Locker OK

Official update during the broadcast of the UW game. UW QB Jake Locker, who earlier left in an ambulance, has been released from the hospital and is returning to the game. Presumably he won't be playing anymore tonight, but with the results from the hospital negative and his being released, looks like there is hope for his return next week. Meanwhile the UW has pulled within 6 points of the Beavers with 7 minutes left in the game. Lets go Dawgs!

UPDATE: The Huskies get a lucky break from what is a horrible call by the refs, who gave the Huskies a fumble recovery on a play where OSU running back Bernard was CLEARLY down at the 3 yard line. However they were able to snap the ball before anyone could call for a review.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: Washington lost, 29-23.

Meanwhile, Locker wasn't the only quarterback out west who suffered a scary helmet-to-helmet hit in one of yesterday's late games. Hawaii's Colt Brennan -- who has a showdown with Locker's Huskies on December 1 -- suffered a mild concussion in the Warriors' win over Fresno State:

The Warriors are now 9-0 and 6-0 in the Western Athletic Conference, one of just two unbeaten teams left in the nation. But much of the talk was about Brennan's status after the hardest hit many watching had ever seen in a football game.

The crushing blow (shoulder first, no flag) dealt by Bulldogs linebacker Marcus Riley left Brennan unconscious briefly, and with what was initially diagnosed as a grade 3 (the most severe) concussion. It was later described as "mild" by a UH official, and several people said Brennan was back to normal after the game.

Brennan did not talk to reporters afterward, but did release a statement.

"I'm doing fine," he said through a UH spokesman. "I'd like to thank everyone for the support they gave out there. I'm looking forward to getting back on the field for next week's game against Nevada." ...

[A] UH official described Brennan as "day-to-day" when it comes to football duties. Brennan did not require hospitalization.

Coach June Jones said he does not expect Brennan to miss Friday's game at Nevada.

Comments

[C. Bassett]

Great to hear.

Colt Brennan just took a ferocious helmet to helmet hit as well. Looked like he may have been knocked out... he was down for a couple minutes, a few players were kneeling to pray. Got up and walked off with help after a couple minutes, but he looked like he may have thought he woke up on Mars.

Haven't seen the hit that Locker took yet, but scary night for quarterbacks.

[C. Bassett]

Brennan has a grade 3 concussion, according to media reports. Him being out for the rest of the regular season(including games against Boise State and Washington, of course) seems like a strong possibility right now.

[Ken]

I haven’t seen an update by Brendan so I will again post an unofficial set of standings in the USC and ND football pools.

On the USC side, Sean Sullivan continues to hold the lead with a 5 point edge over Vicki Lopez. With only 2 games left to play we can now give some parameters concerning who may win the pool depending on the outcome of those games.

If USC wins both games then the winner will be either Sean or Vicki depending on the margin of victory by USC in those games. Sean has USC winning over Arizona State by 10 and over UCLA by 17. Vicki has USC winning those games by 17 and 27 points respectively. Since Vicki needs to make up 5 points over those two games she will certainly be rooting for USC to run up the score as much as possible as she has picked USC to have larger margins than Sean did in both of the games. (This is also the result if USC beats Arizona State but loses to UCLA. Josh Rubin is the only person to have picked USC to lose to UCLA, but he is a game behind in the standings (having picked ND to beat USC) so even if he gets into a tie in the won-loss standings, his overall point differential will be too high to reach the top.)

If USC loses to Arizona State then thebeef will be the winner since he is currently tied in the won-loss record with the leaders and is the only person to pick USC to lose to Arizona State. This result would stand regardless of the outcome of the UCLA game as the only person to pick UCLA...Josh Rubin...would have one more loss than thebeef so would not be able to defeat him.

Meanwhile here are the standings in the USC pool through 10 games. (The first group of people each have an 8-2 record.)

Sean Sullivan 96
Vicki Lopez 101
Ken Stern 120
thebeef 121
gahrie 122
Amit Joshi 124
Scientizzle 126
Texasyank 130
Anonymous Hoosier 139
David K. 145
Brendan Loy 146
Andrew 153
Mike Wiser 159
Sandy Underpants 200

Lisa Velte (7-3) 145
Josh Rubin(7-3) 146
Admiral Halsey(7-3) 155
C. Bassett(7-3) 157
Mark Gardner(7-3) 162
Randy(7-3) 208
Lauren Taylor (5-5) 153

As to the Notre Dame pool, as indicated previously Sandy Underpants has an insurmountable lead in the pool....and congratulations to Sean Sullivan who has managed to do so far what ND has not quite done...have a perfect 0-10 season to this point!!

I don’t have the time to post the actual numbers now as I am getting ready to leave on a cross-country drive (from Maine to Los Angeles) tomorrow morning.

[Sandy Underpants]

I don't understand how John Saunders and others dismiss Hawaii from the BCS championship discussion. He says It's 8 one loss teams and Kansas that are in the running. Did they actually run the math and it's completely impossible for Hawaii to make it? Not so fast my friend. All the one loss teams can lose a 2nd game before the seasons out and how can Hawaii not make it from 12 to 2 if that happens? Two 2 loss teams can play in the BCS championship before an undefeated Hawaii could contend? Doesn't seem right.

[C. Bassett]

Hawaii is not getting any respect from the BCS computers, and that will not change even if all the right teams ahead of them lose again.

They are 16th in the BCS rankings. They were 14th two weeks ago. They got a bump in the human polls on Sunday thanks to a win against a decent, respected Fresno team, but they still barely show up in the computer rankings.

Adding to Hawaii's computer problem, I do not think the coaches and Harris voters are willing to give Hawaii much more respect than they did on Sunday. Some people, like ESPN's Craig James(an AP voter, but you can imagine a similar voter or two in the Harris), don't even have Hawaii ranked in their top 25.

At this point, it seems like a 12-0 Hawaii may not even crack the top 12. A win against Boise State and Washington will get them close, but it's looking like it may not be enough. Their strength of schedule has hurt them a lot more than most people thought it would when we were all discussing this at the beginning of the season.