By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
The football TV themes are coming at you. The RJB wants you to be in that mental state where you can taste the fall amid this searing 100+ heat.
That’s a little hard to do with August being the worst month for heat for Texas. That said, given what we all have experienced in this state so far this summer, August is a tiptoe through the tulips.
Dipping into the archives, we didn’t exclude the great NFL. This one takes you to the mid-1980s when CBS carried the NFC. It was highly underrated Pots and Pans.
For the RJB’s money, this is the best of all of the NFL themes past and present. So here is what we’re going to do. The RJB is going to give you two clips. The first is of Pots and Pans without announcer interruption. The second is of the late great Pat Summerall promoting a game between the New York Giants and then Washington Redskins.
Good stuff. Enjoy!
*****
Note: Consider this a well-needed distraction read with all of the talk and discussion about Austin Novosad's upcoming announcement.
If you chose to read this late Sunday July 31, you should not have. Think of your mental state when you read this.
Should you read this on Monday, you would know that it’s Aug. 1. That’s a big deal because that’s the month football will be played at all levels. The high school and college football seasons begin the final week of this month.
The NFL is going through preseason games. We have the Hall of Fame game on Thursday between Jacksonville and Las Vegas in Canton, OH.
Baylor will be starting fall camp this week. You know how that’s going to start. Everybody will be in helmets and shorts before converting to full pads in about a week or so.
Then we will move into scrimmages for the three weeks before the Sept. 3 scrimmage…err opener…against Albany.
The start of any season always summons excitement, hope, confidence, anxiety, paranoia and everything else in between. We’ll have a preview this week when camp starts on the major storylines facing this team. And don’t forget my podcasts on each position breakdown and what to expect from each.
With Baylor’s 2022 team, let’s break it down within all of those aforementioned emotions.
Excitement – Based on this team winning 12 games, claiming the Big 12 championship and then the Sugar Bowl, it’s hard not to feel like this team should repeat as Big 12 champions. There is a defense that neutralizes the most prolific offenses and an offense that may start slow but could gain some rhythm by the end of September.
Hope – That would be tied to Baylor trying to get in the college football playoff. Now, some things are going to have to break right for that to happen. The only Big 12 team to ever make the playoffs is the one that’s leaving Oklahoma. November could be really fascinating providing Baylor is right in the middle of the conversation and hovering around Nos. 5-7 positions in the poll.
Confidence – You just saw your team go through an amazing 2021 season and beat up Texas and Oklahoma to the point where those games were not close. It’s hard not believe that this team could not be in a position where it is vulnerable. Sure, the roster has changed. The road schedule is tougher. However, the core is there for the big-time success to continue.
Anxiety – That’s pretty much normal when it comes to fans and their teams and every time they step on to the field to play a game. The trash talk of their team beating the daylights out of the other runs Monday-Friday. Then it hits a hard stop on Saturday morning. Moments before kickoff, it can be a little tense because you can think of every scenario where it all goes right and then every scenario where the roof caves in. The collapsing roof signals no conference championship game appearance followed by playing in a late December bowl that no one will remember except the die-hard fans.
Paranoia – This is a fan’s worst nightmare. This is what you call borrowing trouble. You think of an inexperienced secondary that could get torched. You think of Blake Shapen going down to injury and the season going poof. You think of the young and really talented skill players not taking over and becoming the next stars. This is the time where you are fearful of the success and are guarded against sustained success.
Your job as a fan isn’t easy. You consume every piece of information on your team that you possibly can from every medium you can find. You love your team conditionally and unconditionally. It wouldn’t be normal for you to feel like you’re all in unless you weren’t all in.
Baylor’s season is 32 days from starting. I dare say there hasn’t been a season I haven’t approached where the anticipation of something spectacular is going to happen.
In fact, there probably hasn’t been this kind of vibe ever.
*****
In case you were wondering, three of the Big 12’s incoming members were picked first second and third in the American Athletic Conference preseason rankings last week.
Houston is voted the preseason favorite. The Cougars narrowly edged Cincinnati with 243 points (just seven first place votes), while the Bearcats were second at 242 points but had the most first place votes (10). UCF was third with 225 points and had seven first place votes.
That race for the top spot is going to be wide open more than what we saw in 2021 when Cincinnati was the clear favorite and played that way throughout.
The move to the Big 12 has helped Cincinnati’s profile. The former College Football Playoff participant is No. 14 in the Rivals team rankings.
UCF is at No. 57 with only nine commitments. Houston is at No. 81. The Cougars have just seven commitments. There’s room and time for each to move up in the rankings. It’s not going to be huge moves but enough to where the Golden Knights, who picked up two four-star commitments over the weekend, could move up into the 40s. Houston is probably at best going to move into the 50s.
*****
The first Baylor sporting event for 2022-23 athletic calendar is Aug. 11 when the women’s soccer team plays host to LSU.
Let’s make it a great week!
