The "U" is Child's Play for Chucky Gruden the U needs to Leach of someone else

Recently the University of Miami fired their head coach Randy Shannon. To me, personally, this is preposterous! The guy has graduated players and in his four years at Miami formerly known as "Mafia U" or "Thug U" Shannon had ONE player arrested in 4 years! During the same amount of time the University of Florida has had 40 players arrested! The University of Georgia had 11 arrested since March! The Dolphins had 4 players arrested just last off season! His win-loss record was the reason he was sent packing. Because someone at Miami seems to think that his $1.5 million salary should to equate to ACC titles and BCS National Championships. Now...in relative terms, Urban Meyer makes $4 million, Jimbo Fisher is guaranteed $1.8 million but with incentives could make $2.25 million, and Mark Richt is bringing in $2.8 million. So to put it in perspective, FSU fires a legend and brings in an unproven Fisher and he still makes more than Shannon would have ever seen! You quickly see their arrogance!



This is where we realize that Jon "Chucky" Gruden isn't lying when he says he is NOT interested in this job. Why would an established Super Bowl Champion coach want to take one of the lowest paying jobs in college football? Yes, he lives in Florida. Yes, it's a recruiting hotbed. Yes, Colin Cowherd thinks his energy would fit. But Cowherd also brought up that NFL coaches are work-a-holics and love being in the meat grinder. Well...HELLO....this is Jon Gruden! This guy was notorious for not leaving the Raiders facilities, sleeping there days on end. Heck he lived in his car during the early Green Bay days! If he leaves the booth it's for an NFL job. Plus he has a Super Bowl ring as a coach! Why would he take less than what his Bucs unemployment check is currently paying him? Or less than ESPN is paying him? He wouldn't.



Next in the "U" dream list is Mark Richt, now me being a Georgia guy there is one thing I took to heart when he said it at his first press conference. That was "When my wife and I began this, we wanted to go some where we could raise our kids and be there for a long time, we wanted to go some where for good." No one has talked him out of Athens, and though it's been a rough run over the past two seasons only the moronic are calling for his head. (Though I will say that could change if we don't start beating Florida) Plus why would he take a pay cut to go to a school that made him a back up QB as a player, better yet why would he turn down FSU for Miami? FSU created his career, Miami killed it.

So who should Miami hire? Mike Leach. Plain and simple. This is a guy that lost his job because of alleged wrong doing. A guy that his former school hated because he didn't fit the "Lubbock way" and he wanted more money since his teams got better and better. Now...he's sitting at home and can be gotten on the cheap! Because $1.5 million is better than NO Million! I also think he could get this program on the fast track to winning again. See...Broward and Dade counties are a HOTBED for speed players, and big egos. Just look at what Texas Tech was when Leach was there (A passing offense with Michael Crabtree!). Plus his ego is big enough to walk into Donald Trump's office and ask for an appointment. So then you know "The Donald" LOVES the investment possibilities in Coral Gables. I brought this up on Atlanta's 680 The Fan's Rude Awakening this morning (12.1.10) and I want it on record. Before everyone else hops on board with this idea. Leach will be Miami's next coach.

Until he wants more money.

WR Steve Johnson tweets "He will remember this" to God.

First I would like to apologize for it taking so long for me to write another article. I promise, you will get two articles this week starting with this one. Also please note; so  I don't violate any copyright laws, I have decided to link images and videos instead of adding them unless I already have them on file, from my personal library.  It's not advertising or links that harm your computer.

So unless you have been hiding under the proverbial NFL rock of the past two weeks you've heard about Steve Johnson's hero to goat performances. Just in case you haven't...on November 21st Steve Johnson caught not one but 3 TD passes in a 49-31 comeback win over the Bengals. The Bills were down 28-7 at one point in the 2nd quarter before going into the half with the score 31-14. As some of you may know the Bengals have the "Dynamic Duo" of Wide Receivers in Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco who are the self proclaimed Batman and Robin of football. So at this point we're thinking they are going to steal the show and pour the rain on the Bills.

Then came the onslaught...the Bills scored 35 unanswered points in the second half and Johnson was responsible for 21 of those points. So Johnson in the spirit of fun and entertainment took a Sharpie to his undershirt before the game and wrote "Why So Serious?"  which was a quote from the Joker in the Batman: Dark Knight film. Upon scoring his first 28 yard-TD and still down 10 points he lifts his jersey to show off the statement as a retort to his counterparts on the Bengal sideline and to let the world know he's the villain. Then went on to gain 137 yards score two more times!

