Back in the day when the RJB was going to college, the rage album of the time was U2’s The Joshua Tree. If you didn’t have it, you were just not with the times. If you didn’t know much about U2, you probably lived in a closet.
When the Irish Rock Band toured the United States, it pretty much felt a connection. They learned what most of us already knew. The Joshua Tree evolved as one of the greatest albums of all time. More than 25 million copies were sold. It topped the charts in at least 20 countries. It was the fastest-selling album in British history. That’s saying something when two of the greatest bands in Rock history, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, were predecessors.
And that’s why the RJB is not selecting any tunes from The Joshua Tree. Remember, the RJB’s job is not to play it safe. It finds something different.
Actually, we’re going to take you back to U2’s debut album, Boy, which was released in 1980. Bono wrote this one in tribute to his mother who passed away when he was a teen-ager.
Formed in 1976, Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. are still performing today. U2 is one of the most influential groups in Rock’N’Roll history.
****
When the hard-core football fans go through an offseason that starts in January, August seems so far away.
It reminds me of the escape scene by Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption. He began his escape from the prison by picking a hole through his cell. It took 19 years to get the hole just right and then reach sewage pipe and crawl through that stuff. But when he climbed out of the pipe during the rain storm, he found freedom and rejoiced. His salvation had come.
That’s what Friday was like at The Highers Athletics Complex.
The waiting is over. The wait is condensed to now less than four weeks before the Sept. 1 opener against Abilene Christian.
We don’t know a lot after the first three days other than the team is going through workouts in helmets, shoulder pads and shorts. The full pads will come soon enough.
But at least we have closure to some of the news items impacting this team:
>All of the suspended players from the incident in November – DE Justin Harris, DB Tre’Von Lewis and walk-on John Arthur – are gone.
>Shawn Bell will be the offensive line coach for this program.
>Natural attrition has taken place with the likes of LB Demarco Artis, DB Rajah Preciado and DB Timarcus Davis transferring.
>All of the members of the 2018 class are here including the two graduate transfers. All of the members of the 2018 class will play to some extent during the season because of the new redshirt rule (a player can play up to as many as four games without losing any eligibility).
>This team is healthy….knock on wood.
>Most of the members of this team are going to be wearing a new helmet designed to lessen the extent of potential head, neck and back injuries. You just pray the technology will do as it is advertised.
The next thing to do is to continue to dig into this roster and find out who can really be a part of the planned success in 2018 and who will have to wait. Practices and scrimmages will make a difference. The scrimmage against Abilene Christian – otherwise known as the season opener that counts – will also plant some ideas and solutions.
We’re probably not going to not really know what this team is all about until the Sept. 8 FaceBook game at UTSA. And that’s fine. A program that’s trying to build and create cohesion can never have enough reps to determine who it is.
It feels good to talk about football. It feels good to see the excitement back around the football program.
That may be a little hard to believe since this program has won only two of its past 19 games dating back to the second half of the 2016 season.
I think we can all agree that the previous two seasons were walk through an extraordinary maze that seemed to have a no exit.
The 2016 campaign had the arranged marriage of Jim Grobe overseeing the program with Art Briles’ assistants with the fallout of the Briles firing and sexual assault scandal still hanging over everyone’s heads.
There was the anxious 2017 season when people weren’t sure how this Matt Rhule thing was going to look. Heck the torch would just be passed because there was still plenty of talent on the roster, right?
But most if not all of us forgot what a rebuild looked like. It had been a decade. Briles players were not Rhule’s players so the oil and water analogy developed. Massive amounts of injuries then spun the season into the darkness.
Yet, there is some hope that what is being developed for 2018 will demonstrate that Baylor is on the road back. The eagerness is legit. The excitement isn’t manufactured. With the solid recruiting classes that have been brought to The Brazos and key transfers, there is the thinking that better days are ahead.
Now, if this thing flops to another low digit win total, then everyone would have the right to feel that maybe this administration isn’t going to get it done. But we’re a long way from having that discussion.
It’s the first week of August. Hope springs eternal. Every player is not as good as he could be, but it’s working to get there by Sept. 1. Every position group is not as good as it could be, but it’s working to get there by Sept. 1. Every phase of the team is not as good as it could be, but it’s working to get there by Sept. 1.
