A brief recap

Over the year, I put made some bold predictions, which worked out in several ways for me. First, the bad. Forcier winning the Heisman someday in his college career seems to have been a bit bold, and a little hasty on my part. Barkley also has not lived up to the hype, but a four year starter at USC would be hard to write off as a top pick, so I'll say hasty, but not bold. And, even though it is way to early to know the long-term effects of Larry Johnson playing for the Bengals, he has been running well so far, and may turn out to, not only be a talented running back, but a good player for the team as a whole. And, if we are going to get real picky, I said that the SEC championship would be an offensive sloppy game, which was a high scoring, exciting game. However, with that being said, we can get into the good. I called Alabama to upset Florida, and even though they were only a five point underdog, I was still sitting alone for the most part. Lou Holtz being insane for predicting Notre Dame to win the National Championship. Clausen did get close to being a contender for the Heisman, and has possibly become the quarterback prospect in the draft, but he will still not be invited to New York, so I was still right. And finally, my begging for Vince Young to quarterback for the Titans. Since bringing Young in, the Titans have won five straight games, and while everyone is being reluctant to give Young any credit, what he has done is simply amazing. Yes Chris Johnson has been on fire this season, but he was running the ball when Kerry Collins was in as well. Bottom line is, Young is a winner, and he always has been, and while Jeff Fisher made the move too late, Young is still giving them a longshot, but a shot at the playoffs.

Newfound love for USC

Through the years, I have found many reasons to hate USC. 1)Pete Carroll 2) Matt Leinart 3) Reggie Bush 4) Reggie Bush's heisman trophy 5) the media's constant coverage on everything USC, and all their "greatness". And the list could go on and on really. However, after watching the Gameday special on USC, and Pete Carroll's treatment of Jake Olsen. Jake was a boy who lost his eyesight to cancer when he was born. He would go on to fight, and beat, cancer eight times, before the ninth when the doctor's informed the Olsens that the only way to beat the cancer was to remove his other eye, and cause Jake to go blind forever.
The surgery was not to take place for a month, and Jake's one wish was to go see a USC football game. When Carroll found out about the story, Jake was invited to be on the field for practice, to be in the locker room with the guys before and after practice, and even lead the team on with Carroll for their game against Oregon State, leading pep talk for the team before they took the field, and celebrating with them in the locker room after the game. Jake continued to go to practices, and on his last night to ever be able to see, he only wanted to do one thing, go watch the Trojans practice. After some motivational speeches from the players and Carroll, Jake left, ready for the inevitable tomorrow. USC's center, Jake's favorite player, went with the Olsens on the day of the surgery and was there to see Jake in, and to see him come out.
The story was very moving, and inspirational, and since the surgery, Jake has come back to the field to see the guys, and give them a motivational speech since their loss to Stanford. The act of classiness from Pete Carroll, and the entire Trojan football team was simply amazing. I am not sure that I have ever seen a team, or a person go so far to assure someone of a last wish. I will always remember Carroll's "extra mile," and will always have a lot of respect for the Trojans, well atleast for the Trojans off-the-field character.

Still has a shot at the Heisman

After being in Dallas for the Big XII championship, I still truly feel that Colt McCoy has a legitimate shot at winning the trophy next Saturday in New York. Although he did not have the game a lot of people were expecting, he still scored the only touchdown of the game, and put together big drives in the fourth quarter when UT needed it the most.
Now, I know that I am bias, but there is no way I am that bias. All Colt had to do was not give the heisman away. Granted, after seeing the stats from the Alabama game, and Ingram's stats, I figured the race would be closer than I thought, but I still figured Colt would be the frontrunner if he had a decent game. But it was clear after the first three drives (and two interceptions) that Colt was not in the mood to win it. There was only person on the field that earned a legitimate shot at the Heisman and that was Ndumakong Suh, who was a beast for four quarters. Now Greg Davis did not help UT very much by running slow developing misdirection plays which would end up going right at Suh, but that does not take away from the amazing game that he had. Suh had 12 tackles, six tackles for loss, and an amazing four and a half sacks. But more than just the numbers, the longhorns could not figure out anything that could stop Suh. He was fast, and strong, and dominating through double teams, running back chips, misdirection plays, plays that stretched the field away from him, it did not matter, Suh was in on almost every play. After watching the game, and really paying attention to Suh, if I had a vote for the Heisman, he would get mine hands down.
Now, as happy as I was for Suh, and to see a defensive lineman get some love that they deserve, I am terrified of Alabama's defensive line, and of our offensive line. All three of their down-lineman are big, strong, and physical. None of them have the speed that Suh has, but all of them are bigger and stronger, and will cause a myriad of problems for our offense. Our line better be hitting brick walls for the next month, and use a poor performance against Suh as motivation for the National Championship game. We are going to need those guys to play a lot better if we have a shot at winning two championships in one season.

Florida player suspended?

