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Saturday December 10th, 2005
2:31pmHelping Out
I probably won’t be around much over the next few days but it’s for a pretty good reason. ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover is building a house for a family in Bryan (it started this morning at 6am) and I am going to be helping out tonight and tomorrow night. I work from 7pm-7am both nights so I’ll probably just sleep most of Monday and then get up and finish studying on Tuesday for my final on Wednesday. It should be a great experience. I'm rolling out here in a little bit. Til next time....Gig’em.
2:26pmHot Stove Chatter
Yeah, I'm a little behind....I've only got one final but I'm already studying for it because I need to keep the grade I've got.
Ok, there has been some crazy stuff going on but I'm going to try and tackle the Cubs off-season thus far.
Cubs GM Jim HendryLet's start with a look at what holes we need to plug. A lead-off hitter, RF, CF, SS, middle relief, & a back-of-the-rotation starter.
Here's who we will not see in '06 that we did in '05....
Nomar is going to move on and is willing to play any position other than pitcher and catcher. As a big Nomar fan I'd really like to see him come back in the OF but that has about a 1% chance of happening.
We declined Jeromy Burnitz's $7M option for 2006....it was just too much money for the production we were getting. If it was the $4M he played for last year I think it would have been OK to keep him around.
Thankfully, we designated Jose Macias for assignment. He was a switch-"hitting" backup middle infielder that Dusty just loved to play. Like I said during the season, I don't care if he swings from either side of the plate if he can't hit worth a lick from either side.
Adam Greenberg was also designated for assignment which is interesting. Greenberg was called up to the big leagues the same day that Matt Murton was and was hit in the head by the first pitch he saw in the major leagues. That was it. He tried to play in the minors but had problems with dizziness. Could he be the closest thing to Moonlight Graham? Could it be the curse of Mark Grace, whose number he took? The players who have sported numero 17 since Gracie's departure are Bobby Hill, Calvin Murray and Greenberg. I'll probably keep track of Adam's career and I wish him well and hope that he catches on somewhere else.
Also of note, Todd Hollandsworth & Enrique Wilson are no longer on the 40 man roster. I think their contracts expired with no extensions. That's fine.
So now you see where the holes at SS & RF come from. Corey Patterson who had one of the worst seasons of any major leaguer last year went down to the Arizona Fall League and worked with the Cubs minor league hitting instructor for 2 weeks. It was certainly a weak spot last season and as you'll see in a minute that he's expendable now. Corey is a guy that you hate to give up on but he certainly has had his opportunities.
So what has Hendry done? Well he re-signed and extended contracts for a few players.
We picked up the options on Todd Walker and Scott Williamson. I'm a big fan of Todd Walker even though I know his glove work isn't anything to be excited about. I just think he is the ideal #2 hitter who can hit from the left side of the plate and advance runners, which he does well. His signing, however, makes the infield interesting with Ronny Cedeno, Neifi Perez and the hopes of a front line starting SS. I'd hate to see Cedeno get stuck in a Jason Lane type situation where he's ready but is caught up in a numbers game.
Neifi re-signed for 2 years and $5M....I like Neifi as a bench player/utility guy but not as an everyday player. $2.5M is a nice paycheck for a bench player and frankly having Neifi available to Dusty Baker scares me.
We also re-signed LHP Glendon Rush for $6M over the next two years with a $1M performance bonus based on his starts. That's a solid signing. Rush can be that guy at the end of the rotation or he can be used in long relief.
The big re-signing was Ryan Dempster who got a 3 year $15.5M extension. Dempster was picked up off the scrap heap before the 2004 season and performed very well as the Cubs closer last season.
G IP H ER HR SO/BB ERA Sv Relief 57 58.1 46 12 1 53/27 1.85 33 Starter 6 33.2 37 20 3 36/22 5.35 --Just keep him out of the starters role and we're in great shape.
Those were all guys we had last year so here is a look at who Hendry has already picked up to fill in those holes I talked about a minute ago.
RHP Bob HowryWe went out and picked up two veteran relievers in LHP Scott Eyre and RHP Bob Howry.
Eyre, who will turn 34 next season, pitched in San Francisco from mid-2002 through '05. He signed a 2-year contract with a player option for 2008 worth a total of $11M ($3+$4+$4).
