Aaron's Wx Blog

January 2010 Tulsa Winter Storm Recap

2010-01-30T15:20:00.009-06:00

Over the course of two days, Tulsa ended up with .6" of ice followed by 6-7 inches of snow. Overall, the damage caused by the storm was much less than expected. Tulsa did not experience any widespread power outages due to the ice. I could be wrong but I think the ice storm of 2007 took care of many of the trees that would likely cause power problems.

The video below consists of several video clips throughout the course of the storm. You'll notice the ice event occurred on Jan. 28 followed by snow on Jan. 29.

Tulsa Ice Storm

2010-01-28T13:12:00.005-06:00

Below is the Oklahoma mesonet map as of 1:10pm today. The reason I am posting this is because it shows the first signs of the ongoing ice storm in Oklahoma. You will notice a path from southwest Oklahoma through central OK that where the wind barbs are missing. This is because the anemometers are covered with ice. I will continue to post updates here as the storm progresses in Tulsa. Currently, ice is covering elevated surfaces but the roads seem to be fine. Heavier amounts of freezing rain and sleet are expected this afternoon with a change to snow overnight and tomorrow.

Who Ya Gonna Call

2009-08-27T08:11:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since I've updated the ol' blog. Things should start to get more active here as the fall chase season is nearing and OSU tailgating just a week away. For now I thought I would share this jewel.

My coworker sent me this pic while he's on the road in Idaho. I wonder if the dude has any proton packs in that thing?

Here is a Powerful Message written by Stevie Wonder on Michael Jackson's Death

2009-07-08T08:30:00.001-05:00

........ .. ... ... .. .....
.. . .. ... . . . .. . .. . .. .... .. .. . ... ..
... ... .. ... ... ... .. .... ....... ... ... ... .... ..... .. .
.. ... .. . . . ..
... . .... ... .... .... ...
...... .... .... .... ..... ..... ..... .. . . .... .....
. .. .
. . .. . .. . ...
....... ... ... ... .. ... ........ .. .. .... ... ... .... ....
. .. .. .
.. ....
.. . . . . . .. .. ... ..
.. .... ... ... ... ...... ...... .....

Deep stuff.
I nearly cried when he said “. .. . . . .. .. ... .. .. . . .... ....”

Partying on Skiatook

2009-07-03T18:08:00.002-05:00

Bologna Sandwich Sparks Robbery in OKC

2009-06-18T13:55:00.006-05:00

Man beaten, robbed for bologna sandwich in Oklahoma City

By Staff Reports NewsOK.com
Published: 6/18/2009 1:08 PM
Last Modified: 6/18/2009 1:08 PM

Roger Hamilton told police he was sitting on a bus station bench, preparing to put mayonnaise on his bologna and cheese sandwich, when a man wearing headphones began staring at him.

Hamilton, 24, told police he asked the man if he could help him, but before he knew it, the man punched him in the mouth and snatched his sandwich.

When police arrived at the Hudson Street bus station Wednesday, they found Hamilton with a swollen lip and his face covered in blood.

Hamilton told police he did not know the man or why he assaulted him and stole his sandwich. He described him as a black man who appeared to be in his 30s.

The police report values the sandwich at 76 cents.

Hot dogs anyone?

2009-06-01T19:59:00.001-05:00

This truck was parked outside the coney restaurant I went to for lunch today. I'm not sure that's the best way to market hot dogs. Glad I had the bbq sandwich.

4-25-09 Chase Recap (200th Post)

2009-04-29T21:10:00.010-05:00

This past Saturday I chased western Oklahoma with Robert Bonnell, Steve Miller(OK), Hans Schroeder, and Aaron Tuttle. I picked Robert up around 1:00 and headed out to meet the rest of the gang in Weatherford. The bulk of the chase was around Leedey, OK. Despite the lack of tornadoes, it was a great chase day that included many wall clouds a few funnels and large hail that I was happy to hide from. Below are a few of the better pictures from the day.

My Parent's Crazy Dog

2009-04-29T20:41:00.006-05:00

A couple shots of the stupidest dog on earth.

4-9-09 Chase Recap

2009-04-10T15:02:00.005-05:00

I had to pull the trigger on this chase. Things just looked too good to sit this one out. I pulled out of Tulsa about 3:15 and met up with Steve Miller and Hans Schroeder in Nowata, OK. From there we decided to head east to Vinita where we intercepted a good cell. At the beginning we were not too hopeful that anything would happen but as it rolled into town the cell began strengthening and developed a rapidly rotating lowering (shown in the first part of the video). The storm dropped a very brief tornado just east of Vinita.

From Vinita, we followed the storm up I44 to about 5 miles north of Afton where it developed a very well defined funnel cloud (shown in the last clip of the video). The storm tried to produce again but it just couldn't quite get its act together.

This ended up being a great chase. After a crappy year in 2008, 2009 is off to a good start. I've got the fever more than ever right now. Bring on the next system!

Vinita Wall Cloud

Afton Wall Cloud

Tulsa Snow Storm

2009-03-29T15:06:00.005-05:00

As was forecasted, Tulsa experienced a heavy snow storm yesterday. In south Tulsa, the snow began during the 8am hour . The heaviest snow fell between 9:30 and 1:00. Most reports for Tulsa were between 6 and 8 inches. For some reason there were a lot of people out running around during this time and many people found themselves in the ditch. Above is some of the video I captured as I was out shooting for KTUL.

Now that that's over, I am turning my eye to the spring and hoping to get some good chases in over the next few months. Check back for chase updates.

Mexican Restaurant Handicap Parking

2009-03-26T22:02:00.002-05:00

3-23-09 Chase Recap

2009-03-24T20:44:00.007-05:00

I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on this chase about 4:00 yesterday. After looking over the RUC, radar, and mesonet, I decided to head west for Stillwater after work. I arrived in Stillwater just as a the storm I was planning to intercept went tornado warned in Logan county. I positioned myself east of the storm in Payne county, about 2 miles south of Stillwater, and prepared for the intercept. As the storm barreled into town, the inflow winds associated with it were intense. It was nearly impossible to stand up on my own. I'm not sure if I was supporting my tripod or if my tripod was supporting me. Either way neither myself or my camera hit the ground. As the storm came in I got a good look at the wall cloud that had been reported.(pictured above) There was very minimal if any rotation at this time.

