Your weekly Saturday guide (9-27)
Here is your weekly suggestion guide on how to spend Saturday if you’re not going to an
11 a.m. – Northwestern at Iowa (ESPNCL): There are two unbeaten journalism schools in college football — Missouri and Northwestern. This game will be nothing to write about.
11 –
11 – North Carolina at Miami (ESPN2): Tahlequah native and former Hurricanes coach Butch Davis returns to the place he never should have left. 11 – Michigan State at Indiana (ESPN): Conference play begins, and Spartans don’t want to start out with a choke.11:30 – Army at Texas A&M (Versus): This will have a 1940s feel to it. Plenty of short haircuts and pushups on both sides.
11:30 –
2:30 p.m. – Wisconsin at Michigan (ESPN): Two big names in the Big Ten, but they carry little national interest this season.
2:30 –
2:30 –
2:30 – Purdue at Notre Dame (KFOR-4): Delusional Irish fans hopefully came back down to earth last week after getting spanked by the Spartans.
2:45 – Navy at Wake Forest (ESPNU): Wake continues to prove it’s the best team the ACC has to offer.
3 –
6 –
6 – TCU at Oklahoma (FSN): Presumably, the Sooners saw what happened to USC against Oregon State. Presumably, they’ve been duly warned.
6 – Central
6:30 – South Florida at North Carolina State (ESPNU): Wolfpack out to prove their win over East Carolina was no fluke, but it was.
6:30 – Mississippi State at LSU (ESPN2): No close call for the Tigers this time. They should bounce early and cruise.
6:45 – Alabama at Georgia (ESPN): You’ve got to love big games this early. The Bulldogs are the real deal, but is the Crimson Tide?
7 – Virginia Tech at Nebraska (KOCO-5): This would be a nice win for a Big 12 middle school. The Huskers should pull it off — maybe.
Major League baseball
2:30 - Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee (KOKH-25): Cubs are in. Here’s a toast to the Brewers.
Playing football, thinking basketball
STILLWATER — Think Missouri State and you think of basketball, which is not a good thing during football season.
The institution formerly known as Southwest Missouri State is where Jackie Stiles became national player of the year, and it’s where Charlie Spoonhour and Steve Alford coached before advancing in their careers. Oklahoma native Barry Hinson also stormed the sidelines as the Bears’ coach before being fired last spring.
A 1983 OSU grad, Hinson attended last week’s game between the Cowboys and Houston at Boone Pickens Stadium. He and wife Angie will not be at Saturday night’s game, however.
“I’m still a Missouri State guy, but we’d be wearing orange for that game, and we thought that might get somebody upset,” said Hinson, who plans to return to Stillwater for the Oct. 4 contest against Texas A&M.
Born in Marlow, Hinson began his coaching career at Stillwater Junior High. From there, he was an assistant at Stillwater and Edmond Memorial, head coach at Tulsa’s Bishop Kelley, an assistant at Oral Roberts and then served as head coach at ORU and Missouri State.
As soon as Hinson sells his house in Springfield, he plans to move back to Tulsa. This coming basketball season, he hopes to land a job as a television color commentator.
“I’ll do dog races in Anchorage, Alaska. I don’t care,” Hinson said.
Missouri State football is led by former Kansas coach Terry Allen (1997-2001), who is in his fourth year in Springfield. Hinson and Allen spent the past three years together.
“I absolutely love him,” Hinson said. “He’s one of the most positive, energetic guys I know. I really like him.”
The Bears are coming off a shocking 35-27 loss to Division II Washburn (Kan.) on Sept. 4.
“The game hit him in the gut,” Hinson said of Allen. “It was really hard to listen to that game on the radio. Terry is so limited in what he can do. They have no budget to speak of, but if that school can ever make it football-wise, I think he’s the guy to do it. If they give him some revenue and leave him alone, I think they’ll be OK.”
The greater Springfield area is hardly a prep football hotbed.
Glendale went 7-4 last season, but the other four local public high schools — Central, Parkview, Kickapoo and Hillcrest — went a combined 3-37 in 2007.
“We don’t have any quarterbacks up here, but we’ve got guys who can fish like you’ve never seen,” Hinson deadpanned. “We’re raising kids around here for the Pro Bass circuit, not football.”
Tonight’s attendance is …
No one can accuse Oklahoma State officials of padding their attendance figures Saturday night.
An announced crowd of 45,001 was on hand at Boone Pickens Stadium for the Cowboys’ home opener against Houston.
That means there were 14,999 empty seats in the stadium’s new 60,000-seat configuration.
The low attendance total surprised most media members, who estimated the crowd to be at least 50,000.
Sea of orange
Official attendance of Saturday night’s game between Oklahoma State and Houston won’t be known until the fourth quarter, but it has the makings of the largest crowd in school history.
The biggest OSU home crowd is 51,458, which gathered in 1979 when Oklahoma visited Stillwater. Tonight’s crowd inside the new 60,000-seat facility appears to have fewer than 8,000 empty seats, although there are several sections where fans are spread pretty thin.
The new west end zone is far more occupied than anticipated. Earlier in the week, one school official estimated the crowd would be around 45,000, but walkup traffic was busier than expected.
The score is 7-7 after the first quarter and it remains to be seen if the Cowboys will protect their home field. They’ve already surrendered 124 yards to the Cougars.
If OSU ends up stumbling, it won’t be due to a lack of support in the stands.
As soon as the official attendance figure is announced, we will send a blog.
Not feeling the Thunder
It’s the morning after, and I’m still not feeling the Thunder.
After sleeping on it, the nickname Thunder still leaves me feeling groggy. I’m not saying I hate it, but I’m not feeling the love. Cohort Berry Tramel says we’ll learn to love the name. That seems a long ways off. Right now, I’m just learning to accept it.
When the name, logo and colors were revealed Wednesday at Leadership Square, the Golden State Warriors immediately flashed before my eyes.
The Warriors’ colors are dark blue, sky blue, yellow and something called Golden Gate orange. The Thunder’s colors are dark blue, sky blue, yellow and something called Thunder red, which looks suspiciously close to Golden Gate orange. Also, Golden State’s mascot is named “Thunder.” Presumably, the Thunder won’t name its mascot “Warrior.”
If I shelled out $350 million for a franchise, (potentially) another $75 million for the right to bring the team here, another $30 million in NBA relocation fees and a few million trying to communicate with the people of Seattle for two years, I would have gone for a bigger splash than “Thunder.”
Thunder won the name contest staged by The Oklahoman and team ownership went along with the choice, and this is one time I don’t mind being in the minority. It’s far more important for the masses to like the nickname rather than appeasing a few dissenters.
I’m excited about the franchise being here. I’m just not particularly excited about the name or logo. Not yet, anyway.
Maybe tomorrow morning I’ll feel differently, but right now, I still don’t feel the Thunder.
