I don't feel like getting mad about the Bears looking awful on national TV, so this is my therapy.
A blog.
Anyway, a few tidbits:
- I've been hearing rampant speculation the past three days that Sam McGuffie will leave Michigan at the end of this semester and play college football elsewhere, possibly Texas A&M. My brother-in-law who still lives in Ohio mentioned it to me Friday morning out of the blue, then Scout.com's Alan Zepeda mentioned it yesterday during the Madison-La Porte football game.
A&M was the other school everyone talked about him attending, partly because it's close to his home and his family (I believe his mother went there). I've read he's having some family problems, which backs up things I heard more than a year ago.
McGuffie wouldn't be the only player to leave the sinking ship known as Michigan football. At least three others have already left following a 3-9 season, but everything I've read points to McGuffie staying. He's a young "Michigan man," for one. For two, he honored his commitment even when Rich Rodriguez came on board.
If he was going to jump ship, I think he'd have done it then.
I certainly hope he stays, if for no other reason than on principle. Once you make a commitment, the least you can do is follow through. Things will get better in Ann Arbor, though as someone who watched a lot of Big Ten football this year, it won't be quickly. (And as an Ohio State fan, I'll never shed a tear over that.)
- I'll step up and say I was wrong about Hightower (I picked Cinco Ranch to beat them, a week after picking North Shore to do the same thing). Chad Washington will be sure to remind me Monday, though. :)
- As the saying goes out west, this is Katy's regular season. Do I need to elaborate?
- College football: Texas got robbed. I don't see any way that can be argued. Why even play head-to-head with a team if the losing team going to pass you based on running up the score, which is exactly what Bob Stoops did Saturday night?

Plays of the Week poll results: Area round

Cy Ridge: Shepard answers with 68-yard TD
45%

Eisenhower: McGregor's 64-yard TD
30%

Madison: Hallett's fumble recovery for TD
10%

Lamar: Gordon evades tackles, rumbles for score
8.8%

Lufkin: Flea-flicker for touchdown
6.3%

Game of the Week poll results

An overwhelming winner, and for my money the correct choice even though you couldn't have gone wrong with most of these.

North Shore-Hightower
75.1%

Cypress Creek-Klein Oak
6.6%

Eisenhower-Cinco Ranch
5.9%

Madison-Strake Jesuit
5.5%

Cypress Ridge-Lufkin
4.7%

Other
2.2%

I have to find this guy.

Cypress Ridge social studies teacher Jeff Burnthorn has a musical tribute to the Rams football team. This is actually pretty good:

http://schools.cfisd.net/cyridge/athletics/FOOTBALL/game_over.html

Tomorrow in College Station, I'm gonna do my best to find Burnthorn and maybe have him on for an interview.

Where we'll be this weekend

Barring any unforeseen changes, this is where Athlete's Connection will be this weekend:

FRIDAY
Football
Area playoffs
Eisenhower vs. Cinco Ranch at Rhodes Stadium, 7 p.m.
Madison at Strake Jesuit, 7 p.m.
North Shore vs. Hightower at Pasadena Memorial Stadium, 7 p.m.
Cypress Woods vs. Klein Forest at Klein Memorial Stadium, 7:30

SATURDAY
Football
Area playoffs
Katy Taylor vs. Lamar at Delmar Stadium, 1 p.m.
Cypress Ridge vs. Lufkin at Kyle Field, 5 p.m.
Klein Oak vs. Cypress Creek at Berry Center, 6 p.m.
Girls basketball
Fort Bend ISD tournament, semifinals at noon and 1:30, championship at 7 p.m. [all at Wheeler Fieldhouse]

I'll be at Strake Friday night and up at Kyle Field Saturday.

Plays of the Week poll results

Me thinks we got this one right. Overwhelmingly.

Eisenhower: Loston's INT return, leap into the end zone
50.8%

Hightower: Highsmith bolts in from 62 yards
21.1%

Katy Taylor: Botched punt recovered for TD
18.8%

Katy: Jeffrey runs 60 yards almost untouched
5.5%

Cedar Park: McKnight breaks tackles for 85-yard TD
3.9%

Poll results: Which district will have the best postseason showing?

Judging from this voting, I'm guessing respondents are banking on Hightower going deep into the playoffs. Personally, I'd have said 17-5A (but I don't vote).

