12/29/2005 11:53:00 AM|W|P|Brandon Reese|W|P|To all the media outlets and such: Look, we get it. Enough, already. Southern Cal and Texas is going to be a great matchup. For the first time in a long time, the BCS worked to perfection. But do I really need to know who's playing Vince Young in the SC practices? More to the point, do I care? Even more to the point, Why would you think I did? When the Alamo Bowl ended, I decided to stay up for a bit to watch SportsCenter. After they got that first segment of news out of the way, Stuart Scott jumped onto my screen holding a football. "It's finally HERE!" "What's here?" I asked, confused. "The epic battle between man and mouse, dominant force versus overmatched nancies in skirts. The Rose Bowl!" "Stuart, the game's a week out. Unless...did they move it up?" "Nope. It's still Wednesday, January 4th. BUT IT'S HERE!" "But it's not Wednesday." "But it's here!" I promptly snapped the TV off, confused by Scott's insistence that it was already Wednesday the 4th, when I was quite certain it was Wednesday the 28th, and more than a little bit frightened that Stuart Scott was speaking to me directly through some sort of portal between Bristol and my bedroom. I did not sleep well. With all the hype and madness surrounding this game, is there any possibility that the event can't live up to it? I remember a similar sequence of events last year, in which a team in crimson and cream was pummeled at the hands of these Trojans. It was a matchup of the ages decided by a scant 30 points. Those that built it up suddenly did an about face and proclaimed Oklahoma wasn't the proper team to be there. Auburn should have been sent in their stead. I'm not sure that it would have mattered, but they're the experts. This year, ESPN is predicting an outright mudhole stomping. It's not just the experts but none other than Rodger Lodge. Yes that Rodger Lodge, who with his vast experience in sending harlots and meatheads out for dinner, drinks, and a skanky hottub romp, no doubt deserves a seat on Jim Rome's panel. Every night another of college football's historically great teams is defeated by this Trojan juggernaut, courtesy of the opinion of resident fools Kirk Herbstreit and Mark May. I'm not even a Texas fan. I can't pick against SC until they lose. They haven't done that in 3 years. But pairing them with the greatest teams of all time, when they haven't even proven themselves as the best team this year, could prove to be a very humbling experience for the network. But seeing as how it's here, I guess maybe Stuart Scott let the rest of the College Football guys in on the outcome.|W|P|113588437882319538|W|P|Enough Already|W|P|12/30/2005 12:51:00 PM|W|P| Charlton B. Williamson|W|P|I agree..the media are portraying Texas as if they have no chance. We all know this is not true. The Longhorns made a trip to Hattiesburg to root for the Eagles last year against Cal. So, I will make sure on Jan. 4th to root for the Longerhorns as they beat USC.1/02/2006 06:57:00 PM|W|P| Big12-fans.com Admin|W|P|ESPN knows that thy're making USC out to be a conquering army, but they do not seem to care at all. I can't wait to see Texas prove themselves on the field.12/29/2005 07:10:00 AM|W|P|Brandon Reese|W|P|It was good to see the Nebraska come away with that win last night, pushing the Big 12 record to 2-1. I also have to say that Colorado showed some real toughness on Wednesday. I had a feeling they'd fight, and they did, but they just came up short. But rather than dwell on Colorado's 0-4 slide, I think I'll concentrate on the Cornhusker's 3-0 finish. I wrote earlier in the year that the Big Red looked like they were in for a real rough patch for the next year or so. In a three game slide they'd dropped games to Missouri, Oklahoma, and for the first time in over 30 years, Kansas. My claim was the team wasn't playing with pride, and I stand by that today. But they turned it around. They rebounded with the win over Kansas State, a road thrashing of Colorado, and now this, a strong, come from behind victory over Michigan. The Michigan game was , in fact, a microcosm of the Nebraska season. They started well, with Cory Ross seemingly running at will on, in case you didn't hear Tirico or Herbstreit mention it the first fifty times, the maize and blue. Michigan put together some offensive fireworks and, for whatever reason, Callahan decided to start airing it out. I'm not sure you can blame Callahan for this. After all, Nebraska's offensive line provided about as much protection as French security at a Nazi rally. Zac Taylor took one of the most brutal hits I've seen a QB take in a while, from two Wolverines, sending his mouthpiece somewhere between Commerce and Market streets in downtown San Antonio (Take that, Joel Klatt.) It was only when Callahan went back to the run, and the Blackshirts upped their already gritty performance, that Nebraska took over. Tonight it'll be OU and UO. Oklahoma and Oregon. Sooners and Ducks. That last one sounds a little bit like a comic strip that