Rather than wait for Tuesday’s upset edition of “Tidbits from the College Gridiron“, I decided to present this story to you now. Steve and I have followed Mike Flynt’s story each game so it’s only fitting that we continue.

At the 11:03 mark of the first quarter, the 59-year-old Flynt made his second “debut” on special teams as he was the left end on the kicking unit. He took part in nine plays during Sul Ross’ 45-42 win over Texas Lutheran on Saturday.

Flynt was pretty ecstatic after the game as you could imagine,

“We won this tonight for each other; that’s what matters,” Flynt said. “I’m glad my family was able to be part of this and see this. That’s important to me personally. From a team standpoint, it’s their victory.”

“I’ve been at a lot of great schools and experienced a lot of this stuff,” said Flynt, who was a strength coach at Nebraska, Oregon and Texas A&M. “These guys, they’re learning every bit of this.”

Flynt hopes to back to his old position of linebacker but I am pretty sure that he was happy just getting some playing time in front of his family and friends. Does anyone sense another Disney movie in the near future.

A little later than usual look at the headlines this morning as last night’s game didn’t get over until the wee hours of the morning. Obviously if you went to bed early and have already looked at the Sunday paper, you saw what happened at 1:30 AM last night. A Trot Nixon single. And then the flood gates opened up. As a Sox fan it’s hard to understand why Tito keeps going to Gagné but last night he almost had no choice since Curt Schilling didn’t have his “A” game and he owned up to it in the post game press conference last night (early this morning). The guy (Gagné) is lost in outer space right now. He looked good on the first batter (Blake), whom he struck out. Then a Sizemore single, a walk to Cabrera, next thing you know Javier Lopez is on the mound giving up to single to the Original Dirt Dog. So while you recover from last night’s loss or last night’s beer drinking, take a look at the headlines and happenings from the Boston and Cleveland area media as well Red Sox 1B Kevin Youkilis.

Putting a tough loss in the rearview mirror. [Yooooouuuuukkkkk]

This time, Schilling fails to deliver goods [Boston Globe]

Hitters rescue Carmona [The Plain Dealer]

Gone baby Gagne: Sox vanish vs. Tribe in 11 [Boston Herald]

CLIFFHANGER [Akron Beacon Journal]

7-Eleventh [Hartford Courant]

Bullpen meltdown costly in 11th [Pro Jo]

No relief in sight for Gagné [Boston Globe]

Sizemore heats up [The Plain Dealer]

It’s clearly time to put ineffective Eric on ice [Boston Herald]

Red Sox no longer defined by Fenway as sluggers [NY Times via Akron Beacon Journal]

Schilling Fails To Match His Postseason Form [Hartford Courant]

Sox, Indians have only just begun [Pro Jo]

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant, Providence Journal, The Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon Journal websites.

Eric Gagné’s struggles continue for the Red Sox.

Indians skipper Eric Wedge was scratching his head at the numbers Manny and Big Papi are putting up.

Today’s forecast in Colorado calls for a temperature of around 42^o and showers.

The Diamondbacks are confident they can bounce back against the Rockies.

The Rockies lead the NLCS 2-0 and will play Game 3 today and Game 4 tomorrow. If a Game 5 is needed, it will be played on Wednesday night.

Has Terry Francona lost his mind? Has he not seen Eric Gagné pitch in a Red Sox uniform? Seriously, WTF was he thinking? This might be worse than when Grady Little left Pedro Martinez in too long.

Long story short, Gagné got one out in the 11^th and then gave up a single and walked a batter. Javier Lopez came on and Trot Nixon delivered a single to start the onslaught as the Indians took Game 2 to tie the ALCS up at 1.

For the second night in a row, the pitcher’s duel never materialized as both Curt Schilling and Fausto Carmona both struggled didn’t make it out of the 5^th inning tonight.

Schilling started out the 1^st allowing a lead-off double to Grady Sizemore after he had gotten ahead of him. Asdrubal Cabrera tried to bunt Grady over but he ended up popping the bunt up to Mike Lowell in foul territory. Travis “Pronk” Hafner flew out to Manny in left just short of the Green Monster for the second out of the inning. Victor Martinez brought in Grady with the first of his three hits against Schill, this one a double to give the Erie Warriors a 1-0 lead. Schilling finished off the inning with a ground out to third by Ryan Garko.

