November 24, 2016
ANNOUNCEMENT DELAYED
A special (positive, we hope) announcement on the status of SPORTSGUMBO—Denham Springs, scheduled for this newsletter, will be delayed for either 1 or 2 weeks.
OVER/UNDER
The Las Vegas oddsmakers initially set the over/under at 2 ½ plates for Jon Fine to consume during Thanksgiving Day. But, with new information garnered from the SPORTSGUMBO—Denham Springs’ Wednesday, 11/23 program, Las Vegas has revised its line. Guests Gerard Landry (Mayor, Denham Springs) and Kevin Caballero (DSHS Basketball coach) advised listeners to take the Over. The line has now risen to 3 plates!
HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!!
SPORTSGUMBO—Denham Springs is off both Thursday and Friday.
… SportsCentral is off for Thanksgiving as well.
IF YOU LIKE THIS NEWSLETTER (WHICH IS FREE) AND/OR YOU ARE AN ATHLETIC FAN WHO LIVES IN DENHAM SPRINGS PLEASE help us spread the good word of SPORTSGUMBO-Denham Springs by liking us on Facebook at SportsGumboDenhamSprings and following us on Twitter at SportsGumboDS.
THE SCHEDULE
SPORTSGUMBO—DENHAM SPRINGS (MONDAY—FRIDAY, 7AM—8AM, ON FAMILY RADIO, 91.9FM, BATON ROUGE) AND ON THE NET AT SPORTSGUMBO. NET. THE PROGRAM IS HOSTED AND PRODUCED BY JON FINE.:
UPCOMING LINE-UP:
MONDAY: Catholic HS Head Football Coach Dale Weiner
TUESDAY: Livingston Parish Assessor Jeff Taylor
NOLA. COM sportswriter Ron Higgins
WEDNESDAY: FloridaSportstalk host Mark McCloed (discussing SEC championship)
Philadelphia sports personality Paul Jolovitz
THURSDAY: Denham Springs HS Baseball coach Mark Carroll
Denham Springs HS Baseball player Brock Batty (signed with ULL)
Denham Springs HS Girls Basketball assistant coach JoAnna Tate
Dr. Joseph Heneghan, North Oaks
North Oaks Health Minute
PLUS GAME RESULT UPDATES FROM DSHS BOYS BASKETBALL COACH KEVIN CABALLLERO AND STAFF, + DSHS GIRLS BASKETBALL COACH SHELLY LAPRARIE AND STAFF
GET ARRESTED
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SPORTSCENTRAL
off for Thanksgiving
BATON ROUGE AREA BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
MONDAY—FRIDAY: 7am—8am: SPORTSGUMBO—Denham Springs, Family Radio, 91.9 FM, Baton Rouge… … … or on the net at JonFineProductions.com
Jon Fine OFF FOR THANKSGIVING AND FOR BLACK FRIDAY
THURSDAY: 5pm—6pm: SportsCentral
Family Radio, 91.9 FM, Baton Rouge… Les Bueche, Sid Edwards, Frank Fresina OFF FOR THANKSGIVING
SPORTSRADIO, 1310 AM PROGRAMMING OF INTEREST:
Sulphur HS Football Radio Broadcasts (also heard on KEZMOnLine.com)
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
What a terrible week to be a LSU and Saint fan. As a very good coach that I use to coach with would tell his team, “You do your job and if the other team makes a great play, you tip your cap to them and move on to the next play.”
The problem last week is that the Tigers and Saints “gave” their games away. They weren’t beaten by their opponent, instead they beat themselves.
In the preseason, I said the Saints problem the last two years has been that the weak areas of the team are extremely weak. At that time, the offensive line looked to be a mess. Thankfully, the line has developed into a strength.
Instead, this year has been thrown off the rails by awful special team plays. Notice I said “plays” as in specific plays and not overall “play.” The coverage teams have been significantly better than years past and until he got hurt, Morestead has kicked amazingly well.
The returners and field goal team have had tremendously terrible blunders that have cost the Saints games, though. The fact is there are two teams right now in the NFL that can win consistently even if they make huge mistakes that give their opponents points, the Cowboys and the Patriots. The rest of the league is either made of teams that aren’t talented enough to win consistently or teams that win only if they don’t beat themselves.
The Saints have lost 6 games this year. The Saints out played their opponent but still lost due to tremendously poor individual plays against the Chiefs, Giants, and Panthers. The Saints lost to the Raiders and Broncos with a combination of rotten officials’ calls at the very end, self-inflicted wounds, and against the Raiders I would say injuries on defense. The Falcons simply out classed a Saints team that was trying to figure out how to put a NFL caliber defense on the field with all the injuries.
On the other hand, the Saints beat the Chargers because the Chargers were better at beating themselves then even the Saints at the time. The Saints defeated the Panthers and Seahawks in games that were closer than they should have been (more self-inflicted wounds). The Saints out classed the Niners.
From my perspective, the Saints have one clear win and one clear loss. Every other game has come down to execution. Unfortunately, the Saints continue to have one aspect of their team that is so far below NFL minimum standards that it prevents them from winning games. That has been the fatal flaw of the last three years.
Meanwhile, LSU put on a clinic on how NOT to win. The Tigers were quick to give Florida running backs credit, but I didn’t see LSU tackle anyone in orange including the quarterback on multiple sack opportunities or the receiver on a 98 yards touchdown. That is the challenge of playing four physical games in four weeks at the end of the year.
