For What It's Worth: All Eyes are on the Chase

Saturday night is Championship Saturday. There will be three conference championship games played, and many will be interested in the Big 12 Conference Championship Game for two reasons. First, if Missouri wins the Big 12 Championship Game, they will be headed to New Orleans for the BCS National Title Game. Second, they will be watching Missouri QB Chase Daniel's last audition for the Heisman. Daniel needs this game for the trophy. By all indications, the Heisman chase is down to Daniel, Tim Tebow of Florida, and Darren McFadden of Arkansas. I think most voters will wait until after that game to decide. McFadden has been on the list all year based on his second place in the voting last year, and Tebow has put up "Superman" like numbers and performances all year. But, Daniel is the newcomer. He had a great year last year, but he was unknown. This year, he has played great and has his team on the verge of a conference championship and a shot at the National Title. And, based on recent Heisman winners, that is the kind of year voters like to see.

However, with the kind of year we have seen in College Football, a Mizzou loss is just as likely. In fact, Oklahoma is favored to beat Mizzou. That would put Heisman voters in a dilemma. Heisman voters have a recent record for voting for the most outstanding player on a team in the National Title Game. Neither McFadden nor Tebow will be in the National Title Game. Florida has 9 wins and Arkansas has 8. Florida played better all year than Arkansas. But, McFadden had two of the most "super human" performances of the year. Against South Carolina, McFadden rushed for 323 yards, had a rushing TD and a passing TD. And, again McFadden led the Hogs of an upset over Top Ranked LSU the day after Thanksgiving with 206 yards rushing, 2 rushing TD's and one passing TD. However, Tebow had stats like that all year. Tebow has 29 pass TD's and 22 rush TD's. Tebow's biggest weakness, for the Heisman Trophy voters, is that he is a Sophomore. That might have been the same weakness that cost McFadden the trophy last year.

The dilemma could be avoided if Chase Daniel has a humongous game for Missouri and they win the Big 12 Title and advance to the National Championship. Everyone will be watching, including, most likely, all 923 voters for the Heisman.


Next Up

Let the coaching carousel begin. Several coaches have resigned, been fired or "retired." Arkansas' Houston Nutt had already resigned and found a new job by Tuesday night. Speculation surrounds the Michigan job and the LSU coach Les Miles. Texas A&M has already hired Mike Sherman to replace Dennis Francione. Southern Miss's Jeff Bower has resigned after 17 years. There are other jobs up for grabs, and it should be an interesting few weeks.

Top Ten Things I'm Thankful For

There are a lot of things to be thankful. More could be mentioned, but here are my top ten.

10. Pumpkin Pie--Hey, I have to start somewhere. I'm not sure if it's my favorite pie, but I'm gonna eat a piece later.

9. Coffee--I have come to appreciate the finer things in life. It gets me going in the morning. I like Community and Eight O'Clock Coffee from the store and the coffee of my friends at Panther City Coffee in Fort Worth.

8. Being a Graduate of Williams Baptist College--I thought I'd give them a little love. Williams is in Northeast Arkansas and may be Arkansas' "Best Kept Secret" for small private colleges.

7. Autumn--It usually means that the hot Texas summers are almost over. Cooler weather has arrived. It was 37 degrees this morning, in Fort Worth! It also means that the holidays are near.

6. Thanksgiving Day Off--I am thankful for the day off on Thanksgiving. I don't know how much longer that will last. I know other people have to work on Thanksgiving.

5. Football on Thanksgiving--This is a sports blog, right? Even if it is the NFL, it's still football on Thanksgiving. And, the Cowboys put on quite a show at halftime. This year is Burleson's (TX) own Kelly Clarkson.

4. Living in the Greatest Country in the World--This is the country where every year the President pardons a turkey the week of Thanksgiving. That's great stuff.

3. College Football--I think it helps me relax on Saturday night after work. The passion, the pageantry, and the atmosphere (I couldn't come up with another P word) is unparalleled.

2. Family--What do you do without family? If I spent Thanksgiving with my mom and dad and brother in Conway, AR, we would eat at my brother's house and then go to my dad's to watch the football games on his big, Hi Def TV. That's cool. But even better, I get to spend Thanksgiving with my Wife.

1. Faith--My faith has been a little shaky for the past few years, but I hang in there. I might get angry at God, but He is my only hope. Faith in Jesus makes thanks giving more possible. I hope you have hope through Jesus, and I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving.

For What It's Worth: I'm Thankful

If you were a regular follower of this site, all 1.5 of you, you noticed I stopped updating and posting a top ten poll back in October. There are a couple of main reasons for this.

First, I just did not have enough time. I wish that I was a sports writer. It would be cool to be paid to go to games and then write about what I saw. I know that there is more to it than that, but I might be willing to put up with all of the "suffering" that goes along with it. My favorite college football writer is Stewart Mandel from SI.com. I really do think that he is pretty balanced in his writing, and I agree with him most of the time. If you like college football and are intrigued with the hot topics that give it so much passion, then you might check out Stewart's book. Back to reason number one, time. I, like so many who have blogs etc., have a full time job. I also have other projects going. Therefore, it became difficult for me to do the research necessary to keep up with one of the most changing years in college football. Last year when I did the poll, I think I missed one or two weeks. Basically, I set up my top ten and adjusted it when teams lost, which was not nearly as often as this year. Not only were teams losing this year, but they were losing to unranked teams. The changes were fast and often.

Second, I just couldn't see enough games. My computer wasn't working well during this stretch which kept me from seeing any highlights and researching teams in which I just couldn't see on TV. In order to run a college football site, one needs to have some kind of cable TV (with Saturday off) and/or a good access to the internet. Well I work on Saturdays and I don't have cable TV. Cable TV accounts for about 85% of the games being televised (my observation). I live in Fort Worth, TX, and I have only seen TCU play once, at a friends home. Cable packages, of course, are not customizable where one can customize it for a lot of sports channels. Maybe I'll get cable again someday, but right now I'd rather have internet.

So, why I am thankful in light of this. That I have a job. Of course, it might be more fun if my job was writing about sporting events, but I have a job. Not being able to keep up with my blog means that I was busy because of my job, which have. The job allows us to eat, have internet access, cell phone, pay bills, and almost everything I really need. I have been without one before, and it really makes it tough. It might not be my ideal job, but at least it is one I can do well, and one I like most of the time. I am able to laugh at work. With my fellow workers and my supervisors. I have access to almost all things relating to entertainment. I have been fortunate to meet some really nice people, some local celebrities. I have some very smart and very thoughtful customers. My company, Borders Books, provides me with some benefits. Today, my wife and I will go eat Thanksgiving lunch, and we will be able to pay for it.

I apologize to readers for dropping the ball, fumbling if you will. If I continue this blog, it will have to take a different direction. I am in the process of figuring that out. If you have any suggestions, click on on contact link on the homepage and email me your ideas. I am thinking about keeping my articles and having various top tens. One idea is the Top Ten Surprises in 2007. Those kinds of things. That keeps the site more true to the domain name. There are many polls out there, from the "professionals" to the serious bloggers. I might defer my poll making to those guys. Maybe I will provide a one stop shop for polls or a list of links to find the best polls. I figure that I can write what I think about college football based on what I observe through the games I see on TV, read about in the paper, and read on the internet. It is certainly harder for me to know about teams from other areas of the country than the ones near North Texas. Therefore, I will be brainstorming on how to make this a viable site which works for my time and energies. Just because I had a fumble, it doesn't mean the game is over.

The end of the season is here. The final few weeks are left, and there is still a lot of season changing games left on the schedule. And then, of course, it become bowl season.