A different take...

From Ben Stein's column for the New York Times, he is one of my favorites...

And while we are on the subject of corporations and morality, here is another thought: I was on a panel recently with a famous man who said he believed that the United States was in Iraq because it wants to be near its oil supplies to protect them. His point was provocative.

But what occurs to me is that, in fact, we get the largest chunk of our oil from the Western Hemisphere (from the United States, Canada, Mexico and Venezuela). We get a lot from African sources (particularly Nigeria). Only about 20 percent of our oil comes from the Middle East. A great slice of what we get from outside 0f the hemisphere is from countries where we have no military forces.

Who arranges for us to get that juicy oil from those faraway places?

Why, the oil companies, that’s who. The oil companies we spend so much time hating and mocking and regulating. Just with their own cleverness and diplomacy and money, they get that black gold that powers our cars and cools our houses. It’s just business for the oil companies.

Do they get any thanks? Yes. Thanks from little me. The staggering prosperity of this country, of the whole developed world, floats on oil. Let’s have some respect for the people who get it for us without any loss of American blood.

SWC Game of the Week: Baylor at Texas A&M

The Battle of the Brazos is this week’s SWC Game of the Week. This series dates back to 1899. Lots of old Ags found wives at Baylor, back before you could find a wife at A&M. (I’ve been told you could find barn yard animals at A&M, but not wives.) It’s always a fun game for the two schools along highway 6, separated by only 90 miles. This year Baylor may have a shot to knock the Aggies off at Kyle Field, something they haven’t done since 1984. Two of the oldest schools in Texas, with Baylor being the first college in Texas and A&M being the first public college in Texas, will hit the gridiron again this Satruday.

THIS WEEK’S GAME:

This week’s game is Baylor visiting an old rival, the Aggies of Texas A&M. A&M leads the all time series 64-30-9 and are 10-1 since 1996. (Thanks Fran!) Baylor coach and A&M’s coach are both coaching in their 5^th meeting of the two, with A&M winning three of the previous games and Baylor winning one. The Aggies enter this game receiving much criticism after getting beat soundly at Miami last Thursday. Despite their 3-1 record, they have not played well and there are concerns entering conference play and the tougher portion of their schedule. The A&M offense attack is led by quarterback Stephen McGee and the two headed running back combination of Jorvorskie Lane and Michael Goodson. The Aggies are 8^th in the country in rushing but have struggled to get the passing game going. Stephen McGee’s favorite target is tight end Martellus Bennett who also excels clearing the way for the two running backs. On the defensive side of the ball the Aggies are led by their two linebackers Mark Dodge, age 26, and Misi Tupe, age 25. Chris Harrington anchors the defensive front. The secondary remains the question mark as stopping the passing game has been difficult at times this year. Marquis Carpenter has replaced Jordan Peterson at one cornerback spot and will get his second start of the season against the Bears. The Bears on the other hand are riding a 3 game winning streak after dropping their first game against TCU. Free safety Jordan Lake is this week’s Big 12 Conference Defensive Player of the week after forcing 2 fumbles and making 2 interceptions against Buffalo last week. The Bears are tough up front as well with Guy Morris saying it should be the best defensive line since he arrived on campus. The offense is lead by QB Matt Szymanski who has thrown for 14 touchdown passes this season in the four games Baylor has played. Freshman Jay Finley got his first start last week against Baylor and rushed for 80 yards. Baylor will be ready for the Aggies as they make the short trip to Kyle Field, will the Aggies be able to bounce back after a disappointing lose last week?

SWC Game of the Week is dispatching a correspondent to cover this game in person. Look for first hand reports in next week’s update.

COTTON BOWL MEMORIES:

The Cotton Bowl Game’s first sellout crowd (45,507) watched the defending national champion Texas A&M Aggies outlast the Fordham Rams 13-12 on New Year’s Day, 1941. The Aggies entered the match ranked #6 and it was the first appearance by a top ten team in the Classic. The Rams from the Bronx, NY carried a 7-1 record and were coached by Jim Crowley, one of the Four Horsemen from the famous Notre Dame teams. Both teams were entering the contest after disappointing loses, A&M losing to rival Texas 7-0 breaking a 19 game winning streak, dropping them from their #2 ranking, and positioning them into a tie with SMU for the conference championship. Fordham lost to St Mary’s, dropping them from #3 to #12 team in the country. Fordham had one extra point blocked by A&M’s Jim Sterling and the other hit the crossbar while Aggie QB Marion Pugh threw a TD pass to “hidden” Earl Smith and kicked the game winning point after touchdown. The A&M lineup contained five All-SWC members and two of these five were All-Americans, guard Marshall Robnett and John Kimbrough.

