College Football-As Good As It Gets”

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It’s the way you’d want a championship game, for all the marbles, all the trophies, all the rings to end.

The game winning touchdown scored with (:01) left on the clock.

Clemson (35-31) over Alabama. Thank you Tigers.

DeShaun Watson was dazzling, finishing off a brilliant 3-year career with a 1-minute drive and the game winning TD pass against the unbeaten super-power Crimson Tide.

The kid from Gainesville, who went to the school in South Carolina, graduates in 3-years time, and returns to campus with a (32-3) record as a starter, and a championship trophy..

The finish last night was payback for last year’s Alabama (45-40) win. But this Clemson victory was decisive.

The look on the face of iconic coach Nick Saban was priceless. He could not believe what he was seeing. His players could not believe what was happening.

When the guys wearing Orange were done, the guys wearing Crimson were Black and Blue. Against the top defense in the nation, the one that entered the game giving up just (244) yards per game, the one with 15-TDs by their defense and special teams, the numbers the Tigers put up were unbelievable.

Watson says goodbye to ACC football with this farewell gift. He finished with (420) yards passing and 43-rushing. He was (36-for-56). He survived 2-turnovers, 4-sacks, and 3-cheapshot helmet hits early on.

Clemson wound up with (511) yards against the Tide. They ran off 99-plays on offense. Controlled the football for (34:44) in time of possession. It was dominance beyond a doubt.

Wide receiver Mike Williams, himself victimized by 2-helmet hits that were not called, came back with monster catches in the fourth quarter. And there’s no doubt, incredulous to see, Alabama targeting those two players with head shots early in the game.

So much for class.

Bama’s freshman QB-Jalen Hurts was overwhelmed for a chunk of the game. Alabama was (0-11) on 3rd downs. Hurts was wildly erratic throwing downfield. His 30-yard touchdown run with just over a minute to go nearly rallied his team to victory.

But the loss his power running back Bo Scarbrough hurt the offense. The early (14-0) lead eventually disappeared thanks to the dynamics of Watson.

As Alabama has dominated college football, like Oklahome did back in the Bud Wilkinson era, they have created enemies everywhere. Tiny Clemson won the game for all the smaller schools Alabama has trashed over the Saban years.

It was a win for kids who go to classes and graduate. A victory over a Saban led coaching staff tha has 27-assistant coaches and administrative assistants working for the Hall of Fame mentor.

Some may have viewed it as good-beating-evil.

In end, college football got it right. Ohio State and Michigan, Washington and USC, and even tiny Western Michigan gave us thrills this past football season.

But the Tigers and the Crimson Tide are in a galaxy by themselves. And they played that way last night, completing a season that began on Labor Day weekend, and taking it to the final (:01) of the championship game before we knew who was the best in the country.

“Roll Tide” could not “Hold That Tiger”. Dabo Swinney outcoached Nick Saban and Steve Sarkisian.

And somewhere this morning, the last great Clemson coach, Danny Ford, is smiling, hooting and hollering, for wearing Orange is the right thing to do.

Clemson, king and class of college football.

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“Is It Me-or-Them?”

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I watched all four games this NFL wildcard weekend.

A bunch of blowouts, lots of cold weather, a couple of cheapshot hits that led to injuries.

But something really struck me odd.

The difference between the talent level of what we saw Saturday and Sunday on the field, and what we have had to watch all season long, in this wreckage of a season with the Chargers.

There was Aaron Rodgers working all that magic as Green Bay torched the New York Giants defense in frigid 11-degree weather at Lambeau. Rodgers, with no running game, and a shaky offensive line, goes for another 300-yard day and 4-more TDs.

In the midst of this seven game win streak, he has thrown 20-TDs, and no interceptions.

In Pittsburgh, Ben Roethlisberger came out throwing, Antonio Brown catching, Le’Veon Bell a record yardage running day, and a defense that pounded Miami.

Seattle devoid of pass blocking talent drilled Detroit, running the ball, and creating big plays from Russell Wilson to any and all wide receivers.

Of course there was a clinker in that Houston-Raiders game, though that Texans defense does get after it.

I sat there and watched the flow, the consistency, the dynamics and the dominance of three of the teams that won on the weekend.

And then I thought about the Chargers, and how there was hardly any flow to their offense for four quarters of football. And I thought of the Bolts pass rush, but not much else on defense, especially in pass coverage on the back seven..

And it really dawned on me, how far away talent-wise the Chargers are from being equal to the teams that played on wildcard weekend.

Yes maybe the return of a large chunk of those 20-guys on injured reserve this year, coupled with the young athletes they uncovered this miserable season, led by Philip Rivers, will put the Chargers back on track.
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And I had to laugh at the things Chargers team President John Spanos said to may face about competing for a Super Bowl in San Diego. Yes I guess he has to say corporate things like that, to keep the family flame lit, keep the hope going, impress his Dad..

