Pobody's Nerfect

To be honest, I'm almost glad that the Colts' pursuit of perfection is over. Let's face facts - the #1 focus of this team should be on winning a Super Bowl Championship, not making Mercury Morris choke on his champagne (though that would be entertaining). Did I expect the Colts to rest starters? Of course. It's what they've done during the entire Tony Dungy Bill Polian era. Did I expect them to lay down like thay did against the Jets? No.

However, none of this matters. This is a great football team, but not one that was up to the level of the '72 Dolphins or '85 Bears. They needed fourth-quarter comebacks in half of their wins. They didn't beat anybody with less than FIVE losses. They didn't play the Chargers, Bengals, Saints, Vikings, or Eagles - the other top five teams in the NFL. Heck, I'm pretty sure the '07 Patriots would've left this year's Colts in their wake. But, who cares?

A Week 16 loss to the Jets doesn't mean that this Colts' team can't go down in history. Whether you're 16-0 or 10-6, the only truly memorable teams win Championships, and last time I checked that was something that the Colts still have a chance to do.

The only thing that made me really upset about watching Indianapolis basically forfeit the final quarter-and-a-half to the Jets, was the way that this team's franchise player conducted himself on the sidelines. Frankly, Peyton Manning looked like a spoiled brat more than a leader of a Super Bowl contender. Between keeping his helmet strapped on and constantly talking to offensive coordinator Tom Moore, I was disgusted with the display that I saw from Manning. Of course he has the right to be upset, because guys like Peyton Manning are so competitive, they want to be out there all the time. But what kind of message did that send to his backup Curtis Painter? If I was Manning and I was going to be forced to sit anyway, I would've thrown a headset on and been rooting on my rookie teammate from the sidelines.

(9:58 PM UPDATE: I'm going to back off on the "throwing Manning under the bus" argument after talking to DZ of 18to88.com. He said Peyton was pretty much in a lose-lose situation - if he stomps off in disgust, he's a primadonna. If he just grins and bears it, then he's a wuss. I can understand that viewpoint.)

The point of all of this is, the Colts haven't won or lost anything yet. The games in January and February are what is going to shape the legacy of this team.

Perfect or not, the Colts can still make history.

Honeymoon = Over

Loyola of Maryland has beaten Indiana. That's the same Greyhounds team that lost to Niagara by 20 and Mount St. Mary's by 19. Boston University, another team that defeated IU this year, has already lost six games and that includes setbacks against Harvard and Iona.

It's way to early to make any determinations about Tom Crean, who is in the infancy of his 2nd year at the helm. However, one thing is clear: this Indiana team is not competing at a level where they should be by now. If the Hoosiers are indeed making progress, they're doing so at a snail's pace. They're improving about as quickly as Zydrunas Ilgauskas on a fast break.

Losing to Kentucky, Mississippi, and Maryland is one thing, but falling to .500-level mid-majors at home is unacceptable.

Indiana currently has five wins. Let's say for the sake of argument that they find a way against Bryant College next week. That would be win #6 going into the Big Ten season. I think the absolute best-case scenario for IU in conference play is 4-14. That would be a season-sweep of Iowa, and stealing two home wins somewhere - unfortunately they don't get Penn State in Bloomington.

I said that 12 wins (double last year's total) was a fair expectation, even though I was hesitant to grade this program's progress by a wins number. That would be a 10-20 regular season record. That's an improvement from 6-25, but I'm pretty underwhelmed with what I've seen from this team so far.

Merry XMas DWI offenders!

In a shocking twist, two key players will return to their respective teams for critical upcoming bowl games.

Florida DE Carlos Dunlap, who is considered to be one of the top players at his position in the entire country, has been reinstated to the football team. The Gators star was arrested just days before the SEC Championship game against Alabama for driving while intoxicated. Florida will battle undefeated Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl.

The Longhorns will have a National Champikonship on the line, and they don't want to take their chances without kick returner D.J. Monroe. Monroe returned a pair of kicks for touchdowns this season, and like Dunlap, also was charged with a DUI. Give Mack Brown a little bit of credit for punishing Monroe a multiple-game suspension (three games to be exact). But, doesn't the timing of all of this seem a bit odd?

