East Tennessee Media Archives

November 30, 2009

Tennessee went to Lexington on Saturday night and escaped with a 30-24 overtime win. The game was back-and-forth for its duration. The Wildcats at times led 7-0, 14-7, and 21-14, before Devin Mathis gave Tennessee its first lead late in the the third quarter. The fourth quarter saw no scoring, until Knoxville native Lones Seiber tied the game at the end of regulation. That was all that Kentucky could do, with Seiber missing a field goal, and Montario Hardesty scoring the Vols winning touchdown on its offensive series in overtime.

As mentioned, the score was a see-saw battle, although statistics would seem to indicate otherwise. Alcoa native Randall Cobb rushed 18 times for 101, but the Volunteers dominated the statistics. According to utsports.com coverage, Hardesty rushed 39 times for 179 yards, while Johathan Crompton was 13-of-23 for 220 yards. The Vols also led time of possession by over five minutes and won the total yardage battle by almost 200 yards.

With the win, Tennessee finishes second in the East Division, and is rumored to be headed to the Outback Bowl. Normally, a seven-win team wouldn't be in contention for the Outback Bowl, or any New Year's Bowl, but a number of SEC teams are 7-5, and Tennessee has defeated all the ones occupying the East Division. Still, Ole Miss or Auburn may be more deserving of that bid.

November 23, 2009

Tennessee took a while but is finally bowl-eligible after Saturday night's win. The Volunteers used two scoring drives late in the second quarter to get to a 24-10 lead and then outscored the Commodores 7-6 in the second half for the victory. That second half score came on a defensive touchdown with Wes Brown doing the honors. The Vols did this with multiple walk-ons playing on defense, and a walk-on placekicker named Devin Mathis, who had a good night.

Still, several pundits do worry that the Vols lack of depth could hurt them this weekend in Lexington, particularly if the Volunteers turn the ball over (Jonathan Crompton had his first interception in over 140 attempts on Saturday). That being said, if the Vol offense can take care of the ball and the clock, they can win. They can't depend on Wildcat drives to stall like what happened with Vanderbilt, though.

With those things in play, any number of bowl scenarios are possible. Unlike others, I'm going to assume that both South Carolina and Georgia will lose to their ACC opponents, but that means Tennessee will need to beat Kentucky and create a scenario of four or five SEC teams with 7-5 records, and hope the bowl selection committees take them, most likely to the Chick-fil-A Bowl. I think the Outback Bowl, as reported by the Tennessean, is a pretty lofty hope at this point.

n As far as coaches on the hot seat, the hottest seat of all belongs to Notre Dame's Charlie Weis, who is certain to be fired after what is already another five-loss season, particularly one in which the Irish have repeatedly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, as they did again on Saturday. Perhaps Weis can join Philip Fulmer at Kansas.

n Speaking of Fulmer, his odds of being hired are ever-increasing, as it looks to be a really big year for the coaching carousel. It's unlikely that there's turnover in the Southeastern Conference, but a Big 12 or Big East job looks more and more likely at this point.

November 16, 2009

Arrests, distractions, travel arrangements, etc. All of these are the "reasons" that have been mentioned for Tennessee's lopsided loss in Oxford on Saturday. Perhaps those did all contribute, but the bottom line is this: Tennessee was outplayed - substantially.

The Volunteers, although they were still well within reach on the scoreboard at halftime, never could seem to find an answer for Dexter McCluster, who surpassed 300 all-purpose yards in setting school records against the Volunteers. The offense also seemed to find their way back into some old habits, with Jonathan Crompton only hitting just over 50 percent of his passes for less than 200 yards, although, in his defense, he didn't throw any interceptions. Kudos to Ole Miss for using their substantial size advantage against an undersized Tennessee offensive line and pressuring Crompton and slowing the running attack.

Now Tennessee has to regroup and try to get to 7-5, and get the best available bowl game. Signs would seem to point to the Chick-fil-A, depending on whether the Outback or Cotton would take Tennessee over an Auburn team that beat the Vols head-to-head in Knoxville. Georgia might also get a better bowl, in spite of losing to the Volunteers. Time will tell.

November 11, 2009

n The family and I had a good trip to Athens and Atlanta over last weekend, although the sicknesses put somewhat of a damper on the atmosphere. As assumed, Georgia had no trouble with the Golden Eagles, although Tennessee Tech did manage to cover the 41-point spread (most likely because Georgia let up).

The UGa campus, as noted by my wife, is pretty modern-looking. This comes in spite of being one of the oldest, if not the oldest, land-grant universities in the United States. Perhaps that has just come from facilities upgrades over the years. Sanford Stadium gives the feeling of being small, when compared to others I've visited, but I'm told by colleagues that its capacity is 92,000. Perhaps it's just in the layout that gives that perspective.

Among other sites visited, we had the Georgia Aquarium, which was interesting, and has a much bigger holding tank than the ones in Gatlinburg or Chattanooga, but, for the price difference, I was expecting much, much more.  We also visited the iconic Varsity Restaurant in Athens, and, while the family was pretty happy with the product, I found nothing particularly special about its food. Other plans had to fall by the wayside due to the illnesses, but all-in-all, a good trip.

n Speaking of UGa, reports indicated that their game against Florida in Jacksonville had one of the highest rates ever of citations for underage drinking. That's unfortunate.

n Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the families and the 13 students from Morehouse College's marching band who were injured when their charter bus crashed on Halloween. The crash occurred on Interstate 75 near Atlanta. According to an Atlanta Journal report, the driver has since passed away due to natural causes. Visit www.ajc.com for more coverage.

n Our thoughts go out to the Campbell County community after a student brought a weapon to school several days ago. Hopefully, this was just a careless mistake by the teen, whose reported intention was to deliver the firearm to a relative after school, rather than an act of malice.

n A sad story was reported in the Times Free Press last week, where an individual described as a "Good Samaritan" was killed by an automobile as he tried to help a victim from a separate crash.

n In one of the more bizarre events you will hear of in sports, Michael Jordan's son, Marcus, reportedly wore Nike shoes in a game he was playing for the University of Central Florida. The problem? UCF is outfitted by Adidas. Adidas has treated the incident as a breach and cancelled its contracts with the entire Central Florida athletic department. There seem to be two schools of thought: one sides with Jordan, saying he should be allowed to wear whatever he wants, and the other, stating that no athlete is bigger than the program. Count me in the latter. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

n My country music hero, George Jones, was quoted in The Tennessean last week as saying the current crop of artists are "definitely not traditional country music," and need to find their own brand identity. He went on to praise Alan Jackson and George Strait for sticking to tradition. Count your writer as siding with The Possum, and no, I didn't watch the CMA's last night.

n Sadly, it was reported last week that unemployment hit the 10% mark, its highest since 1983. None of us are exempt from the effects of a struggling economy, so let's pray that this thing turns upward soon.

n CBS seems to be losing perspective with its mystery shows. NCIS:LA, while drawing a decent number, seems to forget that it's supposed to be about the Department of the Navy. And the casting is questionable. The CSI shows are also losing a bit of luster, particularly with this week's trilogy, which for some reason that only CBS suits know, is featuring Laurence Fishburne in Miami and New York (Don't they realize how many of us quit watching the Vegas show particularly because of his character?). Hopefully, they will find their bearings soon. At least the original NCIS is still toeing the line.

n Finally, on a mostly positive note, Sesame Street turned 40 this week. While, in recent years, it has become much more about social politics and less about learning, I can remember watching my favorites, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, the Count, Grover, and Cookie Monster in my youth. Too bad the show started catering to toddlers with the introduction of Elmo. Perhaps it will find its way again.

November 5, 2009

Now that the dust has started to settle regarding TSSAA's latest faux pas, let's look into what may happen on the field, rather than in some smoke-filled-room in the Hermitage. It's not as hot a discussion, but hey, this isn't the BCS. Much chatter is bad; let's settle it on the gridiron.

Class 6A

As we stated earlier this week, Class 6A only fields eight teams in this classification; however, of those eight, three have now held the top ranking in the state, with the ascension of Maryville this weekend. Undefeated Sevier County is ranked number two; and five of the eight are in the Top 10. Needless to say, whoever wins this bracket will certainly have earned it. Don't bet against Maryville.

In the Mid-East, Blackman holds the number-one seed with a 9-1 record. Other teams to watch include Riverdale, who lost a narrow 14-13 decision to Blackman this past weekend, and last year's Champion, Oakland, who defeated the Blaze earlier in October. Don't bet against last year's champion in this bracket. And the Patriots are also my pick to represent the east half.

The teams to watch in the western half are Arlington and Germantown from the Memphis area, with an outside shot from White Station, while Franklin, Hunters Lane, and Brentwood High would seem to be the logical choices out of the mid-state. Watch for Arlington to represent the west.

Predicted State Champion: Oakland (over Arlington)

Class 5A

There is lots of representation for East Tennessee in this bracket, with the ultimate question being one of whether or not Tennessee High can defend its undefeated record for five more weeks. The Vikings are super-talented, and opponents have only rarely been competitive this season. Morristown West or Sullivan South might give them a run in their bracket, but it's pretty likely they'll advance to the semifinals...maybe farther.

Clinton would seem to be the favorite among the Mid-East bracket, at 9-0 and highly ranked. However, a second-round matchup with Anderson County seems likely, while a quarterfinal trip to Columbia is anything but an easy trip. Columbia is our pick for state semifinalist from this bracket.

In the west, Henry County is looking great, as the Patriots generally do in the regular season. However, they have recently been unable to advance to the finals, either falling to a Memphis school or to Hillsboro. The Burros won't be standing in their way, and Clarksville High is unlikely to advance far enough for a rematch. It would seem to be their bracket to win, but with several district teams in their bracket, don't be surprised if an upset lands Beech, Hardin County, or Lawrence County in the title game.

Predicted State Champion: Henry County (over Tennessee High)

Class 4A

Most of the East Tennessee teams are in the East bracket, including undefeated, number-one ranked Red Bank. The Lions won't have an easy road, but they'll have home field advantage throughout. Normally, I'd say watch out for Fulton in round two, but Red Bank may have too much this season. Greeneville might give Red Bank a run; that could be an exciting one to watch. My money is still on the Lions, though.

In the Mid-East bracket, consistently inconsistent Maplewood is the number-one seed. Don't look for them to be upset by Scott High, but White House or Whites Creek are capable of emerging. Perhaps that is the game to watch in Week 11.

In the western half, Giles County and Liberty Tech Magnet School are the number-one seeds. Liberty has been garnering first-place votes all year, so don't be surprised if they reach the finals. However, David Lipscomb found ways to get into the 3A title game a few years running, so never count the Mustangs out. Other possibilities from the west include Crockett County and Giles County, both of whom are 9-1.

Predicted State Champion: Red Bank (over Liberty)

Class 3A

Obviously the question in this bracket is whether or not Alcoa can win its sixth title in as many years, but before we get to the Tornadoes, let's look at the East bracket, where Elizabethton would be the favorite, having home-field advantage throughout. However, Austin-East and Gatlinburg-Pittman are both teams to watch from this area. Watch for Elizabethton to emerge victorious, though.

In the Mid-East bracket, Alcoa has to be the favorite, based on their history, and their six quality wins this year. However, don't be quick to rule Polk County out. The Wildcats could give Alcoa a game in the state quarterfinals. Bledsoe County, Loudon, and CAK have all had good years, but, this bracket is a two-team race. Alcoa will make the state semifinals.

On the west side of the bracket, Milan has been dominant over West Tennessee foes, with the Bulldogs having been ranked second most of the year in Class 3A. Don't count out Goodpasture either. Teams with an outside shot are Camden and Manassas, as well.

Predicted State Champion: Alcoa (over Milan)

Class 2A

In Class 2A, the East bracket is pretty tough, with both Hampton and Oneida having made recent trips to the state semifinals, while three of the other four teams won seven or more games. Of  the six teams in the bracket, only Tellico Plains finished lower than second in its district, and the Bears hold a win over second-place Rockwood. Don't expect anyone to unseed Oneida or Hampton early, and, based on home field, watch for the Bulldogs to be in the final four.

Of the teams in the Mid-East, Boyd-Buchanan spent some time at number-one, but Signal Mountain and Forrest are also strong contenders. Cascade made a deep playoff run in 2008, as well. This bracket could be a barnburner, but look for Boyd Buchanan to emerge.

Among the teams in the western half of the bracket, Trousdale County tops the list of contenders, although district mate Friendship Christian could make some noise. McKenzie and Adamsville also each have nine wins, so don't count either of them out.

Predicted State Champion: Trousdale County (over Boyd Buchanan)

Class 1A

In the East bracket, Knoxville Grace would appear to be head and shoulders above the rest, holding a pretty dominant win over 2-seed Harriman already. Two other teams enter the bracket at 3-7, while Copper Basin has racked up several wins against out-of-state competition and is the unknown commodity of this bracket. Grace is going to the semifinals, though.

In the Mid-East, South Pittsburg would appear to be favorite, particularly when one notices the 2-seed has a losing record. The Pirates wouldn't face a team with a winning record until the state quarterfinals, where they could meet either Gordonsville or Lookout Valley. Look for the Pirates to meet Gordonsville yet again, with South Pittsburg finding their way into the state semifinals.

On the west side, Wayne County and Jo Byrns are both undefeated, but landed in the same bracket. Look for those two to meet in the quarterfinals. Among others to watch are Union City at 8-2, and the always strong Mustangs from Huntingdon High School, who are 7-3.

Predicted State Champion: South Pittsburg (over Huntingdon)

Now go out and support your teams, and let's all hope that ALL the excitement between now and December happens on the field, not in a conference room.

November 2, 2009

November 3, 2009

November 2, 2009

Vol fans can be proud of the effort that Tennessee put forth on a rainy Saturday night, as the Volunteers put together what this writer feels was their best performance of 2009 (Western Kentucky excluded), dominating South Carolina en route to a 31-13 win.

The Volunteers used early takeaways and physical play up front to take control of the game in its earliest minutes, jumping out to a 14-point lead, never looking back. The Vols continued to dominate the first half, going in with a 21-3 lead, before South Carolina made a little noise in the second half, with each team scoring 10.

In typical Lane Kiffin fashion, the head coach is quoted in a utsports.com article, "[the Vols] left a lot of yards out there. Their defense did a good job, but it was about us." Strange sounds for a coach who just scored his second conference victory in a blowout. There is something to be said for perfectionism, I guess.

Tennessee now has a very good shot at the Chick-fil-A Bowl or better, and the Volunteers will likely be favored in at least three of their final four contests.

October 27, 2009

The Volunteers played their hearts out on Saturday but yet another special teams hiccup (actually two) wound up costing them the win. While I try to stay away from making any one kid a scapegoat, I'm really having a hard time with steering clear of Daniel Lincoln. This isn't the first big games in which he has struggled. The list includes, but is not limited to, this year's Auburn game, UCLA the last two years, and the SEC title game in 2007. It would seem that Coach Lane Kiffin's "everything's a competition" philosophy doesn't apply to him any more than it has to Jonathan Crompton.

That being said it was a great game. Tennessee should be proud of its effort, on the road against a number one team, but the bottom line is still the bottom line and that's 3-4, 1-3.

Now, as for the conspiracy theories floating around, yes, there were some blown calls. The most obvious one in my mind was the Alabama nose man beating the ball to Crompton, and yet it being a no-call. And surprisingly the announcers agreed with that. But there were blown calls that went the other way, with Dennis Rogan's absolute mugging of Julio Jones on the fade route being most egregious. The announcers agreed with that one, too. Bottom line for Tennessee is that they had the chance to win, regardless of officiating, and couldn't protect the kicker. No excuses.

Put it behind you and get ready for South Carolina.

Other Quick Hits

n TSSAA has posted a "playoff possibilities" link on its website as of Monday evening. Unfortunately for the common fan, the Association has listed every team in these possibilities, including ones that have been mathematically eliminated for a month. Hopefully they will fine-tune these before Friday.

n Movie Review: Surrogates. This Bruce Willis sci-fi thriller reminded me of I, Robot for all of the wrong reasons. While there's some sort of libertarian message buried in this flop, your writer found most of the movie unintentionally funny. It's campy, but it has a lot of pretty women, I guess, if that's what you dig. F.

n Finally, a long-belated congratulations to Karen Peck Gooch, who was named the President of the Southern Gospel Music Association a few weeks back. Karen is the first female President of that organization.

