Injuries suck..especially when one fells your team leader. But this is what life and sports are about. Reacting to adversity–and finding a way to get it done.
Hate to see John Mateer miss three or four weeks, but it’s very simple. Next guy up needs to do his job and pull his link on the chain.
I have faith in Michael. He can do this.
If he can’t do it…we’ll move Owen Heineke to quarterback. Just kidding…kind of.
Love and eternal peace.
MJ
I like Jackson Arnold as a young man so this in no way will be snarky. It may be a little snarky to Auburn fans, but not to Jackson.
I thought this was a very entertaining SEC opener for both teams. This game had a little bit of everything as far as a college football game can deliever.
OU eventually won the game by a 24-17 score as John Mateer led the Sooners on a clutch drive to take the lead. Then R Mason Thomas closed the deal with a safety sack of Jackson Arnold to seal the game in what was a very physical football game.
A year ago, without John Mateer, OU probably would have found a way to lose this game. But not on this Saturday. This is a different group of Sooners with a different kind of mindset as far as finishing games in the fourth quarter when it matters.
We saw it in that final drive against Michigan and we witnessed it again this past Saturday as John Mateer completed his final 11 pass attempts of the game and then scored the game winner himself on another one of those smart scampers into the endzone which has highlighted his season in Norman so far.
Mateer is a tough kid. Both physically and mentally. He is exactly what this team needed at the quarterback position. A quarterback who sets the tone by example and leads the team through his play. Maybe a white kid who plays a litle bit like Jalen Hurts might be a good comparison.
That in no way is a dig at Jackson Arnold because I like Jackson and want him to succeed and play in the NFL at some point. My OU memory of Jackson will always be the Alabama game where he shredded the Tide with his running game as the Sooners routed Alabama 24-3 in Norman.
I’m dissapointed though in the Auburn fanbase. They’re still whining over the Sategna play where he didn’t leave the field. What is a trick play? It’s deception. What is a double reverse? What is a halfback pass? What is the Statue of Liberty play which Boise used to upset the Sooners in that epic Fiesta Bowl I attended? What is the hook and ladder play which Boise also used on the touchdown prior to the two-point conversion?
All trick plays with the (mens rea) intentional intent of deception.
Jackson Arnold was SACKED TEN TIMES on Saturday by OU. TEN TIMES. Plus, the Auburn offense took double digit penalties on the offensive side of the football at just the wrong times. The replay call on the overturned Auburn touchdown was correct. Possession was never established.
I guess, by the letter of the written rules–Sategna should have yelled over to Hugh Freeze he was staying on the field just like the Boise coach should have done to Bob Stoops before all of that trickery.
Yeah, whatever. Auburn has a little bit of that O State whine in them. They’re always firing their coaches and always upset with Alabama. They need to become more mentally tough would be MJ’s advice. I mentioned this to my wife who attended Auburn… just after the game and she flipped me off. I actually like she did that. It showed me some fandom toughness.
Que sera, baby. OU is now 4-0 all-time versus Auburn and this game marks the first time in the series OU didn’t win by a double digit margin.
As far as Jackson goes..I give this advice—get rid of the ball quicker. Get through your progressions quicker or move up into the pocket quicker and flush downfield. There’s an art to pocket presence, JA.
And BTW to you Auburn fans, OU’s best defensive football player, R Mason Thomas, didn’t even play the first half because of a very dubious targeting call in the Temple game. Should OU have whined to the SEC about that fact?
It is what it is. Auburn is at Kyle Field this coming week-end to play a good A&M team. We’ll see how it goes. I know if I were coaching Auburn…I’d make certain No. 8 Cam Clarkson at a minimum gets 12 targets or touches every game.
I mean, I want Auburn to win the game. Let’s see what they’re made of.
Time to work out.
Eternal love, MJ.
This will be brief because I need to go work out this Saturday morning and then get to work on my College Game Day as there’s three Power 4 games I want to focus on this glorious college football week-end.
