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boilerhorn

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by boilerhorn

  1. Culturally, they might fit better in the B1G (MSU, PSU , Michigan).
  2. SIAP - ESPN pumping the Aggy/SEC relationship as "perfect fit." https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/31845340/how-texas-sec-college-football-top-conference-formed-perfect-fit There seems to be a great deal of revisionist history in there. It is typical offseason promotion... One especially odd reason for leaving the big12:
  3. I think he misspelled COUNTY.
  4. David Ash has a BS in Communications and an MS in Finance from UT Austin. I have to believe any finance gig will pay better than this. Of course, few finance gigs allow you to knock the living hell out of someone.
  5. As with any live sports, the goal is to sell ads. And you set ad rates as a function of viewer numbers. Producing a weekly Tebow special interest piece is considerably easier (and more profitable) than rotating through the other members of the Gators (Hernandez, Pouncey brothers, etc.). Tebow is a very good athlete and he is extremely competitive. My guess is that he will not make the 53 man roster, but will sell a few jerseys and put about 1500-2000 more butts in preseason seats and the proceeds go directly to the Jags ownership. He'll provide the networks with a weekly pregame human interest story and will attract more TV eyeballs. For reference, the offensive contributors on the 2008 UF National Championship team included the following NFL-bound players: WR Percy Harvin, Riley Cooper, Louis Murphy TE Aaron Hernandez OL Phil Trautwein, Maurkice Pouncey, Mike Pouncey, Mo Hurt, Marcus Gilbert RB Jeff Demps, Chris Rainey That's quite a talented set of offensive players. Tebow had a lot of help. For reference, the defense included future NFLers Joe Haden, Janoris Jenkins, Brandon Spikes, Major Wright, Carlos Dunlap, Ahmad Black, and Jermaine Cunningham. The team was loaded.
  6. @Doc Reeves comment reminded me of this
  7. I disagree, but it is not a hill I care to die on His antics reflect poorly on him, not UT. Skip Bayless is a smarmy, loud-mouthed, lying douche. I'm not sure it really reflects poorly on Vanderbilt. It reflects poorly on him.
  8. Acho is monetizing Acho to the greatest extent possible. I don't have a problem with it. If he's on the TV while I am watching and he gets annoying, I turn it off. The stories about his "struggles" are likely a bit inflated or disingenuous, esp. before college. Most folks who attend St. Marks are probably doing just fine. Did he receive some verbal abuse along the way? Perhaps. HS boys say stupid shit all the time to each other. My suspicion is that he heard racial slurs infrequently, as he was one of the biggest, strongest, fastest guys at St. Marks. Even if he was a turn the other cheek guy, standing up and staring down a racist asshole likely stopped the comments for good. I do not think he reflects poorly on UT. His success shows the value of getting a degree and what opportunities could open up after a career in football concludes. That's good for UT.
  9. There are tons of good examples here. I'l view it through a slightly different lens: which debut albums "upset" their genre and/or changed the mainstream? In no specific order - many have already been said Beatles - Please Please Me Velvet Underground and Nico Jimi Hendrix Experience Sex Pistols - Bollocks Roxy Music - Roxy Music Ramones Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy Van Halen The Smiths REM - Murmur GnR - Appetite Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine Beastie Boys - License to Ill Black Sabbath Nirvana - Bleach The Stone Roses Oasis - Definitely Maybe NWA - Straight Outta Compton Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush the Show Eminem - Slim Shady Weezer - Blue Album I saw NIN in a bar in Miami in 1989. Opening acts were Meat Beat Manifesto and what would become Marilyn Manson. NIN played the entirety of Pretty Hate Machine and a few other songs. It might be the most entertaining show I have ever seen. There are many that I likely forgot.
  10. Since others have taken the thread in the direction of admissions and top-X%, here are a couple of random notes... In 1987, admission to UT could be had in 3 ways: (1) top-25% (2) 1100 SAT (3) take 2 summer classes at UT and get B average There are various opinions on "why does top-X% exist?" The first is "taxation without representation," as rural lege members were complaining that none of their constituents were getting admitted. The second was "response to Hopwood" and the observed reduction in minority representation at top Texas colleges. There are many academic papers citing and discussing the latter. The top-X% guarantees admission into the university, not necessarily into a specific/desired major. 100% of admits to Engineering, McCombs, and others are at the discretion of the schools. In general, the person who is top-12% at Westlake, Westwood, Highland Park, etc, is more likely to gain admission than the person who is top-7% at a weaker school. That person will have high standardized test scores and more exposure to AP classes. Note that only 10-15% of applicants outside the top-6% are admitted at Texas. Limiting auto-admits to 75% of the class was prudent. Top-10% admissions would ultimately fill UT with only Texas residents. It's not entirely clear they could fill seats in more selective majors with auto-admits.
