5-at-10: Weekend winners & losers, Saban Monday, Rushmore of TD celebrations

Full weekend, right?

Good? Good.

From the “Talks too much” studios, do you mind if we dance with your dates?

Weekend winners

Cam Newton. We may be biased since Cam did special things at Auburn – things that look even more mystical and amazing with each passing year on the Plains – but we have said he’s in the MVP race since mid-October. Now the rest of the world is coming around to that way of thinking. Cam helped the Panthers move to 12-0 on the season with another eye-popping Sunday. He threw for five TDs for the second time in his last three games as Carolina rallied by New Orleans 41-38. And if you are not overly superstitious skip to the next entry: The Panthers’ 16-game regular season winning streak started on Dec. 7 at New Orleans when Cam led the Panthers to 41 points and 497 yards. Yesterday, on Dec. 6, Cam led the Panthers to 41 points, and yes, 497 yards. (Cue the Twilight Zone music.)

Steph Curry. OK, dude is doing things that it’s hard for us to remember. OK, we did not see Pistol Pete in his prime, but the 35-foot, go-zone green light in which Steph Curry operates is staggering. His efficiency numbers are staggering. Forget the rarified air of the 50-40-90 shooting percentage club on FGs, 3s and FTs, respectively. Steph is stroking it at 53.2/47.2/91.2. And dropping more than 32 points a game for the still-unbeaten Warriors. Buckets. Nothing but buckets. (And then he goes and does cool stuff like making this kid cry in joy because he got Steph’s autograph.) Steph Curry, ladies and gentleman. (Side question: Has he made a late charge for SI Sportsman of the Year? Hmmmmmmmmm.)

Houston (and Tom Herman). The Cougars finished the season at 12-1 and won the American Athletic Conference title. They also were highly entertaining for most of the season. First-year coach Tom Herman delivered the Cougars into a Big Six bowl and will face FSU in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. These are high times. First, Houston will get a fat pay check to go to Atlanta and eat a bunch of chicken sammiches. Second, Houston is position to be the Big 12’s No. 1 choice when/if expansion starts back up (more on that below). As for Herman, dude gets a Power Five paycheck (he just got a raise to $3 million per) without Power Five pressure. Plus, he did not sign on for the near-impossible rebuilding effort that is South Carolina (good luck with that Coach Boom) or any of the other fringe offers out there. And now, he’s one more Charlie Strong 5-7 season from being the top choice to coach the Texas Longhorns. Well-played indeed.

College football fans, playoff committee and system. The lack of drama Saturday meant a real lack of controversy for the college football playoff committee. Plus, without the passioned angst, the call for expanding to eight playoff teams will be relatively quiet this offseason. That’s a good thing in our view. That said, let the conspiracy theorists roar with the phantom offside call in the UNC-Clemson finish and with Michigan State hopping Oklahoma to get the heavyweights (in the view of history, Vegas and TV followers) in the Sooners and Alabama in opposite sides of the bracket. It also doesn’t hurt the semifinals to have the Nick Saban-Michigan State storyline or the rematch arc and the Oklahoma vs. former defensive coordinator Brent Venables, either.

Seattle Seahawks. Shhhhhh, the Seahawks are circling. Yes, the early struggles mean they won’t get homefield and almost assuredly will be a wildcard team, but they crushed Minnesota on Sunday and Russell Wilson is doing Russell Wilson things again. (Side note: Hey, Cordarrelle Patterson, when your team is down five touchdowns and you run a kickoff back for a score, you may want to skip the full-blown celebration dance.)

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Weekend losers

New England Patriots. The Pats gave up TDs on a blocked punt, a punt return and a 99-yard pick six and now are the No. 3 seed in the AFC. This race will be interesting. Side note: Now that Chip Kelly has toppled the All-Knowing Hoodie, maybe we can dial back the Chip Kelly to college X rhetoric. Yes there are problems, but we’re still talking about an Eagles team that is right in the mix in a terrible NFC East and a coach that won double-digit games in each of his first two seasons.

UTC. Wow, what a tough finish to the glorious career of that Mocs senior class. An overtime loss at the No. 1 team in the country after battling back and building a fourth-quarter lead. Heart-breaking. Here’s a good look at the contribution of a great senior class to the program from TFP Mocs ace Mean Gene Henley.

The bloated bowl system. We are here. Forty bowls – 41 actual bowl games counting the championship game – offered some awful matchups. Hey, we get it. If they want to spend the money and they still get some viewers, then fine. (Heck, they may look to add some bowls for crying out loud when they eventually expand the playoffs. Who knows?) That said, the bottom of the bowl barrel is bad. And unfair. At the very bottom is a San Jose State team that got into the postseason at 5-7 because there were not enough bowl-eligible teams and the Spartans had the best APR. War Smart kids. To make matters worse, the Arizona Bowl features the all-Mountain West Conference match-up of Colorado State and Nevada, which seems less than ideal.

Normlacy. Coca-Cola had to pull a TV ad late last week of young people who appear to a mix between carolers and holiday do-gooders who go to a remote village in Mexico and pass out Cokes and build a wooden Christmas tree. Yes, there were those offended because they said the ad promoted colonialism rather than unity. There also was talk that some of the people blamed Coke for the diabetes outbreak among people in the region over the last 50 years. Wowser. Yep, really strong practice there to blame the product rather than the consumer as there are those out there who would love, Love, LOVE to have us move away from all personal responsibility all together. Oh my. (Wait, does me writing ‘Oh my’ offend anyone? Does Verne Lundquist feel sad because I borrowed his go-to line? If it does we apologize in advance that any person, house cat or alien from a far-away planet was offended.)