Florida is winning. A lot. That's the reason why no one has said much about the now 26 Gators' players to be arrested during Urban Meyer's five-year tenure, or the fact that Meyer is about as strict as at dealing out punishments as a kindergarten teacher. For a DUI and trying to gouge an opponent's eye out, Dunlap and teammate Brandon Spikes were suspended for a combined 1 1/2 games.

What a joke.

College coaches are supposed to be the molders of young men. Yet all they learn from these slaps-on-the-wrist is that the star players will play - no matter what.

I just became a really big Cincinnati fan.

The Song Remains the Same

Hey, the Colts are still undefeated!

This time Peyton Manning hit Pierre Garcon Dallas Clark Reggie Wayne with a game-winning touchdown pass and a Clint Session Jerraud Powers Gary Brackett Jacob Lacey interception sealed a 27-23 35-34 17-15 35-31 come-from-behind win over the Dolphins Patriots Ravens Jaguars.

Miami Houston New England Baltimore Jacksonville looked to be in control of the game early, but that didn't prevent the Colts from rallying for another win.

The victory was the Colts' seventh fourth-quarter comeback of the season (NFL record), their 23rd straight regular season win (NFL record), and their 115th win of the decade (NFL record).

And the beat goes on.

Reggie's Heroics hit Big Screen

It's about time someone made a movie about Reggie Miller's heroics.

The documentary titled "Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks" will premiere at Conseco Fieldhouse at the end of February. Reggie himself will be there to host the event. The film focuses on the Pacers-Knicks rivalry from 1993-95, and specifically on the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals series.

I have memories of that series from the "other" perspective. To this day, the worst sports moment of my life was Patrick Ewing's missed finger-roll in Game 7 of that series. However all these years later, it's tough not to look back on that rivalry with a smile. The contrast of the two fanbases (big city vs. midwest), the pure hatred between the players (specifically Starks vs. Reggie), the sound of a raucous crowd at the old Market Square Arena or at a packed Garden - it truly was a spectacle. Sure it wasn't Celtics/Lakers and it also wasn't always the most visually appealing basketball to watch, but from a pure emotion standpoint, Pacers-Knicks was one of the great rivalries in NBA history.

I'm looking forward to the film, even if it does conjure up some bad repressed memories. It was an exciting time regardless of which team you supported. Hopefully the Pacers will someday matter as much to the people of Indianapolis as they did then.

The Great Wall

China may have theirs, but John Calipari has his:



Wall is the likely #1 pick in the NBA Draft, and has certainly lived up to the lofty expectations of every basketball recruiting site known to man. While I'm not the biggest Calipari fan (see my reaction of his hire), I can't argue that Kentucky isn't a legit National Championship contender with Wall at the point.

We'll see if the Hoosiers can slow him down this afternoon.

Kelly Green

After all the talk about relevancy and whether the football program will ever return to prominence, at least one thing is certain for Notre Dame - they got their #1 choice for head coach.

Brian Kelly agreed to take the reigns of the Irish on Thursday afternoon, news that has since been confirmed by Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick.

Sure it's not Urban Meyer or Bob Stoops; both of which were pipe dreams. It's also not a guy with any Super Bowl rings like Brian Billick, Jon Gruden, or (gasp!) Charlie Weis. Though not the sexiest candidate, Kelly fit into a lot of the criteria of the kind of coach Notre Dame needed to hire:

A COACH WITH ATTITUDE
Weis could be a jerk, but after a very abrasive first two years on the job, it seemed that he did a complete reversal. After being humbled during the 3-9 campaign in 2007, Weis seemed to coddle his players more, trying to be their friend instead of their coach. At least he showed some emotion - it was hard to detect a pulse with either Willingham or Davie on the sidelines.

Not to reach too far into the cliché bin, but Kelly does have some of that fire that Notre Dame hasn't seen since the days of Lou Holtz. Also, instead of coming off like a cocky jerk, Kelly's attitude comes off in a more favorable, old-school kind of way. Players, alumni, and the media all seem to eat it up.

A COACH THAT WON'T TRY TO CHANGE EVERYTHING
The reason why Rich Rodriguez has failed so far at Michigan is because he came in and blew everything up. He shifted from Michigan's physical, beat-you-in-the-trenches style of football which made them one of the country's most consistent winners, into a spread-attack. He went as far as running off Ryan Mallett, one of college football's great young quarterbacks, just because Mallett didn't fit his "style". The Wolverines would've been better served skipping the last two seasons, considering the overhaul of athletes that a drastic change of offensive philosophy requires.

