Random Thoughts: polls, QBs, more

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

This week’s edition of Random Thoughts centers around polls, night games, Nebraska, big money quarterbacks and Terry Francona.

Polls

To show you how goofy high school football polls can be sometimes – No. 2 Van Wert loses by one point to Division III No. 15 Wapakoneta and drops nine spots to No. 11 in this week’s Associated Press Ohio high school football poll. Meanwhile, Wapak rose just three spots to No. 12. Makes no sense.

Polls II

There seems to be more calls to do away with preseason college football polls, and there are some valid arguments to do just that.

Take Notre Dame for instance – the Irish went from No. 5 to unranked after two games. Current No. 5 Clemson certainly doesn’t look like the fifth best team in the country and Alabama (No. 1 or No. 2 depending on the poll) appears to have some serious flaws.

Why not wait until three games have been played before doing a poll? Let the voters see the product before casting a ballot.

Night games

It was announced Monday that the Ohio State-Wisconsin game on September 24 will be a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.

I have a confession – I don’t care for Ohio State night games. There – I said it. Give me a noon or 3:30 p.m. kickoff anytime.

Nebraska

Perhaps I’m in the minority here, but wouldn’t it have made much more fiscal sense for Nebraska to wait less than three weeks to can head football coach Scott Frost?

Had the school waited until October 1, his buyout would have been cut in half, from $15 million to $7.5 million and at this point, what would three additional weeks hurt?

Unless I’m missing something, it just seems like more dysfunction to me, which is said to see in a once great program.

Personally, I think Nebraska goofed when joining the Big 10. There’s nothing wrong with school but it just seemed like it was a better fit and much more successful in the old Big 8 and later, Big 12.

What’s done is done though. It’ll be interesting to see who is chosen as the next head coach.

A thought

Here’s a thought for the next head coach at Nebraska – why not run an option-based offense? It would be a return to the program’s roots and would keep opponents off balance.

Nebraska could become a haven for option style high school players, kind of a win-win situation for everyone.

Big money

I just thought I’d note this – the NFL’s top paid quarterbacks had sort of a rough weekend.

Aaron Rodgers is making just over $50 million this season and his Packers lost on Sunday.

Russell Wilson – $49 million per season, lost to Seattle on Monday night.

Arizona’s Kyler Murray, who doesn’t even have a career winning record and is making $46.1 million – his Cardinals lost the opener to Patrick Mahomes, the fifth highest paid quarterback at $46 million.

And while he’s not the highest paid this season, his deal averages out to make him one of the highest – Cleveland’s DeShaun Watson – well, he served the first game of his 11 game suspension.

Then there’s Dallas’s Dak Prescott, who’s making $40 million. He didn’t exactly light things up Sunday night before injuring his thumb. He’ll miss up to two months, but it’s not all his fault. The Cowboys had to dump salaries of talented players to pay him and Ezekiel Elliot.

So out of the top five paid quarterbacks, three lost, one won and one can’t play. I know it’s very early but looking back, it appears many of these deals will turn out to be ill-advised.

Francona

I’ll say it just one more time – if Cleveland wins the American League Central, Terry Francona should be named Manager of the Year, given the fact that he has a very young roster that wasn’t supposed to contend for a division title this year.

I understand the AL Central isn’t a powerhouse but still, all things considered, he’s deserving of the award.

As always, if you have thoughts on any of the above topics, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com.