Coach Marty takes the Chargers to the best record in the league a few years back and loses in the playoffs and gets canned. Now we have the opposite effect taking place with Norv Turner. Norv can’t get fired and even if he does someone else will take him as the head coach for some reason. He’s NOT A HEAD COACH. He’s the head coaching version of Matt Millen and he’s not getting another chance ever to run a team so why do teams keep giving Norv a job.

I’ve harped on this time and time again that Norv Turner is a gifted offensive coordinator who has success at that job, but he can’t be a head coach.

San Diego has a roster full of guys who should be pro bowlers yet they lose every close game possible and that’s a sign of bad coaching. Norv hasn’t cut it here and hasn’t cut it anywhere else. He’s the coaching version of Stephon Marbury as a player in that no team led by him wins. He’s the Cincinnati Bengals of coaches or the old school mid 70’s Tampa Bay. He’s today’s Raiders and yesterday’s Devil Rays. Let the man walk away and be the coordinator and the team will score points, let him be the head coach and your team will lose. It’s that simple and it’s a proven formula for failure.

The Sooners are going to put a hurting on Texas Tech and creep back into title contention in the BCS rankings. I really can’t see how Texas Tech will go into Norman and come out with a win. I know they shocked us all when they beat Texas but that was a home game and this one isn’t. Texas Tech is going against a team that for the first time all season feels like it has to prove itself. Against Texas the Sooners were favored and supposed to win but tomorrow’s game is a question mark and the Sooners are going to come out hungry to prove that they are the best team in the BIG 12.

Are they the best team in the Big 12? I say it is still Texas. Texas beat Oklahoma on the road in a huge rivlary game and vaulted themselves to the top ranking in the country. After getting beaten by Texas Tech a couple weeks later people seem to have forgotten the Longhorns, but how can you? How can Oklahoma get the top spot in the conference if they got beat by Texas? So many questions and that’s why you have to love the BIG12 conference championship game to decide it because one of these 3 teams is going to deserve a shot for the National Title.

I’m a Utahn and I don’t hide the fact that I am no fan of BYU football, call it good parenting. Anyway, it is rare that the game between UTAH and BYU means so much in the overall scheme of things. If Utah wins then they are all but guaranteed a BCS bid and a whole lot of money going to the program. If BYU wins they can get into the BCS also because they are close right now and the BIG EAST and ACC are both so down that BYU could seriously get consideration for the game.

If UTAH wins the school gets bragging rights back and a big big payday. It will put the program in the spotlight and shine an even brighter light on head coach Kyle Whittingham. The win will put UTAH against the winner of the BIG EAST or ACC and give them a meaningless game in the BCS so this is their last real important game of the season. In fact, you’ll remember a few years ago when Utah was undefeated and got stuck playing a PItt team that won the BIg East. PITT got in as the winner of the BIG EAST but that was weak. Utah killed them and helped them be undefeated but they were left wanting more. The same will happen this year to the UTES with a win over the Cougars.

If BYU wins then we have an interesting scenario. We would have a 3 way tie atop the MWC with BYU, TCU and UTAH. TCU crushed BYU and Utah beat TCU. All 3 teams would have a legit claim at the conference title and a legit claim on a BCS spot. This is bad for the conference if you ask me. TCU has lost 2 games now with one of them being to Oklahoma but a 2 loss team from the MWC can’t get into a BCS game at large. Utah can’t get in over BYU if BYU beats them head to head on their home field. BYU can’t get in when they got smoked by TCU, but they have the best claim based on 1 road loss and some convincing wins other wise.

Don’t forget that I dislike BYU football and don’t want them to win but something inside tells me that BYU is going to pull it out on Saturday and screw up everything for everyone. We’ll probably see BYU or UTAH play some 5th place PAC 10 school in the Vegas bowl again where the MWC will again prove that top to bottom it’s a better conference this season.

