Bishop Media Sports Network
I Don’t Look Good In Orange
By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Last week Tennessee completely botched hiring a new football coach. As you recall they announced they were hiring Greg Schiano. He’s currently Ohio State’s defensive coordinator.
He’s best known for being the head coach at Rutgers and Tampa Bay. There was massive backlash from the fan base. From comments on social media to protests on campus, Vol fans expressed that they were not happy with that move.
This led Athletic Director John Currie to be fired by the University of Tennessee. He just started his AD position April 1, 2017. Currie also courted Oklahoma State’s Mike Leach, NC State’s Dave Doeren, Duke’s David Cutcliffe and Purdue’s Jeff Brohm. They also were interested in Dan Mullen but he accepted the job at Florida.
Now they had to hit the reset button. They hired their legendary former coach Phillip Fulmer as the new AD. That was a great move. Fulmer coached at UT from 1992 – 2008, compiling a 152-52 record. He also won the inaugural BCS National Championship in 1998. It’s interesting to see how things come full circle because Fulmer was forced out of Knoxville in 2008. Since then the program has not had any stability.
Things are so bad that fans actually want Lane Kiffin back. Kiffin was hired to replace Fulmer and he went 7-6 in 2009, his lone season in Knoxville. He bolted for USC in January 2010, which obviously upset many students and fans. He’s currently trolling Tennessee about the vacant coaching position.
I’ve had to wonder with everything going on, is this considered a good job to have? The Vols are coming off a 4-8 season and they went winless (0-8) in conference play. Honestly, in the right circumstances this can be a top 25 job if the fans can have realistic expectations. That’s a stretch with any SEC fan base outside of Vanderbilt and Kentucky though.
I have a few reasons that this can be a good position. The first thing is the recruiting base. Just proximity to Georgia, Florida, Alabama and the Carolinas mean they can attract talented recruits.
Also, the SEC East is pretty weak so a quick turnaround is very possible. Other than Georgia, the rest of the division is struggling. I expect Florida to get better but they also have a new head coach so it will take a couple of years for them to get better.
Unfortunately, the opponent from the SEC West that they play each year is Alabama. They haven’t beaten the Crimson Tide since 2006.
Next year they also play Auburn. If the Tigers are as good or better in 2018 that will more than likely be a blowout loss.
I do think they should realistically win seven games next season. The wins should come against ETSU, UTEP, South Carolina, Charlotte, Vanderbilt, Mizzou and Kentucky. The two games that can go either way are West Virginia and Florida.
There are a few names that are being considered for the job. Former LSU coach Les Miles might be a good candidate. He has experience coaching in the conference and recruiting in the South.
In his twelve seasons in Baton Rouge he went 114-34, winning two SEC Championships and a BCS National Championship in 2007.
Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables and SMU head coach Chad Morris are also in the mix.
I think they all have obvious strengths and weaknesses but I don’t see them as bad candidates. At this point Tennessee needs to hire a coach so they can try to salvage their recruiting class.
The Perfect Playoff System
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Let me start by saying that I have absolutely no issue with Alabama receiving the fourth and final spot in the College Football Playoffs.
It’s not so much because I think the Tide deserve to be in the playoffs, but rather because of this lesson I learned at the age of 14; if you don’t want to be left out of something then don’t give them a reason to leave you out.
In this instance, both Alabama and Ohio State gave the committee reasons not to be chosen as that fourth team. Because of that I would’ve been fine with either of those teams making in.
The issue I have isn’t with who made the playoffs, it’s with the system itself. And no, I’m not listening to the Danny Kanell “Everybody is sucking at the SEC teet” greatest hits that he brings out this time of year.
Most everyone was pleased to get rid of the BCS because it didn’t allow for any subjectivity, so now we have a process that is almost completely subjective.
The guidelines with which the committee follows are reminiscent of a Jackson Pollack painting, they just throw whatever criteria they decide to use that particular season and voilà, by the end of the year they have four teams and a playoff.
