Articles in

October 2013

What happened over the weekend; a look at the scintillating future of college football this season

October 29, 2013

Sorry I’m just getting this out, had to catch up on my games yesterday that I missed over the weekend.

The Red team

Boy was that a mistake for Butch Jones to call the Tide that name. Didn’t sit well with A.J. and he made the Orange team pay for it. A.J., to me, is right in the thick of it in the Heisman race. It’s between A.J., Marcus Mariota of Oregon, and Jameis Winston of FSU. Johnny Manziel is a darkhorse, but I don’t think it’s happening for him this year because his team is not in the national championship picture.

All three quarterbacks have defining games coming up. Nothing is decided yet. For A.J., it’s next weekend vs. LSU and on Nov. 30th at Auburn. For Mariota, he has five tough ones left, especially a trip to Stanford a week from Thursday, which will start an incredible weekend of football with Bama-LSU that Saturday Night, Nov. 9, @ 7PM CT on CBS. Should be epic. Stanford-Oregon meet Thursday Nov. 7 at 8 PM CT on ESPN. AU will be @ Tennessee that Saturday, Nov.9, @ 11 AM on ESPN. For Jameis Winston, he plays Miami this weekend at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee with a 7 PM CT kickoff on ABC and he’ll play at Florida the last game of the season. He’s been sensational, but so have A.J. and Mariota. I say it’s a dead heat right now, and how these guys perform going forward will determine who wins the Heisman.

Alabama looking terrific. I love Vinnie Sunseri. Vinnie was and is very valuable to this football team. But when you lose a player like Vinnie for the season, and you replace him with Landon Collins, you know you’re pretty doggone good. Wow, Landon is a heckuva player. An 89-yard TD interception. Are you kiddin me? That’s unreal. This team is stoked now and ready to go for number four in five years. There are roadblocks along the way, but wow is A.J. playing well. T.J. and Kenyan are carrying the load at running back. Kenyan needs to watch the fumbling, but at the same time, he’s dynamic and awesome. T.J. is outstanding. Three TDs on Saturday. He just gets it done. Neither T.J. nor Kenyan is big like Eddie, Trent and Mark were and are, but man can they fly. Kenyan in particular. They look like good kids too. Clean cut, nice looking young guys. I like that tandem. Wide receivers are sensational. Wow, did Kevin Norwood have a great game on Saturday. What an awesome leaping catch he made. A. J. said after the game that Kevin jumped a little early, and watching it again, he did. But he’s such an incredible athlete, that he pulled it in anyway. Kevin may be the leader of a loaded perimeter group. Wow, Amari, Christion Jones, DeAndrew White and Kenny Bell are outstanding too. Just fun to watch. O line is clicking big time. S loves his offense right now. They have figured it out and are playing at an extremely high level. Defense has been spectacular. This is the Crimson Tide team we were expecting to see this summer. They’ve tapped into their potential big time. Would like to see a little better pass rush, but the talent is definitely there. Can’t wait for Louisiana State on Saturday Night, Nov.9, in prime time on CBS, 7 PM CT.

War Eagles

Solid performance again by the Tigers. Nick sounds like he’s going to be OK, but I tell you what, Jeremy Johnson is going to be stellar. He’s shown that this season. If Nick is unable to play due to his shoulder, I feel very confident Johnson can get the job done. He looks like Jameis to me. What a cannon of an arm and he’s extremely accurate. The running game is superb. It was Corey Grant’s turn to shine this past Saturday. Artis-Payne had some nice runs and Tre was the solid guy he always is. Man, can AU run that football. And that o line is special. Reese Dismukes and his linemates are really getting the job done. They just bury people. Love that group. Defense played a solid game. This is a very good defense. Ellis Johnson has taken good talent and has made them great. Love the young guys too, like Montravius Adams, Carl Lawson and Elijah Daniel. The older guys like Dee Ford and Gabe Wright are playing the best football of their careers at Auburn and the linebackers are doing well. Secondary has a good group also. If AU can get through its schedule and get to Alabama with one conference loss, that will be an epic at Auburn on Nov. 30. It will be the biggest Alabama-Auburn game in a long time. I like these Tigers. Very good football team.

SEC

Missouri holder Braylon Webb has got to be thinking “what was I doing?” Saturday night when he not only blew one hold, but two holds in which his kicker missed two critical kicks that could have at least sent the South Carolina game into triple overtime and even won the game for the Tigers in regulation. He didn’t turn the ball and the kicker had to kick the laces of the ball which spun the ball left causing both kicks to miss. I put those two misses all on Webb. I hate calling out college players, but that was incredibly bad play by Webb. Still, proud for Ball Coach and Connor Shaw. I was thinking after the first half when SC was behind 14-0, “how much longer does Ball Coach want to do this?” But he hung tough like he always does and Connor was amazing in relief of Dylan Thompson, who just didn’t have it. Connor’s fourth and goal TD pass at the 17 in double overtime was beautiful. He hit Bruce Ellington, the all world receiver, in the end zone on an incredibly clutch play. Proud for Ball Coach, Connor and the Gamecocks. They won a hard fought contest over a hot team on the road. That was special. Now SC is right in the thick of things in the East with Missouri with one loss and SC with two, and Missouri still has to play @ Ole Miss and A&M at home. So the Gamecocks could pull the East out after all. Still a lot of work left for both teams. Georgia and Florida not totally out of it with three losses. This Saturday in Jacksonville at 2:30 PM CT on CBS will be an elimination game for the Dawgs and the Gators. Todd Gurley will be back for UGA, so that will help them out immensely. I know Florida has struggled, but that defense can keep them in games. So should be a good one. Both teams will be sky high for this game. Expecting a classic SEC war. A&M crushed Vandy. A&M an excellent offensive team. LSU won big over Furman. Ole Miss won big over Idaho. Great stuff going on in the conference. While the Pac 12 is strong this year, the SEC is still the standard bearer for college football. It’s just a war of attrition in this conference. And it’s incredibly exciting. The defenses are just better in the SEC except for Stanford. Now Stanford can play some defense with anybody in the country. Oregon, I guess, is pretty good on defense. Stanford looks better on that side of the ball than Oregon to me. They are so physical and aggressive. I can’t wait for next weekend starting Thursday Night on “The Farm” at Palo Alto when the Cardinal plays host to the Ducks. 8 PM CT on ESPN. Looking forward to AU at Arkansas this Saturday at 5 PM CT on ESPN2.

