100-ish things I want to do in sports

Here is a list of things I want to do in sports. It is kind of a running list I have always had in my head, but just never put on paper. Some of them are already crossed off the list. Some of these things seem pretty simple, I just haven't gotten a chance to do it yet.

My teams

1. Watch Penn State play at Beaver Stadium
2. Watch a game from the sideline at a Cowboys regular season game (I have done it for a scrimmage against the Texans).
3. Watch Manchester United play.
4. See the US men's soccer team play
5. See the US men's soccer team play outside of the United States
6. Watch the Bearkats win an NCAA Tournament game (not the opening round)
7. See the Braves play in Atlanta

8. See the Cowboys play on the road
9. See the Cowboys play on the road in a game not in Houston
10. Go to a Cowboys game on Monday Night
11. Go to a Cowboys game on Thanksgiving

12. See the Cowboys play in the playoffs

13. See the Cowboys in the NFC Championship Game

14. Watch UConn play in college basketball

The Rivalries

15. Watch Duke-Carolina basketball game

16. Go to the Iron Bowl (Alabama-Auburn)

17. Go to Texas-OU football

18. Go to Texas-Texas A&M football

19. Go watch Army-Navy football

20. Go see Harvard-Yale football

21. Go see a Yankee-Red Sox game

22. See the US men's soccer team take on Mexico

23. Go to a Cowboys-Redskins game

24. Go to Michigan-Ohio State football game

25. See Federer vs. Nadal

The Stadiums

26. Watch a game at Old Trafford
27. Watch a football game at the Big House
28. Watch a football game at LSU
29. Watch a football game at Notre Dame
30. Watch a football game at Tennessee
31. Visit the Roman Coliseum
32. Visit every Major League Baseball ballpark
33. Visit every minor league ballpark in Texas. (MLB affiliated clubs only)
34. Watch a college basketball game at Rupp Arena
35. Watch a college basketball game at Pualey Pavilion
36. Watch a college basketball game at Madison Square Garden
37. Watch a college baseball game at Rosenblatt Stadium.
38. Watch a Big 5 game at the Palestra.
39. Watch a game at Cameron Indoor Stadium
40. Watch an afternoon game at Wrigley Field from the bleachers
41. Watch a game at Lambeau Field

The Events
42. Go to the Final Four.

43. Go to the Super Bowl
44. Go to the World Series
45. Go to the BCS National Championship game
46. Go to the Cotton Bowl (the game, not necessarily the stadium)
47. Go to the Rose Bowl.
48. Go to the Sugar Bowl
49. Go to the Fiesta Bowl
50. Go to the Orange Bowl
51. Go to the College World Series.
52. Attend the Masters.
53. Attend the US Open
54. Attend the British Open
55. Attend an English Premier League match
56. Go to the MLB All-Star Game
57. Go to a World Cup match
58. Go to a World Cup match outside of the United State
59. Go to a World Cup Final
60. Attend the Heisman Trophy presentation

61. Attend an NHL game

62. Attend an NHL playoff game
63. Attend a Stanley Cup Final
64. Attend an NHL game in Canada
65. Attend a NASCAR race (I just have to see what the big deal is)
66. See a UEFA Champions League Match
67. See a UEFA Champions League Final
68. Attend the Olympic opening ceremonies
69. Attend the Olympic closing ceremonies
70. Attend an Olympic event
71. Attend the NFL Draft
72. Spend a weekend at the Big East basketball tournament
73. Spend a weekend at the ACC basketball tournament
74. Attend the Big 12 football Championship game
75. Attend the SEC football Championship game
76. Attend the FCS National Championship game
77. Go to a Texas High School Football State Championship game.
78. Go the McDonald's All-American game.
79. Go watch a match at Wimbledon
80. Go to the tennis US Open
81. Go to the French Open
82. Go to the Kentucky Derby

Just do it

83. Take batting practice at a major league ball park.
84. Play a round of golf at Pebble Beach.
85. Play a round of golf at St. Andrews.
86. Sit in the outfield for home run derby.
88. Catch a ball during an MLB game.
89. Never see another NBA game in person again (Last one was 2007 in San Antonio and I only went because it was free.)
91. See every NFL team play
92. See every Division I men's basketball team play
93. Touch the Heisman Trophy
94. Walk 18 holes (as a spectator) with Tiger Woods
95. Hit a hole in one
96. Step in the batters box against a major league pitcher
97. Watch the first round of the NCAA Tournament at a casino in Vegas (obviously if I don't work in college athletics)
98. Broadcast a game at Madison Square Garden
99. Go to a Texas HS 6-man game
100. Go to all three rounds of the NCAA Tournament in the same year.
101. Do a bowl game tour (see as many bowl games as possible in the same season.)

102. Play in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker

The Empire is Evil again; baseball offseason

I cringed this morning when I heard the news -- Curtis Granderson will be going to the Yankees. You have got to be kidding me. Granderson is such a good guy and someone I like to root for. I can't do that if he is in New York.

The Tigers have always been my American League team to root for, so I took a liking to Granderson. He is just a guy who seems to play the game the right way. Plus with everything he is involved in off the field as well, you just can't help but wish for good things for him.

Now he is a Yankee. My only hope is it doesn't last long.

The Braves have spent the offseason looking for a couple of arms for the pen and seem to have found them in Takashi Saito to replace Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez. I think Saito is solid, but I don't know what to expect from Wagner. I have seen him play quite a bit going back to his Houston days.

If Wagner can settle into the closer role, I think the back end of the pen is in good shape. The Braves are also set with the starting rotation, with six starters signed right now. Someone is probably going to have to go and I wouldn't mind it being Derek Lowe.

