Here's a ragbag rife with random ramblings
- Tom Rife: Livin' the Team
- January 7, 2021
- 844
New Year’s Day has come and gone. Among many other things, it means The College of Wooster is gearing up for the return of students to campus — and a possible resumption of activity within the athletics department.
Students can begin moving in on Jan. 18, which is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Classes will begin Jan. 19, and for the first two weeks, all instruction will be online. A mix of in-person and virtual classes will commence in early February.
As for Fighting Scots sports, everything remains on hold. The student-athletes, for example, are not yet back on campus, which has, of course, precluded the resumption of practices. It was back in late October that the North Coast Athletic Conference mashed down on the brake pedal, saying the league would conduct no conference championships for winter sports during the 2020-21 season. At the same time, the conference prohibited teams from engaging in any type of preparation, effective until Jan. 1.
As of Tuesday, the college had made no decisions regarding the resumption of practices or the scheduling of any actual games. With the students soon to be back in classes, an update should be forthcoming.
Now hiring
As of Tuesday, there were six head coaching positions open in the National Football League. Looks like the door of opportunity has swung wide open for all those Monday-morning quarterbacks out there.
Speaking of second-guessing, what in Roger Goodell’s name was Philadelphia’s Doug Pederson doing in Sunday’s season-ending loss to Washington?
Passing up an early game-tying, chip-shot field goal attempt on fourth and goal was one thing. But benching QB Jalen Hurts for Nate Sudfeld early in the fourth quarter was the real head-scratcher that seemed to exasperate fans — not to mention most of the Eagles who were trailing by just one possession and fighting their guts out trying to win the game.
(Oh, by the way, in New York, Giants players and fans were roiled as well, for had the Football Team lost to Philly, the G-Men would have made the playoffs.)
For Pederson to have treated the game like some sort of preseason exhibition was silly and narrow-minded, if not just plain selfish. He insisted he just wanted to give good-guy Sudfeld a little P.T.
Really? C’mon, man. In all due respect to that one individual, your team deserved better.
The Eagles’ overall performance in the fourth quarter was just plain abysmal. Washington couldn’t give the game away no matter how hard it tried because the Greenbirds were having nothing of that. Philly’s showing was laughable. Even to casual pro football observers, there was the stench of “tank” in the air.
Maybe there should be seven coaching vacancies, not six.
Hooray for Baker
One couldn’t help but feel good about the joy and satisfaction on the face of Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield following Sunday’s nail-biter over the Mason Rudolph-led Pittsburgh Steelers.
No doubt the entire franchise oozed a sense of accomplishment in ending the team’s playoff drought. It’s always gratifying to get a monkey off your back, right?
Now let’s see what happens Sunday night when the wild-card Browns tangle with the Steelers yet again in their AFC playoff matchup in Blitzburgh. Who knows what curveballs the COVID demons may deliver between now and kickoff.
COVID Carelessness
Last season the National Basketball Association went overboard in creating a bubble in Orlando so that a season — however different — could be completed.
Now, though, there is a completely different look to the league, as teams travel willy-nilly to play games. Already, about a tenth of the 2021 campaign has been contested.
While numerous safety protocols remain in place, multiple risks still hover over the action. They say the show must go on, but there is more at stake than meets the eye, especially when coaches and sideline figures have their masks stretched under their chins.
Take that Dabo
Whether he likes it or not (he doesn’t), Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney found out the hard way that the Ohio State Buckeyes are, indeed, worthy of CFP status. Because unbeaten OSU had played an abbreviated regular-season schedule, he had questioned the Bucks’ presence in the national semifinals, only to be handed a 49-28 beatdown and an express ticket to “next year.”
The Scarlet and Grey’s performance against the Tigers was eye-popping in all phases. That’s for sure. Now we have a really good reason to root against Alabama on Monday night. (Normally, I root against 'Bama simply because of Nick Saban’s high and mighty attitude. He does seem to come across a little more personable this year, thanks mostly to his Aflac TV commercials.)
Perhaps Dabo should have been worrying more about the Buckeyes’ explosive artillery. It wasn’t OSU’s fault the Big Ten bungled just about everything during the unpredictable COVID quandary.
Karma is real
Incidentally, karma also was quite possibly on display when Notre Dame and Indiana both lost their bowl games.
Irish head coach Brian Kelly’s rants basically caused the Rose Bowl game to be moved from Pasadena to Arlington, Texas. He insisted the players’ parents and family should be allowed to attend in-person, which wasn’t possible in California. One has to wonder, though, how they felt after making the big trip to the palatial AT&T Stadium. Tide 31, Irish 14.
Meanwhile, Indiana head coach Tom Allen chose his team’s Outback Bowl stage to muck up the pre-game hype. For whatever reason, the Hoosiers saw to it that no Big Ten logo appeared on the upper-right shoulder of their jerseys. The league’s logo also was missing on the helmet, replaced by the acronym LEO, the team’s “Love Each Other” mantra all season long.
Allen insisted he meant no disrespect to anyone. Anyway, Ole Miss (with the SEC logo in plain view) got the last laugh: a 26-20 victory.
Maybe someday, coaches will finally understand focusing on X’s and O’s is the preferred strategy over sideshow theatrics.