The SoapBoxers

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As you know, I am a huge baseball fan.  For many years, I have had my eye on the Ken Burns miniseries Baseball.  The new price never dropped below $100, and used copies were hard to find for a good price (if you’re a big enough baseball fan to buy it, why would you sell it later?)  A few days before Christmas, I was pleased to find the miniseries – including the new 10th Inning – for just $49.99 on Amazon.  It was temporarily out of stock, but I immediately jumped at the chance to pick it up for that price.  It’s still temporarily out of stock, but the price has begun to climb – it’s now $50.99.  To grab your copy before the price jumps more, head over to Amazon today (note: we do receive a small commission on Amazon sales).

While you’re at Amazon, pick up a copy of Ron Shandler’s 2011 Baseball Forecaster.  Shandler’s approach on predicting performance is based on component analysis – rewarding players for the skills they exhibit rather than the resulting numbers (which can be skewed by external factors or just plain dumb luck).

Ohio State Suspensions

Five Ohio State football players are being suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season after running afoul of NCAA rules regarding improper benefits.  Players are being accused of trading autographs for tattoos and selling rings, jerseys, and awards.  The suspension may cause those players – include quarterback Terrelle Pryor and running back Boom Herron – to jump to the NFL instead of returning for half a season next year.

Why aren’t the players being suspended for the Sugar Bowl on January 4?  The NCAA says it is because the players “did not receive adequate rules education during the time period the violations occurred.”  I call BS on that.  If that’s a valid excuse, then why would the NCAA lower the boom on them with a 5 game suspension?

The real reason, of course, is money.  Take those players out of a BCS bowl game, and ratings would plummet.  Sponsors would not be pleased.

NFC West

My wife’s St. Louis Rams and their adversaries, the Seattle Seahawks, both won their games on Sunday.  The two teams now head into next week’s game with identical records of 7-8.  The winner of the division will end the regular season at .500.

For the past few weeks, many of the talking heads have expressed concern about the possibility of the NFC West champion qualifying for the playoffs with a 7-9 record – while a 10 win team from another division could be left out of the playoffs.  I was hoping this would happen, just for the novelty.

Andrew Gallo

Andrew Gallo, the drunk driver who cause the accident that killed Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others in 2009 (and injuring a fourth person), was sentence to 51 years in prison.  Was the sentence influence by the fact that one of the victims was an athlete?  No.  It was influence by the fact that Gallo has previously been convicted of DUI and at the time signed an acknowledgement that if he cause a fatal accident while drunk, he could be charged with murder.  This has become common practice in Orange County, California – the Gallo case was not an aberration.

Why Bloggers Hate Christmas

As readers of The Soap Boxers (and search engine visitors) headed out to visit family and friends for the Christmas holiday, traffic to the site fell off a cliff for a few days … and traffic will likely be a bit slow until New Year’s Day.  Sadly, advertising revenue takes a similar hit.

But do bloggers actually HATE Christmas for this reason?  Nah.  I sincerely wish my readers a happy Christmas season.

Free agent pitcher Cliff Lee signed a 5 year deal with the Philadelphia Phillies that will pay him $120 million.  Evan was so excited about the news that he temporarily forgot what Evernote was.  There are plenty of theories about why Lee preferred to sign with the Phillies instead of the Yankees.  Some say that Lee and his wife really enjoyed the city of Philadelphia, while others suggested that he preferred to stay in the National League.  The real reason is pretty obvious.  The Indians, Rangers, and Phillies all use the color red in their logo.  The Yankees do not.  Clifford the Big Red Dog, anyone?

The Boston Red Sox continue to put the screws to the Bronx Bombers.  After adding first baseman Adrian Gonzalez via trade, they nabbed outfield Carl Crawford as a free agent.  It’s a double word score for the Sox, as they not only add a big gun to use in their war against the Yankees, but also weaken their other division rivals, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Hall of Fame pitcher and Iowa native Bob Feller passed away at the age of 92.  Feller was the dominant ace of his day, hurling a fastball that topped out above 100 mph.  It will never be known exactly how fast Rapid Robert could toss the old cowhide, due to the fact that speed gauging technology was in its infancy during his prime.  Feller missed all of the 1942, 1943, and 1944 seasons and started just 9 games in 1945 due to his service in World War II.  Feller won 76 games in the threee years prior to 1942 – it’s not a stretch to assume that the 3.75 seasons he lost to the war may have netted him 95 wins, pushing his career total to 350+.  However, this is a common situation for players of the era (Ted Williams lost time to World War II and the Korean War) and if if and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas.  Feller made his debut with the Indians at the tender age of 17 (he went 5-3 with a 3.34 ERA that year).

