Sports Agenda for Tuesday 9/24/13
Top Stories:
FIU's president makes a mind-numbing comment over his athletic program. The Dolphins escape a major injury on the defensive line. The Orioles lost a key piece of their playoff puzzle in Manny Machado. The Marlins still won't lose that 100th game. And UCF could be loaded to pull an upset of the weekend.
Quote of the Day:
"I wish the world were a fly and I was a giant rolled up newspaper." – Al Bundy
FIU:
Not often FIU leads off the agenda, but then again it's not often the FIU president says something as stupid as he did yesterday.
When asked if athletic director Pete Garcia and head football coach are going to be replaced, he said, "No. No. No."
And this is why FIU will continue to be the laughing stock of South Florida sports.
Seriously, Garcia makes Jeffrey Loria look like he has a clue about what's going on.
Garcia has left FIU on the hook for $660k for Isiah Thomas…nice hire there.
FIU still owes Mario Cristobal $431,386…nice job there.
And FIU owes Ron Turner approximately $1 million if he's fired without cause.
Lets' face it too, FIU isn't exactly overflowing with money in the athletic department.
Men's basketball is on a one-year postseason ban for abysmal grades, the football team has lost three starters to academic problems.
After Cristobal led FIU's program back from the doldrums, he was summarily fired.
Look, I'm not saying Mario is a great coach, but he was a helluva recruiter and that's what FIU needs because right now, what football player in his right mind is thinking I should play at FIU?
Garcia did well to bring FIU back a bit, but his biggest name hiring was a disaster everyone but him saw coming (Isiah.)
His football team is truly the worst team in college football.
Those are your money-making programs and neither is in good hands and both are heading in the wrong direction.
Yet his job is safe, according to FIU's president.
So, run your programs into the ground, and not worry about your job security.
Where can I sign up for that kind of job security?
Miami Dolphins:
The Dolphins escaped major injury to Cameron Wake as he has a mild MCL strain.
Considering how bad it could have been with the knee, that's a big *phew* for Dolphins fans.
Unfortunately, he'll likely be out this week and next week and that's a huge hole to fill.
Derrick Shelby and Dion Jordan will try to replace the output of Wake, and the Fins will need their A-game going against Drew Brees and Joe Flacco the next two weeks.
If I'm the Fins, I rest Wake until after the bye week, just to be overly cautious and have him ready to go for the stretch run.
Other than that, Miami was off on Monday, so the news coming from Davie was sparse…except that Jeff Ireland got a contract extension.
Given how the team is being built right now, one extra year to see what he can do isn't a bad idea.
I still blame parcells more than him for the first three years of disaster the Tuna and Sparano inflicted on Miami.
But trust me, Ireland's going to have a helluva job managing the salary cap next year with lots of key free agents and some ridiculous cap hits for players like Mike Wallace.
Orioles:
Not really South Florida related, but sometimes you see something and just cringe.
Last night, while running to first base, Orioles third baseman Manny Machado suffered a gruesome left leg injury when he stepped on the bag.
He's scheduled to undergo an MRI today, but based on what you can see and his reaction, it's not going to be good.
His leg just went limp and flopped around as he tried to run out the play.
Here's the link, beware if you're easily nauseated.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2894/9904625155_fd33873b6c_o.gif
Hopefully, he'll be up to playing the hot corner by next year for the O's.
Marlins:
I've been all ready to write about the Marlins losing their 100th game for a few days now…and they just wont. Do. It.
The Fish actually recorded a shutout of Philly last night to hang at 99 losses on the season.
Now, Miami has two more games against Philly and then three against the Detroit Tigers to close out the 2013 mockery debacle disaster season.
So we've got five chances to lose one game to get to 100 losses.
C'mon Marlins I know you can do it!
FYI – the Astros, MLB's worst team, has lost 106 games this season and are 43 games out of first place.
Oh, and Houston drew a 0.0 nielsen rating in Houston for a game over the weekend.
That means…no one in the Houston DMA watched the game.
That's gotta sting just a little.
UCF:
I can't exactly explain why, but there's a possibility, remote as it may be…that UCF could spring an upset this weekend.
The Golden Knights welcome in the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday and will be in front of a sellout crowd for the first time in school history.
I don't know why, but this one has a really funny feeling to me.
We'll dive into college football picks more tomorrow.
Still haven't made a final decision on this one.
