A correction and a rant

First I must correct myself, not accounting for the return of their star reciever Aundrae Allison, I forgot to include the East Carolina Pirates as bowl contenders in C-USA but I will here. Right now the Pirates are 3-4 but with 3 plausible wins against Marshall at UCF and at Rice. They also square off on the road at "The Rock" in Hattiesburg against USM and another road test at NC State. Due to the 4 of 5 on the road scheduling, I stand by my original bowl projection.

Now to more pressing football...

As I write this (2:55 am CDT), I am nervously anticipating the first of two critical games for my alma mater the Tulsa Golden Hurricane as they will host Jordan Palmer and the UTEP Miners tonight at Skelly. I believe this game will be reasonably high scoring as both teams feature solid offenses. UTEP has shown a bit of a weakness in rush defense which could bode well for Courtney Tennial, Tarrion Adams, and Dexter Taylor, TU's trio of rotating tailbacks. The passing game will come down to turnovers. Palmer will likely end up with more yards but has a tendency to take chances and make questionable decisions. Paul Smith is efficient as a QB without any flash. If he has a typical game along with a balanced rush attack, Tulsa should be able to control the clock and likely control the game but that sounds like an official prediction which I cannot make.

Regardless, It should be more fun to watch than the Cardinals trying to finish off the Tigers and bring about the most miserable end to the baseball season imaginable.

In other news one of my concert events actually improved tonight. It was announced tonight that The Vanished will open for Blue October at Warehouse Live. As a result, the peasants rejoice.

Song Lyrics of the Day (as I wait for the rain to subside)
"For 3 weeks she sleeps
Through the rain
I've gotta try to keep her dry
Run out of way"
Blue October -- 3 Weeks She Sleeps

College Football Saturday: C-USA Bowl eligibility edition

So, both Tulsa and Rice won again this week. Tulsa is now bowl-eligible at 6-1 while Rice is still only 3-5, but as my friend Albert reminds me daily, both still have a chance at a bowl birth.

In an attempt to see this logic I decided to break down the C-USA bowl tie-ins and the chances of respective teams. C-USA has 5 bowl tie-ins this year (Yes, there would be a 6th if the Pac-10 didn't have 6 bowl eligible teans but they will so this will assume only 5 bowls.)
Standings as of this posting
C-USA East Conference Overall
Southern Miss 2-1 4-3
East Carolina 2-2 3-4
UAB 2-2 3-5
Marshall 1-2 2-5
UCF 1-2 2-5
Memphis 0-3 1-6
C-USA West Conference Overall
Tulsa 3-0 6-1
Houston 3-1 5-3
UTEP 2-1 4-3
SMU 2-2 4-4
Rice 2-2 3-5
Tulane 1-3 2-5

Already bowl eligible: Tulsa
The Golden Hurricane gained bowl eligibility with a 35-14 win at Memphis Saturday night. Paul Smith had another efficient day 17-20 for 209 1 TD and 1 INT. Courtney Tennial had 97 yards and 3 TDs. Right now the Hurricane has the inside track to the Liberty Bowl against an SEC team; however the two key games in the western division still remain. UTEP visits Skelly on Friday (watch the game on ESPN2) and then Tulsa will visit Houston on 11/4. Other remaining games include home games with Rice and Tulane and a road voyage to SMU.

Will reach a bowl game: Houston, UTEP, Southern Miss
Houston at 5-3 needs 1 more win to reach the bowl eligible plateau. with games against UCF, SMU, and Memphis, a bowl game is virtually assured. Kevin Kolb and Vincent Marshall lead the strong Cougar offense; however, this team has been inconsistent struggling against Rice and losing to Louisiana-Lafayette. Conference USA west will be decided on November 4th at Robertson Stadium. I will be in attendance.

UTEP will go as far as Jordan Palmer's decision making will carry them. The schedule sets up favorably for a bowl trip with home games versus Rice and Memphis and Road trips to Tulsa, UAB, and Marshall. The Miners will likely be favored in all of the contests except the Tulsa game. I suspect the Miners will finish at 7-5 because despite their talent they will play down to the competition in at least one game they should win.

