Head On Straight

In a football landscape that sometimes seems like life-and-death, one man has kept his perspective on getting canned.

"Nobody likes to get fired," said Gailey, a former head coach with the NFL's Dallas Cowboys. "But all they can take is your job. They can't take your faith. They can't take your family. They can't take your integrity."

Thank you, Chan, for remembering that there are far more important things than winning and losing. If your players became men while under your tutelage, then you excelled in your job, no matter what your record was.

Texas-A&M

What a debacle that was. I sent an email to my old college boys entitled "Fire Mack Brown". I did this partly because I was serious, partly to see what everybody else would say. An excerpt:

"Seriously, after being outcoached by a man who just finished four seasons of mediocrity at A&M, Mack oughta hang up his headseat and enjoy his retirement.

There is no excuse for losing to that school when we have significantly more talent. I know we've been ravaged by injuries on both sides of the ball, but they just wanted it more. Plain and simple.

That's another sad thing too, because we had a shot, if OU lost, to go to the Big XII Championship game and a BCS game if we won that. Now? San Antonio here we come.

Say Colt McCoy doesn't go all Rex Grossman on us, we don't have those special teams breakdowns against K-State and those momentum-killing turnovers against OU and played kinda like we had some cojones against A&M, then we'd be in the BCS title game picture! "

My buddy Tap chimed in with the following:

"What have you done for me lately....

Let's see, last 2 years, 19-6 (my guess is 19-7) with 11-5 in the Big XII
Start season in top 5, finish outside the top 12
1-3 vs OU/A&M in last 2 years
2-6 vs OU since 2000
Putting aside the National Title year....we have not beaten a top 10 team since 1999.
Lots of discipline issues

Doesn't look that great to me.... "

Knight Rider included this thought:

"I agree with both R and what Sgt. G told me on the phone after the game....Duane Akina is pretty bad. He is not a genius when it comes to defensive strategy. Mack Brown is way too loyal sometimes, and it appears that he will make no changes to his coaching staff. The only time change comes, is when they are offered head coaching jobs somewhere else and they leave."

Of course there were some dissenting opinions, but the season could've been so much more.

But hey, if that's the worst thing I had to deal with during the Thanksgiving holiday, it wasn't that bad.

I am very passionate about football and I'd like to try coaching at some point if I was financially set. I think I'd be fairly good at it. Anyhoo...

The Big XII Championship Game oughta be an awesome game.

RC Index Week 13

Another week, another round of upsets. Lightning does strike twice! Just ask LSU, which lost for the second time this year in a 3OT thriller. Kansas actually proved it belonged up at the top with a game effort against Mizzou in the 116th edition of the Border War.

So, let's see how things stack up. I included the teams in the BCS that weren't in the Top 25 of an index. I did actually do the monkeying I said I would, but it screwed things up a lot. But it did give me a hint at why teams were where they are.

Without further ado...

	RC1						RC2						BCS
1	Missouri	11	1	0.9041		1	WVU	10	1	0.9125		1	Missouri	0.9781
2	WVU	10	1	0.8948		2	Missouri	11	1	0.9034		2	WVU	0.9713
3	Ohio State	11	1	0.8922		3	Ohio State	11	1	0.8925		3	Ohio State	0.9192
4	Georgia	10	2	0.8816		4	LSU	10	2	0.8915		4	Georgia	0.8274
5	LSU	10	2	0.8732		5	Georgia	10	2	0.8809		5	Kansas	0.7918
6	Va Tech	10	2	0.8632		6	Florida	9	3	0.8750		6	Va Tech	0.7811
7	Kansas	11	1	0.8622		7	Kansas	11	1	0.8634		7	LSU	0.7744
8	Florida	9	3	0.8557		8	Va Tech	10	2	0.8617		8	USC	0.6926
9	BC	10	2	0.8520		9	Oklahoma	10	2	0.8594		9	Oklahoma	0.6829
10	Hawaii	11	0	0.8430		10	Tennessee	9	3	0.8530		10	Florida	0.6184
11	Oklahoma	10	2	0.8423		11	BC	10	2	0.8511		11	BC	0.6169
12	Illinois	9	3	0.8387		12	Arizona St.	9	2	0.8429		12	Hawaii	0.5835
13	USF	9	3	0.8382		13	Illinois	9	3	0.8377		13	Arizona St.	0.5571
14	Tennessee	9	3	0.8345		14	USF	9	3	0.8371		14	Tennessee	0.4614
15	Arizona St.	9	2	0.8262		15	Hawaii	11	0	0.8303		15	Illinois	0.4198
16	Cincinnati	9	3	0.8186		16	USC	9	2	0.8248		16	Clemson	0.3358
17	UConn	9	3	0.8163		17	Oregon	8	3	0.8242		17	Oregon	0.2706
18	Clemson	9	3	0.8155		18	Cincinnati	9	3	0.8185		18	Wisconsin	0.2628
19	BYU	9	2	0.8088		19	Texas	9	3	0.8172		19	BYU	0.2252
20	Wisconsin	9	3	0.8088		20	Clemson	9	3	0.8143		20	Texas	0.2216
21	USC	9	2	0.8087		21	Wisconsin	9	3	0.8091		21	USF	0.1880
22	Oregon	8	3	0.8064		22	BYU	9	2	0.8077		22	Virginia	0.1795
23	Auburn	8	4	0.8021		23	Virginia	9	3	0.8039		23	Cincinnati	0.1490
24	Texas	9	3	0.8001		24	Auburn	8	4	0.8012		24	Auburn	0.1472
25	Michigan	8	4	0.7903		25	UConn	9	3	0.7985		25	Boise	0.1125
26	Virginia	9	3	0.7874		28	Boise	10	2	0.7812
27	Boise	10	2	0.7817

