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.

Ten Things I think you think I think - week 3

1. Colorado is glad they don't play Nevada this year.
2. When WTF Landry is playing, the Sooners are an average football team at best. When he's channelling Sam Bradford, they're top 10.
3. Jonathan Nelson played an outstanding game this week, when he left the game in the second half, the Falcons consistently had big gains.
4. Watching an option offense well run is just a thing of beauty.
5. That outcome did not surprise me...interior d line play seems to need improvement, and if you can't stop the fullback dive and trap on an option offense, it's going to be a long day,
6. Texas seems intent on establishing the run game this year. I think sophomore g spot < 4 yr starter My Little Pony, but not by much. The real issue appears to be the ability of receivers to catch, and o-linemen not pass blocking well.
7. I wish UMass played Notre Dame.I'd love to see how those teams match up. remember when - about a month ago - when pundits were saying that ND would-be favored in all their games this year?
8. Baylor must win 4 of their next 5 to make a bowl game this year: at Rice, home against Kansas, Texas Tech in Dallas, at Colorado and home against K State. it's possible.
9. Holy cow, BYU is down this year. So is the Big 12. The conference hosted Florida International, San Diego State and Air Force and had single digit victories over those foes. Add two miserable losses at Southern Miss and TCU, and the penalty and turnover fest in Lubbock and clearly the WTF conference did not have it's best foot forward this weekend.
10. Bugeater QB Taylor Martinez is going to be First Team All Big 12.

A Texas Aggie Update w Mrs Byrne

Each week, Cash Machine U Athletic Director updates the Aggie faithful with an email. This week's update is just pure gold.

As a customer service to my loyal reader(s), I've translated the responses to emails into a video using the http://www.xtranormal.com/ website. Finally, I took the artistic liberties of adding the lovely Mrs. Byrne to the video to provide editorial comment.

Home of the Sooners

Everyone with a keyboard / touchscreen is chiming in on the "Home of the Sooners" issue. The Lost Ogle has a great piece, for example. Since I have a keyboard and a blog, here goes:



I think putting Sooners in place of brave is in poor taste. You can't legislate poor taste. it's like going to Wal-mart. You know you're going to see stuff like this, but it's not against the law. This is against the law at Wal-mart, and most other public places.


We already butcher the song in many ways. Let's keep in mind the following concepts:

• the lyrics are set to a British drinking song
• the original key for the music is rarely followed, which has become a mission of Garrison Keillor
• the timing of the original song was 43 seconds, and most of the time a singer takes 2 minutes or more to sing it
• a 2004 Harris poll indicated 39 percent of Americans didn't even know the words. Of course, the government started a program to educate us on the words. They didn't stop the flow of illegal immigrants coming into the country, so I'm skeptical this has improved in six  years.

All that being said, I don't sing Sooners in the middle of the Star Spangled banner. I don't care for it when others do. One of the things that makes our country great - and exasperating at the same time - is that we can express ourselves in different ways.


If you want to be a moron, you can be a moron. The are plenty of morons to join you in our own special way.

Texas QB Nicknames

A few years ago, when we were starting this blog, we came up with the nickname "My Little Pony" for Colt McCoy. Yesterday, while driving back from Austin, I had an idea for Garreett Gilbert.s nickname.

He will heretofore be known as G Spot.

Bob Barry Chimes in on Home of the Sooners

Just got off the phone with Bob Barry. He had this to say about the "Home of the Sooners" controversy. Barry said, "I gave Francis Scott Key piano lessons. I never charged him a dime. Did he ever say thanks? No. Spoiled kid of a lawyer. What can you do? Anyway, aside from being ungrateful, Key was a nice enough fellow. I don't know how we would feel about changing the words. He adopted the words from a British drinking song, so it's already a derivative concept."