leave Bears fans racing to punch playoff tickets.
There are very few teams that can withstand the loss of their starting quarterback, so I'm not knocking the Bears for a possible fall-apart over the second half of the season. What I am knocking is the Bears organization's method of filling their backup quarterback role. If it's not Shane Matthews filling in for Jim Miller, it's Caleb Hanie, Jason Campbell, or Josh McCown filling in for Jay Cutler.
To McCown's credit, he's performed capably both at the end of 2011 and so far this season. But while we're being honest, there is a reason this guy is 34 years old and only has 33 starts in a 10-year career: He's not a starting quarterback. But McCown is just yet another addition to the Bears' baffling decision-making when it comes to staffing the backup-quarterback position.
It's tough to fault the current Bears administration -- Mark Trestman's first year as head coach, Phil Emery's second year as general manager -- but the Bears are historically known for being razor thin at the quarterback position. In recent years, that can partially be blamed on their reluctance to allow young quarterbacks to fill the void created by an injured starter -- recently meaning Jay Cutler.
It's wrong to think that all young, untested quarterbacks are undiscovered superstars, but it's also wrong to say there aren't any that are -- Colin Kaepernick would be a recent example of this. Instead of the Bears searching for a young quarterback who might be something more than film suggests, they continuously rely on journeymen quarterbacks who barely give the team a chance to win. If you're going to tank either way at the loss of your starter, why not attempt to give young quarterbacks an opportunity and hope you get lucky?
But now with Cutler's injury (and an equally uncertain future beyond this season), the Bears are once again left with nowhere to turn at quarterback. With a coach like Mark Trestman in place to develop a young quarterback, the lack of one is a crying shame.
Of course, maybe Cutler will return from his injury and lead the Bears to a Super Bowl and all this fretting will be entirely moot. I can't say I'm holding my breath.
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Blackhawks 3, Panthers 2 (SO).
By Walter Villa, The Sports Xchange
The Chicago Blackhawks blew a two-goal lead in the third period, but they emerged with a 3-2 shootout win over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night at the BB&T Center.
In the shootout, Chicago's Jonathan Toews scored, Florida's Jonathan Huberdeau missed, and the Blackhawks' Patrick Kane missed. Brad Boyes was denied, and Patrick Sharp scored to win it for Chicago.
Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford, who made 20 saves in regulation and overtime, is 4-0-1 in his past five starts.
Jacob Markstrom finished in goal for Florida, relieving Tim Thomas with 2:59 left in the third period. Thomas apparently re-injured his groin. Thomas made 25 saves, while Markstrom stopped both shots he faced prior to the shootout.
Florida (3-6-1) cut Chicago's lead to 2-1 on a goal by Tomas Fleischmann with 10:56 left in the third period. It was his second goal of the season, and the assists went to Aleksander Barkov and Kris Versteeg.
Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, who was penalized twice early in the game, including one that resulted in a Chicago goal, made up for his mistakes by tying the score on a wrist shot with 8:09 left in the third period. The goal was unassisted.
The Blackhawks (6-1-2) won in front of their moms, who made the road trip. Chicago also beat Florida for the fourth consecutive meeting, although this was the first time the teams faced off since Jan. 20, 2012.
Chicago's power play, much improved of late, got the visitors on the board first. Toews got the goal at 5:18 of the second period, his third of the season, with assists from Duncan Keith and Kane.
Toews beat Thomas, but the goat was Kulikov, who was sent off for interference. The Panthers killed off Kulikov's first penalty, for hooking in the first period, but could not do the same the second time around.
It was Chicago's seventh power-play goal in nine games.
Kulikov's penalties -- and his goal -- come on the heels of a report in the Toronto Star that stated the Maple Leafs are interested in his services. Kulikov is in the last season of a four-year contract, and various reports already have the struggling Panthers interested in dealing away veterans.
The Panthers had a major opportunity with 10:36 left in the second period when Huberdeau was awarded a penalty shot after he was taken down by center Michal Handzus.
Huberdeau, the reigning NHL Rookie of the Year, offered a couple of dekes, but his forehand try was denied by Crawford.
Chicago made the score 2-0 on a goal by Bryan Bickell with 3:11 left in the second period. It was his second goal of the season, and the assists came from Andrew Shaw and Niklas Hjalmarsson.
NOTES: Panthers LW Sean Bergenheim, who hasn't played in 18 months due to hip and abdominal injuries, practiced Monday and is believed to be close to returning to the lineup. ... Thomas, signed just before the season started, is still wearing a plain white mask while he waits for his Panthers-themed new one to arrive. ... Chicago D Michal Rozsival missed his third straight game due to illness. ... The Blackhawks' offense, ranked second in the NHL last season with 3.1 goals per game, was down to 2.75 and 14th in the league entering Tuesday. ... Blackhawks RW Ben Smith is getting an opportunity to play now that Joakim Nordstrom is back in the minors. Nordstrom, 21, had one goal in eight games. ... Next up for the Blackhawks is Thursday's game at Tampa Bay, where backup goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, 40, is expected to make his second start of the season. He beat the Islanders 3-2 on Oct. 11. ... The Panthers continue their homestand Friday against the Buffalo Sabres.
CSN Staff
With Derrick Rose back and looking like his old self, can the Bulls dethrone the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference?
Not according the GMs in the NBA.
NBA.com conducted their 12th annual GM survey and the consensus -- 75.9% -- believe the Heat will repeat as NBA champions.
All 30 general managers in the league answered questions ranging from the best teams and players to who had the best offseason.
Here's where the Bulls stand in a few of the GM surveys:
Which Team will win the NBA Finals?
-Bulls were among those receiving votes
Which Team will win the Central Division?
-Bulls given 48.3% chance
Who is the best point guard in the NBA?
-Rose (20%) was ranked No. 2
Who is the best international player NOT in the NBA?