Kansas, Texas and Boise all took BIG tumbles from the previous week. USF and BYU both rocketed up the rankings. And Hawaii is in the promised land...so far. However, if Arizona State wins this week then the Warriors could get leap-frogged.

My Aggie coworkers will be insufferable this week. Not only did they beat us on the field, they got rid of Coach Fran to boot.

Y'all have a great week.

R

One Hundredth Post

A milestone in bloggery.

Thank you, Thank you.

When Will You Learn??

Obviously, we as sinners saved by grace have to, at times, repeat lessons before we learn them. While this is frustrating to us, imagine how frustrating it must be to God?

Let's look at an example from around 2000 years ago.

In approximately April of AD 28, the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 occurs. Jesus tells his disciples to feed the people. In the John 6 account, it says that Philip tells Jesus "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"


Fast forward to circa July AD 28 when the feeding of the 4000 happens. In Matthew 15, His disciples reply "Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?"

It only took three months to forget how amazing the God was that they were serving. And they were with God face-to-face!!

So, don't fret when you have to learn your lessons over and over again.

RC Index Week 12

Another Saturday, another upset...or two. Unfortunately for Oregon & Oklahoma, they got bit by the injury bug at the worst possible position at the worst possible time. Here's hoping that Dennis Dixon and Sam Bradford get well soon.

Here are my Week 12 rankings.

	RC1						RC2						BCS
1	LSU	10	1	0.915		1	LSU	10	1	0.927		1	LSU	0.9904
2	Kansas	11	0	0.906		2	Kansas	11	0	0.901		2	Kansas	0.9488
3	Missouri	10	1	0.902		3	WVU	9	1	0.895		3	WVU	0.8878
4	Ohio State	11	1	0.892		3	Missouri	10	1	0.895		4	Missouri	0.8707
5	WVU	9	1	0.885		5	Ohio State	11	1	0.886		5	Ohio State	0.8602
6	Georgia	9	2	0.882		6	Arizona St.	9	1	0.876		6	Arizona St.	0.8019
7	Arizona St.	9	1	0.866		7	Georgia	9	2	0.874		7	Georgia	0.7438
8	Va Tech	9	2	0.859		8	Florida	8	3	0.864		8	Va Tech	0.6796
9	Connecticut	9	2	0.854		9	Oregon	8	2	0.853		9	Oregon	0.6267
10	Florida	8	3	0.852		10	Va Tech	9	2	0.851		10	Oklahoma	0.5816
11	BC	9	2	0.843		11	Texas	9	2	0.848		11	USC	0.5672
12	Oregon	8	2	0.842		12	Oklahoma	9	2	0.842		12	Florida	0.5432
13	Hawaii	10	0	0.839		13	Tennessee	8	3	0.839		13	Texas	0.5137
14	Texas	9	2	0.837		14	Virginia	9	2	0.837		14	BC	0.4848
15	Illinois	9	3	0.835		15	BC	9	2	0.835		15	Hawaii	0.4249
16	Oklahoma	9	2	0.832		16	Connecticut	9	2	0.830		16	Virginia	0.4246
17	Tennessee	8	3	0.827		16	Illinois	9	3	0.827		17	Illinois	0.3208
18	Virginia	9	2	0.826		18	Hawaii	10	0	0.821		18	Tennessee	0.3135
18	USF	8	3	0.824		19	USF	8	3	0.816		19	Boise	0.2818
20	Boise	10	1	0.812		20	USC	8	2	0.813		20	Connecticut	0.2520
21	Cincinnati	8	3	0.811		21	Boise	10	1	0.806		21	Wisconsin	0.1893
22	Wisconsin	9	3	0.805		22	Cincinnati	8	3	0.804		22	Clemson	0.1667
22	Clemson	8	3	0.804		23	Wisconsin	9	3	0.799		23	USF	0.1232
24	USC	8	2	0.803		24	Clemson	8	3	0.796		24	Cincinnati	0.0983
24	BYU	8	2	0.803		25	BYU	8	2	0.795		25	BYU	0.0856

