Texas Longhorns Quiz: 1) In honor of the passing of long-time coach Darrell Royal, name the quarterbacks on his three national title teams, 1963, 69, 70 (Coaches poll in this last one, Nebraska was AP winner in ‘70). 2) Name the top two rushers on both the ’69 and ’70 teams (same duo). Answers below.
College Football Review
So I saw Texas A&M freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel against LSU, with the Aggies losing 24-19, and he was not good, throwing 3 interceptions. But otherwise he’s been outstanding and none more so than in the first quarter against No. 1 Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Manziel had 150 yards total offense in leading A&M to a startling 20-0 first quarter lead and he ended up passing for 253 and rushing for 92. In that first quarter blitz, the Aggies outgained ‘Bama 172-34, 9 first downs to 1, and despite a game comeback, Alabama never recovered, though AJ McCarron had a chance with 1:36 left at the goal line, only to have his pass picked off. McCarron had two on the game, his first of the season.
Final score: Texas A&M 29 Alabama 24
No. 2 Kansas State did enough to earn a solid win, 23-10, at TCU as Heisman candidate quarterback Collin Klein rushed for two touchdowns following his apparent concussion the week before.
No. 3 Oregon blasted California 59-17 as freshman QB Marcus Mariota had a rather fine game…27/34, 377 and six touchdowns. Cal actually did a fine job stopping Oregon’s running game as the Ducks amassed only 180 yards on 48 carries (3.8 per) and Kenjon Barner was held to 65 on 20 carries (though he was banged up).
No. 4 Notre Dame was unimpressive in defeating a dreadful Boston College team 21-6.
So it’s clearly K-State and Oregon, 1-2, in both the AP and BCS. [Remember I write the game summaries before seeing the polls.]
Meanwhile, the other day I said of No. 9 Louisville at Syracuse… “the Orange have been improving. Go ahead, ‘Cuse…ruin Louisville’s season.” And so they did, 45-26. Which opens it up for No. 23 Rutgers, 28-7 winners over Army.
The No. 11 Oregon State Beavers fell to No. 14 Stanford, as the home Cardinal rallied for a 27-23 win. But goodness gracious, the Beaverettes (OSU cheerleaders) were in peak form and could be No. 3 in this category behind Oregon and USC.
No. 13 Clemson whipped up on Maryland 45-10. The Tigers are way underrated.
Talk about overrated, No. 6 Florida needed a last second blocked punt return for a score to defeat Louisiana-Lafayette, 27-20.
On Thursday, No. 10 Florida State needed a late touchdown in Blacksburg to beat Virginia Tech 28-22, thus keeping their slim BCS title hopes alive. [I think I’m the only one saying this…I probably need to stop such talk.]
No. 19 USC defeated Arizona State 38-17 as Heisman hopeful Marqise Lee had another outstanding game. 10 receptions for 161 yards and 66 rushing. Lee now has 98 receptions for 1,447 yards and 13 touchdowns.
Georgia Tech played North Carolina and an ACC basketball game broke out; with GT beating UNC 68-50. The Yellow Jackets had 380 yards on the ground.
My Wake Forest Demon Deacons were embarrassed by North Carolina State 37-6. Our only score came on a Michael Campanaro 39-yard TD pass. Campanaro, by the way, is 4 of 5 passing for his career…3 touchdowns, 145 yards. [And one pick.] You think his QB rating is off the charts? Try over 500 (I think…haven’t seen update after Saturday’s contest).
Finally, Colgate defeated Lehigh in the battle for the Patriot League crown, 35-24.
