Zac Robinson doesn't get the whole goon thing.
Texas players insist the intent of the "Goon Squad" is not to injure quarterbacks. Some of the Longhorns didn't like it when the nickname became public.
"I saw that about the Goon Squad," Robinson said Monday. "I don't really know a whole lot about what it means."
We do not want another dramatic finish this year.
In a series marked by dramatic comebacks in recent seasons, Texas coach Mack Brown said Monday he is working to avoid adding to the Longhorns’ list of great escapes against Oklahoma State.
Specifically, Brown has challenged himself to do a better job of motivating and preparing his players heading into Saturday’s matchup between No. 3 Texas (7-0, 4-0 in Big 12) and No. 13 OSU (6-1, 3-0) in Stillwater, Okla.
"I haven’t gotten our team ready to play in this game enough. We’ve stood around some. It’s been our fault," Brown said, reflecting on the fact that the Longhorns have needed comebacks from large deficits to win four of the teams’ last six meetings. Included are comebacks from deficits of nine points (2003), 19 points (2005) and 21 points (2007) in the last three meetings in Stillwater.
Everyone is on Kendall Hunter and Dez Bryant watch. (Same article as above.)
Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp said he is actively breaking down videotapes of OSU tailback Kendall Hunter (foot injury) and receiver Dez Bryant (ruled ineligible by NCAA), two standouts who have not played since September, in anticipation of seeing them Saturday. Hunter, injured since Sept. 12, suited up but did not play last week. Bryant, who last played on Sept. 19, is awaiting word on an NCAA appeal to have his eligibility restored.
"We will prepare for them full-force," Muschamp said. "You don’t ever want to come out on the field and be shocked."
To heck with the law of averages and the fact that Mack brown has never lost to the Pokes. The Horns still have the advantage.
It’s not complicated. Texas is in a better position for two reasons. 1. The Longhorns have been better than OSU over these last 11 years, when the ‘Horns have won every game in the series despite some wild shenanigans. UT has finished with a better record than the Cowboys every single year. 2. Texas is in a much better position this year, unbeaten and ranked third, while the Cowboys are 6-1 and ranked 14th.
And finally, it gets down to this. OSU, and most every other program in the Big 12, is trying to be like Texas, in terms of winning and support. That kind of status is what OSU and Missouri and Tech aspire to.
None of that really has anything to do with the law of averages. I agree with Mack. I believe in them, too. Keep playing close games with OSU, and Texas will start losing some of them. Maybe Saturday.
Same spot, different team. And we need a different outcome.
A year ago, the Longhorns went to Tech as the undefeated No. 1 team in the nation. This year, they come to Oklahoma State unbeaten as the No. 3 team.
In many ways, it is the same situation.
"Everything is similar," Brown said.
Oklahoma State hopes the result is similar. Tech upset the Longhorns, and it cost Texas the chance to earn a spot in the national championship game.
Jordan Shipley stating the obvious...
Big 12 scheduling regulations mandate that Texas plays at Stillwater, Okla., every two years. But despite the way their recent visits have gone, there is nothing in the bylaws requiring the Longhorns to give their hosts a head start.
As No. 3 UT prepares for what could be its most daunting night of the season, the Longhorns can take some comfort knowing they’ve beaten Oklahoma State 11 consecutive times. Still, they’d rather avoid repeating some of the details of those victories, particularly the momentous rallies they pulled off in each of their last two games in Stillwater.
"Obviously," wide receiver Jordan Shipley said, "we don’t want to have to come from behind."
The offense has evolved.
The wide-open, four-receiver formation that Texas used to such perfection for the final half of the 2008 season has abruptly turned into a relic.
Texas started easing away from it during its 16-13 victory over Oklahoma. And last Saturday, the Longhorns used it only a handful of times in a 41-7 win over Missouri, Texas' most lopsided road victory in two years.
