College FB '13 Dread News - Week 15

Throughout the BCS era - which thankfully will come to an end less than 2 weeks from now (not that the next era will be any less aggravating) - life has not been fair for the teams in the smaller conferences. If you played in the Mountain West, Sun Belt, CUSA, MAC, or (prior to 2013) WAC, you were automatically deemed inferior to the teams in the 6 major conferences even before each season began, no matter how good your team was. And to have any chance of earning a trip to one of the big money BCS bowl games, you not only had to win your conference, you had to go undefeated as well. This year there were a couple of teams that threatened to be BCS busters. Fresno State made it to Week 14 before falling at San Jose State; and the other .....

Northern Illinois overcame the odds last season, earning a trip to the Orange Bowl; but the Huskies won't be appearing in a 2nd straight BCS bowl. Coming into the MAC championship game with a 12-0 record, NIU fell - hard - to Bowling Green 47-27. It was the first MAC title in 21 years for Bowling Green. At 9-3, the Falcons didn't have the sparkling record, or the Heisman candidate, or the hype that NIU had. But their 21-20 loss at Mississippi State in Week 7 proved they were no slouches. And they came into the game with a ton of momentum, having outscored their previous four opponents by a margin of 176-17 since suffering their only MAC loss 28-25 to Toledo in Week 9. Included in that run was an impressive 24-7 win on the road against Buffalo in a Week 14 showdown that clinched the MAC East Division title.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 14

     "They're going to try a field goal?" .......

...... asked CBS announcer Gary Danielson - incredulously - as Alabama lined up to attempt a 56-yard field goal on the last play of the game. If successful, the kick would give the Crimson Tide an SEC West-clinching 31-28 victory over Auburn. But since the Tide had already gone 0 for 3 on much shorter FG attempts earlier in the game, Danielson, yours truly, and likely thousands of others watching were wondering what on Earth had possessed Coach Saban into believing this attempt would end up any better than the previous three.

Well, as you probably have heard, this attempt didn't end up better than the previous three - it actually went even worse. Not only was it not long enough to be good, it in fact was so short that Auburn CB Chris Davis was able to catch the ball in the back of the end zone and proceeded to return it 108 yards all the way to the house at the other end of the field (photos on right) to give the Tigers the victory, 34-28, in one of the most amazing finishes to a game you'll ever see. In case you somehow haven't seen the play (or you just want to see it again) here it is on a video from the Auburn website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GKmkD1pUG0

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 12

In Week 6 they trailed at Memphis 17-10 with less than 3 minutes to play ..... They won 24-17. Two weeks later they trailed at Louisville by 4 with less than 30 seconds remaining .....  They won 38-35. In Week 11 they led by 5 with 40 seconds to go, but Houston had the ball 1st and goal at their 10-yard line ..... They won 19-14. And in Week 12 at Philadelphia they trailed Temple 36-29 with less than 2 minutes on the clock ..... Of course, they won 39-36. By now you likely have figured out that "they" are the Central Florida Knights. And being a fan of the 2013 Knights means you better not have a weak heart. UCF's latest escape act kept them undefeated in the AAC (5-0) and moved them another step closer to the AAC's automatic bid to one of the major bowl games.

Don't even think about saying that UCF is lucky. When the Knights have needed to make a play, they've gone out and done it, and there's nothing lucky about that. Making a lot of those plays have been their four standout receivers. Two of the four have dreads, but for a moment it looked like neither was going to be of any help this week. Sophomore Breshad Perriman wasn't even in uniform while recovering from a concussion suffered in the Knights' previous game. And it looked like junior Rannell Hall (photo below) would join him on the sideline after being injured in the 2nd quarter against Temple. But Hall wasn't out for long, and that was a very good thing for UCF.

Jason the Babarian

It was Sunday, November 17, and I was about three fourths of the way done with my weekly three hours of suffering watching the Falcons stink it up again (I mean, they can't even beat Tampa Bay). But, as always, I had two other televisions on too, with the sound down, so that I could keep an eye on other games during all the breaks and timeouts in the Falcons' game. Since the Bears were in a weather delay and the Chiefs weren't playing until later, that meant I was following the Jaguars more closely than usual, as they took on the Cardinals. And that meant I saw something that at first was hard to believe.

Just before going to a commercial break after a Cardinals punt in the 3rd quarter, there was a brief replay on the Fox telecast of a Jaguars player holding up what appeared to be a handful of dreads that apparently had been ripped away from somebody's head. Well, that's exactly what it was. Now I don't normally freak out and do a post every time someone gets his dreads yanked during a game; but this wasn't just one or two strands of dreads this guy was holding up - it looked like a whole bunch. And when he let go of them and they fell to the ground, it became evident that it was close to a dozen dreads that somebody had just lost.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 10

As South Florida fans watched the Bulls' offense look better than it has all season in their ESPN Thursday night game at Houston, I know what their reaction was: Where did all this come from? And while watching freshman QB Mike White throw the ball much more accurately than the other three quarterbacks who have played for the Bulls this season, no doubt they were thinking: Why has this guy been on the bench all year? In the Bulls' first 7 games their feeble passing attack averaged 10.6 completions and 132 yards. Making his first start, White passed for 311 yards on 26 completions. And if not for a questionable offensive pass interference penalty that nullified a 27-yard TD that would have given the Bulls the lead with 4 minutes to play, he might have led USF to the upset. But instead Houston held on for a 35-23 victory in a game that featured a lot of players with dreads.

That feeble offense is the main reason I for the most part have avoided watching South Florida this season, even though this is a team loaded with a lot of great dreads. Arguably the sickest of those dreads belong to junior WR Chris Dunkley, who made more of an impact in this game on special teams than on offense.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 8

Well, that wasn't much of a game. Was it? If you had asked me before Florida State played Clemson last Saturday, I would have told you that I thought FSU was the better team, but I still expected Clemson to win - because they were playing at home. But as it turned out, not even the home field advantage was enough to save the Tigers. Not only were the Seminoles the better team, they were an astonishing five touchdowns better. Losers on their last 5 trips to Clemson, the 'Noles ended that streak and had their fans enjoying themselves from start to finish as they put a 51-14 whipping on the Tigers - the most points Clemson has ever allowed in a home game.

