One Right, and Two Wrongs, on College Football Coaching Carousal

The next two days I want to talk about some college coaching changes that have occurred since the regular season ended. Today I want to focus on three new coaches. I got some feeling about all three of these hires, only one of which am I on board with.

The first is the one I like. I think Wisconsin hit an absolute home run when they lured Luke Fickell away from Cincinnati. Fickell has been up and coming for a few seasons now. He turned Cincy into a power. They are the first non power five school to make the playoff. They gave a good fight to Alabama last year. He has gotten solid recruits to commit. He coached some solid first round NFL picks in his time at Cincy. He was just waiting for an opportunity. And it is not like Cincy isn't a power, but Wisconsin is a better job. The facilities are better. It is easier to get higher rated recruits. They have a very historic past. They just needed a coach who can help usher them into this new era of college football. Fickell is the guy to do that. This hire, as a Michigan fan, scares me for the future. Wisconsin is down this season, but they will not be down for long. Fickell is going to get solid players, turn this team around and they will be back to being an upper tier Big Ten team. That is also another reason why I do not mind him leaving Cincy for Wisconsin. Sure, Cincy is joining the Big 12 next year, but the Big 12 is not the Big 10. The Big 10 and SEC will most likely be the only two conferences left in major college football in the next five to seven years. Fickell made the right choice. Wisconsin will be good again very soon.

Now to the other hires I do not like.

Matt Rhule is a big name in college football. He turned Temple around and then did the same thing with Baylor. He parlayed that into an NFL job and failed spectacularly. The Panthers were bad. He was under prepared. He didn't seem to have the edge needed to coach in the NFL. So I get the move back to college for him. He is the leader. He is the boss. He is the CEO. He gets to call the shots. He is also getting paid handsomely. But I just do not see this as big a move as some others do. I remember last year when Jim Harbaugh was flirting with the NFL, again, and Rhule was being mentioned as a possible replacement if he were to leave Michigan. I told anyone who would listen that I did not want that. Rhule is an old school type coach. He plays a boring style of offense. He likes to slow the game down. He wants to control the clock and play tough defense. He is an old school Big 10 coach. I will give him credit for letting his offense run a little more up tempo at Baylor, but that was when he had the athletes to do that. Nebraska has some athletes, but they do not have the type he had at Baylor. They also do not have the players to run Rhule's old school offense or defense. He is going to have to recruit and recruit hard. I do not know how much he will want to do that after being in the NFL for two plus years. Rhule also doesn't seem like the Midwest type. He's from New York. He played at Penn State. He has coached Temple and Baylor. None of that screams Midwest. I just do not think the transition is going to be as smooth as others do. It is going to take time, and as we saw with Scott Frost, Nebraska fans want success now. They do not want to wait. I think if the fanbase is patient it could pay off, but it is going to be two or three years before they are truly competitive under Matt Rhule.

The final hire, the one I despise the most, is Auburn bringin on Hugh Freeze. Freeze comes with a plethora of problems. He has been sanctioned to hell. He has all of his wins from Ole Miss vacated. He had to go back to Liberty to coach, but he was all but forgotten about by a bunch of college football fans. He also ended his Liberty tenure with a whimper. They got beat in their last two games after winning something like seven in a row. He also may be a decent coach, but there are too many off field issues with him. Freeze is a cheater. He has been condemned as a cheater. He got caught. But somehow he failed upwards. Auburn should have just stuck with Cadillac Williams. He did a good job taking over for that blowhard Bryan Harsin. He had that team and fanbase energized. And I understand that Freeze has kept him on staff, but now that he has a taste of head coaching, I cannot imagine Cadillac Williams sticking around too long as an assistant. This hire has me scratching my head more than any other so far. Freeze brings too much baggage and it is only a matter of time before he messes up again. Auburn could have done better.

Time will tell on all these guys, but Luke Fickell to Wisconsin is the only one that makes any immediate sense to me.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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The Big Ten is Screwed

I was going to write about the season five premiere of "The Eric Andre Show" today, but it will have to wait another day due to some sports news I saw this afternoon.

