And no sooner do I brag about having posted at least a little something all last month, than I have to issue yet another Light Posting Warning™.
The Big Box™ – on which I do 98% of all my blogging – has told me in no uncertain terms that it’s time to re-image it.  Hence, the rest of the week will be spent in preparation to wipe the system & reload.
Maybe I can get in a post or two, have to see.  Watch this space.
(General, now would be a good time for something out of your stack o’ stuff.)
Well, I certainly didn’t see that  coming.
at FW Arlington Heights 35, Birdville 34
Texas Christian 26, at New Mexico 3
at UBuffalo 42, UT-El Paso 17
at #4 Oklahoma 57, Tennessee-Chattanooga 2
at Nebraska 47, Western Michigan 24
at Dallas 16, Minnesota 10 (pre-season, does not count in totals)
Richard Bartel started, played the entire game (going 28-41-233), paid a helluva price for the privilege (stats say he got sacked three times, but I swear it was far more than that) – then got cut the next day for his trouble.
Sucks to be him.
On one play in the third quarter, several Cowboys played themselves out of jobs by letting Minnehaha RB Albert Young slip away for a 35-yard run after having multiple players wrap him up.  Minnehaha would kick a field goal on the drive after backup QB Brooks Bollinger got away with an intentional grounding.
And after taking special care not to play any of the regulars in order to avoid injuries, they let 3rd receiver Sam Hurd play a series – and he promptly sprains an ankle and likely is out for the opener at Cleveland.  Real smart, guys.
…
Yes, I admit – this was a shock.
From the kind folks at DFWVarsity.com, we get this blurb:
Linebacker Jake Knowles broke up a two-point conversion pass with 1:38 left, and running back Adonnys Wright rushed for 146 yards and two touchdowns as Heights took a 35-34 upset of Birdville, No. 5 in the Star-Telegram 4A poll. Josh Dorman threw for three touchdowns for Birdville, including an 8-yard strike to Clarke Renfro with 1:38 left. The Hawks lined up for two, and despite a false start that pushed them to the 8, they elected to go for the win. Jacob Grayson came out of the backfield for a pass near the goal line, but Knowles’ hit knocked the ball away.
The key, which DFW-V did not  mention, was that, after allowing a pair of touchdowns each in the first & second quarters, Heights’ defense shut the Buffs down in the third while scoring a pair themselves, putting them in postition to win.
That would’ve been a moral victory right there – but this may not be the Jackets that I’ve come to know and bury my face in my hands over.  Pate, you can stay another week. 
…
When the other team does all your scoring for you…as the Hemi guys say in the Dodge commercial “that can’t be good”.
After the Sooners hung half a hundred on Chattanoogies in the first half, the game was delayed by what Mother Shitcan would call “a little wind & rain”.
The Sooners converted their first seven possessions into touchdowns and led 50-0 before a thunderstorm caused a lightning delay that extended halftime by 1 hour and 12 minutes.
Maybe Ma Nature was  imposing a mercy rule, like the story said.  (shrug)
…
Year 3 of the Turner Gill era began with an outright thrashing of what really isn’t that bad of a team.
If this keeps up, there won’t be a Year 4 – because some program’s gonna snap Gill up.
Drew Willy threw for 221 yards & four touchdowns, James Starks was 31-179 on the ground, and the defense gathered in three picks and two sacks.
Hm.  Perhaps I should waive the 10-point-spread rule this year.
…
It got a little dicey there after Nebraska went up 37-10 – Western Michigan nailed the Blackshirts for two more touchdowns (one each in the third & fourth), but Bo Pelini’s defense held when it had to, and Joe Ganz had answers when it counted.
Ganz threw for 345 on 20-36 and four touchdowns (two to Nate Swift).  Kicker Alex Henery found a spot he liked on the field and kicked four 44-yard field goals.
…
In retrospect, not sure why I worried about this game.
The last three games vs. New Mexico, the Frogs had gotten off to 24-point-or-more leads.  Not much different here – Patterson’s Tadpoles™ raced out to a 16-0 lead with 5:00 left in the first, and pretty much coasted the rest of the way.  TCU won the toss, deferred and took the first quarter wind, then spent the quarter deep in NM’s end of the field.
TCU did get a little too greedy in the second; they drew a roughing penalty trying to block a NM punt. That kind of attitude’ll come back to haunt ’em if they’re not careful – as they’ve previously demonstrated:
The Shitland Ponies were slogging along in first gear – three & out, three & out, three & out – until midway through the second quarter. The only reason they were in the game, in fact, was because TCU was sleepwalking through the first half themselves; a first-quarter field goal from failed-bit kicker Peter LoCoco staked the Froggies to a 3-0 lead – the only points the offense would score all night.
So on yet another three-and-out by Skip & Muffy U, they line up to punt – whereupon their punter promptly gets slammed into by our rush. (To be fair, we’d already blocked one of their kicks – but it stands to reason that they’d be a little more prepared to handle the rush next time, so why get greedy?)
Boom. Fifteen-yard penalty for roughing the punter. Five plays later, the Glue Factory Nags took a lead they would not relinquish, and the Toads wind up giving the Iron Skillet back to SMU.
Memo to special teams coach Dan Sharp:  If your boys are gonna play Ringling Brothers fly-through-the-air on everyone – make damned  sure you block the punt.
Last year, TCU would lose its focus for one or two plays, which usually turned out to be big ones, and always wound up costing them points.
They may not have learned the lesson.  Case in point:  third quarter, Dalton throws a deep pick, the defense then loses focus and allows an 81-yard bomb, and fortunately, it only cost them three.  And in the 2nd quarter, TCU had NM 3rd-and-10 inside the NM 5, and let their QB run for 15 yards and a first down.  Not good.
On the plus side, we might (might) have a kicker this year. Ross Evans hit a 50 yarder in the first.  Yes, it was wind-aided, but Chris Manfredini still couldn’t have hit that kick.
OTOH, Evans missed a PAT in the first quarter.  Then he missed a chip-shot FG at the end of the half, wasting another NM turnover.  Suddenly, I miss Manfredini (grin).  (Fortunately, Evans hit a 30-yarder in the fourth to redeem himself.)
…
This week:  5-0 (the C’boy exhibition game doesn’t count).  Perfect Football Weekend™ achieved. (2)
The PFW will return Friday, when we lament the possible imminent demise of Dave Wannstedt’s coaching career.
…but if you go down to the calendar and click on the link for July, you’ll find that every single day last month contains a link.
IOW, there was at least one bit of something-something posted every day in July.
It’s been a helluva long time since that happened.  In fact, I’m not sure it’s happened since we left the clutches of Bogsnot.
Version IV is kinda fun, y’know? 
(Hat tip LC Ranger 6.)
From the blog Audacity of Deception & Hypocrisy, we find that News-creak is reporting that the House of Obama bin Biden, built on a foundation of sand with no mortar to hold the bricks and no studs securing the beams, is starting the inexorable process of toppling.
John Coale, a prominent Washington lawyer, husband of Fox TV host Greta Van Susteren and a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, announced today that he was supporting John McCain for president. Coale, who traveled with Sen. Clinton, President Clinton and her family through out the primary season, complained of sexism, and said the Democratic Party is “being taken over by the moveon.org types” in an exclusive interview with Newsweek.com’s Tammy Haddad.
Did you catch that, Denizens?  A supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton.  One who isn’t  a female.
As Kamir Khan said in Octopussy  – “Let the sport…commence!”