Earlier this month, when Big 12 athletic directors were pursuing a possible 10th member to replace Texas A&M, they reached out to Brigham Young University. But will the Cougars listen again if the phone rings? Would they dismiss being an independent in football and eradicate their West Coast Conference affiliation before spending a full year in the league? BYU isn’t saying boo publicly, only issuing this general statement: “There is much speculation right now regarding conference affiliation that seems to change by the hour,’’ associate athletic director Duff Tittle said. “Commenting on such conjecture is not productive and creates a distraction for our program. As we enter the 2011-12 athletic season, BYU is focused on the opportunities ahead. We are excited about our relationship with ESPN as a football independent and our affiliation with the West Coast Conference.’’ The university would not comment further and athletic director Tom Holmoe isn’t making any public comments either. That’s fine. It’s not his decision. Any move by BYU will be made by the school president in conjunction with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The university is adamant that it wants its own network to be successful on a national and global stage. BYUtv has an agreement with the WCC and ESPN that works to its advantage by getting games on television that weren’t available under the previous contract with the Mountain West and Comcast. Not having to share those rights on BYUtv, which is not a tier 1 or tier 2 issue, may sound familiar to Big 12 schools after squawking over the Longhorn Network, a joint venture between Texas and ESPN. BYUtv probably wouldn’t be an issue for Big 12 membership, but the question is do both parties want each other? That’s still undetermined. The Cougars may want to sit and wait to see if the Big 12 really does stick together for the foreseeable future. The conflicting reports out of Oklahoma and Missouri on Thursday night make it seem as if there are two differing opinions about the unity of the conference. Oklahoma made it seem as if there was an agreement in place for the schools over the next six years, while Missouri’s news conference indicated there were talks but that nothing was set in stone. In fact, MU’s chancellor did not rule out his school moving to another league. BYU’s hierarchy does like being with like-minded, faith-based universities in the WCC that can understand its mission. The Cougars do seek stability and their new conference does offer it up. But if the Cougars did want to leave, they wouldn’t get held up by the WCC. The league fully understands that BYU may want to join a major football conference, but the WCC isn’t fretting an imminent departure. The conference is pumping up BYU’s admission with higher-profile members Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s and moved its tournament semifinals away from Sunday for the Cougars. Bottom line: BYU will take its time surveying the scene. Could the Cougars leave independence and the WCC? Of course. But, as you can see from the interview with commissioner Jamie Zaninovich at the top of this post, no one seems to be overly worried in the WCC offices in San Bruno, Calif.
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WCC keeps fingers crossed with BYU
Filed under Basketball, Football, News by on Sep 23rd, 2011. Comment. 
When the brilliant investigative bombshell by Yahoo! Sports landed on the University of Miami’s collective head Tuesday, the impact was felt most acutely by the football program. But as Andy Katz discussed this morning , the implication of former Miami basketball coach Frank Haith in a scheme to entice recruit DeQuan Jones with a $10,000 payment to a family member — as alleged by former Miami booster and Ponzi-scheming felon Nevin Shapiro — could leave a rather large crater where the newly hired Missouri basketball coach’s career once stood. It certainly doesn’t look good. Yahoo! reporter Charles Robinson unearthed several photos featuring Haith side-by-side with Shapiro, one of which was taken at a restaurant, where Haith, Shapiro and assistant coach Jake Morton — whom Shapiro alleges handled the cash in the supposed Jones payoff deal — are sitting side-by-side and posing for the camera . But looking bad is one thing. Losing your job after an NCAA investigation is another. And so Tuesday’s news raised a host of Missouri-related questions: Are Shapiro’s allegations about the $10,000 accurate? Did Haith, as Shapiro alleges, actually know about it? And what of the investigation? Did Haith know about this before he was hired at Missouri? Did he inform MU athletic director Mike Alden during the interview process? Will Mizzou wait for an NCAA investigation to take action, or will it do so pre-emptively? Where does this leave the Tigers in the short-term? Why is my head spinning? OK, so that last one’s a personal problem. The rest are legitimate questions. As Andy wrote today, it’s possible we won’t know more about how Haith’s old job will affect his new job until the NCAA has time to investigate and rule on Shapiro’s allegations. It’s possible, due to the nature of the alleged violation — straight cash, homie — that Haith may be able to escape severe NCAA penalties.
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Haith’s Mizzou contract covers violations
Filed under Basketball, Football, News, Photos by on Aug 17th, 2011. Comment.
Billy Kennedy had them at “Howdy” and “Gig ‘em.” That was how he greeted Texas A&M after slipping on a maroon jacket for his introduction as the coach earlier this week. He also managed to slip in a little nugget to reporters during the news conference, just to make sure everyone knew that he was fit to be an Aggie. Kennedy was an assistant coach at Texas A&M during the 1990-91 season, and he liked his stint there so much that he named his daughter, Lexie, after the place. “I’ve got an older daughter who is 20 years old, and she was born here,” Kennedy said Monday. “Her name is Alexandra Marie. A and M.” Kennedy also managed to slip in the school’s rally cry during the interview process with athletic director Bill Byrne, according to the Houston Chronicle . In the interview, Byrne wanted to know about recruiting. “I want to see us have a bigger presence in Texas,” he said. “I knew he’d been here before (as an A&M assistant in 1990-91). He came into the meeting and said, ‘Gig ‘em.’ He had us figured out. And he talked about recruiting Texas. That was music to my ears.” At that point, Byrne, who had brought Billy Gillispie and Mark Turgeon to College Station, was well on his way to hiring his third men’s basketball coach at A&M. Of course, the quality of one-liners that Kennedy uses doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Wins matter, and that’s where he also has it covered. He’s managed to make NCAA tournament appearances with Southeastern Louisiana and Murray State, which won 31 games in 2010 including an upset win in the NCAAs. But it doesn’t hurt that Kennedy is getting off to a nice start, winning over fans and the blogosphere .
