40 Acres Sports

Rivalry week in college football is a great time of the year. Everyone gets to stuff their faces for Thanksgiving on Thursday, and then on Friday and Saturday you are treated to some great college football games.

I am really looking forward to seeing how the USC / Notre Dame game shakes everything up in the BSC. Should be fun to watch. Go Horns!!

Here’s our picks for the games this weekend:

Related Links

• Last week’s winners
• SI.com Top 25 Scoreboard
• SI.com Big 12 Scoreboard

Our Thoughts

Matt –Mike Hart had a huge game against Ohio St, and is the only reason they were even close. It is too bad he doesn’t have any more games to play, as McFadden, Quinn, and Slaton will likely steal the spotlight. Troy Smith sealed the deal with his performance against Michigan, and that might as well just handed him the trophy right then. I would hate to be some of these other guys going to New York, knowing you don’t even have a shot.

Related Links

• Last week’s poll
• ESPN Experts Poll
• SI.com Heisman Watch

Ok. Back with some more fun with the Aggy. This time I have included three classic videos, brought to you exclusively by Bevo Sports. No doubt you have seen these, but I am sure you will still get a kick out of them. And don’t forget about Squeeze Aggie.

Aggie Chris Walker makes a bad decision

Don’t Worry, Aggies Can Also Rap

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I did a quick roundtable exchange with Brad from the 12th Manchild to discuss the upcoming game and some of the issues each team has. His responses are below (good stuff). You can check out my answers to his questions here (midway through).

1. No doubt Coach Fran is having a tough year, what are your thoughts on his performance so far this season? Are you ready to start looking for a new coach?

Tough year? no. Tough November? you bet.

It’s too early to legitimately and accurately evaluate this season. On the one hand, the physical condition of the program has vastly improved. The level of talent on both sides of the ball and currently being recruited is the best in years, the controversial decision to hire Darnell proved to be a good one, and Fran is finally winning on the road (undefeated so far this season). On the other hand, Fran continues to squander opportunities and choke in the big games.

Personally, I think Fran has done too well for his own good this season. Aggieland went from having very low expectations to delusions of grandeur in a very short time this season. What has got him in the hot seat again is his inane in-game decision making, the majority of Aggies feel that neither Nebraska nor Oklahoma beat us, rather Fran’s inept playcalling gave the games away.

If the Ags can win in Austin and win convincingly in our bowl game, “CanFran” will revert back to “FranistheMan”. Otherwise, with the hellish schedule next year, Fran could likely be gone by December 2007.

2. The Aggies’ schedule was noticeably soft at the beginning of the year. Do you think this played a part in your loss to Texas Tech? Would you like to play a tougher non-conference schedule to help prepare you better for the regular season?

The loss to Tech can be blamed on multiple things, but a weak non-conf isn’t one of them. Unless you’re putting New Mexico State or Hawaii on your schedule, no non-conference team will prepare your secondary for Texas Tech’s offense. If there is any one thing that can be blamed for the loss to Tech, it could be that we scheduled them as our first conference game of the season. Gimmick offenses are always strong early in the season, but as the season goes on and the tape stacks up, the offense falls because teams are able to pick apart the hidden system (i.e. Tech’s current season). Combine that with a relatively young secondary prone to giving up the big play, and you get an offensive shootout where the winner is the one who has the ball last.

I would certainly like to play a tougher non-conference schedule, but not for reasons of “preparation”. Nobody schedules big programs for preparation purposes anymore, they schedule them because of the way BCS depends on the polls -> hence the way polls depend on “big” non-conference games to reshuffle their pre-season polls.

I’m all for playing DI-AA Citadel again, as long as there’s also a Top 20 team on the schedule with them.

3. The Aggies’ 3 losses this season have only been by a combined 6 points, all at home. What will it take for the Aggies to get over the hump next year and start winning those close battles?

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I am starting this tradition as of now. The week before Thanksgiving will now be the official “Make Fun of Aggy Week.” I am going to start this off with some classics, and will add more pictures/video/audio/jokes later on in the week.

If you have any suggestions of your own, please let us know. For now, enjoy:

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Our Thoughts

Brian – With Texas out of the race and the top 5 or 6 teams behind tOSU being interchangeable, I was strangely bored by the Ohio State vs. Michigan game Saturday afternoon. If someone upsets the Buckeyes in January we could be looking at a split national title with one of the one-loss teams who didn’t make it in. The most interesting story for Texas fans to follow may be whether Boise State finishes off their schedule without any blemishes and earns a spot in the Fiest Bowl against the Longhorns.

Matt – Not really too much movement in my poll this week, with Rutgers and Wake Forest as the only real big drops. Do people really want to see a repeat of Ohio St/Michigan? I sure don’t. Hopefully Florida or USC will take care of business in their remaining games. And too bad Notre Dame got waxed by Michigan. If that game was actually close, Notre Dame would be sitting in a much better position.

Related Links

• Last week’s rankings
• BCS Standings
• AP Top 25
• USA Today Coaches Top 25
• Master Coaches Survey

Could McCoy’s injury keep Snead at UT past this season?

60 days in jail and able to serve the time on weekends.

Not sure about it for the rest of Texas or our out of state readers, but the Tennessee Titans game against the Philadelphia Eagles is airing on CBS here in Dallas right now. It’s only my second chance to see [tag]Vince Young[/tag] and his Longhorn teammates this season, his tough debut against the Cowboys being the other. The Titans are wearing their extra ugly alternate uniforms featuring baby blue pants just for us. Too bad it’s not in HD.

On Fox, the Chicago Bears are playing so if you’d rather watch Nathan Vasher and Cedric Benson you can. It’s great to be able to see so many former Longhorns all over the NFL.

Mattress Mac is always entertaining.