Southern Miss could very easily run the table and win C-USA's eastern division. While their record is only 4-3, the three losses are at Florida, at Va Tech, and at Tulsa. The remaining schedule features less challenging road trips to Memphis and Tulane while ECU, UAB, and Marshall will visit "The Rock" in Hattiesburg.

Needing a lot of help: UAB, SMU, and Rice
With four spots occupied, that leaves one spot for the 3 teams here. Each will need a lot of help and to win a game they shouldn't. UAB needs to win 3 of 4 but their schedule doesn't bode well. SMU and UAB will play on the Halloween in Dallas in a game that will simplify this picture. Other than SMU, the Blazers will host UTEP and make trips to UCF and Southern Miss. Only one of those three would be a win on paper.

SMU will host UAB and travel to Rice both of which will help stabilize this picture. The Mustangs only need two wins out of their final four but with the other two being home games against Houston and Tulsa, it's likely that the UAB and Rice games will be critical.

For the Owls the situation is simple. Home games against the ECU Pirates and SMU will follow a two-game road trip to UTEP and Tulsa. Their offense is clicking behind Junior quarterback Chase Clement and super Sophomore wideout Jarret Dillard; however, the rush defense is still very suspect and the Owls have still only won C-USA road game so asking them to hold serve at home and pull off an upset against one of the better teams in the league is likely asking too much.

So there's the breakdown My opinions as of today as to how the bowl bids will go on paper is as follows taking into account both records and geography:

Liberty Bowl (Memphis, TN) -- Tulsa
GMAC Bowl (Mobile AL)-- Southern Miss
Fort Worth Bowl (Fort Worth, TX)-- Houston
Birmingham Bowl (Birmingham, AL)-- UTEP
New Orleans Bowl (New Orleans, LA) -- SMU (My heart and my fandom wants Rice in this spot but I'm just looking at easiest roads.)

In honor of tonight's concert festivities...

Song Lyrics of the Day
Fear is only in our minds
But it's taking over all the time
Evanescence -- "Sweet Sacrifice"

Random Artistic Effort

Walk Away Free
By Aaron Coyner

I know I’ve let you get the best of me
For far too long a time
But if it goes on any longer
It would have to be a crime
There’s no more damn excuses
And no more to explain
It’s time to fight my own battles
And rise above the pain
So throw away the braces
Let me hobble on my own
And fill out all the papers
‘Cause tonight I’m going home

I’ve made excuses for too long
Used my situation as a crutch
Restricted my behavior
Hid from challenges too much
My courage weaker than my spine
Opportunities just fall
As I sat there uninspired
Sheltered by the wall
Shred the damn prescriptions
And throw away the pills
You can stop the meter running
And just send me the bill
Check in another patient
To my imaginary cell
I need to leave and live my life
Attempting to get well

So throw away the crutches
And don’t panic if I fall
Getting up is part of life
It happens to us all
I’ve signed all the damn papers
Now I’ll make my unique way
Out of the hospital’s shadows
Into a bright, new day

Concert Calendar questions and a thank you from elsewhere in the blogosphere

Okay, so as usual my schedule is busy but I need to mix music in with the research and educational experience. So I have the following live shows here in town to attend and a couple more I need help deciding on.

Known Shows:
Evanescence and Revelation Theory Sunday at Verizon
Blue October at Warehouse Live November 26th

Other possibilities that require advice:
The Burden Brothers w/ Paris Green November 2nd
Deftones November 16th
Three Days Grace w/ Army of Anyone December 8th

Thoughts, opinions other recommendations welcome.

Also a thanks to the artistic member of the family, Sarah, for the new background. I got tired of the solid colors.