23-5A
23.2%

15-5A
19.5%

17-5A
16.1%

20-5A
14.1%

18-5A
14%

22-5A
13.1%

Plays of the Week poll results

Here are our poll results from Plays of the Week:

Memorial: Miller follows blockers for 21-yard TD
45.9%

Fort Bend Marshall: Thompson picks TD pass out of mid-air
21.5%

Cy Woods: Williamson's 98-yard kickoff return
17.1%

Cy Woods: Huge hits, Callahan recovers fumble for TD
15.6%

Last week's poll results

As to which volleyball team will make the deepest postseason run, your answers ...

Cypress Woods
39.5%

Stratford
23.6%

Other
15.6%

Katy
10.9%

Cy-Fair
10.5%

It's like this and like that, and uh ...

This Sunday has been anything but a day off ... in addition to laundry and other house-assorted tasks, I've been researching the bi-district playoff matchups most of this evening. I've been keeping my girlfriend company as she works late at Beck Disastery Recovery down here on the Galveston seawall, giving me plenty of time to research while listening to Sunday Night Football on the Internet.
We'll preview all the area games coming up later this week, but in gathering notes here are a few nuggets that may or may not make it into our previews:
- Cinco Ranch went 5-1 against Alief Taylor when they were district foes from 2002-07.
- Stratford and Katy are 8-8 against each other all-time. But Stratford's last win against the Tigers was 6-3 in 1988, and the losses became progressively more lopsided until the teams were split into different districts following the 1997 season. They haven't played since.
- Katy hasn't lost a bi-district game since 1993. I'm sure Gary Joseph could recount most every detail of that loss to Booker T. Washington.
- Round Rock Stony Point, which will play Langham Creek Friday night out in CenTex, went 6-44 from 2000-05. They didn't have a winning season until going 9-3 last year; this year they're 9-1 and two-time defending 16-5A champions.
I'll find more as I go along.
Updated schedules for the football and volleyball playoffs are posted on the main page. Tune in to our podcast tomorrow as Ignacio Salazar and I recap the final weekend of the regular season. Ignacio's in for Chad, who is getting a well-deserved Monday off before going at it hard the rest of the week.

Area round volleyball pairings

Some area-round pairings; more coming as we learn them.

Thursday
Katy Taylor vs. Bellaire, 5 p.m. at Don Coleman Coliseum
Cypress Woods vs. College Park, 7 p.m. at Tomball
Katy vs. Atascocita, 7 p.m. at Don Coleman Coliseum
Travis vs. Deer Park, 7 p.m. at Clear Brook

Friday
Stratford vs. Eisenhower, 6 p.m. at Campbell Center
Cy-Fair vs. The Woodlands, 6:30 at Klein Collins
Cinco Ranch vs. Kingwood, 7:30 at Campbell Center

District playoff scenarios

We're finally down to the final week of football season, so that means it's time to take a look at some playoff scenarios and the games that will affect who will go on to the postseason or those who will have an early start to offseason workouts.

District 15-5A
Things we know now: Cypress Creek (district champion) and Cypress Ridge are officially in and would both go in the Division II bracket.

Teams with a shot: Cypress Woods is 4-2 in district, while Cypress Falls, Cypress Springs and Langham Creek are all 3-3.

Games to watch: Langham Creek vs. Cy Ridge, Cy Falls vs. Cy Woods, Cypress Springs vs. Cypress Creek.

Scenarios: Cy Woods: win they are officially in. A loss would create a three-way tie.
Cy Falls: Win would create a tie, but would be eliminated in a loss.
Cy Springs: Win would create a tie, but would be eliminated in a loss.
Langham Creek: Win would create a tie, but would be eliminated in a loss.

District 17-5A
Things we know now: Katy and Cinco Ranch (both 4-0) have clinched playoff spots and will face each other for the district title. The other four teams in the district (Katy Taylor, Mayde Creek, Morton Ranch and Seven Lakes) are all 1-3.

Games to watch: Mayde Creek vs. Morton Ranch, Taylor vs. Seven Lakes, Katy vs. Cinco Ranch.

Scenarios: Mayde Creek: Win clinches playoff spot, would be eliminated with loss.
Morton Ranch: Win clinches playoff spot, would be eliminated with loss.
Seven Lakes: Win clinches playoff spot, would be eliminated with loss.
Taylor: Win clinches playoff spot, would be eliminated with loss.

