Week 4: Lighthouses, fog & football
My wife tells me there are 750 lighthouses in America. Well, we’ve now seen six of them.
We spent three days in Oregon last week, a little vacation during a dark week in Oklahoma. With both OU and OSU idle, I took some time off and we drove down the coast from Seattle after the Sooner-Washington game.
We had visited the Oregon coast two years ago and wanted to return. It’s spectacular. The scenery is unmatched, with high cliffs over the Pacific and clean beaches and charming coastal towns.
Oceans are awesome, in the true sense of the word. The sea’s sights and sounds and scents are intoxicating, especially for land-locked Oklahomans.
We stopped in at four lighthouses, to go with the two we saw last time. I don’t know why lighthouses attract so many Americans; I guess it’s a link to a more simple past.
The lighthouses are remote; you have to hike to most of them. The best was Heceta Head, south of Newport. They say Heceta Head is the most photographed lighthouse in America; its keepers house also overlooks the Pacific and is a bed-and-breakfast run by the parks service.
The weather was foggy most of the time we were in Oregon, which only adds to the ambiance. Foggy, 60-degree weather. Doesn’t get any better than that.
Eventually, we had to head back home, where a weekend of college football awaited.
TEN BIGGEST WINNERS OF THE WEEK
10. Kellen Moore: The redshirt freshman could be the next quarterback star at Boise State. Moore threw for 386 yards and three TDs in a 37-32 upset of Oregon.
9. New Mexico State: Hal Mumme’s Aggies won at arch-rival Texas-El Paso for the first time since 1994, a 34-33 thriller.
8. Big 12 quarterbacks: Sam Bradford and Zac Robinson were idle, and still five of the nation’s top 10 passing games were turned in by Big 12 throwers. No. 2 Chase Daniel of Missouri (439 yards), No. 5 Todd Reesing of Kansas (356), No. 7 Colt McCoy of Texas (329), No. 9 Graham Harrell of Texas Tech (322) and No. 10 Josh Freeman of Kansas State (313). The league’s 21st-century reputation is airborne.
7. Robert Marve: Remember when Miami was Quarterback U? Seems a long time since the days of Kelly, Kosar, Testaverde, Walsh, Erickson and Torretta. But maybe the Hurricanes finally have found a QB. Marve completed 16 of 22 for 212 yards and two TDs in a 41-23 thrashing of Texas A&M.
6. David Johnson: The No. 1 passing quarterback this week? Tulsa’s senior, who patiently waited his turn, threw for 469 yards in a 56-14 rout of New Mexico. Johnson’s season totals: 1,219 yards in three games, 72 percent completion percentage and 15 touchdowns. Who needs Paul Smith?
5. Virginia Tech: The Hokies never are flashy, but they’re always in ACC contention. VPI has won three division titles in its four years in the ACC, with two league championships. And after a 20-17 win at North Carolina, the Hokies are 2-0 in the ACC, with wins over their two chief rivals in the Coastal Division.
4. Mike Stoops: If Stoops is to keep his job at Arizona, a winning Pac-10 record is a must. Good start Saturday; the Wildcats slapped UCLA 31-10 in the Rose Bowl. With a down Pac-10, a solid season seems quite possible for ‘Zona.
3. Florida: The Gators lost 24-0 in their first game ever against Tennessee, on Oct. 28, 1916, and never have evened the series. Until Saturday, when Florida whipped the Vols 30-6. The Gators have won six of their last eight trips to Neyland Stadium.
2. Tailbacks: Don’t give the Heisman to a quarterback just yet. Georgia’s Knowshon Moreno put on a show with his flying touchdown at Arizona State, and Michigan State’s Javon Ringer carried 39 times for 201 yards in a victory over Notre Dame. Shades of Steve Owens; Ringer has averaged 36 carries a game this year.
1. Les Miles: Like it or not, the man is becoming a Louisiana legend. In the best win of the year by any team, LSU knocked off Auburn 26-21, and Miles’ riverboat gambler reputation only increased, with a successful onside kick and a halfback pass for a touchdown.
TIME ZONE TROUBLES
It’s hard to be a sports fan on the West Coast. NFL telecasts begin at 10 a.m. Sunday. Monday Night Football starts at 5:30 p.m.
We met an old friend, George Schroeder, for dinner Monday night in Newport, Ore. George covered OU football for The Oklahoman for many years but became the sports columnist for the Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard in 2007. We hooked up at 6:30 for dinner, ate, talked and then left about 8:30 p.m. The Dallas-Philadelphia game was in its final two minutes.
I like watching late-night football. But that doesn’t exist in the Pacific time zone.
I once covered a Yankees-Rangers playoff game at Yankee Stadium, worked until almost 1 a.m. New York time, caught a taxi back to my Manhattan hotel room from the Bronx, crawled into bed about 1:45 - and caught the final four innings of the Mets-Diamondbacks playoff game on television.
Such pleasures never happen on the West Coast.
REALITY RANKINGS
Our records based not on what anyone thinks teams might do, but based on what team have done.