I thought when Clemson struggled last week, scoring only 24 points in a 10-point home win over Boston College, that it was only because they were flat and that they would bounce back in a big way against FSU. Uh, no. The struggles didn't continue, they intensified. The Tigers were held to a season low 326 yards (their previous low was 415) and had 4 turnovers.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 7

One of the most disappointing games for Baylor during Robert Griffin III's Heisman Trophy winning 2011 season was the Week 5 road game against Kansas State in which the Bears, off to a hot start not too dissimilar from the way they've started this season, blew a 9-point lead in the 4th quarter and lost 36-35. The biggest disappointment for Kansas State in their Big 12 championship winning 2012 season came in Week 12, when the Wildcats, 10-0 and ranked #2 in the nation, made the trip to Waco and laid an egg, getting clobbered 52-24 by Baylor, which entered the game with a 4-5 record. So for this year's meeting between Baylor and K-State - back in Manhattan - you had the unusual case of both teams seeking redemption. It looked like the outcome was going to be a repeat of the 2011 game. But this time, after the Bears blew a 21-10 halftime lead, they regained momentum, regained the lead, and held on to win 35-25.

I try to never miss an LSU-Florida game, but Baylor against K-State was the game I most wanted to see this week - even if there weren't many players with dreads in uniform. It's just that I've become a really big fan of Tevin Reese (photo above), and also I wanted to see how the Bears' explosive offense would fare playing on the road for the first time.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 6

If you had told me before the start of the 2013 season that by the end of the first 6 weeks of the season Miami redshirt sophomore RB Dallas Crawford would score nearly 3 times as many touchdowns as his former HS teammate, Clemson junior WR Sammy Watkins, I probably would have been like Chief Lutz and asked you if you had "submitted yourself for drug testing yet?" But here we are approaching the middle of October, and it's a fact that Crawford has scored 8 TD so far for the Hurricanes, while Watkins has 3 TD for Clemson. Crawford used to throw passes to Watkins when they were at South Ft. Myers HS but also was a standout cornerback; so I figured when the 'Canes met the Tigers (if they ever meet them) we'd be seeing Crawford trying to cover Watkins, not trying to outscore him. But after playing on defense on the scout team while redshirting in 2011, Crawford switched to offense (RB, not QB) last season. And so far in 2013 he's been making quite a few house calls.

Crawford's 7th and 8th TD were scored last Saturday as Miami improved to 5-0, rallying from an early 17-7 deficit to defeat Georgia Tech 45-30.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 5

When I mentioned last week that Rutgers might be a threat to spoil Louisville's expected romp to the AAC title, you could almost hear the grumbling all the way from Orlando: What about UCF? I agree - what about UCF? Well, apparently I wasn't the only one curious to see if the Knights were for real after getting off to an impressive 3-0 start this season, because a sellout crowd of 47,605 was on hand (the second largest crowd since UCF opened their new stadium 6 years ago) last Saturday to see how they would fare against one of the better teams in the SEC. With Coach Spurrier's South Carolina Gamecocks on the opposing sideline, the Knights made their first ever appearance on ABC television. And although they did not pass the test, at least the day wasn't a total failure for UCF. The Knights led by 10 early, the Gamecocks went on a 28-0 run, and the Knights finished strong, with South Carolina hanging on for a 28-25 victory that left both teams at 3-1.

The game got off to a bad start for the Gamecocks, as starting QB Connor Shaw went down with an injury on their opening possession. They fell behind 10-0 and might have faced an even larger deficit at halftime if not for the 1st INT of the season by junior CB Victor Hampton, which ended a UCF drive that had reached FG range with 1:17 remaining in the half.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 4

There wasn't any one game that I watched from start to finish this week, and none of the games I watched portions of was going to be in the running for this week's house of dread award; so I started paying closer attention than usual to the scores flashing at the bottom of the TV screen. When the score Middle Tennessee 42 Florida Atlantic 35 came up, I thought I had my HOD winner. Well, not quite; but the small crowd on hand for FAU's home opener (much less than the announced 13,911) did get to see several players with dreads in prominent roles for both teams. MTSU vs. FAU - last year it was a Sun Belt Conference game. This year - still a conference game, but now in CUSA instead of the SBC. And for their first ever league game in CUSA the Blue Raiders (according to the MTSU website) took the field wearing white helmets for the first time in 35 years.

I figured MTSU against FAU would contend for HOD honors because MTSU has a couple of WRs with dreads, while FAU has a couple of WRs, a TE, and a starting RB with dreads.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 3

After Arizona State and Wisconsin last met in Week 3 of the 2010 season, I wrote something about the ASU players leaving the field at the end of their 20-19 defeat that afternoon at Madison knowing that they should have won the game. Well, the shoe was on the other foot late last Saturday night at Tempe as the Badgers walked off the field knowing they should have won following a controversial 32-30 defeat to the Sun Devils. Turnabout was or was not fair play - depending on whose side you were on.

UW fans and players will insist that the dawdling Pac-12 officials were directly responsible for the loss, their utter incompetence in the closing seconds denying the Badgers a chance to kick a last-second FG that would have won the game. ASU fans would probably counter that yes, the officials blew it, but that there were a whole bunch of questionable calls that went against the Sun Devils in that game three years ago. Just to name a couple, in fact, I remember an obvious pass interference penalty in the end zone by a UW DB that wasn't called in the 2nd half as well as a TD catch by WR George Bell in the 1st half that didn't count only because none of the TV cameras provided a conclusive-enough view of him getting one foot down in the end zone before his other foot landed out of bounds, even though we all know that's exactly what happened. So now the two teams are even, right? 

You know, the more I watch Melvin Gordon, the more he reminds me of another RB I like, who plays on Sundays - and not only because he wears a red and white #25 jersey and has dreads.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 2

After just two weeks of the 2013 season there's already one thing that has become very clear: if you are a running back with dreads, the competition for spots on my postseason all-America with dreads team is going to be stronger than ever before. Of the 7 running backs with dreads for FBS teams who rushed for over 1,000 yards last season, five are back in 2013 (with only Eddie Lacy and Andre Ellington having moved on to the NFL). Joining those five and Kansas State senior John Hubert (who was about 50 yards short of 1,000 in 2012) in the competition are several freshmen along with a couple others who are not freshmen but who figure to be carrying the ball a lot this season. It's not at all out of the question that at least a dozen FBS running backs with dreads will top the 1,000-yard mark by the end of the season. And it's possible that a half dozen of those will be from teams in the SEC. 10 of the 14 teams in the SEC have at least one RB with dreads who has carried the ball already this season. Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall of Georgia and Jeff Scott of Mississippi were featured in last week's report. So let's take a quick look at the RBs from the other 8 teams this week.