Nevertheless, LSU talked smack and didn’t back it up. Once again, Tiger fans feel they had the better, more talented team and still lost. LSU is very talented, but the truth is that LSU has major weaknesses that they cannot overcome against teams that have good enough athletes to avoid giving up the big play to LSU.
As I have said for most of the year, the offensive line is below average. Some of that is due to players playing hurt (which is a sign of poor depth) and the rest is due to playing guards at tackle and a tackle at center. LSU’s best teams this century have NFL talent on the offensive and defensive lines. This team does not have that on the offensive line.
The defensive line has NFL talent on the edge, but not in the middle. Beckwith has helped LSU overcome some of that, but when he went down, so did the middle of LSU’s defense.
Sadly, LSU is a 4 loss team (or 5 loss depending on Thursday night) this year with players like White, Adams, Key, Fournette, Guice, Beckwith, and others. Great players on the edge, but you would have to move down the list of LSU’s best players to get to interior players. That is the fatal flaw of this year’s team. That is why LSU has lost their last two games at home and have scored a total of 10 points in those two games. I don’t care how good the defenses are for Bama and Florida.
And that brings us to the LSU coaching search. I will repeat the sentiment that this “job interview” for Coach O is a poor way to choose a coach. If Guice goes the right way, he walks into the end zone and LSU wins. Does that one play mean that Coach O would be able to transform LSU’s offense into a philosophy that is on par with this decade and on par with the championship level defense LSU possesses? Of course not.
Some in the national media are under the impression that Les Miles lost his job because of one final play in the Auburn game. If that had been the case, they would be correct in determining that play as a bad reason to make a change. Likewise, one play against Florida should not eliminate a coach from being hired.
A year ago, LSU’s leadership acted like the Bad News Bears and bungled an opportunity to get Jimbo Fisher. Not closing the deal last year cost LSU the playoff this year. I would put a lot of money on that statement without blinking an eye (pretty easy to do when there is no way of ever knowing).
If that statement isn’t strong enough for you, though, try the next couple. LSU would have made the playoff this year if Fisher, Herman, or Orgeron had been named head coach a year ago next week. Furthermore, those are the only three candidates for the job that Alleva should make an effort to get no matter what happens Thanksgiving night. Chew on that with your turkey.
HEY REF
BY DENNIS DEARIE,
VETERAN LOUISIANA HIGH SCHOOL REFEREE
O. K. let’s get the obvious out of the way, just how much is LSU willing to pay in getting a new, full time head coach? Maybe the question should be worded “How many MILLIONS” will LSU fork over in its desire to beat Alabama? After all that’s what LSU not only wants of the next coach but will demand of whoever accepts the head coaching position. I won’t beat around the bush because beating ‘Bama is of course the top requirement for many of those individuals that will have to dig deep into their pockets to entice any new head coach.
I’m going to tell my age here when I say that Steve Austin won’t be the only $6 million dollar man. LSU will need plenty of help to cover what most likely will be a minimum check for at least a $6 million annual base salary. It doesn’t end there in this “win at all cost” society we live in today. The faithful will then have to dig even deeper to provide the new coach with a house, cars, health insurance and so on. The package has to run for at least four years with a conservative final cost of around $32 to as high as maybe $40 million dollars. And that’s not counting a hefty “BUY OUT” in case the new coach doesn’t beat Alabama in both of his first two seasons.
Of course I’d be reckless if I didn’t admit this is all just speculation but remember most of these new-day million and billionaires got rich by doing exactly that; speculating in the stock market. It would also be reckless of me if I didn’t ask “Just where and when will all this madness end”? The vast majority of people crowing into Tiger Stadium on any given Saturday night can’t afford to pitch-in. Now unless I’m in a huge minority I can say over 95% of the people I know and have worked with can’t afford to miss a single paycheck.
Any hike in ticket prices or parking permits or hamburgers and hot dogs might just bankrupt the faithful. So many people I know have to pull out the plastic when acquiring their season tickets. As one close friend admitted “I’ve got to stretch out paying for my season tickets over the year”. When I replied that I didn’t understand what he’d just told me he explained it takes him a full year, twelve payments, to afford just the tickets to those magical Saturday Nights. (His words, not mine)
At the end of the day though I believe Jimbo will stay at Florida State, hell why would he want to move back here? At LSU it isn’t about winning but rather it’s games lost to Alabama, Ole Miss, Florida and Arkansas. Jimbo is a proven winner I won’t deny that and he’s winning where he is. The ONLY and let me repeat myself, the ONLY reason he’d come back to Tiger Stadium is MONEY!
So, is it in LSU’s best interest to hire someone that only cares about the dollars they’ll put in his checking account? After all that’s the only thing today’s coaches look for when relocating. It’s not about relationships or building character in young men, no simply put “IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS”. I don’t think LSU cares why he’d leave the sunshine state to come to this swamp. Rather their only concern would be if the Purple and Gold could finally get back to beating The Crimson Tide on a regular basis. So, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, mortgage the rest of your life and deposit into another coach that’ll jump ship if he can put just one more dollar in his pockets.
Enjoy Turkey day this year because it could be the last one many people will be able to afford once Jimbo signs on the dotted line. I know it’s sad to think that many will not be able to enter Tiger Stadium and enjoy those magical nights because the only thing that matters is the won – lost record of the next coach and the one after him then the one after him and on and on. What a great world we’ve built.
Till next week…
Jon Fine Wreaking Havoc at:
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