The Not So Fun League didn't find it so funny, and fined The Joker $5,000. Johnson went on to say he got in trouble for it, and won't be doing anything like that again because as he said, "I want to keep my money". This would be his hero performance.

Now to the goat.....

Last Sunday the Bills took the Steelers into overtime, and Johnson breaks free, wide open...game tied...perfect pass....in the end zone....AND...HE DROPS IT! The Steelers go on to win the game and just like that! Johnson goes for hero to goat. But then it gets better...he goes on to tweet after the game under the handle steviejohnson13: I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO..."

If you know me you know that I am a Christ follower. So my opinion and response will reflect such. So without further ado...Steve 4 things you may want to reflect on:

1) YOU didn't look the ball into tuck! That's fundamentals. It seems 90% of the NFL players have forgotten (i.e. not leading with your head, bucking chin straps, etc.). God didn't tell make you take your focus off the ball.

2) I am sure God doesn't mind you "remembering this" but I hope you don't mind Him remembering that you're a sinner saved by His grace. He loved you enough to sacrifice His only son for YOU! You will be held accountable for your sin on judgement day. So...remember it, write it down, take a picture! Here is a verse for you to think on: 1 Peter 4:17-19.

3) You're telling a lie. No one is able to praise Him 24-hrs. a day, how dare you even think you shouldn't have adversity because you praise Him. You might want to read the book of Job, in the Old Testament. Your arrogance is enough for me to think that maybe humility is the thing you are supposed to "learn from this".
1 Corinthians 2:14 and Philippians 2:3-11 might help.

4) Lastly my friend...I know it's your job. But at the end of the day you will be paid regardless, you get to hop in your nice ride, tweet your all caps rants from your iPad, and pay fines larger than any paycheck most Americans have ever received.

Thus leading me to ask....Why So Serious?

We all cry out from time to time. But...again...check out Job my favorite scriptures are Job 38-41. That should help, sets me straight every time!

Herschel Never Played Defense

Recently I had the opportunity (thanks to my friends at Original Retro Brand and my good friend Andy Hyman) to go to the Touchdown Club of Atlanta's weekly luncheon honoring the week's top football players and coaches and the event is concluded with a guest speaker. This week however, the guests were members of the University of Georgia's 1980 National Championship team. Today's blog is a recollection of my experience at this event as well as a compilation of the stories that were told about the great Junkyard Dawg defense. Enjoy!


The smell of great food, and the discussion of how good or bad different teams are is going on, and football is definitely in the air.  But this wasn’t the campus of Georgia, Auburn or Georgia Tech.  It was the Fox Sports Grill at Atlantic Station at the Touchdown Club of Atlanta weekly luncheon.  And on this day Buck Belue reminded us all of something that most Georgia fans and college football fans seem to forget…”Herschel never played defense.” The 1980 National Champions had a RB that rushed for 1,616 yards and 15 touchdowns.  Yes, they also had a pretty good QB in Belue and receivers in Amp Arnold and Lindsay Scott.  But their defense was the anchor to their undefeated season, and eventual title.  The Junkyard Dawgs never gave up more than 21 points in any game and against a high-powered Notre Dame offense in the title game, they gave up just 7 points.  The Junkyard Dawg defense was created, motivated and loved by none other than 3-time National Championship coach Erkskine “Erk” Russell.  According to 1980 Team Captain Frank Ros (pronounced Ross), as the I-Formation was becoming more popular the Split 60 defense was used to stop the Veer and Option, but Russell morphed the defense to move the Sam linebacker (strong side) to a D-tackle, and then would move back out, and the end would shift back in to stop the I-form, Iso, and Dive plays. Thus with the combination of speed, intelligence and motivation, this defense earned their nickname“Junkyard Dawgs”.  Frank Ros, Bob Kelly and Robert Miles all agreed that their defense was centered around Russell.  For instance there is a pretty famous picture of Erk that most college football fans of that era have seen with Erk’s head gushing blood, but this wasn’t from his famous head butts of defensive lineman. You see he created a tradition with his defensive lineman where in pre-game warm ups he played a game called “Bull In The Ring”. For those that don’t know, it’s when one player would stand in the middle of a circle of other players, and they would come from all over to hit the man in the middle, one at a time. Well, Erk would stand in the middle and he would butt his head into his player’s chest.  He had a player that just moved from linebacker to D-line who didn’t know this, and he dropped his head and the screws on the helmet cut Erk’s wrinkled bald cranium.  Frank Ros recalls that before going out on the field that Erk stopped him at the door, swiped his hand across his head, and wiped the blood on Frank’s jersey.  Ros told us “At that point I would have run through the wall for him”.


