Friday, February 14, 2020

The WWE Is Ruining... Kairi Sane

Is Kairi Sane the least important champion in the WWE? The women’s tag titles, which had tremendous potential, have turned into an afterthought at best, and at Royal Rumble, she was nothing more than a sideshow for her partner’s challenge for a title that actually matters.

I mean, there are so many ways to make Kairi Sane important. They could actually feature the women’s tag division, because between the two brands, they have plenty of tag talent to keep it interesting.

And if that’s not an option, Kairi Sane can still be a viable singles star. I mean, why keep trying to make Lacey Evans a thing when she’s green as gooseshit when you could have Kairi Sane out there dropping elbows that would make the Macho Man proud. And it’s not like you need to give her promo time, she’s a goddamned PIRATE PRINCESS! That alone should make her a star.

I don’t know, I guess my grand solution for Kairi Sane is let her wrestle in important matches because she’s awesome. It really is that simple.

Other Wrestlers WWE Is Ruining
Aiden English
AJ Styles
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Thursday, February 13, 2020

XFAlpha Podcast Notes - Episode 16

Football is finally here, and the first week of the XFL delivered. My notes are below, but there are plenty more that Jonah and I get into the episode so download, subscribe, and give us a 5-star review if you have the extra three seconds.
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Email: xfalphapod@gmail.com 
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Vipers vs. Guardians
Matt McGloin was serviceable
The defense dominated - Ben Heeney all over the place

Marc Trestman kicking a 23-yard field goal down 17 (Note: I actually messed up on how bad this was, because 17 points is still a two-score game because you can go for 3, so it’s actually even worse than I mentioned on the podcast)
Aaron Murray sucks
FREE QUINTON FLOWERS

Dragons vs. Defenders
I think Seattle is going to struggle with Silvers at quarterback
I know everybody was freaking out about Proehl but only 5 catches on 10 targets.
Will Sutton half a sack and QB hit, is he BACK?

Cardale is DA GAWD
Bradley Sylve got a pick, a guy we were both high on coming into this.

Battlehawks vs. Renegades
Battlehawks defense is for real
I really like Demornay Pierson-El
Ta’amu is more legs than arm

Hal Mumme’s offense concerns me.
Philip Nelson is the least exciting quarterback in the league
Flynn Nagel is their scrappy wide receiver

Roughnecks vs. Wildcats
LaTroy Lewis with two sacks
PJ Walker - MVP? - I’d slow down a bit on that talk
James Butler, Iowa boy, two touchdowns and a big return (after muffing it)
Sammie Coates - two catches on nine targets

Shawn Oakman got a sack.
Nelson Spruce is probably the early favorite for offensive player of the year.

1-3, only the Defenders
My picks: Defenders over Guardians
Vipers over Dragons
Renegades over Wildcats

Roughnecks over Battlehawks
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Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Justin Herbert - 2020 NFL Draft Scouting Report

Justin Herbert, widely considered the third best quarterback in this draft is permanently right on the verge of breaking out. He was ready to break out after his sophomore season, and then he put up a pedestrian junior year. Still, he was big and had a strong arm so he was likely a first round pick, but he came back to school in order to have his big college breakout. And it paid off as Oregon won the Rose Bowl on the strength of their...defense. Herbert still didn't break out.

But then he went to the senior bowl, and against simplistic coverages and a total lack of defensive creativity, Herbert had his big breakout and became the Senior Bowl MVP. As great as that accomplishment is, I decided to watch real football games instead of an exhibition in order to make my evaluation. I watched his games against Auburn, Washington, and Utah. 


For the most part, I thought Herbert had good patience in the pocket. He also seemed to have a good feel for pressure as in the games I saw, he never seemed surprised by pressure.

Here, he takes his time, looks to the middle, then glances to the left before throwing right and hitting his receiver coming over to the ball.

He's also a guy that, despite being a big guy, can easily throw on the move.

Here, Oregon basically runs a double screen where it is more of a decoy on the left side, and then Herbert shifts his body and throws to the slot receiver on the right for nearly a 15-yard gain.

The easiest thing to enjoy about Herbert is he has very easy velocity on his throws.

Here, he does a nice job of scanning the field and getting the ball to his receiver between two defenders.

Here's another one where he shows very impressive arm strength while under heavy pressure.

Even though he's about to take a hit, he still steps through and delivers a nice ball.

