Curtis Kitchen has followed the Big 12, Kansas State and national college basketball beat including K-State's run to the NCAA Tournament Elite 8 in 2010. You can currently follow his work at his blog: KitchenKC.com In the past, he also covered the Kansas City Wizards (now Sporting KC) for Major League Soccer's mlsnet.com site as well as the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals for the other sports station in town. His freelance portfolio ranges media outlets and publications, including gopowercat.com (part of the Rivals network), collegehoopsnet.com and the Miami Herald.
Curtis Kitchen: Fightin' Words for 9/14
by Curtis Kitchen,posted Sep 14 2012 1:30PM
Each week, it might be me mixing it up (good), an aggravated quote from a coach or player (better) or an irritated email or angsty tweet from you (best). One way or the other, we’ll hash it out because here, in this column on 610sports.com, we definitely talk about the club. It’s FIGHTIN’ WORDS! - ck
Miami sports radio personality Dan Sileo
The rant, barely a couple of days old, (link to audio) is already legendary. Fueled with profanity, memories of Miami glory days gone by and perhaps one too many performance enhancers, Dan Sileo brought the rain and pain to the current Hurricanes. He accused them of looking at girls in the stands. He threatened them that they would “be held accountable” if things didn’t change. Holy crap, Tony Montana .
Look, Dan, things aren’t about to get better. The money that used to fund efforts like keeping your playing-days perm and standalone mustache in pristine condition is now being funneled to academic programs on campus, thanks to the determined efforts of UM President Donna Shalala.
I hate to be the one to break it to you, dude, but football and sports and things at Miami just aren’t nearly as important there as they once were. That’s not even considering the recruiting playing field has changed. Instead of it being Miami, Florida and Florida State, you have to remember that the University of Central Florida, South Florida and (even though it pains your soul to admit) Florida International all have become players in the state.
Oh, and after K-State “drug your ass” up and down the field, instead of staying put in the polls as you suggested, they actually did jump six spots in the rankings. If that makes you feel any better about things…
You won’t rain on Charlie Weis’ parade
This week saw an interesting mood swing this week in Lawrence. Early in the week, KU head coach Charlie Weis admitted he let his players stay in their funk for a day or two following Rice’s last-second comeback. Then, it was back to business. By late in the week, Weis reminded the media that his team was preparing to go on the offensive against No. 16 TCU, which as has the fifth-ranked rush defense after two weeks.
“So what that forces you to do is come up with new ideas, you know, we’re over here meeting, too, in case you were wondering,” Weis said. “I think that we feel pretty confident that we have ways to attack them in the running game.”
I’ve always wondered if General Custer sounded cheery to his troops right before they went over the hill.
“How do you know? He only played three games for K-State.”
Courtesy of @thedudekfc, I received this response to a tweet about former K-State (and I use that term loosely) running back Bryce Brown. Let’s set the scene.
In the middle of my first intense sitting on the couch glute endurance training last Sunday, I flipped to the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns game for about three plays. That’s all it took for me to see a third-down pass play where Mike Vick was supposed to stand in the pocket and Brown was supposed to have blitz pickup responsibilities. Just as he did at KSU, Brown actively revolted against those duties. As a result, Vick nearly became unable to do anything but drool.
“Bryce Brown just got Mike Vick blown up on 3rd down,” I tweeted. “Get used to it, Philly...”
So, @thedudekfc, in answer to your question, how do I know? Well, there’s a reason Bryce saw the same number of snaps in Manhattan as curse words were thrown by Dan Sileo this week. He couldn’t pass block then (plus, he liked to fumble, so there’s that), and he still can’t. I’d love to see if Vick has a “Bryce Brown” clause in his insurance policy and/or contract. If not, his agent should get it added pronto.
