By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
It is the football TV theme above all other themes. When you heard those first chords in the mid-1970s and 1980s, you knew you were ready for Monday Night Football on ABC.
Johnny Pearson composed it back in 1970. The United Kingdom actually started using it for its Superstars show. But ABC acquired the rights in 1975. From there, the match in heaven became sealed. What was better than hearing from Frank Gifford, Done Meredith and Howard Cosell. Then it was followed by Cosell delivering the halftime highlights from Sunday’s games.
Other versions of it were used in the 2000s. But for one of the few good things ESPN has ever done in recent years, it brought back the original for its version of MNF beginning in 2018.
The RJB will shut up, get out of the way, and let you enjoy another week of great intros as we near the opening of the football season.
*****
There are some things I wonder about each of these Big 12 programs as we near the start of the 2022 season.
Let’s face it, the conference has a much different look to it than it normally does. Oklahoma isn’t the perceived power because of the turbulent offseason it encountered with Lincoln Riley leaving and several impact players.
Texas has the hype train working like it always does this time of year. But what does that really mean until you get to November?
Not seeing Gary Patterson on the TCU sideline after 21 seasons – well we actually saw that last year when he was fired prior to the Baylor game – still has an odd feel to it.
So here are the things I wonder about with the other nine members of this league with fall camp under way across the college football landscape.
>I wonder if Oklahoma really can have a big season with first-year coach Brent Venables along with UCF transfer QB Dillon Garbriel. He’s thrown for more than 8,000 yards and 70 touchdowns in his two-plus years as the starter.
But how his game transfers to the P5 level is another story. He’s coming off a broken clavicle that occurred in the third game of the 2021 season at Louisville. Gabriel is all the way back. Call his performance against P5 teams and Cincinnati a mixed bag. Maybe he will be better with better talent surrounding him. Maybe he is what it he is – solid but perhaps not next level.
>I wonder if Steve Sarkisian’s career at Texas will be defined Sept. 10 when Alabama comes to Austin.
If the Longhorns pull off the shocker, then it could kickstart something into a season where expectations can be finally realized. If Alabama wins close or big, it just keeps Texas in the same lane where it has been for a lot of years – the talent to win, but the lack of toughness to where its inconsistency gets in its own way.
>I wonder if Oklahoma State is ready to ascend to that next level of a college football program where it can be an alpha of the new Big 12.
I’ve said this many times where I believe that when the new league comes together starting July 1, 2023 – it really doesn’t matter that Texas and Oklahoma are there until 2025 because they are just place holders as it stands – Baylor and Oklahoma State have the infrastructure and the potential to become the new alphas. The Cowboys and Bears played an epic Big 12 championship game, and their annual games could be the signature event of the conference season just like Texas-Oklahoma was.
>I wonder if West Virginia is ever going to be a threat to win a Big 12 championship in the near future. The Mountaineers have been a solid program that would occasionally pull off the upset or play Oklahoma really tough. But for a program that has experienced some really good eras, it seems to be falling into a malaise.
>I wonder if Iowa State’s window for greatness is at a crossroads. Had the Cyclones met 2021 expectations – they were predicted second – and played in a second consecutive Big 12 title game, you would see the narrative on this thing far different than what is now.
To Matt Campbell’s credit, he’s done great work in a pretty tough place to win in Ames, IA. The Cyclones didn’t handle the spotlight well in 2021. Maybe out of it is a better place to be in 2022. But a 6-6 season or less could mean the window is about to close and Campbell may be ready to leave.
>I wonder how Joey McGuire will be as P5 college head coach without any D1 college head coaching experience in his history. All he has is 2017-2021 at Baylor as an assistant.
I don’t want that misunderstood. McGuire absolutely did everything right while he was at Baylor to get his chance. When Tech offers, you better take it. He’s had a spectacular honeymoon for 10 months in Lubbock.
Expectations won’t be that high for the Red Raiders this fall but the energy and enthusiasm sure are. How the Red Raiders are organized, and how they react to any and every situation could foretell what his future will be.