Eyre's Last 3 Seasons G IP H ER HR SO/BB ERA BAA 2003 74 57.0 60 21 4 35/26 3.32 .268 2004 83 53.2 43 24 8 49/27 4.10 .219 2005 86 68.1 48 20 3 65/26 2.63 .200To be completely honest I wasn't familiar with Howry until we signed him. That's partially because I don't really follow the AL really closely and partially because the Indians don't get much national attention. He pitched on the south side with the White Sox and then in Boston before sticking in Cleveland for 2004 and 2005.
Howry's Last 3 Seasons G IP H ER HR SO/BB ERA BAA 2003 4 4.1 11 6 1 4/3 12.46 .478 2004 37 43.2 37 13 5 39/12 2.74 .228 2005 79 73.0 49 20 4 48/16 2.47 .191He had elbow surgery in 2003 and has been very, very solid since. He signed a 3 year $12M deal.
Those signings are eerily similar to the 3 year deal that Mike Remlinger received prior to '03 when he was coming off of back-to-back great seasons in Atlanta. Remmy was 35 though when that deal was inked and he's in Boston now so we don't need to worry about it.
To fill in the bench Hendry signed John Mabry to a 1 year deal worth just under $1.1M. I've always had a slight fondness towards Mabry who has bounced around both leagues during his 12 year career (StL, Sea, SD, StL, Fla, Oak, Phi, Sea, StL). He had a pretty poor 2005 season but 2004 was very solid. He can play either corner OF position or either corner infield position. The thing that scares me is that for a utility player Mabry has never shown the ability to PH very well as he holds a career .222 BA with a .291 OBP and a .324 SLG in his 254 ABs in that role. That is well below his career stats (.269/.325/.412).
The biggest move thus far has been the trade for Juan Pierre. We gave up Sergio Mitre and minor leaguers Renyel Pinto & Ricky Nolasco for one of the last Marlins remaining in their bi-decade fire sale. Pierre is the missing piece at the top of our lineup and will likely play CF. The 2 downsides to Pierre are his arm and his 2005 decline.
G AB R H RBI HR XBH SO/BB SB/% BA OBP SLG 2003 162 668 100 204 41 1 36 35/55 65/76 .305 .361 .373 2004 162 678 100 221 49 3 37 35/45 45/65 .326 .374 .407 2005 162 656 96 181 47 2 34 45/41 57/77 .276 .326 .354The most interesting thing about Pierre is that he actually hit better at cavernous Dolphin Stadium then he did on the road.
2003-2005 BA OBP SLG Home .315 .369 .391 Road .291 .340 .366Just FYI, his regular season career numbers at Wrigley are .282/.354/.366.
We missed out on SS Rafael Fucal but Cubbiepalooza.com points out that offensively Julio Lugo would be an almost equal fit. I am not a big Julio Lugo fan from his days here in Houston but he is an option. A very enlightening read so go check that out. I'm now actually glad we didn't ink Furcal. It will be interesting to see how the SS market turns out now that Boston is in it after trading Edgar Renteria to Atlanta.
The only other moves worth noting are two separate trades Hendry made to free up space on the 40 man roster for a couple of signings. We traded RHP Jermaine Van Buren to the Red Sox for a PTBNL and we traded Jon Leicester to the Rangers, also for a PTBNL.
Hendry has said that he is done with free agents for this off-season and that he'll be looking to fill the remaining holes with trades.
Spring training is getting closer and I'm getting more excited.
Wednesday December 7th, 2005
12:42amHeisman Peek Part II
I started it yesterday with a look at Vince Young and today we move on to contestant #2.....
