Football Articles
2008 Oklahoma Football Preview: State Of The Union
Posted by Scipio Tex on August 22nd, 2008 under Football
In 2008, Bob Stoops will attempt to win his fourteenth Big 12 Title in ten years and that’s reassuring to a fan base resigned to the notion that their life’s achievements will always best be realized vicariously. Sooner Nation citizenship is more precious than a man’s best acid-washed girbauds, lax child support laws, and primo tickets to the midget auto races in Enid. Big Game Bob may not be living up to his moniker on the national stage, bricking in his last 4 BCS bowls, but pointing that out is a little awkward when he noodles us like a catfish in October. Stoops is a regional powerhouse. Sort of like the Von Erichs circa 1982. He has decided to shake it up a bit in Norman this spring, working on a no-huddle offense to increase tempo and to win his bet with strength coach Jerry Schmidt that he can give at least two of the sea manatees on his OL a myocardial infarction. As usual, Stoops will be dressed in a style known as Contemporary Flatlands Golf Prick, make outlandish projections about the quality of his team (captured so well last year by Henry James) and will go apeshit at the officials sometime around the coin flip. Something about that Stoops look of petulant contempt and perpetual grievance just says September to me.
Golf prick says what?
I’m an Indian outlaw
Half Cherokee and Choctaw
My baby she’s a Chippewa
She’s one of a kind
~ Rumi ~
Sam Bradford is also one of a kind. He’s the little Injun that could. Have heap big arm throw it all way to Shining-Big-Sea-Water, height soar like eagle, accuracy like arrow. And rare for an OU QB, dentistry that doesn’t hail from Cardiff. Bradford is poised, understated, and smart. Characteristics reflective of Bradford’s lineage as the great-great-grandson of Susie Walkingstick, a full-blooded Cherokee. The Walkingsticks are one of the most respected families in Cherokee tradition - in addition to being my favorite childhood bug. Now I’m more of an ant lion guy. Bradford is almost unstoppable when he’s in his comfort zone. You have to shake him up. Deny the quick slant, the easy pre-snap read, have defenders yell out, “Tecumseh peed like a squaw!”, and mount a pass rush. It’s the only way to frogmarch him down The Gridiron Trail of Tears.
My tomahawk yearns for the heart of the Grey Hair
Despite his humble demeanor, Bradford’s Big 12 Media Day included this statement about Mack Brown:
“Know this, when the Grey Hair is dead, I will eat his heart. Before he dies, Auston English will put Chris Jesse under the knife so that Grey Hair will know his seed is wiped out forever.”
This is incendiary talk even for a rival. Though Texas fans quietly endorse his sentiments about Chris Jesse. Before Bradford, the last great Native American impact players were Sonny Sixkiller, Wahoo McDaniel, Jim Thorpe, Sitting Bull, and the Mel Brooks chieftain in Blazing Saddles. So he is in select company.
Over the past three years, the OU OL walked a razor’s edge with injuries, Kevin Wilson serial killings, defections to Cuba, and general pansy assed quitting, but they’ve developed a massive and rather good OL. Or as Bradford calls them: Angry-Buffalo-Who-Stampede-All-Greater-Norman-Area-Buffets. The Sooner OL don’t always get great movement at the point of attack against a low pad level (see Virginia, West), but they’re big bodies that will lock up and screen your guys sufficiently to allow one of the Sooners RBs to get to daylight. They do a nice job of protecting Bradford in OU’s quick passing game (the latter reinforcing the former).
The gargantuan Phil Loadholt has particularly sweet feet for such a big man. Indeed, Mad Dog was once observed licking Loadholt’s achilles tendons during pre-game warm-ups. When Loadholt sweats the caramel lick spouting from his phalanges is irresistible to the morbidly corpulent even though his thigh pads smell like Madonna’s perineum after NBA All-Star Weekend. Duke Robinson is a legit 1st Team All Big 12 Guard. Jon Cooper is their overrated center that the lazy media places on their ballots for First Team All Big 12 because they see line play as an unfathomable mass of moving color and they have to rely on other’s opinions after the event to know what just happened. Much like a Pink Floyd concert.
Useful Sooner OL quick fact: If you dart Branndon Braxton, they’ll all mill around him nervously licking the air and you can pick them off one by one. To get close enough to tranc him, garb yourself in the pelt of a Domino’s pizza man and disguise your scent with David Boren’s tinkle.
When healthy, DeMarco Murray may be the most talented back in the league. Last year he averaged over 6 yards per carry and one TD every ten carries - ratios almost as impressive as the OU player time worked vs. pay scale at Big Red Autos. Remember Big Red Autos? Back when Rhett Bomar used to make the Sooner players work there! Or else he’d kill them!
