September 25, 2014
THE DRU NETTLES SHOW
The Dru Nettles Show airs tonight, 6pm—7pm, on Cox 4 Television, Baton Rouge. Replays can be seen Fridays at 11am and Saturdays at 1pm. The show is hosted by Denham Springs HS Athletic Director/Head Football Coach Dru Nettles and yours truly, Jon Fine… This week’s guests on the program include Live Oak Football Coach Tut Musemeche.—The Jackets face the Eagles on Friday night. Also scheduled to appear are Jackets assistant coach Justin Wax and DSHS Senior cornerback Dareyn Wilson. There will be an academic segment, featuring Larry Davis of FCA. The sponsor of the week is Taddi Brown of Screen Tech Promotion.—Who’s your daddy, Taddi? There’ll be highlights of last week’s Denham game against Catholic and I’ll interview Coach Nettles
SPORTSCENTRAL
Join Hosts Sid Edwards and Steve Johnson on SportsCentral, tonight, 5pm—6pm, on WUBR, 910AM (CBS Sports Radio) Baton Rouge… on the net at PelicanSportsTV.com… and the Tune In App: search WUBR… from Coach’s. Tonight’s guests include assistant coach Stuart Chambliss and players Xavier Lewis, Josh Tanksley and Jeremiah Ward
Steve, a reminder to see if you can pick up the check of $97.50 from like 9 months ago that Coach Gardner owes us. Sorry to keep on asking you to do this, but I’ve tried at least 20 times to get this taken care of. I know you've tried a number of times too Thanks. Jon
TAF LEADER IN DENHAM
The guest speaker this week at Rotary of Livingston is Tiger Athletic Foundation (TAF) CEO General Ron Richard. The public is invited. The meeting takes place on Friday, Noon-1pm, at Big Mike’s Sports Bar & Grill in Denham Springs.
BATON ROUGE AREA BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
Thursday, September 25: 5pm—6pm: SportsCentral… with Sid Edwards and Steve Johnson
WUBR, 910AM (CBS Sports Radio) Baton Rouge
PelicanSportsTV.com
App: search WUBR… from Coach’s
Thursday, September 25: 6pm—7pm: The Dru Nettles Show… with Dru Nettles and Jon Fine
Cox 4 Television
Baton Rouge… note new replay times: Friday, September 26 at 11am and Saturday, September 27 at 1 pm
Friday, September 26: 6pm: Denham Springs HS at Live Oak HS
Jon Fine, Brian Abels, Nathan Landry
Fox Sports Radio, 1210AM, Baton Rouge… and on the net at JonFineProductions.com
SportsRadio 1310 Radio, Lake Charles Programming of Interest (also heard on KEZMOnLine.com):
Friday, September 26: 6:45pm: Sulphur HS vs New Iberia HS
Bruce Merchant, Clopha Boudreaux
Saturday, September 27: 9AM—10AM: All Things Football with Scott Holtzman
Monday, September 29: 8AM—10AM: The Locker Room with John Goodman and Jim Gazzolo
WE THANK YOU FOR DOING YOUR UTMOST TO PATRONIZE SPONSORS OF OUR PROGRAMMING. THIS HELPS US TREMENDOUSLY IN SUSTAINING OUR WEEKLY LINE-UP AND WILL ASSIST US IN ADDING MORE PROGRAMS IN THE FUTURE. KINDLY MAKE AN EFFORT TO LET SPONSORS KNOW YOU HEARD THEIR BUSINESS MENTIONED ON OUR BROADCAST(S).
THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
LSU gets dominated for 3.5 quarters by MSU at home and now LSU isn't talented? That is what I am hearing from many people and I don't buy it. I said last week, that the LSU coaches had decided they could make 2014 look like 2011. That is the mistake.
That does not mean LSU has to lose 5-7 games as some have suggested this week. It simply means LSU has to look themselves in the mirror, realize who they are, and adjust.
Sean Payton and the Saints did that this week. Patrick Robinson did not play, the safeties did. Payton stuck with the running game, almost to fault this time. The Saints found a way to minimize their weaknesses for a week and get a win.
