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EA Sports To Produce First College Football Game Since NCAA Football 2014

By Adam Roberts – 2/2/2021

In the early days of quarantine, with limited out-of-home entertainment options available my former roommate and I became fixated on the phenomenon of Coach Duggs. For those out of the loop, Barstool’s Big Cat would regularly play NCAA Football ’14 as the fictitious rotund head coach guiding a plethora of programs to bowl glory and inevitably jumping from team to team. Once real-life college football Twitter accounts got in on the fun, things really skyrocketed for Big Cat, and at the end of the day the trend proved that a college football video game still has the chance to meet the needs of a huge market of gamers despite the fact that EA Sports hasn’t released a new game since NCAA ’14.

But now it seems the wait may soon be over.

Earlier today, EA Sports vice president Daryl Holt said the company plans to bring back the popular franchise, though noted it won’t be this year and stopped short of announcing a release date or even a release date announcement date.

Another important thing to note EA Sports is, for now, planning to move forward without rosters that include the names, images or likenesses of real college players. Current NCAA rules prohibit athletes from selling their NIL rights while in college, and a pending lawsuit hoping to change that was tabled a few weeks ago.

Packers List of Defensive Coordinator Interviews Includes Jim Leonard

By Adam Roberts – 2/2/2021

Fans got their wish over the weekend, with the firing of defensive coordinator Mike Pettine. While the firing likely goes deeper than the failures exhibited in the NFC Championship Game, certainly back-to-back awful performances and at times schemes in the conference’s biggest game were certainly a factor.

Whomever takes over the position next will be told off the bat that the team is 100% in win-now mode, given the volatility of things last week concerning quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the reality that father time is undefeated.

ESPN’s Rob Demovsky has compiled a list of candidates for the DC position, a list that features some notable names in the on-deck circle to be interviewed today and tomorrow. Here are some of the highlights:

Jim Leonhard (Defensive Coordinator, Wisconsin) – Leonhard would probably be a top candidate for the job even without his Badger State connection. Leonhard has consistently had a top FBS defense without the flashy recruits of places like Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson, and others. According to the Badgers’ website, over his first four seasons, the Badgers ranked third in scoring defense (17.2 points per game), fourth in total yards allowed (297.9 yards per game), fifth in rushing defense (112.3 ypg) and fifth in pass efficiency defense (109.0). Wisconsin also forced the second-most turnovers of any FBS team during that span, with 104, and the Badgers’ 68 interceptions also ranked No. 2 nationally. The big question is whether or not Leonhard wants to stay at his current spot, pursue a college head coaching opportunity, or make the leap to the NFL.
Chris Kiffin (Cleveland Browns Defensive Line coach) – Kiffin began his full-time NFL coaching career in 2018 as a pass rush specialist with the San Francisco 49ers, but last year he made the move to Cleveland and helped the Browns finish 4th in the NFL in rush yards allowed and forced 17 fumbles.
Ryan Nielsen (New Orleans Saints Defensive Line coach) – While the points per game would indicate the Saints defense has looked suspect recently, the defensive line has been a highlight on that side of the ball. In Nielsen’s four years at t he position, six different defensive linemen have produced multi-sack games and the New Orleans defense has gone the last 43 regular season and postseason games without allowing a 100-yard rusher.
Jerry Gray (Packers Secondary coach) – The only candidate from within being considered, Gray joined LaFleur’s staff a year ago and has eight years’ experience as a coordinator with Buffalo and Tennessee.

Among candidates already interviewed include Chargers defensive passing game coordinator Joe Barry, Washington Football Team defensive backs coach Chris Harris, Rams safeties coach Ejiro Evero, and Falcons senior assistant Bob Sutton.

MLBPA Likely To Reject MLB Delayed Season Proposal

By Adam Roberts – 2/1/2021

Baseball notably suffered a lot at the start of the pandemic to get their season going. Spring training was ended fairly early on, and the abridged 2020 season didn’t ultimately start until late July. While a proposal by Major League Baseball wants to delay the start of the 2021 season for similar COVID-related reasons, it appears that won’t come to pass.

The MLB Players Association is likely to reject MLB’s latest proposal to delay the start of the season. According to reports from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, the MLBPA may not even counter as several players feel it’s too late to revise the schedule. MLB reportedly proposed a 154-game slate with expanded playoffs. The season would be delayed one month, but include full pay for players as part of the deal.

If the players reject this latest offer, spring training would likely start as planned in mid-February. The regular season is scheduled to begin April 1st. The Brewers will begin their spring training games February 27th against the White Sox and open the regular season April 1st at American Family Field against Minnesota. The Twins start spring baseball in Florida March 1st against Philadelphia.

WIAA To Host 3 Boys/Girls State Basketball Finals at La Crosse Center

By Adam Roberts – 2/1/2021

The news first broke on Friday evening that the La Crosse Center, fresh off hosting a full-day of high school basketball at the Midwest Players Classic, would be getting another big prep basketball event on its floor in about a month with three WIAA basketball divisions making the Coulee Region their state championship home this year.

Center Director Art Fahey was on The Sports Lead last Friday to help break down the news, and says that while we still don’t know which division will be playing at the Center, it will be three of the five. “My understanding is one venue will get three division…we are targeted to get three divisions, and it will be for both they boys’ and girls’ tournaments.”

