Around the Big 12

On Saturday night, the Border War rivalry between Phog U and Mizzou was revisited. The Tigers beat the Jayhawks 36-28 to secure the Big 12 North title. It was good to see a Big 12 game so prominent on the national landscape, even if it didn't involve the Sooners. It was the second lowest point total of the year for the Tigers. During the telecast, Herbie indicated that the Tigers outplayed the Sooners, but turnovers cost them the game. They had four turnovers. I have reviewed the tape of the 2004 Orange Bowl, and realized if it wasn't for the first three quarters of the ball game, we would have beaten USC.

Some coaching carousel in here as well...

Colorado ran over the Bugeaters Friday 65-51. Nebraska celebrated the sixth time of giving up 40 points or more this season by firing head coach Bill Callahan. Some likely people to be considered are former Husker QB and assistant Turner Gill (presently HC at U of Buffalo) and LSU defensive coordinator and former Husker DC Bo Pelini. Husker faithful will tell you that Pelini was the interim head coach for the Alamo Bowl after Solich was fired. Pelini was only in Lincoln for a year. I saw no signs in the stands proclaiming John Blake as a candidate, but if Kevin Blackistone were still working at the Dallas Morning News, he would be proclaiming Blake as the front runner. Since Osborne is likely to be involved in the hiring, I would think that Gill would be a more likely candidate than Pelini, even though Pelini has been pretty high profile since landing in college fb in 2003. The guys at midwestcoastbias have a good handle of the situation, apparently there's a team meeting at 4 pm on Tuesday.

Cash Machine University defeated Travis County Jail 38-30 on Friday. Promptly after that, Aggie HC Dennis Franchione announced his resignation. This stunned Aggie faithful that had been trapped in a cave for the past four months. The loss eliminated Travis County Jail’s hopes to back into the Big 12 South championship while drinking and smoking doobies

Mike Sherman has been hired to replace Coach Fran at ATMU.

I actually like this hire. I follow the Packers as much as I do any NFL team. I thought he did a good job there, he won three division titles. It’s not like Callahan, who lost the locker room and was fired in two years at Oakland. He's experienced the cultish fervor of College Station before, so he knows what he's getting into.

On the Baylor coaching front, over the Thanksgiving break Singletary indicated he was not going to be the Baylor head coach. Lots of rumors around Houston Nutt (resigned from Arkansas today) or Art Briles (allegedly interviewing Tuesday). If I were Baylor search committee, I would add Jeff Bower, recently abrupty resigning from Southern Mississippi, to the mix. He was very successful there for a long time, and I don't believe Hattiesburg is luring people there by default. Based upon my four months of experience as a college fb blogger, I would rank them 1a) Briles; 1b) Bower; 3) Nutt.

Further analysis of those three: Briles - If I didn't enjoy watching Houston play fb so much, I would bump Bower to the top of the rankings. If you haven't watched a an Art Briles coached Houston game, I would characterize it as an entertaining combination of pass happy Mike Leach with the propensity for goofy trick plays of Chris Petersen. He will make the game entertaining, has demonstrated an ability to recruit serviceable talent to UH, and has loads of high school coaching connections via his long tenure at Stephenville; Brower - was very successful at Southern Miss for years. Allegedly passed on several different higher profile gigs a a few years ago. The folks at sundaymorningqb.com have a good analysis of what happens to coaches at mid-majors. You could do a lot worse than Bower. Nutt - I always thought Houston was underappreciated in Fayetteville and throughout the state. He's had some good teams there, and won three west division titles. On the other hand, he managed to get himself named as a candidate for darn near every major job the past few years, and between that and the soap opera around Arkansas fb the last couple of years, I think Nutt would be nearly radioactive to Baylor, unless you know more behind the scenes facts about his consistent flirting with other schools and how he managed to inspire fans to file Freedom of Information Acts requests around his phone and email records.

The biggest news around Baylor was that Senior Editor in Charge Red Andrews stepped down from BearMeat last week. Personally, this is more distressing than the B not hiring Mike Singletary. Red, we will miss you.

Finally, if you're wondering why I spent 344 words analyzing the Baylor coaching situation, I don't know either. It's helped dull the sting of work today, and is cheaper than drinking.