-Nikola Mirotic (25%) was ranked No. 1
Who is the best interior defender in the NBA?
-Joakim Noah (16.7%) was ranked No. 2
Who is the best defensive team in the NBA?
-Bulls (43.3) were ranked No. 1
Which player is the best finisher at the rim?
-Rose (6.7%) was ranked No. 2
Check out the complete survey at NBA.com
Boston Red Sox are favorites to win the World Series, according to oddsmakers.
By Mike Oz
St. Louis Cardinals (NL) 
Boston Red Sox (AL)
Boston Red Sox (AL)Oddsmakers like the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series a little bit more than they like the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Red Sox are listed at 5/7 while the Cardinals are at 6/5. The money line for the Red Sox is -140 (meaning you have to wager $140 to win $100) and for the Cardinals it's +120 (meaning a $100 wager gets you $120). Both of those comes from online sportsbook Bovada.
Said Kevin Bradley, Bovada's sports book manager:
"I am more than happy the Red Sox were able to hold off the Tigers and get into the World Series since they are the team that would provide us with the biggest win possible out of any team that made the playoffs in our World Series Odds. Boston is a small 5/7 favorite against St. Louis paying out at 6/5 and 60% of the early money is on the Cards making our need for Boston to win even bigger."Bovada also released a odds for the World Series, a list headed by Big Papi and going all the way down to poor Stephen Drew:
Odds to win the 2013 World Series MVP
Dustin Pedroia (BOS) 8/1
Carlos Beltran (STL) 9/1
Matt Holliday (STL) 10/1
Yadier Molina (STL) 12/1
Allen Craig (STL) 12/1
Jacoby Ellsbury (BOS) 12/1
Jon Lester (BOS) 12/1
Adam Wainwright (STL) 14/1
Michael Wacha (STL) 15/1
Matt Carpenter (STL) 15/1
Mike Napoli (BOS) 15/1
Clay Buchholz (BOS) 15/1
Koji Uehara (BOS) 15/1
Xander Bogaerts (BOS) 16/1
David Freese (STL) 18/1
Trevor Rosenthal (STL) 18/1
Matt Adams (STL) 20/1
Shane Victorino (BOS) 20/1
Stephen Drew (BOS) 25/1
MLB WORLD SERIES SPECIAL - Which team will hit more Home Runs in the
Series?
St. Louis Cardinals +150 (3/2)
Boston Red Sox -200 (1/2)
MLB WORLD SERIES SPECIAL - Which team will record more errors in the Series?
St. Louis Cardinals -110
Boston Red Sox -110
MLB WORLD SERIES SPECIAL - How many times will Shane Victorino be Hit by Pitch in the Series?
Over 1 (EVEN, 1/1)
Under 1 (-140, 5/7)
MLB WORLD SERIES SPECIAL - Will any player or manager be ejected during a game in the Series?
Yes +150 (3/2)
No -200 (1/2)
MLB WORLD SERIES SPECIAL - Will any team pitch a shutout in the Series?
Yes EVEN (1/1)
No -140 (5/7)
MLB WORLD SERIES SPECIAL - Will there be a Grand Slam in the Series?
Yes +300 (3/1)
No -500 (1/5)Little faith in those grand-slamming Red Sox, eh?
Just for fun, we looked back at the first odds Bovada released for the 2013 baseball season — back in December, when the Toronto Blue Jays were favorites to win it all — and at that point the Cardinals and Red Sox were both 25/1 odds to win the series.
We've come a long way, folks.
Chamblee stands by 'cheating' implication of Woods.
By DOUG FERGUSON (AP Golf Writer)
Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee says he insinuated that Tiger Woods cheated and gave the world's No. 1 player an ''F'' for his five-win season in a column he wrote for Golf.com because ''ethics matter more than athletics.''
Chamblee saved Woods for last in his report card of 14 players in a column posted last week. He told of getting caught cheating on a math test in the fourth grade, and how the teacher crossed a line through his ''100'' and gave him an ''F.''
Chamblee followed that anecdote by writing, ''I remember when we only talked about Tiger's golf. I miss those days. He won five times and contended in majors and won the Vardon Trophy and ... how shall we say this ... was a little cavalier with the rules.''
He then gave Woods a ''100'' with a line through it, followed by the ''F.''
Mark Steinberg of Excel Sports Management, the agent for Woods, was so incensed that he released a statement to ESPN.com that accused Chamblee of a desperate attempt to garner attention. In an interview with ESPN.com, Steinberg said he would ''have to give some thought to legal action.''
Steinberg did not reply to an email from The Associated Press.
No other golfer evokes such a mixture of praise and criticism than Woods, the main attraction of any sport for nearly 20 years. Chamblee's column struck a nerve with many, however, because of the implication that three rules violations and a penalty drop involving Woods amounted to cheating - the strongest accusation possible in golf.
Woods accepted a two-shot penalty in Abu Dhabi for taking relief from an embedded ball in a sandy area covered with vegetation. Augusta National gave him a two-shot penalty for taking the wrong drop in the second round of the Masters. And the PGA Tour gave him a two-shot penalty after his second round of the BMW Championship when video evidence showed that his ball moved slightly from behind the first green.
Also in question - at least on Internet blogs - was the drop Woods took on the 14th hole of the TPC Sawgrass during the final round of The Players Championship.
Woods checked with playing partner Casey Wittenberg on where to take the penalty drop, which is standard procedure. Wittenberg said it was the correct spot.
Chamblee never says outright he thinks Woods cheated. That was by design.
''I think 'cavalier with the rules' allows for those with a dubious opinion of the BMW video,'' Chamblee said Tuesday in an email to the AP. ''My teacher in the fourth grade did not have a dubious opinion of how I complete the test. But she was writing to one, and as I was writing to many, I felt it important to allow for the doubt some might have, so I chose my words accordingly.
