GOOD SPORTS VIEWING TONIGHT

It's not too often we get a jam packed Thursday night full of sports viewing. Tonight we get it starting at 7:30 on ESPN with Florida State traveling to North Carolina State. As some of you may know I haven't been the biggest fan of Seminoles football and think they have been overrated for a while but this 2008 squad is different and has a legitimate shot at winning the ACC crown. The reason: running game. They finally have a fucking running game worth talking about averaging an impressive 231 rushing yards a game. Senior RB Antone Smith has been running for the first time in his career in Tallahassee behind a good line which actually is controlling the line of scrimmage. These Thursday night ESPN games have been full of upsets till last week when Wake Forest held on to beat Clemson and thus insured the exit of Baby Bowden. I think Papa Bowden will have FSU ready and the poon should be plentiful as both schools have attractive fan bases. The spread is -11.5 in favor of FSU and I think the Seminoles will win but I don't see them covering the spread.

At 8 PM we get two choices. We can either watch the Boston Red Sox and their huge payroll take on the Tampa Bay Rays and their minuscule payroll battle or we can watch a more entertaining College Football game on Versus. Yes, Versus has the undefeated and unproven BYU Cougars, the supposed BCS busters, traveling their Mormon asses to TCU to take on some rowdy Texans ready to prove that caffeine is okay to consume. This should be a great game and if BYU wants to prove to everybody that they deserve to be considered for a BCS game then they need to win. BYU QB Max Hall will get his chance to show off his Heisman credentials against a pretty good TCU defense. TCU is #1 in the nation in total defense allowing just over 207 total yards a game. BYU has been playing good defense too allowing only 17 points in their last 4 games combined. In what should be a low scoring game I think TCU pulls off the upset at home and thankfully we don't have to worry about BYU somehow sneaking into the BCS.

So essentially there will be 3 entertaining games of some significance going on at the same time tonight which will mean a lot of channel flipping in between the burping and boozing. The Red Sox have to win tonight and I think they will. I believe they have won 7 straight elimination games in the playoffs so I got my money on the Sox extending the series to a 6th game.

MCCAIN'S BRAIN ON THE FINAL DEBATE

I'm going to miss John McCain if he doesn't get elected. The guy is a comics dream much like George Bush. Barack Obama is just boring. What is SNL going to make fun of for the next 4 years? Bush was a gold mine with his made up words and now McCain has all these peculiarities which tend to be hilarious. I could seriously watch McCain's Brain reactions to statements all day. Hopefully this series of McCain's Brain doesn't die as fast as...well..you know.

Now get off of my lawn.

Image HT: MacGsWorld

OKAY I PICKED THE WRONG NL TEAM

My apologies to all the Sportscrack heads out there who went and threw away their tiny left overs of a 401k and a shitty mortgage on the fact that I picked the Dodgers in the World Series over the Phillies. If I knew Rafael Furcal was going to spend more time picking cliffhangers than getting on base for Man Ram to knock him in then I would have never gone with the fucking Dodgers. Congratulations go out to the Phillies who will be making their first World Series appearance since Mitch Williams made his enduring impression on Joe Carter's bat. I somehow managed to get all 4 of my division series picks right but if the Rays win 1 of the next 3 games against the rather pathetic looking Sox then I will be 0 for 2 in league series picks. But you know like any true degenerate we are not going to let that Nancy Kerrigan us and question why things happen. Nope, we are going to ride this dwindling gravy train and put everything on the American League in the World Series. They are the better league right?

Image HT: Blogging via Typewriter

ANOTHER HOCKEY FIGHT

If the NHL wants to get higher ratings and more interest from non-mullet heads maybe they need to stage one of these every night. Similar to what ESPN and NASCAR does with their non-athletes and tells you about these so called "behind the doors" fights that take place between two rednecks and a car to drum up ratings at least the NHL has the balls to put it right in front of your face. There is a teabag reference in there some where, I will let you make it. I'm not exactly sure who the clear winner of the fight was between the Canadiens' George Laraque and the Bruins' Shawn Thornton but it is always fun to see two big guys go at it with so much force and bravado that it almost pushes them off the ice and onto the benches.

