Those defections forced the Big East to scrap its planned home-and-away opponents, which was announced in December. A new list of opponents was released on Friday.

League members will play eight Big East games, facing every school except one. Big East teams that will not play each other in 2013: UCF and Cincinnati; UConn and Houston; Louisville and SMU; Memphis and Rutgers; and USF and Temple.

Six Big East schools were scheduled to play both Boise State and San Diego State and had both games replaced in the new schedule.

The biggest beneficiary of the new matchups appears to be Louisville, which is expected to be a preseason top-10 team next season. Instead of playing at Boise State and hosting San Diego State, Louisville will play at Temple and host Houston.

Every school’s conference opponents were altered by the new schedule with the exception of USF.

Instead of playing the Broncos and Aztecs, Temple plays Cincinnati and Louisville; SMU plays Rutgers and Cincinnati; Memphis plays UCF and UConn; Houston plays Cincinnati and Louisville; Louisville plays Temple and Houston; and Cincinnati plays SMU and Temple.

Game dates are expected to be announced in a few months, but the team’s home and away opponents are as follows:

UCF:
• Home: UConn, Houston, Rutgers, USF.
• Away: Louisville, Memphis, SMU, Temple.

Cincinnati
• Home: UConn, Louisville, SMU, Temple.
• Away: Houston, Memphis, Rutgers, USF.

UConn
• Home: Louisville, Memphis, Rutgers, USF.
• Away: UCF, Cincinnati, SMU, Temple.

Houston
• Home: Cincinnati, Memphis, SMU, USF.
• Away: UCF, Louisville, Rutgers, Temple.

Louisville
• Home: UCF, Houston, Memphis, Rutgers.
• Away: Cincinnati, UConn, USF, Temple.

Memphis
• Home: UCF, Cincinnati, SMU, Temple.
• Away: UConn, Houston, Louisville, USF.

Rutgers
• Home: Cincinnati, Houston, USF, Temple.
• Away: UCF, UConn, Louisville, SMU.

SMU
• Home: UCF, UConn, Rutgers, Temple.
• Away: Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, USF.

USF
• Home: Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, SMU.
• Away: UCF, UConn, Houston, Rutgers.

Temple
• Home: UCF, UConn, Houston, Louisville.
• Away: Cincinnati, Memphis, Rutgers, SMU.

The post Big East won’t have divisions in ’13 appeared first on IdealCapper.

Given the ball at his 20 with 31 seconds, two timeouts and one of the best quarterbacks in the game, the Broncos coach decided to run out the clock and head to overtime.

Result: Baltimore 38, Denver 35. End of season in Broncoland.

Fox said he felt good about the decision when he made it Saturday, toward the end of one of the most disheartening losses in the franchise’s history. After hashing it over during the last two sleepless nights, he stood by his decision.

“I’d do it again 10 times if it presented itself in that situation,” he said Monday at Denver’s season-ending news conference, where he was joined by Elway, the quarterback-turned-front office executive.

Even 48 hours after the game, that single decision remained the most hotly debated of the many Fox, Manning and the Broncos made in their gaffe-filled loss to the Ravens. The second-guessing only got more intense Sunday after Atlanta moved the ball 41 yards in 12 seconds to set up the game-winning field goal in its 30-28 victory over Seattle.

But, Fox said, Denver’s situation was nowhere near what the Falcons faced. The Falcons were losing and had no other choice. They were playing in a dome. The Broncos had just given up a game-tying 70-yard touchdown pass and were standing on the sideline in disbelief. The temperature was below 10 degrees. Manning had thrown the ball downfield a grand total of twice the entire game.

“You watch a (70)-yard bomb go over your head, there’s a certain amount of shock value,” Fox said. “A little bit like a prize fighter who gets a right cross on the chin at the end of a round, you’re looking to get out of the round.”

Elway, of course, built his career around extracting the Broncos from impossible situations. But asked specifically how he would’ve responded in his playing days if told to take a knee under those circumstances, he sounded not at all like the go-for-broke quarterback he once was.

