Inasmuch as the NCAA prohibits direct monetary compensation of the professional athletes who provide entertainment for us by engaging in big-time college football, one of the ways in which universities provide indirect compensation for the athletes is by building luxurious “spa facilities” for the athletes to enjoy while providing their services for the benefit of the universities. This means of indirect compensation has resulted in an “arm’s race” of such spa facilities between various big-time college football programs. The latest institution to jump into the arm’s race is Oklahoma State University, which is riding the crest of the Boone Pickens’ $250 million contribution to the institution’s athletic programs. Check out this video depicting the new facilities that will result from Pickens’ contribution.
And this isn’t professional football?

Sticking with the sports theme of today’s posts, Missouri’s surprisingly decisive victory over the Texas Tech Red Raiders last Saturday apparently prompted Tech head coach Mike Leach to channel the judge in OJ Simpson’s murder trial to explain the Raiders’ pratfall:

“What happens with players, [it’s] just like Judge Lance Ito gets in the middle of a big trial and decides it’s more important for him to be a movie star than it is to be a judge,” said Leach, referring to the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial. “He had problems doing his [job] from one snap to the next.
“So if it can happen to good old Judge Ito, I’m sure it can happen to 18-22-year-olds.”

It can happen to football coaches, too.
Leach has developed an idiosyncratic and generally effective offense at Tech, but he has largely ignored the development of a strong enough defensive component to make Tech a truly balanced, conference championship-caliber program. Earlier this season, immediately after Mike Gundy went batshit, Leach unceremoniously fired Tech’s defensive coordinator, who happened to be Tech’s most experienced and admired assistant coach. Leach elevated a position coach to defensive coordinator and Tech’s defensive limitations were disguised during its next three games, which were wins over teams with easily-defended offenses (Northwestern State, Iowa State and Texas A&M). However, when exposed to Missouri’s salty offense this past Saturday, the Red Raiders’ defense wilted, just as it did earlier in the season during the Oklahoma State game. The Red Raiders have suffered from a similar syndrome during each of Leach’s eight years at Tech.
Thus, Leach’s teams run up big scores and statistics against teams of inferior ability, but struggle against well-balanced teams of equal or better ability. Tech under Leach has never played in a Big 12 championship game. His treatment of assistant coaches is unlikely to result in the development of a strong coaching staff. Despite his relentless self-promotion, Leach’s Tech program appears to elevate form over substance and may well have peaked. If it has, the descent is not likely to be pleasant.
Update: Coach Leach has a selective memory, too.

(AP Photo/Dave Einsel; previous weekly reviews here)
Titans 38 Texans 36

The local mainstream media view of the Texans (3-4) — most recently reflected by Richard Justice’s Sunday column of yesterday (see also this earlier column) — is that the team has improved dramatically under second year coach Gary Kubiak and that it’s just a matter of time before the team becomes a playoff contender. As noted in my annual preview, I’m not so sure.
When Texans owner Bob McNair decided to fire original Texans General Manager Charlie Casserly and head coach Dom Capers after the team bottomed out with a 2-14 record during Year Four (2005), he changed the management model of the team from its original “strong GM” model to the “strong head coach” model that the Broncos have used during the Shanahan era. Inasmuch as Kubiak had no head coaching experience when McNair hired him to lead the Texans’ strong coach model, I thought the decision at the time was certainly open to question.
Through seven games of Kubiak’s second season, the decision remains open to question. Kubiak had a pass during his first season (6-10) last year and probably has another one this season as he incorporates a new QB into his system. The team’s personnel has certainly improved, but that would have happened under virtually any competent coach that McNair would have hired. The Texans’ offense — Kubiak’s supposed speciality — remains generally awful as Kubiak overpaid for an aging and marginally productive running back this past off-season rather than upgrading the chronically deficient offensive line, which has become hazardous to the health of Texans QB’s.
So, the clock will be ticking quite loudly next season unless the Texans begin to show dramatic improvement (even Justice is starting to question Kubiak). After losing four of their last five and with a West Coast swing against the Chargers (3-3) and the Raiders (2-4) coming up over the next two weeks before the Texans’ bye week, the under bet on my pre-season over/under number for Texans’ victories (7) is starting to look pretty good.

