The Gallatin News

When Louisville guard Kevin Ware jumped in an attempt to block or alter a 3-point shot by Duke’s Tyler Thornton, he had no sense of what would happen.

Ware came down awkwardly on the floor without making any contact with Thornton, but there was a sickening sound as his leg snapped in two places right in front of Louisville’s bench.

Part of the tibia broke through the skin and was so gruesome, CBS officials decided not to keep showing the accident. They have now banned any other outlet from showing it.

How bad was it?

Louisville-based columnist Rick Bozich texted me, saying: “Worst I’ve ever seen in basketball. Several inches of bone were sticking out of his leg.’’

Bozich has seen as much basketball as anyone this side of Dick “Hoops’’ Weiss with the New York Daily News.

It was reminiscent of Joe Theismann’s injury, when his leg snapped after being hit by Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor during a 1985 Monday Night Football game. But that injury was caused by the hit Theisman sustained. Ware touched no one.

Theismann was watching the game Sunday at his Virginia home. He had a unpleasant flashback.

“My world came to a complete stop,’’ Theismann told USA Today. “It was just a horrible, horrible thing to see happen. I hate to see anybody have an injury that is anywhere near anything I went through.’’

Ware underwent two hours of surgery at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis to re-set the bone and prevent possible infection. Doctors inserted a steel rod in his tibia to aid in recovery.

Louisville Coach Rick Pitino said it was similar to the injury former Louisville running back Michael Bush sustained and noted that Bush is now playing in the NFL. Bush did have to sit out his senior year at UL, as well as his rookie year with the Raiders before he could return.

Like Theismann, Bush was watching the game on TV. Like everyone else, Bush was sickened by what he saw.

“Oohhh (crap). I just cried. I feel so bad. Flashback of myself. Anyone, if he needs anything please let me know,’’ Bush tweeted.

“I can’t even get myself together. I don’t even wanna watch the rest of this game.’’

So while there is hope that Ware’s basketball future will resume in time, there will be months of healing and rehab ahead.

Theismann never played again. There are no guarantees Ware will, although he has youth on his side.

It cast a morbid pall over Lucas Oil Stadium. From fans of both Duke and Louisville, to Pitino and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and their players, it caused everyone to pause and grieve for Ware.

Some Louisville players collapsed on the floor, sobbing with their hands covering their faces. Pitino wiped away tears, as did Krzyzewski.

During every timeout after the accident, the Louisville players chanted, “Bring Kevin Home.’’ They held themselves together long enough to secure the 85-63 win and punch their ticket to Atlanta.

Atlanta is Kevin Ware’s hometown. If he can travel, Ware will join Louisville at the Final Four. He played at Rockdale County High School and originally signed with Tennessee. But with the coaching change to Cuonzo Martin, Ware asked for, and was granted a release from the Vols. He then signed with Louisville.

Fate changed Ware’s life with no warning – a lesson for all.

Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  

How long has it been since Middle Tennessee State’s men’s basketball team played in the NCAA Tournament?

So long that current Blue Raider Kerry Hammonds Jr.’s father was on the last MTSU team to make the tournament field.

So long ago that none of the current Blue Raiders players were even born.

So long ago the Blue Raiders have had three coaches since Bruce Stewart’s 1989 team upset Florida State in the tournament.

David Farrar couldn’t do it. Neither could Randy Wiel. It has taken current coach Kermit Davis 10 years to take them back to the Big Dance.

But tonight in Dayton, Ohio, the Blue Raiders take on Saint Mary’s of California in one of four play-in games to be played Tuesday and Wednesday. Both teams are vying for an 11 seed in the Midwest Regional. The winner will play 6-seed Memphis at Auburn Hills, Mich.

The at-large bid didn’t come without Raider Nation sweating it out. Having lost to Florida International in the Sun Belt Conference semi-finals, MTSU had to rely on its regular season credentials to impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee. It’s always a risky proposition.

They posted a 28-5 record, including a 19-1 Sun Belt regular season championship. Their RPI rating is 29. Their strength of non-conference schedule is sixth.

The three non-conference games they lost were to Florida, Akron and Belmont. All three teams won their conference regular season championships and all three were road games for MTSU.

Also factored in their favor was the fact that no team has ever won 28 games and been excluded from the NCAA Tournament.

But without the automatic bid, they had to wait a week to learn their fate. The days grew longer. The palms were clammy.

Davis gave a tweet out to fellow college coaches whose teams seek publicity.

He told them the best way he knew to get national attention was to become a bubble team. Then you will be talked about for a solid week before Selection Sunday.

MTSU drew a tough first game against Saint Mary’s, a California school whose team is one of the top offensive teams in the country. They are guard oriented, which is always a plus in the postseason.

But MTSU is deep at every position. They play a lot of players and keep the defensive pressure turned up, not worried about incurring foul trouble.

And, if they should defeat Saint Mary’s, the Blue Raiders will find themselves playing Thursday against 6-seed Memphis, led by former All-State high school guard Joe Jackson. Not the shoeless one.

Unlike a lot of NCAA Tournaments, there doesn’t seem to be a dominant team, or teams, in this field.

While MTSU is one of eight teams playing in the First Four, it should take notice and use it as inspiration.

In 2011, Virginia Commonwealth and Coach Shaka Smart made it from the First Four to the Final Four. If Dayton was golden for VCU, why not MTSU? It’s been done before.

Davis talked before heading to the conference tournament about how his team went through the season with only one conference loss.

 “Our motto has been that we are re-creating our identity every day – day to day, practice to practice, week to week," Davis said.

“This is going to be hectic. It’s a quick turnaround, but it’s just as quick for Saint Mary’s."

    Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  

It was a day of firsts at Daytona International Speedway.

It was the first time a female driver finished in the top 10 of the legendary Daytona 500.

It was the first time racing on the newly resurfaced 3.1-mile tri-oval track.

It was the first time racing 500 miles in NASCAR’s new Gen-6 car.

