March 5, 2015
LINK TO EBAY STORE
Visit our fledgling e-bay store, ArrestedDevelopmentMediaGuides, by visiting JonFineProductions.com and clicking on the link to the store. Items on auction right now include the 1967 Saints media guide—for their first season, plus media guides for 1968 and 1971.
SPORTSCENTRAL
It’s Coach Sid and Steve Johnson on the air tonight with SportsCentral. See show info just below. Scheduled guests include Coaches Mike Forbes, Frank Fresina and Ron Lewis.
BATON ROUGE AREA BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
Thursday, March 5: 5pm—6pm: SportsCentral… with Sid Edwards and Steve Johnson
WUBR, 910AM (CBS Sports Radio) Baton Rouge
PelicanSportsTV.com
App: search WUBR… from Coach’sJon,
SportsRadio 1310 Radio, Lake Charles Programming of Interest (also heard on KEZMOnLine.com):
Saturday, March 7: 9AM—10AM: All Things Football with Scott Holtzman
Monday, March 9: 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
I am in a bind again. I really want to write about the Pelicans and LSU basketball. I have positive thoughts. But, it seems that every time I do that, disaster strikes.
Before you wonder, the answer is yes. I am superstitious. I am less so now than I used to be. I am very logical, and when push comes to shove I can let the superstitions go. But why risk it in March of basketball season?
LSU starts spring practice on Saturday. So let's play the game of "things I interested in about spring practice” versus “things I will ignore."
I will ignore any mention of how Frank Herron looks. I heard enough of that last fall only to barely see him step foot on the field.
I want to hear that the defensive tackles are disengaging from blocks. I know the quality of the offensive line, so I will feel good if the defensive linemen can win some battles. If I watch the spring game, I will watch that aspect of the game.
I will ignore any story about how much more comfortable the quarterbacks are in the offense.
I want to hear that the ball is rarely hitting the ground in passing drills. Last year, we all heard Coach Cameron restart drills due to drops and errant passes versus air.
I will ignore all depth charts. It is just way too early to worry about that. Besides, true freshmen yet to arrive can effect that. Talk of position battles is just talk.
I will be interested in position changes. We know the fullback is not going away in this offense even though LSU doesn’t really have one at this time. So there may be a player or two moved to that position. One change at another position I would expect, or at least like to hear about, is for Lewis Neal or Frank Herron to play defensive end.
I will ignore all injury reports unless they are major injuries that require surgery.
I will also ignore all reports on formations, plays, and scheme on offense. The spring is time to experiment some, but really solidify base schemes. For the offense, the focus on the spring will be execution and efficiency.
I know every other practice report will analyze the defense to see identify similarities and differences in the Chavis versus Steele schemes. I will mostly ignore all of that as well. Most of the schemes will be base schemes like offense. That being said, if LSU lines up in a 3-4 it will be interesting to see who is on the field.
I will almost completely ignore the Big Cat Drill. The only correlation to performance on the field is if there is a player that always wins or always loses. For example, JC Copland always won his match-ups. Not surprisingly, he was a devastating run blocker. A defensive end that always loses would probably not be ready to “set the edge” in run defense.
The final two aspects of spring practice of interest will from the Spring Game, and both can be determined from the stats. First, is the passing game efficient? Last Spring Game the quarterbacks completed around 50% of their passes and that was a bad sign. Second, if someone has a big day then that will most likely translate to the season. Travin Dural was dominant last year, and had a great season.
Hopefully, the “gods of Louisiana basketball superstition” ignored my opening paragraphs.
HEY REF
By Dennis Dearie
Veteran Louisiana High School Referee
Here at “Hey Ref” we don’t and won’t take credit for something we had nothing to do with. But unless my hunch is wrong there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel in Detroit. To many fans and those that like to call themselves NFL experts, a shock wave is running through the league as the Lions refused to use its franchise tag on defensive star Ndamukong Suh.
In a nutshell this means the Lions are gambling on being successful in landing Suh to a long term deal without using the tag. The Lions have been negotiating for 11 months now to get him to sign on the dotted line so to speak. Some feel Detroit isn’t “playing with a full deck” in allowing him to enter the free agent marketplace since not many teams have enough cash available to make a long term deal that Suh would sign.
Detroit could’ve placed the franchise tag on Suh and continued contract negotiations through the 2015 season. The Lions didn’t pick up the option on Suh for ’15 because doing so would mean his roster spot would’ve cost the club $26.9 million toward its salary cap for the one year. But both team president Tom Lewand and GM Martin Mayhew have said for over a year that they’d have a deal done before free agency started and now are confident they’ll have the defensive player under contract with less than a week left before the opening of the free agency season.
I can tell you that this writer isn’t holding his breath or taking sides because I feel both sides will come out losing no matter what happens in the negotiations. Here are some n umbers for all NFL fans to consider since each and every team must come to terms with the absurd amount of money they are putting out on salaries.
On August 4, 2010 Suh signed a five year contract worth, with bonuses and incentives, $68 million United States dollars. This should tell you how ridiculous these present day contracts work; in 2011 Suh cashed in one incentive, playing 35% of the defensive plays, worth a cool $7.5 million dollars. I’d sure like for my employer to bestow upon me just $1 million for punching the clock just 35% of the time. Things get better too; to help the team once again get under the salary cap in 2012 the team converted $9.71 million of his salary into a signing bonus! Why stop a good thing? Again in 2013 they converted $11.52 million of salary into a, you guessed it, another “SIGNING BONUS”… …
Am I the only person on this planet that feels things have gotten too far out of hand? The league is full of SH*T with this so called salary cap and claiming they need it as a way to hold costs down when in reality they find ways around this small inconvenience and just convert salaries into signing bonuses when the player is already under contract so no new contract is signed. Hence there is no need for a signing bonus.
I don’t want the signing of Suh to seem like a unique situation for Detroit because it’s not. Not by the slightest, by no means is this an isolated thing because each and every NFL team is hard at work “COOKING THE BOOKS”. But where and when does all this lunacy end?
The reason I’m upset is twofold; fans and ticket buyers are getting fleeced. The salary cap continues to grow bigger each year and will again next year. The owners say the reason for this is higher TV royalties which of course they’ve got to split with its players. Why not freeze all salaries? When is enough enough? Why can’t a player make $5 million next year instead of $8 million or more? Why can’t the owners be happy with splitting an $8 BILLION pie in 32 pieces for more than one year?
I guess when you’re industry is controlled by greed and profits are put above people than those that want to sit at the NFL table will continue to pay the price to sit at that table. We get upset at government waste and corporate greed but when it comes down to sports then we just grin and bear it without thinking of anything else.
Till next week… …
-
HS FOOTBALL RADIO BROADCASTS AND THE DRU NETTLES SHOW ARE A JON FINE PRODUCTION. STILL IN ITS FORMATIVE STAGES, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT MEDIA GUIDES, IS OUR FLEDGLING EBAY STORE.
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.