The last think they need to address is getting a stick. If they move Lowe's 15 mil off the books, that could really open up some opportunities for Frank Wren in the free agent market. The two big names out there right now are Jason Bay and Matt Holliday. I think Atlanta will probably be priced out of those negotiations meaning they will have to take a look at the next level of guys, including Jermaine Dye. I wouldn't mind seeing the former Brave coming back to Atlanta.

After the strong push at the end of the season, with Wild Card talks going to the last week of the season, there is reason for some excitement going into this season. I think they do need one, maybe two more bats to put the whole package together.

Has it been that long?

Wow. I can't believe I haven't been on here since the first of May. I guess it has been busy around here. We have wrapped up a pro baseball season and are damn near through with college football, at least for the Bearkats.

I am going to have to get on here more, because there is so much that has been going on. The Braves made a run this year and then just ran out of gas at the end. But I do like the direction they are going and think next season they have a good chance to contend for another division title.

The Cowboys are always going to be a rollercoaster ride, and frankly, it is the only rollercoaster you will ever see me on. A month ago, Romo was crap and on his way out the door and Wade wasn't going to finish the year. Now after four staright wins, people are talking a playoff run and I have even heard "Super Bowl contender" from someone in the national media.

I don't know what to think about the Cowboys. They still scare me to death. My heart was racing a mile a minute for fear they were going to get destroyed last week at Philly, and why not? What have they ever done in recent memory to make me think otherwise. After beating the Eagles I jumped up, gave a fist pump, and nearly dislocted my elbow in the process.

Penn State is playing some good ball and is in position for a New Year's Day Bowl game again. I had hopes of a BCS Bowl early in the year, but knew they my fall short on the offensive end. Don't get me wrong, Daryl Clark is a great quarterback, but it is tough to replace three senior receivers and win the Big 10.

My Bearkats have been, well, we will leave that one alone. But basketball looks to be in position for a great season, and this may be Bob Marlin's best team top-to-bottom yet. I watched practice the other day and they looked good. Can't wait to see them Saturday night. Also can't wait to get back on the air. I haven't call a game since June when baseball was in the NCAA Regional in Rice.

Looking forward to a great finish in 2009 for the Cowboys and Nittany Lions and hopefully Marlin and the Bearkats will make the first few months of 2010 one to remember as well.

And with the 151st pick of the NFL Draft …

The New York Giants select – a story line.

So Rhett Bomar is going to be in New York. For most athletes making the move from Sam Houston State to the Big Apple would be a huge shock to the system. I am sure Rhett will experience some of that.

One of the aspects of playing in New York that a lot of people seem to have problems with is dealing with the New York media. That is an area I don’t think Rhett will have any trouble with. He is certainly better equipped to handle the throng of reporters in New York than any other athlete coming out of Sam Houston State.

First off he was the starting quarterback at Oklahoma as a freshman. Since the Sooners are about as close to a professional team as you get in Oklahoma he has had a taste of what it is like being in the spotlight.

Since coming to Huntsville he faced no shortage of interview requests and the questions were all the same. I didn’t matter how good of a game Rhett had played for the Bearkats, the national media only wanted to talk about Oklahoma. ESPN’s Outside the Lines was on campus to do a feature on Rhett before he ever played a down for the Kats.

In addition, Rhett has done interviews with Sports Illustrated, LA Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Houston Chronicle just to name a few. I can’t tell you have many interviews he did over the last three years or how many we turned down because we just had a bad feeling about it.

All the interviews were the same. The guys would start off asking about life in Division II football and Rhett would have to correct them and tell them this is Division I. Then they would lob a few softball questions about how the season is going before working their way to Oklahoma. Rhett always answered the questions the same way, but each reporter had is set in their head they were going to be the one to uncover “the real story” at Oklahoma.

Three quarterbacks were selected in the first round this past weekend and they will all get the scrutiny that comes with being a first-round QB. There will be a host of other rookie quarterbacks heading to camp this weekend and they will be just like any other player new to the team. When they do talk to the media it will mostly be about what happened on the field that day.

Rhett will face the media this weekend as well. Someone will toss him an easy question about how his first day went and he will handle it like any other rookie. But unlike the other rookies, Rhett will then have to respond to questions about something that happened more than four years ago. It won’t matter how seasoned the reporter, no one will ask Rhett a question he hasn’t already heard. He also won't give an answer they haven't heard.

A few college basketball items

I posted this on the 12th Street blog as well, but I wanted to get it up here as well.

One story that has not gotten much coverage is a situation that happened this week in the America East Conference.

Voting for all-conference can be tough. I have done it for seven years and there are always varying opinions on who should make first team and who is the player of the year. Most of the voters only see a player in action once or twice in a season and have to make a determination at the end of the year of who are the most deserving 15 players.

It can be a difficult process and there is always going to be someone left out. It is the nature of the beast. But what happened in the America East Conference this week is inexcusable. Binghamton won the regular season and guard D.J. Rivera led the league in scoring. He was also top 10 in rebounding, but when the all-conference list was announced, he was not player of the year.

The problem with this story is that he also was not named to the first team. Rivera, along with a teammate were both second team selections. Apparently, Rivera was denied the honor by a group of coaches in the league as a protest to an NCAA decision to allow Rivera to play after transferring from St. Joseph's without sitting the required season for moving from one Division I university to another. Rivera was granted a hardship waiver from the NCAA and was allowed to play this season.

The most unbelievable part of this story is the conference office is not only confirming the coaches voted with an agenda, but is also condoning it. Conference commissioner Patrick Nero said "It wasn’t a protest toward the kid at all. It was a protest toward the NCAA in allowing him to be eligible. It’s unfortunate, I don’t think it’s right. It’s unfair to the young man. He didn’t do anything wrong."

