Take a peek at Chip Kelly's music playlist for practice
Kyle Scott of Crossing Broad, a site that seems to take a focus on the Philadelphia sports scene, enlisted the help of a handful of other reporters at a recent Eagles practice to put together Chip Kelly's daily music playlist.
Below is a list of the selection of the 24 songs, along with a link to each one to listen for yourself (if you need your memory jogged a little). The list ranges from top 40 hits to a handful of songs that topped the charts before most players were born, but surely recognized:
On Fire - Young Dro
Thunderstruck - AC/DC
Panama - Van Halen
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
Hungry Like a Wolf - Duran Duran
Stronger - Kayne West
Rock You Like a Hurricane - Scorpion
California Love - 2Pac
Chasing the Sun - The Wanted
Pound the Alarm - Nicki Minaj
Get it Started - Pitbull
Going in - Jennifer Lopez
Hero - Nas
Good Feeling - Flo Rida
Shipping up to Boston - Dropkick Murphys
Turn Me On - David Guetta
Starships - Nicki Minaj
What is Love - Haddaway
Chasing Summers - Tiesto
We Will Rock You - Queen
Foreign Exchange Student - XV
Party Rock - LMFAO
I Love It - Icona Pop
Don't You Worry Child - Swedish House Mafia
Some of the song choices are quite interesting (like Haddaway for instance), but more importantly, isn't against an unwritten (yet well known) playlist rule to not play Queen's "We are the Champions" immediately following "We Will Rock You?".
Now you'll never have to wonder what makes it on Chip Kelly's practice playlist, and model yours accordingly.
Georgia's iPad / iPhone app is outstanding
Every now and then we see a new app that really just blows us away with its creativity and execution. This morning we stumbled upon Georgia's new app from Overtime Software - The Georgia Way.
From the moment you open it, the app keeps finding more and more ways to engage you. Every time you tap something and get a "cool" feature, graphic or screen you think no way it gets better; but it just does. I'm pretty sure I just spent 30 minutes in the app.
Georgia has loaded the app with original videos; plus the graphics and story telling are top notch. This app has to resonate with high school players. This is the type of app that other coaches will see and say, "that's legit".
The app was a collaborative effort between Overtime Software and Georgia football and the videos were produced by video coordinator Brett Greene and his staff. Impressive work all around.
There are a number of high quality videos in the app; and honestly we could have picked any of them to showcase here; but the one below provides a great walk through view of Georgia's facilities. Nice!
The app, which looks great on both an iPad and iPhone is available in iTunes at this link.
Update> Added a few screen shots from the iPhone version below.
Disclosure: Overtime Software has sponsored both the 2012 and the 2013 Spring tours. Further disclosure: Their work is outstanding.
Texas defensive backs coach Duane Akina mic'd up
Duane Akina has enough skins for four walls through a dozen years as Texas' defensive backs coach. He's produced Thorpe Award winners in Michael Huff and Aaron Ross. That pair, plus Quentin Jammer, Michael Griffin, Earl Thomas and Kenny Vaccaro have been first-round picks under Akina's tuteleage. Nathan Vasher, Cedric Griffin, Tarell Brown, Aaron Williams, Curtis Brown and Chykie Brown have also carved out NFL careers after playing for Akina. In fact, 11 of Akina's 12 starting cornerbacks at Texas have spent time on NFL rosters.
You get the point.
The Hawaii native never fails to be the loudest, most energetic coach on the field and never fails to get the absolute most out of his players.
Watch the Dean of DB U in action during the Longhorns' spring drills.
This may be the best captain video made yet...but you decide
New Mexico started the trend with their video announcing the team captains, but Division III Cal Lutheran may have put together the best one yet.
We'll leave the decision up to you. Of the three schools we've featured that have released videos naming their captains (New Mexico, D-II Seton Hill, and D-III Cal Lutheran), which one is your favorite?
Each of these are really well done, and New Mexico deserves all the credit for the initial idea.
Add another track to the NCAA's greatest hits album
If you spent any time watching the NCAA Tournament this spring, surely you saw this commercial or its variations at least once.
"Think of the NCAA as a spirit squad cheering for student-athletes at every big event and every small one," the narrator says. "Just know we're always there for student-athletes."
Please allow me to pause this column as I go lose my lunch.