''What people want to infer about that is up to them,'' he said. ''I have my opinion, they can form theirs. ''Video shows Woods' ball move as he tried to remove a small branch from in front of it at the BMW Championship. He maintained it only wobbled and returned to its original position. Woods watched the video in the rules trailer after the round, but still maintained it only oscillated. The tour docked him two shots.
''I don't feel I'm the one that needs to justify the 'F.' The BMW video does it for me, followed by Tiger's silence - until confronted - and then by his denials in the face of incontestable evidence to the contrary of his petitions,'' Chamblee said. ''To say nothing of the fact that he was disrespecting his position in golf, the traditions of golf and his fellow competitors, in my opinion.''
Chamblee, who has developed a reputation of being critical of Woods' swing and golf game, is a contributor to ''SI Golf Plus,'' which is not affiliated with Golf Channel.
Golf Channel declined to comment.
''I suspected there would be the usual assortment of divisive banter about me giving Tiger an 'F,' but as it turns out, it was a slow week in golf, so with no much to do, my column got more attention than it should have,'' Chamblee said.
He was most surprised by Steinberg's comments to ESPN.com.
Woods' longtime agent told the website, ''There's nothing you can call a golfer worse than a cheater. This is the most deplorable thing I have seen. I'm not one for hyperbole, but this is absolutely disgusting. Calling him a cheater? I'll be shocked, stunned, if something is not done about this. Something has to be done. There are certainly things that just don't go without response. It's atrocious. I'm not sure if there isn't legal action to be taken. I have to give some thought to legal action.''
Asked if he was rattled by Steinberg's consideration of legal action, Chamblee replied, ''No.''
''I thought it incomprehensible that anyone with the slightest understanding of libel laws wouldn't know the definition of and the difference between libel and opinion,'' Chamblee said.
Woods was voted PGA Tour player of the year by his peers for the 11th time. He is not expected to play again until a European Tour event Nov. 7-10 in Turkey, followed by his Northwestern Mutual World Challenge on Dec. 5-8 in California.
Chamblee said he did not consider whether the column would jeopardize - or enhance - his position at Golf Channel.
''I'm paid to have and give an opinion, and I work hard to form those opinions based upon facts, not agenda,'' he said. ''I don't always get it right but I'm always trying to get it right. And I know the people I work for know that.''
For Tiger’s sake, boycotting The Golf Channel would be a bad idea.
By Shane Bacon
A week ago, Brandel Chamblee, an analyst on The Golf Channel pinned a report card of sorts for the 2013 PGA Tour season on Golf.com, and the most popular man in the game (and the '13 PGA Tour Player of the Year) got the grunt of Chamblee's red ink.
Woods was given a "F" for his season, with the implication being that Woods bent the rules of golf more than once, but the column focused on what happened at the Masters when Tiger took a drop that ended up costing him additional strokes and had the sports world buzzing about a possible disqualification at Augusta National.
The Woods camp has already came out and said that legal action could be taken against Chamblee for the implication of cheating, and while that might be agent Mark Steinberg raising his voice to meet the boom of Chamblee, a more likely situation was hinted at by Ed Sherman over at the Sherman Report.
What if Tiger Woods simply boycotts The Golf Channel?
This isn't the craziest idea ever, with Sherman pointing to Michael Jordan, a friend of Tiger, as a man that once did this same thing to Sports Illustrated when a cover joked about his attempt at professional baseball.
But would a boycott be smart for Woods?
The hard facts about Tiger and the game of golf, and The Golf Channel, and really any publication these days is that we all need Woods more than he needs us. The guy is so big now that no interview or Q and A or sit down is going to help his image, but him taking The Golf Channel to task for these comments by Chamblee seems like something that could potentially damage what Tiger has worked so hard to remake.
Face it, in 2013 Tiger has been as approachable by the media as ever. The guy has actually given solid answers during press conferences, told fun stories (Remember the Mark O'Meara story after Tiger's near-59 at the Bridgestone Invitational?) and seemed to actually enjoy his time behind the microphone.
Taking this out on the company that spends a lot of their time praising Tiger seems like it would hurt Woods way more than it would make a point.
Tiger is a smart man that seems to have every move premeditated weeks in advance, but this is also a guy that shook hands with Steve Williams on the 18th green at the British Open and was doing Fresh Prince of Bel-Air celebrations with Matt Kuchar at the Presidents Cup (not to mention how open he has been with girlfriend Lindsey Vonn this year). The smile has been around a little more this season, and despite the fact that he failed to win a major in '13 it was still a solid year for the 37-year-old.
For Tiger, maybe the best course of action is simply none at all. The Chamblee column seemed like click bait and it worked brilliantly in that sense, but those words echoed are not exactly what everyone at The Golf Channel believes and taking actions out on a conglomerate for one man's opinion seems like disqualifying an entire PGA Tour field just because one man signed an incorrect scorecard.
Power Rankings: Welcome back to the top spot Jimmie Johnson.
By Nick Bromberg
Lucky Dog: Austin Dillon for landing on his wheels and Casey Mears for not clobbering into Dillon's car even harder than he did.
The DNF: Tony Raines' engine didn't even make it two laps. That's really, really impressive.
Dropped Out: Brad Keselowski.
Klinsmann questions World Cup seeding process.
By Avi Creditor
U.S. national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann is none too pleased with how FIFA has decided to seed the top pot for December's World Cup draw.
For the second straight World Cup, FIFA has chosen to solely use its October world rankings to determine the teams in the top pot. The top seven ranked teams in the October rankings in addition to host Brazil will be in the seeded pot, and Klinsmann says that past World Cup experience should matter and that the current process leads to an unbalance among the groups.
“Looking at Pot No. 1 and the seeding of the World Cup, it kind of makes you think a little bit, if this is the right way to do it," Klinsmann told USSoccer.com on Tuesday. "You have to find a way hopefully to make everybody happy. It’s not going to happen, nobody will be happy with everything. But, when you have a Pot No. 1, you expect countries in there that really proved it in World Cups, in the history of the World Cup. Now you see teams that haven’t really done that much in previous World Cups and you wonder ‘Why is it that way now?’
