College Football 2010--week 10--texas Tiger's Takes
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College Football 2010--Week 10--Texas Tiger's TakesOkay, the November election is over and we can put all our focus on college football for a few weeks before the hectic holiday season swoops down upon us. The World Series no longer competes for our attention, but pro football, the NBA, and NHL are all in full swing. Life is good. And here’s my tribute to OUTGOING Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: 
The President said yesterday that his party “got a shellacking” in the midterm elections. Well, there are some college football teams that got some shellackings last weekend, too, and maybe more are on the horizon. Ohio State ran their record to 8—1 with a 52—10 blowout over the Minnesota Gophers. The Buckeyes take this weekend off before hosting Penn State on 13 November. Speaking of Penn State, the Nittany Lions host Northwestern this weekend as Penn State coach Joe Paterno tries to notch his 400th career win, by far the most by any college coach. I think he gets it and takes his team to bowl eligibility and a 6—3 record. Continuing with blowouts, the Oklahoma Sooners thumped Colorado 43—10, taking their record to 7—1 and pushing poor ole Dan Hawkins (coach) and the Buffaloes to 3---5. Oklahoma now goes to College Station to take on the Texas A&M Aggies, a 5—3 team which has put up 45 points on successive weekends against Kansas and Texas Tech, respectively. The Sooners are 3 and ½ point favorites, but I believe the Aggies are ready to spring an upset at home. College Station and the Corps of Cadets are a formidable force---that 12th man thing, you know---and I’m picking this as an UPSET SPECIAL. Aggies win. While mentioning Colorado, this is probably Hawkins’ last season as head man of the team. There is not a lot of money to “buy” a top tier coach, but they will geaux for the best and biggest name they can get. Don’t be surprised if LSU’s Les Miles’ name is prominent in this discussion, especially if Miles and his Bayou Bengals get embarrassed by the Alabama Crimson Tide this weekend. The Tigers could very well lose 3 of their last 4 games to finish at 8—4. If this happens, the call to remove Miles as LSU boss will be heard from Red Stick to the Canadian border. And Colorado is a beautiful place to live. Further, Buffalo fans and the administration would “kill” for a record like the one Les has put up at LSU, a record which has been characterized by too many close and ugly wins. Colorado gets a breather this weekend against an abysmal Kansas team and I believe the Buffaloes win this one for Hawk. Another blowout this past weekend had the TCU Horned Frogs demolishing UNLV, 48—6. Not sure any of us care what the schedule is for UNLV, but the Horned Frogs take on the Utah Utes at their place. This should be a very entertaining game to watch. Utah is a 5 point underdog at home and I have to geaux along with this spread. I like TCU to win and keep the pressure up on the BCS to pick them for the big game in January. Utah barely beat Air Force this past weekend in a 28—23 game. One sure thing about the January BCS championship game---Michigan State won’t be in it. The previously unbeaten Spartans ran into a buzz saw in Iowa as the Hawkeyes stomped Michigan State 37—6. Good bye, championship dreams---although the Spartans could still win the Big 10. They won’t but they could . Iowa is a powerful 6—2 team that will be 7—2 after a Saturday win against Indiana. Michigan State should go to 9—1 with a victory over Minnesota. The Stanford Cardinal opened up a can of major league whip butt in thrashing Washington, 41---0. Preseason Heisman hopeful Washington qb Jake Locker only completed 7 passes for 64 yards with 2 interceptions. This is the same guy who led the Huskies to a win over USC. Stanford has a toughie this week on the road against powerful Arizona which squeaked by UCLA 29—21. Stanford is an almost 10 point favorite over the Wildcats and I believe they cover the spread. No upset here. Take the Cardinal. Arkansas took Vanderbilt to the woodshed with a 49—14 thrashing. The Razorbacks now get to test the Gamecocks in South Carolina. More on that later Many thought this past weekend’s game between Auburn and Ole Miss at Oxford would be the perfect time for a letdown by the War Eagles and Heisman hopeful and frontrunner Cam Newton. Ha ha ha ha ha. Masoli and his Rebel teammates did put up 31 against Auburn….but Auburn put up 51 in an easy road win. Auburn now takes on “mighty” Chattanooga in a game that is off the board. Not much $$$$$ will be bet against Auburn this weekend. Ole Miss takes a breather against outmanned ULL. By the way, Newton was 18 of 24 for 209 yards and 2 touchdowns. Another game that looked like it would be a blowout was the contest between Nebraska and previously unbeaten Missouri, the darlings of football after their Saturday night win against Oklahoma. Nebraska put up 24 points in the first quarter seaux fast that you almost needed a calculator to keep track of the score. To Missouri’s credit, they came back to make it an interesting game, but the Cornhuskers and quarterback Martinez prevailed 31—17. Nebraska now takes on surprising Iowa State and Missouri tries to get back to its’ winning ways when they visit Texas Tech. I’ll take Nebraska to push their record to 8—1 while Mizzou does the same by beating the Red Raiders. No surprises here. Some say that Oregon’s 53---32 whipping of the Southern Cal Trojans was also a blowout, but it was only an 11 point lead after 3 quarters. Oregon’s offense is just almost unstoppable. I don’t think I’ve seen another team that could slow it down sufficiently to OUTSCORE the Ducks. Surprisingly, the one defense that could give the Ducks trouble is that of LSU. Regrettably, the Tigers’ offense is so awful they won’t get a chance to face the Ducks THIS year; the Tigers open up the 2011 season against Oregon in Jerry’s World in the Dallas, TX, area. Maybe the Tigers will find a quarterback---and a head coach/offensive coordinator—-by then. I believe Oregon goes undefeated this year and plays in the BCS championship game. Whomever they play better bring their track shoes. Oregon’s fast, geaux-geaux-geaux pace is very effective. ANY Duck opponent had better be ready to hustle for 60 minutes.