Nero should be ashamed of his comments. This should have never been made public. If Nero had any sense what-so-ever, he would have taken care of this internally. The coaches who left Rivera off should have had their ballots thrown out and never counted toward the final vote total. Rivera may still have not been the player of the year, but my guess is he would have been a first team selection where he belonged.

Binghamton and Rivera got their revenge, winning the America East Conference Tournament to grab a spot in next week's dance. Rivera fittingly was named tournament MVP.

I stayed up for all 6 OT's

When I got home from Katy on Thursday, I wasn't planning on watching much basketball. After seeing the Kats knocked out in the first round, I just wasn't up to it. But the Big East tournament game between Syracuse and UConn was on and I have always been a Husky fan so I turned the game on to watch the second half. Little did I know that would turn out to be a three hour commitment.

I was texting a few people at the end of regulation after they declared Eric Devendorf's 3 to win the game had come as the final horn was sounding. Syracuse seemingly had a victory and it was taken from them. A few people wanted to see the game end that way, but I was glad it was going to OT. I am a sucker for drama and overtime always brings drama.

Midway through the second overtime I sent out a text saying they might as well play 5 OTs. And then the fourth OT came and went and I really couldn't believe I was watching a game go to the fifth. In the fifth OT I didn't think either team was going to score. Both teams were gassed. Syracuse resorted to playing a walk-on who had a total of 60 minutes all season.

After the fifth overtime ended, I didn't see any foreseeable way either teams was going to win. It was a tournament, so someone was going to have to move one. Even though I was rooting for UConn to win, I wasn't upset when Syracuse sealed the deal in the sixth and final OT.

It was fun to watch those guys lay it on the line for 70 minutes of basketball. They were still diving on the floor and running and gunning even though you could see the guys who had been out there the whole time had nothing left.

I still think UConn is a No. 1 seed. Despite the loss in the first round, I think they showed enough in that game they deserve a spot on the top line of the bracket. Amazingly Syracuse knocked off West Virginia the next night in overtime once again, and then pushed Louisville to the brink. I always like Syracuse in the NCAA tournament. Jim Boeheim is one of the best coaches in college basketball and he always finds a way to win. I just have to wonder how much this run in the Big East Tournament will affect them in nest week's Big Dance.

The search of the "noise"

I am reading a book right now called "Bloody Confused" by Chuck Culpepper that I am really enjoying. He is a sportswriter who has become disenchanted by American sports so he spent a spring in England watching the English Premier League.

During the early part of the book he talks about the reason people love sports is for a particular moment. What he calls that noise. An moment in a game that gets the crowd and atmosphere in general to create a noise that "might swim in your ear canals and rustle your soul and electrify your skin and maybe even prolong your life."

He writes about a goal between Portsmouth and Manchester City as being that it moment for him that truly hooked him into the EPL. He was not even at the game, but watching on TV, but he could just feel the noise through the television.

As a sportswriter Culpepper has covered 11 Super Bowls, seven World Series, five Olympics, 25 major golf tournaments and countless bowl games among other events. But one he remembers most is a moment he missed. When Kirk Gibson hit his famous home run off Eck in the '88 Series, Culpepper was in the hallway outside the Oakland locker room waiting to interview the supposed winning pitcher Dave Stewart.

He witnessed one of the biggest home runs in baseball history on a monitor in the hallway at Chavez Ravine and said he only wishes he knew what the noise in the stadium sounded like.

That got me thinking about whether I have ever experienced that noise. That moment in sports that "rustled my soul or electrified my skin." Have I ever experienced a moment that some people search their entire sporting lives for? Some never find it.

I guess I have been lucky. In my 31 years of the pursuit of the "noise" I can pinpoint four times I experienced it. That moment that not only qualifies as a fantastic moment in a game, but changes the environment around you. For that reason, the finish to the Sam Houston State/Eastern Washington playoff game in 2004 doesn't qualify because the game was in Cheney, Washington. Although the silence in that stadium was awesome.

The first was in 1997 at the Alamodome at the NCAA Basketball Midwest Regional. With the UCLA Bruins trailing 73-72 to Iowa State Cameron Dollar sprinted the length of the floor after a shot by Iowa State's Shawn Bankhead scored to put the Cyclones up with 10 seconds left in overtime. Dollar floated a 3-footer over the outstretched arm of Kelvin Cato to give the Bruins a thrilling victory.

To top it off, it was the second game of what had to have been one of the most exciting nights in NCAA regional history as Minnesota had beat Clemson in double overtime the first game of the night. When Dollar hit the shot, the place erupted. I have never experienced anything like. It was my first NCAA Tournament and I loved every second of it. Probably because of that night, I have been to the Big Dance four more times.

My second it moment was another college basketball game (this is going to be a theme here.) This is my only Sam Houston game on the list. It was the 2003 Southland Conference Championship game. In overtime, Donald Cole hit a 3-pointer with 18-seconds left to beat Stephen F. Austin.

I was sitting on press row right next to the Bearkat bench. The final moments of that game are a blur. To noise in Johnson Coliseum was indescribable. I have since watched the shot again and it looks nothing like I remember it in person. I had been to the NCAA Tournament two times before, but that shot meant I was going to see my Bearkats in the Big Dance. That was one of those moments.

The next one stings. Simply known as the 18-inning game. The 2005 playoff between the Astros and the Braves. As a Braves fan the game was absolutely gut-wrenching to watch. I don't remember what inning it was in, maybe the 15th or 16th, but the Astros hit a ball that looked like it was in the Crawford Box, that just drifted foul. For a moment I thought I was going to puke.

