Majerus and Utah Hoop schedule

Contrary to reports, Majerus did not back out of USC job because the hotel nearest the arena doesn't have room service. Whether it was solely his health, or the realization that all the good parking spots, athletes, and University focus are given to the National Champion Football team, it was Rick's choice to make. This is another situation where its unfortunate that these high profile coaches must conduct their interviews and make their career decisions under such a microscope. Even for a guy who seemingly loves the media attention, this couldn't have been fun. Away from the sports world I've watched friends struggle and fret over new job decisions, and despite what the media has us thinking, these coaches aren't the only people on the planet who flip-flop on what job situation is best for them. Is Majerus nuts? Only in a good way. Did USC get burned? Somewhat, but he wasn't taking over the team until next season anyway, so they have plenty of time to fill the position. Do USC Fans feel burned? I think so. More importantly through all this we learned they actually have a few fans or a few potential fans if the program goes in the right direction. In conclusion, ESPN's loss, is USC's loss, is ESPN's gain. All is well, until Indiana comes calling.

The University of Utah men's basketball team is now 8-3. The overall impression I get from fans is that they've underachieved. I must admit they layed an egg in Logan to Utah State a few weeks ago, but as it looks now USU is a pretty good team that is going to do a lot of damage this season. The other two losses, on the road to Washington and Arizona are respectable. I also hear opinions that Utah has played a bunch of powder puff teams that had no business being on the court with them. It is true that Utah has played Stony Brook, High Point, Furman, Montana Western, No. Colorado, and Coppin State thus far. I agree that if you play a school that 9 out of 10 people cannot name either the State they play in or the team mascot, that the competition may leave something to be desired. However, I think its common practice for quality Division I programs to play patsies early in the season. Last night (12/22/04) for instance, there were 9 games involving teams ranked in the top 15 in the country. Opponents in seven of those nine games were: Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Centenary, Central Connecticut, William & Mary, Char. Southern, Rice, and Wisconsin Milwaukee. This doesn't mean that you should forget who the Utes have played and be enamored with their record. Definitely, they are a young team and have yet to adjust to new coach Ray Giacoletti's offense and defensive schemes.

Dec 17, 2004 : Sports Mumblings...

Sports Mumbling....

Rick Majerus.....the former University of Utah basketball coach, will be the next coach at USC. Apparently he is going to finish the year at ESPN and then coach the Trojans next year. I cannot pretend to be neutral on this issue. I think its great news and I'm one of those people who thinks college basketball is better with Rick involved. I hope Rick is healthy, as it was his health that led to the decision to leave Utah last season. Knowing how much he loves the game, I understand why he couldn't stay away. Hopefully his body will hold out and allow him to do what he loves. Good luck Rick! And for those of you wondering....Yes Majerus has continued his trend of living in hotels since leaving Salt Lake City. Gotta love never having to make your bed or mow your lawn. Majerus has recently stated an intent to get a house in the coming year and finally unpack that suitcase. We'll see.

The Jazz.... are struggling and Wednesday's loss in Phoenix dropped them to 10-13 with four more road games before Christmas. Being young, injured, and playing in the difficult Western Conference is proving to be a brutal combination. Coach Sloan won't let them quit, and will make them better as they go along. Hopefully they get healthy and begin to gel before they lose sight of the playoff chase.

Sloan still in charge.... In Tuesday nights game, Jazz PG Carlos Arroyo and coach Sloan had a few words. Carlos spoke back just a bit too much. Result? Arroyo spent the rest of the game on the bench and didn't start tonight. Because of injury, the Jazz needed Arroyo and allowed him to start the 2nd half. Sloan doesn't carry grudges and will allow guys to get out of his dog house, but at the same time will leave zero doubt about who is in charge and where respect is warranted. I believe Carlos is getting impatient and isn't personally happy with how he is playing and I think its boiling over. I think everyone, including Arroyo, expected bigger and better things from this season, given the strong showing he had in the Olympics.