RC Index 2 keeps looking better than RC1 when comparing to the BCS index. It's got the top 7 all the same. Both indeces have the exact same 25 as the BCS does, which is encouraging.

Sure, USC lags behind in my rankings, but if you look at the teams ahead of them in RC2, they wouldn't beat but maybe two teams. However, if you look at the BCS standings, they would probably lose to five squads behind them. So let's split the difference and call 'em 15.

This week's big showdown is for the Big XII North championship and the rite to play Texas or OU in the title game, with a chance to move on to the BCS Championship. I'll pick KU in shootout, 49-45.

Piling On

Everyone knows that Notre Dame is having a historically bad season, capped off by the triple-overtime loss to Navy, ending an NCAA-record 43-game winning streak.

Enjoy this clip. My favorite part is BC.

RC Index Week 11

Another one bites the dust. Ohio State either got caught looking ahead to Michigan or got exposed as a soft-schedule champ. Either way, that cleared the way for pandemonium. The BCS is going to hit TILT this year again, but it will at least give teams a chance to play each other for the championship. Traditional bowl alliances would have LSU playing Kansas and Ohio State playing Oregon. So maybe that's not so bad right now, but let's let the season play out.

	RC1						RC2						BCS
1	LSU	9	1	0.913		1	LSU	9	1	0.920		1	LSU	0.9802
2	Kansas	10	0	0.911		2	Kansas	10	0	0.903		2	Oregon	0.9383
3	Missouri	9	1	0.900		3	WVU	8	1	0.894		3	Kansas	0.9094
4	Ohio State	10	1	0.897		4	Oregon	8	1	0.892		4	Oklahoma	0.8540
5	WVU	8	1	0.886		5	Missouri	9	1	0.889		5	Missouri	0.8096
6	Oregon	8	1	0.884		6	Ohio State	10	1	0.887		6	WVU	0.7863
7	Georgia	8	2	0.877		7	Oklahoma	9	1	0.877		7	Ohio State	0.7744
8	Oklahoma	9	1	0.870		8	Arizona St.	9	1	0.876		8	Arizona St.	0.7500
9	Arizona St.	9	1	0.869		9	Georgia	8	2	0.865		9	Georgia	0.6724
10	Va. Tech	8	2	0.854		10	Florida	7	3	0.850		10	Va. Tech	0.6133
11	Connecticut	8	2	0.853		11	Texas	9	2	0.845		11	USC	0.5267
12	Cincinnati	8	2	0.849		12	Va. Tech	8	2	0.842		12	Florida	0.5047
13	Florida	7	3	0.842		13	Virginia	9	2	0.841		13	Texas	0.4660
14	Clemson	8	2	0.841		14	Cincinnati	8	2	0.839		14	Virginia	0.4074
15	Texas	9	2	0.838		15	Clemson	8	2	0.830		15	Clemson	0.3924
16	BC	8	2	0.836		16	BC	8	2	0.825		16	Hawaii	0.3858
17	Kentucky	7	3	0.835		16	Connecticut	8	2	0.825		17	BC	0.3627
18	Virginia	9	2	0.834		18	Tennessee	7	3	0.824		18	Boise State	0.2621
18	Hawaii	9	0	0.834		19	Kentucky	7	3	0.822		19	Illinois	0.2447
20	Illinois	8	3	0.830		20	Illinois	8	3	0.819		20	Tennessee	0.2393
21	Michigan	8	3	0.822		21	Hawaii	9	0	0.814		21	Michigan	0.4866
22	USF	7	3	0.819		22	Michigan	8	3	0.811		22	Cincinnati	0.1840
22	Tennessee	7	3	0.816		23	Penn State	8	3	0.810		23	Kentucky	0.1735
24	Penn State	8	3	0.803		24	USC	8	2	0.808		24	Connecticut	0.1480
25	Wisconsin	8	3	0.802		25	USF	7	3	0.807		25	Wisconsin	0.1203
25	Boise State	9	1	0.802

Some things to note. The Big XII ain't lookin' so bad these days with three of the Top 5 and Texas at #13. USC is vastly overrated according to both my indeces (#27 in RC1 at 0.801). I think Georgia would give LSU it's money's worth and more if they would meet in the SEC Championship Game. Unfortunately, their destiny isn't in their own hands. They need Tennessee to lose at home to Vandy or at Kentucky for that to happen, and that doesn't see likely.

