Cleveland Sports Minute

Now, let me be clear. I typically do not go to the Wall Street Journal for my Sports news. However, today’s piece in the Personal Journal section was one that I did not mind.

In a discussion regarding the Buckeyes’ bid for a National Championship, the WSJ said:

…the numbers that underlie the upset trend suggest that a much-maligned Ohio State team will do this January what they couldn’t do a year ago, and capture another national title.

The Journal broke down some numbers (as that’s what they do best), stating that five of the past six National Championships have been won by the team that gives up the fewest points per game in the regular season. The figures, you ask? Ohio State has allowed 10.7 points per game, compared to LSU’s 19.6. Go check it out yourself, just get your abacus out ahead of time.  (And if you’re a Buckeyes fan, you may just want to ignore the fact that the sole time that this formula did not work was in fact last year when tOSU had the top defense in all of the NCAA)

Top sports-related story in all of Cleveland today has to be the news that current Browns offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski will interview for the vacant head coaching position with the Baltimore Ravens.  The turnaround that Chud gave the Browns offense is well documented, so this is not surprising by any means.  Browns fans will have to come to terms with the fact that Rob will be gone within two years, but we’ll all have to hope that he doesn’t go to the division rival Ravens.  Some already hold a grudge against Ozzie Newsome, so I can only imagine.  Hey Baltimore, what about Mike Martz?  He’s available.

 By now, you’ve likely heard of the “collusion” claims that have followed a Kerry Collins interview on WFAN (NY).  The PD reports that the team can file a grievance to the NFL, as collusion is obviously against the rules.  But honestly, what’s the point? 

Bill Belechick was voted coach of the year.  While I can go the route of pointing and yelling “cheater,” I’m more surprised that Romeo Crennel didn’t receive a single vote.

What’s this?  Todd Boeckman may not play the whole game?  Taking a page out of Florida’s book, the Buckeyes may toss Antonio Henton into the mix.  How often is it that a quarterback goes from suspended and only getting a handful of snaps to becoming a change-of-pace in a National Championship?

It only took until January, but the Cavaliers have decided to step up on defense.  The team that represented the East (regardless of path) last year is two games below .500, so it seems like a good time to change things up.  And don’t count on the trade mentioned by Brian Windhorst here to happen.  While that would easily shore up the inside defense, it isn’t likely to come to fruition.

And finally, if it is some Tribe which you long for, check out the DiaTribe’s projector series for 2008 here and here.

And if you’re reading this, thank you!  Have a good weekend.

Welcome to the premier post of the Cleveland Sports Minute. We’ll likely start of with a daily take on the previous day/night in Cleveland sports, and see where it goes. Until we can build some content, please, by all means check out some of the sites in the Blogroll to the right. You’ll find plenty of great opinions, along with a twist of bitterness – but hey, can you blame them?

I’ll admit right out of the gate that this is some odd timing with rolling out a new blog.  The Browns season just ended and pitchers/catchers do not report for a few weeks.  I consider this a slow time of the season to gain some traction, along with hopefully a few linkbacks in the meantime.   

We’ll be posting in a few minutes about this past Thursday, so stay tuned.