Out Of Kilter

I realize I’m working with the loosest definition of “later tonight” possible, seeing as how it’s seven full days later, but it took that long for me to work up the courage to rewatch on TiVo. So, was the game as bad as 51-13 would indicate? Pretty much. But, with judicious application of my orange and green glasses, there are some positives to take away, along with the sorts of monumental negatives that are par for the course in a game decided by six touchdowns.

Positives:

• Tavares Gooden has been damned good. He’s an asset when it comes to passing downs, and though he still occasionally overruns the play, is much more frequently bringing ballcarriers down by himself.
• Teraz McCray looks sharp. He struggled at times against OU, but he did a good job of engaging his man and frequently a second, enabling Gooden to flow very well.
• Javarris James ran well, so long as you disregard minor things like his numbers. The long run that was called back due to an unnecessary bad block by a true freshman WR came after the game was out of reach, but it appeared OU still had most of their first-team defense on the field.
• Oklahoma didn’t really do anything surprising, but it was nice to see a Miami offensive line not piddle on itself when playing an upper-echelon defensive line. They provided time for bad throws, and while they got beat pretty bad while Graig Cooper was running the ball, it seemed more that they were in an impossible situation than that they were overmatched.
• Kyle Wright’s first drive, though clunky and out of step by the standards of any other major college program, still resulted in a touchdown, and was epic in scope:18 plays, 6 and a half minutes, converting three first downs and a fourth, though Kyle left the game for that fourth down conversion.

Negatives:

• Kyle Wright’s last drive, which highlighted the reasons OOK wanted to see Kirby last year- throwing short of the marker on third down, scrambling into a one-yard gain when pressure came, despite the blitz being picked up.
• Kirby’s whole game. He was terrible, and to play to his strengths, Coach Nix decided to avoid playing to Javarris and Cooper’s, strengths. This was pretty categorically a mistake, if for no other reason than that he’s lost the ability to throw the deep ball, which was the one asset he has.
• Eventually I just felt bad for Randy Phillips. Watching him get methodically taken advantage of, for four TDs given up, got to be sad. Unfortunately, he’s not quick enough, and since we for some reason weren’t going face to face with their receivers, he wasn’t able to make up for it by jamming people.
• Kenny Phillips had a vintage Greg Threat game, where despite 13 total tackles and a forced fumble, he was unable to either get to the quarterback or break up passing plays, and allowed himself to get into the no mans land where he made tackles following big gains.
• Oh, and about 5 of the 8 players in the defensive line rotation got hurt.

As profiled here, Randy Shannon has apparently been hired as head coach of the University of Miami. From the profile, if you get the feeling I like Randy, you’d be right. That being said, this strikes me as a catastrophic mistake.

Miami Herald story

One of the key errors when Butch Davis left, and the most widely understood one, was hiring as a head coach someone who had never held the position. To rectify the problem, we go out and hire a coach… who has never held a head coaching position at any level?

The past four years, post-Dorsey and Willis McHeisman, our average scoring offense ranking has been 54 out of 117 and then 119 1-A teams. This season, we’ve averaged 19 points, good for 88th in the nation. And we played a freaking 1-AA team! So, of course, our interviewed candidates for the position include two defensive-minded coaches, a guy who only became a candidate when he went public with his desire for the job, and a guy targeted by a school with money to burn that has much better support. And, of course, the winner was the dude with no head coaching experience!

Allow me to reiterate: Coach Shannon is, in my estimation, at worst one of the top three defensive coordinators in college ball (and that’s counting Chizik, even though he’s technically now a head coach). His hire, though, doesn’t fix the problems this team unquestionably has, and certainly pisses the hell out of a large and vocal portion of the fanbase.

The investigation continues into the death of Bryan Pata, yet few believe the police will care enough to see this through to a conviction.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, the Miami-Dade Police Department has released a video reenactment of the crime. Miami-Dade spokeswoman Mary Walters says;

“We’re working a multitude of leads. We do re-enactments all the time. Basically we’re asking for public assistance hoping that a re-enactment will help jog someone’s memory.”

