Q Notes, Day 118

Q is short for quarantined, and today, is also short for questions.

Will there be any college football games played for television this season? If not, my devotion to the sport is really going to be tested. Since I gave up on the Dallas Cowboys shortly after Barry Switzer was replaced by Chan Gailey, I've thought of college football as the only sport I really care about. Until 1999, I typically watched at least two college games on Saturday, then one or two NFL games on Sunday (depending on the schedule). I'd also watch all of the major bowl games, and most of the NFL playoff games.

After 1999, I rarely watched pro football games, and gradually started watching fewer college games. I attribute my lack of interest to the fact that none of the teams I had supported from 1964 to 2000 were consistently good enough to win most of their games.

Since 2015, it's been difficult to sit through Texas A&M football games from start to finish, and I doubt if I've seen more than ten A&M games from beginning to end in the last four seasons (2016-2019). The games that I've generally watched have been postseason games, particularly the CFP championship games.

The point of all this reflection is that I'm wondering if I'll actually miss football if the season is cancelled due to COVID-19.

Another question: Do we really need people who seriously believe that Donny Shunk is more likable than Hillary Clinton? I have my doubts.

Will Greg Abbott ever do anything as governor that would benefit people who aren't necessarily (R) voters? Juanita Jean thinks probably not.

By commuting Roger Stone's sentence, is Shunk acknowledging that he knows he can't win reelection in November? Or is he just sure that he can't possibly lose?

Can we ever get people to understand that face masks really will work when everyone is wearing them?

Play this.

The four teams that will play for the national championship are Alabama, Oregon, Florida State and Ohio State. Baylor and the Texas Christians didn't make the final cut. Life is good. Fuck the Bears and TCU.

R.C. and the SEC West

The more SEC football I watch on Saturdays, the more I believe R.C. Slocum was years ahead of his time at Texas A&M. Slocum believed that to be good, a team had to be able to run the football on offense, and stop the other team from running the ball on defense. That's it. That's essentially what Slocum tried to achieve while he was the Aggie head coach, and that's basically what his successful teams did best.

I don't think Slocum was ever comfortable with the idea of winning by relying heavily on the passing game. His best quarterback was Bucky Richardson, and his passing quarterbacks were journeymen like Corey Pullig, Mark Farris, and Randy McCown.

Slocum was never as successful in the Big 12 (1996-2002) as he'd been in the Southwest Conference (1989-1995), because his passing offenses weren't good enough to beat teams with rushing defenses that were better than his, and he couldn't recruit and develop the kind of talented quarterbacks needed to dominate games after Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas State replaced Rice, TCU and SMU on the fall schedule.

Slocum's best teams would have fit well in the SEC West, though, where power accrues to those with the ability to run the ball on offense, and stop the opponent from running the football on defense. Last night, LSU knocked off undefeated Ole Miss in a 10-7 game that featured muscular rushing and potent defense. It was the kind of game that would've been a wet dream for Slocum, and a style of football A&M stopped playing after R.C. moved on.

Good sports, bad sports

There's good news and bad news in the sports sections of today's newspapers.

First, the bad news: The Houston Chronicle speculates that Johnny Manziel may be chosen by the Houston Texans in the NFL draft. Not a prime destination in my opinion.

Then the good news: Les Koenning will be returning to Texas U as an assistant on Charlie Strong's coaching staff. This dude played at Texas as a wide receiver, then served as a Slocum assistant at Texas A&M (1995-96), coaching WRs. Later, Koenning came back to TAMU as Dennis Franchione's offensive coordinator/quarterback coach (2003-2007). In that position, he was able to turn potential superstar Reggie McNeal into another journeyman Aggie QB, and contribute to the general decline of Aggie football in the 21st century. McNeal was the best QB recruited by Slocum, a true dual threat as a passer who could run. Under Koenning, his talent was wasted. Great hire, Charlie.

I can honestly say that Les Koenning is the only Texas A&M assistant coach I ever hated.

Good Beginning

In the Tortilla Chips Fiesta Bowl, Central Florida beat Baylor 52-42, although the bears were favored by about 17 points. The longhorns lost to Oregon 30-7 in the Alamo Bowl. Two former rivals go down in flames, getting my new year off to a good start.

Adios, Mack.

As of Friday morning, Mack Brown is still coaching the longhorns, and only one thing is certain at this point: If Mack is NOT fired and if Nick Saban is NOT the head coach in 2014, then the people running Texas U are going to look like the dumbest motherfuckers on earth.

