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ALONZOADAMS—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Oklahoma players run onto the field before an NCAA college football game against TCU on Saturday. Oklahoma won 30-29. ByRalphD.Russo The Associated Press Oklahoma moved into third and Iowa was fourth in the new College Football Playoff rank- ings as Notre Dame slipped to No. 6. Clemson and Alabama re- mained the top two teams in the third-to-last committee rank- ings. The Sooners (10-1) seem to be in solid shape with only one game left in their season. Oklahoma will play at Okla- homa State on Saturday with a chance to win the Big 12. The Cowboys dropped to 11th after losing its first game of the season Notre Dame (10-1) also plays its last game of the season Sat- urday, a possible resume-builder against Stanford, which is ninth in the rankings. "In our view, Oklahoma is bet- ter than Iowa," committee chair- man Jeff Long said. "We felt Iowa and Michigan State were ex- tremely close." Unbeaten Iowa (11-0) and No. 5 Michigan State (10-1) can setup a possible playoff play-in game in the Big Ten championship if both win this weekend. What else you need to know about the latest rankings as the season hits the final two weeks of play: OUisnotTCU Last season TCU was third in the second-to-last playoff rank- ings and slipped to sixth in the final rankings, behind Ohio State and Baylor. That has Big 12 fans under- standably wondering if the league is setup for another fall from No. 3 even if the Sooners take care of business on Saturday in Stillwa- ter. It is not the same situation. Oklahoma is in better position. Here's why: COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS Oklahomaupto3rdinrankings Iowa moves to 4th, Notre Dame to 6th The Associated Press SAN JOSE The San Jose Sharks have signed forward Dainius Zu- brus to a one-year, two-way con- tract. Zubrus had been on a profes- sional tryout with the Sharks be- fore signing the deal Tuesday. He is expected to make his debut for the team on Wednesday night against Chicago. The 37-year-old had four goals and six assists in 74 games with New Jersey last season. He played for Sharks coach Peter DeBoer from 2011-14 with the Devils. Zubrus has 225 goals and 359 assists in 1,243 career games with Philadelphia, Montreal, Washing- ton, Buffalo and New Jersey. The Sharks also reassigned forward Nikolay Goldobin to the Barracuda of the AHL. NHL F Da in iu s Zubrus signed to Sharks By Will Graves The Associated Press PITTSBURGH David DeCastro majored in management sciences and engineering at Stanford, which according to the school's website prepares students "to plan, design and implement com- plex economic and technological management systems." It sounds complicated. And the Pittsburgh Steelers guard will po- litely tell you it was if asked. The dynamics around his team's strug- gles when heading out to the West Coast, however, are far simpler. It's just different when you go across the country. DeCas- tro dealt with it when the Car- dinal would occasionally fly east and he's dealt with it when the Steelers head in the other direc- tion, with uneven at best results. Pittsburgh is 5-9 in games in the Mountain and Pacific time zones since 2005 and hasn't won in Se- attle — where the Steelers (6-4) visit on Sunday — since 1983, a good seven years before DeCas- tro was born. "It's hard," DeCastro said. "I'm not going to lie and say it isn't." Regardless of the quality of op- ponent. Pittsburgh's losses out west of Kansas City over the last decade include a pair of pratfalls against the Raiders in 2012 and 2013, and an overtime defeat in the playoffs against the Denver Broncos four years ago when Tim Tebow — yes, that Tim Tebow — stunned them on the first play of the extra pe- riod. NFL Steelers looking for success in West Coast By Greg Beacham The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Sylvester Stal- lone knows most of Rocky Bal- boa's famous fights would have been stopped by a real-life ref- eree long before the battered and bloodied fictional heavy- weight champion rallies his will to win. Stallone also realizes many people who only know boxing from his "Rocky" saga might believe his beloved sport really looks like a Rocky movie all the time. That's why Stallone has al- ways insisted that the "Rocky" films acknowledge the heavy cost of boxing, even amid the cathartic ring victories that have turned the character into an icon. "I do feel responsible, because I see the brain damage," Stallone said in a recent interview. "I see the harm. No one walks away unscathed." The "Rocky" series contin- ues this week with the release of "Creed," writer-director Ryan Coogler's reimagining of Rocky as a reluctant trainer for his oldest rival's son, Adonis Creed. Coogler and Stallone main- tained the Rocky series' deli- cate balance between depic- tions of hyper-stylized, brutal fighting and that acknowledge- ment of the dangers and dam- age inherent in boxing. "I have this conversation with my wife," Stallone said. "(She'll say) 'This is so brutal. How can you condone it?' Well, a lot of these men, they don't sing, they don't dance. They're not intellectuals. This is what they do, and when it's done properly, it's the most incredi- ble, graceful, beautiful, violent ballet. It's something that's just in certain men." Early in "Creed," Rocky tries to talk Adonis (Michael B. Jor- dan) out of fighting at all. An il- legitimate son rescued from fos- ter care by Creed's wife (Phyli- cia Rashad), Adonis gives up a steady white-collar job and a well-to-do lifestyle in Los Angeles to train in hardscrabble Philadelphia. "You want brain damage?" Rocky asks Creed. "You're bet- ter than this." The "Rocky" saga's balance between boxing reality and cine- matic showmanship was a chal- lenge eagerly accepted by the 29-year-old Coogler, who pur- sued Stallone for a year to get the chance. Coogler's first film, 2013's "Fruitvale Station," brimmed with slice-of-life realism and delicate touches. Coogler shows impressive versatility in his move to a big-name action franchise, but says he kept in mind the humble persona in which Stallone's sometimes su- perhuman Rocky was always grounded. "Something we always talked about is that (Creed) has to earn his way," Coogler said. "This dude doesn't want to be handed something. He wants to go out and get it. So we knew there was going to be a bunch of fights in this movie, and each one has to feel different. Each one has to tell the story of what that fight is, and therefore dictate the style." Jordan had his own appreci- ation of Stallone's view of box- ing after a year of training to look like a light heavyweight contender. 'CREED' PAGE 2 STEELERS PAGE 2 PLAYOFFS PAGE 2 WARNER BROS. PICTURES Michael B. Jordan, le , as Adonis Johnson and Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa star in "Creed." New Rocky movie balances brutality and theatricality SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, November 25, 2015 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1