Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Originally the Vikings in Capitol One commercials were supposed to represent the plundering done by other credit card companies through high fees and APR. Capitol One was supposed to protect against that. Now the Vikings are their inept spokesmen. This is basically Capitol One's way of saying morons are their target market... Watching High Stakes Poker last night I was struck by how much Gabe Kaplan is starting to look like Grandpa Munster... Best Mohammed Cartoon... Congrats to Holy Cross QB Dom Randolph who signed with the Giants. I saw Joe Flacco play in college and I think Randolph was the better QB... The Simpsons stand with South Park (sort of). On a related note - the drawings of Mohammed deck of cards is genius. I'd buy a few packs... Interesting:

If you'd taken the $5,700 it cost to buy an Apple PowerBook G3 250 when it came out in 1997 and invested it in Apple stock, you'd have $330,000 now. Makes you think twice about springing for an iPad.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I wonder if all the votes for AL Rookie of the Year are already in? If not Rick Porcello has the ultimate stage to impress voters when he starts for the Tigers in the one-game playoff on Tuesday. Not sure who wins this game but my gut says it will be a relatively high scoring affair.... Joe Flacco was OK for the Ravens yesterday but don't forget the name Dominic Randolph. He's the starting QB for Holy Cross and he's a better player than either Flacco or Ryan Fitzpatrick were in college... The one game playoff reminds me of one of my favorite stats. Jim Rice started for Boston back in 1978 when the Red Sox faced the Yankees in a one-game playoff (f*cking Bucky Dent). That meant that Rice played in all 163 games that season. Only Brandon Inge is close to that mark having played in 160 games so far this season... The New Orleans Saints defense has been as impressive as the offense. Adding Gregg Williams as Defensive Coordinator and Darren Sharper to a one-year deal have really made a difference... I think one of the main lessons so far in this NFL season is don't fire your Offensive Coordinator during the pre-season games. The Bills and the Buccaneers have been awful so far.... Happy 60th birthday to baseball genius Bill James...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Just saying but doesn't Richard Seymour still have to pass a physical for the trade to the Raiders to be official? Maybe the Raider doctors (under orders from the adults in the organization) look extra hard to find something wrong to void the one sided trade? Just saying but this could help explain the delay here... Wow - these are awful tattoos... It's been 11 years to the day that Mark McGwire hit his 62nd HR to break Roger Maris' single season record. This "achievement" certainly seems to have gone down the memory hole - hasn't it?... Dominic Randolph got off on the right foot to win this year's Walter Peyton Award. Remember the name - Randolph will be an NFL QB some day. He is way ahead of where Joe Flacco was at this point in his career... TCU is looking forward to playing Virginia this Saturday... Today is Phil Laak's 37th birthday. Laak became one of my favorite pro poker players after I learned he graduated from UMass Amherst with a degree in mechanical engineering...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

It's tough to evaluate a trade involving prospects because you never can tell how a prospect will pan out. For example - Baseball America rated the Rays Reid Brignac as the 17th best MLB prospect in 2007 and the 39th best in 2008. Now he's not even Tampa Bays best SS prospect. If you had traded for him two years ago you could boast that you netted the 17th best prospect in all of baseball. If you traded for him yesterday - not so much... Quote of the Day: "To do justice to a great man, discriminating criticism is always necessary." Winston Churchill... The Kansas City Royals haven't made the playoffs since 1985. Days like yesterday when they do nothing make that possible... Yesterday super prospect Brandon Wood of the Angels was sent back to AAA Salt Lake where he's hit 17 HR with a .959 OPS. The question remains if he can hit MLB pitching. In the bigs he's hit just .187 in 209 plate appearances... French proverb that best describes dynamics of the MLB trade deadline "In love there is always one who kisses and one who offers the cheek". Yesterday JP Riccardi didn't offer anyone his cheek when it came to Roy Halladay... I've seen Ryan Fitzpatrick when he was at Harvard. I've seen Joe Flacco when he was at Delaware. I'm telling you today that Dominic Randolph of Holy Cross is a better QB than either of them... Just a reminder - I called Jake Peavy getting traded 9 days ago. Makes me laugh when I see Buster Olney saying "nobody saw this coming" on ESPN...

Holy Cross Football

The news that Joe Flacco (formerly of Delaware) has been named the starter for Sunday's Ravens season opener against Cincinnati got me thinking about another 1-AA* quarterback who may some day play in the NFL and a couple of other Holy Cross football related thoughts.