Gaylor

Reason number 864,329 to hate fucking Baylor

Rumors

The biggest problem with having an outstanding football coach under contract is the nagging fear that another university will lure him away with a big-dollar offer. Every time the coach at a major program is on the hot seat, Nick Saban's name pops up as the guy who will potentially (or ideally) replace him. So I guess it should be flattering that some people think Kevin Sumlin will be approached by USC to replace Kiffin.

Rivalries

Who needs the stinkin' teasips? I expect the Aggies will have a replacement rival that I'll hate almost as much as I hate the longhorns, and it'll be pretty soon.

Playoffs

I made it through the entire 2012 season without watching a single regular-season NFL game, but the AFC and NFC championship games will be played today, and I'll probably watch most, if not all, of both.

In the NFC, the 49ers are slight (4 point) favorites over the Falcons, and the Patriots are favored by about a TD over the Ravens in the AFC. Back in the old days, the 49ers fought it out with the Cowboys for NFL supremacy, so I still regard them as a nemesis even though I stopped giving a shit about Dallas years ago. On the other hand, I'm partial to the Patriots, who started winning championships around the time Dallas reached a condition of permanent mediocrity. I suppose the best scenario for me would be 49ers versus Patriots in the Super Bowl, with New England winning the Lombardi Trophy.

Added 7:06 PM same day: Atlanta blew a 17-0 lead and lost to San Francisco 28-24. At the half, New England leads Baltimore 13-7. The AFC game has been mostly defense so far.

Added 10:42 PM same day: The Ravens dominated the second half and won easily 28-13. So the Super Bowl will match the 49ers against the Ravens, and the Harbaugh brothers will face off for the whole enchilada. Personally, I won't be as interested in the outcome as I would've been if New England was the AFC representative.

SEC versus Big Whatever

The New Year's Day bowl games are over, and four SEC teams are waiting to play: Florida, Ole Miss, the Aggies, and Alabama. Nine of the 12 teams in the SEC made it to bowl games, and the record so far is 3-2. Georgia, South Carolina and Vanderbilt were winners, and Mississippi State lost today to Northwestern. Last night, LSU lost by one point (25-24) when Clemson kicked a field goal as time ran out.

In the conference the Aggies left behind, the Big Whatever, nine of the ten members were invited to bowls, with only Kansas missing out. The top dogs, Oklahoma and Kansas State, still have games to play, and the conference has posted a 4-3 record so far. The winners: Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas Tech, and the longhorns. The losers: Iowa State and new members TCU and West Virginia.

I'm pulling for all four SEC teams to win in their remaining games, and want Oregon to whip KSU. The SEC bowl record would be 7-2 with Bama repeating as national champs, compared to the Big Whatever's mediocre 4-5 finish. That sounds about right to me.

Added 11:14 PM, Wednesday 2 January: My best case scenario is headed down the dumper. Fortunately I wasn't watching tonight as Louisville upset Florida 33-23 in the Sugar Bowl.

Added 11:08 PM, Thursday 3 January: My plans to watch a bunch of bowl games haven't worked out, but I saw the Fiesta Bowl tonight. Oregon handled Kansas State pretty easily (35-17). I can visualize JFH playing quarterback in the Oregon offense.

Added 12:28 AM, Saturday 5 January: The two best teams in the Big Whatever conference were smeared by Oregon and Texas A&M. Maybe they should be called the Big WTF?

And roll, Tide.

Washed out

Just heard the news on the car radio that TAMU's season opener against Louisiana Tech, scheduled for tomorrow in Shreveport, has been postponed due to weather conditions. This means the Aggies will have had no game experience when they play Florida at home next week. With an untried freshman quarterback and a new offensive system, there would probably have been benefits for A&M if they had tested themselves against a so-so opponent before playing an SEC game. I didn't foresee the Aggies beating Florida anyway, but I hoped to get an idea of how good (or bad) they were from the LT game.

Well, we can't always get what we want, but sometimes we get what we need. The La Tech game has been rescheduled for what had been an open date on October 13th, the week before the LSU game. In effect, the Aggies have no open dates between the Florida game and the regular season finale against Missouri. They'll need to avoid injuries since there's no recuperation time in the schedule now. The lone upside is that they get extra time to focus their preparation on the Gators. Whether that produces a win or not... who knows?