After getting stop after stop and forcing yet another inning, I just kept feeling like the Braves were finally going to break through and get a run. And then in the bottom of the 18th Chris Burke of all people hit a bloop that managed to find its way into the seats.

The Minute Maid crowd erupted. It was easily the most energy I had ever felt from a stadium. I don't think I even saw Burke cross home plate. As soon as the ball dropped in the Crawford Box I was out of my seat and heading to the exit.

The thing I remember the most is being in the concourse afterward and heading down the escalators. We were the only two people out there as you could here the noise out in the stadium. There was an eerie clam heading down the escalators. Little did I know at the time, but that is the last time Atlanta has walked off the field in the postseason.

The final moment for me was this past year at the Final Four. My fifth trip to the NCAA Tournament and my first Final Four. I was assisting the media services staff and had the fortunate pleasure to watch the games courtside. I was standing just off the baseline on the opposite end of the court when Mario Chalmers hit the 3-pointer to force overtime in the National Championship game.

Once again, the energy in the Alamodome that night was indescribable. While there was still five minutes of overtime to play, you just had a feel there was no way Kansas was going to lose. Before the game started a friend sent me a text and asked me who I thought was going to win. I sent back and said I didn't care, I just wanted to see the greatest game in NCAA Championship history. I think Chalmers certainly gave me a chance to make that claim.

All of these moments are ingrained in my memory not because of what I saw, but because of what I felt in that moment. Culpepper says these are the moments in sports that "rustle your soul and electrify your skin" and I have never thought about it that way before, but it is so true. Now here's to hoping they also help prolong my life.

One more video clip

Here is one more clip that I was able to get together. This is probably not one of my finer moments on the sideline. I honestly have no idea why I did it. I guess I was just pissed we let them score right before the half.

Video by request

I was asked to put this clip up on the web so here it is. This is during the 2001 SFA game. Obviously at the time I thought this was a horrible call and reacted accordingly. Looking back on it I think the ref made the right call.

The Greatest Pitcher You'll Ever See

It was kind of sad the other day seeing Greg Maddux hang up his spikes for good. For so long Maddux was a big part of the Braves and one of the best pitchers to ever lace them up.

I always think back to the Sports Illustrated cover from 1995 saying Maddux was "the greatest pitcher you'll ever see." Being a Braves fan I got to see a lot of him, just about every fifth day.

Unlike some of the top pitchers in the past, Maddux didn't have the overpowering fast ball he could resort to if the other stuff wasn't working. Maddux wouldn't blow the ball past any one. Instead he had to out think the opposing hitters. More often than not, that is exactly what he did.

For that reason, he never had the huge strikeout numbers that some people use to judge a pitcher's career. He didn't have a no-hitter in his career either like some of the top throwers in baseball did. But he was about as efficient as a pitcher who ever took the hill.

Maddux went one season nearly having fewer walks than wins in the season, finishing the 1997 campaign with 19 wins and 20 walks. Two years earlier he put together one of the best single seasons for a pitcher going 19-2 with an ERA of 1.63 and an astonishing WHIP of 0.81. In fact, even with some down years at the end of has career, he still finished with a career WHIP of 1.14. Only Johan Santana has a better career WHIP (1.10) among active players.

His years with Atlanta were clearly his best, although he did win a Cy Young with Chicago. In 10 years he went 194-88 and twice had an ERA under 2.

I don't know how many times I saw Maddux pitch in person, but there is one game I remember specifically. It was two days after I graduated high school. Maddux went seven innings against the Astros without giving up a hit. Jeff Bagwell was leading off the 8th and I looked at my friend and said if he can get past Bagwell he has a good chance to throw the no-no. Bagwell then took him deep. Maddux then retired the next six hitters for a one-hitter. It is the closest he ever got.

Maddux will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer and that will be a speech I don't plan on missing. I figure I have seen more than 200 major league baseball games and have watched guys like Randy Johnson, Nolan Ryan, Dwight Godden, Roger Clemens, Kevin Brown, Andy Pettitte, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine toe the rubber and I still can't argue with SI, Maddux is the greatest pitcher I will ever see.

Don't give up ... Don't ever give up

It has been more than 15 years since Jim Valvano delivered his "Don't give up" speech at the ESPY's and to a crowd at NC State and it still gets me to this day.

ESPN can be accused of over hyping a lot of things. Every week on the network has some sort of corny tag like "Rivalry Week" or "Showdown Week" or the build up to the "Collision in the Coliseum."

Most of the time it is just some petty attempt to hype something that either A) doesn't need hype to begin with, or B) isn't really that big of a deal, but ESPN is trying to convince everyone it it. Usually it is the latter.

But with "Jimmy V Week," they have flat out nailed it. The cause aside, Jimmy V Week is such a special week because we get to relive the speech Jim Valvano gave on the podium at the ESPY's in 1993. I don't think I got choked up the first time I saw the speech, because I was a sophomore in high school and you just didn't do that.

But at the time, I had not had anyone in my life fight cancer. As a 31-year-old with a family, it is much different. I can relate more to what Jimmy V was saying on that night as his gestures and nods to his family really hits home.

Every year during the Jimmy V Classic I try to catch the speech between games. If I am not home I try to record it. By the time it is done, I always have a massive knot in my throat and usually a little moisture in the eyes.

I was talking to a group of students a few weeks ago, and I was amazed they have never seen the speech before. I have to remember they weren't born yet when Jimmy V was running around the court in 1983 after winning the national championship. When he was giving his speech in 1993 they were about eight years old and more concerned about a lot of other things on TV than some old coach wearing a tux and speaking to a group of people they had never heard of.

I told them all to google his speech and watch it. I don't know if any of them ever did. So if you are reading this, I have found a link to the speech and you now have no excuse for not watching it.

