We've all been there, kid.
The inaugural College Football Playoff kicks off Wednesday at the Sugar Bowl when No. 1 Alabama takes on No. 4 Ohio State. Fans have started to gather for ESPN's all-day coverage of the postseason Tuesday, but one small fan wasn't quite as excited as everyone else.
The Playoff-snubbed Frogs bashed the heck out of one of the SEC's best teams in Atlanta.
The Chick-fil-A Bowl is now the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl as the College Football Playoff finally arrives.
While the Peach Bowl won't be one of the national semifinal hosts this season, it was assigned to host an at-large team and a Group of Five team, which is one of the best teams from the AAC, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West or Sun Belt. Historically, the Peach Bowl, or whatever it was being called at the time, hosted an ACC and SEC school in Atlanta.
Here is everything you need to know to get ready for this year's Peach Bowl:
Date and time: Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014, 12:30 p.m. ET
TV channel: ESPN
Location: Atlanta, Ga.
Stadium: Georgia Dome, 71,200
Last year's score: Texas A&M 52, Duke 48
Last year's attendance: 67,946
Last year's TV rating: 5.3
Last year's payout for each school: $3.975 million
Team with the most all-time appearances: Clemson, 8
Team with the most all-time wins: LSU, 5-1
TCU finished off an impressive campaign with a Big 12 championship and their third double-digit victory season in the last five years. The Frogs only lost to Baylor this year, but beat Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Kansas State to rebound from last year’s 4-8 disaster. Gary Patterson’s squad will take it’s high-octane, firework supply-exhausting offense to a bowl for the first time since 2012.
The Frogs were led by quarterback (nee wide receiver) Trevone Boykin threw for over 3,700 yards, rushed for 642 and added 39 total (30 passing, eight rushing, one receiving) touchdowns, to possibly punch his ticket to New York City for the Heisman Trophy ceremony. TCU boasts 10 different receivers that broke triple digits in yards on the season and have a pair of explosive junior running backs just in case the passing attack wasn’t enough to worry you. Junior safety Chris Hackett had six picks to lead the Big 12.
Last bowl game: 2012 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl vs. Michigan State, 17-16 loss
All-time bowl record: 13-15-1
Head coach's bowl record: Gary Patterson, 7-4
The Ole Miss Rebels started the season with seven consecutive wins, an upset of Alabama and playoff dreams dancing through their heads. And then the SEC West took over. After three consecutive conference losses, culminating in a blowout loss to Arkansas, the Rebels redeemed some of their season with an Egg Bowl win over rival Mississippi State to send them into bowl season on the upswing.
Ole Miss has done it the old fashioned way: With the nation’s best scoring defense. The Rebels have allowed just 13.8 points per game in 2014, with just two opponents reaching 30 points scored. It’s generally been enough for the Rebels offense, led by senior quarterback Bo Wallace. Doctor Bo has racked up 3,085 yards on a career-high 8.6 yards per attempt.
Last bowl game: 2013 Music City Bowl vs. Georgia Tech, 25-17 win
All-time bowl record: 23-12
Head coach's bowl record: Hugh Freeze, 2-0
Via ESPN
This is the very bottom.
But have fun anyway!
A year that began with high expectations is cratering with the news that Jefferson will miss several weeks due to injury.
This was supposed to be a big season for the newly branded Charlotte Hornets, an opportunity for the franchise to reintroduce itself to the region as a competitive, exciting outfit in the NBA landscape. Instead, the team is likely heading for a wasted season after announcing that star big man Al Jefferson would miss at least four weeks due to a groin injury.
After a rough start to the season under the new Hornets branding, the team had already dug itself a deep hole even in the weak Eastern Conference. This news doesn't totally sink the team's chances of competing for a playoff spot come the spring, but it puts a dent in some already slim odds.
Charlotte is currently 12th in the East with a 10-22 record, four games behind the Miami Heat for the eighth and final postseason spot. The team is indeed as bad as its record indicates -- 25th overall in winning percentage (.313) and overall net rating (minus-5.2) -- and that's before considering the absence of arguably its best player.
In a season full of problems for the Hornets, ranging from a massive decline on defense to the discord with Lance Stephenson, Jefferson was supposed to be the steady rock in the middle. Now that he's expected to miss a sizable chunk of the season, what can Charlotte do from here?
While Jefferson is sidelined by the groin strain, fourth-year big man Bismack Biyombo will likely take his place in the starting lineup. Biyombo, 22, was the team's primary starting center back in 2012-13, but has been held back by a raw offensive game and the need to polish his defensive instincts.
Biyombo has seen a more limited role this season, playing just 14 minutes a night, and now gets a chance to show his improvement. The former No. 7 overall pick in the 2011 draft has been as efficient as ever this season, with a career-high 15.5 PER, but he'll be asked to do a lot more with Jefferson no longer in front of him.
Luckily, there's reason to believe Biyombo might be able to make a positive impact. While there are the usual caveats with sample size and quality of competition, the Hornets are outscoring opponents by 5.1 points per 100 possessions with Biyombo on the floor. He's the only player on the team with a positive net rating, and seems to be showing improvement after years of NBA coaching.