Bomar forced many innocents to receive illegal cash
Jermaine Gresham is a massive presence and major goalline threat who is still being integrated into the regular passing game. The integration won’t require Federal troops as OC Kevin Wilson hates all races equally. If they can use Gresham effectively, OU’s play action game just got very interesting. 6′6 265 pound TEs who can run are not pleasant to tackle. Just think of trying to tackle the last woman you hooked up with Carnivalers, but with a better disposition and sans floral capri pants.
Mayan over matter
OU’s two best WRs are named Juaquin and Manuel. This is generally bad news for any football team outside of the Rio Grande Valley, but these two faux Meso-Americans can both run like Apocalypto. Malcolm Kelly inspired fear; Juaquin and Manuel primarily inspire confusion as this year’s Big 12 CBs wonder how two Honduran dudes combined for 99 balls for 1300+ yards in ‘07. Apparently scouting reports don’t have head shots. Shouldn’t they be (sorority girl spanish) like, diviertan en la playa con un cerveza frio? As you know, the word iglesias means “el churcho” in Mexican talk. The secondary meaning of Iglesias is ‘my music is insipid but I polish Kournikova’s ass.’ The tertiary meaning is ‘I have lots of talent, but drop passes on 3rd and 7 when I’m thinking about strange.’ Juaquin and Manuel aren’t actually from Central America; they’re Catalonian. A proud and haughty people. Mucho gusto!
OU doesn’t have tremendous depth at WR. DeJuan (’Nother Mexican) Miller pictured here was decapitated in his Honors Metal Shop class making a bong pipe with a jigsaw. In macabre tribute, the Sooners will carry his helmeted head in the Sooner Schooner menacing Big 12 opponents as if they were a hapless Ichabod Crane. On any full moon preceding a Kenny Chesney concert, The Great Crimson Cabeza will appear in Poteau, Frogville, and Bugtussle to receive offerings of Pabst, firecrackers, and myrrh. Josh Jarboe will provide a deep threat. Via youtube.
The Sooner DL range from very good to serviceable. DE Auston English returns from an All-Big 12 season. He’s a very good instinctive pass rusher. His speed off of the edge will be increased without his appendix. The other DE spot appears to be unsettled, which means whoever squats on the field three days before the opener gets the job via Sooner common law. John Williams - who first enrolled in Norman during the Ford Administration - battles Jeremy Beal and some other carbon based life forms for the starting gig. You have to wonder if RJ Washington might not make an appearance. The DTs look to be stout as former uber-recruits Gerald McCoy and DeMarcus Granger have more stars by their name than a Barry Bonds record. An offense has to be aware of Granger at all times. Particularly if they have valuables.
Sooner LB Ryan Reynolds was awesome in Just Friends, but he is saddled heavily with the Big P word. Platypus? No, Potential. Which as a high school coach once pointed out, is a fancy word for someone who ain’t done shit yet. To which I said, you mean platypus? And he said, no dumbshit, potential. Then I had to run laps. Reynolds is from Las Vegas and odds are that he’ll be solid if pit boss Venables doesn’t make him deal at the coverage card table. Giving Reynolds a TE to cover is like taking a hit on 19. Dude gave Jermichael Finley more highlights than illegitimate children.
Curtis Lofton will be badly missed. Lofton was last year’s Rocky Calmus, who once famously said,”I know of only one duty, and that is to love.” That may have been Albert Camus. I often confuse scrappy white LBs with Absurdism. The rest of the LBing corps will be filled out by undersized Keenan Clayton and Austin Box, which I miss terribly since I’ve been living in California.
Lendy Holmes and Nic Harris make for a formidable safety duo that will tackle well and ball hawk all single move routes. All double moves where the rush doesn’t get there will be met with the sound of Nic Harris screaming,”Awwww Sheeeeiiiiiiiittttt!” and a sideline visor slam. OU - oh you is so ‘gressive! It’s just cute how ‘ggressive you are! The corners are untested. I don’t mean that they had someone else take their SAT for them like the majority of OU’s players. I mean they haven’t played much. This is concerning for every Sooner except for Stoops who compares Dominique Franks to Champ Bailey, Brian Jackson to Night Train Lane, and Jim J Bullock to Daniel Day Lewis.
Their special teams return game should be outstanding, though their placekicking will look like a lemur fucking a volleyball.
Look, this is an OU team. They will be physical, coached up to tendency, and focused for their big opponents. They’ll probably win the Big 12 and get whipped in a BCS bowl. Not that I’m taking a cheap shot. This year, I’d like very much like to win the league and lose a BCS bowl.
To err is Sooner; to forgive yardage, Devine
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2008 Texas A&M Football Preview - State of the Union
By HenryJames on August 21st, 2008
ponderos said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:43 am
Underwhelming by BC standards. Not even a chuckle. Frankly, I’m disappointed.
