Thoughts from Week 1, and why we should join the SEC

To lead off, thoughts and prayers go out to the Selmon family. I recall Lee Roy as a heckuva football player. Many I’ve read on the web recall him as a class man, and that’s more important. Lee Roy, may you rest in Peace.

Second, the Baylor win against the Horned Lizards was huge. While TCU lost a lot from last year's team, I believe time will show this is still a quality club. This win gives the Bears some additional exposure nationally, and helps Briles recruit in the state. I think the Bears are poised to be a power in Conference USA in 2012.

Third, if you thought that TAMU's departure didn't blow the Big 9 up, you have to acknowledge that they placed the C4 in place and David Boren told everyone Friday that he'sgot the detonation device and an itch .

As I type this paragraph, I'm watching Houston whip UCLA. Perhaps a Baylor led Conference USA is a better football conference than the PAC 12 anyway.  As I learn later that Sacramento State beat Oregon State and Washington nearly lost to Eastern Washington, I believe this more. Here's my crazy, anti-establishment idea...take all the D-1 Texas schools (sans UT, but include TAMU), add the three D-1 Oklahoma schools, form your own network. You've got UTEP, UNT, SMU, TCU, TAMU, TT, Baylor, Tulsa, Houston, Rice, Boone State and Oklahoma. You've got twelve teams, so you can have the playoff thingy. Partner with Fox or CBS college Sports. You'll have the non-Longhorn eyeballs in Texas and Oklahoma locked up from a televised college sports perspective. If you want to corner the market further on Texas eyeballs, televise Mexican Professional Soccer.

For about two and a half quarters, I was having fantasies about Rice upsetting Texas on the debut of the Longhorn network. Oh well. South Florida wrecking the start of Notre Dame's season was satisfying.

Last night's game was BORING. I really wish I would have watched with Gus Johnson doing the play by play. The only refreshing thing was the Dominique Whaley walk on story.

Other alignment thoughts: this lady does an excellent job of showing how UT can enter theSuper-PAC and deal with the Longhorn network

Overall, I'd rather be in the SEC than the Super-PAC. Ten quick reasons:

1.  I think it's geographically better. The existing schools in the SEC average 762 miles from Norman, Ok. The Pac-12: 1,472. 
2. If you want to argue #1 with the East division of the Pac-12, keep this in mind: 5 schools in the SEC West are closer to Norman than Boulder, CO is. The one exception, Auburn. 
3. All the programs already cheat in the SEC, so the infrastructure is already there. 
4. All the schools strive to be a university the football team could be proud of. 
5. The thirteen states with the highest teen pregnancy rates, according to statehealthfacts.org: MS, NM, TX, AR, OK, AZ, KY, TN, LA, NV, SC, AL, GA. The only states in the list above not represented in an SEC with Oklahoma and Texas A&M: Arizona and Nevada. States in the SEC not represented in the list above: none. States in the Pac-12 not represented in the list above: CA, WA, OR. 
6. With the Pac 16 you'll be getting the occasional 930 pm kickoff of your west coast game. Let's face it: I'm getting a little bit old to be staying up that late watching football.Particularly if Petros Papadakis is doing the color commentary. 
7. Arizona's got that whole weird non observance of daylight savings time thing going on. So somewhere along the way you're going to miss the first hour of an OU football game. On the bright side, that's only about one quarter when played at the pace of last night's OU-Tulsa game. 
8. Academics: we like to think of ourselves as an institution of higher learning at the U of O. By doing some researching on satscores.us, I’ve estimated the average SAT score of an incoming freshman at OU to be 1,755. We would be the 5^th highest school in the SEC and the 7^th highest school in the Pac 10. According to the metric I selected to evaluate, the top 5 schools in the SEC are in the SEC East, and the highest ranking school SEC west school is Auburn. We would be an average school in the SEC, and a below average school in the Pac 12.  
9. I really think the whole tree-hugger left coast thing just doesn't line up with OU. 
10. The Sooners would get better coverage on edsbs.com, my favorite college fb website.

