Coach Humor

Slate's Timothy Noah recently asked readers to submit stories of coaches past. If true, this one's a dandy:

The single best coach story I heard concerned a college football coach who purportedly made his players run wind sprints while each one held a single grape between the cheeks of his buttocks. The unfortunate soul who came in last had to eat the grapes. Haunting though this story is, I can't verify it.

Of course, it may not be true. Follow the above link and check Noah's update to the story to judge for yourself.

Ain't It Orange News

I can't not post this.

Austin's world famous movie review Web site, AintItCoolNews.com, has created the animated gif of the year. Harry Knowles-in-a-suit on the UT Tower. Clever. Creative. And so true, true.

"Hook 'Em 2006" rolls on... : )

Hook 'Em 2006 Continues

My blogging has been pretty light over the past two or three weeks. The reason: my full-time gig has kept me extremely busy. But now that the Cowboys' season is over, I should be getting my blog back on soon enough. In the meantime, a couple of National Championship follow-ups.

If you're not in Austin, you can still enjoy the UT Tower's nightly tribute to the football team's National Championship via the University Co-op's TOWERCAM. The Tower's special lighting configuration will continue through the end of this weekend. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's an explanation.

Elsewhere, undoubtedly many of you noticed that the Texas players were given National Championship ball caps and T-shirts immediately after the game. So what happened to the boxes of USC gear that went unused? Slate has the answer.

Hook 'Em 2006: The Day After

This is fun! I remember watching the Texas-OU game a couple of years ago when Vince Young was put in the game as a freshman. Oklahoma ran away with that game, but Vince Young was amazing--more amazing than any freshman had a right to be versus a team that would appear in the National Championship Game later that season. Witnessing his talent for the first time allowed me to remove myself from the moment--another loss to OU--and know that it was only a matter of time before Young would make it possible for Texas to end its losing streak in the Red River Shoot Out.

Of course, I only thought in terms of the Texas/OU game that day. I never considered a National Championship would be in reach. But damn if Vince hasn't made that happen, too.

And I'm no college football expert (my loyalties lie with the NFL), but I wonder how many schedules have been as difficult as this season's Longhorn schedule. Based on the final AP rankings, Texas beat the number two team on a semi-neutral field (USC), the number four team on the road (Ohio State); plus a couple of Top 25 teams: Texas Tech (20), and Oklahoma (22).

Damn it feels good to be a Longhorn!

Happy New Year

I came down with a sinus infection a couple of days ago, so I was far too medicated and fatigued to make it to midnight last night. However my dad, who also lives here in Garland, TX, stayed up and recorded audio of the celebratory gun fire traditionally heard in these parts to mark the transition to the new year.

A good reason to stay inside, since: What goes up, must come down.