I spoke with a friend of mine about the Texas vs. Colorado game. My friend is a graduate of UT so you can only imagine how many excuses, and yes they were indeed excuses, he had for their poor performance.
For those of you who have been in a cave the Longhorns won the game 38-14. At no point did they look like a true national contender. Going into the game Colorado had been laughable at best. They had just one win against a Wyoming team that couldn’t beat most junior high squads. Colorado lost to Toledo 54-38 earlier this year….TOLEDO for crying out loud!!! At halftime they actually led the all powerful Longhorns 14-10. In the second half the Horns managed to take control of this high school group and secured the victory.
Now back to my friend and his lame excuses. Actually I won’t dive into the excuses because everyone would be dumber for reading them. I will dive into a ridiculous comparison he made in an attempt to make their crappy performance seem less crappy. He had the nerve to say UT’s win over the Buff’s was just as impressive as Florida’s win over LSU. He did this of course once he realized that the Horns fell from #2 to #3 in the polls. Alabama who easily beat #20 Ole Miss 22-3 jumped over Texas to take the #2 spot. Naturally he thought UT’s win over Colorado was much more impressive than the Tide’s win over a top 20 team, but that’s a whole other topic.
His logic was when you compared the Gators performance to the Horns both teams struggled but eventually won. He even pointed out that the Horns won by a larger margin. I quickly pointed out the following to which he had no credible response. 1) UT was playing at home while Florida was playing in front of an insane LSU crowd. 2) LSU was undefeated while Colorado only had one win. 3) Colorado was not ranked anywhere near the top 20 or 50 for that matter while LSU was #4 in the nation. 4) LSU vs. Florida is a huge rivalry with lots of passion while UT and Colorado have NO rivalry at all. 5) Tim Tebow was fresh off a concussion and didn’t look 100% and the Gators still beat the #4 team ON THE ROAD! 6) If LSU or Florida were playing Colorado neither would have trailed in the game for one second let alone one half. Either of those two teams would have won the game 70-0. Granted the last one can’t be verified but even horn’s fans know deep down inside that it’s true.
With all this said what does it mean for UT and Florida? Well if both keep winning, and winning the way they are, it will be a blowout in the BCS Championship. My prediction is Florida 45, Texas 14. Against Florida, Texas won’t be able to play poorly and only be down by a few points at the half. If they play like they have been it will be at least 24-7 at halftime. Also, if they continue their pattern of slow starts there will be no second half come back. A team like Florida will expose them for what they are…very lucky to be in the championship game. As a matter of fact they probably wouldn’t make it to the championship game if there were a playoff.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Texas Tech falls despite outplaying longhorns
The texas longhorns got the victory but looked very average doing it. As a matter of fact a blown no-call on a helmet to helmet by Sergio Kindle on Taylor Potts may have cost Texas Tech the game. On that play Potts fumbled and UT recovered and went on to score. Even the announcers said it was definitely a blown no-call and Sports Center reiterated it later in the night.
You must also take into consideration that Texas Tech was not even close to being at full strength. Sophomore walk-on Brett Dewhurst started at safety instead of Franklin Mitchem who is injured, and true freshman D.J. Johnson went in at cornerback when starter LaRon Moore had to come out in the second half. That wasn't all missing from the defense either. Starting defensive end Ra'jon Henley missed the game due to an injury and the other defensive end, Brandon Sharpe, was suspended for the game. In addition Texas Tech's best receiver, Detron Lewis, only played a few plays in the first series. Apparently he aggravated a hamstring injury that kept him out of most of the Rice game as well.
When you look at the stats Tech went to Austin and outplayed the horns. Tech had 25 first downs on 81 plays while the horns had 24 on 76 plays. The Red Raiders out gained ut by 115 yards (447-332). Texas Tech averaged 5.5 yards per play to ut’s 4.4.
Also worthy of mention is that Heisman candidate colt mccoy was absolutely out played by Taylor Potts. Potts threw three times as many TD’s, half as many interceptions and over twice as many yards. Potts had 447 passing yards with three TD’s and only one INT to mccoy’s 200 passing yards with only one TD and two INT’s. If you knew nothing of either QB except that one was a Heisman Candidate and one was not you would have thought Potts was the one in the running for the Heisman.
