Cable Talking to Assistants About Positions

From: Contra Costa TimesIn the past couple of days, Tom Cable has been interviewing assistants, such as Lionel Washington, to come to Oakland. While it may sound unusual, Jon Gruden was interviewing coaches days before he got the job, and Bill Callahan was named “Captain of the Coaches” 22 days before he became the Head [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RaidersGab/~3/513611592/

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Frazier Bypassed For Another Job, Could Still Be
Gone Soon

Well, the Vikings won't have to worry about having to face a Leslie Frazier-coached team twice a year any time soon.  The Detroit Lions, who were thought to have Frazier among their list of favorites for the job, have hired Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz to be their next head coach.

So Frazier won't get the unenviable task of attempting to turn around the first 0-16 team in NFL history.  I'm not sure whether Frazier should be happy about this or not.  On the one hand, I'm sure he really wants to be a head coach. . .not to mention that he couldn't possibly jack things up any worse in Detroit than Rod Marinelli did.  On the other hand, he doesn't have to deal with the Ford family (who clearly, with all due respect to our friends from Pride of Detroit, don't know a damn thing about football).

Frazier was also, from all reports, considered one of two favorites for the job with the St. Louis Rams, from all reports, along with their interim head coach Jim Haslett.  I say "was" because the Rams made the announcement today that Haslett is not going to be retained by the team.  Pro Football Talk is reporting that Frazier is now expected to be the guy in St. Louis with this announcement, and that said announcement could come as early as Saturday.

So, like we've been saying all along, folks. . .get ready to lose another good coach.  But, hey, at least we've still got Brad Childress and Darrell Bevell, right?

Excuse me. . .I believe I need a drink.

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Ol' Darnay Scott hasn't been doing so well after
football

Ol' Darnay Scott. Remember him? I do. Man, he could catch the deep pass, thrown with an arch-like pass from Jeff Blake. Throw it up, Scott comes down with it. Scott was drafted in the second round by the Bengals in the 1994 NFL Draft. Through his first five seasons, Scott averaged 826 yards receiving with 27 total touchdowns. In his sixth season, Scott caught a career high 68 receptions, for 1,022 yards receiving. After breaking his leg before the 2000 season, Scott went on to cover the back of his baseball card, leaving for the Cowboys in the final season of his career. Pro Football Reference lists no fumbles in his career (we don't really believe that, but hey, it's not like Darnay Scott stats are everywhere).

Scott caught season-high touchdowns of 76, 88, 50, 77, 70 and 76. Of his 36 career touchdowns with Cincinnati, 22 came from quarterback Jeff Blake. It was a unique combination, I always thought. He was a deep threat, 19 touchdowns coming 30 yards or more. Before there was Chad Johnson, there was Darnay Scott. Ironically, because of Chad, there was no more Darnay.

However, Scott hit hard times, arrested and jailed on Tuesday, failing to pay child support; $54,813 worth. Listed as the Top Ten deadbeat dads by Hamilton County, Scott has been in trouble for a while.

Scott was arrested Oct. 3 – more than three months ago – by the U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Customs at the San Ysidro, Calif., border as he was returning from Mexico, sheriff’s spokesman Steve Barnett said. Officials there noted the outstanding warrant Hamilton County had on Scott from 2005.

He has been in jail since then because he fought attempts to extradite him to Cincinnati.

He's definitely fumbled his post-football life.

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Thursday evening links and notes

What a day. One of our users had a computer problem: every time he launched Internet Explorer, the program would crash. No amount of reinstallations, reboots, or virus scans did the trick. In the end, Internet Explorer's application was hijacked by a malicious program, which took several hours to pin down, with a disguised registry entry that recreated the program after each reboot. Since the late 1990s, I've worked on computers (mostly servers, content management, security and network protection these days), but this was a nugget. It also explains why I tend to disappear for a day at times.

So let's go through our daily readings.

ESPN's James Walker doesn't see the Bengals making the playoffs next year, because the Steelers and Ravens are just too far ahead of Cincinnati right now. And he included Cincinnati's VOICE; though Le Anne Schreiber says that ESPN tends too much to become the story.

I believe that people are banking too much on Bill Cowher's opinion that the Bengals will make the playoffs. It's a nice thought, but sourcing the evil Coach Cowher isn't really a persuasive argument.