These games would be: Texas Tech vs. Utah, Auburn vs. Oklahoma, and Miami vs. Florida. You’ll notice the two Power 4 teams with the two toughest schedules in the country, those being OU and Florida…both have tough assignments today as they pretty much will for the rest of the season.
As far as last night in Stillwater….what can you say of which I didn’t already write on this blog around twelve days ago.
Congrats to the young men from Tulsa. They completely dominated O State in the first half and in all reality should have been leading something like 24-3 at the half instead of 16-3. Tulsa obliterated O-State on both lines of scrimmage with O State coming off of an off week after the 69-3 disaster at Oregon.
For you business and math majors at O State…that’s means when your competing neighbor has 88 cows and pigs the last two games…and you have 15 cows and pigs the last two games—some serious work needs to be done.*
The kid playing QB for Tulsa, Taylor Hayes a sophmore, had one previous college football start before last night. And he played for East Tennessee State last season. So it’s not like in any way Tulsa had some high priced NIL transfer leading this road upset win last night in Stillwater.
Tulsa obliterated O State on both lines of scrimmage iin the first half. That’s football went the other guys obviously care more and have the ‘The Want To’ advantage.
That’s all that was, plus, O State tackles like a bunch of grandmothers. But give Tulsa credit. This was the first time since 1951 in which a Tulsa team won in Stillwater.
Kudos also should go out to former O State running back Dominic Richardson who was clearly the No. 1 star of the game. I’m sure this was special for him in that Mike Gundy told him he wasn’t good enough to be the feature back at O State.
Jim Traber on Monday can handle the Mike Gundy situation. I have better things to cover on my blog than this nonsense. Hope Tulsa can build on this and get themselves bowl eligible and build off this win.
Eternal love, Mike J.
MJ is outta here for a day or two fishing some of the beatiful ponds and small lakes of eastern Oklahoma. Nice little swing down in the temperatures…so I think I’ll fish a day or two.
Then ….it’s back to the okcthunderground.com studio getting to work on Auburn vs. Oklahoma Gameday.
Unlike both Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert…MJ still has a studio intact. A vibrant studio I might add. A studio filled with courage, hope, integrity, and justice for all.
Have a splendid Thursday. And here’s a thought…be kind to one another. Find your better angels and be the best version of yourselves 24/7.
Eternal love and peace.
Enjoy the song. I picked the Michael McDonald verstion over the Marvin Gaye version in an effort to reach out to all the radicalized white male Trump supporters. We all have to start somewhere in reaching out to one another. Right?
Love one another.
Brother Miguel.
Robert Redford passed and it has brought a new set of tears to my eyes. He was not only a great actor, but an excellent director and producer as well. But most of all… a tremendous human being who never over-stepped his boundaries as a celebrity and stayed within himself with class and dignity.
There is an indescribable beauty of being alone fishing a spot like this with your thoughts and your soul. It allows you to free yourself from this crazy place we reside. Just calling it surreal doesn’t suffice.
This scene touches that part of me that always drive me towards solitude at our lake near Alex. A place to hide from the world.
Robert Redford directed A River Runs Through It. This is my favorite scene from all of the movies Robert Redford was ever involved in making.
God bless you, Robert Redford.
Hope to see you at some point down the road.
Love and peace, Mike J
Let me do this before I move on to some more pleasant things with the blog this week. This is OKC mayor David Holt yesterday giving his take on the death of Charlie Kirk. Mayor Holt is what I would describe as a moderate progressive Rebublican.
Again…he would have no chance whatsoever of becoming governor in this state because he’s more like…me, and I can assure you Mike J would get ZERO votes outside of Oklahoma County-OKC, and Cleveland County-Norman. That’s almost 0.00.00 votes to clarify.
In this state currently– the likes of John McCain, Bush 41, Reagan, and Mitt Romney wouldn’t do very well either. I don’t think they would get hung like Mike Pence almost did, but I think they’d struggle against a strong MAGA candidate who’d tie themselves to the loins of Donald Trump. They’d be called RINOS or squishes because among other things…they believe or did believe in the Rule of Law. Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Eisenhower would’t do well either. Truth hurts…especially when you rank dead last in education…even behind Mississippi.