ChrisApplewhite said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:15 am
We’ll see what happens when the Texas one comes out, but so far we’re batting 1.000 on the first fan of the school being profiled to comment saying the article wasn’t as funny as the others.
Odd phenomenon.
whitaldo said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:15 am
Too edgy for yah, huh?
ponderos said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:22 am
The two slot receiver candidates:
1. Off the team because of a felony gun charge, then rapping about it.
2. The guy that’s actually there was the one busted for stealing gas at a Norman convenience store last year.
Those should be like whiffle balls for you guys.
ponderos said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:38 am
Here’s a little help off the top of my head:
The team has a motto this year (not kidding): WTLG - Win the Last Game. That sounds like something BC would make up, only it’s real. Their motto last year was “Finish.” In hindsight, that was probably a misspelled tribute to Capt. Sig Hansen and the crew of the FV Northwestern, which could have better contained Pat White by snaring him with a picking hook and slamming him into a crab pot until he begged to go home.
Candidate for one of the LB spots is Mike Balogun, a 30-year-old JC transfer who was picking up recyclables on the curb just a few years ago.
Two Austins (one Aust-on) on the defense. Usually people move from Oklahoma to Austin, not the other way around.
Loadhold (sic) busted for DUI (hic) earlier this year. We need to understand how much alcohol it takes for that large of a human being to be over the legal limit.
Both airports in Oklahoma City were named after guys who died in a plane crash - the same crash.
Oklahoma City stole their NBA franchise from Seattle, which is only fitting since the state was founded by thieves.
C’mon, this article reads like somebody stole ChrisApplewhite’s “‘It’s 5 o’clock and OU Sucks’ and 1,000 Other Insanely Funny Jokes about OU” book and plagiarized. You can do better.
Nostradamus said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:05 am
It’s not exactly History of the Sooners by judgeroybeanbag.
Stuck in MN said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:06 am
ponderas- I have to disagree as I has several laugh out loud moments (Chris Jesse, Austin Box, Camus et al).
The problem was I had printed it out for my morning work growler. I wonder what those poor people at the urinals were thinking.
Horn in OK said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:14 am
I dont care what sensitive ponytail OU man says, this one had me in stitches.
sooner tim said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:25 am
Fucking brilliant, Scipio. Laughed my ass off and the best yet of this year’s previews. (For fellow Sooners who don’t have a sense of humor, get off it).
Some of the others read as mailed in as compared to last year, but this one might be the best yet.
Let’s play.
UTtuck said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:40 am
I too thought it was not as good as the others, and I like your additions ponderos. I just find it hard to laugh at a team that I think I might lose to during the year. I hope we dominate, and then I’ll probably enjoy the humor more next year.
Good job though, still pretty funny.
ponderos said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:51 am
Sometimes BC hits, sometimes they miss.
2007’s OU SOTU (which was great, btw):
The two starting seniors, John Williams and Alonzo Dotson, have combined for 19 career tackles and 3 sacks. They are backed up by some white dude who played AA football in Texas and doesn’t have any career tackles. Depth will have to come from undersized freshmen that OU managed to pry away from no one important.
That would be DE Auston English, some white dude who played AA football in Texas.
Chase Daniel is still having nightmares about Jeremy Beal, a now-sophomore DE who was one of the top high school DEs in the nation and whot OU pried away from nobody important.
Vasherized said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:11 am
I’m happy to report Austin Box is as good as ever.
I almost drove into a utility pole on 24th & Rio Grande yesterday as a herd of 68 (I counted) incoming freshman girls ambled down Sorority row wondering where life is going to take them.
They seemed a little creeped out when all four doors of my Audi opened simultaneously.
OU is going to miss Lofton big time. Dude was everywhere. And Lemur’s aren’t allowed in the new Cotton Bowl so we may have a chance if we’re up 3 in the 4th. Unless Loadholt sneaks him in under his armpit. Hopefully we can go WVU on their ass with Roy Miller and our 7 DEs.
ponderos said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:23 am
Agreed on Lofton. However, there’s the annual “man, they’re gonna miss (insert previously unheard-of LB here) this year” and somehow Venables coaches somebody up to 100 tackles and a Big 12 Defensive POTY (RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU).
My money’s on Keenan Clayton.
Spider said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:43 am
That would be DE Auston English
Yeah, he’s a beast after the whistle.
NateHeupel said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:47 am
Ponderos has a point. Venables isn’t an elite DC, but he’s probably the best LB coach in college football by a wide margin. Give him a mediocre talent, he’ll give you Rufus Alexander’s 2006 season.
As for the preview, it was absolutely fantastic.
What is it with coaches in Oklahoma needing to look like golf pricks? First, Stoops, then Gundy. Next thing you know, Todd Graham will be sporting a visor at Tulsa.