October 13, 2009

We should have seen it coming. We've seen it before. How many times over the last 10-12 years has Tennessee come into October having lost to Florida, reeling in conference play, only to have that one breakout game. I've been saying it for three days now: Nothing can bring Tennessee Football out of  a slump like the red and black of the Georgia Bulldogs. Two years ago, Eric Berry ran wild on Georgia's offense, putting Tennessee in the position to win the East Division, and, combined with an early win in Athens by South Carolina, costing Georgia a shot at the SEC and possibly national title.

Tennessee isn't going to win the East this year, in all likelihood, but what the Volunteers did on Saturday is build momentum for their stretch run. Outside of Alabama, there is not a single game the Vols shouldn't have a shot to win, especially if Tennessee can pitch and catch and get even 80% of that level of production from Jonathan Crompton. They do, however, have to correct the special teams hiccups or that may cost them in a game that they should win.

Going back to Crompton for a minute, I hadn't been as critical as some, due in large part to sloppy receiver play, until the Auburn game when I saw him throwing swing passes at the tailbacks' feet. After that I am guilty of joining the same chorus most other Vol supporters were singing.  However, this week I am happy for Number 8. Now he has some confidence going in to the bye week and then the biggest game remaining on the schedule. Hopefully some of that will carry over. Congratulations on the Player-of-the-Week performance.

Atlanta in late December is looking really good right now.

October 6, 2009

Disappointment. That's all that can really be said about Saturday night, and really about the 2009 season at this point. While I've been a detractor of the coaching staff, there were glimpses of hope during the first four games, but Saturday night's 26-22 loss to Auburn seemed to really drain a lot of the enthusiasm from the Tennessee fan base. There just don't seem to be a lot of positives, with a quarterback who has struggled, a receiving corps that just seems perpetually out-of-sorts, special teams that are iffy, and a good-but-not-as-good-as-advertised defense that was on its heels all night.

This was against a quality SEC school, although one that was not projected to be undefeated through five games, but Tennessee still has plenty of tough opponents ahead. That, more than anything, may be the reason for the downheartedness.

However, your writer got a good dose of perspective on Saturday night. With folks selling their tickets on the strip at below face value, I took the opportunity to take my seven-year-old to Neyland Stadium for the first time Saturday night. And, even though he is old enough to understand wins and losses, and he was rooting for the home team, he still had a blast and enjoyed all the pageantry and things that go with being in that stadium. And, as much as I'm still not sold on this staff, and as much I'm seeing this season turning into last season, sometimes it's good just to take a step back and enjoy the Saturday.

Go Big Orange.

n  You'll be happy to know that The Sports Animal iss reporting this that there will be another bowl game. This one will be the Yankee Bowl, played in New York's new Yankee Stadium, pitting the fourth-place team from the Big East against the seventh selection from the Big 12. The addition of this game brings the total to 35 bowls, meaning 70 of 120 Bowl Subdivision teams will play in the post-season.

n  Speaking of bowl games, the Poinsettia Bowl has announced its intentions for the next few years, and will be keeping the Mountain West as its feature conference. It will no longer be associated with the Pac-10, though, which can't come as good news for that conference, which doesn't have great bowl associations to start with. But where this story gets really bizarre, is the Bowl's intention to feature WAC teams in 2011, and 2012, flanked by Navy in 2010 and Army in 2013. Pretty wild to have a bid extended for four seasons from now, huh?

n  Best wishes go out to Tennessee basketballer Emmanuel Negedu, who had to be revived after collapsing after a "light workout" earlier this week. Let's keep him our thoughts and prayers.

n  On the first of several non-sports notes, The Singing News Fan Awards were handed out 11 days ago in Louisville. Congratulations to the Booth Brothers for being the big winners.The Triumphant Quartet won for Musician and Bass Vocalist, and Greater Vision took home the award for Horizon Individual and Songwriter. Visit SingingNews.com or your favorite southern gospel site for the full rundown.

n  In a sad turn of events, two students were killed at Nashville's Pearl-Cohn High School last week. For more coverage, visit Tennessean.com.

n  On another front, count this writer in full support of the Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., cheerleaders. They have been under fire for putting scriptures on the banners which the team runs through. For coverage of this, visit TimesFreePress.com.

n  Finally we serve up two light-hearted offerings. First, Chattanooga saw the triumphant comeback of Takeru Kobayashi, who devoured more than 70, that's right, 70 Krystal burgers in this year's Krystal square-off. Congratulations.

n  Our other light-hearted offering is a movie review of "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs". Unlike any number of kids movies, this one had a message at its heart, but never took itself too seriously. The casting was genius, including an outstanding voice performance by Mr. T as Officer Earl. It's a film that all can enjoy, and includes several hat-tips to those of my generation, with several references to things popular in the mid-1980's. It's a must-see. A+.

n  Finally there were three notable celebrity deaths last week. Miles Brand, the NCAA leader, and former President of Indiana University lost his battle with cancer, and actor Patrick Swayze also fell to that disease. Also passing last week was Peach Bowl founder George Crumbley, with ajc.com not listing a cause of death. Mr. Crumbley was 86. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those left behind. 

September 14, 2009

What a difference a week makes. A Monday ago water cooler conversation was filled with great confidence from Tennessee Volunteers fans. A week later, conversation is largely going to surround yet another UCLA game in which the Vols snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Obviously, the glaring statistic of the game is the four turnovers from Tennessee, and three consecutive interceptions from Jonathan Crompton. Opinion seems to be split on how much blame the senior captain should shoulder. Count this writer in the camp that it's a substantial portion, although perhaps not all. He threw the three interceptions, and, had some critical misses, but there were other factors. UCLA got pressure at times, but Crompton, for the most part, did a good job of making them miss. His biggest errors were that the UCLA defense seemed to always know where the ball was going.

The other thing that isn't being discussed much around town is that Tennessee, just like last year, ran too little. Crompton wouldn't have made as many mistakes had the play-callers not decided that the game needed to be in his hands, in spite of much success running the football throughout the game. The line allowed pressure at times, but their run-blocking and other factors indicate that they played a pretty decent game on the whole.

As for the mantra that says this loss somehow falls on Fulmer, well, you can't have it both ways. The center was chosen by Lane Kiffin. Lane Kiffin picked Crompton over Nick Stephens, as well as lost B.J. Coleman and recruit Taj Boyd. And there are freshmen all over the field on both sides of the ball. That can't be placed at the feet of a coach no longer involved.

Ultimately, what Tennessee has to do is correct the mistakes first and foremost. Figure out a scheme that isn't going to rely too heavily on Jonathan Crompton, or any other individual talent. Stick to the Volunteers' strengths. UCLA is over, Tennessee has to figure out what needs to happen in Gainesville.

n Here's a little commentary on the SEC television schedule. Teams that played late afternoon or night games should question the SEC network's decision to televise Florida vs. Troy rather than LSU-Vanderbilt or Auburn-Mississippi State. Unlike UCLA, which is in a BCS conference, Troy is in the Sun Belt, which is still inarguably the worst conference in the Bowl Subdivision, not to mention the fact that the Trojans lost to Bowling Green last week.

September 2, 2009

Well, it's been quite the off-season. Three teams have new coaches, but only one has been in the media day-in, day-out. Has Mississippi State or Auburn done any recruiting, practicing? Maybe some of you out there know. Of course, this is slightly exaggerated, but Tennessee has been in the media more than any other conference school except perhaps Florida. But starting Thursday night, none of that matters. Let's project the season.

Since we're in Vol country, let's project the West Division first:

6. Mississippi State (3-9, 0-8) The Bulldogs can only go up from a terrible 2008 campaign, but the Dogs schedule is just too tough this year. The Dogs inexperience should cost them games against West Division foes, not to mention the talent gap between Mississippi State and the West's top teams. Throw in losses at Vanderbilt and Kentucky for good measure, as well as a non-conference loss to Georgia Tech.

5.  Auburn (7-5, 3-5) Gene Chizik was a bizarre hire, in spite of his Auburn ties, but the Tigers will go to a bowl game this season. An easy early schedule sets up an October 3 showdown with Tennessee before the Plainsmen are significantly tested, particularly if they can steal a win from West Virginia on September 19. The Tigers will start out strong but fade fast against the top of the West.

4.  Arkansas (7-5, 4-4) Bobby Petrino could find his seat getting warm should he fail to have success in 2009. Transfer quarterback Ryan Mallett finally gets a chance to shine for the Razorbacks, but will he be able to lead them into the upper eschelon of the SEC? After opening against Missouri State, the Hogs get a bye week and then the gauntlet of Georgia, Alabama, Texas A&M and Florida in a five-week span, with Auburn also in that mixture. Expect Arkansas to lose four of those. However, the Hogs will see a measure of redemption following the Florida game, when they knock off Ole Miss, likely taking the Rebels out of contention for the division title.

3. LSU (10-2, 6-2) Quarterback play and schedule are the keys to the season in Baton Rouge, with coaching perhaps being an important intangible. The Tigers will attempt to run behind a big line and also dominate in the trenches on defense. The Tigers will get a win over Pac-10 doormat Washington to begin the season, but road losses to Alabama and Mississippi will drop them to third in the West.

2. Ole Miss (10-2, 6-2) The Rebels could again find themselves in the Cotton Bowl, should these predictions hold true, however, they will not find themselves in Atlanta, nor in the Top 10, come December. This writer expects the Rebels to split home games against Alabama and LSU, but a team like Arkansas to step up and bite them. The Rebels do have one of the league's top prospects in Jevon Snead though, and a 10-win season in Oxford is still big news.

1. Alabama (11-1, 8-0) Alabama's biggest task will be replacing quarterback John Parker Wilson, although Wilson was never mentioned in the same breath as Tim Tebow or Jevon Snead. The reason for that is simple enough: that's not the Crimson Tide's m.o. Under coach Nick Saban, the Tide is dedicated to the run game and old-time, smash-mouth football. The quarterback is only asked to manage the game, which Wilson did well. The Tide has the good fortune to avoid both Florida and Georgia, and the Tide has LSU in Tuscaloosa. Bama will be tested in Oxford but will pass. The Tide will represent the West Division in Atlanta, but will have a blemish on its record from an opening-weekend loss to Virginia Tech. Still, if they can win in Atlanta, they'll be in the National Championship game.

Now we turn to the East Division:

6. South Carolina (5-7, 1-7) In what will likely be the last hoorah for Steve Spurrier, the Gamecocks season could very well ride on a Halloween visit to Neyland Stadium. The Gamecocks will split their bookend pairings against ACC foes, falling to North Carolina State in Thursday's opener, but defeating Clemson to end the season. Ole Miss, Arkansas, and Alabama will be too much from the West, and, as has been the case his whole tenure there, chaos will rule the day among the Gamecock roster, as the quarterbacks and receivers cannot execute the Spurrier system the way his Florida athletes did.

5. Kentucky (5-7, 2-6) The Wildcats were lacking depth at the beginning of the fall, but camp injuries could spell doom for the Wildcats. That will cause the Cats to lose to Louisville on top of a pretty lackluster conference showing.

4. Vanderbilt (5-7, 2-6) The Commodores come off their first bowl appearance in many years, but have a tough road this season, not only facing top foes from the East, but also facing LSU and Ole Miss from the Western Division, which should be tough for this team. Throw in a non-conference loss to Georgia Tech as well.

3. Tennessee (7-5, 3-5) The Volunteers will have a better season than 2008. That's pretty much a given, regardless of the coach. However, the Vols will finish a distant third in the East, with five conference losses, including an unexpected loss to Auburn to begin October. They'll remedy that by defeating South Carolina. The biggest swing game on the schedule is UCLA. A home loss to the Bruins could see this season unravel just as quickly as 2008 for the Volunteers, so that's a must and will be avoided.

2. Georgia (9-3, 6-2) The Bulldogs have to replace stud quarterback Matthew Stafford, but Joe Cox is underrated. On top of that the Bulldogs have strong line play and will run a run-first, pro-style offense, and has one of the best coaches in the conference, as well as the country. The Dogs' primary stumbling blocks will be against Florida in Jacksonville on Halloween and at home against LSU on October 3, plus a season-ending trip to Georgia Tech. Early games at Oklahoma State and home against Arizona State will be easier than folks imagine for the Bulldogs. Props to the Dogs for their schedule, and with three opponents from BCS conferences, we'll excuse the November 7 match-up against Ohio Valley Conference Tennessee Tech.

1. Florida. (12-0, 8-0) The Gators will be tested but twice, in early October in Death Valley, and on Halloween in their quasi-home game against Georgia in Jacksonville. The rest of Florida's schedule is not terribly difficult, and Florida will squash Ole Miss in Oxford. The Gators have a talent level that's second to none, and they will face Alabama again in December for the right to go play for the title.

SEC Champion: Alabama. There hasn't been a big upset in this game in several years, so there's one due. Florida will have cruised through an easy schedule, while Alabama will have had to work harder to get there. The Gators, although talented, might be lackadaisical by this point. Tebow is a rah-rah guy, on top of being a super talent, but if the Gators get too complacent, Alabama will take full advantage.

Other thoughts:

n UT's Heisman campaign for Eric Berry is nice for Mr. Berry, but not really a factor. That award is Colt McCoy's (of Texas) to lose, but one thing that the marketing department, and many Tennessee fans alike, never acknowledge when re-hashing the 1997 race, is the fact that Charles Woodson also played offense, but, more importantly, he returned kicks. The Heisman voters love those kick returners: Desmond Howard, Tim Brown, Woodson. And the list goes on.

n Speaking of the world's biggest, ugliest paperweight, let me take this opportunity to debunk the myth that Tim Tebow is the greatest player of all-time, as some Knoxville talk-shows debate. Tebow is one of the game's greatest right now, but all-time is a big deal. Truth is, he's not even the best quarterback to play at his own university in the last 20 years. That honor goes to Danny Wuerffel, who won four consecutive SEC titles and a National Championship, and never even had a nightmare of a five-loss season. Tim Tebow somehow parlayed a five-loss season into a Heisman Trophy. (And the knock on Manning was that he couldn't win the big one?). Granted, Tebow has led his team to a championship since, but "it's not a career award," right? Pat White and Dennis Dixon both falling to injury didn't hurt Tebow's stock in 2007. Still, Tebow is a great player and the heart and soul of the Gators. Let's just not anoint him King just yet.

n Finally, we could talk about USC, or Texas, or Oklahoma, or some of those other top teams that will make it to the National Title game to get waxed by the Southeastern Conference, but, really, why bother? The SEC is King. 

August 31, 2009

August 31, 2009 

n First to the football theme, how about the Maize & Blue? Current players report to the four-letter network that Michigan is far exceeding the daily limitations for practice time, as set forth by the NCAA. The company line seems to be that some of this time is voluntary, although coaches are present at said "voluntary" workouts. While, from a Southeastern Conference and Tennessee fan's perspective, it's a little fun to see the Wolverines in hot water, one has to wonder if this isn't a common practice. Coach Rich Rodriguez, as well as other University of Michigan officials deny any wrongdoing, and claim the NCAA approved their summer schedule.

n While we're talking about football, how about Cheddar-Plaxico negotiating a two-year jail term? Burriss made the talk-show circuits last week, but I couldn't tell you what he said, because I didn't watch. I'm sure that he feels singled out because of his star status, regardless that he really did break the law. Still, you do have to have some sympathy for a guy who goes to jail for accidentally shooting himself, don't you?

n In Minor League Baseball, the Smokies, who were also-rans in the first half, have pulled into a first-place tie with West Tenn in the Southern League North Division. This writer wonders if Ryne Sandberg's club has enough fuel in the tank to qualify for the Southern League playoffs. Jacksonville leads the South Division.

n In our final baseball thought, congratulations to Chula Vista, California's Little Leaguers, who are your 2009 World Champions.

n Here's a trio of movie reviews, and a book review:

I finally got around to seeing Transformers (the first one). The action was good, but the dialogue was super-corny. And the transforming actions were a little hard to follow. Still, if you don't expect it to be one of the all-time greats, it was entertaining. And, you can't chide Michael Bay for casting Megan Fox, can you? B-

The kids suckered me into seeing Paul Blart: Mall Cop. In spite of having low expectations, I still thought this movie was awful. The concept was juvenile, even for a Happy Madison production. Maybe it would have been better if Adam Sandler had played the main character, but, then we couldn't have had 90 minutes of fat jokes, could we? Silly concept. Silly result. F.

