2010 NCAA Football Week 4

After a late switch of the Hawaii-Colorado game, I went 12-0 in the Big XII, bringing my season record to 33-3. Special thanks to Mizzou and A&M for finally waking up in the 2nd half. I thought TCU-Baylor would be close, but boy was I wrong.

For the national games, I went 4-1 with the Iowa loss to bring those picks to 9-2. Not bad.

Big XII Games:
K-State over UCF
Mizzou in another squeaker over Miami (OH)
OU big over Cincy on the road...I'm thinking half a hundred
Iowa State over UNI
Nebraska scores 70 on South Dakota State?
KU over NMSU at home by 10
Baylor over Rice on the road
Texas way over UCLA

A couple of notes on the Texas season so far. I have the Big 12 going Nebraska, OU, UT. The Cornhuskers have been the most consistent so far and OU has the higher profile victory over FSU. But, and this is a huge BUT, the Texas defense is SICK!!


National Games
Miami over Pitt
'Bama crushes Arkansas as Ryan Mallett gets picked twice and sacked five times
Stanford destroys Notre Dame as Touchdown Jesus cries as the Irish start 1-3
Penn State hands Temple (TEMPLE!) their first loss of the season
Florida over Kentucky at The Swamp
Boise over Oregon State by 27 on the Smurf Turf
TCU by 31 over SMU
LSU by 9 over WVU, the difference being the Bayou Bengals defense
Oregon only wins by 23 over Arizona State in Tempe
And the hardest to pick: South Carolina versus Auburn on The Plains. The spread is Auburn by 3 over the other USC. I just don't see it. I think that the Cocks harass Cam Newton. Sure he'll break off a couple of runs when avoiding pressure, but the D keeps him bottle up for the most part. Take the Under (O/U 46) with South Carolina over Auburn 19-13.

Some national rankings for your pleasure. My Top 5...
1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. TCU
4. Boise State
5. Nebraska

If Texas were to play TCU, whether here, there or Jerry World, I'm thinking we'd lose 27-17.

2010 NCAA Football Week 3

[Editors Note: This column originally posted Friday, but I'm changing two picks before the games start today: Arkansas over Georgia and Colorado over Hawaii].

Last week I went 10-2 for the Big 12, bringing my record to 21-3 for the year.
So what happened?
1. Kansas changed its QB from Mr. Pick
2. OU showed why its a bad idea to pick against Stoops and Co. Maybe this year he'll revive his "Big Game Bob" aura. I'm just glad UT has two more weeks after the Tech game.

In the national games, I went 5-1 with my only loss the toss-up between Michigan and Notre Dame. What an individual performance by Denard Robinson.

Here's what I think's in store this weekend:

Big XII
Southern Miss over Kansas? Who knows.
K-State over Iowa State
Nebraska over Washington
OU over Air Force; a frisky performance by Air Force, but I'm not going to make the same mistake twice
Hawaii over Colorado
TCU over Baylor
Mizzou over SDSU
A&M over FIU
And finally, Texas over Tech. I know I always feel like we're going to lose these games. We've got a young team on the road, Tech has upgraded their coaching staff, Greg Davis is still our offensive coordinator. But Tech hasn't exactly played anyone either. I just have to bleed orange on this one even though my gut says we walk out with an L.

National Games
Iowa over Arizona despite the history
Wisconsin over Arizona State
Michigan State over Notre Dame - this one will end with the winner by 4 points or less
Georgia over Arkansas - Ryan Mallett comes back to Earth
Va Tech gets off the schneid against ECU

2010 NCAA Football Week 2

Okay, so I blew the Kansas game, but no one told me that the QB's last name is Pick. Shouldn't that be an automatic no-scholarship for a signal-caller? That's a red flag, right?

Here's how my picks go this week:
Georgia Tech over Kansas
Nebraska over Idaho
Cal over Colorado (expecting Cal's usual 5-0 start before the free-fall)
Iowa over Iowa State
Texas over Wyoming
Tech over New Mexico
Baylor over Buffalo
Mizzou over McNeese State
Oklahoma State over Troy
A&M over LaTech

And the hardest game of the week:
I'm just not that sure about Oklahoma. Barely surviving against WAC bottom-feeder Utah State while giving up 24 points? FSU looked good against it's week 1 cupcake, but must travel to Norman this week. My guess: Florida State over Oklahoma.

In other news, what a whale of a weekend, or a Monster as ESPN keeps shoving down our throats. Miami-Ohio State, Notre Dame-Michigan, Florida State-Oklahoma and Penn State-Alabama. My picks for the national games: OSU over The U, 'Bama over PSU and a toss-up with ND-UM: I think I'm drinking the Brian Kelly kool-aid in this one and picking Notre Dame on the road.

I'm also going with South Carolina over Georgia, Oregon over the other UT and a nail-biter Florida versus South Florida. I'm taking Florida based on three things: 1) The Swamp, 2) overall better talent and 3) big-playability.

