Sports fodder for a Friday morning ... Nevada Wolf Pack running back James Butler is firmly on the radar of opposing Mountain West coaches and beyond. One Mountain West coach was quoted anonymously in an ESPN.com story this week saying of Butler “You can’t tackle him one on one.” In a Bleacher Report story Butler was named as one of the top running backs Notre Dame will face this year. Butler, who had 1,342 yards and 10 touchdowns last year as a sophomore, is on pace to finish his career as one of the top five running backs in Wolf Pack history. He needs to average just 1,012 yards over his final two seasons to become just the fifth Pack running back (after Frank Hawkins, Vai Taua, Charvez Foger and Chris Lemon) to finish with 4,000 or more career yards. He reaches that milestone this year if the Pack gives him the ball enough.
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It remains to be seen, however, how much Butler will actually get the ball this season. He had 23 fewer carries than Don Jackson a year ago when he was clearly the better back. And this year the Pack brought in former Penn State senior Akeel Lynch to share the load. The Pack will also run a more pass-happy attack this year under new offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey. The Pack would be wise to simply give Lynch enough carries to keep Butler in one piece. Lynch had fewer yards (1,318) in three years at Penn State than Butler had just last year at Nevada. But Lynch went to the same high school (St. Francis in Buffalo) Pack coach Brian Polian graduated from. So you know he’s going to get the ball. Butler, who also went to St. Francis High (in Wheaton, Ill.), however, is a talent who can carry a team. You can’t tackle him one-on-one. Last year he proved you can’t tackle him two and three-on-one.
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There are rumblings San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner wants to take part in next month’s Home Run Derby at the All Star game. Now that would be a treat. The Home Run Derby is becoming as boring as the NBA Slam Dunk contest. It’s not any more challenging for a major league hitter to hit batting practice fastballs out of the park than it is for a NBA player to dunk a basketball. It’s sort of like asking Jordan Spieth to play miniature golf or Helio Castroneves to drive your fourth grader to school. The Home Run Derby needs some drama and fun. Bumgarner has hit 13 career home runs, 11 in the last two-plus seasons. The Giants need to allow him to put on a show.
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There is understandably a lot of anticipation and excitement surrounding the Nevada Wolf Pack’s 2016-17 men’s basketball season. Cameron Oliver is back along with coach Eric Musselman and his new coaching staff. The Pack won 24 games in the first season of Oliver and Musselman and, well, the expectations are now sky high. But UNLV is also enjoying a surge in anticipation. Former New Mexico State coach Marvin Menzies has taken over the program and has injected enthusiasm into the program again. The Rebels fully expect to get back to the NCAA tournament. The Musselman-Menzies matchups should be fun to watch in the coming years.
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The showdowns between the Pack’s Polian and UNLV’s Tony Sanchez will also be interesting on the football side. Sanchez somehow won the first round of the rivalry last fall at Mackay Stadium, a loss that has Polian firmly on the hot seat this fall. There are a lot of similarities between Polian and Sanchez, two young coaches with an abundance of enthusiasm, positive energy and smoke and mirrors who have surrounded themselves with a lot of quality assistants who do all the heavy lifting. Polian’s Pack is likely headed to a breakout season this year of at least nine wins because the schedule is incredibly soft. Sanchez’s Rebels, though, went 3-9 in his first year and will be hard pressed to exceed five wins this year.
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There will be much more pressure on Polian this year, though, than on Sanchez. Sanchez still has unwavering support from the Rebel boosters who got him the job in the first place. That’s why the Fremont Cannon game on Nov. 26 in Las Vegas could be much more important for Polian than it will be for Sanchez. Polian is already on thin ice with Pack boosters and former players because of his two losses (both at Mackay) in three years to UNLV. If the Pack loses to UNLV on Nov. 26 and also doesn’t go to a bowl game — two events that likely won’t happen — that could be Polian’s last game on the Wolf Pack sideline.
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Colin Kaepernick said all the right things last week when he met the San Francisco 49ers media. Kaepernick was more upbeat, talkative and, well, cordial to the media, just like he was when he played for the Wolf Pack. After a dreadful season during which he lost his starting job and underwent surgeries on his left shoulder and knee and his right thumb, he seems to have abandoned his sullen, terse and moody disposition of recent years. What a shock, huh? Problems, though, could still surface for Kaepernick. Blaine Gabbert has gotten all of the first team reps during off-season workouts and the mini camp and is miles ahead of Kaepernick as far as learning Chip Kelly’s new system is concerned. The one thing Kap has in his corner, though, is he’s 10 times the athlete Gabbert is and he has the ability to win a Super Bowl while Gabbert can get you eight wins tops. Kelly, whose own NFL career is now on the line, is going realize that this fall.
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Ichiro Suzuki is a great player and is a definite Hall of Famer. But Pete Rose is still the all-time hits leader. I’m going to boycott forever the next media outlet who tells me Ichiro now has more hits than Rose because his 1,278 hits in Japan added to his 2,979 hits in the major leagues is more than Rose’s 4,256 hits. Matt Murton, for goodness sake, once had 214 hits in one season in Japan. Tuffy Rhodes once hit 55 home runs in a season. Randy Bass once hit 54 homers and hit .350. The next year he hit 47 homers and hit .389. Ichiro’s 1,278 Japan hits mean absolutely nothing.