Carmona got a little wild in the Sox half of the 1^st after he struck out Dustin Pedroia. He issued free passes to both Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz. He ended up working out of it though as Manny Ramirez grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.

Big Schill settled down in the 2^nd as he allowed a single to Jhonny Peralta and then got the ageless Kenny Lofton to fly out. Schilling ended the inning by inducing a 6-4-3 double play of his own off the bat of Franklin Gutierrez.

The Red Sox went in order in the bottom of the 2^nd and Schilling set down the Indians in order in the top of the 3rd.

Carmona ran into a little bit of trouble in the Sox half of the 3^rd as his control wasn’t there. Coco Crisp led off with a single and stole second with Julio Lugo at the plate. Lugo ended up striking out. Carmona then issued a base on balls to Pedroia. With Coco stuck on second, Youk ended up striking out as well for the second out of the inning. Big Papi lined a ball up the middle but Carmona got his glove on it and knocked it down keeping a run from scoring but loaded up the bases for the RBI machine that is Manny. Carmona’s wildness returned as he walked Manny to bring Coco to tie the game at 1. Lowell followed that up with a 2-run single bringing in Pedroia and Big Papi to give the Sox a 3-1 lead. Carmona got out of the inning after that as he got J.D. Drew to ground out to Cabrera at second.

Unfortunately for the Sox, Schilling couldn’t hold the lead in the top half of the 4^th inning. He did get Hafner to fly out for the first out. Martinez and Garko followed the out up with singles. Peralta got a pitch he liked as he crushed the ball off the camera well in center field for a 3-run homer and a 4-3 Indians lead. Schilling watched it the whole way and knew it was gone. Big Schill settled down though as he got Lofton to ground out to second and got Gutierrez to strike out swinging for the final out.

The Red Sox couldn’t get anything going in the their half of the 4^th as only Lugo reached base on a 2-out walk. Carmona got Pedroia to strikeout swinging for his second (Carmona’s) strikeout of the inning.

Harry Doyle’s favorite team added another run in the 5^th inning. After Lowell made a nice diving grab of a Casey Blake liner, Sizemore took a Schilling offering and put it out of the park in right to give the Indians a 5-3 lead. Schilling got Cabrera to strikeout for the 2nd out but then Hafner and Martinez singled. The Martinez single chased Schilling from game after 4 ^2/3 innings. Manny Delcarmen came in and did his job as he got Garko to ground into a fielder’s choice.

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Key mistakes at the wrong times for the UCONN Huskies cost them the game today as Virginia got a late field goal to beat them 17-16. Virginia’s kicker Chris Gould hit the game-winning field goal from 19-yards with 3:20 left to go in the game to win it for the Cavaliers.

UCONN had a chance to win the game after the Virginia field goal but those big mistakes came about. After UCONN QB Tyler Lorenzen had back-to-back 11-yard runs to give the Huskies the ball in Virginia territory, the center snapped the ball low and Lorenzen recovered it at his own 35. After a false start penalty on the Huskies, another low snap did them in, as the Cavaliers recovered the fumble.

The Cavaliers ended up missing a field goal try to extend the lead to 4 points but it didn’t matter. UCONN got the ball back with 27 seconds to go but they were stopped by Virginia.

The game was on ESPNU and unfortunately I don’t have ESPNU. I listened to the game on the radio but it’s really hard to give an accurate description of what happened.

From listening, UCONN really had trouble getting anything going on the ground again. They also had trouble moving the ball in the first quarter. They started to move the ball well in the 2nd quarter but a D.J. Hernandez fumble at the 5-yard line cost the Huskies a touchdown. Plus they only got 6 points off the two Virginia turnovers in the 1st quarter. They really need to put the game away at that point. They didn’t and now they have their first loss of the season.

UCONN returns home on Friday night to host the Louisville Cardinals.

For more about today’s game head over to UCONNHuskies.com.

