Sooners News Daily 8.20.14
Posted on: August 20, 2014
FOOTBALL
Quick, somebody get this to ESPN and every single national CFB writer even though it won’t fit their agenda and they’d refuse to acknowledge it. (WSJ)
This, IMO, is a really good example of someone previewing the Big 12 who was trying way too hard to be clever. (Grantland)
This projection of the 2014 season has OU going 11-1 and losing to Baylor, who is projected to go undefeated. (Fox Sports)
wankingmotion.gif – OU will be fine here.
Oklahoma returns the lowest % of rushing yards of any team in the AP Preseason Top 5. pic.twitter.com/8cxK2ZUQiu
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) August 19, 2014
Texas’ AD seems to put his foot in his mouth just about every time he opens it. (Deadspin)
Former Sooner De’Mond Parker has found some serious trouble with authorities. (Fox23)
KU losing two RBs for the season doesn’t really make them any more irrelevant than they were already going to be, but obviously sucks for these two kids. (ESPN)
RECRUITING
Former 2015 OU commit, Jamile Johnson, committed to North Carolina last night.
OTHER
This trailer hooked me, but almost for as much as the reminder of just how disturbing a world we live in at times.
The struggle is real.
Can’t. Wait.
#fail
Seriously, this shouldn’t be that difficult people. (some NSFW language, fyi)
72 Comments
The ice bucket challenge was a great way to start the day!!!! LMAO!
yeah those videos are awesome.
An observation and a prediction. First, many of these people seem more impaired than late stage ALS patients. And I’m talking mentally. Second, before this is all over, someone will die; I’ve rarely seen so many people taking head/neck shots without a hint of preparation or understanding of the risk.
I had to stop watching. The only reason it’s nsfw is because I wanted to lol the entire time.
Jordan thanks for sharing that one, I didn’t think anything would top the cross fit fails.
You are not gonna watch that Saved By the Bell atrocity Esco, no way…
Without the original cast, it’s just not going to be worth watching. Of course, some of the original cast is a little rough looking nowadays, so perhaps it’s just not worth watching regardless.
Yep. Some things just need to remain unseen and certainly not made into a movie.
I’d still hammer!
Excuse me, but that’s Jordan’s girl! Show some respect, man!
I came to terms a long time ago with others making eyes at my woman.
Ain’t gonna happen!
A redneck would have had that couch tied to the top of that car and been down the road in two minutes flat.
One try at it upside down without the cushions and they’d be going for some rope, for sure! LOL
Dang skippy. Them folks are just plain idiots.
I once moved a couch on top of a car without rope. We walked next to the car holding the couch in place for about 1/2 mile. I’m not a redneck by any measure, I was just a poor college kid.
I actually pictured that in my mind and laughed out loud!
From Grantland; “Though the Cowboys lost their starting quarterback,8 second-leading rusher, three of their four top receivers, the majority of their starters on the offensive line, key players on the defensive line, two of their three best linebackers, and a horde of defensive backs, we honestly do believe they’ll be quite good.” And it doesn’t EVER say why they, or anyone else, would believe such a thing after that! It simply says they will lose their first game, play some chumps, and late in the season will be very hard for them. Some analysis.
Meanwhile, OU is in serious trouble because two players who have never played at Oklahoma may not play at Oklahoma right away.
Yeah, that was the exact sports broadcast on Channel 6 in Tulsa last night and this morning. Good grief. It is so hard to watch it anymore.
Same thing came to mind when I read it. Is the writer basing his feelings on his confidence in the coaches or the new talent stepping in? Or, maybe he is just considering OSU’s rich history of producing championship caliber teams. LOL!
Holly is a girl. Not that girls can’t write about football. And Holly Anderson is usually better than this.
I agree. She definitely knows CFB, but this was just a really poor effort, IMO.
The Baylor Bears lose their best rusher, loads of players on defense and a couple of key pieces on their O Line, but they have a new stadium, this will automatically guarantee them a 10+ win season.
And ensure that they will beat OU in Norman although they NEVER have?! Baylor never won a single game against the Sooner’s until 2011.
