Ogbonnaya Gets Some Florida Love

Nice timing, Orange Bowl. The week our National Championship dreams take a bit of a hit, Chris O. was announced as a nominee for the 2008 FedEx Orange Bowl/FWAA Courage Award. If you haven't read or heard anything about Ogbonnaya's life, it's worth reading up on for the simple reason that it really puts some bad luck on the football field into perspective.

The Vondrellphant in the Room

Watch out Mack, your couch and wallpaper don't match at all!*

We've got ourselves a mighty pachyderm sitting on the couch in the parlor and it might be time to talk about it. What the heck is going on with last season's favorite backup running back, sophomore Vondrell McGee? What happened to 8 TD's and 4.0 yards/carry? What happened to all the fans calling for McGee to replace the then fumble-prone Jamaal Charles? Where is that 28 yard scamper against ASU in the Holiday Bowl behind a freshman heavy o-line? Why are you getting less and less carries every game when it seems like everyone else is getting more and more?

Possible solutions:

• Only one #2 can be good at any point. Since Sergio Kindle is going nutz this year, Vondrell's powers have been weakened.
  
• Maybe he is suffering from a brutal sophomore slump. Basing that theory on what happened to Colt last season, Vondrell should be leading the Heisman race at this point next year.
• Vondrell is an incredibly generous person, and is allowing Chris Ogbonnaya some time in the limelight before he graduates. If that is the case, I support your sentiment Vondrell!
• John Chiles is making Vondrell McGee curious. These two were quite a team last year, and really fun to watch together in the backfield. As John Chiles turns more and more bi-position-curious, maybe Vondrell is considering a similar path. Remember Vondrell, no matter how fun rolling around on the ground and weeping looked when the OU punter did it, you pull way more girls as a running back. Did that sound gay? Whatever.
  
• Perhaps Vondrell works better under pressure. It may be possible that Vondrell actually rather liked running for his life behind an inexperienced o-line last season, and just doesn't feel challenged enough running behind an o-line that blocks fairly well.

Buck up Vondrell, Google knows who you are and that's way more than most of us can say.

*OT: This is actually an image from an art gallery by one of my favorite artists ever, Banksy.

FB=BB

Reading txtwstr7 @ BON's preview of the upcoming basketball season, I got to thinking about how similar our football and basketball teams are at the moment. Sort of like how girls who hang out too much will start to have their period at the same time. 

Starting with the preseason, both teams lost a key offensive facet to the glamour of professional sports. In football, we lost Jamaal Charles and Jermichael Finley, and in basketball D.J. Augustin made the wise choice to jump to the NBA. Both teams are second tier good, but you won't hear anyone raving about the raw talent featured on either team like in past seasons. No one doubts either team will see a fairly high level of success, but no one is expecting a national championship or Final Four appearance. Nevertheless, the football team and the basketball team both have a quiet confidence about them that this season that makes it hard to doubt them. And unfortunately both teams were expected to be worse than OU. 

During the season, both teams face a daunting schedule that will require character and perseverance. When looking at the players like Quan Cosby and Justin Mason, or Chris Ogbonnaya and Alexis Wangmene it is obvious that these teams are stocked with workaday team players who are going to have the focus and determination to play at a very high level every week. The worst baseball team I've ever played started 7 of the 9 eventual league All Star starters, but because we couldn't play together to save our lives we lost just about every single game. Our basketball and football teams might not be littered with All-Americans, but we are definitely going to win a lot of games.