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January 6, 2009 - By Jesse Lamovsky
The scoreboard will show that Ohio State lost the Fiesta Bowl on Quan Cosby's touchdown with 16 seconds to play. But football games are won or lost over the entire sixty minutes, and Jesse Lamovsky says the Buckeyes lost this one in the first half, a half they controlled in terms of yardage, field position, and time-of-possession, but finished with only a skinny 6-3 lead to show for it. Jesse talks about the missed opportunities that did in the Buckeyes.
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January 6, 2009 - By Dan Wismar
It was a different kind of BCS bowl game loss for Ohio State, but a loss just the same. Now Buckeye fans are left to debate which variety is more brutal ... the embarrassing blowouts of the previous two years, or the heartbreak of watching a huge win slip away in the final, gut-wrenching minute. In his latest, Buckeye Dan Wismar checks in to give us his account and his thoughts on The One That Got Away.
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January 6, 2009 - By Gary Benz
At the moment and indeed at any moment, Randy Lerner seems fixated on making the combination of Eric Mangini, the former New York Jets head coach, and George Kokinis, the current director of pro personnel for the Baltimore Ravens the team to resurrect the franchise. Gary's worried about these potential selections, and gives our readers his thoughts on Mangini and Kokinis in his latest column.
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January 6, 2009 - By Mansfield Lucas
Well, if it's January and you're a Browns' fan you know what to expect. No, we don't talk playoff matchups this time of year in C-town. Around here in the offseason, we talk draft prospects, potential free agents, who we blame the most recent season's failures on and who we want off the team, and once about every three or four years, we talk about a new head coach and general manager. In Mansfield's latest column, he talks about the candidates to be the next coach/GM of the Browns. And talks about the process Randy Lerner is going through in selecting them.
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January 5, 2009 - By Mike Furlan
Ohio State and Texas started playing football in the 19th Century, but they would not meet on the field until the 21st Century. It took 112 years to schedule the incredible home and home sequence that saw Vince Young lead the Longhorns to a road victory in Columbus on his way to a national title and Troy Smith lead his Buckeyes to a victory in Austin on his way to a Heisman Trophy; fortunately we only had to wait two years for the rubber match. Furls gives us his thoughts on tonight's epic showdown in Glendale, AZ.
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January 5, 2009 - By Dan Wismar
Monday night's Fiesta Bowl matching the #3 Texas Longhorns against the #10 Ohio State Buckeyes has everything any BCS Bowl committee could hope for...storied programs, marquee coaches, All-American players, and compelling storylines all over the place. The Buckeyes return once again to the desert, carrying the tattered Big Ten banner and a two game BCS losing streak into battle against a Texas team with their own point to prove. Buckeye Dan previews tonight's big game.
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January 5, 2009 - By Brian McPeek
Big, big weekend for Cleveland sports fans. The Indians acquired Mark DeRosa from the Cubs for Jeff Stevens and a couple of lower level prospects. The Cavs mini-funk continued with a Sunday loss to the Wizards. The Buckeyes made their final preparations for their Monday night tilt with Texas. And Randy Lerner continued to private jet around the country to talk to candidates to be the Browns next coach and GM. Peeker hits on all of these topics in The Weekend Wrap.
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January 4, 2009 - By Paul Cousineau
OK, everyone...stop Googling George Kokinis for a moment, stop trying to become his "Facebook" friend, and join Paulie C in a little jaunt he lovingly refers to as "Lazy Sunday". As he does every Sunday, Paul takes a whirlwind ride around the internet, producing every link in cyberspace that has to do with the Tribe, and mixes in his commentary as he takes us around the web. All kinds of good stuff this week. Pitchers and catchers in 38 days baby.
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January 4, 2009 - By John Hnat
Play with fire enough times, and you'll end up in the burn unit. The Cavs discovered this truth the hard way this afternoon, falling to the Washington Wizards (excuse me, the 7-25 Washington Wizards) by a score of 80-77. The loss dropped the Cavs' record to 27-6 and cut their Central Division lead over Detroit to six games. John Hnat gives us The Good, The Bad, & The Summary from today's disappointing loss to our playoff punching bags.
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January 4, 2009 - By Erik Cassano
Chemistry on a professional sports team is a delicate thing. So far, the Cavaliers have fended off any large-scale threats to their team's chemistry and remain an overall cohesive bunch that continues to win games at a thrilling pace -- 27-5 after Friday's win over the Bulls. But with an injury to big Z and the trade deadline looming, will GM Danny Ferry make a move that may make the team better on paper, but risk messing with the team chemistry? Erik Cassano talks about it in his latest.