Russell had an uncanny ability to motivate his players by knowing their personalities and loving his players.  All the players on the panel agreed that Russell’s coaching style was to never criticize the athlete, and instead he would only critique the action.  Never saying “you screwed that up” or negative statements that would potentially put someone down, but instead he loved and respected his players enough to use positive motivations and only talk about the action.  In closing, there are two other notable points that I found worthy of mentioning.  Bob Kelly recalled that when the Dawgs lost homecoming in 1979, Coach Vince Dooley moved curfew up to the moment they returned back to the dorms. Then the next morning (Sunday morning) the trainers woke them up for practice at 7am.  At this point they still had a JV team who was going to play Clemson Sunday afternoon. After practice was over, the JV was put on the bus with a sandwich and sent to the stadium.  After that experience they didn’t want to lose another game so they just went undefeated the next year. They all also agreed that in their era, having a Junior Varsity team and everyone having to play on the Scout teams helped propel them to the Elite.  That and bloody Tuesday’s! As Buck Belue said referring to Bloody Tuesday’s, “When you have that #1 offense going against the #1 defense in practice how could anyone beat us.”


Personally, I had a great time filling in for Andy at the Touchdown club, and I honestly enjoyed hearing about Erk and his Junkyard Dawgs.  As a former high school football coach, it was nice to hear that a coach treated his players the right way, and could still win.  Now days too many coaches think they have to belittle and berate players to get them to perform, and Vince Dooley and Erk Russell remind us of how you can win and treat players as people.  Coaching means you are the teacher, and these legends were the perfect example.  In conclusion, I have to give a shout out to the Georgia High School Lineman of the Week Joe Turner, who was noted for making 11 tackles, and played offensive line in a game in 2009 with a broken wrist!  Now that’s a beast!  Thank you to Andy and Original Retro Brand for the opportunity to write this blog.

My New Blog Picture!

This is my new branding. Thank you Gordon Linderman. If you are interested in working with a GREAT graphic artist get at me! I can hook you up with THE MAN!

Do I REALLY Need To Say Anything.....

I must say....I wish I was cool enough to pull that look off for Halloween. I would have to buy this album if it ever dropped.


Thanks Dennis! 


Happy Fall!

Why Cam Newton won't win the Heisman Trpohy.

To begin this article, I would like to point one thing out. I am NOT an Auburn hater. As stated in my profile, I am quite the opposite. I am an Auburn fan (when they are not playing Georgia) and my school's most beloved Head Coach and Athletic Director played at Auburn. My all time favorite athlete played at Auburn and one of my dearest friends is an Auburn grad (wud up Phil!). I felt this was a needed intro statement since early today I got hammered for a comment made in haste regarding a Tebow-esque article. So, now that we've established that we can move on.

I would like to start this blog by wishing everyone a happy first BS week! Oh wait! (My apologies I left out the "C" on accident.) Let's try this again...happy first BCS week! Now that we are getting a clearer picture of college football's National Championship race, we are also getting a clear picture of who the real Heisman Trophy candidates are. Jake Locker, Denard Robinson, Terrelle Pryor have all stayed on the short list with losses. While Kellen Moore, LaMichael James and Cameron Newton have become the Big Three in the conversation. With their teams being undefeated and with James and Newton playing big time schedules I am going to go ahead and rule out Kellen Moore. Even though the rankings don't prove Boise State a fraud the people who vote Heisman should see right through them and that is why Moore won't take the trophy.

So now we've narrowed the Heisman down to two.

James is blowing up Pac-10 defenses, with 848 yards rushing, 87 yards receiving and 10 touchdowns. Newton is exploding onto the SEC scene with 1,278 yards passing, 13 passing touchdowns, five interceptions, 860 yards rushing with 12 touchdowns. To summarize, Newton has 2,138 total yards and is responsible for 25 touchdowns! Moore is the only one kind of close to this number with 1,555 total yards and 16 touchdowns.

