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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.

So what happened to this person one year later?

Hardball big money politics and dark money is what happened. Lindsey Graham miscalculated as did Mitch McConnell that half of registered Republicans a year later would still believe anything coming out of Donald Trump’s mouth.

Politics is what happened. And probably a year after the election like most Republicans Lindsey Graham realized Joe Biden wasn’t going to govern as a moderate as he promised, but would fold his tent to the far left lane of his own party which he somewhat denounced back in the Democratic primaries of 2020 before James Clyburn saved Joe Biden’s presidential aspirations.

Here’s the truth about Joe Biden’s presidency so far…it’s been more of James Clyburns’ presidency with Joe Manchin acting as a brake from the American political middle.

Take a guess who the most trusted American is at some level of American government currently? It’s Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts who currently holds a 65% approval rating. John Roberts is a moderate who was appointed to the Court by Bush 43. You know how he gets to 65%? He gets there because almost all registered Independents like myself and somewhere around 20% of Republicans view him as a non-partisan sane human being compared to the other options available.

Sixty-two lawsuits were filled by Trump’s Legal Dream Team of lunatics and dimwits and by my count only one wasn’t dismissed. Trump’s own Supreme Court of which he appointed three Justices wouldn’t even give him the time of day.

This wasn’t like in Gore vs. Bush where the Supreme Court heard the arguments and then voted 5-4 in favor of Bush.

The Trump supporters still mouthing their claims of a fixed election need to at this point spend their time finding a viable GOP candidate in 2024 who has some integrity instead of wasting their time any longer on this nonsensical Donald Trump bullshit.

The math is very simple as from above.

If the GOP would present a qualified candidate to the American voting public they would probably win rather easily….given what we witnessed with the sloppy withdrawl from Afghanistan, the admission that no one really understands Covid at this point, and the most runaway inflation since Jimmy Carter.

No one I know was clamoring for Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris in 2020. Bernie….maybe, but with someone as a Vice-President who’s actually had to pay payroll taxes at some point in their life.

I like Bernie…I just don’t agree with him on everything. Kind of like with Tom Coburn and Barack Obama. But I ended up voting for Obama after McCain gave me no choice with Crazy Sarah Palin and all those children with bizarre first names.

None of Bernie, Harris, or Elizabeth Warren had any political traction whatsover when James Clyburn saved Joe Biden in South Carolina.

Everyone thought that was going to be Michael Bloomberg’s candidacy in South Carolina possibly, but what it in fact became was the prelude to James Clyburn’s presidency.

Don’t get me wrong…I respect Jim Clyburn, but just be up front is all I’m saying.

And to close…none of this excuses Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell for their lack of action to date. Maybe they’ve just been hoping Trump would die before the 2024 election and they wouldn’t have to do the very hard political right thing.

Doing the right thing is tough…just ask Liz Cheney.

——————–

On tomorrow’s edition of Trump’s Domestic Terrorist Insurrection: One Year Later….I’d like to discuss the Election of 1876, the Election of 1960, and the Election of 2000 in relation to what we just witnessed a year ago.

Enjoy the NFL football today. Be thankful we’ve had brave Americans fight for our freedoms instead of them being taken away based on the whims of one petulant spoiled trust fund brat.

What happens at some point if Trump banishes the New England Patriots from tht NFL television contracts because BilliCOCK shamed Trump after the insurrection. It’s all about democracy and the American Dream in the end….and it shouldn’t matter what party you belong to.

Donald Trump would have lasted one day at two-a-day football practices at John Marshall. He then would have etiher quit, gotten the shit kicked of him, transferred to an all-white private school, or grown up into a man of some sort. Or maybe he would have had his driver Dan Scavino substitute for him at practices.

Bravo to Senator Graham on his opening from the Election of 1876 between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden. I actually wrote a term paper on this election my junior year of college.

Too bad Lindsey Graham folded two weeks later.

Hopefully we get some good bowl games on New Years’ Day. Last night was an abomination…although I have to admit I smiled seeing the Big 10 embarrassed to the extent they were last night.

