We were delayed but the random Juke Box never is. The country theme is a pretty good one as far as I’m concerned, I’m going to stay with it. So I give you the GREAT Clint Black
****
Before we get started, we told you that Trophy Club Byron Nelson OT Kellen Diesch, an Arkansas commit, visited Texas A&M this past weekend. But Courtney Roland caught up with Diesch who told her that Baylor was not in the picture.
That may not be the news you wanted. For now, that’s where it stands. We’ll see if Baylor can climb or wants to climb into this effort.
****
There was a reason you were waiting for this delayed version of the Monday staple. You wanted to hear about my day at jury duty. Third time in my life I’ve drawn the short straw to get the summons in the mail.
So I walk into the courthouse at 8:45 am armed with noted historian David McCullough’s Path between the Seas (some of us don’t get into books about Ole Miss coaches doing whatever it was they did).
Anyway, I get to the room and it’s noticeably smaller than the one I normally attend.
Bad sign No. 1.
I do a seat count in the room. There’s about 65 and not every one of them was filled.
Bad sign No. 2.
I check in and just start reading. We’re supposed to start the process at 9:30 am. We’re told by the clerk that the judge isn’t ready and won’t be until about 10:30 am.
Bad sign No. 3.
The woman calls out our numbers, and I’m No. 30. The count stops at 40.
Bad sign No. 4.
She tells us that this is a 6-person jury case. Do the math. There’s nearly a one in seven chance I can be picked for this.
Bad sign No. 5.
I continue reading and then we get called into the courtroom and are seated according to the chart so the prosecuting attorney and the defense attorney can refer to it when they’re questioning the jurors. I keep my head down and my mouth shut.
So we take the oath from the judge, sit down and the judge then proceeds to tell us that this is a misdemeanor case where the defendant is on trial because his dog barked for 10 minutes. Apparently, there’s a city ordinance where residents are subject to fines if they don’t control their animal within that period of time.
ARE YOU KIDDING?
Bad sign No. 6.
The judge says we have to uphold the law. Got it. Moving on, this young attorney representing the state starts the questions and asks if we like dogs, how would we react to dogs doing this, would we need a video tape to make sure we knew what dog it was that was barking, how much pausing between barks could there be between barking sessions in these 10 minutes?
You get the idea. Basically, it didn’t seem she had a lot to work with here. In her defense (see what I did there?), she looked like she wasn’t too far out of law school so the state threw her this down-the-food chain case.
Bad sign No. 7.
Then the defense attorney stands. He’s representing himself because an attorney who represents himself has a fool for a client. And he starts out saying that the prosecuting attorney left out a question about whether or not we have been victims of crime before? Hmmm.
Bad sign No. 8.
He’s a guy probably in his mid-50s but kind of reminds me in a way of the Most Interesting Man in the World. Not sure he likes Dos Equis or not.
Anyway, he asks a lot of leading questions about several things including whether or not we like attorneys. Basically, he’s got nothin’ too.
Bad sign No. 9.
When the question session concludes, we return to the room. I finish another chapter of the book. It takes about 10-15 minutes for the two sides to settle on the jurors. We’re called back in. The six jurors are picked – 3 men and 3 women. I wasn’t one of them. I’m discharged and leave.
First thought that comes to my mind about this experience – I don’t take the Oh, Flip! Approach when it comes to this because I respect our constitution too much – was I can’t believe an absurd case like this ever reached court. There was no way that this could get settled before it went to trial? Really?
This is Judge Judy territory.
Whoever had it in for the defendant probably made it very personal. He or she may have had previous some rhubarbs and was looking for revenge. This guy’s dog(s) opened the door. What I would have liked to know was if this was a one-time thing or if there was a pattern of behavior from the dogs. The attorneys couldn’t disclose that.
Look I get that a dog that continuously barks for a long period of time can be annoying. I had a 110-pound chocolate lab named “Tex” (best dog I ever owned until I had to put him down in 2011 – by the way that still hurts) who would get it cranked up. But when he did, my wife and I shut it down.
Knowing very little about what I knew about this case, my instincts said, I would find in favor of the state because the guy broke the law. But I wouldn’t issue a fine as my way of telling the state, “stop doing this.’’.
I just experienced an example of how our court system is jammed up with ridiculous and frivolous lawsuits and cases. I would assume the case finished up Monday afternoon. No idea how it turned out. Don’t really care.
