Mike Leach Mania!

It's a guest post!

I asked Angela, a proud former Red Raider, to share with us her thoughts on the recent Mike Leach firing hoopla. The end of this piece is a smidge out-of-date: Angela learned just a half-hour after she sent it to me that Texas Tech actually succeeded in hiring Tommy Tuberville. That's a great hire. Therefore, it fills me with dread.

But enough about my feelings; here are Angela's. Thanks, Angela!

What do I think about the Mike Leach “scandal” that hit Texas Tech two weeks ago? Well, let’s just start this out by saying Mike Leach is crazy. He’s absolutely insane, probably difficult to get along with (or even understand), and he does not show much respect for anything outside of pirates, Geronimo, and football genius. He also had a winning season and a bowl game bid every year he coached at Tech, the highest graduation rate of any college football program, and he’s the main reason I began to like college football during my days as a member of the Goin’ Band from Raiderland. He’s been known as the mad scientist of football, and his offensive genius made for very exciting games. His eccentricity also made for very interesting interviews. He’s done the weather report for a local new station (raining mud is also one of my favorite Lubbock weather patterns), given tips on dating, and accused the football players of listening to their fat little girlfriends after the loss to A&M this season. You never know what you’re going to get with this guy!

Leach has stirred up trouble before. He was fined $10,000 for a rant he went on after the 2007 game against Texas about the dismal officiating during the game. Maybe this is what initially set off the university brass and made them hate the best football coach they’ll probably ever see at Tech. I’m not really sure, but Texas Tech is definitely not the place for a laid back and liberal coach. Although in my experience, Lubbock LOVED Mike Leach. He mentions his love of pirates, so we all dress up like pirates, the band does a pirate show, and you can see pirate flags all over town. As Rachel mentioned, the athletic director Myers and others at Tech have wanted him gone since contract negotiations last winter. It has since come out there were e-mails exchanged among these folks and some boosters. In an e-mail to Myers: “I feel you should sign a contract that does not cost us too much to fire him.” Obviously there were plans in place to get this guy fired before they paid him too much…like the $800,000 bonus he earned.

The university launched an investigation into James’ allegations on Dec. 20 and fired Leach 10 days later. Now I’m not sure how long investigations into this typically last, but 10 days seems a bit fast. Good thing they got it all finished up the day before they had to pay Leach $800,000 for doing his job and doing it well. And now this has been followed by Jim Leavitt getting fired by South Florida. This new firing comes after a month long investigation that still seems inconclusive to me, as the very kid Leavitt’s accused of grabbing by the throat doesn’t even feel that the coach did anything wrong: “People can say different things but he only grabbed my shoulder pads to motivate me, because he's a passionate guy.” Apparently passion is no longer welcomed by college football.

I will personally greatly miss the coach that brought Tech’s football program into the national spotlight briefly. And so will most Texas Tech fans. I was at the Alamo bowl last week, and amount of support for Leach was overwhelming. The guy selling “Team Leach” shirts with skull and crossbones on the front is now probably a very rich man. Apparently if you watched on ESPN, you would not have seen the many signs supporting Leach and telling James to get back in the closet, you would not have heard the many chants of “We Want Leach!!,” and you would not have heard the booing as James entered or exited the ramp. Thanks ESPN, for making it seem that Tech had done the right thing. Maybe Leach did something wrong, and maybe his team was unhappy with him, but maybe the university should have done a better job figuring this out first before firing him. It makes the university look bad, especially coming after these same people sought out Bobby Knight and hired him right up after all his documented instances of player abuse. And it makes Mike Leach look even worse. I mean, how can you expect this mumbling mad man who is indifferent to how the world sees him to keep his mouth shut and not say things that will make it even harder for him to find a good job after this? I hope he gets a job, and I will immediately begin to follow that team, no matter how low on the totem pole. And I hope this team plays Texas Tech, because if that happens, it will be the first time I root against Texas Tech and for Mike Leach. He deserved better than the treatment he received, and I look forward to him getting millions of dollars from Tech when the litigations are over. Oh, and Tech should hire Tommy Tuberville real fast before USF tries to get him. If that man wants to be your coach, you hire that man! Let’s see how badly Tech can screw this up as well- I predict fairly badly.

