Big 12 North Football

I am embarrassed because I am going to have to cheat. I am not going to take the time to explain why I like the schools to finish where I pick them, I will just pick them. It is hard to get motivated to write a page or two about every team. Anyways this is how I see the Big 12 North palying out.

6. Iowa State

5. Colorado

4. Kansas State

3. Kansas

2. Nebraska

1. Missouri

Watch out for Colorado with second year head coach Dan Hawkins, they could surprise some people and finish as high as 3rd.

Texas and Missouri will meet in the title game and it will be closer than you think. Missouri will have the talent to keep it close. Texas wins the Big 12 title game to take home it 2nd title in 3 years.

Movies

Die Hard 4 comes out later this summer. In the commercials they show a car crashing into a helicopter some 30 feet in the air. I saw Pirates Of Caribean earlier this year, and it is one of the worst movies ever made, it is absolute garbage. I heard that Spider Man 3 total crap, and the Fantastic 4 was horrible. My point is, is that they can't make good movies anymore. I had not seen a movie in the theatre since Pirates of Caribean 2, and then wasted a trip on the third movie. Hollywood is in kind of a funk right now. They can't make a good movie, kind of like the early '80's. The 1980's was a dark period in cinematic history. In 1984 Amadeus won best picture, I bet 99% of the people that read this did not that, and I bet 100% of them have not seen it. Another acadamy award winner was Chariots of Fire. Flash forward to 2006 and 2007 and it is in same lull. I was wondering that with 100 years of film making are there any original ideas out there. Original believable ideas. The movies today are made to generate money not to be good, they are entertainment. Made to get people in the theatre. I doubt I go see anymore movies this summer, none of them look any good. I am going to list the five best movies made in my lifetime with the thought of, is the best days of cinema behind us.

5. Gladiator (When Maximus takes off his mask and Cesar sees who he is; absolutely classic)

4. Forrest Gump

3. Cold Mountain

2. Crash

1. All The Pretty Horses (on this there is no debate, its like Secretariats run at the Kentucky Derby. The only debate is what is second).

Feel free to submit your own ideas, I would like to hear them. As you can see my movies have had some success in the Acadamy Awards, but they don't have to have had Oscars success. Hopefully Hoolywood will break out of their slump, but with summer releases such as Transformers, and Fantastic 4 it doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon.

OSU Baseball

Oklahoma State played its 3 game super regional at Louisville, (pronounced Looeyville unless you are from there then it is Looaville)vying for their first trip to Omaha since 1999. The Cowboys played 30 innings and were outscored 31 to 5 and actually won a game. Pitching was the Pokes downfall but their offense was bad as well. 4 of their 5 runs came on solo home runs. They couldn't get anybody on base and when they did they were thrown out stealing or they hit into double plays. I have watched 4 games of the Cowboys this season and they lost 3 of them. I should give them credit though, after they dropped 6 straight heading into the regional I wrote them off for dead. But they swept the regional and I liked their chances against the upstart Cardinals. Today the Cowboys pitching gave up 21 hits and 20 runs and were never in the ballgame. In the Cowboys pitchers defense, Roger Clemens would had given up runs to the Louisville Cardinals. They were aggressive at the plate and hit the ball hard. The umpire would not call a strike if the pitch was a little low and when the cowboy pitchers raised it up in the zone the Louisville batters crushed it. I am surprised the game is still not going, as write this at 10:30 p.m., they were that hard to get out. If Louisville stays this hot, don't be surprised if they win the national title. In the second game though OSU pitchers Justin Friend and Jordy Mercer shut them down only allowing 2 runs both of them unearned. OSU needed a solo shot in the top of the ninth to tie the game. In the 12th inning OSU scored an unearned run to win the game. In the opening game Louisville routed the Cowboys 9 to 0. I guess all in all OSU had a successful season, but with 11 drafted players and several seniors the cupboard is farely bare for next year. OSU played well at times, taking 2 of 3 from A & M, and sweeping OU and Texas Tech. However, they got swept by Missouri and Texas, with the indelible image of players in the dugout yelling profanities at the umpires after calling a balk on the OSU pitcher allowing the go ahead run cross the plate and head coach Frank Anderson was ejected. The year had a lot of promise at times, but ended as the season of what could have been.

The Black Thumb

My wife has a black thumb. Not in the sense that you are thinking of, she doesn't kill the plants. We went hiking in the Andes Mountains, and it became frost bitten. She now has trouble opening the mail.