One of the things I hate the most is that only the Power 5 conferences truly have a shot at making the playoffs. I have no idea how Central Florida would contend with Clemson in a opening round game, but I’m sure nobody gave the Coastal Carolina baseball team a second thought last year, until they won the College World Series.
And please don’t tell me teams like UCF need to schedule better out of conference games either. Did you not hear the all knowing and powerful Nick Saban talk about P5 schools only playing other P5 schools? No legit playoff contender wants to schedule someone like the Knights; if you win you were supposed to; if you lose it could all but end your playoff hopes.
There’s just something wrong with a competition that basically excludes half of participants before it even begins.
They also need to figure out something with conference championships, too. As I mentioned, under the current rules I have no issue with Alabama being in the playoffs.
However, those rules are stupid if a team that didn’t even participate in their conference title game, makes it the final four.
Notice I’m not talking about a team that loses in their conference title game, but rather a team that doesn’t even get there. The fact it’s happened two years in a row makes me trust this process about as much as I’d trust a male politician at a high school prom.
The solution is simple, if you don’t make it to the conference title game you don’t make it to the college football playoffs. I know that can be harsh when you’re looking at a team like Alabama this year, who’s only lost happens to be within the conference, but timing is everything.
You think Georgia’s in the playoffs if they win that first meeting with Auburn, but lose by 23 in the rematch? Possibly, but I doubt it.
Of course, I’ll end up watching all three of the games, which is exactly what the NCAA is counting on. So, they win yet again and it’s likely nothing will change.
Sorry UCF, I really did try my best.
Jason Bishop Show w Kipp Branch Dec 2
Terrors Season Ends
By: Christian Goeckel
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
This one hurts. That’s ok, it’s supposed to. When a senior class means as much as this one has to this community, a loss like Friday night’s is going to sting for a long time.
Glynn Academy fell to Lee County, 42-38, in a game in which the Terrors held leads of 31-6 and 38-21.
Glynn dominated the first half, busting big plays consistently and leaving the home Lee crowd stunned and the traveling Terror Nation at a fever pitch.
The domination reached its pinnacle when Glynn had Lee backed up at their 15 on 3rd down, trailing the Terrors 24-6. Hunter Hall intercepted Jase Orndoff’s pass and set up the Terrors inside Lee’s 10. Caine Crews punched it in for his third touchdown of the first half and the blowout was on.
Give Lee credit, you don’t get to 12-1 without being a very good team. Down 31-6, the Trojans flew down the field in three plays and tossed a touchdown to end the first half down 31-14.
Lee received the ball to start the second half and scored bringing the score to within 10, but Glynn answered with a long drive of their own, putting the Terrors up 38-21 going into the 4th.
That’s when the wheels fell off for Glynn. The Terror’s gave up 21 straight points off of fumbles on three consecutive drives. With Lee up 42-38, the Terror’s had a hundred and eighty seconds left on the clock to get into the endzone, and avoid the collapse.
First and second down were stuffed, and Jernigan had to exit the game for third. Back up Sam Wagner entered the game, and was subsequently sacked and injured on third down.
That left a 4th and 10 for Glynn to continue their season. Credit this team for not giving up. A banged up Jernigan rolled right, bringing the whole defense with him and threw a strike to a wide open Andrew Delaney streaking down the left side of the field on a delay route.
The long play quieted the home crowd, and set up Glynn at the Lee 15 with 90 seconds left on the clock. The Terrors controlled their own destiny. Get into the endzone and advance. Randon Jernigan busted up the left side for a gain of 8, setting up Glynn with 2nd and 2 from the 7.
And that’s when the Terrors lost a fumble for the fourth straight possession. Jernigan and Crews fumbled the ball at the mesh point of their read option, and Lee recovered to seal the game.
In a game in which Caine Crews rushed for 280 yards and three touchdowns, all he will remember are the fumbles.
