Baylor Bears (Football)

20 Fun Facts About College Football's Final Regular Season Coach's Poll

College football's methodology for selecting its championship game participants (and its marquee four bowls outside of the title game, for that matter), the BCS, is cloaked in numerous flaws that when all is said and done, more often than not give us a title game shrouded in controversy over who act ... More >>

Aggies, Texans, LSU: Football! This Weekend's Best Bets, Helping Impoverished Greek Soccer Teams

Ironically, I lead into this weekend's football bets with a story of a poor Greek soccer team trying to stay afloat financially. Courtesy of the Soccernet area on ESPN.com: Players on a cash-strapped Greek soccer team now wear pink practice jerseys with the logos "Villa Erotica" and "Soula's House ... More >>

The Mack Brown Deathwatch: It's Time For Our Highly Scientific Graphic Tracking The Longhorn Coach's Chances Of Survival

For many, many, many of is, it is highly enjoyable to see a Longhorn skulk out of the Cotton Bowl after another amazingly embarrassing defeat at the cackling hands of hated arch-rival Oklahoma. It's something the Longhorns have been getting used to, seeing as how it seems to happen with regularity ... More >>

Boom. Roasted. -- The Monday Morning College Football Roast, Drunk Betty White Edition

Saturday night, given the choice between staying at home with me to watch the annual Denard Robinson Tear-Notre-Dame's-Heart-Out-And-Show-It-To-Them-Apalooza (and experiencing the corresponding remote control throwing that goes with it) and going out to dinner with her girlfriends to a nice restaura ... More >>

Football! This Weekend's Best Bets, Another Crappy Notre Dame Video Edition

Popcorn lung. Apparently, that's a thing. On Wednesday, a federal jury awarded a Denver man named Wayne Watson $7.2 million from various food companies after they determined that the respiratory problems he developed in 2007 were due to his frequent inhalation of the buttery aroma from microwave po ... More >>

NFL Week 1: Schaub Gets Rich(er), Buffalo Gets Poor(er) -- 4 Winners, 4 Losers

Check out our slideshow of the Houston Texans' season opener against the Dolphins. Could Sunday have been any better? 80-degree day. Sun shining. Birds singing. NFL football back in our lives. Oh and someone left a whole book of Burger King coupons in the lobby of my building. SCORE! So yeah there ... More >>

College Football Week 1: 4 Winners, 4 Losers Among Coaches, Heisman Candidates, QBs

Thursday night college football is fun. The Friday night ESPN game, at least under the magical watch of Joe Tessitore, has become somewhat sneaky over the years. But the college football season truly begins on that first Saturday. So when I fired up the television Saturday morning, then and only th ... More >>

New Baylor Stadium: Now Texas Can Actually Have a Good College Football Venue

On Friday, Baylor regents gave a thumbs-up to the construction of a new $250-million stadium that will post up on the Waco campus and alongside the Brazos River. If Waco City Council green lights the $35 million tax increment financing zone funds that would be needed, then the 45,000-seat venue coul ... More >>

NFL Draft 1st Round by the Numbers: Ranking High School Ratings, Conferences

The first round of the NFL Draft is in the books, and now we spend today overanalyzing the selections the teams made last night (complete with the inane letter-grade report cards for a bunch of players that have not yet even had their first press conferences with their new teams) and preparing for t ... More >>

Proper Pronunciation and UT Fans

Comment of the Day: Let the Coog Hatred Bloom

We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involving wit ... More >>

A Very Special BCS Edition of 4 Winners, 4 Losers

For the first time in the history of my Texans fandom, their bye week left me with a palpable void. Sure, I love having NFL football in this city, even bad football is better than no football, so the bye week always feels a little weird. However, this season's team is a little different. If the Te ... More >>

TCU to the Big 12: What's Changed Since the Southwest Conference Went Kaput

​Earlier this week, Texas Christian University officially accepted an invitation to join the Big 12 Conference, which sort of models the old Southwest Conference, a division that the Horned Frogs competed in from 1923 to 1996. We gotta tell you, horny toads, compared to '96, the league is goi ... More >>

The Scrubs Get Major Playing Time As Coogs Glide To Easy Victory

J.D., Turk, and the gang didn't get to play, but the rest of the Cougars bench got plenty of playing time​As the Cougars trotted off of the field after the first half on Saturday night, the question wasn't whether the Cougars would be in need of another second half comeback. That wasn't the q ... More >>

This Weekend in College Football: The Coogs Should Get the Easy Win While The Owls Look to Lose Again

