Tag Archives: UCLA

Pick It and Stick It: Sticking With The Crowd

It’s the hustle and bustle of college football.  At the beginning of the year, everyone is tied 0-0.  Slowly and weekly, the winners bubble up and the losers peter out.  We’re getting into week 3 and it’s still crowded.  We haven’t yet hit the real bubbling point.  Apparently it’s Road Test Weekend so we’ll more than likely get the cauldron cooking real quick.  Speaking of being crowded, I’m planning and surfing the flesh at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Granted I have Sunday tickets so it won’t be too bad, but Saturday’s at Third Base Sports Bar.  Let’s hope people don’t bubble up vomit and I don’t peter out.

Continue reading Pick It and Stick It: Sticking With The Crowd

Barspotting: Thirdbase

Alrighty welp I’m back for another week of actual Barspotting.  Kansas City was nice and all but I’ve been to all the good bars up there and now I’m ready to hit (or find) the good bars down here in Austin.  This week I’m going to try to get to Third Base.  Hopefully, I can play my cards right and get there to brag about it all to you on Monday morning.  From the looks of things it’s a hot spot to be at so I know it’ll be crowded with others when I get there.  Come on and join me!

Continue reading Barspotting: Thirdbase

Pick It and Stick It: Flick Me A Winner

Here we go with another year of Pick It and Stick It!  This time I decided to go easy on people and not do confidence points throughout the year.  It was just too much beef to handle week in and week out.  So I cut that fat off and leaned it down to a tasty point spread straight up pick league.  You can drop two weeks so if want to join up please do so at:
If you got any questions, please feel free to hit me up.  Now let’s take a look at the first week’s pics:

Crib Sheet: Winds Of Change (Pocket) Blowing In Miami

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

Mascot Monday: Oski

I’m kind of surprised I haven’t done a Pac 12 powerhouse like California yet, but hey here we go.  This week I’m counting down Phil Steele’s Pre-Season Top 50 for 2001 and it’s number 48, the California Golden Bears.  For some reason I’ve been avoiding Oski because he shows up in the weird mascot lists and he doesn’t look that weird to me.  At any rate, I have him in my sights and will learn many things, including how a mascot chugs a beer. Oh boy, I’m already regretting that I waited this long.

Continue reading Mascot Monday: Oski

Mascot Monday: Joe and Josephene Bruin

This week’s Mascot Monday sees us going Hollywood!  You know, in all of the years I’ve done this little mascot post, I’ve never hit the big time cities and the college mascots that dwell within them.  Welp, I’m starting something new by focusing on the University of California Los Angeles’ Joe and Josephine Bruin.  Okay so he’s not explicitly Hollywood, but he does have a weirdo kind of relationship with his female counterpart Josephene.  We’ll learn about that among some other tasty historical items for this week’s trip down mascot lane.  Get your cheap sunglasses ready and try to avoid TMZ.  Here we go.

Continue reading Mascot Monday: Joe and Josephene Bruin

Pick It Standings Week 07: The BCS Has Arrived

It’s that time of the year people!  No, not when we break our backs raking leaves, but the time when the BCS Stadings start coming out!  For those of you that follow the blog religiously know that we like to take some time out of the heated Pick It and Stick It Standings to go over the BCS fight as well.  We’re in week 7 of the picks and there’s a large gap between #2 and #3.  Will it grow or shrink in the weeks to come?  Meanwhile, the first BCS Standings show that computers are way smarter than people and they also like surprises too.

Continue reading Pick It Standings Week 07: The BCS Has Arrived

Pick It Standings Week 04: Stormy Weather

So the first official weekend of fall lead to what we called football weather and it turned some things upside down.  The Central Florida at Kansas State game was delayed for one hour and a half.  Baylor also had to sit through a delay.  Now on the field, the Texas loss to UCLA also turned some heads as lighting struck 3 times in a row for the Bruins.  Yup,  UCLA beat Texas the last 3 times they played each other.  Now, there were the typical blow outs but we are about to head into Week 5 and it will get even messier.  Let’s check out how the Pick It and Stick it played out first.

Continue reading Pick It Standings Week 04: Stormy Weather

Johnny’s Hall of Fame was not that Lame

Even thought the weekend at hand had more than just college football at play, we managed to make it out to a hot spot of sports for Des Moines, Iowa.  Granted it was in the downtown district and amazingly enough we got the same type of people out there that we see in downtown Kansas City.  Yeah, lots of Ed Hardy shirts. But even though the efforts of the douche bag army tried to stamp out our fun, we managed to kick it pretty well up there in God’s Country.  Recovery mode on.

Continue reading Johnny’s Hall of Fame was not that Lame

Pick It and Stick It: Falling Down

Some teams are on their way up and some are falling down.  Things usually tend to even out right before conference play starts.  Most underrated teams start getting talk and the overrated teams get even more.  When conference play hits, you have to throw out the numbers because of rivalry and tradition.  That said, this week’s Pick It and Stick It takes a look at the teams from all points including the Big 12.  Let’s hope that everyone’s picks doesn’t fall down as well.

