Bevo's Roundup - November 29, 2010

Really?

The Texas players want things to stay exactly as they are.

After the game, some players were asked about their thoughts on possible personnel changes.

"I don't want that to happen," said center David Snow. "I mean you're talking about the same staff that took us to the national championship game last year. They are all great coaches. They are all very intelligent in football aspects. So I don't want to see any of them let go."

Linebacker Emmanuel Acho agreed.

"This coaching staff took us to the national championship game last year and helped win a national title in 2005," he said. "Essentially the same players did as well. I don't think there needs to be a shake up. We just need to get our mentalities straight and continue to work."

Safety Blake Gideon put the blame of the 5-7 season on the players rather than the coaches.

"The coaches can be a great with their game plan, but it comes down to us making plays," he said. "We weren't able to finish plays a lot of times when our team needed it this year. That's something we have to improve on to give ourselves a chance next year."

The 2010 Texas Longhorn football season:

It was an offense that found ways to self-destruct every time it entered the red zone.

It was a defense that got gashed up the middle for big plays almost every game and couldn't seem to pounce on the fumbles it caused.

It was a special-teams unit that couldn't hold onto punts or take advantage of opportunities.

It was a coaching staff that couldn't figure out how to overcome the myriad of problems.

It was an overall mess.

There is still a chance we might go bowling. Never mind.

Even though it is generally assumed Texas' football season ended with Thursday's loss to Texas A&M, the possibilities of the 5-7 Longhorns being invited to a bowl game haven't been completely wiped away.

With only 67 Divison I FBS teams having reached six victories heading into today's games, not every spot in the 35 bowl games had been accounted for. If there aren't enough six-victory teams to fill them, the bowls would be allowed to invite a losing team, and UT's huge fan base would make it an obvious pick.

Report cards are out. The Horns didn't do so well on this exam.

With Money comes expectations. Very high expectations.

I understand those who believe that somehow this staff deserves a mulligan. I have heard from ex-coaches who back their bretheren and say that the past success is reason enough to let them try and fix the program.

Times are different now. It really is just as Deep Throat told Woodward and Bernstein in Watergate. Follow The Money.

Texas is about to sign a deal with ESPN for $200-300 million. The University Athletics Department took in $143 Million last year in revenue. This is like any other major business. When the reveues increase so does the scrutiny and the expectations, as well as the pressure.

We like succinct endings. Three months of pain rolled into three hours.

At least the five readers over at I Am The 12th Man are happy.

Some more great content from our Aggie friends over at the 12th Man.

Good to know that Mack Brown measures his program against ours. I wholeheartedly disagree with his quote, but found humor in it just the same. The sips just suffered through their worst season in 13 years because of a variety of factors, including talent and coaching. Despite Brown's claims, they are not as talented as A&M is. The results on the field speak for themselves. They were able to keep the game close because high winds prevented our passing game from getting on track, and multiple special teams gaffes.

Just remember...

This wasn't too long ago.

Basketball

Corey Joseph has decided not to think.

Cory Joseph has yet to take a star turn, the kind that could validate his standing as an elite basketball recruit for the Longhorns.

But he does claim to have made a breakthrough on Tuesday night against Sam Houston State.

"I just tried to stop thinking (so) much and tried to get in the flow of the game," the freshman guard said. "And it worked."

The Horns beat Rice 62-59.

Rick Barnes is just a winner.

"What I’ve learned through all of this (is) life’s a vapor. It goes by so quick," Barnes said after No. 500. "I have been extremely well-blessed. I have an incredible family and it hasn’t been easy on them all the time. I have been at great universities. I have had great athletics directors. Obviously, I have had tremendous coaches and great players."

With all the advantages in the world, Barnes has elevated Texas’ program into the strata just below only a handful of programs (Duke, Kansas, Kentucky). If he keeps knocking on the door, another shot at a national title is bound to come his way. But the people close to him, people like Amaker and so many other friends in coaching, respect Barnes for who he is just as much as for how many wins he accumulates.

What have we learned this week?

The Big 12 might get two BCS bids after all. Thanks to Boise State’s loss, a second BCS bid is definitely in play. Missouri, at 10-2, might sneak into the Orange Bowl, but we'll see how the rest of the country shakes out in the weeks to come. That will decide plenty. Getting two teams in looked like a long shot for the past few weeks, but sometimes we forget how drastically things can shift with one loss to a team at the top of the polls.

Bob is a gambler.

With the game, and the season, and maybe a rivalry’s course, all on the line, here’s what Bob Stoops did.

He let his offensive coordinator call a pass for a quarterback who had been throwing the ball to the wrong color much of the night. And not just any pass. But a deep pass to a receiver who had been benched much of the season.

Then Stoops did it all over again, except this time to a tight end whose most notable play was a dropped touchdown.

You can list all the fake punts and fake field goals you want. The old Riverboat Bob never was as brazen as he was Saturday night at Boone Pickens Stadium.

This was pretty awesome.

Kansas State pulled out a squeaker against that powerhouse North Texas State.

Carl Pelini couldn't worm his way out of this one so he apologized.

Bo Pelini only hurts himself with his behavior.

Pelini only hurts himself and his team with his antics, and hopefully the attention his display garnered Saturday night will serve as a wake-up call. Nebraska prides itself as a classy program with the nation's classiest fans, and moments like those don't fit with that image. Most importantly, however, if we've learned anything from the ousters of Mangino, Leavitt and Mike Leach last year, it's that it only takes one cross-the-line incident by a coach to bring down everything he's worked for. Pelini came too close for comfort Saturday night.

Everyone is biased against Nebraska, according to some guy with a screen name of moosew648.

There may be bigger problems in the corn field.