After the storm rolled through Stillwater, I got back on 412 and followed it back into the Tulsa area. The storm stayed to my south until around Hallett where it crossed 412 and dropped around 1" hail on me for a few minutes.

Once the core passed, I booked it back to Tulsa so I could take Hwy 75 up to Skiatook for a second intercept. At this point the highway was a chaser caravan. Unfortunately, the storm decided to crap out about the time I took the turn north out of Tulsa.

Even though the storm had dropped below severe limits, I decided to go ahead and get some lightning shots. I stopped on the entrance ramp at Hwy 75 and 86th St. North and shot c.g. for a while but the storm just didn't want to do much. (pictured below)

Overall, it was a pretty fun chase and it provided some excitement to an otherwise boring Monday. One thing is for sure, I'm ready to chase a storm that doesn't move 50+ mph.

Bust and Colder Weather

2009-03-10T10:43:00.007-05:00

It appears as though I was a little overly anxious to chase when I decided to head west after work yesterday. I had toyed with the idea of just hanging out around Tulsa until something popped but once they issued the tornado watch at 4pm I decided to head west. I rolled out of Broken Arrow around 5:15 and ended up meeting Kelly Baker at Hwy 51 and I-35 west of Stillwater. At that point it was pretty obvious that the night was going to be a bust. We hung out for a while chatting and waiting to see if anything was going to form up near us. Once we noticed that the dryline hadn't moved more than about 15 miles all day we decided it was time to head back to Tulsa. The whole chase pretty much pissed me off. Besides the bust, I was having serious technical issues. My internet connection was absolutely horrible so I wasn't getting reliable radar updates on GR. I also couldn't get model data because of the wonderful T-mobile card I'm using. On top of that, WxWorx kept loosing connection for whatever reason. By the end of the night I was about to run over my laptop.

It looks like we have a big change coming in our weather. After several days in the 70's and 80's, we are about to return to the 30's and 40's. The map below is the OK Mesonet air temperature map valid at 10:30 this morning. As you can see, we are about to say goodbye to the 70's for several days. Hopefully this will be the last cold snap of the year and we can get on with the chase season and warmer lake weather.

Tulsa Skywarn Training Agenda

2009-02-27T15:32:00.004-06:00

For those who are interested, here is the schedule for tomorrows Skywarn Training Day.

Tulsa SKYWARN Conference, February 28, 2009 - TTC Lemley Campus

900 am: Opening Statements/Welcome: Mike McCool - Tulsa Area Emergency Management Agency Director, Steve Piltz - NWS Tulsa Meteorologist-in-Charge, Kelly Baker - OkArkSkywarn Coordinator

915 am: NCO / Reporting Issues: Kelly Baker, OkArkSkywarn Coordinator/Joel Genung, OkArkSkywarn Committee Member

930 am: OkArkSkywarn Website Update: Steve Bluford, OkArkSkywarn Committee Member

945 am: The December 2007 Ice Storm, An Emergency Operations Perspective: Mike McCool, Tulsa Area Emergency Management Agency Director

1015 am: Break

1030 am: Storm Spotter Training: Ed Calianese, NWS Tulsa Warning Coordination Meteorologist

1200 pm: Lunch

130 pm: Sidelobe and Inflow Doppler Radar "Signatures": Steve Piltz, NWS Tulsa Meteorologist in Charge

145 pm: Mesoanalysis of Several 2008 Tornado Events: Brad McGavock, NWS Tulsa Lead Forecaster

215 pm: Storm Chaser Video Highlights

330 pm: Conclusion

Spring Fever

2009-02-26T08:30:00.006-06:00

After a long winter, spring is finally approaching. In a way this week marks the start of severe weather season for me. Tonight I have my annual chaser meeting at KTUL in which we'll find out any upgrades being made to the weather department before severe weather season kicks off. It's usually a pretty good time since all of the chasers rarely get together during the year. This meeting is followed by the Tulsa Skywarn training on Saturday. While some of this event targets new chasers, they always have one or two topics that are of interest to more seasoned chasers. I haven't seen an agenda for this years training day but I'm sure it will be beneficial to attend. It's also a chance to see several people that I don't see throughout the year.

In other spring related news...I was visiting Steve Miller last weekend and as we usually do this time of year, we started discussing the lake and boating and when we'll be able to enjoy our first day at the lake. There are a couple of key dates to determine when that might be. We usually shoot for the first part of April but you never know if we might get to scratch that itch a little early. The average last hard freeze (below 28F) occurs in Tulsa on the 18th of March. The average last freeze/frost (32F) occurs on March 29th. That means Saturday April 4th is the first weekend without an expected freeze. Time to start compiling music for Boat Tunes 2009.

Another celebrated spring event is also approaching, March Madness. Selection Sunday is March 15th, which is also considered the beginning of severe weather season. As an avid Oklahoma State Cowboys fan, I'm really hoping we can continue our win streak and make an appearance in the tourney this year. It would be nice to dance in celebration of 100 years of Cowboy Basketball. We are currently on a 4 game win streak and have a record of 18-9 and 7-6 in Big 12 play. As things stand we are a bubble team, but if we can continue our win streak against Texas and Kansas State at home I believe we'll be in good shape for a tourney bid going into the second leg of bedlam in Norman. If we can win out or go 2-1 in our final three and get a win in the Big 12 tourney, we should be able to make the NCAA Tournament.

So that was a pretty random blog post but I guess it's all tied together by things I enjoy in the spring; boating, storm chasing, and the NCAA Tournament.

2-10-09 Chase Recap

2009-02-11T09:06:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was the most frustrating day I've had at the office in a while. I was stuck in Broken Arrow while everyone was out on the first chase of the season. With every model update the sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach got worse. Nearly all of my chaser friends were out on this setup and I was stuck at work. Then initiation occurred. Monday night I looked over models and set a target of Chickasha. What do you know, the first storms of the day went up just west of Chickasha and then the same storm produced a tornado in Edmond, looked crazy headed into Stillwater on radar, then produced another tornado in Pawnee county.

