In the past few weeks,

football players from both the NFL and college ranks are telling their teammates

that they want out! 

Why?

It depends on the individual.  For example, Antonio Brown wanted out of Pittsburgh last season.  He whined about it enough that the Steelers sent him packing to Oakland.

Oh no, not Oakland!  So Antonio Brown becomes a colossal pain to

his new team in Oakland over the summer and complains incessantly about the NFL’s

new helmet and his accidentally cryogenically burned feet.  And, just like in Pittsburgh, Brown was able

to get a release from the Raiders and signed with the New England Patriots a

few weeks ago.

He’s gone again.  This time, though, it’s due to a myriad of legal

issues and allegations. 

But don’t worry, I guarantee

you that, despite what he says now, Antonio Brown will be back for another

encore performance soon enough.

Then there’s the case of Minkah Fitzpatrick – a defensive back for the Miami Dolphins.  A few weeks ago, the former Alabama first round pick apparently didn’t like playing for a team which very well could go 0-16 this season.  So, like Antonio Brown, he let the world know, “I WANT OUT!”

And, like Brown, it

worked!   He is now a member of the Carolina Panthers.  By the way, the Panthers are only 1-2 after

the first three games of the season, but that’s beside the point.

Just over a week ago, Jacksonville Jaguars defensive back Jalen Ramsey erupted along the sidelines and got into a shouting match with his head coach during a game in Houston.  Afterwards, the former first round pick loudly demanded a trade out of Jacksonville.  As of this Monday, Ramsey has now declared himself “sick” and won’t be practicing with his team this week.  How convenient?

Notice the trend?

Not to be outdone, today’s news brings a story about two college football players for the University of Houston.  After the Cougars have stumbled out of the gate with a 1-3 start (including an embarrassing last second loss to Tulane last weekend), the Senior (yes, you read that right) three-year starting quarterback and his favorite wide receiver target are both asking the U of H to grant them a special “redshirt” for their senior season so that they can both bail-out on the team RIGHT NOW. 

If you believe the two players (cough, cough), they have publicly stated that they plan to come back and use for their final season of football eligibility for the Houston Cougars next fall.

Why would they want to do this? 

On the surface, the two

players believe that their chances of playing professional football have been hurt

by the team’s lousy performance on the field so far this season. 

On the other hand, though, both this quarterback and his favorite wide receiver have both been seeing significant time on the playing field during the U of H’s streak of early setbacks in 2019.

Could this have anything to do with this year’s arrival of Houston’s new head coach, Dana Halgorsen?  Maybe so.  We’ll find out soon enough if one or both of these players decides to bolt for another program soon.

In summary, it looks like both the NFL and college football are now allowing a growing list of whining petulant prima-donna players the right to bail-out of sinking ships and leave their teammates behind when the going ...

The good news?  My fantasy football team (Swamp Gas) dropped its first game of

the season but is still a respectable 2-1 after three games of the NFL season.

The bad news?  For the second straight week, the Methane Marauders

failed to score more than 82 points in a contest.  In a nutshell, my team is LUCKY to be 2-1 at

this point in the season.

My fantasy football team was

obliterated this week by an embarrassing score of 128-82 in Week #3 by the team

called “Cruzan and Coke” (who also is now 2-1). 

Among the purpose of these

weekly updates is to help you learn from my mistakes (there are many).  Though I would love to instruct my fantasy

charges to take a few extra laps in practice this week to account for their

pitiful team performance, it’s important to remember that Swamp Gas is playing

without its two legendary quarterbacks, Drew

Brees and Ben Roethlisberger,

due to Week 2 injuries.

Let’s take a look at our Week #3 performance (Warning – it’s not a pretty sight!):

Oh, the pain!

Of the ten positions on my

Swamp Gas first team, only two contributors (WR Adam Thielen and our Buffalo

Bills defense) scored more than the predicted values.  That means that 80% of my roster

underperformed!  Ouch.

