In rather surprising news, Tyler Gabbert, the younger brother of Blaine Gabbert, has unexpectedly decided to transfer from the University of Missouri.

When reached for comment about his son’s decision, this is what Chuck Gabbert told Dave Matter of the Columbia Tribune:

“The Gabbert family thinks the world of Coach” Gary “Pinkel and Coach” David “Yost,” Chuck Gabbert said. “This a decision that Tyler has come to. It’s not a knee-jerk reaction. It’s a very long thought-out process that Ty went through in evaluating what he wants to do in his football career. Yes, he was in the midst of a quarterback battle. Nothing’s given to you and it’s a competition. And Ty feeds on that competition. But there were other factors we’re not going to get into that Ty evaluated. He just felt he wanted to make a change. He leaves behind a lot of great friends and is going into an area right now where we don’t have any idea ultimately where he’s going to play. He’s got a while to figure that out, which is great. He’s just looking forward to a fresh start.”

Gabbert has been in a battle this spring with sophomore James Franklin to succeed Blaine Gabbert, who was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the 10th overall pick in last month’s NFL draft. Franklin was elevated to the top of the depth chart after a stronger performance in the Tigers’ spring game, but Missouri’s coaching staff said that the competition would re-open in August.

People can believe whatever they want and I’m sure some will suggest that Gabbert is transferring because his name isn’t currently at the top of the Tigers’ depth chart. And maybe that’s the truth, even if the Gabbert family won’t admit it.

But the bottom line is that this young man has the freedom to decide his future and if he doesn’t think that Missouri is a fit anymore, than he has the right to change his mind. Nobody outside of Gabbert and his family know why he’s making this decision and quite frankly, nobody needs to know either. Yes, it’s a blow for Missouri but this is a private matter and it should stay that way.

According to the Columbia Tribune, Gabbert is considering Arizona, Clemson, Iowa, Louisville and Wake Forest, but has yet to make a decision on which school he’d like to transfer to.

One of the beauties of getting XM radio is that I get to listen to the Paul Finebaum show on a daily basis. For those that don’t know, Finebaum’s show is technically now a national college football radio show, but it can’t get away from its southeastern roots.

Every four out of five callers is from Alabama or Mississippi, and they’re crazy. The conspiracies they come up with on the officiating and play-calling from week to week would make Glenn Beck proud.

But the Cam Newton scandal has sent these folks into overdrive, and forced me to spend more time inside my car while it was sitting still in my driveway than one person should. People are blaming the press, Mississippi State, the press, Florida, the press, Nike, the press, Florida and the press. One caller, minutes after ESPN’s Joe Schad hung up with Finebaum, basically threatened to beat him up. It was amazing.

I don’t have a conspiracy theory on this, which is sad. But it will be really interesting to see how Auburn and Newton play today after having to listen to all of this over the last week.

I’m not picking the game because I have no idea who’s taking the field, but if Newton doesn’t play, expect the Bulldogs to win. A.J. Green has made them a legit SEC team. If Newton plays, however, the Tigers will roll on. Read the rest of this entry »

I figured it was only a matter of time before Auburn jumped Boise State in the human polls. I just thought it would come after a win a little bigger than at Ole Miss — a team that is now 3-5 and lost at home to Jacksonville State.

But the latest USA Today/ESPN coaches poll is out, and there are the Tigers, 23 points ahead of Boise at No. 2.

I get it, Auburn has better credentials to this point in the season than Boise State does. It plays a tougher schedule, and is deserving of the No. 2 spot in the polls. (Side note: Saw Oregon for the second time live last night, and my god, the Ducks are good. I mean, I was impressed with the way they blitzed UCLA, but they made USC look slow last night. That’s crazy.)

What I don’t get is the timing. If you had Boise State No. 2 in your poll last week, what did the two teams do this week that made you change your mind? The Broncos were a little sloppy, and obviously not fully on their game on Tuesday, and still blew Louisiana Tech. To me, that’s the measure of a really good team, one that can still win handily while not at its best. Auburn, meanwhile, looked pretty slick in a 20-point win of its own against Ole Miss. Impressive, for sure, but not so impressive that you would think, “Wow, this is the performance that pushes Auburn to No. 2!”

Of course, I don’t know how important this jump really is. Boise needed Auburn and/or Oregon to lose anyway, and now that just becomes more evident. The Tigers and Ducks will still be Nos. 1 and 2 in the BCS standings when they’re released tonight, and the Broncos will continue to have to root against other teams for their own self interest.