The Land of The Lost

I can't seem to post a blog unless I ripping somebody or something, and this one will be no different, but I am aware that it seems like I am an angry person.
My eyes were opened to a very sad reality that some people live in. I found a blog hosted by blogspot, in fact, that "released" info on episodes of ABC's show "Lost". Now I must admit that I watch the show pretty regularly, but I am growing tired of it. I'll get into that later. On this website it showed who was going to die on the season finale'. There must have 200 comments of people arguing back and forth. I thought I watched the show. They were arguing about people I have never heard of. Supposedly there are two women going to die and they hadn't released who it was. Who is this Penelope'? I don't know her. Then they were all in a frenzy to figure out which year Ben was born. The guy that hosted this website I guess had friends who worked on the set and would tell him things. This guy is a good a friend. Hey tell me something that I can tell everybody that nobody is supposed to know. Oh yeah if you get caught you'll get fired. Thanks man. They refer to the people of Lost as Losties, and the others as the others, but there are other others. Speaking of lost, I am lost. These people eat, breathe, drink, and sleep Lost. It was scary. They posted a press release saying that the Dharma shark was coming back but they didn't call it the Dharma shark, they called it something something Sharkington. I don't remember the rest. One other thing the writers of the show were talking about how they had answered so many questions that you might have had from season 1 & 2. Like when they said Desmond crashed the plane (I by the way must have missed that episode because I did not know that). However, when they revealed that Desmond crashed the plane they answered the question with another question. You now know when, where, and who, but you still have the questions of how and why. All I want to know is what dragged the pilot out of the cockpit in the very episode and what was shoving down the trees the first night they were there. That's all I want. I have resided to the fact that Wednesday will be the final time I watch the show (unless they answer questions with answers and not more questions). The reason is that I just don't care what happens anymore; just tell me how it ends. Why are they there, how are they there, who's running the show, etc.. Tell me that. I'll be good. (I have resided in the fact that they will never explain the dinosaur or whatever that killed the pilot and was pushing over trees the first night.) You see, the writers had no story in mind when they started writing it. So stuff from the first season that did not make sense will never get answered because they are trying to throw us for loop in the next episode. It's probably one of the worst planned tv shows ever to hit the airways. I think that they started writing it with the idea that they were all in purgatory, and after the second season, everyone had figured it out, and they had to change horses in mid-stream and it just keeps getting wilder. There will be no logical explanation to it (unless its a dream or purgatory, but in that case those fans that I wrote about earlier will burn ABC to the ground.) It will have to be an alternate reality, aliens, or something. Another thing is that the show - I believe this is the end of the third season - has signed on for a fourth, fifth, and sixth season. AND, and I might add, that the next episode of Lost after this Wednesday's will not air until February next year. Sorry, I feel like ABC has taken a relatively good thing and milked it for everything it was worth. I feel taken advantage of, that they think I will put up with this. I will find something else to do. For those of you that live vicariously through Lost, I find it sad, or maybe I am sad, because I live vicariously through people who live vicariously through Lost.

University of Oklahoma Football Season Forecast

First off I want to correct a mistake I made in my last blog. A&M went 5-3 in Big Twelve play. OK now that that is out of way onto the blog. I was listening to the experts today on the radio. FOX Sports Southwest is having a south football preview and the guy that is doing the show was breaking down some of the teams. When OU came he said they had reloaded well and that they will be even better than they were last year. I saw another website that had OU ranked #7 nationally preseason. Are these people looking at the same team I am looking at? Gone is Adrian Peterson, replaced by Allan Patrick, probably. The best thing OU has going for it is the offensive line, all of them improved a bunch last year and ended the season looking very impressive. I think I could be the starting running and be pretty successful. Gone is Paul Thompson, replaced by Joey Halzle, I mean Sam Bradford, I mean Keith Nichol, well whoever it is one thing is for sure they will have never taken a snap in a game in division 1 A. Joey Halzle will probably be the starter. Look at the schedule second game of the season they play Miami. I am not impressed with Miami they stunk last year....on offense. They had an impressive defense. You put a little a discipline and structure on that team and will it be ugly in Norman. If you are an OU fan you better hope their offense is as anemic as it was last year. If they can move the ball its over. OU's defense was pretty dang good last year in games 4 thru 13. Oregon posted over 500 yards of offense. And they complained about the brutal, brutal call OU got against Oregon. Well OU was a blown call away from losing (maybe) to UAB at home (Reggie Smith's fumbled punt). The secondary got burned repeatedly in big games (Oregon, Texas, and Boise State). Is it getting any better next year. I'm not seeing it. They had trouble tackeling when the run game got into the secondary. Reggie Smith has to play corner. When they put him at safety to compensate for the mediocre corners they might as well be making him play with handcuffs. His big play ability is seriously hampered playing that far back from the action. Gone is Rufus Alexander, replaced by I don't, whoever it is he ain't Rufus Alexander. Gone are Larry Birdine, Calvin Thibidoux and C. J. Ah You, replaced by I don't know on this one either, but thats a pretty good pedigree of de's to replace. Now I will grant you that a lot of the rest of country lost a lot (Florida, Ohio State, LSU, Notre Dame), but how can you pick OU to be seventh preseason, or to win the big twelve. Right it down, chisel it in stone, OU will not win the south. Its Texas's to lose. I think that quite frankly its not even close. A&M will finish higher than OU and you can take that to the bank. The last time OU had this many question marks it got beat by TCU at home on the season opener. One reason this might be a successful season is the coaching staff. Its the best in the country. If anybody could pull it off its Bob Stoops, but I ain't seeing it. You don't lose that many key elements to the team and compete for the National Championship. Its Texas in the South plain and simple.
P. S. I wanted to write about the North today but that idiot on the radio got me too worked up.

