The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Before the outcry over his alleged ties to former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, Tennessee Volunteers fans were hitting social media over the reported hire of ex-Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano, criticizing his 68-67 record at the New Jersey school. First off, Yahoo's Dan Wetzel, who has covered the Sandusky case more extensively than possibly anybody else, called the charges against Schiano "random, nonspecific (disputed) hearsay." Secondly, Schiano's 68-67 record at Rutgers might be more impressive than Phillip Fulmer's 152-52 record at Tennessee. In the 86 years prior to Schiano's arrival, Rutgers got invited to 1 bowl game. This occurred in 1978, 23 years before Schiano arrived as coach on campus. In the 11 seasons prior to his arrival, the Scarlet Knights went a combined 40-56-1 (.412), and as I alluded to earlier, were invited to 0 bowl games. After Schiano's departure, the team has gone 33-43 (.434), including a 10-26 (.278) record the...

Down 41-34 late in the game, head coach Greg Schiano instructed his defense to go after the ball when the New York Giants went into the victory formation. This led to Giants' quarterback Eli Manning going down (not injured) and head coach Tom Coughlin yelling biblical scriptures, I'm sure, into Schiano's face when the clock finally read all zeroes. I have mixed feelings about this, but while I can understand Coughlin's concern, I don't see anything wrong with what Schiano did. The game wasn't over. Crazier things have happened in the game of football before. In baseball, if the New York Yankees were down 2-0 to the Tampa Bay Rays with two outs, nobody on and an 0-2 count to Derek Jeter, should he just hold the bat and allow the pitcher to toss strike three to end the inevitable loss for his team? Late in a basketball game, should a team trailing by a handful or less just allow the clock to run out without fouling its opponent? In hockey, should... ...ah, who c...