One Man's Trash Another Man's Treasure

On this day a year ago, Notre Dame fired their head coach Tyrone Willingham (now the coach of the UW Huskies). After making three straight bowl appearances, albeit losses, Willingham was terminated without apparent cause with two years remaining on his contract. I am not one that supports the use of the term "racism" in describing actions within the media, it is applied too broadly and often in lieu of the actual reason the event occurred, but something seems a little bit fishy here.

Notre Dame went 7-0 in Willingham's first year, Charlie Weiss went 5-2 during the same stretch. Weiss received a contract extension for this record, while Willingham was terminated three years later. Willingham was skewered by supporters and alumni for not being able to catch the big recruit. Currently, Samardjia, Quinn, Caruso, and others on the Notre Dame roster (all Willingham's recruits) are gaining national acclaim and awards for their efforts (Quinn will be invited to the Heisman Presentation and Caruso is one of three finalists for TE of the year).

It seems to me that Willingham was given the short end of the stick here. There seems to me to be no apparent reason for his termination. How long does it take for a program to rebuild? Is it really achievable to implant a game plan on someone else's recruits and contend for a title in a mere three years? Most would think not, but Willingham did do that. Look at Notre Dame, all his players, all the juniors and seniors with his coaching, played USC down to the wire. They are currently vying for a spot in a BCS bowl, and if it weren't for a loss to MSU, possibly in the title game (barring a loss by USC or Texas this weekend). Willingham turned Notre Dame around, not Weiss.

I don't think that Notre Dame was acting on racist intentions, but the intentions they did act on were malicious and disheartening. I always root against Notre Dame, even if Oregon was up against them. I'm sure Weiss is a good coach and a great guy, but he didn't double Notre Dame's wins in his first season like Willingham did a Washington. However, if Willingham's termination never happened, UW would be without a great coach and a great guy, so selfishly I am glad it happened.

Now to other noteworthy things of the day:

Dr. Z finally got it right. He has my Hawks No. 3 in the league in power rankings behind the Colts and the Broncos. I don't mind being behind the Broncos even though we have the same record. Shanahan could put an unathletic complete idiot behind that line and that scheme and he'd (or she'd) run for 1000yds. Case and point, Ron Dayne, 81 yds and a TD last weekend.

Ever wonder why the NBA has a lottery for draft picks when other sports don't? There was a time when shorts were shorter and high tops were higher (along with the spectators) in the early 70's where two teams (I think it was the Nuggets and Jazz) were playing their final game for last place in the league and the No. 1 pick in the draft. The halftime score was 0-0 and the game was eventually won when one team intentionally started putting points in their oppenants basket to score against themselves. With a NFL draft filled with talented players, in both specialty positions and on the line, why not start Cody Pickett (sorry bro) or Vinny Geriatric and make it look like your trying to win? I really hope that both of these teams continue to lose because they both need some serious help, OT Winston Justice. I don't care about RB's and QB's, games are won on the O line. Look at the lineman from the top five teams currently in the NFL, 68.7% of their starters have at least one pro bowl appearance, that's astounding.

In other news:
A woman in France received a face transplant today. No comment, that's just f-ing nuts what they can do.

Thom Sightings:
I have two roommates, one who I do work updates on (Doc) and the other I hardly ever see (Thom, pronouced "Tom"). There was a Thom sighting yesterday; he came home and went into his room and listened to a song he wrote for his girlfriend. He's really cool but busy all the time so he can't be around even though he wants to hang out. I asked if I could borrow him to rake up the leaves outside because he is a tool. He gave me a confused look. He's really not a tool, I kid, I kid.

Work Report:
Doc put on his typical blue button up shirt that every other guy on the planet has and did some work today, I really don't know what though. I got up at 9 and he was leaving so that meant he got up before 11 today. He claims he left by 7:15 and went to the Way to research a listing. He an Moe are going to look at something on Saturday. Moe is not his partner (if he was there's nothing wrong with that) and he contacts Andre 3000 because he may need another place in a month or two. He then contacted "HotMisty" (describing a fart perhaps?) about another listing. Because of this, he needed a nap for four hours. I proceeded to wake him up to "Final Countdown" by Europe to which he got ultra pumped.

More Cowbell!!

