"If John Doe's head splits open and a UFO should fly out, I want you to have expected it."
Detective William Somerset in the movie Se7en.
Ready or not, folks, college football is coming around the corner.
After months of discussion about will it or won't it take place on schedule, the 2020 college football season has taken a big step towards its mostly regularly scheduled programming with this past Friday's increased participation across the sport, as college football teams are now able to use 20 hours of team-related activities during the next two weeks leading into the start of training camp.
As Anwar Richardson outlined in this week's Texas Card House War Room, Tom Herman and his coaching staff plan on putting this Texas team through a little bit of a meat grinder leading up to a three-day break beginning on August 2.
It might not have mentally clicked in for everyone, but the college football season has essentially begun. What follows next promises to be unlike anything we've ever seen in 100+ years of Texas football.
There will be players that test positive and must be quarantined. That's a reality that we live in at the moment. It's possible that the entire college football season's outcome could be decided by which team has the most amount of luck with The Rona.
There might be fans in the stands. There might not be. There will be non-conference games for some, not so much for others. Honestly, it can't be outside the realm of possibilities that games will be delayed or cancelled if a team outbreak occurs similar to the one that has the entire Michigan State team in quarantine at the moment.
Seriously, if a UFO flies out of the head of the 2020 season, we all need to prepare ourselves for it.
So much of this season is going to be about just trying to get the damn thing completed, so the more comfortable we are with the notion that we might have to give ourselves as much wiggle room as possible with regards to the calendar, the better.
If it means staggering the schedule in a way that allows for schools to make up games that have to be postponed because of a cancellation ... be ready for it.
If it means that fans won't be allowed in the stands at anything more than half capacity ... be ready for it.
If it means that some schools across the country end up having to participate at levels that cost them competitive on-field goals ... be ready for it.
If the season starts and is then forced into a stoppage for a few months like we witnessed in European soccer and in the NBA .... be ready for it.
In this year of 2020 when so much has seemingly gone sideways, it feels impossible to believe that we can navigate through college football without a few curbs and potholes being hit along the way.
It's really going to come down to how flexible and versatile we're willing to be with our thinking.
Are we going to bitch and moan for the next few months about everything the season proves impossible to be with regard to the restrictions we already know will exist within it? Or will we be appreciative of having a season at all ... if we can have the damn season. All of it.
Personally, I'm looking at this entire situation in a hopeful way.
Something is better than nothing.
In the meantime, be on the lookout for delivery trucks delivering boxes. You just never know when John Doe might grab the upper-hand on all of us before this ride is complete.
No. 2 - The key to making it through the season?
In an article this weekend on SI.com, I found the following section discussing the issues college football is dealing with in its battle with the Coronavirus to stand out:
The NCAA and Power 5’s in-season medical plans recommend that a school quarantine players 14 days if they’ve been found to have had a “high risk” contact with a person who tested positive. A high-risk contact includes those who are within six feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes while one or both parties is not wearing a mask. The Power 5 plan, obtained by SI last week, also includes a “high risk” contact as “anyone participating in face-to-face or contact drills against each other.”
This would seem to create quite the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" with regards to contact in practices throughout the season. On one hand, if you don't have full live drills throughout the majority of the season, you might be able to skirt the issue of large portions of a team having to face a quarantine nightmare in the wake of a positive test or two on pure technicalities. On the other hand, can your defense be worth a damn if it never tackles in practice?
It feels like for the last two decades, one of the big issues facing the sport has been the amount of live contact seen in practices. Former Texas coach Mack Brown infamously once called poor tackling "a problem in America."
I'm not saying a team shouldn't practice live contact at all and I'm not saying that it should throw caution to the wind. What I am saying is that contact in practice has been a discussion point for as long as Orangebloods.com has existed and now there's a pandemic to deal with and one of the issues to keep an eye on is the collateral damage of positive tests and the impact that one might have when a factor like "collisions in practice" are considered.
It feels like the schools that have the best plan for this, whatever the hell those plans might be, will have a major leg up on everyone else.
Of course, sometimes having the best plan means just having the most luck.
No. 3 - What in the world is OU doing ...
Two consecutive weeks of workouts with Coronavirus testing for everyone in the program and two consecutive weeks of workouts without any positive tests.
