Spooky Express College Football Fringe Report For Week 8

[Spooky]

Bizarro College Football Season Returns For An Encore

Here is a quick recap of Saturday's games...

If you really need any more proof of the parity invading the college football landscape being a more permanent thing rather than a one-year aberration, please see the results from this week, where three of the top five teams got knocked off their perches today.

Texas knocks off Oklahoma, 45-35: The Red River Shootout (I'm not calling it the Rivalry) lived up to the billing: Sam Bradford led Oklahoma into position early with the hurry-up offense, but he threw a couple picks, and Colt McCoy led the parade as Texas locked it down with a great fourth quarter, particularly Chris Ogbonnaya, who broke off a 60-yard run on his way to 127 yards on the day.

Oklahoma State takes Mizzou down: Who knew the Cowboys had a defense? We were expecting a shootout in the range of both teams scoring in the 40s, but what we wound up was a 28-23 final score in which the Cowboys' D threw Chase Daniel's rhythm off at crucial points with its ferocity, forcing him into three picks on the day, two of them late and on crucial drives. You may turn in your Heisman candidate card here, sir.

The Swamp engulfs LSU: Les Miles' crew looked kind of listless going into Gainesville, and the Gators made them pay for it. Tim Tebow hit Percy Harvin early and often, and got assistance on the ground from both Will Demps and Chris Rainey. LSU made it close by getting to 20-14 in the third, but the Gators picked Jarrett Lee a couple times and held the LSU rushing game to not much. Final score: 51-21.

Other games of note:

If you missed the Nebraska-Texas Tech tilt and it was on your Fox Sports stations, shame on you. It wasn't a runaway, as Nebraska showed some offensive firepower behind Joe Ganz and took the Red Raiders to overtime. Tech scored first and then picked off Ganz to end it.

Penn State destroys Wisconsin at Camp Randall, going exponential on the Badgers by a score of 49-7. Wisky, originally a dark horse favorite in Big Televen circles, is 0-3 in the conference while the Nittany Lions will likely be at 3 or 4 in the AP poll come Monday.

UNC stops all that talk about Notre Dame being in top 25 polls, using their third-string QB in Cam Sexton, one wideout, and a ferocious D that got turnovers even as the Irish topped the Tar Heels in yardage.

Ohio State beat Purdue without scoring an offensive touchdown, which doesn't bode well for future games.

This Day In Schadenfreude: Watching Michigan lose to a MAC team for the first time via a missed field goal at the last second. Toledo is now a 2-4 MAC team. Obviously, it looks bad for Rich Rodriguez, as no one on that team seems able to run his system.

USC shuts out Arizona State 28-0, thus sending ASU further down the abyss and equally frustrating fans still dealing with the fact that this is a team that lost to Oregon State again. (It doesn't help that the Pac-10 continues to be a sea of mediocrity; please see Arizona losing to Stanford to prove the point.)

I guess firing Tony Franklin wasn't the solution Tommy Tuberville had hoped for. Arkansas held on 25-22 over Auburn, thanks to the Tigers' crapulent offense and dual-quarterback system throwing three picks and completing fewer than half of its passes.

Georgia takes care of the Vols 26-14, but if there's any encouragement for beleaguered Tennessee fans, it's that Nick Stephens looks a damn sight better at QB than Jonathan Crompton ever did. His 207 yards and 2 TDs were good, but it would have helped if Tennessee could have established a running game -- they had a sorry 1 yard of rushing on the day thanks to Georgia's D.

The Nerd Alert returns to semi-normal in the sport: Vanderbilt got Croomed by Mississippi State, as the Bulldogs held the Commodores to not much more than 100 yards of total offense.

Michigan State rammed Javon Ringer down Northwestern's collective gullet in Evanston to hand them their first loss.

[Spooky]

Can you believe how far the mighty have fallen?

How bad is the Big 10?
Rose Bowl might be the Garbage Bowl if it were like the old days.
Especially when USC plays in the BCS Championship game.

Sunday's Dirty Dozen: Wrapping up a college football Saturday

12) Someone on ESPN Friday night was doing checklist for Texas-Oklahoma game- they gave head coaching edge to Bob Stoops. Why doesn't Mack Brown get any love? All he does is win-- Stoops does nothing but lose bowl games. Why would he get that edge?

11) Is it me, or there lot more double digit underdogs winning games this year? Toledo-Oklahoma State-Minnesota-New Mexico State and Arkansas all did it Saturday. Bad week to be a coach in Auburn.

10) Bubble burst for both Vanderbilt/Northwestern, but Minnesota is now bowl eligible at 6-1, after beign 1-11 last year. Tim Brewster is already strong front-runner for Coach of the Year.

9) Penn State 48, Wisconsin 7-- Very bad month for Badgers, who lost three straight games and had their band suspended. Joe Paterno may be coaching from upstairs, but this is a very good team.

8) Oklahoma State pulled upset at Missouri, is still unbeaten; maybe Mike Gundy will finally be known for something other than losing it in a news conference last season.