Click here to read more . . .

My Last Football Post OF THE DECADE

(Blogsplosion Post #15)

Sorry, I just wanted to get on the "last [whatever] OF THE DECADE" bandwagon.

Anyway!

That bowl game was pretty bad, huh? I told my brother-in-law before it started, "Our special teams aren't very good." So, uh, thanks for proving me right, special teams. I guess. That game had it all--a blocked field goal attempt, a kickoff return for touchdown, a blocked punt, a botched long snap--and it all went in Georgia's favor, so it ended up not mattering that the Aggies' offense (and even the defense) outclassed Georgia's. This is exactly why people should care more about kicking and punting. When you're not a very good team, it's at least comforting if your special teams are very good, and if your special teams aren't good, well, that's just a disgusting way to lose.

That's all I have to say about that. Let's talk about Mike Leach locking a kid in a closet and then getting fired.

Just in case you haven't been following this story (and why haven't you? Mike Leach stories are always crazy), here's what went down: on Monday evening, the story broke that Texas Tech was going to suspend Leach from Tech's bowl game because one of his player's parents had complained that Leach had mistreated the player. The parents were likely emboldened to complain because one of them is Craig James, a pretty senior college football talking head for ESPN. (James had been scheduled to call the Alamo Bowl, in which Tech is going to play Michigan State, but--unfortunately for anyone who enjoys comically awkward situations--he's n longer going to.) Leach decided to file an injunction to try to make Tech not-suspend him. But today, just before Leach's lawyer and Tech's lawyer were going to fight the thing out in court, the Tech lawyer handed the Leach lawyer a "P.S.: Leach, you're totally fired" letter. And since they're claiming to have fired him with cause (which is to say, so they don't have to pay him the rest of his contract), Leach is still going to take them to court (unless they settle, of course) to get that money.

It was entirely clear as soon as the Adam James story broke that Texas Tech was going to use that as an excuse to fire Mike Leach. The Tech brass just hate him. It doesn't matter that he is far and away the best coach they've ever, ever had; they hate him for being a weirdo (and probably for being arrogant and not gladhanding the boosters enough, but I bet it's mostly for being a weirdo). Remember how they wanted to fire him just for not accepting a contract that was clearly unfavorable to him? They were just waiting for an excuse.

That being said . . . why did he lock a kid in the closet?

The James family accused Leach of making Adam James stand (not sit, not lie down) in a dark equipment shed for two hours after James sustained a concussion. Then, two days later, the coach made James stand in a closet for a couple more hours, with a trainer posted outside the door to keep him in there. Leach's response to these allegations was, in a nutshell, "So?" That is to say, he didn't disagree that any of that had happened, although he did add that James is "a slacker" and that Craig James is some kind of overbearing Little League dad. But, um, that doesn't explain anything. Neither of those are explanations for locking a guy in a closet. Even though it's Mike Leach, and he's crazy, I'm still confused.

Now I'm worried about Mike Leach. Do I want to see him get another job? Of course I do! The man is pure entertainment! Sure, he caused me quite a bit of pain as an Aggie fan, but as a fan of the sport in general, I always want him in the mix. You know who that previous sentence equally applies to? Billy Gillispie! So here's my idea: they team up as a pair of wild, rebel outsider coaches and go to some downtrodden school (because that's who would take them), then build up their respective programs and take the world by storm! As long as the place they go to has a pretty relaxed athletic director who wouldn't get into ego contests with Leach and who'd get Billy a grad assistant to drive him around (because, let's face it, in the drinking + driving equation, driving would be easier to talk Billy out of), it would be totally great. I would buy that school's sweatshirt tomorrow. So come on, somebody in the WAC, or somebody in a major conference who always gets pushed around! Take a chance! It will probably be worth it. Click here to read more . . .

