Damaramu

No Tommy Grady era. Though he did play in the Orange Bowl.....though it was at the end of the game when he had no shot of winning but hey he still played! He's having serious academic problems and can't even practice right now b/c of how messed up his grades are. He has to finish this August Intersession class he's in to even qualify. So I went to practice today and it was pretty cool. We started outside on the rugby field(my damn field that i practiced on when i played rugby) and then the rain and lightening came and it was like a fucking pick up game being moved. Football players were jumping in the back of each other's trucks or SUV's in full pads driving to the indoor facility. I was at the stop light and there was an Escalade full of OU players next to me with rap music blaring and everyone in the car talking loudly at the same time...I had my windows up and music on and I could hear everything they said! The thing that sucks about these practices is you wonder "Does the defense suck or is the offense really good?" and vice versa. Sometimes you can tell but then there's times where you're like "Good throw......good play from everyone.....what just happened?" I can say though that the scout team QB's suck. I did get to meet a lot of local sports writers though and introduce myself so it was a good day. Oh and I didn't get to finish posting pics earlier because I was at work and had to leave. That's Dusty Dvoracek. The DT that was kicked off the team last season for getting drunk and nearly killing a friend. He's recovering nicely from a bicep tear he suffered in the spring game. That's Paul Thompson setting up a play while scout team/4th string whatever joker looks on in the background. I don't know exactly who's in this pic but it looked cool. That's Dusty helping out like a good team captain instead of getting wasted and attacking someone. And that's AD taking the handoff from the 2nd summer practice and for some reason he still hasn't practiced in pads. Hey you guys should post pics of your teams practices too.

I still wonder if there's truth to the rumor that Matt Leinart is a disgusting slob but the nicest guy on the team. Well if we're posting practice pics: That's Paul Thompson. Our potential new QB. And Rhett Bomar. THe other.

That's kind of interesting that he does that. I'm going to OU football practice today to observe. I think it should be fun and maybe I'll see a nice hit from someone that wants a starting job.

As a devout follower of the McNabb I will just say that the Eagles will be in the Super Bowl. That is all. Is it weird that when people say "If you could be anyone for a day who would it be?" And everyone starts answering something profound to make themselves seem smarter I say "Donovan McNabb"?? I get some weird looks.

Truth be told, probably either Stoops or Jim Tressell, both of whom have teams that would benefit greatly by beating a highly ranked Texas team. I'd like to know who voted for Duke in the top 25. I thought about mentioning them, but at this point I have a hard time believing that they could beat both LSU and USC. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yeah I was thinking Stoops but Tressell didn't cross my mind. Does Stoops even have a vote? Which coaches have a vote? I remember Pete Caroll mentioning during the 2003 controversy something along the lines of "I'm glad that I don't have a vote b/c I'd hate to be forced to vote against my team in the end." Oh and I just realized that ASU has to play the last 2 national champions. Man that sucks. Didn't USC blow them out last year?

I wonder who the 2 coaches to vote for Texas were? Mack Brown and ????

Yeah Big East. I must have Pac 10 on the brain. The only thing I really heard about Louisville is that they have a tough non-conference game. I think that's what I heard...I don't know what the schedule looks like for them exactly. Ok so who are our national title contenders going into this year? Who all has a legit shot at the title? USC Tennessee LSU Florida maybe? Michigan tOSU Iowa Virginia Tech?(i think they could win the ACC) Miami?(i'm just thinking of ACC teams here) Louisville Texas OU Anyone else really a contender?

And Mack Brown didn't really campaign. He said in one interview after his game against Texas A&M something along the lines of "Well this team has played hard all year. You've seen what we can do and it'd be a crying shame to leave them out of the BCS." He didn't whine and he said it after that game. Everyone acts like he launched a month long campaign complete with TV ads that involved him breaking down into tears and talking about how great his team was. He didn't whine....if he whined then Cal's coach and Aaaron Rodgers are the biggest fucking babies ever. And all this stuff about Cal not being motivated. They're a fucking football team that's supposed to go out and try to win every game. They got embarassed by a team that shouldn't have been able to hold their jock. And don't tell me they weren't trying. Everyone predicted they'd come out angry and they'd crush Tech. They're a football team and they should act like it.

Then again nobody wants to give Texas ANY credit for the game at all.

He's 3rd stringer for the Titans.

Oh and another funny thing. Ric Flair was at OU practice yesterday.

One of my ultra PC friends who doesn't even like sports was telling me last night "This is just the beginning. They start small and now they'll get ride of other offensive names like the Indians and Braves! Enough bad press and they'll change anything!" I told him the Braves and Indians would never change their names but he just stubbornly said they would with enough bad press. I don't know how anyone could consider the Braves and Indians offensive. He tried to say "Because they're not indians! That's a mistake! They're Native Americans!" Then because we live in Oklahoma he started trying to tell me that OU shouldn't be called the Sooners b/c it's a deragatory name and was the name of criminals. Then I realized he was off his rocker on the PC bullshit.

