My Favorite New Site

http://www.39-33.com/

Also, a plane flew over Austin and the UT campus stating, "Hey Mack, quit whining, U knew the rules".

The beauty of this is it appears to have been UT fans that funded this.

And finally, an article from Gil LeBreton in the Startlegram from Monday says this best.

Sooner - Tiger Preview

It's not that often that a team goes 9-3, wins their division, and is considered to have a disappointing season, but that's probably waht one woudl say about Missouri at this point. Prior to the beginning of the year, most assumed the Tigers would be the same offensive threat if not better (correct) and would be better defensively (not so much). Chase Daniel has had a solid year, throwing for 34 Tds and 3,880 yards. On the downside, the 13 picks are more than desirable. The defensive showed up suspect from the beginning of the season, with the Tigers allowing Juice Williams of Illinois a career day of 451 yards passing. The Tigers set as the 92nd ranked team in yards allowed, and are 117th in passing yards allowed. This does not bode well for the Missouri D.

The Sooners are coming in on a roll, having scored 60+ poionts in the last four games. They have the third best passing attack in the country, and the running game has come on with authority the past few games. Chris Brown and DeMarco Murray should finish teh game with over 1000 yards for the season. That'll be the first time that's happened since 1973, when Joe Washington and Waymon Clark (who?) both broke the 1000 yard barrier. To contrast, in that year, the Sooners threw for 1,011 yards for the entire year.

I just don't see how the Tigers are going to stop the Sooners. I'm more than a little concerned that Mike Balogun, third string LB, will fare in his first start against the tiger D.

I think the difference here is the Sooners ability to create turnovers and make third down stops. Missouri may resort to allowing the Sooners to score just so Jeremy Maclin can return the kick.

Bonus SEC Championship Coverage

Some folks have been saying SEC title game is really a semi-final to the national championship (which is really a croc, because they Florida might not overtake Texas if they won, and Missouri is NOT going to play for the national championship no matter what the margin of victory). Nonetheless, I contacted a Crimson Tide student this week and here's our report from Tuscaloosa. I also contacted the only Florida alum I knew, and was slapped with a temporary restraining order. Erin Andrews has NO sense of humor. Without further ado, I submit the Miller High Life report:

1. How has the loss of Jimmy Johns effected this team?The biggest contribution JJ made to the team was allowing the student population to laugh at him as he ran out on the field with his arms outstretched like a child mimicking an airplane.
2. Florida has been on an offensive roll after losing at home to Ole Miss. Saban is a well respected defensive mind. How do you see Nick stopping Tebow, Harvin and Co? The truth is that Alabama has not played a team with a dual threat QB like Tim Tebow. Some readers may think that Kodi Burns was a dual threat, but he lacks the appropriate amount of brain waves needed to be considered a threat thowing the ball (move over Dan Marino and Vince Young!). So we will see if we can contain someone like Tim Tebow. Also, our friends in Tallahassee took care of Mr. Harvin and even if he plays, he will not be 100%. All that being said, that still leaves Demps, Rainey, and Jacobs, not to mention Coppell native Emmanuel Moody. In this case, the best defense is a good offense. JP and the offense need to keep them off the field. When they are on the field however, we need to put them in third and long situations and force Tebow to use his arm. As explosive as Florida is, everyone forgets that they are a running offense. I do not think they will be able to run the ball up the middle due to Terrence "Mount" Cody, our 365 (down from 420 at the beginning of the summer) Nose Tackle who demands a double team and sometimes even requests triple teams. This frees up blockers from our other linemen and linebackers who make a lot of plays. With that in mind, Florida will have to run outside because although we are big, we are slower than Florida (but who isn't). Note that Florida's only loss came from an Ole Miss team with two very big lines.
3. Do you think Coppell native Emmanuel Moody will see any playing time? Maybe after someone gets rocked after trying to go across the middle on Rolando McClain. But historically, his problem has been holding on to the football, which a rough hit'em in the mouth Alabama defense will surely exploit. If Percy Harvin can't play, he might get more touches than usual.
4. The SEC West - aside from the Tide - is not as strong as it usually is. Do you think playing a softer schedule - albeit not by design - puts the Tide at a disadvantage this week? I think it puts us at an advantage because we are a lot healthier than Florida, plus remember that we whooped Georgia in a blacked out Athens that nobody gave us a chance at winning. Besides Percy Harvin, Florida will be without two reserve defensive lineman. Although that doesn't sound like much, Florida's weakness is their defensive line. Look for our offensive line to wear them down very quickly and without that extra depth, Florida will have to bring their linebackers and safeties up closer to the line of scrimmage, which screams play action. That is, if necessary. There have been many times this season where a team will put eight in the box and Coffee will still fall forward for 4 or 5 yards, especially in the second half.
5. Alabama has been average on offense this year, but certainly done enough to win 12 games. How do you see the offense faring against the Florida D? We're going to physically dominate their defensive line and run the ball behind Andre Smith (the top NFL draft prospect in the nation) and the left side of the offensive line. We may toss a couple to diaper dandy Julio (soft J) Jones (hard J) to keep them honest. With such a fast defense, we will run it right at them until they stop us. Pretty simple. What's your prediction for the game? As Lee Corso says, it will be closer than the experts think. If we can hang with them in the first half, look for Florida's defense to have a rough second half. On the other side of the ball, Alabama's nasty defensive line will have to generate a big push, clog holes, and force Tim Tebow to throw it to be successful. In Alabama's last National Championship year (1992), they played against a heavily favored, exciting Florida Gator team in the SEC championship and won. Their gritty defense, coached by Paris, Texas native Gene Stallings and led by a young George Teague was able to contain the Gators and later on, defeat the Miami Hurricanes in the National Championship. Also, Alabama won the NC the last time a democrat was elected into office for his first term, so we also have that going for us. There are several other meaningful statistics like that which unavoidably point to a Tide win in my opinion.
6. Are you making the trip? As the SEC correspondent for LandThieves, I thought that I was going to be provided a media pass to be on the field and record my thoughts but I have not received it in the mail yet. It will probably show up tomorrow though. I will be in Atlanta for the game but not inside the stadium unfortunately. Only 361 graduate students got tickets for the game.