Aggie Football and its Surprising Turn for the Better

In the comments for my previous post, both Angela and Craig wondered why I never put up a post celebrating/gloating about Texas A&M's shocking beatdown of Texas Tech last week. I have come up with several possible answers.

1. I . . . don't know.
That does seem just like something I should have done, doesn't it? I mean, my team beating the team whom I have most often expressed extreme loathing for, especially when it's only the second time we've beaten them in nine years, and the first time we've beaten them in Lubbock since 1993. 1993! I was in the fifth grade in 1993! Now I have two college degrees! It has been a long time since 1993. And I didn't even blog about this win? That's pretty weird, yeah. I don't know what was up with that.

2. My teeth hurt?
I was all, like, drugged up and stuff from my wisdom tooth pulling. (By the way, I keep meaning to write a wisdom-tooth-wrap-up post, but the drama continues to unfold. I got the dry socket, and it was just as unpleasant as legend foretold.)

3. I hate to admit this, but . . . I don't think I hate Texas Tech as much as I used to.
I know! This is shocking! It needs its own subheadings:
a. I live in Big T(elev)en Country, right? When you're deep in the heart of Texas, fellow Aggies are easy to come by. You band together against your enemies, i.e. people who root for texas, Texas Tech, and ever so occasionally, Baylor. But out here, any fellow Big Twelve person is a great find. When I was at A&M, KU was a rival, a lower-level one at that; here, me and my Jayhawk friend are the only ones around who "get it." And then of course, I've gone from being able to watch my team in person on a regular basis to being grateful when I can see any Big Twelve game on TV. It's a whole different dynamic.
b. I think I think Mike Leach is funny. My feelings about his weirdness have gone through a gradual progression from scorn to bewilderment to amusement. OK, amusement/bewilderment. Is there any other response when, for instance, his loss to A&M prompted him to contrast his job to coaching the "Swedish bikini team" and to blame the loss on his players' overconfidence, said overconfidence having been instilled by the players' "fat little girlfriends."
c. Angela has convinced me that not all Tech fans are soulless devil fiends, which was really the basis of most of my hatred. I mean, a lot of them are really terrible, but not all.

4. I did not listen to the game.
This might be the biggest reason I didn't write anything--I couldn't say anything from any particular authority, because all I did was follow the score on the gamecast. And the reasons I didn't listen were that it takes concentration and effort for me to listen to a football game as opposed to watching one (and I was all drugged up, remember?) and that I really didn't want to jinx it. I mean, after I listened to the whole K-State debacle, can you blame me?

All of this is not to say that I'm not excited. Of course I'm excited! And yesterday's victory over Iowa State, I think, confirms that this team has turned a corner. They have an offensive line now! That means they can, like, run the ball! And Jerrod can throw without having to run for his life first!

Most importantly, the Ags are only one game away from bowl eligibility! (Sure, maybe I aim low, but it's exciting to have the team achieve my hopes for them anyway.) Seriously, I could do a Chinese fire drill of football happiness right now. The Aggies only have to beat Colorado or Baylor, and with the way they've played in the last two games, those are both achievable. Heck, if they can maintain this level of play, I wouldn't rule out (knock on wood) a Thanksgiving Day surprise at Kyle. (I'm not saying it's going to happen, I'm just saying I'm not ruling it out.)

In conclusion, did the victory in Lubbock cancel out the massacre in Manhattan? Yes. Yes it did. And if that's not saying a lot, I don't know what would. Click here to read more . . .

An Off-Season Football Post (by Request!)

Angela asked me for thoughts on this week's draft-related happenings and of course I have them, so here they are.

1: On Stephen McGee getting drafted in the 4th round:

I am very proud of young Stevie. So proud! During his senior season, it seemed like he wasn't going to get drafted at all. And sure, the fourth round isn't as glamorous as getting drafted the first day, but it's entirely respectable. And he was the fifth quarterback taken--only Matthew Stafford, Mark Sanchez, Josh Freeman (who I still think is going to be a bust), and Pat White were taken ahead of him.

