Around the Big XII, Part 4. Kansas State

Head man Bill Snyder

Never has a fan base or a school had a bigger inferiority complex than Kansas State.  And that even includes my team and fellow fans, the Missouri Tigers.  K State was horrible for so many years, say about 100 or so, that when he arrived in 1989, they'd been pretty much beaten to a pulp.  However, he quickly began a turnaround that led to a Big XII title, several north division titles and a semi domination of the Nebraska Cornhuskers for a few seasons.  During the last of his time there they began to fall off, due to higher standards in the Big XII as far as who you could accept.  He rode off at the end of the 2005 season and the Ron Prince era began.  When "Scary Smart" flamed out 3 years later, Snyder rode back in on his mule and attempted another resuscitation that so far has been only moderately successful.

Arthur Brown

Gone will be Daniel Thomas, the Wildcats All Big XII running back who will likely be replaced by transfer Bryce Brown who left Tennessee to join his brother Arthur, a linebacker who transferred from the University of Miami after being buried on the Hurricane depth chart, but won the defensive player of spring football earlier this year.  Quarterback Carson Coffman is gone and should be replaced by Collin Klein, a junior to be who is an amazing rusher but has yet to show any sign of being a capable passer.  He did put on a nice show in the spring game, but that was also against the K State defense who stopped almost no one last year.  Both starting offensive tackles return, but the interior of the line will have to be rebuilt.  6 starters on defense, mostly unknowns will return, which might or might not be good considering they gave up numbers like 47 points to Baylor, 36 to Colorado and 41 to mighty North Texas.  If K State is to have a winning season and a 2nd consecutive bowl trip, the defense must improve.

Willie the Wildcat

The schedule opens easily enough with home games against Eastern Kentucky and Kent State before a trip to Miami of Ohio.  During the conference season the Cats will travel to Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State.  The only easy trip for them will be to cross state rival kansas who the Cats beat 59-7 last season.  Home games against Oklahoma, Missouri, Baylor and Texas A&M will be no walk in the park   They'll also meet Iowa State on December 3rd in Arrowhead in the 3rd edition of Farmageddon.  I expect the Wildcats to open 2-0 with a decent opportunity to make it 3-0 facing a Hurricane team that will still be breaking in a new coaching staff.  To reach a bowl game however, they'll have to pull an upset or two to go with what should be wins against the beaks and Cyclones.  I will never discount a Bill Snyder coached team, but he still has to prove he can win without using partial qualifiers.  My gut feeling is the year ends with a record of 5-7 and questions about whether Snyder can summon up the energy to once again bring Wildcats to the upper half of the conference.
That's all for this week.  Next time we'll take a look at another school that plays 2nd fiddle in their own state, the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

About basketball and other random thoughts

It's becoming an annual rite of spring.  March madness is about to begin, some coaches get fired and Missouri fan starts worrying about Mike Anderson leaving for greener pastures.  Now mind you, some of the guys worrying the loudest are the same fellows that were calling for Mike's head not two weeks ago, but then as I've posted before, Missouri fan is a complex creature, (I'm being kind) capable of arguing on both sides of a discussion, as long as it supports the viewpoint they have at the moment.  I look at it like this, Mike Anderson is once again a hot commodity and I don't blame him for wanting to make all he can while he can.  Hell, it's just business and that's the American way.  Currently talk is of him being considered for the Georgia Tech and Arkansas jobs, with the highest figure mentioned was 2.7 million for the piggies.  I'd like coach to stay.  He runs a clean program and has made Mizzou semi-relevant again in hoops.  But 2.7 million?  I don't think the university can justify that.  Pinkel makes 2.5 and he's won 48 games the last 5 years, and blown off opportunities to talk contracts with both Washington and Michigan the past 5 years.  I think the AD will offer around 2 million and if that's not enough, well we go coach shopping.

Who you got in the NCAA tournament?  I think this is one of the shittiest fields I've ever seen.  I have no problem with Mizzou's seed.  11 sounds about right and they should have a winnable first round game against the 6th seeded, Cincinnati Bearcats.  My problem is Colorado, a team that finished 8-8 in a tough Big XII conference, including 3 wins over the Kansas State Wildcats, a 5 seed in the tournament.  And what the hell has Michigan State or Illinois from the Big Ten to deserve an invitation over the Buffs.  Va. Tech for that matter.  Our little brothers in Springfield, Missouri State should have been in over all three that I mentioned.

