Highlights, in no particular order.

1) With a minute left and the lead, Pete Carroll called for the O to take a knee. They did, then Slick Rick got cute and decided to call a meaningless time out. That pissed off Pete, so on the next play he called to launch it downfield, which they did, and scored a touchdown. There is not a lot of love in Longhorn Land for Pete, but there is quite a bit less for Rick, so we approve of the call.

2) If you didn’t catch Gameday (and I wouldn’t blame you, as it kinda sucks now), you missed a real tear jerker:

3) It is hard to pick the game of the weekend with so many from which to choose; UT/A&M, NC/NC State, Bama/Auburn, BYU/Utah, Stanford/ND, LSU/Arkansas and Kentucky/Tennessee were all thrillers. I’d have to go with LSU/Arkansas, especially because Les Miles got the opportunity to redeem himself by getting his FG unit out there at the end of regulation. The Bama/Auburn game was exciting for TCU fans, but once again, TCU did not get its wish. It only has one more chance: The Big XII Championship Game.

4) It is UT and NU in the Big XII Championship game for the third time. The first time, the inaugural CCG, Nebraska just needed to beat a 21-point underdog and then they would play in the national championship game (against FSU). Florida watched , as UT pulling off an upset would put them in the national championship game. This year, the roles are reversed. Nebraska should be a pretty big underdog, and they can knock UT out of the national championship with a big upset. This time, it would be TCU that would back into the NC game. It is a bit eerie to me. That, and the fact that we have beat them by razor thin margins and last minute plays for a decade now gives them plenty of incentive. I am nervous.

5) A lot can be said and written about th UT/A&M game, but I found one bit of insight to be, um…insightful. Traditionally, both teams have a bye week before the game, but this year was an anomoly. The coaches had 4 days and the players had 3 days to prepare. Short weeks favor offenses (which is why, when I used to bet on pros, I’d love the over in the Thursday night game. Not to take anything away from JJ or Colt McCoy, but play that game on a Saturday or after a bye week, and both defenses would have slowed down the scorefest we witnessed.

6) Al Groh gave a unique swan song. After losing to Viginia Tech and right before getting fired, he read “The Guy in the Glass“, a poem about a man being accountable to himself.  I thought it was classy.

7)  I believe Colt is going to win the Heisman.  I think the Heisman is stupid.  Colt  had a better year in 08 than 09, yet he’ll get it in 09, not 08.  Andre Ware won the Heisman and stunk in the NFL.  While NFL performance should be irrelevant to Heisman voters, the voters held it against David Klingler.  Klingler had better stats than Andre Ware, but he didn’t get a Heisman.  There are a ton of quarterbacks with better stats than Colt.  Take Case Keenum.  He has 3 fewer INTs, higher yards per attempt and 11 more touchdowns.  McCoy gets the edge on Compl % by about 1%.  Heck, there are defensive players in college that are better than Colt, but they don’t ever get mentioned for the Heisman.

But Colt has “intangibles”.  That is code word for the following things that voters love: being on a NC contending team, being from a BCS conference, playing offense (in particular, playing QB), being white, not having won a Heisman previously and having a good career.

I hope he wins it, but I don’t really care too much.

8)  With Oklahoma State out of the picture, it looks like TCU and Boise go to the BCS, barring upsets next weekend.   ESPN is predicting TCU in the Fiesta and Boise in the Orange.  I am glad these teams aren’t going to play each other.  TCU still has an outside chance of getting sympathy AP votes and splitting the NC if they go to Fiesta.  If there ever was a year for an 8-team playoff, this would be it.  I have heard an alternative to the playoff solution that I like.  Make all teams schedule 11 games and have the same bye week in early November.  Make the BCS 1 play 8, 2 play 7, etc.  The other 100+ teams also play each other in some predetermined format.  Exceptions would be granted for teams that have already played or will already play.  This wouldn’t gaurantee a clear-cut NC, but it should drastically reduce the number of unbeatens at season’s end.  It would never happen, but it is a cool idea.

I didn’t have the foresight to make any picks on yesterday’s games (there sure were a lot of them, eh?), so we’ll just stick to the Saturday action for now.

4-3 on the college games last week, 2-1 on the pros, so 6-4 on the week for 60% and a season record of 44-41-1 for 52%.

Today’s picks:

Georgia Tech -8 vs Georgia

Texas Tech -21 vs Baylor (@ Jerryworld)

Oklahoma State +8 @ Oklahoma

Ole Miss -8 @ Mississippi State

NFL picks later.

By my count, that’s three times this year that Colorado has scored a meaningless touchdown with less than a minute left in the game and covered through the backdoor. I am pretty sure there was simultaneous hooping and hollering in Vegas after that one.Too bad that their season is over now.

I feel sorry for the Charlie. I think it would be terrible having the whole country watch your career go in the crapper. A lot of blame falls on him; some does not. He wasn’t the one that fumbled late in the game versus Pitt. But he is gone-er no matter what happens against Stanford, IMHO. Bodog has laid the following odds on next ND head coach:

Urban Meyer 15/4
Brian Kelly 1/1
Jim Harbaugh 15/4
Chip Kelly 5/1
Kirk Ferentz 15/1
Bob Stoops 5/1
John Gruden 30/1

I think Brian Kelly is a lock, at least based on his tone and body language when asked about the job, but seeing Bob Stoops on the list is intriguing. A year ago, I would have said no way BGB goes anywhere, and I typically dismiss the rumor mills on internet boards. But when Bodog says it is a 16% chance, that catches my eye.