As for how the tournaments will be run and how many people will be admitted, Fahey said the biggest hurdle was securing clearance from the La Crosse County Health Department given their COVID protocols. “We became as a building a thing called GBAC certified, which means Global Biorisk Accreditation. It’s the golden standard for venues like ours for sanitation…[as for all the protocols] we’ve got all those things in placewe’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’re confident we can do it and provide a safe and great environment for the tournament”.

Fahey said 1,000 people will be admitted to the facility that can handle about 6,000 for basketball.

Report: LA Rams Made Run at Aaron Rodgers Over the Weekend

By Adam Roberts – 2/1/2021

This morning, the talk of national sports radio is the Los Angeles Rams acquiring Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford and dealing Jared Goff to Detroit (the trade won’t be official until next month when the new league year starts but it’s safe to say it’s going through). But reportedly, an even bigger prize was eyed by the Rams’ front office before that deal was reached.

According to numerous sources speaking with the LA Times’ Sam Farmer, the Rams originally built off the hype of all the Aaron Rodgers uncertainty and made a push for Rodgers this past weekend.

“They wanted to upgrade from Jared Goff,” Farmer said. “They felt like there were a certain number of quarterbacks who could do that. I think [Watson] was out of their price range. They made a run at Aaron Rodgers, and the Packers were adamant that they weren’t trading him.” This is despite the fact that at a presser this morning, Packer general manager Brian Gutekunst said there was “no truth” to the report.

Recall last week, when seemingly every national media talking head was trying to link Rodgers to either LA, where he owns property, or San Francisco. Let’s hope the Packers refusing to even seriously listen to offers puts the kibosh on any more Rodgers speculation.

WIAA Wrestling Regionals This Weekend

By Adam Roberts – 1/29/2021

Despite no Bi-State at the La Crosse Center to showcase to the masses our area’s high school wrestling talent, the Coulee Region’s best grapplers will take to the mats this weekend with state on their minds.

The schedule for this Saturday’s competition looks like this:

DIVISION 1

Holmen Regional (Holmen, La Crosse Logan/Central, Onalaska/Luther, Sparta, Tomah) – 10am

DIVISION 2

Prairie du Chien Regional (PDC, Viroqua) 9:30am

Arcadia Regional (Arcadia, Black River Falls, Melrose-Mindoro/GET, West Salem/Bangor) 10am

DIVISION 3

Westby Regional (Westby, De Soto) 10am

Cashton Regional (Cashton, Brookwood/Necedah) 10am

Independence Regional (Aquinas, Blair-Taylor, Coulee Christian) 10:30am

The top four finishers in D1 and the top two in D2 and D2 will advance to sectionals on February 6th.

Bucks Executive Alex Lasry Receives COVID-19 Vaccine at Age 33

By Adam Roberts – 1/29/2021

Currently, individuals age 65 or older can apply for a COVID-19 vaccine along with people in certain positions such as front-line health care workers, first responders, police, and firefighters.

That apparently also includes Bucks executives.

Alex Lasry, son of co-owner Marc Lasry, was reportedly able to receive a COVID vaccine by way of his wife’s uncle who had extra doses at the senior center where he serves as a rabbi.

This is certainly interesting, since I feel pretty certain that though I’m only a few years younger than Mr. Lasry, I probably would not be so lucky to be afforded that same opportunity, nor would many other people who are clamoring for a vaccine currently in our state where over 90% of residents are still waiting for the chance at their first dose.

The Bucks face the New Orleans Pelicans on the road tonight.

Brewers Make Sara Goodrum the First Female Minor League Hitting Coordinator

By Adam Roberts – 1/29/2021

In a week of our area NFL teams promoting from within to coordinator positions, yesterday the Brewers followed suit.

Milwaukee has promoted Sara Goodrum to minor league hitting coordinator.

Brewers vice president of minor league operations Tom Flanagan says that “to our knowledge, she would be the first” woman to hold that position in an MLB organization.

Goodrum’s official new title with the Brewers is coordinator for hitting development initiatives. Relating to her experience, she played softball for Oregon from 2012-15 and had spent the last three seasons in the Brewers’ sports science department.

Packers Promote Maurice Drayton to Special Teams Coordinator

By Adam Roberts – 1/28/2021

Within the past hour, our two area NFL teams replaced the hold at the special teams coordinator position.

Earlier, the Vikings promoted Ryan Ficken to the spot in place of Marwan Maalouf, and now the Packers have followed suit, moving up Maurice Drayton from the assistant special teams coach to take over for Shawn Mennenga.

Drayton was an assistant during the Mike McCarthy era, and has had a pretty wild path to arrive at this point. His previous experience has taken him from The Citadel in college football, to Arena 2 football and then to Finland as a coach for the Seinajoki Corcodiles before a tenure in the CFL and also with the Atlanta Falcons and Indianapolis Colts.

We are still following what will happen at the defensive coordinator position, with Mike Pettine having met with Matt LaFleur yesterday.

Vikings Promote Ryan Ficken to Special Teams Coordinator

By Adam Roberts – 1/28/2021

A longtime Minnesota Vikings assistant will be getting a shot at running special teams.

Assistant Ryan Ficken has been promoted to special teams coordinator today, taking the place of Marwan Maalouf, whose contract head coach Mike Zimmer allowed to expire after this season.

Ficken has been the assistant special teams coach for the last eight of his 14 seasons with the Vikings, making the move likely the path of least resistance for the team. Ficken has been involved with plenty of turnover and turmoil within the Vikings special teams department over the years, with a number of different kickers in particular moving through an apparent revolving door at the position.