Heaven, I need a rest, I recognize the voices talking in my head

Going to be swamped tomorrow, so i thought i'd go ahead and make my "hey, it's your money" college picks today. definitely going with more underdogs than usual.

Auburn -14 South Carolina (tonight)
Missouri -14.5 Colorado
LSU -33 Mississippi State (earlier this week i told myself that i wouldn't be comfortable with a number higher than about 25, but i've talked myself into it)
Wyoming +5 Syracuse
Florida -13.5 Bama
Georgia Tech +9 virgina tech (last-second change of heart)
Houston +16.5 Miami
Kansas State +1.5 Baylor
Stanford +32.5 UCLA

overall record 11-12-6

OK, need to dig out of the hole points wise. time to let this bad boy spiral out of control, addiction-style. whoody woo

total for season: -1000

Plays this week:

500 points LSU
100 points Florida

two team:
100 points LSU, Florida

50 point three team
LSU, Mizzou, Florida

*****

I love me some LSU, but i have never been shy to say that we sure do have some stupid fans. Last week, Charles Scott rushed for more than 100 yards. And last night someone called during Les Miles' show to complain that Alley Broussard and Justin Vincent only got two carries between them against Tulane.

Yes, the same Alley Broussard and Justin Vincent who combined for about 32 yards on 16 carries against Auburn. and the caller was mad because they didn't get the ball more. unbelievable.

Don't let the water wash us away

When you've got 8 or 10 minutes to spare, turn on your sound and check out the two new galleries Matt has posted on his web site.

both are definite must-sees.

I wanna publish scenes and rage against machines. i wanna pierce my tongue

i'm miserable, San Diego.

just had a cajun blackened steak (or something like that) sandwich from Subway. i give it a 5 out of 10.

it's gratuitously hot.

i'm of the opinion that it's very hard to overseason something. when in doubt, i say, add more flavor. but this, this is different.

when you bite into it, all you taste is hot. one of those things that makes your nose run, but you're out of napkins because you spilled a piece on your clothes and had to clean it up before you go back to work, so you have to use your hand to wipe the snot off your lip. you know what i mean.

so now i've got 14 pounds of subway in my stomach because i forgot that a 6-inch sub is actually pretty filling so i got a footlong. i just want to curl up under my desk and take a nap.

'Cause Mr. Jones and me...know what it means to miss New Orleans

Thoughts from the Saints game last night:

• I've been to sporting events with a better sports atmosphere (not many, mind you), but i've never been to one with such an overall feeling of excitement, i guess it would be what i'd call the "atmosphere atmosphere." definitely goose-bump inducing at times.

• When the Saints blocked the field goal, the upper deck started moving. I mean literally swaying back and forth. It was pretty cool, but maybe more scary/creepy than anything.

• Haven't listened to a lot of Green Day stuff since high school/early college, but i can think of several songs that would have been better to play than what they played last night. It's called "When September Ends," i think. sort of slow and repetitive and not really the sort of thing to get people fired up.

• Have never listened to much U2 at all, as i have previously noted here. But if their full-length concerts are anything like the song and a half they played last night, i could definitely see myself becoming a fan. Don't know when i'd actually get a chance to see them in concert, but if the opportunity ever presents itself, i'm definitely going for it.

• I couldn't catch exactly what he saying, but during the 45-seconds of "Beautiful Day" U2 played, Bono changed the lyrics to refer to new orleans.

• I'm now allowed to behave any way i want in public. courtney was constantly laughing at the guy sitting in front of us, and he was doing things that i know for a fact would get her mad if i were doing them. so now i have proof that she enjoys outlandish public behavior. hooray me.
  

And I turned 21 in prison, doing life without parole. no one could steer me right, but mama tried

Another rough weekend on the picks.
Record this week: 5-6-1
Overall record: 11-12-6

and to top it off, i played the points picks horribly, hitting on only one of my picks. which means that i have gone broke in only two weeks. but i'm sure to rebound next week.

at slow speed, you'll seem focused

Welcome to Sports Friday (as opposed to Sports Every Day of the Week like it's seemed to be lately).

If you've been around me for any amount of time, you know how much i hate Tulane. Absolutely can't stand them.

I'm one of those people who rarely, if ever, roots for an underdog. I find it much more enjoyable to watch a good team impose their will on a lesser opponent and systematically dismantle them.

So tomorrow you have a team I hate, Tulane, playing LSU, a team that will most assuredly systematically dismantle them. Sounds like a recipe for a good time to me. But last night I got so mad because I just can't get excited about tomorrow's game.

