Sports Fodder: Want a better start? Take on an easier schedule

Sports fodder for a Friday morning . . .

Has the Nevada Wolf Pack football team suddenly forgotten how to play the sport? Are they relegated to college football's never-never land forever, a middle-of-the-road mid-major lost in the shuffle of meaningless bowl games, a non-BCS conference and 7-6 records? Is this what we have to accept? Of course not. The Wolf Pack is 13-17 in its last 30 games because its athletic department, which is understandably blinded by the bright lights and even brighter dollars of the mighty ESPN, doesn't know how to build a team-friendly schedule. Florida opens with Charleston Southern and Troy. Nevada gets Notre Dame and Colorado State on the road and follows that with a home game against Missouri. The Pack played Texas Tech and Missouri in back-to back weeks in 2008 and opened with Nebraska and Northwestern on the road in 2007. The finances of college sports these days require schools to schedule tough teams. But you have to be smarter about it than the Pack has been in recent years.

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 Missouri handed Chris Ault his most lopsided loss in his Wolf Pack coaching career last year (69-17). There were not-so-quiet whispers around Wolf Pack World for months after that game that Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel ran up the score on the Pack because Pinkel was doing his buddy Chris Tormey a favor. Tormey, an assistant coach with Pinkel at Washington under Don James, was fired by the Pack and athletic director Chris Ault after the 2003 season. That might all be true. But here's an idea. If you don't want a team to run up the score on you, how about trying not to give up huge touchdown plays? Missouri had five touchdowns last year on offense against the Pack defense of 20 yards or more.

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  An Oregon fan recently e-mailed Ducks coach Chip Kelly asking for a refund of all his expenses after traveling to Boise to watch the Ducks get beat. Kelly mailed the guy a check for $439. Bad idea. Horrible idea. Every football coach in the nation should take Kelly off their Christmas card list. College football fans already believe they have the right to call plays, hire and fire coaches, make out the schedule and pick the starting quarterback. But a refund? Are you kidding? College football isn't pro wrestling or a Disney movie. You can't guarantee a happy ending. It's Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards. You never know what you're going to get. It's not like buying a blender at Wal-Mart where you can return it if it doesn't match your kitchen decor.

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 Hey, Wolf Pack fans, if you ventured to Notre Dame or Colorado State and would like a refund, it might not be a good idea to send Chris Ault an e-mail with your invoice attached. It's just a hunch, but you might have a better chance of getting a refund if you send it to Chip Kelly.

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  Evander Holyfield, unfortunately, insists that he is not finished fighting. The guy, who used to call himself "The Real Deal," now goes by the nickname of "Lean Green Fighting Machine" because, well, he is now fighting global warming. Evander, how about fighting someone with a pulse first before, you know, trying to tackle the environment? It is impossible to take boxing seriously anymore.

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 Bobby Cox, who hit .255 for the 1960 Reno Silver Sox as a 19-year-old Los Angeles Dodgers' minor leaguer, announced this week that he is going to retire as Atlanta Braves manager after the 2010 season.  How nice. Does that mean the Braves can't fire him before then?

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 A lot of so-called experts are picking the Detroit Lions to end their 19-game losing streak and beat the Washington Redskins this weekend. We have two thoughts about that. First of all, there is no such thing as an expert when it comes to predicting NFL games and, second, you are not going to get rich betting on the Lions.

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 A couple of fights broke out between members of the Kansas University football and men's basketball teams this week. The incidents brought to mind the conflict between a few members of the Wolf Pack football and men's basketball teams last spring. What, exactly, is happening on college campuses? Are college football and men's basketball teams the new gangs? Don't those guys wear the same colors? And what, exactly, are they fighting over? Cheerleaders? Cell phones?  The most Twitter followers? I liked it better when football players beat up science, math and journalism majors. There was a certain order to it. Everyone knew their place. Basketball and football players beating each other up is just wrong.

Joe Santoro is a freelance writer for the Sierra Nevada Media Group. His past columns can be viewed online at www.recordcourier.com.