We are back again going out to the best of what Kansas City sports bars has to offer in terms of college football. Like the storied tradition of college football, we have a tradition of going back to the best bar of last year to start out this season for KC College Gameday. We had no way of knowing back at the beginning of last September that Johnny’s in the Power & Light would be the best but here we are planning the first Barspot of the year down there. With every television fit into every nook and cranny as well as the crazy touch table poker game, Johnny’s hit the spot on all things needed for a great sport viewing experience. So come back out with us Saturday as we head back out there to enjoy Johnny’s and scoff at that ridiculous KC College Live thingy going on in the outdoor area.
Finally the wait is over. Tomorrow night we kick off another great year of college football! It’s been what seems likes ages since the end of last season and now we have another year of the most pristine competition we’ll ever see on the field. Sure the offseason provided plenty of drama, with coaching changes and conference expansion, but we’re done with the talking and we’re ready to strap it on. The helmet that is. So here’s the last Crib Sheet before the new season:
UCLA’s Jeff Baca is too dumb to play football this year. He was the left guard for the Bruins and this will most certainly affect the start of the season, when they face the Kansas State Wildcats in Manhattan.
Rumors had BYU staying in the Mountain West after all. Check and mate for the speculation hounds. They are actually going to the West Coast Conference for everything except football, where they will be independent. We’re not sure they hype is big enough for another religious school but hey would could be wrong.
We love Twitter, like we always say, and ESPN Big 12 blogger David Ubben loves them too. Check out his list of must follows for this upcoming season of Big 12 football.
Texas is still ramping up the huge home and homes. This time it’s USC and they will play each other in 2017 and 2018. They are lining themselves up greatly for a marquee Longhorns Network owned football game.
Beau Brinkley, Missouri’s long snapper, was snapped up last week for a DWI. This marks yet another drunk issue for the Tigers, on top of Derrick Washington’s heavy touch. Gary Pinkel came out and said he was truly embarrassed about the ordeal. Maybe because it was too close to the start of the season?
David Ubben pointed us to this fascinating story of how the Nebraska to Big 10 shakedown took place. Things were going a mile a minute when it was happening and this recounting of the events points out just how much we don’t know what’s going on in the background.
The Kansas State Wildcats enjoyed somewhat of resurgence last year. They even almost went to the Big 12 Championship Game. Yet, they failed to make a bowl. The offseason was the most quiet I’ve ever heard and now we find ourselves looking straight down the barrel of a new football season. The weirdness of last year’s season should continue for this year. It’s all good for Bill Snyder 2.0, as they will be getting better. Day by day. Little by little.
It’s time to go camping! The teams are gearing up and we geared up for our own camp adventure last week. :
The two biggest movers and shakers from the off season’s expansion bonanza might actually play each other. There was the talk of Notre Dame and none other than Texas will play each other in a couple of years. Good for both programs. If the Longhorns end up with an exclusive television station, this game might only be played on Longhorns TV and NBC.
Assistant coach Bruce Walker from Missouri was arrested last week on a DWI. The coaches and some of their wives were coming back from a trip to the Lake of the Ozarks. Now we’ve been down there many times and we can say that more than likely you will be coming back drunk from down there. A cab was called, he should’ve taken it. But hey, Missouri’s used to making bad choices, right?
Meanwhile, in Ames, Iowa State defensive back David Simms plead guilty to the credit card fraud charge. He sits out the first game against Northern Illinois. See kids? Crime doesn’t pay (kinda).
Not only does Kansas have to deal with Holden Tharp’s year ending injury, but now they have to change the fight song! Colorado and Nebraska are somehow featured in the song and since they are high tailing out of the conference, new words must be had.
So while Boise State’s head coach Chris Peterson banned Twitter use for players, the player who incited the haymaker from LeGarrette Blount spoke up and let us know what he said. “How ’bout that (expletive)-whuppin?” So Blount was talking smack before the game and this guy threw it in his face afterward.
The Bill Snyder 2.0 magic is in effect. The Kansas State Wildcats reported record contributions for the last year. It also helps that a very public blunder by Bob Krause fed the anxiety of said contributors.
The USA Today Top 25 pre season poll is out! Top five in order are Alabama, Ohio State, Florida, Texas, and Boise State. Yes, a mid major is up there and TCU is not far behind. Big 12 wise we have Oklahoma and Nebraska at 8 and 9 respectively. How much will this change in the next couple months? We can’t wait for the season to get here.