Ten Thoughts on the BS Championship Game

1. No, that wasn't a typo.
2. In 2008, Oklahoma entered the game hailed for their fast pace offense. They ran 70 plays compared to Florida's 74, and lost the game 24-14.
3. In 2010, Oregon's fast break offense ran 74 plays to Auburn's 85.
4. You know you're old when...you realize former NFL QB Jeff Blake has a son playing WR for Auburn as a sophomore. And Blake left East Carolina in 1992, four years after I used up my undergraduate eligibility at Oklahoma.
5. Oregon's fast paced offense finished the year averaging 78.84 plays per game. They would have been fourth in the Big 12, behind Oklahoma (86.5), Texas Tech (81.1) and Texas A&M (79.5). Not so fast, my friend.
6. Cam Newton will return to Auburn for his senior year. It's an uncapped year in the SEC in 2011, and there's too much uncertainty in the NFL labor agreement.
7. I'm wondering if Cecil tithed the money paid to him by Auburn.
8. Nick Dyer is a heckuva back.
9. Great shirt I found today while following tweets of Frosh WR Kenny Stills http://yfrog.com/h2koxdmj
10. My theory on why the S-E-C keeps winning championship games. They are more physical up front than other conferences, and have speed to boot. Other conferences have focused on the speed, but don't have the depth in the lines to handle the physical strength throughout the game.

The Great Pirate - Unemployed

So, Maryland has passed on hiring Mike Leach. I think it's going to be tough for the Great Pirate to find a HC job at a major college, for these reasons:

1. He's suing his last employer for wrongful termination. That flag is at least yellow, probably orange and dare I say red in some circles. As I heard Doug Gottleib say, "it's easy to hire Mike Leach, but how to you get rid of him?"
2. He's suing ESPN, the most powerful media presence in college sports.
3. His last employer fired him for "continuos acts of insubordination".
4. Leach somehow developed such a contentious relationship with his bosses at TT that they fired the winningest coach in school history who was also graduating his players.
5. For the last few years, he's dabbled in other opportunities. No one was offering him a ticket out of Lubbock before items 1 through 4.
6. Leach just wants to coach. He doesn't want to be the CEO type and manage a staff and rub shoulders with university officials and boosters. He just wants to design devious offensive game plans and win football games. He's very good at these last two.
7. There's video of Leach allegedly putting a player in a storage shed. Leach does not seem remorseful about it at all. As much as I figure Lil James is a punk and deserved it, the stuffy shirt academic snobs can't comprehend this. Those same types must sign off on his hiring.
8. As much as schools are supposed to be about developing the student athlete, graduating students and winning football games, that's not all there is to it. Today's coach also heas to be a) media friendly; b) respectful to boosters; c) cooperative with university administrators. From what I understand, Leach is 0-3 on these last items.
9. In the real world, you're more likely to be fired for being a pain in the butt than you are for being incompetent. Leach has become an example of that in the coaching world. Most people aren't inclined to hire someone they expect to have problems getting along with, much les perhaps being sued. 
10. If you think I'm wrong, consider this: There are 66 schools in BCS automatic qualifying conferences. Of those 66, 39 have hired coaches since the end of the 2007 seasons. Two schools have done it twice. I believe that Leach was either looking at or using other job opportunities as negotiating tactics since at least 2007. I believe that's one of the reasons TT administrators grew frustrated with him. Anyway, out of those 41 hiring opportunities, none hired Mike Leach.

Here's your list of the AQ teams that have changed coaches since the beginning of the 08 season...

1.Clemson

2. Florida State
3. Maryland
4. Duke
5. Georgia Tech
6. Miami
7. Virginia
8. Indiana
9. Michigan (2x)
10. Minnesota
11. Purdue
12. Colorado
13. Iowa State
14. Kansas
15. Kansas State
16. Nebraska
17. Baylor
18. Texas A&M
19. Cincinnati
20. Connecticut
21. Louisville
22. Pittsburgh
23. South Florida
24. Syracuse
25. West Virginia
26. Oregon
27. Southern Cal
28. UCLA
29. Washington
30. Washington State
31. Florida
32. Kentucky
33. Tennessee
34. Vanderbilt (2x)
35. Arkansas
36. Auburn
37. Mississippi
38. Mississippi State
39. Texas Tech

