Let the broadcasts begin!

This week marks the beginning of another high school football season, and a busy broadcasting season for us at KWED. Because the schedules permit, we have the rare privelege of being able to carry 14 regular season football games on the air over the next 11 weeks. That list includes all 10 Seguin games, and two apiece for Navarro and Marion. We’re always able to get the Panthers or Bulldogs on the air during Seguin’s bye-week, and that’s the case again this year when we carry Marion’s game against Goldthwaite in Fredericksburg during on Oct.1. In addition, Seguin plays three Thursday night games this season (this week vs. Uvalde at the Alamodome, Sept.2 @ Bastrop, and Oct. 7 @ Steele), so our broadcast schedule includes either Navarro or Marion on the Friday nights that follow (Navarro vs. Luling this week, Marion @ Karnes City on Sept.3, and Navarro @ Canyon Lake on Oct.8).

The Navarro & Marion games we’ll have on should make for some interesting matchups. The Panthers open their season this Friday against a Luling team that went through an emotional roller-coaster a year ago and put forth an inspired effort down the stretch after head coach Robert Dean passed away in early October. Navarro’s Oct. 8 game @ Canyon Lake figures to be a great test for the Panthers against an up-and-coming program in the newly aligned District 26-3A. The UIL’s redistricting sent Marion down to Class-2A, and the Bulldogs face a tough early non-district game against at 2A opponent when they visit Karnes City – a place that’s never easy for the visiting team to win – on Sept. 3. The Oct. 1 nuetral-site game against Goldthwaite in Fredericksburg pits Marion against Class-1A’s pre-season #1 team in the state, according to Texas Football Magazine.

Of course, it all starts with the first of what appears to be a challenging non-district slate for Seguin when the Matadors face Uvalde – a Class-4A playoff team from a year ago – in the Alamodome this Thursday. Seguin makes its first appearance in San Antonio’s largest football venue since 2006, when the Matadors bracketed a nine-game winning streak in outdoor stadiums with two losses in the dome – to San Antonio-Madison in the season opener and to San Antonio-Reagan in the bi-district playoffs. The game will also usher in the Wayne Walker era in Seguin, as the Mats’ new head coach looks to start his innaugural season here with a mark in the “W” column. Road games at defending District 25-5A (before realignment) champion Bastrop and former 27-4A opponent New Braunfels-Canyon will be tough tests, while home games against San Antonio-East Central (the last team Seguin defeated before dropping seven straight a year ago) and Austin-Anderson appear less daunting.

The broadcast crew remains intact for the 2010 season – yours truly handling play-by-play, and Mike Andrews providing color commentary. KWED Sports Director Sennett Rockers will fill in for Mr. Andrews to do color on a couple of broadcasts: The Marion – Goldthwaite game on Oct. 1, and the Navarro – Canyon Lake contest on Oct. 8.

As always, we encourage you to attend the games and support the area teams if at all possible, take your headset radio or internet-capable cell phone with you, and tune into the broadcasts. All broadcasts are streamed online at www.seguintoday.com, and the radiolicious ap allows you to listen on your iPhone. As usual, pre-game coverage on game night starts at 6 p.m., and on normal game nights (Seguin playing on Friday), we’ll have weekly coaches shows and preview segments for Navarro, Marion, and Lifegate in the first hour before we go live from the stadium at 7:00.

Amazing game, problematic broadcast

First of all…I REALLY need to update this space more often.  So, for the two or three of you (probably being optimisitic with those numbers) who still check in on it frequently – thanks for your patience.  Spread the word that it’s been updated.

I had the privelege of broadcasting one of the most exciting and dramatic high-school playoff games in ANY sport I’ve ever witnessed Friday night when Seguin completed its two-game area playoff sweep of Dripping Springs with a 7-6 victory on the Tigers’ home field. 

Unfortunately, smack dab in the middle of the game’s biggest moment, and perhaps the team’s biggest moment of the season, my call got knocked off the air.

I’ll get back to this , but allow me to set the scene first by recapping the game’s events that led to the big moment.