Last week I attended the season opener for the Atlanta Thrashers and got to see the good guys beat the Caps 7-4. All of the goal scoring was exciting of course but Philips Arena gets so much more energy when two competitors decide to drop the gloves and exchange haymakers. The NHL needs to embrace the fighting part of the game and market it because people like you and me love to watch it. I kind of miss the days when NHL Tonight was on ESPN2 and you could see the latest Tony Twist fight and/or Bob Probert mauling some rookie's face.

Video HT: FanIQ

MIDSEASON ALL-AMERICAN TEAM

We have reached the midpoint of the 2008 College Football season and I figured why not take a look at some of the best players to perform on a campus near you. Here are my picks for the Sportscrack Midseason All-American College Football Team.

QUARTERBACK
Colt McCoy, Texas-For all intended purposes I had Chase Daniel as my top QB in the nation till last Saturday. McCoy passed him temporarily with a brilliant performance in the Red River Shootout to beat Oklahoma and claim the new #1 spot with Daniel struggling with those 3 huge picks in a loss to Oklahoma State. McCoy has been on top of his game all season and his numbers in both passing and rushing rank him among the best. This week's game in Austin will be a good barometer to see who might be the clear cut best QB in the nation.

RUNNINGBACKS
Javon Ringer, Michigan State-Okay, yes, I know, I can already hear some people complaining about this pick. Look, Ringer's average yards per carry isn't the best in the nation at below 5 but the guy has personally carried Sparty all season. In fact I think without Ringer the Spartans would be lucky to have 3 wins right now. Defenses are loading up in the box and yet he still leads the nation with 14 rushing TDs.

Knowshon Moreno, Georgia-He is averaging slightly more yards per carry over last season and is on pace for 20 plus total TDs while playing in the toughest conference with the toughest defenses. Special K has not disappointed one bit this season despite playing behind an offensive line that has had several key blockers go down with injuries.

WIDE RECEIVERS
Percy Harvin, Florida-Harvin's nickname should be Techmo Bowl. An amazing athlete, Harvin makes your jaw drop everytime he touches the ball. He simply glides past defenders which is no easy feat playing in the SEC.

Michael Crabtree, Texas Tech-I haven't seen much of Crabtree this season but his numbers look solid again. He might not reach last year's ridiculous numbers but he is still on pace to catch over 20 TDs.

Jeremy Maclin, Missouri-Maclin has been incredible for the Tigers whether catching, running, or returning kicks this season. He is on pace to put up better numbers receiving this season and is becoming one of the best WRs in the game.

TIGHT END
Chase Coffman, Missouri-Big Chase already has 3 games over a 100 yards receiving and 2 games in which he has double digit catches. Honestly nobody is really close to him right now in terms of TE production and he is the heavy favorite for the Mackey Award.

OFFENSIVE TACKLES
Andre Smith, Alabama-Protects Wilson's blind side and completely devours defensive linemen and linebackers while controlling the line of scrimmage for Bama.

Michael Oher, Ole Miss-Another great SEC left tackle who helped lead the Rebels to an improbable win against Florida at the Swamp.

OFFENSIVE GUARDS
Duke Robinson, Oklahoma-Consistently dominates the line of scrimmage for one of the highest scoring offenses in the nation.

Rodney Hudson, Florida State-Hudson has come out of nowhere to dominate this year for the Seminoles. Literally a big reason why FSU has a legitimate shot of winning the ACC.

CENTER
Jonathan Luigs, Arkansas-Opens up holes for the Razorbacks and has been the #1 center in the college game 3 years now.

DEFENSIVE ENDS
Brian Orakpo, Texas-The incredibly agile Houston native had a couple of sacks against Oklahoma to give him 7.5 at midseason.

Aaron Maybin, Penn State-Has 9 sacks already and is a big reason why Penn State is the favorite now to win the Big Ten conference.

DEFENSIVE TACKLES
Terrence Cody, Alabama-The guy is a tank and literally needs 2-3 blockers because of his size.

