No real surprise that Tom O’Brien is leaving Boston College. He told the BC brass that he was gone when he expected Washington to offer him their job, but the Huskies ended up hiring Ty Willingham instead. The Eagles are getting passed by inferior teams for bowl positioning for the second straight year and BC probably has less pull than any of their opponents in the conference offices on Tobacco Road. The move to the ACC has certainly not paid dividends for the Eagles football program.

The Insight Bowl in Tempe and the Texas Bowl in Houston have sold the rights to televise their contests to the NFL Network, which is not carried on most cable systems nationally. If you’re a bowl official and the stated purpose of your game is to promote the Tempe or Houston area, why would you sell the rights to televise your game to a network that so few people can watch? What does that do for tourism or business development in Tempe or Houston?

Fans of participating teams Texas Tech, Minnesota, Rutgers, and Kansas State are not pleased with the arrangement, which will put significant pressure on cable systems in those areas to pick up the NFL Network. That’s the entire strategy of the NFL Network, of course, which is demanding significant fee from cable systems to carry their programming. ESPN has been using similar strong-arm tactics, scheduling games on ESPNU for teams in cities whose cable systems don’t carry that channel.

The Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte thought they had a Maryland/Navy matchup lined up, which would be of great interest in the Middle Atlantic. But that potential matchup was nixed by Maryland, who fought hard to get into the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, even though that game is lower on the ACC bowl totem pole. Navy wanted a rematch of their tight loss to Maryland last year but Maryland wanted nothing to do with the Academy, and Maryland AD Debbie Yow has been evasive when questioned about it. "I'll be very interested in finding out why" Maryland was so interested in Orlando, Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk said. "I'm very curious what the thought process was."

Anyone notice that NFL teams that gained 124 yards (Houston Texans) and 107 yards (Chicago Bears) won games on Sunday? The Texans 23-14 win over the Raiders didn’t have a scoring drive of longer than 19 yards. The Texans/Raiders game had only 426 combined total yards and the Bears/Vikings affair saw those to clubs combine for a mere 477 yards. Amazingly, both games went over the total. Under bettors had a pair of other brutal beats as well. The Bills and Chargers combined for only 565 total yards but saw the Bills score on TD “drives” of 19 and 13 yards before scoring a TD to put that one over (and cover) with 30 seconds left. The Seahawks/Broncos game had been an offensive catastrophe when Seattle led 13-7 with 8½ minutes remaining. The only TD had been on an interception return. Somehow, 23 points were scored in the final 8:13.

We’re not complaining, just noticing, as we had none of those games under the total.

Former Miami Hurricane Bernie Kosar has tossed his name into the ring for the coaching job at his alma mater. Fortunately, he’s not letting his lack of coaching experience get in the way of his ambition. Other ex-players who arrogantly thought they were qualified for head coaching positions despite not having a lick of coaching experience include Chris Spielman a few years ago when the Ohio State job was open, and Deion Sanders before the Falcons job went to Jim Mora.

Despite Walt Harris having a proven record of success at Pitt, Stanford fired their head coach after only 2 unsuccessful years. Schools are incredibly impatient these days. Yet one of the great coaching and program success stories in recent years involves a school that showed incredible patience. In 1992 Virginia Tech went 2-8-1 in Frank Beamer’s 6th season. At that point Beamer’s career record at Tech was 24-40-2 and he had never brought the Hokies to a bowl game. There’s no way that a coach today survives a 6-year start like that, but Virginia Tech went 9-3 the next year and has been to a bowl game every season since then.

Our colleague Dave Fobare continues to provide solid information on a daily basis on the free hotline. Call 770-618-8700 for this free 24-hour voice broadcast of games previews, selections, and other facts and stats.

The Vikings are getting poor quarterback play and may substitute Brooks Bollinger for Brad Johnson this week. As a result, they’re running the ball with great frequency, 35 runs and 39 passes on Sunday even though they were chasing the Bears for much of the second half. That keeps the clock running and their defense is playing good ball, as we pointed out above, they allowed a mere 107 yards in Chicago. They’ve allowed 4 returns for TD’s in the past 2 weeks, which reflects on their “points per game” stats but obviously had nothing to do with their defense. Meanwhile, the Lions held the Patriots to 13 points through over 51 minutes on Sunday, but you can count on their offense to make mistakes at critical times. Only 553 yards were gained overall when these two met earlier in the season. Don’t expect a lot of scoring in this one. Go under the total.

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