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Armadillo: Friday's six-pack
Some NFL trends to ponder, with Week 16 upon us........
-- Patriots covered once in last eight games as a double digit favorite.
-- Bucs covered eight of last 29 non-divisional home games.
-- Oakland is 3-7 in last ten games as a home underdog.
-- Chiefs covered 12 of last 17 non-divisional games.
-- Cowboys are 7-24 as home favorites in Garrett era.
-- Chicago is 2-10 in last dozen games as a divisional underdog.
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Armadillo: Friday's List of 13: Random stuff with weekend here........
13) Russell Wilson still only makes $667,000 from the Seahawks; haven’t heard much about this, but they have to have tried to sign him up to a long-term contract, right? He’s going to break the bank when his contract is up, one way or the other. Hard to believe they’d let him walk.
12) Too bad about Bucks’ rookie Jabari Parker, who messed up his leg and is done for the year. Milwaukee is a fun team to watch with a good core of young players; this injury really hurts.
11) Bears benched Jay Cutler for Jimmy Clausen? Really? Wonder what Packers think about that, since they’re tied for first place with Detroit, could use a Bears win. Inserting a new QB on a short work week usually doesn’t wind up going very well.
10) Guy on ESPN the other night made a good point about how since the NCAA went with a softer, composite basketball, rather than a leather ball, now and then you see shots take odd bounces off the rim, especially the back rim and go in.
9) Michigan offered Jim Harbaugh six years, $49M; they play 12 games a year, plus a bowl game. That’s a lot of cabbage to coach 13 games, but that must be how much money the Wolverines’ program generates when they’ve got it rolling. Been a while since they had it rolling.
8) Islanders are 9-0 in overtime/shootouts this year, first team ever to win their first nine such games in a season; Blackhawks are 5-1, Edmonton is sadly 0-6, which helped cost their coach his job.
7) Going to see Mark Wahlberg’s new movie The Gambler next week; I’m assuming this is a remake of James Caan’s 1974 movie, which was very good. One advantage of being retired from my day job will be matinee movies. Popcorn tastes better in the afternoon, although it is still ridiculously expensive.
6) Angels still owe Josh Hamilton $83M over the next three years; ha!!!! Hamilton knocked in 128 runs in 2012, then knocked in a total of 123 the last two seasons, while missing 84 (25.9%) out of 324 Halo games.
5) Of the 26 basketball teams in the AAC and ACC, only seven of them are in the top 200 in strength of schedule; they schedule stiffs in December because they know their conference schedule will be enough to raise their power ratings to acceptable levels. AAC is in danger of having one team in the NCAAs this season.
4) Bo Pelini is an adult; therefore, he has to know that in this day and age, there is no such thing as a truly “private” meeting. What he said on his way out the door in Nebraska will hurt his chances of getting another D-I head coaching job and it could hurt him wherever he recruits.
3) There is a new movie out called Wedding Ringer; the father-in-law in the movie is Ken Howard, who played Coach Reeves in The White Shadow, one of the all-time great TV shows. Haven’t seen him on TV much lately, but he is an excellent actor who nailed the part of a former NBA player who became a high school basketball coach in LA in the early 80’s.
2) Listening to Hubie Brown on NBA telecasts is like taking an online course in basketball coaching; highly educational, he is still sharp as a tack and a pleasure to listen to. Learn a lot every game.
1) When your football team is going to have its fifth coach in six years next season, the man who hired all those coaches comes under scrutiny, which is why Pitt fired AD Steve Pederson this week, after Paul Chryst bolted for Wisconsin (his alma mater).
Pitt expects better than 6-6 from its once-storied football program, they’re going to have to hire the new AD before they hire a new coach which is going to cripple this year’s recruiting, unless they move very quickly.
How odd is life? Pederson basically got fired because Gary Andersen surprisingly bolted Wisconsin for Oregon State. Chryst wouldn’t have left Pitt for any other job.