The Big Ten, after one week of games being played, already have to cancel a game. I read at the beginning of the week that the Wisconsin freshman QB, who looked dynamite against Illinois last Friday, tested positive twice for COVID. The backup QB did too. Then today Wisconsin confirmed that twelve people within the program, including the head coach, have tested positive. They now have to pause all activities for at least seven days, and the players who tested positive may have to sit upwards of twenty-one days.

The Big Ten was very stringent in the protocols to follow if/when positive tests came out, and the players are hit hardest by this. The rule was stated at the beginning that, if a player tests positive more than once, they have to sit out three weeks. It makes sense to me, it seems like that was a big deal in the restart of the season and we all knew it would come to this, just maybe not this early. But, with the Big Ten waiting so long to start its fall season, this leaves no room for making the game up. The Big Ten has a strict eight week conference only schedule, with the ninth week having the top two teams from each division playing for the Big Ten title, and the rest of the teams playing an extra game for bowl positioning. The caveat, for the time being, Wisconsin and Nebraska will only play eight games, at the most. The rest of the conference, if there are no more outbreaks, I doubt it, will all play one extra game.

Nebraska didn't really have a shot at the CFP, but Wisconsin might have. Nebraska got crushed last week, and they were more than likely going to get beat this Saturday after seeing what Wisconsin did to Illinois, whose defense is much better than Nebraska's. They were staring down an 0-2 start. But I do feel a little bad for Nebraska because they were one of the first schools in the conference to push back against the original cancellation of the season. They were so primed to play that they took a case to court, and they had ideas to play as an independent for this season. Now they have to miss a game because Wisconsin has an outbreak. That seems unfair to them. But this is what the Big Ten will look like all year. The more outbreaks amongst the conference, the more cancellations. They have a set date to finish the year, December 12th, and they are sticking to it. That may mean that some teams will play 7, 8 or 9 games. Or, at this rate, some teams may only play 5 or 6 games.

As for Wisconsin, this stinks on so many levels for them, as a football team. This freshman QB looks like the real deal. He only had one incompletion. He and Justin Fields, who is a legit Heisman contender, had almost identical stats. Now he has COVID, as does his backup and upwards of ten or eleven more players. That is brutal. First of all, this virus has proven it is rough, add on the missed games and practices, and it is like a lost season for these kids. As for the team, this is even more brutal because, as I said, Wisconsin had some real playoff aspirations. They looked like they had opened the offense. The defense shut down Illinois. They pretty much had this Nebraska game in the bag, and more than likely they would have been heading to Ann Arbor in two weeks 3-0, and probably favored in that game. Now they have to miss a full game. The players who have COVID will have to miss, at least, two games. The coaches are going to miss a full week, at the very least, of practice during the season.

This is a blow to the program for this very odd season. But, and I say this again and again and again, how did the players and coaches get COVID, and were they not following safety protocols? I know the University of Wisconsin has seen a surge in positive COVID cases due to parties on campus. Were these players at said parties? Were they not wearing masks? Were they not social distancing? No one knows except the people involved. But more likely than not, if I were a betting man, I'd say that they were going to parties because they are young college athletes who are always the big men on campus. Wisconsin loves their football, and the players are treated like royalty. So the dumb actions of a few are screwing this team and their chances at playing in a big bowl game, or even the CFP.

I fear that this is just the start. I know some universities have already had outbreaks. The university of Ohio State, Rutgers, Michigan State and Penn State all had to pause football activities once already due to outbreaks. Iowa did as well, and they have the whole racial injustice issue going on. The University of Michigan currently has its dormitory residents on stay at home orders. It just feels like things will get much worse before they get better. I would hope that this will be a wake up call for the other members of the Big Ten because any stoppage screws these teams from any major bowl games or the playoff. I wish that were the case, but time will tell. Again, these are young kids that are treated better, and they get invited to everything. If there were ever a season or a year to skip those parties, and just hang out at home, this is the year and the season.

