Mark Byron

KC's Fisher Effect

Alex Smith, John Matusak, Terry Bradshaw, Chuck Benardik and Eric Fisher? Those are the five mid-major players picked #1 overall in the history of the draft.

Benardik didn't make the HoF, but got the college defensive player of the year trophy named after him; he was the last to play both ways in a championship game, Bradshaw is in the HoF as well as the Steeler leader in the 70s, while "Tooz" was an interesting character on the Raiders in the Madden era and went on to play the clan chief in Caveman (OK, Zug-zug).

Alex Smith is the under-achiever of the existing quartet, having seen Colin Kaepernick Wally Pipp him last year and sent him packing to KC, where he will now have his six covered by the big guy from my first alma mater, CMU.

Lots of interesting story for the 2nd round today. The Lions have the option of taking a running back to complement Reggie Bush or taking a flyer on a dropping Manti Te'o or even getting the Honey Badger a Josh Hamiliton-style chaperone and taking him to help out their leaky secondary.

A Generic Playoff

I recall my high school buddy's dad would buy generic beer. He could afford better (he was a PhD chemist at Dow Corning) but his drink of choice was BEER. While label, black print, BEER. Falstaff was the brewer of that generic's generic, if memory serves. It looks like something out of a sitcom that didn't want to use any actual brands, but here it is in all its glory.

That bit of marketing history behind us, what do you call a college football playoff? College Football Playoff. NCAA, you have a very firm grasp of the obvious.

US Beats Mexico,0-0

I actually watched the whole second half of the US-Mexico match tonight; the storyline was that the US had never won a World Cup qualifying match in Mexico, going 0-13-1. Make that 0-13-2, as they kept the Azteca crowd dissatisfied with some good defense and at least one friendly no-call.

The way the ESPN crew were celebrating the tie, it reminds me the Harvard Crimson headline after they rallied to tie a very strong Yale team in their grudge match-"Harvard Beats Yale,29-29."

The US did win an exhibition ("Friendly" in soccer-speak) at Azteca last year, but a tie in World Cup qualifying is one to be happy about.

Presenting...the Lowland East

One more twist in the game of conference musical chairs; the "Catholic 7" get to keep the Big East name and their MSG championship stage, while the remainder gets most of the cash from early exits. That's fair, since the conference was first and foremost a basketball conference with the Catholic east-coast schools making up the core of its identity. Yes, Syracuse and UConn were a good chunk of that lore, but it was folks like Georgetown, Villanova and St. Johns that made up the soul of the Big East.

That saves the Jesuit jump-shooters from having to come up with a less cheeky name than the Big Priest. Now, the southern-leaning remnant gets to name itself.

My friend Dave and I used to call that big batch of Eastern independents the Seventh Fleet to go along with the six other majors circa 1977 or so. Since we're down to five power conferences, that won't quite work. The Lowland East to offset the Mountain West? Conference CSA?

Flaky MLBs Can Kiss My Butkus

Interesting combine for Manti Te'o. As a middle-linebacker, he would be the center of the defense, typically calling signals for the defense and flowing to the ball or spying/shadowing  the quarterback.

Can he do that while his teammates are joking about picking his girlfriend in the fantasy draft? That's what he has to convince GMs about, whether he can be taken seriously as a team leader after his gullibility and lack of full honesty was exposed.

Other positions wouldn't have quite that problem, but MLB is one position where leadership is part of the package. You can have a loopy corner, but as long as he stays on his man like stickum on Fred Biletnikoff, he'll be a valued part of the team. If a QB or middle-backer is a flake, he won't last long; Vince Young would be Exhibit 1 on that front.

Should that be enough to take Te'o from a top-five pick to a late-first rounder? That mock draft sends him to Baltimore to be Ray Lewis 2.0, which would work rather well, but I get the feeling that he'll be a better player than a late-first rounder.

Getting to start for the Super Bowl champs would be an advantage, but he'll be leaving quite a bit of salary on the table thanks to that drop in position.

