Football - Weekend Review

The three teams I thought would be the nation's best were all beaten within a three-day span.

- Oregon State stunned USC in Corvallis
- Ole Miss shocked Florida in The Swamp
- Alabama manhandled Georgia Between the Hedges

That leaves the college football landscape shrouded in uncertainty.

Is Alabama really the second-best team in the country? Right now, maybe, but I doubt that'll be the case for the remainder of the season. When I think of Alabama playing Oklahoma, I immediately pencil in OU as the winner. However, I think Georgia, despite the loss, is a more talented team than OU, and considering that, maybe Alabama could beat the top-ranked Sooners.

What I can't get out of my head is the Nov. 8 Saban Bowl -- Bama at LSU. My foam at the mouth just thinking about how awesome it will be to watch these two sets of lines battle. Alabama's offensive line vs. LSU's defensive line should be glorious; think about OT Andre Smith facing DE Tyson Jackson, and C Antoine Caldwell battling DTs Ricky Jean-Francois and Marlon Favorite. On the other side, imagine watching Bama man mountain DT Terrence Cody (6-5, 365) against LSU G Herman Johnson (6-8, 350), the largest baby ever born in Louisiana (almost 15 pounds).

I attended the Texas-Arkansas bloodletting and came away impressed by the Horns' new end zone complex, which pushes capacity to more than 98,000. It doesn't even look like the same stadium, and although I was sitting about a mile from the field, I could tell that with one end completely closed that the noise level now is higher than it was before when both ends were open.

I also left DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium knowing that DE Brian Orakpo is a grown man. He wreaked havoc on Casey Dick and the 'Backs all afternoon. I think he's a solid candidate as an NFL hybrid LB prospect.

Sunday, I attended my first professional football game: Washington at Dallas.

I offer two numbers that explain why Dallas lost -- 47 and 11. That's Dallas' passing attempts vs. Dallas' rushing attempts.

Wow.

You can't win in the NFL when your offense is that unbalanced, especially when the opponent's running 35 times and with success.

From an experience standpoint, NFL can't hang with college, and that includes the Texas-Arkansas game, which was very laid back and low key. Pro fans often think college loyalists are snobs, but I've got to side with the college folks on this one. Pro fans are more obnoxious in general and appear more likely to incite barroom brawls. (This theory, of course, does not pertain to Oklahoma Sooner fans.)

Overall, it was a good weekend. Two football games and a Saturday supper on the road of Chicken Express outside Round Rock. Plus, Sunday's NFL matchup was free for us thanks to my friend's business hookup.

I'm looking forward to these college games this weekend .....

- No. 1 Oklahoma at Baylor, 11:30 a.m.
- Kentucky at No. 2 Alabama, 2:30 p.m.
- Florida State at Miami, 2:30 p.m.
- No. 13 Auburn at No. 19 Vanderbilt, 5 p.m.
- No. 5 Texas at Colorado

Thank goodness ...

Good news breaking in the "Worst Sports Headline of the Day" world ...

From ESPN.com ...

"Packers: Harris' spleen injury may not end season"

What a relief. I'm glad Al Harris' spleen ailment won't end the NFL's 2008 season. Such good news.

Wednesday's LNJ college football column

Here's the link. Knock yourselves out.

http://www.news-journal.com/sports/content/sports/stories/2008/09/24/09242008_brookscolumn.html

Worst. Team. Promo. Ever.

I won't even try to explain. Just watch. It's ... man. Just watch.

Sept. 17 LNJ college football column

Here you go. Top five games of the best college football weekend so far this season.

http://www.news-journal.com/search/content/sports/stories/2008/09/17/09172008_brookscolumn.html

Let me know what you think.

My weekend

Friday - Traveled to Lindale to watch Pine Tree play Lindale. Pine Tree totalled all of 99 yards of offense, blew a 15-7 halftime lead, and fell 29-15.

Sent my story from the LaQuinta in Lindale right off I-20. Got back to the office and didn't hang around long because I had volunteered (for some reason) to work news side Saturday with Ike making landfall and heading northward into the glorious ArkLaTex.

Stayed up until about 2:20 a.m., wanting to see Ike make landfall before I went to bed.

Saturday - Woke up at 5:45 a.m. Checked the weather. Ike was still a good ways away, which I expected. Got back in bed about 6:15, planning to sleep another hour before getting up, preparing for work, and start a day of weather coverage, something news side always wants me for since I'm such a weather nerd.

6:25 a.m. - I realize I ain't goin' back to sleep. Nevertheless, I stay in bed for another half hour, holding out dim hopes I can pass out again before going to the office. No such luck.

At about 7 a.m., I get out of bed with a surge of adrenaline. I assume the anticipation of the day's events has my engine running already. I take a quick shower, put on a long-sleeve short that I don't button up, and a pair of shorts. I went to work in an unbuttoned shirt and shorts. That's a Longview News-Journal first. Not only that, nobody gave me crap about it. I'm such a beast.

