Sports fodder for a Friday morning... The Nevada Wolf Pack didn’t exactly set the Mountain West on fire during Wednesday’s National Letter of Intent signing day. Scout.com rated the Pack’s 15-player recruiting class eighth in the Mountain West, just behind UNLV, whose new coach has been on the job for less than two months and made his reputation on beating Reed High in the Nevada state title game. Brian Polian, who was hired at Nevada because he was supposedly one of the top recruiters in the nation, has yet to transform the Wolf Pack’s talent level after three recruiting classes. The Pack’s recruiting classes under Polian — just like under Chris Ault — are still dominated by a bunch of undersized, under-the-radar guys who might one day make an impact if everything falls into place. Keep your fingers crossed, Pack fans.
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The Pack only signed 15 players and seems to be keeping its fingers crossed on all 15. Does it really make sense for the Wolf Pack to give a scholarship to a long snapper (Manogue’s Wes Farnsworth) and an undersized (6-1, 200 pounds) linebacker (McQueen‘s Ricky Thomas)? Would they have signed Thomas if his father wasn’t the Pack’s cornerbacks coach? Did the Pack really have to go all the way to Chicago to get a small (6-foot, 175 pounds) wide receiver (Dominic Christian) from a small school (Hales Franciscan)? Is it just so they can say they got another kid from Chicago? And why give a scholarship to a quarterback (Baylor Romney) who’s going on a Mormon mission? We understand the Pack havw always had to take risks in recruiting. Schools like Nevada get what they get on signing day and pretend to be happy about it. They rarely, if ever, get what they want. But wasn’t Polian supposed to change all that to some degree by now?
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UNLV also didn’t open many eyes with its class. But what do you expect from a high school coach (ex-Bishop Gorman coach Tony Sanchez) who just learned where his office is located? The Rebels did go to one of Polian’s old neighborhoods (Texas) and grabbed a few players and did steal two players out of Hawaii so Sanchez probably did as well as can be expected. The Rebels also are in the process of rebuilding their facilities as all of that Bishop Gorman booster money starts to flood in. So the Rebels will become more of a recruiting threat to the Pack with each passing year. Just a thought, but the Pack might want to stop handing out valuable scholarships to long snappers, 200-pound linebackers and quarterbacks who won’t show up on campus for two years.
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Another former Reno Bighorns players is tearing up the NBA. Ex-Bighorn Jeremy Lin took the NBA by storm a few years back with the New York Knicks and now ex-Bighorn Hassan Whiteside of the Miami Heat has suddenly become the next Hakeem Olajuwon. Whiteside, who played a total of 25 games (just eight starts) over two seasons in Reno (2010-12), had 24 points, 20 rebounds, three steals and two blocks against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday. That was after the 7-footer had 14 points, 13 rebounds and 12 blocks against the Chicago Bulls on Jan. 25, 16 points and 16 boards against the Milwaukee Bucks on Jan. 27 and 16 points and 24 rebounds against the Dallas Mavericks on Jan. 20. He was drafted by the Sacramento Kings in 2010 after just one year at Marshall, 17 picks after the Wolf Pack’s Luke Babbitt and one pick ahead of the Pack’s Armon Johnson. The Sacramento Kings released him after two years.
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The Sacramento Kings and Memphis Grizzlies aren’t the only ones who didn’t know what they had in Whiteside. Northern Nevada, it seems, also had no idea what was going on in downtown Reno with the 2010-11 Bighorns. In addition to Whiteside, the roster that season also included NBA players Danny Green, Steve Novak, Bobby Simmons, Donald Sloan and Lin as well as Patrick Ewing’s son Patrick Jr., Darryl Strawberry’s son D.J. and ex-Wolf Pack players Nick Fazekas and Mo Charlo. The Bighorns won their division and advanced to the D-League playoff semifinals. But nobody paid attention.
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We didn’t see the real Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl. The Legion of Boom secondary looked like it belonged on an episode of Mash. Kam Chancellor played with a bum knee, Richard Sherman played with one good elbow, Earl Thomas had a bad shoulder and Jeremy Lane broke his arm in the first half. The Seahawks also lost defensive end Cliff Avril to a concussion in the third quarter. With a healthy defense the Seahawks win that game by two touchdowns and certainly would have protected a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. But all we heard in the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl was the amount of air in the footballs instead of how crippled the Seahawks defense truly was. Bill Belichick and Tom Brady knew.
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The call on the Seahawks’ final offensive play was simply a case of coaches trying to show how smart they are. When all you need to do is gain a couple feet with three plays to do it, you hand the ball off to one of the most physical running backs in the game. Bob Griese would have given the ball to Larry Csonka, Terry Bradhsaw would have given it to Franco Harris, Bart Starr gives it to Jim Taylor or keeps it himself, John Elway hands it to Terrell Davis, Troy Aikman gives it to Emmitt Smith, Joe Montana gives it to Rodger Craig, Joe Theismann hands it to John Riggins and Joe Namath gives it to Matt Snell or Emerson Boozer. Russell Wilson isn’t as good as any of those quarterbacks and he throws a pass? The Seahawks should be embarrassed for making that call. Everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. Wilson made a horrible throw. You can’t hit a receiver in the stomach with a pass from five yards away? Wide receiver Ricardo Lockette also should be ashamed of his effort. The play was a disaster any way you look at it. That’s why you just give the ball to Marshawn Lynch.
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It’s amazing how the football world forgets how well Joe Montana played in the Super Bowl. He played in four and won all four. If he didn’t get hurt in the 1990 NFC title game it probably would have been 5-for-5. You don’t think he would have beaten the Buffalo Bills? He never was intercepted in a Super Bowl. He averaged nearly three touchdown passes and 300 yards in each of his four Super Bowls. He also ran for 105 yards and two touchdowns. He beat John Elway and Dan Marino. He stunned the Cincinnati Bengals with a classic drive. Tom Brady is great. He’s in the conversation as the greatest Super Bowl quarterback ever. But he’s no Joe Montana. If the Seahawks would have simply given the ball to Lynch from the 1-yard line the discussion this week would have been about Brady’s two ugly interceptions.
