UGA Runs Over Louisville in Belk Bowl

He's only a freshman. And University of Georgia running back Nick Chubb may have already established himself as a leading Heisman Trophy candidate for 2015.

Chubb ran for 266 yards and 3 TD's to lead UGA to a 37-14 win over Louisville in the Belk Bowl Tuesday night.

The game which featured the Bulldogs offense matching up with the teams former defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, now the coordinator at Louisville, was never close.

Grantham's Cardinal D, one of the top defenses in the country at stopping the run had no answer for Chubb who just kept getting the ball. And UGA really didn't do anything other than run it after the half as starting QB Huston Mason left the game with vision issues and the Bulldogs had redshirt freshman Bryce Ramsey who had limited experience running the club.

Here are the highlights from ESPN.com, mostly featuring #27...

Morning Wrap: Louisville RB Dyer Ruled Ineligible--Again

((ht: courier-journal.com))

The saga of former Auburn/Arkansas State/Lousiville RB Michael Dyer may have reached an end.

Dyer was ruled academically ineligible for Louisville's Belk Bowl game with Georgia next week. The  senior was the 2nd leading rusher for the Cardinals and had missed the 1st three games of the season due to a thigh injury.

Dyer's journey through college was confusing and seemingly always filled with trouble. He began at Auburn where he got playing time on the Tigers 2010 National Championship team. At that point his future looked bright.

But when then offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn briefly left to coach at Arkansas State, Dyer followed. He had some success there, but eventually was dismissed from that team due to academic and other issues.

He landed at Louisville in 2013, but didn't play much his first season due to injuries.

Morning Wrap: Rick Pitino and Louisville Wins Battle of the Pitino's

((ht: espn.com))

It's not very often you see father coaching against son. Sure, it's happened, just not frequently.

Friday night, college basketball fans were treated to that rare event.

Rick Pitino and the Louisville Cardinals squared off with Richard Pitino and his squad from Minnesota at a U.S Air Force base inAguadilla, Puerto Rico. And suffice to say...a Pitino won.

It was the more experienced Rick and slightly more talented Louisville who walked away from the gym with the victory, 81-68.

Montrezl Harrell dropped 30 points, Terry Rozier had 18 to lead the Cardinals. And by the way, this wasn't the first time the Pitino's squared off. Rick now holds a 2-0 lead in the coaching series against his son.

Highlights from ESPN.com:

Videobomb Alert: Creepy Eyebrow Guy at FSU Game

((ht: sbnationcom))

We just wanted to share this because it's perfect for Halloween.

Check out the post game Sam Ponder/Jimbo Fisher interview after Thursday nights Florida State win over Louisville.

You can't miss him. (Said with raised eyebrows)

Slide into your DMs like sup http://t.co/sHvP1EpkVO https://t.co/r4BArE46Sy
— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) October 31, 2014

Morning Wrap: FSU Gets Comeback W vs. Louisville

((ht: espn.com))

It wasn't pretty.

But pretty doesn't matter as long as you are undefeated and have nothing but teams you should beat left on your schedule.

The Florida State Seminoles overcame a 21 point deficit Thursday night at Louisville and came back to beat the Cards 42-31.

The game was somewhat of an offensive shootout, 1000 yards of offense between the two teams. FSU QB Jameis Winston threw for 401 yards...but also had three INT's. Louisville RB Michael Dyer ran for 134 yards and 3 TD's and Cardinals receiver DeVante Parker had 214 receiving yards.

But after sleepwalking through most of the first half, FSU got a touchdown just before the end of 2nd quarter and went into halftime down 21-7.

The win moves FSU to 8-0 on the season. They will be heavy favorites in their last 4 games, with only 1 road game, a visit to Miami in mid-November.

The Seminoles, love them or hate them, will be one of your 4 playoff teams this season.

ESPN.com gives us the highlights:

OSG CFB: Wahoos Get 1st Win Vs. Ranked Team Since 2011

((HT: ACCDN))

It took a while, but Virginia beat the Fighting Petrinos for their first win against a ranked team in three seasons.

The biggest points for Mike London and his job came with a little under four minutes left in regulation from the foot of Ian Frye


The conference first for Virginia against a ranked team since the 14-13 win in Tallahassee November 19th, 2011, and was their first in their last 11 games against ACC competition.

Virginia and Louisville are both now 2-1 on the season with the Cavaliers 1-0 and the Cards 0-1...

