Once again, the north is proving solidly to be the weak link in the Big 12 Conference.
Oklahoma looked a lot more complete Saturday at Kansas, scoring a decisive 35-13 win against the team that still may well wind up in the conference championship game.
Nebraska, the next best guess for a conference title game representative for the North, followed up its to Texas Tech with a 9-7 loss Iowa State Saturday at home.
I guess I should have waited until after the Missouri-Texas game tonight to write this, as I’ve probably just set up the Tigers to pull off the biggest win of the season for their North division. But it doesn’t look promising for them either.
At this rate, Kansas State, which lost by 52 at Texas Tech and had an early loss to Louisiana-Lafayette, could be headed to the Big 12 Championship game.

The speculation and suggestions on what OU quarterback Sam Bradford ought to do have ranged almost all over the map.

Well, consider the whole map covered, after a comment I saw posted on another newspaper’s Web site Tuesday night.

The gist of the poster’s point was that Bradford should seek a medical redshirt for this season and then come back to college. But this person suggests instead of staying at OU Bradford should TRANSFER somewhere else since the Sooners have a good signal-caller for the future in Landry Jones.

He says that extra year of college football at a different program would better showcase Sam’s skills for the NFL.

Huh?

Two more great games Monday night, it’s been quite a year so far for close finishes.
A couple of former Sooners are playing the role as important backups for two of the remaining teams. Outfielder Reggie Willits is the speediest player on the Angels’ bench and figures to be a factor as a pinch-runner before the playoffs are up.
Greg Dobbs, who at times has logged pretty regular playing time for the Phillies, is coming off their bench as well. He got in there in a big situation Monday but failed to bring home the winning runs that scored in Philly’s next at-bat.
Philly leads 3-1 and is well on its way to trying to defend its world championship from 2008, while the Yankees lead the Angels 2-1.
And my Twins are out in the first round, AGAIN.

I think I know a thing or two about NASCAR. I’ve been writing a racing column in our newspaper for going on three years and had a Web show for more than a year as well on the subject.
All of which has meant nothing when it comes to predicting winners.
That’s probably why I don’t live in Vegas, because I’d be broke from all my awful sports picks. But that’s another topic for another time.
But that’s why I don’t tend to make picks in print. I figure it’s a sure curse I’ll ruin somebody’s weekend.
Then there’s my friend Teri, who is pretty much a psychic. We have been having a running contest this season, picking which driver we think will have the best finish.
To put it mildly, she totally owns me. At last count, Teri’s driver has beaten mine 19 times this season and mine has won 4 (including last week, when I crushed her as Jeff Gordon finished 2nd and her driver, Tony Stewart, was waaaaay behind in 5th.)
The stakes are pretty simple. Loser buys frozen custard for the winner. Unless the loser slacks off and gets behind. Way behind. As in he’s only paid up for one of the losses so far. At this rate I will owe pretty much until the 22nd century.
Especially when I keep losing.
So if you have a driver you want to see have a bad weekend, nominate him here and I’ll be happy to jinx him, and keep Teri’s ego soaring.

I heard a caller on a sports radio station Tuesday incensed about Oklahoma’s dropped passes Saturday against Baylor.

He was sure the way to solve it was more practice time. Make those guys catch passes over and over and over and over and over and then they won’t make the same mistakes in the Texas game, right?

Somehow, I think he’s never played a down of college football in his life.

Neither have I. But this sure looks less like something that needs to be practiced 22 hours a day and more like one of those mental things, along the lines of the golfer that misses a couple of 3-foot putts and suddenly it’s in his head everytime, or the basketball team where a couple of guys miss a clutch free throw and suddenly nobody can make one.

These guys may not be Juaquin Iglesias or Manny Johnson, but they’ve played a lot of pretty good football in the years leading up to getting to OU, and some of them have played some decent football here already. Something tells me they will get it figured out.

If they don’t, it could make for a long day for the Sooner offense Saturday.

The names of the schools stand alone in marking what is perhaps college football’s best rivalry.
The memories and legends made in this football game are almost unequaled for the two schools that play in the game.
We remember Demond Parker’s amazing duel with Ricky Williams and the Sooners coming out with an improbable victory.
Texas fans remember a little quarterback named Peter Gardere who managed to beat four straight very solid OU teams.
We remember Rocky Calmus, one arm in a big cast, returning a ball for a defensive touchdown as the Sooners rolled to a huge victory.
We remember Quintin Griffin’s six touchdowns.
We remember Roy Williams flying like Superman to force a Chris Simms fumble, with Teddy Lehman’s recovery and touchdown putting away a close game. The first game Jason White played meaningful snaps in.
We remember the walk through the Texas State Fair to get to the stadium. (For now.)
It’s crimson and cream, burnt orange and white, Switzer and Royal, Bradford and McCoy, OU and Texas.
What’s your favorite memory of one of sports’ greatest games?