World Series

Big Papa is hitting all time great. .733 are you kiddin me? Wow! Uehara is an amazing closer for the Sox. Jon Lester is amazing. But the Cards have the almost unhittable Michael Wacha going Wednesday against John Lackey of Sox as Sox try to close it out in Fenway and win their third World championship in 10 years. Cards still very much in it. Papi playing like a 25-year old and so is 36-year old Carlos Beltran of the Cards. I picked the Sox in seven. We’ll see. Tomorrow night at 7:07 first pitch on Fox. Awesome Series.

NFL

Some people are saying Tom Brady is not doing well this year, but is he getting it done? Hell yeah he is. Pats 6-2, playing very good this season. Brady is doing what he needs to do. Peyton threw three interceptions on two sprained ankles on Sunday, but also three TDs as the Broncos crushed the Skins. The NFL is fantastic as it has been always. Should be an exceptional rest of the season and postseason. ARodg playing all time great. 49ers back to being the 49ers. Seahawks just got by the Rams last night. Jon Gruden is fantastic as a commentator. He may get back into coaching because he’s good at that too, but I love him in the booth.

An American Hero

Finally, I didn’t mention this over the summer, but I wanted to now. One of the most prolific authors of all time, Vince Flynn, passed away after a two year battle with cancer in June. Vince was 47. Vince wrote close to 20 novels about fighting terrorism, the ultimate good vs. evil kind of books. His books were like 24 on five Red Bulls. He was an amazing writer; one of the greatest of all time. I’d put him up there with Shakespeare, Hemingway, Faulkner and Fitzgerald. He was that good.

His first novel, Term Limits, published in 1996, was the best book I’ve ever read in my life. So exciting, so riveting. His fictional protagonist/hero, Mitch Rapp, was the ultimate tough guy and patriot. There was no gray area with Mitch. You did wrong you paid for it. If you did something against our country, you were going to pay for it with your life or spend your life in Guantanamo or some other pleasant place like that. Usually it cost the terrorist his life. Mitch didn’t sugarcoat anything and he didn’t pontificate on killing a bad guy. He would do it. If they messed with his country there were grave consequences. Mitch, the character, was a really good guy. And Vince was an epic guy. He was a patriot to the core. Vince was conservative, but had an open mind about all people. He spoke at many functions and there were thousands of people at his funeral. When he was dying from cancer he would always say to people who would visit him, “Keep the faith.” Man was he a good American. I felt like I lost a good friend when we lost Vince. I wrote his wife Lysa to tell her how I loved Vince’s work and how much I’d miss him, and Lysa wrote back a very kind and gracious note. Vince lived in the St. Paul, Minnesota area. His books were all time great. He was greatness. If you only have time to read one, I highly recommend Term Limits, Vince’s first book. He will be missed. I know I’ll really miss him. God got an all time great one.

I’ll be in touch in the next couple of days.

Week 8 of the National Football League

October 26, 2013

Last time: 4-2; Overall: 24-15 (62%)

Lions 35, Cowboys 31

Patriots 34, Miami 24

Bengals 27, Jets 24

Broncos 38, Redskins 24

Packers 35, Vikings 24

Seahawks 31, Rams 17

Tide looking to make it seven in a row; Should be a yawner on the Plains

October 25, 2013

Here’s a look at this week’s showdowns in week 9 of college football both with Bama in the old third Saturday in October contest and AU in a momentum game along with key SEC games and national picks.

‘Bama looks to keep on truckin; so does AU. Some key games nationally. All the rankings are in the BCS this week. It’s really the only poll that matters at this point.

Last time: 9-1; Overall: 55-16 (77%)

No. 1 Alabama (7-0, 4-0 SEC) vs. Tennessee (4-3, 1-2)

Bryant-Denny Stadium, Tuscaloosa (101, 821)

2:30 PM CT

CBS: Verne, Gary, Trace

Line: ‘Bama by 28

UT has gotten better and grabbed a huge win over South Carolina last Saturday in Knoxville. But this is in Tuscaloosa and this is the number one team in the country, and they look about unstoppable right now. T.J. Yeldon (657 yards, 6.8 yards per carry, seven TDs) and Kenyan Drake (402 yards, 8.2 ypc, seven TDs) are the one-two punch this year in the backfield and look as just as prolific as Ingram-Richardson, Richardson-Lacy and Lacy-Yeldon. The line has really come on, A.J. has been brilliant (125-182, 69%, 1,587 yards, 14 TDs, 3 ints), the perimeter weapons are explosive led by Christion Jones (20-275, 2 TDs), DeAndrew White (20-300, 3 TDs) and Kevin Norwood (17-236, 2 TDs), and the defense, led by middle linebacker C.J. Mosley, has been dominant of late leading the nation in scoring defense once again, giving up only 9.7 points per game. There’s no weakness. The injury to Vinnie Sunseri hurts because he is a leader and a very good player, but I’m not so sure Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and Landon Collins aren’t just as good a combination as Vinnie and Ha Ha were. This team is a winning machine. It’ll be a pretty long afternoon for the Vols, though they’re getting better and making great progress in recruiting with the number two class in the country behind the Crimson Tide according to Rivals and 247 sports. But they have a long way to go to catch up with Alabama. LSU, Auburn and maybe Missouri are standing in the way of another SEC title, and Florida State and Oregon are two teams that are standing in the way of a fourth national title in five years. Ohio State is good and a possibility, and you can’t count out Baylor and Stanford. Still like the Stanford team a lot. You don’t know what you’re going to get from LSU, but I expect that game to be a pretty good fight, and AU at Auburn on Nov. 30th is looking very interesting right now. But tomorrow is the first order of business for ‘Bama, and they’ll take care of business. The players will be lighting up the stogies, at least those who want to partake, some don’t, after their seventh consecutive victory over the Vols.

