Ohio State quarterback, Terrell Pryor, has revealed in a manner that was about as nonchalant as one can possibly get that he has been playing with a slightly torn posterior cruciate ligament (PCL).

Pryor, who had come back from an Oct. 31 ankle injury to help lead the No. 8 Buckeyes (10-2, 7-1 Big Ten) to a Rose Bowl berth against No. 7 Oregon (10-2, 8-1 Pac-10), said he was fine to play but wouldn’t specify which knee was hurt, when he sustained the tear or if it would require surgery.

Apparently it only prevents him from making some cuts and whatnot. Good thing he’s not a rushing QB or anything…

Obviously, as it goes with all injuries of this variety, seeing is believing. We’ll find out on New Year’s Day if Terrelle Pryor really can shrug off a PCL injury in a game just as well as he did at the press conference.

By the way… What the Hell is with the Florida Marlins hat? People from Florida aren’t Marlins fans, let alone folks from Pennsylvania!

[via Cleveland.com]

One good thing about the BCS system over an NFL-style playoff is that you get random bowl games throughout the week as opposed to games on only two days out of the week. So unless you’re a masochistic Bears fan or simply looking forward to Favre making Coach Childress cower his head again in shame, then you’ll be watching Georgia take on Texas A&M.

The bad part about the BCS system, some of the matchups can be pretty unexciting, such as when you have two teams going head to head with mediocre records.

Both Texas A&M and Georgia had mediocre seasons in part due to defenses that consistently struggled, but that could make for an exciting offensive showcase as the Aggies and Bulldogs meet in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La., on Dec. 28.

That brings me to my next theory (I’ve got a lot of them!). Because the BCS system pits two teams against each other of similar skill, the games can be, as the quote says, a bit more exciting than what we get in other playoff systems. Take the NBA, for example. Who gets jacked up about watching the #1 team take on the #8 team? Especially when it’s the Eastern Conference and the #8 seed has a losing record. The conference finals always boil down to two of the top three seeds.

So although these early bowl games seem more like the 5th place game in junior high basketball tournaments, at least it gives us a reason to park our butts in front of our massive television and eat something not on the food pyramid.

[via ESPN]

The big news out of college football this past weekend had little to do with USC’s ongoing McKnight/SUV saga and more to do with Coach Meyer’s “I resign… NOT!”

Florida coach Urban Meyer changed his mind Sunday and said he was taking an indefinite leave of absence instead of resigning. Despite ongoing concerns with his health, he expects to be on the sideline leading the Gators when next season opens.

“I do in my gut believe that will happen,” he said Sunday at a Allstate Sugar Bowl news conference.

I’m no Florida fan, hardly an admirer of Tebow’s speech last season and I’ve done my fair share of criticizing how Meyer handled the eye-gouging incident earlier in the year. But I can’t help but fall in love with the guy whilst watching his interview. When he talks about leaving it up to prayer and his family, he just seems like a really genuine guy. Continue Reading »

Former Ohio State star turned ESPN analyst, Chris Carter, will be able to watch the Rose Bowl with his son, Duron Carter. Little Carter has joined Ray Small and Rob Rose on the list of Buckeyes who won’t be participating in the Rose Bowl against the Ducks of Oregon.

“It is especially disappointing when young people lose the privilege to compete, especially because it is the Rose Bowl and they are seniors,” Tressel said.

Ohio State confirmed last week that Carter would be out but provided no reason, though a source told ESPN.com it was because of academics. The same source told ESPN.com that both Small and Rose violated a team rule. Rose had also been in some academic trouble following the release of fall quarter grades.

As a Buckeye fan, I am and always will be severely biased, but comments on the ESPN story seem to indicate what I already thought anyway.

If this happened with Urban Meyer’s Gators, for example, many have the feeling that things would be different. Some suggest that Meyer would simply keep a player out for a series if their grades fell short. Given that was Meyer’s original punishment for the whole eye gouging fiasco, one has to wonder if he’d do anything at all. Continue Reading »

The leader of the TCU Horned Frogs has been voted as the coach of the year by the AP.

Gary Patterson guided TCU to its best season in 70 years on the way to becoming the first Associated Press Coach of the Year from outside the six conferences with automatic BCS bids.

Patterson led the Horned Frogs to a perfect regular season, their second Mountain West Conference title, their first BCS appearance and even had them vying for a spot in the national championship game.

Gosh, how nice of the AP! To go out of their way and vote Coach Patterson from the under-appreciated Horned Frogs as coach of the year. Now how many votes did the Horned Frogs get from the AP to be the number one team?

Zero. Continue Reading »