Wow another big weekend, lots of stuff going on. 1. Game of the weekend. Auburn/Alabama. I don't know if Cam Newton took money on the sly, if his dad is the scumbag dad, or what. But Cam himself on the football field is one hell of a football player. I can't see them losing to the old ball coach in the SECCG. I don't see them being out of gas for the game. I thought they might, I thought that maybe since USC played them very well on the Plains that maybe on a neutral site it would be different. But I don't think so. 2. A couple of teams got monkeys off their backs this weekend. FSU had lost to the Gators 5 straight years. No more, out played and outhit the Gators thoroughly. Meyer has some big issues to work out with his team, they are not without talent, in fact they have a lot of talent. Notre Dame 8 game losing streak to USC, out fought, out hit, and out played SC at their place in the rain, with a true freshman QB who tossed some picks and fumbled, but in the end the Irish defense was the key. Some might say we were Lucky that Johnson dropped the pass, but I say they were lucky that Smith feel down on the slippery wet field. It's been awhile since the Irish were playing their best football at the end of the season. Kudos to Brian Kelly. Texas A&M, they didn't exactly have the same monkey on their back as the Irish and FSU, as they have beaten Texas several times in the last 5 years. But still it was a huge win for the Aggies and maybe just maybe has turned their fortunes. They had the upper hand from the late 80's through the mid 90's till Mack arrived. Now it will be interesting since clearly we are nearing the end of the Mack Brown era, Mack won't say it but it is, oh sure he might coach 5 more years. But like Bobby Bowden it's over and he just hasn't realized it. A&M has energy and momentum and if they can play well and win their bowl game they will have started the ball rolling towards their court. Sherman is a better coach than Mack, but Mack is a better recruiter. Once athletes in the state realize that it's over for Mack. Won't affect 2011 class, but it will be interesting to see if Mack can do his usual early magic and have a top 10 class in the bag by May like he usually does. 3. HORROR in Boise. Can you imagine how bad that kicker feels ..STILL... they were set up exactly where they wanted. BCS bowl at the min and a shot at the Nat'l Title. Now they will be in a lower tier bowl as there is no chance a BCS bowl will chose them as an at-large team. Quite a fall. 4. TCU to the Rose Bowl, quite a feat for the Horned Frogs and I doubt if you will hear them complaining about not being in the NC game. Of course they are not eliminated, just I don't think either Auburn or Oregon will spit the bit at this point. Only thing I worry about is that their Sr. QB Andy Dalton was hurt in the New Mexico game. They are saying he's fine and could have played more, but they didn't want to take any chances. Unfortunately they get Wisconsin a behemoth of a team who will mash them with their big OL and big RB's. 5. Ohio State/Mich game. I read that the Mich contingent was the smallest that anybody can remember, and the the cruelest cut of all is when they left the game early the OSU fans didn't even abuse them as they left. The biggest story about the game wasn't the game, it's RR. Will he be retained. I read that the UM AD said he will eval after the bowl game. Well if you are RR and with all the rumors out their what do you tell recruits who want to know if you'll be their next year. It would seem to me he needs to say something this week, fish or cut bait. But the game, typical Tressel. Solid plan, excellent special teams, few mistakes, big plays and attention to detail. Only mistake was the gloves. 6. B12. Big Shootout in Stillwater, OU likely to face Neb. How fitting that Neb gets sent out to the B10 by a team that has historically been their nemisis. Between the obvious talent advantage that OU has over the Huskers, and the refs being on their side...well I don't expect it to be a fun party for the Huskers. Most of the Aggies I know want to go to the Cotton Bowl, but with the OSU loss I wonder if that is what will happen. 7. Pac10 Oregon did it's thing as usual, warmed up the race car in the first half and then turned it loose in the 2nd half. I have to say that physically Oregon doesn't look very big, they look skinny at the skill positions. I wonder if that has to do with the calories burned by their high speed practices and games? It doesn't look like the Pac10 can fill all their bowl commitments with only 3 eligible right now and they do have 3 5-6 teams, but one of them is Oregon State and they aren't likely to get it's 6th win, another is ASU which isn't likely to beat AZ and the 3rd is Wash and they might beat Wazzu to become bowl eligible. At one point it looked like Stanford would get screwed out of a BCS bowl, but the way things turned yesterday that seems less likely. 