“The consequence is that you will have a couple of groups getting drawn on Dec. 6 in Brazil that are Groups of Death that will be killer groups; there’s not even one easy team or whatever. Then you will find maybe two or three groups that are much easier, at least on paper easier.
"It’s unbalanced now with that seeding procedure and it will cause a lot of question marks, a lot of discussion and debate once the groups are finalized. It is what it is, but I’m not very happy with it.”
The teams that are certain to be seeded for the draw will be Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Belgium and Switzerland. Uruguay will also seal a seed if it can get by Jordan in a two-leg intercontinental playoff. If it does not, then the Netherlands will snatch the final seed.
The USA wound up ranked 13th in the world following a successful qualifying campaign that resulted in the top spot in the CONCACAF Hexagonal.
Bungled Miami probe exposes NCAA's own legitimacy issues in seedy detail.
By Dan Wetzel
The ever-bombastic Nevin Shapiro, currently serving 20 years for running a Ponzi scheme, once promised "Hurricane Nevin" would flatten the University of Miami football program. It didn't happen. As a not-insignificant consolation, though, Shapiro wound up taking one mighty, mighty hack at the NCAA itself.
The NCAA is a ghost of itself, and, after reading through 102 pages of the Miami "Public Infractions Report" released Tuesday, it appears no one knows that better than the committee of infractions itself.
This was part internal admission of feebleness and part passive-aggressive swipe at the U. The NCAA aired all the dirty laundry it could. It issued strongly worded condemnations and damning conclusions. It humiliated the coaches and administrators involved. Then it doled out penalties that fall somewhere between slap-on-the-wrist and pat-on-the-back.
Miami's football program sat out two postseasons while the investigation dragged on.
Those were significant self-imposed penalties. On Tuesday, the NCAA added that Miami's total football scholarships will be capped at 82 for the next three years – which isn't even a penalty because it's common for rule-abiding programs to fall short of the maximum 85 through attrition. Basketball will endure similar scholarship "reductions." So that's nothing.
Some assistant football and basketball coaches were dinged hard, but former basketball coach Frank Haith, who was lampooned throughout the report, will have to sit out only five weak nonconference games with his current employer, Missouri.
If you are, like me, dismissive of the basic concept of the NCAA as little more than a tax and workman's comp dodge that uses the nonsensical concept of "amateurism" to funnel the vast majority of revenue to coaches, administrators and facility contractors, then you don't care about the leniency of the punishment. This isn't about a program getting what's coming, but a spotlight being shined on the entire absurd process. From that point of view, the penalties could hardly be more perfect.
The NCAA has an extensive rulebook because the rulebook allows it to avoid paying players under the guise of "amateurism" and a "level playing field." It also protects it from many lawsuits from athletes and serves as a way to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes.
It's a very, very valuable document. As such, the NCAA cherishes its rulebook. So much, in fact, that it proceeded with this case despite its own enforcement staff violating a number of guidelines while investigating the case. A ton of stuff was thrown out. We can only imagine how this would have read with the original material in there because it's overwhelming without it.
How can the NCAA claim its rulebook is anything but a puff of magic smoke at this point?
Consider these gems that come from the report:
• "The institution enabled a culture of noncompliance to exist."
• "Five coaches in football and three coaches in men's basketball either had a poor understanding of the rules or felt comfortable breaking them."
• "[There was] an attitude of indifference towards compliance."
• "For nearly a decade, the booster [Shapiro] provided, and student-athletes received a range of impermissible benefits. For nearly a decade, those benefits were completely undetected. It does not appear that the institution conducted an assessment of the effectiveness of its compliance program, particularly in its high-profile sports to determine whether there was any concern for potential violations."
• "In this case it is apparent that individuals within and outside of the program were involved with, and aware of numerous violations."
It goes on and on, including the confirmation of a November 2007 "altercation" inside the Orange Bowl press box between Shapiro and the school's then-compliance director (the person in charge of following the rules). Shapiro was drunk and wanted to fight. It isn't normal behavior. It's completely outlandish, so outlandish the committee on infractions concluded, it "should have highlighted a need for such rules education."
Really, you think having a booster attempting to punch out the compliance director might be considered a red flag? Actually the compliance guy did think that.
"Immediately after the altercation with the booster the former associate director of athletics/compliance reported the incident to senior athletics administrators. He specifically stated his concern that the booster not only had threatened his career but had 'way too much access' to student-athletes."
And still no "senior athletic administrator" dared to look into Nevin Shapiro. No one at Miami cared, not as long as he kept promising big donation checks.
"There is nothing in the record that suggests institutional steps were taken to address the concerns raised by the former associate director of athletics."
Good times, everyone willing to look the other way as long as Nevin kept handing out money.
The report details violation after violation. And this was not just players with their hands out for free drinks or VIP room privileges or fishing trips on Shapiro's yacht or big parties at restaurants or bowling alleys or even old-fashioned cash handouts.
Those can all be somewhat difficult to monitor, although perhaps not when they occurred with such frequency over such a long period.
This was much better, though. Coaches brought recruits to Shapiro's South Beach mansion for parties. Shapiro paid for a hotel room of a recruit in for an unofficial visit.
Recruits were brought by his luxury suite at Sun Life Stadium by football staffers. He entertained high school coaches in nightclubs with assistant coaches present. This was a booster, who also partially owned a sports agency, intricately involved in the recruiting process in two separate sports for years on end.
"They couldn't recruit without Nevin," former Hurricane Randy Phillips told the South Florida Sun Sentinel Monday. "It got to the point where Nevin was the recruiter. Every top star player came through Nevin's house."
