Month: January 2022

What do you really say at this point? The polls today say only 55% of Americans believe Joe Biden was duly elected president. That’s interesting because in another recent poll conservative U.S. Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts had an approval rating of almost 65%.

I don’t undertsand how these two numbers can correlate because Roberts’ own Supreme Court would even hear the case because they thought, like Attorney General William Barr that Trump’s claims were total bullshit. Sixty-one of sixty-two combined state and federal appellate courts pretty much said the same.

Our Republic live in precarious times.

Unless you totally do not believe in the three branches of government, the U.S. Judiciary, and the United States Constitution…I’m not sure what your argument is if you’re a Trump person who believes he was jobbed of the presidency.

William said it was bullshit, Mitcch MCConnel said it was bullshit, and Lindset Graham said it was bullshit. And btw who do you think were the people who picked Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett to be become U.S. Supreme Court justices.

Do you believe they had the premonition Trump would try to hang his own vice-president his own government two years in advance and attempt a coup to stay in office?

This must be what you believe in at this point aand that Ted Cruz’s father wa sresponsiblew for the assasination death of JFK.

I need to pause before I lose it. When I return I’m going to post Richard Nixon’s concession speech in 1960 when as the incumbent Vice- President running for president he didn’t screw around with some process to overthrow what was a historically close election between Nixon and JFK.

Let’s do this before the Nixon video. Let’s go staright to PBS and sr=tay from partisan cable news takes.

And btw if it was me…Donald Trump would serve time in federal prison for what he initated on Janaury 6th, 2021. Just wanted to make that clear.

I’ll do the Nixon thing tomorrow, plus the Al Gore concession speech. I get depressed writing this much about this miserable wretched human being. Who else would take the St. Louis Blues’ inspirational song on their run to the 2019 Stanley Cup to use it for theme music to hang Mike Pence. The dude has no moral bottom…as in none.

I’m going to go watch the Thunder tank for about thirty minutes.

Just saw this story on the NY Post. Rachael after being yanked off the air because of what were perceived as racially insensitive comments toward then fellow ESPN enetertainer Maria Taylor finalized her contractual exit from the network yesterday.

I love Rachael. I’ve missed seeing her on air at ESPN. I thought the whole thing by ESPN was a bit draconian.

I’d love to do some podcasts with her at some point. We think alike as far as the NBA. But I’m not holding my breath for that to happen.

The irony is Maria Taylor isn’t even with ESPN any longer and is with NBC.

To be blunt…Maria never has done all that much for me on air. Not because of the color of her skin, but because I find her boring as shit.

No one more than me wants equality, but I want some talent attached to it.

Rachael…by some bizarre off the radar screen crazy kind of way you would ever read okcthunderground.com….you would always have an open ended deal with me to do some podcasts.

You don’t need an intern and I don’t need an intern..so we could work out the way the podcast is structured.

Sam Presti should offer her an opportunity if the national guys feel they need to let some more time go by before putting Rachael back on the air.

This is just me thinking outside the box, but Presti could take some of that money he’s not spending on player payroll currently and offer Rachael a two year deal.

What I would do is give Rachael a dual role replacing Little Nick Gallo as a sideline reporter and then having her replace the Hall of Famer on the studio shows as well.

The worst case scenario is she says no.

I know…this would be too much to ask of Hinkie-Presti and the Thunder as they strive to keep the worst possible on air product in the thirty team NBA.. but I’m just throwing it out there.

These are the kinds of things if given the role George Costanza was given to the New York Yankees … I would do as the GM’s assistant in Oklahoma City.

Good luck, Rachael.

This is the calendar spot where I transform from a college football zealot minus next Monday night to a passionate college hoops fan. Big 12 hoops is the part of me of which I’ll miss once the Sooners head to the SEC. The SEC in my mind is the third or fourth best conference in basketball while the Big 12 is the premier college basketball league in America.

You think that’s hyperbole?

Baylor is the defending national champion, currently ranked No. 1 and now riding a twenty game win streak after their hard earned home win over OU on Monday night by a deceiving score of 84-74.

Texas Tech with Chris Beard the tournament before was the national runner-up and lost a heartbreaker to Virginia in that national championship game.

The cancelled Covid year Tournament had Baylor and Kansas as the top two seeds in the entire draw.

So what I’m saying is for three years running the mens’ NCAA basketball champions has run thru the rugged Big 12 conference pretty much like what we’re seeing in football with Alabama and the SEC in football.

Am I comparing Scott Drew and Baylor to Nick Saban and Alabama…not quite, but this Baylor team which lost Davion Mitchell, Jared Butler, Teague to the NBA doesn’t appear to have lost much of anything so far this basketball season.

