A TV show Panther fans shouldn't miss and other Friday notes

This is the day I traditionally post my forecast of Sunday's Panthers game. But for the only time in a 17-week period, the Panthers don't play Sunday due to their bye week. This is something of a relief, since I can guarantee for once I won't miss the outcome -- I've misfired on the last three Panther games in a row. In the meantime, a few notes:

1) If you missed the "Turning Point" NFL Films show Thursday night on Versus, you need to tune into it Saturday at 5 p.m. if you are a Panther fan. It will re-air on NBC that day, so whether you have cable or not, you can see it, and you should.

NFL Films had coach Ron Rivera miked up for the game -- there's a cool conversation he has with one NFL official in the pregame about Cam Newton -- and also caught some good sideline dialogue involving Steve Smith and others for the Panthers-Minnesota game.

The first 20 minutes or so of the hour-long show focuses mostly on last week's game. I was impressed by Rivera's sideline demeanor. The coach mutters "He missed it" when Olindo Mare hooks the 31-yarder that would have sent the game into overtime, but quickly rebounds and tells Mare "Keep your head up" as he comes off the field. He mostly tells players "Do your job, Do your job" as they head onto the field and comes across as calm and in charge.

The slow-motion highlights, though, are reason enough to watch -- practically every big play Newton and Smith have had all season is shown, and that's a lot of big plays. It's really good stuff. Again, Saturday at 5 p.m. on NBC -- tape it or watch it (the Panther section only lasts about the first 20 minutes).

2) Here's my column from today on the verbal jabs from UNC interim football coach Everett Withers and N.C. State head coach Tom O'Brien, in which I call Withers' words silly and short-sighted.

3) Pro Football Talk has an interesting story today about how the Panthers drafting Newton No.1 ended up paying off for Buffalo quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who just signed a big contract. Buffalo had its eye on Newton at No.3, see, and Fitzpatrick then wouldn't have gotten a new deal.

4) Our Rick Bonnell has a nice piece in today's Charlotte Observer about what might have been had the Bobcats opened their regular season as scheduled vs. Milwaukee tonight. I still think there will be an NBA season this year, but I don't think they'll try to squeeze in 82 games anymore -- maybe more like 60-70.

Withers doesn't have a leg to stand on -- and O'Brien is understandably furious

Oh c'mon, Everett Withers. Really?

Withers, who is serving as North Carolina's interim head football coach, took some verbal shots at N.C. State Wednesday in a taped radio interview with Joe Ovies of Raleigh's 99.9 "The Fan."

N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien responded angrily to what Withers said today -- read on for some of those comments or listen to them here.

But first, the setup: Particularly, Withers questioned the "academic environment" at N.C. State, which is laughable considering the Tar Heels are the ones who fired their coach Butch Davis just before the 2011 season due to the fallout of an academic scandal. In fact, UNC is waiting right now to hear word from the NCAA as to what its punishment is going to be after an investigation into the football program.

Yet Withers said in the radio interview: "When you have as many schools in this state as we have, and the recruiting base gets watered down a bit, I think the kids in this state need to know the flagship school in this state. They need to know it academically. If you look at our graduation rates, as opposed to our opponent's this week [N.C. State], graduation rates for athletics, football, you'll see a difference.... If you look at the educational environment here, I think you'll see a difference."

Withers was apparently referring to the fact that, according to data provided by the NCAA for the freshman class of 2004, UNC's football team had a graduation success rate of 75 percent compared to 56 percent for N.C. State. UNC's federal graduation rate, which doesn't count transfers or players who left early, was at 58 percent compared to 50 percent for N.C. State.

All of which is well and good, but again.... UNC has been involved in an NCAA investigation that includes what the NCAA defined as academic fraud!! Jennifer Wiley, a former university tutor and once an employee of Davis's, was accused of three major violations herself! It was only last Friday that UNC officials had to go to Indianapolis for a hearing held by the NCAA's Committee on Infractions.

In other words, Withers doesn't have a leg to stand on in this argument. The Tar Heels have long claimed the academic high ground. But for now, because of the actions of a few, that claim has to be forfeited as far as the football program is concerned. N.C. State fans and players are likely incensed by these comments.

O'Brien certainly is. When asked about Withers' comments Thursday, O'Brien responded by referring to UNC officials’ trip to Indianapolis last Friday to appear in front of the Committee on Infractions to answer charges of nine major violations in an ongoing NCAA investigation of impermissible benefits and academic fraud

“Here is a guy that’s on a football staff that ends up in Indianapolis,” O’Brien said. “. . .If you take three things that you can’t do in college football, you have an agent on your staff. You’re paying your players. And you have academic fraud. That’s a triple play as far as the NCAA goes. So I don’t know that he has anything to talk about or they have anything to talk about. If that’s what people want in their flagship university in North Carolina, then so be it.”

After being asked what he meant by “paying your players,” O'Brien indicated that he was referring to the impermissible benefits players received.

