Andy

Looking at the programs you mentioned, the common theme seems to be poor coaching decisions in the face of a variety of circumstances. Tennessee and Texas had long established coaches who were more or less forced out due to fan/booster pressure, with inadequate replacements coming in. Penn State had the opposite issue, with Paterno overstaying his usefulness (scandal aside). USC had some mediocre years, but even when they were going 7-5, they were beating good teams and not losing by 5 scores like Michigan is. I'm not sure what the heck AD's at these schools are doing, but there is really no excuse for a blue blood program to settle for anything less than the elite coaching options available to them. Rolling the dice on an up and comer or settling for a guy with school-ties is a little dumbfounding. That said, the fans are as fickle as ever. They're already turning on Urban Meyer here in Columbus. Elite coaching options aren't as cut and dried of a category as you make it appear. Clearly not, but in many cases, everyone can see a disaster coming. Whiffing on Les Miles and settling for Hoke was such a case It's not as easy as it may seem to find an elite coach, but it's probably not as hard as Goony implies either. The key is substantive, long-term head coaching success. Hoke didn't have that. He only had one great season at Ball State (against a wildly easy schedule), then had two good-but-not-great seasons at SDSU. There aren't guys like this available every year, but the ones who have proven they can do it, often repeatedly, like Urban at BG and Utah and Brian Kelly at CMU and Cincy, generally are the safest bets to have success at the blue-blood level. James Franklin, Charlie Strong and Chris Petersen were all hires from last off-season that fit that mold.

I was 16 and the pitcher abuse thing wasn't as prevalent as it was now (and I wasn't on any message boards like this one), so I didn't notice until Prior and Wood started getting hurt all the time and people started bringing it up retroactively as the reason. That said, as you mentioned, the two aren't exactly the same. Soccer mentioned what was my biggest problem all along - if you wanted to limit Strasburg's innings, and you had designs on contending (and the Nationals did right from the start, their 2012 run wasn't totally unexpected), then there were all sorts of options to make it happen without shutting him down in the playoffs. If we had a similar situation with an ace pitcher in a playoff run and the Cubs decided not to be flexible and just run him out on regular rest and shut the guy down for the year in September, it would drive most of us here insane, I'm guessing.

NFL's Michael Signora just tweeted that the praying should not have been penalized. Apparently there's an exemption for praying in the rule.

Stupid garbage? WTF? And even if that was stupid, which it wasn't, why would that make you hate them? Flags fly forever. Meatball? Certainly. But harming your own chances of winning a title is infuriating to me. (Doesn't help that STL benefited from it.) Hasn't there been a glut of studies showing there's not really anything to the whole strategy of capping pitcher innings after TJS? Or am I nuts?

Personally, I kind of want to see the Nationals never win after the stupid garbage they pulled in 2012 with Strasburg. Rather them than STL, but they're probably second to last among my rooting interests in the playoffs.

Well if you are gonna be like that about Ole Miss' defense, then you should similarly discount Bama's offense because they've played the 80th, 85th, 110th, and 120th ranked defenses so far this year. Amari Cooper, TJ Yeldon and Derrick Henry, just to name three, have already proven themselves to be pretty awesome in prior seasons against good defenses, so I don't need them to have faced good defenses this year to know they're supremely talented. Ole Miss I need to see more from.

Bama -6.5 strikes me as free money. I would love to see Ole Miss stun Bama, but I just haven't seen anything from them that leads me to believe that's possible. This game strikes me as similar to the 2012 game where Bama played Miss State, who hadn't really done anything of note but had somehow risen to #12, and Bama smacked them around. I expect something similar here. Free money? That's a bit much. What has Bama shown you to think they are all-world this year? They duked it out with West Virginia (80th in defense) and beat a hapless Florida team (85th in defense). Bama (26th SOS so far) has outscored their opponents 168-56 and Ole Miss (35th SOS so far) is at 156-34. Neither have played anyone and they are both currently beating the dogpiss out of whoever they play. History will always point to Bama winning the contest, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that a touchdown difference is easy money. It'll be close. The Ole Miss defense is really, really good. Only a fool would bet on any SEC West game at this point in this season. There is a lot of parity. There are two sides to football. Alabama has ridiculous offensive talent including the best receiver in the country. Mississippi probably has a good defense, but stopping the likes of Boise State (just got rolled by Air Force) and Memphis does not mean they'll do the same to Alabama. It's dumb to guarantee anything, but I'd be extremely surprised if you won. Like I said, I'd love to be wrong.

