statsman

This is something. There is a current of thought on Sooner boards that their recruiting has suffered because the OU compliance department picked the advent of NIL as a reason to clamp down on inducements for recruits. Does this make any kind of sense to anyone?

Quote Necro-bumped, because it’s too great

Ian Boyd wrote on IT that the Arnold camp wanted Littrell as OC. Take it for what it’s worth. Either way, Venables owns the decision.

Venables made the same mistake the OU fans did. The main reason that touted young QBs as inexperienced as Arnold (Bradford, Williams) worked out is that they were: 1. Exceptionally talented 2. Exceptionally well coached The reason that Venables and OU fans expected Arnold to work out are: 1. He wears the OU uniform (just like Bradford and Williams) 2. They really need him to. A five star rating is an assessment of talent, not a definition of talent Fans are expected to be idiots like that. It’s malpractice for coaches to.

How so? Not firm? Not a good communicator?

I think their single biggest problem is that their program was extremely successful for almost a quarter of a century, and one of its pillars was that they would say and do what was needed to recruit well, and once those players were enrolled, the program was extremely demanding of them. Schmitty, Stoops, Venables, all those extreme hardasses could be as tough as they wanted or needed to be, because there were barriers to player movement. They could make a guy swallow the vomit from an over exertion. They could have a culture where a player was considered a pussy if he sought treatment for an injury rather than play through it in a big game. That all made the football better at OU. Their success in developing players was enviable, and the ones that made it to the NFL weren’t going to claim, but the process was brutal. Do you think Mancini, fired at KU for being abusive to players, was softer at OU? Hell, no. So, that worked for over 20 years, but now the barriers to player movement are gone. All of us in the regular workforce know that Gen Z has a limit to how much bullshit they will put up with (to their credit), and that’s a problem for Venables. Venables made his bones in a system where the solution to performance problems was to grind harder and demand more. His player management toolset has one tool: a ratchet set to tighten only, and not loosen. Yes, NIL is a problem. What are they going to do when the key players that they want to build on explore opportunities elsewhere? Is Venables ready to develop soft skills? Is that program? I’ve read that, in the NFL, players won’t put up with abusive, hardass coaches (see Urban Meyer). They say the best NFL coaches are firm, but good communicators, that players will respond to demands from a coach that is honest with them, lets them know where they stand and where they are going. That sounds like Sark. Does that sound like Venables, or any others off the Stoops tree?

How is your day? Could you use a laugh?

Is there more to this than getting a cadaver sniffing dog to a landfill?

Week 7 Latest: https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college-football-tv-ratings/ KSU at CU provided great late night ratings. The B12 has found its niche: good ratings for games played Friday and Saturday night. Call it the “Best of the Rest” or the “Cream of the Crap” strategy. Cincy at UCF drew 280k viewers Saturday afternoon. Maybe the expansion strategy of “ascending programs in high population states” needs more time. Of course, no B12 schools from Texas or Oklahoma played last weekend. I think the TV and B12 execs knew no one would tune in.

Thats what I love about the Venables staff. They act like there are still barriers to player movement.

What are they allowed to do for their security, given active hostility from Iran and its clients?