Florida sophomore Matt Jones (photo above), who came on strong late last season, made his 2013 debut this week after missing Week 1 (and a lot of training camp as well) with a viral infection.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 1

Two of the very best players with dreads in college football were on the national stage last Saturday night as Georgia and Clemson - schools just 75 miles apart - met for the first time in 10 years. Not only two of the best players with dreads, Georgia sophomore RB Todd Gurley and Clemson junior WR Sammy Watkins are two of the best players period, and they did not disappoint in a game ESPN saved to be telecast in primetime on ABC. There were 4 ties and 2 lead changes, and in the end Clemson held on for a 38-35 home victory in a battle of two teams that coming into the game had realistic dreams of going undefeated this season. But only Clemson's dream remains alive after the Tigers beat the Bulldogs for the first time in 23 years. The game lived up to its billing as a matchup of two high-powered offenses against two mediocre defenses. More than 1,000 total yards were amassed by the two offenses, with Georgia finishing with a 545-467 advantage. And to the surprise of nobody Gurley and Watkins accounted for more than one fourth of those yards.

Oh Brother, Here we go again

Yes, it's that time of the year again - the first week in September. Time for the beginning of another NFL season. And in the house of dread, that also means it's time to take a look at what my crystal ball (which I simply call "CB") is predicting will happen during the season. At this time a year ago, in a stroke of genius (or maybe it was just dumb luck) CB predicted the Harbaugh brothers (John and Jim) would be shaking hands after their teams (Ravens and 49ers) met in the Super Bowl. And now what? CB says it's going to happen again? Well, as Lee Corso says, not so fast! Although CB thinks the 49ers and Ravens will both make the playoffs this season, neither one will make a return trip to the Super Bowl. Instead, if CB is correct, there will be a different pair of brothers shaking hands on the field following the NFL's first ever cold weather Super Bowl.

If you've ever taken a boring tour or two in your life, then that hilarious commercial - the one where the Manning brothers, Peyton and Eli, and their father, Archie, are part of a group taking a tour of ESPN - really hits home. Although that commercial makes fun of the sibling rivalry between Peyton and Eli, I'm sure there's at least one competition that still exists between the two in real life. And in that competition, the scoreboard currently reads: Peyton - one Super Bowl victory, Eli - two Super Bowl victories. Now as fierce a competitor as Peyton is, and as great a player he still is at age 37, do you honestly believe he's going to retire from the NFL having won fewer Super Bowls than his little brother?

Well, CB thinks Peyton is fixin' to change the score this year. Not only will he lead the Denver Broncos to victory in the Super Bowl, he'll do it with Eli's team - the New York Giants - on the opposing sideline.

DG149

The NFL 2012 season in review is the focus of dread gallery #149. I was hoping to do more than one DG on the NFL (you may remember I somehow did six in one week last year); but I'm out of time; so I'm going to try to stuff all the best photos I saved from last season plus some other extras into one giant post. Same as with college football, I wasn't able to visit anywhere near as many websites as I wanted to; so no doubt I missed out on a whole bunch of great shots. But I saved a lot of great shots too; hopefully you will enjoy them. Only about 50 or so of the NFL's players with dreads will be featured; so you might be seeing some of the players I like over and over. I'm not going to check the game situation for each photo as thoroughly as I normally do, because I just didn't have enough time to. So here we go with NFL '12 in the house of dread.
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1. After playing three seasons in college at Alabama (where Coach Saban stifles dreads), rookie RB Trent Richardson finally gets a chance to unleash his dreads as he takes the field for his 1st NFL game on Sept. 9 at Cleveland. Richardson had a tough opener, rushing for only 39 yards on 19 carries in the Browns' 17-16 loss to the Eagles. 

DG148

As a result of spending so much time searching for basketball photos this summer, I didn't do anything on college football. I'd estimate that of all the games from last season for which I wanted to save pictures, only about one fourth of them was I able to search all the websites I wanted to. So I can only imagine how many pictures of great dreads that I missed. From the games I did save pictures I've already posted all of the best photos I could find. But there are a few more that I didn't post that you might find interesting. Let's take a look at them in dread gallery #148, as we take a (quick) look back at last season and look ahead to 2013.
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1. The season got off to a bang on Aug. 30. As South Carolina senior TE Justice Cunningham makes the catch on 2nd and 7 on the 3rd play of 4th quarter, he is hit so hard by Vanderbilt CB Andre Hal that his helmet comes off .....

Dreaded Dozen 2012

For the best players with dreads in college football I do an all-America with dreads team each year. For the best with dreads in the NFL I call it the dreaded dozen. It's a ranking of who I thought were the 12 best players with dreads for one season only, not their whole careers. And there's no secret formula or point system involved. It's entirely my opinion, complete with my own personal biases (although I try to be as fair as possible). Mostly I just go by a player's stats and whether or not he was selected for the Pro Bowl. If you disagree with the selections, it's not a problem. Please, we'd love to hear how you would rank them.

The list for 2012 is a bit different than usual - in that more defensive players than offensive made the top 10. In fact, half of the first half dozen in the rankings play D. In previous years no more than one defensive player per year has been able to crack the top 6. Seven players are repeat selections from 2011 (where a player ranked in 2011 will be noted by the number in parenthesis following a player's name), but oddly the player who ranked #1 was not one of them. And unlike the list for 2011, no rookies made the list this time. So without any further delay, here are the dreaded dozen for the 2012 NFL season.