But how about winning some games in the division, where you are (1-13)? How about a winning season first?. How about making the playoffs?. How about winning a post season game, where you have just one victory over the last ten?

Goals are nice. Being delusional is not.

Watching what I saw, and knowing next week we get to see the Patriots and Falcons, Cowboys and Chiefs play, makes me realize reality.

I see a pretty big talent gap between San Diego and the teams playing in January. Other teams have talent, lots of it. This team doesn’t have enough. Doesn’t have a coach either.

The distance between “them” and “us” is like the distance between Boston and San Diego. Lots of miles. Lots of wins. Lots of leadership too.

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“Football Friday Questions Worth Asking”

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Chargers…They are thinking outside the box aren’t they, search for a defensive leader or somebody to fix special teams….areas that need the most upgrade in their head coaching search? Not bad idea. Philip Rivers runs the offense with a coordinator who can play to his strengths. Get some with a defensive flavor of a special teams guru to make it happen as head coach also.

Tom Coughlin…Surprising isn’t it, that a man who won 2-Super Bowl trophies and had all those playoff teams, hasn’t been invited to interview by any of these bad franchises? Thinking a winner like him, with very high and old school standards, would help out a loser.

Waiting for Wednesday….Is there an interesting confrontation coming for Chargers owner Dean Spanos…after NFL owners agreed to up the contribution for a San Diego Stadium to 300M…he refused to meet with the Mayor-City-County leaders for all of 2016? Got an answer for that Dean?

Sweet Home Alabama…Crimson Tide are loaded with talent…so big-so physical…just don’t know how Clemson is going to hold up to the pounding…but then again if DeShaun Watson hits TD passes early-can Bama’s ground heavy offense throw the ball when they have to? The Monday matchup shall be fun.

Mess in Minnesota…Golden Gophers go (9-4) and win in the Holiday Bowl and the Coach Tracy Clayes gets fired in the aftermath of his vocal support of players who wanted to boycott the bowl game, defending the soiled honor of 10-teams who took part or were aware of a sex party last Labor Day weekend. Why would coach not take the high road on this rather than go social public supporting players?

Next Man Up…Hot young guys looking to move up, looking at Minnesota…Western Michigan’s PJ Fleck and Wyoming’s Craig Bohl. Most interesting name though is Les Miles-LSU. That would be some transition from Bourbon Street to the Twin Cities wouldn’t it?

Nasty Divorce…Nick Saban outsting-letting go offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin right before National Championship game….Kiffin with some track record at Tennessee-USC-Raiders and now in SEC….Two things to think of, how well will he do at Florida Atlantic, and how long before he leaves-gets fired-or they get into NCAA trouble? Why do I think of Kiffin and automatically think of Bobby Petrino and all his baggage?

Worst Idea Around…Conference leaders from the Group of 5-Conferences, Mountain West, Mid American, Conference USA and the likes are brainstorming their own Championship Playoff series….I don’t think so on this one….You’re going to remove San Diego State or Houston or unbeaten Western Michigan from major bowl consideration, just so they can play each other in a playoff series no one will want to watch? Sounds like bad immitation of Division 1AA playoffs doesn’t it?

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“Football Friday Questions Worth Asking”

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Chargers…They are thinking outside the box aren’t they, search for a defensive leader or somebody to fix special teams….areas that need the most upgrade in their head coaching search? Not bad idea. Philip Rivers runs the offense with a coordinator who can play to his strengths. Get some with a defensive flavor of a special teams guru to make it happen as head coach also.

Tom Coughlin…Surprising isn’t it, that a man who won 2-Super Bowl trophies and had all those playoff teams, hasn’t been invited to interview by any of these bad franchises? Thinking a winner like him, with very high and old school standards, would help out a loser.

Waiting for Wednesday….Is there an interesting confrontation coming for Chargers owner Dean Spanos…after NFL owners agreed to up the contribution for a San Diego Stadium to 300M…he refused to meet with the Mayor-City-County leaders for all of 2016? Got an answer for that Dean?

Sweet Home Alabama…Crimson Tide are loaded with talent…so big-so physical…just don’t know how Clemson is going to hold up to the pounding…but then again if DeShaun Watson hits TD passes early-can Bama’s ground heavy offense throw the ball when they have to? The Monday matchup shall be fun.

Mess in Minnesota…Golden Gophers go (9-4) and win in the Holiday Bowl and the Coach Tracy Clayes gets fired in the aftermath of his vocal support of players who wanted to boycott the bowl game, defending the soiled honor of 10-teams who took part or were aware of a sex party last Labor Day weekend. Why would coach not take the high road on this rather than go social public supporting players?

Next Man Up…Hot young guys looking to move up, looking at Minnesota…Western Michigan’s PJ Fleck and Wyoming’s Craig Bohl. Most interesting name though is Les Miles-LSU. That would be some transition from Bourbon Street to the Twin Cities wouldn’t it?