And, I also got around to seeing Obsessed. Beyonce' Knowles is a great singer, and one of the most attractive women in the world, but this movie was pretty unimpressive. If, from the trailers, you expected 90 minutes of Beyonce fighting with Ali Larter, you were highly disappointed, as the two barely intersect. Fast forward through the first hour, and you have a good movie. It moves at a turtle's pace. Only salvation is the pretty women. D+

Finally, I read another Michael Connelly stand-alone, The Poet. Perhaps reading The Lincoln Lawyer first caused my expectations to be far too high, but Poet paled in comparison. The Poet had a decent enough plot, but was a little excessive on the graphic nature, comparatively. Maybe there were a few too many conflicts to resolve in the main body, as well, but my major complaint is that there were a trio or so of swerves in the final five or six chapters that were completely unnecessary. Plus, by following two different characters in the early going, it was somewhat discordant. Still a decent read, but not Connelly's best work. C+

n Finally, sympathies go out to the family of East Tennessee icon Sam Brown, who passed this week. While I didn't regulary watch his newscasts, I was aware that Brown was someone who was a highly respected journalist in the Knoxville market. I'm sure he will be greatly missed.

August 7, 2009

Today we'll look at the final five Division I districts in the Eastern Grand Division of our state. Class AAA boasts a ton of powerhouses in East Tennessee. The list of schools from the area boasting former State Champions is too long to publish, not to mention the ones that have come up just short over the last 30 years. And, of course, you have Knoxville Catholic who is a reigning State Champion and Maryville who was a 2008 Runner-up. Whoever comes out of the East will have had plenty of competition under their belt, and have no reason to believe they cannot play with a team like Murfreesboro Oakland.

In District 1, Dobyns-Bennett has to be the prohibitive favorite, although a Week 6 meeting against neighborhood rival Sullivan South will be one to watch. The Rebels and Indians each went undefeated in the 2008 regular season, but, in spite of their proximity did not play. Dobyns-Bennett also plays one of Knoxville's finest, Farragut, on the road in Week 0. South gets early tests from Knox West, Greeneville, and Gate City, Virginia, and faces former region mate Tennessee High in Week 10 in what could be a battle for second place. Science Hill will also be in the mix for playoff spots, with the Hilltoppers hosting Soddy Daisy in Week 0, and taking road trips to Morristown West and Tennessee in Weeks 3 and 4. Science Hill hosts Dobyns-Bennett in Week 9 in a game that likely will decide the lone 6A berth.

Daniel Boone, David Crockett, Volunteer and Sullivan Central each look to grab one of the three Class 5A berths. In spite of playing all three of the other squads on the road, we are taking the Cougars to grab the final automatic spot.

Projected finish: 1. Dobyns-Bennett 2. Sullivan South 3. Science Hill 4. Tennessee 5. Sullivan Central 6. Volunteer 7. Daniel Boone 8. David Crockett

Automatic 5A Qualifiers: Sullivan South, Tennessee High, Sullivan Central

Automatic 6A Qualifiers: Dobyns-Bennett

Likely wildcard teams: Science Hill

Coaches' pick: Dobyns-Bennett

District 2-AAA boasts three teams that have a State Championship to their credit, including Morristown East who won the very first Class AAA title in 1969. Jefferson County is one of the top 10 or 12 programs in the East in terms of playoff wins. Sevier County's is most recent. But who will emerge this year?

Morristown East is the clear-cut favorite, with a lineup that has both experience and talent. The Hurricanes take on a murderous non-district slate of Austin-East, Anderson County and Cleveland in the first half before "traveling" to Morristown West in Week 6. The 'Canes also go to Jefferson County and Sevier County to close out the season. West, our pick for the second slot, opens with Fulton and Science Hill before league play, then travels to Sevier County and hosts Jefferson County immediately after facing East.

Jefferson County has had some lean years recently, but we believe the Patriots will begin to get back into the conversation this season, in spite of being young at a number of spots. In a bizarre scheduling twist, the only two 6A teams in this district meet in Sevierville in Week 2, to open district play. Greeneville, Bearden, and William Blount are on the Patriots' schedule, while Dobyns-Bennett faces Sevier. The final team to talk about is Seymour, up from Class 3A, who we believe will do just enough to grab the final Class 5A automatic berth, after wins over Cocke County, Cherokee, and South Doyle.

Projected finish: 1. Morristown East 2. Morristown West 3. Jefferson County 4. Sevier County 5. Seymour 6. Cocke County 7. Cherokee 8. South Doyle

Automatic 5A Qualifiers: Morristown East, Morristown West, Seymour

Automatic 6A Qualifiers: Jefferson County

Likely wildcard teams: None

Coaches' pick: Morristown East

District 3-AAA is one of only two nine-team districts in Class AAA. About the only thing that is near-certain is that Hardin Valley will have the troubles that are associated with being a new program, especially when facing the stiff competition that some of these teams bring. The Hawks will compete with Oak Ridge and Karns for the district's lone Class 6A playoff berth.

That, of course, heavily favors Oak Ridge, but the Wildcats aren't just interested in playoff berths, in spite of being left home two of the last four seasons. Oak Ridge wants to win its first State Championship since 1991. The Wildcats are picked by the coaches, in a tie with arch-rival Clinton, to win the district. That game takes place in Oak Ridge in Week 9, but games just as worth watching for Cat fans are week 3 at Powell and week 6 at Anderson County, not to mention non-district games against Farragut and some team from Blount County. Clinton, according to reports, returns a ton of talent, but still need to get over the hump. The Dragons' biggest districts tests are played in the second half, with Knoxville Central, Powell, and Anderson County all appearing on Clinton's second half schedule. The Dragons also play a district game at Halls in Week 0 and follow that with a trip to Dobyns-Bennett.

Anderson County, Knoxville Central, and Halls could be the middle of the pack in this District. Besides opening with Clinton, the Red Devils go to Anderson County in Week 5 and host Knoxville Central in Week 10. Central hosts Anderson County in Week 3. Campbell County has had a modicum of recent success, but the new schedule combined with graduation losses could force the Cougars back toward the bottom of the heap.

Projected finish: 1. Powell 2. Oak Ridge 3. Anderson County 4. Knoxville Central 5. Clinton 6. Halls 7. Campbell County 8. Karns 9. Hardin Valley

Automatic 5A Qualifiers: Powell, Anderson County, Knoxville Central

Automatic 6A Qualifiers: Oak Ridge

Likely wildcard teams: None

Coaches' pick: Tie- Oak Ridge and Clinton

District 4-AAA has but one prevailing story: Can Maryville continue its level of play that it has this decade and the latter part of the 1990's? This writer believes that while they may not win 74 of their next 75, they certainly aren't going to disappear from the conversation. Games against Bearden in Week 6 and Farragut in Week 8, as well as non-district match-ups against Alcoa, McMinn County, and Oak Ridge should tell the tale of how good this team really is. We expect that Farragut and Bearden will also be in the running for that top spot. The Bulldogs and Admirals meet at Bearden in Week 7.

Knoxville Catholic, the defending 3A Champions, wind up in this district after the multiplier. The Irish are no stranger to tough competition, having had to go toe-to-toe with Fulton and Austin-East the last four years, as well as facing tough teams from Anderson County and Kingston. This year's competition may be just a bit stiffer. Catholic travels to Farragut in Week 2, but hosts both Maryville (Week 7) and Bearden (Week 10). William Blount is the one team that has the most unknowns. The Governors had a late coaching change, and a lot of things are in limbo. However, if they can somehow knock off their former coach - Catholic's Scott Meadows - in Week 4, the Governors stand a real chance of a playoff berth.

Projected finish: 1. Farragut 2. Maryville 3. Bearden 4. Catholic 5. William Blount 6. Heritage 7. West 8. Lenoir City

Automatic 5A Qualifiers: Catholic

Automatic 6A Qualifiers: Farragut, Maryville

Likely wildcard teams: Bearden (6A), William Blount (6A)

Coaches' pick: Maryville

Our final study will be District 5-AAA. Lots of teams in this region have had both historical success and recent success. Both Ooltewah and Rhea County won their respective regions last year, and Cleveland was knocked out of the Region 4-4A championship by Walker Valley in Week 10. Throw in talented squads from McMinn County and Soddy Daisy and a very competitive region emerges.

Ooltewah is a consensus pick to win the District, as the Owls bring back most of their lineup from 2008, as well as a coach with three state titles to his credit (ironically, at Cleveland). The Blue Raiders are the team expected to pose the biggest challenge to Ooltewah. Those two teams meet in Cleveland in Week 9. Don't count McMinn County out, though. Quarterback Cy Ables is a talented athlete who can make things happen. The Cherokees host Cleveland in Week 4 and Ooltewah in the season finale.

Rhea County and Soddy Daisy could compete for the final Class 6A slot. The Golden Eagles travel to Hamilton County in Week 9. Rhea County and McMinn County meet in Evensville in Week 6 and Soddy Daisy and McMinn County meet in Athens in Week 8. Walker Valley and Bradley Central could pose just enough factor to upset the standings above them.

Some of the top non-district match-ups from this region include Ooltewah's non-district opponents Austin-East, Tyner, Franklin, and Maplewood; Cleveland taking on McMinn Central, Morristown East, Red Bank, and Cookeville; McMinn County against McMinn Central, Maryville, and Cookeville; Rhea County against Knoxville Catholic and Bearden; and finally Soddy Daisy takes on Science Hill, Red Bank, and Bell County, Kentucky.

Projected finish: 1. Ooltewah 2. Cleveland 3. McMinn County 4. Rhea County 5. Soddy Daisy 6. Walker Valley 7. Bradley Central

Automatic 5A Qualifiers: Cleveland

Automatic 6A Qualifiers: Ooltewah, McMinn County

Likely wildcard teams: Rhea County

Coaches' pick: Ooltewah

Summing up, much like in Class 4A, East Tennessee will field a limited number of Class 6A teams, although there are a few more wildcard opportunities in 6A. Science Hill is all but a wildcard lock, if they hit the seven-win mark as we expect them to, however, Bearden, William Blount, and Rhea County would be on the bubble at 6-4. Provided that all three qualified, the Eastern bracket would see Dobyns-Bennett, Science Hill, Jefferson County, Oak Ridge, Farragut, Maryville, and William Blount, while McMinn County, Rhea County, and Ooltewah would be sent westward to face schools from Rutherford County, in all likelihood. Either Farragut or Maryville would then be a semifinalist. They would face Oakland, who downs Ooltewah in the quarterinals, and goes on to repeat as State Champions.

In a strange twist, Class 5A will field 11 automatic qualifiers but is unlikely to yield a single wildcard. The easternmost bracket would then feature Sullivan South, Tennessee High, Sullivan Central, Morristown East, Morristown West, Seymour, Powell, and Knoxville Central; with Knoxville Catholic, Anderson County, and Cleveland all likely to head westward. teams like Portland, Station Camp, and Gallatin could fill in that bracket, with one of those teams likely to represent the East in Cookeville. The west will probably be represented by Henry County or Hillsboro, with Memphis East or Memphis Melrose also heavy favorites.

This concludes our preview series of Division I. We know we'll be right on the money with some, but also know that there will be surprises. And that's the fun of it all. If we just picked up the preview and awarded gold balls, there wouldn't be any fun to be had. So enjoy the next four months of football.

Acknowledgements:  Thanks to Murphy Fair, for publishing his preview, and aggregating a boatload of information; thanks to Ward Gossett of the Times Free Press for hard-to-find schedules; and thanks to EastTennesseeMedia.com publisher Steve Wilhoit for the forum to run these previews.

August 6, 2009

August 5, 2009

July 22, 2009

July 21, 2009

July 20, 2009

August 12, 2009

We've now marked the first full day of school for Roane County students, and most other East Tennessee public schools have begun the 2009-2010 school year. From this writer to all of this side of the Volunteer State, we wish - nay - PRAY for a safe and peaceful eight months. Last year was a rough one for East Tennessee, and we have no desire to see that repeated.

On to the more immediate, I was pleased to see that the propaganda had subsided some coming from our local school board. Over the years I've been frustrated, sometimes angered by the amount of things that our system feels the need to dictate: down to the type of foods parents pack in a school lunch. Generally speaking, I prefer my children to eat the cafeteria lunch, but, if I'm footing the bill for a brown bag, I believe I (and you) should have the right to decide what is or is not nutritious for my (your) own children.

Another frustration is the propensity to be asked to provide specific brands of school supplies. My wife and I have been blessed, and are perfectly willing to aid the school and the teachers as best we can, but, if the system can't afford to supply its classrooms with certain necessities, then perhaps they should leave the choices a bit more open.

On a much more positive note, I learned at first-grade parent orientation that Kingston Elementary has been awarded grant money for a number of after-school programs, including, but not limited to, Science and Art Clubs, Recycling, and music lessons. I'm looking forward to Principal Sitzlar's publication of the full list of programs.

Best wishes to all the East Tennessee students in 2009-2010.

**********

n On the topic of Major League baseball, Prince Fielder and Ozzie Guillen have brought beanball wars back to the forefront of the conversation for a few days. Two previous incidents highlight my feeling on the matter: Pascual Perez running into the clubhouse after plunking a player years ago, being protected by Bob Horner who was on the DL; and, of course, Nolan Ryan clobbering Robin Ventura who made the mistake of charging the rangy Texan. If baseball had more Ryans and fewer Perezes, the silly baseball "fights" would end, and we could go tit-for-tat like the old days and move the games right on along.

n A group of friends - a rather motley crew, indeed - and I had a unique opportunity on Saturday night. The six of us headed just north of Oneida into McCreary County, Kentucky and took in some dirt track racing at the Southern Kentucky Off-Road Complex. While we were primarily there for a country concert featuring Confederate Railroad and Kentucky Headhunters, this writer enjoyed the racing too. Nothing like seeing some good ol' boys banging their Jeep Cherokees and pickup trucks through the bumps and jumps, while also banging on each other. The concert itself, well, I'll give it a C-. Confederate Railroad played a long set, around two hours, but have sounded better, while the featured act, The Kentucky Headhunters didn't sing much, and just did a lot of interludes in their barely one-hour long set.

n If you're ever in Southeast Tennessee with time to kill, I encourage you to travel Apison Pike (Tennessee Highway 317) through the eastern Hamilton County communities of Collegedale and Apison. You will see a number of things associated with McKee Foods, who bakes the world's finest snack cakes, Little Debbie, and you will also see the beautiful campus of Southern Adventist University. Likewise, you will also see some nice farmland as you make your way on Tennessee Highway 60 to or from Cleveland, depending on your direction. I'm glad to have "captured" this roadway this past weekend.

n TSSAA has posted a video presentation about the new football districts and the playoff qualifying procedures. In my opinion, if you have figured it out, you will not learn anything new. If you have yet to understand this extremely complicated system, this 21-minute video probably will not clarify it. While I learned little new, I do recommend moving the slider to near the 18-minute mark and listening to the part about the bracket setup. Kudos for at least attempting to keep teams from within a district from playing in the early rounds.

n Sticking with football, yours truly is submitting a ticket application to my alma mater's trip to Georgia on November 7. While I hold no pretense that the Golden Eagles will stay within 40 points of the Dawgs, it's an opportunity to see Sanford Stadium, and, as a Tech alum, I continue to beat the drum for trading 40-point beat-downs in exchange for large sums of cash. Go Eagles!

n In the past, I have posted numerous accounts from politics1.com. After a roughly a dozen years, publisher Ron Gunzburger has determined that he no longer has the capacity to condense a large number of news items into manageable daily threads, so, starting this week, that site has a new format, with a multitude of links posted. It's information overload, as far as I'm concerned, and I just don't have the wherewithal to weed through it. And, less importantly, it's far less aesthetically pleasing. Let's hope that someone takes over the publishing duties or a competing site takes the lead.

n For those of you who think "green," both the Tennessean and the Times Free Press reported last week that there will be multiple electric car charging stations in their cities.

n The biggest entertainment news to be broadcast lately was the apparent departure of the lovely Paula Abdul from American Idol. While she could come off as pretty ditzy, or ridiculously positive, when the situation didn't call for it, she makes a good point that she was the only person with any name recognition at the show's outset, and deserves to be compensated. Full disclosure: I have quit watching the show or caring at all, so, it makes no difference to me. Still, I believe the show will suffer without her nuttiness, even if Randy Jackson WAS in Journey.

n Staying with the entertainment notes a minute, I saw a shirt at a big-box retailer today that said, Michael Jackson: The King. Well, he may have been the self-proclaimed King of Pop, but Elvis Presley is the one-and-only King of Rock-n-Roll. And, that particular King didn't like to be called The King, once telling a group of fans that only Jesus Christ was King.

n Book Review: The Lincoln Lawyer: I confess to you that I read very few works of fiction. Mystery books are more my wife's cup-of-tea. But, somehow I picked up this book of hers and could not put it down. Michael Connelly spins an excellent tale of a wild series of events experienced by jaded defense lawyer Mickey Haller. Twists and turns abound as he learns lessons about the one client that scares defense attorneys most: an innocent one. A+

n Film Review: Aliens in the Attic: This is a silly film, primarily aimed at kids, but probably better suited for tweens. It has some fantasy violence, and some really silly plot devices. Very few serious topics are dealt with or discussed in the movie, and what little substance is there is dealt with in a less-than-preachy way. There's a little too much teen angst throughout the movie, and in the beginning few minutes that becomes truly grating. Lots of slapstick, and it will keep your children entertained. And, it has the beautiful Ashley Tisdale as the female lead. Good enough film. Bits of crude humor. B-

n Lastly, our prayers go out to the families and everyone involved in the tragic accident involving Contemporary Christian band, MercyMe. While CCM is far from my genre of choice, this is sad for any entertainer to have to experience, much less a group dedicated to their faith work. And, again, we say many, many prayers for the families of the victims from the other automobile. For more details, visit www.mercyme.org.