Jerks all around the world are bristling at being compared to Jets strength and conditioning coach Sal Alosi.  During a punt in the game against the Miami, a player for the Dolphins ran out of bounds on his way downfield.  This is fairly common  – players do it to avoid being blocked in the field of play.  What is not common is to have someone stick their knee out to trip the player, as Alosi did.  Further investigation has also determined that Alosi told 5 inactive players to form a wall near the sideline to prevent the Miami players from going out of bounds.  Alosi has been suspended indefinitely, and I would not be surprised if he gets fired.

The Chicago White Sox signed free agent Adam Dunn to a 4 year deal worth $14 million per year.  The deal will allow Dunn to play his best defensive position – DH.  All kidding aside, I like this deal for the White Sox.   Dunn brings tremendous power, belting at least 38 homers in seven consecutive seasons.  He also walks quite a lot, transforming his lackluster .250 career batting average into a stellar .381 career on base percentage.

The knock on Dunn, of course, is his ability to strike out. He has struck out at least 164 times in every season in which he has accumulated at least 400 at bats.  That’s a huge number of strikeouts.  Unfortunately, it gets more attention than it deserves.  It would be great if he could cut down the strikeouts and hit .275 instead of .250, but the fact of the matter is that strikeouts aren’t much worse than other outs – a .250 hitter who strikes out a ton isn’t much worse than a .250 hitter who strikes out half as much.

Interesting tidbit that casual fans might not know about Dunn – he was once a backup quarterback at the University of Texas.

On the other side of the sock drawer, the crimson hose traded for Padres first baseman Adrian Gonazalez.  Gonzalez is a player who would be one of the most underrated players in the game, if not for media attention that has focused on how underrated he is (oh sweet irony!).  In spite of playing in a park that depresses offensive numbers for hitters, Gonazlez has emerged as one of the leading power hitters in the game – hitting 30+ home runs in each of the past four seasons.  A switch to hitter-friendly Fenway Park should certainly boost his offensive stats.  Gonzalez is also a two time Gold Glove award winner for his defensive play.

I do urge people to take one thing into account with Gonzalez.  While his career road numbers are much better than his career home numbers (.943 OPS vs .800 OPS), this isn’t entirely the effect of Petco Park.  Due to baseball’s unbalanced schedule, Gonzalez has played a disproportionate number of road games in Colorado and Arizona – home to two of the best hitter’s parks in baseball.  This will have a tendency to prop up his road stats a bit.  It’s dangerous to use raw road stats when making comparisons.  My article on park effects is also applicable to this discussion.

Derek Jeter and the Yankees finally called off their game of chicken, with Jeter signing a deal that will pay him $51 million over the next three years, with a complex points-based player option for the 2014 season.  This is much more money than Jeter is really worth at this stage in his career (most players tend to see their skills erode as his age – a sad fact of growing older) but is much less than the $23 million per year that Jeter was reportedly seeking.

On the gridiron, the Denver Broncos bucked Josh McDaniels from his saddle.  McDaniels took over the reigns at the beginning on the 2009 season.  He quickly jettisoned a digruntled Jay Cutler (hey, would YOU be gruntled if there were rumors that the new coach was trying to acquire Matt Cassel to replace you?) and replacing him with Kyle Orton.  J-Mac roared out to a 6-0 start, and many glasses of Coors were held aloft to toast the genius.

The bottom fell out quickly.  The 2009 Broncos lost four straight games after their undefeated start and finished 8-8.  In 2010, the Broncos stand at 3-9 and also found themselves embroiled a controversy involved the unauthorized videotaping of an opponent’s practice session.

Iowa State wrapped up their football season with a disappointing loss against Missouri on November 20 and ended the season at 5-7.  At the beginning of the season, I figured that five wins would be a best case scenario, given the difficulty of the schedule (non-conference games against Iowa and Utah and road tilts against Texas and Oklahoma).  As it stands, we ended up with five wins, and I’m disappointed that we didn’t catch a couple of breaks that could have gotten us a couple more wins.  Mark my word, we’re going back to a bowl game next year.