1. Holy Cross QB Dominic Randolph is poised to have a huge breakout year. The type of year that not only will put Randolph in the thick of things in terms of winning the Walter Payton Award but also put Randolph in forefront in the minds of many NFL scouts. Last season Randolph passed for 3,604 yards with 30 touchdowns with just eight interceptions. Improving on those numbers this year will make his season hard to overlook. At 6'3" and 223 pounds - Randolph has an NFL body and I think he will prove once again that he has an NFL arm and QB smarts. I was perhaps the first person to publicly tout Harvard's Ryan Fitzpatrick as an NFL QB and I'm hoping to be likewise correct about Randolph.

2. Coach Tom Gilmore is in his 5th season as head coach of the Crusaders. I would not be surprised if it turns out to be his last. Tom Gilmore is a very good coach and barring a complete collapse of the team - I expect a number of Division 1* schools to come a courting by the end of the season.

3. Holy Cross opens up the season with 4th ranked UMass. The game will be played at Fitton Field and I for one think an upset may be in the making. Holy Cross lost to the Minuteman 40-30 last year up in Amherst but it should be remembered that Holy Cross out scored UMass 21-10 in the second half. The Crusader seniors know they can play with the Minuteman and next Saturday I expect them to show it.


* We have to get away from this "football championship subdivision" crap and go back to just 1-A and 1-AA.

College Football Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous college football thoughts and observations.

Dominic Randolph of Holy Cross goes into Saturday as the leader in 1-AA in passing yards with 2,607 and I've been told that even though he's not one of the players pictured at the Payton Award Watch list that he is on the list. Randolph has a slim lead (one single yard) over Elon's Scott Riddle. It should be noted that even though both Randolph and Riddle have 23 passing TD's - Randolph has only thrown 5 interceptions compared to Riddle's 8 picks. I did not realize till this morning though that Scott Riddle is just a freshman... BTW - Elon is in North Carolina. I did not know that... Expert trash picker? It seems like a good description for a defensive back but kinda gross when it is meant literally...

Dominic Randolph

Time for my weekly post decrying the injustice being done to Holy Cross QB Dominic Randolph who is now 2nd in passing yards in 1-AA football (and just 3 yards behind the leader Scott Riddle of Elon).

Randolph has 2,244 yards in 7 games (an average of 320 yards per game) yet he is still not included in the Payton Award Watch list. Why is Dominic Randolph being disrespected like this? It can't be because he's only a junior because the list includes at least 5 juniors. There are 7 QB's on the list and I'm saying that Dominic Randolph is better than half the names on the list. And I'll even name names. Randolph is better than Liam Coen of UMass, Duran Lawson of the Citadel, Eric Sanders of Northern Iowa and Jayson Foster of Georgia Southern.

Yet Dominic Randolph is not included on the list! Why?

Payton Award Watch

I readily admit that originally I was going to post about the injustice of Holy Cross JR QB Dominic Randolph still not being included in the Payton Award Watch list even after another stellar performance this week - 24 of 35 for 298 yards and 2 TD while rushing for another TD. As I've mentioned before - Randolph is 6th in the nation in 1-AA in passing yards and all but 2 of the players ahead of him have had an extra game.

However, when looking into the numbers to make the case for Randolph I became blown away by the numbers for Josh Johnson of the University of San Diego.

I know that the University of San Diego occupies a strange place where technically they are Division 1-AA but because of their schedule and non-scholarship status they really occupy a netherworld between 1-AA and Division 2. Say what you want about the program but the performance of starting QB Josh Johnson has been Bradyesque. In 5 games Johnson has completed 75% of his passes for 1,603 yards with 23 TD and ZERO interceptions. Yikes!