Kelly already runs a West-Coast-esq offense at Cincinnati, similar to what Notre Dame has had in the decade since they ditched the option following the Davie era. Sure it has a few twists (i.e. primarily going no-huddle), but that should suit former five-star recruit Dayne Crist as well as future NFLers Michael Floyd and Kyle Rudolph just fine. Scoring points has never been a problem for Kelly's football teams.

A PROVEN, CONSISTENT WINNER ON THE COLLEGE LEVEL
What is the one common trait that Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham, and Charlie Weis all shared? None of them had experience as a consistent winner as a college football head coach. Davie was a career-assistant during stints at Pittsburgh, Tulane, Texas A&M, and Notre Dame. As for Weis, the closest he ever got to the college game was his seat in the student section at Notre Dame Stadium in the late 70's. The only coach that had any experience at all was Willingham, who enjoyed a pedestrian 44-36-1 record in seven years at Stanford. That resume was bloated by a fluke Rose Bowl appearance in 1999 with an 8-4 football team.
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One fluke Rose Bowl didn't qualify Ty for a job like this

None of those coaches had the track record of Brian Kelly, who has gone 171-52-1 in 19 years as a college head coach. That includes a pair of Division-II National Championships at Grand Valley State (2002-03), a MAC Championship (2006) in a short three-year stint at Central Michigan, plus three 10+ win seasons, two Big East Titles (two BCS bowls), and a 34-6 overall record at Cincinnati. Another thing about Kelly is that the programs that he has coached have stayed at a high level. Grand Valley State has capture two more D-II Titles (2005-06) and a 36-2 record in the last three seasons. Ditto for Central Michigan, who has won back-to-back MAC titles and gone to bowl games in every year since Kelly's departure.

A COACH THAT CAN DEVELOP TALENT
Maybe the only good thing Charlie Weis did for Notre Dame was proving that top-level talent could still be drawn to South Bend. But, once they got to campus, none of them seemed to get better (see: Young, Sam). Willingham, who spent a majority of his time on the golf course, was one of the worst recruiters in Notre Dame history. Davie rode Holtz's coattails as long as he could, but eventually his bland personality turned prospects away.

Kelly hasn't exactly set the recruiting world ablaze, but he has proven to be a great developer of talent. Not a single member of Cincinnati's current senior class was rated higher than a two-star prospect. To put that in perspective, every single starter for Notre Dame this season was at least a three-star recruit. There are only three scholarship players that were rated as two-stars on their entire roster. I'd still rather have a 34-6 record with kids that didn't have all the accolades, rather than a 35-27 mark with star-studded recruiting classes.

Hiring Brian Kelly may not have been a grand slam, but at the very least he has to be a bases-clearing double for the Irish. He could fail, just like his predecessors did, but it's far more likely he finds success. Immediate results may not come like they did with both Willingham and Weis, but sustained success is what Notre Dame is looking for.

They may have finally found it.

When it rains...

...it pours.

That means no Granger over a stretch that includes games against the Spurs, Magic, Celtics, Hawks, and Heat. I was hopeful at the start of the season that the Pacers could contend for the 7th or 8th seed in the East - but with the way they've looked so far coupled with Granger's heel issue, the playoffs look like a pipe dream at this point.

Country Crock

13 points.
202 total yards.
0.5 yards-per-carry (38 rush, 18 yds)

Can you tell me with a straight face that TCU, Cincinnati, or Boise State couldn't hang with Texas?

Screw the BCS.

Side note: Did Colt McCoy lock up the Heisman with his awesome 0 pass TD, 3 INT performance? If he takes it home, the award will reach an all-time low.

Freudian Slip

If you missed it earlier this week, Danica Patrick confirmed her intention to stay in the IndyCar Series with Andretti Autosport. Though Patrick gave no update on her rumored NASCAR plans, her official website may have unintentionally leaked that info.

According to Yahoo! NASCAR writer Jay Busbee, a frontpage photo that appeared on the site had Danica with logos for both JR Motorsports (Dale Jr.'s racing team that Patrick is rumored to have signed with) as well as the Nationwide Series logo on her neon-green fire suit.
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The picture was pulled minutes later.