Catching Back Up

Lot's of news around the league since I have been gone on vacation, so we will do our best to catch up this morning. Internet connections were spotty at best down there due to the tail end of a hurricane that gave us a few days of rain.

As you know Dirk Koetter has lost his job at ASU and the Devil's are set to announce a replacement as soon as today. Seems like they are looking toward an NFL assistant with Arizona roots.

Bill Moos is stepping down at Oregon which is a surprise to most outside the program but not to those within. The rift between him and Phil Knight has grown over the past few years so Oregon needed to head in a new direction if they were going to continue tapping Uncle Phil's wallet. How that affects Bellotti is uncertain but if an NFL job comes up, or another plum college job he might be looking for some new scenery too.

We were able to watch the USC/Notre Dame game via ABC in Jamaica and the Irish were unable to play up to the same standard as many Pac Ten teams did against USC this year. Notre Dame under Weis is a mirage coupled with a weak schedule. Weis still hasn't beaten anyone he wasn't supposed to since he has been in South Bend.

Mike Shula was fired at Alabama which is pretty strange. Seemed to me he was doing a good job with a team that was struggling through some serious sanctions in the SEC. Changing coaches was not what Alabama needed, what they needed was continuity to rebuild through the garbage of past years. Look for Bama to go hard after Steve Spurrier, but I think Spurrier stays at the other USC.

Larry Coeker of course as expected was fired by Miami which was no suprise to anyone since they had to name a scapegoat after all the on, and off field problems staking that program. Could the Hurricane's turn to Rick Neuheisel? That would shake things up in South Florida.

Michigan State hired Mark Dantonio from Cincinnatti which was a pretty smooth move. He had the Bearcats playing pretty tough this past season. Dantonio becomes the ninth Michigan State coach since Duffy Daugherty left after the 1972 season. Michigan State is barely above .500 since and has won eight or more games in consecutive seasons just once, with one Rose Bowl appearance. See what lack of continuity can do to a once proud program?

Oregon St finished the season 8-4 after beating Oregon 30-28 in the Civil War. OSU still has a tough game coming up to finish what will be a 13 game regular season with a visit to Hawaii this week. For Mike Riley who was on the ropes before the Washington game it was a very fine way to finish the season. For Oregon it was a disspaointing end to a football season that saw a lot of high's and low's. This could be the year that Bellotti moves on if the right gig opens up.

Texas A&M beat Texas in a calssic game that announced the return of the Aggie's back to the national picture. The Aggie defense just stifled the Horn's....Rutgers finished a strong 11-1 and just missed out on going undefeated after hiccupping against the Bearcats the previous week. Schiano is a candidate for about every job that opens on the Eastern seaboard this offseason. Rutgers has the money to keep him if he wants to stay....Rich Brooks took Kentucky to a 7-5 record this season....nice way to rebuild a dead program in the nations toughest conference. Ste Spurrier did the same at the other USC, and the season ending win over Clemson could signal the end of Bowdens in the ACC....Oklahoma finished the year 10-2 and goes away realizing that the Oregon travesty is the one thing that kept them out of a potential national championship game.

BCS Bowl Predictions

Wisconsin is the odd man out in the BCS this year. The Badgers fell victim to a BCS rule that only allows two teams from the same conference to participate in BCS Bowl games. the object of the BCS is to create a a true #1 vs #2 than divvy up the rest of the cash as evenly as possible rather than have the best teams in the country square off. I for one am in favor of a modified playoff.

BCS Championship....Ohio State vs USC
Fiesta Bowl....Oklahoma vs Boise State
Rose Bowl.... Michigan vs LSU
Orange Bowl....Georgia Tech vs Louisvile
Sugar Bowl....Florida vs Notre Dame