Random Thoughts before I early vote

• Cincinnati moved to 6-2 last night with a win over the 23rd ranked USF Bulls. The Bearcats have had three QBs this year, and petitioned to use Ben Mauk for a 6th year, but were denied. Oregon and Cincinnati have both done quite well this year in spite of having to start three different QBs.
• The Sooners haven't lost to the Bugeaters in Norman since 1996, when Nebraska beat OU 73-21. The game was not as close as the score indicated.

OU-Bugeaters, Flashback

Sam Gilbert, Jr. over at the Oklahom Sooners Football blog found an excellent video recap of the Sooners victory over the Bugeaters in 1985, my sophomore year of college. What I recall about the game, aside from Jackson's running, was the concern that Bosworth was going to hurt someone after a Sooner fumble led to a Husker defensive TD with less than a minute remaining. That defensive shutout spoiled what would ahve been a shutout of the #2 ranked Huskers.

As bonus coverage, Sam provided a link to an article on the game. Keith Jackson rushed three times for 136 yards and a TD. Not many teams deploy the TE reverse anymore, and on one of those instances, Jackson was supposed to pass but pulled the ball down and ran it.

The Sooners were 1-4 passing that day. My how times have changed. The article linked to above also have coverage of the Texas Longhorns ruining Baylor's chances of a Cotton Bowl berth.

Due to work and Halloween schedules, weekend preview coverage will be limited at best.

Weekend Preview 11-1-08

Lots of good games this weekend, in conference and in other places:


First, the Big XII...

Travis County Detention Facility at Dust Pirates: Texas Tech has lost the last two to Texas played in Lubbock. The last time the REd Raiders lost three in a row at home to Texas was 1962, 64 and 66. I expect TT to be able to move the ball against the Horns. What I'm not certain of is the ability of the Red Raider to stop Texas, as no one really has yet, with the exception of the Boone State Cowboys. And I've never typed that statement before in my life. While I'll be rooting for Leach and his Pirates to keep my Big 12 South championship hopes alive, I'm skeptical of the outcome. That being said, a TT is allowing fewer yards per play, and plays better 3rd down defense. Prediction: Texas Tech

Phog U vs Willie and Friends: This is a big game in Kansas. We're not in Kansas. End of preview. Prediction: Kansas.

Missouri at Baylor: The Bears have yet to beat the Tigers in Big 12 play. Missouri seemed to wake up a little bit against CU Later last week. While the B is improving, it's tough to see the Bears re-enacting their 1991 victory over Missouri in Waco. Mainly because Missou was 3-7-1 that year. Prediction: Missouri

CU Later at Cash Machine U: the Buffs are coming off a shellacking at the hands of the Tigers last week. TAMU has found a QB in Jerrod Johnson, and the receivers are performing. It's good to know the Aggies are getting their offensive groove in time for the Sooners to come to town. Prediction: Aggies.

Iowa State at Poor Man's Texas Tech: the Cyclones have won 3 of the last 4 vs Boone State. The Pokes are favored by 31 in this matchup, so look for the Cyclones to make it 3 of 5. Iowa State cemented its status as the worst team in the Big 12 with it's loss to TAMU last week. Prediction: Boone State


Now, other games of interest:

Tulsa at Arkansas - this game intrigues me because it's the closest thing to a real foe that Tulsa will play this year, since they backed out of playing TT. Arkansas may or may not be a real foe, however. This some sort of disfunctional grudge match element to this, with Gus Malzahn returning to Fayetteville, where he was paid to coach, but was not allowed to coach, for a year in 2006. And, the coach that left him hanging is gone. So maybe he's bitter about a text msg from a fan? I dunno. I'm interested to see how the Golden Hurricane fares against a BCS conference team, even if it's a weak one. Prediciton: Tulsa.

Florida at Georgia: Much ado about how the Gators will respond to the TD celebration the Dawgs did last year. Who knows. I do know the game will be a good one. The series record is 37-46-2 in the favor of Georgia, but Florida is 15-3 over the last 18. The last time Georgia won two in a row was 1988-89. The Florida coach for the 89 game was Gary Darnell, who was the interim coach after former Sooner coach Galen Hall left. Prediction: Florida.

