Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

Nice, LONG Thanksgiving weekend to review with various links and commentary.

Irvin in Trouble Again

While possession of drug parapenelia alone is hardly a serious offense, a Class C misdemeanor -- punishable by a fine of up to $500, it is Irvin's prior track record of serious drug use (crack, cocaine) and other run ins with the law that seems to be fueling the fire in this situation. I'm not exactly a huge Michael Irvin fan myself and I hardly want people to feel sorry for the guy. But let's not crucify him over this. He shouldn't be fired from ESPN. He's not Leonard Little. He's not Rae Carruth. He's not Dwayne Goodrich. I'm certainly not trying to call Michael Irvin a model citizen, but let's not blow this out of proportion like the media always tries to do. Luckily for Irvin, he IS the media as long as he is working for ESPN and it looks like they are going to stick behind him through this ordeal. Hell, they might get a bump in ratings as a result of this mess. I just hope this latest police blotter report is not going to be the tipping point for his critics to keep him out of the hall of fame. His critics were already calling his questionable character one of the main knocks against his hall of fame chances.


Moving on to college football, A WACKY final regular season of college football was full of close games, wild finishes and just bizarre outcomes. Let's recap:

An Ugly Win is Still a Win
I was in attendance on Friday when Texas was able to hang out to beat A&M in College Station, 40-29. Texas played it very vanilla on defense. Gene Chizik elected to play a base defense against the A&M option attack led by Mcneal replacement, Stephen McGee. The vanilla defensive game plan by Chizik almost proved costly as A&M shocking was able to move the ball with ease against the previously stout Texas defense. I tend to think this was just a flat performance (especially from the front 7), and once Texas finally started blitzing late in the 4th quarter, A&M finally was shut down.

Probably less alarming was the performance by VY at the quarterback position. He didn't have his best day throwing and was basically shut down completely with his running game, netting only 19 yards on 11 carries. Rumors have been rampant (Texas fans of course) that much of the team including VY was sick before and during the game on Friday. Kasey Studdard supposedly had a 103 fever during the game. Whatever the case, this was one uninspired performance against a fired up, nothing to lose Aggie team. As long as Texas stayes focused this week, I really see no reason to be alarmed about Friday's perforamnce against A&M.

Speaking of alarming, let's move topics to the rest of the big 12.

Biggest Choke -- Part I

Colorado needing a win to cline the big 12 north and playing as a 16 point favorite at home against a seemingly lifeless Nebraska team gets pummeled 30-3 in what can only be described as an outcome that further disgraces the pitiful big 12 north. After Colorado's loss, Iowa St. had a golden opporunity on Saturday to clinch the North with a win over Kansas, but the result was .....

Biggest Choke -- Part II

Iowa St. for the 2nd Straight year fails to finish the deal with a loss to Kansas in overtime 24-21. Look, I don't mean to pick on the teams in the North. But the credibility of the conference is really starting to wane as the North continues to fall further and further into mediocrity. Until Nebraska turns their program around, I really see no change to the trend we have been seeing the last few years. Kansas St. is never going to be as dominant as they were when the conference was in its infancy. Colorado will always be good but never great unless somehow magically Barnett is able to find out of state recruits to spurn regional ties to hometown schools. Mizzou is mizzou. They consider their season a succes if they get to a bowl game. Kansas is doing good for a basketball school but will never aspire to be much more than that. Iowa St. has a nice little program but Iowa will always be the dominant program in a state not blessed with enough talent to support two big time teams.

Because of the obviously problems created with such a talent gap between North/South, the big 12 needs to start evaluating itself and thinking about ways to improve its current situation or the conference may start to see a serious decline in the next 5-10 years.

Simmons discusses Karate Kid . This is a good read..... And while I've been on Sports Guy overload reaching new levels of weird when Z and Defee went to his book signing. I'd like to see a see review of his book by the way....


How good is Brady Quinn?
Notre Dame has had a rennaisance type season under head coach Charlie Weis. Dunn's dad (an ND alum) is predicting multiple MNCs. Supposedly, recruiting is just taking off right now for ND. Whatever the future holds, Brady Quinn sticking around for next season would be a good place to start. Another season under Weis couldn't hurt Quinn, who I would proj ect as a 1st rounder, probably top 15 pick right now. Of course,Jeff Samardzija may be the best athlete in college athletics right now. A first round type baseball talent at pitcher, Samardzija will have his choice of football or baseball at the next level. I'm not going to rule out him doing both at this point. He's that good.