After Paul Daugherty wrote that Cincinnati is the most futile sports team in America, a Detroit writer takes exception for the long running franchise of the Lions, compared to the Bengals. Personally, we think Paul should have labeled professional teams, which he didn't do. We have good sports in the area; Bearcats football, Xavier basketball, Cyclones hockey. Those guys are good, playing well. No, not professional, but sports isn't just about the pros.

WDR announced their eighth task, refusing to renew season tickets, then chatted with C. Trent.

Willie Anderson's game against the Steelers is a revenge of sorts, after losing the 2005 Wild Card game.

Speaking of my boy Willie, he chimes in about the fans, hinting at hurt feelings when fans were of the opinion that he was done last season -- and there a lot of people saying that. In reflection, we realize again that people with no experience beyond high school football should ever become an NFL scout, or a General Manager, no matter how much football is watched.

"I always felt that, myself included. We showed that city some good football. You feel for the fans and how passionate they are. There are some mixed emotions because of all I was going through last season and hearing all the fans calling the radio and radio show hosts saying it  was time for Willie to move on. It is one of the things that kind’ve got to me because I felt like I fought my tail off for the city and organziation. But by the grace of God I ended up here. I don’t have no ill will towards the fans or the organization. I moved on and appreciate the fans, especially with how they treated me with the welcome when we played there in November."

If Plaxico Burress doesn't return to the Giants, would New York make a run to sign T.J. Houshmandzadeh? Miami could take a look too.

One fantasy football writer isn't convinced that Cedric Benson is a good fantasy pick -- if the Bengals sign him.

John Thornton supports Leslie Frazier for head coach, who (Frazier) reflected on his relationship with Marvin Lewis: “my personality is a lot different than that head coach’s was.” (aka, I don't like him, at all)

Bengal Stripes thinks the Bengals should work hard to re-sign Chris Crocker and Cedric Benson.

Who Dey Fans find another reason to hate Pittsburgh.

Chick Ludwig is chattin' high school basketball now, in preparation for this weekend's High School Huddle.

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BCS Complaint Department

Although many of you may argue that the BCS and a FBS playoff are inexorably intertwined, they are in fact two separate issues, which get co-mingled more than Bernie Madoff's checkbook. As many complaints against the BCS was bleeding through in our playoffs thread, I thought it might be a good idea to try and re-separate the two concepts, knowing that it might be harder than spreading conjoined twins connected at the butt cheek.

The BCS may be our de facto one game playoff, but most people forget the word 'one' in that sentence. The chief complaint is that it fails to organize any quality matchups below the NC game. Many wondered why we couldn't see an Alabama/Texas matchup, as the #3 and #4 teams. That, along with attempting to arrange other intriguing matchups, is a real easy question to answer: as Mr. College Football, Tony Barnhart, said last month, IT'S NOT THEIR JOB! The BCS was designed to do one thing and one thing only--get the #1 and #2 teams to play. Period. Ask anything else of them and they'll look at you like a NY City School Janitor would if you asked him to give up his union-mandated coffee breaks.

Most people forget that after the NCG takes priority with their picks, the Big Four Bowls will default back to their historic affiliations, if possible. Sometimes there are gaps, but usually not. And the Big Four only had agreements with the major conferences, not the little ones. If you're a lucky non-automatic qualifier who gets in, it's going to be pot luck, like with Utah to the Sugar this year. Sure, the Fiesta might have been more up their alley, but Glendale got to select before New Orleans. 'Tis the way it goes, as do the spoils. The selection procedure is a little more complicated than what you see on American Idol, so you can research that on your own ...

The next biggest gripe with the BCS is why the champs of the Big 6 conferences get an automatic berth into the party. Oh come on. A four year old knows the answer to that. It's the Golden Rule at work right before your very eyes. In order to get the original BCS format hammered out, this was the carrot and stick necessary for the major conferences to grant their approval. Anything less and they would have all been obstructionists, kinda like the PAC and BIG 10s are with a playoff right now...

Other little sticklers about the BCS, that can all be researched further:

• Extreme difficulty of more than one non-BCS conference team to make the cutoff, as seen with Boise State's plight this year
• The strict limit of 2 teams per BCS conference, barring some major planet realignment, as evidenced by Texas Tech this year
• Notre Dame automatically qualifying if they're ranked in the top 8 of the poll
• The criteria of the BCS poll itself, which is enough to have it's own separate thread discussion.(Read: this thread isn't the place to debate who got left out in a given year)

Alas, help is on the way. Discussions will be held this spring on ways to further improve the BCS process. I'm sure we can forward to the committee the 200 comments that I expect to follow on this thread. We might also take some of our criticisms and see if the Utah Attorney General might want to amend the civil anti-trust complaint he's contemplating...

