7 undefeateds left in college football

Here's the top of the AP poll.


1. Oregon 7-0 (Pac-10)
2. Boise State 6-0 (WAC)
3. Auburn 8-0 (SEC)
4. TCU 8-0 (Mountain West)
5. Michigan State 8-0 (Big Ten)
6. Alabama 7-1 (SEC)
7. Utah 7-0 (Mountain West)
8. Missouri 7-0 (Big 12)

The only matchups of these schools will be TCU at Utah on November 6th, and Auburn at Alabama on November 26th.

- - -

If Auburn wins out, they have to be in the National Championship. Even if they don't, the winner of the SEC would seem likely anyways.

Oregon is playing at USC, so if they can get past that, they could be in the driver's seat.

Both Michigan State and Missouri have at least 4 conference games, so I think it's too early to think that they'll finish undefeated.

And Boise seems to have the inside track ahead of the Mountain West winner.

- - -

My guess for the title game?

SEC Winner vs (Oregon if undefeated, if not then Missouri if undefeated, if not than Michigan State than undefeated, if not than Boise State.)

Rio and Buenos Aires pictures

Hoagie Central exclusive: first look at our South America photos.

Written recap to come this week.

back tomorrow

I'll be back in the states tomorrow. Hopefully my meat-alcohol level hasn't reached a fatal level.

Knowing me there will be pictures, meat recaps, and possibly video set to "Rio" by Duran Duran.

marshall really shouldn't have scored on that one

When in doubt...post a youtube clip of touchdowns. Might want to hit the mute button though.

nfl mad libs

Wow, I can't believe the Chiefs (played well enough to win/sucked) against the Texans. It figures that Matt Schaub (had a good game/screwed me again in fantasy but still won.) At least Matt Cassel (was terrible / was mediocre.) (The Chiefs are 4-1 so watch out! / Easy part of the schedule coming up.)

college football friday

Really it's two LSU finishes. Both really good. (hopefully they're still up by the time you get this)

two-two

Monday night Kirat and I started a new match. I won in straight sets 6-4, 6-4. But both sets were tied up at 4-4, so it could have gone either way.

Since we had time, we started another match, and left this one in the first set: 3-3, Kirat's serve.

Match #5, started 10.11.10: in progress
Match #4, started 10.11.10: 6-4, 6-4 Dave
Match #3, started 8.4.10: 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 Dave
Match #2, started 7.28.10: 6-7 (2), 6-2, 8-6 Kirat
Match #1, started spring 2002: ?-6, 6-?, 9-7 Kirat

favre on the field

This was written Tuesday morning, following the Vikings loss. Before and after (or possibly near the end of the game) Klosterman tweeted:


It's perhaps more interesting if the last tweet came while the game was still in doubt. The Vikings had a chance to win, down 2 in the final minutes. And Favre had already thrown 3 touchdown passes. But, as has happened again and again, Favre throws a game-ending interception.

We saw this in the NFC Championship most recently, but you could look at just about any Favre game in the last 5 years and see the same thing.

(OF COURSE IT'S EASY TO SAY NOW, but) the best thing the Vikings could have done was let Favre play the whole game...up until the final two minute warning. Have him fake an injury (his arm was visibly hurt anyways) and say I'm not going to let Favre blow this game for us. If I'm going to blow this game, I want Tarvaris to do it.

living it up down old South America way

We're on the way to Rio, and then Buenos Aires. I've got some future-blogged posts (that were all written this morning) coming your way.

It's OVER.

Week 1
Dave 106.5
Niraj 104
Mark 70.5

Week 2
Niraj 88
Mark 81.5
Dave 54.5

Total
Niraj 192
Dave 161
Mark 152

Niraj gets his sweet revenge.

first Illini win in Happy Valley

ESPN disabled the embed feature for this video, and when I tried a workaround it looked like crap.

Just click here for the high quality highlights.

Illini in the NFL

Illini in the NFL Hall of Fame
Red Grange, Running Back, Bears, 1925-1934
George Halas, Head Coach primarily for Bears, 6 NFL Championships, 1920-1967
Hugh "Shorty" Ray, Supervisor of Officials, 1938-1952
Bobby Mitchell, Running Back/Returner, 4-time Pro Bowler, 1958-1968
Ray Nitschke, Linebacker, Packers, 5 NFL Championships, 1958-1972
Dick Butkus, Linebacker, Drafted #3 overall by Bears, 8-time Pro Bowler, 1965-1973

Notable Current Illini in the NFL, sorted by draft date


Neil Rackers, Kicker, Texans, at Illinois 1996-1999, Drafted 6th round 2000.
11 years in the league, went 40/42 in 2005.

