This week I get caught up on all of the wacky conference meeting action. If you though realignment was a massive piss contest, wait until you hear about what the Pac 12, Big 12, Big 10, and SEC are sprinkling on now. Plus we talk Kansas, Northern Iowa, Bob Bowlsby, Steve Spurrier, and I hold a very special grudge against Phil Steele for picking on my Kansas State Wildcats.
Continue reading Purple Yeti Roar 20: Looking Through Some Steeley Eyes
Yes, this week I get a little wet, with emotion. And by wet, I mean sweat. Sweat for all of the realignment rumblings that involve the Big 12 and teams going _into_ the conference. I’ll talk about some of the teams that fall in to that latter category as well as some Texas, South Carolina, Notre Dame, Bill Byrne, West Virginia, Aaron Green, and Dan Beebe. Continue reading Purple Yeti Roar 17: Getting Ready To Rain Down
Alrighty it’s another week and I have a shocking revelation. You won’t believe your eyes when you find out. I also talk about some ESPN, Kansas State, Big 12, Notre Dame, and Conference USA. TMZ eat your heart out! Then dot dot dot about it. Continue reading Purple Yeti Roar 16: It’s Me, Really
Man I don’t even remember what I was talking about. The drugs kind of knocked me out. Oh wait, I think it was something about the NFL Draft, Kansas State, the BCS, The Rose Bowl, the Liberty Bowl, and Bo Pelini. Something else is in there but I dig through the discarded facial tissues to get it. Continue reading Purple Yeti Roar 15: Cold Drafts Help Make Me Sick
I’m celebrating. That’s right, my RPM Challenge is done and I’m taking a load off with you. This week I talk about the Combine, RG3, Dick Ebersol, the Big 12, Randy Edsell, and drink on camera. Oh the fun!
I barely made it through this week’s roar. It’s turned into a meow. I’m fighting a cold and will now go back to my lair and recover. In the meantime check out my takes on the Mountain West merging with Conference USA, North Dakota State’s fightin’ name issue, and some playoff/expansion menagerie. Oh it’s quite the trist. It’s okay to watch, I washed my hands. Just be sure to get plenty of fluids and rest.
I think I’m eating way more than I did when I was on vacation. The holidays were tasty but between running around to visit people and sipping a couple of barley pops left me with little time to eat well. Now that I am back, I find my fingers in the candy bowl that filled up from the stockings left before the trip. Oh well, I guess. Tis the season. I know one thing, after the new year and the end of bowl season, it’s mega workout time. One item that will mostly be fat throughout the year is the Crib Sheet. So let’s get munching: Continue reading Crib Sheet: Emptied Out The Bowls
It’s that time of year again. The time to hand out awards for special play by special players. The Big 12 awards popped out and there were a couple surprises. The one that jumps out at me is the ‘All-purpose’ award for Kansas State’s Collin Klein. Was that ever used before in the past? It seems like they cooked it up just for Klein. I mean, he’s no Heisman winner, but he was the most important person on the team for the Wildcats. I guess as a Kansas State fan, I’ll take what I can get. You have to take what you can get with this week’s Crib Sheet as well, so lets’ get doling:
The teams have been announced that cards played out on the table. The big hand is lame this year but the side bets are sexier. That’s right the regular season is over and now we are flipping over to bowl season. There were some snubs as usual, but the Big 12 lineup of bowls still looks pretty strong. The Cotton Bowl is right up there with the BCS bowls in terms of interesting match ups. Kansas State vs Arkansas, or Big 12 vs SEC, like it should be. Call your bets and flop on over to this week’s Crib Sheet.
Continue reading Crib Sheet: The Chips Have Fallen Into the Bowls
Well, it’s certainly been a recovery week now, hasn’t it? We’ve got one more week of college football and I’m still wiped out from last week. I guess it’s time to go on a diet. Or at least a flash one. I’ve got about three weeks to slim back down and it’s going to be rough. The diet starts today with the Crib Sheet. Most of the news out there is just hype over the SEC, so I’m not going to waste your time on that. There is, however, some small tasty nuggets of news that you are all welcome to bite into. But after that I need 20 push ups. And… GO!
We are halfway through the season and it is time to get all franchised up in here. That’s right, for the mid-season barspot, we’ll be heading to one of the local franchise Pluckers Wing Bar. Outside of the tasty appetizer I had at the Draft Pick, there has been no major wing place I’ve been to this year. So, I’ll be trolling South Lamar looking for the hottest wings they can muster. It’s the Southwest, they damn well better be way hotter than Buffalo Wild Wings’ tame excuse for nuclear hot wings. Plus, there’s some games! Join us!
Continue reading Barspotting: Pluckers
In today’s college football, things can change dramatically week to week both on the field and off. One week, Missouri is leaving the Big 12 and will blow up the conference. The next, the Big 12 invites TCU to join to lock things up. TCU head honchos met to make it a done deal. They made the announcement Monday night. I can breathe a sigh of relief because for the first time, the Big 12 will actually grow and Missouri should stay put for the rest of the year. We’ll have to find out next week if something else that’s huge will go down. In the meantime, here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:
I lucked out again with Kansas State not playing at the same time Texas was. They were actually playing Baylor and on ABC. The nationally televised match up and the fact that it was not going against Texas led me to think that a remote sports bar south of the city should have that game on. So Saturday I found myself at the Backspin Texas Sports Bar & Grill. I’m glad that I picked that place for the game. Did the tiny nature and remote location lead to a great time?
