Sooners News Daily 10.17.14
Posted on: October 17, 2014
FOOTBALL
Weekend Watch Guide – Week 8
I know some of you saw this over last weekend or shortly after, but for those that haven’t it would appear OU has stepped up their recruiting game. (Lost Letterman)
The Pride of Oklahoma took out a full page ad in today’s Oklahoman asking for their director be fired.
This is copy of the ad in today's DOK re:Pride of Oklahoma pic.twitter.com/xrkjfswZxb
— soonerfann (@soonerfann) October 17, 2014
#LSU announces two future opponents. Story: http://t.co/aoofqUga5Z pic.twitter.com/4aUXdNBbTU
— LSU Football (@LSUfball) October 16, 2014
This ranking of the Top 25 fictional football coaches is fantastic. (Uproxx)
Photo: DT Casey Walker says he checked @SportsCenter app to see if he was credited with sack. His smile tells all. pic.twitter.com/uAFwvHoqA0
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) October 17, 2014
BASKETBALL
Sooners will open the season at No. 19 in the Coaches Poll. (USA Today)
I love Buddy Hield & expect him to have a great season but Lon Kruger has done tremendous job with Isaiah Cousins, also. Vastly underrated.
— Fran Fraschilla (@franfraschilla) October 16, 2014
Per @Top100Talent Christian James, a 6-4 SG from Bellaire, Texas, will be visiting Norman this weekend. Highlights: https://t.co/ZydTNpSWvN
— OUHoops (@ouhoops) October 16, 2014
Chris Giles (@chrisgiles05) will take a visit to Oklahoma this weekend. #Sooners #D1 #Big12 #LikeFatherLikeSon http://t.co/5n4b4b9ITF
— The EYBL Circuit (@D1Circuit) October 16, 2014
OTHER
Good stuff.
Definitely an Uber guy and this would be pretty crazy (obviously).
Dudes.
This looks really good, IMO.
This looks really good too.
This, on the other hand, does not. Just looks like a cheap Goodfellas rip-off.
In.
49 Comments
Wake up people! It’s FRIDAY!
It hasnt been this quiet since tcu week
I can’t read the Pride of Oklahoma article. What’s the beef? Kinda embarassing to the university.
Yep, this was news to me – apparently its been brewing for over a year. What a shame.
A 2013 article in the Dallas paper: http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/state-fair-of-texas/headlines/20131011-forget-the-longhorns-ou-fans-are-angry-at-their-band-director.ece
Apparently the director’s critics have a facebook site to air their complaints. As usual, you can find other articles with a web search.
Effectively, they allege that the director is incompetent in all ways and should be fired immediately. Further that he being protected through imposition of unfair and dictatorial means. And that they are all sick of it and embarrassed to be in the band.
They then lay the stinking mess at Boren’s feet and say, ‘Do something’.
Did I get it about right?
The director doesn’t have a degree in music education or conducting, but he is given the task to teach 275+ students (his degree is percussion performance). The reason it is going to Boren is because the only reason this guy was hired was because a guy with a bunch of money wanted him to be. From what I understand no one in the School of Music wanted him to be hired.
Unbroken looks really awesome.
Speaking of movies: a buddy and I are seeing that Brad Pitt WW2 movie Fury tonight. It came out yesterday.
Watched it last night loved it one of the best war based movies to come out in a long time in my opinion.
Is the NCAA going to wait till AFTER the season to rule on TaShawn Thompson??
Thomas.
I think this years basketball team is going to force Super K and JY to start learning more about basketball and creating more posts on this website about it. 🙂 I cant wait to watch this team play
Yeah. Lane Warfare. That’s what the people want. lol
Comment of the day
basketball brainiacs??
I do not plan to let them be ignored.
Basketball posts on theFOOTBALLbraniacs? I hope not…
The band thing is disconcerting. Who hires/fires the band director? Boren has the AD between him and the coaches, but I have no clue on the band director. That said, if a group of my employees made such a statement about a manager, I would deal with it at once.
