In the five years the Jaguars have played in London, they’ve tried all kinds of different things to figure out how to give themselves the best chance to win. One year the team left directly after a game from Cincinnati. Dinner at the Montgomery Inn on the river, then a special TSA check, bus by […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/jacksonville-jaguars-london.jpg10001400Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-10-26 14:11:442018-10-26 14:15:05Jaguars in London Pretty Routine
Among the questions that will need to be answered for the Jaguars before they go to London is about the starting quarterback. It’s nearly unheard of to take a QB out of the game because things aren’t going well. Yet Doug Marrone yanked Blake Bortles when things went south early in the second half against […]
Working in Charleston I got a chance to come to Jacksonville to cover the Gator Bowl in the late ‘70’s a couple of times. After the 1978 game between Clemson and Ohio State (the one where Woody Hayes famously punched Charlie Bauman on the sidelines) I asked an usher on the way out, “What else […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/news-georgia-florida-game-1.jpg10001400Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-10-18 16:30:352018-10-18 16:43:53Georgia Florida is a Big Deal
It’s pretty simple math. Last year the Jaguars were 3-3 at this point in the season and finished 10-6. That means for the final 10 games of the year they went 7-3 and won the division. But even Head Coach Doug Marrone knows this year is different. “When you look back and we were 3-3 […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/news-jaguars-need-a-fix.jpg10001400Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-10-16 09:23:592018-10-16 10:42:32Jaguars Need a Fix Fast
Even though he’s not superstitious, I know I shouldn’t be writing about Josh Lambo and kickers this week. Lambo hasn’t missed since last year, either a PAT or a field goal so if he misses today, it’ll be my fault. Kind of like talking to a pitcher who’s throwing a no-hitter. Nonetheless, Lambo has something […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Jaguars-Josh-Lambo.jpg10001400Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-10-12 07:15:422018-10-11 21:17:35Kicking Is A Mental Game
It’s fair to say the Jaguars are a good team looking for answers. Sunday’s loss to Kansas City exposed some of their flaws and gave a blueprint to the rest of the league of the game plan that beats them. Four interceptions usually sinks a team’s chances for winning but when they needed a stop, […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/jaguars-kansas-city.jpg10001400Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-10-09 07:46:342018-10-09 00:54:51Jaguars: More Questions Than Answers
What if over the last couple of years you became really good-looking? You know, you went to your 10-year high school reunion and you looked great! Would you know how to act? People would react differently to you; tell you how good you looked, asking if you’ve been working out or whatever. That’s the situation […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/blake-bortles.jpg10001400Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-10-05 08:29:212018-10-05 08:29:21Jaguars: Act Like You're Good
There’s something to be said for the resiliency of the Jaguars under Head Coach Doug Marrone. With their 31-12 win over the Jets on Sunday, the Jaguars are 8-1 after a loss with Marrone leading the way. In other words, they’ve only lost back-to-back games once: Last year to Tennessee and San Francisco at the […]
Is it possible for an entire city to have a hangover for a whole week? It sure seemed like it last Sunday when the Jaguars took on the Tennessee Titans at the stadium. The week before, the Jaguars, with huge vocal support from their fans, exorcized the demon Patriots, the only thing standing between them […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/jacksonville-jaguars-fans.jpg10001400Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-09-28 11:15:172018-09-28 11:15:31Can a Whole Town Have a Hangover?