August 3, 2009

One night last week, I was just in the mood to stay out a while, so I put on my road-geek hat and decided to travel around East Tennessee. My travels would wind up taking me through, Sharp's Chapel, New Tazewell, Tazewell, Thorn Hill, Rutledge, and Blaine, as well as other smaller communities, then back through Knox County and home. But the one thing I am reminded, any time I make such a journey, is on just what a beautiful spot of planet we are blessed to live.

The lake views in Union County, and other plays are second-to-none... well, except maybe right here in downtown Kingston... but beautiful nonetheless. And, of course, viewing the landscape from atop Clinch Mountain is awe-inspiring, isn't it? And of course, there are dozens of other sites along the way that I have failed to even recognize.

Why do I mention this? Well, in these slower economic times many of you may be putting off your vacations to exotic locales - but maybe you can still scrape up enough cash for a couple tanks of fuel and a burger and explore the beauty that it right before your eyes. It's certainly easily found in these parts.

Along the route, I traveled the new alignments of US-25E through Claiborne County. Looks like the new route doesn't tell us how far it is to Lansing, Michigan.

July 27, 2009   

The family and I crossed a longstanding item off our to-do list on Friday night, with a visit to Chattanooga's AT&T Field, where, not only did I have the opportunity to visit a city we like, and an opportunity to see some future Dodgers, but my kids also had the chance to see one of their favorite characters - BirdZerk!

They had seen him before at Smokies Park, but that has been a couple years or more, so they, especially my seven-year-old son, were quite ready for the refresher. And he didn't disappoint, harassing visiting Mobile players and doing his trademark "dancing umpires" routine. Walking out with autographs was as much a highlight as anything that went on between the lines.

As for the game itself, it was kind of a dull night, at least until the bottom of the 9th. The Lookouts had taken a 1-0 early lead, only for Mobile to add three in the second and one in the seventh for a 4-1 lead. The Lookouts small-balled a run across to cut the lead to 4-2. We hung around until we thought BirdZerk was done and then decided that since we were all tired we'd make our way out.

Mistake on our part. We hung around the gift shop, and the smokers in our party took a break. By this time it was the bottom of the ninth, and the home team began to rally. I was half-heartedly paying attention until I heard a roar from the crowd - Chattanooga had homered to cut the lead to one. By the time I made it to the concourse-level televisions, the Lookouts had loaded the bases with one down. Lookout James Tomlin singled to center. The lead run scored but the runner from second was out at home. From my perspective, it wasn't a great throw but it was an equally mediocre slide, which cost the Lookouts the winning run.

We decided we weren't up for the free baseball that late at night, and the stadium food was awful, so we headed to a local establishment and then northbound on US-27. The BayBears added 3 in the top of the 11th to claim the victory.

Final thoughts: We probably could have had more fun going on a Saturday when we were in better spirits and not tired from the work week. However, in the early innings a person could have heard a pin drop in that stadium. Probably because everybody was exhausted from climbing the stairs. Even though I don't personally require accessibility, climbing that many stairs is hard on the knees of this pudgy writer. Seriously, there is no getting from any point A to point B in that facility that doesn't require going up, then down, stairs. Bizarre layout. On the other hand, I do like their pricing structure a little better than other places I've been. $8 apiece for everyone to sit behind the third-base dugout.

Will I go again? Probably. After all, they are a child club of the Los Angeles Dodgers. But, in the immediate, I'll take the Smokies.

*********

* As far as sports nobody is watching, how about the US men's soccer team? And how about Alexi Lalas' comment on SportsCenter that this wouldn't be the World Cup team. Nothing like throwing a silver-medal team under the bus.

n Terrell Owens, someone else who can't resist a hot microphone, has now spoken out in favor of Michael Vick. When did he become Vick's publicist? It's all about 81 getting his face time. Maybe he should concentrate on not dropping passes rather than league politics.

n On more light-hearted fare, I have a movie review. The kids and I saw G-Force on Saturday. That's right, we helped knock Harry Potter off the top of the Box Office (at least according to Yahoo!). All I can say is that it's a cute movie, featuring a combination of talking rodents and live action. Unlike many Disney movies, it didn't come off as preachy, with only a couple of not-so-veiled shots at animal testing, and a little dig at the corporate world. It's got good action and will keep the munchkins entertained, and even has a swerve or two. It's not Academy Award (R) heavy, but it was entertaining, and worth the matinee price for sure. B

n Sad and bizarre: the Associated Press is running the story of a New Jersey factory worker losing his life to a vat of chocolate. My missus once worked in a chocolate factory, and it's not pleasant. Matter-of-factly it was kind of rancid. So, sympathies go out to this man's friends and family.

July 23, 2009

June 26, 2009

Celebrities come and go. Fame comes and goes for individuals. Andy Warhol hit on something when he coined the expression "15 minutes of fame," for the list of attempted celebrities who became "flashes in the pan" once new wore off is pretty long. But this week saw the passing of three legends, three icons in their field.

Ed McMahon

On Tuesday, arguably the world's most famous sidekick passed on, as 76-year old Ed McMahon expired. Most folks remember him for voicing the introduction "Here's Johnny" on the tonight show, but he also hosted Star Search, TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes, and a number of other shows throughout a long career. And let's not forget those Publisher's Clearing House millions.

McMahon made most of us laugh, but never seemed afraid to laugh at himself. Nor did he seem the least bit bothered by being the butt of jokes, embracing the Carson sidekick persona. His and Carson's presence in late night have long been missed, in this writer's opinion.

Farrah Fawcett

Yesterday, one of the world's most ogled women passed away at the age of 62. Farrah Fawcett is most noted for her hairstyle, and her 1976 poster. Today though, when a woman (or occasional gentleman) adopts a similar hairstyle to hers from the 1970's, it is still often referred to by her name. And, as for the poster, well, it sort of speaks for itself. (To save you time, I'll tell you that I was THREE years old in 1976.)

Recently, though, Fawcett was most in the news for her ongoing battle with cancer. According to reports, she had denied many traditional treatments and gone overseas to seek other methods, which provided at least a temporary hiatus from the harsher effects of that disease. But, in time, the tumor metastasized and eventually took her life.

According to her Wikipedia entry, her last substantial Hollywood role was in 2000, with an occasional theatre role thereafter. However, her Charlie's Angels role in the 1970's, as well as many roles in the 1980's and parts of the 1990's cemented her place in entertainment history.

Michael Jackson

Finally, the self-proclaimed King of Pop has died at the age of 50. Michael Jackson suffered a heart attack Thursday and left this life.

If one thinks of his life from the mid-1980's and prior, he would be regarded only as one of the greatest dancers, singers, and entertainers of all-time. His role as front man for the Jackson Five is the standard by which all subsequent boy bands are judged, and Thriller is still the best selling album of all time, some 27 years later. But that's not how he will be remembered.

Jackson went on to be scandal-ridden throughout the second half of his life. Whether it was inappropriate relations with underage children, allegedly, or the fact that he built himself his own amusement park, or that he was Elvis Presley's son-in-law for a few months, or that he named all his kids Michael, and once dangled one off a balcony, or financial problems, everyone has a favorite Jackson scandal to reference. And, that will be as much his legacy as his music.

For the record, I never owned a copy of Thriller. Pop music just wasn't listened to at my mom's house. But, I was exposed to the music through friends and other means, and came to definitely respect the art. I daresay that I like the songs from Off The Wall just as well. Nevertheless, his influence on music for the past three decades is undeniable.

Final Thoughts

Other than a couple of already-in-the-hopper network news specials, Farrah Fawcett's death has been largely overshadowed by the death of Michael Jackson. This is unfortunate. Jackson deserves coverage, given his status, but her battle with cancer is a story that should be shouted from the rooftops, so to speak. Anything that can bring us one step closer to a cure to that heinous disease is worth discussion.

June 25, 2009

The college baseball final was one of the wildest baseball games I have ever seen, but a fun view. (Full disclosure: I was definitely rooting for LSU). Perhaps the wildest moments though were watching how the teams went largely away with the "dance with the one that brung ya" philosophy in the penultimate college baseball game.

LSU scored 11 runs against the nation's top-rated pitching staff, but I most certainly am not going to view that as a repudiation of the small-ball that I love so well. To wit, the mighty bats of LSU were not the be-all end-all for the Tigers on Wednesday night. For example, their first runs did come on a three-run shot from Jared Mitchell, but the rally was started by a two-out hit batsmen. A second inning run was scored by going station-to-station.

Texas, on the other hand, scored half its four runs by small ball, with runners advancing on a double-steal after a sacrifice bunt failed. A couple of base hits and the Longhorns' two were on the board. The other half of Texas' runs came on a Kevin Keyes home run in the fifth inning, but the Longhorns could do no more.

LSU broke the tie for good in the top half of the sixth inning, with back-to-back doubles followed by an implosion of the Texas defense that led to three unearned runs. The inning included an error, a walk, and two hit batsmen, among other things. The Tigers had enough to cruise at this point, but added a couple of runs in the late innings, and left the game in the capable hands of their bullpen.

Congratulations to the Tigers on their sixth National Title, tying them, ironically, with the Horns for second place all-time behind Southern California.

Other CWS Thoughts:

n I was unable to watch a lot of the series due to other commitments, but there were some great defensive highlights. Would that more Major-Leaguers would sacrifice their bodies and play with this kind of heart and effort on every pitch.

n Just how nasty a pitcher is Chad Jones? If you haven't seen highlights of the lefty, you need to find the video and soon.

n Anthony Ranaudo didn't pitch his best game ever, but from all accounts, he was clearly the key cog in the Tiger machine for their title run.

n Could ESPN have picked a worse trio of announcers? As a Dodger guy, I loved Orel "The Bulldog" Hershiser during his playing days, but his unfunny exchanges with Mike Patrick and Robin Ventura were grating. And the home plate umpires did a much better job on balls and strikes than any of those three stooges gave them credit for. Sometimes I wondered if we were watching the same game.

n Speaking of the four-letter - why were they trying to show pitches from behind the umpire, especially during the time when the plate was in the shadows? They aren't alone in doing this in baseball. Note to ALL networks: show the pitches from the left-center field cam...always. The only thing you see from the other angle is the back of the umpire.

Quick Hits:

n It's a messed up world, number 1: The shooting of Ed Thomas, head football coach at Aplington-Parkersburg High School, Iowa, has been widely reported. It's a sad day when a figure like that passes, but being shot dead in his school's weight room is just tragic.

n It's a messed up world, number 2: South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford disappeared for a week, only to be found out to have left the country for a tryst with his mistress. Although Sanford had not been touted by media types as a candidate for President in 2012, there was growing movement (including myself) who thought his conservative credentials stronger than either Sarah Palin's or Mike Huckabee's. This is a big blow to social conservatives, but, let's not lose sight of the hurting family either. We offer the offended wife and children many sympathies.

n Let's talk about Burn Notice ripoff In Plain Sight. That show is a mess this season, with Mary's beau out, and Brandi's beau in, and the neurotic mom now sober. But one thing that has overshadowed all the convoluted writing was the absolutely tasteless "Duplicate Bridge" episode. While there was nothing wrong with the character, how dare USA Network use REAL FOOTAGE OF THE I-35W BRIDGE COLLAPSE in a storyline. Shameful.

n Lightening up a bit, congratulations to Kingston girls' soccer player Christina Neal. The Roane County News reports that she will play for the United States International U19 team in Gothia Cup competition in Sweden later this summer.

June 21, 2009 

First, a Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there in cyberspace. Hope you all had a good one. Today, we'll look at what's wrong with baseball these days.

Several weeks ago, we pointed out several things that are wrong with NASCAR, and the dwindling ratings and suffering attendance would seem to bear out that auto racing fans are not at all pleased with the direction of that sport. Baseball is beginning to suffer some of the same fate, and we are going to delve into some of the reasons.

First and foremost, it goes without saying that the first step in baseball's redemption would be a simultaneous and abrupt end to the steroid era and the Bud Selig era. While the Commissioner can be as defensive and huffy as he wants to be about all the positive tests of the past 18 months, it is no small secret that it was his own blind eye in the 1990's that created the steroid era monster. And for him to pretend that recent testing supersedes the last 15 or so year is insulting to the long-time fan. It's time for a new Commissioner, one who respects the game and its traditions, and one who isn't a puppet for the Players Association.

Making those behind-the-scenes changes would be a good start, but there are some subtleties that now take place (or don't) on the field that need to be addressed as well. This will be old-hat to my long-time friends and readers, but first and foremost, let us have baseball players who know how to play fundamentals and small-ball.  What happened to the art of the stolen base? Well, partly, there have been rule changes that have benefitted pitchers but there has also been a de-emphasizing of the art. League leaders now average around 40 stolen bases. Vince Coleman's 120-plus would be unheard of in the current environment.

Secondly, how often to we see players, even in the National League, purposely hit behind a runner on second base to move him over? I daresay that's in infrequent occurrence. Because, much like in the classic American League, everything in this era seems to be about sitting back and waiting for the home run. Pitchers seem to be the only players on any of the 30 teams that seem to care at all about bunting. Some of these baseball officials need to go back and watch the 1985 Royals-Cardinals series and see small-ball played to perfection - by both teams. And let's build some more pitchers' parks, okay?

Thirdly, there needs to be contraction. I know that flies in the face of Players Association goals, but, seriously, do we really believe that all 750 players on current rosters are Major-League ready? High ERA's and low batting averages tell a different story. While I'll admit to caring about the Montreal Expos franchise, the last time this was discussed (Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, et. al., came through there), closing Washington Nationals operations tomorrow morning would not affect me in the least. Ditto that for the Marlins and a few other franchises. Baseball would be fine with 26 or fewer teams, and the on-field play would probably be of better quality.

But the biggest abomination of them all (besides the Designated Hitter), is interleague play. Unlike the National Basketball Association or the National Football League, the two major baseball leagues do not even play from the same rule book. Balls and strikes are often called differently, and, of course, there's that pesky aforementioned DH that has to be dealt with. But beyond that, traditional rivalries have been sacrificed for this nonsense.  When division winners are decided by overall record, playing balanced schedules in league and throwing in a bunch of ringers from the other is unfortunate at best. And does anyone really care about some of these matchups? Who, besides a die-hard fan of each team, really stays up late to watch Atlanta vs. Baltimore, for instance? Or worse yet, for us west coast fans, who wants to see the Dodgers take on Texas? Maybe when Nolan Ryan was still pitching, but, for now, give me more games against the Reds and Braves and less against the Junior Circuit.