Ten Things I think you think I think about the Fiesta Bowl

1. First of all, I'm relieved the Sooners won. I thought the Sooners got a no-win bowl assignment. Win, and you were expected to. Lose, and it's "Here we go again...". Obviously, winning and being taken for granted is better than the alternative.
2. The Sooners had last won a game in the state of Arizona on Christmas Day, 1976, when they defeated Wyoming 41-7. Since then, they'd lost in 1983 Fiesta Bowl, a 1989 trip to Tucson to play Arizona (first loss of Gary Gibbs HC career), 1994 Copper Bowl (Gary Gibbs last game as HC), 2007 Fiesta Bowl and 2008 Fiesta Bowl.
3. The Sooners did NOT get the "can't win a bowl game" monkey off their back. They played an inferior opponent. Their opponent was 3-4 at one point in the season, and lost to Michigan, Temple, Rutgers and Louisville. Furthermore, their coach was apparently poised to leave for Maryland.
4. One of my thoughts earlier this year, when the Sooners were playing poorly, is that I didn't want them to win the Big 12 championship and end up getting drilled in a BCS bowl game. I still believe the Sooners don't match up well against the SEC, Big 10, Pac 10 or Mountain West champions this year. Had we played any of those, I think we would have lost. Sorry, I just can't look through the crimson colored glasses and declare victory on those prospective contests this year.
5. I am very thankful that ESPN now carries the BCS series. Their coverage is INFINITELY better than the teams that Fox mashes together. The camera work is better, and the personnel are better (even Matt Millen is an improvement over Charles Johnson). I was initailly exasperated that they didn't know anything about Ronnell Lewis' injury, but later they showed why. Fox would have been too busy showing band shots to ever figure it out. I'm praying for a full recovery for Lewis. Reports on Sunday say he should recover, but it's always scary to see someone strapped to one of those boards.
6. I was concerned that UConn's football team would take out the frustration of the women's basketball team losing their win streak on the Sooners. Fortunately, we were able to avoid that.
7. I continue to have a love-hate relationship with Landry Jones. He's maddeningly erratic. Not consistently erratic, but manages to make really bad throws at the worst times it seems. Yes, I'm aware he threw for 429 yards. He gets more reps than anyone. For the year, Landry's 7.6 yards per attempt ranked him 33rd in the country, right behind Baylor's Robert Griffin III and Ohio's Boo Jackson. Landry threw 617 passes this year. Think of any chuck and duck offense you can in college football. June Jones SMU squad? Kyle Padron threw 508 passes. Brandon Weeden executing Dana Holgorson's pass happy offense? 511 passes. Hawaii? Their QB, Bryant Moniz, threw 62 fewer passes.
8. Cameron Kenney really came on at the end of the year. Kenney finished his two year career in Norman with 55 catches for 812 yards. 19 of those catches and 360 yards came in the last three games of his career.
9. The Sooners KR team continues to suck. I reallly don't think it's been the same since Jonathan Hayes left after the 2002 season to coach TEs for the Cincinnati Bengals.
10. Ryan Broyles had a special season. The 1622 receiving yards he tallied this season would have been the 11th best CAREER  in Sooner history. The 131 receptions this year would be the 10th best career total, as would the 14 TDs. That being said, the one salient point Matt Millen made last night was that Ryan hasn't shown top level speed, and the LB chasing him down on the punt was evidence of that. Hopefully he'll come back for a senior year and work on that, but I can't begrudge a guy for chasing the money, if it's available.

The Big East's Winning Bowl Record

During last night's Fiesta Bowl game, Sean McDonough and Matt Millen (how is he still employed in football?) went on and on about the Big East's winning record in bowl games since 2005. So, I looked it up. Let's go to the data:

1. With the BBVA Compass Bowl game still yet to play, the Big East is 20-11 since the 2005 season in bowl games.
2. The Big East is 11-11 against AQ conferences and 9-0 against CUSA and MAC schools. They own those conferences.
3. Of course, the Big East is basically the former cream of the crop of those conferences anyway.
4. The New Era Pinstripe Bowl matches the 4th best Big East team against the 7th best Big 12 team.
5. The Big East sent their #2 team against the ACC #3 team through the latter half of the decade.
6. The Meineke Car Care Bowl pits the #3 Big East team against the #5 ACC team. In past years, it was the #6 ACC team.
7. The Pinstripe Bowl bumped the International bowl from the Big East lineup. It previously matched the #4 Big East team against the #3 MAC team.
8. The PapaJohns bowl, now the BBVA Compass Bowl, pits the #5 Big East team against the #9 SEC team. .
9. The St Petersburg Bowl game pits the #6 Big East team against the #4 Conference USA team.
10. Basically, the Big East is so lightly regarded in terms of bowls that they are almost always playing a team that is lower in the peer group conference pecking order. The exception is the MAC and CUSA matchups.

