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Tracking Baylor & Potpourri

Posted by CloseToJumping on November 9th, 2009 under Football

Robert Griffin Leads Baylor over Missouri

It has been a few weeks since I’ve posted an update on how Baylor is doing, while a nation sat and waited with bated breath. Part of it is because I have been a virtual streetfight on some business deals and part of it is depression over the Robert Griffin injury. I thought Griffin was done for the rest of the season.

With Griffin gone, no way Baylor would get the requisite 7 wins for going bowling this year, right? Well, right. Then, the amazing unfolded on Saturday against Missouri. Robert Griffin has the healing powers of Vince Young. To recover that quickly and lead his team to the W over Missouri just astonishes me.

But, hey, it happened. Griffin was back and with his usual flair, he led Baylor to the W. Throwing for 400+ yards was impressive, but when he pulled his pants down in mid-sprint on his 73 yard run in the 4th quarter to clinch the game and ran into the end zone with his pants around his ankles, I thought that took the showboating a bit far. Anyway, good for Baylor nonetheless. It certainly makes our matchup with them more disturbing this weekend. If Griffin is on fire again, we could have ourselves a shootout. I fully expect Greg Davis to pull out all of the stops against this Bear juggernaut.

Baylor’s prospects for a bowl game will dim after this weekend, but they’ll have ATM and Tech left on the schedule. Perhaps taking those 2 is still within reach, but the loss of Griffin nullified the potential upside of this team. I expect a 44-3 stomping, but we’ll save the mudhole for ATM.

Looking Elsewhere @ The Big 12 North vs The Big 12 South

There is one remaining game to be played this season between the 2 divisions, with OSU and CU squaring off later this month, but this will end up another embarrassing year for the North, regardless.

During the regular season over the past two years, the South is 27-8 during the regular season. Remove Baylor and the record is 25-4. Either number is impressive for the South and an indictment on the conference for the guys from the North. I didn’t bother looking beyond the last 2 years, so I don’t know when their last +.500 record against the South was, but it sure doesn’t feel recent.

Notre Dame & Coaching Openings

Farley Weis is 3-16 since 2007 against teams with winning records. That’s not against ranked teams, just teams with winning records. I believe that means teams with winning records at the time of the game, but what I read wasn’t clear on that. Regardless, that’s just a pathetic stat. Pear Bryant might have a tactical and strategic schematic advantage in every game, but he’s not pointing that out to opponents very often. In a year where it doesn’t appear that many of the big name jobs will be open, the Notre Dame job would be the big prize. Until they relax their standards on players, beyond what they’ve done for Weis, Notre Dame will provide the illusion of being competitive, at best. The name mentioned that seems realistic is Brian Kelly.

I hear the Dick Rod and Mark Richt firing talk, but how in the hell does Georgia fire Richt? So the guy goes 7-5 or 6-6 in the regular season this year. They’re winning at a high level whenever they don’t start a guy named Joe Cox at QB. Doesn’t he deserve some cushion? And could Michigan afford to drop Rodriguez? It would seem like a lot of dough at stake there. They close out the year @ Wisconsin and against Ohio State. This team could wind up 5-7.

eATMe, Andre Ware

Mike Sherman’s Aggies drive down on the first drive of the game against Colorado and get the ball inside the 3. They’re stuffed on downs 1-3, so what do they do? They go for it on 4th down. Some folks may like the call. Kevin Steele loved it. I didn’t. I bitched at the time to buddies as we watched the game that ATM doesn’t understand how to win yet and taking the points early would be beneficial for that team. If they take those points, do things shake out differently? I have no doubt, although who knows what else that might have changed. I get the whole “play to win on the road, tie at home” bullshit. I also recognize that while that may make sense for a team like Texas, it’s a bit different for a team like Texas ATM.

