Jaguars Draft is Wide Open

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As long as he’s been involved in the NFL and personnel decisions, Tom Coughlin has had very specific ideas. He likes big players, he believes in solidifying the run game and he wants a defense that can control the line of scrimmage.

“The first round might have thirty-two selections,” he recently told me, “But there might not be thirty-two first round players.”

As the VP of Football Operations for the Jaguars, Coughlin will have the final say on which players the team selects in this week’s draft. With the 29th overall pick, it’s doubtful Coughlin believes the player available there is a bona fide first rounder.

“You draw a line where you think the first round ends and you go from there,” he said. “Some years it can be twelve, others it can be twenty, or more.”

So nothing is predictable for the 2018 draft when it comes to the Jaguars. They could trade up, or down, or they could stay put if one of the players they like looks like he’ll be there at twenty-nine.

There’s plenty to like about the Jaguars defense the way it is so it would make sense that they spend their early draft picks on offense. It’s clear they’ve wanted to upgrade their receiving corps from 2018. They’ve done some of that through free agency and if one of these four wide receivers is available through either a trade up or they fall to the Jaguars, they should take him.

Calvin Ridley WR Alabama – Doubtful Ridley could fall to 29 but if the Jaguars believe in his production, they might try to move up to take him. Alabama pedigree is a proven plus. He’s 6′ and 189 lbs., but runs a 4.4. He’s from Ft. Lauderdale and will go in the first round. .

Courtland Sutton SMU – Sutton is a big wide receiver, 6’3″ and 218 lbs. totally different than anybody else among Jaguars wide receivers. He’s listed as about the same size at Allen Robinson. He runs a 4.5 and was plenty productive the last two years for the Mustangs. Was the competition tough enough? He could fall in the first round.

DJ Moore WR-KR Maryland – Moore is a possibility if the Jaguars are determined to take a WR with their first pick. But he doesn’t check all the boxes that would help add him to the wide receiver room He runs a 4.4. but at 6′ and 210 lbs is solid enough to run back kicks in the NFL as well. Tough competition in the Big 10 and was the conference receiver of the year. He’s probably a second round pick.

Christian Kirk WR Texas A&M – Kirk is another big receiver at 6’2″ and 200 lbs. He runs just under a 4.5 but his production is off the charts. He’s projected as a second round pick since he doesn’t have the explosiveness a lot of teams are looking for but a trade down out of the first round would be a good fit.

There was a lot of talk at the pre-draft luncheon about tight end. With Austin Seferian-Jenkins as an off-season acquisition the Jaguars still might be looking in the first round to add to this position. The only player of first-round talent at TE is Mike Gesicki from Penn State. At 6’6″ and nearly 260lbs, Gesicki is considered a pass catching tight end more than a run blocker. He’s considered such a great athlete that he’ll be gone by twenty-nine but if they love him, he’s first round talent.

If they’re looking for offensive live help in the first couple of rounds, these guys will be coming off the board

Mike McGlinchey T Notre Dame – probably the first offensive lineman taken

Kolton Miller T UCLA – seems destined to a west coast team

Connor Williams G-T Texas – Another good athlete who would have to get bigger to play O-Line for Coughlin

Orlando Brown T Oklahoma – Huge at 6’8″ and 345, he’s the son of Zeus Brown who played in the NFL. His size is his biggest asset but most teams aren’t sure he’s a good enough athlete to play tackle in the NFL.

Starting at 7pm CDT in Dallas, eight o’clock here so the draft could have the Jaguars picking at 29 as early at 10:45 or after 11:30. Of the above players profiled, don’t be surprised if one or two of them is on the Jaguars opening day roster in 2018.

Masters Memories: Sam’s 40 Years At Augusta

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Getting an invitation to cover the Masters when I was at Channel 2 in Charleston in late 1978 was an unexpected and welcome surprise. I took my Dad as my cameraman since it was a one-man sports department at the time. We rented a room through the Augusta Housing Bureau and were both amazed the first time we walked on the grounds.

Beautiful and manicured beyond belief “The National” as locals know it, exceeded expectations. The southern hospitality there is no myth: Everybody is unfailingly polite.

I must have looked lost standing outside the Quonset hut that served as the pressroom because PGA Tour media director Tom Place walked out and asked, “Do you need help Sam?” Seeing so many titans of sports journalism in one place was a bit stunning for a young reporter.

After Fuzzy Zoeller’s playoff win, an Augusta National member had him in a cart bringing him up from the 11th green. It was pretty dark but I was standing there by the 18th green with my father holding the camera and the member brought Fuzzy right to me, much to my surprise.

“I don’t see him, I don’t see him,” I could hear my Dad saying behind me. While running a camera in those days was pretty simple, the viewfinder and the camera were separate, connected by a hinge. My Dad was looking straight ahead through the viewfinder but the camera had drooped off the front and was pointing at the ground. As Zoeller walked up to me, I reached back and grabbed the camera and pointed it at the new Masters winner. “There he is,” my Dad said as I told him to hit the “record” button.

I asked Fuzzy a question about winning with his wife expecting their first child and he gave a standard Fuzzy Zoeller answer that included a joke. As I brought the microphone back to my face to ask a second question, out of the darkness what seemed to be a hundred microphones pointed at me in our little circle of light. The most prominent was from a network in Australia. My first thought was “Man, this is a big deal.”

We used to stand in the gravel parking lot under a sign that said “Media” to do our live shots during the Masters. One year we took the satellite truck and Bob Maupin, our engineer, found a dogwood tree down Washington Road in a public park that was pretty accessible. We lit the tree and did a week’s worth of shows there, honestly saying “Live from Augusta.” The media committee once wired a connection for local media from the parking lot to the edge of the ropes surrounding the famous oak tree outside the clubhouse and we went live from there. Greg Norman heckled me from the porch that year and we had a good laugh about it afterwards. Most recently our live broadcasts were from behind the big scoreboard along the first fairway, looking out on the expanse of green that makes up the golf course. Each time we’d pop up from there, Anchorman Tom Wills would say, “It’s just breathtaking.” (I took Tom to Augusta as my cameraman in 1983!)

I’ve created lifelong relationships at Augusta. My friendship with Pat Summerall grew there. I got to know Ken Venturi and Ben Wright. I did some golf with Verne Lundquist in the infancy of cable television and we’ve stayed friends ever since. Every year I’d renew my friendship with Sonny Jurgensen and Billy Kilmer, (from my days as a bartender in DC) smoking a cigar and having a cocktail with them on the veranda at the back of the clubhouse.

There’s a picture of me in the 1981 Masters yearbook waiting to interview, Tom Watson, that year’s winner. When I see it I’m reminded of the intimacy that Augusta National had then for players, fans and media. There’s always a reverence for the game, the course and the traditions. Smokers won’t even throw their cigarette butts on the ground. I’ve seen patrons put them out and stick them in their pocket.

Even with all of the changes that have happened in the last 40 years, that intimacy remains when you step on the grounds.

People remain unfailingly polite. There’s no running. No cell phones on the property. No selfies or other social media cataloging every second. Just a reunion or a rebirth of sorts every year.

A lot more than just golf when you say the words, “The Masters.”

At The Masters In Augusta, It’s Emotional

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Before the traditional Green Jacket ceremony in the Butler Cabin at Augusta National, CBS ran a montage of players over the years reacting to a question about winning the Masters. The response was universal, a long exhale with a faraway look in their eyes. It’s enormous from a golf standpoint. A major championship, endorsements and a signature win.

But winning the Masters is much more than that.

When a player wins the U.S. Open, it’s an achievement. Much is made of the qualifying process and the USGA’s protection of “par” on the golf course. You’re the best player in America as the U.S. Open champion. At The Open, they declare you the “Champion Golfer of the Year” and from an international standpoint, no title is more recognized. You beat all-comers. The PGA is an accomplishment, winning among your peers, almost a throwback to the days when not every best player turned pro and played what became the PGA Tour.

At the Masters, it’s emotional.

It’s the only major that’s played on the same golf course every year. In fact, it might be the only significant sporting event that uses the same venue annually. The World Cup travels, so does the Super Bowl. The Daytona 500 is always at Daytona, obviously, but it’s stature and appeal outside of NASCAR fans is limited.

When the Augusta Invitational started in 1934, it was an idea that Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones had to bring together the best players just as the weather began to break in northern Georgia. Writers traveling from baseball spring training in Florida would find it convenient to stop off in Augusta to cover the golf. Editors in the northeast weren’t put off by the stopover, as there was limited extra expense. Horton Smith’s win in ’34 wasn’t overly celebrated. But as is widely know, Roberts and Jones understood that putting on a golf tournament and having people know about your tournament were two different things. Through the reporting of the iconic sportswriters of the time the Augusta Invitational became the Masters. Herbert Warren Wind dubbed the 11th, 12th and 13th at Augusta “Amen Corner” after a blues tune he knew from the ’30’s. Gene Sarazen’s double-eagle gave some mystery and verve to the tournament as eyewitness accounts were reported breathlessly by the major newspapers of the era. Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Sam Snead playing and winning showed it was important.

But it wasn’t until Arnold Palmer showed up and started winning did it get emotional. That’s how Palmer played and he transferred that emotion to Augusta National and the Masters. Although he won four times, it’s the near misses that are as easily remembered in Palmer’s career at Augusta and the emotion those evoked. As television emerged as a vehicle to bring golf to the masses, TV executives like Frank Chirkinian knew Arnold was telegenic and projected that emotion right through the screen and into our living rooms. (By the way, Chirkinian also invented the “under” or “over” par scoring for television we still use today.) And it didn’t hurt that TV could bring beautiful pictures of a golf course to the millions still saddled by snow and bad weather throughout the country.

As Jack Nicklaus emerged as the best player, the emotions at the Masters still centered on Palmer as the crowd favorite. He brought a visceral connection among the fans at the Masters as he tried to hold off the then unemotional and methodical Golden Bear. Unlike previous golf “rivalries” where you had your favorite and were polite to their competitors, Palmer fans didn’t like Jack and let everybody know. Arnold evoked an emotional response even when he didn’t win.

I say Nicklaus was unemotional, but Jack burned with a competitive fire that centered on winning and beating Palmer. He didn’t show it much, that wasn’t his personality, but being around the two it was obvious they had a deep friendship but also a competitive nature that never abated. Until recently, Jack was the most un-sentimental champion I had ever met. Even when he won his sixth Green Jacket in 1986, it wasn’t until 20 years later that Jack started to embrace the emotion of Augusta National publicly. Tom Watson is kind of the same way. Johnny Miller once said, “Golf champions aren’t chummy,” and maybe he’s right. It’s such an individual game that it breeds and inner strength among the best players.

Sometimes the emotions of nearly winning are equal to those of winning. It’s so demanding as a golf course and as a competition and it is such a big deal that the best players of their era just don’t win at Augusta. Tom Weiskopf, Greg Norman, Tom Kite, David Duval, Ernie Els and others are supposed to be Masters Champions. Their runner-up finishes are legendary. Art Wall, Doug Ford, Gay Brewer, George Archer, Tommy Aaron, Charles Coody, Larry Mize, Mike Weir, Charl Schwartzel, Trevor Immelman and Danny Willet, distinguished players but not household names, even in the golf world, have Green Jackets.

Winning the Masters usually brings an emotional response not seen anywhere else.

Ben Crenshaw cried both times he won. Phil Mickelson’s amazement at winning could only happen on 18 at Augusta. Sergio Garcia dropped his face in his hands after beating Justin Rose last year. That doesn’t happen at a regular tour even or even the other three majors.

It only happens at Augusta.

Coughlin: Same Guy, Different Role

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“Non-negotiable expectations from within. That’s all we look at. Our expectations are very high and anybody that comes on board has to understand there’s a way to accomplish what we’re trying to accomplish and it’s through team, it’s through individual improvement and it’s through a relentless drive in team success.”