‘Bama 52, UT 10

Florida Atlantic (2-5) @ No.11 Auburn (6-1, 3-1 SEC)

Jordan-Hare Stadium, Pat Dye Field (87,451)

6:30 PM CT

Fox SportsSouth

Line AU by 24

Florida Atlantic has beaten South Florida (28-10) and UAB (37-23), and lost to two pretty decent teams in 5-2 Rice (18-14) and 4-3 Marshall (24-23), so they’re a decent football team. Auburn needs to keep building on the momentum from last Saturday’s huge 45-41 victory over A&M. The defense is playing really well, creating turnovers and playing very physical football. The offense is keeps progressing well. Really like AU’s offensive line and running back Tre Mason (693 yards, 5.8 yards per carry, 6 TDs) is having a phenomenal year. Cameron Artis-Payne has 417 yards and four TDs, quarterback Nick Marshall has 388 and 4 TDs, and the electric Corey Grant has 376 yards, 9.9 per carry, and three TDs. Nick Marshall is getting better and better throwing the football. He is 82-143 (57%) for 1,138 yards, six TDs and four ints. Nick was really good last week against the Aggies going 11-of-25 (with a couple of drops) for 236 yards and two TDs against zero ints. He also ran for a couple of scores, one from 16 yards out and another from 13, which was a key play in the huge victory. The defense has excellent. They have nine interceptions this year. The defense may have had one last year at this point. Safety Robinson Thereze leads the defense with three. Therezie also leads the team in tackles with 33. The defensive line has been a huge story also this season. Gabe Wright and Dee Ford lead the team in tackles for loss with 6.5 apiece; Wright for -27 and Ford for -57. Ford also has five sacks on the season for -55 yards, including a crucial sack on Johnny Manziel on fourth down last week that clinched the game for the Tigers. They have both been spectacular as has the whole front line of the defense. Actually, both lines have been outstanding. The oline is excellent. Auburn needs to take care of business tomorrow, guard against a letdown, and get ready for a trip to Fayetteville next Saturday where they’ll play a very winnable game at Arkansas, then a trip to Knoxville for a road contest at UT. This season has gotten extremely interesting and exciting for the Tigers.

AU 42, FAU 10

Vandy (4-3, 1-3) @ No.16 Texas A&M (5-2, 2-2)

Kyle, Field, College Station, Texas (83,002)

11:21 AM CT

SEC Network: Dave, Andre, Cara

Line: Aggies by 17

This is a tough one for the Vandy defense. It’s always tough against Manziel, Mike Evans and the rest of the explosive offensive attack of the Aggies. The A&M defense is less than stellar, which is putting it mildly, so Vandy may score some points. But they won’t be able to stop’em.

A&M 52, Vandy 31

No.16 South Carolina (5-2, 3-2) @ No. 5 Missouri (7-0, 3-0)

Faurot Field, Columbia, Missouri (71,004)

6 PM CT

ESPN 2: Tess, Matt, Maria Taylor

Line: Mizzou by 3

This Mizzou team is for real. I see them as No.5 in the country with James Franklin at quarterback, and he’ll be back at some point, but I also see them emerging as No.5 with redshirt freshman Maty Mauk under center. Heck, Franklin may not get his job back. Missouri is loaded with offensive weapons. L’Damian Washington has 32 receptions for 539 yards and seven TDs. Marcus Lucas has 36 catches for 358 yards and Dorial Green-Beckham has 30 for 451 and four TDs. They have some others. They are loaded on the perimeter. But the difference between this Mizzou teams and Mizzou teams of the past (at least last year) is they can run the ball and play defense. Henry Josey has run for 494 yards and 8 TDs. He is a stud. Russell Hansborough (438 yards) and Marcus Murphy (357 yards) are a little banged up and questionable for the game. But the defense can make up for any offensive issues. Defensive end/outside linebacker Michael Sam is a beast. He has 13 tackles for loss of 67 yards and nine sacks. Mizzou is tied for the lead in the country in interceptions at 14 with Oregon State. E.J. Gaines and Kentrell Brothers lead the team with three apiece. Gaines is banged up and questionable too. But the Gamecocks have their own issues with Connor Shaw out and Dylan Thompson starting, though I don’t think that is much of a drop off and really an upgrade in passing maybe. Mike Davis is stellar at running the ball. I don’t know if Clowney is just sleep walking through this season. He had a good first half last week against Tennessee, but was laughing at halftime walking off the field with his team down 17-7. That’s not a sign of a guy who cares too much. Maybe he can get it together and not ruin his draftability; at least as a first five pick. I think he’s slipped from number one overall possibly, if you don’t believe in drafting on potential. This should be a good game, but Mizzou is better. I like the Tigers to move to 8-0 and 4-0 in conference and if they remain healthy at important positions the rest of the way, I see them winning the East.