The Atlanta Falcons. We bought into the early-season success the Falcons delivered. We had an early seat on the S.S. Mighty Dan Quinn bandwagon. Now we know: This is the same group of Falcons. Period. Sunday’s loss to the Buccaneers – who swept the Falcons this year and went from the league’s worst team to better than the A-T-L across the board in eight months – means the playoffs seem like a long shot. Again.

NFL fan interest in Cleveland, Nashville and Miami. This was enlightening. That said, great win for the Titans on Sunday. Is there a rivalry that screams entertaining stinkiness like Jacksonville-Tennessee?

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College football madness

Every year, the Monday after the conference title games feels like a college football hangover.

There’s news everywhere, with coaches being formally introduced and the ripple effects taking tsunami form in regards to recruits to staff to what have you.

There’s the college bowl schedule to decipher and ridicule and secretly circle your favorite games. Here’s the complete bowl schedule. (Yes, we will have the sixth annual Bowling for Bowl Game Bowl-a-thon (wearing a bowler optional) this year. We’re nuts for a contest, and we’ll trot that out later this week. Simply too much happening today.)

There’s the award season and all the speculation that comes with all of this.

Forget Cyber Monday. Saban Monday is every bit as dizzying. (And that name is more than a little fitting, since a) He’s the only coach to be in each of the college football playoff fields; b) every program is looking to – and willing to do just about anything including firing record-setting coaches – to match his success; c) his success has created ripple tsunamis that are creating total upheaval across the south and the country. That said, the late Florida TD that allowed the Gators to cover was simply unacceptable. Sorry. We would have been entertained in Alabama had won by 17 or more.)

So this morning – this Saban Monday morning – here is the ripple effects as we see them:

First, three of Alabama’s chief rivals – Auburn, LSU and Georgia – either have a new coach or a coach on the hottest of hot seats. And that doesn’t even include Texas A&M. That means Alabama picking and choosing among the elite recruits of the south will be even easier than it normally is. Heck, Saban in a lot of ways already pulled the plug on Fulmer – and that took Tennessee more than half a decade to correct.

Second, two SEC schools – Georgia and South Carolina – are pitching millions and the future of their programs on unproven Saban disciples. If we were a defensive-minded dude with head coaching aspirations, we’d call Saban every hour on the hour about his open DC spot, vacated by Kirby Smart, who beat feet to Georgia for big bucks and bigger opportunities. (Yes, working for Saban would be the employment version of being raised by Mommie Dearest – “No wooden hangers” – but it’s like the Marines. It’s hard as the dickens while you are there but that training could mean big things down the road.)

Finally, it’s not like this is going to change in the foreseeable future. And to think all of this was changed when Rich Rodriguez said no to Mal Moore oh those many years ago. The irony of Rich Rod reportedly turning down the South Carolina job – which went to Saban pupil Will Muschamp – over the weekend should not be lost on anyone.

As Mike Price famously said at that Florida strip club: “It’s already rollin’ baby.”

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This and that

– OK, this makes sense for the Dodgers, who are pursuing Reds super closer Aroldis Chapman to solve Big Blue’s bullpen bloopers. Deep in that story was this a-MAZ-ing stat: Chapman threw the 62 fastest pitches of the 2015 season. Yes, the top 62, and he topped out between 102.36 and 103.92 mph.

– Could be a ton of moves at the baseball winter meetings in Nashville this week. And heck, the Braves may give away who knows what.

– Mad props to Georgia State, which may be the single most exciting story line in Georgia sports right now. The Panthers boatraced Georgia Southern to become bowl eligible. Yes, think that a team that UTC smoked two years ago in their own building would win six FBS games is mind-blowing. Congrats to the Panthers.

– Speaking of that terrible pick (yes, we had Southern minus-20 and considering State won 34-7, we only missed that one by 47 points), well, we closed the college football regular season with a 4-3 mark against the spread. Highlights: We had only two losing weekends all year. We finished right at 59.1 percent (55-38) for the year. Here’s hoping you got some entertainment out of it.

– Congrats to Tennessee, which got invited to the Outback Bowl and will play an inferior opponent in Northwestern. Here’s TFP ace Downtown Patrick Brown’s account. That should be 9-4 – a major step forward fro Butch Jones and Co., even if we don’t think it’s raise-worthy – and next year UT will open inside the top 10 or 12 for sure and be a heavy favorite in the East.

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Today’s questions

We’ve got a ton of them today.

Who won the weekend? Who lost it?

Best non-playoff bowl game?

Best offseason coaching move?

Heck, if you want a Rushmore, we can do that too. Today is Larry Legend’s 59th birthday, and while he could be on a ton of Rushmores, we’re going to lean toward his flamboyant side (he may have been the best trash talker of his generation, believe it or not) and let that lead us to today being Terrell Owens’ 42nd birthday, too.

In honor of Terrell Owens, what’s our Rushmore of TD celerbations/celebrators?

Go.