Megan Moroney Spending Christmas Vacation In Bikinis, Terann Hilow Led Houston To A Win & Penn State Is Back
There's an interesting turbulence pattern in the northern plains.
Penn State won the Disappointing Season Bowl
The Penn State Nittany Lions are the winners of the 2025 Pinstripe Bowl, which is the official title of the Disappointing Season Bowl. They beat Clemson 22-10 on Saturday at Yankee Stadium.
These two teams were in the Top 5 in the preseason College Football rankings. Penn State, which I warned as the season started should never have been ranked that high, was No. 2 and Clemson was No. 4.
Like both of their seasons, the Pinstripe Bowl was ugly. 6-3 at halftime, kind of ugly. But it was a win for the Nittany Lions and apologies are never given for wins, especially wins that are the fourth win in a row to end a miserable season.
The winning streak to end the season gave the Nittany Lions a winning record at 7-6. It all started following a three-point loss to the now-No. 1 Indiana Hoosiers.
There could be an argument, maybe by only me, that that was a win for Penn State and that they actually ended the season on a five-game winning streak.
That's how you build some momentum going into a bounce-back season. It was a tough, but necessary season. It allowed Penn State to finally get rid of Jame Franklin and his big game losses.
It's Matt Campbell's turn to win a few big games in Happy Valley.
55 pounds of meth for Christmas
Last week a Nebraska man was arrested in Kentucky for having a trunk full of Christmas presents. Evidently you can't wrap your meth up in Christmas wrapping paper anymore.
That's news to me. Jacob Talamantes, 23, was busted by police after a K9 sniffed his vehicle and led officers to the trunk, reports WLKY.
Jeffersontown Police made the bust on the Bluegrass Parkway after opening the trunk to find it filled with the meth-filled Christmas presents, 55 pounds worth of meth.
Talamantes, according to police, told investigators he made the trip from Iowa to traffic the drugs. He was charged with first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (methamphetamine).
"No amount of festive wrapping can disguise the harm these drugs inflict on families and communities. The coordinated efforts of partner agencies ensured these holiday-wrapped packages never reached the streets," J-town police said in a news release.
Well said. A little less meth under the tree this Christmas is good for everyone.
Die Hard is not a Christmas Movie
- MP from Staunton Virginia writes:
Sean, here’s my response to this statement:👍
December 21 "Numbers From"
- Joe from Virginia writes:
Sean, I generally love the column but your December 21 "Numbers From" item was silly in context. The four Group of 5 team results in the college football playoff that you show in complete isolation would in fact appear (in bold) as follows in relation to the Power conference team results:
TCU (-58)
Florida St. (-39)
Michigan St. (-38)
Oklahoma (-35)
Ohio St. (-31)
Tulane (-31) (Road)
Alabama (-28)
Ohio St. (-28)
SMU (-28) (Road)
Notre Dame (-27)
Tennessee (-25) (Road)
Michigan (-23)
Oregon (-22)
Clemson (-21)
Washington (-21)
Cincinnati (-21)
Oklahoma (-20)
Oregon (-20)
Clemson (-18)
Washington (-17)
Clemson (-17)
Boise St. (-17)
Notre Dame (-17)
JMU (-17) (Road)
Alabama (-15)
Texas (-14)
Clemson (-14) (Road)
Georgia (-13)
Notre Dame (-11)
Oklahoma (-11)
Oklahoma (-10) (Home)
Indiana (-10) (Road)
The fact is that only 13 of the 45 CFP games played have been 1-score games, and even eight of those thirteen were by a touchdown. Here are some further numbers. The average margin of victory for games with Group of 5 opponents is 21.5 points compared to 17.1 points for Power team opponents, while the median margin of victory is 19 compared to 15. So the difference, historically, is little more than one field goal. Yet, even that field goal difference is unfairly skewed statistically against Gof5 teams for two reasons.
First, 90% of the Power conference matchups were neutral site or home game losses whereas half of Gof5 games were road games (2 road losses, 2 neutral site losses). Power conference teams have rarely had to face road tests during the CFP unlike the Gof5 teams consigned to that fate, so one would expect their loss margins to be a little less. In other words, had the Power conference teams been forced to play true road games half the time like the Gof5 teams, then their loss margins certainly would have increased materially. Second, the vast majority of Power conference team CFP matchups occurred during the era of the four team playoff, when the CFP was effectively limited to the best 4 Power conference teams in the country. Yet, blowouts still predominated. It was inevitable that margins of victory would increase when the field expanded to 12 or 16, even if all the additional teams came from Power conferences.