The Pink Panther would probably provide tougher competition to UH than the Georgia State Panthers will​While the Rice Owls (1-1) struggle with the Baylor Bears this weekend, the Houston Cougars (3-0) will be struggling with themselves. It might seem that the Owls have the harder struggle, wha ... More >>

Owls Go for the Drama and Come Out with the Win

Rice Owls deliver the perfect birthday gift.​So close yet so far away. Nobody beats Rice but Rice. There they go again. Playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Just a few of the thoughts going through the head of Rice Owls fans as the Purdue Boilermakers sent the kicking team out fo ... More >>

Five Reasons Why Texas A&M Just Ruined College Football

It's an emo day to be a college football fan. ​Today, Texas A&M basically ushered in the era of the college football superconference when the Southeastern Conference extended an invite to the university. (That legal threat lobbed by Baylor an anonymous Big 12 school is idle at best.) Well don ... More >>

College Realignment Talk Is The New NFL Lockout Talk

More a-holery from Ken Starr​During this past summer of sports talk radio, our insatiable appetite for any topic football-related, our perennial need to talk about minutiae at all times, and the usual summer content-related radio doldrums met at a tedious midpoint -- a no man's land that left ... More >>

Rocks Off's Musical 2011 Texas Football Preview

buckaroosfunnypictures.comHook 'em Horns...​You wouldn't know it from walking around outdoors, but fall is just around the corner, and in Texas that means two things: We no longer have to consume our body weight in water for shows at the Pavilion, and it's almost time for college football. An ... More >>

Five Reasons Why Texas A&M Needs to Elope to the SEC

​Hey, Texas A&M and the Southeastern Conference: Get a room already! Then get married or whatever because this idle flirtation, which has been going on for years, is getting tired. For the past few weeks, a potential move by A&M to the SEC has become a hot topic, especially after the A&M Boar ... More >>

Blue Hair and Mohawks: Notes From the Rice Owls Media Day

Pity the fool who mocks the Mohawk.​The Rice Owls' media day on Saturday was a bit looser than the media day held by the Houston Cougars on Friday afternoon. There were more players available. There was more laughter. The coaches mingled with the press. Spirits were high. It's not that th ... More >>

Top 5 Best Big 12 Football Games of 2011 (With Predictions)

Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner, etc., etc., etc.​Football-wise, the Big 12 (aka. Oklahoma and the nine others) is barely hanging on, now that Nebraska is in the Big Ten and Colorado bolted to the Pac-12. The 2011 season, which is just over a month away, marks the first time that ... More >>

The Final Play

After traumatic knee injury, Case Keenum has one more season to prove his talents.

2011 NFL Draft -- Live Blog

I am not an NFL Draft expert. How's that for unbridled confidence? Right out of the shoot, in a live blog for the NFL Draft, a host of a sports talk show is admitting that he's not an expert at something sports related, let alone the thing at which he's about to live blog. If you're looking for l ... More >>

Ticket City, New Era Pinstripe? What Happened To The Real Bowl Games?

What kind of name is New Era Pinstripe Bowl?​It's possible that I'm getting old and becoming one of those grumpy old dudes who think that everything was better during his day. That caveat out of the way, I've got to ask: am I the only one around here who remembers when the New Year's Day bow ... More >>

Today Is Baylor Day In Houston. Act Accordingly

Baylor Day comes with certain rules​Things you probably didn't know: Today is Baylor Day in Houston -- with a fancy proclamation and everything. It all has to do with the Texas Bowl, in which Baylor is making its return to post-season football after a long absence. (If you're aware of how dif ... More >>

Texas Bowl: Two Very Different Views Of Houston From Illinois

He's just looking for the Menil Collection​If you're not a Baylor alum, you might not yet have caught Texas Bowl Fever, but you will, you will. Baylor and Illinois are in town for the Wednesday game at Reliant, and that means, in the case of Illinois at least, fresh impressions of Houston. J ... More >>

Texas Bowl Says More Than 60,000 Tickets Sold

The Baylor-Illinois battle looms​There were some who grumbled a bit about this year's Texas Bowl matchup (us, for example), but if ticket sales are any indication, the whiners are in the minority. Bowl officials announced today that 60,000 seats have been sold and only 10,000 remain with eigh ... More >>

Dr. Brown's Dubai Detention

Sex toys get hand doc in trouble

Texas Bowl Gets Baylor! And, Ummm, Illinois

Texas Bowl 2010: The return of Art Briles​The 2010 Texas Bowl will give Houston a look at the surprisingly successful Baylor Bears, headed by former UH coach Art Briles. The good news: Baylor is breaking a 16-year bowl drought. The semi-bad news, in terms of the chances for a compelling footb ... More >>

Texas A&M Aggies: Care To Make The Rest Of The Season Interesting?