The Big Ten better wake up and take this seriously, or else they will be shut out of any important postseason play. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Heartbreaking Sports Moments and Being a Grownup

Artistic representation of Wolverine fans after the Michigan vs Michigan State game

I feel absolutely awful for the Michigan Wolverine football fans. Here at SeedSing we talk a whole lot about sports, and our pop culture editor Ty is an unapologetic Michigan fan. His fandom drives much of the great writing on our website. Ty's fanatical support of Michigan, the Green Bay Packers, and the St. Louis Cardinals have afforded him many great sporting triumphs. He has celebrated these triumphs like most die hard sports fans. He has been gleeful, and sometimes a little annoying. Many times I have wanted to see his teams lose, just to bring Ty down a few notches. I am his older brother, and I am therefore legally, and spiritual, obligated to be an asshole to my little brother. 

I would never wish on any sports fan the agony of witnessing Michigan's heartbreaking loss in their game to in state rivals the Michigan State Spartans. I have witnessed many sports tragedies / miracles, and nothing comes close to the Wolverines defeat on the night of October 17th, 2015. The games was won, and a routine play by a position given no respect, goes horrible wrong. The Spartans are ecstatic for winning when there was no hope, and the Wolverines are crushed by watching certain victory be replaced by unbelievable defeat. This loss for Michigan fans is as bad as it gets, but they are by no means alone in the world of crushing sports moments.  Let me invite all Michigan fans to the RD Kulik gathering of watching your team lose in unbelievably heart wrenching drama.

I was a young pre-teen in 1985 watching my hometown St. Louis Cardinals go for their 2nd World Series victory in 4 years. This time the Cards were playing the cross state Kansas City Royalsin the "I-70 Series" (way cooler than the idiotic Subway Series). Both teams had a lot of legacy on the line. The Royals had baseball heroes like George Brett and Bret Saberhagen. The Cardinals were a mix of veteran superstars like Ozzie Smith and rising stars like NL MVP Willie McGee and stolen base machine Vince Coleman. This Cardinals team is the one all of my gen x St. Louis peers remember as their very own. The series was all going St. Louis's way until the fateful Game 6. Bottom of the ninth, Cards up 1-0, the Royals Jorge Orta hits a weak infield grounder that is fielded by Cardinals first baseman Jack Clark, who then tosses the ball to rookie pitcher Todd Worrell planted at first base. Umpire Don Denkinger was manning the first base side, and he called the Royals Orta safe. Replay clearly showed that Worrell beat Orta to the bag, yet Denkinger's call stood. After a few misfortunes, the Royals scored two runs and won Game 6. The World Series went to a decisive Game 7, and the Cardinals were still pissed about Denkinger's call the previous night. The Royals clinched their first (and only, so far) championship after crushing the Cardinals 11-0. Many St. Louis fans, including me, never got past Denkinger's bad call. That safe call at first broke a young Cardinals fan heart, and 30 years later it still stings. It stings, but I got over it. I am a grownup.

My beloved Missouri Tigers have had two heartbreaking moments over the last 25 years. The lowly Tigers (4-7 in 1990) had the dominate Colorado Buffaloes on the road to defeat. Missouri was leading 31-27 late in the fourth quarter when Colorado started to drive the field. With time running down, the Colorado Buffaloes were close to the goal line. The Colorado quarterback spiked the ball, on second down the Colorado running back was stuffed for no gain, the Buffs offense called a timeout on third down. The running back was stuffed again, and then the Buffs quarterback spiked the ball once again to stop the clock. During the Colorado timeout the umpire crew never switched the down marker from 2nd to 3rd down. Missouri, and myself, believed the game was won after a spike on fourth down. Colorado, and the refs, thought the spike was on 3rd down. On the next play, fifth down, the Buffalo's quarterback took the ball and dived for the end zone. Touchdown. Missouri loses, and Colorado goes on the share the 1990 NCAA College Football Championship with Georgia Tech. That play sucked, but I got over it. I am an adult.