I commented at the beginning of the season that we should root for BSU to lose to Oregon in game 1 because Oregon was mediocre and overrated and otherwise, all we’d hear about was how BSU deserves a chance. My issue was the utter shittiness of their remaining schedule. Oregon probably has another loss in them, even after this weekend. The go to Arizona and have the rivalry game against Oregon State, both formidable opponents in the powerfully mediocre PAC 10. Oregon is an above average team getting more credit than they deserve for beating another above average team …

USC did all it could to lose its third game of the year. Arizona State is a bad club. USC beat them 14-9. They’re simply not very good and do not deserve to be included in top 10 discussions. I am as certain now as I was to open this season that USC will finish with a minimum of 3 losses. In the same way Bob Stoops misses Mike Stoops, Pete Carroll misses Norm Chow. USC still has to face Stanford, UCLA, and Arizona. None of those are gimmies for this team.

Andre Ware predicted 4 losses for the Okies before this season started. Soonerfans.com mocked him as though he were below them in the brain matter ladder. That thread is still alive over there and it is awesome. Facing down ATM, Tech and OSU, plus a bowl, feels like a 5 loss or worse season to me. Their defense is almost as good as their offense is bad. Landry Jones looks bad and cannot, absolutely cannot, throw in a rolling pocket or on the move. I remember when people gave a lot of credence to the concept of Bomar improving markedly after his Freshman year. I laughed, but we never got to see it. While there is no doubt Jones will improve, as anyone would, we’re not witnessing the growing pains of a budding star. This guy sucks, and he’s going to be fun to watch as a Texas fan. You can’t teach smart. Check out NDS’ take here.

Ole Miss beat the mighty Northern Arizona Browneyes by all of 24 points on Saturday. Some called Jevan Snead a future 1st round pick. Hell, maybe he will be, I don’t know. It doesn’t look great right now though. Social Anxiety Disorder mixed with a loose girlfriend having fun when you travel is a potent cocktail. He should stop drinking it.

Scotty Young might come to Texas to play baseball? With Connor Wood and Case McCoy, this legitimately looks like the football staff has no interest, supposedly. I hope he’s making the right decision for himself. I am all for it, as I hear he’s a stud. Oh, and it would pork Tech.

Thoughts?

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65 Responses

  1. Text from HenryJames on Saturday:

    “We’re also offering Jackson Richards a golf scholarship.”

  2. Not adding anything to the discussion, really said:

    November 9th, 2009 at 9:36 am

    Isn’t the Young-to-UT dalliance over? I thought he re-committed to Tech, and then mumbled something about “strong as oak”.

    In the schadenfreude round robin, I can’t decide if I’m enjoying the Notre Dame, OU, or A&M seasons most.

  3. ‘Pear Bryant.’

  4. I think Stoops took the Jones bait from Leach. For the last several years, Stoops has openly admitted to recruiting the same QBs as Leach. When confronted about the issue, he replied with something to the effect of, “When I got to OU, we didn’t have a QB on our roster. Mike Leach found 3 and they were Josh Heupel, Nate Hybl and Jason White and those guys won a lot of games around here.”

    Now, I can’t decide if that sentence can be truly cited as a strength or weakness with regards to QB evaluations, but it does indicate there may indeed be a strong tendency for Stoops to target Leach QB offers. Bradford is a good example. So Leach gets Jones to camp at Tech in the summer and he sucks up the joint. Leach doesn’t offer at camp, but plays the whole, “yeah we’ll watch the film and get back to you with an answer next week.”

    Lo and behold, Stoops gets his hands on some phony New Mexico high school football tape, offers on like a Wednesday, and Jones commits the next day. Now, this is not exactly how it went down, but I can remember it being very entertaining for the Tech Rivals guys that attended the camp and were the first to pick up on a possible trend. I’m sure Leach probably mentioned it to them. That wiley pirate bastard. Arrrggghhh!

  5. I may have the details confused, though. Jones might have actually gone onto camp at OU and gave the impression to Stoops that it appeared Leach was going to offer. I can’t remember correctly. But the good news is, there’s a high probability he does indeed suck.

