In a few days, the official courtship process between the Tom Herman era of Texas football and the 2018 recruiting class begins.
While Herman and his staff of eager-recruiting beavers have spent the better part of the last two months establishing some early positioning for a 12-month battle royale against the army of schools that currently inhabit the Lone Star State in recruiting, this is the first chance for this staff to entertain the best of the best on its home turf.
It’s a first date of sorts.
If Herman is lucky, maybe he’s the one that will receive a kiss or two.
The important thing is that a program that was short on elite-level talent visiting the school a month ago leading up to Signing Day won’t have that issue this upcoming weekend, as a who’s who of the very elite in Texas will be on hand.
It might sound simple, but if you’re Herman and his assistants, the number one thing you want with each kid is the desire from each of them to come back because getting these kids to show up once is the easy part. It’s getting them to show up six times between now and next February that is the trickier part.
SIX TIMES!?!
Yup, six times.
Let’s take the roll call. There’s the Junior Day. Then a spring practice and/or the Spring Game. Eventually, the summer will roll around and Herman and his staff will put together camps and a big recruiting-themed event similar to the Under The Lights deal that Charlie Strong created. Of course, you have to get them on campus for at least one game, right? Finally, comes the official visit in December or January. Oh, if anyone wants to stop by the Texas Relays or the state track meet … well … yeah … that counts, too.
While Mack Brown once taught people to view a Junior Day as a finish line, the truth is that it will serve as a starter’s block in the recruitments for most of the big-timers that show up in the coming days.
If you’re wondering what a road map to a top-5-10 class looks like, all you have to do is keep a roll call of who checks off boxes for as many of those events as possible. When tracking the recruitment of a kid like Houston Lamar defensive back Anthony Cook, getting him back on campus before the end of spring football is critical. You want Cook engaged with your program, feeling as if your doors are the most welcoming of them all.
The days of recruits committing before the offer comes out of the head coach’s mouth are over.
This week isn’t the climb, it’s just the first step.
No. 2 – The nine-lettered dirty word: Attrition 2.0 ...
A little less than three years ago, I tackled the idea of charting a decade’s worth of Texas football program attrition in an effort to better understand expected roster turnover in the modern era of college football.
What that research revealed to most was that in the best and worst of times of Texas football, the amount of turnover on the roster was more substantial than the mainstream public could probably guess, but attrition became incredibly problematic following UT’s last appearance in a national championship game.
The most interesting data points compiled from the data compiled from 2005-2014 were the following:
(Note: Click here if you want to review all of the years and names from the 2014 article)
* From 2005-2014, Texas averaged 8.4 players worth of attrition per year.
* From 2010-2014, Texas averaged 10.2 players worth of attrition per year.
* Only twice in the last 12 years has Texas had fewer than a half-dozen players worth of attrition.
One of the things you learn pretty quickly when adding the two most recent years of attrition is that the amount of turnover from 2010-16 was significantly higher that the attrition from 2005-09.
In the five years between 2005-09, Mack Brown’s program had 33 players(6.6 per year) leave the program for a variety of reasons. In three full years under Charlie Strong (2014-16), the Longhorns lost 32 players (10.67 per year) and because of the calendar windows used in the research, that doesn’t include players that have departed within the last six months (Kai Locksley, Blake Whiteley, etc …).
What really compounded the problem for the program is that the hemorrhaging actually began before Strong arrived, as Mack’s program lost 38 players (9.5 per year) to attrition from 2010-2013, which means that the hemorrhaging never actually stopped.
In the last seven seasons (2010-2016), Texas has lost 70 players to attrition, which amounts to nearly three full recruiting year’s worth of throwaway.
Attrition can be a good thing, but at levels like this it’s not hard to understand why there never seems to be a strong senior class around when you need it (like every year) and why that has a direct impact on the quality of football that’s being played. In all likelihood, 2017 won’t be the year when the hemorrhaging stops because of the change in coaching staffs and the fact that there are already four players in the 2017 numbers before Tom Herman has engaged with his team in spring drills.
If you’re wondering where people are getting their numbers from when they say the Longhorns can take a full class of 25 players in the 2018 recruiting class when there are only 11 members of this year’s senior class, it’s because only twice in the last 14 years has the program seen less than six players depart the program in a single year. Even if the attrition dropped to 2005-09 numbers, you’d still be right at 24 spaces on the 85-man roster being open by the time August of 2018 rolls around.