View the original post or comment on BCS Complaint Department...

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Will the new Special Teams Coach be a Polian

Ever since we learned that Russ Purnell will not be re-signed, I've had the same thought running through my head over and over:  Are the Colts going to hire Brian Polian for the job?  Why did I immediately think that?  He's the Special Teams Coach at my alma mater, the University of Notre Dame.  He's been there since Weis took over in 2005.

Four years is long enough to get a decent body of work, so let's take a look at how the Irish Special Teams fared (all stats came from NCAA website):

Some notes on the bolded rankings:

• I knew this before writing this up, but ND finished #1 in Kickoff Yardage Defense in the NCAA this season.  It was an amazing turnaround from each of the past 3 seasons, and it was thanks to 2 absolute studs:  David Bruton and Mike Anello (a former walk-on!).
• In 2005, Weis (and probably Polian as well) decided to try Tom Zbikowski at Punt Returner.  Whoever thought of it was a pretty smart guy.  He'll be returning kicks for the Ravens this weekend, by the way.  Here's an example of his work, and you'll see that, while the blockers helped get him to the 30, Zibby did the rest on his own:
  
  
  video details and more
  
  

  Zibby Return (via bluegraysky)

Looking at all those other stats though, would you want him coaching the Colt's special teams?  This past season, we had 2 burners returning kicks (Armando Allen and Golden Tate), and only averaged 21.6 yds/return.  Considering some of the teams we played this year, it should have been much, much higher.  I know I was always completely frustrated with kickoff returns on Saturday, as well as Sunday this season.

If I put on my ND fan hat, losing Polian would be bad news, as he is (arguably) our best recruiter.  I actually feel this is the only reason he is still on the staff.  He can walk into a 17-year old's house, introduce himself, and tell him,

My dad is the best General Manager in the National Football League.  I know how to get you to the NFL.  Come play for us.

Now, I have no evidence he's actually said this, but I can imagine he's said something similar in the past.  Weis's whole mantra since he started was about how he can get his players into the NFL. 

In a completely unscientific poll of 4 of my buddies, asking how they'd feel if Polian left to go to the NFL, I got:

Bad

Bad for recruiting, but I think it would be easy to upgrade the coaching.

Good recruiter, that's about it.

Eh...whatever

I don't think Brian Polian is ready to take over the Colt's Special Teams.  He hasn't shown me nearly enough in 4 years at Notre Dame to instill confidence in me that the Colt's ST would improve.  We need somebody who's done it in the NFL.  It needs to be an obvious upgrade from Purnell.  That is not Polian.

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The Weak Ender

If you are a worthless heiress who has never earned a dime to your name, who is the one athlete you would want to hook up with? No, Matt Leinart is a good guess, but Paris Hilton has been there, done that.

No, hooking up with Barry Zito makes much more sense. Though recently, Hilton has claimed to be pretty chaste, saying that the number of men she's slept with rivals the number of wins that Zito has earned since joining the Giants. And now that Alyssia Milano is giving up baseball players for the time being, it only makes sense that Hilton would move into this territory.

But enough about baseball, we have some football games to talk about.

THE BATTLE OF THE BIRDS
Bad news for the Birds -- people are starting to respect them. There are even people such as Sterling Sharpe who are picking the Birds to beat the Eagles this week. That's just not cool.

Sure, the Cardinals are four-point dogs, but people are starting to believe in the Cardinals. And that's scary. Once people start believing in the Cardinals, the bad things start to happen. Wouldn't that just be Cardinals-like to whip the state of Arizona into a frenzy and then lay the ultimate egg?

That has to be what a lot of Eagles fans are betting on. Too many of them remember that Thanksgiving night game. Though, none of them saw it because it was buried on NFL Network.

But let's think about this thing rationally. This is Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid we are talking about. Pundits have mentioned that the duo have made the NFC Championship Game five times.

And they are saying it like it's a good thing.

They forget that the Eagles are 1-3 in those games. In fact, it was the Kurt Warner Machine knocking off the Eagles in the 2001 NFC Championship Game. The Eagles also lost at home to Brad Johnson and the Buccaneers in 2002, and lost to Jake Delhomme and the Panthers in 2003. Wait, where was Delhomme making news recently? Oh yeah, he was throwing a bunch of passes to the Cardinals defenders.

