Opinion: Steve Sarkisian Ringing In the Changes at USC

At first glance, it might seem as though the University of Southern California hasn’t moved out of the past.

A decade ago, in one of the greatest renaissance stories college football  has seen occurred in Los Angeles when an unlikely candidate was thrown the keys to the USC football empire – and what an empire the Trojans have amassed – and asked to bring an ailing program back to national prominence.

Pete Carroll, a head coach in the NFL with the Jets and Patriots, was a choice lampooned and criticised by many when it was announced, but history tells us that then-Athletic Director Mike Garrett made an inspired decision. Carroll’s youthful exuberance was exactly what the Trojans needed. He revitalised one of the nation’s most famous football brands, and it wasn’t long before USC were back at the top of the college football pile.

Between Carroll’s coaching and his ability to recruit insane amounts of talented players, USC became the go-to school for so many of the nation’s best and most promising high school stars: Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, Mark Sanchez, Clay Matthews, Brian Cushing, Marqise Lee and Rey Maualuga, to name just a few. In a city where there is no NFL franchise, the Men of Troy were rock stars, feted by all and sundry in Los Angeles as they delivered memorable beat-downs of traditional rivals UCLA and Notre Dame, and embarrassed other big-time programs like Ohio State at the Coliseum.

Yet, beginning in 2010 with the revelation of NCAA sanctions coming after the Reggie Bush scandal, Pete Carroll was out the door, headed to the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks where, I guess you could say, he’s done pretty well. In his place, back from Knoxville, Tennessee, was the controversial Lane Kiffin, one of the co-offensive coordinators at USC during Carroll’s tenure in SoCal.

It’s fair to say that Kiffin’s time – three full seasons, 2010-2012 and five games last year before being dismissed – was controversial. He managed to bring in some incredible talent, and there were patches of on-field brilliance, but the Trojans were underwhelming for the most part, running a system very similar to Carroll’s.

In Kiffin’s place came Ed Orgeron, who had been Carroll’s defensive line coach, and, you know, USC fans could’ve been forgiven for thinking that Pat Haden and the USC Athletic Department were stuck trying to relive the past, what with all these Carroll protégés following their master in the line at SC.

In that regard, it wasn’t a huge surprise to hear that Steve Sarkisian, the other half, with Kiffin, of the offensive brainchild that was key to so much of what Carroll’s Trojans did, had been brought in from Washington to replace Orgeron, who’d replaced Kiffin, who’d, in turn, replaced Carroll. See the pattern?

Well, sure, by name and reputation, Steve Sarkisian is another Carroll disciple, and it’s an easy narrative for those who want to find fault with USC’s hire – and, let’s face it, there are a lot of people who don’t mind piling on the Trojans when it suits them – but if you take a close look at what Coach Sark, as he’s now known around Los Angeles, is doing, you’ll see some not-so-subtle changes, which point to the expansion and development of Sarkisian’s own football philosophy.

Sark isn’t following anyone’s footsteps, not really, and nor is he scared to implement something new, even if it does raise the temporary ire of the USC fan base. Naturally, when a few wins go up on the board, that ire will die down.

For a start, gone is the pro-style offense that has been king with the Trojans ever since Pete Carroll’s first season. Sarkisian is instead installing a no-huddle spread offense that worked well in Washington, and with the upgrade of talent Sark has available to him in Los Angeles, you can only wonder at how potent the Trojans might be when they have the football.

Similarly, on defense, Sarkisian is making changes. A 4-3 defensive scheme that Carroll and Kiffin favoured is out the door. Instead, the 3-4 formation will be the base set for the Trojan defense that will be under the tutelage of Justin Wilcox, who, like his head coach, came from Washington.

It’s an interesting position for Sarkisian, who has come up against two elephants in the room in recent times, being the championship legacy that Carroll left behind in Los Angeles – a dynasty that many USC fans cling to after the uneven success under Lane Kiffin – and the one in Seattle, where Carroll took the Seahawks to the top of the NFL tree, winning February’s Super Bowl in convincing fashion over Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos.

Trying to emulate Carroll’s run at USC didn’t work at all for Lane Kiffin, and Sarkisian will likely be the beneficiary of that lesson – albeit one that’s come at a cost for his former co-offensive coordinator. But don’t weep for Kiffin, not too much, anyway, for he’s landed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and will run offense for Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide this season. If there’s one thing that’s undeniable about Kiffin (aside from being a hugely controversial figure, that is) it’s his ability to call offense.

One thing Sarkisian certainly won’t forget is the scholarship reductions and what they did to USC. Over the past four years, the entire length of Kiffin’s tenure, the Trojans forfeited thirty scholarships and were subjected to a two-year Bowl ban, not to mention ongoing probation as a result of the Reggie Bush/ Todd McNair incident under Carroll’s watch.

Last year, when USCS beat Fresno State 45-20 in the Las Vegas Bowl, they did it with forty-five scholarship players, which is forty-one fewer than the NCAA maximum. Where Carroll had a roster stacked with incredible talent, all on scholarships, Sarkisian has to work with restrictions, which makes it nigh on impossible for him to follow in the exact footsteps of his mentor.

I can’t help but think this is a positive. As much as Pete Carroll’s work on and off the field at USC will be remembered and celebrated for as long as Trojans play football, there is a need to move onward and upward. We saw via Kiffin’s spectacular implosion that a carbon copy of Carroll is not what’s needed. The game has changed. Pro style offenses are still prevalent, but the spread is now king – that or the run-and-gun scheme.

Sarkisian seems hell bent on doing things his way, remembering the past but not letting it control his football team’s future, and he should be applauded for that.

Opinion: International Exhibition Series Spreads Ice Hockey Gospel across Australia

This past weekend marked the fourth and fifth games in the 2014 International Ice Hockey Exhibition Series.

After two games in Perth at the 13,000-seat Perth Arena two weeks ago, another ‘house full’ game in Brisbane last weekend and back-to-back nights in Melbourne at Rod Laver Arena and Sydney’s Allphones Arena, it’s safe to say that the series, for a second consecutive year, was a giant success.

Say what you will about the style of play – being an exhibition and particularly one involving professional players from North America who have donated their time for this event, it was unlikely that there would ever be the sort of intensity you might find in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, and anyone who expected something other than the All Star-type game of minimal defense and maximum scoring and showmanship was at the wrong event.

Even say what you will about the way the series was promoted – the event Facebook page and website didn’t exactly claim that a full roster of NHL talent would tour Australia, though they didn’t exactly say that most of the players would be from the East Coast Hockey League, either.

My one complaint would be that fans paying NHL prices need to know beforehand that it won’t be an all-NHL line-up, but you have to understand the enormous costs of setting up rinks and the infrastructure for same, and that’s what influences the high ticket prices.

