OK friends, you have been aces this week. So in turn, this is a monster mailbag. Huge in fact. If we had it do do over again, we would have put our first round of Fab 4 poll picks in Thursday's edition. But if we have learned anything in this life, it's that we don't have it to do over again. Sigh.
In fact, this holiday craziness should be expected when this week alone a) the Alabama football coach helped in part swing the balance of power in the U.S. Senate; b) we learned that Hangtime has not seen a single episode of the Star Wars saga; and c) Taco Bell launched its first branded beer. Yes that Taco Bell.
And all of that may cow up short on the crazy meter to last night's NFL game, and no we are not speaking of the clashing uniform combos. Brock Osweiler finished 12-of-17 for 194 yards and two scores as well as running for an 18-yard TD. That's amazing in and of itself. This is mind-boggling: His 99.4 Total QBR (ESPN's version of QB rating which goes from 1 to 100 scale) Thursday was the highest in the NFL this season (minimum 20 action plays). It's the highest Total QBR in a game for a non-starting QB in the 12 seasons for which ESPN has Total QBR data.
Brock Osweiler, ladies and gentleman. Man, Cleveland sure is getting its $16 million worth. Oh wait.
From the "Talks too much" studios, giddy-up.
From Mark
Did you see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class? Who makes your Rushmore of 1980s hair bands?
Mark -
Such a great question. And we are still flummoxed at how some of the finalists did not make the Hall over The Cars.
It's also one better suited for Press Row cohost David Paschall, who is more of the 80s music nostalgia aficionado.
To start, rightly or wrongly here, we do not count Van Halen or Guns N' Roses in the genre. They had the hair, sure, but VHs early stuff was way more than hair metal and GnR in a lot of ways paved the way for the transition to the Seattle grunge stuff.
So to your question, we'll go Bon Jovi, Poison, Motley Crue, and Def Leppard. And it does not hurt this group's bona fides to know that you if you had asked for the Rushmore of Hair Metal Anthems, you easily could have several of the above groups in the mix. Every Rose has its Thorns to Girls, Girls, Girls, to Home Sweet Home to Pour Some Sugar on Me to the entire Slippery When Wet album.
Excellent work Mark. Way to jumpstarted the mailbag.
With that, let's get to the Star Wars Rushmores. (Hangtime, you have our permission to skip down accordingly.
Battle scenes: Hoth ice battle (start of ESB), Sacking the Death Star in the original, The beach battle scene at the end of Rogue One (that was excellent), and the end fight in Force Awakens. So there's that. And yes, we were surprised too that half of that group came from the two most recent releases.
Quotes: "I love you. I know." (Excellent exchange that really made Han Solo the coolest dude in the whole deal.) "Luke, I am your father." (Come gang, this is one of the most famous ever.) "Do or do not. There is no try." (Yoda at his most Yoda-yness.) And we'll go off the board of normal for a personal pick that really showed Vader's power, "I find your lack of faith disturbing." That last one edged the great "These aren't the droids you're looking for."
(Side note: It pains us to leave off the classics like "May the Force be with you," and "I have a bad feeling about this." Plus some of the most memorable and most reused lines among a lot of us - like laugh it fuzzball or the classic Admiral Ackbar's "It's a trap" - are all-timers too.)
Secondary characters: Some this week raised a fair point about the Emperor (played by former SEC commissioner Mike Slive) and Yoda being dominant enough to be primary characters. We're good with that, so we'll go Boba Fett (this is a personal choice because we always thought he had the coolest get-up),
Rushmore of movie franchises (great suggestions, too, gang): Star Wars. Bond. Likely have to add the X-Men films here (we have not seen more than maybe like the first one, but the numbers are undeniable), Harry Potter.
This day, Dec. 15,
Elite trash-talking NFLer Josh Norman turns 30 today.
Don Johnson is 68. Tim Conway is 84.
On those day in 1973, the American Psychiatric Association declares homosexuality is not a mental illness.
Sitting Bull died on this day in 1890. Walt Disney died on this day in 1966. Afonso de Albuquerque died on this day in 1515, they eventually named a little town in New Mexico after him. That town of course is Santa Fe, which as Ron Burgandy knows, is German for whale's vagina.
And as we do because we need to keep going, let's quickly get to our NFL picks.