Predictions

Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News predicts the 2012 Texas Aggie record (6-6). Dated August 25th:

at Louisiana Tech (WIN)
Florida (LOSS)
at Southern Methodist (WIN)
South Carolina State (WIN)
Arkansas (LOSS)
at Mississippi (WIN)
Louisiana State (LOSS)
at Auburn (LOSS)
at Mississippi State (LOSS)
at Alabama (LOSS)
Sam Houston State (WIN)
Missouri (WIN)

Several weeks ago I made my predictions, which were almost identical to Carlton's. I figured the Aggies would split the two games against the Mississippi schools, but I thought they'd lose the season-ending game against Missouri to finish 5-7. Either I know football well enough to write for the newspaper, or Carlton is as ignorant as I am. Probably the latter.

That four game stretch that begins with LSU scares me, especially with a freshman quarterback. On the other hand, an upset win over Florida might force me to re-think my entire pessimistic outlook. We'll see.

The Vault

Mrs. bee has taken an interest in the summer Olympic Games from London, and while I've almost never watched them in the past, last night we saw one of the women's gymnastic events. It's called vaulting, and it requires some of the most incredible goddamned athleticism imaginable. I can't begin to get a handle on the discipline, intense training, and dedication that are required to compete in gymnastics at the Olympic level. When I was in college, I took gymnastics one semester as a required P.E. course. I'm not sure now, but I think I probably flunked it my freshman year. I can't recall what I was thinking when I signed up for the class. At any rate, now that I'm reaching geezer status, I have a deep appreciation for what those young women have accomplished. I guarantee you, none of it came easily.

Football Insanity

College football seems to get crazier and less predictable every week this season. The latest example involves Iowa State, who just defeated Texas Tech 41-7. The red raiders knocked off Oklahoma last week, and Oklahoma blew out Kansas State this afternoon.

The Aggies beat Iowa State, who beat Texas Tech, who beat Oklahoma, who beat Kansas State. If the college football universe operated on a logical basis, I could predict that Texas A&M, after beating both ISU and Texas Tech, would also be able to beat Oklahoma and Kansas State. Unfortunately, things don't work that way.

Football 2011: Week Seven

In about two hours, the Aggies will play football in Ames, Iowa on ABC. Strange as it seems, the game versus Iowa State falls into the must-win category. Before the season began, my bro and I were discussing expectations for Texas A&M in 2011, and we agreed they should match last year's 9-3 regular season record at a minimum, and preferably improve it by at least one win. At 4-2, the Aggies must run the table to finish 10-2, which seems unlikely with remaining games at Oklahoma and at Kansas State, not to mention possible problem games at Kyle Field against Missouri and the longhorns. If TAMU goes 6-0 over the second half of the season, they'll have earned the Top Ten ranking they started with in August. But if the season is going to be acceptable, the Aggies have to win every game they're supposed to win, and that makes Iowa State a must-win game.

Added 4:18 pm, same day: Halftime score is Aggies 20 Iowa State 7. After four straight games against high-octane teams (Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Texas Tech, and Baylor), it shouldn't have surprised me that the Aggies looked like they were just going through the motions for most of the first half. ISU's first offensive play was a pass that was tipped and intercepted, and it seemed like the Aggies would jump out to a quick 7-0 lead. They wound up settling for a short FG instead, and actually trailed 7-3 at one point. Maybe they'll pump it up a few notches in the third quarter. They'd better.

Added 6:06 pm: Final score Aggies 33 Iowa State 17. It was a 13-10 game in the second half, and TAMU was never able to exercise the degree of domination I wanted to see. They finally stopped Iowa State about a yard short on 4th down and 18 to go, took over with just under four minutes to play, and were able to run out the clock. Whew... it's a win and in the final analysis that's all that matters.

Added 11:28 pm: One of the games I planned to watch tonight was Texas Tech at Oklahoma at 7:00 pm. I expected to relax and enjoy watching the sooners give the sand fleas a first-class ass whipping. Unfortunately, at 7:00 it was raining cats and dogs in Norman and the kickoff was moved back an hour or more, so I watched an old Edward G. Robinson movie on TCM instead. After the movie, I turned on the OU game to see how bad the rout was, and discovered that the fleas had been dishing out the punishment and led 24-7 at the half. I watched part of the third quarter, and it was 31-14 when I decided to call it quits. This has been one strange fucking season so far. 

Epic Fail

About halfway through my post-game three mile walk, the song Half Heaven, Half Heartache by Gene Pitney started playing on the Walkman clipped to my belt. As I listened I thought, "Well, that sure sums up that piece of shit."