Mizzou 31, SC 27

Other scores:

LSU 38, Furman 10

Ole Miss 52, Idaho 7

Stanford 37, Oregon State 28

Texas Tech 38, Oklahoma 37

Texas San Antonio 38, UAB 28

Oregon 48, UCLA 24

Ohio State 35, Penn State 31

Texas 31, TCU 28

Clemson 31, Maryland 21

Florida State 38, NC State 28

Off: Dawgs, Gators, Hogs

Last night’s score:

State 28, Kentucky 22

Tonight in Starkville

October 24, 2013

Mississippi State 35, Kentucky 28

AU with a spectacular victory; Bama looks primed for greatness again

October 21, 2013

AU:

Wow, that was fantastic on Saturday. What a Saturday throughout the conference, but I have to say, AU’s 45-41 victory over A&M may have been the best game of the year so far. Where do you start with accolades? I’ll start with two guys: Nick Marshall and Tre Mason. Nick was incredible completing 11-of-23 passes for 236 yards and two touchdowns. He added 113 more yards on the ground and two more touchdowns. Just saw where he was voted SEC player of the week by the media. That is highly deserved. He’s got Gus and Lashlee’s offense down and he is soaring. Really proud of him. He’s experienced adversity in his past, and has overcome it. What an amazing effort by the Auburn quarterback. I thought the pass to Sammy Coates deep in his end zone was perfect as we could all see. It was a gutsy move by Gus and I loved it. Sammy had it right in his hands in full stride and couldn’t pull it in. He might not have scored, but AU could have scored there and definitely prevented A&M from scoring. Sammy did make up for it though with his 43 yard touchdown reception that was all him. He caught a pass a couple of yards beyond the line of scrimmage and streaked to the end zone in the third quarter to tie the game at 24 with 7:53 left in the quarter. That was awesome. Nick and Tre won it in the fourth quarter. Tre was superb. He ran for 178 hard earned yards. He is a stellar inside the tackle runner and he can break it with an open field. The AU running game is terrific. Cameron Artis Payne had a fourth quarter TD run from two yards out to put the Tigers up 38-34. CAP is a player. Corey Grant had 45 yards on five carries including a long of 32. He’s exceptional too. Sammie had five catches for 104 yards and the TD.

I know A&M scored 41, but I thought AU’s defense was excellent. A&M might do that against the Seahawks the way they play offense. They are really electric on offense with Johnny Football and the awesome Mike Evans. They just have a ton of playmakers. But the AU defense intercepted Manziel twice, one a beauty by Ryan White and another nice pick by Ryan Smith. Dee Ford with two huge sacks for a loss of 30 yards, particularly the last one on Manziel on fourth down. Dee would just not give up and brought the incredibly elusive Manziel down. It’s almost a victory just getting to the guy. Tremendously clutch play by Dee. LaDarius Owens also had a sack and played well. Chris Davis led the team with nine tackles. Jonathan Mincy had seven. I thought Kris Frost played really well. It was beautiful when he chased down Johnny from behind. That was impressive. Just an impressive defensive game plan by Ellis Johnson. I know that sounds kind of funny because A&M scored 41, but I really liked the way the defense competed. Exceptional game for the Tigers. It was great to be one Saturday and it is today. Florida Atlantic this weekend then on the road at Arkansas and the following week at UT. Just gotta keep working hard. Auburn is there. They have a very good football team and look to be possibly special.

Bama:

What’s not to like about this 2013 team now. The o line has settled in and are playing great, physical football, T.J. and the awesome Kenyan Drake are the combination S and Nuss have been looking for, and A.J. just keeps on going strong. He gets better every game. He’s awesome. Kenyan ran for 104 yards and two scores, one from one yard out and the other from 46 yards out. He’s gotta be almost sub 4.4 speed. He is fast as a bullet out of a Smith and Wesson 38. I love that guy. T.J. was solid as usual. Eighty eight yards on the ground with a long of 27. Kenyan averaged 13 yards a carry and T.J,. 7.3. You get that kind of production out of your backs and you’ll win most all of your games, which Bama always does. Defense looks terrific. I’ll say this confidently, C.J. Mosley is the best of the three of him, Dont’a and Rolando. He just gets it done big time. Ten tackles on Saturday. Four tackles for loss in the game, one by Mosley, one by Denzell Devall, who also had a sack, one by Pagan, a 1/w by Brandon Ivory and a 1/2 by Trey DePriest. Ha Ha was back and made a beautiful interception. So did Cyrus Jones. Tough news on Vinnie Sunseri out for the season with a knee injury. Hate that for him. Seems like a great kid, he’s a great player and a tremendous leader. Hopefully, Vinnie will be back next year ready to go. But Landon Collins can really play too. He and Ha Ha will be very good back there as well.

A couple of guys I don’t want to forget. Freshman phenom running back Derrick Henry. Wow, is he going to be special. Six three, 240 pounds can run like a gazelle, and has power between the tackles. Man is he special. Had an 80 yard run in which he got through the line and turned on the after burners taking it to the house. I don’t think S wanted to score that touchdown, but what do you do when your fourth string running back is a five-star player and could be one of the best ‘Bama’s ever had, which is saying a lot. Also, I love Dillon Lee. He’s another guy like Kenyan Drake who just does something positive every time he’s on the field. He’s a stellar special teams player and will be a stellar linebacker when he gets his shot. There’s just so much talent down there it’s scary. An improved Tennessee team fresh off an upset of South Carolina–what’s happened to them?– comes to T-town Saturday for a 2:3o PM CT kickoff on CBS. Verne, Gary and Wolf with the call.

