College Football-Week 13

Ok, after a couple crazy weeks due to my trip to Puerto Rico and the Thanksgiving holiday, it's time to get back after it this week.

1. The love affair that the media, especially CBS, has with Tim Tebow gets a little nauseating after awhile, but in the end, you do have to say that what Tebow has accomplished in his career at Florida is amazing. Possibly three national championships, at least one Heisman Trophy, 84 passing touchdowns, an SEC record 56 rushing touchdowns, numerous other records, it all adds up to him being the greatest college football player ever.

2. Speaking of Tebow and the Heisman. He joined Colt McCoy and Toby Gerhart in making a strong push for the Heisman this week, while Mark Ingram likely lost any chance at winning the trophy with his 30 yard performance against Auburn. For my latest top 5 you'll have to keep reading.

3. Congratulations to Joe Adams of Arkansas for becoming the first player ever to come back from decapitation to catch the game tying touchdown, only to see the Razorbacks lose in OT on a missed field goal. If you don't know what I'm referring to with the decapitation, here's the video.



4. This turned out to be a very disappointing season for Ole Miss. I thought if the Rebels beat Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl they could still feel pretty good about the season, but with a loss to their arch rivals, this season is not quite a disaster, but it is pretty bad. The thing I don't get about Ole Miss is why they are so bad on the road. The Rebels went 2-3 on the road this year. The two wins came against Memphis and Vandy who had a combined record of 4-20. Meanwhile the three losses came against South Carolina, Auburn, and Mississippi State whose combined mark was 19-17. So basically they played two terrible teams on the road and beat them and played three mediocre teams on the road and lost to all of them.

5. The expected firing of Charlie Weis at Notre Dame became official today. We'll find out a lot about exactly where the Notre Dame program sits on the college football landscape by who shows interest in that job and who they hire as Weis' replacement.

6. Speaking of coaching changes, I think the Memphis Tigers made the right choice with Larry Porter as their new coach. Nobody knows if it will work out in the end, but Porter certainly is the logical choice. He "fits" this job and hearing him talk about the program during his introductory press conference, you get the feeling that he will be able to sell it to potential recruits. He has a passion about the University of Memphis and that will help on the recruiting trails. The other thing that Porter does is excite the fan base which was greatly needed with this hire. Talking to former players and fans at the press conference, the overwhelming opinion is that Porter was the right man for the job.

7. Another coaching note, Mark Mangino has been rumored to be on his way out at Kansas for his treatment of his players, but the heck with everything else, Mangino should have been fired immediately after the Jayhawks loss to Missouri on Saturday for his horrendous play calling at the end of the game. Kansas had the ball at their own three, up by three, with three minutes to go and Missouri had just one timeout remaining. SO what did Mangino do? He called passes on three straight plays and gave up a safety while using about 15 seconds off the clock and letting Missouri save their timeout. It was worse than anything Les Miles has ever done at the end of a game. Ok, that may be a little harsh, but it was very Miles-like.

8. How can a company as successful as Nike continually design the worst looking football uniforms?

9. What a weird season when we have no 1-loss teams heading into the conference championship games. The only team that can finish their 12-game regular season with one loss is Cincinnati, who plays Pitt this weekend to wrap up their season.

10. How bad is the ACC when the two teams that will play in their conference championship game this week, each lost to a 7-5 SEC team?

My Top 10
1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. Cincinnati
5. TCU
6. Boise State
7. Ohio State
8. Oegon
9. Iowa
10. Pittsburgh

Five Men for the Heisman
1. Colt McCoy-Texas
2. Toby Gerhart-Stanford
3. Tim Tebow-Florida
4. Golden Tate-Notre Dame
5. Mark Ingram-Alabama

Picks

Had another solid week in the college picks last week with a 4-2 record and another lock winner. Despite the holiday etc. I had to get my picks in for the week. Have to keep the momentum going.

College
Last Week: 4-2 LOW Won
Season: 36-36
LOW: 7-5

UConn -13.5 vs Syracuse

Clemson -3 at South Carolina

Tennessee -3 at Kentucky

Florida State +24.5 at Florida

Notre Dame +10 at Stanford

"Lock of the Week"
Navy -9.5 at Hawaii

NFL
Last Week: 1-3 LOW Lost
Season: 22-22
LOW: 5-6

Cleveland +14 at Cincinnati

Houyston +3.5 vs Indianapolis

New Orleans -1.5 vs New England

"Lock of the Week"
Seattle -3 at St. Louis

Picks

I'm in San Juan, Puerto Rico this week filling in as the play-by-play voice of the Ole Miss Rebels basketball team so it's been tough to find time to post on the blog, but after going 5-1 again in the college picks again last week, I had to keep the momentum going and post the picks for the week. So with a 10-2 record over the last two weeks, let's see if I stay hot or come crashing down.