Heupel and Norvell as Co-Coordinators

Many One of you have asked me for my take on the Heupel/Norvell co-promotion. Here are my ten thoughts...

1. Love the fact that Heupel is going to be calling plays. I always thought he made great choices while on the field, and I understand he has a great feel for the game. He's also done a great job with the quarterbacks.
2. I don't know much about Norvell. I figure he's one of hundreds of coaches who've sworn at officials during a game. He's one of the few to get a personal foul called on him for it.I know he has Iowa connections with Stoops. I know he served with two lightly regarded head coaches, Karl Dorrell and Bill Callahan. I think those two associations, for me, outweigh his time 25 yrs ago with Stoops and Hayden Fry.
3. I'm not fan of the co-coordinator bit. 
4. Here's what I understand is the role of the offensive coordinator a) establishing a game plan; b) overseeing offensive assistants; c) overseeing offensive players; d) designing new plays; e) installing an offensive philosophy; f) calling plays during the game.
5. So, aside from the two co-cos, the Sooners have O-line coach James Patton and RB coach Cale Gundy. We have two people co-managing two people. That seems... awkward.
6. Personally, I'm curious to see if Patton doesn't end up following Wilson to Indiana. He worked on the Northwestern staff with Wilson prior to their arrival in Oklahoma.
7. Back to Norman. You've got an African-American co-co and a white co-co on the offensive side of the ball. Let's hope we don't regress into some sort of racial divide.
8. I don't know how the division of labor works out. Josh is calling the plays, but they are collaborating on game plan. It's all good until conflict arises. Then Josh just calls the plays in accordance with the plan he agrees with. And Norvell seethes. I hope that doesn't happen.
9. It's not the first time Stoops has done this. If memory serves me correctly, Mangino was run game coordinator in 1999 and Leach was passing game coordinator. Thiat lasted a year before Leach went to Texas Tech.
10. Stoops has had this setup on the defensive side of the ball, when Mike Stoops and Brent Venables tag-teamed on the role.

Ten Things I think you think I think - late Nebraska edition

1. The Sooner D is the real story of this game. The Bugeaters had 8 possessions and 78 yards during the second half. Ten of the Husker points in the first half needed only 18 yards, courtesy of field position.
2. The Bugeater faithful must be screaming for Shawn Watson's head this week. I'm not going to spend the time researching this, but it seemed like the N offense was much more effective when in the wildcorn formation with Rex Burkhead. The change back to Martinez in the spread in the next to last possession of the game, in my opinion, cost the Huskers a chance to tie the game.
3. Landry Jones stats in the fourth quarter: 6 for 12 for 66 yards. No TDs, no picks.
4. Who is this Cameron Kenney fellow? In these last two games, he's had 12 catches for 206 yards. His three catches in the fourth quarter were vital on the game winning drive.
5. Landry's road woes? The last three games outside Owen Field at Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium: 86-142 for 1135 yards, 8 TDs and 5 INTs. Most importantly, 3 Ws.
6. So where does Landry stand in the ranking of Stoops era QBs? 1) Bradford, without question; 2) Josh Heupel; 3) Jason White; 4) Landry Jones. He's definitely better than Hybl, Thompson and Bomar. He has two more years to overtake the folks in front of him. Will it happen? Who knows?
7. Ronnell Lewis was an absolute beast last night. I'm glad to see him on the field, and he's showing he belongs there.
8. One thing we can't forget about the Sooner D.It got much better with the healthy of Austin Box. Never mind that Fake Dan Beebe says his name sounds like a Travis County strip joint, that young man has made a difference in the Sooner D.
9. All y'all wanting to fire Stoops and Wilson and Venables, the Sooners are 11-2 and Big 12 Champions. As much as I'd like to be playing for a national championship, you can't do it very year. It's been a pretty solid year. We lost 3 of the top 4 in the NFL draft, and 3/4 of our secondary.
10. Finally, I'll miss the Bugeaters. On the bright side, I've got a new favorite team in the Big 10.

Ten Things I think you think I think about the Texas loss to ISU

So yesterday was a lazy day for me, and I got to watch LOTS of college football. I wrote this while watching the end of the Texas -ISU game and part of the Bugeater-Pokes contest. Some might say that writing a post about a rival losing their game before wathcing your own team get drilled is Karma. Not a believer in the Karma thing, but I'd rather had Texas and OU win than both lose.

