Shawn's Favorite Five: College Football

     Shawn's Favorite Five will be a series that looks at my five favorite coaches from a sport that isn't my choices for the five greatest or best coaches; it's a list of my five favorites.

College Football is the focus of this version of our series. 

1: Barry Switzer, Oklahoma

Switzer is one of three coaches to win a national championship and a Super Bowl (Jimmy Johnson and Pete Carroll are the others) and is responsible for making Oklahoma the top program of the seventies.

Switzer's Sooners may not have invented the Wishbone offense (Texas did in the late sixties). Still, they perfected it, winning three national titles and numerous Big Eight championships with an unstoppable offense unless forced to pass.

Switzer always played the part of the lovable rogue, and his Sooners may have been the first team that was a "love or hate" team on a national level.

I had no problems loving them.

2: Woody Hayes, Miami, Ohio, and Ohio State

Hayes was brought to Ohio State over former Buckeye coach ( and two-time Hall of Fame inductee) Paul Brown, and then became the most controversial coach of his tenure.

Woody's comments and behaviors were always controversial, and his offenses gave the term "three yards and a cloud of dust" a synonym for dull. Still, his manner of dealing with the rivalry with Michigan is largely what has made it the biggest in college football, if not all sports.

During Hayes's tenure, Ohio State may not have been a love them or hate them team, but Woody Hayes certainly was as a coach.

3: Jim Tressel, Youngstown State and Ohio State

Tressel combined the love of keeping recruiting based around the state of Ohio with a surprising gambling streak for someone who appeared so straight-laced.

Tressel loved basic football, and I'm not sure if he would have been as effective in the current game, but he represented Ohio State well.

Plus, it was Tressel who reestablished Ohio State's domination of Michigan after John Cooper ran the series into the dirt for Buckeye fans!

4: Chris Petersen, Boise State and Washington

Known for bringing Boise State to national prominence, Peterson's trick plays and innovative offense made the Broncos a fun team to watch.

Petersen also rebuilt the Washington program, taking them to the BCS and laying the foundation for the team (under Kalen DeBoer) that would make the national title game in 2023.

5: Bill Snyder, Kansas State

Snyder took one of the country's worst programs and turned it around-TWICE!

Snyder took "Futility U" almost to the verge of a national title. After retiring, K-State fell back to the bottom under Ron Prince before Snyder returned for another decade to rebuild the program back AGAIN!

Barry Switzer once said of Snyder  and the job that he did at Kansas State, "He's not the coach of the year or the decade, he's the coach of the century!"

Cleaning out the Inbox

    Way behind on cleaning the inbox as often happens during football season.

13th Dimension writes of the opening of the first museum devoted to the Batman 1966 television series. 

Located in Logansport, Indiana, the museum possesses items from the show, reconstructed sets, and a theatre.

This is worth the stop for the photo ops alone from the photos in the article!

ESPN writes of former Oklahoma and Dallas Cowboys head coach Barry Switzer's life in Norman, Oklahoma as the unofficial "King of Norman".

Switzer, Jimmy Johnson, and Pete Carroll are the only men to win a Super Bowl and a collegiate national championship.

In recent years, Switzer discovered that he had a daughter that he had never known, and is spending much of his time with here among his many interests in the Norman area.

The Barry Switzer story has to be read to be believed and is the greatest sports biography documentary or scripted film waiting for someone to make.

The next three notes are all from The Athletic.

The Premier League continues to move further south with fewer and fewer teams from the North side of the country.

Other than Newcastle (the northernmost city in England), the three other teams nearest the Magpies have been relegated, Sheffield United and Burnley last year and Leeds two seasons ago.

For the first time since the Premier League began, there are only five teams in the Northern half of England, Newcastle, Liverpool, Everton, and the two Manchester squads

The Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions played an epic game a few weeks back and this article deals with two Rust Belt towns still seeking a Super Bowl trophy along with some famous names in sports with connections to both cities.

