…apparently other sports are going on during football season.
I know. I was surprised to learn that too.
Browsing Posts in Sports
I’ve been a fan. I’ve been a vocal supporter of Houston Nutt for years. Even in the midst of all of the turmoil and mess over the past year I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt.
I always try to avoid criticizing coaches because I’ve never done it.
But no more. It’s brutal watching the best player in the nation and the best player to ever wear an Arkansas uniform watch his Heisman chances go down the tubes because his coach doesn’t have a clue.
–Continual untimely penalties
–Horrid clock management
–The inability to make the right calls at the end of the game (I mean come on, three runs up the middle with our speed?)
–The befuddling lack of utilizing the best weapon you will ever have?
–Losing quality players
–Losing to Kentucky? I don’t care what they are ranked. It’s Kentucky!
If we want to continue to remain a middle of the pack SEC school who will go to the Liberty Bowl each year, then Nutt is our man.
But we don’t. And he isn’t.
I know it is still a full month before my hawgs kick off against the national powerhouse Troy (hold on while I look up their mascot…there it is) Trojans (duh). But the excitement around the Waco office is building to a fever pitch. At least my Steelers kick off the NFL pre-season this Sunday.
Anyway, McFadden is back for his Heisman campaign and likely last season. Jones is there to share carries. Hillis is healthy to create the most potent backfield in the country. Dick will have had all off-season to practice with the starting unit. The disgruntled are gone and the heat can abate off coach Nutt for awhile.
So, it’s time to make my yearly predictions of how the Pigs will fare. I know they have been rated as having the 3rd easiest schedule in the nation, but that’s not my fault. Anyway, here we go:
Sep. 1–Troy: If this isn’t a victory I will shave my head. Win
Sep. 15–@ Bama: Saban will have the home crowd fired up and no telling what his payroll is now for recruiting but Arkansas should take advantage of their open date and pull out a Win.
Sep. 22–Kentucky: Does that big dude still quarterback them? Win
Sep. 29–North Texas: A breather. Win
Oct. 6–UT-Chattanooga: A breather, the sequel. Win
Oct. 13–Auburn. So, I see the Hawgs being 5-0 when the Tigers, looking to bounce back from a disappointing ’05 season and a shellacking put on them at home last year by McFadden and crew, come to town. I think the home crowd delivers this one for us. Win
Oct. 20–@ Ole Miss. This could be a potential let-down game if the Auburn game is as dramatic as I anticipate. Should still be a Win.
Oct. 27–Florida International. I know, I know. But we did play USC the past two years. Win.
Nov. 3–South Carolina. I always dread playing this team. It’s at home though so Steve will be crying on the sidelines about something. Win.
Nov. 10–@ Tennessee. A potential 9-0 and a top 10 ranking going into Knoxville. Haven’t we been here before? I think the bubble bursts here against a vastly improved Vol unit. Loss
Nov. 17–Mississippi State. Shouldn’t be a problem. Win.
Nov. 23–@ LSU. This game should be for the SEC West crown. Unfortunately, it is in the Bayou. And LSU has pwned us in recent years. Loss.
My take: 10-2 with a nice little bowl to go along with it.
It’s time again to crank up the Blogger Bowl again. I’m looking to bounce back and vindicate myself after such a pitiful showing last season.
This league this year will be a high octane league. Major points scored. If you are interested leave a comment.
Draft time is August 28th at 9:30 Central.
–One bad thing about WordPress is that it is overly spam-friendly. I have a good filter but occasionally a few get through onto my comments. And sometimes legitimate comments get hung up for moderation or swooped up in the spam filter. I don’t moderate comments with the exception of one individual who posted several offensive comments about me some months ago. Over the past few days the number of spam messages getting caught by my filter has topped out at about 2000 per day. 2000! As a result, I may have lost some comments in the mix. If so, I apologize for that. I have added an additional layer of spam protection so hopefully I’ll quit being deluged. If you get lost in the mix please let me know. The last thing I want to do is go all blogger on my comments and require people to enter squiggly letters. I hate that.
–You can also see that I added a new feature where you can subscribe to comments. This will inform you when there are follow-ups to your comments to aid discussion.
–Soulforce is at Baylor. But Baylor ain’t talking. The VP of Student Life has stated that they are “committed to treating the riders with Christian grace and love” but that they “would not grant their requests for university-approved dialogue.” More as it unfolds.
–Stan Heath. In or out? I personally think it might be time to part ways.
–I’ve blogged a bit recently about whether or not there is room at the church table for those with differing views. I have a follow-up question for you before I proceed with a series I want to do: what doctrines or beliefs do you currently hold that you feel either need to be re-examined or you hold without having done much study on? In other words, is there any aspect of our faith and belief system that you have just always assumed to be true? My view of hell has fallen in that category.
My blogging schedule will return to normal on Tuesday when I return to the office full-time. I’m on vacation this week and I am trying to use as much of that time as possible planning sermon and class schedules for the summer and the fall.
It’s not going as well as I would like.
It’s difficult to plan for the future when my current theological underpinnings are being so challenged. Right now, I am leaning toward focusing on relationships in the fall. If we aren’t loving people then we aren’t loving God, right?
In the meantime, here are some scattered thoughts:
–Always great to see Notre Dame lose a bowl game.
–Can we acknowledge that Brady Quinn is just the latest product of the Notre Dame hype machine? He’ll be as great a pro QB as Ron Powlus.
–On that note, it would be fitting for him to drop down to #2 in the draft (Kiper has him #1 at this point). If the Detroit Lions are going to insist on continuing to allow Matt Millen to destroy this team, then they truly deserve Quinn.
–There are no safe picks for the Super Bowl. It’s wide open. I’m pulling for a Chargers/Saints finale.