But on the flipside, it’s wasn’t a major crime case with a tough courtroom with some hard looking people in them. In that respect, I’m grateful I got this one.
Now, I just wait for another two years to await that next surprise summons.
****
I’m not surprised that Baylor didn’t get a commitment over the weekend from any of its 2016 JUCO official visitors – defensive ends Koron Crump and Mat Boesen and defensive tackle Alexis Johnson – because these kids want to take their official visits to know where they want to relocate.
It’s been brought up about Boesen’s trouble with the law, which is why he was dismissed from Boise State. With any JUCO, there’s always a story. It can be inspirational. It can be this kids’ last shot because junior college is his current refuge.
I think if Baylor is going to get one of these players, it’s going to be Boesen. Tweeted pictures notwithstanding, I got the word that there seemed to be a pretty gooe connection between him and the Baylor coaching staff. That doesn’t mean Baylor is going to get him because Boesen split his visit time to TCU.
He knocked out two official visits in one weekend. With Krump, everything went well there. He told me he had a great time. But I do think he’s going to move forward with his official visits to Arizona State and Tennessee and then decide what he wants to do.
Alexis Johnson visiting is a victory in itself because Baylor got a committed player to take a look. Is this staff going to flip him? It’s going to be really hard to do that. It’s not impossible but I do think that you probably need to prepare yourself for the thinking that of the four defensive line slots the staff has to fill, there could be one or two from the JUCO ranks.
If that’s what happens, I wouldn’t look at it as Plan B. I would look it as Baylor trying to make sure there is no drop off from a defensive line that should be one of the best in all of college football.
****
Speaking of JUCOs, I have a theory about the way a college football program should recruit them. Let’s use the canvas of a class of 25.
In my opinion, you don’t want to take more than four from the two-year schools. About 85 percent of your recruiting classes should come from the high school ranks. I may not be re-inventing the wheel. But I have seen where programs have gone heavy into the JUCOs ranks.
If you do that, then you’re going feast or famine. These players either will keep your program competing at a high level or they will help burn it to the ground.
Now, Kansas State’s Bill Snyder has found a way to maneuver his way through heavy JUCO usage and keep the wildcats competing at a high level. But he’s the exception to the rule.
In looking at Baylor’s track record over the last five recruiting classes (2011-2015), Baylor has taken five in 2011 (but two never made it to campus), one in 2012, two in 2013, four in 2014 and two in 2015. This is pretty much ideal.
If you’re Baylor or anyone else for that matter, this number of JUCOs is perfect for the way you want to build your program. The foundation will always be the high school players. JUCO players can fill in the gaps.
****
Basketball evaluation periods are over. I would expect a Scott Drew’s program to be busy with visits in August and September. This class already has one commitment from forward Mark Vital. Expect maybe three more to be added.
****
Just some quick hitting thoughts:
>Late this week, I’m going to talk about Baylor’s defensive line prospects for 2016 and give you an idea of Baylor’s chances.
>So the Rangers are one of the reported favorites for Philadelphia LHP Cole Hamels who is coming off a no-hitter in Chicago this past Saturday. That’s fine because that would be a trade about the future not now. But if the Rangers happen to play their way into the 2015 pennant race, so be it. Hamels makes about $18 million per year. Do the Rangers want to pay that straight up or are the Phillies willing to work with them about splitting the check? The biggest opponent in this are the LA Dodgers. If the Rangers trade either Yovanni Gallardo or Wandy Rodriguez, it’s like a tree falling a forest.
>Good news for the Houston Astros when they picked up LHP Scott Kazmir from Oakland. Kazmir dazzled with seven shutout innings last Friday in Kansas City. I think the Astros should go for it. Heck, they already have one of the two wild card positions. When you’re in the race, act like it. I still think the Los Angeles Angels are going to win the AL West.
>As some of you know I’m a huge baseball fan (my favorite game) so you can see I will sneak in a paragraph or two to talk about it.
>Sorry Cowboys fans but my boy Adrian Peterson is staying with Minnesota Vikings. We opened camp with him on Saturday. All of that business that was media and agent driven about him coming to Dallas was a ploy. The Vikings didn’t budge. In Teddy Bridgewater we trust!
>The Tour de France ended over the weekend. No idea who won.
