Executive Game: The "Nothing Ever Happens In Nebraska" Edition

"Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly well." -- Alex de Large (Malcolm McDowell), A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Before I forget, great post here that calls Joe Torre's move his Johnny Sack moment. I just finished watching the press conference, and at the end everybody stood and applauded. People wanted to hug him and say good-bye. And these are SPORTS WRITERS. I'll never forget the moment when somebody asked him about going down to go clean out his office. Torre said he'd never go down there again, and he had an assistant that would go get everything for him. I swear I had a tear in my eye. I hate the Yankees with everything I'm built of. Hate everything about him. But goddamn I like Joe Torre. And what a great exit. He didn't get the axe; he pulled a Johnny Sack. Although I personally prefer Joe pulled a Tony Soprano, when Johnny demanded to know where Tony B was. After watching John smoke confidently on his cigarette, Tony walked over to Johnny, and in one of the series best moments, said, "You know what John? Go fuck yourself." Bravo Torre.

Couple other things of note (non-Husker related for once) that are intriguing:

• Both Nick Lachey and Kevin Costner were at the Chiefs game last week, where the Chiefs just so happened to play their best game of the season. I still can't figure out what Lachey was doing there (got to meet him, talk about ordinary), but it turns out Costner has his own rock band, and they played at Harrah's the night before.
• Now the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are making a major uniform change, and who's going to be there to model them off? I'll give you a clue. It's not Nick Lachey, but the other "celebrity" who was at last week's Chiefs win.
• It's now official: betting on college football is like betting the NFL, which means you never know anything. The National Champion could wind up with TWO losses this year the way things are going.

OK, now the Corn shit. I had lunch with a former Husker player (who asked to remain anonymous) yesterday. He said that Osborne had been at EVERY practice since Tuesday, and Billy C has been, shall we say, a bit more behaved at practices. The other big news. Osborne has already been in touch with Bo Pellini, and according to said player, Pellini wants the head coaching job, period. One more thing. Osborne evidently has made no secret of how easy it is to shut down the West Coast Offense, especially in college. And remember, TO was and is an OFFENSIVE guy. He leaves the defense to others. So if he thinks he can stop the WCO, well, let's just hope Billy C has that resume all polished up. This site gave you how it was all going to go down this week. Just watch things unfold come, oh December. On to the games:

1. Nebraska (-1.5) over Texas A & M. I had this game as a loss a few weeks ago. Steve Pederson still ran the ship a few weeks ago. If there's one game Billy C HAS to win, this is it. I don't think even Callahan and Cosgrove can shit the bed two weeks in a row at home. Actually, if there were two people I'd bet the house on who COULD, it be those two clowns. However, let's also remember that this Bill Byrne coming back to Lincoln (gee, wonder if he and TO will get together for tea???), and A&M believe it or not has a bigger coaching fiasco on their hands than the Corn. Callahan's gonna get the rest of the season, and for him, it's in his best interest to not let the season end like it did his last year in Oakland. Plus the whole TO thing is going to have Memorial Stadium energized like it's 1997. So pretty please, with sugar on top, take the fucking Corn.
2. Ball State (-1.5) over Western Michigan. Ball State started this whole mess be throwing up 40 points in Lincoln and STILL lost. We could have been rid of Pederson way back then. Now they owe us this.
3. Notre Dame (+18) over USC. Something happened to the Trojans since that Nebraska game. It could have been TO telling Pete Carroll, "By the way, I know how to stop that offense, and I'm friends with Jim Harbaugh." The Irish are a mess, but are they an 18 point mess at home against a Trojan team that isn't the dominant force we all thought they were? And now, that breeze they had in Lincoln isn't all that impressive. My own opinion is that Quarterbacks don't have three names, famous murderers do. In other words, John Wilkes Booth David Booty just isn't Matt Leinart.
4. Florida (-7) over Kentucky. I cannot believe, even with them being undefeated, that KENTUCKY is a 7 point favorite over the Gators. That Gator team isn't far removed from the one that destroyed Ohio State in January. The clock has been striking midnight on all of these Cinderella undefeateds (South Florida, the white courtesy phone please). The slipper won't fit when Urban Meyer gets through with Kentucky. Although I'm sure he's going to have somebody try to spot Ashley Judd at the game, even though she probably won't be there because she likes basketball more than football.
5. Michigan State (+19) over Ohio State. Ohio State isn't the number 1 team in America. They just aren't. They have a coach that a school like, oh NEBRASKA, would love to have. Asking them to go three touchdowns over Michigan State is too much to ask for this week. We'll say Ohio State gets buy, but maybe by 14 instead of 19.
6. Kansas (-4) over Colorado. Finally, an undefeated team that's the real deal. That's right, KANSAS. The real Mangenious is doing for KU what Bill Snyder did for Kansas State. Kansas is that good. Even though he's sometimes mistaken for this guy, Mangenious still gets another dance at the ball. At least for this week.

Not a bet, but since I actually gave some Yankee love earlier, I have but one with. That Schilling is the playoff Schilling, the bloody sock Curt Schilling. I want to see a line of something like 8 innings pitched, 5 hits, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts, no runs. That's all. Then we get a game 7. That's not too much for a Yankee hater to ask for, is it?

Last week: 8-2
Season: 26-16 (In other words, you people can make money from reading this site. So get on it.)