Me So Antlery

Interesting story out linking a number of footballers and deer-antler extract. Ray Lewis is the poster-boy on this one, although he's denied being a user. The active ingreedient is a offshoot of HGH, so it sounds like something that would both be attractive to atheletes, especially when the "NFL said it is not detectable with the league's current testing methods."

Since Lewis is slated to retire after the Super Bowl, there's little the NFL can do if the story was true. Most punishments are suspensions, which would only have any weight if Lewis took some sort of coaching or front-office job.

The Tide players who are alleged to be on the stuff might be a different story.

Rhino horn's been long thought to be an aphrodesiac, but college football players shouldn't need any help on that front, especially their QB.

Drawn and Quartered

Make that eight coaches visited by the Turk. Mike Mularkey got the scimitar in Jacksonville.

That's a quarter of the NFL's coaches on the street, although one, Andy Reid, landed on his feet in KC.

One interesting twist in the game of coaching musical chairs is Brian Kelly talking to the Eagles. This would be a good time for Kelly to make the move if he is going to make the jump; he'd also have an interesting piece in Michael Vick to work his spread magic with. Chip Kelly opted to stay at Oregon, but Brian might think otherwisel; he's make a quick rise from CMU to Cincy to Notre Dame, taking each program about as high as you can expect, then moving on. Grabbing the job on Philly would fit the MO; he's unlikely to match a trip to the title game and might be well-served to move on before the Subway Alums start expecting trips to the championship tourney.

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One Point Safety Dance, Disco Duck Version

We had a repeat of history in the Fiesta Bowl; back in the 2004 Texas-Texas A&M game, we had this, as I noted at the time-

On a botched extra point try by Texas, the Aggies recovered the kick at their one, then fumbled it back into the endzone, where they recovered it and fell on it. That gave the Longhorns a one-point safety.

We just had the same play, with KSU trying to run back a blocked extra point; in tonight's case, they lateraled it back and got tackled, but it was a safety still, which is worth a point on a converstion try for Oregon.

The ESPN announcer covered the 2004 game, saying it was 10 years ago. A bit over 8, actually.

The Medium Mostly Southern Called the "Big East"

The "Big East" is disintegrating faster than a stock car going into the wall at 200MPH. We had Louisville and Pitt head to the ACC, the seven Catholic non-football schools opt to form the nucleolus of a basketball conference (Butler and other Protestant schools might be welcome) and now Boise State has opted to pull a TCU and say "never mind" to joining what would be more accurately named the Medium Mostly Southern.

With all the defections, the Mountain West is a stronger conference than what's left of the "Big East." San Diego State is slated to follow suit, although the MWC is less interested in reconnecting the Aztecs than they are the Smurf Turfers.

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I'm not sure if there is any clearinghouse for coach-firing stats, but I count seven NFL head coaches who are now unemployed that were working this weekend; that feels like a record. Normally, the Turk only gets kind of workout in August when players get cut from training camp. Most will be back in some capacity, as the NFL is good about not enforcing the Peter Principle and putting folks who are good coordinators but not good head coaches back down a notch.

In a couple of cases, you have good coaches in a cold streak in Andy Reid and Lovie Smith. Both Reid and Smith have winning records overall and made trips to the Super Bowl; Smith and Tony Dungy were the first black coaches to make it to the Super Bowl back in 2007. Smith got canned despite going 10-6 and being a tie-breaker away from a wild-card spot, but a 2-5 dive after a 7-1 start was awkward.

Reid might benefit from a year off, given his issues over losing a son tragically. However, he's been rumored to have been on the phone lining up a staff for a new gig in one of the other six slots; Chicago might not be a bad fit for him.

The interesting piece to the coaching merry-go-round is Chip Kelly of Oregon. Would he be interested in making a shot at the NFL and giving his spread attack a try at the top level? If that's the case, Kelly might be an interesting replacement for Reid in Philly if the Eagles brass want to keep Michael Vick; you might want a good option-ready backup (paging Tim Tebow) since Vick has not been the healthiest QB, but Vick and Kelly would be a lethal combination if Vick is healthy and with the program.

