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Sunday Morning Quarterback

Sunday Morning Quarterback

Monday, December 19, 2005

SMQ BOWL BLITZ: TO WATCH OR NOT TO WATCH?
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New Orleans Lafayette Bowl: Just go ahead and call it the "Cajun Bowl." What's the difference?

Balleyhooed bowl season begins with a whimper tonight in Lafayette, Louisiana, unlikely launching pad for one of the holiday season's most gratuitous, slothful and corporatist traditions. SMQ sizes up this one-sided pillow fight and introduces the Watchability Rating:


Strap oneself to nearest easy chair; deny existence of outside world.



Prepare in advance with a hefty bowl of microwave popcorn, or a sizeable takeout order from a local establishment.



Tune in until it gets out of hand, or somebody actually calls for a change.



Flip away for increasingly longer periods during commercials until standby show becomes more interesting than game.



Watch while learning to tie a traditional hangman's noose.



Who: Southern Miss (6-5) vs. Arkansas State (6-5)
Where: Cajun Field, Lafayette, Louisiana. This field is almost literally across the street from SMQ's uncle and aunt's house and next to something called the Cajun Dome, and his assessment is this: Cajun Field is sunken, so when you drive by, from the road, the stands look like they couldn't hold the parents of a junior high band competition.
Watch Because: College football! Back! After two weeks! Two WHOLE weeks! You got bugs crawlin' on your skin! You need your fix and you need it bad. You don't care anymore. You'll do anything. Conference USA. Sun Belt. Lafayette. Six and five. Anything to draw every last high out of this smoked-up season, no matter how you'll feel when it's over.
Don't Watch Because: Obviously.
In addition: Sun Belt teams have lost three out of four in this bowl's dubious history, all by double digits and two by at least three scores. Arkansas State won that league at 6-5, which says all you need to know about the illegally-mascoted Indians. Mel Kiper, Jr., describes the USM defense, one that ranked 78th overall and during one stretch blew two-score leads and allowed career-best rushing performances in three consecutive games, as "fundamentally sound and disciplined," which says what you already knew about Kiper's scouting abilities.
What Else is On: You have no life. But the New Orleans Lafayette Bowl isn't your only option to fill the void eroding your inner soul.
WB, 7 p.m. CST - Gilmore Girls: Always a Godmother, Never a God
Jackson's quirky family is in town for his children's baptisms. Sookie asks Lorelai and Rory to be godmothers, and Lorelai suspects it's a ploy to get them together. Also: Lane freaks out when Brian and Zack spend all of the band's tour money.

ABC, 8 p.m. CST - Barbara Walters: Heaven. Where Is It? How Do We Get There?
120 mins. "Heaven. Where Is It? How Do We Get There?" This road map to the afterlife, as viewed by various religions, also examines contrarian views of skeptics and neutral views of scientists. "Is [heaven] an actual place, or a myth made up to give life meaning?" asks host Barbara Walters, who interviews Catholic, Protestant, Islamic and Jewish clergy (including Rabbi Jackie Mason), the Dalai Lama, Buddhist Richard Gere, and people who say they have had a near-death experience, including Elizabeth Taylor.

Lifetime, 8 p.m. CST - Miracle on the 17th Green
120 mins. Robert Urich plays a 50-year-old adman who pursues his dream of playing on golf's Senior Tour - and neglects his wife (Meredith Baxter) and family in the process - after losing his job. What he finds is his putting stroke, after his late father's clubs turn up mysteriously under the Christmas tree. Earl: Ernie Hudson. Toby: Dylan Moen. Peter McKinley: Donovan Rhodes. Father McNaughton: Matthew Walker. Megan: Chelsea Hobbs.

TBS, 9 p.m. CST - Daisy Does America: Rap
30 mins. Daisy tries to become a hip-hop star in her quest for the American dream. She learns how to rap freestyle, lands a cool new wardrobe and enters a rap battle in South Central Los Angeles.
Watchability Rating: SMQ is a diehard alumni with solid ties to one of these programs, and even he might opt for Gilmore Girls.




SMQ's Pick: Southern Miss 33, Arkansas State 16

WEDNESDAY: The GMAC Bowl (you used to know where this one was played, remember?)
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Permalink

10:49 PM

Comments:
I feel dirty just watching this game. Turnovers, late hits, knuckleballs going through the hands of both WRs and DBs. Finally! A field goal! Oh yes.