I’ve known Tom Coughlin since the day he was introduced as the Jaguars Head Coach in 1994. But that’s the most Tom Coughlin thing I’ve ever heard him say.

After a year as the Jaguars Vice President of Football Operations, Tom Coughlin is the same as he was the day he was hired by Wayne Weaver. He doesn’t cut corners, he doesn’t make excuses, and he doesn’t suffer fools gladly. When he was first named the Jaguars head coach I laughed that he didn’t play the radio at all in the car driving from the beach to the stadium because it was “too distracting.” Now I get it. Fully dedicated, fully motivated and expects the same from the people around him.

“I enjoyed the winning. I didn’t like the press box,” Coughlin said of his first year back with the Jaguars. “I did enjoy working with Doug (Marrone) and Dave (Caldwell) and I basically was on the practice field for every practice, I was in the Saturday night meetings, I did everything I normally do, I prepared just as if I was in that coaching spot. And I would do things, like Doug might ask me to look at something and prepare a tape for him to look at and I would do that, so I enjoyed all that.”

With a mediocre stint in Buffalo and a messy departure, Marrone was still on a very short list of names Tom Coughlin had as the next head coach in Jacksonville. He knew what he wanted the VP of Operations job to look like and knew there were only a couple of coaches who could withstand that kind of scrutiny. Somebody like Coughlin looking over his shoulder.

“Just his overall manner; he was himself, he established the way that we would work, the work ethic was obvious,” were the first thing Tom said about Marrone when asked what kind of job he did in the first year. “Players responded well to that. He did a great job one-on-one with the players, he did an outstanding job in front of them, challenging them from the team perspective, he did a nice job going through the rough times, the beginning of the season, etc. He did a very good job of that as well.”

Once a coach, always a coach, and even Coughlin’s description of what he did last year seems a little “cringe-worthy” except Marrone was hand picked by his fellow Syracuse alum and might be the only other head football coach on the planet who could abide by Coughlin’s routine. Adding Caldwell to the mix, or maybe more correctly keeping him in the mix looked like a difficult task from the outside when it was first announced. But they got it done.

“We basically rolled our sleeves up, there was no great philosophical discussion,” Coughlin explained. “I knew exactly what Doug was all about and Dave and I knew what we wanted to do in terms of trying to provide the kind of players that we were looking for in Jacksonville.. Yeah, we rolled our sleeves up, went to work and it was a team concept all the way.”

“Well it was just a feeling of who we are, what we represent. It’s a good look, it’s a solid look. It is, as I said at one point in time, we have guys that will be in the Hall of Fame and the connection will be there, the uniform will be very similar as we go forward. We just wanted a little bolder statement and I think we got it.”

“It does. There’s no doubt it does. You have to do a better job of who’s going to be there and who’s gone and so on and so forth. Over the years, some good things have happened in that spot. I know when I was in New York, Chris Snee happened to be sitting there at the top of the second round and that helped.”

Tiger Exceeds The Hype, Comes Back To Earth

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Sometimes it’s funny, other times it’s strange, a celebration or even sad to follow an athlete’s career. In the 40 year’s I’ve been in sports journalism, I’ve experienced just about all of that. From watching Emmitt Smith and Chipper Jones in high school and seeing their careers take them to the Hall of Fame to knowing Brett Myers as a kid, seeing his pitching career take him to the majors as a World Series champion, and now a career as a singer. Even the biggest sports celebrities’ start somewhere, so knowing Tim Tebow, as a high school sophomore is how I remember him best. By the way, may people, including his dad, did think baseball was where he’d make his professional mark.

There’s always a lot of hype about the “best they’ve ever seen” when kids are young players. Marques Dupree, Marquette Smith and Robert Pollard are names that popped up when they were very young. Only two athletes in my career have exceeded the hype: LeBron James and Tiger Woods.

While I’ve seen LeBron play often on TV and occasionally in person while covering the Orlando Magic, I’d say the expectations of what he’d be coming out of high school underestimated not just the player he is but also the determination and will he has as a person.

Starting with his appearance at the LA Open in 1992, Eldrick “Tiger” Woods was a name that every sports journalist who covered golf knew. “Tiger” was a unique enough name; the story of how he got it was enough to make any profile pretty colorful. And his dad was omnipresent, telling anybody who would listen how his son was not only going to be the best golfer ever, but, well, here’s his quote: “Tiger will do more than any other man in history to change the course of humanity. … He is the Chosen One. He’ll have the power to impact nations. Not people. Nations.” That’s what Earl Woods was saying about his son the golfing prodigy.

In 1994 Tiger played in the US Amateur at the TPC Stadium course as a skinny kid with a big hat and a bigger game. “These one-on-one interviews,” was his answer when I asked the 18 year old if there was anything he didn’t like about how his life was going. I thought I’d get an answer about travel, or weather or something like that. I laughed it off to youthful exuberance, cockiness necessary to be great or whatever. But Woods was serious, and as his career blossomed, he stopped doing any “one on one” interviews outside of the networks and now only makes news on his own website.

There was an incident where Tiger told an off-color joke to a magazine reporter in New York who broke the “off the record” code, printed it, and Tiger felt betrayed. He clammed up after that.

I’ve been critical of Woods’ demeanor throughout his career, I’ve written how he was rude and blew reporters off, was unnecessarily short and curt. Sometimes even mean-spirited. My brother was working for the PGA Tour at the time when Woods was a rookie and a young player and saw Tiger’s public persona develop first-hand. Tiger’s nickname early in his career was “Erkel” after the sitcom character that had few social skills and was generally nerdy. My brother confirmed my thought about Tiger. I didn’t think much of him as a guy. He approached being the most famous person on the planet, something few people know about. But his actions didn’t come close to Ali, Palmer or others in that same situation.

But his play was something completely different.

When he left Stanford, like a lot of professional observers, I thought Tiger was fit into the game at the highest level but would find the competition pretty stiff. That was until I went to Orlando to watch him play at Disney. Wow was I impressed. When somebody hits a golf ball it’s supposed to be at a certain height, at a certain speed at a certain time when you watch it. Tiger’s was higher, faster and better than everybody’s the first time he teed it up. And it only got better.

He was a great athlete who chose golf and reshaped his body to fit the modern game. Instead of a skinny kid, Tiger looked like the middleweight champion and then the light heavyweight of the world. He hit it harder and farther than anybody. And he putted the lights out.

Changing his body and the violence of his swing took a toll on his body and he eventually broke down. His off course issue was well documented and publicized. And his bout with prescription drugs seemed to be the bottom.

I ran into him in early 2017 at a retirement party at his club in Jupiter. I was asked to kind of “save” him from being pestered by everybody there. We spent some time together and for the first time I felt sorry for the guy. He was as awkward as I’d ever seen him. Could barely hold a conversation. Small talk was a chore. Ok, maybe it was me, but I really felt bad for him.

Fast-forward about six months; Tiger’s gone through a rehab after being pulled over for DUI. His body is healing and his golf game is returning. I ran into him at the same club as I was hitting some putts on the practice green.

“Hey Sam, you know Tiger,” my host said as I walked to put away my putter with Woods pulling up in his cart. “Of course,” I said as we shook hands.”

“Jacksonville, right?” Tiger said as he sat back in his cart. I smiled and said, “Yep” anticipating a quick exit as usual.

Instead, the three of us sat there for about 15 minutes talking about everything guys talk about, sharing laughs and jabs, just like it’s supposed to happen.

When he left, I turned to my host and said, “What happened to him? He’s like a different person.”

And that’s the same person we’ve seen in his return to the limelight. He’s agreeable in interviews. He listens to the questions. He tells jokes and smiles. Remember Tiger saying the “second was the first loser” early in his career? Last week walking up 18, Woods smiled and was appreciative of the crowd’s response, despite hitting it OB on 16, bogeying 17 and knowing he wasn’t going to win. That’s a complete turnaround from his former self.

So whatever you attribute it to, being humbled, being a parent, being injured, what ever, I’m hoping Tiger keeps using that same personality. It’s normal, and natural. It’s actually warm.

There’s a steely determination necessary to win in sports at the highest level. Tiger has shown over and over that he has that. I suppose keeping it there, inside the ropes, will take an adjustment. But it’ll be worth it.

Tiger’s Back At Bay Hill

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Winning Arnold Palmer’s tournament in March seemed like a rite of spring during Tiger Woods’ PGA Tour heyday. An 8-time champion, Tiger tied Sam Snead for the most wins at any tournament in Tour history. Snead won in Greensboro eight times as well.

But even with that kind of success and familiarity, Tiger spend part of the late morning surveying the Bay Hill course by golf cart before spending some time on the putting green gauging the speed of the greens on Tuesday.

“It should be a fun week,” Woods said anticipating good weather for the tournament starting Thursday. “I used to live here (he moved to Jupiter Island), my kids were born here in Orlando, I know a lot of people here and I’ve won here.”

In Tampa, Tiger’s appearance and surge up the leaderboard through the weekend drove the Valspar Championship to record levels in attendance and television ratings. With Tiger in the field and in contention there were four times the number of people in the gallery and watching on NBC as compared to last year.

Known as the “Tiger effect,” just Woods’ presence creates a buzz around any tournament he plays. Bay Hill is already electric. Masters tickets are a hot item. And although it’s not until May, The Players is anticipating a jump in attendance with Tiger in the field.

“A sellout is tough because we have so much space here,” said The Players Executive Director Jared Rice this week. “But this being the fifth anniversary of Tiger’s last win here and what he’s done for golf and the kind player he is, you can’t help but be excited at the possibility he’ll be back.”

On the PGA Tour players don’t have to commit to a tournament until the Friday before, and that’s typically been Tiger’s routine. But if he’s healthy, he’ll be at The Players.

“Hanging around on the range just isn’t possible anymore,” Woods said of his practice routine. “I get my work done and get out of there. Lingering for three or four hours I just don’t do. Some of that is just being an older athlete.”

Part of the misconception of his injury was that he couldn’t swing a club. Woods said that wasn’t it at all. It was more about bending over to hold the putter or a wedge that caused his back the most pain.

“I’ve finally at a point where I can let my hands tell me what to do. My back is healthy enough to trust it and let my hands play,” Tiger explained. “I’ve gone back to a lot of the things I did with my Dad.”

Finishing one shot back last week in Tampa, Woods said he could tell he’s getting sharper in competition, able to hit shots he sees in his mind. A fade or a draw, his “stinger” or a bombing driver, Tiger knows he’ll need all of those shots to win on the Tour with today’s level of competition.

“Paul (Casey, the winner) just laid it to us,” Tiger said of being in the mix on Sunday. “I knew I’d have to play well because these young guys can play. They’ve done well and it’s no surprise.”

You could tell that playing at Bay Hill, Arnold’s tournament is special to Tiger and he’ll miss seeing him on the golf course. He talked about the times he’d played here with Palmer as a kid and as a professional in “The Shootout” 9 (the daily noon game at Bay Hill) and the times they shared on the green when he won and in the locker room afterwards.

“I can’t make that thing he did with hitching his pants on the side look cool,” Woods said when asked if he’s tried to emulate Palmer in any way.

In a bit of a surprise, Woods was named the American captain of the 2019 Presidents Cup team. He’s been an assistant on both the Presidents Cup and the Ryder Cup but still only 42 years old; Woods expects to be a “playing captain” and not having to use one of his at-large picks to put himself on the team.

“Have you thought about being a ‘playing captain?” was the first question of the presser.

“I have,” Woods said immediately with a smile to raucous laughter among the media.

Jeff Klauk Back On The Course

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It was cool and dreary. A light rain fell all morning during the annual charity shootout during Media Day at The Players.

And none of that mattered to former PGA Tour player and North Florida resident Jeff Klauk. He was back on the golf course, thinking about yardages, the wind and the shot he needed to hit under pressure.