Reggie Bush
Rushing Receiving Returns Came Out No. Yds TD Avg Fmb No. Yds Avg TD No. Yds Avg TD Qtr Clock Score ====================================== =============== ================ =============== 09/03 @Hawaii (92) 12 86 2 7.2 0 4 58 14.5 0 1 14 14.0 0 3 1:22 49-10 09/17 Ark (59) 8 125 1 15.6 0 3 70 23.3 1 2 16 8.0 0 3 1:28 56-10 09/24 @Ore (8) 20 122 1 6.1 0 3 43 14.3 1 7 102 14.6 0 4 6:37 38-13 10/01 @ASU (28) 17 158 2 9.3 0 1 4 4.0 0 4 31 7.8 0 4 0:53 38-28 10/08 Ariz (70) 14 110 0 7.9 0 2 16 8.0 0 1 17 17.0 0 4 0:00 42-21 10/15 @ND (6) 16 160 3 10.7 0 4 35 8.8 0 7 70 10.0 0 4 0:00 34-31 10/22 @Wash (85) 8 51 1 6.4 0 2 18 9.0 0 3 116 38.7 1 4 13:55 44-17 10/29 WashSt (51) 17 97 0 5.7 0 4 40 10.0 0 4 19 4.8 0 3 0:31 41-6 11/05 Stan (40) 12 113 1 9.4 0 4 27 6.8 1 2 21 10.5 0 4 15:00 44-14 11/12 @Cal (34) 17 82 0 4.8 0 1 4 4.0 0 0 0 0.0 0 4 6:06 35-3 11/19 FresSt (43) 8 294 2 12.8 1 3 68 22.7 0 8 151 18.9 0 4 0:00 50-42 12/03 UCLA (19) 24 260 2 10.8 0 0 0 0.0 0 2 13 6.5 0 4 8:45 59-6 ====================================== =============== ================ Totals 187 1658 15 8.9 1 31 383 12.4 2 41 570 13.9 1 (#) = Sagarin Ratings Opponent's Defensive Ranks Rush Pass Tot Scor ========================= Hawaii 98 90 102 110 Ark 37 48 36 54 Oregon 41 71 48 47 ASU 91 109 114 83 Ariz 93 74 89 65 ND 25 97 64 45 Wash 51 107 95 91 WSU 66 113 106 98 Stanf 69 111 105 91 Cal 26 76 47 26 FresSt 57 32 34 29 UCLA 117 64 111 107
Would someone care to fill me in on what 619 is? I assume it's an area code but I'm not totally up with the new hip stuff anymore?
Bush has played against some very poor defenses. 5 of his 11 games have come against teams with total defenses worse than 100th and Washington's was 95th. That is staggering.
Against those 5 teams he averaged 143 rushing yards and had 7 TDs. Against the other 6 teams on his schedule he averaged 165 yard rushing and had 8 TDs.
The best two rush defenses he faced were Notre Dame & Cal and he ran with mixed results in those two games (160 yards/3 TDs & 80 yards/0 TDs respectively).
Bush averaged a nation-high 8.9 yards per carry. If you include his special team's returns and his receptions he averaged 10.0 yards per touch. He had 2611 yards of total production and 18 TDs.
I mentioned yesterday how many other player's got touches for texas and Reggie Bush is no different. Not only had to share touches with last year's Heisman winner (who is likely this year's 3rd place finisher) and a Biletnikoff finalist but he also shares touches with another running back, LenDale White. White, himself, has 1178 yards and 21 TDs (tied for 2nd in the nation) on 177 carries. Bush had 218 touches (187 rushing + 31 receiving) on the Trojan's 924 snaps.
I think the most amazing statistic on Reggie Bush's resume is that he fumbled the ball a total of ONCE in 259 total touches. Say it with me....B-A-L-L S-E-C-U-R-I-T-Y.
I also talked about how much time Young spent sitting on the bench with a big fat lead. For all intents and purposes, Reggie Bush missed just about as many quarters as Young did as a result of the score. He didn't play a 4th quarter snap in 4 games and came out a minute into the 4th quarter in a 5th game. Let's extrapolate his numbers over those 5 quarters just like we did for VY. Tag on another 215 yards rushing, 2 more rushing TDs, 50 more receiving yards, and 75 return yards. That would put him 127 yards shy of being a 2,000 yards rusher....which is possible with one game remaining.
Marquee games. I think you could say that Notre Dame was THE game but the Cal game, the UCLA game and the Fresno State game also got lots of attention going into them. He did not play well against Cal but he was incredible against Notre Dame & UCLA (and the worst rush defense in the nation) and was out of this world against Fresno State totaling over 500 yards & a pair of TDs.
Bush isn't getting the magazine covers right now but he struck very strong at the end of the season to send the Bush-buzz full throttle (in both games he ran for over 100 yards more than his third best game).
I've watched USC play 4 or 5 times this season and really the only reason I watched those games was because I wanted to watch Reggie Bush and see what he was going to do next. USC put together a pretty sweet highlight reel to wow everyone yet again. I expect the voters to overlook the horrible defenses USC played and while he may split some votes with teammate Matt Leinart I think Reggie Bush will be the 3rd Trojan in the last 4 years to pick up the Heisman Trophy.