OU’s WR depth is actually pretty good, it’s experience that there’s a very serious dearth of.
Side note: What was with the rant that started with DeJuan Miller? Did you let your teenage son fill in a paragraph? That’s the only way to logically explain how mind-numbingly retarded that part was. I was actually able to stop laughing and look at the screen thinking “what a dumb ass” until the line about Jarboe came in and brought back the laughter.
ponderos said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:51 am
This is Division 1 football, Spider.
Go play intramurals, brother.
BrickHorn said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:08 am
This is Division 1 football, Spider.
Right. And there is an official rulebook that applies to Division 1 football. If you peruse that rulebook, you will find that hitting a player after the ball is dead is a violation of the rules of Division 1 football.
Spider said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:10 am
This is Division 1 football, Spider.
Uh, no. It’s been Bowl Division for two years, now.
But I understand your point: it takes a real tough guy to take a cheap shot.
ponderos said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:19 am
You’re seriously whining about cheap shots in the OU-TX game?
Suck it up and get tougher.
Spider said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:32 am
You’re seriously whining about cheap shots in the OU-TX game?
Are you drunk already? Show me where I was whining, tough guy. I’m making fun of a cheap shot artist. That kind of crap doesn’t impress me the way it does you. Wanna see it in flash-card format, now?
If a Longhorn had done that, we’d be ashamed of him, even make fun of him. And that’s the difference between us and you. That’s what ST is talking about at the top of this very page, in case you missed it. Hell, I think there was a series on the difference between us and you on this very website, which you seem to have difficulty reading.
But you’ll keep calling it “whining” so you can change the subject.
Run away!!!
Run away!!!
Horn in OK said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:38 am
Wow, this ponderos cat who calls in to the radio shows and now has infested BC is some kind of sensitive. Basically he’s living proof of the very first sentence of the above SOTU.
Boomer Sooner! said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:56 am
I loves me some English! It takes a special kinda talent to run straight at a defenseless man’s back and pounce on him from behind. The same kind of talent it takes to pay recruits and hold onto the jerseys of opposing defensive linemen. Or to suddenly grab an unsuspecting bar patron’s nutsack and pull reeeeeal hard until it rips. THAT’s toughness. That’s what real men do. They sucker punch people, hit dudes in the back when they aren’t looking and pull on other men’s genitals.
Boomer Sooner!
ChrisApplewhite said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:19 am
Bob Stoops teaches his players to be all out aggressive and skirt the rules, especially the late hit stuff. I know this as 100% fact because he writes it right into his damn playbook.
I wish Texas did it, too. It’s part of being tough and intimidating. Late hits will happen to everyone, but when they do I prefer it’s a slobberknocker into an earhole, not a Killebrew love tap.
Huckleberry said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:32 am
NateHeupel said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 am
My favorite part of that play was the utter apathy shown by all the UT players after watching their QB get cold-cocked on an obvious late hit.
NateHeupel said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:35 am
Huck, when OU has had 4 or 5 teams go undefeated on their way to a MNC, how is a one loss team that didn’t win a national championship OU’s “best team”? I’m curious as to how you came to this.
Facebook User said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:55 am
Nate - We commented on that last year on this blog.
Your QB gets laid out and teammates stroll by like pedestrians in NYC. Fucking inexcusable. And frankly, it’s the thing that makes me the craziest about Mack’s approach all these years. It dovetails with CA’s point above. When you play aggressive, you may pick up some extra penalties but the net gain will be positive.
When you hold on every play, they can’t call it each time. \It’s akin to Martin Scorsese offering his first cut to the MPAA. When you show a guy’s head being crushed in a vice and they say, you have to take that out, he says sure, no problem, having never planned to leave it in but everything else seems tame by comparison.
Scipio Tex said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:03 am
You’re right, Nate. That was the learning moment from that play.
As for DeJuan Miller, click on the link to see how he is pictured in the online media guide. You’ll understand the reference a bit better.
BoomerFreakinSooner said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:05 am
Is Scipio Tex the same clown who steals letterheads from websites and then creates fake news stories about players on teams other than Texas?
Bob Stoops will attempt to win his fourteenth Big 12 Title in ten years and that’s reassuring to a fan base resigned to the notion that their life’s achievements will always best be realized vicariously.
I loved that last part. Who has the websites devoted to their schools, with volunteer psuedo-journalists writing ‘regular’ columns? I think that’s Texas. Talk about living vicariously…
I’ll take Stoops, you can have sMack, standing on the sideline, looking like Ted Kennedy with dementia when the opponent is hanging 60 on the’horns.
Facebook User said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:06 am
No, he’s an entirely different clown.
