Snow?

Okay, today's weather was weird, even for Texas. It's April and we had snow flurries.
That's Rickdiculous. Or Ludacris. Whichever exaggeration you prefer.
At any rate, I find it ironic that we can never get snow around Christmas but we can have snow at Easter. I don't know if this is global warming or El Nino or aliens, but I wish they'd knock it the heck off.
In other news, the Fabulous Tom "I don't know crap about running North American sports so now I'm going to run a prestigious English football club into the ground" Hicks has once again given the finger to Rangers fans. He basically told them all that if you want him to spend money on players that don't suck, the fans have to go out and spend money to watch the current sucky players play.
What sort of stupid business model is that? In what other industry can you give the ultimatum that unless you buy the faulty, overpriced, poorly designed product, the manufacturer refuses to put money into R&D to produce a quality product that people might actually want? Mr. Hicks needs to quit reading Dilbert and thinking that it's a How-To guide to successful business decisions.

Dennis Franchione is an over-rated pussbag.

Here's one of my favorite targets of sport hate:

Dennis Franchione, the over-rated disloyal jerk of a football coach.

He of course is the amazing college head football coach that comes in and turns winners into teams that were previously losers. At least, that's his rep. I contend that his success has been over-hyped and his disloyalty to teams over prestige, visibility, and the almighty dollar exceed the norm for the cutthroat industry that is sports leadership.

Let's look at the over-rated part first. All anybody ever talks about is how he builds programs up or brings them back. He's been successful everywhere! Okay, well let's see:

Texas St. - 2 years, 13-9. Not bad I suppose
New Mexico - 6 years, 33-36. Uhhhhh.... Okay. Great? Analysis later.
TCU - 3 years, 25-10. Yeah, that's pretty darn good.
Alabama - 2 years, 17-8. Okay
A&M - 3 years, 16-19. Not so great.
Career - 16 years, 104-82, .559%

Okay so let's look at this. Texas St. A 6-5 season then a 7-4 season... improvement, yes. And over a ten year period 1985-1994, these were the only winning seasons for this team. But it's AA. Regardless, he has some moderate success then he bolts to...

New Mexico. His first four years (92-95) produced 1 winning season (6-5 in 1993). This team sucked before he got them true, but he improved them none at all his first season, 6-5 his second season then regressed almost back to where the team was when he came in by 1995 (4-7) Then he brought in this guy, Gary Patterson. Maybe you've heard of him. 2 seasons together they go 6-5 & 9-4. But, the team (although they won the WAC-Mountain Division Title in 1997, they lost the bowl game that year (Fran's only bowl appearance with NM) and they weren't ranked. But regardless, it's a little bit of success so of course that means it's time to flee to...

TCU. 3 years. 3 Winning Seasons. Builds into a damn fine program that is still going strong with that Gary Patterson guy in charge. Oh yeah, Patterson was there for Fran's three years too. A 2-1 bowl record and 1 top 25 final ranking in 3 years. That's pretty good. I'll admit that. But would it have been the same without Patterson? And it's what he does just before a bowl game that really draws ire. Fran, after a 10-1 season sees green in the Crimson Tide and bolts to...

Alabama. He then "rebuilds" the Tide over two seasons (3-8 the year before Fran got there) to go 7-5 and 10-3. Of course, it's not like Alabama was a perennial loser. They had an off year in 2000. In 99 they went 10-3. And Mike Shula has managed to build the Tide back in three seasons as well. But consider this, Shula did it with NCAA Sanctions to deal with. Fran didn't have those and in fact had some of the after effects of the violations that brought those sanctions down on the school to begin with. But regardless, Fran saw a school that would limit his ability to win so enter
Texas A&M. A team with at least as much heritage as Bama. He's had 3 years and really hasn't shown any major success yet. Can A&M not recruit as well as other big state schools? What's the problem? All the pundits point fingers everywhere but Fran.

