James Davis was waived by the Browns earlier this week. It looks like he’ll be signing on with the ‘Skins.

The team is expected to add to its practice squad second-year running back James Davis, who was released earlier this week by the Cleveland Browns. It was not immediately clear whose roster spot Davis would be taking. The Redskins had signed running back Jeremiah Johnson to the practice squad one day earlier.

Good luck, James!

From The Tribune

The largest crowd in UFL history, 23,067 fans, came out to witness the premiere of Omaha, Nebraska’s first professional football team after the state became nationally recognised for its mass following of the NCAA University of Nebraska Cornhuskers football programme.

Aside from the biggest crowd, the Nighthawks’ Rosenblatt Stadium was also the home to one of the most spectacular games in the brief history of the league.

Omaha scored their first touchdown in franchise history on a pass from Garcia to fullback Rendrick Taylor to tie the game, 7-7.

Not too shabby.

The Nighthawks next play Sacramento at Rosenblatt Stadium. Gametime is 8:30 PM EDT, viewable on HDNET.

TigerNet has a rundown of which Clemson players went where in the draft as well as which former Tigers played in the NFL in 2009. It also includes this year’s crop of guys who went undrafted and have since signed free agent contracts.

Michael Palmer is going to Atlanta.
Thomas Austin signed with the Minnesota Vikings.
Chris Chancellor will get to keep all his orange clothes as he heads to Cleveland.
Kevin Alexander will also get to maintain a familiar wardrobe as he goes to the Broncos.

Things are less clear for ManBearPig. He “was expected to sign a free agent contract, but it was not known as of this writing.”

In other NFL news, Justin Miller is getting a tryout with the Cardinals. Says RotoWorld:

Miller, 26, was a Pro Bowl returner for the Jets in 2006, but hasn’t been the same since sustaining a complicated toe injury in 2008.

Gotta hate those toe injuries.

• I dare to say it, but Clemson may be peaking at the right time. Last night the Tigers pulled away in the 2nd half to defeat Georgia Tech 91-80 in Littlejohn. The Tigers have won 5 of their last 6 and seem assured of a spot in the NCAA tourney. That’s the good news. The bad news is that 4 of those 5 wins came at home, and it may be that the late season strength is just a reflection of being scheduled well. This is also potentially bad news because the team may relax and lose intensity at just the wrong time now that the NCAA bid seems assured. It’s imperative for the Tigers to go to Winston-Salem on Sunday and put down Wake Forest giving Clemson a very respectable 10 wins in conference.
• Via Examiner.com, there’s a poor quality video of the NFL network’s official 40 runs at the combine. Despite the low-quality, it’s pretty interesting to see the results with Ford and Spiller taking 1st & 3rd places, respectively.
  

  There is some speculation that Spiller could end up being drafted by the Browns. That would likely re-unite him with James Davis. Chansi Stuckey is also with the Browns right now.

• Bleacher Report lays out the case the Michael Palmer should be getting more attention from the NFL than he is. Since Palmer became one of my favorite player’s last season, I would love to see him overcome the odds and make it in the NFL.

• After last night’s road win over FSU, I took a deep breath. However now is definitely not the time for the basketball team to relax. They’re still something of a bubble team with 2 regular season games remaining. Next up is GT, at home fortunately. The last game is Sunday at Wake Forest. Wake is on a three game skid and just lost at home to UNC.
• The baseball team remains undefeated after sweeping Wright State over the weekend. With the wins I can now claim collegiate baseball dominance over my dad, a Miami University alum, and my brother a Wright State alum who even made a decent run to be a walk-on for the Raiders many years ago.
• From the NFL combine, we get some reports of the best 40 times. Per the Buffalo News:
  

  The fastest running back was California’s Jahvid Best at 4.35 seconds. Next was Clemson’s C.J. Spiller at 4.37 seconds.

  The fastest time among receivers was run by Clemson’s Jacoby Ford, who was timed in 4.28 seconds, according to the NFL Network.

