Author: Mike

Clay Bennett must have mixed feelings. On one hand, his school OU has a legit chance at winning its third straight Heisman. On the other hand, this means other than O State fans no one will care what the Thunder will be doing if the Thunder unload Chris Paul before the OU football season comes to an end in what could be early January.

Three other quarterbacks as in Trevor Lawrence, Tua, and Joe Burrow will probably have stellar seasons, but Jalen Hurts will have the stats and a compelling story for voters if OU’s defense can just be functional.

Lincoln Riley knows this and he will give Jalen Hurts every chance possible to complete his story with a Final Four appearance and a possible ultimate game of redemption against Tua and the Tide.

But again…that OU defense. Will they really be better? Can we really tell anything just yet? It wasn’t Texas which exposed OU’s putrid defense last season…it was Army. Jim Traber has it right—we probably won’t know until Alex Grinch’s new defense plays Texas Tech.

On Saturday in the iconic setting of the Rose Bowl–Jalen Hurts looked like a Little League ringer playing against Chip Kelly’s awful UCLA squad. As I wrote yesterday…do we really know what Mike Gundy as a coach would have been without T Boone’s economic largesse? By the same token we’re seeing what Chip Kelly is as a coach without Phil Knight’s money at Oregon…and the answer to date is not much.

Jalen Hurts looked like a high school senior toying against JV players on Saturday evening as the Sooners strolled to a predictably easy 48-14 win over the Bruins.

Offensively—the Sooners might actually be better than last season. OU’s O line under Bill Bedenbaugh once again looks like one of the nation’s best. Trey Sermon is running with a cause and punishing opponents. And OU literally has so many receivers I don’t have all their names down yet.

But I have two down for sure….Lamb and Rambo. We knew about Lamb, but what we didn’t know was that Charleston Rambo would make us forget about Marquise ‘Downtown’ Brown by the third game. And the promising thing is we saw this from Rambo against Alabama in the national semi-finals last season. He’s shown he can do this against elite defenders…not just Houston and UCLA.

I’m not Clay Bennett. He can’t openly switch and start wearing a Warriors cap and cheer against his soon to be tanking Thunder. But he can take solace that at least until this OU football season comes to an end if Jalen Hurts stays healthy these Sooners should make a run at a third straight Heisman and a third straight Final Four.

Beyond that—none of us yet know if OU’s defense will be good enough to dream of a team which could hang with Clemson or Alabama.

Georgia, Notre Dame and LSU …yes. But the defense will have to get better every week to hang with Clemson and Alabama. You have to get stops and get off the field against those two powerhouses. You have to play real football.

What an amazing life!

T Boone Pickens transcends Bedlam football. The man was a pioneer, a visionary, and yes…a corporate raider, but what a life story.

He was the epitome of the boom/bust oil industry mentality. And when he made it back big again in 2000 playing natural gas he said what the heck and just basically leveraged his alma mater Oklahoma State University.

He didn’t donate to O State. No. He with his half billion dollar donation in essence bought enough shares of a state funded university to become the university’s de facto CEO.

I absolutely loved his balls. His audacity. His will to win.

Boone Pickens could very well have been a Dan Jenkins fictional character in Dead Solid Perfect. Pickens could have been the fictional oil tycoon Big Ed Bookman straight out of Fort Worth in Semi Tough.

He bought a state funded university and in 2011 his college football team won a Big 12 championship and almost made it to the BCS National Championship Game at a school which had a high school level stadium before he ‘acquired’ his college football franchise.

That wasn’t Mike Gundy’s team, that was T Boone Picken’s team. Kind of like Neil Gorsuch isn’t Donald Trump’s Supreme Court Justice but is Mitch McConnell’s justice. Same thing.

Mike Gundy is a nice coach, but the 2011 Big 12 championship team was a testament to Boone Pickens not to Mike Gundy. If you doubt me google the locker room celebration and see who the players were centered around in the locker room.

As an OU fan I absolutely loved the guy. He had guts and it didn’t faze him a bit to take on big boys OU and Texas on the football field. I’m sure he wanted to fire Gundy several times for not be able to beat OU more than twice, but I’m to assume Mike Holder held that impulse in check.

His ranch in Mesa Vista in west Texas was amazing. Google it and take a virtual tour. Who else would have done this?

He loved to fish and loved labs. How could I not love T Boone Pickens?

