This time I am going over the edge. I am going to directly question the leadership at the University of Memphis. It really pains me to do this. But after a trip to Orlando and the Central Florida campus I’m beside myself with total disgust with the lack of effort that the current administration.

UCF is a beautiful campus. It has new buildings for academics. It has a new indoor practice facility so big you could put two of ours inside of it. They have a 40,000+ new football stadium. The campus in Orlando has undergone a facelift like nothing I’ve ever seen. Oh wait, I have seen it before. I saw it at Louisville and Cincinnati. And just like those two schools the stated goal of UCF is an invitation to a BCS conference. And for that reason alone they have aggressively acted on improving their campus. They have succeeded in their preparations and the invitation will be forthcoming.

It has led to me ask, “What has our administration done to get us an invitation?” All I have heard coming from the Athletic Department is some secret meetings, an AD who said he didn’t want to “raise false hopes” and a constant battle to get them off the snide to accomplish anything. There have been no public plans to improve our facilities to make us on par with the elite of C-USA and in line with schools in BCS leagues. See the fact of the matter is that you have to have top notch facilities in order to get an invitation. So when R.C. Johnson says he doesn’t want to raise false hopes it is because he simply doesn’t wish to do the work to make our facilities good enough to get invited. The invite won’t come unless we do something about it.

I liken us to a pretty girl who wants to get invited to a dance. For us to get invited we need to put on some makeup, get a new dress and make ourselves attractive so we can get our invitation. The problem is our AD and President don’t want to raise and spend the money for the makeup or the dress. They don’t realize that getting invited to the dance means we get to enjoy the fruits of being at that dance. They simply want to hope for an invite or don’t want to bother with it as they would be required to do some work. I’m beginning to suspect the latter. The fans and boosters I know would be more than willing to help pay for new facilities if we are presented with a plan and a stated goal. Right now they wish to have someone do the work for them. As in Dr. Raines’ statement last week when she said no one has presented a plan for an on-campus stadium. Shouldn’t the leadership at Memphis be preparing a plan with a multitude of options for improving our athletic department? That’s like the manager of a restaurant asking for recipes because they don’t want to do the research and development new ones.
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With training camp opening in 4 days there was good news from the Grizzlies that a new fan event is starting this season. The Blue-White Scrimmage game will be held on Oct. 3rd at the Forum. While I haven’t been able to find an exact starting time I was told to expect it around lunchtime this year. I will have more news on that as I found it out.

There have been a few stories hitting the press lately about the Memphis Grizzlies. If you want to find them just follow the links:

1) Chris Herrington is back to blogging after spending the summer in denial that the Grizzlies still exist. Welcome back to 2007 Chris. You were missed this summer.

2) Mark Stein over at ESPN had some nice words for the Grizzlies summer activity. Interesting take on who did best this summer in the Western Conference.

3) Marc Iavaroni, the new Grizzlies head coach, has been making the rounds in the talk show circuit and has really been available for the media. He has interviews on NBA.com, WHBQ56 sports talk radio and the CA’s own Ron Tillery. This follows the excellent press Chris Wallace got two weeks ago for my blog on 3 Shades of Blue that got no less than Henry Abbott of ESPN’s TrueHoops talking about how cool a guy Chris Wallace is.

4) Mike Conley, Jr. got an interesting story written by Bethlehem Sholes at AOL’s Fanhouse. This is a good blog spot for stories and since they were kind to me about a blog I wrote I wanted to return the favor.

For those University of Memphis football fans still reeling from last weekend’s thumping at the hands of UCF — and fretting a dangerous Arkansas State team Thursday — another 2-10 finish seems unlikely.

The remaining schedule is filled with struggling opposition.

Outside of Southern Miss, there are no teams with winning records among the nine left on the Tiger schedule. Three of the opponents — Marshall, Middle Tennessee and Rice — are 0-4. The overall record of the nine opponents remaining is 7-25.

CollegeFootballNews.com compiles a weekly ranking of the nation’s 119 Football Bowl Subdivision teams (yes, it’s the group formerly known as 1-A) and seven of the U of M’s remaining opponents rank 95th or lower. MTSU is 104th, Tulane 113th, Marshall 114th and Rice 118th.

The Tigers aren’t much better. They are listed this week at No. 100.

While the remaining schedule is far from attractive, it lends itself to a postseason run. If Memphis isn’t able to take advantage, there’ll be another uproar amongst Tiger fans who were loudly critical of last weekend’s 56-20 loss to UCF.

As anyone who has read previous blogs/posts of mine in the past, I am not a fan of Isiah Thomas as a GM. As a player he was incredible. As a GM he has been incredulous! However that doesn’t prevent me from seeing things clearly and what is happening to Isiah in the courts of New York is wrong.

He is being accused of sexually harrassing a female employee. Did he attack her? No. Did he suggest certain benefits would come her way if she was more, shall we say accommodating to him? No. She is complaining that he called her a word meaning female dog and cursed at her. He did this before he told her that he loved her of course.