Still, at some point the roster hemorrhaging has to slow down because at the moment the program is caught in a dangerous spiral that it hasn’t been able to slow down.
No. 3– The last three years of attrition (plus a look at 2017) ...
2014 (8/15/13-8/14/14)
(13) Aaron Benson (transfer), Joe Bergeron (transfer), Josh Cochran (injuries), Chevoski Collins (dismissed), Deoundrei Davis (transfer), Bryant Jackson (medical), Montrell Meander (dismissed), Chet Moss (dismissed), Jalen Overstreet (dismissed), Kendall Sanders (dismissed), Leroy Scott (dismissed), Kevin Shorter (injuries) and Kendall Thompson (injuries)
2015 (8/15/14-8/14/15)
(11) David Ash (injuries), Duke Catalon (transfer), Cecil Cherry (transfer), Kennedy Estelle (dismissed), Rami Hammad (transfer), Cameron Hampton (transfer), Desmond Harrison (dismissed), Darius James (transfer), M.J. McFarland (transfer), Miles Onyegbule (injuries) and Curtis Riser (transfer)
2016 (8/15/15-8/14/16)
(8) Adrian Colbert (transfer), Bryson Echols (transfer), DeAndre McNeal (transfer), Ryan Newsome (transfer), Derick Roberson (transfer), Jermaine Roberts (transfer), Jake Raulerson (transfer), Dalton Santos (transfer)
2017 (8/15/16-8/14/17)
(4) Erik Huhn (transfer), Kai Locksley (transfer), Jake Oliver (graduated), Blake Whiteley (transfer)
No. 4 – Scattershooting on the Longhorns ...
… How good might the Texas offensive line have been if Darius James (starting left tackle at Auburn as a junior in 2016) and Jake Raulerson (started at guard for Arkansas as a junior in 2016) were still around? You could make a quality argument that the offensive line would be the strength of the program right now if Charlie Strong had put out more of an effort to ensure those players didn’t leave the program. Oh, Joe Wickline and his bedside manner …
… Here’s a look at Chris Warren’s top seven games as a Longhorn.
2015 Texas Tech (25-276-4)
2015 Baylor (28-106-0)
2016 California (18-109-2)
2016 Oklahoma State (10-106-0)
2016 UTEP (20-95-1)
2016 Notre Dame (14-46-0)
2015 West Virginia (4-26)
… Pop-quiz: The returning Longhorn with the highest yards per carry on the roster from the 2016 season is … (answer below)
… Armanti Foreman led the team in receiving yards per game last season with 35.0. That is not a misprint.
… Texas averaged 6.50 yards per punt return last season, while Jacorey Warrick led the team with 17 returns, despite averaging only 4.71 yards per return. The Longhorns have to find a way to get more out of the return game in 2017.
… Things you might not have known about junior linebacker Edwin Freeman in 2016: Had more solo tackles (44) than Breckyn Hager (41), more tackles for loss (9) than Malik Jefferson (8.5), the same number of sacks as Malcolm Roach (3) and more interceptions (2) than Kris Boyd, John Bonney, Holton Hill, DeShon Elliott and Davante Davis combined (1).
… Michael Dickson returns as the player with the highest yards per carry from the 2016 season with a 6.0 average on one carry. Chris Warren is right behind him at 5.9 in four games.
No. 5 – Buy or sell …
BUY or SELL: Texas Men's Basketball loses out?
(Buy) I just don’t see where the win comes from. I guess it would have to be in Lubbock.
BUY or SELL: Tom Herman will be at Texas for 15 years?
(Sell) I don’t know that any of us will ever see another coach last in Austin for 15 years. The eras that last that long seem to be a thing of the past.
BUY or SELL: With the debacle at Baylor, downward trending of TCU’s allure, the potential firing of Kliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech and Kevin Sumlin being on the hot seat, Texas seizes control of the opportunity and reclaims the top spot as the big dog in the state once again this year?
(Buy) The state is practically making it so easy on Texas that it’s as if the other schools are collectively begging Texas to be Texas again.
BUY or SELL: Ohio State continues its Texas pipeline with at least one kid from the Texas top 10?
(Buy) The Buckeyes have the juice.
BUY or SELL: Herman lands two commitments at junior day?
(Buy) Yes, momentum begins to build next weekend.
BUY or SELL: Stan Drayton will get a HC opportunity after year two?