That's just a few of my thoughts on the matter. I'm sure that Bud Selig will be in touch when he wants my advice, but teams should take notice of the empty seats. Some of that can be blamed on the economy, and some on the exorbitant cost, but I like to think that there are still plenty of us left that think that baseball should be played during the day on natural grass without the DH.

Is interleague play over yet?

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A Quartet of Movie Reviews:

n Movie Review #1, Body of Lies: This wartime thriller featuring Leonardo DiCaprio is a convoluted mess. Leo plays a CIA operative under the direction of a character played by Russell Crowe, and meets a high-ranking official in Jordanian intelligence. The rest of the film is a plethora of graphic violence and in the end it's really hard to tell who, if anyone, was acting with any honorable intention at all. Somewhere in there Director Ridley Scott was trying to make a political statement but failed miserably. Lots of violence, language - definitely not for kids. D

n Movie Review #2, The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3: This movie features superstars John Travolta and Denzel Washington in another Scott Free production, a remake of a 1974 movie of the same name. There's a lot of thrills in this movie, and it's a typical guy's action movie, albeit somewhat predictable in a number of spots. Not to mention a couple of really cliche' scenes. There's no swerve at the end, and, surprisingly, there's no overt political statement as is wont in a number of Washington's films. It's a good movie, if you don't set your expectations too terribly high. Also not for kids. B-

n Movie Review #3, Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa: I liked this movie better when it was called The Lion King. Seriously, this movie was somewhat more humorous than the Disney production, but the similarities were many. On the other hand, this was much better than the first Madagascar movie, and more watchable. The comedy was much more palatable and, most importantly, it kept the milk-and-cookies set's attention. C+

n Movie Review #4, The Tale of Despereaux: If you want to take your youngsters to film involving a mouse, go see Ratatouille and skip this one. There is an obvious attempt some kind of message about honor and nonconformity buried in this movie, but you will be hard-pressed to find it. These characters to take the most curvilinear paths to destinations that are much more easily achieved. It will be a total bore for all but the most easily amused youngsters. D

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Other Quick Hits:

n No, my goob buddy, it's not quite football season yet, but I'm sure your Grizz are thinking about that week 0 matchup against Gibbs.

n Props  to Kodak's team, the Tennesssee Smokies for their work for the Komen Foundation, even if those uniforms were hideous. You can see pictures at smokiesbaseball.com. 

n The non-BCS college bowl games are up for renegotiation soon. Here's hoping that the PAC-10 and Big 12 see some improvement to their second tier, rather than everything on New Year's being about the SEC vs. Big Ten. If there really are six "major" conferences, and Notre Dame, (which is itself debatable), then there should be more and different intriguing winter match-ups than what we have been subjected to.

n The Lakers win the NBA and Pittsburgh wins the NHL Stanley Cup. Yawn. At least Kobe finally got his, even if it did take a multitude of dominoes falling to make that happen.

n Here are couple of reported gospel music personnel changes for those that are interested: 1) Long-time baritone for Brian Free & Assurance, Derrick Selph, is leaving to pursue other interests, and 2) Original first tenor for the Mark Trammell Trio, Ernie Phillips, is also leaving the road, and he will be moving into law enforcement. This Southern Gospel fan wishes them the best as they move forward in their lives.

June 13, 2009

It was reported a couple of weeks ago that the missing link was [once again] found by archaeologists. Ironically, when I went to search for this article, I found several previous discoveries of other missing links. How about that, eh?

No, scientists didn’t discover this guy:

 (Rest in peace, Dewey.)

No, this particular fossil was found in Germany and is said to be a lemur-like animal that connects humans to other primates. I think the whole thing is silly myself, and ultimately it won’t affect my daily life at all. However, if you, dear reader, are into archaeology, Google it, and be my guest.

n Now as for the town of Cookeville, congratulations to my alma mater, Tennessee Tech, on their win of the TSSAA football championships for the next few years. I don’t know if the TTU Athletics Department was involved – I daresay they were – and if so, I cannot help but like what they are doing. Gone are the days of perennial Division 1-AA and lower opponents in football, being replaced by the likes of Auburn, Georgia, and Kansas State. As an alumnus, I’m glad to see the Golden Eagles gladly trading a 3-hour beat-down for some BCS cash.

As for the Blue Cross Bowls, I question the decision by the TSSAA Board of Control. It’s not terribly far East of Murfreesboro, so it’s still pretty centrally located, but the number of hotel rooms would seem to be lacking to support the entourages of 10 teams for a weekend.

And there’s a part of me that, real or perceived, always thought native Cookevillians didn’t take kindly to outsiders. Perhaps that perception was never quite true, or perhaps as Cookeville and Putnam County have grown, so has the welcome wagon. Time will tell if the BOC made the right call.

n While we’re talking prep sports, let’s lament the closing of David Brainerd Christian School. Plenty of coverage can be found in the Chattanooga Times Free Press, including an article covering how this closing will affect the football schedules in the tri-state area. According to the article, those schools will have to find another opponent, or be forced to forfeit. That sounds like a bizarre policy that only TSSAA could produce. Good luck to the teams as they search for that opponent.

n General Motors filed bankruptcy, and, while we wish no ill will toward the auto workers or vendors, one has to question some of the decisions being made. As early as Wednesday after the Monday announcement, Government Motors as many have begun to call them, starting running national TV ads. Seems like a good expenditure of a government loan, no?

Legendary racing owner Roger Penske’s company is expected to buy the Saturn brand from GM, with a government-run Chinese corporation expected to acquire Hummer. Nothing says favored-nation like letting Red China build vehicles for the American military, eh?

And, topping the list of all the bizarre things related to the auto bailouts and subsequent bankruptcy, Senator Lamar Alexander from right here in East Tennessee, suggested the federal government start giving out GM stock. I have mixed feelings about that, seeing as how it is taxpayer money that allowed the company to move forward, but, then again, it is supposed to be a loan, not an ownership position. At least that’s not how it was sold to the public at the time.

Now that GM (and Chrysler) have had their monetary fates decided, let’s hope that they can both recover as viable brands and put some folks back to work.

n Belated sympathies go out to former Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson on the loss of his daughter in a tragic accident a few weeks back. Although I was never a fan of the ear-biting, allegedly woman-abusing psychopath that he was during his Championship reign of terror, I could never wish the death of anyone’s child, especially a pre-school age child.

n Staying with the boxing theme, Rocky Balboa made its television debut on FX the other night. I meant to take in that one at the theatre, but time just slipped away. I found it entertaining, although a little on the dark side, and, well, I felt like there were a few issues left unresolved at the end of the movie. Still, it’s a worthwhile view. Maybe a little oversold by the critics and many fans alike, but a good movie. More about aging and the passage of time in general than about boxing, but, well, Rocky is an old character. And it does have one of the best movie lines of all time: “It’s not about how hard you can hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward.” Words to live by. Check it out on cable. B

n The Rocky Top Basketball League draft was early this week, and, while many East Tennesseans may find the league entertaining (I haven’t tried it on for size, but I think it contributes to the Volunteers' complete lack of discipline and knowing situations in games that matter most, I digress…), I am baffled by the coverage. It’s a summer intramural league, for Naismith’s sake, and the News Sentinel and the Sports Animal are treating it with all seriousness and giving lots of coverage. Bizarre.

n Is anyone else already sick of Brett Favre this off-season? Hearing the teases all summer long last year got old, and, quite frankly it’s starting to look like Joe Montana the Chief, or, the penultimate example, Willie Mays the Met. Hang up the cleats, gunslinger.

n Lastly, but certainly not least, is that our hero and heroine, Michael and Fiona, have returned for the summer season. With lines like “C-4 is made to be used, not stored,” how can this summer season miss? It can. I’m not completely dissatisfied, but I’m not liking the direction of the show, with the detective and other characters chasing Mike, and Mike having precious little purpose now that he knows who burnt him. I guess chasing illegal bounties and helping damsels in distress – by blowing up stuff – will have to do for now. Let’s see how the season progresses.

May 12, 2009

For the first time in many weeks, I was finally able to take a Thursday night, and just sit down with an ice-cold Coca-Cola and enjoy a relaxing night of television. And, because CSI has irrevocably jumped the shark this season, I was able to watch TNA wrestling without distraction. Here's my take on that company's status.

First and foremost, get rid of Matt Morgan. The dude is huge. The dude is talented. And he has ZERO charisma. To borrow a phrase from the jokers over at wrestlecrap.com, he's "the human heat vacuum," meaning, the crowd just kind of yawns, talks among themselves, or visits the restroom when he's around. Maybe Jim Cornette should start managing him.

And while we're on the subject of total wastes of time, what's the deal with trying to figure out if masked wrestler "Suicide" really is or is not Christopher Daniels? Who cares! Nobody cared who Curry Man or Shark Boy are. Goofy.

One of the biggest wastes of talent by TNA bookers, in my opinion, is the lack of push for Jay Lethal. He worked an excellent program with Sonjay Dutt last summer, so his reward is to get stuck in a tag-team program with not-ready-for-primetime Consequences Creed. Silly. He deserves better.

Right now TNA is running the "Team 3D Invitational" tag team tournament. Team 3D, the most decorated tag team ever, is "hosting" this tournament promoting the art. This is a clear and open shot at WWE, who has reportedly been downplaying the future of tag teams. Unfortunately for TNA and its fans, Team 3D and Beer Money are so far above the next level of tag teams that it's going to be hard to make that case. Creed and Lethal certainly aren't that kind of caliber, nor are any of the rest of the group.

The group that may be the biggest difference between the TNA product and the WWE, though, is the Knockouts Division. WWE has a women's division, but it's laughable. Those women are there to be seen, and, their wrestling skills are terrible. TNA's women actually can and do wrestle. Still, they are stuck with Angelina Love and Velvet Skye, who, much like Matt Morgan, just suck the life out of the show. As previously mentioned, watching Awesome Kong squash them has been pretty fun. The division needs a real threat to Kong, though. A cryptic phone call by Love has TNA teasing Awesome Kong wrestling men. Speaking of Kong, why does her handler, Raeesha Saeed, sound like a combination of Jeff Dunham puppet Achmed the Dead Terrorist and the Siamese cats from Lady and the Tramp?

Finally, we get to the main eventers. Last week's 10-man tag was a total cluster that would make Dusty Rhodes proud. On one side, you have, long-in-the-tooth-and-oft-injured Kevin Nash, hobbling; Sting, who is becoming just really grating; Booker T, still in his prime; Scott Steiner, 'nuff said; and heat machine Kurt Angle. On the other side you have, Jeff Jarrett, who looks totally burned out; Mick Foley, who is a joke these days; Chris Daniels - IN A MAIN EVENT??; Samoa Joe, who I still say isn't believable as a real heavyweight contender; and AJ Styles, who has charisma and heat, but isn't quite on the level of the other side of the ring. Strange booking. These guys should have been spread out. Putting all 10 of these guys in one match made the show an hour-and-45-minutes too long.

All in all, there's potential in this company. Founder Jeff Jarrett, along with the current real front-office need to do some purging and re-packaging of some of these characters, sign some new talent here and there, and they'll be just fine. But they need to do it quickly, because this particular week had some problems.

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n  Since we're talking entertainment today, let's talk about CBS crime dramas. NCIS is, without question, the best show on television today. The last two weeks of NCIS, introductions to the upcoming spinoff (which I first heard about here at EastTennesseeMedia.com), have been really fun to watch, and I hope to be there to see tonight's episode of Tony vs. Ziva vs. her friend from Tel Aviv. I'm also looking forward to the spinoff. It looks to have strong potential.

This is also the strongest season yet for Numb3rs. It looked to be on the road to jumping the shark, but, the characters have become deeper, with both Don and Charlie soul-searching, the departure of Kathy Najimy's character, and a de-emphasis of Alan. The kidnapping of Amita last week was a swerve that nobody saw coming. The show still needs to reduce the environmental activism and slow down that both Charlie and Alan know everything about everything, though.

CSI, well, CSI has just gotten silly. Lawrence Fishburne has added nothing, and the scripts from the current season has have just been goofy, particularly the one sci-fi convention episode from earlier in April.

n  Turning some quasi-science, I hit the On Demand button last night and watched portions of episode 02 of Life After People (History Channel). It was equal parts interesting and silly. Watching infrastructure crumble, and how widespread the impacts would be, was quite interesting, e.g., the Midwest would be flooded within days, because flood gates in Chicago would no longer be manned and maintained. The scavenging animals, though were not nearly as interesting, because I couldn't get past the question of why all humans were dead but other mammals were thriving. Ultimately, I fell asleep during the broadcast, so, draw your own conclusions.

n  There are two summer premieres that I look forward to more than any other: Ice Road Truckers Season 3, May 31st, and Burn Notice, on June 4.

n  Finally, a couple of PSAs of sorts. First, keep an eye on your children for ticks this summer. We have found at least seven on my six-year-old son the last few weeks. Don't know if this is going to be a bad year for the bugs or not.

n  Secondly, Star 102.1 is playing the East Tennessee Children's Hospital Radiothon later this week. Children's Hospital is my charity of choice, and the reader is encouraged to give liberally to this worthy cause.

May 8, 2009

As your resident Dodgers fan, I figure I must offer a reaction to yesterday's suspension of Manny Ramirez, who tested positive for a banned substance. Well, I suppose it's just "Manny being Manny."

Quite frankly, I'm not shocked. On the one hand, I never noticed any changes to his appearance, perhaps because of his ridiculous-looking uniform that's three sizes too big. But, this goof has had so many run-ins with baseball that one has to wonder at times if he has cognitive ability at all.

But, as a Dodgers fan, I remind you that I was opposed to signing him last season, and particularly opposed to re-signing him in the off-season. This organization, I repeat, has let too many good young athletes move on to success with other teams, all the while turning the once-proud Dodgers into the Oakland Raiders of professional baseball.

I'm tired of head cases and rejects. This ownership group made a great decision with the hire of Joe Torre last off-season, but their player moves leave a lot to be desired. Now they just have a tainted record for April 2009.  The National League was going to catch up to them anyway, because they don't have enough pitching. This just accelerates the downward spiral.

The Dodgers still have the best record in baseball, and a 5 1/2 game lead, but they still should have gone after Bobby Abreu or another veteran outfielder, rather than this goof.

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Other Random Thoughts:

n  We were a little surprised with Knoxville Catholic's hire of Scott Meadows last weekend. This writer thought that Catholic might hire from within. It will be interesting to see how that marriage works out. On the flip-side, it should be really fun to watch when William Blount visits west Knoxville in week 4.

n  Revisiting Pennsylvania: Former Governor and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has decided not to run for U.S. Senator, according to a politics1.com report. Quoted in the article is Republican strategist, Roger Stone, who said, "Tom Ridge didn't run for Senate because he is pro-choice and cannot beat Toomey in a primary..."  Whether this is or is not true, Pennsylvanians should be really livid that party leadership is continuing to try to influence their vote. Perhaps the NRSC should get behind Toomey - now - because he WILL be the nominee.

n  Sunday, May 10 is Mother's Day. This writer encourages you who still have your mother to have a very special day with her. If things aren't as good as they should be in your relationship, suck it up, and be nice to her anyway. Also, gentlemen, don't forget your wives, sisters, etc., who are mothers themselves.

And to all the readers of this blog, a Happy Mother's Day to you all, as well.

May 6, 2009

Maybe getting forced out of your dream job isn't such a bad thing after all. Coach Philip Fulmer is reportedly now a movie star. Okay, maybe not the star, but the maligned ex-coach, according to multiple reports, will play himself in a movie about recruit Michael Oher. Is it a huge deal? Probably not, but, it stars Sandra Bullock! SANDRA BULLOCK! That'd be worth the trip to Hollywood, don't you think?

In all seriousness, best wishes to the former coach and always Volunteer. Obviously we still believe he has the heart and the résumé to coach again, and believe that he will have a gig in 2010. But for now, coach, enjoy the celebrity for a while and catch your breath. And say hi to Mrs. Bullock from this hack in East Tennessee.

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n  Moving on, but staying in the realm of entertainment, the world said goodbye to Dom DeLuise earlier this week. This is a great loss. Today's comedians could learn from him, in that, it doesn't take a lot of toilet humor or profanity to be funny. So, I think I may look for a copy of The Muppet Movie and the Cannonball Run films, and fondly remember the big guy, who never seemed to take himself too seriously.

n  Continuing down the entertainment track, I want to chide the producers of The History Channel show Ax Men. In the last couple of episodes, they have shown Pihl Logging's timber fallers searching for a new team member through the woods, and, although every ounce of production made it seem they were searching for someone who had been badly hurt or worse, at the end of the second episode, it was revealed that he had gone back to his truck, because of a communication breakdown about quitting time. This was in extremely poor taste and completely disrespectful to those in the industry who have suffered real losses.