 

The Lubbock Stops Here

Mike Leach may well have turned a new leaf at Washington State; he had been accused of abuse by his ace wideout, but a WSU investigation acquits Leach of wrongdoing. An initial post of mine on the topic assumed the worse ("Leach's history seems to have followed him"), so he deserves an appology for my jumping the gun.

Meanwhile, back at Leach's old TTU haunts, they have a new boss in former Tech QB Kliff Kingsbury. Tommy Tubberville tried to fill Leach's shoes but failed to get the fans to warm to him, so he moved on to Cincy. Kingsbury has a hot pedigree, having been the OC at Texas A&M, coaching Johnny Football to a Heisman after coming over from Houston with Kevin Sumlin.

That means that Kingsbury has a way with high-octane offenses that were Leach's stock-in-trade at Lubbock.

Da Jesuit Gangstas

Re: Big East instilability-Yours truly, 11/28

If you took what's left of the northern private schools not leaving (Providence, St Johns, Seton Hall, Villanova, Georgetown, DePaul, Marquette, Temple) you'd have a very good basketball conference with being urban faith-based schools as a common denominator.

The remainder would fit better as a football-centric, Southern-based conference; the WAC imploded after over-expanding, with most of the original ganstas moving to the Mountain West. I could see such a split happening in the Big East.

ESPN this morning-

The seven Big East Catholic, non-FBS schools met with Big East commissioner Mike Aresco Sunday to express their concerns for the direction of the conference, multiple Big East sources confirmed to ESPN.com Monday.

Sources said the New York meeting was the first among the seven schools (Marquette, DePaul, St. John's, Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall and Villanova) and could ultimately lead to them splitting from the Big East's football members.

In the case of the WAC's implosion, it was the old-timers who left and formed the Mountain West while the newbies got left with the name. The question under debate is who would get the Big East monicker if the Jesuit Ganstas took off.

As it sits, you have a mediocre football conference tacked on to a very good basketball conference. We might see some re-visioning of things in the next year or so, as the Big East ameobas into a Big East Jesuit and Big East Southern; actual names to be determined later.

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The Fool on the Hilltop

Coming to Rand Paul's back yard, we have Bobby Petrino coaching Western Kentucky. That's an interesting drop from coaching Arkansas this time a year ago to coaching a club fresh out of I-AA and heading to its first bowl game.

Petrino came first to national attention at Louisville, so this revisits those old haunts, just a couple of hours down I-65 in Bowling Green. Before we go getting the Scarlet Letter out for Petrino, recall another guy in Louisville who got caught with his pants down-Rick Pitino. Pitino lived to tell the tail after a crazy stretch where the other woman tried to blackmail him.

Instead of canning him, the Cardinal brass opted to stick with him; recruits might best ignore any advice on the exotic and erotic uses of restaurant tables, but they still seem to prize his basketball insight. As we go to press, Louisville is 8-1 and 6th ranked, in the hunt to compete for both a Big East title and a national title.

The Hilltoppers might be well-served to keep Petrino well away from the volleyball team and double-check any female staff he might hire, but he's got enough of a football mind to have Arkansas a game away from a national title slot and to have been hired by Atlanta to scheme for Michael Vick before Vick's life went to the dogs. He's slumming a bit coaching in the Sun Belt, but WKU managed to beat UK this year in football; slightly better recruiting and coaching might make that a regular occurrence.

When Instinct Does You Wrong

Odd football situation; team with the ball is up one and can run out the clock. Should the other team let them score, let them go up 8 (assuming a made PAT) and have a shot of getting a two-pointed touchdown to force overtime.

That's happened more than once; other less-score specific situation will have offences (or defences en route to a "pick six") pass up a score to down it inside the five and run out the clock; if they score, the other team gets the ball back and could win.

Arizona was on the wrong end of a 7-6 score against the Jets, and the idea of letting the Jets score hit Darnell Dockett the wrong way. He reportedly spat at a teammate during an argument over the merits of a matador defence; the team lighted his pocket book "six figures."

