Gen. Applewhite

It’s all about perspective. I look at this not as an improvement on fries, but as an improvement on the loaded baked potato.

Went to get myself a blizzard last Thursday at the one on Jackson Keller in SA only to find that it has closed. That’s the only one reasonably close to my house. I sometimes hit the Blanco and Johnson City locations on my way through those towns. I doubt those are going anywhere due to lack of competition. I definitely didn’t need that blizzard so maybe it’s a good thing.

I think all this goes away as soon as we blow someone out, and if we win out with a bunch of close ones, it all becomes moot. And if we lose, they can look and point and tell us how soft we are.

Ohh the irony

I’m going to have to update my living will to specify no aggy organ donors.

This. I was wrong on this in the lsu/a&m game thread. It seems clear from the sec hypotheticals that in the event of a 3+ team tie, a tiebreaker isn’t used unless it resolves among all teams. In the scenarios where 3+ teams finish 7-1 it’s going to come down to conference opponent winning percentage, and weirdly the Aggies could go ahead of Texas even if we just waxed them at Kyle. It’s like the OG BCS where every oddball game down the board has some meaning. We need weird things like Arkansas over Missouri and miss st to win the egg bowl. or we just need LSU and A&M to each drop another one. Cause a four way tie between Georgia, lsu, Texas abd A&M could weirdly end up with Georgia and Texas sitting out.

A&M gonna have a COVID outbreak when they hear Georgia is waiting for them in ATL.

Check Item A.2.C - if there is not a complete round robin amongst tied teams, and no team either has two losses or two wins over the other teams in a three-way tiebreaker, then they go to the second tiebreaker step and "head to head" is null. So it looks like the calculator is wrong (fingers crossed). https://www.secsports.com/fbtiebreaker

First tiebreaker is "head to head competition amongst the tied teams." It would be weird as fuck if there is a three way tie, two of the teams played each other and the third one didn't, and they bounce the one that lost that matchup. But hey, this is the SEC, so perhaps I am wrong to assume it makes sense. Second tiebreaker is record vs all common conference opponents, and in that case we would go ahead of LSU assuming they lose to A&M and we win.

I am pretty sure we would take the tiebreaker over LSU based on record vs common opponents (i.e., in that instance we would have a win over A&M, to their loss). So if A&M holds on tonight, we are in Atlanta if we win out.

I think A&M beating LSU this weekend would put us back in the driver's seat, but I don't know if I can root for that in good conscience.

I would bet my middle nut Corso picks the Horns. He is almost as big of a lock as SMFS.

I haven’t been to the game in a while but I always like to enjoy watching at home by starting my day with a frozen corn dog and enough jack and coke to put fix my trajectory to be black out by kickoff. If somebody showed up at my door step with an authentic fletchers corny dog at half time I’d probably play $800 for it.

I like the 11am kickoff because I use the end of the first quarter as a good time to stop drinking, kind of like the seventh inning stretch at a baseball game. That's all out the window for an afternoon kick. I am liable to be blacked before it even starts.

VY made one of the most stacked teams of all time look like a one man show. That team would have mud holed plenty of others without him. But when it was needed, he had another gear that CFB had never seen before. To say he inspired confidence almost understates it. VY was inevitable. We knew it, and others eventually learned in the most satisfying way. Just look at this fucking G next to a couple legit hall of famers who were nothing more than poseurs by comparison.

Helm is giving me strong David Thomas vibes today.

Said it before and I'll say it again, the kick wouldn't have cleared the bar if Ced hadn't fought for those few extra yards in the previous play.

I've had a lot of fine muffulettas in my life, and I think the one from Central Grocery was the worst.

As somebody who grew up in Fort Worth but now lives in San Antonio, reading this debate about whether cheese enchiladas are proper Tex mex makes me shed a tear for the metroplex as a whole.