On top of that, the Sooners moved up their season opener to August 29 in an effort to give themselves some flexibility moving forward into the season.
At this point, I'm absolutely fascinated at watching the numbers reported each week.
No. 4 - The Breakdown: Taking a look at five-star running backs first-year impact ...
With so much conversation about what kind of impact we should expect of true freshman five-star running back Bijan Robinson, I thought it would be interesting to look at the rushing game impacts created by every UT five-star running back signed in the last quarter-century, as well every five-star running back that the Longhorns narrowly missed on during the same time-frame.
Signed
2001 Cedric Benson: 12 games, 223 carries, 1,053 yards, 4.7 YPC and 12 touchdowns
2005 Jamaal Charles: 13 games, 119 carries, 878 yards, 7.4 YPC and 7 touchdowns
2011 Malcolm Brown: 10 games, 172 carries, 742 yards, 4.3 YPC and 5 touchdowns.
2012 Johnathan Gray: 13 games, 149 carries, 701 yards, 4.7 YPC and 3 touchdowns.
Missed
1997 Travis Minor (Florida State): 11 games, 112 carries, 623 yards, 5.6 YPC and 9 touchdowns
1998 DeShaun Foster (UCLA): 12 games, 126 carries, 673 yards, 5.3 YOC and 10 touchdowns
2000 Albert Hollis (Georgia): Never played a down of college football because of a dislocated knee that caused major nerve damage.
2000 Marcus Houston (Colorado), 3 games, 66 carries, 332 yards, 5.0 YPC and 1 touchdown
2004 Adrian Peterson (Oklahoma): 13 games, 339 carries, 1,925 yards, 5.7 YPC and 15 touchdowns
2008 Darrell Scott (Colorado): 11 games, 87 carries, 343 yards, 3.9 YPC and 1 touchdown
2015 Soso Jamabo (UCLA): 13 games, 66 carries, 404 yards, 6.1 YPC and 4 touchdowns
Overall Averages (including players who played in 10+ games)
155 carries for 816 yards (5.3 YPC) and 7.3 touchdowns.
(Note: I included Jamaal Charles, despite the fact that Rivals has him ranked as a high four-star because I absolutely had him ranked as a five-star.)
No. 5 - The most underrated Texas recruiting class of all-time ...
Might it be John Mackovic's Class of 1993?
While wondering if Shon Mitchell bordered on 5-star status over the weekend when writing about 5-star running backs, I found myself looking at old 1994 recruiting rankings from the National Recruiting Adviser.
The Longhorns finished ranked 10th in the nation that year in recruiting, but take a look at the roll call from that group.
QB James Brown
RB Shon Mitchell (also a member of the 1995 class)
OL Ryan Fiebiger
DE Tony Brackens
DB Bryant Westbrook
DB Chris Carter
DB Tre Thomas
PK Phil Dawson
The Longhorns signed only 18 players in the class, but eight of them turned out to be multi-year starters and critical pieces of the puzzle for the 1995 Southwest Conference and 1996 Big 12 title-winning teams.
Another way to look at it is that the class produced Mount Rushmore-level players at three different positions in terms of program history - quarterback, defensive end and place-kicker, while another (Westbrook) isn't far away from that kind of territory, either.
No. 6 - An impact addition at linebacker?
It goes without saying that the Longhorns could use an upgrade at the linebacker position if at all possible going into the 2020 season, so when it was mentioned in the War Room that the Longhorns and Arizona grad transfer Tony Fields are playing footsy with each other as he looks for a future home in the 2020 season, it felt like an important note.
A three-year starter with the Wildcats, Fields has been a volume producer in his career, averaging almost 100 tackles per season for the last three seasons.
In taking a look at
some clips on Youtube, I'm not sure who I would compare him to in terms of former Longhorns. Although he's listed at 6-1, 220 pounds, he looks a little smaller than that to my naked eye, but he probably plays bigger than his listed weight.
Maybe a less explosive, slightly smaller, but more productive version of Peter Jinkens?
Regardless, his addition would absolutely improve the roster for this season because he seems like a really versatile potential linebacker presence for the Longhorns when the team is in nickel.
