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“Aztecs-New Mexico-Reunion”

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He was the last football coach to have a huge impact on a New Mexico Lobos football program, and that was a long time ago. Rocky Long isn’t big on history of where he’s been and what he’s done, but his exit in Albuquerque was pretty surprising, just as surprising as his elevation to be head coach at San Diego State. His Aztecs, who have struggled for four straight games, head into New Mexico to meet a staggering Lobos team. Coached by former Notre Dame coach Bob Davie, it’s been a trying two years for the Lobos since Davie took them to a (9-4) record just 3-years ago. In fact, New Mexico has had just 2-winning seasons in 11-years, and a composite (40-91) record, since Long was dismissed. New Mexico’s loss is SDSU’s gain. Long talked about his team and the road travelled at his weekly press conference.

Important conference game
We play close games-that what we play

Lobos have Arizona State transfer at QB-will start
Think they will change the offense some
We have to prepare for 2-types of offense.

Have seen some video of ASU transfer QB

Ryan Agnew will start..
Christian Chapman will play one series in first half and some in second half
Chapman looks better in practice-eon’t know if he will be 100%-we’ll see
Chapman won’t scramble as much as Agnew does
We will throw the ball more with Agnew that Christian
Christian-we have to find out what he can do
1-thing to look okay in practice-another thing to do it in game

Team gets emotional in wins and losses
We are who we are-very young-inexperienced-very inconsistent
Kids have played really hard-but make mistakes
We have peaks and valleys….that’s not going to change
You play 23-24 young guys-that’s what you get

What we’re not getting-big chunk runs as we had in the past
Humphrey-Penny would get to the second level-not getting 60Y runs
We have to get explosive plays throwing the ball now.

Ryan Agnew has made a lot of plays to help us win
Juwan Washington has a chance to play this week.

We’re playing okay on defense-but turnover ratio not in our favor
We have not caused enough turnovers on defense…just 9-takeaways this years
Yardage wise-playing better than last year..
Not giving offense a chance on short field this year.

We have tried bunch of guys back there on return games…can’t drop kicks.
Young guys have lots of talent-drop ball-go back out there
Veterans drop balls in practice-too-so we go with young guys.
Young kids make mistakes ..pressure situation..stress level…
Not going to use Juwan Washington to return kicks when healthy
Kick returns you can block and help return man
Punt return-chance you get knocked out-cover guys get there quick.

Going back to Albuquerque-not much of emotional rush-it’s business
I have a lot of friends there
Really tough to build New Mexico-New Mexico State-not a lot of recruits
Purely population problem…1-Division 1-athletes per 100,000-in state.
Not sure there are 10-Division 1-prospets in state.

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“College Football-Some Good-Some Bad”

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It has been a season of surprises and disappointments in college football here in Southern California. A couple of good teams, a couple of struggling teams, and fans staying away in droves.

SAN DIEGO STATE….We’ve come to expect greatness with the product that Rocky Long puts on the field, but when they lose we come away disappointed. The Aztecs are (6-2), but haven’t played well in 3-weeks, since that emotion filled win at Boise State. Yes they beat Air Force, struggled but edged San Jose, then fell apart at Nevada. A backup QB-Ryan Agnew, a cadre of young running backs led by Chase Jasmin, and backup fullbacks have held their own as the club waits for veteran QB-Christian Chapman and lead back Juwan Washington to return to play. What was supposed to a strength, a rock solid offensive line, hasn’t played all that well this mid season. And the defense, which used to stuff run games, chase quarterbacks, gets sacks and turnovers, isn’t doing it this year compared to years gone by. Maybe it’s the youth across the roster. Maybe it’s the lack of big play wide receivers. Maybe it’s too much stress on the run game. There’s still another tough road game to come, at Fresno. And yet a (9-3) record would be solid. Oddly, fans aren’t rallying around the program yet, despite the defection of the Chargers. They announce crowds of 30,000 or so at the stadium. Insiders say SDSU routinely inflates the crowd numbers, who show up. it is a strange relationship in our community.