“I thought it was the right thing at that time,” Elway said. “I think with where the team was mentally and the situation we were in, I thought that it was a good move.”

Though the Broncos recovered and stopped Baltimore twice in the overtime, eventually Manning threw an interception that set up the Ravens for the winning field goal. It was a sudden, shocking end to a season that had Super Bowl written all over it. Instead, this year is drawing more comparisons to 1996, when the Broncos also were 13-3, also were top seeds and also lost by three points in the divisional round — to Jacksonville instead of Baltimore.

At the time, Elway was 36 and still searching for his first Super Bowl title. He won the next two.

Currently, Manning is 36 and stuck on one Super Bowl title. He signed with the Broncos last offseason to win a few more.

“I think having been through this before, and having been disappointed before, I realized that this was a possibility,” Elway said. “The bottom line is how we learn from this situation. If we get defensive and don’t look at everything we did in this game and try to learn from it, then there is a chance we can experience it again. Hopefully, we’re back in this situation again and we will have looked at it the right way and learned from the situation.”

While Fox conceded there were coaching mistakes in the game — most notably not having safety Rahim Moore coached up well enough to properly defend the pass that tied the game — he stood by his two most important strategic decisions.

A few minutes before kneeling on the ball, Denver was up by seven and trying to grind out the clock. Despite being down to their third-string running back, 188-pound Ronnie Hillman, the Broncos called three straight running plays, including a run off right guard on third-and-7 that went for no gain. That ran the clock down to 1:15 and made Baltimore burn all its timeouts.

But three plays after a punt, Joe Flacco threw the improbable 70-yard touchdown over Rahim Moore and into the hands of Jacoby Jones that tied the game.

“I’ve never believed in, `It’s one guy, one play,” Fox said when asked about Moore’s role in the loss. “It obviously was a big play.”

Fox said he played the percentages on all the calls — nothing more, nothing less.

According to his calculations:

” There’s a 38 to 40 percent chance of converting a third-and-7 into a first down.

” By punting and giving Baltimore the ball on its 23-yard line, trailing by a touchdown with 1:09 left and no timeouts, the Broncos had a 97 percent chance of winning.

” That percentage spiked to 99.9 percent when the Ravens had the ball on the 30 with 41 seconds left.

Turned out, the Broncos are a “.1 percenter.”

“I mean this in all sincerity, if I felt like we were going to give up a 70-yard touchdown pass with 31 seconds to go, we might have re-evaluated that,” Fox said. “But that’s not what the percentages said.

Elway said the Broncos intend to pick up the option on Manning for the next two years, which would pay him $40 million for two seasons. Manning still has to pass a physical later this winter to get the money.

In an interview with The Denver Post, owner Pat Bowlen called Manning “the real deal.”

“I don’t think he’s going anywhere,” Bowlen said. “I got more than I expected.”

Elway also said the Broncos would like to bring free agent LT Ryan Clady back.

By losing, the Broncos coaching staff gets assigned to coach the AFC in the Pro Bowl, the week before the Super Bowl. Manning said he will play in the game, as well.

“We had a very good football team,” Bowlen told the Denver newspaper. “A lot of those guys are going to be back. Some of them won’t be. Some will go to other teams or whatever, but I’m very comfortable that the nucleus of this football team will be back.

“I think we learned something. We learned a lesson. I think that lesson will help us. We’ve got to get better. Not in a lot of different areas. Keep the nucleus, but maybe tweak it here and there. But as for the future, that’s up to John. He’s going to tell me what we’ll do. I would be very surprised if we don’t agree.”

The post John Elway supports John Fox appeared first on IdealCapper.

John Elway, of all people, agreed with that call.

Given the ball at his 20 with 31 seconds, two timeouts and one of the best quarterbacks in the game, the Broncos coach decided to run out the clock and head to overtime.

Result: Baltimore 38, Denver 35. End of season in Broncoland.