It's all Les Miles' fault. (Incidentally, I decided that the LSU game plan was the reason they lost Saturday. While the officiating was truly, truly, truly terrible, I decided not to mail the letter to the SEC office. Seemed like a cop-out to me. Excuses, as one high school baseball coach often preached, are for losers.)

LSU is going to beat Tulane and Mississippi State the next two weeks by a combined 98-0 (63-0 and 35-0, respectively) and I can't get excited because against Florida or Tennessee or Arkansas or Alabama, our coaches are going to screw up something and lose a game we should win. (i've spent the last several Fridays making myself delete every "we" reference when I'm talking about LSU, but I can't do it anymore).

so i'm sure it'll change once i get into Tiger Stadium tomorrow, but i can't help but expect to wake up Sunday with the thoughts of something that happened during the game that will continue to reinforce my fears that LSU coaches are incapable of adapting.

DISCLAIMER: defensive and special teams coaches are immune from any coaching criticism in the above paragraphs.

*****

"Hey, It's Your Money" Picks of the Week
Overall record: 6-6-5
Last week: 2-4-4
Point balance: 612
Last week: -388

1.LSU -36 Tulane
2.Notre Dame -3 Mich state
3.USC -22.5 Zona
4.Louisville -14 K-state
5.Minnesota -3 Purdue
6.Mich -13.5 Wisc.
7.West Virgina -19 ECU
8. Iowa State +25 Texas [EDIT: Originally had oklahoma here, but the line shifted a couple of points]
9. UCLA -3 Washington
10. Iowa-20 Illinois
11. Hawaii +14.5 Boise
12. Wyoming -1 Air force

Point Plays:

200 points LSU -36 Tulane
100 points USC -22.5 Zona
100 points West Virgina -19 ECU

2 team parlays
100 points LSU, USC
50 points LSU, West Virginia

3 team
30 points LSU, USC, WVU
30 points LSU, Notre Dame, UCLA

Remaining Balance: 2 points (Yikes, this is could get ugly in a hurry)
Best case scenerio: 1760

I'm in a bed, I'm in a little room, i'm in a building, it's in the middle of this life

i've been told multiple times by multiple people that my sports writing is the perfect cure for insomnia, so i'll try to avoid straying down the sports path for a while, since it's all i've talked about for the last two weeks or so...

YESTERDAY -- As i pulled into the parking lot at work, my "Hey, man, you need some gas" light came on . Since post-work traffic is unpredictable, i decided to filler-up at lunch so i wouldn't risk getting stuck in traffic and run out of gas.

So i left work at lunch and was driving toward the gas station on a two-lane, one-way street in the left lane. a car in the right lane cut across in front of me -- sans blinker, of course-- and whipped across to the parrallel parking on the left.

As luck would have it, she (you didn't seriously think it was a male driver, did you?) came close enough to hitting me that i had to brake pretty heavily. instead of driving past her, i was able to stop right beside her car. I looked out to my left, made eye contact, and gave her the bird. then i drove off.

It made me pretty happy.

TODAY -- Thump. Thump. Thump.

Why the thumping?

All morning. Thump. Thump. Thump.

I was getting ready to go to work, led by the percussion section coming from the laundry room.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

I got dressed and went through the usual drill of locating the triumverate of necessary pocket-fillers: wallet, keys, phone.

Thump.

I walked in the living room and got my keys and wallet. (Thump.)

Couldn't find my phone. (Thump.)

Looked in the bedroom. (Thump.)

No phone.

Looked in the office. (Thump.)

No phone.

Looked under the couch. (Thump.)

No phone.

Looked under the cushions. (Thump.)

No phone.

Hmmmm....

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Walked to the laundry room.

Opened the dryer door.

Dryer stopped.

Thumping stopped.

Found my phone.

yeah, you're waking up one desire and i can't get a line

Well, last week's picks didn't work out too well. I went 2-4-4, bringing my two week record to 6-6-5 (i think). from the points standpoint, i'm down to 612.

*****

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago:

Play calling: Put LSU's top four receivers against any secondary in the country and somebody will be open. I worry that Miles will be so hell bent on running the ball this year that we don't take advantage of LSU's strength at wideout.

well, i'd say that was certainly the case Saturday, when LSU played with an offensive game plan that was so conservative it was repulsive. Jamarcus Russell was something for 9-11 for 151 yards in the fourth quarter, but for the rest of the game, Les Miles insisted on running tosses with slow tailbacks or running the ball up the middle with Jacob Hester or Justin Vincent. It was infuriating. And even in crunch time, LSU followed a successful pass with two runs up the middle, putting lsu on a third and long after Hester was stopped behind the line.