“Normally that would be a nice, smooth, easy wedge but the wind picked up and the cool temperatures with the rain, that was 125 yards,” he explained after winning the shootout, hitting it to one foot. “It was just as soft a 9-iron as I can hit because I didn’t want to hit it a hard wedge. So, that turned out to be the best shot in a long time.”

Success on the golf course is familiar to Klauk. At this point, just being on the golf course is a win. Klauk’s golf career was derailed by epilepsy six years ago. He’s undergone several lengthy procedures, most recently a potential “fix” at Emory in Atlanta.

“It went well,” he explained. “I’m still in the process of healing up and getting used to things. I am getting used to the word time. I have heard that word an awful lot, time of healing, so I am just trying to be as patient as I can.”

It’s the third time he’s won the shootout, but his time on the course has been severely curtailed.

“I haven’t played much golf to say the least,” he said after accepting a check for $10,000 for his charity, Athletes vs. Epilepsy. “I have hit a few shots with my son and that’s really about it. So it is good to be back out here at the course.”

“Especially today being out here with people watching, hitting shots with everybody around, having my parents here and everything. That’s what you feel in tournaments, feeling a little bit of pressure representing your charity and showing people you can still hit some good shots. It was great, a lot of fun.”

His golf tournament raises money for epilepsy research and is coming up next month.

“April 9th, the Monday after The Masters is my tournament at Palencia,” Jeff explained. “I need people to come out and play so they can go register at athletesvsepilepsygolf.com. I would love to get everybody out there, it will be a lot of fun and we will have a good time.”

And as a competitor who’s been on the course and in the field with Tiger Woods, Klauk is as impressed as anybody with what Tiger has been able to do in his latest comeback.

“It is impressive. He is going to do it (win) soon. Obviously his short game is back, that’s the most impressive, and that putting, making all of those up and downs. I know he was saying he was between yardages yesterday but he will get those wedges dialed in. I wouldn’t be surprised if he shocks everybody at the Masters.”

Signing Day Still A Big Deal

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With an early signing day taking away some of the big names in football, you might not think the traditional signing day of the first Wednesday in February might not be as big.

Think again.

It’s become a “thing” and it’s not going away anytime soon. As a celebration of all high school athletes who will play at the next level, National Signing Day has gone from a football-centric day to a day that every sport is represented.

In St. Johns County alone, Ponte Vedra and Creekside High Schools will announce 48 signees. At least 25 schools will have signing ceremonies on Wednesday starting early at 8AM before school at Atlantic Coast and Raines to Bartram Trail finishing up after school at 3:15.

Last year, Emily Root of Providence signed to play golf at the United States Naval Academy. Wednesday, her sister Amelia will sign to join her at Annapolis from Atlantic Coast. Root is one of two golfers from AC who helped the Stingrays win a state championship for the first time in 2018.

Both girls and boys soccer will be represented throughout the day, starting at Bolles where four players will advance to the next level on the pitch.

Numerous football players signed during the early signing period in December so they could get to school this semester and participate in spring practice. But the competition for the guys who haven’t signed yet is intense. Gus Bradley’s son Carter will play at Toledo and the Jaguars Special Teams assistant Mike Mallory will see his son Will, a highly sought after tight end, sign with the Miami Hurricanes.

Looking to fill out their classes, the major schools are still out their, pitching, recruiting and beating the bushes for the best talent.

“Those guys who haven’t signed will have a lot of choices,” Florida Head Coach Dan Mullen said on Wednesday. “We’ll be in a lot of those battles.

Getting to the National Championship game raised Georgia’s profile, but Kirby Smart says there’s no resting now. “The guys that are left are targeted by the all the top programs. So there’s some guys we still have to go after. You can’t say, ‘Relax, we’re done.’ We’ve still got work to do.”

“The guys are getting used to us and we’re getting used to them,” FSU’s new head coach Willie Taggart said in advance of signing his first Seminoles class. “They have to get to know who we are.”

The major schools will announce their classes in the mid-afternoon. We’ll have full coverage here on News4Jax.com throughout the day and summary coverage on News4Jax on Channel 4 starting at 5pm.

Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

No Sure Thing In The Pro Football Hall Of Fame

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Privileged to be in the room as the Jacksonville representative during the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame discussions, I’m annually surprised but never shocked at what happens during the selection meeting. When you get 48 people with an opinion talking about the same thing, the winds of change are always blowing. Players you figure going in are locks aren’t always that at all and others who seemed to float into the final fifteen without much fanfare turn into “can’t miss” finalists.

It’s unpredictable. Even among the selectors during breaks in the eight hour meeting the question, “What do you think?” is always met with the same answer: “Who knows?”

Getting to the final fifteen to be discussed by the selection committee is extremely difficult. That’s why listening to the presentation for each player is sometimes awe-inspiring and never disappoints. The players were so great during their careers that “I’m voting for that guy” is my first thought when his credentials are laid out.

Of course, of the fifteen, only five will get in, and the cut process from fifteen to ten and ten to five becomes more and more difficult. Sometimes the cut only comes because the committee figures a player will be back in the room again. Some of it’s a perceived slotting process, with one player waiting on another who’s been a finalist longer.

I know, it seems convoluted and perhaps even unfair, but that’s why it’s so hard to get into the Hall.

This year the three first-time eligible finalists all got in. Ray Lewis, Brian Urlacher and Randy Moss were certainly Hall of Fame-worthy players. There’s a thought that when a player of that caliber becomes eligible, he should go in immediately. A “first ballot” Hall of Famer is a line thrown around by everybody as if it’s that easy. It’s not.

While this year’s class is the youngest every selected, where does that leave players who had Hall of Fame careers but didn’t get tagged with the “first ballot” line?

This year five offensive linemen made up a third of the finalists. Joe Jacoby was eliminated in the first cut, still leaving four in the final ten, including Tony Boselli. You knew they were going to cancel each other out in the next round; it was only a question of whether one might sneak through.

None did, confirming that it’s a logjam that might not soon easily be fixed.

No one questions Boselli’s greatness. He’s considered the second best tackle in the history of the game behind Anthony Munoz. But the credentials of Alan Faneca, Steve Hutchinson and Kevin Mawae are impeccable. All great players, all eventually get to Canton. But when?

You could make the distinction that Boselli is a tackle with the other three interior linemen. But if you pit one against the other, it never works out well.

That’s why all the talk of momentum and who’s on deck is generally wrong. Although he’s the next wide receiver “on deck,” there’s no guarantee Isaac Bruce will get in next year. Same with Tony. Or the other three lineman.

Tony Gonzalez, Champ Bailey and Ed Reed are all first-time eligible players in 2019 and look to be finalists. Do they have the “first ballot” tag that seems to spark outrage when they don’t get in? If so, that leaves two spots for 12 other players, at least four of them offensive linemen.

That’s why the answer inside “the room” will carry outside all year as well: Who knows?

The Argument For Tony Boselli

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If there’s one sticking point to Tony Boselli’s inclusion as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, it’s the perceived brevity of his career. The numbers are straightforward: Boselli played 91 regular season games plus six playoff games for a total of 97 games.

Games played is a good measuring stick instead of seasons since the length of an NFL regular season has expanded from twelve to fourteen and to the current sixteen games.

So by comparison, players who played about one more modern 16-game season more than Boselli who are in the Hall of Fame include:

Lynn Swann … 116
Earl Campbell … 115
Dwight Stephenson … 114
Kellen Winslow … 109
Paul Hornung … 109
In addition to the two players who were selected for induction last year, Kenny Easley and Terrell Davis, played 96 and 78 games respectively. In all, there are 32 players with less than 100 games played already in the Hall including: Gale Sayers, Dick Stanfel, Doak Walker and Cliff Battles. That’s about 12% of the total number of players in the Hall. So including a player with less than 100 games played takes a special talent and Boselli qualifies as that.
Having drafted Boselli with the second overall pick in 1995, Tom Coughlin saw every play Tony played. He called him the “cornerstone of the franchise” and believes Boselli lived up to the expectations.

“Tony was simply the best offensive tackle in the game throughout his career,” Coughlin said. “I never had to worry that his guy would make a play. Ever.”

Often called the best tackle to ever play the game, Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz agreed.

“In my opinion, after watching Tony Boselli play during his NFL career, is that he is one of the best offensive tackles I have observed.”

I asked Mark Brunell, who said Boselli was easily the best player on the Jaguars, if Boselli was the best football player he’d ever played with. The 19-year veteran and teammate of Boselli for Tony’s entire career said “I wouldn’t say Tony was better than Brett Favre, Reggie White or Drew Brees, but those are the guys he’s in the conversation with.” Pretty high praise and comparison to two, no discussion, first ballot Hall of Famers and a Super Bowl winning quarterback.

It’s no coincidence that when the Jaguars were relevant when it came to the post season in their infancy, it was during Boselli’s career. They went to the post-season four times in his first five seasons and twice played in the AFC Championship game.

You could call the era Boselli played in the “Golden Age of Tackles” in the NFL.

Willie Roaf, Jonathan Ogden, Walter Jones, Orlando Pace all Hall of Famers, and Tony Boselli had an overlapping career with all of them. Another tackle might not be a Hall of Fame finalist for another ten years. Maybe Joe Thomas and possibly Tyron Smith or Taylor Lewan15 years from now. So we’re talking about a special time from 1992 when Pace came into the league until he retired in 2009.

Statically, Tony compares favorably with all of those players. In an analysis of sacks allowed and yards rushing and numerous other categories, Boselli is equal to or above those other four.

Boselli was on the All-rookie team in 1995. He was All Pro three times, 4 if you count the 1996 selection by Sports Illustrated. He was named to five Pro Bowls.

He was named All-Decade first team of the 90’s despite only playing five years in the decade and one was his rookie year. He passes the eye test. If you saw him play, you knew you were watching a special talent.

Gary Zimmerman, in the Hall of Fame, was the other All-Decade tackle. Willie Roaf, in the Hall of Fame, was second team. Every other offensive first-team All Decade Player of the ’90’s has been elected to the Hall.

Everybody I talked to from Boselli’s era agreed that he was Hall of Fame material during his playing career. The perceived brevity of his career, 97 games, should be viewed in its perspective. It wasn’t so brief after all.

If the election of Easley and Davis last year showed that greatness is the overriding qualification for the Hall, Tony Boselli checks every box.

Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

What Are Tony Boselli’s Chances? Inside The Hall Of Fame Process

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It’s a long process to induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. While the only eligibility for players to be retired for five years, the qualifications are stiff.

But they’re not spelled out.

If you were a Pro Bowl or an All-Pro player, you’ll get on the initial ballot, but pretty much any player who’s been out of the game for five years can be placed on the list through a simple call to Canton.

And that’s where it starts to get tough.

This year just over 100 former players were nominated for the class of 2018. That list was sent to the 44 members of the selection committee. Those selectors represent the 32 NFL teams, the Pro Football Writers Association, at-large journalists who cover professional football, and two current members of the Hall. The list has grown with NFL expansion as well as the desire of the Hall’s Board of Directors to include more “national” broadcasters and writers who don’t necessarily cover one team.

I don’t remember if there were many “at-large” selectors when I was asked to join the committee in 1995 as the Jacksonville representative but I do remember the committee was much smaller. At the time, pro football coverage was still dominated by the “legacy” writers and broadcasters of the game. Jack Buck, Will McDonough, Edwin Pope, Tom McEwen, John Steadman and Furman Bisher were all regulars. They were a tight knit group who traveled together, drank together and had definite opinions about who was worthy of induction to the Hall.

There wasn’t really a hierarchy, but certain members provided a little more clout than others. It always helped a candidate if they spoke up on their behalf. And almost always sank their candidacy if a negative opinion was offered.

Two things were certain in the early years of my membership on the committee: As the new guy I’d get lobbied by some other members to be a part of their cause and Jack Buck would always end the meeting with a hilarious, profane joke.