Was it a perfect race? Winner Jimmie Johnson thought so, but perfect races don’t exist, especially on superspeedways. This was no exception.

The drivers were anxious to race, but in the back of everyone’s mind was the horrific crash during Saturday night’s Nationwide race that sent nearly 30 fans to Halifax Hospital and other local emergency rooms.

The catch fence did its job. Barely. It did prevent even more parts and debris from going into the stands, but a tire and other dangerous objects were hurled over the fence and into the stands like missiles. One fan said it resembled a war zone.

Unless the drivers had been instructed to say nothing but good things about the new cars, most comments were positive. Like anything new, tweaking is standard procedure.

Racing two and three together at speeds as high as 200 miles per hour on the backstretch demands a driver’s undivided attention. They found out that when the cars are side-by-side, the air produces a negative drafting effect that needs to be addressed.

But since NASCAR had proclaimed the new cars to be the best thing since Barney Oldfield was racing his Lightning Benz up and down the packed sands of Daytona Beach, it was impossible to match expectations.

Was there hard racing as when the Hueytown gang of Allisons, Cale Yarbrough, David Pearson and Richard Petty were bringing the sport into the mainstream? No. Not a lot of swapping metal, no punches in the infield. 

They were reluctant to mix it up very much, and over the last 10 laps only Dale Earnhardt Jr. could gain significant ground to finish second.

Pole sitter Danica Patrick was content to ride along in third place in the faster upper portion of the track while those on the bottom part of the track found it difficult to pass each other and catch up to the field.

Patrick admitted she didn’t know what to do when those around her made their moves to improve. She basically froze and that comes from having never been in that position before. Inexperience is a frightful thing on the high banks of Daytona. She will get better in her Go Daddy car.

She led some laps earlier in the race, didn’t embarrass herself and didn’t cause mayhem on the track during the run for the checkered flag. She settled for eighth place, a solid day.

The race gave the experts something to work off of now. It will be a work in progress as they tinker with the aerodynamics, handling and horsepower. Next comes working out the kinks on shorter tracks, as they are two different animals.

But it was unanimous around the garage area that the new cars are so much better than the joke NASCAR called the cars of tomorrow, it’s not even funny.

It can’t help but make the racing better and that is what everyone desires.

It’s a start, a good start at that.

Wilson Post Sports Columnist Joe Biddle can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

It may not have been the most flawless Super Bowl, but it was top tier in my book when it came to excitement and action, both on and off the football field.

Off the field, kudos to whoever made it happen for the Sandy Hook Elementary School students to sing just prior to kickoff. To see those young kids, full of life and innocence, makes you wonder how on earth anyone could ever shoot and kill some of their classmates.

I also enjoyed the National Anthem, performed by Alicia Keys. It wasn’t the way Francis Scott Key intended it to be sung, but hardly anyone sings it that way anymore. I think because they are singing it at the Super Bowl, they have to inject all these extraneous notes.

Beyonce was her bouncy, dancing machine self during halftime and far better than some of the retreads the NFL has trotted out there in the past.

It was unfortunate the Superdome experienced a blackout during the game. It covered approximately half the field and took 34 minutes to regain full power. Everyone seems to be passing the buck for how it happened. I heard a cluster of squirrels providing the power had a 30-minute break in its union contract.

Now to the game, which drew a preliminary 52.5 rating in the Nashville market. That means 596,761 local homes saw all or part of the game. That beat the overnight rating (48.1) from a selection of big cities. It was the most watched TV event in U.S. history.

Viewers saw the quarterback of the future in San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick. He is 6-4 with a powerful arm and an ability to run, which he did seven times for 62 yards and a touchdown. Kaepernick threw for 302 yards, with one interception. Remarkable numbers, as this was only his 10^th NFL game as a starter.

To coincide with Kaepernick’s start, we perhaps saw the NFL offense of the future. That may be a stretch as the NFL is slow to change from a pocket passing offense. The 49ers read option offense requires a quarterback who can pass/run and make split second decisions.

I saw more imagination in the 49ers offense than I have seen from the Titans since they came to town. Locker may be an inch shorter and a little lighter on the scales than Kaepernick, but Locker has proven he can run. But that is another column for another day.

Kaepernick was not widely known going into the 2011 draft. He was the sixth quarterback taken that year and lasted until the fourth pick of the second round, one spot behind Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton. Locker was the No. 8 pick that season, the second quarterback taken behind No. 1 draft pick Cam Newton.

We also saw the value in the traditional NFL offense with Baltimore’s Joe Flacco. It was Flacco who earned MVP honors Sunday night. The fifth year pro plays with a steady hand and is Joe Unflappable.

He finished the season with a remarkable 11 touchdown passes and no interceptions in four playoff games.

It wasn’t a perfectly played game, but then Super Bowl games never are. The pressure is enormous.

Just when you thought the Ravens would run away with it, the 49ers made it a game. And what a game it was.

Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  

Call it karma. Call it right place, right time.

Could former Tennessee and recently inducted Hall of Fame football coach Phillip Fulmer return to the coaching stage?

He was in Johnson City last week, speaking at a Boys & Girls Club fundraiser.

Fulmer has been out of coaching since being let go by Tennessee in 2008. He never saw it as the end of his career, but the years have gone by and there have been no solid offers land on Fulmer’s desk.

“I’ve always said I would coach again if the right opportunity presented itself,’’ Fulmer told the Johnson City Press. “I would coach again, but it would have to be a real unique situation.’’

Unique? I’ve got that one covered, Coach.

Like Fulmer, East Tennessee State has been out of football. The then-president dropped the sport in 2003, citing financial reasons.

Things have changed at the state school. They have a new president in Dr. Brian Noland. He is said to be a high energy visionary and bringing back the football program is a priority for him.

Imagine if Noland stepped to a press conference podium and announced the school will reinstate the football program and the new coach will be Phillip Fulmer.

The initial response would be resounding. It would make national news and allow alumni and fans across the country to support it financially.