–If you aren’t watching Beauty and the Geek on the CW then find a replay of last night’s season 3 premiere. It continues to be a top notch reality show that transcends the genre and displays heart and the goodness of people rather than banking on humiliation and cut-throat competition.
–I’ve seen several good movies in the last few weeks in preparation for my Oscar predictions coming up. Right now, I’m hoping for nominations for Little Miss Sunshine and Sacha Baron Cohen.
–On a related note: Am I the only one who did not like either United 93 or World Trade Center?
–Is it just because the Razorbacks are no longer powerhouses? Or have I truly lost the love for basketball?
–I hope to blog soon about books that I have read recently but for now let me recommend three: Gregory MacDonald’s The Evangelical Universalist, David Kuo’s Tempting Faith, and Cormac Mccarthy’s The Road. All of them are tremendous reads.
–I gave Josh Ritter’s The Animal Years the number one slot on my list of best CD’s of 2006. Here is another video from the album. This one is called Lillian, Egypt:
Since I am getting my hat handed to me weekly in my blog fantasy football league, I thought I would expand the beat-down to fantasy basketball.
I haven’t played in years because it’s too labor-intensive to set your line-up every day. That is why this will be a head-to-head league. You will have a game each week against another team in the league. Much less work with no less smack.
Who’s in? The draft will be Monday night at 9:30 Central. The season starts Tuesday. I have space for up to eleven teams. Leave a comment and I’ll send you an invite.
Updated
If Corey and Jason accept their invites that will put us at 6 teams. We need at least two more to have a competitive league. If you aren’t sure, just try it for fun. It won’t be that time consuming and several of us don’t really know what we are doing, so you might just win it all.
Besides, I’m surrounded by Republicans in this league. Help a fella out.
–Sometime in the next week this humble blog should hit 100,000 on the ole stat-counter. To properly celebrate this august occasion I am offering a special promotion. The individual who is that lucky number will win a copy of either Lee Camp’s Mere Discipleship or Jimmy Dorrell’s Trolls and Truth. Good luck to you and thanks for being a part of my blog world.
–I have taken some hits in the last few weeks for my nonviolent/pacifist leanings. I am preparing a series of posts that will deal with the objections to what I feel is the best way for the church to behave. I will begin by looking at some biblical arguments often proposed to discredit non-violence: war in the OT, Jesus in the temple, etc. I’m hoping for a reasoned discourse that takes into account all of the initial reactions against peace. I look forward to discussing it with you. Any thoughts before I launch into it?
–My church fantasy football team needs help. I own Shawn Alexander and Terrell Owens. It’s been a tough week. I also own Larry Fitzgerald. I was sweating the threat of Matt Leinart being handed the ball. That would have been a trifecta of bad news.
–Anybody ever taken the GMAT? I’m taking it next week and getting paid to do it. Any pointers or things to look out for. I’m expected to fail the test but it would be cool if I didn’t.
–What’s the right way to “do” church?
–And finally, this guy is everything I hate about politics: mean-spirited, ad-hominem and hyperbolic attacks on others. Check out the dreadful ads. “Jesse Helms is back, and this time he’s black.”
It’s another college football season and tonight my beloved Arkansas Razorbacks take the field. We haven’t had much to brag about the past two seasons but I am hopeful that this season we will begin to right the ship.
We have a heralded freshman quarterback, the best running back in the SEC, and 19 returning starters. And most of our tough games are at home. We should return to a bowl this season.
As always, we have a tough schedule but I believe we will come out fairly strong. Here’s the way I see it shaping up:
Sept. 2–USC: They absolutely embarrased us last year and Pete Carroll showed less class than Steve Spurrier in running the score and throwing late in the game. Although we won’t forget their poor sportsmanship I’m afraid we won’t have the manpower to take this one, especially with Darren McFadden doubtful. I hope I’m wrong but this one looks like a loss.
Sept. 9–Utah State: I wish that this was game one on our schedule as we could use a game to shake off the jitters and get McFadden back before taking on USC but wherever this falls on the schedule it’s a win.
Sept. 16–@Vanderbilt: There is nothing more embarrasing than losing to a team that has no business in the SEC. Last year, that’s exactly what we did. We exact revenge here with another win in Music City.
Sep. 23–Alabama: This game is at home which tilts it in our favor. This should be a win unless Alabama has increased their payroll. And yes, I’m saying they cheat. A lot.
Oct. 7–@Auburn: We get a week off to prepare for this game. Auburn should be among the BCS contenders this year so it’ll be tough. I think the Hogs have the stuff to pull off some upsets this year. However, I don’t think that this is the week. Loss.
Oct. 14–SE Missouri State: A great way to heal up a little after what will surely be a tough game the week before. Win.
Oct. 21–Ole Miss: Not the class of the SEC. Win
Oct. 28–Louisiana-Monroe: Playing for bowl eligibility in our last non-conference tilt. Win.
Nov. 4–@South Carolina: I’m not buying in to the Spurrier hype. Barring a let-down, I think we go in here and pull out an important contest on the road. Win.
Nov. 11–Tennessee: Obviously, the Vols are looking to bounce back from last season’s aberration. This is a tough contest that, I believe, will pit two of the top teams in the SEC playing for major bowl positioning. This game could go either way. I’m taking my boys in a squeaker. Win.
Nov. 18–Mississippi State: Still fighting to return to days of glory this team will be luck to avoid the west cellar. Win.
Nov. 25–LSU: We are lucky to have them in Little Rock. But I am straining at the boundaries of logic by having them at 9-2 at this point in the season. Loss.
So, I have them finishing 9-3. A great return to form. At the worst I think they will struggle at SC and drop one to either Tennessee or Alabama. Even 7-5 will be an improvement.
But I’m banking on the 9-3.