Randon Jernigan, who lead this powerful option attack, will be kicking himself for not pulling the ball on the last play.
Hunter Hall, with a huge interception in the first half and countless tackles, will only wonder what he could’ve done.
What we will remember is them. The seniors who were the first class to spend all four years under Coach Hidalgo. The guys who have been the building blocks for what is now the premier high school football program in South East Georgia.
It has been an absolute joy to watch these guys play football for the Red and White, and that’s why this hurts so much.
The somber realization that it’s over. When spring practice kicks off names like Dallas, Hall, Jernigan, Crews, Fulton, McClellan, Delaney, and Podlesny will all be headed off to college.
What won’t be gone is what they’ve built under Rocky Hidalgo. This program is here to stay, and it’s these seniors we have to thank for it
Chief-less Noles
By: Alex Mathis
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It looks like the Jimbo Fisher and Florida State relationship has come to an end.
Jimbo Fisher took over for the legend Bobby Bowden in 2010. Jimbo has been pretty successful while being the head man in charge. His record was 83-23 with a national championship to his name.
He has turned a program that was somewhat struggling into a program that is in the top 25 every year and a program that has a top 10 recruiting class yearly.
So, what happened? There are a lot of rumors going around Tallahassee the last few days. Those rumors range from problems with administration, booster members, and also assistant changes.
Whatever the reason is, Jimbo Fisher will be in College Station next year coaching the Texas A&M Aggies.
This breakup has not been a pretty one. Coaches, players, and recruits have been out of the loop.
Florida State will always be Florida State. A program that is expected to compete for an ACC Championship. A program that is expected to compete for a National Title every year as well. The next head coach will have to come in and expect to achieve these same goals.
At this time there have been a few names that have been thrown around for potential replacements for Jimbo Fisher.
The name that you will hear in every conversation is Oregon’s Willie Taggert. Coach Taggert has proven that he can turn programs around and recruit at the highest level.
He was able to turn around a struggling Western Kentucky football team, a struggling University of South Florida team, and a struggling Oregon football team.
Coach Taggert is from Florida and has several connections when it comes to recruiting in Florida. Taggert is supposedly at the top of the list for FSU. Fisher and Taggert both share the same agent.
Surprisingly, another name being thrown around is the once Texas A&M coach, Kevin Sumlin. This one be an interesting move if it were to happen.
Coach Sumlin is a good coach. The expectations at Texas A&M maybe were a little high for him. His Aggies played in the SEC West. It is hard to compete with Alabama, Auburn, and LSU every year. Maybe a change of scenery would benefit Coach Sumlin.
The last name that is floating around is Bob Stoops. Coach Stoops stepped down at Oklahoma this year.
Coach Stoops is a proven winner. He is also a proven recruiter. Maybe Coach Stoops was tired of being in Norman and is looking for a new challenge. Tallahassee could be that challenge for Coach Stoops.
At the end of the day, the Florida State job is a good job. The team is loaded with talent and can compete each year for a championship. Florida State is also a school that recruits tend to gravitate to. Whomever comes in to be the next head coach has to salvage a diminishing recruiting class.
The next coach will have to build a staff quickly in order to get on the road and prove to recruits that Florida State is still Florida State.
Tennessee Rocky Flop
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Earlier this month Tennessee fired Butch Jones in the middle of a dumpster fire season, where the Vols finished 4-8 and 0-8 in the SEC.
Tennessee is a proud football program with over 800 wins and 13 SEC championships. Anyone in their right mind should want to take this job right?
Athletic Director John Currie needed to nail this coaching hire in the worst way possible after botching the Greg Schiano debacle from over the past weekend.
So, every morning I wake up now looking in the news at who the new Tennessee coach will be.
Regardless of who accepts the job, the public-relations damage has been done. And Tennessee is a school that recently settled a Title IX lawsuit regarding several counts of sexual misconduct by football players. It is not a place that needed more negative press.
