Bad Coaching

This day has been filled with nothing but bad coaching across the football world, and after yesterday's display of bad coaching by both Mike Riley and Mark Helfrich  here in Oregon I am ready to give up on American football and coaching in general.

(But not futbol, that exquisitely boring world game.)

All the bad coaching is making me sick, along with the bad analyses by the football pundits.

Witness what happened today in Auburn, now wasn't that a sickening display!

All I can say is Nick Saban needs to go because he lost a game he should not have lost, which makes him what--a loser!


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Bad Coaching

If the interim head coach of USC doesn't win this so-called game with UCLA he ought to be fired before he is actually hired.

By the same token, if UCLA's coach doesn't pull this one out he needs to be fired ASAP!

I have learned recently how the coaching business works this year, if nothing else.

The battle for L.A. is fun, but one or both of these coaches must go!


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Bad Coaching

Jesus H. Christ!  What is going on?  Alabama just missed a field goal.

Nick Saban must go!

Alabama loses:  I was kidding before, but Nick Saban really should be fired after that stunt.




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Bad Coaching

Unbeaten No. 3 Ohio State wins its rivalry game with Michigan (7-5) by one lousy stinking point.

If this isn't reason to fire Urban Meyer I don't know what is!


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Bad Coaching

Undefeated Ohio State is losing to 7-4 Michigan in a literal brawl--three players have been tossed for throwing punches.

Awful defense by OSU.  Lack of discipline on both teams, so clearly Urban Meyer and Brady Hoke need to be fired immediately.

Undefeated Florida State is having trouble with 4-7 Florida in Gainsville. Heisman contender Jameis Winston looks awful and FSU can't run it.  FSU coach Jimbo Fisher clearly needs to be fired because his team isn't playing up to its potential.

I see how it works now.

Just say stupid stuff like, "it's the coach's fault," and consider yourself a football expert.


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Oregon in a Squeaker, Of Course

The idiot crowd is lighting up the net because Oregon didn't crush OSU.

I'm sorry, I just don't get it.  I've said this before, I'll say it again. Everybody gives Oregon their best shot.

That is because, for now, Oregon is a top-tier program.

That OSU team wasn't the same one that lolled its way through a bad loss to Washington last week.

The Civil War is never that kind of game.

 A 10-2 team is being destroyed by the critics, local and national. If Alabama beats a clearly inferior team by six or fewer, all is well.  Bama is great.

Well, Bama is great.  But they're Bama for godsake!

The schedule played out this year like I figured it would. Oregon had its easiest opponents early.  Stanford would be formidable.  Oregon lost that one.

Arizona is always tough in the desert.  It won big.  Tough break.

Oregon pulls one out behind a brilliant QB who had to make every throw late to make it count--this after making numerous bad plays early. The Ducks are a bunch of bums who can't slaughter the opposition like the old days.

Stupid.  You probably think Josh Huff is a bum, too.

I'm actually happy this season is over.  I think I'll skip the rest of the postmortem concerning Oregon.  It's a lot of bullshit.


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Double Bill

I can't recall whether it ever happened when I went to school in Eugene many moons ago that the Ducks' basketball team played a game at noon prior to kickoff of the Civil War in the early evening.

Probably not.

But such a double-sports bill is happening today in Eugene.

Had I quite a bit more discretionary income, I'd go for something like this, naturally.  Eugene is definitely Ducksville today, the place to be if you like your teams.

Oregon might be pretty good in basketball again this season, too, though Arsalan Kazemi's rebounding is sorely missed, covered for so far by outstanding team shooting.

We'll see how that works out against UCLA and Arizona this year.

Kasemi, after being drafted by the NBA, decided to return to Iran to play this season.  Can't blame him. The US is kind of crazy right now.

Might be a good idea to be with your family in case Israel nukes you as well.


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Civil War at 4 p.m.

(State trooper on the lookout for speeders headed to Eugene)

Oregon has had trouble on the road recently, but the CW is in Eugene this evening, so the Ducks ought to win.

