Sports Agenda For Wednesday (11/23/11)
Big Story:
We've got turkey day football, Urban Meyer ready to make his triumphant return to the sidelines, the Dolphins hit the road for Dallas, and the Panthers prep for another victory Wednesday night.
There's no Mitt Romney confusion here, it's on to the agenda!
Miami Dolphins: (Thursday, 4 p.m., @ Dallas Cowboys)
A few weeks ago the Thanksgiving day matchup against the Cowboys didn't look like a game worth watching.
Both teams were struggling and neither had much direction.
Now, the two squads are on a combined six-game winning streak and the Fins may be the hottest team in the NFL.
The Fins defense has been the catalyst in the team's three game winning streak and they will need to be at their best Thursday.
The Cowboys rushing attack, led by DeMarco Murray, has torn up teams the last few weeks.
Plus, the Cowboys love to use their All-Pro tight end, Jason Whitten, and we all know that tight ends are the Dolphins' kryptonite.
Still, the Fins' Matt Moore has also been playing lights out the last three weeks.
Since mid-October, Moore has the third highest passer rating in the NFL. Not bad for a guy who no one expected to win a game.
The Cowboys defense isn't what it used to be, as evidence by the Washington Redskins giving them everything they could handle last week.
Yes, the same Redskins the Dolphins wiped the floor with.
This is a home game for Dallas, which could give them a slight edge in the matchup.
Even though he's gone at the end of the season, you have to feel better for Tony Sparano. No one questions the effort, so at least he'll have a couple of w's to add to his resume.
Now, I also wanted to take this chance to say that Jeff Ireland really did something….SMART.
Never thought I'd write that.
But his refusal to mortgage the future for Kyle Orton is looking like the second best decision in the NFL this year. The best being Cincinnati mugging Oakland in the Carson Palmer trade.
So kudos to Ireland for making the first smart move in his administration with the Dolphins.
And good luck in your next job!
As for the game, here's the pick:
Dallas – 24, Miami 21
College Football:
Only one game of note in the college ranks on Thursday night; Texas A&M vs. Texas.
If you're like me, you loathe the Texas teams.
Sorry, just being honest.
The game won't feature an abundance of scoring, I can tell you that.
Texas hasn't discovered the forward pass this season and was thumped by my Missouri Tigers just a couple of weeks ago.
Texas A&M has collapsed in epic fashion after climbing in the rankings to as high as the top 10 this season.
Honestly, it's a game that's sort of like white noise. You're vaguely aware it's going on, but don't really care that much.
That said, I expect the Aggies to walk out of Kyle Field a winner Thursday night.
It will mark the end of the series as A&M heads to the SEC next season and Texas has it's feelings hurt so bad it won't play them anymore.
Friday is the day the action really gets going on the college football weekend.
We have Louisville at South Florida as the Cardinals look to stay alive in the jumbled Big East conference race.
I still can't believe someone from the god awful Big East is going to a BCS game. PATHETIC.
Also in the early game, we have Iowa at Nebraska. That's a pick-em game, I'll take the Cornhuskers at home because I like corn tortillas.
Then at 3:30 we have the biggest game of the weekend and the biggest game in South Florida.
Arkansas travels to LSU to battle the Tigers in Death Valley and Miami welcomes in Boston College to Sun Life Stadium.
The best matchup of the day to watch in the LSU game will be the LSU punter versus Arkansas' stellar return game.
I'm just not sold that the Razorbacks are a top 3 school and I think LSU handles them easily, especially in Death Valley.
Miami will thump Boston College at Sun Life and finish the season on a winning note to send the seniors off with no bowl victories, but a vastly improved performance in 2011.
Urban Meyer Update:
Let's just put this to rest okay, Urban Meyer will be the next coach at the Ohio State University.
He took a year off and recharged his batteries and is now ready to go back into coaching.
He's got a quarterback at OSU, Braxton Miller, built to run his style of offense.
He should do well there, but I'll be curious to see how long he stays after Miller graduates.
If you remember, he has a history of recruiting one quarterback to run his system well (Alex Smith at Utah and Tim Tebow at UF); he maximizes everything he can out of them; and then he leaves.
And no Florida fans, you shouldn't be upset that he's going to OSU.
He brought you two freaking championships in five years.
Enjoy what he built, look forward to what you're building with Muschamp and move on.
As for OSU, it's going to be a rough go at first, but Meyer has built champions before, but I'm still not sold on his ability to recruit long-term.
Panthers: (vs. New York Rangers, 7:30 p.m., Fox Sports Florida)
Yknow, hockey is a sport you have to see live to appreciate it.
It's even better when the hometown team is winning.
The Panthers welcome in the Atlantic division's New York Rangers into the Bank Atlantic Center Wednesday night.
Florida is 5-2-3 in the last 10 games and NY Rangers are 7-2-1 in the same time span.
The Panthers need a victory to build on their 11-6 overall record and keep the lead in the Southeast division.
The team also plays Tampa Bay at home on Black Friday night.
So if you have a couple of bucks left over, head out to watch some good hockey.
Finally, props to my Missouri Tigers basketball team for absolutely slaughtering 18th ranked California in the finals of a tournament last night. 92-53 and Frank Haith has his boys playing at the top of their game early in the season. Hopefully they can keep it up.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
