FanHouse Dennis Green

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey -- The UFL plans to add two more teams and four games to each club's schedule next season, according to Rick Mueller, general manager for all four of the league's teams.

Mueller, speaking exclusively to FanHouse on Thursday, said that "it looks good" for expansion in 2010. He said that there is enough talent for the league to field six teams, start the campaign in September and play a 10-game season.

Los Angeles, a city currently without an NFL team, has been rumored as a frontrunner. Mueller did not say for sure whether a deal was in place to bring professional football back to L.A. and would not mention any other locations specifically.

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EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey -- When the UFL debuted earlier this month, commissioner Michael Huyghue told FanHouse the league and its executives would do it their way.

The league proved stubborn Thursday, when the New York Sentinels played their first home game of the season under the worst of circumstances -- at least, from an exposure standpoint.

Despite its first appearance in New York City's metropolitan area, the country's undisputed media hub, the UFL may as well have played in Fargo, considering the magnitude of Game 2 of the World Series, which was being played just a few miles away at Yankee Stadium.

On the field, it wasn't much better for the Sentinels, who lost their third straight game to start the season, a 20-13 setback at the hands of the California Redwoods.

It may have been news to many in the tri-state area who were tuned in to watch Pedro Martinez's return to the Bronx with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Florida Tuskers continued their dominance of the UFL. Despite the easy nature of their wins, coach Jim Haslett is confident his team has remained motivated.

Brooks Bollinger threw two touchdown passes and back-up Chris Greisen tossed one more as Haslett's Tuskers thoroughly dispatched the California Redwoods, 34-7, at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida on Thursday night.

"They know this is their last stop and that, if they want to get back to the NFL, they need to play at a high level, and have fun doing it," Haslett said. "And they understand that, so I don't need to harp on them."

The coach certainly had nothing to get on them about last night in the lone contest in Week 3 of the UFL's inaugural season.

Marcus Maxwell, Jayson Foster and Andrew Pinnock each had a TD grab, while Taye Biddle had five catches for 133 yards for Florida, which has won its first three games to start the season -- all in convincing fashion.

The home debut for the California Redwoods came in front of a small gathering. Their coach, however, was excited for those that were in attendance.

Cory Ross ran for 121 yards and a touchdown as Dennis Green's Redwoods secured the first win in franchise history, a 24-7 triumph over the New York Sentinels in Saturday's final game of Week 2 in the UFL.

"It's great to play at home and get a win," Green said of the game played at AT&T Park in front of a crowd of 6,341, the smallest number through four games. "It's off to a good start for us. We played much better defense, similar to how we started defensively last week.

"Pretty good feeling of urgency on defense. Offensively, we sputtered a lot. Sometimes, we looked OK, sometimes not so good. But we did take advantage of some points there."

Dennis Green, coach of the UFL's California Redwoods, hasn't changed a bit.

"Not interested, man," Green said politely but abruptly when FanHouse called him Wednesday night in advance of the UFL's season opener on October 8, when the Redwoods take on the Las Vegas Locomotives.

Green, famous for a postgame tirade as coach of the Arizona Cardinals, then let me off the hook.

Click.

No, Green wasn't about to stomp away from the podium like after that famous Monday Night Football loss against the Chicago Bears. Three calls and one voice mail later, Green finally picked up again.

It's impossible to find an NFL head coach or general manager who is willing to say that he wants to sign Michael Vick, but former NFL coach Dennis Green, now coaching for the start-up UFL, thinks he knows where Vick will end up.

As he sees it, Bill Parcells wants Vick, and if Parcells wants something, he's going to get it. So he thinks Vick will end up as a Dolphin.

"I have a hard time believing that Michael Vick is not going to wind up with Bill Parcells, simply because he has that creativeness that says that no matter what it takes, he's going to find a way to get Michael Vick," Green told Sirius NFL Radio. "Now, whether it means convincing the commissioner or whatever it takes, Michael Vick is probably going to wind up at Miami because of the fact that Bill Parcells is Bill Parcells."

On Tuesday we noted a report that former Stanford, Notre Dame and Washington head coach Tyrone Willingham had accepted a new job as an assistant coach in the upstart United Football League. But now it appears that Willingham won't be a UFL assistant after all.

Denny Green is what we all thought he was -- you knew it was coming, so you should have braced yourself early -- a retired football coach. And, according to what he said on Sporting News radio yesterday (as transcribed by Larry Brown Sports), he is going to stay that way.

Stews: "It's obvious that some time during the course of the year, Lane Kiffin is probalby going to be dismissed from his job. If that happens and your phone rings and the caller ID says 'Al Davis,' do you answer that phone call, Coach?"

Green: "No I do not."

Good for Denny, insomuch as he appears to be able to recognize another horrible coaching situation that he has no business stepping into. Seriously, think about it: Lane Kiffin is still employed, the Raiders are 1-1 and effectively not the worst team in the NFL, and we're asking unemployed people if they'd be interested in a job opening.

I'm not saying people should leave Kiffin alone and and let him work, I'm just pointing out that Green would have to be both desperate and crazy to think about taking the Oakland gig at this point. Besides, he's making enough cash off his catch phrase to do just fine, thank you.

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: Matt Leinart enters his third year and he finally seems to understand that football is actually more important than bonging beers with Nick Lachey. If he struggles early, though, head coach Ken Whisenhunt won't hesitate to go with 37-year-old Kurt Warner. Heat Index: 5

Running backs: Edgerrin James' best days are (way) behind him, and Marcel Shipp, J.J. Arrington and rookie Tim Hightower are all "just guys." Which is to say: defenses will continue to play the pass until the running game proves otherwise. Heat Index: 3

Receivers: Larry Fitzgerald is extremely happy; Anquan Boldin, not so much. Still, they are two of the best wideouts in the league. No one will miss Bryant Johnson, and rookie Early Doucet will get every chance to win the slot receiver job. Assuming Leinart doesn't regress in '08, both Fitzgerald and Boldin should have 1,000-yard receiving seasons. Heat Index: 8

FanHouse is counting down the 10 best, 10 worst, and 10 weirdest moments in Big Ten football history.

Howard Stern could take over for Katie Couric on the CBS Evening News. Your cat could win the Nobel Prize in physics. Guns 'N Roses could actually release Chinese Democracy. Those are three things which seem as unlikely now as Northwestern's 1995 Rose Bowl run seemed at the time.

Northwestern had occupied a certain niche in the Big Ten's ecosystem, that of the perennial homecoming date. The Wildcats could be counted on to show up sometime between late September and late October to provide an all but guaranteed W for the returning alumni. And as long as they still played football in Evanston, every Big Ten team knew that no matter what other outrageous fortune befell them, they wouldn't go winless in the conference unless it was one of those years Northwestern just wasn't on the schedule.

A lot of coaches sacrificed large parts of their careers coaching in Evanston, trying to face up to the challenge of turning around a football team that hadn't won a conference title since 1949. But not even legitimately good coaches like Lou Saban, Ara Parseghian, and Dennis Green could accomplish anything with the Wildcats. So how did Gary Barnett do it?