FanHouse Ted Cottrell

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. -- It was another easy victory Thursday for the unbeaten Florida Tuskers, who defeated the winless New York Sentinels 24-6.

It was more of the same for the UFL at Rentschler Field, where a sparse crowd of 5,201 turned out to watch the lopsided win for Florida, which has already punched its ticket to the UFL Championship Game on Nov. 27 in Las Vegas.

That wasn't the story, though, for those that watched and listened closely. Here is a collection of the best moments from the other Thursday Night Football contest.

-- Tuskers coach Jim Haslett beamed after his club improved to 5-0, though he thought the team could have played better. Either way, Haslett admitted that his experience in the UFL has allowed him to witness those who have brought joy back to football.

"They are having fun," Haslett said of his players. "It feels like when I played in the early '80s. Guys hung out and did things together. That's what the feeling is. Somehow, if you could take this feeling and bring it back to the National Football League, I think football would be a lot more fun for people."

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, N.J. -- Ted Cottrell hasn't gotten off to a good start with the New York Sentinels, who have lost their first four games to start the UFL's inaugural campaign.

Cottrell, though, is relishing the opportunity to be a head coach, a position that he had been passed over for numerous times despite his lengthy resume. He has been a defensive assistant in college, the USFL and the NFL since breaking in as a defensive line coach at Rutgers in 1973.

Last Wednesday, Cottrell's club suffered a 41-10 defeat at the hands of the Las Vegas Locomotives. It was the second home game for the Sentinels, who hosted the Locos at Hofstra's James M. Shuart Stadium, where the game was moved after it was originally scheduled for Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets.

On Wednesday night, the Las Vegas Locomotives trounced the New York Sentinels, 41-10, to remain in contention for a berth in the UFL Championship Game on Nov. 27.

While the game wasn't all that compelling -- nor was it, shall we say, must-see TV -- it was an important night for many on the field. The UFL concludes its season just in time for players to join NFL clubs for their stretch runs.

Charles Davis, a tight end for the Sentinels, views his UFL opportunity differently, remarking as if he searched for the gig on craigslist.

"I didn't have a job and I love playing football, so that was probably the draw for me," said Davis, who is pictured right as a fifth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2006.

Fair enough. The league, though, hopes for a much higher profile despite everything stacked against it.

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.

---

---

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."

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.

The Chargers, a disappointment at 3-5, have decided to make a change to their coaching staff. Ted Cottrell is out as defensive coordinator and he'll be replaced by linebackers coach Ron Rivera. Cottrell got dealt a bad hand with the injury to Shawne Merriman but, regardless of injuries, 28th in the league in yards allowed is reason enough to make a change.

Rivera had success running Chicago's defense and interviewed for head coaching jobs after the team's trip to the Super Bowl in 2007. He didn't get those jobs and found himself out of his old one when Lovie Smith moved in a different direction.

More important than either Cottrell's failings or Rivera's resume, however, is what this move signals for Norv Turner's future with the Bolts. The team isn't out of the running in the mediocre AFC West but they are underachieving and missing the playoffs could have dire consequences for the head coach. Getting rid of the coordinator will take the focus off Turner for a moment or two but if there is no turnaround after this week's bye, it's hard to see how Turner will survive for a third season on the San Diego sideline.

Another week, another must-win game for the Chargers. At 2-3, they've had a disappointing start to the season, though, to be fair, it hasn't been entirely their fault. And in reality, San Diego could just as easily be 4-1.

But as Bill Parcells is fond of saying, you are what your record says you are. And right now, five weeks into this thing, the Chargers are two back in the loss column to the division leading Broncos, and have a pretty tough schedule going forward.

With that in mind, maybe Norvell can motivate the troops for tonight's matchup against the Matt Cassel-tastic Patriots with the latest awesomeness from Nike.



Sorry, Ted Cottrell, Troy Polamalu not included.

via Shutdown Corner

Good news: CHARGERS ARE GOING TO THE AFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME! NORV TURNER HAS BEEN VINDICATED!!

Bad news: The opening line for next week's San Diego-New England game will probably be somewhere around 20 points, undoubtedly the largest in AFC Championship history. And it could be more; the Jaguars were +13.5 underdogs against the Patriots and are arguably a better team than the Chargers. Worse, San Diego could have three less-than-healthy starters in Foxboro: Antonio Gates, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Philip Rivers.

So, yeah, congratulations to the Chargers for pulling off the biggest upset of the postseason. Rivers, who now has no good knees, still managed to look more like Peyton Manning than Peyton Manning did. LdT spent most of the game on the sidelines nursing a knee injury, and Gates played with a bum toe, but he was mostly ineffective. That won't cut it next Sunday.

Last off-season, there wasn't a lot of high-fiving going on among Chargers fans when they found out Norvell would replace Marty Schottenheimer. And disbelief turned to despair when Norv Turner named Ted Cottrell as his defensive coordinator (replacing Wade Phillips, who had accepted the Cowboys head-coaching job).

San Diego had some rough patches during the first half of the season, none more representative of their struggles than the Week 2 beatdown in New England. After the game, Cottrell explained how Tom Brady exploited his defense to the tune of 25 of 31 passing for 279 yards and three touchdowns.

"Couple mistakes they were able to find," Cottrell said when he stopped laughing. "A good quarterback can find when something goes wrong. It's all correctable, and we've gotten it corrected."

Two weeks later, after San Diego stumbled to a 1-3 start, Cottrell's problem-correcting skills were questioned. Specifically, if the defensive play-calling, more than execution, was responsible for the slow start.