The Aggies played Oklahoma State at Kyle Field today. The community had been buzzing all week anticipating the game, since it would match two Top Ten teams, OSU at number 7 and Texas A&M at number 8. The game would be shown on network TV, with a crowd of about 90,000 expected to attend in person. Big time college football. The prognosticators predicted a high-scoring offensive shootout, and the oddsmakers settled on the Aggies as the favorite by about four points.

The first half was basically all TAMU, with the offense clicking and the defense controlling the game. I was starting to believe that maybe the Aggies were really Top Ten material after all.

The first indication that things weren't all lollipops and moonbeams came with less than two minutes remaining in the first half, the Aggies leading 20-3 and kicking off. The way the defense had been functioning, I was sure that would be the score to begin the third quarter.

The kick sailed into the end zone for a touchback... but wait, there's a flag on the play. Against the kicking team, five yard penalty, re-kick. My immediate thought was, "Shit, that's the kind of sloppy mistake that's been biting the Aggies in the ass for a decade."

Sure enough, the second kick only reached the five, and the return man easily juked the coverage and outran everybody in a maroon shirt for a 95-yard touchdown. Motherfucker... that 17-point lead was just cut to ten points because of a stupid penalty.

But wait again. There's another flag on the play, this one against the Cowboys. Bring it back. Well, I thought, the mistakes are starting to even out and if they do, the Aggies should win.

That happy illusion lasted until the opening kickoff to begin the second half. From that moment on, Oklahoma State dominated the game offensively and defensively, and the Aggies shot themselves in the foot, the ass, and gave the better team a lot of help they probably didn't need to win. At 30-20, it was all over, although the Aggies did get a late TD and one last shot at overtime -- that flamed out with their fourth turnover of the half. A rub-it-in safety on the final play made the score 30-29, like the game had been a nail-biter. In reality though, the only thing keeping it close was an occasional flub by the Okies, such as their hotdogging receiver coasting untouched for an easy score, but instead fumbling the ball into the end zone for a touchback.

Shortly after the final gun, my oldest grandson, in 2nd grade and wise beyond his years, said, "We just wasted four hours." I wanted to grab him and hug him, but I didn't. I simply replied, "You got that right."

Middle of the pack ?

According to an early preseason media poll, media people who cover the Big 12 conference want to pencil Texas in at the number five slot. That's fifth place in a ten-team league, the outdated name notwithstanding. Oklahoma and TAMU are picked to finish ahead of the horns, but the horns are still ahead of Baylor. I'd enjoy seeing Texas struggle for several consecutive seasons, but I've been around long enough to know that sports writer predictions usually aren't worth jack shit.

Auburn 22, Oregon 19

Over the years I've observed that Heisman Trophy winners often follow that achievement with a loss in the subsequent bowl game, and that BCS national championship games often fail to measure up to pre-game hype and expectations. Tonight, Auburn and Oregon played in the BCS title game, with Auburn winning on a literal last-second FG. Final score 22-19. Cam Newton overcame the so-called Heisman Jinx, and the game was exciting with several bizarre plays influencing the outcome. All in all, the game was a satisfactory finale to a season that I found to be more interesting than anticipated.

Bowl Season Bummer

The official bowl game schedule was released today, and I've had a chance to survey the situation. TAMU goes to the Cotton Bowl to play LSU, a 10-2 team from the SEC, and as I expected, the Aggies drew easily the toughest opponent of any Big 12 team playing in a bowl game this year. In fact, there's a good chance the conference will go 7-1 in bowl games, with the lone defeat coming in the Cotton Bowl.

Here's a look at the other seven Big 12 bowl teams and their opponents:

Missouri faces Iowa, normally a tough Big 10 team but a lackluster 7-5 this year, and losers of their last three games. Baylor gets to play Illinois, at 6-6 just slightly better than Big 10 doormat status. Oklahoma State should put 40 points on Arizona, a 7-5 team from the Pac-10 conference that lost four consecutive games to finish the season. Kansas State plays Syracuse, still another 7-5 team that lost three of its last four games.

Nebraska, loser of the Big 12 championship game, faces Washington (6-6), a team they already beat 56-21 in September. Texas Tech goes against Northwestern (7-5), also losers of three of their last four games. Oklahoma, winner of the Big 12, is matched in the Fiesta Bowl with Connecticut (8-4). If there was any justice, OU would be playing LSU and the Aggies would be playing Connecticut.