That's what rational people would think, and the odds-makers have Oregon by three TDs.

But the game can sometimes ruin rationality; look what happened after Oregon's loss to Arizona last weekend.

That sound you heard in the distance was a lot of Oregon fans falling off the bandwagon--Kaaaaaathump! Combined with the chortling of the anti-Duck forces out there the noise reached cacophony levels.

Like it really matters...

A lot of the Ducks are dinged up, I know that.  I'm sure OSU is hurting physically as well, but I don't know that because I don't follow the Beavs as closely as I do Oregon.

The CW has always been entertaining for me, even in the years when both schools sucked bad.  I watched the infamous Toilet Bowl in 1983.  Every boring, ineffectual down of it.

Final score that year: 0-0.

Ties are not a part of college ball anymore, so the game has that going for it if nothing else.  One of the teams will actually win the thing.

That in itself will excite some, including me--but only if Oregon wins.


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Merry Christmas/Early Edition

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Happy Thanksgiving

No better way to say it.


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"The Communist is Here!"

Little remains of the celebratory impulse I once held for Thanksgiving.

Now that all of my brothers and sisters are dead I don't feel the urge to celebrate like my family did at my late sister's house in Albany many years ago.

Back then Thanksgiving represented an opportunity to annihilate a sibling's political ideology as quickly as possible before football started on TV.

It was a good game without rules, unplanned but expected, always short-lived.

I had a brother who once called me a "communist," which made me angry because it was untrue. Thenceforth, knowing this, my brother would make an announcement when I arrived at the gatherings: "Look, the communist is here!"

This made other family members smile appreciatively and occasionally laugh outright, especially those whom I had previously wounded in battle.

"I'm not a communist," I protested.  My brother laughed, never relaxing his indictment.

O how he hated dissent...

I had defenders on occasion.  A wise niece or nephew might say, "No, Uncle Dooley is a socialist, aren't you Uncle Dooley?"

"Same thing," my brother would say before I could formulate a response.

During such times it was good to have football on TV, a family timeout--or equalizer.

Thanksgiving isn't what it used to be for me that is for sure, and you cannot reclaim what once was, which is perhaps a good thing.


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Chico and Santa

"I was fresh out of basic training (Fort Ord, CA) when I saw Chico Hamilton at the Gilded Cage in Sacramento, in 1965. I was with another soldier from my training unit who was in uniform. I was in civvies. (We would drive together in a couple days to Fort Gordon, GA for our AIT.) We were sitting down front during a Chico drum solo when he looked over at us, sized up my friend, and started playing a march rhythm, acknowledging us in the middle of his solo!"--Lee Santa

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A Brief Message from Giroux

Henry Giroux on 'Zombie' Politics from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

A viewing suggestion from RBP Creative Director, Charles Lucas.


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Ted Curson

One of Lee Santa's guys.

Round Bend will publish Santa's jazz memoir with photos, "Journey into Jazz," early next year.

Curson died in 2012, age 77.


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Poem

If you
do not fill
your pages
you die

well
you die anyway
but filling the
pages is fun

so why not
run with it while
teasing those who
would not

who would
cry foul and make
a stink and
act like snots

because
they
want
else?


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Corporate Football

(Salad Bowl, Corvallis)

Regarding my post below, there are observers who simply want Oregon to lose because Nike sponsors the school's athletic programs.

Not exactly the topic of my short piece, but I would say one can't fight those sentiments--they are in fact self-evident and one can't be blamed for going there.

There is much to be said for taking corporations out of college football, but it likely won't happen because FBS football is big business and, sorry as it is, corporations rule America.

There isn't a football program in the country, big or small, that hasn't some level of corporate sponsorship. Oregon State has the Reser family, the makers of bad potato salad.  Okie State has T. Boone Pickens, oilman.

Oregon had Thomas J. Autzen,  a lumberjack, before Mr. Knight.

I wish Nike would go away also.   Along with Condi Rice at Stanford, who ought to be on trial for complicity in genocide.  In fact, of the Stanford grads, I favor Phil, who simply exploits Third World workers. Seems more benign, barely.

