The onslaught of freezing rain, snow and sleet has played havoc with sporting schedules statewide.
Locally, the rather full Pea Ridge basketball schedule for early December has had numerous cancellations as well as other activities. School has been dismissed four days with more days possibly being dismissed as well, as per the weather report on TV while I am fi nishing this column Monday.
The Arkansas high school state football playo◊s were postponed across the board with the 4A semifinals scheduled for Friday night. Bentonville will play Cabot this weekend for the 7A championship and is the only school in northwest Arkansas still playing. Luckily, they have a full-sized indoor football facility in which to practice.
The delay has the 4A title game set to play next weekend, the weekend most schools recess for the Christmas break. Note I said “Christmas break” not holiday break, winter break or semester break.
Most states, if not all of them, have their football seasons come to an end already. Missouri always ends their season on Thanksgiving weekend.
Kansas schools are generally done with football the week before Thanksgivingwith Oklahoma schools matching up with Arkansas.
You never can tell about the weather, bit it seems to me that December is not a particularly good time of the year to be on the gridiron. Schools not as fortunate as Pea Ridge with their indoor practice facility, are at a great handicap preparing for games that have increasingly higher stakes.
Personally, I really like the Missouri system that wraps it up on Thanksgiving weekend. The bigger schools started the playo◊s the first day of November, playing one game a week until the season concluded on Thanksgiving weekend.
The smaller schools had one more round, so they played every five or six days to be able to fi nish on the same weekend.
Perhaps the state should consider starting football season one week earlier as well as the five- to six-day rotation for the smaller schools. Having the state championships then would help build a larger crowd for those games with most folks having the extra time to attend on a holiday weekend.
Some argue that too many teams are in the playo◊s. Nearly all fi fth seeds in 4A, for example, get crushed in the fi rst round.
In addition, fifth seeds usually have to travel a long way to get to where their season will end.
Of course, the main reason so many teams make the playo◊s as it is one of the top revenue getters for the AAA. More games means more money and it takes money to run any organization. Secondly, even though fifth seeds almost always lose, some spectacularly, I think those teams would rather be there than sitting at home. There is a certain cachet to having the status of “playo◊team.” Mahlzahn haters pulling their hair out
When Gus Mahlzahn was winning all those games at Shiloh, folks didn’t like it (me for one). When he went to Springdale, he got the Bulldogs ranked as the second best team in the United States. Some said that he was just lucky having all those great athletes to work with.
When he went to Tulsa, he had the NCAA’s most prolifi c o◊ense, but some said “Yeah, but who are they playing?” When he went to Auburn as o◊ensive coordinator, the Tigers were the national champions right away. Some said“Yeah, but he was just lucky he had the right athletes.” He left there to go to Arkansas State, his fi rst head coach job. He had a great season but some said it was because he inherited a great team from the previous coach.
The year after he left Auburn, the Tigers went 3-9, going 0-8 in the SEC.
Mahlzahn stated that he wanted to finish his career in northwest Arkansas, but when Petrino got fi red and the next year the Hogs went down the tubes, the powers that be wanted nothing to do with Mahlzahn, saying things like “he wasn’t a good fit” or “his system wouldn’t work at Arkansas.”
Subsequently, Mahlzahn was o◊ered the head Auburn job and after running past Missouri 59-42 in the SEC championship game, the Tigers are playing Florida State for the national championship. If he wins that game, and I think he will, he will lead a team that went winless in the conference in the previous year to the top spot in all of college football.
Did he inherit tremendous athletes? His quarterback was quarterbacking a 6-4 junior college team last year and his best running back was so so in 2012.
No coach has won the SEC title in his fi rst season in 60 years, and as an Arkansas fan, I dread having to play in the same division while Mahlzahn is there.
Alabama’s coach (Nick Saban) is held is the highest regard by media and fans for his great coaching career. He is not a particularly nice fellow, though, and is no stranger to profane language. The rumors that he is considering moving to the Texas job if it opens (and I believe it will) heartens me.
Why does Mahlzahn get such hate and disrespect sent his way? Maybe it is because of his Christian faith and conduct. I think it would be a fair bet that ifMahlzahn used some profanity and slugged down some Jack Daniels, there would be those who see his coaching expertise in a better light.
Those who think that Mahlzahn wouldn’t be a good fit at Arkansas needs to rethink what size we are.◊◊◊
Editor’s note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports, Pages 8 on 12/11/2013