Sylvester Croom Award Nominees: Texas Tech, Purdue & Indiana

It's always comical (or amazing, or both) to watch the major coaching blunders that cost teams games on Saturdays. The more you see, the more PYB realizes how unfair it is for coaches to ask players to devote their lives 12 months a year to training, practicing, studying etc. when they piss away all that hard work with decisions that a 13-year-old wouldn't make while playing PlayStation. Let's get to today's honorees:

1. Mike Leach, Texas Tech--Up 28-23 with a 4th-and-goal from the 1, he skips the field goal that would have guaranteed OT at the worst. Taylor Potts gets stoned at the one, and Houston promptly goes down the field for the winning TD. At least Leach admitted the botch, but if you kick the FG and even if UH goes right down the field for a TD, the two-point conversion is a 50% success rate at best. Duh.

2. Bill Lynch, Indiana--Entirely beside the point is that Lynch completely embarrassed himself by being the most bitter, out-of-control A-hole ever on the sideline Saturday. Worse was the fact that after the Hoosiers took the lead over Michigan AND got the ball back, he called three straight mail-it-in plays and had to punt. UM got the ball at the 50, scored, game over. Got the lead and pissed the bed, bottom line. Coaches should know that hoping will never get it done on the road against a team you haven't beaten since 1987.

3. Danny Hope, Purdue--Must be an Indiana thing. But the Boilermakers fight back to take the lead on Notre Dame, then go into Turtle Mode and hide in their shell (aka prevent zones) and hope to win. Worst of all was the 3rd & 14 from around the 30-yard-line, where the CBs gave a 10-yard+ cushion on the line and dropped back further at the snap, allowing an easy completion for a first down. This is not even to mention that Hope called a timeout after a Notre Dame running play got to the five yard line and had NO timeouts remaining and the clock ticking down from :36 seconds. Hope, feeling charitable, called a timeout and allowed the Irish to get calmed down and devise their game-winning play. Congrats......