Monthly Archives: January 2010

Colt McCoy: injury prone

Colt’s injury last night, which probably cost Texas the BCS championship, was hardly the first time.

Not even the first time for the shoulder he said after the game had no feeling. He’d hurt it before, in 2006, followed a few weeks later by a severe pinched nerve in his neck. Then, in 2007, he suffered a mild concussion.

Says here he will now prepare for the NFL draft. He probably shouldn’t. Not only is he likely to sustain a greater injury in that more difficult arena, what team would want to invest millions in a fragile player of questionable health? He wouldn’t otherwise suffer. The Texas alumni association will see that he is gainfully, prosperously, employed for life.

Battleship B&B

battleshiptexas1

Alas, the extended freeze warnings for the weekend across much of Texas have eliminated the Cub Scout’s planned Saturday overnight on the Battleship Texas. It wasn’t the Cub Scouts who canceled, it was the folks who run the battleship. They’re worried about their water lines freezing and so will be cutting them off and they didn’t want the kids to have to bring their own water, apparently. Mr. B. and I are disappointed. Maybe next year.

Texas-Alabama

Have to laugh to see that Rasmussen has a poll out showing 55 percent of “fans” expect Bama to win tonight at the Rose Bowl. I laugh because that was almost exactly the prediction level in 2006 when Texas played USC for the national championship and won. Then, people would say, Texas would be nothing without QB Vince Young. Now they say the same about QB Colt McCoy who they expect will be corraled by the Bama defense. I expect (as I did in 2006) that Texas will win it, but, again, it will be close. It’ll be a defensive struggle most of the way.

UPDATE:  Well, with McCoy apparently out of the game with an injured passing shoulder, Texas is down 18 points at the half, 24-6. Texas was looking great before Colt got hurt. But the Texas defense is not stopping the Alabama run. So, even if backup QB Garrett Gilbert was completing some of the passes he has overthrown or the Texas receivers were not dropping the few good ones, Bama might still be well ahead. Hard to see a way, frankly, that Texas can win it now, without a big improvement of their defense in the second half.

FINAL:  I don’t feel so bad with the 37-21 loss to Alabama. The Texas defense held them scoreless for 29 minutes in the second half while the offense pulled within 3. Then Bama created a fumble and got a pick and scored on both. Game over. It shows that Texas might have won if McCoy had not been knocked out. Funny thing about him, though. He is by far the most injury-prone QB Texas has ever had.

Brrrr

Gad, it’s cold. Hovering at 30 degrees at the Rancho and headed down to 22 overnight. I know it’s worse in most places north and east of us. Tom Higdon, an OCS buddy in southwestern Missouri, emails that it’s 4 degrees where he is, with minus 6 expected. We’re not used to this kind of weather. At least we can anticipate being done with winter by Valentine’s Day.

Barry as Iago

Barry’s supposed journalistic critics contend he is merely clueless due to his lack of experience. But Shakespeare’s great play Othello, suggests another view entirely:

“Obama is not merely ‘clueless.’ Even when he gives lip service about the regrettable necessity of war as he did in the Nobel speech, Obama’s words do not ring true because they lack conviction. Iago, too, repeatedly professes his allegiance to Othello and has a reputation of being honest. Too many around him overlook evidence to the contrary. But careful readers understand character.”

Worth a look.

Dragon almost ready to fly

Falcon9secondstage

I’ve long thought that the only way we’ll ever get back to Luna to stay or go on to colonize Mars is via private company hardware and work. Here, a SpaceX crew readies the second-stage engine of their Falcon 9 rocket for a successful Jan. 2 test at their MacGregor facility up the road from Austin. The Falcon 9 was expected to fly last fall, lofting the company’s Dragon spacecraft to a rendezvous with the International Space Station. But it’s now expected to begin this spring. The liquid-fueled Falcon 9 and Dragon will replace NASA’s retiring space shuttle.

The “live axle” Morgan

Chatter on our OCS email group not so long ago turned to one fellow’s ownership of a forty-nine-year-old Austin-Healey. Reminded me of what I did on our Xmas break in 1967.

After discovering I had been dumped by my college girlfriend for a civilian, I spent the time sleeping in the bath tub of my sister’s one-bedroom D.C.  apartment (the couch was occupied) and driving around town with a friend who had a Morgan. The “live axle” one. No springs. Jar your teeth right out of your head. As the experts used to say: you hit the first bump in a Morgan, missed the second one and hit the third one.