No. 7 – BUY or SELL …
(Sell) But, they should. It makes a lot of sense. Creating as many bye weeks as possible this season is a smart move.
(Buy) I'm curious to see what he has in the tank with a full off-season at his new position.
(Buy) I'm secretly buying a lot of Wiley stock.
(Buy) Turner, Byrd and Helm. I refuse to believe that Texas loses a lineman it needs to SMU and I think Byrd ends up staying in-state.
(Sell) Bijan is special.
(Sell) I think he's holding out for a job, and the Texas job might be among the jobs he'd consider, but I'm not sure I buy the idea that he's planning his next move around Herman's job specifically. However, I don't believe your theory is crazy.
(Sell) I think the coaches will want to do everything they can to give the appearance that a true freshman hasn't lapped the field, even if he does, because they won't want a transfer rush in the wake of such a thing occurring. Casey Thompson will get the first start, if there's a need for such a thing. All bets are off beyond that if such a thing were needed to be considered.
(Sell) Conservatism wins the day
(Buy) I blame Derrick Rose.
(Sell) Stacy Keibler is the GOAT.
(Sell) Come here, you big dope.
No. 8 - Scattershooting on the world of sports ...
... The Cowboys simply were in no position to make the Jamal Adams trade with the state of their current salary cap situation, the uncertainty of Dak Prescott's contract situation and the price that Seattle paid was simply too steep from my perspective. Adams is an absolute baller, but all of that added up together screamed that Dallas needed to pass.
... Kansas City Chiefs starting guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif
won't play a game in 2020 and for that he might deserve NFL Man of the year honors.
... I haven't got the slightest clue how I'm going to watch the NBA when it returns. Maybe a ton, maybe not as much as I believe I will. This is going to be so weird.
... Because I haven't decided if I want to pay for the MLB ticket to watch the Phillies, I'm pretty sure I watched more UFC this weekend in terms of total time viewing than I did Major League Baseball. Don't judge me. Considering the Phils dropped two of three to the damn Marlins at home this weekend, I'm not so sure I haven't made the right decision.
… Speaking of the UFC, can I see more of Khamzat Chimaev, please? Since no one ever lands a punch of the guy, I figure we can see him fight another dozen times in 2020.
... Losing Justin Verlander seems like a pretty big deal. Is the season over in Houston in the grand scheme of things right after it started if he's out for the rest of the year? (Note; I've now seen his Tweet that he "hopes" he'll return in a few weeks.).
... Shohei Ohtani has recorded as many outs so far this season on the mound as I have.
... How good was Liverpool this season? They've made accumulating 99 points looks so easy that fans of teams that finishes 33 points away from them believe their teams warrant being discussed in the same breath.
... I'm not sure Aston Villa deserved to stay up, but I'm glad they are, even if I'll miss dropping eight or nine goals on Bournemouth each season.
... Come to the MLS, David Silva. Specifically, come to Austin.
No. 9 - The List: Top 10 Vacation Movie Scenes ...
Thirty-five years ago today, European Vacation was released in the theaters (remember when that was a thing?).
What's really notable about this release from my memory is that I went to see it with my paternal grandfather when I was nine years old. I'm not sure why that was the movie that we chose, but I'm 100-percent certain it was my idea and I'll never forget how uncomfortable I felt because of my grandfather's uncomfortableness of the boob scenes in the movie.
It's one of the only things we ever did together when I was a kid that I remember.
Therefore, in honor of Rusty coping a feel while he was in Germany with his family, I give you my all-time Top 10 scenes from the Chevy Chase Vacation series.
10. Vacation (My Sandwich is all wet)
9. Christmas Vacation (Jelly of the Month Club)
8. Christmas Vacation (Christmas Lights)
7. Vegas Vacation (The Cheap Casino)
6. Vacation: (Good talk, Russ)
5. Vacation (French Kiss)
4. Christmas vacation (Shitter's Full)
3. Vacation (Clark's Original Rant(
2. European Vacation (Look kids...Big Ben... Parliament)
1. Vacation (First Ones Here)
No.10 - And finally...
At the risk of giving some of you loons any ideas, I give you the most childish means of breaking up with someone that I've ever seen...