Secretly, I want every privately endowed university in the land to go tits up because I'm tired of the class war.

Now, tell me George W. Bush got into Harvard on merit alone.

Heh, heh, heh...


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Send in the Clowns

The fallout from Oregon's unfortunate 42-16 loss to Arizona yesterday in Tucson is yet another example of how expectations leapfrog reality for a large segment of the Ducks' fanbase.

Oregon's fans are of two types--the long-suffering fans like myself who appreciate reality when they see it, and a cadre of "bandwagon" fans steeped in arrogance and a completely unrealistic view of college football and what they think ought to be happening on the field at any given moment.

Fans are dilettantish, and most of them are ignorant.

The bandwagon is in a full-on attack mode now, going so far as to call for a wholesale coaching change in Eugene.  Talk about misplaced priorities and an unrealistic view...the new coach is 9-2 in his first season.

Talk to me next year if he's 2-9 and I might support your facile reasoning. Short of turning a blind eye to pedophilia, a football coach is not fired at 9-2, particularly at Oregon, where winning is still new and an entire long-term staff has contributed to the team's recent success.

Helfrich gets next year if he wants it, despite your reckless stupidity. In other words, it is way too early to pin two losses on a failed culture at Oregon.  It is way too early to claim Helfrich is a bad coach.  It is way too early to say anything other than keep playing and showing effort.

I confess, I do not understand this kind of reactionary nonsense. First, coaches make mistakes just like everybody else, and it is never a given that the coaching has failed simply because a team loses.  Did Helfrich and company really make that many mistakes yesterday?  I don't see that they did.  How can you say it is the coach's fault when a player muffs a pass on the sideline and it falls into a defenders hands, killing a game opening drive, as happened yesterday in Tucson?

Was it a vanilla call?  The quick out to a good receiver like Bralon Addison is an Oregon staple, and has been for years.  I question anybody who thinks Addison is an entitled ass--good lord, he's an excellent competitor, which you would know if you've been paying attention to the team this year.

He did not make the catch, got it?

Coaches are given way too much credit when a team wins, and way too much blame when it loses.

That realization is lost on the bandwagoneers, most of whom have never been in a football game with 70K howling fans giving you the razz from the opening whistle.  If you don't know by now that everyone gives Oregon its best shot and has for years, you're missing the subtlety of the game, the very essence of competitive sport at its highest level.

You're missing the point of just how good Oregon has been for five seasons.

Where was Oregon's defense throughout the day?  I'll tell you where. Three of the best linebackers Oregon has ever had, the starters from the past three seasons who were the heart of the Ducks' defense, are in the NFL. The guys playing in their stead are nowhere near as good as those three--face reality.

Don't tell me these undermanned, undersized players weren't trying.  I won't buy it.  I saw too many good plays by this group that transcended its inherent skill level.  I also saw a great runner shred Oregon's defense behind excellent blocking.

Despite that, I saw too many effort plays by Oregon to buy what you're selling.  Tell me that Chip Kelly left the cupboard bare at linebacker before going to Philly and you might be closer to the truth.

On Oregon's second drive, after the initial epic failure of the defense to stop Ka'Deem Carey, the country's leading rusher, De'Anthony Thomas dropped a pass that would have moved the chains.  Is this the first pass Thomas has dropped in his career at Oregon?

I don't think so.  Over a career that has seen the little guy do more good than harm to the Oregon team, I'm not going to pin this loss on Thomas' attitude, or that singular drop.  Thomas is an exceptionally good player, and when he speaks about his expectations for himself and his team he is speaking honestly.    The Ducks would not be where they are/were if Thomas had chosen USC over Oregon as he initially planned--be realistic.

If you want tempered, automatic and pleasing responses from young people you're unrealistic. If Oregon's players offended by counting their chickens before they hatched, then some fans were even worse offenders.

I've never heard so much bullshit talk about a national championship before the season even started.  The players weren't talking about it, though they may have believed it.  The fans were doing the talking; the players were striving to succeed.

