Sports Betting Professor

NEW ORLEANS — The Saints just announced some lineup changes after declaring cornerbacks Tracy Porter and Jabari Greer and running back Reggie Bush inactive because of injuries.



Rookie Malcolm Jenkins and Randall Gay will be the starting cornerbacks. Recently-signed veterans Chris McAlister and Mike McKenzie are both active and presumably will be the top backups.



Pierre Thomas will take Bush’s place as the starting running back. The Saints have said Devery Henderson will take over Bush’s duties as the punt returner.

NEW ORLEANS — The New England Patriots also have some interesting scratches for Monday night’s game in the Superdome.



Left tackle Matt Light will play tonight after missing five games games with a knee injury, but rookie Sebastian Vollmer, who was playing very well in Light’s absence, is out. He suffered a head injury in last week’s victory over the New York Jets.



Running back Sammy Morris also returns to help out Laurence Maroney and Kevin Faulk in the backfield. He sat out four games with a knee injury.



Linebacker Junior Seau has been deactivated for the first time since signing with the Patriots.



Rookie slot receiver Julian Edelman will dress, but as the third quarterback. That means he cannot step on the field until the fourth quarter without disqualifying quarterbacks Tom Brady and Brian Hoyer for the rest of the game. Edelman played quarterback at Kent State before the Patriots converted him.



The Patriots’ total inactive list as follows:

• Receiver Julian Edelman (third QB)
• Running back Fred Taylor
• Guard Rich Ohrnberger
• Tackle Sebastian Vollmer
• Defensive tackle Ron Brace
• Linebacker Junior Seau
• Cornerback Shawn Springs
• Cornerback Kyle Arrington

NEW ORLEANS — Some big names appear on the New Orleans Saints‘ inactive list for Monday night’s game against the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome.



Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports running back Reggie Bush, receiver Lance Moore and both starting cornerbacks, Jabari Greer and Tracy Porter, are out.



Bush had been listed as questionable with a knee injury. There was a belief that Greer, who plays the critical left side, would be able to play through a groin injury. Old friend Randall Gay will replace Greer.



Also scratched:

• Fullback Kyle Eckel
• Defensive tackle DeMario Pressley
• Linebacker Jonathan Casillas
• Kicker Garrett Hartley

I will have the Patriots’ inactive list as soon as it’s official.

What’s most amazing about how spectacular Charlie Weis failed in 2009 is how much the season was set up for him to succeed.



The Notre Dame schedule wasn’t the cream-puff lineup as some people described it, but by Irish standards it was very manageable. Only three teams on the entire slate — Pitt, USC, and Stanford — are ranked in the Top 25, and none of them are among the nation’s top 14. Stanford wouldn’t be ranked if Notre Dame had won Saturday’s game, while USC came to South Bend with its most vulnerable team in several years.



All Weis really had to do to keep his job was to beat Navy and Connecticut at home and a Michigan team that finished 5-7. That would have made the Irish 9-3 and given the coach a strong argument to return for a sixth year. Yet he couldn’t do that or avoid a disastrous four-game losing streak to end the season despite having one of the best quarterbacks in school history (Jimmy Clausen) and the finest receiving season ever by a Domer (Golden Tate).



Notre Dame’s best wins this season were against 8-4 Boston College, 6-6 Michigan State and 4-7 Washington. Not exactly the kind of victories you include in a great moments in history section of the media guide.



Because of all that, as athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Monday night, “you couldn’t know with significant certainty that next year’s results would be better.”



Here’s what I think is certain: if Swarbrick hires the right caliber of coach, he’ll produce much better results than Weis.



Notre Dame is not the super power it once was, but it’s hard to go 3-9, 6-6 and 6-6 in three straight regular seasons in South Bend, as Weis did. Sure, the Irish will lose Clausen and probably Tate, much of their offensive line and several defensive starters. But the cupboard is far from bare.



Dayne Crist, who should return from an ACL injury by the spring, was a highly-rated quarterback recruit who got some valuable experience this year. Star receiver Michael Floyd returns, along with promising youngsters John Goodman and Shaq Evans. Tight end Kyle Rudolph is back, as well as running backs Armando Allen, Robert Hughes and Theo Riddick.