Offensive coordinator Greg Davis estimated Monday that of the 77 snaps Texas had against the Tigers, 60 featured what's called "11 personnel," or one back, one tight end and three receivers.
Mack Brown being Mack Brown.
"I think everything's similar ... when you're looking at it," he said. "Number one, it's a very good team. Number two, it's national TV. Number three, it's 7 o'clock at night. It will be an excited crowd. It will be a sellout. It will be a game they've been looking forward to all year.
"We're really lucky that we have this window of opportunity to recapture something we lost last year, and the guys are excited about the trip. They're excited about Oklahoma State, but they're also excited about trying to recapture something that didn't work well last year. History doesn't repeat itself and give you these opportunities very often."
And just where did Brown get that positive attitude? Barry Switzer.
Colt McCoy has made a comeback. And he would never duck the media. (Unlike some other quarterback.)
"I think it's your job as a leader, as a quarterback, that no matter what, win, lose or draw, if you play good or you don't, you have to go talk to the media," McCoy said. "You're the voice for the fans, for everybody, to let them know what's going on."
The athletic department is in the online auction business. Everyone will want to bid on Greg Davis' post-it-note.
Future items will hopefully include the Post-it note on which Greg Davis has written all of his running plays and the unused industrial sized bottle of Purell currently sitting in Colt McCoy’s locker.
Sick of those 11AM starts for the Texas-OU game? Too damn bad.
Counting Down To OU Lite
Mike Gundy believes they can beat the Horns.
"We’ve been beating the hell out of UT, then it comes to the fourth
quarter and something happens and they end up winning the game,”
said sophomore wide receiver Hubert Anyiam.
This game is like Groundhog Day. The ending is always the same for Oklahoma State.
Bad news for the Cowboys, who host Texas in a gargantuan game Saturday night: The Longhorns don’t focus on the historic comebacks in this Groundhog Day series that keeps repeating Texas glory and OSU anguish.
The ’Horns don’t talk so much about winning despite deficits of 28 (2004), 19 (2005) and 21 (2007) points. Instead, the ’Horns talk about how to avoid such a mess in the first place.
"They told me it was going to be a dogfight,” said sophomore safety Earl Thomas. "O.K. State has a tendency to jump out on us, and we have to fight to get back in the game.”
The Pokes have been chasing the Big Dogs, but have never caught up.
Of OSU's last 20 games, 14 have been televised. Gundy's Cowboys have beaten every team in the Big 12 — except for Texas and Oklahoma.
"Those are the big dogs in our conference," OSU running back Keith Toston said. "For us to take the next step toward a Big 12 championship, the road runs through them."
Mike Gundy would love to have Kendall Hunter back for the game with the Longhorns.
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy expects injured running back Kendall Hunter to have a limited role if he's able to play at all Saturday against third-ranked Texas.
Hunter, an all-Big 12 selection as the league's leading rusher a season ago, has missed the last five games for the 13th-ranked Cowboys (6-1, 3-0) after spraining his right ankle in the second game of the season.
"We would hope that his athletic ability would allow him to contribute to the offense, and I certainly wouldn't think he would come in and get 20 carries in the first game," Gundy said. "I would think he'd be an 8- to 10-carry guy, maybe throw him a few passes and take some of the load off of Keith (Toston) and Beau (Johnson)."
Dez Bryant's season is finished.
There will be a blackout in Stillwater Saturday night.
Proof that the Aggies did indeed beat Tech. A condensed version of the Aggie-Tech game will replay on Fox Sports Southwest.
So just what inspired the Aggie offensive lineman? A 1974 movie about Muhammad Ali’s upset knockout over George Foreman.
"I really challenged those linemen," said Sherman, whose career started as an offensive line coach. "I was on them during practice and really backed them into a corner and they came out swinging."
Mike Sherman wants the players to just forget the win at Tech.