Yes, our college picks have been red hot. Our NFL picks have been as middle of the road as the double yellow line. Egad. Another Chuck Worley 2-and-2 week leaves us at the puzzlingly mediocre 27-28-1 this year against the spread.
Let's try to flip that script. (Side question: Since we have consistently been 2-2 and have posted that mark for five consecutive weeks, could't we argue that each week were are flipping the script? Because a flipped 2-2 script is still 2-2, no? That's it. We're confused.)
In fact, since we're going to come close to 10,000 words today and we're likely going to be 2-2, let's just hit the picks and keep rolling. Deal? Deal.
We'll take Washington -3.5 over Arizona coming to the East Coast for a 1 p.m. kick. We'll buy the half and take Baltimore minus-6.5 over Cleveland encase it's Cleveland. We'll take New England-Pittsburgh over the 53 and we'll take Atlanta minus-5.5 at Tampa Bay on Monday night.
From Billy in Brainerd
Jay-G [or is it J-Gee],
How many JuCo's will Pruitt sign? And at what positions? Competitive programs have to have depth at the line of scrimmageguessing he will run a 3-4 on D?
Thanks + keep up the good work here and on the radio.
Billy-In-Brainerd -
Excellent question, and one we kicked around with David and Wells on Thursday's Press Row.
Right now UT has 11 commitments https://247sports.com/college/tennessee/Season/2018-Football/Commits and only one is from a junior college dude. That is from the nation's top strongside defensive end Dorian Gerald.
But, and we use 247sports.com as out baseline for recruiting views, especially UT stuff since a couple of former TFPers - Wes Rucker and Downtown Patrick Brown - work there.
Three stories on the top of the UT main recruiting page at 247sports have new coach Jeremy Pruitt either visiting with or preparing for a visit from the top junior college tight end, one of the top junior college running backs, a four-star junior college corner and a four-star junior college offensive lineman.
The running back is Greg Bell, and according to this from Ryan Callahan, three of Bell's junior college teammates are also set to visit Knoxville this weekend.
(Side note: This could be a monster weekend in UT recruiting news, considering the atmosphere for the hoops game with UNC could be an excellent backdrop for a big weekend.)
We would assume that Pruitt would prefer to run a 3-4 D, but we would hope that that transition would be as much in the recruiting process as it is in the gameplan. Lest we not forget the absolute disaster that was the SAALLLL Sunersi version of that debacle.
We think this UT class, especially how late Pruitt got started on this one, could have five to eight junior college dudes, which is a really high number. And we think most of those cats would either be along the line of scrimmage or in a secondary that faces major questions and needs help now.
From Chas
The BB season's one-quarter done and six teams are knotted atop the SEC with only one loss: Auburn, Kentucky, Miss State, A&M, Georgia, and Your Tennessee Vols. The league is better, but some are pretenders.
Mail bag challenge: Rank these six in the order they'll finish in the SEC standings.
Says here two three-loss teams (Bama and Florida) will finish ahead of at least three of the aforementioned one-loss teams.
Chas -
Great question, and we hope you got to listen in to SEC Network analyst Dane Bradshaw on Press Row kick some of that around on Thursday. If you missed it, here's the replay.
Well, to rank those, we'll go as follows:
UK - because they have the most talent and the most room to improve;
A&M - because they have a very South Carolina-feel of experience and skill-set;
Florida - because they simply have played a whale of schedule, and that group we watched vs. Gonzaga is going to be a tough out for everyone in the league'
Alabama - because Collin Sexton is no joke;
Tennessee - because their record will show the simple truth that Rick Barnes has them a) playing hard, not only every night, but almost every possession; b) has them playing together as well as any team we can recall in a while, and c) has met our ultimate definition of great coaching in that the sum is three steps better than the parts.
Georgia - because we think Mark Fox knows the stakes;
Miss. State - because, well, someone had to be ahead of Auburn;
Auburn - because who knows what happens at every turn. Heck, we're hearing - and Dane covered it on Press Row - that Austin Wiley, the 6-10 five-star in the FBI probe could return this year. That said, would it surprise anyone if as you're watching college football this holiday season if the breaking-news blurb "Auburn has fired men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl" came across the scroll.
So there's that.
From Todd C.
Hi Jay, keep up the great work on the 5-at-10 and Press Row
What is your go-to best-to-watch bowl game for the Dec 16 – 24 timeframe? What about the Dec 25 – 31? And of course Jan 1st ? What food accompaniments and or beverage(s) are you excited about?