Stark Raven

When LB Josh Bynes (photo, with the Vince Lombardi Trophy) tackled WR Ted Ginn well short of the end zone on a last-ditch, all-or-nothing kickoff return on the final play, Super Bowl 47 was over, and the Baltimore Ravens were on top of the football world. Congratulations, Ravens, on a job well done. And there was no doubt about it, right? I mean, throughout the season whenever you thought you had the Ravens on the ropes, actually it was the Ravens who had you right where they wanted. Let's see, there was that missed FG by the Dallas kicker at the end of the game in Week 6 (one of only two FG attempts he missed all season); there was that ridiculous 30-yard gain by Ray Rice on 4th and 29 in Week 12; then there was that outrageous 70-yard TD by Jacoby Jones with 31 seconds remaining at Denver in the playoffs; and finally there was the Ravens' D, after being scored upon four possessions in a row, getting the job done when they absolutely had to on the 49ers' final drive of the Super Bowl. There's a fine line between winning and losing in the NFL, and in 2012 more often than not when the Ravens needed a play made, they gone one; and whenever their opponents needed one, they didn't get it.

The Ravens' championship makes it twice in the last four seasons that my crystal ball (CB) has correctly picked the Super Bowl winner before the season began. And not only that, this time CB picked the correct Super Bowl loser too.

DG147 - Part 1

Not willing to put in the extra effort, I kept telling myself I was going to do a nice, quick dread gallery on pro basketball. And then I went through all the pictures I saved ....... Well, so much for nice and quick. Instead, dread gallery #147 will be a nice, not very quick look in two parts at basketball players with dreads who play for pay. We'll look at all 10 of the NBA's players with dreads in action from the 2012-13 season (which I will still refer to as this season even though it's already finished) along with a few (and only a few) of the many playing in minor leagues around the world. No doubt there will be several players with dreads not featured here. I don't have the time to check every single league worldwide. So if I don't include some of your favorite players, I'm sorry; it will be up to you to please let us know about them.

We'll lead off part 1 of DG147 with Gerald Wallace.

Prior to this season Wallace on many occasions had his hair in braids hanging loosely from his head, making them look like they were dreads. And on many other occasions he had braids that looked like braids, such as in the photo above from March 2011. But this season was different.

DG147 - Part 2

Let's continue now with our look at pro basketball players with dreads during the 2012-13 season in part 2 of dread gallery #147.
And we begin with a question: To reduce (your dreads) or not to reduce? For most players the answer is a quick and simple no. After all, what's the point of letting your dreads grow long if you're not going to show them off when you're on the court. Unfortunately not everyone shares my opinion. In fact, for three of the 10 players with dreads in the NBA this season you never knew from game-to-game if they were going to let their dreads flow or keep them stifled. We already saw Cartier Martin in Part 1. Now let's look at the other two.
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1. For Jordan Hill there is no middle ground. When he reduces his dreads, the 6-10, 235-pound reserve center for the L.A. Lakers clumps them together so tightly that it's difficult to tell that he even has dreads. If your seats are in the upper deck, he looks like any other player with clean cut hair. And when he has them flowing freely, he barely holds them back at all, never bunching them, and wearing a band so close to his head that they get nearly full extension when he's on the court - like here on Nov. 11 as he battles for a rebound against Kings F James Johnson during 1st half at Staples Center. Hill had 8 points, 7 rebounds, and a season high 4 turnovers in 19 minutes in this game as Lakers improved to 3-2 with a 103-90 victory over Kings.

DG146 - Part 1

With the first pick in the 2013 NFL draft the Arizona Cardinals select Matt Barkley.

That was the forecast by my crystal ball a couple of days before the start of the 2012 NFL season. But as we know now, Barkley played himself out of the top spot in the draft (and out of the 1st round altogether) with a good but not great senior season as the QB at USC. And the Cardinals? They played themselves out of the top spot too, finishing the season with a better record than 5 other teams.

But that's OK, because it allowed them, with the 7th pick of the 1st round, to have the honor of selecting the first player with dreads in this year's draft. Just as desperate for help on the offensive line as they were at quarterback, the Cardinals picked former North Carolina G Jonathan Cooper. NFL teams usually show very little love for interior offensive linemen in the draft; but apparently Cooper, a 6-foot-2, 312-pounder, is so highly rated as a prospect that not only is he expected to start on opening day, there's already talk of him having Hall-of-Fame potential. Have fun living up to that kind of hype, Coop.

The 2013 draft didn't have as much dread star power as 2012, when 5 of the top 15 players picked (and a total of 7 in the 1st round) had dreads. This year Cooper was the only player with dreads selected in the top 15 and the first of 5 selected in round 1. But the grand total of 36 players with dreads for the entire draft not only easily surpassed last year's total of 30, I think it also is an all-time high for any draft.

DG146 - Part 2

Part 2 of dread gallery #146 features the rookies for teams in the AFC North, NFC North, and AFC South. We'll begin with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I doubt that the Steelers' front office saw my Week 21 dread news report back in February; but with the players they drafted, you might think they did. I gave the Steelers a C- grade for their dreads in 2012, the only team in the division worse than an A-. But that grade is sure to be a lot better in 2013 because of the 9 players they drafted, five (!) have dreads.
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1. Jarvis Jones' dreads made a great showing at Georgia's pro day on Mar. 21, but apparently Jarvis Jones the player did not. Expected to be the first player with dreads drafted, Jones' stock plunged after he didn't run as fast as the scouts wanted him to, and he ended up not being selected until the Steelers took him with the 17th pick in the 1st round.

DG145

Dread gallery #145, our final look at the 2012-13 season in College Basketball, covers the final two weeks of March - featuring players on teams good enough to be invited to one of the four postseason tournaments. And there will be a few special extras as well.
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After a disastrous 3-game losing streak at just the wrong time ruined their chance to make it to the NCAA Tournament, Louisiana Tech took their 26-6 record to the NIT, where they were seeded #5 in one of the four regions.

1. Sophomore G and St. Petersburg, FL, native Kenneth Smith defends against G Michael Snaer as Louisiana Tech takes on #4 seed Florida State in an NIT 1st-round game on Mar. 19 at Tallahassee.