The fact remains that, despite the lineup, at five games across four different Australian cities, arenas were sold out and people were coming to watch hockey in huge numbers – numbers never seen in Australia before. And the crowds weren’t exclusively made up of just expat Canadians or Americans or the relatively small community of Australian hockey fans, but people who have never seen a game before.

We must face facts: despite the loose style of play and the rosters not being stacked with the Sidney Crosby’s and Patrick Kane’s of the hockey world, those players who did make the trek are easily the most talented to ever lace up and take the ice in Australia. NHL guys, AHL stars and even the hopefuls from the third-tier ECHL put on one hell of a show, even if it might not be at 100% with all the physical confrontation we’re used to seeing on TV.

Let’s face it, these players are out here for a charity series, and to sustain a major injury here would endanger their livelihood in North America. Pro hockey doesn’t exactly come with sustained job stability. That these players come out at all is fantastic, and spreading the message for StopConcussions.com is hugely important. After all, concussions are an ugly part of any contact sport, and the more money raised for research, the better.

However you look at it, there was some serous talent on the ice. The AHL is the second-best pro league in the world, and the ECHL would easily be in the top five. The players we saw on the ice over five games in Australia are guys who would, and you’ll pardon the pun, would skate rings around the amateur Australian Ice Hockey League players.

That’s not to say that the AIHL isn’t a solid league, because it is – their games are full of passion, but they aren’t playing to the giant arena-sized crowds that these North American pros have been throughout these exhibition series’ over the last two years. Crowd numbers don’t lie: the product works.

Sure, the fights are a little campy, and at times you saw players trying to keep the game close by not capitalising on a golden scoring opportunity, but the overall spectacle, complete with fireworks and confetti, goal songs and player introductions, gouts of flame and national anthems, is unrivalled. In fact, it was like being inside an NHL arena.

Most importantly, it was good fun, even for those of us who’ve seen dozens of NHL games. There’s nothing like that big-time American sporting experience, which was faithfully recreated in our own arenas – it’s a giant production and an exciting spectacle , not just a game – and there’s something so amazing about seeing tens of thousands of hockey fans wearing different NHL and international jerseys in Australia, packing out arenas to see this game we all love so much.

Does it bring fans to the AIHL games? Well, franchise owners are saying ‘yes’ – published reports say that ticket and merchandise sales are trending solidly upwards thanks to the exposure the AIHL gets at these games, particularly in Perth – and, if nothing else, these contests will at least encourage a few people to check out NHL games on FOX Sports or online.

You only need to scroll through the Facebook page the series set up and read some of the posts and comments from first-time fans who talk about how the entire night was excellent and how it’s, for some, the best sporting event they’ve ever been to. That’s high praise indeed.

Importantly, the promoters from the Douglas Webber Group, were sure to promote the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) wherever they could, including having one of the AIHL commentators working these games, and the logo was prominent on the rink signage and in the program.

One hopes that the NHL is paying attention. A combined crowd of more than sixty thousand Australians – including more than 20,000 on Saturday night at Allphones Arena in Sydney alone – came to arenas to watch an exhibition hockey game. Imagine what sort of crowds and demand there’d be if the League decided to copy Major League Baseball and bring a regular season contest down here.

In the meantime, the International Ice Hockey Series will be enough for those of us missing the buzz of big-time North American sport. Kudos to organisers and promoters, it was a great series.

If it happened to be your first ever experience of hockey, chances are, you’d probably go again.

Opinion: 5 College Football Programs In Need Of A Big 2014

Rejoice, football fans, because the 2014 NCAA College Football season just around the corner, it’s time to start looking at the long road to the new College Football Championship Game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

I’ll write plenty about the teams at the top of the tree, so I thought it would be interesting to start by shining the spotlight on five schools who, for one reason or another, need a positive, win-filled 2014 season.

5. Texas A&M University

Hey, remember when the Aggies announced that they were making the jump to the SEC? Remember how many  - many, I might add, with Texas Longhorn affiliations – swore blind that A&M had little to no chance of making an impact in a conference featuring national heavyweights Alabama, Louisiana State and Georgia?

Well, fast forward to the beginning of their third season of SEC battle, and you would be eating a serious amount of humble pie if you were one of those who believed that the Aggies would barely rise above perennial SEC easy-beats like Vanderbilt and Kentucky. In fact, if there’s been a more exciting team in the nation’s premiere conference, I’d like to know who.

Of course, a lot of what the Aggies did was thanks to their Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel, as freakish (and controversial) an athlete as has ever graced the college gridiron. Johnny Football was the only reason Texas A&M managed a 9-4 record last year, and he’s gone now, off to – potentially – be the saviour of the Cleveland Browns in the NFL, and Kevin Sumlin’s A&M squad is in an interesting position.

This might be a down year for the Aggies. In fact, I’m almost certain it will be, for the simple reason that they don’t have Manziel 2.0 in their backfield, but the reason I’ve got them as one of my teams who need a solid season is because there are going to be so many doubters and knockers guaranteeing anyone who’ll listen that the Aggies got lucky, and wouldn’t have achieved the success they did were it not for Manziel and the fleet of very talented skilled position players, led by the lightning-fast receiver, Mike Evans.

In part, that may be true, but Kevin Sumlin has a history of nurturing good quarterbacks, like he did with Case Keenum at Houston, and there are still a few good weapons left in the Aggies cupboard. Ricky Seals-Jones should at least help to fill the Texas-sized void that Evans will leave on the fringes of the field, but the real question mark for the Aggies is who comes in to replace Manziel.

Replacing Manziel? Yeah, I know, it’s not going to happen. You don’t replace an athlete with Johnny Football’s ability, not really, but someone is going to take his place under centre for the Aggies this fall, and reports out of camp suggest that sophomore Kenny Hill and true freshman Kyle Allen are neck-and-neck in competition for the starting gig.

Neither has been stood up or stood out yet. Sumlin and his coaches will doubtless be hoping that something changes – and quickly – on that front. Whomever wins the job will have to live without offensive tackle Jake Matthews, who followed Manziel and Evans to the NFL.

A sure way to compete in the SEC is, of course, by playing defense, and the Aggies did very little of that last year. And that might’ve been okay then, because Manziel was likely to score as many points as the porous A&M defense gave up. They were worst in the SEC, allowing 32.2 pints last year, and the dismissal from camp of two major defensive stars, sophomores Isaiah Golden and Darian Claiborne, is going to hurt the Aggies on that side of the football. Defense is definitely a work in progress.

Despite 13 returning starters, there’s so much uncertainty at quarterback and on defense, and I’m not sure that the Aggies will be able to match 2013’s 9-4 year. A rebuilding season in College Station, I think.

No. 4: University of Texas Longhorns


It has been said everywhere over and over that legendary Longhorns head coach Mack Brown wasn’t pushed out of a job at the end of last season. We heard every one from the cleaners of the Texas locker room to the president of the university, and they all said that Brown elected to call time on his illustrious career.