Some days in this business, you just can’t think of anything to say. Or, like any other job, you aren’t as excited about being there as others.
And sometimes you have an assignment that makes you remember why you do what you do, as I did this week, getting to listen to Jack Thorpe, son of the great Jim Thorpe.
This sounds a little over the top, but I’m not sure how else to put it. You could feel the greatness in the room as Thorpe shared stories to the gathering at the Moore-Lindsay Historical House as part of its lecture series this fall on football, “Other Traditions: Football in Oklahoma.”
It’s on my short list of favorite people I’ve ever gotten to talk to, up there with meeting Dr. Prentice Gautt during college and the first time I got to meet and begin working with coach Eddie Sutton.
My article on Thorpe’s speech appeared in Saturday’s Transcript and is also available online here http://www.normantranscript.com/localnews/local_story_283021548.
I wish I could have written 5 times as much as I did, but I suspect my editor would have dug her white fangs into me for turning in such a long piece.
However, through the miracle of the Internet, and the fact they’ve given me a blog here, I now get to share a few stories here.
* In his later years, Thorpe spent time around the Hollywood scene, working on several movie sets and also doing his best to help Indians get equal pay for their work.
During breaks in filming, Thorpe would show off, and once he demonstrated his strength by taking a sledge hammer by the handle, holding it straight out in front of him, slowly lifting it up until the end of it touched his nose, then lowering it back.
A lead actor saw this and thought “hey, that’s easy,” so he picked up the sledge hammer and promptly whacked himself in the forehead.
Things only got worse later as he confronted Thorpe about it. He took one swing and then the fight ended as most did for people who confronted Thorpe, with one punch and the opponent “knocked out,” his son remembered.
* Jack Thorpe spends quite a bit of time lecturing about his father and often brings his wife along.
Her name is Matilda, but she prefers to go by “Babs,” Jack explained. But he recalled a night that he crossed himself up and suddenly drew a blank on what to call her, so he asked her what her name was.
“I haven’t made that mistake again,” he said as the crowd laughed heartily.
* His father’s college days were spent at the Carlisle Institute in Pennsylvania, where he was part of many of the schools’ athletic teams.
The famous picture of Thorpe wearing an early football jersey was from those days, when he also was a baseball star. He played football for coach Glenn “Pop” Warner there.
After winning his two gold medals at the 1912 Olympics, Thorpe elected to go back and finish up at Carlisle rather than go on a national tour of Olympic stars.
* A gentleman who unfortunately got out of Thursday’s speech too quickly for me to get his name told a super story to Jack about his son’s experience with Jim Thorpe. He had been selected to participate in a special event honoring Thorpe several years back at Carlisle.
The event invited in top Indian athletes from around the country and the boy, was at the time a top cross country runner.
His’s father said the son “just had to run around that track Jim Thorpe ran around one time while he was there.”
He said his son is competing for a spot on a future Olympic team, hoping to follow in Thorpe’s footsteps. I hope someone will read this and get me some more information about this young man.
* Jack’s mother was Thorpe’s second of three wives. She actually died just two years ago, at age 102.
She was 4-foot-11 and birthed four children, all of whom weighed more than 11 pounds.
“After I was born, the doctor said, no more,” Jack said with a laugh.
* Jack recalled being about 7 years old and out on a football field with his brothers and their 58-year-old dad.
“He was drop-kicking the football 65, 70, 80 yards at a time. He was 58 years old!”
* Jack remembers the best advice he ever got from his father.
“He always had this attitude that there’s no such thing as ‘can’t.’ I stand here and can still remember his voice saying that.”
Simple but sage. I think I’ll take it to heart also.

Last fall I had occasion to be in Tulsa the first weekend of the high school football season. I decided to take in a game at Jenks, to find out what the high-and-mighty Trojan empire is all about.
It’s an impressive scene. The community is really behind the team, the numbers of kids out for football is huge, and the talent level high.
And for years, the rumors of questions in how they ended up with some of their players have flown.
I was a sports writer in the Tulsa area in the late 1990s, which the Trojans nearly lost to an upstart Tulsa Hale team with a freshman running back. The young man torched them for more than 200 yards in that game.
The next season, Kejuan Jones was playing for the Trojans. He later went on to a solid career at OU.
The night I saw them a year ago they had a new quarterback making his first start for Jenks — a young man who actually had started for that night’s opponent, Bixby, the year before!
The Trojans are in big trouble. Their longtime coach Allen Trimble is suspended indefinitely and likely won’t be back. Same for an assistant. Jenks voluntarily suspended its spring football for 2010.
Few people who have followed high school football in Oklahoma for years are all that surprised at what’s happened. Nor are they going to be shocked if another big program or two feel the blow of the rules next.
I’m not saying every case where a transfer between schools happens is crooked. We see them every year around these parts, too, and sometimes there’s a lot of smoke behind them, while other times it’s on the up-and-up.
But it sure takes away some of the innocence of a sport being played by young men.

Who’s fired up for the baseball playoffs?
I know I am. My Minnesota Twins start playing in their one-game playoff for the AL Central in about 5 minutes against the Detroit Tigers. I may not be paying as much attention during today’s newsroom staff meeting, which starts at the same time.
Who does everyone else think will win? Is it inevitable the highly-paid Yankees are going all the way?

Many things struck me in OU’s run to its 2000 national championship. But the one that stood out perhaps the most was how healthy that team stayed.
As far as I can remember, the team never lost a key player to an injury for any length of time that entire season.
At any level of football, coaches will qualify most predictions about their team’s chances with the statement “if we can stay healthy.” And it goes from there that the team that is able to keep its top guys on the field as much as possible is going to have the best chance.
Maybe this year’s OU team is having to pay the bill for the good fortune of that season. It’s hard to imagine a team in college football hit harder.
The Sooners’ Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback has missed 3 1/2 games with a shoulder injury. Their All-American tight end was injured before playing a down, and now their top wide receiver is out for the balance of the season with his own shoulder problem.
What you admire about the Sooners is you don’t hear a bunch of excuses or complaints about their injuries. They keep going out there with the guys they have, and even through it all are two one-point losses from being right in the national championship hunt.
But as is, at 2-2, their hopes now have to shift from a national title to a Big 12 Championship. Their entire conference schedule is in front of them still, and for this team after battling this adversity to come back and claim that trophy by season’s end would be quite an accomplishment.