Friday the 13th edition...
Drum roll please... Thayer Evans writes about Dexter Pittman. Excuse me, M. Scott Templeton writes about Dexter Pittman.
CBSSports' Dennis Dodd ponders Mack Brown's future.
Mack Brown doesn't seem like a coach ready to retire.
BCS computer geeks have been invited to Austin in the offseason to speak to the Texas staff about how to deliver the program from a repeat of last season's tiebreaker nightmare. The 57-year-old coach raised hell in January at the American Football Coaches Association board of directors meeting. The subject: the insanity of automatically awarding that No. 1 spot in the coaches poll to the winner of the BCS title game. Texas believes it had as much of a stake to the spot as Florida, USC or Utah.
This is not the life of a man ready to hand over the keys to college football's richest kingdom. Not yet. Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp got a bump up to $900K this year as Texas' coach-in-waiting. Muschamp would do well to pay attention to the coach-in-office's ethic.
Players invited their favorite professor to a closed practice session.
The Texas coach allowed each player on the team to pick his favorite professor or instructor to attend Wednesday's closed practice session and scrimmage. The team then had a dinner with their favorite teachers as part of an appreciation program for the Texas faculty.
"It's really a special time," Brown said. "We wanted to do this because the faculty often doesn't see what these young guys do outside of the classroom and how hard they work. It's another reason why the practice was so spirited because they wanted to show their professors how well they play and how tough they are."
Barking Carnival believes Dexter Pittman is a man.
There is a change in culture in Norman.
"We know how we finished and we want to finish with a win," said Gerald McCoy. "We don't want to finish with a loss. It's no poster, no banner, it's us. We're a team and it's going to be on us."
This attitude may not have been possible without decisions made following the Sooners' national championship bowl loss. Without Bradford, McCoy, Jermaine Gresham and Trent Williams passing on the NFL, this would have been a team without veteran star power.
Now those stars are at the forefront of a team and a culture that is changing in Norman.
"I guess you can say it would have been different," said McCoy. "It would have been four leaders that left. Now you've got those guys back and we're back to lead the team. We know it's our team and we know the roles we have to do this year and we're just ready to do it."
OU's receivers want to quiet all the doubters out there.
Considering all of the key receivers that left Oklahoma's team after last season, it's understandable why some aren't sold on the Sooners' returning talent at the position.
Leading returning receiver Ryan Broyles doesn't mind that at all. In fact, Broyles actually likes that many are considering his receiving corps as one of the Sooners' biggest positional question marks.
"We've all been doubted around here before," Broyles said. "We just want to rise to the occasion and show what we can do when we get the chance."
We are all sure Jeff Capel values your opinion. Jason Whitlock lists his NCAA baskteball tournament truths. He thinks Oklahoma is a fraud.
8. If you're looking for a tournament fraud, take a gander at the 27-4 Oklahoma Sooners.
Oh, they're talented. Blake Griffin is the nation's best player. Shooting guard Willie Warren is the nation's most talented freshman scorer. I love Tony Crocker and Austin Johnson's experience and athleticism. Taylor Griffin is a nice role player.
Jeff Capel simply cannot coach. That Coach K tree produces some rotten fruit.
Oklahoma does not have an offense. The Sooners do nothing to free Griffin in the low post. He gets his points off talent and nothing else. Capel's offense does not require Warren to move without the basketball. Warren is a compact version of Glenn Robinson. We can only hope Warren doesn't waste his skills like a Big Dog.
A second-round foe with a good coach and two shooters will send the Sooners home early.
The Corn Nation checks in with the Pirate Guild. It seems the pirates are not thrilled with Mike Leach.
Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach has a well-known admiration for pirates, but apparently that feeling isn't mutual. In a recent poll conducted by the Pirate's Guild, Leach was selected as the Big 12 coach most likely to be run through and fed to sharks.
This is news you have been waiting for... brace yourself. The Jonas Brothers will be playing in the new Dallas Cowboys stadium on June 20.
"We’re real close to getting some announcements with U2, the Jonas Brothers -- for those of you who have young girls, I do, they'll be very excited to hear about the Jonas Brothers," Cowboys Executive Vice President Stephen Jones told the audience at the University of Texas at Arlington’s Business Week 2009 executive dinner Tuesday.
This will impress those NFL scouts. Former players that couldn't make it to the NFL on their own try to make the Cowboy roster on Michael Irvin's reality show.
Landing on the final 53-man roster, or even making the practice squad, is pretty unlikely, acknowledges Joe Avezzano, one of the show's two coaches.
But the other coach, Bill Bates, is a perfect example that it can happen. He estimates there were 180 people at his first Cowboys camp, but he outlasted the competition to make the club, then lasted 15 seasons in the NFL.
"That's what makes sports great — you never know," Bates said. "Three months ago, these guys never thought they had a chance of making the Dallas Cowboys and now they're here."
Update on Corey Wilson.
Word is that Corey Wilson, who suffered a serious spinal cord injury in an auto accident two weeks ago, has been moved out of OU Medical Center and into a rehabilitation facility to begin his long rehab process.