5-at-10: Fab 4 picks, championship items of interest, Miami lands Richt, Rushmore of video games

Morning.

From the “Talks too much” studios, another day, another major coaching move.

Fab 4 picks

Hope your Thanksgiving was entertaining, and if you followed our recipe, it should have been.

Winners on five of eight holiday picks is an entertainment payday. And we were thankful.

Still, it was a bitter-sweet success since two of our losses were tried-and-true friends of the show. The total on a Vandy game went over for the first time this year after Tennessee opened up a can of whip cream on a Commodores defense that was simply exhausted from a valiant season-long effort. The other was Navy, which went to Houston got ambushed in a way we did not expect.

Still, plucking some winners from rivalry games – Oklahoma and Ole Miss – made for an entertaining return. (That said, here’s hoping you exploited the early Christmas gift last week that was FSU minus-3 against Florida. Egad. More on that in a moment.)

Now we head to conference championship weekend, and with a limited schedule, we are forced to search extra hard for potential entertainment. Let’s explore.

Alabama minus-17 over Florida. The SEC championship is less about who will win, but how will the Gators score? We’re not sure we know the answer, either. This one feels like a very boring, very predictable 27-3 Alabama win. Does the number seem large? Yes, and that makes us like Alabama even more because it means Vegas is begging you to take the Gators and the points. Heck, this one is so predictable, the only drama will be which comes first, Verne mispronouncing someone’s name or Nick Saban getting irritated at Lane Kiffin.

Houston minus-6 over Temple. One of the key factors in searching for entertainment this late in the season hinges on coaching searches and the emotions involved. In this one, each coach has been rumored to be a candidate at a number of other jobs. The difference, though, is Houston has pledge a lot of coin at Tom Herman, and we can just here is presume speech now. “Men, this moment means more to me than millions of dollars. Those places are just that – places. This is where we are and this is where we want to be. And it’s because of you.” A berth in the Peach Bowl is likely on the line for the winner, and Houston is the better team.

Western Kentucky minus-7 over Southern Miss. At 9-3 Southern Miss may be the most improved team in the country, and Todd Monken has resurrected the once-proud program that was bagel-12 just three years ago. The Golden Eagles are a gaudy 10-2 against the number this year. But this Western Kentucky offense scores. A lot. And this is a conference title game, at home, so here’s saying the better team wins – but buy the half to be safe.

Georgia Southern minus-20 over Georgia State. The Eagles are 8-3 overall and against the spread. We like this. The Eagles are superior in every phase to the upstart Panthers. We like this. Georgia State will have to play after making one of the worst drives in the south – I-16 south of Macon is dreadful. This won’t matter for much, but, hey, we felt we needed another sentence. Here’s one more (warning: research ahead): In Georgia Southern’s eight wins this season, did you know the closest game was 20 points and that was at Louisiana-Monroe. In their eight wins, the Eagles’ margin of victory is 26.5 and in their 5-0 mark at home, the average margin is 28.6.

New Mexico State plus-3 over Louisiana-Monroe. Both of these teams are bad. But only one is La.-Monroe bad. The Warhawks are 1-10, and that one was a 47-0 win over Nichols State in early September. Now, and sorry, we’re funky like this, consider the schedule the Warhawks have endured the last two months: Since Oct 10, ULM has been at Tulsa, home vs. App State, at Idaho, at Louisiana-Lafayette, at Troy, at Texas State, home vs. Arkansas State and at Hawaii. Heck, there are international diplomats who have spent less time on airplanes. Now comes a visit from a 3-8 New Mexico State team that has won three of its last four.

Stanford-USC over 59. Big scores, big plays, big stars and big stakes. If Stanford wins, the Cardinal could be in the mix for the playoff if things fall right elsewhere. If USC wins, it validates the promotion of Clay Helton, and the former offensive coordinator likely feels the need to draw up some special stuff for this one. Feels like a 35-31 game one way or the other, and in either case, the over feels entertaining.

Michigan State minus-3 over Iowa. Buy the half for sure, and there’s an argument to be made that this will be a field goal game either way. Still, the Spartans are the better team and are a blown call away from being unbeaten. Maybe the Hawkeyes’ magic carpet ride continues, but Sparty will be well-prepared and is better at almost every position.

Last week against the spread: 5-3 (62.5 percent)

This season against the spread: 51-35 (59.3 percent)

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Title weekend items of interest

1. Early favorite hits big. We have said all week on the radio and online that Nick Saban was going to bust come Wednesday’s press conference with all the hubbub about Kirby Smart going to Georgia and the lack of attention being paid to the SEC title game and Florida. Winner. The videos online are money, and at one point he even redirects questions to his Coke bottle for more comment. Somewhere the writers for Larry Culpepper, Dr Pepper guy, need to raise the stakes with this one.

2. North Carolina could create chaos. If UNC wins the ACC title game over Clemson, that would create the biggest amount of intrigue in the college football playoff committee’s view. Would UNC jump from 10 into the top four? Would Ohio State move in, despite not even winning its division? Would Clemson stay among the mix if the loss was close? Know this: The college football playoff committee is 100-percent cheering for Clemson to make everything much easier come Sunday night.

