Yardbarker: Colt McCoy

College Week 7 recap: Tommy Bowden resigns!

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:13:14 -0500

By Nostradamus. Hold on to your hats, this is looking to be like a frenzied finish for the ages. So what did we learn in Week 7 of College Football? 1) You can't spell ouch without OU. 2) The best team in Missouri history just isn't good enough. 3) Okie State might be ready for primetime. 4) Texas Tech has some work to do. 5) Penn State is legit. 6) LSU was exposed. 7) Florida is back in the race. 8) Texas is for real, and 9) Tommy Bowden has resigned. Texas: The 'Horns were down 14-3. Then Jordan Shipley returned a kickoff return 96 yards for a TD. The 'Horns were back in it. Then a dagger-like 52-yard TD reception by OU's stud TE Jermaine Gresham followed less than three minutes later. In the past, this is about when you would have expected Texas to just rollover. At least without Vince Young, right? Enter in the gunslinger: Colt McCoy. Donning the name made for an Old West Shootout, Colt picked the 'Horns up and threw them on his back. For the remainder of the second quarter, down 21-10, Colt drove them to a 12- play 80-yard TD and a six- play 51-yard field goal to make the halftime score 21-20, and the 'Horns just weren't going to go away this time. In one of the best Red River games in recent memory, Colt and the 'Horns outlasted Bradford and the Sooners. Their reward?...

Your Week Seven Pammy Nominees

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:28:20 -0500

Every Monday you will have anywhere from ten to twenty quotes to pick from and your votes will decide our weekly winner and ultimately the grand champion. I'll have the winners and new standings up tomorrow and be sure to cast your vote at the bottom.

I was out of the loop for the entire day, but both S2N and all of you commenters killed it! I pulled a grand total of seventeen quotes to select from Here they are in no particular order....choose wisely!

The Pam Ward Chronicles: Week Seven

1. "(North Carolina mascot) Ramses had a hard night, I guess. Looks like what Paul looked like this morning when we got in the car to come to the stadium." - Brad Nessler
"I bet his breath's better than mine!" - Paul Maguire

2. "Colt McCoy's numbers are better than Vince Young's when he won the Heisman." - Lou Holtz (Vince Young never won the Heisman)

3. "Here's a question, Kirk: were those pigs wearing lipstick?" - Brent Musburger, as we get a shot of pigs in cages, ready to race

4."Dantley pulled out a littler early." - Larry Coker

5. "The big news this week in Auburn was Tim Tuberville's decision to fire the offensive coordinator." - Verne Lundquist not realizing the coach's name is actually Tommy

6."My man [Mark] Sanchez, does like Chase from Entourage." - Terry Gannon

7. "Is it [the game] taking your mind off the economy, folks?" - Brent Musburger

8. "They're operating with almost one hand tied behind their back in the red zone against this OU defense." - Kirk Herbstreit, ignoring that Texas had already scored 20 points -- they added another touchdown a play later

9. "This game had a lot of potential at the start. Potential is like popcorn in the microwave, some pop some don't." - Mark Jones

10. "College Football Prime Time here on ESPN...excuse me, I'm going to sneeze. (Sneezes.) My apologies. (Sneezes again.) Isn't television great?" - Mike Patrick
"You're a man of your word." - Todd Blackledge

11. "I had a [corny-dog] eating contest with our producer Bob Goodrich, and it was 12 to 14." - Brent Musburger, referencing the Texas State Fair

12. "And Plain White Ts bring us into the second half here at Lawrence." - Joe Tessitore
"Are they the ones who did the "Delilah"? - Rod Gilmore

13. "All of those orange fans up there. I would say to our players, they wear orange so they can cheer for their team. They'll wear the same orange outfit tomorrow to go hunting. And they'll wear the same orange outfit the last five days of the week in order to pick up trash."- Lou Holtz

14. "They're warming up their booze ... I mean boos not booze booze." - Paul Maguire

15. "My partner Steve Beurlein is breaking out in a hot rash." - Craig Bolerjack

16. "Some of that might be Casey Clausen's cadence." - Brad Nessler referring to Jimmy Clausen drawing an offsides on UNC

17. "You're talking about one game. One damn game. The guy was not, the guy was....the guy WAS NOT a good quarterback last year. It was very disappointing. We're talking about the best quarterback. Not who had the best day! Not who had the weakest damn schedule!!!"- Lou Holtz, after losing the debate segment on Colt McCoy vs. Tim Tebow
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Winners and Losers from CFB Week 7

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:59:54 -0500

"Showdown Saturday" certainly lived up to all expections, as College Football produced some great, exciting finishes this past weekend. We also are beginning to get a clear picture on which schools are the BCS "heavyweights" just in time for the first BCS rankings (next Sunday). With that in mind, let's get to the Winners & Losers, as seen through the eyes of College Football Palace.