  6. Not adding anything to the discussion, really said:

    November 9th, 2009 at 10:18 am

    Vince Lomlardi
    Barrel Royal
    Fed Acres

  7. That's what she said:

    November 9th, 2009 at 10:20 am

    Joe Faterno
    Bobby Chowden

  8. Those kind of books never get old. I need to add that one next to my autographed Herm Edwards biography. I should probably read them all some day.

  9. Given Briles abject Jackassery over the last year vis-a-vis MacK, it would not surprise me to see a mudholing on the order of 60-3 this week, with Gilbert throwing tight up until the final gun.

  10. The name of this battle will be fondly remembered as Dixon’s Pledge.

  11. Ara Parmagian

  12. If the Scotty Young thing is over, that is ok by me. I have only followed what I’ve read on Shaggy. I do know that what I typed about the football side’s interest is pretty sound.

    I love the Jones/Stoops story from dedfischer. I don’t know if it is true, but I am willing to believe it happily.

    bateshorn–

    I like your thinking in regard to Baylor, Briles, and Brown, but I no longer expect Mack to do anything of the sort in these kinds of settings. I would love to see it, though.

  13. Hey, the internet was invented for rumors, so it’s fun to believe.

  14. It was invented for porn. And PhotoShop.

    Great column, CTJ.

    Love to hear you expound on the Notre Dame job as an opportunity.

    Clearly certain guys (Harbaugh) can go certain places (Stanford) and win some games. The right guy plus the right schedule lands ND in the BCS every fucking year. They have to be, what, top 14? Sheesh.

  15. Art Briles could defile Sally on national television and Mack would still have Gilbert handing off in the 4th quarter.

  16. Nick Florence said:

    November 9th, 2009 at 10:52 am

    Asshole!

  17. I generally favor good sportsmenship(well except when I was returning a nordberg dying duck for an INT td) , but occasionally the Silverback needs to beatdown an up and coming ape to show who is the boss.

    Sadly I fear ctj and nordberg are right.

  18. “Art Briles could defile Sally on national television and Mack would still have Gilbert handing off in the 4th quarter.” -Nordberg

    Initially, I was not please with this, but as I began to realize that Sally and Art were really enjoying themselves I couldn’t help but pace around the bed, clap and urge them on…

  19. Can one of you point me to the history of bad blood between Mack and Briles?

    thanks.

  20. Re the coaching carousel…

    Michigan has made a significant commitment to that offense. They have to ride it out another year or two. Their real issue is defense and a complete lack of depth in the secondary. These guys can’t even play nickel – I shit you not. I don’t mean they’re not good at it, I mean they don’t have a fifth DB talented enough to stand on a Division I football field – in the Big 10, no less.

    As for Richt and Georgia, it will follow the predictable pattern of going after the coordinators before the head man. He’ll get incredible pressure to ditch Willie Martinez. Whether he does or doesn’t will speed or spare the lynch mob that’s slowly gathering. People from the outside looking in at Georgia advising caution aren’t putting themselves in the Bulldogs’ shoes: they’ve been lapped by Florida, fear the recruiting machine in Tennessee (which targets Georgia as their #1 state) and aren’t mentioned in the same breath as Bama and LSU. Even Auburn seems to have some momentum, whether it’s real or not.

    The bottom line is that programs live and die off of a sense of momentum and that’s determined by their neighbors. Not in looking at the big picture.

    As for Notre Dame, Charlie FUPA has proven to be a bust but Notre Dame’s greatest obstacle is no longer academic standards (which they’ve eased) but their own alumni. Brian Kelly seems the obvious choice for them, but a lot of ND people are – amusingly – turning up their nose at the thought of him. That team will have sufficient talent to win 10 games next year. The question is whether they secure a guy that actually enjoys coaching and developing college athletes rather than whining about a sophomore’s inability to grasp his masterful system.

  21. topo -

    People speculate that because Art voted Texas down in the polls last year during the BCS drama that Mack may have an axe to grind.

