Predictions for the New Year
Just a quick post to say best wishes to everyone in 2009.
My bold prediction for 2009 — made earlier this week on The Press Row — is that the Thunder are going to make a significant off-season move. Not sure who it will be, but I believe that either by trade or by free-agent acquisition, the franchise is going to bring in someone who can really help in coming years.
Why?
The move to bring in Nenad Krstic is a sign to me that the Thunder is willing to spend money on players. We won’t know for awhile how much Krstic will help, but the willingness to do something is encouraging.
So, what’s your bold prediction for 2009? Let it be known. Post it.
Cowboys make quite a statement
Let’s take a little trip back in time. It’s not a long journey. Just a few months.
Perhaps you’ll remember the talk before this football season about Oklahoma State. The Cowboys looked like they were going to be better with an experienced offense and an improving defense. But where were the wins going to come from? There were tons of tough games on the road and plenty more tough ones at home.
Most pundits and prognosticators, yours truly included, figured six or seven wins might be the best-case scenario for this team.
Now, on the eve of the Holiday Bowl, the Cowboys have a chance to win 10 games for the first time in a long time.
The 10-win plateau is quite an accomplishment in and of itself. It’s one of those high water marks in sports. If a college football team wins 10 games in a season, it’s had a darn good year.
And that’s what the Cowboys have had.
But it’s been made all the more impressive by how much this team has exceeded expectations. That is no easy task playing in the Big 12, and it’s even more difficult when you’re in the South Division. OSU didn’t just survive the minefield. It thrived there. The Cowboys scored a big win at Missouri, they gave Texas all it wanted in Austin, and they left no doubt who was better against Texas A&M.
Sure, work remains. Texas Tech and Oklahoma scored big-time beat-downs against OSU, but the Cowboys are making great strides.
Beating Oregon on Tuesday would be another one.
Win or lose, the result won’t change the fact that OSU has had a banner season, and yet, getting that 10th win would be a just reward for a job well done.
It would be the exclamation mark on a season that has already made quite a statement.
Sidekick to Slingin’ Sam
You might have seen his face or heard his name a week or so ago when Sam Bradford won the Heisman Trophy.
Kelsey Cline was part of the Oklahoma quarterback’s traveling party. Some of you may have wondered who he is. Others may have wondered where you’d heard that name before.
Cline is currently the golf coach at Oklahoma Christian University, but he also played collegiately at OU.
Bradford’s passion for golf is well known. He played throughout his life, then on the golf team at Putnam North High School. Even though his attention has turned to football, he’s still a scratch golfer.
But the ironic thing is that while Bradford and Cline have a common interest in golf, the sport wasn’t the reason that these two became good buddies. Cline, who talked about their bond on Oklahoma Christian’s website, says that their friendship began when Bradford was still a toddler. Bradford’s mother, Martha, was Cline’s elementary physical education teacher in Mustang, and Cline’s mother, Connie, started babysitting little Sam.
They’ve been buddies ever since.
Needless to say, Cline was a bit nervous during the Heisman ceremony.
“I will tell you that those final 15 seconds when the gentleman was reading the Heisman winner, I thought my heart was going to pound out of my shirt,” Cline said on Oklahoma Christian’s website. “When Sam’s name was called I jumped out of my chair with my arms in the air. I think it’s probably the most proud I’ve ever been of someone winning an award.”
You can read more about Cline and Bradford on Oklahoma Christian’s website.
Naughty or nice in the sports world?
He’s makin’ a list and checkin’ it twice. Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice. Yep, Santa Claus is comin’ to town, and if he’s makin’ a list of the good and the bad in the world of sports, well, those could be some interesting lists.
There has been some very good and some appallingly bad this season.
On the nice list, Jolly Old Saint Nick probably has Michael Phelps. The swimmer dominated the sports world for much of the summer with his record haul of gold medals at the Summer Olympics. Hey, when LeBron and Kobe take time to check someone out, you know the guy’s a big deal.