1. Oregon 10-0 [mildly, yet pleasantly surprised]
2. Kansas State 10-0 [man, we want these two in the title game]
3. Notre Dame 10-0…next up, Wake Forest! [yikes…but doesn’t help ND]
4. Alabama 9-1
5. Georgia 9-1
6. Ohio State 10-0…ineligible for postseason play
7. Florida 9-1 [should be No. 13]
8. LSU 8-2 [should be No. 12]
9. Texas A&M 8-2 [should be No. 7]
10. Florida State 9-1
11. Clemson 9-1
22. Rutgers 8-1
25. Kent State 9-1!!!
And…the new BCS rankings…
1. Kansas State .9674…huh!
2. Oregon .9497
3. Notre Dame .9396
4. Alabama .8534
5. Georgia .8328
6. Florida .7958
7. LSU .7331
8. Texas A&M .6621
–Kent State junior running back Dri Archer, 5’8”, 164 lbs., is averaging 9.7 yards per carry; 108-1043. As Ronald Reagan would have said… ‘Not bad, not bad at all.’
[Not for nothing but the MAC has six teams that should be going bowling but with the stupid major conference tie-ins, probably don’t get more than 4…just glanced at bowl lineup…MAC gets 3, no more than 4, by my calculation. The six who deserve a bid: Kent State, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Bowling Green, Toledo and Ball State.]
–First-year Washington State coach Mike Leach is in hot water again. Star receiver Marquess Wilson, indefinitely suspended by Leach, announced he is leaving the school and in doing so blasted the coach and his staff, accusing them of “abuse” while saying his suspension was “an attempt by the athletic department to cover up what is really happening in that locker room…the new regime of coaches has preferred to belittle, intimidate and humiliate us.”
According to a local paper, Wilson apparently stormed out of a lengthy conditioning session on Monday.
“My teammates and I have endured this treatment all season long. It is not ‘tough love.’ It is abuse.”
Recall, Leach was fired by Texas Tech in December 2009 amid similar accusations in the case of Adam James, son of former analyst Craig James.
–And we note the passing of Darrell Royal, 88, the legendary Texas football coach who led the Longhorns to three national titles and 11 Southwest Conference titles in a 20-year career that ended in 1976.
Chris Dufresne wrote the following for the Los Angeles Times:
“(Royal) remained a larger-than-life masthead for Texas football years after he retired and had been a trusted and devoted mentor to current Coach Mack Brown.
“Royal, some would argue, was also generous to a fault for teaching Alabama Coach Bear Bryant the triple-option ‘Wishbone’ offense that helped the Crimson Tide win three national titles.
“Bryant, after a 1970 defeat against USC in Birmingham, called Royal in the off-season and told him he was coming to Austin for a visit.
“ ‘He stayed for several days,’ Royal recalled in a 2005 interview with The Times. ‘And they were long days.’
“Royal switched to the Wishbone, primarily developed by assistant coach Emory Bellard, after Texas went 6-4 in 1968. The Longhorns ran off a streak of 30 straight victories and claimed national titles in 1969 and 1970.
“Bryant secretly implemented the Wishbone for Alabama’s offense in the summer of 1971 and used it to defeat USC, 17-10, at the Coliseum.
“ ‘He had helped me when I was young and in coaching,’ Royal recalled. ‘And he’d put in a kind word for me here and there. He helped me, so it was only natural that I’d help him.’
“Royal was honest, fierce and loyal and remains on the short list of the sport’s all-time greatest coaches.
“He offered folksy expressions like ‘Dance with the one who brung ya,’ and often said about passing the ball: ‘Three things can happen, and two of them are bad.’”
Royal was hired by Texas in 1956 at the age of 32, following a 1-9 season, though the Longhorns were initially after Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd and Michigan State’s Duffy Daugherty, except both then mentioned Royal and in the next 20 years he went 167-47-5. He had coached the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League and spent a few years at Mississippi State and Washington before moving to Austin.
“(Royal) would be criticized for being late to integrate Texas football. The Longhorns hold the dubious distinction of fielding the last all-white national title team in 1969.
“Julius Whittier, in 1970, became the school’s first black player.
“ ‘I had black players in Canada, I had black players at the University of Washington,’ Royal told The Times in 2005. ‘You know, it has never made one bit of difference to me what somebody’s color is. You want the best players you can get. Once you recruit and get them, they’re yours, and you just play the best.’
