Football Articles
Idle weeks are always tough on the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, since yours truly’s interest in spending 13 hours or so watching college football tends to wane when 3-4 of those hours do not include a contest in which the Texas Longhorns are competing. Such days tend to become ones in which other obligations, like servicing faulty pool equipment, visiting with friends and family, and tending the garden tend to intrude on the football-viewing duties.
Yesterday was that kind of day. It starts when I notice a green tinge hanging around our salt water pool. This is never a good thing, especially since I’d just chemicalized the crap out of the damn thing last Sunday. Yeah, it had rained all week, but the whole miracle unit that converts the salt into chlorine is supposed to prevent the formation of algae.
Problem: Miracle unit is not functioning. I have no clue how to fix it.
Solution: Call pool guy on Monday and get ready to drop a few bills. It’s never ending with these damn pools.
Not really my pool, but you get the picture.
Next thing I had resolved to deal with on Saturday was getting our lawn guy over to plan out the installation of a garden on the South side of our home. We don’t get quite enough sun over there for the grass to thrive, so I’m thinking we plant some partial-sun shrubs and flowering plants along the side of the house to spruce things up a bit and make it look as if someone actually lives here.
Problem: The wifey and I can’t reach an agreement on what shrubs to plant. Seems she’s a bit put out about the fact that I am not all that diligent about trimming the shrubs that populate the back yard, and doesn’t look forward to being disappointed about a similar lack of diligence on my part in a part of the yard that is visible to every passing car and pedestrian. Go figure.
Solution: After making a failed trip to the neighborhood nursery to see if I can find some plants that might require minimal upkeep and still look like a million bucks, I call the lawn guy and tell him not to bother coming by. We’ll just have to struggle along with half-dead grass.
All that ate up the morning and early afternoon. Which was just as well, since I had a real hard time getting too fired up about watching an early game menu of Wisconsin/Minnesota or some other no-account Big 10 game being offered up by the ESPN channels. (I detest the Big 10’s contract with ESPN almost as much as I detest Mexican food in Colorado.) Along about a quarter ‘til 2:00, I did stumble across the 4th quarter of the Michigan/Michigan State game, which was exciting enough to keep my attention until LSU/Georgia, Penn St./Illinois and Washington/Notre Dame came on at 2:30.
In the evening, we had dinner at the home of some very good friends, which certainly eliminated any channel surfing/picture-in-picture viewing ability on my part. Luckily, though, the husband is another rabid orangeblood, so we did get to catch some of the Aggie loss to Arkansas and most of the Oklahoma loss to Miami.
Good times. Good times.
So all in all, instead of my usual 13 hours of non-stop Saturday college football viewing, I got in maybe 5 to 6 hours. Not ideal, but enough to limp through another …
Good, Bad and Ugly:
Bad: Notre Dame squeaks by Washington in overtime, spoiling what could have been a perfect idle week trifecta of losses by the Irish, the Aggies and the Sooners. Dammit. Oh, well, the Irish continue to be an 85-man rank mediocrity, but you do have to give credit to their defense for two straight 4 play goal line stands from inside their own 1 yard line. Those two stands turned what would otherwise have likely been a 10-14 point Huskies win into a nail-biting Notre Dame victory. The fact that the Irish had a nail-biting victory at home to Washington says a bunch about the direction each program is headed.
Ugly: Lou Holtz declaring Casey Clausen to be the clear front runner for the Heisman Trophy on College Football Final. Huh? Beg Pardon? Say What? Where in the hell does that come from? And where do they hide Lou’s drool cup while he’s on set? And why do I or anyone else give a damn what Lou Holtz has to say about anything anymore? Ok, I don’t, and neither do you. Nevermind.
“Cashey Claushen for Heishman!”
Good: Georgia Linebacker Rennie Curran. Holy cow, can this guy play. Easily the most impressive defensive player I saw yesterday. He had 16 tackles in a losing battle, and played the key role in keeping his team in the game.
Good: LSU defense. When you hold Georgia to 274 total yards, 11 first downs and 45 yards rushing, and do it playing at Georgia, you’ve done something. Assuming Tebow is healthy, it’s hard to see LSU beating Florida, but with a defense this sound they will most likely be in it until the very end.
Bad: Texas A&M offensive line. After a strong first quarter, this bunch got completely pantsed by a second-tier SEC team.
Ugly: Texas A&M defensive secondary. As Dan Aykroyd used to say in the old SNL “Bad Theatre” skit: “Bravo! Bravo! Terrible! Simply awful!”
