Texas vs. Texas Tech

Texas travels to Lubbock, Texas this weekend for the fourth leg of a murderous four week obstacle course that has seen them beat OU, Mizzou, Okie State and potentially Texas Tech. Tech is led by perhaps the quirkiest head coach in the country, Mike Leach. Leach is obsessed with pirates, even though he calls West Texas home, he recently pulled a kid out of the stands to join the tech team as a kicker after he won a contest at halftime of a game earlier this year. The kid in question, Mike Williams, is now 9 for 9 on extra point attempts.

Here are some pointers from Mike Leach on dating



How good is Michael Crabtree? He has his own song and dance that the tech faithful perform every game at Jones SBC stadium.



Now that we have cranked that Crabtree, lets get down to the facts. Texas brings its #1 ranked war tested team to Lubbock with stars like Colt McCoy, emerging running back Chris Ogbonnaya, Jordan Shipley, Bran Orakpo, and Roy Miller to TTU looking to close out its last big test of the year.

Texas Tech brings an explosive offense to say the least, and has a huge chip on its shoulders because the common perception around the country is that they have not played anybody. The Tech stars include head coach Mike Leach and his gunslinger approach to offense, along with Graham Harrell, and Michael Crabtree , the redshirt sophomore, who would most likely break every receiving record in the history of college football if he stayed for four years.

The break down is this simple, even though Texas has beat three top ten teams in the last three weeks they have not left central Texas in order to do it. This will be their first test outside of a neutral site or DKR Memorial Stadium. I believe Texas has more than enough talent to beat the Red Raiders, but the fact that they will be on the road may give Tech the boost to pull the upset. I'm sure that Penn State fans will be rooting for a Tech victory as it looks like their best chance to derail the Longhorns from the top spot in the BCS ratings.

The defenses will be almost as ineffective as a 9 iron on the moon as both offensives should walk up and down the field all night long. Texas behind the 82 percent completion percentage of Colt McCoy can score on anybody and Tech has lit up more scoreboards than General Electric since Mike leach came aboard as head coach. Look for this to be a shootout with Texas winning a close one at Jones SBC Stadium. Do not be surprised if Tech cranks that Crabtree enough times for the win. Furthermore, Tech is in complete control of their own destiny with this week's game against Texas and with Oklahoma forthcoming. If they were to run the table they would almost be guaranteed a shot at the national championship.

Yours Truly,

Linus Letterwinner

Can Ty Willingham Please Get A Fair Shake?

Ty Willingham has announced earlier this week that he will be stepping down from his position as head coach of the University of Washington football team. I know that Ty has not had the best run in the last few years, but can you name a coach that has been fired as fast as Ty Willingham has in his last two coaching jobs, at Notre Dame and Washington?

Ty Willingham was fired at Notre Dame after only three seasons. This is not enough time to secure your own players and run your own system at a college. I think that for all the bad blood between Ty and Notre Dame it must feel good for Willingham to know that the only real successful year that Charlie Weiss, who oddly enough has not won as many games in his first 3 years at Ty did, had at Notre dame was with the players that Willingham recruited. Maurice Stovall, Trevor Laws, Rhema McKnight, Brady Quinn, Tom Zbikowski, John Carlson and Darious Walker all were Willingham signees. Don’t forget he signed Greg Olson the great Miami Hurricane tight end who left Notre Dame because of the great depth at TE.

Ty is a great recruiter and he did the University of Washington a favor by taking over a program in shambles. A program that has done absolutely nothing since finishing third in the country in 2000. I’m sure there was pressure from the Washington faithful who remember the “good ole days” with Napoleon Kaufman and Steve Ettman in the early 1990’s but the climate of football in the Great Northwest has changed. Mike Belotti has had Oregon amongst the nation's elite for a long time now. Oregon State also has had its share of success since Don James left his post at Washington. These two programs are smack dab in the middle of the only recruiting pipeline that gives Washington a chance to win and that is California. So why skip over all the good programs in California and the rest of the country and even the Oregon schools to play ball in at Washington? Doesn’t make sense to me either or Kurt Cobain for that matter. Washington produces little talent every year and those players like the Jonathan Stewarts (Former Oregon TB) and Taylor Mays (All-World USC Safety) of the world now head for the greener pastures of more elite programs with better facilities. Which leads to another reason that Ty had such a problem is that Husky Stadium and other athletic facilities at U-Dub are way over due for a makeover.

One last reason that Ty really deserved another year is that he was hired late in the recruiting season his first year on the job and only managed to nab 13 recruits that year which is hardly a foundation to lean your hat on this, his fourth year. This in effect really means that Coach Willingham has 3 years of recruits on the sidelines at UW. Detractors may say that he really did not impress in his subsequent recruiting efforts after his first year, but do I have to mention all the problems at Washington again for you to realize that Ty Willingham is really just a scapegoat for a much larger problem that persists at UW.

Change is good and even thought I feel like Ty deserved another year in Seattle in order to prove his worth. Maybe a new coach will be the rallying point that UW need fortify its boosters and alumni in order to make the major changes it takes to survive in the lowly Pac-10. How sad indeed is this last statement. UW is behind the bar on the proverbial short bus, of big time college football, that is the Pac-10, lol. Six Mag wishes Ty all that best in his future endeavors, possibly Clemson or Tennessee is a future option for Ty who knows. I would hope that wherever he ends up that he is finally given a fair shake and the time needed to produce a winner because to this point this has simply not been the case for Coach Willingham.