Defensively, the Irish can build around guys like Darius Fleming, Steve Filer, Kapron Lewis-Moore, and future superstar Manti Te’o, assuming Te’o does not go on his Mormon mission after this season. Yes, the defense needs serious improvement, especially in its tackling, but that’s what good coaches do.



Weis got this team close this year but couldn’t get over the hump. Ten of Notre Dame’s games were decided by a touchdown or less.



Next year, the Irish have Army, Tulsa, Navy and Western Michigan on the schedule and get Purdue and Michigan at home. Those are six winnable games right there.



Weis’s failure was in not winning the games he should have won and never winning the games he wasn’t expected to win. That’s not a very high standard for the next guy to achieve.

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick is confident that the right man can bring Notre Dame back to its place of prominence in college football. It’s up to Swarbrick to find that right man.



Swarbrick, who took his current job after the 2007 season, cannot be blamed for the Charlie Weis era. Perhaps he should have cut the cord on Weis a year ago, but when the Irish were 6-2 this season it seemed like he’d made the right call to give Weis one more chance. Swarbrick cannot repeat the fumbles of the last four hires, which included Bob Davie, George O’Leary, Ty Willingham and of course Weis.



Swarbrick said tonight that there will be no search committee, and that he alone would recommend the next hire to school president Rev. John I Jenkins. He’s developed a set of criteria for the ideal candidate, but he would only divulge one item on that list: the next coach has to have “demonstrated the ability to build and sustain a Division I college football program.”



That means a college head coach, or someone unlike Davie or Weis. You can rule out some of the long-shot NFL candidates, like Jon Gruden or Brian Billick. Swarbrick’s choice of he word “sustain” is interesting in relevance to Cincinnati’s Brian Kelly. He has certainly built programs at Central Michigan and Cincinnati, but has Kelly been at either place long enough to say he has sustained anything?



Swarbrick said he didn’t want to narrow the search by focusing on someone with either an offensive or defensive background. But then he added, “My personal view is, given where we play and who we play, is that we need to be able to play good defense. If you look at the defensive rankings of leading teams, there’s a correlation between the BCS standings and defensive abilities.”



I wrote last week that there’s no reason why Notre Dame can’t have great success again if it hires the right coach. The facilities, resources, fan support and money all are there. Some dispute that because the Irish haven’t won a national title in 21 years or been in the mix for one really in 16 years. Swarbrick said all major sports franchises, from the New York Yankees, to the Boston Celtics to the Dallas Cowboys, have experienced lean times in between championship runs.



“The whole key is leadership,” he said. “I believe our ability to take the next step and return to a level of prominence is all about bringing the right individual in here.



“This is a drought. And I have every confidence we will end the drought.”



Swarbrick defined success as competing for a spot in a BCS game every year. He knows what he wants from the next coach and what he expects that coach to accomplish. It’s now up to Swarbrick to find that right guy.

As you might expect, the “what if?” question is circulating pretty rapidly among Alabama and Florida fans right now.



In short, what happens if Alabama and Florida play a classic game that goes down to the final minutes and Texas loses to Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game?



According to Brad Edwards, ESPN’s BCS expert, a rematch between Alabama and Florida in the BCS National Championship Game isn’t likely.



He thinks TCU would have the best chance in that scenario to slip into the BCS National Championship Game followed by Cincinnati, provided the Bearcats beat Pittsburgh. Edwards thinks the odds are against a one-loss SEC team hurdling an unbeaten TCU or an unbeaten Cincinnati into one of those top two spots in the final BCS standings.



But he’s also not completely ruling it out.



If it does happen, he thinks a one-loss Florida team would have a better chance than a one-loss Alabama team.



The key would be the two human polls, because Edwards thinks a one-loss Florida team would still be ranked ahead of TCU in the computers. That means TCU would need to be ahead of Florida on about two-thirds of the human ballots to make up the difference.