Payton Award Notes: Herb Donaldson, the RB from Western Illinois had a statement game against Missouri State rushing for 314 yards to go over 1,000 yards for the season with 4 games remaining... Not for nothing but Dominic Randolph is more deserving to be on the Payton Award watch list than Luke Drone the QB from Illinois State or Jerome Felton the RB from Furman to name just 2. I could name half the list... Mike McLeod the RB from Yale may be the front-runner for the award and I couldn't argue much about that. He can take over a game like perhaps no other runner in 1-AA...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Jerry Glanville is still a gambler. He's coaching Portland State and his QB Brian White is leading all Division 1-AA QB's in passing with 1,971 yards. Saturday his team lost a game when he gambled down by one with almost no time left and the two-point conversion failed. I'm glad Glanville is coaching because that prevents him from doing Patriots pre-season broadcasts... Dominic Randolph of Holy Cross is 6th in Division 1-AA in passing with 1,571 yards. Holy Cross has only played 5 games so far and all of the QB's ahead of Randolph except two have have played 6 games. The two QB's ahead of him on the list who also have 5 games played have 9 more yards (Matt Nichols, Eastern Washington) and 30 more yards total (Scott Riddle, Elon). What is a disgrace is the fact that none of the top 6 QB's in the nation are even on the Payton Award Watch List. How can that be?... Yankee fans love Wang (OK so I've got the maturity of a 10-year old)... I like the Cowboys giving 10 points tonight for what its worth...

College Football Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous college football thoughts and observations.

I watched the final quarter of Stanford's upset win over USC and I must say that John David Booty at QB for USC makes USC beatable on any given Saturday. Forget the 4 interceptions he threw - USC got the ball back with 49 seconds left and the ball on about their own 45-yard line. All they needed was a couple of quick out completions to set up the game winning field goal. Instead they used up 4 downs and lost 7 yards. Matt Leinart or Carson Palmer would have set the team up for that final field-goal try. John David Booty just isn't a big time QB and if his back-up leads them to a couple of wins - then John David Booty could have played his last down for the Trojans.... With USC and #5 Wisconsin both losing - that means #7 Boston College will probably move up into the top 5. I've got to mention that I may have been the only person to predict a 7-0 start and a top 5 ranking for the Eagles. BC still has to beat Notre Dame to get to 7-0 but with the Irish beating UCLA yesterday - I think that actually makes it easier for BC to win the game. Notre Dame no longer has the urgency to win their first game of the year weighing down on their shoulders... Boston College will probably move up to #5 in the AP poll but I find it amusing that pre-season Michigan was ranked #5 in the AP poll and now they aren't even in the top 25. Pre-season BC wasn't even in the top 25 in the AP poll. Pre-season Louisville was ranked 10th while Missouri was not even ranked. Now Missouri may rise as high as 10th in the poll while Louisville is not even in the top 25. Pre-season it seemed like the voters had no clue about teams like South Florida, Cincinnati, and Illinois while they ranked others purely on reputation. I point this out just to emphasize how unscientific and random the current system is.... Matt Ryan helped himself in his Heisman hopes with a 300 yard performance (or 312 yards depending on whose stats you use) with 4 TD's and most importantly ZERO interceptions. Just as BC will now be in the top 5 - Ryan should also be in the top 5 for Heisman hopefuls... Speaking of awards - Holy Cross QB Dominic Randolph should at least move into the Payton Award watch list with his 6 TD, 404-yard performance against Brown yesterday...

College Football Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous college football thoughts and observations.

Louisville losing to Syracuse 38-35 felt a lot like the Cincinnati Bengals losing to the Cleveland Browns. The Cardinals have a great offense built around a franchise QB but no defense at all. Just like the Bengals... Alabama may have lost the game against Georgia last night but is there any question that the Tide is back as an elite program? Nick Saban is not just a great recruiter - he's obviously a great motivator too. No way Alabama makes this game close last year. Oh and speaking of Georgia - Knowshon Moreno looks like he'd make a great pro running back. I found myself wishing that the Patriots end up drafting him while watching the game (hey it worked when I watched Maroney play at Minnesota)... #10 Penn State lost, #12 South Carolina lost, and coming up #13 Oregon has to play #6 Cal (not to mention #4 Oklahoma playing #7 Texas). The countdown to Boston College cracking the top 10 is on baby!... I think you HAVE to add Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph to the Walter Payton Award watch list (the award given to the top 1-AA player) . Yesterday Randolph led Holy Cross to a 55-0 win over Georgetown throwing for 302 yards on 22-33 passing with 2 TD's. Randolph is only a junior and I'm telling you that this is a kid who has the skills to play at the next level. I predicted that Ryan Fitzpatrick would make it as an NFL QB back when Fitzpatrick was at Harvard and I'm telling you that Randolph is as good or better than Fitzpatrick... Maybe the biggest upset of the day was #24 Wofford beating #1 Appalachian State 42-31... Harvard has lights! Harvard Stadium is 104-years old but last night it good a new look - lights! Oh and Harvard beat Brown 24-17...