Seguin jumped out to an early 4-0 lead over Dripping Springs with three runs in the first inning, and another in the second.  The Tigers got right back into it in the bottom of the third with a four-run rally that was unfortunately sparked by a Matador error when  McKayla Mayfield and Taylor Woodall ran into each other chasing down a routine fly-ball. 

The Matadors reclaimed the lead at 5-4 in the fourth with help from a Dripping Springs error, and the Tigers knotted it back up at 5-all in the bottom of that inning.  Dripping Springs capitalized on an overthrow to the plate by Seguin centefielder Alex Bothe in the bottom of the sixth to take a 6-5 lead.

Bothe would make ammends for that mistake in a BIG way in the next half inning, and our listeners on KWED wouldn’t get to hear the entire play.

Seguin started the top of the seventh with an infield single.  Two batters later, with one out, Kelly Koenig was hit by a pitch and replaced at first by courtesy runner Emma Martinez.  After Ally Tovar popped up to second, Bothe came to the plate with her team an out away from being forced into a third and deciding game on Saturday.

With a one-ball, two-strike count, Bothe hammered a line drive to the right centerfield wall for a triple, Mayfield sprinted home to tie the game, and Martinez followed to score the go-ahead run.

I went nuts with my call, reacting to a moment that big as I always do and trying to deliver the excitement back to the listeners who couldn’t attend.  As I’m settling down and preparing to talk about the next batter, Megan Reiley, I hear a commercial playing in my headset?  What?  Why would we go to a commercial in the middle of an inning?  I tell our producer, “Fade this down and bring me back on!”  I finish out the inning  and the game not knowing that Seguin’s biggest play of the season wasn’t heard on the air.

After the game, Seguin Sports Booster Club president Cathy Beicker tells me that she received a call from somebody indicating that the game had gone off the air during Bothe’s hit in the top of the seventh.  So I call our producer back in the studio, and sure enough, it had – he said my feed to the station went instantly silent, and that’s why he played the commercial. 

I listened to the digitial recording of the broadcast back at the station, and sure enough, all you hear is “swing and a line drive to right field, this could be trouble, AND IT DROPS……….(dead air).”  And dead air for about 30 more seconds, then the commercial starts playing, then you hear me, on the air, telling our producer to fade the commercial and come back to me.

What the……???

The only plausible explanation I can think of is that I briefly lost power to my remote mixer without knowing it.  I never lost the cell-phone connection that was feeding the mix back to the station, because I didn’t have to redial to get back on.  I can tell you that I did the broadcast from a platform outside the press-box, and that the mixer was plugged into a power strip whose extension cord was plugged into an outlet inside the building.  Maybe in all the excitement (slamming their fists on the table, stomping on the ground because their season was about to end) somebody in the press-box knocked or kicked my connection loose for a moment, then plugged it back in.  I can’t fathom any other way we’d have gone silent in that manner.

What a complete, thorough, and absolute bummer that one of the most exciting plays I’ve witnessed and had the good fortune of calling in five years of broadcasting Seguin High School athletics was cut off by the sound of dead air in the middle of the play.  And what anquish for fans sitting on the edge of their seats waiting to hear whether Bothe’s hit produced the tying and go-ahead runs!  For the anguish, I apologize.  Sometimes, even if very rarely, things happen in the crazy business of broadcasting that are beyond the broadcaster’s control. 

Now…a few noteable talking points from Seguin’s sweep of Dripping Springs: 