Favorite
Versus
Underdog
Final Status (CDT)
(4)TCU vs @SMU 17.5 Fri 09/24 07:00pm
@Georgia Tech vs N.C. State 8.5 Sat 09/25 11:00am
Virginia Tech vs @Boston Coll. 4.0 Sat 09/25 11:00am
@(18)Iowa vs Ball St. 28.0 Sat 09/25 11:00am
@(21)Michigan vs Bowling Green 25.5 Sat 09/25 11:00am
@(25)Michigan St. vs Northern Colorado Off (0) Sat 09/25 11:00am
@Purdue vs Toledo 12.0 Sat 09/25 11:00am
@(11)Wisconsin vs Austin Peay Off (0) Sat 09/25 11:00am
@Kansas St. vs UCF 7.0 Sat 09/25 11:30am
@Missouri vs Miami (OH) 20.0 Sat 09/25 01:00pm
(20)USC vs @Washington St. 22.0 Sat 09/25 02:00pm
@Florida St. vs Wake Forest Off (0) Sat 09/25 02:30pm
North Carolina vs @Rutgers 2.0 Sat 09/25 02:30pm
@(2)Ohio St. vs East. Michigan 44.5 Sat 09/25 02:30pm
@(23)Penn St. vs Temple 13.5 Sat 09/25 02:30pm
(1)Alabama vs @(10)Arkansas 7.0 Sat 09/25 02:30pm
@(7)Texas vs UCLA 15.0 Sat 09/25 02:30pm
(16)Stanford vs @Notre Dame 4.5 Sat 09/25 02:30pm Okay
Nevada vs @BYU 4.0 Sat 09/25 05:00pm
(8)Oklahoma vs @Cincinnati 13.5 Sat 09/25 05:00pm
@Iowa St. vs Northern Iowa Off (0) Sat 09/25 06:00pm
@Kansas vs New Mexico St. 23.0 Sat 09/25 06:00pm
@(6)Nebraska vs South Dakota St. Off (0) Sat 09/25 06:00pm
@(9)Florida vs Kentucky 14.0 Sat 09/25 06:00pm
@Mississippi St. vs Georgia 0.0 Sat 09/25 06:00pm
@Mississippi vs Fresno St. 2.5 Sat 09/25 06:30pm
@(17)Auburn vs (12)South Carolina 3.0 Sat 09/25 06:45pm
Baylor vs @Rice 7.5 Sat 09/25 07:00pm
@(13)Utah vs San Jose St. 31.0 Sat 09/25 07:00pm
@(3)Boise St. vs (24)Oregon St. 17.5 Sat 09/25 07:00pm
@Minnesota vs Northern Illinois 4.0 Sat 09/25 07:30pm
@(15)LSU vs (22)West Virginia 9.5 Sat 09/25 08:00pm
@(14)Arizona vs California 6.5 Sat 09/25 09:00pm
(5)Oregon vs @Arizona St. 11.0 Sat 09/25 09:30pm

So let’s take a look at those falling down.  The big one from last week was Iowa.  They went to Arizona and lost.  Did you know that Iowa has not won a game west of the Central Time Zone since 1986?  Crazy stuff.  They should still be tough though.  They get to take out their aggressions against Ball State.

Virginia Tech is another team that fell down.  You don’t see them this week on picks.  That’s because they lost their first game against Boise State and another against FCS opponent James Madison.  Yeah, the Hokies lost to a President.  So Frank Beamer is way down and he may actually he on his way out after this year.  He’s had a long long run there in Blacksburg.

The weird falls are the ones for schools that win and still lose ground.  Texas is a great example.  They win all of their games but do not look that impressive.  Because of that they fall to 7.  Now, UCLA is coming to Austin and if they look real good they may climb back up.  Chances are, though, that any jump back into BCS fray will come from an undefeated conference season.  Yes, the Big 12 is tough.  Don’t listen to anyone else.

Barspotting: They Built It, We’re Coming

So way back in 2007 we went on a road trip up to Iowa and now we are finally heading back.  Des Moines, specifically.  Much has happened up there and we’re itching to see what’s changed.  We’re gonna do the same thing we did with Wichita and just pick a spot.  Same stips’ apply.  If you are lucky enough to be in the Des Moines area or want to follow us on up there, check out this page or our twitter feed (@kccgd) and we’ll let you know.  Until then, we got some tasty roasted corn like games for the weekend that you need to check out.