Miles' answer for this ineptitude? we need to run the ball more.

At his press conference yesterday, he basically said that there was nothing wrong with the play selection and the more trouble we have running the ball, the more we're going to try to run the ball.

The man absolutely refuses to adapt to the talent LSU has on the offensive side of the ball. "Surely," you say, "If he's going to keep running it, he'll put in the younger guys and see if they can do better since they're faster." nope. he also says there's no personnel issues, so our two freshman running backs will stay on the bench.

I have also lumped Jimbo Fisher into the mix with Miles, since i don't know who's calling the plays, it's both of their faults. i just see bad things ahead for the LSU program if the coaches insist on being this stubborn (quickly approaching idiotic).

*****

Speaking of idiotic, i'm still furious about the SEC saying that the officials got the pass interference calls correct. they aren't saying anything about the other 10 plays LSU disagreed with.

i'm actually mailing a letter about the logic behind the announcement to the SEC offices at lunch today. here's an excerpt from the letter:

Both plays involve an instance where the path of the ball was altered by a defender who was not interfering with the receiver. The LSU penalty was allowed because the offending defender was not playing the ball. However, that implies that Auburn defender, who had his left arm wrapped around the receiver’s left leg, his right hand behind the receiver’s right knee and his face planted into the upper part of the back of the receiver’s upper thigh was playing the ball. If you discount the Auburn player making the deflection or the LSU player making the interception, I don’t see anyway you can say that the Auburn player interfered less on the play than the LSU defender did on the other play in question.

That, in turn, leads to the reasoning behind waiving the Auburn penalty off because the pass was uncatchable. By making the statement that both calls are correct, you are essentially saying that the pass Auburn threw was catchable. Which further means that the conference is saying a ball in the possession of an LSU defender who was not the offending player in the pass interference call is more catchable than a ball deflected into the air. That implies that had the LSU defender not made the interception and had instead knocked the ball down or otherwise deflected it, he would have created an uncatchable pass and the interference would have been waived off.

Let me repeat that: The conference found that a ball already in the possession of a another player is more catchable for a receiver being interfered with than a ball that is actually still in the air.

Let me make sure i'm understanding this correctly...

AP--
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. The Southeastern Conference determined that officials made the right decision in reversing a pass interference call late in the Auburn-LSU game.
SEC Media relations director Charles Bloom says that basically, the call of removing the flag would be correct because the ball was uncatchable after the defender tipped it.

Auburn defensive back Zach Gilbert was flagged for interfering with receiver Early Doucet deep in its own territory in the 7-3 win over No. 6 LSU. The flag was waved off because officials deemed that Eric Brock's tip of the ball made it uncatchable.

Bloom says another controversial fourth-quarter call that went second-ranked Auburn's way was also correct.

LSU's interception on third-and-29 was negated because Daniel Francis was penalized for interference on receiver Courtney Taylor, giving Auburn an automatic first down.

Bloom says that pass was ruled a catchable ball.

so what you're telling me is that when an auburn player goes in front of an lsu receiver being interfered with and deflects the pass, it isn't catchable. but an lsu defender in front of an auburn receiver being interfered actually makes the interception and that pass is MORE catchable? how is that possible? what am i missing here? a ball in the air is less catchable than a ball another player is holding? i must be stupid because that's as assbackwards as it gets.

She gets sad when there's nothing going on here

Hi, welcome to sports Friday.

Earlier this week, i said this would be a tough week to pick games, but i actually found quite a few games I'd consider playing (if i actually bet). Don't think any of these are a lock, but here are:

GAMES I LIKE

BC -7 over BYU
Ohio State -30 over Cincinatti
Rutgers -16 over Ohio
Boise -7 Wyoming
Notre Dame -6 over Michigan
Arkansas -6 over Vandy
Navy +1 over Stanford
Mississippi State -11 over Tulane (yes, i picked a team that hasn't even scored this season to beat tulane by more than 10 points)
Miami +4 over Louisiville (heard yesterday that the last 5 times, maybe it was 6, that Miami has been an underdog, they've won the game out right)
USC -18 over Nebraska

My record last week: 4-2-1 Season Record : 4-2-1

I thought it would be fun to add a twist to this. Since getting games right only does you any good if you bet them correctly, i thought i'd start using fake betting scenerios to see if my prognosticating would actually make me any money. here's how it works: wrong guesses cost the bet amount plus 10%, right guesses pay even money, two team parlays pay 2.6 to 1 and three teams pay 6 to 1 (found all this out last weekend while tailgating).