(Buy) The question in my mind is the level of coaching job that will be offered to him. It’s not as if there is consistently a wide selection of opportunities for black coaches, especially those that haven’t been coordinators.
BUY or SELL: The current lack of a single 2018 commit to Texas and this coaching staff is a net negative to this year's recruiting and will have an impact on the final results?
(Sell) There’s no reason to panic.
BUY or SELL: By the time college basketball signing day rolls around, point guard Matt Coleman will have second thoughts about his commitment to Texas?
(Sell) That kid is described as an alpha-male. He knows exactly what he’s walking into.
BUY or SELL: "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" is one of the 10 best Westerns of all time?
(Buy) Absolutely. I think the real question is whether it cracks the top five. For my money, the list looks like this:
1. Lonesome Dove
2. The Searchers
3. Unforgiven
4. The Good, Bad and The Ugly
5. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
6. High Noon
7. Red River
8. Wyatt Earp
9. Shane
10. Stagecoach
Also, this isn’t any order, but I would rank my all-time top 10 movie list like this: Casablanca, The Godfather I and II, The Sound of Music, The Empire Strikes Back, Jaws, It’s a Wonderful Life, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Silence of the Lambs and Pulp Fiction.
Honorable mention: Gladiator, Good Will Hunting, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Braveheart, A Clockwork Orange, An American in Paris, Saving Private Ryan, Ben-Hur, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Shawshank Redemption, Teen Wolf, Rocky IV, Pride and Prejudice (BBC) and Love Actually.
BUY or SELL: You change your avatar three more times in the month of February?
(Sell) There’s only eight days left. I’ll take the under.
No. 6 – Texas blinked.. and now Monday's game vs. Baylor is everything …
It’s a hell of a thing to win 19-straight games (including 14 in conference play), only to see a single loss put the entire value of the regular season in a bit of a critical position, but that’s exactly what happened to the Texas women’s basketball team over the weekend.
In losing to Oklahoma in Norman (gotta watch those corner threes coming out of timeouts in late-game situations, Coach Aston), the Longhorns enter Monday's game against Baylor at the Erwin Center all-in for the next 40 minutes of basketball.
It’s quite simple - beat arch-nemesis Baylor for the second time in two Mondays and you win the Big 12 title. Lose? A loss means that the conference title will have slipped through the team’s fingers and the Baylor gorilla that has eaten all of the program’s bananas for the better part of the decade is still in control of the Big 12 jungle.
Get your popcorn ready, folks. No pressure ...
No. 7 – The David Pierce era begins …
All things considered, it wasn’t a bad weekend to be at the Disch.
With a little March weather hanging around in February, Texas was able to get its four games of the season against No. 25 Rice done inside of three days of comfort, playing a fairly high-level of quality in three of the four.
It was a good first step for a team that everyone in burnt orange hopes can quickly take proper steps towards returning to nationally elite status.
Yet, if we’re going to keep it 100, Pierce’s debut weekend isn’t going to be remembered for anything that happened on the field because this happened.
The Wild Bunch has been replaced with The Wild Bust.
No. 8 – Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind …
… I’m out of words for the Kyrie Irving flat-earth conspiracy theory. Some things just can’t be fixed.
… Man, when the slam-dunk contest goes bad, it really goes bad. Ugh.
… This kid is going to be something else.
… What Bill Self and the Jayhawks have done in winning or sharing 13 straight Big 12 titles is pretty incredible. To not even have one season as the runner-up in a quality basketball conference speaks to what that program has created. They just find a way to get it done … every year.
… Chelsea hosting Man United in the next round of the FA Cup is going to be all kinds of fun.
… Nothing that happened this weekend was better than the visuals of Lincoln City beating Burnley in the FA Cup.
No. 9 – Oscars night is a week away … my predictions
With the Academy Awards set to unroll the red carpet next Sunday night, I thought I would provide my own little preview of the awards. For those wondering, I’ve seen all of the major nominations with the exception of one … Isabelle Huppert in Elle.
So, with respect to that one omission, here we go.
Best Picture
Will Win… La La Land.
Although it’s not my personal favorite, it’s going to win. It’s basically won everything and the momentum will flow all the way through Sunday night.
Should win … Manchester by the Sea.
My personal favorite is Lion, but it probably lacks a few of the flashy qualities that would justify a win. I don’t feel that way about Manchester because the acting, directing and storytelling of the human condition are all out of this world. It’s not a feel-good movie, but it’s authentic at every turn.
