The theme of the day: its going down. Feel free to listen to the song of the same name by Vampire Weekend and pull out the emotions/themes you need to get you through the links today: love, hope, despair, loneliness. They're all here, in the links:
(1) Orangebloods.com says the Little 9 is going down. The say that OU and OK State will apply for membership in the Pac 12-20 before the end of the month. Never mind the words from T Boone Pickens saying OK State wants to stay in the Little 9 and never mind the Pac 12-20 commish saying they don't want to expand at present. Orangeboods says its happening. And what of Texas? They say "all options" are being considered.
(2) One of those options for Texas? Crawling on its hands and knees to Norman to beg OU face-to-face to stay in the Little 9. Or so tweets @ChuckCarltonDMN of the Dallas Morning News. He says: "Big 12 school sources confirm high-ranking UT delegation traveled Sunday to Oklahoma City to meet with OU officials about alignment issues." Two things: (1) the mere thought of this has been the greatest thing to come out of this realignment talk, and (2) if your name is Chuck Carlton of course you live in Texas.
(3) Who didn't like Texas getting down on their hands and knees? Their BFF Texas Tech. Reason? Tech wasn't informed on the high level trip. They are mad for two reasons: (1) by not being invited they think they might be getting left out of the expansion talk, and (2) they are siding with OU and OK State in thinking its time for the Little 9 to go down.
(4) The Little 9's not going down until A&M officially joins the SEC, tweets @kbohls of the Austin American-Statesman. His non-so-Texas name is Kirk Bohls, but fear not, Chuck Carlton agrees that the Pac-12 isn't making the first move.
(5) In the daily finger pointing of what brought down the Little 9, believing the conference won't last. He writes: "They're tired of the drama. Tired of the fatigue. Tired of never knowing what their landscape will look like a year from now." Tramel also puts forth a new name for the current Little 9: The Big Mess Conference. I like it.
(6) What brought Missouri down at the end of the game to ASU? Something I forgot to mention in my recap: why did we even have two time outs to ice our kicker in the first place. A great case is made at the every end of this article by Tim McKernan.
(7) Because of injuries we're down to our last remaining running back. Other options? A walk-on, a red-shirt freshman, and our top receiver, TJ Moe.
(8) For those conspiracy theorists among us: the Mizzou Board of Curators is meeting tonight to discuss the "System President Search." Last time they did this, we hired a new basketball "coach" (term used loosely). Could they announce a new conference after tonight? Doubtful.
(9) In other news, Bud Selig let the terrorists win last night and (separate issue altogether) this is awesome.
Summary
(a) We don't know much more than we did a few days ago about conference realignment.
(b) After appearing to be going down in shreds, the Little 9 rebounded for a while, only to be appeared headed down once again.
(c) The next move still rests with OU, as it has ever since they opened their mouth about this two weeks ago.
(d) In what generally doesn't happen, Gary Pinkel is defending his indefensible coaching decisions last Friday night. It's unusual and unusually sad. He's built up enough credit with the fan base to take the blame on this one, and he should.
Thanks for reading,
Doug
Showing posts with label Pinkel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pinkel. Show all posts
Monday, September 12, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
The Waiting Game
E-mailed 8/22/11
Nothing much new today coming out of BoCoMo, just a few bits of further insight:
(1) Vahe Gregorian of the St. Louis P-D says MU is mulling its options while waiting on a Haith probe.
(2) Mike DeArmond of the KC Star quotes MU officials saying that MU isn't sitting still on coach Haith's future.
(3) Not so fast, say CBS Sportline's Gary Parrish. The approach Mizzou is taking is the worst thing they could do.
In summary: Parrish is right. If you read nothing else, read his very short article that is very much to the point. As Parrish says in his article: ""We're waiting for the NCAA process to carry itself out," said Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton. "We're obviously very concerned." Very foolish, too. With those 14 words, Deaton paralyzed Haith -- just left his coach swirling in unknown winds and gave every program recruiting against the Tigers the ability to cast serious doubt on Haith's future. It might've been an honest statement, but it was a stupid one. Missouri needed to either start negotiating a buyout with Haith based on the serious nature of the allegation or publicly back him against "the word of a criminal" regardless of whether his job is really in jeopardy behind the scenes. Either option would've made sense on some level. But it makes no sense for Missouri to keep Haith while acknowledging it's waiting on the results of the NCAA's investigation into Miami, because investigations take a long time and the wait could destroy one recruiting class and possibly more. It's difficult for coaches to operate with clouds above. "
He concludes: "There is no way rival schools aren't going to use this against Missouri. I get that. But I can't begin to understand why Missouri felt the need to use it against itself."