Bama -6.5 strikes me as free money. I would love to see Ole Miss stun Bama, but I just haven't seen anything from them that leads me to believe that's possible. This game strikes me as similar to the 2012 game where Bama played Miss State, who hadn't really done anything of note but had somehow risen to #12, and Bama smacked them around. I expect something similar here.

SECRET WEAPON, THE PLAN IS FALLING INTO PLACE Seriously, we're going to get massacred

I don't even watch their games. I still get angry when they win, but at least it's just for that few moments and not for 3 hours or whatever.

Top 25 games ------------------------ Wake Forest at (1) Florida State (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN3) Arizona at (2) Oregon (10:30 pm Thursday, ESPN) (3) Alabama at (11) Ole Miss (3:30 pm, CBS) (4) Oklahoma at (25) TCU (3:30 pm, FOX) (15) LSU at (5) Auburn (7 pm, ESPN) (6) Texas A&M at (12) Mississippi State (12 pm, ESPN) (7) Baylor at Texas (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN3) Utah at (8) UCLA (10:30 pm, ESPN) (14) Stanford at (9) Notre Dame (3:30 pm, NBC) (19) Nebraska at (10) Michigan State (8 pm, ABC) Vanderbilt at (13) Georgia (4 pm, SEC Network) Arizona State at (16) USC (7:30 pm, FOX) (17) Wisconsin at Northwestern (3:30 pm, ESPN2) Utah State at (18) BYU (10:15 pm Friday, ESPN) (20) Ohio State at Maryland (12 pm, ABC) Iowa State at (21) Oklahoma State (12 pm, FS1) SMU at (22) East Carolina (12 pm, ESPNU) Texas Tech at (23) Kansas State (7 pm, ESPNU) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------- UCF at Houston (7 pm Thursday, ESPN) Florida Atlantic at Florida International (7 pm Thursday, FSN) Louisville at Syracuse (7 pm Friday, ESPN) San Diego State at Fresno State (10 pm Friday, CBSSN) Purdue at Illinois (12 pm, ESPN2) Florida at Tennessee (12 pm, SEC Network) Marshall at Old Dominion (12 pm, FSN) Ball State at Army (12 pm, CBSSN) Virginia Tech at North Carolina (12:30 pm, ACC Network/ESPN3) Eastern Michigan at Akron (2 pm, ESPN3) North Texas at Indiana (2:30 pm, BTN) UMass at Miami (OH) (2:30 pm, ESPN3) NC State at Clemson (3:30 pm, ESPNU) Navy at Air Force (3:30 pm, CBSSN) Buffalo at Bowling Green (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Ohio at Central Michigan (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Kansas at West Virginia (4 pm, FSN) Oregon State at Colorado (4 pm, Pac-12 Network) Kent State at Northern Illinois (4 pm, ESPN3) South Alabama at Appalachian State (6 pm, ESPN3) Michigan at Rutgers (7 pm, BTN) Memphis at Cincinnati (7 pm, CBSSN) Georgia State at UL Lafayette (7 pm, ESPN3) Idaho at Texas State (7 pm, ESPN3) UL Monroe at Arkansas State (7 pm, ESPN3) Toledo at Western Michigan (7 pm, ESPN3) Miami at Georgia Tech (7:30 pm, ESPN2) South Carolina at Kentucky (7:30 pm, SEC Network) Pittsburgh at Virginia (7:30 pm, FSN/ESPN3) UNLV at San Jose State (8 pm, ESPNEWS) Georgia Southern at New Mexico State (8 pm, ESPN3) Boise State at Nevada (10:30 pm, CBSSN) California at Washington State (10:30 pm, Pac-12 Network)

Unless STL wins, this playoffs has the potential to be a lot of fun, which means STL will probably win. Fun fact, other than the Royals, STL has easily the worst 1st/2nd/3rd-order win percentages of any team in the playoffs.

Just a pathetic game by Carolina in all phases. Next week will be a bloodbath.

The Panthers' beat writer was nice enough to inform me on Twitter that Carolina's longest pass of the season - 37 yards - is well short of two different Steve Smith TD receptions for the Ravens this year, including one today. 101 yards and a score already for Smith today.

Firing a coach mid-season is generally a bad idea, but I don't know what else UM can do with Hoke. They're getting bludgeoned by like the 7th best B1G team in their own place.

