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The Tuesday Morning Rush for January 11, 2011

احدث اجدد واروع واجمل واشيك The Tuesday Morning Rush for January 11, 2011

CINCINNATI, OH - It's Tuesday, January 11, 2011....cold again....snowy too.  I know why birds fly south.

THE SEC RULES AGAIN: Auburn beat Oregon 22-19 on a last second field goal to win the BCS national championship in Glendale, Arizona. It's the fifth straight national title claimed by a team from the Southeastern Conference.

SHOOTOUT? All indications were that this would be a high scoring affair. Oregon averaged nearly 50 points per game during the regular season.  But it was more of a bruising defensive battle.  The two teams haven't played football for more than five weeks, so we shouldn't be surprised.

THE DRAMA: The last five minutes were the best part of this game.  Oregon forced Cam Newton to fumble the ball with less than five minutes to go.  The Ducks then scored a touchdown and threw a pass for a two point conversion, tying the game at 19.  But in the final 2:33, Auburn drove the ball down the field.  Freshman running  back Michael Dyer had two big runs of 37 and 16 yards. On the 37 yard run, it appeared that he had been tackled, but he was rolling on top of an Oregon defender and his knees never touched the ground. The sidelines yelled for him to get up and run, and he did. It was a huge play.

DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH: If you hope to see a playoff system decide the college football championship, it won't happen anytime soon.  BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock told reporters Monday that there's "no groundswell among college presidents for any kind of seismic change" in college football's postseason. Hancock said an 8 or 16-team playoff "is not even in the spectrum."

SECOND TIME MIGHT BE THE CHARM: LSU coach Les Miles apparently met with Michigan officials Monday about their vacant position, and ESPN reported Monday night that he's likely to take the job.  Miles is a Michigan alum, who played for Bo Schembechler in the 70's.  He resisted the Wolverines a few years ago when they hired Rich Rodriguez.

THE TUESDAY QUIZ: The BCS system has produced 13 college champions with 7 coming from the SEC.  Who have been the non-SEC champions?

THE LAST WORD: You probably remember the comments of Ohio State President Gordon Gee who complained that teams like TCU and Boise State padded their records against opponents like "The Little Sisters of the Poor." TCU, which was undefeated eventually beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. Last week, about 20 electronic billboards appeared around the Columbus area that read "Congratulations to TCU for their BCS Rose Bowl victory. Underneath that congratulatory statement read "Little Sisters of the Poor." Nobody knows who paid for or arranged for the billboards.  TCU said it had nothing to do with it.

HEAD PANTHER: Tulsa's Todd Graham has been hired as the new head coach at Pitt. He was 36-17 in four seasons at Tulsa which included an upset at Notre Dame. Three of Pitt's top players, running back Dion Lewis, fullback Henry Hynoski and wide receiver Jon Baldwin say they'll leave school and enter the NFL draft.

"WALK-ON" IS NOW THE HEAD COACH: Don Treadwell was introduced to Miami fans on Monday night.  I remember him as a wide receiver for Tom Reed's Redskins 30 years ago.  He was a "walk-on" who became a four-year starter and team captain.  He was undersized, but he could really catch the football. His position coach at Miami was Jim Tressel.

WHY TREADWELL? Miami President David Hodge called Treadwell "one heckuva coach."  Athletic Director Brad Bates said players expressed the desire to hire a coach "who is gonna wanta stay around for a long time." Maybe Treadwell will.  He's in his early 50's and has had a coaching journey over he past 26 years that took him to Youngstown State, Miami, Cincinnati, Stanford, Boston College, NC State, Michigan State, Ball State, back to UC, back to  Michigan State before returning  to Miami as the head coach.  He might like to stick around for a while.

ALMA MATER: Treadwell remembers his time in Oxford as "the best four or five years of my life" He wants his players to have the same experience.

ART RESEMBLES LIFE: Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had Saturday night off and he didn't spend his time watching the playoffs on television.  He went to the theater in New York to see the play "Lombardi."

NFL OBIT: "Cookie"Gilchrist was one of the AFL's biggest stars.  He was a 251-pound bruising runner with the Bills, the Broncos and the Dolphins. In 1963, he rushed for 243 yards and five touchdowns in one game against the Jets.  Cookie died Monday at he age of 75.

MR FIXIT: Fairfield is hiring Jason Krause as its new football coach.  He developed a winning program at Monroe and then did the same thing for the last three seasons at Middletown. Fairfield finished in a tie for last place in the GMC.  Sometimes it's hard to believe that Fairfield won the state title back in 1986 because they've been mostly bad for the last two decades.

FILLING NEEDS: The Reds have signed shortstop Edgar Renteria and outfielder Fred Lewis to one year contracts.
Renteria will complement Paul Janish at short, and Lewis provides a left-handed bat and can play all three outfield positions.  You have to think he'll mostly platoon in left with Jonny Gomes.  Lewis might be the Reds best leadoff possibility.

BASEBALL OBIT: I noticed in the weekend New York Times that former major league pitcher Ryne Duren had passed away.  He was a bullpen fireballer in the late 50's and early 60's who was known for throwing a warmup pitch wildly against the screen. That would give batters something to think about. I don't know if it's true, but I've always believed that Duren was the inspiration for pitcher "Nuke" LaLoosh in the movie Bull Durham. Catcher Crash Davis told him to hit the bull with one of his warmup pitchers. That wildness unnerved the batter.

TUESDAY QUIZ:  The SEC has seven of the 13 BCS championship games.  The other titles belong to Florida State, Oklahoma, Miami, Ohio State, USC and Texas.

THE FINAL WORD: My favorite mini-series of all-time is Band of Brothers.  In fact, I thought the mini-series was better than the Stephen Ambrose book. Anyway, Major Dick Winters became a central figure in the true exploits about "Easy Company" in World War II. Dick Winters died Monday at the age of 92 near Hershey, Pennsylvania.

STAY WARM AND STAY SAFE

POPO

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