A couple other notes from the poll: Missouri falls to No. 14 and Michigan State to No. 15 after some tough losses Saturday. Florida State fell from No. 15 to No. 24 after its loss Thursday. Of course, in the spirit of this always sane poll, that’s one spot in front of NC State, the team it just lost to. Which has the same record.

Michigan State’s run at a dream season is over, and it was ended awfully abruptly by Iowa. The Spartans fell 37-6 to the Hawkeyes in a game that wasn’t even that close. If that’s even possible.

The perfect analogy for this game came in the first quarter, when Iowa ran an interception back for a touchdown. There was a Michigan State fan with her head down, banging on the wall, and possibly crying. It was a moment she was probably expecting at some point this season, because she realized that she’s a Michigan State fan, but it’s still incredibly hard to take when your team has started 8-0.

The Spartans were legit, don’t get me wrong. They beat up Michigan and Wisconsin. Sure, they had to squeak by Notre Dame (which just lost to Tulsa. Eek.) and Northwestern, but that happens during the course of the season. The big thing for the Spartans was that they were winning, and that’s all that mattered to a fanbase and program that doesn’t have a recent history of doing that. They can still come up with an amazing season, with three winnable games to close out the season. An 11-1 season could maybe still get them to a BCS bowl, which is huge.

Meanwhile, Missouri is looking at its first defeat of the season, as well in Nebraska. So that’s two of three unbeatens who have gone down already this week. Isn’t college football fun?

With the prospect of a bowl game or a Pac-10 championship taken away from it before the season even began, USC’s football program has had to look elsewhere for motivation.

After a lackluster showing in early-season matchups against Hawaii, Virginia and Minnesota, and a loss at home to Washington, many wondered if the Trojans really even cared. A last-second loss at Stanford and a blowout of California, however, has shown that not only do the Trojans care, but they’re still a pretty darn good football team.

There was attrition at the school this offseason when the NCAA instituted a two-year bowl ban and a reduction in scholarships, but it’s still USC. It’s still the same team that has been bringing in top five recruiting classes year after year, and putting more five stars on the bench than many teams have seeing the field.

So now nobody’s thinking of the Trojans, as they cannot be a part of the title discussion themselves. They can severely alter the landscape today, though, and I’d imagine they’ll be real excited to try and take advantage of that opportunity. Read the rest of this entry »

The latest USA Today/ESPN coaches poll is out, and once again an upset near the top has forced some movement.

Oklahoma lost to Missouri in primetime, and tumbled from No. 3 to No. 11. That means there will be a new BCS No. 1 when the standings are released tonight. The most likely candidate is Oregon, which remained a very strong No. 1 in the poll, receiving 50 of the possible 58 first-place votes.

One team that could jump the Ducks with the computers’ help, however, is Auburn. The Tigers have the best resume with wins over LSU, Arkansas and South Carolina. They jumped over TCU from fifth to third after Saturday’s win against LSU, and I’d be surprised if the Harris Poll didn’t mirror the coaches. Because, well, Harris Poll voters are lemmings (and I really don’t have a problem with Auburn jumping to No. 3).

Michigan State moved into the top five with its squeaker against Northwestern. It’s a curious time to move a team ahead of Alabama, but it’s a big thing for the Spartans, who face their stiffest remaining test next week. A win over Iowa sets the Spartans up for an unbeaten season, and it would be tough for pollsters to move a one-loss team — even Alabama — over a major conference unbeaten. It would have been easier to keep Alabama ahead, if that makes any sense.

The poll’s biggest mover was Missouri, which catapulted to No. 8 from No. 16 after beating Oklahoma. The Tigers and Utah remain the only undefeated teams who are behind Alabama. The most surprising move of the week: Michigan moving back into the top 25 after a bye week. Apparently the voters not getting a chance to see Michigan’s defense allow 500-plus yards and 30-plus points was enough to bring back the just-lost-two-home-games-in-a-row Wolverines.

My wife essentially makes the schedule in our house. My job is to make sure I stay gainfully employed and just show up to the things she’s set up for us. It’s normally pretty easy and painless, to be honest. And since I’m a scatter-brain most of the time, I completely relinquish the scheduling.

But she messed up this weekend. Big time. We’re signed up for a wine tasting at 6 p.m. (EDT) today, which will be smack dab in the middle of some of the best college football finishes of the day. It also means I’ll be out of commission after 6 p.m. (never drink and blog kids, it never ends up well), so expect heavier blogging early in the day, and not much later. I’ll let you decide if that’s good or bad.

