Murray out of BCS National Championship Game

Oklahoma has ruled RB DeMarco Murray out for the BCS National Championship game. This will definitely hurt the Sooners when it comes to kick returns, as Murray as the third-leading player in DI college football in all-purpose yards, but don't let it trick you into putting all of your money on Tim Tebow, Wondy Pierre-Louis, Joe Haden, Percy Harvin and the Florida Gators. The sooners are still four deep at receiver with Manuel Johnson, Juaquin Iglesias, Ryan Broiles and Quentin Chaney, and also have arguably the best tight end in the nation in Jermaine Gresham. Chris Brown is a solid running back, and Murray's replacement, Mossis Madu, is also really good, he has good instincts and is real quick. The Sooners still have a very strong chance of beating the Gators if LB Ryan Reynolds and the defense can contain Tebow, RB Chris Rainey and WR Harvin, and Joe Demps, Aaron Hernandez and Riley Cooper don't go off.

Heisman Trophy Wrap-up

Sam Bradford winning the Heisman Trophy is a complete disgrace, and this is coming from a Sooners fan. There was a reason why Bradford led a Sooners team that put up the most points in big-time college football history: He had the most talent around him. Even more than Matt Leinart had at USC in 2004 when he could throw to Bush, Jarrett, Smith and Byrd and had Bush and White coming out of the backfield. Bradford could throw to three elite receivers in Joaquin Iglesias, Manuel Johnson, Quentin Chaney and TE Gresham to go along with the speester out of Las Vegas (a Peter Cady favorite) DeMarco Murray and Chris Brown coming out of the backfield. Meanwhile Colt McCoy had two average-good receivers to throw to in Quan Cosby and Jordan Shipley and two average running backs in Chris Ogbonnaya and Fozzy Whitaker that didn't live up to their expectations. Cosby and Shipley run good routes and have good separation skills, but are not the type of explosive receivers that Iglesias and Shipley are. In essence McCoy was the one QB out of the other three (Tebow, Bradford and Graham Harrell) that was the most responsible for his team's success. I bet a substantial amount of money on Texas winning the BCS National Championship in Vegas back in August, and they were freaking 18-1 odds, but overachieved due to McCoy and a great defense. Tebow you could justify due to his lack of good receivers outside of Percy Harvin and Chris Rainey and Aaron Hernandez, but Bradford you can't. Heisman trophy voters: You know nothing about football. BOOM! OUT OF HERE!


Heisman Voting Courtesy of ESPN.COM
Player
1st
2nd
3rd
Total
Sam Bradford, Oklahoma
300
315
196
1,726
Colt McCoy, Texas
266
288
230
1,640
Tim Tebow, Florida
309
207
234
1,575

Response to Auburn hire of Gene Chizik

Auburn hiring Gene Chizik left one outspoken man very unhappy. "I think race was the No. 1 factor," said former NBA star and current NBA on TNT analyst Charles Barkley to ESPN. Barkley wanted current Buffalo coach Turner Gill to get the job. "You can say it's not about race, but you can't compare the two resumes and say [Chizik] deserved the job. Out of all the coaches they interviewed, Chizik probably had the worst resume."
Barkley Continued: "I'm just very disappointed..."I just thought Turner Gill would be the perfect choice for two reasons: He's a terrific coach and we needed to make a splash. I thought we had to do something spectacular to bring attention to the program. Clearly, if we'd hired a black coach, it would have created a buzz."
Barkley went on to say that "My biggest problem with the black coaches is they're not getting jobs and they're getting [expletive] jobs when they are hired," Barkley said. "They're not getting good jobs. They're not getting jobs where they can be successful. That's why I wanted Turner to get the Auburn job. He could win consistently at Auburn. You can't win consistently at New Mexico. You can't win consistently at Kansas State. He could have won at Auburn."
While Barkley is not considering the fact that Chizik was a great defensive coordinator at Texas before going 5-19 in two seasons at Iowa State from 2007-2008 (he produced guys like the Griffins, Michael Huff and Aaron Ross while at Texas), I agree with him that Gill would have been the better hire for the Tigers job (assuming Florida OC Dan Mullen did not want the job). Gill inherited a Buffalo Bulls team that went 1-10 in 2005, and while he went 2-10 with the team in 2006 (including a 38-7 loss at Auburn that may have not been the best thing for a guy trying to get a job at that school), he turned them into a 5-7 program in '07 and then an 8-5 program this year that beat a 12-0 Ball State team to win the MAC championship. Look for him to get serious consideration for the Indiana or Louisville job next year, or Boise State, Oregon State, Oregon and Stanford if Chris Peterson, Mike Riley, Mike Bellotti or Jim Harbaugh leave those schools next year for better jobs. Auburn AD Jay Jacobs was an idiot in the meantime just for hiring a defensive coach to take over a school that's offense could be worst then the Jeff Hostler Niner's one last year. I'm a man! I'm 20! Makes me wanna puke (Though it doesn't 'cause I'm a big Nick Saban, Julio Jones and Alabama fan). War Eagle! Errrr.