Baylor Preview

No more for Coach Guy Morris
The Bear defense is porous
The switch to Air Bear
Vanished in thin air
All those dropped passes bore us.

Versus Coverage of the TCU Game

Pardon me while I digress for a moment. I watched part of the TCU-BYU game last night. Boy, the Versus network pulls out all the stops for the telecast. The graphics were mediocre, the replays were minimal, and the gents doing the play by play and color commentary were either off of Provo local access channels or were the backup guys on the BYU network.

Finally, I've watched two Frog games now. I haven't figured out Andy Dillard. He looks all world in a hurry up offense if the game is not on the line. Other times, he's maddening to watch.

Orange Bowl Memories

U of Miami plays its last game in the OB this weekend. Several writers are doing the "what a stadium...what memories...etc.". Here's my take.

I went to the Orange Bowl in 1986 to watch the Sooners take on Penn State. What a freaking dump. And that was 21 years ago. I was a soph in college. I took a wrong turn walking to the stadium and stepped into a war zone that made this young Okie think that the Cotton Bowl was surrounded by million dollar estates. I quickly made a u-turn.

Let's see, the stadium lacked: adequate parking; bathrooms; anything remotely resembling comfortable seating; proper police coverage of the area - basically imagine the Cotton Bowl if it lacked the "overwhelming" city support to upgrade it. Sure, Thug U had quite a winning streak there, but if you've every played a national championship game on a "neutral field" that just happens to be in your foe's home stadium or home state, the memories just aren't that grand.

The Sooners have some great history in the Orange Bowl GAME, but the venue those games were played out were irrelevant. JC Watts becoming a precision passer wasn't because he was at the Orange Bowl...Keith Jackson outrunning Penn State DBs...Steve Rhodes making clutch catch after clutch catch...Roland Sales going absolutely freaking nuts and wrecking the Sooners title hopes in 78...all those memories and more were from the game, not the stadium.

I've had the pleasure of visiting some great venues for watching sports; Fenway, Wrigley, the Kingdome (yea, right), Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Husky Stadium. Those places were unique and special for having interesting designs and/or thousands of national memories. When most people think of Orange Bowl stadium, you think of a) a dump; b) one of the most corrupt college fb programs ever and their "storied run" of several national championships from 1984-2002. The Canes home advantage had more to do with the best Florida high school talent that money could buy more so than great support of fans in the area. The stadium's off campus, the folks in the immediate area couldn't afford tickets - or had to purchase tickets off the radar screen to continue to disguise income. It's not like the U has one of those, "consecutive sellout streaks" like Nebraska has (for now) or that the Stoops led Sooners have. They couldn't sell out the stadium.

The OB is nothing special as a venue, unless you count especially bad.

Finally, the game related memory of going to the OB in 1986 was that there was a guy next two me that had a son on the training staff at OU and on the training staff at the University of Tennessee. While we were beating the Nittany Lions, he was also listening to the Sugar Bowl, monitoring the Vols drumming of the Canes. If you wipe off the cobwebs of your brain, you might recall that the Jimmy Johnson led Canes has beaten the Sooners earlier that year in Norman. Jimmy spent the week in NO stumping for poll votes because the Canes were better, and the PSU-OU game was a 1 vs 2 matchup. Anyway, I guess between the Canes partying on Bourbon Street, Jimmy's constant complaining, and Tennesee being good, it all became moot as the Vols drilled the Canes that night. This all being before the days of scoreboard crawls on a Jumbotron (OB doesn't have that now, either, sure didn't 21 years ago). The dad that was next to me was ecstatic over the fortunes of the two teams he was following.

Hoops Coverage

The Sooners have now beaten Rockhurst, Fayetteville State and San Francisco. While that's no mean feat, it's better than losing to 'em. Ohio State lost to Findlay, Kentucky lost to Gardner-Webb, Baylor lost to Tarleton State.

Hope springs eternal.

Plus, Capel has some rollover minutes on his cell phone the NCAA hasn't found out about yet.

Longhorn Holiday Cards

In my mailbox the other day I found a precious gem. Apparently you can now order Christmas and other holiday cards sporting the colors and logos of your favorite team. Since I am here on a mission in Texas, the bulk mail folks decided I should get the Texas Longhorn series. Since my photoshop skills are decidedly limited, I turned my attention to the statements on the inside of the cards. The options they provided just weren’t getting it done, so I came up with a few of my own that I believe are better suited for a Texas Longhorn Holiday Card.

The Shepherds followed the star in the sky.
I got arrested for DUI.