Now you hear Tennessee is looking at Mike Leach from Washington State. Mike Leach to Knoxville would make the UT Weekly Press Conference during football season a definite landing spot for the football junkies of the world.
Leach is gold with the press. Plus, his offense would cause headaches for SEC Defensive Coordinators.
During a Tennessee football game in the future on CBS could the AFLAC question be: How many head coaches turned down the Tennessee job?
After UT botched the Schiano hire let’s get a count of who turned down the Vols:
John Gruden was never coming to start with. Used car sales should be going through the roof in Knoxville because those people will buy anything.
Dan Mullen picked Florida. Matt Campbell stayed at Iowa State. Tennessee offered Mike ” I am a man” Gundy $42 million, but he chose to stay at Oklahoma State. Dave Doeren of NC State said no. Jeff Brohm of Purdue said no. Who else turned them down?
Former coach Lane Kiffin trolls the Vols everyday on Twitter.
How about throwing $15 million a year at Nick Saban? He is not busy on Saturday; fly him up and pitch him during the SEC Championship game.
How about me, UT? I will take the job for $150k a year plus moving expenses. I am a championship coach.
My resume: Championships 3: Brunswick Fatboy Fantasy Football League 2009, 2010, 2011.
Playoffs: 7: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016
Radio Show: I mop the floor every Saturday morning with Jason Bishop when the topic of college football is raised. Like taking candy from a baby on college football picks.
John Currie, call me, I will take your job in Knoxville. Protesters in Knoxville won’t bother me. I will buy them coffee on the way to the office daily.
I will even let Jason Bishop host “This week in Vol Football with Head Coach Kipp Branch”.
Championship football would back in Knoxville instead of burning couches, dumpster fires, and 0-8 in the SEC.
My, how the mighty have fallen. Hurry back Tennessee. On second thought I don’t want the job either.
Rocky Top is indeed Rocky Flop at this day and time.
Just bring back Phil Fulmer if you ever want to beat Alabama again.
Rocky Hidalgo Show Nov 28
The Super NFC South
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
At the beginning of the season it looked as though a battle would be taking place between the AFC West and the NFC South for NFL dominance.
As we approach the final stretch of the season it looks like the AFC West will only get one team into the playoffs and that basically because they have to have at least one representative.
On the other hand, the NFC South has held up their end of the preseason bargain and are looking to be the toughest division in football.
The question regarding the division isn’t whether or not they’ll get two teams into the playoffs, but could they possibly get three?
For the sake of argument let’s go ahead and assume that Philadelphia (East), Minnesota (North), Saints (South) and the Los Angeles Rams (West) will all win their respective divisions.
Obviously, anything can happen over the next few weeks, but my brain is fried on college football playoff hypotheticals, so I’m taking the easy way out on this one.
Were this scenario to play out, that would really leave only four viable teams for the remaining wild card spots: Seahawks, Lions, Falcons, and Panthers.
Seattle has probably the second easiest schedule of those four teams, but I just don’t have the confidence in the Mom to make a legitimate run at the playoffs.
Their offense has resorted to Russell Wilson running around in the backfield and making some sort of ridiculous throw to Doug Baldwin, off of a busted play.
With injuries plaguing the defensive side of the ball the “Legion Of Boom” has turned into the Legion of “We’d like to hit you hard, but we’re a little fragile right now, so we’re just going to push you and hope that you fall down.”
Could Seattle make the playoffs? Absolutely. Will they ultimately make me regret saying that they won’t make it? Without a doubt.
So, that leaves Detroit as the main threat to the NFC South sending 3 teams to the playoffs.
There are two things the Lions have going for them. First, they have a much easier schedule from here on out. of their remaining games, Detroit doesn’t play a single team with a winning record.
It’s almost the exact opposite for Atlanta and Carolina. Secondly, and this could be what propels Detroit into the playoffs, is that Carolina still has one more game against Atlanta and New Orleans, while the Falcons and Saints will play each other twice. Did I mention they both have a game with Minnesota still on their schedules, too?