Scoring Summary:

1st Quarter

10:47 UCONN – CIARAVINO, Tony 45 yd field goal
6 plays, 26 yards, TOP 2:35, UCONN 3 – UVA 0

09:07 UCONN – CIARAVINO, Tony 21 yd field goal
4 plays, 9 yards, TOP 1:33, UCONN 6 – UVA 0

00:38 UVA – Keith Payne 1 yd run (Chris Gould kick)
11 plays, 59 yards, TOP 4:18, UCONN 6 – UVA 7

2nd Quarter

05:19 UVA – John Phillips 8 yd pass from Jameel Sewell (Chris Gould kick)
6 plays, 65 yards, TOP 2:20, UCONN 6 – UVA 14

3rd Quarter

10:31 UCONN – BROUSE, Steve 6 yd pass from LORENZEN, Tyler (CIARAVINO, Tony kick)
2 plays, 6 yards, TOP 0:41, UCONN 13 – UVA 14

4th Quarter

08:06 UCONN – CIARAVINO, Tony 25 yd field goal
9 plays, 81 yards, TOP 3:22, UCONN 16 – UVA 14

03:20 UVA – Chris Gould 19 yd field goal
11 plays, 79 yards, TOP 4:46, UCONN 16 – UVA 17

The starting lineups for tonight’s game are the same with one exception. J.D. Drew is back in the lineup, taking the spot of Bobby Kielty.

Indians

1. Grady Sizemore, CF
2. Asdrubal Cabrera, 2B
3. Travis Hafner, DH
4. Victor Martinez, C
5. Ryan Garko, 1B
6. Jhonny Peralta, SS
7. Kenny Lofton, LF
8. Franklin Gutierrez, RF
9. Casey Blake, 3B

SP: Fausto Carmona

Red Sox

1. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
2. Kevin Youkilis, 1B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Manny Ramirez, LF
5. Mike Lowell, 3B
6. J.D. Drew, RF
7. Jason Varitek, C
8. Coco Crisp, CF
9. Julio Lugo, SS

SP – Curt Schilling

Here is a look at how the two teams have fared against tonight’s starters:

Lineups courtesy of Amalie Benjamin from the Boston Globe.

Ok people, Josh Beckett is human. He gave up a run. Other than that 3-2 changeup to Pronk that landed in the bullpen, he threw really well. When his curveball is on, there’s really no stopping him out there. I know we all fully expected a close game last night and while we didn’t get it, the good thing is we were on the positive end of the win. What can I say about Big Papi and Manny? I could say don’t pitch to them at all, just walk them. But even that’s hard to do when you have Mike Lowell hitting behind them, 3 RBIs for Lowell last night. Overall last night, a great team effort. The Red Sox did the little things to get the job done. If there was a negative out of last night, it was the pitching of one Eric Gagné. I would have to think after last night’s poor 9th inning, we won’t be seeing him pitch at all anymore this postseason. You can’t blame Tito if he didn’t throw him anymore. I fully expect a great game tonight and a low scoring one between Fausto Carmona and Curt Schilling. But before the teams get to the Fens for Game 2 of the ALCS, let’s take a look at the headlines and happenings from the Boston and Cleveland area media as well what Kevin Youkilis had to say.

Strong Start [Yooooouuuuukkkkk]

Ortiz and Ramírez lead Red Sox’ rout [Boston Globe]

Behind 8 ball [The Plain Dealer]

Beckett lone pitcher to show up for duel [Boston Herald]

Hyped-up Sabathia’s wild and crazy outing huge disappointment [Akron Beacon Journal]

Offense Jumps On Sabathia And Beckett Wins Again [Hartford Courant]

Sox benefit from a productive approach at the plate [Pro Jo]

Big-game Beckett strikes again [Boston Globe]

Carmona’s job just got harder [The Plain Dealer]

Sox have most dangerous weapon [Boston Herald]

TRIBE ACE TRUMPED [Akron Beacon Journal]

With Manny, Papi Rolling, Can Anyone Stop Red Sox? [Hartford Courant]

Manny and David: Always on base [Pro Jo]

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant, Providence Journal, The Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon Journal websites.

Super sexy Texy from Center Field got the Red Sox a much needed ALCS gift basket.

The very beautiful Yankees Chick gives her top ten reasons why the Yankees lost.

The succulent Sooze from Babes Love Baseball tells us about Hurricane George.

The hottest USC fan, the Gridiron Goddess, wants to do the QB shuffle with you.

The Starter Wife from Ladies… has yet another tasty recipe for y’all.

Aaron from BostonSportz.com wants you to know Ben Loves Manny, Manny Loves Jen.

You Been Blinded has Bill Parcells’ 11 QB Commandments.

Dan from Red Sox Monster talks about the Red Sox Black Pearl bullpen.

Richie Rich from Home Run Derby thinks Dick Vitale should stick to college basketball.

The Big Lead wants to know if Rick Reilly was at the LSU/Florida football game last Saturday.