I'm going to give myself 1,000 points to use to play the season. let's see how fast i can go broke.

Straight-up bets:

100 points Ark over Vandy
150 points Boise over Wyoming
50 points USC over Nebraska
100 points Ohio State over Natti
50 points Miami over Louisiville
50 points Notre Dame over Michigan

2-team
100 points Rutgers and Boise
100 points Boise and Arkansas
100 points Rutgers and Boston College

3-team
25 points Arkansas, Boise, and Ohio State
50 points Rutgers. Arkansas, Boise

wow, just realized i used most of points already. i should go back and change some, i went into this only planning on betting three or four games. but i think i'll let it ride.

Remaining Balance: 125 points

***

Well, consider me sort of on the West Virginia bandwagon. I've decided that a team from the Big East can be a legitimate contender.

I still think they'll breeze through their joke of schedule, but i also think a lot of it has to do with the fact that they're good. but i'm taking back what i said about them getting slaughtered by a tough opponent in a bowl.

This is a good team (with the best down-field blocking i can remember seeing). Maryland moved the ball on them late, so i think they can be beaten. but i think they'll hang around with anybody.

***

of course the biggest game of the weekend is LSU against Auburn. Last weekend i mentioned that i was worried about how much Jacob Hester was involved in the offense. He proceeded to get 14 touches against Arizona, more than anybody else on the team.

That was the last week Les Miles gets the benefit of the doubt from me. LSU has as good of a WR corps as anybody in the country. I'm going to break something if the fullback/ back-up tailback comes out of the Auburn game as the leading receiver and gets nearly 10 carries out of the backfield.

surely it won't happen this weekend. i hope.

This is a blog about West Texas

Just wanted to answer the questions Kyle left in the comments section from the post below.

1. I'm at 189 as of this morning. which means in the last month, my half-assed weight-loss effort (with that effort being closer to 1/8-assed lately) has led to a loss of 3/10 of a pound. pretty impressive, if you ask me.

2. I have no idea what i think about the line. i haven't seen enough of LSU to where i can make any sort of predictions based on logic instead of emotion. Last week, I wasn't sure LSU would cover the spread but also told Michael that i wouldn't be surprised if they won by 40.

I'll say this: LSU is good. Before the season, I expected that this would probably be a loss for LSU. After watching LSU play twice, I'm much more confident, but don't know how much to read into it because of the level of their competition.

but if you held a gun to my head, I'd pick LSU to win by 4 to 7 points.

Come on down sing a song for me darlin, i don't want to feel it slip away

Had a dream last night that i heard a new counting crows song. with their recent studio inactivity and the fact that their last tour didn't play at a venue close enough for me to attend, i've sort of been fiending to hear the new cd that's supposed to be coming out early next year.

here's a funny/sad blog entry by crows' lead man Adam Duritz.

speaking of rock stars, matt has angered Bon Jovi Nation (scroll down one or two entries) by indicating that JBJ was rude to him on a recent visit to new orleans. you'll notice how the loyal minions of JBJ just sort of ignore what matt says in his blog and complain about completely fabricated things.

I checked the lines for this weekend's college football games and this week looks to be even tougher than last. it'll be tough for me to find four or five games i like.

Let your dreams be dreams, all this livin's so much harder than it seems

Hey everybody. hope you had a good weekend.

thought i'd start off by recapping my picks for the weekend. Technically, my record was 3-2-1, getting iowa and texas tech incorrect and pushing on Oklahoma. But I'm going to award myself a record of 4-2-1. here's why:

I made my picks on a Friday and learned Saturday that Iowa's starting quarterback wasn't going to play. obviously -- to me anyway -- that is a game i would not have picked if i had known drew tate wasn't playing. and since i found out before the iowa game started, i would have been able to withdraw that wager had i been betting.

If you notice in my friday entry, i said something along the lines of "hold a gun to my head and i'd pick ohio state to cover" then tossing out the utah st/ark game as another possibility of the underdog to beat the spread. well, both Ohio State and Utah State beat the spread.

So i'm keeping the iowa loss on my record, but giving myself an additional win for getting both Ohio State and Utah State, even though they weren't technically picks.

