Daily Bullets
Daily Bullets (Oct. 4): ESPN+’s Impact on Chuba’s Heisman Campaign, Tech Stinks at Run Defense
Does it surprise anybody that Chuba Hubbard lives with two linebackers? Also, here’s your broadcast info for tomorrow.
Bullets Rundown
• ESPN+ and the K-State game
• Tech struggles on run defense
• Mike Holder’s best (AD) quality
OSU Bullets
• Berry Tramel hashes out the negative effects of ESPN+’s… poor showing on Saturday in Stillwater.
Meanwhile, the televised games were monumental duds. Ohio State led Nebraska 41-0. Auburn led Mississippi State 49-9. Central Florida led Connecticut 56-7. Given the chance, the average American football fan would have quickly flipped over to OSU-Kansas State.
That hurts Big 12 branding. But it could have been worth it, if the production had been high quality and fans knew this was the same product, just on a different platform.
Instead, OSU-KSU just made people more skeptical, knowing that basketball is coming. The Cowboys have 10 men’s basketball games on ESPN Plus. [NewsOK]
Short-term – the Big 12 missed out on eyeballs and Chuba Hubbard’s Heisman campaign got a bit of that Pac-12 after-dark treatment in the sense that he missed out on viewers of his 296-yard performance.
Long-term – nobody is thrilled about the prospect of watching similarly produced basketball games on ESPN+ this fall.
• If you’re projecting the score in Lubbock on Saturday – here’s a statistic you need to know about the Red Raiders.
Texas Tech’s run defense is ranked 100th in yards per game given up at 179.8 a game. Chuba Hubbard averages 187.6 yards a game on the ground by himself so far this season. While that stat should rightfully scare the pants off of Red Raider fans Matt Wells is a good coach and there is plenty of firepower left over from the Kliff Kingsbury recruiting strategy. [HCS]
Something I love about a Chuba-centric offense is that it has the potential to play some havoc on an opposing offense built on rhythm. It used to be so frustrating to watch Mason Rudolph sit on the sideline while opposing teams had long drives – I think Hubbard has that capacity if he’s not breaking long runs.
• Mike Holder’s job security was in question as recently as when Brad Underwood left a couple of years ago. But his performance in this key area has made him unassailable as an AD.
In 2005, T. Boone Pickens persuaded him to take the job. Holder flourished in that role, also. He’s been the driving force during the greatest period of fundraising and facilities development in school history.
The numbers don’t lie: Holder has been to OSU’s fundraising campaigns what Barry Sanders was to OSU’s run game. [TulsaWorld]
• Get to know BB (baby Bullet), the pony that’s been at the football games. Gun-to-somebody’s-head, this had to of been inspired by Parks and Rec icon Lil’ Sebastian.
• This is a fun recruiting tidbit – a forward the Pokes are after is holding off on a KU official this weekend. While it may just be Kansas fallout, you have to think this is a good sign for the Pokes as well.
Top-60 forward JT Thor will no longer visit Kansas this weekend, a source tells @Rivals. He has already taken official visits to Georgia and Oklahoma State @JayhawkSlant https://t.co/ij33GbGp1m
— Corey Evans (@coreyevans_10) October 3, 2019
• This effortless dunk by peak-Barry Sanders made the rounds yesterday. This is incredible for a man so far from six-feet tall.
HOLD UP @BarrySanders ?!?!?!
(@Ballislife)
pic.twitter.com/s7bgc19mdk— Will Blackmon (@WillBlackmon) October 3, 2019
• So here’s this – Calvin Bundage tweeting out pictures of stars.
https://twitter.com/CalvinBundage/status/1179879409072955394
Non-OSU Bullets
• This NYT piece on how a mom fit training for a hundred-mile race (that she won) into her life was fascinating – please nobody show my marathon-runner wife this article
• Finished this book on habits earlier this week – v. good
• While I’m out on relativism in general, this short Godin read on gathering more perspective is great
• This faith-based article on parenting with grown children was great perspective for me
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