10/10/2008 - Kirkland, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A sore right knee could keep Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck out of Sunday's home game against the Green Bay Packers.
Seahawks head coach Mike Holmgren said Hasselbeck will be a game-time decision, but said it appears Charlie Frye will play. Holmgren also said Seneca Wallace will be available as well. Hasselbeck is officially listed as questionable on the injury report.
"The thing (knee) has just not responded," said Holmgren. "He still can't do much with his leg. It's not ligaments, it's not anything like that, it's just sore. He doesn't have the green light yet to play."
Frye took the snaps at practice this week, while Hasselbeck has been unable to take part in sessions. A calf injury has limited Wallace in practice.
Hasselbeck has completed 58-of-118 passes for 656 yards with a pair of touchdowns and four interceptions this season for the Seahawks (1-3). Frye played in just one game in 2007, the season-opener for Cleveland, before he was traded to Seattle.
"I think all three guys, all three of our quarterbacks, are capable of running the same game plan," said Holmgren. "If Seneca was in the game, we might have a little bit more movement stuff because he's so good at that, but basically it's the same. There's not a lot of changes. The volume and maybe some of the subtleties that you would use with Matt, you might not use with the other two guys. But basically the game plan is pretty much the same."
<< Lions QB Kitna doubtful for Sunday
Allen Park, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Detroit Lions quarterback Jon Kitna missed
his third straight practice on Friday with a bad back, leaving his status for
Sunday's showdown with the Minnesota Vikings up in the air.
Kitna, officially list
<< McMurray wins pole for Nationwide race at Lowe's
Concord, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jamie McMurray will start on the pole for
Friday night's Dollar General 300 Nationwide Series race at the Lowe's Motor
Speedway. The No.17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford driver grabbed the top starting
spot wi
<< Pacers trade F Williams to Mavs, extend Foster
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Indiana Pacers traded forward
Shawne Williams to the Dallas Mavericks on Friday, in exchange for swingman
Eddie Jones, two future second-round draft picks and cash.
Indiana also extended th
<< Redskins' Taylor listed as probable for Sunday
Ashburn, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Washington Redskins defensive end Jason Taylor
practiced on Friday and is listed as probable for Sunday's game against the
St. Louis Rams.
Taylor has missed two games since undergoing surgery to repair a
Clemson looks to new QB after mediocre start >>
Clemson, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Clemson Tigers have not lived up to their
No. 9 preseason ranking and will look to get a spark from red-shirt freshman
Willy Korn, who head coach Tommy Bowden named as the starting quarterback for
the Oct
Bolts' Chambers doubtful for Sunday >>
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - San Diego Chargers wide receiver Chris
Chambers is listed as doubtful for Sunday's pivotal home matchup with the New
England Patriots with a sprained ankle.
Chambers was injured in last Sunday's 17-1
Saints' Colston questionable, Shockey doubtful for Sunday >>
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New Orleans star wide receiver Marques
Colston and tight end Jeremy Shockey are close to returning to the playing
field as each have not been officially ruled out for Sunday's home game
against
Rodgers rests again, but he's ready for Sunday >>
Green Bay, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers
didn't throw at practice for a third straight day, but a sprained right
shoulder isn't expected to prevent him from starting Sunday's game at Seattle.
Rodg
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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