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| That Brian Kelly.. he needs to play Ron Pawlus against PENN STATE. |
Week Four of the College Football season brings with it four very good games where ranked teams are battling each other. Winners of at least three of these games will bring validation and credibility to their national title statements. It will be a very interesting Monday in the polls after several of these games, especially if a certain WAC team looks very good. All times are Eastern.
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| Dear Fayetville, be careful what you wish for. |
Ryan Mallett has been everything Arkansas fans and Bobby Petrino has hoped for this year so far. Mallett led a great game-winning drive at Georgia last week. Their reward for it is the Heavyweight Champions of the World till they are dethroned Alabama Crimson Tide. Greg McElroy has Mark Ingram and Julio Jones ready after last week's glorified scrimmage against Duke. This game is Five Star all day long. I think if Mallett can take what Alabama's D will give him (which isn't the long ball), he will be able to have a pretty good day. The problem is that I really don't think Arkansas's Defense will keep them in the game. Alabama has enough of a offense to turn it into a route real quick. Now, whether they gameplan to become conservative as they did last year and hope the Defense hits a home run, that's another thing. I don't think they will. The game being in Fayetville will help Arkansas stay in it early, however the physical nature of Marcel Darius and the Bama D will be too much.
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| Patience, Irish fan. Patience. |
If this was anyone else but Brian Kelly coaching this Notre Dame team, the hate would be starting to flow pretty fast. However, Kelly has been very competitive in both losses to Michigan and Michigan State, something that Charlie Weis didn't seem to be in some games last year. Jim Harbaugh and Stanford come to Indiana for a matchup this weekend. Amazingly, Stanford leads all of D-1 in pass defense right now, but Crist and company will test them very quickly. I'm still not terribly sold on Andrew Luck being a excellent quarterback, even though he had a great game versus Wake Forest last week. This will be the first tough road enviorment for Luck without Toby Gerhart to help him out. I do think the Cardinal will be good enough to win, but this game will be very close, much closer than people may think. Three stars, primarily if you're not a SEC fan and can't stand watching Petrino or Saban (and you know who you are!)
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| Who the hell puts Chili on Spaghetti for God's sake?!? |
This game has got to scare all the Sooner fans out there. Seems that Oklahoma doesn't have a real good focus against teams they should be throttling. Both Utah State and Air Force kept both games within a score, and while the defense showed up, the offense (primarily Landry Jones) seemed to lack a punch, minus DeMarco Murray. Bob Stoops takes his team to Cincinatti to face a Bearcats team that has also sorely underacheived against Fresno State and North Carolina State. However, both games were on the road, and Cincinatti is fairly good at home. However, even with Zack Collaros, the offense is 80th in the nation and doesn't show signs of meshing well. I just can't see how Cincinatti can stay in this game, but I also thought that Oklahoma would blow AF out of the building last week. Three and a half stars, to watch how Landry does against a defense that Russell Wilson blew up for 333 yards last Thursday.
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| God Bless the school that finally hires Gus Malzahn as Head Coach |
For all the attention Ryan Mallett is getting, Cam Newton's numbers have been pretty damn good also. He's the first real good Quarterback Gus Malzahn has had in about five plus years in the SEC with Arkansas and Auburn (think Houston wishes he hadn't shat on Gus yet?) While Auburn's offense has been pretty stout, South Carolina has found their own suprise in Frosh RB Marcus Lattimore. Lattimore has been nothing but great, averaging almost 5 yards a carry. Normally, this game screams of a Carolina-Spurrier chokejob on the road (like Georgia basically was), however the hidden gem with South Carolina is that they are 9th in America in scoring defense. Auburn had to scrap to beat Clemson last week in overtime, which will have them much more focused heading into this game. Four stars for this one. Think Lattimore gets his yards, but I still can't forget that 'ole Ballcoach is awful on the road. Auburn within a touchdown.
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| Oregon State painted their field, yet forgot the crowd, the altitude, the mystique... |
The last time we had Boise State on national television, Kellen Moore only led the Broncos on a 80 yard no timeout game winning drive against Virginia Tech and Bud Foster's defense. Since then, the Virginia Tech win has lost it's luster because of VT's lack of competitive nature. However, they can only control who they play and their style points against said opponents. Oregon State have the brothers Rodgers and Ryan Katz who can put up some points. People will be closely comparing how Boise plays against Oregon State and how TCU played them also. Three and a half on this game just for that reason. Boise and Moore should roll in this game, and then FINALLY will Kellen Moore get put in some Heisman talk.
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| Over/Under on this face on TV Saturday Night: 8.5 |
#22 WEST VIRGINIA vs. #15 LSU 9:00 (why in the hell so late?) ESPN2
A couple of 3-0 teams that a lot of America thinks are smokeshows will be playing pretty late on Saturday night in Death Valley. West Virginia really got lucky against Marshall twoweeks ago, but rebounded pretty well against Maryland. LSU on the other hand, has played well the last 2 weeks after almost giving up a 3 score lead against North Carolina. WV can move the ball with Noel Devine and Geno Smith and will do so against LSU's defense which is good but not top 10 in America in scoring D good. On the other hand, Stevan Ridley has been a pretty good suprise to take the pressure off of Jordan Jefferson's forecasted tepid start. Three and three quarters star game here, I'm interested to see if LSU's defense can slow down Noel and Geno enough to have the offense keep up. Think LSU wins a very close low scoring game, take the unders if you get it (for entertainment purposes only, of course!).