1. Florida: Rout at Tennessee proves Gators are to be reckoned with. They don’t play a rumdum until Citadel on Nov. 22.
2. Southern Cal: USC doesn’t play a rumdum all season.
3. Utah: Has won at Michigan and Air Force.
4. Alabama: Rout at Arkansas has Bama looking good.
5. East Carolina: Loss at N.C. State doesn’t wipe out wins over Virginia Tech and West Virginia.
6. Georgia: Wins at Arizona State and South Carolina.
7. Wake Forest: Win at Baylor looks better; win at Florida State puts Wake in ACC driver’s seat.
8. LSU: Best win of the season at Auburn, but other wins have meant nothing. Schedule will toughen.
9. Brigham Young: Schedule won’t be tough enough to keep Cougars this high.
10. Boise State: Not the Fiesta Bowl, but win at Oregon historic.
11. Vanderbilt: Commodores 2-0 in the SEC, and they haven’t even played Vanderbilt.
12. Oklahoma: Sooners poised to move up.
13. South Florida: The Big East’s last hope for something special.
14. Virginia Tech: Hokies 2-0 in the ACC, and they haven’t played Duke.
15. Wisconsin: Win at Fresno State carries Badgers.
DON”T PUMP THE GAS
Goofiest state law you’re likely to find: It’s illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon.
All kinds of Americans don’t even know what full-service gas stations are, and you won’t find them in Oregon, either. Attendants don’t do anything except pump the gas.
No checking oil. No washing windshields. No checking the tire pressure. Just pumping the gas.
Two years ago, I didn’t know about the law and started pumping my own gas. The guy came running out, not quite frantic but getting there, and said he could be fined some crazy amount if he was caught letting someone pump their own gas.
I can remember as a kid, the man at Sinclair or APCO coming out and taking care of your car. He was an honest worker, hired because his services were needed, not because the state legislature is trying to invent jobs.
TEN BIGGEST LOSERS OF THE WEEK
10. Army: Doesn’t seem so long ago that the Cadets were playing Auburn and Alabama to the wire in minor bowls. Now Army hasn’t won more than four games in a year since 1996, and after a 22-3 home loss to Akron, it looks like the Cadets could be 0-11 going into the Navy game.
9. Kirk Ferentz: After a 21-20 loss at Pitt, where the Panthers had gone 1-1 against Mid-American teams this season, the Iowa coach is 22-19 in the last three-plus seasons, and 2008 has mediocrity written all over it.
8. Texas Tech fans: The Red Raiders have hosted Eastern Washington, SMU and Massachusetts so far. Between now and November, Tech’s only home game is Nebraska. Whatever the cost of those season tickets, they’re over-priced.
7. Mike Teel: Not only is Rutgers 0-3, but its four-year starting quarterback took a swing at a teammate in the waning seconds of a 23-21 loss to Navy. Sounds like a leadership void.
6. Indiana: The Hoosiers’ bowl plan - win four games against lower-level foes, then scratch out two Big Ten victories - took a beating in a 42-20 loss to Ball State. IU coach Bill Lynch was fired by Ball State six years ago.
5. Casey Dick: The Arkansas quarterback, through no fault of his own, was at the eye of the storm two years ago with heralded freshman Mitch Mustain. Now a senior, Dick threw three interceptions in a 49-14 loss to Alabama.
4. Bill Stewart: The West Virginia coach was everyone’s darling when, as interim coach, his Mountaineers spanked OU in the Fiesta Bowl. But now West Virginia is 1-2, and Stewart’s game management and game planning both seemed lacking in a 17-14 loss at Colorado.
3. Tim Tebow: Florida routed Tennessee, but Tebow did little to enhance his Heisman Trophy candidacy. Tebow completed eight of 15 passes for 96 yards and rushed 12 times for 26 yards.
2. East Carolina: Last week, Fresno State’s BCS dream was dashed. This week, it was East Carolina’s, in a 30-24 overtime loss at North Carolina State. Next in line? Utah, TCU, BYU, Boise State, Ball State and Tulsa are the remaining unbeaten mid-majors.
1. Jimbo Fisher: The Florida State offensive coordinator and head-coach designate doesn’t seem to be the answer for the Seminoles’ troubles. Since that Orange Bowl against Oklahoma eight years ago, Florida State is 60-34, mostly due to an anemic offense. And Fisher, in his second year at Tallahassee, hasn’t improved things. In a 12-3 loss to Wake Forest, Florida State committed seven turnovers, completed just 12 of 36 passes and totaled just 220 yards.
THE BEACH, THE BEACH…
Long Beach State once qualified for the Women’s College World Series, and its fans had a nifty chant: “The Beach! The Beach! The Lonnnnnnnnng Beach.”
I thought of the chant when we drove over to Long Beach, Wash., just across the Columbia River bridge from Astoria, Ore.
Long Beach is aptly named. Its beach is billed as the longest in the world, and it’s a little different from the beaches in Oregon.
For one, you can drive out on the sand, after Labor Day. So we did, taking our Jeep rental onto the beach. I don’t know why driving on the beach is such a guilty pleasure, but it is.
The Long Beach sand is not quite as clean as the pristine beaches in Oregon, but that’s the price you pay for taking a Jeep to the tides.
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I lived in Arizona for 30 years, and for the first part of each football season we were the same as Pacific Daylight savings time. It was great to get up at 9am turn on the TV watch a football game while reading the paper. It has been hard on me trying to watch the Arizona Diamondbacks since I moved back to Norman 3 months ago. One, for the way they’ve played, and two some of the games don’t start until 9pm Oklahoma time. I’ll be glad when daylight savings time is over, that way I only have a 1 hour difference between here and Arizona. You have to really plan when to call friends, you are in the middle of the evening, and they are just getting home from work.