“Jarrin” John Kimbrough or the Haskell Hurricane was one of the best backs in SWC history. Standing 6-3 and weighing 220 pounds and covering 100 yards in under 10 seconds, he rolled over opponents on his way to A&M and SWC rushing records. He transferred from Tulane after his freshman year and lead the Aggies to a 20-1 record his last two seasons in Aggieland, including a national championship in 1939. Named to the All-American team in 1939 and 1940 he is the symbol of perhaps the greatest stretch of Aggie football history. He later went on to star in several Hollywood movies and play professional ball briefly.

OTHER GAMES THIS WEEK:

North Texas at Arkansas (Nice break for the Hogs)

East Carolina at Houston (UH ready for CUSA action)

UTEP at SMU (SMU needs win to keep slim bowl hopes alive)

Kansas State at Texas (Texas tune up before OU showdown in Dallas)

Colorado State at TCU (TCU back on track)

Northwestern State at Texas Tech (New defensive coordinator at Tech)

RESULTS FROM LAST WEEK:

SWC Game of the Week, Week 3:

TCU 21 SMU 7 (SMU can’t seem to get over the hump)

Other Games:

Kentucky 42 Arkansas 29 (Kentucky might be good, I mean they beat the Hogs)

Baylor 34 Buffalo 21 (Baylor 3-1 heading to College Station)

Houston 38 Colorado State 27 (Coogs get 35 in the second half to win)

Texas 58 Rice 14 (We choose to go to the moon!)

Miami 34 Texas A&M 17 (Ouch, Miami exposes the Aggies, Cuba Libre anyone?)

OK State 49 Texas Tech 45 (De – Fense, clap clap, De – Fense, clap clap)

STANDINGS:

	Conference:		Overall:
	W	L	W	L
Texas	2	0	4	0
Texas Tech	2	0	3	1
TCU	2	1	2	2
Baylor	1	1	3	1
Texas A&M	0	0	3	1
Houston	0	0	2	1
Arkansas:	0	0	1	2
SMU	0	2	1	3
Rice	0	2	0	4

FINAL WORD:

That’s a wrap for this week. Please feel free to forward to your friends, send me emails of those that should be included that aren’t, and submit your additions to the weekly newsletters (favorite SWC memories, player bio’s, funny old SWC stories, mascot hijinks, etc.) If you are receiving this note and you don’t want to, shame on you, but let me know, I’ll take you off the list.

Remember to visit http://www.honortheswc.com/home.asp and help build the SWC Gallery in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.

SWC Game of the Week: SMU at TCU

SWC Game of the Week hears you, the loyal readers and devotees of SWC glory. You’re tired of TCU. Well, we, the authors, researchers, fund raisers, SWC fanatics that we are here at SWC Game of the Week promise you this is the last week of TCU. But this week is a big week for our other team, SMU. You see, since the Death Penalty (thank you NCAA) SMU has been searching for winning seasons and respect. TCU since the breakup of the SWC and not being invited with the big dollar boys, has had a chip on their soldier. They seem to think they are better than the other 4 left behinds. They keep jumping conferences to try to prove it. SMU just wants to play TCU, and they have played them well since the “breakup” (We try not to focus on the “breakup,” it’s just too hard.) So as soon as SMU got into CUSA, TCU left for the Mountain West (makes sense right, I mean Ski Vernon, why not Fort Worth?) So, maybe the Ponies can surprise their rivals from Fort Worth. Dallas vs. Fort Worth, Ponies vs. Frogs, Doak Walker vs. Sammy Baugh, ah, the rivalries…

THIS WEEK’S GAME:

