Common Foes

Going into the OU-Boone State game, the Horns and Sooners have played 5 common foes: TAMU, KU, Baylor, TT and one another. Texas is 4-1, with a scoring margin of 207-111. OU is 4-1 with a scoring margin of 260-142.

This will all shake itself out in the next 72 hours in one of the following scenarios: a) OU will beat OSU decisively, maintain a lead in the human polls and jump Texas enough in the computer polls to edge the Horns in the BCS; b) OU will edge OSU, will lose ground in the human polls and that will offset the gain in the computers and the Horns will take the Big 12 South; c) OSU will win, and Texas Tech makes the Big 12 South championship; d) Baylor upsets Texas Tech and hands the crown to Texas.

Texas Tech is a 21 point favorite, so d) is highly unlikely. OU is a 7 point favorite against the Pokes, so b) and c) are more likely than a). I'm still going with a Sooner blowout.

Style Points

While watching the UT rout of Cash Machine U today, and the guys in the booth (Fowler, Palmer, James) kept talking about how Mack doesn't run the score up, and that he's not seeking style points. The Longhorns then proceed to score 21 points in the fourth quarter.

I did a little research today to see how the teams fared in scoring by quarter. I ignored the UT-TT game, the UT-OU game to only get games that were victories by both of the teams. So here are the figures:

4th quarter points:
UT - 86 - 44
OU - 41 - 48

2nd Half Scoring:
UT - 198 - 86
OU - 168 - 102

So, in spite of outscoring opponents 251-53 in the first half, UT still needed to outscore their opponents by 112 points in the second half. Maybe talk is cheap, and actions speak louder than words. Oklahoma's "style points" have been obtained in the first half. Don't know of anyone pulling starters in the first half.

Hypocrisy in the media

Austin American Statesman writer Kirk Bohls makes the brilliant argument that Texas should be ahead of OU because they beat them on the field, and that it shouldn't matter that it was several weeks ago. He's being quite hypocritical. Courtesy of the analysis at www.pollspeak.com one can analyze his votes. With this logic, I point out the following discrepancies.

• Oregon State defeated USC on Sep 25. Kirk voted the Beavers 17th and the Trojans 5th.
• Oregon State lost to Stanford to open the season. Stanford received no votes from Mr. Bohls.
• Ole Miss beat Florida 31-30 in Gainesville on Sep 27th. Florida was voted 4th by Mr. Bohls, and the Rebels did not receive a vote. Kirk even mentions this game in his pitch for Texas over the Sooners. To expand further on Ole Miss, they've lost by 2 at Wake Forest, by 4 at Tuscaloosa, by 6 at home to Vanderbilt and by 7 at home to South Carolina. That's a pretty solid 7-4 team he's ignoring.
• Georgia Tech was voted 19th, yet none of the three teams that beat the Yellowjackets are rated ahead of them.
• Boston College is ranked 20th per Kirk, but he gave no votes to North Carolina or Clemson, who both beat the Eagles.
• Cincinnati, who lost to Connecticut, was voted 15th, while the Huskies did not receive a vote.
• Penn State lost to Iowa two weeks ago, yet Penn State is voted 9th and Mr. Bohls did not cast a vote for the Hawkeyes.

Stolen Thoughts 11-23-28

While hanging out here in non-snowy Steamboat Colorado, here are a couple of links for you...

The Aggie Report has their Longhorn preview video up. It gives some great insight as to Mack's recruiting prowess. For family viewers, stop watching at about 7:30 mark.

While driving up here yesterday, basking in the glow of the Sooners dominating performance, I was contemplating researching something like this. As usual, Matt Hinton at Dr Saturday beat me to it. Hinton does a great job of demonstrating the Sooners quick KO's this year.

Jay Christenson takes issue with the SEC this year.

Stewart Mandel's coverage of the Red Raider OU game gives an interesting point...someone in the UT camp was sending text messages to sports media folks reminding them about the Sooner loss to UT back in October. The other interesting point is that none of the big 3 in the South have won a big game in a hostile enviroment this year. OU's turn will be this weekend at Stillwater.

Holy Cow that was impressive

From my personal perspective, that W had to be the most impressive victory for the Sooners since the 2000 domination of the #11 Texas Longhorns, 63-14. A couple of thoughts:

The 3rd down D was the difference defensively. The Red Raiders converted one third down all day.

Leach's tendency to go for it on fourth down also hurt, in my opinion. He could've used the three when down 14-0 and in the Sooner red zone, and the fourth down down attempt at mid-field set the Sooners up for a short field. Not that it would have eliminated the 44 point gap, but it coulda narrowed it.

Iglesias' juke of defenders and score midway through the second quarter was a thing of beauty, as was Manuel Johnson's one handed grab of a Bradford bomb late in the third. DeMarco and Chris both ran well all day, courtesy of a powerful performance by the offensive line.

Vacation

This clan of thieves will be doing some much needed vacationing immediately after the Dust Pirate contest, so we may be silent for awhile.

With a win against Texas Tech, the contest at Boone State has everything at stake. The path for the national championship would lead through Stillwater. When have you heard that and not been talking about wrestling? Lose against TT, and you're looking at the 9-3 season a I predicted in the aftermath of last year's Fiesta Fiasco.

Regardless, we'll know a lot more when I get back to civilization in on December 1.

Until then, Happy Thanksgiving.

Bonus Mountain West Coverage

Big game in Utah this weekend as the Utes host the Fightin' Mormons. Utah has proclaimed the event a white-out*, and encourages all fans to be or act white. Of course, with 89.1% white population, that won't be difficult. I don't believe the white-out is sponsored by Nike.

*actual results may vary