“In 1969, Royal was involved in the so-called Game of the Century against Arkansas, coached by his friend Frank Broyles.
“To increase ratings, ABC publicist Beano Cook persuaded both schools to move the game from October to December. Cook, who died last month at 81, was correct on his bet that both teams might be undefeated.
“With President Nixon in attendance, Texas rallied to defeat Arkansas, 15-14. After the game, Nixon declared Texas the national champions.
“Royal had a stellar record against some of the game’s best coaches: He was 6-1 against (Bud) Wilkinson, 3-0-1 against Bryant and 14-5 against Broyles.
“Royal did, in the 1970s, meet a nemesis in Barry Switzer, going 0-3-1 against the Oklahoma coach.”
But as Richard Goldstein of the New York Times noted:
“(Royal’s) image came under fire when one of his reserve linemen of the mid-1960s, Gary Shaw, told of brutality and intimidation in his 1972 book, ‘Meat on the Hoof: The Hidden World of Texas Football.’
“Shaw wrote that Royal had put seldom-used players through drills in which they pummeled one another, hoping that many would quit so he could find more recruiting spots for highly talented high school players.
“ ‘I don’t deny at all that we ran a tough program, especially back then,’ Royal told Texas Monthly in 1982.”
–What an awful week for New York football fans.
The Giants fell to 6-4 in losing to Cincinnati (4-5), 31-13, as Eli Manning had another dreadful performance; 29/46, 215, 0 TDs 2 Interceptions, 56.0 rating.
The last four games, Eli’s ratings are 56.0, 41.1, 58.4, 78.9.
Andy Dalton of the Bengals, on the other hand, had four touchdown passes.
As for the Jets, now 3-6 and 28-7 losers at Seattle (6-4), Mark Sanchez was 9/22, 124, 40.7. Oh yeah, that’s strong. More on him next time as well. [Plus all kinds of commentary on the misuse of Tim Tebow.]
[I love Russell Wilson of the Seahawks, which shouldn’t come as a surprise seeing as I nailed him as being a good choice in the draft. He’s a keeper. A playmaker. A winner.]
Atlanta’s undefeated season came crashing down at the hands of the now 4-5 Saints, 31-27. The Falcons drop to 8-1.
Chris Johnson, 23 carries, 126 yards, led Tennessee (4-6) to a 37-3 win over the Dolphins (4-5).
Peyton Manning continues to play like the Peyton Manning of old as Denver moved to 6-3 in besting the pathetic Panthers (2-7) 36-14.
Adrian Peterson’s amazing comeback from a devastating knee injury continues; Peterson gaining 171 yards on 27 carries in the Vikings’ 34-24 win over Detroit (4-5).
Michael Vick suffered a concussion in the Eagles’ 38-23 loss to Dallas (4-5).
When rookie wide receiver Chris Givens was at Wake Forest there were stories about various ‘issues.’ Well, he had issues this week with St. Louis and was held out of Sunday’s game for a “rules violation.” But the Rams ended up tying the 49ers, 24-24, the first tie in the NFL since 2008.
–Did you see the “60 Minutes” piece on Aaron Rodgers last week? Not exactly flattering, but from all I’ve read about the guy, spot on. He is very sensitive; as in don’t joke around with him, or don’t ask him about his height, which is incredibly stupid because he’s a legitimate 6’2” but he feels inadequate.
“When you open up your life for four months and allow them to have access to your family and your friends and events, it’s always interesting to see what comes out. I just feel like the editing of the piece could have been done in a way that was maybe a lot more respectful of myself.”
–The Lakers fired coach Mike Brown five games into the season and this is one instance where I agree with such a move. After all, when you have Kobe, Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, you’d expect better than a 1-4 when many believe a title is in the bag (save for Miami being in the way).
