The RJB hasn’t deliberately been ignoring The Beatles. What more can be said about arguably the most iconic band in the history of Rock N Roll. From their start of the British Invasion in 1964 (they formed in 1960) to their breakup in 1970, they produced the most poppy songs – I want to hold your hand - to those with deep meaning – Let it be.
When they broke up, John, Paul, George and Ringo went to have very successful solo careers. John and Paul moreso. What followed was the philosophical difference between John and Paul over Paul’s music. John thought Paul’s were meaningless. Paul’s “Silly Love Songs’’ was the direct/indirect response to John’s criticism.
However, Sir Paul McCartney delivered so many great hits in the 1970s and early 1980s. You could argue that he produced the most famous of the James Bond opening cuts.
From 1973 Live and Let Die – the RJB can still see Roger Moore running across the gators – we give you this one. We found the opening to Live and Let Die.
****
This past Friday, Big 12 writers and other media had to turn in their ballots for the 2018 Big 12 Conference Preseason Football Poll and All-Conference Team. The results should be released later this week by the league office in preparation for media days July 16-17 in Frisco.
With no buildup, this is how your publisher called it:
Poll
1. Oklahoma
2. West Virginia
3. TCU
4. Texas
5. Oklahoma State
6. Iowa State
7. Baylor
8. Kansas State
9. Texas Tech
10. Kansas
All Big 12 Offense
QB – Will Grier, West Virginia
RB – Rodney Anderson, Oklahoma
RB – Justice Hill, Oklahoma State
FB – Luke Sowa, Iowa State
WR – TJ Vasher, Texas Tech
WR – Denzel Mims, Baylor
WR – David Sills, West Virginia
TE – Grant Calcaterra, Oklahoma
OL – Ben Powers, Oklahoma
OL – Dalton Risner, Kansas State
OL – Patrick Vahe, Texas
OL – Calvin Anderson, Texas
OL – Bobby Evans, Oklahoma
PK – Austin Siebert, Oklahoma
KR/PR – Kevonte Turpin, TCU
All Big 12 Defense
DL – Ben Banogu, TCU
DL – Daniel Wise, Kansas
DL – Breckyn Hager, Texas
DL – Jordan Brailford, Oklahoma State
DL – Ira Lewis, Baylor
LB – Ty Summers, TCU
LB – Joe Dineen, Kansas
LB – Dakota Allen, Texas Tech
DB – Kris Boyd, Texas
DB – Jah’Shawn Johnson, Texas Tech
DB – Blake Lynch, Baylor
DB – Niko Small, TCU
DB – Justus Parker, West Virginia
P – Drew Galitz, Baylor
Offensive Player of the Year: Will Grier, West Virginia
Defensive Player of the Year: Ty Summers, TCU
Newcomer of the Year: Jalen Hurd, Baylor
Now, to the rationale of why your publisher did what he did. Let’s get into the poll first and Baylor at No. 7.
By now, you probably have read other publications or seen other tweeted ballots where Baylor is picked 8th or 9th. And that would be fair.
When you’re coming off a 1-11 season that produced so many injuries, QB issues, consistency issues and a roster that’s pretty young, the 2018 Bears deserve that. What has this team done? Zip.
As I deliberated this selection, I went back and forth between 7th and 8th. I probably picked 7th with a little hometown cooking involved. I’ll admit that. But when you’re in a conference that has six bowl affiliations and the hope of one going to College Football Playoff, you need to fill them. And I’ve said that throughout the offseason that if certain things break right, Baylor can return to the postseason. This is a borderline bowl team anyway.
The early part of the schedule is begging for this program to begin 4-0 with FCS Abilene Christian, a revenge game at UTSA (it’s a little ahem that this game should be viewed that way) followed by the basketball blue bloods – Duke and Kansas – at McLane Stadium. Prognostications for Duke this year are considered higher. But remember, this Baylor team lost 34-20, and was within a 24-20 at the start of the fourth quarter before the Blue Devils used a pick 6 and late field goal to put it away.