Kurt Warner has to be getting some discussion for league MVP this year and I haven’t heard a lot about it yet. All he has done is lead his team to a 7-3 record, for the first time since 1977, throw for nearly 3200 yards and 20 touchdowns. This is all after 10 games!!!

Warner was brought into Arizona as a mentor for Matt Leinart but has shown that he can still play and read defenses with the best of them. He has some excellent receivers in Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin and doesn’t need the running game as much. In fact, when Edgerrin James went to the bench and the Cards went to a pass first offense they have really starting playing well and winning.

Warner features a career high 71% completion rate which is incredible considering teams know what the Cards are going to do with the ball. He has a 105 passer rating which would be his 2nd best ever and is on pace to have more than 30 Td passes. Warner is peaking at a time when his team needs him to peak and it’s fun to watch. If the Cards finish strong and make the playoffs, don’t be surprised if Kurt Warner walks away with his 3rd league MVP and garners some serious discussion for the Hall of Fame.

I think about this every day and I know I waste a lot of time in that regard but I can’t help it. I’m still not sure why Ty Willingham got fired so quickly but Weis has only been average since getting his own players in the program. I’m not saying Willingham is a better coach because he isn’t. Willingham has been given every chance and while I’ll never question his character I will question his ability to have that translate into wins at Washington.

Charlie Weis still has 7 years or so on his contract worth around 25 million dollars. What’s that? He had a great year with Willinghams recruits and since hasn’t done much. It’s really time to put up or shut up. He had the schedule this season to really get some wins but something is just missing with this team. They blew a lead versus Pitt and then didn’t even bother to show up against BC last week. Weis’ team sits at 5-4 and the vultures are circling. The guy has brought in top 5 recruiting classes since taking over the team but its yet to show the results that everyone expects in South Bend.

Do I think Charlie should be fired? No, I think he should get a chance to see a recruiting class come in and have them from start to finish before I start judging. If that happens and they win then he deserves to stay and deserves his contract. What people need to remember is that Charlie brought in a top 5 recruiting class even after last years horrible play and are doing the same this year. Kids are being sold on the idea of coming in and bringing Notre Dame back to prominence and it’s working. The only real question is if Charlie Weis will be the coach when it happens.

I’m a giant Bears fan and I honestly thought the Bears had a chance yesterday and was even more optimistic when the chance to tie was handed to them. Then I saw ‘Super’ Rex Grossman under center and realized that this was going to be hopeless and it was. Grossman at QB yesterday was like watching the Cubs in the playoffs for me this season…depressing.

Aside from that though let’s look at the Titans. Kerry Collins is leading this team and got them the win yesterday. The Bears killed the running game of the Titans and wanted Collins to beat them and he did. He threw for nearly 300 yards on 40 attempts and then he left the rest up to his defense to shut down Grossman and that didn’t prove that difficult. What I thought the entire time was “If Vince were playing would the Bears have won?” Of course, because we all know Vince can’t pass. Vince is a talent but he still can’t throw the ball very accurately and as a result the Titans would’ve lost a few games this season without Collins starting.

Tennessee won’t go undefeated this year and could very well lose next to Jacksonville but don’t sleep on them because they play solid defense, do enough on offense and have a very good seasoned coach who guys love playing for. If they continue to avoid injuries they will be the team to beat come playoff time.

I thought the man actually looked like he could play. I watched him all preseason and believed that he would throw for 150 yards on 30 attempts because everything he threw was a safe short pass, but yesterday wasn’t the case.

Brady Quinn was drafted a couple years ago out of Notre Dame and finds himself in a great NFL position right now. Derek Anderson, the starter, had a miracle year and it forced Quinn to sit on the bench and watch and watch and watch. This year, Anderson hasn’t been very good and Quinn finally got his shot Thursday night against Denver.

Quinn ended the night 23-35 for 239 yards and 2 TD’s. I had predicted a 20-30 for 155 yards and 2 interceptions. He was careful with the ball and threw a lot of short stuff to Kellen Winslow, who quickly became Quinn’s favorite target. Coach Romeo did a great job getting Quinn in to start against Denver because the Broncos defense is just terrible and Quinn proved that.

