Why has the MS high school football talent failed the Mississippi schools?

Or should we ask….

Why have the universities failed the Mississippi high school football talent?

When you think about it – there’s fault on both sides.
Something has to give.

Ramblings
You guys ready?
Big games this weekend.

Good games, great food and rivalry week. It doesn’t get any better.

And don’t forget to stop by Godfather Cigars and grab a great stick for after the meal.

Who is your coach of the year?

Bill Snyder

Lane Kiffin

Les Miles

Houston Nutt

Bo Bounds is the social chairman for the Y’all Lifestyle brand. See: http://yalllifestyle.com – @YallLifestyle or http://facebook.com/rathersouthern.

Two great articles this week on Yallsports.com! Harbaugh has done an amazing job in the Bay area with Stanford & the 49ers. I though the excerpt below nailed it on Harbaugh.

“In sports as in business, strong men hire strong assistants who help them get the job done, while weak men hire weak assistants because they’re afraid that strong ones would covet their jobs. The first thing Mike Singletary did when he was named head coach was to fire offensive coordinator Mike Martz. After that, no good offensive coordinator would work for him, so he settled for Jimmy Raye, who did what Singletary wanted.”

Peter King wrote a great article on the young quarterbacks in the NFL this week. King asked Mike Leach, Gus Malzahn, Sean Payton and other why the young QBs are having so much success. The answer? 7-on-7 summer leagues. w

Gameday beer of the week: Sam Adams Octoberfest

Bo Bounds is the host of The Out of Bounds show on ESPN 105.9 The Zone & owner of the Y’all Lifestyle (Yalllifestyle.com) brand.

Marcus Lattimore’s injury last Saturday is further proof that college players should be allowed to turn pro after their freshman year. Lattimore, arguably the most gifted tailback in the country, tore up his knee against Mississippi State and is out of the year.

Who knows if Lattimore will ever rehab and work his way back to what he was. The injury to Lattimore will cost him millions either way. Only a handful of players are good enough to go pro after their freshman year. Marcus Lattimore, Trent Richardson and Adrian Peterson are three that come to mind. For those who claim the college game would lose too many starts below is a list of players who were not good enough to turn pro after their freshman year:

1. Peyton Manning

2. Matthew Stafford

3. Tim Tebow (didn’t even start as a freshman)

4. Cam Newton

5. Ryan Mallet

6. Sam Bradford

7. Aaron Rodgers (Rodgers was in Juco)

The knee jerk reaction fan would tell you some guys would make the move without being ready to play in the NFL. I agree with that. Of course, we’ve had enough “top-10″ players fail to reach school because of academics or get kicked off the team the last 10 years to know anything can happen.

Maybe the NFL could grade players and if you don’t receive a certain grade you can’t opt for the draft. Who knows? If we can fly from New York to Moscow in one day, I think somebody could figure out the right evaluation process for the college players.

Bottom line, Lattimore should not having been playing on last Saturday. Lattimore should have been playing on Sunday or Monday night.

Bo Bounds is the host of the Out of Bounds show on ESPN 105.9 The Zone in Jackson, MS. The show is driven by the Y’all Lifestyle: see http://yalllifestyle.com.

Is Spurrier losing it?

Well, the Ol’ ball coach is having a rough week. Spurrier railed on Ron Morris, columnist with The State a South Carolina newspaper, claiming Morris has written fabricated stories on Spurrier and the South Carolina football program.

On top of that, Spurrier and the South Carolina athletic department booted Stephen Garcia this week. Garcia has been given more chances than the late Steve Howe. Sounds like Spurrier is taking out his frustrations on a columnist instead of facing the music on the Garcia debacle.

Here’s to Garcia….

Results matter….you damn right they do!

Cold Beer rocks

Man do they….

So are you buying, selling or holding your Dan Mullen stock? Mississippi State is 2-3 with loses to Auburn, LSU and Georgia. What do you think? Can the Bulldogs rebound and win four of their next seven and go bowling?

The honeymoon is over, but that happens with anything marriage, new job or hooking up with a Southern bunny for a few weeks. So, the Bulldogs need a win this weekend against a bad UAB. One thing we do know, nothing is guaranteed in the world of college football. Believe it or not, this is a big game for Mullen and his staff. We’ll see what happens Saturday morning. I think they’ll take care of business and win by two touchdowns. Man if I’m wrong, the message boards and Starkville, MS, will be in total meltdown mode.

How bout those Ole Miss Rebels? Gotta give Houston Nutt and his staff credit. With all the drama and turmoil surrounding the program for the past 12 months, they won a big road game. I’ll tell you what impressed me.

The players haven’t quit, and they played hard all night after traveling across the country for a non-SEC game. If Nutt can find another win or two and beat Mississippi State Egg Bowl weekend – I think he’ll keep his job. Of course, that game is in Starkville and MSU will be ready to go too. Before all that goes down, after a week off, Ole Miss gets Alabama, Arkansas and Auburn in October. Brutal. Nutt’s a survivor though – don’t count him out yet.

Bo Bounds is the host of The Out of Bounds show on ESPN 105.9 The Zone and owner of the Y’all Lifestyle product line. You can check that out at http://yalllifestyle.com.

FYI, Bo is not a journalist and doesn’t claim to be one, and he wrote this blog in five minutes while sipping on a Dos Equis. If that bothers you – get over it.

Grading Nutt & Mullen after 4 games

Both teams are struggling for completely different reasons. I’ll give Houston Nutt & Dan Mullen grades today on the Out of Bounds show.