Fox said he felt good about the decision when he made it Saturday, toward the end of one of the most disheartening losses in the franchise’s history. After hashing it over during the last two sleepless nights, he stood by his decision.

“I’d do it again 10 times if it presented itself in that situation,” he said Monday at Denver’s season-ending news conference, where he was joined by Elway, the quarterback-turned-front office executive.

Even 48 hours after the game, that single decision remained the most hotly debated of the many Fox, Manning and the Broncos made in their gaffe-filled loss to the Ravens. The second-guessing only got more intense Sunday after Atlanta moved the ball 41 yards in 12 seconds to set up the game-winning field goal in its 30-28 victory over Seattle.

But, Fox said, Denver’s situation was nowhere near what the Falcons faced. The Falcons were losing and had no other choice. They were playing in a dome. The Broncos had just given up a game-tying 70-yard touchdown pass and were standing on the sideline in disbelief. The temperature was below 10 degrees. Manning had thrown the ball downfield a grand total of twice the entire game.

“You watch a (70)-yard bomb go over your head, there’s a certain amount of shock value,” Fox said. “A little bit like a prize fighter who gets a right cross on the chin at the end of a round, you’re looking to get out of the round.”

Elway, of course, built his career around extracting the Broncos from impossible situations. But asked specifically how he would’ve responded in his playing days if told to take a knee under those circumstances, he sounded not at all like the go-for-broke quarterback he once was.

“I thought it was the right thing at that time,” Elway said. “I think with where the team was mentally and the situation we were in, I thought that it was a good move.”

Though the Broncos recovered and stopped Baltimore twice in the overtime, eventually Manning threw an interception that set up the Ravens for the winning field goal. It was a sudden, shocking end to a season that had Super Bowl written all over it. Instead, this year is drawing more comparisons to 1996, when the Broncos also were 13-3, also were top seeds and also lost by three points in the divisional round — to Jacksonville instead of Baltimore.

At the time, Elway was 36 and still searching for his first Super Bowl title. He won the next two.

Currently, Manning is 36 and stuck on one Super Bowl title. He signed with the Broncos last offseason to win a few more.

“I think having been through this before, and having been disappointed before, I realized that this was a possibility,” Elway said. “The bottom line is how we learn from this situation. If we get defensive and don’t look at everything we did in this game and try to learn from it, then there is a chance we can experience it again. Hopefully, we’re back in this situation again and we will have looked at it the right way and learned from the situation.”

While Fox conceded there were coaching mistakes in the game — most notably not having safety Rahim Moore coached up well enough to properly defend the pass that tied the game — he stood by his two most important strategic decisions.

A few minutes before kneeling on the ball, Denver was up by seven and trying to grind out the clock. Despite being down to their third-string running back, 188-pound Ronnie Hillman, the Broncos called three straight running plays, including a run off right guard on third-and-7 that went for no gain. That ran the clock down to 1:15 and made Baltimore burn all its timeouts.

But three plays after a punt, Joe Flacco threw the improbable 70-yard touchdown over Rahim Moore and into the hands of Jacoby Jones that tied the game.

“I’ve never believed in, `It’s one guy, one play,” Fox said when asked about Moore’s role in the loss. “It obviously was a big play.”

Fox said he played the percentages on all the calls — nothing more, nothing less.

According to his calculations:

-There’s a 38 to 40 percent chance of converting a third-and-7 into a first down.

-By punting and giving Baltimore the ball on its 23-yard line, trailing by a touchdown with 1:09 left and no timeouts, the Broncos had a 97 percent chance of winning.

-That percentage spiked to 99.9 percent when the Ravens had the ball on the 30 with 41 seconds left.

Turned out, the Broncos are a “.1 percenter.”

“I mean this in all sincerity, if I felt like we were going to give up a 70-yard touchdown pass with 31 seconds to go, we might have re-evaluated that,” Fox said. “But that’s not what the percentages said.”

