It’s a sad beginning, Denizens, to this episode of the Perfect Football Weekend™, as we bid a tearful farewell to the greatest UTexas coach of all time.  Darrell K. Royal was 88.
Royal, 88, died Wednesday in Austin but left behind legions of admirers from both sides of the Red River and across the country. At the height of his coaching career, Royal ranked “right up there with the Alamo” in terms of Texas icons, said Dan Jenkins, a renowned author and sportswriter from Fort Worth who serves as the official historian of the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame.
Jenkins, a TCU graduate, covered Royal’s teams for both the Fort Worth Press and Sports Illustrated. He watched Royal fashion a 167-47-5 record in 20 seasons with the Longhorns (1957-76), claiming national championships in 1963, 1969 and 1970.
“If you did a Mount Rushmore with the faces of college football people from Texas, Darrell would be on there,” Jenkins said. “[SMU’s] Doak Walker would be one. [TCU’s] Sam Baugh would be one. The fourth person, you could take your choice. But those three are inarguable.”
He will be sorely missed.
Now to the football.  At the moment, my Arlington Heights Yellow Jackets actually made a game of it before falling late to Granbury, 27-31.  Expect excuse-for-a-head-coach Todd Whitten to be reassigned in the coming weeks.
Tomorrow evening, Gary Patterson’s TCU Horned Frogs will host second-ranked Kansas State at Amon Carter in Fort Worth.  The purple team will win.
Tomorrow afternoon, Bob Stoops’ 12th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners get to feast on Baylor’s cubbies at Norman.  Artie Briles is finding out that life isn’t all that good without overrated hypemeister ARRRRRR GEEEEEEEE THREEEEEEEE!!!!!1!!ELEVENTY!!!1!!!, and OU should be no exception.  Baylor can carve up the Sooner defense, but the reverse is more than true, and Vegas likes OU at home by 21½.
A PFW by Executive Fiat™ is on the line tomorrow as the Penn State Pussies visit Lincoln to face Bo Pelini’s 16th-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers.  The Huskers are a 9-point favorite at Memorial, and I like them to cover.
Bucky travels to Hoosierville tomorrow to run roughshod over Indiana U.  The Badgers are a seven-point favorite on the road – and, even as bad as they’ve been this year, they should cover this.
In the FCS (aka Division I-AA), Turner Gill’s Liberty Flames will face Big South leader Stony Brook.  I’m putting a SpatulaLine of 30 on this one – Stony Brook’s 9-1, and will probably do to Liberty what fiddy-million shitheads did to liberty on Tuesday – namely, rip it to shreds.
Sunday, El Choko & the Cowgirlz go for three in a row – losses, that is – as they travel to Pussydelphia to take on the Beagles.  Phucky’s offensive line has been just that – offensive – recently, letting the Saints at one point last week sack Mikey “Woof!” Vick three straight times.
Of course, any woes the Beagles have been undergoing recently will all be cured when Rob Ryan’s Folly™ comes to town.  I’m calling Phucky in a squash.
We’re back Monday (I hope) for the recap.  In the meantime, my question for HDD this week is…would you rather have Bucky’s O-line, or the Beagles’?