This guy was a mediocre coach until he found a Defensive Co that could actually make him look good. He then rode that wave to a big school that has more recruiting opportunities, and then left before restrictions could make him look bad. He has a knack for taking a small amount of success and then turning that into a more high profile position. As soon as he has a good year, expect him to leave.

And the way he does it is just atrocious. He abandoned the Frogs before a bowl game. And the bowl game was in the city where his new team was. He was at the game! But he couldn't wait until after the game to make his intentions known. Nope, had to throw chaos into the team before the big game.

And then of course there's the Alabama departure. After rallying his team and motivating them to stay together (as opposed to transferring out when the sanctions hit) he gives all the players these great speeches about getting behind him and being strong for the university and then bolts as soon as A&M comes calling. And he doesn't even tell the team in person. He just left and told an assistant to tell everybody. I guess all that togetherness talk was really less about helping the school and more about helping him pad his resume so he can get the heck out of there.

He's a fraud. Don't be surprised if he CAN'T turn the Aggies around. He really hasn't shown that he's capable of doing it himself. Buyer Beware with this guy.

Matt Leinart is a jerkweed

From the AP report of the Rose Bowl:

Said Leinart: "I still think we're a better football team, they just made the plays in the end."

Dear Matt "Sore Loser" Leinart,

The better team was the one that won the game. Why? Because the best teams don't get cocky without properly preparing yourself. See, if you were as good as you thought you were, you would have won. The Better Team prepares for anything. The Better Team makes the key plays. The Better Team overcomes it's mistakes. That was not USC. They COULD have been the better team, but they instead decided to rely on the overconfident swagger they took to the game instead of thoroughly analyzing their opponents game strategies.
Consider these quotes:
"Well, we couldn't stop them when we had to," USC coach Pete Carroll said. "The quarterback ran all over the place." - AP
See, the "Better Team" stops the other team when they have to. That's what makes them "Better."
"We didn't get it done." Pete Carroll - AP
The "Better Team" gets the job done. See when you're "better" than somebody else, you don't leave a job less completed than the "non-better" group.
"I don't feel like we played well as a team today." Reggie Bush - AP
So, the "Better Team" didn't even perform like a team? Does that make any sense?
"We didn't tackle well. Hats off to them. We didn't understand how big and strong the guy really is. When you see a guy standing eye-to-eye to you, and he weighs just as much as you weigh, he poses a threat." Frostee Rucker - ESPN.com
Oh look, your team came unprepared. It wasn't as if Vince and the rest of the Longhorns weren't on TV like 12 times before you played them. Do you not have the ability to read press kits where it gives players heights & weights? Wow. I'm not impressed with "The Better Team" at all.
"Do whatever it takes." Vince Young - AP
And THAT is what the "Better Team" does.
So, Mr. Rose-Bowl-Loser-who-ain't-gonna-be-a-#1 pick, you and your team and your coach came into this game unprepared for the no-huddle, unaware of the speed of the D, somehow oblivious to the size of Vince, and unable to make plays when it counted. You failed the final exam. You ain't graduating college football valedictorian. You are second place.
And second place means that somebody else was better.
Have fun in the NFL, probably with a team that USC actually was "better" than.- AP

Things to chat about

Bye Bye Mr. Hart! The Texas Rangers are already a better team just by having you leave it.

Katie & Tom.... I don't F***ing care. Maybe a bus with an ad for a psychiatrist will run them over.

Hockey is back! And it's scoring charged! Which means that any sort of creative tactics will go out the window and it'll be high scoring games! Kind of like basketball! BOOOOORING!

I still hate Rob Liefeld.

KINKY FOR GOVERNOR OF TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are a Texan, then you know we have a gubernatorial election next year. Before you mindlessly vote for some moron with a "D" or an "R" next to their name, check out what Kinky Friedman has to say.

His website: http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/

Animated Ad that explains why he's running: http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/files/fck/kinkytoon_click.gif

He's got my vote!!!!!