Here's the final hour y'all and it is another good one. We have Chris Mortensen of ESPN fame on the show to talk about the NFL lockout. He gives some very good insight into what to expect from the recent meetings and he gives his definitive answer about whether or not the NFL will be playing 16 games next year. I won't spoil that for you but he is pretty damn convincing given the circumstances that he outlines.
Mark and I get back aboard the college football train as he discusses how he feels about Butch Davis an answer that might surprise many considering Mark Thomas is a former NC State football player. Thanks so much for the opportunity to all of the folks up there at ESPN 620 for letting have the shot to co-host for the entire show. It was a lot of fun and thanks to Mike Maniscalco for being on that Vegas run that allowed me to sit in his chair. Josh Goodson is who helped us get this podcast out to you folks so tell him thanks. Hope you all enjoy!
Here's the second hour of the show where we get a chance to talk with Mike Birling from the Durham Bulls about Jack McKeown, interleague play and Albert Pujols. Talk turns back to college football quickly as we start to hit our groove.
While I know the UNC situation is a big deal I figured I needed to do this now before I forgot. Tuesday morning I got the chance to co-host The Insiders on ESPN 620 The Buzz in Raleighwood and folks I had a blast. Sat in for Mike Maniscalco alongside Mark Thomas. Thanks to producer Josh Goodson for helping me get the opportunity to get a bit more experience in the radio world.
Here's hour one we some back and forth, talk about the ACC and what needs to happen to improve the league, go back and forth on scheduling and work in some Juan Pablo Montoya and Pat Benatar.
Kick your week off with another edition of the In The Bleachers podcast as we've got an ITB rookie on the program talking sports from across the board. We have Nubyjas Wilborn on today from the website No Bias, No Bull and ESPN Macon to talk sports from several different angles. Among the various angles that we do get into are the Dawgs, the Jackets, some Paul Johnson specific talk, a look at sports overall here in America and several other interesting topics.
We kick it off with the Dawgs and Jacket discussion because as we all know I'm a bit of Dawgs guy given my best friend's ties to UGA. Mark Richt is clearly in put or shut up mode but he doesn't necessarily have the bullets, correction, he doesn't have all the proven bullets he needs to ensure the SEC East championship that the Dawgs would like to see. In the ATL we've got an interesting situation as Paul Johnson steps into life without Josh Nesbitt. Nubyjas played a little bit of ball of CPJ so he givens an interesting perspective on the offense and how successful the Jackets can be, he also throws the Black and Gold a super huge, unexpected, bone when he says Dodd is the most beautiful stadium in the nation.
Talk turns to the grand stage of both college and the overall American sports arena as we talk about how media coverage, access, social media and people's overall sentiments have shifted in recent years. We ask the question "Do people really even like sports anymore?" or do folks just want to chest thump, argue and "hate" on athletes and one another. We get our first discussion of entitlement and the prevalence of the word in sports, how accurate folks are in the usage and the like.
We close it out on the Jackets as we look at what they can do to improve their footing in the ATL market and build more goodwill in the city. Atlanta is a Dawgs town, the Jackets need sellouts to pump some cash into their coffers and for that to happen they need to get the city coming to games; not just Alumns, player families and current students. It is an interesting discussion and how this progresses will be essential to GT's continued success and rise in the ACC.
And apologies folks for some of the knocking sounds, honestly, not sure what the hell that is y'all.
To listen to the showclick here or subscribe to one of the methods listed below.
If you want the podcast you must subscribe to the Feedburner, but if you want to subscribe to the blog please use the RSS Feed. This is for iTunes to be able to archive the shows. You can also search for "In The Bleachers"on iTunes and subscribe to the podcast that way.
We're back folks and we're kicking off this Friday with one of our favorite guests, Barrett Sallee from College Football News, to talk about the world of college football. Barrett also writes for Chuck Oliver's outstanding siteso he's got plenty of opinions and insight when it comes to the game and he and I hit on all the pertinent topics in our little college football cram session. Damn, it feels good to be back dropping the podcasts for you guys.
The conversation kicks off with some quick discussion of the UNC situation regarding the parking tickets and the Heels football players. Barrett hits on a point about the cars that folks in the triangle are frantically exploring, trying to piece names with vehicles using the DPS's funky ticket-citation look up system. We also take the scandal train to Eugene to talk a little Cliff Harris and figure out where this will leave the Ducks as they enter the LSU contest in Jerry's World.
