Bevo's Daily Roundup for July 20, 2009

46 days until the Louisiana-Monroe game.

(Video music may NSFW.)

Of course. Tim Griffin's No. 1 most memorable Big 12 game is the Rose Bowl.

After sorting through the moments that have made the Big 12's history so rich, the most memorable one was easy for me to pick.

All I had to do was think back to the greatest championship game in any sport that I've ever seen.

Admittedly, those are some strong words. But anybody who witnessed Vince Young's game-winning performance that night at the Rose Bowl against No. 1 USC would have to agree.

This, from a Notre Dame football site... Apparently Mack Brown is not a great coach. He is just a good recruiter.

Is capable coaching necessary? Sure, but some have shown that capable coaching is all that is required. Mack Brown and Les Miles probably won’t go down as "great" coaches, but both are undoubtedly national champions. Let’s face it, both are pretty good college coaches, but in the current pantheon of elite coaches, I don’t think either would rank in most objective top-5 lists.

After all, with all things relatively equal, Brown’s Texas Longhorns were blown out by 49 points or more twice in five straight losses to Oklahoma from 2000-04. Les Miles followed up his championship season in 2007 by going 8-5 last year while giving up 50+ in losses to Florida and Georgia, and unranked Ole Miss marched into Baton Rouge and came away with an 18-point, 31-13 victory.

Jeff Madden is more than just the player's strength and conditioning coach.

And while Madden was just named the president of the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association this month — and has been recognized as one of the best strength and conditioning coaches for nearly two decades — for "Mad Dog," as the players he trains affectionately call him, there is never time to remain stagnant.

Everyday is a day to improve: an opportunity to improve his program, staying on top of the newest scientific research and scholarly findings to keep his athlete’s training programs up to date. A chance to improve relationships with his athletes, discovering their needs and goals. An occasion for him to improve his leadership abilities.

And while Madden has remained a constant under the Mack Brown era, the role he plays in each of his athletes’ lives — like his training philosophy — is continually adapting.

"I am a big brother to some, a daddy to others, for some I am the guy they go to with their problems," Madden said. "I am whatever someone needs me to be, while we work on getting them stronger and aggressive."

We have a new Longhorn recurring theme series- roommates, whining about the tie, etc. I'm sure the season will be full of stories so I'll be sure to provide links to all of them.

We have absolutely nothing better to do in Austin but sit around and whine. GatorSports believes Colt McCoy is the next Heisman winner and that the Longhorns have an axe to grind.

NEXT HEISMAN WINNER: All three finalists are back and two of them have trophies, which also means they have votes. I’ll be stunned if the winner comes from anyone except these three. And in the end, Texas quarterback Colt McCoy will have the trophy. The Tim Tebow backlash will be a factor, and Sam Bradford can’t win it twice after losing on the field to McCoy in back-to-back years.

NEXT TEAM WITH AN AXE TO GRIND: Texas wasn’t happy last year. Southern Cal might have been as good as anyone in the country the last two years but was left out. This year’s sore loser will be Ohio State. The Buckeyes will lose a close game to USC, then steamroll through the rest of the season only to settle for the "other" Rose Bowl.

NewsOK has their list of those who went to the dark side. Darrell Royal made the list.

Darrell Royal: He was born and bred in Oklahoma. He played football for the Sooners. But then, he became the football coach at Texas. Many in his home state still haven’t forgiven the man whose name is now on the Longhorns’ football stadium.

The Opponents

The Wyoming Cowboys just put out their 2009 season media guide (pdf).

Basketball

The men's basketball team will make four appearances in Monday night games on ESPN.