How do I say this nicely......Kobe you need to be quiet! Kobe might be playing well, but who really knows. Seriously, I have no idea what he is doing on the court. I do know 'in court' Kobe is just getting over the whole rape charge situation. I do know there are rumors that in the GM's office 'near the court' Kobe made sure his star was the brightest one on the team and ran Phil Jackson and Shaquille O'Neal out of town. Now on Kobe's 'home court' he is creating a big Karl Malone controversy over some alleged comments between Karl and Mrs. Bryant. Did Karl say something to Kobe's wife that he didn't like? Who knows? Who cares? Only Kobe would let this turn into national news. She is only like 19 or 20 years old and is undoubtedly getting more than she bargained for when married the Laker Superstar. This is the same Karl Malone that stood by the accused rapist last year when many people wouldn't. I guess we should be glad that Kobe is actually paying some attention to his wife? More news today was that Kobe wants to apologize to Shaq. Uhh...Kobe, call him. This doesn't belong in the news, so please spare us of the soap opera for once.

Payton Manning might....... be the only player ever to be better in real life than he is on a video game. He is certain to break Marino's record for most TDs in a season in the next week or two. While Marino was known for TDs, Isotoner gloves, and for being the best QB without a Superbowl Ring, heres hoping that Payton gets a shot to wear the ring instead of just the Isotoners.

More Honored Utes

More honors for those Utes!

Utah QB, Alex Smith, finished 4th in the Heisman voting and was named to the 2nd team AP All American team. Who woulda thunk it when the season first started? I'm not sure how I have the nerve to complain, but I don't get Matt Leinart being ahead of Alex Smith. In fact, when USC named their own MVP it wasn't even Leinart, but teammate Reggie Bush getting the honor (click for story). I think Leinart was voted by default. If I am Joe Average...urr, I mean Joe Wayaboveaverage with my Heisman vote, here is how I would of landed on Leinart:
"Hmm, Jason White is good, but he won last year and no way is he worth two in a row and being in the same company as Archie Griffin. Adrian Peterson is a freshman so he has to wait. Alex Smith, well I hear he is awesome and I like that cool red helmet, but I've never seen him play and besides his team is stealing some BCS money from 'our fraternal order of big schools'. Reggie Bush barely had more rushing yards than that Smith kid who is a QB. If Bush was so fast and so great why didn't he get the ball more? Okay, who is left, uhhh, yeah Leinart from USC. He is on a BCS team, has good smile for the cameras and statistics at least almost as good as White and that Smith guy."

Still, what an incredible year for Alex and a wonderful way he has been honored.

Congrats to Saftey Morgan Scalley and OL Chris Keomoeatu on joining Alex Smith on the 2nd team AP All American team. Keomoeatu will be playing on Sundays next year and Morgan should at least get a tryout. Morgan finished 3rd in the country in interceptions, scored TDs on fumble and kick returns and posted a 3.953 GPA! Alex on the other hand better stay in school. After all, he isn't done with his degree yet. Well, his MBA that is (Alex already has his under grad degree). See the complete list of AP All Americans by clicking HERE.

Even a former Ute, QB Brett Elliott, received a national honor. Brett was the quarterback who got hurt, thereby opening the door for Alex Smith, and he never got his job back. As a result he transferred to Division III Linfield College, and led them to a 12-0 record. Brett was named by the AP, to their Little All-American team for the best players in Division II, III and NAIA. You want jaw dropping? Elliott has 4,313 yards and 59 TDS, in this season alone.

Heisman Trophy: Comparing the QBs

Heisman Trophy: Comparing the QBs and a compelling case for Alex Smith.

Focusing my review on the three QBs: Alex Smith of Utah, Matt Leinart of USC, and Jason White of Oklahoma.

Two Arguments that offset in my opinion:

Level of competition. Its hard to argue against this other than Alex shined against the two toughest teams the Utes played (North Carolina and Texas A&M). He didn’t even play a complete game against either team because the Utes were throttling each opponent.

Supporting Cast. Both White and Leinart have other first team All-American’s (based upon the Sporting News) and even Heisman finalists on their teams in Adrian Peterson and Reggie Bush. In fact depending who you talk to, Peterson and Bush can be argued to be more valueable to their respective teams. Alex carried the load and was the featured guy to stop against every opponent.

I hearby call the two items, Level of Competition and Supporting Cast as a wash.

Looking at the Statistical Argument, it isn’t very close:

QB Rating;
Smith 174.9
White 162.9
Leinart 154.5

TDs:
White 33
Smith 28
Leinart 28

NOTE: Alex only played 11 games, while White and Leinart both played 12.