It is funny that most Longhorn fans do not want Bob to leave. There is a little bit of humor in their wanting him to stay, much in the same way they cheered “Keep Fran”, but there is another element to it.

Sports fans love to have an enemy. Other generations of Orangebloods had Jackie Sherrill to love to hate as well as Barry Switzer. Frank Broyles wasn’t exactly hated, but people were fired up about playing Arkansas, and they were good competitiion.

(The only time I recall UT fans sincerely wanting a coach to leave because we feared he would pose a threat we might not counter was when Billy Clyde left for Kentucky. I know that didn’t work out for him, but we were happy to see him go.)

Fact is, Longhorn fans like having Stoops around because he made the OU-UT game competitive again. Mack Brown turned around a below average UT team, but Stoops turned around an abysmal OU team. Competition is fun, and he made the game, the division the conference and the NC race competitive again.

I doubt he’ll leave, but I hope he doesn’t. I want the next 10 years to be as much fun as the past 10, and I think Stoops is OU’s best chance of making that a reality.

If he is smart (and he is), he’ll recognize that 09 was an anomoly for OU and he stands a better chance of winning an NC at OU before he would at ND.

After watching the Titans beat the Texans on Monday night, I came to the conclusion that the Titans really look like a playoff team. But they only sit at 4-6 since they lost their first 6 games.

To make the playoffs, the Titans will probably have to win 10 games since they already have 6 conference losses. That means they have to win all of their remaining games to get to 10 wins.

While this is unlikely, since they have to play at Indy, and have home games against Arizona and San Diego, here are several reasons why they might be able to do it:

1) Chris Johnson is that good. The guy is super fast and when he gets an opening, look out.
2) VY is playing with confidence. I don’t think Vince will ever be that good of a traditional QB, but so what. If he can make enough decent throws to keep the defense honest, and takes off when nothing is open, he gives the defense plenty to think about. This, in turn, prevents the defense from just keying on Chris Johnson.
3) The defense is now healthy and is putting pressure on opposing QB’s. I think it has taken the Titans time to adjust to life without Albert Haynesworth, but they seem to have done that, and are playing good football right now.
4) Jeff Fisher. Fisher knows how to get a team doing the little things right, which helps turn losing games into winning games.
5) Rob Bironas. He showed on Monday night why he is one of the best kickers in the league and the Titans won simply because their kicker was better than the other teams kicker.

I think all the teams who have the Titans left on their schedule are not enjoying the fact that they have to play the Titans. They will be the “team that no one wants to play” should they somehow get into the playoffs. I really won’t be that surprised if it happens.

I forgot to mention a really weird thing that happened in the tournament at Winstar.  Player A goes all-in, B goes all-in and C calls.   B and C have A covered, so they have a side pot, albeit a small one.  B is all in; C has chips.

A had junk, B had AK and C had AJ.

A is the only guy that pairs up, while the other two players totally miss the board.  A scoops his chips.  B is ticked off and bolts out the door.  Dealer ships the side pot to C.

Just as the dealer was getting ready for the next hand, it occurs to the table that Player C lost to Player B.  We get him to stop the hand and get the Tournament Director who rules that since Player B up and left and since his cards are now in the muck, he basically forfeited the hand to Player C.  This would be like Phil Ivey’s folding the best hand except that Ivey did not ever show his cards – he just mucked them.

So not only did C get the side pot, he also won the $25 bounty for “eliminating” Player B.

I don’t know if that was the right call.  I think the side pot should have been awarded to B and B should have been blinded off. 

+ + + + + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + +

My annual poker tournament will be on December 19 at 2:30pm in the Siberia Room in Dallas.  Let me know if you are interested

+ + + + + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + +

The craziest thing I saw in college football this weekend was the LSU – Ole Miss game.  The game started with the refs robbing Ole Miss of a touchdown TWICE and ended with Les Miles robbing his own team of a victory.  Let’s count the errors:

1)  He ran a bunch ot time off the clock before calling time out right before the Hail Mary

2)  They ran a Hail Mary a few yards shot of the endzone (hint: it’s not about field position at this point, it’s about scoring.

3)  He told Jodan Jefferon to spike the ball (or “to clock it”) even though there was only one second left in the game.  Spiking it will end the game.  The only right call would be to run a play or kick a FG.

4) He lied in a press conference saying that he didn’t know who told JJ to spike it.  You can see on Youtube that it was none other than Les Miles calling it.  (Advice:  don’t lie about things that are on TV.  You will be on Youtube and have 1 million hits before you even finish telling your lie).

Here it is:

 

+ + + + + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + +

Charlie Weis is a dead man walking.  I thought there was a sliver of hope that he might keep his job, but it should be a done deal now that he lost to the one team that seemed unable to have anything go their way.  I guess if you lose a player then lose three gut-wrenching games and can’t seem to have anything good happen to you, a visit by the Fighting Irish is just what the doctor orders.

+ + + + + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + +

I think OU quit against Tech and have quit for the season, but at least one guy on their team still has a spark of enthusiasim:

+ + + + + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + +

Thanks to Levi for this one:

+ + + + + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + ++ + +

Thanks to Beau for pointing me to the amazing story of Isildur1 who was racking up poker profits by the millions last week.  By the time I got around to posting about him, it seems his fortunes have reversed.