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January 3, 2009 - By Gary Benz
Although less than a week ago, it's actually hard at this point to even remember the Cleveland Browns' last game of the season. So much has happened in the interim and, besides, the game was mostly irrelevant. In Gary's season ending edition of Lingering Items, he looks back on the season, pointing out positives, negative, and statistical quirks ... and also responds to some e-mail he recieved on his recent piece on Randy Lerner.
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January 2, 2009 - By Brian McPeek
Sometimes there's just nothing like a loss to clear the head and bring about clarity of purpose. Couple that loss to Miami a couple nights back with the news that your 7' 3" All-Star center is down for at least the next two weeks with a small fracture in his ankle and it was time to rally the troops and get back to Cavalier basketball; defensive intensity, excellent ball movement and a step up game from the King. Brian McPeek tells our readers about the Cavaliers blowout win over da' Bulls.
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January 2, 2009 - By Mitch Cyrus
It wasn't a good year for the Indians. It most certainly wasn't a good year for the Browns. And if you've been reading Mitch's excellent film reviews on The Cleveland Fan all year, you also know it wasn't a great year for movies. But even in the worst of years, we have some great ones. And in his year end recap, Mitch gives us his ten best and worst movies of 2008 and also hands out some awards for the year in movies.
January 2, 2009 - By Sam Amico
The Cavaliers haven't looked horrible in their past three games, just completely average. When you consider how they started the season, and how fluid the offense looked and how effective the defense seemed to be, that's a bit of disappointment. At the same time, the Cavs have won two of those three games, and are still tied with Boston for least amount of losses in the Eastern Conference (5). They still have LeBron James and they still feature arguably the deepest roster in the league. Sam Amico takes stock of where the Cavs are at, 31 games into the season.
January 2, 2009 - By Paul Cousineau
The ball has dropped, the calendar has flipped, and the smoke has cleared to a degree on the New Year's Eve move that saw the Indians acquire IF Mark DeRosa from the Chicago Cubs for three minor league pitchers. The move fits one of the remaining needs on the Indians' roster for 2009 as DeRosa projects immediately into the infield mix, while also allowing newly acquired 2B Luis Valbuena more time to mature in AAA. In Paulie's latest, he analyzes the trade, talks about DeRosa, and lays out the 2009 Indians lineup.
January 1, 2009 - By Dan Wismar
Jim Tressel and the Buckeyes have landed in Phoenix for final Fiesta Bowl preparations for their Monday night game against Texas. The two football powerhouses have only played each other twice, but those games were recent, and very memorable. In this week's Buckeye Leaves, Buckeye Dan talks Fiesta Bowl, Buckeye hoops, and gives our readers some updates on the 2009 football recruiting class. Dan's Fiesta Bowl preview will post this weekend.
January 1, 2009 - By Gary Benz
As Cleveland Browns' owner Randy Lerner hopscotches around the eastern part of the United States in search of someone to run his beleaguered franchise, the thought occurred to Gary that somewhere a stepped was missed.
Shouldn't Lerner at least ask himself the question of whether or not he's even the best person to make these decisions? History suggests he's not. In his latest .... Gary talks about Pioli, McKay, and the recruiting process Lerner is going through right now.
January 1, 2009 - By Mitch Cyrus
For three years now, the Mitch Man has been reviewing every film of note that hits the theaters for our readers, and does it as well as anyone out there. But he's been on a tough run as of late, as most of the new releases he's reviewed these past 3-4 months have been very shaky. That all changed with "Marley & Me", a film Mitch loved, and one he strongly recommends all pet owners get to the theaters to see. Happy New Year everyone!
December 31, 2008 - By Tony Lastoria
The Indians have completed a deal today to send right-hander Jeff Stevens, right-hander Chris Archer, and left-hander John Gaub to the Chicago Cubs for infielder Mark DeRosa. This is the third significant move in the offseason for the Indians, one in which earlier this month they signed closer Kerry Wood and traded outfielder Franklin Gutierrez for right-hander reliever Joe Smith and second baseman Luis Valbuena. Tony provides tons of insight on the deal inside, especially on the players the Indians are giving up.
December 31, 2008 - By Jesse Lamovsky
This is where things get fun if you are a college football fan. Twelve games in eight days, with all the nation's top teams and many of the top prospects for the 2009 NFL Draft on display. A USC/Penn State Rose Bowl, the Buckeyes and the Longhorns doing battle in the Fiesta Bowl. And the National Championship Game between Florida and Oklahoma. Jesse Lamovsky, our college football guru, checks in to preview all the big bowl games we'll see over the next eight days.