I’m not sure if I was the youngest guy on the committee, but the average age was 56 in the late nineties. It relied on some statistical analysis, but mostly on the “eye” test: Either a guy was a Hall of Famer or he wasn’t.

Now, the committee is younger, more broadly informed about everything that goes along with pro football (the explosion of information has helped that) and while the “eye” test is still a good gauge, statistics have a larger role in a player’s career.

From the more than 100 on the original list this year, the 44 members of the committee were asked to cut that list to 25, and then to 15. The 15 are called “finalists” and in the vernacular of the committee, they get “into the room” to be discussed at our annual meeting, the day before the Super Bowl.

The meeting used to start around 7AM and ended at noon because that’s when the press conference was scheduled for the announcement. Over the years that time has been pushed back to accommodate the meeting, and television, the NFL network, and now the NFL Honors show that airs on Saturday night.

Each player is presented to the committee by the media member from the city where he played the majority of his career. Sometimes two selectors will speak if a player, like Cris Carter, spent his career predominantly in two different places. (Philadelphia and Minnesota). The presentations are supposed to last about 5 minutes and are generally positive, although a player’s career is laid out including the ups and the downs.

A comment, question and answer period follows each presentation, so with 18 presentations including the contributor and the senior categories, it’s a long day. When I first joined the committee, coffee and pastries were offered before we started. Now the Hall of Fame staff provides two full meals.

Once the presentations have ended, a vote is taken to cut from 15 to ten, and then the ten remaining are voted on to cut the list to five. Even after that arduous process of getting to the final five, an up or down vote is taken on each of the final five with an 80% approval of the committee necessary for election to the Hall.

I used to sit at the meetings between Furman Bisher of Atlanta and Edwin Pope of Miami. Kind of an amusing coincidence since Jacksonville is between those two cities. Furman loved to talk about golf in North Florida, which courses he liked and what tour players he had no use for. He joked that he talked about golf since he didn’t have any Falcons to present to the selectors for the Hall. I can remember Furman making presentations for Deion Sanders and Claude Humphrey as players who spent parts of their career in Atlanta. By contrast, it seemed that Edwin was up and down in every meeting presenting the numerous Miami Dolphins who had made it into the final fifteen.

So I felt more like Furman than anybody else last year when I made the presentation for Tony Boselli. It was the first time in 22 years I’d been asked to make a presentation, with Boselli being only Jaguars player to ever make it into the room.

This year I’ll also present Tony to the committee. Last year he made the first cut to 10 but was eliminated in the cut to five. Sometimes that means a player has the support of a big part of the committee, other times it doesn’t. Sometimes there’s carry-over, sometimes there isn’t.

Nobody denies Tony’s Hall of Fame ability as a player. It’s the perceived brevity of his career that is the only sticking point.

That’s where there’s one difference this year that plays in Boselli’s favor. Last year’s class included Kenny Easley and Terrell Davis. Easley played 95 games, Davis 86. So length of career didn’t’ keep either one of those players out of the Hall and both played fewer games than Tony.

Will that matter? No prediction here out of respect for the entire process but I do think Boselli belongs in the Hall based on the criteria presented. With fifteen worthy players, including five offensive linemen on the ballot, for only five spots, the competition, like every year, is very tough.

Jaguars Pain Is Real, Because They Earned It

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In the locker room, the pain was real.

Quiet and somber, the Jaguars went about the business of breaking down the loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game, speaking with the media and having small conversations among themselves.

I’ve been in the losing locker room for the Jaguars for three of these and they’re the same in many ways but different in others.

In 1996, the Jaguars finished the regular season at 9-7 and got hot behind Clyde Simmons on defense and Natrone Means at running back. The trip to the AFC Championship game in January of 1997 was so unexpected that it had a “glad to be here” feel. Nobody expected the Jaguars to beat the Patriots on a cold night in Foxborough at the old and dumpy Sullivan Stadium. A couple of critical turnovers did the Jaguars in that night, but the team was so young and exuberant that in the losing locker room that night it felt like the start of something.

And it was.

The Jaguars were an upstart expansion franchise that got good fast. They were in the playoffs the next three years straight, culminating with a trip to the AFC Championship game after the 1999 season.

After going 14-2 and demolishing the Miami Dolphins in the divisional round after a bye, the Jaguars hosted the conference title game. Leading at halftime, they melted in the second half and fell to the Tennessee Titans for the third time that year. Titans head coach Jeff Fisher called Jacksonville “our other home field.”

While that one hurt, it was more anger and disappointment than hope in that locker room. The Jaguars were the best team in the league that year and they knew it. A blend of veterans and young players, they were right in the peak of the cycle of competitiveness. There was no talk of “next year,” the team knew their chance had happened “now” and they lost. After getting beat at home, the Jaguars had four consecutive losing seasons.

Sunday’s loss to the Patriots had a similar feel to 1996, much like the entire 2017 did as well. Except this year’s team wasn’t just “glad to be there.” They believed they could win the game and win the Super Bowl. The swagger and proclamations by Jalen Ramsey and others weren’t just boastful: It was what they really believed.

“I believe in this team,” Calais Campbell told me in front of his locker. “We know we can do this but we didn’t get it done tonight. I believe in these guys in this locker room and believe we’ll be back here.”

As emotionally painful as the loss was to the players, it also showed a steely determination that burns in these guys, even after getting beat.

“We created our core, and that’s what you build from” Telvin Smith said.

“We have a good core group of guys,” echoed Malik Jackson. “We changed a lot of peoples minds, got them thinking about us in a positive light.”

“I think these guys can’t wait to get back to work,” former Jaguars quarterback Mark Brunell explained. “When you have a team like that and you get that close, you can’t wait to start again and finish the job.”

Every year is different and the Jaguars were blessed with good health, especially on defense throughout the year. That doesn’t always happen so it’s difficult to project that they’ll just pick up where they left off.

“We’ll start all over again,” head coach Doug Marrone explained. “You have to build that foundation. Right now what you feel is the end. It’s sad.”

Although most analysts didn’t give the Jaguars much of a chance this year, the turnaround was remarkable. From 3-13 to the AFC Championship from the outside looked impossible. But the team thought they were something special from the beginning.

Marrone explained that’s why this one especially stings.

“We wanted more and we knew we had the ability to do it in our hearts.’ That’s what hurts. I think if you feel lucky, like you feel like, ‘oh gosh, we were lucky’ or, ‘oh gosh, that was unbelievable,’ then maybe you don’t feel like you’ve earned that right in some capacity. Then I think you can let it go quicker. When you feel like you’ve earned it, you were there, you feel you’re good enough, you feel all those things.”

Heartbreaking Loss In AFC Championship Ends Jaguars Season

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If there was an early indication of how the AFC Championship game against the Patriots would go it was how the Jaguars would survive the original onslaught from New England. Gillette Stadium can be a tough place to play when the Patriots are rolling and the noise meter is rising.

Giving New England the ball after winning the toss, the Patriots zipped downfield, using mismatches putting wide receivers on linebackers in four- and five-wide formations. Tom Brady found the open receivers to drive it inside the ten.

But the defense came up with a big stop and forced a field goal and a 3-0 Patriots lead.

Right away the Jaguars offense responded behind Blake Bortles. On their second possession, mixing the pass to receivers and running backs and using Leonard Fournette in the middle of the line, the Jaguars scored to make it 7-3. Offensive Coordinator Nathaniel Hackett was mixing up the calls and using Corey Grant going wide for big chunks of yardage. The Jaguars clearly knew the Patriots couldn’t keep up with Grant on the edge and he burned them. A nice play call for Marcedes Lewis who blocked then released to the end zone gave the 12-year veteran the first post-season touchdown catch of his career.

On the next possession the Jaguars did a lot of the same, this time Grant catching a pass in the flat and taking it to the four. Fournette bulled it in from there to give the Jaguars a 14-3 lead.

They are the Patriots so you knew they’d get something going. After not targeting Rob Gronkowski for the entire game, Tom Brady threw it to him 4 of the next five plays. A couple of incompletions and nice catch then a vicious hit by Barry Church on a ball up the seam was called for unnecessary roughness. Church probably needed to go lower there but Gronkowski left the game and didn’t return after halftime. Brady threw a ball down the left sideline to Brandin Cooks that was out of bounds but A.J. Bouye was called for pass interference. A really questionable call, the ball was probably uncatchable and Cooks ran himself out of bound as the ball was in the air.

A couple of more completions and James White scored from the one to make it 14-0.

On the Pats scoring drive the Jaguars defense was called for 47 yards of penalties. Seemed rather conspicuous.

Although there were 55 seconds on the clock, Jaguars Head Coach Doug Marrone chose to kneel on it and go to halftime with a four-point lead.

The pass interference play as well as a delay of game on a critical third down catch that was negated by the penalty were two of the key plays in the half.

Getting the ball to start the second half, the Jaguars moved it; converting some third downs leading to a 54-yard Josh Lambo field goal and a 17-10 Jaguars lead. Marrone showed a lot of confidence in Lambo there. He sure didn’t want to give the Patriots the ball at midfield.

The rest of the third quarter was a lot of give and take but the Jaguars defense found a way to keep the Patriots from crossing midfield.

With the ball inside their own ten a couple of times, the Jaguars did just enough to keep New England at bay before driving the ball to the Patriots 25 yard line and getting another Lambo field goal to make it 20-10.

Just when it looked like New England had found a rhythm, including a trick, throwback play, Myles Jack stole the ball and forced a turnover keeping the Patriots off the board.

But the offense couldn’t do anything with it and punted it back to the Patriots.

That’s when Tom Brady started doing his thing. Without any blitz pressure from the Jaguars, Brady threw it all over the field, including another throwback play and scored on a nine-yard TD Pass to make it 20-17.

In the 4th quarter the Jaguars running game disappeared. It was obvious the Patriots weren’t going to let Fournette get going. They swarmed Bortles on passing downs and the Patriots switched the field. A very mediocre punt by Brad Nortman was returned by Danny Amendola to the Jaguars 30.

From there a methodical Brady led offense moved it to the 5 yard line where Amendola caught a TD pass in the back of the end zone for a 24-20 lead.

With the ball, three timeouts and the 2 minute warning, the Jaguars had a chance to win the game but came up short despite a good effort. Bortles 4th down pass to Dede Westbrook was a little short after a scramble and it was deflected away.

With their three timeouts, the Jaguars were able to keep over a minute and a half on the clock but on third down they lost the edge and James White ran for a first down.

Sitting in the second row of the press box, Jaguars VP of Football Operations said, loudly, “Are you serious,” and packed his stuff, loudly, and stomped out, loudly.

Heartbreaking stuff, but classic Patriots and Tom Brady, doing just enough to send the Jaguars home and return to the Super Bowl as defending champions.

While heartbreaking, not completely discouraging. These opportunities don’t come around all the time, but without much change on the roster, the Jaguars could be good for a while.

Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Jaguars In NE: “We’re Ready To Go”

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It was very business like when the Jaguars departed the busses at their team hotel in Providence this afternoon. That’s not unusual. The team’s goal this week has been to keep their routine the same.

“At the end of the day you just gotta play ball,” said the Jaguars Calais Campbell. “The game is the same since we were kids. Just a bigger stage, bigger audience.”

It is the third appearance in a conference championship for Campbell and he knows that this doesn’t happen every year.

“You have to earn the right to be here. This is very special. It’s a great opportunity and we know that. We prepared the way we’re supposed to prepare and we believe when we do it that way, it leads to a win.”

Although the Jaguars routine is the same, their surroundings are not. A large group of reporters and photographers met the team busses chronicling every move as they arrived. Leonard Fournette had a big shearling coat on. Paul Posluszny wore a business suit. Some players had on the coveted Jaguars beanie. Campbell wore his own Jaguars stocking cap, the same one he wears on every cold weather trip.

