The Manhattan Miracle was once thought to be just a one time thing. Fast forward to 2009 and we now know it never left. Are we talking about football? Partly. We’re also talking about the little city of Manhattan and the miracle that it can play with the big dogs when it comes to having a great time. We revisited some old school places and discovered some new ones. Then we went to the Sunflower Showdown and witnessed the rise of the miracle on the field. All in all it was a top notch time and we were happy to see the good ole days just one more time.
Category Archives: Kansas
GameDay: Bang! Bang!
So when listening to the hype leading up to this week’s Red River Rivalry, I couldn’t help but think that it used to be called something else. There’s whispers of it on the web now, but I could swear that it used to be called the Red River Shootout. Is that right? Pictures and images tell us of this but more and more it’s a rivalry and not a shootout. Did they change it? Why? Well we know why, and it kinda sucks.
J. Murphy’s Brings Out the Irish in Every One
Western Europe meets the western Kansas City area as we trucked way the heck out to Shawnee to view Saturday’s selections at J. Murphy’s Irish Pub and Grille. The games lined up for the afternoon seemed like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The traditional fare sprinkled the joint so well we were waiting for a Contra Dance to bust out. And the food, well the food was all it was cracked up to be, Irish wise. But there was so much more than really cheesy Irish references (which we will stop as of now) at J. Murphy’s.
Continue reading J. Murphy’s Brings Out the Irish in Every One
Big 12 Preview 2009
Most folks outside of the midwest believe that the Big 12 Conference is 2nd nationally amongst conferences in terms of football strength. Much of the talk points toward the Big 12 South. As we roll into the 2009 season, we find some teams reloaded, some teams are out of ammo, and the rest either misfired or are shooting blanks. We’re gonna see where they all stack up and how they will finish in 2009, according the Purple Yeti’s crystal ball. There are some shifts in power, but the top stack will stay the same and most of the close calls will still be close. Hopefully the crystal ball pulls through.
Crib Sheet: Running Some Gassers
Practices are rocking this week as the schools are getting ready for some real hitting here in a couple of weeks. Some may think that we’ve been practicing every week in this but column but it’s been prime time, every time. We are still deliberating as to whether or not we’ll continue the Crib Sheet in the regular season. Feel free to drop a comment below to let us know. Here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
- The Michigan Defense couldn’t mow him down last year, so Appalachian State’s quarterback Armanti Edwards did it himself. Yup he’s out a couple of weeks with a foot injury.
- The 12th Man talked a Montana punter to transfer to Texas A&M. Ken Wood was big on the NFL Seattle Seahawks and when A&M sued them for the use of the 12th Man moniker. Wood saw this and fell in love. It’s great, too, because the punter will probably be the MVP on that team this year.
- The USA Today Top 25 Coaches Poll for the preseason came out today and Florida eats the top spot. Big 12 wise we have Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Nebraska at 2,3, 11, and 22 respectively. That’s great and all, but the better poll/list for the week was put out by Fox Sports in their Top 10 most annoying fans list. Oklahoma’s number 4 on that one. It’s a good list even though it trends to teams that have been traditional powerhouses, sans Clemson.
- Speaking of Clemson, they are docked two practices for a non conforming uniform modification under NCAA rules. The crime? Wearing girdles at practice. Let’s hope they don’t catch them wearing leggings or panties. Yikes!
- Dezmon Briscoe from Kansas is no longer stupid. Er, no longer too stupid not to play football that is. He completed summer courses and can play this fall for the Jayhawks. He’s sorely needed, too, as he is expected to be a top receiver in the conference this year.
- Bobby Bowden wants another national title before he retires from Florida State in a couple of years. Bobby, it’s not gonna happen but we wish you the best of luck. If only your conference was stronger.
- There’s a great article about Kansas State quarterback Carson Coffman. Carson comes from a long lineage of NFL tight ends, with his dad Paul and now his older brother Chase. So this version of Coffman will try his hand a quarterback this year, but don’t be too excited because he has alot of transferred competition coming his way.
- Utah spend the offseason crying to everyone that would listen about how they were screwed out a title game and now they a shutting off communication for ‘instantaneous reports’ from any staff and media. BYU is doing it too. So, are they breeding whiners or hypocrites up there?