Thomas did not have a bad day all in all yesterday, other than his drop.  He didn't play like a guy who has mailed it in.  He ran possessed and gave it his all, including making a one-handed circus catch near the goal line that set up an Oregon score.

That doesn't matter because, you know, Oregon can't stop a run up the middle.  This is Thomas' fault?  Give me a break.

This is Josh Huff's fault because he is heartbroken for not making it back to the NCG?  God forbid that Huff shows a human side and expresses disappointment in a season that turned bad in Palo Alto.

Huff is not an automaton, believe it or not, and if you've never had a dream crushed you're unique.  To top it off, Huff was a major reason Oregon got to the NCG versus Auburn three years ago when he played as a true freshman on an unbeaten team.  Why shouldn't his expectations as a player be high?

Oregon, particularly Thomas and Huff, did not quit yesterday, except in the minds of those whose own expectations ignore reality.  Oregon was beaten by a team with better talent overall, particularly on both lines.

But tell this to the unrealistic fan and he'll try to run you out of the room.

Here's the reality, folks.  Oregon wasn't better than Arizona yesterday, nor was it better than Stanford two weeks ago.  The Ducks lost because they aren't who some people--namely the unrealistic--thought they were.

They weren't who they thought they were, either. If you don't think they know that now you're nuts.

The game is played on both lines in a bubble of hand-to-hand fighting.  You've never been in a fight if you don't know that, and you've certainly never played the game.

And if you haven't been in a fight, even lost a few, you have no room to talk.


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A Deal Comes in the Mail

O boy, I just learned about the steal of the century.

No I didn't.

Here's a fragment of my story.

Before I got hurt and could no longer do the job, i.e., the heavy lifting required of the job, my employer provided a health plan through Kaiser.

It was a helluva deal featuring a more-than-fair co-pay and reasonably priced drugs, so all was happy-go-lucky for awhile, or until I got hurt, as I say.

Since the mutual and necessary abandonment of that job I've gone without health insurance.  I went to the county clinic once, over a year ago, and I get a bill for that every month, and about six months ago I had a bit of a scare and went to the ER of a local hospital and ended up staying overnight to be tested and evaluated.

The bill for that was unspeakable, so I won't get into subsequent events and how the debt was allayed--all I can say is I am grateful. But what I had to go through to achieve that is just as unspeakable.

I'm on a fixed income now, one certain people who frown on such things would very much like to gouge, and to put it mildly, I can now afford few "extras."

For people like me, that is a low-wage earner my entire working life, extras include health insurance, which is why I support some effort, a plan toward a reasonable and equitable healthcare solution.

Obamacare, if that is all the idiots can design, is a proper solution for me, though a single-payer or nationalized system--expanded medicare for example--is the only reasonable answer to the present quandary.

I have a fixed idea which I batter my foes with when I'm called out for my "socialism"--I worked for over forty years and paid my fair share of taxes.  None of that money went toward a health investment that might have solved this issue in perpetuity, but rather a big chunk of that that money went to support war and corporate welfare, the oligarchy in other words. In reality, that money ended up in the pockets of the wrong people, people who use the system to abuse workers and low-income citizens in general, people who then have the audacity to blame America's fiscal insolvency on the poor. You know the rap, the poor are lazy and out to rip off honest taxpayers. It's all part of the enduring myth of the Welfare Queens and and the Entitled 47% who are out to get something for nothing in US society. The myth has gripped the US since the Reagan years and it is still burgeoning.

You can look around and see how the malfeasance of both parties was/is behind this, so I am not set here to make a partisan statement.  That is all horseshit, the dialogue those in power and their corporate media expect and welcome.  That rhetoric keeps Americans distracted and divided, which every leader since the time of the Pharaohs has known to be the way to keep people dispossessed and the wheels of discontent turning--the easier to build the pyramids.

I got a letter today from Kaiser, and boy what a deal they are offering me.  For a mere $450 a month, I can have full coverage once more with that august HMO!

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha....

Isn't that a funny story?


