Coaching update

• The Bugeaters, as expected, hired Bo Pelini this weekend. I like the hire. He's familiar with the Husker cult, he has a good track record as an assistant, and I think he's already had a warmer reception than his predecessor.
• On a previous Sooner foe matter, UCLA fired Karl Dorrell. Frankly, I thought this was a four years too late. Punting to Antonio Perkins after he already had two punt returns for TDs and over 200 return yards, UCLA punts to him again. Result, another NCAA record for a Sooner wearing #28.
• The Great Pirate is considered a candidate for the UCLA job. This would be a great hire for UCLA, but I'd be sad to see Coach Leach leave the Big 12.
• Miracle of miracles - Tommy Bowden was extended and given a raise at Clemson. They complain about him every year.
• Charlie Weis drove down to Gainesville and assaulted Florida DE Jermaine Cunningham for wasting a perfectly good sandwich.

Harris Poll oddities

I found an interesting spot that lists the collegiate affiliation of the Harris poll votes. Interesting to me, at least. Some observation of some of the interesting votes and their affiliation.

• Dr. Charles Johnson is affiliated with New Mexico State. Doc has Mizzou 6th, OU 9th and the 4-7 Pitt Panthers as 25.
• Lance McElhenny, former SMU QB, lists Hawaii as #2, and doesn't have Texas in the top 25.
• Craig Morton, former Cal QB who had a bit of sucess with the Cowboys and Broncos, voted the LSU Tigers 11th. A little bit bitter about that Super Bowl XII loss in nearby New Orleans, methinks.
• Dr. Terry Schmidt, affiliated with Ball State, and Paul Schneider, affiliated with Boise State, voted the LSU Tigers 10th.
• Bob Socci (Navy) voted Georgia 1st and Oklahoma 8th.

Overall, less blatant homerism or vengeance filled than the Coaches poll, in my opinion.

Big 12 Predictions Reviewed

Well, I decided to look at my predictions from earlier in the year. The Yahoo! college pick 'em didn't work out well for me, either; there's a reason I'm an accountant and not a prognosticator.

Original predictions are at http://landthieves.blogspot.com/2007/08/big-12-south-preview.html and http://landthieves.blogspot.com/2007/07/big-12-north-predictions.html

disclaimer: trying google docs and posting; this could be ugly...

Big 12 north
Prediction	Actual	Upon further review
Nebraska	Missouri	I expected the jrs and srs at Nebraska to carry the team. Apparently the Huskers did, too, as they fired Callahan. Also, the curse of Warren Powers appears to have been lifted.
Colorado	Kansas	I was close on this one, but not really. I had considered slots 2-5 interchangeable, and the gap between 2 and 3-5 in the North was huge.
Kansas	Colorado	Colorado was really inconsistent this year; upsetting the Sooners and shutting down Tech, then losing to Kansas State and Iowa State.
Missouri	Kansas State	I was a wee bit off on the Tigers. Hats off to them.
Kansas State	Nebraska	I don't think anyone saw the Husker collapse coming.
Iowa State	Iowa State	I know a cellar dwellar when I see it. They actually did better than I thought they would.
Big 12 South
Prediction	Actual	Upon further review
Travis County Jail	Oklahoma	Two things make the difference here: a) underestimated the o-line losses by the 'horns; and b) Sam Bradford rarely played like a freshman.
Oklahoma	Travis County Jail	see above.
Boone State	Tie	I used an excel function to predict 3-5, as I saw the teams as interchangeable. So I got that going for me, which is nice.
Dust Pirates	Tie	see above.
Cash Machine U	Tie	see above.
Baylor	Baylor	I know a cellar dwellar when I see it.

Brief WVU thought

I did some quick analysis of the Mountain Ears. WVU has the 7th ranked defense (points per game) in the country. IMO, that's a little misleading...the best offense they've faced is Cincinnati (14th), then South Florida checks in at 20 and Louisville checks in at 21.

Alternatively, the Sooners are 9th in scoring defense, but played #6 TxTech, #7 Mizzou twice, #10 Tulsa and #19 Texas.