My brother knows how much I liked Jimmy V even before he passed away, and especially how much I have grown to like him in the years since. For my birthday he ordered a DVD of the ESPY speech from the V Foundation and with the DVD came a blue wrist band with "Don't give up ... Don't ever give up" written on it.

No matter what the situation, where I am or what the dress code is, I don't take that band off. In fact since I have had it, I have worn it more than my wedding band. Without really even thinking about it, not a week goes by I don't stop and look at it and think about the words written on it.

In Jimmy V's speech he has another part I think of quite a bit and repeat to other people at times:

"When people say to me how do you get through life or each day, it's the
same thing. To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should
do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day.
Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think
about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck
of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something
special."

Not a day goes by that I don't laugh and at least spend some time in thought. I probably don't cry enough for Jimmy V's liking, but I guess that is what his video is for. It is amazing how often at the end of the night that I have had a really bad day that I think back and realize I just blew through the day and didn't spend time doing any of the things Jimmy V talked about doing every day.

This turned into being much longer than I was anticipating it being. I really just wanted to get a link of the speech up. Now I am not really sure how I want to close it, so I guess I do it the same way Jimmy V did.

"I thank you and God bless you all."

New teams added to the list

I will get to pick up two new teams to my NCAA basketball list beginning with tonight's game against Western Michigan. On Saturday, Wright State will come to Huntsville to take on the Bearkats.

This will put me up to 58 NCAA basketball teams I have seen play. I probably will not add to the list again this season (unless I got to Lafayette) since I will not be going to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in two years unless the Bearkats are involved.

I have to give it to SHSU head coach Bob Marlin. Over the last few years, he has done a great job of brining in some good Mid-Major programs to Johnson Coliseum. Just in the last three years, I have gotten the chance to see Loyola-Marymount, Central Florida, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Fresno State, Cal-Irvine, Texas Tech (not a mid-major but a great home game), Southern Miss and North Texas.

People around here always seem to get really excited when the Bearkats play host to Texas Tech or head on the road to Texas A&M and with good reason. I got excited to see Bob Knight patrol the sidelines here last season as well. I intentionally set up my seat on press row next to the Tech bench just so I could get a close look at a legend at work.

But the problem is, to a lot of people, our season ended last year with the home victory over Tech and it won't start this year until the Bearkats head over to College Station to take on the Aggies.

We are afforded a rare opportunity to watch some really good basketball not just in January and March when schools like SFA and Northwestern State come to Huntsville, but in November and December while the football diehards are waiting for the bowls to come around.

There was a time when a mid-major wouldn't come down to Huntsville. The non-conference slate was full on the Schreiner's and the Austin College's. While they are still on the slate, we do get treated with three or four good games a year as well. It is just a shame more people in the area don't realize what they have. Who knows how long we will continue to have this opportunity.

If a game is played but no one can watch it, did it really happen?

So the Mountain West wants everyone to take the league seriously. They say Utah should be a national championship contender. They say BYU is one of the top offenses in the country. TCU puts one of the best products out there each season.

All you have to do is give them a chance and watch a game and you will be convinced. Tonight is one of the biggest games of the season as Utah gets set to take on BYU. Great, I am ready to watch.

What channel is the game on?

How can a league expect anyone to take it seriously if the only network that is covering its biggest contest is The Mountain. That sounds more like a type of beer than it does a television network. I wouldn't even had known the network existed had the Bearkats not played a game on it last season. I remember a producer calling me telling me he was from The Mountain looking for video of our basketball. I guess he assumed I know what The Mountain was.

Utah is ranked No. 7 in the BCS and they can earn a bid to one of the four BCS games with a victory. There are people who are trying to argue a case for Utah to play in the national championship if things fall right.

I can't argue one way or another, because I haven't seen them play since they beat Michigan the first week of the season. That game is looking less impressive with every passing day. A few weeks ago TCU was playing Utah and it was being billed at the time as the biggest game in the Mountain West history.

I get home that night to watch it on TV and can't find it. I start flipping through all the usual stations and I find World Series of Poker on ESPN2, some Division II game on ESPNU and none of the family of Fox networks had the game.

I see the score running on the bottom line so I know the game is on. I decide to get online to look it up and see The Mountain is carrying it. How can you expect people to take you serious if no one can see you play.

Right now I can make a better case for Ball State to be in the national championship picture than I can Utah because the Cardinals are on ESPN damn near every week. I know what we are getting with them because the MAC made it a point to get its games on national TV and get some exposure to the league's teams and players.

While the teams in the MAC may not be as good as the top teams in the Mountain West, I have a better feel for what they are capable of because the opportunity is there every week to watch them play. I come to work, and people stick their head in my office and say "Hey did you see that game in the fog last night."

Because it was on ESPN there were people watching. I don't think anyone all season long has asked, "Did you catch that Wyoming game last night?"

If you want to be a serious player on the national football landscape then you have to start acting like one. If that means some Tuesday and Wednesday night game, so be it. The big boys all play on ESPN. It is about time you did to.

Someone call me and let me know who wins this one.

That is how you finish off a game

It took a long time for this game to come. I'm not just talking about having to wait for the last game of the day or even having to wait through a bye week.

We have been waiting for this game since Tony Romo first broke his finger at the end of the Arizona game. Things were starting to look bad for Dallas and then losing Romo really hurt. From the time we heard how long he was going to be out, the Redskin game was the one the was circled on the schedule.

The job was just to survive the three games without him. They salvaged a game against Tampa Bay, putting themselves in position to make a run at the playoffs. That is what made this game so big. Not only were the Cowboys essentially playing for their playoff lives, but it was against the Redskins.