While it's disappointing that I'll have to care about the Cowboys to some extent, it does warm my heart that Stevie and Tellus are reunited.

And it feels so good!

2. On Mike Leach saying, "I'm happy for Stephen McGee. The Dallas Cowboys like him more than his coaches at A&M did."

I'm annoyed, sure. (Although it's hard to tell who exactly he's insulting, even though it's clear he's insulting somebody.) Am I surprised? No. It's well established that Mike Leach says anything that pops into his head. I don't think this incident in particular will do much to hurt Leach's job-market stock. For one thing, it's part of a pattern (I really doubt it's the most outrageous thing he's ever said) and, frankly, that stock is already really low, as evinced by the failure of anyone to try to hire away a coach with such a good winning record.

Also, as this ESPN article insinuates, he's just bitter that Graham Harrell didn't get drafted at all. (And here's an article from CBS sports that doesn't insinuate anything, it just flat out lambastes Leach.) And you know what? It can't even be the "system quarterback" thing, where people believe a QB puts up misleadingly good stats just because of the system his coach runs. He must have done poorly at the combine too, because if draft status was only tied to college performance, you know who wouldn't have gotten drafted? Stephen McGee.

(But then again, the "system quarterback" thing clearly has some legs, at least as far as Leach's QBs go: "Kliff Kingsbury is in charge of quality control at the University of Houston. B.J. Symons is with the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League and Sonny Cumbie was with the AFL's Los Angeles Avengers, a team that folded last week. And Cody Hodges is out of football." I mean, I don't know where Mark Ferris [shudder] is today, but still. Dang.)

It's a little odd that Crabtree didn't get drafted higher, but I think that was because A) he hurt his foot and B) just the way the draft played out--the first team that wanted a wide receiver was the Raiders, and they picked a less highly regarded guy because Al Davis is a crazy old coot. I'm not convinced it was a personal insult to Crabtree, but I could be wrong. (Oh, the idea of a burgeoning Leach-Mangini feud? [Leach: "Crabtree as a receiver has been more successful than that guy has been as a coach."] LOVE IT.)

3. It is still my hope that the Packers pick up (undrafted but very good) Aggie punter Justin Brantly.

It just is. Click here to read more . . .

BIG XII TOURNAMENT! [fist shaking angrily at sky]

I think I've decided that I hate the Big XII tournament.

It's really just shocking how bad the Aggies have been--this year and historically--in the blasted thing. Three games ever, people. In the twelve year history of the conference, the Aggies won one game in '06 and two games last year (bright side: that means the Turge has won twice as many conference tournament games as Billy). '07 was particularly frustrating, as the Ags came in with a #2 seed and, therefore, a bye round, and immediately lost to a desperate Oklahoma State team.

As usual, I didn't get to watch the Ags play on Wednesday night. However, it's easy to be frustrated just from watching the score--how do you squander a 20-point halftime lead? To Texas Tech?

Stupid tournament.

It's fairly disingenuous for me to say I hate it, though, because given the chance, I'd love to go see it in person. It's one of my long-term goals. Click here to read more . . .

Brace Yourselves

How could I not blog about the Mike Leach contract hoopla? (I'm going to put a lot of reference links in this entry, but if you only click one, it should be this one.)

I sort of assumed that this story had been put to bed near the end of the season, when Leach didn't get offered any of the jobs he had seemed to show interest in. Despite the general feeling that Leach and Tech's AD don't get along, it seemed a matter of course that if Leach was staying, Tech would be only too glad to keep him and keep him happy.

But no!

The AD, Gerald Myers, cannot come to an agreement with Leach over a new contract. The dispute is officially about certain clauses in the contract Tech has offered that Leach objects to. It's not about the money--it's about whether the university has the right to fire Leach if he goes on interviews for other jobs without permission, and it's about (according to Kirk Herbstreit) whether Tech gets any money from personal speaking engagements that he takes. Despite Leach's fairly well-documented eccentricities, it seems pretty obvious that Myers is the crazy one here. (That latter clause is just stupid.) It really just comes down to a game of ego-fueled chicken. It's my guess that Myers is being intentionally intransigent because he doesn't like Leach and wants to drive him off.