What I enjoy about the first day of fall practice is that the buildup makes it a unique experience. However, Aug. 3 is no different than Aug. 9 than Aug. 16. It’s another day where everything is being honed and repeated and taught.
Aug. 3 just happens to be the first one where pads are crunching, players are sweating, coaches are barking and fans are endlessly smiling.
This may be a long month. But once the season starts, it’s going to move rapidly. It always does. So soak it in, read and watch the updates yours truly and Stephen provide and just know that another day off the calendar means another day closer.
****
Speaking of openers, Monday Aug. 6 represents the first day of practice for Texas High School Class 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A and 5A and 6A programs which didn’t have spring practice. Aug. 13 will be the first day for the 5A and 6A programs that did have spring football.
The high school season begins the same weekend as the college season. Those first games are on Thursday Aug. 30.
And yes, yours truly will be back for another season with Aledo football with KTFW 92.1 HANK FM. This will be my 13th season working along side our same play by play man, same analyst and same statistician. I also host a high school scoreboard show that follows Aledo’s games.
****
So your publisher recently celebrated a birthday. I’m one year away from floating out Barry Switzer’s famous line “half a hundred”. Got a couple of text message from friends the day after apologizing for missing or forgetting. Never missing an opportunity, this 80s kid pulled out a beauty from the late and great John Hughes. Hang in there with the one word. The scene is too good.
****
Wanted to share you Rhule’s comment about new VICIS helmet that Baylor has invested in:
“I remember playing for Coach Paterno – this was before we talked about concussions, more about when we talked about neck injuries – but he would always say that to improve football he thought we should take the facemasks off. That was his whole thing. He would always take the facemasks off. Back in the day, we hit with our shoulders. So, to go from no facemasks to where we are now.
I really think it’s just an unbelievable commitment, I’ll say this, by Mack and the athletic department and the people on campus . . . that’s a lot of money. I also think it’s a really cool commitment by a lot of our players that instead of I want the coolest-looking helmet to say I want the safest helmet. But, we offered to every player. No one else has done that. According to VICIS, no one else has said every guy our team can have it. But you know what, at the end of the day, our No. 1 job is to make sure our players’ lives are better. If there’s something we can do to help their health and safety, then I want to absolutely do it. If Bryant was going to go play football, I would want to put him in the best helmet. Now, I can’t wait to see us hit each other, because it’s kind of like a rubber, plastic thing, so I’m anxious to hear if it sounds like contact or if it sounds like me hitting this (Gatorade bottle).
(On guys that have injuries) There’s two parts to this. No. 1, I have to teach them that they have to take care of their bodies so that they can have a career. Unless you’re a first-round draft pick, if you’re a guy fighting to make a team and you pull your hamstring, you’re cut the next day or you’re on injured reserve. So, one of my jobs is to help make sure our guys are great pros. It’s one thing if you’re a first-rounder. I’m talking about when you’re like a middle guy and you’re trying to stick. So, getting them to understand like you can’t pull something. You have to do everything you can to prevent those injuries. When we do have them, we’re always going to be smart with guys. I don’t ever decide how much a guy practices. The training staff does that. So, we’ll always be smart. But in terms of keeping guys out of things, we’re in the season now. The spring is one thing. If you’ve played a lot of reps going into your fifth year, senior year, you shouldn’t have to do a lot. But going into training camp, we need to make sure we’re clicking, so we practice everybody.
****
Thoughts about the preseason coaches poll be released:
>I’m glad to know that the annual preseason romance with Texas hasn’t gone out of style. The Longhorns are No. 21 and didn’t do anything to warrant it. Sorry, but 7-6 with major QB questions don’t get a ticket on the bus.
>But Texas like all of the other blue bloods get the benefit of the doubt because they are blue bloods.
>Ohio State at No. 3 is going to probably the major storyline of the season. With Urban Meyer’s status up in the air, the question is going to be whether that locker room can keep it together while this major distraction continues.
>Coaches on the hot seat in the Top 25: Gus Malzahn at Auburn (No. 10); Brian Kelly at Notre Dame (No. 11); Jim Harbaugh at Michigan (No. 14) andDana Holgorsen at West Virginia (No. 20).
****
This reminder about single game ticket sales for the 2018 season.
****
A couple of pictures from camp via our Twitter account. As always you can follow us at @SicSmSports
****
It doesn’t count, but the first Baylor athletic event for the 2018-19 season will be on Friday when the soccer team plays Sam Houston State. The exhibition game is a 7:00 p.m. start at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field.