SEC:

What a wild weekend. Mizzou looks for real even with starting qb James Franklin on the shelf. Florida is terrible on offense, but Mizzou is tied for the lead in the country with 14 interceptions. They’re tied with Oregon. They have a stout d line. Just a hard nosed defense. And their offense is loaded with playmakers. Running backs Henry Josey, Russell Hansborough and Marcus Murphy are stellar. Wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham has become the superb player he was expected to be when he was the number one player in the country out of high school two years ago. DGB is 6’6″, 225. Just a beast out wide. 6’4″, 205 wide out L’Damian Washington is also excellent. And quarterback Maty Mauk looks like he can ably hold down the fort until Franklin returns, maybe in two or three weeks. And Mizzou has an excellent offensive line. There’s potential greatness there. South Carolina comes calling to Columbia this weekend, Saturday Night @7 PM ET/6 CT on ESPN2. Should be a classic.

Proud of my Vanderbilt Commodores knocking off Georgia. Great effort by the team, and while the Dawgs have been decimated by injuries, they’ve still got a lot of talent and Aaron Murray under center, which gives them a chance to win every game. VU held Murray to 114 yards passing and no touchdowns. And Vandy lost their starting quarterback, Austyn Carta-Samuels, in the second quarter to a knee injury that might knock him out of the season. But Patton Robinette came in and was exceptional. Patton was a commit to North Carolina two years ago and was about to enroll in classes when Vandy made a last minute push and got hi. Patton is 6″5″, 225 pounds, he’s got a great arm, great wheels, and scored a perfect 36 on the ACT along with carrying a 4.0 GPA in high school. Like the future at quarterback with redshirt freshman Robinette under center and talent behind him and coming in. Feel terrible for ACS, but hopefully he can make it back before the season is over.

UT beating South Carolina and Ole Miss beating LSU, wow. I could kinda see UT maybe knocking off SC, but Ole Miss came out of nowhere. Great win for the Vols and the Rebs and very tough losses for Gamecocks and Bengal Tigers.

Nationally, I saw the catch of the year in the Stanford-UCLA game on Saturday. Kodi Whitfield laid out in the end zone and pulled in a Kevin Hogan pass with one hand. If you look on Youtube you can probably find it. Incredible. Stanford took care of business with a 24-10 win over the previously undefeated Bruins. The Stanford-Oregon game, Thursday, Nov. 7th, @ 9 PM ET/8 CT on ESPN is setting up for a classic. Oregon plays amazing offense and quarterback Marcus Mariota is fantastic, but Stanford can really play some defense, so should be a war on the Farm at Palo Alto, Ca. That’s two nights before LSU comes to ‘Bama which will either be a 2:30 PM CT start or maybe, and more likely, a prime time 7 or 8 CT start. ‘Bama number one in BCS and Florida State after their impressive dismantling of Clemson at Clemson, 51-14, is number two. Oregon is number three right now. Wow, Jameis Winston at FSU is totally stellar. Winston, Mariota and A.J., who is highly undervalued nationally, are my three guys right now for the Heisman. Can’t forget Ohio State at number four or even Missouri at number five. Some incredible football ahead. Can’t count out Baylor, Texas Tech or Auburn either right now. Three very capable programs. Baylor plays offense like I’ve never seen. Texas Tech is pretty good, but can’t stop Baylor when they meet. Baylor is legit. Their question mark is their defense. You can say that about Oregon too. Oregon plays pretty good defense, but I don’t think either them or Baylor plays defense like Alabama and Auburn. Not even close. That’ll be interesting to see who emerges.

In the pros, my man Andrew Luck got it done over Peyton and the Broncos last night. I love Peyton, don’t get me wrong, but I picked Luck and the Colts to win the Super Bowl, so I’m happy about the result. RGIIi looks like he’s back. A lot of injuries yesterday. It’s a war of attrition in the NFL. Just gotta hope you get lucky and avoid any catastrophic injuries to your quarterback if you’re a playoff team and you need good backups. Injuries are just a major part of the game. I hate’em but they’re inevitable.

Got the Sox in seven over the Cards in the World Series. First game is Wednesday Night at 8:07 ET/7:07 CT. Jon Lester of Sox vs Adam Wainwright of Cards. Should be some stellar pitching and some good bats. Ought to be an awesome series.

Beautiful day on Saturday for ‘Dores; Sunday not Bears’ best

October 21, 2013

What a win. Patton Robinette came in relief of ACS at quarterback and really got the job done with a lot of help from Jerron Seymour, JMatt and Jonathan Krause, who had an amazing game. Linebacker Darreon Herring (10 tackles, three pass breakups an interception negated by penalty) and the defense were stellar. The defense held Aaron Murray to 114 passing yards on 16-of-28 passing with no TDs and one int. Just a tremendous effort by a rejuvenated group of football players who had a week off before Georgia and just got to work and got better. ACS may be out for the season with what looked like a knee injury. No report on that yet. But Patton looks like a highly capable replacement. Patton, a redshirt freshman who had committed to North Carolina two years ago, but didn’t attend their classes and changed to us, is 6″5″, 225, a prototype quarterback. He scored a perfect 36 on the ACT and also finished with a perfect 4.0 GPA in high school. He’s an outstanding kid too. Listened to him after the game in an interview on the vu website. Great kid. Quarterback is in excellent hands the rest of this season and in the future with Patton, Johnny McCrary (frosh 4-star) and K.J. Carta-Samuels, a four-star coming in next year. We also have another high three-star, Trace McSorley, coming in next year. So we’re good a quarterback. Patton needs to stay healthy. His backup is Joshua Grady, who I’d love to see us get on the field, but at wide receiver. But Josh may be OK if Patton gets hurt. We would probably have to take off McCrary’s redshirt if Patton got banged up. Anyway, very hopeful that Patton can stay healthy and improve even more this week against A&M. We moved to 4-3 overall and 1-3 in conference. Loved the fake field goal at the two that resulted in the always reliable Carey Spear running it in for a score. That was awesome. Didn’t love the trickeration play on the formation with half the offense on the left side of the field. Georgia had that one figured out, intercepted ACS’s pass, and ran it in for a score. Thought that might be devastating.