It seems possible that, against all common sense but given the weird statement that the Tech board of regents is going to discuss "the position of the head football coach," Leach might actually get fired for not signing the extension as offered. I agree with Tim Griffin that this can go down one of two ways: they let Leach have his way, or THEY BLOW IT ALL UP. It is well-known that I seriously dislike Texas Tech, but seriously, guys--how stupid are you? Leach's accomplishments at Texas Tech are unparalleled in the program's history. He has won consistently and is coming off Tech's best season ever. Why in the world do they think that getting rid of Leach will allow them to trade up?I agree with the Sports Illustrated guy who wrote the article "Firing Mike Leach would be program suicide for Texas Tech."

So, I mean, I want them to do it. It can only be good for the Ags (and every other team in the Big XII) if Texas Tech takes the crown from Auburn for Dumbest Athletic Department in the World. And, as previously established, I don't like that school. On the other hand, it just bothers me on a fundamental level when humans are that stupid. But, to make this a little more interesting, let's take a look at this quote from the SI article that is threatening to break my mind:

Of course, if Leach gets fired and Mike Sherman has a second dismal season in College Station, maybe the Aggies, who have far more financial resources than the Red Raiders, will snap up the mad genius and make him their 12th man.

Oh, holy cats. I can't wrap my mind around that. I mean . . . it's just . . . there's . . . I don't . . . can you imagine pirate flags at Kyle Field? Obviously, the writer is making several leaps there (that Leach will be fired, that Sherman will be fired [I'm still holding out hope that he can turn it around], that A&M will be more willing to take Leach, pirates and all, than Tennessee et al were, and that A&M would be go after an all-offense guy when the program's identity is so wrapped up in defense), but if that spitballing prediction actually came to be--no, seriously. I can't wrap my mind around that. Click here to read more . . .

Unflattering

I don't really have anything substantive to say here (I could complain about how well Texas Tech is doing but . . . I just don't have the energy. This is the worst season ever [albeit the Aggies have dramatically improved; you just wouldn't know that from their score today]), I just had to mention: there is a picture of Graham Harrell on espn.com's homepage, and it is terrible.

And I just had to share that in some venue. (I thought about posting it in a "Caption this!" thread on TexAgs, but I was afraid of the answers it would get.)

Nothing against Graham Harrell personally (I've come to realize that I don't actually hate Texas Tech's teams so much, I mostly just loathe their fans. Except for Angela.*) This is just a very bad picture.


*Angela: if you leave the names of some of your Tech friends that you would be willing to vouch for (as in, they don't throw stuff on visiting fans--you know, Coke, batteries, bleachers, goalposts), I will make sure to mentally exempt them as well. Click here to read more . . .

Footbaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllll!

Well, it's now officially college football season! (You can tell because Baylor already has a losing record.)

That means it's time for Coach Sherman: Year One!

I am trying not to get my hopes up too far about The Shermanator, especially for his first year. Some people (and by "some people," I mean "idiots on TexAgs") think that anything less than nine wins is unacceptable, or than ten wins shouldn't be a problem. Ten wins?!? The Ags haven't gotten double-digit wins since 1998. Come on, people! First year coach! Ease up on the expectations.

Ergo, I am setting my expectation bar here: six wins. Just six, just get bowl eligible. (We would go to a lame bowl at six wins--I don't think we'd get passed over because Aggies travel well--but the name will never be lamer than the GalleryFurniture.Com Bowl, and at least we won that one.) I think, given this year's relatively forgiving schedule, that we could do better than that, but I refuse to be up in arms if we are not.

The exception, of course, is if in racking up six losses, we look horrible. Despite the saying "a win is a win," I am going to be very disappointed if our wins come from being just-barely-less-horrible than the other team, or if our losses are by monumental margins. Because I am just too familiar with that, thanks to our previous coach.

