After watching that Baylor – Washington track meet last night I sure am thankful we have Charlie Strong as our head coach. Neither team last night was particularly interested in playing any kind of sound defense. Baylor was just plain awful while Washington had some talent but was utterly devoid of any kind of defensive fundamentals. Missing tackles, poor edge setting, etc. ruled the night. But that is the MO for most all of the Big 12 and PAC-12. I think Texas is the only team in the Big 12 that believes in the term “defense”. All the rest of the teams in the Big 12 are just C-USA teams with better offensive talent and bigger stadiums. No defense to speak of is played whatsoever.

Charlie Strong KNOWS how to recruit, assemble, and execute an SEC caliber defense. That’s where this team is headed as long as he’s head coach. Having an SEC caliber defense will make us competitive in any conference in which we find ourselves. It can easily win us the Big East and will put us in the upper rung of the Big 12 ladder should we end up in that conference. In college football a top notch defense will get you places (see: Crimson Tide, Alabama and Tigers, LSU) but offensive firepower will only get you so far. It’s a different story in the NFL where offense rules, but around these parts, defense can win you a championship. If you review the history of SEC teams versus Big 12 / PAC-12 teams in bowl games, it’s not very pretty. SEC teams win just about every time versus the Big 12 and almost all of the time versus PAC-12 opponents. I can handle being one of the two teams that actually play defense in the Big 12.

Charlie Strong is here and I love it. Once he gets the talent in here and gets them seasoned, watch out. The future is bright indeed, no matter what situation our beloved athletic programs find themselves in down the road.

I don't post here very often, but I just had these thoughts and wanted to share them with some fellow Cards fans.

I saw Will Stein at the U of L women's volleyball match vs Ole Miss tonight and his left foot/ankle was in a walking boot.  I'm going to assume it wasn't anything major and just precautionary since he was walking around on it and was there cheering on the volleyball team (they won 3-0) instead of staying off of it.  Plus he went down during the volleyball serving contest and won a tee shirt by hitting one of the targets with his serve.  Just found it interesting.

Just filling in on the atmosphere of the game after a disappointing Cardinals loss.

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Scott Long is with the 49ers after going undrafted this weekend.  Its odd that he didn't shoot up draft boards after his numbers at the combine.  Even with his injury history, with his combine numbers I would have thought he was draftable (if that's a word) on the 3rd day of the draft.  But whatever.

Good luck Scott.  He has a chance out there to make the team.

http://www.nepatriotsdraft.com/p/2010-nfl-undrafted-free-agents.html

I case some of you haven't heard, the only real sports talk channel (93.9) in the city is no more after today.  Cumulus, the channel's parent company, is switching the channel's format to automated classic rock. 

Jurich pulled the station's U of L credentials after John Renshaw predicted Pitt would mop the field with us.  Of which they did.  Matt Jones also says that Jurich didn't like the fact that the station employed him as blatant UK homer, and that was another reason the credentials was pulled.  While Jones is a complete UK homer and a borderline U of L hater, at least he's witty and is fun to listen to.  While it wasn't all Jurich that caused this, he had some hand in it, that is obvious.  The station became handicapped when it didn't have access to U of L personel or games.  I'm guessing some of the station's sponsers were or were about to be squeezed by U of L.  But that's just speculation on my part.

Renshaw bashed Jurich and Cumulus today and his show got pulled and ESPN national put in its place.  I feel bad for all the talent at the station.  They were just getting things going and ratings were rising.  Hell there's no competition for them.  790 isn't really all that great.  Its basically just an AM station to broadcast U of L games because WHAS went blue.  Jim Rome sucks, the Afternoon Underdogs do the best they can, but when you can't speak the truth out of fear for your job, then you'll always be limited.

With his Krag hire, his "Orange Bowl every week" comment, and this stunt against free speech, I'm starting to wonder if TJ hasn't worn out his welcome here.  I'm grateful for what he has done in his tenure here, but at what point does someone's ego become so big that he becomes a dictator and a detrament to his own Athletic Department?  Good luck getting any other sports talk radio station any time soon, you simply can't compete when your station can't get access to U of L.

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday dear Ricky!

Happy birthday to you!

And many more (NCAA championships that is...)

Sept. 18th

I'm looking forward to the baskeball season.  Its going to be exciting this season and I can't wait to see the team in action!

Damn 75 word minimum.  I have to keep talking.  Did I mention the football team looked good last night?  I was there and stayed until Hunter's final kneel down.  Awesome stuff...

I know this is a Cardinal blog and he's not a Card, but if you guys haven't seen this guy swim yet, you should. 

Rumor has it he's pretty good in the water...

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