Monthly Archives: September 2014

Random Research: Cumberland Football

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by Travis Normand

Everyone has heard of 1916 Cumberland vs. Georgia Tech football game that ended with Georgia Tech shutting out Cumberland, 222-0.  However, what you may not know about is Cumberland’s football troubles that came immediately before and after that famous defeat.

Cumberland’s game with Georgia Tech was their last game of the 1916 season. However, before Cumberland traveled to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech, they were defeated in a game by Sewanee.  That game ended with a final score of 107-0.  In other words, Cumberland closed out the 1916 season with back-to-back losses and a combined score of 329-0.

Unfortunately, the 1917 season didn’t go so well either.  Cumberland only played one game in 1917 and it was against “Tennessee.”  Cumberland was defeated by a score of 105-0.

Mystery Opponent of 1917:  You will notice above that I wrote “Tennessee” (in quotes) when referring to Cumberland’s 1917 defeat.  This is because Cumberland’s 2011 football media guide lists their 1917 opponent as “Tennessee.”  I had assumed that this was the University of Tennessee but the 2014 Tennessee football media guide (page 156) says that Tennessee didn’t field a team in 1917 or 1918 because of World War I.  However, Tennessee did have two unofficial teams during the 1917 and 1918 seasons (see page 162 of the 2014 Tennessee football media guide), but according to the media guide, neither of those teams played Cumberland in 1917.  Therefore, at this point in time, I don’t know who the “Tennessee” team was that defeated Cumberland in 1917.

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Longhorns know football . . . right?

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by Travis Normand

This is too funny / strange not to repost.  The following text is from a post/article by Stefan Scrafield.  Scrafield wrote the post for collegesportsblog.dallasnews.com on September 13, 2014, titled “Texas blows coin toss against UCLA, will kick to start both halves.”  You can see his post HERE. [Emphasis added]

After a puzzling coin toss decision, the Longhorns had to kickoff to start both halves Saturday against UCLA.

The Bruins won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half. Texas defensive tackle Tank Jackson then informed the official that Texas would like to kickoff to UCLA to start the game.

Confused at first, the official turned off his microphone and appeared to ask Jackson for clarification. Still, Jackson insisted that the Longhorns would like to kick off to start the game.

Texas head coach Charlie Strong ripped into Jackson when he got back to the sideline. Don’t expect to see the senior defensive lineman doing too many more of those.

Despite having the ref explain to Jackson that if he chooses defense the Longhorns will kick-off both halves, he still elected to play defense.  (See video below).

The Longhorns lost the game 20-17 and also ended the game with 11 total possessions compared to UCLA’s 12 (game recap).

Video/Vine courtesy of GoodBullHunting.com

FSU gets it right (uniforms that is, not logo)

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by Travis Normand

Read:  FSU puts rush order on fixing uniforms, helmets.  by Ben Jones and Ira Schoffel of Warchant.com.  Sept. 8, 2014.

Apparently, Seminole fans were not happy with the new uniforms that FSU wore on August 30 during their season opener against Oklahoma State.  While negative fan reaction to a change in “tradition” is nothing new, what is refreshing is that the administration at FSU is apparently working to get things fixed.

Less than one week after Florida State’s new football uniforms debuted with a thud in the Seminoles’ season opener at Dallas, the university’s athletics department announced on Friday that it was taking the redesign back to the drawing board.

“Saturday night at AT&T Stadium was the first opportunity we had to see the color of our helmets and facemasks under stadium and broadcast television lights,” FSU stated in a press release. “The shades of both the Garnet facemasks and the Gold of our football helmets did not accurately represent those of our tradition-rich past.”

Read more HERE [Warchant.com]

The sad thing about this story is that this is actual news.  In my experience, when a change in tradition gets rejected by a fan base, the school making the change spends more time trying to convince the fan base that they need to accept the change as inevitable (as opposed to correcting it).  So, the fact that FSU is willing to start over with their uniform design, in order to get it right, is very refreshing.

On the other hand, before I give FSU too much credit, I should point out that they have yet to correct their new logo amidst plenty of negative fan reaction.  While they seem to be handling the uniform correctly, they are apparently sticking with the new logo despite the fan base’s lack of approval.

Read more about the logo controversy:

[Press Release] Texas A&M is FWAA National Team of the Week

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[Parts of this release have been deleted and/or edited.  To see entire release, click HERE!]

DALLAS (FWAA) – The Texas A&M Aggies rolled to a 52-28 win at then-No. 9 South Carolina to earn the season’s first Football Writers Association of America National Team of the Week honor. The announcement came exclusively on SiriusXM Radio’s “College Sports Today,” hosted by Mark Packer and Eddie George.

Sophomore quarterback Kenny Hill had a record-setting debut at the helm of the Texas A&M offense. In his first career start, Hill broke Johnny Manziel’s school record with 511 passing yards to go with three touchdown passes.

Texas A&M (1-0) snapped South Carolina’s 18-game home winning streak, which was the nation’s longest, and won its first conference opener since 2007 and first as an SEC member. Hill torched South Carolina early as A&M bolted to a 31-14 lead at the half. Hill finished with the most passing yards allowed in Steve Spurrier’s 10 seasons as the head coach of Gamecocks. Tra Carson ran for three touchdowns, and Malcome Kennedy had 14 catches for 137 yards as the Aggies racked up 680 total yards.

“That (A&M) team was so much better than us, it wasn’t funny,” Spurrier said after the game.