Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

After OU sleepwalked past a bad Houston Baptist team in Norman … I settled in on Thanksgiving Eve and watched some NBA hoops. For the the first time this week I didn’t pontificate any thoughts on the upcoming Bedlam game. I’m ready for the game to be played.

The Warriors were absolutely sublime in their second half putting away the Sixers in a game in which they trailed by nineteen points in the first half. Most of the teams in the West have now played around twenty games or so and quite clearly the Warriors and the Phoenix Suns appear to be the class of the West. Denver has been ravaged by injury and quite simply Utah isn’t that good once the regular season ends and the competition gets stiffer. Utah is what I would call …”A fake tough guy basketball-wise.”

Golden State doesn’t even appear to need Klay Thompson or James Wiseman at this point. With Steph playing at a MVP level this roster is so deep and talented it doesn’t seem to matter.

The second half was just beautiful basketball. A clinic on ball movement and finishing. Jordan Poole, Otto Porter, Damian Lee, Juan Anderson-Toscano, Gary Payton, Jr. Andrew Wiggins, Iggy, Kevan Looney, Bjelica, Johnny Kuminga, Moses Moody… etc, etc with Steph and Draymond being the stars. My god…go ahead and give Bobby Myers GM of the Year.

Again…if Klay does come back he’ll only need to contribute around 20-22 quality minutes a game. If Spoelstra and Riley are the best coach-GM combo in the East then it would have to be said Steve Kerr and Bob Myers are the same in the West.

That’s one thing we’ve never seen in Oklahoma City. What I mean by that is that’s it’s Sam Hinkie-Presti’s show. We’ve never really observed what could happen in Oklahoma City if a strong willed independent thinking coach was at the helm. Scott Brooks, Billy Donovan, and now the G League developmental coach… who btw does do a nice job in his pressers. But at the end of the day do you want Regis Philbin or a hard-ass coach who understands how to win night in and night out at the NBA level. A head coach who commands his own space through his own unique personaility and character and isn’t just another Sam Hinkie-Presti puppet.

Rule #2 of Coaching…You coach thru your own unique personality and character.

But to Billy Donovan’s defense…he did win two NCAA national championships at a football school and he did say farewell to the Thunder and appears to be doing a decent job in Chicago. I’m guessing at the end…Billy just said to himself–“Time to move on to a franchise with a different mindset.”

Tell me with a straight face what Scott Brooks or Sam Hinkie-Presti have done in the past twelve years without Kevin Durant toting their lunchpails to school every morning? Player makes the coach…player made the GM. Portland took Greg Oden. Sam Anderson should have written that somewhere in his book Boomtown.

But now to the Lakers…our mystery team in this year’s NBA season. LeBron returned from his one game suspension last night and was basically the GOAT scoring 39 points, taking Russell Westbrook off the ball, and willing the Lakers to a win over the Pacers.

With the win, the Lakers are 10-10 for the season with LeBron so far only playing in eight of the Lakers’ twenty games to date.

What do we make of these Lakers with LeBron, AD, Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony, and Rajon Rondo?

What I make of them is WTF was GM Rob Pelinka thinking when he put this roster together in the first place.

Why would Rob Pelinka add Russell to this mix except for filling in for LeBron when Lebron needs to rest?

My heart goes out to coach Frank Vogel who is a good NBA coach. Two of his teams at Indiana made it to the Eastern Conference Finals and he won a championship with the Lakers two seasons ago. He can coach. You know..maybe at some point if and when the Thunder are through tanking…Frank Vogel could be an effective coach for the Thunder.

When Russell is on the floor my eyes are on a split screen set observing Vogel’s facial expressions to some of Russell’s on court decisions in relation to the Doctrine of Time-Score.

Bless Frank Vogel’s heart. You can see the frustration fomenting at the corners of his eyes and mouth, but like the pro he is he keeps those feelings under check and keeps trying to work thru Russell’s rougher moments in relation to Time-Score decisions.

“Haven’t seen the game film yet,” Vogel answers to the tougher Westbrook turnover questions. “Need to see it on film before I can comment.” Like asking a politician if he plans on cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits.

I’ll answer for you, Coach.”Russell needs to pull his head out of his ass and play like an All-Star who’s still in search of his first ring with his career clock running out.”

I don’t know what to make of the Lakers. Obviously with LeBron they could be a factor…without him they’re not a playoff team is my take.