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Dooley's 10 Monsters

Buddy Dooley's awful vision of a world gone mad and ruled by monsters, with music by Albert Ayler.


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NIU

I can't tell you how much fun it is to watch Jordan Lynch and his Northern Illinois team play football.

Lynch ought to be a serious Heisman candidate, but he is seldom mentioned for the award.

He reminds me of Terry Baker.


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Battle Tested

Just pulled a Vonnegut biography (And So it Goes) out of the library.

The author, Charles J. Shields, says the famed "humanitarian" could be a beast.

Not surprising at all, given his dark side.

When confronting the psychopaths who run things, it's always good to have your armor ready.


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Lennon Today

A few others.

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Hello

My cellphone rings from somewhere in my room and I remember the phone is in my coat pocket and I fumble for it because I always fumble with my small phone, and I guess this is because I am old- fashioned and still cannot get used to the cellphone's tiny dimensions, and I have fat fingers to begin with and I am half asleep as well and a little out of sorts, with much on my mind, distracted you could say, and a little overwhelmed by it all, including a sickness that seems to be coming on, and just a general malaise or ennui or worse, and so the phone rings and I pick it up, fumble it, open it, and before I can say "hello" a voice is telling me that I've just won an opportunity to visit Orlando on a "dream vacation," and of course this is an automated voice and I do not want to stay on the line and listen because I'm not interested in a corporate-sponsored tour to Orlando and I'm definitely not going to jump through whatever hoops the automated voice is about to describe, and so I flip my phone shut and try to return to the reading I was doing when the phone rang, and then I start to think about it, wondering why this sort of thing happens day after day to me or to someone else and I realize how annoyed I have become by the trash that is so dominant in our society and the constant selling and the will to go along with it, and frankly the stupidity inherent in all of it and how it seems to be growing harder and harder to fight back, to resist, and it all makes you want to shout, "shut the fuck up you mindless fucking morons, and leave me the fuck alone."

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Patriotic Gore

Finally, others have taken notice of the military-themed nonsense that is currently vogue in the athletic world, particularly the relentless "tributes" to the troops so prevalent this college football season.

For a moment there I thought I might be the only person in America who is embarrassed by the shallow and phony nature of this sort of group-think.

Turns out I'm not alone.  

When you have soldiers who have seen the bloody reality of combat criticizing the gratuitous and easy rhetoric surrounding this phenomenon, you know something is amiss.

Enough is enough.


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Whose Policy?

If you want to know what is wrong with Obamacare here it is in plain sight.

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Reading List

In my usual, erratic style I have too many good reads going at once.

In no particular order, because that is the way I open them on most nights:

Jon Krakauer's "Where Men Win Glory," the story of Pat Tillman's life from his birth in Fremont, CA through his demise in Afghanistan and posthumous abuse by the war makers.

Craig Unger's "House of Bush, House of Saud," a book I've put off reading until now because for many years I could not stomach the subject matter.

The William Burroughs Reader, "Word Virus," which is a reminder of the great man's funny, brilliant view.

Marilyn Stokstad's "Art History," which I plucked from the community library in my apartment building.

And for light, yet riveting storytelling, George Pelecanos' "The Turnaround."

I'm busy reading.  What are you doing?


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Saturday Gig

Lucas and I scored tickets to watch Portland State and Sacramento State tomorrow at Jeld-Wen.

Suite seats in the uppity-brow section, via one of my ex-employers. Old Lucas hasn't seen a football game live since Gayle Sayers ran like a hellion for the Bears back in the day.  He's pumped.

I'm pumped.  We'll catch some of the Oregon/Utah game on one of the TVs in the suite.

A few brews might be taken down as well.

Sounds like a good day ahead.


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Norman Pollack

In case there are any questions, this is the way to write a powerful polemic.

Further reading.








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Summertime

Wanna hear "Summertime" by a bunch of various artists?

Go here.


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In Spite of Ourselves

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Loretta

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The Boxer

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Game of the Week

This week's Pac-12 Game of the Week to expose who made the worst hire--Cal or Colorado.