If the bracket were drawn up today alot of us who follow college hoops would probably have Baylor vs. Duke on their bracket sheet. I hope Sam Hinkie-Presti takes notice and is watching Paolo Banchero play as much as possible so as he can put a major piece of his Thunder rebuild in place after Year 2 of his sustainability thru tanking death march.

Porter Moser’s team hung with Baylor in Waco…that’s the storyline from Monday night. They never led, but with fifty seconds left OU was down by five and had the ball. Coming out of timeout…Coach Moser drew up a nice play to get Moj Gibson a three point look from the left baseline, but Baylor’s Flo Mamba made an incredible play and partially defelected the shot. Ballgame.

OU never backed down from Baylor. They were within striking distance for almost all of the game’s forty minutes. When Coach Moser and his team look at the film today they’ll realize if they had taken care of the ball better and kept Baylor somewhat off the offensive boards this was a game the Sooners could have conceivably stolen on the road.

That will will be the mantra in the film room today. Little things. Little things which lead to possesion of the ball and take away extra posessions from your opponent. Otherwise…OU shot the ball well from both the field and from the line for most of the night. A ton of positives to extract and extoll to your team today in that film room.

I’m sure in private and away from the team Coach Moser and his staff are extremely pround of the effort…but as the season moves along Monday night in Waco should be a learning moment on what it will take for OU to make the Big Dance and then make some noise in the Big Dance.

Great effort and game plan by Coach Moser. Everybody gets a helmet sticker. EJ Harkless…we need more from you, dude. We need you to be the best player every night…just not every two out of three nights. I’m almost certain Coach Moser will say that to EJ in private away from the team…because as EJ goes this team will go.

Next up the most improved team in college ball this season as the Iowa State Cyclones visit Norman on Saturday. Huge game for both teams. I guess Caleb Williams won’t be there…pffft. I think I’ll go to this game and enjoy what should be a great Big 12 basketball game

I did watch the second game of the night between Kansas at Oklahoma State, and in fairness to Mike Boynton — I’m not going to write anything about O State for at least two weeks because I’m a fair and reasonable person. I will write this though–I could barely recognize Avery Anderson, Rondel Walker, and the Moncrief kid from what they were a year ago. Some serious competitive introspection will be needed in Stillwater in the next several weeks.

From the moment I picked up a copy of Semi-Tough by Dan Jenkins as a junior at John Marshall High School he made an impact on me as to how I view the world.

He almost got me suspended for three days when Juanita Elijah my American Lit teacher caught me reading Semi-Tough when I was supposed to be reading various Mark Twain and Edgar Allen Poe suggested readings.

She caught me reading Semi-Tough at a point in the book where the oilman Big Ed Bookman’s daughter Barbara Jane was performing oral sex on her high school boy friend Billy Clyde Puckett for the first time in their relationship.

I cannot convey the rage in her eyes when she was reading the page to herself. I tried to tell her Dan Jenkins was the J.D. Salinger of his time, but her rage didn’t allow her to hear my words. She said, “Michael, we don’t read pornography in my classroom. My classroom isn’t a brothel.” It was a life changing moment for me. But I never fell out of love with Dan Jenkins.

So as I’m sitting here in the corporate headquarters of okcthunderground.com today trying to grasp this 2021 college football season the day after OU lost Caleb Williams in unrestricted free agency…I’m thinking to myself..”How is it Dan Jenkins couldn’t have stayed with us another ten years to help us plow through all of this?”

So I’m going to interview Dan from sportswriter heaven today on the blog.

I’ll start by asking, “Is NIL really that big of a deal with all the money which has always been involved in college football from boosters?”

He would say,” We’ve always had NIL to some degree. Every team in the Top 10 maybe minus Notre Dame has at least one Big Ed Bookman, a Phil Knight or a Boone on a mission. OU has always had their share…they just stay in background, unlike Boone. Texas has too many of them. You can’t have five of these guys calling the plays in the huddle at the same time though. Then it gets messy and you have what you have at Texas.”

On the transfer portal, “The portal is the best thing going it keeps guys like Switzer from stock-piling players four deep. Switzer could have been Saban if he’d had more personal discipline.”

Me– “But what about Alabama?”

Dan, “If you were a NFL prospect and thought you had a future in the NFL where you could go in the first two rounds… that’s where I’d go. If they play by Saban’s rules and if they stay the course they’re set for life. Period. Not complicated. Pure transactional free enterprise. Quid pro quo.”

Me–“You think OU can spend its way to the top of the SEC at some point?”

