by Travis Normand
During ESPN’s College Gameday broadcast on October 8, 2016, Kirk Herbstreit was extremely critical of the University of Texas’ treatment of head coach Charlie Strong. Herbstreit went so far as to call Austin a cesspool and said that Coach Strong should be relieved to be released from the situation.
Direct link to the video at ESPN.com: http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=17744439
by Travis Normand
October 7, 2016
[If this post reads like a Facebook fan posting, that is because it is. I originally posted this on Facebook as a fun informational type of fan post. However, due to the response I got, I figured I would share it here as well. I have modified it slightly from the original Facebook post.]
In honor of this weekend’s game between #8 Texas A&M and #9 Tennessee, I am posting some random facts that connect the two schools together (regardless of how much of a stretch some of these facts may be).
I should start by mentioning that General Robert Reese Neyland Jr. (famed Tennessee coach and stadium namesake) is an Aggie and is listed as a member of the Association of Former Students.
Neyland played football at Texas A&M for head coach Charlie Moran (who played on the 1897 Tennessee football team). According to the 1911 Longhorn (Texas A&M yearbook) Neyland was a member of the 1910-1911 Texas Aggie football squad and was listed among the freshman class.
On what appears to be page 222 (the page is not actually numbered) of the yearbook, in the last paragraph, it gives credit to the substitutes “for the important part they played in producing the champions of Texas.” Among the substitutes mentioned is “Neyland.” The 1910 Texas A&M football team was known (at the time) as the Champions of Texas due to the fact that they went 8-1, defeating every Texas team they played (with their only loss being to Arkansas).
Neyland left A&M after receiving an appointment to West Point in 1912. He was appointed by Congressman Sam Rayburn, and graduated from West Point in 1916. Neyland won a national title while playing on the 1914 Army football team.
Later, while working as an assistant football coach at West Point in the early 1920’s, Neyland got help from his former A&M football coach Charlie Moran. Moran (a former Tennessee football player) helped Gen. Neyland land his next coaching job which happened to be at Tennessee.
In 1939, Neyland was the head coach of the Vols and Tennessee went undefeated and un-scored upon in the regular season. In fact, Tennessee outscored their opposition 212-0. I believe that Tennessee is the last major college football program to shut out every regular season opponent.
1939 was also the year that Texas A&M won the AP National Title. A&M won their title despite Tennessee’s accomplishment of shutting out every opponent that very same season.
However, it may be the Tennessee Volunteers who got the last laugh in 1939. The Vols finished the regular season (pre-Bowl game) ranked #2 (behind #1 A&M). While #1 A&M defeated #5 Tulane in the Sugar Bowl, the #2 Vols played and lost to #3 USC in the Rose Bowl. This loss to USC prompted the Dickinson Ranking System to award their 1939 national title to USC instead of A&M, and thus technically A&M “shares” the 1939 title with USC (thanks to Tennessee).
Like Tennessee’s 1939 team, Texas A&M was also undefeated and un-scored upon in 1917 and 1919. The Aggie head coach during those seasons was Dana X. Bible (a Tennessee native). Bible was also the coach at A&M in 1921-1922 when the Aggies defeated Centre College. Centre’s head coach at that time was none other than Charlie Moran.
by Travis Normand
October 7, 2016
[Updated on October 9, 2016 to include several items that were not yet released on October 7, 2016]
Today, Friday, October 7, 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of Georgia Tech’s crushing defeat of Cumberland College, 222-0, in 1916. Check out the following links, photos, and videos to learn more about this incredible game.
[1] 100 years ago: Georgia Tech’s 222-0 victory, by Michael Freer, ESPN Stats & Information, Oct 7, 2016:
Georgia Tech scored at least 42 points in every quarter (63, 63, 54 and 42).
The Yellow Jackets scored 32 touchdowns, and Cumberland committed 15 turnovers (nine fumbles lost, six interceptions).
Georgia Tech ran a relatively low 29 offensive plays, all rushes, for 501 total yards (17.3 yards per play). Cumberland finished with negative-28 total yards.
Cumberland did not gain a first down. Georgia Tech had 20.
[2] John Heisman orchestrates Georgia Tech’s 222-0 victory a century ago; a short video/film by ESPN: http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=17741583
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUPLVfKZz-I
[3] Random Research: Cumberland Football, by Travis Normand at OnePointSafety.com: https://onepointsafety.com/2014/09/18/random-research-cumberland-football
by Travis Normand
(Originally posted on September 1, 2016 – Updated on September 7, 2016, and again on October 7, 2016)
Before the start of every season I try to sort through the pre-season hype and pick a few teams that are receiving so much undeserved excitement that there is no way they can live up to it. Here are my 2016 selections. For the sake of these teams, I hope I am wrong.
