Les: We'd love to play in Dallas or Houston every year

Coming off of a huge win against Oregon, Les Miles spoke with reporters today about playing at Cowboys Stadium.

Les said he and the team love playing "in that stadium, in that environment" and went on to say that he understands there would be all sorts of logistics to work out; but that he'd love to be able to play there (or in Houston) every year.  

Reporters pressed him later about trying to actually play an annual game there...

"I'd love to play someone else's home game there every year...I wouldn't want to minimize the number of times we play in Tiger Stadium...our fan base seems to love Dallas...it felt like a bowl environment and our guys enjoy playing big in those kinds of games...Houston might well be a nice spot as well."

Reporter asks about the defense this year...

"I watched them play in this game and felt that this team is potentially a very special defense...everybody is doing their job, taking coaching extremely well...a talented group of guys that have a want to make a statement...a style of defense that will have to be reckoned with...they will know who we are, the style of uniform that we wear and the kind of helmets that show up around the ball at the same time...I like their pride in their accomplishments and their want to play well."

Note, skip to about the 10 minute mark for the beginning of Les' remarks

Manny Diaz playing some young guys

Coach Diaz's unit held Rice to 3 field goals on Saturday as Texas beat the Owls 34-9. 

Texas played 10 freshmen on defense.  Coach Diaz described the play of the freshmen:

You know what was really neat, they went out there after our own turnover, and that's a situation we really strive we take a lot of pride in, sudden change, go put the fire out if something like that happens. They went out there, and Rice called a play that's designed to score a touchdown. They ran the tailback on the “wheel” and they wanted to score a touchdown on that play, and I think we had an entire freshmen secondary in the game and freshman at linebacker, and they covered everybody up and made him go to his third option which the guy ended up dropping. When you see guys do that type of thing, the freshmen got a three and out on one of the drives they were in, it's encouraging.

Diaz's unit gets another test this Saturday night when BYU comes to town. 

Voters in the Coaches' Poll

This year, 59 head coaches are listed as "Voters" in the Coaches' Poll.  Without further ado, the voters are:

Quotes (and video) from Spurrier

We caught the following quotes from Steve Spurrier's press conference today...

On lessons learned from the ECU game, "I learned it's always beneficial if the other team fumbles to you three times in a row."

On Georgia's plan against Lattimore, "They are going to stack the box...maybe we need to throw the ball better to beat em."

On telling his players the importance of this game, "I hope all of our players know that Georgia is in our division; but I'm not sure if they do or not."

"We're trying to play better this week than we did last week"

"Connor Shaw is fine.  He saw what happened...he understands that Stephen played a lot better than he did."

On Stephen Garcia, "We've been asking Stephen to shave for 5 years now. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. I think a QB should be shaven....quarterbacks should wear their hats forward facing, you know normal, quarterbacks should look sharp." 

Asked how he votes for the Heisman, "I vote for whoever I want to...yes, I do try to vote for guys on our team..."

Strength guys, this one's for you

Tennessee athletics just put this video out featuring head strength coach Ron McKeefery. 

McKeefery speaks about what he's trying to accomplish with his program at Tennessee.

No TV Tuesday

No live games on TV tonight (or tomorrow).  Is the power of the Worldwide Leader dwindling?

Thursday night we've got Arizona at Oklahoma State and the Saints at the Packers.

Onside kick

In case you didn't see this on Saturday...

Auburn scored with about 2 minutes left to get back to within 3 points of Utah State (yes, let that part soak in for a minute).  Chizik decides to go for the onside kick.

Special teams coordinator Jay Boulware calls it...one high, long hop...catch it on the fly.  

Auburn lines up 6 guys (all speed) outside the hashes.  Utah State only has four guys there to counter.  Advantage Auburn. 

What happens after a 17 hour bus ride

Adrian College (MI) took it's team by bus to play Husson University in Bangor, ME.  That's over 1,000 miles...one way...17 hours on the bus for the guys.

When they got there, we envision head coach Jim Deere saying something like, "OK guys let's stretch our legs."  

His Bulldogs did more than that, they hung 77 on Husson.  Final score, Adrian 77 - Husson 7.  The Bulldogs scored 21 in the 1st quarter, 28 in the 2nd and 14 in each of the 3rd and 4th quarters.  

We guess after a 1,000 mile, 17 hour bus ride, you gotta let the kids play a little before packing them back in for the return trip.