“They had players accepting money from somebody,” O’Brien said. “I mean, money is being given from someone to somebody, that’s been documented, right? I don’t know how it got there. Maybe I’m wrong saying that. But those are no-nos as far as the NCAA goes.”

And there was one more shot from O'Brien, too.

“At our school, A number one, all classes have a syllabus,” O’Brien said. “Our guys go to school. They’re not given grades, and they graduate. It’s a little tougher here, if you have to go to school and you’re expected to have a syllabus and go to class. So I think all our guys earn everything they get here. Certainly our graduates earn everything at this university."

How can Panthers' stadium experience be improved?

I wrote my column today on whether Cam Newton should make the Pro Bowl -- expanding my blog post from Wednesday into a full-length column.

My bottom line was that if I had to vote today, I wouldn't vote Newton for the Pro Bowl. You can pick three quarterbacks from the NFC, and I would pick Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Matthew Stafford. But Newton would be my fourth choice -- and the No.4 quarterback actually gets to play in the Pro Bowl a majority of the time, because one of the top three is either gearing up for the Super Bowl or hurt.

As for other Panther news, the team has decided it's time to renovate Bank of America Stadium and has hired an architectural firm for a year-long study on how best to do that. "The major emphasis will be on improving the fan experience," Panther president Danny Morrison told our own Joe Person about this. But Morrison offered few other details.

OK.... so if that's the case, how would YOU like to see the fan experience improved at B of A Stadium? The stadium opened in 1996, so it's 16 years old and showing its age a bit, although still plenty good enough I think to host the team for decades to come.

I would certainly think the stadium needs a technological upgrade, however. The "new" video boards were an improvement four years ago, but still not to the level of what I see at many stadiums around the country. And the scoreboard could use some work and expansion, for sure. I am sure there are other things you can think of that I can't.

Again, a warning to keep the comments clean. They stayed mostly that way for yesterday's blog post on Cam Newton -- thanks to the 95 percent of you who had thoughtful things to say -- but by the end degenerated too far and I had to hide all the comments as a result of that.

Should Cam Newton make the Pro Bowl?

The NFL's official website is already taking fan votes on who should make the Pro Bowl this season (here's the link if you want to vote).

And while it seems too early, you have to bear in mind that both the NBA and MLB basically select their all-stars based on a half-season of play as well. In the NFL, the fans' vote counts for one third of the total vote, with coaches' votes and players' votes counting a third apiece as well (the players and coaches won't vote for about a month -- the game is in Hawaii the week before the Super Bowl, meaning anyone who is about to play in the Super Bowl won't go and an alternate will be selected).

So my question to you today is:

Should Cam Newton make the Pro Bowl?

Here are the facts as I see them:

The NFC will have three quarterbacks on its roster for the Pro Bowl (often, the fourth quarterback in voting ends up playing, since one of the three often is hurt or in the Super Bowl).

There is one shoo-in. Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers not only should be selected as the starter but should end up being this season's NFL MVP. He's quarterbacking an undefeated team, he has 20 touchdown passes and only three interceptions -- he's smack in the middle of his prime, playing better than anyone in the league.

For No.2 quarterback I'd pick Drew Brees. He's had some interception problems this season (throwing 10) but he still is a surgical quarterback and one of the best in the league. While it's been somewhat of a down year for Brees, his standards are so high. Having watched him firsthand for a number of years I still think he's all-star worthy, and he leads the NFL in passing yardage.

But you could argue for a number of quarterbacks other than Rodgers for spots 2 and 3. Here are the primary contenders besides Brees:

Eli Manning, NY Giants: 13 passing TDs, 5 interceptions, a QB rating second only to Rodgers in NFC.

Matthew Stafford, Detroit: 19 passing TDs, 4 interceptions, leading Detroit to a breakout season.

Michael Vick, Philadelphia: 11 passing TDs, 8 interceptions, leads all QBs in rushing yardage per game at 60.3 (Newton is slightly under 40 per game).

Alex Smith, San Francisco: 9 passing TDs, 2 interceptions, modest numbers but the 49ers are 6-1.

Tony Romo, Dallas: 11 TDs, 7 interceptions, has made some big plays and big errors so far this season.

Cam Newton, Carolina: 11 passing TDs, 9 interceptions, 7 rushing TDs (tied for third in the NFL among all players), 2393 passing yards (second only to Brees in the NFL), leads NFL in pass plays over 20 yards (40), but Carolina is only 2-6 -- a worse record than any of the other QBs I'd put under consideration.

The Panthers will definitely have some offensive representation at this year's Pro Bowl. Steve Smith is a lock. Jordan Gross and Ryan Kalil are likely -- both linemen played in the game last year.

But what about Newton? Too much, too soon? Too many turnovers? Not enough wins? Or is his dazzling talent worthy of a Pro Bowl slot in his rookie year?

