As an announcer, I hate screwing up facts on a broadcast. So I'm going to use this space to make some corrections to mistakes I made during Saturday night's broadcast from Oklahoma.
First of all, I need to apologize to freshman long snapper Clint Brock, who was suffering from a minor injury and did not play Saturday night. The Bengals had some bad snaps from back-up snapper Daniel Urias, and I didn't notice that it was not Brock on the field. That's a big mistake on my part, and I apologize for not confirming who the long-snapper was. And I'm not being critical of Urias -- he stepped up in the spring and took over the long-snapping job because the Bengals basically didn't have anybody else available. Then, to ask him to take the job back over under lousy conditions (it rained all day and night in Norman) without much preparation, well, it was a tough job.
Secondly, I don't know where my math went wrong (but somewhere there are a couple of nuns who used to teach at SS Peter & Paul elementary who are nodding at each other knowingly), but I proclaimed on the air that JD Ponciano broke the ISU record for most kick-off return yards during the game with the Sooners. Actually, he still needs 66 more yards (is that right, Frank? -- please check my subtraction!), and hopefully those will come against Weber State Saturday night in Ogden. No matter, "Ponce" did a great job Saturday night, picking up 104 all-purpose yards and doing such a good job in the return game that the Sooners stopped kicking to him. That's a big compliment.
Finally, I offer my last word on the issue of scheduling. As I noted last week, the worst part about playing Arizona State and Oklahoma back-to-back is that it makes it nearly impossible to run a good deal of your offense, and it makes it very difficult to tell where you stand on that side of the football. Nothing that happened Saturday night would change that perspective. But I would point out that the Bengal players seemed to really enjoy the "Oklahoma experience" (see the photo above of them taking pictures prior to their walk-through on Friday), and I find a lot of the message board chatter about "prostituting the players" to be ridiculous. The Bengals played a very physical brand of football against both ASU and the Sooners, and from that perspective, I thought they competed well. The edge in speed and quickness was the real difference I saw in both games, but none of the Bengal players I talked with during the trip felt embarrassed or used.
Join Jerry and I on the coach's show tonight (Monday night at 6 p.m. on KSEI, AM-930) to get an update on Isaiah Burel's condition, what happens to the quarterback situation with Russell Hill's injury, and how the Bengals plan to stop their tormentor, Trevyn Smith on Saturday.
--Brad B.
And thanks for being a Bengal fan -- it ain't always easy, but it's always fun.
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2 comments:
Read the sports column in the ISU student newspaper?
"Let's face it, when the "higher ups" choose futility and shame for money over the chance for glory and victory with far less material reward, it is a form of prostitution, even if no one's taking their clothes off. It's not what the spirit of athletics and competition is about, and it sends the message that money is more important than honor."
I guess it's time for the ISU staff and its mouthpieces to circle the wagons and attack the student and the newspaper.
ISU is starting to remind me of a junky addict. He can justify in his mind why it's okay to take this poison "just this once." All he is pre-occupied with is the "now," and he doesn't care about any long term repercussions. He can tell you that he can quit anytime, but in reality, he sets himself back each time he gets his fix.
I guess I'm having a hard time figuring out where the "shame" is. If it was in the 64-0 score, I'd just point out that Oklahoma put up over 60 points in five straight games last year -- all against Big 12 opponents. Yeah, those opponents also scored some points against the Sooners, but in those five games, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Missouri were outscored by a cumulative 316 to 139.
I mean, if you want to talk about futility, ISU hasn't won at Weber State in 25 years. Should we cancel this weekend's game because we're not favored?
Look, I understand starting off the season with both ASU and Oklahoma was not desireable. All the coaches will tell you the same thing. But none of the coaches or players I've talked to have complained about playing these games. Many have talked about what an honor it was to play these programs, especially one as storied as Oklahoma. So if the people who are directly impacted by the scheduling aren't complaining, I'm satisfied.
Does ISU want to do this again? The answer is no. But be forewarned -- from the looks of the early state tax receipts this fiscal year, there are going to be more cuts coming next year. And the athletic department is going to have to make hard choices again -- cut jobs, scholarships, recruiting budgets? Or more money games.
There are no easy solutions to these problems. I'm not attacking anybody who disagrees with the approach -- everybody is entitled to their opinions. But to say that the football team's efforts against Oklahoma "made my alma mater look like bleep," well, I'm sorry that's just not true. The people in Oklahoma were incredibly complimentary of the efforts of ISU, and in fact, the football team made a very positive statement about the institution -- even if they got beat up like half the Big 12 did last year.
--Brad B.
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