There's no game on tomorrow's TV schedule as interesting as last week's slugfest between LSU and Alabama. At 11:00, Oklahoma State plays at Texas Tech as a huge (17.5 point) favorite. Don't like either team, and I can't see the red raiders putting up much of a struggle. The other 11:00 am game features Texas U at Missouri. Normally my formula would require me to root for Texas since Missouri has beaten the Aggies twice since the last time the longhorns did. Some old habits die hard, though. Even though the horns are favored by 1 as the visiting team, I want to see Missouri get the upset. Fuck Texas. Missouri is joining the SEC next year, which seems appropriate in view of their three-game winning streak over A&M.
Speaking of TAMU, they're on TV again tomorrow at 2:30 and favored (4.5 points) at Kansas State, if you can believe that. Most of the online prediction gurus don't, and KSU is the near-unanimous pick. Erick Smith at the USA Today Weekend Forecast calls it 31-30 in favor of the home team. The Aggies haven't beaten a good team all year, unless you count Baylor and Tech as good, and time is running out for them to salvage something from the season. This may be KSU's last chance to repay the Aggies for that upset loss in the 1998 Big 12 championship game, and the Aggies will have to show me more good stuff tomorrow than they have all year to leave Manhattan with the W.
In some ways, the Sherman regime is beginning to look like the Dennis Franchione regime that preceded it. Franchione and Sherman both went 4-8 in their first seasons, then won enough games in their second years to make bowl games in which they both were beaten soundly by middle-of-the-pack SEC teams (Franchione by Tennessee, Sherman by Georgia).
Every time it seemed like Franchione had turned the corner, he backslid the following season. In year two, he followed 4-8 with 7-5 (and the bowl loss), but in year three fell back to 5-6. Things improved to 9-4 in year four, then tailed off again (7-6) in Fran's fifth (and final) season.
Sherman followed his 4-8 debut with 6-7 (including the bowl loss), then improved to 9-4 (with another bowl loss to an SEC opponent). Still, he seemed to have broken out of the pattern set by Franchione -- improving his W/L record by 2 or 3 games each year. Fran's fourth season was his best overall, but Sherman's may be his first backsliding season. As it stands now, he'll have to run the table (including a bowl win) just to equal his record in 2010, and a two-win improvement is mathematically impossible.
Added 3:48 pm, Saturday: Oklahoma State destroyed Tech, 66-6. No surprise there. Missouri atoned for their OT win against the Aggies by knocking off the longhorns 17-5. The Aggies are ahead of K-State 14-7 in the second quarter. Another Tannehill interception set up the KSU score (33 yard drive). Under 4 minutes left in the first half. A tough game, as expected.
Added 5:50 pm, Saturday: A game-saving tackle ? Fourth quarter, Aggies with the ball leading 28-21. Cyrus Gray breaks out and heads downfield on what appears to be the deciding TD run. After 60-odd yards, a K-State defender lunges and makes the proverbial ankle tackle. Gray skids to a halt inside the 10, and the Aggies end up kicking an 18-yard FG to lead by only ten points rather than fourteen. On their next posession, K-State hits a long bomb and suddenly the score is 31-28. Watching another second half lead slip away is too much for me to handle, which is why I'm at the keyboard instead of watching the tube.
Speaking of TAMU, they're on TV again tomorrow at 2:30 and favored (4.5 points) at Kansas State, if you can believe that. Most of the online prediction gurus don't, and KSU is the near-unanimous pick. Erick Smith at the USA Today Weekend Forecast calls it 31-30 in favor of the home team. The Aggies haven't beaten a good team all year, unless you count Baylor and Tech as good, and time is running out for them to salvage something from the season. This may be KSU's last chance to repay the Aggies for that upset loss in the 1998 Big 12 championship game, and the Aggies will have to show me more good stuff tomorrow than they have all year to leave Manhattan with the W.
In some ways, the Sherman regime is beginning to look like the Dennis Franchione regime that preceded it. Franchione and Sherman both went 4-8 in their first seasons, then won enough games in their second years to make bowl games in which they both were beaten soundly by middle-of-the-pack SEC teams (Franchione by Tennessee, Sherman by Georgia).
Every time it seemed like Franchione had turned the corner, he backslid the following season. In year two, he followed 4-8 with 7-5 (and the bowl loss), but in year three fell back to 5-6. Things improved to 9-4 in year four, then tailed off again (7-6) in Fran's fifth (and final) season.
Sherman followed his 4-8 debut with 6-7 (including the bowl loss), then improved to 9-4 (with another bowl loss to an SEC opponent). Still, he seemed to have broken out of the pattern set by Franchione -- improving his W/L record by 2 or 3 games each year. Fran's fourth season was his best overall, but Sherman's may be his first backsliding season. As it stands now, he'll have to run the table (including a bowl win) just to equal his record in 2010, and a two-win improvement is mathematically impossible.
Added 3:48 pm, Saturday: Oklahoma State destroyed Tech, 66-6. No surprise there. Missouri atoned for their OT win against the Aggies by knocking off the longhorns 17-5. The Aggies are ahead of K-State 14-7 in the second quarter. Another Tannehill interception set up the KSU score (33 yard drive). Under 4 minutes left in the first half. A tough game, as expected.
Added 5:50 pm, Saturday: A game-saving tackle ? Fourth quarter, Aggies with the ball leading 28-21. Cyrus Gray breaks out and heads downfield on what appears to be the deciding TD run. After 60-odd yards, a K-State defender lunges and makes the proverbial ankle tackle. Gray skids to a halt inside the 10, and the Aggies end up kicking an 18-yard FG to lead by only ten points rather than fourteen. On their next posession, K-State hits a long bomb and suddenly the score is 31-28. Watching another second half lead slip away is too much for me to handle, which is why I'm at the keyboard instead of watching the tube.
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