TDs per Pass Attempt:
Smith 10.0
White 10.7
Leinart 13.46

Yard per Pass Attempt:
Smith 9.4
White 8.4
Leinart 7.9

Interceptions:
Smith 4
White 6
Leinart 6

Rushing Yards:
Smith 562
Leinart -33
White -48

Rushing TDs:
Smith 10
Leinart 3
White 0

Total Yards
Smith 3187
Leinart 2957
White 2913

Points Accounted For per game
Smith 20.7
White 16.5
Leinart 13.46


Other points:

Leinart deserves enormous credit for directing his team to an undefeated season, while USC wore a bulls-eye as defending national champion. He is a worthy candidate, but I’d vote no higher than 3rd.

White deserves credit as being the defending Heisman trophy winner and having the pressure that goes along with those expectations. I vote him 2nd.

Smith deserves credit for directing arguably the most complex offense in the country. If people saw the Ute offense last year and this year, they would see how much better it was and how technical and diverse it was over last season. Most people assume Utah to be a wide open heavy passing team, and therefore Smith’s amazing passing statistics were generated while pummeling lower quality opponents with a relentless passing attack. Not True. However, the Utes were actually ranked higher nationally for their rushing game (9th) than their passing game (24th). Smith’s numbers were derived from a balanced attack that saw him throw many fewer passes (280) than Leinart (377) or White (354). Alex’s percentage is so high because he doesn’t throw the ball down the field like White and Leinart. Not True. As the above statistics show, Alex’s yards per attempt were actually higher than both other QBs. Lastly, the Utes were so dominating this year, that Alex rarely played the 4th quarter of his games, and therefore had little to no chance to ‘pad’ his stats.

In conclusion, Alex Smith is not the favorite to win the award and it’s really an honor for him to be a finalist and even be invited to New York. The Heisman folks probably will feel like they did a good deed to invite the guy from the smaller school to the big time party. The only problem with this view, is that it sounds remarkably similar to the BCS approach on the bowl games. They make it darn near impossible for a non BCS school to make it to the bowl games, and if they do, they get saddled with a lessor team like Pittsburgh. So like Alex, a non BCS school can sometimes crash the big party, but they can’t really take away the top honor (National Championship).

Fiesta Time: Honoring the Utes

It's official, the Utes and their fans will be starting the New Year with a big Fiesta party on Jan 1st in Tempe, Arizona. The 5th ranked University of Utah Utes will battle the Big East Conference chamption, Pittsburgh Panthers, in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. There will be plenty of time to break down the game in coming days, but for now, lets kicking off "Fiesta Season" by looking at a few Utes receiving national honors.

Heisman candidate? Who wins that award? The best player? The most valuable? It seems to go to the most popular player on the most popular team. If that holds true, then the USC or OU Quarterback will be given the award. Basically, the Heisman doesn't go to the best player, but much like the BCS system, rewards the top player on the highest ranked BCS team. Luckily, The Sporting News is not so influenced by such politics and has announced The Player of the Year for college football is none other than Utah's Alex Smith. Alex has the passing stats to match USC's Leinart and OU's White, but in addition he has 10 rushing TDs and over 500 rushing yards that they can't match. Like Leinart and White, Smith has led his team to an undefeated season, but he has done so without as many highly acclaimed teammates as OU and USC. Oklahoma has 5 players on the The Coach of the Year, sponsored by Home Depot, and voted by ESPN and ABC college football analysts, was given to Urban Meyer. Another honor might be forthcoming, as the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) has selected Urban as one of six finalists for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award that will be announced later in the month of December. Urban in only 4 years of being a head coach has always been honored among his peers. In addition to this years award, in 2001 he was Mid-American Conference Coach of the year, in 2003 and 2004 was the Mountain West Conference Coach of the year, and 2003 was the Sporting News Coach of the year. One bad thing for the Utes is that when your coach is that much ahead of his peers, he is in huge demand. Therefore, Urban has succombed to the demand, left the University of Utah, and continued his march toward National coaching greatness and has been named Head Coach of the University of Florida. Best of luck Urban. In Fiesta style, we say "Via Con Dios, Good luck, We wish you well".