A blog a day

Week 7 Personal Fantasy Football roundup

Written by Bob McCormick on 10/24/2006 10:56:00 PM

This week, my "money" team (the Local Yokels), after essentially a Bye week, took on th Tomahawks. Here's the results ... Tomahawks get scalped! We're 5-2!

Points Pos Player Opp Status Projected Actual
QB E. Manning (NYG - QB) @Dal W, 36-22 16.68 15.55
RB T. Bell (Den - RB) @Cle W, 17-7 12.18 18.60
W/T M. Harrison (Ind - WR) Was W, 36-22 11.10 19.30
W/T E. Parker (SD - WR) @KC L, 30-27 5.48 3.90
W/R T. Glenn (Dal - WR) NYG L, 36-22 10.01 4.10
K L. Tynes (KC - K) SD W, 30-27 8.96 7.00
DEF Denver (Den - DEF) @Cle W, 17-7 10.44 14.00
Total 74.85 82.45

Points Pos Player Opp Status Projected Actual

QB P. Rivers (SD - QB) @KC L, 30-27 16.88 17.50
RB R. Johnson (Cin - RB) Car W, 17-14 11.98 10.50
W/T S. Smith (Car - WR) @Cin L, 17-14 12.92 12.60
W/T P. Burress (NYG - WR) @Dal W, 36-22 8.45 15.40
W/R W. Parker (Pit - RB) @Atl L, 41-38 11.26 2.70
K J. Scobee (Jac - K) @Hou L, 27-7 7.70 1.00
DEF Atlanta (Atl - DEF) Pit W, 41-38 10.68 6.00
Total 79.87 65.70


Non-money league (ESPN) Dork results ...How I won with 3 guys on Bye week is beyond my comprehension. Apparently Aqua Tears needs more help than I do!

THE DORKS SLOT STARTERS OPP STATUS PTS
QB Peyton Manning, Ind QB Was 36-22 F 26
RB Clinton Portis, Was RB Q @Ind 22-36 F 5
RB Corey Dillon, NE RB @Buf 28-6 F 16
WR Donald Driver, GB WR P @Mia 34-24 F 10
WR Josh Reed, Buf WR NE 6-28 F 1
WR/TE Antonio Bryant, SF WR P ** BYE ** --
D/ST Redskins D/ST, Was D/ST @Ind 22-36 F 2
K Shayne Graham, Cin K Car 17-14 F 5
TOTAL POINTS: 65


TEAM HARRIS
SLOT STARTERS OPP STATUS PTS
QB Carson Palmer, Cin QB Car 17-14 F 12
RB Dominic Rhodes, Ind RB Q Was 36-22 F 2
RB Mike Anderson, Bal RB P ** BYE ** --
WR Marvin Harrison, Ind WR Was 36-22 F 15
WR Ernest Wilford, Jac WR @Hou 7-27 F -1
WR/TE Joe Horn, NO WR ** BYE ** --
D/ST Falcons D/ST, Atl D/ST Pit 41-38 F 10
K David Akers, Phi K @TB 21-23 F 3
HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE: 1
TOTAL POINTS: 42

C-USA Football roundup: Week 8

Written by Bob McCormick on 10/23/2006 10:58:00 PM

Tulane 13, #8 Auburn 38
Ouch. Tulane was overmatched in this contest.

East Carolina 38, Southern Methodist 21
ECU is sneaking up on people - ask SMU.

Rice 40, UCF 29
Rice is sneaking up on people also, although defending East Divsion champ UCF is nowhere near last year's form.

Marshall 31, UAB 24
A battle between two evenly matched (albeit poor) teams.

Houston 34, UTEP 17
The McCormick family had a previous engagement at our church's Oktoberfest, which didn't allow us to go to this one. It is the first UH home game I missed, and I regretted it as I suspected I would. UTEP is not up to last year's form, and they were not playing this in El Paso this time. The combination favored the Coogs, although they apparently struggled in the first half with play reminiscent of their previous 3 loss streak.

Virginia Tech 36, Southern Miss 6
Ouch #2. I expected a closer game than this from Southern Miss, but I guess playing this on the road was the difference.

