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The race for the Heisman Trophy race is finally clearing up.

After weeks of turmoil, the top candidates have emerged. In this week’s HeismanPundit.com/Orlando Sentinel Heisman poll, Colt McCoy, Graham Harrell and Sam Bradford have entrenched themselves at the top.

They’re at the top of my ballot for the HeismanPundit.com poll, too, albeit in a slightly different order. (You can check that out below.)

I’d be shocked if those three Big 12 quarterbacks aren’t invited to New York for the Heisman ceremony in December. About the only thing I could see derailing any of them from being finalists is injury. As long as all three stay healthy, I suspect they’ll be making the trip to the Big Apple.

As well they should. McCoy, Harrell and Bradford have been consistently spectacular. That is a tough thing to do. All of them have been great, and they’ve been that way every week. In this day and age of college football, what they’ve done is rare.

Here’s my ballot for the HeismanPundit.com/Orlando Sentinel poll:

1. McCoy: The Texas quarterback threw for a career-high 391 yards in a thriller against Oklahoma State. Without him, the Longhorns don’t beat the Cowboys and aren’t ranked No. 1 in the nation.

2. Bradford: The Oklahoma quarterback had one of his worst passing days against Kansas State, but that meant he threw for 255 yards and three touchdowns. Safe to say, the Sam standard is outrageously high.

3. Harrell: The Texas Tech quarterback threw for 386 yards and five touchdowns on the road at Kansas. His 71.1 completion percentage is stellar, even though McCoy is completing a ridiculous 81 percent of his passes.

4. Tim Tebow: The Florida quarterback is still going to have a hard time repeating his Heisman-winning season of a year ago, but the fact that he tied Emmitt Smith’s school record of 36 rushing touchdowns is darn impressive.

5. Kendall Hunter: I keep going back and forth on which Oklahoma State star belongs on my ballot. Last week, it was Dez Bryant. This week, it’s impossible to ignore Hunter’s 161 rushing yards against Texas.

When word broke last week that Sam Bradford might be the top prospect in the next NFL Draft, plenty of folks waved a dismissive hand.

“Not Sam,” they said. “He just doesn’t seem like a guy who’d leave school early.”

I tend to think the same thing about the Oklahoma quarterback. Then again, I thought that last fall about another Sooner.

Check out my latest video commentary or continue reading below:

Last winter a couple days after OU won the Big 12 championship game, Curtis Lofton sat at a table with several media types. Talk of the NFL came up.

My first thought — Curtis leaving early for the NFL? No way.

Sure, he’d just had an amazing junior season. He’s shown himself the best defensive player around. But the NFL?

Lofton seemed as unbelieving as I did. He admitted that he’d thought about playing in the league, but still, as reporters asked about submitting video to be evaluated by NFL draft types, Lofton had this bemused look on his face. It was a look that said, “Me leaving early for the NFL? Whodathunk it?”

I surely didn’t think it would happen.

Then within a month, Lofton had decided he was leaving for the NFL. His choice stunned many, and yet, Lofton is now starting for the Atlanta Falcons.

Could Bradford be starting for the Lions or Bengals or Chiefs next season?

My gut says no, but it said the same thing about Lofton. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that these are local guys, Lofton from Kingfisher, Bradford from Oklahoma City. Maybe when you’ve seen them playing Berryhill and PC West in the not so distant past, it’s hard to think about them facing the Minnesota Vikings or the New York Giants.

Listen, I’m not saying Bradford will leave OU after this season. But to think there’s absolutely no way it could happen, well, I’m going to wave a dismissive hand at that.

Scott Speed is part race car driver, part wild man.

The up-and-coming driver will race next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway in the Dickies 500, but before that, he chatted with me for my weekly Q&A.

Here’s more from our conversation:

Jenni Carlson: So, I hear you rode a mechanical bull earlier this week. Is that correct?

Scott Speed: Hopefully, we get to do a real one later.

JC: So, you want to ride a live one?

SS: We were supposed to do it this time, but I got overruled by the powers that be. But I definitely want to try it.

JC: Did you do well on the test run?

