Friday, January 04, 2008

Jap and Clemson

Jasper Brinkley and all-SEC receiver Kenny McKinley confirmed their intentions to return to USC for their final seasons Thursday when reached by phone (so says The State). Neither is expected to participate much in spring practice while continuing to rehab following surgeries. But that is of little concern to a coaching staff that has seen four players leave early for the NFL since Steve Spurrier arrived before the 2005 season. Imagine if we still or did have those players on the team in 07 and going into 08? All those what if's.....But at least those two are coming back!

Well it is official - Clemson will open its 2008 football season in the Georgia Dome against Alabama, athletic director Terry Don Phillips announced today. The game will be played August 30, 2008 and will be the first Saturday evening prime time telecast on either ESPN or ABC. Click here for more info.

Clemson Non-Conference Football Schedule for 2008
August 30 - Alabama (at Georgia Dome, Atlanta, GA)
Sept. 6 - The Citadel
Sept. 20 - South Carolina State
Nov. 29 - South Carolina

Clemson also has -
-Home ACC Games vs : Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland, NC State
-And Road ACC Games vs : Boston College, Florida State, Virginia, Wake Forest

When will the ACC win another BCS game


I am going to go out on a limb and say the ACC will finally when a BCS bowl game when Tommy Bowden gets fired from Clemson, Florida State players don't have to cheat on a online test, Ralph Friedgen loses 30 pounds, Dukes has a winning season and Miami brings back Willie Williams as the team captain of the All-Criminal team.
The ACC is also 3-10 vs. top 25 teams this season. Clemson is also close to finishing up the deal to play Alabama in Atlanta next year. Did Clemson learn noting about playing Auburn in Atlanta this year?

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Gamecock Value

The South Carolina Gamecocks football team is purportedly worth $69,000,000.00 making it the 12th most valuable college football team according to Forbes. The November article, which somehow escaped our notice at the time, explains its methodology as follows:

Our second annual ranking of the most valuable teams in college football is based on what the football programs contribute to four important beneficiaries: their university (the value of contributions from football to the institution for academic purposes, including scholarship payments for football players); athletic department (the net profit generated by the football program ultimately retained by the department); conference (the distribution of bowl game revenue); and local communities with a vested interest in the team (incremental spending in the county during home-game weekends). Our system weighs those four elements in declining order.

The Top 20 is as follows:

1) Notre Dame $101
2) Texas $ 92
3) Georgia $ 90
4) Michigan $ 85
5) Florida $ 84
6) LSU $ 76
7) Tennessee $ 74
8) Auburn $ 72
9) Alabama $ 72
10) Ohio State $ 71
11) Oklahoma $ 70
12) South Carolina $ 69
12) Penn State $ 69
14) Southern Cal $ 53
14) Arkansas $ 53
16) Texas A & M $ 50
16) Washington $ 50
18) Nebraska $ 49
19) Michigan State $ 44
20) Wisconsin $ 43

Obvious observations: 8 of the top 15 are from the SEC, which kind of makes me wonder what is wrong with Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Miss St and Ole Miss? And what must the conference as a whole be worth?

I wouldn't have known how to guess at these rankings if I'd been asked, but I am a little suprised to see that Auburn is more valuable than Alabama. I also can't wait to see where Notre Dame will be on next year's list without a BS BCS appearance this year.

Did you notice who's missing (other than all the mid-majors who think they're real football teams now and yes I'm looking your way Big East)? Where is Florida State? Are they not worth atleast half of what Florida is worth? I wonder what all those commentators who say Bowden has the right to leave on his own terms, no matter how ruinous his continued prescence becomes, would say when the numbers appear to show that not only is Papa Bowden cheapening his legacy but he is sucking the equity out of the program before he goes. And now that I look at it where is the ACC at all?



Delenda est Clemson.

brawl in the booth

I am glad somebody finally called out Herbstreit and Musburger, Corso might be worst on gameday but atleast he isn't in the booth. Between sucking up to a coach, sucking up to a team might be the worst. Who cares about Hawaii, give it a break, they didn't deserve to play in the BCS. Check out this article

Breaking News: Herbstreit, Musburger Brawl after Rose Bowl
by Trey Bradley (Senior Writer) @bleacherreport.com


Call it a Rose Bowl Rumble.
Just minutes after ABC's broadcast of Tuesday's Illinois-USC game, Kirk Herbstreit and Brent Musburger had to be separated by stadium security during a brief but violent skirmish.
Apparently, the dispute centered around who had a bigger man-crush on USC head coach Pete Carroll.
Musburger, the senior member of the broadcast duo, spent most of the four-hour telecast gushing over Carroll's forays into Southern California ghettos in search of new running backs. Herbstreit matched his play-by-play man with a compliment-to-commercial ratio that made Carroll blush during his postgame press conference.
At one point during the game, Musberger observed, "Carroll could probably start 11 song girls and still find a way to beat the Illini."
Herbstreit countered, "Heck Brent, look at him. He's hot enough to be a song girl!"
Sources close to Bleacher Report tell us the scuffle broke out as both broadcasters rushed to the elevator in an effort to intercept Carroll in the parking lot.
ABC sideline reporter Lisa Salters, who interviewed the USC head coach following a 49-17 win, confirmed that both Herbstreit and Musburger offered to trade assignments with her before the broadcast.
ABC declined comment for this story.