• It’s good to see Bothe swinging the bat well again.  After hitting over .300, leading the team in home runs and RBIs, and earning a first-team All-District selection as a junior in 2009, Bothe spent much of her senior season mired in a hitting slump.  Her averged hovered around the .170 mark most of the regular season, and nobody could figure out why.  As it turns out, she discovered she needed to wear glasses or contacts to see the ball well, so she began wearing glasses when she came to bat a few weeks ago, and PRESTO….the hard-hitting Alex Bothe of old is back.  She called them her “magic glasses” in my post-game interview with her Friday night, and after that triple in the seventh inning, I can’t think of a better word for them.  Bothe has been a solid performer and a fierce competitor at the varsity level for four years, and it’s a boost to the team for her to be finishing her senior year this strong.
• Ciara Luna is a freshman who just grew up in a hurry in the span of seven days.  Being asked to protect a one-run lead in the seventh inning of a playoff game THREE TIMES in one week will do that for you.  On Friday, April 30, Luna took a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh against Burbank, allowed a leadoff double to Stephanie Contreras, regained her composure, and retired three straight to preserve the Matadors’ playoff-opening victory.  This past Thursday in Game One against Dripping Springs?  Deja vu.  1-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh, the first TWO Tiger batters reach base, and Luna buckles down to retire three straight.  Friday, Luna came on in relief of starter Kate Bateman in the fourth with the game tied at 5-5, and she found herself with a 7-6 lead after Bothe’s heroics in the bottom of the seventh.  After two straight outs, a Seguin error allowed Dripping Springs’ Jill Keeper to reach base, but Luna induced a pop-up that she fielded herself from Tina Cisneros.  Ballgame and series.  That’s three playoff games in seven days that a FRESHMAN protected a one-run lead in the seventh inning with the potential tying or go-ahead run on base.  Clutch, clutch, clutch.
• Other offensive standouts in the series against Dripping Springs:  Taylor Woodall was a combined 4-8 (and came into the series batting .445 – first-team All-District lock, I think) with two runs scored in two games – now that’s a leadoff hitter, people.  Brooke Abrameit was 2-6 with an RBI-double, a run scored, and a successful sacrifice.  McKayla Mayfield went 3-7 with two runs scored and one RBI.  Kelly Koenig was big in Game Two, with an RBI-single and a successful sacrifice, as well as drawing the hit-by-pitch that turned into the go-ahead run.  Inserted into the nine-hole of the lineup after not batting at all in the bi-district round against Burbank, Taylor Roberson went 2-5 with a double and a walk agains the Tigers.
• In the regional quarterfinals, Seguin will be in the same position Dripping Springs was just in:  The Matadors will be facing a team they eliminated in the 2009 playoffs – San Antonio-Edison.  The Bears will be a tough out.  The perception that District 28-4A is a pushover district is exactly that – a perception, and not a reality.  Burbank was tough and scrappy in two bi-district losses to Seguin.  Edison made easy work of Kerrville-Tivy in the first round, and Brackenridge gave Alamo Heights all they could handle in a 4-2 loss.  Remember…Seguin had to come from behind to complete its sweep of Edison in last year’s bi-district round, and there’s no doubt that loss has been a motivating force in the Bears’ 2010 season.  So the Mats have to be focused to advance through the regional quarterfinals, and I’m sure they will be.  Too much upperclassman leadership and talent up and down the roster to slip up at this point. 

Let’s just hope the most exciting moment from the Seguin – Edison series, whatever it may end up being, is actually HEARD by our listeners on KWED.

I agree with Carson on realignment: “It is what it is”

Everybody in our coverage area with any interest in Seguin, Navarro, or Marion athletics loves to talk about UIL district realignment and reclassification when it happens every two years.  Each community spends the weeks leading up to it buzzing about the possibilities, and the weeks after either lamenting or applauding the outcome.   Everybody who speculated that Seguin would move back up to 5A, Navarro would finally jump to 3A, and Marion would drop to 2A gets to say “I told you so”, as if making an accurate prediction based on enrolment numbers is a sign of one’s “expertise.”   

I guess I should have a more enthusiastic attitude about the topic as a journalist, since it is such a newsworthy event in our area, but at the end of the day, I share the sentiment so efficiently expressed by Seguin head football coach and athletic director Jim Carson when asked for his reaction on our KWED interview Monday morning: 

“It is what it is.”

Oh, there are some in my line of work who spend every waking hour coming up with blueprints and elaborate plans to “save the UIL from itself” and eternally “solve” the dilemma of how to place schools in the most equitable competitive settings.  One of them worked for that other media outlet in Seguin and devoted a longwinded…err….thoroughly detailed (trying to be nice) column to it a couple of years ago. 