Finally 5:00 rolled around and I hit the road for Bartlesville to intercept the same storm that had been pissing me off all day. I should probably mention that chasing in Bartlesville always adds extra stress to the situation since my family and several friends live there. At times it's nearly impossible to answer phone calls and text messages from those in the area but I gave it my best. On to the chase...Just as I got into Bartlesville, the NWS issued a tornado warning for eastern Osage county and Washington County. About this time, my XM/ThreatNet pulled it's usual crap and stopped working so over to GR3 I went. I headed up to a truck stop about a mile north of Dewey where I rode out the storm. At this point it had gotten dark enough to where I couldn't really see much. After a few minutes I was overran by extremely heavy rain and winds between 40 and 50mph followed by a few minutes of 1/2" to 1" hail.

After sending a few videos up to KTUL, I headed back south to play around in the line of storms coming through the area. The Bartlesville/Dewey area had gotten a ton of rain in a very short time and there were several areas of flash flooding. I spoke with Kelly Baker who was in the downtown Bartlesville area and he was reporting stalled cars and significant flash flooding around Adams Rd. and Keeler.

Finally, I decided to head back to Tulsa. About 10 miles south of Bartlesville I got ran over by a small cell that made driving nearly impossible and had a few pieces of pea sized hail in it. Once that passed the show was pretty much over for me.

Despite not getting anything too exciting, it was great to chase in February. I needed something to clear my mind and I find that chasing does that for me. It's probably due to the fact that I don't have time to think about anything else. I'm looking forward to spring and chasing in the daylight.

Ice Pics

2009-01-26T21:34:00.003-06:00

We've gotten about a quarter of an inch of ice here in Tulsa so far. Since the worst of it came in right before dark, I haven't had a chance to take many pics but here are a couple.

Defining a Gooner

2009-01-09T09:19:00.005-06:00

After suffering through yesterday and the overwhelming support shown for OU football, I feel that it is time to address the status of gooner. Before I get into that, I would like to explain that if you graduated from OU, have immediate family that graduated from OU, or maybe even stepped foot in an OU classroom (as a student), then this blog entry most likely does not pertain to you. However, if you meet any of the following criteria, you might be a gooner.

One definition in the Urban Dictionary defines a gooner as "a glory hunting pussbag who has very little knowledge of football". You should check out the rest of the definitions, some of them are pretty funny and a little too racy to be mentioned here on the blog.

You might be a gooner if:

You refer to OU as "we" but have no actual affiliation with the university.
Your wardrobe consists mainly of OU apparel yet you haven't attended a game in the past 10 years.
Your OU season tickets cost more than your car.
You have never actually been to Norman.
You have ever yelled "BOOMER" in a public establishment on a random Tuesday just to see if anyone answers you.
You wore your crimson on Jan. 8, 2009 but on the 9th no one would have the slightest clue that you support OU football.
You complained about Bob Stoops on Jan. 9, 2009. ( I hope he leaves too.)
You yell "the home of the sooners" during the national anthem. (That's just disrespectful to your country.)
You forgot to support any of the other 16 sports that OU participates in.
You find yourself wondering if any of these bullet points describes you.

So those are a few characteristics of a gooner. Add more in the comments if you would like.

Now that I've got that cleared up for everyone, I would like to say that I know several OU fans who did not attend OU that are very good people. Unfortunately, the majority of OU fans make a bad name for the few good ones that are out there. Maybe there should be a positive mentoring program for OU fans.

Sun setting on another year

2008-12-31T17:20:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone has a happy new year. Best of luck in 2009.

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12-27-08 Chase

2008-12-27T17:33:00.009-06:00

Even though this was a linear setup, Bob Hall and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to chase in late December. After about 3 hours of sleep Bob met me at my place around 5:40am and we headed out west of town to intercept the line of storms that had formed along a cold front that was pushing through the state.

We made our first intercept at hwy 412 and 209th W. Ave (west of Sand Springs). After shooting a little lightning video we were overtaken by very heavy rain. At that point we got back in front of the line and decided to let the same cell run over us at 76th St. N and Hwy 75 just north of Tulsa. We ended up in the Whirlpool plant parking lot where we had very heavy rain and winds approaching 50 mph. Oddly enough the storm drain in the Whirlpool parking lot produced a whirlpool after about 10 minutes of very heavy rain. Thanks to Bob's suggestion of finding the drain, I was able to get a pretty cool video of the whirlpool (see below).

From north Tulsa, we headed east to Hwy 169 and started heading south just as the tornado warning was issued for Wagoner country. Fortunately, we were within a mile of jumping on 412 eastbound and intercepted the storm in Chouteau a few minutes after Mayes county went under a tornado warning. As we rolled into town, we were once again pounded with heavy rain and wind but quarter sized hail was added to the mix this time. After letting a couple of training cells pass over us in Chouteau, we decided that the line had pretty much crapped out so we headed back up to Tulsa and called it a day.

Given the fact that it is late December, I was happy to get out on these storms. Even though they never produced a tornado and it was a linear piece of crap setup, it was great to get out there and was a fun chase overall. Plus it was only 151 miles. It's much easier to enjoy this type of setup when you don't have to drive all day.

Can't beat hole in the wall Mexican restaurants

2008-12-19T18:17:00.000-06:00

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Winter Wx Update

2008-12-14T20:55:00.004-06:00

Temps as of 8:40pm

So much for the warm weather. The massive cold front swept through south Tulsa at 3:15. It took about 30 seconds for the south winds to calm and switch to a brisk north wind. From there temps plummeted. Currently I am sitting at 27 degrees with moderate sleet. It looks like we'll be in for small bands of frozen precip throughout the night.

Big Wx Changes Approaching

2008-12-14T13:59:00.007-06:00

Cold front progress as of 1:50

An approaching cold front will bring big changes to the weather in the next few hours. The NW portion of Oklahoma has already experienced the switch to colder weather while I'm enjoying a temp of 73 degrees with my windows open and my grill fired up. It looks like this will only last another few hours for the Tulsa area.

