Ingram Destined for NFL Stardom

In the last 25 years only two running backs from the University of Alabama have made a dramatic impact in the National Football League.

One of those would be Bobby Humphrey, a former NFL Rookie of the Year and All-Pro with the Denver Broncos, and the other would be Shaun Alexander, a former MVP with the Seattle Seahawks.

Glen Coffee, a rookie with the San Francisco 49ers, could become the third. But if Coffee doesn’t fill the bill, then there’s another Crimson Tide back on the way.

In a few years, Mark Ingram will be giving NFL defenses fits.

(Continue to Rue's Rant)

Pac-10's Race to the BCS

The first BCS Standings have been released and there are a few things that caught my attention. Boise State (.8083), Cincinnati (.7870) and Iowa (7869) are all ranked ahead of USC (.7695). The bottom line is the Trojans are a much better football team than Boise State, Cincinnati and Iowa. If the Trojans continue to win they will eventually pass those teams.

Boise State will be hurt by their remaining schedule. It is highly unlikely that any team that Boise State faces for the rest of the season will be ranked. On the other hand, USC still has to face Oregon (AP #12) and there is a chance that Arizona State and Arizona will be ranked by the time they face the Trojans. The Iowa Hawkeyes still have to play at Michigan State and at Ohio State. The Bearcats have West Virginia, Illinois and Pittsburgh on their schedule. There is a lot of football left and upsets will happen.

(Continue to Inside the Pac-10)

USF vs. Pitt: Dion Meets Kion

First things first. When South Florida takes to Heinz Field on Saturday to face Pittsburgh, this is simply a "must win" for the Bulls.

It's a must win because they fell flat on their collective faces last Thursday at home when they had a chance for a statement win against unbeaten Cincinnati.

Even with Bearcat quarterback Tony Pike out of the game by the third quarter, the Bulls were seemingly helpless to stop backup Zach Collaros. The result was an embarrassing 34-17 loss and a poor start to a difficult stretch of October Big East games.

Pitt is unbeaten in the Big East, 3-0 and brings a balanced attack that features a spectacular freshman named Dion Lewis. He's explosive to say the least. He's the second leading rusher in the nation with 918 yards. He's already drawing comparisons to Pitt great Tony Dorsett.

(Continue to Running with the Bulls)

Clocking Ochocinco All in the Show

Ray Lewis hit Chad Ochocinco in the mouth a couple of Sundays ago in Baltimore’s game versus Cincinnati.

Predictably, the NFL took exception. The league fined Lewis $25,000 for breaking its "defenseless receiver" rule among other charges of unnecessary roughness on a play where Ochocinco was clocked coming across the middle late in the fourth quarter of Cincinnati’s compelling 17-14 win over Baltimore.

You would think Ochocinco would be fuming mad and pointing to Nov. 8 for retaliation when the Ravens and Bengals hook up again in Cincinnati. But with Lewis and Ochocinco, two of the league’s premier players, everything is not always what it seems.

Ochocinco’s pummeling reverberated around the league that Sunday and ignited a mini-firestorm over the state of rough play in the NFL. Old-school NFL types may besmirch Lewis for the hit and say he deserved the fine. Granted, the league did have to fine Lewis in its attempt to reduce unnecessary injuries.

Only this was different.

(Continue to DMA 7-22 Sports)

Grading the Dolphins

With the Dolphins on a bye this past weekend, this seems like a good time to grade the team on its performance so far this season:

Offensive line -- B: The space-eaters up front are reportedly making a combined $155 million in salaries this season, and they've earned every penny in the running game, paving the way for a ground game that leads the league with an average of 177 yards per game. It's not just that the Dolphins are running it a lot; they are also running effectively, as their 4.8-average per carry attests. The only downside: The pass protection has been leaky at times, as the Dolphins have allowed 13 sacks through five regular season games, tied for 13th in the NFL.

(Continue to Dolphins Watch)

UFC 104 Preview: Machida vs. Shogun

With its 104th pay-per-view event, the UFC returns to Los Angeles featuring a main event in the Light Heavyweight division as champion Lyoto Machida takes on fellow Brazilian and challenger Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Machida, 31, will be making his first title defense and first appearance since dethroning then champion and fellow undefeated star Rashad Evans back in May at UFC 98. Machida will be looking to further establish the discipline of Machida Karate not to mention the "Machida Era" in the UFC Light Heavyweight division.

But he's going to have to do it by beating a very capable challenger in Rua, 27, whom presents a very formidable fighting style with his duo black belts in Muay-Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Rua is capable of dominating the stand-up portion of a fight ala Anderson Silva or take you down and submit you ala BJ Penn. Prior to arriving in the UFC, Rua was widely considered the top 205 lb prospect after his dominance in Pride.

(Continue to Fighter's Corner)

Something Is Rotten in Denmark

Once upon a time, tennis was a sport for gentlemen. Then John McEnroe, Jeff Tarango arrived and a certain level of bad behaviour started to diffuse and be tolerated. Now that more and more people tend to associate "personality", "character" with sudden eruption of fury, the mood of Ilja Bozoljac or the Austrian Daniel Koellerer, whose motto is "If you respect your opponent, you have already lost", are becoming common.

And proliferate where the luxury and artificiosity of top-class events leave his place to the not-glamorous tournaments belonging to the second or third tier circuit, like Challengers or Futures. The last episode is only another confirmation of this stigmatizable evolution. If we should give a title to this story, the only suitable would be: "Something is rotten in Denmark."

(Continue to ATP Tennis 360)

Where to Go When You Don't Go Pro

Kids, I want you to stay in school.

Play an instrument, learn a trade, go to college, join the family business, start your own business, join the Peace Corps (not the Marine Corps), do whatever you can to diversify and maximize your youth.