I didn’t get into this business to be a lobbyist or a political activist.  I got into it to cover and broadcast games, and to communicate the action, drama, competitive ebbs and flows, and ultimate results of those games to fans who care about them.  Be it through live play-by-play, five-minute sportscasts, one-minute audio wraps, interviews with coaches and players, or printed stories – that’s why I’m here, and that’s it.

So my attitude toward realignment has, and always will be:  Put them in the classificiation their enrolment says they belong in, put them in whatever district you put them in, give me the schedule, and I’ll go cover or broadcast the games.  I honestly have no emotion about it beyond that. 

Sure, you’d like to see the result come out with some equity in terms of travel (Seguin made out REALLY well in that regard this time…Marion and Navarro will have a few late Tuesday night trips in non-football sports ), and you’d like to see your favorite team avoid that “gauntlet” district in which every team is a powerhouse (That doesn’t change for Seguin…27-4A was a buzz-saw, so is the new 25-5A they’re entering), but it just isn’t possible to make things that equitable for every school in the state. 

As much as some like to bash the UIL – I know I’ve done it a time or two – their alignment and classification system will always be the product of HUMAN thought, which means it will always be flawed to some degree.  Perfection simply isn’t attainable in an endeavor like this, and the UIL faces a greater challenge than any other similar governing body in any other state.  Texas is so geographically vast and has so many schools of varying sizes spread throughout its expanse that it would be impossible to create equitable travel and competition scenarios for all of its members from 1A to 5A.  Impossible. 

So to me, the healthiest attitude on realignment is Coach Carson’s: “It is what it is.” He also added that “our foes are powerful, so that gives us an opportunity to do some great things.”  In a new District 25-5A that includes the Matadors, New Braunfels, San Antonio-Wagner, Cibolo-Steele, Converse-Judson, and San Marcos, that’s an accurate assessment.

One final thought:  I, for one, love the fact that Seguin’s oldest historic rival, New Braunfels, will be a district opponent in all sports for the next two years.  The thought of possibly broadcasting some late-season “Matadors vs. Unicorns” games with playoff implications in basketball, baseball, softball, or volleyball is pretty exciting.  The rivalry between the schools seems to be understated in sports other than football, and that won’t be the case during the ’10-’11 and ’11-’12 seasons.

Ready to broadcast some volleyball

With Seguin advacing to the 4A state volleyball tournament in San Marcos this week, I will be doing volleyball play-by-play on the radio for the first time in my eight-year broadcasting career. 

The football, basketball, baseball, and softball games I’ve called over the course of eight years and four markets (Denton, TX…Durant, Oklahoma…New Orleans…Seguin) number somewhere in the hundreds – in each sport. 

But in this part of the country, volleyball on the radio just isn’t that commonplace.  It’s so rare that it wasn’t even taught to me by my mentor, Texas Radio Hall of Famer Bill Mercer, in broadcasting school at North Texas.  My KWED sports compadre Sennett Rockers never learned it in broadcasting school at KU either.  

It is more commonplace to find volleyball on the radio further north, in the Midwest, but in most markets, the time commitment to broadcasting football (any station’s biggest sports money-maker in terms of advertising revenue) is so intense that volleyball often gets lost in the shuffle.  I’m not saying that’s right or fair – that’s just the economics of it.

In retrospect, I wish we could have found a way to broadast Seguin’s regional tournament matches, and it’s certainly something we’ll try to be more prepared to do in future seasons.  But we had already committed to do three football games (and received commitments from advertisers)  that were scheduled for that weekend far before Seguin’s volleyball playoff run, and had no choice but to honor those commitments. 

Anyway…broadcasting state tournament volleyball this week is something I’m really excited about.  It will be a challenge, but hopefully the basic play-by-play fundamentals of describing the action and keeping the score updated will take over and result in a quality broadcast. 