There were some other interesting games this past weekend which were much closer and more entertaining. For example:
Before we continue with other football news and predictions, let’s take a moment to remember former baseball major league manager Sparky Anderson. Sparky was recently placed in hospice care in, I believe, California due to complications from dementia. Sparky Anderson died today (Thursday). He was the guy who pulled the strings for the “Big Red Machine” in Cincinnati some years ago and went on to manage at other locations such as Detroit. In other college football news: 1. Mississippi State Defensive End Nick Bell died of cancer. He played in the first two games of the year. This is from “Sports Illustrated”: QUOTE: Mississippi State defensive end Nick Bell died Tuesday at the University of Alabama-Birmingham Hospital after a short battle with cancer. Bell, a 20-year-old from Bessemer, Ala., was diagnosed in late September after experiencing headaches during football practice and had surgery on Oct. 1 to remove a mass from his brain. He had emergency surgery on Monday morning after it was found that the cancer had aggressively spread throughout his body. Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/football/ncaa/11/02/nick-bell-mississippi-state.ap/index.html#ixzz14KnL4Nut UNQUOTE 2. Lots of chatter on the coaching carousel sites that former Tennessee Coach Phillip Fulmer is high on the list to become the next head coach at the University of Minnesota. Fulmer has not denied the interest of BOTH him and the university.
Note that 5 of the top 10 are SEC schools and that academic giant Stanford is in 4th place. Can anyone doubt that Jim Harbaugh, head football coach at Stanford, is doing a great job? His team is 7—1 and making a superb effort in recruiting. He might not be there long. A Michigan alum, he is very much wanted by many of the Wolverine faithful who would like nothing more than to get Rich Rod out of Ann Arbor.
6. Did you hear about all the grief Georgia’s defensive coordinator is getting over the “choke sign” he made in last week’s game against Florida? Todd Grantham regrets the choke-sign he was caught on camera giving to a Florida player. I think this is much ado about nothing. BUT, if you want to read more about this story, please be my guest. Here is the link: http://georgia.scout.com/2/1017910.html
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/14221702/among-seasons-disappointments-texas-stands-alone/rss?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cbssportsline%2Fcfb_news+%28College+Football+News%3A+CBSSports.com%29 Here is this week’s tv schedule: http://lsufootball.net/tvschedule.htm or http://espn.go.com/college-football/schedule or http://cfn.scout.com/2/557860.html Also, your weekly friendly reminder: If your team is not on a tv station or network that you can pick up, you may be able to watch it on the computer. Try it FREE at: http://espn.go.com/espn3/index Here is the scoreboard and statistical summaries from last week’s top 25 teams: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/ncaa/scoreboards/2010/top25/regularseason/9/ Time for some predictions: NON SEC Ohio over Buffalo (THURSDAY) Virginia Tech over Georgia Tech (THURSDAY) Central Michigan over Western Michigan (FRIDAY) Central Florida over Houston (FRIDAY) Penn State over Northwestern Texas A&M upsets Oklahoma (UPSET SPECIAL) TCU over Utah Michigan State over Minnesota Miami (FL) over Maryland…and only because it’s AT Miami NC State over Clemson (UPSET SPECIAL) Virginia over Duke Syracuse over Louisville Iowa big over Indiana Michigan in a squeaker over Illinois Boston College over Wake Forest Wisconsin huge over Purdue Florida State bounces back with a win over North Carolina Oklahoma State over Baylor Colorado over Kansas Ball State by two touchdowns over Akron BYU easily over UNLV Tulsa beats Rice Boise State (ho hum) big over Hawaii Temple small over Kent Utah State over New Mexico State Navy over East Carolina (UPSET SPECIAL) Oregon all over Washington Southern Miss beats Tulane Nebraska by at least 3 tds over Iowa State Texas over Kansas State (I may want to leave the state if the Horns lose this one; the fans are H O T) Stanford over Arizona Fresno State edges out Louisiana Tech UAB over Marshall Nevada beats Idaho Cal easily over Washington State Oregon State ekes out a win over UCLA Missouri over Texas Tech SMU wins in El Paso against UTEP San Diego State beats Colorado State Southern Cal over Arizona State Florida Atlantic small over Western Kentucky Florida International over UL Monroe Troy over North Texas SEC Mississippi State takes a much needed week off, not only to get some rest but also to mourn the death of the aforementioned defensive end, Nick Bell. Georgia hosts cream puff Idaho State as the ISU group gets a big payday. Georgia gets to fine tune its’ game as they get ready to geaux on the road to arch rival Auburn on the 13th. Georgia wins this one handily. Their biggest challenge will be to stay healthy and get some discipline. Auburn also gets an easy win this week as they play