*****

Had lots of weird dreams last night.

someone tried to drown me in one of them.

in another, i spent a full day at work thinking it was Monday. But it was actually Tuesday and i had missed all my scheduled interviews.

another had something to do with school and a friend of mine drinking a gatorade type drink out of ziplock bags. and i don't remember if it was the same dream or a different one, but the same friend was a member of a two-person video game-playing team that could beat anyone in a basketball video game.

in another dream, i tried to get my brother to show me how to shoot beavers. i was especially interested in killing the genetically altered beavers with super long teeth.

I don't believe in cards, i don't believe in signs, but i'll be leaving soon, i'm here tonight

sound on:

Had to be hard to keep hating yourself when these people are so well-behaved

Welcome to Sports Friday and our first installment of -seth's "Hey, it's your money" picks of the week.

I don't gamble on college football, but not because i don't want to. it's more of a inability to justify putting it higher on the disposable income priority list. that sort of thing happens when you leave school owing more than $30,000 on school loans and car note.

But i do enjoy looking at the lines and seeing what i'd do (and subsequently informing others who I'd bet on). remember, it's your money, but here are

Games I like this week
actually, there aren't any jumping out at me as sure things. so here are the one's i like best (it's just a coincidence that i'm taking the favorite in all of them).

Georgia -3.5 over South Carolina
Texas Tech -7.5 over UTEP
Oklahoma -17 over Washington
Auburn -21 over Miss. State
Rutgers -10.5 over Illinois
Iowa -19.5 over Syracuse

No, sir, I don't like it
Games I wouldn't touch:

Louisville -40.5 over Temple
LSU -16 over Arizona
Texas -3 over Ohio State

If you held a gun to my head and forced me to pick a dog to cover this week I'd go with Ohio State (or maybe Utah State +29 against Arkansas), but i really have no clue how that game's going go. I really think Louisville can cover against Temple, but that is a HUGE number. it's just too big for me to go anywhere near it (if i actually bet). And, if i bet, i would never bet on an LSU game. that whole head v. heart thing. but i don't like this line anyway. If the line was a couple points lower, i would consider playing LSU but the line would have to get significantly higher for me to put anything on Zona.

So, if i bet, this week i wouldn't go much bigger than a three team parlay; probably Georgia, Oklahoma and Rutgers.

*****

Well, LSU kicked off the season with an easy win over ULL last Saturday. I thought the game went about as well as could be expected.

there were really only a couple of things that worried me, but i wouldn't even say I'm that concerned about it.

1. Jacob Hester: Good football player. Contributes every time he gets on the field. The type of guy you want playing for your team. But i would like to see him touch the ball 2 or 3 fewer times a game. LSU has a lot of big play potential. Keep Hester involved in the offense, but he shouldn't be higher than fourth of fifth on the team for the number of touches he gets in a game.

2. Play calling: Put LSU's top four receivers against any secondary in the country and somebody will be open. I worry that Miles will be so hell bent on running the ball this year that we don't take advantage of LSU's strength at wideout. My friend Michael pointed out that the outcome was never in question against ULL so it provided an opportunity to work on running the ball.

That thought lessened my worries, since it's stupid to think that Tigers receivers would have much success against teams who drop 8 men into coverage every play. so list play calling as a low-end doubt for now, but it's something to keep an eye on as the season progresses.

you're one of them fancy lads

hey everybody. been a few days. not a whole lot to report.

lost my wedding ring in the gulf of mexico this weekend. noticed it was missing right away and courtney's cousin found it. so that was good.

****

former LSU defensive line coach Joe Cullen was arrested for driving naked recently. watching him in pregame warm-ups definitely was a give away that he's a pretty high-strung fellow. i'm just glad that he snapped and drove naked elsewhere instead of dropping trou in Tiger Stadium.


****
and, finally, just because:

eh, woulya like to buy a monkey?

when this little girl came and she sat next to me

Right around the time of our November wedding, Courtney called the garbage people to set up an account. The previous homeowner's had left us their official company garbage can.

However, when Courtney called them, they informed her that they weren't taking new accounts. So we did what anybody else would do -- we set our garbage can out on the appropriate days and let them pick it up for free while they also collected the trash of our (sucker) neighbors who were paying for their services.

Well, Wednesday, (nine months later) the garbage people collected our neighbor's trash but left our can full. THursday morning, I rolled it back up by our garage intending to leave it out again and see if they'd pick it up Saturday.

I got home yesterday afternoon and they had picked up my trash. And had taken the trash can with them. assholes.

so now i don't have a trash can.

*****

I woke up this morning five minutes before the alarm went off convinced that today was Saturday. it completely ruined my day.

but seeing this made it better. turn on the sound