December 31, 2008 - By Erik Cassano
Every baseball team's season needs its own plot thread. Even if the team isn't contending and already has its collective sight set on next year, there has to be something to make those six months and 162 games bearable. For Indians fans in 2008, that was Cliff Lee. Even as the season spiraled into irrelevance, every fifth game, Lee gave Tribe fans a reason to tune in or head down to the ballpark. Cliffie went on to win the Cy Young award, and Erik Cassano named it his top Cleveland sports moment of 2008. Rest of the Top 10 linked inside as well ...
December 31, 2008 - By John Hnat
The Cavs couldn't eek out a win on King James' 24th birthday, falling in Miami by a count of 104-95. The Cavs were down 16 at the half, fought back to erase the lead, but just couldn't sustain the momentum as the Heat went on a fourth quarter run to put the Cavs away. The loss ended the Cavs' winning streak at 6, and dropped their record on the season to 26-5. John Hnat gives us The Good, The Bad, & The Summary on the loss.
December 30, 2008 - By Jay Pearlman
Cleveland State was coming off three big wins. Wright State started the season playing poorly, but has been coming around as of late, despite being without their best player, Vaughn Duggins. It made for an interesting Horizon League matchup. Wright State played stifling first half defense, then shot 65% in the second half to walk away with a relatively easy 71-62 win over CSU. Jay Pearlman writes about it for us.
December 30, 2008 - By Erik Cassano
The 2007-2008 season got off to a very lackluster start for the Cavaliers, who were beset by injuries and holdouts from Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao. Then, in February, GM Danny Ferry decided to act, shipping out six players, and bringing in four new ones in a massive mid-season three team deal with Chicago and Seattle. The trade has payed major dividends for the Cavs ever since. And it checks in at #2 in Erik Cassano's countdown of the Top Ten 2008 Cleveland Sports Moments.
December 30, 2008 - By Erik Cassano
In the coming months, Randy Lerner will hire the fourth leadership regime to head the Browns since the NFL hastily awarded a replacement expansion franchise to Cleveland in 1998. For those of you keeping score at home, that's two years of Carmen Policy, Dwight Clark and Chris Palmer, four years of Policy and Butch Davis, and four years of Phil Savage and Romeo Crennel. Erik Cassano says this Randy Lerner's last chance to get it right.
December 30, 2008 - By Ryan Aroney
Cleveland State heads into the thick of the Horizon League schedule this week with a difficult road trip to Wright State and Detroit. CSU (10-4, 1-1) started conference play by splitting with Valparaiso and Butler in early December. After following with a loss at West Virginia to fall to 5-4, the Vikings are now in the midst of a five-game winning streak. Wright State is riding a winning streak of its own and was one of the pre-season favorites in the Horizon League while Detroit is undefeated at home and boasts a 20-1 all-time record against CSU in Detroit. Ryan Aroney looks ahead to the big week for the Vikes.
December 30, 2008 - By Nick Allburn
It'e been apparent since midseason that Romeo Crennel would not be coaching the Browns in 2009. The visitors to our message forums have already spent months discussing potential candidates to lead the team next season. The debate has not only centered on the specific man the Browns should hire, but also on the types of candidates who should be considered. Should we hire a coach with previous head coaching experience? Or go the route of Miami, Atlanta, and Baltimore ... all of whom are succeeding with rookie coaches. Nick Allburn takes on the topic in his latest.
December 29, 2008 - By Gary Benz
The other shoe dropped, as expected, this morning as Cleveland Browns' owner Randy Lerner fired head coach Romeo Crennel. It capped off a busy weekend by Lerner in which he began yet another extreme makeover for a franchise that doesn't need a makeover but a total exorcism. Gary weighed in thie morning with his thoughts on the Savage firing. And this afternoon, he gives our readers his thoughts on the Romeo canning as well as the new coach search, which is already well underway.
December 29, 2008 - By Nick Allburn
It's now being reported and will be announced at a 10 AM press conference: the Browns and owner Randy Lerner officially fired Romeo Crennel, the Browns' coach since the 2005 season. Crennel's imminent departure had been clear for several weeks. Combined with Sunday evening's firing of general manager Phil Savage, Crennel's firing brings the Savage/Crennel era crashing to a close, making their failure complete. Nick Allburn reflects on The Romeo Era in his latest.
December 29, 2008 - By Gary Benz
Apparently Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner couldn't wait for Monday to get here. According to various reports, Lerner fired Savage sometime on Sunday. In Gary's latest, he says the fact that Savage was fired before head coach Romeo Crennel speaks volumes about where Lerner is placing the blame for a season that fell apart before it ever really got started. Mr. Benz offers up his commentary on the Savage era and firing.