We'll see how I did next week.

College Football Is Back!

I've got my spreadsheet ready to go for my BCS Rankings.
This year I'm going to do predictions on Big XII games.

My guess is we open up 12-0.

Punny, Part Deux

This blogpost in December introduced my annoyance with the phrase "no pun intended" and how unnecessary it is.

Jemele Hill is the latest offender. Look at the second paragraph above the Arenas photo.

Punny

One of the things I've been annoyed with recently is the trend of writers and podcasters to say "no pun intended." Well, if you didn't intend a pun, don't tell me you didn't intend a pun, because then you sound like you intended the pun.

Say for instance that you've been sitting all day and your bum is a little sore. You tell your buddy next to you "Man, I could really stand to get off my bum." If you added "no pun intended", then your buddy would have to think to himself, "What did he mean 'no pun intended'?" It messes things up too much. Sure, most of the time if you're on your bum, you have to indeed stand to get off it.

So, something that wasn't intended to be funny in the first place, or at best an inert statement, now discombobulates everything around that part of the tome/conversation. So, don't make things awkward by introducing this insipid phrase. Just let it hang.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/1764/friday-mailbag-iowa-s-moeaki-to-return
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/2033/michigan-state-schedule-news-spring-game-recap

It's a...

BOY!!

Check out our Facebook pages for the announcement.

Here are some pics and a silly vid from the day:

No, we're not the type to post his parts for the entire world to see.

Sweet sister kisses

Munchkin wanted to take a picture of me with the flowers.


Sure, this video is corny, but what do you expect from me?

Back When

I really like Pandora radio. One of the cool features is having the lyrics for the song.

Well, Tim McGraw has a song entitled "Back When". It's a fun little tome about how things used to be. It's got a catchy chorus:

Back when a hoe was a hoe
Coke was a coke
And crack's what you were doing
When you were cracking jokes
Back when a screw was a screw
The wind was all that blew
And when you said I'm down with that
Well it meant you had the flu
I miss back when

But the most ironic lyric is this: Cause they put pop in my country

Well Timmy, you might've sang about the evils of pop invading country music, but you sir, are a perpetrator. This song was released on 2004's "Live Like You Were Dying", well after you'd gone the way of syrupy ballads and cross-over pop-tarty sound. Hypocrite.

Happy Birthday Babe!

Who are those crazy kids?!

We've celebrated NINE of your birthdays together. It's hard to imagine that I've spent a third of your life with you, but the math doesn't lie.

We've had a lot of great moments during this span. Pixar has been nice enough to release their summer blockbuster most of those years, so it's been a fun little tradition of ours. We've been all over the Midwest and Europe, seeing lots of your extended family on the way. We have two wonderful children and a third on the way.

I wonder what adventures these next few years will have for us.

I love you.

Hope you have a good nap.

Our Little Picasso

Munchkin is a much better drawer than her old man, especially at the age of four.

I guess this is me.

I really like the ears.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hey Babe,

I'm so blessed that you are my wife and the mother of my children.

I'm glad that the Lord has blessed us with another tiny soul to shepherd.

I look forward to dedicating the next baby Carrell on Mother's Day next year.

Love,

Me

Four Things I Love About You

1. You still like to plop down in my lap to read books.

2. Your sweet singing and the songs you make up.

3. You still say gym-natch-tics, even though you've been doing them for over a year now.

4. The way you half-asleep sputter and mumble and cling to me when I take you for your 10:15 potty break.

Happy Birthday Munchkin!

Love,

Daddy

Word Whimsy

Here's the challenge: See if you can use the following words in the normal flow of conversation this week.

1. Panacea
2. Genesis (just regarding a beginning, not the first book of the Bible. that'd be too easy)

Bubble Watch

Joe Lunardi posted his weekly Bracketology on Monday.

I know I'm going to take some flack from my fellow Texas alumns and diehards, but I don't think we deserve to go dancing this year. If I was on the NCAA Selection Committee, I would pick A&M ahead of UT. We just haven't had that many marquee wins, and those wins are close. We haven't consistently blown people out.

Now, will UT get into the tourney? Probably, assuming they don't get creamed at Kansas on Saturday and win two games in the Big XII tournament. They're the Arizona of the Big XII. Even if they don't have a great record, it's almost as if the selection committee believes they have a birthright to the tournament.

I think yesterday helped clear up the picture.
Minnesota and Wisconsin switch places with the Golden Gophers in and the Badgers out. Either way, the fewer rodents the better.
Say bye-bye to Miami. The ACC is 6-bid conference at best, with BC not helping its cause by gakking at NC State.
The SEC is down this year, as noted by Kentucky losing to an 11-18 Georgia team. It's hard to deny the Wildcats, both the program and Billie Gillespie. I know Pat Forde would have a heart attack.
Same goes for Florida. Not much margin for error.
I think Tulsa played its way in.
A&M is on an absolute tear lately and owns non-conference wins over LSU & Arizona.
San Diego State and UNLV are battling for the 4th MWC bid.

