Headlinin’: Texas Tech gives ‘Fighting Sioux’ one last retrograde portrayal for the road
• Okay, people are fine with it. But what about the horses? Somebody ought to be really upset with the cover of Texas Tech’s retro "Leach and the Badman" themed game program for Saturday’s win over the North Dakota Fighting Sioux, complete with the Raiders’ Yosemite Sam-esque mascot aiming at a frightened warrior on what appears to be an extremely intoxicated horse — or so says CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd, anyway. North Dakota is particularly sensitive to the iconography behind its mascot: The NCAA targeted the "Fighting Sioux" motif earlier this decade, and the university will officially retire it at the end of the month.
But is anyone in North Dakota actually offended? Well, the Grand Forks Herald published the cover Tuesday with no comment, but as far as I can tell, no, they’re not. I suppose it’s hard to get worked up over defending a mascot with a remaining shelf life of roughly three weeks.
• "It was a morgue." On the heels of Tuesday’s sobering news that Jermaine Gresham won’t be back this year, the best argument for the Sooners’ recovery minus Gresham and (for a few weeks, at least) quarterback Sam Bradford is simple coping: At least OU knows now it will operating without its biggest offensive stars, as opposed to losing Gresham just days before kickoff and Bradford just before halftime. That adjustment time can mean everything, as offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson well knows from surveying the Sooner locker room moments after Bradford went down:
"It was a morgue," said Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator. "A total morgue."
Offensive players aren’t supposed to be bouncing off the walls. That side of football is not Animal House. But neither should left guards and slotbacks be monks in a monastery.
Yet that’s what Sam Bradford’s separated shoulder did to half the Sooners. From zealots to zombies, all with the crunch of a shoulder.
Even more important: OU gets Idaho State, Tulsa and a week off to adjust to Landry Jones under center before its trip to Miami on Oct. 3, which may or may not be Bradford’s first game back.
• Debose done for the year. Florida freshman Andre Debose — a Percy Harvin clone in size, style and incoming hype — has been like his departed doppelganger in another way this preseason as he’s fought through a nagging hamstring injury. Unlike Harvin, though, Debose’s ailment is no week-to-week affair: The freshman will miss the rest of the season after electing to undergo surgery to reattach a torn tendon to bone. (How’s that breakfast?) Debose should be able to redshirt and have all four years in front of him, if the injury doesn’t cost him any of the quicks that made him one the top receiver recruits in the country.
That leaves Jeff Demps, Brandon James and Chris Rainey to alternate in at the "Percy Position," which I still maintain can’t really exist without Harvin himself, unless one of his replacements has a yet-to-be-seen talent for stretching defenses as a deep receiver.
Quickly … LSU players admit after the Tigers’ uncomfortably close call with Washington, "It’s like a lot of people feel like we lost." … Alabama’s Brandon Deaderick, days after playing through a gunshot wound in his arm, was excused from Tuesday’s practice, presumably to tend to his grandmother’s death over the weekend. … And just to be clear, the Birmingham News would like to point out that Alabama linebacker Rolando McClain is not LeGarrette Blount. Duly noted. … Gus Malzahn wants more speed from Auburn’s spread. … Charlie Weis praised Michigan’s freshman quarterbacks but promised Notre Dame’s defense "won’t be the same as it was last week, I can tell you that." Greg Robinson will return the favor. … Jim Tressel doesn’t care what’s on Terrelle Pryor’s eyeblack, but at least one guy at the Cleveland Plain-Dealer does. … Strange story from Ole Miss: Freshman Patrick Patterson, initially cleared to enroll and practice, was asked to retake the ACT before he could suit up Saturday against Memphis. … The Orlando Sentinel goes for the kneejerk version of Urban Meyer’s comments to the New York Times re: "retread" NFL coaches. (See here for the smart version.) … Jim Leavitt is giving up his Twitter feed. … Start preparing your children now for the USC-Tennessee series in 2021 and 2022. … And Penn State might be revising history just a tad in its promotion of "Classic Day" against Syracuse.
