Cap’n Ken’s Homespun Wisdom

So much for BCS watching for the year. The big shuffle that happened this week - Texas passing USC, Miami and UCLA passing LSU - pretty much slams the door on the faint glimmer of hope that LSU might could possibly somehow crawl up to No. 2 in the BCS.

My earlier analysis about Alabama and Georgia still holds true, as both of those teams stand in LSU”s way this year and will either be shoved aside - if LSU wins the game - or dash the Tigers” hopes - if the other team wins - as the season rolls on.

But now - and rightfully so, in my mind - LSU has fallen behind two other teams to No. 8.

The tricky part is that UCLA and Miami are the teams that have the best shot at knocking off No. 2 (USC) and No. 3 (Virginia Tech). So the chances of both UCLA and Miami losing other games and still beating USC and Virginia Tech are remote, to say the least.

But that”s fine. Let”s play this mother for the SEC title and a Sugar Bowl appearance in my backyard.

And, by the way, the BCS is working properly when Texas jumps ahead of USC after the Horns” win over Texas Tech. The computers know better than the humans which teams at any given time are the best.

Friday was a good day. My new iPod (60GB with Video) arrived just before 10 a.m.

So a lot of my weekend was spent playing with my shiny new toy. My time, of course, was spent mucking around with video. For those of you who may care, observations on some different tactics for getting video on the iPod:

- Buying stuff on iTunes. Quick and easy. I purchased the Weapon of Choice video (Christopher Walken in the hotel song and dance, if you don”t remember). Upside: easy; fast. Downside: Cost me $1.99. I won”t be doing this much, unless there”s some really compelling content on iTunes that I can”t get anywhere else.

- Ripping DVDs to iPod video format. Easy using the HandBrake ripper; but anything but quick. The Mac Mini has spent most of today encoding the first disc of Gilmore Girls season 1. And my first attempt (Bull Durham) was done using flawed instructions, so that was a waste of time. I”ve got to play around with different encoding methods and options, but when each test takes 10 hours … it ain”t easy.

- Converting MPEG to iPod video format in QuickTime. Also easy, but also painfully slow.

- EyeTV recordings to iPod video format. The Holy Grail of DVR to iPod (EyeTV records stuff from my DishNetwork DVR), but also pretty damned slow. I expect the EyeTV people to update their software to have a native iPod video export, so we”ll see if that speeds things up.

- Newsgroup video for PSP. Wouldn”t you know the potentially illegal way is the easiest? It turns out the iPod plays the same format video as Sony”s PSP, and people are busy posting all sorts of stuff on newsgroups already. I pulled down a Simpsons episode in about 10 minutes and it went right onto the iPod. Kind of like how the stuff that tastes the best is the worst for you.

I have no complaints, by the way, with the quality of video on the iPod. The photo below gives a very poor representation of how the video looks (that”s Alton Brown on the Good Eats cheesecake episode), but you get the idea. It”ll be great on my next flight out west.

You know, other than jackass Leslie actually standing out on the field when Auburn kicked their would-be game-winning field goal (he could have been called for unsportsmanlike conduct - giving Auburn 15 yards and an extra shot), I don”t have a lot of things to complain about from yesterday”s game, coaching-wise. But I gotta keep that top spot for fire les miles, and thus my consistent headline.

Don”t get me wrong - I still see bad things in the future for LSU under Leslie. But he”s got the talent to overcome his abilities right now, so let”s roll with it. I”m getting sick, however of people comparing Leslie”s first-year record to that of Nick Saban and/or throwing out stats like Leslie being the most successful first-year LSU coach since Mike Archer.

See, Nick Saban took over a program in trouble. Of course he wouldn”t have a great first year. And Mike Archer was the last LSU coach to take over for a guy we didn”t fire, so of course that was the last time a coach would have started off with a good year.

LSU is loaded with talent, thanks in large part to Nick Saban. We”re winning despite Leslie, not because of him. Those days will end.

Attention LSU Fans / Les Haters (or even Les lovers, if any of you exist): This is an old post, yo. You probably got here from Google. So get the up-to-date LSU Wisdom here

I think it”s indicative of the sense of pending doom with Les Miles at the wheel that there”s not a lot of excitement over LSU being No. 6 in the initial BCS rankings. I know personally a lot of joy has gone out of watching LSU because I disapprove of our coach so much.

To be sure, LSU has tough tasks ahead if the BCS dance is to be meaningful to us. Namely, Auburn, Alabama and an SEC title game, not to mention potential letdowns against Ole Miss or Arkansas.

But the Tigers have the talent and potential to overcome their coaching and win out to get to the SEC Championship. Then it”s a one-game play-in for the BCS.

So, assuming we beat Auburn this weekend, my focus will turn to the “what ifs” and “how tos” of rising in the BCS.

Being No. 6 isn”t as far out of No. 2 as it might seem, at least in LSU”s case. The biggest reason is that No. 4 is Georgia and No. 5 is Alabama. LSU must beat Alabama to stay on the BCS course, and if Georgia stays ahead of LSU, it means they are the SEC East champion and thus our foe in Atlanta.

Therefore, if the Tigers remain in the BCS hunt, we will have necessarily passed both Alabama and Georgia. So realistically right now, LSU is actually sitting at No. 4 in the BCS if we win out (let”s ignore the very real possibility that LSU loses to Auburn and Alabama - then maybe also Ole Miss or Arkansas for the moment).

