By Hot Rod! The Rowdy One

Howdy folks, it’s your boy The Rowdy One and we’re back for another week of Out of Bounds. When we last met up, the NFL Playoffs were beginning with Wild Card Weekend. We also looked at the hiring of Pete Carroll as the new head coach for the Seattle Seahawks, Mark McGwire’s steroids admission and Gilbert Arenas’ gun situation. Well it’s deja vu all over again because the news continues about those same topics.

I will say this, as much of a rivalry USC and Stanford has in collegiate sports, there’s one former Stanford student who’s happy that USC has been in the sports news this week. As we already know, Pete Carroll was the head coach of the USC Trojans football team. Then you have Mark McGwire who played baseball for USC. So what does this have to do with Stanford? When’s the last time you heard Tiger Wood’s name mentioned on ESPN? I know he’s  as happy as a fat kid in a candy store right now with some of that media attention off his back at the moment. He probably sent a lovely fruit basket to McGwire’s and Carroll’s house as a token of his appreciation for getting some of the heat off of his back. I’m just sayin.

Let’s look at the Pete Carroll hiring. With the Seahawks hiring Carroll, there’s a new door opening for college coaches to come to the pro level. There was a time in the NFL where  teams were looking to coaches from the college levels to run their teams on the field. Instead of an assistant coach or fired coach currently in the NFL, GMs and owners wanted to take a chance with new faces and fresh ideas from accomplished names from the collegiate ranks. It makes sense when you think about it because at the time, the league was getting younger with the talent that was being drafted or signed. Young players were starting right away on teams that needed help. What better person to have coach these types of teams than a coach who is experienced in the field in not only coaching but teaching these young players on the skills needed to play the game.

Steve Spurrier, Butch Davis, Dennis Erickson, Nick Saban and other coaches took a chance from going to the pros from college with little to no success. Topple that with the Bobby Petrino situation with the Atlanta Falcons and the way he just upped and left the with two games left to play in the 2007-08 NFL season, GMS and owners figured that coaches from the college level weren’t “mature” enough for the pros. But Carroll is a coach of a different breed.

If you look at Pete Carroll’s coaching stats, you’ll see that during his time in the NFL, he had a winning record.

Overall: 33 – 31
Playoffs: 1 – 2

^Coaches links courtesy of Profootballreference.com

*Chart courtesy of databasefootball.com

Carroll has been here before as a head coach in the NFL and during his time at USC, he ran the program as if it was a pro team. He researched and scouted young high school players as if he was doing it on a pro level. If Carroll can achieve success during his time with the Seahawks, the door will open wider for college coaches for head coaching jobs in the NFL. So for all of you college football coaches out there who have hopes of coaching in the NFL, before you go to bed tonight, go light a candle in front of your shrine of Carroll and pray that he does well in the NFL so hopefully one day, you’ll get the opportunity to coach in the big leagues.

Finally, did any one see the “semi” war of words that was between Big Mac and the man who exposed baseball’s steroid usage:

As much as a fan I am of Big Mac from his days with Canseco when they were the “Bash Brothers”, I gotta go with Canseco with this situation. McGwire’s story has too many holes in it for my taste and when you look at the names that Canseco mentioned in his book and the ones that came out in the Mitchell Report, the stories match-up real well. Shout-out to Canseco for basically blowing the door open on the steroid usage in baseball. I think it’s about time we give him his props.

Finally, Gilbert Arenas pleaded guilty felony gun charges. What Arenas did was what Plaxico should have done. Instead, Plax is in jail for two years while Arenas may get anywhere from 30 days to 6 months. I truly hope both of these gentlemen have learned something from their ego driven stupidity.

Well the NFL Playoffs are in full swing with the start of last weekend’s Wild Card match-ups. We saw some blow-outs last week in the early games and it took the last game of the weekend to give football fans a game to remember. Last week’s Packer/Cardinals Wild Card game can be summed up in two words: Instant Classic!!

Folks, they don’t call it “Wild” Card Weekend for nothing. What a hell of a game! Let’s hope the remaining games are just as exciting as the Packers/Cardinals game.

Now that I’ve gotten that off of my chest, here’s my picks for this weekend’s Divisional Playoff Match-ups:

Saturday, 1/16/10, 4:30pm, FOX
11-6 @13-3
My Pick:

Saturday, 1/16/10, 8:15pm, CBS
10-7 @14-2
2009 Match-up: Week 11: 17, 15
My Pick:

Sunday, 1/17/10, 1pn, FOX
12-5 @12-4
My Pick:

Sunday, 1/17/10, 4pm, CBS
10-7 @13-3
My Pick:

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