The battle for rotten coach of the year in the conference is between Colorado's Mike MacIntyre and Cal's Sonny Dykes.

This game will be worth watching for its misery quotient alone.  The dam must break, for both teams are winless in conference.

Can't wait.


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A Monster Revisited

My favorite in the Monster Series Dooley created months ago was this one, No. 7, a satirical paean to the U.S. National Security Agency.

Sometime later I said, "run Snowden run."

I really like how Dooley and I work together sometimes.


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Hoops Double Bill

Hella game tonight between the current numbers 1 and 2 college bball teams, senior dominated Michigan State vs. the neofab-five Kentucky freshmen.

Playing out like a final four game with incredible talent everywhere!

And then laughably I lose the stream and can't see the finish.  No kidding.

Oh well, Kansas and Duke later.  If you're gonna schedule for TV this is the way to go.

Now I discover Dick Vitale is doing color for the second game. Bummer, man.


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Picture of the Day

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Uke Talent

Bravo, bravo!

Deemer hammering the uke hard with a soundcloud piece.

Check out the playa's new book of poems, too.






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Innocence Lost

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Don't Support Her

Nader, selecting his words with precision, explains why Hillary is a bad idea waiting to happen.

I've got to hand it to Ralph, he gets it.  The oligarchy is moving execrably to implant this odious brat in the White House three years hence.

Another round of brainwashing and social cleansing has commenced. Because the right can offer nothing but dumb crackpots to the fray, and because the left is dead, we're stuck in neoliberal quicksand.

So the choice will boil down to this once again: a lousy neoliberal vs. an incompetent fascist--"same as it ever was, same as it ever was."**

Hillary represents a convenient way to assure the divide is untreated and that a growing underclass is permanently unrepresented while the plutocrats make off with the spoils of nature.

Do you get the joke?  After all it is on you.

**Since the Reagan Revolution in the very least.


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Ho Hum

Alabama pulls away and looks impressive doing it, thanks to yet another great running back in the Tide lineage--T.J. Yeldon.

Would help if LSU had a decent QB, however.  Their guy had time to throw and open receivers early in the game, but later he missed his opportunities. He couldn't run or throw the ball away to avoid the sack.

He looked like Sean Mannion out there.

Credit Alabama's improving defense, but really, LSU is inept offensively. Have been all year and now the Tigers have three losses.

Pretty bad, and sad for Stanford, which needed an Alabama loss to move up.

FSU isn't going to lose in the weak ACC (Duke is 7-2).  Alabama probably won't lose, either.

I'd venture the NCG is set.

Meanwhile, UCLA has its hands full with Arizona.  The PAC has more balance than the other leagues, but Alabama is the best team in the country.

UCLA is using defensive stars on the offensive side of the ball, something that hasn't happened since the sixties.  Quirky, but also indicative of the Bruins' injuries and poor depth.   Have wondered for years why more short-handed teams don't do this.

ASU pulled out a squeaker against Utah.  Looks like either UCLA or ASU will get a chance at Stanford in the PAC championship. Yet, USC beat up on Cal, for what that is worth.

Maybe the battle of L.A. will mean something this year?

FSU and Alabama will be a good game, but my interest is fading.  I don't care about those teams, and neither should you.

Until an eight-team playoff happens, it's all bullshit.


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Oregon Wins Something

I watched a little college hoops last night.

Duke has a freshman named Jabari Parker, and the kid is really good. He's from Simeon in Chicago, same prep school Derrick Rose went to.

Oregon beat Patrick Ewing's old school last night in a game played in front of just two-thousand occupying troops in South Korea. One presumes the rest of the troops either couldn't pull tickets or were out saving the West from the evil of poor people.

Go USA!  Rah, rah!

The Ducks looked pretty good while playing without two of their best players who have been suspended for selling some of their free Oregon swag on eBay.

The NCAA frowns on that.  Oregon self-reported, the kids are suspended for nine games.  Seems fair, right?