Tulsa Golden Hurricane, ranked 25th in the BCS, Bowl Eligibility Counter: 1 more win

Song Lyric of the Day
Could you come in to my light?
So I can see you truly
I didn't look when I had the chance
Caroline's Spine -- "Ouch"

Football in review this week

I need to cover numerous things regarding football this weekend. Yes, the brawl between Miami and Florida International will be included although it may need its own post later. For now the usual list of points followed by useless opinion:

• First congratulations to both my alma maters, Rice and Tulsa, for solid wins this week. Tulsa had a solid quarterbacking performance and solid running game by committee to beat East Carolina 31-10. Rice had great performances from Chase Clement at QB and Jarrett Dillard (more on Dillard later) at receiver and a somewhat bizarre comeback to beat the UAB Blazers 34-33.
• Playing to my audience a little, congrats to Vandy for the upset of severely overrated but still well-respected Georgia. Any chance I get to start a Commodore bowl countdown or should I view this as a complete fluke (much like the Rice Stadium PA guy during the halftime scoreboard: " And in the SEC, Vanderbilt (awkward pause) Vanderbilt?!? defeated Georgia 24-22"
• Oklahoma won comfortably against the defensively challenged Cyclones of Iowa State, but the last TD may have wrecked the Sooner season. Get well Adrian and if it's the last time you play for the Sooners, it's been fun to watch.
• The first BCS standings are out and only the crickets care. West Virginia looks like they may have the biggest complaint. This just in: Quarterbacks should not run for 247 yards and 4 TDs. Apparently Pat White didn't get the email.
• For those who don't know Rice behind new offensive coordinator Major Applewhite changed to a spread offense from the wishbone prior to this season. That said, there's still a degree of shock that Jarrett Dillard leads the nation in receiving TDs and is second in yardage behind Adarius Bowman of Oklahoma State.
• Speaking of Bowman, this week's "you're kidding, right?" stat line: Bowman's 13 catches for 300 yards and 4 TDs against the Kansas "Fighting Manginos".
• Thanks ACC. Way to send a message. I'm sure all of those players from "the U" are terribly upset about missing the game against Duke next week. They should be suspended for a game that matter. Wait , they were up 7-0 against FIU in the 3rd. Duke may be a struggle.
• In the NFL "the unnamed receiver" is still a tool but the Texans still can't cover anybody.
• I don't believe in "teams of destiny" but the New Orleans Saints are approaching that level.
• Is it wrong for me to have watched the Boise State-New Mexico State game rather than Broncos-Raiders or even the NLCS game?

That's it for football, but I did find some new music today. Dallas based band The Vanished (hat tip to the illustrious Gene for the introduction) are coming out with a new EP, Act 1: Captives , which I very much look forward to if for no other reason than the song "Chemical Reaction" which I saw them perform when they opened for Flyleaf in Tulsa. Hopefully this is the first of many local music notes for me to look forward to and write about

Since I can't the Vanished lyrics for chemical reaction, the lyrics of the day come from another little known but quality band, Revelation Theory.

Song Lyrics of the Day
Until now the world was never jaded
Yet I'm left here on my own
To pick up the pieces
Revelation Theory -- "Selfish and Cold"

Now to attempt to rest while the downpour outside continues to toy with my spine. Hopefully, the pain will subside so I can sleep. (Mike you can feel free to insert the alternate song lyrics of the day since you know my thematic away messages for intense pain.)

Addendum: I have yet another reason to dislike "The U." The 4-minute clip of the UM broadcast of the melee from Saturday night can be found on YouTube here. Particularly in the case of the analyst later in the clip, I don't believe I've heard a less credible job of broadcasting an unfortunate football situation.

For the 150th post...

I as usual have nothing to add. It's been a bad week in sports with the Cory Lidle tragedy. I can't watch the NLCS since I can't stand the Cards and would rather not see the traitorous Carlos Beltran reach the World Series. And tonight's football games had Temple and Florida Atlantic both playing.

That said I'm still too lazy to get my music reviews done. I've got a meeting with the advisor this morning so I'm a little scrambled. Hopefully by Saturday's UAB-Rice game everything will make sense.

Song Lyric of the Day:
"I need a suit of armor for a meeting
Know I'm gonna take a beating
Understaffed and my department's in a crunch..."
Caroline's Spine -- "Work Song"

------------------Pseudoentertainment portion of this post ends here--------------------------

If a charitable mood strikes, help a friend of mine participating in the Cure Autism Now walk at the end of the month to raise money for autism research.