Todd -
Such a great question. Our Jan. 1 meal is pretty set. Ham, black-eyed peas, grits and greens. (I mix the greens with the grits and a couple of other family secrets to get the kids to eat them. Makes it more enjoyable for me too, to be honest.)
Anyhoo.
As for the early bowl games that have my interest between Saturday and Christmas Eve, we'll go these as the top five. (Not to be confused with our picks and we'll get to those in a second.)
First, if any of these cold-weather bowls can drum up the kind of snow that the Bills-Colts had last week, they instantly jump to the top of the list. Deal? Deal.
Oregon-Boise State because of the potential uniform clash.
FAU-Akron, because Lane Kiffin is involved, and that's enough for me.
Central Michigan-Wyoming, with the following caveat: If Wyoming QB Josh Allen plays we'll watch a lot of that one. If not, then we're out. Allen is pegged as a top 10 pick in next spring's draft. We love the draft. You know this.
UCLA-Kansas State because we are intrigued by the Chip Kelly storyline.
Finally in the early window, we'll go Duke-Northern Illinois because we personally like David Cutcliffe and enjoy pulling for his team. The next December wave is better for sure.
We think Missouri-Texas will be fun. Virginia Tech-Oklahoma State has a chance to be really good, too. Stanford and Bryce Love against a TCU defense that has something to prove.
And of course THE Ohio State and USC, which seems out of place on Dec. 29. Finally we'll go Miami and Wisconsin because those teams and programs are complete mirror imagines of one another, right?
As for Jan. 1, c'mon man. Auburn-Central Florida. Game of the Bowl season. The semifinals could be great and we're stoked to see how UGA does with Baker Mayfield.
As for snacks and such, we are big into wings. Love them. The Mrs. has some legit kitchen skills and does an array of football worthy foot. She's aces. This brings us to our first round of Fab 4 bowl picks and the reminder of the contest. Let's go.
We have pushed chips and pledged to pick all of these. Yes, all of them.
We will keep score on all our picks, but with permission of the group, we are going classify our Fab 4 picks in one group and use the most current lines. (The rest of the picks will use the spreads from the Bowling for Bowls of Bowl Game Success Contest - Bowler optional of course - and score them another group of picking them all. Deal? Deal. Side note: Running way late. We will post our picks from today through next Thursday night later today. Deal again? Deal again.)
OK, here are the Fab 4 picks - for entertainment purposes only of course - and these are the ones we think have the best chance to return some entertainment.
Couple of things to remember when picking bowl games, friends.
Motivation from the players is the great variable that is worth more this time of year than almost anything other than having Alabama's talent or Deshaun Watson at quarterback.
That motivation can spin from a number of things. Seniors. Programs making a rare bowl appearance. Injuries to players who may have NFL aspirations. Potential NFL draft picks sitting out games. (We're looking at you Josh Allen.)
The other angle is the state of the coaching staff. Fired head coaches, like UCLA, or new staffs, like FSU, make this tougher than during the regular year.
North Texas plus-7 over Troy. Yes, North Texas is without its leading rusher, and that has been an issue. But, North Texas has lost four games this year - two to Florida Atlantic and road games at Iowa and SMU - to teams that are way better than Troy. We will buy the half to be safe, but among our clear picking rules is when there is this much public support behind one team - more than 90 percent of the Vegas money is on Troy - we go the other side.
Oregon minus-7 over Boise State. With Justin Herbert at quarterback, Oregon us averaging more than 50 points per game. Read that again. Yes, Boise is a fun and trendy pick come bowl season, but this is not your traditional Boise bunch. Buy the half to be safe, but you get the idea.
FAU minus-22.5 over Akron. Gang, this is a trust pick. This game is next Tuesday night, and we believe our guy Lane Kiffin loves the spotlight like few others. This spotlight - no other football game that day - will be a monster springboard for Kiffin's offense, which has led the Owls to nine straight wins overall and 7-2 against the number in that stretch. Yes, please, even if this the highest spread by a wide margin of the entire bowl season.
Western Kentucky minus-6.5 over Georgia State. GSU is ecstatic to be in a bowl. Western Kentucky has a senior quarterback and is in the top 10 nationally in passing offense. Georgia State is 91st against the pass. Game is in Orlando, so the conditions are prime. WKU, which we have faded a lot this year, rolls.
