Tommy Tuberville is honest about the support he had at Texas Tech

Tommy Tuberville may leave recruits at the dinner table for a different job, but there are few better friends to the media than the new Cincinnati head football coach.

Tubberville recently sat down for a long chat with Dennis Dobbs of CBSSports.com for this interview where he covered a variety of topics from the state of the Big 12, the invtitation of TCU and West Virginia to his replacement in Lubbock - Kliff Kingsbury.

Tuberville told Dobbs: "It's a perfect fit for them, native son, played for Leach. Not that I didn't have support but I didn't have 100 percent support. It just wasn't going to happen."

Nope, which is one of the reasons he left. It may have been the biggest reason he left a Big 12 job for a school that is in something called the American Athletic Conference.

There may not have been a coach alive who could have replaced Mike Leach and would have had the full support of that fan base. That type of support was certainly not going to exist for a guy with Tuberville's background.

Despite his ability to play nice with the media and the alums, Tuberville was not able to win enough games to make people forget about The Pirate. 

As a former Tech player, Kingsbury is going to not only have the full support of all things Tech, but he should be allowed to grow into the job.

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Texas Tech at TCU tops best games of 2012 in FW/d

The one thing we can never get enough of is lists. A list of our favorite songs. The best Nicholas Sparks novels. The top 10 Rocky movies.

The end of the year brings the trite, mail-it-end look back at the year that was. Because The Big Mac Blog loves cliches as much as the next, here is a look at the best games of the year. I tried to spread the wealth ...

1. Texas Tech 56, TCU 53 (3 ot); Oct. 20, 2012.
Hands down the most entertaining game of the Big 12 season. 
In TCU's first year of the Big 12, the Frogs led Tech by five in the fourth quarter before the Red Raiders rallied to take a 10-point lead with 4:06 remaining.
TCU managed to tie the game with 18 seconds lef that set up one of the more entertaining series of overtimes you could watch.

2. Cowboys 27, Steelers 24 (ot); Dec. 16, 2012.
Tony Romo played one of the best games of his career as the Cowboys rallied to win a game they trailed by seven points in the fourth quarter.
Romo passed for 341 yards and two touchdowns, one to the busted-fingered Dez Bryant.
The Steelers weren't as good as advertised but this was a highly entertaining game and offered the Cowboys at their best. 

3. Texas Rangers 11, LA Angels 10, (10 innings); Aug. 1, 2012
The Angels led 7-1 after four innings. The Rangers scored four in the fifth, and runs in the eighth and the ninth to send the game into extra innings. The Angels scored three times in the top of the 10th, but the Rangers scored four runs in the bottom of the inning, the final two on an Elvis Andrus single.

4. Texas Rangers 10, Baltimore Orioles 3; May 9, 2012
Josh Hamilton hit four home runs. 

5. DeSoto 49, Southlake Carroll 45; Dec. 8, 2012.
In the 5A quarterfinals, DeSoto trailed by 18 points in the first half before taking the lead. Carroll QB Kenny Hill was stopped on consecutive running plays from the 1-yard line, the final as time expired.  

6. TCU 20, Texas 13; Nov. 22, 2012.
Easily the biggest win of the year for TCU as the Frogs won on Thanksgiving night in Austin. The Frogs forced four turnovers, including the game-clinching pick by Sam Carter with less than two minutes remaining.

7. Oklahoma 63, Texas 21; Oct. 13, 2012.
The game was boring as hell but there was so much comedy and amazement to watch Bob Stoops' Sooners put yet another nasty beatdown on Mack Brown's Longhorns at the Cotton Bowl. It truly was watching a train wreck.

8. Dallas Mavericks 101, San Antonio Spurs 100 (ot); Jan. 29, 2012
This was before the Mavericks completely crashed in the playoffs and was Jason Terry at his best. He hit a 15-foot game-tying shot to tie the game with 1 second remaining and send the game into OT. Terry finished with 34 points.

9. Dallas Stars 3, Vancouver Canucks 2 (ot); Feb. 26, 2012
Before the Stars fell apart to miss the playoffs yet again, they rallied for this impressive win against a good Canucks team. The Stars were down 2-1 with less than one minute remaining before Mike Ribeiro scored to tie the game. In overtime, Loui Eriksson scored the game winner.

10. Cowboys 24, NY Giants 17; Sept. 5, 2012
In the NFL season opener, the Cowboys defeated the defending Super Bowl champions in what would be arguably their most complete win of the season.
Romo threw for 307 yards with three touchdowns; Kevin Ogletree caught eight passes for 114 yards with two TDs; DeMarco Murray rushed for 131 yards.

 

 

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Red Raiders should embrace the Northwestern approach to its new coach

A few days after Tommy Tuberville spit on Texas Tech by leaving for Cincinnati and the Conference USA (aka the Big East) the Red Raiders may have solved their West Texas issues by hiring 14-year-old Kliff Kingsbury.