Sorry if it’s a little light this week, but I didn’t want to be delinquent by not posting this either.
Let’s make it a great week!
****
Before we get started, we told you that Trophy Club Byron Nelson OT Kellen Diesch, an Arkansas commit, visited Texas A&M this past weekend. But Courtney Roland caught up with Diesch who told her that Baylor was not in the picture.
That may not be the news you wanted. For now, that’s where it stands. We’ll see if Baylor can climb or wants to climb into this effort.
****
There was a reason you were waiting for this delayed version of the Monday staple. You wanted to hear about my day at jury duty. Third time in my life I’ve drawn the short straw to get the summons in the mail.
So I walk into the courthouse at 8:45 am armed with noted historian David McCullough’s Path between the Seas (some of us don’t get into books about Ole Miss coaches doing whatever it was they did).
Anyway, I get to the room and it’s noticeably smaller than the one I normally attend.
Bad sign No. 1.
I do a seat count in the room. There’s about 65 and not every one of them was filled.
Bad sign No. 2.
I check in and just start reading. We’re supposed to start the process at 9:30 am. We’re told by the clerk that the judge isn’t ready and won’t be until about 10:30 am.
Bad sign No. 3.
The woman calls out our numbers, and I’m No. 30. The count stops at 40.
Bad sign No. 4.
She tells us that this is a 6-person jury case. Do the math. There’s nearly a one in seven chance I can be picked for this.
Bad sign No. 5.
I continue reading and then we get called into the courtroom and are seated according to the chart so the prosecuting attorney and the defense attorney can refer to it when they’re questioning the jurors. I keep my head down and my mouth shut.
So we take the oath from the judge, sit down and the judge then proceeds to tell us that this is a misdemeanor case where the defendant is on trial because his dog barked for 10 minutes. Apparently, there’s a city ordinance where residents are subject to fines if they don’t control their animal within that period of time.
ARE YOU KIDDING?
Bad sign No. 6.
The judge says we have to uphold the law. Got it. Moving on, this young attorney representing the state starts the questions and asks if we like dogs, how would we react to dogs doing this, would we need a video tape to make sure we knew what dog it was that was barking, how much pausing between barks could there be between barking sessions in these 10 minutes?
You get the idea. Basically, it didn’t seem she had a lot to work with here. In her defense (see what I did there?), she looked like she wasn’t too far out of law school so the state threw her this down-the-food chain case.
Bad sign No. 7.
Then the defense attorney stands. He’s representing himself because an attorney who represents himself has a fool for a client. And he starts out saying that the prosecuting attorney left out a question about whether or not we have been victims of crime before? Hmmm.
Bad sign No. 8.
He’s a guy probably in his mid-50s but kind of reminds me in a way of the Most Interesting Man in the World. Not sure he likes Dos Equis or not.
Anyway, he asks a lot of leading questions about several things including whether or not we like attorneys. Basically, he’s got nothin’ too.
Bad sign No. 9.
When the question session concludes, we return to the room. I finish another chapter of the book. It takes about 10-15 minutes for the two sides to settle on the jurors. We’re called back in. The six jurors are picked – 3 men and 3 women. I wasn’t one of them. I’m discharged and leave.
First thought that comes to my mind about this experience – I don’t take the Oh, Flip! Approach when it comes to this because I respect our constitution too much – was I can’t believe an absurd case like this ever reached court. There was no way that this could get settled before it went to trial? Really?
This is Judge Judy territory.
Whoever had it in for the defendant probably made it very personal. He or she may have had previous some rhubarbs and was looking for revenge. This guy’s dog(s) opened the door. What I would have liked to know was if this was a one-time thing or if there was a pattern of behavior from the dogs. The attorneys couldn’t disclose that.
Look I get that a dog that continuously barks for a long period of time can be annoying. I had a 110-pound chocolate lab named “Tex” (best dog I ever owned until I had to put him down in 2011 – by the way that still hurts) who would get it cranked up. But when he did, my wife and I shut it down.
Knowing very little about what I knew about this case, my instincts said, I would find in favor of the state because the guy broke the law. But I wouldn’t issue a fine as my way of telling the state, “stop doing this.’’.
I just experienced an example of how our court system is jammed up with ridiculous and frivolous lawsuits and cases. I would assume the case finished up Monday afternoon. No idea how it turned out. Don’t really care.