Frank Vogel pressers moving forward will be a part of My NBA Journal. Frank Vogel’s eyes are incredibly expressive. Look deep imto those eyes and you’ll get the answers to those questions being asked at the pressers. There are no Little Nick Gallo’s amidst the scribes in the tough LA sports media. No one will play the part of a puppy dog scribe to shield Russell from the obvious tough questions.

For Russell’s legacy sake…I hope he’s able to morph his game and grow from this opportunity to play alongside LeBron.

If not…his legacy will be he was this generation’s version of Allen Iverson. That being, an incredibly skilled player who couldn’t adapt his game to his teammates enough to win a ring.

This is Bob Myers at the conclusion of last season after the Warriors missed the playoffs. This should be a mandatory watch for Sam Hinkie-Presti and all of his lapdogs in the Oklahoma City market.

“Sometimes you have to lose to be able to learn how to win again. But this doesn’t mean you embrace tanking beyond a two year window. It means …you smarten the f–k up with your talent evaluation decision makers, adapt on the fly as per the leaague as a whole, and within a two year window put a legitimate basketball product back on the floor in Oklahoma City.” Mike Jackson

Tyler is on fire and I’m proud of him. He grew up this off season and came to terms as to what it takes to become an NBA All-Star caliber player.

He worked on his body this summer. Took some much needed advice from Jimmy Butler… and GREW UP.

I’m sixty-four so you prolly won’t see me wearing my Tyler Herro jersey in public like the kid in Deer Creek, but Tyler Herro has two huge fans in Deer Creek, Oklahoma of all places.

To Sam Hinkie-Presti’s somewhat credit…he did try and pry Tyler away from the Heat with the inducement of Chris Paul, but Pat Riley and Eric Spoelstra aren’t clueless. Quite the contrary, probably the best GM/head coach combination in the NBA currently.

Jimmy Butler needs this Tyler Herro and that was what was missing from the Heat last season when they were swept in four games by the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round.

Eric Spoelstra has a very unique scoring combo in Tyler and Duncan Robinson.

So here we are again with me pointing out to Sam Hinkie-Presti you don’t have to have top six picks to be at the top of the NBA. You merely have to have some basketball smarts in the room who can come to terms with the fact SHOOTING THE BASKETBALL is a nice skill to have in some of your basketball players.

Don’t become complacent, Tyler. Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowery need you.

OU gets back in action tonight with a home game against Houston Baptist. The Sooners are 4-1 with the sole loss being a 73-70 heartbreaking loss to Utah State in the finals of the Myrtle Beach Invitational.

A tough loss in a game which could have very well been a 10 seed versus a 7 seed type of game in the NCAA Tournament. Both teams are viewed in that manner and this game hopefully will provide OU with a glimpse of what awaits them as the schedule gets markedly tougher after tonight’s home game versus Houston Baptist.

After tonight the schedule ascends with UCF-road, ranked Florida-home, Butler-home, and ranked Arkansas on the road. Plus, later on in the SEC/Big 12 challenge the Sooners will have to play at Bruce Pearl’s Auburn Tigers. Throw in the normal array of Big 12 stops and that’s a formidable strength of schedule for Porter Moser’s first team in Norman.

Coach Moser wasn’t happy with the last four minutes in the Utah State loss as the Sooners allowed a six point lead to turn into a three point loss due to questionable shot selection.

This is the type of situation where Duke transfer Jordan Goldwire playing the point has to exert leadership as not just a defensive point guard, but a point guard who can run the show with the game on the line against a quality opponent.

Time and score…time and score….time and score—you’ll hear this throughout this presser from Coach Moser. And he’s absolutely correct—his team played beautifully for thirty-six minutes then lost their poise in the final four minutes of the game.

It’s grow up time in a hurry. Both Florida and Arkansas are nationally ranked with tall athletic squads who extend defensive pressure all over the court.

There’s lots of good things on this Sooner team, but the thing which I have circled most is if Jordan Goldwire can be an offensive point guard who can take charge of the team in the moments like we saw in the Utah State loss.

Coach Moser doesn’t want the ball to stick like it did last year with Austin Reaves…he wants the ball to move in those situations where his team either gets a great look or gets to the free throw line.

On my bottom side of the basketball matinee tonight–the tanking 6-11 Thunder host the 11-6 Utah Jazz in a game in which I’m not sure if Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is going to play or not. The Thunder play the putrid Houston Rockets twice this week–so I would guess Presti needs a loss tonight. This is one of those nights where I’ll try to catch seven first half minutes and then the last five minutes of the game just to see how some of the developmental kids play against the Jazz.