We don't save all the talk for scandal though as we hit on the Dawgs and the SEC East in general with regard to what this season means for everyone. Barrett lets us know this is a make or break year for UGA as Richt's seat seems to be heating up while we talk about Sakerlina and why the Gamecocks are, at least for now, the default pick to take home the division. Dooley and Muschamp get discussed as both seem to be on the right track to picking their programs up to levels their fans will once again be pleased with.
Big topic talking Columbus and Buckeyes as we hit momentarily on the whole Terrelle Pryor-Jim Tressel-whose fault is it anyway situation. Then we get back to on the field issues as we discuss what this all means for the Big Ten. If sanctions or a setback are coming to Ohio State then schools like Penn State, Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin and Barrett even offers up Michigan State have a shot at claiming a few B1G titles.
To listen to the showclick here or subscribe to one of the methods listed below.
If you want the podcast you must subscribe to the Feedburner, but if you want to subscribe to the blog please use the RSS Feed. This is for iTunes to be able to archive the shows. You can also search for "In The Bleachers"on iTunes and subscribe to the podcast that way.
Another edition of Friday, Fetch Friday, everything is so Fetch on Friday! We're flying high on the cloud today as the Mavericks beat the Heat in game two of the NBA Finals, overcoming a 15 point fourth quarter deficit to win the game by two. If you follow the kid on the twitter you know that I was extra salty early in the game, um really, just really, totally, extra salty. But then I wasn't upset anymore. Because we won. All it took was me taking a halftime shower, putting on my Dirk shirt and letting the boys go to work.
In other news we've got the podcast up now from yesterday's radio spot with The Insiders from ESPNTriangle. We talk a little Tressel, some Pryor but there are also some tremendous references including; Big Foot the Monster Truck, Shelby my Trooper, my Pat Benatar soundtrack for life and of course the host Mike Maniscalco disparaging today's own Fetch Friday. Thanks to Shannon Penn and Josh Goodson for getting me squared away.
Heading into the weekend we've got Regionals in baseball, the CWS started up in softball and the NBA Finals, for a non-football weekend I'll be honest; I'm pretty happy with my sporting calendar. Roll Tide. Make me right.
We kept it short and sweet folks because I'm on cloud nine and I'm flying high on a Friday!
Of course letting folks know it's Friday is always part of the goal:
As we get down on Friday I'd like to remind folks that as far as fancy goes I might be a bit of a fail in one area, my on-going battle with emails from Neiman Marcus. I don't want to stop the emails, I just want them to decrease the daily volume, why can't this happen?
On the sports front the biggest thing going on right now are the NBA Playoffs and for me, the close of the college spring sport season. Lacrosse tournament is starting, college baseball is in its final week and of course softball is into their conference tournaments. Yes, I'll be watching as I'm sure at least one of my twitter peeps will be too.
Looking forward to the selection show for the ladies and before you guys get it all screwed up, as plenty of guys have on twitter: I'm not watching college softball to ogle ladies, I actually enjoy the games. They're fast paced, exciting and to be honest, these girls can play. The only sports I'm not watching over college softball? NCAA and NFL Football, NBA basketball and NCAA and MLB baseball. Yeah, I said it.
At the risk of pissing off the many fine Auburn, Florida and Tennessee folks plus anyone out there in Pac-10 land; ROLL TIDE! That's not necessarily who I'm rooting for so much as the Crimson Tide is my pick to win the Women's College World Series. Kelsi is going to get it Dunne this year. Closing on bad puns is fun.
So I thought that we had the expansion thing all locked up after the dust settled on the new Big Twelve, the new Big East with TCU, the new Big Ten and the all new and improved Pac-12. But apparently the Big East might not be done yet as they sit at the odd number of 17 teams in a league that runs from Syracuse, NY to Fort Worth, TX and east to Tampa, FL. We are joined by the College Football Examiner Kevin McGuire to chat about this whole Villanova to the Big East mess that has caused quite a stir in the college football world.
Folks are torn up over the prospect of an FCS team making an instant jump to the BCS ranks with no stop over and to be honest, from where I sit, I don't particularly care if the Big East adds them or not. The Wildcats have their issues with attendance in the Philly metro area and they don't have the facilities or cash to truly finance the move. That said, the Big East asked Nova, the school did the feasibility study and here we stand waiting to here what I believe to be a humbled "thanks but we can't."