To tell the truth, I’m not sold. The fact that the Longhorns haven’t won a Big XII title since 2009 is a major reason why there’s been so much change in Austin over the summer. I mean, this is a league that the Longhorns used to dominate! More and more in recent years, they’ve been dominated.

Regardless of the reasons why, the move has been made and highly-touted ex-Louisville coach Charlie Strong comes into Austin to take over a Longhorns squad that hasn’t exactly been at the top of their game lately. Strong upset a lot of the Texas faithful at the recent Big XII media days, admitting that the Longhorns weren’t going to figure in the National Championship hunt this year.

That’s the truth, of course, and it’s nice to see that Strong – who was involved in Florida under Urban Meyer, winning two National Championships in Gainesville – isn’t going to shy away from telling the truth. After all, this is a football program that’s fallen short of 10 wins in the last four seasons.

Low expectations are probably best in Austin. Indeed, a lot of what Texas hopes to do will be dependent on the form and health of starting QB David Ash. Crazy to think that the ‘Horns haven’t had a really good, solid signal caller since Colt McCoy departed. Even if Ash is healthy, he’s nowhere near the elite quarterback Texas needs in a quarterback-happy league like the Big XII has become.

One saving grace offensively is the three-pronged running attack of Malcolm Brown, Johnathan Gray and Joe Bergeron, who were all impressive last year, and  figure to get lots of carries right from Texas’ opening game against in-state rivals (read: cupcakes) North Texas, particularly if Ash is having trouble finding form.

The Big XII schedule is tough enough, and Texas are also faced with Brigham Young and UCLA, two teams you would assume are going to have solid seasons. Obviously Texas don’t have to go out and win everything, but Strong would need to at least match Mack Brown’s 8-5 mark last year to settle the natives.

Of course, knowing how rabid the Longhorn fan base can be, Strong would want to hope his team can pull out more than ten wins this year.

No. 3: University of Washington Huskies


With Steve Sarkisian, the guy most responsible for bringing back respectability to Huskies football, off to his dream job at USC, the job of continuing the upward tick falls to Chris Petersen, formerly head coach at Boise State and one of the most likeable and honest people in college football.

After years of taking his own name out of the race for some very high-profile coaching vacancies, it’s actually quite a surprise that Petersen has decided to move on from the Idaho capital, where he oversaw one of the nation’s most productive teams. He was always vocal about not leaving the Pacific Northwest region – it’s not far from Washington to Idaho – so, in that regard, the Huskies are a nice fit.

You get the feeling that Petersen’s always yearned for a program in a tougher conference, and he’s certainly walked into that environment in Seattle, where expectations are higher than I daresay they’ve been in a decade or more. Washington has been right on the cusp of greatness, with beautiful new facilities to boot, are expecting big things from Petersen.

It remains to be seen whether Petersen can have the same recruiting impact he had at Boise State, where he unearthed, amongst others, a quarterback who was well undersize and, thus, overlooked by every other meaningful Division One school.  That guy, Washington native Kellen Moore, went on to become college football’s most successful quarterback. If Petersen can hit on a goldmine like that again, there’s no reason to see why Washington can’t jump into the upper echelon of the Pac-12.

Petersen’s team should open the season 4-0 – they have Hawaii, Eastern Washington, Illinois and Georgia State – before a tough test against conference yardsticks Stanford. Cal the week after is eminently winnable, but Oregon and Arizona the week after, plus UCLA and Oregon State in November, are going to be tough.

They close with the Apple Cup against Washington State. Easily, I figure six wins, but eight or nine isn't out of the question, either, not with Petersen and his innovative offense. 9-4 or 8-5 wouldn’t be too bad, given the coaching change during the off-season.

To really step up, they’re going to need to somehow find a win against one of the big three: Stanford, UCLA or Oregon. That won’t be easy, but if the Huskies play those teams close, it’ll be a pass-mark season for Petersen, and a good platform from which to build.

No. 2: University of Southern California (USC) Trojans

Out of the ashes of the Lane Kiffin debacle halfway through last season came a USC team with renewed energy, confidence and inspiration. All of that thanks to rough-as-nails interim head coach Ed Orgeron, who galvanised a locker room full of unhappiness under Kiffin, and helped the Trojans turn their season around. An impressive win against Stanford seemed as though it would allow Orgeron to keep what he called his dream job.

Alas, USC’s Athletic Director Pat Haden had different ideas, bringing back former offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, who had been at the University of Washington, and did wonders there, bringing a basket case of a program back into the national spotlight. It’s ironic that Sark replaces Kiffin, for they were co-offensive coordinators under Pete Carroll last decade. You know, when USC had the likes of Leinart and Sanchez under centre, directing an offense that racked up points like most of us rack up data charges on our mobile phone plan.

The Trojans, back then, were the benchmark for football programs, but despite Sarkisian’s encouraging steps in bringing Washington back to some semblance of competitiveness, it remains to be seen whether he can take that next step at USC, which, of course, means big wins against big opponents.

If nothing else, Kiffin’s apparent inability to produce wins on a consistent basis hasn’t hampered his recruiting. The guy could sell ice to an Inuit, and his gift of the gab, backed by the sheer fact that USC send as many players to the NFL as any other college program in the country, ensure that Sarkisian will start the year with a roster stacked with a near-ridiculous amount of blue-chip talent.

The Trojans showed under Orgeron (and then interim head coach Clay Helton during a decisive Las Vegas Bowl victory over Fresno State) that they’re capable of free-wheeling offense and solid defense. Helton remains with the Trojans as offensive coordinator, and Justin Wilcox, who was on Sarkisian’s staff in Washington, replaces Clancy Pendergast as defensive coordinator.

There’s enough starters coming back on both sides of the football, including QB Cody Kessler (who says his relationship with Sarkisian is so good that he almost committed to Washington instead of SC), emerging wide-out Nelson Agholor and similarly emerging tight end, Randall Telfer offensively and J.R. Tavai, Josh Shaw and Hayes Pullard on defense. Don’t sleep on WR George Farmer, who is apparently 100% fit and ready after being decimated by injuries of late.

Crucially, USC miss out on playing Oregon (and Washington) this year, but draw Stanford away, and meet UCLA on the road. Notre Dame comes into the Coliseum on the last weekend of the season.

It isn't out of the realms of possibility that the Trojans win ten games. I’d back them in – yeah, okay, I’m a Trojan fans and biased – in all of their games outside perhaps Stanford and UCLA, but that’s not to say that they can’t win those contests, either. Certainly, they have the talent.

Ten or eleven regular season wins and a Bowl victory would be a solid start for USC under Sarkisian, and would allow the immense Trojan fan base to take a deep, calming breath. 

