November 17, 2018

SportsFilter: The Saturday Huddle:

A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.

posted by huddle to general at 06:00 AM - 5 comments

John Urschel Goes Pro in Mathematics

"I have, or had, more math talent than football talent," Urschel tells me. "I fully believe this." But the world is on the lookout for football players. His coaches at Canisius, an all-boys Jesuit high school, continually encouraged him to think big, bigger, biggest. If he worked at it, he could play in college. He could play in the Big Ten. There was a chance he could play in the NFL. From his math teachers? Zero. That changed at Penn State, where Urschel enrolled in 2009 to study math and play football. (He was offered a full scholarship to Stanford, but turned it down; he had already committed to PSU.) If you believe in the ideal of the student-athlete you are going to like the story of John Urschel in college a lot.

https://hmmdaily.com/2018/09/28/john-urschel-goes-pro/

posted by FLsportsman at 02:02 PM on November 17, 2018

A Baseball Bat Dies, and Chopsticks Are Born

The Japanese, meticulous in their approach to baseball, recycling and reuse, have figured out how to make good use of splintered bats.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/sports/baseball/chopsticks.html

posted by FLsportsman at 02:03 PM on November 17, 2018

Duly noted that Lane Kiffin and his FAU squad got cadenized by North Texas yesterday.

And was a bit surprised to find out that Les Miles decided to terminate his $9 million dollar LSU buyout so he could go coach Kansas. Can't picture him getting a big buyout agreement from the Jayhawks, who paid Charlie Weis more than $5.5 million to vamoose.

posted by beaverboard at 02:05 PM on November 17, 2018

Kiffin's team decadenized the Mean Green twice last year, so this is sweet revenge.

Mason Football is a helluva quarterback. UNT did that thing where you find the overlooked too-short prep standout who broke all his state's records and he plays bigger.

posted by rcade at 09:31 AM on November 18, 2018

Have to like those undersized QB's. Especially from Texas. You got your D'Eriq King, whose injury is such a loss to Houston. And King's HC was a winner himself during his playing days at Texas.

I always liked watching Major Applewhite play. His helmet looked like it was too big for his head and was going to pitch forward and cover his eyes. Texas kept trying to give the job to bigger name QB's, and Major kept going back out there and making positive things happen whenever he got the opportunity. The unit really responded to him when he was on the field.

Some guys just play bigger than their actual size. Then there's Osweiler.

posted by beaverboard at 10:49 AM on November 18, 2018

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