Louisville Affiliate Goes Old School To Show Highlights

((HT: Awful Announcing/WDRB-TV))

The Fox affiliate in Louisville knew they couldn't show CBS highlights before a certain window opened up of UConn and Florida going off the air... there's a lot of television speak that the HQ could go into but it would take entirely too long to describe...

So, as an awesome way to show something but not...

They went all Double Dribble on us...
WDRB 41 Louisville News

How 'bout that...???

Mick Cronin Goes Nuts on TV Ted Valentine

Wow!

College Basketball coaches--and coaches in general can be somewhat testy when they don't like calls in ball games.

But rarely do they get so mad that they have to be restrained...and then start pushing away the people restraining them.

Yet that's what happened today to the University of Cincinnati's Mick Cronin after he disagreed with a call by everyone's least favorite basketball ref, TV Teddy Valentine.

Cronin flys off the bench, but gets intercepted by his players and an assistant coach who tries to pull him away. Cronin shoves the coach and walks away.

By the way, Cincinnati lost a potential conference American Athletic Conference title clinching game vs. UConn 51-45.

OSG High: Florida LB Arrested For Sex With Cousin

((HT: WPTV/West Palm Beach))

The HQ is unsure as to the proper adjective to describe the situation in Fort Pierce, Florida...

Sharieff Inuka Rhaheed-Muhammad was a star linebacker at Central High School who has signed a letter of intent to play college football at Louisville.

But... and this is a big but...

He was arrested recently for impregnating his cousin and was charged on a felony of lewd lascivious behavior. The victim was apparently having sex with Rhaheed-Muhammad between the ages of 12 to 16- having been touched inappropriately for the first time at age 11. The victim even went as far to say that the sex wasn't forced when it began.

It was determined, as part of a four month investigation by Fort Pierce police, that it was with "greater than 99.99 percent probability" Rhaheed-Muhammad fathered a child with the girl when she was 14. She later had an abortion once her mother administered a pregnancy test.

Here's the early story after Rhaheed-Muhammad was released from the juvenile detention facility in Fort Pierce...


Louisville is aware... and head coach Bobby Petrino released a statement: “Coach Bobby Petrino is aware of the situation."
The school isn't saying anything else...

The even-more odd part is that the family of the cousin has signed a prosecution waiver- meaning that they don't want to prosecute Rhaheed-Muhammad...

So, what emotion fits here...??? Disgust is a good start...

And Kevin Ollie Was Hot, Too...???

((HT: ESPN))

UConn head coach Kevin Ollie wasn't too long for the floor in the second half tonight in the game against Louisville...

Here's the outburst...


The technicals were way quick...
And, apparently, Ollie went all big-eyed over the quickness and had to be restrained...

Should be interesting if Ollie gets really suspended over this one...

Georgia Grabs FSU Defensive Coordinator

((ht: ajc.com))

Okay, this admittedly is a bit of a head scratcher and we post it because of that reason. While we cover College Football extensively, assistant coaching hires rarely make the news.

On the heels of losing defensive coordinator Todd Grantham to Louisville on Sunday, the University of Georgia appears to have grabbed his replacement from the defending national champion Florida State Seminoles.

Multiple reports say Jeremy Pruitt has agreed to take the vacant job in Athens…that was open a total of two days. Pruitt has been labeled by many an upcoming coaching star and the Seminoles gave up the fewest points per game of any team in College Football.

AJC.com was 1st with the story. You can read it RIGHT HERE

He replaces Grantham, who despite having a ton of "NFL Caliber" talent, led the Bulldogs to a "Top 60" ranked defense. Though Grantham, to his credit, parlayed that into a pay raise at Louisville.

Pruitt will essentially inherit Grantham's salary and jump from the defending title holder to a team that finished 3rd in the SEC last season.

But….the 'Dawgs return arguably 10 of their 12 defensive starters from 2013 and should be much improved this upcoming season.

One note, we wonder what this says about ACC Football. Pruitt, who was making slightly over $500K in Tallahassee didn't wait to see if he was getting a raise this season, he moved quickly. Does it mean the ACC can't compete with the SEC? Does the ACC (or FSU) not have the money to pay an assistant what an SEC assistant makes?

All good questions. All makes us (well, me) wonder about how out of control money is in College Football. But that's another conversation for another day. Enjoy your fortuity Georgia Football fans, and applause to you Mark Richt. Somehow, you ended up trading in a mediocre car for a newer model that looks a whole lot better and more than likely, but not for sure, is….

Edward Aschoff discusses the coup pulled off by CMR
((HT: ESPN))

Is Texas Longhorn Strong...???