• The Bills are apparently taking a look at Charlie Whitehurst. Maybe he’ll end up getting some playing time within the next 5 years.
• Lastly, Khalil Greene’s fresh $750k contract with the Rangers has been voided. Hopefully Khalil can get his shit together.

• The basketball team takes the court tonight against UNC. The game is in Littlejohn, so the Tigers might have a chance. Tip is at 9:05, The OP has your pre-game information and links.
• The assault charges against Trevor Adair have been dropped. Ultimately he will only have to pay a $1100 fine for violating the noise ordinance.
• Greg Wallace speculates that Butch Davis and David Cutcliffe will be considered candidates for the now-vacant Tennessee head coaching gig. Cutcliffe’s ties to UT make it natural that his name would come up, but it will be hard for him to overcome his mediocre tenure at Ole Miss.
• Khalil Green has signed on with the Texas Rangers as a utility infielder. It’s a 1-year contract worth a reported $750k.
• Speaking of baseball, the college season is quickly approaching. Clemson’s first game is scheduled for February 19th against Miami University.

Update: Vegas Insider puts the consensus line at Clemson -4.5.

Update 2: With 7:12 in the game, I just realized that Roy Williams is wearing one of the ugliest ties in recorded history and that Clemson has lost sight of the need to play to win the game.

Update 3: My fears have gone unrealized and Clemson prevailed easily. Trevor Booker is a joy to watch. The on-court, post-game interview with Booker was a bust because the noise made it impossible to communicate.

As you’ve surely noticed, posting has been a bit sparse around here for, oh, say, the last year. We’re not dead, just older. Plus, speaking for myself personally, I found Larry Williams’ blog to be so thorough and so high in quality that it was largely a waste of time to try to write something that would cover the same ground and be of lesser quality. But now his blog has gone premium. And with it goes my easy access to information and my excuse for not posting more often.

On that note, here’s some news:

• SI notes that Chansi Stuckey is making an impact in Cleveland after his trade from the Jets.
• Speaking of the Jets, you may have heard that they brought back Justin Miller to return kicks. That’s true. But after only a month he has again been let go.
• Thursday night’s late game should have your attention. Oregon State (#13) goes 40 miles up the road to face Oregon (#7) for the next installment of the “Civil War”. This game has two top-15 teams, a heated in-state rivalry, and the winner goes to the Rose Bowl. This is a compelling game.

… and some opinion

• Bobby Bowden is out at Florida State, and from my view from the couch, it’s about damn time. It seems everyone else in the world thinks he deserves at least another year, if not coach-for-life status at FSU. I don’t think he deserves another year, and I bet that if he was named coach for life that he’d quickly become the victim in a suspicious death.

  I understand that teams ebb and flow. Yes Penn State did hold on to JoePa during some down years earlier this decade and Penn State recovered quite well. However, I don’t see that happening for Bowden. To explain why, I’ll use a cliche. JoePa lives to coach, whereas Bowden coaches to live. JoePa strikes me as being an intense guy who just wants to coach. Bowden strikes me, at this point, as an old softie who only ambles about the sidelines because he fears that he’ll face the same post-coaching fate that met Bear Bryant.

  Bobby Bowden did deserve to go out on his own terms and he did deserve just one more year to have a farewell tour. Unfortunately that year should have been about 3 years ago. I don’t think Bobby Bowden knows how to quit, and that has served him well throughout his career, but that means that he has to leave it up to someone else to make the decision of when he’s done.

Some recent news items:

• It looks like things keep getting worse for Barry Humphries. He failed his physical at SC State and is now trying to get into coaching.
• The P&C has a feature on Brandon Maye and adapting to the changes brought on by the change in defensive coordinators. I think our primary advantage through the fist half of the season will be that none of our opponents will really know what to expect.
• Current Dallas Cowboy Michael Hamlin broke his wrist in a pre-season game against the ‘Niners. Hamlin is expected to be out for 4-6, but he won’t be placed on the IR.