7) Michigan lost to Toledo, Miami struggled with Central Florida, Tennessee is 2-4, as some of the usually-mighty continue to struggle.

6) Rutgers got lot of publicity the last couple seasons, but still have not beaten a D-I team this season- they lost to Cincinnati and their third-string QB Saturday, 13-10.

5) Washington State has allowed 60+ points in three of four Pac-10 games-- they play USC next. Yikes.

4) It is safe to say New Mexico coach Rocky Long wasn't happy as he talked about officiating after his Lobos lost 21-3 at BYU. One TD got called back on a ridiculous holding call-- it would mean ton of $$$ for the Mountain West if either BYU, TCU or Utah made it to a BCS bowl game. I'm not implying, but money makes people do things......

3) South Carolina just won pair of difficult road games, at Ole Miss and Kentucky- they're 5-2 now, and headed in right direction, even though they bear no resemblance to powerhouse offensive teams that Steve Spurrier coached at Florida.

2) Arizona lost 24-23 at Stanford, dropping them to 4-2, giving them two bad losses in a year they need to make it to a bowl, or else........

1) Thumbs up to Florida International, who won third game in a row after having just one win in two-year period. Lot of good players in Florida-- hard to imagine any D-I team in Florida would be awful.
Thats what I keep saying about Florida Atlantic, huh?

[Spooky]

WINNERS AND LOSERS FROM SATURDAY

Four weeks after a so-called "Game of the Century" between USC and Ohio State dissolved into a blowout, a second heavily hyped game between top-five teams lived up to expectations.


























Texas' 45-35 upset of top-ranked Oklahoma shook up the Big 12 standings and the national-title chase. The high-scoring classic also solidified Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford and Texas quarterback Colt McCoy as Heisman candidates.


The Longhorns were the biggest victors in a weekend full of winners and losers.


Here's a rundown of some of them.


WINNERS

Florida: The Gators got back in the national-title hunt in a big way, crushing LSU by 30. Florida won the battle at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The Gators' offensive line was especially impressive, carving huge holes in LSU's vaunted defensive front.

Dan Mullen: The Gators' offensive coordinator may have changed his title to "maligned offensive coordinator" with all the grief he was getting. For one night at least, he has silenced his critics. The Gators scored on the third play of the game and played almost flawlessly on offense in the first quarter en route to the huge win.

Oklahoma State: The Cowboys weren't given much credit for their 5-0 start, but they shocked Missouri. A maligned defense – which had given up more than 400 yards to Houston, Troy and Texas A&M – made enough plays for the Cowboys to come away with the road win. And a strong offense looked good, as well.

Jordan Shipley: Although he had seven touchdown receptions in Texas' first five games, Shipley didn't get much national attention because the Longhorns were facing overmatched opponents. Now he ought to get recognized as a legitimate All-America candidate. Shipley delivered a momentum-changing 96-yard kickoff return, scored a second touchdown on a 2-yard catch and had a 37-yard reception on a third-and-8 play to set up the go-ahead touchdown.

Texas coach Mack Brown: Not so long ago, Brown was criticized for his inability to win head-to-head matchups with Oklahoma's Bob Stoops. Not anymore. Texas now has beaten Oklahoma three of the past four years.

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach: With his team facing fourth-and-5 from its 36 in a tie game late in the fourth quarter, the Texas Tech coach refused to punt. Graham Harrell instead threw a 47-yard completion to Michael Crabtree to set up the Red Raiders' go-ahead touchdown against Nebraska. The Huskers scored a touchdown of their own to tie the game with 29 seconds left, but Texas Tech went on to win 37-31 in overtime.

Captain Munnerlyn: One of the top cover corners in the SEC made a couple of huge special-teams plays in South Carolina's 24-17 victory over Kentucky. Munnerlyn set up a touchdown with an 84-yard kickoff return and scooped up a blocked field-goal attempt and raced 80 yards for a score.

Willie VanDeSteeg: This defensive end personifies Minnesota's recovery from a dismal 2007 season. After recording just one sack last year while battling a wrist injury, VanDeSteeg has recaptured his All-Big Ten form of 2006. VanDeSteeg sacked Juice Williams three times in a 27-20 upset of Illinois that made Minnesota (6-1) bowl eligible just one year after a 1-11 season.

Penn State: The Nittany Lions dominated Wisconsin. Actually, they embarrassed the Badgers. Penn State strengthened its case as the only Big Ten team with a legit shot at the national title by rolling to an easy win in Madison.

Stanford: Jim Harbaugh's team upset Arizona, and the Cardinal (4-3) are just two wins from bowl eligibility in what was thought to be another rebuilding season.

Jason Chery: Chery, a senior wide receiver for Louisiana-Lafayette, had a game to remember in the Ragin' Cajuns' 59-30 victory at North Texas. Chery scored five touchdowns. He scored on an 81-yard run, had three TD receptions (covering 17, 49 and 57 yards) and returned a kickoff 97 yards for a score.