DG144

There are two more dread galleries to go in our look at College Basketball 2012-13, and both feature the month of March. Dread gallery #144 covers the first half of March, including action from the end of the regular season and the conference tournaments. For those players whose seasons ended with losses in their conference tournament, I'll include their stats for this season (unless I already did so in my dread news report).
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1. Sick sophomore David Rivers and C Andre Almeida of Nebraska pressure 7-0 C A.J. Hammons of Purdue during the 1st round of the Big 10 tournament at Chicago on Mar. 14. Rivers had 4 points and 6 rebounds before fouling out in 24 minutes as the Cornhuskers, seeded 10th after a 5-13 finish in the regular season, defeated 9th seeded Purdue, hanging on after nearly blowing a 48-39 lead to win 57-55.

DG143

The month of February is featured as we continue looking at action from the 2012-13 season in College Basketball. Let's start out West.
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In their televised first meeting on Jan. 10 I found out that both Northern Colorado and Montana State each have a player with dreads. And in their second meeting on Feb. 9 ......
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1. Freshman G Marcus Colbert goes to the basket early in 1st half, but this layup is about to be blocked by #22, F Tim Huskisson. Colbert hit 1 of 4 from the field in the game, finishing with 5 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists.

DG142

Now it's time to begin the 2013 portion of the 2012-13 season in College Basketball with a look at action from January in dread gallery 142.
As conference play got underway in earnest there were three conferences tied for the lead for the most teams with at least one player with dreads. The Big South, Southland, and OVC had four teams each where you'd be able to find some dreads. But let's start DG142 with the ACC, where there's only one player with dreads.
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1. Sophomore G Rod Hall of Clemson begins ACC play by getting his shot rejected by Florida State C Kiel Turpin on the first possession of the day on Jan. 5.

DG141

More nonconference games from the College Basketball 2012-13 season are featured in dread gallery #141, as we look at action from the month of December.
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There were several games in December that had players with dreads on opposing teams, including one on the first day of the month that featured a pair that made my Dread all-America team.
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1. He started the season with his dreads reduced, but Morehead State senior G Devon Atkinson begins December with his dreads right, as G Reggie Arceneaux drives to the basket between him and F Bruce Reed on Dec. 1 at Dayton.

DG140

I do not like to keep falling back on the old excuse of "better late than never;" but sadly, that's the way things are in the House of Dread. I simply do not have the time to do everything I'd like to do in this blog, and the things that I do do are hardly ever done in a timely fashion. All I can do is say I'm sorry and hope that you please bear with me.
The calendar says summer is about to begin, but in the HOD it's basketball season. So let's take a look at some photos from the recently completed 2012-13 College Basketball season (which I will still refer to as this season), starting with the month of November here in dread gallery #140.
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FOR OPENERS .....

1. William & Mary sophomore G Marcus Thornton prepares to launch a jump shot over Hampton C Emmanuel Okoroba on Nov. 9. Thornton, whose 18.8 PPG scoring average was tops among Division 1 players with dreads (and 31st among all players), had 24 points along with 4 rebounds on opening night in W&M's 69-51 home victory.

College BB '13 Dread News

The 2012-13 season in College Basketball was almost like a blur as far as I was concerned. It came and went so quickly that I didn't have a chance to do anything except for that First Look post back in January. I watched a lot of games but not nearly as many as in previous seasons. Actually I should say I saw portions of a lot of games because there weren't many I stayed with from start to finish. By the time the season was over the roster of Division 1 players with dreads (that I know of) included 64 names; but only 50 or so of those players were on the court for significant minutes this season. As usual, there were a lot of highlights as well as some serious disappointments. But before we get to my annual All-America teams, I have a few things I wanted to mention. 

He might have dreamed it would end this way, but no way did Sherwood Brown expect his career would end this way - with him being named the player of the year in his conference; with him helping lead his team to its first ever trip to the NCAA Tournament; with his team then suddenly transforming itself into something that came to be known as "Dunk City" and taking the tournament by storm, becoming the first team ever seeded 15th in a region to reach the sweet 16; and with him posing with cheerleaders from the opposing team before games and shaking hands with the TV announcers after games.

DG139 - Part 1

There currently are only a handful of players with dreads in MLB; but it sure was a blast watching them perform in 2012.
If you've been following this blog over the years, you already know that I like to ring in the start of another baseball season with a look at the previous season. Yes, I'm aware that the season begins in the first week of April, not May. But due to a lack of time, I didn't have this DG ready in the first week of April. But it's ready to go now, so without further delay, here's dread gallery 139 - a look at MLB 2012.
For your enhancement I'll be including links to some videos from MLB.com  I recommend you click on them; but if you do, be prepared to sit through a 15-second commercial.

We'll start Part 1 with a new member of the house in 2012. Prince Fielder dabbled with starter dreads a couple of times during his 6 seasons with the Brewers. Finally, in his first season with the Tigers after signing as a free agent, he decided to take the plunge.

1. Prince Fielder connects for his 2nd solo HR of the game, giving Tigers a 7-0 lead over Red Sox during 5th inning on Apr. 7. He also homered in the 4th. They were his first two HR of the season as the Tigers won 10-0.

DG139 - Part 2

Every game of the Pittsburgh Pirates and every fifth game of the Cincinnati Reds were must-see TV for me last summer. For real, watching Andrew McCutchen and Johnny Cueto perform in 2012 made for a lot of enjoyment. McCutchen and Cueto are the feature attractions of Part 2 of dread gallery #139. But before we get to them, we'll start with another player who brought the enjoyment (and the excitement) - although you had to strain a bit to see his dreads.
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1. Rockies OF Eric Young, Jr. sprints across home plate with the go-ahead and eventual winning run in top of 8th inning in a 5-3 victory on Opening Night at Houston on Apr. 6.

First Rock

No, this is not a post about what happened in Massachusetts way back in 1620. And it's not about the planet Mercury either. Instead, I thought I'd lead off my preview of the 2013 NFL draft with the first rock of football. You'll find it in the state of South Carolina.

Honestly, up until 4 years ago, when I included a photo of Stephon Gilmore in dread gallery 45 (the DG I did featuring National Signing Day '09), I had never heard of Rock Hill before. And up until I went to Wikipedia and Google Maps last week, I wouldn't have been able to tell you that it's located in the northern part of South Carolina, about 25 miles southwest of Charlotte. But make no mistake, of all the cities and towns with "rock" as part of their name, Rock Hill is first when it comes to football.