I’m not comparing Brady Quinn to anyone right now, let’s just let him develop and see what happens. I wish him luck against every team but the Bears.

They really need Al Davis to walk off into the sunset. I understand his need as the owner to want things his way but when is he going to realize that he is the problem. It’s like Dolan with the Knicks and Steinbrenner when the Yankees were going bad. Sometimes the owner needs to distance himself and see it for what it is. Feel free to make all the comments you want and demand a winning team and all that but leave personnel decisions to those paid to make them and trust them. Who would want a job with the Raiders? Would you buy a home or just rent? That’s what I thought.

Oakland just announced that they are planning on releasing DeAngelo Hall. In case you forgot, Hall was acquired from Atlanta and given a 70 million dollar contract. The Raiders even gave up a 2nd round pick which is like gold in today’s NFL draft. Hall isn’t having a terrible year and will be picked up very quickly after release. He has 3 picks and had a high in tackles last week. The Raiders are terrible and are going into selling mode but are they going to get someone better than Hall to play corner? He was arguably one of the top 5 corners in football and yet after 8 games they might cut him. It’s no wonder this franchise is the laughing stock of the league. Outside of the Bengals as the league joke, the Raiders are 2nd place and closing quickly. Did I mention that they had 3 first downs last week? 3 in the entire game. Demarcus Russell looks horrible and surprisingly easy to tackle for a giant sized QB.

The Raiders have already paid Hall 8 million plus and despite him having a subpar season he’ll be acquired quickly. It doesn’t surprise me though as I watch this, maybe the Raiders will hire Norv Turner once San Diego cans him. Then bring back Art Shell again at some point. Either way, this once proud franchise is going down the drain.

17 years of running a great program and what do you get when the program shows signs of decline? Walking papers. Coach Phil Fulmer is going to step down as Tennessee head coach at the end of the season after guiding to the vols to a 3-6 season thus far.

Fulmer won a National Title for the Vols in 1998 but that success just hasn’t stuck with the school this decade and the 3-6 record this season is what ultimately did him in.

I always love to question the timing of certain decisions and this one is no different. The team isn’t going to play in a bowl game this season and has several key recruits on board. By Fulmer resigning what does it give the program the chance to do? It gives the program the chance to keep Fulmer around while they find a new ‘big name’ head coach. Fulmer has always been a company man and will have no problem recruiting for the next head coach that comes in. If Fulmer were to be relieved right now more than likely each recruit would open it up again. Not to say that won’t happen already, but Fulmer sticking around helps with the process.

Tennessee is a great football school with a great tradition and the coach who takes that over is going to be expected to win today and get the team back to contending in the toughest conference in sports.

We’ve read about Texas Tech for years now and all the offensive stats they’ve been able to put up. They’ve killed a lot of average teams and usually fall against ranked teams. They haven’t been ranked this high for as long as I can remember and now they get to face the Longhorns from the same state. The same Longhorns ranked first in the country and the same Longhorns who’ve defeated 3 top 11 teams in the past 3 weeks. This isn’t just your average Big 12 game or is it?

The Big 12 really is the 2nd best conference in football behind the SEC and yet hampers itself just like the SEC does by making a conference championship game. Has anyone played better teams than Texas this year? This is their 4th straight game playing a team that at one point was ranked in the top 7 teams in the country. They beat Oklahoma on the road, Missouri was easy and then Oklahoma St really tested them. Now the Longhorns face what is arguably the best offense in the country on the road and we’ll see how they respond.

I expect Texas Tech to come out firing like normal and put up points early. I expect Texas to remain composed, like they did when Oklahoma jumped out to the early lead there. Then I expect Texas to submit Texas Tech midway through the 3rd quarter with long drives and a tougher defense than Texas is given credit for.

The game will be in the 30’s and 40’s but Texas will win and it will be fun to watch. I’ll be watching.