As for precip with this system, I don't see much of a chance for anything significant. It looks at best like we might get a few light rounds of various frozen precip over the course of the week. Of course, now that I've said that, it will probably snow three feet.

Venus, Jupiter, and a New Job

2008-12-01T21:35:00.010-06:00

When I got home from the gym tonight Jupiter and Venus were shining brightly in the western sky. I managed to snap a few pictures before they dropped below the horizon. My lens isn't ideal for these types of pictures but they didn't turn out too bad.

On another note, I accepted a position as the Marketing Manager for a company in Broken Arrow today. That concludes about a 10 week job search and 4 weeks of sitting in my recliner with nothing to do. I hope I never have to go through that again. Thanks to all of my friends who have been very supportive during my down time. Back to work on Monday!

A Few Vegas Pictures

2008-11-06T14:16:00.007-06:00

About a week ago I met up with Steve out in Vegas for a few days. We spent at least 12 hours playing blackjack and drinking pop with liquor flavored extract in it. It had been a while since I sat down at a table so it felt good to be back in the saddle again. I'm blackjacked out for a while now though.

I did find a little time to snap some pictures around the Bellagio and the Venetian. I'm pretty sure you could spend most of a day just taking pictures of the different casinos and outdoor shows that some have. Below are some of the better shots I ended up with.

Bellagio Fountains

The Mirage

Fountain outside the Venetian

Obvious

Arizona Mexican Restaurant Special

2008-10-31T13:15:00.000-05:00

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NWS Tulsa Wed Evening Area Forecast Discussion

2008-10-31T11:30:00.005-05:00

000
FXUS64 KTSA 300157
AFDTSA

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
857 PM CDT WED OCT 29 2008

.UPDATE...

&&

.DISCUSSION...
ONCE AGAIN TONIGHT THE FORECAST AREA IS TRANQUIL AND
CLOUD FREE. THE NEAREST CLOUD IS APPROXIMATELY 562
MILES NORTHWEST OF TULSA IN COLORADO...AS SEEN ON IR
SATELLITE. THIS CLOUD APPEARS TO BE CIRRUS IN NATURE...
BEING GENERATED IN CONJUNCTION WITH A WEAK UPPER TROUGH
CROSSING THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. THE CIRRUS CLOUD IS GENERALLY
MOVING TOWARD THE EAST-NORTHEAST AND IS TRAVELING AT A
RATE OF APPROXIMATELY 20 KNOTS. WITH THIS CLOUD FORECAST
TO MISS THE REGION BY AT LEAST 372 MILES... AND ALL OTHER
FORECAST ELEMENTS ON TRACK... THERE WILL BE NO NEED TO
UPDATE THE FORECAST THIS EVENING.

&&

.TSA WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OK...NONE.
AR...NONE.
&&

$$

SHORT TERM...06

Tony Royster JR. Crazy Drum Solo

2008-10-24T16:09:00.001-05:00

Saw this kid on YouTube while I was hard at work today. Thought it was worth sharing. Pretty amazing!

OSU Homecoming 2008

2008-10-22T19:57:00.011-05:00

Last weekend was homecoming for Oklahoma State. I forgot to take my camera into the game but we defeated Baylor 34-6 and remained undefeated. For the first time since 1945, OSU is 7-0. The undefeated record payed off on Sunday when we ranked 6th in the first BCS poll of the year. Hopefully we can keep things rolling into Austin this weekend. Below are a few pics from our tailgate party.

The Crew

Our live music. If anyone remembers his name put it in comments. He deserves some recognition.

Tucker and Royer manning the shrimp boil.

Justin, Tucker and Nichole

E-rin and I

Gabby, Tucker and I. Gabby had on her holy socks.(not the spiritual kind)

Daz and Jeff

New Feature - SpotterChat

2008-10-22T12:45:00.004-05:00

To the right of this post you will notice I've added a cool new feature to my blog, a direct link to my SpotterChat. This software was developed by Scott Bennett for purposes of weather discussion and storm reporting. From what I've seen so far the software works great, even through a cellular internet connection. If you are a storm chaser, and would like to sign up for SpotterChat, go to www.spotterchat.com to register and download the software.

Taco Bell Grande

2008-10-11T09:33:00.000-05:00

This is a product of Steve and I hitting the taco bell drive thru after too many beers.

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Cross Canadian Ragweed Concert

2008-10-02T10:41:00.007-05:00

Last night Steve, Bob, Matt, Heather, and I went to watch Cross Canadian Ragweed at the Reynolds Center on the TU campus. This concert marked the first night of homecoming festivities for the University of Tulsa. Since this was a school sponsored event mainly for students and alumni, it was not advertised anywhere. Some might think that would make for a crappy concert but it was quite the opposite. We were one person away from the stage for the entire show and if you needed to get out of the crowd it wasn't impossible to find your spot again. I doubt there was more than 400-500 people there. Another cool thing was that the band was celebrating their 14th anniversary yesterday so they played several of their older songs that you don't hear very often anymore. This show was so much better than the last couple I've been to. With exception of one song, they stuck to all originals and put on a great show. Below are a few pictures I was able to snap. Sorry for the graininess, they were taken with my blackberry.

Rain or shine baby!

2008-09-13T13:03:00.000-05:00

These seats don't suck.

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Who says we can't sell out the west end zone?

2008-09-06T18:13:00.000-05:00

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08 season kickoff

2008-09-06T17:17:00.000-05:00

Back at it in Stillwater

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Favre Article

2008-08-11T15:48:00.007-05:00

I feel like this article from Yahoo Sports pretty much sums up my feelings about the whole Brett Favre b.s. that is surrounding preseason football.

Brett Favre ran a lap, and it made me feel sad all day

By MJD

I was hoping that after Brett Favre was traded to the Jets, everyone would relax, take a deep breath, slow down with the FavreLust, and slowly regain the knowledge that other football players still exist in the universe.

Nope.

About 36 hours after it happened, Brett Favre running laps in practice was still the number four headline on ESPN.com, after only Paddy Harrington's PGA win, Michael Phelps winning his second gold, and Kyle Busch winning a car race.