Remember, you can vote here. NOTE: I've had to disable the comments for this blog post -- thanks to the 95 percent of readers who kept it clean, wrote thoughtful posts and remembered that this blog is also read by many young students. Unfortunately, about 5 percent of the commenters were so profane -- and those popped up so frequently -- that I eventually had to shut them down.

Oh, if only the 49ers would do this too...

That's great news today about the new football field for the Charlotte 49ers being named for sports and corporate icons Hugh McColl and Jerry Richardson. That the 49ers' field will be called McColl-Richardson Field sounds cool -- and very "Charlotte-y."

Both men have done so much for this community and I'm glad they have thrown their collective weight behind the 49ers' new venture (the school starts actually playing football in 2013).

Now I'm sure the press conference was very nice (I wasn't there), but here's something I also wish that McColl, Richardson and the 49ers could combine on a hilarious rap video like this one, which Bowling Green put together in a very similar situation to celebrate its new basketball arena called the Stroh Center that opens later this month.

The video is worth watching, I promise. But if you don't have time, let's just say that Bowling Green (which put all this together in an official but very entertaining sort of way) had a whole lot of fun and has garnered more than 100,000 hits on YouTube by doing the video.

The video disrespects no one, makes you laugh aloud at least a few times and has gotten a fairly obscure college like Bowling Green all sorts of good publicity. It has been featured on ESPN, in USA Today and a number of other places.

If the 49ers could do something similar at some point and it ended up going viral -- Richardson and McColl would have to play along of course -- it would be something else. Surely there is a rapper as talented as this guy -- he's a sophomore at Bowling Green -- on the Charlotte 49ers' campus somewhere.

Panthers by the numbers after Week 8

Some significant numbers for the 2-6 Carolina Panthers halfway through the season (my "midpoint of the season" column can be found here):

0 -- Number of Panther running backs in the top 30 in the NFL in rushing yards per game (DeAngelo Williams ranks highest, at No.32, with 45.4 yards per game).

11 -- Passing TDs for the Panthers this season. Carolina had nine passing TDs in all of 2010.

14 and 31 -- The Panthers' longest punt return and kickoff return, respectively, this season. The opponents' corresponding numbers are 89 (punt) and 78 (kickoff).

25.9 -- The number of points per game the Panthers have allowed. That is fifth-worst in the NFL. The Panthers have held an opponent under 20 points only once in eight games.

40 -- Number of passes Cam Newton has completed that have gone for 20 or more yards in the Panthers' vertical passing attack. That's No.1 in the NFL. The next highest is Houston's Matt Schaub, with 34.

65 -- Penalties called on the Panthers through eight games. This is second-worst in the NFL only to Oakland, which has 69. Some of the blame must go on the coaching staff for this stat. (Carolina is also second in yards penalized, with 560 compared to Oakland's 600).

2289 -- Total number of passing yards for Carolina last season in an entire 16-game season.

2393 -- Total number of passing yards for Cam Newton through eight games this season.

Bests and worsts from Panthers' loss to Vikings

Going to extremes as Carolina drops another heartbreaker, 24-21, at home to Minnesota Sunday. The Panthers dropped to 2-6 entering their bye week (also, here's a link to the video Panthers beat writer Joe Person and I did following the game to recap the painful loss):

Worst yank: Olindo Mare missed a 31-yard field goal that would have tied the game and sent it into overtime with 29 seconds to go.

Best fourth-down play: Facing a fourth-and-15 from his own 35 with 1:09 to go, Cam Newton fired a strike to Brandon LaFell, who turned it into a 44-yard play to set up the final dramatics.

Worst offensive run: The Panthers had three straight three-and-outs in the second half, which helped wear down their defense and also meant that their 21-14 lead disappeared.

Best run defense: Carolina did a fairly admirable job on Adrian Peterson, who got 86 yards in 21 carries but never had a run of longer than 15 yards. On the other hand, Peterson hurt Carolina several times in the passing game, gaining 76 more yards on five short receptions.

Best stats in a losing cause: Cam Newton had 290 yards passing, three TDs, no interceptions and a QB rating of 117.6. And he lost. It didn't help, however, that he also lost his first two fumbles of the season (Minnesota would turn both into TDs).

Worst penalty: Steve Smith was flagged for holding on that final drive when a Newton run had gotten Carolina to a first-and-goal inside the Minnesota 10. Smith didn't like the call, nor did coach Ron Rivera.

Worst prediction: Unlike last year's team, in which you could almost always pick the Panthers correctly by choosing them to lose, this one is quite unpredictable to me. I've now missed the Panthers' result the past three weeks in a row -- I picked them to beat Minnesota. The only way I can guarantee that it won't be four straight Sundays is the Panthers have a bye Nov.6th.

Worst tackle: Chris Gamble missed a critical, one-on-one third-down tackle against Minnesota's Percy Harvin that helped the Vikings immensely in the fourth quarter on their field-goal drive that ultimately won the game.