Off the subject of basketball to something that probably none of you heard about, in TNA wrestling, one of my all time favorites, Sting held on to his world championship against Jeff Hardy last night.  Sting, or Steve Borden is now 52 years old and probably wouldn't be wrestling if it weren't for the fact that he's treated with kid gloves, and that, well it's entertainment, now sport.  Yes, I'm aware that it's staged.  Kind of like a sitcom and I get a kick out of them sometimes also.  But Sting won his match last night against an opponent, Jeff Hardy that's 20 years his junior in 1 minute and 28 seconds.   Now apparently Hardy came to the ring dead drunk so I guess that would take some of the luster off the win.  But I really like it that a fellow geezer is still able to do things like professional wrestlers do, which is perform high risk stunts.  The odds are really good that I never bring wrestling into one of my blogs again, but I wasn't going to miss this opportunity. 
      

A rough trip home from Manhattan

Bramlage Coliseum hasn't been kind to the Tigers in recent years and Saturday was no exception as Missouri dropped another road game 80-70 to the Wildcats.  The loss dropped Mizzou to 22-7 on the season, but more importantly to 8-6 in the conference and tied with K State for 4th when the top 4 teams get byes for the upcoming conference tournament at beautiful Sprint Center in Kansas City.  Laurence Bowers played well with 16 points and 9 rebounds but didn't get much help inside as Ricardo Ratliffe, Justin Safford and Steve Moore combined for only 2 points, 1 rebound and 11 fouls in 21 minutes of play.  That simply isn't going to get it done.  Marcus Denmon dropped 22 points but 9 of those came in the last two minutes when the game was already over.  Marcus, play a little more selfishly and take more shots.  You're the big gun on this team so you might as well learn to embrace it.

Mr Sensitivity

Before the game, Wildcat players Jacob Pullen and Jamar Samuels created a little bulletin board material when they stated that while there was respect between K State and their cross-state rivals, kansas, they disliked Missouri and Samuels went so far as to say he considered the Tigers to be bigger rivals than ku.   While their head coach, Father Frank Martin didn't go so far, he did mention that the two teams usually are competing for the same spot in the conference and the series since his arrival has been remarkably close. (currently 4-3 Tigers)  I'm not sure that this really means anything other than K State feels in desperate need of a real rival and are pissed off that kansas seems to dislike us more than them.  I suppose there's some weird sort of logic there.

So now it comes down to the last week of the season.  The top 3 are set with Texas, kansas and A&M.  Missouri and K State are tied for 4th with Baylor, Nebraska and Colorado bringing up the top 8.  Missouri travels north to hick nation Tuesday night for the final regular season conference game between the two schools.  Then they finish up the season next Sunday against kansas, the other school that K State would like to be considered rivals with.  K State travels to Austin this week to take on the once beaten Longhorns before closing at home against Iowa State.  If the Tigers want to avoid the opening day of the tournament, they need to win out and hope the kitties drop one in Texas this week, 'cause they ain't losing at home to Iowa State.

Week 12:Style points or hanging on by a thread.

There is very little in-between this week as we roll toward the end of the season.  The seven Big XII teams that have qualified for bowl games are now playing for style points and bowl positioning.  4 more teams still have at least a punchers chance of getting to six wins, and only one poor miserable bastard of an athletic department has a program that has no hope of getting to six wins and very little of getting to four.  Any guesses who I might be talking about?   Well of course, it's my 2nd favorite team next to the Oakland Raiders.  Every Tiger fan realizes I mean the kansas jayhawks.  The last 2 weeks have been quite kind to the peckerheads as they rallied from 28 points down 2 weeks ago to pull out their first conference win in over a year against the Buffalo's of Colorado.  They then backed that up with a solid defensive performance against hick nation last week as they fell, but a much shorter distance than expected, 20-3.  It's senior day in Larry and Oklahoma State is coming to town to send off a graduating class that just 3 short years ago left Miami as Orange Bowl champs.  Since that day they've won 16 games in 3 years.  9-1 Okie Lite comes in as a 24 point favorite.  I see no way the beaks keep it that close, but they've probably provided me with more losses than anyone this year.  However, I'm going to do what Tiger fans do and lead with my heart.  Take the Cowboys to cover and win, 48-13.

