Heh.

More here. And here’s the video.

UPDATE: Here’s the key part of the video:

UPDATE 2: More Joe Paterno humor here. “I’m not Hugh Hefner, you know!” (Hat tip: Jim.)

Up 21-0 it looked like Texas was about to put the nail in the coffin with a recovery of a backwards lateral and return by the Longhorns, until, that is, the instant replay showed that as the ball was bouncing backwards towards the Texas sideline, a Texas coach/ballboy reached out for the ball and tipped it with his thumb before he drew back his hand*.  The result?  A unsporstmanlke conduct penalty that resulted in the ball being given back to ASU plus half the distance to the goal, 4 and 3 on the 7 yard line.  Carpenter tossed a short pass for a touchdown on the ensuing play, and proceeded to hold texas to a 3 and out on the next drive to get the ball back on the Texas side of the field.  WIth 10 minutes remaining in the first half, plenty of time for the Sun Devil’s to make a comeback.

* Some may dispute whether the ball touched the young man’s hand or not, it was tough to tell from some of the angles, however there were clearly Texas players and coaches on the field which would also have been an unsportsmanlike penalty anyway.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: Aaaand Arizona State lays a massive egg for the Pac-10, committing five turnovers en route to a 52-34 Texas win. Dammit, Sun Devils!

In the Irish Trojan Bowl Pick ‘em Contest, it’s now a six-way tie for first place among Gerry deSimas, Hal Strickland, Mark Gardner, Chris Healey, Anthony H. and D. Brooks. Updated standings here and after the jump.

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Purdue leads Central Michigan 48-41 with five minutes left in the fourth quarter of the Motor City Bowl. Purdue led 34-13 at halftime, but the Chippewas have stormed back to make it a ballgame. If they complete the comeback and win, Andrew Long and Joey Kaufman will be tied for the lead in the Irish Trojan Bowl Pick ‘em Contest; if the Boilers hang on to win, it’ll be a nine-way tie among the other current co-leaders.

UPDATE: Tie game! CMU just scored a touchdown, and it’s 48-48 with 1:09 left.

UPDATE 2: Purdue gets a field goal as time expires, and the Boilermakers win 51-48. Beat the drum!

So it’s a nine-way tie. Updated standings here and after the jump.

P.S. Tomorrow at 8:00 PM on ESPN, San Diego will host the first bowl worth two points in the pick ‘em contest: Arizona State vs. Texas in the Holiday Bowl. (Go Sun Devils!) Of the current co-leaders, David K., John Chung and Timugen picked ASU; Anthony H., D. Brooks, Gerry DeSimas, Hal Strickland, Mark Gardner and Chris Healey picked Texas. Overall, 48 contestants picked the ‘Horns; 42 picked the Devils.

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Boise State went from being last bowl season’s Cinderella to this bowl season’s most overwhelming favorite, according to the contestants in the Irish Trojan Bowl Pick ‘em Contest — and it seems the Broncos preferred the glass slipper. Boise lost to East Carolina last night, 41-38 in the Hawaii Bowl.

Only five people in the Pick ‘em Contest — Chris Healey, Edward Eylar, Larry Caplin, Marge, and Becky Loy — saw that coming. The other 85 contestants picked the Broncos. That’s 94.4%, the largest percentage picking any one team in the bowl contest’s three-year history. (111 of 118 contestants, 94.1%, picked Texas over Iowa last year, and were just barely right.)

This isn’t the first time a huge majority in the Pick ‘em Contest has been wrong. In 2005-06, the two heaviest favorites both lost: Nebraska stunned 115-13 favorite Michigan, and Utah defeated 119-9 favorite Georgia Tech. Last year, the five most lopsided games, prediction-wise, all went according to form, but the sixth-biggest underdog, Florida State, beat a UCLA team that was favored 99-19.

Anyway, East Carolina’s win means that nobody has a perfect prediction record in this year’s Pick ‘em Contest. Healey joins the previous co-leaders in an 11-way tie for first with 5 points out of a possible 6. In the contest’s three-year history, this is the earliest point, by far, that everyone has missed at least one game. Mark Gardner, Darrin Bartley and Carl Lindecrantz started 10-0 in 2005; Colin Pedicini started 11-0 last year.