- Everybody is high on Notre Dame this year, but Charlie Weiss is more interested in walk than talk. That’s kinda paradoxical when you think about it. Then again, he was running his mouth from day one so let’s see if a quieter Weiss will help the Fighting Irish live up their hype. Maybe he’s learning all about walking from his new-found buddy, St. Louis Cardinals’ player Albert Pujols.
- Ron Prince and his lawyers are asking for an additional $3 million on top of the $3 million he’s already owed by Kansas State after they canned him last year. The reason? They state that the school knew of the buyout terms and even went as far as saying that the school wanted Prince to keep terms of the contract confidential. With that much money on the table originally, it would seem very weird that top brass overlooked that. Plus it’s punitive. The way K-State is trying to weasel out of the deal forced Prince’s hand. This is very ugly indeed. A contract is a contract no matter how insane it is. The quicker this goes away the better it will be for the school. With this lawsuit, the chances are it will stick around for a long, long time.
Crib Sheet: Fathers and Football
Father’s Day is this weekend and we’d like to take a minute to thank all of the dads out there for being dads. One of the best father/son experiences you can have is watching your favorite college team take on a rival on a fall Saturday. Whether it’s running to fridge to get your dad a beer or arguing at each other who was a better college player over nachos, the experience helps cement the relationship so critical to a young boy’s (and girl’s) development. Here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
- Tom Osborne will be the Athletic Director for Nebraska indefinately. He took over after the last guy got fired 2007 and was responsible for bringing in gum chewing Bo Pelini as head coach. Considering the slow turnaround they are experiencing, chances are Tom will stick around until a Big 12 title game and/or championship.
- Two long time administrators were suspended from the Kansas State athletic department Wednesday with no reason given. The speculation machine fired up and is pointing at the secret deal that former AD Bob Krause had with former coach Ron Prince. That’s probably why but it really does not matter now. What we’re wondering is if Ron Prince intentionally tanked the football season so he could get the long term pay out.
- News came out that now again Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder had a chance to run for office in Kansas in 2005. It seems Kathleen Sebileius tapped him for a lieutenant governer position and Bill considered it. Too bad, because he would’ve crucified Ron Prince and Bob Krause for the terrible job they did and for screwing over the Wildcats.
- Bob Frederick, former Kansas Athletic Director, died from complications due to a bike accident last week. It’s a shame he had to go that way. This is probably why Mark Mangino never took up bike riding, beside the obvious reasons.
- Somebody’s impersonating coaches up in Nebraska. Tim Griffin of ESPN reports that someone is hitting up a Kansas high school coach asking for recruiting information by stating they are offensive coordinator Shawn Watson. The coach was suspicious and phoned the proper authorities. It’s easy to fake identity online so it’s a good thing that the coach made the phone call. Remember, if the email is something like ‘[email protected]’ watch out.
- Chris Harper is transferring to Kansas State in the hopes of become the starting quarterback. He left Oregon due to the position being locked up there, and brings a couple of rushing and catching touchdowns with him. It should be an interesting camp when he vies for the position between Carson Kauffman, former South Florida quarterback Grant Gregory, and JuCo transfer Daniel Thomas.
- Charlie Weiss Twittered that he can’t use Twitter recruit. It’s a good thing he’s getting healthy use of the service. If they don’t make a bowl, heck a BCS bowl, this year he may need to use it to recruit himself for a new head coaching position.
Crib Sheet: Red Hot Burn
Usually when the tempature gauge rockets into the 90’s, it tells you many things. First, time to turn on the A/C. Second, time to hit the pool. Lastly, college football season is right around the corner. So while you are out there baking in the sun, please remember to wear sun screen and to think of the short time left before kickoff. Here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
- Looks like the Nebraska Cornhuskers are getting support from all sides as Tim Griffin reports on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ love for the Huskers and his influence on recruits. Judge Thomas sounds like he know about more about the Huskers than the law, unless he thinks they rule or something.
- Still on the Nebraska side, Bo Pelini is standing up for his hometown fellow, LeBron James. It seems LeBron was a little unsportsmenlike when he choked away the playoffs last week. People have been ragging him since and Bo decided to stand up for King James and defend him, in all of his open mouthed, gum chewing glory.
