Happy New Year everyone! Last time we crossed paths, Mike Shanahan was still the Denver Broncos headman, Utah was an underdog, Pac Man Jones was still in the NFL and Tim Tebow was still human. Here’s to 2009!

I am still confused as to how Utah is not the national champion of college football. How do you go undefeated, play the same opponents as the other two schools being argued for and dominate a game on a national stage in which you were tabbed an automatic loss and not be crowned number one? Oh, and on top of that the President of the United States is in your corner.

I remember when it was, “Wait until they play TCU.” Oops. “BYU will get them, they always do.” Um. “Alabama plays in the SEC and is too talented, plus Nick Saban is great in bowl games.” Hmmm. The Utes are the ONLY team in the country NOT associated with the word ‘LOSS.’ In fact, they are the only team associated with a certain term twice during the BCS era, ‘PERFECT.’ With all that, I suppose the only term fitting for Utah’s situation is ‘ROBBERY,’ and the only way to fix it is ‘PLAYOFF.’

Did you know the Florida Gators get dressed for a game in a locker room? Only interesting because their quarterback does it from a phone booth! Tim Tebow is the Chuck Norris of sports. This kid has been hyped so much it’s hard to believe he’s mortal. Twenty years from now, our kids will hear tales of how Tebow saved a small village in Thailand and threw a winning jump pass against Tennessee in the same day. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to hear an athlete doing the right thing once in a while, but this has gotten crazy. I can’t wait until he’s out of college and he can endorse everything known to man. The Tim Te-BowFlex, Tebow-steak, record your shows with TeBo (no longer TiVo), Tebow and arrow and soon body parts:  “The arm bone’s connected to the TEBOW!”

Adam “Pac Man” Jones is back at it again. The rain man has been tied to a shooting that happened two days after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended him for a year and told him to stay away from strip clubs. The shooting he’s alleged to be involved in occurred after a night … wait for it … at the strip club! If the rain man ever plays a down again, it would be a bigger disgrace to the NFL than he’s already been. How many times does one have to touch an oven to know it burns? I’ll say it again, “The reason athletes act like they are above the law is because they are above the law.”

This year, the league’s conference championships won’t include Tony Romo, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Tom Brady or any of the usual suspects. Here’s a motley crew: Donovan McNabb, Kurt Warner, Joe Flacco and Ben Roethlisberger. McNabb was being benched and run out of Philly, Kurt Warner was a washed up two year wonder and Joe Flacco was … who is Joe Flacco? Big Ben has been here before and it’s no surprise the Ravens are where they are.

The question is who do you root for in the NFC? Donovan McNabb is a borderline hall-of-famer and has always been a class act. He’s been doubted and disrespected since draft day. What better way to stick it to Philly fans, Kevin Kolb and Rush Limbaugh than to get back to the Super Bowl. Then there’s Kurt Warner, the man from the small school in Iowa who once sacked groceries in between stints in the Arena Football League. Once a league MVP and Super Bowl champ, Warner fell off the map with stints backing up Eli Manning in New York and off to Arizona to make way for Matt Leinart. Now at 37, he has a shot to play in his third Super Bowl and collect a second ring with a franchise that still doesn’t know what football is. Either is a fine choice.

Three of the finest coaches in modern time are exiting the game and probably won’t be roaming the sidelines during the 2009 season. Mike Shanahan, Mike Holmgren and Tony Dungy have dominated the NFL the past 10 years. We may see Shanahan and Holmgren back soon but it appears as if Dungy has ridden off into the sunset. I must bid adieu to one of the finest sports figures we’ve seen in sometime. Dungy is everything the term ‘role model’ is deemed to be. You’ve never seen Dungy belittle a player, blow up on the media, or criticize anyone no matter what the circumstances were. He’s a pioneer as the first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl and his style of coaching. In an era of prima donna players, big money, and constant turnover he shows winning the right way is still possible.