One lap around the practice field. That's what happened. That's all that happened. The man fumbled, and his coach, saying that Favre is "one of the guys," made him run a lap. And then he did so, quite slowly.

Here's the enthralling video that a fan shot at the practice.

The Jets even released a statement from Favre about it.

It is part of [being on] the team. It's not punishment. It's more of a team unity thing. Nick and I ran it. I told Eric, day one, that unless I pass out, I am going to try and do everything that everyone else does. I'm no different aside from being a little gray-headed and a little bit older. Tony Richardson and I combined have 33 years. That counts for something. But ultimately it is about the team. Is it to get into shape? No. Is it a punishment? No. It is a reminder of how important the team is.

I don't know if I have ever run a penalty lap.

Maybe little league. Maybe. Some coaches believe in doing things like that. It all serves its purpose in the end. You are trying to build unity. In our situation here you are trying to build chemistry. There is a great mixture of veterans. When I say veterans, I am going from eight games to 15, 12, 10 years. A lot of those [experienced players] or faces are new here, so we have to build some chemistry pretty quickly.

The crowd was cheering and all of that stuff. I am not embarrassed by [running a lap]. I think it is kind of funny, but yet it serves its purpose. I think things like that are important in the fact that everyone is involved in it.

This makes me feel sad and confused, and I just want it to stop. Please make it stop. With less than a month until the season opens, I should feel excited, but this makes me feel afraid. If a penalty lap generates all this attention right now, when Favre actually throws a touchdown pass, I'm afraid of what's going to happen.

I'm afraid that ESPN will launch a whole new channel called ESPN Favre, and that they won't just stop at Chris Berman doing 24-hour highlights of Favre watching film, eating cereal, scratching himself, napping, mowing his lawn, applying deodorant and watching himself on ESPN Favre. I'm afraid that they'll actually make Berman go door-to-door to every house in America and actually read the highlights to everyone in person.

Hadicap urinal at fair meadows.

2008-07-17T22:07:00.000-05:00

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Drillers

2008-07-17T19:56:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Tucker who is building a fence right now. Steve, Ryan and Iare enjoying Tuckers company seats at the game. Dollar beer night and 2 for 1 brats. I think a good weekend is in my future.

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Sean Adair at pier 51

2008-07-05T20:53:00.000-05:00

More pics to follow.

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Happy 4th!

2008-07-03T09:31:00.004-05:00

Currently I am sitting in my office trying to hydrate awaiting noon. I have a cooler full of beer on ice in the bed of my truck that is dying for attention and a liver that has been whipped into shape over the past week. As soon as noon rolls around I'm off to the lake for 4 days of fun. The 4th of July is probably my favorite holiday. It's just more fun than the rest. What other holiday incorporates alcohol, explosives, boating, bikinis, alcohol, and explosives? Plus this year the Jenks Riverwalk is putting on its inaugural (no such thing as 1st annual) 4th of July fireworks show. Lucky for me I live on the opposing river bank and will have a great view from my patio.

For those I don't see this weekend, hope you have a great 4th.

Skiatook Update 2

2008-06-14T18:47:00.000-05:00

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Skiatook Lake

2008-06-14T18:12:00.000-05:00

Hangin at Skiatook lake with Matt and Heather.

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Guess That Sound

2008-06-12T21:36:00.005-05:00

I'll eventually get a chase recap from June 5th up here but in the mean-time can anyone guess what made this lovely sound? Leave your guesses in the comments.

6-5-2008 Chase Day

2008-06-04T13:41:00.005-05:00

SPC Day 2 1730 Outlook

Looks like I'll be taking a little time off for chasing tomorrow. Right now it looks like I'll be heading out of Tulsa between noon and 3pm for an area around the intersection of hwy 412 and I35. Things will probably change a little between now and then but I think that will be a good place to stop and take a look at things.

Memorial Weekend - Keystone Lake

2008-05-27T20:43:00.007-05:00

Once again Memorial Weekend was spent at Lake Keystone on Steve and Andrea's boat. As usual, we headed straight for the beach at Houseboat Island and spent most of our weekend there drinking beer and meeting a lot of new people. From my best estimate, Steve and I drank about 75 beers in the course of two and a half days and unloaded at least 25 sets of beads. You have to love the things women will do for a set of 50 cent beads. Most of the time it's a bargain. Below are a few pics of the weekend.

Steve, Matt and Annie

Steve and Mike

Steve and I

Mike and the ladies

Memorial Weekend

2008-05-24T16:45:00.000-05:00

Steves got the beads out. Things must be headed in the right direction. Meanwhile, Hans is chasing a tornado near Perry. Congrats man.

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Finally Summer

2008-05-17T12:16:00.000-05:00

Out on Keystone Lake with Steve Miller and Bob Hall. I'll try to post more pics from the weekend on Monday.

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Oklahoma Steam and Gas Engine Show

2008-05-03T14:43:00.001-05:00

1913 Case steam engine hooked to a prony brake generating 575 ft lbs of torque and 110 horsepower at 190 rpm.

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Chase Day

2008-05-01T10:45:00.004-05:00

It appears that I'll finally get some action in NE OK this evening. All week I've been looking at a target near Bartlesville. I think that area still looks good but I'm getting a little more interested in an area between Stillwater and Pawnee for initiation. After several days of people crying about the potential lack of moisture return, I was happy to wake up to 60 degree dewpoints in Tulsa. I'll try to update the blog as I have time tonight. I'll be out chasing after 5.

Travis Ford to be Named Next OSU Head Coach

2008-04-16T11:44:00.004-05:00

Doug Gottlieb, former OSU basketball player and current ESPN analyst, is reporting that Travis Ford, from the University of Massachusetts, is expected to be named the next Head Coach of the Oklahoma State University basketball team. See ESPN's article for more details.

Lake Stanley Draper

2008-04-15T19:08:00.000-05:00

Out for an evening cruise on Steve's boat.

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80's Party Continued

2008-04-13T01:03:00.001-05:00

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80's Fabulous.