- Ivan Maisel did a little piece about smaller schools taking big cash for playing major opponents from major colleges. It does tilt the competition in the favor of the major schools. The smaller schools do get money they would otherwise not see for their athletic program. The shadiness of the AD’s not having confidence in their team does seem to be a concern. But then again we wouldn’t see major upsets like Appalachin State over Michigan. It can happen you know.
- Kansas and Georgia Tech will meet for the first time since 1948 for the next two years. This should beef up their non-conference schedule. They aren’t exactly pulling a K-State, but they are following toe in line for what many of the major FBS conferences are doing.
- Joe Montana’s kid Nick will commit to Washington. Looks like the Steve Sarkasian rub is working full time up there. Will USC miss Steve? Who knows, but it will be interesting to see if Nick can live up to his dad. It’s a lofty task and other former NFL quaterback kids usually don’t live up or beyond, with the exceptions of the Mannings. Chris Simms anyone?
The Crib Sheet: Black Hole Sun News
So some news outlets are saying that May is the black hole of news for college football. We here at the KCCGD are diligent in digging up interesting news and actually found enough to fill a column this week. We’ll weather this storm together and hopefully ride out into June when practices start. For now let’s do our best to ignore all of this lame-o baseball, weak basketball and hockey playoffs, and a post NFL draft hangover. Here’s this week’s ration:
- Holey Toledo! Some football players including some basketball players from the University of Toledo were indicted on point shaving charges. Nobody likes to see players go at it light. Especially if they are getting paid for it. Okay, I give in. I just wanted to say Holey Toledo!
- The Big 12 coaches decided to keep the tie breaking rule. Huh? Bo Pelini goes on the comment about how no matter what the 3rd team left out will get the shaft. Okay, that’s understandable. Is there a better way to break the tie? We say rock, paper, scissors.
- It looks like the Utah Attorney General is trying to push for a Senate run with his latest comments about the BCS. Let’s look at it from a point of view perspective. An undefeated team in football and no national title. They have the right to be upset. The way they are going about it? Mmmm not so much. A more clever way would be to rally support from all the non BCS conferences and begin to push as a whole on the BCS conferences. If you really wanted to shake their boots, don’t schedule games with them. Play outside of the BCS. The BCS conferences would then freak becauces of the lack of weak team warm ups at the beginning of the season.
- Sam Keller, a football alum from Nebraska, is suing EA Sports and the NCAA for using the likeness of athelets to make money off the games. This is a hard one to call. More and more the argument is growing for student-atheletes to be paid for promoting the school through sports. While there is a pandora’s box of enabling that, surely the least they can do is up the stipend in terms of the scholarship and toss in a couple of Xboxes to boot.
- ESPN blogger Tim Griffin takes us on a trip to the past and review a lesson taught to us by Mark Mangino of Kansas. The old quote talks about how Mangino wanted to keep the spirit of the rivalry in tact. Now that the tables are turned it seems that maybe this rivalry will be alive an well in Manhattan this year. Snyder and Mangino go at it again. I was at the game last year and as a Wildcat fan it stung hard. Now there’s a fresh start and we hope that at the very least it is competitive because Kansas is the definite favorite.
- So someone is selling a 2005 Rose Bowl ring belonging to former Texas Longhorn lineman Austin Sendlein on eBay, including his 2004 ring. It looks as though he left it in the hotel room he was staying at in Columbus, Ohio to watch his brother play. Seems that Buckeye fans don’t take to kindly to Longhorn folk. Although he did goof and leave it in the hotel room. Linemen are supposed to be smart.
The Crib Sheet: Easter Football Egg Hunt
We were starting to get worried here at the Crib Sheet that this week’s news would be weak. Wednesday rolled around and we were totally saved. Perhaps Easter had something to do with the slow news over the weekend. This week we sift through some practices and look at some red tape a danglin’ around. Here we go:
- Bo Pelini is spitting out chewing gum again in Lincoln. He’s fired up after a bad practice and is telling everyone on the block about it. It seems to work fine up there as Nebraska is turning the corner and it’s nice to see some passion from a coach when you’re living with the Pinkel/Mangino/Snyder non speak on a daily basis.
- Mike Leach is a definite oddball and his practice tactics are proving it. Making players study on the field in the snow and some high balancing is unique enough. Still I’m not sure if it will work this year after losing Michael Crabtree.
