Notes on the Weekend: Big-Time NCAA Rivalries; “Riggo” Goes Off; N.Y. vs. N.O. in the NFL

All the reports around the country mentioned Hall of Fame running back and former Washington Redskins great, John Riggins, You Tube video crushing of JIm Zorn. “Riggo,” as he was called, said Zorn better served coaching high school players, like Riggins’ son.

However, what was missed is in the reports is that Riggins spent the first half of his video crushing ‘Skins head of personnel, Vinnie Cerrata.

Check the video:

Washington had better defeat winless Kansas City Sunday.

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In the “other” NFL game of importance the undefeated New York Giants travel to New Orleans to meet the undefeated Saints. There have been no verbal fireworks in the lead-up to the game, no overstating the importance of the game. But you know the Saints players, especially on the defensive side of the ball, are looking to leave an impression with the Giants and everyone else around the country. New York’s defense has been all the rage the past two seasons, but the Saints now sport a defense that rivals that of the Giants’.

The keys to the game are simple: whichever team can protect their quarterback, whichever team can run effectively, and whichever team can connect on at least three of its shots down the field, will win the game. Oh yeah, and for New Orleans, they need a big effort from their special teams. Forcing the Giants to drive a long field in the din of the Superdome is worth anywhere from three to seven points to the Saints.

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The Oakland Raiders stink. We get that. But when your own players term the team a laughing stock? That puts the Raiders on a new level of low. Defensive end Greg Ellis speaks:

“The mood we’re going to be in or should be in, right now we’re kind of the laughingstock of the NFL,” Ellis said Thursday. “This isn’t anything new. Teams have been that way before. New England wasn’t always winning Super Bowls and Dallas wasn’t always the team they are. So, it goes in cycles. When you’re in that down cycle, you got to fight and claw to get back out of it and that’s what we’re doing here right now in Oakland.”

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Saturday is reserved for NCAA Football. This Saturday, though, is reserved for the Red River Rivalry – Oklahoma-Texas – and USC-Notre Dame.

Sure, I’m down in Austin and am a Longhorns fan, but something tells me Oklahoma might just win this game. Why? Because Sooners head coach is tired of hearing about how he has lost “it” – or, his “mojo” – as a play-caller:

Last week’s news conference included questions about conservative play-calling, shoddy tackling and the leaky offensive line.

This week, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops faced a fresh barrage of darts, most of them tossed from strategic angles or camouflaged with a smile.

One pleasantly phrased zinger pierced the heart of the matter. Could Stoops comment on the perception that the “mojo” he once had over Texas counterpart Mack Brown has turned entering Saturday’s A&T Red River Rivalry game at the Cotton Bowl?

Some would say it’s impudent to question a coach who has won more games this century, 105, than any other coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision. But Stoops’ once-rising program seems to have bogged on a vague plateau.

It’s been good enough to win an unprecedented three straight Big 12 championships while losing to South Division rival Texas three of the last four seasons.

“In the end, it all gets down to not just this game, it’s winning the rest of them and being a Big 12 champion or national champion,” Stoops said. “That’s what I’ve always focused on, not just beating Texas.”

No asterisks. No apologies.

But Sooners fans are far from content. Nor is Stoops. Preseason No. 3 Oklahoma has stumbled to a 3-2 start, all but squashing aspirations for the school’s and Stoops’ first national title since 2000.

It seems to matter little that both trip-ups this season were one-point defeats to ranked teams BYU and Miami; the first at neutral-site Cowboys Stadium, the other on the road. Or that Oklahoma has been crippled by injuries to star quarterback Sam Bradford and top receivers Jermaine Gresham and Ryan Broyles.

Another loss to third-ranked, 5-0 Texas might not constitute a tipping point for the Stoops era, but it certainly would trigger more questions and soul-searching – and more audible grumbling from the fan base.

Oh boy. The Sooners really need this game, even more than Texas. Look for an incredible game.

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On the USC-Notre Dame front, many people are quietly picking the Irish to upset the sixth-ranked Trojans. The game is in South Bend and it seems that no matter what officiating crew is used and from what conference, calls mysteriously go the way of the Irish. And the bigger the game, the more the opposition must defeat the zebras and Notre Dame.

But this year Charlie Weis has his best opportunity to defeat USC since his first year, when he took Ty Willingham’s players and came within a last-second quarterback sneak by Matt Leinart from upsetting the Trojans. USC starts a freshman QB – Matt Barkley – and are not as potent on offense as they have been in recent years. Much of USC’s talent on offense is scattered around the country as players have transferred to other schools. In general, it seems that fewer and fewer high school players want to play for a team and compete for a spot as a starter; they just want to be coddled and handed a position.

Additionally, Pete Carroll’s last two recruiting cycles have been marred – strangely – by investigative articles that just so happen to pop up during the time when high school players are about to sign their scholarship offers. Some in the sports media have forever been in the pockets of whatever sport they cover, acting as agent provocateurs, planting damaging articles right at the wrong time for a college program, or pro athlete, or team.

It is known that scads of college football programs have been jealous of USC’s recent florescence under Carroll, as he has locked down all the best talent in California and cherry-picked the best players from every state in the country. Carroll has signed top talent in the Southeast, angering SEC and Big 12 schools, from the upper Middle-Atlantic region, what used to be the sole possession of Joe Paterno and Penn State, and from Ohio, or Big 10 country – more specifically, the territory Ohio State and sometimes Michigan depend on to procure athletes to compete on the national stage.

Making enemies in the three most prestigious conferences, plus decimating your in-town rival, UCLA, and ensuring the other Pac 10 teams are fighting for recruiting scraps, is a dangerous proposition. The SEC and Big 10 are known for subterfuge and there is no dirty trick to which their programs and their boosters won’t resort.

Whether it’s athlete payola or a call to an editor-alum to get a negative story planted about an opposing coach or program, or even an anonymous tip in the form of a call or letter to the NCAA, you can bet representatives from Ohio State, Notre Dame, Alabama, Tennessee, LSU, Florida, Penn State, and now UCLA, Stanford, Cal, and the Oregon Pac 10 schools have all employed time-honored dirty tricks so their recruiters can walk into the home of players considering USC and subtly mention that USC is constantly being investigated by the NCAA and that their careers might be derailed if and when the investigations turn up the dirt; that as great a coach as is Pete Carroll, he might not be long at USC when the dookie hits the fan.

Believe it happens, because it does.