Herm

Hermnation

Welcome to the Nation that is Herm

I heard about these things called blogs on while watching BET so I thought I'd start one of my own. Since I talk too much anyway I thought I'd keep bombarding the world with more of my thoughts and comments. I like sports, watching sports and girls (just to make that clear) but I have an open mind and I'm not afraid to comment on just about anything. The purpose of this blog is to report news and other thoughts mainly of sports, particularly Seattle sports, and other things in the news that catch my attention. I will most likely be lazy and post things in a bullet type format because I write enough already for law school and don't want to in my free time. Let's give this a try:

A little about myself...
--23, white male, slightly to the right of the middle attending law school
--Proud University of Washington Grad in Economics and Geology
--Youngest of three, desires to one day be wealthier than my older brother
--Dolph Lundgren is perhaps the greatest actor...ever...because I'm told I look like him

Teams I Follow like Peter followed Jesus:
Seahawks
Sonics
Mariners
UW Football
UW Basketball
Washington State H.S. Football 3A
The Fighting Meercats (If you don't know about them, you may be a loser)

Teams I Despise More than Bill Walton:
Any team in Oregon, especially the Ducks
Yankees (because the cheat), Braves (because they won't die) and the Oakland A's
Patriots (they're too warm and fuzzy for the NFL) and the Rams (why do they win?)
The Blazers and, of course, the Lakers and their rapest leader Kobe
Anything Notre Dame has to offer (pompous)
All Florida football, I'm tired of seeing them on TV all the time
Arizona basketball (have you been to Tuscon?) and Duke (I tired of people always being on their jocks)

Random Toughts for the day:
Dat Nyugen (LB Dallas) may hang it up after suffering injuries to his neck and leg. A great 8 year NFL LB from Texas A&M who was always thought to be undersized who continually overachieved and kicked ass. I thought when he was drafted we would see the influx of asian players into the NFL, but then again, I look at NCAA rosters and rarely see an asian name on the roster, and no, Houston LB Wong is not asian, he is african american. Maybe UW So. WR Yoshinaga will crack a NFL roster someday...

Mariuchi was fired today by the Detriot Pussies because of "lack of development by their young players". Hmmmm, lets think about this, Kevin Jones is young and is playing well...Mike Williams is young and isn't. What's the difference between the two? Mike Williams is a spoiled rich kid from Florida who whined his way into NCAA sanctions and missed a season at USC, perhaps a lack of maturity? Roy Williams has a drug problem. Mariuchi's fault? No, it's the GM Millen's own damn fault his team sucks. Millen drafts crap players (where did Harrignton go to college?) and blames the coach. Because of his sucking, he gets a five year contract extension? I hope Steve goes to H-town and drafts Vince Young and prepares to kick more ass than Chuck Norris.

The NFL supposedly apologized for their blindness in missing two key reviews in the Seahawks game. Gee, thanks, because of you the Hawks a getting crap from everywhere for not closing out the game when we could have if the refs pulled their thumbs out of their (are we allowed to swear on this website? I won't test it.)

The Hawks (9-2) continue to get no love from major sports sources and have theBears (8-3) and the NY Giants (7-4) (whom the Hawks beat on Sunday) ranked ahead of them. I really hope Indy keeps their starters in on Dec. 24th and we beat them, then finally the Hawks can be ranked 6th in the power rankings. Can anyone say EAST COAST BIAS here????

Speaking of east coast bias; Oregon (10-1) will probably be knocked out of a BCS bowl because of Notre Dame (8-2). Oregon played a superior schedule and has ONE LESS LOSS, but to voters and BCS officials, all that matter is the kizash and ratings. The only numerical support I could think of for this appearant hate crime against poultry is that Oregon lost to USC by over 30 points. In Notre Dame's two losses, they lost by a combined 11 points...

The Sonics need to trade SF/PF Vlad Radmonivich for a PG. Sorry Luke, being from Oregon makes you an automatic underachiever. You don't penetrate (huh huh) into the paint and make plays. I could average 7.1 ast/gm if all I had to do was throw a round ball to playmakers like Allen and Lewis. With our inept PG's Ridnour, Flip Flop and Cleaves we can only hope for bad passes, bad shots and bad decisions. Shultz, look at all the good teams in the NBA, they have clutch players at PG. The Supes last effective PG was Daniels, who we let go and is now excelling in Washington. This is crap, trade for Nate Robinson!! (Did you SEE his game-winning shot a couple nights ago?...sick)

UW is 6-0 and averaging a bagillion points a game against teams like Holy Names Girls Academy. I poke fun at the schedule, but I have to hand it to Romar, it was exactly what Washington needed. With a young team, confidence building is a must, and playing all your players (Zane Potter is 2-2 from three land) gets the team in sync and hyped up for the Zags on Dec. 4th. Go Dawgs

I lost a bet last night on the over-under of a dusting of snow in Seattle...I lost $20. Thing to learn here: gambling can be a problem..but a problem that can win you money.

Roommate work report:
Today he got up and obtained a lock box for his job. He then proceeded to not shower and drove straight to McDonalds. Highlight of my day, they messed up his order and he got a filet-o-fish instead of scrambled chicken feet (aka McNuggets)

Alright, my fingers a tired and I have to study for this thing called law school

More Cowbell!!

Herm