No. 1: University of Florida Gators

Topping the list is one of the most disappointing teams in 2013 – both in terms of the talent they have access to in their backyard and their sustained run of success towards the back end of last decade – the ailing, reeling University of Florida Gators.

It’s not a stretch to say that once-heralded head coach Will Muschamp is on one of the hottest seats in college football entering 2014, and nor is it a stretch to remark on how far the University of Florida has fallen in such a short space of time. I mean, it’s not all that long ago that Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow (along with a very talented supporting cast on both sides of the football) were ruling the college football roost.

Since Tebow and Meyer departed, the Gators haven’t looked the same team. Last year, they were nothing short of woeful. Expected by their rabid fan base to be perennial contenders in the cutthroat South Eastern Conference, last year’s season was definitely an in-recent-memory low-point for the Gators.

They finished 4-8, including a thirty-point loss to in-state rivals (and eventual BCS National Champions) Florida State and a narrow defeat at the hands of Miami-FL. As if losing to their two major in-state rivals wasn’t bad enough, 2013 was also the first time the Gators missed out on a Bowl game since 1990.

In some ways, it’s a wonder that Muschamp, formerly the head coach in waiting at the University of Texas, is still in charge in Gainesville. What, with the school’s expectations and all. He should feel very lucky that he’s been given a chance to right the Gator ship. Many other schools would’ve shipped their coaches out the door quickly, and brought in a new guy to fix the damage.

Perhaps it’s because QB Jeff Driskel went down in the fourth game of the season, suffering a broken right fibula. It’s not easy to win in the SEC at the best of times, and almost impossible when you’re without your offensive lightning rod. Driskel is back this year, but it remains to be seen if he’s the elite quarterback Florida need to compete with the big guns of the conference. You know, the LSU’s and Alabama’s of this world.

One thing’s for certain, the Gators don’t have an easy schedule. Sure, they open up with three straight at home – Idaho, Eastern Michigan and Kentucky – and they all look like victories, but it’s road trips after that to Alabama and Tennessee before a home tilt against Louisiana State where things are likely to fall apart.  They get Missouri and South Carolina at home, Georgia at the usual neutral-site in Jacksonville, and finish the season on the road at Florida State.

Where do the wins come from? Well, I can see them maybe clawing their way to perhaps six victories: the first three games, then perhaps Vanderbilt, Eastern Kentucky and, if they’re lucky, Tennessee in Knoxville, too. You can pretty much pencil in Alabama, LSU and Florida State as definite losses. Maybe they get a seventh against Missouri or South Carolina, because, sometimes, the SEC gets tipped upside down, but there aren’t any guarantees.

Ultimately, though, Florida finishing 6-6 isn’t going to help Muschamp his job. Not even close.

Opinion: 5 College Football Programs In Need Of A Big 2014: #1 - Florida

Rejoice, football fans, because the 2014 NCAA College Football season just around the corner, it’s time to start looking at the long road to the new College Football Championship Game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

I’ll write plenty about the teams at the top of the tree, so I thought it would be interesting to start by shining the spotlight on five schools who, for one reason or another, need a positive, win-filled 2014 season.

Topping the list is one of the most disappointing teams in 2013 – both in terms of the talent they have access to in their backyard and their sustained run of success towards the back end of last decade – the ailing, reeling University of Florida Gators.

It’s not a stretch to say that once-heralded head coach Will Muschamp is on one of the hottest seats in college football entering 2014, and nor is it a stretch to remark on how far the University of Florida has fallen in such a short space of time. I mean, it’s not all that long ago that Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow (along with a very talented supporting cast on both sides of the football) were ruling the college football roost.

Since Tebow and Meyer departed, the Gators haven’t looked the same team. Last year, they were nothing short of woeful. Expected by their rabid fan base to be perennial contenders in the cutthroat South Eastern Conference, last year’s season was definitely an in-recent-memory low-point for the Gators.

They finished 4-8, including a thirty-point loss to in-state rivals (and eventual BCS National Champions) Florida State and a narrow defeat at the hands of Miami-FL. As if losing to their two major in-state rivals wasn’t bad enough, 2013 was also the first time the Gators missed out on a Bowl game since 1990.

In some ways, it’s a wonder that Muschamp, formerly the head coach in waiting at the University of Texas, is still in charge in Gainesville. What, with the school’s expectations and all. He should feel very lucky that he’s been given a chance to right the Gator ship. Many other schools would’ve shipped their coaches out the door quickly, and brought in a new guy to fix the damage.

Perhaps it’s because QB Jeff Driskel went down in the fourth game of the season, suffering a broken right fibula. It’s not easy to win in the SEC at the best of times, and almost impossible when you’re without your offensive lightning rod. Driskel is back this year, but it remains to be seen if he’s the elite quarterback Florida need to compete with the big guns of the conference. You know, the LSU’s and Alabama’s of this world.

One thing’s for certain, the Gators don’t have an easy schedule. Sure, they open up with three straight at home – Idaho, Eastern Michigan and Kentucky – and they all look like victories, but it’s road trips after that to Alabama and Tennessee before a home tilt against Louisiana State where things are likely to fall apart.  They get Missouri and South Carolina at home, Georgia at the usual neutral-site in Jacksonville, and finish the season on the road at Florida State.

Where do the wins come from? Well, I can see them maybe clawing their way to perhaps six victories: the first three games, then perhaps Vanderbilt, Eastern Kentucky and, if they’re lucky, Tennessee in Knoxville, too. You can pretty much pencil in Alabama, LSU and Florida State as definite losses. Maybe they get a seventh against Missouri or South Carolina, because, sometimes, the SEC gets tipped upside down, but there aren’t any guarantees.

Ultimately, though, Florida finishing 6-6 isn’t going to help Muschamp his job. Not even close.

Opinion: 5 College Football Programs In Need Of A Big 2014: #2 - USC

Rejoice, football fans, because the 2014 NCAA College Football season just around the corner, it’s time to start looking at the long road to the new College Football Championship Game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

I’ll write plenty about the teams at the top of the tree, so I thought it would be interesting to start by shining the spotlight on five schools who, for one reason or another, need a positive, win-filled 2014 season.

Ranked second is one of the premiere college football programs anywhere in the nation, and a lightning rod for controversy, the University of Southern California Trojans.

Out of the ashes of the Lane Kiffin debacle halfway through last season came a USC team with renewed energy, confidence and inspiration. All of that thanks to rough-as-nails interim head coach Ed Orgeron, who galvanised a locker room full of unhappiness under Kiffin, and helped the Trojans turn their season around. An impressive win against Stanford seemed as though it would allow Orgeron to keep what he called his dream job.