If I can pare down my thoughts on last night's loss to Missou to ten or twenty, we'll post those later.

1. First of all, I'm completely blown away by this. The Cyclone looked inept last week against the Sooners. And for most of the Utah game. 
2. The last time Texas lost two home games in a row they changed head coaches (1997). I don't see that happening.
3. Iowa State has never beaten Texas.
4. Coming into this game, the Cyclones were 99th in passing yards, 77th in rushing yards, 85th in points scored and 104th in points allowed.
5. Today is not one of those flukey wins. Texas kept making critical mistakes in the red zone, and continues to struggle with turnovers. Iowa State protected the ball, ran it well, and completed just enough passes to get the job done. Defensively, they consistently got pressure on the G Spot. And when you get pressure on the G Spot, good things happen.
6. Texas lacks leadership on both sides of the ball. I've said this before, but leadership and experience are huge. On the offensive side, no one has replaced the leadership of Colt McCoy or Jordan Shipley. On the defensive side, the Horns have not replaced the on the field leadership of Earl Thomas. Teams need someone, when adversity happens, to get in that huddle and say, "this stops here", and have the rest of the unit believe it. No one is doing that for the Horns.
7. Continuing on that thought, Texas was blessed to have a QB the caliber of Colt McCoy follow Vince Young. That's two of the better QBs in college fb history. Teams often struggle when they lose their leaders. Watch Florida this year. Or the Sooners last year after Bradford went down. Or after Jason White completed this PhD in football in 2005. What Oregon is doing after losing their QB to laptop theft is huge.
8. I really thought the G spot would be better than his in 2010. And, given time, he may still be. I don't think Greg Davis has figured out what to do with him, when you combine an inexperienced QB with a spotty line and inexperienced receivers.
9. I don't know when the last time is a team has lost by 50 and then beat a ranked opponent on the road the following week. I'm guessing never.
10. The other two teams to score less than 24 points against Iowa State? Northern Iowa and Northern Illinois. Texas, thy new name is Northern Mexico.

Ten things I think you think I think - Missouri preview

1. Much is being made this week about Gary Pinkel being winless against Oklahoma. Let's be fair. Pinkel's predecessor, Larry Smith, only beat the Sooners once. Smith benefited from coaching against John Blake. That's like taking candy from a baby. Further back, Bob Stull and Woody Widenhofer weren't able to beat OU either. The last coach to beat the Sooners twice as Missouri coach: Warren Powers.
2. Before we get too enamored with Missouri and playing them at home, without this play, the Tigers lose to San Diego State, are 5-1 going into this game and it's being played at 1100 am on Fox Sports.
3. The discussion about Missouri's defense is curious. Missouri has the second best scoring defense in FBS. Of the five FBS teams Missouri has played, three are in the bottom thirty of scoring offenses in FBS.
4. When reading the above note, do not pay attention to the fact that Oklahoma gave up 24 points to the 90th best scoring offense in the land. Nothing to see here, move along.
5. Another fun fact: Phil Steele likes to evaluate Points per Yard. Offensively, it speaks to your effectiveness in scoring points. Defensively, it speaks to how hard you make the other team work for points. Field position and turnovers contribute to skewing this stat. The team with the best defensive yards per point so far this year? Missouri, at 30.3 yards per point. Second, TCU with 23.5 yards per point.
6. Missouri's stat here is helped significantly by the 379 yard, 9 point effort by Cash Machine U last week, and the 311 yards and no points performance against Colorado. So either Mizzou is hitting their stride defensively, or they're playing teams struggling offensively. Personally, I think it's both.
7. In case you're wondering if Defensive Yards per point is some sort of quirky stat, here's your top ten, in order: Mizzou, TCU, Alabama, Iowa, Arizona, Mississippi State, Oregon, San Diego State, West Virginia and Oklahoma.
8. I think I'm glad I don't have to channel flip between Game 7 of Rangers / Yankees and Sooners / Tigers tonight.
9. In researching the Tigers this morning, I've become more concerned about this game than I was previously. Sagarin's predictor ranking system has the Tigers ahead of the Sooners, by about two points, and then you'd give the Tigers three for home field advantage. Missouri is a better unit defensively than I thought, I've always thought Gabbert was a good QB, and Pinkel is an excellent coach.
10. What I have some level of faith in this year for the Sooners is they a) take care of the ball well; b) the seem to play to the level of competition, which is in the Sooners favor this week. If they keep it up, they can squeak by with another 7 point victory.