Big Twelve South Football

In my first blog about college football I went through the schedules and picked games and talked about some of the matchups. Not any more. That took way to long and I don't have that much time. So with out further ado the big twelve south.
6. Baylor Bears: After improving some the last couple of years it seems the Bears program is improving. Baby steps if you are Guy Morris. Two years ago they edged out OSU for fifth place in the South the first time since the inception of the big twelve they finished better than sixth. Last year they tied with OSU for fifth. They are still pretty bad though. If they were in say the Sunbelt Conference they would battle for the Division title not in the big twelve though. There offense will not be that bad with average talent at quarterback and running back. But there defense is terrible. Looked for it get scorched early and often. If your looking for a team to finish in the cellar in the south start your search here.
5. Oklahoma State: OSU put together a pretty decent year last year considering the year before that. But if you look at the schedule and see how the games ended up 10 and 2 was a realistic outcome and given that I would call last year a massive failure. No impressive wins and if they did have one (Alabama) they almost blew it in the fourth quarter. But next year we begin again. The schedule maker should be ashamed with road games at Georgia and Troy State. 7 and 5 would be great season and Mike Gundy better hope for better than 6 and 6. Because the next year T-Bone will be expecting to challenge for the Big Twelve South title and rightfully so.
4. Oklahoma: Heres a shocker. Not really though. How could pick OU finish higher. Will they finish higher probably but look at what left Norman last year. Their linebackers, a pretty good quarterback, and oh yeah their all-american tailback. They have some decent replacements for the tailback, quarterback is a big question mark, and linebackers are unproven. They boast an excellent secondary that got burned in big games and had trouble tackling in the running game. I watched some of the spring scrimmage and they said that OU lost 2 starter on defense. I don't by it. C. J. Ah You is gone, Calvin Thibidoux is gone, Larry Birdine is gone, Rufus Alexander is gone, the only defensive lineman I remember from last year that is returning is DeMarcus Granger. OU will start the season off against North Texas and expect a patented OU slow start. The line on that game will probably 21 points, I say take North Texas and the points. It seems like Mack Brown just has Bob Stoops number if he could ever beat Texas he could challenge for the national title. OU heartbreak in Big D, Texas rolls bigtime.
3. Texas Tech: I am giving 95% of Texans a reason to sneer in the face of Oklahomans by picking the 3 major colleges ahead of all Oklahoma colleges. Oh wait Texans already sneer in the face of Oklahomans. Tech had a down year last year and yet had a nice win against A&M. They took OU to the wire. I expect Tech to be much improved and more consistent this year they could give A&M a run for their money. They have OU at Lubbock and the refs have already asured the Lubbock faithful a win. They have to go to Stillwater and Texas though, places where they usually struggle. A&M at Lubbock is a must win.
2. Texas A&M: I expect big things from A&M this year. Well actually I expect the same as last 6 and 2 in big twelve play. They have Texas and OSU at home On the road at Tech and OU, and Baylor stinks. Thats about all I got. They have a good quarterback, a good tailback, and a pretty good secondary. Status Quo in College Station.
1. Texas: Heres a no brainer. Texas is clearly the best team in the big twelve. Experienced quarterback, tailback, offensive line and receivers, I expect them to be a juggernaut averaging over 48 points a game. A defense that will get the job done. I don't see any reason why they can't run table and play for the National Title in New Orleans. Toughest test at A&M, and maybe Nebraska at Austin. They would be seeking revenge for tough loss to Texas last year.