Folks are trained to compete and to do things well, but there are times where deliberately screwing up can be helpful; the case of the Georgia player in the SEC title game who caught a pass in the flat and was tacked at the 5 for the last play, since the Dawgs were out of time outs. He would have been better off dropping the pass and letting his team have a clean shot at the end zone. However, you don't drop passes if you can help it; the instict of catching a pass and making the best of the situation is too strong to easily turn off.

Intereceptions on a long fourth down pass are another instict area; they're better to knock it down and get the ball at the line of scrimmage, but they much more offen get the pick and lose 20-30 yards of field position. That's also a reason why QBs shouldn't be too afraid to chuck a long one into traffic on third down; if it gets picked off 35-40 yards down field, you've essentially replicated a short punt.

Welcome to I-0A

If the old second tier was 1-AA and the big boys were 1-A, do we now need a new class for the SEC, a 1-No-A?

The coaching merry-go-round continues, with Sun Belt champ Arkansas State losing coach Gus Malzahn to Auburn; that's a definite upgrade in position. Malzahn was the OC for the national title team before heading west.

What isn't a clear upgrade is a power-conference champ's coach looking to jump ship for 1-0A; the Vols have a strong shot at getting Louisville coach Charlie Strong. Louisville is in the Big East, heading to the ACC.

Tennessee has a strong football tradition that has taken a nose-dive in the recent past, having Lame Kippen do a one-and-done, heading to USC just before the NCAA gumshoes came a-snooping, then having Derek Dooley go from being a Bulldog heir (his dad Vince was the vintage coach at Georgia) to a dog of a coach, lasting three years before getting the heave-ho just before the end of the season, going 15-21.

Do you leave a conference champ of a power conference (the 'ville is slated to move to the ACC before the Big East gets demoted to mid-major status once the new post-season framework sets in for 2014) to take on a rebuilding project in the SEC? We have Bielema saying yes to a comparable proposition to move from Wisconsin to Arkansas. It wouldn't be much of a stretch for Strong to make that move as well.

If he does, we can essentially bracket in the SEC champ in as the perennial one-seed in the football mini-playoff.

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Roses? Give Me Some Sugar, Baby!

When I saw Arkansas make a run at Les Miles, I thought it was a bit of a reach, taking someone from a perrenial top-10 school and asking them to get the Hogs up to that level from a meltdown year post-Petrino.

As it turns out, they didn't have to go much further down to get their coach-Brent Bielema, veteran Wisconsin coach, is heading down Fayetteville way. Bielema took over for Barry Alvarez and picked up right where Alvarez left off, finishing with three straight Big Ten titles, with the last one a bit lame, getting into the conference final with a 4-4 conference mark thanks to OSU and Penn State being on probation.

Still, I wouldn't have thought that Arkansas would be an upward move, unless the Big Ten is seen as a second banana to a omnipotent SEC and moving to a second-tier SEC school in a rebuilding cycle is better than being a first-tier Big Ten School. There are some on the sports pundocracy that would make that argument; I would expect someone like Colin Cowherd to make such an argument tomorrow.

Bullets at Arrowhead

Being a well-off pro athlete doesn't mean you're immune to emotional issues; we saw a number of hockey "enforcers" do themselves in last summer.

The news today has KC Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher committing suicide in the Arrowhead Stadium parking lot after killing the mother of his child earlier this morning. Were it a less somber and tragic moment, you'd call this Belcher move a brain burp.

Instead, you've got a child who is instantly a orphan and a Chiefs coaching staff who witnessed a snuff film the day before a game; Belcher reportedly thanked head coach Romeo Crennel for all he had done before ending his life.

The NFL is planning on having Sunday's game against Carolina go foward, but when neither team is in the playoff hunt, one could easily see the teams pass on playing.

The Chiefs have had a lousy year, going 1-10 so far. This makes the problems on the field pale by comparison.

In the Hunt

Here's an interesting quote from LSU AD Joe Alleva about extending Les Miles' contract after seeing Arkansas flirting with bringing him north from the Bayou.

