Half the season, all the awards
In case you missed this on my latest video commentary:
Six games down, six games to go.
Yes, college football fans. We’re reached the mid-way point of the season. It’s been a wild and wacky ride so far. No need, then, to wait until the end of the season to celebrate the insanity.
It’s mid-season awards time!
Biggest upset: OK, I heard someone say last weekend that Stanford’s victory against Southern Cal was the biggest upset of the season.
Uh, perhaps you remember Appalachian State.
No doubt the Cardinal was a huge underdog against the Trojans, but Appy State, a Division I-AA team, beat Michigan. In Ann Arbor. At The Big House. In front of 108,000 people.
And remember, there were plenty of folks who thought Michigan was a national-title contender. Appy State over Michigan isn’t just the biggest upset of the season. It might be the biggest upset ever.
Biggest surprise: This honor goes to Notre Dame — for all the wrong reasons. Who thought the Irish would stink this bad?
A 4-8 record might be a best-case scenario.
Most overrated: Boston College is ranked fourth in the the polls. The Eagles’ most notable win is against now-unranked Georgia Tech, and they only beat UMass by 10 points.
UMass? 10 points?
Most underrated: Arizona State is quietly having an undefeated season. The Sun Devils throttled Colorado, something Oklahoma didn’t do. They dismantled Stanford, something Southern Cal didn’t do.
Still, the Sun Devils have yet to crack the top 10.
Their next three weeks will be telling: Washington, Cal and Oregon loom on the schedule.
Most valuable player: How LSU can be so dominant and not have an MVP candidate is beyond me, but it’s true. No one Tiger has stood out.
DeSean Jackson gets my vote for MVP for now. The Cal wide receiver/punt returner is a Reggie Bush type. Teams must account for him all the time. That allows the rest of his teammates a bit more freedom. And with Cal emerging as an undefeated, national title contender, Jackson has been and will continue to be key for the Bears.
So, that’s it for my awards. Do you have a mid-season shout-out of your own? Make a comment, and let the world know.
Crazy game in Aggieland
My apologies to all of you, but because of crazy deadlines and my desire to have something in tomorrow’s paper, my blogs from College Station are going to dry up.
I’ll check in tomorrow, sports fans.
Quarterback controversy?
Dantrell Savage has an arm, too.
The Oklahoma State tailback might be known for his shifty moves, but his 29-yard touchdown pass to Adarius Bowman showed off his arm. Savage threw a tidy spiral that reached Bowman just before a defender swooped in.
Is another quarterback controversy brewing at Oklahoma State?
Eh, probably not, but Savage is now tied for the best quarterback rating on the team. He’s tied with receiver Seth Newton, who threw a flee-flicker touchdown to Jeremy Broadway against Texas Tech. That means starter Zac Robinson and back-up Bobby Reid are the third- and fourth-rated passers on the team.
Go figure.
A defensive struggle?
With struggling defenses at Oklahoma State and Texas A&M, pundits and prognosticators expected a high-scoring affair in College Station.
Uh, not exactly what’s happening.
Before a 24-yard run by Kendall Hunter, the teams had combined for 46 yards of offense in the first 10 minutes of the game. And it’s not just that the offenses are sputtering. The defenses are playing pretty darn well.
Cowboy defensive lineman Marque Fountain is getting some good pressure on the Aggies. He stuffed running back Michael Goodson for a loss on A&M’s last possession, then pressured quarterback Stephen McGee into a quick throw that fell incomplete.
No one expected this game to be almost a quarter old and have no points.
Kyle Field’s rocking
You’ve heard about stadiums rocking, but nothing is quite like Kyle Field.
Texas A&M’s home stadium actually rocks when the Aggie fans sway during “The Aggie War Hymn.” Every Aggie fan throws their arms around the shoulders of the Aggie fans next to them, and then, they start swaying.
And when 80,000 people in a stadium start swaying, so does the stadium.
For those of us sitting still, we still feel the stadium moving. The press box folks tell those of us in the media not to worry when the press box starts moving, but it’s difficult not to be a bit concerned when a structure nine stories above the ground starts shaking.
Texas A&M: Part football, part ceremony
Game day at Texas A&M is just as much about ceremony as it is about football.
The area between the field and the stands inside Kyle Field is the pregame parade route. The Corps of Cadets, an ROTC of sorts, parades horses and artillery around the field. There’s even a viewing area for dignitaries. The first President Bush is a regular, even though he’s nowhere to be seen today.
The best part of the whole pregame, though, is the pooper-scooper crew. I’m sure they have a more official name, but none would be more accurate. A group of cadets follows behind the horses and picks up any gifts left by the equines. When there’s some fertilizer left, cadets with shovels and brooms descend on it. Three other cadets follow with wheelbarrows. And when they’re done cleaning, they run with shovels and brooms raised above their heads until they get to the next, um, pile.
No doubt there’s a more desirable job, but those cadets in the poop patrol are tons of fun to watch.
Good day for football
Three hours to kick in College Station, and even though the weather-predicting types have rain in the forecast, skies are clear.
If showers do descend on central Texas — the chances are about 40 percent — it could make thing interesting in Oklahoma State’s game against Texas A&M. The Aggies love to run the ball, using big Jorvorskie Lane up the middle and Michael Goodson around the edge. Quarterback Stephen McGee can run it, too.