Should Baylor begin 4-0, it just needs two more wins to become bowl eligible. I picked the Bears 7th because Kansas State comes to Waco. I know the media loves to do the annual favorable ratings for Bill Snyder and the Wildcats – typically his teams will pull out wins that make you scratch their heads – but I’m just not a fan of his teams. I think that offense is too predictable and relies too much on special teams to set it up. If Baylor was going back to Kansas State, then I would pick the Bears 8th.
The home schedule plays into Baylor’s hands with Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and TCU. The neutral game in the finale against Texas Tech at AT&T Stadium could be one where you have two programs going in different directions.
There is an opportunity for this program to play in December.
As for the rest of the rankings, the top four should be that in most polls. You’ll probably see more people picking Texas third and TCU fourth. My rationale is that I’ll give third to a team known to play better defense (TCU) than a team that is still trying to figure out its QB position (Texas). I’m not a big fan of either Shane Buechele or Sam Ehlinger. He’s had an offseason to recover but I’m leery of Ehlinger susceptibility to concussions.
Oklahoma State and Iowa State could be interchangeable. They are solid teams in search of the right QB. Texas Tech could be really wheels off this fall. Kansas is Kansas.
****
Moving on to the all-conference teams, you’ll note I have five Baylor players either at positions or in superlatives: Mims, Lewis, Lynch, Galitz and Hurd.
I’m sure as the Big 12 office looks at my votes, its staffers are going to probably roll their eyes in how a guy who covers Baylor picked five guys on a team coming off a 1-win season.
Again, that’s fair. I have my reasons.
On offense at wide receiver, most people overlook the fact that Mims is coming off a 1,000-yard season (the first time at Matt Rhule-coached player has reached that). He was a second-team all-conference selection in 2017. The Big 12 has few signature players returning to that position.
On defense at defensive line, you run into the same thing like you did at wide receiver. There are few signature players returning at that position. Lewis is as solid as they come. He was a Big 12 honorable mention for 2017. He’s going to be the be the ring master for the defensive line this fall. Name better candidates than those I have alongside Lewis in the honors. I fudged a little with Hager because he can play LB or DL. But I felt like I had to get him on somewhere.
It’s a stretch to put Lynch in the secondary. You can probably call me an apologist for Lynch. I’ve tabbed him as one of the top five athletes on this roster. Maybe the most talented.
If he has truly found the home at safety like Rhule believes he has, then I’m going to defer to that and play a hunch. I should feel that way just like I’m sure the people who cover Texas and West Virginia know something about someone that’s off our radar.
Before he blew out his knee at Kansas State, Galitz was enjoying a big season. He was averaging 45 yards per boot. Of his 21 punts, nine were fair caught. Of his 21 punts, five went inside the opponents 20-yard line. Of his 21 punts, six exceeded 50 yards (long of 70). With some of those, you enjoy the roll. At the end of the day, no one remembers how many of those did that.
The Big 12 does have some solid punters in Siebert. But you can see what I did with him. Oklahoma State’s Zach Sinor is very good.
I’m putting little to no stock into what Galitz at the Spring game in April because he was just coming through the end of his rehab. Baylor wanted to be careful. Plus, that was three months ago. If Galitz is back to where he was in 2017, then the results will speak for themselves.
As for Hurd, I think you’re going to find him winning that preseason honor by the media. He’s probably bee one of the most hyped players/transfers in the conference ever since he arrived in the summer of 2017.
He’s changing positions from running back to wide receiver. Natural athletes can typically can make the adjustment. However, you can just let the possibilities run wild (he’s a factor in my picking Baylor 7th) of what he can do.
Hurd’s season is very much either/or. He’s either going to be a game changer and take over games or he will be no factor. Baylor needs him to be the former. He also can’t be somewhere in the middle. Hurd has to be the alpha for this very talented wide receiver crew.
When you see the all-conference teams released, Baylor will not have five members on it. Honestly, I could see the most with three. My guesses are Lewis, Mims and Hurd. The minimum would be one. That’s Hurd.
My instincts say two with Lewis and Hurd. But the good news is that when you read something like this, you know football season isn’t far away.
Is it Aug. 3 yet?
****
The NBA Summer League is under way in Las Vegas with Nuni Omot with Golden State and Manu Lecomte with the Dallas Mavericks. Both signed as free agents.