Finally, citing the half-time score of the Oregon-JMU game as "evidence" -- while intentionally omitting the final score -- was utterly ridiculous. If one wants to play the numbers game in terms of halfs, that's fine. Then JMU's record in the CFP was 1-1 (both on the road) since they "beat" Oregon soundly in the second half by a score of 28-17. Notably, the JMU offense also piled up more points (34) and more total yards (509) against Oregon than any of the 10 Power conference teams that played Oregon this year, including Indiana (30/326), USC (27/382) and Washington (14/283). Even Dan Lanning, in two separate post-game interviews, was visibly embarrassed by how JMU manhandled Oregon in the second half on the road.
It's true that the Gof5 is 0-4 in the CFP to date on an extremely small sample size. But historical powerhouse Oklahoma is worse at 0-5. I'm fine with having an honest conversation about the CFP going forward (including expansion), but it must actually be honest.
SeanJo
Joe, I like this. If I'm following along, the four teams listed in last Sunday's "Numbers from" actually won those games and were in fact not blown out in any of those games.
Permission to steal this. I'd like to use it in arguments.
Wait, did I post it as supporting evidence that the JMUs of the world should not be in the College Football Playoff or sarcastically because pretending Group of 5 teams are the only teams to get blown out is silly?
Screencaps
- Keith W writes:
Hi Sean,
I think the northern plains likes a lot of turbulence.
I hope you have a Merry Christmas.
SeanJo
Thanks, Keith. I had a great Christmas and I hope you did as well.
As far as the turbulence is concerned, if you're going to have any in a particular area, it should make a hilarious pattern.
Final Hanukkah latkes
- Joe writes:
Brisket, latkes, and Honduran crema instead of sour cream. Cooked in chili infused beef tallow. Bigger than most cook them, but still awesome. No applesauce in this house.
Crap. I'm too late for the pie day post.
- K.C. writes:
Oh well. Here's my Dutch Apple Pie that I made this weekend. TWAS FLAKEY AF.
Cosplay cowboys
- Phil S in Florida writes:
A good morning to you sir. I see I may have struck a nerve with Nebraska Niemo about grown men playing dress up. He is correct that Florida is #10 in beef production in the country, I looked it up. Though it’s terrible beef, I don’t know what they feed these cows that removes all flavor from the meat, but I’d love a good Chicago steak. That city used to be the stockyards and any Chicagoan knows a good steak. However I fail to see how beef production causes/allows men to dress up like they’re hitting the Oregon trail to go prospecting out west. Or how raising cattle equates to cowboy work. And I KNOW 99% of these guys do not work the cattle fields. Modern beef production rarely lets cows out of the confined space they’re kept in until the truck pulls up to take them for processing. No horse or lasso required. I used to be a chef, and I wanted to know where the food I served came from, so I know. You can raise cattle in a Batman t-shirt and gym shorts just as well as in a wrangler plaid shirt and boot cut jeans. Vegetable pickers have a more labor intensive job, but they rarely go out in public dressed like the Martha Stuart catalog. Cowboy outfits are cosplay, even in the 10th highest beef producing state.
Nantucket Ninny Brew
- Jayson writes:
I thought those people had servants to do their fighting . . . .
Best article Bro
*Redacted*
And best Christmas to you and ’26 to all the Outkick talent . .
SeanJo
Thanks, Jayson. For those who missed it, I suggest getting a little more of the OutKick Culture Department in your lives.
The Nantucket Christmas Stroll included a brawl this year and reports of what started in a bar and spilled into the streets are heavily redacted.
It's fun, it's festive, it's how the extremely wealthy live.
Theft of avocados
- Terry writes:
Grinch deputies?? Bullshit! This guy stole the avocados in a Mercedes after cutting thru the fence. I hope you’re being factious in your take. This criminal got what he deserved.
SeanJo
These are some of my favorite pieces of fan mail. I honestly don’t even know what to say. Some of us are still trying to have some fun and not take everything in life so seriously.
Here's the dripping with sarcasm piece that has Terry up in arms.
------------
That's all I have for Sunday Screencaps. I'm running out the clock on 2025 with you. Joe made the call to the bullpen, and I'm on Screencaps duty Monday through Wednesday.
Joe will return for New Year's Day, then I'll take Friday. After that, we're back to our regular schedule. Let's have a great final Sunday of the year. There's football on and my Panthers need a win.
The inbox is open for anything and everything at sean.joseph@outkick.com. Also, go follow me on Twitter and over on Instagram.