5-at-10: Lane Kiffin's big day and bowl updates, Happy birthday Titanic, Early signing day thoughts, Rushmore of Christmas characters


              FILE - In this April 22, 2017, file photo,  Florida Atlantic University coach Lane Kiffin stands on the field for the NCAA college football team's spring game in Boca Raton, Fla. Kiffin's first training camp as the head coach at Florida Atlantic starts Thursday, July 27, 2017. The well-traveled lightning rod of a coach, who left Alabama before last season's national championship game, thinks he's more ready to lead a program than ever before .(Jim Rassol/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, File)
FILE - In this April 22, 2017, file photo, Florida Atlantic University coach Lane Kiffin stands on the field for the NCAA college football team's spring game in Boca Raton, Fla. Kiffin's first training camp as the head coach at Florida Atlantic starts Thursday, July 27, 2017. The well-traveled lightning rod of a coach, who left Alabama before last season's national championship game, thinks he's more ready to lead a program than ever before .(Jim Rassol/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, File)

College football
Lane Kiffin had an interesting day.
He got a 10-year extension that has been universally praised as a great move for FAU. (The school president said that applications are up 35 percent this year compared to last year and then the president added that they are doing nothing differently to attract students.)
The deal has also been universally looked at as hollow because no one believes Kiffin will come close to seeing the end of it in Boca Raton.
(While the financials are not out of the extension, Kiffin's original deal had four more years on it at $950,000 per. The old deal's buyout was $2.5 million in this first year and decreased $500,000 per year. You have to believe the salary will be increased and buyout will be greatly increased.)
With the ink on the deal still drying, Kiffin took his Owls to the Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl and completely housed Akron. Like woodshed + pick your switch + belt + shoe + old-school fraternity paddle look Kevin Bacon = whipping.
FAU closed at minus-23, the biggest bowl favorite in 40 years, and rolled 50-3. Kiffin went for it multiple times on fourth down, tried an on-side kick and went for two up 34-3. (After the game when asked about the two-point try, Kiffin said some Akron trainer was talking smack before had. Kiffin's quote: "His bad.")
The Owls outgained Akron 582-146 and had a 29-11 edge in first downs to finish the season 11-3. As Kiffin noted this was FAU's first bowl game in a decade and the program won nine games combined in the previous two seasons before Kiffin's arrival.
(Heck he even got to pull a couple of Saban-like moments in the bowl win. He was genuinely angry during the halftime chat with Cole Cubelic and he looked downright ticked off when he got the Gatorade bath after the win.)
(Side question: Man, when did Terry Bowden swallow that much aggression - as well as that much pizza? Bucket, if he were two inches shorter, he'd be a circle.)
It also allowed us to get off the schneid on our Fab 4 bowl picks.
The first installment went a woeful 1-4 against the number. We will make some more picks tomorrow, and hopefully have better results.
Also, we are close to having the first-round scores done for the Bowling for Bowls of Bowl Game Success (Bowler optional) but did not make the morning deadline.
Alas. What we do have is a list of 76 entries, and a record for this contest, so kudos. We will post the names later today around lunch and scores tomorrow. Deal. Deal?
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Signing Day (early)

So we're here.
Signing Day. For you Johnny Vols Fans, check out David Cobb's updates for the TFP here.
There are a lot of moving parts. Here are some random thoughts:
Georgia's going to have a great day. So there's that.
Penn State gets Micah Parsons, the No. 4 overall player who has made headlines recently.
Here's a spot to keep up with some national news on this day.
A lot of the coaches are going to bellyache about the early signing, and that's OK.
But if it helps protect programs from pulling the 11th-hour greyshirt or offer switch/pull at the final moments, then we are all for this.
There are so many rules put in place that restrict the options of the player once they sign as far as transfers and all else, anything that gives the recruits a little more power during the process, we are all for.

(We will update some news in the comments throughout the day too.)

