Youth vs. experience, sort of

In Mississippi's World Series of college football prognosticating, Rick Cleveland took a one-game lead over the older, more experienced Orley Hood this past week. Young Rick posted a 10-4 showing, compared to wily veteran Hood's  9-5. That gives the much-wetter-behind-the-ears Cleveland an 82-34 season record, slightly better than the grizzled Hood's 81-35.

"Everything I know about this prognosticating business I owe to Orley," Cleveland said. "He's forgotten more than I'll ever know. I can't begin to tell you how much it means to me to be a game ahead of such a knowledgeable, veteran football expert headed into the last three weeks of the season."

Rick's picks

Ole Miss at LSU: Could've, would've, should've. That's the Rebels' mantra after Vandy. LSU is a different animal. Could've? Should've? Won't. LSU, 34-24.

Arkansas at Mississippi State: Time for Mississippi State to get well and add to Razorbacks' misery, but it won't be easy. 27-20, MSU.

UTEP at USM: Go ahead, laugh. I deserve it.  USM 27, UTEP 26.

Texas Tech at Oklahoma State: Oklahoma State can score. So can Tech. Cowboys score more, 42-35.

Northwestern at Michigan State: Northwestern should have beaten Michigan and will beat Michigan State. Well, maybe. Wildcats, 26-24.

Southern California at UCLA: Whenever it's a close call, I am morally and ethically bound to pick against Lane Kiffin. UCLA, 28-24.

Central Florida at Tulsa: I am continually amazed at how Tulsa, such a small school, plays such good football. Tulsa, 31-24.

Duke at Georgia Tech: Did I mention last week how much I enjoy watching Tech's offense operate? I do. Tech 38, Duke 31.

Wake Forest at Notre Dame: Notre Dame, 35-17. Sorry, Bama.

Deuce talks about Saints, Ivory

So, I was talking to Deuce McAllister this morning and the conversation turned immediately to the Saints' 31-27 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

I told Deuce I hadn't seen anybody in a Saints uniform run like Chris Ivory did Sunday since Deuce himself.

“You are not the first to mention that,” Deuce said. “I take that as a compliment. Ivory is running angrily and violently. That one run was special. He showed speed, agility and power. You can tell he was running with a chip on his shoulder.”

Deuce was talking about Ivory's 56-yard run for the Saints's first touchdown after the Falcons had taken a 10-0 lead. Ivory made Falcon defensive backs look like toy soldiers on that run, breaking several tackles.

It was the Saints longest touchdown run since, well, since Deuce went 57 yards against the Bucs in 2006.

The victory knocked the Falcons from the unbeaten ranks and raised the Saints to 4-5 on the season. It also has rekindled some talk of the Saints somehow reaching the playoffs.

Such talk, McAlister says, is premature.

“The Saints have got to win some games, period,” he said. “Win these next two, beat Oakland at Oakland and San Francisco at home, and then they can be part of the discussion. But they've dug themselves a deep, deep hole. This isn't going to be easy.”

My take: 9-7 might get the Saints a wildcard berth. A 10-6 record would for sure, but that would require the Saints to win six of their last seven. It's possible, but not likely.

Sunday's game showed how important it is for the Saints to run the ball successfully, to take some of the load of both Drew Brees and the defense. Ivory gave them a spark and a badly needed one at that.

Darrell Royal's Mississippi connections

Darrell Royal, at Mississippi State in 1954.

Royal made his mark in the Magnolia State.

The death of the renowned football coach Darrell Royal deserves more than passing notice here in Mississippi where Royal honed his legendary coaching skills.

Actually, there are many connections between Royal and Mississippi, which we will examine here.

An Oklahoma native who starred for Bud Wilkinson at Oklahoma, Royal first came to Mississippi in 1952 as the backfield coach for Murray Warmath at Mississippi State. Those Bulldogs had a 5-4 record.

Royal left after one season to coach the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League, but returned to Starkville in 1954 as head coach of the Bulldogs. He stayed two seasons, coaching State to 6-4 records in both 1954 and 1955. He was 2-0 against Alabama, 0-2 against Ole Miss and Johnny Vaught. He was 1-1 against LSU.

His 1955 Bulldogs won six straight games and rose into the Associated Press Top 20, before a three-game losing streak ended the season. Royal left following that season to take the head coaching job at the University of Washington.

Jimmy Lee Dodd of Starkville played center and linebacker for those Royal-coached State teams.

“He was a great, great head coach,” Dodd remembers. “He was very hands on, extremely organized. The players loved him. We all thought the world of him.”

The relationships lasted for years. Says Dodd, who spent 35 years as an electrical engineering professor at State: “We would have a team reunion every two years and Coach Royal came back to those reunions on several occasions. I think the last time he came was in 2000.”

We're dead even, not brain dead

So, Cleveland and Hood both picked 11 winners and 4 losers last week and remained tied on the season with 72-30 records. The upset of the week was that Orley actually picked the Saints correctly.  You've heard of the Blind Hog  theory that even a blind hog occasionally finds  the acorn? This was the Blind Hood theory at work.