Huckleberry said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 am
Nate -
Because you lost by 4 points to the greatest team of all time for your only loss. It was your great misfortune that Nebraska had a ridiculously dominant team that year because that Jack Mildren-led squad was a great, great football team. They beat the #3 team in the nation (#4 in my ratings) that year 45-17. They blew out a Top 5 Auburn team 40-22 in their bowl game even after the disappointing loss to Nebraska. Other than the loss 13 points was the closest anyone got to them all year long. Only one other team stayed within 20.
The ratings each year are scaled so that the output reflects each team’s sigma rating. Essentially how many standard deviations from the mean the team was for that year. The mean is set at 65 and the standard deviation is set at 14.
Basically the ratings are saying that your 1971 team was the best team Oklahoma ever had in terms of strength relative to its peers. The problem was that Nebraska was even better that year. Surely you understand that I would not choose to put a one-loss Oklahoma team ahead of 2005 Texas if the numbers didn’t support it. I have a previous blog post that discusses that game.
You’ll note that the table indicates that Oklahoma has five #1 finishes in my ratings. But none of those teams had a raw rating higher than your #2 1971 team.
Stuck in MN said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:15 am
Nate-
Huck’s rankings are based on the actual accomplishments of that team in that year, not their ranking. Therefore, in the same way that TCU can go 12-0 and not be better than an 11-1 SEC champion, a national champ from one year may actually be ranked lower than a team that finished second in other years. I think your 1971 team is ranked top 5 of all time, they just had the misfortune of being around in the same year that the best team of all time was playing (1971 NU according to Huck).
Stuck in MN said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 am
umm, you can go ahead and ignore my post, his response is better.
Facebook User said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:20 am
Huck actually belled Schrödinger’s cat.
Huckleberry said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:22 am
Man, I just went back and reviewed that 1971 season again after responding to Nate. It was amazing.
Nebraska killed everyone. Oklahoma lost to them 35-31. Nobody else got closer than 24 points. They shitstomped #3 Alabama 38-6 in the Orange Bowl.
Alabama had come in undefeated, of course, and had outscored their opponents 362-84. Then they got kicked in the face by 32 points by Nebraska. Amazing.
And of course I already discussed how Oklahoma killed everyone except Nebraska. Going through the scores it’s easy to see how the ratings that year come out the way they do. Colorado lost only to Oklahoma and Nebraska that year. They lost those two games by a combined score of 76-24. Other than those two games they went 10-0 and outscored their opponents 346-144. An average margin of victory of just over 20 points.
edit - My ratings say that the 1971 Colorado squad would have been the best team in the nation last year and that 2005 Texas and 2001 Miami (FL) were the only stronger teams from the BCS era than 1971 Alabama
I might put up a post just about that season.
ponderos said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:32 am
Countdown is on for the first post to point out that the Mildren and Pruitt were from Texas.
or maybe I just did.
DrkBgrk said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:55 am
Do not fuck with Huckleberry’s ratings.
Stuck in MN said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 am
I wonder what caused the sudden influx of such great teams in 71? I suspect it was the fact that integration was fully catching on at these dominant programs while others were a little behind the curve. Of course that does not explain 71 Bama, but I bet it had something to do with the others.
Yet another dumbass sooner said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:04 am
Our pea-sized brains cannot handle such concepts as humor and parody, therefore I will join my sooner brethren in being offended.
Ptooey, Scipio Tex. I hock a meth and beef jerky infused lugey in your general direction.
TxTower said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:15 am
I’m curious how Nate doesn’t even know OU’s greatest team. Not much of a fan I guess.
Phenomenal Smith said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:17 am
edit - My ratings say that the 1971 Colorado squad would have been the best team in the nation last year and that 2005 Texas and 2001 Miami (FL) were the only stronger teams from the BCS era than 1971 Alabama
That is incredible - either your ratings are out of whack or that is just freakin’ incredible. I suspect it has to do with it being the year I was born.
huck, your ratings are a must-see. Great value add to these previews.
ponderos said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:24 am
TxTower. That’s likely because, aside from Huck’s ratings, there was the 47-game winning streak under Wilkinson, then Switzer’s first few years, which OU fans generally consider to be the two greatest eras in school history. Barry was 30 games into his career before losing a game and LeeRoy Selmon has still not been blocked.
Huckleberry said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:25 am
Well, running these ratings has taught me ways that seasons can “trick the system”, essentially.
Because the ratings are based on standard deviations from the mean, a team’s rating can obviously be heavily affected by games it had nothing to do with. Furthermore, seasons with fewer upsets will enable a larger degree of stratification in the ratings, enabling higher (and lower) ratings at the extremes.
But I don’t have a problem with that, really, because it agrees with common sense, IMO. Upsets happen because the best teams aren’t that much better than everyone else in a given season. Think about last year, there were so many upsets it got to be ridiculous, so I think the ratings should reflect that, which they do. Last year’s champion, LSU, would slot in at #5 in the 1971 season.