Former Iowa State coach Dan McCarney, currently the defensive line coach for Urban Meyer at Florida, will be the new head coach at North Texas.  McCarney had a 56-85 record with the Cyclones, but the overall wins and losses don’t do justice to the work Mac did to build the program.  Iowa State was fresh off an 0-10-1 season when McCarney took the reigns from Jim Walden.  In Walden’s seven seasons and head coach, the Cyclones mustered a winning record just once (6-5 in 1989).  After just ten total wins in the first four seasons under McCarney, Iowa State burst onto the national scene in 2000 with a nine win season – and the first bowl appearance since 1978.  In a six year span between 2000 and 2005, the Cyclones played in five bowl games.  After a 4-8 season in 2006, McCarney was fired.  That night, I sent a short email thanking him for everything he had done for the program.  McCarney, in the process of cleaning out his office and figuring out what his next career move was, took a moment to reply.

My wife’s favorite NFL team, the St. Louis Rams, find themselves in contention for a playoff berth.  At 5-6, they are tied for first place in a mediocre NFC West.  Rookie quarterback Sam Bradford is leading the way with a successful debut season – 17 touchdown passes against 9 interceptions.  No 7-9 team has ever made the playoffs – but it  could happen this year.  In any case, the season has been a big step forward for a team that had just one win last year.  At the beginning of the season, I wondered if the Rams wouldn’t have been better off to trade star running back Steven Jackson in an effort to plug multiple holes … but it seems that the Rams have found a way to get to the next level without sacrificing their best player.

The Yankees and shortstop Derek Jeter are reportedly far apart in negotiations.  It’s an odd case.  On paper, the Yankees would seem to hold all the cards.  Jeter is coming off a very poor season, and at at 36, is at an age when a decline in abilities is expected.  Barry Bonds aside, players generally do not improve their statistics in the waning years of their careers.  Additionally, Jeter is a type A free agent, meaning that teams would have to sacrifice a first round pick to sign him.  At this point, I think many teams see the folly in signing an aging type A player.  The Braves signed Tom Glavine as a type A player after the 2007 season.  It ended up being a bad signing, with Glavine giving limited value to the Braves, while at the same time, the Braves handed the division rival Mets Ike Davis on a silver platter (the Mets drafted Davis with a pick they were awarded as compensation for the Glavine signing).  On the flip side, Jeter is a Yankee icon, and there is fear on backlash from the fans if they front office fails to ensure that he finishes his career in pinstripes.  What am I hoping for?  I hope the Yankees massively overpay Jeter.  More money for Jeter means less money for players who could actually contribute to the team in the future.

On Monday night, my Colorado Rockies extended the contract of Troy Tulowitzki, adding six years and $119 million to his existing deal.  He had been signed through 2013, with a club option for the 2014 season.  Tulo is now signed through the 2020 season.  While I’m glad to know that the Yankees or Red Sox won’t be snapping up Tulo as a free agent any time soon, lengthy contracts can be worrisome in baseball, where the money is guaranteed.  The deal should serve to put a ceiling on Jeter’s contract.  It would be difficult to argue that a Jeter approaching 40 is worth more than Tulo in his prime.

In a recent edition of Sports Illustrated, I saw some ads for the publication’s annual swimsuit edition, which is now a multimedia experience – not just the magazine, but a calendar, video, and more.  It made me wonder how much of SI’s revenue comes from swimsuit model and how much comes from the coverage of sports?  My favorite sports publication, Sports Weekly, doesn’t have a swimsuit edition, or anything even close to it.  That’s probably a good thing – I really have no interest in seeing Paul White in a Speedo.

[Editor’s note: we’re always looking for reporters to give account of the news with a local flavor.  Longtime reader Poch comes to us from the Philippines and gives his thoughts on the recent victory by Manny Pacquiao.  Check out Poch’s web site, Plato Press.]

When my great fellow countryman Manny ‘PacMan’ Pacquiao started dipping his toes in politics, I somewhat lost faith in him thinking he’s a fool. I should know – I risked my life during the EDSA Uprising in 1986 and after all, corruption still reigned.

Then comes this Pacquiao-Margarito fight when PacMan was already an elected congressman after some election failures. When I heard after the bout that his opponent Margarito was 17 pounds heavier, I thought with awe “What more miracle would this man do?”  (When PacMan was the same bantamweight with me, I imagined and itched of fighting with him)

And so now the House of Representatives is preparing a hero’s party for him. “We’ll prepare as best as we can”, the Speaker of the House said.

