OK, back to football As a betting man, with the line I saw of -3 Texas yesterday, sorry I would go against my conscious and blood. The line should NOT be 3 or 2.5 points, .5 point, 1 point, for UT maybe. Texas should win, but we also should have won last year. However I think there is one minor shift relative to last year that could have a big impact. Last year OU still had a great defense, and we had the very, very good one. This year we have a great one and OU has the very, very good one. With Redding, Johnson, Vasher now the major defensive game breakers are weighted on the other side, despite overall the defenses being rock solid throughout. On Simms, yes Simms has had his problems, but this is a new year. He also has more help than he could possibly imagine, provided the OL doesn't make big mistakes. The one thing I DO NOT want to see however is many 5 wr sets. That is a formula (when the other team KNOWS Chris is throwing) for panicky mistakes. They key against a defense like OU is keeping them off balanced and providing protection--none are accomplished with a 5 wr set. Unless you have a Joey Harrington or Leftwich or Carr or Flutie or Charlie Ward or Vick or Hypel or Wuerful do not try to make a living with 5 wr sets against a good to great college defense. Finally, again, Simms is not great. But would you really rather have Hybl? In fact except for Dorsey (who to me doesn't look too good when pressured by a great defense either--like the V tech game last year), of the top 5 teams in the nation which QB would you really rather have? How about in the top 10. Probably two (Dorsey and Green), personally Clausin (sp?) with similar weapons hasn't done much better in big games either (LSU last year, Florida this year). UT is in pretty good shape at starting QB this year, even though he shouldn't have been the starter last year. One final point. UT's schedule is going to be brutal--and not just in the next 4 weeks. There is only 1 gimmie game out of all the rest. By my count 6 of the 7 games are against top 40 teams. It is going to be very hard to run the table even with a victory saturday. One the other hand with just 1 loss and a Big 12 championship victory and that should be enough to get in the NC game. However if that lose is to OU (or for OU visa versa) I would not count on the dominos all falling like they did last year where they have a chance to get back into it. Could happen because both still do have tough schedules, but more likely the loser is out. One last thing, I think people keep on seeing the Hurricanes the wrong way. It is their defense that kills people. You can slow their offense with pressure and mixing up coverages, but nobody has handled their defense since FSU over two seasons ago. If FSU offensive can move the ball a little and at the most have one major TO (I am exlcuding 3rd down bombs that are picked off) they have a chance. It is the FSU-offense Miami-defense where the game will be determined.
Bob Stoops has some big grapefruits. At halftime of BC VT, Fowler asked him (paraphrased) "Coach Stoops, there's been talk of Texas holding back, what do you think?" Stoops (paraphrased): "We throw the ball more than Texas. Texas runs the ball more than us. Hybl is 2nd in the conference to Seneca Wallace." Fowler (paraphrased): "Coach I was talking about Texas holding back" Stoops (paraphrashed): "No, I don't think so. They've been running the same stuff for the last 3 years" Earlier: Stoops (paraphrased): "We know how to win. We've been fortunate that our guys have the fortitude to make plays in key situations"
my roommate, who doesn't have tickets to the game, really wants to see stoops blow out a knee on the sideline and then have the slow-mo replay shown several hundred times. with comments like the ones above, would any UT fan object to seeing that??? and hey, maybe he'll treat himself like his players and put himself in the game with the blown out knee which could only help our cause even more. PC note: most of the above was more joking than anything else, while i wouldn't lose any sleep if he tore an acl, i'm not actually rooting for it. un PC note: however, my roommate is.
My prediction is that no matter who loses, there will be so many excuses flowing you'll be able to surf to Canada.
I don't always agree with Cat, but he was dead on concerning his "Chris Simms is underappreciated" statement. He does not deserve the constant **** treatment he's gotten, and quite frankly, Texas fans do not deserve a class act like Simms. The treatment he's gotten from his "fans" is revolting. And Texas will still win 16-0. And the problem with the offense is Greg Davis.