This week’s game is SMU at TCU, the State Farm, DFW Battle for the Iron Skillet. See below. SMU entered this season with bowl hopes, finishing last year with 6 wins for only the second time since 1989. The last bowl game SMU played in was the Aloha Bowl in 1984, beating Notre Dame and finishing the season 10-2. TCU and SMU will meet for the 87^th time, with TCU holding a 40-39-7 advantage. SMU won the last meeting in 2005 21-10, TCU’s only lost that year. Last year was the first time since 1925 the two teams did not meet (other than the two season SMU did not field a team.) SMU’s offense revolves around sophomore QB Justin Willis who set a Mustang record last season as a freshman throwing 26 TD passes. Willis was shaky against Texas Tech in the opener but has accumulated 435 total yards against UNT and 339 total yards last week in a loss to Arkansas State. Willis will look for his favorite target Emmanuel Sanders. Sanders caught 10 passes against UNT to become just the 8^th player in SMU history to record a 10 catch game. Doak Walker award candidate DeMyron Martin will try to get the running game going against the Frogs. SMU’s defense returns 7 starters to a defense that ranked 24^th against the run last year, however they must replace 3 starters on the defensive line. Safety David Haynes has made the adjustment from cornerback and recorded a game high 14 tackles against Texas Tech. Finally, punter Thomas Morstead is averaging 47.3 yards a punt this season to rank second in the nation. But, as it is never good to have your safety lead the team in tackles, it is not that great for your best player to be your punter. TCU’s plans for the season have derailed a bit. With the lose to Texas (their shot at the BCS schools) and then a disappointing outing against Air Force, they must now focus on winning the conference and returning to a bowl, just not a BCS bowl. This is TCU’s homecoming, and a rare Saturday game for the Horned Frogs. QB Andy Dalton’s numbers continue to improve as the season wears on, going 29-45 and 320 yards against Air Force with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. TCU tailback Aaron Brown has not played since the 1^st quarter of the Baylor game and his backup Joseph Turner missed the Air Force game due to injury. TCU’s defense is tough at home, not surrendering a touchdown in 6 of 9 games since 2005. TCU has recorded 7 interceptions this year, by 6 different players. One final note, SMU graduated 100% of their players that were freshman in 2000-2001, but everyone knows that is not what it is all about, right?

THE IRON SKILLET:

During the post-World War II college football boom, the SMU and TCU student bodies created a traveling trophy called the Iron Skillet that was presented to the winner of the annual football game between the archrivals. The tradition eventually died, and the skillet was lost. In 1993, however, the tradition was revived as the president of the SMU student body painted the face of the TCU student body president red and blue following the Mustangs’ 21 15 victory in Fort Worth. The engraved skillet is presented to the winning team after each game.

COTTON BOWL MEMORIES:

This week’s Cotton Bowl Memory is the 1949 Cotton Bowl that featured #10 SMU (8-1-1) vs. #9 Oregon (9-1-0). The Cotton Bowl Stadium had been expanded during the past 12 months from 45,507 capacity to 67,435. For this match-up though they had to bring in extra bleachers to accommodate the crowd of over 70,000 fans in the “House that Doak Built.” SMU was appearing in their second straight Cotton Bowl, tying Penn State 13-13 the year before. The Ponies were lead by their Heisman Trophy winning running back, Doak Walker, whose birthday was New Year’s Day. Doak was a local hero, having attended Highland Park High School. SMU coach Matty Bell also had Paul Page, Dick McKissack, passing specialist Gil Johnson in his backfield. There was one more varsity newcomer for SMU named Kyle Rote. Oregon out gained the Mustangs that day by 50 yards, but a late 52 yard drive that ate up the clock late in the game sealed the victory for SMU. Gene (Chicken) Roberts scored the winning touchdown for SMU. Walker had 152 yards running, passing and receiving while Rote totaled 148 yards while not attempting a pass. Both Doak and Rote got off record punts that game, Walker booming a 79 yard punt on 3^rd down and Rote quick kicking from his own end zone that went 84 yards to the Ducks 12 when it stopped rolling.

Editorial Note: This writer grew up with stories of the great Doak Walker from his Granddaddy who was attending SMU at the time. “He could do it all, run, pass, kick, not like these ball players now. Doak did it all!” So, I have a soft spot in my heart for a man I never saw play and is best remembered these days with an award named for him given to the best college football running back each year. Doak Walker was also the first college football player to appear on the cover to Life Magazine. It is true they expanded the Cotton Bowl to accommodate the crowds that Doak was drawing. Thanks Granddaddy for telling me about Doak and trying to teach me to drop kick a football. Ole Doak, he could do it all!

OTHER GAMES THIS WEEK:

Arkansas vs. Kentucky (Kentucky coming off big Louisville win)

Baylor at Buffalo (More scheduling kudos to the Bears, 1-2 Buffalo before it gets cold)

Houston vs. Colorado State (Good match up for the Coogs)

Rice at Texas (To quote JFK: “Why does Rice play Texas?”)