According to the Palm Beach Post;

Set to ominous music, the video shows Pata (portrayed by a detective) driving his black Infiniti SUV home from practice… Wearing a white T-shirt, Pata’s stand-in exits the car and walks toward his apartment. A gunshot rings out and Pata falls to his back.

His left arm is slumped over his chest, his right arm outstretched, gripping a flipped-open cellphone.

The University of Miami is fielding donations, and has released a statement saying;

“On the advice of Miami-Dade Police, the full reward amount was not immediately released, but held until further instructions.

Crimestoppers announced [Tuesday] that it has requested those funds from friends of the university totaling up to $21,000 for information helping to solve this horrific crime.”

What the hell were you thinking, Scoop? Arguably no sports media figure has come under more heat in the last three months or so. Despite that, you feel free to use the five finger discount on a concept that has been a fully formed idea dating back to Jason Whitlock still being at ESPN.

So you decide to write a column based on the perspective of the ball, which, to reiterate, was originally developed by the humble Cavalier at Yaysports! NBA, without including so much as a link. You do, though, indicate an awareness of your own theft of intellectual property by mentioning as a throwaway statement;

A Web site gave me a nickname. They call me the Orange Roundie.

You’re then caught, initially as far as I can tell, by the mysterious and debonair “TDD,” commenting at Yay, at 12:55. In response to a groundswell of deserved anger, the word Yaysports is quietly inserted into the piece.

Still no link, but it’s better, right? Not quite. You see, Scoop Jackson presumably got paid, writing in character… a character someone else had fully fleshed out and that Scoop without full attribution used as the jumping off point for his discussion. And then, when asked to respond by Will Leitch at Deadspin, Jackson says;

I actually thought I was giving them some love, even though ESPN edited out the part about them being the ball’s favorite site. Just trying to have some fun. Hope you enjoyed the piece; tell YAY I thought their overall ball coverage was brilliant. The ball, on the other hand, had a few issues.

Really? Pin it on your editor, while ignoring the broader issue? Weak, Scoop. The Cavalier, while understandably pissed, is much more charitable than most would be about the thing. He’s absolutely right, though. Scoop Jackson stole a concept from another writer with minimal attribution, and until some sort of retraction is issued, Out Of Kilter counts itself among the League of Roundie Henchmen.

The Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) still has no primary suspect in the murder of Bryan Pata.

However, according to ABC 10, the shooting may be linked to a 6-month-old fight at Club Life, where Pata was once employed as a bouncer:

Club owner Shawn Shahnazi said, “Bryan was one of the guys - along with some other teammates - that was involved in a fight with a group of other guys. A group of guys threatened them like, ‘You guys think you are big shots superstars. You think you can handle us.’ It was over a girl.”

Shanazi says Pata was the least involved of the players that night and he doubts what happened led to his death.

Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crimestoppers, anonymously, at 305-471-TIPS.

For a look at the Miami offense vs. the Yellowjackets, check here…

The defense’s flaws are nowhere as perplexing as the other side of the coin, but that makes them no less pervasive. Currently we exist in some sort of bizarre limbo state where despite the legions of talent on the line, we can’t rush the quarterback, despite the sheer numbers of players at linebacker, we can’t just follow the football, and despite our tandem of the best safeties since Ed Reed and James Lewis, we can’t get interceptions.

(more…)

So this agent gets busted for smuggling in a Cuban baseball player.

Reminds me of that episode of Arli$$, or more recently, Dexter.

Also, for whoever it was that honked their boat horn Sunday night at 3 a.m. in Government Cut, and got my bagman’s boat searched by the Coast Guard; Thanks. Thanks for nothing, dirtbag. Because of you, I’ve got to spend another week without my delicious Cohiba Behikes.

I hope you die slow, whoever you are.

A: When the University Of Miami needs a win to save the season.

For a look at the Miami defense vs. the Yellowjackets, check here…

Just another mediocre performance against a team playing out the string.

This staff no longer even elicits shock at their missteps. (more…)