That's why it's oddly fitting that the Aggies' season opener is against Arkansas State, the same cupcake the "Coach Fran Era" began with. Back in 2003, it was a fairly unimpressive outing. I am anxious to see (well, hear--it's not like this baby is going to be on network TV) if the ShermAggies can do better than a field-goal-heavy 15-point not-really-a-beatdown of Ark State.

After tomorrow's game, it's on to New Mexico at New Mexico and Miami at Kyle (I predict that we may lose one of those two, but as long as it's not flat out embarrassing like last year's Miami at Miami [when Miami turned out to be awful against opponents that we . . . anyone other than us], I think I'll be OK with it), and then Army at Kyle (which, if we lose it or have to win it with "a last-second goal-line stand" AGAIN, will make me very unhappy). So, I'm thinking 3-1 or 4-0 for what I keep trying to remember not to call "preseason." Depending on those performances, we'll see what may be possible in the Big XII.

One note about that Big XII schedule now, though--many football analysts have us losing to Iowa State at Iowa State. Um . . . no? They're . . . the Baylor of the North? You guys are . . . high? But I guess I'll have to eat my words if and only if we are much, much worse than we ought to be.

Special bonus time! Here are three non-Aggie football stories I'll be following:

1) How good is Kansas?

I never totally felt like I knew the answer to this last year. Basically, they had two tough games--Missouri and Virginia Tech--which they split. However, this year they have a real non-conference game (South Florida) instead of all cupcakes, all the time (Mangino's motto! [I'm sorry; Mark Mangino fat jokes are one of those things that you think will get old, but they never do]). They also trade the easiest-possible slate of South games they had last year (Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, and Baylor) for the tougher counterparts to each of those teams (Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech). It will be amazing if they do as well this year as they did last year, but even if they drop two of their games against the South + Missouri, I'll be more convinced that they're legit than last year.

2) Can Texas Tech live up to the hype?

Man, sportswriters are going crazy over Tech this summer. I've seen BCS bowl predictions, and at least one national championship prediction. O . . . K? I mean, I do think Tech will have the best team they've had in recent memory. That being said, they're still in the Big XII South. They have to get past Texas (which they may be able to do this year, sure) and Oklahoma--and I can't think that really, even if I try to put aside my semi-irrational hatred for Texas Tech, that that's really going to happen, last year's head-to-head matchup aside. (Maybe if Bradford gets all concussed again?) Plus, Tech has that pesky tendency to drop games to terrible teams. So my guess on the original question is . . . no, not really.

3) So . . . how about those Badgers?

I do live in Madison, WI, and attend the University of Wisconsin, so I feel like I ought to care about this. And I guess I do. After all, the Badgers are predicted to be the second best team in the Big Televen and are figured to have the best shot in the conference of taking down Ohio State. And yet . . . it's the Big Ten. They play boring, boring football here, that's all I'm saying. Maybe someday the 'sband and I will move back to Big XII or even SEC country. One can hope.

Click here to read more . . .

I Was Afraid This Would Happen.

Seriously?

What is it about Texas [note my lack of restraint in not putting an expletive here] Tech? Their team is NOT AS GOOD as A&M's, and yet they keep beating us!

Twice by two points apiece last year (the second one causing me to swear really loudly in a public place, not to mention slam my hand down so hard on the table that I wasn't entirely sure that I hadn't broken something in there), and now this.

However, the worst part isn't that we've lost to them three times in a row. The worst part isn't even that it was Bobby Knight's 900th win (although that would be the worst part had the game been in Reed Arena). No, the worst part was that the Ags played horrrrrrrrrribly. I didn't get to watch the game (I somehow continue to to make it through a life without cable), but I did try to listen to it. In a rare display (I flatter myself) of un-Aggieness, I stopped listening early. I think it was about the time Joe Jones travelled for the fourth time? Or when Josh Carter racked us up yet another offensive foul?

I forgive missing shots (except free throws), because I understand that a player can sometimes have an off-night. Sloppy play, however, I just do not care for. Again, I don't know how it looked (and I don't know if the refs were being unfair to the Aggies, though it did sound like they were calling it both ways--and Dave South didn't complain about it, anyway) but it was like torture to listen to.