What a shame for O State they have lost their most interesting alum and their team owner. T Boones Pickens was the Jerry Jones of college football and to be frank Mike Gundy has been the Jason Garrett of college football.

Again…I’m not dogging Mike Gundy because the best man at my wedding was a Midwest City guy, but this was not a Mike Gundy era—this was a T Boone Pickens era at O State.

He’d show up in Stillwater and hold his own Boone pressers. He’d hint at more Boone dollars on the away. He’d push Gundy to the side and give his public takes on the team. He dared Gundy to take the train wreck Tennessee job. I laughed my ass every time he got on Gundy for not beating OU.

I’ve always wondered to myself who he would have hired if Holder had allowed him to fire Gundy. I always drooled at the prospect of Boone hiring Mike Leach at some point. Oh my god. Could you have imagined Boone and Leach together?

Bedlam football will not be the same without T Boone Pickens.

I will miss him greatly because he was a larger than life character who made O State relevant on the national stage.

After Julian Castro made the accusation Joe Biden is too old to remember what he said sixty seconds earlier I lost interest in this 1996 version of Michael Lewis’s book Losers and fell asleep on the couch next to the diva lab Pauli. I curled against her in a fetal position and fell asleep. We looked at each other knowingly. The look shared between us was clear… Trump will probably be re-elected.

I fear these Dems are in history what the GOP candidates in 1996 were when Bob Dole got slaughtered and Bill Clinton won a second term despite the fact Monica Lewinsky evidently gave him blow jobs in the oral office.

None of the Dem candidates I like made this debate’s cut line. Michael Bennet as I wrote earlier never had a chance. He’s qualified, smart, and not a communist. Timmy Ryan from Ohio’s rust belt like me is old school and like Bennet isn’t a communist either. Neither of these reasonable guys ever had a chance.

In case you’re not keeping score the Dems had all progressives except Sleepy Joe Biden and perhaps Amy K who herself has no chance whatsoever.

The Dems just don’t get it. Bill Maher gets it. He knows they’re in deep shit, that this progressive wing of the Democratic party is the best thing Donald Trump has going for him.

Bill Maher was on Morning Joe and nailed it. He knows what I know. That being college educated people who like having their own health care and who aren’t currently members of the Communist Party are going to vote their own economic situation given these Dem candidates even with our democracy and constitution being diminished every day by Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell.

If I had to vote for a ticket of the remaining Dems left standing at this debate it would be a Biden-Booker ticket. Moderate independents, you know—the ones who will decide this election are not going to go for a ticket of progressives regardless of how bad Donald Trump is.

In 1992 when Bill Clinton was smarter than his wife and had James Carvell instead of Robbie Mook running his campaign–they understood the landscape. It’s the economy—STUPID. And it always will be. People vote their economy even when the corrupt incumbent has Vlad Putin as his running mate.

How ironic…both the Dems and the GOP are running Communists for the Oval Office in 2020.

In 1992—two things saved Bill Clinton’s ass…those being an economic recession and Ross Perot having a Texas hardon for Bush 41.

So as I see it these Dems left standing need a mini-economic depression and some one like Ross Perot joining the race and draining votes from the Putin-Trump-McConnell ticket.

I have no idea who this person could be at the given moment. You have to think who the Trump base might find intriguing. Maybe Chip and Joanna Gaines could be available. That was sarcasm…kind of.

Obviously…no one now associated with the DNC ever saw War Room.

It’s the economy—stupid.

It you love or hate politics this is must see.

OU is 2-0 and headed to California to play Chip Kelly’s 0-2 UCLA Bruins. I have no idea what the Vegas spread is as of Wednesday night. I would guess something like OU at -19.

Hard to tell what OU is just yet on the defensive side of the ball. On the offensive side of the ball they are once again excellent and the place kicking is somewhat suspect so far.

I don’t think we’ll really know if Alex Grinch’s defense has made impact improvement until we see them play against Texas Tech. Then we might know something.

I know this though…Texas with only three starters back on defense isn’t what they were on that side of the ball last season. People should score the ball on the Longhorns.

But in Oklahoma the story is Jalen Hurts especially after the performance of the Cleveland Browns this past Sunday.

I love listening to Jalen’s pressers. He’s ten years younger than Russell Westbrook and acts twenty years older maturity wise. I can tell Tramel loves these pressers as well. Good for him to be around an athlete this season not acting like a child.