(BTW - The 14-year-old comment is a joke. He is a bit young.)

Great hire, provided he can bring Johnny Manziel, Luke Joekel and some of the other players who executed his offense at Texas A&M so well this season.

The good people at Texas Tech did not want to bring in someone who did not understand, or not like, the West Texas culture. It’s a good place, but it’s not for everybody. Tuberville was never crazy about the lifestyle out in the greater Lubbock, tri-state area.

Having played there in college, Kingsburgy (33) knows Texas Tech as well as any coaching candidate ever could. Now all he needs is time, which these days in college football is about five or six games before it's collectively decided he stinks. For instance, if the Red Raiders are 7-0 in Tech’s first five games (not a misprint), Kingsbury should be fine.

The Red Raiders need to use the same timeline that Northwestern used for Pat Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald was a linebacker for the Wildcats, and was given the head coaching job at Northwestern in the summer of 2006. He was just 31 when he received the promotion after the tragic death of coach Randy Walker.

Fitzgerald understood Northwestern, and its challenges.

In his first season NU was 4-8. Today the case can be made he is one of the best coaches in the Big 10. The Wildcats are 49-39 under Fitzgerald in seven seasons; they have reached five straight bowl games, and finished 9-3 this season.

NU had to give Fitzgerald time, and in showing some patience they have a coach who has a team with major recruiting disadvantages (i.e. academic entrance requirements) that competes in the Big 10 very well. By giving him a chance at such a young age and showing some patience they probably also have a coach who will stay with a coaching job most of his predecessors could not get out of fast enough.

Kingsbury is going to have something to work with because Tuberville and his staff had assembled some decent recruiting classes. But Kingsbury has never been a head coach before and he is going to need some time to get used to this gig.

By rolling the dice on someone so young, but someone who understands Texas Tech, the Red Raiders have someone who potentially could be there for a loooong time.

It would, however, really help if he could just bring Johnny Football with him.

 

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Dallas Cowboys defeat Browns; fall to 8th in BCS

In what celebrated American historian David McCullough* calls "one of the least impressive wins in the history of modern sport" the Dallas Cowboys professional football club defeated the Cleveland Browns 23-20 in overtime on Sunday.

The game had an Ishtar-like quality to it. Only Ishtar was better.

Alas, the Dallas Cowboys are 5-5 and on their way to winning the Super Bowl **. The Cowboys host the Washington Redskins on Thursday in their annual Turkey Day game and should be 6-5 very soon.

1. Dez. The Cowboys receiver is becoming like Cher in that he requires but one name.
Granted, it came against a really bad Cleveland secondary but Dez Bryant played the best game of his career - 12 receptions for 145 yards with one TD.
He was go-to, could not be covered and was the best player on the field.
For this game he is worth the headache. 

2. Speaking of Dez ... it's fun to note that Browns president Mike Holmgren tried to tell Jerry Jones before that draft not to select the Okie State WR.

3. Offensive line. Awful. Tony Romo was sacked a career-high seven times, and the running game averaged 3.0 yards per carry. Doug Free was brutal. Whatever progress he made two years ago is gone. The Cowboys have to find his replacement.
The high ankle sprain suffered by left tackle Tyron Smith led to Jermey Pernell, who looks like the second coming of Torrin Tucker.

4. Rookie QBs facing the Cowboys continue to tear it up. Or at least not be exposed.
First it was Russell Wilson of the Seahawks in Week 2. On Sunday it was Brandon Weeden playing the part of a competent NFL quarterback. He was 20-of-35 for 210 yards with two TDs and no interceptions.
Of the three rookie passers the Cowboys have faced this season, only did Nick Foles of the Eagles look like a rookie. 

5. Tony Romo dropped back to throw 57 times and attempted 50 passes. Those numbers normally equal a loss. Despite being under constant pressure, Romo passed for 313 yards with one TD. It was his third consecutive game without an inteception.

6. There is no reason for Dez Bryant to return another punt. Now that Dwayne Harris seems to have figured this punt returning thing out, there is no reason to roll the dice with Dez.

7. Why did the Cowboys punt to Josh Cribbs late? With less than 1:20 remaining and nursing a four-point lead, Cowboys punter Brian Moorman's punt went to Cribbs at about midfield. He ripped off a 21-yard return to set up the game-tying touchdown.

8. Shout out to the referees for their fine work. The Browns gave the Cowboys 10 first downs on penalty. Ed Hochuli, we get it ... your in good shape and you like talking. The Cowboys were penalized 9 times for 92 yards, which is awful.
The Browns were penalized 12 times for 129 yards, which is God awful.