never took off. I think there's a couple of things to watch for in this game. The first being Adrian Peterson running like a warhorse. Rhett Bomar will get to sling it a few times, probably play action, and he'll have a good night. Peterson, however, will go off. The only comparable running backs Oregon has faced were Southern Cal's Reggie Bush and Lendale White. A case could be made that as a pure running back, at full strength, Peterson is better than both. Once Peterson gets that full head of steam, sprinting from nine yards deep in the backfield, Duck tacklers will crumple and fold. It might be a little bit painful to watch. The second thing to keep an eye on is the Sooner front seven. Oregon hasn't faced a defense like this yet. Every one of these guys has a motor that doesn't stop, Dusty Dvoracek's being fueled by grain alcohol (cheap, I know, I know). The only vulnerability would be Oklahoma's 55th ranked secondary, which seems to be more of a statistical malady than anything. They contained the Texas Tech attack, and PEterson's rushing should provide time consuming, ground munching drives to keep Oregon off the field. This one might not even be close. To finish up, I'd like to make like a monkey and fling some poo at ESPN. I appreciate them bringing all the bowls, both the blatant impartiality toward Big 11 schools has to stop. Watching the Nebraska win last night, Tirico and Big 11 spokesperson Kirk Herbstreit would not let up on their affection for the 'maize and blue'. The Big 12 has taken lumps all season for being weak. The fourth best team in the Big 12 just took down a team tied for third in the Big 11. You won't hear or see any ESPN analysts talking about that though. They're too busy calling out officials and barking about how great the 'maize and blue' band looks, how polished the 'maize and blue' offense looks, and how 'maize and blue' goes with anything between the summer and winter months, in addition to making a great stocking stuffer. And that last play wasn't 'great' or 'impressive'. It was desperate. The only reason it ALMOST worked is because of a fumble, and most people believed Mike Hart was down. And the 'maize and blue' weren't screwed for not getting an illegal participation call on the play. The 'maize and blue' thought the game was over too. Here's another note:A broadcaster calling out officials for not working replays is indefensible. Disagree with the call, that's fine, but calling the guy out for being incompetent, even if you're right, is going too far. That said, the Sunbelt officials were way out of their league last night, and I mean that in the most hyperbolic sense you can conjure. The speed of teams from these two conferences can't even be compared to the Sunbelt conference, and putting Sunbelt officials in a game between powers like Nebraska and Michigan is an inexcusable error by the NCAA. Yeah, I know they had two teams make bowls last year, so they get two crews this bowl season. I've got a few words for you: New Orleans. GMAC. Las Vegas. Poinsettia. Leave Alamo out of that vocabulary.|W|P|113586970536907585|W|P|Seeing Red|W|P|12/27/2005 08:37:00 AM|W|P|Brandon Reese|W|P|I'm not sure I could've missed that Kansas and Houston game any worse than I did. I will take credit for saying that if either the Kansas offense or the Houston defense took over, it could get ugly. And it did. Good win for the Kansas program to finish the season and a great way for Big 12 football to begin the bowl season. The conference is 1-0 with seven to play. The next game is tonight and could really go every which way. I would love to be able to rip on the Buffs for so many reasons. I would love to call them out for the now infamous 100-6 in two or 133-22, whichever you deem worse. I would love to flame Barnett for letting the program get out of control, for not seizing power over his players and commanding their respect instead of some Calabrese mafioso-type deposition testimony type loyalty. It would be entertaining for me to comment on the university as a whole, how winning is obviously more important than integrity within the program. I could rest that theory comfortably ont hte scenario that played out, allowing Barnett to hold his job amid rarely ignored allegations as he won the Big 12 North in barnstorming style, but lost his job when the Athletic Department allowed those same allegations to resurface a year later when he embarrassedly backed into that same championship and was throttled by the University of Texas behemoth. I would love to bring all of that up, but I'm not going to do it. I'd rather focus on the positive angle here. I'll admit it. I took Clemson in this game. In every office pool, internet bowl contest, and conversation I've had, I'm on the record as taking Clemson. I'm starting to doubt this pick though. I've looked over the numbers. Colorado in bowl games over the last five years is clearly unimpressive. They're 1-2, with a win over UTEP and losses to Wisconsin and Oregon. They've been outscored 97-77 in those games. They're 