The Aggies throw it some but not nearly as much as the Cowboys. OSU’s offense relies much more on the passing game than Texas A&M’s does.
What if the rains come?
OSU played on a rainy night at Troy, but even though a front delayed the start of that game, it never rained during that game. The Cowboys haven’t played in inclement conditions this season.
Rain tonight could an another element to an already interesting game.
The stars at night are big and bright (clap, clap, clap, clap) … oh, you know the rest.
The big games this weekend south of the Red River have crazy songs running through my head. Hope you’ll forgive me if this one sticks in yours. Anyway, my latest video commentary focused on one of the state teams headed south for a showdown. Here it is, in case you missed it:
Oklahoma State goes to Texas A&M this weekend. To the victor goes the outright lead in the Big 12 South.
The Cowboys could win, have a huge leg up on the rest of the division and put themselves in the driver’s seat. Even if they beat the Aggies, one big question will remain.
Will OSU make a bowl game?
It sounds crazy, I know. How could it be possible that a team atop the division standings in mid-October might not make a bowl come mid-December?
Here’s how it’s possible.
After this week, OSU has road games remaining at Nebraska, Baylor and Oklahoma. Only the game in Waco is a slam-dunk win for the Cowboys.
Home games in Stillwater remain against Kansas State, Texas and Kansas. The Wildcats just throttled the Longhorns by 20 points. The Longhorns are a top 25 team. And the Jayhawks are undefeated. All of those games look like toss-ups at best.
So, with a win at Texas A&M, OSU would be 4-2 with only one sure victory remaining on its schedule.
I like the Cowboys’ chances against the Jayhawks, who’ve played every directional school they could get on a plane to Lawrence. But beating Kansas would still only give OSU six victories.
The Cowboys might need seven to make a bowl.
Remember, every team with seven wins or more is guaranteed to make a bowl. So, even if a team reaches the six-win minimum to become bowl eligible, that doesn’t secure a bowl bid. Every seven-win team gets in before any six-win team.
And the way this season has gone, something wacky and wild in the bowl pairings seems likely. Everything else has been crazy. Why not the bowls? The Cowboys would do themselves well to win at least seven games, and it looks like they’re going to have to work to get there. Finding a win against the Cornhuskers or the Sooners on the road or against the Wildcats or the Longhorns at home will be a tough task.
Don’t forget, this is an OSU team that’s a finger tip away from an abysmal start. Had Ricky Price not gotten a piece of a pass late in the Texas Tech game, the Red Raiders would’ve scored the game-winning touchdown.
No doubt the Cowboys are playing one of the biggest games in the program’s history on Saturday. Rare are the times OSU has had the chance to say its two full games ahead of either OU or Texas in the conference standings. But even if that’s where the Cowboys are late Saturday night, they need to remember one thing.
Work remains. Sure, OSU will have a second-week lead in the South Division. That has a nice ring to it. That has this program headed in the right direction. Thing is, that gets you nothing.
Add three more victories, and then the Cowboys will be getting somewhere — most importantly, to a bowl game.
Who ya rootin’ for?
Fielded an interesting question today about the baseball playoffs.
Who ya rootin’ for?
I’m not much of a baseball fan. Cheered for the Royals as a kid. Became a Mariners fan as a young adult. But then came the strike and the steroids, and my interest in baseball waned. Besides, the season is too long with too many meaningless games.
This is the time of year that baseball finally gets good.
The reason: every game matters.
So, now I find myself watching and reading and paying attention, but I really don’t have a team. The question about who I was pulling for got me thinking about it, though, and here’s what I came up with:
Yankees and Red Sox — No. You have to have been in for the long haul to be on that train.
Phillies and Cubs — No. Their long-suffering fans don’t need bandwagon jumpers spoiling the ride.
Indians — No. That city’s sports fans could use all the positive vibes available, but I’m just not ready to join The Tribe.
Diamondbacks — No. Too trendy.
Which leaves me with the Angels and the Rockies. Honestly, I like both clubs. Both are underdogs in the playoffs, and really, who doesn’t like an underdog?
But I have to go with the Rockies. Maybe it’s the Matt Holliday connection. The Stillwater native played a huge part in the Rockies’ tiebreaker victory against the Padres. He went from hero to goat and back to hero. There’s something very cool about seeing him in the playoffs as a legitimate MVP candidate only a couple years after many wondered if he should return to play college football.
Besides, there’s no way the Rockies should have enough pitching to even escape their series with the Phillies.
They’re a big-time underdog with local flavor.
Go Rockies!
Class, no; game, go?
The death of Memphis lineman Taylor Bradford on Sunday night prompted school officials to cancel classes Monday.
An understandable decision by all accounts.
Yet, Memphis decided to go ahead and play Marshall on Tuesday night. The game is an ESPN special, no doubt drummed up by the cable giant to fill the void before the baseball playoffs start tomorrow.
Far be it from me to know how to proceed in situations like these. There is no rulebook when the death of youth person is involved. What is right? What is wrong? It’s so difficult to know the answers.
Here’s hoping the Marshall game is therapeutic for the Memphis football team. Heck, here’s hoping it is a balm for the entire campus.
Will it be?
Hard to say.
Folks there are just trying to make the best of a truly awful situation.
