It's Monday. Hope you are ready for the week, because the week is ready for you.
From the "Talks too much" studios, everything is awesome when you're part of a team.
Weekend winners
On Mondays we have to decide who won the weekend. We will kick it around here and on Press Row from 3-6 on ESPN 105.1 FM
- The SEC West. Other than playing each other, well, there're not many teams that would hang losses on the best division since the Green Berets were formed. When Arkansas is the worst team in your division - and the Razorbacks would be right behind FSU as the favorites in the ACC - well, there you go.
Driver Joey Logano celebrates, after winning his fourth win of the season, in Victory Lane after winning the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, N.H., on Sept. 21, 2014.- Dan Mullen and Mississippi State. That was a signature win for Mullen and Co., and it got the Bulldogs in top 25.
- The Bengals. Well, we have arrived at a place that the Bengals may be the best team in the AFC. After another dominating win - Cincy has capped the Southern slap-down with blowouts of the Falcons and Titans in back-to-back weeks - the Bengals look very good.
- Joey Logano. Win races, move up places. Dude punched his ticket to the next round of the NASCAR postseason. We'd explain more, but we don't have three degrees from MIT or a France decoder ring.
- East Carolina. The Pirates - who did not make our Rushmore of Pirates last week, and may have been so upset about that decision they took it out on UNC - are ranked No. 23 and have wins over Virginia Tech and the Tarheels. ECU scored 70 on UNC. Ouch-standing.
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Weekend losers
- Tigers. Missouri, LSU, Clemson. Each ranked, each stumbled. (Add in the fact that Auburn escaped last Thursday, and well, there you go.) Oh yeah, Tiger Woods is not involved in the Ryder Cup this weekend either.
- Adrian Peterson. Dude simply does not get it. Stay off the Twitter. Get your house in order. Several reports this weekend have Peterson unable to come to grips with his situation. There also are reports that his time in Minnesota is all but done, which cripples a team that was built around the best running back of its generation and could go 2-14 this year.
Atlanta Braves' Phil Gosselin, right, flips his bat as he strikes out while New York Mets catcher Anthony Recker, left, throws the ball to the infield in their game, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014, in Atlanta.- The Braves. Gross. Here's Weeds' take and we concur that the cleaning needs to be from the top down.
- Brady Hoke. After Michigan lost to Utah in the Big House on Saturday, well, the question is not if but when Hoke will get the axe.
- The Steelers. Monster win Sunday night with a power running game at Carolina was especially costly. Ike Taylor broke his arm. Jarvis Jones injured his wrist, and rookie Ryan Shazier injured his knee. The Steelers had made huge strides to get younger and faster defensively, and Jones and Shazier were key parts of that movement. If that trio misses significant time, ouch.
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It's a monster week
At each level of football, there are some awesome match-ups.
Bowling Green tight end/linebacker Dane Drobocky (11) loses the ball after being hit by McCallie School players Friday at El Donaldson Stadium in Bowling Green, KY.
Photo: Joe Imel/Daily NewsMcCallie hosts No. 1-ranked Ensworth this Friday. Signal and Bradley Central face off. Calhoun and Ringgold. And there are a slew of other attractive slugfests. Good times. Major props to McCallie for going to Bowling Green and endings Bowling Green's 48-game winning streak.
The college showdowns involving teams of local interest are clear. UT-Georgia in Athens. UTC has a game with monster SoCon implications when Samford comes to town. We will accept all questions - and if you want professional help from any of the talented beat writers of the above schools we can make that happen too.
Monster week.
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This and that
Cam Newton- Not sure if Dabo Swinney and Co. should be on the winners or losers list, and there is evidence for each. The bad, Clemson had Florida State beat and the Tigers gave it away. Still, Clemson has a lot of young talent at a lot of spots, and now it is turning to Deshaun Watson, the true freshman quarterback from Gainesville, Ga. We know a few folks who watched a lot of Watson in high school and compared him very favorably to Cam Newton. We believe Watson will be a Heisman finalist no later than next year. (And we're still kind of stunned why he wasn't the starter from the start.)
- Rickie Fowler got 'USA' buzzed into his hair for the Ryder Cup. Wow. Say hello to the rest of the NKOTB Rickie. Heck, it will make it easy for the Euros to take scalps anyway.
- Florida wide receiver Demarcus Robinson retreated and then deleted a social media message that said Retweet if you want to see a new face at QB for Florida. Sounds like everything is smooth sailing in Gator Nation, which got spanked 42-21 and allowed more yards than it ever has at Alabama. Tick-tock, tick-tock, Will. And Senator, love the suit.
- Thanks to Seattle and Denver for reminding us why the NFL is so much fun.
- The Fab 4 picks went 6-3 against the number last week. We missed Auburn minus-8, South Carolina -22 and Missouri minus-13.5. We hit on Arkansas, Arkansas State (we're big in Arkansas), App State, Colorado, Boise State and Texas A&M. We're now 15-11 against the number. Side note: Remember in week one how we took LSU on Thursday at minus-5.5 and the line fell to -3 and LSU won by four so we lost and won but lost the pick because of the time. We got karmic relief with App State, which was getting 2 points on Thursday, flipped to a minus-2 and lost at Southern Miss 21-20 when an extra point to force overtime was blocked in the final seconds. What goes around comes back round, unless it's square. Where were we?
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Today's question
Best game on the board this week?
Sept. 22 is the birthday of Toni Basil and Richard Fairbass. Basil sang "Micky" Fairbass was one of the doinks in Right Said Fred, who had "I'm Too Sexy."
Yes, we're looking for the Rushmore of One-Hit Wonders. Go.