The upside to this is that if the Ags step it up, maybe--maybe--they can finally beat Tech when they come to our place. I asked my gentleman caller after I looked up the final score last night, "Why can't The Turge, Joe Jo, D Kirk, D Sloan, D Ro, DeAndre, B Dav, and Josh beat those guys?" (His reply: "I don't know.") But I know they can.

They've just got to try A WHOLE LOT harder.

Click here to read more . . .

Official Fran Vendetta & Related Miscellany

Well, I guess I jumped the gun. I suppose I was just overly optimistic that'd we would hear real news about the eagerly anticipated Fran firing. Can you blame me? (After all, it is a consummation devoutly to be wished.) I should have held fast to my knowledge that my homeboy Bill Byrne will, like he said he would, give his pronouncement after the season is over.

I just hope that the season is "over" on the day after the day after Thanksgiving, and not after the eBay Minimum Wins Bowl in Pityville, Mississippi. I think it probably will be sooner rather than later, but I do wonder who would coach us in the bowl we will be going to (thanks, bulk of the Big XII North, for continuing to be even worse than us!)

I am surprised that Bill Callahan has lasted this long. I really thought they were ready to pull the trigger there. Way to restrain yourself, Tom Osbourne. (Well, I guess "restraint" is a relative term here.)

It's a little funny that the first Big XII hot-seat coach to go was the one nobody cared enough about to remember to put him on the hot seat list. (Keep your spirits up, Baylor! Maybe people will notice you, someday.)

And, as a final football note, in this season of shocks and surprises, perhaps nothing has taken me aback as far as the fact that . . . I was rooting for Tech last night. Apparently, my drive to root for the underdog is very, very powerful. Also, it helps that I'm totally on the KU bandwagon, so--take that, Land Thieves!

But, to return to the main point, I'd like to start a countdown to the Great Fran Firing of 2007, but I can't decide how optimistic to be. I'd like to think it'll come on the 24th, but it might be a Lloyd Carr-style wait until the business week actually starts. How about this: we're at T-6 days if the Ags run out of time to t.u., T-8 if the Ags Beat The Hell Outta t.u.

Good? Good.

Click here to read more . . .

Official Fran Vendetta: Day 3

It's hard to root against a coach of the team you're rooting for. On the one hand, of course you want your team to win. What kind of monster would you be if you didn't? On the other hand, the more your coach loses, the more quickly he'll be fired, which will be better for your team in the long run. But, back on the first hand, if your coach is winning, then why does he need to be fired at all? So it's a dilemma, especially when your coach isn't ludicrously, jaw-droppingly awful, but just bad enough to keep your team mired in mediocrity. Beating the little teams and losing ridiculously to the big teams (maybe only allowing an upset as often as he actually pulls an upset) isn't bad enough to get dumped immediately, but it's not good enough to be, you know, good.

What I'm getting at is that I don't know how I want my Ags to perform this season. Obviously, I should be really happy if they somehow, say, run the table in the Big XII and get to a good bowl game and somehow not BOMB in it. But I just don't think that's possible. I might be able to squeeze a bit of malicious glee out of it, and look forward to the relief that the Canning of Fran would bring, if we drop every (or almost every) game in conference and fail to reach bowl eligibility for the third time in five years. But I neither want that to nor think that will happen, either.

How will we do? Here are my not-particularly-educated guesses:

Baylor: win, although I'm not going to bet the farm on it. Maybe a small chicken, though. But it could be close, as our last three matchups with Baylor have been.

Oke State: win. I'm more ambivalent here, because it's hard to know how those krazy kowboys will do one week to the next. They're an up-and-down team, and since they're up now, my guess is they'll be down at Kyle Field.

Stupid Texas Tech: Forget everything I said in the first few paragraphs; no consideration on this earth will ever, ever, make me think that losing to Tech is ok. That said . . . we'll probably lose. It's in Lubbock and we can't defend the pass. And we can't pass. It would be a shootout, if only we could shoot. Dangit.