“I’m always observing, just trying to get a feel for the guys,” Campbell told us. “We’re loose, sometimes I wonder if it’s too loose but it’s worked for us all year. There’s no reason to doubt at all. It’s just a great opportunity.”

Tonight, meetings and meals, curfew and a bed check will mostly occupy the players’ time. Head coach Doug Marrone will address the entire team, something that Campbell is looking forward to.

“Coach gets a little fired up,” Calais noted. “He likes to get the blood boiling a little bit. He likes to keep it simple. You can tell he’s excited, focused and ready. It’s going to be nice to go to meetings tonight and hear his message.”

With the preparation finished, it is, after all the AFC Championship game, not just any other week. So, will Campbell have any trouble sleeping tonight?

“We’ll see, hopefully I will sleep like a baby,” he said with a laugh. “I might watch a movie or something to get my mind off the game. Definitely some excitement that will keep me tossing and turning a bit, but I’ll wake up, ready to go.”

Respect For The Jaguars? We Don’t Care, We Live Here

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There’s been a lot of talk this week about getting “respect” for the Jacksonville Jaguars. A 3-13 team in 2016, the Jaguars are on the verge of their first Super Bowl appearance, playing in their third AFC Championship game in franchise history. But the Jaguars are still suffering from what they consider a lack of respect from other teams, other fans, the odds makers and the national media.

“At this point, if we don’t got respect, that might be a lost cause,” cornerback Jalen Ramsey said on Friday. “We just might not get none. We’re one of the final four teams in the NFL playing right now, so if we ain’t got no respect then, get it.”

That consideration as an outlier isn’t unique to this year’s team. It’s not even a new phenomena regarding the franchise. From the first days of Jake Godbold’s dream of bringing an NFL franchise to Jacksonville, we’ve always been the outlier, “the not-really-in-it” city, much more than an underdog.

“What do you guys do with this stadium the rest of the time,” I asked when covering my first Gator Bowl in 1978 while working in Charleston. “Well, we have Florida Georgia,” was the response.

I was puzzled by that, not knowing about the Georgia Florida rivalry, but thought it was pretty different that a city could have a huge stadium for just two games a year.

“Look at that,” I said to our anchorman two years later at Channel 2 in Charleston, “the Teamen are moving to Jacksonville and not even changing their name. That’s kind of silly.” Of course I knew little about the NASL and why the Teamen were keeping the name (they were owned by the Lipton Tea Company.) And little did I know that shortly my career would take me to Jacksonville and I’d be the play-by-play voice of those Teamen. Always kind of a mystery, Jacksonville didn’t have a sports identity outside of the city limits. The only thing people knew was that it’s where the tolls were on 95 and it smelled bad.

“Did I read in the paper you were moving to Jacksonville,” my playing partner at Wild Dunes asked me in early 1981. “That’s right, I go next week” I said, somewhat proudly to be moving to a much bigger market, important at the time in the TV business.

“I’m sure you think that’s great,” he added. “You’re making a jump on the economic scale, but a couple steps back socially.”

“What do you mean,” I asked.

“Do you own a tuxedo?” he questioned.

“Three,” I said, in the standard Charlestonian answer.

“You’ll never wear it,” he deadpanned.

And he was mostly right.

We’ve always been more casual, more of a big beach town than any great metro city.

And we like it that way. And people who don’t live here don’t get it.

Once we cleared out the tolls and cleaned up the air the town started to take off. Our bid for an NFL team started to crystalize, although no one took us as a serious candidate.

“You’re not getting a team!” all of my media brethren would say with a giant laugh when I’d show up at the owner’s meetings with the Jacksonville contingent. But as outlined in the excellent documentary “Destiny: How Jacksonville won the Jaguars,” we did everything right and were awarded the 30th franchise in November of 1993.

Thanks to Wayne Weaver, who was popular among the ownership as a prospective fraternity brother (and that’s what the owners group is) and Roger Goodell, who was the city’s biggest patron inside the NFL office, the city that couldn’t, did.

And that didn’t set well with anybody else. Baltimore was incredulous. Memphis looked away, St. Louis couldn’t believe it. And Charlotte did their usual look down their nose at us.

“Don’t worry Charlotte, you’re not Jacksonville” one columnist in the self-proclaimed “Queen City” the day after we got the team. Charlotte was awarded the 29th franchise a month earlier and couldn’t imagine being put in the same category as swampy tackle box Jacksonville.

Of course Charlotte is so snotty they can’t even call their downtown “Downtown.” They have to call it “Uptown.” And they’re right, they’re not Jacksonville. No beach, hot as blazes in the summer and cold as you-know-what in the winter.

So our own “second city” mentality was settling in, despite now being an NFL city. Fans and scribes around the country were so incredulous that they spent the next 15 years talking about where our franchise was going to move.

Even when the team went to the AFC Championship in 1996, the storyline was everybody else and the “upstart Jaguars” In 1999, the Jaguars were the best team in the league but their 14-2 regular season record was “only because of the easy schedule they played.” No credit, no respect.

Talk of the team moving has subsided since Shad Khan bought the team and started to invest in the city. But even after hosting the Super Bowl in 2005, nobody likes us.

“Not enough strip clubs or late night drinking places,” one NFL writer told me.

“I like doing stuff. And they’re nothing to do in Jacksonville,” another chided in a column during his annual trek to league training camps.

Of course if all you did in any city was go from the airport to the Hyatt, to the stadium, back to the Hyatt and back to the airport, you’d have the same impression no matter where you were. And that’s all they do. They don’t see the beach, or Mandarin, Ortega or explore the river. Time constraints and just plain laziness are both to blame. I’ve offered to give tours to the guys I know, but have gotten no takers.

And the fact that we like it here just plain makes people angry. I was raised in Baltimore and my parents always say the attitude in Jacksonville reminds them of “Charm City.”

In Baltimore they don’t want to be D.C. or Philly or certainly not New York. In Jacksonville we don’t want to be Atlanta, or Miami or Tampa and certainly not Orlando.

We’re perfectly comfortable in our own skin, and people in the “big city” just don’t get it. So they try to run us down.

There will be plenty “Duuuvalll” chants this weekend in New England and in North Florida, a rallying cry all our own.

And everybody else will deride it as some kind of backwater slogan. But it doesn’t matter.

Win or lose, winning season or losing season, we’re pretty happy with who we are, our friends and the lifestyle.

They can all come visit, and they can even move here. Just don’t tell us how great it was where you came from.

We’re not listening. And we like it that way.

Telvin Smith Brings Talent, Heart

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There’s a reputation in the league that follows the Jaguars defense. Tough, talking, swagger, fast and relentless. They’ve put up historic numbers this season. While that’s the exterior, the public persona, the spirit and emotion of that side of the football is embodied in Linebacker Telvin Smith.

A fifth-round pick out of Florida State, Smith looks more like a safety than a linebacker. He runs more like a cornerback than a linebacker. But he hits and thinks like a linebacker.

“He’s a natural-born leader,” said defensive lineman Calais Campbell. “He’s very gifted in his ability to inspire. He’s the guy who breaks it down before we go on the football field. Every time he’s getting us hyped, I’m ready to run through a wall. He has that natural gift of gab to inspire people. I love being a teammate of his. He’s a great player.”

For all of his physical gifts, it’s Smith who spoke up early in his career saying guys weren’t giving enough. He’s the player who came into the locker room during training camp and told his teammates they needed to be better. He’s the one who speaks to the team on Saturday nights. And he’s the guy who makes that speech on the field, known as “breaking it down” after warm-ups on Sunday and right before the game. Some of it’s funny, some of it’s R-rated but all of it is authentic. And it works.

“I talk to guys all throughout the week,” Smith said at a press conference at the stadium on Thursday. “That’s what I kind of get it from. Whatever guys are talking about, whatever I see going on throughout the building and in the media. Whatever it is, I take it from everywhere and kind of…I’m preparing all week for my guys.”

So he’s a motivational speaker? That’s not how he sees it.

“In that sense, I would call myself an enlightenment speaker because if you need to be motivated then we lost already.”

It’s that kind of perspective that draws his teammates to Smith as a leader. He’s a captain on the defense, and is as “real” as it gets. When asked right after the game Sunday in the locker room about the pointing and the unsportsmanlike penalty he caused last week against Pittsburgh he was unapologetic. He said, “I was pointing at Le’Veon. We have the same agent. I wanted him to know I was scoring on him.”

Today, after the league levied a fine, Smith took a u-turn and during his press conference wanted to address what happened in a playful way.

“That’s what’s crazy,” he said with his trademark smile. “Let me talk to the cameras. NFL, please listen. I am sorry. I got the fine today. I apologize. I take the point back, the taunting. I’m a great player. I assure from now on.”

How big was the fine?

“It was big. Like $10,000. What a point.”

After signing a new, big contract before the season, Smith was teased by his teammates as is bound to happen in any locker room. He took it in stride, and laughed along with some of the other big-money free agents who were added to the team. He knows that the money can’t get in the way of production and being part of an eleven-man solution.

“They talk about the offense because they put up points. The most heralded guys on the field are the quarterbacks. So I would say nine times out of 10 your detail goes into your offensive planning and things like that. Offense sells tickets and defense wins championships. I’m happy I’m on the defensive side.”

And about the free agents they added in the offseason?

“Your question answers your question. It just shows that the organization is trying to build and go in that right direction. It shows obviously that it worked. You spend that money and you see what happens. You get in these situations.”

Barring injury, Telvin will be around a long time, contributing to his team with his play and his speech, all not lost on Defensive Coordinator Todd Wash.

“The leadership with Calais (Campbell) and Malik (Jackson) is unmatched,” Wash said today. “In the back end, we have (Barry) Church and in the second level we have Telvin (Smith). That leadership is going to be big. Overall, we’re young but we have some great leaders and those leaders are going to take us as far as we can.”

Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Tom Mcmanus Says The Jaguars Will Win

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It’s almost unbelievable how they’ve turned it around from a three-win team to go the AFC Championship game. The common denominator has to be Tom Coughlin but it also has to be Doug Marrone. They’re two in the same. They are committed to winning. They’re different personalities but they see that at the end of the day in the NFL that’s all that matters.

Blake said it this week, winning wasn’t always in the forefront of what we do around here, but now it is. It’s all about winning.

I had two years with Tom Coughlin at Boston College. Jack Bicknell, my first coach at BC was tough, but he let you handle business. Tom came in and controlled everything. Class, study hall, eating, discipline, lifting, everything, the whole deal.

I never threw up so much in my life than in the winter of 1991. Tom was weeding out the guys who weren’t going to stick around. I hated it, but stuck it out. Nine of 25 guys who were redshirts with me and had graduated came back to play. The rest said, “No way.” It was too tough

I spent training camp in 1993 with the Saints before they cut me and in 1994 I had a weekend tryout with the Redskins. But nothing happened. So I got a job in Boston. That’s when Steve Szabo, my linebackers coach at BC called to see if I was interested in playing. He hadn’t seen me in two years. He was going to be on Tom’s staff for an expansion team and wanted to work me out. I told him I was in shape, but I wasn’t, and luckily I had two months to get there. I went to my parents place in New Smyrna Beach to work out for eight weeks and showed up in Jacksonville for the workout. They signed me and I eventually made the team. I was injured a bit but played on some Jaguars playoff teams. The playoffs are incredible; you almost can’t put it into words. Exciting, the anticipation, it’s packed. It’s different. But it’s great.

What I like about this team this year is it’s toughness. You never see anybody loafing. You never see anybody just jogging over. You never see anybody take a play off.

The kind of guys they brought in are tough guys, Calais, A.J. Jalen, they’re all tough guys. They really care about their performance. They’re all trying to get a hit on somebody. They can score at any time.

They feel like they have nothing to lose this week against New England. If you play like that you have a chance. The negative is they’re playing against a dynasty. They’re good enough to put up fifty. That’s more of the mystique. They’re not going to put that up on this defense.