Arkansas State minus-3.5 over MTSU, Buy this down to 3 to make it easy and avoid the back door cover. But speaking of pass-happy offenses, Arkansas State like WKU slings it. A couple of weeks ago, WKU put 41 on the board against this MTSU defense. Look for a similar showing. (Keep an eye on the weather too, because the total is high.)
We are closing in on a record number of entries gang. Gracias. Deadline is today friends and all picks must be in by end of BID-ness this evening. Entries must be emailed - yes emailed - to me at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com.
Dilly. Dilly.
Note: Most of these games are in chronological order as they appear on the schedule. The Arizona Bowl is in late December, and we did not see the need to have NMSU and USU be a five-pointer.
ONE POINT GAMES (6 points possible)
- New Orleans Bowl: Troy (-5.5) vs. North Texas
- Autonation Care Bowl: Georgia State (-4.5) vs. Western Kentucky
- Las Vegas Bowl: Oregon (-7.5) vs. Boise State
- New Mexico Bowl: Colorado State (-5.5) vs. Marshall
- Camellia Bowl: Arkansas State (-3.5) vs. MTSU
- Arizona Bowl: New Mexico State (-3.5) vs. Utah State
TWO-POINT GAMES (12 points possible)
- Cheribundi Tart Cherry (now that's a name) Boca Raton Bowl: FAU (-23) vs. Akron
- Frisco Bowl: SMU (-5.5) vs. La. Tech
- Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl (another excellent name): Temple (-7.5) vs. FIU
- Bamahas Bowl: Ohio (-7.5) vs. UAB
- Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Wyoming (pick em) vs. Central Michigan
- Birmingham Bowl: South Florida (-2.5) vs. Texas Tech
THREE-POINT GAMES (21 points possible)
- Armed Forces Bowl: Army (pick em) vs. San Diego State
- Dollar General Bowl: Toldeo (-7.5) vs. App. State
- Hawaii Bowl: Fresno State (-3.5) vs. Houston
- Heart of Dallas Bowl: Utah (-6.5) vs. West Virginia
- Quick Lane Bowl: Duke (-3.5) over Northern Illinois
- Catcus Bowl: Kansas State (-2.5) vs. UCLA
- Independence Bowl: FSU (-14.5) vs. Southern Miss
FOUR-POINT GAMES (28 points possible)
- Pinstripe Bowl: Iowa (-3.5) vs. Boston College
- Foster Farms: Arizona (-3.5) vs. Purdue
- Texas Bowl: Missouri (-3.5) vs. Texas
- Military Bowl: Navy (-3.5) vs. Virginia
- Camping World Bowl: Oklahoma State (-6.5) vs. Virginia Tech
- Holiday Bowl: Michigan State (-3.5) vs. Washington State
- Alamo Bowl: TCU (-2.5) vs. Stanford
FIVE-POINT GAMES (30 points possible)
- Belk Bowl: Wake Forest (-2.5) vs. Texas A&M
- Sun Bowl: N.C. State (-6.5) vs. Arizona State
- Music City: Northwestern (-7.5) vs. Kentucky
- Outback Bowl: Michigan (-7.5) vs. South Carolina
- Taxslayer Bowl: Louisville (-6.5) vs. Mississippi State
- Liberty Bowl: Memphis (-3.5) vs. Iowa State
SIX-POINT GAMES (30 points possible)
- Cotton Bowl: THE Ohio State (-6.5) vs. USC
- Fiesta Bowl: Penn State (-2.5) vs. Washington
- Orange Bowl: Wisconsin (-6.5) vs. Miami
- Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl: Auburn (-9.5) vs. UCF
- Citrus Bowl: LSU (-3.5) vs. Notre Dame
SEVEN-POINT SEMIFINALS (14 points possible)
- Rose Bowl: Georgia (-1) vs. Oklahoma
- Sugar Bowl: Alabama (-2) vs. Clemson
TEN POINT BONUS (10 points possible)
NATIONAL CHAMPION (no line, just the winner):
Not exactly fan mail
Hey, Merry Christmas gang.
No. 1: Is this a sports column or a garbage truck?
And
No. 2: What a rectal pore this author is.
And wait for it
No. 3: I hate you.
Good talk gang.