Gerald McCoy, Oklahoma-Had 2 sacks against Texas and requires multiple blockers.

LINEBACKERS
Sean Weatherspoon, Missouri-A tackling machine with 65 total tackles with 7 for loss.

Brandon Spikes, Florida-He looks like the Predator and is known to kill Tigers with 2 interceptions on Saturday.

Scott McKillop, Pittsburgh-One of the more underrated players in the nation who is having a great season with 8 tackles for loss already.

CORNERBACKS
Alphonso Smith, Wake Forest-He knows how to talk the talk and walk the walk with 7 passes broken up and 3 INTs.

Malcolm Jenkins, Ohio State-Not sure how I forgot this guy in the first place, Jenkins is playing great and already has 3 INTs.

STRONG SAFETY
Eric Berry, Tennessee-Only a sophomore, Berry leads the nation with 4 picks and has future NFL star written all over him.

FREE SAFETY
William Moore, Missouri-Has been a steady force along with Weatherspoon on the Mizzou defense.

KICKER
Matt Harmon, Navy-Got to give the Midshipmen some love. He has converted 14 of 15 field goal attempts.

PUNTER
Justin Brantly, Texas A&M-So far Brantly has been the best player on the Aggies team. He can boot the ball.

KICK RETURNER
Derrick Williams, Penn State-I dogged this kid before the season started for not living up to expectations but he has been magnificent for the JoePa's and has a great chance of earning All-American honors in his senior season.

PUNT RETURNER
Brandon James, Florida-This "little fucker" as I call him is the closest thing to Devin Hester in the college game. I would never kick it to him if given the choice.

MIDSEASON HEISMAN: Colt McCoy, Texas

MIDSEASON FRESHMEN OF THE YEAR: Michael Floyd, Notre Dame

MIDSEASON COACH OF THE YEAR: Nick Saban, Alabama

MIDSEASON GAME OF THE YEAR: USC at Oregon State

MIDSEASON SURPRISE TEAM OF THE YEAR: Penn State and Alabama

MIDSEASON DISAPPOINTING TEAM OF THE YEAR: Ohio State

Feel free to add any comments or possible omissions I might have left off this list.

HEAVYWEIGHT NHL FIGHT

Riley Cote of the Philadelphia Flyers and Eric Godard of the Pittsburgh Penguins decided to throw haymakers last night on Versus thus meaning about 124 people not in the great state of Pennsylvania saw it live. Now this is a great fight worth watching. Friends keep telling me how great MMA fighting is and every time I watch it I feel like I am watching the opening credits of gay porn. MMA just makes me feel uncomfortable. NHL fights are quite the opposite. They actually punch the shit out of each other while trying to stay balanced on a thin piece of fucking ice. Now that is a man's sport. MMA is for pussies. Now excuse me while I go get my physical therapy for this nasty back spasm caused by my erratic golf swing.

DAILY LINK DUMP

-Alcohol can apparently shrink your brain capacity. Gives me something to drink to tonight other than Oktoberfest(pictured above) CNN

-The Cowboys have been slowly eroding from the NFL map this past week by losing not only to Arizona but losing Tony Romo, PacMan Jones(make it rain), their punter, and Felix Jones to either injuries or suspensions. Today they made a big trade to appease Terrell Owens and picked up Roy Williams from the Lions for a 3 draft picks next year including their 1st. NFL

-A time has been set for the annual World's Largest Cocktail Party or as I would like to call it the World's Largest Jorts and Floppy Hair Party. AJC

-Boomer Esiason calls out Troy Aikman for sucking off his former team in the booth. See, he is actually proud to call himself a Cowboy unlike Boomer the former Bungal. AwfulAnnouncing

-Get to see the wonderful "ass"ets of track star Alenka Bikar in super slow motion. And by star I mean her wonderful rump. TheBigLead

-One of the Desperate Housewives is still flashing the skin at the beach. Good for her. WWTDD

HAYDEN PANETTIERE LOVES HER JOHN MCCAIN

This is more than likely not safe for work with the naughty language but you shouldn't be on this site anyways if you are behind a desk counting down the minutes to 5 pm...