Other games of note to keep an eye on:
Northern Colorado at #25 Michigan State: thoughts to Mark D'Antonio, who officially has the biggest onions of any head coach in America after the fake FG winning throw against Notre Dame. Will be interesing to see how the Spartans come out after last week's events.
Virginia Tech at Boston College: The Hokies need this game more than anything, will not have fun against a Eagle defense that brings it at home. Tyrod needs a big game here because he doesn't have Ryan Williams.
UCLA at #7 Texas: Garrett Gilbert should get healthy after this game, and if he doesn't a lot of warning flags will go up. Also, you want to see how Will Muschamp will attack the Pistol formation.
Kentucky at #9 Florida: A game that looked way easier before the season than it does now for Florida and their offensive issues. Brantley had issues last week still, and it has to make you really wonder what's going to happen against teams like, oh, Bama.
#4 TCU at SMU (Friday night): SMU thinks they can play with the Horned Frogs in Dallas. TCU should roll, however I would love to see how many people make the 30 mile drive from Fort Worth to University Park.
THIS WEEK'S CONSUMABLES:
Most of you Northern types are starting to feel some chill in the air. I've been wanting some Chili, so here ya go..
Chunky Chicken and Chorizo Chili
Recipe courtesy Rachael RayIngredients
•1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan
•3/4 pound chorizo, chopped
•2 pounds ground chicken
•3 tablespoons chili powder, 3 palm fulls
•1 tablespoon ground cumin, a palm full
•1 onion, chopped
•3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
•1 red bell pepper, chopped
•1 (15-ounce) can red beans, drained
•1 bottle beer
•1 (28-ounce) can diced fire roasted tomatoes
•Salt
•6 cups chicken stock
•2 cups quick cooking polenta
•2 tablespoons butter
•2 scallions, finely chopped
•2 tablespoons freshly chopped thyme leaves
Directions
Heat a big, deep skillet over medium high heat with 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil. Add chorizo and render its fat, 2 minutes. Push the chorizo off to the sides of the pot and add chicken meat. Brown and crumble the chicken, 5 to 6 minutes. Season the chicken with chili powder and cumin while it cooks. Combine the onions, garlic, peppers and beans to meats and cook another 5 to 6 minutes. Stir the beer into the chili and reduce the liquid a minute then add the tomatoes and heat through. Season the chili with salt, to taste, and reduce heat to low.
Bring 6 cups stock to a boil in a medium pot, stir in polenta and keep stirring until the polenta masses and thickens to a porridge, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in butter, scallions and thyme and season with salt, to taste.
Fill bowls half way with polenta and make a well in the center. Fill up bowls with chili and serve.
Fantastic to eat through the whole day. As a beverage, Arnold Palmers will do the trick. Real Simple:
3/4 quart Lemonade
3/4 quart Iced Tea
1/2 quart Lemon Vodka or Limoncello (optional)
Stir together, enjoy
COACHES WHO REALLY NEED TO CHECK OUT MOVERS ON CRAIGSLIST:
Houston Nutt: we told you here first last week that Vandy wasn't a team to be ignored. Now Fresno State comes to Oxford. IF they lose this one... man, thought there were vultures around the program before... ugh
Ralph Friedgen: Maryland was fairly competitive last week but still lost against West Virginia. Florida International comes to town, and this game will be closer than people think.
Butch Davis: Even though Carolina is 0-2, they have fought very hard against two good teams (LSU, GT) and has been in both games till the end. Just imagine if the NCAA was done and things were back to normal. They could win this week at Rutgers, at the very least they will be in the game.
Mike Locksley: when there are rumors that Mike Leach could take over for you on your bye week, and people say he'd have LESS controversy than you, it's not a good thing.
THE HEISMAN WATCH:
Denard Robinson: didn't have a large letdown last week, think he needs to throw a little more to save his body for the whole year.
Ryan Mallett: you win this week sir, you will leapfrog to the number 1 spot no matter what Robinson does
Terrell Pryor: looked pretty good against Ohio last week. Made up for his mascot's lack of fight.
Taylor Martinez: tough first road start for anyone at Washington, and made them look very slow.
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| Now, what did DeLoss and Chip want me to say? |
Dan Beebe.. I have not heard one good word from anyone about him since June. Earlier this week, the Big 12 conference "negotiated" buyouts with Nebraska and Colorado so that both schools could leave the Conference by June 31st, making the Big 12 a ten team league. The big deal about this? Nebraska bought out for about $9.25 million, while Colorado got out for a little over $6 million. Beebe promised the remaining 10 schools that the total buyouts would go almost to $30 million dollars plus. I'm not a math major, but the combined total of a little over than $16 million doesn't really get there, in fact I'm pretty sure that's half. Now, I do get the point of the buyouts and not going to court, as to keep the confidential nature of the talks between all schools, conferences, and Beebe's office private. However, promising several teams $20 million dollars a share isn't a good idea, especially when the first promise you made fell through by a lot. Texas A&M AD Bill Byrne is still holding Beebe to his word that they will receive $20 million in revenue sharing for the 2011 season, as well he should. Beebe has kept telling people that the TV money will make up for this. Don't believe for one moment that ABC/FSN/Versus will double their payout for a conference that, while has one more conference game, will not have a conference title game in Arlington. The Big 12 current TV deal only televises 3 games a week, sometimes 4. I do see it possible that the fifth game will be televised, however I fully believe that the whole conference would not see that extra game (which means PPV more than likely). That could be the next rabbit Beebe pulls out of his hat, but there is no way ABC will pay more for it. Bottom line is this; do not believe anything that Beebe or anyone like Joe Schad or Chip Brown says about what could happen, it's all about what WILL happen.
Enjoy the games this week folks.
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