MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF

And, Justice Hansen is from Oklahoma. Guess they can't! :-)

Agree. You have to consider hiring Larry Coker part of the seriousness. Many people here pooh-poohed that hire, but the guy was 26-32 in five years after building the program from scratch. He had back-to-back winning season as well in 2012 and 2013. Think about it, it's been since 2003-2004 that we've had back-to-back winning seasons. UTSA only has to look back to 2012-2013.

Totally agree. But, as just posted in the Big 12 ticket thing, is it too little, too late? We all love what is being done now. The problem, as posted annually, is that we don't exist in a vacuum. Our new stadium is nice. But, when you look at some of the P5 schools' new stadium expansions, it's ridiculous. They are getting pro football type prices for suites and seats. Seriously. You've got position coaches at some P5s outearning G5 head coaches. ------ The whole situation just has me thinking: is it worth it when it's damn near impossible to catch up without some sort of T. Boone Pickens-type of money savior out there for us? I don't want to drop down to FCS. But, there are three to four dozen schools also in our situation, as well as better run, upper level FCS schools looking to move up. I can't help but believe (and, dread) that there will come a day when P5 just goes its own way, tells the NCAA to stick it, and we are left completely on the outside looking in. Again...not to diminish where we are now. But, where we are now and what we are doing now...many, many schools were doing it 25-30 years ago. How long can we realistically play "catch up?" it's like the discussion with the IPF. It's not really a novel thing anymore. There is no advantage because everyone else already has one. So, in essence, you sepnt $10-15 million real dollar to "catch up" at being a couple of decades behind. The whole thing is sobering.

If we schedule against Big 12 foes at their place in the future, we will have 1,000 less tickets. We've already got a future roadies with Mizzou and Texas Tech. http://www.newson6.com/story/35853868/big-12-policy-change-opens-up-more-season-tickets This also obviously affects whatever money we might make on those 1,000 fewer tickets available to be sold. Sure, not much; but, when you have a budget as small as ours, every dollar does count. So...does this make Big 12 schools less attractive for scheduling? You've got many P5 schools now getting 7 or 8 homes games. How long do the G5s just hang on with the P5s? I think the AAC and MWC might hang in there for the long haul. The rest of us, I'm just not sure. If all P5 commit to 7 or 8 home games, you can kiss future hopes of home-and-home from even smaller P5s goodbye. So...maybe it's "Give me Liberty, or Give me Death" after all.

Ah, good to know. That's likely why this kid is stuck in the situation he's in.

UPDATE: Murray cut from Cape Cod league squad mid-season on July 6th after hitting just .170. http://d15k3om16n459i.cloudfront.net/baseball/player.html?playerid=1143383&seasonid=30631 http://d15k3om16n459i.cloudfront.net/baseball/transactions.html?leagueid=166&seasonid=30631 So, he can't hit college pitching, or college summer all-star-type pitching, such as you find in these summer college-player leagues around the country. Cape Cod is probably the top because MLB actually helps fund it. Ship is sailing fast for Murray as far as baseball goes. He's got steep competition at OU as well at QB. After Mayfield graduates, does Murray transfer again if he doesn't win the starting job there? If so, do we give him a look? He's one of those guy who lists at 5'11", so he's probably 5'9".

Very awesome!

We've certainly put ourselves in the proverbial pickle haven't we, if he can't get this thing off the ground any better than 5-7 and APRing into a bowl. Plus, UTSA doesn't have the "years/decades of losing" baggage to carry around as they sally forth.

Can we give him a track scholie and let him walk on to the football team? I know full track scholies are rare. But, just asking. I guess the threat there is that he's a head case, mistakenly believes he's an NFL talent, and, thus, never shows up for track once football season ends.

Ben/Lifer: I think the truth is, it's a little bit of both. Yes, they do downgrade our guys. But, you have to look at our track record and ask yourselves, "Well...why wouldn't they?" We've been a graveyard for some QBs that had nice 2- and 3-star ratings as preps. Is it right? Well, look...those guys have reputations to keep as well. Until we can prove that we are a school that develops talent, recruiting services are going to be suspicious of guys who commit to us. (I think they make a mistake doing this with Bean, but...that's just my opinion.) As to Ben's point, yes...this is something I also preach. In the 21st Century, you rarely get many true "he slipped through cracks" guys because these kids are always on display. My son is 11 and has just played one year of tackle football. But, the amount of football camp junk mail we already get (baseball as well...and, soccer for my daughter, and she's only nine!). There are camp after camp after camp. Junior Days. Coaches sending video. Kids posting their own videos. Game film. The days of Pat Jones hiding/not returning Barry Sanders' film reels to his high school coaches so they could send it to other schools is long, long gone. Everybody gets seen. And, that's why many of us have concerns with kids who have camped for years and been on film for years only have FCS and Division II offers...then we mysteriously sweep in. It just isn't very promising. To me, if you are sweeping in at the last minute - a day or two before signing day - and picking off one of these kids for depth/development, that's one thing. But, if you are picking them off way in advance, as we seem to have fallen into the habit of doing lately...that's a problem in the long run.