I think they’ll pound the rock this weekend. They have a chance to win this game and in fact I think they’re going to win. You’ve got to make sure you stay in Brady’s face. I’d put Ramsey on Cooks and I’d put Myles Jack on Gronk. I think he can do it. He’s fast enough and big enough to get the job done.

They’re rewriting history in Jacksonville, they want to better the old guys like me. I think it’s great, and it’s time.

I’ll find a way to be in Minneapolis in two weeks. Hope to see you there.

Hard Work No Stranger To Marrone

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If there’s one thing that Doug Marrone has learned in his years of coaching in the NFL it’s that it takes 53 guys, not just the starting 22 to compete. Injury, slumps, whatever, not every player is playing at his best on every play. So Marrone sees the big picture when it comes to who’s has and who is going to produce when it comes to game time.

“I remember Chris Reed being in there and (Tyler) Shatley being there and all the different players,” he said today talking about the different offensive line combinations he’s made. “You know it brings me back to a point where you want to make sure you’re ready to prepare, when someone taps you on the shoulder that you’re ready to go so you don’t live with regret. But it’s a credit to them and that has been part of us being able to win games with those guys stepping up even though it’s not written quite a bit.”

Plenty of theories abound regarding the Jaguars success this year. Marrone, Tom Coughlin, Calais Campbell and the free agents, Leonard Fournette. As the head coach Marrone has said all year he likes this team but it’s still a mystery to him.

“I still can’t figure out our own team,” he said. “They’re going to do the best job they can and make sure they are prepared and focused. They understand what we’re up against and we can’t make mistakes. We have to execute. You got to know what you are and what you have to do and we know it’s a great challenge.”

When he took over as the Vice President of Football Operations Tom Coughlin had a short list of three for the head-coaching job. Marrone was at the top of that list, already on the Jaguars staff and well known to Coughlin. Both played and coached at Syracuse and Marrone sought him out as the coach of the Orange when Coughlin was in New York, looking for advice. They have a long history, so using Coughlin as a resource won’t be that much different this week based on Coughlin’s success against New England in the post-season.

“I have leaned on Coach pretty good since day one,” Marrone explained. “I don’t think I can lean on him anymore because I’m a big guy. If I lean on him, I hurt him a little (laughs). No but honestly, it’s not something that now all of a sudden that they have had success that Coach will get more involved. It’s been the same way from day one when we started working together. We’ve worked with each other the same amount of time together and talk about the same things.”

So while Coughlin and Marrone have the same ideas about how to win and what it takes, their personalities are very different. Marrone’s personality allows him to give the players credit, to give them some leeway on how they express themselves, even with the bravado the Jaguars have shown. But it goes back to his core values on what it takes to, as the title of Coughlin’s book reveals, “Earn the right to win.”

“I believe confidence comes in preparation,” he noted. “Being able to have success to some extent, so I think it is a little bit different for everyone else. What I will say is that I do believe that all three phases support each other and know that if something is not working well in one of the phases, that the other phase can pick it up. I think that is important.”

It’s worked for Marrone in his career to see himself as the guy who has to strive to get to the top. Hard work has paid off for him. So it’s no surprise that being the underdog this week seems to fit just fine.

“When you play against New England, who has not been an underdog? Everybody should. They’re the team you have to beat.”

Marrone: Right Guy, Right Place, Right Time

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When it comes to the subject of leadership, perhaps no group is easier to study than football coaches. At one point, fans in Jacksonville had Steve Spurrier, Bobby Bowden, Vince Dooley and Howard Schnellenberger or Jimmy Johnson leading the major college programs they followed. All very successful, all very different in philosophy and personality.

Although the Jaguars have only had a few head coaches, all have been very different, and that’s probably by design. From the imperious bearing of Tom Coughlin, Owner Wayne Weaver went completely in the other direction, hiring a former player, Jack Del Rio, who suffered (and perhaps still does) from the “I’m the smartest guy in the room” problem. Mel Tucker took over as the interim and introduced the “servant leader” idea. (Tucker is a fabulous coach and a really good guy as well. I’m surprised he isn’t a head coach somewhere). Mike Mularkey was suspicious of the media but never really had a chance to develop a relationship with anybody being in Jacksonville only a year. Gus Bradley brought a whole new approach from a new generation, trying to empower the players for their own discipline and accountability. He’s one of the best people I’ve ever met. He’s also a very good football coach but his team was too young to grasp the power he was trying to give them. (Plus I thought getting rid of guys like Montel Owens and Daryl Smith created a leadership vacuum in the locker room.)

When Jaguars Owner Shad Khan talked with Tom Coughlin about running the football side of the organization, Coughlin gave Khan a few names he’d bring in as head coach. One was Doug Marrone. Marrone had been serving as an assistant on Bradley’s staff and was known as a solid coach, a good soldier, and the guy who walked away from the head coaching job in Buffalo looking for greener pastures.

When Marrone was named the Jaguars head coach, I checked with one of my colleagues in Buffalo to get a sense of what he was like. “He’ll be more miserable when they win,” my friend said with a laugh. I wasn’t sure what to make of that but I’ve seen that transformation throughout the season. “Miserable” might not be the right word, but Marrone’s demeanor seems so downtrodden that it’s easy to understand that his nickname at a few stops in his coaching career was “Eeyore.”

“I never have fun,” Marrone deadpanned at his Monday press conference after beating Pittsburgh and earning a shot at the Patriots in the AFC Championship game. “I like winning. I like winning. I am not a fun person. That is my problem. I think when I look back I will say that it is fun. People always say the same thing. People that know me well will say, ‘Make sure you enjoy it.’ I sit there and I go, ‘Pshh, yeah.’ How do you enjoy it? I don’t know. My mind right now is focused on digging into New England and seeing what is going on.”

With all due respect to the media contingent in Buffalo, everybody who knew Marrone as the head coach there and has seen him this year says he’s changed. Changed in his approach to the other things that go along with being a head coach but not with his core values on how to win. He’s engaging with the media, and in turn, that somewhat of the snapshot that fans see of their head coach.

“I give a lot of credit to the guys here,” pointing to the group of beat writers and assembled media on Monday. “The media is something I have struggled with in the past, when people say what have you learned or what have you gotten better from. For whatever reason I feel comfortable with the guys in this room.”

But he also admitted that he’s been able to separate the things that matter from the things that don’t when you’re in charge.

“People talk about experience. You gain experience. What does that mean? You start to learn more of what, okay, this is important,” he explained. “Maybe this is not as important. Then, you create maybe more of a comfort in that. I don’t know. I just know that I feel more comfortable. I can’t really put it into words, as far as specific things. I just feel very comfortable. I feel comfortable in everything here.”

Marrone is a good guy, somebody who wants to do well and do it right. He’s the guy who would be the designated driver on a night out if you asked him. And he’d be the guy who stepped in front of some jerk in a bar giving you a hard time.

Taking the Jaguars from a three-win team to the AFC Championship in one year is a monumental feat. The easy narrative is that Coughlin should get the credit, and some of that is true. Mostly in his hiring of Marrone. While they see the path to victory and success through the same lens, they’re very different people and personalities. Marrone agrees with Coughlin’s “Earn the right to win” philosophy, he’s able to impart that to the players in a very matter of fact; here’s what we have to do way. Easy to digest. No screaming or yelling, no folksy, fake back slapping, but rather a serious approach to getting the job done. Like the offensive lineman he was as a player.

He takes some satisfaction in the success his team has had, but mostly he says he’s happy for the people around him as well as the fans and the organization. As a player at Syracuse, the Orange were 2-9 his freshman year and he didn’t want to wear his “Syracuse Football” gear anywhere. He knew the ridicule he’d be subjected to. He’s glad to change that for Jaguars fans that have been in that situation for a decade.

“So last Thursday I went to a high school basketball game,” he said, storytelling being one of his media strengths. “I went to watch the J.V. play first. So when I went to the school there was a ton of people that had Jaguars stuff on, and I was like, ‘Holy Cow! That’s good.’ It wasn’t like that when I first got here, and I think that, and I’ve said this many times, we appreciate the support. It’s something that we needed to earn, but at the end of the day, the fans…it goes back to when I was a player.”

He’s already been named Coach of the Year by several organizations, and deservedly so. But it doesn’t seem to matter to Marrone. He wants to be successful, but he enjoys being a part of something bigger, in this case, the Jacksonville community that has rallied around the team after years of disappointment. He gets that part of being a fan that either lifts or dampens your spirit with every victory or defeat.

“The people that support you, you want to be able to do a good job so when they are around whether it’s the water cooler or a moment they can spend with their kids or a moment when they are in the airport and they are traveling and they can wear the team logo or say they support the team and not be ridiculed, I just always believe in that. I grew up in a sports town, and I know what it’s like when your team’s not doing well and all the crap you take. For me I get a lot of joy when I see people that are proud of their team and I see the players that are happy with their performance and I see the building. That’s probably the joy that I look at the most of what occurs.”

So when you see Marrone in sound bites or brief descriptions this week as the spotlight gets pretty bright on the Jaguars, know that he’s ok. He’s working. And although he says he’s not really a happy person, he’s happy in different ways.

“it’s hard to enjoy. You win a game, after that game is over my mind’s [already on] what we could have done a better job in that game and my mind’s already on to the next opponent. One thing in this profession, at least for me, it’s very hard to enjoy those things, but I do find a lot of joy for myself when I see other people happy with the success, whether it be the players, especially the fans and I said that from the beginning. Everywhere I’ve been I’ve always felt the same way.”

Hard to not like that. He might be Eeyore, but he’s our Eeyore as the right guy in the right place at the right time.

Blake, Teammate, And That’s How He Likes It

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I’ve been to Oviedo but I’m not sure I remember it.

Apparently, that’s not unusual.

“Kind of like Yulee but not that far away,” is how one Orlando native described it. They have a Target, a mall, movie theaters, all the things you’d expect of a suburb community.

South of Sanford and northeast of Orlando, Oviedo is the home of former JU basketball player Ronnie Murphy. Until recently Murphy was the most famous athlete to come out of Oviedo. Mark Bellhorn, a former MLB player is from there. Olympic runner Jennifer Simpson is also from there.

But now they have a “Blake Bortles Way.”

Not far from Oviedo is the campus of UCF, and that’s where Blake Bortles ended up as a college quarterback.

So with that as a backdrop, it’s not hard to see how Bortles personality has been shaped and his reaction to the bright lights of being in the NFL.

“I really don’t care what anybody says about me, I really don’t,” Blake said earnestly on Wednesday, echoing what he’s said all along. “I care what they guys in our locker room think about me and when they defend me, it’s cool. I’d do the same for them.”

And that’s about it. Honestly.

In his four years as the Jaguars quarterback, Blake has gone from raw rookie to rising star, slumping potential to just terrible. Of course he never been any of those things in reality or in his own mind but that’s how he’s been characterized. The storyline dictates what people think and those have been the storylines over his career.

But to him it doesn’t matter.

Always a “team first” guy, Bortles likes the atmosphere of coming to work with a bunch of guys he knows, laughing and working and getting things done. He was that way when they were losing; he’s that way now that they’re winning.

“The one thing about Blake that I know is that he doesn’t change,” his Head Coach Doug Marrone said recently. “He understands that as well as we all do that you are going to be judged on your performance, and we’re going to have to go out there and play well. When we play well, there’s going to be good things, and if we don’t play well, then there’s going to be bad things. That’s just the nature of the sport that we play.”

While Bortles was brought along in the league by Gus Bradley’s mentoring, it’s been the emphasis on winning and his developing relationship with now Offensive Coordinator Nathaniel Hackett that’s helped bring the Jaguars to the AFC Championship game this Sunday.

“He does what it takes,” wide receiver Marqise Lee said in front of his locker. “He needs to run, he’ll run. He needs to scramble, he’ll scramble. Whatever it takes, he’ll do it. Throw it? He’ll throw it, he’s not afraid.”