Usually, he shows good mobility, but he did consistently struggle to make plays off schedule.

This is a super weird play as the inside receiver gets held up, so there are two receivers about five feet from each other.

On the following play, poor mechanics leads to an ugly throw.

Despite good blocking around him, he leans way back and doesn't get his legs underneath hi on the throw which leads to him sailing the pass beyond his receiver's grasp.

Here are back-to-back bad throws in the red zone.
Now, the first play, the right tackle gets badly beaten, but even before Herbert had any way of knowing that, he had already dropped eleven yards behind the line of scrimmage which makes things exponentially harder with the shortened field. He has to just throw it up and hope a miracle happens. The second play is just a bad throw behind the wide receiver in double coverage, and he's lucky neither of these was intercepted.

Here is my least favorite completion from Herbert.

3rd and 14 when a first down ices the game, and he throws it seven yards short. I don't know if it was scheme or what, but I just didn't see Herbert pushing the ball down the field. He has plenty of arm strength to do it, but the confidence didn't seem there to actually pull the trigger.

Here is his worst incompletion

Throwing a hail mary eight yards out of the end zone is inexcusable, especially since he was only throwing it from 39 yards away. He could have thrown it anywhere from 39-49 yards. Instead, he threw it 57. That is incredibly bad.

I feel like Herbert is a mixed bag. He has a good arm, he throws some accurate balls, and is athletic. But he does struggle making throws off schedule as he isn't always the best decision maker when his first read isn't there. My biggest issue is that I was just never wowed by him through three games. There were impressive plays here and there, but I was left edging when all I wanted to do was climax. Maybe that was because of how impressed I was with Tua, and I had to watch Herbert after that evaluation. Still, I'm left with a feeling that this guy's ceiling is a middle-of-the-pack quarterback, and reaching a ceiling is never guaranteed. I could see him being a late first rounder, but when it comes to quarterbacks being trucks or trailers, this guy is going to be a trailer who needs to be carried by the other pieces of the team if he's going to guide you to glory in the NFL.

2020 Quarterback Rankings:
1. Tua Tagavailoa - Alabama
2. Joe Burrow - LSU
3. Justin Herbert - Oregon

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Tuesday, February 11, 2020

The WWE Is Ruining... Jeff Hardy

I’m not a big Jeff Hardy guy, but even I admire how this guy has become a legend in the sport of professional wrestling. His latest run has been fine but a bit uninspired and a knee injury last year may have ended the Hardy Boyz run in the WWE.

I’m not sure how Jeff’s contract will work with the injury, but Matt seems to be on his way out, just two years after debuting at WrestleMania a day after having a crazy ladder match against The Young Bucks in Ring of Honor. That return was probably their high point, but Jeff managed another title run before his knee injury and a US Title run in between. The guy is definitely still relevant, but his body has taken some massive abuse so hopefully an easier schedule is in his future.

So what’s the best path to go with Jeff Hardy? Honestly, it’s time for him to take a step back and just be an older guy that can put on good matches. They’ve been doing something similar with Rey Mysterio, and I don’t even know if Hardy needs as much success as Mysterio. He brings big name power and can still put on good matches, especially with the emotional investment people have in his career. Sure, let him beat some lower level guys and maybe the occasional upset to get fans excited, but when it comes to your top talents coming in from NXT, have them get the big win and use it as a catapult into the upper echelon of WWE Superstars.

I know that doesn’t sound like an inspired solution, but I do think it is what’s best for WWE, and giving Hardy a lighter workload is probably best for him as well.

Other Wrestlers WWE Is Ruining
Aiden English
AJ Styles
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Monday, February 10, 2020

XFAlpha Podcast Notes - Episode 15

I know opening weekend already happened, but Jonah and I not only broke down our season preview where we predict who will win, who will lose, MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, and Defensive Player of the Year. There is a lot of exciting stuff in this one, but I didn't make many notes, so just download the damn thing and listen to it for yourself.

