The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) has released their finalists for the 2009 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year award. The finalists are texas' Mack Brown, Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson, Cincinnati's Brian Kelly, Oregon's Chip Kelly, TCU's Gary Patterson, Boise State's Chris Petersen, and Alabama's Nick Saban. Saban is a previous winner, having won it in 2003 at LSU and last year at Alabama.

My pick is Oregon's Chip Kelly, simply because of where he took his team through the season, from an embarrassing loss to in the opener to Boise State that caused him to suspend his star player all the way to the Rose Bowl. He did a phenomenal coaching job holding his team together, and he did it as a rookie head coach.

The 2009 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year award will be given out on January 5, 2010.

Who is your pick for coach of the year?

Three Aggie true freshmen have been named freshman All-Americans following the 2009 regular season. Wide receiver Uzoma Nwachukwu has been named freshman All-American by Phil Steele (first team) and CollegeFootballNews (third team). RB Christine Michael, the Big 12 offensive freshman of the year, has been named to the third team freshman All-American team by both Phil Steele and CFN. Offensive guard Patrick Lewis, a true freshman from Louisiana, was named to the second team freshman All-American offense by CFN.

Redshirt freshman linebacker Kyle Mangan was named to the CFN freshman All-American third-team defense. Mangan finished the season with 63 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, 2 interceptions, 1 forced fumble, and 1 fumble recovery. With Mangan and Michael Hodges manning the middle, our two-deep is set for the next few years at middle linebacker.

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I will be driving to Shreveport to attend the Independence Bowl for the first time. This isn't my first time in Shreveport, but it is my first time going there for a bowl game. I plan on doing a lot of gambling and watching a lot of college football before and after our game. If anyone wants to meet up before or after the game, I'm open to suggestions. I'll probably be doing most of my gambling at Harrah's Horseshoe Bossier City off of Traffic Street.

Who else is going?

A New Name For A Thirty-Three Year Old Bowl

After finding out which bowl we agreed to go to, I set out to find out just exactly who it is who is sponsoring this bowl game. Advocare is a health and wellness company located in Dallas, and Advocare V100 is their multivitamin product that they market to college athletes. This is the Independence Bowl's fifth title sponsor (who can forget Poulan Weedeaters sponsoring a bowl with artificial turf?), but the first direct sales company to ever be allowed to sponsor a bowl game. In a sense, this bowl game is making corporate sponsor history. So, in a sense, by participating in this game, we are helping make bowl history. I am just hopeful if will be the beginning of a positive bowl history for the Aggies.

More photos » by Dave Einsel - AP

Bryan Davis looks for his shot against North Texas. Davis scored 15 points in the Aggies ten-point victory Monday night. (AP Photo/Dave Einsel)

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Donald Sloan scored a game-high 21 points and was a perfect 10-10 from the free throw lines as the Aggies weathered a rough second-half to defeat UNT, 75-65. David Loubeau was a big factor for the Aggies early, as they built a 40-25 halftime lead. UNT tightened up their defense in the second half, and outscored A&M 40-35 in the second period, but the Aggies did just enough to win the game. The Aggies had four players finish in double figures; along with Sloan, Bryan Davis finished with 15 points, David Loubeau had 12, and Derrick Roland chipped in 10. The Aggies went inside to Loubeau and Davis early and often, trying to exploit UNT inside.

In the first half, A&M rode a hot shooting touch (63% from the floor, 50% from beyond the arc) and an opportunistic offense (forced 11 turnovers) to a fifteen point halftime lead. In the second half, UNT was careful with the ball (only three turnovers), and outrebounded the Aggies 22-20 to get back into the game. The Eagles tightened up their defense, holding the Aggies to 32% from the floor and 16.7% from the three point line. Hitting 20 of 24 free throws (83%) accounted for the majority of the Aggies points.

Overall, this is a solid win, but we need to execute on offense better and play a more complete game. A win is a win, though, and this was a solid one for this team.

BEAT THE HELL OUTTA UNT!!!!!

I don't have a vote on the Heisman Trophy, which is probably a good thing, because there are too many years I would have browbeat and then ridiculed my fellow voters for such stellar choices as Eric Crouch and Gino Toretta for the Trophy. Not having a vote won't stop me from offering my opinion on who should win the Trophy for best player in college football this season, though.

After the 2009 season, Ndamukong Suh has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is the best player in college football. After thirteen games, Suh leads his team with 82 tackles, 23 tackles for loss, 12 sacks, 1 interception, 10 passes broken up, 24 quarterback hurries, 1 forced fumble, and 3 blocked kicks. Suh has accomplished this despite often being double and triple-teamed by opposing offensive lines. That is complete domination by any measure, and that is with opposing offensive lines and offensive coordinator scheming their gameplan around avoiding you on every play.

In the Big 12 Championship Game, facing texas' supposed Heisman candidate Colt McCoy, Suh had 12 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, and 1 quarterback hurry. Suh pretty much destroyed McCoy's candidacy all by himself. McCoy's three interceptions in the game can be traced to intimidation and, in the case of his first quarter interception, prophetic visions of the beating that was to come.

Suh is without a doubt the best player in college football this season, and the most dominating defensive tackle to come out of college this millenium. If the Heisman is truly about recognizing the best player in college football, it would go to Suh. Since the Heisman is pretty much required to go to an offensive player, Mark Ingram, the running back from Alabama who helped lead his team to an upset win over Florida in the SEC Championship Game, will probably win the award.

True college football fans, however, know who the best player in the game is this season, and he wears #93 for Nebraska.

Cincinnati at Pittsburgh, 11 a.m., ABC

West Virginia at Rutgers, 11 a.m., ESPN

Houston vs. East Carolina, 11 a.m., ESPN2

Fresno State at Illinois, 11 a.m., Big Ten

Southern at Texas Southern, 1 p.m., ESPNU

Arizona at Southern California, 2:30 p.m., ABC

Carson-Newman vs. Grand Valley State, 2:30 p.m., ESPN

Florida vs. Alabama, 3 p.m., CBS

Georgia Tech vs. Clemson, 7 p.m., ESPN

South Florida at Connecticut, 7 p.m., ESPN2

texas vs. Nebraska, 7 p.m., ABC

This is your gamethread for all games on today, including the SEC and Big 12 Championship games.