Lou Holtz Goes Off On Colt McCoy During Late Night Segment

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:36:07 -0500

I was going to make the title "Lou Holtz Temporarily Loses His Mind", but I'm pretty sure it's officially gone at this point. Holtz was doing the late night College Football show with Rece Davis and Mark May late Saturday night/early Sunday, when they decided to have a little debate. Holtz had Tim Tebow, May had Texas QB Colt McCoy and Davis was moderator. Watch as Lou, who thinks they've gone to commercial, flips out after Davis gave the win to May following the debate. Via CFT...

That was just amazingly awkward and somehow still hilarious! The guy never ceases to amaze me. I think I'm going to coin a new term in this spot and that is the "Trainwreckability Scale" (which has no affiliation with Simmons' "Unintentional Comedy Scale"). Right now Lou Holtz's trainwreckabiltiy is sitting at an easy 95 out of 100. After his pep talk this week, he could shoot past 100.

Oh and the other thing is.....he was right. Colt McCoy was not a great QB last year and there were no stipulations about the debate being just for this year or just for one game.

ESPN's Lou Holtz Apologize For Anti-McCoy Tirade (College Football Talk)
Lou Holtz Loves Tim Tebow "DAMNIT!!!" (BSO)

20 Takeaways from Watching 20 hours of football

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:04:49 -0500

20 devoted hours spent bonding with my couch and 2 tv's this weekend. What did I learn? Texas has a tough schedule coming up, The Lions invent new ways to lose, the all time NFL scoring leaders list doesn't have room for Jerry Rice but does for Jason Hanson, some big time coaches are feeling the heat in the SEC, and much much more.

Texas Hooks Sooners, Claims No. 1 In Polls

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:54:53 -0500

So who is number one now? Obviously, that's open to debate and I doubt anyone really knows which team in college football deserves to be ranked No. 1. I believe Texas has earned the right to be No. 1 after beating previously unbeaten Oklahoma 45-35 in Saturday's Red River Shootout.

Bizarro College Football Season Returns For An Encore

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:28:25 -0500

If you really need any more proof of the parity invading the college football landscape being a more permanent thing rather than a one-year aberration, please see the results from this week, where three of the top five teams got knocked off their perches today.

Texas knocks off Oklahoma, 45-35: The Red River Shootout (I'm not calling it the Rivalry) lived up to the billing: Sam Bradford led Oklahoma into position early with the hurry-up offense, but he threw a couple picks, and Colt McCoy led the parade as Texas locked it down with a great fourth quarter, particularly Chris Ogbonnaya, who broke off a 60-yard run on his way to 127 yards on the day.

Oklahoma State takes Mizzou down: Who knew the Cowboys had a defense? We were expecting a shootout in the range of both teams scoring in the 40s, but what we wound up was a 28-23 final score in which the Cowboys' D threw Chase Daniel's rhythm off at crucial points with its ferocity, forcing him into three picks on the day, two of them late and on crucial drives. You may turn in your Heisman candidate card here, sir.

The Swamp engulfs LSU: Les Miles' crew looked kind of listless going into Gainesville, and the Gators made them pay for it. Tim Tebow hit Percy Harvin early and often, and got assistance on the ground from both Will Demps and Chris Rainey. LSU made it close by getting to 20-14 in the third, but the Gators picked Jarrett Lee a couple times and held the LSU rushing game to not much. Final score: 51-21.

Other games of note:

