What a weekend! Started off with a double-header of basektball action from Prather Colesium in Natchitoches as Northwestern St. was hosting Nicholls in Southland Conference play. Did you know that Prather Colesium was the last place Jim Croce played? He died in a plane crash leaving after a concert there on September 20th, 1973. That is not relevant to the games but it does make Prather a landmark of musical history as far as I am concerned.

As for the game...saw the best Southland Conference basketball game yet on the Network with a 99-98 double-time victory for the Demons over the Colonels. Anatoly Bose scored 46 for the Colonels but the Demons hit some clutch shots down the stretch and just out fought the Colonels for their first conference win of the season and snapped a six game losing streak. We will be in San Marcos next Saturday as an interesting Texas State club plays host to UTA and the SLC's leading scorer Marquez Haynes.

Obviously the biggest game in Louisiana this weekend was not in Natchitoches but rather in New Orleans on Sunday. What a game. Saints beat the Vikings 31-28 in overtime. Every coach in the world says football games come down to two things, turnovers and penalties, Minnesota had way too many of both. Two Texans Austin Westlake's Drew Brees and Southlake Carroll alum Garrett Hartley send the Saints to their first Super Bowl. Hartley seals it with a 40 yard boot in ot...couple of things, good for Hartley, the young man was suspended at the beginning of the year but has done all the right things since to earn his job back and live up to his massive potential...secondly, pretty sure Joe Buck does not know much about Southlake Carroll football because he would not have gone on and on about Hartley's lack of experience if he did. Playing at Carroll you get used to the pressure, the games don't get bigger, only the crowd.

New Orleans needed this...the State of Louisiana needed it...It was wonderful to see the scene on Bourbon street after the game even if I personally would have stayed a million miles away from it. Guess I am getting old.

Be True to your School

Signing Day is less than a month away and at least three prominent college football programs are in major shake-up mode. Pete Carroll leaves USC, Lane Kiffin leaves Tennessee to take over the Trojans, and Tommy Tuberville is trying to stabilize the situation in Lubbock while Mike Leach brings litigation against Texas Tech. There is a lesson to be learned here, and it is not a lesson for you or for me, unless you are a high school football star being recruited by an FBS University.

The lesson is this, college football coaches, no matter how much integity they may appear to have, are liars. By nature they must be, they may not like it, or even be very good at it, but make no mistake, they do it, each and every one of them.

Pete Carroll was telling USC recruits a month ago about the Trojan tradition, sitting in some stud linebackers living room telling his parents that they could trust him with their baby boy for four years...and then Hello Seattle! Kiffin, who was not exactly a Supreme Court Justice before showing up in Knoxville, now has blazed a trail of betrayal on his way back to the west coast, causing near riots on the Tennessee campus. In Texas a four-star quarterback from Denton, Scotty Young, wonders what his future holds now that none of the coaches who recruited him to Texas Tech are staying on.

If you are among the few who are gifted enough to trade your football talents for a four year education at a major university, let me offer this little bit of advice...choose a University for the school itself, the campus, the curriculum, the ability to expand your mind and your prospects as a future pro, be it in football or some other occupation. Do not marry yourself to a coach because coaches will leave, it is what coaches do. You must ask yourself, will I be happy here four years from now no matter who is coaching the football team? If you can say yes to that question, then you will have found your school. Be true to it.

Good Season Frogs!

I was driving through the beautiful TCU campus today and reflecting on last nights Fiesta Bowl. Proud of the Horned Frogs program, realizing that this little campus in south Fort Worth is still home to one of the top ten football teams in the country despite the loss to Boise State. In my mind the Broncos victory over the Frogs can be attributed to one significant factor: experience.

TCU was playing in their first BCS game and they played like it, especially through the first half. Boise State, having tasted BCS success two years ago in their unforgettable victory over Oklahoma, learned lessons and gained a swagger that was evident on the field on Monday night. The fake punt in the fourth quarter was vintage Boise State but the game was won on the balance that the Broncos showed during the course of the game. Kellen Moore and Titus Young are studs, the defense completely vanquished a high octane TCU offense and of course there was the special play by the special teams that led to the go ahead touchdown. The Broncos have earned the right to start next year ranked in the top 5 in the country and probably will.

As for TCU, Gary Patterson has the Frogs going in the right direction, they should start the year ranked in the Top 15 and with the number of returning starters and talented redshirts coming back, they should have a chance to get back to a BCS bowl.

Now I can't wait to see what the BCS Championship game holds on Thursday. Two quarterbacks I had the chance to see in high school going head to head for a National Championship, pretty cool stuff. More coming on the Horns and Alabama tomorrow.

Doug