    Personally, that’s just not Mack’s style. I would like to see him draw on some hidden Urban Meyer and punish the offender in front of a Waco crowd, but I doubt that goes down.

  22. “Sadly I fear ctj and nordberg are right.”

    Concur. Scarbrough’s post-UCF True Orange newsletter said that Colt needed only three yards to beat Applewhite’s single game yardage record and that Applewhite was encouraging Mack to let Colt throw to get the record. Mack refused out of consideration for sportsmanship.

    Some things just are.

  23. There is no history. Supposedly they got along well. The Briles voted Texas Fifth behind Ou and Tech in the final Coaches Poll last year.

    Now he deserves a cornholing. I think his anus is safe.

  24. Confused and Dazed said:

    November 9th, 2009 at 11:51 am

    The thought of Jim Harbrough coaching at Notre Dame would be scary! I have no idea if he would be considered, but he would kick ass there. He is damned good and operates already at a school whose academics put him at a disadvantage. Nobody does more with less overall talent, but then, that’s the kind of player he was and his family coaching pedigree is second to none.

    I suggested on another board that we should score eight TDs and take a knee on the PATafter the last one, resulting in 55 points. I’ll add here that in the post game interviews, Mack should say something like. “Here at the University of Texas, we don’t believe in running up the score, and we have great respect for Baylor’s place in Texas football history. Also, Art Briles is a stand-up guy…you know I recruited his son, Kendall, and we were sad to lose him, he wanted to go play for his Dad, so we did the right thing”.

  25. From the Waco Trib

    Baylor coach Art Briles likes to call the Big 12 South the neighborhood.

    A place where everyone knows each other better than his own family. A spot where brothers wrestle, fight and sometimes make up (and sometimes don’t).

  26. That's what she said:

    November 9th, 2009 at 11:56 am

    Tommy Tubbyville
    Gorge Halas
    Eddie Blobinson

  27. Scipio–

    Not only should he be forced to fire Martinez, it is the right thing to do. Georgia’s defense looked childish at time last year and this year they’re bottom tier. There is no excuse for that level of suckitude.

    raoulduke–

    As to Notre Dame, they haven’t exactly gone normal with their standards, although they’ve slightly relaxed some things. They’re allowing 2 lower scoring players in per year, if memory serves. Hell, maybe it is 5. That is still not very competitive to the rest of CFB land. They also don’t redshirt, or they don’t do much of it. I forget what the other existing restriction is, maybe it is passing Calculus as a Freshman, but it is silly.

  28. It’s not just the rankings, it’s also that Briles has apparantly decided to play the street agent game. With our commitments no less.

    This is how it starts, next thing you know, Briles is talking shit in public. It may fall to Muschamp to deal with this.

  29. C&D-
    I feel stupid. What’s the significance of 55?

  30. texasholdem said:

    November 9th, 2009 at 12:34 pm

    “Concur. Scarbrough’s post-UCF True Orange newsletter said that Colt needed only three yards to beat Applewhite’s single game yardage record and that Applewhite was encouraging Mack to let Colt throw to get the record. Mack refused out of consideration for sportsmanship. ”

    It would have also been incredibly stupid for him to go back out on the field. The chance is small but can you imagine the shitstorm that would happen if Colt trots back out there to get a record and then gets cheapshotted, concussed, and then we lose to Baylor or Kansas? If we are 7-2 and headed to the Holiday bowl fine, let him get the recorded, but there isn’t any reason to f-up this season trying to be cute.

  31. Teh Major > Teh Tebow.

    CTJ –

    That is still not very competitive to the rest of CFB land.

    Agreed. I have to assume Stanford’s admissions are of tantamount if not superior levels than ND. Is this not correct?

    All I am saying is that the right guy there, given their huge advantages and scheduling should be able to chalk up 8-10 wins most years and go to the BCS.