The TNT Tuesday night showcase game was excellent last night as the NY Knicks held off the LA Lakers without LeBron. Russell was absolutely brutal in the first half, then in the second half played some of the best basketball I’ve seen from him in a while. I think Frank Vogel and his relationship with Russell Westbrook will be the focus in my NBA Journal entry this week.

Hope everyone stays safe and has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I’ve put Sam Hinkie-Presti’s team on my two week content hold list so I can address both Bedlam Week and then whoever survives and advances to the Big 12 Championship Game in Arlington the following week-end. I can’t cover all of this by myself on here. I probably should have brought an intern or two over here with me from Daily Thunder and mentored him/her on how to attain some strength in their blogging voices/brand instead of just being weak feckless puppets. I could have saved Thunder Girl and Johnny Thunder from themselves…now look at them. It almost makes me want to cry.

So much like the storylines in Broadcast News with William Hurt, Holly Hunter, and Albert Brooks.

Me, of course being like the William Hurt anchor character who ascended to the anchor of the national nightly news…while Thunder Girl and Johnny Thunder being Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks pretending to be satisfied playing bit roles behind the scenes and off camera on the dying Daily Thunder embarrassment.

Per Mike Gundy today in the Tulsa World…Gundy said, and I pretty much agree, this will be the last Bedlam football game in quite some time. I would think it will probably be the last Bedlam game played in a regular game setting in my lifetime….which I think is kind of sad. O State should be in the SEC West with us, Missouri, and Arkansas. Think about how those regional pod games would grow with interest with each passing year. Maybe even Missouri could get its act back together as a relevant football program.

The Tulsa World knocked it out of the ball park today with their Bedlam coverage and when I see work like that…. I tip my hat and say job well done to the scribes in Tulsa. Tramel and Ryan Aber do an excellent job as well with their Oklahoma football program coverage, but I really enjoyed Bill Haisten’s look at Mike Gundy’s thirty years of Bedlam as a player, a position coach, and an offensive coordinator.

Per my Mullet King: The Boone Pickens-Mike Gundy Saga archives…Gundy played four seasons for O State as their quarterback going 0-4, as a position coach two seasons going 1-1, and as Les Miles’ offensive coordinator for four seasons going 2-2.

Then came Boone’s hydrocarbon manna from heaven with the edict attached Mike Holder would be Boone’s fiduciary of the Boone Bucks war chest while Mike Gundy would become the prodical son assuming the reins from Les Miles when he decided to take the job in Baton Rouge.

Eddie Sutton and then AD Harry Birdwell would somewhat relinquish some of their power while the Roman trifecta of Boone, Holder, and Gundy ascended to the heights of power in Stillwater. Eventually then Prez David Smidley would be replaced by Burns Hargis… and that’s how we got where we are today…. with Kayse Schrum replacing Hargis and Chad Wieberg replacing Holder.

As a head coach during the Boone Empire from 2005 thru today… Mike Gundy is 2-14 versus the Sooners and 0-4 versus Lincoln Riley. In 2011 the Cowboys destroyed OU in the 44-10 romp in Stillwater in the Landry Jones points off of turnovers game. By far the most impressive O State performance I’ve witnessed in my lifetime and the poorest OU quarterback performance by a Sooner quarterback as well.

Gundy’s other Bedlam win came in 2014 when Bob Stoops lost his mind and repunted to the most explosive football human in the history of the game in Tyreke Hill. To this day no one really knows what happened, but O State went on to win that game in Norman by a 38-35 count in overtime.

So…here’s Mike Gundy in 2019 with his mullet in championship form discussing with the local scribes the importance of gaining yardage via the special teams play in a normal football game. I included this today because I think special teams will play a huge role in the game on Saturday.

Two absolute great movies by James Brooks…Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News. That scene from Broadcast News above was pretty much how it came into being that Daily Thunder became the most widely read Thunder blog before it became the total piece of dogshit sellout it is today.

This is another great scene from the movie. I don’t think calling this scene as iconic is an overreach.

Who would have ever thought I would become Holly Hunter and they would become William Hurt. Go figure.

OU’s nationally elite placekicker Gabe Brkic has had the yips the past two week-ends versus Baylor and Iowa State going 0-3 attempting field goals

Turns out he kicked a burrito and put some sort of mojo curse on his own accuracy. Hopefully, that curse expires before kickoff versus the O State Cowboys on Saturday in Bedlam.

