Broken Record: Running Up Score

Star QB: Maryland Arundel High's Billy Cosh

Photo: Arundelfootball.com

In high school football when is enough enough?

Same question for high school basketball and amateur sports. Same even for girls travel soccer.

It is a question for coaches, team managers, parents, sports administrators and others. Needless to say, it probably is a question being asked at sports fields and in gymnasiums everyday across the country.

On Friday night at a high school football game in Anne Arundel County, MD, the host Arundel Wildcats beat the Glen Burnie Gophers, 75-19. What is notable about the game is that Arundel’s star senior quarterback Billy Cosh threw seven touchdown passes. What is more, Cosh’s first TD pass 54 seconds into the game allowed him to tie the Maryland public school record of 80 career touchdown passes. Then at the 4:01 mark of the first quarter, Cosh broke the record.

(Continue to 7-22 DMA Sports)

'Bout Time for Olympic Golf

Golf will return as an Olympic sport in 2016, which means the robber barons that head the International Olympic Committee are capable of doing something right when they aren't playing now-you-see-it, now-you-don't with sitting presidents, turning a blind eye to censorship, and holding the Game's hostage for television revenue that would make Donald Trump blush.

Why it has taken so long to re-admit golf as an Olympic sport is beyond me. After all, the game was born in Scotland, grew up in the U.S., and now is a handsome, multilingual, worldwide ambassador growing itself all over the world.

Golf was last an official Olympic event in 1904, but was dropped because at the time only about 871 people played the game on the six or so courses that were available worldwide. It just didn't seem right to give a sport of so few an enormous stage for so many.

(Continue to The Grill Room)

Tyson Opens Up to Oprah

The documentary was crass and coarse -- a vulgar, unedited introspective into Mike Tyson the man. The film, a hauntingly brutal look inside one of boxing’s most enigmatic figures, left people with not much to like about Tyson.

They had long ago learned to revile Tyson the person as they revered Tyson the prizefighter, so nobody needed a film to expose that hard side of his character. Yet as much as people knew about Tyson, they couldn’t possibly know all of him, which made his documentary even more riveting.

"I was so impressed with what you were able to reveal about yourself," talk show queen Oprah Winfrey told Tyson when he sat in front of her for an interview that aired Monday. "It feels like it's more than about you; it really is a study in humanity."

(Continue to Justice Is Served)

Big East Game of the Year

Let's call it what it truly is.

South Florida vs. Cincinnati is the Big East Game of the Year.

It is THE game.

And here's one more: It will be the most IMPORTANT football game played in Raymond James Stadium this year.

Sorry Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

You've got 5-0 USF vs. 5-0 Cincinnati. National telecast on ESPN Thursday night. Huge crowd expected. This is USF's chance to outdraw any remaining Tampa Bay Buccaneer home games. And appropriately, USF is going all out this week -- breakfast with the Bulls, lunch with the Bulls, dinner with the Bulls, send the cheerleaders, send Rocky, send anyone in green and gold.

(Continue to Running with the Bulls)

Still Searching for Missing KU Defense

Todd Reesing was there. Dez Briscoe showed up as well. Kerry Meier? Oh yeah.

Even the offensive line made an appearance in a 41-36 victory Saturday against Iowa St. as Reesing only had to make two or three acrobatic plays to elude would-be tacklers. True freshman Toben Opurum was in and out, but he showed up for the most part.

The defense, however, was no where to be found.

(Continue to Inside Jayhawk Nation)

Final Simulated BCS Standings

Next Sunday, the BCS will release its first official standings for the 2009 season, so this is the final Simulated BCS Standings.

As has been the practice since our inception, beginning next week, the Guru will release the projections for the BCS Standings by Saturday night, following the final game of consequence for the evening - in next week's case, the Missouri-Oklahoma State game that kicks off at 9:15 p.m. ET. On Sundays, the Guru will publish the most comprehensive BCS Standings anywhere, including every team that has received any points from the polls and computers.

The final Simulated BCS Standings are a bit of a downer, as world order appears to have been restored. Florida, the consensus No. 1 in the polls, is also No. 1 in the BCS Standings. The Gators will be No. 1 in the first official standings next week as well, no matter what happens as long as they defeat Arkansas. Florida is No. 1 because it has an insurmountable lead in the two polls.

(Continue to BCS Guru)

Still Love Football Despite the Pain

On the play in which Alabama linebacker Dont’a Hightower suffered a season-ending knee injury a few weeks ago against Arkansas, I cringed and felt his pain as I watched the game on television.

Hightower was hurt on a sweep play when Arkansas guard Mitch Petrus lowered his helmet near Hightower's left knee, sending the Tide linebacker airborne. According to NCAA rules, it was a legal block.

Hightower tried immediately to get up and could not, ultimately being helped off the field before being carted back to the locker room.

(Continue to Rue's Rant)

The Importance of No. 2 Goalie

Taking in yesterday's Rangers-Ducks contest from the press box at The Garden I got to thinking about the importance of back-up goaltenders as I watched New York's Steve Valiquette get the better of Anaheim's J.S. Giguere in a 3-0 Rangers victory.

Interestingly, Valiquette and Giguere are back-ups in distinctly different positions for their respective teams.

On Broadway, Henrik Lundqvist is the King. There is no disputing that Lundqvist is the Rangers' No. 1 goaltender and that Valiquette is No. 2. Yesterday's start was Valiquette's first of the season, and only his 23rd in the past three seasons. Even with John Tortorella's plan to spell Lundqvist more frequently than in the past, it would be hard to imagine the 32 year-old Valiquette starting more than 15 games this year.

(Continue to Jim Cerny's Rink Rap)

Yankees Will Need to Play Better

There were more than a few encouraging signs from the Yankees in their American League Division Series sweep of the Minnesota Twins.

Alex Rodriguez finally produced some October magic, Derek Jeter delivered a big home run and another brilliant defensive play, and Mariano Rivera performed like, well, Mariano Rivera. The team even got contributions from A.J. Burnett and Joba Chamberlain.

All of that is fine, but here’s one other point to consider: the Bronx Bombers must play better if they are going to beat the Angels in the American League Championship Series. The Yankees swept the Twins, but it also helped that the Twins made critical mistakes that helped the Yankees. It’s not so much that the Yankees won, but the Twins made miscues that practically gift-wrapped the series for New York.

Such as? Glad you asked.

(Continue to New York Minute)

Coping with Season's End

Reality finally set in during the fourth inning of Saturday's Game 3 of the NLDS.

The Cardinals were dead birds. It was sad like someone punching you in the gut. I had made the journey to St. Louis in August for the first time in over 20 years. I felt a special bond with this year's team. But it was your classic one and done.

How could this team with so much promise in July boosted from the Matt Holliday and Mark DeRosa trades and playing lights out baseball in August, fall with a giant thud?

(Continue to Paul's Redbird Report)