We are nearing NOVEMBER and that is the true home stretch for college football. Most teams have about 4 weeks to go including some serious rivalry games. Let’s look at the top 8 in the BCS and remaining schedules.

1.Texas- Texas Tech is the only ranked team left on the schedule. Where Texas gets hurt is having to play in the Big 12 conference championship game. It isn’t really fair and that’s what gets the BIG 10 in the title game more often than not.
2. Alabama- AT LSU is the toughest game left for these guys and that will be a big one. Both teams want to beat each other but none more than Saban wanting to beat his old school. LSU had better come out prepared because so far Alabama has had the leg up on everyone very early in each game. Just like Texas, Alabama will still have to play in their conference championship game and that could hurt their chances because they’ll end up playing Georgia or Florida there.
3. Penn St. - Just beat Ohio St. on the road and next faces teams that they should beat. Iowa will be tough because they play great defense but Penn St should win out and give themselves a shot for the national title. Since they are in the BIG 10 they don’t have to play a conference championship game.
4. Oklahoma - I expect these guys to stumble once more before the season is over. They have to play Texas Tech and then close out the regular season against Ok. st. who looks really tough. They need some teams ahead of them to stumble if they want a chance.
5. USC - Should honestly cake walk through the west of the terrble PAC 10. I can’t think of a more disappointing conference right now. The Mountain WEst has trounced them this year. Embarrassing. USC would lose 3 games in the SEC if you ask me.
6. Georgia - Florida and Georgia Tech remain as the toughest tests for the Bulldogs. They’ve come back nicely since losing to Alabama. If they can get past Florida they can expect a rematch with Alabama for the SEC title.
7. Texas Tech - Texas, Oklahoma remain for these guys. Nice run Texas Tech.
8. Florida - Georgia and Florida St remain and Florida would love to win out and get a shot at Alabama. If they do that they can sneak into the title game with some help. If any team is going to jump up a few spots it is the Gators who should be undefeated right now but aren’t.

UTAH needs to win out to get into the party and they have a tough game with BYU coming up in a few weeks that will determine that. Boise St sits at the same spot. Both need to go undefeated if they even want to sniff the BCS

The closest thing the NFL has to George Steinbrenner is Jerry Jones. Jones, whose Cowboys haven’t won a playoff game in over 10 years, has to be getting frustrated with what is going on in Dallas. The Cowboys feature one of the more talented teams in the league but they’ve lost 3 straight now and appear in a freefall while Tony Romo comes back from injury.

How did this happen? I don’t know because I thought the team might lose 3 games all year when it started and now I have that Chicago Cub feeling about them where you wonder if they will ever win again. T.O isn’t getting the ball if it isn’t a short out pass and Brad Johnson isn’t the answer at Qb right now. People talk about PacMan hurting the team but if anything he draws attention away from the horrible lackluster play on the field. The man responsible for intensity and preparation is always the head coach and that’s Phillips.

The choice that many Cowboy fans want Jones to take is to fire Phillips and let offensive coordinator Jason Garrett take over the team but will that fix it? I don’t know. I look at this teams roster and wonder how they can lose by 20 points to the Rams. THE RAMS. Rex Grossman could’ve led the Cowboys to victory over the Rams, or maybe not. The problem might run deeper but if this losing streak continues I’ll be dead wrong on my prediction that Marvin Lewis is the next to get fired and jump on the Wade Phillips bandwagon there.

I’m not a Cowboy fan and regardless of what happens with their coach i hope they keep losing.

I don’t hide my love for the Chicago Bears so when i say I’m happy for Singletary I really mean it. Mike Singletary is one of the best tackling middle linebackers in the history of football and was the keystone of the best defense of all time, 1985 Bears. He is a true leader in every sense of the word and will bring a respect and intensity that the 49ers have been lacking.

I’m not happy for Mike Nolan however because its never good when someone gets fired. Mike Nolan has accepted responsibility throughout the process and handled everything very professionally and as result I think he’ll end up on his feet somewhere.

Were the 49ers underperforming? I don’t know the answer there at all to be honest. I didn’t expect them to win much. You aren’t going to win with JT O’Sullivan as your Qb and you aren’t going to win getting the ball to Frank Gore only 10-15 times a game. Gore is good and Singletary needs to find a way to get him the ball or he’ll find himself out of this job very quickly.

I’m happy for Mike, sad for Mike and just hope the 49ers can turn things around and win. They have some talent and have had some tough luck this season and maybe Singletary can work some old school Bears magic for them.

