Cheers & Jeers - Monday, May 12, 2008

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Monday, May 12, 2008

POSTED May 12, 12:59 PM

Looking for a rebound

Derrick Frost wasn’t happy about the move. He also knows there’s one person to blame: himself. Had Frost punted better last season, the Redskins would not have needed to draft another punter.
Frost, though, says he has a solution. He’s going to do less. He hopes that results in more — yards per punt, that is.
Frost said he’s scaling back how much he punts during practices and in the offseason, hoping that keeps his leg fresher for the entire season.
He started strong last year — averaging 45.9 yards per punt in the first three games after a strong summer. Then came the bye week. Then came the fall: 39.5 yards on his last 58 punts.
“I was smashing the ball, then I took the whole bye week off and that was a mistake,” he said. “I was off when I came back and I pressed to get back into a groove.”
During minicamp and the organized team activities, Frost said he averaged around 20 punts a day. That’s about half of what he normally had done in the past. He’ll chart each punt during practices, gauging where his production starts to slip.
“I know some guys who kick less than that,” Frost said. “I look at my career and I’ve been through slumps. I’ve always come out of it and last year I didn’t. That concerns people in this building. I looked at it and said why didn’t I? The only thing it comes down to is that my body was tired.”
Redskins special teams coach Danny Smith called Frost a “middle-of-the-league punter”, but he likes his competitiveness. Other league evaluators like rookie punter Durant Brooks, the sixth-round pick.
“My back is to the wall and that’s usually when my best comes out,” Frost said. “Two years ago I had my best year. I had a rocky start and put it together at the right time. I’m stronger than I’ve ever been. I’m looking to prove some people wrong.”

Lee looking for a home

Xavier Lee’s athleticism made him one of the top quarterback recruits out of the state of Florida four years ago.
But now, his athleticism may earn him a spot on the Ravens’ roster — as a tight end.
The 6-foot-4, 234-pound Lee was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Florida State, where the junior declared for the NFL draft early after reportedly being told he would have to move to tight end. That move has occurred at the pro level, however. Numerous evaluators projected him as a safety or tight end.
And during the second day of minicamp, Lee, clad in his red “non-contact” quarterback jersey, was lining up not under center, but beside a tackle.
“I wasn’t exactly sure if it was going to happen or not,” said Lee, who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.7 seconds. “You just have to have fun with it. I haven’t taken too many quarterback snaps, just rotating in at tight end.”
But Lee, who threw for 2,323 yards with 15 touchdowns and 11 interceptions and ran for 217 yards and six touchdowns in three seasons in Tallahassee, Fla., has a chance to earn a roster spot at a position of need for Baltimore.
“Xavier has a chance to be a quarterback, but you look at that body, he can play a lot of things,” coach John Harbaugh said. “We just want to look at him and see what we’ve got.”
Todd Heap and Daniel Wilcox, the top two tight ends on the Ravens’ depth chart, have a long history of injury problems and third-string tight end Quinn Sypniewski is out for the season with surgery on his left knee.
The team was working with rookies Joe Reitz and Scott Kuhn during the first day of minicamp, but Kuhn broke his thumb during Saturday’s practice, opening the door for Lee.
“Just have fun,” Lee said. “Coach said, ‘Be an athlete out there and try to make a play and catch the ball.’”

The NCAA, middle schoolers and Celtics

What to look for in the sports world this week:

1. ROADKILL » Boston is 0-4 on the road entering tonight’s Game 4 matchup in Cleveland. Here’s a telling stat: in four postseason home games, Boston has held opponents to 32 percent shooting; in four road games, the Celtics have allowed 49.1 percent shooting.

2. RECRUITMENT OF 7TH GRADERS » Considering the University of Kentucky recently received a commitment from an 8th grader in California, it’s the next logical step. Why did Kentucky coach Billy Gillespie want this child now? USC coach Tim Floyd had snagged two 8th graders last year. Hello, NCAA, anyone home?

3. INTERLEAGUE PLAY » Nothing like a Astros-Rangers matchup in May! But, because the world revolves around New York, there’s the Mets playing the Yankees. Perhaps it’s a preview of ... two teams that will miss the playoffs.

4. NO MAYO, PLEASE » Don’t be surprised if the NCAA does look into USC’s O.J. Mayo after Louis Johnson told ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” that Mayo accepted $30,000 in cash and other gifts from Rodney Guillory, a Los Angeles-area event promoter. Consider us shocked. Shocked!

5. I SPY SOMETHING ... » NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will meet with former Patriots assistant Matt Walsh Tuesday to find out more about Spygate and those infamous tapes. No date on when Walsh and Bill Belichick will break bread. Or each other’s heads.

Column inches
Opinions from around the nation on the hottest topics in sports:

» Both a Tubbo and clueless, which really isn’t a very good combination for the player with the highest annual salary in Dodgers history. I tried to tell him he was taking the wrong approach with the fans here by saying really dumb things and reporting to work fat.
— T.J. Simers on struggling Dodgers outfielder Andruw Jones. (Los Angeles Times)

» Garden chairman James Dolan ended up paying the great Larry Brown almost $30 million for one year of lousy coaching. Dolan now gets to pay Isiah Thomas $20 million for reporting to Donnie Walsh about the current weather conditions in Antarctica. So when money’s no object, what’s another $24 million for Mike D’Antoni?
— Mitch Lawrence on the New York Knicks questionable hiring of coach Mike D’Antoni. (New York Daily News)

» Please, let’s put a wrap on this peep show. ... I was ready to pounce on “Belicheat” all over again. If the new allegations had substance, that is. But the tapes of the eight games [Matt] Walsh finally surrendered — after being granted what amounted to legal immunity — tell us nothing we didn’t already know.
— Chris Harry on the Spygate scandal and the tapes that were surrendered last week. (Orlando Sentinel)

» The Red Wings are doing it all now. They’re winning the big battles and the little battles and the key battles, and they’re on the verge of turning the Western Conference finals into a rout. Oh, and they’re also turning the Stars into a frustrated bunch of mouth-breathers. Dallas is the Big D? Big Dummies, really.
— Bob Wojnoski on the Red Wings domination of the Stars in the Western Conference Finals. (Detroit News)

Can you believe it?
Buffalo Bills rookie Demetrius Bell, a seventh-round draft pick last month, is the son of former NBA All-Star Karl Malone. He’s one of three children Malone had out of wedlock, but Malone is not a part of Bell’s life, telling him once it was too late to be his father. Malone impregnated Bell’s mother when she was 13 and he was a sophomore at Louisiana Tech.

On the record
“I don’t care. I’m here to win. If I win, it just makes ’em more upset and crying on their way home. By the way, somebody threw a beer can at me. Next time just make sure it’s full so I can enjoy it out there, all right?”
— NASCAR driver Kyle Busch, who was booed after winning the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway. Busch has been the target of criticism after wrecking Dale Earnhardt Jr. last week.

“I don’t want to make it out to be nothing, but it is May and we haven’t been playing that good, and you just really want to win for the right reason.”
— San Diego Padres pitcher Greg Maddux (3-3), who got his 350th career win this weekend.

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Cheers & Jeers
The Baltimore Examiner's Dave Carey and the Washington Examiner's John Keim review the daily buzz around the sports world with their insight and analysis. Feel free to give us your take at caj@examiner.com