Tulsa 35, Memphis 14
Two teams headed in opposite directions. Tulsa looks to be in good form for at least a bowl game while Memphis still misses DeAngelo Williams. Results are as expected.

Week 6 Personal Fantasy Football roundup

Written by Bob McCormick on 10/16/2006 10:59:00 PM

This week, my "money" team (the Local Yokels), who are now officially so banged up they are being sponsored by Ace Bandage Co., took on Naked Boot Leg. Here's the results ... I shoulda just had everyone on Bye week!

Points Pos Player Opp Status Projected Actual
QB E. Manning (NYG - QB) @Atl W, 27-14 11.71 13.00
RB T. Bell (Den - RB) Oak W, 13-3 14.74 15.40
W/T A. Toomer (NYG - WR) @Atl W, 27-14 6.17 1.80
W/T A. Crumpler (Atl - TE) NYG L, 27-14 6.83 6.60
W/R T. Glenn (Dal - WR) Hou W, 34-6 10.67 4.70
K L. Tynes (KC - K) @Pit L, 45-7 9.91 1.00
DEF Denver (Den - DEF) Oak W, 13-3 11.05 14.00
Total 71.08 56.50

Points Pos Player Opp Status Projected Actual
QB C. Palmer (Cin - QB) @TB L, 14-13 15.37 17.15
RB C. Portis (Was - RB) Ten L, 25-22 17.15 19.50
W/T C. Johnson (Cin - WR) P @TB L, 14-13 8.92 9.90
W/T L. Evans (Buf - WR) @Det L, 20-17 9.28 8.20
W/R J. Jones (Dal - RB) Hou W, 34-6 14.72 10.60
K J. Wilkins (StL - K) Sea L, 30-28 11.33 4.00
DEF Buffalo (Buf - DEF) @Det L, 20-17 7.40 8.00
Total 84.17 77.35

Non-money league (ESPN) Dork results ...How I won with 3 guys on Bye week is beyond my comprehension. Apparently Aqua Tears needs more help than I do!

THE DORKS
SLOT STARTERS OPP STATUS PTS
QB Peyton Manning, Ind QB ** BYE **--
RB Clinton Portis, Was RB Ten 22-25 F 17
RB Corey Dillon, NE RB ** BYE ** --
WR Donald Driver, GB WR P ** BYE ** --
WR Josh Reed, Buf WR @Det 17-20 F 1
WR/TE Antonio Bryant, SF WR P SD 19-48 F 3
D/ST Redskins D/ST, Was D/ST Ten 22-25 F 6
K Shayne Graham, Cin K @TB 13-14 F 8
HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE: 1
TOTAL POINTS: 36

AQUA TEARS
SLOT STARTERS OPP STATUS PTS
QB Brett Favre, GB QB ** BYE ** --
RB Edgerrin James, Ari RB Chi 23-24 F 3
RB Thomas Jones, Chi RB @Ari 24-23 F 4
WR Randy Moss, Oak WR @Den 3-13 F 4
WR Santana Moss, Was WR Ten 22-25 F 7
WR/TE Anquan Boldin, Ari WR Chi 23-24 F 12
D/ST Jaguars D/ST, Jac D/ST ** BYE ** --
K Jeff Wilkins, StL K Sea 28-30 F 4
TOTAL POINTS: 34

C-USA Football roundup: Week 7

Written by Bob McCormick on 10/16/2006 10:14:00 PM

Pittsburgh 52, UCF 7
Ouch. UCF did not represent C-USA well against Big East competition. Of course, Pitt had won 4 going into the game.

Arkansas State 26, Memphis 23
Ouch #2. As I said before, Memphis has fallen a long way since the days of DeAngelo Williams (OK, those days were just last year, but you get the point). They fell to a Sun Belt team! Of course, I won't rub it in too far - I saw the Coogs blow it to ULL ...

Marshall 21, Southern Methodist 31
You can never tell about SMU. Ask Marshall.

