A few pre-coffee observations on a Tuesday morning in...what month is this?

• At least the BCS National Championship game was exciting. For the first quarter. I guess Ohio State was the product of a Big Ten Conference that was unusually weak this season. The Big Ten was 2-5 in bowl games, and both the Buckeyes and Michigan were blown out.

• Troy Smith was the best player in college football this season? Please. West Virginia's Pat White is superior in every facet. Smith isn't even the best player on his team. Tedd Ginn Jr. left with an ankle injury and Smith (10 carries, -29 yards, 4-of-14 passing, 35 yards, one pick, five sacks) looked like a deer in the headlights.

• Just to pick on Smith a little more... there had been talk of him going No. 1 in the NFL Draft earlier this season. But he's nowhere near NFL caliber. Monday's game proved that. He can't throw and he's not even much of a scrambler. How many times did Florida's defensive ends hawk him from behind? If you can't outrun the big guys on defense, you'd better be able to pick apart a defense. But Smith can't. He'll join Charlie Ward, Chris Weinke, Gino Torretta, Jason White, Danny Wuerffel and Eric Couch as Heisman winners in the last 13 years not good enough to contribute in the NFL.

• Chris Myers is the biggest nerd on television. His postgame interview asking Florida receiver Dallas Baker if he wanted to propose wins the award as most awkward moment ever by a male sideline reporter. It joins Suzy Shuster asking Bill Callahan if that was one of the most satisfying dumps he's ever had, a hammered Joe Namath telling Suzy Kolber he wants to kiss her and every Lisa Guerrero interview on Monday Night Football in the pantheon of awkward sideline reporter moments.

• How about the Big East going 5-0 in bowl games?

• Speaking of the bowls...congratulations to, well, myself for winning the Runway bowl challenge. My 17 correct picks narrowly edged out Jim, Manny and Sturge-Rock for the top spot. Ian, with 10 correct picks, finished last. On the bright side, Ian's blog entries are much better than his college football picks.

• Scott Brosius didn't get a single vote for the Hall of Fame. I'd still take Brosius every day of the week and twice on Sunday at third base over A-Rod. There isn't a single Yankees fan who'd disagree.

• Be sure to catch UConn hockey captain Matt Scherer on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" this afternoon at 1 p.m. (FOX-61). I talked with Scherer about the experience for today's Register, the first edition of my college hockey notebook. Scherer does pretty well for himself on the show, and wins points in the smooth operator department by giving show host Meredith Vieira a signed hockey puck. (Now that the show is over, I can spill the beans. He won $25,000 and answered some pretty tough questions to get there). Nice job, Matt.