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.