The narrator did have one thing exactly right. The NCAA is always there, never missing an opportunity to legislate student-athletes out of a once in a lifetime experience. The latest chapter to the NCAA's catalogue came over the weekend in Colorado Springs, as Prince Harry stopped by the Air Force football facility to meet head coach Troy Calhoun and exactly zero Falcons players.
As the Colorado Springs Gazette details, Prince Harry's visit was such a big deal it was kept under wraps from just about anyone that wasn't on a need-to-know basis. Air Force was only able to get Calhoun on the field with the British royal after applying for a special waver from the NCAA, where he threw passes to a band of lucky intramural players.
Actual Air Force players were kept away because of NCAA rules "limiting athletes' interactions with celebrities in a team capacity." Presumably this rule is on the books to keep schools like USC and UCLA from shuttling in the likes of Snoop Dogg to meet with players, because otherwise recruits and players would have no idea those schools sat in the shadow of Hollywood, right? And if the NCAA was ever going to make an exception to this rule, why not for a group of student-athletes that sacrifice years of their life at the very least, and oftentimes it's a whole lot more than that, to serve this country.
The NCAA should have used an ounce of common sense should have told the bureaucrats in Indianapolis that Prince Harry has a lot more important things to do than touring the world stumping for Troy Calhoun and the Air Force Falcons. The British government doesn't make Prince Harry's schedule available to me, but my ounce of common sense says Harry won't be trekking back to Colorado Springs any time soon, and certainly not while this crop of Falcons players is at the Academy. Add it all up and you get yet another unnecessary mark in a long line of over-legislated blunders by an NCAA so burdened with procedure and regulation it can hardly move. Air Force players were denied an opportunity that likely won't ever come again, a chance to meet one of the most widely known people on the Earth, to tell their kids 30 years from now about how they once shook the hand of the prince of England.
I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like a very enthusiastic spirit squad to me. It sounds like an organization so addicted to red tape, it's completely enveloped in it.
Mom and Dad will eat this Penn State recruiting video up
In the realm of recruiting videos, big hits, flashy effects and catchy music. Mom and dad just want to know if the coach sitting on their living room couch will send their son back home with a degree in hand four or five years later. Kids love the sizzle, parents want the substance.
With that in mind, Penn State cameras followed around a handful of Nittany Lions football players as they walked across the stage this weekend. Penn State set an athletic department record with 109 graduates, 18 of those being football lettermen - including seven who will return this fall. They won't find it on their son's iPod, but that's music to Mom and Dad's ears.
Video: This is how Oregon makes room for their 2014 gear
When you have Nike pumping more money, ideas, and equipment through your doors than any other University in the country, you naturally have quite a bit left over.
To get rid of that stuff, Oregon's equipment guys put everything together and price it to sell. We imagine that they kind of have to in order to make enough room for next season's stuff.
It goes without saying that the Ducks gear (everything from socks, to helmets, to stuff exclusive to coaches and players) being priced to sell is going to draw hundreds and hundreds of people. Many people are even camping out to be among the first to get their hands on some gear.
Why doesn't every school in the country do something like this? Fans and the community would eat it up.
Photo: Spartan Stadium is getting a $20 million makeover
By the kickoff of the 2014 season, Michigan State's Spartan Stadium is going to look drastically different than it did just a few short seasons ago, pending final approval.
With one of the biggest video boards in the country going up before the start of the 2012 season, and approved plans to break ground on a building at the north end of the stadium after this season, Spartan Stadium will go through a much needed updat for 2014.
The new two story building's lower level will house locker rooms for both home and visiting teams and coaches, a locker room for officials, an equipment room and media center, according to the Lansing State Journal. Leading up to this addition media interviews were done in portable trailers and there were no locker rooms for game officials. Needless to say, this will be a big upgrade.
The upper level will have new restrooms and concession areas connected to the already existing concourse of Spartan Stadium, as well as a recruiting room for all sports, where coaches from different sports can host players during games and the football staff can catch up with their recruits after games.
During our Midwest tour a few weeks ago, Michigan State's staff shared their excitement about the new facility with us, especially with regards to the recruiting room. The new concession area will be models for what the University wants to do in the coming years with all concession stands and the recruiting room is going to be an impressive, convenient place for coaches to mingle with recruits and their families after games.
Take a look at what the new facility will look like below.
