Five questions today, as I couldn't decide which nonsense question to go with...you get them both!
1 - What is the one area you would like to see your team (for MU and kU for Doug) improve in the next game (and no Doug, you can’t say "the win/loss column")?
2- So...do you believe in the "curse of mangino"?
3 - What do you make of the apparent end to America’s love affair with Boise State? We’ve enjoyed them putting a wrench in the BCS in prior years, but it seems that people would just like them to go away now.
4 - If you could only listen to one song on replay for the rest of your life, what would it be?
5 - Oddest Hidden Talent? Juggling, ear-wiggling, speaking a non-traditional second language, etc etc?
(First response: ZouDave's out-of-office reply. Bad sign for the roundtable.)
Doug: 1 - Ugh... how about "everything," is that legal?
2 - I believe in the curse of not having a cohesive offensive game plan. Seriously, it was like throwing a bunch of crap on the field and seeing what stuck. Some stuff worked, but it seemed like KU just went away from it to try something else in the playbook.
3 - I don't know if people want them to go away, but I think there are still a lot of people who, even with the win against VaTech, don't want to see a WAC schedule reward someone with a trip to the National Championship game. Perhaps it would be different if the BCS wasn't scared of putting Boise State up against a BCS school during bowl season like they did against Oklahoma.
4 - How about Symphony of Silence one? That way you never want to kill yourself after it hits triple digits on the playlist.
5 - Eye-brow rolling. I've only see Jack Black be able to do it, and I really wish I could do it.
RPT: 1. The development of the deep threat, if for nothing else, so teams see it on tape and have to at least prepare for it at some point.
3. People hate Boise State? According to those we follow on the RMN Twitter during Monday's game, that didn't seem to be the case. I think I may be in the 1 percent of people who doesn't have a strong opinion on Boise either way. Seems like everyone is either dead set on defending Boise or dead set in exposing them as a fraud.
4. Reckless Kelly, "Crazy Eddie's Last Hurrah." Next question.
5. Sabermetrics.
(Two hours later...)
Bill C.: So...um...I know it's only McNeese State this week and all, so we probably don't have to worry about a poor roundtable performance leading to a loss (then again...Ole Miss! Kansas!)...but...anybody out there?
Michael Atchison: 1 - Can I pick two things? 1) I’d like them to be able to run between the tackles more effectively; and 2) I hope someone emerges as a deep threat. I saw someone post a question about whether Blaine could be as effective a college quarterback as Chase, and the answer is a clear No, and it’s largely about personnel. Chase had Tommy Saunders, Jeremy Maclin, Danario Alexander, Jared Perry, Will Franklin, Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman as targets. Blaine has Tommy Saunders, Tommy Saunders, Tommy Saunders, Tommy Saunders, Tommy Saunders, Tommy Saunders, and Tommy Saunders. Possession receivers everywhere.
2- It seems the only plausible explanation.
3 - People want Boise to go away? Who? I guess I haven’t been paying attention. Knowing nothing about this, I’ll offer no opinion.
4 - Television, "Marquee Moon."
5 - I do Roundtables in my sleep.
Michael Atchison: With Dave being out of the office, we’re going to have to soil the reputation of someone else’s sister to get things revved up.
Bill C.: Your reference of Marquee Moon is odd for two reasons: 1) "See No Evil" from that album would be one of my "one song forever and ever" candidates, and 2) I made a Marquee Moon reference this morning in working ahead on Friday's Varsity Numbers column. Apparently that album is the center of the universe, and I only now realized it.
ghtd36: It's pouring here in Dallas. Figure that one out.
1 - I'd like to see Mizzou develop a better downfield presence on offense. And by "develop a better downfield presence," I mean that I want Wes Kemp to catch a moderately-deep ball early in every game to prevent defenses from creeping the safeties up farther and farther. It's a great maneuver, to kill them underneath to draw the safety in before hitting it big over the top. But that last part is sort of important to the whole thing.
2- No. Curses are things fans make up to make them feel better about the fact that their team stinks. There was no such thing as the Curse of the Bambino; the Red Sox just weren't good. There's no such thing as the Billy Goat Curse; the Cubs just aren't good. There's no such thing as the Mangino Curse; Kansas -- at least for one game -- just isn't good. North Dakota State caught Kansas with its pants down and won the same way that teams always make upsets: hang around long enough, make a few key plays, gain confidence and close it out with defensive stops.
3 - I'm torn on Boise State. On one hand, it's not fair that a program is subjected to geographical bias -- in that it is unattractive to any of the major conferences because, well, it's in Boise Freakin' Idaho -- and thus has closer to a 36-game road to the national championship as opposed to the standard 12- or 13-game road. On the other hand, consider this hypothetical:
-Ohio State goes undefeated.
-Boise State goes undefeated, beating VaTech on the road, Oregon State at home and a bunch of spares.
-Alabama goes 12-1, beating Penn State at home, Arkansas on the road, South Carolina on the road, Tennessee on the road, Florida twice (once at home and once at a neutral site) and suffering a 1-point, last-second loss at LSU.
With all due respect to Boise State, I can absolutely see how it's bullsh to put BSU in the title game over Alabama. So, I'm torn.
4 - Bananaphone.
5 - I actually speak French at a serviceable level. I'm the kid growing up in Texas who decided "Nah, Spanish is lame, let's do a language that I'll never actually use!" Took three years in high school, another seven hours at Mizzou.
Bill C.: Substitute "French" with "German", and that was exactly my thought process for choosing a foreign language to learn.
ghtd36: I think this is the point where you walk up to me, say something in German, and I surrender in French.
/BOOMHISTORICALSTEREOTYPEROASTED
Michael Atchison: And our entire readership says "what the &^%$ is Marquee Moon?"
Bill C.: Hopefully they look it up on Amazon and purchase it immediately. It's such an interesting combination of weird and poppy. With awesome guitar. #musicnerd
ghtd36: I won't lie: I just Googled it.
On a related note: were you guys there when they invented the automobile? What was public reaction like? Did sports talk radio mention it? Did you think it was just a fad?
Michael Atchison: The long guitar duel between Verlaine and Lloyd is the most blatantly sexual thing I’ve ever heard in music. And Tepper, Bill hadn’t been born when that album came out. As for me, no comment.
ghtd36: RMN's Google presence continues its meteoric rise with the phrase "most blatantly sexual thing."
Bill C.: And somehow, it wasn't in a reference to either ZouDave's sister or Jenna Haze.
ghtd36: Now that I think about it, has anyone ever seen ZouDave's Sister and Jenna Haze in the same room?
OH...
MY...
SCIENCE.
(An hour later...)
ghtd36: Apparently, my revelation that ZouDave's Sister could be Jenna Haze has caused Bill, RPT, Doug and ZouDave himself to all pass out simultaneously. I apologize for this inconvenience, esteemed RMN reader. I'm still here, and I love you very much.
RPT: If only she'd shown up in the Washington police report.