UPDATE 1 (October 7, 2016): So far, I have been wrong on all three of these teams! I can admit when I am wrong. However, there is still time for these teams to fall apart this season; not that I am rooting for that.
I think Washington will be fine as they look better than I expected and the rest of their schedule isn’t too “crazy.” Now that they have (easily) gotten past Stanford, there is no reason that Washington can’t make it to the Pac-12 title game, and possibly further. Side note: Despite being wrong in thinking that Washington wouldn’t live up to the hype in 2016, I actually got the rest of this projection right. Go back and re-read my original post on Washington (above). This is the perfect year in the Pac-12 for a Washington rising, Oregon is clearly not as good as they have been recently, and while Stanford is good, Washington was able to make short-work of them.
Michigan is also looking better than expected. The Wolverines still have to get past Ohio State in order to get to the Big 10 title game, but even if they don’t, I would still say that this has been a great season for Michigan. Although, technically, falling short of the Big 10 title game would be considered “not living up to the hype” considering how many prognosticators had them making the CFB Playoff.
If the jury is still out on any of these teams, I would say it is still out on Tennessee. They have managed to win each of their games so far, but each victory has been quite a chore for the Vols. While I can see that they are a much improved team (compared to recent history), they are also living on the edge and have flirted with losing every game. I don’t feel like they can sustain this kind of momentum for an entire season and their great run of victories is sure to run out sooner or later. However, having said that, regardless of how the Vols end up, I think this has been, and will continue to be, a great season for them.
UPDATE 2 (December 31, 2016): Wow, could I have been more wrong here? Can we just forget I ever made this post? I’ll leave it up, as I can admit when I’m wrong. Congratulations to all three of these teams for having a better season than I obviously expected.
by Travis Normand
Cyd Zeigler, of SBNation.com, put together a brief explanation of the NCAA’s rule changes for the 2016 season. You can find it here:
by Travis Normand
Amid all the discussions, commentary, and reporting concerning Baylor’s sexual assault scandal, I have heard some say that they are shocked that something like this could happen at Baylor.
For this reason I feel it is necessary to remind others (and inform those who may not know) that Baylor is the same school that is only about 13 years removed from the “Dave Bliss scandal.”
You can read a fairly decent synopsis of the “Dave Bliss scandal” HERE.
by Travis Normand
Me and Johnny Lattner (1953 Heisman Trophy Winner for Notre Dame) at the Heisman Winners Association dinner in 2008.
College football lost a great man today when Johnny Lattner passed away at age 83. I had the privilege of meeting Johnny Lattner in 2007 at the Heisman Winner’s Association dinner in Austin Texas. I attended three of those dinners (2007, 2008, and 2009) and I was able to visit with Lattner each time. He was a great guy and was always a pleasure to visit with.
He will be missed.
Here is a Chicago Tribune article about Johnny Lattner, giving a short overview of his life, family, and playing career. I highly recommend it.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,000 times in 2015. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
by Travis Normand
Joel Klatt always has a unique perspective on the game of college football. In a recent interview of Klatt on the Solid Verbal (on 8/28/2015), he pointed out something that I had never quite thought of before.
In response to a question about why don’t coaches try to do a better job at matching their offensive/defensive system with the talent they have on campus (especially when they may be at a recruiting disadvantage), Klatt had this to say:
[Of the 128 +/- FBS programs] . . . all but 30, maybe even less, all but 20 of those schools have coaches that are just trying to not rock the boat. They just don’t want to get fired. Because they know they probably aren’t going to win the national championship that year, they probably aren’t going to win their conference championship, so they are trying not to get beat 60 to 3, they are trying not to embarrass themselves, they are just trying to be respectable and go to a bowl game . . . and when that happens, your safe. And if you go outside of the box, I think what you are doing is putting a bulls-eye on it, because you are proclaiming that this is going to fix ‘it,’ and that you are going to be great because of this switch . . . and if you are not great, you are going to be fired. And I think coaches are afraid of that . . . and that is the dirty secret in college football, its that not everybody is trying to win championships . . . there is a lot of people just coaching for their paycheck.
I thought his response was fascinating. You can listen to the entire interview here, or just the part mentioned above by skipping ahead to about the 1:04:30 mark.
*Note: Neither the question written above, nor Klatt’s response (as typed here) are perfect/exact quotes. I was trying to paraphrase the question asked, and loosely transcribed Klatt’s response above.
by Travis Normand
Here are a couple of teams that received a lot of pre-season hype. As of right now, I am not buying into the excitement . . . but that could change.
Update: I believe I was arguably right on 1-4 above. However, there is no question that I was right on Auburn. Auburn finished in last place of the SEC West (7-6, 2-6).
OnePointSafety 