It is a little early to be throwing out the "must win" label on a game, but this game was a must win. A loss to the Redskins probably would have marked the end of Wade Phillips' tenure as the head coach of the 'Boys. It would have also marked the end of the of the postseason hopes for a team that had high aspirations heading into the season (seems to be a theme with my teams this season).

No one wanted to commit either way during the pregame shows about what they thought would happen in this game. There seemed to be a wait-and-see attitude toward this game. There is no doubt the Cowboys can be good. The question that had to be answered was will they be good.

At times they were good, especially on the defensive side of the ball. They also had some areas that still need some work. They most impressive thing about the game was the Cowboys ability to finish off the game.

With a little more than six minutes to play Dallas got the ball and never gave it back to Washington. There is something to be said for a team that can do that. Too often you see teams lose games because they can't finish. Marion Barber made sure that was not going to be the case for the Cowboys.

In a place that has been hard to play, Dallas came up with a big win when they had to. There is still a lot of season left, but the most important thing is, there is a lot of season left to play for.

They have to avoid the let down game next week against San Francisco and see if they can get this thing back on a roll. Get hot, get into the playoffs and see what happens. It was a formula the Giants used successfully last season.

Recruiting in Texas

I get asked this a lot and have heard it twice in the last two weeks. People want to know why Sam Houston can't recruit a top quarterback straight out of high school.

With the exception of Brett Hicks, all the top quarterbacks at Sam Houston since 1999 have been transfers. Chris Chaloupka (Oklahoma State), Josh McCown (SMU), Dustin Long (Texas A&M) and Rhett Bomar (Oklahoma) were all transfers and all had or have had in the case of Rhett, great careers.

What people don't understand is truly how difficult it is to recruit a quarterback in the state of Texas. You are not just competing against the other Texas schools, you are competing against the nation when it comes to quarterbacks.

I was listening to Rivals Radio this morning and they had a recruiting expert on the show. The topic of quarterbacks came up and he started talking about Texas. He said there are 20 to 25 quarterbacks in the state of Texas who are going to get FBS scholarships this year and that number is only going to go up in the years to follow.

Take a look at the landscape of college football right now and everyone is going to the spread. One of the reasons Texas has become such a hotbed for quarterback recruiting is because so many high schools have switched to this offense. Also, because 7-on-7 has become so big in Texas and kids are learning how to sit back and play pitch and catch.

If you look at college football, there are countless numbers of quarterbacks who are from Texas. In fact, I decided to take a look. I pulled the list of the top 120 quarterbacks in the nation in terms of passing yards and here is the list of guys from Texas:

1. Graham Harrell, Texas Tech, Ennis Tx
3. Case Keenum, Houston Abilene, TX
4. Chase Daniel, Missouri, Southlake Carroll
6. Chase Clement, Rice, Alamo Heights
9. Todd Reesing, Kansas, Austin Westlake
10. Colt McCoy, Texas,Tuscola, TX
13. Matthew Stafford, Georgia, Highland Park, TX
15. Chase Holbrook, New Mexico St, Hurst TX
16. Bo Levi Mitchell, SMU, Katy TX
19. Casey Dick, Arkansas, Allen TX
21. Giovanni Vizza, N Texas , San Antonio, TX
26. Trevor Vittatoe, UTEP, Bedford, TX
27. Jerrod Johnson, Texas A&M, Humble, TX
34. Brian Johnson, Utah, Baytown Lee TX
51. Jevan Snead, Ole Miss, Stephenville, Tx
56. Robert Griffin, Baylor Copperas Cove, Tx
61. Andy Dalton, TCU Katy, TX
67. Kevin Moore, Tulane Highland Village, Tx
74. Jarrett Lee, LSU, Brenham Tx
80. Christian Ponder, Florida St, Colleyville, Tx
86. Daniel Raudabaugh, Miami (OH), Coppel, Tx
112. Nick Stephens, Tennessee Flower Mound

That is 22 guys in the top 112 who played high school ball in Texas, nearly 20 percent. The list is very top heavy with Texas guys, with six of the top 10 and 14 of the top 34.

That is why schools from across the nation are coming into Texas to recruit, which makes it increasingly more difficult to pull some of the top talent in Texas to Sam Houston State. Fact of the matter is, kids in Texas will almost always be drawn to the allure of "big-time college football."

Even if it is UNLV, Miami Ohio, Utah or New Mexico State, 18-year-olds are going to be more inclined to take a look at an FBS school even if they may be a better fit at Sam Houston, where the offense is tailored for a quarterback to shine. Part of it is ignorance and part of it is arrogance. They can tell their classmates they got a scholarship to play "Division I" football.

While I don't think the answer is to stop recruiting the best talent you can get to play quarterback, you have to always have your eye open for a transfer. Too many people make that to sound like a negative, like that is all you can get. However, what needs to be done is go after that talent and then hope after a year or two has passed those kids will realize they have made a mistake and opt to come back to a school that had been recruiting them all along.

Showdown at the Shoe

I am really surprised ESPN hasn't come up with a catchy name for this game. Ever since the "Collision at the Coliseum" proved to be more of a collapse, I think ESPN has gotten away from really over hyping a game like this.

Not that it hasn't gotten plenty of run with constant updates on the bottom line all week and Gameday showing up in Columbus, I am glad ESPN has sort of gone away from over-hyping a game.

It is No. 3 Penn State at No. 9 Ohio State, but is really has the feel of a top-5 matchup. For Penn State, this game is huge. Maybe the biggest game for this school since 2005 Michigan. Three years ago, the Lions stumbled once, and finished the year No. 3.