Some of the blame was just

lousy match-ups this week.  It’s

unreasonable to expect that our Jets RB Le’Veon

Bell would have a significant output at undefeated New England.  He garnered only 5 points vs. his 13 point

projection.  The Jets are also playing

with their third string QB, so Bell is being targeted by the opposing defenses,

too.  I have confidence that Bell will

ring the cash register again for us soon!

The biggest question mark is

that of my tight ends.  Most fantasy

football tight ends aren’t expected to contribute more than ten points per

game.  In Week 3, though, both my starter

(Jared Cook – Saints) and my back-up

tight end (T.J. Hockenson – Lions)

scored ZERO points!  Cook appears to be

disinterested in improving, while our rookie (Hockenson) simply isn’t being

targeted by Lions’ QB Matthew Stafford.

What shall we do? 

The Saints paid Jared Cook

$15.5 million for two years beginning this season.  He is being paid as if he is a top flight

tight end.  His lack of performance (a

dropped ball in the Seattle game, for example) makes me wonder if there are

other issues at play. 

This week, Cook’s Saints will

be at home in the Dome against the Dallas Cowboys, while T.J.’s Detroit Lions are

playing at home against the red-hot 3-0 Kansas City Chiefs.  What to do? 

Stay tuned for the Coaching decisions! 

General Manager Update:

We added two new quarterbacks

last week after Drew Brees was injured (6-8 weeks) and Ben Roethlisberger had a

season-ending injury to his throwing arm. 

Buffalo’s Josh Allen came

through with 19 points last week, but New England rolls into town this

week.  We also grabbed Cincinnati QB Andy Dalton whose Bengals have the

worst running game in the NFL (translated – they throw the ball a lot).  Dalton is playing in Pittsburgh on Monday Night

Football this week.  Hmm.

Also, Swamp Gas dropped

Saints WR Tre’Quan Smith and added 49ers WR Deebo Samuel.  Samuel stayed

on our bench and only had 4 points last week anyway.

Out with the old, and in with

the new! 

After the fourth weekend of

the college football season, the undefeated teams have dwindled from 35 down to

23 teams in the 130-team FBS large college division.

Along with the carnage, a big

shake-up has changed the landscape of this week’s latest SwampSwami College Football Top 25 rankings.

With their first loss of the

season last weekend:

Notre Dame

dropped from #5 out of the rankings after absorbing a nasty bite from the Georgia

Bulldogs, 23-17.

Washington State fell from #9 out of our Top 25 after allowing UCLA to score 50 points in the second half (you read that correctly) in losing their first game 67-63.  The Washington State quarterback threw for nine (count ‘em) touchdowns in the loss!

The University of Central Florida (UCF)

lost just its second game in two seasons as Pitt’s “Go-Go-Gadget!” touchdown

play sank the Knights 35-34.

Michigan (who probably didn’t deserve a top 25 ranking last week) was squashed by unbeaten Wisconsin 35-14 and bids adieu this week.

Utah fell to

a rejuvenated USC squad, 30-23 and disappeared from our rankings this week.

Wyoming’s

Cowboys got thrown off their Top 25 horse by losing at 2-2 Tulsa on Saturday.

Arizona State

was stampeded out of our rankings by the 3-1 Colorado Buffaloes, 34-31.

Air Force’s

#23 ranking last week was shot-down by this week’s #9 team, Boise State, in a 30-19 defeat.

The Temple Owls appeared not to give a hoot Saturday as they were

trampled by the 2-2 Buffalo Bulls, 38-22.

The lesson is clear to these

teams.  Lose a game, and you are bounced

from the SwampSwami Top 25 rankings!

With the losses, the door was opened for the remaining unbeaten teams enter the Elite 25 along with our first two one-loss teams. 

The biggest surprise this

week is the rise of Sunbelt Conference kingpin, Appalachian State.  The

Mountaineers came home from the University of North Carolina (now 2-2) with a

thrilling 34-31 win at Chapel Hill.  App

State (3-0 on the season) jumps into our poll this week at #18!