Discover as many ways as you can to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Do something productive and positive with your life and try to make a living doing something you love, ‘cuz you ain’t going pro in sports.

Haven’t you seen that commercial during every college football game? “There are over 400,000 NCAA student-athletes, and almost all of us will be going pro in something other than sports.”

That commercial ain’t lyin’. Your odds of going pro are a little over 500,000 to 1, and unless you’re 6-foot-3, 215 with a 4.5 forty or a 40-inch vertical or a 60-percent jumper or a 95-mph fastball, you’re not that 1.

(Continue to Sport Imitates Life)

Raiders Give Voice to Past

We had just lifted our beer glasses to the sky to toast a great day of football, when an old, wonderful voice came booming across the frosty hills of Southwest Germany and through the double doors of the Grill Room.

By now, we were into the wee hours -- and many, many pils -- of this Monday morning.

It was right about the time the Raiders (The Raiders!) were putting the finishing touches on their improbable win over the heavily favored Eagles, when we heard it...

(Continue to The Grill Room)

Saints Expose Giants' Defense

Going back to their first Super Bowl victories, the Giants have always been defined by their defense.

Sure they had Phil Simms and some others, but this is a team that loved defense. The fans love their defense. The NFC East is all about the defensive side of the ball, and stopping the other team from moving the ball.

So when, exactly, did the Giants turn in the old San Diego Chargers, a team that couldn’t stop any body? Because that’s what it looked like Sunday, as Drew Brees drove the Saints all over the field on the way to an easier-than-it looked 48-27 victory.

(Continue to New York Minute)

Sanchez's Slump Continues

It took almost an entire overtime period for the Jets to drop to 3-3 and officially be considered a .500 team.

But if you watched the game (which in one of my most desperate acts as a football fan I drove to New York to do), you saw early on that the Jets really are no better than a .500 team.

You may remember in the preseason that I said Mark Sanchez's fast start (48-yard touchdown on his first throw) was probably the worst thing that could happen to him. I also said the humbling game he had against the Ravens might turn out to be the best thing that could have happened to him. I forgot about that lesson as the Jets jumped out to a 3-0 start this year. And I take back what I said about his first preseason game - the 3-0 start to his career is THE worst thing that could have happened to Mark Sanchez.

(Continue to 200 Miles From the Citi)

Arkansas Has Reasons to be Upset

It's tough enough to beat Florida in Gainesville, and it's next to impossible when the officiating crew is putting the screws to you. Check out two calls and one non-call in the fourth quarter of Saturday's game, won by Gators, 23-20. Florida had to rally from a 20-13 deficit in the final eight minutes, and each of these plays were part of Florida's comeback.

Arkansas was flagged 10 times for 92 yards. Florida had three infractions for 16 yards.

It makes you wonder how level the playing field is in the Southeastern Conference.

(Continue to the Wiz of Odds)

Locked-Out NBA Refs Made Wrong Call

Apparently the regular NBA referees were oblivious to the fact the rest of the country’s in a recession or that the national unemployment rate’s a staggering 9.5 percent.

If they did know, why in the heck did the union reject the NBA’s final contract offer last month?

The country’s harsh economic conditions simply made it extremely difficult for the regular NBA refs to have any leverage in negotiations with the league.

(Continue to All Net)

Bet on ... Davydenko

Nikolay Davydenko outclashed Rafa Nadal 7-6 6-3 to win the Shanghai Masters final and clinch his 18th title, in a manner of style even more impressing than the score would suggest. The Russian, renewed after the bet enquiry, the scandal and the suspects followed the sadly famous Sopot first round match against Vassallo Arguello in 2007, is now the most testing opponent to verify a player’s fitness. And Nadal, playing his first final for five months, showed to have some way to go to find his best form: he managed only nine winners to the 28-years-old Rusian’s 35. Davydenko is certain to finish the year outside the top-5 for the first time since 2004. And is now the player with the best result not to have played a Grand Slam final yet.

Now the Russian is seventh in the Year-to-Date and improves his odds to go to London for the World Tour Finals. All players can add points from the Atp 500 in either Basel or Valencia in the week of 2 Novembrer and again at the Paris Masters. But Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Nikolay Davydenko, Marin Cilic, Tommy Robredo and Radek Stepanek have all won two Atp 250 titles. And this could give some more chances for Robin Soderling, now n.9 in the YTD, now in Stockholm; because he won Bastad but has only 90 points from his second best performance in the ATP 250. So winning in Sweden, he could add 160 points to his ranking.

(Continue to ATP Tennis 360)

Glad I Saw the Game, But ...

Watching Independence blow out to a 41-0 half-time lead (it was 27-0 before I got all the way in from the parking lot) and hold South Meck scoreless until 3:01 left in the third before having the reserves hold on for a 55-28 final tally isn't going to help me much in evaluating just how big a game the Butler-Independence shootout is going to be on November 6th. I got fully enlightened on that by the gentleman who was *very* ticked that even though he has obviously supported The Big I as completely as possible with "family packs" of tickets, he would be given no preference when tickets for that particular event went on sale.

That acknowledged "biggie" may well mark a changing of the guard in Mecklenburg high school football. While Butler has built a great rep, Big I has a fistful-plus of championship trophies to show anyone who thinks they rate being called the best. Langston Wertz Jr. (lwertz@charlotteobserver.com) has seen a lot more games than I and puts Butler ahead, and I wish his one man campaign to have the game played at 6000-seats-plus-great-scoreboard Providence High on Nov. 7th the best of luck. That he thinks the State selection committee will let them play Sat. and delay slotting the two teams for the playoffs even a few hours is probably a Quixotian quest.

(Continue to Baseline Shorks)