It would get Fulmer’s competitive juices flowing again. By not coaching since 2008, Fulmer knows just how much he misses the aspects of coaching that get in your blood. Once a football coach, always a football coach.

It’s not far from his present home in Maryville. He would be mentoring college athletes on a college campus. That’s a pretty effective way to stay young.

If Fulmer has the burning desire and passion it would take to resume coaching, recruiting, traveling, he would be the man for the job.

Fulmer is younger than 73-year-old Kansas State coach Bill Snyder, younger than 67-year-old South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier. Their teams were 11-2 this season. South Carolina finished No. 8 in the final AP poll and Kansas State was No. 12.

When he was inducted into the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame recently, the 62-year-old Fulmer quipped: “I’m graciously accepting it, but I’m too dang young.’’

A return to coaching would be Fulmer’s Fountain of Youth. The Winchester native knows the state and was once regarded as one of the best recruiting head coaches in the game. He is still a high profile name in football.

East Tennessee State would be an attractive school for football recruits that don’t quite measure up to the BCS conference players.

Atlanta Falcons Coach Mike Smith played at ETSU, having been recruited out of Daytona Beach Father Lopez.

Johnson City has always been a Tennessee fan base and a suitcase school. The ETSU Dome has been renovated, but they need to build a new facility. It is an antiquated dome that really never caught on with fans.

“I’m really anxious to watch the progression of this. I was really sad when they dropped football. … I look forward to seeing if they are really serious about moving forward,’’ Fulmer said in the Johnson City Press article.

As an ETSU alumnus, I think it would be a win-win for both parties.

Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

It has been very quiet recently at Baptist Sports Park.

I guess that means Titans Coach Mike Munchak has completed his staff for next season. Warning: You won’t be able to tell the assistant coaches without a program.

The first thing that sticks out to me is that even though the Titans defense was one of the worst in the NFL this season, Munchak made significantly more changes on the offensive side of the ball.

How Jerry Gray is still the defensive coordinator is baffling. I know Munchak played and coached with Gray and thinks a lot of him.

But in the NFL, friendship can get you fired, and Munchak only has one season to markedly improve his team’s record. With owner Bud Adams breathing down his collar, I think anything less than making the playoffs will spur Adams to change coaches.

So this new staff doesn’t have long to get its act together. It’s not a staff with name recognition that makes you want to run out and buy season tickets.

They have a young, unproven offensive coordinator in Dowell Loggains. Gray’s record is what it is.

Tight ends coach George Henshaw was let go by former head coach Jeff Fisher and Henshaw hasn’t worked in the league in six years. He was a good tight ends coach when he was here, but having Frank Wychek helped a lot. Maybe George can pull Wychek out of the broadcast booth.

It seems the coaches who were let go coached the few positions in which the Titans were strong. Linebackers coach Frank Bush had three solid starting linebackers who were young, but showed great promise when healthy.

Special teams coach Alan Lowry was another of Munchak’s casualties. They have two of the best punters and place-kickers in the NFL in Brett Kern and Rob Bironas. Lowry lost Pro Bowl return specialist Marc Mariani to a broken leg in a preseason game. All he did was promote journeyman Darius Reynaud and Reynaud performed better than anyone predicted.

The Titans better make some headlines in the upcoming NFL draft and free agency. Fans I talk to are generally unimpressed with the changes made on the coaching staff.

This franchise needs a high-energy drink drip in its veins. There is no excitement, no expectation of great things happening this coming season.

The Titans lack an identity. Look at the four teams that played for a spot in the Super Bowl. You knew all of them would be tough outs. They have star power on their rosters such as linebacker Ray Lewis and quarterbacks Tom Brady and Matt Ryan. The 49ers have a dangerous up-and-coming quarterback in Colin Kaepernick. And all Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco has done is send Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady home without a ring. And Flacco didn’t throw one interception in those three games.

I can’t envision Titans quarterback Jake Locker being able to do in his third season what Kaepernick did in his first year.

The Titans don’t begin to have a leader who has the fire and passion that Ray Lewis has after 17 years in the league. He made 14 tackles against New England and generated more energy in his pre-game pep talk than a two-week tent revival.

The Ravens have Lewis to generate passion. The Titans have the late Johnny Cash singing Folsom Prison Blues.

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01-14-13 Wilson Post My Bid I don’t know about you, but I’m getting sick and tired of these NFL players breaking the law. Take Titans receiver Kenny Britt. Britt is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Again. He seems to always be on the fringe when an incident occurs. Britt would have you believe he is some angel that trouble seems to shadow. Britt was back home in New Jersey when he showed up at a hospital in the early morning hours Sunday. He was accompanying a stabbing victim who first told police he was Britt’s brother. It was later explained that they were not biological brothers, but called each other brother. I’m not sure Genealogy.com experts could solve that mystery. Britt refused to cooperate with authorities, but after lawyering up, claimed he would cooperate. If he were innocent of any wrongdoing, why would he not cooperate from the start? Again, it’s an all too familiar pattern for Britt, and a number of NFL players like him, that insist on going home and running with the wrong crowd. Britt is not a leader. He is a follower who chooses to follow the wrong people at the wrong times. Former Titans player Pacman Jones had to learn the hard way that he must abandon that thug lifestyle and surround himself with people who truly have his best interests in mind. Britt needs to cut the ties with those people who will never leave the ‘hood and create an atmosphere that often leads to prison, or a morgue. It’s not like Britt hasn’t had previous problems with the law. He was arrested in late July when he was charged with DUI after trying to enter Fort Campbell Army post in the wee hours with a female soldier in his car. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Britt for the season opening game. Now this. If Britt were some All-Pro receiver who made one bad decision, it would be different. Meanwhile, Britt continues to claim he has matured and changed. Really? You expect Titans management, players and fans to swallow that? Between injuries, operations and suspensions, Britt has never come close to living up to his first-round draft status. Every time he would show what he was capable of on the field, he would suffer an injury and be out for extended time. He had knee surgery earlier this year and was slow coming back from that. Meanwhile, other receivers were developing while Britt stood on the sidelines. Now this. At 3:28 a.m., Jersey City police responded to a fight at a party. They found nothing, but later Britt showed up at a hospital with the stabbing victim. At 4:57 a.m., police responded to a report of gunfire at an apartment in the same building where the stabbing allegedly occurred. Police were still investigating as of Monday. Britt has one year left on his current contract, which will pay him $1.34 million next season. For me, next season would be the final straw for Britt. I would keep him on a tight leash until he proves he can stay out of trouble. I think Britt is more con artist than choirboy. Britt has a choice. Take the right way, or the highway. Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

If you missed Heisman Trophy winner Johnny “Football’’ Manziel’s performance in the Cotton Bowl, you missed a treat.