Game notes
Elway said the Broncos intend to pick up the option on Manning for the next two years, which would pay him $40 million for two seasons. Manning still has to pass a physical later this winter to get the money. Elway also said the Broncos would like to bring free agent LT Ryan Clady back. … By losing, the Broncos coaching staff gets assigned to coach the AFC in the Pro Bowl, the week before the Super Bowl. Manning said he will play in the game, as well.

The post John Fox, John Elway of Denver Broncos stand by late kneel-down decision against Baltimore Ravens appeared first on IdealCapper.

Reid’s status as the favorite for the Cardinals’ job was earlier reported by KTVK-TV in Phoenix on Tuesday.

Arizona is fast tracking Reid so it can move as quickly as possible. One league source said he was “95 percent” certain Reid will wind up coaching the Cardinals.

The Cardinals formally interviewed defensive coordinator Ray Horton on Tuesday, one day after Ken Whisenhunt was fired following six seasons as the team’s coach.

Cardinals president Michael Bidwill also plans to fly to Denver over the weekend to interview Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy.

Reid has spent recent days assembling a coaching staff, telling potential assistants that an announcement could come quickly, according to one assistant. After his run of 14 seasons in Philadelphia ended Monday, Reid appeared set on coaching again next season.

Arizona would be appealing to Reid and his family on a number of levels, none more so than his wife Tammy is from the Phoenix area and it would bring them closer to family.

In Arizona, Reid also could try to help salvage the career of former Eagles quarterback Kevin Kolb, who has struggled since signing a lucrative five-year deal with the Cardinals following a trade from Philadelphia in 2011.

In a perfect world, Arizona would get to hire Reid and his offensive staff and match it with Horton and the defensive staff, giving the Cardinals a winning one-two coaching combination.

Kolb, who threw 11 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in four seasons with Philadelphia, remains under contract with Arizona, but the team is expected to want to restructure his contract. He is set to make $9 million plus a $2 million roster bonus for the coming season.

“I’m not ready to give up on Kevin Kolb yet,” Bidwill said Monday.

Bidwill has to interview McCoy this weekend in Denver under NFL rules that provide a narrow window for such meetings with members of coaching staffs whose teams have a bye the first round of the playoffs. McCoy also has an interview scheduled with the Browns.

Larry Fitzgerald, who had one of his worst seasons as the Cardinals struggled at the quarterback position, weighed in on the firing of Whisenhunt and general manager Rod Graves. In a lengthy tweet, Fitzgerald thanked the pair for giving him the opportunity to “live my dream in the NFL.”

“We all shoulder the blame for a disappointing season which began with such promise,” Fitzgerald wrote.

He said that “even in the midst of a tumultuous season, it was still a pleasure to work for the staff we served under, and for that we remain grateful.”

“Their professionalism will provide for renewed accomplishments in different environs,” Fitzgerald wrote. “We all, to a man, thank them and wish them the best.”

Whisenhunt set the record for victories by a Cardinals coach, going 45-51 in six seasons, 4-2 in the playoffs. The team got off to a 4-0 start but lost 11 of 12 to finish 5-11 for the second time in three seasons.

The post Cards target Andy Reid appeared first on IdealCapper.

So, up the ladder he went — throwing the ball high in the back of the end zone to Demaryius Thomas.

Manning A True No. 1

Thomas leaped and brought it down with his right hand, then got both feet down inside the line for a touchdown. With that, he joined Eric Decker in Denver’s one-handed-touchdown club Sunday and gave the Broncos some otherworldly highlights to go with their home-field advantage throughout the playoffs after a 38-3 runaway over the Kansas City Chiefs.

“They claim they can do that all the time,” said cornerback Champ Bailey, who got to watch the replays of both catches about a half-dozen times on the scoreboard. “They say they practice that. I don’t see it. But as long as they do it on Sunday, I’m all for it. Those are some great, hardworking boys and I expect nothing less.”

Manning, in search of his fifth MVP award and, yes, a second Super Bowl title, finished 23 for 29 for 304 yards, three scores and a 144.8 passer rating. One of his main competitors for the award, Adrian Peterson of the Vikings, ran for 199 yards in a 37-34 win over Green Bay that secured a playoff berth.