USD…..One of the best 1-AA programs in the country, a non scholarship program, that gets post season bids, and has twice beaten scholarship schools in the post-season playoffs. It is a unique atmosphere at the school. They get degrees from a fine institution. The do put some players into the NFL. And quarterback Anthony Lawrence, a brilliant star at Grossmont High, stayed home to go to USD, and has now rewritten all the passing records in the Torero book, going over the 11,000-yard passing mark. They play in the Pioneer League, a loose knit group of non-scholarship schools scattered across the Midwest and South. Dayton and Davidson are among their competitors, but the town has not responded despite the great job longtime coach Dale Lindsey has done up on the hill. Last Saturday’s home game, where they won their 23rd straight home game, drew just 1,047 fans to Torero Stadium.

UCLA….The excitement over the hiring of Chip Kelly has worn off. Reality has set in. It will take time to rally the once proud Bruins program. And now some truth comes front and center, what Kelly ran at Oregon, when he captured the fancy of the nation with his video game offense, cannot be reproduced. They don’t have a run game. They are force feeding a freshman quarterback Dorian Robinson. They don’t play much defense. This (2-6) record, that started 0-4), is the worst mark since 1943 And crowds at the Rose Bowl have disappeared, They drew the smallest turnout since 1997, this past Saturday, some 41,848 showed up. This was a program that averaged 76,650 in 2014. A long road back surely.

USC….Clay Helton came on board and did well early, but the Trojans aren’t doing well now. When was USC at (4-4) last? A while back, almost 2-decades back. They are playing JT Daniels, an 18-year old freshman, who got hurt just a couple of weeks ago. The top running back is a transfer from tiny UC-Davis. They don’t seem to have put many players in the NFL in recent years. And the Trojan faithful isn’t real happy with the product on the field, or even the new look to the renovated LA Coliseum. And to top it off, they just played a home game last weekend, drawing just 47,406, the smallest turnout since 2001. The Pete Carroll, USC-Texas era, and crowds of 90,000 seem long ago. USC, not what it was prior.

It’s strange. San Diego fans, displaced Chargers followers, aren’t supporting the only team in town, SDSU. USD’s leadership cannot figure out how to market a really good small college program. In LA, they don’t like USC’s head coach, and at UCLA alums are wondering out loud what they hired in this new coach. Unless these teams start winning, there will get empty seats, and lots of them up in LA. What a strange fall this has turned into.

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“Dodgers Blue-Mistakes-Missed Opportunity”

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The Red Sox-Dodgers World Series is over.

Boston has another ring. Los Angeles has more frustration.

The Bosox big hitting team beat the Blue and its mistake prone manager.

The Red Sox can beat you anyway you want to play, small-ball or long ball.

The Dodgers did not hit, and their in season strength, home runs, and quality pitching disappeared.

David Price came up big again in this impressive series, making people forget the fact he was (0-9) in his career in postseason starts before this Fall Classic began.

Clayton Kershaw gave LA all he could, but the scoreboard will show he is (1-4) in closeout games in post season in his career.

But this series was in part about the Red Sox spraying hits all over Fenway Park and then in Chavez Ravine.

But this series also has to be about a second fall of mistakes by Manager Davie Roberts, the mishandling of the LA bullpen.

Call it mis-use, or maybe over-use, but what we saw last fall, in the series collapse against Houston, was revisited again with bad outings by the bullpen in this Boston series.

Or maybe I should say, bad decisions by the manager, when to use and how to use his bullpen.

A year ago, LA used the bullpen 32-times in that seven game series, in losing to the Astros. The bullpen a year ago had a (4.35-ERA) against Houston. Brandon Morrow pitched in all 7-games, and was fatigued. Kelley Jansen pitched in 6-of those games. The entire bullpen gave up 6-homers.

And now as we stumbled thru Sunday night’s game, the same set of glaring stats blinked infront of your eyes.

Roberts used the LA pen 25-times in this series. Jansen pitched 5-times, Ryon Madson was banged around 3-times. The 6-core relievers in this series had a combined (7.07-ERA), gave up 12-runs in 15-critical innings, and served up 5-home runs.