You can talk all you want about winning championships. It's really not always about winning championships. It's about being in the hunt to win championships, and (Miles) has shown that he's consistently in the hunt to win championships.

Auburn is a case in point of what Alleva wouldn't be shooting for; those other Tigers caught lightning in a bottle with Cam Newton and won a title in 2010 but quickly reverted to a lesser level and got hosed by Alabama 49-0 to close the Chizic era.

I'm also reminded of the Miami Marlins, who have won the World Series twice but have never made the playoffs outside of those two championship years. Is it better to be very good every so often and mediocre outside of it, or to be consistently good and in the hunt? While we're talking Tigers, the Motown version might fit Alleva's MO, making two trips to the World Series in six years and in good shape to make another run next year.

Seeing Les Miles take the money and run Hog wild north wouldn't have been right; had Miles been a traveling man, he'd have likely snapped up the Michigan job when it had been offered. He's got a good job in Baton Rouge with one of college football's marquee programs; overtures like Arkansas' just let him hit up his bosses for a raise, which he'll get as long as he keeps the Tigers in the hunt as Alleva likes.

Yes, the money in college football is a bit much, but we're watching, so the schools make money and pass it along to the folks they're allowed to pass it on to. You pay the folks that make the big paydays possible in a market economy, so seeing a coach make more than a whole department full of professors is how things roll.

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One more twist in the college sports musical chairs, as Louisville joins the ACC, replacing Maryland, who joined with Rutgers to give the numerically-challenged Big Ten 14 teams.

Focusing on the relatively small Louisville TV market might be a mistake; this gives the ACC most of Kentucky, as the ACC becomes a home conference for the whole state. The Cardinals don't have the following of UK statewide, but this will likely make the ACC the first choice over the Big 10 for the ABC regional package, since the SEC is off on CBS.

I'm not sure if I've heard this addressed, but you're moving towards a bifurcated Big East, which combines urban Rust Belt Catholic basketball schools with secular southern football schools recruited from CUSA and elsewhere. Cincinnati and UConn are a decent fit for the Jesuit crew, but the rest are an awkward fit.

If you took what's left of the northern private schools not leaving (Providence, St Johns, Seton Hall, Villanova, Georgetown, DePaul, Marquette, Temple) you'd have a very good basketball conference with being urban faith-based schools as a common denominator.

The remainder would fit better as a football-centric, Southern-based conference; the WAC imploded after over-expanding, with most of the original ganstas moving to the Mountain West. I could see such a split happening in the Big East.

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Golden Flash Mob

Kent State might be in position to steal a BCS slot by this time next week. They're 17th in the BCS ratings at present and are in good position to gain one spot with a win over #21 Northern Illinois in the MAC title game. UCLA sits in 16th spot, but UCLA and KSU would likely swap places if the Bruins lose to Stanford again in the Pac-12 championship.

As the best non-AQ school, KSU would get in if they are in the top 16 and are better than one or more of the AQ champs. With the Big East having two fewer top 25 teams than the MAC, that is a safe bet; seeing the winner of Rutgers-Louisville zoom all the way to 16 would be a stretch.

The Orange Bowl gets the last pick this year, so they would be the likely landing spot for Kent State were they to win in Ford Field this weekend. I'd like to see them get a Fiesta Bowl bid, for I could guarantee a KSU win in that one in a match against the Big 12 and MAC champs.

 

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A number of schools like Boise State and San Diego State rushed to join the Big East when it was still one of the big-conferences with gauranteed slots in the BCS. Now that Big East has been demoted to mid-major status for the revised system, there isn't as much of a cache to the Big East, especially when most of the major players have moved on to greater pastures; Rutgers is slated to leave for the Big Ten and UConn is now rumored to fill the spot in the ACC vacated by Maryland.

Boise State and San Diego State are slated to join the Big East next season, but the Big East might not be much ahead of the I-AA Big West by the time the dust settles, and they might look to do what TCU did and pass on the Big East to find better pastures elsewhere. A retooled Mountain West starts to look more of a peer with the Big East as it essentially becomes mostly promoted C-USA and Sun Belt schools outside of BSU and SDSU.