Other unbeaten teams debuting this week are Virginia (17), Minnesota (20), Baylor (21), Navy (22), and the UAB Blazers at #23.

We also welcome the 3-1 University of Texas (#24) and 3-1 USC (#25) into the rankings.  The Horns dusted previously unbeaten Oklahoma

State 36-30 on Saturday, while the Trojans (playing with their third string

quarterback due to injuries) handed Utah their first loss of the season, 30-23.

On the other end of the scale, there are now only five of the 130 FBS schools remaining without a win this season. 

Something’s gotta give this

weekend at Akron (0-4) will visit the UMass Minutemen (0-4).  The Zips are currently a 6 ½ point favorite

on the road this weekend to pick-up their first victory.

Meanwhile, the Rice Owls (0-4)

play host to 3-1 Louisiana Tech in Houston Saturday.  Louisiana Tech’s passing offense is ranked

#28 nationally, so the Owls’ offense better crank it up to get win #1.

Vanderbilt (0-3) hosts 1-3

Northern Illinois and is considered a touchdown favorite to win their first

game Saturday.  Meanwhile, New Mexico

State (0-4) hosts 1-2 Fresno State.

There are 32 starting quarterback jobs in the National Football League.

Heading into the third week

of play, below are the injured starting quarterbacks from around the league:

Saints – Drew Brees – right thumb/hand – out six to eight weeks (replaced by Teddy Bridgewater)

Steelers – Ben Roethlisberger – right elbow – out for the season (replaced by Mason Rudolph)

Jaguars – Nick Foles – collarbone – out until at least week 11 (replaced by Gardner Minshew)

Patriots – Tom Brady – calf – week-to-week

Panthers – Cam Newton – foot – week-to-week

Jets1 – Sam Darnold – mono (replaced by Trevor Siemian)

Jets2 – Trevor Siemian – ankle – placed on Injured Reserve list (replaced by Luke Falk)

Redskins1 – 2018 starter Alex Smith – lower leg – still unable to play in 2019 (replaced by Colt McCoy)

Redskins2 – Colt McCoy – lower leg injury – (replaced by Case Keenum)

I am also going to give an “Honorable Mention – Ironman Award” to the Houston Texans’ resilient quarterback, Deshaun Watson.  He has now been sacked four or more times in eight consecutive NFL regular season games.  He’s now in the NFL record book.  OUCH!  

And don’t forget that the

young star quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts, Andrew Luck, just retired a

few weeks ago due to years of dealing with persistent injuries.

Is this just a run of bad

luck for quarterbacks or is there a trend developing? 

I believe this is a

trend.  NFL defenses continue to get

bigger and faster every season.  If the

quarterbacks are being rushed faster than ever and being hit by defenders who hit

with more force than ever, then it stands to reason that quarterbacks are much more

likely to become injured more frequently, too.

This will also affect the NFL’s

weekly television ratings, too.  Teams

with a rabid national following such as Pittsburgh and New Orleans will likely

draw fewer eyeballs without Big Ben Roethlisberger and Drew Brees at the helm

of their respective squads. 

The Steelers will appear in

two Monday Night Football games on ESPN, one Sunday Night game on NBC, and one

Thursday night game on Fox.  The Saints

are on tap to play in one Sunday Night, one Monday Night, and one Thursday

Night game on national television. 

Unfortunately, the two teams will roll-out back-up quarterbacks to lead their squads. 

Injuries are a part of the

game, and football is definitely a collision sport. 

In Drew Brees’ injury, his

throwing hand and thumb met the paws of Los Angeles Rams defensive specialist,

Aaron Donald.  Though it looked like a

freak play, it’s a surprise that this doesn’t happen more often.

For Big Ben, we don’t know

what happened to his right elbow and it certainly didn’t look attributable to a

direct hit by a defensive player.

Sure, both of these mainstays

for New Orleans and Pittsburgh are past their prime years (Brees is 40 and Roth

is 38 years of age).  That also puts them

more likely to be injured due to the loss of speed and flexibility which

naturally decreases with age.

