1) It is WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6. Brawl breaks out at UFC Media Day in Las Vegas. Or, did that go without saying? Click here for the Jon Jones-Daniel Carmier brawl vid. 2) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Ray Rice punishment poll, Canton class of '14, Hot Button Top 10 and more. 3) Follow us on Twitter @gregcote. Also Vine and Instagram.
"Manchester United and Liverpool drew 51,000 to Dolphins stadium last night. What was that you were saying about Miami being a lousy sports town?" --Greg Cote
GOLDEN'S NEXT CHALLENGE: CLOSING HURRICANES' TALENT GAP WITH FSU: I smile at all the coverage of maturity-challenged Canes redshirt-freshman quarterback Kevin Olsen reportedly being suspended from the season opener for a failed drug test. Miami football and coach
Al Golden have a far greater, broader problem and challenge, and that's making up the recruiting/talent shortfall they suffer compared to national champion Florida State, UM's ACC rival and roadblock. I tackle the topic in my latest column. Golden has spent three years admirably navigating UM through the off-field NCAA bog. Now that sky has cleared, and he must move the Canes forward on the field. Click on Solving The Noles to read the column. UM football won't totally be #Renewed (the latest marketing campaign) until he does. The most recent evidence of Miami's talent gap with Florida State is ESPN's ranking of the 100 best players in college football, voted by a panel of 32 experts. FSU places a nation-leading 11 on the list. UM has only two: RB Duke Johnson (tied for 24th) and LB Denzel Perryman (t35th). FSU's 11 are QB Jameis Winston (1st overall), TE Nick O'Leary (28th), DE Mario Edwards (29th), OL Tre Jackson (t31st), WR Rashad Greene (t31st), OT Cameron Erving (33rd), CB P.J. Williams (t39th), DB Jalen Ramsey (t52nd), RB Karlos Williams (t59th), CB Ronald Darby (t76th) and K Roberto Agauyo (85th). For those wondering the Gators, like UM, place two on the list: CB Vernon Hargreaves (13th) and DL Dante Fowler (t43rd).
Canes hoops opens at Florida: Jim Larranaga's hardwood UM men will visit Gainesville Nov. 17 to face the Gators at 7 p.m. as part of ESPN's 24-hour College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon. It'll be teams' first meeting since March 2009. Nice exposure for the Canes, who were better than expected last season and have nine newcomers on this year's team.
STANTON SECOND IN NL MVP RACE: Surprisingly, at least to me, Marlin Giancarlo Stanton has second-best odds at 7-4 to win the NL MVP award, trailing only clear favorite Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers pitcher, at 4-7. Other favorites: AL MVP--Angels' Mike Trout at 2-5; NL Cy Young--Kershaw at 2-7; and AL Cy--Mariners' Felix Hernandez at 9-4. Stanton is third-fave at 10-1 to lead MLB in home runs, after White Sox's Jose Abreu at 4-7 and Orioles' Nelson Cruz at 2-1.
Poll result: Rice punishment too lenient: We asked about the two-game NFL suspension of Ravens RB Ray Rice for domestic violence and most of you, 68. 3 percent, called it too lenient. Another 19.2% thought it was about right, 6.7% were not sure, and only 5.8% called it too severe.
GAP'S CHOICE IN MODELS: Clothing store Gap -- is it just Gap, or is it The Gap? -- is under fire for using the too-skinny model pictured in one of its latest ads. Life is getting hard. It used to be that we just made fun of overweight people like myself. Now apparently we also ridicule people we deem as too thin. (I will admit the young woman pictured looks like a hiker who got lost in the mountains and has been rescued after six days alone eating only berries and wood bark. But why was she hiking in a Gap dress!?) I suppose making fun of thin folks is still somewhat more acceptable than making fun of the morbidly obese, in much the same way making fun of really tall people is less bad than needling the unusually short. Tough to know, though. It's getting to the point the unkind may require a guidebook.
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