UAB 33, Rice 34
Being a Houston "homer", I always root for Rice ('cept when they play UH). Glad to see them pull this one out.

Tulsa 31, East Carolina 10
The Golden Hurricane juggernaut rolls on. ECU was not up to the task.

Southern Miss 31, Houston 27
I had always suspected UH would lose this one - Southern Miss is tough at home. The score was not quite as close as it looks (Houston's last score was just beforethe final gun - the refs did not let them play for the last point as it would not have affected the outcome). Still, it's tough, as there are now 3 losses in a row. However, losing to Miami and Southern Miss - in their stadiums - is nothing to be ashamed of. Losing to ULL at home is another matter.

UTEP 34, Tulane 20
Ho hum. I don't think UTEP is as good as they were last year. We'll see next week when they take on UH.

October 7, 2006 - Can I have a "do over"?

Written by Bob McCormick on 10/13/2006 10:07:00 PM

For me, October 7 was a perfect example of when a plan goes bad.

My day started off with a series of home viewings for my parents - they are moving from the west side of Houston to the Clear Lake side where I live. They have an offer on their house and are anxious to find a new house over here. However, they were scheduled to attend a wedding of one of my cousins in Chicago, so they enlisted our aid (my wife and I) in taking a look at some houses over the weekend. So, armed with internet listings of various features of about a half dozen townhomes and houses, off we went with the real estate agents.

Disappointment #1: the houses

Without going into detail, I need to ask: when people are trying to sell their house, what are they thinking? I realize the real estate market is becoming more of a buyers market ... which is why it makes sense for someone who is trying to sell their house to be ready at any time. This would mean cleaning up the house - it's not about you, it's about your house and the fact that you want to sell it. Examples: One homeowner answered our request to view the house in their bathing suit. Most of the houses we saw had various features that just wouldn't work for my 70's-ish parents - unnatural step ups and step downs, too much foliage in the back yards, one which obviously had a smoker in it and would need a through fumigating. I realize that not every house is built for someone in their 70's, but sheesh!

(Anyways, we spent about 4 hours spinning our wheels on the houses we saw. Oddly enough, as we were looking at one townhouse, a lady came out of the adjacent townhouse and told us that she might be selling hers. As we went on to look at the other houses, she apparently got in touch with our real estate agent's office and put hers on the market. So, we went back and briefly looked at her townhouse - it was in good condition! So I told my parents, who looked at it last week, gave her an offer, and are now in the process of closing. This, all for a townhouse that wasn't even in the market last week. Just goes to show you what can happen if you are ready and have the right product at the right time!)

Disappointment #2 - older son

So we start to get ready to go to the UH football game. I had bought a "mini-series" of tickets for the 4 of us - 3 games. We had already seen the first two (vs. Grambling and vs. Oklahoma State), and both times, the good guys won. In both instances, my older son had given us a bit of grief before the game, telling us he did not want to go - only to have a good time at the game. But today, he ABSOLUTELY did not want to go ... he "had" to do homework.

While I'm certainly sympathetic to making sure the kids do their homework, I really thought this was just an excuse. But as a result of the last minute begging and pleading and cajoling session I had with him, we started to get late to make it to the game on time. My wife (bless her), made the sacrifice of staying home, as we did not trust him to do his work on his own. She realized that my younger son and I were more tuned into the game, so she told us we should go. So after we quickly grabbed our stadium folding seats and gobbled our festive, healthy McMeals on the road :*/, off we went to UH.

Disappointment #3 - the game

So we get to the outer parking, pay $5 to the 5 Star security rental people, and pull into our slot. But since we had only made it there 10 minutes before kickoff, I made sure to hurry up to get to the Stadium (about a 10 minute walk) - and in the process, forgot the stadium folding chairs. We get to our seats, and watch the game - which UH developed a 21-0 lead to Louisiana-Lafayette, only to fold in the 4th quarter and lose, 31-28.


Can I have a "do over"?

C-USA Football roundup: Week 6

Written by Bob McCormick on 10/12/2006 11:17:00 PM

Southern Miss 6, Tulsa 20

Tulsa gets almost double Southern Miss's yardage, and roughs up USM in Tulsa.

