This is our new Thursday night thread. We hope YOU our readers and friends in the blogosphere pop your heads in and engage in a little conversation.

Jesus in the house. What? What?

Nebraska 23 at Mizzou 21 – Let’s get frisky! Corn Nation and Rock M Nation are betting taglines on the outcome. Orson has this bitch factored and it’s not not looking good for the Huskers or, well, maybe it is… I like Nebraska because I saw man-child Roy Helu Jr. conquer the souls of eleven Virginia Tech defenders almost three weeks ago.

Auburn 38 at Arkansas 31 – It’s goin’ be a shootout in Fayetteville. I give the edge to Auburn because they can put up points, and they’ll play better defense.

Continue Reading “Divine Predictions. Thursday Night Open Thread with Jesus.” »

Deepsouthsports.net has an interesting story about Nick Saban’s last pitch to recruit 5-star godzilla sized tackle Bobby Massie.

He was asked to give a good Nick Saban recruiting story, and he had a pretty good one to say the least. Bobby said he called Coach Saban the night before signing day to let him know that he was going to sign with Ole Miss. Bobby did not even inform the Ole Miss staff that he was going to be a Rebel until the night before signing day, per Bobby, but he did say, “I had a pretty good idea where I was going in December.”

Anyway, Bobby calls Nick and Coach Saban stops him before he tells where he is going and said this, “Bobby, do not even tell me where you are going, because if you are not going to Alabama I am turning you into the NCAA. You know you have a chance to start at Alabama at right tackle as a sophomore, and nobody would turn that down unless they did something illegal.”

Bobby was stunned. He said he just listened to Coach Saban rant and never said another word about it. He was offended to say the least. That is why he made such a scene at the press conference when he threw the Alabama hat on the ground and put on an Ole Miss hat.

Fuck smoke machines, the promise of early playing time and championships. Just tell the recruits if they don’t sign with your team that you’re going to turn them into the NCAA! Could Nick Saban be anymore full of himself?

… USC, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Alabama aren’t among them. Rivals’ Olin Buchanan uses five common denominators of the past 11 BCS National Champions to predict who has the best shot to win it all in 2009.  They are:

1. Be a “Big Six” conference member or Notre Dame

2. Post at least eight victories the previous season

3. Posted a winning record in post-October regular-season games

4. Return a junior or senior quarterback with starting experience

5. Return at least six starters from a defense that ranked in the top 20 in scoring defense the previous season

There are six teams that meet all five criteria: Florida, Iowa, Mississippi, Texas, West Virginia and Virginia Tech. With Tim Tebow and the entire starting defense (and their backups) returning in 2009 Florida is the oh-so-obvious choice regardless of the selection process. Without Shonn Greene Iowa won’t even contend for a Big Ten Championship.  Jevan Sneed and Ole Miss will be formidable in 2009, but they won’t be able to creep up on the SEC like they did in 2008.  Out of the six teams Texas’ schedule is the most manageable to go undefeated and play for a National Championship. Jarrett Brown is 2-0 (correct me if I’m wrong) as the starter for WVU, but can any Mountaineer actually say he’s going to fill Pat White’s shoes in 2009. Virginia Tech has been good enough to dominate the ACC, but in order to play for the National Championship they will probably need to be 4-0 against Nebraska, Alabama, ECU and Marshall which is going to be extremely tough.