— Word of the Day: Polarizing- Something/someone who divides people into sharply opposing factions. I bring this up now that Ole Miss is in the semi-finals of the college football playoff, after Lane Kiffin built a good program, then bolting on his team before the playoff, to go to SEC rival and make more money.
By the way, the two wins by Ole Miss in the playoffs have earned Kiffin another $500,000 in bonus money, which LSU is paying him.
— Here is Kiffin’s career timeline:
1994-96- was a backup QB at Fresno State.
1997-98- student assistant coach at Fresno State (his father wouldn’t let him quit playing, unless he became a student assistant coach).
1999- grad assistant at Colorado State
2000- defensive quality control coach, Jacksonville Jaguars
2001- tight ends coach, USC
2002-03- wide receivers coach, USC
2004- pass game coordinator, USC
2005-06- offensive coordinator, USC
2007-08- head coach, Oakland Raiders
2009- head coach, Tennessee Vols
2010-13- head coach, USC
2014-16- offensive coordinator, Alabama
2017-19- head coach, Florida Atlantic
2020-25- head coach, Ole Miss
Going to be very interesting to see how he does with LSU.
— Wake Forest 43, Mississippi State 29
Down 3-0 in first quarter, Wake ran kickoff back 100 yards for a TD.
Deacons scored on TD passes of 64-62 yards.
Wake Forest won four in row, seven of last eight games.
Miss State lost eight of its last nine games, after a 4-0 start.
— SMU 24, Arizona 19
Mustangs led 24-0 at halftime.
SMU survived three turnovers (minus-2), being outgained 441-392.
SMU won seven of its last nine games.
— Navy 35, Cincinnati 13
Navy ran the ball 51 times for 241 yards.
Navy won five of last six bowl games.
Cincinnati lost its last five games overall, giving up 37.8 ppg
— Texas State 41, Rice 10
Bobcats QB Jackson threw for 173 yards, 3 TDs, also ran for a TD.
Texas State’s lead was only 10-7 at halftime.
Bobcats outgained Rice, 436-195.
— Famous birthdays, January 3rd:
Victoria Principal, 76
Mel Gibson, 70
Jim Everett, 63
AJ Burnett, 48
David Tyree, 45
Eli Manning, 44
Doug McDermott, 33
Dallas Goedert, 30
— College conferences’ bowl records SU/ATS:
AAC- 5-4/4-5
ACC- 8-4/6-6
Big X- 5-3/5-3
Big 18- 9-4/8-5
Conference USA- 4-3/4-3
MAC- 2-3/3-2
Mountain West- 2-5/3-4
SEC- 4-9/4-9
Sun Belt 4-6/5-5
— The four head coaches whose teams are all alive in the college football playoff? At one time or another, they were all an assistant coach under Nick Saban.
— Tennessee Vols’ punter Jackson Ross is a 26-year old Australian who used to play tennis, and then got paid to play Australian Rules Football.
— Friday, 3,753 college/minor league football players entered the transfer portal, roughly 27 players for every I-A team in the country.
— Last two years, Cincinnati Bengals have lost six games when they scored 34+ points; in the history of the NFL, only two other teams have ever lost three games like that in the same year- 1985 Chargers, 2002 Chiefs.
— Biggest upset in bowl game history? Back in 1998, Idaho (+17) upset Southern Mississippi 42-38 in the Humanitarian Bowl.
— Gonzaga 80, Seattle 72 OT
Seattle led by 13 with 12:30 left in the game.
Redhawks are 12-4, but 1-2 in their first year in the WCC.
Gonzaga is 15-1; their only loss was against Michigan, by 40.
This is Gonzaga’s last year in the WCC; they’ll be in the Pac-12 next year.
— Nebraska 58, Michigan State 56
Cornhuskers are 14-0 for the first time ever, vs schedule #140.
Nebraska shot 13-37 on the arc, only 5-20 inside the arc.
Spartans shot 34% from the floor.
— Washington State 78, LMU 76
Lions led by 14 midway thru the first half.
Wazzu shot 56.2% inside the arc, 10-23 outside the arc.
— Manhattan 80, Quinnipiac 79
Jaspers trailed by 18 with 16:37 left in the game.
Manhattan is in bottom 5 in country on the defensive boards.
Both teams are 3-1 in the MAAC.