The turnaround makes Sherman's task this week exactly the opposite of last week – instead of rebuilding morale, he'll have to reel in players' confidence as they prepare for Iowa State (5-3, 2-2), which is coming off an equally stunning victory at Nebraska.
"I look at every week very similarly," Sherman said. "Just like last week, I told them to put that behind you after the Monday morning meeting. We did the same thing with Texas Tech. That has nothing to do with how we're going to play this ballgame."
Oklahoma
More Stoops' love for Trent Williams and Brody Eldridge.
Senior left tackle Trent Williams has been the lone invariable on the line, starting each of the Sooners’ seven games. Stoops singled out Williams and new right guard, Brody Eldridge, as two of the top performers for his offense.
"Other guys have their opportunities to play or play more, and show they deserve to be in there more," Stoops said. "You earn your time on the field and you earn your right to stay on the field by how you play."
And that medical hardship for DeMarcus Granger? Denied. Barking Carnival looks at his illustrious career.
Right guard Travis Jeffries has been suspended and seems to be on Bob Stoops' hit list.
After the game OU head coach Bob Stoops admitted that the suspension would be for the lone game, but now it appears that his situation has not been fully resolved.
So there is a chance that his suspension could carry over to this weekend as well.
One thing is certain. He will not be starting.
“He won’t be,” Stoops responded when asked if Jeffries would resume his spot as the starting RG.
He may not even get to play at all.
Don't laugh. Kansas State and Iowa State are No. 1 and No. 2 in the North Division.
There's a large amass of fog as you're driving down the road. You can't see a thing in front of you. You have no clue where you're going to end up. That is the Big 12 Conference right now.
Not even the world's best psychic or clairvoyant (if you believe in that kind of stuff) could predict the ever-wacky conference right now.
For those who have tried, the resulting image has been blocked by that fog. That fog is Kansas State (5-3, 3-1 Big 12) and Iowa State (5-3, 2-2 Big 12), which currently sit in first and second respectively in the Big 12 North — two teams who have successfully clouded the division.
Dr. Saturday is looking for the Big 12 North Division. It has apparently left the building.
Fun with Big 12 realignment possibilities.
Rock M Nation is bored with power rankings so they came up with their own, Edward Norton style.
Power rankings are all the rage right now. But most suck. Why? Because they’re boring.
No, no, here at Rock M Nation, we need to have a much better system of power rankings. Much more…stupid.
As such, this week, we need to use Edward Norton.
Tim Griffin looks at Big 12 quarterbacks.
It hasn't been a good season for starting quarterbacks in the Big 12.
In fact, it could almost be said that it's been "open season" on starting quarterbacks across the conference this season.
Only six teams have had the same starting quarterback in the lineup for all of their games. And it's no coincidence that the conference's best teams -- Texas and Oklahoma State -- have had the same starting quarterback for every game.
Big 12 coaches are big in the cliche department. Well, except for Mike Leach, who does not apologize for his tacky fat girlfriend remarks.
Bill Snyder is back.
After covering Kansas State's spring football game last May, I recall thinking on the drive home that the Wildcats looked like a glorified small-college team.
Not very big. Not very fast. Not many playmakers. Not much of anything special.
Except for one thing.
There was this guy who wears gray slacks, a purple windbreaker and old-time Puma shoes. Coach Bill Snyder is his name and fixing up broken football teams is his game.
We will be seeing a lot more of Bill Snyder. There is now a direct flight from Manhattan, Kansas, to Dallas.
Kansas State coach Bill Snyder has lived with a recruiting disadvantage throughout his career with the lack of transportation access to Manhattan.
That trend appears to be changing as American Eagle Airlines started a direct flight from Manhattan, Kan., to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport this August.
Kansas State at one time flew players directly into the city on private airplanes. But when the NCAA cut back on that recruiting element, they were forced to fly to Kansas City or Topeka for an inconvenience of major proportions.
But the direct flight has Snyder excited about the possibilities.
More quarterback controversy in Boulder.