There’s a scene in Godfather II where Vito Corleone is in his dimly lit apartment worried about his son Fredo. Fredo has pneumonia and is being tended to by his mother and a nursemaid using a glass tumbler with a flame underneath. The thought was it would suck the illness out of his tiny body. […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/jacksonville-jaguars-injury-recovery.jpg10001400Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-09-21 08:26:162018-09-21 11:33:02Recovery is the Latest in the NFL
On the day after the win over the Patriots, Jaguars Head Coach Doug Marrone was moving forward. While some teams talk about the “24-hour rule” to bask or wallow in the previous day’s result, Marrone was already preparing for the Titans. He’s doing so with a new starter on the offensive line with the loss […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/doug-marrone-jacksonville-jaguars.jpg10001400Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-09-18 08:40:172018-09-18 10:10:56Marrone Spreads The Credit Around
As a boss “Dirty Carl” was nearly the ideal kind of guy to run a bar in DC. Well dressed, older than the staff, he commanded a level of respect because of his age and he knew the business. He’d sit at the end of the bar, stay out of your way and hand out […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/news-sports-book.jpg10001400Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-09-13 09:08:092018-09-13 09:08:55Football Gambler: A Day in the Life
One of my favorite stories about the vagaries of the NFL comes from the 2010 season. In their 13th game, the Jaguars secured their eighth victory of the year, beating Oakland at home to go 8-5 with three games left. In the same week, the Green Bay Packers were also 8-5, losing to Detroit on […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/jacksonville-jaguars-2018.jpg10001400Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-09-07 12:03:002018-09-07 17:38:35Jaguars: Good Enough to Win
Whoever thought of playing Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” to kick off the fourth quarter at Jaguars’ home games was a genius. Whoever thought it was a good idea to stop that was something less than a genius. Maybe it didn’t seem “sophisticated” enough to somebody new to town. Or they wanted to be more […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/lynyrd-skynyrd.jpg10001400Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-08-31 10:03:352018-08-31 10:56:57Jaguars and Skynyrd a Natural Fit
Even though there’s a bunch of rah-rah and it seems glamorous, a football team is much like any work environment. There’s a boss, some lieutenants and workers. The boss, in this case, the head coach, sets the tone, the policies and the overall structure of what happens. In the Jaguars 23 years they’ve had different […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/doug-marrone.jpg10001400Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-08-25 08:48:342018-08-25 08:48:34Marrone: Right Guy, Right Time
I was walking through the Jacksonville Bulls locker room in 1985 when running back Mike Rozier started a NSFW tirade toward me about something I had said on TV the night before. In the course of his screaming he threatened to kill me, have me killed, “mess me up” and a variety of other unprintable […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/news-jags.jpg10001400Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-08-17 17:29:502018-08-17 20:39:50Teams, Players, Reporters and the Truth
You might have heard Jim Nantz at the end of the CBS telecast of the PGA Championship mention Gary Player’s prediction that “athletes will eventually choose golf and we’ll have players hitting it 400 yards. It’ll be a different game.” Player has said that for a while, but it was especially poignant this week as […]
Oh, he might take a trophy home from a PGA Tour event where say, 12 of the top 30 players in the world are in the field. But even he won’t count that as a win. He’ll say it feels good, and add it puts him on the right path to his goals. And that’s […]
We haven’t heard much about “the Jaguars are moving” story in the past couple of years. Los Angeles has two teams and a multi-billion dollar stadium being built. But there’s a new, albeit faint drumbeat about more games in London and fewer games in Jacksonville. By now you’ve probably heard what NBC’s Peter King said […]
https://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/london-jaguars.jpg701934Sam Kouvarishttps://www.samsportsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sam-kavouris-sam-sportsline.pngSam Kouvaris2018-08-03 16:12:472018-08-09 16:37:11Adding London games is fine for Jaguars, as a road team
As the Jaguars gathered this week in Year 2 of the Coughlin/Marrone era, expectations are high. While quick turnarounds are common in the NFL, the Jaguars’ “worst to first” in 2017 seemed to come out of nowhere. Can a management and coaching change make that much difference? There are a lot of moving parts that […]
Jaguars in London Pretty Routine
/in Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisIn the five years the Jaguars have played in London, they’ve tried all kinds of different things to figure out how to give themselves the best chance to win. One year the team left directly after a game from Cincinnati. Dinner at the Montgomery Inn on the river, then a special TSA check, bus by […]
Frustration, Expectations Dog Jaguars
/in Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisAmong the questions that will need to be answered for the Jaguars before they go to London is about the starting quarterback. It’s nearly unheard of to take a QB out of the game because things aren’t going well. Yet Doug Marrone yanked Blake Bortles when things went south early in the second half against […]
Georgia Florida is a Big Deal
/in College Football, Football /by Sam KouvarisWorking in Charleston I got a chance to come to Jacksonville to cover the Gator Bowl in the late ‘70’s a couple of times. After the 1978 game between Clemson and Ohio State (the one where Woody Hayes famously punched Charlie Bauman on the sidelines) I asked an usher on the way out, “What else […]
Jaguars Need a Fix Fast
/in Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisIt’s pretty simple math. Last year the Jaguars were 3-3 at this point in the season and finished 10-6. That means for the final 10 games of the year they went 7-3 and won the division. But even Head Coach Doug Marrone knows this year is different. “When you look back and we were 3-3 […]
Kicking Is A Mental Game
/in Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisEven though he’s not superstitious, I know I shouldn’t be writing about Josh Lambo and kickers this week. Lambo hasn’t missed since last year, either a PAT or a field goal so if he misses today, it’ll be my fault. Kind of like talking to a pitcher who’s throwing a no-hitter. Nonetheless, Lambo has something […]
Jaguars: More Questions Than Answers
/in Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisIt’s fair to say the Jaguars are a good team looking for answers. Sunday’s loss to Kansas City exposed some of their flaws and gave a blueprint to the rest of the league of the game plan that beats them. Four interceptions usually sinks a team’s chances for winning but when they needed a stop, […]
Jaguars: Act Like You’re Good
/in Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisWhat if over the last couple of years you became really good-looking? You know, you went to your 10-year high school reunion and you looked great! Would you know how to act? People would react differently to you; tell you how good you looked, asking if you’ve been working out or whatever. That’s the situation […]
Jaguars Show Resilience, Beat Jets
/in Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisThere’s something to be said for the resiliency of the Jaguars under Head Coach Doug Marrone. With their 31-12 win over the Jets on Sunday, the Jaguars are 8-1 after a loss with Marrone leading the way. In other words, they’ve only lost back-to-back games once: Last year to Tennessee and San Francisco at the […]
Can a Whole Town Have a Hangover?