LSU for the majority of the time against MSU and Wisconsin has minimized their strengths and maximized their weaknesses (which is backwards for those who are missing the point). The great news is these issues can be turned around quickly without an overhaul of philosophy.
The offensive line can once again be a strength. How? Stop asking them to be the line of 2011 that could block 8 defenders with 7 players. I still don't know how we did it in 2011, but it is clear we are not able in 2014. While many are down on the offensive line, I am not. Considering they have been asked to star next to Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 5 (sorry, I lost track where we are in that series), they have done pretty well. Give them a chance with even numbers and don't ask them to protect 5 step drops on third and long all night and I think they will do just fine. Oh, and scrap the running back screens for now.
The quarterbacks can look much better too. No, really, I have not lost my mind. They say the tight end is the quarterback's best friend. So let's give these guys a friend. We have 7 on the roster. Also, we all know first down is the easiest down to pass the ball. It may keep us out of third and long which will be a weakness all year because we don't have a big armed 6'5" quarterback with two stud, experienced receivers like last year. We can still run 70% of the time. Just mix it up on first down and then you can run on third down because it is third and short instead of third and long.
The middle of the field on our defense has been a valley of open land for over a year now. Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn, Wisconsin, and Mississippi State have found that out the last two years. This is the one area the Tigers can take their cue from the Saints. Charles Brown and Patrick Robinson had ample opportunity before it was time to give other players chances. The same is true for the Tigers that defend the middle of the field. If the backups are not ready then move other players to those spots and play them.
If that doesn't work, load up the box. Mississippi State was blocking even numbers all night. 6 on 6. See if they can block 6 on 7. Make teams that like to run right at you do something else. Even if they make a play or two on the outside, then force them to do it all night. Nobody will run all night in the same place when outnumbered in the middle of the field....well almost nobody. We don't okay ourselves this year do we?
Seriously, the Georgia game was a wake up call last year. That was okay because Georgia is Georgia. It just hurts Tiger fans feelings that Mississippi State was the butt whipping to make the fans realize LSU is not so outrageously talented that they can just line up and dominate without regard to what the other team does well. We will see in two weeks if that message was received inside the LSU football operational building.
HEY REF
By Dennis Dearie
Veteran Louisiana High School Referee
They say rules are made to be broken and we as officials are supposed to penalize those that break the rules. But when is a penalty not supposed to be enforced? Case in point; last year the High School rulebook added an extra mark off of fifteen yards when a defensive player intentionally commits pass interference. In effect we could possibility be walking off 30 yards and not in the direction they’d want.
During our discussion of the added enforcement I told our association that in my 20 plus years of working high school football that I’d only called “intentional” pass interference ONCE! It happened many years ago in a game between Capital and Broadmoor. On the Lions’ sideline was the legendary Head Coach Roman Bates and he let me know very quickly how he didn’t appreciate my flagging his deep safety!!!
I’ll never forget how upset he was when informed that I ruled the interference as INTENTIONAL. On the play; right before halftime, the Bucs were driving and their “Hail Mary” pass to score went over their player’s head, bouncing at the goal line. What he didn’t see (and I did) was the receiver made an out ‘n up move that his player “bit” on and “bit” hard. As plain as day I could see the defender’s eyes get as big as basketballs.
In an instant the defender knew he was what we kindly refer to as “toast” and made a quick kick at the receiver’s legs as he moved to make the catch. This kicking of course caused the receiver to fall flat on his face as I watched the ball go rolling into the endzone. I made a bee-line towards the two players just in case someone might want to retaliate for this cheap shot and the loss of a certain six points. I looked straight at the defender and asked what he was trying to do and he simply answered “I had to keep him out of the endzone”!
Coach Bated screamed it wasn’t intentional and that they just got their feet tangled up and I should “eat” my flag. As I finished explaining the reason for the flag to my referee I made my way to the huddle and told the player to go and tell his coach exactly what he said to me. I’ve never seen fear come over a player’s face so quickly in all my days wearing stripes. He had the look of death all across his face and he begged me not to tell his coach that he kicked the feet from under the receiver in his attempt to deny him a touchdown.
