'Cats Out of Their League?
Or was Saturday night's drubbing just part of the process?
FreeForAll Sunday busts in, to give youse something to do before 4:35. We belly up to the virtual bar to discuss Satterfield’s stumbles, Hoard’s rumbles and the new House Speaker’s mumbles. Enjoy. Then consider becoming a Cool Kid by being a paid member of Mobster Nation. (He says modestly.)
And don’t forget to return here postgame, for Ten Things about the game.
Scott Satterfield. (Sporting News)
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GROWING PAINS OR. . . UC hung with Oklahoma State for a half Saturday night, then showed Prime-Time Viewing Nation that the Bearcats are more of a Saturday-at-noon production. Excellent run game and not much else.
After the 45-13 pasting in Stillwater, UC has been outscored by an average of 17 a game in four games against Big 12 teams not named BYU. Saturday night, the ‘Cats were beaten up and beaten down. Their two best RBs apparently determined they were too beaten up to play four quarters. Satterfield changed QBs in the 4th quarter and afterward, offered no definitives on whether the switch was temporary or something else.
Given the mass exodus of talent, the new coach and staff and the vast upgrade in schedule, no one expected UC to be a Big 12 factor this year. The larger question — the only question — is if Satterfield & Co. have the stuff to build a competitive program in the next 3-5 years.
Maybe it’s because we’ve been spoiled by Kelly, Jones and Fickell, but so far, Satterfield has neither the dynamic presence nor the coaching chops to match his predecessors. (Save the mega-lame Tuberville, and no one should want to be compared to that guy.)
That said, Satterfield is a textbook example of my long-held feeling that all college coaches be signed to 5-year contracts, ie, one full recruiting cycle. A coach can’t be fired in that time period, nor can he leave for another job. That accomplishes a few things:
Allows the coach a fair shot at building something, or showing that he can’t, and,
Quells the madness that is the big-time football and basketball coaching carousel.
As recently as 2019, Ohio State was blasting Fickell’s Bearcats, 42-0. Two years later, they were playing in the football Final Four. Satterfield hasn’t shown us much yet, but he deserves a fair shot. So does UC, if Satterfield’s Bearcats quickly make us forget this so-far lamentable fall.
PROGRAMMING NOTE. . . I’m an OG, so not even the experts at Substack can teach me how to Chat. They certainly can’t gauge how much interest might be generated from the Mobster masses. So. . .
If I figure out how to do this seemingly simple-for-everyone-but-me process, might you take part? At halftime tonight, say, for 15 minutes during Bengals-49ers? I can try to not screw it up, if there’s sufficient interest. If not — if it’s too soon and needs further study and more advance notice — I’ll bag it today and work on it for next Sunday. What say you, loyalists?
DAN HOARD NEEDS A PRIVATE JET. Being the radio play-by-play guy for two football teams is a nice definition of insanity. Nothing says “no way’’ like trying to get from Jerkwater, er, Stillwater, to Santa Clara, CAL in less than 24 hours. That was Dan Hoard’s assignment between midnight Saturday and 4 pm Sunday. And you thought finding ways to praise the Bearcats last night was tough.
From the Enquirer’s Scott Springer:
The UC kickoff (was) at 7 p.m. Central (8 ET) in Stillwater and the Bengals play the 49ers at 1:25 Pacific Sunday (4:25 ET). Immediately after the UC game, he'll drive a little over an hour (possibly more with post-game traffic) to Oklahoma City.
His original plan was to get a couple of hours of sleep at an airport hotel then catch a 6 a.m. flight to Denver. However, Denver has snow, so he's actively searching for a change.
I vote for covered wagons across the Donner Pass.
STICK TO SPORTS. . . Eighteen murdered in Maine by a gun-toting lunatic. This is the reaction from brand-new House Speaker Mike Johnson:
“Prayer is appropriate in a time like this, that the evil can end and this senseless violence can stop.”
Yes, let us now bow our heads in prayer to the Church of Guns. Let us nod appropriately gravely at this latest slaughter-by-AR-15. Let us all agree that this senseless violence must stop. At least until it’s time to take more blood money from the NRA or make a rousing speech about 2nd Amendment rights. At a fundraiser, perhaps.
Speaker Mike on social media Oct. 17:
“It was great to catch up with the Women for Gun Rights representatives today to discuss the safeguarding of our Second Amendment rights.”
Johnson also said what all hypocrites and cowards say after mass murders: Now is not the appropriate time to discuss tighter gun laws, namely banning the sale of assault weapons to people not defending our country from invasion. “The problem is the human heart,’’ Johnson decided. “It’s not guns… this is not the time to talk about legislation.”
Such BS.
I’d be interested to know when is the appropriate time to discuss wanton mass murders. I could put it on my calendar. Meantime, just since Maine, eight people have died in this country and 26 have been wounded in four separate shootings. Lookitup.
A big Amen for our 2nd Amendment rights.
AND FINALLY. . . Joe Burrow speaks about today’s tilt:
“We historically have been really good after the bye, I just think when our backs are against the wall and we come out fighting, we are at our best. We’ll find out if we are the same team this year.” “We’ll find out a lot about ourselves on Sunday.’’
Thanks for good stuff today, Doc. Hard to focus on sports with all the killing happening the past week or so. We have seen so very many of these mass killings stories that we truly are numb. The same thing happened during the civil rights movement in regards to beatings and lynchings until news organizations presented the country not with words but with film of what was happening. I think we have to see for ourselves the result of the violence. I now wish that (with the permission of the families of course) the media could show the real impact of the carnage so that people would have it seared into their mind's eye. Maybe if people saw the bodies of American children and citizens of all ages and genders they would pressure the politicians to actually do something. Maybe if the media interviewed children who months later are too scared to go to school or adults who are uneasy in any crowded store, bar, or theater people and politicians would realize that the impact of these tragedies last long past the news cycle. Maybe if people were actually confronted with what these killings look like they would force the hand of congress. Every country on this planet has people with mental health issues. Every country on this planet has violent movies and video games. Most every country on this planet has religious, political, and social divisions among their populace. NO developed country on this planet has as many gun deaths than the United States. NO country on this planet has as many and as devastating weapons in the hands of its citizens. For the first 200 years or so this country recognized the 2nd Amendment for what it is, a right for an 18th century militia to have weapons. That all began to change around 1976 when the NRA radically changed it's MO from hunting and fishing to become a political (and self-enriching) force in this country. This outdated amendment is long past its usefulness.
I was a Cold War warrior and the training actually deterred conflict. I still see no reason to carry a gun unless it was to honor my pledge fight enemies, either foreign or domestic.
Since, we have had a war on drugs, then a war on terror and much of it driven by those seeking power by convincing regular people they want to fix these things. Most of them just want your vote.
Grass roots organization and time is what drives sustained change in America. Woman’s Rights, Civil Rights, Disabilities Act legislation all took place after grass roots movements first.
Research some grass roots organizations and pass them along each time a shooting occurs occurs Doc. Maybe we’ll get mad and get involved.