Under the scrutiny Bortles has been subjected to Lee said he’d have reacted differently.

“I’d have said something people wouldn’t like,” Marqise said with a wide-eyed grin. “I mean, I don’t know how he puts up with it. I’d be completely different.”

“Very impressed,” is how the AFC Defensive Player of the Year Calais Campbell said when asked about the Jaguars quarterback. “Blake is a guy who loves the game of football. He comes to work every day focused and trying to better himself to help the team win. He doesn’t get involved in all of that other stuff. He handles distractions well. He stays focused and keeps playing ball. As a teammate, you look for a guy who is going to keep fighting no matter what happens. During high and lows, he keeps staying even-keeled and doing his thing.”

So how is it that the storyline this week is all about how Tom Brady is the greatest of all time and how Blake Bortles is somewhere closer to the other side of that spectrum?

Two weeks against Buffalo, the Jaguars staff knew Buffalo wasn’t scoring many, if any points and their offensive game plan was mapped out accordingly. No early throws, no turnovers, win the game and advance. They thought it might be 17-6, and while it was 10-3, with the Bills only points coming in a drive where the Jaguars defense gave them 30 yards of unsportsmanlike penalties, the Jaguars plan kept the wraps on the passing game. But the storyline was: Bortles is terrible.

Against Pittsburgh they knew they needed to score some points and that’s when the called on Bortles to get the ball downfield through the air. He responded. The storyline? Blake had a miraculous transformation.

“Did you see him check down to T.J.?” Lee queried about the critical 3rd down check-down completion to T.J. Yeldon in the fourth quarter. “His head was moving. Here? No. Here? No. Here? No. Then he found him. Who does that?”

It’s that kind of respect Bortles craves. In conversation with anybody in the Jaguars locker room they’ll all say the same thing: He’s tough as nails.

Nobody’s going to nickname him “Hollywood Blake.” He’s more comfortable in shorts and a hat, usually worn backwards than anything else. His reputation for socializing might be warranted but he’s never been late, never missed a meeting, never been disciplined by the team.

He’s just Blake. Teammate. And that’s how he likes it.

Jaguars Come Alive, Upset Steelers, Head To AFC Title Game

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It was thirty minutes of the unexpected in the first half between the Jaguars and the Steelers.

Getting the ball first, the Jaguars looked like world-beaters on offense marching right down field in eight plays covering 66 yards and scoring on 4th down to take a 7-0 lead. Leonard Fournette dove in from the one for the TD while Blake Bortles avenged a bit of last week’s criticism going 3 for 4 in the drive.

It wasn’t what the Steelers or their fans expected from a team that only scored 10 points last week against Buffalo. Heinz field was quiet and the Pittsburgh sideline bewildered.

It didn’t get any better for the Steelers as Myles Jack tipped a Ben Roethlisberger pass to himself and tiptoed on the sideline for an interception at the 18. Fournette scored off right tackle to take a 14-0 lead. Crickets in the stadium.

On the Jaguars next possession in the second quarter they marched it right down the field again, this time with T.J. Yeldon scoring from 4 yards out to take a 21-0 lead.

Unexpected, but watching the game it was a legitimately dominating performance. The Jaguars offensive line was gouging the Steelers front four while Bortles was composed and getting the ball to the right guys. It wasn’t perfect, but things were happening all in the plus column for the Jaguars.

Up until the 21-0 lead the defense was stopping the run, playing fast and putting enough pressure on Roethlisberger to keep the Pittsburgh passing game at bay. But then they started playing a bit off the ball, giving up chunks of yardage and the Steelers scored making it 21-7. La’Veon Bell was doing most of the work but the TD was a pass from Ben to Antonio Brown where A.J. Bouye never turned around.

Momentum seemed to shift but Yannick Ngakoue stripped the ball from Roethlisberger and Telvin Smith picked it up and ran 50-yards for a TD to take a 28-7 lead. Smith was called for taunting as he went into the end zone so the 15 yards on the kickoff gave the Steelers the ball at midfield with 2:20 to play in the half. It’s a penalty that really hurt the Jaguars because it put Pittsburgh in great field position and gave them a little momentum.

Still the defense was getting the job done, forcing a 4th and 8 at the 36 with time dwindling and Pittsburgh out of timeouts. That’s when Tashaun Gipson inexplicably let Martavius Bryant get behind him for a TD to put the Steelers right back in it at 28-14. It’s the only thing the Jaguars couldn’t do in that situation to allow Pittsburgh to gain some momentum, but that’s what happened.

As I mentioned, it was a half of “unexpecteds” on both sides. Nobody expected the Jaguars to get things done the way they did in the first half and giving up two long TD throws is about the last thing anybody expected from the Jaguars defense.

It carried over to the second half with Pittsburgh taking the opening possession and driving right down field for a TD. Roethlisberger showed great trust in Bell on a little circle route against Telvin Smith, throwing the ball in the end zone where Bell was going to be. Telvin never saw it coming and Bell made a great catch to make it 28-21. Now it’s a game.

All the momentum remained with the Steelers and their fans came alive as well. A couple of good plays by the Jaguars offense were negated by Brad Nortman’s punt being deflected giving the ball to Pittsburgh at midfield to start the fourth quarter.

That’s when the Jaguars showed some life, the defense stopping Pittsburgh on 4th down to get the ball at midfield. After a couple of runs, Bortles hit Keelan Cole for 45 yards down to the 3 and Leonard Fournette scored his third TD of the game for a 35-21 lead.

But the Steelers came right back, converting their second 4th down touchdown of the game, Roethlisberger to Brown in front of Bouye to bring Pittsburgh within seven. It felt like playoff football. The Jaguars defensive backs said all week that Brown was the best receiver in the league and he proved it on this day. Who thought this would be a 35-28 game at any point?

Again the Jaguars responded, this time with Bortles showing poise, patience and throws that he’s not known for in his time in Jacksonville. A critical 3rd down to TJ Yeldon on his third or 4th read gave the Jaguars the ball in Steeler territory. Then just a beautiful play fake and a small toss to the fullback, Tommy Bohanon gave the Jaguars a 42-28 lead with 4 minutes to play. It might be the “coming of age” drive for Bortles who looked the part of a playoff quarterback.

Again, the Steelers drove down and scored, a sandlot play accounting for the TD. Roethlisberger was scrambling past the line of scrimmage but threw it backwards to Bell who went the final eight yards for the TD. Still a game.

But the onside kick didn’t go ten yards and was hit by a Steelers player, giving the Jaguars good field position. A couple of Fournette runs (he was over 100 for the game) made it 4th and 1 letting Josh Lambo kick a 45-yarder for a 45-35 lead and 1:40 to play.

The Steelers had a desperation drive at the end that burned the clock and scored with no time left for a 45-42 win by the Jaguars. Before the game was over, the Jaguars were already an eight-point underdog to the Patriots next weekend in New England. Of course, they were a touchdown underdog here in Pittsburgh and nobody gave them much of a chance.

That’s what happens.

Jaguars In Pittsburgh, All Business

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It should be a little colder than expected for the Jaguars/Steelers game on Sunday. Temperatures in the teens during the game could impact play; with the thought the Jaguars should get the worse of it.

“It’s just a couple hours of sacrifice,” Linebacker Telvin Smith said after the team arrived in the Steel City. “Just understand you gotta do it.”

Departing the busses in downtown Pittsburgh the team was business-like but still loose. A hallmark of the Jaguars this week.

“We ain’t been talkin’ we just been preparin'” Smith said.” “That’s what I love about this team.”

Does it help that they have a playoff game behind them?

“That’s the thing, na, I feel like it’s the next game,” Telvin added. “The next one, on the road. I kind of like it’s on the road. We took care of business (at home) so now it’s time to go on the road.”

“You add the word playoff game to it and people start to get jittery. I can’t say it’s all on the line because that’s what you play for all season.”

As one of the youngest teams in the league and the most unlikely playoff participant, the Jaguars have gotten a lot of accolades for their defense. It’s been compared to the historic Super Bowl winning Bears and Ravens defenses and even the Broncos of two years ago. None of that seems to have gotten to the Jaguars D.

“It’s flattering to hear a lot of this stuff. That’s why I’m happy. Nobody’s bought into this stuff it just, ‘let’s play.'”

The Hammer Podcast, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Jaguars To Play Eagles In London

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They’re not sure if it’ll be week 7 or 8 but the Jaguars will face the Philadelphia Eagles in London this fall. The game will be one of three in London for the NFL in 2018 including two at Wembley and one at the new home of Tottenham Hotspur, White Hart Lane. The exact date will be determined once the Jaguars and the NFL decide which week the team will take it’s bye next season.

Here’s more of the release from the NFL:

The Jaguars are 3-2 in London and have won three consecutive games at Wembley Stadium. It will be their sixth game in the NFL’s International Series. This marks the Jaguars’ third inter-conference game in London and the first since Nov. 9, 2014, when they faced the Dallas Cowboys in Week 10 of the 2014 season (L, 17-31).

On Aug. 21, 2012, the Jaguars made history by becoming the first NFL team to commit to playing four home games at Wembley Stadium. Jaguars Owner Shad Khan, along with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, declared that the Jaguars would play one game each season in the United Kingdom from 2013-16. That deal was later extended through 2020.

On Sept. 24, 2017, the Jaguars defeated the Baltimore Ravens, 44-7, in a Week 3 matchup at Wembley Stadium. The official attendance for the game was 84,592, a then-record for any NFL game played in the United Kingdom. WR Allen Hurns has caught a TD in three consecutive games at Wembley Stadium, and joins Brandon Lloyd and teammate Marcedes Lewis as the only played to catch three or more TD passes at Wembley Stadium. Lewis tied the franchise’s single-game record when he hauled in three TD receptions from QB Blake Bortles in the Jaguars’ Week 3 victory in London.

The Jaguars’ footprint in London continues to grow, as the team has registered over 75,000 fans in the U.K. and rank eighth among NFL teams in European NFL merchandise sales.

Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Jaguars Beat Buffalo With Defense,”Grit”

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You never know how the big stage will affect teams and athletes when they’ve never been there before. Against the Bills, the Jaguars looked like they weren’t sure they belonged in the NFL playoffs in the first half.

On offense they were horrible. Between play calling and execution, they couldn’t get out of their own way. They had 84 yards on 26 plays. Bortles had more yards rushing, 35, than passing. He was 6-of-15 passing for 33 yards but a couple of scrambles at the end of the half enabled Josh Lambo to kick a field goal to tie the game at three. Leonard Fournette had only 16 yards on six carries.

Luckily the defense was stout as usual, even getting a turnover on Aaron Colvin’s first career interception. But the Jaguars couldn’t do anything with it.

Getting the ball to start the second half the offense moved the ball a bit. They actually allowed Bortles to throw it on first down and changed the field position. An exchange of punts gave the Jaguars the ball on the 14 yards line.

And that’s when the offense started to produce. After a 15-play 86-yard drive that took 8:52 off the clock, the Jaguars took a 10-3 lead. On fourth down from the one, after not getting anything done, Offensive Coordinator Nathaniel Hackett called for Blake to fake it and hit the tight end over the middle. After all that, they trusted him on 4th down and he delivered. Bortles hit Ben Koyak in the end zone for a seven-point lead.

It wasn’t pretty after that on either side. A few more punts and the Jaguars controlled the game with the ball at their 20 and six minutes to play. But they couldn’t muster enough offense to seal the game and had to punt. Twice. After a pretty good performance through three quarters, Brad Nortman hit two very average punts giving Buffalo the ball just short of their 40 twice.

Both times the defense got the job done, the second time viscously taking Tyrod Taylor to the ground and knocking him out cold. It was a scary scene when they rushed on the field to check him out. Finally they sat him up and Taylor wobbled off the field. That brought in Nathan Peterman who had a couple of completions and a run for a first down. But the pass rush got to him and forced an intentional grounding and on the following play Jalen Ramsey tipped the ball in the air in coverage and grabbed it for an interception before it hit the ground to finally end the game.