Virginia: We certainly didn't expect to be putting this team under the "winners" heading anytime this season, but the Cavaliers have bounced back from a wretched start to beat Maryland and East Carolina in back-to-back weeks. Cedric Peerman rushed for 173 yards and had two touchdown runs of at least 60 yards Saturday in a 35-20 triumph over East Carolina. Virginia hardly resembles the team that lost its first three games to Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A) teams by a combined 128-20.

	Noel Devine turned in a big-time performance against Syracuse.

Noel Devine: With a head injury sidelining quarterback Pat White, Devine made sure West Virginia avoided an embarrassing home loss to Syracuse. Devine, a sophomore, ran for a career-high 188 yards, including a game-clinching 92-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

Nick Moore: The Toledo wide receiver caught 20 passes – a single-game record for a Michigan opponent – for 162 yards in the Rockets' 13-10 upset that marked the first time a current Mid-American Conference team has defeated the Wolverines.

Joe McKnight: The USC running back had rushed for a total of 37 yards on 16 carries against Oregon State and Oregon, but he bounced back from those so-so performances in a big way against Arizona State. McKnight ran for 143 yards on only 11 attempts while sparking USC to a 28-0 rout of the Sun Devils. FIGHT ON!!!

North Carolina's defense: The team that entered the week with an NCAA-leading 12 interceptions was at it again Saturday. North Carolina picked off Jimmy Clausen twice and produced five takeaways in a 29-24 victory over Notre Dame. Quan Sturdivant's 32-yard return of an interception on the first play from scrimmage in the second half helped the Tar Heels – who didn't turn it over – rally from an 11-point deficit.

Michael Smith: Even when Arkansas was getting outscored 139-31 in three consecutive losses, Smith played well enough to lead the SEC in all-purpose yardage. The 5-foot-7 dynamo came up big once again Saturday. Smith rushed for 176 yards – including a 63-yard go-ahead touchdown - against the nation's second-ranked run defense to help the Razorbacks stun Auburn 25-22.

Alabama: The Crimson Tide was off this week, but won nonetheless. Entering the weekend, Alabama was No. 4 in the USA Today coaches' poll and No. 3 in the Harris Interactive poll – the two human rankings that count in the BCS Standings. With Oklahoma, LSU and Missouri all losing Saturday, the Tide could be a unanimous No. 1 on Sunday.

LOSERS

Texas-Oklahoma officiating crew: It's a shame that one of the best games of the year had so many apparent officiating mistakes. Manuel Johnson appeared to have his knee down shy of the end zone on a third-and-goal completion that produced Oklahoma's first touchdown, but the play wasn't reviewed. The officials later called two questionable late hits on Oklahoma linebacker Travis Lewis and an equally controversial roughing-the-punter penalty on Texas. And in the third quarter, Oklahoma's Lamont Robinson seemed to have control of the ball for an end-zone interception until he hit the ground – the play at least should have been up for review – but it was ruled an incomplete pass that allowed Texas to make a field goal.

LSU: It's hard to imagine the defending national champs getting a chance to defend their title after they were mauled 51-21 at Florida. The defense was overpowered, the rushing attack was shut down and the young quarterbacks looked overmatched. Other than that …

Missouri: The Tigers had a chance to possibly ascend to No. 1 in the polls. Instead, they fell at home to Oklahoma State as QB Chase Daniel – who had been excellent thus far – threw three interceptions. And a questionable defense had some issues, too.

Chase Daniel: Heisman contenders don't usually throw three picks in a home loss. They especially don't throw three picks against a team that had allowed 11 TD passes and had just five interceptions coming into the game.
Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville: Any coach who fires his offensive coordinator midway through the week better make sure his team delivers a statement in its first game after the move. Losing at home to Arkansas probably wasn't the kind of statement Tuberville had in mind.

Vanderbilt's offense: Vanderbilt somehow managed to win its first five games of the season despite ranking 114th in the nation in total offense. The Commodores' luck finally ran out Saturday as they gained 107 total yards in a 17-14 loss at Mississippi State. Vanderbilt remains one win away from becoming eligible for its first bowl bid since 1982, but that victory won't come anytime soon unless the Commodores beef up their offense.

Michigan: We understood that Michigan would endure some growing pains in its first year under Rich Rodriguez, but there's no excuse for losing to a MAC team that entered the day with a 1-4 record. The Wolverines (2-4) still have road games left against Penn State and Ohio State, which puts their NCAA-leading streak of 33 consecutive bowl appearances in serious jeopardy.

New Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman is off to a rough start with the Aggies.

East Carolina: Remember when this team was being mentioned as a potential BCS party crasher? The Pirates now are 3-3 and could have trouble earning an invitation to any bowl.

Kentucky whenever it plays Steve Spurrier: Kentucky's loss to South Carolina dropped the Wildcats' record to 0-16 against teams coached by Spurrier. The only longer ongoing unbeaten streaks by one coach against a FBS opponent are Joe Paterno's 25-0 mark against Temple and 24-0-1 record against Maryland.