My guys travel north to Ames this weekend to face the Cyclones, who are as desperate as anyone in the country.  The Clones blew a golden opportunity to qualify for their 2nd bowl game in a row last week as they fell 34-14 in Boulder.  They've lost starting quarterback Austin Arnaud for the season in the process and HAVE to win this weeks game if they're to continue practicing next week.  Missouri got back on track a bit last weekend as they withstood a 4th quarter rally by the K State Wildcats and hung on for a 38-28 win in the final game at Faurot Field for this season.  The Tigers have been devastated by injuries on the defensive side of the ball and plagued by inconsistancy on the offensive side.  The Tigers open as 11 point favorites but I don't expect the Cyclones to go down without a fight.  I'm picking Mizzou to win, but fail to cover, 31-24 on a late touchdown run from Kendial Lawrence.   

In Waco, two teams that already know they are going to be playing after Thanksgiving are matching up as Baylor hosts Oklahoma.  The Sooners have to win this game to make their contest against cross state rival OSU mean something as far as the title game to be played in Jerry World.  Baylor has a chance to win it's 8th game and take a trip to someplace a little more exotic than Houston for the Texas Bowl.   OU opens as an 8 point favorite in this game, and really just needs a win.  However, Bob Stoops will still be trying to make a statement going into next weeks road trip to Stillwater.  I'm looking for the Sooners to win and cover, 42-20.
Another team that has already qualified for the post season was the team that I watched last weekend in Columbia.  The Wildcats travel west to Boulder to face a Colorado team that won it's first conference game last weekend against Iowa State.  This had to be a good sign for interim head coach Brian Cabral, who would like to have the job.  The fact that he could probably be had fairly cheaply is another.  The Buffs need to close out with a win this week and next at Nebraska to qualify for a bowl game.  As much as I'd love to see that, I just don't believe they have a prayer.  For some reason, there's no line for this game but I see Bill Snyder going for win # 7 and a chance to move up in the bowl pecking order.  K State 34, Colorado 24.

Another team that needs to win out to be eligible for post season play surprisingly resides in Austin, where the 4-6 Longhorns host the 4-5 Florida Atlantic Owls.  The Owls have won 3 straight game, but is a streak over Florida International, Western Kentucky and Louisiana Lafayette all that impressive?  I think not.  UT meanwhile is on a 4 game losing streak that includes Iowa State, K State and Baylor.  Both the team and the fans appear to have mailed in the season but this game still has to be played.  Texas opens as a 21 point favorite in this showdown and I feel like they might, just might pull a little bit of self respect out and attempt to make a run at a bowl game.  God knows they could use they extra practice.  It probably won't matter much since they'll also need to win next week at home against A&M, but I do expect them to cover this Saturday.  I'm taking the whorns, 38-14.  

Yet another team that needs a win this weekend is Texas Tech.  The Red Raiders sit at 5-5 with 2 remaining non conference games to go.  The easiest of the two happens this weekend as they host Weber State from the "Is that really a" Conference.  All you need to know about Weber State is that this is their season finale as they only play 11 games.  No line on this game either, but I'm picking Tech to get their 6th win this week, with a score in the 41-21 range.

Probably the best game of the week is in College Station where a suddenly resurgent Aggies team goes for win number 8 against 9-1 and likely north representative Nebraska.   A&M has won 3 straight games since they hit their low point of the season, a 30-9 loss at home to Missouri while Nebraska sits at 9-1 but has struggled the last two weeks against Iowa State and kansas.  Hick nation opens as a 2 1/2 point favorite this week, and maybe I'm calling this one with my heart instead of my head, but I'm taking the Aggies to pull the upset and win 31-27 late. 
That's about all I've got for this week.  I did want to say thanks to those who've been reading this.  This is my 100th post.  I've been somewhat amazed at the number of hits this has been receiving.  If you get a spare few minutes, I hope you'll stop by my website at www.merlinsedge.com  Thanks and we'll talk again on Sunday.

Week 10 recap:Waterloo, Appomattox and Lubbock?