College FB '12 House Calls

Alabama was the team with the most TD scored by players with dreads in 2011, but with Trent Richardson taking it to the house on Sundays in 2012, the Crimson Tide wasn't in the running for the top spot this season. They finished in 5th place. However, the crown will not be leaving the state of Alabama. Its new home is 100 miles or so southeast of Tuscaloosa, in the capital city of Montgomery.

When Isaiah Crowell left Georgia last summer and transferred to Alabama State, the Hornets instantly became top contenders for the crown. And sure enough, led by Crowell's 15 TD, ASU finished #1 in Division 1 this season. Of the Hornets' 48 total TD, 34 of them (71%!) were scored by players with dreads.

College FB '12 Dread News - Bowl Review (Part 1)

As it turned out, the bowls I ranked 1 and 2 for having the best dreads also were two of the most exciting games on the 2012-13 bowl schedule, with Clemson defeating LSU 25-24 on a last-second FG and South Carolina scoring a TD with 11 seconds to play to edge Michigan 33-28. They also happened to be the only two bowls I watched a significant portion of. I was so busy doing NFL stuff that I didn't have time to watch as many bowl games as I usually do. And you can also blame those 7 weeks I spent on the NFL for why my final 2012 college football report is so late. I mean, almost everybody has started spring practice for the 2013 season already. But there were a few things (quite a few, actually) I wanted to mention before I wrap up 2012, so here we go.

Despite a 10-2 overall record, South Carolina finished 3rd in the SEC East and had to settle for a trip to the Outback Bowl, played annually on New Year's Day at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. But that was just fine as far as Ace Sanders was concerned. Other than a BCS bowl, there was no bowl Sanders would rather have played in more than the one closest to his hometown of Bradenton. Not surprisingly, the junior WR put on quite a show for his family and friends - and the rest of the Gamecocks fans in attendance - scoring three of his team's 5 touchdowns in the thrilling victory over Michigan.

College FB '12 Dread News - Bowl Review (Part 2)

Let's continue now with part 2 of my recap of the action involving players with dreads from the 2012 postseason in college football.

IN THE FCS

North Dakota State and Sam Houston State met in the championship game for the 2nd year in a row; but how the Bison and Bearkats got there turned out to be far more dramatic than the championship game itself.

Georgia Southern Coach Monken was in tears at the post-game media session after his team was eliminated at North Dakota State for the 2nd straight year. "It hurts. It hurts bad," said Monken after the Eagles dropped a hard fought 23-20 heartbreaker in the semifinals despite outgaining the Bison 430-276 in total yards.

The 1-2

I just have a quickie post today - and one that I'd rather not have to do. The house of dread was staggered (but still standing) by a one-two combination of bad news recently, and I thought it would be important to let you know about in case you hadn't already heard. Only in special cases over the years have I done posts specifically to report (and mourn) that someone is leaving the house. But unfortunately we have one of those special cases now. It always hurts to have to add names to the ex-dread list; but for real, the latest two additions hurt a lot more than usual.

In my first look post on college basketball a few weeks backs you may recall how unhappy I was to see Illinois State G Bryant Allen with reduced dreads all the time.

2012 College Football Dread All-America

Unless you did a Rip Van Winkle last fall, you probably noticed that there were a lot of players with sick dreads in uniform on Saturdays in 2012 - way too many to mention them all here. Of those players some have dreads with a greater "wow" factor than others; you know, the kind of dreads that make you say, "Wow! Who is that?" the first time you see them. My 5th annual dread all-America team features 96 Division 1 players whose dreads most definitely rank high when it comes to the "wow" factor.

To even be considered for this team you must have dreads long enough to be seen while you're wearing your helmet. And I don't mean barely seen. I'm talking about long enough that the person sitting in row ZZ at the top of the stadium doesn't need binoculars to know that you have dreads.

2012 College Football Dread All-America (Part 2)

Let's continue now with more of the best dreads on Saturdays in 2012 ......

3rd TEAM

OFFENSE

• OL Jonathan Cooper - North Carolina . SR
• OL Seantrel Henderson - Miami (F) . JR
• OL Patrick Lewis - Texas A&M . SR
• OL Tyrus Thompson - Oklahoma . SOPH
• OL Brennan Williams - North Carolina . SR
• WR Javon Bell - Texas Tech . JR
• WR Kitaro Lewis - Morehead State . SOPH
• WR J.D. McKissic - Arkanas State . FR
• RB Cassius McDowell (HM) - Toledo . SOPH
• RB Kenny Miles (HM) - South Carolina . SR
• QB Devin Powell - Tulane . FR
• KR Tavares Crawford  (2) - Eastern Illinois . JR

2012 College Football All-America with dreads

In the first of my two all-America teams, we'll look at who I ranked as the best players with dreads in Division 1 for the recently completed 2012 season. Of the 48 players who made the 2011 team, 17 are repeat selections on this year's squad, while 18 others were drafted by the NFL. I'm happy to announce that the team is expanding to 72 players this season as I will be doing a 3rd team for the first time. But even with the upgrade, some really good players didn't make the cut and will have to settle for honorable mention. By my unofficial count there are 152 players with dreads in D-1 who earned all-conference honors in 2012, and 20 of those were recognized as all-America by the Associated Press. The 152 was down slightly from last year's total of 159. I tried hard not to forget or miss anybody; but if I did, please let me know.

NFL '12 Dread News - Week 22

So, where were you when the lights went out .... at the Superdome? Well, I know where the Baltimore Ravens were: 22 points ahead in the 3rd quarter and on their way to turning Super Bowl 47 into a blowout. But when played resumed following a 34-minute delay, their would-be romp over the San Francisco 49ers suddenly turned into a lot of hard work. The 28-6 lead vanished as the 49ers closed to within 31-29. But just as they did several times throughout the season, the Ravens found a way to win when they had no business winning, this time holding on for a 34-31 victory at New Orleans last Sunday night.

"It wasn't perfect. It wasn't pretty. But it was us," said Ravens Coach Harbaugh after the game. No doubt "it was us". Of the Ravens' 14 wins (including the playoffs) this was their 7th by a margin of 3 points or less. But hey, they only count W's and L's - not whether the W's and L's are pretty or not. It was the 49ers who dominated in total yards 468-367, gashing the Ravens' D for 7.8 yards per play. It was the 49ers who either scored or reached the red zone on their final 5 possessions of the game. But it was the Ravens who were celebrating when time expired, raising the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the 2nd time since the franchise began in 1996 and the first time since the 2000 season.

