What's A Longhorn Fan To Do

Boy, it's a good thing the NCAA allowed that 12th game to give us all this great football watching....Weber State at Tech, Georgia State at Alabama, Florida Atlantic at Texas - can you feel the excitement????

So I see the Longhorns are favored by about 21....hell, can they even score 21 points? I'm not sure. In all honesty, Florida Atlantic is simply at another level talent wise (and not in a good way). Normally I wouldn't at all be surprised by the piss-poor performance these Longhorns put out week in and week out, but if they lose this game, ohhhhh boy....

With that said, old Schnellenberger will most certainly have this team ready to play - that I can guarantee. He's a seasoned coach who's won games at the highest level and he'll have these kids ready to play. I'm just not sure even their best can push around these longhorns. (pausing for laughter). Look, I don't know what else to say about these clowns - I'm actually praying the Horns don't make a bowl game because....well, you know. Let's hope the home crowd gets a chance to enjoy a victory here because the Aggies are going to kick Texas' ass so bad I'm going to hate coming to work for a week or more...

Texas - 27
Florida Atlantic - 20

Speaking of those Aggies - I believe the good times express will come to an end this Saturday night when the Huskers come visiting. Tannenhill is having such a good year and should give Aggie fans reason to be optimistic about the future, but Nebraska comes in with a pretty wicked defense (tops in pass defense in nation) and even more wicked pass defense. Look for Pellini to disguise some blitzes and throw some new wrinkles at the young signal caller. Aggies are coming off 2 pretty big victories, but this is going to be big. This will determine just how "back" these guys are. And frankly, Aggie fan, do you want Sherman around for much longer? I can't imagine you would, but I understand you want to end on a bang. It's a pickle, that's for sure.

Make no mistake though, Nebraska is pushing hard to capture that final Big 12 crown before they bolt for the Midwest (oh way, they're already there). And with Taylor Martinez healthy again (allegedly), it could spell trouble for this Aggie defense...of course Texas shut him down...so there's that.

At the end of the day, both teams should put up some points, but I think Nebraska is just a little bit better and the score will indicate as such.

Nebraska - 35
Texas A&M - 30

Other News Around the Nation

• Who would have thought that Baylor and OU would be an intriguing game? Baylor is still growing, especially in late-season games, but OU really blows on the road. Toss up here - OU knows how to win tight games and Baylor does not. OU by 3.
  
• I can't give you one other game of note this weekend...how sad is that?
  
• Oh wait, Iowa and Ohio State....yawn. It's in Iowa so Hawkeyes by 6ish.
  
• Those of you who think Cam Newton will be suspended for some portion of the rest of the year are crazy. When was the last time you saw the NCAA move any faster than a corpse on issues like this? I heard Rod Babers (who's a moron by the way) say that the NCAA won't move on this because if Newton is suspended it will hurt revenue. Uhh, no it won't. There's very little that could EVER happen that would dampen the revenue the NCAA brings in year in and year out. Ridiculous statement.
  
• Bravo Wrigley field....Bra-vo.
  
• Somewhat embarrassing week for the Cal Bears this week when they admitted to faking injuries in order to slow down Oregon's offense. What, is this soccer? I understand there are no rules against it, but there are unspoken rules that can do just as much damage. Pussies.
  
• For all of you BCS haters (oh wait, that's all of us), check out Andy Staples' article. Great read: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/andy_staples/11/19/week-12-cupcakes-bcs/index.html?eref=sihp
• Utah is killing TCU....killing them. With Boise State playing 2 games and TCU having a bye week, let's watch the flip-flop continue for these two teams vying for "oh they almost made the national title game" label. The ultimate kick in the Houston Nutts? If the BCS puts these two teams against each other AGAIN. I'd laugh and scream at the same time.
• Yep, Boise State is still good.....they shut out Fresno State 51-0. I'll say it again, piss and moan about their schedule, but they are demolishing these so-called cupcakes like few other teams are doing....and they're doing it consistently. Put them in the championship game against anyone and I'm putting my money on the Broncos.
  

NFL News

• What a season this has turned into - anyone want to win the NFC? Anyone at all?
  
• A few more solid games by Colt McCoy and the Browns will hand him the keys and begin to build around him - we'll see how he does when the cold Cleveland weather sets in. All signs are looking good though - remember when Holmgren wanted him to sit for a year and learn? I'd say he's learning just fine.
  