The trend in injured

quarterbacks, though, bears watching. 

With New England Patriots’ QB legend Tom Brady now ...

This is the weekly update about my Fantasy Football team known as “Swamp Gas”. 

The good news is that your Methane Marauders moved to 2-0 as the team eeked out an ugly win by a mediocre final score of 79-65 over the Houston Hard Hitters (now 1-1).

The bad news?  Starting quarterback Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints suffered an ugly injury to the thumb area of his throwing hand is going to be sidelined for an estimated six weeks as surgery is expected soon.  At the time of his injury in the first quarter, Brees was at a -1 point for our Fantasy charges after an early interception.

More bad news?  Our back-up quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers, suffered a season-ending injury to his throwing arm and will require surgery, too!  

Two black and gold

quarterbacks (both with hopes of making it to the Super Bowl this season) have

been taken away from our Fantasy Football team for the immediate future!  What shall we do?

This is the hard part.  Since your Fantasy Football roster can only

carry a certain amount of players, we’ll have to dump Big Ben (sorry, pal) and

dust-off one of the unclaimed blessings from the bottom of the fantasy league bullpen. 

Making matters more

complicated is that our team (with a fine record of 2-0) must wait until the

other teams with worse records have their waiver wire claims fulfilled before

we can grab a quarterback off the scrap heap. 

Let’s take a look at some of the possible available talent as of Tuesday morning:

Case Keenum – Washington – He’s averaging 300 yards per game thus far and is the highest scoring QB available right now.  HOWEVER, Washington will play da Bears this week (best defense in the league).  I have my doubts about picking a player on a losing team, but the Redskins have seven games to go before a bye week (where we will need another QB). 

Matthew Stafford – Detroit – Like Keenum, he’s also chunking the ball for 300 yards/game (7th in the NFL in passing) and has thrown for 5 TD’s in two weeks.  Detroit is at Philly this week and then at home against Kansas City before a bye week in three weeks from this past weekend.  Still, he’s a solid backup choice.

Andy Dalton – Cincinnati – Though Dalton’s personal stats look pretty good (2nd in the NFL after two games), the Bengals were humiliated at home by San Francisco last weekend.  The Bungles are at Buffalo and Pittsburgh the next two weeks.  I just don’t trust Cincy, but he could give us six weeks before their bye week. 

Jacoby Brissett – Indianapolis – This is the guy taking the job vacated by the retiring Andrew Luck.  The team is doing OK (1-1), but Jacoby is ranked #31 out of 32 teams in passing.  No thanks.  “Pass”! 

Josh Allen – Buffalo – Here’s a guy who simply wins at all cost.  He’s a big guy who likes to put his head down and runs (2 TD’s) as much as he throws (2 TD’s).  Buffalo is home the next two weeks and will play Cincinnati (0-2) and New England (2-0).  Plus, he’ll get to play against Miami TWICE in the next eight games.  His bye week is coming after three more games.  He’s in the hopper for evaluation.

Jimmy Garappolo – San Francisco – Like Buffalo, the 49ers are a surprising 2-0 to start the season.  Jimmy G. can be inconsistent and currently ranks in the bottom third of the league in passing yards.  The Niners host Pittsburgh but are off the following wee...

We are now three weeks into the 2019 college football season.  With a few of the “exhibition” games out of the way for most of the large universities, the top college football teams are now starting to emerge.

Though the traditional media polls are swayed to favor the traditional names of college football, the SwampSwami Top 25 doesn’t buy into that.  However, just to make it fair, here is how we determine how every team is ranked:

* We start the season with the assumption that the final Associated Press Poll of the prior year is still valid until a previously-ranked team loses its first game.  In other words, Clemson will start the season as #1 and remain there until they are defeated (if that happens).  The same privilege is afforded to every ranked team at the end of last season.* After those legacy teams are ranked, then the poll is based on the remaining undefeated teams who were not ranked in the AP Top 25 at the end of last season.  The next guideline I use is the quality of that teams opponents.  The won-loss records of a team’s opponent will be reviewed.  Teams who have vanquished a 1-loss opponent take precedence over a team whose best win is over a 2-loss team, etc.* In the case of ties in these rankings, the size of the victory over the team’s “best” opponent is considered.  A 28-point win over a 1-loss team will take precedence over a 20-point win over a 1-loss opponent.* Wins over FCS (small school) opponents are discounted below the value beating a winless FBS (large division) school.  Though there is no question that many FCS schools might beat a winless big school, it is just too hard to predict those outcomes.    