So, after Baylor head coach Art Briles tweeted his disinterest in the Texas job and UCLA head coach Jim Mora said he was staying in Westwood, it came down to Louisville's Charlie Strong to be the new head coach for the Longhorns...

The reported salary figure is 5 years at $25-million...

Strong's record at Louisville was 37-15 and he is set to accept the position if asked...

Strong, apparently, still wanted to speak with Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich and his university president first.
“He will be the coach,” a well-place source told Kirk Bohls and Brian Davis at the Austin American-Statesman.

Strong seemed to have survived a four-hour interview with AD Steve Patterson...

Here's Brett McMurphy discussing briefly with Kenny Mayne
((HT: ESPN))

One Bee-Cee-Ess Crasher's Dreams Smashed As Louisville Loses

((HT: ESPN))

And the big guys can thank...

Central Florida...???

A 31-7 run by the Knights and Blake Bortles' 11-play, 75-yard drive put his team up 38-35 with 23 seconds left gave Teddy Bridgewater little chance to do anything other than a Hail Mary to resurrect their season.

Here's the highlights...


"I said, 'Let's get some 2-minute calls ready,'" Bortles said after the game. "We knew we were going to have to go 2-minute. ... Our offensive line did a great job, and our receivers did a great job of getting yards after the catch."

Bortles finished 21-of-32 passing for 250 yards and two touchdowns while Storm Johnson rushed for 109 yards and a TD on 18 carries...

Ex-Player: Former Vols Coach/Current Rutgers AD Called Us "Whores" (UPDATED: Plus More Fun At Louisville)

((HT: CNN/AC360))

As of right now, current Rutgers Athletics Director Julie Hermann still has her job...

President Robert Barchi said: "Looking at Julie’s entire record of accomplishment, which is stellar, we remain confident that we have selected an individual who will work in the best interests of all of our student athletes, our athletics teams, and the university."

“If you look at my 25-year career in athletics, I believe the record shows I am a steadfast advocate for student athletes,” Hermann said in a statement. “I intend to take that passion and hard-earned experience into my leadership role as athletic director of Rutgers University.”

Hermann was accused of calling her volleyball players in Knoxville as whores, alcoholics, and learning disabled by her players.

Craig Wolfe's piece in the Newark Star-Ledger details the conversations her former players had when they found out she was named AD at Rutgers after her long tenure at Louisville as an assistant AD...

Kelly Hanlon Dow was on the team Hermann coached in Knoxville and was interviewed by Anderson Cooper

For Hermann to "not remember" the letter composed by her players in Knoxville was a shock to them.

From Wolfe:
"I never heard any of this, never name-calling them or anything like that whatsoever." 
The word "whore," she said, is "not part of my vernacular. Not then, not now, not ever."

When asked at her introductory press conference at Rutgers about disparaging remarks that led to a settlement by one of her assistants of $150,000 at Ginger Hineline's wedding, Hermann couldn't remember being at a wedding or there being a video tape where she said what she said... ((HT: nj.com))

11 players went on the record for Wolfe's report and it is required reading- even as Hermann doesn't seem to remember much of the time that she angered her players at UTK...

PM UPDATE: The New York Times' Steve Eder is now reporting that Hermann was part in a sex discrimination suit at U of L back in 2008.

An assistant track and field coach, Mary Banker, said she went to Hermann to complain of what she said was sexist behavior and “discriminatory treatment” by the head track and field coach. Within three weeks of going to HR, Banker was fired.

The Banker case went up the legal chain in the state of Kentucky, but was eventually turned aside in appeals court. Her lawyer's are looking for the state supreme court to look at the decision.

Rick Pitino's Tattoo: Things We Didn't Need to See

Wow! Rick Pitino wins an NCAA Tournament title coaching the Louisville Cardinals and celebrates by getting a tattoo?

Yup.

Apparently Pitino promised he'd do just that if his team won the title. And he's apparently made good on the promise.

Behold the red L in it's pasty Italian greatness.

You know...while we respect Pitino and the job he did with the Cardinals this year, we kind of think this is one of those things that probably shouldn't be shared publicly.

Though in hindsight, we suppose since the usually nattily attired Pitino will have this covered at all times, we kind of wonder what would have happened if the bet was that he had to shave his head.

Just a thought...

What's Wrong With This Header...???

((HT: WashTimesMike/Mike Harris))

Ol' Eagle Eyes, Mike Harris, caught something...
Can you...???


Jim Boeheim would be pleased...
Carry on...

