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Tom Keegan

Kream Keegan

2007 season, week 8

Last weeek's winner: It was Chip English, who went 6-0 and was just two points off with a KU-Baylor score prediction of 56-10.

Voters in this year's wide-open Heisman Trophy race will pay close attention to what transpires in Columbia, Mo., Saturday, when Texas Tech visits Missouri in a battle of two of the nation's most prolific offenses.

Missouri's Chase Daniel was just beginning to get mentioned as a serious Heisman candidate when he suffered a setback with two interceptions and a bad exchange in a 10-point loss at Oklahoma last week. He could get back into the race with a huge game and a victory.

Meanwhile, Texas Tech's quarterback, Graham Harrell, by far has the best statistical profile in the nation. It no longer is fair for anyone to dismiss his candidacy with the standard, "He's just a product of Mike Leach's spread offense." That's an insult to Harrell's uncanny accuracy. All of Harrell's numbers - 74.4 completion percentage, 9.08 yards per attempt and 31 touchdown passes against three interceptions - absolutely blow away the field.

Even so, he's considered a darkhorse at this point, ranking behind slight favorite Matt Ryan of Boston College. Andre' Woodson of Kentucky actually is a slightly more deserving candidate at this point. Whatever traction Woodson lost in a poor performance in a loss to South Carolina, he should have regained by leading the Wildcats to an upset victory against then-No. 1 LSU.

Colorado 31, Kansas 30: Buffs' freshman quarterback Cody Hawkins completes 62 percent of his passes at home, 47 percent on the road.

Missouri 38, Texas Tech 34: Two of the nation's best passing offenses meet. Texas Tech leads the country with an average of 500.4 passing yards and the Tigers rank fifth with 358.2 yards per game.

Harrell's Heisman hopes take a dip with the Red Raiders' second loss of the season.

Oklahoma State 34, Kansas State 31: Mike Gundy, a man, is 40 years old. Ron Prince, 38 and a man's man, has a winning Big 12 record (6-5) in his second year at the head of a program that had shown signs of slipping. Gundy is 6-13 in Big 12 games and coming of a 45-14 win at Nebraska.

Nebraska 28, Texas A&M 24: Cornhuskers win the embattled coaches' bowl. It's worth wondering how the Nebraska program would look with Turner Gill, now heading Buffalo's program, as head coach and Bo Pelini, LSU's defensive coordinator, wooed back to Lincoln to head the defense. Pelini might not return unless it's for the head coaching job, though.

Oklahoma 41, Iowa State 13: The Sooners rank fourth in the country and third in the Big 12 with an average of 48.43 points per game.

Texas 42, Baylor 13: Colt McCoy is on fire after a slow start. In the past two games, the Longhorns' sophomore quarterback has a 76.4 completion percentage and has thrown for 622 yards, six touchdowns and one interception. The Texas sports information department points out that McCoy had a 124.6 rating in his first five games, 203.7 in the last two.

(The contest is currently closed. Good luck to all who entered.)