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Twitter:  @XFAlphaPod


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Sunday, February 9, 2020

XFAlpha Podcast Notes - Episode 14

We published back-to-back episodes this week including a season preview. I will be publishing limited notes for that one, but here are all of my notes on Episode 14 where we talk briefly about the Royal Rumble before taking a deep dive into every team's coaching staff. Also, I get super pissed at Jonah for being an absolute fool.
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Email: xfalphapod@gmail.com 
Twitter:  @XFAlphaPod
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HEAD COACH

  1. Dallas Renegades
    1. Bob Stoops - Head Coach and GM - Oklahoma Head Coach from 1999-2016. Was almost the Iowa Head Coach as he is a proud Hawkeye alum and was an All-Big Ten selection and started his coaching career there where he coached under Hayden Fry for five years. Stoops elevated the Oklahoma program with consistently great offensive teams and on the years they found defenses, they were on the elite level of college football. I’m guessing he is the highest paid coach in the league as he is allegedly receiving $1 million for coaching this season. 
    2. Hal Mumme - OC - The originator of the Air Raid, and the man that taught it to Mike Leach. His earliest college head coaching job was with Iowa Wesleyan, because all great things start in Iowa and then move on. His head coaching resume is a mixed bag, but he knows offense, so Dallas is very likely to put up points. 
      1. Scott Spurrier - Quality Control - Oh hell, yeah, the young ball coach. 
    3. Chris Woods - DC - A lot of smaller school experience and a brief stint as Texas State’s interim head coach in 2018. 
  2. St. Louis Battlehawks
    1. Jonathan Hayes - Head Coach and GM - Iowa tight end that played over a decade in the NFL. He learned under Hayden Fry and first coached under Bob Stoops. Has mostly been a tight ends coach but was the head coach during the East West Shrine Game in 2018. 
    2. Doug Meacham - OC - Former offensive lineman for Oklahoma State who has been an offensive coordinator at many different places. He was last at Kansas where he was fired in the middle of the 2018 season.
      1. Chuck Long - RB Coach - Iowa - Greatest quarterback in Iowa history. Should have won the Heisman in 1985 but lost what was the closest Heisman vote in history to some schlub running back from Auburn named Vincent Jackson. Jonah, do you remember anything about that running back? As for his coaching career, he started off as a defensive backs coach for Iowa before transitioning to quarterbacks and worked his way up to Oklahoma offensive coordinator before becoming head coach at San Diego State. It ended after three seasons, and then he spent a couple years as Kansas’s offensive coordinator but has not been coaching since 2011. 
      2. Az-Zahir Hakim - WR Coach - Hell yeah, Az-Zahir is the man. His only coaching job was wide receivers for the San Diego Fleet in the Alliance.
    3. Jay Hayes - DC - An Idaho graduate who is the brother of Jonathan Hayes, so that is quite the XFALpha connection there as both the Hawkeyes and Vandals are represented. Special Teams coach for four years before spending 15 years as a defensive line coach, 13 of those years in Cincinnati.
      1. Matt Raich - Co-Defensive Coordinator - Another long-time defensive assistant that did most of his work with lineman and linebackers.
  3. Tampa Vipers
    1. Marc Trestman - Head Coach and GM - Former Minnesota Golden Gopher QB before going on to Miami to earn a law degree and make Bernie Kosar great as his QB coach at both Miami, where they won a National Title, and part of Kosar’s stint in Cleveland. He’s worked with Steve Young, Scott Mitchell, Jake Plummer, and led Rich Gannon to his MVP season. I know Jonah must love Trestman, because he is a 3-time Grey Cup Champion, twice as Head Coach of the Montreal Alouettes and once with the Toronto Argonauts. Oddly, there is no record of him coaching from 2013-2014 so as far as I know this is his first head coaching gig in the United States. 
    2. Jaime Elizondo - OC - Also has a law degree. He spent his last three years coaching offense for the Ottawa Redblacks so there is the possibility of him calling punts on third down.
    3. Jerry Glanville - DC - Master’s Degree, and he’s 78 years young, was a head coach nine seasons with Houston and Atlanta but never won a division title. Is not only worse than Joe Gibbs at coaching but also NASCAR. His last head coaching job was with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, so I think Trestman may have really been banking on this league having CFL rules.
  4. Houston Roughnecks
    1. June Junes - Head Coach and GM - June Jones is a very good offensive mind who had some impressive success at Hawaii and SMU. His pro coaching career wasn’t quite as stellar, but he knows how to put points up with the run and shoot, so at least his team should be exciting. 
