Signing Day 2010 - Northwestern, Notre Dame, Illinois

From our friend abroad, Alec Kinczewski, who loves prep-to-college like I love the NFL Draft :

To cover Northwestern's recruiting class I'm very encouraged. While it doesn't have the 5-star and 4 -star players of other programs, there's one tell tale sign that our program has its act together: there were only 17 scholarships.

Why so few when other schools often sign 25-30? Because no one transfers or drops out of NUs program. While some don't bloom, being able to send out seniors on special teams gives NU a special advantage: for the old timers, that's their big event and they care about it.

Additionally it shows that we don't have the same discontents as other programs, and as I've learned in the Army an office cancer must be given the Moses treatment (banished and forgotten... of course that didn't work out too well for Ramses).

Additionally, the NU class has 13 guys who were team Captains and a collective GPA of 3.5, so as Fitzgerald says in the link these are the guys our program needs.

I still reminisce to how excited I was when Brett Basanez signed with NU (after an epic career at St. Viator including one of the all time great IL HS football games against Joliet Catholic in the playoffs). Who is NU's QB in waiting right now?

Now those three star players take me into my evaluation of Notre Dame's class: it isn't about who you recruit but what you do with them. Kelly made a reputation for developing talent at Cincinnati. I don't think he ever had a top 50 recruiting class there.

Now he has a top 20 (much lower than any of Charlie's) and a couple years of stocked up talent. I'm very curious to see what he does with Charlie's leftovers. While Charlie wasn't known for talent development, he did show how guys like Golden Tate can grown into studs, too bad he couldn't do it with more players.

As for Illinois, they're now in the crapper for all aspects of their football program, lets run up the score against them at Wrigley this fall!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-spt-0204-northwestern-main-football--20100203,0,1895805.story

Dome Field Advantage

This was a really interesting read from Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci. He discusses how dome's create an unfair advantage and allows player stats to be pumped up because of this advantage. He comments that baseball, Larry Walker is criticized for hitting so well in hitter friendly Coors Field, while Peyton is congratulated for putting up big stats in climate control. A recommended read for all.

How to Fix the Pro Bowl

I was thinking about this yesterday when everybody was bagging on the Pro Bowl. They definitely have a valid point - exhibition games can be fun, but for the NFL it's tough throwing your most valuable players out there and expecting them to go at each other with anything approaching a game effort.

Here's how I would fix it. Name your All-Pro Teams for the NFC and AFC. Then, have these guys COACH the game.

Your players? The top first and second-year players in the NFL, NFC vs. AFC. Kind of like the Rookie-Sophomore game in the NBA, except it would be conference vs. conference, for a more even game.

Your superstars still get Pro Bowl exposure on the sidelines, while the new generation of players gets a spotlight to make The Leap into prime time.

Imagine Peyton Manning coaching up Joe Flacco and Mark Sanchez while Kurt Warner or Brett Favre schemed with Matt Ryan on the other side.

Imagine Ray Lewis huddling with Rey Maualuga and Brian Cushing, or Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon giving some credit to their main man Reggie Wayne.

That's just scratching the surface.

Good idea?

The Ultimate Big Ten Team (2009-10)

My objective tonight is simple: Pick the thirteen Big Ten basketball players who would make the best team, a team that would dominate the nation and steamroll to a title. Jeff Goodman over at Fox Sports put together his own ultimate team for the whole country a few weeks ago, and we thought it would be fun to put a Midwest twist on things.

Here's your 2009-10 Big Ten Ultimate Team -

G: Trevon Hughes, Wisconsin.
G: Chris Kramer, Purdue.
G/F: Evan Turner, Ohio State.
F: Draymond Green, Michigan State.
F: JaJuan Johnson, Purdue

It's a roster heavy on veterans. Hughes provides strong leadership as a team-first guy who can do a little bit of everything. Kramer barely beat out out fellow defensive aces Jeremiah Rivers and Jeremy Nash. Turner might be the national POY before the year is out. Draymond Green is a huge body, a rock-solid rebounder, and can score, and would pair well with Johnson in the frontcourt.

Reserves were tough, because I had a long list of guys worthy of consideration. Here's who I picked (in order of selection).

Top Subs
Scoring Guard: Talor Battle (over Kalin Lucas, barely)

Scoring Forward: John Shurna (over Robbie Hummel)

Defensive Center: Mike Tisdale (other options: fellow Illinoisian Mike Davis, Dallas Lauderdale, Colton Iverson)

Backup Point Guard: Demetri McCamey (leads Big Ten in assists, can tote the rock when Turner is out of the game. Michael "Juice" Thompson also would do a good job here)

Three-Point Gunner: Jon Diebler (over Blake Hoffarber, Jason Bohannon)

Freshman Guard: Drew Crawford (over Brandon Paul and DJ Richardson from Illinois)

Freshman Forward: Christian Watford (best frosh in the conference)

13th Man: Damian Johnson (tough call, but I'll take the big-play defender from Minnesota over worthy candidates like Durrell Summers or Jeremy Nash)

The young guys are there to provide hope for the future, and are legitimate talents in their own right. With everybody filling a role, I feel like this team could take on and handle anybody in the country.