This league began play this past weekend. Lecomte scored six points in his first game but didn’t play in the second game. Omot didn’t score in his first and had two in his second.
They have a chance. That’s all they can ask. But they can look at their situations like Johnathan Motley who had to work his way through the summer league and minor leagues before contributing at the end of the Mavericks 2017-18 season. By the way, Motley is back in the league and scored 11 points in his first game and a team-high 20 in his second.
****
I finished the Ken Burns documentary The War about World War II. As I mentioned last week, the great element to watching these documentaries is taking in all of the footage or pictures that have never or rarely been seen.
It was beyond educational. If you don’t know the documentary, it focused in on the communities of Luverne, MN, which is a stone’s throw from Sioux Falls, S.D., Mobile, AL, Sacramento and Waterbury, CT and how those communities went through the years.
It covered everything from the boom of industry to the Japanese internment camps to the racial tensions to the brutal campaigns both in Europe and the Pacific.
Whether you liked his politics or not, I have newfound respect for the late senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and how he fought through the war in Europe. I did not know he had lost his left arm.
Forgive the gruesomeness of the following story but war is hell for a reason. A pilot from Luverne told the story that when he was Belgium (around the Battle of the Bulge), he had been promoted to captain and was no longer flying. He was on the ground in contact with his fighters.
He shared that during a campaign, a German shell came into the building where he was and killed the private who was standing about 15-20 feet away from him. The shell took the private’s head off and splattered the brain all over this man’s jacket and maps.
After a moment of shock and realizing that he was OK, he just went back to his work and kept communicating with his fighters. Medics later cleaned his jacket and maps. Why? There was a war to fight and as he said that’s just what they had to do.
It sounds sobering and inhumane. But maybe that story reminds us why that group was labeled, “The Greatest Generation”. What they fought through and compartmentalized is far beyond what we can comprehend.
Over this weekend, I talked to two women whose fathers fought in the Battle of the Bulge. I shared how my dad was in the Pacific in B-29s.
The three of us said the same thing: They didn’t talk about the war. Burns’ documentary helped you understand why.
****
As noted on the site, the SicEmSportsCast is back this week. Stephen Cook and I will preview the Big 12 media days.
Let’s make it a great week!
When they broke up, John, Paul, George and Ringo went to have very successful solo careers. John and Paul moreso. What followed was the philosophical difference between John and Paul over Paul’s music. John thought Paul’s were meaningless. Paul’s “Silly Love Songs’’ was the direct/indirect response to John’s criticism.
However, Sir Paul McCartney delivered so many great hits in the 1970s and early 1980s. You could argue that he produced the most famous of the James Bond opening cuts.
From 1973 Live and Let Die – the RJB can still see Roger Moore running across the gators – we give you this one. We found the opening to Live and Let Die.
****
This past Friday, Big 12 writers and other media had to turn in their ballots for the 2018 Big 12 Conference Preseason Football Poll and All-Conference Team. The results should be released later this week by the league office in preparation for media days July 16-17 in Frisco.
With no buildup, this is how your publisher called it:
Poll
1. Oklahoma
2. West Virginia
3. TCU
4. Texas
5. Oklahoma State
6. Iowa State
7. Baylor
8. Kansas State
9. Texas Tech
10. Kansas
All Big 12 Offense
QB – Will Grier, West Virginia
RB – Rodney Anderson, Oklahoma
RB – Justice Hill, Oklahoma State
FB – Luke Sowa, Iowa State
WR – TJ Vasher, Texas Tech
WR – Denzel Mims, Baylor
WR – David Sills, West Virginia
TE – Grant Calcaterra, Oklahoma
OL – Ben Powers, Oklahoma
OL – Dalton Risner, Kansas State
OL – Patrick Vahe, Texas
OL – Calvin Anderson, Texas
OL – Bobby Evans, Oklahoma
PK – Austin Siebert, Oklahoma
KR/PR – Kevonte Turpin, TCU
All Big 12 Defense
DL – Ben Banogu, TCU
DL – Daniel Wise, Kansas
DL – Breckyn Hager, Texas
DL – Jordan Brailford, Oklahoma State
DL – Ira Lewis, Baylor
LB – Ty Summers, TCU
LB – Joe Dineen, Kansas
LB – Dakota Allen, Texas Tech
DB – Kris Boyd, Texas
DB – Jah’Shawn Johnson, Texas Tech
DB – Blake Lynch, Baylor
DB – Niko Small, TCU
DB – Justus Parker, West Virginia
P – Drew Galitz, Baylor
Offensive Player of the Year: Will Grier, West Virginia
Defensive Player of the Year: Ty Summers, TCU
Newcomer of the Year: Jalen Hurd, Baylor
Now, to the rationale of why your publisher did what he did. Let’s get into the poll first and Baylor at No. 7.