- Glen Winston is going to jail for 6 months for kicking the tar out of fellow Michigan State athlete A. J. Sturges. I thought hockey players were supposed to be tough? I guess not. Then again, he was up against Winston and Michael White from the football team. Two football players > one hockey player.
- Texas is trying to lure the College Football Hall of Fame away from South Bend, Indiana. Both Dallas and Arlington have put together proposals to build a hall as well as convention center in support of the move. Traditionally Notre Dame is king for football but recent years have shown the Fighting Irish’s prominence waning. Now is a good time to snatch the hall, especially in a state where people eat, sleep, and crap football.
- Other universities are interested in Kansas Atheltic Director Lou Perkins and the Jayhawks are willing to pay up to keep him. That makes sense. The guy produced a national champion basketball team and built and honest to goodness football team down there in Lawrence. So another $750,000 goes to Lou. I’m sure it will eat into Mark Mangino’s Ho Ho fund.
- Bill Snyder still has no clue who’s gonna quarterback the Kansas State Wildcats. It’s a tough job to replace the overrated Josh Freeman. Chances are we’ll see all three start next season and the one who does a better job with the option will get the nod.
- Legal documents stuffed in the AP’s pocket show that the Missouri Tigers officials and staff failed to follow proper steps to keep Aaron O’Neil from collapsing and eventually dieing back in 2005. The director of sports medicine for the athletic department apparently even rejected suggestions from concerned players to check up on O’Neil. Yet another example of the Tigers dropping the ball, off the field even.
- Former Duke basketballer Greg Paulus, after trying out for the Green Bay Packers, sat down with Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez to explore the possibility of using his one year of eligibility to play college football. So the Rich must be feeling the heat already because even the Duke football doesn’t want him. Both Paulus and Rodriguez are starting to look a little silly here.
The Crib Sheet: Bracket Busted
There’s not much in news this week as we have college basketball and March Madness to fight with. I’m also fighting a nasty food poisoning bit. That said, some news eeked by and we scooped them up. It’s short and sweet but will give you something to stare at besides all of the red ink on your bracket. Here’s this week’s news:
- Charlie Weis is going old school and calling plays from the sideline for Notre Dame this season. Well if you’re gonna go out, you might as well do it swinging from the sidelines.
- To no one’s surprise, Kansas State is looking to get out of a tougher schedules in Miami for the next couple of years. Looks like Bill Snyder 2.0 is alot like the 1.0 version.
- Rivalries are grand, aren’t they? Lawrence city commissioner Sue Heck proposed changing Missouri street’s name to ex KU football coach Don Fambrough. Some of the other commissioners thought it was pretty lame and Heck eventually withdrew the proposal. Still, I enjoy lobbing small digs to rivals to keep the flames going.
- Kansas coach Mark Mangino will be inducted into the Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame. All I have to say is that’s-ah one-ah fat-ah spicy ah meatball!
- The Senate is reviewing whether or not non BCS conference schools are at a competitive disadvantage when qualifying for a BCS bowl game. Hey guess what? Orin Hatch is leading the cause and he’s from Utah! They still won’t get over it. Jinkies.
The Crib Sheet: Looking for a Football News Epicac
You know, we here at the KCCGD figured that the college football off season would be dank with news but after this last week, we can say that there always something to talk about. We’ve got contract negotiations, run ins with the law, rule changes, and even where are they nows (or end ups). The biggest of the bunch being the Mike Leach contract talks. But we will never, ever talk about the Nebraska spring practice game. Here’s what happened in the last week:
- Oklahoma State Wide Receiver Bo Bowling was caught drugging up and is now suspended from the team. What is it about football players that make them think they can continue to do what they did back in high school when they are under more a public light? You’d figure some of them would learn, but learning isn’t why they’re there.
- So there’s a proposition floating around to make pre endzone celebrations penalized and points taken off the board. I guess the treat of points slipping from the board will make players think twice, but I would go with the penalty first and if that doesn’t work then hit them up with points.
- Kansas coach Mark Mangino promoted a couple of coaches. When it rains, it pours. The success of the Jayhawks goes around for everybody on the staff. Although when it rains on Coach Mangino, I bet his feet never get wet.
- In Big 10 land, Iowa re-upped Kirk Ferentz’s contract with more dough going into his pockets. A little rumor goes a long way. When the Kansas City Chiefs fired Herman Edwards, on of the replacements on the list was Kirk Ferentz. Kirk needs to send Scott Pioli a fruit basket.