But on the flipside, it’s wasn’t a major crime case with a tough courtroom with some hard looking people in them. In that respect, I’m grateful I got this one.
Now, I just wait for another two years to await that next surprise summons.
****
I’m not surprised that Baylor didn’t get a commitment over the weekend from any of its 2016 JUCO official visitors – defensive ends Koron Crump and Mat Boesen and defensive tackle Alexis Johnson – because these kids want to take their official visits to know where they want to relocate.
It’s been brought up about Boesen’s trouble with the law, which is why he was dismissed from Boise State. With any JUCO, there’s always a story. It can be inspirational. It can be this kids’ last shot because junior college is his current refuge.
I think if Baylor is going to get one of these players, it’s going to be Boesen. Tweeted pictures notwithstanding, I got the word that there seemed to be a pretty gooe connection between him and the Baylor coaching staff. That doesn’t mean Baylor is going to get him because Boesen split his visit time to TCU.
He knocked out two official visits in one weekend. With Krump, everything went well there. He told me he had a great time. But I do think he’s going to move forward with his official visits to Arizona State and Tennessee and then decide what he wants to do.
Alexis Johnson visiting is a victory in itself because Baylor got a committed player to take a look. Is this staff going to flip him? It’s going to be really hard to do that. It’s not impossible but I do think that you probably need to prepare yourself for the thinking that of the four defensive line slots the staff has to fill, there could be one or two from the JUCO ranks.
If that’s what happens, I wouldn’t look at it as Plan B. I would look it as Baylor trying to make sure there is no drop off from a defensive line that should be one of the best in all of college football.
****
Speaking of JUCOs, I have a theory about the way a college football program should recruit them. Let’s use the canvas of a class of 25.
In my opinion, you don’t want to take more than four from the two-year schools. About 85 percent of your recruiting classes should come from the high school ranks. I may not be re-inventing the wheel. But I have seen where programs have gone heavy into the JUCOs ranks.
If you do that, then you’re going feast or famine. These players either will keep your program competing at a high level or they will help burn it to the ground.
Now, Kansas State’s Bill Snyder has found a way to maneuver his way through heavy JUCO usage and keep the wildcats competing at a high level. But he’s the exception to the rule.
In looking at Baylor’s track record over the last five recruiting classes (2011-2015), Baylor has taken five in 2011 (but two never made it to campus), one in 2012, two in 2013, four in 2014 and two in 2015. This is pretty much ideal.
If you’re Baylor or anyone else for that matter, this number of JUCOs is perfect for the way you want to build your program. The foundation will always be the high school players. JUCO players can fill in the gaps.
****
Basketball evaluation periods are over. I would expect a Scott Drew’s program to be busy with visits in August and September. This class already has one commitment from forward Mark Vital. Expect maybe three more to be added.
****
Just some quick hitting thoughts:
>Late this week, I’m going to talk about Baylor’s defensive line prospects for 2016 and give you an idea of Baylor’s chances.
>So the Rangers are one of the reported favorites for Philadelphia LHP Cole Hamels who is coming off a no-hitter in Chicago this past Saturday. That’s fine because that would be a trade about the future not now. But if the Rangers happen to play their way into the 2015 pennant race, so be it. Hamels makes about $18 million per year. Do the Rangers want to pay that straight up or are the Phillies willing to work with them about splitting the check? The biggest opponent in this are the LA Dodgers. If the Rangers trade either Yovanni Gallardo or Wandy Rodriguez, it’s like a tree falling a forest.
>Good news for the Houston Astros when they picked up LHP Scott Kazmir from Oakland. Kazmir dazzled with seven shutout innings last Friday in Kansas City. I think the Astros should go for it. Heck, they already have one of the two wild card positions. When you’re in the race, act like it. I still think the Los Angeles Angels are going to win the AL West.
>As some of you know I’m a huge baseball fan (my favorite game) so you can see I will sneak in a paragraph or two to talk about it.
>Sorry Cowboys fans but my boy Adrian Peterson is staying with Minnesota Vikings. We opened camp with him on Saturday. All of that business that was media and agent driven about him coming to Dallas was a ploy. The Vikings didn’t budge. In Teddy Bridgewater we trust!
>The Tour de France ended over the weekend. No idea who won.
Sorry if it’s a little light this week, but I didn’t want to be delinquent by not posting this either.
Let’s make it a great week!
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