There's some good options on the NatGeo channel...
 
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And don't let the name fool ya - second guessing the phenomenal athletic feats and split-second decisions of college kids under extreme physical duress is for every day of the week.


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- MGoBlog

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e-mail Sunday Morning Quarterback at sundaymorningqb@yahoo.com

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PREVIOUSLY FROM SMQ:

2006 Preview
Anatomy of an Underdog
BlogPoll: 1-10/11-25/Roundtable
The ACC
The Big Ten
The Big XII
The Sun Belt

Running Departments
The Rap Sheet
July 29/Aug. 1/Aug. 9/Aug. 16/Aug.19/Aug. 25/Sept. 28/Oct. 4/Oct. 5/Oct. 18/Oct. 26/Nov. 2/Nov. 7/Nov. 8/Nov. 28/Dec. 2/Dec. 8/ Dec. 11/Dec. 18/Dec. 21/Feb. 6/Feb. 10/April 7/April 14/April 21/April 29/May 6/May 12/May 19/May 26/June 2/June 10/June 16/June 24/June 30/July 8/Aug. 4

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SMQ-APPROVED
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PAGES

News from the Big Guys
ESPN/ College Football News Wire
Sports Illustrated
FOX
CBS Sportsline
USA Today
Opinion: Columnists and bloggers
Around the Oval (Ohio State)
Badger Sports (Wisconsin)
The Blue-Gray Sky (Notre Dame)
Block U (Utah)
BoiFromTroy (Southern Cal)
Bruins Nation (UCLA)
Burnt Orange Nation (Texas)
The Corporate Headquarters of the San Antonio Gunslingers
Dave Sez (Virginia)
Dawg Sports (Georgia)
ESPN: Ivan Maisel/Pat Forde
Every Day Should Be Saturday (Florida)
FOX: Pete Fiutak
Golden Tornado (Georgia Tech)
Heisman Pundit
I'm a Realist (Georgia)
Journalism is for Rock Stars (Alabama)
Mark May Be Wrong
MDG CFB (Fresno State)
Mountain Lair (West Virginia)
MGOBlog (Michigan)
Orange::44 (Syracuse)
Paradigm Blog (Michigan)
Paul Westerdawg (Georgia)
Pitch Right (Navy)
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer (Alabammer)
Section Six
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SI: Stewart Mandel/John Walters
Sporting Fools (Florida State)
Straight Bangin' (Michigan)
Texas A&M and Baseball, In No Particular Order (Texas A&M)
The 614 (Ohio State)
The House That Rock Built (Notre Dame)
The Sporting Gnomes (Clemson)
Tiger Pundit (Clemson)
We Must Ignite This Couch (West Virginia)
The Wizard of Odds

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The Blog Poll

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WANNA DO SOME RESEARCH? NERD! HERE'S SOME QUICK REFERENCES:

College Football Data Warehouse
College Football Research Center
College Football News
cfbstats.com
Football Commentary
THE STANDINGS
THE POLLS

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Passing
Receiving
All-Purpose
Scoring
Tackles
Sacks
Interceptions
Tackles For Loss
Field Goals
Punting
Kickoff Returns
Punt Returns
TEAM STATISTICS
Rushing Offense
Passing Offense
Total Offense
Scoring Offense
Rushing Defense
Passing Defense
Total Defense
Scoring Defense
Turnover Margin

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Past Seasons
2005
Thursday Morning Quarterback
Sept. 29/Oct. 6/Oct. 20/Oct. 27/Nov. 3/Nov. 10/Nov. 17/Nov. 24/Dec. 1
Sunday Morning Quarterback
Oct. 2/Oct. 23/Oct. 30/Nov. 6/Nov. 13/Nov. 27
Stat Relevance Watch
Part One/Part Two/Part Three
SMQ Bowl Blitz
New Orleans/GMAC/Las Vegas/Poinsettia/Motor City

SMQ's [Hurricane-Abbreviated] 2005 Preview
Top 25 Countdown/Methodology
All-America Team
ACC
BIG EAST
BIG TEN
BIG XII