12-14 all time and over the last ten years they're 5-2 outscoring their opponents 261-95. That's something but it's not really refelctive of the team we've seen this year, much less the last six weeks. Clemson on the other hand is 2-2 in their last five, beating Tennessee and Lousiana Tech, and getting crushed by Texas Tech and Virginia Tech. One trend you notice with Clemson in bowl games, especially over the last five years, is when they lose, they give it up. Texas tech hung 55 and Virginia Tech 41. Over the last ten years, Clemson has fared no better, going 2-6. They're 14-13 all timein bowls, with Colorado holding the advantage with one win in 1957. All that said, I don't believe numbers have anything to do with it. Colorado is down. The heads have to be hanging and with a new coach , most of the seniors may just take their trip to Orlando, whatever goodies the Champ's bowl pipes into their hotel rooms and go home. In spite of what I'm on the record having said, I think everything is piled up to high on one side. Typically, when you see this in college sports, a team comes out and viciously cracks the other team. Colorado will play ugly and excited. Their defense will fly all over the place, the offense will find a groove. If Colorado was overmatched talentwise, I'd give it to any other team. But they're not. Clemson is no Texas, Clemson isn't even Iowa State. Clemson lost to Wake Forest. They squeaked one out against a lousy Texas A&M team at home. I really expect Colorado to come out and fight for pride, dignity, and the program itself. It's a simple metaphor to draw from, the Colorado team as a wounded wild animal, cornered and apparently frightened, lunging and destroying all in its path. If they can keep themselves in the game and not get down early by Clemson, that will almost certainly be the case.|W|P|113570049715819305|W|P|The Story of Wounded Buffalo|W|P|12/23/2005 06:27:00 AM|W|P|Brandon Reese|W|P|Is there any doubt that too many bowl games exist when Kansas is favored to win one? I can barely sleep at night knowing that Arkansas State was allowed to make a trip to a bowl against Southern Mississippi, but a six win Kansas squad being favored? The only thing Kansas should be favored in is a pie eating contest with Mangino as the captain. Now that I've worked in my finely crafted, requisite MAngino fat joke, let's talk my real issue here: Cal, Navy and Toledo were all programs that deserved to be in bowls. Each had a respectable season and, let's face it, Navy and Toledo are better than a couple of teams in the Big 12 this year. But Kansas either caught three Big 12 squads sleeping or is unstoppable at home. I'd like to go with the second option, but just using the word unstoppable in association with the Kansas football program makes my brain hurt so much it gives my sister a stutter. So let's evaluate Kansas's six bowl qualifying wins. After a mostly unimpressive preseason in which they beat Florida Atlantic (30-19), Appalachian State (36-8) and Louisiana Tech (34-14), Kansas took to the road and lost four straight in Big 12 conference play. Through this run, everyone knew their defense was good enough to keep up, with stars like LB Nick Reid and Charles Gordon, but the offense was anemic. Calling it anemic is really too much of a compliment. The offense was comatose, averaging 165 passing yards and just south of 75 yards rushing per game. Since then, there's new life with the Jayhawks. They've pushed those numbers up to 186 passing/game and 181 rushing/game in wins over Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa State. The defense is playing with the same tenacity and purpose and with the offense locating the running game, the could be peaking at just the right time. But they're favored. I have a hard time believing that having watched them all year. You never know if Kansas can put together enough points to win much less cover a spread. So if Kansas can't be favored, and they are, what's the story with Houston? Houston is not a very good team either. The offense can be potent, but the defense is more of a deterrent than anything. Only against IAA Sam Houston State did they hold an opponent to 10 points, and they gave up 20 or more 6 times. That said, if the Houston defense can hold Kansas to 20 points or less, they put themselves in position to win. They're 4-0 in those games. All in all, this might shape up to be a decent game. A sticky defense against a solid offense is a game I don't mind watching. But should the Kansas offense take over the show, or the Houston defense put on a clinic, this will get ugly in a hurry, so put the kids to bed with visions of Mangino dancing in their heads.|W|P|113534889008696762|W|P|Fort Worth Bowl:Bad vs. Worse|W|P|12/23/2005 02:24:00 PM|W|P| Big12-fans.com Admin|W|P|Looks good Brandon. I look forward to seeing more where this came from!12/19/2005 06:08:00 PM|W|P|Big12-fans.com Admin|W|P|Welcome to the Big 12 Sports blog brought to you by Big12-fans.com!|W|P|113504096772282797|W|P|Big 12 Sports|W|P|