Eugene Wilson, Safety, Texans, 1999-2002, Drafted 2nd round 2003.
Won 2003 and 2004 Super Bowl with Patriots, 14 interceptions and 354 tackles through 8 years.

David Diehl, Offensive Tackle, Giants, at Illinois 1999-2002, Drafted 5th round 2003.
Started every game since being drafted, won 2007 Super Bowl, 2009 Pro Bowl.

Brandon Lloyd, Receiver, Broncos, at Illinois 1999-2002, Drafted 4th round 2003.
This is his 8th year. His best year for yardage was his 3rd year, 733 yards. This year he has 454 yards through four games.

Greg Lewis, Receiver, Vikings, at Illinois 1999-2002, undrafted.
After 8 years between the Eagles and Vikings, he has only 140 receptions and 8 touchdowns. But he was the one that caught the Hail Mary from Favre in 2009, receiving ESPY for Best Play.

Kelvin Hayden, Cornerback, Colts, at Illinois 2003-2004 (transferred after 2 seasons at junior college), Drafted 2nd round 2005.
A full-time starter for 6 years, 7 picks, plus a pick six that helped win the 2006 Super Bowl.

Pierre Thomas, Running Back, Saints, at Illinois 2003-2006, undrafted.
Solid running back for the Saints, scored on a screen pass that helped win 2009 Super Bowl.

Rashard Mendenhall, Running Back, Steelers, at Illinois 2005-2007, Drafted 1st round 2008.
Was on the winning team for the 2008 Super Bowl, but didn't play due to injury. Last year ran for over 1100 yards, and is averaging more per carry this year.

Vontae Davis, Cornerback, Dolphins, at Illinois 2006-2008, Drafted 1st round 2009.
Through his second year, he has 65 tackles and 5 interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown.

Michael Hoomanawanui, Tight End, Rams, at Illinois 2006-2009, Drafted 5th round 2010.
Signed a 4-year contract worth 2 million, including a $215,000 signing bonus. Suffered an injury, so far 1 catch for 8 yards.

Arrelious Benn, Wide Receiver, Bucs, at Illinois 2007-2009, Drafted 2nd round 2010.
He caught his first NFL pass in week 3--3 for 33 on the year.

food makes me happy

My weight will probably always fluctuate. I know how to lose weight. I should be able to maintain a weight, but that doesn't seem to happen. And I definitely know how to gain weight.

I'm currently in a cycle of between 165 and 180. My "goal" or "ideal" weight is between 155 and 160. But at 165, I'm pretty happy with how my clothes fit. At 180, my clothes get tight, and that's when I realize I need to get back on the losing weight train.

That happened, most recently, two weeks ago. Today the scale said 176. (According to the BMI for my height, the threshold between normal weight and overweight is 169.)

So if I enjoy having a healthy weight around 160, and I know how to eat healthy and exercise enough to lose a pound or two per week, why does my weight fluctuate? In other words, why once I get down to 160, why do I gain the weight back?

Obviously, I'm not the only person in America who do this. Gaining the weight back is cliche. But why do I do it?

I'll start from a logical, healthy perspective. Let's say I ate a bag of chips and some cookies last weekend...that's not doing anything for me. That pleasure is so fleeting that's it's gone. As opposed to watching Inception, that pleasure is something you can remember and look back fondly.

So if you add this up, you could conclude that food doesn't really make anyone happy.

But here's the thing. Food makes me happy.

Just a month ago, I would wake up on Thursdays and be happy that I was going to get biscuits and gravy. For the Chiefs-Chargers MNF game, I was setting up my menu a week in advance. I had fun in the store picking out my frozen pizza and cheez-its. And when I got to Niraj's and I opened the box of cheese crackers, it really made me happy.

It seems that for most of my work colleagues, alcohol makes them happy. People love having those meetings on Friday afternoons where there's beer. But that doesn't do much for me. At those meetings, I'm headed straight toward the bowls of chex mix.

When we take a trip, the first and maybe only thing I'll research, is the best places to eat.

When I would have a glass of chocolate milk, the act of drinking would only last for 6 seconds. But it really made me feel good.

