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Sam Cotton

It’s interesting that Nebraska has to look to the far reaches of the country to pull in the Class of 2012.

Mohammed Seisayis well-traveled. Originally from West Springfield, VA, he spent a year at Fork Union Football Factory before playing for Memphis in 2010 – garnishing C-USA All-Freshman Team. Next he was off to Eastern Arizona Junior College in lovely Thatcher, Arizona. Now he lands in Lincoln.

Zaire Anderson played juco ball in Riverside, CA. He is originally from Philadelphia, PA.

Two players, Thomas Brown and Corey Whitaker, will have to travel 1500 miles from the Los Angeles area to play for the Huskers. Bo Pellini also got a rare pick out of the deep south snaring Imani Cross from the Atlanta, GA area (about 1000 miles).

Other states represented: Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Louisiana, Missouri, Utah and a pair from Texas.

* Ratings from Rivals.

Looking at the schedule of Illinois, I am thinking there needs to be a rule about the number of home games a team can have. The Illini have eight games (out of 12 total) at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, IL including five straight to begin the season. By comparison, Texas and Wisconsin each have six in the their home stadiums. Most BCS schools have seven but smaller schools with more to prove like UNLV and the Florida Atlantic Owls have five.

How good is Wisconsin and Russell Wilson?

It is really hard to say right now. The Badgers have outscored three opponents 135 to 24. However, the defeated teams were the UNLV Rebels, the Oregon State Beavers and Northern Illinois Huskies.

• Vegas is a bad team. The Rebs lost even worse to Washington State 59-7 and a home loss to Hawaii 40-20.
• Oregon State lost to Sacramento State! ‘Nuff said.
• The Huskies beat Army but lost to Kansas – who was just destroyed by Georgia Tech
  

The latest challenge for the Badgers? The mighty Coyotes of South Dakota! I guess we will have to wait until October 1st when Nebraska Cornhuskers pay a visit to Camp Randall Stadium.

As Auburn proved, a team can come out of nowhere and win the National Championship.

The way I see it, 2011 is a three horse race between Alabama, LSU and Oklahoma. It will become a two horse race after November 5th when LSU travels to Tuscaloosa. I expect the winner of that game to go onto New Orleans and beat the Sooners.

The rest:
Boise – Schedule is too weak. The only way they get in the big game is if all the big boys have 2 or more losses.
Stanford – I know everyone is in love with Andrew Luck, but his head coach is gone and historically hyped players have a less than stellar follow-up season: Mark Ingram, Tim Tebow, Jake Locker, etc.
Florida State – With a weak ACC, the Seminoles could sneak in there if they beat Oklahoma.
Oregon – After losing bad to LSU, it’s going to be tough to get back in the mix.
Arkansas – if they can go undefeated (Alabama, LSU, Texas A&M, Auburn. MSU, S Carolina) they deserve the BCS birth.
Wisconsin – The Badgers could sneak in the back door behind NC State transfer QB Russell Wilson but they will have to go through Nebraska and back-to-back road games versus Michigan State and Ohio State. Then there is the inaugural Big Ten Championship Game.
Nebraska – The Cornhuskers basically the same story as Wisconsin but have OSU & MSU at home. October 10th in Madison, WI will be huge.

Okay, how can you have a Military Bowl with no military teams in it? Oh well. Maryland (8-4) vs. East Carolina (6-6) Washington D.C. Dec. 29 2:30 p.m. ESPN zzzzzz…

Texas Bowl Wake me when it’s over. Illinois (6-6) vs. Baylor (7-5) Houston, Tex. Dec. 29 6 p.m. ESPN

Alamo Bowl Unlike the original Alamo, the Cowboys win this one big. Oklahoma State (10-2) vs. Arizona (7-5) San Antonio, Tex. Dec. 29 9:15 p.m. ESPN

Why is the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas? There is nothing about that city that makes me think of the Armed Forces. It seems to me they are preying on our patriotism.  SMU (7-6) vs. Army (6-5)    Dec. 30 Noon ESPN