That makes this a massive opportunity for Biyombo, who is set for restricted free agency this summer and needs to prove he can be a steady contributor in a bigger role. Given his age and athleticism, someone would surely take a shot on him regardless, but this could be a chance for him to show he's more than a decent defensive-minded reserve.
The other names that are likely to benefit from Jefferson's absence are Cody Zeller and Noah Vonleh, the team's past two first-round picks. Zeller has been splitting starting duties with Marvin Williams this season, while Vonleh missed the beginning of the season due to injury and was recently recalled from the D-League. Both guys figure to get bumped up the depth chart with the news.
Like Biyombo, Zeller has had his chances in Charlotte, but this may be his best one yet. If he can prove to be a potent mid-range scorer and rebounder like he was projected out of college, the Hornets may have a tolerable stopgap situation between him and Biyombo, even if replacing Jefferson's double-double production is near impossible.
The Hornets were already in a tough position before Jefferson's injury, so it's reasonable to assume a trip to the lottery is in order. That's disappointing for a franchise that thought it was close to taking a major step in the other direction, but it doesn't necessarily sink the team's future.
Jefferson has a player option for next season, and the young frontcourt guys like Biyombo, Zeller, Vonleh and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist will presumably play larger roles in the meantime. There's always a chance this allows one or more of those guys to emerge and exceed expectations.
However, this puts the Hornets a step back in their desire to be a competitive team sooner rather than later. Jefferson was a big part of the surprising breakout for Charlotte last season, and it'll be hard for the team to compete at a high level soon without him.
The Hornets thought their rebuilding process was over, with moves like the Stephenson signing designed to put the team over the top. Now that timeline doesn't look so certain, and Charlotte's leadership will have to figure out how to adjust from here.
“You want to talk about double standards, there’s the double standard.”
Republican Rep. Tom McClintock says there is a media double standard when it comes to the amount of scrutiny his fellow congressman Steve Scalise of Louisiana has received for admitting he spoke to a white supremacist organization in 2002.
"With respect to Steve Scalise, I know him, he is no racist. Apparently twelve years ago, he was invited to speak to a local group of—uh—he came there to talk about taxes, the group was it turns out was affiliated with a white racist named David Duke, who by the way, Scalise had repeatedly publicly denounced during that period of time and somehow this is a major scandal," said the California Republican in a radio interview Wednesday.
McClintock cited President Obama's ties to pastor Jeremiah Wright as an example of what he called the double standard.
"But then you have Barack Obama who attends many, many years of sermons by black racist Jeremiah Wright, whom he never denounced, who he often lauded, and that's perfectly okay," McClintock said. "You want to talk about double standards, there's the double standard."
"I think this thing is being blown way out of proportion and again you want to speak about double standards, look at some of the outrageous statements made by leading democrats that are clearly racist."
Scalise admitted to speaking at a gathering of the white supremacist group European-American Unity and Rights Organization in 2002.
"It was a mistake I regret, and I emphatically oppose the divisive racial and religious views groups like these hold," Scalise has said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to former EURO and KKK leader David Duke, Scalise was invited to the conference by his political advisor Kenny Knight.
Knight, however, has told Slate Scalise wasn't aware it was a gathering of a white supremacists and that he actually spoke at a pre-gathering before the EURO conference that was hosted by a civic association.
The Kings' superstar center lost his cool during a lopsided beatdown in Boston.
Sacramento Kings big man DeMarcus Cousins was ejected in the fourth quarter of the team's game against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday for throwing opposing point guard Marcus Smart to the ground near the basket. Cousins was tagged with his second technical foul of the game on the play, leading to an automatic ejection.
Here's the move that led to a brief reaction between both teams and eventually Cousins' departure:
As Grantland's Zach Lowe points out, this behavior continues an unfortunate trend for Cousins since his return from a viral illness and the recent firing of head coach Michael Malone.
Boogie hasn't been same defensively since coming back from virus. You hope it's just getting his wind, but some of those old habits are back
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) December 31, 2014
Discontent with Malone firing surely at play to some degree, but he's loafing in all the old damaging ways again. Has to stop.
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) December 31, 2014
Earlier this season, Cousins appeared to be breaking away from some of his old habits while establishing himself as one of the game's elite players. The 24-year-old was last ejected from a game back in Feb. 2014 after he lashed out at referees during a loss to Houston. With days like Wednesday, one has to hope that Cousins is not falling back into those "damaging ways" as the losses pile up in Sacramento.
Just stay there, Rebels. You don't have to play TCU any more if you just stay there.
That's Davion Pierson directing Jordan Wilkins after a botched fourth-and-goal try by Ole Miss, which ended up losing 19 yards after a pressured Bo Wallace dumped the ball off to Wilkins. It was about the best chance No. 9 Ole Miss had for all of the first three quarters at actually putting any points on the No. 6 Frogs.
TCU's smashing Ole Miss so badly (42-0 so far!), it's running out of taunts. Here's Paul Dawson stealing the Rebels' Landshark hand sign:
Jason Getz, USA Today