If you missed THE PLAY that South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney made in the Outback Bowl, it was one for the ages.

While the college football world anxiously awaited the BCS National Championship Game Monday night, there were some outstanding games and individual performances in some of the 34 other bowl games.

Manziel and Clowney’s individual impact topped my personal list.

Manziel is amazing. He is a redshirt freshman quarterback for Texas A&M. The Aggies have a long history dating back to the old Southwest Conference of opponents making fun of their school and their football teams.

Aggie jokes permeate the Longhorn state. They were always seated at the children’s table at holidays while Texas ruled the roost.

They joined the SEC and the shackles were taken off. Texas A&M is no joke. Neither is Aggie Coach Kevin Sumlin. Manziel? That cat has turned defensive coordinators into insomniacs, as they pull all-nighters trying to find ways to slow him down.

Unlike Clowney, Manziel is anything but an imposing physical specimen. He is listed at 6-foot-1, 200 pounds, but looks shorter and lighter than that.

Put a football in his hands and Manziel morphs into a magician. Blitz him and he will have players chasing their tails.

How many Heisman trophies can Manziel win before he leaves? It largely depends on the cast around him, the schedule and whether he can avoid injuries that rob him of playing time. But the first impression has been a lasting one.

He became the first SEC player to record a 200/200 game, running for 200 yards, passing for 200 yards. He rang up 516 yards in the Cotton Bowl, 219 yards on the ground, another 287 through the air. It was his third 500-yard game this season.

Manziel mauled Oklahoma in a 41-13 rout. I consider Sooners Coach Bob Stoops to be an expert when it comes to defense. Stoops had a month to prepare for Manziel and the Aggies. It didn’t matter.

“Johnny Manziel is everything he is billed to be and expected to be. Even when guys are in position, he is so quick and strong running,’’ Stoops said of Manziel. “He’s just hard to get to.’’

Manziel finished with 1,410 yards rushing, 3,706 yards passing. He accounted for 47 touchdowns. The Cotton Bowl Offensive Most Valuable Player brushed off pre-game suggestions the layoff would slow down the Aggies.

“There wasn’t anything holding us back. No rust. There was nothing,’’ Manziel said.

While Manziel’s game is built on fleet feet and a strong arm, Clowney is a physical freak of nature.

The South Carolina sophomore will play one more season before he leaves to play on Sundays. He is part Reggie White, part Albert Haynesworth, part Jevon Kearse.

But the play he made that turned the Outback Bowl around was one we’ll never forget.

He arrived in the Michigan backfield the same time Vincent Smith took the handoff. His hit knocked Smith’s helmet off his head. It went flying through the air. With one motion, Clowney reached over and wrapped his massive left hand around the ball. Smith got Clowneyed.

It’s players such as Manziel and Clowney that make the SEC what it is.

Sports Columnist Joe Biddle can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  

How will Titans running back Chris Johnson be remembered this season?

Will it be the 94-yard quick-six burst to post the second longest touchdown run in Monday Night Football history? Or will it be the early season struggles that begged the question: What has happened to Chris Johnson?

Suffice it to say that if Johnson had not been a meteor on cleats streaking across LP Field, the Titans would likely have lost to what is a train wreck of a Jets team allegedly coached by Rex Ryan.

Despite his game heroics, I was more impressed with Johnson’s gesture to honor the memory of every victim in the recent Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre carried out by an obviously mentally disturbed young man who took his own life and escaped true justice.

Johnson wore a white pair of Nike shoes, received permission from the NFL before the game to provide a tribute to the victims, the majority of them five and six-year old innocent children anxiously awaiting a visit from Santa Claus. Instead, they were killed in cold blood by an evil monster.

The incident not only touched Americans and beyond, it hit Johnson harder than any NFL linebacker ever has.

He felt compelled to do something and could not have honored them more than by using a Monday Night Football forum to show his grief for those families who lost loved ones.

Johnson, like many others, had thought of those kids all week. It weighed on his mind and he made a most touching gesture.

Who said all NFL players care about is money, fancy cars, big houses and the material things they are able to afford?

Chris Johnson is not an eloquent speaker. But his message after the game came straight from his heart.

“It was just something to try to give back and show tribute to those families and how much they hurt,’’ Johnson said. “It just shows you how fortunate it is for us to come out here and play on Sunday and Monday.’’

Those murder victims will never get to run and play, to throw and catch – to just be kids.

Johnson will auction those shoes off in some fashion and use the money for a cause that would best honor those Sandy Hook students and teachers no longer with us.

Johnson has had his share of doubters for much of this season. It took this game for Johnson to showcase the speed and power he is capable of. He has reached the 1,100-yard mark for the fourth time. The Jets gave up Johnson’s 33^rd 100-yard rushing game of his career and the fifth one this season.

Only Earl Campbell and Eddie George have accrued more 100-yard games in their Oilers/Titans careers than Johnson.

Johnson and the Titans will get a more realistic test Sunday at Green Bay’s frozen tundra otherwise known as Lambeau Field. It will be cold, yes. Maybe not to those who live, work and play in sub-freezing temperatures, but to the Titans it will be just another card stacked against them.