2008-04-12T23:08:00.000-05:00

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80's party

2008-04-12T21:01:00.000-05:00

Daz brought it! I should have plenty of good pics for the blog from this shindig.

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Spring game

2008-04-12T16:29:00.000-05:00

I made the annual spring trip to Stillwater today for the orange white game. Here's the view from our seats.

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4-9-08 Crap Chase

2008-04-09T23:10:00.003-05:00

George Thompson and I headed out of Tulsa around 6:00 with hopes of reaching Muskogee before the ongoing storms. Well, with traffic that didn't quite work out and we were not able to get south of the storms that would later produce tornadoes. The only interesting piece of video I got was at a Love's south of Gore, OK.

Old School Video

2008-04-08T21:40:00.006-05:00

I found this video from 2001. An old roommate and I went to Myrtle Beach on spring break and on the way through we stopped at Darlington Raceway for the NASCAR race. Somehow or another I ended up standing on the outside wall with a video camera. Good thing they didn't wreck in front of me. Not too many things were teathered to the cars back then.

Cowboy Up

2008-04-04T23:53:00.004-05:00

It was very interesting to me that I got so many extra hits on my blog Tuesday after Sean Sutton was relieved of his position as head coach. I never realized how many OSU people were out there watching to see what's going on back in Stillwater. I usually only get about 5-10 readers a day on my blog but Tuesday sky-rocketed. In the shit storm that was upon us it made me feel good that so many people were still curious as to what was happening with our program. Below is a graphic of the past 30 days traffic to my blog. It's good to see that people out there still care regardless of their opinion of what happened to Sean.

Sean Sutton Fired From OSU

2008-04-01T13:38:00.012-05:00

Update: Sean Sutton's press conference is scheduled at 4:45. KOCO.com claims it will host a live stream of the conference.

According to kotv.com and cbssportsline.com, Sean Sutton has been relieved of his duties as head coach of the Oklahoma State men's basketball team. After only two years, athletic director Mike Holder reportedly fired Sean Tuesday morning and the team is expected to be told Tuesday afternoon.

Speculation is that Bill Self will be the main candidate for the job if OSU can find enough money to lure him away from Kansas.(more on that to follow) Self and his wife are both OSU alums. Bill played basketball and his wife was a cheerleader. Another prime target is Kentucky's Billy Gillispie. But that is much less likely to happen.

So where is OSU going to get millions to pay Bill Self? Where else but Boone Pickens. Boone, who does not have a good relationship with the Sutton family, swooped in with millions and told Holder to fire Sean and he would front the contract money for a big name coach. While I appreciate what Boone has done for my alma mater, I think this is crossing the line. Mike Holder has allowed Boone to do exactly what has made him fortunes in the past and that is takeover our program. Boone has never been a hands off donor to our school and now it's taken an even bigger step toward just being another one of his companies. He already dictates what happens in football and had the stadium named after him. Now he is running our basketball program.

While I like the idea of having Bill Self as our coach, I'm a little disappointed that Sean did not get another year to prove himself. I think Mike Holder and Boone both disliked the Sutton family from the beginning and this was a way for them to oust their name from OSU basketball. Next thing you know Boone will replace Eddie's name on the court with his own. That'll surely piss off the entire cowboy nation.

3-30-08 Chase Recap

2008-03-31T01:58:00.006-05:00

Since it's late and I haven't had a chance to digest everyplace we were today, I will say that we chased several severe storms and a couple of tornado warned storms in the vicinity of Cordell, OK. We never saw any of these storms drop a tornado despite reports from some chasers of small tornadoes.

I'll try to give a better recap at a later date. I'm off to look at tomorrows setup.

3-30-08 Chase Day

2008-03-29T23:27:00.003-05:00

Down at Steve's in Moore. After a few hours at the Sooner Corral we're back at his place forecasting for tomorrow. The setup looks good but the question is whether it will be a night chase or not. We're hoping things will pop just to our WSW around 0z(7:00). Right now it looks like we'll head out to Chickasha in the mid to late afternoon hours and see what happens.

I'm a little more excited about Monday's chase but nonetheless it should be a great two days of chasing.

More on this tomorrow.

3-14-08 Chase

2008-03-15T10:34:00.007-05:00

After the original plan of heading toward Stillwater, we opted to head a little north and intercept our first storm near Ralston, OK. I was able to get some great lightning pics from there. Once the precip hit we headed back down to Pawnee where we let a slightly larger cell run over us.

Once the storm passed over us it appeared the show was over. However, once the storms moved into the Tulsa metro area they began to intensify. We were finally able to get back on the leading edge of the storm in east Tulsa and got ran over by it near 412 and Hwy 88. The storm began to bow out a little at this point and produced very strong winds. I would estimate we saw wind speeds near 60 mph for a couple of minutes.

The first two pictures were taken between Pawnee and Ralston. The video comes from Hwy 412 and Hwy 88 east of Catoosa, OK.

3-1-08 Chase Update

2008-03-14T18:23:00.001-05:00

I'm currently on the road to Stillwater for an evening of storm chasing. A line of storms is currently forming west of Enid and moving due east. I am pushing for a play on hwy 60 between Ponca City and Bartlesville but we'll see what happens. More updates later.

3-2-08 Chase Day

2008-03-03T19:43:00.007-06:00

While Steve, Matt, Heather, and I were on the lake Saturday we decided we'd go ahead and drive down to Steve's in Moore and chase on Sunday. We left Steve's around 2:30 or so and headed out to Lawton to re-evaluate the situation. After we ate at the worst What-a-burger I've ever been to we decided we'd head north and intercept a line of storms that were moving in. At 4:30 we intercepted a tornado warned supercell west of Carnegie, OK. Soon after nearing that storm we decided to drop South a few miles to intercept the next cell coming in. As we did, this storm went tornado warned as well. This storm is pictured below. We watched this storm make several attempts to get wrapped up but it just couldn't get going. After repositioning on this storm several times we hit the highway back to OKC.

We parallelled the line of storms as we drove up I-44 to the city. Just as we got into the city a cell to our south west went tornado warned near the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds. Instead of rushing back into the metro we pulled into Jones just as they sounded the sirens. After a few minutes the storm weakened and we decided to head up to Hwy 66 and I-44 where we would let the line run over us.

