I’d like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Hopefully, 2023 will be an excellent year for all of us. Let’s try to be nicer to each other this year. Seriously.
TCU 51, Michigan 45
— TCU led 21-6 at halftime; Michigan scored 39 points in 2nd half, and still lost.
— TCU was 8-16 on third down, Wolverines were 3-13.
— Both teams turned the ball over three times.
— Horned Frogs scored 34+ points in 11 of 14 games this season.
— Michigan lost its last six bowls (they were favored in 4 of the 6)
Georgia 42, Ohio State 41
— Ohio State led 38-24 after the third quarter.
— Dawgs drove 72 yards, scored game-winning TD with 0:54 left.
— Both teams averaged over 10 yards/pass attempt.
— Georgia gained 533 yards, converted only 2-10 on third down.
— Buckeyes were 11-0, then gave up 45-42 points in losing last two games.
— This game ended just after midnight; damn near had a heart attack when some of my neighbors shot off fireworks as midnight struck.
Iowa 21, Kentucky 0
— Iowa scored two defensive TD’s; their offense scored once.
— Neither team scored in the second half.
— Iowa was 0-11 on third down, Wildcats were 2-18 (3-5 on 4th)
— Hawkeyes won five of last six games, after a 3-4 start.
— This game had lowest total of any game in last 25 years, still stayed under.
Alabama 45, Kansas State 20
— Alabama QB Young was 15-21/321 passing, with 5 TD’s.
— Crimson Tide ran 55 plays for 496 yards (9.0 yards/play)
— Alabama won its last four games, scoring 30-34-49-45 points.
— Alabama has 75 players who were 4 or 5-star recruits; K-State has 3.
— Crimson Tide won five of its last seven bowls.
— Xavier 83, UConn 73— Huskies lost their first game this year; they were 4-9 on the foul line, Xavier was 23-28. UConn led by 7, early in second half.
— Arizona 69, Arizona State 60— Arizona was 24-28 on foul line, Sun Devils were 7-10.
Rough day with the referees for the two Hurley brothers.
— Marquette 68, Villanova 66— Villanova was 12-33 on the arc, 12-24 inside arc. Harder to win consistently shooting so many 3’s. Marquette is shooting 60.3% inside the arc (#4).
— New Mexico 76, Wyoming 75— Wyoming led by 11 early on, but Lobos get good road win and improve to 14-0. New Mexico/Purdue are the only two unbeaten teams in the country.
— Watched The Natural on TV the other night; no idea how many times I’ve seen that movie, has to be more than 50-60 times, but until the other night I had no idea that Randy Newman did the music in that movie. You learn something every day.
— 3B Evan Longoria signed a one-year, $4M deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks. 37-year old Longoria hasn’t played 100+ games in a season since 2019; he hit .244 with 14 HR’s for the Giants last year.
— Say you owned the Baltimore Ravens; you’re really, really rich, the Ravens are usually a good team, but you have this pivotal decision to make in a couple months.
Lamar Jackson’s contract is up; do you shell out huge money for a QB with a 46-19 career record (1-3 in playoffs)? Jackson missed five games last year, including weeks 15-18; he also missed the last four games this season— he’s missed nine of the Ravens’ last 32 games.
Interesting decision; earlier this season I said I’d pay Jackson the big bucks, but now I’m queasy about that. The best ability is availability, you know what I mean?
— David Blough is starting at QB for Arizona Sunday; he’ll be the 64th different QB to start an NFL game this season, the most of any season since the 1987 strike season.
— Early line on the college football national title game: Georgia (-13.5) vs TCU