Alas, USC’s Athletic Director Pat Haden had different ideas, bringing back former offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, who had been at the University of Washington, and did wonders there, bringing a basket case of a program back into the national spotlight. It’s ironic that Sark replaces Kiffin, for they were co-offensive coordinators under Pete Carroll last decade. You know, when USC had the likes of Leinart and Sanchez under centre, directing an offense that racked up points like most of us rack up data charges on our mobile phone plan.

The Trojans, back then, were the benchmark for football programs, but despite Sarkisian’s encouraging steps in bringing Washington back to some semblance of competitiveness, it remains to be seen whether he can take that next step at USC, which, of course, means big wins against big opponents.

If nothing else, Kiffin’s apparent inability to produce wins on a consistent basis hasn’t hampered his recruiting. The guy could sell ice to an Inuit, and his gift of the gab, backed by the sheer fact that USC send as many players to the NFL as any other college program in the country, ensure that Sarkisian will start the year with a roster stacked with a near-ridiculous amount of blue-chip talent.

The Trojans showed under Orgeron (and then interim head coach Clay Helton during a decisive Las Vegas Bowl victory over Fresno State) that they’re capable of free-wheeling offense and solid defense. Helton remains with the Trojans as offensive coordinator, and Justin Wilcox, who was on Sarkisian’s staff in Washington, replaces Clancy Pendergast as defensive coordinator.

There’s enough starters coming back on both sides of the football, including QB Cody Kessler (who says his relationship with Sarkisian is so good that he almost committed to Washington instead of SC), emerging wide-out Nelson Agholor and similarly emerging tight end, Randall Telfer offensively and J.R. Tavai, Josh Shaw and Hayes Pullard on defense. Don’t sleep on WR George Farmer, who is apparently 100% fit and ready after being decimated by injuries of late.

Crucially, USC miss out on playing Oregon (and Washington) this year, but draw Stanford away, and meet UCLA on the road. Notre Dame comes into the Coliseum on the last weekend of the season.

It isn't out of the realms of possibility that the Trojans win ten games. I’d back them in – yeah, okay, I’m a Trojan fans and biased – in all of their games outside perhaps Stanford and UCLA, but that’s not to say that they can’t win those contests, either. Certainly, they have the talent.

Ten or eleven regular season wins and a Bowl victory would be a solid start for USC under Sarkisian, and would allow the immense Trojan fan base to take a deep, calming breath.

Opinion: 5 College Football Programs In Need Of A Big 2014: #3 - Washington

Rejoice, football fans, because the 2014 NCAA College Football season just around the corner, it’s time to start looking at the long road to the new College Football Championship Game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

I’ll write plenty about the teams at the top of the tree, so I thought it would be interesting to start by shining the spotlight on five schools who, for one reason or another, need a positive, win-filled 2014 season.

Coming in third is an improving squad in the Pac-12, who need to take that next step in a tough conference, the University of Washington Huskies:

With Steve Sarkisian, the guy most responsible for bringing back respectability to Huskies football, off to his dream job at USC, the job of continuing the upward tick falls to Chris Petersen, formerly head coach at Boise State and one of the most likeable and honest people in college football.

After years of taking his own name out of the race for some very high-profile coaching vacancies, it’s actually quite a surprise that Petersen has decided to move on from the Idaho capital, where he oversaw one of the nation’s most productive teams. He was always vocal about not leaving the Pacific Northwest region – it’s not far from Washington to Idaho – so, in that regard, the Huskies are a nice fit.

You get the feeling that Petersen’s always yearned for a program in a tougher conference, and he’s certainly walked into that environment in Seattle, where expectations are higher than I daresay they’ve been in a decade or more. Washington has been right on the cusp of greatness, with beautiful new facilities to boot, are expecting big things from Petersen.

It remains to be seen whether Petersen can have the same recruiting impact he had at Boise State, where he unearthed, amongst others, a quarterback who was well undersize and, thus, overlooked by every other meaningful Division One school.  That guy, Washington native Kellen Moore, went on to become college football’s most successful quarterback. If Petersen can hit on a goldmine like that again, there’s no reason to see why Washington can’t jump into the upper echelon of the Pac-12.

Petersen’s team should open the season 4-0 – they have Hawaii, Eastern Washington, Illinois and Georgia State – before a tough test against conference yardsticks Stanford. Cal the week after is eminently winnable, but Oregon and Arizona the week after, plus UCLA and Oregon State in November, are going to be tough.

They close with the Apple Cup against Washington State. Easily, I figure six wins, but eight or nine isn't out of the question, either, not with Petersen and his innovative offense. 9-4 or 8-5 wouldn’t be too bad, given the coaching change during the off-season.

To really step up, they’re going to need to somehow find a win against one of the big three: Stanford, UCLA or Oregon. That won’t be easy, but if the Huskies play those teams close, it’ll be a [pass-mark season for Petersen, and a good platform from which to build.

Opinion: 5 College Football Programs In Need Of A Big 2014: #4 - Texas

Rejoice, football fans, because the 2014 NCAA College Football season just around the corner, it’s time to start looking at the long road to the new College Football Championship Game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
I’ll write plenty about the teams at the top of the tree, so I thought it would be interesting to start by shining the spotlight on five schools who, for one reason or another, need a positive, win-filled 2014 season.

Sitting at #4 is the University of Texas.

It has been said everywhere over and over that legendary Longhorns head coach Mack Brown wasn’t pushed out of a job at the end of last season. We heard every one from the cleaners of the Texas locker room to the president of the university, and they all said that Brown elected to call time on his illustrious career.

To tell the truth, I’m not sold. The fact that the Longhorns haven’t won a Big XII title since 2009 is a major reason why there’s been so much change in Austin over the summer. I mean, this is a league that the Longhorns used to dominate! More and more in recent years, they’ve been dominated.

Regardless of the reasons why, the move has been made and highly-touted ex-Louisville coach Charlie Strong comes into Austin to take over a Longhorns squad that hasn’t exactly been at the top of their game lately. Strong upset a lot of the Texas faithful at the recent Big XII media days, admitting that the Longhorns weren’t going to figure in the National Championship hunt this year.

That’s the truth, of course, and it’s nice to see that Strong – who was involved in Florida under Urban Meyer, winning two National Championships in Gainesville – isn’t going to shy away from telling the truth. After all, this is a football program that’s fallen short of 10 wins in the last four seasons.

Low expectations are probably best in Austin. Indeed, a lot of what Texas hopes to do will be dependent on the form and health of starting QB David Ash. Crazy to think that the ‘Horns haven’t had a really good, solid signal caller since Colt McCoy departed. Even if Ash is healthy, he’s nowhere near the elite quarterback Texas needs in a quarterback-happy league like the Big XII has become.

One saving grace offensively is the three-pronged running attack of Malcolm Brown, Johnathan Gray and Joe Bergeron, who were all impressive last year, and  figure to get lots of carries right from Texas’ opening game against in-state rivals (read: cupcakes) North Texas, particularly if Ash is having trouble finding form.