One thing I notice about Baylor discussions, is how SoS discussions never mention how Baylor benefits from it during the season. Case in point, articles will mention how they rolled through the season until the played OU, where they lost a bunch of players due to injuries. Those were their first significant injuries the entire season, and they all came up against the second real team they played all season. By playing cupcakes all year long, they remain nice and healthy while all the other teams get beat up. On the other hand though, that really speaks to the strength program they have at Baylor, when their skill position players are dropping like flies like that.
When you factor in Petty’s drop in production against teams with a defense at all (and OU’s lack of an offensive identity at that point), I really can’t see why anyone would be high on Baylor now outside of homers and those too lazy to look beyond the defending conf. champ.
Sad deal with Parker. Will always wonder “what if” with him. OU has certainly had it’s share of top shelf running back talent, but Parker could have been as good as any with good coaching, a better scheme, and more talent around him. Dude could cut on a dime. He was one of the very few bright spots during those years of OU football.
Parker was a special RB. Remember his performance in that Texas game?
Wish he would have stayed for a lot of reasons. If he stays his senior year, Q redshirts in 1999 and sticks around for 2003.
I do. Didn’t he also tear up Syracuse in ’97 as well?
I was at that game. Brilliant stuff.
Liked the article on winning % against ranked opponents, however…like anything in life, it is very difficult to find absolute, definitive truth and value. Like one billionaire said when asked his net worth, “If I took the time to accurately determine my net worth, I’d lose millions.” My point…analytics are only so good as is the comprehension skills of the user and then only according to his ability to apply objectivity and the willingness to go as far as he can possibly go in formulating all known criteria. In the end…college football is a sport…sports are for entertainment…by the time one exhausts every known criteria into the equation of determining the best team, best program, best coach and all, he may very well have arrived at a more accurate “winner” while in the process taken all the fun and entertainment value out of it. LOL As always, thank you TFB for your valuable contributions to the sport so many people love and enjoy. Keep it real and keep it fun and it will always remain…real fun! : )
Or you could say it is one moment in time, based on one criteria.
True, it has little bearing on what happens in the next game and the value of such information is difficult to figure. However, it does speak well of Stoops and the OU program. It also goes a way to confirm that OU seems to play up or down to its opponent….. Which is the bipolar-like occurrence that cuts a swath through my fandom like a combine through a wheat field.
You know I don’t see any false facts in what the UT AD said. It may be unPC for people to speak their mind on these issues, but the facts are that these college scholarship athletes do get a heck of a lot out of their scholarships. Here is another fact. Few of these college athletes make the NFL where they make lots of cash. The rest of these scholarship athletes have to make their way in the real world after their college athletic career is over.
The smart ones are the ones who take advantage of all they are given to get a good education that empowers them to have a great career after their playing days are over. I’m not for paying student athletes as they are given a ton of benefits that the rest of college students don’t get that costs them a ton of money.
Just think about the number of these kids who don’t take advantage of the opportunities they are given. Parker is a great example of a kid who squandered his opportunity. He should have been more motivated to take advantage of the opportunity he was given.
I would support the players being paid a reasonable stipend. Which might prevent kids from stealing crab legs and gas.
Very little stealing is due to ‘need’; it’s mostly about ‘want’. And ‘want’ will expand to exceed any amount of cash on hand until such time as the individual learns self-restraint.
I don’t think most people would object to raising the current stipend level. And the NCAA recently changed their rules on the athletic table. Under the new rule schools are allowed to keep the kitchen open 24/7 and the athletes have no limits on what they can eat, especially the ounces of pasta, :).
I pretty much agree with the AD as well, though I’ll go into a bit more depth as to why.
College athletes receive much, much more than their scholarship value, and usually more than would make if their on field production was monetized. For 90% of players in FBS, the team they play on doesn’t even receive the amount of revenue that they are dealing out in scholarships. For the other 10% who do, look at all the investments the team makes in their athletes:
– 100s of millions into construction and maintenance of facilities
-10s of millions into coaches salaries
-millions into travel and practice equipment
All of the above are investments that improve the player and make it more likely to proceed to the next level. Facilities improve player strength, development and healing, the best coaches provide the best coaching which makes average players good and good players great.
There’s also some intangibles that people overlook when they start bashing the NCAA and the revenue generating programs for “making billions in revenue” off of college students (and once again, revenue does not equal profit).