Now it’s up to Phil Jackson. The Lakers’ players desperately want him to return, but Jackson, 67, has asked for travel restrictions, a big salary and a major say in basketball decisions.
I just don’t see how you can have a coach not go on certain road trips. Then again, the guy has 11 championships, five with the Lakers.
But it also makes sense that Mike D’Antoni’s name is in the mix as well. D’Antoni coached Nash in Phoenix and Howard and Kobe in the Olympics.
However, the Lakers ate the $10 million remaining on Brown’s contract. $10 million!!! Geezuz.
–Us Knicks fans can’t help but be fired up with our 4-0 start. The team has depth and is kind of intriguing. I thought they would be very mediocre, and the Brooklyn Nets the team going 52-30. But it does seem clear, the Knicks are only as good as Carmelo Anthony is and so far he’s doing everything right. As Charles Barkley said, “If (coach) Mike Woodson has done one thing, it’s that he’s made it clear this is Carmelo’s team.”
College Basketball
–Can we please nix the idea of holding college basketball games on aircraft carriers? I mean you’re always subject to the weather, including simple wind, but Georgetown and Florida had to call off their contest on Friday night aboard the USS Bataan because condensation turned the court “atop the flight deck into a sloppy, treacherous mess,” as reported by the Washington Post’s Liz Clarke.
Florida led at half 27-23, the court was mopped continuously during the 20-minute break but to no avail. It goes down as a “no contest.” What a waste.
Fourth-ranked Ohio State was scheduled to play Marquette aboard the USS Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, S.C., but the game was called off before it began.
The Syracuse-San Diego State game aboard the USS Midway was rescheduled from Friday to Sunday because of weather.
As for the Aztecs’ actual performance today, a 62-49 loss, what can you say about the following?
17 of 63 from the field (27%), 1 of 18 from three, 14 of 33 from the free throw line! SDSU’s top players, Jamaal Franklin and Chase Tapley, were a combined 6 of 25 (0-10 from downtown).
All the more reason why I love the Aztecs’ chances this year! This was the perfect opener. Get your butt kicked by a very good opponent and learn a ton. Plus it didn’t help that every time SDSU had the ball, there were 20-foot swells.
—Maryland did the ACC proud in almost upsetting No. 3 Kentucky, with the Wildcats emerging on top by just 72-69. Granted, Kentucky lost six players to the NBA last June, but of course coach John Calipari simply reloaded. Can’t say I know these new guys yet, but you can be sure we all will by spring.
—UConn had a nice win, 66-62 over No. 14 Michigan State at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. It was Kevin Ollie’s first game as coach, replacing legendary Jim Calhoun.
You know, I’m not a UConn fan for obvious reasons (being an ACC guy…and back with San Diego State this season), but alum Jeff B. will be pleased to know I’m pulling for them this season. The reason? Kevin Ollie. I mean the way Calhoun left, in a cloud and with the timing less than ideal for his replacement, sucked. And Ollie was only given a one-year contract. He seems like a good guy…someone to root for, though the roster isn’t strong.
Hey, just remembered. Wake Forest is playing UConn next Friday in the Virgin Islands for some tournament there. Jeff, we’ll have to bet an adult beverage on that one.
Ball Bits
The Mets parted ways with one of the worst performers in their history, outfielder Jason Bay, who before the 2010 season signed a four-year, $66 million contract with the team and had all of 26 home runs in three years. The Mets owed him $16 million for 2013 plus a $3 million buyout and $2 million in leftover “bonus money” (whatever that was for…hey, Jason, you didn’t hit .164, here’s a bonus).
The team did this rather than bring Bay to spring training for various reasons, but with Bay agreeing to defer some of the money owed him, I give the Mets credit for finally deciding the time was right to jettison the guy. [Plus it ain’t my money!]
Bay said he felt he still had “plenty to give to this game” and it will be just like the Mets if he reemerges somewhere and begins to put up powers numbers again. He is now a free agent and you just know someone will give him a few dollars if he agrees to go to triple AAA if he fails to make the club in spring training.