UCLA is falling apart right before Kansas State’s eyes. The middle game is gone with two season ending injures and an academically ineligible tag. We think Daniel Thomas is drooling just a little bit more at this rushing opportunity.
Texas saved the Big 12, or what we are going to call it: the Big 12 (10). The Pac 10 wouldn’t let Texas have its own network so the Longhorns opted to stay. When the Big 12 (10) first started years ago, it was because of TV and money. They led the way into the new television era and now they are doing it again. In the future, you will see each school have its own television network and it will start with Texas and the Big 12 (10). Okay, maybe Notre Dame. At any rate, Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M are getting more money to stay now. Apparently, it’s status quo time as no real commitment will be required and they are basing staying together by some magic coalition of insiders and outsiders. It’s a 10 team league with no potential for a championship game and more round robin type play on the field. Most importantly, Kansas City has some life in its sports scene now. So let’s all take a breath and check out this week’s Crib Sheet:
The Oregon Ducks dismissed quarterback Jeremiah Masoli for drug possession and other citations. It looks as though this is no LeGarrette Blount situation. Masoli is out for good for the Quack Attack.
Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins is cleared for any wrongdoing in the blackmail of equipment case. His job is safe for now, but he still needs to clear the hurdle on ticket scandal.
Missouri got the could shoulder big time and the local indie newspaper The Pitch talks about how hard they go the shaft. Poor Tigers. They’ve been talking smack the loudest in all of this and now they’ve been reduced to abandonment. At least they are used to it.
Chip Brown, the guy who broke most of the actual news in this expansion talk, confirmed that last Friday was the day that Nebraska went official and joined the Big 10. It’s still early to tell, but this guy has been the one who has called it so far so we’ll trust him when he says something else is up.
Boise State will now be in the Mountain West Conference. They were tired of dominating the WAC for so long and decided to up the competition by playing TCU and Utah every year. Will this be enough to put the Mountain West on the BCS map? Well, considering the Big 12 (10) is still around, they will have a much harder time getting there.
Here’s the preliminary Big 12 (10) television schedule. Interesting match ups include the UCLA at K-State, Florida State at Oklahoma, and the losers leave game with Colorado and Nebraska taking each other on.
So the Pac 10 lost out on some Big 12 powerhouses and we’ve learned that commissioner Larry Scott flew to Texas and Oklahoma, but was also scheduled to make it to Kansas City. Was Kansas a backup plan? We don’ t have to worry about it for now.
Stanley Ikenberry, interim president for Illinois, says that 12 is a good number for the Big 10. After all that’s happened so far, we think that he means that it’s good but it could get better. Don’t be surprised if the Big 10 starts going on the hunt again, maybe even real soon.
Dan Beebe in his working with keeping the Big 12 (10) alive, knocked his hometown conference’s fan allegiance. He says that they are about as fair weather as Missouri fans when it comes to athletic competitions. Man he pulled out all the punches for this one.
Speaking of Missouri, Governor Jay Nixon ran his mouth off again dissing outgoing schools Colorado and Nebraska. This guy pretty much shut out the Tigers from going to the Big 10 and now his state’s school needs to rebuild some bridges burned. That means he needs to get out of this and let the school handle it, please.
The Oklahoma Sooners are interested in a television network, too. You know, instead of conference wide networks, it makes sense to do school specific. It’s the next natural progression and would benefit each school in showing other athletic events and possibly cultural and governmental ones too.
So the Big 10 expansion speculation that’s been building the last couple of months has finally come to a head here at the KCCGD Headquarters. We’ll give our thoughts about the whole shebang in the next couple days, but we wanted to whet your appetite with some tasty nuggets of information in the Crib Sheet. You, too, can munch down on expansion rumor to fill your belly with enough information to win your sports bar argument. Sports screaming at its finest, folks. On to the Crib Sheet:
In case you thing we’ve forgotten, Mike Leach’s case against Texas Tech has a hearing coming up May 14th and last week Texas Tech officials filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit altogether. They say the sworn statements are all that is needed and that Leach’s treatment was an offense worthy of termination. Leach on the other hand is making the case that it was about his contract and the bonus he was about to receive.
Kansas State, ever the team to take on tough new challenges, forged a mega deal to face the fearsome University of Texas San Antonio. Who? Yes that’s right, The Roadrunners, led by former Miami coach Larry Coker, will face the Wildcats in their inaugural FCS seasons. Man, UCLA isn’t that tough. Leave it up to Bill Snyder 2.0 to find the scrubs of the scrubs.