Another week, another team on top in college football. At least Oklahoma lasted a week or two before being removed. In case you missed it, Texas put a serious hurt on Oklahoma and looked really good doing it. In fact, the loss by Oklahoma actually makes the Big 12 look very good and very deep this season. You take Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas Tech and Oklahoma st and put them in every conference and they’d be competitive. Missouri got beat by OK st after they slowed Chase Daniel to a crawl and hurt his heisman chances. Texas Tech pulled out a squeaker in their game but showed they are still a tough team. The only conference deeper and better is the SEC and that is clear cut. The SEC isn’t even fair because nearly each of those teams are good enough to be bowl teams but some won’t make the cut because of their strength of schedule. Screw the 16 team proposed playoff, lets go to 64 and see what happens.

The only thing I questioned was how the teams were juggled near the top. Florida is back in the top 5 only a couple weeks removed from a home loss. BYU doesn’t move up and neither does Utah despite several higher ranked teams losing. I agree with what happened while others in my neck of the woods are highly upset. They feel BYU and UTAH should move up despite playing week teams in a very weak conference. But is the Mtn West any worse than the Pac 10 this season. The PAC 10 is weak and nobody can say otherwise. You have USC and a decent Oregon team and that is about it. Oregon wouldn’t cake walk through the MTN West at all this season so you have to give the MTN West more props this year for that. BYU is a good team that should be ranked but they aren’t a top 8 team in the country and we all know that. Put them in the SEC and it’s no chance or the BIG 12 and they’d lose a handful. I’ve covered all this before and most would agree.

This week I’m sure we will see some more movement at the top and I’m looking forward to it.

How many chances is Norv Turner going to get to be a Head Coach in this league? This is try number 3 and clearly the most talented team he has had. He has some gifted offensive players and defensive players but he will still lose.

Norv can coach and honestly should just be a coordinator. He led the Cowboys offense during their Super Bowl runs and then got the 49ers offense up and going before leaving there to coach the Chargers. He was given his first head job back in the day with the Redskins and only got them to the playoffs once. That team had plenty of money to spend and wasn’t shy about bringing in talent. They still lost and Turner left there with a 49-59 record. He moved on to the Raiders where he was again given a head job and led them to 2 straight losing seasons before being removed from there as well. Turner now is in San Diego and coached them to his best year yet last season but this season we are starting to get the feel that last year was a fluke. The Chargers just lost to the Dolphins and have started out very slow.

I’ll pose the question: If Norv Turner were black would he be getting this many chances? Marvin Lewis is going to be fired by Cincinnati and rightfully so but it will be a long time before he is hired as a head man anywhere else. Ray Rhodes got plenty of chances to coach in the league but it is rare. I dont’ know the answer to the question I posed but I have my opinion on it and the answer is a resounding no to me. Norv, like Marvin Lewis, is a gifted coordinator who for whatever reason doesn’t have the chops to be a solid head coach in the league and that’s ok. I’m just sick of teams firing someone and always talking about Norv Turner as a replacement when he doesn’t even have close a winning record as a professional coach. Give others a chance and move on because the Chargers aren’t done losing yet this season. Call it the curse of Norv.

Kurt Warner is a devout religious man and has never hidden that fact from anyone. He is a strong believer in being ‘born again’ and saved and I respect him for that. Now I just think the guy is ‘born again’ as a pro football quarterback. I’ve long forgotten his game against the Jets where he threw for nearly 500 yards but threw 3 interceptions and lost 3 fumbles because this guy just keeps coming back.

I thought for sure that his career was done when he got benched in New York and then ended up in Arizona. In fact, i thought he would end up as the next Steve DeBerg or Vinnie who wandered around the league until they were 40 something. Instead Warner has been reborn in Arizona after beating out Matt Leinart and pushing the Cardinals to a 3-2 league record. After all, they just beat the previously undefeated Bills by nearly 30 points and could’ve put up 50 points if they wanted to and they didn’t even have one of their biggest weapons (Boldin) because of a serious injury.

Warner had talked this past week of retiring coming off the Jets game and watching Boldin get hurt but that talk is all gone now. As the Cardinals play the Cowboys this weekend I’ll be watching very closely because they Cowboys are very good and oh….he’s my starting fantasy QB who keeps leading me to victory. Go Kurt.

I love each Saturday and look forward to the games at hand. Last weekend was great and this weekend isn’t close to that but here’s a few games that I’m going to sit through before I muster up the courage to watch the Cubs lose to the Dodgers and break my heart again. Anyway…(tears starting to well up) the top games for this weekend are…

Auburn vs Vanderbilt - Normally this wouldn’t even be a game but both teams are top 20 and I really like Auburn. The game is at Vandy and they are playing the best they have in my entire lifetime, kind of like the Cubs before the playoffs started. I mean the Cubs are the best team in the National League and it was obvious. Then the playoffs start and they look like a bunch of high school kids going to the state tournament for the first time. Kills me. 4 Errors at home? Joke. Sorry. Auburn has won the last 13 games versus Vandy and I don’t see that changing. It will be a good game but Auburn is very very tough.