Both teams looked pretty bad in their camo unis designed by, who else, Nike.  Be tempting to sell those on eBay as well, but we now know you can't get away with trying to make a buck if you're a college basketball player under the scrutiny of rich white men.

That's right.  The same men who think it's a swell idea to plant US troops all around the world to protect their riches.

Gotta keep the kids poor, you know?  Keep the chattel system alive to enrich the overlords.  Support the troops and US imperialism with a little round ball.

It all makes sense to me.


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Laurie and Lou

Laurie Anderson's moving farewell to Lou Reed.










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Freedom

(Gurubhaktulakonda Buddhist Monastery, Ramateertham, India)

Buddy Dooley weighs-in on his sudden interest in monastic living after last night's Oregon loss to Stanford.

Here, amid the ruins, Dooley might live a quiet, contemplative life free of the excesses of American football.

Avoiding the sporting appeal of cricket would be the subsequent challenge.


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Uh Oh

Oregon getting manhandled.  In a size 14 hole, largest of the season.

My hope is fading.

Oregon, Thomas, fumbles in the red zone.  O shit.  Stanford very physical, attacking the ball.

Hogan is brilliant tonight, outplaying Mariota by a long shot.

Meanwhile, Baylor is rocking the Okies.

Stanford is readying to score again.  This is the worst game Oregon has played in six years.  I'm sad.

Pass interference.  Extends the quarter.  Really stupid.  Now Stanford is going for it!  No, they change their minds.  Field goal attempt.

17-0 at the half.  Unbelievable.  Shaw actually ran one play too many then, but was bailed out by the PI. Oregon is awful tonight.  I don't think you can say Oregon wasn't ready to play this game. You must admit that Stanford is meaner. Smash mouth.   Hard to believe the Cardinal lost to Utah.

Maybe they'll be the number 1 one loss team before it's over and play FSU or Baylor in the title game. Be nice to have a PAC team in the CG again.  Alabama has to lose, of course, which is why I want to watch the Tide's game with LSU Saturday.

At this point, Oregon is a pretender.  We'll see what the 2nd half brings, but this is a helluva hole against Stanford's power running game.

Mariota is hurt.  He has been for the past two weeks.  Check out that knee brace.  He tweaked that bad baby just now and fumbled again.

Game.  Set.  Match.

I probably won't live to see my Ducks win a national championship. This had to be the year, though in hindsight you could say last year was the optimal chance.

I rarely use this word, but fuck.


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Nerves

Highest scoring team in the country, Baylor, being held to 3 points late in the second quarter.  Oklahoma has better athletes everywhere.

A 5-3 game.  Weird, but Baylor is driving!

Hope this doesn't happen to the second highest scoring team in the country, Oregon, tonight.  If it does, Stanford will win.

I'm nervous.

I should have joined a monastery years ago.  None of this would matter then.


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Weekend

O man, it has started.  Been fidgeting all day, playing guitar, reading Vonnegut.

Eating.  (I really like eating these days for some reason.  Hell, years ago I could go without eating for days in a row.)

Baylor vs. Oklahoma and Oregon vs. Stanford tonight.

Alabama and LSU on Saturday.

Things shakin' out somewhat by Saturday night, but plenty of season left.

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Born in the SEC

This morning on the Dan Patrick Show.


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Vietnam

This is an outstanding 12 part series on the Vietnam War.


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Truants

I can't believe what I just read.

Stanford students to skip classes in preparation for the big game with Oregon Thursday night?

Up in Pullman last Thursday, WSU canceled classes for the day.  But that is WSU, and evidently the parking situation on campus played into the decision.

Can't let those tailgate parties flounder now, can we?

Stanford isn't canceling classes, at least not officially, but this is starting to look like a trend for Thursday night football.

I hope that missed lecture doesn't come at too big a cost for some.


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Mean Old Bloggin' Blues

"Your blog is sitting there like a cowpie in a pasture somewhere in Texas."--Buddy Dooley

"I can't go on, I'll go on."--Samuel Beckett




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About Schmidt

Found it at Reddit.  What a nice little resource.


TS