But here in Oklahoma County-OKC we have this amazing purple island of bi-partisanship…which of course—now hangs an NBA Championship banner as well and has this equally amazing ambassador named Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
But enough of me. Here’s America’s hottest mayor… OKC’s David Holt.
Damn…imagine that. Someone besides MJ in Oklahoma actually referring to The Rule of Law.
Eternity forever, MJ.
We had a lovely time in Greenwood Village with the’Fam’ over the week-end. My five year-old grandson, Robert, scored two goals in his Saturday soccer game. On Friday–on his home rink—he graciously allowed me to hang around with him as he politlely nudged me 9-8 in a grandfather-grandson streeet hockey game.
Hiking, exploring, looking for snakes… and just basically taking in the beauty of the Rockies took up the rest of our time. Aubrey was doing little girl things for the most part…although she did ask me to read her Little Red Riding Hood on Friday night.
It was beautiful.
I turned off my cell phone to the world. I didn’t watch any TV until the SEC college footall games started on Saturday afternoon. I never watch Fox or MSNBC—so none of that nonsense was touching my senses in any manner.
It was beautiful.
But, then of course–I finally saw the Charlie Kirk story. What a tragegy for Americans as a whole to now have to deal with the execution of a far right talk show/podcaster in front of the entire world.
Let me be clear. Charlie Kirk was never someone I took seriously or considered as a viable source of information or philosophy. Like his idol…Rush Limbaugh–I thought he was for the most part a carney barker for the far right wing of the GOP Christian movement. I in no way was or am an expert on Charlie Kirk nor an advocate of the doctrines he preached to the MAGA, Tea Party, and no tax Christian people.
But I am a human with a heart. I am an aging man with family members and others who I cherish. And right now regardless of my different views from those of Charlie Kirk…my heart goes out to his wife and their two young children.
This is not acceptable on any level in our country. This other party with pre-meditated malice basically executed another human being for political reasons, and this cannot happen in this country.
Yeah, I know, what Donald Trump did on January 6th, and it was horrific. So horrific in fact, since the gallows were constructed for Mike Pence on that fateful day…300 additional acts of domestic political terrorism have been recorded in our country to date.
On one hand, my heart as a Stage 4 cancer survivor is in the most joyous human spot one could hope for while still walking and living on this earth. On the other hand, our country is its own worst enemy and all of this is self-inflicted.
This nonsense from both the far right and the far left in our country cannot continue. As I’ve stated on this blog many times previously—you people on both extremes are killing our country one day at a time…literally.
You have to be better. As a country ‘We’ have to be better.
These type of senseless acts cannot continue.
We used to be better than this. But right now we’re broken–and broken as a singular unit. Know what I mean?
Let’s all be better together.
Love, MJ
I almost feel dirty having lowered myself to the Mike Gundy nonsense I covered on the blog yesterday. But sometimes you have to summon the courage to write what you feel or else you wake up one day and you’re like the passive-submissives at the Daily Thunder or Chad Weiberg.
Fortunately-we had this trip to Colorado scheduled with the ‘Fam’ and it comes just as the Oklahoma temps are set to re-enter the 90 degree range for four days.
Perfect for us. Just perfect.
But before I go…I want to purge myself of the Mike Gundy filth and share with you one of my favorite meditative prayers that helped me so much during the toughest days of the Stage 4 cancer journey.
From St. Francis:
Lord, make me a channel of thy peace–that where there is hatred, I may bring love–that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness–that where there is discord, I may bring harmony–that where there is error, I may bring truth– that where there is doubt, I may bring faith–that where there is despair, I may bring hope– that where there are shadows, I may bring light– that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek to comfort rather than to be comforted–to understand rather than be understood, to love, rather than to be loved. For it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen
I love every word of it. If you’re a fake Trump Christian…you should try it sometime in place of all the hate.
That’s it for me today.