But it wasn’t. The team, down 10 in the fourth quarter, just never let up. Jerron was awesome. He just does something positive every time he touches the ball. Jonathan Krause made a huge catch on the sideline. JMatt played like he always does which is stellar. And I thought our defense was outstanding. We got a couple of fumble recoveries, one by star cornerback Andre Hal and another on a fumbled punt by Georgia which backup safety Torren McGaster recovered. I really like Torren. He’s going to be a good safety for us in the future. May play some corner too. Just a tremendous job of preparing the team by James and the staff. Loved what Coach Shoop did on defense. Really an excellent game plan. We got great pressure on Murray and did a really good job of tackling. We didn’t allow any big plays, which was huge. Kenny Ladler played his usual solid game getting nine tackles, second on the team to Darreon, and corner Steven Clarke and safety Javon Marshall had seven apiece. Javon intercepted Murray to ice the game. We got good pressure on Murray even though we didn’t sack him. He was under duress a lot of the time. We had four tackles for loss. We shut down their running game pretty well. Just played a physically tough football game. Very, very proud of our guys.

OK, A&M this Saturday at 12:21 PM ET/11:21 AM CT on the SEC Network. Johnny Football is pretty banged up from the Auburn game, so that could help. Don’t want him to be severely hurt by any means, but it’ll help if he’s somewhat bothered in his right shoulder which he hurt Saturday. Mike Evans is a load at wide receiver; just a phenomenal football player and they’ve got playmaker after playmaker. It’s going to be hard at College Station, but if Manziel is not 100 percent, and we keep playing defense like we played Saturday, we can score on their defense and possibly pull this out. Our team is now playing at the level we expected them to at the beginning of the season. We were banged up pretty good going into the Mizzou game, and they’re stellar on offense particularly with James Franklin at quarterback; their James Franklin not ours. But they are a very good football team even with backup Maty Mauk at quarterback. They are loaded with playmakers on offense, their oline is outstanding and their defense is tied for first in the country in interceptions with 14. They have a good defense this year. They have it all, and Franklin will be back before the season is over, so they’ve got a shot to do some special things. South Carolina visits Columbia this weekend, so that should be very interesting. 7 PM ET/6 CT on ESPN or ESPN2, to be determined in the middle of the week.

A group I forgot to mention is our offensive line. They are playing exceptionally well. Wes Johnson, Joe Townsend, Andrew Jelks, Jake Bernstein, Barrett Gouger and the other guys are really getting it done. I liked this group coming into the season, and they are living up to their billing. Great group up front.

Some more good news came on the recruiting front. We received two commits after Saturday’s game. High three star cornerback Amani Oruwariye (6″1″, 180) committed to us. Then solid three-star wide receiver Kameron Uter committed to us as well. Amani, from Gaither High School in Tampa, is an 89 three-star, almost a four-star, by 247 sports, and Kameron is an 87 three-star, that’s a pretty high three-star ranking by 247. Rivals has Amani as a 5.6 three-star and doesn’t rate Kameron yet. But Kameron is 6’4″, 205 and can really catch the football. Watched film on both. Amani is a ball hawk. He intercepts a lot of passes and he’s fast and physical. Kameron catches everything and is a very physical runner after he catches the ball. Like both of these pickups a lot.

We now have 20 commits. Amani’s commit gives us seven defensive back commits; three safeties and four corners. Kameron was our first wide receiver commit, but we are in the market for more. Names to keep an eye on are 88 three-star Trevon Lee (6’1″, 175 Fort Lauderdale), four-star Travis Rudolph (West Palm Beach, Fl. 6’1″, 185, it’d be a coup to get him), 88, three-star Michael Gallup from Monroe, Georgia and 87, three-star Emanuel Bell from Powder Springs, Georgia. One other guy is 82, three-star Chris Taylor, who is presently a Duke commit. A grade of 90 is a four-star, so these high three-stars are all excellent players. Jay Cutler, Earl Bennett and Casey Hayward were all three-stars. We have a nice group of wide receivers in this year’s freshman class led by four-star Jordan Cunningham, who I’d like to see get the ball more. He’s playing. Jordan is 6’3″, so we need to find him to give ourselves a third option at wide out. Have heard good things about freshman Latevius Rayford. Carlos Burse and DeAndre Woods were highly rated recruits and Gerald Perry has 4.4 speed and had a solid three-star rating. We’ll see if we keep the redshirts on some of those guys. JMatt is incredible and Krause was brilliant on Saturday. Trent Pruitt made a really nice short catch and run. Trent might be able to help us. Would like to see Wesley Tate get some more opportunities at running back. Jerron is excellent, but Wes can still help us a lot. Would like to see more out of tight end. Really like Steven Scheu. The staff seems to really like Kris Kentera, and maybe Kris can keep getting better. Like Steven though.

Anyway, outstanding team win on Saturday. Congratulations to James and the coaches and the team. What a fantastic effort. Now onto College Station as the 2013 journey continues. Looks like we are now definitely committed to excellence.

Jay hurt his groin yesterday against the Redskins when he got tackled and it doesn’t look great right now. The Bears are expecting the worst when the MRI comes in this afternoon, but you never know. It could be a mild strain. I remember playing football in high school and going through three-a-days in the summer and my groins being really sore from practice. It’s a pretty painful injury if it’s severe and pretty debilitating. Hopefully, it’s not severe. There are a lot of classifications of the injury. Hopefully this one is mild. But Josh McCown came in to replace Jay and was outstanding. He got it to our playmakers Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffrey, Martellus Bennett and Earl had some nice catches. I liked what I saw from Josh, so if Jay is out for some time, Josh looks like he can get the job done. We lost 45-41 to the Redskins at D.C. Defense had a lot of trouble stopping RG III and their offense. Lance Briggs and Charles Tillman going out with injuries didn’t help. Anyway, gotta regroup. We go to Lambeau in two weeks to face the Packers on Monday Night football at 8:30 PM ET/7:30 CT on ESPN. We’re 4-3, the Pack are 4-2 and the Lions are 4-3, so we have our work cut out for us. Still like this team a lot. We’ve got playmakers on offense and a good offensive line, and Josh looks like he’ll be good if Jay is out for some time. Our defense is a lot better than we played yesterday. We have a bye this week.

