This week: Mississippi emails
This week’s emails are heavy on Ole Miss. Seems I bounced the University of Texas a couple of weeks back for not scheduling any powerhouses. I pointed out that in 2012 and 2013, UT’s best non-conference foe is Mississippi, which hasn’t been a power in 40 years and, I pointed out, won’t be in 2012 or 2013. Ole Miss fans started passing around my column and is shocked - shocked! - that someone would question their college football pedigree.
Larry wrote, “I just read your joke of a column about cupcakes. A tornado must have dropped a house on your head and caused you to lose your memory. Let me help you out: the last time Oklahoma played Ole Miss, they got their (butt) whipped. In fact, it was the first college game completed in the year 2000. Maybe you should try doing something else for a living.”
This is going to be fun. Fun and easy. Sometimes, even people who are wrong at least have a point. Mississippi fans have no point. Their program stinks. Ole Miss Fact No. 1: The Rebels’ last SEC title came in 1963. And yes, Ole Miss beat OU in the 1999 Independence Bowl, which ended an hour before Y2K and was not contested even in the early minutes of 2000.Mike wrote, “I nearly choked on my coffee when I read your remarks in regard to Texas’ football schedule over the next few years listing Ole Miss as one of their ‘cupcake’ opponents. Not being a regular reader of your column or listener to your radio show, I don’t know how long you have been in the sports commentary business. Obviously, not long enough, however. We have been national champs more than any team in the Big 12 other than Oklahoma and Texas. We are a respected and charter member of the Southeastern Conference. I might also remind you that Mississippi’s last bowl appearance was five years ago when we whipped your Big 12 member Oklahoma State. Prior to that, we defeated both Oklahoma and Nebraska in the Independence Bowl. Granted, our record in the last 3-4 years would not demand much respect, but most people who follow Division I football don’t just look at the most recent years in considering a program. Anyone looking at Nebraska’s last couple of seasons and not considering anything else would not give them much respect, and we all know that they will be back.”
Mississippi fans can’t read. What else can be deduced? I never said Ole Miss was a cupcake, although that’s exactly what Ole Miss has been the last four years. I said it’s not a power, and it’s not; hasn’t been since the SEC integrated. As for Ole Miss national titles, Ole Miss counts three of those fraudulent titles from computer rankings. AP and the coaches? Zero. Ole Miss fact No. 2: Since 1971, Mississippi has been in 11 bowls. Five of those have been the Independence Bowl. Ole Miss fact No. 3: The Rebels are 14-32 the last four years.Kevin wrote, “You might want to check and see what happened to OU the last time they played Ole Miss. I’m an Ole Miss fan, of course, and agree with the premise of your article, but I’ll bet you a steak dinner we win one of those games against Texas. Us being a power is unlikely, but a top 25 program by then is a strong possibility. Watch the Rebs this year and take them and the points early. The secret will be out pretty quick and you’ll see the Rebs giving up points to teams like Bama, Ark and South Carolina. We just might see the Sooners at the end of the year somewhere.”
Of course Ole Miss will see the Sooners at the end of the year. They will see OU in a January bowl game while the Rebels are sitting home. Ole Miss fact No. 4: Last top-10 finish? Eighth in the 1969 AP poll. Ole Miss fact No. 5: The Rebels have won at least 10 games once since 1971. Ole Miss fact No. 6: Rebels never have won more than 10 games in a season.Enough nonsense about a program that was good when Minnesota and Army were good. Pete is one of those OU fans who just likes to talk Sooner football. “I just wanted to get your view on the Sooner defense this year. Will we be more aggressive instead of laying back in the soft zone and let the hurry-up/spread offenses that are starting to proliferate the college football landscape nickel and dime us down the field? Do we have the personnel to play man on the outside? Is the D-line capable of getting pressure without the blitz? How do the safeties look? Do we have a Roy Williams, Brandon Everage, Scott Case with fire and motivation? My view is that we have had enough offense to compete effectively, but all of our loses have been when we have given up too many points or been unable to get a stop at a critical point in the game.”