Ten Things I think you think I think - Iowa State review

1. First of all, a tip of the cap to DeMarco Murray, who scored his 58th career TD last night, breaking a 40+ year old record held by Steve Owens. The top three TD scorers for OU are now Murray, Owens and Billy Sims. Start praying now that Murray doesn't end up on the Detroit Lions roster next year.


2. It's really a shame Murray has been so dinged up during his career. He's probably missed a season of games outright or severely hampered by ankle, knee and hamstring injuries. He started out as a back with the elusiveness of Roy Finch, and as injuries appear to have robbed him of some of his elusiveness and speed, he has become stronger, and he's a good blocker when he needs to be. Mel Kiper presently has him listed as the #2 RB that's a senior this year. I guess I'm getting old and crotchety, but when I see DeMarco Murray I see opportunity lost, and forget how good he's been.

3. Now, can we give Roy Finch and Mossis Madu more touches? Roy's debut was special. Would love to see him more, but the Head Visor's got to stick w one back and allow a flow to the game...something the Dallas Cowboys could learn.

4. Ronnell Lewis was announced as a starter as OLB, then didn't appear to play except for special teams. An injury of unknown severity kept him out of action the second half.

5. Landry Jones was spectacular Saturday night, completing 30 of 34 passes. Most importantly, he did not have the OMB Landry moment, where he does something amazingly stupid without warning. Granted, this was Iowa State, but still, he managed to have one or two in every game this year, so avoiding those is huge.

6. I thought the game was just boring Saturday night, in spite of history being made. We had the Murray TD milestone, Roy Finch's debut, a shutout and Drew Allen playing the entire 4th quarter, but it was just listless.Conversely, I was glad to see a blowout. I'd had enough close calls against inferior opponents this year.

7. Texas exceeded my expectations in Lincoln Saturday. The teams combined for 450 yards. No QB completed more than four passes. The Bugeater and Buckeye losses should boost the Sooners human poll rankings this week.

8. Mountain West thoughts: Air Force hurt it's rep Saturday night with a narrow loss at San Diego State. The Aztecs seem to have rebounded from the Chuck Long era. Chuck is now offensive coordinator at Kansas, so he's got that going for him. TCU has now allowed three points in it's last three contests. That's impressive even when the foes are Colorado State, Wyoming and graduation depleted BYU. TCU-Utah in a few weeks may be for a BCS championship game bid against Boise State.

9. Boise State's most formidable conference foe lost last night. Nevada fell to Hawaii. But maybe Hawaii is the second best team in the WAC?

10. Ryan Broyles was amazing Sat as well. Perhaps more amazing was the ISU decision to never come up and press the Sooner receivers.

Ten Things I think you think I think - Iowa State Preview

This week's thoughts captured during Game 5 of the ALDS, so not all thoughts are relevant to Iowa State - Oklahoma. For that matter, not all thoughts are relevant.

1. I think Iowa State is better than their 68-27 loss to Mountain West power Utah indicated. Aside from a 18 minute stretch where the Utes outscored Baylor North 48-7, the Cyclones played them even.
2. Who knew that Gene Chizik's flight from Ames to Auburn would make two football teams better?
3. The Texas Rangers are playing defense, running the bases and pitching well. This is a franchise that once had Brian Downing play second base. Kevin Reimer would not recognize this team.
4. There are two Sooner QBs that have thrown more interceptions in a season than Landry Jones total of 14 last year: Josh Heupel, who threw 16 and 15 in his two years, and Cale Gundy, who threw 15 as a junior. Both are assistant coaches for the Sooners.
5. I think the AP and Harris voters who voted OU number one have not seen much college football this year. Sure, they're undefeated and all, and they've played one of the tougher schedules, but they've really struggled in all but one game, and don't appear to be able to put people away. At least not yet.
6. Rangers Manager Ron Washington hasn't felt this good since that cocaine binge in Oakland last summer.
7. When the Rangers drop the antlers to Molina, they are moose antlers.
8. The Rangers next playoff win in Arlington will be there first since Genesis 1
9. I am bummed we've got Sooner football at home the same weekend as Rangers baseball in Arlington. I'm still headed to Norman.
10. DeMarco Murray has more TDs than any Sooner, other than Steve Owens. pretty remarkable considering how many games he's missed due to injuries, plus games he's been struggling due to nagging injuries.