Texas vs Colorado - I like this game because I actually think Colorado has a chance. Most people picked them to beat Florida St last week and it didn’t happen so this time the door is open for an upset. Texas comes in looking very good and ranked 7th in the country. Colorado will be able to play with them and I think they will even have the lead in the 4th quarter before Texas ends up beating them late. Look for Colt McCoy to make a Heisman name for himself late in this game.

Usc vs Oregon - Usc is coming off an upset loss to Oregon st nearly a week and a half ago and they’ve had some time to prepare for the Ducks. The Ducks are going to face a serious uphill battle as they have to go into the Colisseum where USC doesn’t lose. Oregon needs to play out of their heads because they are going to get a fired up team playing in front of a fired up fan base. Look out…

I’m going to focus on the teams for now and none has been more surprising than the Buffalo Bills. They are atop the AFC East right now with an undefeated record and have been getting great play from their skilled position players and look to be in a great position to actually make the playoffs. I love Trent Edwards at QB because he makes good solid choices and doesn’t force the ball when it isn’t there. He is showing excellent leadership and it looks like his team is really buying into it.

The Tennessee Titans are another team that is undefeated at 4-0 and playing awesome behind Kerry Collins at QB. I remember when Collins was drafted highly and so much was put on him and quietly he has had an excellent career. Vince Young got hurt and the Titans actually got better because Collins can throw the ball. They have a great tailback in Chris Johnson who is setting the league on fire and play great defense. We really need to start to give Jeff Fisher some due respect because the man can coach.

My surprising bad team is the Colts. They are 1-2 and could’ve easily lost all 3 games they’ve played so far. Peyton Manning just doesn’t look the same so far and Marvin Harrison is starting to show his age. I know they need Joseph Addai to step up because he’s been a disappointment so far as well. It is early and I don’t expect the Colts to end up on my list, but Bob Sanders is out for a few more weeks and they could find themselves in a big hole if they don’t get things straightened out quickly.

This past weekend was amazing to witness. I watched the first half of the Alabama/Georgia game and came away with one conclusion: Nick Saban is a college football genius. That is a prepared football team that comes ready to play. They have already upset Clemson and threw them into a tailspin and now they thump Georgia and let’s see what happens now. They were up 31-0 at halftime and played inspired defense against a team with a top 10 draft choice at QB and a first round choice at tailback in Moreno.

Florida lost. Tebow fumbled and as i watched the last highlight I wondered why he wasn’t standing under center on 4th down. Everyone in the world knew what the play was going to be and it failed horribly. All 22 people ended up in the pile. It was like watching a traffic jam car crash, slow and painful. I thought Florida was the team to beat this year but it goes to show you how tough the SEC is. Alabama will still have to play LSU, Auburn. It doesn’t get easier at all for any of them. While BYU keeps sliding up the rankings playing weak conference opponents, out of their control, teams from the SEC keep beating each other up and hurting their chances of a national title. Meanwhile BYU, UTAH, BOISE ST all keep creeping up the rankings and I’m not saying they shouldn’t but the system is so jacked up in college football it is crazy. When they finally decide on a playoff they are going to wonder how and why they did it this way for so many years.

I honestly believe that college football is a playoff away from being the greatest sport in the United States and I truly believe that. If they thought March Madness brought attention this would be unbelievable.

That was a very good football game and the tailback for Oregon St is a good football player. He did that against arguably the best defense in the country. He’s tough. USC lacked some mental toughness though and it showed. They played from behind as if they were panicked and had a serious lack of compusure. McKnight was not relevant to the game at all and Sanchez couldn’t pick up his team when it was needed. Sanchez is a pro and is a gifted football player but it didn’t show last night. That interception he threw with 3 minutes left really sealed the deal for Oregon st and showed a sign of weakness for USC. What Oregon St did better than anyone could expect was control the ball. They were able to really run the ball and keep that offense on the sideline. If the game went another quarter I could see USC winning by 2 touchdowns but they didn’t and should be out of the National Championship race. Losing 1 game is usually the kiss of death for a PAC 10 team but not for an SEC or BIG 10 team. This year will be a little different because Ohio St got killed by USC so they need to be ranked after USC no matter what in my opinion.

Anyway, it was the best thursday night game I’ve ever seen.