The difference in the game really came down to the special teams TD by shipley on a punt return and the no call mentioned earlier. After watching this game I came to two conclusions. First the texas longhorns are not the #2 team in the country. Second the Red Raiders are much better than I would have ever expected.
You must also take into consideration that Texas Tech was not even close to being at full strength. Sophomore walk-on Brett Dewhurst started at safety instead of Franklin Mitchem who is injured, and true freshman D.J. Johnson went in at cornerback when starter LaRon Moore had to come out in the second half. That wasn't all missing from the defense either. Starting defensive end Ra'jon Henley missed the game due to an injury and the other defensive end, Brandon Sharpe, was suspended for the game. In addition Texas Tech's best receiver, Detron Lewis, only played a few plays in the first series. Apparently he aggravated a hamstring injury that kept him out of most of the Rice game as well.
When you look at the stats Tech went to Austin and outplayed the horns. Tech had 25 first downs on 81 plays while the horns had 24 on 76 plays. The Red Raiders out gained ut by 115 yards (447-332). Texas Tech averaged 5.5 yards per play to ut’s 4.4.
Also worthy of mention is that Heisman candidate colt mccoy was absolutely out played by Taylor Potts. Potts threw three times as many TD’s, half as many interceptions and over twice as many yards. Potts had 447 passing yards with three TD’s and only one INT to mccoy’s 200 passing yards with only one TD and two INT’s. If you knew nothing of either QB except that one was a Heisman Candidate and one was not you would have thought Potts was the one in the running for the Heisman.
The difference in the game really came down to the special teams TD by shipley on a punt return and the no call mentioned earlier. After watching this game I came to two conclusions. First the texas longhorns are not the #2 team in the country. Second the Red Raiders are much better than I would have ever expected.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Why Your Coach Votes Republican
The following comes from The Wall Street Journal
In Politics, Football's Bosses Usually Run Right; Mr. Friedgen Picks on 'Socialists'
By STEVE KORNACKI
American politics are rich with characters and stereotypes—Joe the Plumber, Harry and Louise, Nascar dads and hockey moms, to name a few. But one persistent type hasn't gotten much attention: the Republican football coach.
During the 2008 campaign cycle, college and NFL head coaches (and their wives) contributed a total of $13,286 to John McCain and the Republican National Committee. From that same group, Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee received just $4,600—half of it from Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears and the other half from San Jose State's Dick Tomey.
In all, 20 coaches active in the 2008 season gave to Republican candidates seeking federal office. Three donated to Democrats. This disparity is even more striking given that, among the individual donors in the '08 campaign cycle, Mr. Obama outraised Mr. McCain by more than a 5-to-1 margin.
Pep Talk From Holtz
Some coaches display their largely conservative instincts in non-financial ways. Jack Del Rio of the NFL's Jaguars led the crowd in the pledge of allegiance at a Sarah Palin rally in Jacksonville last fall. Longtime Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs addressed last summer's Republican National Convention. Lou Holtz fired up congressional Republicans with a pep talk in 2007 and recently flirted with running for Congress in Florida. Ralph Friedgen, the portly University of Maryland coach, good-naturedly called one of his Canadian players a socialist last fall.
There's no evidence that coaches with a conservative bent are better coaches or more likely to get jobs. Football coaches aren't the most diverse group, which may help explain their political similarities.
Still, could it be that football coaches, just by the nature of the job, are more comfortable on the right end of the political spectrum?
"I'd say that sounds likely—very likely," said Bobby Bowden, the longtime Florida State coach and an outspoken Republican.
Mr. Bowden, a 79-year-old native Alabaman, describes himself as a lifelong conservative who—like many white Southerners of his generation—migrated from the Democratic Party to the GOP a few decades ago. There is, he says, a natural connection between his political and coaching philosophies.
"In coaching, you've got to have more discipline and you've got to be more strict and just conservative, I think. It fits with the Republicans," he said.
Mr. Holtz, who coached Notre Dame to its last national championship in 1988, draws a parallel between the standards and rules that most coaches set for their players and the Republican vision of how American society ought to operate.