There are currently 35 out of

the 130 FBS large division universities who remain unbeaten after Week #3

competing for my top 25 slots.

Teams #1 (Clemson) through 14 (Iowa) in the initial 2019 SwampSwami Top 25 are currently unbeaten and represent teams whose schools were ranked in last season’s final AP Top 25 poll.

The next 10 teams to round-out the first week’s Top 25 poll have all defeated an opponent which is 2-1 on the new season.   The placement order of that group of teams was determined by the size of their victory over that quality opponent.

Team #25 in our first weekly poll is SMU.  The Ponies are 3-0 with their best win a 22 point victory over a 1-2 team (North Texas).  They had the largest point differential among the other undefeated teams with their best win coming over a 1-win FBS opponent. 

Just for fun, I am revealing the rankings for all 130 major college (FBS) teams in my first weekly poll.  Alas, there are eight large schools that are still winless.  I have ranked the final group of teams by their most competitive loss.

Though the University of Massachusetts is currently our worst team at #130, there’s no place to go but up, Minutemen!      

Without further ado, below are the initial SwampSwami College Football rankings for the 2019 season for games played through Saturday, September 14, 2019:

In case you missed it (which 99% of us have), the USA men’s basketball team has gone down to defeat twice in the past two days at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup games in China.

After losing in the

quarterfinals to France on Wednesday 89-79, Team USA’s international winning

streak was ended at 58 straight games. 

Worse yet, the team cannot

even earn a bronze medal for third place as a result of the loss to France.

Worse yet, Team USA lost

again today (Thursday) to Serbia 94-89 in the fifth place consolation

game.   

Should anyone care, Team USA gets a chance to grab the coveted seventh place ribbon against Poland next.

In this biennial competition which takes place halfway between Olympic Games, Team USA featured one of the NBA’s best coaches in Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs.  Alas, even Coach Pop couldn’t get the “B-Team” NBA players to keep the winning streak alive.

Team USA’s roster did not feature the NBA’s top names.  There was no LeBron James or James Harden or Steph Curry.  In fact, the only 2019 first team All-NBA players in this year’s FIBA tournament were playing for other countries.  Greece featured Milwaukee forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Serbia was led by Denver’s starting center, Nikola Jokic. 

No first or second team

All-NBA players played on the American squad. 

Though there were four Boston Celtics players (including third-team

All-NBA guard, Kemba Walker) on the roster, the 2019 Team USA group suffered

most from a lack of team play and reliable outside shooting. 

Center Mason Plumlee is a back-up

player for the NBA’s Denver Nuggets.  He wasn’t

even the best player on his Duke college teams, so it’s a stretch to think that

he would dominate other countries’ big men. 

Regardless, Team USA led the field in rebounding through Wednesday’s

games. 

The bulk of the scoring for

Team USA was expected to come from Utah Jazz forward Donovan Mitchell and “The

Four Celtics”.   In games leading up to Team USA’s loss to France

this week, it has been apparent that this year’s squad had been struggling to

play at a high enough level to bring home the gold medal this year.

Before throwing our players under the proverbial bus, these are the players who volunteered most of their summer rest from the overly-lengthy NBA season (regular season starts again in October…yawn).  They tried their best against some rapidly improving competition. 

In fact, the so-called bigger stars of the NBA would not have necessarily have waltzed to victory in this competition, either.  The lack of team play and accurate three-point shooting may have doomed any combination of NBA talent this year.

