"The Stack" 11-28-17
Greg Schiano will not be the next head coach of the University of Tennessee after public backlash to the news of his near agreement.
The Stack is back on this Tuesday with another late posting, but there are a few things to discuss so let’s get right to it and see what’s in “the stack” for today, Tuesday, November 28th:
Ravens hold off Texans on MNF
The Baltimore Ravens remain in position for the six seed in the AFC playoffs following their 23-16 win over the Houston Texans. The Texans started out with a Lamar Miller touchdown, but the Ravens responded with a touchdown of their own and then their defense went to work forcing multiple turnovers including an interception at the end of the game to seal the deal. The Ravens offense is a huge concern, but their defense is playing outstanding. That and Justin Tucker will be the reason why the Ravens make the playoffs…if they make the playoffs. The Texans are just waiting for Michael Crabtree.
Talib, Crabtree suspended two games
After Sunday’s skirmish in the Denver Broncos-Oakland Raiders game, you had to figure that suspensions were coming. That fight was incredibly ugly plus give the history involved, something was going down. We found out Monday night that both Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib and Raiders wide receiver Michael Crabtree are suspended two games each for their roles in the fight. This is far more severe than the NFL would go for most fights. You may recall that Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green and Jaguars safety Jalen Ramsey weren’t suspended at all when they fought a couple of weeks ago. This was uglier and given the history from last year’s regular season finale in which Talib snatched Crabtree’s gold chain. Both players are appealing their suspension. I have to imagine the NFL will uphold these suspensions and they should. No place for that sort of fight in the NFL plus the fact that Crabtree essentially sought out Talib right away and was looking to fight, he seemed like he didn’t even want to play so suspending him two more games isn’t really a big deal potentially to him.
College football reaction
I’ll give plenty of credit to people like my friend Travis Kriens who for weeks had been saying that #2 Miami (FL) would lose to Pittsburgh. Even though I knew this wasn’t a marquee or primetime matchup, I thought the Hurricanes would still beat the inferior opponent. Not the case. Pittsburgh won 24-14 and it now means that the Hurricanes must beat Clemson in the ACC Championship game this weekend in order to make the College Football Playoff. They may have had to anyway just to get in, but at least we could have had a discussion as to whether or not a one loss Hurricane team deserves to get in over a one loss Alabama team. Yes, #1 Alabama lost in the Iron Bowl 26-14 to #6 Auburn. Auburn was the better team throughout the game and their win doesn’t come as a huge surprise to me. Now the question comes as to whether or not Alabama can make it to the College Football Playoff. There is still a good chance they get in, but they need things to fall their way.
By far the best game of the week (in my opinion) and perhaps the year (again in my opinion) took place Friday in Orlando where South Florida and #15 UCF played as entertaining a game as I can remember. Back and forth the two teams went, especially in the fourth quarter where UCF came back to take the lead and then expanded their lead to 42-34 only to see tie the game on an 83-yard touchdown pass from Quinton Flowers to Darnell Solamon. The ensuing kickoff would be returned for a touchdown by UCF’s Mike Hughes and UCF would hold on to the 49-42 win. What a game! Haven’t seen a better game this year.
There are plenty of openings on the college coaching carousel, but a few seats have already been taken. UCLA hired former Oregon Ducks and Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly. Slam dunk hire by UCLA. Kelly knows the Pac-12, knows how to recruit and knows how to win. Florida also has their guy in Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen. Mullen was the offensive coordinator at Florida before taking the Mississippi State head coaching job so the move makes a great deal of sense. There are plenty of other openings though. Texas A&M fired head coach Kevin Sumlin who only had winning seasons every year at A&M. Todd Graham was fired at Arizona State after he beat in-state rival Arizona. Brett Bielema was let go as he was walking off the field following Arkansas’ 48-45 loss to Missouri. Oregon State has an interim head coach, but no one full time yet. Should Arkansas native Gus Malzahn leave Auburn for Arkansas (why would he?), then Auburn will be looking for a new head coach. Nebraska fired head coach Mike Reilly and UCF head coach Scott Frost has to be the first and last guy on their list at this point. Let’s not forget that Tennessee needs a head coach as well.
The Tennessee mess
How embarrassing is the situation in Knoxville? Tennessee surprisingly was about to name Ohio State defensive coordinator (and former Rutgers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach) Greg Schiano their head coach. They had a mutual agreement of understanding that would make Schiano the new Vols head coach. Tennessee’s AD was flying to Columbus to get Schiano, they would finish the contract, fly to Knoxville quick and then Schiano would fly back to Columbus to prepare for Ohio State’s Big Ten Championship game against Wisconsin. Social media got wind of the deal and backlash started to spread across campus. Schiano’s name had been brought up in the Jerry Sandusky Penn State scandal in which Mike McQueery, via a third party, said that Schiano said he had seen McQueery doing things to a boy in a shower in the 1990s. Schiano denies it. Only he knows the truth, but he was never formally charged and the Penn State trustees never had any thoughts of his involvement or lack thereof. Social media sure did though. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders sure did. I hate to think that I may be defending someone who didn’t stop a child from being molested, but what everyone is going off of seems pretty flimsy. There was graffiti on campus about Schiano. There were protests. It seems like there is a case for slander and libel for Schiano against Tennessee if he so chooses. Schiano wasn’t a great choice for Tennessee, but he got a raw deal with what happened. His career is effectively ruined. I hope I am not wrong in thinking this. Tennessee handled this about as poorly as they could. They gave in. They caved to the mob. Shame on them. Not a good day in America.
Coming up Thursday: College football weekend forecast, TNF preview and more