SS: That’s what Tuff (Hedeman, former bullriding champion) said, so he’s the boss. He says I’m ready for a real one for sure, so I’m definitely excited to get out there with him.

JC: Your form and everything checked out OK?

SS: My groin didn’t. I am sore. I only rode the thing three times, and man, I am all kinds of sore. But that’s good because when I go to ride the real one, I know what I’ve got to go work on. I’ve got to go home and incorporate some groin exercises in my routine. When I come back, Tuff’s gonna be like, “Man, what did you do?” I just want to impress the guy. That’s my whole goal right now.

JC: Any chance pro bull riding might become a new career?

SS: They are brave. They are very brave. And I am … let’s just say I think motor racing is a lot safer.

JC: Now, wait. There’s lots of people that would say race car driving takes a lot of bravery.

SS: Maybe it’s just because I’ve done it my whole life, but for me, I don’t think it’s very dangerous at all.

JC: Tell me when you first started racing.

SS: My dad raced go-carts when I was a kid. I followed him around at the go-cart track since I was 3 years old. He was a three-time national champion, and when I first started racing, right away I was pretty decent at it. At that time, I played football and baseball, and I was pretty decent at everything, but I was definitely good at racing.

When I was 11, my dad said, “OK, if you want to keep doing this at a national level and try to compete for national titles, you’re going to have to give up all this other stuff.” I decided I wanted to. By the time I was 17, I was very, very successful. Then Red Bull came along with this driver search. I came from a family where we couldn’t afford to go race cars. We didn’t have $100,000 to put down to go race in some open-wheel series. So when Red Bull came along with program, it was a huge opportunity for us. We just got lucky. I was one of the 16 best open-wheel guys in

JC: They had to have liked your name.

SS: Red Bull’s obviously pretty savvy in its marketing department.

JC: That’s just coincidence, right? Your dad didn’t change the family name to Speed when he got into racing, did he?

SS: No, no. He was Speed as well.

JC: What do you think has helped you get to this point in your racing career? Are there certain characteristics you have to have?

SS: My hand-eye coordination is really, really good. My reaction time is really, really good. And my personality is that of someone who is going to be successful in something. I have that obsessive-compulsive behavior, the ADHD, the general psychological make-up of most good athletes.

Sherri Coale might be going through a mid-life crisis.

Not that that’s a bad thing.

Watch my latest video commentary or continue reading below:

The Oklahoma women’s basketball coach showed up at Big 12 media days earlier this week sporting a new ‘do. Her signature curly blond locks are gone, replaced by a straighter, more feathered look.

Frankly, I can believe I’m talking about feathered hair, but we know that many of you are. Some of you miss the curls. Some of you love the new look.

Coale knows how all of you feel.

“I can’t decide,” she said, when asked about changing styles.

There’s reason to believe this might be part of a permanent change. You see, I’m buying into the mid-life-crisis theory. The reason? A story that Sooner point guard Danielle Robinson told a couple days ago at Big 12 media day.

Apparently, the Sooners had a throw-back day last season. Everyone wore their high school gear or some sort of old-school apparel to practice one day. There were short shorts and polyester and headbands.

Suddenly, the players looked up and coming down the stairs into the practice gym was Coale. She was wearing her uniform from her college days at Oklahoma Christian.

She last wore that uniform in the mid 80s.
Needless to say, it was short and tight, but she still got it on.

So, maybe this changing hairstyle should come as no surprise.

No word on whether Coale is driving a convertible or planning long vacations these days, but hey, if the 43-year-young coach is having a mid-life crisis, I say live it up. Go for the gusto. Wear the shorts. Embrace the fun.

Heck, go ahead and change the hair. Talk about living on the wild side.

Heisman Trophy balloting could look like the All-Big 12 team.

My latest vote for the HeismanPundit.com/Orlando Sentinel straw poll is dominated by Big 12 players. Four of the five spots are from the conference, and frankly, I thought about having all five from it.

Texas quarterback Colt McCoy, by the way, was the unanimous winner of this week’s poll. Check it out at www.HeismanPundit.com.

