University of Oregon Double Up

Oregon Men Celebrate after Wining National Title

With the collegiate track & field season officially over, we would like to send a huge congratulations to the University of Oregon’s men’s and women’s track teams for winning the NCAA Outdoor Championship! After catching all of the talent at the preliminaries a few weeks back, it is absolutely no surprise at the records and stats broken at the historic Hayward Field this past weekend. While we had our eyes set on the Gators taking home the big win, they still had some stellar performances. That really goes for a lot of the schools that came out to compete. Just a few weeks ago, professional sprinter Justin Gatlin set the Hayward record for the 200 meter with his 19.68 finish at the Prefontaine Classic. That record has since been broken with the University of Southern California’s Andre De Grasse took the first place win with a 19.58 finish! And he wasn’t the only sprinter to hit a sub-20 run this weekend! Baylor University’s Trayvon Bromell and Florida’s very own Dedric Dukes closed the race in 19.86, with fraction of a second between their third and second place wins respectively. De Grasse also took home the title for the 100-meter sprint, finishing in just 9.75 seconds and breaking the collegiate, NCAA meet, and Hayward Field records all at once. Jumper Marquis Dendy successfully defended both of his titles in the long and triple jump! Go Gators! And of course, we can’t forget about the most exciting events, the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see our Gators take the title, but Arkansas took home a win for the first time which helped them finish the meet in third place, just behind our Gators in second.

Andre De Grasse winner of the 100 & 200m

                Although they didn’t win the meet, University of Kentucky’s women’s squad pulled a close runner up to Oregon. Their most notable performances came from sprinter Dezerea Bryant and hurdler Kendra Harrison. Dez is one of my personal favorites on the track and definitely left all her troubles on the track as she went 22.18 in the last 200-meter sprint of her collegiate career. In the short-hurdles, Kendra Harrison finished both the indoor and outdoor seasons undefeated! An elite hurdler, Harrison’s winning time of 12.55 was just another contribution to her title as the third-fastest hurdler in NCAA history. Of course, we can’t forget about Jenna Prandini, one of Oregon’s top performers, taking the 100-meter title, securing her teams lead in the meet. Also contributing the Lady Duck, distance runner Raevyn Rogers took the win with a 1:59.71 finish in the 800-meter race. Although our Lady Gators did not come out on top in the individual events, they managed to pull of two championship wins in both the 4x1 and 4x4 relays.

Women National Champ: Oregon Ducks

                With the season now over, the NCAA’s elite athletes will prepare for their final bid at the USA Outdoor Championships back in Eugene, Oregon at end of the month. Big congratulations to all of the athletes finishing their collegiate careers and graduating from college! To the seniors, best of luck in your endeavors as we look forward to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games!

           --solementality

Tannehill’s Place Amongst the Best NFL Quarterback’s

            Ryan Tannehill recently signed a 6-year contract extension worth $96 million with $45 guaranteed. This confirms that the Dolphins are 100% behind their franchise quarterback. Some would say that is a lot of money for an inconsistent QB with a losing record that has never taken his team to the playoffs. I’ll even admit that. But I don’t think that was the point of the contract, to reward his performance over the past 3 years. I see it as a proactive & good business move from the Dolphins to lock up their quarterback sooner rather than later at a bargain price. And it was important to do so before other quarterback’s from the 2012 draft class such as Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson & RGIII got their contracts. There is a Super Bowl victory, multiple playoff wins & an Offensive Rookie of the Year between those QB’s and Tannehill hasn’t been nowhere close to reaching those achievements. Their extensions will be well over $100 million, especially Luck, who just might be the highest paid quarterback in the league when his time comes. So of course, in terms of on-field performance & contract value, Tannehill isn’t on their level (except RGIII). But if the Dolphins waited until after another good season from Tannehill & contract extensions from the other QB’s, that new contract would’ve been worth way more than they are giving him now. 

            There’s been a lot of talk about Tannehill’s performance, his worth, & his rank among the starting quarterbacks in the league after the contract numbers went public. I’m a big Tannehill supporter & I believe we found our quarterback for the next decade. Yes, he has to work on his pocket presence & deep ball. Despite another 8-8 record, he is trending upwards & has improved in every relevant statistical category in each of his 3 seasons. This past season, he threw for 4,045 yards & 27 touchdowns with a 66.4 completion percentage & a 92.8 passer rating. If you ask me, those are generally good numbers for a quarterback in his 3^rd year and the Dolphins could have easily went 10-6 if it wasn’t for a few late drives from Green Bay, Detroit & Denver. So I know we’re good enough to achieve it & the talent is definitely there, the Dolphins just have to get tougher physically & mentally and finish games better.

            If we get a better record (playoffs) from the Dolphins & better play from Tannehill, Miami will be in a better situation than other teams with $100 million quarterbacks that haven’t played up to their big contracts. Colin Kaepernick & Jay Cutler signed $100 million contracts within the past couple years but have regressed since then. Tannehill might not have the athleticism of Kaep or the big arm of Cutler, but Tannehill had a better year than both of them in 2014. If you ask me, we have a top 15 quarterback in Tanny. He’s not in that elite bracket with Brady, Manning, Rodgers, Luck & Brees but he’s better than the average quarterback. Cam Newton, Philip Rivers, Big Ben, Matt Ryan & Russell Wilson would round out my top 10. The rest of the top 15 with Tanny included would be Matthew Stafford, Tony Romo, Eli Manning & Joe Flacco. Ryan Tannehill could creep into the top 10 real soon & could be worth more than his new contract with a couple more good, consistent seasons & some playoff wins under his belt.