He’s a big fan of the Shermanator.
Ugly: Oklahoma offensive line. They weren’t bad in the first half, but these guys really spit the bit in the last two quarters, and played down to their capabilities.
Good: Los Angeles Dodgers finally manage to clinch the NL West Division with a 5-0 shutout win over Colorado. Sorry, I’m a lifelong Dodger fan and had to put this in here. Clayton Kershaw is no Sandy Koufax, but six shutout innings in the team’s biggest game of the season was just what the doctor ordered.
Ugly: Oklahoma playing without Big 12 officials. My favorite part of the game last night was watching Bob Stoops throw a sideline fit each time the officials had the temerity to actually call a holding penalty on his team. Obviously, those were not Big 12 officials. About the middle of the third quarter, I told my buddy that this was exactly what happens when OU plays in bowl games. The have to play a quality opponent with out the aide of a team of officials that has been instructed to disregard offensive holding as an infraction, and suddenly the Sooners can’t perform.
“Holding??? He called holding???”
Good: Scarlett Johanssen appearing in lawn fountain skit on Saturday Night Live.
And here is where I post the Gratuitous Pic of the Week
Good: Miami second half surge. After looking a little uncertain about whether they could really play with OU in the first half, the Hurricanes came out in the second half and blow the doors off of the Sooner Schooner. For much of the third quarter they looked like a Miami team from the early ‘90s.
Bad: The Houston Cougars. How a team goes from beating Oklahoma State and Texas Tech to losing to freaking UTEP is beyond understanding. And the Coogs didn’t just lose to UTEP – they got the snot beaten out of them. Worse than what this says about UH is what is might say about the Big 12 South. Yeesh.
Which brings me to…
Offensive Player of the Week: I’m going with Case Keenum. Even though his team lost, it was through no fault of Keenum’s. For the night Case was 51 of 76 for 536 yards and 5 touchdowns. Note to Lou Holtz: as soon as Casy Claussen leads his team to wins over two quality opponents and starts putting up some real numbers, get back to us.
Defensive Player of the Week: Rennie Curran, obviously.
Special Teams Player of the Week: C.J. Spiller of Clemson, who broke at least four tackles on his way to a spectacular 92 yard kickoff return in his team’s loss to Maryland.
So what to make of the week’s results? Several things:
- The remainder of the Texas schedule just keeps looking less and less daunting. OU remains decidedly vulnerable, the Aggies remain decidedly bad, Baylor without Robert Griffin presents no threat, and the North Division trio of Colorado, Kansas and Missouri range from decent (KU, MU) to throw-up-in-your-mouth horrible (CU). Oklahoma State has also been something of a disappointment, but having to play them at Stillwater leaves this a still the most problematic game on the schedule.
- There is no truly dominant team in college football this year. Florida is as close as it gets, I suppose, but even the Gators have shown weaknesses, and I frankly would not be surprised if they get beat by LSU this coming Saturday. USC smoked Cal, but Cal had already been exposed as not all that much of a speed bump. The game with Oregon is the one SC has to worry about. Alabama also looks very strong, but short of unbeatable.
- The SEC remains clearly the strongest conference in the country. Florida is the equal of Texas, but Alabama, Ole Miss and LSU are likely all better than the second best team in the Big 12, whichever team that might turn out to be. The Big 10 has Ohio State, Penn State and a bunch of pretenders. How in the world Wisconsin and Iowa remain undefeated through 5 games is hard to understand, but trust me, it won’t last much longer for either team. The PAC 10 has USC, Oregon, and then you’re looking at the Cals and Stanfords of the world. None of the other conferences bear mention here.
- Maybe Gene Chizik wasn’t such a bad hire after all. After beating Tennessee last night, the Tigers are 5-0 for the first time since 2006. Yeah, they haven’t exactly played murderer’s row, but 5-0 is as good as Chizik could possibly be after five games, and Auburn is playing pretty solid football.
As the Big 12 schedule begins to gear up for real, I’d rank the Divisions as follows:
South
Texas
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma
Texas Tech
Texas A&M
Baylor
North
Nebraska
Kansas
Missouri
Pick: Colorado, Kansas State, Iowa State
The GBU National Top Ten:
Tie: Florida, Texas
Alabama
Southern Cal
LSU
Penn State
Virginia Tech
Ohio State
Boise State
Oregon
See y’all next Sunday.
Hook ‘em!!!