Here’s my vote:

1. McCoy: The Longhorn quarterback was nearly perfect against Missouri, going 29 of 32 for 337 yards and two touchdowns. Hard to argue that he’s the leader of the Heisman pack.

2. Sam Bradford: The Oklahoma quarterback set a single-game school record with 468 yards passing. His touchdown-to-interception ratio is darn impressive — 26 to five. 

3. Graham Harrell: Sure, he’s another quarterback in the Texas Tech system, but it’s hard to argue his production — 2,761 yards, 23 TDs, five interceptions. Plus, with the Red Raiders trailing Texas A&M last week, Harrell led the comeback.

4. Tim Tebow: The Florida quarterback is fighting an uphill battle; what he does this year is judged against what he did in his Heisman-winning season a year ago. Still, he has been solid.

5. Dez Bryant: Sure, it was only Baylor, but the Oklahoma State receiver had 212 yards receiving. He ranks second in the country with 115.6 yards receiving a game and third nationally with 11 touchdowns catches.

Sometimes, reporters start working on a story and discover an unexpected tale along the way.

So it was this week for me while working on a story about Ryan Reynolds.

You’ve likely heard his story — the Oklahoma linebacker recovered from two major knee surgeries and was having an amazing season for the Sooners when he suffered another knee injury. He tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the Texas game and will miss the rest of the season.

You can read the story about Reynolds and his continuing role on this OU team in today’s Oklahoman or on NewsOK.com

In talking to his father, Craig, I discovered that Reynolds was quite the hockey player. He was a member of several Arizona state championship teams in roller hockey as a kid, then around the age of 7, he decided to give ice hockey a try.

Trouble was, the family lived in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., which had no ice rinks.

More trouble was, the closest ice rink was either in Phoenix or Las Vegas. Both cities were a three-hour drive from Lake Havasu City.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after Reynolds finished school, his parents would make the three-hour drive to Phoenix for an hour and a half practice, then drive three hours back. Reynolds would do his homework in the car.

“And we did that for five years,” Craig Reynolds said.

The younger Reynolds praised his parents for making the sacrifice, but he made it pay off. He played on the under-12 national team, even traveling to Canada for an international tournament.

Reynolds eventually gave up hockey; he disliked the drive not the sport.

“If he lived in an area where there were closer rinks and he didn’t burn out on the drive,” his father said, “he would’ve been playing ice hockey and not football.”

So, tell me, my fellow Oklahomans — how does it feel to be at the epicenter of college football.

The BCS rankings were released for the first time this season on Sunday. While I wish the BCS would crawl off somewhere and die, that is a diatribe for another day.

Why? Because our fair state is dominating play.

Check out my latest video commentary or continue reading below:

Oklahoma only has three Division I-A teams, but all three of them are in the top 20 in the BCS rankings. Oklahoma is No. 4, the highest spot for any team with a loss. Oklahoma State is No. 6, ranking ahead of the likes of Georgia and Ohio State and Florida. And Tulsa is No. 19, making a serious bid at being this year’s BCS buster.

These are grand days for our state. Everyone has something to cheer.

And the truth is, all three of the teams have an honest to goodness shot at playing in a BCS bowl. It’s not out of the question to think that the three teams could end the season with two or three losses combined.

Now, wouldn’t that be something?

But regardless of how the season ends, our fair state has already staked its claim as college football mecca of the world.

No other state has two teams has highly ranked in the BCS as OU and OSU, and only one other state has three teams in the top 20. That state is Texas. The fellas from Austin are No. 1 followed by Texas Tech at No. 8 and TCU at No. 14.

Impressive, sure, but when you have a gazillion teams in your state, getting three into the top 20 becomes a little easier.

Oklahoma is batting a thousand when it comes to teams in the BCS.

Perhaps it’s fitting that representatives from the two states will square off this weekend when OSU heads to Texas. No. 1 vs. No. 6 — doesn’t get much better than that.

Same goes for the state of Oklahoma. Doesn’t get much better than this.

Receiving a letter in the mail has become a thing of the past, so when one comes my way, it feels like I’ve been given a little gift.