Then there was the recruit who stayed at an assistant's house during an unofficial visit, all sorts of transportation violations, meals and entertainment that shouldn't have occurred, and even a "bat phone" for one coach to call prospects outside of the NCAA-mandated timeframes. Recruits can take "unofficial visits" to a campus for one night. One prospect told the NCAA he stayed a week.
This, in short, would be considered "cheating" by the NCAA's own rulebook. Clear cheating by the very people – coaches and administrators – who make their money courtesy of the very rulebook they are supposed to hold sacred. This isn't a pay-the-players deal. These are the millionaires who already benefit from the system.
When it came to the booster involvement, this wasn't a shadowy case. Miami loved Nevin Shapiro. (And he's not the only booster in the report.)
"The booster at the center of this case was extremely 'visible' …" the committee concluded. "By granting him special access and celebrating him with the naming of a student lounge, it is clear that the institution embraced him. He certainly did not 'fly under the radar,' as the institution asserts but rather was a major supporter of their athletics programs, which creates a greater responsibility to monitor."
Or not.
The NCAA makes note that it has already strengthened its penalties for future violators, but, really, who is buying that?
Perhaps the best line in the entire report – and there are near-endless candidates for that honor – was when Haith described the reality of his job and why he needed to befriend someone such as Shapiro.
"Did we win enough games for the Miami supporters?" Haith told the NCAA. "You read the papers, I don't think they felt that great about what we did there. I didn't recruit, I didn't get the five-star guys. And let's, like I said, let's [not] be naïve about the level. Our business is corrupt and [this is] how we got to deal with these guys at the high level kid."
Our business is corrupt.
The issue here isn't that the penalties are weak – in the broader view what good comes out of a school limiting the number of young people who receive a scholarship? And why should current Miami players have their championship season derailed because of this nonsense?
Let the Hurricanes play on … after all, our business is corrupt. Like Haith was essentially saying, the school's chief problem was Shapiro turned out to be a Ponzi schemer, and as he sat, stewing behind bars, he decided to seek revenge against the former friends who now wouldn't return his calls. Otherwise, it's business as usual.
So the penalties are fine … except in the past the NCAA used to hammer schools and coaches for far, far less. And that drives the rest of college sports crazy. Or, as one Big 12 coach texted Tuesday morning … "this can't possibly be real."
Oh, but it is. You know they're seething at USC right now, where the biggest mistake years ago was not falling on their own sword. These days, it's not the severity of the violations but how much you cooperate. Well, perhaps. No one really has any idea.
Such as, how exactly did former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl receive a three-year "show-cause" penalty (essentially making him unemployable) for holding a cookout for recruit Aaron Craft and then lying about it, when Haith received a five-game suspension after the NCAA found all sorts of violations and deemed his shifting explanations as to why $10,000 was funneled to Shapiro's mother in an elaborate hush-money plot a lie?
Or, to be more precise, they used the phrase, "these accounts are inconsistent and not credible."
Inconsistent and not credible.
Sort of like the NCAA itself. Why have these rules? Why keep pretending? Our business is corrupt? Sort of, but only because the rulebook defines it as such.
So when will someone – a federal judge, a politician seeking tax revenue – strip the NCAA of the extra benefits it claims it deserves because of its not-followed and not-enforced rules?
How many more Nevin Shapiros do we need before everyone admits this is a joke, and the system changes?
Forde-Yard Dash: Plenty of guilt to go around for Grambling's plight.
By Pat Forde
Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football (manufactured NCAA outrage sold separately in Miami (1) ):
GRAMBLING GUILT
After they have entered the 145,000-square foot Oregon Football Performance Center, walked across the Nepalese rugs, worked out on the Brazilian hardwood floors of the weight room and sank into the Italian leather couches in the players lounge, you wonder: do the Ducks know about the guys at Grambling? Have they heard about the Tigers' moldy locker room and the weight room with the damaged floors?
Before playing Washington State on Saturday, when they pulled on their seventh different uniform combination in seven games, did the Ducks consider the plight of the Grambling players? Could they possibly relate to the guys who were getting staph infections from wearing the same, unwashed uniforms over and over?
When they take their next chartered flight to a road game, will the Ducks sympathize with the Tigers who rode buses from Louisiana to Indianapolis for a game, and from Louisiana to Kansas City for another?
Oregon (2) and Grambling (3) both play college football, at least in name. The players are the same age. The rules of the game are the same. But beyond that they have nothing in common, as the obscenely bloated high end of the sport continues to lose touch with the paupers at the other end of the Division I spectrum.
The gulf between the Haves and Have-Nots is an American societal issue more than anything else – but this is the sporting manifestation of it, and this is a sports column. It took a player strike and a forfeited game at a traditionally proud football program for most of America to notice, but the Tigers have gotten our attention.
The sadness of their situation should at least cause a twinge of guilt among all those who bathe in excess at the elite level of college football. Yes, everyone.
The commissioners, university presidents and athletic directors who tore apart rivalries and regional sensibility to realign for more TV revenue. The TV execs who would schedule games at midnight on Mars if they could make a buck. The coaches who are making tens of thousands of dollars in bonus money for such lofty accomplishments as league victories, bowl eligibility and a decent team grade-point average. The players who complain about "exploitation" while pocketing money from agents and boosters behind the scenes. The fans who spend huge sums of money to support the football team but not the educational mission of their favorite school.
And the media members who complain when their free parking isn't close enough to the stadium, their free press-box meal isn't good enough or their luxury hotel at a BCS bowl is inconveniently located. The Dash included.
We've become desensitized to the silliness of conspicuous consumption in college football. Is there anything in athletics more nonsensical than buying foosball tables from Barcelona for the facility at Oregon? Do the chief tenants of the building, ages 18 to 22 and there to play football, notice or care where their play toys come from?
Would it cost the Ducks a commitment from a foosball aficionado or an interior design major if the tables were from a local department store?