-On campus fame and recognition
-A portfolio to present to the NFL of their play against the best competition around.
The second one is the main sticking point people overlook. Playing in college advertises players to the NFL, and it does it better than any other league. Not Canada, not Germany, and not the AFL. Colleges provide athletes with development of not only strength and skills, but also of a national, televised audience from which to develop a fan base. And that’s a huge value that people often overlook.
I rarely agree with Texas, but do on this. The stipend seems like a good idea until you realize that some schools won’t be able to afford it. Then what, a luxury tax on the big programs to subsidize the smaller ones. Maybe an end to minor sports scholarships.
This is about envy and greed. Those who stir the pot (evidenced by statements to the effect coaches and athletic directors only care about their income) are envious.
Jay Bilas is a big proponent of pay for play. Can he really claim that a Duke Degree isn’t the reason for his post basketball success? I don’t think so he went to a school that spends a lot more on their basketball program than just about every other school. I recall an article covering it a number of years ago. Chartered planes, 5 star hotels, etc. he has no idea what it would have been like had he gone to say Northern Iowa. But under his view he would have been paid too. Would ESPN have hired him?
Would he have attended the same law school?
Of course, he thinks I’m wrong. Well, graduating from Rolling Hills, an affluent suburb of LA and going to Duke is pretty much a 1% life. He would have had opportunity even if he couldn’t play basketball. But what about the kids who would have attended smaller, less successful programs. Should that kid lose the opportunity so a kid at Duke can get some spending money?
Anyone who has known Demond Parker would not be surprised by his recent troubles. I graduated the same year as he from a rival Tulsa school and, although I don’t know him personnally, we had many common acquaintances. His problems go back that far. I knew the RA in the dorms where Parker lived while he was at OU and back then he told me Parker was dealing on campus. It is really unfortunate that he choose this path. The lone jersey I have from the era between Barry and Bob is a #33. Ultimately I hope the allegations against him are not true and I hope he can still make something positive of his life.
Grantland is pretty terrible all the time, IMO. How Bill Simmons or Rick O’Reilly (whom I believe did and maybe still does stuff for Grantland) are considered such great sports journalism minds is quite the indictment on the intellect of our country, and more specifically sports fans.
I know that’s a pretty popular opinion on Simmons, but for whatever reasons I’ve always been a fan of his.
Flame away if need be, I can take it.
agree with you on Simmons, JE. Like most of those guys these days, he a bit hit and miss, but on the whole he seems to pretty decent with his analysis. imo
No flaming. To each their own. I just call them like I see them. It’s just at the point that there are very few sports journalists, or journalists in general, that I have much respect for. I give Buster Olney, Jayson Stark and Tim Kurkijan their credit, but there are few others I think know the sport very well and are able to present it in a form that I find worthy of a read. That’s just me.
My main issue with too many is they are trying to hard to be comedians, instead of giving me the sports news/analysis. It’s the reason I rarely watch ESPN any more. Baseball Tonight and the college football shows are good because they aren’t all trying so hard. Sure there is some serious bias on those shows at times, but at least I’m getting info about the sport, not Chris Berman’s (who my brother happened to see in the airport this morning) less than humorous nickname for Player X or somebody trying too hard to come up with a new catch phrase. Just not enjoyable to me.
Really enjoy reading the basketball articles Grantland posts. Zach Lowe especially does a great job
I am, nor have I ever really been a big NBA guy and yet I still like the guy, fwiw.
There’s only One Oklahoma…..There’s only One Bob Stoops!! 50-23
Watching De’mond Parker run was witnessing poetry in motion. Too bad he could not translate his OU opportunities into a better life for himself.
So JJ to unc I didn’t see that coming
Makes me think maybe OU kind of asked him to look elsewhere?
Yeah I think the offer to Reid was pretty much the writing on the walls. But I think he’s probably also looking at playing time opportunity and I don’t follow unc at all but I’m guessing they don’t have a lot of quality depth at safety.
I heard they were recruiting him hard. But yea, kind of weird if you ask me. I’m guessing they stroked his ego more than OU.
Don’t take the WSJ article literally…they have almost NO bias towards the SEC, so it’s not really even fair…(sarcasm font)
Come on now you know the WSJ and facts don’t know nothing bout no SEC Football Esco… any stats that don’t have Saban and the SEC in the lead are simply lies made up by haters.
