Friday Night Lights

Well that was fun.

With high school football over here in Hollidaysburg, PA, I accidentally tuned into the UConn-Pitt game on ESPN2.  Who would have thought there would be college football on TV on a Friday night?  But there it was, in all its glory.  Thank God for the Big Least!

Paul Pasqualoni (former Syracuse coach) is now at Connecticut.  He's still around. Literally.  If we played dead or alive, I'd have picked dead.  But it's still hard to tell for sure. 

As the announcers put UConn down--ranked 115th in offense in the country, the Huskies drove the opening kick off down the field for only their second opening score of the season.  They never looked back as they cruised to a 24-0 half time lead over the team that almost beat Notre Lame.  I guess the Irish really aren't that good, but then most folks outside of South Bend already knew that little tidbit of information.

But then it got better.  Pitt tried to come back in the second half, down 24-3 going into the fourth quarter.  It was like Charlie Brown expecting candy in his bag and finding only a rock.  The handful of Pitt fans actually thought their team was going to come back, but alas they fell shorter than Mitt Romney in their quest for success.

UConn did their best to let Pitt tie the game, throwing an INT in the end zone for a touchback when a field goal would have iced the game, and then handing the ball off when Pitt had no time outs left and all they really needed to do was take a knee.   It's like they were daring fate to step in and snatch defeat from victory.  But Pitt couldn't snatch anything.

UConn (4-6) will add this to their other list of impressive victories over UMass, Maryland, and Buffalo.

Pitt must now win their last two games against Rutgers and South Florida to qualify for a bowl.  Good luck with that.

It's Not as Funny

Apparently, UConn is NOT hiring Mr. "Please Don't Squeeze the Charmin" Whipple.  Instead, they have gone with Paul "I already squeezed the orange" Pasqualoni.  You heard me.  Squeezed.  The.  Orange.

So here is the updated Whipple photo.

From the ESPN article:

Pasqualoni was chosen over former University of Miami offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, who had been in negotiations for the job earlier this week, according to a source in the athletic department.

Pasqualoni compiled a 107-59-1 record in 14 years at Syracuse before being fired after the 2004 season. He took the Orange to nine bowls, won three consecutive Big East Conference titles from 1996 to 1998 and shared the title with West Virginia in 2004.

I'm sorry, but Pasqualoni isn't as funny as Whipple. 

The Dust is Settling

THEM has hired Brady Hoke, much to the chagrin of mgoBlog.

This is a stupid hire. It will always be as stupid hire and David Brandon just led the worst coaching search in the history of Michigan football. He managed to chase off half of an already iffy recruiting class, hired a Plan C coach on January 11th, probably ensured the transfer of the reigning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, and restricted his "national search" to people who'd spent at least five years in Ann Arbor. Michigan just gave themselves a year of USC-level scholarship reduction voluntarily.

What are the chances that the best available coach is a 52-year-old with a 47-50 career record and no experience as a coordinator?

I'd rather have Rich Rodriguez entering year four with a new defensive staff than this, a total capitulation.

A completely average coach should be able to take 20 returning starters on a 7-6 team that sees the schedule ease considerably and get to 9-3. That's good, because that's probably what we hired. If Denard's out the door all bets are off except "will Brian cut down or across?"

I have to be careful here, as Penn State could very well be in this situation in the foreseeable future.  For the Penn State optimists, that means the end of next season.  For Paterno, well, that could be another 4-5 years, since, well, he hasn't really thought about it.  Seriously?  How can you be 84 years old and NEVER really thought about retirement?  If they ever teach him how to download a jar of peanut butter, he may live forever.

But since we are not in this situation in the foreseeable present, it is rather funny to watch the names like Miles and Harbaugh basically pass--thanks, but no thanks--on what should have been a dream job for them.  But sometimes dreams become nightmares.

And for Tom Bradley, things have gotten no better.  No job at Temple.  No job at Pitt.  And now UConn is in the final stages of securing Mark Whipple.  Mr Whipple????