- The vaunted, Charlie Weiss led, Notre Dame Fighting Irish will now be more lead by Chuck as he’s taking over on offensive play calling. They had a bowl year last year to save his butt, but taking over on calls makes me a little worried. I’m gonna go dust off the clock on his hot seat right now.
- Be ready for some Mizzou mania early on in the year on ESPN. They are playing the Big 12 opener against Nebraska on Oct. 8. Which means we get the game against Nevada and the season opener against Illinois on TV as well. The earlier the better, as this year will be an off one for the Tigers.
- I’m trying really hard not to talk about baseball in any form, but when they are recruiting 12 yeard olds it gets to be too much to handle. Please oh please don’t be like baseball and take the fun out of the game at young age. Let the kid grow up some first before buying him an iPhone.
- Texas Tech and Mike Leach are still dancing around the contract ho down. Leach wants a better buyout option and Texas Tech wants fine him for talking to other schools. We get some reality from realfootball365.com, where they remind us he has two years to go on his contract and if nothing happens, then they will do this dance again next year. That is, after the board of regents figures things out.
- Ivan Maisel reminds us that the BCS won’t change for awhile. He goes on to talk about Jerry Jone’s mega dome and how it could be the potential home for the Sugar Bowl. That would make it more of a player than the other BCS bowls. Tune in next four years as the BCS turns.
- Taking his ball and going home, Ron Prince will be named the new Associate Head Coach at Virginia. Welp he had a 3 year run as a head coach, ruined a program, and is pretty much right back where he started. Good luck and good riddance.
The Crib Sheet: Signing Day/Week Aftermath
It was a big week of news and the Crib Sheet is back this week to tell you what mattered. It was Signing Day last week and the ouija board nearly broke from producing signatures sprinkled out across the whole nation. There were some surprises, but most of what was expected came to be true. We mixed in some political goobery and a little bit o’ smack talk to keep things fresh. My guess is the next couple of weeks are going to be dry news wise, so let this be the spike before the long lull. Here’s the crib:
- Newly appointed Jesus of Tennessee Lane Kiffin is crying wolf over Urban Meyer trying to hit up one of his recruits. Lane still got the guy, but maybe the rub off from Al Davis’ fragile shoulders are showing up in Volunteer-land. It’s nice you got the recruit, Lane, but talking smack on Urban will produce some nasty results. Just talk to Georgia. Oh and he apologized.
- Kansas State expectantly showed weakly recruitng wise. Ron Prince poisoned the recruiting and Bill Snyder is going to have an uphill battle for the Wildcats. It’s going to be a big time reboot in Manhattan
- Kansas on the other hand, nabbed a couple of quarterbacks and some other high profile recruits to lead into their highest rated recruiting class ever. Will it show up on the field? Mangino’s shown that he can recruit well and make some talent pay off so look out of the Hawks in the next couple of years.
- Missouri too, had a pretty good recruiting class. They promised some tight end play to Sheldon Richardson but realy this kid is defensive tackle all the way. At any rate, look for them to compete for the North and then choke at some point.
- Nebraska signed about 21 kids to fill out the black shirts. Look out for these guys. With the walk on program back on and some key pick ups, Nebraska will be well on their way to almost going back to the Big 12 Championship game.
- Conference wise, Texas and Oklahoma went 1 and 2, again. Hey they do that every year so get used to it. Colorado had a top 4 conference recruiting ranking last year and look at how they finished. Sleep tight, Texas A&M.
- Bryce Brown is hanging out and making everybody speculate the hell out of him. Everybody else is down and signed but this guy just likes making everyone wait. Also, the big rumor is he might turn pro in some other league. Really, Bryce is a huge tease.
- James Franklin, the Maryland offensive coordinator, was named last Thursday as the successor to Ralph Friedgen. Overlooking the fact that Maryland has done crap the last couple of years, this pick makes sense. If the school is satisfied with mediocrity then they should continue in it.
- Mike Leech is culling his old lawyer skills and is still banging out a contract with Texas Tech. So the Red Raiders are apparently pulling a Boston College and telling Leech he can’t talk or interview with other teams during his contract. If they break off now, look for him to be somewhere else after this year. Come Texas Tech, fumble this one away!