After practicing for two weeks, the 49ers came out and had an illegal formation penalty on their very first snap on offense. It doesn't get much worse than that. The penalty wiped out what would have been a 20-yard gain. Instead the 49ers went three-and-out on their first possession. Then the 49ers' defense took the field - and started no better than the offense.

Here's Hanley - Welcome Home!

We have just turned the page on the calendar to February, and that means the beginning of baseball's spring training is just around the corner. And I'm happy to report that we'll be welcoming a new member into the house for the 2013 season. Actually, it'll be more like welcoming home a long lost friend ....... I know I've mentioned this story a couple of times before in my MLB reports, but here it is one more time just to refresh your memory.

The last time we welcomed Hanley Ramirez into the house, he didn't stay for long. Not that he wanted to leave, instead it was his employers that made him leave. That was back in 2009, when Ramirez - the star SS for the Florida (now known as Miami) Marlins - and also outfielder Cameron Maybin showed up at spring training with their hair in beginner dreads (Ramirez left photo below, Maybin on right) . After saying nothing and doing nothing for most of the preseason, all of a sudden about a week before the regular season was to start, the team's ownership announced a new team policy: no dreads allowed - or any other kind of long hair for that matter - for anyone playing for the Marlins (rules like this can exist in MLB - but not in the NFL because the basic agreement between NFL owners and players allows players to do whatever they please with their hair). I don't know what reaction Maybin had, but Ramirez was incensed at the edict, to say the least.

At first Ramirez said he wanted to be traded but then changed his mind and took his anger out on the baseball instead, pounding it to the tune of a career high .342 batting average that season. But Hanley never lost his desire to have dreads.

NFL '12 Dread News - Week 21

Commissioner Goodell, whose bright idea it was to schedule a Super Bowl to be played in an outdoor stadium in New York (so next year, after spending a thousand bucks for a ticket but then you can't make it to the game because NYC is in the middle of a paralyzing, 20-inch snowstorm, you'll know who to blame), also is determined to add another notable accomplishment to his resume: ridding the league of the Pro Bowl.

In one form or another the Pro Bowl - the NFL's postseason All-Star Game - had been played for 61 consecutive years prior to this season. But that streak nearly came to an end because Goodell was ready to pull the plug (and you can hardly blame him) after last year's game 'featured' a complete and blatant lack of effort and intensity by the players, especially those on defense. "Well, if you don't want to play hard, then let's not play at all," was the commissioner's thinking. But apparently, the players association was not on the same page as the commish. True, most of the players do not want to play hard. But they enjoy being recognized as the best players in the league; they enjoy the camaraderie with other players; and they enjoy the chance to escape winter and take the family out to Hawaii for a nice, weeklong vacation.

Goodell ended up granting the Pro Bowl a one year stay of execution but put it on double secret probation. So the goal for the players in this year's game was to make it look like they were playing hard - but not so hard that there would be a bunch of injuries. And the verdict? The effort level last Sunday was significantly higher than in last year's game. But was it sufficient to convince Goodell to take the Pro Bowl off of death row for good? Probably. Maybe. I hope so.

I was tuned to the game but wasn't paying much attention to it. There were 13 touchdowns scored in the NFC's 62-35 victory over the AFC; and 3 of them were by players with dreads. Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald (photo above) had his poorest stats this season since his rookie year in 2004 (mostly because his QBs were poor); but you can't have a Pro Bowl without him, so it was great to see him on the field.

NFL '12 Dread News - Week 20

Oh brother, the one time I want my crystal ball to be wrong and what happens? Of course, it nails its prediction right on the head, correctly forecasting the Ravens and 49ers to meet in the Super Bowl. As often as CB has been wrong in the past, you'd think I'd be thrilled that it finally got something right. But for real, there was nothing thrilling about watching the Falcons blow a big lead for the second Sunday in a row. They survived the Seahawks the previous week despite blowing a 20-0 lead. But against the 49ers last Sunday, after having a 17-0 lead early vanish and become a 28-24 deficit late, the Falcons came up 10 yards short on their final chance to score, and the 49ers held on to capture their first NFC championship in 18 years.

It was not a good day last May when I watched the video of WR Julio Jones getting his dreads cut off. But with or without the dreads, it's always a good day seeing him in a Falcons uniform.

College BB '13 - First Look

At around this time last year I did a College Basketball post featuring seven newcomers, all of whom had sick dreads and all of whom were good players with bright futures. To refresh your memory and for your convenience, you may click on the link below to view that post.
http://www.yardbarker.com/forum/2/6/discussion/4_3_2_2_2_2_1/9421250

Well, all seven players still have bright futures; but as for the dreads - man, it has been almost non-stop disappointment so far this season. And, not surprisingly, at the root of the disappointment is our good old friend (not!) - reduced dreads.

• Johnny O'Bryant and Anthony Hickey - Actually the problem here isn't reduced dreads, it's no dreads (notice that their names aren't in boldface type). Both O'Bryant and Hickey cut off their dreads at some point during the offseason. I was kind of expecting this too, so it wasn't too disappointing.
• Terran Pettway - By rule Pettway can't play this season because he transferred (from Texas Tech to Nebraska) after last season. Apparently he hated Coach Gillespie so much (I don't know that for a fact) that he wanted to leave Texas Tech ASAP. But if he had waited, he could have stayed at Tech, becasuse Gillespie ended up resigning. Terran still has his dreads, and hopefully we'll them them on the court next season with his new teammate .......
• ...... David Rivers - All was going well (top photo below) until the calendar turned to 2013, when Rivers got the bright idea that he should reduce his dreads (bottom photo below). And just like that I went from looking forward to Nebraska games to ignoring them. David, come on man, your dreads deserve better than this. (Fortunately after 6 games in a row with his dreads reduced, he was back to normal for the game against Illinois last night, so hopefully his experiment with reduced dreads is over. We'll see.)