Notre Dame tight end Mike Ragone was feeling green big time last Saturday. No, not green for the Fighting Irish, but green for rolling doobies. New coach Brian Kelly is going to bitch slap him around a hit and call it a done deal. It’s the new century, football players get stoned all the time, even the pious ones.
So the speculation has been about what conferences will do to react to the Big 10 Expansion. Well, on the Big 12 side it seems they may be exploring options with a pact between them and the Pac 10 (see the play on words?). Basically, the two conferences will have something similar to the hardwood series we enjoy but on the football field. The speculation is that there is also a potential Rose Bowl spot that could be up for grabs too. Remember, it’s speculation only.
Here we go with another week of the Crib Sheet. Signing Day is gone so we are looking toward spring practice as the next big event. Spring practice. In spring. We got a long way to go to get there. So the news will trickle out until then. Never fear, however, we’ll dig up any dirt with our ninja shovel and flick the dust specs of college football news in your face. Bring some goggles, here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
You know how they call Kansas State’s stadium the Bill Snyder Family Stadium? Ever wonder why? Welp, signing day gave us another reason why when Bill Snyder 2.0’s grandson Tate Snyder accepted a scholarship offer from the Wildcats. Tate’s dad, Sean, was a punter for Bill Snyder early in his first run and is now an associate in the athletic department. The little apple does not fall far from this tree.
So signing day is over but we have many more to come. The 2015 class, for example has its first commitment in the form of 13 year old quarterback David Sills as he verbally committed to USC last week. Huh? That’s a little young. His personal coach worked with current USC field general Matt Barkley. How much are this kid’s parents paying this guy? Seems like alot of hype for such a young’un.
The Texas college stars beat the national squad of stars last Saturday to prove once again that best college football players come from Texas. For this game. Yeah it’s the Big 12 area, but why did the SEC win the national title again? Welp, maybe just the scrubs play this game. They gotta show off in front of NFL scouts somewhere.
Darrell Scott has come crawling back to the Colorado program. Okay well, maybe not crawling. If he sits out this year, Hawkins might be fired by then and he could compete for the job with a new coach. We guess UCLA wasn’t all that it’s hyped up to be.
It looks like the students at Missouri are looking for a live Tiger mascot. We’d like to think our profile of Truman spurned this movement, but it’s probably more of matching the live mascots that already dot the Big 12 plain. Yeah, we’re talking Bevo, Ralphie, Boomer, Sooner, and the rest of the gang. Hopefully, they will pull this one off. Those live mascots are treated like kings.
Another week of the Crib Sheet and we are finally starting to see things calm down around the college football landscape. There’s still some action here and there but we envision the news will be trickling out here in there for the offseason. There’s still some loose ends that need to be tied up and we will stay there to make sure the granny knot is tight. So keep in step with this week’s Crib Sheet:
Skip Holtz is your new South Florida head football coach. After USF tanked Jim Leavitt, they pick up on East Carolina prodigy and son of former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz. Admittedly we’ve seen more of Lou than Skip and we can only hope that the kids down there can actually understand him when he talks. The kids up in East Carolina apparently did so it looks like a good hire.
Christopher Tritto from the St. Louis Business Journal breaks down the money situation for Missouri if they leave the Big 12 for the Big 10. Basically, they will make about $10 million more annually than the position they are in now. Tritto also points out that recruiting would be hurt as they pull alot of their kids from Texas. So do they give up being competitive to get paid more? Tuned in next year.
Tim Tebow is fresh out of college and ready to hock Christian morality. He’ll be in a Super Bowl commercial that will take an anti-abortion stance. However long his NFL career may be, you can be sure that he will be making a push into politics after he’s done.
Here we go! Bowl season starts tomorrow and we got your Bowl Pick It and Stick It ready to go! It’s the somewhat the same format as the regular season. For each of the 34 bowl games, you will need to assign confidence points. So for whoever you think will win the strongest, should get the highest confidence points and vice versa for the weakest. What’s different is the you need to pick the winner straight up. There is no spread points to play off of for the bowls. So head on over to Yahoo! Fantasy Sports and sign up! We’ll go over the bowls after break but first, here’s the info:
Seeing as I graduated from K-State, I figured I would cover them just a little more than the rest of the area teams in Kansas City. If any other fans/alumni of schools around the area want to write for this site, please drop us a line. That said, everyone predicted that K-State would drop as well this year. What was expected to be a major blow off year turned into a massive surprise. K-State fans should be more than happy with what turned out this year in Wildcat football. It wasn’t perfect, but it was damn close.