In his first playoff game, Blake Bortles had more yards rushing than passing, the first time that’s happened since Steve McNair did it the last time Buffalo was in the playoffs.

It certainly wasn’t pretty, but the postseason mantra is win and advance and that’s what the Jaguars did at home. Don’t tell them it wasn’t pretty, they don’t care.

The Steelers are next, 1pm next Sunday in Pittsburg

Khan, “I’m very, very bullish on Jacksonville.”

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In his five years as an owner in the NFL, Shad Khan has been surprised more than once. On and off the field he’s seen things he didn’t expect. But the business as a whole is different than the one he saw from the outside.

“It’s much bigger than I expected,” Khan said on Thursday afternoon at the stadium. “I looked at it as a sports, as a fan. It’s a business. It reflects the psyche of the community much more than I thought it would. And it’s hard.”

Despite early efforts to change the Jaguars fortunes on the field, the franchise floundered, finishing near the bottom of the division each year.

“Winning on the field is hard, especially if you don’t have a fundamental core to build on,” he explained.

So building a core, a culture that would change the results on the field started with hiring Tom Coughlin to run the football operation.

“You’ve got to remember, the structure we have has been tried before, unsuccessfully I might add. I didn’t know Tom Coughlin well, but I felt very strongly about it from day one. We have a guy who basically bleeds Jaguars. Having this structure and it’s unique and it’s going to work for us. What I felt like we were missing was football IQ. By having people with more experience and with them to work together. And very simply winning.”

And after five years of losing, the Jaguars made a giant leap forward, winning 10 games and taking the AFC South title for the first time in their history. No surprise, it’s energized the fans, a whole new generation experiencing what it’s like to have a winning football team in their hometown. “I think we have a fan base I have a lot in common with,” Khan added with a laugh. “As an owner I haven’t seen the winning we deserve. The key thing was to have a great game day experience. Then when we started winning, people are coming back. I would hear that a lot. The ultimate thing is winning.”

As a passionate fan, Khan admits the business was different for him from the inside. His passion as a fan hasn’t abated, but he makes sure to separate the owner from the fan when he can.

“You have to know where the lines are. You can’t be impetuous obviously.”

“You can’t fire everybody after a loss,” I said with a laugh.

“Yeah,” Khan replied. “I’ve had failures in business but it was nothing like Thursday night was in Tennessee for us last year. That might be the most humiliating moment of my life. You just can’t do what emotionally you might want to do because you know it’s not the right thing. You know, like the medial professionals in Jacksonville, “Do no harm.”

Using the Jaguars and the NFL as an entertainment venue for his businesses in North America has been very successful. Khan creates a weekend for his guests that culminate with the Jaguars game on Sunday. Has it met his expectations?

“I think it’s much more so. There are not that many NFL club owners who have a day job so to speak. For me, we have 30,000 employees around the world making auto parts. They get exposed to a different element, most are sports fans. To be able to experience this in a different way that money can’t buy is special.”

His first experiences in Jacksonville convinced Khan that North Florida wasn’t reaching it’s potential. With the natural resources, the river, the people and the weather (most of the time!) Shad saw real potential that wasn’t being realized. That’s changed in the last six year, somewhat thanks to him.

“I’ve seen a difference. We realize everything we’ve got going for us. People’s expectations are higher. We’ve been engaged in a lot of different efforts, not just development here, but the trip to London, we had the trip to Toronto with the chamber of commerce. Really just talking to people on the streets. The expectations are higher and we’re going to have more success.”

“I’m very, very bullish on Jacksonville,” he added.

And as far as the long term impact he might have on Jacksonville and the people who will live here, 20, 50, 100 years from now?

“You want to leave things a little bit better than you found them. That’s human nature. If you’re a parent that’s what you want to do with a child. If you have a product, I mean I’d like it to be a shade better than it was. If so, everybody’s better off.”

Boselli, Dawkins Finalists For 2018 Hall Of Fame

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It’s never an easy process but the fifteen finalists for the Class of 2018 Pro Football Hall of Fame are particularly qualified this year. For the second straight year, the Jaguars Tony Boselli and Jacksonville’s Brian Dawkins are among the final fifteen. That means they’ve made it from the 108 eligible players this year through the semifinal process down to 27 and now to the finalists round of 15. The selection committee will discuss them with the other 13 finalists, the two senior candidates and the contributor finalist on the Saturday before the Super Bowl in Minnesota the first weekend of February.

“My career’s not going to change,” Boselli said of his second year of eligibility. “It’s up to you now,” Tony chided me with a laugh. As the Jacksonville representative on the Hall of Fame committee, I’ll present Boselli’s case for the Hall for the second straight year in front of the full committee.

While it’s true his career isn’t going to change, the decision making of the committee has after last year. In the 2017 class, two players, Kenny Easley and Terrell Davis were included with short careers. Easley played in 89 games, Davis 78. Boselli played in 97 games and was considered the best at his position throughout his career.

That’s a pretty good place to be since four other tackles of that era, Walter Jones, Orlando Pace, Jonathan Ogden and Willie Roaf, are all in the Hall. Boselli was one of the two All-Decade Team tackles of the 1990’s.

If there is a knock against Boselli, it’s only the brevity of his career. But with the admission of Easley and Davis, the committee has admitted that only greatness is necessary for selection to the Hall. Tony checks off every box in that category.

As a second time finalist, Brian Dawkins has the attention of the selection committee. A safety mainly for the Eagles and then the Broncos, Dawkins started four NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl. He was All-Pro five seasons and went to nine Pro Bowls. He’s the first player in the NFL history to record a sack, an interception, a fumble recovery and a touchdown catch in the same game. Brian was also named to the All Decade Team of the 2000’s.

The Class of 2018 will be announced during the NFL Honors show on Saturday night, February 3rd in Minneapolis.

Marrone’s Routine Stays The Same

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For a young team that doesn’t have much playoff experience, the Jaguars will lean on their veterans who have been there and a coaching staff that has been around the league a while. Head Coach Doug Marrone doesn’t have that much postseason experience as a player or as a coach, but his staff, including Keenan McCardell, Tyrone Wheatley and Pat Flaherty has seen plenty of playoff football in the NFL. And Marrone’s mentor, Jaguars VP of Football Operations Tom Coughlin knows a few things about the post-season in the league, including two Super Bowl runs.

“This is the start of a different type of season,” Marrone said at his Monday press conference. “This is twelve teams. Every one of those teams is dangerous and it comes down to how you perform on that Sunday. It really does.”

We know Marrone as a coach, and as a player, likes the structure and routine of preparing for a game. For him, he won’t change for the playoffs. He had a bologna sandwich last night when he got home from Nashville.

“The routine is the same. I think the focus just naturally picks up,” he said. “You want to make sure there is a lot of communication. It is like you do every week, but you are just checking the boxes, just one more time. That is probably it. To say, you want to make sure everything is clear, the plan is clear, what we want to do is clear, everyone understands and the reason why, that is a big thing is because when everything is clear, you can play harder and play faster.”

When Marrone was the head coach in Buffalo for two years, the Bills didn’t make the playoffs. He exercised a clause in his contract to leave the Bills and pursue another job. He thought another head coaching job was on the horizon, but instead ended up in Jacksonville as the offensive line coach. Naturally, there were some hard feelings in Buffalo when he left. But he says that’s not anything he’s paid attention to and it’s far in the past.

“For me, the past is the past. I’m happy for them. We’ve earned it the same as they’ve earned it. It’s as easy as that for me.”

When pressed, Marrone understood the storyline but clearly doesn’t think its part of winning a football game on Sunday.

“This stuff happened so long ago,” he explained with an exasperated tone. “There has obviously been a lot of stuff out there. That stuff is done. It is over. I can’t put it any simpler than that. I am not going to take away from my primarily responsibility to look back on a situation that occurred three years ago. If I do that, then I shouldn’t be the coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. My job is to make sure I do the best job for this team. My focus is on our fans, our team and where we want to go.”

As happy as Marrone says he is for Buffalo, and the rest of the playoff teams for that matter, he said he’s more pleased for the Jaguar fans this week.

“I look at it for our fans,” he said. “Their resiliency through difficult times, not being in the playoffs since 2007 and not at home since 1999 (2000 AFC Championship game). I’m excited for our fans.”

Knowing there were several possibilities for the Jaguars opponent in the first round, the video and research staffs have been putting together background on everybody, Buffalo included.

“I’ve seen them during the year,” Marrone revealed. “You get crossed, some of the games you cover. We’re all prepared before, knowing that we were going to play after the season was over. We have it broken down so we’re ready to go right away.”

Even though it’s a long season, Marrone said the schedule will be the same, including practicing in pads this week on Thursday.

Will they be putting in overtime since it’s a one-and-done scenario?

“I can’t put in any overtime,” Marrone said with a laugh. “There’s no more time left in the day. I’m serious. Coaches are creatures of habit. Everything on the schedule, it’s like, I could go back, it’s so easy if someone says, ‘during the season in 2007 and whatever on this Wednesday at this time, what were you doing?’ And if it’s something during work time, I can pretty much tell you we were doing red zone or we were doing third down.”

So just as a test, Marrone was asked what he did during “Chicago week, Thursday” when he was coaching in New Orleans in 2007.

“Thursday? We were always-Thursday in New Orleans was red zone night. I can tell you exactly what we ate, too. We always had pizza and we always had, for me, I always wanted crab dip. Outstanding. So we always had that and that night we went through every single red zone clip from the season, from Chicago season and I guarantee you I didn’t get home until about 12:30.”

Pizza, crab dip, bologna sandwiches, all part of the Doug Marrone routine. He says he only pets his dogs after wins. Jaguars fans are hoping the Marrone dogs get plenty of love Sunday night.

Jaguars Home, Have Already Moved On

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After a New Year’s Eve flight home and a look at the 15-10 loss to the Titans aboard the Jaguars charter, players didn’t see it much differently than when the left the field in Nashville: That’s over, it’s on to the playoffs.

“It’s what you fight so hard for, it’s what camp is all about, grinding those 16, 17 weeks,” said former Super Bowl champ Malik Jackson in front of his locker Monday. “We’re one of 12, we’ll continue to climb the ladder.”

As one of the few Jaguars with any postseason experience, Jackson can give his teammates a few ideas what to expect starting next Sunday against Buffalo.

“The game gets a lot faster, every play counts,” he added. “It’s critical. We can’t give up that screen (from yesterday’s game).”

A veteran of nine playoff games in Arizona, the Jaguars Calais Campbell agrees the postseason is different.

“Doesn’t matter what seed you are,” he said. “At this point, it’s anybody’s game. What you did in the regular season doesn’t matter.”

And in terms of preparing? Campbell said it’s up to each individual player to figure that out. Stay in his routine, and prepare to give more.

“Whatever you have to do to get ready,” he explained. “For some guys, it’s a little more focus. Just a little more. You don’t have anything spectacular, just do you job. Every play is critical. You don’t have to do anything extra.”

For a player like wide receiver Allen Hurns, the playoffs are something new, but he’s taking a cue from his teammates.

“Put the regular season behind us and start the playoffs,” he said, echoing the experienced veterans in the locker room. “We had a couple of rough games here and there but we’re playing in the most important part of the year, January.”

And it’s a special feeling for Hurns and numerous other Jaguars who have been around for a few years. Their seasons were finished with playing out the string games, mounting losses and thinking about some time off. Not this year.

“It feels good,” he said with a smile. “Some guys this time of year are making offseason plans. You have to go forward. They (Buffalo) will look at the film for the past couple of weeks but we have to put that behind us.”

With the game scheduled for Sunday at 1 o’clock, the Jaguars will have their regular home routine for the week. That means today some running and lifting to stay loose, off tomorrow and back to practice Wednesday through Saturday.