It's always good to see old man river McCain getting the Hollywood vote of approval. Conservatives always complain about how liberal Hollywood is but I just don't see it. Now excuse me while I go plug in my Prius.

BRAYLON EDWARDS EMBARRASSED OF AFFILIATION WITH MICHIGAN

You would think the season of drops would be embarrasing enough for Pro Bowl WR Braylon Edwards but it doesn't even draw a drop in the bucket to his embarrassment of being a former Michigan football player. How else could you explain his interview last night on Monday Night Football where he was spotted wearing a Penn State shirt? I guess it is no coincidence that Braylon had his best game last night and the Cleveland Browns destroyed the defending Super Bowl Champions New York Giants 35-14. Braylon obviously wants to be identified with a winner and knows that the Penn State-Michigan game outcome this coming up Saturday was decided as soon as Michigan stole Dick Rod's heart from West Virginia last January.

Image HT: Deadspin

TOMMY BOWDEN FANS HAVING A TOUGH TIME

I guess I never realized how much love and admiration Tommy Bowden had among fans at Clemson. Yesterday I saw a picture of RB James Davis with tears coming down his face as he described Bowden as a "father to me" and
now this video of some purple and orange sandy vagina calling in to a television news station and expressing his "feelings" on live air regarding
the firing of Bowden...

Video HT: WithLeather via The Sports Point

I have a feeling these are the same people who will be crying when George Bush leaves office. I'm amazed the announcers held back the laughter. Maybe it was the muffled gun shot noise after "the whole program is in shambles(sniff, sob, sniff) I don't know what to do!"

THOUGHTS FROM THIS PAST WEEKEND

-The Red River Shootout finally lived up to it's motto on Saturday. Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy exchanged blows for four quarters and "The Real McCoy" came out on top with a performance that should keep him at the top of the Heisman talk for this week at least. It looked like Oklahoma was going to run away with the game in the first half but you have to credit the Longhorns for making some adjustments on defense and stopping Bradford and company in the second half. With the loss Oklahoma still has a chance of reaching the BCS Title game if they can win out and hope somebody knocks off Texas. Texas has a Dexter Morgan's schedule lineup ahead with Mizzou visiting this week who will be looking to take out some frustrations coming off a big loss at home. Then they get an undefeated Oklahoma State the following week and then travel to Lubbock to face a potentially undefeated Texas Tech team. If they win all those which I have serious doubts then they deserve to be the #1 rated team in the country. The Longhorns should enjoy this week at #1 in both the writer's and coaches poll and I'm sure Mack Brown has them ready for Missouri but you can't help but think that Mizzou had their letdown game last week in looking ahead to Texas while the Longhorns will have their letdown game this week in Austin after a hard fought victory in Dallas. Either way I'm looking forward to watching the Missouri-Texas game because it will be high scoring and who ever wins is the favorite to win the Big 12 in my opinion.

-Tough loss for Notre Dame in Chapel Hill. It's one of the first games since the Navy game last year that I thought Notre Dame should have won it and essentially they beat themselves. The 5 turnovers killed them especially the pick 6 Jimmy Clausen threw to start off the second half. Their offense is clicking with nearly 500 yards of total offense but you have to give North Carolina a ton of credit by forcing key turnovers. Things are bright though for Notre Dame with Clausen getting better every week and proving he is light years ahead of Brady Quinn in his development as a sophomore and playmakers like Golden Tate(should touch the ball at least 10 times a game, if not more), Michael Floyd, Armando Allen, Duval Kamara, and Kyle Rudolph all stepping up as underclassmen. If Notre Dame wants to get back to BCS football then they are going to need to ramp up their recruiting on the defensive line. Too many times this season they are undermanned and lack of talent and strength is getting exposed on the defensive line. Pat Kuntz has played his heart out and appears to have replaced Trevor Laws as the leader on the line but other than him nobody has exceeded or even met expectations. Ian Williams is a talented sophomore but he is getting pushed around and I've seen him miss a ton of tackles this season. Sophomore slump I guess you could call it or the lack of Laws to take away blockers. The Irish will need to add at least 3-5 players a year on the defensive line because half of the guys won't pan out till their junior or senior season and some just won't at all. The great programs have depth at d-line and while ND has been loading up on offense and defensive secondary in terms of talent they still have been lacking with the front 7 on defense. Losing out on guys like Gerald McCoy, Justin Trattou, and Omar Hunter has made the difference in my opinion in what could be an undefeated Irish team at this point in the season with a legitimate shot at a BCS Bowl victory. Hopefully the Irish can start landing these guys instead of losing them at the last minute.