Central Florida 23, Marshall 22

UCF gets a late field goal and barely escapes with a win against a beaten-up Marshall team.

Rice 24, Tulane 38

Rice finally has its starting QB, but Tulane plays inspired ball as they start playing in the Superdome again

Virginia 21, East Carolina 31

East Carolina jumps out early and takes out a weak ACC team.

Memphis 29, UAB 35

It's official - the loss of DeAngelo Williams has taken the heart out of Memphis. Tigers fans are wondering when basketball season starts.

Louisiana-Lafayette 31, Houston 28

Ouch. My personal story behind this game gets its own blog listing.

SMU 21, UTEP 24

SMU hangs tough with UTEP before falling to a late UTEP rally (not sure if this says more about SMU or UTEP).

alt.space - background

Written by Bob McCormick on 10/10/2006 10:49:00 PM

This is the first of a series of blog entries I will be devoting to a general topic called "alt.space". In this series, I hope to touch on the history of alt.space, who is involved, and what they are doing. I'll also be interjecting my thoughts/opinions into where I think things are headed. (Hey - it's my blog, so it's my rules!)

For those of you who don't know, "alt.space", as defined in wikipedia, is "...a community of relatively new aerospace companies working to develop low cost access to space or spaceflight technologies, and low cost spaceflight technical and policy advocates". This is the first of (hopefully) a series of alt.space blog entries, where I'll attempt to share what I know (which may not take long!).

The alt.space community is a relatively small, but perhaps the most important, aerospace community in the United States. These companies are collectively and individually working in areas that could potentially significantly lower the cost of launching payload weight to orbit. Current costs for payload weight to orbit vary by the payload and by the vehicle it's flown on. However, a good estimate for payload weight cost to orbit is approximately $10,000/lb - which is more than what a pound of gold costs. Historically, excluding commercial telecommunications companies, only government agencies (e.g., NASA an Dept. of Defense in the US) have been able to justify the cost.

Most alt.space companies are working on projects that decrease payload weight to orbit costs by an order of magnitude (that is, down to approximately $1000/lb). At these costs, it is envisioned that many more customers will be attracted to launch payloads to orbit. This method was useful in development and promotion of the Ansari X-Prize. The X-Prize was to be given to the first company which could develop a vehicle which could deliver a standard payload (with pilot) to orbit, and perform the same feat within two weeks, without removal of a significant portion of the vehicle. Burt Rutan and Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft) formed Mojave Aerospace Ventures and won the $10 million prize on October 4, 2004. They are currently forming a joint venture with Sir Richard Branson, forming a new company called Virgin Galactic. The State of New Mexico has pledged approximately $200 million to develop an area between Las Cruces and White Sands as a Spaceport that Virgin Galactic can use to develop a suborbital tourism industry, with regular suborbital flights into space. Their efforts will be regulated (under special regulations) with the FAA.

I personally think that alt.space community holds quite a bit of economic potential. I'll be blogging more about where I think alt.space is, and where it's headed - so stay tuned!

Week 5 Personal Fantasy Football roundup

Written by Bob McCormick on 10/10/2006 10:12:00 PM

This week, my "money" team (the Local Yokels), who are now officially so banged up they are being sponsored by Ace Bandage Co., took on the turtles. Here's the results ... turtle soup!

Pos Player Opp Status Projected Actual
QB E. Manning (NYG - QB) Was W, 19-3 16.93 17.40
RB T. Bell (Den - RB) Bal W, 13-3 11.39 7.90
W/T M. Harrison (Ind - WR) Ten W, 14-13 12.12 8.90
W/T B. Edwards (Cle - WR) @Car L, 20-12 7.03 2.70
W/R T. Glenn (Dal - WR) @Phi L, 38-24 8.38 6.10
K L. Tynes (KC - K) @Ari W, 23-20 8.77 13.00
DEF Indianapolis (Ind - DEF) Ten W, 14-13 9.75 7.00
Total 74.37 63.00