Pinstripe Bowl Who thought outdoor sports in New York City in December was a good idea? Football at Yankee Stadium has been done. It was boring. So are these teams. Kansas St. (7-5) vs. Syracuse (7-5) Bronx, N.Y. Dec. 30 3:20pm ESPN

Music City Bowl North Carolina disappointed to be 7-5 vs. Tennessee thrilled to be 6-6. Nashville, Tenn. LP Field Dec. 30 6:40pm ESPN

Holiday Bowl Oh, come on now! Hasn’t Washington’s Jake Locker (6-6) suffered enough from his stupid decision to return for his senior year? Nebraska (10-3) romps. San Diego Qualcomm Stadium Dec. 30 10pm ESPN

This was an odd weekend. There were not a lot of high profile games and no real upsets.

Several teams were on the brink of big upsets and blew it:

#5 LSU survived Ole Miss 43-36. The Rebels led 36-35 with under 5 to play.

#17 Iowa seemed pretty content to lead #9 Ohio State 17-10 in the 4^th because they could not stop the Buckeye offense after that while twice going three-and-out. Final: OSU 20 Iowa 17.

San Diego State was up on #23 Utah 34-24 but details are what usually separate good teams from not so good teams. After the Utes cut the lead to 3, they blocked a 4^th quarter punt and recovered it on the 3 yard line. You know what’s next.

Purdue on the brink of a big win over #12 Michigan State blew a 15 point 4^th quarter lead. The Spartans took the win 35-31.

HAHAs:

#8 Nebraska proved once again, they are NOTHING without quarterback Taylor Matrinez. Texas A&M wins 9-6.

The Big 10 looked like chumps this week. With Illinois playing Northwestern at Wrigley Field, it should have been a great celebration of college football, but they turned it into big friggin’ joke. First was the release of photos of the playing field showing one end line ¼ of a stride from a brick wall. Then the Big 10, Illinois and Northwestern officials knocked their three stooges heads together two days before kickoff and decided it was unsafe – this coming months after all had approved everything. Both teams were forced to attack the west end zone – even on a Northwestern interception return, the refs made the Wildcats go to the other end to kick the extra point – as well as sharing a sideline. The Big 10 looked like idiots.

I cannot sign-off without throwing out the HAHA of the Week: Lame Kiffin and his lame-o daddy D-coordinator lost to Oregon State 36-7. Pat Haden would be best served to give Kiffin and his goons (coaching staff) pink slips and start fresh in 2011.

After their debacle in Norman, Oklahoma, Florida State reeled off five straight wins against some lesser opponents and got themselves back in the rankings (#16). Then they traveled to North Carolina State and lost 28-24. Look for the Wolfpack to find their way into the Top 25. Look for the ‘Noles to be heading the other direction.

Miami lost Jacory Harris to injury and then decided to stop playing. Virginia almost blew a 24 point 4^th quarter lead settling for a 24-19 win. Losing your QB is no excuse. If the ‘Canes expect to be taken seriously they cannot lose to teams like UVa.

Missouri, Michigan State: welcome back to reality. You heard it here first. As predicted, Nebraska throttles Mizzou 31-17 and Iowa destroys Sparty 37-6. B’bye. Thanks for playing.

Georgia got a little big for their britches after three straight wins against some lame-o teams. Saturday they returned to Big Boy football and lost a close one to Florida 34-31 in OT.

It’s always good to see Lame Kiffin lose: Oregon 53 Southern Cal 32.

HAHA of the Week: Notre Dame loses at HOME to Tulsa – HAHAHA! The Dames are now 4-5 and will have to win two of their last three games to be bowl eligible. Those opponents are #8 Utah, Army (played at Yankee Stadium), and Southern Cal. ND will be lucky to win one.

