2012.01.31
Tuesday: The dotted line
CLOSING IN ON NATIONAL SIGNING DAY FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL, and Andy Bitter’s on top of Virginia Tech’s class. Here’s his feature story today on Shane Beamer, who is making a strong impact on recruiting. And here’s a look a Tech’s recruiting class from 2007, which as you’ll see, had a lot of guys perform better than their high school ratings would have suggested.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
-Rutgers promotes Kyle Flood to head coach. He replaces Greg Schiano, who took over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
-NCAA President Mark Emmert says he’s in favor of a four-team, BCS championship playoff.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
-Virginia returns to the court to host Clemson at 7 p.m. The Cavaliers are an 8.5-point favorite over the Tigers, who have won two straight ACC games.
-VMI and Radford will not have their “BracketBusters” games on TV.
NFL
-Colts owner Jim Irsay says members of the Super Bowl committee are considering playing a Super Bowl in London. I don’t buy that for a second. Will never happen. Sounds like somebody wants to take attention away from the Peyton Manning drama.
-Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski sits out practice with an ankle injury and is day-to-day.
NASCAR
-A.J. Allmendinger wins the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
"COLLLLL-BERT! COLLLL-BERT!"
BASEBALL
-Ryan Howard’s recovery from Achilles surgery is ahead of schedule, but the club doesn’t expect him back before May.
-Victor Martinez is likely to miss the entire 2012 season for the Tigers.
-Manager Ron Washington signs a two-year contract extension with the Rangers.
-Fun fact: Cole Hamels’ given name is Colbert.
READER COMMENT O’ THE DAY
Other John, on Tech hoops: I just can’t tell if this team is improving or regressing, they’re so darn inconsistent and have more hot/cold streaks than a nudist using a hot tub in Alaska.
MISCELLANY
-A British teen who’s eaten almost nothing but Chicken McNuggets for 15 years collapses at work.
NAME THAT TUNE
Well, I started out down a dirty road
Started out all alone
And the sun went down as I crossed the hill
And the town lit up, the world got still
I went to a ‘mid-major’ school, and I thought the Bracketbuster concept was great when it was first created. My school was one of those that was nearly always a tournament team (at the time) but we felt that we never got the respect that we deserved.
However, that whole concept seems to have “jumped the shark”. Radford (hardly a ‘bracket buster’ in its own right this year) will host 0-21 SUNY-Binghamton in this year’s “marquee” bracketbuster game. ZERO AND TWENTY-ONE!! Wow. Someone please put the “Bracketbuster” weekend out of its misery.
Comment by RP — January 31, 2012 @ 9:21 am
I have no comments, don’t know the song, just wanted to be the first post. When I’m here before everybody else, it’s a pretty slack day.
Comment by Tom L — January 31, 2012 @ 9:34 am
Learning to Fly by Tom Petty. And those nuggets look tasty!
Comment by Bdiddy — January 31, 2012 @ 9:35 am
Dude, don’t put the Rolex 24 under the heading NASCAR, that ain’t NASCAR, not even close, doesn’t matter if AJ did win. Even as big a race fan as I am, I can’t understand the concept of a 24 hour race. It’s just ridiculous. It isn’t a “race” – its a test of who can build a car to run that long continuously. I will admit, I watched about 24 minutes of it, though. It is kind of cool, in a weird sort of way.
On this college football coaching front, with the Schiano mention, I’m still shocked that PSU went the way they did. I would have bet just about anything that it would be either Schiano or Golden to replace Paterno.
Told ya’ll so on that comment o’ the day. I still gets my vote as best for 2012, thus far in the comp’o’tishun.
I nearly collapsed the first time I ate a single McNugget. Props to this guy for lasting that long.
Comment by Rick H. — January 31, 2012 @ 9:50 am
Manning and Isray are headed for a messy divorce. Sure, they tried to put on a brave face, but us fans have seen this before. Beside favre, it has happened with Troy, Marino, Bledsoe, and others. It’s not surprising that Manning is playing Beamer here with the “sniff, sniff, I have given a lot to Indianapolis, sniff, sniff, and I want to be able to go out on my own term. Sniff, sniff.”
It’s understandable that Manning is miffed. It’s quite understandable that Isray is miffed that Manning played the sniff, sniff card.
Damn it, abdnva, look what you made me do! I’m channeling my inner ‘abdnva.’
On another subject, what kind of parents feed their child chicken nuggets and nothing else for 15 years?! Boggles the mind.
Comment by Trevor — January 31, 2012 @ 9:58 am
Dang now I really want some Chicken Nuggets!
Comment by Original Greg — January 31, 2012 @ 11:30 am
Tom Petty’s Learning to Fly!!
Comment by HokieGal — January 31, 2012 @ 11:56 am
Just to clarify my last comment was due to the picture not the article concerning the teen who collapsed. I didn’t see that at first.
Comment by Original Greg — January 31, 2012 @ 12:06 pm
Learning to Fly – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Comment by Jeff — January 31, 2012 @ 12:17 pm
I’m surprised the British teen actually made it 15 years, have you ever seen what the pre-nugget form looks like? The first time I saw it I thought ‘wow, strawberry milkshakes in large quantities.’ Nope, not even close…
Super Bowl in London? Nah, doesn’t make sense. Now, a college bowl game in London? Sure! Have it sponsored by General Mills…it can be a play on both one of their products, and the Queen’s English…The Cheerio’s Bowl.
And the song…Learning to Fly, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.