Keep an eye on … Moonlight.
It’s probably the only movie with a chance against La La Land.
Best Director
Will Win… Damien Chazelle (La La Land).
Like I said, La La Land has out of control momentum.
Should win… Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)
I’m full on #TeamManchester
Keep an eye on… Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)
He’s probably the only nominee with a chance against La La Land … er … Chazelle..
Best Actor
Will Win… Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
Just a monster performance. I had to see the movie twice to appreciate all of the subtlety inside of what he did on camera. Go watch the morgue scene if you need convincing.
Should win … Affleck
Whether he’s a dirtball or not, he should win this year.
Keep an eye on … Denzel Washington (Fences)
He’d be just a notch below Affleck on my ballot and he comes without the ick of voting for Affleck. Plus … it’s Denzel.
Best Actress
Will Win … Emma Stone (La La Land)
The first Superbad alum to win an Oscar. It’s going to be her night.
Should win … Amy Adams (Arrival)
It’s a crime that she wasn’t nominated. Easily the biggest robbery of the year.
Keep an eye on … Isabelle Huppert (Elle)
The moment she won Best Actress at the Globes, she became perhaps the biggest threat to Stone, but a win by Huppert would represent a major upset.
Best Supporting Actor
Will Win … Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
Moonlight has to walk away with something, right?
Should win … Dev Patel (Lion)
Lion! Lion! Lion!
Keep an eye on… Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water)
If it were to go outside of Ali or Patel, The Dude would make the most sense as the compromise the voters make.
Best Supporting Actress
Will Win… Viola Davis (Fences)
Emma Stone is lucky that Davis was pushed into the Supporting Award by her film company.
Should win … Davis.
It’s the biggest sure-thing on the night.
Keep an eye on… Naomie Harris (Moonlight)
If anyone could challenge Davis, it might be Harris’ own soul-aching performance in Moonlight.
No. 10 - And finally …
We passed the $10,000 mark in our fundraising for the Haruka Weiser Memorial Endowed Excellence Fund, but the goal is to hit $25,000, so I'm imploring everyone reading this column. If everyone reading this column donates a dollar, we'll easily hit the mark.
Let's make a difference. Donate today.
While Herman and his staff of eager-recruiting beavers have spent the better part of the last two months establishing some early positioning for a 12-month battle royale against the army of schools that currently inhabit the Lone Star State in recruiting, this is the first chance for this staff to entertain the best of the best on its home turf.
It’s a first date of sorts.
If Herman is lucky, maybe he’s the one that will receive a kiss or two.
The important thing is that a program that was short on elite-level talent visiting the school a month ago leading up to Signing Day won’t have that issue this upcoming weekend, as a who’s who of the very elite in Texas will be on hand.
It might sound simple, but if you’re Herman and his assistants, the number one thing you want with each kid is the desire from each of them to come back because getting these kids to show up once is the easy part. It’s getting them to show up six times between now and next February that is the trickier part.
SIX TIMES!?!
Yup, six times.
Let’s take the roll call. There’s the Junior Day. Then a spring practice and/or the Spring Game. Eventually, the summer will roll around and Herman and his staff will put together camps and a big recruiting-themed event similar to the Under The Lights deal that Charlie Strong created. Of course, you have to get them on campus for at least one game, right? Finally, comes the official visit in December or January. Oh, if anyone wants to stop by the Texas Relays or the state track meet … well … yeah … that counts, too.
While Mack Brown once taught people to view a Junior Day as a finish line, the truth is that it will serve as a starter’s block in the recruitments for most of the big-timers that show up in the coming days.
If you’re wondering what a road map to a top-5-10 class looks like, all you have to do is keep a roll call of who checks off boxes for as many of those events as possible. When tracking the recruitment of a kid like Houston Lamar defensive back Anthony Cook, getting him back on campus before the end of spring football is critical. You want Cook engaged with your program, feeling as if your doors are the most welcoming of them all.
The days of recruits committing before the offer comes out of the head coach’s mouth are over.
This week isn’t the climb, it’s just the first step.
No. 2 – The nine-lettered dirty word: Attrition 2.0 ...
A little less than three years ago, I tackled the idea of charting a decade’s worth of Texas football program attrition in an effort to better understand expected roster turnover in the modern era of college football.
