TRINDON HOLLIDAY BOWL

LSU was up 13-7 and had the momentum on their side when 5-5 speedster Trindon Holliday fumbled a ball straight toward the roof of the Georgia Dome. Erik Ainge led the Vols downfield (it would have been nice if someone would have woken up LSU's secondary, though) for a TD, and then on the next drive Ryan Perrilloux threw a pick, although his wideout blew the play by vacating the route. So now it's 14-13, Tennessee, and the people who sell tickets for the Sugar Bowl are beginning to panic.

LSU played its way out of the bigger bowl in New Orleans next month last Saturday. Could they play themselves out of the smaller one tonight?

Civil War update: We have ourselves a very Oregonian afternoon up in Eugene. Rain, threatening sleet. The Ducks are, I believe, unveiling their third different helmet in as many weeks. These ones are the intergalactic lime-green jobs that they doffed in last December's Las Vegas Bowl. Last week at UCLA they wore white helmets. And I believe against Arizona State they wore the green ones. The Ducks have more headgear than the 7th-grade dork with the retainer.

Some dude named Roper just pulled off a sweet Dennis Dixon impersonation as the Ducks, who had trailed 21-7, now lead 28-21. Roper, a 6-6 redshirt freshman, did the handoff fake QB keeper for about an 8-yard TD. This game's on ESPN2. Worth tuning into for a few minutes. It's also great recruiting propaganda for USCLA.

GEICO ad No. 5: the Rusty Wallace's nephew (or is it cousin?) version.

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Sorbet Watch:

I'm in awe of anyone who can play major college football and get over a B average in his classes....hell, I'm in awe of anyone who can do either. That said, CBS named its scholastic players of the game and LSU's is 3rd string tight end Mit Cole, who has a 3.2 GPA and one catch for two yards this season. That's respectable, but should that be the best combo of academics-athletics a school can exhibit? There are some teams we could name (teams who lose to LSU in the Sugar Bowl) whose team GPA is higher than that.