November 27, 2017
UCLA shocked everybody over the weekend by not only hiring Chip Kelly, but stealing him away from Florida. I guess Dan Guerrero got tired of me making fun of him for not giving a crap about his football program, and not actually paying up for good coaches. The reality of it is that this was the perfect storm for the Bruins. Kelly loves the Pac 12, loves the fact Bruin football isn’t under a microscope, and was not heavily influenced by money because the 49ers are going to be paying him until he dies. Kelly’s system is fast and exciting. Even faster than the Bruins were eliminated from Pac 12 contention this season.
Meanwhile listening to Trojan fans complain about the Kelly hire is hilarious. It’s hilarious because many of those Trojan fans wish it was Kelly coaching their team rather than Clay Helton. In fact, at the beginning of last season, Helton was on the hot seat, then turned things around for the Trojans. Kelly was rumored to be the next Trojan coach. Now Helton appears to be just good enough to keep the Trojans competitive in the Pac 12, but not nationally relevant. That’s not good enough to fire him. USC should be happy though because they lucked out getting to play Stanford again for the conference title, instead of a Washington State team that beat them earlier in the season. It’s also probably a good thing they aren’t playing in the college football playoff, because they would have been embarrassed by any of the teams playing in it.
Elsewhere around College Football, you didn’t really think that Notre Dame wasn’t going to find a way to disappoint their fans before the season ended did you? Only the Irish could let their season unravel in a matter of three minutes during the 4th quarter against Stanford. Notre Dame can definitely kiss their hopes of a New Year’s Six Bowl game goodbye. Then there’s Alabama, who lost the Iron Bowl to Auburn. That will likely put the Tide on the outside of the CFP looking in. Alabama fans haven’t been this upset since the integration of public schools. This boycott Tennessee made against Greg Schiano had nothing to do with his connection to the Penn State scandal. It’s obvious the Volunteer alums and fan base were not having anything but a big name coach their program. Too bad there aren’t enough big names out there.
To the NFL, where the Rams got a nice win against the Saints yesterday at the Coliseum. If the Rams get a big win, and nobody was there to see it, did it really happen? There were only about 45,000 people at the Coliseum on Sunday, and another 15,000 dressed as empty seats. That was against a great New Orleans team. I really don’t know what it’s going to take for people to support this team because they are winning, and might even end up in the NFC Championship game. Jared Goff has improved so much, he’s completely destroyed my ability to make jokes about him. Were it not for Carson Wentz, Goff might be talked about as one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL. The scary part is it’s going to take 10 wins just to make the playoffs in the NFC, so the Rams need to keep winning. That won’t be that easy considering they still have to play at Seattle, and against the Eagles.
Somehow, the Chargers are not only back in contention for a playoff spot, they might even win the AFC West. Their huge win over the struggling Cowboys on Thanksgiving put them just a game behind Kansas City in the division. It was clear that with Tony Romo working the broadcast on CBS, the Cowboys honored their former quarterback by committing lots of turnovers against the Bolts. Phil Rivers’ family is so big, it probably took him four hours just to feed his entire family Thanksgiving dinner.
The Clippers may have won their last two games, but prior to that their losses were piling up faster than sexual harassment victims in Hollywood. It’s time for the Clip show to pull the plug on the season and tank. They should be used to that since they did that annually prior to Chris Paul arriving in LA. They finally have their own draft pick this season, Patrick Beverly is out for the year, and Danilo Gallinari will be hurt five minutes after he comes back. This is really what some members of the Clipper front office wanted to do, but Doc Rivers sure didn’t. Speaking of Doc, Steve Ballmer should just lock himself in a room with him and stare at Doc until he quits. He should probably trade DeAndre Jordan and listen to offers for Blake Griffin after that, since those two are fairly inept in the 4th quarter. I wouldn’t be shocked if DJ or Doc were gone by Christmas.
As for the Lakers, you knew Lavar was going to do this at some point. Sure enough, last week he criticized Luke Walton and the organization for going soft on Lonzo. Well Lavar, if you wanted the Lakers to go tough on Lonzo, he probably would never see the floor, since he’s shooting 32% from the field. Luke’s response was pretty epic though, basically saying the team doesn’t care what parents think. Unlike those of you that hate Lavar though, I don’t take most of what he says seriously. He is trolling everybody, including the President of the United States. You can actually take this guy seriously???
There’s talk that Giancarlo Stanton is going to find a way to force his way to the Dodgers since he has a the ability to veto certain trades. There’s also some talk that he could end up with the Giants. I could care less if that happens. As I’ve said, the Dodgers do not need Stanton at all. The Giants can have him, and they can enjoy paying his $300 million salary for the next decade, while they continue to put a lineup around him that can’t even hit little league pitching. Obviously at a certain price the Dodgers would have to go get Stanton, but building from within is much more desirable for LA at this point, and probably more likely to get them where they want to go. Not some shiny new toy in Stanton, who will give the Dodgers nothing more than offseason headlines.
Finally, The Walking Dead went down last night on AMC. Spoiler alert for those of you who haven’t seen it, so read no further if that is the case, and you plan on watching it later. Why are kids just obsessed with following Carol? That episode should have been called, “come with me.” Rosita went with Michonne. Carol went with Siddiq, and Tara went with Darryl. Rosita just welcome herself back to the show by using a bazooka on a Savior. Was Rick doing arts and crafts while naked in the container? Admit it, now that Morgan is crossing over onto Fear The Walking Dead, you are pissed because you are thinking of catching up on that crappy show. Once again, everybody like Michonne, Rosita, and Carl were making stupid decisions this episode. Only two more episodes in 2017, which is both exciting and disappointing. Hoping for a lot more in those two episodes.