Dan, “If they can keep the right coach and come to the understanding they’re going to have spend money to get there…sure.”

Me– ” Will a team from the Big 12 ever win a national championship in football again?”

Dan, “Not likely. They won’t have the cash flow to attain that status of the top tier. They would need four or five Boones to keep pace with what’s getting ready to transpire.”

Me– “Boone or Big Ed Bookman from TCU in Semi Tough…who was the better mega booster?”

Dan, “Easy. Big Ed Bookman. He won national championships at TCU and would have fired Gundy the first time he dangled the Tennessee job to get a raise. Probably would have kept the coordinators and hired his lawn guy to be the head coach.”

Me–“Favorite novel you wrote?”

Dan, “Dead Solid Perfect. Not even close. Kenny Lee winning the Open and getting Beverly Tidwell back was the best I ever was as a novelist.”

Me–‘Why isn’t people didn’t know you love chick flicks and were a hopeless romantic?”

Dan, “I didn’t feel it was any of their business.”

Me–‘What are your three favorite chick flicks?”

Dan, ” You tell me your three first, slick.”

Me–“1 Serendipity, 2 Four Weddings and a Funeral, and 3 Sleepless in Seattle with Dead Solid Perfect making my Top 10.”

He’d smile and say, “Gone With the Wind, Love Story, and Thomas Crown Affair.”

Me–“Alabama or Georgia?”

Dan–“Alabama, the gap at the quarterback position. I thought Kirby Smart was going to kill his quarterback at the end of the first half on Friday when the clock ran out.”

Me– “Dan…thank you for taking the time today to help me through all of this. It was an honor.”

Dan, “Sorry your American Lit teacher didn’t have a sense of humor. We all need to laugh at ourselves more. Take care, kid.”

2018 Hawaii High School Player of the Year. Played at UCF for Jeff Lebby. 2nd Team All-AAC quarterback in 2019 before Covid became an obstacle for all of college football.

Nice quick left-handed release. Nice pocket presence. Good runner, but not a great runner like Caleb. Goes through his progressions well. Seems to see the field and be able to check off of receivers.

Dillion kind of reminds me of the former Boise quarterback Kellen Moore who is now the offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys.

A football junkie with a tremendous work ethic. The UCF coaches literally had to tell him to go home at times. A great work ethic which is a good thing to have from your QB. Caleb to me was the same way unless I missed something. Not much difference other than one runs like Super Man and has an official minimum $4 million offer tender attached to him playing another down of college football… and the other one doesn’t.

I’m surprised Team Caleb didn’t ask for the money at halftime of the Texas game in retrospect. I wonder if Jerry West called him after the Alamo Bowl.

Dillion will be a fit with Jeff Lebby. At least OU has a quarterback.

OU is probably going to at the minimum lose Mario Williams and Caleb’s high school mate. So OU will be in look of at least two more wide receivers who would be a fit with Dillion’s game.

No sweat there… the state of Texas is full of guys who can catch a football. Not as much the case with NFL bound linemen on both sides of the ball.

He won’t have that home run threat with his legs like Caleb, but in reality what other QB in college ball does. I would think his quarterback draw game and flush runs from the pocket will be fine.

Would I take him over Bo Nix and Casey Thompson? Yes… because both Dillion and Jeff Lebby already have a sense of trust with one another and they should understand from Day 1 what they need to bring to the OU offense.

I think considering the cards which were just dealt…a solid move for OU with two years left in the Big 12 before moving to the SEC.

Would I take Dillion over Spencer Sanders? Not the Spencer Sanders I saw in the second half of the Fiesta Bowl. Would I take Dillion over both of Baylor’s quarterbacks? Yes. Texas will be the wild card with their free agent QB they just signed from Ohio State. Big 12 is going to be very interesting next season.

Dan Jenkins’ fictious Big Ed Bookman the oil man from TCU in Semi-Tough would be very much at home in these NIL days in the Big 12 and beyond.

Joe C better get the oil and gas guys in line. There’s going to be a need for a fund to sign free agents playing in the SEC. But I think he knew that already. West Texas crude closed at $78 today. It’s time to get the oil guys in line with some more liquidity until the SEC money starts flowing in.

I know this may repel Kayse Schrum and the purists at O State even though her stadium bears the name of one of the greatest oil and gas leveragers of all-time…but Boone would be a trip with NIL. I wish he was still with us. But all things considered…he’s happy right now up in hydrocarbon heaven. His team beat Texas, Baylor, OU, and Notre Dame all in the same season while Mike Gundy stopped wearing Trump shirts, got his hair cut, and grew up. Bless his heart.