9. The Cowboys had the ball for 42:16. And they needed overtime to win. This game looked very similar to the one against the Bucs earlier this season - brutal, but ...

10. Jason Garrett. He has his team on a two-game winning streak. The last time the Cowboys won consecutive games was Nov. 20 & Nov. 24 in 2011. 

10-5 is so possible, but 8-8 still feels inevitable.

* This never actually happened.
** Won't happen. 

 

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Tommy Tuberville's "explanation" of Slap Down is highly entertaining

All Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville had to say was, "We were losing to Kansas. In the third quarter. At home" and that would have explained why he popped one of his assistant coaches on Saturday in Lubbock.

Now Tommy Tuberville is like former Red Raiders basketball coach Bobby Knight.

Instead, Tuberville offered up some lame, "I reached to grab him and pull him off" away from the playing field pile of BS.

In the third quarter of Texas Tech's double-OT "win" against Kansas, Tuberville appeared to slap the headset off of graduate assistant coach Kevin Oliver. Facing a 4th and short from midfield, Tech was called for an illegal formation. On the next play, it was penalized 5 yards for a delay of game.

At this point, Tuberville popped and video shows him slapping the headset off Oliver.

After the game, Tuberville "explained" it. He said: "He was on the field, and I reached to grab him and pull him off. When I pulled, I missed his shirt and grabbed his (headset) and his microphone ripped off his head. I was trying to get him off the field."

Watch the video and you can clearly see this was not the case.
The case was Tommy Tuberville was irate that this game was remotely close.

 

 

 

 

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Big 12 is case study of parity (mediocrity?), and entertainment

If Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein's mysterious upperbody/lowerbody/left side/right side injury is actually serious enough to prevent him from playing the Big 12 is suddenly just experiencing a down season.

Assuming Klein is healthy and the Wildcats win their next three games - at TCU, at Baylor and home vs. Texas - to finish the regular season 12-0 and 9-0 in conference call it a great season for the Big 12. The Cats will either be in the Fake National Title game, or be the poor little team that gets screwed in this "very fair" process.

The No. 3 (AP poll) Wildcats will play TCU in Fort Worth on Saturday at 6 p.m.

What we have here in this first season of this revamped conference is little like originally projected. Here is the 2012 poll as selected by the media that covers the league, and the current standings:

PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH ...... ACTUAL STANDINGS
1. Oklahoma (32) ...............       Kansas State (9-0, 6-0)
2. West Virginia (7) ................. Oklahoma (6-2, 4-1)
3. Texas .............................  Texas (7-2, 4-2)
4. Oklahoma State .................. Oklahoma State (5-3, 3-2)
5. TCU (1) ............................ Texas Tech (6-3, 3-3)
6. Kansas State (1) .................. TCU (6-3, 3-3)
7. Baylor ............................. West Virginia (5-3, 2-3)
8. Iowa State ........................ Iowa State (5-4, 2-4)
9. Texas Tech ....................... Baylor (4-4, 1-4)
10. Kansas  ........................... Kansas (1-8, 0-6)

Kansas State has been dramatically better than every other opponent. Oklahoma has been just good enough to be second while the rest are eating each other alive.

Just when Texas Tech looked as if it would secure itself as the third-best team, the Red Raiders pooped down their pants and lose at home against a Texas team that once again is disappointing.

Only Kansas, which somehow is going to win fewer games under first-year coach Charlie Weis than it did last season under Turner Gil, was the only predcitable variable with its consistent suckage.

By season's end the Big 12's third place finisher is not going to look that much different than seventh, or eighth.

Outsiders will say the league is down. Big 12 proponents, and coaches, will say this reflects parity. 

Whatever the case, it is highly, highly entertaining.

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It's official: The North finally caught the South in Big 12 football

As a Kansas Jayhawk undergrad grad, this aggrivates me no end but massive kudos to the Kansas State Wildcat football program for daring to be better than Nebraska.

Perhaps because they never had the chance, but the Wildcats never played the victim card as members of the Big 12 and ran east to play its equally slow-footed members of the Big 10 like the University of Nebraska did.

Instead, Kansas State just got better and now have officially become the best team in the Big 12 conference. The Big 12 is  no longer split by North/South regions, but the Wildcats are proof you don't have to live in Texas, or be bordered by Texas, to win this league.

Since the league was formed in 1996, the North won the conference title game a total of four times, and not once since 2003. (The league dropped the title game last year).

The conference that was born out of football and all but catered to its members in the south - Texas, Oklahoma - now is officially looking up at Kansas State.

Texas Tech got run out of the state by Kansas State over the weekend.
Had Texas played any other team but Kansas on Saturday the Horns would have lost.
Oklahoma is in denial.
Iowa State is Iowa State.
Baylor and Oklahoma State are both rebuilding.
TCU is too young, and not nearly deep enough.
West Virginia has to at least fake defense before it can become a serious threat.

