Spanning Attention

--Joe Flacco is going to become the NFL's highest paid player, but is a borderline top 10 NFL quarterback. Proof positive that a rigged Super Bowl and rigged MVP award can make those Disney dreams come true.

--As spring football commences, and Bo Pinelli vows to pay attention to the defense this year, PYB has just finished reading "Unbeatable" -- an account of Tom Osborne's last three seasons as Nebraska's football coach. The book spans more than 350 pages, complete with some interesting inside tidbits, along with the trite, overtold, stories every NU fan has heard 1000 times. It's definitely worth a read. A few of our biggest takeaways:

• When the Cornhuskers demolished Colorado in Boulder in 1995 (a Top 10 team), they committed no penalties, had no turnovers, and allowed no sacks. That's 180 degrees from the current train wreck in Lincoln, where the nation's leading fumbler resides under center and the offensive line coach mysteriously became a tight ends coach. We're fine.
• Osborne quit his job as coach, despite leading one of the greatest runs in college football history, because he'd promised Rat Solich he'd coach five more years before stepping aside. He felt it was his duty to keep that promise. Holy shit.
• Osborne was a great football coach, but a bad athletic director. He built buildings, but led the athletic department to its lowest level of national relevance in 25 years. His first move as a de facto AD came when he pressured Chancellor James Moeser and then-Athletic Director Billy Byrne into agreeing to hire Solich. Byrne had built one of the top five athletic programs in the country by that point, making NU a regular in the Directors' Cup standings. His short list for coaches before TO flushed the program down the shitter: Mack Brown, Phil Fulmer, and Jim Tressel. Ouch. Yep, we know Mack Brown is a shitty game coach, but he can recruit. Fulmer eventually flamed in Knoxville, but had a long, successful run. Tressel was a crook, but so was a good portion of the NU roster in the 1990s. All three won national titles. Solich pissed away at least two chances before being rightfully fired.
• Osborne actually emphasized special teams play and had specific coaches assigned to those units. Novel concept.
• Traits of successful quarterback play were leadership, ball security and wins. Statistics were an afterthought.
• Under Osborne, speed was considered an asset to the football team and thought to improve chances of winning.

--PYB watched Tim Miles coach circles around John Groce today, as Nebraska traveled to Champaign, Ill. and fell just short in a 72-65 loss to the Illini. It was clear Groce, a media darling hot prospect in the post-season college basketball coaching carousel, was second fiddle in this matchup. On a side note, Miles sported possibly the worst shirt & tie combination we have ever seen (red/black striped tie with a light blue shirt w/ white strips (Huh?). Maybe he does belong in Nebraska after all?

Anyhow, NU held a lead late into the game, until Dylan Talley went cold and Brandon Ubel pissed the bed as he usually does in clutch situations. The zebras then butchered two critical fucking calls, as usual, and it was curtains. A game effort, nonetheless.

--Rory McIlroy WD'd from The Honda Open yesterday because of a toothache. The Golf Channel called it a red flag that his career is spiraling downard. PYB thinks he was tired of playing another shitty, Bermuda-ridden course on the Florida swing. Either that, or he had a date with his new BFF Tiger Woods. Bear trap. Bear trap. Bear trap.

--Gonzaga may become the top-ranked college basketball team on Monday. Anyone else need more proof that college basketball is a disaster these days?

That's all we have for now...enjoy the rest of the weekend. P-Y-B