The sad part is, it is the second time this season they have done it. Early in the season, they showed pictures of R&R Conner's pilot who had performed an emergency landing, and did major damage to the helicopter. He turned out to be okay in the end, but, just like the Pihl situation, the lead-in was made to sound much more sinister.  Hopefully History Channel will show much better judgment in the future.

n If you are a fan of the show In Plain Sight, you have to wonder who is writing Season 2. While my opinion is that this show is a poor man's Burn Notice, with mainly gender roles reversed, it's an okay view. But in this week's episode, everything about the supporting characters was turned on its head. Looks like another Season 2 cancellation could be coming for a USA Network original.

n Turning our attention to local fare, reports have the Strawberry Festival in Blount County being cancelled due to the "sagging economy."  That's sad to hear, because things like that usually spike a local economy. 

n Continuing the theme, a WBIR report says the State of Tennessee will have to tap the reserves for $10 million to fund lottery scholarships. The report states that more people are buying tickets but are playing the higher-odds games. But the most grating blurb in the report was this statement:

"Last year legislators lowered the grade-point average standards and expanded eligibility..."  Those of us who were initially opposed to the lottery, pointed to all of the above. Now we'll have to wait on the legislature to tweak the structure, to ensure proper funding and attempt to prevent this in the future.

n General Motors struggles continue. This week, the conglomerate announced its plans to kibosh the Pontiacbrand, one of the oldest in the United States. They have also been reportedly trying to sell off the Saturn brand. Although we don't drive one now, one of the best automobiles my wife and I ever had was a 1996 Saturn SL2, which we might still have were it not totalled in an accident. And I always wanted a Pontiac Sunbird/Sunfire, but never bought one.  Anyway, it's another sad week for the auto industry.

n In sports-related notes, our thoughts are with the Dallas Cowboys players and staff who were injured in last weekend's storms. For those who haven't seen the footage, watching the roof of that practice facility collapse is pretty disturbing, even if you aren't a fan of the Cowpokes. Again, our thoughts are with them.

n Chalk one up for America's Hat? ESPN is reporting that an ownership group has offered to buy the struggling Phoenix Coyotes hockey franchise, provided they be allowed to move the team back to Canada. Makes sense, I suppose.

n Updating our favorite Senate race for 2010, politics1.com editorialized on Tuesday that Arlen Specter may have made the right choice, in that, he holds a wide polling lead over Pat Toomey for the general election; however, the polls are too close to call if Tom Ridge is the Republican nominee. In related news, the same source reports today that Congressman Joe Sestak plans to challenge Specter in the Democratic primary.

n And, in our final topic of the day, we point you to an article in Sunday's Tennessean, discussing couples who save their first kiss for their marriage. We'll let you go to the article and draw your own conclusions, but, this writer has to give anyone with such a lofty goal props for their self-discipline.  Special thanks also to the Hallerin Hilton Hill show for discussing this topic this week.

May 4, 2009

Two big surprises happened in the sports world over the weekend. First of all, the Kentucky Derby's morning favorite, I Want Revenge, scratched, due to his handlers seeing a problem with his ankle, and fearing that a wet track could cause further injury. This opened the door for a horse with 50:1 odds, Mine That Bird, to pace the field. Congratulations to the horse and his jockey, Calvin Borel, and best of luck, and further congratulations to all the gamblers who played the longshot, I guess.

The second of the surprises was the rather quick disposal of Ricky Hatton by Manny Pacquiao in Saturday night's junior-welterweight title fight. I hope that few of the readers dropped big money on the pay-per-view, especially for something that started at 11:30 Eastern time, and lasted barely a quarter hour. Anyway, Pacquiao may be the hottest ticket in boxing right now, and depending on which buzz you listen to, could be facing Floyd Mayweather in his next bout. Or according to the Los Angeles Times post-fight coverage, it could be Shane Mosley or a handful of others. Is Pacquiao bringing the sweet science back to the forefront of sports?

In baseball, the Rays' Carl Crawford tied a modern-day record with six stolen bases in a game. The stolen base seems to be a lost art at times, and we'll talk about that more in the future.

In our final sports note, belated congratulations go out to the Lady Green Waves of Midway High School, who just won their fourth consectuive District 3-A regular season softball title. Best of luck to the Big Green as they move through tournament play.

Turning to the world of politics, politics1.com reports that Republican Congressman Jim Gerlach, who was considering running for Governor of Pennsylvania, may switch to the US Senate race. According to the report, "Gerlach and Specter have nearly identical stances." If that is the case, why would he think he has any chance of winning a Republican Primary, considering how badly Specter had been trailing? The National Republican Senate Committee is lobbying for, well, anybody but Pat Toomey at this point, including, former Governor Tom Ridge. This one is going to be brutal to watch for the next 12 months.

Also in politics, the world said goodbye to former quarterback, Congressman, and Cabinet member Jack Kemp over the weekend. Full disclosure: I loved Jack Kemp. I was too young to vote but he would have had my primary vote in 1988 over George H.W. Bush. He didn't run in 1992, but he would have still had my primary vote, and I was hoping he would have run. And of course there was that stellar campaign in 1996 with a doomed-from-the-start Bob Dole at the top of the ticket and Kemp as Vice President. Still, Kemp was a very well-spoken voice for conservatism, and it's sad to see his passing.

As reported at EastTennesseeMedia.com and elsewhere, country singer Vern Gosdin passed last week. This reminds me of the George Jones song from the 1980's, "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?" Gosdin gave us three number one songs, but he also gave us a ton of top 10 and top 20 country music. In 2009, country music has never been more popular and less substantive. So, crank up "Slow Burning Memory," or "If You're Gonna Do Me Wrong (Do It Right)," and think about the olden days. 

April 28, 2009

I had had no intention of writing a blog today, but two stories on the wire have dragged me to my keyboard. Here we go.

Barring some international event, the most-covered story of the day will be the switch of senior Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. This answers a lot of questions about the Senator - both about his policy positions, and his willingness to fight for his nomination.

The one thing that is being bantied about in all this is how far right the Grand Old Party has moved. That is a falsehood. The Republican Party has done nothing of the sort, and, even if it were true, Specter has voted with Democrats with regularity in the 20 years I've followed politics. But it isn't true. Republicans spent like drunken sailors from 1998 to 2004, and we just said goodbye to the biggest expansionist since Lyndon Johnson. That is not a rightward move.

So, with that being said, the Senate race in the Keystone State is now clear. Specter the Democrat vs. Toomey the Republican, with multiple independents likely to enter.

For more coverage go to the Pittsburgh Post (www.post-gazette.com) or the Philadelphia Enquirer (www.philly.com), or your favorite national news site for further coverage.

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Troubles continue for the greatest professional wrestler ever. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (www.ajc.com) reports that Richard Fleihr, 21, son of Nature Boy Ric Flair, was charged with felony heroin possession, as well as "DWI, driving with a revoked license, and possession of drug parphernalia."

This is just another in an unfortunate string of trouble for the former champ and his family, a string which seemingly began with a road-rage incident in 2005. Other family members have been on the wrong side of the law, according to Slick Ric's Wikipedia page.

As a long-time fan, we wish the best to the family, and hope they can all get it together.

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One last note:

Also reported in the AJC, a 2-year-old filly named Raspberry Miss perished after colliding with another horse at Churchill Downs. I'm not an animal rights activist, but I do find this sad.

I'm also not a gambler. I don't drink mint juleps. But thoroughbred racing does bring its own certain beauty. And let's not forget that there hasn't been a triple-crown winner in over three decades, so the competitiveness of the sport is almost unparalleled.

Unfortunately, the 2009 Kentucky Derby is now marred by this unfortunate incident. However, from the AJC report, it sounds like it was just an unfortunate accident.

April 23, 2009

If you have followed the Knoxville News in the last couple of days, you are aware that these are sad days in Yellowjacket country. Just a few weeks from graduation and four days from the prom, Roane County High lost a student to a traffic accident this week. James Sams was a great athlete and a fine person.

While I can't claim to have known him well, I had the privilege to be around him. I have watched his football career at Roane County High, and previously at Cherokee Middle School. As the last 48 hours have passed, two moments from that career stand out in my mind: One was a red-zone run against Fulton in 2008 that sealed the playoff berth for the Yellowjackets; the other was James being consoled by the Austin-East staff after the Roadrunners had defeated the Jackets in the playoffs.

But the thing that really stands out in my mind is his being around our youth league program. He was generally there every day, at least once high school practice had ended, either to watch the younger kids, or to help out in some way or another. On Saturdays, you would often find him selling concessions at those games.

Once I again, I'll reiterate that we in Kingston have just lost a fine young man. So, from this column, James, thank you for all you did, both when you wore the orange and blue for the Yellowjackets, and, for your help and support of the Kingston Optimist Club. Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends, family, and community.

April 20, 2009

n First of all, congratulations to the Roane County High School band. According to the Knoxville News Sentinel , the RCHS Concert Band performed in the Tennessee Bandmasters Hall of Fame Concert at the Tennessee Music Education Association's 2009 Spring Music Conference last Friday. Also reported, the band has been invited to perform a joint concert with the East Tennessee Wind Symphony at the Tennessee Theater on May 5.

n The hottest celebrity feud going on at the moment may be Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus vs. Jamie Foxx. Apparently Miley had some negative things to say about the band Radiohead, to which Foxx responded with a remarkably inappropriate monologue, wishing all kinds of foolishness upon the teen. Foxx has since issued an apology of sorts, and cooler heads appeared to have prevailed. Such is the life of celebrities, I guess.

n Then there's Terry "Hulk Hogan" Bollea vs. ex-wife Linda and her boy-toy. His comments were so bizarre they barely deserve comment. "I could have done an O.J., but I didn't" is nuts, even from Bollea. One has to wonder how much of that was Terry Bollea, and how much of that was going into character. From everything I've ever read about the Hulkster, he has always played political games to protect his "push" in whatever company for which he has worked, therefore, nothing about him should shock any of us. The whole Hogan/Bollea clan just comes across as nuts, in my opinion.

n While we're talking about feuding, I finally, after some prodding, got around to watching Fireproof. From an analytical standpoint, the production quality was pretty low-budget and both the husband and wife of the story came across more as caricature than character, and I found them both really unsympathetic. That being said, there was a good message to be found if a person stayed with the program until the end. It'll affect everyone differently, so I'll forego a formal rating. Needless to say, there was a lesson there for me, too, and I'll leave it at that.

n The missus and I took in Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie, over the weekend. If you have children, this movie will definitely push your buttons. Likewise, it will get your attention If you have a libertarian world-view. And, if you are bothered by the plight of women in the early 20th century, this movie will also touch you. It is a largely true story of the plight of Christine Collins as she battled corruption in Los Angeles in the late 1920's. The movie runs a little long at times, but it keeps the audience engaged. The viewer cannot help but feel sympathy toward Collins and anger toward the establishment. A really good movie, nominated for numerous awards. Warnings: graphic violence and language. Cast also features Jeffrey Donovan and John Malkovich.  B+

n Back to sports: A late congratulations to the Knoxville Ice Bears upon winning their third President's Cup of the last four years. Our local franchise dominates its league; we should be proud. We should be especially proud of this year's squad, who skated at least three times this postseason while facing elimination, and won each time. We'll keep an eye on the league's expansion/contraction movements as the summer draws on.

n On the subject of baseball, the missus was watching the Yankees and Indians on Sunday on TBS (as if we needed MORE A.L. EAST - UGH!). Anyway, there was a call on a pinch-hit home run where a fan clearly interfered with the Indians right fielder. The call went to replay, as is now allowed, and, in spite of clear video evidence to the contrary, the on-field call stood, giving the Yankees a then 4-3 lead, and running Cleveland's starter. Relief then got hammered, and the Yankees won going away. I'm not a big fan of replay in baseball, but if you're going to have it, GET THE CALL RIGHT.

4/11/09

For those of you who didn't already know, Easter is my favorite Christian holiday. To me, it is the centerpiece on which our faith is founded, and without the resurrection, there would be no cause for other tenets of our religion. And that is why I have made reference to the holiday several times this week.

Because of the holday's importance, I had set out to compile a list of my favorite Easter songs. As I was going along, I came to the realization that there are fewer of those than I realized, or at least that I could recall in a limited time-frame.

The other thing I realized is that, while I really dig songs like "He's Alive" by Heirline; "By His Stripes," and "The Garden Tomb," by the Isaacs, "Resurrection Morn," by the Perry Sisters, and, of course, "Because He Lives," by the Bill Gaither Trio.  There are also old stand-by hymns like "The Old Rugged Cross," "At the Cross," and others.

However, there is but one song that is far and away my favorite, and that is "Gone" by Teddy Huffam and The Gems. Written by Eldridge Fox of the Kingsmen, this song became Huffam's signature song, and is thought of by many as one of the top 15 or 20 southern gospel songs of the 20th century. Its message is simple but powerful, and, frankly, the music is catchy.

We couldn't find video of Huffam's version but here's Jessy Dixon with a live rendition.

That's just my thought on the matter. Yours could be different. Regardless, again I encourage you to attend the church of your choice this weekend, and, use this holiday time to reflect. And, just for fun, call up your local gospel station and request some of these.

HAPPY EASTER!. 

April 9, 2009

n   By sheer coincidence, as I left the office pretty late last night, I caught a show on Farragut's WFIV 105.3, featuring an in-studio interview and set from "Knoxville's Favorite Band," The Dirty Guv'nahs. (That's favorite band as voted by Metro Pulse  readers, 2008.) Their style isn't my utmost favorite form of music, but it was a very interesting and entertaining radio show. The interview served a second purpose, and that was to promote their show this weekend at the Bijou in downtown Knoxville. Perhaps if you get a chance, you can take it in. Tickets are available from the Bijou Theater box office or most Knoxvilleticket outlets.

n   Staying in the entertainment world, I had a slight lull in my crazy work schedule, so with that opportunity, I went to see Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail. The movie was very little like its teasers, but it was a great view. Very little of the plot revolves around Madea; for that matter Madea's role could have been completely eliminated, as "her" appearances contributed very little. Stealing the show was Keshia Knight-Pulliam, of Cosby Show fame, who played a woman who, through some very dark circumstances, had landed on the streets of Atlanta. Her character keeps popping up in the life of a successful Assistant District Attorney, and that is where the story is centered.

That being said, there were some certain portrayals of people of faith that I'm still not sure how to take, but to say it was offensive would be a severe ovetstatement. There's also a fair amount of adult language and situations, so be aware.  All-in-all, though, it is one of the better films I've seen in a while, regardless of lukewarm reviews. A great story of perseverance, redemption, and a little help from a friend. And Knight-Pulliam's performance is award-worthy. Certainly worth the price of admission. A-

n   Somehow I'm on the Republican Party's e-mail list, and because of that, I received in my inbox the other day, a survey on what the Grand Old Party should change. First-of-all, most of you know my feelings toward Michael Steele as leader, and about the so-called 'centrist' shift of the party. I made those feelings known in the survey, but what drives me crazy (and why I ceased being an activist) was the wording of those leading questions. It's the type of wording that skews a survey, and, insiders know that this survey is just published to affirm what Steele and the leaders want, not what the grass-roots does. The reader is encouraged to make his or her feelings known to his or her local leader and legislative representatives.

n   Work and family continue to preclude me from seeing a great deal of sports, but that's just as well, since two teams I loathe took home NCAA Championships this week. The only thing that would make this year even more unbearable would be for the Braves or Diamondbacks to win the World Series, the Lakers to win the NBA, and the 48 to win another Sprint Cup..

n   Speaking of baseball, it has come to my attention that the Chattanooga Lookouts are now affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers. This makes things a little difficult, as someone who has been a pretty loyal Smokies fan. It's been easy for me to hate a team affiliated with the Reds, and to largely ignore the Jacksonville Suns, but, now Tennessee's biggest rival is in my side-door, and affiliated with my first sports love. What a dilemma.

n   Public Service Announcement of sorts: if it's dim or dusk outside, or raining, and particularly if you drive a dark-colored vehicle, PLEASE turn your lights on. It's not as much for your own benefit, as far as seeing the the road and its obstacles; it's more so that other drivers can see you.

n   Have a Happy Easter and a safe weekend.