"You aren't entitled to anything. You don't inherit anything. You get what you earn—your position on the team," Mr. Holtz said. "You're treated like everybody else. You're held accountable for your actions. You understand that your decisions affect other people on that team…There's winners, there's losers, and there's competitiveness."
Tom Osborne, who coached the Nebraska Cornhuskers for 25 seasons before serving three terms in Congress as a Republican, suggested that football coaches probably look at their own lives and careers as testaments to the conservative principle of self-reliance.
"There's an awful lot of people who want to be in coaching for the number of jobs," he said. "It's highly competitive. And many of them have had to spend a fair amount of time as graduate assistants, interns—as much as four, five, six, seven, eight years—making very, very little money to get into the profession. And they will work 70, 80, 90 hours a week during the season.
"I think that background—adherence to discipline, sometimes sacrifice, loyalty to core values—those things tend to have people move in that direction."
Some cite geography—the fact that so many coaches have roots in the South, a staunchly Republican region. Others point out that Republicans tend to revere strong, singular executive leaders—a pretty good description of a coach.
'Not a Dictatorship ...'
"That definitely does fit the football coaches' mold," said Mr. Bowden. "It's not a dictatorship, but it's on the verge."
Mr. Osborne even noted that most coaches are ex-players, joking that "I'm sure many who are more liberal would say it's because they got hit in the head too much."
There are, of course, exceptions. Mr. Tomey, the only college head coach to donate to Mr. Obama last year, said he's never really paid attention to the political leanings of his fellow coaches and that he was "shocked" to learn how many of them seem to favor the GOP.
With successful runs at Hawaii, Arizona and, since 2005, San Jose State to his name, he's clearly no less committed to hard work, discipline, and accountability than his GOP colleagues.
But Mr. Tomey estimates that he's only voted Republican "about three times" in his life (for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, Arnold Schwarzenegger this decade, and maybe one other time).
When Mr. Tomey was at Arizona in 1990, state voters rejected a proposed Martin Luther King holiday. "Our players were really upset with that, and I remember asking them how many of them had voted and, like, two of them had," he recalled. "So we decided as a staff that from that time forward we were going to get our guys registered to vote," an effort he has maintained since then, although he stressed that it's non-partisan in nature.
Some Democrats, Too
There are some other Democratic coaches, too. Southern California's Pete Carroll, for instance, openly proclaimed his support for Mr. Obama last year, and George Perles, who coached Michigan State from 1983 to 1994 (before helping launch the Motor City Bowl), is waging a long-shot bid for the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Michigan.
And when Mr. Obama was running last year, several African-American coaches—including Ty Willingham (then at the University of Washington), Herm Edwards (then with the Kansas City Chiefs), and Mr. Smith of the Chicago Bears—expressed their support.
Some coaches keep quiet about politics to avoid alienating boosters and other higher-ups.
This is what led Jim Tressel, Ohio State's head coach, to declare last fall that, "When it comes to political endorsements about candidates, it's out of bounds."
But while he was publicly mum about the '08 election, Mr. Tressel did do some talking with his bank account—cutting a $1,000 check to the Republican National Committee a month before Election Day.
In Politics, Football's Bosses Usually Run Right; Mr. Friedgen Picks on 'Socialists'
By STEVE KORNACKI
American politics are rich with characters and stereotypes—Joe the Plumber, Harry and Louise, Nascar dads and hockey moms, to name a few. But one persistent type hasn't gotten much attention: the Republican football coach.
During the 2008 campaign cycle, college and NFL head coaches (and their wives) contributed a total of $13,286 to John McCain and the Republican National Committee. From that same group, Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee received just $4,600—half of it from Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears and the other half from San Jose State's Dick Tomey.
In all, 20 coaches active in the 2008 season gave to Republican candidates seeking federal office. Three donated to Democrats. This disparity is even more striking given that, among the individual donors in the '08 campaign cycle, Mr. Obama outraised Mr. McCain by more than a 5-to-1 margin.
Pep Talk From Holtz
Some coaches display their largely conservative instincts in non-financial ways. Jack Del Rio of the NFL's Jaguars led the crowd in the pledge of allegiance at a Sarah Palin rally in Jacksonville last fall. Longtime Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs addressed last summer's Republican National Convention. Lou Holtz fired up congressional Republicans with a pep talk in 2007 and recently flirted with running for Congress in Florida. Ralph Friedgen, the portly University of Maryland coach, good-naturedly called one of his Canadian players a socialist last fall.