Rutgers: Two years after they went 10-2 as the nation's darlings, the Scarlet Knights have fallen to 1-5. Do you think this team misses Ray Rice a little bit? And do you wonder if Greg Schiano is having second thoughts about turning down those overtures from Miami and Michigan?

Texas A&M: The honeymoon's over for first-year coach Mike Sherman, assuming it ever started. The Aggies' 44-30 loss to Kansas State dropped their record to 2-4, and they still haven't faced Oklahoma or Texas. The Aggies aren't all that far from being winless. Their two wins against New Mexico and Army were decided by a combined total of 10 points.
Arizona State: The Dennis Erickson era started last year with eight consecutive victories, but the Sun Devils have gone 4-7 since. Arizona State's 28-0 setback at USC gave the Sun Devils a four-game losing streak and a 2-4 record.

Washington State's defense: Man, these guys are rancid. Oregon State pounded the Cougars 66-13. Incredibly, it's the third time in four Pac-10 games that Washington State has allowed at least 60 points. Up next? USC.

Arizona: Mike Stoops' Wildcats started 4-1 and looked as if they had a shot to be a legit contender for the Pac-10 title. Whoops. Losing at Stanford means Arizona likely is what it appeared to be before the season – a middle-of-the-pack team in the league.

:suntan

[The General]

Love the posts spooky.

TY

[pvcpipe]

dead on about Schiano. Dirty and I posted across the street last year that Schiano would regret not taking the Miami gig. I guess if Shannon keeps it up he may get another chance at it.

[Spooky]

Spooky's Worst of Week Six

That was an interesting week, huh? It was as if all of the losers in the league (other than Detroit and Cincy) decided to unite and actually play football this week (and let's hope the Browns got that memo, too). I dug deeper this week to find those that truly deserve to have the fingers pointed at them. Let's get going with this because I'm pretty sure that a certain powerhouse program losing to a MAC team can't wait to receive this "honor":

10. Michigan Wolverines - This may be the lowest point in the history of this storied program. Big Blue entered the weekend with a 24-0 record against the MAC. They exited with a 24-1 record thanks to the lard-o known as Toledo Tom. Keep in mind, this is the same Toledo team that was 1-4 AND gave up over 36 points per game AND lost to Florida International. I'm not breaking any news here but Michigan is fucking terrible. The string of bowl appearances is over. If they win 2 more games this year, I will be shocked.

9. Charlie Frye/ Dan Orlovsky - Well, well, well...if it isn't Charlie Heisman making a start in the NFL again! As you can expect, he was terrible. It's almost mind-boggling how bad the Seahawks are. Mike Holmgren came back for this team? As far as Orlovsky goes, his "running out of the end zone and not knowing that he just committed a safety" routine is the frontrunner for funniest play of the year.

8. JaMarcus Russell - We all know that Al Davis is borderline retarded, but last week he said that Russell was a great player. He was obviously wrong. Just watch this guy play. He's slow, he makes poor decisions, and he has no confidence out there. Good luck, Tom Cable.

7. Ed Reed - Ed and the rest of his secondary mates aren't getting chastised for getting blown up my Peyton Manning. No, many have had that happen to them and many more will in the future. The problem is that Marvin Harrison is a corpse and he scored two touchdowns including one on a deep ball early in the game. That's pathetic. Oh, and Joe Flacco still sucks.

6. Joey Porter - I was starting to hop on the Dolphins bandwagon a bit until yesterday happened. The defense, led by this loudmouth sack of shit, allowed a turd like Matt Schaub to just march down the field all game. To set the record straight, the 'Phins can beat the Chargers and Pats, but not the winless Texans. Good to know.

5. Pete Morelli and his crew (The HERM! Edwards Memorial Spot) - I always just assumed that Jerome Booger was the worst referee in the league but not after yesterday's Cards/Boys game. Morelli tanked an OBVIOUS fumble on Romo in the first quarter, hid behind the Tuck Rule in the
2nd quarter to fuck the Cardinals out of a touchdown, and then butchered the final drive in regulation by penalizing the Cardinals eventhough they had a guy hurt. That was just rotten. At least the Cardinals won because it appeared that Morelli had a Tim Donaghy-esque desire to see the Cowboys win that game. And we cashed the OVER.

4. Pete Kendall - The play that killed the Redskins yesterday was when J-Camp had a ball tipped in the redzone, Kendall caught it and tried to apparently score a touchdown, and then fumbled it for a Rams touchdown. It was one of the worst "non-Orlovsky" plays of all time. The Rams offense was terrible, Portis was great, and J-Camp had no picks. But I think they can pin this on the pass protection and the fumbles. I had the Rams on the Money Line yesterday at almost 4-1 odds so my son owes me
an apology when I told him either the Lions or Rams will win outright.

3. Mike Brown - Matt Ryan should not throw for 300 yards against any team. What a wild game this was though. Kudos to you, Mr. Brown, for letting Shithead Jenkins make that HUGE catch before the winning field goal. Maybe you should just get your season-ending injury over with now? The Bears have lost some killers this year, wow.