We Are the Postmen has a funny Redskins video.

Rick from Deadspin tells us that USC seniors are not smarter than a fifth grader.

With Leather tells us Kenny Rogers is a English rugby supporter.

Awful Announcing has video of David Letterman talking about how the Yankees are spending their postseason.

Fitzy went bowling with Ryan Neufield of the Buffalo Bills last week.

Jon Lester hopes to pitch for the Red Sox in the ALCS but if he doesn’t, he’ll still be happy.

Indians OF Grady Sizemore isn’t overlooked anymore.

Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon Webb hopes to get another start to redeem himself.

Aaron Cook isn’t on the Rockies NLCS roster but he remains ready to pitch at any given time.

From Rotoworld:

Willy Taveras made a great catch to strand the tying run in the seventh and drew a bases-loaded walk to give the Rockies the lead in the 11th as Colorado beat Arizona 3-2 in Game 2 of the NLCS.

The Rockies head home with a commanding 2-0 series lead. Taveras’ catch came on Tony Clark’s liner into the gap with two outs and Eric Byrnes on first. With Byrnes off on contact, there’s little doubt he would have scored had the ball dropped. The Diamondbacks went on to tie the game up in the ninth, with Manny Corpas blowing the save, but poor baserunning from Stephen Drew hurt their chances of ending the game then, and they couldn’t score off Corpas in the 10th or off Ryan Speier in the 11th. Arizona will send Livan Hernandez out to oppose Josh Fogg in Sunday’s Game 3.

In a match up between Cy Young contenders on a blustery fall Friday night at Fenway, each of the aces gave up a first inning run. But unfortunately for the Cleveland Indians and C.C. Sabathia it didn’t stop there as the Tribe was pounded by the Boston Red Sox 10-3 in Game One of the American League Championship Series.

Every Red Sox starter had at least one hit, Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell each had 3 RBI and Jason Varitek and Bobby Kielty drove in 2 runs each to back the 6 inning, 2 run, 4 hit, 7 strike out performance of Josh Beckett.

Boston starter Beckett who had not allowed a post season run in more than two games was touched for a wind aided solo home run by Cleveland designated hitter Travis Hafner into the Indians bullpen. It was Hafner’s second post season home run this year and gave the team from the banks of the Cuyahoga River an early 1-0 lead. But Beckett did manage to strike out the side in the inning getting Grady Sizemore and Victor Martinez looking and Asdrubal Cabrera flailing at a breaking ball.

The Red Sox came back in the bottom of the inning against Chief Wahoo’s top gun Sabathia. After preserving his own life when Dustin Pedroia lined a bullet back up the middle that was hit harder than Sabathia threw it, he gave up consecutive two strike singles to center field to Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz. Then Ramirez followed suit with a single to center of his own to plate Youkilis and tie the game 1-1. Sabathia was able to wiggle out of the 1^st and 2^nd with one out jam by inducing Lowell to hit into a tailor made 4-6-3 twin killing.

After Sabathia struck out the side in the second inning, the Sox jumped on him for 4 runs in the third. Julio Lugo led off with a ground rule double, Pedroia sacrificed him to third. Youkilis walked after being down 0-2, Ortiz was hit by a pitch and now the bases were loaded for Ramirez who has 20 career grand slams but none in the post season among his major league high 22 career post season jacks. Ramirez quickly went into a 0-2 hole but battled back to get Sabathia to walk him and give Boston a 2-1 lead. Lowell followed with a ground rule double of his own off of Franklin Gutierrez’s glove and two more runs were plated and Sox had Big C.C. reeling and down 4-1. Kielty, playing in place of JD Drew, got an intentional walk to re-load the bases for Varitek. The captain grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Ramirez and now it was 5-1. Coco Crisp grounded out to Casey Blake at third to end the threat and get Sabathia out of the inning.

Meanwhile, since the Hafner homer, Beckett had set down 10 straight Wig-Wamers before he hit Ryan Garko with a pitch leading off the fifth but he was quickly erased when Jhonny Peralta bounced into a 6-4-3 double play. The ageless one, Kenny Lofton, who was robbed earlier in the game by a leaping, running catch by Ramirez, doubled down the left field line for the first Cleveland hit since the first inning homer. He was left standing there though as Gutierrez took a called third strike on a nasty curve from Beckett to hold the Tee Pee dwellers off the board again. It was the second whiff of the night for the young outfielder.

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