Because we're all playing for bowl positioning now, and that only goes so far.
Congrats to the Frogs.
You may recall a couple weeks ago that I pointed out that TCU, despite playing big time football, hasn't been drawing fans like a big time program. Well as a follow up to that, I'm pleased to report that the Horned Frogs have their first sell out in three years coming up in their showdown with Utah on Saturday. It still floors me that a program just outside the gigantic and football-crazy Dallas area can't find 44,000 people to show up to watch really good football, but I guess that's the nature of the beast in the mid-major ranks.
Mack Brown at least has a sense of humor.
Texas coach Mack Brown freely admits that he doesn't understand everything about how the BCS works, and he often has someone come in to explain things to him. When asked this week about if he was worried about falling to third in the BCS standings, he replied that someone told him that if the Longhorns keep winning they're in, and that's all he cared about. He also slipped in a little zinger too:
Brown was asked if the computer elements to the BCS standings don’t like his team as much as the human polls.
"I’ve called the computers. They haven’t called me back," Brown said. "I’ve invited them to our games. I don’t think any of them have shown up."
Nice. I wonder though if anyone has told him that it's the humans, not the algorithms, who have USC above Oregon.
The other choice is the Ghost of Christmas Past.
With Tommy West out at Memphis, speculation has arisen as to who will replace him there. If ESPN is to be believed, it could look a lot like Auburn's past in Graceland as Tommy Tuberville and Terry Bowden are the top two candidates. According to a website called FootballScoop.com (yeah, I haven't heard of it either), former current Auburn assistant Trooper Taylor is also on their list. Who knew Memphis scouted the Tigers of the Plains so closely? Also, it says look for Phil Fulmer's name to come up, but personally, I think Fulmer (and Tuberville for that matter) could get a much better job. (H/T CFT)
Apparently his copy of Phil Steele's season preview magazine just arrived.
Urban Meyer says he knows what is ailing the Florida offense. For one thing, it's a lack of big plays and defenses showing his team new looks. Beyond that though, he says it's a combination of transitioning to a new offensive coordinator, the losses of Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy at receiver, and the losses of last year's starting offensive tackles Phil Trautwein and Jason Watkins. Apparently, it only took him nine games to put that together.
It is telling though that Florida hasn't turned the ball over in the past two games and each one resulted in a 24 point margin of victory. I think a lot of people undervalued the role of turnovers in the Gators' struggles with teams earlier in the season.
Vultures.
Okay, so maybe not everyone is playing for bowl positioning. Tennessee is playing for recruiting positioning, of course. Did you know Charlie Weis is in trouble? And that Notre Dame has not just one, but two quarterback commits? Rocky Top Talk says watch for the UT coaches to swoop in on those guys should Weis be shown the door.