Flashback- The Rose Bowl

From Mack Brown Texas Football:

GREAT GAME
#2 Texas 41, #1 Southern California 38
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
Rose Bowl (Pasadena, Calif.) -- National Championship
Texas entered their second consecutive Rose Bowl riding a 19-game winning streak and set to play for its first National Championship since 1970. Despite coming into the game as an underdog to the defending National Champion USC Trojans, who were on a 34-game winning streak, Texas won its fourth National Title with a thrilling come-from-behind 41-38 victory in what many people have called the greatest college football game of all time. Vince Young was named the Offensive MVP for the second consecutive year, becoming only the fourth player in Rose Bowl history to do so, after posting a Rose Bowl record 467 total yards, scoring three TDs and recording the sixth fourth-quarter comeback victory of his career. After a back-and-forth affair that saw Texas lead by as many as nine and trail by 12 with just under seven minutes left, the game came down to 4th-and-5 at the Texas eight-yard line with UT trailing 38-33. Texas QB Vince Young dropped back, went through his progressions, saw an opening on the right side and took off. With the help of a crushing block by right tackle Justin Blalock, he raced passed the USC defense and scampered into the right corner of the end zone to give Texas a 39-38 lead with only 19 seconds remaining. Young capped the scoring with a two-point conversion to produce the final margin of 41-38. With 6:42 left in the game, the Horns title hopes were in jeopardy after USC's Matt Leinart hit Dwayne Jarrett to give the Trojans a 38-26 lead. But, on the very next possession, Young drove the Longhorns 69 yards in 2:39, completing 5-of-6 passes and rushing twice for 25 yards, to cut the lead to five. On its ensuing possession, USC moved the ball to the Texas 45 and found itself facing 4th-and-2 with the game hanging in the balance. The Trojans decided to go for it, but the Texas defense, which had already forced a turnover on downs earlier in the game, came up with a huge stop, giving Texas the ball back with 2:09 and setting up the winning drive. Overall, Texas' defense held USC 12 points below its season average, made two fourth-down stops and picked off a pass in the end zone. Defensive MVP Michael Huff led the Longhorns in tackles with 12, including a TFL, and recovered a fumble. On offense, Young had 200 yards rushing and 267 yards passing, while TE David Thomas finished his UT career with 10 catches for 88 yards.

Mike Sherman has a Twitter account.

He's back... Martellus Bennett has another video.

The sips don't handle rejection well, according the I Am The 12th Man.

Oklahoma

We didn't know OU had a compliance program... The NCAA wants Oklahoma to enhance their employment compliance education program.

Isn't it a little like renaming the SEC building after Bernie Madoff? Renovated facility with the same name: Barry Switzer Center.

Maybe we have misjudged Barry Switzer?

Imagine the fun... If Switzer was a coach now, he would blog.

Q: What would you have done if you were coaching during the Internet age, with all these message boards?

A: What do they call them, blogs? Oh, I would have got on them. I'm sure I would have written something back. I'd have been a ghost writer. I'd love it. I'm kind of thick-skinned, I'm a pachyderm. Things like that didn't bother me. I usually thrived on stuff like that.

The Sooners have put out their 2009 Media Guide.

This is a very good video from SoonerSports on the rivalry.

Oklahoma State

Well deserved congratualtions to Thurman Thomas. Former Oklahoma State tailback Thurman Thomas will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

The Cowboy coaching staff is confident about next season.

On Thursday, during a Cowboy Caravan program presented by the Washington County chapter of the OSU Alumni Association, Young and linebackers coach Glenn Spencer addressed an orange-clad audience at the St. John Catholic School.

Sharing his message to recruits, Spencer said, "You're going to have a chance to play at the highest level, and you're going to have a chance to win the national championship.'

"It's pretty exciting stuff," Spencer added. "There aren't many (Division I-A programs) that can honestly say that. I am very proud, very fortunate and blessed to be at a place where we have that chance, and hold on because it might be sooner than later."

MIke Gundy is on a media tour. Gundy will visit Bristol for 12 hours of ESPN radio and television interviews. And he finally signed his contract.

Another bad day for Jonathan LaCour.

Texas Tech punter Jonathan LaCour has been suspended six games by the Big 12 Conference for violating a conference rule.

Former Raider quarterback Graham Harrell is heading to the Canadian Football League.

Dan Hawkins is fine... in case you were wondering. Apparently rumors were spreading like wildfire after Colorado coach Dan Hawkins was admitted to the hospital. He had a kidney stone removed and he is doing well.