Texas Aggies 36 Nebraska 14

The Ags (6-2/3-1) trampled the outmanned Cornhuskers (4-4/1-3) into submission in the Buyout Bowl. Unfortunately for the Aggies, each of the Aggies’ remaining opponents have the ability to slow down A&M’s rushing attack. And we know what happens when the Ags have to utilize such modern innovations as the forward pass. The Ags host Big 12 surprise team Kansas (7-0/3-0) at Kyle Field next Saturday.

Texas Longhorns 31 Baylor 10

The Horns (6-2/2-2) allowed Baylor (3-4/0-3) to hang around for most of the game and almost paid for it. The Horns have struggling Nebraska (4-4/1-3) at home next Saturday before closing at Okie State (5-3/3-1), home against Tech (6-2/2-2) and at A&M (6-2/3-1). Incredibly, a BCS Bowl game is not out of the question if the Longhorns win out.

Houston Cougars 49 Alabama-Birmingham 10

This one was over before halftime as the explosive Coogs (4-3/3-1) finally put together a complete game against the overmatched Blazers (2-5/1-2) at a nearly deserted Legion Field (holds around 75,000 or so) in Birmingham. The Cougars have generated over 1,200 yards in total offense and 15 touchdowns in the past two games. The Cougars will likely have a considerably tougher game next Saturday in El Paso against UTEP (4-3/2-1), though.

Memphis 38 Rice 35

The Owls (1-6/1-2) generated over 500 yards to total offense and lost because their injury-plagued defense cannot stop a hard-chargin’ marching band, much less a reasonably competent offense. The game was played before less than 10,000 fans at Rice Stadium, which holds over 70,000. Isn’t Conference USA football great? The Owls have a winnable game next Saturday against winless Marshall (0-6/0-2).

As you settle in for an afternoon of watching NFL football games, check out this entertaining post providing videos of the 15 greatest football catches of all-time. Some of the comments are pretty clever, too, such as the one relating to the catch of Oklahoma State wide receiver Adarius Bowman that made the list:

“[The catch] was even more impressive because that catch was made under the enormous pressure that comes with playing in the Independence Bowl.”

As noted in the review of the Texas-Iowa State game earlier this week, big-time college football coaching is a wacky way to make a living.
Take, for example, Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy. When he went famously batshit during a post-game press conference earlier this season, I figured that it was just a matter of time before Boone Pickens and the university athletic director carted Coach Gundy off to a padded cell and replaced him with another coach. I mean, it’s not as if Okie State (4-3, 2-1) is having all that great a season this year.
But now, according to this New York Times article, Coach Gundy’s decision to go nuclear may have saved his job:

The incident was one of YouTubeís most-watched videos last month and has been spoofed by a Norman, Okla., car dealership in a television commercial.
It led to a Web site called mikegundyismadatyou.com, which features e-cards from his tirade, prompted an Australian magazine to call it ìAmerican football brain explosionî and inspired wildly popular ìIím a man! Iím 40!î T-shirts. [. . .]
Gundy has seemingly benefited on and off the field. Since the incident, Oklahoma State (4-3, 2-1 Big 12) is 2-1, including the Cowboysí first victory at Nebraska since 1960.
Gundy . . . is now more recognizable nationally, according to marketing experts, and recruits say his defense of Reid makes them more interested in playing for him. Gundy said he was surprised at the attention that the incident sparked, but he insisted he had no regrets.
ìOver a period of time, it should make an impact on our program in a positive way,î he said in an e-mail message sent through a university spokesman.
Jordan Bazant, a partner of The Agency Sports Management, said Gundyís response was already paying off for him from a marketing perspective.
ìItís ultimately going to come down to performance on the field, but people that saw that saw an honest person,î Bazant said in a telephone interview.
He added: ìIt was really an honest outburst. Thatís what people are attracted to. They want to be associated with someone that they view has the same values.î
Bazant said he could not estimate the value in advertising dollars that Gundy received.
ìItís millions upon millions of dollars,î he said. ìIt would be impossible to get that. You couldnít even buy that much. You really couldnít even from a practical standpoint.î
Cyrus Gray, a senior at DeSoto High School and the top uncommitted tailback in Texas, said Gundyís response to Carlson made Oklahoma State more appealing. [. . .]
ìI like that in a coach,î he said in a telephone interview. ìHe stood up for his players. He cares for them and not just himself.î [. . .]
Kevin Klintworth, the Oklahoma State director of athletic media relations, said that less than 5 percent of the 3,000 e-mail messages the athletic department received about Gundy were negative.
ìIt was just so overwhelming,î Klintworth said in a telephone interview. ìI think some of the people werenít so much supportive of Mike as they were in support of someone standing up to the media a little bit.î