Tune into 1580-AM, or www.seguintoday.com at 4:50 Thursday afternoon for pre-match coverage of Seguin vs. Canyon-Randall in the 4A state semifinals from San Marcos.  The opening serve is at 5 p.m.

Regional volleyball champs highlight wild weekend

First up…congratulations to the Seguin High School volleyball team for earning the first UIL state tournament berth in school history with a four-game 4A Region 4 championship victory over Austin Lake Travis in San Antonio on Saturday.  And congrats to Seguin head coach Robin Gerlich for notching her 500th and 501st career victories in the two regional tournament wins.

I’ve been watching the core group of seniors on this team play for three years – some of them for four – and seeing them grow into state championship contenders has been pretty remarkable.  Kelly Koenig and Megan Roy were varsity starters as freshmen on the ’06 Seguin team that finished near the bottom of the old District 25-5A, so it’s been a long journey for those two. 

Now Koenig, Roy, and fellow seniors Alex Bothe, Brooke Abrameit, Marquisha Matthews, and Danika Cerna see the countless hours of hard work pay off with a shot at competing for a state title.  The same is true for Lauren Meunchow, Megan Reiley, and the other non-seniors on this team who will be back to lead the Matadors in 2010. 

To think….11 days ago Dripping Springs had the Matadors at match point (leading 24-23 in game four with a two-games-to-one lead) with Seguin’s season hanging in the balance in the area round of the playoffs.  The Mats showed their resolve, found a way to survive that game 26-24, went on to beat the Tigers 15-8 in game five, and they’ve rolled through the opposition since then. 

Championship runs often have that one defining moment during post-season play – that one moment where a team turns the corner and never looks back.  If Seguin goes on to capture a state title in San Marcos this week, fighting off that match-point deficit in game four against Dripping Springs will go down as that moment. 

Now…on to football.  Absolute shocker at Boerne-ISD Stadium Friday night.  In the bi-district round of the 2A playoffs, Navarro faced a Comfort team it had beaten 35-6 two months earlier, and most fans figured the Bobcats would be no more than an early bump in the road on a long Panther playoff run.  Final score? Comfort 52, Navarro 21. 

Comfort absolutely shocked the Panthers (and Navarro fans…and me…and my broadcast partner, Mike Andrews).  Navarro coach Les Goad alluded to the fact in our pre-game interview that in the first meeting, the Bobcats were still playing tentatively and mechanically in trying to learn first-year head coach Chip Mayfield’s new system.  He also acknowledged that Comfort would be much improved in the rematch, as evidenced by a four-game win streak to end district play in which Comfort averaged close to 60 points per game. 

But this much improved?  Comfort’s team speed was alarming.  Proof that there’s a difference between BEING fast and PLAYING fast.  You can be fast, but if you’re not comfortable and confident in the system you’re playing in, and you play tentatively, that speed won’t show itself on game night. 

No such problem for Comfort on Friday…the Bobcats PLAYED fast…played aggressively and instinctively.  They kept Navarro guessing on both sides of the ball all night.  Strong enough up the middle defensively to take away the Panthers’ power running game between the tackles, and fast enough sideline to sideline to negate Navarro’s speed on the edge.  The Comfort offense mixed its play-calling and formations masterfully, and looked like a well-oiled machine in racking up big chunks of yards.

It was 31-0 at halftime, and it was 45-0 before Navarro finally scored late in the third quarter.  Nobody in the stadium (except for Comfort’s coaches and players) saw it coming.  Comfort is going to be a nightmare matchup for anybody it faces moving forward in the 2A playoffs.

Still have to tip your caps to Navarro for a fine season.  Two straight unbeaten runs through District 28-2A to outright district championships, and a combined record over the past two years  of 19-4 is nothing to scoff at.  This program will be a force to be reckoned with in the region for years to come.

Enjoyed a beautiful Saturday afternoon watching Lifegate play “fast break football” on Saturday…The Falcons executed to precision on offense and returned two interceptions for touchdowns on defense in dispatching of Brownwood-Victory Life 53-8 in the opening round of the TAPPS 6-Man Division II playoffs. 

