BON 2007 Year In Review Part 1: January - June
by PB @ BON
on Jan 2, 2008 12:51 PM CST
in Quick Hits
The year in review on Burnt Orange Nation. Hat Tip to Mike for the idea.
JANUARY
January 2nd - For the first time, BON asks whether Duane Akina should be hired as defensive coordinator to replace the departed Gene Chizik.
January 2nd - Fun with USC cheerleaders continues as a camera catches the rear end of a lovely young song girl as she twirls.
January 2nd - The Other Andrew and I return to the Rose Bowl for the third straight year.
January 3rd - One year after leading Texas to the national championship, Vince Young wins the NFL Rookie of the Year award.
January 5th - Frank Okam and Limas Sweed announce their intentions to return for their senior seasons. Though the return probably wound up helping Okam, Sweed injured his wrist in August, played below his normal abilities through early October, and eventually opted for season-ending surgery.
January 6th - Kevin Durant has his first truly magical game as a Longhorn, erupting for 37 points and 16 rebounds in a road win for Texas over Colorado.
January 7th - Larry MacDuff is hired and named co-defensive coordinator at Texas, sending scores of Longhorn fans to Google to ask, "Who the hell is this guy?"
January 9th - I decide, just 14 games into Kevin Durant's Texas career, that he's the best ever to don the burnt orange and white for the Runnin’ Horns.
January 11th - After a tumultuous 2006 season, Burnt Orange Nation launches into an Enemies of the Nation tournament. Hilarity ensues. (See the final bracket.)
January 16th - As a rare snowfall shuts down Central Texas for an evening, BON’ers gather for a record-setting open game day thread as the basketball team plays Oklahoma State in Stillwater. The Cowboys would win in triple overtime in an unforgettable game.
January 22nd - Kellen Heard is "crowned" 2006 Enemy of the Nation.
January 25th - 54b posts one of his best pieces ever, asking "What kind of BON’er are you?"
FEBRUARY
February 1st - Burnt Orange Nation readers are rewarded for their rabid participation as BON wins the 'Best Community' award in the 2006 CFB Blog Awards.
February 13th - Rick Barnes becomes Texas’ all-time winningest coach after the ‘Horns beat Oklahoma State 83-54 in Austin.
February 15th - The Great Playoff Debate gets underway as BillyZane proposes his Flex Playoff System.
February 27th - AW breaks down Rick Barnes’ 2007 recruiting class, which includes Gary Johnson, Alexis Wangmene, Clint Chapman, and Dogus Balbay.
February 27th EDSBS LIVE makes its debut as Orson and I commit ourselves to talking college footbal once a week on the radio. This past Sunday, Orson and I completed our 44th show of the year; one week ago, over 1,000 listeners downloaded the podcast.
February 28th - Texas wins a thrilling overtime game over Texas A&M in the Drum to pick up its sixth straight victory heading into the Big 12 tournament.
MARCH
March 18th - USC ends Texas’ season in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, 87-68. PB makes the case why Barnes and KD should stay in Austin.
March 20th - As Texas fans fret about the low odds of KD staying in Austin, PB breaks down the Top 10 Games of Kevin Durant at Texas.
March 20th - One of the most fun moments of the year, as Texas fans make pledges of "what they'll do if KD stays another year."
March 26th - BON'ers begin discussing the Top 40 Longhorns with a look at the most recent decade. The series continues with looks at the 1990s, 1980s, 1970s, and 1960s. We wrap the series with a final discussion group.
APRIL
April 4th - Gail Goestenkors is hired to replace Jody Conradt as the UT women's basketball coach.
April 5th - After a scary series of internet reports about Rick Barnes to Kentucky, it's confirmed that Rick will stay at Texas. AW and PB take a celebratory shot.
April 9th - BON breaks the story that Durant will depart for the NBA. It's not often that this site is out in front of the news, but in this case, we were. Longhorn fans mourn.
April 16th - Americans across the country watch in horror as dozens of students are killed at Virginia Tech. BON mourns.