The turtles

QB P. Manning (Ind - QB) Ten W, 14-13 25.98 15.10
RB T. Jones (Chi - RB) Buf W, 40-7 12.20 12.20
W/T D. Mason (Bal - WR) @Den L, 13-3 7.20 4.50
W/T J. Shockey (NYG - TE) Was W, 19-3 6.65 1.30
W/R L. Betts (Was - RB) @NYG L, 19-3 2.43 1.70
K A. Vinatieri (Ind - K) Ten W, 14-13 8.08 0.00
DEF Baltimore (Bal - DEF) @Den L, 13-3 9.99 9.00
Total 72.53 43.80


Non-money league (ESPN)

Dork results ...The Dorks are now not even worthy of being called the Dorks. It's so bad, we're calling them the Anemic Dorks now. Good thing there's no money in this league!

THE TEAM-FORMERLY-KNOWN-AS-THE-DORKS-NOW-KNOWN-AS-THE-ANEMIC-DORKS

SLOT STARTERS OPP STATUS PTS
QB Peyton Manning, Ind QB Ten 14-13 F 9
RB Clinton Portis, Was RB @NYG 3-19 F 7
RB Corey Dillon, NE RB Mia 20-10 F 4
WR Donald Driver, GB WR StL 20-23 F 1
WR Josh Reed, Buf WR @Chi 7-40 F 0
WR/TE Antonio Bryant, SF WR Oak 34-20 F 1
D/ST Redskins D/ST, Was D/ST @NYG 3-19 F 2
K Shayne Graham, Cin K ** BYE **
TOTAL POINTS: 24
TENNESSEE MUDDCHICKENS
SLOT STARTERS OPP STATUS PTS
QB Marc Bulger, StL QB @GB 23-20 F 13
RB Deuce McAllister, NO RB TB 24-21 F 18
RB Ahman Green*, GB RB StL 20-23 F 0
WR Terrell Owens, Dal WR @Phi 24-38 F 2
WR Larry Fitzgerald*, Ari WR KC 20-23 F 6
WR/TE Reggie Wayne, Ind WR Ten 14-13 F 7
D/ST Panthers D/ST, Car D/ST Cle 20-12 F 21
K Josh Brown, Sea K ** BYE **
HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE: 1
TOTAL POINTS: 68

My first podcast!

Written by Bob McCormick on 10/06/2006 06:50:00 AM

How exciting!
Gabcast! For "A blog a day" #1

This is cool technology!

...but also, a solution looking for a problem ...

Upon further review - this is a better way to accomplish the same thing. The old way required a script that was bringing my PC to its knees.

(Note to self: tell gabcast that theire method for having folks link to thier podcasts ain't making it ...)

White and Nerdy

Written by Bob McCormick on 10/02/2006 11:36:00 PM

Must be seen to be believed. I don't have cable, and I think this has been on there some time, so I guess I'm behind the times ... again ...(sigh)

Folks at work were reminded of each other when they saw it.

Thanks for sharing, Ms. Minimiles!

Last week's funniest ISS console ops story: "Sucky Pants"

Written by Bob McCormick on 10/02/2006 11:00:00 PM

Well,

I managed to survive another week of ISS console ops. As I said in an earlier post, I had to work the "graveyard" shift. The major thing that occurred last week was the overlap of the next Expedition crew. Expedition 14 - Michael Lopez-Alegria and Mikhail Tyurin), and their visiting crewmember, Anousheh Ansari, arrived with the Soyuz launch and docking during the previous week. The previous Expedition crew (Expedition 13 - Pavel Vinogradov and Jeffrey Williams), along Anousheh Ansari, took the existing Soyuz back down to Earth this past Friday. Thomas Reiter, who came up on STS-121 and was with the Expediton 13 crew, will stay with the Expedition 14 crew but will return to Earth before them, and be replaced by Sunita Williams (no relation to Jeffrey Williams) on a later Shuttle flight.

The funniest thing happened before my Wednesday shift. As FCT shifts hand over from one shift to the next, each Flight Controller develops log entries during their shift and note the significant work and operations that the next shift will have to execute. As a part of that process, I asked my counterpart what were the significant events that were to occur on orbit during my shift.