Should have posted this the other day when I first saw it. The greatest of all time? That’s right! There’s only ONE!
http://cfn.scout.com/2/1097657.html
It’s great when a story or note is written here on a Friday and then it takes a pay site up until Wednesday to basically write an article with similar quotes (not saying they stole info) but they find out who to interview based on info generated on this site.
If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, Fridays open post said Malik Jefferson’s mom was interested big time (my paraphrase) in ou. I think ou is in great position for him and McNeal.
The comparison of last year’s Baylor offense to the 2008 Sooner wrecking machine is an absolute joke! Baylor put up their 70-point “monster” performances against Wofford, Buffalo, UL Monroe, WVU, and ISU. When they faced the big boys of the conference their numbers dropped precipitously. The Sooners put up 60+ points on Nebraska, ATM, OSU, T-tech, and Mizzou – not to mention putting up over 50 against a whole bunch of others.
That guy is making a big deal about the fact Baylor could have gotten even more against Wofford. Wofford!!
Seriously. Our ’08 second team could put that up as well, probably just running the ball too. People forget Madu was a beast in his own right.
We scored all those points against a top 10 schedule
Yes the 2008 Sooners team was one for the ages.
Yes indeed
2013 Baylor SoS- 48th(which is pretty generous honestly)
2008 OU SoS- 7th
Another thing no one seems to mention, petty only hit on 60% of his passes ONCE in his final 6 games, once they started playing teams with a pulse.
Petty isnt half as good as the media makes him out to be. They just love pushing the underdog story.
Agreed. They’ll make Petty out to be Joe Montana 2.0 almost on the basis of the underdog factor alone.
absolutely. I dont think hes a top 10 NFL draft pick like all the pundits make him out to be. His downfield accuracy is lacking when his WR arent open by 15 yards.
On a side note, it’s been great watching the preseason game. Roy Finch and Cory Nelson have been playing some great football, and on pace to make the roster. Very impressive.
Final Comment on the Mixon Madness:
Ubben wrote a fun little article asserting that because OU took DGB on, they had to come down harder on Mixon. There’s obviously more to it than that, but that’s the thrust of the article.
My problem is that conclusion isn’t consistent with existing data. Let’s compare Mixon’s situation to that of another guy who ran into serious trouble before his freshman year: Ryan Broyles. As everyone knows, Broyles was accused of stealing gas from Norman gas stations using a key and a code. (Tinfoil hat alert: I still believe he wasn’t stealing anything. The key and code are kept with separate people, and the only person at a gas station who would have both is the owner. Just saying.) Broyles went from a guy who was going to play early to an involuntary redshirt season. Essentially, he was suspended from all the games, but not from team activities. We now have our curve. A misdemeanor, though not a terribly severe one, gets you redshirted for the year if you’re a true frosh.
Folks, that was for “stealing” gas. Mixon punched a girl in the face. Now, granted, she went well out of her way to provoke him, but he’s still 80 pounds heavier and 8 inches taller. And he fractured 4 bones in her face. If you’re going to make Broyles redshirt an entire year for stealing gasoline, then whatever you do to Mixon has to be a step up from just a redshirt. Given Stoops’ history, I’d argue that even if they hadn’t taken DGB, Mixon would still have been entirely suspended for the 2014 season.
HOW DARE you guys bring facts to ESPN’s subjective party!
Mixon is in class.
http://s27.postimg.org/40dylxm03/image.jpg
Dan Snyder has a stinky record.
Looks like Jamile Johnson wants to breeze through classes.
Any word from Frank Shannon’s hearing today?
Watched E-SEC-PN’s Big 12 Preview last night. Pretty pathetic. They all wanted to talk about why the Big 12 isn’t relevant: No Championship Game! Made fun of Kansas, Iowa State, and West Virginia numerous times. All about what OU won’t do and what everyone else will. All had Baylor winning it and Texas as the darkhorse that will BEAT OU. SO, it makes you wonder who voted for OU to be at #4? There wasn’t one guy picked for offensive or defensive POY. All predicated on the Sugar Bowl win. Strong defense + potent offense + strong running game with O-Line depth + so many doubters = success. I love our chances to be in the final 4!