April 18th - Kyle Russell sets the single-season home run mark at Texas when he belts his 21st home run in a 7-4 loss to Rice in Houston.
April 18th - PB makes the absurd decision to start a countdown to football season 135 freaking days before kickoff.
April 28th - Aaron Ross and Michael Griffin are drafted back to back in the first round of the 2007 NFL Draft. Justin Blalock is selected in the second round, with Brian Robison (4th round), Tarrell Brown (5th), and Kasey Studdard (6th) to follow.
MAY
May 19th - The Longhorn baseball team defeats the Aggies to win the Big 12 championship.
JUNE
June 4th - UC Irvine knocks the Horns out of the NCAA baseball tournament.
June 9th - Robert Joseph is arrested and charged with grand theft auto in what becomes a summer of arrests of Longhorn players.
June 20th - A physical with Texas team doctors reveals incoming freshman hoops recruit Gary Johnson has a heart condition that will sideline him indefinitely.
June 25th - PB speculates that the Texas offense is now a Colt-centric one heading into 2007. He's right about that. He's dead wrong that it will work out.
June 29th - Kevin Durant is drafted #2 overall by the Seattle Supersonics; through his first 30 games in the NBA, he's averaging 19.7 points per game, 4.2 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1.2 blocks. He's only shooting 31.4% from beyond the arc.
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Post of the Year...
I'm in pretty much the same boat (none / 0)
by BrooklynHorn on Fri Nov 23, 2007 at 08:17:28 PM PDT
I have a girlfriend who is from overseas, and this is also her first football season. I badly wanted to give her good associations with Texas football, but every week we watch a boring, uninspired game with no enthusiasm and very little excitement. Then afterward, we watch the SEC game of the week, which invariably turns out to be a hell-raising, high-octane, triple-overtime affair with bodies flying all over the field and the crowd seemingly high on angel-dust...during which she always looks at me like "why don't you cheer for one of these schools?"
I hate this coaching staff.
by brentmcd on Jan 2, 2008 3:14 PM CST 0 recs
Hey, BZ
Did you know your flex system would have tOSU play LSU for the title game, too? I think that could use some tweaking.
by Horn Brain on
Jan 3, 2008 1:46 PM CST
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i DID know that
honestly, one of the primary tenets of the system was that 2-loss teams almost never have a claim to have had the best season based on a resume-ranking. I still believe that. But I will admit that this year, several 2-loss teams do have a claim.
Also honestly, however, I think LSU-Ohio State is 100% the matchup of the 2 teams with the strongest claims to the best season. I HATE that this is the case, but it is. The only question is whether several other 2-loss teams are close enough to those teams to make it worth expanding to a 4-team tournament from a 2-team tournament. Perhaps that needs some tweaking.
I spent not nearly as much time contemplating the possibilities in a year such as this than in a year with a lot of 1-loss teams because a year such as this hadn't happened, well, EVER. Perhaps it's worth coming out with a version 2.0 to clear stuff like this up, but I must also reiterate that the BCS has once again given us a championship game between the two teams with the strongest claims to have had the best season this year.
by billyzane on
Jan 3, 2008 5:06 PM CST
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I thought for sure
It would have a top 4 playoff for this case, but that would have sucked. Va Tech and OU don't deserve to be in the discussion, I know some would say OU does, but Mizzou wasn't a power #1 when they beat them, they just had a really good resume. Anyway, I think maybe some kind of loss-relative clause could be added if there are no undefeated teams in the top 5. How about whatever the minimum number of losses in the top 5 is, that number of losses is considered undefeated, one more is one loss, and so on. Then you just use the formula. That would make tOSU "undefeated" and they play OU (hatred bowl) to play the LSU/Va Tech rematch winner (uh-oh!). That's a problem, but not a huge one. That game would be completely different this time, IMO. What do you think?
by Horn Brain on
Jan 3, 2008 6:02 PM CST
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at first glance...
that's a really good idea. i'll think about it and maybe write a version 2.0.
by billyzane on
Jan 3, 2008 9:25 PM CST
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New FanPost