I’m going to mess around with the 2005 ratings and see how I can get Texas’ rating from that season as high as 1971 Nebraska as a way to show how dominant that ‘Husker team was. It will likely have to be a combination of Texas results and others. I imagine I will have to increase our win over A&M, make Ohio State beat Penn State, and change the USC win to a blowout. Maybe that will get it there, maybe not.
Galileo said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:29 am
All this talk of dominant husker teams has me tearing up. Where did the 95 nebraska team fall in your all time rankings?
Ojnab Bob said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:35 am
Me too, Galileo, me too… in some happy Elysian field, Frazier is still breaking Gator tacklers on the way to the end zone.
BringBackHuskerThugs said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 am
1971 was a pretty fantastic year.
I cannot speak for OU or CU, but Nebraska had Bob Freaking Devaney at the helm and he did a few things 3 years before that made all the difference.
First, he put together a phenomenal recruiting class in 1968.
Second, he tabbed a young up and comer as his new offensive coordinator, Tom Osborne. You might have heard about him, he is kind of a big deal around here. Anyway, Devaney let Tom radically change the offense. Nebraska had been running a full house backfield until then. Very Big 10, very old school, and the cracks were showing. Tom and Bob put together a radical offense called the pro spread. It was not long before they were kicking ass.
In 1970, they were 11-0-1, the tie was against a pretty good USC team in L.A. They ended up splitting the National Championship with you guys.
In 1971, all the important cats from 1970 were back…and never looked back.
Huckleberry said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:40 am
TxTower. That’s likely because, aside from Huck’s ratings, there was the 47-game winning streak under Wilkinson, then Switzer’s first few years, which OU fans generally consider to be the two greatest eras in school history. Barry was 30 games into his career before losing a game and LeeRoy Selmon has still not been blocked.
The Wilkinson streak teams are heavily overrated by both Sooner fans and common belief. They didn’t really play anyone, relatively speaking. Only the 1955 team finished #1 in the ratings. Oklahoma’s top ten teams:
The fact that your #10 team is rated 95.51 is impressive. Without checking I would think that it’s the highest rated #10 team for a school. At least when you guys cheat you actually accomplish something. So that’s good, right?
A rating of 100 is 2-1/2 standard deviations above the mean. I would consider a team rated 100 and above to be outstanding. They happen roughly once every 4 or 5 years on average. 93 and above are excellent, averaging about 6 every 5 years. Those teams are 2 standard deviations above the mean.
As a comparison to make myself feel bad, Mack Brown has so far had only one team 90 or above.
Parlin Hall said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:43 am
1970-1971-when a head coach could still procure bail by promising he’d make the player live in his basement and stay on the straight and narrow. Funny thing is, it worked. Rodgers went on to win the Heisman and, by all reports, has been a good citizen since.
Huckleberry said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:44 am
All this talk of dominant husker teams has me tearing up. Where did the 95 nebraska team fall in your all time rankings?
#2
BringBackHuskerThugs said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:48 am
Johnny the Jet still lives in Omaha and is a good citizen….although if more than two Husker fans congregate anywhere within a 10 mile radius of Jet, he teleports to their location and is selling autographed memorabilia within moments…
ponderos said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:52 am
btw, Huck … if it helps the 71 rankings at all, Nebraska clipped TWICE on Johnny Rodgers’ famous punt return in the 71 OU-Nebraska game. That should have come back.
We’re not still bitter, though.
Huckleberry said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:55 am
Ha.
Anyone have the picture of all 5 OU offensive linemen with a handful of Texas jersey from back in the day? I think it was in the middle of the 63-14 game, so it wouldn’t have mattered. But I know Casey Hampton is in the picture. I think he’s getting held by two linemen.
Not that I’m bitter.
ponderos said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:00 am
Shouldn’t being bitter be saved for when something shitty caused the outcome of the game to change?
Keith Stanberry is still in bounds.
Huckleberry said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:03 am
We’ve lost by 49 points and 52 points within the last decade. I feel we’ve earned the right, as fans, to be bitter about anything we damn well please.
How about the fact that hurdling or jumping over another player is illegal unless you’re the ballcarrier? Can I be bitter about Brett Robin’s missed block on Roy Williams now? You know, not that we would have driven 93 yards for a touchdown or anything.
AD's Lexus said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 am
Did someone say something about infractions that changed the outcome of a game?
BringBackHuskerThugs said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:15 am
Clipping: Block from behind and at or below the waist.
Not a clip: http://www.huskerpedia.com/players/blahak_block.jpg
Parlin Hall said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:28 am
Sweet. Nothing like photographic evidence to clinch things.
Now, if you could just find out who supposedly clipped on Corey Dixon’s punt return in the 1994 Orange Bowl . . .