McGuire and I talk about the entire Nova situation, their struggle to draw fans and where the Big East ultimately goes in their never ending quest to gain a larger piece of the college football pie that's dangling out there. This is less about "TV Market" and more about inventory and finding some match ups and games to be broadcast on all platforms the networks have to offer.
We also get into the UCF question. Personally I'm down with Central Florida as the best candidate to fill the void and with their ever rising tide aligning with them earlier should move the Big East into a good position.
To listen to the showclick here or subscribe to one of the methods listed below.
If you want the podcast you must subscribe to the Feedburner, but if you want to subscribe to the blog please use the RSS Feed. This is for iTunes to be able to archive the shows. You can also search for "In The Bleachers"on iTunes and subscribe to the podcast that way.
This is a very special podcast folks as we've got Ryan Taylor on the show to talk about the UNC controversy, the 2010 season, his NFL draft stock and of course the process of getting to his ultimate goal; playing in the league. Taylor garnered somewhat of a cult following among the truly die hard UNC fans as a Mr. Everything for the Heels. He started on special teams from day one, played some tight end, then moved to defense, then back to offense as a fullback and then finally settling in at tight end, again, for his final season.
Ryan Taylor had somewhat of a break out year in his fifth year as he was pressed into more action than expected as Zack Pianalto, the starter, suffered yet another season ending injury. Taylor posted up 36 catches for 330 yards but hidden within those numbers is the turn he took to finish the season when the Heels needed him; 21 catches for 217 yards in the final three games. That's a 7 catch and 72 yard average, the biggest showing coming in the Music City Bowl where the Heels pulled out a late win over Tennessee.
Taylor talks about the pre-season turmoil the Heels experienced and how, as a team, they were able to fight through it starting with entering the season opener against LSU down 14 men (no I'm not about to cry when I say I was proud of their fight). He also discusses his break out in the wake of the Pianalto injury and how he was just happy he could step up when his number was finally called. As talk turns to the NFL we discuss where he fits in the league, how the shift towards multi-tight end sets has helped increase his value and how special teams will impact his ability to help a team in the league.
Ryan also drops some news on Hunter Furr tearing it up in spring ball, really stepping up to the plate as the Heels search for a feature back and talks about both Bryn Renner and AJ Blue.
We have a our first country song as a little live Blake Shelton "Playboys of the Southwestern World" gets a spin.
To listen to the showclick here or subscribe to one of the methods listed below.
If you want the podcast you must subscribe to the Feedburner, but if you want to subscribe to the blog please use the RSS Feed. This is for iTunes to be able to archive the shows. You can also search for "In The Bleachers"on iTunes and subscribe to the podcast that way.
Spring is in the air and even though here in NC we've stumbled upon a cold snap that has forced me to put the electric blanket back on the bed in the college football world things are in full spring mode. Teams are fine tuning, position battles are raging and we're getting our first look at what we'll see on the field in 156 days. With that in mind Bud Elliott from Tomahawk Nation and myself have decided to bring you Project Spring Top 25. A little idea we kicked around that let us talk some football on the national level and bring you our very early prediction on where teams fall when it comes to rankings.
As you all know Bud is one of our favorite guests and he and I get into a lot of football so be ready to listen because we ran for about an hour talking about teams, players and coaches we're looking forward to watching develop. There's some bonus talk as we get into the 11 teams that one of use left off their top 25 and we get deep on our Spring Top 10, which we do agree on. Just so you know these are more akin to "Power Rankings" than to predictions of the season, we did take suspensions into account though because having a player like Michael Floyd does affect the actual strength of Notre Dame.
A lot going on here so I'll let you folks dive right into it but here is a preview of the teams in our Top 10, no spoiler alert here folks I'm not going to list them in anything but alphabetical order for you: Alabama, Boise State, Florida State, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas A&M.
And we got a little Grace Potter "Paris" kicking it off just because I like the jam. Oooh la la.
To listen to the showclick here or subscribe to one of the methods listed below.
If you want the podcast you must subscribe to the Feedburner, but if you want to subscribe to the blog please use the RSS Feed. This is for iTunes to be able to archive the shows. You can also search for "In The Bleachers"on iTunes and subscribe to the podcast that way.
Kick your week off with another edition of the In The Bleachers podcast as we've got an ITB rookie on the program talking sports from across the board. We have Nubyjas Wilborn on today from the website 