Publisher
The football TV themes are coming at you. The RJB wants you to be in that mental state where you can taste the fall amid this searing 100+ heat.
That’s a little hard to do with August being the worst month for heat for Texas. That said, given what we all have experienced in this state so far this summer, August is a tiptoe through the tulips.
Dipping into the archives, we didn’t exclude the great NFL. This one takes you to the mid-1980s when CBS carried the NFC. It was highly underrated Pots and Pans.
For the RJB’s money, this is the best of all of the NFL themes past and present. So here is what we’re going to do. The RJB is going to give you two clips. The first is of Pots and Pans without announcer interruption. The second is of the late great Pat Summerall promoting a game between the New York Giants and then Washington Redskins.
Good stuff. Enjoy!
*****
Note: Consider this a well-needed distraction read with all of the talk and discussion about Austin Novosad's upcoming announcement.
If you chose to read this late Sunday July 31, you should not have. Think of your mental state when you read this.
Should you read this on Monday, you would know that it’s Aug. 1. That’s a big deal because that’s the month football will be played at all levels. The high school and college football seasons begin the final week of this month.
The NFL is going through preseason games. We have the Hall of Fame game on Thursday between Jacksonville and Las Vegas in Canton, OH.
Baylor will be starting fall camp this week. You know how that’s going to start. Everybody will be in helmets and shorts before converting to full pads in about a week or so.
Then we will move into scrimmages for the three weeks before the Sept. 3 scrimmage…err opener…against Albany.
The start of any season always summons excitement, hope, confidence, anxiety, paranoia and everything else in between. We’ll have a preview this week when camp starts on the major storylines facing this team. And don’t forget my podcasts on each position breakdown and what to expect from each.
With Baylor’s 2022 team, let’s break it down within all of those aforementioned emotions.
Excitement – Based on this team winning 12 games, claiming the Big 12 championship and then the Sugar Bowl, it’s hard not to feel like this team should repeat as Big 12 champions. There is a defense that neutralizes the most prolific offenses and an offense that may start slow but could gain some rhythm by the end of September.
Hope – That would be tied to Baylor trying to get in the college football playoff. Now, some things are going to have to break right for that to happen. The only Big 12 team to ever make the playoffs is the one that’s leaving Oklahoma. November could be really fascinating providing Baylor is right in the middle of the conversation and hovering around Nos. 5-7 positions in the poll.
Confidence – You just saw your team go through an amazing 2021 season and beat up Texas and Oklahoma to the point where those games were not close. It’s hard not believe that this team could not be in a position where it is vulnerable. Sure, the roster has changed. The road schedule is tougher. However, the core is there for the big-time success to continue.
Anxiety – That’s pretty much normal when it comes to fans and their teams and every time they step on to the field to play a game. The trash talk of their team beating the daylights out of the other runs Monday-Friday. Then it hits a hard stop on Saturday morning. Moments before kickoff, it can be a little tense because you can think of every scenario where it all goes right and then every scenario where the roof caves in. The collapsing roof signals no conference championship game appearance followed by playing in a late December bowl that no one will remember except the die-hard fans.
Paranoia – This is a fan’s worst nightmare. This is what you call borrowing trouble. You think of an inexperienced secondary that could get torched. You think of Blake Shapen going down to injury and the season going poof. You think of the young and really talented skill players not taking over and becoming the next stars. This is the time where you are fearful of the success and are guarded against sustained success.
Your job as a fan isn’t easy. You consume every piece of information on your team that you possibly can from every medium you can find. You love your team conditionally and unconditionally. It wouldn’t be normal for you to feel like you’re all in unless you weren’t all in.
Baylor’s season is 32 days from starting. I dare say there hasn’t been a season I haven’t approached where the anticipation of something spectacular is going to happen.
In fact, there probably hasn’t been this kind of vibe ever.
*****
In case you were wondering, three of the Big 12’s incoming members were picked first second and third in the American Athletic Conference preseason rankings last week.
Houston is voted the preseason favorite. The Cougars narrowly edged Cincinnati with 243 points (just seven first place votes), while the Bearcats were second at 242 points but had the most first place votes (10). UCF was third with 225 points and had seven first place votes.
That race for the top spot is going to be wide open more than what we saw in 2021 when Cincinnati was the clear favorite and played that way throughout.
The move to the Big 12 has helped Cincinnati’s profile. The former College Football Playoff participant is No. 14 in the Rivals team rankings.
UCF is at No. 57 with only nine commitments. Houston is at No. 81. The Cougars have just seven commitments. There’s room and time for each to move up in the rankings. It’s not going to be huge moves but enough to where the Golden Knights, who picked up two four-star commitments over the weekend, could move up into the 40s. Houston is probably at best going to move into the 50s.
*****
The first Baylor sporting event for 2022-23 athletic calendar is Aug. 11 when the women’s soccer team plays host to LSU.
Let’s make it a great week!
