TheTastyGreek

Convoys, lot lizards... More appealing than Dodgeball? What a 10 ton load.

Flax gots to get paid. His driving may leave US trucked. Toot the farewell horn.

One other note about painful losses- MeanMag and I were working together through the last two years of the Dickey era, and it was very rare that either of us (never both, because we were the only guys trained and able to do our specific job) could get a Saturday off to see games in person. We would set up a little transistor radio or just sneak out of the building for 90 minutes at a time to listen to games on a car radio. Most of those weren't very fun to listen to at all.

Limited to the ones I've seen in person, they've all come in the past 5 years. Outside of that, the Tulsa home loss and the road loss to Akron were pretty miserable watch/listen experiences. The loss to Oklahoma wasn't as terrible, though it wasn't fun watching it at Pluckers near SMU and having to listen to everyone in the place mock us. I'm also glad that FilmerJ and I elected to go to Stillwater for the OSU-NT basketball game last year instead of watching Army at home, or that game would probably be on this list. We heard the meltdown on the radio during the drive back and got the immediate recap from 4 different people who sounded like they'd just been through a car wreck. My list: Kansas State - 2008 opener. Kept the faith through the Mendoza year, got excited about the DeLoach return, believed the cowstool about "Fight 'till the last whistle" and "crush your opponent's will to compete". Went to see the game in person with my brother and FilmerJ. Night before, we watch the new look June Jones Mustangs get throttled on national TV by Rice. Spirits are high. Day of the game, we go out and lay an even bigger egg than the one we saw in 2005 at the same stadium. A few days later, the coach admits he gave up trying after just a few series. I still get angry thinking about this one. Rice - 2008 road game. Stayed with my girlfriend's parents, and they still had no power in the aftermath of the hurricane. Half the d-line goes down with injuries, and when we can't keep pace with the Rice offense we just start running up the middle before halftime to kill the clock. First play of that last halftime drive, Vizza fights his way through a pile and picks up something like 20 yards. The coaches suddenly have to actually make an effort on the drive again, and I think Rice gives us up some yardage (pretty much the only yardage we gain) on penalties. But we don't score any points (then or at any point thereafter in the game), Rice continues to dominate and effectively starts kneeling on the ball in the 3rd quarter. So many fumbles, miscues, turnovers... Wind up diffusing a near fight after the game, then go home to an un-air conditioned house with no lights to wash the failure off in the dark. Louisiana Monroe - 2008 road game. Anyone who calls Giovanni Vizza a "quitter" wasn't at this game. His coach quit on HIM. We go down 28-0 in the first 17 minutes of the game. Vizza leads the team down inside the ULM 10... Field goal attempt. A visibly agitated Rick V leaves the sideline, shaking his head. Last possession of the half, down 35-3. We get the ball with 2:36 remaining and 2 timeouts. We waste a LOT of time getting plays called, but Vizza connects twice with Stickler for 44 yards and once with Cam Montgomery for another 20 to put us on the ULM 11 yard line. With 18 seconds left and us 11 yards from the end zone... Dodge sends in the kicking team AGAIN. RV is already long gone from the sidelines, and this call prompts several players' parents to leave the stadium. Only one came back to our section... If the rest watched the 2nd half, they did it from somewhere other than our section. First drive of the 2nd half, down 35-6, the offense drives down to the ULM 27. 4th and 6, down by FOUR SCORES... Dodge sends in the kicking team AGAIN. Again, disgusted parents get up and leave the stadium. Kick is good, so now the 4 score deficit becomes a slightly lower 4 score deficit. 3rd quarter, 6:39 left. Offense drives to the ULM 24 yard line. 4th and 4, 21 minutes left in the game, down by 26 points (FOUR TOUCHDOWNS)... Dodge sends in the kicking team AGAIN. No good. Still down 35-9. 36 seconds left in the 3rd quarter, down by 26. 3rd and 1 on our side of the field. Incomplete pass. 4th and 1 - Dodge sends out the punt team. A shocked Vizza runs off the field and screams "What do we have to lose?!??" Answer: The game. We score 2 TDs in the 4th quarter, but at that point all it does is make a more respectable 35-23 final score loss. Whenever I hear people start with the "we were only X points away from Y more wins!", I think of this game and the ULL home game from the same year when we were kicking field goals in their red zone in the 2nd half. Ineptitude and godawful decision making like what we saw in this game are why we've been "X points away", not bad luck. Ohio - 2009 home opener. Aside from what's already been mentioned and the terrible weather, my main memory of this game is doing overtime play-by-play on the phone for Quoner, who was out of town. From the agonizing dropped TD by Outlaw to the even more agonizing 4th and 15 TD conversion to the Bobcats changing their mind and deciding to go for two (if I recall correctly, they changed their mind after WE called timeout) it was like narrating the end of our season. When they connected on the 2 point conversion, I was so sick I couldn't even get the words out. He figured out we had lost by the crowd noise. Louisiana Lafayette - 2009 road game. Everyone remembers the meltdown against Ohio, but nobody seems to remember this one as the final nail in the coffin of a season that was still only 1-3 and very salvageable. We start the 4th quarter up by 10 points. We stop ULL on 4th down, only to give them 15 yards on a facemask penalty. They drive the rest of the way down the field and convert the TD on 4th and goal from the 1 yard line. We get the ball back on our own 42 with less than 9 and a half minutes remaining. Riley illegally completes a pass to himself for a loss of 18 yards (the loss was worse than the penalty on that play). Under heavy pressure (a declined running into the kicker penalty), we get off a 34 yard punt to Lafayette. Lafayette starts with good field position... But the defense holds. We start with the ball on our own 21 and 6:20 remaining. A few first downs, and ULL burns all their time outs. With less than 2:30 remaining, on the 48 yard line... ULL brings heavy pressure again and we kick a 10 yard punt. Literally a 10 yard kick; it went out of bounds and there was no return. Lafayette starts at midfield with zero timeouts and less than 150 seconds in the game. Again, the defense forces a 4th down and ULL throws an incomplete pass... But we get called for defensive holding. ULL converts a TD, and we're down 38-34. Royce Hill gets a nice return and we start near midfield with 30 seconds and 2 timeouts left... But we throw a pick on the first play of the drive and the game is over. Everyone remembers Ohio as a stunning blow that stopped the season in its tracks, but I think the ULL game was the knockout punch.

