Into This Weekend, Status Update

First, I will begin with the status of No Owens Sports. It's central office is now moved to a secure location, which will most likely lead to a stronger array of posts weekly. This is good, this is very good, for all parties. That being said, let's dive into the weekend.

Before we get into college football, the playoff races in Major League Baseball are shaping up very nicely. Sure, the Cubs and Angels have more or less locked up their divisions, and the second place team in the AL East will more than likely get the Wild Card. Other than that, there's a lot up in the air, and plenty of drama to go with. The NL East is where it was last year, minus the whole meltdown and Carlos Delgado, apparently, acting like an MVP Candidate. That, and the AL East leading RAYS can't seem to get a sell out in their ball park, not even now. It's amazing how many, die hard, RAYS fans there are now.

The AL East is really a compelling race. I don't know if it's a true, "David vs. Goliath" type story, but it's pretty close. I mean, how does a team with Josh Beckett's salary not beat the RAYS easily. Or, the Yankees for that matter. I'd like to get into it, but you can imagine what this focus is today.

Tomorrow is pretty much the biggest day of my year. Fortunately, I don't have to go into the land of jersey, jean-short, weird chain-wearing land to see the game this year. I'm referring to Gainesville, not Roy Oswalt's family reunions.

Tennessee hosts Florida tomorrow at 3:30 Eastern tomorrow on CBS. The sad thing is, I have no confidence int he Vols whatsoever going into this game. Like, the Tennessee coaching staff has given me no reason to have any faith. The guys are terrible and it seems that we have an amateur as an offensive coordinator. All of this being said, UT, wins games like this that they really shouldn't or aren't supposed to.

What's interesting about the last point is that up until about five or six years ago, games that UT shouldn't win didn't exist. They should have business winning every game and every team they play should expect that anything than their best is going to cause a rout in the favor of the Vols.

So say the Vols come out, control the line of scrimmage on offense, run the ball well and win the game. What does that mean? Does it mean the Vols are back in the scene and have the ability and swagger to run the rest of the table in the East? Who knows. Regardless of the outcome of this game, the coaching staff at UT still needs a tweak, barring the Vols ripping off 10 in a row, which seems unlikely, especially right now. So even if the Vols pull the upset (pull the upset at home is a pretty terrible concept) it shouldn't all of a sudden mean that Coach Fulmer is the man in Knoxville.

Mind you, for any SEC non-believers out there, while the Vols and Gators play at 3:30, don't forget that LSU@Auburn is a prime time game, so too is Georgia@Arizona State. I still think that LSU is a force that no one is really paying attention to yet. Watch out. As for Georgia, they are running into a pretty mad ASU team after losing last week. Not that that means anything to the Dawgs or anything but we shall see.

Outside of that, here's my favorite story. So we know what happened to Ohio State last weekend. Which we all knew, but riddle me this...Terrelle Pryor is about the worst thing that could have happened to that team this year. If Pryor wasn't in the picture, there would be no quarterback controversy as proven Todd Boeckman wouldn't be forced into trying to learn some new offensive schemes. Also, he wouldn't lose his rhythm throughout the course of a game, with the high demand to get snaps for Pryor. In my opinion, Ohio State is a worse team with Pryor than they are with him right now. I don't know what he was thinking when he didn't go to Michigan, but as of right now, that would have been a move that would have benefited both parties, in my opinion, if that's possible.

I enjoy the weekend, as best as possible.