After the jump, I’ll dissect some of the great matchups of the day (there a couple of huge ones), and introduce a couple of new features for this morning forecast post. Read the rest of this entry »

All the talk in the Big XII this season has justifiably been about Nebraska and Oklahoma. But is it time that we start looking at Missouri as a legitimate contender in the conference?

The Tigers are unbeaten, and putting a beating on Texas A&M in College Station. I know the Aggies are not the greatest team in the conference, but they’re still a tough team to play against, and they’ve always been tough at home. So for Missouri to be blowing them out is quite an accomplishment.

But maybe we shouldn’t be that surprised. Missouri has highly-touted quarterback Blaine Gabbert under center (or in the shotgun), some very good receivers in T.J. Moe and Michael Egnew, as well as solid backs in Henry Josey and De’Vion Moore.

This was a team that a year ago had a little bit of hype around it. That balloon was deflated, of course, when Ndamukong Suh had his coming out party at the expense of Gabbert and the Tiger offense on a Thursday night. But the talent is still there, and the Big XII is wide open outside of its top two teams.

Of course, we’ll have a much better read on the Tigers after the next two weeks, as they play host to Oklahoma, and then travel to Nebraska. I wouldn’t expect them to even split those games, but the thought of it doesn’t seem as ludicrous today as it did a week ago.

Here’s a quick and dirty look at how I see things playing out in the Big 12 this season:

#1 Oklahoma
In Sam Bradford, Gerald McCoy, Trent Williams, Jermaine Gresham, Keenan Clayton, Brody Eldridge and Dominique Franks, there’s no doubt that the Sooners lost a ton of talent from last year. However, this season is all about two names: Landry Jones and DeMarco Murray. Jones filled in admirably when Bradford went down last season, throwing 26 touchdown passes and gaining valuable experience throughout the year. Murray’s health history is a major concern, but if he can stay upright he’s scary good. He’s more versatile than Adrian Peterson was in that he can catch the ball out of the backfield or beat teams as a rusher. He’s big, he’s fast and he can get north and south in a hurry. He’s also going to get a ton of opportunities to shine this year as both a runner and a pass-catcher and again, if he can stay healthy he has the ability to be one of the best backs in college football. Defensively, Bob Stoops’ team has good depth and while the loss of McCoy hurts, don’t forget that Jeremy Beal was fifth on the team in tackles last season and first in sacks with 11. The linebacker corps has a chance to be special thanks to redshirt freshman Tom Wort and sophomore Ronnell Lewis. I know many pundits still like Texas in the South, but with Landry, Murray and nine starters returning on offense, I think Oklahoma reclaims the conference this season.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s all right there in the title — my bracket is f*#kd.

The Pittsburgh Panthers played with fire for the entire tournament and they finally got burned. In the first three games, they showed tremendous poise in the clutch. But when they had a chance to put this game away, they blew it.

Up four with the ball and 2:56 remaining, Pitt brought the ball up against Villanova’s full court pressure. If Pitt converts there and goes up six or seven, it would be a tough road to hoe for Villanova. But Jermaine Dixon made a bad decision at half court, which led to a steal and eventually to a three-point play for Villanova. On Pitt’s next possession, Sam Young turned the ball over in the lane. And just like that, the Panthers’ four point lead turned into a one-point deficit.

Down four with 0:12 to play, it looked like all was lost, but DeJuan Blair slipped to the hoop for a bucket and the Wildcats turned the ball over going for the home run. Levance Fields was fouled and knocked down two free throws to tie the game with 5.5 seconds to play. One more stop and Pitt was going to force an overtime when they had absolutely no business doing so. But they made a mistake on the inbound play, allowing ‘Nova to catch the ball near halfcourt, where it was flipped to Scottie Reynolds who was streaking down the sideline. The long pass covered a lot of ground when Pitt should have forced Villanova to dribble the entire length of the court. Make them catch it in front of you!

Reynolds drove into the lane and hit a tough game-winner.

Argh!

Give credit to Villanova for playing a great game. As a team, the Wildcats shot 22 of 23 from the free throw line, which is outstanding given the pressure of an Elite Eight game. It’s going to be fun to see them play in the Final Four.

In the other Saturday game, UConn fended off a feisty Missouri team with a 12-5 run over the last two minutes. UConn looked a little out of sorts in the second half, but freshman Kemba Walker scored 23 points off the bench to put the Huskies over the top.