Man that is fat (wow we need more football)

La. men claim buffet eatery banned them
· The Associated PressUpdated 01/03/08 - 8:36 AM


A 265-pound man says a restaurant overcharged him for his trips to the buffet, then banned him and a relative because of how much they consumed during their visits.
Ricky Labit, a 6-foot-3 disabled offshore worker, said he had been a regular at the Manchuria Restaurant, eating there as often as three times a week. But on his most recent visit, he said a waitress gave him and his wife's cousin, Michael Borrelli, a bill for $46.40, roughly double the buffet price for two adults.
"She says, 'Y'all fat, and y'all eat too much,'" Labit said.
Labit and Borrelli said they felt discriminated against because of their size.
"I was stunned, that somebody would say something like that. I ain't that fat, I only weigh 277," Borrelli said.
Accountant Thomas Campo, who spoke for the restaurant because the owner's English is limited, said the men were charged an extra $10 each on Dec. 21 because they made a habit of dining exclusively on the more expensive seafood dishes, including crab legs and frog legs.
"We have a lot of big people there," Campo said. "We don't discriminate."
The argument over the bill grew heated, and police were called. The police report states that the disagreement was settled when the restaurant said the bill was a mistake and, to appease Labit, the meal was complimentary.
Labit said he insisted on paying but was told not to come back. He complained that when seafood on the buffet line runs out, the restaurant only grudgingly cooks more. Campo said the proprietress tries to reduce waste of quality food.

There is nothing like cheerleaders doing the shocker


Not as hot as the naked Louisville cheerleader from the past year, but I ain't complaining

Something to think about as bowl season comes to an end


Things that we knew before the bowl season that just happened to come true at game time.

Southern Cal is good, when health they might be the best.
Illinois is not a BCS team
Hawaii is a joke; they had no right to waste a BCS spot against a SEC team
UGA was probably the hottest team coming down the stretch and made a good case for playing in the National Championship game.

Texas Tech can throw the ball with the best of them, as Graham Harrell was 44 of 69 in a comeback against UVA.

Things I didn’t know until watching the bowl games.

Cullen Harper is a Heisman hopeful in 2008, really.
There are 4 NCAA division 1 coach’s that did not play football at the college level.
Texas Tech’s Mike Leach
Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis
GT’s Paul Johnson
Kansas’s Mark Mangino
Also did not know that Mike Leach has a law degree from Pepperdine University

How about Hawaii has not made a recruiting trip to the main land in 4 years, they just send out post cards.
More to come tomorrow
Plus more on Dave Odom and his 400th win against Radford.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

No more foolin' around Odom

Time for Odom and the USC Men's Basketball team to step up! Or question that keeps coming up ---Will Odom be fired if USC doesn’t make it to the Big Dance this season?---will have to be addressed by USC. A significant portion of the fan base has already turned on Odom, despite the fact he’s compiled four 20-win seasons in Columbia and won two NIT titles.

Yeah we beat UC-Irvine the other night but look-y what is ahead --- the SEC portion of the schedule. So is it NCAA or bust for Dave-y boy? Possibly.

I am one and I think the crew here at LOHD is growing tired of Dave-y. We feel it is time to explore other options at the head coach position for the USC Men's Basketball team.

I can assure you Athletic Director Eric Hyman hasn’t given Odom any “NCAA or Bust” ultimatum. Hyman doesn’t operate that way. Even if his New Year's message was that he "expects the men's and women's basketball team to make the NCAA tournament every year." AS ANY INTELLIGENT AD SHOULD. Odom will not be fired before the end of the season, unless a total meltdown occurs, which I don’t expect to happen. Like most athletic directors, Hyman conducts a full review of the program after the season and then makes his decisions in regards to coaches, etc. Besides wins and losses, there are financial considerations as well that Hyman must think about. Buying out the contract of a Division I head coach typically isn’t cheap and it won’t be for Odom either. Who could USC get to come to Columbia and take over?

There’s no doubt pressure on Odom to win more basketball games....seriously he has had all the time in the world to build a program or find another hidden gem.

The men’s team is 7-5 with two winnable non-conference games remaining against Radford and UNC-Asheville before SEC play begins on Jan. 9. The first five conference games will set the tone for the rest of 2008. So continue to watch to see if USC will get off to a good start in the conference or let the negative vibes surrounding the program mount. I guess first we must see if USC beats Radford (4-9) tonight so Odom can get win #400 or better yet so USC simply puts aonther X in the win column and avoids another let down.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Happy Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone from the LOHD crew. This year is already off to a good start with the klempson loss and the new "Game is On" Video. has us counting down until the start of the 08 college football season.

We here at the LOHD feel that 08 is going to be a good year so stay tuned....