More Saturday Ramblings (Nov. 28): No Stoops for You, Notre Dame

*The carcasses of the Oklahoma State Cowboys weren't even cold yet Saturday when talk of Bob Stoops interviewing with Notre Dame started up again.

The CBS studio team said Notre Dame officials would be talking with Stoops on Sunday afternoon. Message board chatter of $50 million contracts surfaced. Sooner Nation was sent into a tizzy. Again.

Stoops' take?

"On the record, I am not (interviewing). First I've heard of this (rumor)," Stoops told Dave Sittler of the Tulsa World.

Somehow, though, I don't think that will be the end of that. You can thank your boy Nick Saban for that one, Bob.

*If I had a vote, I'd go with Toby Gerhart for the Heisman trophy. Colt McCoy, Tim Tebow and Mark Ingram all have had outstanding seasons, but the talent surrounding them is far superior to what Gerhart is working with. McCoy would be a very close second.

I wouldn't be surprised if Stanford's physical running game sparks something of a trend.

*Interesting stat, courtesy of Homerism's associate E$: Teams playing in major conference championship games this week–Florida, Alabama, Nebraska, Texas, Clemson, Georgia Tech–went a combined 1-5 against the spread last week.

I get the whole look-ahead aspect of these matchups with the championship game berths already locked up. Yet, what's interesting about this trend to Homerism is that all of these teams were playing in games that are rivalries on some level.  It seems odd that teams wouldn't have their heads in these games, especially this late in the year.

*So, the SEC is having a down year? The ACC is on the rise? Two SEC also-rans just beat the ACC's division winners yesterday.

*I'm so fed-up with all of these "unwritten rules" of coaching late in games. Rick Neuheisel broke some gentlemen's agreement by calling timeout while USC was running out the clock, huh? Then Pete Carroll violated the code by throwing deep, right? The same guy who beefed with Jim Harbaugh about Stanford running it up.

Neuheisel may have started it, but coaches come off as pretty petty. Since no one asked, my advice: The game is 60 minutes long. However a coach wants his team to play during that hour is his business. Charity is moot.

As an aside, maybe both coaches wanted to cover the spread?