The Fake Lonnie Finch

Look, the recession is real in other places. Florida is hard hit. Pile that on top of trying to climb the rungs to the big time, and something's got to give. Even the Sun Belt Conference has cut back. This year, there will be no Media Day in July. It will all be via computer and video conference. Cost savings...around $30k. FIU is making though choices, and it looks like they're going with facilities over people. This thing is, it has to hit a wall somewhere. An article two days ago discussed the University of Florida's $89 million dollar budget for their athletic department. 89 million. The bubble will burst on all of it someday. At some point, the recession hits consumers, who stop buying from advertisers, who stop buy time from the networks, etc. It will happen more quickly to the FIU's of the world...of which we are one. Biltong.

In August, The Fake Lonnie Finch's Thinking Man's Guide To College Football Preview Magazine Without Pictures will be available on scribd. We'll see how long this bleacherreport clown stays in the game after that. Although, for the cover, I need a black and white drawing of a late-1950s/early-1960s looking guy in coveralls, wearing horn-rimmed glasses, sitting in a lounge chair, and smoking a pipe. I'll pay $50 dollars US for such a submission, if it's up to snuff and all. Something along these lines...only with horn-rimmed glasses and coveralls and reading The Fake Lonnie Finch's Thinking Man's Guide To College Football Preview Magazine Without Pictures instead of building a model: Buick.

Yes, I'm sure Tennessee is just quaking in their boots at the thought of scheduling us based on a game that occurred 30 years ago.

It's an excuse if the four people above you were Malcolm Kelly, Juaquin Iglesias, Manny Johnson, and Quentin Cheney - all of whom will be in NFL camps next month. That, and OU also flips the ball to their tight ends, running backs, and fullbacks. Here, things were different. In 2007, there was no glut of receivers to block a young receiver. Alas, none emerged and holdovers ranging from walk-ons to converted tight ends from Darrell Dickey's days took the lead role. Had Stradford begun here, it's likely he'd have started right away.

We need his speed for sure. I'm betting that we get him...hoping anyway. We've had a streak of good luck this off-season beginning with all but one recruit qualifying.

Sour grapes? Let's hope so. Although, with OU losing their top WRs over the past two seasons, you'd think he'd have stuck around. Maybe Dodge, Ford and George will make him run slants so he won't have to worry so much about running a bunch of different routes. http://blog.newsok.com/ou/2009/06/12/where...adford-edition/ I'm up late working on my "expert" magazine...available online sometime before my family hits three Florida beaches in August. So far, I think Air Force, under a coach who has taken the Falcons to two bowl games in his first two seasons after three consecutive losing seasons (2004-2006), will be pretty decent...but, I'm no expert. Probably just lucky. I mean, out there in the MWC with Utah and TCU it isn't like the guy has faced the buzzsaw of competition the likes of which the Sun Belt throws down. Anyway, in researching, I read through Athlon's imitation "expert" rag. They had the nerve to be positive about FUI and their third year coach and not about us. I didn't know Vito produced Athlon's work for it. It says our fanbase is losing patience, then it specifically compliments FUI's offensive coordinator and his spread offense. The nerve of Athlon.

What a great day it will be when we hire a real football coach and get our college uniforms back. Then the high school heroes contigent can get back to high school football. And, they can take their overcompensation bit with foreign car talk with them. I'd say unbelievable, but the post exists, so.... Zima and Mojitos are likely the drinks of choice for these...men?

More excuses from an Aggie fan. Plus, his OU "facts" are skewed. In 1999, Quentin Griffin wasn't the starter right out of the box. Two seniors - Michael Thornton and Reggie Skinner - were lost for the season due to injuries in October. Griffin's redshirt was pulled in November. OU's 1999 and 2000 squads were heavy with senior leadership. Stoops didn't go in there and throw the upperclassmen out the window. Gee, I wonder if that's why the lockerroom stayed cohesive to start delivering championships right out of the box? Probably. The right coaching hire will have a program off the ground within two seasons. Mike Sherman obviously has a tougher climb being in the Big 12 South than we have in the Sun Belt. Still, the Excuse Syndrome continues in College Station. The problem remains that since Mack Brown and Bob Stoops hit the league, no Aggie coach has been able to come close to recruiting on their level. The Big 12 is Texas, Oklahoma and the other 10. The only program with even a slight chance of ever challenging them is Nebraska with Bo Pelini. The only way to get respect and get better is to follow the two step plan coaches like Brown, Stoops and Meyer use - stop whining and start winning. Rock and roll ain't no riddle, man. To me is makes good, good sense. Good sense, yeah. Let's go!

