Hawaiian Shirt Day

For those of you who are puzzled by the headline of today’s column, you need to rent the movie Office Space and watch it as soon as possible.  Briefly, “Hawaiian Shirt” Day is casual Friday at the fictional company Initech from Office Space. Anyway, today is Friday and I get a little giddy on Friday’s. As giddy about Fridays at age 58 as I was at 18 or 28. I don’t know if that means I’m young at heart or  immature. One thing I do know is that in my giddiness today, I can’t string together 1,000 words or more on a central theme so I’m taking the lazy way out and will spout off on random topics.

Texas – West Virginia

Texas’ performance against Kansas, for me, let a little air out of the idea that they had turned the page on mediocrity and had a serious chance of winning the Big 12 and a BCS Bowl invitation. Very good, hard-edged teams splatter a team like Kansas in the first half and give second-team quarterbacks plenty of playing time.  Mack Brown’s Texas teams have performed well on the road for years, but I have a feeling that if they have trouble running the ball, Saturday night could be a long one for the Horns and their fans. 

I think a loss to West Virginia, more than a loss to any of Texas’ other remaining opponents, would assure that Mack Brown won’t be back in 2014.

John Denver

“Take Me Home, Country Roads,” written and performed by John Denver, is played at every West Virginia home football game. I don’t care much for the song, but I found myself starting to like John Denver when I learned he had written “Leaving on a Jet Plane.”  I can’t think of another song that articulates loneliness and regret, or any emotion, so vividly.  Nice job John Deutschendorf Jr.R.I.P.

Saban

I hate to disappoint any of you, but Nick Saban isn’t going to be the next Texas Head football coach. It seems clear that this idea is simply a ploy by Saban’s agent, Jimmy Sexton.  It’s a standard agent ploy at that.  Remember about ten years ago or so when Mack Brown was being mentioned as a candidate to be the Cleveland Browns next head coach?  Brown’s agent used that trial balloon to get Mack a big raise.  Saban is saying publicly that he’s not leaving Alabama, and during his recent interview with 60 Minutes, he said that he regretted mishandling his exit from the Miami Dolphins when he promised he wasn’t leaving just a couple of days before taking the Alabama job.  Call me naïve, but it seems more than plausible that Saban means it when he says he’s staying at Alabama.  Anyway, the entire concept seems about as plausible to me as the idea that Hillary Clinton and Chris Christie will be running mates in 2016.

Another One Bites the Dust

No, I’m not going to talk about the song by Queen. I’m talking about Oregon’s loss to Stanford, what a beat-down it was, and my bold prediction a couple of weeks back that Baylor would be the only undefeated team left at the end of the regular season and conference championship games.  Speaking of beat-downs, Baylor held up its end in my prediction last night. Phew, either Baylor has a much better defense than I thought or Oklahoma’s offense stinks. 

I am a little worried though, about Florida State and Ohio State. I guess I should have taken a harder look at those two teams’ remaining schedules before I made such a bold prediction.  I still think Alabama will lose somewhere along the line.

Steve Patterson

I don’t know any more about Steve Patterson than anyone reading this. I may know a lot less than some. But after hearing that at his press conference yesterday, he invoked Earl Campbell and Abe Lemons, I’m thinking he might enjoy Willie Earl.  Anybody have his email?

DeLoss Dodds

Are we sure that DeLoss Dodds didn’t just happen to be at the right place at that right time rather than being some kind of genius?  After all, Dodds is the man who brought us Bob Weltlich, David McWilliams (I like Mr. McWilliams but his hire as football coach was uninspired), and John Mackovic.  Also, if he had his way he would have hired Gary Barnett in 1997, not Mack Brown.  Just saying.

HooK eM,

W.E.

Over/Under Contest

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