What we saw was a vivid reminder of why the SEC now owns the exclusive rights to the top tier level of Division 1 college football. The Big 10, the ACC, the Big 12, and PAC 12 are all just filler as long as Nick Saban is ruling not only the SEC, but the entire landscape of college football….minus perhaps Georgia with Saban U graduate Kirby Smart running Bulldog Nation.

And I would guess this to a certain degree is why Lincoln Riley and his agent scurried out West to avoid the blitzkrieg of physical SEC football.

If one simply looks at the tenures of SEC West coaches the past five years… one would observe every other school in the SEC West minus Alabama has fired their football coach at least once in this time frame with LSU and Auburn bordering on the insane in this regard. You think Lincoln’s agent more than once mentioned this to his client?

The one thing I like about OU’s chances in pulling this off is they have the best AD in the country in Joe C who knows what has to be done.

So in essence…Joe C just collected $4.5 million from USC to take Lincoln Riley off his hands and make the necessary changes to his football program two years before entering the SEC. Has anyone even considered the possibility Joe C was glad he didn’t have to fire Lincoln Riley?

Don’t get me wrong…I think Lincoln would have continued to be wildly successful in the Big 12 or the PAC 12, but in the SEC it’s complmentary two-way football where you have to be able to recruit beyond just the offensive skill positions.

This is also why OU with Brent Venables and Jeff Lebby now give OU a much more reaslistic chance to assimilate the OU program to the interior physicality of which will be needed to become relevant beyond just being the third best team in the SEC.

So it’s New Years’ Day and I’ll be pulling for O State to win the Fiesta Bowl in what I think is a pick ’em game. Jaylen Warren should provide much needed relief to the turnover prone Spencer Sanders.

In the Rose Bowl…I have no idea. I’m not sure who is and isn’t playing for the Buckeyes. But I still believe the Big 10 was the most overrated Power 5 conference this season. I’ll be curious to see if Utah can bring sustained physicality in this game.

The Sugar Bowl with Baylor vs. Ole Miss is a game I’m acutely interested in because Jeff Lebby will be coaching the Rebel offense against Dave Aranda’s stingy defense which basically shackled Lincoln Riley’s offense three times in a row.

If I’m Caleb Williams and his father…. I’m sitting down together and watching this game while taking notes as to how Ole Miss, with Matt Corral the first QB expected to go in the NFL draft, attack Dave Aranda’s defense.

I would probably be inclined to take Ole Miss in this game. But I think it could be a great game if Baylor can control the tempo somewhat.

Ice on the roads in Deer Creek, Oklahoma with a searing wind chill. A great day to eat black-eyed peas, cornbread, and maybe sip on a New Years’ Jack Daniels coffee.

You see these three games would be part of my Junior Heavyweight college football national championship tournament. My other two teams in a normal setting if their coaches hadn’t bailed would have possibly been OU and Oregon. Maybe Iowa or Kentucky. I’d have to think about it some more. Think how much fun this eight team tournament would have been.

So there you go.

Spencer Sanders…run the ball, dude. That’s what you do best besides handing off the ball to Jaylen Warren. Play a clean game and give your guys a chance.

And a shout out to Georgia’s offensive coordinator Todd Monken for getting his offense untracked and into the national championship game. El Prez loves Todd Monken because he says f–k a lot more than I do and that makes feel better about myself.. Good luck, Todd Monken.

I actually love Todd Monken as a coach. Anyone who’s ever played or coached sports understands how it is you say f–k now and again in the heat of the moment.

Coach Monken was O State’s offensive coordinator in 2011. Then became head coach at Southern Miss. Then became offensive coordinator at Tampa Bay faced with the arduous task of figuring out how to make Jamesis Winston an NFL quarterback. Then Coach M became the offensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns. Now… he’s the guy running Kirby Smart’s offense in Athens.

I love this video. O State agreed to let ESPN have access to the team to do a mini docu of sorts. Coach Monken said f–k a few times with the camera rolling. I thought it was great. If you think college football is a gentle passive activity….you might want to rethink that one.

Hope you have a great New Years’ watching football.

The games were so bad I ended up googling John Madden videos to cheer me up.

