It's Monday. You know it, we know it, Monday knows it.
Side question: Do you think Monday has a complex? All the other days have at least some love from some area, but Monday is loathed. What does Monday have? A few holidays, yes. Monday Night Football. An above-average Jimmy Buffett song.
Football tileSo it goes. Take our weekly tradition. Yes, we celebrate the weekend's winners on Monday. That's good. We also note the weekend's losers. Ah Monday... can't win for losing. (Side question about the side question: How does the expression can't "win for losing" make sense? Of course you can't win if you're losing. Egad. Maybe an elderly Greeson fellow developed that one because we have a long lineage of an interesting relationship with the English language. First, the entire group can have an entire conversion with a monosyllabic "Hmmmph." Secondly, once the Greeson men hit a certain age, it is required in the family coat of arms to consistently mispronounce half the names of Atlanta sports stars - and the Braves bullpen of the 1990s with Woehlers and Berenguer and the rest was an adventure. Finally, we have a long history of twisting phrases into something overtly obvious and then slowly nodding like we dropped some Socrates or Plato on the conversation. One of the best is 5-at-10 Sr.'s "I'd rather be rich and healthy than poor and sick." Or his parents' infamous words of wisdom, "Don't get stabbed." Where were we?)
From the "Talks too much" studios, we are already three paragraphs and 10 hours into Monday. We'll get there. Or we won't. (See what we mean?)
Weekend's winners
UTC. The Mocs wrapped their first playoff spot since 1984 in impressive fashion. Congrats to all involved and to those who have paid their dues through what has been a roller coaster ride filled most with lows before Russ Huesman and Co. got to town. (Side question: Did the Mocs really draw less than 10K Saturday? Man, that's a little surprising.
UTC senior running back Keon Williams celebrates after scoring in the Mocs' 31-13 win over the Wofford to clinch UTC's first Southern Conference title in 30 years.Every high school football player that gets to put the pads on today. Tennessee teams have played one playoff game. Georgia starts this week. Every extra day you get to practice from today on is a gift - and another step toward the dream. Clear eyes, full hearts.
Aaron Rodgers. Wow. Dude is the most talented QB in the league right now. Show 'em what you got Raji, Raji.
Alabama. The Tide rallied and won at Death Valley. At night. And if we believed in omens (scary movie by the way), we'd tell you that the three previous teams that beat Les Miles at night in the Red Stick were ranked No. 1 some point that season.
Pac 12 The Arizona State Sun Devils are in control of their destiny after a huge win over Notre Dame, a spanking that FSU could not deliver. Also, Arizona State could have Oregon in the Pac 12 title game, and the winner of that will punch its ticket. There appears to be three bids all-but locked with FSU, the Baylor/TCU pick (TCU looks better but if Baylor wins out and wins the Big 12, well there in) and the Pac 12.
---
Weekend's losers
Auburn. Ouch. That was a gut-punch loss. The Tigers, who have delivered more than their share of "Wow, that hurt" defeats, suffered a painful setback. And save all the 'irony' replies and "what comes around goes around" Greeson-esque sayings. Simply put, Auburn is flawed. The Tigers have an elite offense that scores in bunches and churns yardages at a cleansing rate. But the defense is garbage and has allowed at least 31 points in its last four SEC games.
Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith (82) pulls in a touchdown pass under pressure from Tennessee Titans cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson (25) during their game in Baltimore on Nov. 9, 2014.Notre Dame. What was that?
Tennessee Titans. See above. (Side note: If you are a Titans fan what do you have to be excited about with this team? Seriously.)
NFC South. First team to eight wins gets to host a playoff beatdown.
OKC Thunder. Yes, they are injured and have two of the games best 10 players in street clothes. But... the Thunder are 2-5 and Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are expected to miss at least another month. Heck, Dallas owner Mark Cuban suggested that the Thunder should start tanking for a lottery pick to improve their title odds. While that's a stretch, to waste a year of Durant and Westbrook in their prime - and to take another year off their contracts before they consider hitting the open market - is less than ideal.
---
NASCAR
A bunch of Good Ol' Boys got in power cars and drove 'em hard and turned left and when the dust settled Sunday, there were four guys chasing what be his first NASCAR championship.
Driver Joey Logano (22) battles Kevin Harvick in turn one during the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Phoenix International Raceway, on Sunday, Nov. 9, 2014, in Avondale, Ariz.Kevin Harvick has been the among the best and certainly the most consistent driver all year, and his win Sunday punched his ticket into the dance next week at Homestead, Fla., where the best finisher among the four wins the points title.
Also in the mix are Joey Logano, Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin complete the final four.
Not in the mix are four-time champ Jeff Gordon and everyone's favorite punching bag Brad Keselowski, who won a NASCAR-best six times this year.
Buckle up because next week will be interesting in a one-race, best-finisher-is-best finale.
---
This and that
UTC men's basketball coach Will Wade speaks to the media at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.- Don't know if you saw this but over the weekend, CBSsports.com ranked 10 college hoops coaches on the rise. Right there in the middle of the list is Mr. Will Wade. UTC will be lucky if Wade is here through 2016 - and that's a good thing.
- More college hoops. The season starts this week, and at some point we will have some college hoops predictions. Deal? Deal.
- Scanning the interwebs this morning, we noticed that Gabrielle Union is the latest celeb to have nude photos leaked. Hey, we get the personal invasion and the import of cybercrime in a society that is more and more cyber (and less and less cerebral) every day. But, a familiar Greeson saying - "Don't start none, won't be none" - comes to mind about people being upset about nude photos being release.
---
Today's question
Happy birthday Les Miles. Wow, this picks things up really makes the malapropism of the Greeson clan seem like small potatoes you know?
Miles is 61 today. Side note: Sinbad is 58 today, so there's that.
Today also is the 45th anniversary of the debut of Sesame Street. Seriously. What's the Rushmore of the most important TV shows of all time. (Please note we said important not best.)
Go.