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The repetitive dismal offensive performances, the consistent strings of blowout losses in conference play, the parallel losing streaks. 

Sharing so much in common – and almost all of it pertinent to futility – it is hardly a mystery that the Wyoming Cowboys (2-6) and San Diego State Aztecs (1-7) enter their noon matchup on Saturday at War Memorial Stadium evenly matched, with both teams occupying the basement of the Mountain West conference standings.

 “(Wyoming) is wounded like we are,” San Diego State head coach Chuck Long said during the midweek conference call. “They have the same issues that we have.”

And with the analogous frustrations of disappointing seasons comes the same hunger to escape the downward spirals both teams have found themselves trapped in over the past month. 

The Cowboys crawl into Saturday’s game having been outscored 207-30 in their past five games, including a 54-7 pounding last weekend at Texas Christian University.

Offensively, Wyoming’s 8.8 points per game average is by far the worst offensive output in the country and the Cowboys have yet to solve their increasingly-ponderous quarterback dilemma.

Wyoming head coach Joe Glenn has tried the services of every quarterback on his depth chart during the course of the Cowboys’ miserable five game losing streak: Karsten Sween, Dax Crum, Ian Hetrick, and Chris Stutzriem – and none of them have been able to spark the offense from its one-dimensional dormancy.

Crum and Sween, who have received the most playing time of the four, have combined to pass for a meager 729 yards, with two touchdowns and 12 interceptions this season.

Sween showed signs of life against TCU, guiding the Cowboys to two substantial first-half drives against the nation’s top statistical defense, but he was knocked out of the game in the third quarter with a concussion and the wheels quickly fell off the Cowboy offense from there.

Wyoming has scored a total of 17 points in five conference losses, and the team’s futility has reached desperate levels, struggling like a unit sinking progressively deeper into quicksand; since beginning the 2007 season with a 4-1 record, the Cowboys have lost 12 of 15 games.

Things haven’t been much better for the Aztecs.

One week after being embarrassed 70-7 at New Mexico, San Diego State turned in its most spirited effort of the season at home against Colorado State, but ultimately was left only with perhaps its most disheartening loss of the season.

The Aztecs upset bid slipped away in the second half, as Colorado State overcame a 24-17 third quarter deficit and rallied for a 38-34 victory.

San Diego State, too, is winless in conference play, lost 29-27 earlier this season at home to FCS Cal Poly, and enters Saturday’s game with a four-game losing streak.

Despite the struggles, both teams anticipate their matchup with the incentive of possibly snapping their woes and ending their seasons on a positive note.

“It is a new week and a new opponent in Wyoming and we are excited about preparation,” Long said. “Offensively speaking, we want to keep the same balance. We want to go in and try to establish the run and stay ahead of the chains, which is the big factor. We still want to throw, so our issue is trying to mix in the deep ball.”

 San Diego State will try to execute that plan with quarterback Ryan Lindley, who, despite nursing an injury for much of the season, has thrown for 1,558 yards and 10 touchdowns.

“He has been struggling a bit,” Long said regarding Lindley’s shoulder injury. “He will fight through something like that and he will learn to persevere. He is a tough young man and when the guys sees their quarterback out there toughing it out, that will go a long way with him as a leader of this football team."

Meanwhile, for the Cowboys, halfback Devin Moore rushed for 114 yards and one touchdown last weekend against one of the nation’s best run defenses, a positive sign for Wyoming; the Aztecs have struggled at stopping the run throughout the season.

Moore needs 198 yards to become the first Wyoming player to rush for more than 1,000 yards since Marques Brigham did so in 1998.

Given it struggles on offense this season, Wyoming may need a performance of that caliber to compete on Saturday.

For two teams desperately in need of a spark, a win on Saturday would shine a little light on seasons which have otherwise been devoid of positives.

On paper, it may not seem like much of a matchup, but for the struggling Cowboys and Aztecs, the opportunity to salvage a little momentum and restore a little damaged pride means everything.