The headliners much of this season have been Matt Akin and Austin Swick, and both played brilliantly on Saturday.  But this team is well stocked with other playmakers when you throw in names like Caleb Tate and Tyler Swisher, and they seem versatile enough and well rounded enough in what they can do on both sides of the ball to put together a run to the state champioship game. 

This weekend will tell a lot, when the Falcons host Brenham Christian Academy in a matchup of 11-0 teams in the second round of the playoffs.  Win that one, and it could be smooth sailing for the Falcons into that state title game.

Head scratcher for Spurs

There’s never any shame in losing the second game of back-to-backs in the NBA, especially when you’re on the road and your opponent is rested.  And there’s certainly little, if any point in getting too analytical over the second game of an 82-game regular season schedule.

But the Spurs’ loss in Chicago Thursday night is a bit of a head scratcher.  Follow me on this.  The most “aging” of the “aging veterans” on this team, Tim Duncan, played 34 minutes last night, shot 13-19, put up 28 points and hauled in 16 rebounds.

Fast forward the calendar to April, look back on the complete regular season, and pull all the box scores from the second night of back-to-backs.  How many of those do you think will show Duncan posting a 28-16 in 34 minutes?  The answer is “not many.”  Heck, the answer might be “one…on the second night of the season in Chicago.”

My point is that when Timmy is feeling that sprightly on the second night of back-to-backs and delivers a performance like that, the younger guys on the team have to hop on for the ride and find a way to squeeze out a win.  Didn’t happen Thursday, as Tony Parker, Richard Jefferson, and Roger Mason gave San Antonio virtually nothing in support of the team’s aging anchor in the middle.

Again…not much point in picking apart Game #2 on an 82-game schedule, especially when there are new faces on this team still learning how to play together.  But for Duncan to dominate and the Spurs to lose in that scenario is a bit of a head scratcher.

Panthers correctly play the odds, go for two

Navarro survived a hairy District 28-2A contest Friday with a 29-28 road victory over Poth, and the Panthers eked out that final one point margin with a touchdown and two-point conversion (both by Jacob Garcia) with just 25 seconds remaining in the game.

I’m excited to talk to Coach Les Goad in this week’s Panther Report about his decision to go for two rather than kick a tying extra point after Garcia’s touchdown.  Be sure to tune in to 1580-AM, KWED, or listen online at www.seguintoday.com for Coach Goad’s thoughts on the game – the interview will air during the 6 p.m. hour Friday leading up to our broadcast of the Seguin – Boerne-Champion game.

I’m going to go ahead and hazard a guess as to what Coach Goad was thinking, and tell you that I love the decision he made.  Keep in mind that Navarro kicker Tim Gill is a perfect 35-35 on PAT kicks this season.

Basically, Navarro had two choices in that scenario: 1) Hand the football of to All-State running-back Jacob Garcia one more time and ask him to make two yards, to win or lose the football game.  2) Play an alternate-possession overtime in which you have to start at the 25-yard line, find a way to score, and then stop a Poth team that’s given you fits all night from scoring when they get their turn on offense.

So the question, I’m guessing, that went through Coach Goad’s head was “Will an alternate possession overtime give us a better opportunity to win the football game than one handoff to an All-State running-back from the two-yard line?”  The answer is a resounding “no.”  And that’s why I love Coach Goad’s decision.  The Panther offensive line already had the Poth defense on its heels, and Garcia had already found the end zone four times in the game. 

Again…I’m purely speculating about Coach Goad’s thought process, but I plan to ask him about it during this week’s Panther Report.  I’m anxious to hear what he has to say.

As I see it, the decision was no gamble, but rather the polar opposite.  Given Navarro’s personnel in the backfield and on the offensive line, there’s no way on earth an alternating-possession overtime presents a better opportunity to win a football game than one handoff to Jacob Garcia at the two-yard line.  Coach Goad did play the percentages.  Going to overtime would have been a far greater gamble.