Couple of things: -On the whole USC/LSU debate I finally admit that OU shouldn't have been in that game. I mean it would've been embarassing to be like "Hey look at my at-large national champs here" -the reason OU is ranked high is b/c well they always are. I know it's crappy but this is what the pollsters do. I honestly thought they'd be ranked 7 or 8 or even as low as 10(but not lower). honestly. -I doubt that if it comes down to a bunch of 1 loss teams that OU would get in if they were one of those teams and you all know that -I'm hoping that USC doesn't make it to Pasadena and we get a couple of teams that are never in the mix. Once again it'd be nice to see a title game without USC, tOSU, Miami, OU, and FSU(even though it's been a while for them). -Everyone is talking about these traditional powerhouses making it but there's a suprise every year that we aren't factoring in here. There could be a suprise team that jumps up and takes that spot and gets really good. Hell what about Louisville? They have a great shot to go undefeated. Especially in the Pac 10. -The Big XII South is still murderous and I truly believe 3 teams have a chance to win it(OU, Texas, and A&M) And any game you play at home or at a South team(except Baylor) will be a tough game worthy of consideration. On the flipside however any game you play in the North with the exception of maybe ISU should be a cakewalk.

I got home at 4 AM from being out and saw that it was on and I was dead tired but I was like "football.....must watch....." I watched the first half. Vick's interception wasn't bad and the safety made a great play but Manning's interception was just an awful rookie move. I like pre-season b/c you get to see the rookie's play. Hell it's my only chance probably to EVER see Jason White in the NFL.

Speaking of pre-season polls....the pre-season coaches poll has been released: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/rankingsindex And guess who's #2 and actually recieved 2 first place votes? Wow. 1. USC (60) 0-0 1,547 2. Texas (2) 0-0 1,405 3. Tennessee 0-0 1,259 4. Michigan 0-0 1,242 5. Oklahoma 0-0 1,223 6. LSU 0-0 1,109 7. Virginia Tech 0-0 1,090 8. Miami 0-0 1,080 9. Ohio State 0-0 1,033 10. Iowa 0-0 1,014 11. Florida 0-0 910 12. Florida State 0-0 879 13. Georgia 0-0 838 14. Louisville 0-0 758 15. Auburn 0-0 723 16. Purdue 0-0 616 17. Texas A&M 0-0 366 18. Arizona State 0-0 304 19. Boise State 0-0 303 20. California 0-0 293 21. Texas Tech 0-0 247 22. Boston College 0-0 237 23. Virginia 0-0 210 24. Alabama 0-0 194 25. Pittsburgh 0-0 193 Just b/c I haven't been shown my rampant homerism that everyone seems to want me to I will mention that OU has only failed to be ranked in the Top 10 since Oct. 2000 1 week. Just 1 week. Oh yeah. Anyways the pre-season rankings we know can screw certain teams(Auburn) and what have you and nobodies played football yet so we don't really know where everyone should be ranked but it's interesting to look at nonetheless.

Pre-season polls. Auburn would've been in that game if they weren't ranked lower going into the season. Why don't people complain about the pre-season polls as much as they do about the BCS? I gurantee you that if Auburn has been ranked like #3 going into last season they would've gone to Miami to play USC while OU would've shipped off to Tempe to play Utah.

Wasn't there a HS team one time named the "Fighting Whities"? And doesn't the Seminole tribe in Florida consider it an honor to be connected with an institution of higher learning? I've decided that all teams named "Cowboys" is offensive and gives a bad name to the men and women who pioneered the west. And USC and Troy State? Yeah they offend all roman sensibilities.

Thank you very much but I have been posting on these forums in all of their incarnations(back in the rantsylvania days) since No Way Out 2000!

Well I think the level of competition that they run into this year in the Rose Bowl may be something they aren't used to. Now OU was a talented team and the fact that they dismantled them speaks volumes about how great USC is. But I think the team they run into in the Rose Bowl be it Iowa, tOSU, LSU, or Tennessee I think will be worlds better than OU last year and will be better than what USC has faced in the past 2 years.

Everybody is assuming that USC will be in the title game. And with good reason. I'm not going to be dumb enough to pick against them being right there either. However aside from the Orange Bowl this is a team that struggled last year in some games. And they have taken a lot of key losses on the coaching staff. Does anyone think there is a possibility that they do stumble during the regular season and they don't make it to the Rose Bowl? I mean a national title game that doesn't involve: USC, FSU, OU, Miami, and OSU or some combination thereof would be nice.

Well it looks like Mark Clayton is still holding out and he's pissed off the head coach of the Ravens.......good job Mark ya dumbass. And I believe I saw on the news last night that Dan Cody injured his knee and apparently the Ravens drew up some packages that involved him and were actually going to use him and his piss poor attitude that suddenly got better in the NFL.

Lame. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> See now that's just trolling. I wasn't showing rampant homerism or really anything and you had to jump on me. See that's the problem with this forum. If I try to talk about OU normally or something aside from them people jump on me. When I posted that first thread that never mentioned OU I half expected someone to jump in and go "WHOO! BOOMER SOONER! HAHAHAHA!"

Has UCLA improved their rush defense? I remember Oklahoma State went down their and only threw 4 passes the entire game. And now OU is visiting them and with a running threat at QB and Adrian Peterson I don't see what UCLA will do unless they learn to stop the run more.

Well I still in my heart think that OU will win the Big XII and beat Texas for a 6th straight year. I'm just looking at it realistically and they are a very very young team. They have more talent on defense this year but less on offense but they do still have AD. Yeah White cracked against KSU, LSU, and USC. But think about at Texas A&M. One of the most hostile places in the country to play and he led them back from being down 2 TD's in that game. Hell I think he had 5 TD passes. I don't think the young QB's can do that this year. But hell they get A&M at home and I posted how bad they beat A&M in Norman. So yes while I think as a fan they will get the job done. As just an observer I think it'll be tough.

Of the major conferences which one do you guys think is the most wide open one? Which is the hardest to predict?