Tech wants to be considered a Big 12 alpha candidate. There’s a ways to go there.
>I wonder how TCU is going react with Sonny Dykes as its new coach. From all accounts, the younger generation loves him. The older generation is on the fence.
The great era of TCU football ended last year. Dykes has some talented players returning. But he’s also encountered some turnover on the coaching staff he brought with him from SMU.
This is a weird hire in Fort Worth.
>I wonder if Kansas State is ever going to find a quarterback who actually wants to play there. That might be the one knock on head coach Chris Klieman’s first three seasons in Manhattan, KS.
The Wildcats have been decent under Klieman – 20-16 – but they have been unable to draw that quarterback who can be a difference maker. There are solid parts of that program. If KSU ever had that playmaker at QB, they could be an annual threat in the conference race instead holding the same kind of reputation West Virginia does.
>I wonder if Kansas is ever going to play a caliber of football that when people view the Big 12 schedule and look at the KU game, they know it won’t be an automatic W.
Jayhawk football has finished last or tied for last in the Big 12 for 12 consecutive seasons. Kansas has won 23 games since 2010. You pity Lance Leipold who has been asked to lift a program from the dregs to something respectable. He’s the fifth coach hired since 2010.
Maybe it is a case where the shadow cast over the athletic department by the basketball program – the reigning National Champions – is that large and there will never be enough oxygen.
*****
Baylor football held a practice on Sunday but there was no media availability. A few notables about the schedule this week. There is a late practice on Wednesday at McLane Stadium. The Bears are off on Thursday. They will also have an off day next Sunday, Aug. 14.
*****
Here we go with the 2022-23 athletic calendar. Women’s soccer begins it season with a pair of games. The opener against LSU is at 7:00 p.m. Thursday at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field. Baylor then travels to San Antonio to face UTSA at 7:00 p.m. Sunday. These are both exhibitions. The ones that count begin Aug. 18 when Baylor plays host to Minnesota.
The program has a new leader in Michelle Lenard who spent the previous 14 seasons at Dallas Baptist.
Let’s make it a great week!
Publisher
It is the football TV theme above all other themes. When you heard those first chords in the mid-1970s and 1980s, you knew you were ready for Monday Night Football on ABC.
Johnny Pearson composed it back in 1970. The United Kingdom actually started using it for its Superstars show. But ABC acquired the rights in 1975. From there, the match in heaven became sealed. What was better than hearing from Frank Gifford, Done Meredith and Howard Cosell. Then it was followed by Cosell delivering the halftime highlights from Sunday’s games.
Other versions of it were used in the 2000s. But for one of the few good things ESPN has ever done in recent years, it brought back the original for its version of MNF beginning in 2018.
The RJB will shut up, get out of the way, and let you enjoy another week of great intros as we near the opening of the football season.
*****
There are some things I wonder about each of these Big 12 programs as we near the start of the 2022 season.
Let’s face it, the conference has a much different look to it than it normally does. Oklahoma isn’t the perceived power because of the turbulent offseason it encountered with Lincoln Riley leaving and several impact players.
Texas has the hype train working like it always does this time of year. But what does that really mean until you get to November?
Not seeing Gary Patterson on the TCU sideline after 21 seasons – well we actually saw that last year when he was fired prior to the Baylor game – still has an odd feel to it.
So here are the things I wonder about with the other nine members of this league with fall camp under way across the college football landscape.
>I wonder if Oklahoma really can have a big season with first-year coach Brent Venables along with UCF transfer QB Dillon Garbriel. He’s thrown for more than 8,000 yards and 70 touchdowns in his two-plus years as the starter.
But how his game transfers to the P5 level is another story. He’s coming off a broken clavicle that occurred in the third game of the 2021 season at Louisville. Gabriel is all the way back. Call his performance against P5 teams and Cincinnati a mixed bag. Maybe he will be better with better talent surrounding him. Maybe he is what it he is – solid but perhaps not next level.
>I wonder if Steve Sarkisian’s career at Texas will be defined Sept. 10 when Alabama comes to Austin.