What that research revealed to most was that in the best and worst of times of Texas football, the amount of turnover on the roster was more substantial than the mainstream public could probably guess, but attrition became incredibly problematic following UT’s last appearance in a national championship game.
The most interesting data points compiled from the data compiled from 2005-2014 were the following:
(Note: Click here if you want to review all of the years and names from the 2014 article)
* From 2005-2014, Texas averaged 8.4 players worth of attrition per year.
* From 2010-2014, Texas averaged 10.2 players worth of attrition per year.
* Only twice in the last 12 years has Texas had fewer than a half-dozen players worth of attrition.
One of the things you learn pretty quickly when adding the two most recent years of attrition is that the amount of turnover from 2010-16 was significantly higher that the attrition from 2005-09.
In the five years between 2005-09, Mack Brown’s program had 33 players(6.6 per year) leave the program for a variety of reasons. In three full years under Charlie Strong (2014-16), the Longhorns lost 32 players (10.67 per year) and because of the calendar windows used in the research, that doesn’t include players that have departed within the last six months (Kai Locksley, Blake Whiteley, etc …).
What really compounded the problem for the program is that the hemorrhaging actually began before Strong arrived, as Mack’s program lost 38 players (9.5 per year) to attrition from 2010-2013, which means that the hemorrhaging never actually stopped.
In the last seven seasons (2010-2016), Texas has lost 70 players to attrition, which amounts to nearly three full recruiting year’s worth of throwaway.
Attrition can be a good thing, but at levels like this it’s not hard to understand why there never seems to be a strong senior class around when you need it (like every year) and why that has a direct impact on the quality of football that’s being played. In all likelihood, 2017 won’t be the year when the hemorrhaging stops because of the change in coaching staffs and the fact that there are already four players in the 2017 numbers before Tom Herman has engaged with his team in spring drills.
If you’re wondering where people are getting their numbers from when they say the Longhorns can take a full class of 25 players in the 2018 recruiting class when there are only 11 members of this year’s senior class, it’s because only twice in the last 14 years has the program seen less than six players depart the program in a single year. Even if the attrition dropped to 2005-09 numbers, you’d still be right at 24 spaces on the 85-man roster being open by the time August of 2018 rolls around.
Still, at some point the roster hemorrhaging has to slow down because at the moment the program is caught in a dangerous spiral that it hasn’t been able to slow down.
No. 3– The last three years of attrition (plus a look at 2017) ...
2014 (8/15/13-8/14/14)
(13) Aaron Benson (transfer), Joe Bergeron (transfer), Josh Cochran (injuries), Chevoski Collins (dismissed), Deoundrei Davis (transfer), Bryant Jackson (medical), Montrell Meander (dismissed), Chet Moss (dismissed), Jalen Overstreet (dismissed), Kendall Sanders (dismissed), Leroy Scott (dismissed), Kevin Shorter (injuries) and Kendall Thompson (injuries)
2015 (8/15/14-8/14/15)
(11) David Ash (injuries), Duke Catalon (transfer), Cecil Cherry (transfer), Kennedy Estelle (dismissed), Rami Hammad (transfer), Cameron Hampton (transfer), Desmond Harrison (dismissed), Darius James (transfer), M.J. McFarland (transfer), Miles Onyegbule (injuries) and Curtis Riser (transfer)
2016 (8/15/15-8/14/16)
(8) Adrian Colbert (transfer), Bryson Echols (transfer), DeAndre McNeal (transfer), Ryan Newsome (transfer), Derick Roberson (transfer), Jermaine Roberts (transfer), Jake Raulerson (transfer), Dalton Santos (transfer)
2017 (8/15/16-8/14/17)
(4) Erik Huhn (transfer), Kai Locksley (transfer), Jake Oliver (graduated), Blake Whiteley (transfer)
No. 4 – Scattershooting on the Longhorns ...
… How good might the Texas offensive line have been if Darius James (starting left tackle at Auburn as a junior in 2016) and Jake Raulerson (started at guard for Arkansas as a junior in 2016) were still around? You could make a quality argument that the offensive line would be the strength of the program right now if Charlie Strong had put out more of an effort to ensure those players didn’t leave the program. Oh, Joe Wickline and his bedside manner …
… Here’s a look at Chris Warren’s top seven games as a Longhorn.
