College football Saturday open thread (UPDATED)

Terrelle Pryor (pictured) and his newly-minted #1 Ohio State Buckeyes go to Camp Randall Stadium on the campus of the University of Wisconsin to take on the #16 Badgers in prime time.

#13 Arkansas at #7 and undefeated Auburn Tigers.

#14 Iowa at the Big House in Ann Arbor to take on #24 Michigan.

BYU Cougars at #5 TCU who need to keep winning and need some help from above (in the standings, as well) in order to stay in the BCS hunt. And fellow BCS-busters, #3 Boise St. is on the road at San Jose St.

Former #1 Alabama, now at #8, will host Ole Miss and seek some revenge after that disaster against South Carolina last week.


Now that people have, at least for the time being, jumped off the Denard Robinson (Michigan) and Mark Ingram and/or Greg McElroy (Alabama) Heisman band wagons, may we introduce a sleeper in North Carolina State quarterback, Russell Wilson who has guided his team to a 5-1 record while completing 60% of his passes for 300 yards/game and 17 touchdowns against 6 interceptions. We were warned about this guy in the off season but did not pay enough attention. Mr. Wilson is now officially on the BwD Heisman radar. The Wolfpack is at East Carolina today.


Addendum #1: Probably the coolest thing you are going to see today. 101st Airborne division soldier parachuting into the Big House in Ann Arbor.

Listen to the crowd fade in at the 2:40 mark. Chills.





(UPDATE #1): No sooner than... Our Heisman boosting for Russell Wilson of NC State took a major hit as he threw 3 INTs in an overtime loss to East Carolina 33-27.

OK. Let's see who else's Heisman trophy hopes we can dash. Cam Newton of Auburn, perhaps?

Congrats to the Badgers of Wisconsin who upset #1 Ohio State and to San Diego State who beat their first top 25 opponent in Air Force last night since 19996.

College football Saturday open thread

In what we think is a pretty shrewd move, Army-Navy will go down today, one week later than their usual first-Saturday-in-December time slot (which, up until 20 yrs. ago, was one week later than its traditional Saturday-after-Thanksgiving time slot) in order to be the only Div. I game on the docket today.

Navy has dominated of late, winning the last seven by an average of 29 points, but Army has been running some smack and with a victory, they will qualify for something called the EagleBank Bowl. Navy at 8-4 is slated to play Missouri in the Texas Bowl on New Year's Eve.

Also, later this evening, some intrigue in a ceremony that traditionally has sealed NFL fate of its winner – the Heisman Trophy will be awarded. Intrigue, we say, because the winner may not be doomed to the irrelevance that has seemed to have plagued winners of recent vintage.

That and the fact that there will be a defensive lineman, Ndamukong Suh of Nebraska, as one of the five finalists. Suh, last Saturday in the Big 12 championship game against Texas, had the most dominating defensive performance we’ve seen since Chris Spielman of Ohio State racked up 29 tackles against Michigan back in 1987.

Tim Tebow of Florida, Colt McCoy of Texas and running backs Toby Gerhart and Mark Ingram of Stanford and Alabama, respectively, round out the list of finalists.

We've got some other stuff to get to but short of that please enjoy the rest of your college football Saturday.

Go Navy!

Commenter Picture Caption Contest...

... courtesy Awful Announcing.



"Minutes after ringing the opening bell to the NYSE, Sam Bradford watched his stock in the NFL draft drop 10 spots...."- Rex

and

"At another location, Graham Harrell was giving a speech to the "Christmas Sweaters Wearer of America""- IWEA

Ours: "Awesome. I win the Heisman and now I get to preside over the nuclear vaporization of millions of Americans' retirement accounts."

Gotta think that ringing the bell at the opening of the NYSE only to see stocks immediately drop through the floor isn't quite the thrill or honor it has been in the recent past.

Next huge NFL flop to be designated this evening.

…Graham Harrell spared this potential fate.

Colt McCoy of Texas, Sam Bradford of Oklahoma and Tim Tebow of Florida, the designee last year, will be on hand at the Downtown Athletic Club this evening for the presentation of the Heisman Trophy.

Harrell’s exclusion from this party would appear to be puzzling as his team, the Texas Tech Red Raiders share identical 11-1 records with the 3 finalists’ teams and he has passed for more yards than the 3 finalists.

The Heisman committee claims, though, that the voting tally determines who goes to New York.

Coordinator of the Heisman Trophy Trust, Tim Henning: "It's not a mathematical formula that determines the number of invitees. It's just wherever there is a natural breaking point in the voting,", i.e. Harrell did not get anywhere near the number of votes that McCoy, Bradford or Tebow did.

So who’s going to win it? There’s two general themes circulating. One is that Bradford and McCoy, the two Big 12 QBs will split votes leaving an opening for Tebow. The other contention is that voters will not vote for Tebow thus denying him a 2-fer, something not seen in these parts since the mid 70s when Ohio State’s Archie Griffin became the only player to win it back to back. Allowing Tebow to go back to back would be sacrosanct… or something.

We’re going with Tebow as we think voters recognize the fact that there is absolutely no defense played in the Big 12 and while Bradford and McCoy are fine quarterbacks, those gaudy stats they have piled-up are as much a result of this fact as anything else. So, mark it down: future NFL fullback, Tim Tebow will take home the hardware this evening.

A quick note on the national championship betting line: the money hasn’t reacted to Florida’s offensive coordinator, Dan Mullen, being named head coach at Mississippi State and his uncertainty as to whether or not he will relinquish his duties at Florida to full-time it at Miss. St. Florida remains 3 point favorites and this indicates that the betting public sees the key match up as Florida’s defense vs. Oklahoma’s offense and not the Gator O vs. the Sooner D.