Here’s Jalen after OU’s 70-14 win over South Dakota last Saturday in Norman.

Even though I’m an OU fan—I’m a fan of Boone Pickens. I found him to be an interesting man who was never boring. I read two of his books and he was a character for sure.

He had a sense of audacity about him almost bigger than life ranging from his boom and bust business life to his giving of money to his favorite charity which was Oklahoma State University.

All told…Pickens donated almost a billion dollars to his alma mater and it didn’t just go to the football team. It went to every facet of the university.

But make no mistake about this…he wanted O State to win a national championship in football. He wanted O State to reach the football heights of both Texas and Oklahoma.

In 2011, ‘his’ team came within one missed field goal in Ames of making the national championship game. That haunted him for sure even though O State went on to beat Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl for O State’s only ever BCS bowl game win.

‘His’ O State team did quite well against Texas and has a current win streak of four games versus the Longhorns. Against OU…not so good as ‘Mike Gundy’s’ team is 2-12 against the Sooners.

This clearly miffed Boone Pickens. He was an extremely competitive guy. This one stat is probably what caused Pickens and Mike Gundy to have several public arguments with Gundy which caused the coach to flirt with Tennessee and Arkansas.

But in the end, they worked it out and their egos co-existed.

Who was more important to O State becoming a Top 25 program?

I would clearly say it was Boone. He gave O State financial viability. He gave them a stage to perform on. Other coaches beyond Mike Gundy would have had success with T Boone as the team owner. In a word—he leveled the playing field for his Cowboys.

O State in my mind just lost its most important alum. But one would think his legacy will live forever

Kevin Durant can’t let it go in regards to his departure from Oklahoma City. In a recently published Wall Street Journal piece he ripped the city for the way they treated him and then ripped Thunder management.

Yawn.

Here’s what I would say…Kevin needs to grow up and Oklahoma City as a city needs to grow up. There—the two parties have something in common.

If I were Durant this is what I would rip the Thunder for:

1 For never securing a REAL two way shooting guard after the Harden trade.

2 The Harden trade itself.

3 For firing Scott Brooks then replacing him with a college coach who was a lateral move.

4 For having a franchise which has gone 4-12 in post season play after his departure to Golden State.

5 For having Kevin Durant, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and Paul George and not having anything to show for it other than a book by the NY Times’ Sam Anderson and a really good ESPN 30/30 film on the horizon.

If I were Oklahoma City or the Thunder the thing I would rip Durant for was not telling the organization he was going to leave so as they could secure something in personnel as he did with the Warriors.

He was a free agent…free to escape from Oklahoma City. I kind of get that feeling at times myself.

In closing…yawn.

How ironic…both Oklahoma City and Kevin Durant have something in common—they both need to grow up.

There were two great games in college football yesterday which was a good thing because both OU and O State played teams not worthy of mentioning.

Army traveled to the Big House in Ann Arbor and should have won in regulation. But the game somehow got to overtime and Michigan finally prevailed 24-21 in double overtime.

You can’t sleep on Army. They should have beaten OU in Norman in regulation last season and then went on to win eleven games and a bowl game.

Army is a very well coached team and a team worth watching.

In the nightcap national television game—LSU traveled to Austin to play the Texas Longhorns in an early season swing game for both teams. LSU was a Vegas four point road favorite and played through a rowdy Texas crowd to win 45-38 in what was a thrilling game.

LSU quarterback Joe Burrow was superb as he led this new look LSU offense all over the field against a young Texas defense. This is not your typical LSU offense. This is a Big 12-like offense which will score with anybody in the country. You have to think Burrow is now on some Heisman lists after this performance on national television.

Tough loss for the Big 12 because this game would have validated the conference coupled with the Longhorns’ recent win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

The Texas offense will give OU fits though. Sam Ehrlinger is a an excellent quarterback and he has plenty of weapons around him.

Once again the Red River Shootout should be a game we see two times this Big 12 football season.

I don’t know if losing to LSU at home rules out Texas for Final Four consideration, but it doesn’t help given now they would have to beat OU twice instead of just once to make the Final Four.

OU routed outmanned South Dakota. The Sooners now travel to play 0-2 UCLA in Los Angeles against a Chip Kelly team which to date has struggled. UCLA’s two losses have come at the hands of Cincy and San Diego State.

I would think the goal for Texas is to get back to the Big 12 Championship Game and see if they can break OU’s stranglehold on dominating the conference since the departure of Colt McCoy.