Kansas isn't too far behind Oregon and should get an enormous boost of schedule strength and hopefully at least a few poll votes should they beat Missouri & Oklahoma to finish the season. Iowa State has come on the second half of the season, so they won't hurt as much. Oregon faces Arizona, UCLA and Oregon State to finish the season; not exactly a murderer's row. It will all come down to who has the more impressive victories. I think if Kansas gets by Oklahoma in the Big XII title game they should be in the BCS Championship Game no matter what. I don't think an undefeated team from a major conference would get left out. The voters would never allow . At least I hope not.

How 'bout UT possibly finishing 10-2 this year? Not bad for a rebuilding year. And quite a bit better than the rebuilding year the "Fighting" Irish are having. They are #111 out of 120 in both my ratings. Good thing they got rid of Tyrone Willingham!

This is DQ Country

Unfortunately, it's more Drama and less Dairy.

Last night M was unhappy that she wasn't able to watch the Veggie Tales video that they got from the library. When we got home, she was given the option of going across the street to say high to Mrs. Renee or to watch her video. She chose not to watch the video, so, when we got back inside and dinner was ready, she was rather upset that she couldn't watch it. Maybe "rather upset" is an understatement. She threw her first tantrum in I don't know how long. I mean full-on flailing and screaming. After a failed attempt at going to the bathroom she kept up with it and I put her in her room to just chill out. She kept wailing and said she needed to go. I hustled toward her room. I opened her door to see her peeing through her clothes. Fun times all around.

Also, S has been showing her true colors lately. She's our little diva when she's tired. If you take something away from her she arches her back throws herself toward the ground and it sounds as if someone is literally hurting her. It's that dramatic. It's hard not to laugh when it happens because it's so absurd.

There's so much drama in the C fam'ly...Drama was the case, and they blamed me.


P.S. Brent Musberger just gave us this gem: "It certainly probably means that..." Thanks for that bit of info Brent.

Positive Father Role Models

In most media, fathers aren't portrayed in a very positive light. The Cosby Show was one of the few that did. And it was even better that his skin color was not white; incidentally, it remains the same till this day.

This particular rant has been brought about from reading the vast array of children's books that we have for the girls. M is very into the Berenstain Bears books right now. I loved those growing up. But as a dad, they leave something to be desired. In most, Papa Bear is a bumbling idiot at best and a very negative figure at worst. Papa's parenting style is "they're only kids once" and he basically leaves all discipline and parenting to Mama Bear, undermining her attempts often.

Do these books teach good lessons about manners, the gimmes, school, etc? That's a resounding Yes. However, they fail to present a cohesive parental unit that seek to guide their children to maturity. Sure, Mama gets the job done in the end, but it's often in spite of Papa and his meddling. I know it is hard to keep a united front for your children, especially when Dad gets home from work and doesn't know the circumstances or the new rules that got put in place that day. M has already started the thing where mommy said no, so let's go ask daddy, and vice-versa. Thankfully, we're both pretty good at steering her back to the answer from the original parent. We say that daddy's answer is the same as mommy's.

So fathers, let's show our ladies and our kids what a real dad and a real husband look like. If we are mature in Christ, then we can help combat the nonreality that the media present.

RC Index Week 10

I was puzzled this week when I did my rankings, wondering why so many SEC teams were at the top. I took a look at my formula and noticed I forgot to use the $ to lock the cells before I copied and pasted. Now, it makes much more sense to me. Also, I've stopped doing my human filter of all unbeatens are on top. You're welcome. Also of note is that the only factor used in my formulae are Wins and Losses.

All season long I have been doing two separate formulas, but only posting one. So, from here on out, I'll post both indeces alongside the BCS Index for comparison. For the complete BCS standings, go here.

