SB Nation - Tuff Harris

Tennessee Titans Morning Links: Peter King = Thought Leadership Edition

August West — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:46:26 -0000

More photos » by John Russell - AP

Lost in the shuffle last week was the tremendous performance of William Hayes.

Donnie Nickey is having a little fun simulating Troy Polamalu in practices this week as the Titans prepare for the Steelers... which for some reason involves a rather large wig.

LenDale White is pumped for info about the towel stomp yet again, and he's still singing the same tune of unrepentant pride. Of course, you gotta love how NBC is showing footage of it in their promos. (Also note that in the Tennessean link Fisher sounds pretty confident that we may end up signing return man Mark Jones again this season.)

Peter King is a friggin thought innovator, whose tremendous mental faculties leave his mad-hater theories and wild ruminations somewhere in the ether beyond the perceptions of us mere mortal football fans. Prepare to have thine mine blown again:

It was never much in doubt, but Vince Young won the backup job over Patrick Ramsey. Know what I wonder? Why not let Young take five Wildcat snaps a game?

Follow us through the jump to find out more in-depth information about last weeks' cuts...

So Chris Henry is still on this roster only because Quinton Ganther would have been out 4-6 weeks after the calf injury he suffered against the Packers. That's a little more understandable, but Q had done so much better than Henry since day one, I'd almost still contend that he'd be worth putting on the PUP list for a while.

Shortly after we cut him, the Steelers signed Tuff Harris to their practice squad... I wouldn't really be too worried about the Steelers pumping him for information since, as Paul K noted here as well, there probably isn't much he can tell a guy like Dick LeBeau about some else's defense that LeBeau doesn't already know just from the film room.

The Sporting News ranked all of the position units around the league, and the Titans got lots of love: 2nd in running backs, 2nd in offensive line and the best secondary in the league.

R. J. White at the Fanhouse delivers one of the best season preview pieces you're liable to see on the interwebs.

Mark Jones = Not healthy. Maybe that had more to do with him getting cut than his see-saw performances.

This is just confusing, to me...

If there's anything you would like to share with the MCM community, please take advantage of the comments, fanshots and fanposts to do so! Or, you can always email me at mcmaugustwest@gmail.com.

Tennessee Titans Cut Four Players Including Mark Jones and Paul Williams

Jimmy — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:55:42 -0000

More photos » by Mark Humphrey - AP

Missed it by this much. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

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The Titans have already started to trim the roster down towards the required 53 with four cuts this afternoon. The number doesn't have to be 53 until tomorrow, but the Titans started today by cutting return man Mark Jones, wide receiver Paul Williams, offensive lineman Jason Murphy, and wide receiver Phillip Morris.

Obviously Jones is a bit of a surprise to me because I projected him to make the 53 man roster this morning but nothing earth shattering so far. I have no idea who they are going to use on punts considering the only three people they used in preseason to return punts were Chris Davis, Ryan Mouton, and Jones.

[UPDATE]- Scout.com is reporting Casey Cramer has been cut as well.

[UPDATE #2]- Rocky Boiman and Josh Stamer have also been cut.

[UPDATE #3]- Demarcus Faggins- HE GONE!

[UPDATE #4]- Tuff Harris and Nick Schommer gone. They are killing my 53 man.

[UPDATE #5]- Fernando Velasco out.

[UPDATE #6]- Playmaking tight end Mathew Mulligan released.

[UPDATE #7]- The most famous preseason punter in NFL history, AJ Trapasso has also been let go.

[UPDATE #8]- Shake's boy Mitch King will not be joining the 2009 fun.

[UPDATE #9]- Tanard Davis the latest casualty. We don't need no stinkin corners.

[UPDATE #10]- Cory Lekkerkerker no mas.

[UPDATE #11]- Rodney Ferguson II gone. That's 17 today. 5 more cuts to make.

[UPDATE #12]- LaJuan Ramsey and Ryan Durand cut.

Tennessee Titans Morning Links: Getting Healthier By The Day Edition

August West — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:57:53 -0000

More photos » by David Richard - AP

In Fisher speak, this means good job. Not great, but good. Great gets the kick dance and the fist pump all at once!

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PRAISE WHOMEVER IT IS YOU PRAISE IN TIMES LIKE THIS because Jason Jones returned to practice yesterday!!! It's his first practice in over a month, and makes me feel so much better about the D-Line being ready for opening night against the Steelers.

