5-at-10: Who won the weekend, who lost the weekend, UT and Rushmore of Steve Martin

Hope you enjoyed the weekend and made the most of a beautiful Saturday and salvaged a soggy Sunday. So it goes.

And with that, it's go time.

photo UTC quarterback Jacob Huesman runs the ball during the Mocs' 45-19 win over Furman on Nov. 23, 2014.

Weekend winners

UTC. Well done to the entire program, as the Mocs got a bye in the FCS playoffs. They are the No. 8 seed and will host Dec. 6. Tip of the visor to all involved.

Odell Beckham Jr. The New York Giants rookie wide out from LSU made one the best catches ever. Seriously. Dude pinched an off-target throw with two fingers. Amazing. It was so eye-popping it forced renowned big-lipper Richard Sherman to actually credit someone else and dominated Twitter

The Patriots. Any questions about who the best team in football is? Nope, didn't think so. How's this for symmetry though: 14 years ago, Tom Brady's debut as an NFL starter was a 34-9 loss to Detroit. Sunday, against the Lions and their top-ranked defense, Brady and Co. dropped a 34-9 win on Detroit.

Arkansas football. OK, the Razorbacks have flipped the switch and, after going two full years without an SEC win, the Hogs have gone two full games without allowing a point. Shutout wins over LSU and Ole Miss rework the narrative that Bret Bielema is crafting at Arkansas.

College football rivalry week. This week is great. And it starts early. Good times, and with the meaning and passion of the playoff hanging in the balance... Giddy-up. We may have to rank the best games this week at some point. Thoughts?

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Weekend losers

Mike Smith. What was that? Sweet buckets of self-inflicted losses and scenarios that children know - our 7-year-old even asked, "Why did they call a time out right there?" - Mike Smith just made Les Miles look like the founder of Rolex. Smith gave the Browns at least 20 extra seconds by calling a late and quick timeout as his team was trying to prepare for what should have been the game-winning field goal. Instead, the Browns had 44 seconds rather than 25 or so and predictably drove down the field for a 26-24 win. Atlanta is bagel-and-7 outside of the NFC South, and Smith, who worked miracles in changing the culture of the franchise, is on arguably the hottest seat in the NFL.

College Football Playoff committee. And that cleared up exactly nothing. In addition to the hair-pulling and the politicking (Like this one: Baylor beat Oklahoma State badly but was it badly enough and do we want to promote an environment in which teams are encouraged to drill foes), ESPN released a poll that coaches are already lining up for an eight-team field. Be careful what you wish for. And yes, FSU won ugly again, and yes, we think FSU should be the No. 1 team in the polls.

photo Atlanta Falcons head coach Mike Smith speaks to players during the second half of an NFL football game against the St. Louis Rams, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013, in Atlanta.

Brady Hoke. Yeah, there was swirling sentiment that maybe, just maybe, Hoke had circled the wagons. Then Saturday's 23-16 loss happened and, well, that's that. Maybe we should have put "college football coaches' agents" on the winners list, because with the ripples sent from the mega-openings that are Michigan and Florida, well, it's going to be a nice Christmas for anyone who even gets a phone call.

Penn State football. OK, we understand that the sanctions were overwhelming, but in direct comparisons, you realize that James Franklin had better luck with Vandy's talent in the 'super' SEC than he's having with Penn State's bunch in the 'blah-tastic' Big Ten.

Marisa Martin. The ESPN correspondent made an awful decision to hit send on her Twitter account about an inappropriate joke involving the FSU shooting and quarterback Jameis Winston. Her first reaction was to say that it was a joke. That went over like Andre "Dice" Clay doing his routine at Sunday School. Then, her Twitter and FaceSpace accounts were taken down. Then, the AL Campus Connection feed that Martin reports to said her account was hacked. Quick rule of thumb from someone who has eaten enough crow to know when to add salt, hot sauce or just go straight, never make jokes about mass shootings and Hitler. Trust us.

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MONSTER week

OK, we have reviewed the pros and flops from the weekend.

But as we awake this Monday morning with holiday duties hanging over everyone's schedule like a wet blanket, it dawned on us that this is an insane week in sports.

photo Basketball tile

In addition to the college football rivalries that are awesome and everywhere this weekend, look at the day-timer:

There are four teams matriculating the dream down the high school football field.

College basketball is everywhere, including the UT Lady Vols coming to McKenzie on Wednesday.

NFL stuff.

Man, good times.

That said, the pressure that falls on the UT Vols this week is a good thing and an interesting situation to follow.

Yes, the Vols looked less than stellar against a Missouri team that played well, was prepared very well and exploited its biggest match-up advantage at an elite level.

That UT has pressure and in position to beat an overmatched foe for a postseason spot is a good thing. How the Vols players and coaches handle that will be most intriguing.

Saturday against Missouri, quarterback Josh Dobbs received little help - dropped passes and a river of Tigers blitzing untouched to name just a few - and the Vols lost. It could have - and maybe should have - been worse.

So the future is here and in front of Jones and the Vols.

A full week indeed.

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This and that

- UK rolled again. The Wildcats went on a 29-0 run in a 12-minute stretch that overlapped the first and second halves that would have been enough on its own to beat Montana State in the Wildcats' 86-28 win. Yes, it was Montana State, and yes the Bobcats shot 19 percent from the field. But to be fair, that was one percent worse than what No. 5-ranked Kansas could muster against UK.

Kentucky 72, Kansas 40.

Star: Devin Booker scored 18 in 17 minutes on 6-of-8 shooting including 3-of-5 from 3. If Booker provides accuracy from deep, well, this is not fair. He edges Karl-Anthony Towns, who continued to stuff stat sheets with right points, 10 rebounds and six blocks in 20 minutes.

Up next: Kentucky (5-0) plays at home against UT-Arlington on Tuesday.

- Speaking of UK, here's saying that when tournament time comes, if Buffalo is in the mix, its 19-point loss to UK will be viewed in a favorable light.

- And there's this. Not sure where to put this because we're not sure who won and who lost, but...Kirk Herbstreit said on Saturday that SEC teams playing/paying FCS schools this late in the season is the "worst thing that goes on in college football" (which is so much of an overstatement that Chicken Little said, "Man, that's over the top") here was Western Carolina coach Mark Speir's response:

"A guy had a silver spoon in his mouth all his life, Ohio State, prima donna state quarterback talking about, 'It's an embarrassment.' He ain't ever coached."

Round one obviously goes to Coach.

- OK, we'll play along. Tiger Woods announces he has a new swing coach. Hopefully he got that dude from The Stray Cats. That dude knows some swing. Is Tommy Dorsey still alive, dude was the King of Swing. What? Different kind of swing, huh. Well OK. Good luck with that.

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Today's question

photo Thanksgiving tile

We will offer a Thanksgiving Rushmore each day of the week.

Hey, we're big into theme shows.

Now we encourage everyone to offer their winners and losers from the weekend, but we also like to have options.

So, today's Thanksgiving-themed Rushmore was going to be Thanksgiving-related movies, because if you think a about it, Thanksgiving is pretty underwhelming from Hollywood's perspective. Then we realized that there simply are too few Thanksgiving movies out there once you get beyond "Planes, Trains & Automobiles."

Ergo, let's do a Rushmore of Steve Martin movies in honor of the "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" which by default is the "It's a Wonderful Life" of Thanksgiving movies.

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