I think we’re seeing something pretty rare at OU. I think Brent Venables is under more scrutiny than Kevin Wilson, and hardly ever do you see a defensive coordinator more under the microscope than the offensive coordinator. Venables’ defense has been just fine; it completely snookered Missouri in the Big 12 title game. And yes, West Virginia ran wild in the Fiesta Bowl, but it wasn’t because of lack of aggression. The Sooners just couldn’t catch quarterback Pat White. And no, OU doesn’t have another Roy Williams. And neither does anyone else.And it’s not a week unless we’re debating the Oklahoma City NBA team name. Thomas wrote, “The bullfrog is our state amphibian. I wish I’d known of this before now, because I know it’s getting late, but you gotta let Mr. Bennett know. Bullfrogs is so much better than Thunder. I’m just saying. I’m sure it’s too late and we can’t really do anything about it, but it just makes sense.”
Well, I think Bullfrogs is goofy. But remember when Express Sports, which owns the Blazers, was going to bring in an arena2 football team and call it the Bullfrogs? They backed off when the Arena Football League wanted to come in, but they were sold on Bullfrogs.Phil wants to know, “how do you get a suggestion in the mill for consideration of the new name for the Sonics? My suggestion is to consider: the Naturals. This name can be worked to relate the club to Oklahoma and its environment and to a wide array of other applications. I recognize this comes from a movie with Robert Redford as the star. This may have more positive effects than negative.”
I guess it’s better than the Sundance Kids.Keith wrote, “Copperheads. Has real sssssssssssizzle, doesn’t it?”
I’ve heard worse.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Really disappointed in “Jeers to Mark Spitz” in Thursday’s paper. Obviously a “leatherhead” would know little of swimming or care about the “whole story”. Jeers to Berry!
In a telephone interview Friday, Spitz said of Phelps, “I’ve always marveled at the fact that in the last four years,” in the aftermath of the 2004 Athens Games, in which Phelps won six golds, eight overall, “he has had to live with a lot more expectations and anxiety that I had to deal with.
“I was under the radar circle. Only in swimdom circles did people understand what I was trying to do. And only after four days of an eight-day competition did people from other venues start to understand what was happening at the swim venue in Germany.”
For months now, Spitz, 58, has waged a campaign to convince those who need convincing that he genuinely, truly appreciates Phelps’ achievements.
In Omaha in early July, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, for instance, Spitz, in a news conference, said, “Hey, it’s OK — records are made to be broken, including mine. Thirty-six years is a long time.”
Spitz’s efforts ran into a glitch earlier this week when an interview he conducted in Hong Kong with Agence France Press noted that he would not be here in Beijing and quoted him as saying, “I am going to sit there and watch Michael Phelps break my record anonymously? That’s almost demeaning to me. It is not almost — it is.”
Spitz said Friday the words came in response to a hypothetical question and suggested the article included some “poetic license.”
He said, “After having done hundreds and hundreds of articles and interviews with people over the last six months, it was bound to happen — some article taking off in a different direction. I don’t begrudge that happening. This is part of the process of interpretive evaluation.”
He also said of his remarks, “It was never done to embarass Michael.”
The reasons Spitz are not in Beijing are simple.
For one, sponsor obligations didn’t include a trip here.
For another, Spitz doesn’t automatically go to every edition of the Summer Games. He didn’t go to Seoul in 1988 or Barcelona in 1992, for instance.
Moreover, it would be presumptuous in the extreme for anyone to invite Spitz to Beijing on the assumption Phelps would win eight — indeed, that would be demeaning to Phelps’ rivals.
Even with six medals in hand, eight is no sure thing. Phelps must contend Saturday in the 100m butterfly with longtime rival Ian Crocker. If Phelps wins that race, there’s the 4×100m medley relay — and, in a relay, anything can happen.
Finally, there’s this: Spitz is due to fly to Michigan this weekend to watch his teen-age son play basketball.
If Phelps does win eight and if after the 2008 Games there’s a celebratory function back home in the States, “I’d be the first one to say I’m there,” Spitz said.
In the meantime, Phelps has two more races here in Beijing. And, beyond that, probably, the London Games in 2012. If he wins two more golds here, he would stand at 16 Olympic medals overall for his career. Just two shy of Latynina’s all-time mark.
“We’re watching,” Spitz said. “It’s amazing.”