I get some McDonald's breakfast, go to the office, make a quick call to the National Weather Service office in Shreveport. I can tell the meteorologist I talked to doesn't wanna be bothered repeatedly that day. So, I never call him back. You don't have to when you're covering weather. The NWS Shreveport forecast office Web site has everything you need if you have any clue what you're doing.

I work from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Without stopping.

Fourteen hours.

Straight.

Twenty-nine Talk of East Texas blog entries.

Ike updates. SWEPCO updates. Cool weather links for the public.

To sum up the day, it was a sports writer being an absolute weather news beast for 14 hours non-stop. Right as I'm about to leave, Longview PD calls and says the water rationing was called off. It's the exclamation point to a day of beasthood. My modesty was the best part about it.

Twelve hours of overtime. Fifty-two-hour week. Big paycheck comin' next Friday. Jackpot. (Well, as big as a three-year veteran sports writer can get working for a 30K circ. shop.)

Those 60-plus-mph wind gusts were fierce. It was cool to witness, but it wasn't cool what Ike did. Driving home, I realize that much of Longview is without power. Much of Longview meaning major intersections without traffic lights, residential areas looking post-Apocalyptic. I can't imagine what Katrina looked like in New Orleans. A weakened Ike 250 miles from the coast was enough for me.

Having only gotten a combined 10 hours of sleep during the past two nights, I go to bed about 1:20 a.m. and slip into a coma.

Sunday - Get up at 10:20 a.m. for church at Mobberly Baptist. I get there and hardly any cars are in the lot. We probably have 2,000 people during the 11 o'clock service usually. Sunday, there may have been 200. It was weird. But it was good. Church is always awesome. Mobberly was home for about 140 evacuees, and it was good to see some of them going to the service so Pastor Glynn Stone could reassure them that our church was there for them. As usual, church was a blessing.

I leave church, call the folks in Carthage. They can't get food anywhere because there's only a couple of places open and there are lines going down streets trying to get in. I pick up Golden Chick and head southeast for the homeland.

Eat chicken, okra, and gravy for lunch. Does it get any better? Watch football. Act stupid with my 17-year-old brother and 54-year-old dad. Good times. Drive around and see storm damage in Carthage. Pretty bad stuff. Panola canceled classes for Monday, but CISD is having school for some reason. Oh, yeah, because it's run by incompetence, no matter who's calling the shots. I forgot there for a second.

Come back to Longview around midnight. South side is still without power. Intersections at Estes Parkway and I-20 still out, as well as HG Mosley/McCann and HG Mosley/Bill Owens. Crazy stuff.

Watch some TV. Read on the Internet. Post this.

I'm about to go to bed. It's 5:23 a.m. About my usual bed time. Tomorrow's slate: Pine Tree football practice, high school football capsules for Friday's weekly Zone tab, talks with PT and Kilgore coaches for preview stories.

Long weekend. But eventful. I'm out.

P.S. - I'll try to remember to post my weekly (Wednesday) college football columns here. By the way, SEC has five of the top 10 in the AP poll. Get on the SEC's level, y'all.

I guess I'm bad luck

The two college football games I've planned to attend so far this season have been affected by the two major hurricanes of the past few weeks.

The 4 p.m., Aug. 30 Appalachian State at LSU game was moved to 10 a.m. because of Hurricane Gustav's impending strike. I was there for the 41-13 LSU victory and the 135-degree temperature.

About 15 minutes ago, this Saturday's 2:30 p.m. Arkansas at Texas game was postponed to Sept. 27 because of Hurricane Ike, which angrily churns in the Gulf like an old man sending back soup at a deli. Our overpriced, $120 tickets should still be good in two weeks, though.

Guess I should just give up on this.

Movies ... yay

I haven't been to a movie in a while. It's too expensive and they usually suck. Well, they've gotten worse as I've gotten older, that is. I don't know if it's that I've gotten pickier or that movies just aren't as good any more. Probably a little of both.

Anyway, two movies I'm looking forward to come out Friday: "Burn After Reading" and "Righteous Kill."

"Burn After Reading" is Coen Brothers, which means it's guaranteed to be greatness. My two favorite movies of all-time are both Coen Brothers movies - (1)"O Brother Where Art Thou," and (2) "The Big Lebowski." There are plenty other great Coen classics, too: "Fargo," "No Country for Old Men," "Raising Arizona," "Ladykillers."

"Righteous Kill" is a cop movie with DeNiro and Pacino. I've never been a huge fan of either, but if I had to pick one, I guess I'm a Pacino guy. Pacino was the only reason why "Scarface" was watchable, and he's great in "Serpico." Don't get me wrong, they're both great actors; it's just that liking them is such a big cliche that I've never really adored either one.

