Watching Lane Kiffin coach his team’s game last night, was like watching Taylor Swift trying to pass the ball against the Georgia defense. It was a complete catastrophe. Five times Kiffin went for it on fourth down, three or four times deep in his own territory. He was one for five and the one time he made it was on a fourth and one from his own 19! Are you kiddin me Kiffin? The stupidity was beyond the imagination. He even faked a punt at his own 30 and didn’t get it. Andre Ware was perplexed. Everybody was. Three of those missed fourth downs led to Texas Tech TDs as the Red Raiders clobbered the Rebels, 42-25, at the TaxAct Texas Bowl in Houston last night.

As Cris Collinsworth said, when a struggling Tom Brady missed on a two yard pass against the Arizona Cardinals on 3rd and one on Sunday Night football this past Sunday Night, “I don’t know what I’m watching.” The 45 year old Brady is struggling and so is Kiffin. He needs to re-think his decisions on fourth down or 2023 is going to be a clown show for him. He only had the 36th ranked recruiting class in 2023, not so swift, so he’ll hit the transfer portal to try to strengthen his team. You gotta recruit, Kiffin. He’s got a long way to go.

Arkansas almost one upped Kiffin with their near inexplicable collapse against Kansas as they won 55-53 in triple OT at the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. They were up by 15 with 2 minutes left and unbelievably let Kansas tie the game at the end of regulation and send it into overtime. Matt Landers, their wide receiver who transferred from Georgia, probably because he was never going to see the field in Athens, fumbled as Arkansas was driving with 3 minutes left to give Kansas the ball back down 15. On replay, it looked like his backside hit the turf before the ball came out, but the refs ruled it a fumble on the field and there was no indisputable video evidence to overturn though I saw it as Landers was down. The Jayhawks scored and kicked the extra point to cut the lead to eight, 38-30. They then attempted an onside kick. The ball got by the Razorbacks front line and Landers was just waiting for the ball instead of going after it when it passed the initial line of players for Arkansas. But Kansas out- hustled him by a long shot and recovered. They drove the ball down and scored with 45 seconds left, and their great quarterback, Jalon Daniels, passed for the 2 point conversion to tie the game at 38 with 41 seconds left. Arkansas opted not to try and go down and kick a field goal. That was surprising too.

The Razorbacks won it in the third overtime on a successful 2 point conversion and somehow held Kansas out of the end zone on their two point attempt. Sam Pittman almost pulled off the ultimate gag job, but somehow survived despite the haphazard coaching job by him and his staff.

In the Holiday Bowl, Bo Nix led his Oregon Ducks team down for a game winning TD with 17 seconds left to lead the 15th rank Ducks over North Carolina, 28-27, in a classic. Bo and his Ducks should have a very promising fifth year, for Nix, in Eugene.

Duke defeated UCF 30-13 in the Military Bowl.

College Basketball, Bama, Auburn

The Eighth-ranked Crimson Tide went to Starkville last night and came away victorious, 78-69, and were impressive doing it. Their great freshman Brandon Miller finished the night with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Wow, what a player. Miller, 6’8”, 200 from Antioch, TN., is averaging 19.2 ppg and 8.8 rebounds per game. Super stuff from the freshman. If Miller keeps this up, he could challenge for National Player of the Year. Drew Timme of Gonzaga is going to be hard to beat, but there’s a lot of season to go. Junior point guard Mark Sears, a transfer from Ohio, added 20 points. Sears is averaging 14.5 ppg. The Crimson Tide moved to 11-2 on the season with the only losses coming to No.3 UConn and No. 10 Gonzaga, both high quality teams. The Tide can make a deep run in the postseason if they can keep this up. They’ve got the material and the chemistry to go a long way in March.

The No. 20 Auburn Tigers survived the Florida Gators, 61-58, at the Jungle last night, as Wendell Green Jr. sank a beautiful spinning layup to seal it with three seconds left. Green and Johni Broome each scored 14 points. That was big victory for the Tigers against a quality opponent. Auburn has three players averaging double figures led by Green Jr who is averaging 12.7. Broome is averaging 12.3 and Jaylin Williams chips in 10.3. Auburn needs to keep improving on the offensive side of the court because the defense looks strong. That can win several games if you can shoot the ball pretty well. The Tigers moved to 11-2 with their only losses coming to Memphis and USC.

In other SEC tilts, No.7 Tennessee outlasted Ole Miss on the road, 63-59, LSU defeated No.9 Arkansas at home, 60-57, and Missouri upset No. 19 Kentucky, 89-75. Missouri moved to 12-1 on the year. LSU is 12-1. Arkansas is 11-2. And Kentucky is 8-4. That’s unacceptable in Lexington. Who knows what Calipari’s complaints are now. That’ll be getting pretty old in Lexington if things don’t improve quickly for him and his program.

Today’s Games

Cheez-It Bowl

Oklahoma (6-6) vs. No. 13 Florida State (9-3)

Camping World Stadium, Orlando, 65,000

4:30 PM CT

ESPN

Bob Wischusen, Dan Orlovsky, Kris Budden

Laundry, SEC, James Carter

FSU by 10

Give me quarterback Jordan Travis and the FSU offense and a pretty stellar defense to lead their team to victory. The ACC is 3-1 in bowl games., the best record of any conference so far.

Florida State 38, OU 27

Valero Alamo Bowl

No. 20 Texas (8-4) vs. No. 12 Washington (10-2)

Alamodome, San Antonio, 72,000

8 PM CT

ESPN

Tom, JRodg, his older brother, at 38, is starting to pick it up for the Packers, Cole

Yeller, ACC, Gary Patterson

Texas by 3

I like Sark, fresh off his No.3 recruiting class in 2023 and playing a de facto home game to capture this title. Like it to be a classic, but give me the Horns.

Texas 38, Washington 34

Friday’s matchups

Duke’s Mayo Bowl

Maryland (7-5) vs. NC State (8-4)

11 AM CT, ESPN

Sun Bowl

Pittsburgh (8-4) vs. No.18 UCLA (9-3)

1 PM CT, CBS

TaxSlayer Gator Bowl

No. 21 Notre Dame (8-4) vs. No.19 South Carolina (8-4)

2:30 PM CT, ESPN

Capital One Orange Bowl, New Year’s Six Bowls begin

No.6 Tennessee (10-2) vs. No.7 Clemson (11-2)

7 PM CT, ESPN