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Weekend winners
High school football in Chattanooga, especially the Chattanooga Sports committee, which hosts the state football championships at Finley. Getting a Baylor-McCallie state title tilt is a monster. Over/under 20,000 at that game the weekend after Thanksgiving? It's going to be huge. Plus, there are some other great story lines ahead — Boo and Bradley, Rankin's Boyd-Buc bunch, SPitt trying to be SPitt again.
Georgia football, especially Carson Beck and Mike Bobo, the QB and the OC who limped through the growing pains of being new to the gig in September to now pulling the levers on a juggernaut. Any questions about who the best team in the country is? And even in a world in which there are currently five undefeated teams, Georgia has rightly earned the spot of only needing one win in its next two games to be in the playoff.
UTC football. Mocs make the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Man, what a long turnaround for a team that got waxed by North Alabama to open the season. Here's more from Gene Henley.
John Smoltz. Yeah, Smoltzie wins a lot of weekends. He had a Hall of Fame MLB career. He has one of the best jobs in sports as the lead MLB analyst for Fox. This weekend though, Smoltz earned a spot in the final round of the Q-school tournament for the PGA Champions Tour. Man, that would be a ton of fun, and don't you know the folks who run that Tour would love to have a star-power name like Smoltz be a regular?
Erin Matson. Wow, an NCAA natty as a head coach at the age of 23? Take that, Nick Saban.
Weekend losers
Hugh Freeze and Auburn. Period. This is the only answer. I feel like there does not need more to be said but for Freeze to be that overly out-coached — by a program that AU paid $1.5 million to New Mexico State to make the trip and whip their Tiger tails — is extremely disheartening. And troubling when you see on social media people asking, "Is this worse than any loss Harsin had?" and you know it.
College football playoff committee. FSU QB Jordan Travis' injury as the Seminoles head to The Swamp is bad enough. Plus we know Michigan or THE Ohio State will have a loss this weekend. It's impossible not to think Washington could very well be the underdog against Oregon, and then there is Alabama looming. As well as Texas. Chaos feels close.
Tennessee Titans. Yuck.
My picks. Wow, tough weekend around our crib. Did you know we lost three games by 1 point or less? Yep.
(Not sure anyone else reaches those levels to be honest.)
NFL craziness
The NFL is the best thing going, and it continued with a wall-to-wall, fun-filled Sunday.
It also now enters a week that it simply owns.
Tonight — Eagles-Chiefs with arguably the two best teams in football and potentially Taylor Swift in the house. ESPN is giddy.
Thanksgiving — We know the NFL owns that. Always has and always will, and the details of the NBC halftime documentary on John Madden's relationship with the Stingley family after Darryl was paralyzed in a preseason game against Madden's Raiders looks awesome in its awesomeness.
Black Friday — Yes, a Black Friday game that adds to the dotted afternoon college football options. Pass the turkey on white bread sandwich and a CoCola.
Back to Sunday — Rinse, later and repeat.
(Side note: With all the great rivalry college games sprinkled in, is this the best week for football of the year? Discuss.)
We'll get to teams in tomorrow's power poll, but there have to be some visor tips for a Sunday filled with grand performances, even if my predictions failed us.
— Dallas corner DaRon Bland got his fourth pick six of the season. Yes, four. That's amazing, and by comparison, no Atlanta Falcons offensive player has more than two TD catches this season.
— Joe Brady. Tough week in Buffalo. They fired the OC, Josh Allen was getting a lot of criticism. Brady, the former LSU mastermind, helps the Bills right the ship and trounce the Jets.
— The Cleveland defense. Wow, that's a salty group that is carrying the Browns toward the postseason.
— Detroit. The Lions at 8-2 — whether it's pretty or putrid — is a fun ride. Man, football in Michigan right now has gotta be a blast.
Question for the group: Which conference is better? Discuss.
This and that
— Man, Caitlin Clark, the Iowa hoops star, is fun to watch, and last night she became the record-holder for the most 30-point games in women's college hoops history. Is she top 10 all-time, because the first thought is sure, but that list is maybe more tough than the top 10 men's college hoops players ever.
— LeBron is doing some amazing things in regular-season NBA games at the tender age of 37. Last night he went 14-of-19 and finished with 37. Wow.
— You know the rules. Here's Paschall's SEC wrap column.
— With all the things happening, it's hard to find time for golf to win the weekend. Feuds. Frustration. Former friends fighting. Finger-pointing and failed formations. But this qualifies as word leaked this weekend that Tiger Woods is planning on getting back on the course.
Today's questions
Weekend winners and losers. Go.
As for today, Nov. 20, let's review.
Happy birthday, Mr. President. Joe Biden is 81 today.
The first successful tank was used in battle on this day in World War I in 1917.
Rushmore of "tanks" and be creative.