{"id":157875,"date":"2022-09-13T03:45:53","date_gmt":"2022-09-13T08:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=157875"},"modified":"2022-09-13T03:45:53","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T08:45:53","slug":"random-thoughts-polls-qbs-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2022\/09\/13\/random-thoughts-polls-qbs-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: polls, QBs, more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s edition of Random Thoughts centers around polls, night games, Nebraska, big money quarterbacks and Terry Francona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polls<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To show you how goofy high school football polls can be sometimes \u2013 No. 2 Van Wert loses by one point to Division III No. 15 Wapakoneta and drops nine spots to No. 11 in this week\u2019s Associated Press Ohio high school football poll. Meanwhile, Wapak rose just three spots to No. 12. Makes no sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polls II<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There seems to be more calls to do away with preseason college football polls, and there are some valid arguments to do just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take Notre Dame for instance \u2013 the Irish went from No. 5 to unranked after two games. Current No. 5 Clemson certainly doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why not wait until three games have been played before doing a poll? Let the voters see the product before casting a ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Night games<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nebraska<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps I\u2019m in the minority here, but wouldn\u2019t it have made much more fiscal sense for Nebraska to wait less than three weeks to can head football coach Scott Frost?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unless I\u2019m missing something, it just seems like more dysfunction to me, which is said to see in a once great program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, I think Nebraska goofed when joining the Big 10. There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s done is done though. It\u2019ll be interesting to see who is chosen as the next head coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

A thought<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a thought for the next head coach at Nebraska \u2013 why not run an option-based offense? It would be a return to the program\u2019s roots and would keep opponents off balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nebraska could become a haven for option style high school players, kind of a win-win situation for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big money<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just thought I\u2019d note this \u2013 the NFL\u2019s top paid quarterbacks had sort of a rough weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aaron Rodgers is making just over $50 million this season and his Packers lost on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russell Wilson \u2013 $49 million per season, lost to Seattle on Monday night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arizona\u2019s Kyler Murray, who doesn\u2019t even have a career winning record and is making $46.1 million \u2013 his Cardinals lost the opener to Patrick Mahomes, the fifth highest paid quarterback at $46 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while he\u2019s not the highest paid this season, his deal averages out to make him one of the highest \u2013 Cleveland\u2019s DeShaun Watson \u2013 well, he served the first game of his 11 game suspension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s Dallas\u2019s Dak Prescott, who\u2019s making $40 million. He didn\u2019t exactly light things up Sunday night before injuring his thumb. He\u2019ll miss up to two months, but it\u2019s not all his fault. The Cowboys had to dump salaries of talented players to pay him and Ezekiel Elliot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So out of the top five paid quarterbacks, three lost, one won and one can’t play. I know it\u2019s very early but looking back, it appears many of these deals will turn out to be ill-advised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francona<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll say it just one more time \u2013 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\u2019t supposed to contend for a division title this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I understand the AL Central isn\u2019t a powerhouse but still, all things considered, he\u2019s deserving of the award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts on any of the above topics, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor This week\u2019s 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 \u2013 No. 2 Van Wert loses by one point to Division III No. 15 Wapakoneta and drops nine spots to No. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 22:32:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157875"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157878,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157875\/revisions\/157878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}