	RC1						RC2						BCS
1	Ohio State	10	0	0.937		1	Ohio State	10	0	0.928		1	Ohio State
2	Kansas	9	0	0.911		2	LSU	8	1	0.915		2	LSU
3	LSU	8	1	0.908		3	Kansas	9	0	0.903		3	Oregon
4	Missouri	8	1	0.895		4	Oregon	8	1	0.896		4	Kansas
5	Connecticut	8	1	0.889		5	Missouri	8	1	0.884		5	Oklahoma
6	Oregon	8	1	0.888		6	WVU	7	1	0.881		6	Missouri
7	BC	8	1	0.876		7	Oklahoma	8	1	0.875		7	WVU
8	WVU	7	1	0.873		8	BC	8	1	0.866		8	BC
9	Oklahoma	8	1	0.868		9	Arizona St.	8	1	0.865		9	Arizona St.
10	Georgia	7	2	0.866		10	Connecticut	8	1	0.861		10	Georgia
11	Arizona St.	8	1	0.858		11	Georgia	7	2	0.854		11	Va. Tech
12	Michigan	8	2	0.855		12	Michigan	8	2	0.844		12	Michigan
13	Va. Tech	7	2	0.848		13	Texas	8	2	0.837		13	Connecticut
14	Hawaii	8	0	0.835		14	Va. Tech	7	2	0.836		14	Texas
15	Auburn	7	3	0.831		15	Virginia	8	2	0.835		15	Florida
16	Texas	8	2	0.830		16	Florida	6	3	0.833		16	Hawaii
17	Cincinnati	7	2	0.829		17	Cincinnati	7	2	0.819		17	USC
18	Virginia	8	2	0.827		17	Auburn	7	3	0.819		18	Auburn
19	Clemson	7	2	0.826		19	Clemson	7	2	0.816		19	Virginia
20	Florida	6	3	0.825		20	Hawaii	8	0	0.815		20	Boise State
21	Alabama	6	3	0.817		21	Tennessee	6	3	0.810		21	Clemson
22	Kentucky	6	3	0.816		22	Alabama	6	3	0.805		22	Alabama
22	Illinois	7	3	0.816		23	Kentucky	6	3	0.804		23	Penn State
24	Tennessee	6	3	0.802		23	Illinois	7	3	0.804		24	Tennessee
25	Boise State	8	1	0.800		25	Penn State	7	3	0.799		25	Kentucky

Not too bad as far as things go. I don't have Penn State, Boise State or USC in both rankings, but they aren't too far away: PSU & USC are 28 & 29 in RC1 and USC & Boise State are 26 & 27 in RC2. If you've seen USC play, I don't think you'd argue. In place of these teams are Cincinatti and Illinois, two pretty good football clubs.

So, for the remainder of the regular season I'll post in this format.

Have a great week.

R

Rumblin', Bumblin', Stumblin'

As a Texas alumnus, I follow the Detroit Lions a little bit closer since they have several former players on their roster (Roy Williams, Corey Redding, Shaun Rogers).

The ladies and I were visiting the Y family down in South Austin last night and during halftime of that game they were showing highlights of the early game action.

Go to this link and scroll to the 2:49 mark. Go here for the head-on view and the CBS commentary (it's a little grainy). Now, Shaun Rogers is listed at 340, but that was during his lean, mean days of training camp. He intercepts the pass, which is a feat in itself, and then lets his blockers clean up the would-be tacklers behind him. Well, Texas Ex Selvin Young eludes those gents and catches up to Rogers. Either he took a look at the Jumbotron or the fans were pointing behind him, but he turns and sees Selvin coming in for the tackle. In an awesome turn of events, Rogers puts a SICK stiff-arm on Young and throws him to the turf. He then goes for the Superman, but he realizes he hasn't planned that far in advance as to practice this move and sticks his leg out to prevent a belly-flop, nearly shattering his right leg in the process. You'll need to watch it a few times for the full effect. Just priceless.

Thanks for the memories Shaun. If I need a pick-me-up, I'll come runnin' to you.

Flattery Will Get You Nowhere With Me

Yesterday afternoon while the girls were sleeping, C and I were just chillin'. The doorbell rang. We weren't expecting anyone. I looked through the peephole and didn't recognize the man standing in our entry.

I opened the door and he told me that he was so-and-so who holds a current post in Williamson County and would like to get on the ballot for the next election.

He then proceeded to ask me if my parents were home. I informed him that I, in fact, am the homeowner. He apologized and said that I'll be thankful for my youthful look later in life.

I mean, I know I look several years younger than I am, especially freshly shaven, but that's ridiculous. C said next time I should say "I am the parent," but I wasn't that quick on my feet.

Needless to say we got a pretty good laugh out of that one.