-I was completely wrong about Florida. The Gators looked great in primetime against LSU and their offense is now clicking like I thought it would all season. How does a guy like Percy Harvin not get more talk for the Heisman? It seems like he is an automatic first down every time he touches the ball and you get a sense he will score almost every time he breaks huddle. I don't think Florida fans will ever realize how lucky they are to have Tim Tebow and Harvin much like when USC had Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush. The Gators control their destiny if they win out because if they do they deserve to play for a BCS Title with only one loss in the SEC unlike USC who plays in a shitty conference and doesn't have to play a conference championship.

Image HT: EDSBS

SEE YA TOMMY BOWDEN

We all knew it was only a matter of time before Tommy Bowden was shown the door but it appears Clemson officials finally woke up and kicked his ass out. Look, Tommy Bowden for all intended purposes should have won a rather pathetic ACC crown at least once during his 12 seasons in Death Valley. But he could never even get Clemson close to winning one despite programs like Florida State and Miami struggling these past few seasons. This season their offense has looked lost despite having a senior QB, two future NFL runningbacks who are explosive, and two receivers capable of playing in the NFL also. There is no excuse to lose to Maryland at home. Listen, both of my parents went to Maryland and they would be the first to say Clemson should never lose to Maryland especially on their home field.

With his firing it opens the door on their current recruiting class which features a lot of talented football players who should waiver in their commitment to Clemson. Headlined by 5 star safety Craig Loston, 4 star safety Devonte Holloman, and 4 star defensive end Malliciah Goodman it is only a manner of seconds before coaching staffs like Texas, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, USC, LSU, and many others will now be calling in to check how committed some of these prospects are to a program with no current head coach. Personally I would love to see Notre Dame snag Devonte Holloman who was being recruited rather heavily by Corwin Brown. The Fighting Irish don't have a safety in their class currently and Holloman would be the perfect piece. Mack Brown and his coaching staff are coming off an impressive win over Oklahoma and I wouldn't be surprised if they swayed Texas native Loston into Austin to pay another visit. While it is true that Texas has two freshmen playing safety right now we all know injuries happen and Loston could be starting a year from now.

So who should Clemson look to get to replace Bowden? Dabo Swinney is the new interim head coach and it appears that Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips has encouraged all of the Clemson assistants to stay and rally around and support Swinney for the rest of the season. I'm not real familiar with the Clemson staff but as an outsider I think this is a mistake. Clemson needs to bring in somebody with head coaching experience and would benefit much more if they could bring in a big name like Bill Cowher before the season is over in my honest opinion. Clemson students, alumni, and fans deserve a proven winner and not just another assistant who is part of the problem on hand.

PISS POOR MICHIGAN

You know things have hit rock bottom when you lose at The Big House to a team by the name of Toledo. A team which came in with a 1-4 record. There is never an excuse to lose to fucking Toledo. I stated when Michigan hired DickRod as their coach that I couldn't imagine him lasting more than 3 seasons in Ann Arbor. Michigan football basically put all of it's eggs in to thinking Rodriguez could bring a spread offense into the Big Ten and it would succeed but the problem is he needs the recruits to run it and right now he doesn't have it. It will be interesting to see how much patience Wolverine fans have for Rodriguez. Remember they haven't experienced a losing season in 40 years and they ran out Lloyd Carr because he couldn't beat Jim Tressel. I can't see Rodriguez beating Tressel anytime soon especially with Terrelle Pryor(who DickRod was banking on getting when he accepted the Michigan job) being the starting QB in Columbus for the next 3-4 seasons. It's not all bad for Michigan though. They now have a song dedicated to them by Ryan Parker...