Ten Things I think you think I think - Bye week edition

1. If you're wondering if Baylor is a big time football program, look no further. Celebrating a W over Kansas by smoking some weed and falling asleep in the drive through at Taco Bell is a sure sign of progress. If that's what you call it.
2. I want to like Landry Jones. I want to be fair, and not hold him up to a standard of Sam Bradford or the like. I'm just having trouble doing that right now. Maybe I'll go watch some Rhett Bomar video. All better now.
3. I think debating the whether TBS MLB playoff announcers are worse than Fox's BCS announcers is like debating the Sooner QB careers of Jake Sills and Brandon Daniels.
4. I think Dallas has caught Rangers fever. Normally this time of the week the radio stations are talking about contingency plans if the Cowboys deep snapper gets hurt in the Sunday game. This week? Rangers playoffs.
5. The weekend TV fare for the WTF Conference are slim pickings. What's your viewing pleasure? A rising Baylor squad vs the fading dust pirates? Iowa State vs Utah? Cash Machine U vs the Boss Hogs? Methzou vs the Dan Hawkins Farewell Tour? Okie State vs UL-Lafayette? It's a sneak peek at the Big 12 next year w/o the Huskers and the Sooners and Horns with a bye. The networks must be thrilled. I'm looking forward to the Bears-Red Raiders, but it's probably not going to be the highest rated game of the season.
6. I think for once I'm more interested in a Big 10 game (Michigan vs Michigan State) to see how Denard Robinson fares against a more formidable defense. I think Robinson will get his yards, but he doesn't play defense.
7. I never imagined that BYE would be a tougher foe than BYU.
8. I think the Sooner D can hold Bugeater QB Taylor Martinez to below 300 yards rushing in the Big 12 championship game. I believe that because I don't think Bo Pelini would run the score up on his lifelong friend. Would he? We really didn't run the score up in that game. No. Really.
9. I think Greg Davis vs the Pelini Brothers is like Robin Venture vs Nolan Ryan.
10. I think the devil must have made a Job like deal with God to mess with North Texas coach Todd Dodge. The Mean Green have lost two QBs, and the coach's son converted back to QB to help Dad out. And broke his wrist. A player died in a car accident. They've lost two centers. Former OU WR Tyler Stradford escaped a pit bull to lose a battle with a lawn chair. A pipe punctured his chest and he's out three weeks.

Ten Things I think you think I think - Texas victory edition

1. I was correct about Cameron Kenney dropping a ball today. In my wildest dreams I would not have expected it to be a punt.
2. OMB (my teenage daughter has demanded his named by change to OMB Landry - OMB stands for Oh my Buddha) Landry did not show up until about 1:30 left in the game.
3. If Landry Jones were Michigan State's QB, he would have killed Mark Dantonio by now. He can play so well, then do something bad without any warning whatsoever.
4. DeMarco Murray had an unbelievable game today. He's not the back he was when he was a (mainly b/c the speed just does not appear to be there) freshman, but wow he's still athletic. His tightrope act down the left sideline for a score will go down as an all-time great run in Sooner lore.
5. The Sooners 124 yards rushing were accumulated on 52 rush attempts. It would have been below average (instead of mediocre) without:  a) missed shotgun snap by Landry Jones; b) fake field goal attempt resulting in 13 yard loss; and c) and the amazing fumble near the end of the game.
6. The Sooners ran 91 plays today to the Horns 64. That's an amazing disparity. The first half plays were 57 by the Sooners to 27 by the Longhorns.
7. My father-in-law says games are not won, they're lost. I've no doubt Texas fans are headed back to jail wondering what would have been without penalties that negated a Sooner turnover in deep in OU territory and other penalties that sustained two otherwise faltering drives in the first quarter.
8. I'm sure I would have thought the fake field goal a genius call had it worked, but it went horribly awry.
9. I thought the Sooner D played really well today. They tackled well, and avoided some of the horrible blown assignments that had plagued the Sooners three of the first four games. The final box score showed a lot of yards allowed, but D was great on third down and completely throttled the Horns in the first half, allowing the team to build a lead.
10. In each of the the last two games, the Sooners have not been able to sustain a clock killing drive and punted to the opposition, giving them a chance to win the game outright or tie. In each instance, the opposing punt returner managed to fumble the chance away. Whatever works.