Of course I never told Coach Bates what his player said and I’ve never called intentional interference again because it’s one of the hardest things for any official to do; deem intent by any player. My reason for bringing this play up is simple; without a doubt the intent was to cause an incompletion.
During discussion of the new “intent” rule on pass interference we reviewed actual game film of a college game where almost the exact same play occurred except the defender tackled the wide receiver as he ran by him with the pass in the air and headed right to this receiver. I said that this is a perfect example of intentional pass interference in which we’d have to walk off the extra 15 yards.
But to my surprise and disagreement we were told NOT to call intent even though it was very obvious on this play that the defender had 1,000% intent on keeping the receiver from catching a sure touchdown pass. And if you’ve made it this far, here lies the greatest test on an official.
We as officials are told to let the players and coaches decide the outcome of every contest. We are there for one purpose; not to allow either team an advantage by going outside the intent of the rules. And there’s my big disagreement with the powers that be. The job of officiating football is very tough with the size and speed of today’s athletes. Our job to control the players and coaches is very tough, tougher than anybody can imagine if they’ve never stood on the field and tried to watch 22 men going at full speed in every direction imaginable.
I’d like to know how coaches feel about this rule. Has any coach had the “extra” 15 yards tacked onto a pass interference call? I can’t see any rule being in the book if it wasn’t needed nor wanted. I know that as officials we have enough to concentrate on without meaningless rules that no one wants called.
I’ll wait and hope to get some coaches input on this and any other rule they feel needs to be removed from the book or if they’d like one added to drop me a line and I’ll share it with the officials working their games. And of course if any coach has a question about the guys in stripes working their games or a call one of ‘em made to also drop me a line because I’ll make every effort to get them the correct answers. Might not be the one they want but it’ll be the correct answer…
Till next week…
The Rotary Club of Livingston Parish
Rotary Bull
By Ivy Graham
“Service Above Self”
Please visit our website at www.rotaryclublp.org.
This week’s meeting:
• This week’s meeting will be held at Big Mike’s. Fellowship begins at 11:30. The meeting is from 12:00-1:00. This week’s guest speaker is no body? Well, even without a guest speaker, Rotary is super fun times to be had on Friday so you are not going to want to miss an opportunity to see all your friends this Friday!
Last week’s meeting:
• Last week Marcel Dupre spoke to our club about the youth exchange programs offered through Rotary. Besides being a great way to get rid of your own teenager for a year; you can get another teenager in their place! I don’t know about you, but this whole program has brilliant idea written all over it!;)
• Our club has a brag jar. Better bring your dollars folks!
• Animal Shelter project creeps forward.
Proposed Members (any names in this section have asked to be a member of our club. If any member has an opinion regarding accepting or denying the application of the names below please notify leadership.)
• McHugh David (a.k.a. Lightning)
Upcoming Events/Projects:
• Nothing
We better get planning!
Note from the President:
• September is New Generations month. We spend this month infecting the minds of our youth… you like rotary; you love rotary; you want to be a Rotarian!!! And the cycle continues
Guest Speakers and General Membership Meeting Dates:
• Oct 10 – District Governor, Ms. Proctor
• Nov 14 - Patrick Beauchamp, Farm Bureau
Brags:
• Heather missed Ivy; Ivy missed Heather… people cried; it was emotional.
• Curt Nickels does not like Service Writers. I hope that makes more sense to the people who attended the meeting.
• Leesha Gleber welcomed our guests in her traditional inviting way – thanks for visiting Lee Ann!
Members:
• Your quarterly dues have been distributed. Please kindly and timely submit your payment to Lisa Casas.
• Shirts for sale only $7.00 for members. These things are selling like hotcakes!
JON IS PROUD TO WORK AS A MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE FOR SPORTSRADIO-1310-KEZM-LAKE CHARLES, IN ESTABLISHING THE “DOLLAR A HOLLER” MARKETING PROGRAM AND HELPING SELL BARBE HS BASEBALL AND SOUTH LAKE CHARLES PLAYOFF BROADCASTS
AND AS A MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE/ CONSULTANT FOR SPORTSCENTRAL ON WUBR,910AM (CBS SPORTS RADIO), BATON ROUGE.