Headed for a life of disappointment​I had other things I wanted to get to today, other anecdotes and information I wanted to share with all of you. Really, I did. But this one is time sensitive.If I wait even 48 more hours, the impact is lost because by then Notre Dame will have beaten Boston Co ... More >>

Case Keenum Faces The Future

Photo by Red Rooster Facing down a defense is the easy thing now​The Houston Cougars knew they were going to have to eventually make the transition. They just weren't counting on that transition coming during the middle of this season's third game. But it was during the second quarter of the Co ... More >>

Rice Faces Improving Baylor, Hoping To Cut Down On Key Mistakes

Art Briles comes back to Houston with a good QB​The Rice Owls and Baylor Bears used to play each other every season. Then the Southwest Conference imploded. The Bears used some political clout to get into the Big 12, a conference where they've been outclassed every season. The Owls have bounced ar ... More >>

Rice Finds Out What Big 10 Football Is Like

He does look mean​The Rice Owls came into Saturday's game against the Northwestern Wildcats on a high.Though they had played a sloppy game against North Texas the week before, the Owls had come away with the win. The offense had moved the football. The defense had made stops when it needed to. ... More >>

Big 12 Conference Madness: The Winners & Losers

"UT's Bitch" is such a nice conference name​So Texas has decided to stay put, and the Big 12, oops, Big 10, lives another day.Good for it, I guess.Let's just say that it's been an interesting couple of weeks that, despite what others think, is far from over. But let's take a look at the Winners ... More >>

UH's Achilles Heel: No One Goes To The Games

cutline​I was sitting next to one of my fellow reporters at a UH football game last fall. I think the opponent was SMU, though it might have been Southern Miss. The Coogs were highly ranked, and they were getting lots of national attention. Yet Robertson Stadium was nowhere close to being sold ... More >>

Game Time: Longhorns & Notre Dame -- The Last Two Independents

Irish & Longhorns, together again​"in·de·pen·dent (nd-pndnt) - adj. Free from the influence, guidance, or control of another or others; self-reliant"For 123 years, the adjective "independent" has been as intertwined with Notre Dame football as the word "Catholic" has been to describe the u ... More >>

Game Time: College Football Realignment: A 2003 History Lesson

Big East fever: Possibly catchable (Not shown: South Florida)​To sit down and type up a piece about college football realignment, specifically the (choose one) maintaining of/realignment of/annihilation of the Big 12, knowing that said piece would be set to run nearly 24 hours from now feels almos ... More >>

In Praise Of The Cougars And Kevin Sumlin

​There have been a lot of rumors circulating about Houston Cougars head coach Kevin Sumlin. Mostly rumors about him leaving the Cougars to take over as head coach of another, more high-profile college football team. But according to Steve Campbell at the Houston Chronicle, Sumlin is close to signi ... More >>

Shoulda Stayed Away: The 10 Worst Comebacks Of The Decade

​The Oughts, or whatever the hell people are going to call them (The Hell Years?) Are quickly drawing to a close; meaning it is a time to reflect on the 10 years that we've endured.Hair Balls and our sister blogs, Rocks Off and Eating...Our Words, will be putting together various lists delineating ... More >>

Game Time: Road Trip Edition, The Middle And The End

​(Cue cheesy announcer voice:) "When we last left our our venerable 1560 The Game crew of Pendergast, Nuno and Ramzanali, they were checking into the Norman, Oklahoma Days Inn at 2:30 in the morning, readying themselves for three days of free continental breakfast and lumpy mattresses. To read ab ... More >>

The Big 12: We Want Mediocre Bowl Games, Dammit

​Apparently the Big 12 is so bad when it comes to football that the league's commissioner is begging the NCAA to declare that any team that wins six games is automatically invited to a bowl game.As if most of the bowl games weren't bad enough to begin with, just think of how bad they will be when ... More >>

Game Time: Weekend Review

​I hope everyone had a great weekend, and that you were all able to enjoy the nice weather by moving your television and recliner into your driveway to watch football on TV.  I'd like to start off by welcoming the Texans to this new thing for them called "November".  Boys, I know in ... More >>

Game Time: Friday Broken Glass

​Just cleaning up some random broken glass in my "Blog" folder on a Friday ... Can You Guess This Team? Channeling my inner Cosmo Kramer... WHO WANTS TO HAVE SOME FUN?! Ok, well, I'm going to describe a fairly well known football team to many of you, and after I'm finished describing them, s ... More >>