Man in the Hat media

Nation, we have a Heisman winner. His name, Joe Burrow...or is it Burreaux? Burrow had a stellar season for the LSU football team. His 4,715 passing yards and nation-leading 48 passing touchdowns made him an easy favorite to win the Heisman trophy. In all honesty, the Heisman award is ridiculous. Not that it honors the nation's top player, no, those gentleman have earned the acclaim. It is merely a vessel to get ratings and eventually give the award to (usually) the quarterback of the best perceived team. In Burrow's defense, he likely is the best QB in the nation. At worst, he is top three and will likely be getting a sizable payday from the NFL in the upcoming draft. So, in honor of the pure jocularity of the award, here are the first, and likely last, annual Lake Report awards for top award-winners deserving of awards. The Brett Favre award Brett Favre is a Hall of Famer from his time with the Green Bay Packers. He was a true gunslinger who would fit in with toda

It did not take South Carolina head football coach Will Muschamp long to find his new offensive coordinator. David Cloninger of the Charleston Post and Courier posted the break , officially, December 8. The hire is still pending Board of Trustee approval, which is expected to go through the coming Tuesday. After demoting wide receiver coach Bryan McClendon, and firing quarterbacks coach Dan Werner, Muschamp named former Colorado State head coach Mike Bobo to attempt to turn around an anemic offense, and coach quarterbacks. Bobo made his way to Carolina after negotiating his resignation from Colorado State, likely more for State's benefit to lessen the cost of Bobo's reported buyout of $5.5 million . That amount dropped to $3 million if Bobo was let go after December 31. LINK: Bobo headlines possibilities for new South Carolina offensive coordinator The moves also follows a pattern with Muschamp and looking at fellow Georgia alums. Muschamp and Bobo both played fo

The 2019 season did not go well for South Carolina, and a large part of that can be attributed to an anemic offense. On December 1, head coach Will Muschamp announced staff changes with offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon being demoted back to being only the wide receiver coach, and quarterbacks coach Dan Werner being released. He also announced head strength and conditioning coach Jeff Dillman was out. The move is a good decision by Muschamp, with the offense never eclipsing the 30-point mark outside of a 72-10 win over FCS-level Charleston Southern. I'm not going to even pretend to know who to pick for strength and conditioning. Nor am I qualified (being a former sports journalist, being a healthy gym rat is not a trope that goes with the profession). In today's era of college football that puts a premium on points, and has adjusted the rules to favor scoring, averaging less than 28 points per game is dreadful. Carolina averaged 22.4 over the season, and scored a

Big news in journalism this week. It was announced on November 14 media company Gannett and New Media Investment Group's proposed  merger was approved . In short, the company will continue to go by Gannett, despite being aquired by New Media for $1.13 billion, and is now the largest corporate journalism in America, with its flagship publication USA Today . Also of note, New Media is the parent company of Gatehouse Media, another news paper publisher. The Poynter Institute, a non-profit journalism school and research organization, postulated some things of note to watch in the before the merger was approved. It is worth a quick read by clicking here , but in short, the move is bad for journalism in that organizations opinion. Today, I want to put aside the corporate talk, because from a business perspective, this merger makes sense and falls in line with what has become common place in American corporate business. Forget about fiscal responsibility, company liquidity,

Football coaches are known for the sometimes quirky ways to help players keep perspective on a season. The usual is "there are three seasons each year, non-conference, conference and post (bowl) season." Quirky, but effective at getting the point across to take things in stride, and find the true priority of a year to help set goals. But I'd like to add a fourth part to this: Hiring/Firing season. Just like with Christmas carols on the radio, the season seems to start earlier every year. Florida State kicked things off earlier this month firing Willie Taggart and Arkansas joined November 10 when it announced it was parting ways with Chad Morris .  Both coaches were in the middle of their second seasons, and both had losing records. In the past, coaches had the security of their contractual buyouts as a shield to give them time to instill a program, recruit and develop some talent before an employment decision was made by administration. An

It may come as a shock, but I do enjoy reading other people's opinions on certain subjects.  Recently, Jim Baxter of SCVarsity.com penned a column on the decline of high school football here in South Carolina, which I invite you to read here . Baxter brings up fair points in his piece, namely blaming the end of the eight-quarter rule by the South Carolina High School League as a major cause. You can read more about the abolishment of the rule, which happened in 2015,  here , but in short, it made it illegal for players who competed in a JV game to dress out for varsity the following night. I suggest you read Brett McCormick's reporting in the link, because many of the concerns brought up have come true in the four years since. Before diving in, I must say I respect Baxter and the many decades of work he has put into covering high school athletics in this state. He is right more often than not, but in this instance I feel he is coming up short. No question C

Editor's Note: For full disclosure, I feel I should mention I was a student at Anderson University my first two years of undergraduate work. I also spent some time covering their athletics department as a professional writer.  The game of football is getting a new team in South Carolina. On October 4, Anderson University announced plans to start a program during a press conference at the school. Here is a link to the full video. The school received a $3 million challenge gift from Dr. Melvin Younts, with the goal set to match that total for a $6 million total investment and a hopeful first season set for 2024. What is currently known is that the team will compete in the South Atlantic Conference (SAC), a Division II conference including Carson-Newman, Wingate, Lenior-Rhyne, Mars Hill, Newberry, Tusculum and Catawba. Football will also be the second of two men's sports, joining lacrosse which will start in 2021. This news likely won't shake the ground of the