• This may sound crazy, but this is the ultimate MUST WIN game for Dallas. Garrett coming is coming off a nice win in New York, but now you have to keep it going and avoid a let down. Typically teams will win their next game after a coaching change, but keeping that going is always tough. This isn't the Detroit teams of years past, but Dallas should still win this one. Of course who amongst us would be surprised if they lost - meanwhile Detroit is looking for it's first road win since about 1860.
  
• Alright Vince Young - you're at home, coming off a 2-game losing streak, and now you have a new toy in Randy Moss. Time to kick it up a notch. The Titans are still very much alive in the playoff hunt, but need to put a few solid weeks together here and reassert themselves. Just 1-2 deep balls to Moss will equate to about 50 additional yards for Johnson in my opinion - now that Moss is in the lineup defenses can't stack 8 or 9 in the box.
  
• I'd say Mike Vick is back and full force, wouldn't you? As my starting QB this past week in fantasy I was quite pleased to see him throw up 40 points....by halftime. What a complete quarterback he's turned into - those long balls to Maclin and Jackson looked like Peyton Manning threw them. Beautiful, beautiful throws. I certainly am not jumping full throttle on this bandwagon, but if Vick stays healthy (big IF) and continues to dazzle similar to the way he did in DC last Monday, he'll be the league MVP.
  
• Anyone else scratching their heads at the Redskins contract offer to McNabb? Soooo, Shanahan pulls him in the last two minutes of a game because he doesn't think he can run the hurry up and then the Skins give him 40+ million? Huh.
  
• Tom Brady vs Peyton Manning this Sunday. These are two of the games best and every time these guys square off you should tune in.
• Bad news for Reggie Bush - this season is proving you aren't as valuable some may have thought. Will be interesting to see the body language between he and Carroll this weekend.
  
• I'm sorry, but pro coaches bitching about teams running up the score (looking at you Todd Haley) is sooo busch league. In college, I can somewhat get behind that notion, but in the pros? C'mon. If you don't want the score run up on you then play some effing defense. You've got professional football players on your team and if they are incapable of stopping teams than work harder.
  
• $50 Favre doesn't finish the season as the starter. At some point, Childress has to bite the bullet and hand the keys to Jackson. Favre simply isn't giving you chances to win - I know you put all your eggs in that basket, but hell, you've got a backup so use him. The goal is to win, not to go down in flames with "your guy". Either way, Childress will be unemployed by season's end.
  

Running Horns
Not going to get too into this now simply because I haven't been paying much attention, but a couple of games into this and they are looking good. I'm not going to get too excited though simply because few teams can have a late season meltdown like these Longhorns. Keep an eye on sophomore Jordan Hamilton who looks like he's going to be a force to be reckoned with for defenses. They closed out an early-season tournament with a win over #11 Illinois and a narrow 2-point loss over fifth-ranked Pitt. Nice start to the season, especially after last year's debacle to end the year. More to come as the year progresses....

Non-Sports Thoughts for the Week

• Made my first trip to Canada this past week, visiting Toronto. Pretty cool city - very big. Funny visiting a place where kilometers and Celsius are the standards. I did have one guy at the hotel bar trying to tell me that Canadian Football was better than the NFL. Rrrriiiiiiight. Then he pulled out his monopoly money to pay his tab.
  
• Funny stuff my daughter says: Ella was sitting with Ciara and rubbed one of her legs (Ciara's leg) and says, "are you thinking what I'm thinking? You can be a cactus for Halloween because you're a little pokey". Classic.
  
• Funny stuff my daughter says part 2: She was upset because she wasn't getting what she wanted and says, "it's a bad day in this town today."
  
• Anyone else excited to not see Pelosi (aka Skelator) leading Congress anymore? Me too. Of course I don't know much about this Boehner fellow, but I did just read a big article on him...whatever that's worth. Like 99% of politicians I don't trust him until given a reason to trust him.
  
• On the flight back from Toronto there were about 270 Indians (not the native American ones) on the flight and none of them wanted to sit in the exit row....which is nice because I think we all felt the same. Point is, guess who got an entire exit row to himself? This guy. That's the poor man's first class right there. It was a great treat on a 3+ hour, 6am flight.
  

That's what I got gang - enjoy the weekend. I'll have a post out before the Thanksgiving holiday.