What's the best news we could here after that? David Stewart is back at practice as well!!! Those are the two injuries I've been most worried about this preseason, because as much as we need Nate Washington and Nick Harper, we can win without them. If we can't absolutely dominate both lines, though, we would struggle against any team.

The Titans have already made a fan out of Mike Silver, and now Pete Prisco is on board with our boys! Check out his camp wrap, where he rates the Titans as the best team he saw. Now, unfortunately he didn't get to 'see' the Patriots camp because of low visibility from across the river Styx in Hades. (h/t to smashville)

Follow us through the jump to find out that there are no Vince Young links, which will drastically effect my over/under on today's comments...

Is there an ethnicity that gets a more awesome response from people than telling them you're a Native American? I submit that there is not. Either way, Tuff Harris would know, because he grew up on the Crow reservation in Montana. Here John Glennon retells the amazing story of how Tuff got his name (no clues on the Tarintino-style spelling), and details his work to use his success to uplift his community and inspire native american children everywhere.

The jokers at T-Rac's Posse put on their serious cap for some preseason thoughts and impressions. If you don't get a kick out of their work, then it's probably your fault, not theirs.

A belated tip of the cap to whomever sent me this gem from Paul Kuharsky (mbh2x?): if you listened to the latest edition of MCM Radio you heard Jimmy and I gush about Ganther's ability to help a little in a lot of ways for this team, and Paul K is here to agree.

Mark Jones is going to get another chance to make this roster as the return specialist, but if you read the Jason Jones link above, you know that his struggles last Saturday have been par for the course in his short time with the Titans.

From the mind of Mike Florio: Officer Taylor's new assignment? Ninja Patrol!1111!!1!!11!!!1!

Lets hope our D has a little better first series in this game than they did in the meeting last year.

I was all set to make fun of an Eagles fan pretending to know about the Titans, but I must say, this is a pretty good season preview. Bravo, sir.

Tennessee Titans Morning Links: Twitter Beatdown Edition

August West — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:53:57 -0000

More photos » by Mark Humphrey - AP

When Bud Adams started the Oilers in 1960, the US had just launched its very first weather satellite. Now his people have to make policies regarding things like Twitter and Ustream.

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Tony Brown is preparing for his first season without Albert Haynesworth next to him since the former undrafted free agent broke through in 2006, and many around the Titans say Brown could have a break-out year as a result.

It pretty much goes without saying that whomever wins the no. 3 spot in the RB rotation will be expected to be a key player on special teams as well. It was that shortcoming which led to Chris Henry being inactive for all but one game last year.

Apparently Paul Kuharsky's Facebook page isn't exactly stocked with MENSA members, and the dimmer of the group had plenty to say about VY's comments in Esquire. Once again, why people want the guy to strive for mediocre I will never understand.

Follow us through the jump to find out what Jeff Fisher is telling the players about Twitter and Ustream...

Kevin Vickerson lost 30 pounds compared to his playing weight last year, and now tips the scales at 305 lbs.

The Tennessean breaksdown Kenny Britt's surpassingly palatable contract, which is good for up to $12 million over 5 years.

Amid rumors of a Twitter lockdown that's coming, and a precipitous fall in online activity yesterday by Bulluck, LenDale and CJ, we finally have a little bit of an idea what players have been told so far about the popular online service:

"Basically (Fisher) has said you just have to watch what you do, telling people where you are and this that and the other," Bulluck said. "He said it more for our protection, not to be a jerk or anything like that. He wants to protect his players, protect his team and keep everything inside the locker room.

"I know he is going to address it again. But what can he do? What are you going to do, get fined for every character you put in the Twitt? I don't know what he is going to do, and I don't feel as if anything I do on it affects this team directly. Anything I do is just an outreach to the fans and so on and so forth. I am very general with mine.''

Terry McCormick takes a look at Bud Adams' 50 years as an NFL owner... expect stories like this to just keep rolling in this year.

Titansonline.com has a great write-up on Safety, Tuff Harris, who grew up on a Crow Indian Reservation around Long Grass, Montana. That's not exactly the typical backdrop for an NFL success story.

