The Wiz of Odds

Reporters Notebooks

Kyle Veazey, Clarion Ledger: Sylvester Croom has resigned as Mississippi State's coach.

John Adams, Knoxville News-Sentinel: Hiring Lane Kiffin as Tennessee's next coach was a huge gamble and has created a Neyland Stadium-size crowd of second-guessers.

Brent Schrotenboer, San Diego Union-Tribune: Could former Minnesota and Kansas coach Glen Mason, who has a long relationship with San Diego State athletic director Jeff Schemmel, be in the mix to become the Aztecs' coach?

Bob Condotta, Seattle Times: Washington has made little progress in hiring a coach, and the pool of candidates continues to shrink.

Terry Hutchens, Indianapolis Star: Bill Lynch has gotten a vote of confidence from incoming Indiana athletic director Fred Glass.

Ron Grossman, Chicago Tribune: Illinois is getting criticized for spending $6 million on a tutoring center that assists only athletics.

Ray Parrillo, Philadelphia Inquirer: It's time for Big 12 Conference officials to squirm and advocates of a college football playoff system to scream.

Jeff Smith, Oregonian: A lot of chatter about Oregon offensive coordinator Chip Kelly being set to interview for the head coaching opening at Syracuse.

Geoff Calkins, Memphis Commercial Appeal: What a difference a year makes. Ed Orgeron is gone and so is the losing. Houston Nutt has Mississippi headed to a bowl game, most likely the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2.

T.J. Simers, Los Angeles Times: There's no way to suggest things are looking up for UCLA the way this season has unfolded. It has been a disaster and the best anyone can hope for now is spirited play against USC to avoid yet another slaughter.

Neill Woelk, Boulder Daily Camera: In a season that has been an uphill battle for the last two months, it's somehow fitting that Colorado's last-gasp hope for a bowl game came down to an opponent achieving the near impossible.

Chadd Cripe, Idaho Statesman: Fresno State wasn't the villain. The villain for Boise State in an otherwise fairy-tale Friday was the Bowl Championship Series. As powerful as the Broncos looked against the Bulldogs, they almost certainly will be left out of the BCS party when the selections are announced Dec. 7.

John Moredich, Tucson Citizen: It appears that Arizona's Mike Stoops has met all the expectations for this season. Yet many fans are still upset with the direction of the program and the fact the Wildcats don't have a better record.

Scott Wolf, Los Angeles Daily News: A record 39 teams have appeared in the 2008 BCS standings with two standings remaining.

Richard Davenport, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Former USC running back Broderick Green, who attended Arkansas’ 31-30 victory over Louisiana State on Friday, said he plans to enroll at Arkansas and will participate in spring practice.

Thayer Evans, New York Times: The amazing comeback of Abilene Christian quarterback Billy Don Malone.

Reporters Notebooks

Lenn Robbins, New York Post: The Fiesta Bowl is considering matching an undefeated Boise State vs. unbeaten Utah in the first non-BCS conference BCS bowl game. "It is something we are mulling," said John Junker, Fiesta Bowl president.

Dave Hooker, Knoxville News-Sentinel: Lane Kiffin has agreed in principle to become Tennessee's coach. A tip of the cap to Losers With Socks, which scooped the world on Wednesday by reporting that Kiffin was the man.

Alan Trubow, Austin American-Statesman: Texas' Colt McCoy said he will look into making himself eligible for the 2009 NFL draft. "Yeah," he said. "It would be stupid not to."

Jason Kelly, South Bend Tribune: By any objective measure, Charlie Weis has been beyond bad the last two years. After his first season, he emphasized that nine wins was not good enough. Right now he has nine wins over his last two seasons. Yes, Weis has run out of mulligans.

Dave Matter, Columbia Daily Tribune: The Missouri-Kansas series will stay at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium for four more years.

Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: The Cotton Bowl is giving strong consideration to inviting Texas Tech to the Jan. 2 game.

John Werner, Waco Tribune-Herald: Baylor is set to move into a new $34 million athletics complex next week. It features a 13,000-square-foot weight room, a 5,000-square-foot training room, a 9,000-square-foot academic center, a state-of-the-art locker room and a team meeting room with 144 theater-style seats. Behind the complex sit two grass football fields and a $12.1 million indoor practice Facility.

Andrew Carter, Orlando Sentinel: The Jorts Report: How a fashion faux pas has fueled a hatred for Florida and its fans.

Ken Tysiac, Charlotte Observer: Eight North Carolina State players are testing helmets provided by a new company called Xenith. Players with long hair like the helmets because they say they fit better and don't thrust their faces too close to the mask.

Jay Drew, Salt Lake Tribune: A Brigham Young fan who won a contest and earned a trip to ESPN headquarters tells about his experience, including rubbing elbows with Mark May and Lou Holtz.

Game of the Weak

Mike Hlas is an award-winning columnist with the Cedar Rapids Gazette and force behind The Hlog. Each week he will break down the biggest mismatches in college football. Considering the number of Bowl Championship Series teams tanking at this point in the season, Mike's task is more challenging than getting presidential pardons on Thanksgiving turkeys revoked.

There was a time in which the annual Colorado-Nebraska game on the day after Thanksgiving meant something.

Meant a lot, really.

The last time was 2001. The Buffaloes shocked the 11-0 Cornhuskers in Boulder, 62-36, to steal away the Big 12 North’s spot in the league’s title game. Nebraska still had enough BCS points built up to go to the national-title contest, where it got humbled by Miami in Pasadena.