Eternity forever. MJ
I actually made a brief appearance on Jim Traber’s show yesterday afternoon as Oklahoma’s premier underground blogger. Some clueless, hopeless O State fan named Lugnut preceded me. He was the lone voice on the show who supported Mike Gundy continuing as O State’s football coach after their shameful beatdown Roberto Duran ‘No Mas’ 69-3 loss at Oregon this past Saturday.
So Lugnut, buddy…listened up and take some notes.
I basically said, ” He should have been fired last season after his idiotic diatribe when he basically said, ‘Many O State fans are poor white trash who live in trailer home parks and have difficulty paying their utility bills.’
That’s interesting because when Boone was still living and along with AD Mike Holder they ‘somewhat’ kept Mike Gundy’s most idiotic impulses ‘somewhat’ in check and were able to co-exist with the trailer park people. But of course, both of those guys are gone and Gundy in fact seems to in no way be monitored by either the interim O State president or the very weak AD Chad Weiberg.
Putting aside the horrific loss at Oregon this past weekend…Mike Gundy should be fired. He’s an embarrassment not only to O State, but to the state as a whole. He’s become one part Ryan Walters, one part Markwayne Mullin, and one part Tiger King. And of course….it was MJ who authored the still unfilmed Netflix docu-film…’Mullet King: The Boone Pickens-Mike Gundy College Football Saga.
After firing or retiring Mike Gundy early… O State should pursue Zac Robinson, Todd Monken, Ben Arbuckle, or the head coach at South Florida to become their next football coach.
The good news for O State is that they play in the defenseless Big 12 and it shouldn’t at all be impossible to get the program back to the point where they should be one of the top three teams in the conference somewhat quickly if they can locate a new Boone on a par with the oil and gas dude in Lubbock.
Mike Gundy…the SEC awaits you. Don’t shit all over yourself thinking about that one.
Have a wonderful, Tuesday, Oklahoma.
MJ
Pretty much an outstanding first week of the NFL regular season as my Green Bay Packers routed the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field by a 27-6 count.
I’ve always loved the Packers pretty much since 1962 or so at the age of five when my hatred for Tom Landry and the Dallas Cowboys made the Packers an easy choice for me to adopt them as my NFL team. Coach Lombardi, Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Jimmy Taylor, Jerry Kramer, Willie Davis, Fuzzy Thurston…. these were my guys and their sheer dominance over America’s Team down south in Dallas was my NFL refuge.
I did however like Don Meredith and Roger Staubach—so my Cowboys’ hatred never extended to those two great NFL quarterback legends. And, I will also admit I liked Peter Gent’s novel North Dallas Forty almost as much as I loved Dan Jenkins’ Semi-Tough and Dead Solid Perfect.
What Mrs. Juanita Elijah wll never undertstand is that Dan Jenkins and Peter Gent pretty much explained to me in their novels the passage of young manhood back during my days as a John Marshall Bear. Mark Twain and Edgar Allen Poe…not quite as much.
The Packers aquired Micah from Jerry Jones just before the trade deadline and hopefully he’ll be the missing miss to the Packer pash rush which I think along with QB Jordan Love’s rising play could put my Packers into what I call the ‘championship window.’
When Presti acquired both Caruso and Isaiah he pretty much in my view vaulted the Thunder into the ‘NBA championship window’. This move with Micah could be along those same lines ‘IF’ the Packers have enough physicalty to get past the Eagles when it matters.
What an NFL season this portends to be for MJ even beyond the Packers as the OU quarterbacks in the league, Baker, Kyler, Jalen, and even even Caleb all appear to be at the point in their careers when they’re all going to be prominent NFL storylines this season. I don’t really consider Spencer Rattler an OU quarterback, but I should… given he quarterbacked the Sooners over the Florida Gators in a Cotton Bowl rout before being benched for Caleb Williams.
Micah…welcome to the Green Bay Packers, buddy. Let’s see if we can climb through that championship window while MJ’s still breathing and walking even if ‘we’ have to beat Baker and Jalen to do it.
Eternal peace, MJ.