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houstonearler said:
October 4th, 2009 at 6:50 am
Those were Big 12 officials at OU - Miami. Very encouraging. There were also Big 12 officials at the OU-BYU game and they called holding several times too
ponderos said:
October 4th, 2009 at 6:58 am
Ugly: Oklahoma playing without Big 12 officials. My favorite part of the game last night was watching Bob Stoops throw a sideline fit each time the officials had the temerity to actually call a holding penalty on his team. Obviously, those were not Big 12 officials.
Actually, they were Big 12 refs. Take your meme mulligan and try again.
Buzzard Lips said:
October 4th, 2009 at 7:03 am
The best result of this week will be listening to Matt Jackson on 610 Houston answer caller after caller dogpiling his sorry Cougar butt.
You got ONE thing wrong, Eyes… THAT WAS a Big 12 crew. Unfortunately, they’ll go back to ignoring holding calls during conference games.
houstonearler said:
October 4th, 2009 at 7:07 am
I think the conference got fed up with the holding bs and decided to address it
EyesOfTX said:
October 4th, 2009 at 7:11 am
Geez, Big 12 Officials calling holding????
What is the world coming to?
Hook ‘em!!!
Gardner Barnes said:
October 4th, 2009 at 7:17 am
We have seen this repeatedly with Big 12 officials this year. First against TTU, in this game, and I believe in the OU/BYU game. I think the conference has finally decided to call holding this year. My theory is because by not calling holding during the season it is handicapping the entire conference in bowl games.
uttuck said:
October 4th, 2009 at 7:17 am
I actually thought they were Big XII officials (confirmed by others here) because there were so many times when an OU player was pulling a Miami player down from the outside of his shoulder pad and it went uncalled. It seems they only called holding when they actually dragged the player down to the ground. Improvement? Yes. SEC caliber holding? No.
Groundhogday said:
October 4th, 2009 at 7:44 am
The SEC is by far the best conference this year. South Carolina is capable of a major upset with the way they are playing d and I like that Auburn team. The fighting Chiziks also beat West Virgnia which has a few athletes.
The big 12 is really down from last year although I think Nebraska is much improved and they should win the North. I’m still skeptical of Mizzou in the north and yes, our game in stillwater will be quite a test.
The Pac 10 is probably the second best conference this year. Wazzu is the only team that is not competitive and that team might be the worst team in all the major conferences.
I think this year’s Ohio State team is really good and really young at the skill positions. Watch out for both USC and Ohio State next year if not this year.
NBMisha said:
October 4th, 2009 at 8:19 am
Penn State? Is that Penn State you have ranked up there? That horrific showing at home vs Iowa disqualifies them from any top 10 discussion, even if everyone else is 0-5.
Also: Bad: The celebration call made on UGA’s final td. Changed the game. Ridiculous. Z should be … plug in punishment as you please.
EyesOfTX said:
October 4th, 2009 at 8:27 am
Yeah, the call against GA was horrible, as was the roughing the center call against Notre Dame that gave UW four more downs inside the 5.
The “illegal celebration” penalty is the stupidest rule in the history of football, and is long overdue for removal from the books.
I think Penn State’s the best team in the Big 12, despite the loss to Iowa, and at the end of the year will end up in the Rose Bowl. But who the hell really knows?
java said:
October 4th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Eyes, I agree with your assessment. I managed to watch at least part of all of the games (boring day here, rain, rain, all day). Texas and Florida definitely appear to be the only teams in the top tier. ‘Bama and LSU some distance behind 1 and 2, though ‘Bama has seemed stronger than LSU.
A sportswriter (AP article?) complained about ranking 4 to 10. Said no one deserved it. I agree.
OU offensive line: I don’t think it matters whether Landry or Bradford quarterback OU, with that line, the game and the quarterback’s future is at risk.
A&M: Bad. That game was humiliating. Jerry Jones should be run out of Texas for recruiting for Arkansas. No wonder they cancelled the game with us.
How do you think we match up with OSU?
Sorry about the algae!!
Hook ‘em!
jimmyjazz said:
October 4th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Was Casey Clausen’s stint in the NFL actually so fleeting that he retained college eligibility?
Art Vandelay said:
October 4th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Made my first visit to the Deathstar last night to see Aggie/Arky. Stadium is a site to behold. Attendance was only 71,872 which made getting to and leaving the stadium surprisingly easy. The structure is a combination new mall/high end strip club & sports bar that is a damn good place to watch a game. My perspective may be somewhat skewed by the 50 yard line club seats, courtesy of a friend whose law firm represents the Cowboys and the Jones family. The Club section has numerous bars that sell beers, cocktails and wine in GLASS containers. I asked the bartender if I could take my glass beer stein to my seat, and he said “absolutely sir”. On a related note…. glass containers in a football stadium with 35,000 drunk Arky fans isn’t a good idea.