I would think for OU to win this Bedlam game by something like a 26-24 score or of the like…Gabe Brkic needs to be able to kick three or four field goals to help OU get to that number.

I thought about writing something about the Thunder’s predictable 113-101 road loss at Atlanta, but I think what I’ll do is put a hold on my Thunder comments till at least the end of the college football conference championship games.

I tried watching this game and couldn’t get past seven minutes or so of action.

Basketball wise…I’m thrilled covering OU, the Big 12, and of course my three adopted NBA teams this season Miami, Golden State, and Memphis.

Quite frankly…Sam Hinkie-Presti and his basketball operation bore me. I don’t know any other way to say it. It’s not the rebuild per se…but the manner in which everyone in his oranization talks down to people as if they’re complete idiots watching NBA basketball for the first time in their lives. It’s hard to listen to the people representing the Thunder organization. I wish they would let Nick Collison do that part of it. He’d be a great ambassador of sorts.

I don’t know how you get rid of the place kicking yips. I’m trying to remember what Tin Cup did to get rid of the yips in the movie. One of my close friends at John Marshall was our place kicker Rod ‘The Mule’ Carter. I don’t recall him ever getting the yips.

So here we sit on the cusp of Bedlam and from my viewpoint as a blogger who wants to write his first nonfiction sports book it couldn’t be any better for me.

Why would I want to write a book titled Mullet King: The Mike Gundy-Boone Pickens Story?

Several reasons. I’m obviously a college football fanatic who lives in a state which is dominated by college football. But it goes beyond just that because I’ve thought the potential story of the Boone Pickens-Mike Gundy relationship was unique and could be an interesting story if presented properly.

One of my best friends used to cover Mike Gundy and the O State beat. Another one of my best friends and the best man at my wedding was a Midwest City Bomber and knew Mike Gundy growing up in high school. My middle nephew played high school football with Gundy’s oldest son…and btw my nephew made All-District 6A2 his senior season playing for the Stillwater Pioneers.

My brother ran the Panera Bread just down the street from Boone’s stadium and I sat next to Gundy once and struck up a conversation about his son and my nephew after a controversial ending in one of their football games vs the Lawton Wolverines where by sheer luck I had found myself sitting next to Mike Gundy’s wife and father-in-law at Cameron Stadium in Lawton at that very game.

Then there’s my son who’s an oil and gas hedge fund expert who started with Devon and then worked his way to being one of the most respected people in his field working for the second largest natural gas company in the U.S. I love my son and I wanted to be able to talk to him intelligently about what he does for a living…so I read two of Boone’s books.

That connection made me even more interested in Boone as the years passed. Like any father I wanted to know more about what my son was actually doing in his profession. Even before I thought about this Gundy-Boone relationship–I was always fascinated by Boone even before he purchased the Oklahoma State Cowboys football franchise and in essence ownership of a Power 5 football franchise.

The whole dynamic fascinated me from the college football to the big boy world of the oil and natural gas business.

Then there’s the Dan Jenkins connection to me from his two novels…Semi Tough and Dead Solid Perfect which pull at my heart still as a John Marshall Bear. In those two sports novels about the TCU Horn Frogs there’s this fictional characater named Big Ed Bookman who was the biggest oil and gas stud in Texas and the alpha donor for TCU back in the day in Fort Worth.

From the moment I witnessed Boone in Stillwater he connected with me as a real life Big Ed Bookman.

I loved Boone’s audacity. His passion for his alma mater. Sometimes, like all of his, he had his moments when got carried away. But in the end…I liked him.

And there was ‘finally’ the part of Mike Gundy which tugged at my heart. The Mike Gundy who lost his mother last year and from my prism that loss in a way maybe refocused him and made him a more serious/ compelling character than just being The Mullet King. It made Mike Gundy even more human to me as I thought about how I’ve had to deal with the loss of one of my parents.

If you’re an O State fan…you should be glad Mike Gundy is there right now regardless of how this football game goes this Saturday. Because Boone, Mike Holder, Burns Hargis, and Eddie Sutton are all gone. And to be brutally candid the other Big 12 schools should be glad Mike Gundy is still in Stillwater to make the conference look viable beyond the departure of OU to the SEC.

So that’s why I find the story compelling beyond just touchdowns and tackles.

Now…My Top 12 Poll.