The Big XII schedule is tough enough, and Texas are also faced with Brigham Young and UCLA, two teams you would assume are going to have solid seasons. Obviously Texas don’t have to go out and win everything, but Strong would need to at least match Mack Brown’s 8-5 mark last year to settle the natives.

Of course, knowing how rabid the Longhorn fan base can be, Strong would want to hope his team can pull out more than ten wins this year.

Opinion: 5 College Football Programs In Need Of A Big 2014: #5 - Texas A&M

Rejoice, football fans, because the 2014 NCAA College Football season just around the corner, it’s time to start looking at the long road to the new College Football Championship Game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

I’ll write plenty about the teams at the top of the tree, so I thought it would be interesting to start by shining the spotlight on five schools who, for one reason or another, need a positive, win-filled 2014 season.

Coming in at #5 is Texas A&M. Hey, remember when the Aggies announced that they were making the jump to the SEC? Remember how many  - many, I might add, with Texas Longhorn affiliations – swore blind that A&M had little to no chance of making an impact in a conference featuring national heavyweights Alabama, Louisiana State and Georgia?

Well, fast forward to the beginning of their third season of SEC battle, and you would be eating a serious amount of humble pie if you were one of those who believed that the Aggies would barely rise above perennial SEC easy-beats like Vanderbilt and Kentucky. In fact, if there’s been a more exciting team in the nation’s premiere conference, I’d like to know who.

Of course, a lot of what the Aggies did was thanks to their Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel, as freakish (and controversial) an athlete as has ever graced the college gridiron. Johnny Football was the only reason Texas A&M managed a 9-4 record last year, and he’s gone now, off to – potentially – be the saviour of the Cleveland Browns in the NFL, and Kevin Sumlin’s A&M squad is in an interesting position.

This might be a down year for the Aggies. In fact, I’m almost certain it will be, for the simple reason that they don’t have Manziel 2.0 in their backfield, but the reason I’ve got them as one of my teams who need a solid season is because there are going to be so many doubters and knockers guaranteeing anyone who’ll listen that the Aggies got lucky, and wouldn’t have achieved the success they did were it not for Manziel and the fleet of very talented skilled position players, led by the lightning-fast receiver, Mike Evans.

In part, that may be true, but Kevin Sumlin has a history of nurturing good quarterbacks, like he did with Case Keenum at Houston, and there are still a few good weapons left in the Aggies cupboard. Ricky Seals-Jones should at least help to fill the Texas-sized void that Evans will leave on the fringes of the field, but the real question mark for the Aggies is who comes in to replace Manziel.

Replacing Manziel? Yeah, I know, it’s not going to happen. You don’t replace an athlete with Johnny Football’s ability, not really, but someone is going to take his place under centre for the Aggies this fall, and reports out of camp suggest that sophomore Kenny Hill and true freshman Kyle Allen are neck-and-neck in competition for the starting gig.

Neither has been stood up or stood out yet. Sumlin and his coaches will doubtless be hoping that something changes – and quickly – on that front. Whomever wins the job will have to live without offensive tackle Jake Matthews, who followed Manziel and Evans to the NFL.

A sure way to compete in the SEC is, of course, by playing defense, and the Aggies did very little of that last year. And that might’ve been okay then, because Manziel was likely to score as many points as the porous A&M defense gave up. They were worst in the SEC, allowing 32.2 pints last year, and the dismissal from camp of two major defensive stars, sophomores Isaiah Golden and Darian Claiborne, is going to hurt the Aggies on that side of the football. Defense is definitely a work in progress.

Despite 13 returning starters, there’s so much uncertainty at quarterback and on defense, and I’m not sure that the Aggies will be able to match 2013’s 9-4 year. A rebuilding season in College Station, I think.

Opinion: How to Improve the IndyCar Series

As much as I love the IndyCar Series, I’m a realist. I know the series is struggling to break into the mainstream consciousness in America, and is so far behind NASCAR that the open wheel series will probably never get back to the popularity it garnered in the mid-1990’s when Formula One champ Nigel Mansell came over to run CART for Newman-Haas.

The 2014 season is down to it’s final month, and we’re already looking ahead to 2015. With that in mind, here are some changes that I’d like to see be implemented by the IndyCar Series hierarchy in time for next season – or, maybe, 2016:

Move Milwaukee back to it’s traditional date: I have some friends in the Midwest who fondly remember watching the Indianapolis 500 on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and venturing north to the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin the very next weekend to watch the same drivers who raced at Indy race at the 1-mile bullring oval at the Wisconsin State Fair Park.

For years and years, until – and after – the CART/Indy Racing League split, the schedule was the same. Indy on the last weekend in May, and Milwaukee the weekend following. In recent years, that tradition has fallen by the wayside. Some years, the high-banked Texas Motor Speedway followed the 500, and, more recently, it’s been the Detroit Belle Isle double-header. A great race, yeah, but one without Milwaukee’s history.

IndyCar has already changed and lost so much tradition in recent years, going away from traditional venues – Road America and Laguna Seca, to name just two – in favour of more street races in giant population centres, and that’s short-changing long-time fans.

Perhaps more than any other venue, Milwaukee deserves it’s traditional date back. The IndyCar Series races on the Mile in July this year, and although the event has gained some traction in the Midwest, it’s nothing compared to how big it was back in the old days. Who knows? Moving the Milwaukee Mile race back to the weekend after Indy could be the beginning of the rebirth of one of IndyCar’s most important events.

Most oval races should be one-day shows: This is a no-brainer. I mean, it’s hard enough to get people to come and watch qualifying at Indianapolis every May, and there are more track employees than fans in attendance for qualifying at other oval tracks that the IndyCar Series visits.

The best way to ensure that race-day attendance bumps up is to have the IndyCar Series completely take over the day. Taking Saturday night’s race on the lightning fast Iowa oval for instance. Here’s how I’d do it: have practice sessions in the morning, qualifying in the afternoon, and maybe an Indy Lights race before the IndyCar race rolls off sometime around eight o’clock. That way, fans are guaranteed of a full day of racing activity. We get our money’s worth.

Fix the empty track: This is a giant problem for oval races. You go to, say, the Grand Prix of Long Beach and there’s always something going on: sports car races, three or four feeder series’, the celebrity race, other on-track entertainment like stunt bike riders and even concerts. Your race ticket is entry to more than just a race, but to a giant event.

Oval race weekends are the exact opposite. There’s so much dead time in between IndyCar and Indy Lights events that I’m not surprised fans don’t turn out – Iowa, for example, was less than half full this year, when it had been so popular in recent years that the track had to erect temporary grandstand seating.

Why buy a ticket to watch nothing for two or three hours between track sessions when you can sit at home and see the race on TV, saving some money in the process. Cram race day/race weekend with so much activity that us fans just don’t know where to look. Why can’t the Long Beach-type model that I referenced above be applied to ovals? Why do only street races seem to be able to promote that carnival-like atmosphere?