• Bryant Allen - Speaking of reduced dreads, meet the king of reduced dreads. Allen had his dreads reduced for about half of his games last season, so I knew that this year might be a problem. But I didn't expect it to be this bad. Instead of seeing Bryant on the floor with the longest dreads in Division 1, we see him with a different style of reduced dreads seemingly for every game. In the game against Dayton on Dec. 19 Allen gave us a glimpse at how long his dreads can be (photo below). But for most games he's had them reduced far more than that, and in no games have we seen them in their full glory. I hate to admit this, but I'm kind of glad to see ISU doing so poorly this season. And may their struggles continue until Bryant unleashes the dreads. 

• Rod Hall and Marcus Thornton - Finally some good news: no reduced dreads here! I have the tiny complaint that Hall (right photo below) - who last year didn't band all of his dreads, keeping a few of them loose in the back - has them all banded together this year. But that's not a problem. Both he and Thornton (left photo below) are starting and doing well so far this season.

The total number of players with dreads on Division 1 rosters dropped by 25 after last season. 14 of those players were seniors (with only Jae Crowder currently in the NBA); 5 transferred to JC or to D-2 schools (including former Utah F Dijon Farr); 3 are ex-dreads (O'Bryant, Hickey, and Missouri G Jabari Brown). And the other 3 (Rondale Livas, Martez Harris, and Terry Tidwell) - their whereabouts are unknown.

NFL '12 Dread News - Week 19

You heard it here first (in my report three weeks ago): when Torrey Smith scores a TD, the Ravens win. So when Smith burned Hall-of-Fame-bound CB Champ Bailey deep for a 59-yard TD catch (photo below) to tie last weekend's game at Denver at 7 in the 1st quarter, it was already game over right then and there. No need for all of that drama that followed later in the game; the Ravens already had it in the bag. Right??

All kidding aside, what a disastrous and heartbreaking defeat that was for the Broncos and their fans. Wow. I mean, giving up a 70-yard TD to tie the game with 31 seconds left? And not just any game, a playoff game. Are you kidding me? You don't deserve to win when you do something like that, and fittingly the Broncos didn't, as they fell 38-35 when the Ravens kicked a FG early in the 2nd overtime period.

NFL '12 Dread News - Week 18

A couple of running backs made the postseason dread stars list as the playoffs got underway with 4 games in the Wild Card round. One of them - Seahawks star Marshawn Lynch - we've all heard of. He was selected to the NFC Pro Bowl team after having the best season of his career. The other? Well, prior to last Saturday night you might not have heard of him before. He's just happy to have a job in the NFL .....

..... Of course, if you are a longtime reader of this blog, you have heard of DuJuan Harris before. His name came up several times during his solid college career at Troy (including winning my first ever player of the week award in Week 1 of the 2008 season). And it came up again during my Week 14 NFL report last season when he was a rookie with the Jacksonville Jaguars. This season the Jaguars' new coaching staff (you know, the one that just got fired after leading the team to their worst season ever) decided they had no use for Harris. He was cut near the end of training camp. And after the Steelers then took a quick look at him and said, "No, thanks," Harris found himself unemployed.

NFL '12 Dread News - Week 17

Instead of my usual weekly gavel-to-gavel viewing of the Falcons' and Chiefs' games, I gave my remotes a workout this week, constantly switching from one game to another. The result: I filled up almost 7 pieces of paper with notes from what I saw. The bulk of this week's report lists some of the highlights. Just a couple of things before we get started. I didn't watch as much of the Ravens-Bengals game as I had planned because BenJarvus Green-Ellis was injured and did not play at all, and because Torrey Smith didn't play much (most of the Ravens' starters sat out most of the game to avoid injury). And there won't be many notes from the 2nd half of the Chiefs-Broncos game - because I just couldn't take anymore; it actually hurt to watch it). Anyway, here's NFL Week 17 through the eyes of the house of dread, minute-by-minute (items in parenthesis are additional info and did not necessarily happen at the time listed).

12/30/2012

12:03 PM CT - Jacquizz Rodgers returns the opening kickoff 12 yards for Falcons against Tampa Bay

12:03 - Joique Bell does better for Lions, returning opening kickoff 30 yards to the 33-yard line against Bears

12:04 - On 2nd play from scrimmage, Bengals S Reggie Nelson tackles Ravens FB Vonta Leach after a 2-yard reception; Leach leaves the game injured

12:07 - Chris Johnson scores a 2-yard TD run for Titans against Jaguars then does a different celebration than his usual one

12:13 - Torrey Smith loses 4 on a reverse on 1st down (it would be the only time he touched the ball all game)

12:17 - Falcons CB Dunta Robinson injures himself trying to tackle RB Doug Martin then quickly takes off his helmet, revealing those super long dreads of his

12:20 - Now Falcons' other starting CB is down, as Asante Samuel aggravates a shoulder injury while making the tackle on 5-yard reception by WR Mike Williams

12:21 - Browns WR Travis Benjamin is wide open on an out route on 2nd and 7 for a 12-yard catch to the Steelers' 21-yard line

Hello

I usually change the channel whenever a commercial comes on. But no matter how hard I try, it's impossible to avoid them all. Actually though, I do like the AT&T commercial that ends with Oklahoma Coach Stoops saying "Hello" to a high school player he presumably is meeting for the first time - a player that came to his attention only after someone used a phone to capture video of that player making a spectacular play and then letting the magic of the AT&T network (and nobody else's) spread the viewing of that video like wildfire - so quickly that it allows Stoops to come and meet the player in person by the time his game is over.

Well, I was thinking of that commercial - and of videos spreading rapidly (going viral is what it is called, I believe) - after a special play during the bowl bonanza on New Year's Day. If you were watching the games, you already know which play I'm talking about (and if you haven't seen it yet, you either were in a cave all day or that was one whale of a hangover) ....... It was the 4th quarter in the Outback Bowl, and South Carolina, trailing Michigan by 1, had just stopped Michigan a couple of inches short on a fake punt on 4th down - only to have the referee signal 1st down Michigan (huh?). Since the measurement was right in front of the South Carolina sideline, the ref's call left Coach Spurrier and several players furious (I don't know, maybe it was the ref who had that hangover). Not to worry though, because Jadeveon Clowney said "I got this." 

It should never be in your game plan to leave Clowney (celebrating with fans after the game in photo above), the All-America sophomore DE, unblocked on any play.