April 6, 2009

A hat-tip to Bruce Pearl and Mike Hamilton for getting the contract worked out. I'm not the world's biggest Pearl fan, but he's a good fit at Tennessee. That being said, he was getting a lot of flak on the airwaves last week. This made me really baffled at how fickle the UT fan base can be. Most time on the talk shows, Pearl is regarded as having resurrected a dead program (which I think is a bit overstated), so, if he's that important, why would you not want to pay him? Plus, compared to other basketball coaches, and to the UT football staff, his salary is a bargain. Now, when is Hamilton going to address the awful baseball situation?

n   The kids and I took in "Monsters vs. Aliens" last weekend, and here's the review. It's a cute little movie, with lots of funny stuff targeted at kids and adults alike. However, it is a little heavy on the toilet humor, in my opinion, for a movie targeted at the milk-and-cookies set. It's also more violent than I would have hoped, and, kids probably didn't really latch onto the relationship tangles of our heroine. On the other hand, since it was a DreamWorks production, rather than Disney, there were no covert political statements to be found, save for a backhanded hat-tip toward the former Vice President from Carthage. Plenty of jokes for adults, and hat tips to old movies, including tips to "The Blob," "Beverly Hills Cop," and others. All in all, it's a good view. B.

n    Wrapping up, the SGM Fan Fair award ceremony was held recently, and several artists with an East Tennessee connection took home awards. Local winners were led by Morristown's Greater Vision, who won Favorite Song with "God Will Pass By," Favorite Album with "My Favorite Place," and who saw Gerald Wolfe win Favorite Lead. The Triumphant Quartet won for Favorite Musician, Jeff Stice, and Favorite Baritone, Scott Inman. A special congratulation goes out to my buddies Heirline, who saw Eric Dawson win in category "Young Excelling Artist." Other groups with East Tennessee connections who won were The Perrys and The Singing Echoes. The full listing can be found at christianvoicemagazine.com.

n   It's Easter week. Those of you of Christian faith are encouraged to spend some time this week recounting and meditating on the resurrection story.

 

Photo Source: KnoxvilleIceBears.com

April 2, 2009

I was able to make another trek to the Knoxville Civic Coliseum last night, and boy was that money well-spent. In what would only be described as an instant classic for minor league hockey, the Ice Bears pushed in a series-winning goal 11 minutes into overtime to advance to the President's Cup Championship series once again.

This game featured a little of everything, with the highlights being Andrew Gallant's 45 saves on the night, and a first-period fight that saw every non-goalie on the ice involved, and heat between the benches as the officials attempted to restore order. I'm just getting re-acclimated to the sport, but I get the feeling that these two teams (and fans) really don't like each other.

Knoxville jumped out to an early lead, scoring two first-period goals. The Ice Bears let opportunities slip away, though, to a degree, as they were in power play a good chunk of the first period, and couldn’t capitalize further. This may have been the most intense hockey of the night, save for overtime, as just past 10 minutes in, the fight broke out.

Huntsville returned the favor in the second half, evening the score and the shots on goal, with both Havoc goals coming on power plays. The Ice Bears seemed to have trouble on power plays in this series, based on reports and interviews with Coach Scott Hillman.

The third regulation period saw the defenses hold, and when the buzzer sounded, the series and this game were 2-2.Huntsville goalie Tim Haun and Gallant had combined for a total of 69 saves at that point, with Gallant having a slight advantage.

All-in-all it seemed to be a great game ending a great series, with the home team taking all five contests. The Havoc will return to the Yellowhammer state to regroup, while Knoxville moves on to face Fayetteville in Knoxville on Friday and Saturday.

March 25, 2009

n    According to numerous sources, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is asking for a mammoth broadening of power of his department, including the regulation or takeover of numerous financial institutions. Any power grab of this magnitude by the federal government should be disconcerting. Obviously, some of this is reaction to AIG, but, before we start praising the Congress for swift action, let's find out what they knew in advance, considering that a large number of them - on both sides - took campaign funds from AIG and others. Something about that smells funny. Let's also remember that, depending on which survey you read, around 80 percent of Americans opposed the bailout from the outset.

n    Is there anything recent Congresses won't subsidize? Financials, auto, and now newspapers. How about encouraging some of these industries to adapt their business models to an ever-changing market? Not to mention that there is questionable Constitutional authority to pass on these subsidies. Let's remember that our grandchildren's grandchildren may still be paying for all these programs.

n    Lightening up a bit, after those rants, I have been trying to catch up on Season 2 of Ax Men. This season seems to be all about the human element, and neglecting the science and art of logging. So far, I'm really missing the rag-tag crew of Stump-Branch, and the innovative Gustafson crew. If S & S Aqua Logging never showed up in another episode, the show would be far improved.  On the other hand Rygaard's competitive attitude toward Browning is kind of fun to watch, and, to date, I haven't seen any of the episodes featuring R&R Conner Aviation. Of course, Dwayne Dethlefs is still providing comic relief.

March 23, 2009

A special thanks goes out to both the Lady Vols and Tennessee men for putting this season to an early, abrupt end. Both these squads, to be quite honest about it, have been painful to watch.

And the men didn't disappoint, as far as pain goes. With a distinct size advantage over Oklahoma State, the Volunteers used said advantage to jack up 33 three-point shots, and miss 24. On the flip-side of that, I can only partly agree with numerous area pundits, who felt that they should have attacked the basket more, because, well, what's the point in that when you're a terrible free-throw shooting team. It's just a matter of picking your poison. This team fell the same way it's been falling all year.

Kudos to Bruce Pearl for finally getting on the podium, or on the Vol Network, and telling this team what a lot of us knew: that they left opportunities "on the table." Pearl sounded pretty jolted in that press conference. Let me be the first to speculate on his future.

Side note: to those I keep hearing talk of Pearl resurrecting this program, let's not forget that just a few years before he got here Jerry Green averaged 22 wins and never missed the NCAA tournament. The Vol program may have needed a spark after the lackluster results under Buzz Peterson, but it wasn't dead. Tennessee has been in the dance eight of the last 12.

As for the Lady Volunteers, this writer is just befuddled. I skipped the game, because it was a 9 p.m. tip on a work night, and, by all rights was a "gimme." Guess Ball State thought otherwise. How does it feel to be the worst Lady Vols team ever?

Unlike the men, whose problems are easy to pinpoint (lack of hustle, center who thinks he's a guard, team doesn't board, free throws), the Lady Vols have just been an enigma. Granted, they've had their injuries, but they have a heap of depth. They just haven't found leadership amongst their youth. That's still not a good excuse around here considering what their predecessors have done in their initial year.

Who has the answer? Only Pat and her staff know. Maybe there's a super-recruit headed to Knoxville.

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Turning to prep action, congratulations go out to Knoxville's Fulton High for their repeat state championship. The Falcons were the only team from and East Section to get past the first round, so again, congratulations to them on their back-to-back titles.

The East Section didn't fare so well with its six teams, but the five from the southeast had a good weekend, topped by Tennessee Temple's runner-up finish in Class A. Also advancing to the final four were Chattanooga Grace, Brainerd, and Walker Valley. Congratulations to all these teams.

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n   Belated congratulations to the Knoxville Webb girls on their 2009 State Title. We apologize for not getting it up sooner, it's just that there are so few Division II teams in our coverage area that we forget to look sometimes.

March 5, 2009

The title comes from my absolute favorite Andy Griffith show episode, "A Feud Is A Feud," between the Carters and the Wakefields. With great dialogue such as:

Andy: "Why are you feudin?"

Carter: "Because we're shooting at each other"

Andy: "Why are you shooting at him?"

Carter: "Because he's a Wakefield"

Andy: "Why are you shooting at the Wakefields?"

Carter: "OOOOHHHHH...because we're feudin'"

How could you go wrong? You folks wouldn't believe the mileage a college friend and I got out of that exchange back in the mid-90's. Any time either of us had a conflict with a friend, significant-other, whatever, it always went back to .. "Cause we're feuding."  Let's extrapolate on that with some newsmakers of the past few days.

n  Nash vs. Devoe:  Now why on earth somebody would bring up Kevin Nash's lackluster (so I've heard, anyway) basketball tenure at the University of Tennesseee, no one really knows. Whether Nash was trying to be in character or not, he popped former coach Don Devoe in an Orlando Sentinel interview lately. I'm sure Devoe will most likely ignore the story completely, but, should it come to a grudge match... in 3 minutes, 48 seconds, with help from the missus, Devoe gets the pinfall on the overrated wrestler.

n  TBR and UT vs. Tennesssee Students and Taxpayers: It was reported in The Tennessean late last week that once again the state's politicos are considering the merger of the Tennessee Board of Regents system with the University of Tennnessee system.  This was proposed by Senator Jim Kyle (D-Memphis) and Representative Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley). However, when Fitzhugh starts his proposal with "I'm as orange as they come," that's an auspicious start. After all, there are several UT campuses outside the Big Orange one. We encourage the readers to educate themselves on this issue. I'm a TBR graduate, but I'm acquainted with only a select few graduates that aren't from either UT-Knoxville or Tennessee Tech. The big winner, if this policy were to be put into effect, would probably be the Community College crowd, as there is too often confusion regarding articulation agreements between the Community College system and the UT-system. In our grudge match, the TBR and UT systems. In our match, the TBR and UT spend much of the tag-team bout fighting each other, but the Students and Taxpayers lose in a 37-minute yawner.

n  Fans vs. TSSAA: the Athletics Association has gotten some things mostly right lately, including most things involving the new classification, but this tournament format continues to be confusing. Yours truly went to Athens on Wednesday, expecting to see the girls Region 3-AA final. I arrived just as the all-tournament team was being announced. My understanding was that girls finals were Wednesday and boys on Thursday. Tyner vs. Brainerd boys had some good moments, but this doubleheader was probably my last chance to see the Chargerettes this season. The fans will eventually find a way to win, but tonight TSSAA goes old-school Road Warriors and wins this match in 12 seconds flat.

n Toomey vs. Specter II: In our next event, live from the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, former Congressman Pat Toomey is set to challenge long-time Pennsylvania Champion Arlen Specter for his Senate seat. The much more socially-conservative, as well as economically-conservative Toomey is back for a rematch after falling to Specter after both Senator Rick Santorum and President Bush endorsed Specter in 2004. According to politics1.com, two-thirds of Pennsylvania Republicans are planning on voting for someone other than Specter in 2010. After all, Specter has been a pretty solid vote for much of the Obama agenda thus far. In the grudge match, we go hardcore for 20-plus minutes before the match is ruled a no-contest when seemingly everyone in Pennsylvania riots in the ring.

n Limbaugh vs. Steele:  According to a politics1.com report, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and prominent talk show host Rush Limbaugh had a very public disagreement lately about the direction of the Republican Party. While President Barack Obama and a handful of other Democrats have made Limbaugh very relevant again, Rusty maintains he would not take credit for being in charge of the mess that the Grand Old Party has become after Steele called him out. Truthfully, a lot of problems in the GOP are a result, directly or indirectly, of these talking-head types, Limbaugh in particular, shilling for anything and everything the Bush administration wanted, right or wrong. In related news, politics1.com ran an excerpt from an interview with Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who pretty much ripped on everything conservative in the Grand Old Party. What he really voiced was the way that Republicans can lose forever an already eroding base. Limbaugh wins this bout by disqualification, when Huntsman runs-in and saves Steele from the Von Erich brain claw at the 17-minute mark. Huntsman and Steele continue to work over Limbaugh until Michelle Malkin comes in and makes the save by throwing a fireball at the two moderates.

n  United States vs. Russia: According to reports from Fox News and the Associated Press, the Obama Administration has been in talks with Russia concerning a missile shield in Eastern Europe, Iran, and other things. The reports conflict, but any thoughts of pulling our defenses for any reason, even Iran, is a short-sighted thing to do, particularly if Russia is involved. The hard-line communists are back in bear country and we should take heed. In our tag-team main event, Barack Obama and Joe Biden take the titles, as Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik (who really, really hates Brian Blair for some reason) turn on each other.

We'll see what other feuds we can think of in due time.

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n We were set to pay tribute to radio legend Paul Harvey as well. My memories of him were doing his news and "Rest of the Story" bits on Knoxville's WIVK for a good chunk of my childhood. I could never write a tribute as well-done as the one by my friend Steve Wilhoit, though. Check it out if you haven't already.

n  There are things about President Obama's foreign policy that really make me nervous, but the fact that he wants to increase troops into Afghanistan is a good thing. After all, aren't we supposed to be searching for some, what, terrorist leader or something in that country? Increasing our presence there would be a good start. An even better start would be to start acknowledging that Saudi Arabia is complicit in terrorism..

February 23, 2009

There has to be a better way. I've long said that the TSSAA format for tournaments does little more than mess up the regional tournaments, but what are some changes that could be made?

First, let's start with where we are this morning. Other than the 5-seeds beating 4-seeds, which is somewhat expected in a lot of cases, there have been some tremendous upsets. There are 18 districts that we'll consider East Tennessee for this exercise.  On the boys' side, three different 6-seeds advanced to the District semifinals, qualifying for Region, highighted by Jefferson County's knocking off two higher-seeds to play for the 2-AAA Championship on Tuesday. There were two 4-seeds knocking off 1-seeds over the weekend, with Gatlinburg-Pittman downing Grainger and Soddy Daisy knocking off Red Bank.

On the girls' side, the chief upset had to come in the Tri-Cities, as 7-seed Sullivan South knocked off 2-seed Dobyns-Bennett in the 1-AAA quarterfinals. There were, like the boys, two 4-seeds that knocked off 1-seeds, with Cumberland County getting by Cleveland and Science Hill defeating Tennessee High.

There were also a number of 3-seeds defeating 2-seeds in the semifinals, but, for sake of space, we'll forego that list.

Is this the best way? Probably not. Granted, this is most certainly a revenue generator, or at least was until tournaments started moving away from central locations. It is also a chance for teams that have struggled to get a second chance. But, it also is a time that top-level teams get eliminated in early rounds because the matchups for Region play aren't as they should be.

So, with that being said, what could Tennessee change? Here are some possibilities:

Move toward the Kentucky format, with no classifications. Divide the teams into 64 districts across our state. The top two teams from each 4-district section advance to the sectional. The 16 sectional winners advance to the State Tournament. What? You don't like the thought of a Science Hill vs. Clinch match-up? Farragut vs. Oakdale? Okay, me neither.

Move toward the Alabama format, which is basically the same as Kentucky, except spread across six enrollment-based classifications. Only the top team from the region (section in Tennessee) would advance to State. I'm fairly partial to this method.

Move toward the Florida format, which is bracketed like football. The top two teams from each district in each of six classifications advance to a 32-team bracket. The higher seeds host the early rounds, with the final four being at a neutral site. This format is okay, but this writer likes our system of having a bunch of games at a central location.

Keep our system to some degree, but eliminate the district tournament. The top four district qualifiers, based on regular season record, advance to region. The upside is that it doesn't mess up the region seedings. The bad news is that teams like the 6- and 7- seeds wouldn't have the chance to have a nice February-March run. The odds of any change of this nature coming along are slim-to-none, considering the revenue that could be lost.

February 20, 2009

First of all, let me thank the TSSAA powers-that-be for really goofing up the basketball tournament schedule. On what should have been District Championship Friday in East Tennessee, most 1-and 2-seeds were idle, and many tournaments were playing at multiple sites. After studying that schedule for what seemed like hours, I noted that the only tournament that featured top matchups occurred in Red Bank, and I just wasn't up for the drive.

But that turned out not to be so bad for yours truly. I remembered from my one year of attending a Christian high school (I also attended in some early grades), that there might be something else going on. So, I found the website for the Tennessee Association of Christian Schools, and, sure enough, they were in tournament play, too. And not terribly far from my day job.

Temple Baptist Academy in Powell was the host, and the round was the East Regional semifinals. And I got there in time to see most of the second girls game and all of both boys games.

