An unlikely underdog?

Today’s thought: With Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford out for several weeks and All-American tight end Jermaine Gresham out for the season, does this make Oklahoma the new underdogs?

What constitutes an underdog? Lack of postseason success? Lack of wins? Lack of potential? Or something else?

Everyone loves an underdog…

Joy and pain

The inaugural college football Saturday of 2009 is over.

What a day it was.

A lot of Oklahoma State – and Texas – fans out there are very happy today.

In fact, I can’t think of a scenario in which Cowboy fans are more happy, save a national championship win.

First, No. 9 OSU shows resilience and rallies past a good team (No. 13 Georgia) from a great conference (the SEC). Furthermore, the game was won with defense – a traditional major weakness for OSU. The Cowboys also pulled it off in front of a record crowd (53,012) in their shiny, revamped stadium in front of a national audience.

Later that night, OSU’s rival No. 3 Oklahoma loses to No. 20 BYU. Granted, it was a one-point loss to a ranked opponent on a neutral field. That’s an unfortunately positive spin on an ugly game by OU that many picked to be a blowout. On top of that, said rival’s Heisman-winning quarterback is rocked in the waning seconds of the first half and is out indefinitely.

I’m happy for my friends and family who are so excited. But I know that when OU is good in the hunt for a national championship, that gets my employer money. As in readers, as in advertisements, as in us keeping our jobs. (Not to suggest that one Sooner loss is dire news or that my company is in bad shape at all, but these things tend to add up.)

People love a winner. Do you soak up every detail about your favorite team when they suck? Do you spend hours on the internet, googling for updates, checking the message boards or repeatedly refreshing the newspaper’s sports blogs or Twitter for another morsel of news after a ho-hum loss? Didn’t think so.

But this was no ho-hum loss for OU. And besides, we should know more about Sam in the next day or so. Personally, I hope he is OK to play soon, because it’s a huge blow to more than the team – the Big 12 Conference, too. And he seems like a nice, classy kid too.

I don’t think OU will fall too far in the Associated Press poll. I envision a slip from No. 3 to No. 13-15. I mean, BYU was ranked No. 20, after all. It’s not like the TCU loss or anything.

As for OSU, I see it creeping up a couple of spots – No. 6 or so. I hate that I’m going off of gut instinct, but if I were to do what my boss is doing right now (spending hours objectively analyzing what all the Top 25 teams did so he can vote fairly), I’d be up for a while.

But, I had at least a liter of Diet Dr Pepper today at our Sports department potluck, so I don’t know what makes me think I’m going to sleep anytime soon. (P.S. Mexican potluck = awesomeness)

So, what else… Oh, here’s something fun. I was about to leave for work when I checked the front porch as I always do (for packages, flyers, phone books, etc.). The OSU flag I ordered Wednesday was there! So I spent a good 10 minutes assembling it and jamming it into the flag holder mounted by the garage.

When my hubby and I bought a home in June, buying a flag to put out on gameday was a priority. I mean, not just for me as an objective journalist, but for my OSU grad husband to enjoy too. And it arrived the same day OSU beat Georgia. Good omen?

P.S. If you haven’t already, please check out tulsaworld.com/sportsextra. It has been re-awesomed, and I think you’ll like what you see. It’s the most comprehensive coverage of what our readers want to see: OU, OSU, TU and more.

Adios, Blake

So Blake Griffin announced he’s leaving OU for the NBA today. Shocker, right?

Well, at least all the teams scheduled to play the Sooners for the next two years are probably glad.

I’m just glad we are finally able to get rid of some “expected to”s in our copy, like “expected to declare for the NBA draft,” “expected to sweep player of the year awards,” etc.

It’s a smart move for him, obviously. There’s not much he could have done next season to improve his draft ranking as he has already shown he’s a man among boys on the court.

It’s good he didn’t go the way of Sam Bradford, who is staying for his junior year at OU. They both had astronomical seasons stats-wise, but Sam would benefit from another year.

The WNBA draft is Thursday, and Courtney and Ashley Paris are expected to be lottery picks. Good for them. It’ll be weird next season without any Parises or Griffins at OU.

I hope Courtney doesn’t stay too long in the WNBA. Maybe just a few years or so, then she can start making the big bucks at ESPN. I’ve heard a lot of people say Ashley will be the better player in the long run.

Courtney is a journalism major and seemed to usually be a good interview, maybe because she is learning the other side of it. I think she would do well as an analyst.

Anyway, as an OSU alum, I’m just glad Blake Griffin is gone. He is an exciting player to watch, but not if you are on the other side.

Well, got to get to work on a rare Tuesday. Springsteen is in town and I guess a lot of people have tickets, meaning I need to work. Hooray.

Spring is here!

I’ve been meaning to write this blog for several days, and now it’s almost too late.

Since this is the blog of a sports copy editor, I try to keep posts to three general areas: sports commentary, journalism-industry commentary and grammar. This post is not about any of those things, but I’ll try to make a connection…

One of my favorite trees came into bloom in Tulsa a few days ago. They are all over town, but you’d never notice them until the one week a year that they bloom.

Can you guess what kind of tree I’m talking about? Here’s a hint:

Here is the tree.