Sports Potpourri

By Guest Blogger John Manuel:

I am happy with my Alma mater Maryland’s selection of Randy Edsall as its head coach. Edsall had success at UConn with developing decent talent, in College Park he will be able to work a better recruiting base. Coach Friedgen left him with good talent to start with and the return of defensive coordinator Don Brown is a big bonus. As for Mike Leach, I am now not shocked he wasn’t the choice. Nobody else has really looked at him and with violations just imposed on Texas tech and with his pending lawsuits, he was a risk. Plus if he won quickly at Maryland, would he have stayed long term? I am doubting that, and would guess he would have jumped to the next big time program offer he got. Best of luck to Ralph Friedgen, and thank you for bringing the program back. We sucked when I was there under Mark Duffner, as I can remember bailing at halftime every Saturday to go back to the tailgate in the parking lot.
It was great to see the caps win the 2011 winter classic at Heinz Field. Although I had to rewatch the game on NHL network since I was particularly out commission by New Year’s night. Sid the kid getting crushed was solid also. Only to top it were the Pens failing to shake hands afterwards. I do hope we get them again come playoff time.

I watched the ESPN documentary on Tim Tebow’s prep for the draft and I hope he becomes a solid NFL qb. I promise I won’t do a Thom Brennaman BCS title game speech about meeting Tim Tebow’s makes you a better man though. It was funny to see Todd Mcshay wrong throughout the show on Tebow. Mcshay blows and I hope Mike Shanahan doesn’t read any of his reports on prospects. That one was for you Kingston.
For all 8 of you who read my past blogs, I talked about my fantasy football arch rival, the Matzie. To no surprise we met in the finals.  I took a 33 point lead into Monday night, but he had Ron Mexico, Lesean McCoy and David Akers. Figured I was cooked, but my dream season culminated with a 1.8 point victory and being crowned champion of the Joe Kelly league once again. Matzie was pissed and since has disappeared on Canton.

Huge playoff battles this weekend. All four are rematches highlighted by the AFC rivalry games. Pittsburgh and Baltimore is always close as I expect a big play from a future hall of famer like Lewis, Polamalu, Reed or Ward to be the difference. I am going with Ray Ray to make it in a 17-14 ravens win helped by a big Suisham miss at some point.

I think the pats handle the jets again. I can’t see Rex Ryan winning a super bowl because I think he is a fool. It won’t be 45-3 but something like 27-13 pats. Brady is playing too well. I think he ended the MVP debate in weeks 16 and 17.