2015 Texas Tech (25-276-4)
2015 Baylor (28-106-0)
2016 California (18-109-2)
2016 Oklahoma State (10-106-0)
2016 UTEP (20-95-1)
2016 Notre Dame (14-46-0)
2015 West Virginia (4-26)
… Pop-quiz: The returning Longhorn with the highest yards per carry on the roster from the 2016 season is … (answer below)
… Armanti Foreman led the team in receiving yards per game last season with 35.0. That is not a misprint.
… Texas averaged 6.50 yards per punt return last season, while Jacorey Warrick led the team with 17 returns, despite averaging only 4.71 yards per return. The Longhorns have to find a way to get more out of the return game in 2017.
… Things you might not have known about junior linebacker Edwin Freeman in 2016: Had more solo tackles (44) than Breckyn Hager (41), more tackles for loss (9) than Malik Jefferson (8.5), the same number of sacks as Malcolm Roach (3) and more interceptions (2) than Kris Boyd, John Bonney, Holton Hill, DeShon Elliott and Davante Davis combined (1).
… Michael Dickson returns as the player with the highest yards per carry from the 2016 season with a 6.0 average on one carry. Chris Warren is right behind him at 5.9 in four games.
No. 5 – Buy or sell …
BUY or SELL: Texas Men's Basketball loses out?
(Buy) I just don’t see where the win comes from. I guess it would have to be in Lubbock.
BUY or SELL: Tom Herman will be at Texas for 15 years?
(Sell) I don’t know that any of us will ever see another coach last in Austin for 15 years. The eras that last that long seem to be a thing of the past.
BUY or SELL: With the debacle at Baylor, downward trending of TCU’s allure, the potential firing of Kliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech and Kevin Sumlin being on the hot seat, Texas seizes control of the opportunity and reclaims the top spot as the big dog in the state once again this year?
(Buy) The state is practically making it so easy on Texas that it’s as if the other schools are collectively begging Texas to be Texas again.
BUY or SELL: Ohio State continues its Texas pipeline with at least one kid from the Texas top 10?
(Buy) The Buckeyes have the juice.
BUY or SELL: Herman lands two commitments at junior day?
(Buy) Yes, momentum begins to build next weekend.
BUY or SELL: Stan Drayton will get a HC opportunity after year two?
(Buy) The question in my mind is the level of coaching job that will be offered to him. It’s not as if there is consistently a wide selection of opportunities for black coaches, especially those that haven’t been coordinators.
BUY or SELL: The current lack of a single 2018 commit to Texas and this coaching staff is a net negative to this year's recruiting and will have an impact on the final results?
(Sell) There’s no reason to panic.
BUY or SELL: By the time college basketball signing day rolls around, point guard Matt Coleman will have second thoughts about his commitment to Texas?
(Sell) That kid is described as an alpha-male. He knows exactly what he’s walking into.
BUY or SELL: "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" is one of the 10 best Westerns of all time?
(Buy) Absolutely. I think the real question is whether it cracks the top five. For my money, the list looks like this:
1. Lonesome Dove
2. The Searchers
3. Unforgiven
4. The Good, Bad and The Ugly
5. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
6. High Noon
7. Red River
8. Wyatt Earp
9. Shane
10. Stagecoach
Also, this isn’t any order, but I would rank my all-time top 10 movie list like this: Casablanca, The Godfather I and II, The Sound of Music, The Empire Strikes Back, Jaws, It’s a Wonderful Life, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Silence of the Lambs and Pulp Fiction.
Honorable mention: Gladiator, Good Will Hunting, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Braveheart, A Clockwork Orange, An American in Paris, Saving Private Ryan, Ben-Hur, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Shawshank Redemption, Teen Wolf, Rocky IV, Pride and Prejudice (BBC) and Love Actually.
BUY or SELL: You change your avatar three more times in the month of February?
(Sell) There’s only eight days left. I’ll take the under.
No. 6 – Texas blinked.. and now Monday's game vs. Baylor is everything …
It’s a hell of a thing to win 19-straight games (including 14 in conference play), only to see a single loss put the entire value of the regular season in a bit of a critical position, but that’s exactly what happened to the Texas women’s basketball team over the weekend.
In losing to Oklahoma in Norman (gotta watch those corner threes coming out of timeouts in late-game situations, Coach Aston), the Longhorns enter Monday's game against Baylor at the Erwin Center all-in for the next 40 minutes of basketball.
