Magus Ossis

We need to try to get the AZ and CA guys in the boat and recruiting themselves teammates here before Helton’s replacement is hired. There is always a chance they fire Swann and Helton and bring in Urban in time to salvage a 2019 class.

Very late pick by Pats or UFA imo.

He had a meniscus tear. Some of them are not fixable-- the surgery is just to trim out the flap. Some are amenable to being sewed back together. If there is no repair to protect (i.e. the torn flap was trimmed out), players can return very quickly. If the meniscus is repaired, most surgeons will restrict even from bearing weight for 4-6 weeks.

I'd say it's a coin flip whether they do as well as she predicts. Heads-no, tails- no, edge- yes.

Probably so. He may not have let on how much it was bothering him in-season so his “clock” of non operative care may not have started until late. If the MRI isn’t impressive, his surgeon may not have felt going straight to surgery was wise. Even the smallest surgery can go horribly wrong, unlikely as that is.

Yeah, the surgery for a high ankle (syndesmosis) sprain (ligament tear) is typically a "tightrope." Through a small incision, a cable is passed to tether the two lower ends of the bones of the lower leg as the syndesmosis should do naturally. Over time, the body heals the torn ligament well enough that the stresses of athletic participation are not too much for the (now no longer unaided) cable. There is a wide range of degrees of injury and rates of healing. Some surgeons are returning guys to sport as early as 2 months. TLDR: Summer is certainly a reasonable goal for return

1. A conference should try to have more wins, ceteris paribus, to get into more bowls and look better on paper. Paper isn't real, except that perception often is, or at least influences, reality. 2. A conference sacrifices, to an extent, its marketable TV inventory by playing too many OOC patsies, especially at the expense of conference games. Here is where careful planning comes in. The goal isn't to have 50 marquee games; it is to have enough reliably to fill the time slots allocated with attractive offerings. Moving some of the OOC games later into the season helps smooth out the distribution, in addition to the obvious advantage of a quasi-bye in November. 3. CCG is money and occasionally credibility; this is set off by the risk of knocking a contender out of the playoffs and of repeat games. One eliminates the risk of back-to-back rematches by not putting inter-division games in November. 4. The 5 + 5 alignment allows the OU game (as well as 4 other, by comparison, trivial) rivalries to remain interrupted, allows all teams to be played fairly frequently (see SEC, e.g., aggy-UGA for a contrast) while allowing more OOC games. 5. Just because KSU will schedule another trash game to pump up its record does not mean that we have to do so-- Texas can use the flexibility of one more OOC slot to combine interesting matchups with playing enough and interesting-enough home games. 6. If we really wanted to put our fingers close to the third rail in addressing "trash games" and TV inventory, we could include some asymmetric distribution of part of the next TV contract based on a formula that includes OOC viewership. 7. The clear path to the playoffs in the B12 should not be overlooked. The current conference superstructure more or less guarantees that Texas and OU, unless one is down, are one of the four super-regionals unto themselves.

Here's hoping for a speedy and uncomplicated recovery and for a 2019 that doesn't involve playing hurt.

You are right that the times they are a changing. I think two significant distinctions in the case of the OU game are that (1) we have long played it as OOC, and (2) it is a big part of their identity: they matter in Dallas in part because they are the other football pole opposed to the one to the south. And they would need a new hand-sign if they quit playing us. Also, that game makes TV money. Some network would surely try to get that to continue so as to get a cut of it.

We played OU before there was a SWC. We played them when we were conference-mates in SWC. We played them after they left the SWC. We play them as conference-mates in the B12. I would be surprised to see our series with them end, even should we head for different conferences (again).

Having a bifurcated conference in that it has a football arm and an other-sports arm could make a great deal of sense from an economic standpoint if travel were too expensive for some more remote schools and from a religious standpoint should BYU, e.g., need to keep Sunday free of athletic commitments. The best numbers for the football side would seem to be 12 or 9, depending on whether one prized playing all opponents annually versus having divisions and a title game. Texas, OU, Tech, and OSU are the core football schools, and Kansas is probably worth keeping in that arm for the money they get and the one win every team needs . KSU is hard to separate from Kansas, and that makes six. If it were a "Southwestern Conference" we build or join, the AZ schools are the obvious numbers 7 and 8. BYU would probably make sense for a football conference even if not for everything, and that is 9. No Baylor. To add more Texas (the state) flavor and permit a championship game, one could bring along a few more teams such as TCU, ISU, and Rice. The last one obviously would not carry its weight on TV ratings but has some other arguments in its favor. Who is #12 is a discussion I wouldn't try to settle in one message board post, clearly. All of this presupposes convincing Fenves/CDC to contemplate a divorce from the current arrangement and the leadership in AZ to do the same-- unlikely in my mind, but not impossible.