Sincerely, 

Cy Clayborneham

Adrian Peterson Minnesota Vikings RB Interview

I interviewed 2007 Rookie of the Year and Pro Bowl MVP, Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings. The mic on the camera is so good you can hear his 3 year old little brother Junior giving the sound effects in the background. LOL. Enjoy and thanks for the support.

Marcus Walker Minnesota Vikings CB Interview

I took some time to interview upcoming rookie cornerback Marcus Walker of the Minnesota Vikings. Enjoy

PRYOR VS. GRIFFIN

Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin set a Bowl Subdivision record on Saturday for the most pass attempts to start a career without an interception by a freshman. Griffin was 15 of 27 for 162 yards in the Bears' 34-6 loss at Oklahoma State, extending his streak of passes without an interception to 155.You would think that Griffin, after setting such a record would be regarded as the best freshman quarterback in the country. “Not so fast my friend “ in the words of Lee Corso. Most would argue that this honor belongs to freshman quarterbackTerrelle Pryor of Ohio State.
For the season Pryor has completed 59 or 90 pass attempts for 653 yards and with a 65.6 completion percentage with 6 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Griffin has completed 94 of his 155 pass attempts for 1,271 yards and 9 touchdowns with no interceptions. Griffin has better numbers but there are two factors to take into account. Griffin graduated from Copperas Cove High School in December 2007 in order to enroll early at Baylor. Furthermore, Griffin won his starting job in the spring at Baylor and has been the starter ever since. Pryor did not even sign with Ohio State until May 19th of this year after Griffin has already completed a full semester at Baylor and had earned All-American honors for his efforts with the Baylor track team. Pryor also did not become a full-time starter until a few weeks ago, as Todd Boeckman was the starter for the Buckeyes early in the season. Technicalities aside these two quarterbacks are the future of college football and both have a good head on their shoulders. Pryor chose OSU because he wanted to run a pro style offense in prepping for the NFL and Griffin chose Baylor over Stanford, Tennessee, Houston and Kansas because he plans to be a lawyer after school and chose Baylor because of their strong academic tradition. At this point, 6mag is going to tag Griffin as the better quarterback, based off of statistics and quality of competition in the Big 12, at the moment but Pryor is gaining fast every week and the Bucks offense is beginning to gain some steam. Here are some highlights of these two freshman phenoms. Enjoy and take care.

Sincerely, Billy Ocean

What Demarco Muarry and Michael Jordan Have In Common

It has been said that the only person that could hold Michael Jordan under 30 points was Dean Smith, Jordan's college basketball coach. The University of North Carolina Tar Heels basketball, team hosted other All-Americans besides Jordan, but more importantly they ran a slow tempo style of offense that didn't fit Jordan's explosive style. Jordan still shined and did what he could, but had Dean Smith just given the ball to Jordan and let him do his thing, they would have won more championships.

Yes, this is a football blog, no we are not changing. I say what I said about Jordan to say this, Bob Stoops and Demarco Muarry are the exact same. Look at Muarry's Redshirt Freshman season last year he made big play after big play with scores on runs from 92 yards and 65 yards. He also helped on special teams with kickoff return scores of 91 yards and 81 yards. He amased 764 yards, 13 toudowns with 6 yards per carry last year while sharing the load with two backs. Not to mention he averaged 29.3 yards per kick return with two scores. This year the numbers aren't down actually, but the numbers are misleading. Yes, Muarry has 520 yards and 7 touchdowns and a deceptively good average of 4.8 yards per carry. But this is not the Demarco Muarry expected coming out of high school and not the glimpses of stardom we saw last year. His longest run from scrimmage this year is 49 yards, he had 35 more carries through the first five games this year than last year and his longest kickoff return was 38 yards. To the average athlete these are great number, but not for Muarry. Muarry dislocated his knee cap last year causing him to miss the last three games of the year as well as spring drills but he and Stoops say he is healthy.

Muarry's father, Kevin Muarry, helped mold his son into the future NFL star he is and has noticed a hitch in his son's giddy up.

"Something is not there this year," Kevin said. "I don't know what's the problem. Either he's still hurt and doesn't want to say anything or he doesn't have the confidence back in that knee. He always says, 'Dad, I'm OK.' I think it's more of his confidence."

Offensive Coordinator for the Sooners, Kevin Wilson has this to offer on Muarry's performance.

"I see him cutting against the grain and trying to find big plays instead of just running," Wilson said. "If you're looking to make a big play, you won't make it. Just like trying to find a four-leaf clover. Sometimes it's right in front of you. You see it even though you're not looking for it.

"He will make more big plays by just playing hard and sticking to it. Like last year at Texas (on Murray 's 65-yard run), he just hit it hard, here's a crease, he jumps over a guy and he's gone."

I disagree with Muarry's father and coach Wilson. However, I place full blame on Wilson and Stoops. If you look at Muarry's running style in high school, he was the next Reggie Bush. Did Pete Carroll change Bush's style, no he let him flourish into a Heisman trophy winner and a top 3 draft pick in the NFL. Muarry's coaches are changing his running style and making him run stiff, inconsistent, and unconfident. The coaches need to realize that if they wanted a one cut running back they should have recruited one.

Brian Westbrook, Reggie Bush, Marshall Faulk, Barry Sanders and many other great running backs with unconvential running backs have succeeded and been some of the most marketable backs of all-time. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Well, Stoops and Wilson broke Demarco Muarry's running style when there was nothing wrong with it and now they must fix it and let the boy do his thing.

We at 6magazine hope to see the real Demarco Muarry before the season is over if not hopefully soon in the NFL.

Funny ESPN Article by Pat Forde

This is a great and funny article by Pat Forde of ESPN written yesterday. Take a look when you have a chance.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&page=dash0808&sportCat=ncf