Also on the good list: The New England Patriots. They made NFL history with the first 16-0 regular season. Then, the New York Giants denied them a championship with a Super Bowl shocker. They’re on the nice list, too.
There were plenty of Oklahomans who were plenty good this year, too. Bill Self won a national championship. Matt Holliday inked a big contract. And Clay Bennett and Co. brought an NBA team to OKC.
The Thunder leave a lot to be desired on the court, but it’s hard to put the players on the naughty list. These guys have been everywhere in the community recently. They’re buying Christmas gifts and handing out coats and serving meals. I know that NBA players are contractually obligated to make community service appearances, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re doing good for people in the area.
But what of the sports types that belong on the naughty list. There are lots of them.
O.J. Simpson just couldn’t leave well enough alone. Apparently, the idea of a second chance is lost on The Juice.
Plaxico Burress had his own legal problems. He might’ve been on the nice list after the first month of the year, since he caught the game-winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl. But since then, he’s been involved with a couple domestic disputes, driven without insurance and, oh yeah, shot himself in the leg.
Are we sure it wasn’t his foot?
Isiah Thomas makes the naughty list, too. When police responded to his house in October because of an accidental overdose of a prescription sleeping pill, the former NBA star was the one who’d overdosed. But Isiah tried to pin the incident on his 17-year-old daughter.
Oh, and don’t get me started on the Dallas Cowboys. That’s naughty list would take all day.
There are some folks with ties to our fair state who haven’t been angels either. DeMarcus Granger swiped a coat he hadn’t paid for. Andrea Riley popped an opponent in the back of the head. And Josh Jarboe just couldn’t stay out of trouble.
So this Christmas week, if Santa’s making and checking that list as promised, he’s sure to find sports types who’ve been naughty and nice. But he’ll probably also find, like the rest of us, that it’s the two groups that make the sports world the interesting place that it is.
Happy holidays.
More fun with Oklahoma, Florida fans
The column that I wrote today about Florida fans has stirred a good number of folks.
I’ll be sure to share some of those sentiments here on my blog later this week, but first, I wanted to share something fun that was run across in recent days.
The Oklahoma fan site Crimson and Cream Machine and the Florida fan site Orange and Blue Hue swapped Q&As. Each asked the other some questions about their fans, their teams and their coaches. It produced some fun and interesting insight into the game from the fans’ perspective.
You can go on the Crimson and Cream Machine and read a Florida fan’s answers, then you can check out the Orange and Blue Hue and see an OU fan’s answers.
Enjoy.
More from The Q&A: Lou Holtz
Lou Holtz is never shy with his opinions.
He dished in The Q&A about his choices for player and coach of the year as well as his thoughts on the national championship game match-up. But he had plenty more to say.
Jenni Carlson: I’m sure you get asked this all the time, but is it time for a playoff in college football?
Lou Holtz: I’d like to see a playoff, but the reason we don’t is all of the money. All the hundreds of millions of dollars that come from the bowls and the BCS and television … the conference commissioners and the schools aren’t going to give up that financially lucrative bowl system we have. You could have a playoff system very easily, but as I said, follow the money.
JC: You recently were inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. What has that been like?
LH: When you’re first inducted, you go, “Wow.” Then you realize, “Well, why am I there?” You’re there because of other people. That’s the great thing about football — it’s a team effort. Being in the hall of fame is a team effort as well. Other people have done wonderful things in order to help me.
JC: Has all this hall of fame stuff brought back fond memories for you?
LH: You think about the national championship. You think about the bowl games. You think about all those things. I also think about the relationships with people. You know when it’s all said and done … you think back about the relationships.
New Heisman Park statue revealed?
A fun photo is making the electronic rounds.
Oklahoma football fans should get a kick out of photo-shopped spoof. I suspect this won’t end up being the design for the Sam Bradford statue that will one day be dedicated outside the stadium in Norman, but no moment was more dramatic in this Heisman-winning season.
