Could it be That I Missed a Day?

Sorry folks! It's been a little busy in non-football related ways in the BFGF household. There's certainly been plenty of news, and so I don't have that as an excuse.

Most recently, the Hartford Colonials may have lost the services of this man on the right. If you don't recognize him without a helmet and pads and jersey, well, that's former Colonials wideout and very tall human being Markee White.
What's the big deal? Well, apparently White has rejoined the Arena Football League's Spokane Shock. This may or may not be a problem if the Colonials come calling in August; the Arena league's schedule ends in July, but its playoffs extend further into the summer.

Whether or not the Shock make it to the playoffs, the question remains: will White even want to play after enduring another season in the AFL? Football takes its toll on a body, and if White feels he's had enough for the year, Hartford might be losing its only serious receiving threat.

"6'7. Or, 9'7 with my antigravity boots on."

So who are we left with? At this point, it's hard to say what the team will look like after a new head coach comes to town and new tryouts are held, but the team still has on its roster the following people.

Jason Chery: Chery was decent enough when called upon. He's a smaller, scrappier type of receiver with good speed and decent but not fantastic hands. While reliable as a third or fourth receiver, I don't think we saw enough of him last year to confirm whether or not he can be the #1 or #2 guy.

Shaheer McBride: A tall wideout with good hands but not high-end speed, McBride seems like the type better suited for short gains and endzone completions. I liked what I saw out of him in 2010, but he doesn't strike me as a receiver you can use in every situation.

"The camera subtracts 300 pounds."

Syndric Steptoe: Pictured on the left, the Colonials subpar punt returner has loads of agility but questionable hands. His Wikipedia page lists his height and weight at an astonishing 12'9 and 495 lbs, respectively. Meaning, you're never going to overthrow the guy, but do you really want to pay his Twinky bill?

That and his name sounds like some kind of disease. (No offense Syn!)

In all seriousness, Steptoe is listed by more reputable sources as being 5'9 and about 200 lbs. He's an adequate slot receiver and can gain yards if he has some space, but he dropped a few balls last year and he's not the kind of guy I'd want to rely on more than necessary.

Last on the list (according to the UFL's own site) is Aaron Valentin, who, according to his official photograph, is apparently some kind of shadow given form, sapience and malevolence and told to play football. Stories about Valentin are often told by parents to scare their children. Nobody has actually seen the wideout, but every so often some stranger comes by with a long, grizzled beard, muttering gibberish about a shadow carrying a football down Farmington Ave, looking for his lost endzone. (wooooo!)

Palmer: From the Giants to the Titans

I've been vocal about Chris Palmer's performance as the Colonials head coach in 2010. It looks like a moot point now, as Palmer has left the UFL for greener pastures (still with hash marks) and taken the position of offensive coordinator with the Tennessee Titans.

I think it's very telling that, in the article linked above, Titans' head coach (and a former player under Palmer with the Oilers) Mike Munchak referred to coach Chris as "...a great teacher of the game...". Palmer has simply not proven himself capable of holding down the top spot on the coaching roster. His record as a head coach at the pro level is an abysmal 8-32. You can cut him some slack for being handed a talent-poor expansion Browns team in 1999, and I won't say that he did as poor a job as Sentinels coach Ted Cottrell, but there's nothing in his past that says he is a good head coach. As such, I'm fine with the move.

As Munchak said, Palmer is a great teacher. You can see it in the careers of quarterbacks like the NFC East's Tony Romo and Eli Manning, and it doesn't seem unlikely that Palmer's primary reason for being given a job with the Colonials was the development of younger players. Ryan Perriloux specifically, given the coaches scheme of rotating Perriloux into the offense on every third possesssion.

But a good teacher is not necessarily a good coach, and Palmer had some trouble keeping his charges on track. Halftime adjustments and strategy are powerful tools in finishing a game strong, and it never seemed that the Colonials were able to capitalize on their leads. This is to say nothing of events like the catastrophic second week loss to Omaha when the team had a thirteen point lead at the half, and ultimately gave up seventeen points in the fourth quarter to drop the game.

Some cite the fact that the Colonials were only a few plays away from being a 5-3 team, which is at best a dubious measuring stick. By the same logic the Florida Tuskers were an awful team in 2010 because they were eight points away from being a 3-5 team (the Tuskers won two games by only a field goal). A better measurement might be the Colonials lack of traction in the second half. Hartford had halftime leads in six of their eight games, but only went on to win two of those.