Comment by Other John — January 31, 2012 @ 12:38 pm
I didn’t see the comment on the possibility of a Super Bowl in London (I guess my wife is right, I don’t hear what I don’t want to, and don’t see what I don’t want to, either . . . go figure). That’s just plain stupid. Got no teams outside of the U.S., so let’s talk about playing the biggest game of the season somewhere else. Why not Rio? It’s a better party place.
The Super Bowl itself is just stupid, or do I need to say the “Big Game” is just stupid. That’s another thing I can get on my soap box about – this crap of the NFL telling people they can’t use the phrase “Super Bowl” for anything. What kind of nonsense is that? If you have something you want people to watch, you should want people to use the correct name for it, shouldn’t you? To me the “Big Game” could be any thing. Hell, my kid had a few ‘big games’ in his time.
Hey, Roger Goodell – SUPER BOWL SUPER BOWL SUPER BOWL – I’m having a SUPER BOWL PARTY at my house, come and get me if’n you can figure out where I am. The rest of you all can come, too, if’n you can figure out where it is, too!
Comment by Rick H. — January 31, 2012 @ 1:46 pm
Don`t usually know non- country songs but Learning to Fly by Tom Petty seems to have popped into my head for some reason.
Comment by Ralph — January 31, 2012 @ 1:48 pm
Will Peyton Manning ever be healthy again? I am starting to think he maye end up retiring anyway. I am not sure what I would do if I was Irsay. $28 million is a ton of money for a guy that may never be the same.
Comment by Shaun — January 31, 2012 @ 4:19 pm
I was first,RP hacked in with a lower time so I wouldn’t be first.Where’s the RT blog patrol when you need them.
Comment by Tom L — January 31, 2012 @ 4:49 pm
Hmmmm Colbert Hamels… is that pronounced “Col-BURT” or “Col-BEAR”?
Comment by Dan — January 31, 2012 @ 8:39 pm
Let’s go Hokies !!!
Comment by Frank — February 1, 2012 @ 7:05 am
Lots of Anticipation today ….National signing day .Hokies have a few still deciding , Hoos seem to be done ..
Big announcement ..Where will the The Orrie end Up ?
If you have the chance , catch Tom Petty in concert ….AWESOME SHOW,
has one of the most underated guitarist in the business in Mike Campbell .
Comment by The Orrie — February 1, 2012 @ 8:10 am
What’s up with the briefing? Is it now Andy Bitter’s Show? I know it’s all about the National Signing Day, which has seen Tech making some nice haul today, and I have to wonder if a lot of that is attributed to the young Beamer’s recruiting prowess.
Comment by Trevor — February 1, 2012 @ 12:57 pm
Figured I’d join the Super Bowl rant started by Rick H. Why start the game so late?? Why not start it at 3:00 or 4:00? With the game starting at 6:30, and you go cross town to a partyand by the time the game is over and you says all your goodbyes, it’s midnight or later befre you get home. Hey, Goodell, I need my beauty sleep. If you could see me you would know how true that is.
Comment by justafan — February 1, 2012 @ 1:26 pm
Well, never did understand why it’s called Super and Bowl. What’s so special about a bowl? When I think ‘Super Bowl’ I immediately think of a bowl, the kind that I put cereal and milk into, and eat from, not a trophy.
And another thing, it used to be the Super Bowl was played the week after the final conference championship game. But, no, they went and move it till February. To add insult to injury, they sandwiched the Pro Bowl between the said games and SB. Huh?
I recall the SB was played the last Sunday of January and the lamely named Pro Bowl about three weeks after the SB.
Now, the Pro Bowl has become a laughing stock. If Aaron Rodgers ripped the NFC team and Deion Sanders tweeting an apology for a really piss poor game, something is dreadful wrong. “But, I don’t wanna get hurt by playing full speed,” one player said. Really?! Then why have the Pro Bowl at all then?!
Maybe the NFL should drop Pro Bowl and add Lingerie League. Those girls are tough. They play half naked with little protection, and takes a lot of, er, licking, yet keeps playing. They put grown, fully testeroned Suh of the world to shame.
Comment by Trevor — February 1, 2012 @ 2:47 pm
Couple things:
Super Bowl is at 6:30 Sunday to get ratings. Evening ratings significantly higher than afternoon ratings.
First Super Bowl was actually called something like the NFL AFL World Championship Game. Story about the Super Bowl name has it that Lamar Hunt was bouncing his kid’s Super Ball when the name Super Bowl came to him.
Is there a worse professional football game than the Pro Bowl? I’d watch Canadian Football League preseason games before I’d watch the Pro Bowl. Or, is “Pro Bowl” really a code name for Aaron “300″ McFarling?
Comment by ken — February 1, 2012 @ 4:12 pm
Yes, with these players that signed today with VT, no doubt about it. This will guarantee them another 10 win season over cupcake teams and a flop in the Bowl game. “…. But those guys played hard and I am proud of them.” LOL
Comment by Mike S. — February 1, 2012 @ 5:08 pm
Has anyone asked why the heck the freakin’ game is on Sunday, as in the day, or should I say night, before the start of the work week? How many folks just give up on the game to hit the hay, or not at all, to get rested. Imagine the atmosphere if we did not have to work the next day?
Comment by scott whitaker — February 1, 2012 @ 5:19 pm
Mike S: Really? We are again “outrecruited” by 3 other teams in the conference but who more consistently ends up winning their division and the conference? VT ended up the season much as predicted. How’d your team do? Not sayin’ are you? Figures…
Comment by scott whitaker — February 1, 2012 @ 9:09 pm