Hood picked Ole Miss over Georgia, which was almost as bad as Cleveland picking USM over UAB. Actually, both missed on USM and both have vowed to not let that happen again.

Orley's picks

Mississippi State at LSU: One could hardly go down to Baton Rouge at a more propitious time, considering Alabama ripped the Tigers’ hearts out last week. But LSU lethargy may not be enough for State, busted flat the last two weeks by Bama and A&M. LSU 24, State 17.

Vandy at Ole Miss: Joker Phillips was most certainly done before last week, but Vandy surely finished him off with a 40-0 victory in Lexington. Can the Comms go into Oxford and hammer Ole Miss, too? Nope. Bowl eligibility is at stake for Ole Miss. It won’t be easy. Rebels 30, VU 27.

USM at SMU: I’m done wishin’ and hopin’ for the Golden Eagles. They may finish oh-for-2012. SMU 35, Southern 17.

Arkansas at South Carolina: Before the season, oooh, really big game. Now? Routine. Chickens 38, Hogs 28.

Texas A&M at Alabama: Big, big, big. A&M gets better every week. Alabama comes off an emotional victory at Tiger Stadium. Danger? Absolutely. But this is the week that Johnny Football runs into big bad linebackers who can scramble his brain pan. Alabama 38, A & M 24.

Musing about Manziel, Bama & more . . .

 

Sunday morning coffee:

Don't know about you, but I wore out my remote control Saturday. And then I dreamed about college football last night, mostly about what might happen when Manziel takes his Johnny Football show to Tuscaloosa this Saturday. Listen, I'm not counting the kid out. He is the truth.

I am left with these three impressions from Saturday:

• There is no reason, none whatsoever, Texas A & M's Johnny Manziel should not be a leading candidate, if not the leading candidate, for the Heisman. The award goes to the most outstanding player in the country and it says nothing about the most outstanding upperclassman player. The kid has it all, including instincts that remind at least this writer of Joe Montana.

• The luck of the Irish has returned to South Bend, Ind. No way Notre Dame was supposed to win that game against 4-5 Pitt. The Irish are a really good team. Brian Kelly is an outstanding coach, and, yes, Notre Dame is still in the national championship hunt. BUT, the Irish aren't in the same league with Alabama — or LSU for that matter. The speed differential is obvious.

A hole-in-one for the (old) ages

Pete Buttross, on his 90th birthday.

Ted Williams, the great baseball slugger, once famously said: “By the time you know what to do, you’re too old to do it.”

Try telling that to Natchez golfer Pete Buttross, who took up golf at age 72 when his wife bought him a set of clubs upon his retirement.

One month after turning 93, Buttross made a hole-in-one, using a 5-wood to ace the difficult 132-yard seventh hole at Beau Pre Country Club. It was Buttross's third career hole-in-one, but, only his first since turning 93.

The seventh at Beau Pre is a challenging par-3 that requites a carry over a deep ravine. Buttross made his ace in tournament play on the second day of the Beau Pre Fall Four Ball.

The odds against a hole-in-one have been calculated at 3,500-to-one; however, no computer has calculated the odds on a 93-year-old accomplishing the feat. Might not be possible.

Buttross apparently is not the oldest golfer to ever make an ace. In April of 2007, a woman named Elsie McLean, 101 years young, used a driver to ace the 100-yard fourth hole at Bidwell Park Golf Couse in Chico, Cal.

It was McLean's first-ever hole-in-one — at 101 or any age.

Roll Tide or Geaux Tigers?

Surely, you, as I, will be glad when next Tuesday's election is over and all the trash-talking and cheap shots return to the football field and message boards rather than the nightly news.

But you, as I, also might be surprised to learn that Tuesday's election could well hinge on the outcome of Saturday night's Alabama-LSU game. How so?

As Paul Myerberg of USA Today reports, the Tide-Tiger outcome has foretold which party would claim the White House in every election since 1984. You could look it up. Myerberg did. And here's what he found:

Over the last seven elections, an LSU win has meant a Republican president, while an Alabama victory has meant a Democrat in the White House. You would think, considering the Crimson Tide's elephant mascot, it would be other way around. It's not.

1984: LSU 16, Alabama 14. Ronald Reagan (R) routs Walter Mondale (D).

1988: LSU 19, Alabama 18. George H.W. Bush (R) defeats Michael Dukakis (D).

1992: Alabama 31, LSU 11. Bill Clinton (D) defeats George H.W. Bush (R).

1996: Alabama 26, LSU 0. Clinton (D) defeats Bob Dole (R).

2000: LSU 30, Alabama 28. George W. Bush (R) defeats Al Gore (D).

2004: LSU 26, Alabama 10. George W. Bush (R) defeats John Kerry (D).

2008: Alabama 27, LSU 21. Barack Obama (D) defeats John McCain (R).

Should the trend hold an Alabama victory Saturday would mean an Obama reelection; an LSU win would mean a victory for Mitt Romney. Who you got?