Reminds me of getting the shanks back in 2020. It is a truly wild and uncomfortable feeling to be standing over a ball with the shanks and not being able to feel the difference between a swing that will flush it vs one that will endanger other people around you. I felt like my putting went to shit a couple years ago. It was not on the level of what I'd call the yips, just that my total putts and three putts per round spiked to the point where I was dreading the thought of anything outside of 25 feet. I realized my issue was poor lag putting leaving myself too many 5+ footers instead of 2-3 footers, and statistically, this is a flaw that will wreak silent havoc on your scores over the long haul. Since then I have made the following three adjustments (one equipment, one practice, and one swing thought) and have noticed dramatic improvement: 1) I switched to a lighter putter with a smaller grip. I had been using a heavy tank of a putter with an equally heavy jumbo grip. It practically swung itself and I "felt" super confident that I could get my ball started on line which gave me a chance on every putt inside 10 feet. However, this cost me dearly in speed control, which is critical on any putt that starts outside the hole, no matter how long it is. Everything else about the putter (shape, offset/neck, alignment marking) stayed the same. I didn't go crazy getting all wristy with a pop stroke, but I just wanted the distance to be more about the feel of hitting the ball instead of a mechanical thought about how far back I should take the putter or whatever. 2) My putting practice and putting warmup before a round is almost entirely focused on putts inside 5 feet. In practice sessions I will do the circle or compass drill at 3-5 feet almost exclusively. Before a round I will stroke a couple random long putts uphill and downhill to gauge the speed and rollout of the greens, but aside from that I am hitting nothing but 2, 3, 4 and 5 footers. I probably look like a psycho practicing nothing but short putts before a round, but it's a great way to build confidence over a shot you're going to have on pretty much every hole, and confidence extends to the 6-8 foot range, as well. Missing short ones on the course, whether it's for birdie, par, or bogey, will fuck with your head and ruin your round. Getting good enough at these to be truly confident in making them is a game changer. Furthermore, having confidence that I am going to put a good stroke on the ball frees me up to focus my brain on the speed and break of a putt. I didn't develop this confidence because I never miss these putts. I certainly do. Rather, the confidence comes from having made a ton of them in practice. 3) The only think I think about when making a stroke is keeping my eyes focused intently on a single small point like a dot or dimple on my ball. I usually mark my ball with a dot and place it so the dot is facing up towards the rear of the ball, near where my putter will make contact with it but visible from above, or if I haven't marked my ball I will pick a specific dimple or a part of the logo in that area and basically just try to stare a hole through it while putting. I have tried looking at the front edge of the hole on short straight putts, and that works as well. I have even tried closing my eyes just before pulling the trigger. Each of those methods is significantly better than just looking at the ball generally because if I do not focus on a single point my eyes will wander, I will invariably watch my putter on the backswing and instantly I am thinking about whether or not I took it back inside, outside, square, closed, whatever, and it is at that point that I am truly fucked. This has worked so well that I have started doing it on full swings. With my driver I like to pick a dimple towards the rear and inside of the ball to promote a good inside-out slightly upwards path. On irons I stare at a spot at the very front of the ball to promote a downward strike. Looking at the front or back of the ball may be bullshit, but what's key for me is that I am fixed on a specific spot. This keeps my eyes from wandering and I think the level of effort it takes to maintain this simple focus helps keep my mind from wandering to some random other swing thought that is likely to flutter into my head at the top of my backswing. I wouldn't necessarily recommend (1) or (3) above to everyone, but I will go to bat for the universal benefit of (2). I think the real value in these and other potential fixes lies in trying to simplify the mental and physical component of the game. If not focusing on a dimple or getting more feel/less robotic in your stroke, find some other small thing like a preshot routine or a particular set up/grip feel that you can just drill in practice and crush on the course, because thinking about the yips isn't going to help at all.

Seems to work well for Bryson. That creep can roll.

I have only been to the range once in the last 6 months, and have had zero short game sessions. But in eight rounds in 2024 my driver has been absolutely dialed (80% in the short grass and less than one actual "miss" per round) and I have been at least average for me around the greens. Index has dropped almost two points and I am knocking on the door of scratch. Now that my boys' little league is over and I might actually have time to start practicing again, I am questioning whether I should.

Mr. Juicy does CFS right on a pile of delicious fries and covered in au poivre sauce instead of fake cream gravy.

Whole bacon. No cheese. Add some crispy taters.

Do we need to start a new thread for 2024? I finished December strong with 75-73-75 and a front nine 36 in the week between Christmas and New Years, which is surprising since I hadn't practiced at all and only played once since October. Immediate reversal of index trajectory, as I had been trending up all year. Despite those good rounds, I hit my irons like poo. It's amazing what hitting fairways and scoring with the short game will do to your scores. I may swear off of hitting irons at the range entirely.