/in Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisIs it possible for an entire city to have a hangover for a whole week? It sure seemed like it last Sunday when the Jaguars took on the Tennessee Titans at the stadium. The week before, the Jaguars, with huge vocal support from their fans, exorcized the demon Patriots, the only thing standing between them […]
Recovery is the Latest in the NFL
/in Football, Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisThere’s a scene in Godfather II where Vito Corleone is in his dimly lit apartment worried about his son Fredo. Fredo has pneumonia and is being tended to by his mother and a nursemaid using a glass tumbler with a flame underneath. The thought was it would suck the illness out of his tiny body. […]
Marrone Spreads The Credit Around
/in Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisOn the day after the win over the Patriots, Jaguars Head Coach Doug Marrone was moving forward. While some teams talk about the “24-hour rule” to bask or wallow in the previous day’s result, Marrone was already preparing for the Titans. He’s doing so with a new starter on the offensive line with the loss […]
Football Gambler: A Day in the Life
/in Football, Gambling /by Sam KouvarisAs a boss “Dirty Carl” was nearly the ideal kind of guy to run a bar in DC. Well dressed, older than the staff, he commanded a level of respect because of his age and he knew the business. He’d sit at the end of the bar, stay out of your way and hand out […]
Jaguars: Good Enough to Win
/in Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisOne of my favorite stories about the vagaries of the NFL comes from the 2010 season. In their 13th game, the Jaguars secured their eighth victory of the year, beating Oakland at home to go 8-5 with three games left. In the same week, the Green Bay Packers were also 8-5, losing to Detroit on […]
Jaguars and Skynyrd a Natural Fit
/in Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisWhoever thought of playing Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” to kick off the fourth quarter at Jaguars’ home games was a genius. Whoever thought it was a good idea to stop that was something less than a genius. Maybe it didn’t seem “sophisticated” enough to somebody new to town. Or they wanted to be more […]
Marrone: Right Guy, Right Time
/in Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisEven though there’s a bunch of rah-rah and it seems glamorous, a football team is much like any work environment. There’s a boss, some lieutenants and workers. The boss, in this case, the head coach, sets the tone, the policies and the overall structure of what happens. In the Jaguars 23 years they’ve had different […]
Teams, Players, Reporters and the Truth
/in Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisI was walking through the Jacksonville Bulls locker room in 1985 when running back Mike Rozier started a NSFW tirade toward me about something I had said on TV the night before. In the course of his screaming he threatened to kill me, have me killed, “mess me up” and a variety of other unprintable […]
Koepka looks like golf’s future 2018
/in Golf /by Sam KouvarisYou might have heard Jim Nantz at the end of the CBS telecast of the PGA Championship mention Gary Player’s prediction that “athletes will eventually choose golf and we’ll have players hitting it 400 yards. It’ll be a different game.” Player has said that for a while, but it was especially poignant this week as […]
I don’t think Tiger will win again
/in Golf /by Sam KouvarisOh, he might take a trophy home from a PGA Tour event where say, 12 of the top 30 players in the world are in the field. But even he won’t count that as a win. He’ll say it feels good, and add it puts him on the right path to his goals. And that’s […]
Adding London games is fine for Jaguars, as a road team
/in Football, Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisWe haven’t heard much about “the Jaguars are moving” story in the past couple of years. Los Angeles has two teams and a multi-billion dollar stadium being built. But there’s a new, albeit faint drumbeat about more games in London and fewer games in Jacksonville. By now you’ve probably heard what NBC’s Peter King said […]
Coughlin culture still permeates Jaguars
/in Football, Jacksonville Jaguars /by Sam KouvarisAs the Jaguars gathered this week in Year 2 of the Coughlin/Marrone era, expectations are high. While quick turnarounds are common in the NFL, the Jaguars’ “worst to first” in 2017 seemed to come out of nowhere. Can a management and coaching change make that much difference? There are a lot of moving parts that […]