As it so happened, some of the Expedition 13 crew were undergoing something called a "Lower Body Negative Pressure" protocol, for a period of time. It looks something like the picture here. The idea is for the crewmember to jump into a kind of "bag" which has some of its air pressure taken out, relative to what the upper body is experiencing. This helps draw blood down to the lower part of the body, which helps crewmembers on long-duration zero g flights, as their circulatory system hasn't had a gravitational pull on it, and helps their acclimation to the regular gravitational pull on their circulatory system when they arrive back on Earth.

Anyways, the LBNP has a legitimate technical need. Nevertheless, as I reviewed the activities on the plan, I mentally shortened the LBNP activity to "Sucky Pants".

Problem is, I said that with my outer voice.

The Ops Planner I took the handover from thought it was the. funniest. thing. ever. And come to think of it, she was right! She shared what I said with our back room support (on a private voice loop), who agreed.

After our quick individual handover, the oncoming FCT shift normally spends a quick session on one of the FCT loops reviewing, Flight Controller by Flight Controller, the significant events and items the FCT needed to do for the shift. While I was doing my part, the offgoing Ops Planner and the backroom were triple-dog daring me to call the activity "Sucky Pants". I was tempted, but I did not want to make a career-limiting move.

So, I thought it would be better to share it with you, my steadfast and loyal blog readers.


"Sucky Pants" ... :*)

Viewers poll: The viewers have spoken ... I think

Written by Bob McCormick on 10/02/2006 10:30:00 PM

Due to technical difficulties, last week's viewers poll blogsite has been sacked. When I last had results for the poll, it looked like an alt.space summary was the leading vote-getter. So, I'll do my best to develop a set of blog entires on what I think the current state of alt.space is over the next week - maybe more.

This weeks viewers poll picks up essentially where the last one left off. Here are my proposed topics (in no particular order) ...

1. MSM (i.e., Mainstream Media) - what bugs me about it/them

2. Houston Cougars football attendance - a diagnosis and some suggestions

3. What is planning? My philosophy

4. Something I have not thought of, but maybe you have. (If you have any, leave comments for me to this blog entry - below).

You can see the poll over on the right hand side of my blog. The polls remain open from now through the 10th of October. Again - pretend you're in Chicago and VOTE EARLY AND VOTE OFTEN!

Week 4 Personal Fantasy Football roundup

Written by Bob McCormick on 10/02/2006 06:00:00 PM

This week, my "money" team (the Local Yokels), took on the Steel Panthers. Here's the results ...

Unbelievable! The Steel Panthers are rust!

Pos Player Opp Status Projected Actual
QB B. Johnson (Min - QB) @Buf L, 17-12 11.33 15.15
RB C. Brown (Ten - RB) Dal L, 45-14 8.52 3.30
W/T M. Harrison (Ind - WR) @NYJ W, 31-28 11.68 7.90
W/T D. Stallworth (Phi - WR) Q GB W, 31-9 11.33 0.00
W/R T. Glenn (Dal - WR) @Ten W, 45-14 9.87 19.60
K L. Tynes (KC - K) SF W, 41-0 8.32 12.00
DEF Indianapolis (Ind - DEF) @NYJ W, 31-28 5.98 6.00
Total 67.03 63.95

The Steel Panthers

Pos Player Opp Status Projected Actual
QB D. Carr (Hou - QB) Mia W, 17-15 15.62 17.50
RB R. Bush (NO - RB) @Car L, 21-18 11.30 5.00
W/T R. Brown (Phi - WR) P GB W, 31-9 6.65 0.00
W/T K. Winslow (Cle - TE) Q @Oak W, 24-21 8.15 9.10
W/R Ro. Williams (Det - WR) @StL L, 41-34 7.70 13.90
K M. Stover (Bal - K) SD W, 16-13 10.22 2.00
DEF Seattle (Sea - DEF) @Chi L, 37-6 8.39 1.00
Total 68.03 48.50


Non-money league (ESPN)Pinhead results ...



