It's Thursday. And what do we say to death Applebee's Happy Hour on a Thursday before a big game?
Not today.
Stay home and watch this banger instead:
| TIME (ET) | GAME | FAVORITE | TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7:30 | No. 6 HOUSTON at CINCINNATI | UH (-8) | ESPN |
WOODY TAKES L, HANDS IT TO OKLAHOMA. Folks, get ready to see highlights this week of the Berlin-born Ewe von Schamann's 1977 field goal to lift No. 3 Oklahoma over No. 4 Woody Hayes and Ohio State in the Horseshoe.
Stoops said during his teleconference he plans to bring von Schamann to the Shoe when Oklahoma comes to Columbus next year. Apparently, it's a big deal in Sooner lore.
For the unfamiliar, here's the kick. Keep in mind von Schamann strutted onto the field and enticed the crowd 88,000 to cheer louder.
Though I wasn't around in '77, I empathize with those that were. The only way that gets worse if von Schamann air guitar windmilled out of the stadium.
Though the emphasis back then was always on a Big Ten title, it's a game Woody desperately wanted to win.
From espn.com:
Jeff Logan, Ohio State fullback (1974-77): Woody wasn't exactly sure what to make of Barry Switzer. Switzer was young, brash. Woody was from another generation. It was an important game for Woody. He told us before that we were not only defending the honor of Ohio State, but the honor of the Big Ten Conference playing an opponent like this in our stadium.
This is the politically correct way of saying Woody saw Switzer as uppity and wanted to teach him a lesson.
I, for one, can't see why Switzer mystified him:
Hard to see why Switzer befuddled Woody.
Thankfully our hero's story doesn't end here, though it might've if some Sooner managers tried to steal Woody's iconic cap.
Jerry Pettibone [Oklahoma assistant (1972-78)]: It was pandemonium. The week of the game, our managers had put this plan together, that if we won, they were going to run across the field and steal Woody's hat and bring it back to Norman. After the dog pile and all that stuff, I'm trying to find our managers, to see if they were actually going to do it. Then I caught Woody stomping across the field, hot as he could be. The managers started toward him, but saw the look on his face and big-time chickened out. In the locker room, I said, 'You cowards, I thought you were going to get Woody's hat?'
Could you imagine Woody throwing punches on managers before strangling the one with his hat to death? Because that's what would've happened. The managers would've died trying.
Switzer, for as much as he swashbuckled, didn't want any part of the fire-breather, either:
Barry Switzer: Here's what happened. The game was over, everybody was on the field. Next thing I know, I'm walking out there looking for Woody. Right in front of me, Doug Kennon, one of our managers, stuck his arm out, and Woody just back-handed him and knocked him out of the way. I said, 'Hell, I don't want him to forearm me, too. I think I'll just head on over to the locker room.' Woody was a great guy, a great coach. But game day, he had his game face on, and he was all business. But I saw that all happen.
It's a shame instant reply wasn't a thing back then. Perhaps history would remember that game differently.
SOONER DEFENSE. According to advanced stats, Ohio State will have the better defense (and offense, and special teams) in Norman on Saturday night.
Here are names to watch when the Buckeyes have the ball.
From 247sports.com:
Defensively, [defensive tackle Charles] Walker is a menace, and the Buckeyes offensive line will have to keep him offJ.T. Barrett.
Linebacker Jordan Evans is the quarterback of the defense and the only veteran in the linebacking corps, and he's coming off a very good game where he led the team with 10 tackles as well as a pair of breakups.
In the secondary, Jordan Thomas is an All-Big 12 corner and helps anchor the defensive backfield.
Walker and Evans will be the defensive keys for them. For Sooners' fans sake, they better be up for a night of defending from sideline to sideline. Ed Warinner and "Touchdown" Tim Beck will have them dancing, and we'll see what kind of strength program ol' Jerry Schmidt put together when the fourth quarter rolls around.
YA DONE GOOFED, BOBBY. My suspicions of Bob Stoops were confirmed when Tom Herman, who you might not know founded MENSA, the organization for geniuses, revealed Stoops to be a guy who orders fancy dinners with $200 bottles of wine and asks others to split the bill "evenly."
He's a decent football coach, but it's no surprise his teams averaged three losses a season since 2009 in arguably the weakest Power 5 conference.
So it's no surprise he practiced sports bigamy as a youth.
From newsok.com:
“You know, I had a cousin, Eddie Moore, who played at Michigan and I kind of remember just following Michigan a little bit more because I was at a young age when I started to pay attention," Stoops said.
So Stoops followed the Wolverines — virtually blasphemy in a rivalry where many people connected to Ohio State won't even say the “M” word, instead referring to Michigan as “that school up north.”
But he also followed Notre Dame (Stoops is Catholic), Oklahoma (he fell in love with Barry Switzer's wishbone offense) and yes, the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Eleven Warriors Youngstown correspondent Tim Shoemaker tells me "a lot" of Youngtownians cheer for Ohio State, but "It’s not like 100 percent OSU or anything close."
Non-Ohio State fans should be exiled from the state. That political take may be too hot for some, but this is my column.
However, I think we can all agree a Notre Dame–Oklahoma fan with Michigan connections is an abomination. Stoops should've lied and said he didn't watch sports.
He would still have some integrity left.
TYVIS LOVE. Tyvis Powell surprised Urban Meyer when he declared for the 2016 NFL Draft. When he went undrafted, it looked like Powell erred in judgment. A post-draft decision to join the Seattle Seahawks over the New York Jets, however, changed his fortune.
Powell is now a rostered player on one of the league's most successful franchises (of late).
From thenewstribune.com:
Yes, Powell is in the NFL. He is one of the most unlikely Seahawks. His dream on which he briefly quit in Ohio became a reality on Sunday in Seattle. He played 15 special-teams snaps and assisted on a tackle during Seattle’s 12-10 win over Miami in the 2016 opener.
Powell made his own place on the Seahawks’ roster for Sunday’s game at Los Angeles.
He grew up in Bedford without a father. Robin Powell raised three children as a single mother; Tyvis is three years younger than brother Tashaun, who is three years younger than sister Tiashia. Their mother went to graduate school and worked two jobs, as an assistant in a medical laboratory and tutor to local medical students, while Powell became a 3.1 student at Bedford High.
"I got a Master’s of Education degree when they were still young, so they could see what getting a degree looked like," Mama Powell said Tuesday evening after work in Ohio.
The good news here is his son, Cardale Jones, will still be able to eat if his own NFL career doesn't work out.
WHAT IN THE HELL, TEXAS ROADHOUSE. The hate toward superfans is overblown, but multiple indictments should result from decision-making like this:
I'm boycotting @texasroadhouse: pic.twitter.com/aq86nih9YV
— Andrew Lind (@AndrewMLind) September 14, 2016
This is why I prefer to prepare my own meat (shoutout to Sunset Meat Market in Piqua). You never know which steakhouse is actually an Orwellian house of horrors.
My advice to the Roadhouse is to rid itself of the fake apostle Big Nut and adorn its walls with a real superfan:
Thanks to Buck I Guy for his kind donation to MPD and his passion for helping the cause! pic.twitter.com/4LckoVrmnG
— Marion Police (@marion_police) September 14, 2016
THOSE WMDs. Britain's new 5-pound note is chewable, washable, and harder to fake... The air highway that keeps planes from crashing into each other... Ohio coroner's offices face shortage amid spike in cases... Jailed Ohio kidnapping suspect points police to third body... The next epidemic: Carfentanil... Hawaiian seafood caught by foreign crews confined to boats.