We’re getting back on the treadmill to work off last weekend’s Turkey gauntlet. The timing is perfect as he have lots to feast on this weekend with conference championships going on all over the place. Hopefully the belt won’t be too tight to enjoy the big games filling up the screens. As an appetizer to the weekend, we have a Crib Sheet spilling over with news this week. So without further ado, here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
Another road trip is coming our way. Find out tomorrow where. But first we need to sift through the week’s news on the Crib Sheet. It’s a divisional beat down for the next couple of weeks in the Big 12 North. Nobody wants to win it and we’ll see who has just enough heart to show up against Texas in the Big 12 Championship game. Who will win it? Drop a comment below with your thoughts. Meanwhile, here’s the Crib Sheet:
Tennessee showed up to their game against ranked South Carolina in a Halloween flavored black shirt with orange pants. It helped them spook the Gamecocks to an upset victory. They should wear those more often.
Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh received a ticket for negligent driving after nailing some cars to avoid a cat. Oh he also blew a 0.035 after admitting some drinking. It’s all legal, he just did some car damage. Would you swerve to avoid a cat?
Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe wants the NCAA to consider teams with 6-6 records as having a winning record. Before those teams could only go if there was a contract to use on a bowl game. We’re thinking this has to do with how bad the conference is doing right now. Nice try, Dan.
Former Very Highly Touted recruit Darrell Scott is leaving the Colorado Buffaloes. Apparently he’s frustrated with how bad the program is and is looking to transfer to UCLA after the semester. Dan Hawkins, your time is almost gone.
We were unfortunate last night not to witness the Nebraska and Missouri game. Though the radio was on, we couldn’t get a good grasp of just how muddy and mucky it was to play. 2-0 at halftime is a wacky score. But we didn’t expect Missouri to choke away the game and 27 points in the fourth quarter. What did we find out? Nebraska has the fast track to the Big 12 North title. Missouri is much like their new quarterback Blaine Gabbert: young, inexperienced, talented, but not yet ready. The Tigers did reload this year, but the bullet jammed up a bit last night. Let’s jam on to this week’s Pick It and Stick It:
There’s alot of violence going around in college football recently. Well, more violence than usual. Yes, there’s the pads a poppin’ but more and more we see fisticuffs break out. Whether it’s on the field or off, there’s been some smacking and smack talking cropping up all over. So pay attention to this week’s Crib Sheet. We have some lessons to teach. If you smellllllll, what the Crib Sheet, is cookin’!
Rick Neuheisel and Bill Snyder 2.0 go way back, as Kevin Haskin writes. It seems that during the rebuilding process in Manhattan, Snyder 2.0 targeted the Buffaloes first instead of going for the top team in the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Neuheisel was the coach for Colorado at the time. So these guys know each other well. INSERT RECAP
To be fair, Golden Tate did a nose dive on the Michigan State stands during Notre Dame’s victory over the Spartans. Yup no one helped him. Lambeau leap this ain’t:
Texas A&M’s Uzoma Nwachukwu is loving life as the big man (and frosh) on campus this week. Nwachukwu scored a touchdown on each of his four touches last weekend against Utah State. I’m not sure what’s more surprising, the fact that the Aggies are undefeated and 2nd in the Big 12 South standings or the pronunciation of his name.
Fans who were kicked out of Minnesota’s home games for drunkenness will have to take a breathalyzer test the next time they try to attend a game. That makes alot of sense since it’s for the student section only and protects the fans from the wild tailgating that students put on before the game. I should know. I’ve been part of many of those.
In this week’s lesson on smack talking, Tennessee’s Lane Kiffin fires back accordingly when Urban Meyer made up excuses about how close the Florida and Tennessee game was last week. That’s good stuff. Remember never to back down if someone returns the shot you fired first.
Kansas football players and basketball players can’t get along. Point guard Tyshawn Taylor ended up with a dislocated thumb after a frucus broke out in front the university’s student union. Here’s a tip, the only other type of athletes that can mess with football players are wrestlers. Anybody else, prepare to get injured.
Some weeks, you don’t know what you’re going to run into when you pick a place you’ve never been to before. So when we strolled up to Birdie’s Pub and Grill, we weren’t expecting much. They didn’t have a website and the only information we got about the place was on Google Maps. Walking in, however, things turned completely different. Yes, it was bigger, but for some aspects it wasn’t necessarily better. The goal of the week was to watch some Nebraska vs Virginia Tech and head to a BBQ. We accomplished the mission. Here’s the report.