Proud of our guys and the Bears will get it back together. More later in the week.

NFL week 6 picks

October 12, 2013

Record last week: 6-4; overall: 20-13 (61%)

Carolina 31, Minnesota 28

Pittsburgh 28, Jets 27

Green Bay 35, Baltimore 31

New Orleans 35, New England 34

Dallas 38, Washington 28

Indy 34, San Diego 31

Alabama in a somewhat interesting game; Auburn gets a kick in; key SEC matchup in Athens

October 10, 2013

Last week: 7-2; overall: 46-15 (75%)

Saturday’s games

No.1 Alabama @ Kentucky

6 PM CT

ESPN 2

Bama by 27 1/2

Shouldn’t be too much of a problem here for the Crimson Tide. Kentucky gave South Carolina a good game last week and Mark Stoops has them playing better. But I see A.J. and the receivers, and T.J. and the running backs having their way. It’s another good game to see the defense develop more. As S always says, “It’s not who you play, it’s how you play.” So that’s the important thing for the Tide as they progress on into the second half of the season.

Alabama 38, Kentucky 10

Western Carolina @ Auburn

1 PM CT

ESPN 3 and Game Plan

AU by 43.5

There’s a question of whether Nick Marshall is going to play this week as he has a sore knee. Gus may hold him out for next week’s big game @ A&M. If Marshall doesn’t play, look for Jonathan Wallace to start and there to be a heavy dose of Tre Mason, Cameron Artis-Payne and Corey Grant. Should be a good day for the running backs. This is a development game. Probably would be good to get Wallace some playing time just in case Marshall is struggling with the knee.

AU 45, Western Carolina 7

Missouri @ No.6 Georgia

11 AM CT

ESPN

Georgia by 8.5

First Malcolm Mitchell goes out for the season in game one, then Todd Gurley sprains his ankle against LSU and he’s doubtful this week. Keith Marshall is out for the season with a knee injury sustained last week against UT. Justin Scott-Wesley is out for the year with a knee injury last week. And Michael Bennett is on the shelf with a knee for about three weeks at a minimum. This is a perfect storm brewing against Georgia this week with an explosive, hungry Mizzou team coming to Athens. James Franklin has quieted his critics with an exceptional year this year and his offensive weaponry around him is outstanding. His defense is tied for second in the country in interceptions with 11 and the defensive line is physical and talented. And the Mizzou offensive line is one of the top ones in the SEC and could be up there with four or five of the best in the country. This offense is going to test a Georgia defense that just hasn’t been that good this year. Another factor is Georgia has been in two major wars the past two weeks at home in a huge win over LSU two weeks ago and a battle in Knoxville last week which they pulled out in overtime. I think Georgia’s tired. This game reminds me of the Alabama-A&M game last year. I really like what Georgia has done this year, and I love the way Aaron Murray has played. He’s right there in the Heisman race with A.J., Tajh Boyd, Jameis Winston and Teddy Bridgewater. If he gets out of this game with another stellar performance and a victory, he’s my leader in the Heisman race. But I just don’t know if Murray is enough against this talented, explosive, underrated team. I like Missouri to pull off the upset between the hedges.

Missouri 35, Georgia 31

No.18 Florida @ No.10 LSU

2:30 PM CT

CBS

LSU by 7

This is going to be a pretty good game as it turns out. Florida plays some of the best defense in the country. I’d say Florida and Alabama are the two best defenses in the country. So LSU will have some problems getting the big play. Tyler Murphy has done a nice job replacing the injured Jeff Driskel at quarterback, Driskel, who is out for the season with a broken ankle, hadn’t gotten it together yet; but Murphy has been serviceable if not pretty good. LSU still has the weapons and they’re in Death Valley so I like them to prevail, but this should be a pretty good game that LSU just gets by in.

LSU 28, Gators 24

No.9 A&M @ Ole Miss

7 :30 PM CT

ESPN

A&M by 6

Ole Miss is reeling somewhat after being dominated by Alabama and losing a tough one to AU. A&M could be the second best team in the west and a top five or six team in the country. Johnny Manziel should have his way with the Ole Miss defense. Bo Wallace has been a disaster the last two weeks and he’s been a coach’s nightmare. He’s a serious head case. Manziel and company get it done in Oxford.

A&M 42, Ole Miss 31

No.13 South Carolina @ Arkansas

11:21 AM CT

SEC Network

SC by 6

Talk about a head case, Jadeveon Clowney has been a total disaster this year and is wearing Ball Coach out. Ball Coach is trying to be reasonable with the guy, but his NFL stock is plummeting every game that he keeps up this act. Clowney needs to get it together or he’s looking at a third round pick if he doesn’t get any better and show a lot more character. Meanwhile, SC is still in the hunt for the East title. With Georgia really struggling with injuries, the Gamecocks could get back in the East if they keep winning and Georgia stumbles twice. Arkansas is OK. Not good, not bad. South Carolina needs to have a good game and get themselves going for the rest of the season. They’ve still got a shot at the East title and an appearance in the SEC Championship game.