Texas A&M at Miami (Find out if the Ags are for real)

Texas Tech at Ok State (OSU not as good as some forecasts, Tech rollin’)

NOTES FROM LAST WEEK:

Submitted by Jon Johnson (Uncle Jon for those in the Johnson family):
” A fun and interesting little side bar on the "54 Cotton Bowl and the Maegle incident. For years one of the premier high school baseball programs in the state was at Monterey High School here in Lubbock. During that time the coach was Bobby Moegle (note the spelling). He is now retired and has been inducted into the Texas High School Hall of Fame. Anyway, because of the different spellings, I had never connected Bobby Moegle with the Dicky Maegle of the infamous Bama bench incident in the '54 Cotton Bowl. (Incidentally, I remember it well.) At the time of his retirement Bobby was talking about his playing and coaching career in a TV interview and he mentioned that Dicky was his brother. What?! As it turns out, when he started to Rice Dicky Anglecised the spelling of his name, changing the "oe" to "ae". Bobby always retained the old German spelling. Brothers with different last names, both becoming famous Texas sports personalities.”

Have you seen this on U-Tube? It’s the Coog vs. Oregon Duck Mascot Fight.

RESULTS FROM LAST WEEK:

SWC Game of the Week, Week 2:

Texas Tech 59 Rice 24 (Well, Rice gave it a shot, Tech may surprise a few of the Big Boys, they look really good)

Other Games:

Alabama 41 Arkansas 38 (A great game, ‘Bama scores at very end)

Baylor 34 Texas State 27 (Baylor 2-1, learning how to schedule)

Houston 34 Tulane 10 (Houston gets to spend the night in the ‘Dome)

Arkansas State 45 SMU 28 (SMU can’t get it going this year, the year they were going to go bowling)

Texas 35 UCF 32 (Texas was scared, very scared, but no one was arrested in Florida, so they have that going for them)

Texas A&M 54 La Monroe 14 (A&M rolls, will it last?)

Air Force 20 TCU 17 (TCU has a longhorn headache, or maybe someone, longhorn?, stole their MOJO from their hotel rooms?)

STANDINGS:

	Conference:		Overall:
	W	L	W	L
Texas Tech	2	0	3	0
Texas	1	0	3	0
Texas A&M	0	0	3	0
Baylor	1	1	2	1
Arkansas:	0	0	1	1
TCU	1	1	1	2
SMU	0	1	1	2
Houston	0	0	1	1
Rice	0	1	0	3

FINAL WORD:

That’s a wrap for this week. Please feel free to forward to your friends, send me emails of those that should be included that aren’t, and submit your additions to the weekly newsletters (favorite SWC memories, player bio’s, funny old SWC stories, mascot hijinks, etc.) If you are receiving this note and you don’t want to, shame on you, but let me know, I’ll take you off the list.

Remember to visit http://www.honortheswc.com/home.asp and help build the SWC Gallery in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.

SWC Game of the Week: Texas Tech at Rice

Every team gets a chance to be featured and this week it’s Rice. If you have never been to Rice Stadium you should go. It is a classic old time stadium and a great place to watch football. It doesn’t have the luxury suites and other modern amenities, just a football game. The men’s rooms are old time trough style as well. Rice is actually coming off a season that saw them play in a bowl, before their first year coach bolted for Tulsa. He is dead to us SWC fans, so his name will not be mentioned. There is history in Rice football, just none of it in our lifetime. Still, they are in a conference now that they should compete in, and it would be nice to see the Owls get something going. Texas Tech, a SWC newcomer (only Houston joined later) and they still seem to be searching for respect from the big boys. This is a nice trip for their Houston alums as well.

THIS WEEK’S GAME:

This week’s game is Texas Tech at Rice. Tech leads the all time series 25-20-1, although the last game was in 1995, a 31-26 Tech win in Lubbock. Rice has won the last 3 meetings at Rice Stadium however. Rice is coming off two losses to open the season, one surprising (Nicholas State at home) and one not so surprising (Baylor in Waco). Both Rice and Texas Tech run the spread offense, an offense suited to compete with lesser athletes. Accuracy is a key to quarterbacking this system, not arm strength. Rice’s version is headed by junior signal caller Chase Clement. Clement will try to get the ball in the hands of All American receiver Jarett Dillard. Dillard’s consecutive games with a touchdown streak ended at 15 against Nicholas State as he failed to score. This streak is the second longest in NCAA history, trailing only Larry Fitzgerald’s streak of 18 from 2002-2003. If the game gets ugly, Rice could sub in John Shepard at QB who looked good against Baylor at the end of the game, going 3 for 4 for 32 yards and rushing 5 times for 7 yards. Rice’s first year head coach David Baliff has installed the 4-2-5 defense he used while defensive coordinator at TCU. All-Conference USA linebacker Brian Raines leads the defense and has 2.5 stops behind the line of scrimmage so far this year. True freshman Scott Solomon leads the team with 3 solo stops behind the line from his defensive end position. Texas Tech for the first time in Mike Leach’s tenure returns a starting quarterback, junior Graham Harrell. Harrell threw for 38 touchdowns last year and has started this year with 8 TD passes in 2 games. He is completing 74% of his passes and thrown for 903 yards already. Tech will have to replace some key figures on defense from last season and need some players to step up. The secondary should be a strength and the Red Raiders hope to improve upon the 86^th ranked rush defense from last year. Senior starters at linebacker, Kellen Tillman, Paul Williams and Chad Hill will be charged with stopping the run and Williams leads the team with 14 tackles. But with Tech, it’s always been about stopping the offense.

COTTON BOWL MEMORIES:

The 1954 Cotton Bowl featured SWC Co-Champ Rice (8-2) vs. the Crimson Tide from Alabama. This game will forever be remembered for Rice tailback Dicky Maegle being tackled by Tommy Lewis. The only problem, Lewis was not in the game at the time, coming off the bench as Maegle ran by. Maegle would be awarded a touchdown, given the last 40 yards on a 95 yard rush. Maegle would total 265 rushing yards (a Cotton Bowl Record to this day) and two other touchdown runs of 79 and 34 yards. All of this was accomplished on 11 carries, for an average of 24.1 yards per carry. That’s a pretty good day. The #6 (yes, #6) Rice Owls would dominate Alabama and win the New Year’s Day Classic 28-7. Rice coach Jess Neely used 13 different men to rush the football that day, averaging 7 yards a carry. Alabama QB Bart Starr could never get the Tide rollin’. Rice played in the Cotton Bowl game after tying Texas by means of their 18-13 victory over the Horns in Austin. The only Rice defeats that year were to SMU and a Kentucky squad coached by Bear Bryant (his last year at Kentucky before joining the SWC fun at Texas A&M.) Maegle overshadowed his All American teammates, fullback Kosse Johnson and tackle John Hudson. This was Rice’s fourth post season win in as many tries. Maybe that’s why they have such a big stadium.

OTHER GAMES THIS WEEK:

Arkansas at Alabama (Aggies ask, “Can Fran go back to ‘Bama?”)

Texas State at Baylor (Texas State lost a Southwest didn’t they?)

Houston at Tulane (Winner gets to spend the night at the Astrodome)

SMU at Arkansas State (Ponies try to build on victory over Big Green Machine)

Texas at UCF (Why does Texas have to travel for this game? Oh yeah, recruits, the Florida guys are all going to play for Texas next year)

La Monroe vs Texas A&M (A&M, inspired by the SWC Game of the Week, has decided to not throw a pass the rest of the season)

TCU at Air Force (TCU tries to recover from the lose to Texas)

RESULTS FROM LAST WEEK:

SWC Game of the Week, Week 2:

Texas 34 TCU 13 (Hey, TCU had them down 10 – 0 at the half, then the Show Band intimidated them)

Other Games:

Baylor 42 Rice 17 (Bears look good against Rice)

SMU 45 North Texas 31 ((SMU, Kings of Big D)

Texas A&M 47 Fresno State 45 (This newsboy and MOA friends attended this match, it was ugly. I sweated a Drew Bear)

Texas Tech 45 UTEP 31 (Out in the West Texas Town of El Paso…)

STANDINGS:

	Conference:		Overall:
	W	L	W	L
Texas	1	0	2	0
Texas Tech	1	0	2	0
Texas A&M	0	0	2	0
Arkansas:	0	0	1	0
TCU	1	1	1	1
Baylor	1	1	1	1
SMU	0	1	1	1
Houston	0	0	0	1
Rice	0	1	0	2

FINAL WORD:

That’s a wrap for this week. Please feel free to forward to your friends, send me emails of those that should be included that aren’t, and submit your additions to the weekly newsletters (favorite SWC memories, player bio’s, funny old SWC stories, mascot hijinks, etc.) If you are receiving this note and you don’t want to, shame on you, but let me know, I’ll take you off the list.

Remember to visit http://www.honortheswc.com/home.asp and help build the SWC Gallery in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.