2. Dallas Cowboys O-Line - Tony Romo is a great fantasy QB. The jury is still out though if you can win with him as your real-life QB. But you won't win with any QB if he's getting freaking drilled every time he drops back. And the Cards weren't even blitzing that much; they just did it with their front four. The Cowboys have now played like shit for 3 consecutive weeks. The o-line isn't that good and neither is the secondary. Wade Phillips looks like a dead man walking. Please, Rams, play hard again next week and beat these fuckers.

1. Jake Delhomme - Did anyone know that going into this week, the Panthers were 4-1? I honestly had no idea. I don't think that they really beat anybody though and they got embarrassed yesterday. If Romo is a poor man's Brett Favre when it comes to being a gun-slinger, then Delhomme is a prom night dumpster baby's Favre. He thinks that he can make any throw and it rarely works out. Why? Because he's not that good. No touchdowns and 3 picks on the road this week...hmm, that's pathetic. I still am pulling and hope for a big season by Carolina.

Well, there you go. I was a little more opinionated than usual today.

Had another great week on the Express again. So lets try to keep it
rolling.

[Spooky]

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up another NFL Sunday..........

Happy Thanksgiving Day to our Canadian friends........

13) You could argue that yesterday was the most exciting Sunday in NFL history, as five of the 13 games were decided in the last :09 or in OT. FOX researchers said it was the first time that had happened.

12) Atlanta's Matt Ryan is just second rookie QB in last 40 years to be winning QB in four of his first six NFL games (Ferguson, Buffalo).

11) Chargers are going to fly 15,771 miles just in October, as they have a game in London against the Saints coming up. Next game in Superdome for the Saints is the Monday before Thanksgiving.

10) Redskins were first team ever not to have a turnover in their first five games of season; Rams recovered three Redskin fumbles Sunday as Haslett Era began with shaky but satisfying 19-17 win.

9) Carolina lost for first time in their last six visits to Tampa, as the Bucs blocked a punt for an early TD and routed the Panthers, 27-3.

8) Speaking of special teams, Arizona started their game vs Dallas by running kick back for TD; they ended game by blocking punt for TD in OT (first time that ever happened), so special teams need to get a lot of love here. Special teams coach (why didn't FOX ever show this guy?) Kevin Spencer-- take a bow. You're our Coach of the Week.

7) Cardinals' coach Ken Whisenhunt gave lot of fans in the front row a victory high-5 as he left the field Sunday-- big win for his program, behind gutty two-time MVP Kurt Warner.

6) Schaub was 22-42/371 passing (Andre Johnson made a superior catch on game-winning drive) and ran for winning score in last 0:10 as Texans got their first win of season, beating Miami 29-28. Miami is lot better than they have been in recent years, though.

5) JaMarcus Russell was 13-35 passing in his return to Louisiana; Raiders allowed Saints to average 10.3 yds/pass attempt in 34-3 win for New Orleans team that was playing on short week after losing a emotional, bizarre game to the Vikings six days earlier.

4) Brett Favre is two years older than Eric Mangini; Jets by the way, have to dump the throwback uniforms-- wear your real uniforms, or make the throwbacks your real uniforms.

3) 49ers trailed Philly 17-9, but on last play of half, they blocked an Eagle FG attempt and ran it back for TD; eventually, Niners grabbed a 26-17 lead , then stood around, watched Eagles score last 23 points of the game. Rumors have Mike Nolan not being long for 49er job.

2) Falcons are just third team in last 40 years to give up a go-ahead score in last 0:15 of an NFL game, and still win that game. Kudos to the home timekeeper, who helped Atlanta just enough to ensure the Falcons would have a shot at the game-winning kick.

1) Interesting to see if future New England opponents will attack the Patriot defense the way San Diego (11.3 yds/pass attempt) did, but Chargers have more tall receivers than most teams, and more talent.

[Spooky]

Daily Sports Roundup for Monday, October 13

The Giants and Browns will play in Cleveland on Monday Night Football, and there's both ALCS and NLCS games on the schedule too.

Here's your Daily Sports Roundup.

The Gridiron Spotlight

The Browns were supposed to compete for the AFC North division title this season, but after four games they're just 1-3 (and 2-2 against-the-spread). Cleveland, though, is at least coming off their first victory of the season - a 20-12 road win over the Bengals. The Browns' first three matchups were losses to the Cowboys, Steelers, and Ravens.

The Giants, on the other hand, are a perfect 4-0 (and 3-1 against-the-spread) on the season. New York completely crushed the Seahawks last time out, going up 27-6 by halftime and cruising to a 44-6 victory. Eli Manning went 19-of-25 for 267 yards passing in that game, with two TD strikes, while Brandon Jacobs ran for 136 yards and two TDs.

The oddsmakers opened the Giants as 7-point road favorites in this contest, but that line has increased to 9 points since the start of the week. The total is pegged at 43.5.