By now, you probably have read other publications or seen other tweeted ballots where Baylor is picked 8th or 9th. And that would be fair.
When you’re coming off a 1-11 season that produced so many injuries, QB issues, consistency issues and a roster that’s pretty young, the 2018 Bears deserve that. What has this team done? Zip.
As I deliberated this selection, I went back and forth between 7th and 8th. I probably picked 7th with a little hometown cooking involved. I’ll admit that. But when you’re in a conference that has six bowl affiliations and the hope of one going to College Football Playoff, you need to fill them. And I’ve said that throughout the offseason that if certain things break right, Baylor can return to the postseason. This is a borderline bowl team anyway.
The early part of the schedule is begging for this program to begin 4-0 with FCS Abilene Christian, a revenge game at UTSA (it’s a little ahem that this game should be viewed that way) followed by the basketball blue bloods – Duke and Kansas – at McLane Stadium. Prognostications for Duke this year are considered higher. But remember, this Baylor team lost 34-20, and was within a 24-20 at the start of the fourth quarter before the Blue Devils used a pick 6 and late field goal to put it away.
Should Baylor begin 4-0, it just needs two more wins to become bowl eligible. I picked the Bears 7th because Kansas State comes to Waco. I know the media loves to do the annual favorable ratings for Bill Snyder and the Wildcats – typically his teams will pull out wins that make you scratch their heads – but I’m just not a fan of his teams. I think that offense is too predictable and relies too much on special teams to set it up. If Baylor was going back to Kansas State, then I would pick the Bears 8th.
The home schedule plays into Baylor’s hands with Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and TCU. The neutral game in the finale against Texas Tech at AT&T Stadium could be one where you have two programs going in different directions.
There is an opportunity for this program to play in December.
As for the rest of the rankings, the top four should be that in most polls. You’ll probably see more people picking Texas third and TCU fourth. My rationale is that I’ll give third to a team known to play better defense (TCU) than a team that is still trying to figure out its QB position (Texas). I’m not a big fan of either Shane Buechele or Sam Ehlinger. He’s had an offseason to recover but I’m leery of Ehlinger susceptibility to concussions.
Oklahoma State and Iowa State could be interchangeable. They are solid teams in search of the right QB. Texas Tech could be really wheels off this fall. Kansas is Kansas.
****
Moving on to the all-conference teams, you’ll note I have five Baylor players either at positions or in superlatives: Mims, Lewis, Lynch, Galitz and Hurd.
I’m sure as the Big 12 office looks at my votes, its staffers are going to probably roll their eyes in how a guy who covers Baylor picked five guys on a team coming off a 1-win season.
Again, that’s fair. I have my reasons.
On offense at wide receiver, most people overlook the fact that Mims is coming off a 1,000-yard season (the first time at Matt Rhule-coached player has reached that). He was a second-team all-conference selection in 2017. The Big 12 has few signature players returning to that position.
On defense at defensive line, you run into the same thing like you did at wide receiver. There are few signature players returning at that position. Lewis is as solid as they come. He was a Big 12 honorable mention for 2017. He’s going to be the be the ring master for the defensive line this fall. Name better candidates than those I have alongside Lewis in the honors. I fudged a little with Hager because he can play LB or DL. But I felt like I had to get him on somewhere.
It’s a stretch to put Lynch in the secondary. You can probably call me an apologist for Lynch. I’ve tabbed him as one of the top five athletes on this roster. Maybe the most talented.