Let’s make it a great week!
When the Irish Rock Band toured the United States, it pretty much felt a connection. They learned what most of us already knew. The Joshua Tree evolved as one of the greatest albums of all time. More than 25 million copies were sold. It topped the charts in at least 20 countries. It was the fastest-selling album in British history. That’s saying something when two of the greatest bands in Rock history, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, were predecessors.
And that’s why the RJB is not selecting any tunes from The Joshua Tree. Remember, the RJB’s job is not to play it safe. It finds something different.
Actually, we’re going to take you back to U2’s debut album, Boy, which was released in 1980. Bono wrote this one in tribute to his mother who passed away when he was a teen-ager.
Formed in 1976, Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. are still performing today. U2 is one of the most influential groups in Rock’N’Roll history.
****
When the hard-core football fans go through an offseason that starts in January, August seems so far away.
It reminds me of the escape scene by Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption. He began his escape from the prison by picking a hole through his cell. It took 19 years to get the hole just right and then reach sewage pipe and crawl through that stuff. But when he climbed out of the pipe during the rain storm, he found freedom and rejoiced. His salvation had come.
That’s what Friday was like at The Highers Athletics Complex.
The waiting is over. The wait is condensed to now less than four weeks before the Sept. 1 opener against Abilene Christian.
We don’t know a lot after the first three days other than the team is going through workouts in helmets, shoulder pads and shorts. The full pads will come soon enough.
But at least we have closure to some of the news items impacting this team:
>All of the suspended players from the incident in November – DE Justin Harris, DB Tre’Von Lewis and walk-on John Arthur – are gone.
>Shawn Bell will be the offensive line coach for this program.
>Natural attrition has taken place with the likes of LB Demarco Artis, DB Rajah Preciado and DB Timarcus Davis transferring.
>All of the members of the 2018 class are here including the two graduate transfers. All of the members of the 2018 class will play to some extent during the season because of the new redshirt rule (a player can play up to as many as four games without losing any eligibility).
>This team is healthy….knock on wood.
>Most of the members of this team are going to be wearing a new helmet designed to lessen the extent of potential head, neck and back injuries. You just pray the technology will do as it is advertised.
The next thing to do is to continue to dig into this roster and find out who can really be a part of the planned success in 2018 and who will have to wait. Practices and scrimmages will make a difference. The scrimmage against Abilene Christian – otherwise known as the season opener that counts – will also plant some ideas and solutions.
We’re probably not going to not really know what this team is all about until the Sept. 8 FaceBook game at UTSA. And that’s fine. A program that’s trying to build and create cohesion can never have enough reps to determine who it is.
It feels good to talk about football. It feels good to see the excitement back around the football program.
That may be a little hard to believe since this program has won only two of its past 19 games dating back to the second half of the 2016 season.
I think we can all agree that the previous two seasons were walk through an extraordinary maze that seemed to have a no exit.
The 2016 campaign had the arranged marriage of Jim Grobe overseeing the program with Art Briles’ assistants with the fallout of the Briles firing and sexual assault scandal still hanging over everyone’s heads.
There was the anxious 2017 season when people weren’t sure how this Matt Rhule thing was going to look. Heck the torch would just be passed because there was still plenty of talent on the roster, right?
But most if not all of us forgot what a rebuild looked like. It had been a decade. Briles players were not Rhule’s players so the oil and water analogy developed. Massive amounts of injuries then spun the season into the darkness.
Yet, there is some hope that what is being developed for 2018 will demonstrate that Baylor is on the road back. The eagerness is legit. The excitement isn’t manufactured. With the solid recruiting classes that have been brought to The Brazos and key transfers, there is the thinking that better days are ahead.
Now, if this thing flops to another low digit win total, then everyone would have the right to feel that maybe this administration isn’t going to get it done. But we’re a long way from having that discussion.
It’s the first week of August. Hope springs eternal. Every player is not as good as he could be, but it’s working to get there by Sept. 1. Every position group is not as good as it could be, but it’s working to get there by Sept. 1. Every phase of the team is not as good as it could be, but it’s working to get there by Sept. 1.
What I enjoy about the first day of fall practice is that the buildup makes it a unique experience. However, Aug. 3 is no different than Aug. 9 than Aug. 16. It’s another day where everything is being honed and repeated and taught.