LSU & Bama on Nov. 5th is going to be great. Two outstanding teams full of future NFL talent.

I really like what Oklahoma State is doing with their program. Impressive win on the road against Texas A&M.

Good thing Florida State doesn’t play in the SEC. It would be a rude awakening for Seminole nation.

I need to see more of South Carolina. The Gamecocks have all the potential in the world, but I’m not sold, yet.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m looking forward to the Nebraska v. Wisconsin game this weekend.

Will Muschamp is doing a good job in Gainesville, by next year they’ll be ready to roll.

Bo Bounds is the host of the Out of Bounds on ESPN 105.9 The Zone in Jackson, MS. Check out http://yalllifestyle.com while you’re here.

Ramblings on Game week (@ 5am in the morning)

I was thinking about how much college football has changed since 1980. You know since Oklahoma, Nebraska & Alabama we’re dominating college football.

The Bear, Switzer & Osborne were the guys when I started watching college football. One program in the deep south was full of talent and had outstanding coaching: Alabama.

Oklahoma was Thug U. – Loaded with NFL talent, Switzer would sign anybody and do whatever was needed to sign a kid. Switzer grew up in a tough environment, and he believed in giving every kid a chance. He wasn’t worried about the kids becoming “well-rounded” men. He wanted to win and win big. Switzer was in your face.

Then you had Nebraska and Tom Osborne. Osborne didn’t reach like Switzer. He signed what today would be considered highly rated 3-star players and redshirted everybody. 99% of the kids in Lincoln redshirted. Osborne and his staff were into player development, and Osborne believed in the student-athlete concept. Nebraska also had the cutting-edge strength and conditioning program in the country. So while he didn’t have the pure athletes Oklahoma had – Nebraska relied on disciplined, good (not great) and smart redshirt juniors & Seniors.

 Back then Oklahoma was the Dallas Cowboys just one step away from complete and total disaster which eventually happened & Nebraska was the Pittsburgh Steelers. Even though Switzer dominated for a time in the 1970s & 1980s it was Osborne who had the last laugh. He stayed around longer and eventually won those coveted National Championships in the mid-1990s years after Switzer was run out of Norman for breaking every rule in the book.

 Bo Bounds is the host of the Out of Bounds show on ESPN 105.9 The Zone in Jackson, MS…..Where SEC football meets the Y’all Lifestyle. For more info go to http://yalllifestyle.com.

Tebow and Ramblings from the Sports Think Tank

Denver is in a mess over this Tebow deal. John Fox, the head coach, and John Elway, Broncos President, didn’t waste a first round draft pick on him, but the fans are restless because of superman reputation off the field. Reports from camp tell us the players are 100% behind Kyle Orton starting at QB.

What do you think?

If small market teams like New Orleans, GB and Indy can compete and win championships – why are we so surprised when Boise, TCU, Va Tech and Mizzou win. Or Texas Tech for that matter?

What team is the NO Saints of college football?

What about Indy? And GB?

 Bo Bounds is the host of The Out of Bounds show on ESPN 105.9 The  Zone & creator of the http://yalllifestyle.com. Twitter: @bobounds & @yalllifestyle.

***I’m not and don’t claim to be a journalist. If that bothers you….get over it.

Upsets in sports? Not anymore

App State over Michigan. Stanford as a 40+ underdog beat USC several years ago. Maine beat Mississippi State and Ole Miss lost to Jacksonville State last season. The Mavs beat the Heat in the NBA finals and Green Bay beat Pittsburgh in the last Super Bowl.

Are we really that surprised when somebody is “upset” in college football or the NFL for that matter? If La-Monroe can beat Alabama in football and Butler can go to back to back Final 4s – I think it’s time we  pump the brakes on upsets and always going with the favorites. With the population boom and more kids having access to weight rooms and summer sports camps, I think we’ll continue to see more of a level playing field in college athletics. Upsets? Sure we’ll have a few, but not near as many. Television, money, technology and scholarship limitations have all but eliminated the 1975 college football upset.

Bo Bounds is the Host of the Out of Bounds on ESPN 105.9 The Zone in Jackson, MS, and owner of http://yalllifestyle.com product line.

Looking at these numbers in comparison to the size of the athletic departments you can already see that the size of the athletic department doesn’t directly correlate to the money spent on coaching salaries. Nor does the money paid to coaches necessarily reflect the success that those coaches have had at that particular school. In fact, looking at this list, Florida’s Billy Donovan is the only coach who is making a salary over $2.8 million that you can say he “earned” at the school paying him now. That is, Donovan arrived at Florida from Marshall as a relatively unknown coach who was not making a substantial salary already and has since earned his pay based on his success at Florida.

That was the traditional way that SEC coaches become highly paid. They went to a school as an unproven head coach and were paid for their resulting success. Steve Spurrier at Florida is, perhaps, the best modern example of this phenomenon.

Those days are past.

Now the Urban Meyer’s, John Calipari’s, Bobby Petrino’s, and Nick Saban’s of the world arrive as bona fide successes already. They require the athletic departments to show them the money before they’ve even won a game at their current school.

Now, and this is where it gets interesting, what if we break down these top coaching salaries even further as a percentage of the overall revenues?

The rankings change:

1. Mississippi State – 12.8%

2. Ole Miss – 9.4%

Read more of “SEC’s new reality: Pay the coaches or lose” on OutkickTheCoverage.com
8.4.11