The one thing that both the Falcons and Panthers do have on the Lions though, is that they are currently one and two games ahead of Detroit in the standings, respectively.
Not to mention, both teams hold the tiebreaker due to victories earlier in the season. So really, Atlanta has a two game lead and the Panthers’ lead is three. That’s difficult to overcome when you only have a handful of games left to make it happen.
The entire division has their work cut out for them is they hope to get three teams into the playoffs.
Detroit is in prime position to run the table while the entire NFC South will be dueling it out amongst themselves- reminiscent of what the SEC West used to be years ago.
Regardless, ¾ of the NFC South has lived up to the hype, which is pretty damn impressive, when you think about it.
Andruw To Hall?
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The 2018 Major League Baseball Hall of Fame ballot has been released and there are two names on it that will be very familiar to Braves fans; the Joneses, Chipper and Andruw.
It’s been five years since they stopped playing pro ball in MLB and now it’s time for the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to decide if their respective careers merit induction to the hallowed grounds of Cooperstown in New York.
When it comes to Chipper, I don’t think there’s any doubt that he belongs in the Hall and honestly I expect him to go first ballot. His numbers are worthy, he was never linked to PED use and he’s arguably one of the top three greatest players at third base in baseball history. Chipper goes in, case closed.
Andruw, on the other hand, presents a more complex case. His prowess in center field is the stuff of legend; more than one who watched him play will tell you he’s the best they’ve ever seen play the position.
The ten straight Gold Gloves he collected from 1998 through 2007 bolster that claim. That certainly helps his argument for the Hall. Ozzie Smith is often referenced as getting in based on his glove work, despite that not being a whole truth.
The thing is, he also hit. During that same ten-year stretch of Gold Gloves, Andruw hit 30 or more home runs eight times (26 and 29 the other two seasons) and drove in at least 90 each year except one (84), including five 100 RBI seasons.
He garnered MVP votes five times as well, including finishing second in 2005 after leading the league with 51 home runs and 128 RBI. That kind of production at the plate coupled with the stellar glove work at a particularly difficult defensive position is a truly incredible decade of baseball for a player.
The trouble is Andruw’s career following that excellent ten years.
Actually, the trouble really starts the last year of that decade, which was also his final year with Atlanta. After hitting over .260 with 51 and 41 home runs to go along with 128 and 129 RBI in 2005 and 2006, Andruw finished up his final year as a Brave by hitting .222 with 26 home runs and 94 RBI.
The power numbers aren’t bad but the drop off those three statistics are indictive of what was to come.
While his defense was still certainly better than average, anyone watching closely enough could tell that the once mighty center fielder was losing a step and that was indeed his last year receiving baseball’s highest defensive honor.
Andruw signed with the Dodgers and fell off a cliff. He didn’t stay in the same kind of shape he had won adoration in and in that first (and only) year with L.A. he only played in 75 games and hit .158 with just three home runs.
The next few years saw a better output, but he never hit higher than .247 or slugged more than 19 bombs. What’s worse, he only played five seasons after leaving Atlanta and he was only 31 years old at the time.
It’s hard to predict where voters will land on Andrew. Certainly, he’s not a first ballot Hall of Famer, but he’s in this grey area where he may get in eventually or because of the ludicrous 10-player limit and the current crowded ballot he may not even show up on enough ballots to stay in consideration for next year.
Maybe he doesn’t belong in the Hall but he deserves more than a one year appearance in the discussion.
Sandy Koufax will get brought up in this debate. He only played for 12 years and is in the Hall of Fame on the strength of about half of those seasons. The difference is that all of Koufax’s lesser years came at the start of his career and he retired at age 30, well before he could decline.
Andruw didn’t have the foresight to see what would become of him (how could he?).
Only one Jones is going into the Hall of Fame next year. The question is: will the other one ever join him?
Jason Bishop Show w Kipp Branch Nov 25