Aug. 3 just happens to be the first one where pads are crunching, players are sweating, coaches are barking and fans are endlessly smiling.
This may be a long month. But once the season starts, it’s going to move rapidly. It always does. So soak it in, read and watch the updates yours truly and Stephen provide and just know that another day off the calendar means another day closer.
****
Speaking of openers, Monday Aug. 6 represents the first day of practice for Texas High School Class 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A and 5A and 6A programs which didn’t have spring practice. Aug. 13 will be the first day for the 5A and 6A programs that did have spring football.
The high school season begins the same weekend as the college season. Those first games are on Thursday Aug. 30.
And yes, yours truly will be back for another season with Aledo football with KTFW 92.1 HANK FM. This will be my 13th season working along side our same play by play man, same analyst and same statistician. I also host a high school scoreboard show that follows Aledo’s games.
****
So your publisher recently celebrated a birthday. I’m one year away from floating out Barry Switzer’s famous line “half a hundred”. Got a couple of text message from friends the day after apologizing for missing or forgetting. Never missing an opportunity, this 80s kid pulled out a beauty from the late and great John Hughes. Hang in there with the one word. The scene is too good.
****
Wanted to share you Rhule’s comment about new VICIS helmet that Baylor has invested in:
“I remember playing for Coach Paterno – this was before we talked about concussions, more about when we talked about neck injuries – but he would always say that to improve football he thought we should take the facemasks off. That was his whole thing. He would always take the facemasks off. Back in the day, we hit with our shoulders. So, to go from no facemasks to where we are now.
I really think it’s just an unbelievable commitment, I’ll say this, by Mack and the athletic department and the people on campus . . . that’s a lot of money. I also think it’s a really cool commitment by a lot of our players that instead of I want the coolest-looking helmet to say I want the safest helmet. But, we offered to every player. No one else has done that. According to VICIS, no one else has said every guy our team can have it. But you know what, at the end of the day, our No. 1 job is to make sure our players’ lives are better. If there’s something we can do to help their health and safety, then I want to absolutely do it. If Bryant was going to go play football, I would want to put him in the best helmet. Now, I can’t wait to see us hit each other, because it’s kind of like a rubber, plastic thing, so I’m anxious to hear if it sounds like contact or if it sounds like me hitting this (Gatorade bottle).
(On guys that have injuries) There’s two parts to this. No. 1, I have to teach them that they have to take care of their bodies so that they can have a career. Unless you’re a first-round draft pick, if you’re a guy fighting to make a team and you pull your hamstring, you’re cut the next day or you’re on injured reserve. So, one of my jobs is to help make sure our guys are great pros. It’s one thing if you’re a first-rounder. I’m talking about when you’re like a middle guy and you’re trying to stick. So, getting them to understand like you can’t pull something. You have to do everything you can to prevent those injuries. When we do have them, we’re always going to be smart with guys. I don’t ever decide how much a guy practices. The training staff does that. So, we’ll always be smart. But in terms of keeping guys out of things, we’re in the season now. The spring is one thing. If you’ve played a lot of reps going into your fifth year, senior year, you shouldn’t have to do a lot. But going into training camp, we need to make sure we’re clicking, so we practice everybody.
****
Thoughts about the preseason coaches poll be released:
>I’m glad to know that the annual preseason romance with Texas hasn’t gone out of style. The Longhorns are No. 21 and didn’t do anything to warrant it. Sorry, but 7-6 with major QB questions don’t get a ticket on the bus.
>But Texas like all of the other blue bloods get the benefit of the doubt because they are blue bloods.
>Ohio State at No. 3 is going to probably the major storyline of the season. With Urban Meyer’s status up in the air, the question is going to be whether that locker room can keep it together while this major distraction continues.
>Coaches on the hot seat in the Top 25: Gus Malzahn at Auburn (No. 10); Brian Kelly at Notre Dame (No. 11); Jim Harbaugh at Michigan (No. 14) andDana Holgorsen at West Virginia (No. 20).
****
This reminder about single game ticket sales for the 2018 season.
****
A couple of pictures from camp via our Twitter account. As always you can follow us at @SicSmSports
****
It doesn’t count, but the first Baylor athletic event for the 2018-19 season will be on Friday when the soccer team plays Sam Houston State. The exhibition game is a 7:00 p.m. start at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field.
Let’s make it a great week!
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