Whatever happens Sunday, happens. But for one night on a lousy Monday Night Football game between two teams headed nowhere, Chris Johnson thought of others instead of himself.

That was the true spirit of the season. He said it all.

Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

A football is shaped so that it can take crazy, unexplained bounces.

A basketball, on the other hand, is round and thus more likely to take true bounces.

So when Belmont and Middle Tennessee State squared off last week at Curb Event Center, it promised to be one of the top pre-conference games of the early season.

Rick Byrd’s Belmont team had only two losses and defeated Pac-12 member Stanford. Kermit Davis’ MTSU team also had only two losses and was fresh off a victory over Ole Miss.

Byrd and Davis have lengthy, impressive resumes. They have been coaching for years and share a mutual respect for each other.

With the two schools some 30 miles apart, it’s only natural that they play each other on an annual basis.

While Belmont came into the game having won five of the last six games, they have been competitive, down to the wire games for the most part. In the last six games, three were decided in overtime.

It is not a rivalry to be compared with Belmont-Lipscomb’s Battle of the Boulevard, because those players know each other and often play pickup games in the off-season.

With MTSU, it’s not a Battle of I-24. As one player explained, this is more of a series built on respect.

But while expectations for another nail-biter were high, it was not to be.

Belmont led 30-26 at halftime, thanks to a 3-point buzzer-beating dagger launched by the Bruins’ J.J. Mann.  While Davis knew his team was very much alive mathematically, he sensed this would not be a night to remember.

“I didn’t think we were ever in sync,’’ Davis said. “We didn’t have any juice.’’

Belmont quickly stretched the lead in the second half as MTSU struggled to score. The Blue Raiders ended up shooting season low field goal (28.6) and 3-point (18.8) percentages.

The result was a comfortable 64-49 win for the Bruins.

“We missed shots. We couldn’t finish around the rim. That’s just us not playing with a physicalness and toughness,’’ Davis said later, after apologizing to the Blue Raiders fans who made the trip from Murfreesboro only to witness a train wreck.

Davis had no answers, only praise for Belmont and the game the Bruins played.

Byrd was somewhat surprised at how well his team played, calling it the best game the Bruins had played to this point. His team had something to do with MTSU’s anemic shooting percentages, but the Blue Raiders uncharacteristically shot themselves in the sneakers on frequent occasions.

Both teams have excellent shots at making the NCAA Tournament. Byrd’s team is in its first season as an Ohio Valley Conference member and historically it has been a conference whose tournament champion is the only team to make the tournament.

Davis had one of his best teams a year ago, but lost in the Sun Belt Tournament and missed the tournament.

That’s where non-conference schedules come into play in March. The Belmont-MTSU game could mean the difference in getting a berth in the tournament or missing out.

“We all get disappointed with losing, but it was how we lost that bothered me,’’ Davis said.

He admitted it was the first game he has coached when not a single player managed to score double figures.

It was a game he and his team have to put behind them. Sometimes it simply is not your night.

Sports Columnist Joe Biddle can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  

   You can’t spell Butch without UT.
    I’ll say one thing about the newest Tennessee football coach. Butch Jones owned the press conference last week.
    He’s going to hire the best staff in college football. The Tennessee job has always been his “dream job.’’
    You have to give him an “E’’ for enthusiasm. Jones said all the right things that were easy for skeptical Vols fans to digest. You see, the Vol Nation had been on a 19-day roller-coaster ride and some of those fans that had gotten an “I Love Jon Gruden’’ tattoo, are still being treated for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
    If they’re honest, most of them didn’t know Butch Jones from Butch Cassidy.
    Jones definitely pushed the right buttons. He also left the team meeting, having created a positive buzz among the players.
    “The press conference fades quickly, because at the end of the day, it’s success on the field,’’ UT Athletics Director Dave Hart cautioned.
    On the field next season is going to be one of the most difficult schedules any Tennessee football coach has faced.
    The Vols play seven teams that are going to bowl games. They will play five teams that finished in the top 10 of the final BCS rankings this season.
    They have a stretch where they play at Oregon, at Florida, South Alabama and Georgia. Then, after an open date to heal up, the Vols face South Carolina, at Alabama before the schedule eases up with November games against Missouri, Auburn, Vanderbilt and Kentucky.
    Butch Jones is by all accounts an outstanding football coach. No one has suggested he can perform miracles. He could get his first team to a bowl game with wins over Austin Peay, Western Kentucky, South Alabama, Missouri, Auburn and Kentucky. Vanderbilt is a swing game in case they stub their toes.
    People I talked to who have covered Butch Jones have nothing but good things to say about him. A columnist who has covered Louisville and Cincinnati claims if he had to choose between Charlie Strong and Jones, he would take Jones.
    “I think Jones is a better coach,’’ he said.
    I also talked to an online writer who covers West Virginia. He was really high on Jones when Jones was an assistant on the Rich Rodriguez staff there.
    The term “great recruiter’’ kept cropping up in both conversations.
    Now we will see just how great a recruiter Butch Jones will be in the SEC. He claims a good recruiter can recruit anywhere. Jones might want to reserve judgment on that statement until he has gone swimming in the shark tank.
    He was smart to retain running backs coach Jay Graham, who worked at South Carolina two years before coming back to his alma mater last season.  He also offered a spot to former Vol QB Tee Martin – who opted to stay at Southern Cal.
    Jones is straight up with his players and it was not surprising that his Cincinnati team gave him a standing ovation when he told them he was leaving to take the Tennessee job.
    Jones wasn’t offended by not being Dave Hart’s first choice, second, or perhaps third.
    Pete Carroll was Southern Cal’s fourth choice and that worked out pretty well. Mike Bellotti, Dennis Erickson and Mike Riley gave the Trojans thumbs down and Carroll stepped into a gold mine.
    Maybe Butch Jones is the one to awaken the sleeping giant.

     Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

OK, Middle Tennessee. Are you ready to go bowling?