Didn't Tech pull an offer from him? Or, was that some other kid? Anyway, although I've been very public about not being a fan of Tech, this kid should know that it's highly unlikely that Texas Tech is ever so strapped for receivers that they have to have their coaches scraping twitter feeds for prospects. By the way, I'd love to have this kid here, because he's a legitimate talent. However, if he's a head case who would pout publicly if he "didn't get enough touches/chances," maybe it is best to skip his act altogether. I don't mind a competitive guy who might whisper to a coach or QB on the sideline or huddle, "hey, I'm really beating this guy, give me a look first next time!" Or, if a guy is in the film room during game planning as says it. But...if he's a twitter diva. Forget it. Coaches and QBs jobs are hard enough/held to the most scrutiny by fans, media, teammates, etc. Also, spread offenses are just that: they are supposed to spread the ball around. At their optimum best, you have situations like Tulsa had last year where you've got two 1,000+ yard receivers, and two 1,000+ yard runners; but, that is rare. If this kid really does want to be the #1 target, he should be trying to gain the attention of schools who run pro style offenses,

A 2015 guess doesn't mean anything in 2017. Especially after everyone has now seen that he can't hit college pitching. He got crappy advice coming out of high school, and probably most of it from his dad. You take baseball money out of high school, if you can get it. Then, if it turns out you can't hit A-ball pitchers after two or three years, you go back and play college football. You can't do it the other way around due to NCAA rules. And, you're not getting a second chance at pro ball if you can't even hit college pitching. Sh*t...sometimes even the kids with parents from decent suburban areas get misled.

I'm sure he's harboring some sort of baseball fantasy, so he went to a school with a baseball program. But, I haven't yet heard of a college player hitting .122 then going to the majors. I think, unfortunately for this kid, he was hyped partially because of who his dad is, and cannot live up to the hype. There's no shame in that...if, that is, the dad doesn't stoke the hype. Here, I think Kevin Murray is perfectly happy to have his QB tutoring business pumped up for a couple of years off his son's back. I could be wrong. Could be,

Again, we have three winnable OOC games: Lamar, SMU, and Army. Iowa...no chance. If we lose to both SMU and Army, it is a huge problem. If we struggle with reformulated UAB and new-QB'd Southern Miss to round out September, the die will have been cast on another losing season.

Wow. Had they even finished screwing that thing in before kick off?

UNT is closer than his other option: SFA. So, there's that.

Keep dreaming. Pot has been a federal no-no since 1937 under FDR, and given mandatory sentencing under Truman. No president between Truman and Nixon legalized pot. Further, whatever studies have been done, no president since Nixon has bothered to take the federal laws off of pot either, not even known dope smokers Clinton, Bush II, and Obama. So....

Except that it was in 1937, under FDR, that the U.S. brought the federal clamps down on pot for good with the Marihuana Tax Act. Fellow Democrat Harry Truman sugned into law the first mandatory sentencing for drug offenses with the Boggs Act in 1952. I know that people erroneously like to blame Nixon for a plethora of things. But, pot restrictions? Please do better research. Restrictions on pot began well over 50 years before Nixon set foot in the Oval Office. Nixon simply centralized several bu

Maybe he's a head case/discipline case and word has gotten around among coaching staffs.

I understand, but I don't think it solves the problem in the long run, and here is why... ...if our complaint is that the tackles can't control a pass rush very well, rolling the QB out simply puts him closer to DEs and OLBs that are already (again, we are assuming here) beating our tackles. He is then forced to scramble, and the timing of the pattern to the roll out play is off. For the sake of brevity, just stick me in the crowd that believes the best way to handle a QB is to have QBs who can throw from the pocket...or, as I like to say, have quarterbacks who can play quarterback. That solves a multitude of problems. If you are changing your offense around all the time for one guy, then that guy gets hurt, you are stuck trying to have the team go back and learn another way in the middle of a season. In my opinion, it is stupid to have a bunch of QBs with "different" talents. The majority of a QB's job is to either throw or hand off. If you are having to tweak too much for one guy, you should be rethinking your QB stable.