Do you like football, but you are not an expert? Ask TFLF.

Also, the guy they just ran off had a contract for two years at $400,000. That's what they pay strength guys at big places - more than we and many other non-BCSers can pay our own head coaches.

Yes, because with very few quirky exceptions, football games are won along the lines. And, a good defensive line can keep you in the game whether your opponent is running or passing. We already know that Deloach can develop linebackers. And, Mike Nelson working alongside Dan McCarney for over a decade at Iowa State? Folks, Iowa State was a dead program before McCarney took over. McCarney is a defensive line guy. Nelson was with him all the way. The guy took no-name recruits and turned them into All-Big 12 players. Nick Leaders, who weighed a mere 250 pounds out of high school, was a first team All-Big 12 nose tackle by 2005. Jason Berryman made 110 tackles as a freshman under the tutelage of Nelson and McCarney. Jordan Karstens, James Reed, and Reggie Hayward went to the NFL after their Iowa State careers with Nelson. It is exciting to know that we have coaches who have bona fide records of getting players to produce in season one as freshmen, and developing them into NFL players against competition in one of the top conferences in college football. You don't have to worry about the defensive line this year. A real coach is there now taking care of business. Again, this thing, if it is to turn around this year, will succeed because of the front seven under Deloach and Nelson and the improvements on special teams under coach Gandy. The offense could well be a laughingstock, but I truly believe the defense will make up for it. Call me crazy.

Yes.

Justin Johnson, rated #2 running back in the country by one recruiting service a couple of years ago, decided the Sooner backfield was too crowded and is transferring to ACU to replace Bernard Scott: http://www.reporternews.com/news/2009/jun/...cu-gets-sooner/ Would love to have ACU's Chris Thomsen as our offensive coordinator.

Don't worry. The Ninth Circuit is the most overturned court in America. The Supreme Court knocks down Ninth Circuit judgments in their sleep these days.

You guys are focusing way too much on UTSA and not enough on what really counts in college football - money. San Antonio is a big potential market and the NCAA will do all it can to help UTSA try to tap it. Having a former national championship coach from another school in a large latino community is only going to help. Your focus on attendance is misplaced. The NCAA won't care in this case and neither will Conference USA. UTSA will be cut some slack in order to get San Antonio fully into the college football mix. The bottom line is, they will surpass us unless we do something big - like hire a real coach who starts winning and putting players in the NFL. Until that happens, you may as well make yourselves content at watching start up programs from here and abroad quickly jump past us. They have bigger names, venues, and cities - we have a high school coach, some drawings of a stadium, and no national (or even regional) media pull. That's the reality of the situation.

A.J. Penson.

It's funny to think the NCAA would try to keep college football out of San Antonio. But, some here think it anyway. UTSA will likely go the FAU and USF route of being independent then hopping straight to C-USA. They won't bother with the Southland Conference. There won't be any reason to. The NCAA will fall all over itself to help UTSA. Now, this will anger some of our fans and alumni. But why? Because they've decided to be more serious about football than our decision makers have been? That's not their fault; it's ours. We sit by and watch high school coaches get hired. They get a long time college coach with a national title under his belt to build their program, a la FAU. Quit worrying about it. There's no reason to be mad at them when they surpass us. If we're not collectively going to demand better, we're not going to get better. So, just hope the summer workouts go well. And, hope Nelson, Deloach and Gandy can pull the defense and special teams together enough to get us competitive again in 2009.

I will pay crack hoe-type bucks for one of the these - full or mini. It was the helmet (minus the yellow) from when I was at NT. Who has one? I mean, besides Erric Pegram.

"UTSA will sign its first recruiting class in February and is scheduled to compete as a Football Championship Subdivision (i.e., Division I-AA) member beginning in 2011. From there, UTSA's goal is to eventually become part of Conference USA. They will do it, too. And, we will be watching it all go down from the Sun Belt.