Oops, I didn’t mean Middle Tennessee, as in MTSU. The Blue Raiders were bowl eligible and are one of the few college football teams in America not invited to a bowl game.

There are 35 bowl games involving 70 FBS teams. There are only 112 FBS teams, thus more than half of them get bowl invitations. Not MTSU.

MTSU was 8-4, 6-2 in the Sun Belt Conference. Louisiana-Monroe and Louisiana-Lafayette had identical overall and conference records and both are going to bowl games.

“I think it is clear that the bowl system needs improvement and should be better than this,’’ said MTSU Athletics Director Chris Massaro.

“This decision wasn’t made on the football field. It was made in a board room.’’

While an 8-4 MTSU team sits at home and a 6-7 (not a typo) Georgia Tech team plays a 7-5 Southern Cal team in the Sun Bowl, something’s amiss.

Tech is the only team going to a bowl with a losing record and Southern Cal was preseason No. 1 team in the country. Don’t you just know those players and fan bases are hyper-excited about going to El Paso?

It’s evident that if you’re a college football team and not bowling, you’re not trying.

Thirteen bowl teams are 6-6 or worse. The bowl games are great ways to reward mediocrity. But why should college football be any different than any other facet of our society?

Is 35 post-season bowl games too many? Absolutely. No one, except the fans of a team in a bowl game, cares about any more than a handful, maybe less, of games.

The only bowl game that has lasting meaning is Alabama-Notre Dame for the BCS Championship.

I wonder how long in this economy can title sponsors of lower level bowl games keep pumping money out to put their name on a bowl game?

The sponsors’ names have progressively gotten weirder.

The TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl features a Mississippi State team that lost four of its last five games. Mississippi State was picked over Vanderbilt, which had an identical record and a six-game winning streak, because of one thing and one thing only. The Gator Bowl board thought Mississippi State’s fan base would travel better than Vanderbilt’s and it was probably right.

But should not someone with common sense have stepped in and sent a rising Ole Miss team to the Music City Bowl, Vanderbilt to the Gator Bowl (provided Vanderbilt would guarantee the same amount of tickets as Mississippi State did) and send the Bulldogs to the Liberty Bowl?

It’s a dumb decision to give a team a bowl invitation to a game played in the city where the team is located. What kind of a reward is that for fans, players and coaches?

But I guess as long as sponsors support the bowls, the craziness will continue. We’ll still be trying to figure out where the New Era Pinstripe Bowl is, who is playing in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and why the R&L Carriers Bowl in New Orleans isn’t the Johnny’s Po-Boys and Gumbo Bowl.

Now that mention of Johnny’s Po-Boys makes me want to be sure and watch the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. Anyone know what channel it’s on?

Sports Columnist Joe Biddle can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  

It would be easy to say it’s Vanderbilt’s James Franklin. But nothing is easy in the SEC. Ask any football coach about that.

Franklin has some stiff competition for the honor.

You can make a solid case for Franklin and three other coaches, and none of them have their teams playing in the SEC Championship Game.

Franklin is gaining national attention for the transformation occurring in Vanderbilt’s football program.

Vanderbilt is 8-4 in Franklin’s second season. The Commodores are bowl-bound for the second straight year, a first in school history. They overcame a 1-3 start, losing four of their first six games. The schedule became easier and Vanderbilt ran off six straight wins to end the season.

Of Vandy’s eight wins, not one team finished the season with a winning record. Only 6-6 Ole Miss is going to a bowl. The eight teams Vanderbilt defeated had a combined record of 29-66.

But the job Franklin did was much more than wins and losses. He infused a winning attitude in a program that had been a SEC whipping post for years.

Franklin inherited a shrinking, aging fan base. He gave them hope and the results they longed for. Vandy Nation is now a proud and growing fan base. He got the administration off its haunches, providing funding for a number of long overdue facility additions and improvements.

Teams searching for coaching replacements have Franklin on their wish list. He says he is going to finish what he started, and that is to make Vanderbilt a special place to play football.

We would be remiss to ignore the job Kevin Sumlin did in his first year at Texas A&M. You talk about transition. Sumlin not only took a new job, it was one that required him to make his maiden voyage in the SEC, home of the last six national champions.

The Aggies were 10-2, losing only to SEC heavyweights Florida by three and LSU by five. They upset defending national champion and undefeated No. 1 Alabama, 29-24 in the Tide’s backyard.

Unlike Franklin, Sumlin had a previous track record as a head coach. His Houston team won a school record 12 games in 2011. At Houston, Sumlin was 35-17 and took his team to three bowl games.

Sumlin earned his spurs five years under Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops. Before that he worked two years for R.C. Slocum at Texas A&M as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator. The 48-year-old Indianapolis native walked on at Purdue and led the team in tackles as a senior.

In my mind it’s a two-way beauty contest between Franklin and Sumlin. There are others in the discussion.

We are not discounting the job Hugh Freeze did at Ole Miss, which has been a coaching carousel. The team was 7-18 the two years before Freeze was hired.

You could also make a case for the Head Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier. OK, so we were high school buddies and remain friends.

Now 67 years old, HBC won 10 games for the second year in a row. Never before done at South Carolina. He won 10 despite losing star running back Marcus Lattimore for much of the season and starting quarterback, Connor Shaw, part of the year.

I give an ever-slight edge to Sumlin, with Franklin first runner-up. How about you?

Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  

While Tennessee was inventing ways to lose at home to Missouri, Vanderbilt was making up a 17-point deficit to beat Ole Miss in Oxford.

You want to talk about role reversal, there it is.

The once mighty Vols will soon be looking for a new coach. A long-time laughing stock of the SEC, Vanderbilt is riding high and on its way to an unprecedented back-to-back bowl games.

Second-year Vanderbilt Coach James Franklin has been trying to convince everyone that this is not the “same old Vandy.’’ Many who have heard coaches say this for too many years, nod our head, roll our eyes and mutter, “Seeing is believing.’’