That same year, Texas went on to face an unbeaten USC team for the national championship. The Nittany Lions did work their way back to No. 3 in the BCS. As devastating as the Michigan loss was at the time, I was able to look back at the end of the year and see Penn State might not have played for the national championship even had they gone undefeated.

I don't think that is the case this year. Sitting at No. 3 in the BCS and facing the toughest team left on the schedule, I think Penn State can get into the National Championship with an undefeated season.

Once again Texas sits above them in the polls ahead of No. 2 Alabama this time around. I just don't see both of them going the rest of the way unbeaten. I thin one will fall before the end of the regular season potentially opening the door for Penn State if the Lions can take care of business.

It is not going to be an easy task. Ohio State is not the same team they were a month ago. Early in the year they looked vulnerable. Bennie Wells was hurt and a true freshman was stepping in at quarterback.

People were already telling me the door was open for the Nittany Lions. I knew better. The game was a long way away and a lot of time for Ohio State to right the ship. They have played in the last two national championship games so I knew they Buckeyes were not going to just lay down.

I have avoided talking much about Penn State's chances of winning the title. I have been saying I'm not going to really start getting excited until after this game. I Penn State is undefeated at the end of the night, then I will start thinking about the possibilities.

Until then. I will just sit and wait.

Bomar is officially a Bearkat

I should have seen this coming, but I didn't. It never dawned on me this would come up this week. And that just goes to show how accustomed we have become to having Rhett Bomar at Sam Houston State.

Two years ago and even last season, I was on edge the week of the Texas-OU game, and not because of its annual national title implications. But because it would bring the national media out of the woodwork, clamoring to the "Piney Woods" to talk to the quarterback who was supposed to be playing in that game.

Oklahoma is in Rhett's past. He has said it on numerous occasions, and I believe him. I have come to believe it myself. That is why when I set up an interview this week with Rhett and Austin Murphy at Sports Illustrated, it never dawned on me he would want to talk about the Texas-OU game.

Rhett has moved past it. I guess I assumed everyone had too. I sat in the office and listened to Rhett talk to Murphy. The conversation started innocent enough. He was asked a little bit about the conference and the opponents he has faced.

It sounded like a question about the Kansas game came up and now he had Rhett talking about a Big 12 team. That is when he started asking about the game this weekend, and not the Bearkats' game against Central Arkansas. The Horns and the Sooners were the topic of the next few questions.

Rhett's posture changed. He was no longer sitting up in the chair but instead slumped over with his head on the desk. He had been here before with this line of questioning, but it had been a while. Rhett gave an answer to just about every question, giving Murphy just enough of a quote to tease him, before stopping short.

From there the questions moved to Rhett's situation at Oklahoma. While visibly put out by line of questions, Rhett kept talking. He answered the questions just like he always has, refusing to give out any information about anyone but himself.

Just as he has done time and time again, he took responsibility for his part of what happened at Oklahoma, and on more than one occasion, reminded Murphy he has moved on and is happy. Murphy is a pro. He could see he was not going to get any farther with those questions, so he changed topics.

That is when I realized Rhett truly is a Bearkat now and not a "former Oklahoma quarterback." Murphy started asking Rhett questions about the prisons. Anyone who has been in Huntsville for any amount of time has been asked about the prisons.

It is the favorite topic, and often a punch line by the national media, when talking about Sam Houston State. For people like me, who have been associated with this school as a student, alum, writer and now employee, we have heard the questions over and over. They are our "Oklahoma" questions if you will.

If a writer has nothing else to write, he writes about the prisons, and just like when Rhett gets asked about Oklahoma, it get old fast. But Rhett has handled everything better than could be imagined. I know he has to get frustrated. I do.

Nervously I have waited for the article to hit the web on SI.com. It could have been written any one of several directions, but I had a good idea of which way it would go. With everyone talking about Texas-OU, Rhett's past was bound to be more of a focus rather than his bright future at SHSU and later in the NFL.

The story was released Thursday, and it was pretty much what I expected. But the lead is what confirmed Rhett is now truly a Bearkat.

"One of the first things people told Rhett Bomar when he got to Huntsville,
Texas: Don't pick up hitchhikers. Situated in the Piney Woods, 70 miles north of
Houston, Huntsville is the location of Sam Houston State, Bomar's second
college. It's also home to eight prisons, including what was for many years the
nation's busiest execution chamber."

No mention of Oklahoma. This might be the first story about Rhett not written by the Huntsville Item to do this. A good chunk of the story was about the "Red River Rivalry" and about Rhett's past at Oklahoma. Murphy attempts to read between the lines to try to gain more of an understanding about what might have happened at that car dealership in Norman three years ago.

I have started to realized that no matter how much I or Rhett or his family or anyone else has moved on, Rhett's ties to Oklahoma will always be there. 20 years from now there will be people who remember Rhett for what happened at Oklahoma and nothing else. That is pretty much a given.

Just like people who worked at SMU in the 80's are still asked about the "Death Penalty" and Hall of Famer George Brett is still asked about the pine tar incident, Rhett will be asked about Oklahoma. It will always be a footnote to his career and life.

There are not many 19, 20 or 21-year olds who have had to go through what Rhett has endured the last three years of his life. He has handled it better than ever could have been expected.

Everyone does things in college that they regret and 10 years later sit around the poker table with friends and talk about how stupid they were and how lucky they are that nothing serious ever happened to them. They can laugh about it now. Difference is, 99 percent of those people never had a story written about what they did. ESPN wasn't looking for an interview to talk about. Sports Illustrated didn't call three years later still looking for more to the story.

While I thought this was just about over, I am starting to see that over the course of Rhett's life, this story may still be in the early stages.