Baylor Women Knocked Out By The Other Louisville

((HT: KWTX-TV))

A lot of people, okay... everyone... is calling the Baylor exit from the Women's tournament as one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) upset in tournament history...

The Louisville Cardinals hit 16-of-25 from three-point (which is absurd), hung around, hung around some more, and hit two free throws with less than 3 seconds left in regulation for the 82-81 win.

Baylor was winners of 74 of their last 75 games, defending national champion, and all of that important stuff...

So much for all that important stuff...

Here's what Baylor had to deal with in a team that didn't back down...
((HT: ESPN/NCAA))


The applause you heard was from Notre Dame, UConn, and everyone else left in the tournament that won't have to deal with the most dominant player of this era.

Louisville is 27-8 and was part of all four 6-seeds making it to the Sweet 16, and now they're one going a little further than Delaware.

Horrible Kevin Ware Injury Mars Louisville-Duke Game

Oooof.

This unfortunately is not for the squeamish. But thankfully it was not a close up shot.

Sunday's Elite 8 Matchup between Duke and Louisville was delayed for about 15-minutes in the 1st Half after an absolutely horrific looking injury to Louisville Guard Kevin Ware.

Ware gave maximum effort in trying to block a jumper near the Louisville bench and landed awkwardly.

So awkwardly that when he landed, his shin turned in a direction that it shouldn't.

Again, we want to emphasize, this is NOT close up video of the injury (shot off someone's TV), but if you look closely, you can pretty clearly see it. We are NOT trying to exploit this by reporting it, but his injury is by far THE storyline of the 1st half of this game.

The look on the Louisville players faces said tons.

There are going to be people who question showing this video and it is a legitimate question. But as bad as the injury is and as sad as it was, the injury is now a major storyline in a national event. CBS has already been criticized for showing the replay at all, we disagree with the criticism. It's one thing to show it, it's necessary in order to tell the story and explain what happened. It's something entirely different to take it, show it, run it multiple times and zoom in. CBS did not do that. They focused on a telling the story via the players, fans and Cardinals coach Rick Pitino. We commend them for the way it was handled.

Ware was taken off the court on a stretcher and eventually left the arena via ambulance.

As of this posting, Louisville lead by 3 at the half. The winner of the game will square off with Wichita State at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta next weekend. The Shockers--shocked the world, beating Ohio State Saturday night.



PM UPDATE: Gannett Newspapers and the USA Today caught up with Joe Theismann whose injury on Monday Night Football had become the instant comparison:

"My world just came to a complete stop, it was just a horrible, horrible thing to see happen — I hate to see anybody have an injury that is anywhere near anything like I went through,” Theismann told USA TODAY Sports. “All of a sudden, it’s, ‘Oh my God!’

“It’s a terrible, terrible to see. My prayers go out to him, my heart goes out to him. I know what his family is going through.

“I have every belief that he’s going to be back and better than he was."

Here's the postgame with Coach Pitino, Gorgui Dieng, Russ Smith and Peyton Siva...
((HT: Louisville Courier Journal))

ICYMI: Internet Freaks Out Over New Adidas Basketball Uni's

It's been very interesting this morning here at OSG HQ monitoring the reaction of pretty much every Sports Writer/producer on the internet over the new uniforms adidas has announced they'll provide for 6 NCAA teams.

And yes, the reviews haven't been pretty.

Most compare the look, which features short sleeves rather than a tank top and striped shorts as a "Zubaz" style look.

For those of you unware, Zubaz were a style/brand of sweatpants that were popular in the late 80's and early 90's.

Here's some video of them:



Quite honestly, if you look at the photo above, the 6 uniform looks don't look so bad to us. Well, aside from the puke, lime-green Notre Dame jersey anyway.

Always remember writers and people who post to Twitter regularly are the snarkiest of the snarks and generally don't like anything different than what they only see.

And no, not all of these work. We like the Louisville look. A lot. Cincinnati, Baylor and Kansas aren't horrible. But UCLA's look like pajamas and we already spoke about the awful Notre Dame look.

Either way, it's free publicity for Adidas who's been struggling to keep up with the Nike's and Under Armour's of the world. So for that reason, we say "Why not?" If you have an interest in such things, you might actually watch the conference tournaments these teams are in. And if they all make the field of 68, you might tune in to see them there too.

#BroHugRinaldi or #BrokebackTebow

((HT: SBNation/hal1885))

This was the best, most fastest response to the Bro-Hug Tom Rinaldi gave Tim Tebow...

An equally creepy, smarmy moment that sums up everything about Bowl Season....


Carry on...