And when a particularly great letter comes my way, well, it feels like a grand surprise.

Such was the feeling earlier this week when I received an envelope with my name scrolled on the front and a Portland, OR, postal mark. I opened it to find a letter sparked by an interview that I did several weeks ago with the former Harlem Globetrotter Hubert “Geese” Ausbie.

It was too good to keep to myself:

When Hubert was in high school in Crescent, Oklahoma — about 1954 or so — I was the basketball coach at Mulhall High School, which is about 15 miles or so from Crescent. We had a reasonably good team — won-lost 19-9 — and this was the first year that the all-black schools of Oklahoma were allowed to compete in the playoffs at the end of the season.

As it turned out, Mulhall and Crescent were placed in the same district tournament held in Guthrie, and both advance to the finals. We had won our first two games rather handily, and Crescent had overwhelmed both their opponents by scores such as 100-20 and 120-55. 

After our game in the semifinals, which we won, the boys on the team and I were in a restaurant in Guthrie, and one of the fellows asked, “Hey, coach, do you think we can hold Hubert down?” I remarked, “I can tell you one thing, boys. Hubert will not score 60 points and Crescent will not score a hundred. We’ll just play our game. We’ll be all right.” We finished our burgers and went on home.

The game began, and Hubert scored at will. Everything he threw toward the basket seemed to be on radar. The score at the end of the first quarter was 25-3, halftime was 56-9, and it never got any better.

Sure enough, Hubert didn’t score 60 that night. He scored 72.

And sure enough, Crescent didn’t score a hundred. They scored 111.

What an exhibition of shooting we saw that night. … Thank you for helping me remember Hubert “Geese” Ausbie.

Phil Carrier

Actually, Coach Carrier, I think we’re the ones who should be thanking you for sharing your memories and writing this letter.

I still can’t recall what I was doing on June 3, 2002.

But it’s a day that I keep coming back to.

That was the day that Justin Sullivan was killed in a freak accident on Interstate 44.

Watch my latest video commentary or continue reading below:

Sullivan, you may remember, was a star baseball player at Yukon High School. He was named the state player of the year the day before he died. Massive tires on a semi-truck broke loose, bounded across the median and crushed Sullivan’s SUV.Five years later, I met a youth pastor named Chris Wall. He had been Justin’s youth pastor at Council Road Baptist Church, and he had written a book called “A Life Worth Following” about Justin.

A crazy day of college football brought upheaval in the polls.

Ditto for the Heisman polls.

My ballot for the HeismanPundit.com/Orlando Sentinel straw poll changed as much this week as it has all season. Chase Daniel, who had moved to the top for a couple weeks, fell like a rock. Colt McCoy, who wasn’t even on my ballot until a week ago, zoomed to the top.

The Texas quarterback took over the top spot in the overall balloting, too, receiving nine of the 10 first-place votes.

Four of the top five spots are held by Big 12 players, including Sam Bradford at No. 2, and eight of the dozen players who received votes are from the conference, too. That includes Oklahoma State running back Kendall Hunter and wide receiver Dez Bryant. 

You can see all of the poll at www.HeismanPundit.com.

Here’s a look at my ballot:

1. McCoy: He had a huge game on an even bigger stage, going 28 of 35 for 277 yards against Oklahoma. He looks like the real McCoy.

2. Bradford: Can’t pin the Sooners’ loss on him. He threw five touchdown passes against the Longhorns. If the Sooners can get back on the winning track, his Heisman hopes will remain alive and well.

3. Graham Harrell: I can’t ignore the Texas Tech quarterback anymore. He threw for two touchdowns and ran for a third against Nebraska. He also hit a big pass in overtime that moved the Red Raiders to the 1-yard line, where they punched it in and scored the game-winner.

4. Hunter: The OSU tailback had a big game against No. 3 Missouri. With 154 yards, he put himself square in the Heisman cross-hairs. Have another big game next week at Texas, and who knows how high the little man could climb.

5. Daniel: Can’t ignore his three interceptions against the Cowboys. A couple of them looked like poor decisions, and Heisman Trophies are won and lost by what you do at crunch time.