Maybe lock it and start a new one when we hit 999, then. Or better yet when we are on some forgettable number even earlier.

Patriotic former NFL player named Tillman? Good for him!

OK, aggy, you win. We give up and agree not to play you. Why don’t we put this series on hold at least 500 years after this GOR/conference expires or is extended. That will be, let me see, about the year 2527.

WHY DID THE T-SIP SAY MAKE LIKE A TREE AND SHOVE OFF? CUZ HE WAS SO DARN STUPID!

Ecce nimis senex est

I like #ATX21

μακάριος, ἀναπείρετε αὐτούς

Vīctus and victus have very different meanings, coming from different etymologies. The former is from a root relating to living and means living or nourishing. The latter is from a root relating to conquest and means conquered. If you are looking for a version of Roma Victa that means “Defeated Rome,” you already have it.

Billionaires who get richer from the comfort of a luxury box in conflict with millionaires who get rich playing a game. I won’t shed too many tears for either side.

Bill Nye trivia: he does not have an advanced degree nor any pure science (BS eng, Cornell 1977) degree. He worked days at Boeing and did comedy on the side until quitting engineering to do comedy full-time in 1986. He launched his TV show using federal grant money in 1993.

Good but looks like a mild case of microcephaly.

Aggy likes to talk about how even the series is lately, how they don't lie, cheat, or steal. The NCAA has publicly documented cheating with regard to AT LEAST the 82-88 and 92-94 aggy football seasons sufficient to warrant findings of MAJOR infractions. Taking out (not counting as forfeit, merely disregarding) aggy wins achieved while documented to be cheating, the H2H records for the last 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 games are: 7-3, 13-7, 19-11, 28-12, 37-13, 45-14-1, and 52-17-1, respectively. In no one of those ten-game-spans did they play us evenly. In case aggy is reading this and wonders, there is no multiple of 10 games, even counting the ones aggy is known to have cheated to win, going back from the present which could be used as a window to say aggy has won more than we have overall. Waah waah waaaaaah.

The wilderness through which we wandered before hiring Mack (and, some would argue, after keeping him on so long) should be a cautionary tale. Even blue bloods can have hard times. With Clemson looking so good, Mullen apparently bringing Florida back, Manny looking like he might stir some excitement in Miami, UGA being UGA, and Bama rolling along, there is not going to be an easy path to snapping up the players they need in order to win big. They are surrounded by ravenous wolves, and Florida recruits are more picked over nationally than they were when Bowden started his rise. If Taggart flames out as badly as he appears ready to do, they could be staring into the abyss.

For today's installment of "Texas fans are irrationally exuberant," we will compare and contrast Texas' deficiencies with the strengths of a team with a higher initial S&P+ rating for 2019, the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Texas: embarrassing early September loss to Maryland, 29-34 Minnesota: embarrassing late September loss to Maryland, 13-42 Texas: racked up 4 losses over the season, including only one over its last 5 games, to #5 OU (71% wins on season) Minnesota: 6 total losses, 2 in last 5 games, both to unranked teams (54% wins on season) Texas: won Sugar Bowl over #5 UGA, holding them to 72 yards rushing (30% of average) Minnesota: beat unranked GT in Quick Lane Bowl, limited GT to 206 rushing (63% of average) Texas: 5 wins over currently ranked teams Minnesota: winless against ranked opponents Texas: trending up, improved 5 wins in 2018 over previous regime in 2016 Minnesota: trending? still 2 wins in 2018 worse than previous regime in 2016 Texas: turns over much of defense, leaving only 7 returning defensive players who were rated over .95 composite Minnesota: loses both DTs but returns one defending player who was at least .89 In short, Texas did not do well enough, is not trending favorably enough, and looks exposed on defense compared to the higher-rated Gophers. Hopefully, this breakdown will help you Longhorn homers stop complaining that S&P+ is flawed or somehow has the 'Horns underrated at #35.