Buckle up, gang.
From the "Talks to much" studios, wow, we've just now recovered from a crazy weekend.
Weekend winners
Matt McCall and the road-warrior Mocs. Would it stun you for the UTC Mocs to be getting votes when the AP Top 25 poll is released later today? Maybe, but maybe not considering the Mocs now have road wins over Georgia and Illinois. And we put this out there on Twitter. Sign McCall to an extension today - with a pricey buyout if you can get it - because dude is doing work. Yes, Will Wade left a very nice nucleus in tact, but McCall continues to impress.
Brock Osweiler. In his first start on his 25th birthday, the 6-foot-7, strong-armed Osweiler just added another layer of complexity to the Peyton Manning storyline. Playing for the injured and struggling future Hall of Famer, Osweiler was 20-of-27 for 250 yards and two TDs in Denver's 17-15 win over Chicago. Here's a nice recap of it.
Golden State. The Warriors are 15-0 and are among the best shows in sports. They are a game away from setting a record for the best start to a season. Man, that's impressive. And that game to set the mark? Against the woeful Lakers on Tuesday. CHA-ching.
Notre Dame. The Irish now move firmly into the land of controlling your own playoff destiny after the upsets of the weekend. Here are the four teams that certainly control their destiny in our mind: Clemson, Alabama, Notre Dame and Iowa. Those four win out and that's your field. That said, with losses to three unbeatens and some close calls for others (Hi Florida), the field has expanded to at least 12 teams that could get in with some help. The four above, Oklahoma is right on the cusp. Plus there are at least one ACC (North Carolina), one SEC team (Florida), two Big 12 teams (Oklahoma State and Baylor), a Pac-12 team (Stanford) and as many as three Big Ten teams (Ohio State, Michigan State and potentially even Michigan) that could make a case if they win out.
College football fans in general. Wow, what a weekend filled with more dramatic games than one college fan could possibly know what to do with. Yes, there were painful losses - just ask this Mississippi State fan, who owes a tip of the visor to the ESPN producer who switched cameras right before he became an internet meme sensation - but the unending drama was magnificent. It was impossible to keep up with to tell you the truth.
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Weekend losers
THE OSUs. Man let the craziness unfold. Losses to previous unbeaten Oklahoma State and THE Ohio State now have opened the door for myriad of college football playoff possibilities. Yes, as we mentioned above, Notre Dame was the big winner, and while the Cowboys' loss was painful, the scene in Columbus with the entire college football world there and Michigan State using a back-up QB was over-the-top. Then to add in running back Ezekiel Elliott's postgame Twitter meltdown - and how Elliott only got 12 carries for an offense sputtering in cold and wet conditions is stunning - and the Buckeyes are the frontrunner for losing the weekend.
The SEC East. Tennessee is the best team in the SEC East right now and it's not that close. Florida without Will Grier is an awful offense and the Gators were lucky to beat Florida Atlantic. Georgia likewise needed overtime against an overmatched in state foe. Vandy got blanked by Texas A&M (although the under hit yet again as the Fab 4 picks went 4-3 but should have been way, Way, WAY better). And South Carolina, whoa nelly. The Gamecocks wrote a check for roughly half-a-million bucks to take a 23-22 loss to in-state Citadel.
Chip Kelly and the Eagles. Philadelphia has lost back-to-back home games to the powerful Florida duo of Miami and Tampa Bay. And Sunday's pantsing at the hands of the Bucs was embarrassing. Doug Martin ran for 177 yards - in the first half - and Jameis Winston threw for five TDs. The Bucs, who entered the game 18th in total offense, put 500-plus yards on the Eagles in a 45-17 win. Ouch-standing.
Atlanta Falcons head coach Dan Quinn grins while watching the second half of Sunday's blowout win over the Houston Texans at the Georgia Dome. Quinn, formerly the defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks, is 4-0 in his first season leading the Falcons.Dan Quinn's coach of the year bandwagon. Want to know the last time the Atlanta Falcons played well? Try Oct. 4. Since then - when the Falcons put a stamp on a 5-0 start and Quinn could have been rehearsing his CoY speech - the Falcons are 1-4, and that lone win was an ugly 10-7 affair with the woeful Tennessee Titans. Sunday, the Falcons lost 24-21 to a Colts team quarterback by grizzled veteran (and potential AARP member) Matt Hasselbeck. Want once appeared to be a team looking for a first round bye is now four games behind the Panthers in the NFC South and only a game ahead of the Bucs and Seahawks in the race for the final wildcard spot.