Pulling starters early, going to your key relievers early or asking them to go multiple innings, a couple of times, goes against the grain of how you used your staff during the entire season, a season that got you to postseason.

Pulling Rich Hill early Saturday night after he had given up just 1-hit, was ridiculous. Just like using Kenley Jansen multiple innings in multiple appearances. Last year it was abuse of reliever Brandon Morrow, including brining him in in the 3rd inning of a game, and asking a guy coming off multiple surgeries, to pitch multiple innings.

Sure its a pressure packed time in October, but to do radical things with your arms, makes no sense at all.

Kenta Maeda was a multiple inning guy, a converted starter, but he pitched just 3-innings. Ryan Madson allowed lots of inherited runners to score, and they kept going back to him.

Alex Wood pitched only 2-plus innings. Pedro Baez was made to work multiple innings. And it went on and on.

Yes the Dodgers were hitting (.191) in this series, but what happened on the mound made it even more difficult. Roberts sitting his big left-handed bats in games 1-2 further clouds his decision making responsibility.

Of course you could also sight the fact that the A’s, Brewers/ Astros, did some strange things with their pithing staffs this month, but it sure didn’t seem right at the most important time of the year to do so many unorthodox things with your pitching staffs. And none of those teams were playing last week.,

Maybe it was never meant to be.

Maybe Boston was always too good. They won 108 in the regular season, out dueling the big hitting Yankees. They stormed thru a pretty tough American League playoff series that included Houston-Cleveland and red-hot Oakland.

The Bosox wind up (11-3) in this October stretch of games. They went (7-1) on the road in the most important time of the year. They hit (.364) with runners in scoring position.

The left hand says it was a fun Dodgers season. The right hand says it was another October failure, triggered by the Manager’s inability to use his bullpen correctly.

So it’s 2018, and the Dodgers, for all the money they spent on players over the last group of years, have not been able to do what they last did in 1988, win a World Series.

We all like Dave Roberts, person, player, baseball mind. But Dodgers fans can’t like what he’s done the last two World Series.

1–mistake led to another, and another, and it just cascaded down on them, via the use of the pen..

Missed opportunities? No. Mistakes with the bullpen? Definitely yes.

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“Dodgers-Calling the Shots-Taking the Heat”

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Who manages the Dodgers?

Dave Roberts of course, the face and voice of Dodges baseball in the LA dugout, finishing up at 3rd season at the helm.

But who runs the Dodgers, a faceless front office, that does research, and hands down edicts from above.

Dave Roberts is likely told who to put, and where, in the lineup, and what type of matchups, the analytics team upstairs wants to see.

Yes you can say it has worked, as the Dodgers won another NL West title, but the reality is the team is about to get knocked out of another World Series.

Managing is about production at the most important time of the year. Hitters, pitchers, fielders.

It cannot always be about just the stats, the matchups etc.

And so LA is in another hole, down (2-0) heading to the Friday night third game with the Red Sox.

The stat sheet does not lie about what has happened at Fenway Park in games 1-2.

Boston sprayed hits all over the field. The Dodgers were trying to employ launch angle baseball, and hit pitches out of the yard.

How good is Boston? They hit a league high (.282) at home this year, but it’s not just JD Martinez home runs. It’s putting the ball in play with a ton of guys hitting (.270-plus).

How good is Boston?. They hit (.415) in postseason with men in scoring position and 2-out. They’ve hit (.297) in the post season games so far, with a (.406) slugging percentage.

That’s how good they are.

Yes they got decent starts out of Chris Sale and David Price too. and they have those power arms in the pen..

The Dodgers, are not hitting good….a team batting average (.175) so far in the series.

The Blue have just a (.235) on base percentage vs the Sox, and an anemic (.222) slugging percentage…this from a team that hammered home runs all year long.

The guts of the batting order, Cody Bellinger, Max Muncy, Matt Kemp, Christian Taylor and Yasiel Puig, are a combined (3-27).