Names such as Bob Lanier, Dominik Hasek, Pat LaFontaine, and Chris Spielman are among the many with a background in both areas with arguably the most influential person, former Bills owner Ralph Wilson, a Detroit resident who owned a minority share of the Lions but unable to gain controlling interest, purchased a charter franchise in the AFL and didn't know where to base his team.

Wilson picked Buffalo after he couldn't use the Orange Bowl for his team's home stadium and pulled out of Miami.

The final word from the Athletic writes of the school with the surprising lead in the best transfer portal class- the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

The article discusses the Tech NIL operatives, who and how they look at potential recruits, how quickly Tech moves on players they want to sign, and how the entire collective works together to energize the Red Raiders, who finished 8-4 this season before a Liberty Bowl loss to Arkansas.

TechSpot writes of a small Indiana bakery that is still using the Commodore 64 as its cash register!

The 64 RAM Commodore (hence the name) has more than enough processing power to run a cash register and was released in 1982 with updates discontinued in 1994.

Ryan sends word of a fire that burnt down the four-story Morrison Hotel in Los Angeles, which is famous for the backdrop of The Doors "Morrison Hotel" album in 1970.

The hotel had been vacant for over a decade and was being used by squatters and homeless and LA firefighters have used it as a training site.

The story behind the album cover is that a clerk had told the group that they weren't allowed to take photos but when the clerk was called away from his desk the group jumped into the lobby into place for the photo taken through the window by famed rock photographer Henry Diltz.

Random Thoughts

Slow news day,but here are a few thoughts on a few things!

I mix up what I watch between the various news networks.
I think CNN does the best job covering breaking news,but many of their personalities are less than exciting.
I used to watch MSNBC,but other then Morning Joe with Joe Scarbrough and Mika Brzezinski,I've found their network has gone downhill since they left Keith Olbermann without a contract.
On off days,I'll check Al-Jazeera (AJTV are not on work cable)
out from time to time since they hired Nicole Mitchell (remember our five part interview with her?) as the morning meteorologist.
I tend to watch Fox in the mid-morning to early afternoon,but other than the Kelly File,I cannot stand the evening Fox lineup.
But,I must admit-when Christi Paul fills in for CNN or HLN,I go there everytime!
Christi's energy is infectious and when you work my hours,you need as much of that as you can get!
Christi walks the tightrope of being high energy without being obnoxious about it.
I'd root for one of the Atlanta networks to give her a show of her own,but with my luck-it would be at a time that I couldn't watch!

It's Thanksgiving weekend and it always makes me think of the only game that ever meant as much to me ( at one time) as Ohio State-michigan.
I've written before about Barry Switzer's Oklahoma teams being the only teams to rank as high in my heart as the Buckeyes,but the holiday weekend brings back memories of the dead rivalry between Oklahoma and Nebraska.
That game was often played on Thanksgiving friday,when the game meant Big 8 titles,Orange Bowl trips and often national championships.
Wishbone and option football on display along with some of the best running game talent around,the game is no longer played with Nebraska leaving for the Big 10.
Pity,I miss it...

Still angry about not being able to find 7UP 10 anywhere.
After falling in love with the low calorie,regular taste version of the greatest drink created by man,only my local Target sold it and now they don't either!
Diet 7up is great,but 7up 10 is even better!
The next time I see it someplace,I'm stocking up and if it's on sale on that occasion-look out,my car might be scraping the back fender on the ground due to weight!

I'm asked often around this time of year "Do you do Black Friday?".
I resist the urge to say "Hi,I'm Shawn-have we met?" and use the truth-I am always at work on Black Friday,but even so I think my personality wouldn't mesh well with the routine that goes on these things.
After all,I'll be busy watching Oklahoma-Nebraska,Oh wait..Never mind...

Finally,I wrap up with this-a few thanks since it is the season.
Thanks to my lovely wife and daughter for taking care of the author everyday.
Few people are lucky enough to have the freedom that I have combined with the level of caring that Cherie and Rachel give to me.