I heard some announcer mention that when Missouri beat Oklahoma that they were acting like they had just won the National Championship. And that is exactly why they will lose on Saturday to Nebraska. Much like another game played in another city named Columbia a few weeks ago (South Carolina-Alabama), the underdog home team topped the #1 team and the city went crazy. Moron Mizzou fans stormed the field in celebration. You will NEVER see fans do this at schools of top tier programs because they expect to win these games. Therefore, I say, so sorry Tigers fans, you blew your wad and it is all downhill from here. Nebraska wins big.

On that note, Michigan State has overachieved and congratulations to them. Iowa puts an end to this silliness in Iowa City.

ESPN has never met a hyperbole they did not like. I understand they are in the business of getting eyeballs to their network but they are trying so hard to blow up the Southern Cal vs. Oregon game into something it isn’t. Matt Barkley is NOT Carson Palmer. He is closer to John David Booty. Oregon romps. Again.

UGA and their unrealistic fans just cannot except that they are not an elite team. Georgia has two National Championships, 1942 and 1980. They are still living off the fumes of the latter even though none of the current players were alive at the time and Mark Richt was backing up Jim Kelly at Miami (Fla). Long story short, UGA fans are insane. After losing four in a row, the Dawgs have won three in a row against the SEC bottom feeders and now they think they are hot sh*t. Florida is working on a surprising three game losing streak of their own. Coming off a bye week, I have a feeling the Gators will arrive in Jacksonville ready.

I predicted that Oklahoma would lose. I just didn’t expect it so soon! Mizzou plays a perfect game at home 36-27. UO will still lose the Big XII championship game to Nebraska.

Notre Dame dominated by Navy in a game played in Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ 35-17. There’s nothing like a high-profile game to expose your weaknesses.

Hey! How did a Big Least team sneak their way into the rankings?! Shoo! SHOO! West Virginia goes down to Syracuse at home 19-14.

I am not sure if Texas deserves a HHAHA. A “WTF’’ might be more appropriate. Last years BCS runner-up loses its third game in four. This time it is to unranked Iowa State 28-21. The one victory in that span was against Nebraska who was #5 at the time.

Georgia Tech got all full of themselves after beating weenie teams Wake Forest, Virginia and Middle Tennessee. Clemson smacked them back down to earth 27-13.

This just in, Boise is still a joke.

I didn’t expect #1 Ohio State to lose this soon nor this easily. #18 Wisconsin in the upset 31-18. This is what happens when you depend on the QB to provide all the offense (see Michigan, Nebraska, Auburn, Virginia Tech).

#5 Nebraska got a might bit too big for their own britches. They were already looking ahead to the Big XII Championship game in December. Unranked Texas, loser of two in a row, had other ideas 20-13. This is what happens when you depend on the QB to provide all the offense (see Michigan, Ohio State, Auburn, Virginia Tech).

A week after playing a perfect game vs. former #1 Alabama, #10 South Carolina lays a big fat egg to Kentucky who had just lost three straight.

Did you see the “Evil Genius” (aka: Steve Spurrier) at the end of the SC-UK game?? He pulled a Les Miles:
Down 31-28, 1st & 10 at UK’s 20 yd line with 11 seconds AND THE CLOCK ALREADY STOPPED, he calls his final timeout! After that, pretty much the only play you can call is a pass into the end zone. It was intercepted – game over.

Urban Meyer and #22 Florida lost their 3^rd straight game. Mississippi State wins in “the Swamp” 10-7. Well, I guess Tebow was pretty important to that program after all, huh?

Somebody tell me HOW IN THE HELL did #19 Nevada (loss to Hawaii) and #23 Air Force (loss to San Diego State) get ranked. Ridiculous.

When are folks going to stop believing Oregon State (#24) is ever going to do anything worthwhile? The go to 3-3 after losing to Washington 35-34.

BCS:

I don’t get this. How does Oklahoma get the top spot? They beat Utah State by 7, Air Force by 3 and Cincinnati by 2. I am unimpressed. I predict they lose AT LEAST one regular season game and the Big XII championship game to Nebraska.

As always, Boise is a joke.