Baylor Bears

Postscripts: Oklahoma State’s No-Show, Cougar Tails, Kirk Herbstreit’s Dog

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Mike Gundy

What’s going on in the Big 12 and beyond? I expand and explain every Sunday in Postscripts at Heartland College Sports, your home for independent Big 12 coverage.

This week, get ready for the Bluebonnet Battle (actually, don’t, I’ll explain), it’s the rare time when a cliché excuse isn’t, Cougar Tails and dogs on the road.

 

The Bluebonnet What?

TCU and Baylor will play next week. TCU and Baylor will also play every year, per the new Big 12 schedule.

So let’s get ready for the … Bluebonnet Battle? What?

Baylor and TCU have played each other since before the 20th Century. It’s been called the “Revivalry,” which is perfect when you consider it’s a game between two private religious institutions.

It took me be surprised. I was confused when I saw it. The logo looked quite official. Given that TCU-Baylor will be one of four designated “rivalry” games in the new Big 12, I thought perhaps someone hurriedly put together a name and a logo to keep up with the Territorial Cup (Arizona-Arizona State), the Holy War (BYU-Utah) and the Sunflower State Showdown (Kansas-Kansas State).

So I Googled “Bluebonnet Battle.” Guess what I found — a book called “The Bluebonnet Battle” by Carolyn Brown. Per Google, it’s about “old rivalries, young love, and a lemon meringue pie to die for,” if you’re into that.

 

Then I filtered by news. The first story to come up was about a rivalry … between Burnet and Llano, who were allowed 40 years ago to designate themselves as the “Bluebonnet Co-Capitals of Texas.” There was also a fire at a Wendy’s on Bluebonnet Boulevard in Baton Rouge, La., in April.

So … what’s up?

A Reddit threat figured it out. An official Baylor University account called it “The Bluebonnet Battle.” Reddit had a screenshot but I can no longer find it on social media.

So, it’s the “Revivalry.” Carry on. But let’s get a logo because I think we could have a lot of fun with that.

They Were Not Ready

One of the phrases that hate hearing from coaches is the variation of “I didn’t do enough to prepare us to play.” I’ve always felt it’s a cop-out quote, especially in football. You’re telling me you had a week to prepare your team and you, well, didn’t do enough?

I’ve always felt it’s what a coach says to protect their team. I think it’s weak, but I get why they do it. I’m just able to reach between the lines.

I don’t know what Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said after Saturday’s loss to UCF, but if he said something like “I didn’t do enough to prepare my team this week” I would have believed him. His Cowboys looked completely lost against the Knights.

 

All one had to do was fire up last week’s game tape against Cincinnati to know that running back RJ Harvey has to be stopped. OSU couldn’t. In fact, Harvey hit them worse than he hit Cincinnati.

The Cowboys’ offense was just inept the entire game. Too many turnovers, too many mistakes.

Don’t give me the rain or the Bedlam hangover either. This is a team that had everything to play for the next three weeks in getting a trip to Arlington for the Big 12 Championship Game. Focus shouldn’t have been a problem.

It was one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen from a ranked team in my life. The Cowboys looked unprepared. And if Gundy wants to put that on him, well, for once, I’ll agree.

That’s three hours of my life I’m never getting back.

Cougar Tails

As many of you know, I covered BYU’s first Big 12 home game against Cincinnati. While there, I was introduced to … Cougar Tails.

 

The Iowa State fans got their first looks at them this weekend when the Cyclones visited the Cougars out in Provo.

 

Here’s a good link if you want to read about them. But, basically, it’s a 15-inch long maple bar and BYU sells more than 8,000 of these each home game.

Now, BYU is doing special editions. For the Texas Tech game it was bacon-covered. For Iowa State the Cougars broke out a chocolate-covered version.

It’s worth the trip, I’m here to tell you.

Herbie’s Dog

Like him or not, ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit has started doing something cool — traveling with his dog.

Herbstreit’s travel schedule is just ridiculous. He calls an NFL game for Amazon with Al Michaels every Thursday, then flies to the on-location set of College Game for Saturday’s pre-game show and, most Saturdays, hops on another plane for his Saturday night call.

Recently, he started taking Ben with him. Now designated an emotional support animal, Ben made the trip with him to call Thursday’s game in Chicago and then to Athens, Ga., for College Gameday and the Ole Miss-Georgia game.

I mean does life get any better than this?

 

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.

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