Thanks to Ryan as he goes onto the next station in his life as he moves a few hours away.
It is always a bit melancholy when your first born moves out,let alone away,but I wish the best for him in his newest adventure.

Finally,thanks to all my friends,old and new.
I don't want to get into all of you,but from friends for years all the way to my autographing buddies and to some of you that read this without knowing me at all...
Thanks to all of you and I hope to have some fun stuff for you coming up over the winter as I am working on more interviews for the cold season!!!!

Whats the story,Wishbone?

Nope, not the tale of an adorable little dog on a PBS show, but a love affair with an offense.
From my formative years through the late 1980s, Ohio State was seriously challenged for the top spot in my heart.
The Buckeyes held serve and Texas Tech was my faraway team as I scrambled to find info in the non-internet age, but the Oklahoma Sooners were the top challenger to the Buckeyes.
In fact, I hated the two times that the teams played in 1977 and 1983!

Why? It was the personality of Barry Switzer, his colorful players, and the wonder that is option football or more specifically the Wishbone offense.
Texas might have started the Wishbone by being the first team to popularize the offense, but it was Switzer and the Sooners that truly installed the offense as a rarely stopped force.
As successful as the Longhorns were running the 'bone, the Sooner's version was better for one reason-Barry Switzer committed themselves to recruiting the African-American athlete at all positions instead of just at specific positions.
The Sooners were playing black quarterbacks at a time that other teams were hardly recruiting black players and that made a huge difference between the Sooners and other teams using the system.
With the elite players playing for Oklahoma and with the strengths of the offense, the Sooners did not lose very many games when I was a Sooner fan.
To this day,I can remember Sooner quarterbacks like J.C.Watts, Thomas Lott, and Jamelle Holieway running the corner and making that last second pitch to a trailing back, who would then shoot down the sidelines for a long touchdown run.

The offense featured three running backs on the field with a fullback stationed directly behind the quarterback and the two remaining halfbacks split behind the fullback, which looking at it from behind the line of scrimmage gave the offense its name.
The Wishbone required a quarterback that was able to think on his feet and he had to be quick on them as well.
The three options that a quarterback (therefore the name of Triple Option) had to read from the line of scrimmage was for the quarterback to run ( that could also be a pitch further down the line), hand the ball off (usually to a fullback straight ahead, but could be a halfback run as well) or the seldomly called pass play.
The Wishbone did not have many passes called other than the occasional short pop pass over the middle to the tight end.
It was not uncommon for a Wishbone team to throw less than ten passes a game and often five or six might be the height of the passing numbers.

The offense was not for everyone as the 1985 National Champion Sooners found out as they struggled with Troy Aikman at the controls.
Aikman could not run the traditional bone, so Oklahoma tried a hybrid in order to take advantage of Aikman's strengths.
The results saw the Sooners lose their only game of the season with an offense that was sputtering and only when Aikman's season ended with a broken leg and freshman Jamelle Holieway running the pure Wishbone did the Sooners go on their title run.

The two major issues with the Wishbone as defenses began to figure it out were that you needed at least two quarterbacks as the QB's took so many hits and that if you got behind, the limitations in the passing game (with three running backs, there is only one wide receiver) make it very difficult to catch up on the scoreboard and when trailing if you choose to stick with the running game, the clock rolls on so much faster without the incomplete passes to stop the clock.

The Wishbone is still used by a few teams, Georgia Tech uses a variation of the offense, the military schools use it as an equalizer against the bigger schools, and I-AA powerhouse Georgia Southern has used it ever since their program was started in the 1980s, but it is not in vogue currently as most quarterbacks want to throw the football more than the offense would allow.

I love option football and I love watching it.
Few games in my tape collection (now DVD) get more use than old Oklahoma games just because I enjoy them so much.
I wish someone would give it a try with a top program again, but I kinda doubt that will happen.
In any event, that's the story on the Wishbone and my years singing Boomer Sooner.

Back again tomorrow!