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Billy Kennedy won the press conference
Filed under Basketball, News by on May 19th, 2011. Comment.
Texas defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, like millions of others, read Moneyball after it was released in 2003. The book followed Billy Bean and the Oakland Athletics’ approach to advanced statistics. However, unlike most, Diaz tried to extrapolate what was in the book to the football field , writes colleague Bruce Feldman. “You can’t read that and not try and find some ways that can relate back to our game,” he said. Feldman also writes about Diaz’s unusual trek through coaching, and how it affected his view of numbers now.
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Texas DC Diaz takes a unique approach
Filed under Football by on Apr 13th, 2011. Comment.
Nobody has to tell Tyler Lantrip about the player he is on the verge of replacing. Lantrip has watched him for years. Even before Lantrip and Colin Kaepernick ended up at Nevada together, the two worked out during the summers with former California coach Roger Theder, now a quarterbacks guru. It was Theder who told him that Kaepernick was going to Nevada when Lantrip made the same decision. “Oh, yeah? I’ll take Colin down,” Lantrip jokingly told Theder. It did not quite work out that way. Lantrip served as the backup to Kaepernick the past three seasons, watching as the dual-threat quarterback smashed school and NCAA records along the way. Now Lantrip has his opportunity to start in his final season with the Wolf Pack. He, sophomore Mason Magleby and redshirt freshman Cody Fajardo are in the middle of a three-man race for the job headed into the spring game Saturday, but coach Chris Ault has made it clear that Lantrip is the front-runner to replace the face of the program. “I don’t feel pressure from outside but I put pressure on myself,” Lantrip said in a telephone interview. “I know what we accomplished last season, and I know what it did for this town. That’s something I want to do for this city again. I know what it would mean to put together another season like we had. We can’t be content with winning the WAC championship. We have to focus on doing it again.” Indeed, Nevada posted the best season in school history in 2010, winning a share of the WAC championship en route to a 13-1 record and No. 11 ranking in the final AP poll. The highlight, of course, was the shocking upset of Boise State. None of that would have been possible without the steely maturity of Kaepernick, who blossomed in his senior season. Kaepernick learned the Pistol offense on the job, having had the opportunity to start for nearly his entire Nevada career. That allowed him to build toward his incredible 2010 season. Lantrip is headed into his senior season, and has no such luxury. The start to the schedule is also brutal with four straight road games. The Wolf Pack open at Oregon, and also play at Texas Tech and at Boise State. Lantrip has only thrown 23 passes in his career and carried the ball 24 times. But because he has learned behind Kaepernick and been in this offense for so long, he is best suited for the challenge initially.
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Tyler Lantrip the new face for Nevada
Filed under Football by on Apr 13th, 2011. Comment.
Spring ball was so promising and then things slowly started not to go our way and it seemed the harder we worked, the worse things seemed to go.” While at Texas , Smith accomplished a lot, being a part of a team that appeared in two BCS games during his… Source: Bleacher Report
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B/R Interview: Texas Longhorns’ Greg Smith Prepares for NFL Draft
Filed under News by on Mar 23rd, 2011. Comment.
Okla. -All around the Texas Longhorns, people keep bringing up the past. If it was just the media, they could tolerate the interview sessions and then shut off their TVs. If it was just the fans, they could avoid Twitter and stay off the message boards. Source: Houston Chronicle
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UT taking don’t worry, be happy approach into tourney
Filed under News by on Mar 18th, 2011. Comment.
That’s what I want. I want the innovation. They’re amazing to me that they’re so multiple.” Harsin, 34, is still adjusting to the glare of Longhorns football. He had his welcome-to- Texas moment when he arrived for his interview and had his movements… Source: The New York Times
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Brown Begins Overhaul of Texas Program
Filed under Football, News by on Mar 12th, 2011. Comment.
Religion Politics Culture: “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love, one another.” – Jonathan Swift “Heresy is not the real danger; exclusive, unloving bigotry is!” Dr. W. Eugene March, in a 3/09 FP Interview Cost of… Source: Faithful Progressive
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Wisconsin Badgers 90, Texas Longhorns 61: High School Graduation Rates 2009 (Iowa Hawk Zero)
Filed under News by on Mar 3rd, 2011. Comment.
Scott Brown, who’s coached the past four seasons at Colorado State, is Arizona State’s new defensive line coach. He replaces Grady Stretz, who left to take the same position with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brown, 59, was at Duke 12 years before arriving at Colorado State. He’s also coached at Minnesota and TCU. “Scott Brown brings a wealth of knowledge to Arizona State on coaching defensive line play,” head coach Dennis Erickson said in a statement. “Everyone I spoke with talked about his work with the players and how much they learned from him. Scott will be a tremendous help to Craig Bray in our game planning during game week. I was extremely impressed with his ideas and concepts of a defense. He brings us so much more than just a position coach in that regard. He gave us a very impressive interview. Our defensive linemen, who met with Scott while he was on his interview, were very impressed with his style and his passion for the game. They were ready to play immediately.” Erickson also cited Brown’s recruiting experience in Texas. “He has recruited the state of Texas for 30 years,” Erickson said. “He has extensive contacts there and not just in a certain area, but in the entire state of Texas. Trying to get into the state of Texas with no connections is difficult. With Scott’s connections we will have instant credibility in that state.” The Arizona Republic reported that ”Brown likely won’t replace Stretz as recruiting coordinator. Those duties could fall to receivers coach Steve Broussard or running backs coach Bryce Erickson.”
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Arizona State hires D-line coach
Filed under Football by on Feb 17th, 2011. Comment.