A sig bet is fine by me duke. As far as Stoops goes, let him run his big fat spurrier sucking mouth. This is a different year, a different team, and we will get it done. Hybl against our defense hehe, gimme a break. If davis decides to use the talent we have this won't ever really be in doubt, but I expect a close game and a 17-10, or 17-3 TX win is probably what will happen. Also, Simms is very underappreciated at UT, he has been a very good quarterback for us, but because of Major and his dad the expectatiuons have been raised way too far. Good luck to both teams, and I truly believe this year my horns get it done. And P.S.: Our schedule is not that bad, KSU-Yeah, NU-No, ISU at home-No, Baylor-No, Tech at Tech, a little but No, and the Aggies at home, No. I am most concerned about KState if we beat OU as I hope/expect, but its a tough schedule but by no means is it brutal and we can easily run the table if we win our next two ballgames.
columnist John Kelso in today's AAS: Visit Norman? What are you, completely crazy? Friday, October 11, 2002 Now here are a couple of ideas almost as bad as granting Oklahoma statehood. University of Oklahoma President David Boren suggests rotating the Oklahoma-Texas football game among the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Austin and Norman. What this means is that every three years, Okies wouldn't have a reason to escape Oklahoma for a weekend. I'm a humane kind of guy, so I've got to ask this question: Isn't this sort of torture prohibited under the Geneva convention? It also means that Texas fans would have to go to Norman. Why would we want to do something stupid like that? I've lived in Texas for 26 years and never once have I ever heard someone remark, "I know what. Let's jump in the car and go to Norman." You know the difference between Norman and yogurt? Yogurt has an active culture. Then there's Eddie Gossage, general manager of the Texas Motor Speedway, who wants to move the Texas-OU game to his racetrack in Fort Worth. I doubt that even the state of Oklahoma has enough people missing their teeth to fill up a racetrack to watch a football game. Gossage does have a selling point, however. He says that if the game is moved to his speedway, he can pack 125,000 to 150,000 fans into the front stretch of the 1.5-mile oval, as opposed to the 72,000 who get to see the game now at the Cotton Bowl. "What frustrates me is that tens of thousands of people want to see that game and can't get in," Gossage said. "What about them? I think they deserve a chance to see it, too." The key word here, friends and neighbors, is "see." Have you ever been to a racetrack? If you have, you realize the operation is about the size of Yosemite National Park. Gossage says you could fit eight Cotton Bowls inside his speedway's infield. If you put a college football game at a racetrack, you couldn't see the players with the Hubble telescope. You'd get a better view of the game if you watched it from Quebec. If you want a lot of fans to attend the game, has anybody thought of moving it to the Grand Canyon? Or is it already taken? Gossage added that another plus the racetrack provides is a large camping area for fans. "We've got the largest parking lot in the world and we have 450 acres of camping," he said. "It would be interesting to have the Texas campers over here and the OU campers over there." Trust me. You don't want Okies camping in Fort Worth. Let them lay a little concrete for a doublewide and they'll never leave Texas. The smell of squirrel cooking over Sterno, wafting about Fort Worth would make Love Canal seem like a swimming pool. "Anybody who thinks about doing this ought to read 'The Grapes of Wrath,' " Longhorn fan Scott Wilson said. The racetrack idea does present some interesting NASCAR-style advertising opportunities, with a brand name hanging from every player. Instead of the Goody's Headache Powder car, you'd have the Goody's big tight end. So keep the game at the Cotton Bowl where it belongs. the guy is a tad smug for my taste, but every once in a while, you uncover a hidden gem.
My prediction? It'll be a tight, defensive game for the first two-plus quarters. I think with UT leading 13-3, OU reels off two touchdowns in a very short period of time to make the score 17-13. UT bounces back with one long drive to take the lead 20-17, stops OU, and returns a punt for a touchdown to seemingly put the nail in the coffin 27-17 with four minutes left or so. However, OU scores a quick touchdown, and decides to kick to UT in hopes of stopping them. They don't. UT-27 OU-24 Simms-220 yards, 2TD, 0 INT Benson-115 yards Hybl-185 yards, 2TD, 1 INT
I normally always pick UT to win, even if I don't think that Mack Brown is the greatest game-day coach out there. I've also become a huge Chris Simms fan (if for no other reason than the absolute idiocy of a lot of fans...spray painting the overpass pushed me over the edge).
Well, I remember you predicting we'd lose earlier this week, and I also thought you were about the only one on the BBS who picked us to lose to CU (I may be wrong on that, though). Of course, you (or whoever it was) got that right, but I just assumed you picked against Mack Brown in big games after that... my bad.