1 Georgia

2 Ohio State

3 Alabama

4 Oklahoma State

5 Michigan

6 Cincy

7 Notre Dame

8 Oklahoma

9 Baylor

1`0 Ole Miss

11 Utah

12 Oregon

On my bubble

13 Arkansas

14 BYU

15 Houston

With premeditated malice to deliever a clean hit…that’s what this hit on Brock Purdy was in yesterday’s 28-21 win in Norman. On the day…I think OU had eight QB sacks, several other TFLs (tackles for losses), and many other hurries or disruptions. This is the passion and violence which had been so acutely missing from OU’s defense since in reality the second half of the Red River Rivalry.

This is football, boys. This is how we play the game. Maybe me playing the Mike Leach video lit a fire under some of you..I don’t know for sure. I’ll be playing the video again Wednesday that’s for damn sure just in case. I worry about Lincoln’s passivity at times. But I know this…Sixty Minutes of Hell for the once turnover prone Spencer Sanders needs to be the mantra this week in practice. That plus, dropping all ball carriers in open space so there’s no AYAC (additional yardage after contact).

If you read my blog, you’ll learn the anacronyms used by coaches—that will be for certain. If you want to read some sissy boy fanboy piece of trash….then click onto the Daily Thunder piece of junk.

As you can tell it’s only Sunday evening and I’m pretty well already stoked for Bedlam which in essence is an elimination game for the Sooners.

I can’t imagine anyone involved with the Sooners should be feeling any tinges of anything remotely resembling passivity at this point.

Simply win the line of scrimmage for sixty minutes and be the smarter football team. That’s it, boys.

What a perfect Sunday. My Green Bay Packers vs. Minnesota in the early game. Porter Moser’s basketball Sooners will be tipping at 2:00pm in the finals of the Myrtle Beach Invitational vs. Utah State…and then maybe a day of coffee. Then–I’ll have a glass or two of red wine, some Tony Bennett, then mull my Top 12 Poll for this evening… then maybe finish reading the final chapters of the book I’ve been reading this week–The Afghanistan Papers by Craig Whitlock. Great book by the way if you’re not a Trump illiterate and you actually read something beyond Tucker Carlson’s crawlers on Fox.

And let me clarify that last snarky part of the preceding paragraph…I’m the last standing human on the earth who would defend the far left wing of the Dems, but to you Trump-Fox illiterates…. five words of life it’s ownself advice from Mike Jackson, those being, “Please grow the fuck up.”

I’m proud of the way OU competed yesterday. I’ll have OU at No. 8 on my poll and I will have Oklahoma State at No. 4. Tell me I’m not the fairest Libra walking the face of the earth.

HELMET STICKERS:

1 Mike Gundy’s entire football team with an extra helmet sticker for Jim Knowles

2 OU’s defense with Perrion Winfrey getting an extra one for the hit on Brock Purdy

3 Kirk’s Buckeyes for actually deserving the No. 2 national ranking I’m giving them tonight

and

4 Mike Leach for just being there for me when I need to curse ad nauseum at the OU defense.

Bucket List…to sing with Carrie Underwood in a karaoke bar.

OU hung on to beat Iowa State 28-21 in Norman on Saturday. Meanwhile in Lubbock… O State’s trending defense shutdown Texas Tech by a 23-0 count to setup a potential Bedlam for the ages next Saturday in Stillwater.

This should be great stuff. Put aside OU leaving for the SEC side story, this matchup with O State’s elite defense coupled with OU freshman QB Caleb Williams trying to calibrate his decision making in the pocket will make for an intriguing must see college football game.

Heck, if OU can win Bedlam I, we’ll get to see Bedlam II the following Saturday in Arlington.

The postgame presser with Lincoln after the Iowa State game was excellent. All the better sports writers in this market who don’t waste their time covering the Thunder currently were there. All questions asked were what I would describe as relevant questions asked in a thoughtful professional manner.

OU’s defense for the ‘most part’ played great with some real physicality and ‘get after it’ on Saturday. The fake punt which lead to the second touchdown wasn’t their fault. That’s totally on the coaches for having their heads up their asses considering time, score, and where the ball was when it was snapped.

The OU defense was in Brock Purdy’s face most of the day. Perrion Winfrey’s collision with Purdy will be iconic in Sooner lore. That my friends, was what Vince Lombardi was talking about as in football being a collision activity. Two helmet stickers alone just for that hit.

But most of the questions dealt with QB Caleb Williams’ reluctance to run the ball even after his 74 yard touchdown run in the first half.

