Three and Out - Week One

(1) I have been listening to the Rivals.com radio network on Sirius for the past couple weeks and am fired up for the season to start. The hatred some of these FBS fanbases have for each other is intense and never quits. I don't share the hatred for Sam or SFA that many Bobcat fans do but I can see some long term bad juju coming for UTSA. Texas State is very fortunate to have a rival so nearby with the size and ambition of UTSA. I watched every episode of "Birth of a Program" on Saturday after one of our friends to the south alerted me to a marathon on Fox Sports Southwest.

Coach Franchione will lead his Bobcats into hostile Texas Tech this weekend.

My thoughts are that they might have a huge hit on their hands as long as they win, and win often. The Express News preview put them at 4-6 and I think they have to do quite a bit better than that to keep the buzz up. It's mentioned that no startup has ever gone to FBS in two seasons several times. As I said earlier, the ambition is enormous for the Roadrunner program, but I don't think a major city has ever bought into a startup the way San Antonio is. I could see them being a major pain in the backside for Texas State and other FBS programs in the very near future. They have pressure on them to succeed at a level unseen outside the BCS ranks due to the investment of the city.


(2) I spent four months in Lubbock for work about ten years ago. In fact, I went directly from the Panhandle to Chapel Hill (home of the University of North Carolina). I liked Chapel Hill much better. Lubbock's a pretty rough town for outsiders and non-Tech students. I hear it's not a dry town anymore so you don't have to endure "the Strip" - a trip to be talked about and not experienced. They don't throw tortillas anymore, and Tech fans don't dress up like pirates like they did under Leach. They do have an SEC caliber coach (Tommy Tuberville) and one of the hottest offensive coordinators in the country (30 year old Neal Brown). Tech reeled in the best recruiting class in their history in January and run an offense reminiscent of Houston's which the Bobcats were witnesses to last season, except faster paced with a greater emphasis on the running game. Less jet sweeps, more power running. They, like Texas State, are installing a 4-2-5 defense under former TCU secondary coach and new defensive coordinator Chad Glasgow.

I would be inclined to pick Tech by forty and call it a night, but I'm not going to bet against a Franchione-coached team getting run out of the stadium. In fact, I would love for this matchup to be in 2013 and not this season due to the immense difference in depth between the two teams. I like the spread option to confuse a defense that's been lining up against something different all preseason, and I am going to hope the installation by Naivar progressed faster than Glasgow's. Texas State will keep it close for almost three quarters before the fresh bodies Tech has plus just the general difficulties of being an away team in a Big 12-level hostile environment take their toll on the Bobcats.

Texas Tech 34, Texas State 17.

I'm not into moral victories, but I think both sides leave the field with their heads up and Texas State spends the 2011-12 offseason dreaming about knocking the Raiders off in their home opener. They'll put the work in to try to make that happen.


(3) Other predictions for week one:

Top 25 matchups -

Georgia 27, Boise State 24

Oregon 42, LSU 35


Around the state -

FIU 28, North Texas 17

TCU 37, Baylor 24

Houston 42, UCLA 38

Texas 24, Rice 10

UTEP 51, Stony Brook 7

A&M 31, SMU 24


Around the WAC -

Idaho 14, Bowling Green 13

Auburn 35, Utah State 10

Stanford 45, San Jose State 13

Cal 28, Fresno State 21

Ohio 16, New Mexico State 10

Southern Miss 31, Louisiana Tech 21

Hawaii 35, Colorado 24

Three and Out - Rivals Inaugural Edition

1) Thanks for signing up and we're glad you are here. My little weekly column is going to be different from what you're accustomed to seeing from me. I'm going to touch a bit on pop culture, the sporting world, stuff I love or hate, things I am looking forward to, et cetera. There's still some Bobcat talk I'll stir up but for the most part my role once expansion stops is going to be to support Brent and Justin. Both of their jobs just got bigger and mine got smaller, as Rivals is taking care of most of the day-to-day operation of the website.

Fletcher is officially an intern for us until he graduates in December. I filled out his paperwork on Friday. Fletcher has some work with KTSW this semester, including every SMHS game and duties with the Bobcat football team. He's always been a part of us but now we're going to be able to officially help out his young career. I'm pretty proud of being able to do this. Now go get me a breakfast taco, rook!

