Tues.-Fri., June 28-July 1, 2022
The weather was fine this week, perfect for just lounging about.
So I did.
I was sorely disappointed by week's end with an announcement on Wednesday that Friday would be the last televising on the ACC Network/ESPN of the highly popular . . .
Mark Packer and Wes Durham
rocked my mornings through
Covid-19 and beyond
mostly a distant, mysterious
15 university conference
I stumbled upon this show that ran for three hours every Monday-Friday mornings while locked down during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Both Packer and Durham informed me hilariously, insightfully and seriously about all things imaginable regarding every Men's and Women's sport that the Atlantic Coast Conference has to offer.
Since we can't get the PAC-12 channel in Camarillo, this show filled a huge void in my sports thirsty world.
Because of these two characters who fit so well together, I came to know, among other things, that Boston College's Charlotte North is now believed by most experts to be the greatest Women's Lacrosse player of all-time.
Because of them, we refer to Wake Forest simply as "The Swiss."
Who knew?
This is Mark Packer's basement
where the show originated daily
Mark Packer with Wes Durham
and Packer's dogs
Now the question becomes what to do in the mornings without these two and all of their ACC shenanigans?
NUTS!
Speaking of college conferences . . .
On Thursday, USC and UCLA announced that they were leaving the PAC-12, effective in 2024, for the much bigger money of the BIG-10 Conference.
Thus ends over 100 years of these two universities being athletically linked with other west coast colleges.
With USC and UCLA soon in the fold, the BIG-10 will expand to 16 universities stretching from California to New Jersey.
Now the question is what will happen to the other ten university left behind in the PAC-12, especially with Washington and Oregon?
There will be more conference realignment in the future I'm sadly sure.
On a happier note . . .
The Cairo Hell Hounds
won Egyptian Bowl VIII!
I concur as always with David Lassen that Hell Hounds may be the absolute best team name in all of the global sports world.
For the Hell Hounds, this 15-12 victory over the Modern Sciences and Arts University Tigers was the club's third Egyptian Bowl title.
The Hell Hounds won Egyptian Bowl IV in 2018, 12-0, over the Cairo Wolves.
In 2021, the Hell Hounds defeated the Cairo Bears, 21-13, in Egyptian Bowl VII.
HELL HOUND PRIDE!
The Swiss, no not Wake Forest,
regular season came to an end
Our old club, the Thun Tigers, finished in fourth place thus making it into the Nationalliga A playoffs.
The Playoff Semi-Final games will take place on July 9th and will feature,
#4 Thun Tigers (5-5) at #1 Bern Grizzlies (10-0)
#3 Basel Gladiators (7-3) at #2 Calanda Broncos (8-2)
The Tigers and the Grizzlies played twice during the regular season with the men from Bern winning both of the contests.
On April 24th, the Grizzlies won 24-7 at home, then on June 19th, Bern won the return game in Thun,
36-6.
Good Luck Tigers!
The high flying Barcelona Dragons
will be at it at home this weekend
GM Bart Iaccarino was active on
the Waiver Wire again
He never rests when it comes to possibly improving the club . . .
. . . or its fan base/attendance
Though billed as the "Barcelona" Dragons, the team actually plays their games in the city of Reus about 67 miles/108 kilometers along the Mediterranean Sea shore southwest of Barcelona.
Having a nice recliner bus, or Pullman as they are called in Europe, to drive crazed American football fans from the Catalonian Capitol to Reus for only 9 Euros roundtrip is both a bargain and a great marketing tool.
Why wouldn't you want to make that trip to see . . .
. . . the European League of Football's
top ranked team at 4-0
At least for this week.
The stunner in this week's rankings is that the previously #1 ranked Vienna Vikings (4-0), despite beating the Istanbul Rams (0-4) 49-0, dropped to the #4 spot behind the Rhein Fire (3-1) and Frankfort Galaxy (2-2).
Things will surely continue to
sort themselves on the field
Is this ever a trap game!
The 4-0 Dragons are home on Saturday against the 0-4 Istanbul Rams. DON'T GET COCKY and start looking past these Rams to next week's big game at home against the 4-0 Vienna Vikings.
I received a call from the coach of an Italian DII team this week asking for help in finding him some coaches for next season.
The team was the Reggio-Emilia Hogs
The Hogs have for many years been a DII powerhouse using the old but trustworthy Delaware Wing-T as their unique, signature offense to rack up lots of points and victories.
The Hogs Board of Directors decided that using the Wing-T was limiting their ability to recruit quality QBs and WRs, so in 2022 they hired this coach to install a modern Spread offense.
Let's take a recent historical look at the Hogs offensive output using the Wing-T that lead to this decision by the Board:
2016: 9-1 record, 43.8 points per game average
2017: 10-1 record, 34.2 points per game average
2018: 7-2 record, 30.3 points per game average
2019: 8-2 record, 23.6 point per game average
2020: Covid-19 Pandemic, season cancelled
2021: 3-3 record, 21.2 points per game average
I can definitely see the steady decline in points production from season to season that lead to the Board's decision.
So how did the transition to the Spread offense go for the Hogs?
Let's take a look:
2022: 1-5 record, 4.2 points per game average
OUCH!
I hope that this was just a one year, transitional issue for the team from Reggio-Emilia located about half way between Parma and Modena in northern Italy's Emilia-Romagna region.
I was able to recommend a young Italian coach with a bright offensive mind to help the Hogs. We'll have to wait and see how that goes between the parties involved.
Some funny things from the net . . .
Agreeing with this more every day
INDEED!
Reading Is FUNdamental!
An extremely entertaining read that
made me shake my head yet again
about where our country has been
on the issue of Civil Rights
This is the final installment in the 30+ book
Inspector Montalbano Mystery series
The author of this great series that is based in Sicily is Andrea Camilleri who passed away in 2019 at the ripe old age of 93.
He wrote this book in 2005 and gave it to his publisher to hold until he died as it was his way of bringing the series to the close he desired. He wrote 18 Montalbano books after he wrote this series finale.
It was an interesting finish to one of my all-time favorite mystery detectives to be sure.
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