We'll find out on Saturday.
Tuesday December 6th, 2005
12:42amA Look at the Heisman
Well, the Aggie's season is over, the Cubs missed out on Rafael Fucal, and Aggie baseball doesn't start until whatever the counter up there on the left says.....so I thought I'd take a look at the Heisman Trophy and see if I could make any sense of the whole thing.
It got kind of long so I'm breaking it into two parts. Today is Vince Young and tomorrow will be Reggie Bush.
The Heisman ballot officially says:
That's a lot different than all the MVP trophies when everyone has a different idea of what the criteria is. Heismanpundit reported the things that the voters look at. Since I can't really speak for which games you saw the players play in I will leave those up to you but I can weigh in on the more statistical stuff."I hereby designate (insert name, college) as my first choice to win the Heisman Memorial Trophy awarded to the outstanding college football player for 2005.
Vince Young
Passing Rushing Came Out Att-Cmp-Int %age Yds Td No. Yds TD Avg Fmb Qtr Clock Score ========================================= =================== =============== 09/03 ULaLa (117) 17-13-1 76.5 173 3 7 49 1 7.0 0 3 6:46 46-3 09/10 @OSU (4) 29-18-2 62.1 270 2 20 76 0 3.8 2 4 0:00 25-22 09/17 Rice (133) 14-8-1 57.1 101 0 8 77 0 9.6 0 3 5:49 45-3 10/01 @Mizzou (48) 22-15-1 68.1 235 2 13 108 1 8.3 2 4 3:54 51-20 10/08 v.OU (22) 27-14-0 51.9 241 3 17 45 0 2.6 1 4 2:21 45-12 10/15 Col (33) 29-25-0 86.2 336 2 10 58 3 5.8 0 3 9:40 42-17 10/22 txtech (11) 22-12-2 54.5 239 2 7 45 1 6.4 0 4 3:55 52-17 10/29 @OkSt (88) 30-15-1 50.0 239 2 21 267 2 12.7 1 4 2:30 47-28 11/05 @Baylor (62) 27-16-0 59.3 298 2 8 53 0 6.6 1 4 11:46 55-0 11/12 Kansas (45) 27-19-0 70.4 281 4 6 -4 0 -.67 1 3 5:16 59-7 11/25 @TAMU (36) 24-13-1 54.2 162 1 11 19 0 1.7 2 4 1:18 40-29 12/03 v.Col (33) 17-14-1 82.4 193 3 8 57 1 7.1 0 3 9:54 63-3 ========================================= =================== Totals 285-182-10 63.9 2769 26 136 850 9 6.2 10 (#) = Sagarin Ratings Opponent's Defensive Ranks Rush Pass Tot Scor ========================== ULaLa 90 25 57 73 OSU 1 36 4 7 Rice 111 83 110 116 Mizzou 63 56 52 36 OU 5 57 16 49 Col 9 91 44 50 tt 70 8* 26 24 OKSt 108 58 96 96 Bay 74 61 66 66 KU 3 65 19 37 TAMU 45 117 107 95 Col 9 91 44 50I only used the Sagarin Ratings because it was the only ranking system that I'm aware of that lists beyond the Top 25. Let me know if you are aware of a better ranking system....I'd be happy to edit those if there is one out there.
Here are some things I see in all of that....
Vince played 5 games against top 10 rush defenses, which might explain why he threw more and ran less than in the past. Two of the three best pass defenses he played against were in his first two games against University of Louisiana-Lafayette and Ohio State. The third was texas tech, however tt's pass-d is not necessarily a reflection of their actual ability to defend the pass but is actually a result of the game plans used to try and slow down their high-octane offense....everyone they play runs the ball all day in order to control the clock.
He had the luxury of facing Colorado's poor pass defense twice and lit them up both times (39-of-46 for 529 yards & 5 TDs). Against everyone other than Colorado he completed less than 60% of his passes.
Vince threw 10 INTs and fumbled the ball 10 more times (although not all fumbles were turnovers). That's a lot of mistakes, an average of nearly 2 per game.