History is full of monumental victories.  With every one of those comes a monumental defeat.  I've always defended Coach Pinkel as a man that I was proud to have in charge of my adopted team.  I will continue to support GP in spite of last night, but I've also thought if he had a major fault, it was the amount of loyalty he's shown to his assistant coaches.  It's apparent that a combination of things is threatening to tank the Tigers season and they have to be laid at the feet of offensive coordinator David Yost.  Yes, Blaine Gabbert suffered his 2nd consecutive bad game going 12-30 for less than 100 yards, although there were several dropped passes.  We appear to lack a guy that can stretch the defense, but you know what?  Good coordinators adjust their offense to fit the talent and we've not seen that.  The Tigers did rush for 260 yards, but most of that was in the first half.  And if you were looking for a season MVP, allow me to nominate Dominique Hamilton.  Since Dom went down in the OU game, the Tigers defense which had been so good against the run has floundered which has put more pressure on the pass defense.  Yet, that wasn't the cause of the loss last night as the Tigers scored exactly 0 points after intermission, although the inability to get off the field was a contributor.  To continue to improve, I'm afraid that Coach Pinkel is going to have to address some deficiencies in the coaching staff.   Next week Missouri hosts it's final home game against Kansas State, in a game that suddenly appears to be entirely loosable.  Tech travels to Norman to face a pissed off Sooner squad that is 30-0 in it's last 30 home games.

It was one of those Waterloo weekends for me also as I went 2-4 for the week and a hideous 1-5 against the spread.  For the year I'm 61-17 straight up but once again sitting at .500 with a 35-35 record against Vegas.
The only game I was completely successful in the week happened in Stillwater, as the Oklahoma State Cowboys ignored the fact that they were merely 7 1/2 point favorites as they routed the Baylor Bears 55-28.  Okie Lite now has to be considered the favorite to win the south as next week they take their 8-1 record to Austin to face the suddenly pedestrian Texas Longhorns.  Baylor is at home to face a Texas A&M squad that has discovered new life.
In Ames, it was hoped, at least by Missouri fans that the Cyclones could pull another upset over corn nation.  The hicks came in as 19 1/2 point favorites but it took an interception of a 2 point conversion attempt to allow them to escape with a 31-30 win.  Next up for the huskers is a date at home with the university of kansas while the 'Clones travel to Colorado.
Another loss for me happened in of all places lawrence as the jawhawks erupted for 35 4th quarter point to overtake Colorado 52-45 despite being installed as 9 point underdogs.  If Dan Hawkins was allowed to ride home on the plane it's a travesty of justice.

Another coach whose seat just went up another 50 degrees is in Austin after the Longwhorns fell to 4-5 on the season after losing 39-14 to Kansas State.  There are schools where a rebuilding year would be considered acceptable following an appearance in the national championship game the previous season.  However, the University of Texas isn't one of those places.  Things don't get any easier for UT as Oklahoma State comes to town next week, while the Wildcats will attempt to take over 2nd place in the north when they travel to Columbia.

At College Station it appears that Mike Sherman will retain his job for another year as the Aggies upset the Oklahoma Sooners 33-19.  A&M is now bowl eligible at 6-3 with a good chance to reach 8 or 9 wins with trip to Baylor and Texas and a home date with a Nebraska squad that despite it's record hasn't shown itself to be unbeatable by any means.
That's all I've got for this week.  I'm going to take a couple of days off to get some work on my new web site that will be up and running within a few weeks.  In case you'd like to stop by and see how things are progressing, just travel to www.merlinsedge.com    My Tiger blog will continue here, but there are other things I enjoy talking about and that will be more of a focus there.  There will also be a shopping site where you'll be able to purchase items that may be useful as well as many that will be nothing short of obscure.  Some interesting games to talk about and we'll be doing just that around Thursday or Friday.  Have a great week.   
       

Week 9:The next "biggest game of the year"http://www.blogger.com/

It's a by-product of success.  Every time you win a big game, it makes the next game even bigger and adds more pressure to the coaches and players.  It's not like this week wasn't going to huge to begin with.  For the last 4 years the winner of the Missouri/Nebraska game has won the division and the right to be the sacrificial lamb in the conference championship game.  Well, make it # 5 with a bullet.  Mizzou travels north and puts their 7-0 record on the line against the 6-1 Huskers.  The Tigers will be without their best defensive tackle, Dominique Hamilton who suffered a broken ankle in Saturday nights 36-27 win over # 2 ranked Oklahoma.  The hicks bounced back from a home loss to Texas to out gun Oklahoma State 51-41 in Stillwater.  Corn nation has actually fared better on the road the last couple of years and some of their players, Nyles Paul in particular, not to mention head coach Bo Pelini have made disparaging comments about their fans.  Nebraska opens as an 8 point favorite in this one and I don't buy it for a minute.  The game opened at 7 but apparently money has been pouring in on the nubs.  I'm guessing a lot of farmers have suddenly taken out loans on their combines.  Despite the fact that I've admitted to being a shameless homer, I just have no idea what the odds makers and betters are thinking.  I'm taking the Tigers to not only cover, but to win outright.  MU 31-21.