They travel to Happy Valley this weekend and follow it up with Michigan State, Purdue, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Ohio State. There is a good chance they might win just once more the rest of the season. 2-10 or a 3-9 season is hard to swallow and the whole honeymoon phase of Rodriguez could be up for an annulment before he ever gets a chance to settle in.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL VIEWING AND PREDICTIONS

NOON
Texas vs. Oklahoma(ABC)-The Red River Shootout matches two fan bases that have a genuine hate for each other. It's what college football is all about in my opinion. Both programs are in the top 5 with Oklahoma the top ranked team according to the AP and Coaches poll. The Sooners and Longhorns can score a ton of points quickly and I think with the weather being sunny and the lack of wind in Dallas that we will see a high scoring affair at the Cotton Bowl. The Longhorns have a terrible pass defense and Sam Bradford should pick them apart all day. Colt McCoy will need to have a perfect day to keep the Longhorns in this game or their defense is going to need to create some turnovers if isn't on top of his game. As much as I want to go against the norm and take the Longhorns I think the Sooners are the better team. Sooners win 42-27

3:30
Notre Dame at North Carolina(ABC)-This game has been making me nervous all week and I really don't know why. The Tarholes come in ranked 22nd and have been winning by creating turnovers. The Irish come in unranked with the same record of 4-1 and won last week thanks to a defense that created turnovers and a near perfect day passing from QB Jimmy Clausen. Talent wise the Irish are the Tarheels equal if not better but North Carolina has the home field advantage and a coach in Butch Davis who utilizes all their strengths. Notre Dame hasn't played a complete game this year and I think it will hurt them in this one. Begrudgingly I think North Carolina wins 27-21 with Notre Dame unable to convert some key red zone chances. God I hope I'm wrong.

Tennessee at Georgia(CBS)-The Volunteers are terrible right now with a QB in Jonathan Crompton who can't even take a snap from his center without fumbling it. The last time we saw the Dawgs play they got embarrased on their home field in a night game against Alabama. The Dawgs should come out foaming at the mouth. The Volunteers always give Georgia a good game but not this time. Georgia cruises 35-14.

8:00
LSU at Florida(CBS)-The Fear Les Tigers come in to the Swamp undefeated and ready to challenge for another National Title. The Gators have looked off all year for some reason. Not sure if it is over confidence or a lack of execution but to me the Gators haven't looked like a top 10 team at any one point this season. LSU has been talking trash with DL Ricky Jean-Francois leading the bayou barking. Tim Tebow won't back down and it is hard to imagine the Gators losing back-to-back home games. Well, imagine it because it will happen. LSU wins 28-21.

CHASE UTLEY PROVES ME WRONG

Is that not a sweet picture there or what? With one swing of the bat Chase Utley proved my prediction of the Dodgers taking the first 3 games of this series wrong. It goes to show you should never bet against a guy with the name of Chase or a team like the Phillies. They are Chasin the Dream and with that one beautiful swing last night on a tired Derek Lowe meat pitch it completely changed the outlook of the series. Now the Dodgers must win today to go back to LA with a chance of making the World Series.

ZEKE AND DESTROY IN THE BEND

Notre Dame picked up a huge commitment yesterday when 4 star linebacker Zeke Motta decided on the Fighting Irish despite Florida and Auburn making strong pushes to get the Florida prep product. Zeke is the 16th commitment to the current Irish class and is a punishing, future "SAM" linebacker who should thrive in Jon Tenuta's blitzing defense. Motta took his official visit last week against Stanford and came away with a great feeling of belonging among the Notre Dame community.

In fact ND fan Garrett Banghart created a "Zeke and Destroy" signed that really hit it off for Motta when he saw it. Motta came away impressed with how much the fans knew about him and how much they wanted him to be a part of Notre Dame's future.