    2. Chris Miller - OC - The old Falcons quarterback which is how he knows June Jones so well. His only coaching experience above high school is a four-year sting with the Cardinals as a quarterbacks coach that ended in 2012. He hasn’t coached since. 
    3. Ted Cottrell - DC - He’s coached a lot of defense in his day with a consecutive run from 1973-2009. And in 2009, he got his first head coaching gig with the New York Sentinels of the United Football League, but they were 0-6 and so bad that they moved to Hartford the next year. He took a ten-year break before being a linebackers coach in the Alliance, and now he’s a full-fledged defensive coordinator again. Sometimes you don’t need to be good; you just need to stick around. 
  5. Seattle Dragons
    1. Jim Zorn - Head Coach and GM - Possibly the most successful player of all the head coaches as he was a quarterback for over a decade in the NFL. He helped get Matt Hasselbeck career years as Seattle’s offensive coordinator before spending two years as the Redskins head coach. Since it lasted only two years, I feel like you can guess that things did not go well. He last coaching gig was quarterbacks coach for the Chiefs. You may be thinking that he may have some of that Andy Reid magic who has been with the team since 2013, but Zorn was actually pre-Andy, as he coached there in 2012 under Romeo Crennel. Hopefully the game of football hasn’t changed in the last eight years.
    2. Mike Riley - OC - It’s not fair that I laugh every time I hear Mike Riley’s name, but hot damn, he had to have been the worst possible fit for Nebraska. He was a very good coach for Oregon State, but his style really didn’t fit the bigger stage as he also showed when he inexplicably became a NFL head coach with the San Diego Chargers for three years. He would probably say his Nebraska tenure was highlighted by his 9-win season, but I prefer the previous year where he won the Foster Farms Bowl despite Nebraska entering the game with only a 5-7 record because not enough teams were academically eligible to make bowl games that year. In all seriousness, he’s probably overqualified to be the offensive coordinator, especially considering he led the San Antonio Commanders to a 5-3 record in the only AAF season.
    3. Clayton Lopez - DC - This is his first coordinator position, and he hasn’t coached since 2013. 
  6. DC Defenders
    1. Pep Hamilton - Head Coach and GM - He’s never been a head coach, but he has coached Andrew Luck, and somehow getting Luck to be a good quarterback is enough to continue to give this man chances. I feel like he would have had a pretty hard time to not get that done, and considering Luck’s immense talent, I’m not even sure if he did a good job with him.
    2. Tanner Engstrand - OC - He was an offensive coordinator at San Diego before a year as an offensive analyst at Michigan. He retweets everything the DC Defenders account tweets out.
    3. Jeff FitzGerald - DC - Has extensive experience coaching linebackers. He hasn’t coached since 2016. 
  7. Los Angeles Wildcats
    1. Winston Moss - Head Coach and GM - May have been fired from the Packers for tweeting mean things about Aaron Rodgers. He’s also never been a coordinator at any level but did coach under Mike McCarthy for 12 straight seasons, so that is a thing that happened. 
    2. Norm Chow - OC - Was hailed a genius for developing an offense at USC that was effective as long as they had the best talent in the nation playing for them. That magic formula wasn’t so great at other stops and especially bad at his one head coaching job at Hawaii. His last coaching position was a high school assistant in 2016. 
      1. Jerry Fontenot was an old Bears offensive lineman, and now he’s coaching offensive line for the Wildcats so that’s cool. 
    3. Pepper Johnson - DC - Was a defensive coach with the Patriots for 14 seasons but this will be his first coordinator position. Another guy who was very good on Tecmo Super Bowl for the Giants. He got his name by putting pepper on his corn flakes. 
  8. New York Guardians
    1. Kevin Gilbride - Head Coach and GM - Has only been a head coach one time in his career and that was a two-year stint with the San Diego Chargers where he went 6-16 before getting fired less than half way through his second year. He is mostly remembered for getting in a fight with Buddy Ryan while they were coaches in Houston. He won two Super Bowls as the Giants offensive coordinator but hasn’t coached since 2013. This does not seem like the most ideal hire to me. 
    2. George Mangus - OC - Most recently was the offensive coordinator at Kutztown, but he has both played and worked under Steve Spurrier, so maybe he can finally uncover some of that Spurrier magic buried deep inside him. 
    3. Jim Herrmann - DC - He was the top college assistant in the nation...in 1997. He left Michigan in 2005 and has bounced around as a linebackers coach since. He was originally going to become Bowling Green’s Linebacker’s coach, but the XFL is so hard up for coaching talent that he is now a professional defensive coordinator.
      1. Cris Dishman (D-Backs Coach) was a stud on Tecmo Super Bowl.
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