Mack likes what he sees and displays nice
technique with a full palm patHe didn't even see the 4th quarter in 5 of his 12 games and was out before the 10 minute mark of the third quarter in a 6th game. That means he missed more than the equivalent of an entire game because they were up so much. If he averaged his normal averages in those 5 quarters you could add an additional 322 yards in the air, 3 more passing TDs, another INT, another 100 yards rushing, and another rushing TD to his totals. You could probably anticipate bigger numbers than those considering the opponents in those 5 games were not the strongest on their schedule (ULaLa, Rice, Colorado-twice and Kansas).
On top of that, Vince runs the #3 rushing offense in the nation which features FOUR other players with 70+ carries....433 times this season someone other than Vince ran the ball (an average of 36 non-VY carries per game). I wanted to point that out because one of the arguments I've heard for Reggie Bush is that he shares touches with so many other players, not that it isn't important, but I thought I should point out that Vince does too.
I think that Vince had 4 games this season when all eyes were on him (we'll stick with the same terminology as Heismanpundit and call them Marquee Games). The first, and probably biggest, was Ohio State and he played very well statistically against an incredible defense in a hostile environment. The second was the OU game which he also played well in but OU, at the time, was reeling (but they have played very well since then). The third was the A&M game and we held him to one of his poorest performances of the season....we had one of the worst defenses in the country. The final game was the Big XII Championship game against Colorado when he torched the Buffalos playing barely beyond the first half.
Vince, right now, is getting some pretty nice face time with the covers of both Sports Illustrated & ESPN the Magazine. I agree with Heismanpundit that media does play a role in the voting....I think it is a significant role.
On a not-really-Vince-related note I wanted to point out that texas's offensive line apparently never holds.
Offensive Holding Calls Against texas Opp # of calls ================== ULaLa 2 OSU 0 Rice 2 MU 5 OU 1 CU 1 tt 0 OkS 3 BU 0 KU 1 A&M 0 CU 2I find that remarkable....yet somewhat suspicious. I mean, the NFL's 12-0 Indianapolis Colts have had 5 offensive holding calls in their last three games. I just needed to get that off my chest.
I've watched most of texas's games this season as well as a good portion of their games last year. He improved his passing quite a bit this season but I still wouldn't consider him a great passer. He is, however, very elusive with his feet and rarely comes down on the first tackle attempt....sometimes I swear he wears some sort of special slippery jersey. Young doesn't have the flashy, jaw dropping highlight reel plays (unless you're counting this one) that Reggie Bush has and he throws like Uncle Rico, but he certainly gets the job done....well enough to have won 23 of his last 24 games. It certainly doesn't hurt him any that there hasn't been a non-QB hoisting the Heisman since before Y2K.
Tomorrow....Reggie Bush....
Monday December 5th, 2005
7:02pmBlogPoll Roundtable #12
Howdy and welcome to my little neck of the internet. Now that our season is over and done and I don't spend so much time reading up on next week's opponent I thought I'd host one of these round tables.
I didn't get into college football until I started school at A&M in the fall of '00 and I didn't really become obsessed until the 2002 season after I started working for the athletic department and got to know some of the players. As a result of that I'm always interested in finding out about other schools and how other fans think. A couple of my questions will revolve around that a bit.
Q1. Why your school? Did you go to school there? Were you legacy, did you pick it for academics, for the football team, the party reputation?A1. I sent my application to A&M mainly because I enjoyed my visit up to College Station much more than my visit to Austin. I didn't like the city atmosphere at tu.
My grandfather was actually the valedictorian of his class at texas and my father would have gone to texas but instead went to University of Houston because my grandfather offered him a new car if he did....and he drove to Austin every weekend.
My decision was actually almost made for me a few short weeks after I licked the stamp on the envelope when the horrific Bonfire tragedy occurred and I saw the incredible family that all Aggies share. It was the best decision I ever made. The saying goes, "From the outside looking in, you can't understand it. From the inside looking out, you can't explain it." It's true, I can't explain it.
If I didn't get into A&M I was going to go to Blinn JC (which is about 15 minutes away from A&M's campus) until I got my grades.
5 1/2 years later I'm in grad school at A&M and my folks are convinced that I chose to do that so I could keep getting student tickets to the football games.
Q2. Name a player or two who had "THE GAME" against your school. I'm talking about a guy who simply dominated your team and all you could do was tip your cap and say, "Wow."