If the Longhorns pull off the shocker, then it could kickstart something into a season where expectations can be finally realized. If Alabama wins close or big, it just keeps Texas in the same lane where it has been for a lot of years – the talent to win, but the lack of toughness to where its inconsistency gets in its own way.
>I wonder if Oklahoma State is ready to ascend to that next level of a college football program where it can be an alpha of the new Big 12.
I’ve said this many times where I believe that when the new league comes together starting July 1, 2023 – it really doesn’t matter that Texas and Oklahoma are there until 2025 because they are just place holders as it stands – Baylor and Oklahoma State have the infrastructure and the potential to become the new alphas. The Cowboys and Bears played an epic Big 12 championship game, and their annual games could be the signature event of the conference season just like Texas-Oklahoma was.
>I wonder if West Virginia is ever going to be a threat to win a Big 12 championship in the near future. The Mountaineers have been a solid program that would occasionally pull off the upset or play Oklahoma really tough. But for a program that has experienced some really good eras, it seems to be falling into a malaise.
>I wonder if Iowa State’s window for greatness is at a crossroads. Had the Cyclones met 2021 expectations – they were predicted second – and played in a second consecutive Big 12 title game, you would see the narrative on this thing far different than what is now.
To Matt Campbell’s credit, he’s done great work in a pretty tough place to win in Ames, IA. The Cyclones didn’t handle the spotlight well in 2021. Maybe out of it is a better place to be in 2022. But a 6-6 season or less could mean the window is about to close and Campbell may be ready to leave.
>I wonder how Joey McGuire will be as P5 college head coach without any D1 college head coaching experience in his history. All he has is 2017-2021 at Baylor as an assistant.
I don’t want that misunderstood. McGuire absolutely did everything right while he was at Baylor to get his chance. When Tech offers, you better take it. He’s had a spectacular honeymoon for 10 months in Lubbock.
Expectations won’t be that high for the Red Raiders this fall but the energy and enthusiasm sure are. How the Red Raiders are organized, and how they react to any and every situation could foretell what his future will be.
Tech wants to be considered a Big 12 alpha candidate. There’s a ways to go there.
>I wonder how TCU is going react with Sonny Dykes as its new coach. From all accounts, the younger generation loves him. The older generation is on the fence.
The great era of TCU football ended last year. Dykes has some talented players returning. But he’s also encountered some turnover on the coaching staff he brought with him from SMU.
This is a weird hire in Fort Worth.
>I wonder if Kansas State is ever going to find a quarterback who actually wants to play there. That might be the one knock on head coach Chris Klieman’s first three seasons in Manhattan, KS.
The Wildcats have been decent under Klieman – 20-16 – but they have been unable to draw that quarterback who can be a difference maker. There are solid parts of that program. If KSU ever had that playmaker at QB, they could be an annual threat in the conference race instead holding the same kind of reputation West Virginia does.
>I wonder if Kansas is ever going to play a caliber of football that when people view the Big 12 schedule and look at the KU game, they know it won’t be an automatic W.
Jayhawk football has finished last or tied for last in the Big 12 for 12 consecutive seasons. Kansas has won 23 games since 2010. You pity Lance Leipold who has been asked to lift a program from the dregs to something respectable. He’s the fifth coach hired since 2010.
Maybe it is a case where the shadow cast over the athletic department by the basketball program – the reigning National Champions – is that large and there will never be enough oxygen.
*****
Baylor football held a practice on Sunday but there was no media availability. A few notables about the schedule this week. There is a late practice on Wednesday at McLane Stadium. The Bears are off on Thursday. They will also have an off day next Sunday, Aug. 14.
*****
Here we go with the 2022-23 athletic calendar. Women’s soccer begins it season with a pair of games. The opener against LSU is at 7:00 p.m. Thursday at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field. Baylor then travels to San Antonio to face UTSA at 7:00 p.m. Sunday. These are both exhibitions. The ones that count begin Aug. 18 when Baylor plays host to Minnesota.
The program has a new leader in Michelle Lenard who spent the previous 14 seasons at Dallas Baptist.
Let’s make it a great week!