PokeFan said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:35 am
Bitter? Bitter! God I wish we only played 3 quarters.
PokeFan said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 am
Wait? We do. Bitter.
BringBackHuskerThugs said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:41 am
Yea, I ain’t got a clip of that….unless someone else has one, I guess it did not happen.
ponderos said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:43 am
Looks like a clip to me. BTW, watching my copy of the game on Betamax over and over, that OU player (Jon Harrison) got clipped twice on that runback.
BringBackHuskerThugs said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:51 am
Once again, but slower.
Clipping…is…a…block…from….behind…
AND….at…or….below….the….waist.
Mysterious Package said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:51 am
Who is ponderos and why are the pro OU rants filling up half the blog? Before the response is “This is an OU topic” let me point out that I’ve seen several other places. Its a new phenomenon.
Take it to Big Red in the Butt over there in Norman.
ponderos said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:53 am
Oh, you’re right. That’s his chest he’s shoving with his forearms. Nevermind.
Huckleberry said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:57 am
I have a case of Red Bull, a six pack of 5-hour energy trucker speed, some old Athlon’s and a big desire not to work on Friday.
Boy, ponderos, you weren’t joking when you posted the above on the main team previews thread.
BringBackHuskerThugs said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:59 am
Looks like a hit from the side and above the waist….
FAIL x 2
NateHeupel said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Even the best statistical analyses can fail when analyzing a sport. That’s the magic of college football: subjectivity.
TxTower, with no due respect to your poorly-formed opinion, the consensus among OU fans is that the best OU team is the 1974 squad on the strength of one of the best defenses fielded in college football along with that 1971 Nebraska unit. They only gave up 92 points in 11 games. In comparison, the veritably great 2001 Miami D gave up 103 points in as many games. The 1971 team isn’t considered to be the best among OU fans because the defense wasn’t even in the same weight class as the 1974 defense, while the 1974 offense wasn’t quite so far behind the 1971 offense. Put another way, the 1971 OU team had 3 AA’s, all on offense. The 1974 squad had 7 AA’s, 4 on defense, 3 of which were consensus AA’s.
The great thing, however, is that the league as a whole was better in 1971, so you could make a very good argument for the 1971 team being superior, as Huck very effectively does. I’m not saying he’s wrong because there’s no way to prove it. His system says one thing, Switzer says another.
BrickHorn said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
That’s the magic of college football: subjectivity.
Yes. YES! Thank you. I live by this mantra. College football is what it is because the games provide objective evidence and the system allows educated observers to apply subjective analysis to the objective evidence and determine a rank order of the teams. College football recognizes the inherent flaws in the single-elimination end-of-season tournament format, and instead provides a means for considering evidence culled over the entire season. It may not be a better system, but it is a more honest system. At least it used to be, before the BCS.
Huckleberry said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Well, I don’t consider my own ratings to be the final say in such discussions. I use them as an objective tool as stated above. Now, I will tend to use them to completely dismiss ridiculous subjective arguments if the ratings show that two teams really aren’t even in the same zip code as far as team strength goes.
For example, none of Texas’ teams have an argument to be ahead of our 2005 squad because the closest one is almost 7 ratings points behind, and the closest undefeated squad is 9.46 points behind.
But 1974 Oklahoma is only 4.48 points behind. In my view, that’s a fairly big difference and means the onus is on someone arguing for the 1974 team, but there is definitely room to argue as Nate does above. 1974 didn’t lose and was a great team with a superior defense. It can also be argued that the 1971 team actually benefits from how great the league was, but it can be argued back that they proved their mettle on the field while 1974 didn’t have the same opportunity.
1974 is hampered by the fact that the Big 8 didn’t have a single other team that rated out above 85 points in the ratings. Oklahoma finished that year 9.69 points ahead of the #2 squad, which is a crazy margin.
For the record, Kenneth Massey’s ratings also show your 1971 team higher rated than your 1974 team. However, his difference would work out to about .4 points in my system, so it is very, very close in his version.
But I would like to say that I’m not exactly surprised that Switzer thinks an undefeated team that he was the head coach of was better than a team that lost a game that he was an assistant coach for.
BrickHorn said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Well, I don’t consider my own ratings to be the final say in such discussions.
And, for your information, neither does any other sane human being.
Huckleberry said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:29 pm
That kind of goes without saying. Well, I guess unless you’re an assclown.
Crown & Coke said:
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:12 pm
I was very surprised that the impact of Reggie Smith’s departure didn’t register in your write-up. Apart from Lofton, I considered him to be their most dynamic defensive playmaker last season.
That leapfrog effort he made to tip Colt’s bomb away from Limas early in the 4th quarter of last year’s RRS was downright amazing.
We might not possess many “homerun threats” on offense, but they certainly don’t have the lockdown DBs that we’re accustomed to facing, either.