If you missed the Nebraska-Texas Tech tilt and it was on your Fox Sports stations, shame on you. It wasn't a runaway, as Nebraska showed some offensive firepower behind Joe Ganz and took the Red Raiders to overtime. Tech scored first and then picked off Ganz to end it.
Penn State destroys Wisconsin at Camp Randall, going exponential on the Badgers by a score of 49-7. Wisky, originally a dark horse favorite in Big Televen circles, is 0-3 in the conference while the Nittany Lions will likely be at 3 or 4 in the AP poll come Monday.
UNC stops all that talk about Notre Dame being in top 25 polls, using their third-string QB in Cam Sexton, one wideout, and a ferocious D that got turnovers even as the Irish topped the Tar Heels in yardage.
Ohio State beat Purdue without scoring an offensive touchdown, which doesn't bode well for future games.
This Day In Schadenfreude: Watching Michigan lose to a MAC team for the first time via a missed field goal at the last second. Toledo is now a 2-4 MAC team. Obviously, it looks bad for Rich Rodriguez, as no one on that team seems able to run his system.
USC shuts out Arizona State 28-0, thus sending ASU further down the abyss and equally frustrating fans still dealing with the fact that this is a team that lost to Oregon State again. (It doesn't help that the Pac-10 continues to be a sea of mediocrity; please see Arizona losing to Stanford to prove the point.)
I guess firing Tony Franklin wasn't the solution Tommy Tuberville had hoped for. Arkansas held on 25-22 over Auburn, thanks to the Tigers' crapulent offense and dual-quarterback system throwing three picks and completing fewer than half of its passes.
Georgia takes care of the Vols 26-14, but if there's any encouragement for beleaguered Tennessee fans, it's that Nick Stephens looks a damn sight better at QB than Jonathan Crompton ever did. His 207 yards and 2 TDs were good, but it would have helped if Tennessee could have established a running game -- they had a sorry 1 yard of rushing on the day thanks to Georgia's D.
The Nerd Alert returns to semi-normal in the sport: Vanderbilt got Croomed by Mississippi State, as the Bulldogs held the Commodores to not much more than 100 yards of total offense. Michigan State rammed Javon Ringer down Northwestern's collective gullet in Evanston to hand them their first loss.

College Football Refs - Is it Possible that They are Getting Worse?

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:21:00 -0500

They always say that it will get better, but it always seems to get worse. 'It' equals 'College Football Officiating. Year after year, conference heads of officiating vow to look at game film and procure ways to improve the calls and methods of making calls that drive coaches, players, and fans crazy. And, year after year, those vows fail to prove fruitful. This makes one ask: what's the problem?

College Football Tailgate - Big 12 Shootout

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:15:44 -0500

Texas and Oklahoma square off in a game that has serious national championship implications. In other action, LSU takes on Florida and the best team you've never heard of tries to stay unbeaten.

College football weekend preview

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:09:53 -0500

by WCT, The Ship of Fools

Week seven is one of those weeks you dream about as a college football fan. There are literally great games non-stop from 12 noon in the east, on into the night. It is a smorgasbord of conference matchups, ranked team face-offs, rivalry throw-downs.

This weekend's slate is so stacked, ESPN will likely give it a stupid alliterative nickname like "Showdown Saturday!" or "Separation Saturday!" or other such garbage. Nevertheless, this is one of the weeks that we circled when the schedules came out. We have Big 12 powerhouses facing off in their first true tests, a primetime Big Ten battle that could produce an upset (but probably not), a Pac-10 matchup that looked great in August and still looks halfway decent now, the-game-of-the-century-of-the-day, and then later, the-game-of-the-century-of-the-night! It is a couch potato's (or in my case bar-stool-potato's) dream!

All times eastern
Texas vs. Oklahoma (-6.5) at Dallas, TX - Noon - This week is not for the faint of heart, therefore the schedule makers do not ease into the slate. No, we get the all-day party started bright and early with the Red River Shootout. If you haven't noticed the stellar quarterback play in the Big 12, check this game out, because it will be on display with Sam Bradford of OU and Colt McCoy of Texas. Everyone knows how impressive Oklahoma has been this year, in blowing out everyone they have faced, including 2 BCS conference teams (albeit Cinci and Washington) and crushing a ranked team (albeit TCU). However, less has been made of Texas, who hasn't allowed more than 14 in any game this year. The spread here seems to be the result of fans blindly betting on the #1 team without examining how evenly matched these teams really are. Not enough has been made of Texas' stingy defense, and I think that D will keep the 'horns in this game. Oklahoma wins, but close.

Vanderbilt (-2.5) at Mississippi State - 2:30pm - Some spread, huh? They are just begging you to take Vandy (this game actually opened at 1.5!). The oddsmakers made a huge mistake last week (Michigan -2), can they possibly make 2 mistakes in a row? Fine, I got burned last week, this week I'm taking the bait. Load up on Vandy.

Notre Dame at North Carolina (-7.5) - 3:30pm - I included this game because I believe it is a top-25 play-in game for the Irish. If ND can go on the road and beat a much improved Tar Heal squad, I think they make their first appearance in the polls next week. If you remember, I ~~foolishly~~ boldly predicted the Irish would make a BCS game this year. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Take ND.

Arizona at USC (-26.5) - 3:30pm - I guess I should include at least one Pac-10 game on this preview every week. So...here it its. Take the Trojans.

actually, maybe that should be my standard template for Pac-10 game previews each week: "Here is the game between [insert team name] and USC, take the Trojans."