Yeah, that's an impressive list.

When you get down to it, who do you trust more in this game? Former two-time and Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner? Or McNabb?

KWM seems like a slam dunk, but consider that two of the NFL's biggest losers have won Super Bowls in consecutive years. And McNabb fits the mold so well, you have to believe that Archie Manning might have been hitting some Nubian princess. So many trends, here.

But we can't bail on the bandwagon now. Pick: Birds

(Would a KWM jersey be inappropriate for this weekend?)

THE SLUMBER BOWL
Let's cut to the chase here, the AFC Championship Game isn't going to be close. And here's why. Raven hasn't had a bye since Week 2. The NFL really (expletive) the bed here by pushing Baltimore and Houston's bye week up because of that hurricane. They should have made them play some other week. Sure, they didn't think that Raven was going to advance to the AFC Championship Game, but still.

Maurice Jones-Drew did an interview recently and said that playing all of those consecutive weeks really does take a toll. He also says that beating a team three times is hard, but Raven seems to be on their last legs.

You get the feeling that if Chris Johnson hadn't gotten hurt, or if the Titans could have held on to the ball, they would have won. The Steelers aren't going to have that problem. This game is going to be a runaway. Pick: Steelers

• If the Cardinals plays the Steelers in the Super Bowl, the biggest storyline would be the 1944 Card-Pitt team that was forced to join forces during World War II. What?

• The Cowboys have been rumored to be cutting Terrell Owens. They aren't going to take the cap hit. Not when 2010 looks like an uncapped year. Keep dreaming.

• The Chiefs should really consider keeping Tyler Thigpen. He put up great numbers with that lousy offense. For some reason, Matt Cassel just screams of Scott Mitchell and Matt Schaub.

• Mark Sanchez made the right call leaving USC for the NFL. Cassel showed that just sitting on the bench is good enough. Plus, you don't know how long Sanchez can refrain from sexually assualting a chick again. NFL teams will let that slide when you are employed by them, but they won't draft you. Hey, Sanchez knows himself better than anybody else. And really, he's being mentored by Leinart. Do you think he regrets staying in school for the extra year? Sanchez is going to get his degree this spring and it's time for him to get paid.

• You have to dig Pete Carroll's candor, saying that it was a mistake for Sanchez. How does that make Dave Mustaine and Aaron Corp feel right now? (I know, Foo. Google him.)

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49ers bring in Scott Linehan for second interview

Scott Linehan came back for a second interview.  If they're moving into second interviews, I'd imagine that means we have our final list of candidates, agreed?  Right now that would include (with last job):

Scott Linehan, St. Louis Rams head coach
Clyde Christensen, Indianapolis Colts receivers coach
Rob Chudzinski, Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator
Rick Dennison, Denver Broncos offensive coordinator

Maiocco threw out an interesting question:

Does this mean he will be allowed to leave the Bay Area without a signed contract? Linehan has not been linked to any other jobs this offseason.

I guess that is possible but I'd think if you had some interest in one of the other candidates, it's a better idea to consider the other options in second interviews first.  Although, based on Singletary's actions thus far, it wouldn't surprise me if as soon as he knows who he wants he locks them down (as opposed to playing out some interview charade for the other folks). 

The coaching staff is heading to the Senior Bowl early next week so it would make sense to get an OC sooner rather than later.  I'd think that would mean they'll have an OC by Monday.

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Player Review: Reggie Wayne

Reggie Wayne's catches declined from the previous year for the first time in his 8 year career. His yardage dropped for the 2nd time (though it's hard to top leading the league with 1,510 yards).

Wayne picked up where he left off last season as the Colts clear #1 WR and one of the leagues elite WR.

via media.wsbt.com

Contract Info: Signed through 2011    Cap Charges: 7.4mil, 8.0mil, 6.0mil

Wayne is in his prime and is signed long term at an affordable rate for a top WR. Not much to discuss other than whether he's a top 10 or top 5 WR in the league.

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Packers Moss Says Hes Open to Going to Raiders

From: SF ChronicleGreen Bay Packers assistant coach Winston Moss said he is open to becoming the Oakland Raiders defensive coordinator if he is not hired as the team’s next head coach. “I want to help them win as many games as they could,” Moss said. “As a former player, having a chance to come up [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RaidersGab/~3/513313078/

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