What PacMan’s fellow citizens are saying (quotes are from the Philippine Daily Inquirer – most were translated from the local language):

• “He becomes a symbol of hope, that one could work hard and be successful”, a kitchen helper said.
• Many are wondering why Pacquiao didn’t knock down Margarito when it seemed easy for PacMan to. “Manny is truly a gentleman”, a female accountant commented. “In the 11th and 12th rounds, he could have knocked out Margarito but he didn’t to avoid making worse the latter’s condition.”
• “I pity Margarito“, a public jeepney driver said. “He tore off PacMan’s photo in a magazine during Solar’s prefight interview… Now it was Margarito’s turn to be torn.”
• The most overheard comment about Margarito’s arrogance: “Serves him right for being so cocksure.”

I still think politics would ruin our dear PacMan and hope that it wouldn’t be so.

[Editor’s note: Check out more PacMan coverage on the Inquirer’s web site – there’s a special section for him.]

No picks this week as I want to go around the world of college football.

Coaching changes – Adios Dan Hawkins in Colorado. I guess we all figured out now who the real brains behind the Boise State empire was when you were still coaching there.  Too bad the Buffs athletic department did not figure that out sooner.  The last straw was the 35 point meltdown to the Kansas Jayhawks who rallied from that huge deficit for the 2^nd largest comeback win in NCAA history.

Cam Newton – This gets better every day.  First the $200,000 allegation.  Then the cheating allegation.  Now this morning the money allegation again.  Why does this type of thing always seem to pop up in the SEC?  Are their fans just so rabid that they have spies everywhere on everyone else’s campuses to get an edge when their team is down and some other team is up?  I call it the SEConspiracy theory.  What I still don’t get is how he goes from Florida to a Juco, before coming back.  I mean would sitting out a year somewhere have really been any worse … or … did he really need some academic help meaning the allegations of cheating at Florida could be true? Hmmmmmmmm.  Can’t wait to see what unfolds as this week progresses as news seems to come out daily on the current Heisman Trophy Front Runner.

Heisman – First it was all Denard Robinson’s to lose.  Now it might be Cam Newton beating various raps to keep the hardware.  Of course an Iron Bowl spoiler courtesy of the Tide could change a lot of voters minds in November.  Kind of reminds me of the year Deshaun Foster was running away with it and then got in trouble and suspended … along with his Heisman hopes.  This could be the year of the last man standing wins.

Big XII – The might South Division is struggling.  Bad losses last week by Oklahoma and Texas, well, I have thrown them under the bus for weeks now, more on that later.  Oklahoma State looks to be in control in the South, who the heck would have predicted that to start the year.  Also thanks to the Missouri Tigers who once again show they have no coaching, abandon the running game and get throttled in the last three quarters for a horrible loss at Texas Tech. Merry Christmas Nebraska, you just won the North.

Texas – I have been piling on for weeks, it will get worse.  Does anyone think they are going to stop Oklahoma State this week?  Texas is in SERIOUS jeopardy of not being bowl eligible.  From BCS title game to not even making the Motor City Bowl.  Wow it must really be bad to be a Longhorn fan this year.

Oregon – These guys are Playstation 3 football.  Can anyone hold them under 50 points?  Does anyone want to play them at all?  The weird thing is when you watch them play they really don’t look that good, they just score fast, play fast and wear other teams out.  Wonder when someone figures out how to stop that from happening.

TCU to the Big East – Horned Frog Officials are indicating they want the all or nothing package.  They are not just going to jump ship for football, where they would roll, but they want the mighty basketball program to travel thousands of miles each week to get their butts kicked in the biggest thug ball conference in America.  Good for you for standing up to your beliefs.

This is one of the worst weekends for college football this year.  Due to many traditionally good teams struggling there are not a lot of meaningful games this week.  I will be back next week with picks, but if you want a short list…..Take Oregon, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Iowa State and until next week, good luck!

Normally each week I just make my picks, but there is way too much to talk about in the world of football in the Republic of Texas. The Dallas Cowboys were hyped to become the first team to play in a Super Bowl in their own stadium. Guess someone forgot to tell the players. The Cowpokes have struggled mightily all year long, with the last straw being the loss of starting Quarterback Tony Romo for the year. Now John Kitna gets the privilege of facing the Giants who are known to sack qb’s about 15 times a game. Good Luck this week Cowboys.