Complete standings here and after the jump.

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Oh, sweet schadenfreude…

It looked like UCLA was going to pull a stunning comeback against BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl moments ago, as the Bruins — whose kicker had previously hit field goals from 50 and 52 yards — needed only a 28-yarder as time expired to win the game. But a BYU player got a hand on the ball and it fell just short of the goal post, giving the Cougars a dramatic 17-16 win (and changing the planned title of this post from “BYU cougs it” to the headline you see above). Somewhere, Mitt Romney is cheering.

Said ESPN announcer Brad Nessler, referring to UCLA defender Bruce Davis: “He played his guts out tonight, literally.” Wow, that sounds painful. Though I suppose it’s better than being literally on a roller coaster to hell…

Anyway, BYU’s win means that 10 contestants in the Irish Trojan Bowl Pick ‘em Contest are still perfect at 5-0. It also means that Becky and Alphadog finally got one right; they were 0-4 through the first four bowls, but they both picked BYU over fUCLA. Latest standings here and after the jump.

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FSU has 36 players on its roster that won’t be playing in the Music City Bowl due to injury, rule violations, or academic dishonesty.

Brendan, is it too late to change our picks? ;-)

Bowl season is barely underway, and already we have our first game-changing blown call. Sorry, Navy!

Meanwhile, after Florida Atlantic’s 44-27 win over Memphis, only 15 people are still perfect in the 3rd annual Irish Trojan Bowl Pick ‘em Contest. Both of the winners so far were underdogs, according to the contestants: 57 of 90 picked Navy over Utah, and 56 picked Memphis over FAU.

Now underway is the second-most lopsided bowl game of the year, prediction-wise: 84 contestants picked Cincinnati, while only 6 picked Southern Miss in the Papa Johns Bowl. But so far, the underdogs are (again) ahead: Southern Miss leads 7-0 with 10:08 left in the second quarter.

None of the 15 co-leaders picked the Golden Eagles, so if they win, there will be no one left with a perfect record in the contest.

Later today: the New Mexico Bowl and the Las Vegas Bowl. (GOOOOO MORMONS, BEEEEEAT BRUINS!) Schedule here.

UPDATE: Cincy wins. Still a 15-way tie for first, at 3-0.

LA Daily News is reporting that Oregon Coach Mike Belotti has met with UCLA officials regarding the Bruins’ head coaching position. Norm Chow, former USC offensive guru, has announced he is not interested in the job (followed by a collective sigh of relief from Trojan nation). Rick Neuheisel, the scourge of both the Colorado and Washington programs, is also still in the running.

Utah has scored the first points of bowl season, scoring a touchdown in the second quarter of the Poinsettia Bowl. Plenty of time for more action, but only 32 of the 90 contestants in the pool picked the Utes to win, a victory here would put a lot of people in second place!

UPDATE

Utah wins 35-32, holding off a last minute comeback from Navy who scored on their longest TD pass of the year and recovered the onside kick, but lost the ball on an interception when their receiver slipped. Bowl season starts off with a bang!

Just another friendly reminder that 9:00 PM EST tonight is the deadline to enter (or re-enter) the 3rd annual Irish Trojan Bowl Pick ‘em Contest. Go Navy, Beat Utah!

UPDATE: Bowl season is underway! And so is the Bowl Pick ‘em contest. 90 contestants entered; you can view their picks by bowl or by contestant. The results will be posted here.

On quite a few bowls, the contestants are almost evenly divided. For instance, 48 of the 90 believe Texas will win the Holiday Bowl; 42 believe Arizona State will win. 48-42 margins also exist in the Insight Bowl (Oklahoma State over Indiana) and the Gator Bowl (Texas Tech over Virginia). In the Meineke Car Care Bowl, the split is 46-44 in favor of UConn over Wake Forest. Georgia Tech is favored over Fresno State by the same margin, 46-44, in the Humanitarian Bowl. And the contestants are split right down the middle on the Peach Bowl: 45 think Auburn will win, 45 think Clemson will win.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the most lopsided bowls, prediction-wise, are the Hawaii Bowl (Boise State 85-5 over East Carolina), the Papa Johns Bowl (Cincinnati 84-6 over Southern Miss), the Rose Bowl (USC 83-7 over Illinois), the Las Vegas Bowl (BYU 81-9 over UCLA… hahaha) and the Capital One Bowl (Florida 80-10 over Michigan).