The story is that Broadway producer, and major OU donor, Max Weidenhofer hand-picked the band director from Wisconsin, after a significant donation. He is purported to be less qualified than the other candidates and some charge that he didn’t actually meet the minimum requirements set out in the requirement.
Max, evidently, wanted more “theatrical” productions from The Pride. Pride members are upset that the quality has dropped and many fans have been complaining to Boren over the past year. After a month-long review last fall, Boren responded to the complaints by saying (and I’m paraphrasing here) “his office has reviewed the situation and all future complaints should be addressed to the head of the music department”.
It’s a real shame, as The Pride has won the award for best band within the last 10-15 years, but is now approaching high school level, IMHO.
Maybe if we get another major donor to make a bequest and connect it to an insistence that more “blocking, tackling and contact” be added to Drama Dept productions, people will see the ridiculousness.
I like Broadway shows. I see a couple a year, I listen to the scores on Sunday mornings and sometimes sing along.
A marching/pep/sports event band, however is a different animal. It’s there to add to the sporting event, not to provide a ‘cultural interlude’ for those who have tired of the organized fisticuffs and desire an injection of ‘art’.
An example of absurdity taken to the nth degree was last year’s Phantom of the Opera halftime show involving one of the conductors swooping after our majorette in cringingly stalker mode whilst the band loyally sawed away on an abbreviated version of the Phantom theme.
Still not sure to this day whether the overtly deviant sexuality presented as ‘family entertainment’ or the tired musical performance were the more disturbing.
I love Phantom, but that halftime show was pretty hard to watch.
My understanding is that the donation was in the neighborhood of $30m. (Don’t know if that is correct or not, it is evidently enough to let one choose the employee and define the show.)
There are rumors that the hiring process didn’t comply with certain requirements for such things and, if pushed by enough people, could lead to legal action. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, as it would drag the University’s name through the mud.
Why not just hire the tOSU band director that was just fired for letting the band practice in the nude? I could live with that, if The Pride was as good as tOSU band. (OK, maybe I’m kidding)
Thanks for the information – I really had no idea. So, donors/politics control the marching band….
Sounds similar to “The Producers” . . . except instead of the worst stage play ever this time they are deliberately making the worst possible halftime shows ever . . .
The band thing is ridiculous & stupid.. Just fire the whole band & play pre-recordings over the loud speakers…
That’ll get the juices flowin
Yeah, since when have bands ever been a big deal in college football (extreme sarcasm font).
The band, good or bad, has never adversely affected my game day experience… As long as they can play the national anthem, oklahoma & boomer sooner.. I couldn’t care less what they do beyond that…
I’m truly sorry to hear that. For me, the marching bands are a huge part of the whole college football experience. Yeah, the pros are fine, but they just seem so business-like and, well, to be honest, a little “blah”. The pageantry of college football is definitely one of the things that makes me love it. I wouldn’t give it up for anything.
My best friend went to the shootout. Said he and his wife were disappointed with the band.
I saw them when I was in for the Tenn game and they were horrible. I mean next level bad. But as I understand it and what precipitated the request in today’s paper, it’s not the band’s fault.
I’m tired of people saying the Pride doesn’t matter. Especially from a fan base that’s full of people crying about keeping tradition. Out band consistently is known as one of the top 3 most traditional and technically sound bands in the nation. Within the year, they are mediocre. Anyone that has played an instrument and/or has marched before knows that what they put on the field is about as sad as the Offense of the football team, and as someone whose father marched in the pride of Oklahoma and grew up watching this band, I am upset with the changes in the pre game show that have made us famous, the changes in our music, and the quality of sound and drill. All this drop off is because some rich guy didn’t like the old band director. Shameful
I live in Ohio. I go to a tOSU game every year. Let me tell you, the fans love that band as much as they love the Ohio State football team. No wonder they have branded the following acronym: TBDBITL which means The Best Damn Band in the Land.