The Longhorns are in total disarray. Now I will give all the UT fans the “scoreboard” call as my beloved Huskers got smoked at home where they played their worst game of the year. Nebraska looked inept in that game, especially in the first quarter, and the Longhorns did just enough to win that game. Problem is they have not looked like a football team since that moment in time. Horrible home losses this year to UCLA, Iowa State, and Baylor must be causing a horrible uprising in Austin. Blogs are calling for Mack Brown’s firing. Offensive Coordinator Greg Davis has a variety of “Fire Greg Davis” Blogs up and running. Even the beloved Will Muschamp would be wise to look into taking a head coaching job somewhere else as I would think he would not want any part of this hot seat … maybe back to his native state of Georgia? Perhaps to LSU where he was also an assistant coach as the natives there appear to be restless with Les Miles?

Big XII Commissioner Dan Beebe must be hating his job about now. The Commish starts the pre-season by setting an ultimatum to all the universities and in particular Missouri who was rumored to be leaving the Big XII and Nebraska … “We need to come to terms with that. We’re going to head into our meetings in Kansas City and I think we need to have a very frank conversation about where we’re going and who’s going to be on the plane when we take off.” Mr. Beebe said. “I will be very direct and talk about that with our membership and want to find out. It would be a shame, given that all boats have risen with this tide that’s been created in the Big 12, for anybody to think they’re going to have a better future somewhere else.” .

Well the Big 10 said “No Thanks” to Missouri, said “Hello” to Nebraska, and Colorado bolted to the Pac 10 Conference, which frankly is a better fit for the laissez faire attitude Buffs fans.

Nebraska took their ball and went home, effectively leaving the weaker North schools scrambling hoping the Texas … errrrrrr Big 12 conference would keep it together. So far so good, but one has to wonder with the problems of the quote “centerpiece “ football program and the “all controlling university that wears burnt orange, where does the future of the conference lie?

I think that BYU going independent may be part of the future of the Big XII. BYU has a strong following much like their counterparts of the Catholic background in South Bend. I still suspect that BYU is not a large enough of a power to pull off their own TV deals and such on their own. Getting out of their current affiliation lines them up well for a future North division team in the old Big XII. The problem is finding one more team. Wyoming? Nope, Colorado State perhaps? Maybe. Quite frankly there is not a lot to choose from.

The biggest issue might be that phone conversation taking place between two folks already mentioned in this article. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Big 12 Commish, Dan Beebe. Since the Big 12 will no longer have 12 teams, they will no longer be able to host a conference championship game. Jones had recently inked a 3 year deal to have the game at the Jerry Dome in Dallas. I would love to be a fly on the wall for this phone conversation:

Jerry: Beebster, you have GOT to get two more teams in, you signed the contract for three years, I don’t give a damn if Nebraska and Colorado left the conference, get someone else in here.

Dan: The NCCA has told us we can’t have the game unless we have twelve teams in the conference.

Jerry: I don’t care! I was going to sell 100,000 seats for each of those games and think of all the booze sales! Plus those eager fans will come through and do the tour ahead of time and we charge $20 bucks a head for that as well. You are costing me a lot of money!

Dan: Have you looked at the division one football programs in the upper Midwest? Who am I going to get? South Dakota State?

Thursday

Georgia Tech @ Virginia Tech(15.5) – Do the Hokey Pokey. Va Tech 28- GT- 14

Saturday

Maryland @ Miami (-4.5) – Is Harris out? Won’t matter. Hurrigangsters 28- Freiders Fighting Turtles – 14

Illinois @ Michigan (-1.5) – Michigan has to cover sometime. MEEEEEECHIGAN – 28- Ill 21

Baylor @ Oklahoma State (-6.5) – This could be for all the marbles in the South. OSU – 35- Baylor – 31

Washington @ Oregon (-28.5) – Oregon is good every week. Ore 56- Washington – 21

TCU (-4.5) @ Utah – Frogs defense just too much…..TCU 35- Utah 17

Nebraska (-17.5) @ Iowa State – Corn wins but Cy covers. NEB 35- Clones 21

Northwestern @ Penn State (-6.5) – JoPa gets 400. Penn St – 28- NW 21

Oklahoma (-6.5) @ Texas A&M – One week wonder for A&M last week, back to reality this week. OU – 35- A&M 14