Not that other CU-NU games haven’t mattered since, but not in good ways.  In 2005, Colorado got drilled by the Huskers, 30-3, to throw away the Big 12 North title. But Iowa State choked at Kansas the next day, putting the Buffaloes in the Big 12 title game the next week. That wasn’t a blessing. Colorado lost to Texas, 70-3.

Last year, Colorado upended Nebraska, 65-51, to finish the regular-season 6-6 and become bowl-eligible. They liked that in Boulder. But the Buffs lost to  Alabama in an Independence Bowl clash of 6-6 squads, and had a losing season.

That 2001 season was the last time either Colorado or Nebraska went to a BCS bowl. Both programs have optimism under coaches Dan Hawkins and Bo Pelini, and maybe one or the other will get back in the habit of playing in January bowls that mean something. But this year, they are again afterthoughts on the national scene.

Colorado is 5-6 and needs to win in Lincoln to get to, yes, the fabulous Independence Bowl for a second consecutive year. The good people of Shreveport-Bossier probably have their fingers crossed that the Huskers do the right thing and put the Buffs out of their misery so the Indy Bowl people won’t have a Big 12 team foisted upon them. Then they can invite Louisiana Tech or Louisiana Lafayette or Louisiana Anybody and actually sell a few tickets.

Nebraska is 7-4, a bit of a renaissance after last year’s 5-7 debacle that included a 76-39 loss at Kansas. But the Huskers don’t have a signature win this season and appear headed to the Alamo Bowl for the third time in six years to play a Big Ten team. Nebraska is 3-0 in the Alamo Bowl, so it has that going for it.

The Huskers also have the sting of a 52-17 loss at home to Missouri, and a 62-28 pounding at Oklahoma. These still are not your father’s Cornhuskers. And Colorado-Nebraska still isn’t what it used to be.

Don’t spend your day after Thanksgiving watching this game. Save up your Big 12 football energy for Saturday night when Oklahoma visits Oklahoma State. The Big 12 does still have some very good teams.

Crystal Ball

Double D, Boston Herald: USC is getting ready to layeth the smacketh down on Notre Dame. That means you should layeth the points and take the Trojans.

Jon Wilner, San Joses Mercury News: He's loving Oregon to win straight up against Oregon State in the Civil War. He's also taking Auburn and the points against Alabama.

National Championship Issue: Florida State is at home, getting 16.5 points against Florida. It won't be enough. The Gators are the play.

Phil Steele: It's going to be a shootout in Stillwater, but Oklahoma has too much firepower for Oklahoma State. The Sooners win, 45-38.

Chuck Carlton, Dallas Morning News: Georgia Tech will cover the spread, but Georgia will win the game.

College Injury Report: A look at who is hurt and who is healthy.

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Reporters Notebooks

Jake Trotter, Oklahoman: Texas fans have raised about $7,000 to have a pilot fly a banner over ESPN's "GameDay" telecast in Stillwater on Saturday with the inscription "45-35," the score of the Longhorns' victory over Oklahoma on Oct. 11.

David Thomas, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: For the Bowl Championship Series, it has been a long tradition of messing up, starting way back in 1632.

Brent Schrotenboer, San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego State Athletic Director Jeff Schemmel said that he felt like his football program had reached a point on the field from which it "could not recover" with Chuck Long as coach.

Ron Higgins, Memphis Commercial Appeal: Why Lane Kiffin is unqualified to be Tennessee's coach.

Marc Weiszer, Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia reserve offensive lineman Kevin Perez is suspended for Saturday's game against Georgia Tech and the Bulldogs' bowl game after being arrested early Thursday for driving under the influence of alcohol and failure to obey stop and yield signs.

Ferd Lewis, Honolulu Advertiser: Hawaii and Washington State are in talks to move the 2009 game between the teams from Pullman to Qwest Field in Seattle.

Tony Jones, Salt Lake Tribune: Utah State is moving quickly to find Brent Guy's replacement. San Jose State assistant Kent Baer, Utah defensive coordinator Gary Anderson and former Utah State coach John L. Smith have already interviewed. South Florida assistant Mike Canales is expected to fly into Salt Lake City this weekend for an interview.

Austin Ward, Casper Star-Tribune: A Wyoming Department of Transportation plane returned to Laramie on Wednesday afternoon after making three stops in the coaching search. The jet visited Lincoln for a reported interview with Huskers receivers coach Ted Gilmore, flew to Columbia for a likely sit-down with Missouri offensive coordinator Dave Christensen and finished the night in Lansing for a layover — coincidentally the former home of ex-Michigan State coach John L. Smith.

Ron Bellamy, Eugene Register-Guard: For the Oregon and Oregon State coaching staffs, there’s more than simply pride at stake in the Civil War. There’s money.

John Canzano, Oregonian: A cracked helmet worn by the late Bob Jeremiah in Oregon State's 1967 upset of USC finds a way to its rightful home.

Dennis Dodd, CBS Sports.com: Boise State's Chris Petersen has plenty to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Ira Schoffel, Miami Herald: About three hours after being arrested on misdemeanor battery charges, Florida State freshman receivers Bert Reed and Cameron Wade were back at practice.

Ian R. Rapoport, Birmingham News: Why tight end Colin Peek, who transfered from Georgia Tech to Alabama after last season, will be eligible to play for the Crimson Tide in a bowl game.