It’s quite simple - beat arch-nemesis Baylor for the second time in two Mondays and you win the Big 12 title. Lose? A loss means that the conference title will have slipped through the team’s fingers and the Baylor gorilla that has eaten all of the program’s bananas for the better part of the decade is still in control of the Big 12 jungle.
Get your popcorn ready, folks. No pressure ...
No. 7 – The David Pierce era begins …
All things considered, it wasn’t a bad weekend to be at the Disch.
With a little March weather hanging around in February, Texas was able to get its four games of the season against No. 25 Rice done inside of three days of comfort, playing a fairly high-level of quality in three of the four.
It was a good first step for a team that everyone in burnt orange hopes can quickly take proper steps towards returning to nationally elite status.
Yet, if we’re going to keep it 100, Pierce’s debut weekend isn’t going to be remembered for anything that happened on the field because this happened.
The Wild Bunch has been replaced with The Wild Bust.
No. 8 – Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind …
… I’m out of words for the Kyrie Irving flat-earth conspiracy theory. Some things just can’t be fixed.
… Man, when the slam-dunk contest goes bad, it really goes bad. Ugh.
… This kid is going to be something else.
… What Bill Self and the Jayhawks have done in winning or sharing 13 straight Big 12 titles is pretty incredible. To not even have one season as the runner-up in a quality basketball conference speaks to what that program has created. They just find a way to get it done … every year.
… Chelsea hosting Man United in the next round of the FA Cup is going to be all kinds of fun.
… Nothing that happened this weekend was better than the visuals of Lincoln City beating Burnley in the FA Cup.
No. 9 – Oscars night is a week away … my predictions
With the Academy Awards set to unroll the red carpet next Sunday night, I thought I would provide my own little preview of the awards. For those wondering, I’ve seen all of the major nominations with the exception of one … Isabelle Huppert in Elle.
So, with respect to that one omission, here we go.
Best Picture
Will Win… La La Land.
Although it’s not my personal favorite, it’s going to win. It’s basically won everything and the momentum will flow all the way through Sunday night.
Should win … Manchester by the Sea.
My personal favorite is Lion, but it probably lacks a few of the flashy qualities that would justify a win. I don’t feel that way about Manchester because the acting, directing and storytelling of the human condition are all out of this world. It’s not a feel-good movie, but it’s authentic at every turn.
Keep an eye on … Moonlight.
It’s probably the only movie with a chance against La La Land.
Best Director
Will Win… Damien Chazelle (La La Land).
Like I said, La La Land has out of control momentum.
Should win… Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)
I’m full on #TeamManchester
Keep an eye on… Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)
He’s probably the only nominee with a chance against La La Land … er … Chazelle..
Best Actor
Will Win… Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
Just a monster performance. I had to see the movie twice to appreciate all of the subtlety inside of what he did on camera. Go watch the morgue scene if you need convincing.
Should win … Affleck
Whether he’s a dirtball or not, he should win this year.
Keep an eye on … Denzel Washington (Fences)
He’d be just a notch below Affleck on my ballot and he comes without the ick of voting for Affleck. Plus … it’s Denzel.
Best Actress
Will Win … Emma Stone (La La Land)
The first Superbad alum to win an Oscar. It’s going to be her night.
Should win … Amy Adams (Arrival)
It’s a crime that she wasn’t nominated. Easily the biggest robbery of the year.
Keep an eye on … Isabelle Huppert (Elle)
The moment she won Best Actress at the Globes, she became perhaps the biggest threat to Stone, but a win by Huppert would represent a major upset.
Best Supporting Actor
Will Win … Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
Moonlight has to walk away with something, right?
Should win … Dev Patel (Lion)
Lion! Lion! Lion!
Keep an eye on… Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water)
If it were to go outside of Ali or Patel, The Dude would make the most sense as the compromise the voters make.
Best Supporting Actress
Will Win… Viola Davis (Fences)
Emma Stone is lucky that Davis was pushed into the Supporting Award by her film company.
Should win … Davis.
It’s the biggest sure-thing on the night.
Keep an eye on… Naomie Harris (Moonlight)
If anyone could challenge Davis, it might be Harris’ own soul-aching performance in Moonlight.
No. 10 - And finally …
We passed the $10,000 mark in our fundraising for the Haruka Weiser Memorial Endowed Excellence Fund, but the goal is to hit $25,000, so I'm imploring everyone reading this column. If everyone reading this column donates a dollar, we'll easily hit the mark.
Let's make a difference. Donate today.
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