Arkansas @ South Carolina (-3.5) – one of the better games of the week. Ark – 21- SC – 17

Oregon State (-7.5) @ UCLA – which UCLA team shows up? The one that loses…..Ore St 28- UCLA – 14

Missouri (-7.5) @ Texas Tech – Mizzou stinging after beatdown at hands of huskers. Tigers – 35- TT – 21

Alabama (-6.5) @ LSU – Roll Tide, LSU is way over-rated. Tide – 28 LSU – 13

Texas (-6.5) @ Kansas State – Why would I stop piling on the longhorns now? Mack Brown circled the wagons last week and THAT went well didn’t it. Goalposts come down in the little apple. KSU – 28- Hook em – 24

As you may have notice, we have a new theme on the site today.  I got about 18 months of life out of Drew Stauffer’s Elements of SEO theme.  I doubt Drew would have recognized the theme when I was finished tweaking it – the finished product looked nothing at all like the original.  It was a great learning experience, and I thank Drew for assisting in my development.

Recently, I kicked off a site to save Dinger, the Rockies mascot, from possible extinction.  While setting up that site, I became aware of the Notepad theme by N. Design.  True to my nature, I have also tweaked this theme a bit – adding author photos bio information, adding the logo at the top, and making a handful of other changes under the hood.  If you notice anything that looks really strange, send me an email at kosmo@ObservingCasually.com (include information about your OS and browser, if possible).  It’s a mostly complete solution (until I get restless again), although I do want to tweak things so that less information will print when you print an article.

Today is election day in the United States.  I will be making a trip to the poll with my 3 year old daughter and 10 month old son.  I’ll make a concerted effort to prevent my daughter from pulling many levers.  I urge you also to vote.  Although pundits are expecting a record turnout for a mid-term election, that turnout is still expected to be just 40% of eligible voters.  Surely there’s at least one race that’s important to you?  Bear in mind that congressional redistricting in many state legislatures – these races could shape how your state is represented in the US House of Representatives for the next 10 years.

The San Francisco Giants defeated the Texas Rangers to win the World Series.  I hate the Giants, since they are in my division, but I have to take off my hat and applaud their performance this year.  They weren’t the most talented team offensively, but they managed to get the job done when it counted (including a completely unexpected offensive explosion early in the World Series).

It was a good weekend for football in Iowa.  The Iowa Hawkeyes (located in the city where I live, and my wife’s favorite team) demolished previously undefeated Michigan State.  More importantly, my Iowa State Cyclones rode a dominant 3rd quarter to a win over The Angry Squirrel’s Kansas Jayhawks and now stand just one win away from bowl eligibility.

The Vikings waived wide receiver Randy Moss just 4 games after giving up a third round draft pick to acquire him.  I’ve been on a team boycott since they picked up Brett Favre, but recent personnel moves have made me wondering if my boycott will continue beyond the Favre era.  While I hate to say most of this is the fault of Brad Childress, most of this is the fault of Brad Childress (I hated to say it, but I still said it).

What a bad time to be a top ranked team. First the tide does not roll. Then thuh Ohio State gets housed by the cheesy road graders from Wisconsin. MIZ-ZOU buries the Sooners at home. What next?

And the end all of end all is Texas gets smoked at home by THE IOWA STATE CYCLONES. How the heck did my beloved Huskers get beat by THAT team….Can’t wait to hear the presser from Coach Brown this week after Baylor knocks them off in Austin.

Thursday

Florida State (-4.5) @ North Carolina State – Free Shoes U!. FSU 27- NC St 20

Saturday

Oklahoma State (-4.5) @ Kansas State – Aggies are boiling after losing high scoring homecoming against the cornshuckers. OSU – 44- K St. 28

Clemson (-7.5) @ Boston College – Uncle Clem gets er done again. Clem – 28- BC -17

Tennessee @ South Carolina (-17.5) – Vols are bad. Nothing else to say. SC- 28- Tenn 14

Kansas @ Iowa State (-14.5) – Let down game for the cyclones…maybe but Kansas is worse than Tennessee. ISU 31- Kansas 7

Tulsa @ Notre Dame (-10.5) – Irish got whooped by Navy last week. Welcome home touchdown Jesus. ND- 28- Tulsa – 20