Go figure. What a year of Big 12 football.

Not really a shock considering Caleb’s somewhat tentative comments following the Alamo Bowl. I guess OU has a chance to still keep him, but I’m not banking on it at this point.

OU needs a quarterback. At this point—I’m not sure how long Brent Venables want to play this out with Caleb and his father. The transfer portal taketh and it giveth. What we don’t know at this point is what other DI quarterbacks besides Casey Thompson at Texas have been holding back waiting to see what happens at the OU quarterback position.

Oh, wait…OU just just got a transfer portal commit from UCF’s Dillion Gabriel….literally as I was typing.

The fact of the matter is the last time OU won a national championship in football it was with a juco by the name of Josh Heupel.

Heupel was the last left-handed quarterback at OU and I like the karma aspect of Dillion being a left-handed thrower as well.

The good thing about the transfer portal is that it’s better than signing a juco in the old days because you can sign a quarterback who’s coming from a Power 5 school or in this case an AAC school to fill your one or two year gap for the position.

It clearly hurts losing Caleb, but maybe getting this out of the way as soon as possibles flushes out the last remnants of this very odd last season of Lincoln Riley being Kathleen Turner from Body Heat in Norman, Oklahoma.

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Caleb ends up at USC since Lincoln was the one his father wanted to coach his son from the beginning…and the asking price appears to be around $4 million. So much for the good feel from the Alamo Bowl.

I can see it now…Caleb and Lincoln sipping on cool beach drinks as the Body Heat credits roll.

I was somewhat shocked by the statment Joe C and Coach Venables made earlier today sounding like they were going to sign an NBA restricted free agent. But we’re clearly in a different era with NIL attached to the process.

Enough of this already. At least the OU seniors got to exit with some dignity in San Antonio.

Casey Thompson isn’t terrible either. He threw 24 TD passes this past season to 9 interceptions. Plus, he’s a dual threat mobile quarterback. I wouldn’t soley judge him by what transpired at Texas this season. Bijuan Robinson as one of the most talented backs in the country couldn’t help the Longhorns either.

Casey comes from a Sooner family which understands what it means to be the quarterback at OU.

So maybe there could be two transfer portal QBs headed to Norman

Here’s the thing about OU…they need to get much better on defense regardless of who’s the quarterback. They need to be able to play complimentary football between the offense and the defense.

If I were Joe C and I was going to spend a couple of million of NIL money it would be on defensive linemen, two more edge rushers, and two more NFL type offensive linemen.

For OU to even stay in the top tier of college football it will begin and end with bringing SEC physicality to the line play on both sides of the ball.

Alabama, Georgia…and possibly the Texas A&M Aggies with the linemen they just signed are what OU should aspire for in their SEC team building process.

I would say at this point Caleb, his buddy from high school, and Mario Williams are headed for USC if I had to lay down a wager at this point….with A&M and Georgia possibly in the mix.

Itis what it is…only look forward, not back, in the new Wild West days of NIL college football.

Joe C…buy linemen, buddy.

Unforunately Matt Corral went down early in the Sugar Bowl with an ankle injury with the score at 0-0… so we didn’t get to see much of an anticpiated matchup of Jeff Lebby’s offense vs. Dave Aranda’s stingy defense.

But what you will see next year in Norman are a lot quarterback draws and other clever ways to utilize Caleb Williams’ running ability if he does come back to Norman. Plus…looking for big chunk plays with the passing game off of play action.

Another thing…Lebby uses a lot of jet sweep stuff with his running game.

To Matt Corral’s credit…he didn’t opt out of this game and he tried to play for his teammates…which is cool in these days of players opting out of their bowl games.

Especially in Matt Corral’s case because he has nothing left to prove. He was going to be the first quarterback taken in the draft whether he played or not in the Sugar Bowl.

The xrays turned out negative and he’s going to be okay.

But anyway…this is what the Jeff Lebby offense looks like when its firing with the first string quarterback playing.

This was painful to observe as a human. Hopefully…someone is looking out for Antonio Brown this morning and steps are being taken to get him some help.

This isn’t Antonio Brown’s first issue. The guy has fallen to this from being perhaps the best receiver in the NFL during his stay with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I wonder in his NFL history how many times he’s gone into concussion protocol?

I’ve always hoped the best for him. That he would figure things out and grow up. This young man needs some professional assistance at this point in his life.

Roger Goodell as the NFL commsioner at this point should reach out and attempt to help this human being. Antonio actually lost a million dollars yesterday in contract incentives by doing what he did.

Obviously…something is wrong with his brain.

I’m sure Tom Brady as the solid guy he is will try and do something behind the scenes.