Columbia wasn't the only program that was celebrating homecoming last weekend. A few miles to the west of here the jayhawks were taking on Texas A&M, Missouri's victim the week before in College Station Saturday night in larry.  While the crowd may not have been quite as large as the one in CoMo, there's something to be said for the ability to sit most anywhere you want.  This week the Crimson and Blue wrecking crew travel north to face Iowa State who pulled the upset of the week, and maybe the year last Saturday in a 28-21 win over Texas in Austin.  There hasn't been a line established for this game as of Tuesday.  I don't know if it's because of some Iowa State injury I haven't heard about of if the gamblers just plain forgot this game was being played.  At any rate, I'm going to predict the beaks fall to 0-4 in the conference as the Cyclones win 38-13.

In Austin, the bowl eligible Bears from Baylor visit the not yet bowl eligible Texas Longhorns.  It's like we've entered some sort of parallel universe as the whorns sit at 4-3 and suffered that home loss to Iowa State.  Texas fans being Texas fans, there has been some rumbling that Mack Brown may have lost his edge and they might need to replace him.  Mack himself has told his assistants that their jobs could be in jeopardy if they can't get the team playing with more emotion.  The fact that Texas was in the NC game last year doesn't really mean much to UT fans.  The athletic department at UT rakes in over 120 million a year and they aren't really familiar with the term rebuilding.  Texas opens as a 7 1/2 point favorite and I'm thinking they get off the 2 game home skid Saturday and win 38-24.   If Baylor was to pull off the upset here, and I certainly believe they're capable, we'll be hearing some major bitching from the Longhorn not so faithful.

Speaking of coaches and hot seats, Dan Hawkins makes his last trip to Norman to face a pissed off Sooner team in his farewell tour.  Expect the Hawk to be terminated before the last fan leaves the stadium in their final game, and really why wouldn't he be?  Meanwhile the Sooners will still be smarting from their nationally televised loss at the hands of my Tigers last weekend and you just know that Bob Stoops and company are going to take it out on someone.  Big game Bob has no problem running the score up on an over matched opponent as they try to get back in the national championship picture.  Oklahoma opens as a 24 point favorite in this one and they may cover that before the 1st quarter ends.  Pick OU in a rout, 59-7.  They will have one less rabid fan following the game this week so maybe they can dedicate the game to him.   Boomer Sooner.

Over in Manhattan the 5-2 K State Wildcats have another opportunity to get to bowl eligibility this week as they host Oklahoma State.  The Cowboys dreams of an unbeaten season were shattered last week in a 51-41 loss to hick nation.  Early Tuesday morning they got more bad news when star receiver Justin Blackmon was arrested for speeding and suspected driving under the influence as he was returning from the Monday night football game in Dallas.  The Cowboys open as a 6 point favorite in this one and I'm really tempted to call for the upset.  However, the Wildcats just aren't very good yet and I'm not ready to call for Carson Coffman to pull off a Taylor Martinez performance this weekend.  Look for the Cowboys to rally and win 41-24.

The week wraps up in College Station as the Aggies play host to the Red Raiders from Texas Tech.  Both  teams should be feeling better about themselves after wins last week over perennial powers Colorado and kansas.  A&M opens as a 7 point favorite in this one and the winning coach will feel the temperature of the seat he's on to cool a bit, but just a bit.  I'm going to take the Aggies to win, but fail to cover 24-21.
That's all I have for this week.  It should be a beautiful weekend in Kansas City and my honey do list is long.  I'll probably have to DVR the Missouri game and just catch some scores during the afternoon while I go out and mutilate some bushes in the yard.  Have a good weekend folks and we'll talk next Sunday.

So where do we go now?

It's always a lot more fun to write this thing after a win.  Not just a win, but a dominating, butt kicking 38-12 screw you to Bill Snyder and his Wildcats.  My Tigers came out and played their best game since the season opener against Illinois.  K State wasn't a pick to do anything before the season had started, but the white rat, Bill Snyder had them sitting in first place in the mediocre north division of the Big XII.  They were favored and a win would have made them bowl eligible, which would have been remarkable in itself after the last 2 seasons under former coach Ron "Scary Smart" Prince.  Gary Pinkel had never beaten Coach Snyder, and the Tigers had yet to score a 2nd half touchdown in Big XII play this year. But all that changed on Saturday afternoon.  Blaine Gabbert had a nice game, going 20 for 27 for almost 300 yards.  Danario Alexander assured himself that he'll be a millionaire next year with a 10 catch, 200 yard game with 3 touchdowns.  As a bonus, Mizzou rushed for 137 yards and controlled the clock in the 2nd half.    It should take a lot of pressure of offensive coordinator David Yost who's been taking a lot of heat (much of it justified) for the decreased production from this years team.    