  11. Have you never heard of The University of Phoenix?
  12. Another example of "wow, offseason sucks." Too many examples of fail to list, but I will... Handle: BigGameBoomer. Hint number one that it will be garbage. State College, PA - fail As noted, Seattle and Austin are not really college towns any more. Tuscaloosa is infinitely better than Auburn. Berkeley, CA? Really? NC - App.St. Fail - UNC, NCSU, Duke? Ohio over tOSU? Nope. tOSU t-shirt fans are morons, but that part of Columbus is pretty decent. No arguments: Minnesota - big city, but the campus area is great. Indiana - slightly better than Purdue and Notre Dame, but both are catching up to Bloomington. West Virginia - no other choices and no one else could read, so who cares Agree w/ Columbia in NYC, as Manhattan would be great as a college town. However most 18-22 year olds cannot appreciate Manhattan. It's more of a 22+ environment.
  13. Prior to its release, I paid zero attention to anything about this other than the name and Clancy affiliation. So, I recently reread Without Remorse (actually 2x speed audio book while I did my daily walks) in anticipation of this. While watching, I kept searching for the 1.5x speed option on Amazon video. Does it exist? Writing was mediocre. Acting was mediocre. Action was OK. They just borrowed a few names from WR and had some very loose ties to family deaths, CIA, Russians, etc. The writing does set up some possible derivative works, but they killed off the most talented cast member (Guy Pearce), acting-wise. However, quality acting is not really needed to carry an action series. A "true" portrayal of WR would require a considerably different investment and Vietnam-era storylines won't move the needle these days. I'm confused why Amazon - or the producers - felt the need for the additional expense for the affiliation to Clancy/WR for this. I guess a loose tie to the Clancy-verse helps with the 35+ demographic.
  14. Lake Conroe had > 4 inches over the past few days. This resulted in around 1.5-2 feet rise over its normal "pool level." Boats were floating off their lifts; lake closed; etc. Dam was opened to help mitigate. I think they delayed it a bit to see if others downstream could handle the extra water.
  15. According to this link, his brother was featured and he was referenced. https://www.distractify.com/p/nahshon-wright-last-chance-u
  16. Cowboys successfully reached on every pick through the first three rounds. 1.12 (12) Parsons - LB (rank 16) 2.12 (44) Joseph - CB (rank 64) 3.11 (75) Odiguizuwa - DT (rank 87) 3.21 (85) Gholston - DE (rank 177) 3.36 (99) Wright - CB (rank 272)
  17. It was the Bears after all. That said, just about all prognosticators had Jenkins ahead if Cosmi, if memory serves.
  18. There will be plenty of good OT at 33 and/or 45. I am surprised some of the defensive guys are still on the board: JOK and Moehring come to mind.
  19. The Etienne pick makes zero sense for Jax. They need damn near everything - EXCEPT RB. JOK would have been a very solid pick there.
  20. I am (naively?) hopeful that Texas A&M is becoming less racist over time. The population growth, auto-admit issues, etc. will definitely help with that. For the most part, a student who attends Texas A&M can get a top-tier education. Their engineering schools and business schools are well respected and well-ranked. Many students in those majors are there for the education and tolerate/ignore the associated idiocy. Their goal: degree then on to the next phase. I suspect most of the folks who post on college oriented message boards no longer attend the university. For many, they represent the lunatic fringe of the alumni or t-shirt fan base. I think TexAgs falls into that category. Surly ? Only sometimes The demographic shift at Texas A&M has been quite profound. 2000 2010 2020 White 81.50% 72.40% 57.80% Hispanic 9.10% 15.90% 25.20% Asian 3.40% 4.50% 9.40% Black 2.50% 3.30% 3.00% What is missing in the above numbers is that more and more of the top-notch students from suburban schools are enrolling at Texas A&M. Last, mean SAT scores have risen over 110 points since 2002 (~50 points from test redesign). That means that the mean SAT at A&M moved from the 75th national percentile in 2002 to the 85th national percentile in 2020. That is significant. As Texas residents, we need Texas A&M to be a high quality university. It seems to be improving in student quality and relevant rankings. In time, we will either see the racist fringes die off or be smothered by the more responsible majority.
  21. Yup. A half-time job paying $140k can surely salve the wound. Kelly took a prudent political position heading into the council race, labeled as a conservative republican. Otherwise intelligent, educated "R" have attached themselves to her as the way to guide Austin forward. It's insane. An acquaintance of mine touted her as the "Conservative voice of the Council" and I responded that she was "a kook." She's viewed as the path to saving Austin from the homeless problem. Uh, no. To be honest, single-member districts seemed like a good idea at the time. Increasing the number from 6 to 10 - at the same time - may not have been a good idea. The conventional wisdom at the time was that council was dominated by "Central Austin interests" and that the high-growth areas had no representation. 10 years later, we have Fitlump because only 15k people showed up to vote in the district 6 runoff. Did we get the representation we deserved?
  22. If Sarkisian thinks alternating between Thompson/Card is OK, then I am OK with it. Either of Card or Thompson are better choices than either of Ash or McCoy.
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