Heisman Park, as that area just east across Jenkins from the stadium, has been sprouted four bronze statues in recent years. It’s a cool way to celebrate and honor the Sooners’ Heisman winners.
OU could do much worse than use this as its template.
Blake Griffin Hype Machine Rolling
Just ran across something fun.
Oklahoma basketball star Blake Griffin is doing a video diary for ESPN.com, and his first installment is up. It’s a little bit dated; the footage is from the first days of practice. But you definitely get some fun insight. The locker room. The apartment. The practice gym.
My favorite moment actually didn’t involve Griffin, though. He puts Sooner women’s basketball player Nyeshia Stevenson on the spot. She talks a little preseason noise about the OU women.
Fun stuff.
Here’s betting there will be more installments as the season goes on. After all, I spotted Griffin at Big 12 media day toting his camera around.
Who knows who might make a cameo on his diary?
Not to toot our own horn, but …
So, The Oklahoman sports staff did an exit poll of Heisman Trophy voters last week.
We solicited the ballots of 100 voters and determined that Sam Bradford would win the award, Colt McCoy would finish second and Tim Tebow would finish third.
Nailed it.
Yes, our exit poll was right on the money with how the voting actually broke down when all was revealed Saturday night in New York City. The Oklahoma quarterback won the Heisman, followed by the Texas and Florida quarterbacks.
Our exit poll numbers even suggested that something interesting might happen with the first-place votes, since Tebow finished with more of them than McCoy. Sure enough, Tebow actually finished with the most first-place votes in the balloting, even though he finished third overall.
We even had the right guys in the top six.
Here’s a look at our exit poll:
1. Bradford, 226 points (47 first-place votes)
2. McCoy, 172 (20)
3. Tebow, 164 (31)
4. Shonn Greene, 15 (2)
5. Graham Harrell, 12
6. Michael Crabtree, 3
And here’s a look at the actual top six
1. Bradford, 1,726
2. McCoy, 1,604
3. Tebow, 1,575
4. Harrell, 213
5. Crabtree, 116
6. Greene, 65
Heisman greatness foretold?
Let’s rewind for a minute to the summer of 2003.
There was a quarterback battle brewing at an Oklahoma City high school. The football team had become known for producing good quarterbacks but for not starting them until they were seniors. At one point, they had the guy who set the state’s single-season record for passing yards, but he had played a different position the year before breaking that record.
The coach liked older, more mature quarterbacks, so when the battle boiled down to a senior and a sophomore, everyone suspected the senior would land the job.
Instead, it went to the sophomore.
The school: Putnam North.
The quarterback: Sam Bradford.
Five years later, the guy is the Heisman Trophy winner.
Did PC North coach Bob Wilson see such greatness in Bradford when he picked him back in 2003? Probably not. Wilson probably just wanted someone who would help him beat Westmoore and Edmond Santa Fe.
But the truth is, what happened that five years ago at PC North was the first indication to the sports world that Sam Bradford had special abilities. Wilson has long gone with senior quarterbacks. Matt Warren was the single-season record holder who didn’t start until his senior year. He almost led PC North to the state title.
That Wilson changed course so dramatically, that he went with a sophomore said something about Bradford. His ability was advanced. So was his mentality.
I saw it with my own eyes that fall. I went out to cover a PC North-Edmond Santa Fe game. Santa Fe won, and I ended up writing about Santa Fe quarterback Steve Day, who had been splitting time with Reggie Smith but who would ultimately lead the Wolves to the state title game. Thing is, I ended up talking about Bradford. After covering the game, I told everyone I could about this kid. He was lanky, but he wasn’t awkward. He threw well. Ran well. Played much older than his age.
Did I see a Heisman Trophy in his future?
No way. But you could tell that Bradford was special. He was different. He was elite.
Bob Wilson knew it then. Everyone knows it now.