Chattanooga as they ready themselves for the invasion of Georgia Bulldogs next weekend. Auburn just needs to keep Newton healthy and give him some rest. However, he does need to play and somewhat pad his stats because he is in the Heisman race. One last SEC team which gets a boys day off as they take on Charleston Southern. The Wildcats needs another win as they try to improve their bowl status. They won’t win the SEC East but still have a chance for a decent bowl game. Kentucky easily wins this one. Ole Miss gets a relatively easy game as they will play the University of Louisiana Lafayette. QB Masoli will drive the Ragin Cajuns nuts with his escapability. Ole Miss wins this one by 4 touchdowns. Likewise, Tennessee should roll by Memphis, although not by such a large margin. Memphis could, as UAB did against the Vols, make this interesting. Tennessee is having a horrible year, thanks in large part to the mess Lane Kiffin left when he departed Knoxville in the middle of the night. Tennessee wins. Vanderbilt will make their game against the Florida Gators interesting but has neither the speed nor firepower to keep up with the Gators for four quarters. It happens every year---Vandy fades due to depth issues. They just don’t have a large number of SEC quality athletes to compete with the likes of Florida. Gators win by about 17 points. In the second most anticipated SEC game of the weekend, the Arkansas Razorbacks take their show on the road to Columbia, SC, to take on the South Carolina Gamecocks. Arkansas is pretty much out of contention in the SEC West---that’ll geaux to Auburn or Alabama, probably---but South Carolina is still in the hunt for the SEC East crown and the “honor” of getting a rematch with Bama or a matchup with Auburn in the SEC Championship game. Arkansas has some injuries---as does South Carolina---and greater depth at quarterback. Mallett should have a big day for the Hawgs. I believe that freshman running back Lattimore makes the difference for South Carolina as this home team squeaks out a hard fought 3 point victory over the Razorbacks. In the CBS game of the day, the once beaten Alabama Crimson Tide rolls into Death Valley in Baton Rouge to take on the once beaten cardiac kids, the LSU Fightin’ Tigers. I’m very surprised that Alabama is only about a 6 point favorite. LSU’s offense stinks and will have to improve greatly to take advantage of a less than stellar Alabama defensive backfield that will have to get better before they play either Auburn or Oregon. Bama has better lines, better quarterback play, and better coaching. Both teams have had two weeks to prepare. LSU has a remarkable record after having this much time to get ready (I THINK it’s 14—1 in the last 15 games). Historically, this has not been one of Saban’s strengths. Bama may hurt themselves if they believe all the hype that’s coming out of Alabama sports talk radio stations, newspapers, and chat rooms. I don’t care who you are; this is very, very dangerous, especially in the highly competitive SEC. Whichever team loses can kiss their SEC championship dreams goodbye. It’s a big game. Here is CFN’s take on the LSU---Bama matchup QUOTE What To Watch Out For: With the running game not rolling as expected, the Bama passing game has picked up the slack and has been fantastic at times. Julio Jones has been known mostly for being more talent than production so far, but that’s starting to change. Injuries have been a problem, but he was more than fine against Tennessee catching 12 passes for 221 yards, and he rolled against South Carolina with eight grabs for 118 yards and a score. He only has seven 100-yard games in his 35 outings so far, but two of them came against LSU. His best game of last year came against the Tigers catching four passes for 102 yards and a score, and his biggest yardage day of 2008 was in Death Valley catching seven passes for 128 yards. This is the NFL scout’s day whenever LSU’s Patrick Peterson lines up on Jones. Even if Peterson has a great game, the rest of the LSU defensive backs could have problems with the strong Bama receivers. What Will Happen: Six teams get two weeks off before facing the Tide, but in this case, Alabama gets two weeks off to rest, too. Eventually, the Tide will get the running game going, and while it won’t pull and Auburn (sic), it’ll be effective with Ingram and Richardson combining for a solid 150 yards. LSU will have the chance to win late, but the Tide defense will come up with a big final stop in a thrilling win. CFN Prediction: Alabama 20 … LSU 16 … Line: Alabama -6.5 UNQUOTE This is as close as I’ll geaux in predicting a score or a winner for this game. Do I think Alabama is the better team? Yes. Do I think they have some holes? Yes. Is Alabama better coached? Yes... BUT…this is a Tiger home game (albeit NOT at night) and always a grudge game, especially since the aborted “no catch” interception by Patrick Peterson last year as called by the officials. Besides, you REALLY don’t think I’ll EVER pick against MY Tigers, do you? Come on, man……
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