Other Notable Events

The Rays/Red Sox series will shift to Boston for Game 3 on Monday, with the set tied at one win apiece. Boston will send Jon Lester to the mound on Monday; the lefthander has given up just one unearned on 10 hits over 14 innings so far during the postseason. Tampa Bay will counter with Matt Garza; the righthander has had just one playoff start so far in 2008, getting roughed up for five earned runs on seven hits over six innings.

The Phillies and Dodgers will stage Game 4 of the NLCS on Monday. Derek Lowe will get the ball for Los Angeles in that contest; the righthander took the loss in Game 1 of the NLCS, giving up three runs (two earned) on six hits over 5 1-3 innings of work. Countering for Philadelphia will be Joe Blanton; the righthander pitched against the Brewers in the NLDS, allowing just one earned run on five hits over six innings pitched.

The Rest of the Schedule

The NHL has seven games on its schedule for Monday, including a pair of matinees: St. Louis plays in Toronto at 1:00pm ET, and the Islanders host Buffalo at 2:00pm ET. The other five games are all at night, and include New Jersey at the Rangers, Vancouver at Washington, Detroit at Carolina, and Nashville at Chicago. Also, the Flyers will be looking to shake off an opening-night defeat on Monday when they take on Montreal.

As well, there are three Canadian Football League on the schedule for Monday. Hamilton and Montreal get things started at 1:00pm ET; the Alouettes are 12-point home favorites, but the Tiger-Cats upset the Als 44-38 last week. In the 4:30pm ET game it's Saskatchewan at Calgary (-5.5). That contest is also a re-match from last week - the Roughriders pulled out a 37-34 win over the Stampeders in that first game.

News from the Wire

LB Antonio Pierce is listed as QUESTIONABLE for the Giants on Monday night, while each of WR Domenik Hixon, DE Jerome McDougle, and T Kareem McKenzie are PROBABLE . . . S Sean Jones, T Kevin Shaffer, DE Shaun Smith, G Ryan Tucker are all QUESTIONABLE for the Browns. Listed as PROBABLE are S Mike Adams, DT Shaun Rogers, WR Donte' Stallworth, and RB Jason Wright. TE Kellen Winslow was pegged as QUESTIONABLE for Monday night on the team's official injury list, but reports out of Cleveland suggest that he won't be in uniform when kickoff rolls around.

A Peek at the Future

Game 4 of the ALCS is set for Tuesday night in Boston, while Game 5 of the NLCS is on the schedule for Wednesday night in Los Angeles . . . early college football action this week includes Florida State at North Carolina State and BYU at TCU on Thursday night, and Hawaii at Boise State on Friday night . . . the Sprint Cup Series will return to the track on Sunday afternoon with the TUMS QuikPak 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

[Spooky]

THANKS PVC AND GENERAL!!

Appreciate the feedback.

[Spooky]

SPOOKY EXPRESS NEWS AND NOTES FROM COLLEGE FOOTBALL

• A week away from the release of the first BCS standings there are 10 undefeated I-A teams, half of them from non-BCS conferences. The most undefeated teams we can have at the end of the season now is seven because of head-to-head matchups among the 10. Only three of the six BCS leagues are represented -- Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC.

The breakdown:

Three of the teams are from the Big 12 --
Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Tech.

Penn State is 7-0 for the first time since 1999.

Utah and BYU are still headed for a Nov. 22 showdown in Salt Lake City. The Mountain West rivals gave up a combined one touchdown on Saturday. Utah beat Wyoming 40-7 and BYU dominated New Mexico 21-3.

Ball State is hanging around at 7-0, although end-of-the-season battles against Central Michigan and Western Michigan are looming.

The next big SEC games are coming up with Florida-Georgia on Nov. 1 and undefeated Alabama, 6-0, going to LSU on Nov. 8.

• Halfway through the season how about these surprise conference leaders?

Pac-10: Cal, at 2-0 still has the bulk of its schedule left but still an impressive bounce back from last season at 4-1.

Big Ten: Michigan State is tied with Penn State and Ohio State at 3-0. The Buckeyes come to East Lansing this week. Michigan State ends the season with a trip to Penn State.

WAC: San Jose State is 2-0 (4-2) overall after beating Utah State.

Sun Belt: Florida International is one of four teams tied at the top at 2-0.

Mountain West: It's showdown Thursday when the BYU visits TCU. The teams are tied at 3-0.


• Who would have known that halfway through the season that two teams from Oklahoma would be undefeated (Tulsa, Oklahoma State) and one of them wouldn't be Oklahoma?

• The last time Nebraska opened conference play with two losses was 1968. It fell at Texas Tech 37-31 in overtime. That was the Huskers' eighth consecutive loss to a ranked opponent.

• Georgia Tech tipped the game-tying field goal attempt with three seconds left to survive against Gardner-Webb 10-7. Coach Paul Johnson was down to his third-string quarterback Calvin Booker who was largely ineffective.

The defensive line combo of Michael Johnson combined for five sacks, 17 solo tackles and 51 yards in lost yardage.

• How bad is Washington State? The Cougars intercepted Oregon State's Lyle Moevao four times but lost 66-13. Wazzoo had more penalty yards (170) than offensive yards (132).