I could be wrong, but I'm guessing those 14 points Arizona State gave up in like 45 seconds of game time will play a role in the outcome. #analysis

There's not really a bad choice in the bunch there, but Jennings is probably the safest bet.

I thought they were? Either way, they're awesome and there needs to be more of them. I believe they got the rooftops to agree to 3:05 Friday starts late last season and had a couple of them, then they were standard this year from basically May-August.

Does authenticated mean subscribers to the channel that is locally broadcasting the game? If it doesn't mean that, I can't see it as anything but a bad thing for us. I really doubt MLBAM is broken up by 2020 It does mean subscribers to the channel.

Philly Brown, good luck on the waiver wire

wtf, you are only down 10 in the 3rd quarter, what is this 'needed' crap I'm very Sulleyish with the Panthers. Mike Tolbert is our only healthy RB and Cam can't run anymore because of his ankle and ribs. This is not going to be fun.

After this week, Carolina goes @Ravens, Bears, @Bengals, @Packers, Seahawks, Saints, @Eagles, Falcons. Really, really needed to win this game.

The Titans (and really the entire South save Indy) are terrible, but the Bengals look very legit so far.

Top 25 games ------------------------ (1) Florida State at NC State (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) Louisiana Tech at (5) Auburn (4 pm, SEC Network) Arkansas vs (6) Texas A&M – in Arlington, TX (3:30 pm, CBS) (7) Baylor at Iowa State (8 pm, FOX) (8) Notre Dame vs Syracuse – in East Rutherford, NJ (8 pm, ABC) Wyoming at (9) Michigan State (12 pm, ESPN2) Memphis at (10) Ole Miss (7:30 pm, FSN/ESPN3) (11) UCLA at (15) Arizona State (10 pm Thursday, FS1) Tennessee at (12) Georgia (12 pm, ESPN) Missouri at (13) South Carolina (7 pm, ESPN) (16) Stanford at Washington (4 pm, FOX) New Mexico State at (17) LSU (7:30 pm, SEC Network) Oregon State at (18) USC (10:30 pm, ESPN) South Florida at (19) Wisconsin (12 pm, ESPNU) Illinois at (21) Nebraska (9 pm, BTN – Regional) Cincinnati at (22) Ohio State (6 pm, BTN – Regional) Texas Tech at (24) Oklahoma State (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPN) UTEP at (25) Kansas State (12 pm, FSN) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------- Appalachian State at Georgia Southern (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPNU) Fresno State at New Mexico (8 pm Friday, ESPN2) Middle Tennessee at Old Dominion (8 pm Friday, FS1) Iowa at Purdue (12 pm, BTN – Regional) Northwestern at Penn State (12 pm, BTN – Regional) Tulane at Rutgers (12 pm, ESPNEWS) TCU at SMU (12 pm, CBSSN) Vanderbilt at Kentucky (12 pm, SEC Network) Western Michigan at Virginia Tech (12:30 pm, ACC Network/ESPN3) Colorado State at Boston College (12:30 pm, FSN South/ESPN3) Maryland at Indiana (1:30 pm, BTN – Regional) Akron at Pittsburgh (1:30 pm, ESPN3) Eastern Illinois at Ohio (2 pm, ESPN3) Bowling Green at UMass (3 pm, ESPN3) Minnesota at Michigan (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) Wake Forest at Louisville (3:30 pm, ESPNU) Western Kentucky at Navy (3:30 pm, CBSSN) Kent State at Virginia (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Miami (OH) at Buffalo (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Texas at Kansas (4 pm, FS1) Temple at UConn (4 pm, ESPNEWS) Colorado at California (4 pm, Pac-12 Network) North Carolina at Clemson (7 pm, ESPNU) Boise State at Air Force (7 pm, CBSSN) Central Michigan at Toledo (7 pm, ESPN3) Troy at UL Monroe (7 pm, ESPN3) Duke at Miami (7:30 pm, ESPN2) Texas State at Tulsa (8 pm, ESPNEWS) Washington State at Utah (8 pm, Pac-12 Network) UNLV at San Diego State (8 pm, ESPN3) Nevada at San Jose State (10:30 pm, CBSSN)

I'm leaning towards riding it out with Knile Davis today in a 14-team league as a flex, but I have DeAndre Hopkins too. Hope Charles doesn't turn out to have somehow gotten to 100% this week.