Very sad.

I will admit though…it kind of reminded me of my exit from the Daily Thunder blog–and I’m fine now. But I didn’t take my clothes off and curse. I just said a few honest things and let myself out. So…maybe there’s hope for Antonio Brown. I’m thinking Tom Brady will reach out to Antonio Brown.

Even Tom Brady has to answer tough questions at post game pressers. Listen to how good the questions are in this presser compared to what you hear at a Thunder post game presser when Little Nick Gallo throws himself in between the Thunder player and tries to deflect any tough questions from ever being asked.

His defending Super Bowl champions Bucs almost lost to the horrible NY Jets and Antonio Brown strips down and leaves the field, yet Tom Brady sits through the interview and answers the questions with a professional calm and clarity.

Next question. You think the writers in LA, NY, and Chicago allow this? Don’t think do.

Of course the Thunder lost again to drop to 13-23 with only forty-six games remaining in this NBA season, but the glass half full take is Josh Giddey became the youngest player in NBA history to record a triple double.

The Thunder are now tied with New Orleans as the fourth worst team in the league and very much in the hunt for Paulo Banchero if they decide to shut Shai down after the All-Star break.

I would say on my hypothetical ballot Giddey is right now my pick as Rookie of the Year. And while I don’t know if Shai can make the All-Star team playing on a team which has tanked shamelessly two seasons in a row…in my book he’s an All-Star hybrid guard.

Lu Dort is a solid workmanlike two way wing player and of course you have the three functional vets in Kenrich, Mike Muscala, and Derrick Favors.

If I were going to round out my Top 11 Thunder rotational players as of tonight …I’d go this way. 7 Aaron Wiggins, 8 Darius Bazely, 9 Poku, 10 Tre Mann, and 11 Jeremiah Robinson-Earl. From there I would go…12 Ty Jerome, 13 Isaiah Roby, 14 Theo Maledon , and 15 Gabriel Deck if he’s still on the the team.

If you add a bonafide difference maker like Banchero you could have something in the works in Oklahoma City if the team isn’t moved to Las Vegas to double their Forbes valuation in less than five years.

What I’m saying is you can start to see some light at the end of the tunnel if the Thunder could catch a break in this summer’s NBA draft.

Of course…I’m not watching all that much of this tanking bullshit. But I am watching enough to keep track of how these young guys are progressing. Hinkie-Presti actually did a solid job with last summer’s draft.

It still baffles me these Thunder fans are cheering at the end when the team needs to be losing.

I originally had the Thunder to go 22-60. So for that to happen Shai needs to be shut sometime soon and the team needs to finish 9-37 coming down the stretch.-I hate tanking, but if you’re going to do it…then do it right.

If you bench Shai with some murky ailment like last season…that’s very doable.

OU at Baylor next as the gritty Sooners handled Kansas State with three rotational players in protocol on Saturday in Norman. Another helmet sticker game for EJ Harkless.

I’m ready to resume my OU basketball beat in rugged Big 12 play. OU is at 12-2…I think they get in with 18 wins given their strength of schedule. Baylor hasn’t lost since the Big 12 Championship Game against Cade Cunningham and has won 19 games in a row. Hopefully…those three guys can play in Waco this week vs. the No. 1 ranked Bears.

That’s my Thunder glass half-full take on January 3, 2022.

Josh Giddey, nice game, buddy.

I have a little space and time between the magnificent LA Ram 20-19 win over the fading Baltimore Ravens in the first game on Big Fox today. Too bad Baker couldn’t bring this greatness out in Odell Beckam Jr. A great ending for both Odell and my 4th rated NFL quarterback Matthew Stafford as the Rams are close to clinching their NFC division perhaps later today.

Tom Brady, my No. 1 rated quarterback brought the somewhat bored Tampa Bay Bucs back to victory with an iconic comeback against the pathetic New York football Jets. I think Mahomes won earlier today with a win over Joe Burrow and the young Bengals. Cincy actually came back and won…good for them. Aaron Rodgers tonight in frigid Green Bay.

I’m going to watch Dak Prescott now to see if there’s a reason for him to be in my Top 8 current NFL quarterback ratings heading into the post season.

The video above is Trump shamelessly grifting unknowing rural whites in Iowa and persuading them to vote against their own long-term economic interests.

The Grifter and The Turtle…how is it any rural white in this country making less than a half a million a year could identify with either of these humans.

Here’s how…you talk Zero Tax Movement, Ag subsidies, guns, and the National Rifle Association and say as many disparaging things you can think about in regards to costal elites like AOC.

That’s what both these dudes do only with completely different game faces in place on game day.