What I learned about football: The Red River Depression edition

Despite my present mental state on football, a post of this nature was demanded by a rogue agent within the reading audience (all 3 of you). I didn't learn as much this week as normal as I was caught up in my own rivalries.

• First, hat tip to Jeff for mentioning a few teams which I agree deserve more credit (I refuse to use the word respect because it is an annoying sports cliche.) for their seasons thus far. Having seen Missouri the last two week on television, they are in fact for real. Rutgers and Navy warrant additional notice; although, as a biased of course if I give Navy credit I must also commend the team that handed them their only loss.
• I'm not sold on Boise State yet though they are undefeated. I'm not as familiar with the schedule they've played, but the competition level seems very weak.
• Houston we have another victim of a "trap game." Coming off a close loss at Miami and looking ahead to a conference road test at Southern Miss, the Houston Cougars blew a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter to the Ragin' Cajuns of Louisiana-Lafayette. Once again proving any team can lose when they don't prepare.
• The Chicago Bears are the best team in football, and I'm not sure there's much doubt at this point
• Texas outplayed Oklahoma but no one in the Big 12 is particularly special this year. While I credit Missouri, they notoriously fold like card houses in hurricanes late in the year so I'm taking a wait and see approach.
• Texas Tech's "Nintendo offense" needs the controller plugged in because the high-powered offense we've come to know has disappeared.
• Finally, Coaches with teams in potential BCS positions probably shouldn't openly call for a playoff system in fear of missing out on the BCS title game, only to have their seemingly unprepared team run over at home by Arkansas. Tuberville's suggestions are logical and would work, but they lose some credibility when your team gets rolled after it appears you've been whining.

Since they've only been to two bowl games in the last 15 years, I still need to include the Golden Hurricane's counter
Bowl eligibility countdown: 2 wins

Song lyrics of the day (given my state of mind post OU-Texas)
"Am I supposed to be happy?
With all I ever wanted
It comes with a price"
Red Jumpsuit Apparatus -- Cat and Mouse

Even though they're not very good this year....

It's always good to see the Florida State Seminoles lose. So thank you for the amusement NC State and NC State fan. Other than that I've got nothing today.

What I learned about football this week

Normally this post would be on a Monday but due to ESPN's broadcasting of the Tulsa-Southern Miss game, I had to put this off until Wednesday morning.

Tragedies can provide significant motivation and lead team to do the unexpected. I provide the example of Rice's 48-14 victory at Army. While that lopsided of a victory is never expected here, it was good to see following the tragic passing of freshman cornerback Dale Lloyd. As a Rice student, my condolences to the family on this untimely tragedy.

On to on the field discoveries...

• Either "The U" is extremely down (may the peasants rejoice) or the University of Houston is much better than I thought.


• Georgia without their starting QB Joe Tereshinski has absolutely no offense. Thankfully for Bulldog fan he's returning for this weeks matchup with the Vols.


• Ohio State is at this point head and shoulders above anyone in the Big 10 (or should I say Big 11).


• Oklahoma and Texas are well-rested for this week's Red River Shootout and more importantly everyone critical to the game is healthy so it will be competitive again.


• You really shouldn't a halfback reverse option pass for a game-tying 2-point conversion. (Right Dolphin fan?)


• Apparently the Oklahoma coaches are very good at recruiting the running back position. Tulsa wins versus Southern Miss behind 120 yards from Courtney Tennial, an OU transfer, and Georgia Tech has had a solid offense led by Calvin Johnson at receiver but their starting tailback Tashard Choice is also an OU transfer.


• Tyrone Willingham seems to have Washington turning around at 4-1 and looking competive in all the game. This is good to see after the way his tenure ended at Notre Dame.

That's it for this week but by request I include the following picture. To remind us of the silliness of minor league baseball, I give you Henry the Puffy Taco and the Ballapeno of San Antonio Mission mascot fame.