If he has truly found the home at safety like Rhule believes he has, then I’m going to defer to that and play a hunch. I should feel that way just like I’m sure the people who cover Texas and West Virginia know something about someone that’s off our radar.
Before he blew out his knee at Kansas State, Galitz was enjoying a big season. He was averaging 45 yards per boot. Of his 21 punts, nine were fair caught. Of his 21 punts, five went inside the opponents 20-yard line. Of his 21 punts, six exceeded 50 yards (long of 70). With some of those, you enjoy the roll. At the end of the day, no one remembers how many of those did that.
The Big 12 does have some solid punters in Siebert. But you can see what I did with him. Oklahoma State’s Zach Sinor is very good.
I’m putting little to no stock into what Galitz at the Spring game in April because he was just coming through the end of his rehab. Baylor wanted to be careful. Plus, that was three months ago. If Galitz is back to where he was in 2017, then the results will speak for themselves.
As for Hurd, I think you’re going to find him winning that preseason honor by the media. He’s probably bee one of the most hyped players/transfers in the conference ever since he arrived in the summer of 2017.
He’s changing positions from running back to wide receiver. Natural athletes can typically can make the adjustment. However, you can just let the possibilities run wild (he’s a factor in my picking Baylor 7th) of what he can do.
Hurd’s season is very much either/or. He’s either going to be a game changer and take over games or he will be no factor. Baylor needs him to be the former. He also can’t be somewhere in the middle. Hurd has to be the alpha for this very talented wide receiver crew.
When you see the all-conference teams released, Baylor will not have five members on it. Honestly, I could see the most with three. My guesses are Lewis, Mims and Hurd. The minimum would be one. That’s Hurd.
My instincts say two with Lewis and Hurd. But the good news is that when you read something like this, you know football season isn’t far away.
Is it Aug. 3 yet?
****
The NBA Summer League is under way in Las Vegas with Nuni Omot with Golden State and Manu Lecomte with the Dallas Mavericks. Both signed as free agents.
This league began play this past weekend. Lecomte scored six points in his first game but didn’t play in the second game. Omot didn’t score in his first and had two in his second.
They have a chance. That’s all they can ask. But they can look at their situations like Johnathan Motley who had to work his way through the summer league and minor leagues before contributing at the end of the Mavericks 2017-18 season. By the way, Motley is back in the league and scored 11 points in his first game and a team-high 20 in his second.
****
I finished the Ken Burns documentary The War about World War II. As I mentioned last week, the great element to watching these documentaries is taking in all of the footage or pictures that have never or rarely been seen.
It was beyond educational. If you don’t know the documentary, it focused in on the communities of Luverne, MN, which is a stone’s throw from Sioux Falls, S.D., Mobile, AL, Sacramento and Waterbury, CT and how those communities went through the years.
It covered everything from the boom of industry to the Japanese internment camps to the racial tensions to the brutal campaigns both in Europe and the Pacific.
Whether you liked his politics or not, I have newfound respect for the late senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and how he fought through the war in Europe. I did not know he had lost his left arm.
Forgive the gruesomeness of the following story but war is hell for a reason. A pilot from Luverne told the story that when he was Belgium (around the Battle of the Bulge), he had been promoted to captain and was no longer flying. He was on the ground in contact with his fighters.
He shared that during a campaign, a German shell came into the building where he was and killed the private who was standing about 15-20 feet away from him. The shell took the private’s head off and splattered the brain all over this man’s jacket and maps.
After a moment of shock and realizing that he was OK, he just went back to his work and kept communicating with his fighters. Medics later cleaned his jacket and maps. Why? There was a war to fight and as he said that’s just what they had to do.
It sounds sobering and inhumane. But maybe that story reminds us why that group was labeled, “The Greatest Generation”. What they fought through and compartmentalized is far beyond what we can comprehend.
Over this weekend, I talked to two women whose fathers fought in the Battle of the Bulge. I shared how my dad was in the Pacific in B-29s.
The three of us said the same thing: They didn’t talk about the war. Burns’ documentary helped you understand why.
****
As noted on the site, the SicEmSportsCast is back this week. Stephen Cook and I will preview the Big 12 media days.
Let’s make it a great week!