South Carolina 31, Arkansas 21

Other scores:

Oklahoma 42, Texas 28

State 38, Bowling Green 24

Oregon 49, Washington 35***

***Revised pick

Baseball playoffs, NFL, FBS football observations mid week

October 9, 2013

The Red Sox look unstoppable. Like the Sox over the Dodgers in six in the World Series. I picked the Tampa Bay Rays over the Nationals before the season started, but the Sox have combined a potent first four hitting lineup of the amazing hitter Jacoby Ellsbury, the speedy, electric Shane Victorino, the clutch, dangerous bat of Dustin Pedroia, and the ageless Big Papi, who seems to hit better with age, along with incredible defense, stellar starting pitching led by Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz and the best bullpen in baseball, led by the un-hittable Koji Uehara, to form the best team in baseball. Plus they’ve got the passion with the Boston strong attitude from the tragedy of the Boston Marathon. They’re just an unstoppable force. Like the Red Sox to capture their third World Series title in 10 years. They also won it in 2004 and 2007.

I watched the Indianapolis Colts in the preseason and really liked their team. Watching them beat San Francisco on the road and Seattle at home has me convinced. I like Andrew Luck and the Colts, provided they can stay healthy–which is one of the main keys in football– to beat the Saints in the Super Bowl. Peyton is tremendous and he and Luck will have a showdown in Indy a week from Sunday Night (Oct. 20, 8:30 PM ET/7:30 CT on NBC), but with what I’ve seen this season, the Colts look like the team that will win at MetLife Stadium February 2 in Super Bowl 48 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. You never know with the injuries, but I like the Colts with the present team they have to win it all.Believe in Andrew Luck.

A couple of interesting games this weekend in college football. No.25 Missouri @ No.7 Georgia (Noon ET/11 AM CT, ESPN) looks like a stellar matchup. Missouri looks like the Texas A&M of 2013. Quarterback James Franklin and the Missouri offense are the real deal. They shredded a young, and not very good Vanderbilt defense last week for 523 yards, and are tied for second in the country in interceptions with Northwestern, Tulane and Tennessee with 11. Virginia Tech leads the country at 13. They aren’t great on defense, but they turn the ball over, which is a good way to play defense against these high powered offenses now-days. Georgia is coming off two wars; first the LSU game two weeks ago which was a classic, and the Tennessee game last week which turned out to be a major war as well. Georgia lost running back Keith Marshall and wide receiver Justin Scott-Wesley for the season last week, and receiver Michael Bennett looks like he’s on the shelf. That’s after losing star wide out Malcolm Mitchell for the season in the opening game against Clemson. How many more brilliant performances can Aaron Murray have? I think he’s got more in him, but the defense is questionable with a lot of young guys who haven’t figured it out. The game is at UGA so that helps the Dawgs, but this is going to be tough for Georgia. Will have prediction tomorrow along with my other predictions.

The other game that is interesting is Oregon @ Washington (4 PM ET/3 CT on Fox Sports 1). Washington is coming off a tough loss @ Stanford in which honestly they got robbed from possibly winning the game @ The Farm. A Huskies pass that looked complete on fourth down was ruled incomplete on a drive that could have led to the winning score late in the game. It was ruled a catch by the ref on the field and TV replay showed no evidence that the officials could overturn the call. But they did. It was a travesty. Just like the Northwestern call that went against them on fourth and half yard in which the refs called the Wildcats’ quarterback short on a sneak. That was a blown call as well and costly as Ohio State and Urb remained undefeated with a 10 point win. The Georgia-UT call with the running back for UT fumbling just before the end zone was the right call. Stanford won over Washington, 31-28. They just survived. Oregon hasn’t been challenged this year, but this one could be more of a test. I wonder how Washington will respond after losing a tough one in which they poured everything they had into the game. Would like to see Oregon get tested, get into a pressure situation, and see how they respond. There look like three teams that can cause the Oregon offense some problems because they play good defense: ‘Bama, Stanford and Florida State. Plus all three teams are good on offense. Clemson can score with them, but I don’t think they can stop’em. LSU could give them a very good game, but LSU’s defense is suspect as well. LSU’s defense is young, so we’ll see how they keep progressing. They’ve got a shot to go deep. They’ll play one of the best defenses in the country in Florida this weekend in Baton Rouge (3:30 PM ET/2:30 CT on CBS), so that should be interesting. Florida’s backup quarterback, Tyler Murphy, has done a better job than starter Jeff Driskel was doing. Driskel was lost for the season with a broken ankle in the Tennessee game. Florida has gotten better. So could be fairly interesting in Death Valley. The Gators’ defense can keep them in it.

‘Bama goes to Kentucky this Saturday (7 PM ET/6 CT, ESPN2), so they should be OK there. AU hosts Western Carolina, so they should be fine too. AU will be on ESPN 3 and ESPN Game Plan @ 2 PM ET/ 1 CT. Loved the way Auburn played against Ole Miss. AU looks like an eight or nine win team to me. They’re 4-1 and I see them beating Western Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Arkansas and UT. A&M, Georgia and ‘Bama will be tough.

The final thing I wanted to talk about was this Condoleezza Rice controversy; her selection on the committee to pick the four playoff teams in 2014. First of all, there are going to be too many people on the committee. Tweleve is a little much and 18 is ridiculous. You don’t need 18 people to pick the top four teams. Eight to 10 is a better number. But back to Condi, she was national security advisor and Secretary of State under W. Her father was a football coach. She talks plays with Stanford coach David Shaw. She is very, very smart and highly capable of handling this. I think Condi can figure out who the best four teams in football are objectively just as well as Pat Dye or David Pollack can. Actually, I’d trust her more. It doesn’t take a heart surgeon or an electrical engineer to figure out the best four teams in college football at the end of the season. Condi can handle it. Not worried about that.

By the way, my choice for Player of the Year in the PGA was not Tiger. It was Adam Scott. Tiger did nothing late in the year. Adam Scott won the Masters and the Barclays. His year winning a major was more significant than Tiger’s five victories.