Nasty Divorce…Nick Saban outsting-letting go offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin right before National Championship game….Kiffin with some track record at Tennessee-USC-Raiders and now in SEC….Two things to think of, how well will he do at Florida Atlantic, and how long before he leaves-gets fired-or they get into NCAA trouble? Why do I think of Kiffin and automatically think of Bobby Petrino and all his baggage?

Worst Idea Around…Conference leaders from the Group of 5-Conferences, Mountain West, Mid American, Conference USA and the likes are brainstorming their own Championship Playoff series….I don’t think so on this one….You’re going to remove San Diego State or Houston or unbeaten Western Michigan from major bowl consideration, just so they can play each other in a playoff series no one will want to watch? Sounds like bad immitation of Division 1AA playoffs doesn’t it

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“Everyone Wants Chargers to Stay-Except Dean Spanos”

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The news came quickly out of New York.

The NFL is calling an emergency meeting next Tuesday, January 11th, four days before Dean Spanos has to make a decision on moving to LA, or staying in San Diego.

Reports are the NFL is looking at additional ways to help finance the 1.8B-Qualcomm Stadium sight.

Rumors are rampant the NFL desperately wants to keep the Chargers in San Diego, or maybe the truth is, to keep the Chargers and it s owner out of the Los Angeles market.

The Finance and Stadium committees will meet.

Reports out of New York are the NFL might be willing to come up with a “bridge loan” to help finish off the financing package for the new stadium, maybe to the tune of 200M.

There is a promise of 2-Super Bowls in a possible 4-years span, which becomes part of a ‘collateral deal’ to make financing more possible.

There is a wild rumor out of LA, that the NFL might take a portion of Stan Kroenke’s 650M territorial fee, and redirect some of that as a loan into the San Diego project. As part of the deal, LA remains a 1-team town for present, and Kroenke can start selling PSLs, and Sky Box Suites and naming rights for Hollywood Park’s new stadium. Maybe he gets exclusivitiy in that market for five years.

Here in San Diego, there are reports the City is willing to put its 200M into the project still, an off shoot of what they proposed during the CSAG negotiations.

New to the project would be a 100M contribution from San Diego State, possibly worth as much at 100M to become part of the financing project.

Disappointing is the report that the County has backed away from the project, now willing to contribute just 75M, far less than their initial investment of 150M a year ago this time during the CSAG drive.

Of course, the NFL initial investment of 300M from the league, and 350M from the Chargers is also part of this financing plan.

Reading the fine print, Dean Spanos is not putting any family money into the project. His contribution is coming from season ticket holders buying PSLs and corporate naming rights and Stadium advertisers. Stunningly, no one ever seems to raise that as a troubling aspect of all this.

The NFL has its hands full. On Monday the Raiders will make application to move to Las Vegas. No one fully knows the issues there. Will Mark Davis be willling to sell minority share of the team to casino owner Sheldon Adelson as part of the deal? Would the NFL wants a casnio investor as a club partner? Is the Ronnie Lott-Marcus Allen Fortress Investment group really viable.

That’s an Oakland issue, so San Diego does not care.

But in the big picture of things, it seems Roger Goodell and fellow owners want to keep LA open as a viable option, for expansion, thereby excluding the Chargers-Raiders from moving into Los Angeles.

Everyone, the fans, the teams, the league want the Chargers to stay in San Diego. Everyone but owner Dean Spanos, who has till the 15th to decide, stay here, move there.

Oh they drop hints at the Fortress about loving San Diego so much, wanting to stay. If so, why did he blow off this Mayor and that County Supervisor, for all of 2015, as the city-county consortium desperately tried to do a deal at the Q? And why did he drive Measure C on the ballot with no input from key civic leaders?

Hoping it would be defeated and he could blame San Diego voters, on top of leaders, for failing him in his hour of need?

He’s the one who has failed. Now we see if this 11th hour set of ideas, on the 11th of January, can keep the team in San Diego.

Sadly it still looks as if Spanos wants someone else to build him a stadium, and pay for it, and give it to him. The (30-2) vote against his Carson proposal should tell you lots about how he is viewed at the NFL leadership level. The ‘no vote’ and the ‘no-shows’ at the Stadium here tell you much about the community feeling towards the owner.

Spanos has continually told NFL owners of the political leadership dysfunction in San Diego. Does that word fit the business and football operations of his franchise. On the field, the bad record, as the gates, as fans sold tickets to Raiders and Chiefs followers this past month.

The NFL may be ‘too big to fail. The Chargers look as if they are failing, on the field, and on the business front.

Everyone wants the Bolts to stay in San Diego. The owner seems to want a free lunch, a new stadium, and other people’s money in his pockets.

This sure looks like what the government did back in 2008. Bail out Wall Street.

It looks like the NFL may have to bail out Dean Spanos to keep his team in San Diego.

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