OK, Bolverk, I’m going to get negged, but here goes. I have been told by lots of posters that all of these issues had been hashed out, the details, the history, the stances, if I would just read the entirety. I have read and searched a lot, but the question that is so little discussed (although one of the most important questions affecting Israel and the Palestinians) is: “What’s the ask?” Protests on campus calling for BDS. Campus faculties voting for BDS (more in Europe than the U.S.). What’s the ask? What does Israel have to do, what discrete act, to drop the calls for BDS? UN condemnations, pre war. What’s the ask? There has to be something specific and concrete, right? Beyond the public demands to divest from Israel, what do they want from Israel to drop the demands? From my googling (because it is always talked around in public pronouncements), the ask is”right of return”, allowing descendants of displaced Palestinians (displaced voluntarily or involuntarily, driven out by Israelis, British, or fleeing a lost war) to resume residence within the borders of Israel. Is that getting it wrong? Is something else the “ask”, that would cease the condemnations, that would remove the calls for BDS, if Israel would just comply? We know it’s not just having a Palestinian state- that has been offered and rejected. Even though Israel is not at all a fan of a (presumably hostile) Palestinian state bordering them, they have been led to such agreements in the past. Is there something else than “right of return” that I am missing? If that’s the demand, I see a problem. Israel has a population of 9.2 million. UNRWA has 5.6 million refugees registered. Two million Israelis are not Jewish. The minute right of return is executed, Jews are a minority in Israel. At that point, Israel has two choices: no longer be a Jewish state, or remain a Jewish state by becoming a true apartheid system (which we all know they wouldn’t do, and is unworkable). Does anyone think either option doesn’t bring a lot of massacres of innocents? Now, after negging me, telling me that I’m stupid, that I don’t know anything about this, please explain to me where I am wrong. Tell me what the real “ask” is, that would please global community aligned against Israel (anti-Zionists of bourse, not anti-Semites, because they would never be anti-Semites. Zionism is the worst thing in the world, worse than organ harvesting of enslaved Uighur, of Rohingya ethnic cleansing or massacres of black Sudanese by Arab Sudanese. Zionism is the evil that gets the kids out protesting). Now, I suspect that most of the protesters haven’t thought it through much beyond “injustice done to Palestinians, Israel not helping”. I think most Israel critics are people of good will. I just don’t know that they have thought through the ultimate goals of the anti-Israel protest leaders and movements. What is the demand, the thing Israel could do to satisfy its critics? To me, it looks like, more than any, a lot of the world doesn’t really mind if Israel were to go away (diaspora preferred, obviously, over pogrom and holocaust). That’s why I am sympathetic to Israel, as a bias. This looks like an existential conflict for them and they have precious view allies. The European nations the Jews fled after the Holocaust- the nations that remain so happy that they can blame their Holocaust activities on the Nazis (much like how the citizens of Tulsa get to blame the Klan for their 1920 massacre)- they are done with this. Hey- you can’t call the Euros anti-Semites! They have laws against anti-Semitic speech! What about the Palestinians? I do have sympathy for them. It seems that many of the world’s actors see them more as pawns than real clients for help. The UNRWA is established to maintain, not relieve, their refugee status, generation after generation. The Palestinians have had the crappiest leadership, focused more on fighting, killing and using the populace as shields than actually caring for them. I would like for them to have a liberal democracy state, and have no interest in them having any other kind. I know that’s a shitty thing to say, given that their circumstance will not allow liberal democratic leaders to appear. I haven’t posted anything about Netanyahu. He will be gone from the scene, soon, and I’m not really expecting that to change the political calculus much. Sigh. Neg away.

I love this. Every time the Sooners start fishing around for their hero to save them and land upon Cale Gundy,…aaah. Chef’s kiss. Cale Gundy was hired as a position coach in 1999, as a legacy hire, worked almost a quarter century for one of college football’s most successful programs, and never got a promotion. Yes, his opinion is what is called for.

I couldn’t find a good existing thread, so am starting this one. If there is one, I’m fine if it’s moved. I am pretty sure a two-loss SEC team (and probably B1G team) will make the expanded field. That would be a Vandy, OU, Arkansas or Ole Miss that won out the rest of the way, a Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, or LSU that only dropped one more, or a Texas that dropped two. Given that teams are going to play each other, I think that’ll hold up. Here is a hypothetical. Suppose (next year) Alabama beat Auburn, both finished 10-2, but Alabama went to the SEC CG, instead of Auburn. Then, if Alabama lost the CCG, they would be 10-3. Is there an argument for giving Auburn an at-large CFP berth and not Alabama? Or do we just need to consider CCG losers under a different criteria?