Kafka said:
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:56 am
Great stuff (as usual), Scipio. Laugh out loud funny and informative. You are one of the best sports writers in the USA and one of the major reasons why BC is such a great site.
Ransom Stoddard said:
August 23rd, 2008 at 6:03 am
I wonder if Muschamp will figure out that Bradford locks on to receivers when blizted. Akinia sure never did.
BrickHorn said:
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:32 am
That kind of goes without saying. Well, I guess unless you’re an assclown.
Guilty as charged. By the way, have you ever published your rating/ranking methodology? I’d be interested to see what the hard-working little elves that live in your “computer” box are up to.
jc25 said:
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Finally got some free time to read up the SOTUs. F’ing hilarious.
No snarky comment here; just wanted to issue gold stars all around.
Looking forward to the final nail in the coffin on Monday.
vvn8bs said:
August 24th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Huck, love the ratings. However, as a Mizzou fan, they make me want to put my head in a wood chipper. I doubt we even make the endnotes.
On another note….I’ve spent the last 10 years honing my expertise in misuse of the internet. If you want to know where angry dwarf-on-possum porn resides, or a quick recipe I’m your man. I have never, however, witnessed such misuse as arguing over whether a block that occurred in 19fucking71 was a clip or not. That is just sad, sad, sad. I have an awful mental image of Pondoros in a frayed plaid robe, scratching his boys, a Marlboro Red hanging out of his mouth, rewinding and playing that VHS tape Zapruder-like, shaking his head muttering “you’re wrong, its a clip” over and over. Yuck.
WhoooTex said:
August 24th, 2008 at 11:51 am
“Two Austins (one Aust-on) on the defense. Usually people move from Oklahoma to Austin, not the other way around.”
And what’s the deal with airline peanuts?!??
ponderos said:
August 24th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I have an awful mental image of Pondoros in a frayed plaid robe, scratching his boys, a Marlboro Red hanging out of his mouth, rewinding and playing that VHS tape Zapruder-like, shaking his head muttering “you’re wrong, its a clip” over and over.
It’s an ultra-light and I don’t wear the robe.
dedfischer said:
August 25th, 2008 at 5:05 am
I’ve been out on vacation, so I’m getting caught up here. Scipio delivers the goods better than Charles Thompson in his hayday.
Has anyone ever seen Gundy or Stoops wearing anything other than visors, Cutter & Buck polo shirts, concho leather belts, and pleated chinos?
Turk 182 said:
August 25th, 2008 at 8:40 am
“If a Longhorn had done that, we’d be ashamed of him, even make fun of him. And that’s the difference between us and you. ”
See Muoneke.
enjoyed the write up, golf prick was spot-on.
Scipio Tex said:
August 25th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Turk:
FWIW, Muoneke was shunned by the Longhorn fanbase for quite awhile. He’s just now getting back in good graces after having done quite a bit of maturing. We came down on him hard.
pulled pork said:
August 25th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
golf prick says what? funny
HenryJames said:
August 26th, 2008 at 6:31 am
Our preview is significantly better than Deadspin’s even though their preview has a picture of breasts.
Breasts.
Confused Star Trek Computer said:
August 26th, 2008 at 6:36 am
Our preview is significantly better than Deadspin’s even though their preview has a picture of breasts.
Does. Not. Compute.
Scipio's Step Brother said:
August 27th, 2008 at 5:32 am
Again, hands down the best work on this site. The quality of reading is Basically Scipio is Bob Stoops, HenryJames is Mike Leach, Chris Applewhite is Mike Gundy(insert chuckle and at least you’re a man) and the rest are Art Briles/Ron Prince.
Hilarious at times Scip, and somewhat informative in a backhanded way, which is a bonus.
Keep writing
NateHeupel said:
August 27th, 2008 at 7:04 am
“But I would like to say that I’m not exactly surprised that Switzer thinks an undefeated team that he was the head coach of was better than a team that lost a game that he was an assistant coach for.”
On that last post, I was going to add a caveat as follows:
Then again, Switzer also thinks it’s ok to bring a loaded handgun to the airport and nail the wife of one of his assistant coaches. Maybe his isn’t the best opinion to run with.
Something else to think about. Joe Washington and Lee Roy Selmon didn’t arrive on the OU campus until 1972. They were juniors on the 1974 team.
Huckleberry said:
August 27th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Yeah, not sure if you understood because I wrote that comment poorly, but it had just as much to do with a coach remembering a painful loss as a coach’s pride in an undefeated team. Anyone that was associated with both a one-loss team and an undefeated national champion that are close in team strength will vote for the undefeated team. It makes sense.
In some cases objective onlookers are better judges of a situation. Switzer would probably not even think twice about this decision. But he should.