Continue reading Barspotting: They Built It, We’re Coming

Crib Sheet: More Bacon Please

The only other thing this week’s Crib Sheet needs is bacon.  Grab some and check it out:

  • Notre Dame’s Dayne Crist played the rest of the first drive of the game against Michigan with blurred vision out of his right eye.  It was just enough blurry vision to keep him out of the rest of the first half.  It was a great game and we wonder what the score would be like if he was healthy for the whole game.
  • The Heisman Trust will leave Reggie Bush’s recently forfeited trophy vacated.  It was the 0nly thing to do.  We wonder how many other Heisman winners will give up the trophy because of money they took?
  • Oh by the way, speaking of illegibility, Texas tailback Vondrell McGee is out for the rest of the year due to academic illegibility.
  • If it will ever happen, Liberty Mutual will give $1 million to a charity for a penalty free college football game.  The last time it’s happened was way back in 1986.  Not a bad bit of promotion juice for an insurance company.
  • Much like Wrigley Field of baseball, the Big House will get permanent lights for night games.  Will we ever see the docket of Big 10 games go well into the night?  Since the Big 10 Network is around you can bet on the conference trying to expand all of its games throughout the day and weekends.
  • Speaking of stadiums, the Richmond Spiders will actually get to play a home game in their own stadium for the first time in 82 years.  It seems the city owned the place they were playing at and it wasn’t even on campus.  This should help Richmod realize its full potential and become a powerhouse in football for years to come.
  • We see some players go from college football to major league baseball but it’s rare when the other way happens.  Welp it happened with Nick Doscher.  He’s playing at quarterback for Wagner College after a stint as catcher in the farm system for the Kansas City Royals.  This guy must be able to manage the game because of his catcher status.  If he was a pitcher we would guess he would throw all over the place in a passing attack.
  • Phil Fulmer put the full frontal audible attack on Lane Kiffin last week.  He used to be Tennessee  head coach before Kiffin came on.  He’s wondering how Kiffin uses his mojo to get the cush coaching jobs.  It’s a good thing he used his smack talk on his now current CBS analyst gig.  Let the media war begin.
  • The Chick-fil-A Kickoff will now have two games starting in 2012.  We already knew that Tennessee will take on N.C. State but now Auburn will take on Clemson, too.  All this does is make me more hungry for Chick-fil-A sandwiches.
  • Here’s a lesson:  When you talk with an ESPN reporter, more than likely you will be on record.  Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian learned the hard way when he talked about Reggie Bush and not apologizing for the Heisman/eligibility problem.  Serves Sarkisian right.  He was an offensive coordinator during this debacle and he should get some negative rub it too.
  • Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio was so thrilled about his overtime fake field goal for the win against Notre Dame last week that he had a heart attack.  He’s okay, but we think he needs to lay off the coffee a bit.  Notre Dame’s not looking to good this year anyway.
  • Houston, we have a problem.  (I’ve been waiting so long to say that!)  The Cougars quarterback Case Keenum and his backup Cotton Turner are out with season ending injuries.  Keenum has a bum knee and Turner has a broken collarbone.  Houston lost to UCLA in a blow out and they probably won’t recover from these damages.
  • Missouri defensive end Aldon Smith is out two weeks with a broken leg.  A broken leg?  That sounds like more than a two week thing.  Is this guy some kind of cyborg or something?
  • Colorado head coach Dan Hawkins was so pumped about the Buffaloes games against Hawaii that he head butted a player and cut himself.  They needed that emotion to come from behind and win but we’re not sure if it will save the Hawk’s Big 12 campaign.
  • The olny Ohio player to show some emotion and gusto against Ohio State was the mascot.  He jumped Brutus Buckeye and now he’s banned from being a mascot again.  It also turns out that he planned to do it all along.  Now that’s some mascot grudge.
  • Looks like there is a deal in place for Colorado to jump ship to the Pac 10 in 2011.  It’s been a back and forth report regarding the Buffaloes.  The move will be costly but not as costly as Nebraska’s.

Pick It Standings Week 03: Another Round Down

So another week came through and we have the same story as last week.  Yup, the picks this week weren’t as good as the picks for the first week of Pick It and Stick It.  What does that mean?  It means that the 2nd lowest score drop takes effect next week.  All the standings are same except for JOOSE, who upped his points to a more respectable 370.  So the stage is set.  Movement will happen soon.  Check out the standings first:

Continue reading Pick It Standings Week 03: Another Round Down

Johnny’s Tavern Still Has the Power

It’s been almost a year since we’ve been to Johnny’s Tavern and it took the rest of the season for us to decide that it was the best Barspot for last year.  So, as tradition calls, we found ourselves back at Johnny’s Tavern at the Power & Light District to enjoy the first full Saturday of college football.  The bar hasn’t changed much but just enough for us to take notice.  The food specials knocked us out but the games were kind of so so.  Read on as we go over Johnny’s Tavern and recount the action on the field.

Continue reading Johnny’s Tavern Still Has the Power

Pick It and Stick It: Running Down A New Season

Okay here’s the first pick it list of the year and it’s a doozy.  If you remember from last year, a number of us had to eat some missed weeks and totally blew our picks.  So, in response to that, anyone can miss can have their lowest 2 scores knocked off.  Worried about competition?  Well, we have added the Top 25 AND the Big 12 into the mix to make sure our confidence points are all over.  Not only do you have to pick against the spread, but now you have to make sure your confidence counts.  With that said, let’s check out the first week of picks.

Continue reading Pick It and Stick It: Running Down A New Season