8. Big East continues to be embarassing, they in no way shape or form deserve their autobid right now. I will give Randy Edsall of UConn his props for developing an excellent program and same to Skip Holtz at USF in his first year. But the conference as a whole is below Mtn West, and barely as good as CUSA. Oh and Charley Strong at Louisville is having a good first year, esp given what he inherited. 9. ACC FSU vs VaTech. Quite a turnaround for VaTech after going 0-2 to start the year including losing to James Madison at home. FSU after beating the Gators seem to be on a good track with Jimbo Fisher. I don't know who will win, but they are in the category of good not great. Very disappointing year for Ga. Tech, I have to wonder if the ACC has figured out Paul Johnson's offense and he's now stuck being around a .500 team. I have to speculate that FSU is going to start being the old FSU recruiting juggernaut. They have momentum, they have an excellent recruiting staff, in Bowdens hey dey they owned the state of Fla and had top 5 classes every year. I wonder if that will return. 10. Miami. Fired Randy Shannon. If all you looked at was W-L's then I guess it should not have been a suprise, even with the extension. That extension might have been more to prevent negative recruiting and might have defined his financial settlement if he was fired more than a reward for job well done. I am reminded of what Dr. White said when he fired Willingham, said that Sunday through Friday he had done a great job, just didn't win enough. Same for Shannon, arrests down grades up graduation rate up...W-L's not up to Davis/Coker era. I heard Mark May say that expectations are too high that lack of facilities, lack of on campus stadium, etc hurt. Maybe so, but those kids who came to play before Shannon didn't seem to care about any of those things. They wanted to be Canes. I wonder who they will go after, are there any Huirricane Alums as Coordinators or HC doing well. Would they consider Mike Leach, how about the guy who is OCoord at OK State, or the Texas A&M DCoord? Hey how about making a run at Greg Davis the Texas OCoord...please!
I see projected bowl matchups have Michigan vs Florida in the Gator Bowl. Wow the Gator offense vs the Skunk defense.....something's gotta give.
Terry, I think the vendors in Columbus who sell the F**K Michigan t-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby bibs want to see RR go as badly as many Michigan fans. He has to be killing their business. But, if you were watching the game in the 4th quarter in TV, you were not listening closely enough for the Ohio fans were singing "I Don't Give a Damn About the Whole State of Michigan" during most of it. Re the small contingent of Michigan fans: probably the reason for that is the same as why only a handful of Christians would make the road trip to Rome to watch their team play the gladiators and lions. Re Florida v Michigan: The manufacturers of Xanax and Prozac will buy a lot of advertising for there are a lot of potential clients in both fan bases. MCG, I will be glad to share half my stash with you.
Forgot to mention Iowa. All 7-5 seasons are not equal. At ND we are estatic at finishing 7-5, beating our rival. At Iowa how must they feel, start the season as one of the top teams in the Big 10, finish with the same 7-5 record but a loss to hapless Minnesota who doesn't even have a coach. That has to hurt. I wonder if Iowa fans consider this one of Ferentz worst coaching jobs? He had a Sr laden team with high expectations. Did he have a lot of injuries like ND? What happened there? Also, it will be interesting to see what happens at MSU going forward. Dantonio has been there what 4 years now and seemingly with this year has finally built the program. Question is can it be reproduced annually like Duffy did in his hey dey? With UM down can they find a way to supplant them in recruiting the way that Tom Izzo has done with MSU basketball? Or will they continue with having a good team every once in awhile and average teams the rest of the time.
UF's 7-5 includes wins over big rivals Tenn ( at Knoxville) , Georgia and a face saving W over USF. Could have been a decent season with the W over the other of the big three rivals.....FSU. But the way in which UF finished so poorly vs. SouCar for the SEC East title and the complete egg they dropped in Tallahassee puts a huge negative mark on the season. I am not sure how much a bowl win would actually salvage from such a disappointing finish.