The video board is ridiculously good and bad. It adds no value to the game (assuming you are there to actually watch the game), except when an excited aggie fan jumps up and down and a stray breast makes an appearance on a 60 yard screen. (highlight of the evening). This just in…. the talent level on the field is clearly down for the Farmers, but it’s up slightly off field.
In terms of football Von Miller is the real deal, but other than that there isn’t an aggie player that would start for us. Ryan Mallet is less mobile than Taylor Potts (didn’t think that was possible).
Is there anything more childish than chanting SEC!! SEC!!? That’s like chanting your new girlfriends name to your old one…. 10 years after you broke up.
The Tres Leches said:
October 4th, 2009 at 9:44 am
While Alabama and LSU are quality teams. There’s no way Ole Miss would be #2 in the Big 12. Did you see them play South Carolina? Terrible.
TXinDC said:
October 4th, 2009 at 9:52 am
It’s pleasing to know that Grambling State caused 4 turnovers against Oklahoma State. Any guesses as to the number of turnovers that an always-hungry defense will cause in the first half of an Oct 31st showdown?
Bears @ Sooners next week - is Baylor *that* weak without Griffin and Finley? Could this be interesting?
travis said:
October 4th, 2009 at 9:54 am
“I think Penn State’s the best team in the Big 12, despite the loss to Iowa, and at the end of the year will end up in the Rose Bowl. But who the hell really knows?”………
You alright today? when did penn st join our conference?
its JIMMY clausen, unless that was part of the joke, not casey
bigdukesix said:
October 4th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Is there anything more childish than chanting SEC!! SEC!!? That’s like chanting your new girlfriends name to your old one…. 10 years after you broke up.
No, I don’t think the girlfriend analogy applies because they didn’t break that chant out just for aggy. SEC fans do this at pretty much any game where they beat a non-SEC team. I think they do it in conference games sometimes too. Proof that while the conference may be good at football, their fans are knuckle-dragging subhumans.
travis said:
October 4th, 2009 at 10:11 am
yeah baylor is that weak, this is the same team that got manhandled at home by uconn, without griffin they are BAYLOR.. w/ him they were starting to be something different, Oklahoma always comes back big after a loss, they will bully baylor around next week, stoops and wilson will talk all week about this is the best offensive line they have ever had, and that their replacement for broyles might be the best wr ou has ever had.
haydenhorn said:
October 4th, 2009 at 10:27 am
i hated both excessive celebration penalties in that lsu-ga game, but at least the zebras called it the same both ways. i don’t have to like it, but they WERE consistent, and that’s the least we can ask for.
Bob in Houston said:
October 4th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
“Maybe Gene Chizik wasn’t such a bad hire after all.”
Well, whoever hired Malzahn probably made the best hire, assuming Chizik hasn’t talked to him at all.
Don’t know what to make of Auburn, though.
texastough said:
October 4th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
“5-0 is as good as Chizik could possibly be after five games”
astute observation
blackscholes said:
October 4th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
hayden - I’m not sure the second celebration call on LSU wasn’t either a flat make-up or at the very least a must call for the pointing after the previous phantom one. Regardless, the damage was done to UGA.
maninblack said:
October 4th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Penn State is not a top 10 team. They looked awful before beating a horrendous Illinois team. I think they lose two more in Big 10 play.
huskerwes1 said:
October 4th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
“Ugly: Lou Holtz declaring Casey Clausen to be the clear front runner for the Heisman Trophy on College Football Final. Huh? Beg Pardon? Say What? Where in the hell does that come from? And where do they hide Lou’s drool cup while he’s on set? And why do I or anyone else give a damn what Lou Holtz has to say about anything anymore? Ok, I don’t, and neither do you. Nevermind.”
Lou Holtz makes me want to set myself on fire. I mute the tv whenever he speaks so as to not throw the Wii remote at him…again.
ransomstoddard said:
October 5th, 2009 at 8:18 am
The UTEP-Houston game is the weirdest game of the year. UTEP is one of the worst teams I have ever seen. I have no idea how they beat Houston.
uthookem said:
October 5th, 2009 at 8:47 am
“The UTEP-Houston game is the weirdest game of the year. UTEP is one of the worst teams I have ever seen. I have no idea how they beat Houston.”
Uhh…it’s Houston?