Some NFL trends to ponder, with Week 16 upon us........
-- Patriots covered once in last eight games as a double digit favorite.
-- Bucs covered eight of last 29 non-divisional home games.
-- Oakland is 3-7 in last ten games as a home underdog.
-- Chiefs covered 12 of last 17 non-divisional games.
-- Cowboys are 7-24 as home favorites in Garrett era.
-- Chicago is 2-10 in last dozen games as a divisional underdog.
**********
Armadillo: Friday's List of 13: Random stuff with weekend here........
13) Russell Wilson still only makes $667,000 from the Seahawks; haven’t heard much about this, but they have to have tried to sign him up to a long-term contract, right? He’s going to break the bank when his contract is up, one way or the other. Hard to believe they’d let him walk.
12) Too bad about Bucks’ rookie Jabari Parker, who messed up his leg and is done for the year. Milwaukee is a fun team to watch with a good core of young players; this injury really hurts.
11) Bears benched Jay Cutler for Jimmy Clausen? Really? Wonder what Packers think about that, since they’re tied for first place with Detroit, could use a Bears win. Inserting a new QB on a short work week usually doesn’t wind up going very well.
10) Guy on ESPN the other night made a good point about how since the NCAA went with a softer, composite basketball, rather than a leather ball, now and then you see shots take odd bounces off the rim, especially the back rim and go in.
9) Michigan offered Jim Harbaugh six years, $49M; they play 12 games a year, plus a bowl game. That’s a lot of cabbage to coach 13 games, but that must be how much money the Wolverines’ program generates when they’ve got it rolling. Been a while since they had it rolling.
8) Islanders are 9-0 in overtime/shootouts this year, first team ever to win their first nine such games in a season; Blackhawks are 5-1, Edmonton is sadly 0-6, which helped cost their coach his job.
7) Going to see Mark Wahlberg’s new movie The Gambler next week; I’m assuming this is a remake of James Caan’s 1974 movie, which was very good. One advantage of being retired from my day job will be matinee movies. Popcorn tastes better in the afternoon, although it is still ridiculously expensive.
6) Angels still owe Josh Hamilton $83M over the next three years; ha!!!! Hamilton knocked in 128 runs in 2012, then knocked in a total of 123 the last two seasons, while missing 84 (25.9%) out of 324 Halo games.
5) Of the 26 basketball teams in the AAC and ACC, only seven of them are in the top 200 in strength of schedule; they schedule stiffs in December because they know their conference schedule will be enough to raise their power ratings to acceptable levels. AAC is in danger of having one team in the NCAAs this season.
4) Bo Pelini is an adult; therefore, he has to know that in this day and age, there is no such thing as a truly “private” meeting. What he said on his way out the door in Nebraska will hurt his chances of getting another D-I head coaching job and it could hurt him wherever he recruits.
3) There is a new movie out called Wedding Ringer; the father-in-law in the movie is Ken Howard, who played Coach Reeves in The White Shadow, one of the all-time great TV shows. Haven’t seen him on TV much lately, but he is an excellent actor who nailed the part of a former NBA player who became a high school basketball coach in LA in the early 80’s.
2) Listening to Hubie Brown on NBA telecasts is like taking an online course in basketball coaching; highly educational, he is still sharp as a tack and a pleasure to listen to. Learn a lot every game.
1) When your football team is going to have its fifth coach in six years next season, the man who hired all those coaches comes under scrutiny, which is why Pitt fired AD Steve Pederson this week, after Paul Chryst bolted for Wisconsin (his alma mater).
Pitt expects better than 6-6 from its once-storied football program, they’re going to have to hire the new AD before they hire a new coach which is going to cripple this year’s recruiting, unless they move very quickly.
How odd is life? Pederson basically got fired because Gary Andersen surprisingly bolted Wisconsin for Oregon State. Chryst wouldn’t have left Pitt for any other job.
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