In the three years I have gotten to know Rhett, one thing I have come to realize about him is his strength, and I am not talking about in the weight room. While he will always carry this around with him, I am confident it will become merely a footnote in his life and not the incident that defines him.

What a return to TV

OK, so I went 61 1/2 hours with no TV. I think the last time I had a stretch like that was Hurricane Alicia in 1983. I really can't think of another stretch of nothing. Not even a glance at a TV in passing.

Saturday afternoon I was able to get the XM radio going on battery power and listen to about three quarters of the Penn State game. Sunday night I caught the last inning of Carlos Zambrano's no-hitter on XM as well.

I was getting phone calls and text messages throughout the weekend giving me scores and updating me on my fantasy teams, but access was definitely limited.

So my first thing to watch was the Monday Night game with the Cowboys and Eagles. After a little pregame show it felt good to be watching sports again. This game didn't disappoint. I think I would have been excited with any Cowboy victory, but that game was something else.

The people we are staying with in Austin didn't really know what to expect. Meagan has been with me for Cowboy and Penn State games before, but her boyfriend Costa has only met me a handful of times and never when a game of any importance was on TV.

So right out of the gate I was up screaming. TO's long touchdown and Felix Jones' kickoff return for a touchdown. He also saw the other side of me when the Eagles took the lead in the second quarter. I was pissed and it showed. He ended up leaving the room for a while and I am not really sure why.

Everyone has to go to work in the morning and went to bed in the third quarter, so I had to do one of the hardest things imaginable, watch the game in near silence. I use near very loosely, because I did have some minor outbursts. Fortunately the Cowboys pulled it off and I had a very enjoyable return to TV.

Just saw the Fresno State/Wisconsin game from Saturday night is on ESPN2. I really have no idea what happens in this one, so I think I will watch a little while.

It is good to have you back old friend.

Post Ike

It feels good to just have air right now. I went 48 hours without TV but we have escaped to Austin so I have the Cowboys on a 48" TV with HD. There is no telling how long we are going to be without power.

Here is some video of the storm as it passed over my house. We caught the left edge of the eye while the storm was a Cat 1. The first clip is a little before sunrise around 6:30 a.m. We lost power about 4:30 and the winds really started getting bad about 5 a.m.



This next clip is about 7 in the morning. The only thing that saved the fence was the wind was blowing with it and not against it. The plank that is missing was gone early in the storm.

This last video is about 8 a.m.

After driving through the neighborhood the next day we really got lucky. There were at least two tornadoes that touched down within about half a mile from our house. As we drove around there were several houses with significant damage and there were at least 10 cars damaged, and we only drove though less than a quarter of the neighborhood.

Hurricane Ike

Last Saturday was strange. I was actually home. My Saturdays are usually spent at Bowers Stadium getting ready for a Kats game. If I'm on the road it is a mix of hotels, buses and other stadiums.

I can usually grab a score here and there and maybe catch a highlight here and there. With the 11 a.m. kicks usually I can squeeze in the the first half, and if a press box has a TV I might catch a few moments of a game or two. Then I am relegated to the late-night Pac-10 game or maybe a Tivoed Penn State game.

Very rarely do I have a Saturday of just sitting around the living room watching football.

So even while I was on the couch watching the Nittany Lions, something felt weird, like there was something else I was supposed to be doing. I enjoyed the day, but there was just a different fell about it.

Now all of a sudden I find myself with a second consecutive Saturday off. I was supposed to be getting ready for Prairie View A&M, and now I am getting ready for Ike. Going into this morning, the option was still open to playing this weekend. Saturday looked out, but we thought the game might get moved to Friday or Sunday.

But when the university closed for Friday that was out and when Prairie View called and said they couldn't get a bus to bring them to Huntsville, Sunday was out as well.

So here I am again, looking over the TV listings for Saturday wondering if I am going to get my Nittany Lions again. I actually had it planned right if Ike would have just stayed on course and gone to Corpus. With a 6 p.m. kickoff for the Bearkats and a 2:30 start for Penn State I was going to get to work and set up the video equipment early and just watch the game in my office on ESPN360.

Now I don't know what I am going to do. I don't have 360 at my house so that option is out. The game is an ABC regional game so there is a glimmer of hope. With the Texas/Arkansas game postponed, that opens up the schedule for the 2:30 time-slot. I will just have to wait and see which game they decide to show.

Of course if I lose power on Saturday, none of that really matters.

Bob Costas....

Bob Costas has a tough job. He has to basically direct traffic so to speak on the NBC broadcast keep people up-to-date on all the happenings in Beijing. The hard part is he is having to bounce between live events and stuff that happened the night before in Beijing.

And while we pretty much know what happens, Costas' job is to keep you interested and attempt to hold the suspense before they show an event that might be more than 12 hours old.

In a society that has become results in real-time and on-demand, Costas is facing the challenge of reporting half-day old news as if it is fresh. It is a job I don't envy. Not to mention he had to sit next to Bela Karolyi and pretend to understand what Bela was saying.

You could see him at times just shaking his head in agreement and you knew damn good and well he didn't understand a word that was being said.

We sometimes criticize sports broadcasters for hyperbole and getting caught up in the heat of the moment. If they had time to digest everything that happened and then talk about it, the thinking is they might be able to lend a little bit better commentary to the event.

Costas however might be proving that may not be true. He has had a few interesting one-liners the past few nights, but tonight was the worst. I don't know if Costas has a bad pun writer or if he just sits up at night thinking this stuff up himself.

After showing the replays of the two US sprint teams drop the baton in the relay, Costas drops this gem on the American viewers, "So the American men's and women's teams go out and lay an egg at the Birds Nest."

Really Bob? That is the best you can do?

Al Michaels gets "Do you believe in miracles?" and that is what you are coming with?