Developing talent is a fine goal, but not at the expense of a"W." I'm sure that coach Chris is a fine position coach, maybe even a good coordinator (as his playoff runs with the expansion Jaguars suggests), but he was in over his head in Hartford, and I think he's in a better situation for all involved now.

Of course, that being said, we're now left to wonder who will be around to coach for the Colonials in 2011. According to Bill Mayer, the search is already well under way.

"I, too, know the pain of coaching for the Browns."

Rumors have been floating around that former Jets, Browns coach Eric Mangini, a Connecticut native, may be on the list of possible replacements for Palmer. Mangini has also spent two seasons coaching a struggling Cleveland team, and though their record didn't change from 2009 to 2010 (5-11 each year) I think it's plain to see that the quality of the club had improved and the Browns played with some heart. If nothing else, I think credit can be given for the trade of notoriously bad QB Brady Quinn to the Broncos for monster running back Peyton Hillis. The Browns are severely starved for talent. Don't get me wrong; Mangini is not a world class coach. But he does some things well and the team seemed to be on the upswing when he was let go.

Other than that? I'm curious to see if Hartford secondary coach Jerry Holmes is given a chance. There's been some buzz about sending him to Virginia to lead the Destroyers franchise, primarily due to his numerous social and professional ties to the area. If he's good enough to be the head coach of the Destroyers, it makes sense for him to be considered in Hartford. Though if being a Virginia native is the primary reason he's being sought, I'd prefer that Hartford pass in favor of someone with more qualifications. That being said, Hartford's secondary played admirably last year without much of a pass rush to help them, and I believe he's a good position coach.

But is that enough? Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Five is Better than None

The UFL is sticking with five teams for the 2011 season.

Not much to add to this at the moment, but I may have gathered a few more thoughts for tomorrow. I've been saying that the league needs to have another team for 2011 to succeed, and I really can't find a way to positively spin this. In a year where an NFL lockout could mean significant growth, the UFL is merely treading water.

Could the five-team league gain enough ground in 2011 that 2012 instead becomes the prime year? I suppose it's possible, but given the rash of bad news over the past few months, it's harder to take individual headlines like this as being indicative of future success.

The Colonials are probably the most interesting thing to happen to Hartford in years. If the worst happens, I'll at least by happy to have had the team for as long as we did, though I feel bad to be thinking of a present-tense team in a past-tense sense, and it'd be nice to come away with more than nostalgia.

Gruden Jumps Ship

Destroyers nee Tuskers coach Jay Gruden has made the leap to the NFL by signing with the Cincinnati Bengals as their OC, and UFL fans are reacting to the news as if they just learned they had the flesh-eating virus.
No, I don't mean there's been extensive redness and necrosis of the skin, I mean wailing and gnashing of teeth. It's understandable that there would be some worry given that the Tuskers have folded and that the league seems to be having trouble getting the sixth franchise settled, but I feel like any bad news lately starts a domino effect of freakouts among the fans.

It's the offseason. There will be some upheaval. Coaches and players leave all the time in every league and are picked up elsewhere...or not. The trouble for the UFL right now is that every move is seen as having a direct impact on the health of the league itself. People in Philadelphia might be upset and a little baffled that their offensive line coach is now their defensive coordinator, but none are taking it as a sign that their team will suddenly vanish, or that the NFL is going to curl up and die.

I don't even blame any potential Destroyers fans for worrying. The league is young, and when you only have five teams, the magnitude of each decision seems to carry greater weight with it. But this isn't a bad move for the league because it's not their move. A man was offered a job that will likely pay a great deal more over the next few years, why should he not take it?

This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the UFL looking for NFL-quality talent. As it is, unless teams are content to vie for lesser players and coaches, the NFL is going to cannibalize the UFL every year. Pick your poison. You can have candidates that look appetizing to everyone and you'll risk losing them. Or, you can hope that your team looks for guys that aren't capable of playing at a high level and not worry about the league being eaten away at the end of each season.

I watch both the UFL and NFL. I'd rather they both go for the top talent they can find and I don't care which organization I'm watching them in. Moves happen. It's not the end of the world, and it's not necrotizing fasciitis.