District 18-5A
Things we know now: Strake Jesuit won district title, with Memorial and Stratford clinching playoff spots. Strake and Stratford will go into Division II, Memorial into Division I. Elsik and Alief Taylor will face each other for last playoff spot on Friday.

Game to watch: Elsik vs. Taylor

Scenarios: Elsik: Win clinches playoff spot, would be eliminated with loss.
Taylor: Win clinches playoff spot, would be eliminated with loss.

District 19-5A
Things we know now: Eisenhower won district title, Humble clinches playoff spot. Ike will be in Division I, Humble in Division II. Kingwood is 3-2 in district, Atascocita and Aldine are 2-3, and Nimitz is 1-4.

Games to watch: Kingwood vs. Atascocita, Nimitz vs. Humble, Aldine vs. MacArthur.

Scenarios: Kingwood: Win clinches playoff spot, loss could create three-way tie.
Atascocita: Win clinches playoff spot, would be eliminated with loss.
Aldine: Win with Kingwood win clinches playoff spot, would be eliminated with loss, but would force three-way tie with Kingwood loss.
Nimitz: Win along with Kingwood win and Aldine loss would create three-way tie.

District 20-5A
What we know now: Everything is set here, with Lamar and Westside going to Division I and Madison and Chavez going to Division II.

Division 23-5A
What we know now: Hightower (Div. I) and Travis (Div. II) have clinched playoff spots and will play for the district title, while there will be two games to decide the final two playoff spots.

Games to watch: Hightower vs. Travis, Elkins vs. Kempner, Fort Bend Austin vs. Fort Bend Marshall.

Scenarios: Elkins: Win clinches playoff spot, would be eliminated with loss.
Austin: Win clinches playoff spot, would be eliminated with loss.
Kempner: Win clinches playoff spot, would be eliminated with loss.
Marshall: Win clinches playoff spot, would be eliminated with loss.
If Kempner wins, it will go into Division I. If Marshall wins, it will go into Division II.

More districts coming later today...

Poll results

Here are the final results, which definitely have been padded in Texas Tech's favor since Saturday night! Right after the game ended, it was 35% for "Tech beat Texas" and around 29% for "Texas beat Tech." Oh well, gives me a good laugh!
***
Watching Texas Tech beat Texas
38.3%

A local high school football game
29.8%

Watching Texas beat Texas Tech
26.1%

Dinner, movies, relaxation, etc.
3.2%

Other
2.7%

An afternoon chuckle

I get FSN Southwest's Daily Wire e-mail every afternoon about this time. For Texas fans who want to try to forget Saturday night, tune in here:
Big 12 Football Classics
Texas Tech at Texas
8:00 p.m. CT
Replay of Texas' wild 43-40 comeback win over Texas Tech in 2003 engineered by backup quarterback Chance Mock's 86-yard game-winning scoring drive capped by a 9-yard TD pass to B.J. Johnson with 46 seconds left to play.

Got this moments after hearing the Craig Way call of the end of Saturday's game, then immediately hearing the Tech version. I was listening to Way and Keith Moreland as I finished my work Saturday, and to their credit they gave the moment its just due even though they must have been dying inside.

Touchdown Club's Scholar-Athlete finalists

The Touchdown Club of Houston will name its High School Football Scholar-Athlete in a luncheon at noon Nov. 12 at the JW Marriott in the Galleria. Here are the finalists:

Jonathan Baubie, Jersey Village
Ryan Bott, Cypress Springs
Jared Carameros, Memorial
Keith Cross, Nimitz
Joseph deLeon, Eisenhower
Steven McCormack, Seven Lakes
Michael Miller, Lamar
Charles Provenzano, Strake Jesuit
Wesley Ryan, Cy-Fair
Anthony Villamagna, Cypress Woods
Christopher Beto, Oak Ridge
Caleb Butler, Dickinson
Marshall Calpp, Kingwood
Brian Coffman, Clements
Sean Finney, The Woodlands
Stephen Henry, North Shore
Austin Howard, Klein Collins
Daniel Jordan, Yates
Andrew Kunkle, Deer Park
Max Pedowicz, Kempner
Jeremy Sapp, Caney Creek
Austen Smith, Fort Bend Austin
William Trumble, Bellaire
Ryan Viaclovsky, Dulles
Eoles Whitaker, Westbury