BlueandGold.com was the first publication to break the news on Motta's commitment...
“My official visit to Notre Dame was just great. The academics are so good, the football program is great and the fan base had so much to do with my trip being so pleasurable for my Dad and me,” Motta said.

Motta will be an early enrollment in January along with defensive tackle Tyler Stockton. This should bring a little bit of satisfaction among ND fans since Urban Meyer has been known to steal ND defensive prospects the past couple of seasons. Motta doesn't plan on taking any other visits and seems 100% committed at this point.

More good news for the Irish on the defensive recruiting side broke today when it was confirmed that Hawaii product and the #1 inside linebacker in the country Manti Te'o is set to visit Notre Dame when they play Pitt on November 1st. Te'o has already visited UCLA back in September and will also visit USC and BYU. If the Irish can land Te'o it would an enormous coup for the Irish staff and be another significant step towards building a faster defense for the future. Personally I like Maryland product and 5 star linebackerJelani Jenkins better because his film to me is more impressive but I have a feeling he will end up at Penn State. Landing either one of Te'o or Jenkins at the inside linebacker spot would be the "signature" recruit for the defensive side of the ball with the offense already landing 5 star runningback Cierre Wood.

Pete Sampson of IrishIllustrated.com is also reporting that 4 star safety and Tallahassee product Jawanza Starling is interested in setting up an official visit to Notre Dame. Right now it appears the Irish are well on their way to bringing in a great defensive class but they still need to get some more d-linemen to compete for elite status when it comes to Saturdays in the Fall. One of either Chris Bonds, Davon Custis, and Gabe Ikard is absolutely necessary with the preference to bring in two of them. Ikard had a great visit but the Oklahoma product will visit Dallas this weekend for the Red River Shootout and both of those teams are very much still in it. Bonds will be a tough get since he is from South Carolina and it is always hard to pull recruits from SEC country. He is also coming off major knee surgery. Custis is from Columbus, Ohio but appears to be the best bet right now. He had an unofficial visit during the Michigan game and apparently the Irish staff made quite an impression with him and his family. He is planning on making another visit, this time official, within the next few weeks.

NLCS PREVIEW AND PREDICTION

Despite watching little baseball the past month I somehow managed to pick all 4 of the division series winners correctly. I'm not going to lie, when you are this fucking good at picking baseball games it should be noted that a baseball mind as brilliant as mine should be hired to at least be a bullpen coach or at the very least a mid level assistant GM position. Seriously, I got the time. Call me.

Now let's take a look at the National League Championship series which starts tonight between the Man Ram led Dodgers traveling to Philly to take on the Phightin Phils. The Dodgers come in red hot after sweeping the Chicago Scrubs and have the swagger and veteran leadership to make this series against the Phillies a really short one. In Game 1 we have postseason veteran and proven winner Derek Lowe going against Cole Hamels, no chump himself. The Phillies crowd will be fat, loud, and boisterous. Expect many expletives thrown at Manny even when they aren't coming from Tim McCarver's stupid mouth. As much as I like the way Hamels is pitching right now I got to take the Dodgers in Game 1. Manager Joe Torre has the team clicking and focused and a large part of that is the addition of SS Rafael Furcal to the leadoff spot. The Dodgers will take game 1 tonight and should take game 2 with Chad Billingsley out dueling Brett "Smack my bit--" Myers.

The series will then go to Hollywood with the Phillies in a deep 0-2 hole. Their hitting will start to pick up a little bit against Hiroki Kuroda but it won't be enough as the Dodgers will thrive off of Jamie Moyer's slow pitches and will take a 3-0 series lead. The Phillies, ever resilient, will come back and avoid the sweep in game 4 by unloading their bats against future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux. It will be too little, too late though as the Dodgers behind some stellar starting pitching and great top of the order hitting will beat the Phillies in 5 games.

Philly fans can then redirect their anger and angst at Donovan McNabb for the next two months.

Pictures courtesy of COED Magazine

GET YOUR PICKS IN

There are only 10 games on the board for this weekend since I failed to pick the games before Sunday. One of the games is tonight's game between Wake and Clemson so be sure to get your picks in or it will pick the home team of Wake by default.