Bucknell at Holy Cross: I may have to wear my Bucknell hat for this titanic matchup. Prediction: midterms.

Stloen Thoughts - 10-30-08

• Interesting thoughts on the SEC West, sans Alabama.
• Houston, lawyer up! Absolutely stunning to me that a team would leave acrts surrounding the field.
• Some more info on TBP's losses
• Finally, one of the things I intended to do this week was a midseason review of the Big 12, since we're all 4 games in. I haven't done that. However, Hippo over at KJ-IBT did a pretty good one. The only changes I might have are: Def MVP to Orapko and the biggest "surprise" might be Texas. The alleged experts had them picked 3rd in the South, and they're holding onto the #1 ranking quite nicely.
• Jim McMahon is not in the BYU Hall of Fame. And Daddy's not happy. This is a travesty.
• As an additional bonus for the male readership, here's a link to pics of Colt McCoy's girlfriend.

Big 12 Defense Apologetics

From the LandThieves research department...
I did a little number crunching today. The Big 12 is getting a lot of pub nationally for the awful defense we play here in the flyover states. If you isolate games played against the BCS conferences - so that we ignore most of the cupcakes, including Notre Dame and Western Kentucky - here is nonconference points per game allowed.


SEC - 19.64
Big 10 - 24.09
ACC - 25.65
MWC - 26.17
Big 12 - 26.21
Big East - 29.36
Pac 10 - 30.67


So, while the Big 12 is not that great, - 5th of the 7 - no one's complaining about the Big East and Pac 10 defenses. On the opposite side of the equation, let's look at the ppg allowed in conf play, and the difference between conf and non conference.


SEC - 22.4, +2.76
Big 10 - 23.68, -0.41
ACC - 21.10, -4.54
MWC - 24.33, -1.84
Big 12 - 32.35, +6.14
Big East - 23.05, -6.31
Pac 10 - 27.35, -3.32

Finally, an element to consider is the ppg scored in conference vs nonconference. Since conf points scored is the same as points allowed, below is ppg scored in nonconference games, and the increase/-decrease compared to conference games.

SEC - 21.91, -0.49
Big 10 - 28.73, +5.05
ACC -24.18, +3.07
MWC - 26.92, +2.59
Big 12 - 33.00, +0.65
Big East - 24.00, +0.95
Pac 10 - 24.33, -3.01

So, what do we learn from all these "figgers"?

• No one outside of the Big 12 conference could stop the Big 12 offenses either. In fact, Big 12 defenses deter Big 12 offenses better than non-Big 12 defenses. This includes reputable defenses like Cincinnati, Wake Forest, TCU, West Virginia, South Florida, Connecticut and Florida State.
• The SEC is horrible offensively, averaging 21.91 points per game in nonconference games. Of course, of the 12 SEC teams, they only managed 11 games against schools from these conferences.
• The Big East was the second worst offense. Amazingly, in spite of having the second worst defense, the in conference scoring average went down.
• The Pac 10 numbers are somewhat misleading courtesy of the awfulness that is football in the state of Washington now. However, Wazzuu's 2nd best defensive performance was against Big 12 juggernaut Okie State.
• The Big 10 offense is second under this point of view, which is just stunning. The Big 10 also only managed 11 games against these conferences, and only encompasses 8 of the 11 teams.
• We must extend special recognition to the schools that were unable to schedule anyone from the BCS conferences or MWC: Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Texas Tech, Air Force, San Diego State, Wyoming and LSU.
• There were 5 schools to schedule 3 games against BCS + MWC: Colorado, Baylor, Oklahoma, Connecticut and California.

Defense - the Poster

Many of you are concerned about the defense, so here' a little pick me up.

TBP's Book - the Sequel

Well, Boone has bailed out his university. Per the espn.com article I'm linking, the initial $165 million that Boone gave to Oklahoma State(and that they gave back to him immediately to invest through a hedge fund) was down to $125 million - from a high of $407,000,000 - when TBP gave it back recently. Pickens announced on Monday he is giving an additional $60 million to the univeristy, which was presumably made by short selling the investments in the hedge fund.

Boone's sequel to his best selling book will be available at this blog as an e book for a short time only.

Note to lawyers. The last paragraph and the picture at left are a joke. Get a life. Only 20-30 people read this anyway.