BZ's News and Views

In the grand tradition of such terrible writers as Larry King and the terrible newspaper for which he wrote, USA Today, I'm proud to present BZ's News and Views -- random, disjointed thoughts from around the college football world and beyond.

• So, um, that was sort of awesome. 
  
• Colt McCoy, Greg Davis and Mack Brown just beat an OU team with superior talent. Soak that in for a second.
  
• I have to make my apologies to Chris Ogbonnaya.  Chris, I'm sorry for this.
• For instance, Ogbonnaya’s 30-yard run in the 3rd quarter featured a juke I had no idea he had in his repertoire. He must have been keeping that one under wraps for the last four and a half years so he could unveil it against OU. Way to keep it off the film, Oggy.
• Quan Cosby and Jordan Shipley are now household names.  Update your programs accordingly.
• Speaking of Shipley, did you know that he and Colt were roommates?  I had no idea.
• Last year a Texas play was blown dead before the snap and Auston English took the opportunity to unload on and drive into the ground a defenseless and flat-footed Colt McCoy, and miraculously, no penalty was called.  This year, there was a delay of game call before an OU snap near the end of the first quarter and Kindle was headed right toward Bradford but pulled up at the last second when he heard the whistle.  Thanks for being a better man, Sergio.
• For all of you who wish we weren't #1 so we could maintain some semblance of the "underdog" role, I'm reminded of a scene from the greatest television show in the history of the medium, The Wire, between up-and-coming drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield and his cautious adviser, Vinson:

Vinson: What you gonna do when you sittin' at the head of the table?  Once you there, you gotta hold it down.

Marlo: Hmm...sound like one of them good problems...

Vinson: Prison and graveyard's full of boys who wore the crown.

Marlo: Point is they wore it.  It's my turn to wear it now.

• You take the crown when you can get it and you hold on for dear life.  I wouldn't want it any other way.  Come and get us. 
  
• And to quote yet another Wire character, as Omar says, "You come at the king, you best not miss."
  

• On my wall, I have my Texas undergrad diploma and my NYU law diploma.  For approximately a month before I fixed it a few days ago, the NYU diploma had come undone from the matting inside the frame and was sort of hanging sideways.  I wouldn't have let the Texas diploma sit like that for a single day.
• Phil Loadholt sort of sucks.
• Brian Orakpo does not suck.
• Jermaine Gresham's not as good as I thought he was.  He's hard to contain because he's so gigantic, but he's not really a good football player yet.  He's basically the tight end version of Phil Loadholt.
• Why the hell does that slip screen work for every team but Texas?
• I'm not sure, but it worked for OU because they had illegal linemen downfield and completed the screens in front of the line of scrimmage every freaking time.
• Oh my god the refs were just terrible on Saturday, for both teams.  It's impossible to tell who they helped the most because there were so many terrible, terrible calls.  Linemen downfield, holding, cheap roughing the passers on Travis Lewis (the first was a questionable call at best, and the second was flat out terrible), cheap running into the kickers, the OU interception in the endzone and the first OU touchdown.  At least they called offsides correctly.
• Mike Knall is a pussy.
• In the 4th quarter, Travis Lewis was chasing McCoy out of bounds and started to extend his hands towards Colt to help him out of bounds and then thought better of it, preemptively throwing his hands up to avoid a third ticky-tack personal foul.
• Roy Miller should drop a touchdown pass before every defensive drive.  The next play after that drop, he bulldozed the crap out of everyone on the line, teammates included.
  
• Malcolm Williams should have had that deep ball Colt threw to him down the sideline.  It was great coverage by Brian Jackson, but if Williams had timed his jump better, he could have gone over the top of Jackson and brought it down.
• So, uh, I guess I was sort of right about this, wasn't I?  We kept OU from blowing us out in the first quarter (they won it 7-3) and then we outscored them in every quarter after that.  Yay me!
• Pants are so constrictive and should never be worn while blogging.
• Roddrick Muckelroy missed two assignments in the game that I could see.  The first was on the first drive when the Sooners ran the fake end around and Bradford hit DeMarco Murray on the dump off for a ton of yards.  Muck just lost track of Murray and couldn't catch up.
• The second was when both he and Earl Thomas had double coverage on Gresham and BOTH bit on an underneath route, leaving Gresham wide open for the TD.
• Muck was still phenomenal though.  For instance, early in the second quarter, OU completed a screen to Murray and he was running upfield with Manuel Johnson and Jermaine Gresham flanking him on either side.  I audibly said "Uh oh."  Last year, our linebackers would have thrown themselves into either Johnson or Gresham and Murray would have been gone.  This time, Muckelroy maneuvered around Johnson, made him whiff, and tackled Murray on the spot.
• Earl Thomas just wants to make a play.  He gets out of position sometimes (biting on under routes and getting beat deep), but that's youth.  I love the need to always be around the ball.
• I don't know that Blake Gideon is going to be able to hang onto his job when the other, more talented young safeties mature and grow as football players, but he's a steadying force out there that's wonderful to have opposite a wild and sometimes reckless playmaker like Earl Thomas.  He's not Mike Huff by any means, but he's got a Mike Huff demeanor.
• Penn State is for real.  I said it 2 weeks ago, and I meant it.  They're definitely good enough to lose the national championship game.
• If I were doing a straight-up power poll, my top 6 we be as follows: 1) Texas, 2) Florida, 3) Oklahoma, 4) USC, 5) Penn State, 6) Alabama.
• I don't want to live in a world in which Jimmy Clausen is competent at anything.
• This is Ryan Reynolds' 3rd major knee injury and he wanted so badly for it not to be that he played pretty much an entire series on a torn ACL.  You've got to feel for the kid.
• Duane Akina gave Muschamp a run for his "sideline antics" crown after Texas stopped the fake punt.
• Oh, and the game looked great on my living room Godzillatron, thanks for asking.
• The play before Ogbonnaya ran for 62 yards was a third and 3 and Colt looked like he was about to take off, but he saw two sooner linebackers spying him and thought better of it, instead dumping it off to the side to Oggy for the first down.  It was a simple play, but it was huge, and it showed just how in-tune Colt is with Chris.
• On the OU drive after Texas took a 38-35 lead, OU faced 3rd and 2 and Bradford had a receiver lined up, but Bobino leaped high in the air, causing Bradford to pull it down and wait for about a second longer, allowing Gideon to get in position to make a play on the receiver.  OU punted, Ogbonnaya proved me wrong, and the rest is history.  Thanks Rashad!
• On the 4th down play on the drive after Texas took the 10 point lead, our best defender on the play was Joaquin Iglesias.  That pass was intended for Ryan Broyles and was going to be caught before Iglesias dove in front of him and broke it up.  You're the best Joaquin!
• The big blocks clearing the way for Shipley's kickoff return were made by Chris Ogbonnaya, Eddie Jones and Dustin Earnest.  And holy crap, who knew Ship was that fast?
  
• Spell check just objected to the spelling of Ogbonnaya and wanted to make sure I didn't mean Goony instead.  And I must say, Oggy's official Texas photo does make him look a little like Sloth...


• I'm just kidding Chris.  I'm done making fun of you.  You're great.  We love you.  Don't ever change.  I hope some day Vondrell McGee can turn into the next Chris Ogbonnaya.
• Hook 'em Sloth!