But because Oregon's facility is hailed as the latest and perhaps greatest recruiting advantage, others at the elite end of the spectrum will hustle to catch up. Alabama's facility has a waterfall now, and 10-foot tall replicas of the school's most recent championship rings. Tennessee's plans for a $45 million football facility were altered midstream by then-coach Derek Dooley to include $9 million in adjustments from another consultant. The reason, according to Dooley: "If (recruits) don't go wow, then we hadn't done our job." Well, of course. Because there is no such thing as "enough."
Our sense of proportion has been lost, or at least subverted by the notion that victory justifies everything. If ridiculous indulgence is a byproduct of winner-take-all competition, not many people seem to have a problem with that. More seem to celebrate it than question it.
It's not up to Oregon – or Alabama, or Tennessee – to fix what ails Grambling.
(Though you wonder whether Ducks sugar daddy Phil Knight, who has done more than any man to ramp up the college sports arms race, could spare a dime to help the school with a set of uniforms.) But everyone at the affluent end of the sport should take note of what's happening at Grambling, and we should all feel a little bit dirty today.
GRAMBLING, PART II
Given the reported program negligence and sorry treatment of its players, the Grambling administration is justifiably on the griddle. (The entire athletic department is a wreck, with a winless football team and a men's basketball team that went 0-28 last year.) If any situation screams for the intervention of the National College Players Association (4) and its All Players United movement, it's the one at Grambling.
But NCPA head Ramogi Huma (5) told The Dash that he's in a more reactive than proactive stance.
"If they reached out to us, we would help out however we could," Huma said. "We want to have a positive impact."
Huma said he has heard from none of the Grambling players. Perhaps he should make the first call and offer his services. There may not be as much publicity at the FCS level, but if the point is championing players' rights and player safety, this is a prime situation to get involved.
The other question is whether the Grambling strike/forfeit is part of an ongoing trend of increasing players' rights, and where the movement might lead.
"At any school, players have a lot of leverage with their administration," Huma said, citing reports that Grambling officials originally were threatening to revoke scholarships of boycotting players. "It goes to show who really has the power. They can take scholarships from one, two, maybe five players. But you can't take all the scholarships or you won't have a team.
"The fact that they've come together is important. There's strength in numbers."
Rest assured, college administrators everywhere are keeping tabs on Grambling, and on players' rights issues everywhere. Whether these are isolated incidents or a real movement remains to be seen, but it's worth monitoring.
OPEN SEASON ON SEC QUARTERBACKS
No fewer than 10 teams in the SEC have had to deal with a significant injury at quarterback, which means a quality backup has never been more important at the game's most important position. A look at the injuries, who has replaced the starters and how they have fared:
Missouri (6): Starter James Franklin is out 3-5 weeks with a separation of his throwing shoulder. Backup: Maty Mauk. How's he done: Stellar in his one start, throwing for 295 yards Saturday in a rout of Florida. He'll have another big test this week against South Carolina.
Auburn (7): Starter Nick Marshall missed the Western Carolina game with a knee injury, but came back strong Saturday in the upset at Texas A&M. Backup: Jeremy Johnson. How's he done: Perfectly functional in a low-stress rout of Western Carolina.
Florida (8): Starter Jeff Driskel has missed the last five games after breaking his leg. He's out for the season. Backup: Tyler Murphy. How's he done: Not great, not terrible. The Gators' myriad offensive issues are far bigger than Murphy.
Arkansas (9): Starter Brandon Allen hurt his shoulder early against Southern Mississippi on Sept. 14 and then missed the game against Rutgers the next week.
He's struggled ever since against rugged competition, completing just 40 percent of his passes with three touchdowns and six interceptions. Backup: AJ Derby. How's he done: Not well enough to convince everyone he's the answer at QB.
South Carolina (10): Starter Connor Shaw left the Gamecocks' loss to Tennessee with a sprained knee and is not expected to play Saturday at Missouri. He also missed most of the game against Central Florida earlier in the season. Backup: Dylan Thompson. How's he done: He's been very capable, and at times heroic: a 310-yard day in a victory over Clemson last year; the game-winning TD pass in the Outback Bowl against Michigan. But he's still not as good as Shaw.
Vanderbilt (11): Starter Austyn Carta-Samuels was on crutches and in tears at the end of the Commodores' upset of Georgia on Saturday. He could be lost for the season with a knee injury. Backup: Patton Robinette. How's he done: Freshman filled in adeptly for Samuels against the Bulldogs, leading a comeback victory.
Mississippi State (12): Starter Tyler Russell missed three games after being knocked out of the opener against Oklahoma State with a concussion. He's split time at QB the past two games. Backup: Dak Prescott. How's he done: Run with aplomb, passed with somewhat less aplomb.
Tennessee (13): Starter Justin Worley was benched at Florida, giving way to a Nathan Peterman start that was painful on multiple levels. Peterman played poorly and broke his hand, giving the job back to Worley.
Kentucky (14): Jalen Whitlow and Max Smith have taken turns being hurt, and taken turns being ineffective. Whitlow, the quarterback currently in favor with the coaching staff, is trying to come back from an ankle injury for the Wildcats' Thursday game against Mississippi State.
Texas A&M (15): We'll see whether there are any lingering effects of the right shoulder/arm injury suffered by Johnny Manziel against Auburn. Obviously, there is a wide chasm between the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner and backup Matt Joeckel.
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN OVER; COLLEGE FOOTBALL SHUTDOWN TO COME?
We survived the shutdown, but it got The Dash thinking of people or things in college football that need to be shut down. It's a fun sport, full of all kinds of great things, but there are a few strong shutdown candidates:
The Bathroom Comedian (16). There's one in every stadium bathroom line, every game. All you want to do is take care of your urinary business, but the BHC will have none of that. He's the guy who thinks he's hilarious and wants the captive audience to know how funny he is, trotting out one joke or wisecrack after another. He is invariably not funny, and invariably drunk.