But No. 4 doesn”t get you to Pasadena.

The BCS top 3 right now, of course, are USC, Texas and Virginia Tech. Subtleties of the computer rankings aside (no need to think about that unless we beat Auburn and Alabama), is it possible that two of those three teams might lose in the coming weeks?

USC: Not likely, but their late-season schedule looks tougher than it did in August. Most notably, UCLA is 6-0 right now and No. 9 in the BCS, and those two play each other Dec. 3 in lieu of a conference championship game. But given the nation”s love of the Trojans and the bias they”ve earned over the past three years, don”t count on USC falling below other one-loss teams if and when they finally lose a game. Pencil them in the BCS, barring two losses this year.

Texas: Likely to lose, either to Texas Tech (No. 7 in the BCS) this weekend, Texas A&M at the end of the season or in the Big 12 title game. Mack Brown folds better than a Korean laundry, so never bet on the Longhorns to go all the way.

Virginia Tech: Likely to lose, either to Miami (No. 8 in the BCS) Nov. 5 or in the new ACC title game Dec. 3 (most likely against Florida State). Also in the way are Boston College (yawn) and Virginia (semi-yawn).

But wait. Given the willingness of voters in the Coaches” and Harris poll to ignore tradition and move teams up after big wins, it”s likely that Texas Tech would pass LSU in the human polls and BCS next week if they beat Texas and we beat Auburn. It”s also possible that Miami could pass LSU if they beat Virginia Tech the same week we play Appalachian State.

Would LSU get similar consideration the weekend we play Alabama or after the SEC title game? Not likely.

The short answer after a long post is that LSU is closer to a BCS title game than it might appear; but there”s a lot of football and BCS shifting to come between now and Dec. 4.

Fourteen penalties; 133 yards. Four turnovers. That was last week against Vandy.

Eleven penalties; 84 yards. Five turnovers. That was this week against Florida.

Yet Leslie insists he”s working on fixing his bad coaching.

“We”ll get this thing fixed,” Miles said, seething. “I look forward to it. It”ll be a lot of fun coaching this week, and we”ll work hard at it.”

That was Leslie”s quote in The Advocate (the Baton Rouge daily, not the national gay newspaper) this morning.

After the Vandy game last week, Leslie said of the penalties and turnovers “Certainly there”s going to be a lot to coach”.

The scary question that has to be asked: Has Leslie not started the coaching yet, or is this just the best he can do?

You have to think Leslie knows the team”s complete lack of discipline is a bad thing. And you have to figure he”s trying to fix it. He”s just a bad coach.

Leslie is playing with house money - the amazing LSU talent built up over the past four years - but he”s started the slow process of pissing it all away.

Thank God Urban Meyer”s offense works so poorly in the SEC. Bo Pellini had an easy job this week - watch the Florida/Alabama film and do what Bama did.

It”s telling, by the way, that Jimbo Fisher all of a sudden is accepting the blame for the team”s problems. As he told The Advocate:

“That”s why I take blame, because it”s coaching, and it”s fundamentals, and that”s what we”ve got to correct, and that”s my fault. I take the blame for that.”

I”d like to take this opportunity to point out that last year - when Jimbo Fisher was offensive coordinator and Nick Saban was head coach - LSU averaged 6 penalties for 45 yards per game. This year - when Jimbo Fisher is offensive coordinator and Leslie is head coach - LSU is averaging 10.6 penalties and 87 yards per game. LSU committed 10 penalties in one game last year - when Jimbo Fisher was offensive coordinator and Nick Saban was head coach. LSU has committed 11 or more penalties in four of its five games this year - when Jimbo Fisher is offensive coordinator and Leslie is head coach.

But it”s clear that Leslie is setting Jimbo up to be the Mike Brown of this story. If LSU falls to Auburn and Alabama in the coming weeks, Leslie will have a guy to blame (the guy who”s already on record taking it).

As Leslie said after the game: “On offense we cannot sustain the mistakes that we made”. He”s right. He”s the mistake.

I hope, of course, LSU gets its act together and beats the Alabama boys then coasts to the SEC title game. But watching games this year is like watching the fool at the blackjack table who”s pissing away his inheritance.

When things slow down around the Wisdom household, I like to pass the time browsing my traffic logs to see how people find their Wisdom. Among the many “fire les miles” and “Bill Hemmer” search queries that make up the bulk of traffic these days, sometimes amusing stuff pops up.

There”s the user from Nyack, New York who searched for “who the fuck are you” (not stereotypical or anything); the person from Baton Rouge looking for information on “MRE menu no. 10″ (I guess he has a few left over); and an Aussie trying to learn more about Morgan Spurlock”s “30 Days” (it must be airing down there now).

But my favorite today is this one:

For those of you who don”t speak URL or DNS, here”s the deal with this visitor - it”s somebody on Microsoft”s corporate network searching for information about Dell charging sales tax (the actual query - not shown here - was “which state dell doesn”t charge tax”). But the amusing part is that this Microsoft person was using Google, not their own company”s much-hyped new search engine. The “navclient” tag also means the person was using Google”s Toolbar, apparently favoring it over the MSN Toolbar. At least the person is using Internet Explorer, not Firefox … and the search was for a Windows PC, not a Mac.