It rained all day yesterday and after walking with Pauli I did nothing but watch the baseball playoffs and Big 12 football. It was a glorious day for a sports junkie. A little wine, tons of coffee, and wall to wall sports as I hid from the world under my wooly Thunder blanket reading Mick Cornett’s book during commercial breaks. It’s the way I want to die when I know it’s my last day on earth. A great hike with the dog, some Mexican food, a book, and sports.
On the baseball front it would seem to me we are headed for a repeat of last year’s epic World Series of the Houston Astros versus LA’s Dodgers. With all due respect to the Milwaukee Brewers and the Boston Red Sox I think that’s where we’re headed. And if I had to pick one team I’d go with the Houston Astros to repeat namely because of Justin Verlander and Mr. October George Springer. If Jose Altuve ever gets going it might not even be interesting. Houston is the team to beat.
As far as Big 12 football goes…I watched all four games this week with OU and Kansas being idle. I’ve come to this conclusion… OU is still the team to beat even with it’s 96th ranked defense. I’ve come to this conclusion simply because I think Kyler Murray is by a wide margin the most impactful player in the conference. Not even close by my count and I still have Murray in my top three Heisman votes simply because right now I think he’s the best player in college football.
Texas went to the last play of the game at home with Baylor. West Virginia was dominated at the line of scrimmage by Iowa State in Ames. TCU lost at home to Texas Tech and couldn’t score the football.
And then there was the disgrace which took place in Manhattan with Boone Pickens’s O State Cowboys basically quitting on Mike Gundy and not even being remotely engaged against a 2-4 K State football team with a quarterback who can’t really throw a football. Funny… two meddlesome oil and gas dudes own the Dallas Cowboys and the O State Cowboys and both franchises in a word…suck in circa 2018.
I could care less about O State football. OU and Texas are the key to Big 12 football survival. They’re the two programs with national iconic brands. O State is a wrestling and golf school which somehow landed Barry Sanders when Switzer didn’t offer him a scholarship. But even with Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas, Hart Lee Dykes, and Mike Gundy they finished third in the then Big 8 in ’88 even with Barry Sanders winning the Heisman and having perhaps the greatest individual season in college football history. Consider this…Nebraska hung 84 points on that O State team coached by Pat Jones. So—really what has changed all that much in thirty seasons of O State football other than the fact O State caught a break in that the University of Texas football program was somewhat lost for a decade after the firing of Mack Brown. Texas is clearly not back all the way yet, but they’re now headed in the right direction.
Mike Gundy isn’t even close to being the best coach at O State. That would be John Smith the iconic wrestling coach. BTW…John Smith’s mother Madeline delievered my son Chris at Mercy Hospital in that same year of 1988. My point, my son is now the exact same age as Russell Westbrook and while Boone Pickens has thrown at least half a billion dollars at the O State football program the program is still basically a footnote to the wrestling and golf programs.
In all candor, after what I witnessed this week I would have O State ranked at No. 9 currently in the Big 12 only just barely ahead of a much improved Kansas Jayhawk team which is still trying for its football coach even though the Jayhawks are clearly a basketball school.
Which brings me back to this thought…O State quit on Mike Gundy yesterday. They just flat out quit on both sides of the ball. The score could have been worse.
So…as I’m sitting here getting ready to hike with Pauli before we get all amped up for the Cleveland Browns hosting the Chargers at noon this is what I would say to my fellow OU football fans…chill and appreciate what we have with the OU offense and a program which knows it has to get much better in a hurry on defense.
Because here’s the thing…when OU was down by 21 points in the 4th quarter against Texas they never quit. They roared back and tied the game. Nobody quit. Some coaching just needs to take place on the defensive side of the ball and some better players need to be recruited.
But if you’re an O State fan this morning I don’t know what to say to you. Your team quit yesterday and would probably lose to Kansas if they played again in two weeks. Kansas is still engaged. O State quit yesterday. And the truth of the matter is both Baylor and Iowa State are headed in the right direction with young energetic players who play their asses off for Matt Ruhle and Matt Campbell.
Jim Traber insists Mike Gundy is absorbed in his own vanity. Traber claims Gundy is pre-occupied with his smoothies, his oiled mullet, and his Twitter followers. I have to admit every time Traber does this on air I laugh my ass off. It’s great stuff. Jenni Carlson, the victim of that infamous rant now seems to be in Mike Gundy’s corner. I put about as much stock in what Jenni writes as I do in an Alex Jones podcast and I think Traber for whatever reason feels the need to troll Mike Gundy. At least Traber is entertaining.
But here’s what I know. O State football really hasn’t evolved all that much since 1988 when my son was brought into this world by John Smith’s mother. The Texas Longhorns just got lost by their own ignorance for a decade while Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, and Texas A&M left the Big 12.
Who did O State really beat? They never schedule anybody that’s any good good in nonconference play. Other than Stanford in 2011—who did they really beat?
Boone…take down that poser 1945 national championship banner in your football stadium down. Army was the 1945 national champions. You bought a wrestling program,…give John Smith the next $625,000 raise and ask him if can coach your football team.