Mats appear eliminated in 27-4A playoff race

Upon further examination of the District 27-4A football standings and remaining schedule, it appears that Seguin may have already been eliminated from playoff contention.  Unless there’s some quirky tie-break scenario that I’m not aware of, I don’t see how they get in.

At 0-4 in district play, The Matadors’ best possible 27-4A record is 3-4 if they win out. 

Here’s how it works out in terms of trying to catch the top five teams in the current standings:

* Seguin has no way of catching Steele or Alamo Heights.  Both squads are 4-0 in district and can finish no worse than 4-3.

*Seguin CAN catch Kerrville-Tivy, which currently has a 3-1 district record.  The problem is that Tivy owns the head-to-head tiebreaker between the teams after defeating the Matadors 31-14 earlier this season.

*The two teams tied for fourth with 2-2 district marks are Clemens and New Braunfels-Canyon.  Seguin could still actually SURPASS one of those teams, but only one.  Clemens and Canyon haven’t played each other yet, so the winner of their matchup is guaranteed a district record of now worse than 3-4 (again…that’s Seguin’s best potential finish now).  And both of those teams own the head-to-head tie-break over Seguin because they’ve both beaten the Matadors this season.

*So what it all boils down to is that when the dust clears at the end of the District 27-4A regular season, there will unavoidably be four teams with either better records than Seguin or equal records and the head-to-head tie-break. 

Unless, again, there’s a scenario and tie-break that I haven’t thought of, this all means that Seguin will miss the state football playoffs for the third consecutive season.

Red River thoughts

As a Sooner fan living in the heart of Longhorn country, I’ve had some interesting dialouge over the past 24 hours with Texas fans, as I do each time this year after the annual Red River Rivalry game. 

This season’s contest goes to the Longhorns in a 16-13 defensive slugfest that saw OU quarterback Sam Bradford leave the game after re-injuring the sprained A-C joint in his throwing shoulder – the same ailment that knocked him out of the BYU game over a month ago. 

Let me preface the rest of this by admitting that I’m about to come off as a whining, flailing OU fan trying to rationalize what’s turning into a bad season.  Guilty as charged.  At least I don’t lack self awareness.

Given the circumstances – no Bradford, no All-American tight-end Jermaine Gresham, and top receiver Ryan Broyles playing hurt with a fractured shoulder blade – I’d say no OU fan could have asked for the Sooners to play much better Saturday.  All the cards were lined up for a Texas blowout, and the OU defense didn’t let it happen.  Two dropped interceptions by OU linebacker Keenan Clayton and a touchdown saving tackle by Colt McCoy after throwing a pick to Brian Jackson allowed the Longhorns to survive this one.  And hats off to them – wounded opponent or not, a win is a win in this rivalry.

But here’s what I find interesting in talking to some Texas fans (some…not a blanket statement here…just some).  There’s a school of thought among some of them that OU fans are just “making excuses” when they blame their three losses (by a combined five points) on injuries.  Right.  As if the presence or absence of a  Heisman winning quarterback (Bradford), All-American tight-end (Bradford), and the nation’s leader in TD receptions (Broyles) don’t have enought impact to swing a one-point or three-point game in the other direction.

What’s really neat about this is the fact that in 2006, when Colt McCoy was hurt late in the season, those same Texas fans had no problem using that injury as an excuse in losses to Kansas State and Texas A&M (and they were right…and I agreed with them).  So to be sure I’ve got it right:  When a Texas player gets hurt, it’s a legitimate reason for losing, but when an OU player gets hurt, Sooner fans are “whiners”.  Airtight logic.

Also had a dialouge with my best friend, who also happens to be a Texas fan, about Bradford’s injury.  His contention is that OU fans have no right to complain about the injury because poor offensive line play has allowed Bradford to take a lot of hits, and with more hits comes a greater risk of injury.  He has a point on some level, but it’s not that simple.  