Penn State (-5.5) at Wisconsin - 8pm - For the second consecutive week, Wisconsin is an underdog in a home night game. I guess those fans in "Mad-town" aren't getting as drunk and rowdy as we thought. Apparently opposing teams are no longer intimidated by "Jump Around." Or, the Badgers are just not a very good football team. This team came into the season with a lot of promise, and went into the locker room at halftime in Ann Arbor looking like a competitor for the Big Ten Championship. Nothing has gone right for them since. We really should have seen this coming, as this team had trouble with Fresno State and let Marshall hang around into the second half (before exploding and eventually winning 51-14). I see no reason to pick this Wisconsin team over an undefeated Nittany Lions crew, so it looks like the Badgers will be 0-3 and in the Big Ten cellar.

Oklahoma State at Missouri (-14) - 8pm - Did you know that Missouri has not had a single drive this year that ended in a 3-and-out? This offense is staggering. But make no mistake, the Cowboys' offense is just as good, averaging 52.6 points per game to the Tigers' 53.4 (could we possibly see a triple-digit over/under? I've never seen that). Everyone knows about Mizzou's Chase Daniel, but how much do you know about Ok State's Zac Robinson? Robinson has a QB rating over 200 (I didn't know that was possible) and has 10 TD passes to only 3 INTs. While the two teams seem pretty even on paper, the Cowboys, who are much improved, have gotten fat playing Washington State, Texas A&M, and other such tomato cans. Missouri, on the other hand, has beaten Illinois on a neutral field, and gone into Nebraska and beaten the 'huskers in their own house. I will lay the points and take the Tigers.

LSU at Florida (-6.5) - 8pm - This is turning into one of the most entertaining yearly rivalry games of the season. Last year in Baton Rouge was a classic. This year, in three out of the last four games, Florida has been somewhat underwhelming. First was the win over Miami that was very close until the end, when Urban Meyer went for a late FG -- presumably to beat the spread -- but the game was actually in doubt in the 4th quarter. Then there was the win over a horrific Arkansas team. Arkansas had the ball, down 17-7 late in the game with a chance to make the Gators sweat, before crapping all over themselves and losing 38-7. And of course there was the 31-30 home loss to Ole Miss. LSU had a close win at Auburn a couple weeks back, but that win looks a lot less impressive in the context of the pathetic offensive performances that Auburn has put up of late. 3, 21, 14, 13 are the scores that Auburn has accounted for in their last 4 games. That's 51 points. That's less than Missouri averages per game. Take away that win, and LSU hasn't really looked too impressive lately either. Both teams look pretty evenly matched, but I believe Florida has the edge because of home field, the revenge factor after last-year's game, and the motivation provided by LSU DT Ricky Jean-Francois. Pros may not respond to crap like that, but college kids do. Take Florida.

SEC or Big XII: Who's the Best?

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:53:35 -0500

The SEC is the best conference in college football…or is it? The Big XII has the #1 team in the nation and 3 of the top 5 teams. So which is better? Read and vote.

This Week = Money

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:31:14 -0500

"Separation" Saturday? Last week? Weak. This week? Matchup-wise, it's the opposite. I have yet to hear to cliche that ESPN has dubbed this coming week. "Separation Saturday" sounds typical enougha?? That's really what this weekend is, particularly in the SEC East and the Big XII XI. In the East, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee all face "must-wins" according [...]

NCAA Football Week 7 Picks (Last Week: 17-2, Overall: 25-9)

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:12:25 -0500

A brilliant week for the Pine Rider last week, nailing 17 of the 19 games. My two misses were USF's loss to Pitt and Fresno's debacle against Hawaii. This weekend there is a whole bucket load of great games, and unless your gonna be dragged out into the beautiful fall weather to do some outdoor activity by your wonderful spouse as I may be, your football lovin' arse should be planted firmly on your couch because every time slot has some great matchups to watch.

Red River Rivalry History: Oklahoma Sooners vs Texas Longhorns

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:49:16 -0500

This is a history of the rivalry between the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns as they're set to face off in their 103rd meeting this Saturday. Their rivalry goes back to 1900 when they met for the first time ever. The Red River Rivalry has seen some great moments and star players on both sides. History, facts, numbers, and my favorite memories as a Sooners fan in this rivalry are included in this post. If you're a fan of either team or of college football, then you'll enjoy this article. Thanks for viewing!

Hello, Heisman! Week 7 Frontrunners

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:56:44 -0500

Formerly found at Fantasy Insider Online, writer Dan Mesday has moved over to the new FIO spinoff website - Draft365. Building off its popularity at FIO, here is the Weekly Heisman watch.