Under 24 hours to kickoff. We're favored by 17.5, with a 45 over/under, implying a market final score expectation in the range of 31-14.
Ok everyone: thoughts? Too high? Too low? We've got a seven-game winning streak against the Bulldogs, and have won 14 of the last 15. Our last four victories against them have come by an average of 37 points. We're coming in ranked higher than we ever have been when facing them in this stretch so clearly the market doesn't consider MSU to be the doormat they have been. In general, that's not (1) what the pundits think (2).
Les is leaving room to meet his own expectations if he doesn't win the SEC, voting Florida 2nd and LSU 3rd.
Some takeaways from Randy Rosetta's nice in-depth piece on Luke Sanders from The Advocate yesterday: 1) Luke Sanders is big; 2) Luke Sanders is strong; 3) Luke Sanders is white; ergo 4) Luke Sanders' athleticism is "deceiving."
Ok so perhaps #3 isn't the direct lead in to #4 but let's be honest, shall we? Vince Young is listed at 6'5" 233, a mere 9 lbs less than Luke, and no one calls him deceptively athletic. I absolutely am not picking on the writer here - it's a great and well-written piece on a guy who doesn't get much pub and deserves it - but I just get a chuckle out of the "deceptive" treatment, which we have seen discussed before.
Guessing she'd balk at being called a "deceptively good driver."
No link here, but the NFL Network just did a piece saying that JaMarcus Russell's 34-day holdout has now passed Orlando Pace's 33 day holdout as the longest for a #1 overall pick, with the lone exception of Bo Jackson's decision to spurn the Bucs' offer and play baseball instead. Not the reason we want our former Tigers to be making the news, and personally I don't understand why the upside to JaMarcus of waiting for another million or two is worth risking the downside of having his rights traded or having to go back into next year's draft, in which he'll certainly go lower than, say, Brian Brohm, and not get the money he's being offered even now.
For those of you who just love USC transgressions, our colleagues at Bruins Nation have been all over (and evidently first reported) the news that USC RB Coach Todd McNair was involved in dogfighting some years back. Check in there, as you know those UCLA types bask in the misery of their cross town counterparts. And I know some of us Louisiana types (whether deservedly or not) do so too.