• Georgia's Matthew Stafford surpassed 300 yards passing for the first time in his career (310) against Tennessee. The Vols are 0-3 in the SEC for the first time in 20 years.

• North Carolina (5-1) is off to its best start in since Mack Brown's last season in 1997.

• USC's Fili Moala tied an NCAA record by blocking two field goals in one quarter against Arizona State.

• Wyoming used four quarterbacks in that loss to Utah.

• Is it ironic or just karma? Rich Rodriguez negotiated his Michigan contract in Toledo during the offseason. He lost to the school that represents that city on Saturday. Some called Toledo's 13-10 "stunning". After Appalachian State there is nothing that compares to stunning. The Rockets had been 1-4. Michigan had been 24-0 against MAC teams.

“I feel that we’re at a crossroads where we could either go downhill or we can hang tough and weather this storm,” said linebacker Obi Ezeh. “Hopefully, this will pass and things will start going our way. We’ve just got to be tough.”

• Texas is one game into playing four ranked opponents in a row. It's No. 11 Missouri this week after the big win over Oklahoma. Mack Brown is 10-0 in the game immediately following Oklahoma, four of those opponents have been ranked.

• Florida's Tim Tebow is two rushing touchdowns shy of Emmitt Smith's school record of 34.

• Texas and Oklahoma combined to score each of the 11 times they were in the red zone on Saturday. For the season, OU has cashed in all 28 red-zone visits. Texas is 32 of 33.

• Tis the season. First Tony Franklin at Auburn, now Clemson quarterback Cullen Harper. Harper was demoted last week after a 12-7 loss to Wake Forest on Thursday. Hot-shot recruit Willy Korn will take over for the preseason ACC player of the year.

[Spooky]

Thursday's Spooky List: Nobody asked me, but.........

11) North Texas, Washington are the last two winless college football teams in America. At least one of those coaches is losing his job, and I don't mean the North Texas coach.

10) Why do high school football teams from Florida play teams in Texas? Where does the money for this come from?

9) Former Alabama coach/ESPN analyst Bill Curry is building a new football program from scratch at Georgia State in Atlanta; the 65-year old Curry will have a I-AA team playing in 2010.

8) Stub Hub reports the average price for Texas-Oklahoma tickets in Dallas last week was $361. As far as I know, the game sold out.

7) Is Tampa Bay Rays' advisor Don Zimmer the happiest guy in the world right now, or what? He used to manage the Red Sox and was a coach during the Bronx Bomber glory days, but was also dumped by them. Now he is a key advisor on one of the greatest sports stories of this or any other generation-- its good to be him.

6) Boston starting pitchers gave up 18 runs in their last 12+ IP.

5) Let me get this straight-- NBC's Andrea Mitchell is married to the old guy who sets the mortgage rates, Alan Greenspan? He looks like he went to high school with Teddy Roosevelt!!! What a country......

4) Dallas traded a first-round pick and three other draft choices to Detroit for WR Roy Williams? How desperate is Jerry Jones to win right now, with his new stadium almost done? Very desperate.

3) This is the NFL; when the schedule came out in April, when looking at the Rams schedule, I would have penciled in back-to-back Cowboy-Patriot games as two losses; who wouldn't? Now, even with the Rams at 1-4, they are looking at games against Brad Johnson/Matt Cassel; who says Rams can't steal one of those games? Or even both and I played the Rams as an Over in the Total Wins this year. (What was I thinking?)

2) I'm probably late with this, but there is someone on CNBC named Maria Bartiromo who deserves a much bigger role on network TV. She is the host of the stock market stuff on CNBC-- we need to get her on ESPN or some other channel I watch a lot.

1) Call A-Rod overpaid if you want, but Simon Cowell, the wise guy on American Idol, makes $36M a year from that show, and has no appreciable talent, other than knowing if someone can sing.

[Spooky]

Spooky College Football Thoughts

One of the best measures for an improved program is the games ahead/behind method. Look at baseball standings for an example. The NCAA includes a section in its statistics book each year that tracks the most improved teams from one year to the next. In 2007, it was Illinois which went from 2-10 in 2006 to 9-4 last season. That's an improvement of 6 1/2 games.

Hawaii holds the record improving by 8 1/2 games in 1999. Ironically, the Warriors might be on the opposite side of that stat this season.

At the halfway point, I thought it would be a good idea to figure the biggest improvements and biggest declines of the 2008 season. Remember, some of the numbers might be skewed because we've played only half a season. But this might be a good measuring stick for coach of the year candidates and provide a short list of coaches about to be fired.