Jordan, how can I post a video of Ohio States Band performing a skull session at Thomas Hall?
http://youtu.be/eSp_gV09YlU
Did this work?
Yes. I was trying to post from my iPhone.
I totally agree. Fans wouldn’t want a coach who is incompetent in football basics, or a math professor who can’t do math. It isn’t fair for these pride members to have to settle for mediocre
I personally LOVE the Wheaties promo. That’s pretty cool. I wonder if we only are sending it to those who have verbally committed to OU. I’d like to think we send them to all our serious targets.
As a former member of The Pride (within the past 15 years), I would say it’s very disappointing that we have made decisions that have led to such negative attention. The band should never be the focus of any sporting event but should always serve as a vital part of the home field atmosphere before the game and during the game. Even during my days playing in the Pride, I wanted us to play louder but I felt the music was good “football music”. Obviously being in the Pride, I never knew whether or not people could hear us very well. I can tell you that since I graduated and have been to many games, I can’t hear the band unless their facing my section, the music selection is weak, and the changes are disappointing. I was a part of high school bands that looked better and sounded better on the field.
I like marching bands, but I am no band expert by any means and really just enjoy listening to them. This is from years of staying in my seat at halftime, so I wouldn’t have to stand in line. I mean who doesn’t get excited when Boomer Sooner or the Chant being played. That being said, the quality has gone down. It caught me off guard a bit. I really hate it when they start playing Show-tunes from musicals. Its kinda sucks that it’s not unusual when the visiting teams performance is more entertaining than The Pride. Like I said though, I just listen and would not call myself an expert by any means.
BTW….the fictional coach’s, EPIC!
If you use Uber, caveat emptor. Their drivers aren’t employees and Uber will just claim they are a tech company and if something goes wrong it is between you and the driver.
Just because it is an app on your smart-a** phone doesn’t make it a good thing.
I like UBER.
Good for you, I don’t and the number of complaints I hear from people that tried them and won’t ever again are scary.
It sounds like cabs are regulated and policed better in Dallas than Tulsa. Cabbies here are called Ali Baba and the 40 thieves.
They are regulated in Dallas, Ft. Worth and many suburbs. Even more heavily regulated at D/FW airport.
It sounds like Tulsa isn’t taking care of business. It isn’t difficult to establish a DoT to regulate cabs/limos/shuttles. Test them for knowledge and communication skills before issuing permits and requiring cab companies to post a significant bond for operating authority and a half a million in liability. When the companies and drivers actually have something to lose and not just everything to gain it will alter their behavior.
Cab drivers in Tulsa may request a translator to attend their licensing exam and the translator effectively answers the questions for them. So they step off the boat from Syria with no language skills or knowledge of the city or the business and they’re driving cab that day. No special regulations for the airport either. Overcharging skills are learned quickly and mastered. Complaints filed with the company are laughed at by the foreign owners who bribe the City of Tulsa Licensing officials to keep the status quo. Uber is rising tremendously in this town.
Uber prevents you from being overcharged by a cab driver as it is paid in advance. You’re much more likely to have a problem with a cab driver who smells like India and looks like Al Quaeda.
Don’t know about other cities, but here in Dallas they are all mostly foreign drivers. At least with a cab driver you have recourse if you have a problem by going through the cab company or the cities transportation department, not with uber they are unregulated. Cabs in Dallas are required to have drug tests, permit renewals and carry $500K in liability. Uber is just a burner phone with some slubs who sign up with them.
In Tulsa the cabs overcharging makes the news on a regular basis. Most drivers are from Syria. City of Tulsa invited Uber and heavily promotes them. Last night at Octoberfest it was about 60-40 cabs but Uber was significant.
Almost anything that breaks up unnatural monopolies (like local cab companies) is worth a try.