Here’s the other thing to consider: Can you imagine being either Alabama or Florida and making it through the season unscathed in the SEC and then winning the championship game against an unbeaten team … and then turning around a month later and having to play that same team again?



Something tells me that the team that wins this weekend in Atlanta wouldn’t be too keen on that scenario.

I get a lot of questions regarding BCS bowl order, so I thought I would put it out there so there weren’t any surprises come Sunday. So here’s how it goes and here are my thoughts as to what teams are in the mix:



National Championship: Florida/Alabama winner vs. Texas

Sugar: Likely selects the loser of the Florida/Alabama game

Fiesta selects second: Will likely replace Texas with either Iowa or Penn State

Orange selects third: Likely will select TCU or Boise State OR Big East champion vs. ACC champion (this will depend on matchup, fans, etc. TCU likely wouldn’t play Clemson again and Cincy won’t bring many fans so likely won’t be paired with another school that won’t bring many fans)

Fiesta selects fourth: Likely TCU OR Boise State

Sugar selects fifth: Big East champion OR TCU OR Boise State

Rose: Oregon State/Oregon winner vs. Ohio State



This all hinges on the outcome of the Big 12 championship. If Texas loses to Nebraska, then Nebraska goes to the Fiesta Bowl and Texas likely will be an at-large. That could knock Boise State out of the at-large pool. There’s always a chance Boise State could get an at-large before a Big Ten team.



Also, if Texas loses, TCU could be the next in line for the national championship provided voters do not push Cincinnati ahead if the Bearcats beat Pitt.



There is a lot to watch this weekend and still a lot up for grabs.

NEW ORLEANS — As many of you know, I generally don’t make predictions — just a personal philosophy that predictions really don’t mean anything.



But my friend Jeff Duncan of The New Orleans Times Picayune asked me for a pick on the game between the Saints and Patriots and I answered. You can hear and see it here. Duncan also makes his pick and it’s pretty similar to mine.

The Charlie Weis era is over at Notre Dame, and the Big Ten might be sad to see him go.



Though Weis and his assistants did well on the recruiting trail, they didn’t convert a wealth of talent into victories. Like most Notre Dame head coaches, Weis faced the Big Ten more than any other league and finished with a 9-9 mark. Remove his 4-1 record against Purdue, and Weis ended up just 5-8 against the league.



Here’s the final breakdown of Weis vs. the Big Ten:



vs. Michigan: 2-3

vs. Michigan State: 2-3

vs. Purdue: 4-1

vs. Penn State: 1-1

vs. Ohio State: 0-1*



*-loss came in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl



Weis’ predecessor at Notre Dame, Tyrone Willingham, went 5-4 against the Big Ten in three seasons, while Bob Davie went 4-8 in five years at the helm of the Irish.



With Weis out, a lot of names are being mentioned as possible successors at Notre Dame. Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald has denied any interest in the job, and while Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz keeps being brought up, I highly doubt Ferentz would leave his post right now.

Redskins coach Jim Zorn wanted to wait as long as possible to see if Pro Bowl tight end Chris Cooley could respond from a lower-leg injury, but on Monday the team finally placed him on injured reserve. Cooley had hoped to return for the final stretch of games, but team physicians say that he’s not even ready to get out of a walking boot.

Cooley

The Redskins also announced Monday that defensive end Jeremy Jarmon was being placed on injured reserve with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Linebacker Alvin Bowen and defensive end Rob Jackson were signed off the Skins’ practice squad to fill the open roster spots.



Losing Cooley was a big setback for the Redskins, but it’s also given them the opportunity to take a long look at former second-round draft pick Fred Davis. The former USC player is making the most of his opportunity.



“It would be great if we could be in there together, but you knew there was a chance he would [miss the remainder of the season] when you saw him get hurt,” David told reporters Monday. “It’s just up to all the guys to keep trying to pick up the slack for the rest of the year.”



Davis broke through along the sideline for a 29-yard play against the Eagles and he’s given quarterback Jason Campbell a consistent target. Davis and Cooley could end up being a pretty formidable duo in the league.