Somehow I managed to get rockstar parking for the Backspin. When I pulled in, I had a nice view of the patio and a side way look to the joint. I heard online that it was a small place, but I was hoping it would be wider that what it turned out to be. Walking inside I instantly felt cramped. It was room for maybe 3 tables across and a ginormous sports bar. Okay that’s fine. Both outside and inside had some sweet looking HD televisions with a huge one in the main dining area.
As for the rest of the Backspin, it filled out as nicely as it could with its real estate. I was surprised to see a Golden Tee game there and alleviated any worries I had about their effort. Not only that, but they also had some BuzzTime Trivia, which gave me a chance to try out their app on my new Android based cellphone. All that internet juice was handled promptly by their free wireless internet. Connection issues were not a problem mainly because the place is so small.
The service there wasn’t so great. I got a primo spot in front of the huge big screen for the Kansas State vs Baylor game, but had the chance to watch the end of the exciting Texas A&M vs Arkansas game. It was about two minutes to go and they somehow accidentally changed the channel. It was so harried that a patron got up and started jacking with the Direct TV remote. Seriously, if you have a sports bar, you need to have workers who know how to operate the televisions. Also, the audio was out of sync for the end of that A&M game. That, the waitresses were pretty hot and they did a great job of making sure my beers were full.
For this week’s beer pairing, by the way, I had an unexpected mix of food and drink. I was hoping to get their Reuben but I had to try their Tzatziki dip and fried pickles appetizer. I’m happy I went that way. To wash down the lot, I chose some New Castle. Not only was it on special for $3 but the brown ale helped with the crispness of the fried pickles and the strange combination of yogurt and spices for the Tzatziki dip. I’ve never had Tzatziki before but it is a nice cool down appetizer to noms on with pita bread.
Now on the to the games. Non Big 12 wise I caught that big showdown of Wisconsin vs Nebraska as well as the Alabama vs Florida game going on at the same time. First off, Alabama looks legit and first year Florida head coach Will Muschamp has a little bit more work to do, including keeping his starting quarterback healthy. Big 10 wise, Nebraska got a great welcome to the conference with a whooping handed to them from the Badgers. Nebraska isn’t a complete team but it didn’t help them that Wisconsin had the free agent quarterback wonder that is Russell Wilson.
Big 12 wise, I watched a whole heckuva lot of football. While I was sweating away at the gym, I got watch Kansas go up early on Texas Tech. Little did I know that the Red Raiders would come back to win on the road in Lawrence. Both teams are in trouble against Kansas State, more on that later. So I mentioned Texas A&M and Arkansas. All I can say that it was awesome to see the Aggies choke again. They have never won a game against the SEC and will hopefully be competitive against Vanderbilt when they take off next year. Wow they have no heart.
The big game of the day for me was watching Kansas State host Baylor for their first big test of the year. Robert Griffin III is the mega stud quarterback for Baylor and he continued putting up great numbers. The combination between him and Kendall Wright torched the Wildcat defense all day long. But Kansas State was resilient. I don’t know how they keep close in these games, but they do. Everyone will put it on Bill Snyder 2.0 and deservedly so. Collin Klein kept consistent on the offensive side of the ball and linebacker Arthur Brown broke out and delivered the game saving interception. These Wildcats are now ranked and they have real good shot of going to a bowl thanks to Texas Tech and Kansas.
So that was my day at the Backspin. That place is super tiny but for where it is located, I can make some concessions. It’s by no means perfect. When you can’t figure out televisions on gameday, you go down big in my book. The food was decent and I like the beer specials. If I had an important game that I absolutely had to watch, I wouldn’t do it at the Backspin. If I wanted to sneak away from the city and hide out in a decent sports bar, the Backspin is where I’ll head.
HO BOY OH BOY OH BOY! It’s here! Well, one more day. But finally after an anguishing offseason, college football is back! Tomorrow night kicks it off and we get our itch scratch all the way through January. Here we go! But first, the last Crib Sheet of the offseason: Continue reading Crib Sheet: Kicking Off Another Season
This week’s drama is Miami and the Ponzi schemed Nevin Shapiro who was making it rain all over the place. Among the accused, two new Alabama assistant coaches, a former Husker, newly minted K-Stater’s Bryce and Arthur Brown, Missouri head basketball coach Frank Haith, and 15 current Miami players. This summer has been brutal for college football on the public relations side. It’s been all about the money and breaking the rules. It’s like NASCAR. Or worse yet, baseball. Winds of change will be blowing real quick. Maybe it means the players will finally get paid. On to the Crib Sheet: Continue reading Crib Sheet: Winds Of Change (Pocket) Blowing In Miami