Morning Rant

This morning I just wanted to get some random and somewhat related thoughts down on paper.

First let me talk about the bowls for a moment. I had earlier ripped the bowl system for being too watered down. However, this is the part of the bowl schedule that represents the real meat (but even the real meat of the schedule is tainted by the extraneous GMAC Bowl and International Bowl fiasco).

No matter what happens in the Ohio State / Florida game – we will no longer have to hear any whining from Ann Arbor about how they were screwed by the BCS by not playing in the championship game. USC beat them like rented mules last night and by doing so probably has made people re-evaluate how good Ohio State actually is. I mean Ohio State’s real claim to the #1 spot comes down to victories over Michigan (who just got tooled by USC) and their early season victory over Texas (who later lost to Kansas State, Texas A&M and just barely squeaked by Iowa in the Alamo Bowl). The line in the Ohio State game has been pretty steady at Ohio State giving 8 points but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some money start pouring in on Florida pushing the line down to about Ohio State -6.5 points.

Last night Boise State beat Oklahoma in an absolutely thrilling game to go undefeated on the season. If Ohio State falls to Florida there will be some who say that Boise State is the real national champion because they will be the only unbeaten team in the country. Last night also was the coming out party for Ian Johnson who will have to be considered for the Heisman Trophy next season. Adrian Peterson was supposed to be the running back to watch last night but Ian Johnson out-shown the man who will perhaps be the first back taken in the NFL draft. Peterson had 20 rushes for 77 yards and 2 TD’s while Johnson had 23 rushes for 101 yards and a TD. Look for Ian Johnson and Hawaii QB Colt Brennan to get lots of love throughout the season next year.

Yesterday also saw NFL coaches Jim Mora Jr. and Dennis Green get their walking papers. Mora is an interesting case because it is tough to figure out if A: he wanted to get fired (that’s the only rational explanation for his behavior); B: Mora is just that stupid or C: Michael Vick really is a coach killer (personally – I think it was a little bit of each). The funny thing about Green getting fired is that he has already been invited back to interview for the Cardinals job to help Arizona comply with the NFL mandate that at least one coach of color be interviewed for each head coaching job.

One last note – have you seen the new Cadillac commercial? The one with the woman walking through the office and all of the men quake in her wake. Then she gets into her Cadillac and cackles. What’s the message that commercial is trying to send? If you are a corporate witch – put away your broom and drive a Caddy? Personally – I’d love to see the folks from Volvo spoof that commercial by showing basically the same commercial but at the end the witch’s Caddy gets T-boned by a Volvo driven by the men from the office with the tag line – “Cadillac – not as safe as a Volvo.”