That one went down to the wire. Manning was out of his game by the fourth quarter.

This was the second straight Sunday he used a grey-and-orange glove to prepare for the cold, playoff weather he could face at home the next two games.

“I threw it OK today, I guess,” said Manning, who finished the season with 4,659 yards, 37 touchdowns and a 105.8 passer rating, all second best in his 15-year career.

Thanks to Houston’s 28-16 loss to Indianapolis before the Broncos kicked off, Denver (13-3) will be the top seed for the sixth time. The Broncos made the Super Bowl four of the previous five times.

Though the Chiefs (2-14) gave the Broncos as tough a tussle as anyone during their 11-game winning streak — in a 17-9 loss last month — this wasn’t expected to be much of a game. It wasn’t.

Leave it to Manning, ever the perfectionist, to ramp up the degree of difficulty.

On the touchdown to Decker, Manning slightly overthrew the pass, but Decker brought the ball into his helmet with his left hand, had it pinball against his facemask twice, then cradled it with both hands as he was falling to the ground.

“Peyton throws the ball up, giving us a chance to make a play. It’s our job to catch it,” Decker said.

The touchdown to the 6-foot-3 Thomas mirrored a TD pass Manning threw to Decker last week against Cleveland: high in the back of the end zone where only his receiver could catch it.

“That was probably the limit right there,” Manning said. “But I’ve seen him in practice. He can jump. He can really elevate. It’s hard to throw it over his head, I’ll say that.”

The Thomas touchdown made it 28-3 and the celebration was on. The only trip the Broncos will have to make on their road to a championship would be to New Orleans for the Super Bowl. They’ll open the playoffs at home the weekend of Jan. 12-13 against Baltimore, Cincinnati or Manning’s old team, the Colts.

Coach John Fox, in search of his second trip to the Super Bowl, won his 100th career game. Thomas and linebacker Wesley Woodyard congratulated him with a big splash of orange Gatorade at the end.

“It’s an accomplishment, but it’s something that was a lot of people’s work. It wasn’t one guy,” Fox said.

Nor would Manning take all the credit for all he’s accomplished in this, a comeback season in which he admittedly had no expectations.

This marked his 73rd three-touchdown game, surpassing the record held by Brett Favre. Manning closed the regular season only 41 yards short of his career high.

“It’s been a gratifying regular season,” Manning said. “I will admit that. It is certainly more than I expected. I’m grateful and humble for it.”

On the other end of the spectrum are the Chiefs, who finished with 119 yards of offense and wrapped up the first pick in next year’s draft.

Coach Romeo Crennel watched the game from the sideline, leaning on a crutch, after having his knee drained of fluid earlier in the week. Many in Kansas City expect him to be unemployed soon.

“I told him it’s been a long one,” Chiefs defensive lineman Shaun Smith said about his postgame conversation with Crennel. “Sorry it didn’t turn out the way (we wanted). I have faith in you and that’s all that matters.”

The Broncos swept six games in the division for the first time since 1998 — the last time they won the Super Bowl.

John Elway retired after that one. Now he’s back, running Denver’s front office, and he signed Manning with only one goal in mind: a third Lombardi Trophy.

For a brief glimmer, this could have been a game. The Broncos led 7-0 when Ronnie Hillman fumbled and Chiefs cornerback Brandon Flowers picked it up and was sprinting toward the end zone.

Manning cut off the Flowers return, allowing tight end Joel Dreessen to drag down Flowers at the 12. The Chiefs settled for a field goal and the Broncos scored the next 31 points.

Game notes

Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles had 53 yards to finish the season with 1,509. … Broncos FS Rahim Moore got his first career sack and Von Miller had one to bring his season total to 18 1/2. … Hillman wasn’t seen against after his fumble. Lance Ball replaced him as Knowshon Moreno’s backup and led the team with 66 yards on 15 carries.

The post Broncos grab top seed in AFC; Chiefs get 1st pick in draft appeared first on IdealCapper.