Currently, you would say Newton is the only dog in the fight. He is a beast! The next best player has nine touchdowns less and 583 less total yards! He alone has more yards running than the only Running Back on the list! This being the only season you will see Cam Newton playing college football, you could easily say this is a done deal...but in the words of the famous Lee Corso "Not so fast my friend!" What would keep Newton from college football's most coveted individual award?

Let's flash back to the end of the summer (September 14th, 2010). The temperature here in Atlanta was still hovering around 90 degrees and Georgia fans were talking about Marcus Lattimore's ridiculous beat down of the Georgia defense. When the news came down that Reggie Bush would forfeit his Heisman Trophy for allegedly taking money and gifts from agents valued at over $200,000 while still playing at the University of Southern California, Reggie respectfully gave the trophy back after being ruled ineligible as well as not honoring the "integrity" qualification of the Heisman. Why is this important to the 2010 race?

Because there is the possibility that Newton's past mistakes may come back to haunt him now. You see, the 6-6, 245lb. Quarterback did not start his football career at Auburn and work his way to starter. He actually started out his college career at Florida as a redshirt backup Quarterback to Tim Tebow. During his time at Florida Newton went six of 12 for 54 yards and no touchdowns in his two seasons with the Gators. He also was arrested for allegedly stealing a laptop and then throwing it out the dorm room window while being questioned by police. The charges were eventually dropped since Newton was a first-time offender and his punishment was a pre-trial intervention program. Now the story goes that Newton did not steal the laptop but was simply a victim in the deal. He states that he bought the laptop from another student, at a “Tom Stimus” super cheap price, and that he should have known better. Newton has been open and honest about the incident calling it a mistake, and his responsibility to know better. So, why should this keep him from winning the trophy?

There are two reasons why the best player in college football won't win the Heisman trophy this year. The first is because even though Newton has said the right things and served his punishment, there is still the fact that he threw the laptop out the window. Why would a guy who didn't know the machine was stolen -- throw it out the window after being questioned by police? I think this question leads to the second reason, which is the Heisman Trust is already feeling like they have a tarnished image from the Bush scandal. So, do they want to take a chance on a questionable situation? I really don't think they do. My opinion is that they would rather give the award to a squeaky clean character guy than to someone who has a "past" because they don't want the controversy in 2010. Since Newton won't be coming back to Auburn in 2011, he won't take the stiff-arm trophy.

However, I could be completely wrong. Now, that ESPN basically owns the rights to the award, the Ego Sports Programming Network doesn't like to be wrong. The entire Heisman talk has revolved around Newton and I honestly think they could flex their muscles and get their way. Both situations would be completely unfortunate. Television companies should not be able to lobby for candidates just as the Trust shouldn't be able to lobby against them. Are they? That is my latest conspiracy theory. I have to say, I would be a liar if I told you I was sold on Newton's on-field character; the fact is Newton is by far the best player in the country and  deserves the trophy --should he be a finalist.

Not sure I am doing this right because it's been a LONG time since I have cited articles. But here are my sources.


Heisman Trophy
ESPN: Heisman Race
Heisman Mission Statement
ESPN: Newton's Stats
Newton's Arrest
Newton Addressing His Arrest
Reggie Bush "Cash & Carry"

Tom Stimus

Teaching The Hard Lesson

Well as usual the loyal haters, nay-sayers and pessimists made it a point to reach out to their Georgia friend today to let me know about the recent arrest of Caleb King (which I already knew). Of course one of them being a Georgia State Football blogger who truly eats up anything that comes out of Athens that is negative. The only thing more noticeable than his hatred for UGA sports is his love for GSU and FSU sports. This morning, I come back from a meeting to an IM that says "Caleb King got arrested" and the text message from my Auburn friend "I am out for Vandy. I saw Caleb King got arrested." Both of these were obviously before they knew what the situation was. But the point still the same....WE WANT TO SEE GEORGIA CONTINUE TO EMBARRASS THEMSELVES.

I don't really understand the point in it other than kicking a man when he's already down. That is the only angle I see in that behavior. Fine...GSU will ALWAYS have a squeaky clean program under Bill Curry it will never be explosive, dynamic, or even fun to watch (see Kentucky in 90-96). Auburn on the other hand is still mad at losing four straight. So that one is what it is.

On to my point.