Bad news all around.
But, as Bernie from the St. Louis P-D says, at least we have Gary Pinkel.
Nothing much new today coming out of BoCoMo, just a few bits of further insight:
(1) Vahe Gregorian of the St. Louis P-D says MU is mulling its options while waiting on a Haith probe.
(2) Mike DeArmond of the KC Star quotes MU officials saying that MU isn't sitting still on coach Haith's future.
(3) Not so fast, say CBS Sportline's Gary Parrish. The approach Mizzou is taking is the worst thing they could do.
In summary: Parrish is right. If you read nothing else, read his very short article that is very much to the point. As Parrish says in his article: ""We're waiting for the NCAA process to carry itself out," said Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton. "We're obviously very concerned." Very foolish, too. With those 14 words, Deaton paralyzed Haith -- just left his coach swirling in unknown winds and gave every program recruiting against the Tigers the ability to cast serious doubt on Haith's future. It might've been an honest statement, but it was a stupid one. Missouri needed to either start negotiating a buyout with Haith based on the serious nature of the allegation or publicly back him against "the word of a criminal" regardless of whether his job is really in jeopardy behind the scenes. Either option would've made sense on some level. But it makes no sense for Missouri to keep Haith while acknowledging it's waiting on the results of the NCAA's investigation into Miami, because investigations take a long time and the wait could destroy one recruiting class and possibly more. It's difficult for coaches to operate with clouds above. "
He concludes: "There is no way rival schools aren't going to use this against Missouri. I get that. But I can't begin to understand why Missouri felt the need to use it against itself."
Bad news all around.
But, as Bernie from the St. Louis P-D says, at least we have Gary Pinkel.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
On Losing Bowl Games
Posted as a Facebook Note on 12/28/10
A few things on my mind after tonight's game: First, I was gong to write a FB note "On Losing Bowl Games" but decided that this spectacle was so pathetic it didn't warrant it. I was just going to write a series of status updates. But then Facebook made me do a note. So it's now a note.
Second if any fan or player from the flat wasteland that occupies the space above the State of Missouri thinks that they did something to win the game tonight I suggest they stop kissing their sister and review some film in order to clearly see what happened--we, Mizzou, lost the game.
Third, around 5-8 years ago in ESPN the Mag a brilliant article was written about Derrick Jeter. Even then he was being called clutch. Long story short: the article went on to point out that despite labels (being clutch) or rankings that at the end of the day it all came down to the law of averages. At that time Jeter had played a regular season's worth of postseason's game. If you looked at those stats you saw what you would expect to see: his performance in the post season was exactly as good (or dare I say average) as his performance in the regular season. I could go on a Jeter rant here (like when it was written he hadn't driven in or scored a winning run after the 7th inning of any game in his career) but that's not the point. The point is that we can ascribe rankings, traits, adjectives, etc. to people or teams but data often times tell a different story. If you have enough data points and all of the outliers even out you see what people--or teams--are really made of.
Cut to tonight. I won't go over the history of Missouri football in painstaking detail but let's just say this is what happened on December 28, 2010: a lot of type and hope and then questionable officiating, a bone-headed play by a star player, and questionable game management by the coaching staff. The end result: heartbreak. Tonight didn't just happen. Tonight has been happening for the hundreds of years we've been playing football. Its just that tonight it was all crystal clear on display all wrapped up into one game.
On to the future...
Fourth, Pinkel haters will hate on Pinkel for not calling timeout at the end of the game. First, ESPN had our number of time outs wrong. Second, well, you know what happened on the next play from scrimmage. Hate on him if you want, but look at the numbers. I'm sure people had beef with Dan Devine and Don Faurot back in the day and I'm sure they feel pretty stupid now. Actually, I don't think they feel anything now because they are probably all dead.
Fifth, I suspect it must be tough times around the Gabbert house tonight. As I posted about during the game, going into the season there was hope Gabbert would go pro, turn the keys over to little Gabbert (with Franklin in wildcat) and all would be well. Throughout the season that just didn't feel like reality until tonight when it felt like reality a lot...then comes the INT. Good luck making that decision but I don't see how someone leaves a place like Mizzou after a play like that on a night like tonight.