The Process (17). Blame it on Nick Saban. He wins a few national titles and now every coach mimics the Alabama coach's endless repetition of that phrase to describe his team's progress during the season. College football is now more processed than Cheez Whiz.
Angry Twitter Guy (18). Almost always nameless and faceless, with a following of 200 or fewer (not counting porn bots). Avatar is an egg, or his favorite team's logo. Twitter handle is often something aggressively related to his favorite team's nickname, like "@IrishAvenger" or "@TrojanDominance." Timeline is a steady stream of vitriolic responses to tweets by rival fans, players and coaches – unless it is a steady stream of vitriolic responses aimed at media people for insufficient fawning upon ATG's favorite team. Usually has three or four nameless, faceless fanboy friends who congratulate him on his wit, wisdom and fearlessness.
Alternate uniforms (19). Jumped the shark a couple of years ago. Now circling back to be devoured by the shark. Enough. Football teams with more wardrobe changes than Paris runway models are wasting money that could go elsewhere (see top of this column).
The NCAA Enforcement Basher (20). The NCAA nailed his school years ago, and every penalty since then has been a weak slap on the wrist to a program that has done far worse than his school. Even when the cases are completely dissimilar, he makes the comparison and decries the bias and corruption that went into the penalties. Why? Because the NCAA is out to get his school. And why is the NCAA out to get his school? Because it is jealous of his school's success. And because it just is. And if you can't see that, then you're corrupt and biased, too. (Get ready for NCAA Enforcement Basher to be out in force Tuesday, once the Miami penalties are announced.)
"We're moving forward" (21). Losing teams have found their default postgame mechanism to change the subject from the stinker they just laid on the field. Questions about what happened are met with a cursory response and then, "We're moving forward." Games that were anticipated for weeks or months are swept aside in record time, in order to move forward and prepare for Directional Tech.
SEC Guy (22). Insufferably arrogant blowhard who insists that undefeated teams from outside his league would be middle-of-the-pack scrappers in the SEC. Says nobody plays defense anywhere near like an SEC team – except in years when the defense is porous, and then nobody has offensive firepower anywhere near like an SEC team. Never misses an opportunity to proclaim the league's superiority – signing day, draft day, Arbor Day, they're all a chance to tout the SEC. Significant percentage of SEC Guys are fans of programs that win nothing, but need the reflected glory from the programs who win national titles and BCS bowls.
Anti-SEC Guy (23). Endless whiner who finds that bashing the SEC is easier than acknowledging the flaws in his own league. Can find dozens of reasons to dismiss this absurd notion of SEC dominance – as if seven straight national titles mean anything. Has convinced himself that over-signing explains everything, and virtuous schools that don't over-sign might as well be fighting the Chinese Army with rubber bands and squirt guns. Dominant SEC bowl performances are written off as unfavorable matchups played in geographically disadvantageous, warm-weather locales. Oh, and Gary Danielson is the devil.
Coaches on the field (24). Every school has a "get-back coach," a guy assigned to keep players and assistants from trespassing from the sidelines onto the field of play and being penalized. But where is the get-back coach for the head coach? The guys in charge are getting as bad as college basketball coaches at trespassing and making themselves even more conspicuous. They're routinely out near the numbers to yell at players, yell at officials, celebrate touchdowns – and The Dash's favorite: sprint down the sideline to call a grandstand timeout. Don't worry, guys. The TV cameras will still find you if you stay on the sidelines.
The no shows (25). Those empty seats in the student section? Even at schools with good teams playing big games? The Dash doesn't get it. Times apparently have changed, but student willingness to disengage from one of the most fun experiences of college life is perplexing. What is more fun than a home college football game, either for cheap or for free? Try it, you may like it. You may even like it enough to keep coming back.
DIVIDING LINES
The Dash has detected some wide variances in performance at a few schools, based on opponent and location:
Arizona State (26) home/road record. The Sun Devils are 5-0 at home this year, with an average winning margin of 29.8 points. A rout of USC got Lane Kiffin fired, and a rout of Washington nudged Steve Sarkisian back onto the hot seat. But the Sun Devils are 0-2 away from Tempe, and never led in the second half of either loss. Rest of the way: three on the road (Washington State on Oct. 31, Utah on Nov. 9, UCLA on Nov. 23) and two at home (Oregon State on Nov. 16, Arizona on Nov. 30).
Tennessee (27) home/road record. The Volunteers are 4-1 at home and mere inches from being 5-0, if Pig Howard hadn't fumbled through the end zone in the valiant loss to Georgia on Oct. 5. The highlight was Saturday, when Tennessee upset South Carolina. But the Vols are 0-2 on the road, losing by two touchdowns to Florida and by 45 to Oregon. Rest of the way: at Alabama, Missouri and Kentucky, home against Auburn and Vanderbilt.
Mississippi State (28) vs. quality/non-quality competition. This has been a 2 ½-year trend under Dan Mullen. The Bulldogs' last 18 victories have come against Memphis, Louisiana Tech, UAB, Kentucky (twice), Tennessee-Martin, Wake Forest, Mississippi 2011, Jackson State, Auburn 2012, Troy (twice), South Alabama, Tennessee 2012, Middle Tennessee, Arkansas 2012, Alcorn State and Bowling Green. Of the six SEC wins in that stretch, zero came against teams that finished the year with winning records (their SEC records were a combined 5-43).
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs' last 14 losses all have come against teams that finished the year with winning records: Auburn 2011 and '13, LSU (three times), Georgia 2011, South Carolina 2011, Alabama (twice), Arkansas 2011, Texas A&M 2012, Mississippi 2012, Northwestern 2012 and Oklahoma State this year. So you can look at it one of two ways: Mullen's teams don't lose to teams they should beat, but they don't have any quality wins since 2010, either.
