- Penn State ought to be absolutely ashamed of itself for the way that it handled the Jerry Sandusky situation. Coverups as they relate to recruiting or college athletes are one thing, but covering up or even not fully exploring an incident of sexual abuse involving a young boy (which has now become 9 young boys) is something totally different and unacceptable. There should be no one safe through this investigation who had knowledge of the accusations and didn't pursue them.
- That includes winningest coach of all-time Joe Paterno. A career that probably should have ended a couple years ago in honor and esteem, will now do so shamefully and forever tarnished. This should definitely be JoePa's last season, and Penn State should start afresh from top to bottom next season, ridding itself of any personnel who took part in such a shallow-thinking and heinous coverup.
- Had I posted the blog Sunday when I initially intended to, I would have looked like a genius for the second time this season, predicting a coaches firing within days of it occurring (hours in the case of Mike Stoops). Unfortunately, it took me until Tuesday to post, and thus Houston Nutt was fired before I was able to post my prediction that it would come after this week's atrocious loss to Kentucky.
- I was looking over my Auburn position roster (which has seniors in bold), and realized that were it not for the last month of Eltoro Freeman's phenomenal play, and the last 3 years of frustration and jubilation that have been Neiko Thorpe's career, Auburn fans probably won't notice much change at all when next year's team hits the field. Sure, there will be other seniors gone, but with the young depth that Auburn has been putting on the field and developing this season and small number of seniors on this year's team, the transition should be seamless. This assumes that Auburn doesn't attempt to make Kiehl Frazier the starter, and understands that Auburn will still be likely integrating at least 3 new linemen in all likelihood (Christian Westerman, Greg Robinson, and JUCO commit Will Latu).
- Missouri is officially a member of the SEC. If that excites any SEC fan outside of maybe Arkansas, I'd love to hear why. Columbia, Missouri isn't exactly a destination roadtrip, and I'm not really sure what Mizzou brings to the SEC, other than 2 big TV markets (Kansas City and St. Louis) and an obnoxious third Tiger.
LSU-Alabama
- To say that those of us who watched the so called "Game of the Century" were a little let down is probably fair. To say that we should have expected different is probably foolish. What we got was a fantastic defensive battle between two fantastic defensive teams, a game that regulation time couldn't decide, and two very conservative offenses. We got what we expected in the defensive department, and therefore to expect a whole lot out of the offenses would have been silly. What we didn't see, however, was any sort of creativity on offense, any risk taking, or any trick plays whatsoever. Granted, those plays are much more difficult against the top tier defenses that the Tide and Tigers possess, but they are at least worth a shot, particularly when you simply can't get close enough to kick a field goal, no matter how hard you try.
- By absolutely no means should the Alabama loss be put completely on the shoulders of Cade Foster or Jeremy Shelley. There is no way that he should have been put in the position to constantly be kicking 45-53 yard field goals and been expected to make them. His previous career long? 49 yards. His success when kicking field goals over 50 yards? 0/3. His kick record for this season? 1/3. This is not a man on who's shoulders the "Game of the Century" should have been placed 4 times. That is simply bad coaching. When you have a Heisman frontrunner, you put the ball in his hands and let him win the game. When it comes down to the 30 yard line and your calls are not good enough or gutsy enough to get you into the red zone, or at least into a reasonable field goal distance, that isn't on the kicker. I've seen plenty of terrible comments directed Foster's way, but this should all fall on Nick Saban. By attempting 5 long field goals (1 successful), and deciding to run out the clock at the end of regulation rather than trying to go for the win, Saban played the game as safely and conservatively as it can be played, and this time, it cost the Tide a shot at the National Championship. Don't blame that on the kicker.
- The Alabama fan's guide to still getting to the National Championship (in increasing order of importance):
- Auburn beats Georgia this weekend (- to Boise for UGA losing, + to Bama for Auburn winning; Boise probably wouldn't jump Bama either way, but better safe than sorry)
- Oregon beats Stanford this weekend (Bama would still have to beware of Oregon creeping back up; a Stanford victory would definitely have the Cardinal jump the Tide, at least temporarily)
- Oklahoma beats Oklahoma State in the final week of the season.
- Bama beats Mississippi State, GSU, and Auburn.
- Big win for Arkansas over South Carolina. Keep in mind, Arkansas still has LSU in the final week of the season, and this game has been unpredictable in past years. The Razorbacks could really throw a wrench in things across the country by knocking off the Tigers in Baton Rouge. I don't expect it to happen, I'm just stating the facts.
- I honestly thought before the game started that Vanderbilt might beat Florida. And they did....in the 2nd half. The Dores simply got too late a start, and couldn't pull off the upset in spite of a great comeback. Expect James Franklin's team to continue to improve and to be a force in the East next season (Franklin currently has Vandy with the nation's 24th best recruiting class).
- Removed post predicting Houston Nutt's firing.
- Georgia now fully controls its road to Atlanta for the SEC Championship. Auburn will look to take away that control on Saturday, in Athens.
- Iowa beat Michigan. Is that impressive? Not particularly
- Nebraska didn't wait long before correcting me for every saying anything mildly positive about them. Disregard last week's favorable comments toward the Huskers after this weeks loss to Northwestern.
- Southern Miss is having quite the nice season. Unfortunately, they don't play Houston, so we may never know if either was really legit. I suppose the bowl games will tell. Hopefully both get matched up with non-Big East BCS conference teams.
- Big victory for Oklahoma State, at least in terms of confidence (or cockiness). The Cowpokes held off a great effort from Kansas State to slide into the #2 spot vacated by Alabama in the BCS.
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