3. Stanford state a case. The Cardinal, however, needs UNC to edge out a win over the top-ranked Tigers. (But not by too much, else, UNC could leap everyone into the playoff.) And Stanford needs to handle USC and hope for some extra credit for a) playing at Northwestern and against Notre Dame out of conference, as well as playing nine Pac-12 games plus Saturday’s title game; b) the committee ignores THE Ohio State, which is ranked fifth. We think The Cardinal has a real shot with a win and a Clemson loss.

4. Which non-power-five school shines brightest? Some of the highest-flying teams will try to complete the championship march this weekend. Houston-Temple. Bowling Green trying to raise a banner. Western Kentucky and its powerful offense led by six-year senior Brandon Doughty looks to put the exclamation point on another great run. Good times (and occasionally entertaining, wink, wink).

5. UTC road warriors. It’s not a conference title game, but it’s a college football playoff game with huge implications. If the Mocs can go to top-ranked Jacksonville State and win – a sizable, but certainly doable task – the Mocs likely could be the team to be on their side of the bracket.

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Coaching moves

And with that, the wheels of the coaching carousel went straight to ludicrous speed.

We talked about whether Kirby Smart was a good move yesterday as the next guy at Georgia, and the true outcome will not be known until at least 2017.

Well, then, Wednesday afternoon, former Georgia coach Mark Richt becomes the guy to lead Da U, and suddenly you get the feeling that Miami is giddy while Georgia is hopeful.

Here’s some of the reaction from Miami fans, and yes, we are all ears awaiting the response from international man of mystery Luther Campbell – aka Uncle Luke from Too Live Crew – about the hire. (In the grand scheme of things, Uncle Luke and Mark Richt may be complete and total opposites other than their affinity for the Hurricanes.)

Side note: We wonder how Richt will fit there, but the low-risk move has a monster upside with the recruiting possibilities there. And here’s saying the ultimate, “it’s not me it’s y’all” moment would be Richt winning a title with the Hurricanes.

And if there’s a bowl match-up made in heaven, it would be the Bulldogs and the Hurricanes meeting in the Music City Bowl later this month. Please. In fact, we’ll put that on our Christmas list.

So now the subtly takes the next step.

The splash hires have been made, although they have not become official. And we give the top grades to Virginia Tech for the smoothness of landing hot-shot Justin Fuente and retaining its core staff and Miami for landing a proven winner (and recruiter) like Mark Richt.

From there, the games behind the games are just beginning.

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This and that

– The National Board of Review picked “Mad Max: Fury Road” as the year’s best film. That’s a little bit of a shocker. We saw it, and enjoyed it. Just a little surprised it’s getting this type of critical acclaim. That said, we’re trying to think of a better movie we saw this year, and are struggling. (Of course with 8- and 5-year-old lil’ 5-at-10s almost all of the movies we watch are animated. Hey, that “Home” was kinda good, and how about that Toy Story trilogy, huh?)

– The NFL appears to be on track to have a decision about the league’s future in Los Angeles by the middle of next month. Commissioner Roger Goodell looks to be supporting the Rams moving to Inglewood (meaning that the city of St. Louis just became No. 1 on the market of Goodell Voo-Doo dolls, surging past Boston and New Orleans); Carolina owner Jerry Richardson looks to support the Chargers and the Raiders sharing a stadium in Carson. Either plan would need approval from 75 percent of the owners (24 votes) and Colts owner Robert Irsay said he doesn’t think either has that much support. (Of course Irsay could have been hopped up on quaaludes.)

– Steph Curry is a monster. Dude scored 28 in the third quarter as the Golden State Warriors rolled in his hometown of Charlotte. The Warriors are 20-0.

– Is there any doubt that Josh Norman has quickly become a favorite of the 5-at-10? Yes, the Panthers cornerback who has the eye-popping stat of in terms of efficiency, opposing quarterbacks are better throwing the ball away than throwing it toward the receiver Norman is covering is having an All-Pro season. Now comes this story that he mixes in movie quotes with his trash talk. Aren’t you entertained?

– With the talk that Barry Bonds will return to the majors to be the Marlins’ hitting coach, we thought this was a timeline photo gallery of the ‘maturation’ of Mr. Bonds.

– Ben Simmons is becoming a must-watch college basketball star not seen in a long while. Yes, watching Anthony Davis defend – and that whole UK bunch make the game look easy – was fun but Simmons is something different. Dude went 43-14-7-5 with points, rebounds, assists and steals for LSU in a 119-107 win over North Florida. If you are the Lakers, you are telling Kobe to shot it 30 times a night, hope to win eight games and welcome Simmons into the fold as the next purple and gold superstar.

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Today’s question

Deliver any and all takes on the coaching moves and machinations.

Weigh in on any of the college football craziness ahead.

As for a Rushmore, let’s go with, in honor of the release of the PlayStation on this day 21 years ago, with in-home video games.

Whatcha’ got? (Pssstttt mailbag.)