And she wants $10 million in damages from being called names and being told of a crush. Thank god I didn’t meet this girl when I was in grade school. That was how you let girls know you liked them! First you make fun of them and then you tell them how you really feel.

If these accusations are true, and I have no idea whether they are or not, is immaterial. They are in a high stress work environment. People’s tempers flair in these environments and sometimes things get said that the people wish they had said more temperately. What has our legal system become when people get sued for $10 million because someone was rude to them?
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A romp around Conference USA:

Memphis at Arkansas State: With a little bit more room to manuever, thanks to the NCAA kickoff rule change moving the ball back to the 30, ASU’s Brandon Thompkins is a threat. For the latest on the Tigers, click here.

Southern Miss at Boise State: The Golden Eagles will have a tough time getting past Boise State’s best offensive lineman.

LSU at Tulane: Look for the Tigers to be wearing something different in the Superdome on Saturday. The Green Wave celebrated the 1970 team last Saturday.

UTEP at SMU: Defensive injuries are wreaking havoc with the Miners.

East Carolina at Houston: It won’t make a difference in this game, but the Cougars are celebrating getting a commitment from a top Texas prep QB.
Meanwhile, Pirates coach Skip Holtz said his team found out a lot about itself in getting trampled by West Virginia.

UAB at Tulsa: Tulsa has put Friday night’s 41-point loss to Oklahoma in the rear-view mirror and is focused on C-USA foe UAB.

Louisiana-Lafayette at UCF: The opponent is winless. The Knights are coming off a great showing against Memphis. George O’Leary isn’t worried about his team being overconfident.

THE BIG STORY

All-conference middle linebacker Jasper Brinkley will undergo surgery Wednesday to repair a torn ligament in his right knee, Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier said Monday.

Spurrier told The State newspaper in Columbia that Brinkley likely is lost for the season, although USC coaches are optimistic the NCAA will approve a medical hardship to allow the senior to return for another year of eligibility. Spurrier was unclear on the length of Brinkley’s rehabilitation.

According to NCAA bylaws, athletes can apply for a hardship waiver if they are injured during the first half of the season and played in fewer than 30 percent of a team’s scheduled games — four games (rounded up from 3.6) in a 12-game football season. Brinkley was injured during the first quarter Saturday in the Gamecocks’ fourth game at LSU.

“They’ve been pretty forgiving and lenient and helpful to student-athletes the last few years,” Spurrier said. “So it should not be a problem.”

Brinkley, a 6-foot-2, 262-pound native of Thomson, Ga., considered leaving for the NFL after the 2006 season before returning for his senior year. Brinkley was unavailable for comment Monday.

But USC defensive end Casper Brinkley said his twin brother indicated he would play for the Gamecocks in 2008. “He’s coming back,” Casper Brinkley said. “He’s already said that.”

Casper Brinkley and USC defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix said the injury is to Jasper Brinkley’s lateral collateral ligament, a thin band along the outside of the knee that connects the thighbone to the fibula.

Casper Brinkley said his brother’s LCL tore away from the fibula. According to several online medical sources, LCL tears are rare in football and usually occur in conjunction with another knee injury.

Brinkley was injured during the first defensive series against the Tigers when he collided with safety Emanuel Cook and an LSU receiver after an incomplete pass.

“He’s stumbled into it,” Spurrier said. “Cook hit the guy right as the ball’s getting there and (Brinkley) come running in and got his foot caught in the ground and the guy sort of fell over it.”

He returned in the second quarter after X-rays taken in the locker room were negative. But Brinkley was visibly hobbled and finished with a career-low three tackles.

Marvin Sapp, a junior who will step into Brinkley’s spot, said the USC defense was initially stunned when Brinkley went down last weekend.

“Of course, we were hit when he wasn’t in there. But especially in the second half, we bounced back and stalemated them,” said Sapp, who started three games in 2006. “We just realized that we’ve got to step up. We are a team and the team is more than one person.”

A look at the league: Read the rest of this entry »

Martin Hankins will start at quarterback for the University of Memphis in Thursday’s game at Arkansas State, but how much will he play? How much should he play?

Hankins struggled at UCF in the 56-20 loss that sent fans scurrying to vent on message boards and talk shows. Although Tiger coach Tommy West refused to blame Hankins, callers to the sports talk shows directed their criticism at Hankins, who they said is incapable of throwing a deep ball.

Thursday will be an interesting test for Hankins. If he encounters problems again, West won’t hesitate to go with Will Hudgens, who has started in the past. West also is gaining confidence in redshirt freshman Matt Malouf, who has become a playmaker in his limited time.

They say no one’s more popular than the backup quarterback. What’s the policy on the No. 3 quarterback?

Malouf, whose only pass has been for a short touchdown, has rushed for two touchdowns and shown extremely good patience and vision.