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Let's explore something different

Wow, we normally crush details like this, but Tuesday was the 20-year anniversary of the nationwide release of Titanic. Hey, friend or foe, that's up to each of you, but one stat I did see that was mind-numbing was that Titantic was the No. 1 movie for 15 consecutive weeks, which is still a record.
Yes, almost four consecutive months atop the standings.
While we were there, we did a little research. (Don't get spoiled Spy.)
Maybe you could have guessed that Titanic had the record for the longest consecutive weeks run atop the box office. Titanic is a pretty safe bet for a lot of those questions considering it made more than $2 billion world wide and grossed more than $600 million nationally.
But a couple of things, in all the movies released since 1982, there are exactly 158 movies that had a run of at least three consecutive weeks atop the box office.
Some were amazingly forgettable, especially among the movies to be there for exactly three weeks. Because for every Stand by Me, Lethal Weapon and current king Coco (well, that run will end when the next stats are released with The Last Jedi zooms to the front) there are some clunkers like Lethal Weapon 3, Meet the Fockers, Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, and Mortal Kombat among the 101 movies to be on top for three weeks.
Even more surprising is the list of movies after Titantic that round out the top 10.
We will give you a moment to write down your guesses.

OK, here's the top 10:
1. Titantic - 15 consecutive weeks
2. Beverly Hills Cop - 13
3. Tootsie - 13
4. Home Alone - 12
5. Crocodile Dundee - 9
6. Good Morning Vietnam - 9
7. Back to the Future - 8
8. Fatal Attraction - 8
9. Porky's - 8 (Seriously, how long would we have to play this game before you got to Porky's?)
10. Avatar, Ghostbusters, On Golden Pond - 7.
Yes, there's a clear trend of fewer competition provided during the 1980s, but that list is staggering, right?
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This and that

- In a career defined by amazing numbers, this one may be the most amazing of Geno Auriemma's amazing career. As he became the fastest coach to ever hit 1,000 wins in major college basketball Tuesday, came the knowledge that the legendary UConn coach could have lost 50 consecutive games and still been the fastest to 1,000. He's 1,000-135. That's an .881 winning percentage, and to be fair, he's far from done considering he's only 63. He has been the head coach at UConn since 1985, and of those 135 losses, 78 came in the first eight years. Since 1993, Auriemma and UConn is 838-47 (.947 winning percentage) with 11 national titles.
- Very entertaining NBA game between Cavs-Bucks last night that showed me some amazing things. One, we have the NBA Network. Cool. Two, loved the banter between the guys doing the play-by-play in the studio (Steve Smith and Greg Anthony) with Dennis Scott who was the sideline guy in the studio. Three, LeBron is a dude. A flat-out physical nightmare. The Greek Freak is amazing. Fun time all around.
- Thomas Davis' two-game suspension was reduced to one game, meaning the Panthers linebacker will be available against the Falcons in 10 days.
- The Pro Bowl rosters were announced Tuesday. Tom Brady was picked, but here's betting Stewwie has a better chance to actually suit up for that game than Brady does. Also, the Saints became the first team since 1970 to have two running backs picked. Here's a pretty good recap.
- According to Darren Rovell, there is a high school basketball senior in Utah who is the runaway winner for the name of the recruiting season. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Shorts is named Stockton Malone Shorts. Yes, Stockton Shorts. According to his maxpreps.com profile, his game is certainly more Malone than Stockton, considering he's averaging 24.2 points per game and only 2.2 assists. But the name Stockton Shorts for a lot of us in a certain generation will forever be the term to describe the shorts worn before the Fab 5 and Arkansas in the early 1990s made baggy cool. (In truth, we all owe a debt of gratitude to the Fab 5 and those Hogs for jumpstarting a new look.)
- We will toss this out there with the caveat that the poll was done by CNN. (Insert bias disclaimer here.) But here are the approval ratings of the last 10 presidents in December of their first year in office: Bush, 2001 86%; Kennedy, 1961 77%; Bush, 1989 71%; Eisenhower, 1953 69%; Nixon, 1969 59%; Carter, 1977 57%; Obama, 2009 54%; Clinton, 1993 54%; Reagan, 1981 49%; Trump, now 35%.
- Let's check(mate) into some chess news. Wait for it. Got it. Here's the new 2018 World Chess Championship logo, and yes, some people think it is pawnographic. (Yeah.)
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Today's question

OK, on Dec. 20, Jonah Hill turns 34.
Dick Wolf of Law & Order fame is 71. Peter Criss is 72.
Elvis received his draft notice on this day in 1957.
On this day in 1820, Missouri imposed a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men between the ages of 21-50.
As we move closer to Christmas, let's do a Rushmore of Christmas characters.
Be creative.

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