Let’s give credit to the other teams in the competition.  The final four teams (France, Argentina, Spain, and Australia) are quite talented with each having one or more NBA players on their rosters, too. 

Plus, the foreign teams performed better from behind the three-point line.  While Team USA shot a woeful 33% from behind the arc, France was hitting 45% and Australia 40%.  In two point shooting, Team USA’s made 52% of their attempts (mostly dunks) while Australia was at 59% and Spain 57%. 

Team play, you ask?  Team USA averaged only 19 assists per game

(12th place) while Serbia led the way with 26 assists per outing

with Australia (25) coming in a close second. 

The good news is that, no

matter what happens next, my fantasy football team (Swamp Gas) will not go

winless this year!  The Methane Marauders

captured victory in its first match-up of the season by a final score of 126-83. 

Victory is sweet!

With our ten-team league, my Fantasy Football team is in a five-way tie for first place after week #1.  Woo-hoo!

Let’s take a look at how my starting players performed against the competition:

Today, I am awarding myself the “Wile E. Coyote – Super Genius” moniker (for one week) for the brilliant 5th round draft selection of  LA Chargers’ running back, Austin Ekeler.  Ekeler played like a man on a mission!  He scored three touchdowns (two via the run and one pass reception for a TD) and scored 32 fantasy points to lead the Chargers (and Swamp Gas) to victory! 

Our 5th round pick of Chargers RB, Austin Ekeler

As you may remember from last

week’s Week 1 post, the Yahoo! Sports team chastised my “wasted” pick on Austin

Ekeler in Round 5. 

To Yahoo! Sports, I say, “Go away, or I shall taunt you a second time”!

SwampSwami responds to Yahoo! Sports

Let’s also give a Swamp Gas “Game Ball” to our placekicker, Wil Lutz, of the New Orleans Saints.  Not only did he lead the Saints to victory with a 59-yard field goal to give the WhoDats a win over the Houston Texans, his kick gave our team five points and a game total of fifteen points (vs. a projected score of nine).  Great job!

Wil Lutz from 59 yards and the win…it’s GOOD!

My starting group generally

performed better than the guys I left on the bench.  Last week, the biggest bench surprise was

that Swamp Gas back-up rookie tight end (T.J. Hockenson – Detroit Lions) had a

terrific week (19 points) and outperformed starting tight end, Jared Cook

(Saints – 3 points).  Cook and Drew Brees

are just getting started, so we’ll watch the Cook vs. Hockenson battle for

another week or two.  This week, I’m

staying with Cook, though.

Injury update

– Washington (and former LSU) running back, Derrius Guice, injured his right knee

and is likely unavailable for the next few weeks.  This is sad to hear, because Guice (only in

his second year as a professional) injured his left knee as a rookie last

season.  Otherwise, the remainder of our

team came through the week just fine.

Underperformance – I was disappointed that rookie wide receiver, Andy Isabella

(Cardinals), didn’t even have one catch in Game 1.  Though he was used as a kickoff return man,

those yards won’t earn us any points. 

Bad start for the rookie! 

GM decisions today – Yahoo! Sports allows the teams to make cuts/additions beginning

Wednesday morning.  That means any player

decisions need to be made today. 

Hence, I think it may be time

to drop WR Andy Isabella if he’s not seeing the ball to start the season.  I just submitted a request to drop him and

add WR John Ross (Cincinnati Bengals).  The

“undrafted” Ross had 158 yards and 2 TD’s for the Bengals in week 1. 

This transaction is unlikely

to be completed.  Why?  Yahoo! Sports gives the league teams with a

losing record a priority over teams with a winning record when multiple teams try

to claim the same player. This is a play to upgrade our bench.  Nothing ventured,

From Pittsburgh to Oakland to New England in less than one year. Wide receiver Antonio Brown has burned his bridges in both Pittsburgh and Oakland. After the Raiders finally said “ENOUGH!” on Saturday and released Brown, he and his agent quickly negotiated a new deal to join the defending Super Bowl champions, New England Patriots.