A big thanks to Matt Patterson for driving during this chase. If my estimates are close it was about a 450 mile round trip from Tulsa.

Appx. 3 miles south of Carnegie, OK

Same location as above

East of Carnegie, OK

Lake time

2008-03-01T13:18:00.000-06:00

Been a while since I've updated the blog but the season is upon us and things should pick up. Hangin out with Matt, Heather and Steve at skiatook lake today. Feels good to be back on the water.

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1-5-08 Nashville Severe Wx

2008-02-06T17:08:00.000-06:00

After a high risk day in which I thought I wasn't going to see see more than a rain drop, I finally got a little show in Nashville around 9:30. Unfortunately I did not have a vehicle to chase in so I was stuck watching the show from my 6th floor hotel room in downtown. It would have been a good place to see the storm come through except for the fact that when downtown went under a tornado warning all guests were evacuated to the basement.

Reflectivity at 9:15

Velocity at 9:15

Above are the last radar images I was able to capture before I was forced to the basement. With a direct path toward downtown I wasn't completely disappointed to get off the 6th floor. The storm did have a tornado on the ground during this radar scan but the storm weakened as it approached downtown Nashville and was not producing a tornado by the time it reached me. According to local news the cell got reorganized and droped another tornado east of town.

Above is a video capture of lightning as the storm moved over downtown. (left a camera running in the window when I was sent to the basement) I haven't had a chance to review the entire video due to work constraints but I'll try to get a clip put up here soon if there is anything worth posting.

Needless to say it was disappointing to be in the middle of a high risk area all day and not be able to chase. I was really hoping that storms would form earlier in the day so that at least we could get in on the action as we drove from Tulsa to Nashville. We were in all the right spots through the day. We stoped in Conway, AR for lunch which I hear later got nailed by a tornado, and later in the day we stopped in Jackson, TN for a while before it sustained major damage by the tornado warned storm that tracked over downtown Nashville.

Dennis Dodd Eats a Little Crow

2008-01-25T08:39:00.000-06:00

If you recall on September 22nd, Head Coach for Oklahoma State, Mike Gundy, went on his rant defending Bobby Reid against a poorly written newspaper article. The following Monday Dennis Dodd wrote an article for his column on cbssportsline.com belittling coach Gundy and OSU. If you need a refresher on the subject see my post from Sept 24th.

Today I notice the following headline on cbssportsline.com: 'I'm a man' Gundy becomes The Man for Recruiting. In the article Dodd decides to side with Gundy because he is briging in one of the best recruiting classes in years.

I still hold to my opinion of Denny. I think he's an asshole. His original article defending Jenni Carlson was very unprofessional, slammed our school and athletic program in various ways, and suggested that Gundy should be fired for his actions. Now he writes about how we won our bowl game, how we are stealing recruits away from O-Who, and praises Gundy for his recruiting success. What the hell is this guys problem? Is he bipolar, indecisive, or just a giant douche bag that doesn't deserve to write for a respectable and reputable source of sports related information. Surely he doesn't expect to redeem himself with thousands of readers that were pissed off about his original article.

For Sale: 2007 Mariah SX21

2008-01-16T12:50:00.002-06:00

If you or anyone you know are looking for a very well-kept boat at a good price, Steve is putting his up for sale. Check out the online sale ad here.

1-7-08

2008-01-07T22:26:00.000-06:00

Well, my target doesn't look like it will verify because the system backed up 75 to 100 miles. Oh well. I didn't chase these storms but I did get some lightning pics. Here's one of the better ones. Not too bad considering I'm still learning how to use my camera.

Spring In January

2008-01-06T13:02:00.001-06:00

I'm loving the fact that spring has decided to make an appearance in early January. It's 1:00 in the afternoon with temps approaching the mid 70's here in Tulsa. Along with the great temps comes a shot at severe weather for tomorrow evening. It looks like most of the excitement should be off to our east but it's been nice to have a system to watch. Just for the hell of it I'll throw out a target between Altus and Lamar, Arkansas in the very late evening hours. It looks like most forecasts point toward damaging thunderstorm winds. However, I wouldn't be shocked to see a series of tornado watches issued tomorrow. I've never tried to forecast a non-snow event in January so we'll see how I do.

Fireworks Pallet

2008-01-02T08:45:00.000-06:00

Check out video of the fireworks pallet on Bob's blog.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T00:34:00.001-06:00

Wishing all that read my blog the best in 08. For those who are wondering... The fireworks pallet went off 100 percent.

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This should get Steve kicked out of the neighborhood.

2007-12-31T13:54:00.000-06:00

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New Years fireworks project.

2007-12-31T12:57:00.000-06:00

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Tulsa Ice Storm Video

2007-12-14T19:17:00.000-06:00

As promised here is a video taken mostly around the west end of mid-town Tulsa on December 10th. The damage got quite a bit worse later in the day but I was not willing to drive around while trees were falling around me.

Ice Storm Update

2007-12-12T21:59:00.001-06:00

Since my last post things here in Tulsa got worse and now are getting a little better. At one point there were about 250000 homes and businesses without power. I heard a stat that only 1 in 3 households had power. The term war zone has been over used but there really isn't another way I can think of to describe it. It seems the worst hit areas were north of I44. I've seen many houses and cars damaged by trees. There are still several streets that you can't drive down because of fallen trees and power lines. I was one of the lucky ones and have had power through it all. The only inconvenience I have suffered is that I don't have cable or internet. I got off pretty easy.

The strangest part of all of this is when you're out and about at night. The city is really dark and somewhat creepy. Makes me happy that I can legally conceal a weapon. I won't be going anywhere without one until all of this is taken care of. There's no way some low lifes aren't taking advantage of the newly available dark places to hide.

From what I hear we are in for about 5 inches of snow Friday night and into Saturday. That should put an interesting twist in things.

Until I get my internet back I guess I'll be posting from my blackberry. That's enough for now. My thumbs are about to fall off.