The saga is over (for now). After an offseason and preseason filled with enough drama to put a daytime soap to shame, the Antonio Brown/Las Vegas Raider episodic quest of calamity is over. Brown, who had an offseason where he did his best Terrell Owens impersonation, was released by the Raiders  on Saturday. A few hours later, he was reportedly set to join the New England Patriots. Brown's release capped a long-running list of events that turned out to be more of a distraction than his talent was worth, at least for the Raiders. CBSSports compiled a  timeline of Brown's exploits here , dating back to January 2017 when he was still a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Of note was a holdout over having to use a different, league approved helmet, getting frostbitten feet after leaving them too long in a cryotherapy machine to having a yelling match with Raiders GM Mike Mayock. The question now is can Patriot head coach Bill Belichick control the madness? History says

The Alabama football program has taken another step in the gameday experience arms race, releasing a video on its Twitter account August 16. This season the Crimson Tide will use newly installed LED lights in an attempt to bathe Bryant-Denny Stadium in crimson. Check out the post below. 🔴⚪️ LIGHT ⚪️🔴 ⚪️🔴 ’EM 🔴⚪️ 🔴⚪️ UP! ⚪️🔴 #RollTide pic.twitter.com/QhDOTA35A7 — Alabama Football (@AlabamaFTBL) August 16, 2019 First take, it is cool looking, without a doubt. It sets their stadium apart with something new and flashy. These upgrades seem to be a part of the $600 million athletic facilities plan the school announced last year, set to span the next decade. This is yet another show of the facilities/gameday experience arms race that has really gotten big the last few years. It started with the Mal Moore athletic complex, which raised the stakes for other schools to invest millions of dollars into building football operations buildings. Now, many of

There are many aspects to major college athletics. Funding, academic oversight, facilities and athletic success are the primary things athletic directors watch. But in the last few years, branding has become equally important. Branding encompasses funding, but it also dips into facilities and athletic success. Winning programs typically have the most money, the best facilities and win on the field consistently. Alabama would not be "Alabama" without the multiple SEC and national titles. Clemson would not be "Clemson" without its recent success, nor its facilities. Both of those programs are arguably 1a and 1b in the college landscape entering the 2019 season. Protecting a brand involves trademarks. Trademarks on the school logo, catch phrases and color scheme are all things smart athletic departments lock up ownership on. But recently, one school took things a step further. It was found Ohio State submitted a trademark application for the word 'The&

Michigan State unveiled new alternate uniforms for the 2019 football season, drawing criticism. Photo courtesy Colton Pouncy Football uniforms are a sense of pride for a fan base. The right color combination, the precise line work and design. For some such as Alabama and Oklahoma, simplicity is key while for others, eye-catching is the name of the game. Regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, the uniform of your college program can be a sense of pride. But when a program takes a chance and maybe gets a little too confident in their ideas, you can get wardrobe train wrecks that draw the ire and sarcasm all-to-well-known on social media and the internet as a whole. Michigan State is finding that out, after images were released of an alternate uniform the Spartans plan to wear at some point in the 2019 season. Needless to say, it is a little more, bold, than what the typically more conservative uniform is, as seen below. On a positive, the numbers are big, so you can

Tavien Feaster will play his final season of college ball at South Carolina. Feaster previously played at rival Clemson. A major transfer domino fell this week, when former Clemson tailback Tavien Feaster announced he had decided to transfer to South Carolina for his final season of college eligibility. Feaster will be able to play immediately since he is a graduate transfer, giving South Carolina coach Will Muschamp a needed shot in the arm for a run game that has struggled at times during his tenure. During his three years with Clemson, Feaster rushed for 1,330 yards and 15 touchdowns. His last two years he split carries with current Tigers starter Travis Etienne, who has amassed over 2,400 yards and 17 touchdowns, and is now a preseason Heisman award candidate. In that same time span South Carolina has been inconsistent in the running game. Top returner Rico Dowdle has rushed for 1,669 yards and 12 touchdowns, but the last two seasons has been hampered by injury. Fell

There has been a booming business over the last decade or two in the sports world. I'm not saying anything new or prophetic that recruiting has become a major niche coverage for sports junkies. Truth be told, I dabbled in it during my time as a high school sports journalist, focusing mostly on athletes from the Anderson/Oconee/Pickens area of South Carolina.  Without question, the major eye-ball grabber was major college football recruiting. Not really surprising considering how college football focused the area, and the South in general, is.  For fans, it is a fun thing to keep up with and see which athletes your school is courting to help build for the future; which athletes are showing love on social media; how 'Player X' is the key cog to help take 'Team A' to the next level. Many online-only sites have made this their bread and butter. A smart move on their part. I don't want to criticize what these hard-working men and women do. From experie

The 2019 Women's World Cup is in the books, and the United States is champions again for the fourth time in history after beating the Netherlands, 2-0, Sunday in Paris. Along with earning gold, building national pride and further expanding the game of soccer in the United States, this teams also broke multiple World Cup records both as a team and individually. Their triumph through this tournament is to be commended. It also needs to be a nice pay day for the work they put in and the results. According to a report from CNBC, the national team does stand to make a nice payday from its run through the World Cup, earning around $200,000. From the viewpoint of the average American, that is not too bad when the median income is roughly $60,000 per year, according to the most recent date from the U.S. Census Bureau in 2017. Compared to U.S. Men's National team though, the women are being treated as paupers. If the men's team had the same accomplishment in its W