Things you may have missed while watching Bryant Gumbel screw up a play on the NFL Network

Baseball

• Barry Zito has kicked off his world tour.
• Broken shoulder no problem.

NFL

• I guess the Bengals beat the Ravens, but I could not watch because I hate Bryant Gumbel.

College Football

• Wait, Rutgers can still play in the Orange Bowl, help the world is ending.
• Money makes the world go around, and win football games.

College Basketball

• Good move leaving the 'Zags for the Minnesota.
• Wow its just keeping better for Hug-a-bear at KSU.
• Thanks to the new NBA draft rule, this might be the best freshman class since 1979-1980.

Soccer

• John Terry might be the British version of Rasheed Wallace
• You thought Mark Cuban was weird, the new West Ham United Chairman is just as nuts and made his money in a weird way.
• It's not Fernado Torres, but I guess it will work.
• Beckham might not be coming, but Capt. America is.

Interesting and fun Stuff

• Injuries make for a great way to waste time.

Things you may have missed, while watching Greg Oden play with a towel

College Basketball

• Bob Huggins wishes he was still out of work.
• Ernie Kent may have saved his job at Oregon.
• Can we see the North Carolina vs. Ohio State game in early April that would be nice.

College Football

• Blue Turf, Green and Orange uniforms not a good combination.
• Wow Norm Chow is on everyone list: ASU and NC State

Baseball

• In this market, Alvaro Espinoza would be worth five years and $40 million.
• J. D. Drew in Boston can you say comedy gold.

A Nutty Trend

A year ago, Gus Malzahn (pictured) and Mitch Mustain were preparing for a state championship game in Arkansas, this year they are preparing for a different type of championship game: the SEC Championship Game. During the summer, Houston Nutt made the shocking move to hire Malzahn as offensive coordinator despite him being only a successful high school coach at Springdale in Arkansas. At the time if it was unclear weather Malzahn was hired in order to make sure that Mustain, the number one ranked quarterback in the country in the class of '06, was coming to be a razorback or because he was a great offensive mind. Besides Mustain, two other players from the Springdale team that spent much of last year in the top 5 in the nation joined Nutt's calling.
Over the course of this season, Malzahn has showed the world that he is an offensive mastermind. With a team that is loaded with red shirt freshman and sophomores, he has made their offense into the one of the most exciting in the SEC. The hiring of high school coaches as college assistants is nothing new, but they are never hired as offensive and defensive coordinators. Malzahn along with other members of the Razorbacks staff have created an offense that is fun to watch and thought outside the box when it comes to using its best player Darren McFadden. The group has created the "Wildcat" formation, which allows McFadden to operate as quarterback and throw the ball when it is there.
Will the hiring of Malzahn and his success spur other coaches around the country to hire high school coaches as top-level assistants. Here are a couple of high school coaches that could find there ways to college sidelines next season:

• Todd Dodge, Southlake Carroll High School, Texas: The former University of Texas quarterback is an offensive genius, he could find is way to a sideline of a Texas based school.
• Tommy Knotts, Independence High School, Charlotte: Few teams in the country have dominated area schools like they have. Over the last couple of years, they have produced University of Florida starting quarterback Chris Leak as well as other Division I-A players. Knotts would be a good fit for Butch Davis new staff at North Carolina.
• Rush Propst, Hoover High School, Hoover, Alabama: Besides having his own MTV series, he has been a passing guru for the last couple of years. College coaches from all over the country have visited his program in order to learn his passing game. Who ever takes the Alabama join should hire him.

Carroll is the True Genius

All week all you heard how this year it was going to be different, Notre Dame was going to stop USC and stay in the game. Charlie Weis is a genius, Brady Quinn is a difference maker, and Jeff Samardzija is in the same class as Steve Smith and Dwayne Jarrett.
You know what we might be wrong, maybe the genius on the sidelines is USC Head Coach Pete Carroll. Maybe the difference maker was John David Booty, and there is no way that Samardzija is in the same class as any of the three receivers that USC puts out there.
Now on the to game Brent Musburger stinks. If you watched the game you thought it was a 3 and 1/2 hour ad for how brilliant Weis was.
At one point, Musburger called Weis the ""Lord of the Rings." Are you kidding me, its more like the "Lord of the Ring Dings.'' For all of the credit that Weis takes for being a great offensive mind, he has yet to pull out the win that means anything. He had his chance in the Fiesta Bowl last year and Ohio State closed the door, earlier in the year Michigan, and then on Saturday night it was USC.
For years football people and fans have been discrediting the job that Pete Carroll has done at USC. Everyone keeps going back to the job he did with the Jets and the Patriots as a way to talk down what he has done.

On Saturday night, Carroll showed the world what type of team, he and defensive coordinator Nick Holt are. Their defense made a guy that was supposed to be a frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy look like a Pop Warner quarterback.

Carroll took a program that was on the verge of falling apart after former Paul Hackett and has gone 55-10 with two national championship and five straight Pac-10 titles.