My rebuttal is this:  There are 120 teams in Division I college football, and OU ranks 34th in fewest sacks allowed, with eight.  That means there are 86 teams in the nation with quarterbacks who have been hit MORE than Sam Bradford this season, and NONE of them have sprained AC joints in their throwing shoulders.  So I think my contention that Bradford’s injury is a rare, flukish, unlucky, freak occurence is well supported by the numbers.  By the way, Texas has actually allowed one more sack than OU this year, and Colt McCoy’s shoulder is not in a sling – again evidence that shoulder injuries to quarterbacks are rare, not common. 

Now… to what this game means for the college football season…Texas, at 6-0 and with a favorable Big-12 schedule in front of them, has a tremendous opportunity win its second conference title in the Mack Brown era, and to advance to the BCS championship game.  The Horns shouldn’t have a problem on the road at Missouri this Saturday, but visiting OSU in Stillwater on Halloween could get hairy, especially if Dez Bryant is reinstated by the NCAA & suits up for the Boone Pickens Pokes.  Remember – the Pokes (refuse to call them the Cowboys – the Cowboys play in Dallas) gave UT a scare in a 28-24 game in Austin a year ago, and they’ve got plenty of offensive firepower. 

Texas, by the way, has offensive line issues of its own to work out.  Frankly, I was shocked to see the stats reveal that the Longhorns had actually given up more sacks than OU this season.  But in the past two games, against OU & Colorado, UT has struggled to protect Colt McCoy and has had to rely almost exclusively on defense and special teams play to win.  This will have to get fixed as the stakes get higher later in the year. 

As far as the Sooners go, the season goals have dramatically changed…OU came into the year with national title aspirations, and anybody with common sense has to admit that those hopes would still be alive if the Sooners had the fortune of fielding a healthy team this year.  But the reality of it is that three losses by five total points leave OU at 3-3 and unranked for the time being.  The focus for the Sooners now is on just trying to win out and let the chips fall where they may.  Texas has to lose twice for OU to have a shot at another Big 12 title, and that’s highly unlikely to happen.  So we Sooner fans are now relegated to seeing a 9-3 regular season and Cotton Bowl berth as a successful season.  That’s life.  The cupboard isn’t bare in Norman, and OU will be right back in the hunt next year.

There…the whining OU fan now has it out of his system.  Cowboys are off today, so I’m off to the driving range to work on my golf swing – a pursuit even more hopeless than the Sooners’ national title chances.

Tough weekend for Mats & Bulldogs

Not a great weekend for the area high school teams we featured in our broadcast games.  Friday night, Seguin dropped to 0-4 in District 27-4A with a 28-0 loss to Clemens in Schertz.  Saturday evening, Marion fell to 0-2 in District 27-3A with a 39-0 loss to Sam Houston at Alamo Stadium in San Antonio.

That’s a combined score of 67-0 in two nights.  Didn’t get to make a single touchdown call as the play-by-play voice of area teams this weekend.   Those of you who kept listening in the fourth quarter of those games get a gold star.

A common theme this weekend for the Matadors and Bulldogs was struggling offenses running into fast, ball-hawking defenses.  Seguin had any hopes of coming back from a 14-0 halftime deficit dashed in the third quarter Friday when Clemens returned two interceptions for touchdowns.  Likewise for Marion, who trailed 13-o at the half on a pair of Sam Houston touchdowns that were set up by interceptions.

Another common theme was each team’s defense struggling with a fleet footed dual-threat quarterback.  Clemens signal-caller Stanley Harris gashed the Mats for 124 rushing yards and two touchdowns Friday, while Sam Houston QB Dominique Broadnax-Lee scrambled his way to 67 yards on just eight carries and tossed three touchdown passes.

Both teams now find themselves in dire straights as far as their respective district races go.  Seguin faces the prospect of having to win out (with Steele – the top 4A team in the San Antonio metro area - still on the schedule) and receive lots of help if the Matadors hope to secure a playoff berth.  Marion finds itself in the same conundrum, with rapidly improving Luling, always dangerous Poteet, and regional power La Vernia still looming on the slate. 

All either squad can do now is just keep fighting and competing every Friday night, and let the chips fall where they may.