So Mets fans’ long, national nightmare is over. .234, 26 homers and 124 runs batted in (986 at-bats over the three years). He hit .165 last season in 70 games. It was the worst performance by a Met in their history.
–The Washington Nationals and manager Davey Johnson reached agreement on him coming back a final season before becoming a consultant in 2014. Johnson turns 70 in January. Boy, the pressure will be on the Nats to come through for him next year. First baseman Adam LaRoche, though, appears to be ready to test the free agent market having declined the obligatory one-year, $13.3 million qualifying offer teams throw out there to make sure they get some compensation should the player end up elsewhere.
–Long-time baseball executive Lee MacPhail died. He was 95. MacPhail was a former president of the American League, as well as general manager of the Yankees and Orioles, and the oldest member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. MacPhail and his father, Larry, are the only father-and-son duo in the Hall.
“Despite his placid demeanor, Lee MacPhail was probably best remembered for being at the center of a baseball storm: the pine-tar dispute of July 1983. In a game between the Yankees and the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium, an umpire disallowed a go-ahead home run by George Brett of the Royals with two outs in the ninth inning, ruling that Brett had too much pine tar on his bat.
“Mr. MacPhail, the A.L. president at the time, overruled the umpire, citing ‘the spirit of the rules,’ and determined that the home run could stand, even though Brett’s bat indeed had too much pine tar on it under major league rules.
“Mr. MacPhail’s decision infuriated George Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ principal owner and Mr. MacPhail’s former boss. Mr. Steinbrenner fumed that if the ruling cost the Yankees their division race, Mr. MacPhail might consider going house-hunting in Kansas City. (The Yankees finished third in the A.L. East).”
MacPhail survived and proved to be a valuable negotiator in baseball’s labor issues of the 1980s.
–We note the passing of boxer Carmen Basilio, 85. Basilio was the welterweight and middleweight champ of the 1950s who fought two “brutal bouts with Sugar Ray Robinson, winning his middleweight title and then losing it to him,” as noted in Richard Goldstein’s New York Times obit.
Basilio was classic. But I didn’t realize he was born in Canastota, N.Y., site of the International Boxing Hall of Fame (which I really have to get to sometime). Carmen’s Italian immigrant father worked the onion fields near Syracuse and from the time he was young, he wanted to be a boxer.
“In September 1957, Basilio, who held the welterweight championship, stepped up a weight class when he challenged Robinson for his middleweight title before a crowd of 38,000 at Yankee Stadium.
“Basilio had resented Robinson ever since their brief encounter four years earlier in Midtown Manhattan.
“ ‘He pulled up with his entourage with his big Cadillac,’ Basilio recalled in an interview with the Cyber Boxing Zone Web site. ‘I was walking past, so I decided to go over and introduce myself. I said: ‘Hi, Ray, I just fought Billy Graham the week before, the No. 1 welterweight. I’m Carmen Basilio.’ He gave me the brushoff, and I felt about an inch high.’
“Basilio won the middleweight title in a split decision over Robinson, who, pound for pound, was widely considered the best boxer in history. Robinson almost floored Basilio with a left hook near the end of the 13th round, and he delivered a right hand to the body near the close of the 14th round that left Basilio reeling. But Basilio, displaying his customary grit, pressed forward in the 15th round, punching away steadily.
“Basilio’s craggy face was a mess when he met with reporters in the locker room. He had a heavy gauge bandage protecting a cut along the outer edge of his left eyebrow, and his eyes were slits from large welts on his cheek bones. He was rubbing a chunk of ice in a towel across his bruised lips.
“ ‘I figured my aggressiveness gave me the edge,’ he said.”
Basilio’s first title fight was in 1953, when he lost a 15-round decision to Kid Gavilan.
He won the welterweight championship in June 1955 with a knockout of Tony DeMarco.