CU coach Dan Hawkins managed to add some melo to the drama by resurrecting what we all had hoped was a dead quarterback controversy.
Bad move.
Hawk should know better.
"I`ve told you before. We`re going to do what it takes to try to win football games," Hawkins told reporters after the game. "How that all plays out, we`ll see."
Nebraska needs more than a spark. How about a bonfire?
“The offense needs a spark,” Pelini said. “And where that spark comes from, that's up to us to determine. That can come from a lot of different areas.
“I can say this: We need to light a fire under it. Somebody needs to step up and make plays.”
So much for Mike Leach's preseason praise for Taylor Potts. It seems Seth Doege may the new heir apparent to the Raider System.
Asked where Potts’ confidence level is, Leach said, "Only he knows that. We’ll have to figure that out, but confidence is a decision. A guy’s got to decide to be confident. If you decide you’re not, it’s fairly counterproductive. If you’re not successful and you have confidence, maybe you will be.’’
The Tortilla Retort has an A&M game post-mortem.
The Bears are hoping for one of those Big 12 upsets.
“Once you get into league play, anything’s possible,” Baylor coach Art Briles said Sunday. “That’s what makes it great.”
Briles is hoping some of that upset magic rubs off on his team.
Former Longhorn coach Gene Chizik has not impressed anyone.
Can we say lousy coaching?
I say give Gene Chizik a contract extension before someone comes and steals him away. After all, that 10-22 record as a head coach would be tough to turn down. One can only imagine that his agent's phone is blowing up right now with calls from Louisville and Virginia. One thing is for sure -- they don't want him back at Iowa State. Did you notice over the weekend that his successor won at Nebraska (first time since 1977) and matched Chizik's two-year total of victories?
Peter Schrager has gotten the message: Don't mess with Texas.
In a college football weekend where several of the nation's top teams needed to scrape and claw to keep their heads above water in the 2009 BCS title race, three teams from the state of Texas made statements in Texas-sized ways.
Texas, TCU and Texas A&M — each with different stories, situations and varying legions of "haters" — won definitive contests on Saturday. Two of the three silenced critics from far and wide with much-needed victories, while the third established itself as a legitimate national power that demands to be recognized as a top tier program worthy of title game consideration.
The Sports Economist looks at bad officiating calls.
The BCS computers are blowing their circuits for Iowa.
The big change is the wholesale flop right behind that "Big Three": Iowa, USC and TCU, which ranked 6-7-8 last week, move into the 4-5-6 slots thanks to solid wins by all three -- and, in the case of USC and Iowa, no change in their standing in the human polls. But the computers were suitably impressed by the Trojans and Hawkeyes' tough wins over Oregon State and Michigan State, respectively, bumping SC from a consensus No. 11 last week to No. 9 and rewarding Iowa's last-second triumph with a bump from No. 3 to ... wait for it ... No. 1 this week. Remember: As far as the computers are concerned, a win is a win, people.
There is an Iowa disconnect between the human and the computer polls.
The fundamental disconnect within the BCS from the beginning has been the supposed gulf between the cold, calculating computer polls and the blindly sentimental human voters. But never has the chasm been wider between the outlook of man and machine than in the current edition of the standings, where Iowa -- languishing at No. 8 in both the Harris and Coaches' polls, well behind one-loss USC and still far out of serious championship contention -- holds the No. 1 spot in the computer consensus, putting the Hawkeyes in the driver's seat for the time being if they keep winning and two of the "Big Three," Florida, Alabama and Texas, should stumble down the stretch.
College presidents feel athletic budgets are out of control.
Here's a new top 25.
If you’re a college football fan, you probably adhere to some brand of the Al Davis doctrine: “Just win, baby.”
But big-time college powerhouses are run like big businesses: They recruit, spend millions of dollars a year, and usually turn a profit. So if there were a BCS of profitable college football teams, who would come out on top?