Rose Bowl aside, the favorites in the other BCS bowls are Georgia in the Sugar Bowl (51-39 over Hawaii), Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl (73-17 over West Virginia), Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl (58-32 over Kansas), and LSU in the Mythical National Championship Game (63-27 over Ohio State).

If you haven’t yet entered the 3rd annual Irish Trojan Bowl Pick ‘em Contest (hey, come to think of it, I haven’t entered yet!), you (and I) have just over 32 hours left to do so. The deadline is 9:00 PM EST tomorrow, which is when people across the country will drop whatever they’re doing, sit down on their couches, turn on their TVs, and unite as one nation to watch the eagerly anticipated San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl between a team that notched its first win of the season against UCLA (Utah) and a team that won for the first time in 44 years over another team notched its first win of the season against UCLA (Navy).

Speaking of UCLA… hey Mike, how’s it coming on that car flag?

Er, so anyway, sign up now! And if you already made your picks but want to change ‘em, just enter again. The deadline is the same regardless; your last entry will be the one that counts.

Some critics of Tyrone Willingham believed it was his unwillingness to make staff changes that led to his ouster at Notre Dame 3 years ago. Whether that was true or not, it can’t be said this time, as he has fired Defensive Coordinator Kent Baer along with Special Teams coach Bob Simmons. Defensive struggles were one of the Huskies’ lowlights this season, and many were pushing for Baer’s firing.

There finally appears to be some progress in the negotiations between USC and the L.A. Coliseum Commission… but this part concerns me:

The school…will allow the commission to pay for a stadium overhaul — one that would cost in the neighborhood of $50 million — by allowing the use of USC’s logos in a stadium naming-rights deal.

“In the interest of getting a deal done we have … agreed to allow the commission to do a naming-rights deal and cooperate with the commission to get a single, prime naming-rights sponsor to name the Coliseum and put together a package,” Dickey said. “As long as the money that was raised from that will go toward improving the Coliseum, based on the list of improvements that we feel are necessary and the specific deadlines by which they must be done.”

Does this mean the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is going to become the Office Depot Coliseum of Los Angeles or some such blasphemy? Good lord.

(Suggested corporate sponsor via Boi From Troy, who blogged about this possibility way back in September.)

Since my shameless plugs for Julie worked, I figured I might as well try another sort of shameless plug… one that could make me money!

I recently got an e-mail from a fellow at Asgard Press inviting me to check out their selection of Vintage College Football calendars. They’re pretty nifty, if you’re into old-timey-lookin’ football type stuff. Here, for instance, is what the cover of their Notre Dame calendar looks like:

They’ve got a ton of other schools, too, including Tennessee. Alas, no USC — that’s in the works for next year.

Anyway, they make great stocking-stuffers… if you have an enormous stocking. :) Okay, okay, they make great gifts, anyway, for the old-school football fan in your life. Go over and see for yourself! And if you decide to buy one, be sure to use that link to get to it: you’ll get a 10% discount, and I’ll get a 15% cut. So everybody wins! :)

With Rich Rodriguez leaving West Virginia to become, at long last, the new coach at Michigan, the question now becomes who will be West Virginia’s new coach, and it appears that a possible candidate is… that’s right, kids…

Nick Saban.

Sources close to University President Mike Garrison have informed WBGV that Nick Saban’s agent has contacted WVU regarding our vacant head-coaching position.

These sources tell us that Saban is extremely unhappy in Tuscaloosa and has failed to recapture the situation he had in Baton Rouge with LSU. The purpose of the agent’s call was to express initial interest in the position and to have WVU athletics put together a compensation package enough to lure Saban from Alabama.

LOL!! Just when you thought Bobby Petrino might take over the title of “most blatantly disloyal sleazeball coach east of the Mississippi Dennis Erickson,” King Saban reasserts his claim to the throne…