And then of course—Antonio Brown became another weapon for Tom Brady to throw the football to this coming season. The New England Patriots never cease to amaze.

It just breaks my heart to see the devastation rendered by Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas. The outer Abaco Islands will always hold a special place in my heart.

In 1981 my then girlfriend left to attend Auburn in Alabama. She told me she could never live in Oklahoma. I pretty much thought that was it because I wasn’t moving to Alabama. But she called me during the Christmas break of her freshman year and told me to come visit her at Auburn.

So…I made reservations for four days at a place called Treasure Cay in the outer chain of the Abaco Islands. Back then, there was one hotel and only one restaurant. It was literally like having your own island.

We walked the beaches. We talked…and she came back to live in Oklahoma and almost forty years later we’re still together with one son, six dogs thru the years, the diva Pauli, and a grandson three weeks away from being born in Denver.

Auburn since that trip has been my second favorite school and just this past week-end… I was screaming at the flat screen when they made their improbable comeback against Oregon to kick off the college football season. I was Auburn’s biggest fan in Oklahoma when they made their magical run in March Madness to the Final Four.

That trip in1981 changed my life in the most profound possible way. During the years—we’ve probably been back to the Bahamas maybe six times or so. The people are kind and wonderful and the devastation this storm wreaked upon them is tragic.

I hope the American people do all they can to help the people in the Bahamas.

This video is nothing like what we visited in 1981 back when Treasure Cay was the imagination of the developers.

As far as fan interest goes this sports season in Oklahoma the Oklahoma City Thunder will drop below both of the OU and O State quarterback stories.

The Jalen Hurts and Spencer Sanders stories will replace the Russell Westbrook and Paul George narratives. The Thunder will be somewhat anecdotal this season as they try to reshape themselves into something beyond the Charlotte Hornets. BTW…the ‘new Daily Hornet’ used a Little Nick Gallo bolt just this morning so I don’t see any real change there. It must be a millennial thing. Sigh.

Lincoln Riley has become the quarterback guru of football. His offense is the rage and he is arguably the Bill Walsh of this football generation. In case you forgot—Bill Walsh was of San Francisco 49’er fame with his West Coast offense.

OU will never be without a marquee QB as long as Lincoln Riley is the head coach. Spencer Rattler is redshirting behind Jalen Hurts as we move through this football season.

As I move forward with my blog I will try and cover ‘our’ Charlotte Hornets through this season of tanking and reshaping, but as of yet I’m not sure exactly how that should be done. But I’m almost certain it shouldn’t be done by quoting Nick Gallo. I think a certain combination of compassion and honesty will be required. In a word—fairness.

But for right now it’s Lincoln Riley and Jalen Hurts as the Sooners try to make it back to college football’s playoff for the third straight season.

This doesn’t really shock me that the once preeminent Oklahoma City Thunder blog of Royce Young has been sold. I mean…when you go an entire NBA season with one of the league’s highest payrolls and decide to use Little Nick Gallo as your go to guy you should be bought by someone else. I hate to sound cold, but in the name of blogging and writing when you sell out to that degree you should be bought by someone who gives a shit about the content of their blog.

Whether you have a thousand readers or a million readers you should have SOME PASSION FOR YOUR BLOG. Some pride in what you write. A blog is a place where one writes from one’s heart and not where you monetize ads. A blog should be personal…. as in personal to your heart.

Daily Thunder at one time was the place to be and it may well still be, but those who were around in its better days know how far the content of the blog has fallen.

To me, the thing which made Daily Thunder somewhat different was that it had an edge defined by its message board and commenters from all over the globe who became Thunder fans during the golden years of Kevin Durant and Company.

I hope the new owners have some ideas which goes into having some content and having some edge to that content.

Daily Thunder clearly has the most prominent brand of any Thunder blog and that coupled with the affiliation to ESPN should be enough to keep it as such. But again—content would be nice. Having someone with no financial ties to the Thunder would be nice. Telling it like it is would be nice.

Kevin Durant isn’t around any longer. Nor are Harden or Westbrook or Paul George. It will interesting to see how these guys do having a strictly Thunder concept. It will be interesting to see Oklahoma City’s interest in a team which will be tanking this basketball season once a destination for Chris Paul is determined.

I wish the new owners well. There should be a Daily Thunder and I hope they help DT find its way back.