  32. I’m pretty sure Pear gets 3 academic exceptions per year. You’re right about the calculus requirement.

    I’ve read that they would be willing to offer Meyer six exceptions per year. And if you’re Notre Dame you have to go balls out for Meyer. He’s on record as saying that ND is his dream job, and that he passed it up the first time around because his kids were so young.

  33. I should note there is another, very important, North v. South game left in the Big 12 other than OSU v. Colorado. That would be Texas v. Kansas! I am not a superstitious sort but sometimes I get a little sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when so many act like our undefeated finish to the regular season is a foregone conclusion.

  34. he passed it up the first time around because his kids were so young.

    They grow up so fast.

    Photobucket

  35. raoulduke–

    I don’t disagree with your thoughts. I was just expounding on the reqs as I knew them at ND.

    Harbaugh would be a great hire by anybody, as would Kelly, as would Meyer. Meyer is obvious now, but when he was at Bowling Green, there were a few folks talking him up and they were right. I loved what he did there. Basically, in my mind, you find the guys that win at non-winning schools and track them as they develop and then covet them if they continue to ramp up their success as they climb the ladder. All 3 of those guys fit that bill. Kelly’s path is almost exactly that of Meyer’s. He won at NDSU (or SDSU, I don’t remember), then Central Michigan, and now Cincy. Hire that freaking guy. He’s cheaper than Meyer and he’s going to produce.

    Meyer might have blamed things on the age of his kids, but really, he wanted the freedom to recruit who he wanted and to be able to redshirt players and they weren’t going to go all the way with him on that. Notre Dame has two heads when it comes to football. As long as they have the NBC agreement, they can afford to do so.

  36. They grow up so fast.

    Yes, Nikki sure did.

    Meyer might have blamed things on the age of his kids, but really, he wanted the freedom to recruit who he wanted and to be able to redshirt players and they weren’t going to go all the way with him on that

    I still say that Meyer’s own words are our best guide for his motivation.

    And second, they rejected Meyer’s demands the first time around. They’ve struggled for a few more years with Pear, and Meyer’s stock has risen even higher. They will be more amenable to his demands this time around. They probably won’t give him everything, but they’ll give him a lot more than they were willing to when they hired Weiss.

    I’m with you on Kelly though. He’s Irish-Catholic and he wins at shitty football schools. What more could ND want?

  37. Confused and Dazed said:

    November 9th, 2009 at 1:15 pm

    @nordberg

    Think #5—twice as nice.

  38. @CTJ – Yup. To be clear, not rooting for ND to do the right thing. If they do, they will likely gobble up BCS Bowl bids more deserved by us at points in the future.

  39. So . . . a FG and a safety for 5 wouldn’t suffice?

  40. Flabo Swinney
    Ralph Fridgeden
    Al Gorged

  41. Let’s keep this Irish-centric:

    T-bone Willingham
    Goo Holtz
    Blob Gravies
    Flan Devine
    Cherry Faust

    Oh, I slay me.

  42. George O’Henry
    Snicker Phelps

  43. These names have had me rolling. There are some outstanding ones in there.

  44. I thought Ralph Friedgen just worked on its own.

  45. McBrown w/ fries

  46. Al Groh Some Moh

  47. @texasholdem:

    I lost track of the fact that there were only 40 seconds left in the game when Colt ‘would’ have gone back in the game to get the remaining four yards. Clearly this would not have been the right time to send Colt back in the game, and it would have looked petty – my mistake.

  48. Michigan has made a significant commitment to that offense. They have to ride it out another year or two.

    One more year — maybe.

    There are cracks in the foundation of that program, and RichRod is helping to weaken the base. He came in and essentially pissed in a lot of people’s cheerios. He ignored or discounted valued traditions, he cut off some alums and former players, and he generally acted like he was taking over a program that was a bottom feeder.

    Michigan had troubles, basically Lloyd Carr was forced out because he couldn’t beat Jim Tressell and there were signs that recruiting was begining to suffer. But Carr won 75% of his games, and it was not a unanimous move to get him out. RichRod just acted like it was.