In 1997 the Missouri Tigers were once again on the raw end of call concerning a team who would go on to share the National Championship. The Nebraska Cornhuskers came to Columbia Missouri with a #1 ranking, and a two plus decade winning streak against the Tigers. Missouri was starting to become a respectable football program, and beating #1 Nebraska would be a huge step forward. With Missouri leading 38-31, Nebraska seemingly missed a game winning touchdown as time expired. One of the Cornhusker players illegally kicked a ball in the air so another Nebraska player could catch it. Missouri fans stormed the field when the clock expired. Upstart Sampson had beaten mighty Golaith. Not so fast. The refs decided the kick was not intentional (the Nebraska player himself has said he meant to kick the ball) and awarded the Cornhuskers a game tying touchdown. In overtime Nebraska scored, Missouri did not. Another victory taken away by questionable officiating. Nebraska would end the season sharing the National title with the Michigan Wolverines. That moment sucked, but I got over it. I am a grown up

1997 was the last year the Wolverines have won a National title. The last decade and a half has not been very kind to Ty and other Michigan fans. Hope was starting to spring with the hire of alumni Jim Harbaugh. The Wolverine football team was climbing itself back into football respectability. They had their upstart in state rivals beaten, all they had to do was punt the ball. With that one simple play, everything went wrong. Hearts were broken. Michigan fans will never forget the end of that game. The Wolverine fans thought the name Kordell Stewart was going to cause the most pain, not any more. The game between Michigan and Michigan State on October 17th, 2015 will always sting with Michigan Wolverine fans. It will sting, but you will get over it, if you are a grownup.

Watching our favorite teams lose in heart breaking fashion will never leave our psyche. How we handle this heart break says a lot about us as civilized people. It has been 30 years, and I still shudder when I someone says the name of Don Denkinger. What would I do if I met Mr. Denkinger in real life? Would I spit on him? Punch him? Commit an insane illegal act upon him? No I would not. I may jokingly tell him that he broke a 10 year old's heart, and he would probably give a good natured laugh , and I would be happy to talk baseball with a man who witnessed some of the greatest times in the game I love. That is what a grown up does. Most Michigan fans who get to meet Kordell Stewart would probably give him some good natured grief about beating their team on a miracle throw, after that they would sit back and talk about a memorable game from a man who was there. That is what a grown up does. Our heart break creates bonds over the love of sports, and the love of our teams. No Cardinals fan hates their team because of Denkinger's call, and no Michigan fan hates their team because of a bad punt play. These bad moments make us love our teams even more. We love them for what the could have done. We love them for what we hope they do.

The psychopaths who use social media to threaten and destroy a college kid because of a bad play are not grownups. These animals are not even fans of the teams they are trying to protect. If you love the Michigan Wolverines, you are not someone who would anonymously threaten a NCAA student athlete. The fans of Michigan football will live with the pain, complain about what could have been, and will go on rooting for their beloved team. You jackasses who use the internet to harass a college kid, you are not the fans Michigan wants. Go away and leave the heartbreak for the true fans.

Sports fandom belongs to the idealistic 10 year olds and the hopeful adults. Denkinger, Colorado, and Nebraska will always be times that fill me with despair. These are also the times that remind me what being a fan is all about. I still root for my teams, I will not let any one person or event take away my fandom. The day after, the weeks after, the years after, will always suck. The victories of tomorrow will wash away that suck.

I am sorry for that horrible ending in the Michigan game. One day Ty, and all Michigan fans will have a great victory to wash away the pain. Being a grownup will make one appreciate that victory. Do not let the bullying, non-athletic, assholes tarnish that victory. Sports fandom belongs to the idealistic and hopeful. I am afraid for the Minnesota Golden Gopher fans, Michigan is going to be pissed.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor of SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He really wants to hear about your heartbreaking sports pain. Tell him all about it by writing for SeedSing.