I remember when Vanderbilt was going through one of its many coaching changes. It showed favorite son Watson Brown the door and brought in little known Gerry DiNardo to turn the ship around.

It was orchestrated by then-AD Paul Hoolahan, who knew DiNardo from playing high school football with DiNardo’s older brother in New York City.

DiNardo’s first press conference was before Brown had a press conference to explain his firing. It didn’t go over well with local media.

The question was quickly raised to DiNardo: This program has been losing for years. What makes you think you can get it done here?

Fair question. To which DiNardo replied, “I have a plan.’’

Being the curious sort, I asked DiNardo if he would share his plan since no one else had figured it out.

“No. I have studied this program and my plan will work,’’ he replied.

At the conclusion of the press conference, I walked to the back of the room, where the late Vanderbilt jack-of-all-trades Richard Baker was sitting. Baker started working for Vanderbilt athletics department after high school.

I asked Baker how many football coaches he had seen at Vanderbilt. He laughed, his ample belly shaking. He had counted the previous night and I recall his number was double-digits.

“Did any of them have a plan, Bake?’’ I asked.

He roared.

“Every one of them, Mr. Biddle. Every one of them.’’

Well, whatever plan James Franklin brought with him from Maryland is working.

What James Franklin is selling, the players are buying. So are the fans, eager after all those decades of waiting ‘til next year.

Why, Franklin has 70-year-old fans holding up six fingers at the start of the fourth quarter. That means his players are going to give it their all for six seconds at a time the rest of the game. Why six seconds? Franklin calculated the average play takes six seconds.

Franklin tells you this is a game changer. He preaches it from billboards, on radio and TV spots, in the newspapers.

He has changed the losing culture and proven Vanderbilt can win football games, even in the SEC. 

They are 6-4, with four of those wins coming in SEC games.

They are not your father’s Commodores, or as rival fans used to call them, Commode-dores.

Tennessee comes to town Saturday, reeling from a 0-6 SEC record and playing for most likely, a lame duck coach.

Will Vanderbilt Stadium be bathed in orange Saturday? Or will Vanderbilt fans use their tickets and show up in mass?

Tennessee’s still dangerous offensively, but still a train wreck on defense.

Saturday may be the day Vanderbilt can tell Tennessee fans to “Wait ‘till next year.’’

Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  

If the present trend continues, Titans Coach Mike Munchak and Tennessee Coach Derek Dooley can meet at a designated coffee shop on their way to file unemployment papers.

Circumstances could not have been any bleaker than they were last weekend when Troy came within a whisker of upsetting Tennessee. A day later, it was Da Bears who blew into Music City and handed the Titans what was arguably their most embarrassing loss in franchise history.

With Tennessee, Dooley is all but dead man walking. When Troy took a lead late in their game, sources report a number of folks sitting in the President’s private box engaged in some hush-hush conversation.

If true, it’s doubtful they were discussing East Tennessee’s beautiful fall foliage. Nor do I think they were making plans for a future golf trip.

If the men of Troy had been successful, I think Dooley would not be coaching this week against Missouri. I would think even Dooley would agree.

The Vols must run the table for the decision makers to give Dooley another year. The first thing he needs to do is send defensive coordinator Sal Sunseri packing. He may be a great position coach, but he has been an abject failure as a coordinator.

While Sunseri may, or may not, have a perfect scheme is up for vigorous debate. But his inability to teach it to Tennessee’s players is plain as day. Most shots of Sunseri I have seen during TV games show him yelling to his players. Obviously the results prove he is not getting his message through.

If they should dump Dooley some time between this week and the end of the season I don’t see a slam dunk candidate to replace him. And even if Tennessee is of mind to pay Nick Saban type money for Dooley’s replacement, I’m not sure anyone who can get the job done would take it.

A new coach would be starting in fourth place in the SEC East with sound programs in Georgia, South Carolina and Florida with a wide gap between them and the rest of the SEC East. Trust me when I say those programs will not surrender their status without a street fight.

Tennessee is not the job it once was. Some fans and media wearing orange tinted classes claim it is a top 10 job. Please. I will tell you it’s no longer a top 25 job. They have to recruit nationally, as South Carolina and Clemson have locked up what was once a fertile Tennessee recruiting state. Georgia and Alabama get the cream of the crop in their states, while Tennessee has seen in-state recruits such as Alabama All-American Barrett Jones and ex-All American linebacker Dont’a Hightower left the state. Current recruits Max Staver and Jalen Ramsey of Brentwood Academy chose to go to Florida and Southern Cal respectively. Top 20 teams invade Tennessee and take the best players home with them.

As for Munchak, he has more rope. He grew up in the organization, as a player, offensive line coach and the last two years as head coach.

Twenty-five years ago, owner Bud Adams would have fired Munchak after the Bears massacre. The 89-year-old Adams is a more kinder, gentler sort, and not as quick on the trigger.

It will be worth watching to see the plot thicken at Baptist Sports Park, as well as on the Hill.

Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .     

When South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore was tackled by Tennessee linebacker Herman Lathers and defensive back Eric Gordon, it became obvious something had gone wrong with Lattimore.

It was gruesome to watch on TV. His left leg was pointing in different directions. Lattimore had gone through extensive knee reconstruction in 10 months to be able to play this year. That occurred on his other knee, and he knew this one was season ending.

At that point it didn’t matter which team you pull for. It didn’t matter how much you hate South Carolina.

No one likes to see what happened to Lattimore happen on a football field.

“Oh, man, it just absolutely took my breath away. I was watching it and it just breaks my heart. I just hurt for him and his family and teammates. This is a guy who represents all the good things that college football should be about.’’

That quote wasn’t from South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier. It was from Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney, South Carolina’s most hated rival and vice versa.

Marcus Lattimore is special. The night before the Tennessee game, Lattimore spoke to his team. One of the things he told them was to always play every play as if it is your last one.