    So here we are a year and half into the total offensive overall and Michigan is 8-14 under Rodriguez.

    So far Michigan has:

    Lost to Michigan State back-to-back for the first time in 40 years.
    Lost to Illinois back-to-back for the first time in 50 years.
    Lost to Purdue in the Big House for the first time since Bob Griese was the QB for the Boilermakers.

    Michigan is 1-5 in Big 10 play, with the lone win coming at home against a lousy Indiana team when they got a break on an officials call on an interception.

    They have lost those five Big 10 games in a row, and they have two games left — at Wisconsin and Ohio State. Losing 7 Big 10 games in a row is not out of the question.

    They have to win one of those games to become bowl eligible. Since the Big 10 changed its rules to allow teams to go to bowls other than the Rose Bowl, Michigan has never gone two years in a row without playing in a bowl.

    Ohio State beat Michigan 42-7 last year, the worst Wolverine loss in the series in 41 years. That whipping got the Michigan coach fired and Bo Schembechler hired.

    Lose to Ohio State again and the pressure will be intense. Lose big and it will get white hot.

    The AD who hired Rodriguez is retiring, and Rodriguez hasn’t built up a whole lot of goodwill in the program.

    There has been some public infighting among former players, pro and con over RichRod.

    The bottom line is that programs live and die off of a sense of momentum and that’s determined by their neighbors.

    Michigan made the move from Carr because of the perceived momentum shift. There are already folks around the program who believe it was the wrong move, and to delay fixing it will only make the shift more dramatic.

    Winning cures any problem, but the timeline has definitely been sped up.

  49. Briles had Texas in front of Tech. He had:

    1. Oklahoma
    2. Florida
    3. Southern Cal
    4. Alabama
    5. Texas
    6. Texas Tech

  50. srr50 has written some great stuff about Michigan and Rich Rod:

    http://barkingcarnival.fantake.com/tag/rich-rodriguez/

  51. srr, I said “bad fit” before, and I’m more convinced than ever.

    If RR were to have a 10-win season, he’d still be disliked. You know it doesn’t bother me to see Michigan struggle, but he’s gotta go.

  52. Union dudes aren’t big on Mexicans.

  53. Holy shit, that’s funny.

  54. Slobby Petrino
    Kyle Shittingham
    Jim Prezzel
    Barry Spritzer

  55. rickvigorous said:

    November 9th, 2009 at 8:03 pm

    Michigan all time wins…877

    Texas all time wins…840

    And the gap is quickly closing.

  56. Horn In Exile said:

    November 9th, 2009 at 8:19 pm

    Chuck Belly-Roll
    Tom Pantry
    Mark Mangino

  57. Ded, It took me about ten reads before I figured that one. Then I belly laughed for ten minutes. Strong work, young pirate.

  58. Let’s do this Big XII style:

    A la carte Briles
    Bo Linguine
    Mike Sherbet
    Ndamukong Soup

  59. CrazyJoeDavola said:

    November 9th, 2009 at 9:32 pm

    Mack Brawn
    Bob Gravie
    Urban Oscar Meyer
    Darrell Royal with Cheese
    Emory Bellard

  60. R.C. Slothum
    Cherry Hoeppner
    Tart Briles

  61. Bob Soups
    Barry Spritzer

    Sprite Dikes
    Mike Leek

    Dennis Cattiatore
    Jerky Sherrill

    David McGriddle
    Darrell Royale-with-cheese
    Mack Prawn

  62. Jimmy John’s-on

  63. Was this all a joke? You really got my hopes up that Griffin would play against us. Nick Florence was the QB that curb stomped Mizzou’s secondary to the tune of 427 yards. Baylor really is so insignificant that if this wasn’t a joke, no one cared to correct you… haha

    Bummer. I guess we can root for a shoo — shutout.

  64. texasengr–

    I am honestly starting to really enjoy your posts. They get better every day. Thanks.

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