I am convinced that Antonio Brown and his agent knew exactly what they were doing all along. If not, why would Brown keep a personal film crew in tow to capture every bit of the past week’s self-created content and drama?

If you don’t think this was premeditated, the Great Pumpkin is coming to visit you and Linus again in less than two months!

Don’t be surprised if/when this saga backfires (again) on Antonio Brown, though. Most of us NFL fans doubt that he will be able to avoid making himself into the center of attention – again.

Give it a little time. Tick-tick-tick.

The good news for Raiders and Steelers fans is that Antonio Brown’s shtick won’t fly very long in New England.

Most of America has tired of all the emotional roller coaster that Brown has caused for his teammates, coaches, and NFL fans in both Oakland and Pittsburgh. Both organizations deserved better, but they also won’t have to deal with this diva any longer.

This story is far from over. I figure that Oakland will file tampering charges with the NFL to, at the very least, recapture one or more draft picks for their trouble. My personal “over/under” says that Antonio Brown will not emerge as the ultimate winner by the end of this NFL season.

Karma has a way of coming back to get you.

So, let’s end today’s post with a little humor. Check out my podcast. Click on the link above to enjoy my parody of a 1959 Coasters’ rock-n-roll classic.

The University of Kansas football team started the 2019 season with a Labor

Day weekend win (albeit closer than expected) against a tough Indiana State squad.   

No, not the Indiana Hoosiers.  The

Sycamores of Indiana State.

Being 1-0 to start the season makes Kansas fans happy, but LSU fans may be

even happier for their beloved former head coach.

Coach Les Miles has returned from two seasons of unplanned retirement and is

at the helm of a program which needs him as much as he wanted to be back in

charge of a major college football team. 

The lovable former coach at LSU has been given new life in Lawrence, Kansas

this season.  The new head coach of the

Jayhawks is a devoted family man with four grown children and an adoring

wife.  Coach Miles seems to thrive on

developing a family atmosphere in his college football locker rooms, too.  His former players love him nearly as much as

his own family adores him.

At LSU, Les Miles won a national championship (2007) and two SEC

Championships in eleven seasons as coach of the Tigers.  At times, he was the toast of the Bayou.

Unfortunately, the honeymoon soured over time.  During his years at LSU, Coach Miles’ teams had

started to become quite predictable and resistant to change (especially on

offense).  Even after a number of new “innovative”

offensive coordinators were hired by LSU, the Tigers’ offense remained mired in

the Les Miles playing days of 1970’s Big 10 football. 

Run, run, pass (if necessary), and punt. 

Keep the games close and hope your defense makes a winning play. 

Maybe the problem wasn’t in the offensive coordinator but with the stubborn

man with “The Hat” in charge of the football team.  The head coach himself seemed to become clue-les

(pun intended) at times during some of the big games.

After a tough loss to Auburn early in the 2016 football season, Les Miles

was suddenly fired as head coach of the LSU Tigers.

Legions of Les Miles supporters demanded, “How could you fire a man who

won 77% of his games at LSU”?

Money.

LSU had just expanded the stadium to 102,000 seats.  With Les Miles’

conservative and often boring offensive strategy, LSU’s annual win/loss records

(though impressive) had begun to deteriorate and the Tigers drifted back into

the pack of the SEC West.  And, when

interest in the football program at LSU wanes, so does demand for season ticket

sales for football (the lifeblood of major college athletics). 

The then-63 years old Les Miles then found himself in an early retirement

sporting a nifty consolation prize contract payout calling for him to receive

$133,000/month until he reached nearly $10 million.

Nice retirement nest egg, eh?

Coach Miles applied for and was passed-over for multiple coaching vacancies during the ensuing year following his LSU exit.  Though still living in Baton Rouge and beloved by most Tigers fans, Les did some television commercials for a major beer brand during the following year and adjusted his sights and head coaching expectations as well.

Enter Kansas. 

KU’s football team has been lousy for a long, long time.  How bad?  They have finished below .500 in the Big 12

for 22 of the past 23 seasons.