Rest of the way: Kentucky on Thursday, at South Carolina, at Texas A&M, Alabama, at Arkansas, Ole Miss.
PAC-12 COACHING CROSSFIRE, CONT.
The football is great out West. So is the infighting among the guys wearing headsets.
Two weeks ago we had Washington's Steve Sarkisian (29) and Stanford's David Shaw (30) trading accusations and furious responses about whether Cardinal defensive players faked injuries to slow the Huskies' no-huddle offense. That was pretty wild. But it pales in comparison to what happened this week.
After watching Washington State quarterback throw an NCAA-record 89 passes in a futile comeback attempt, Oregon defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti (31) lit up Cougars boss Mike Leach (32).
According to the Oregonian, this was the Aliotti broadside: "That's total (B.S.) that he threw the ball at the end of the game like he did. And you can print that and you can send it to him, and he can comment, too. I think it's low class and it's (B.S.) to throw the ball when the game is completely over against our kids that are basically our scout team.
"Make sure he knows that,'' Aliotti added. "Because I don't really care.''
The Pac-12 cared. The league reprimanded Aliotti Monday and fined him $5,000. Aliotti apologized to Leach and Washington State earlier in the day Monday in a statement released by Oregon.
Here's what The Dash doesn't get: why is it wrong for the trailing team to still try to score? Especially by running its offense? Granted, 89 passes is nobody's normal offense, but this is Mike Leach – he's always thrown the ball more than just about anyone.
If Aliotti was sufficiently bothered, he had the option of putting his starters back in the game and blitzing the bejesus out of Halliday. The guess here is that Aliotti didn't like seeing Washington State's garbage yardage and points inflating his defensive statistics. To which The Dash says, get over it.
Also: Chippy Pac-12 coaches have tended to have a karmic comeuppance. Sarkisian is 0-2 since his shot at Stanford. Shaw's team was upset at Utah in its next game after he ripped Sark. And we all know what happened to frequent pot-shot artist Lane Kiffin.
HLA: THE RULES
If you follow The Dash on Twitter (@YahooForde), you probably have seen the three letters pop up on any given Saturday: HLA. They stand for Horrible Loss Alert, and are invoked to alert fans when a team is headed toward a truly disastrous defeat.
The origin dates to basketball, when bubble teams were losing games that could doom them to the NIT. But it works in football as well.
At the request of some readers, The Dash has put together some ground rules for when an HLA can be invoked. To whit:
A season-ruining defeat (33) is in the offing. Examples: a national title contender being upset by an unranked team or significant underdog; a team blowing a conference championship with a bad loss; a team losing a BCS bowl bid against a team it should beat easily.
A fireable offense (34): USC's blowout loss to Arizona State was worth an HLA. If Mack Brown had been blown out again by Oklahoma, that would have been an HLA. We'll see who else may be in a similar situation in the coming weeks.
A flat-out embarrassing (35) loss: Michigan was never going to win the national title, and a defeat against Akron would not have factored into the Big Ten race. But trailing the awful Zips absolutely constituted an HLA. Same with schools from FBS power leagues losing to FCS members.
The other question is when during a game the HLA tag can be applied. For a national title aspirant against an unranked opponent, any double-digit deficit is sufficient cause (Boston College jumped out to those leads against both Florida State and Clemson). For a national title aspirant playing a significant underdog from its own league, a second-half deficit will do (Ohio State-Iowa on Saturday). When a traditional power like Texas is scoreless in the second quarter against truly woeful New Mexico State in the season opener, that's an HLA, too. (Or an HTA, if you will. Horrible Tie Alert.)
This much as assured: if your team is good, you don't want to suffer through an HLA Saturday.
LAST INTERCEPTION POOL: WE HAVE A WINNER
Dashette Morena Baccarin (36) has been flown in to bestow prizes on the 2013 LIP winner. Take a bow, Marcus Mariota (37) of Oregon, the last full-time FBS quarterback without an interception on his record. He took the title when South Carolina's Connor Shaw threw his first pick of the year Saturday against Tennessee. Mariota's streak of pick-less passes this season is now at 197, and still going as the Ducks host UCLA Saturday. Congrats to the fastidious Marcus.
COACH WHO EARNED HIS COMP CAR THIS WEEK
Gus Malzahn (38), Auburn. In his first season as head coach of the Tigers, Malzahn has completely reversed the negative momentum of the final two years under Gene Chizik. After a 3-9 debacle in 2011, Malzahn has immediately upgraded an inept offense and gotten Auburn off to a roaring 6-1 start. The highlight to date came Saturday, when Auburn went into College Station and upset Texas A&M. Now we cast an eye at a manageable segment of games (Florida Atlantic, Arkansas, Tennessee) that could have the Tigers positioned as unlikely SEC West and national title contenders heading down the stretch.
COACH WHO SHOULD TAKE THE BUS TO WORK
Steve Spurrier (39), South Carolina. After spending a lot of time mismanaging star defensive end Jadeveon Clowney's health status, Spurrier got back to more comfortable ground last week: jabbing at SEC rivals. Spurrier noted that the Gamecocks' visit to Tennessee would be his 14th game at Neyland Stadium – more games than some Tennessee coaches have had in that building. Then Spurrier's team laid a colossal egg, losing to the Vols as the Head Ball Coach mismanaged his timeouts late in the game. A season that began with national title aspirations in Columbia has now crossed over to disappointment territory, a place Gamecocks fans know all too well.
POINT AFTER
When hungry and thirsty in Clemson, S.C., The Dash recommends a visit to the famous Esso Club (40). Clemson folks have been drinking beer there since 1933. It's a former gas station that also served beer and is now an esteemed landmark within sight of Death Valley. Order some "Famous Wangs" (as it's spelled on the menu) and wash them down with something cheap and domestic. (This is the kind of place where it feels right just to drink mediocre beer.) The fact that there is wine on the menu is mildly disappointing.
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