It is true, after Carlos Dunlap's arrest on Tuesday for driving under the influence, Urban Meyer decided to suspend Dunlap from all special teams in the SEC championship. Later, in a courageous act, Dunlap decided to suspend himself from all of Florida's offensive series for the SEC championship.
In all seriousness, Meyer did suspend Dunlap indefinitly, and he will miss the SEC championship, which will be a much bigger blow than the Brandon Spikes "eye gouging" suspension. Dunlap, was the 2009 National Championship MVP, and is considered by many a first round draft pick if he foregoes his senior year at Florida. Dunlap was found at 2:30 in the morning stopped infront of a green light, sleeping behind the wheel.
Although Dunlap is considered a pass rusher in the Florida defense, with his 6'6", 290 pound build, he would have used effectively against Alabama to stop, heisman hopeful, Mark Ingram. And, since Florida is only a five point favorite against Alabama, this is just the kind of distraction to help Alabama get the edge they will need to win the SEC again play in the National Championship, but all all the pieces are not there yet.
Florida came into this season as possibly the greatest college football team of all time. They returned their entire defense from a year ago, their heisman trophy winner, and only lost one person in the first round of last years draft. On paper, they were one of the scariest teams in the country, and while Alabama has been a bit of a surprise to most, Florida has been the most disappointing undefeated team ever.
However, history tends to repeat itself, and just by last years post season play, Alabama went 0-2, including an embarrasing 31-17 loss to the non-BCS Utah. And Florida went 2-0, including beating Alabama, and a 24-14 beatdown against Oklahoma. Florida is the better team on paper, and Florida, historically, has prepared better for postseason games, so of course they are the favorite. But I still believe there will be an upset, and I have Alabama making it to the dance. In a offesive sloppy (SEC defensive showdown) SEC championship, Albama wins 17 - 10.

Bengals back on track...

... to be terrible. After a huge win against the Steelers, a win in which nobody gave them a chance to sweep the Steelers and Ravens this season sign Larry Johnson. Over the past two years Johnson has been one of the most talked about player in the league; mostly for using homosexual slurs, bad-mouthing their coaches, bad-mouthing other players, and run-ins with the law. After a big sign with Cedric Benson working out so well, and finally winning, and surpassing everyones' expectations (except Chad Ochocinco's). The Bengals already have a big personality in their lockeroom with Ochocinco, hardly any teams can deal with two, but never on the same side of the ball (Terrell Owens and Donovan McNabb, Terrell Owens and Jeff Garcia, Shaq and Kobe, A-Rod and Jeter, ect). I know that Benson sustained an injury in their last game and he is questionable for next week, but Johnson won't be ready for the next week, and if he is, it will be a limited role with no significant impact.
The Bengals gambled on Benson and it worked out great, and after Benson went down against the Steelers, their backup did fine, play with the playoff team that you have put together in the offseason, don't gamble with "questionable" players like Johnson when everything is already going your way.

Belichick steals

It is obvious after watching the Monday night crew that Bill Belichick cannot make a bad call. Sunday night, Belichick decided to go for it on fourth down on their own 30 with two minutes to go in the game. Yes Peyton Manning is one of the best in the league, especially at home, at night, and on game winning drives, and the Patriots were moving the ball at will for most of the game on the Colts. However, if the Pats knew they would go for it on fourth down, why didn't they run it on third? It would have been a surprise, and if nothing else, chewed up more clock (the Colts scored with 12 seconds left in the game). But why not trust your defense? They are 7th in the league in pass defense, and had already forced Manning to throw two picks, the most in a game all season for him.
You also send a message to your defense: We know everyone in this situation would punt the ball, but Manning is really good, and so is our offense, so this is the best choice. Two minutes in the NFL can fly by, and with the Colts only having one timeout left, forcing them to go 80 yards of mistake free football is a chance most teams would have taken.

The Honourable Eye Gouger

On October 31st, Brandon Spikes was caught on tape, during a horific attempt to gougeing Georgia's running back during the game. While everyone expected a lengthy suspension from Florida, Coach Meyer decided to suspend Spikes for the first half against Vanderbilt the following week.
Reactions to the suspension made it out to be a joke, and everyone expected the SEC to reign down on Spikes, but before any other suspension was issued, Spikes came out decalring that he would suspend himself for the entire game, to insure he would not be a distraction.
I believe it is very easy to look at this issue, and assume that Coach Meyer tried to cover up his lenient suspension by asking Spikes to come out and suspend himself, plus it would Spikes try and get back a positive image from nation. However, NO ONE saw it from this side, during the entire Vanderbilt game, the commentators only talked about how he took the "high road" and showed how truly bad he felt about the incident, and how he was obviously ready to be back on the field as a "well-respected" player. Are you kidding me?
This is the same player who during the entire Georgia game was taking little late hits, and jumping on piles, and pushing off players when he was getting off the pile, all could have been talked about collectively the next day, however, he was caught gouging a defensless player under a pile; which became the hot topic for the following week. He could have easily been suspended for the rest of the season, or for the remaining SEC games, but instead was only suspended for one half against one of the weakest teams in the SEC. And "couragously" took a full game suspension, and all the sudden became the good guy? Oregon will suspend their heisman hopeful runningback for the entire season for punching a player who was taunting him (even though Blount was recently reinstated), but Florida will only suspend Spikes for a half. The SEC continues to be one of the most conterversial conferences of the 2009 season