NASCAR. The playoff system was fine. (Although expect some tweaks next year, be them juggled scheduling or a look at expanding the field.) But the potential for a magical ending never materialized. Kyle Busch passed the torch of "best driver not to win a title" down the line, and that's fine. Busch battled back from injuries and was incredibly dominant for a strong stretch of the season. That said, the storybook finish of Jeff Gordon winning would have been awesome in awesomeness. We know this: This would have never happened if Old Man France was still running things.
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UTC playoffs
Here's a look at the FCS playoff bracket.
By now you likely know that fellow SoCon member The Citadel got into the dance with an upset of South Carolina.
By now you almost assuredly know that UTC will host Fordham on Saturday.
It also is fair to discuss whether the Mocs hosed on the draw. We believe they did, considering the mathematics of the draw mean the committee viewed the Mocs as the lowest-seeded home team in the first round of the playoffs.
With UTC quarterback Jacob Huesman standing at right, UTC coach Russ Huesman — the QB's father — talks with a reporter after the Mocs learned Sunday they would host Fordham in the opening round of the FCS playoffs this week.Yes, the "location" or pod system of the NCAA bracket drawing procedures is an easy excuse, but it's a flawed one in something this important.
The Mocs beat El Cid and won the SoCon, but UTC draws top-seeded Jacksonville State in round two. The Citadel is pointed toward No. 8-seeded Charleston Southern in round two.
And yes, we're certain that Russ Huesman would be quick to remind everyone that a) none of that matters unless they win the first-round game with Fordham, and b) if the Mocs are going to win it all they would likely have to beat Jacksonville State at some point any way.
Still, the NCAA, in all its infinite clumsiness never fails to make decisions that make you wonder if they are really paying attention to much of anything.
(Side note: We normally have Coach Huesman on Press Row right around 3:15, but because of Vandy basketball on ESPN 105.1, Press Row will start a couple of hours late. Our plan is to get going right around 5 today.)
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This and that
- Jim Foster's Mocs at Lady Vols tonight. If we set the line UT minus-11, whatcha got?
- We had five pretty good winners for the weekend, but somehow did not put Cam Newton in there, who only threw for five TDs. Or Tony Romo, who led the Cowboys to a win in his first start since week 2.
UTC women's head basketball coach Jim Foster shouts from the sidelines in the 2nd half of the Mocs' NCAA tournament basketball game against the Pittsburgh Panthers on Saturday, March 21, 2015, at the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn.- Another weekend, another round of NFL officiating controversies. From the real - Cincy coach Marvin Lewis was miffed about this call - to the ludicrous - Washington's Jason Hatcher believes the team's controversial nickname leads to biased calls from refs - the league again is plagued by questionable calls.
- We mentioned Vandy, and the 'Dores have the chance for something we can't recall in our many seasons on entertainment hunting. If the under hits in the Vandy-UT game, it would mean the under was 11-0-1 in Vandy games this year. We can't recall any team or over/under going unbeaten in a single season against the number.
- And yes, that was one of the easy four winners we had in the Fab 4 picks. We had Vandy under 42.5 (25 total points). We had Florida under 48 (34 total points with an overtime). We had Navy minus-10 (Middies won 44-21). We had Ole Miss minus-4.5 (Rebels won 38-17). Of our three losses, we lost UNC (minus-6) after Virginia Tech scored 14 points in the final 2:58 to force overtime. And we lost Georgia Tech (minus-1) after the Jackets lost their single most important player in quarterback Justin Thomas in the first five minutes of the game. So it goes. When the worst thing you can say about a week of entertainment hunting is that we were over-.500 (4-3) for the 10th time in 12 weeks, well, that's OK, right? We are now 46-32 - right at 59 percent - against the spread on the season.
- Fun night of high school football last Friday. Congrats to the local teams who advanced, and we watched Notre Dame play its best game of the season. Also, tip of the visor to East Ridge for a great season.
- The Dodgers appear set to hire Dave Roberts as their manager.
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Today's question
In 1863 on this day, the Battle of Chattanooga begins.
Also on this day in 1992, the first smart phone - IBM's Simon - was released.
That leads us to the following Rushmore: What's the Rushmore of modern-day items that would have stunned us 30 years ago?