Why was Caleb holding onto to the ball so long and not hitting his passes on time or simply not flushing the pocket and running?

It was a very interesting press conference from Lincoln in relation to when he wants Caleb to hang on to the ball through his progressions versus when he wants him to flush the pocket like Kyler Murray.

So that’s why I have the Secretariat video above with the greatest finisher of all-time finally turning it loose at the Belmont Stakes in the movie without the overthink and just running.

Lincoln…turn him loose for God’s sake.

I’ll play the Lincoln presser in the morning. It was excellent.

Then I’m pretty much going to get my early chores done and settle in on the Sooners’ championship game at the Myrtle Beach Invitational at 2:00pm in South Carolina.

Have a wonderful pre-Thanksgiving Sunday.

BOOMER!

First thing before I get into College Game Day…I want to shout out to Porter Moser’s OU Sooners for beating both East Carolina and Indiana State to advance to the finals of the Myrtle Beach Invitational. The team is getting better every game and while I don’t think OU has a ceiling any higher than maybe 4th or 5th in the Big 12… I have a good feeling in my heart about this team and the manner in which the team as a whole is working to improve every game.That’s all you can ask of a team…to get better every game.

OU plays Utah State on Sunday at 2:00pm for the tournament championship.

Also to the tanking OKC Thunder…I watched every minute of their game last night against the defending world champion Milwaukee Bucks. I was impressed with the Thunder even though they lost the game. Aaron Wiggins is going to be another solid piece. Poku is starting to come around. JRE has natural basketball instincts. Giddy’s rebounding, smarts, and passing should counter his murky outside shot. Mike Muscala and Kenrich when allowed to play the minutes they deserve are balling.

My problem with the Thunder aren’t the players themselves, but more to the point with Sam Hinkie-Presti’s vision of what ‘sustainability’ in Oklahoma City is NBA-wise.

I will never dog any of these Thunder players on my blog because they’re doing the best can given the cards their GM has allowed them to play with. I’ll write about the Thunder on Monday and give my Top 10 Thunder players so far this season looking into the team building core future.

As far as Game Day…I’m tired of begging Lincoln Riley and his team to show up for sixty minutes in a game against anybody this season. Here’s the thing though…on the first poll I had OU somewhere between 4-6 nationally. I never had them winning the national championship because of five reasons.

Here are those five reasons… 1 Creed Humphrey, Kansas City Chiefs, 2 Rhamondre Stevenson, New England Patriots, 3 Tre Norwood, Pittsburgh Steelers, 4 Trey Brown, Seattle Seahawks, and 5 Ronnie Perkins, NE Patriots.

There you go. Those five guys who were OU’s most impactful players last season are all now in the NFL. And let’s not kid ourselves about OU’s super soft defense and what it’s looked like without Ronnie Perkins carrying the energy load with his motor. This OU defense for the most part plays like a collective group of pussies who at the most haven’t played more than forty minutes of sustained high quality football in a single game this season. Evidently…Ronnie Perkins was their heart. Their heart now plays for Bill Bilichick.

And then add to the mix OU unlike in the days of Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, and Jalen Hurts hasn’t gotten consistent quarterback play for the first time in the Lincoln Riley Era in Norman.

For the first time in the Lincoln Riley era his quarterback situation is cloudy heading into the stretch run in November.

As far as the game in Norman today….OU is a three point favorite and I wouldn’t touch this game with a ten foot pole. Matt Campbell’s team has covered the spread vs. OU five out of the six times he’s coached against Lincoln Riley… and almost covered a sixth time.

I’m 12-14 verus the spread this season which isn’t awful, but it’s not to my standard. Chris van Pelt and Chris Jackson are having banner years beating the spread. I need to pick it up in a very big way starting today.

Today I’m taking K State at home versus Baylor at even. I’m taking Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide at home -19 versus my Arkansas Razorbacks. And in my bonus game I’m still thinking about it. I need more time to reflect. I’ll be back.

As far as Lincoln Riley going to LSU for $12 million a year…whatever. If LSU is stupid enough to pay that money to a coach who in reality has done a C+ level job of coaching his team so far this season…then I guess Lincoln Riley and LSU deserve one another. If Lincoln is smart…he’ll stay with Joe C.

As far as Caleb Williams goes…I would assume he and his coach had a nice private chat sometime this week about who’s the OU quarterback this season. I would hope that conversation went something like this.