It is a Bear revival. Art Briles and Robert Griffin will lead the Bears to the Promised Land.

There is an unusual buzz around the Baylor football program this summer.

It's the buzz of expectations.

The Bears faithful have been more than patient, going some 13 seasons without a winning campaign. But second-year coach Art Briles gave them hope in his first season at the helm with a exciting brand of football and an out-of-this-world freshman quarterback that put the Bears in some games they normally would not have been and kept them out of their usual spot in the Big 12 South cellar

Bears on the catwalk. Baylor has brand new spankin' uniforms for their revival year.

After 20 years, Iowa State defensive back James Smith will reconnect with his mother.

James Smith's experience will be a little different. The last time he saw his mom, according to the Des Moines Register, he was 3 years old.

Smith was born in Haiti but came to this country in 1989 along with his father's family. After a couple years in Florida, Smith found himself living in Omaha with his aunt. Omaha is about as unlike Haiti as a place can get. The economy is stable; the climate is not. Even if Omaha's streets are rougher than people think, he was a lot better off there than he was in Haiti.

Kansas Jayhawk quarterback Todd Reesing will not be on a Heisman media tour any time soon. The elusive award is not in his future.

Hey, someone virtually shouts, often using exclamation points, why doesn’t KU start a Heisman campaign for Todd Reesing?(!)

It’s a perfectly reasonable question, especially this year. Reesing is really good. He plays quarterback in a BCS conference. He’ll be on TV a lot. And he has a nice body of work.

But -- and I hate to sound smug, here, but I’ll do it anyway -- Todd Reesing is not going to win the Heisman Trophy, no matter how many viewfinders or mouse pads bearing his likeness KU sends out.

Bill Snyder isn't exactly starting over at Kansas State.

This will be a tough road to navigate, no question. But Bill Snyder, the man who once again is being asked to help lead the Kansas State University community out of a dark forest, has been down this road before.

“A day doesn’t go by,” the Wildcats’ legendary football coach admitted recently, “where something doesn’t remind me of those times in 1988 and ‘89.”

There are some comparisons today to the bad old days of K-State athletics, to be sure.

The NCAA wants to take on Ebay.

"Fans used to bring in all sorts of stuff to be signed, from balls to helmets and jerseys. The next day it would appear for sale on eBay," said Jamie McCloskey, Florida's senior associate athletics director for compliance. "We've had fans complain, and for good reasons, but entrepreneurs were abusing the opportunity."

The NCAA now requires that athletes have full medical coverage before they can compete. But that insurance doesn't cover everything and players can have huge medical bills after they leave college.

Many students, whether athletes or not, have medical insurance through their parents. But these plans often exclude varsity sports injuries, limit out-of-state treatment or do not cover much of the bill. Some colleges buy secondary policies to fill the gaps, although even these plans have holes. And only players hurt badly enough to require extensive care can turn to the N.C.A.A. for coverage. Its catastrophic insurance carries a $75,000 deductible, which will increase to $90,000 next year.

Guess what? Jamarkus McFarland met Tim Tebow. And you know who was there to get the story.

When Florida quarterback Tim Tebow posed to take a photograph with Jamarkus McFarland on Thursday night in an Atlantic City casino, he smirked.

Just moments before, Tebow had been reminded that McFarland was headed to play next season for Oklahoma, which Florida beat in January to win the B.C.S. national title.

McFarland, a 6-foot-3, 290-pound defensive tackle who attends Lufkin (Tex.) High School, was impressed by Tebow’s humble and gracious demeanor, but hardly star struck.

"I’m ready to get out there in the fire," McFarland said in a telephone interview. "He is the fire."

 Dave Bliss has returned to Texas.

Former basketball coach Dave Bliss is back in Texas after hiding from a scandal that started with a player’s killing and snared Bliss in a web of lies and financial shenanigans.

The one-time Baylor coach spent time in North Dakota and Colorado before returning to be near his first grandchild. Basketball seems to be far behind him, yet he is now candidly discussing what went wrong in Waco—and shouldering the blame.