Who ever has the best week wins a free Sportscrack shirt.

Go to www.funofficepools.com to make your selections.

And to think while you worry about who is going to win this week Hugh Hefner is worried about which 19 year old twin(pictured above) he is going to bang with his old wrinkled up man member.

Oh, I'm just kidding. He will bang both.

SPORTSCRACK TOP 10 CFB POLL

1. Missouri Tigers-Mizzou is my new #1, vaulting over Alabama because I think right now they are playing better than BAMA. Chase Daniel and this offense are locked in and really can't be stopped. Similar to when the St. Louis Rams were scoring a ton of points with Kurt Warner at QB, Mizzou has a ton of weapons on offense and have yet to show they can be stopped. They face an undefeated Oklahoma State Cowboys team at home and it could present some challenges but I think the Tigers will handle them.

2. Alabama Crimson Tide-I knew they were in for a letdown game against Kentucky but I still thought they would win comfortably. They didn't. Winning by a field goal is still a win but I wonder if the Tide have hit their peak and will slowly come back down to earth. They get an off week to prepare for Ole Miss and I'm sure Nick Saban will be shouting obscenities to remind them they haven't accomplished anything yet.

3. Oklahoma Sooners-The Sooners cruised past Baylor and managed to cover the 27 point spread with a late touchdown. They get the Red River Shootout this Saturday and it could be a great game with Texas playing unreal right now. Who ever wins is in the driver's seat for the Big 12 South division.

4. LSU Tigers-The Tigers had an off week to prepare for the Gators in the Swamp. If they beat Tim Tebow and company then they have a good shot at competing for another National Title. RB Charles Scott should have a big game against a weak Florida defense and put himself into the upper echelon of Heisman candidates.

5. Texas Longhorns-Colt McCoy has this team rolling right now and this should be their best chance to beat Oklahoma since Vince Young was wearing the burnt orange. If you are a die hard college football fan you owe it to yourself to sit down and watch this game on Saturday.

6. Penn State Nittany Lions-The JoePa's face a desperate Wisconsin team in Madison on a Saturday night in what should be a battle of defenses. If Penn State wins then they are top 5. If they lose then they drop out of the top 10. I think they will win in Madison and prove they are a team worthy of putting them into the BCS Title discussion.

7. Vanderbilt Commodores-They lead the toughest division in college football in the SEC East and at 5-0 overall they have a chance to go 4-0 in conference with a win at Mississippi State. Vanderbilt has hit their peak and I wouldn't be surprised if they lost to the Bulldogs this week and next week in Athens.

8. Texas Tech Red Raiders-They won in Manhattan so I will give them some props. I'm still not convinced their defense is good enough to hang with Mizzou, Oklahoma, and Texas but they have a chance to prove me wrong as the season progresses. I wouldn't be surprised if they put up 60 this week against Nebraska. Cornhusker football is terrible right now.

9. USC Trojans-I really, really hate to put USC this high especially after losing to a team like Oregon State just two weeks ago but fuck...where else am I going to put them? QB Mark Sanchez is battling a bad knee and could miss this week's game against Arizona State but I don't think it will matter. AS-Pooh has looked like garbage all year.

10. Georgia Bulldogs-Georgia and Mark Richt need to prove themselves this week by destroying a struggling Vols squad in Athens. There are no excuses. If they think they deserve consideration as one of the top teams in the country as I think they are then they need to prove it on the field starting at 3:30 in Sanford Stadium. I have faith in Matt Stafford stepping up his game once again and proving they are legit.

NEW SHIRT: FEAR LES FOOTBALL PUTTING THE NASTY BACK IN DYNASTY

Since Les Miles has arrived in Baton Rouge he has been able to maintain the level of excellence first developed under Nick Saban. No school has more BCS National Championships than the "FEAR LES FOOTBALL" so it is only appropriate to make a shirt to honor them as they have been "PUTTING THE NASTY BACK IN DYNASTY."

ORDER HERE