If nothing else, IndyCar officials should look to schedule as many companion dates with the Tudor Sports Car Series as possible. The sports car/IndyCar double header has worked well in recent years with the ALMS and Grand-Am, but with the advent of the united North American sports car series, there’s no better time to make this happen. There’s obviously crossover appeal, and regular double bills will only help both series’.

Bring back some fan favourites: Laguna Seca, the Michigan oval, Watkins Glen, Portland, Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport circuit and, more recently, the airport track in Edmonton, were big hits with IndyCar fans, and many of those venues are dotted across the American Midwest, which has always been the heartland for IndyCar fans.

If IndyCar officials wonder why fans are turning away, they only need to look at the lack of these fan-favourites on the current schedule. Fans are the lifeblood of any sport, and, frankly, IndyCar doesn’t have enough left to be able to get away with things like removing Cleveland other events. Bring back as many of our favourite old venues as posible, and you’ll see fans come back, too.
And, speaking of bringing events back…

Road America has to be on the schedule ASAP: A non-negotiable! Road America is 4 miles of racing heaven, snaking through the Wisconsin forests near the sleepy town of Elkhart Lake, and IndyCar needs to be there, not just for tradition’s sake, but because it’s a damn fine circuit that always provides good racing, and because it’s a favourite with both drivers and fans.

I speak for all IndyCar fans when I say it sucks the big one to see NASCAR’s Nationwide Series racing there when IndyCar doesn’t. A Tudor Sports Car Series doubleheader would be amazing. Come on, IndyCar, do the right thing. Road America is part of the rich fabric of IndyCar racing. Not having it on the schedule is just about a crime!

Gallery: My American Flag Photos

There aren't many more distinctive flags than Old Glory, and as I was sifting through a bunch of photos, I realised how many I had of the stars and stripes, from all over the United States of America. Here are some of my favourites:

Base of the Washington Monument (Washington, D.C.)

The Washington Monument (Washington, D.C.)

Liberty Island (New York City, NY)

Brooklyn Bridge (New York City, NY)

Empire State Building (New York City, NY)

Liberty Island & the Jersey Shore (New York City, NY)

Idaho State Capital (Boise, ID)

World Trade Centre PATH Station (New York City, NY)

Album Review: 10,000 Towns - Eli Young Band

Artist: Eli Young Band
Release Date: March 2014
Label: Republic Nashville
Producer: Eli Young Band, Frank Liddell & Justin Niebank

Kitch's Rating: 9/10 

I had the pleasure of seeing EYB in support of Toby Keith's Hammer Down Under tour back in March. It was a roaring show, complete with a great Lynryd Skynyrd cover. They'd come across to Australia for the CMC Rocks festival in the Hunter Valley hot on the heels of releasing 10,000 Towns, their third (and by far their most popular) major label release after years toiling in the Texas Red Dirt scene, which debuted at #1 on the Country Billboard Album charts, just as the lead single from the album, "Drunk Last Night" did, gaining top spot on the US Country Airplay charts (and #41 on the mainstream charts).

  

Not a bad start for an album that's chock-full of great songs, and will almost certainly catapult them into the stratosphere of Nashville super-stardom. Right from the top, the Texas-bred Eli Young Band roar into top form with 'Drunk Last Night' then the awesome title track and 'Dust', the three best songs on the album, in my opinion, leading off from the top. Halfway through '10,000 Towns' I was way hooked.

Country is at it's best when it's reminiscing about days gone by or memorialising life in that fabled Small Town USA, and '10,000 Towns' does that perfectly, with Mike Eli's soaring vocals and a great guitar solo. It's very easy on the ears, eloquently described, though perhaps a little cliched at times, but the key thing to remember here is - and the same goes for most country singers - this isn't just lip service, like it often can be in other genres. 

These guys have lived that life, coming from two-light towns in the middle of the south-western nowhere in the Lone Star state to Nashville, and all the fame that comes along with success. You really believe that they're singing about what they lived, their struggles, hopes and dreams. 
 
Honesty (and catchy tunes) is what makes this album great. There wasn't one track that I didn't love. 

The Eli Young Band are going places.

Buddy Stars As Swans Notch 12 Straight Wins

This wasn’t how it was supposed to be going.

There were a few of us taking nervous sips at our beer during the chilly half-time break on Saturday night at the SCG, the nagging feeling that, perhaps, the Swans expected twelfth straight win wasn’t going to materialise.

Carlton, rank underdogs, with finals beyond them and mired in a disappointing season by anyone’s reckoning, were expected to be the sacrificial lambs, but someone obviously forgot to give them those instructions. Instead, Michael Malthouse’s men came out with endeavour, taking the game up to the Swans for all of the first half, and dominating for impressive stretches. A goal after the siren to end the half cut the Sydney lead to seven points: a gap that, on the form they displayed in the second term, was a very surmountable one for the surprising Blues.

Sitting there at half time, looking at the scoreboard, I – and, very few others – could have imagined what might come next. Like a hurricane spooling up across the plains of the American south, a similarly unstoppable force of nature was uncorked, and thirty scintillating minutes of football later, the Swans had padded their lead by ten goals.

That unstoppable force goes by the name Lance Franklin, and on Saturday night, when Buddy got up and going, there was no warning. Absolutely no warning. This was a sneak attack combined with a blitzkrieg, and it was scarcely believable, even to those of us who sat there and blinked, worried that perhaps this was a dream, as Franklin led the Swans to an impossibly perfect quarter of football: ten goals to Carlton’s one behind. And suddenly, Sydney’s bid for twelve straight was back on track.

Where the Swans had been wasteful, indirect and often lacking in basic football skills in the (admittedly greasy) first half conditions, they were ruthless, fast, smart and played a scintillating brand of damaging running football, precision and panache, one way traffic through the middle of the park, Carlton, like so many teams before, hapless, unable to stop the rot.

And what a rot. Franklin had been quiet, defended out of the game in the first half, but the second was a completely different story. As one of my friends said, it’s like Swans coach John Longmire has a button he can press to bring Buddy online. Well, he must’ve given it an almighty whack at half-time, and Franklin, the new face of AFL footy in Sydney, responded, as he has done so many times before, with the Swans and at Hawthorn, in kind.

If you were in attendance at the SCG last night, it was a quarter of football that you won’t soon forget it. If this was your first AFL game – and, for four of my friends last night, it was – it’s gotta be a giant hook, a command performance that’ll have recent converts coming back again and again. It’s no surprise that crowds are up.

Another attendance of nearly 35,000 is proof positive that, more than ever before, Sydneysiders are getting out to the footy in force. Even the Swans premiership years of 2005 and 2012 didn’t inspire quite as much red-and-white fervour.