I like 'em. A lot. And the replicas are way better than what we have available for football at the moment.

I agree. No need for a question mark. .

Thanks, guys. Expect a call or email from Quoner about that vest.

Can't find a link to a story anywhere, but ASU fans on the SBC board and on their basketball message board are saying that Boone got a medical hardship waiver and will be eligible to play again this November.

I'm not buying one until someone gives me a fancier desk to put it on.

Kram and Daddy Dumpsalot?

"Fickle"... That's a fun word. Very descriptive. So is "feckless".

Taylor Insall

Times have sure changed since 2006.

I know the focus right now is heavy on football, but that can be a very sore subject and a lot of the questions on that front aren't particularly pleasant. I'd like to hear at least a little bit about RV's hopes (not expectations, just his green-colored glasses hopes) for the basketball season ahead and what he thinks this team can accomplish if everyone stays healthy. Also, how far does he think we can go to hold on to JJ if we have another good year and the bigger basketball schools start knocking? And, if there's time... I'd like to know if he has any insights on whether the SBC is going to extend the basketball tournament deal with Hot Springs past this year. All signs are that they will, but nobody has officially said anything yet. It'd be interesting to know, particularly given the growing number of GMG fans that make the trip every year, what sort of discussions the ADs and conference officials have had about the long term future of the event.

To put it as diplomatically as possible... Woody transferred because he didn't think he was going to get a fair shot at the starting QB job. He chose us over BCS offers like Arkansas because they wanted him as a DB and we were willing to let him play quarterback. Then, a year later, the new coaching staff was apparently pushing him to play DB.

He beat SMU, looked very dynamic in a lot of games his first year, then got jerked around and decided to transfer after the coaching change. Wouldn't call him a bust, and any disappointment that I felt about his career here wasn't directed at Woody.

They beat a WAC team back in 2007. A WAC TEAM!!! Who doesn't want to associate with that sort of excellence?

You've got that pegged.

This is sure to be a dispassionate, reasonable discussion. Reagan vs. Obama: Who's better?

Without stopping the breeze! What's the problem again?

I think you can give your guest a pair of tickets, but you should steal his lawnmower and sell it on Craigslist. Take the money and donate it to the Mean Green Club. That'll teach him to have gone to college somewhere else!

Wright Waters can't even count to 1. Don't tax his brain with stratospheric numbers like 3.

Commonly, "Quoted for truth". Less commonly but still viably, "Quite f---ing true".

Agree. Love it. Not perfect, but very lovable. Other than Kansas, LSU is the farthest OOC road trip. Every other game is within 4 or 5 hours drive from the Metroplex, and many are on weekends. Even LSU is less than 7 hours away. Unlike last year, we get something to show up for at home in OOC. Tech, UTA, and Rice are all going to be great environments, and they all come within a two week span. Texas State at home should be fun, and though I'm not ecstatic that we gave a return trip to Southern, I'm glad that it's a road trip that also allows me to score points with the prospective in-laws on a very favorable weekend. The only thing that worries me is that we're playing Tech right out of the gate. The lack of prep favors our chances more than theirs, given how much of our team is returning... But I do wish we had more than that one exhibition to tune up for them. No damn noon games, no mid-week OOC day games, only one Sunday game. Two very winnable BCS opponents. Chock full of regional teams. Continuing the series with UTA. I'm very happy today.