For the first time ever I quit on the College Football Playoff National Semifinals. The games were in two words horrible bordering on unwatchable. I quit on the Michigan-Georgia debacle seven minutes into the third period.

Horrific…even worse than watching the Thunder play an 82 game schedule.

Kirk and these guys at ESPN are going to have to come up with another concept.

What I would suggest is this…have two separate DI championships. Have what’s called the Heavyweight Open champion which in essence would be the two SEC teams from the East and West finalists playing the best two out of three games spread out over a five week period. There’s your first national champion. That’s the big boy ball champion.

Then take the next top eight teams out of Division I and have them aligned in an eight team single elimination tournament. You would call this your Junior Heavyweight champion.

In that Heavy Weight division the winning team gets paid $2 million to be spread out amongst the players. This would be beyond the television bowl rights monies specifically delegated to paying the players.

The losers get $1.5 million.

It’s time beyond NIL to make sure student-athletes on the entire roster are being compensated with at the least spending money for normal college student-athlete activities.

So…in essence what I would suggest beyond conference realignment is a pragmatic approach to separate the three tiers of DI college football to make it better for the players and fans alike.

Enough of these unwatchable mismatches.

This almost makes me think Gundy intentionally didn’t score from a yard out on those seven plays vs. Baylor just to avoid playing either Alabama or Georgia. Don’t laugh…I could see Gundy doing that especially since Boone isn’t around to call him out.

I’m feeling pretty good about that Alamo Bowl championship right now.

It’s New Years’ Eve…I’m getting ready to take my annual N.Y.E. hot tub with a glass or two of champagne.

Be safe. And call Uber if you’ve been drinking.

Happy New Year!

They are a well oiled machine. Hopefully the second national semi-final will provide us some competitive drama.

I wonder….if the GOP nominated Saban …. would Saban be able to settle down the Proud Boys in the South and straighten out the likes of the GOP Corruption Twins….Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham.

Trump has never really done anything in his life except live off his Daddy’s trust fund and hang with Russian and Slovenian escorts who enjoy urinating all over each other.

All I can figure is there must be a lot of swingers in these southern faux Christian states and the rallies must be how they exhange all their hookup data.

Saban 2024

Coach Saban…just them give zero effective marginal rates on both the individual and corporate ledgers, subsidize golden showers as a federal non-taxable stimulus rebate, and promise two AK-15 assault rifles in every home where there’s joint filers…and presto…you’re POTUS 47. Swear to god. That’s all you would have to do to be the next POTUS.

Like most passionate college football fans…I’m getting ready to settle in and watch the national semi-finals. Congrats to Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, and Cincy on excellent seasons. I would say the Committee got it right in the end.

Even if O State had beaten Baylor at the end…..I’m thinking that with the difference in quarterback play between Spencer Sanders and Desmond Ritter as far as turning over the football…that Cincy by a slim margin would have still prevailed as the No. 4 seed.

I’m very much looking forward to O State’s game vs. Notre Dame and Baylor’s game vs. Ole Miss.

That second game intrigues me because we’ll get to see how Dave Aranda’s defense handles Jeff Lebby’s offense with Matt Corral. Given how well Aranda’s defense played in the three games versus Lincoln Riley’s offense…I think this game should be a must watch game for all serious Big 12 football fans heading into 2022.

As far as OU…they finish at 11-2 and champions of the Alamo Bowl. Clearly…not what was in mind back in August, but given what we’ve discovered in regards to Lincoln Riley’s contact via his agent with USC back when Barry Helton was fired…I don’t think any reasonable human could have expected OU to go any further than they did.

If your coach isn’t all in….then your team isn’t going to be either.

That’s the 2nd Rule of Coaching on steroids…. ‘You coach thru your unique personality and character and your team will follow.’

Lincoln Riley quit on his players.

The two question I would love to ask Lincoln Riley some day would be..1 What would you have done if OU won Bedlam and then beat Baylor in the Big 12 Championship Game? And 2… Would you have walked out on your players like Brian Kelly did even if OU made the Final Four?

I’d love to hear those two answers.

Good luck to Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, and Cincy…play like champions and savor the moment.