Recently coach Richt (to my knowledge) has put a zero tolerance policy in place regarding players and the law. Because let's face it, our players have seen the inside of a jail cell more than T.I., Gucci Mane, Lil Wayne and Lindsay Lohan combined in the last twelve months. This policy is meant to keep players from getting into stupid situations, and because..well...everyone else in society has to follow the law. He has already acted on this once, when he kicked Demetre Baker off the team and we thought this was supposed to begin the revival  with our players. It was supposed to set the example that coach Richt was serious about this and that Georgia Football needed to be held to a higher standard.

Now insert Caleb King.

Caleb is a starting running back, and in this blogger's opinion the best one on the team. So does zero tolerance apply? Or do we go to the three strikes your out method? Personally, you have to send him packing. To steal a line from Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday "You make a ritual out of it; people are gonna respect you for it." If players know that you are not going to tolerate their immature "I a football player" attitude then they won't have one. They have be taught that they are not God's greatest gift to the world because they play football at Georgia. News flash: NO ONE CARES! The law is going to treat you no different than the rest of us.

How do you do that? You stick with being consistent. If you warned them that being kicked off the team and losing their scholarship was the punishment for breaking the law then you have to show them. Again, I love Caleb King. He's one of my favorite players on this roster, but unfortunately he didn't hold up his end of the bargain. Players today are not being required to act as higher citizens' like they once were, you're not being asked to wear your dress pants with your jersey to class on Fridays or to address everyone all the time with "Yes M'am" and "No Sir" heck...I bet they don't even have to look adults in the eyes when they are talking. They are only being asked to do the exact same thing the rest of us in society are not asked to do but EXPECTED to do. Why is that so hard?

Again, I love Caleb but you have to stick to your guns or lose the respect and control of your players, coaches, fans and anyone else that hears the story. If you said zero tolerance then stick to zero tolerance regardless of the crime. I know the ticket was paid, and I know it was only $300, but the point here is you knew you broke the law. You knew you had a ticket, and unless you handled it when the policy came down the treatment should be the same for everyone. As much as it hurts our chances of winning this year, it's better to be a disciplined team, than to be a winning to me. The goal is to help boys become men. NOT win football games, that should be secondary.

Roddy White Is The Best Defense The 49ers Have Ever Seen!

By now we've all heard about Roddy's game saving strip of Nate Clements that lead to the Matt Bryant game winning field goal. But to me the funniest thing is that this is not Roddy's first rodeo with stripping San Francisco defensive backs. Some may not remember but this was reminiscent of last year's game in San Francisco, the Falcons are driving down the field and winning the game 35-10 on a second and nine from the Niners'  13 yard line. Roddy run a slant route to the inside of the field. Dre Bly jumps the route and starts the other way. But at his own 20 yard line Bly starts doing the Deion celebration! Roddy continues chasing him down and by the time he gets to the 40 Roddy has stripped the ball from Bly and Todd McClure recovers the fumble.

Dre Bly Stripped By Roddy White (NFL doesn't let you embed videos)



The announcers start giving Bly crap and point out he had nothing to celebrate. For a few reasons White had torched Bly for 8 catches 210 yards and two touchdowns including a 90 yard touchdown catch where he just burned Bly on a stop and go route.

Enter 2010 the 49ers leading and the Falcons starting to drive down the field, Nate Clements takes a Matt Ryan pass down the sideline and who other than Roddy White comes down and strips the football, and it's recovered by Harvey Dahl! If I am the San Francisco 49ers I do not EVER want to see Roddy White again! From an offensive perspective...he has burned them for 15 catches, 314 yards and two touchdowns. From a defensive perspective he has two tackles and two forced fumbles. With a total of 10 points as a result of the turnovers! I know I am a week late here, but I felt the need to bring it up.

Roddy White Strips Nate Clements (NFL doesn't allow you to embed video)


RODDY WHITE 24
SF 49ers                 0

Welcome To Athens Georgia Where The Pansies Play!

Honestly this is not what I personally think. But welcome to what the rest of America now sees.....

As many of you may now know (since this happen last week) Georgia's new Athletic Director made a HORRIBLE decision and he's not even been AD six months! Last week we were informed that Greg McGarity decided to back out (throat clear..) excuse me..."mutually agreed" to cancel Georgia's home and home with Oregon. With the excuses like "it's too far" and "we don't believe this model is ideal to win National Championships". Can someone explain to me how playing 7 home games and 2  of them being against Sissy Mary State (just for you Robert Lammers) will help us in winning National Championships? I don't want 7 home games unless the we are playing at least 6 decent games! Currently in 2010 we have 3...Tech, Vanderbilt and Arkansas! Boy those are QUALITY games, that will help us win a BCS Title! Here is the problem...we're NOT FLORIDA, ALABAMA, USC (Southern Cal) or OHIO STATE! We can't play crap teams and get into the title game because we're not one of the big boys!