Arizona (-8.5) @ UCLA – yuk, and I suppose this is the late game of the week on Fox Sports Rocky Mountain. AZ – 28- UCLA – 17

California @ Oregon State (-3.5) – Cal is rolling, but Corvallis is tough to play at…..Ore St 24- Cal 21

Texas Tech @ Texas A&M (-6.5) – New QB in place at College Station. A&M 28- TT- 21

Michigan State @ Iowa (-4.5) – Hawkeyes are due! Iowa – 21- Mich St – 20

Missouri @ Nebraska (-6.5) – I hate to pick against Nebs but….Mizzzzzzzz- 31- Neb – 28

Auburn (-7.5) @ Mississippi – Masoli should be in jail. Auburn – 31- Ole Miss 14

Stanford (-7.5) @ Washington – Jake Locker the great disappearing quarterback get smoked again this week. Stan – 35- Wash – 17

Baylor @ Texas (-9.5) – R.G.III! Texas loses again at home. Withdraws from Union! State Fair Moved to Abilene! Baylor 24- Texas 21

Utah (-5.5) @ Air Force – Frogs beat up the Cadets last week, Utah just piles on more. Utah – 35- AF – 21

Oregon (-7.5) @ USC – Two Words…Playstation Football. Ore 52- USC – 21

Michigan (-3.5) @ Penn State – The Dennard Robinson show starts back up this week…if he is healthy! Meeeeeeechigan – 35- JoPa’s Warriors – 14

My alma mater notched their biggest win of the season on Saturday, as Iowa State held off Texas for a 28-21 win in Austin, Texas.  Longhorns quarterback Garrett Gilbert threw three interceptions, and Cyclone defenders had their hands on several other passes.  A guy who really caught my attention was ISU punter Kirby Van Der Kamp, who blasted a 74 yard punt and had several other good efforts.

After a surprisingly good 7-6 season in Paul Rhoads’ first season as coach last year, there were plenty of reasons for pessimism going into this year.  The 2010 season featured some great opponents that were missing from the 2009 schedule – conference games against Oklahoma and Texas and the non-conference tilt against Utah.  The game against in-state rival Iowa would be in Iowa City instead of Ames.

Eight games into the season, the squad stands at 4-4.  In addition to losses to big guns Iowa, Oklahoma, and Utah, the Cyclones lost a heartbreaker against a good Kansas State team.  On the plus side, Iowa State also knocked off  Texas Tech 52-38.

At the beginning of the season, I was hard pressed to find a scenario that would lead to a bowl for Iowa State.  I’m a pretty optimistic person, but generally temper things with a bit of realism, and my scenarios kept topping out at 5-7.  However, with four games left in the season, a bowl game is a real possibility.  We have games left against Kansas and Colorado, who have combined for zero conference wins this year.  The two toughest games – Nebraska and Missouri – are both home games.  Running the table is probably out of the question, but the Cyclones should definitely get to six games if they continue to “hit that line and hit it hard”.

Who sits atop the Big 12 South standings at the moment?  Yeah, you guessed it.  Baylor.

Another happy result from Saturday was Navy’s 35-17 win over the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.  I have no real reason to cheer for Navy, but I do like to see Notre Dame take a beating.  The 4-4 Irish will face tough tests in at least two of their remaining games, against Utah and USC.  The Notre Dame – USC game always puts me in the awkward position of wanting both teams to lose.

In the “where the #$*^ did that come from” department, the Oakland Raiders put the smack down on longtime rivals the Denver Broncos, 59-14.  For at least a day, fans had to stop bashing Al Davis and stand in awe of that which the Raiders wrought.

Flipping the page to baseball … The Texas Rangers knocked off the “best” team that money could buy, sending the Yankees packing.  The Rangers raced out to a 3 games to 1 lead before finishing off the Yankees in six games.  On the opposite side of the bracket, the Giants put an end to the Phillies reign of terror, halting their run of NL pennants at three.  The NLCS was the only series I have picked incorrectly in my pool, but it ended up clinching a victory for me.  I have Texas picked to win it all, and my other guy had the Phillies.

An interesting note … the Rangers scored at least six runs in all four of their wins against the Yankees.  The Giants scored no more than six runs in any of the NLCS games.  What to expect in the World Series?  Some really good starting pitching.