Kyler was last seen playing baseball at OU, though, so... http://www.soonersports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31000&ATCLID=210821982 He's been a spring game football phenom at OU, but that's the spring game; and it hasn't stopped their coaching staff from continuing to land other highly regarded QB prospects: 2017: https://oklahoma.rivals.com/commitments/football/2017 2018: https://oklahoma.rivals.com/commitments/football/2018 2019: https://oklahoma.rivals.com/commitments/football/2019 I wouldn't hold my breath expecting Murray to start many games at OU in football...and, if he can't hit better than .122 in baseball, he won't start many for the baseball team either.

Do not bother the environmentalists with details/cost analysis. For them, it's just another thing the government should subsidize. No telling how much tax dollar has already been thrown to these companies - which is why they're in no hurry. They know that just enough people can be fleeced into thinking this will happen during their lifetime. Al Gore, who was already rich, has become mega rich fleecing environmentally soft people. Sometimes, I think its hard to tell the difference between environmentalists and evangelists. Both are always urgently selling something that they claim will make you better if you just invest in it...and, turn against you if you don't invest in it. To me, you can respect the environment without being a kook; same with believing in God/Jesus/what have you. I have a hard and fast life rule for these types of things: the harder they are selling it, the more phony it is. I take this approach in the life insurance aspect of my business. I'd love to sell you a $1 million policy; but, you probably can't comfortably budget it. So, instead, I suggest initially just buying an amount that will pay to bury you and eliminate the mortgage on your home. And...there's no angle to where I can get the government to subsidize your personal life insurance policy. (Plus...why do want to leave your wife a fat wad of cash if you die, anyway? Hasn't she spent enough of your dough while you were alive! ... ...it's a joke, it's a joke...please, don't inundate me with, "that's sexist" yammering. I already know. Lighten up, please.)

Not just awful on the field, but in terms of "seizing the momentum" when things did go right - Dickey's bowl streak, Johnny Jones' winning season streak - it all went nowhere.

Did anyone notice that some Texas football magazine tabbed Jordan Murray as a preseason Second Team All-Conference player? So... ...either he was doing something right most of the time; or, the writer of the article never saw him play. Because I thought Brad Davis was the best coach on the staff last year, I'm going with the former rather than the latter.

All of what you say is true if we don't have a QB who can execute this type of offense. As demonstrated at OU in 1999, a team built to run can win immediately. When the 1999 college football season began, OU hadn't had a winning season since 1993, and hadn't been to a bowl game since 1994. The coach prior to Stoops, John Blake, built the team around option offenses. This has all been rehashed here before, prior to last season. (NOTE: I was living in OKC at the time, so it was really big news back then when OU won immediately. Really big in Oklahoma because, at the time, it had no pro sports other than minor league hockey and baseball. So, OU losing was really wearing on those folks up there.) Stoops took players who hadn't been receivers before, or full time receivers, and made a nice receiving corp. Or, I guess I should say, his receivers' coach did - Steve Spurrier, Jr. Also, many of those receivers were redshirt or true freshmen. You don't need top talent at WR all the way around. What you need is disciplined route runners who don't take plays off. And, you need a QB who can get the ball out very quickly. Remember, OU's offensive line then, like ours now, was recruited to mash in the run game. Coach Littrell was smack in the middle of his career there at the time as a fullback. A fullback. What I will say is even though OU didn't have a ton of top WR recruits, the guys they did have were offered multiple I-A, as it was called back then, scholarships. As bad as the coaching staff prior to Stoops was, they weren't battling I-AA schools or Division II schools for recruits. So, the guys there - some young, some switching positions - were good enough athletes, and disciplined in their route running. Littrell did switch one guy over with some success last year, moving Kenny Buyers from DB. He became the fourth leading receiver for us in 2016. Again, with this offense, you need guys who are disciplined and can make plays. But, you are correct, the recruiting does have to be good, even though it doesn't have to be stellar. I think right now, that's all any of us are asking for. If we can get a roster full of Bean-type guys at all positions, we'll be good. If Bean is the exception rather than the rule, though, Littrell term here will be short-lived...in a bad way.