See in the greatest conference in college football you have 3 tiers. You have the "arrived" currently that group is Alabama, Florida and LSU (though they shouldn't be). Why are they the first tier? Because they have won 5 out of the last 7 BCS titles! The second tier as of 10/4/10 is Auburn, South Carolina, Arkansas. Then...there is everyone else. Most years the Dawgs sit in the second tier like a Nook to a Amazon Kindle! Completely happy to be there and glad to be acknowledged. But here is my issue....the University of Georiga is ALWAYS in the top 10 of most profitable programs in the country, but yet our major sports dwell in the land of mediocrity at best. How do we change that? Two ways...1) Pay coaches 2) PLAY BIG TIME TEAMS!

Let us look at the second of these two. I seem to remember a year when Auburn was the best team in the coutry and they were overlooked for the 2004 BCS game for Oklahoma and Southern Cal. Why? Because they played Citadel (and because the previous year they embarassed the media by losing the first two games when being a pre-season favorite). Not because they weren't as good as OU or USC, but because they replaced USC ('02 & '03) with The Citadel they were rejected by the BCS Championship game! Now, looking at the tier system, why would that happen? Because they weren't the media darlings/top teir of the SEC. When you are the second tier in the SEC you MUST play USC, Oregon, Nebraska and whoever else will step it up and play you.
Your mentality should be that of Southern Miss...Anyone...Anywhere...Anytime. That is the ONLY way you can get in the first tier. I don't care that we're the SEC, I don't care we play in the toughest conference in college football. Yes, it's great as a fan to travel, but...as my man Ric Flair used to say "To be the man, you gotta beat the man" and playing Idaho State and UL-Lafayette doesn't do it!


McGarity's response to this is something like "we're adding Clemson for a home and home" that's great! If you plan to add them back in for every season. Until then we've
 just made ourselves the laughing stock of college football. We loss to the lowest of low Big XII teams and in the same week we back out of a series with the Pac-10 juggernaut Oregon. Because we want to go back to the "good ole boy" style of scheduling. Hello Greg McGarity! This ain't Florida! You ain't an Assistant to Foley anymore (or are you)! You have to EARN top status and we ain't got it! I know you're not a young man, but catch up PLEASE! Before you hurt our ability to recruit!

 What's on Justin's iPod this week? Also Kindles are where it's at!



Coaching Changes Won’t Fix Georgia’s Woes

Being a lifelong Georgia fan and eight-year season ticket holder, I have come to realize that we have a fanbase that expects of SEC titles (not sure why). This season started no different, a win against University of Louisiana-Lafayette had the Georgia faithful solidifying this mentality. Then there was the downturn. Why? Is it Georgia’s lack of tackling? Is it A.J. Green’s four-game suspension? Yes. But is that it? No.

See, Georgia is lacking something that every team we’ve played since Week 2 has. It’s called leadership. It’s not coaching leadership, but on-field player leadership. This is evident in each of their four losses.

Example 1

Ealey fumbles in the red zone late against South Carolina, and they cave.

Example 2

Arkansas holds Georgia to a three-and-out late, desperately in need of a defensive stand and they cave.

Example 3

In Starkville the entire game showed a lack of leadership! There were at least three times in the fourth quarter a leader was needed, and Mississippi State found theirs as we continued to look for our way out of the proverbial Egypt with no Moses.

Example 4

Against Colorado the minute that AJ left the game, the demeanor changed. They then caved again in the third quarter giving up a touchdown the next drive! Then a field goal capped off a nine-minute drive! Still with a chance King fumbles, because no one steps up and gets these players together as a unit. No one makes the big play that changes everything.

You can put it on coaching as a lot of folks are trying to do, but if you ever played football you realize that both players and coaches win and lose games. The coaching has not changed in 10 years, and it doesn’t need to. The system works. But as a former football player, not only do coaches need to be leaders but so do players.

There is always a group of players that are the vocal leaders and the example leaders and right now we’re lacking both. I do think they are there, but I think they are all young. To freshman and sophomores who think “it’s not my turn," well, it is your turn, because we know the upperclassmen aren’t going to do it!