The Wildcats host No. 24 Oklahoma State on Nov. 3 before traveling to TCU and Baylor and finishing the season on Dec. 1 at home against No. 23 Texas.

The Wildcats should have the Coach of the Year in Bill Snyder and the Heisman winner in QB Collin Klein. If all continues to go according to plan, the Wildcats will be the team to reach the BCS title game for the right to get crushed by Alabama.

The Wildcats may be boring led by their boring head coach, but they do deserve credit.

 

 

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Looks like Texas Tech & Tommy Tuberville made the right call, & TCU is just too young

After having just so much fun with Texas Tech and football coach Tommy Tuberville's wise decision to back out of the 2011 game at TCU, a serious tip of the cap to the entire program for said decision, and their Game of the Century win in Fort Worth on Saturday.

Tech's 6-1 record is the type of proof this administration desperately needed to justify dumping Mike Leach a few years ago. Tech may still be a house divided as a result of that decision, but wins such as the one against West Virginia and TCU can make people heal quickly.

Tuberville has been around college football long enough to know that it's not about who you beat but how many wins you have. He realized last season he didn't have a team so he lined up his non-conference schedule with dogs in an effort to become bowl eligible.

Since TCU joined the Big 12, TT had no choice but to play TCU in Fort Worth but he obviously has a team that can play - the Red Raiders' 56-53 3OT win makes them bowl eligible in the giant scam that is the FBS level.

As for TCU, this was part of the deal when it signed on to be in the Big 12. No more 30-point blowouts against New Mexico, UNLV, etc. This is just bigger, and harder. Saturday was a wonderful scene and atmosphere, but losses like this are far more likely than in the Mountain West.

Gary Patterson wasn't kidding on Tuesday when he said his team could win every game remaining on its schedule, or lose them all. GP may have as much talent as he has ever had in his tenure at TCU, but they are just so young. This team never stopped, obviously, but it never looked like it knew how to close this out.

GP has played a nation-leading 16 true freshmen this season, and that much inexperience is going to cost TCU games. It will payoff huge next season, but in the meantime both he and his team are going to lose in a way this program was no longer accustomed.

Either way, a great day for college football in Fort Worth.

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The last time Texas Tech visited Ft. Worth (as conference rivals) 34 teams claimed a share of the SWC title

Most - OK, all - of the players involved in the upcoming TCU/Texas Tech football game are too young to recall the last time the Red Raiders visited Fort Worth as conference rivals. Even the players who were actually alive at the time were smart enough to realize that on Nov. 25, 1994 the Southwest Conference sucked.

Texas Tech needed to defeat TCU that afternoon to win the SWC outright. Instead, TCU won and 34 teams could claim a share of the Southwest Conference title that season.

In front of 43,219 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Tech and QB Zebbie Lethridge took a 17-16 lead late in the fourth quarter before they blew it. TCU was led by QB Max Knake and RB Andre Davis; the Frogs scored a late TD to secure a 24-17 win.

It was TCU's first share of SWC title since 1959. The win all but ensured TCU would be invited to the Independence Bowl, and for a brief time convinced TCU people that head coach Pat Sullivan's tenure was going to work out.

Tech finished 6-5 and went to the Cotton Bowl.

This is my favorite part: Texas, TCU, Rice, Baylor, Texas Tech all claimed a share of the SWC title.

 

 

 

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TCU, Baylor, etc. wants to keep people in the stands? Follow UTEP's lead

The college game day atmosphere is the "place to be on Saturdays", but in our hyper competitive society with decreasing attention spans people now need a draw to come back to watch the games they paid a ticket to enjoy from the seat rather than the parking lot.

A potential solution? Beer.

On Tuesday afternoon UTEP announced that it will implement the sale of beer at home football games and home basketball games at the venues that are owned and operated by the univeristy. UTEP will begin sales of beer beginning with its home game on Saturday against Tulane.

You have to think one of the primary reasons fans leave the games for the halftime tailgate scene is the chance the drink without having to hide it. We all know fans smuggle in a little container of something to mix in with their Diet Coke (don't want those calories). 

With athletic departments searching for any additional way to increase revenue, selling beer is not a final step but an inevitable one to sell tickets.

“That’s obviously part of the equation here.  We will see.  We will see how ticket sales react to this," said UTEP executive vice president Ricardo Adauto III in a press conference on Tuesday. "And we hope it does.  And hopefully Saturday night will be a nice night, people will want to come out and we’ll see how this works."

Prediction: A lot of schools have embraced selling beer in suites, or in a designated beer garden, but general beer sales to the rest of the stadium in university-owned venues has been mostly verbotten.
It will take a while, but expect that within the next 10 years most college football and men's basketball games will sell beer so fans can enjoy watching their favorite amateur sports team.

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