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12-10-07 Ice Storm

2007-12-10T16:00:00.000-06:00

Tulsa has gotten hit pretty hard in the past 24-36 hours. South Tulsa has about a 1/4-1/3 of an inch of ice on the trees. Once you get toward mid-town or north of I-44 things get quite a bit worse. This area through town has at least a half inch of ice on everything above the surface. Roads are fine around town but it is still nearly impossible to get around due to the amount of trees in the road.

I will post some videos when I talk myself into putting together a compilation of this mornings happenings. For now, here are a few pictures I took this afternoon.

1st Winter Event Underway

2007-12-08T23:05:00.000-06:00

Tulsa hit freezing about 15 minutes ago which should lead us into our first winter event of the season. Tulsa is now experiencing light to moderate rainfall with temps below freezing. Surface streets should be ok for now. Look out at around 28 degrees, at that point we should begin to see some issues on surface streets. Below is the current radar image.

Newegg.com Sucks My Nuts

2007-12-06T14:24:00.000-06:00

I think I'm about to start a list of places that I am not going to purchase from anymore. It's about to get to the point that I can't keep track of them all. My latest addition is newegg.com. I ordered a composite a/v to USB cable from them on November 20th. The package was supposedly delivered on November 28th. I have not seen the damn thing. So on the 29th I filed a claim with newegg and was told that I would be contacted within 48 hours regarding my claim. Since then I have called twice because I haven't heard anything from them. When I ask about my claim the "customer service" rep tells me it will be 7-10 business days before they will contact me. I explain that I need this cable in order to sell video and I need to know the status of my claim. Well apparently newegg is located in some world where once claims get filed they enter a void for 7-10 days. I was told by two different "customer service" reps that it is not possible for them to check the status of my claim. Come on give me a break! Not possible? These people are so damn lazy! Even after explaining that I would never purchase anything from them again, they still would not get off their asses to check on it. So apparently I will wait until they decide to do their jobs before I know anything about the product I have already paid for. What the hell is wrong with companies? It is not hard to offer a level of customer service that is at minimum worthy of the department title.

The main reason for my frustration is that we will likely have our first winter storm event this weekend and I have no way to stream video to Ch. 2. Therefore I will have to physically take it to them which is a huge pain in the ass when you're trying to get video from several locations and get it to the station as close to real time as possible so they can use it for break-ins.

To Infinity and Beyond!

2007-11-29T08:20:00.000-06:00

Last night former Arkansas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee produced my favorite quote so far in the presidential race. During the CNN/YouTube Republican debate Steve Nielson of Denver posted a question asking candidates if they would commit to sending Americans to Mars by the year 2020. Huckabee's response was "Maybe Hillary can be on the first rocket to Mars". If only we could have that rocket ready by say...yesterday.

While I know nothing about Mike Huckabee, he just earned a few points in my book. Looks like our candidates are taping up their fists and getting ready to start taking jabs at each other. It's about time to see who the dirtiest fighter is.

First Major Cold Front

2007-11-20T21:11:00.000-06:00

I just came in from outside. I figured I would enjoy a few more minutes of nice weather before our first big cold front comes through. The above graphic shows the location of the front. About time to get the coat out. NWS Tulsa calls for a chance of snow Friday through Sunday. It shouldn't amount to anything though.

Dr. Royer and his ladies.

2007-11-18T00:07:00.000-06:00

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Terd cutter of the week.

2007-11-18T00:05:00.000-06:00

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Osu is bowl eligible!

2007-11-17T21:42:00.000-06:00

The crowd at fox and hound watching the game.

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Ending with American Pie

2007-11-11T23:20:00.000-06:00

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Garth-Shameless

2007-11-11T21:11:00.000-06:00

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Garth is finally on.

2007-11-11T20:56:00.000-06:00

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Trisha Yearwood

2007-11-11T19:37:00.001-06:00

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Almost show time.

2007-11-11T19:06:00.000-06:00

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Garth concert

2007-11-11T18:18:00.000-06:00

Outside the sprint center in KC. Doors just opened.

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Trying for another disappointment

2007-11-10T21:18:00.000-06:00

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Cowboys by 4

2007-11-10T20:10:00.001-06:00

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Gotta love the pom girls. Tie game!

2007-11-10T19:44:00.000-06:00

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Win or loose we'll still have fun.

2007-11-03T20:42:00.000-05:00

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Terd cutter of the game.

2007-11-03T17:01:00.001-05:00

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Still dominating!

2007-11-03T16:49:00.000-05:00

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14 to 0 end of 1st

2007-11-03T15:14:00.001-05:00

Go pokes!

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Warmin up!

2007-11-03T13:08:00.000-05:00

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Texas at OSU

2007-10-31T11:31:00.000-05:00

This Saturday OSU faces Texas in Stillwater. This will be the biggest game so far this season. The Big 12 South title is on the line once again this week. If we beat Texas, which I believe we can, our only other opponent in the south will be Baylor before facing OU in Norman. So if your not following, that means there is a pretty good chance that Bedlam will be a battle for a spot in the Big 12 Championship game.

Here’s why I believe that OSU will get past Texas. First let’s look at some per game averages.

Total Yards:
Texas - 458 18th in NCAA
OSU – 493 9th in NCAA

Passing Yards:
Texas - 271 33rd in NCAA
OSU – 236 66th in NCAA

Rushing Yards:
Texas – 186 30th in NCAA
OSU – 256 5th in NCAA

Total Points:
Texas – 33.9 30th in NCAA
OSU – 34.5 27th in NCAA

Secondly, let’s step in the ol’ way back machine and travel back to last Saturday when Texas barely came back to beat Nebraska, a team we completely smashed two weeks earlier. After watching some highlights of that game, it was clear that Texas has a problem defending the middle of the field. Nebraska was able to effectively pass the ball and put themselves in a position to win the game. If they can’t defend the middle it will be the Zac Robinson show in Stillwater this Saturday. Zac will make it rain and repeatedly find Bowman and Pettigrew for big gains. Combine that with the best running back in the Big 12, Savage, and I think we have a recipe for an OSU victory this weekend.

I’ll be there like a real fan should be. As for the rest of you, watch it on ABC at 2:30.