- Okay, this is getting redonkulous. Now all of Utah’s lawmakers are sending a resolution to PrezBama to blow away the BCS and give in to the power of playoffs. Now with football players on hand! Please somebody tell the whole state of Utah to get over it and focus on getting the Mountain West the automatic bid. Going the political route won’t work.
- Missouri pulled in LSU tight ends coach Josh Henson. It looks as thought some SEC cred might be seeping into the Big 12. Recruiting wise, this will help out the Tigers immensly. Tim Griffin’s already saying they’re going after Bryce Brown too.
- Dana Dimel is coming back to K-State. So he did a great job for Mike Stoops and reviving some offense and it looks like he’ll be doing the same at K-State. Let’s hope that it will be more than Ron Prince’s “Throw-everything-up-and-see-what-sticks” offense.
- In sign of bi-partisanship, Rep. Joe Barton (R) from Texas is siding with PrezBama in setting up a college football playoff. Does he really need the votes? Plus, this guy’s an Aggie. Shouldn’t he be working more toward making Texas A&M a real football team instead of playing up to the playoff people?
The Crib Sheet: One Spicey Meatball
We kicked off the off season with our first Mascot Monday here at the KCCGD and now we’re continuing the trend with our first edition of the Crib Sheet. Yup, it’s a weekly news round up of college football with our own little Jamaican Jerk style spice tossed on top. Much like how a good number of student-atheletes need a crib sheet to get by the student part, well lay out what you need to know for college football news wise. Chances are you’ll get better news elsewhere, but you won’t walk away from it with a minty fresh feeling like you would hitting up the Sheet. So buckle up because here we go:
- Notre Dame quelled the rumors that John Gruden will be the new had coach. Charlie Weiss just save his behind whooping Hawaii, why would they go with anyone else. Weiss has one more year and Gruden is still NFL, maybe even for the Chiefs.
- Kansas names Kerry Locklin as their new D-Line coach. He replaces Joe Bob Clemens as Joe Bob comes back home to K-State. Hopefully it was part of some ellaborate, Bill Snyder led, recon mission to sniff out the Jayhawks scheme so the Wildcats can notch a win in forever against the Hawks.
- Michigan hires Greg Robinson as the new Defensive Coordinator. Whoah, so Syracuse dumps him after the Kansas City Chiefs dump him, and now Rich Rodrieguez wants him? I say take him. Let’s hope the tradition of losing carries over to the Wolverines just enough to keep them mediocre.
- Washington had to report a recruiting violation to the PAC 10. Steve Sarkisian is off to a big start by breaking some rules. Looks like the Huskies are not shaking off the Neuheisel stigma anytime soon.
- Tim Griffin tells us that the Big 12 North is cherry picking the hell out of Texas for recruits. Tell us something we don’t know, Tim. Sheezuz.
- Recruiting sucks for the Big 10 this year. Apparently 2 schools can claim five star recruits (Ohio State and Michigan duh). Is this the beginning of the end? Chances are the Big 10 tanking will break the stranglehold on the Rose Bowl.
- In the “Oh my God, he can still get a job” department: Ron Prince is rummored as being in the running for the Offensive Coordinator for Miami o’ Florida. Great, so he can coach down a talented quarterback and jack up some trick plays for the Hurricanes? I’m sold.
- Finally, Former Missouri Quarterback Chase Daniel is a superstar at ESPN. Source indicate he will also film a commercial with Pittsburgh Steelers quaterback Ben Roethlisburger. Chase will play Ben’s younger, less talented brother while they take turns throwing a football at the back of Stuart Scott’s head. Who will knock out the glass eye first? Tune in and find out.
Welp that’s it for round one of the Crib Sheet. Well be back every Wednesday to spit up nuggets of news we chowed down on from previous week. Until then, eat your vitamins and say your prayers, brotha. Yup, the Yeti’s filling his time by watching a lil wrasslin’ Sunday by way of the Royal Rumble. Hey, you gotta pass the time in the off season somewho. As Ric Flair would say, “WHOOOOOOOO!”