Of course, two minutes later, the taste is gone. I feel fuller, but I could have gotten fuller eating brown rice and broccoli.

I've written here before:

The goal cannot be getting out of debt. The goal has to be saving money.
Just as the goal cannot be losing weight. The goal has to be eating healthy.

At the time, I thought that I had conquered that part of me that craved unhealthy foods. But four months and forty pounds wasn't enough to do it. And four years later, my idea of a fun time is still a pizza or a italian beef & sausage.

The way I lose weight is being consistent, "on the train." But once Thanksgiving rolls around, it's easy to eat pecan pie for a week and then be consistently unhealthy.

I don't have the final answer, a neat conclusion that this all adds up to. Unhealthy food will probably always make me happy. I'll just have to balance it with healthy food, that can also make me happy, just not as much.

HOW TO: make the best fucking steak

Alternate titles for this post:

How to make a perfect steak
How to get a restaurant-quality steak at home
Put away the steak sauce

- - -

This is a 10 oz New York Strip Steak that cost six dollars at the grocery store. One way to look at that is that you could spend anywhere from $30 to $50 for a NY Strip at a steakhouse. Another way to look at it is that you can spend six dollars getting a "value meal" at McDonalds.

First step, getting the steak out of the fridge and letting it come closer to room temperature sitting on the counter. I start by rubbing the whole steak in olive oil, a little salt and pepper. Also, right away I get my pan up a hair past medium on the stove.

While that's resting, I start cooking the asparagus. I'm using frozen spears, turn the oven to 425, cover in a drizzle of olive oil, bit of balsamic, salt, pepper, and whatever else seasonings seems appropriate. Goes in the oven.

Once my pan is hot and pour some more olive oil in the pan, and in goes the steak.


Boom! Now we're cooking. Literally. I don't touch it for 4-5 minutes. What's neat is that by looking at the side, you can see it cooking. My goal is to get that juicy, bright pink medium center with a nice crust on the outside. If that's not your goal, you could do a variety of other things, including finishing it in the oven, under the broiler, whatever--I believe what Alton Brown says, "If you like your meat well-done, you don't like meat."

So I flip it over, and you can see in this next picture how you can see the meat has cooked through on the (now) top side. After I flip I like to give the side that was just cooking and crusting a nice coating of seasoning salt and montreal steak seasoning.


The way it works out, is that by the time I get a good crust on the outsides, it's just about cooked how I want it. For fun, I put about half a pat of butter in the pan, and let the meat cook in the butter for 30 seconds, and then repeat on the other side. Just for that final color and taste.

Then I remove it to the plate. SUPER IMPORTANT STEP: I let it rest for at least 5 minutes. It works out that the asparagus has been in the oven for about 15 minutes now, so it's almost done.

So I take a little bit of white wine, pour it in the now empty steak pan to deglaze it, and add the asparagus. I let that cook for a minute or two, to absorb some nice flavor and color of the wine and steak drippings.


Now it's time for plating. Here comes the money shot.


Boom! Look at that crust. Look at the pink center. But wait there's more. Let's cut that bad boy open. Here's what it looks like, halfway though the meal.


Juicy, pink center and crust on the outside. Asparagus that tastes delicious and provides a nice, earthy contrast to the meat. So good. I did the same treatment last week with a 12 oz ribeye and they both turned out perfect.

what is this, some cruel joke? (part 2)

Loyal readers might remember this.

In 2007, the Chiefs went 4-12 and the Chiefs game that was televised in Chicago for me was against the Colts. It was the beginning of the Brodie Croyle era, his first start in the NFL.

(By the way, the Brodie Croyle era was not a good one. Prior to Brodie's first start, the Chiefs were 4-5. The lost the next seven. In fact, Croyle has appeared in 16 games, starting 9 of them, and the only one the Chiefs didn't lose, is when he came in for some victory kneel downs. In other words, in the 15 games where Croyle has thrown a pass, the Chiefs are 0-15. In games when Croyle was on the team but didn't throw a pass, the Chiefs are 22-30.)

The game was actually close, a 13-10 win for the Colts that featured Bowe catching a touchdown with his knees.

So of course, this year, I had to go to Burnsy's to watch the MNF opener since I don't have ESPN. And the wins over the Browns and 49ers weren't on in Chicago. But this, playing at the Colts again, this is the game I get.