Of course, after Gundy’s outburst, it was just a matter of time before the following spoof Bud Light beer commercial turned up, but it’s still pretty clever:

And the recent Saturday Night Live spoof NBC commercial for Notre Dame football isn’t bad, either:

Hat tip to Jay Christensen for both of the above videos.

Oh, how far the mighty have fallen!
In Lincoln, Nebraska tomorrow, the Texas A&M Aggies take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers in what has been dubbed “the Buyout Bowl,” because of the tenuous hold that Aggie coach Dennis Franchione and NU coach Bill Callahan currently have on their jobs. In trying to handicap the game, Wann Smith can’t figure out who to favor:

Texas A&M at Nebraska (-2). This game is a real poser. Since someone has to win, we’ll pick Nebraska at home. But waitÖNebraska’s home field advantage has been a joke this season hasn’t it? So, I guess we’ll take the Aggies and the points. Just a minuteÖhold the busÖFranchione has somehow managed to blow both of his road games this season, and by a ton of points each time. Hang on a secÖ I’d better consult the Magic 8 Ball. The 8 Ball, when asked if Nebraska would win repliedÖ ‘Hazy Now, Ask Again Later.’ When asked whether Texas A&M would win, it replied ‘Ask VIP Connection.’ We tried that but our link was directed instead to firedennisfranchione.com.
Aggies by 3

Meanwhile, over in Florida, nostalgic thoughts about when the annual game between Florida State and Miami actually meant something on the national stage prompted Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel to observe the following about this year’s FSU-Miami game, the first in which both foes are unranked since 1977:

This is like showing up at your 25-year reunion and finding out that the couple voted ìBest Lookingî in the high school yearbook has somehow turned into Paul Shaffer and Yoko Ono.

The Dallas Morning News’ Kevin Sherrington observes that the NCAA’s the absurdly-high salaries of big-time college football coaches has a high price:

Football coaches at most Top 25 programs draw salaries equivalent to Fortune 500 CEOs, but they don’t generate similar revenues.
How do they rate their paydays then? Coaches simply benefit from an arms-race mentality in college sports. You can’t compete without an indoor practice facility, luxury suites, a weight room the size of a football field or a head coach drawing less than seven figures.

As noted in previous posts here, here and here, big-time college coaches benefit from the NCAA’s regulation of compensation for players. Inasmuch as the NCAA does not allow direct compensation of the players for the money being generated, the money has to go somewhere — i.e., into the wallets of the coaches. However, if the players were paid market compensation for the income that they generate, then the money paid to the players would not be available for the coaches. In all likelihood, the compensation of coaches would decrease.
As I’ve noted on several occasions, big-time college sports is an entertaining form of corruption. But if the institutions want to continue competing at that level, treating big-time college sports as a true business and compensating the players for the income they generate sure seems like a more honest way to approach it.

(AP Photo/Phil Coale)(previous weekly reviews here)
Jaguars 37 Texans 17

The conventional mainstream media wisdom coming into the Texans’ (3-3) game this weekend at Jacksonville (4-1) was that the Texans’ lagging rushing attack would be revived by the return of injured RB Ahman Green. Well, after Green ran for a total of 44 yards on 16 carries and failed to get in the end zone twice from the 2 yard line on the Texans’ opening drive of the game, so much for that theory.
As noted earlier here and here, despite the local media’s love affair with Texans head coach Gary Kubiak, there is actually much to question regarding the direction of his team, particularly the offense. Green appears to be an overpaid, fragile has-been and the play of the offensive line has not been substantially upgraded since Kubiak’s arrival as head coach. Moreover, even though Texans QB Matt Schuab is a decided improvement over former QB David Carr (faint praise, given the latter’s incompetence), Schaub failed to get the Texans in the end zone against the Jags after doing it only once against a bad Miami team last week, he had a fumble returned by the Jags for a touchdown and he threw an interception that set up another Jags’ TD.
The Texans face former UT star QB Vince Young (injured Sunday, so he may not play) and the Titans (3-2) next week at Reliant before heading on a West Coast swing with games against the Chargers (3-3) and Raiders (2-3) in the following two weeks heading into the team’s off week. After a 2-0 start, it’s looking as if an above .500 record as of the open week is a longshot for the Texans.