Basilio ended up with a 56-16-7 record and the Hall of Fame was built in part as a tribute to him and his nephew, Billy Backus, who held the welterweight title in the early 1970s.
Incredibly, a MRI taken later in his life revealed no brain damage from his boxing days.
—Frank Peppiatt, the co-creator of “Hee Haw,” died. He was 85. The Canadian-born Peppiatt, along with his writing and producing partner John Aylesworth, developed programs for the likes of Jackie Gleason, Andy Williams and Sonny and Cher.
–The great golf instructor Jim Flick died. He was 82. Flick taught his last lesson on Oct. 8, having just recently learned he had pancreatic cancer and kidney problems. Flick taught over 200 touring pros in his long career. He emphasized that the golf club determined what the body does, not vice versa.
“All the kids that come to see me today, that are going to other golf academies, they’re taught to turn their shoulders, clear their hips and make body movements, assuming the club head will show up at the right place and hit the right shot. And it doesn’t work that way. In my opinion, the priority is learning to use the club first. Then you train the body to be supportive of what you want the club to do.” [Jim Yardley / New York Times; “Golf Conversations”]
—Joseph Sargent, a founder of Killington ski area in Vermont, died. He was 83.
“Mr. Sargent, an avid skier, became involved in the Killington enterprise in the mid-1950s, when he attended a meeting where another businessman, Preston Smith, pitched the idea of a ski development in rural Vermont to a group of potential investors. The offer was deemed too risky by most of the others, but Mr. Sargent jumped on the idea.”
Sargent, Smith and a third partner, Wally Morrison, raised $80,000, that’s all, but they got it done, with Sargent often going up on weekends from the Hartford area to clear stumps and install ski lifts.
I love it. Killington opened on Dec. 13, 1958, with two lifts serving less than 10 trails.
In 1996, Smith and Sargent sold their now expanded company to L.B.O. Enterprises for more than $100 million.
A great American success story. Killington now has 140 trails and 22 lifts across seven mountains.
–Great news out of South Africa. A court there sentenced a Thai national to 40 years in prison for his part in a syndicate that smuggled dozens of rhino horns out of the country. That’s the way to begin to send a message. Cut the crap! 488 rhinos were killed illegally last year in the country, which is home to about 90% of Africa’s rhinoceroses. [Los Angeles Times]
–So I’m looking through a National Geographic story on penguins, wondering how they recognize each other, and I’ve decided it’s much easier being a leopard seal, No. 12 on the All-Species List.
“Buttercream Frosted Gingerbread”!!!!
“NEW German Chocolate”….you should see this one…a creamy icing on top of a chocolate cookie.
To paraphrase the late Karl Malden… ‘What will he do…what will he do.’
[The great thing is, you freeze ‘em, forget you have ‘em, and then the discovery in February is the best.]
–I was saddened to learn Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez have called it quits. It’s going to be hard to get through this coming week. I need to be strong.
Actually, I thought they broke up months ago…never mind.
–Love the new Macy’s Santa commercial for Christmas.
Top 3 songs for the week 11/13/71: #1 “Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves” (Cher…she needed Sonny) #2 “Theme From Shaft” (Isaac Hayes…he’s a baaad…) #3 “Imagine” (John Lennon Plastic Ono Band)…and…#4 “Maggie May” (Rod Stewart) #5 “I’ve Found Someone Of My Own” (The Free Movement) #6 “Yo-Yo” (The Osmonds) #7 “Peace Train” (Cat Stevens) #8 “Have You Seen Her” (Chi-Lites…just not as good as I once thought it was) #9 “Inner City Blues” (Marvin Gaye) #10 “Superstar” (Carpenters…super tune…then again, they had a lot of ‘em…)
Texas Longhorns Quiz Answers: 1) National title QBs: 1963 – Duke Carlisle; 1969 – James Street; 1970 – Eddie Phillips. 2) Running back duo 1969-70 – Steve Worster and Jim Bertelsen.
