Bleacher Report - Articles by Jason Gendron

The Last Straw: It's Time For a Change in South Bend

Jason Gendron — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:24:38 -0500

Last night, the Fighting Irish blew another big lead, and lost yet another game they weren't supposed to lose.

This time, it was Senior Night in South Bend, and it was supposed to be easy, as the 2-8 Syracuse Orange came to town.

All was well early in the fourth quarter as the Irish controlled play and held a 23-10 lead and were riding another strong performance from quarterback Jimmy Clausen.

Then it happened. Again.

The Orange dominated the remainder of the game and finished it off with a touchdown pass with only 42 seconds remaining in the game.

The extra point made it 24-23 Syracuse, and that would be all the scoring, and would cap yet another embarrassing loss for Charlie Weis' squad.

(Let's not forget the two late onside kick recoveries by Navy last week where the Irish tried to lose but failed at that, too.)

Then came the snowballs.

This wasn't supposed to happen. It was senior night. They are supposed to win. But they didn't, and fans responded by booing and throwing snowballs at the Irish players, furthering the already obvious embarrassment.

“I feel sick to my stomach. Everyone at Notre Dame takes these losses personally, just like they feel good when they win. But right now I feel absolutely miserable for the seniors,” said Weis after the game.

But how much of this is his fault? Is he the right man for the job in South Bend? Many fans don't think so, and neither do I.

Weis now has a 58.3 percent winning percentage. The exact same numbers that got Tyrone Willingham and Bob Davie fired from their jobs coaching the Irish.

Weis had one year of success, but that was more due to Brady Quinn, in my opinion, then the coaching of Charlie Weis.

So now, we wait, to find out if the fans of South Bend will be forced to suffer through yet another year of heartbreaking defeat with Weis at the helm. For their sake, I hope they don't.

Thunder Finally Fire Carlesimo

Jason Gendron — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:32:14 -0500

The Oklahoma City Thunder finally did NBA fans a favor and rid the league of coach P.J. Carlesimo on Friday Night.

GM Sam Presti notified Carlesimo of the decision after a 105-80 loss to New Orleans on Friday, in which his team was never in the game.

Not to beat a dead horse here, but shouldn't this change have been made after last season, before the team relocated to Oklahoma City? It's bad enough that these fans inherit a bad team, but a bad coach as well? I mean, come on, the Supersonics went 20-62 under Carlesimo last season and he has never had success as a head coach.

If you ask me, it's a change that took to long to be made.

Boston Bruins Thrilled: Tim Thomas Is Once Again Proving Critics Wrong

Jason Gendron — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:51:17 -0500

After a 28-win season, where he made the All-Star Game, Tim Thomas is once again having to prove critics wrong. And he's doing a great job of it. Voters again decided to leave the 34 year-old Thomas off of this season's All-Star Ballot, despite a great start to the 2008-2009 campaign.

How did he respond? He is currently the NHL's best overall goaltender with an 8-2-3 record, a sparkling .944 save percentage, and an equally great 1.80 GAA. So why, I ask you does Thomas get left out of the picture year after year?

We all know he doesn't mind, and he's just "happy to be here," as he keeps saying, and he has historically played better when under the radar. So maybe he's better off just playing his game, and putting up Vezina Trophy quality numbers while nobody pays attention.

Us Bruins fans know exactly what Tim Thomas is capable of.