Houston Cougars 56 Rice 48

As noted in several previous weekly football reviews, Houston Cougar games are simply different from typical college football games.
This one was actually three different games in one. Over the 1st quarter, the Coogs dominated the game and led 28-14. But then, from the beginning of the 2nd quarter through about five minutes or so of the 3rd quarter, the Owls pasted the Coogs, 26-0. Finally, the Cougars regrouped behind the phenomenal waterbug RB Allen Alridge and a couple of Rice turnovers to win the latter part of the 3rd quarter and the 4th quarter, 28-8, to pull out the victory.
Although the Cougars rolled up 748 yards total offense, this one was closer than it should have been because of five Cougar turnovers and the Houston defense’s inability to stop Rice QB Chase Clement, who threw for a career high 355 yards on 24 of 44 passes. But Alridge (4 TD’s, 205 yds on 24 carries, with 111 of those yards and two of the TD’s coming in the 4th quarter) and WR Donnie Avery (a record setting 427 total yards, including 346 receiving) were simply too much for the injury-depleted Owl defense to overcome.
The Cougars (3-3/2-1) now go on the road for games against UAB (2-4/1-1) and UTEP (4-3/2-1) over the next two weeks, while the Owls (1-5/1-1) attempt to regroup at home against Memphis (2-4/1-1). Houston’s success in its remaining games will likely be related directly to the team’s ability to control its turnovers, while I’m mildly optimistic that Rice’s improving offense will be able to compensate for the Owls’ porous defense by outscoring several foes during the second half of the season.

Texas Tech 35 Texas Aggies 7

The only question remaining after this debacle is whether A&M (5-2/2-1) head coach Dennis Franchione will actually make it through the rest of the season. Based on the Aggies’ sorry performance against Tech, don’t bet on it.
Remarkably, the Aggies took a 7-0 lead in this one on an opening drive entirely on the ground and were driving for a second TD in Tech territory when the Red Raiders coaching staff decided to stick nine defensive players in the box to slow down the Ags’ rushing attack. In an incredible display of coaching incompetence, the Aggies’ passing game was so insipid that QB Stephen McGee could not force the Raiders’ defenders to take the forward pass seriously. Tech’s high-powered offense finally got untracked and the Raiders pulled away to win easily. The Franchione Termination March next travels to Nebraska (4-3/1-2), which is going through a similar meltdown to what the Aggies are experiencing. NU may just be the Aggies’ best chance for a victory in their final five games of the season.

Texas Longhorns 56 Iowa State 3

As you may recall, I questioned (here and here) the wisdom of Iowa State’s (1-6/0-3) decision at the end of last season to replace my friend Dan McCarney with former UT defensive coordinator Gene Chizik as the Cyclones’ head coach. Chizik’s first ISU team looked utterly rudderless against the Horns (5-2/1-2), who have another scrimmage next week against Baylor (3-4/0-3).
Meanwhile, my friend is making a substantial contribution to the nation’s new no. 2 ranked team.
Big-time college coaching is a wacky business.

What is it about Texas A&M University that the institution cannot fire a football coach correctly?

The slowly disintegrating status of A&M head football coach Dennis Franchione has been a frequent topic on this blog for almost two years now. Although yesterday’s development in the saga was bizarre — A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne holding a press conference to announce in the middle of the football season essentially that Coach Fran is kaput as A&M’s head coach after this season — it was not particularly unusual in view of A&M’s rather dubious tradition in dealing with its football coaches.

Take what happened in 1978, for example.

A&M head coach Emory Bellard, the originator of the Wishbone offense while serving as Darrell Royal’s offensive coordinator at Texas in the late 1960’s, had been hired by A&M in 1972 to resurrect the floundering Aggie football program.

By the 1978 season, Bellard had led the Aggies to three straight bowl games and the Aggies seemed poised to become a national power that season.