(I kid. Fletch could whup up on me quite easily.)

(2) Thanks to the NFL Network, I have watched a staggering amount of preseason football. I know it's not that indicative of what to expect for the regular season but I think the Detroit Lions are my sleeper team for 2011. Stafford's sharp (though as a rich kid from Highland Park I'd probably hate him in person) and their defense plays mean and nasty with the swagger you'd expect from a playoff team. I can't believe they have both Suh and Fairley - watch what that's going to grow into. Of course, their secondary is crummy, but it looks like everyone not playing Carolina is giving up Xbox passing yardage. Best is a solid chain-mover and they play a lot like Pittsburgh did the first couple of years of the Big Ben era. Megatron looks like he spent the lockout eating corners and bench pressing safeties. It'll be tough sledding sharing a division with defending champion Green Bay and 2010 playoff team Chicago though.

I can't get into MLB and doubly so for the televised Little League World Series. When did they start airing the regional games? I'll tune in when the US team plays the juggernaut from Taiwan or whatever but I don't care if 12 year olds from Montana beat Oklahoma. It's a little creepy though I am sure Coach Memphis is enjoying himself. There's not enough sports programming out there to prevent pedophiles that like boys in tight white pants from their two weeks of glory? Surely there's some bikini tennis out there waiting for a camera.


Speaking of, I have a couple of suggestions for when Yahoo! Sports launches their TV channel:

Women's Team Beach Volleyball - Each team has seven players and they play three matches with two players each with a substitute for injury. NASCAR that shizzle up and air it on Sundays all summer with a big beach party theme. I'd cheer for the Dallas Spikedolls if properly attired.

Competitive Drinking - If I watched a bunch of dudes cram tubesteak down their throats on the 4th of July, I'll damn sure watch a lineup of them tossing back 23 ounce beers for ten minutes. This could be fun to use local beers for each venue and doubly so for interviewing the guys after the buzzer sounds. If the alcohol scares the programming department away we can always substitute Slurpee's and have an instant sponsor.

It was brought to my attention that I have never seen any of the Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings movies, but I have seen all the Twilight ones and am looking forward to the Hunger Games. I guess my inner child wears a training bra. I'm not a Trekkie or a Star Wars guy, either. My friend Melissa went to a "con" in Philly over the weekend and met actor Sam Trammell - Sam Merlotte from True Blood, and Ernie Hudson - Winston Zeddemore from the Ghostbusters franchise. I guess I've been living under a rock the size of Gibraltar for not knowing there are nerdfests with underemployed actors out there. People dress up like they're hitting up a Halloween destination party and go mingle with their own kind. I don't believe there's enough Four Loko in existence to get me to go to one of these.

My foray into San Marcos a couple of Fridays ago was interesting. Brian, a townie, introduced me to some whacked-out techno nightmare called dubstep. Basically this screeching, beating nightmare is all the rage right now for the demographic directly beneath my own. It sounded like the noise my computer makes when I leave my cellphone next to it. Liberal doses of Jagermeister were administered to ease the swelling of my eardrums. Later that evening, I watched several people get tazed for the first time. First time for me - I don't know them. I would have liked to stay and watch what happened but I feared for my safety. I sort of felt obligated for Fletcher's too - nobody was threatening me with electrical current. Plus I didn't need to be questioned in my state by anyone in a blue uniform.(Fletcher didn't misbehave - he was closer to the ruckus than anyone else in the crowd.) There's a part two to this story I'll tell next week. "BobcatReport Behaving Badly - the Sequel!"

(3) I really wish I could tell you everything to expect from the new Texas State Rivals site. The truth of the matter is that this has come so suddenly we didn't have the time to try a few features we've kicked around. You'll see an increase in content from the staff, that's for sure. We are working out video stuff with the school, downloadable podcasts for Brent and Fletcher, and guest columns from other members of the Rivals network. I know recruiting will be better than anyone has ever dreamed of and I have interesting plans for content. Some will get rolled out this week, some once the season starts, and more as we gain capability. Look for columns from some people you know and some others you do not yet. I'm kind of excited about being a producer and director. I've never done anything remotely close to this in my career and I look forward to the challenge.

In closing, I do think I am going to have someone new to introduce everyone to in the next couple of weeks. We need to work out the details but I think you'll love what they are going to do on behalf of the website.
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