Rhubarb Report 052

On a beautiful fall day in October, I had a sudden, chilling realization: the time change is upon us in one week. Ugh. I like my sunshine. The upcoming time change always harkens me back to my days in Canada. Back then, it would signify the coming of a long, cold, blustery winter. It would be dark going to work, and it would be dark leaving work. You had to go outside at lunch time to acknowledge the sun’s existence. Just the thought of this makes me want to hibernate.

Fortunately, a couple of days after the time change, we will also see the end of the current election cycle. That has to be a good thing – or lets hope so. A least the sound bites will change. Of course, the election may also give us all reason to hibernate for 4 years – but I digress.

Episode 52 of the Rhubarb Report takes a look at politics, football, and a brief look forward to college hoops.

1. The three presidential debates are now officially in the history books. Oh, and add in one vice presidential debate as well. They all produced a lot of sound bites. But do the debates really make a difference? I wonder how many undecided voters are actually swayed one way or the other by the content of a debate. Based on the polls after the debate on foreign policy, it appears that the voting public aren’t terribly concerned about global issues. Not that much of this matters to most of us anyways, given that the election really comes down to the outcome in just a handful of states.

2. Another couple of games down the road, and the University of Texas Longhorns are even more difficult to comprehend. Their defense gave up 50 points against Baylor. Fortunately, the offense managed to put up 56 points. A win is a win, right? Well, a trip to Kansas almost turned into an immediate pink slip for coach Mack Brown. The Longhorns were losing to the lowly Jayhawks for the duration of the game. Case McCoy had to complete a touchdown pass with 12 seconds left in the game in order to escape metropolitan Lawrence with a victory.

They may be 6 – 2, but they could have easily been 3 – 5. There was a last-minute win against OSU. The Horns managed to maintain serve and volley against Baylor, but they were down by 14 at one point. And then there was the Lethargy In Lawrence.

They have an always-tough road trip coming up against Texas Tech, a couple of home games against Iowa State and TCU (two teams that could spring an upset), and then a deadly road trip to the Little Apple to play Kansas State. I project a 7 – 5 record, with an 8 – 4 as the best case scenario. I think that Mack Brown has lost his coaching edge. He is paid $5 million a season, yet his overall record is 141 – 139 at Texas. That’s just not good enough.

At this point in the season, with no signs of an upward trend, I think that either Mack Brown will gracefully retire at season’s end (Dan Mullen of Mississippi State, please take the call on the courtesy phone), or Brown will stay and Manny Diaz (and any number of assistants) will be let go. Seal my answer in an envelope and let’s open it up the day after the KSU loss …

3. Fortunately, college basketball season will start soon. Oh, wait, there is another impending Longhorn coaching dilemma there as well. Will Rick Barnes find a way back to the Final Four any time soon? Maybe football doesn’t look so bad anymore.

Photo credits: Wikipedia