A2. I came up with three off the top of my head, which isn't too tough considering that 2 of the last 3 years have been the worst defensive seasons in school history....
- 2003 & 2004 v. texas's Cedric Benson
Benson anileated us in 2003 and then again in 2004. In '03 he ran for 283 yards & 4 TDs on 35 carries and followed it up with another 165 yards and a TD on 33 carries the next year.
- 2003 v. Utah's Brandon Warfield
Warfield ran for 181 yards and 3 TDs on 36 carries but the most frustrating part was this drive where Warfield ran the ball 11 times.
Pegram, Todd kickoff 57 yards to the UTAH8, NAGAHI, Bo return 16 yards to the UTAH24 (Buhl, Jonte;Squillante, A.).V 1-10 V24 UTAH drive start at 13:07 (4th).
V 1-10 V24 WARFIELD, Brand rush for 3 yards to the UTAH27 (Stickane, Scott).
V 2-7 V27 WARFIELD, Brand rush for 6 yards to the UTAH33 (Stickane, Scott;Jasmin, Marcus).
V 3-1 V33 WARFIELD, Brand rush for 2 yards to the UTAH35, 1ST DOWN UTAH (Jasmin, Marcus).
V 1-10 V35 WARFIELD, Brand rush for 9 yards to the UTAH44 (Stickane, Scott;Jones, Byron).
V 2-1 V44 WARFIELD, Brand rush for 5 yards to the UTAH49, 1ST DOWN UTAH (Jones, Ronald).
V 1-10 V49 WARFIELD, Brand rush for loss of 1 yard to the UTAH48 (Patrick, Brian;Smith, Linnis).
V 2-11 V48 ELLIOTT, Brett rush for loss of 4 yards to the UTAH44 (Hooper, Lawren.;Smith, Linnis).
V 3-15 V44 ELLIOTT, Brett pass complete to MADSEN, John for 37 yards to the TA19, 1ST DOWN UTAH (Jones, Byron).
V 1-10 H19 WARFIELD, Brand rush for 7 yards to the TA12 (Jones, Byron;Carriger, Thom.). V 2-3 H12 WARFIELD, Brand rush for 2 yards to the TA10 (Jolly, Johnny;Smith, Linnis).
V 3-1 H10 WARFIELD, Brand rush for no gain to the TA10 (Appel, Jaxson;Jones, Ronald).
V 4-1 H10 ELLIOTT, Brett rush for 2 yards to the TA8, 1ST DOWN UTAH (Jolly, Johnny).
V 1-G H08 WARFIELD, Brand rush for 7 yards to the TA1 (Appel, Jaxson).
V 2-G H01 WARFIELD, Brand rush for 1 yard to the TA0, TOUCHDOWN, clock 06:13. BORRESON, Bryan kick attempt good.
Somehow we stopped a game tying 2-pt conversion with 8 seconds remaining on the clock to hold onto the win.
- 2003 v. Pitt's Larry Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald had 7 receptions for 135 yards and three TDs. The biggie was the juggling acrobatic catch he made with three defenders on him that you saw on every single ESPN highlight reel during his amazing season. And yes, he caught the pass in that picture.
Q3. There are games that I have no interest in but I watch simply to see a certain guy play. What players from this season do you do the same for?
A3. There are 4 guys on this list for me: Reggie Bush, AJ Hawk, Adrian Peterson, & Jeff Samardzija.
Bush is simply a freak that only comes around once every generation....Peterson is just a physical specimen that can run you over on one play then run right by you on the next....Samardzija just makes some sick catches (and happens to play baseball)....and Hawk is a guy who is the textbook definition of linebacker.
Q4. A few weeks ago we were asked who the best player to suit up for our school was. I'm curious who your favorite player to ever suit up for your school is? Certainly doesn't have to be a superstar, or even a starter.
A4. I'm going to have to go with #5. My freshman year Ja'Mar Toombs sported numero cinco and when he left early my boy, Terrence Murphy, took it from '01-'04. While T-Murph sported it a good friend growing up, Evan Carthey, walked onto the team and also wore it in '03-'04. This season, Jordan Chambless (who also pitches for our baseball team), changed to #5 keeping the streak intact. Basically, I've always had a good reason to root for #5.
I look forward to your responses....
Also, for those interested, I'm finishing up a post regarding this year's Heisman race. It should be up in the morning.
Gig'em!