So now the Tigers are bowl eligible and likely will receive their 5th straight bowl bid following the season.  Now you play to improve your bid and hopefully avoid a trip to Shreveport.  Iowa State rolls into town being bowl eligible for the first time since 2005 and I know they'd love to improve their standing also.  So the question is, which Tiger team shows up?  If it's the same team that we saw in Manhattan today, then we can hope for a trip to El Paso and the Sun Bowl.  If not, then we might as well prepare ourselves for crawdad souffle at one of the Shreveport Riverboats.
The Tigers got my conference season off to a good start this week.  They opened up as a 3 point underdog.  I confess that I might have picked the Wildcats, but I just couldn't, so I picked Mizzou to cover and win; 24-21.  It was even better than I hoped.
Texas opened as a  24 1/2 point favorite against Baylor.  I didn't think that was nearly enough and I had the Longhorns winning big, 45-10.  The final was actually 47-14 Texas, but Mack Brown showed mercy in the 2nd half as the Horns were up 40-0 at halftime.  It certainly doesn't do anything to make that loss the Tigers had to Baylor any easier to take.  They reverted to sucking this week, which is really where Baylor belongs.

Iowa State opened up as a 5 point favorite at home against Colorado.  Despite giving up over 400 yards of offense, the Cyclones defense stiffened when it counted and now find themselves bowl eligible.   I picked Iowa State to cover, 24-13, with the final being 17-10.  Congratulations to the 'Clones and their fans.  They deserve it, as does their fine coach, Paul Rhodes.  That being said, I hope you guys go down like a twenty five dollar hooker in Columbia next Saturday.  I'll be there rooting for the guys in black.
In lawrence, kansas the beakers continued their "history in the making" season by falling to Corn nation 31-17.  Todd Reesing once again proved that he should have spent a little more time practicing and a little less drinking during the off season as he went 19 for 41 for 236 yards and a touchdown against the hick defense.  He does appear to be healing from the groin injury though as he wasn't sacked.  This makes 5 straight losses for the beaks after opening the year with 5 straight wins.  It doesn't get any better for them next week as they travel south to Austin to face the Longhorns.  It likely comes down to the Border War at Arrowhead to determine whether they make their 3rd consecutive bowl game in their storied history.  (chuckle)

Texas A&M rolled into Norman to face the Sooners as an 18 1/2 point underdog to Boob Stoops and the Sooners.  I thought the spread was too high and though I predicted OU to win, I thought they'd fail to cover the spread.  Of course, Oklahoma got things rolling and Stoops continued throwing the ball up by 6 touchdowns.  The final was Oklahoma 65-10.  I would love to watch the asshat and his team get rolled for about the next 10 years.  Stay classy Bob.  Those Mary Kay sales may go down if you lose another game this year.   Bubba may decide he doesn't need any more eye shadow.
Texas Tech visited Stillwater as a 3 1/2 point underdog to the Cowboys, who probably are the best team in the conference not named Texas.  I had the Cowboys winning 31-27 with the final being 24-17 Okie Light.   The most notable thing about the game, in my opinion was this brutal hit on Cowboy quarterback Zac Robinson.  Where am I?  Whether he plays against Colorado next weekend is anyone's guess.
My only out of conference game this week was the Thursday night Big East matchup between West Virginia and Cincinnati.  The Bearcats have been rolling and appear to be headed to their 2nd consecutive trip to Miami in January.  They opened as a 9 1/2 point favorite at home.  I confess I've only watched some highlights of them until then, but felt that they'd probably cover.  However, the Mountaineers played some inspired defense holding them to 24 points.  Unfortunately for them, they were only able to put up 21 points of their own.  

So for the week, I wound up a very respectable 5-2 against the spread which got me back to even at 49-49 for the year.  Straight up I was 7-0 which takes me to 75-26 this season.  Very good for me.  There are some interesting match ups this week and a Big 10 rivalry game that has lost some luster the past few years.  I'll try to have my picks out by Thursday and I'm thinking about taking a look at some potential bowl matchups pretty soon; at least as to how it will affect Big XII teams.  Have a great week!