LandThieves All Big 12 FB team

Last year I just poked fun at the Big 12 selections, like Brody Eldridge as an all conference FB when the Sooners list him as a TE. This year, I decided to do my own team. For the official one from the Big 12, click here.

For my Sooner all big 12 team, I’m going with a 4 receiver, one back set. Finally we’re going with a a 3-4 defense to combat the pass heavy league.

• QB – Colt McCoy – many thought he had lost a little bit off the fastball and was perhaps a one year fluke as a frosh. McCoy proved them wrong, leading the Horns in rushing and passing. At the beginning of the year, Brown planned on alternating McCoy with Chiles, but Mack was smart enough to go with McCoy for the year. He put up some impressive numbers without a TE or a running game of consequence. Aside from Jordan Shipley and Quan Cosby, name a receiver. If you did, you’re a Texas fan and probably shouldn't be reading this site anyway.
• RB – Kendall Hunter, Okie State. Hunter led the Big 12 in rushing with 1518 yards and 9 games over the 100 yard mark. This wasn’t a big 10 type of 1500 yards (350 carries), it was on 228 carries, an average of almost 7 yards per game.
• WR – Kerry Meier, Jordan Shipley, Michael Crabtree, Dez Bryant
• KR (tie) – Perrish Cox, whoever’s returning kicks against OU this week
• OL – pick any five man combination from Texas Tech and Oklahoma
• FB - (jumbo package) – Chase Coffman, Missouri
  

Now for the defense...

• DL – Gerald McCoy
• DE – Bryan Orapko, UT, Brandon Williams, TT
• LB – Travis Lewis, OU; Joe Pawelek, Baylor; Sean Weatherspoon, Mizzou; Sergio Kindle, UT
• DB – None; have you seen the passing stats for the conference?
• K – Jeff Woffert, Mizzou. Made all 67 XPs and was 17-22 on Fgs.
• P - Justin Brantley, TAMU. Not only did he lead the league in yards per punt, he got lots of practice, too.
• Coach of the Year – Art Briles – seriously, did you think Baylor would be competitive this year? They led TT in the fourth, took Mizzou to the wire and led Nebraska in the second half. They nearly beat Connecticut in Storrs. We all expected TT, Texas and OU to be top ten teams this year.
• Freshman of the year – Robert Griffin, Baylor
• Sophomore of the year – Sam Bradford, Oklahoma
• Junior of the year – Colt McCoy, Texas
• Senior of the year – Brian Orapko. Texas

ESPN Gameday sign

Last week, the whiners at 45-35.com made up signs in an effort to sway the polls in the Horns favor. So, if you're travelling to Gameday in Atlanta this week, be sure and help a Sooner.

Top 10 Things Mack can say to his players

I heard / read somewhere that Mack wasn't sure what he'd tell his players if they watched two teams they'd beaten play in the Big 12 championship game. Mack spent so much time Fri and Saturday politicking I'm sure he's out of breath and ideas now that his fears have been realized. As a courtesy to the former OU assistant, I present to you the top 10 things Mack can say to his football team.

1. I'm sorry I scheduled Florida Atlantic.
2. I'm sorry I scheduled Rice.
3. I'm sorry I scheduled UTEP. We were trying to schedule Temple and complete the Owl trifecta, but they were already committed to play Connecticutt.
4. I can start my at home teeth whitening earlier. I should be done by the Christmas party now.
5. When playing double coverage, one of our defenders should be between the end zone and the offensive player. I'm just sayin...
6. This is all Blake Gideon's fault. All he has to do is catch one little measly batted ball, and this isn't an issue.
7. Saturday night, we can watch Smoking Gun Presents: World's Dumbest Criminals instead of the Big 12 championship game. Everytime you see someone wearing a Texas athlete, you have to do a shot.
8. Our 45-35 sign campaign allowed the FedEx/Kinko's franchise I own to have it's best month ever!
9. On the other hand, the Greenpeace organization on campus has informed us the campaign was not carbon neutral. We will be planting trees Thursday afternoon to offset the harm to the environment.
10. The Vince Young "How to Handle Adversity" talk has been postponed indefinitely.

Prediction Review

Back in July, I predicted the following for the Big 12 South;

OU; Texas; TT; TAMU; OSU; Baylor. Basically, I underestimated the dearth of talent inherited by Sherman, and underestimated Briles' impact on the Bears. I also think it's fair to say I didn't imagine OSU would be such a strong #4 either.

In the Big 12 North, I predicted:

Mizzou; Kansas; Nebraska; Colorado; Kansas State; Iowa State. The only thing I missed here was Nebraska - Kansas. Two factors I probably underestimated here: NU-KU game was in Lincoln; Huskers big 12 South foes were Baylor-Ou-Tech and KU got OU-UT-TT.