The Big East is a good conference. However, I don't think Providence has done enough to get in. Seven bids is good for this league.

I think URI takes one of the bids from the ACC or Big East.

[Editor's Note: The above portion of the column written at lunchtime on 3/5/09]
Here's last night's scoreboard.

Well, Providence sure spit the bit last night. Thanks for making me look smart. :o)
VMI is the feel-good story of the year, taking out Liberty by 20.
Did Tennessee switch places with South Carolina or just push themselves onto the bubble a little further?
I think Penn State cemented its place in the Field fo 65.
Cal pushed Arizona firmly out of the Dance with a road win last night. If you have 12 losses and you're not from a traditional single-bid conference, you have no place in March.

Tune in these next three days to see what movement happens as the low- and mid-major conferences wrap up their tourneys.

[Editor's Note: The previous two paragraphs were published before Joe's Bracketology update today.]

Joe's new arrivals? Minnesota, Texas A&M.
Joe's first out? Arizona, Kentucky & Providence.
The second out? Miami.

Thanks Joe for confirming my thoughts.

Overheard This Weekend

Tiny One to her doll Emily on the dark car ride home Friday night:
"You can't see Honeybunch!"
"WeeHee Emily!" repeat ad nauseum

Tiny One to me Saturday night during Munchkin's 10-minute resistance to eating her green bean:
"Don't get frustrated Daddy."
When a 2-year-old is calling you out, you know you need to work on tone and body language.

Munchkin when presented with her black shoes to wear with her red dress on Sunday morning:
"Christmas shoes! WooHoo!"

The Good Things

It hasn't been all bad lately.

The girls have been playing very sweetly together a lot, becoming friends in addition to being sisters.

Tiny One has been really affectionate toward me, which revives my soul. There's been lots of Daddy hugs and air kisses. She's also been really into running to a spot and jumping. The gymnastics have been good for her.

Munchkin continues to be our little artist. It's fun to see the creativity she has with her designs and colors. She is very good at coloring inside the lines and cutting things out.

The weather is vacillating between mild winter and mild summer. The weatherpersons and newscasters are so annoying because they're always overly thankful for the warm weather. Alas, our 3-week allotment of winter weather is finished. I wonder what it would be like to live in a place where there's actually four seasons and summer doesn't last from May to October. A man can dream.

Viva Fernando!

What a concert!

I thoroughly enjoy his music and his time with us tonight was no exception. His off-the-wall rabbit-trail humor lends itself to a more familial tone, which is rather endearing.

I was a little bummed he only did one of his funnier songs, but was quite thrilled by the overall experience. The sound was amazing and the cello accompaniment was fabulous.

Thanks to MT for taking care of the girls for us.

Crawling Out From Under The Rock

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been stupid busy at work. Yes, I just said "stupid busy".

Long story short is that we lost a couple of people in the lab three weeks ago and I've absorbed a lot more responsibilities. And one of my tests hasn't been working, compounding the extra work. There's been a lot of early mornings, late nights and weekend trysts with my GCs.

I am feeling very overwhelmed with everything. My esposa pointed out that I have a smattering of stress on my face, which I've been trying to combat with frequent face washings. So if you think of me, send up a prayer on my behalf, specifically that I'd be efficient with my time and that I'd be humble in my successes, as well as having the energy to be a husband and father when I am home.

Thanks.

Grace Memories

One of the founding couples of our church mentioned some of the memories they had in what will soon be the old sanctuary.

I thought I'd give some of my favorite memories of the old facility.

Got married to my beloved wife.
Dedicated both our children to the LORD.
Played saxophone for the music portion of worship.
Fernando Ortega and Andrew Peterson - Behold the Lamb of God concerts.

I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting; I've been a regular attender since January '98. Leave a comment with your favorite memories.

R

Super Bowl Reaction

So, as a parent, the days of sitting down to watch a full game are well done and gone.

The play that many talking heads are touting as the greatest play in Super Bowl history (probably), and even all of sporting history! is what I'm going to rant on.

Great play by James Harrison, including the high-stepping routine down the sideline. Deion Sanders would be proud.

HOWEVER!!!! that was a poor play call. I put that on the offensive coordinator. Does he have Greg Davis as his special counsel? YOU'VE GOT LARRY FREAKING FITZGERALD! HE LOVES THE BALL AND THE BALL LOVES HIM! HE IS THE JUMP-BALL KING! I throw at least two fades to him. At the very least, vary the snap count! Imagine if they gave the hard count on that ill-fated play? Guess what? Arizona football at the half-yard line. Think about if they started the play with the motion left and Warner swivels around and boots to the right to have a tight end pulling across the grain? So many options. Especially since there's not much room for the defense to patrol, you don't want to have a short pass. Everybody's coming forward.

Oh well.

Great game. Congrats to the Steelers. I know my manager is a happy woman.