Tennessee Titans Morning Links: Congratulations Mike Florio, You're Officially Part Of The Problem Edition

August West — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:13:53 -0000

More photos » by Ray Stubblebine - AP

Peyton Manning does great charity work in the community by helping sick children focus on happier things. Here, he also uses the opportunity to introduce the Colts' newest coaches. /rimshot . (AP Photo/Hasbro, Ray Stubblebine)

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Congrats to those hammering VY for doing some charity work... the comparison to Pacman that's being made is still so damned ignorant and infuriating. It's only those who are miles outside of the loop that has been the past 5 years in pop culture that think Pacman had a monopoly on that thing; either that or irresponsible tabloids marketing to mouth breathing douc...

Jim Wyatt has a response to Gary Estwick's column with Ryan Fowler that we posted yesterday: MLB is Tully's spot, and Fowler didn't give it away as much as Tully won it by making plays and being a better option at MLB.

I give props to Florio for saying something good about our organization in his list of the top ten off-season moves, but then he makes an idiotic point at the end. It's becoming hilarious how many NFL observers don't understand why tampering matters. I don't care if all of these guys who cover the NFL see it all the time and just choose not to write about it because 'that's how these things work'. To my mind that makes them part of the problem. Things only work like that because you allow them to work like that.

Cortland has quite the t-shirt collection going on these days:

• CB Cortland Finnegan(= had a bunch of T-shirts at his locker on Thursday, all representing different colleges of his Titans teammates. The catch, all the t-shirts were from non-Division I-A level schools. Finnegan himself played at Division I-AA Samford.

Other shirts represented in the collection, included Grand Valley State (Nick Harper), Montana (Tuff Harris), Montana State (Ken Amato), Washburn and Fordham (both Cary Williams), South Dakota (Ryan Fowler), Dartmouth (Casey Cramer) and Eastern Washington (Michael Roos). Finnegan said he just ordered a Tiffin t-shirt to honor Nate Washington and is working on getting a Maine t-shirt for tight end Matthew Mulligan.

I'm just linking to Paul K's full blog here because there are three good posts dealing with Peyton Manning's whining.

Now that the slower period of the off-season is upon us your help in finding out of the way Titans stories is more important than ever. If you have a link you'd like to submit for tomorrow's Morning Links email me at mcmaugustwest@gmail.com! (Be sure to include your commenting handle so I can give you glowing, semi-anonymous credit.)

Tennessee Titans Morning Links: Is He Tuff Enough To Replace Tuff In Practice? Edition

August West — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:44:15 -0000

Jeff Fisher falls to 2nd place in the Coach of the Year rankings in this week's awards race list by Bucky Brooks. If Fish doesn't win COY after the performance he squeezed out of this team, despite the potential firestorm around VY earlier in the year, I'll be severely disappointed. Fisher is too good of a coach not to have one this award already in his career.

Jim Wyatt's 5 Things We Know segment this week makes a good point we Titans fans should consider when measuring expectations against the Browns: despite being terrible, the Browns haven't lost a game by more than 10 points since Week 3, so don't bank on a blowout or a pretty performance by our offense.

The Titans added former Miami (Fla.) star Tanard Davis to the practice squad to replace the elevated Tuff Harris.

Jimmy had it first, but t bears repeating: Vote for Crazy Legs in the current Rookie of the Week poll!

Here's a great breakdown of the Titans' playoff and first round bye scenarios.

Paul Kuharsky has an update on the fan voting for the Pro Bowl, including surprisingly good showings for Kerry Collins, Eugene Amano and Kevin Mawae.

Don Banks puts a familiar name near the top of this coaches-in-waiting list:

• Jim Schwartz -- After strong interviews last offseason in Washington, Miami and Atlanta, Schwartz is nearly assured of parlaying the success of Tennessee's defense into a No. 1 job this time around. He's smart, articulate, extremely well prepared, and his coaching pedigree includes having worked for both Bill Belichick and Jeff Fisher.

The Titans have slipped to 4th in Football Outsiders' DVOA rankings, and it's the rushing defense that's dragging us down.

The Red Zone analysis puts the Titans strength of schedule at 6th, while the Giants wallow in the middle of the pack. Remember that when the power rankings go up.

ESPN's DJ Gallo imagines who would make it to the Super Bowl under the idiotic college system for determining a championship game.

I know you people are reading more great articles than I can track down each day, so if you have a link you'd like to submit for tomorrow's Morning Links, email me at mcmaugustwest@gmail.com! (Be sure to include your commenting handle so I can give you semi-anonymous credit.)