Broncos tend to buck their riders and Aztecs tend to cut out your heart.

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The Steelers Must Use LIFO, Since This Batch has Been On the Books for a Decade.

Back when Charlie Batch was with the Lions, William Clay Ford played with the idea of getting Batch into Ford management. His HR folder would be an auto exec Batch file.

However, he was let go by the Lions and landed with the Steelers, where he's been a perennial backup since 2003. I can't think of too many quarterbacks who have been a lifer backup for a club for a decade.

Charlie Batch made the news now that Big Ben is dinged up; another guy who always gets my attention, Byron Leftwich, is the starter for now, but Batch is at the ready if an opposing defence turns Leftwich into Manwich.

Old School Abuse... Again

Texas Tech has had a history of coaches who were somewhat abusive of their players. Both Bobby Knight and Billy Gillespie had issues on the basketball side and Mike Leach was forced out when he was accused by Craig James' son of maltreatment.

Leach's history seems to have followed him,as he ran his ace receiver off the team at Washington State, telling a story not far from James' tale. Whether it's true or not remains to be seen, but one doesn't put a NFL career in jeopardy by walking out mid-season for getting a bad stare, so something made Marquess Wilson snap and call it quits.

Coaches can change, but often, the problems that plagued them at one stop will follow them elsewhere; Gillespie had a rocky, in-your-face relationship with a number of players at UK, so the stories out of TTU weren't all that shocking. That's why seeing Bobby Petrino on the short list for the UK football job is a bit disturbing; he bailed out of Atlanta after not even a year after signing on just before Michael Vick's Bad Newz hit the wire, then being forced out at Arkansas after hiring his mistress. That kind of poor behavior tends to stick with you unless there is some sort of serious repentance.

Kelly Green

I don't think we've seen two namesakes go after a title, but we might have a shot at such a outing this year if we get a Kelly Bowl with Chip bringing Oregon to face Brian's Norte Dame team. After the Aggies took out Alabama earlier today, we're a Kansas State loss away from an Oregon-Notre Dame title game.

I'm not a big Nick Saban fan, so seeing low Tide in Tuscaloosa is a good thing, especially when it is Texas A&M delivering the take-down; I've got Aggie in-laws, so that's a program I have a soft spot for.

Alabama isn't out of things quite yet. A 12-1 Alabama would likely beat out any other X-1 team, so if there's only one undefeated team left come December, they'll still have a shot a defending their title.

Bring Me the Ghost of Terry Bradshaw...and Karl Malone

College football is looking a bit funky; one could easily see a Florida-Louisiana Tech Sugar Bowl. That's not a typo. LTU is 20th in the BCS and could well snag an at-large slot if they get some help from the Big Ten.

A non-AQ conference champ gets in if they're in the top 12 or are in the top 16 but better than one of the AQ conference champs. The former is a tall order for LTU, but the latter might be doable if the run the table to go 11-1 and see Nebraska lose at least once down the stretch.

With games against Penn State and a likely Big Ten title game against Wisconsin, seeing the Huskers lose once is very feasable.

If things go as planned, Notre Dame will snag one BCS at-large slot, and a SEC team will likely be tabbed as Alabama's replacement for the Sugar Bowl; a 11-1 Florida would be a likely choice if they can beat Florida State. The Fiesta Bowl will likely pick the Big 12 runner up to replace Kansas State and take Notre Dame as its at-large pick.

That leaves the Sugar Bowl to pick next. If LTU snags an at-large spot by slipping past the Big 10 champ in the rankings, they and Louisville would be the options for the Sugar Bowl. The Sugar Bowl might opt for some home cooking rather than take a less-than-overwhelming Louisville fan base.

Honey Badger Boo Boo

At least one NFL career seems to have gone to pot; Tyrone "Honey Badger" Mathieu had another run in with the Wildwood Weed.

Mathieu and former LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson were charged with simple possession of marijuana, the Baton Rouge police department said in a release.