The Pinheads have so badly disgraced their name (on THEIR HOME FIELD), I'm deciding to call them The Dorks. Take a good look at this logo ... it's going to be a collector's item soon.

THE TEAM-FORMERLY-KNOWN-AS-THE-PINHEADS

SLOT STARTERS OPP STATUS PTS

QB Peyton Manning, Ind QB @NYJ 31-28 F 14
RB Clinton Portis, Was RB Jac 36-30 F 18
RB Corey Dillon, NE RB @Cin 38-13 F 12
WR Donald Driver, GB WR @Phi 9-31 F 2
WR Josh Reed, Buf WR Min 17-12 F 2
WR/TE Antonio Bryant, SF WR @KC 0-41 F 1
D/ST Redskins D/ST, Was D/ST Jac 36-30 F 10
K Shayne Graham, Cin K P NE 13-38 F 9
HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE: 1
TOTAL POINTS: 69

TEAM RAINBOLT
SLOT STARTERS OPP STATUS PTS
QB Drew Bledsoe, Dal QB @Ten 45-14 F 9
RB Rudi Johnson, Cin RB NE 13-38 F 13
RB Julius Jones, Dal RB @Ten 45-14 F 18
WR Steve Smith, Car WR P NO 21-18 F 10
WR Eddie Kennison, KC WR SF 41-0 F 10
WR/TE Donte' Stallworth, Phi WR P GB 31-9 F 1
D/ST Eagles D/ST, Phi D/ST GB 31-9 F 11
K Neil Rackers, Ari K @Atl 10-32 F 4
TOTAL POINTS: 76

C-USA Football roundup: Week 5

Written by Bob McCormick on 10/02/2006 06:31:00 AM

Southern Miss 19, Central Florida 14

Southern Miss takes this one on the momentum of an interception returned for a touchdown early in the 4th quarter. Central Fla. helped by taking a long drive to the end zone - only to fumble. UCF also managed to miss a FG attempt.

Oh, and note to Central Florida fans - no trash talking from you about UH's football attendance. 23k at the Citrus Bowl, when you're the only game in town?!? Are you kidding?!? Yes, I know it rained ... so buy a poncho.

Memphis 7, Tennessee 41

Ouch. Tennessee is #15, but I was hoping for a closer game by Memphis (in Memphis). It's beginning to look like losing DeAngelo Williams to graduation leaves Memphis a lot lower than I'd thought. And where was the Memphis defense?

Rice 48, Army 14

Now that Rice is past the hardest part of their season (UCLA, Texas, and Fla. State back to back), and has their starting QB back, the rest of the country gets to see what we at UH and Rice already knew - Rice has some potential. Army (who fared well against Big 12 competition in barely losing to A&M and beating Baylor in OT - in Waco) was no match for Rice.

UAB 21, Troy 3

The injured UAB Blazers (sponsored by Ace Bandage Co.) managed to put away Troy with 9 of their starters sidelined by injury.

SMU 33, Tulane 28

This game gets wild at the end as both teams combine for 37 of their total 61 points in the fourth quarter. SMU manages to escape a last-ditch Tulane push in the Superdome (21k attendance, 70k capacity ... ugh).

UTEP 44, Mew Mexico State 38

UTEP survives this aerial attack at the Sun Bowl as New Mexico State makes a close game for these close (about 60 miles apart) rivals.

Miami 14, Houston 13

Well, the family and I did not go to this game, which is understandable, since it was 1000 miles away in Miami. Instead, we headed to a local bar/restaurant, and watched ESPN2 as the Coogs dropped this close one.

Miami did look like the more talented team that night, but they were managing to defeat themselves with sloppy play (a lot of illegal procedure penalties). That said, I think the Coogs were a bit robbed by the refs in this game, particularly that play ruled an incomplete pass that should have been ruled a fumble - the Coogs would have probably hung at least 3 more on Miami, which would have changed the outcome. Still, if you had told me preseason that we would be 4-1 at this point (with the 1 loss being by 1 point to Miami), I would have you to put down the crack pipe. Way to go, Coogs!