Bowl Pick It Standings: Two Minute Warning and the Marching Band is on the Field
We’re running into the last stretch of big games and we are getting ready for the final 3 games of the college football season. The last week brought us some upsets, some blowouts, some intrigue, and some fatter bellies and stinkier rooms. Bowl season so far has proved to be, well, anticlimactic but we’re geared up for Florida vs Oklahoma. The other two games landed on nonplussed for our feelings.
The vaunted, Charlie Weiss led, Notre Dame fighting Irish played hard for their coached and blew the heat off of him by blowing out Hawaii in the, you guessed it, the Hawaii Bowl. The Pac-10 quieted all detractors by going undefeated in their bowls year, topping it off with a USC blowout of the somewhat Paterno led Penn State Nittany Lions. Speaking of the Big 10, they are 1-5 in bowls this year with one game left to go. The Purple Yeti loved the finish to the Kentucky and East Carolina game when Kentucky’s defensive lineman Ventrell Jenkins stiffed armed East Carolina’s Partrick Pinkey after picking him off and tumbled into the endzone for the winning score 25-19.
But that’s not all that happened. The Big 12 so far has a decent showing going with Missouri kicking it off and barely chugging by Northwestern. The Tigers should’ve lost the game but the found a way to come out on top. I was in the gym when Oklahoma State was up 17-7 over Oregon at half and dang near dropped my jaw to the floow when I saw the final score later, Oregon 42, Oklahoma State 31. KU handled Minnesota rather easily, which worked out well for the evening as Wii Sports were to be had. The best game of New Year’s Day happened to be the Gator Bowl where Nebraska came from behind to beat the Clemson Tigers. Too bad Texas Tech couldn’t make a case for being in the title chase when Ole Miss handed them an Ole Whuppin 47-34 in the Cotton Bowl.
Continue reading Bowl Pick It Standings: Two Minute Warning and the Marching Band is on the Field
Bowlspotting: That’s Right, We’re Spotting the Bowls
With the regular season over, we need something to do between the various holiday events. So why not watch all of the Big 12 bowl games? Fortunately we have five days straight of bowl games that feature a Big 12 team during the last week of the year. How is the KCCGD staff going to handle the load? We don’t know. Chances are we’ll post in the morning where we will go and then talk about the game later on that night. If we go out to all of the games. It’s gonna be hard and crazy for sure. The BCS National Championship game will be spotted somewhere, but we’ll build up to that when the time comes. For now, here’s the Big 12 representation of the bowl schedule (thanks espn.com):
| BOWL | LOCATION | DATE/TIME | NETWORK |
| Valero Alamo Missouri vs. Northwestern |
San Antonio Alamodome |
Dec. 29, 7 p.m. | ESPN |
| Pacific Life Holiday Oklahoma State vs. Oregon |
San Diego Qualcomm Stadium |
Dec. 30, 7 p.m. | ESPN |
| Insight Kansas vs. Minnesota |
Tempe, Ariz. Sun Devil Stadium |
Dec. 31, 4:30 p.m. | NFL Network |
| Konica Minolta Gator Nebraska vs. Clemson |
Jacksonville, Fla. Jacksonville Municipal Stadium |
Jan. 1, 2009, 12 p.m. | CBS |
| AT&T Cotton Ole Miss vs. Texas Tech |
Dallas Cotton Bowl |
Jan. 2, 2009, 1 p.m. | FOX |
| Tostitos Fiesta Ohio State vs. Texas |
Glendale, Ariz. University of Phoenix Stadium |
Jan. 5, 2009, 7 p.m. | FOX |
| FedEx BCS National Championship Game Florida vs. Oklahoma |
Miami Dolphin Stadium |
Jan. 8, 2009, 7 p.m. | FOX |
Missouri, after falling back to earth this year, tries to do to the Big 10 Wildcats what they did with the Big 12 version in the Alamo Bowl. The Oklahoma State Cowboys will be shooting ducks against Oregon in the Holiday Bowl. The Gator Bowls marks a New Year’s Day return for the Nebraska Cornhuskers as they take on Clemson. Ole Miss tries to outshoot the left out Texas Tech Red Raiders in the Cotton Bowl. The Texas Longhorns look toward the Ohio State Buckeyes to take out their frustrations in the Fiesta Bowl. Finally, the Oklahoma Sooners circles the wagons for the Florida Gators in the BCS National Championship Game. That’s one heckuva lineup and this empy week and a half of hype does little to pass the time on our way to Bowl Season.