He was making moves in the right direction, getting into rehab with sports drug-rehab master John Lucas, but old habits die hard, especially when you run with a crowd that tends to get into trouble.

Mongo Like Heaven

News of Alex Karras' kidney failure was in the Detroit papers yesterday; before I got a chance to do a pre-obit, he would up dying on me. He was a bit ahead of my time as a Lions lineman famous for terrorizing Bart Starr in the 1962 Thanksgiving day game that handed the Packers their only loss of that year.

To non-football fans, he'd be noted as an actor, playing Webster's adopted dad and playing Mongo in Blazing Saddles. Sad to see him go; if you don't get the title, watch the clip.

Track Meets Galore

I just got done watching one of my alma maters, Kent State, win a 45-43 game over Ball State. That looks more like a KSU football score; they were never this good when I was there in the 90s.

That's a high-scoring affair, but it looks prosaic compaired to the affair going on in Morgantown, where Geno Smith is giving new meaning to "video game numbers." He's got 38 of 43 for 577 and 7 TD... with 10 minutes to go in a Arena Ball special; It's 63 WVU, 56 Baylor. Are you sure RG3 didn't sneak back in from Washington, folks?

The Future is Now

Here's a sad but encouraging story of a high-school football player who is going to have to shelve his playing career due to a spinal deformity he's had since birth. Young Matt Beyer never quite got to signing a recruiting letter of intent, so the news means no sports schollarship to his favored Oklahoma.

Though Beyer is done playing football, he is not done with the game. He has become a volunteer coach for San Antonio Reagan.

"I call him Coach Beyer now," Wetzel said.

Beyer is helping mentor the younger offensive linemen for the Rattlers and said that has helped him still feel like part of the team.

San Antonio Reagan? Yes, Ronald Reagan High.

In the early to mid-1990s, San Antonio, like many Sun Belt cities, experienced explosive growth in its suburbs - particularly affluent areas formed by migrants to the city. This was particularly the case in the area north of Route 1604 between the Blanco Road and US-281 corridors known as Stone Oak and Sonterra. The growth caused severe overcrowding at nearby Winston Churchill High School - at the time the farthest-north school in the North East Independent School District - ultimately resulting in a student population of 3,500 at a school designed for not more than 2,500. The NEISD recognized this problem, and as a part of its 1997 bond issue, the district included an allocation to build a new high school in this area.

After voters approved the bond issue, construction commenced on the 84-acre (340,000 m²) campus. The property had been purchased prior to this bond issue from descendants of rancher William Classen. Spaw Glass was the general contractor of the project. The name "Ronald Reagan" was chosen by future students of the school (those currently in attendance at other North East schools) from a list selected by the NEISD Board of Trustees.

That has a feel of some sci-fi piece, where the infrastructure gets named for current politicians who have become part of history in 2050 or whatever. However, we're already a quarter-century out from Reagan's presidency. Time does fly.

The Atlantic Catholic Conference?

I'm not sure if I get the logic of Notre Dame leaving the Big East for the ACC, unless it is driven by sports other than football and basketball. The Big East has been a basketball conference at its core, with the football part an ad-hoc venture that seemed secondary to the urban East Coast Catholic schools at the core of the conference. With the exception of Boston College, those Jesuit jump-shooters are still around, with folks like Marquette and DePaul added in later years.

The latest turmoil might have tipped the balance; with a lot of new southern schools like Houston and Central Florida filling the voids left by defections, the Big East will lose some cache and some ease of travel. Getting into to the ACC, where the basketball is on a par with the Big East and the other sports are better seems to be a help to the prestige of the non-revenue sports.

The funky addition to this is Notre Dame becoming essentially a half-member of the ACC in football, pledging to play 5 games against ACC foes. They're at 4 at present, with Pittsburgh and BC being regulars on the sked in the last decade already. As conferences get bigger and nine-game in-conference schedules becoming more common, it will be harder for Notre Dame to get good games in October and November as conference season kicks in.

This also gives the Irish an easy transition into the ACC if they opt to become a full member-going from 5 games to 8 or 9 would be a more-manageable shift.