I’d go so far as to say that we haven’t seen AFL obsession in this city since the days of Tony Lockett. You can draw similarities between Plugger and Buddy, both in the way they have really put AFL on the map here in Sydney, and in the way they could, with great ease, rip a game apart.

Buddy did that Saturday night, in the fierce, take-no-prisoners manner that we’ve become used to seeing. The third quarter was a master class, helped by a midfield engine that purred like a Ferrari. And then there was Buddy, taking full advantage. The man could do no wrong, whether that meant bombing balls through the big sticks from sixty meters away, or converting speculative chances on the run from a tight angle, every touch sending the crowd into delirious rapture.

It was the Port Adelaide game all over again, but arguably more devastating. The entire field opened up, and Franklin, beardless for the first time in a long time, dominated – with great support from Sam Reid, the ever improving and oft-forgotten fourth member of the Swans ‘Fab Four’ up forward – in a way that we have come to expect from #23, but, still, are struck dumb when it happens.

Franklin’s aerial game has improved leaps and bounds, as has his ability to do the important things when he doesn’t have the footy in hand: chasing, tackling, defensive pressure. It’s a hallmark of the Swans and their all-in, all-the-time culture, and obviously it’s rubbed off on their prized recruit. Of course, in that third quarter, it was a rare occasion when Buddy wasn’t in control of the Sherrin.

When it was all said and done, the Swans romped to a victory of nearly twelve goals, leapt into the history books – a twelve-goal win for twelve straight wins has a nice ring to it – and Franklin ended with 6.2, and could’ve easily had eight or nine, including a near-gimme that he handpassed off to rookie Dean Towers, who, unfortunately sprayed it wide in front of the sticks.

Crucially, the Swans, a game ahead atop the AFL Premiership ladder, have a bye week to get stars Dan Hannebery, Kurt Tippett and Rhyce Shaw back ahead of a giant clash against Hawthorn. Alistair Clarkson’s backline is undermanned, and with Tippett likely returning to join the established triple threat of Franklin, Reid and Goodes, surely there are alarm bells ringing down at Glenferrie Oval.

And in other places around the AFL.

Juan Pablo Montoya Caps IndyCar Comeback with Pocono 500 Win

The middle round of Verizon IndyCar Series’ 500-mile Triple Crown, which also included May’s Indianapolis 500 and will be completed on the last weekend of August at Auto Club Speedway in California, will be remembered in the annals of IndyCar history for two reasons.

Sunday’s Pocono IndyCar 500 was the fastest 500-mile open wheel race in history, with a frenetic average speed of 325.73kmh (202.402mph), besting the previous best, a 500-mile event at Auto Club Speedway for the CART World Series, in which current IndyCar team owner Jimmy Vasser won, notching an average speed of 197.995 mph.

Yet, the real story in Pocono was the winner: thirteen years, 9 months and 20 days after his last Indy car victory, coming at Gateway International Raceway near St Louis, Juan Pablo Montoya drove his Team Penske Chevrolet/Dallara into Victory Lane, becoming just the third IndyCar driver since 1909 to have gone more than ten years between wins.

During those intervening years, of course, Montoya found success in Formula One with Williams-BMW and spent years with his old IndyCar/CART boss Chip Ganassi Racing running in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, though JPM was never quite able to match his open wheel success in the much heavier stock cars, where even races on the same tracks as IndyCar events are a completely different animal.

Released from his Ganassi NASCAR contract, Montoya surprised more than a few people by signing with Roger Penske, completing a full circle movement that brought him back to the series where he really made his name.

The 1999 CART FedEx Series champion also wiped the floor with the Indy Racing League regulars at the 2000 Indianapolis 500, leading 167 of the 200 laps run, giving Chip Ganassi his first win at the Speedway, which was the icing on the cake for Montoya, who was driving a Williams-BMW a year later, where he scored his maiden Formula One win at the Italian Grand Prix in September.

Now, Montoya is back in the series – or, at least the current version of the open wheel series he left behind – where he made his name, and he’s been threatening ever since Indianapolis, finishing fifth, but wrecking any chance he had of a win by committing a pit lane speeding penalty late in the going. Even so, it was a solid recovery, and a finish that sent a message to the rest of the field: JPM was back.

Since the Brickyard, there’s scarcely been a race where Montoya hasn’t been a factor, and with every race, a little more rust was knocked off. It A win was only ever a matter of time – and now the waiting is over. The promise of finishes of third, second and seventh in the previous three races before Pocono was rammed home with a dominant display on the 2.5-mile triangle, Montoya’s first major victory since winning at the Watkins Glen road course in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series back in 2010.

Starting from the pole, JPM led 45 laps and took over the lead for good with three to go, leading home his Team Penske compatriot, Helio Castroneves, and becoming the first pole sitter to win an IndyCar race in 2014. The third driver in the Team Penske arsenal, Australian Will Power, might’ve been the one standing in Victory Lane after the speedy 500 miles, during which there was just one caution flag thrown, but a call of blocking on Castroneves was levied against the IndyCar points leader, dropping him to a disappointing tenth.

That was the only disappoint for Team Penske on a day that underscored the faith Roger Penske, as shrewd a team owner as there is in motorsports, put in the thirty-eight-year-old Colombian. Let’s face it, as much as Penske (AKA The Captain) loves a good, promotable story, he loves winning more, and there’s no doubt in my mind that if he didn’t see Montoya winning races in his IndyCar comeback as a serious possibility, there’s no way JPM ever got the seat.

See, that’s the Captain for you. Roger Penske definitely doesn’t do things by half, and he’s always about winning. He believed in Montoya, and the faith has been repaid.

You get the feeling that, with the combination of Penske equipment and Montoya’s rediscovered speed, this won’t be the last time we see that #2 car driving into Victory Lane. The sky’s the limit for Montoya now. With a season under his belt to learn a heap of new tracks, there’s no reason to think that he won’t be a championship contender in 2015.

This year’s championship, however, is incredibly tight. Courtesy of his runner-up finish and Power’s tenth place run, Castroneves and Power are now tied on 446 points, with Frenchman Simon Pagenaud in third, forty-four points behind, and most certainly in striking distance of the Penske duo, especially with the speed Pagenaud’s shown on road and street courses.

For Power, the wheels have come off the wagon, with disappointing results at both Houston races after solid runs in Texas and at Detroit. He needs to rediscover that mojo, the one that gave him a huge jump-start on the field, and stave off Castroneves, the three-time Indianapolis 500 winner who is looking for his first IndyCar Series championship. Helio might just be the favourite now.

A chance for redemption for Power and for everyone else in the Verizon IndyCar Series comes in six days’ time, a night race at the tiny and fast Iowa Speedway, as the tough summer stretch continues.

The weather’s as hot as the racing, and there’s an intriguing run to the late-August season finale ahead.