You're not alone. Mack Brown, Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops...and all of the other 115 FCS college coaches would agree with you. We're about three months away from finding out whether the coaches who run the offensive side of the ball have learned anything in their two years on the college sideline.

Apparently, it does because he's 3-21 against teams composed of mostly non-white, college scholarship players. The point remains the same - he's coaching against teams with fast athletes now, so he needs to seriously scrap a major portion of the high school offense playbook he brought. But, again, because the offensive coordinator is also a high school coach, it isn't likely to happen. Therefore, my original answer stands: Riley "speed" will not force our opponents defense to do anything differently than they did in 2007 or 2008. The only thing that will cause our opponents defense to change would be a change in the offensive philosophy. That ain't happening. So, we're pulling for the defense and special teams to close the gap for us in 2009.

Like the old picture with the darker green helmets and unis.

. And, here is example A1 of why the government should be involved in bailing out any company - they decide who can play and who doesn't. When you put that kind of power into the hands of unelected, political appointees...well, you're on your way for becoming Cuba. Someone would have bought Chrsyler and GM. But, the unions might not be protected by a private buyer. Unions are heavily invested in the Democrats, so they were saved. There are enough insurers on the planet to have soaked up AIG's business. But, lawmakers bought the bogus 'It's too big to fail' bit. This one, I'll never understand other than to say its lawmakers who went to the supposedly best business schools up in the northeast with AIG's execs. The Ivy League business schools are a sham, and so are their graduates with degrees in government, political science, and law. At the end of the day, its rich yankee politicians protecting rich yankee businessmen. There are enough banks in America to absorb customers from failed banks. But, the responsible banks use more conservative underwriting practices, so they don't just hand out money - which is what leftists/Democrats want. It's not over, folks, not by a long shot. You will see this administration begin to bailout states like California which refuse to run a tight fiscal ship.

First, you can toss any high school references out in relation to college football. The vast majority of high school players aren't talented enough to play college football at any level...NAIA, Division III, FBS...none of them. Most guys play high school football because its a way to be popular and have a better shot at chicks. So, whatever Todd Dodge's teams did against other teams chalk full of mostly white, middle class, undersized, slow kids who were more interested in cheerleaders and drill team dolls and where the party was after the game is completely irrelevant. Kids on scholarship at FBS schools are a different breed altogether. Second, the offense Dodge runs is nothing remotely like what Texas and Missouri run. Both UT and MU employ the use of fullbacks and tight ends. They both try to establish a credible run threat every game. We do none of those things. Third, yes, you'd expect us to run more. A coaching staff with any modicum of sense would look at what we have coming back versus the rank inexperience of what will compose our passing attack and resolve to a 50/50 split in running and passing. I hope this is the case. However, I severly doubt it. Even though it doesn't work at this level of competition, Dodge and Ford seem hell bent on running their offense anyway. Finally, knowing how to do it and doing it can be one and the same when you have a coaching staff that knows how to teach it. Even the Sun Belt these days is full of coaches with enough experience to know how to get the job done. Dodge and Ford make it that much easier by taking fullbacks and tight ends out of the equation. At the end of the day, there is simply too much speed at the FBS level on defense to try to run the offense Dodge and Ford are running. It doesn't matter who the quarterback is. If he's not protected and there is no threat of a run game, then it becomes an opposing defensive coordinator's dream game. UNT isn't playing high school football. You can't just snap the ball back to an unprotected quarterback and expect him to outrun defenders with no blocking. Texas didn't even do that with Vince Young.

Yes. It will be one country who decides whether or not Iran has nuclear power, and it will be Israel. To think otherwise is highly naive. Israel isn't going to sit by and wonder whether or not Iran's nuclear ambitions are pure or not while NATO and the UN sit aorund with their jars of diplomatic vaseline and circle jerk each other about it. And, Obama's comment about settlements in the West Bank...how uneducated or willfully blind does he have to be about history to make that statement. Hello, McFly? Six Day War anyone? Jerusalem being shelled by muslim armies from the West Bank? Anyone? Anyone? Buehler? Buehler? Seriously. Sometimes you've got to be amazed at the sheer stupidity of the Obama foreign policy demands on Israel. Amazingly naive and short-sighted. The whole speech. A complete and total disregard for reality.