Finally, College Football, its been a good run. In high school I attended a Mizzou game and got to watch Norm Stewart drink a beer at the half in the parking lot with my friend's dad. In college I got to sit through some miserably cold and miserably hot games. After I left Columbia I got to usher in some friends to the Mizzou fold. Its a fascinating sport that is unpredictable and gives us all quite a bit to look forward to and talk about every weekend in the fall. We follow teams and players so close that you think you know them and you live and you die on every single word and action they take. But, as I have talked about all year, College Football, your hold on my life is over after tonight. I'll still occasionally watch but I won't be as invested as I once was. See, I'm a "dance with who brung ya" type of guy and I don't see myself rooting for any other team than Mizzou. I'm also not rooting for Mizzou as long as they play in the "Texas State Championship Football Conference" that is run by a bunch of lying, back-stabbing, low-life ingrates. Since I know your skull is pretty thick, Dan Beebe, I'm referring you and your cronies.
As Gabbert said tonight: "Watch out for us next year, we're going to be dangerous." I hope everyone does and I hope the Tigers are. I'm sure I will be getting updates from my friends and casually looking at some scores. But in terms of my obsession with the sport, it ended tonight, just like it began, and just like the bowl game ended: with a lot hope, hype, excitement, and despair.
Second if any fan or player from the flat wasteland that occupies the space above the State of Missouri thinks that they did something to win the game tonight I suggest they stop kissing their sister and review some film in order to clearly see what happened--we, Mizzou, lost the game.
Third, around 5-8 years ago in ESPN the Mag a brilliant article was written about Derrick Jeter. Even then he was being called clutch. Long story short: the article went on to point out that despite labels (being clutch) or rankings that at the end of the day it all came down to the law of averages. At that time Jeter had played a regular season's worth of postseason's game. If you looked at those stats you saw what you would expect to see: his performance in the post season was exactly as good (or dare I say average) as his performance in the regular season. I could go on a Jeter rant here (like when it was written he hadn't driven in or scored a winning run after the 7th inning of any game in his career) but that's not the point. The point is that we can ascribe rankings, traits, adjectives, etc. to people or teams but data often times tell a different story. If you have enough data points and all of the outliers even out you see what people--or teams--are really made of.
Cut to tonight. I won't go over the history of Missouri football in painstaking detail but let's just say this is what happened on December 28, 2010: a lot of type and hope and then questionable officiating, a bone-headed play by a star player, and questionable game management by the coaching staff. The end result: heartbreak. Tonight didn't just happen. Tonight has been happening for the hundreds of years we've been playing football. Its just that tonight it was all crystal clear on display all wrapped up into one game.
On to the future...
Fourth, Pinkel haters will hate on Pinkel for not calling timeout at the end of the game. First, ESPN had our number of time outs wrong. Second, well, you know what happened on the next play from scrimmage. Hate on him if you want, but look at the numbers. I'm sure people had beef with Dan Devine and Don Faurot back in the day and I'm sure they feel pretty stupid now. Actually, I don't think they feel anything now because they are probably all dead.
Fifth, I suspect it must be tough times around the Gabbert house tonight. As I posted about during the game, going into the season there was hope Gabbert would go pro, turn the keys over to little Gabbert (with Franklin in wildcat) and all would be well. Throughout the season that just didn't feel like reality until tonight when it felt like reality a lot...then comes the INT. Good luck making that decision but I don't see how someone leaves a place like Mizzou after a play like that on a night like tonight.
Finally, College Football, its been a good run. In high school I attended a Mizzou game and got to watch Norm Stewart drink a beer at the half in the parking lot with my friend's dad. In college I got to sit through some miserably cold and miserably hot games. After I left Columbia I got to usher in some friends to the Mizzou fold. Its a fascinating sport that is unpredictable and gives us all quite a bit to look forward to and talk about every weekend in the fall. We follow teams and players so close that you think you know them and you live and you die on every single word and action they take. But, as I have talked about all year, College Football, your hold on my life is over after tonight. I'll still occasionally watch but I won't be as invested as I once was. See, I'm a "dance with who brung ya" type of guy and I don't see myself rooting for any other team than Mizzou. I'm also not rooting for Mizzou as long as they play in the "Texas State Championship Football Conference" that is run by a bunch of lying, back-stabbing, low-life ingrates. Since I know your skull is pretty thick, Dan Beebe, I'm referring you and your cronies.
As Gabbert said tonight: "Watch out for us next year, we're going to be dangerous." I hope everyone does and I hope the Tigers are. I'm sure I will be getting updates from my friends and casually looking at some scores. But in terms of my obsession with the sport, it ended tonight, just like it began, and just like the bowl game ended: with a lot hope, hype, excitement, and despair.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)