Nebraska: lose again, unless Nebraska proves to be a house of cards. At this point, it looks possible. However, it's in Lincoln, and not being able to hang with USC doesn't mean they can't beat us. (That near loss to Ball State, though . . . .) On th other hand, because the Big XII North is terrible (seriously, you guys, what's your problem?!) and because Fran has to give us a glimmer of false hope (I think it's in his contract), maybe we will win.

Kansas: I don't think anybody has the information to predict the outcome of Kansas' conference schedule. They've been murdering cupcakes (in the grand snacktime tradition of Mark Mangino, I'm sure). What does that mean? Who knows? It's at home, but that didn't always work in our advantage last year. So I'm going to say: if we beat Nebraska the week before, we come in this game on a high and crash. Lose. If we lose to Nebraska the week before, we'll be desperate for a win and get it. Win.

So, with NU and KU combined, 1-1.

Oklahoma: The only question is going to be how bad we lose.

Missouri: Again, the north is bad. As usual, I think Mizzou will collapse, defying high expectations yet again. Still, it's at their place, and they may be mad about us beating them last year. Lose.

t.u.: They're not that good--by their standards. We're at Kyle--but they won't be happy about last year in Austin. Even the Fran-wants-to-make-my-head-explode-by-evading-firing-by-beating-texas mojo won't pull it out this year, and we will lose.

So, I see the Ags going 3-5 in conference, for a 6-6 record overall. Depending on how the rest of the conference does, maybe good enough for the My Mom Said I Could Have Some People Over So I Invited a Couple Teams to Play in My Backyard Bowl.

Good enough for Fran to keep his job? I hope not. Click here to read more . . .

Check This Out

(I know this is hard to see, so it's here if you really care.)

I would like to draw your attention to a few things here. Firstly, that with Billy's pending pay raise to $2 million a year, he'll be getting about as much money as Fran, which is good for two reasons: 1. Fran sucks and Billy does not and 2. this will prove to Billy that A&M can love more than one sport. Yes, basketball will never be king like it as at, for instance, Kentucky, but also, as long as he's here, football will never be the only thing we can about.

The second thing about this neato graphic is--how hilarious is their picture selection?

Thirdly, I hope you can tell by the bars how little Bobby Knight is paid. (Relatively, of course.) I don't know whether to be more boggled by the fact that he's the fifth-highest paid coach in the Big XII (at $800,000) when he is BY FAR the biggest name, or by the fact that he's paid half as much as Tech's football coach ($1.6 million)! How in the world was Texas Tech ever able to hire Bobby Knight in the first place? (I know he probably gets much more than this what with his O'Reilly Autoparts endorsement deal, but still.)

And fourthly, Baylor's football coach gets paid over a million dollars a year? . . . Why? I know that's a cheap shot. But oh well.

Fifthly, no wonder Bob Stoops is the highest-paid state employee in Oklahoma at 3.5 million dollars a year. I mean, look at that maroon bar. It's huge!

Click here to read more . . .

As You May Have Heard, I Dislike Texas Tech.

I had the "pleasure" of listening to the Aggie basketball game tonight as called by Texas Tech's "announcers."

OK, that last set of sarcastic punctuation was a little uncalled for. One should not expect too much from local college sports guys; this I know. Still, the play-by-play guy said several ridiculous things, only three of which I decided to jot down for my own amusement.

"He's one of our most prodigious free-throw shooters . . . ."

I think you meant prolific, buddy. (But I like to think he was using the obsolete definition and that whichever guy it was shoots free throws ominously.)

When Acie Law was trying to shoot a free throw on the end where the Tech students sit:

“He makes the free throw, even though the student body is holding up sheep posters . . . I don’t know what that’s about.”

Well, sir, if you don’t know, I’m not going to explain it to you.

Talking about the Aggies' tough defense:

"Jones and Kavaliauskas are really fighting them hammer and sickle down there!"

Yes, the reports are true. The Aggie big men play such good defense, it's practically . . . communist?

Click here to read more . . .