Most improved

1. Minnesota +7 1/2 games (from 1-11 to 6-1)
2. Duke +5 1/2
3. North Carolina +4
4. Pittsburgh +3 1/2
5. several tied at +3

Biggest decline

1. Hawaii -5 1/2 games (from 12-1 to 3-3)
2. Central Florida, Tennessee -4
4. LSU, Arizona State, Florida Atlantic, Michigan, West Virginia, Rutgers, Kansas - 3 1/2

Most improved by conference:
Baylor, +3; ACC, Duke +5 1/2; Big East, Pittsburgh, +3 1/2; Conference USA, Rice/Marshall, +3; Mountain West, Colorado State/UNLV, +3; MAC, Ball State/Northern Illinois, +3; SEC, Vanderbilt/Ole Miss, +3; WAC, New Mexico State, +3: Independents, Notre Dame, +3; Big Ten, Minnesota, +7 1/2; Sun Belt, Florida International/Louisiana-Lafayette, +3; Pac-10, Stanford, +2 1/2.

Biggest decline by conference:
ACC, Boston College/Clemson/Virginia, -2 1/2; Big 12, Kansas, -3 1/2; Big East, West Virginia/Rutgers, -3 1/2; Big Ten, Michigan, -3 1/2; Independents, Western Kentucky, -2 1/2; Conference USA, Central Florida -4; MAC, Bowling Green/Ohio/Miami (Ohio), -1 1/2; Mountain West, New Mexico, -3; SEC, Tennessee, -4; Pac-10, Arizona State -3 1/2; WAC, Hawaii -5 1/2; Sun Belt, Florida Atlantic, -3 1/2.

[Spooky]

More Spooky College Football Thoughts

Storylines for the second half

Will anyone go unbeaten?: It looks like the SEC and Big 12 will cannibalize each other. That leaves a bunch of one-loss powers that also could include Ohio State, Penn State, USC and Utah or Brigham Young.

Heisman race: Tim Tebow won't repeat and the Big 12 looks like it has a lock on the 2008 winner. But which player?

JoePa In the Sky With A Headset: Can Penn State's venerable coach win a Big Ten title and national championship without setting foot on the field the rest of the way? Physical problems continue to keep JoePa in the press box. When asked Tuesday if he needed a hip replacement, Paterno answered cryptically, "I don't know." It isn't exactly Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds but anything Joe does the rest of the season is going to be followed closely.

The non-BCS challengers: TCU, BYU and Utah are all in the mix. If Tulsa can win at Arkansas on Nov. 1 the Golden Hurricane will be a factor. The MAC is simply too tough for Ball State (7-0) to go undefeated but you have to root for the Cardinals. Their best receiver's career is over (Dante Love) and their quarterback (Nate Davis) wears gloves.

Biggest looming controversy: If a one-loss team from the SEC, Big Ten or Big 12 is edged out of the BCS title game by an undefeated non-BCS school.

Next coach to be fired: Given the swiftly declining situation at Auburn it might be Tommy Tuberville. Other than that, Washington's Tyrone Willingham and Syracuse's Greg Robinson are locks. Keep an eye also on San Diego State's Chuck Long and Central Florida's George O'Leary.

Biggest upset looming out there: Not in terms of David and Goliath but watch the Texas at Texas Tech game on Nov. 1. If both teams keep winning you're looking at No. 1 Texas vs. a Red Raiders team that should be in the BCS top five. If Texas Tech wins try to wrap your mind around Mike Leach and his Pirate Love jumping up to No. 1.

• Remember last week when Washington State held open tryouts to find a scout team quarterback? The winner of that competition, Peter Roberts, suddenly finds himself a viable backup option with the Cougars headed into the USC game.

• Speaking of injuries, it's a shame that two stars at Kentucky and North Carolina recently saw their careers end. Carolina's Brandon Tate, the I-A career leader in kick return yards, is finished because of a knee injury. Exciting Kentucky receiver Dicky Lyons is done because of a knee ligament tear.



• Don't say I didn't warn you. I know what I said about Texas and Texas Tech above but indulge me: The way things are shaking out, a Kansas-Oklahoma State Big 12 title game isn't out of the question. If Texas beats Missouri on Saturday then it becomes more likely. Kansas is playing better and has Texas at home later in the season. KU and Missouri meet in Kansas City on Nov. 29.


Oklahoma State is playing better than anyone in the conference (that includes Texas). That head-to-head game is Oct. 25.

• Remember this when you watch BYU and TCU on Thursday night. BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall allows each special teams unit to name a captain. The captain then names starters and backups for each unit. Wonder if that ever happens in the SEC?

[Spooky]

What's happening as we get ready for another week of college football.

As Texas and Colt McCoy prepare for Missouri, their defense gets examined, especially how good their front four has been.

The state of Washington is really hurting as far as their two major college football teams go. UW and WSU are a combined 1-11. Ouch.

Speaking of bad, how on earth does Michigan fall so far so fast? It's almost incomprehensible.

So bad, in fact, that a website devoted to firing new coach Rich Rodriguezis already in the mix. We happen to love the clock that is counting down the time until Les Miles' contract with LSU expires.

Baylor will face some growing pains as they try to improve, but their schedule isn't easy. Their next four games are: at No. 8 Oklahoma State, at Nebraska, home against No. 11 Missouri, home against No. 1 Texas.

For whatever reason, SEC supporters continue to be paranoid that the Big 12 is overtaking them as best conference in the land. Even though it's impossible to quantify and means absolutely nothing.