Family Pack

Hello followers and I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season. It’s like in Miracle on 34th street, “Christmas isn’t a day, it’s a frame of mind." I hope that your frame of mind is a good one this time of year, if it isn’t, I advise in finding a way to get it there.

Maybe I can help you get in a happy frame of mind. I’ll take some time to share my family pack with you this week and we’ll discuss college football and college basketball.

Opening up our family pack, are the veggies to get our appetites started is the excitement of the BCS National Championship on Jan. 7. I am of course excited that Alabama will be playing in it and they’ll be playing a team that deserves to be there. They have withstood challenges all year and have picked up the wins throughout the year. I love the bowl season and cannot wait for the Crimson Tide to play the Fighting Irish.

Another starter is a congratulation to Johnny Heisman, formerly Johnny Manziel. You took home the coveted Heisman award and have earned it all year. Well done sir.

We will get into the wings here and the coaching moves that have occurred over the past month. This can make for an exciting new life for some ailing teams.

The hot wings are for Arkansas and the hire of Bret Bielema, who is coming over from a successful Wisconsin program and ready to turn around the Razorbacks by going back to the basics. Bielema has taken the Badgers to three straight Rose Bowls and brings a grinding running attack with a strong defense. Be excited Arkansas fans.

The Mild wings are for Kentucky. The hire of Mark Stoops is a hopeful one, hopefully someone can get that program winning a decent amount of games again. I think that the Wildcats have found their man though. Stoops has been the defensive coordinator for an impressive Florida State the past three years and has the Kentucky fans excited and forming a student group called, “Stoops’ Troops”.

The Hawaiian wings are for Auburn and its hire of Gus Malzahn. Malzahn left Auburn last season to pursue a head-coaching position at Arkansas State, only to return a year later with the firing of Gene Chizik. The Tigers’ hire of Malzahn was the least impressive to me until the Volunteers chimed in.

Tennessee hired Butch Jones, not Butch Davis. The Barbeque wings are nice and thick, like all the coaches that turned down the Tennessee job. Butch Jones spent the last season at a Cincinnati team that couldn’t really find its identity. Was it a running team, a passing team, or a defensive team? Quarterback play was the question all season. I’ve seen Volunteer fans question the hire, but the best I saw was that Butch Jones lost to Tennessee two years ago, against Derek Dooley.

The fries this week are crispy and awesome, kind of like the Alabama Crimson Tide senior class on the football team. They will be playing Notre Dame for the player’s chance at a third National Championship in their tenure. Lead by Barrett Jones, Chance Warmack, Robert Lester, Nico Johnson and Michael Williams, but there are always unsung stars that for Nick Saban, do their jobs. Carson Tinker is the long snapper and has been a superb one for the Tide in his years playing, Kelly Johnson has stepped into the teams flex position and Jeremy Shelley who has been the kicker through good times and bad. This is a senior class that has won 50 games with a chance at 51 and two SEC Championships. This class has beaten Auburn three times with a combined score of 144-63 in the four games. This class has only lost three games at Bryant-Denny Stadium and has never lost to Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi and Mississippi State. This a big class for the program, in my mind the greatest class ever.

The extra side is the potato salad, which isn’t my favorite. However some people like it and like the BCS Bowl games, some people like them and others don’t. I’m not going to fault NIU for playing a great season and getting in a bowl game, however Oklahoma deserves to be in the game. I won’t get into my last post with all the SEC teams that deserve to play, because that won’t happen, but the Sooners deserve in a game (I’m looking at you five-loss Wisconsin!).

Since I promised some college basketball, my dips are going to include some. Kentucky fell at home to Baylor for the first time in John Calipari’s tenure. Duke has rolled everyone it has played, while the Big Ten is looking much better than their football teams played this year.

Sorry for the long break in between posts and I plan on getting a some more on in the coming weeks.

Have a great day,
-The Wing Expert