Stats aside, I think this will be a good game. Slaton and White are fun to watch, and it'll be a good challenge for the Sooner D. According to Sagarin's predictor ratings, the Sooners should be around a 3 point favorite. Since the Sooners are followed around by some mad oil and native american casino money, it wouldn't surprise me to see the Sooners as a 5-7 pt favorite.

USA Today Coaches Poll analysis

Some interesting things come out of the USA Today/Coaches poll…

• Oregon coach Mike Belotti voted the Sooners 8th. Missouri, whose two losses were to the Sooners, was ranked 5th.
• Clemson coach Terry Bowden tanked the Sooners 10th, four spots behind Missouri. He’s the only coach to not include the Sooners in the top 8.
• Florida State coach Bobby Bowden has the Sooners 7th, behind 5th place Missouri and 6th place Kansas.
• Louisville (and former Tulsa) coach Steve Kragthorpe voted the Sooners 8th. He at least had the good sense to vote Mizzou 9th.
• Boise State coach Chris Peterson voted the Sooners 7th. He’s apparently not a fan of the Big 12, as he voted Mizzou 9th and Kansas 10th.
• FAU coach Howard Schnellenberger voted the Sooners 7th and the Missouri Tigers 4th. Howie has a unique perspective on the college football landscape…he ranked Boise State 10th and Southern Cal 12th. He’s the only coach to not have the Trojans in the top 10. Given that the University of Washington nearly beat his 3rd ranked team, Hawaii, and beat Boise State, I’m stunned he doesn’t have the Huskies in the top 10.
• Landthieves would like to give a shout out to South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier for the #1 vote.
• It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t mention Head Visor Bob Stoops voted the Sooners 1 and the LSU Tigers 6th.
• LSU/almost Michigan coach Les Miles voted Georgia 3, Va Tech 4, and Oklahoma 5, so it doesn’t look like he did much maneuvering, other than voting LSU #1.
  
  I’m not foolish enough to believe that this would alter the final standings - I had mentioned earlier in the month that if a two loss team got in the championship game, that LSU would likely have the strongest resume of that group - it would have been much easier just to beat Colorado or Texas Tech, but apparently that wasn’t as easy as one would have hoped.

The Harris Poll has some interesting data points as well, but there's only so much one can do on their lunch hour.

Sooners Luck their way to 21 point victory

The Sooners dominated the Missouri Tigers last evening in the second half, outscoring Missouri 24-3 after halftime...The Sooners started the second half with a three and out then scored on every possession thereafter, until running out the last 1:47 in the game. Oklahoma used a power running game and alternated Allen Patrick and Chris Browne. Brown, who doesn't seem to display much big play capability, does a great job of making the short yardage runs needed to keep the chains moving...the Sooners were 9-14 on third downs...the Tigers were 5-10 on first downs in the first half and 1-5 in the second half...time of possesion was dominated by the Sooners in the second half, as the Tigers only had the ball for five minutes in the final 22:30...DJ Wolfe and Curtis Lofton stood out defensively, as the Tiger ball carriers kept running into them...Jeremy Beal also played another great game, with six tackles and two tackles for losses. Offensively, Bradford was exceptional, going 18-26 with two TDs and no picks.

Another Interesting Stat for the day

3rd Down Conversion percentage, offense:

• Tigers are 95/174 or 54.6% (2nd in nation)
• Sooners are 80/159 50.3% (6th in nation).

3rd Down conversion percentage, defense

• Sooners are 59/183 or 32.2% (13th)
• Tigers are 82/194 or 42.3% (85th)

In the October game:

• the Sooners were 10/14 on third down, punting three times and kicking one field goal. The Sooners lost two fumbles (one on a kickoff return).
• the Tigers were 9/16 on third down, punting four times, converting on fourth down once, and throwing two interceptions on third down passes (one on a reverse pass by Jeremy Maclin). Mizzou also had two other turnovers, and a drive to end the first half that concluded with a field goal.

All this to say I expect a Sooner W today, as a result of a better Sooner defense. Should be a fun game.