Ten Things I think you think I think - Texas preview

1. Mossis Madu is running with more energy and authority than DeMarco Murray. The injuries Demarco has suffered have taken a toll on a great athlete and hard worker.
2. OU's offense does not match up well with Texas's defense. The Sooners pass the ball because they can't run (89th in the country), and the Horns defend the pass really well (6th in the country)
3. OU's defense does not match up well with Texas's offense. The Horns want to run the ball to hide an inexperienced QB and WRs. The Horns don't run that well (76th) , but the Sooners can't stop the run (93rd, just ahead of UCLA and North Texas).
4. As much as Landry Jones' numbers looked good against Cincy, two maddeningly horrible throws across his body back into the middle of the field don't give me much confidence in him today. I don't foresee Good Landry making a consistent appearance today against the Will Muschamp defense.
5. Receivers Coach Jay Norvell does not drop the f-bomb at an official today.
6. There have been 13 times in this series that OU has entered the game looking to break a two-game losing streak to Texas. OU is 4-9 in those contests, with a 1-8 record in those games since 1929. The only win over that 80 year period was in 2007.
7. I never get tired of watching Roy Williams' "Superman" play in 2001.
8. Today will be a defensive battle.
9. Cameron Kenney will drop a pass today.
10. It's tough to imagine a Stanford-Oregon game overshadowing this game, but it's happening. I blame the Pelosi Congress.
11. For a bonus, Sooner foes Air Force, Florida State and Utah State have all beaten BYU by double digit margins. BYU has been ravaged by injuries and inexperience this year. Karma sucks.

10 Things I think you think I think - Week 3

1. Florida State is an upper division team in the ACC this year.
2. Those clowns saying Boise State deserves to be #1 for beating Va Tech should vote James Madison 1 and Boise State 2, since JMU had larger margin of victory and actually did it at Lane Stadium.
3. I'm not sure which team had a bigger Jekyll and Hyde turnaround this week: Kansas? Oklahoma?
4. I’m not bright enough to understand how Ronnell Lewis can’t get on the field every down.
5. Could Georgia Tech beat Northern Iowa?
6. Dejuan Miller is a physical specimen at WR. See Ronnell Lewis.
7. Troy would have beaten OSU with Josh Jarboe on the team.
8. Former Sooner Savior QB Keith Nichol is tied for the lead in TD Passes CAUGHT for the MSU Spartans this year. Remember when his switch to OU was going to save the program because pundits thought that Bradford kid wasn't going to be any good?
9. The Sooners still need to be stronger up the middle defensively. That will be tested this weekend against Air Force. Overall, I'm concerned about this weekend. AFA appears to be a solid team this year, and if WTF Landry shows up this week, or the defense is looking ahead to Cincinnati, we could get upset. Air Force has never lost to OU in Norman.
10. I anxiously await the Texas-Texas Tech game this Saturday. The Horns are 9-9 in Lubbock since 1974. Texas appears to be down this year, but it's tough to tell with the Rice/Wyoming combo they've played. Tech appears to be playing better than expected, but it's tough to tell with the SMU/New Mexico combo they've played.

Ten things I think you think I think - week 1

1. Remember, Boise State plays host to Utah State on December 3. Don't put the Broncos in the BCS Championship game yet.
2. Drew Allen will play at some point against Florida State.
3. According to his bio on the 'Noles website, Chris Ponder obtained a bachelor's degree from FSU in 2.5 years. He's a redshirt senior who showed up on campus a semester early. WTF has he been doing for the past three years in Tallahassee? UPDATE: web site was updated, Ponder now has an MBA and is working in graduate sports management program at FSU.
4. Up until a few weeks ago, you could do undergraduate sports management at North Carolina, but the teacher abruptly resigned.
5. I think shower discipline is something you learn at prison orientation, not college.
6. Chris Wienke was going to represent FSU at the Sooners' 2000 team reunion last week, but he was insulted for being offered the senior citizen discount and Luby's and refused to show up at the event.
7. I think Tom Wort will have fewer penalties this week.
8. Bob Barry will see a number 7 jersey running the ball against Florida State and refer to DeMarco Murray as Kelly Phelps.
9. The Sooner pass rush will be in full force against FSU.
10. I think the Sooners win 27-24.