Felton Highly Intelligent Runner. LAJ’s Don Williams continues his series in looking at some redshirt players with RB Demarcus Felton and he’s been my pick-to-click for the guy to replace DeAndre Washington next year. Running backs coach Mike Jinks says that Felton is highly intelligent and has terrific vision:

“Felton’s, number one, ultra-intelligent and his vision is phenomenal,” Jinks said. “I don’t know if he gets lost (for defenders), but his ability to come through small holes — kind of like Dre (Washington) in that way — and move within the tackles is pretty unique. So again, we’ll be all right.”

Jinks says that Felton will definitely push Justin Stockton next year and much like a lot of you, I see Stockton to increase his carries, but stay in that current role of not necessarily being a lead back, but a Reggie Bush type of player that is spread out all over the field.

Bowl Projections. LAJ’s Don Williams takes a look at some of the latest bowl projections, with a handful of projections thinking that Texas Tech and Texas A&M in Houston makes the most sense. Don mentions a couple of potential stocking points, the first one being West Virginia ending up 8-4 and the second is the SEC:

The second factor: The SEC’s say-so over where most of its teams go bowling. A Texas A&M-Texas matchup didn’t materialize for last year’s Texas Bowl amid suspicion SEC officials believed the Aggies had too little to gain and too much to lose had they gone to Houston and lost to the Longhorns.

Instead, Arkansas was sent to the Texas Bowl to play Texas, and the Aggies went to the Liberty Bowl to play West Virginia.

SEC officials, rather than the league’s bowl partners, now determine where six of their teams go in the postseason under a policy put in place last year. After SEC teams are selected for the College Football Playoff and New Year’s contract bowls, the Citrus Bowl gets to choose.

I honestly had no idea how big the influence was that the SEC held over their teams on where they could go bowling

Rhoads Fired at Iowa State. Via Land Grant Guantlet’s Grant Thome, Iowa State fired head coach Paul Rhoads yesterday after a 3-8 season on the year and is the 6th season in a row with a record below .500. Rhoads will coach the final game, which is sorta crazy and Thome runs down some options for Iowa State, including Troy Calhoun, Mark Richt, Doug Meacham, Scott Frost, and Craig Bohl. I have no idea where they’ll eventually turn, but it should be interesting.

Miscellaneous. The official site has their game preview complete with game notes with a depth chart that is not at all accurate . . . the DMN and SAEN’s Tim Griffin both have their rankings of teams in Texas . . .