We wish you the warmest Seasons Greetings
If you rat on us we’ll give you all beatings.

We wish a Merry Christmas to all
We were caught shoplifting at the mall.

Up on the roof the sled came to a halt,
I pleaded no contest to aggravated assault.

We wish you a holiday that is warm and tender.
I really like the public defender.

The shepherds asleep in fields where they lay
In Cell Block H there’s no place to play.

The Baby was born peaceful and frail
I spent the night in the Travis County jail.

The three wise men were guided by stars
I was arrested for stealing two cars.

With boughs of holly, deck the halls,
At Henry Hudson’s a dude tore my *****.

We wish you the best during your Ramadan fast
Next week on parole should be my last.

If you have other greetings you’d like to suggest, please do so in the comments below.
And Merry Christmas.

LandThieves Poll

A special thanks to my friends at Verizon, I still don't have internet at home. Enough complaining, onto the poll:

1. Ohio State – wins another ho hum game against a middle of the road Big 10 school. The Buckeyes have held every opponent underneath the opponent’s season scoring average.
2. Oregon – I keep waiting for them to fade and they haven’t yet. The opponent’s W/L % is higher than anyone else in the top 10.
3. LSU – Les Miles and the gang keeps squeaking by. Their defense gives up a lot of points.
4. Kansas – Kansas has given every opponent they’ve played this year their worst defeat of the season. It all boils down to the Missouri contest in Kansas City over Thanksgiving weekend for them.
5. Boston College – Florida State now has two road victories – at Colorado and at Chestnut Hill.
6. Oklahoma – thank goodness we're ranked ahead of Michigan. That Missouri wins keeps looking better. The Miami FL win keeps looking less impressive. And the CU loss continues to baffle most folks. Adding Baylor to the strength of schedule this week is going to hurt. If the Sooners keep winning out, that will solve itself in the Big 12 Championship game against a one-loss Mizzou team or an undefeated Jayhawk squad.
7. Michigan – The Big 10 reminds me of the mid 80s Big Eight where Oklahoma and Nebraska were really good, and everyone else was average at best. Only difference is there aren’t two good teams in the Big 10 right now. So it’s probably more like the ACC of the early 90s, where FSU went undefeated for several years.
8. West Virginia – Opponents won loss percentage barely better than Kansas. Dominated Rutgers this weekend, but other victories are: Western Michigan; Marshall; Maryland; East Carolina; Syracuse; and Mississippi State.
9. Arizona State – you didn’t expect the undefeated season to last, did you?
10. Connecticut – like Ohio State, they’ve held every opponent underneath its scoring average. Like Ohio State, watching their games is akin to watching paint dry.
11. Florida – the young defense is hurting the Gators. That and their opponents 68% won-loss percentage.
12. Virginia Tech – they’d be higher if not for the incredible comeback by BC two weeks ago. That being said, the Hokies boast victories over East Carolina; Ohio; William & Mary (William was tough but they were able to exploit Mary for a couple of scores); North Carolina; Clemson; Duke; Georgia Tech.
13. Missouri – the big matchup against the Shamanginos awaits. First they have to get past Cash Machine U.
14. Georgia – on a bit of hot streak after a bye week, beating Florida and Troy. Troy is undefeated in the SEC, losing to Arkansas, Florida and Georgia, but dominates the Sun Belt conference and Okie State.
15. Northern Iowa – you can’t stop them, you can only hope to contain them. Actually, they contain everyone they play.
16. Auburn – rumors persist about Tuberville to College Station. He does well at Ag schools with an inferiority complex, so it’s a logical fit.
17. South Florida – the glass slipper shattered, but that’s still an attractive high heel their wearing.
18. Illinois – Zook sure can recruit.
19. Texas – my predictions for a comeback W against Boone State were true.
20. Virginia – this team keeps barely squeaking by. They’ve lost to North Carolina State and Wyoming.
21. Clemson – Don't know nuttin' 'bout 'em.
22. Alabama – the Tide are two heartbreaking losses at home (Georgia in OT, LSU in final 3 minutes) removed from being a top 10 team.
23. Southern Cal – That run oriented domination of Nebraska in Lincoln a few weeks ago looks a lot different now, doesn’t it? They haven’t been on the ABC Sat. night in a few weeks, and they’re feelings are starting to hurt.
24. Yale – Don’t mess with the Ivy League.
25. Cincinnati – I have nothing to say here. I know it’s in Ohio.

Bonus FishEater Coverage

Great analysis by Seth Kolloen for a breakdown of the ND recruiting classes. Maybe they weren't so bad after all.