As medical people worked on Lattimore, players from both teams came out on the field and surrounded him. Many took a knee in prayer.

The news was not good although not as bad as was painted in social media outlet, Twitter. He did not have a broken femur as tweeted.

Doctors reset a dislocated kneecap, but he has multiple ligament damage, the extent of which has not been released.

Hopefully, Lattimore will take a redshirt year to rehab and play two years from now. He was projected as a high round NFL draft choice. These type injuries will lower his stock.

“He is such a good young man,’’ South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier said. “Good things are going to happen to Marcus. I don’t know exactly where or how, but good things are going to happen to Marcus Lattimore.’’

Lattimore crossed my mind when I was writing in the LP Field pressbox after the Titans game Sunday.

There were three or four youth football teams playing each other on the field, after the Titans game. I don’t know their ages, but they looked like ants from the press box. I guessed they couldn’t have been more than 10 years old.

Do parents need to subject kids that young or younger to football? It is a contact sport.

At any age, injuries are going to happen. Pediatricians tell you a child’s bone structure is not fully developed until much later, putting them more at risk for injuries.

You also should be cognizant that kids are subjected to concussions and we are seeing what they have done to college and NFL players.

Let them play other sports, like soccer, swimming, tennis, basketball, golf until they are fully developed and then they can choose to play football or not.

Too many youth coaches and parents live out their failed athletic youth through their children.

We saw what happened to Lattimore. It could happen to your child. Think about it.

What is the rush for them to compete in football? What if that was your son writhing on the field instead of Marcus Lattimore? Is it worth it?

Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .      

I saw something last Saturday I never recall seeing before.

Vanderbilt’s football team didn’t play its best game, yet managed to beat Auburn at Vanderbilt Stadium.

Is it a sign of the Apocalypse? First The Tennessean endorsed a Republican for President. Now this.

Although the final score was 17-13, I never felt it was a game the Commodores were in danger of losing.

At 1-6, Auburn is off to its worst start since 1952. Yes, Auburn is that bad. It ranks No. 119 out of 120 Division I teams in total offense. The Tigers trotted out two quarterbacks, neither of which were SEC quarterbacks.

But any win is a good win for Vanderbilt, especially after Auburn became its second SEC victim of the season. And with Massachusetts, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Wake Forest remaining, the 3-4 Commodores could be favored in all five games.

So while Auburn fans are itching to cut ties with Gene Chizik and Tennessee fans can’t wait to get rid of Derek Dooley and just as much as Kentucky and Arkansas want to change coaches, Vanderbilt is more than content with James Franklin.

If you want to buy a stock with huge upside, invest in Vanderbilt football. How long has it been that someone said that?

If you drive around Nashville, you can’t help but notice all the billboards that show Coach James Franklin shouting, “This Is A Game Changer.’’

While it’s obvious James Franklin loves him some James Franklin, it is equally evident he has energized the previously moribund Commodores fan base.

He definitely has the Vanderbilt players drinking the Kool-Aid.

He is getting in their heads and I have always thought the formula for winning college football games is more mental than physical. Due to his recruiting success, Franklin will succeed in bringing the physical part up to SEC speed.

I thought former Vandy coach Gerry DiNardo was a workaholic, but I haven’t seen a Vanderbilt football coach work as hard as Franklin does. More than any SEC program, this job demands that.

The Commodores are currently ranked No. 15 by Rivals.com in the upcoming recruiting class. That is only two spots behind South Carolina.

Scout.com has Vanderbilt sitting in the No. 21 position while 24/7 Sports has the Commodores at No. 23.

It’s safe to say rival SEC coaches know they can’t dismiss the progress Vanderbilt is making in recruiting.

This program didn’t get where it was when Franklin arrived overnight and it won’t be a quick fix.

On the sidelines, Franklin sometimes shows his inexperience under fire. He takes chances, which is good when it works.

But then a fake punt he tried against Auburn blew up in his face. He has confidence in his defense to cover his mistakes.

“The execution obviously was not what we wanted,’’ Franklin understated. “It was actually an option play. If Wes (Tate) can keep the ball and go, he goes. If not, he pitches the ball out. We had the look, but the pitch wasn’t good. That’s execution. We need to rep it and get better.’’

Franklin went for it five times on fourth down and converted two in a close game.

“I told you guys before we’re going to play aggressive around here. We are going to take some calculated risks and I’m perfectly fine with that,’’ Franklin said.

That’s what you have to do to be a game changer.

Contact Sports Columnist Joe Biddle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Three years into Derek Dooley’s attempt to put Humpty Dumpty back together again reached its’ shakiest point late Saturday night in Starkville.

The Vols lost to a ranked team for the 13^th consecutive game in Dooley’s time on the Hill. It was the best opportunity they had to get a signature win under Dooley.

They gave up 41 points, albeit seven of them coming in the closing seconds and making it 41-31 on the scoreboard.

Many UT fans are ready to cut ties with Dooley. Quarterback Tyler Bray referred to those disgruntled fans as “fairweather fans’’ in a tweet. He later recanted, but the message spread like wildfire.

Tennessee’s football team has another opportunity Saturday to gain national attention.

The Vols have had a week off to lick their wounds from the seven-point road loss to Georgia.

We will get a better impression of just how strong this program is under third-year coach Derek Dooley.

It’s also an SEC East versus West matchup against Mississippi State.

State is 5-0, ranked No. 19. Impressive on the outside, not so much when you look at it under a microscope.

I wonder who had the worst hangover Monday -- our Ryder Cup team or the Titans?

At least the Titans have 14 more games to play. The Ryder Cup team has two years to stew on the Medinah Massacre.

The team in two-tone blue finished September at 1-3, no better, no worse than predicted.

While everyone is focusing on who the Titans quarterback will be this Sunday in Minnesota, they need to be focusing on finding someone who can tackle opponents.

Defensive coordinator Jerry Gray’s matador defense has given up a total of 151 points in four games as the Titans rank next to last in the NFL in total defense.