They get to, with a warrant, take his cellphone and dig into his digital life, right? How good is the GPS info from a new vehicle? Can they establish where all it went, and when? How close is the technology to questioning an Amazon Alexa to replay conversations?

Stoops brought a relish to the rivalry that Mack couldn’t/wouldn’t match. He enjoyed crowing over wins and leaned into beat downs when he had the upper hand. Sark was shooting to hit 40 in his second half play calling. He doesn’t give a shit about feelings or appearances in this game. Rolling into the press conference, post game, eating a corn dog isn’t quite the same kind of trolling as taking a team photo under the scoreboard (like OU did in 2000), but it’s in the right direction.

If he had not lost his footing, Wiesner was going to blow right through him. This might have been the best look available to Bowman.

That Billy Bowman slide is beautiful

What? Is it your contention that posting a link to a news story from the news reporting (not editorial) section of the WSJ is shit posting? Can a moderator chime in on whether that is the standard here?

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hezbollah-tunnel-entrances-abut-u-n-peacekeeping-position-israel-alleges-4b821c03?st=jJpDNY&reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink

I thought I would share my lessons here, on the chance it might help someone who didn’t know this already. Mods, feel free to another forum if it’s more suited there. I bought a pair of tickets to the RRS on StubHub two weeks ago. Good price for pair in sect 117 (direct Ctr of NEZ upper deck). After I bought them, I realized that they were in that small sliver of OU seats in that section. I figured that would be ok; there would be plenty of orange around. With the game approaching, the tix had not been transferred. I called StubHub; they said to not worry until game day. Friday, they sent a message- the seller notified them he could not deliver the mobile tix. I was offered a replacement pair that was in the SEZ. I talked with my buddy, and after reviewing prices for tickets on the Texas side, decided we’d go for it. Those tickets weren’t delivered either. Day of game, determined to get in, we were preparing to bribe a ticket scanner to get in (I am far too old and square to be entertaining such notions, but really wanted to be at the game). Called StubHub again, tried a new ticket pair, and these were actually sent by the seller with an hour to spare. Yea! Spent the game among the Sooners in the SEZ (probably about 5% Texas fans). Lesson 1. A friend told me later that SeatGeek is better for these games than StubHub, that the ticket transfers work better. Also, for big games, he buys two pairs to increase the chance of receiving at least one pair (assume he sells or otherwise dispositions the extra if it comes). Lesson 2. Why did two pairs of OU tix, out of three contracted, not arrive? I have a theory. I suspect the seller puts the tickets on StubHub at a low (certain) price and on SeatGeek at a high (aspirational) price. He doesn’t have to deliver until game day, so when someone like me “buys” the value price, he has a bird in the hand and is happy to wait to see if the two in the bush will come through. Lesson 3. Don’t enter into a commercial agreement with an Okie if they can profit by not fulfilling their side of the deal.

OK, wrt Fletcher’s- I pulled in early and there was almost no line. I told the guy I wanted one really well cooked (I can come across more polite in person than on the board). It was perfect, all the way through. No temperature problem. I suspect this wouldn’t go as well at a time when the line goes back 15 yards, so I might have to just pick my spot.

This was great, because it showed how lost OU is right now. Who is their QB next year? Hawkins? Someone else? Who is their OC next year? What offensive scheme? Do they have the personnel for the desired scheme and OC? Who is their HC in two years? There may be answers to these questions, but they won’t be easy, and they’re killers if they get them wrong.

But, why? What problem does this plan solve other than “How do schools like Baylor get high profile games of national interest and stay in the big time?” It doesn’t solve Texas’ problem of “How to turn its blue blood status into competitive advantage and more revenue?” Or “How to get high profile games of great stakeholder interest?” It doesn’t solve the broadcaster problem of “How to get games with greater appeal (and advertiser revenue)?”. They would rather broadcast Texas-Arkansas than Texas-Baylor. This plan just re-established a status quo that Texas wanted to break.

Washington