By the way, it's a tossup between Tom Izzo and Bo Ryan for coach. There a ton of great candidates in the conference.


My brainstorming process gave me the following guys as candidates:

Michigan State: Draymond Green, Kalin Lucas, Durrell Summers. Purdue: JaJuan Johnson, Robbie Hummel, Chris Kramer, E'Twaun Moore. Ohio State: Evan Turner, Jon Diebler, William Buford. Wisconsin: Trevon Hughes, Jason Bohannon. Minnesota: Lawrence Westbrook, Ralph Sampson III, Colton Iverson, Blake Hoffarber. Illinois: Demetri McCamey, Mike Tisdale, DJ Richardson, Mike Davis. Northwestern: Michael Thompson, Jeremy Nash, Drew Crawford, John Shurna. Michigan: Manny Harris, DeShawn Sims. Penn State: Talor Battle. Indiana: Jeremiah Rivers, Christian Watford. Iowa: Matt Gatens.

Thanks to Bleacher Report's Jameson Fleming for proposing this idea!

NFL All-Decade Team. Bears Send Three

ESPN has announced their all 2000s team. The Chicago Bears had 3 players on it, Brian Urlacher, Olin Kruetz and Devin Hester. None of these selections surprise me. Urlacher went to multiple Pro Bowls and won defensive player of the year in 2006.







Olin Kreutz has gone to many Pro Bowls as well, even when the teams offense was not playing well. Hester had the best two year run for a kick returner scoring 12 touchdowns as well as the opening kick off in the Super Bowl. Technically Orlando Pace is a Bear for the all-decade team, but if this were like the Baseball Hall Of Fame, he'd be wearing his Rams helmet.

I can not think of any other Bears deserving to go. Briggs has been good lately, but wasn't for the whole decade. If I did include him I would move out DeMarcus Ware to put him in. Ware has been great the past few seasons, but didn't have the longevity of the decade to give it to him. He benefits from playing for the Dallas Cowboys. I do think Brad Maynard could be considered for punter instead of Brian Moorman, but since he has not been selected to the Pro Bowl one time, it'd be tough to put him on this list.

Players who I think do not belong.

Warren Sapp: Sapp was good at the turn of the century, but was always overrated in my opinion. He produced good, not great years in Oakland before retiring two years ago. In his place. I would probably pick Albert Haynesworth who was good from 2002 on with a few truly dominating stretches. I would also consider Bryant Young (1990s all-decade member) who was a two time pro bowler in the 00s and retired in 2007.

DeMarcus Ware: Previously discussed.

Terrell Owens: He has been a good WR, but is thought of as great because of how much time he spends in the media. He was a game changer for Philly and set the record for catches in a game while with San Francisco. His most famous catch to beat the Packers happened in the 90s so has to be discounted. He led the league in drops while playing in Dallas, and had a basic no show in Buffalo this past year. The problem is, who do you replace him with? My Boss and I have been debating about this the last 10 min or so and here our nominees and then my winner

Debatable, but behind TO

Reggie Wayne: Played in 4 Pro Bowls and 2 Super Bowls (might win both). Lived in Marvin's shadow for most the of decade but was still able to produce. He did benefit from playing with Peyton Manning. Drafted in 2001.

I'd take him over TO

Steve Smith: Started off as a kick returner who caught passes and slowly evolved into one of the most feared WR during the middle of the decade. Still a big play threat every play on the field toward the end of the decade. Played in 1 Super Bowl and 3 Pro Bowls. Drafted in 2001

My selection over TO


Hiens Ward: Hiens was drafted in 1998 so he played the entire decade. He is one of the most reliable wide receivers and is also one of the best blocking wide receivers (underrated skill set for WR). He has won 2 Super Bowls included winning the Super Bowl MVP and played in 4 Pro Bowls.



So what about you? Who would you add or take off? Happy with the Bears selections?

Mike Martz is Bears New OC

The Chicago Tribune and espnchicago.com are reporting that the Chicago Bears have hired Mike Martz as their new offense coordinator. Martz is the former OC and Coach of the Rams where he orchestrated their high flying offense into what was nicknamed, "The Greatest Show on Turf." Martz becomes the 3rd OC of the Lovie Smith Era

I for one like the signing. He was always the backup plan for the Bears and I think they are glad they had a backup plan. Martz will bring a stronger emphasis on the passing game which will hopefully let Cutler thrive in the system. Martz has struggle in has last two stops in San Francisco and Detroit. San Francisco he had troubles because his preferred passing attacked did not work well with the 49ers who were better equipped to focus on the run. He ran into similar problems in Detroit where he couldn't find consistent enough QB play to allow his offense to thrive. I hope that he brings new life to the Bears offense. I am concerned that the NFL has caught up to Martz's schemes and that is why he has been failing lately.

Super Bowl Trivia

Drew Brees graduated from Purdue. How many Purdue Quarterbacks have won the Super Bowl? Can you name them?