By week five of the 1978 season, Bellard’s Aggies were rolling at 4-0 and were rated no. 6 in the Associated Press Top 20 poll.

Bellard was reaching the pinnacle of his popularity at A&M as the Ags prepared to face Houston, which had not been particularly impressive and had lost in their first game of the season to a Memphis State team that the Ags had crushed at home 58-0 a couple of weeks earlier. Moreover, the week before, the Coogs had barely beaten winless Baylor, 20-18.

Thousands of Aggies descended on Houston’s Astrodome fully expecting the Aggies to continue their winning ways over the underdog Cougars.

Unfortunately for the Ags, Houston head coach Bill Yeoman, one of the brightest and most creative college football coaches of his time, had put together a brilliant game plan for this particular game.

Taking advantage of the Aggies unbridled over-aggressiveness, Yeoman devised a series of traps, draw plays and screen passes to supplement his famous Veer option attack that utterly befuddled the Aggies. In the meantime, an aroused Cougar defense stuffed the vaunted Aggie Wishbone and never allowed it to get untracked.

By halftime, the unranked Cougars led the no. 6 team in the country 33-0 and the large Aggie contingent in the Astrodome was absolutely stunned. Neither team scored in the 2nd half and the game ended, Houston 33 Texas A&M 0.

Back in those days, most head coaches supplemented their salaries by conducting a show the day after the game in which they went over the film highlights of the previous game. Bellard’s show the Sunday after the Houston upset was absolutely brutal.

Bellard addressed the camera by himself with no studio host to toss him some softball questions to defuse the anxiety of the humbling defeat. With literally no highlights of Aggie plays from the debacle, Coach Bellard was left to reviewing various Houston highlights from the game and explaining what the Aggie players did wrong in allowing the Cougar players to perform such feats. Coach Bellard looked haggard and utterly demoralized.

After watching the show with me, my late father turned to me and observed: “I hope Mrs. Bellard has removed all guns and sharp objects from their home for awhile.”

At any rate, the Ags dropped to no. 12 after the Houston game and began preparations for their next game against an 0-5 Baylor team that had played one of the toughest schedules in the country.

In arguably one of the worst games in the history of Kyle Field, that winless Baylor squad hammered the listless Aggies 24-6, as a previously unheralded freshman running back named Walter Abercrombie ran over and through the Aggies for 207 yards.

In the span of two weeks, what had been the no. 6 team in the land had been outscored 57-6.

Coach Bellard resigned the next day under intense pressure (one large sign hanging from an A&M dorm window at the time urged “Make Emory a Memory”).

In only two weeks, he had gone from being the King of Aggieland to quitting the job that he had always coveted.

To this day, Bellard’s demise and Texas A&M’s reaction to it over those two weeks is one of the more fascinating sociological events that I have witnessed during my 45 years in Texas.

So, placed in that context, yesterday’s developments regarding Coach Franchione are not all that unusual in Aggieland.

But what is interesting is that the Aggies (5-1/2-0) currently lead the Big 12 South Division as they travel to Lubbock this Saturday to meet their high-powered nemesis, Texas Tech (5-1/1-1).

Although the Red Raiders have beaten the Aggies regularly during Coach Fran’s tenure and are 8 point favorites to do so again on Saturday, my sense is that the Ags actually have a better chance than usual to beat Tech this time.

The Aggies have the type of ball control offense to keep Tech’s high-powered offense off the field and Tech’s defense is in such utter disarray that Coach Mike Leach recently fired his best defensive assistant coach. So, this might just be the year that Coach Fran’s Aggie team breaks through against Tech at Lubbock.

But will such a win save Coach Fran’s job?

Don’t count on it.

Even if the Ags upset Tech, they play at Nebraska next, then host a revived Kansas team before playing difficult games at Oklahoma and Missouri.

And, oh yeah, don’t forget about that traditional final game of the season the day after Thanksgiving against a Texas team that will be looking for revenge after last year’s A&M upset of the Horns that may have saved Franchione’s job for this season.

Heck, Gordon Smith even thinks that A&M may have a decent case for terminating Franchione’s contract for cause, which would relieve A&M from the requirement of “buying out” the contract if A&M were to terminate the contract “without cause” or, stated another way, for simply not winning enough football games.

That would be unusual because the Aggie way normally is to fire football coaches for not winning enough football games.