So this team is in trouble. Find me anyone who believes LA can win 4-of the next 5-games against a Red Sox team that won 108-during the regular season, and is mopping up the competition.

But here’s the most galling thing about where the Dodgers are, heading into their Friday night life-death game.

The front office, dictating lineups, had their manager sit their top power hitters, all lefthanded, on the bench, for chunks of game one, and virtually all of game two, because they were facing lefthandeded starting pitching.

Did you know 89-home runs sat on the bench for nearly 8-innings in the 2nd game loss, when David Price and the bullpen were dealing?>

The World Series is the best-vs-the-best. The Dodgers analytical team is hurting the Dodgers team this postseason.

And in a sad comparison, it was the Dodgers mis-use, over-use of their pitching staff this week a year ago that cost them that World Series. You remember the bullpen burnout situatiion?

If the Dodgers go down this weekend, and it ends badly, it will be more than just a good Red Sox batting order and bullpen that did the damage.

It’s a shame that the upstairs at Dodgers Stadium is hammering Dave Roberts as much as Mookie Betts, JD Martinez and Andrew Benitendi etc-etc.

Let the best players play. Let the manager manage too.

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“Broncos-What Have You Done For Me Lately”

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They’re not happy up there, and rightfully so.

Football is important, really important, to the city of Denver, and thus there is always the demand to win when it comes to the Orange & Blue Broncos.

And it’s not happening right now, and the President and GM is under fire.

John Elway was all things to Broncos football, for decades it was all about wins, playoff games, comebacks and Super Bowl Rings.

Into the front office he rode, but times have turned bad in Denver now. .

His roster is a mixed bag of young players, street free agents, and draft picks who have yet to turn out.

What was once a fierce defense, led by sack artist Von Miller, has been supplanted by younger players, not up to the task yet, nearly across the board. Miller cannot do it all by himself..

They put together a 34M package-to lure QB-Case Keenum away from his star-studded season last fall with the Vikings, but he has been little more than pedestrian.

There are young players who have yet to arrive, 1st round draft pick Garret Bolles at left tackel, struggling on the job. High draft pick CB-Bradley Robey has been nothing special in the secondary, now in his 3rd year.

They spent in free agency, burning 2M in cap space for 3-games before they dumped ex Raiders punter Marquette King.

Ditto for the signing of ex-Cowboys young OL-Ron Leary, who has been hurt for two seasons.

Elway is saddled with a 14M-payment next year to WR-Demaryius Thomas, who has never turned into a game-breaker, just some guy breaking the bank.

Young wideout Cody Latimer, with game breaking speed, never found consistency, and went off to the Giants

Once up a time, they had greatness in the offense built around TE-Shannon Sharpe. You cannot name the tight ends now, and they don’t catch passes.

They ran off spirited veteran CB-Aqib Talib, leaving Chris Harris to do it all on the corner, and he cannot play all 4-positions at once.

There are still some good young players there. Brad Chubb, at the other LB spot shows flashes. Rookie RBs-Royce Freeman and Phil Lindsey at times look like ‘Thunder & Lightning’ in the backfield. And Chubb’s best years are just ahead upfront.

He’s got a coaching quandry too. Did he pick the wrong head coach in Vance Joseph, he of 8-game and 4-game losing streaks over his first two years? They let go of Off Coordinator Mike McCoy. Did not retain Edf Coord legend Wade Philips a couple of years ago. There’s chaos on both sides of the ball.

The biggest issue. There’s no consistency at quarterback, and that is on Elway.

Alot of Broncos bucks went to Keenum, who looks nothing better than a journeyman.

He’s wasted five draft picks at the QB position. There was Brock Osweiler, then Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, Chad Kelly and Zac Dysart. All were supposed to give hope to the future of the Broncos, and now none of them are there.

It’s a sorry state when the best QB in the building might be the retired QB-serving as GM.

And for John Elway, the retired QB-turned-GM is to blame for the QB problems that exist, as well as the rest of the roster.

For Elway, what have you done for me lately? Not much, and that’s a real problem in Denver.

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