The game I did not see saw Cedar View Christian from Kingsport knock off Victory (I'm not sure where they're from).  The young ladies from Cedar View will take on Tri-Cities Christian from Blountville, who knocked off the hosting Lady Crusaders from Temple. The Lady Eagles and Lady Crusaders put on quite a game, with TCCS pulling away at the end, in what wound up being a really physical contest. I daresay that both of those teams would hold their own with a number of TSSAA teams, although maybe not the McMinn Centrals, Uppermans, or Heritages of the world. It was exciting girls basketball, nonetheless.

The first boys game was a little more lopsided, with Seymour Christian taking a big lead over Temple in the early second half and winning by double-digits. However, the nightcap was a barnburner. Fairview Christian, from Athens, jumped out to an early 17-2 lead on Tri-Cities Christian.  The Eagles, though, behind 3-point shooting, among other things, managed to cut the lead down to 17-11 and tied the game with around six minutes left in the half. The game swayed back and forth and was tied again at halftime at 32 points. The third quarter was equally even with Tri-Cities taking a two-point lead into the final stanza, where they would go on to win by a narrow four-point margin.

All in all, it was an excellent show, and, unlike the early rounds in the TSSAA, I felt like I got my money's worth. Temple has nice facilities, although a little cramped with that many different schools represented in the house. Of course, there are some equally small TSSAA facilities. Congratulations to them on a tournament well done. And, they had the opportunity to showcase their church-run Crown College as well.

As far as the rest of the environment goes, it was much like any other basketball tournament. Don't let the church-league fool you; those fans are pretty passionate about their basketball. There might be a little less smack-talk and the folks may have a generally more conservative demeanor, but it's still tournament time. 

The only real drawbacks for the night were that the officials, who also double as TSSAA officials, seemed to let the games get rougher and sloppier than TSSAA games. I'm not sure if they were undervaluing the talent, but I saw more than one kid get undercut on a layup. That's dangerous, Mr. Official. You have to call that tighter. And the other drawback were some clock issues. I've run clock exactly once for my daughter's youth league team and I found myself lost a good chunk of the time, so I'll not be throwing any stones. Let's just all keep working.

In the meantime, best of wishes to all these teams as they play their tournament Championship, and go on to represent East Tennessee in the TACS State Tournament and beyond.

February 11, 2009

The 51st running of the Daytona 500 is Sunday, and, with that backdrop, we ponder the current state of NASCAR. Is it still booming like it was in the 1990's, or is it starting to fade back into just being a good-old-boy niche sport?

Let's talk about some things NASCAR has done to shoot itself in the foot.

Obviously, the number one thing the organization has done lately to really irritate fans is introduce this horrible new car. Nothing says racing like drivers riding around in the back of the pack and waiting for something to happen. That's because the new car is a terrible-handling piece of equipment, slip-sliding around like on a sheet of ice much of the time. Throw in the 1980's invention of restrictor plates, and that will sap most of the excitement out of most races. Except for bump-drafting, which is okay if Jeff Gordon does it, but not if Kevin Harvick or Matt Kenseth does.

Number two is NASCAR's selective enforcement of rules. Driver A gets caught cheating in Daytona 500 qualifying. His crew chief is suspended and he pays a nominal penny-ante fine, but the driver loses neither qualifying position nor points. Driver B gets caught cheating during Daytona 500 qualifying. He gets suspended, fined, loses something on the order of 25 million points, and there is talk of having him drawn and quartered.  The difference? Team ownership and particularly sponsorship. We know that the mantra is "if you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'," but if NASCAR catches ya, they ought to treat everyone the same. But we all know it's different rules on different days for different drivers (thx Tony Basilio for the phrasing).

Number three is NASCAR's flippant attitude toward traditional tracks. Growth is a good thing. Abandoning your roots is something altogether different. (See the history of World Championship Wrestling). Taking races away from southern tracks like Darlington to open cookie-cutter ones in places like Las Vegas and New York will not be a long-term solution, because casual fans are just that - casual. They won't be there when times get tough.

Finally, the goofy TV setup needs work. The FOX guys can be clowns at times, and we really didn't need a stupid gopher-cam, but that's not the point. The point is, just when a viewer gets used to the announce crew on the FOX family, coverage shifts to the awful TNT coverage from just after Memorial Day until late July. Then the final stretch run is covered by ABC/ESPN. Who negotiated this mess? Granted, the season is long, but so is the NBA, and it doesn't jump networks from week-to-week. I guess it beats being buried on Versus.

Those are some of the main points. There are some things out of NASCAR's control that hurt, like the 2001 death of Dale Earnhardt and the 2007 death of Bill France. They also can't control a weakened economy that caused a lot of sponsors to bail out this off-season and saw the merger of several longstanding teams. As hard as NASCAR tried, they couldn't control the egos of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Theresa Earnhardt and get them to compromise and stay together to keep DEI at a high level (no offense toward Martin Truex, who's a great driver). Junior's departure to Rick Hendrick effectively ended the sport's most heated rivalry (I'm an RCR guy myself, but that's not important right now).

That's just some of the things going backward for NASCAR. They should remember that the "SC" stands for STOCK CAR. The silliness of racing Camry's and Tauruses just doesn't deserve comment. Will this writer watch? Probably. After all the commercials will be good and it still beats the NBA, for now.

But, as they say in these parts, it's "Ruirnt". Hopefully they can fix it.

February 5, 2009

What a great finish to a great Super Bowl. Even my first wife thought that Santonio Holmes played an outstanding game, even well before the outstanding catch in the back right corner that propelled the Steelers to the Super Bowl Championship.

There's debate going on amongst talk-show hacks that perhaps Ben Roethlisberger and not Holmes should have been the MVP, but this honk thinks that Holmes was as good a decision as any. Probably the next best Steelers' players behind those two were Heath Miller, who did a good job keeping drives alive, and of course, James Harrison who swung the game in Pittsburgh's favor with his 100-yard interception return.

Besides Harrison's run, Pittsburgh's defense didn't really have a shining game. Troy Polamalu had a very difficult night, missing tackles in run coverage and not doing anything special on pass coverage. The defensive backfield also seemed to go into a lull in the second half, allowing the Cardinals to stage the great comeback to take the late lead. But there also has to be credit given to the Cardinal offense, with Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, and the other receivers performing well, as expected.

Still, when all was said and done it was the Steeler offense that came through in the clutch. Ben Roethlisberger is now among some pretty legendary names as multi-win quarterbacks. And the Steelers have now retaken the lead from Dallas and San Francisco for Super Bowl wins. Congratulations to the Steelers as we put the 2008-2009 season to bed.

**********

n  The Super Bowl commercials were nothing special - again, but one thing to be conscious about is that they are becoming less and less family-friendly. That's unfortunate from where I stand, having a six-year-old sports nut at my side much of the time. That being said, my personal favorite ad was the Bridgestone ad featuring Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. Good stuff. Also hard to beat the Clydesdales and Dalmatians. The worst (and, as my goobery buddy said, most disturbing) ad was the Pepsi ad featuring Conan O'Brien. Let's see if the Daytona 500 runs better ads than the Super Bowl - again - this year.

January 22, 2009

Quantum of Solace, 2008

First, let's begin with Daniel Craig, who, in my opinion, is the worst James Bond ever - including Timothy Dalton. I'm not sure what the suits had in mind, but they've turned Bond into just one more action hero, stripped him of everything that made the character, and, oh, by the way, threw all semblance of continuity out the window with Casino Royale.

That being said, Quantum was a somewhat better movie. The character flaws of Craig still loomed, most notably his empathizing with Judi Dench's M, but the storyline at least made sense. This may be the truest Bond film to how the world actually works, but I can't get past the character. Olga Kurylenko did improve things as this film's "Bond Girl," though. C+

Transporter 3, 2008

This franchise may have jumped the shark with the third installment. Jason Statham comes back as Frank Martin, this time only taking the transporter job after being backed into it. This movie felt more like a Bond movie than Quantum did, but unfortunately, that's not what Transporter fans would want to see. Martin is highly distracted by his package, the attractive redhead, Valentina, played by Natalya Rudakova, for the duration of the film, but, unlike Bond, the distraction never becomes a potential demise. Lots of action, car chases, and explosions for our gender; Statham for the ladies. Not as good as the first two. C

Jumper, 2008

Hayden Christensen stars as David Rice, a teen who discovers, in a stressful situation, that he has the ability to teleport. He uses his power for evil; Samuel L. Jackson represents the U.S. Government, chasing him and his kind down. Diane Lane plays a key role, but I won't spoil it. Convoluted story, lots of issues left unresolved at the end. Pretty dull flick...except did I mention it has Diane Lane in it? D+

Hancock, 2008

The role of the maligned Superhero has been done. And done. And done again. This time, someone decided to run a lot of trailers that promoted this as a comedy. Very little of it is funny. Jason Bateman, of 1980's sitcom fame, plays an ad agent trying to help Hancock's image. He does, sort of. Another character with Superpowers and Hancock fight, with a very-Ghostbusters-like darkness set over Los Angeles. I was waiting for the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man at any moment. Charlize Theron also plays key roles. D

Traitor, 2008

Don Cheadle attempts a serious role, and plays his role well. Unfortunately for him, this script was terrible. If one can get past the perpetual jumping around the world, the plethora of subtitles and foreign language, there's still a lot of holes in this plot. Probably would make a good book; didn't really make a good movie. F

Bolt, 2008

One of the best movies Disney has put out in years was this animated feature, with John Travolta and Miley Cyrus providing their voices. Unlike many Disney movies of the past few years, this one didn't seem to have any kind of preachy agenda, and was just a good movie about a girl, her dog, and a misunderstanding.

The cat and the hamster serve as fine foils and friends of Bolt throughout this picture, and overall it's just a good story. Adults and kids alike should enjoy it. A+

The Rose, 1979

Bette Midler plays a drug-using, alcoholic, rock singer. Allegedly based loosely on Janis Joplin. Lots of drug using. An abundance of swearing. The story is a little convoluted in places. At least, unlike Great Balls of Fire, Ray, and Walk the Line, the story doesn't leave off in the middle of the singer's life. Widely regarded as the film that Vaulted Bets onto the national stage. C

January 9, 2009

According to multiple reports, and the Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletics Association website, Executive Director Ronnie Carter announced on Thursday that he would retire when his contract expires in the summer time.  Let's look at some of the changes that have taken place under his watch, which began in 1986, and offer our suggestions to incoming director Bernard Childress.

When Carter took the reigns in 1986, a whopping total of 96 teams made the football playoffs. Those teams were split across a measly three classifications, but competition was stiff, as only the top two finishers in each of 16 districts per class qualified.

In 1993, football expanded from three classifications to five, broken into eight regions per. The top three teams in each region qualified, with the 24 regional champions getting byes. The competition level dropped slightly, but with 120 teams qualifying for the playoffs, the association pulled in more revenue. The first-round bye was dropped in 1994, with many of the region-winning coaches not liking the week off, increasing the total number of playoff teams to 160.

In 1995 and 1996, Brentwood Academy, who had failed to reach the state football finals in Class 4A in the previous two seasons, won back-to-back state championships in the state's largest class. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the financial aid division was created, bringing the total number of football classifications to eight - in an association with around 300 football-playing schools, and the largest Division II classification fielding a whopping SEVEN teams.

In 1999 and 2000, TSSAA graced us with the sectional basketball tournament, featuring the top three finishers from adjacent regions. Funny thing is, teams didn't have to win this tournament to advance to the state tournament, allowing at least one team to win the state tournament after having lost games in each of the previous rounds.

In the spring of 2004, kowtowing to political pressure, the TSSAA implemented a 1.8 multiplier for all non-financial-aid private schools that remained in Division I. Also coinciding with this decision was a four-year, rather than two, classification period, with the arbitrary caveat that schools could change classifications if they had an enrollment swing of 20 percent, a very arbitary number. This resulted in nine-region for class 2A football in 2007 and 2008.

And, finally, in 2008, Carter oversaw yet another classification change, that pulled football and volleyball back under the three-classification, 16-district format, with the condition that football would be split into six classifications for playoff purposes, along with a convoluted laundry list of qualification criteria.

Carter oversaw several other things in his time as well. You can find the complete rundown in today’s edition of The Tennessean. Most have to do with tournament sites and things of that nature. But the one thing that has conditionally happened under his watch - more teams have played more games and made more dough for the organization.

So, Mr. Carter, good luck in retirement, and let us look ahead to the future of TSSAA.

Now, as for Mr. Childress, here are some suggestions for the future of the organization...

First-and-foremost, revisit the multiplier, the divisional split, and the role of private schools in general in your organization. Just because the offices of TSSAA are surrounded by the alphabet-soup privates in the mid-state does not mean that the rest of the metro areas in the state are peppered with private schools. What works well for that area does not work in Knoxville, particularly in football, where, by my count there are only five private schools that play football (Webb, CAK, Catholic, Grace, and King's Academy), none of whom will be in a common district this fall. What the solution is, I don't know, but, it's not the current system. Step one would be having private school representation on the Board of Control.

Secondly, condense the basketball tournaments. Currently the district tournaments serve little purpose other than to be a revenue-generator and to jumble the region seedings. The current format takes too long to play and there are far too many second-chance games.

Thirdly, continue to improve the organization of the TMSAA. My understanding is that, while basketball and other sports are well-organized, football remains largely a loose association of gentleman's agreements. While it may be impractical from a financial and travel standpoint to have the middle school organization aligned like the high schools, it behooves all to have unification and common oversight as these student-athletes grow up in the Association.

That's the short list of suggestions from one East Tennessee hack. On a more personal level, have thick skin. You are now head of the one organization that pleases none of the people, ever. Attempt to at least be equally unfair to everyone and you'll do just fine.  Good luck.

January 9, 2009

Florida has just defeated Oklahoma in the BCS National Title game. In some ways this was a great game between two very evenly-matched teams; in other ways it was an ugly, mistake-filled game. Nevertheless, it was a suspenseful game, with Florida finally taking control in the fourth quarter to take the 24-14 victory.

This is a game that Oklahoma would like to have back, no doubt. There was a time when a Bob Stoops-coached team didn't allow yards-after-contact like they did in this one. Then there were the two first-half red zone drives that ended with nothing for the Crimson & Cream, with one ending in a goal-line stand and one ending with a bobbled interception.  Then throw in the late interception that was also bobbled, and there's a formula for failure against a top-flight team like Florida.

Not that Florida was without its own mistakes. Tim Tebow looked like anything but Superman - a nickname the FOX announcers really overused - in the first half, with two picks, but Oklahoma did a poor job capitalizing. That was just the story of the night for the Sooners.

But credit must be given to the Florida team. Their depth of talent is amazing, and their ability to capitalize on mistakes was second-to-none. The bottom line is that Florida did what it needed to do to win this game, this Championship.

A reluctant congratulations to the Gators on their second title in three, third in 13.

Side Notes:

n  It wasn't the difference in the game, by any means, but that officiating was absolutely horrid. In my opinion, Florida got away with a couple of pass interference penalties in the early going. Also, the fact that the officials seemed downright clueless about the clock in the first quarter is completely unacceptable for a game of that magnitude. And, third, some of the unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, particularly the one on Louis Murphy, were a little ticky-tack for a national title game. If that's the ACC's best crew, pity the poor teams in that conference.

n  FOX's crew did a pretty good job, although, the longer the game went on, the less I'm convinced that Charles Davis was the proper color analyst to sit alongside Thom Brennaman. And, note to FOX - when your booth crew doesn't know what down it is, somebody on the production team needs to get in their ear and correct them. A one-time mistake is fine; letting them go an entire series calling the wrong down is being asleep-at-the-wheel.

*n In spite of all the anti-trust, collusion issues that need to be addressed, I have to say the country's best team will take home the Sears trophy. Teams like Utah deserve the right to be eliminated on-field, and not by lazy voters, but after this game it's apparent that Florida was the country's best team. But I won't fault the AP if the voters throw a bone to the undefeated Utes.

n  The coaching comparisons are now interesting - Urban Meyer is 3-0 in BCS-level bowl games, including two Championship games and guiding the 2004 Utes over Pittsburgh; conversely, Stoops, as pointed out by the FOX crew, has played for the title four times in nine seasons (1-3), and lost the two previous Fiesta Bowls, including the 2006 thriller against Boise State. Stoops has lost five-of-six bowl games (def. Oregon 17-14 in 2005 Holiday Bowl). Meyer is 5-1 in bowl games.

Kickoff is only eight months away.