So, Sunday evening may involve a trip to Carmike 10, a large bag of popcorn, and a large Coke.

That's all I got.

The Barbarian gets hurt, but The Cat looks awesome

Dallas Cowboys RB Marion Barber was his usual beast self in Sunday's season-opening, 28-10 win over Cleveland. Sixteen totes, 80 yards, two touchdowns. All in a day's work, right?

Well, The Barbarian sustained some bruised ribs, and anybody who has ever suffered from that knows it is indeed suffering. You don't have to break a rib to hurt. Bruised ribs are no picnic.

However, when Barber went out, Felix Jones showed quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, he's got some room to improve and isn't close to being Barber-esque, but he hits the hole faster and switches gears quicker. He came close to breaking a long touchdown run twice. It looks like The Cat's preseason performances were not flukes.

Even third-string back Tashard Choice came in and got some snaps. He didn't look all that bad, either. Choice, a rookie like Jones, started his collegiate career at Oklahoma before transferring to Georgia Tech and being the Yellowjackets' only real offensive threat last season after Calvin Johnson's departure.

So, fear not, Cowboys fans. It appears Barber's injury is not near the level of The Golden Boy Tom Brady's knee ailment, which could end up keeping The Precious One out for the season. If Barber's injury lingers, it appears Jones and Choice wouldn't be too much of a step back. I know it's only one game, but a first-round pick who averages seven yards per carry on his first nine NFL carries should be able to sustain solid performances in lieu of the starter's injury.

In other words, fear The Cat.

Gustav fatigue

I'm sick of hearing ...

- "overtopped" --- this isn't even a word.
- "LAH-FIE-ETTE" --- that's not a city in South Central Louisiana. That's Laffy-ette.
- "KOH-kuh-dree" --- that's not where Gustav made landfall. It's Kuh-KOH-DREE, spelled Cocodrie.
- "St. Bernard's Parish" --- St. Bernard Parish. Bernie don't own the thing.
- "St. Mary's Parish" --- St Mary Parish. See above.

I'm sure I'll have more, so stay tuned.

Politics are stupid

This whole Sarah Palin thing is ridiculous.

It's ridiculous that people are making an issue out of her 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy. It's not a reflection of bad parenting. It's not a reflection of the McCain campaign. It's not a reflection of this girl being an awful person.

It's ridiculous that Republicans are telling everybody that it's a private matter and that nobody should talk about it. That wasn't the case with Bill Clinton. I guess that's only the case when the matter happens to be inconvenient for the GOP, which shoves superficial, self-righteous, hollow moral-values rhetoric down the throats of anyone who does not agree with them.

It's ridiculous that people would question Palin's judgement concerning her own recent pregnancy, which produced a baby with Down's Syndrome. No, it's not the best idea to be pregnant in your 40s, but if she got pregnant, she got pregnant. Big deal. At least the child appears it will be taken care of in a good family.

It's ridiculous that John McCain picked her to be his running mate. She hasn't been the governor of Alaska for even two years. She doesn't have any foreign policy experience. She's pretty. Maybe that's why McCain picked her.

It seems McCain made a mistake in the total opposite direction that Barack Obama made. Obama, whose campaign is based on his overwhelming "change" language, selected one of the most well-known, hard-line, partisan-politics Democrats in Joe Biden as his running mate.

Perhaps in an attempt to steal Hillary Clinton supporters, I guess McCain looked at the an alphabetized list of states and picked the first significant female figure he came across.

It's all ridiculous.

Watching Gustav

I wanted to write about my experience at Tiger Stadium on Saturday where I witnessed the Fightin' Tigers dispatch Appalachian State 41-13 before a relatively healthy crowd considering the 10 a.m. kickoff and the existence of a Category 4 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.

However, the events of the coming days make football, as glorious and important as it is to our Southern culture, trivial. Although it was reduced to Cat 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale before being dropped to Cat 2 with 110 mph sustained winds just prior to landfall, Gustav means business.

All I could think about Sunday was Katrina. Her winds were 125 mph. Katrina's storm surge was unreal, reaching 30 feet in some areas along the Mississippi Coast. Gustav has proven so far that he's certainly not Katrina, but nevertheless, a hurricane's a hurricane, especially when it's hitting an area that includes parts below sea level.

My affinity for keeping up with weather along with what's maybe a morbid curiosity keep me glued to coverage every time a storm approaches. The biggest worries right now are the levees holding up and flood waters surging into the Orleans and Jefferson Parishes canals, which would put those levees under further duress.

For now, all I can do is keep watching and praying that my friends in Baton Rouge are safe. The northern eye wall of Gustav is approaching Baton Rouge right now, according to the folks on CNN. So hang tight, Jake and Becca. Since I doubt y'all will have power, I'll pull for Tennessee tonight against UCLA for the sake of all SEC fans.