College
Last Week: 5-1 LOW Won
Season: 32-34
LOW: 6-5

Wisconsin -7 at Northwestern

Middle Tennessee -10 vs Arkansas State

Stanford -7 vs Cal

Hawaii -3 at San Jose State

Temple -10.5 vs Kent State

"Lock of the Week"
UCLA -4.5 vs Arizona State

NFL
Last Week: 2-2 LOW Lost
Season: 21-19
LOW: 5-5

Dallas -11 vs Washington

New Orleans -11 at Tampa Bay

Arizona -9.5 at St. Louis

"Lock of the Week"
Detroit -3.5 vs Cleveland

Picks

Had my best week of the year on the college front last week as I went 5-1. Couldn't carry that momentum into Sunday though with a 1-3 week in the NFL. Tampa Bay finally burned me. Let's see if I can stay hot this week. I don't particularly love the slate of games this week, and as a result, I'm going with five road teams which I do not like.

Last Week: 5-1 LOW Won
Season: 27-33
LOW: 5-5

Houston -4.5 at UCF

Western Michigan -12.5 at Eastern Michigan

Stanford +10.5 at USC

Georgia Tech -12.5 at Duke

TCU -19.5 vs Utah

"Lock of the Week"
Alabama -12.5 at Mississippi State

NFL
Last Week: 1-3 LOW Lost
Season: 19-17
LOW:5-4

Tennessee -6.5 vs Buffalo

Denver -3.5 at Washington

New England +3 at Indianapolis

"Lock of the Week"
New Orleans -13.5 at St. Louis

NFL-Week 9

With all the adventures going on around the Memphis sports scene (See Univ. of Memphis Football and Grizzlies-AI), I haven't had much time to get into the NFL this week so instead of the normal weekly review, I'll just give you my midseason awards.

MVP
Drew Brees-New Orleans

Rookie of the Year
Percy Harvin-Minnesota

Coach of the Year
Josh McDaniels-Denver

Most Surprising Team
Bengals

Most Disappointing Team
Titans

Top Five
1. New Orleans
2. Indianapolis
3. Minnesota
4. New England
5. Pittsburgh

Bottom Five
1. Washington
2. Detroit
3. St. Louis
4. Kansas City
5. Cleveland

Betting Trends
Last Week
Favorites: 3-10
Home Teams: 4-9
Over-Under: 6-7

Season
Favorites: 64-63-2
Home: 57-70-2
Over-Under: 66-61-2

College Football-Week 10

1. Well the inevitable became official today as the University of Memphis announced that Tommy West has been relieved of his duties as head football coach at the University. West will coach the final three games of the season. My feelings on this situation have not changed since the loss to Marshall when it became clear that change was needed. I like West, and think he is a good football coach, but the Tiger program had just reached a point where change was needed to breathe life back into a program that had become completely lifeless and stale.

What Tommy did with the program should not be overlooked. Five bowl games in six years, even in today's age where there are way to many bowl games, is nothing to sneeze at. Tommy took the program to heights it had never reached, but it also became clear he was incapable of taking it any higher. Much of the blame for that falls with the University as Tommy pointed out quite passionately today in his press conference, but some of the blame also falls on his shoulders.

So now RC Johnson has decided to make a change and I will continue to say that the proper hire for this job is a young coach who likely doesn't have a lot of experience but has the energy and ambition to work his butt off in order to impress BCS level schools so he can get a bigger job in 3-4 years. You do not want someone comfortable with staying here for many years without any desire to move up the ranks. This is a stepping stone job, pure and simple, and if you don't think it is then you are just being naive.

The first candidate on my list if I was Johnson would be Gus Malzahn, the Auburn offensive coordinator. Malzahn has only been on the college level for four years, but he is a high energy guy with a personality that I think fans would like and more importantly, an offensive system that recruits, especially quarterbacks, would want to play in. Also, Malzahn has already shown the ability to dominate CUSA offensively with his two years at Tulsa when his offense was one of the top ranked units in the nation. That type of offense can win big in CUSA even if you're defense isn't that great. We have seen that with Tulsa and this year with Houston. That type of high octane offense also pleases fans. Now I'm not saying Malzahn would definitely take the job, but if I'm Johnson, you can be damn sure I'm making him tell me know before I look anywhere else. If he says no, then I would look at Charlie Strong, the defensive coordinator at Florida, but if he is the next coach, he needs to bring a good offensive mind with him, preferably someone from the Florida offensive staff, to be his OC.