Coaches can’t make this happen, and they can’t recruit it. There are only a few Tim Tebows in a lifetime. Most leaders just “show up.” In my years as a player and former high school football coach, I can tell you leadership shows up in the most unexpected people at the most unexpected time.

My hopes as a Georgia football fan are that it shows up FAST before the redneck faithful actually get their way and Richt gets canned! True Georgia fans look at the body of work and realize this man has built a respectable program and one bad year isn’t enough to fire a two-time SEC champion!

By the way, there are only five schools with multiple SEC titles since 1990: Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia. Yes, we’re the only one without a national title, but that is not enough to fire an incredible coach. How long was Vince Dooley at Georgia before he got a National Title? Sixteen years.

I can also tell you I know this view point won’t be well received. No one ever wants to come out and question kids. Coaches don’t do their call-in show calling out players and they don’t go to the media and say, “we ain’t got no leadership.” Great coaches (Richt) take the responsibility on themselves and they deflect any of that from their kids.

Lastly on the “firing” idea, other than it being just plain stupid, what basis do people have for this ridiculousness? Because they give money? Because they watch a game on TV? Because they are a 30-season ticket holder? That’s not enough reason for you to think your opinion on firing a coach should happen! Fire this crappy Athletic Director first! That’s another blog.

If Jeezy's Payin' LeBron Then I'm Payin' Dwayne Wade...

Let's start out by making one thing clear...Jezzy ain't paying ANYONE in the 2010 NBA Free Agency period, and he won't be. Because even though he claims "I got money" I know for a fact that his money ain't long enough to pay D. Wade, King James, Joe Johnson or heck...even Jon Koncak. If he could pay...he'd be an NBA owner. Jay-Z on the other hand is an NBA owner (well he' s a 1 percent-er), can pay, and is REALLY trying for LeBron. Last week a 225 ft x 95 ft billboard was erected right outside Jim Dolan's Madison Square Gardens office! With the title "the blueprint for greatness" and the Net's logo (notice it's in all lower case though). This went up the night before LeBron's visit to MSG. HOW GREAT IS THAT! Dolan of course was upset, called the league office, and then Sean "Jay-Z" Carter (you know...the guy who only owns 1% of the Nets). Seriously...why would you call the minority owner as if he erected this thing himself, that is lame Dolan...REAL lame! Almost as lame as telling LeBron you want to make him the first NBA Billionare and the way to do it is to play for the Knicks. C'mon he's not gonna fall for the banana in the tail pipe trick!

Now...on to the rest of the suitors....the Clippers, Heat and Cavs all threw their name in the ring as well all to no avail (so far) and "LeBron watch 2010" continues...but the most interesting thing that's happened so far came out of Chicago. We all know the Bulls are the "other" big name team interested in signing Bron Bron, but again...like everyone outside the Nets their creativity in wooing him was about as creative as Memphis Bleek's albums at Roc-A-Fella. It is what Leo Burnett Worldwide did on behalf of the Chicago Bulls fans that is intriguing and borderline creepy but worth writing about. The monkey on the back of LeBron will always be "Is he as good as MJ?"; especially if he goes to Chicago. So, instead of just ignoring such a big question LBW decided to HIT HIM WITH IT! On July 1st, Leo Burnett Worldwide Advertising agency sent a pair of Air Jordan Alpha 1's (OG colorway) to Lebron's doorstep with a ticket shaped note on the inside of the box that said "You're A King But, can you live up to a legend?" WOW! Then later that day they sent him 7 empty ring boxes with a note that said "Can you fill these boxes?"

I personally don't think LeBron is leaving Cleveland, I think his ego loves watching ESPN, CNN, Fox Sports, Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, , MSNBC, Larry King, etc. speculate about his next move. It makes him feel good, important and relevant. Honestly we all want to feel relevant. But do we all 24-hour coverage of where we're going to work next? Do you think McDonald's or Arby's would go to these length's to get a store manager? Maybe Wendy's would....

Lastly, my beloved Hawks keep Joey Johnson at 6 years $119 million. Does that sound familiar to anyone....Jon Koncak 6 years $13 million, in 1989. That paid Jon Contract more than Jordan, Johnson and Larry Bird at that time. Is JJ going to be a repeat?

P.S. My first blog is completed and I hope you enjoy it.