Daily Archives: November 27, 2006

The UH Memorial Service for Ross M. Lence

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In a fitting tribute on the final day of classes for the fall semester, the University of Houston will host a memorial service for its late and beloved Professor, Ross M. Lence, at 1:30 p.m., this Friday, December 1 in the AD Bruce Religion Center on the UH campus. Dr. Lence died this past July after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.

UH Honors College Dean Ted Estess and several of Ross’ colleagues, former students and friends (including me) will give short remembrances of Ross during the service, which will also include music performed by Honors College students. A reception will follow the service at the Commons of the the Honors College, which is a short walk from the Religion Center. Later that day at 7 p.m., the University of Houston football team will play Southern Mississippi in the Conference USA Championship game at Robertson Stadium on the UH campus, a game that Dr. Lence would not have missed.

Ross Lence was one of the most gifted teachers of our time and a selfless mentor to hundreds of students and colleagues. If you were touched by Ross or simply want to pay tribute to a treasure of our community, then come by the service and reception on Friday afternoon. You will be inspired.

Houston’s Mr. Fix-It returns to Washington

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baker112606.jpgThis NY Sunday Times article reviews Former White House Chief of Staff, Secretary of State and Secretary of Treasury James Baker, III co-chairmanship of the Iraq Study Group, which is currently scheduled to deliver its report to the President by mid-December. Mr. Baker, who spends most of his time these days at the Baker Institute at Houston’s Rice University, is described in the article as wanting the chairmanship of the Iraq Group to be the template for his role as an elder statesman in the coming years:

Now, at 76, Mr. Baker is in high diplomat mode, on a mission, friends and supporters say, to aid his country and his president ó and, while he is at it, seal his legacy in the realm of statesmen, a sphere he cares about far more than politics.
ìI think heíd like to be remembered as a 21st-century Disraeli,î said Leon Panetta, a Democratic member of the group, referring to the 19th-century British statesman and prime minister. ìI think deep down he is someone who believes that his diplomatic career, in many ways, helped change the world.î

Read the entire article.

2006 Weekly local football review

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mcgee-06tu10.jpgTexas Aggies 12 Texas Longhorns 7

In the signature moment of Dennis Franchione’s mostly rocky tenure at A&M, the Aggies (9-3, 5-3) rode a magnificent defensive performance and an already legendary 16-play, almost 9 minute, 88-yard fourth quarter TD drive to hand the Longhorns (9-3, 6-2) a BCS bowl-bashing loss. The Aggies surprisingly battered the Horns nation-leading run defense with almost 250 yards rushing, while the Aggie defense gave up only about 160 yards after the Horns came up empty on their initial 75 yard drive to open the game. Horns QB Colt McCoy did not look sharp coming off his injury in the Horns’ previous loss to KSU, and Horns coach Mack Brown’s decision to go with McCoy in the game re-triggered discussion of Brown’s often dubious QB decisions during the pre-Vince Young era. Both the Ags and the Horns will be going to top-flight bowl games, but it won’t be determined which ones until after the Oklahoma-Nebraska Big 12 championship game next week.

Rice 31 SMU 27

Placing an exclamation point on the one of the best stories of the college football season, the Owls (7-5,6-2) pulled out another come-from-behind win to qualify for a post-season bowl game for the first time since the 1961 season. The win was particularly impressive given that the Owls played without star QB Chase Clement, who sat out the game (except for one pass) with an injury. The win also prompted the Chronicle to notice the Owls by finally giving them a headline and a couple of well-deserved front page stories. Heck, the Chronicle even ran a story on another remarkable story that it has ignored for most of the season, Houston RB/WR Anthony Alridge. Better late than never, I guess. The Owls now wait a week or so for their bowl assignment, which quite likely will be in Ft. Worth.

Jets 26 Texans 11

In a game that was unwatchable, the Texans (3-8) rode the incessant mediocrity of QB David Carr to yet another loss in the weak portion of their schedule. As usual, Carr — who appears to be a very nice young man with almost no leadership skills whatsoever — was 39 for 54 for 321 yards with a late TD, one interception, and four sacks, but that included a 19-of-24 performance for 162 yards in the final 8 minutes when the game was largely out of reach. That works out to around a 4.63 yards per pass (YPA), which is horrible and not close to a rate that is required to win consistently in the NFL. In this Weekend Journal article from over the weekend, Allen St. John explores YPA, a simple statistic that is a far better measure of a QB’s true effectiveness than the NFL’s arcane and misleading QB rating. Carr’s YPA is pedestrian this season, as it has been for his entire career. Even more revealing, though, is that Carr’s offensive teammates simply do not respond positively to Carr. It’s time for the Texans to make the change at QB and let Carr attempt to create a productive NFL career for himself elsewhere. It is not going to happen here. The Texans go to Oakland next week to play the equally hapless Raiders (2-9) before returning home the following week to play Vince Young Bowl II against the Titans (4-7).