There's no evidence that coaches with a conservative bent are better coaches or more likely to get jobs. Football coaches aren't the most diverse group, which may help explain their political similarities.
Still, could it be that football coaches, just by the nature of the job, are more comfortable on the right end of the political spectrum?
"I'd say that sounds likely—very likely," said Bobby Bowden, the longtime Florida State coach and an outspoken Republican.
Mr. Bowden, a 79-year-old native Alabaman, describes himself as a lifelong conservative who—like many white Southerners of his generation—migrated from the Democratic Party to the GOP a few decades ago. There is, he says, a natural connection between his political and coaching philosophies.
"In coaching, you've got to have more discipline and you've got to be more strict and just conservative, I think. It fits with the Republicans," he said.
Mr. Holtz, who coached Notre Dame to its last national championship in 1988, draws a parallel between the standards and rules that most coaches set for their players and the Republican vision of how American society ought to operate.
"You aren't entitled to anything. You don't inherit anything. You get what you earn—your position on the team," Mr. Holtz said. "You're treated like everybody else. You're held accountable for your actions. You understand that your decisions affect other people on that team…There's winners, there's losers, and there's competitiveness."
Tom Osborne, who coached the Nebraska Cornhuskers for 25 seasons before serving three terms in Congress as a Republican, suggested that football coaches probably look at their own lives and careers as testaments to the conservative principle of self-reliance.
"There's an awful lot of people who want to be in coaching for the number of jobs," he said. "It's highly competitive. And many of them have had to spend a fair amount of time as graduate assistants, interns—as much as four, five, six, seven, eight years—making very, very little money to get into the profession. And they will work 70, 80, 90 hours a week during the season.
"I think that background—adherence to discipline, sometimes sacrifice, loyalty to core values—those things tend to have people move in that direction."
Some cite geography—the fact that so many coaches have roots in the South, a staunchly Republican region. Others point out that Republicans tend to revere strong, singular executive leaders—a pretty good description of a coach.
'Not a Dictatorship ...'
"That definitely does fit the football coaches' mold," said Mr. Bowden. "It's not a dictatorship, but it's on the verge."
Mr. Osborne even noted that most coaches are ex-players, joking that "I'm sure many who are more liberal would say it's because they got hit in the head too much."
There are, of course, exceptions. Mr. Tomey, the only college head coach to donate to Mr. Obama last year, said he's never really paid attention to the political leanings of his fellow coaches and that he was "shocked" to learn how many of them seem to favor the GOP.
With successful runs at Hawaii, Arizona and, since 2005, San Jose State to his name, he's clearly no less committed to hard work, discipline, and accountability than his GOP colleagues.
But Mr. Tomey estimates that he's only voted Republican "about three times" in his life (for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, Arnold Schwarzenegger this decade, and maybe one other time).
When Mr. Tomey was at Arizona in 1990, state voters rejected a proposed Martin Luther King holiday. "Our players were really upset with that, and I remember asking them how many of them had voted and, like, two of them had," he recalled. "So we decided as a staff that from that time forward we were going to get our guys registered to vote," an effort he has maintained since then, although he stressed that it's non-partisan in nature.
Some Democrats, Too
There are some other Democratic coaches, too. Southern California's Pete Carroll, for instance, openly proclaimed his support for Mr. Obama last year, and George Perles, who coached Michigan State from 1983 to 1994 (before helping launch the Motor City Bowl), is waging a long-shot bid for the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Michigan.
And when Mr. Obama was running last year, several African-American coaches—including Ty Willingham (then at the University of Washington), Herm Edwards (then with the Kansas City Chiefs), and Mr. Smith of the Chicago Bears—expressed their support.
Some coaches keep quiet about politics to avoid alienating boosters and other higher-ups.
This is what led Jim Tressel, Ohio State's head coach, to declare last fall that, "When it comes to political endorsements about candidates, it's out of bounds."
But while he was publicly mum about the '08 election, Mr. Tressel did do some talking with his bank account—cutting a $1,000 check to the Republican National Committee a month before Election Day.
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