This is a very important time for Tiger football, not just because it's time to hire a new coach, but because it's time for Johnson and the rest of the University leadership to decide exactly what they want the football program to be. With the things West said today, any new coaching prospect is going to be concerned about the commitment to football and will need to be reassured that the University is committed to winning before they take the job.

2. It took all of seven days for voters to forget what Oregon did to USC last week. How else can you explain how, after Oregon's loss to Stanford, they dropped below USC in every one of the polls? The love affair the voters have with USC will never cease to amaze me.

3. Two top Heisman candidates really helped their cause this weekend. Houston's Case Keenum once again went over 500 yards and bailed his team out late as Houston pulled off a miracle finish to beat Tulsa. Meanwhile, Mark Ingram of Alabama ran for 144 yards to lead the Tide past LSU in comeback fashion. They may very well be the two top candidates at this point, but you can keep reading this post for the way I'd vote if I had a Heisman ballot.

4. Another guy that opened up some Heisman voter's eyes is Stanford's Toby Gerhart. I had Gerhart in my Top 5 for a week earlier this year, but then dropped him back out. Well, after his 223 yard, three touchdown performance in an upset of Oregon, Gerhart is certainly back in the conversation.

5. Notre Dame beat Navy 43 straight times from 1963 through 2006. Since then, under Charlie Weis, the Irish have lost two of three to the Midshipmen, and with that it would appear that Weis' tenure at Notre Dame would appear to be coming to an end. I would be shocked if Weis is able to keep his job at season's end. When you are at Notre Dame, you just don't lose to Navy. If they do let Weis go, will the Urban Meyer "dream job" talk start up again? I'd say it will.

6. Speaking of coaches in trouble, Rich Rodriguez has used up all the good will he earned earlier this year with back-to-back losses to Illinois and Purdue. I'm not sure if Rodriguez will be fired after this season, but if he does stay, he will be on a very short leash going into next season.

7. It's about time Julio Jones made a big play for Alabama as he took a screen pass 73 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to put the Tide on top for good against LSU. That play also showed that they need to quit trying to force the ball to Jones in the red zone. Just get the ball in his hands when you can and eventually he'll make plays.

8. Iowa's crazy undefeated run finally came to an end at the hands of Northwestern. You can only walk the tightrope so long before you fall off and with their quarterback Ricky Stanzi leaving the game with an injury, the Hawkeyes were not able to mount another miracle comeback in this one. The Hawkeyes can still win the Big 10, but if Stanzi misses this week's game with Ohio State, which is highly likely, the Hawkeyes will be in trouble.

9. What a performance by the Nebraska defense. Whether Sam Bradford is in the lineup or not, when you hold Oklahoma without a touchdown, you've done something. Nebraska intercepted Landry Jones five times in their 10-3 win. It's hard to believe that those same Cornhuskers lost to Iowa State just a couple weeks earlier. It's also hard to believe that Oklahoma has four losses. Bradford or no Bradford, I would never have thought that possible.

10. I still can not believe how much better Tennssee quarterback Jonathan Crompton looks now compared to last year and early this season. Lane Kiffin has done a great job with Crompton this year and he looks like a completely different player. It's hard to believe, but Tennessee fans are actually wishing that Crompton had another year of eligibility left.

My Top 10
1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. Cincinnati
5. TCU
6. Boise State
7. Georgia Tech
8. Pittsburgh
9. LSU
10. Iowa

Five Men for the Heisman
1. Case Keenum-Houston
2. Mark Ingram-Alabama
3. Tim Tebow-Florida
4. Toby Gerhart-Stanford
5. Kellen Moore-Boise State

Picks

Two ridiculous backdoor covers got me in the college ranks last week as Indiana's horrendous fourth quarter performance took the Hoosiers from easy winner to 1/2 point loser thanks to a long Iowa TD run in the last minute and Eastern Michigan's late touchdown against Arkansas' fourth string defense let them cover the large spread. My lock got beat thanks to two UTEP interceptions inside the red zone that both ended up in touchdowns the other direction. In the NFL, I stayed hot with only Indianapolis letting me down. I've lost two straight weeks with Arkansas, but I am going with them again and despite their late rally against Indiana, I'm going back after Iowa too.

College
Last Week: 2-4 LOW Lost
Season: 22-32
LOW: 4-5

Northwestern +16 at Iowa

UCF +35.5 at Texas

Arkansas -7 vs South Carolina

Missouri -14 vs Baylor

La-Monroe -1 at North Texas

"Lock of the Week"
Houston +1 at Tulsa

NFL
Last Week: 3-1 LOW Won
Season: 18-14
LOW: 5-3

Ravens -3 at Bengals

Falcons -10 vs Washington

49ers -4 vs Titans

"Lock of the Week"
Packers -9.5 at Tampa