Auburn Fans. Will Auburn Fire Gene Chizik? 1 Important Thing To Note First

The Auburn Tigers are 1-7. The 1 win coming against the only so called “cupcake” on their schedule which in retrospect wasn’t much of a cupcake at all, Louisiana-Monroe. Without the 3-point overtime nail biting victory, the Auburn Tigers would be looking at a winless season heading into the New Mexico State game this Saturday. Auburn’s other non-conference early season foe was Clemson which they lost, 26-19. So it is not like Auburn lost to a true cupcake in their run to a 1-7 season thus far. But fans in Auburn, Alabama, 160 miles away from Tuscaloosa do not care about the integrity of scheduling non-cupcakes and not getting wins. Hindsight is 20-20, but Gene Chizik would have been better off scheduling the famous “Sisters of Mercy” to start the season instead of Clemson. At least he would have 2 wins by now instead of 1. But that didn’t happen and Auburn has only one win.

Texas A&M gave Auburn it’s 7th loss last Saturday as Johnny Manziel aka “Johnny Goode” aka “Johnny Football” passed for 260 yards and rushed for 90 yards while passing and running for a combined 5 touchdowns in a 63-21 beat down of the Tigers. Auburn hasn’t lost a game that bad since 1917. People in Auburn want Chizik fired immediately. But there is at least one financial restraint hindering or at least slowing down the process. Gene Chizik’s buyout drops from 10 million to 7.5 million on December 1st. Now you say that is only one month away. Well remember that Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas may also be looking for new head coaches. And that is just in the SEC. The market is good right now for new head football coaches heading into next year. Aubun will need to make sure to balance their holdout until Chizik’s buyout is reduced with judging the landscape of the coaching market in football. There will be good jobs available and there may not be enough good (‘good’ being the key word) head coaches to obtain all of the jobs. Auburn will want to make sure they land a good head coach to the right the ship.

NFL Draft Preview – 2012 Ten Best Little Known NCAA Football Players

Many times while watching the NFL Draft we hear the name of a college football player being drafted in the first round and we ask ourselves “Who?”. The fact is that there are so many college football players out there, it is impossible to know who all of the good ones are. We have created a list of what we think are ten of the best college football players in 2012 that most people don’t know about.

1. Jonathan Cooper – Senior Guard UNC

Link: http://www.goheels.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3350&ATCLID=205497721

2. David Amerson – Junior Cornerback NC State

Link: http://www.gopack.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/amerson_david00.html

3. Chris Borland – Junior Linebacker Wisconsin

Link: http://www.uwbadgers.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/borland_chris00.html

4. Duke Williams – Senior Cornerback Nevada University

Link: http://www.nevadawolfpack.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/williams_duke00.html

5. Johnthan Banks – Senior Cornerback Mississippi State

Link: http://www.hailstate.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=90891&SPID=10997&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=16800&ATCLID=204766787&Q_SEASON=2012

6. Keenan Allen – Junior Wide Receiver California

Link: http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/allen_keenan00.html

7. Marquess Wilson – Junior Wide Receiver Washington State

Link: http://www.wsucougars.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/wilson_marquess00.html

8. Shayne Skov – Senior Linebacker Stanford

Link: http://www.gostanford.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/skov_shayne00.html

9. Star Lotulelei – Senior Defensive Tackle Utah

Link: http://utahutes.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/lotulelei_star00.html

10. Terrane Williams – Senior Wide Receiver Baylor

Link: http://www.baylorbears.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/williams_terrance00.html

Derek Dooley’s Firing Could Be Imminent. Jon Gruden To Be Next Head Coach At The University of Tennessee

It is not a secret that Derek Dooley is on the hot seat in Knoxville, TN. Now with the Tennessee Vols losers of three straight SEC games talks of replacing Dooley are becoming louder each week. Inside information is now starting to leak out from within the headquarters of the Tennessee Vols athletic department. For the most loyal and in-tuned fan, this may not be new news. But to everyone else, here is what is starting to leak out concerning Derek Dooley’s future as the University of Tennessee’s Head Football Coach.

The word is that Derek Dooley’s firing may come as soon as early next week. Even if he beats South Carolina this weekend, he could still be fired Monday or Tuesday next week. There has apparently already been discussions with Monday Night Football commentator Jon Gruden to replace Dooley as UT’s next head coach. Jon Gruden is a former NFL Head Coach with the Oakland Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was a graduate assistant at the University of Tennessee from 1986 to 1987. Whether or not Dooley is allowed to coach the rest of the season is still unknown. Tennessee may decide to go the Ohio State route & announce a new coach while allowing the current coach to finish the season. Apparently it seems that the prospect of going 7-5 will not be enough to save Derek Dooley’s job.

Braves Lose To The Cardinals In A Crazy Controversial Wild Card Game

Tonight the St. Louis Cardinals (88-74) defeated the Atlanta Braves (94-68) 6-3 in the first of two 1-Game Playoff games that will kickoff the 2012 MLB Playoff Season. The win sends the Cards to DC to play the Washington Nationals in the next round. The loss sends the Braves home. Let me first vent that how after playing 162 games, Major League Baseball feels compelled to ask a team with 6 more wins then another team to play that team in a one-game winner take all playoff game is crazy. But that is not the subject of this article.

The Atlanta Braves were losing in the 8th inning 6-3. Runners were on first and second. There was one out. Andrelton Simmons of the Atlanta Braves hit a pop up to shallow left. Two Cardinals fielders got their signals crossed and the ball dropped in between them for what would appeared to be a single. The Atlanta Braves crowd went crazy because they believed that they had the bases loaded with only one out. But left umpire Sam Holbrook called Simmons out under the infield fly rule. The crowd went crazy again but this time they were pissed. After watching the play again, it appears the Braves fans had a great reason to be angry.

(Video of the Play) – Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4Z5MIaISrU

MLB.com defines an Infield Fly as this: An INFIELD FLY is a fair fly ball (not including a line drive nor an attempted bunt) which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort, when first and second, or first, second and third bases are occupied, before two are out. The pitcher, catcher and any outfielder who stations himself in the infield on the play shall be considered infielders for the purpose of this rule.
When it seems apparent that a batted ball will be an Infield Fly, the umpire shall immediately declare “Infield Fly” for the benefit of the runners. If the ball is near the baselines, the umpire shall declare “Infield Fly, if Fair.” ( http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/official_rules/definition_terms_2.jsp )

Once you watch the play you will see two things that will tell you that this was not an infield fly. The term “ordinary effort” would not be how I would have described the Cardinals infielder running (about 20 paces) and then back peddling to get into position to catch the ball. Whenever the infielder and the outfielder are that close to each other and the outfielder is playing in his normal position, the infielder definitely had to use more than just an ordinary effort to get there. The second thing is if you play the tape at the 1:43 mark, you will notice how long it takes for the left umpire to declare the ball an infield fly. The rules states that the umpire should immediately declare an infield fly when such a case occurs. The ball in this case was almost to the ground before the umpire raises his hand. Perhaps he was a replacement umpire.

It is definitely going to be a tough night for the Atlanta Braves and their fans. This play if called correctly might have brought them back in the game. But the Braves can blame more than a blown call for their loss tonight. The 3 errors they had certainly didn’t help. Hopefully, the 2012 MLB Playoffs will go on without such a controversial play as this. Baseball can’t afford another scene like what happened at Turner Field tonight.