If Pelini is losing it, how do his players respond in crucial moments? Two years ago against Oklahoma, Pelini was screaming at assistant coaches and players. Last year, when Texas was given one second back on the clock in the Big 12 Championship Game and kicked the game-winning field goal, he went off on officials on the field.

Last weekend, the officials and Martinez felt his wrath, and more disconcerting, his brother, Carl Pelini, was allegedly involved in an altercation with a cameraman. Carl Pelini doesn’t put himself in that situation if Bo’s emotions are under control.

And if Bo’s emotions continue to flow freely? It’s only a matter of time before players who follow their coach’s lead become mirror images of him.

And the entire program – not just the coach – melts down before our very eyes.

I wonder if Bo Pelini would actually choke Dan Beebe, given the chance. Maybe that's why Beebe didn't show up to congratulate the Cornhuskers.

Now we know why Nebraska's fans have that great reputation. And why didn't Beebe make the trip?

Big 12 Conference officials did not attend Friday's Nebraska-Colorado game in Lincoln -- and get the chance to award the Cornhuskers the North Division championship trophy -- because of e-mail and phone threats by Nebraska fans.

Conference commissioner Dan Beebe told several news outlets that he and his family received a death threat amid a flood of vulgar messages.

"We had a threat talking about you’re going to die and your family is going to die in your house," Beebe told the Kansas City Star. "You have to start taking it seriously. All it takes is one crackpot."

Jim Delaney may need body guards to protect him from those outstanding fans.

Basketball

Baptists are very forgiving folks. Everyone loves Baylor's LaceDarius Dunn.

Dunn’s girlfriend issued a statement saying the incident was an accident and that she didn’t want to pursue charges. Even though the case is expected to be dropped, Baylor coach Scott Drew suspended Dunn for the Bears’ two exhibition games and first three regular-season games.

"Everyone loves Lace," Drew said by phone Wednesday. "Whether it’s a 2-year-old, a 10-year-old or a grown adult, Lace gets along with everyone. On Monday he even had a former professor who teaches at another school now make a long, long drive back to Baylor just to support him.

In case you missed it, Boise got beat.

Fake fight! The Ohio State University President Gordon Gee made a statement regarding Boise State's schedule and Boise responded.

Boise State's president said his counterpart at Ohio State's claim that Big Ten and Southeastern Conference teams play a "murderer's row" schedule "is the greatest exaggeration I think we've heard this year in college football."

TCU coach Gary Patterson doesn't think the SEC is all that tough.

"The highest ranked team to come out of this conference [SEC] should well have an opportunity to play in the national championship game," Miles said.

To which Patterson said on Tuesday: "Just because you play in the SEC doesn't make you a great school. Do they have good football teams in the SEC? Yes, they do.... They [also] have a lot of teams in that league that haven't won a lot of ballgames."

The Mike Leach soap opera just won't go away.

Former coach Mike Leach sued ESPN Inc. and a public relations firm on Wednesday, accusing them of libel and slander after he was fired by Texas Tech amid accusations that he mistreated a player suffering from a concussion.

The suit filed in Texas district court claims the network's coverage of Leach's firing last year was "willful and negligent defamation" and that it failed to "retract false and damaging statements" it made from "misinformation" provided to ESPN by Craig James, the father of the Texas Tech player.

Scratch this guy off the possibly available list. UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow got a two-year extension.

Wow. That's all that needs to be said.

Dr. James Andrews is the go-to guy in football.

You think you're busy? Spend a week in the life of Andrews, who has become the sports world's go-to orthopedic surgeon.

So how, exactly, has this happened? How has Andrews, who has performed more than 45,000 surgeries in his career -- mostly on knees, shoulders, and elbows -- become so famous that he's on a first-name basis with nearly half of the starting quarterbacks in the NFL (just last week he consulted with the Vikings' Brett Favre and examined the Lions' Matthew Stafford) and nearly all of the league's head coaches?

There was big money in selling Kansas football and basketball tickets.

Blubaugh, 43, of Medford, Okla., was charged along with her husband, Thomas Blubaugh, 46, who was a consultant to the ticket office.

Also charged were former assistant athletic director Rodney Jones, 42, of Lawrence; former associate athletic director Ben Kirtland, 54, of Lenexa, Kan.; and Kassie Liebsch, 28, of Lawrence, who was a systems analyst working in the ticket office.

Two other former employees, Brandon Simmons and Jason Jeffries, have pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme and are scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in March.

Investigators said the conspirators made between $3 million and $5 million in the scheme over five years.

The coaching carousel begins. Mike Leach to Miami?

We aren't the only ones flying banners at games.

In the parking lot at Sun Life Stadium on Saturday, eyes turned toward the sky. A plane flew overhead towing a banner.

4 Years...0 ACC Titles...Lots of excuses...Fire Shannon

The Horny Frogs finally get their wish.

TCU and Wisconsin poured on the style points Saturday, but it won't matter if Oregon and Auburn win. If the seeds hold next week, the Horned Frogs and Badgers are both bound for Pasadena -- where the only style that matters will be smashmouth.

And finally...

I didn't do it, Peter. It's the guys over at Barking Carnival. Mixing politics and football.

Legislators, judges and athletic department directors are scrambling this afternoon to determine whether the results of tonight’s football game between the 13th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners and the 9th-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys will be recognized under a new and controversial state constitutional amendment.

The new amendment SQ 755, which passed popular referendum on Nov. 2nd by a 70-30 margin, prohibits the State from recognizing any form of international law. While the intent of the law was to prevent the use of Sharia law in Oklahoman courts, concerns have arisen that the wording of the law also bans treaties with Native American tribes, which would be problematic since more than 40 native tribes currently live in the state.

In news that rocked the statehouse, several witnesses testified today that Sooner Nation is, legally speaking, one of those tribes.