Enjoy...
Everything's Bigger in Texas (Especially High School Football)
Texas high school football is unreal. There's a movie about it (Friday Night Lights). It's where future Hall of Famers and Heisman Trophy winners play high school ball. There are high school stadiums like this in Texas...
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| Allen High School's football stadium cost $60 million to build and seats 18,000 people. |
To put that in perspective, Arkansas' six high school state championship games averaged only 5,304, meaning Texas averaged more than 3.5 times as many fans per game.
Arkansas' highest attended game, the 6A state title game (7,916), would rank 10th, ahead of only the 1A Division I, Six-man Division I and Six-man Division II state title games in Texas.
In the 5A Division I state championship game between Allen High (the team that plays in the stadium pictured above) and Pearland High had a record 54,347 in attendance.
To put THAT in perspective, that is more than four of the five bowl games played so far this year, more than War Memorial Stadium's capacity (53,955) and more than the attendance at three of Arkansas' games this season (vs. Samford and Mississippi State at War Memorial and @ Rutgers).
The 4A Division II and 5A Division II state title games had a higher attendance than three of this year's bowl games, while the 3A Division II title game's attendance was higher than two bowl games and the 4A Division I title game's attendance was higher than one bowl game.
The attendance numbers for Texas' state title games broke records this year, but the attendance for the 10 11-man games was up only 7.8 percent. I can only imagine how many people will go next year, but I know that I will do my best to be there and help the numbers.
Aledo High Scores Points... A LOT of Points
One of the teams that participated in the Texas state championship games mentioned above was Aledo High, which is located about 50 miles west of Dallas.
Aledo capped off a perfect 16-0 season with a 38-10 rout over Brenham in the 4A Division II state championship game. However, the 28-point win was its second-closest victory of the season.
The Bearcats blew out their opponents all season. Their average margin of victory was an impressive 55.2 points per game.
Aledo's offense became the first high school team to score 1,000 points in a single-season, finishing with 1,023 points despite scoring season-low totals of 29 and 38 points in the semifinals and title game, respectively.
While its offense got most of the headlines, Aledo's defense was also impressive, allowing only 8.8 points per game.
With 91, two 84, 77 and 76 point performances, the Bearcats scored an average of 63.9 points per game. (That 91-point performance was a 91-0 shutout.)
To put this in perspective, one of Arkansas' most famous high school teams, 2005 Springdale, finished 14-0, but scored only 47.4 points per game. That year, the Bulldogs were known for routing their opponents, but only won by an average of 39.1 points per game. Springdale's biggest shutout victory was a 52-0 win over Fort Smith Northside.
4,000-yard Passer, 1,000-yard Rusher
As I was watching the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl between East Carolina and Ohio, I heard the announcers say that during the game, East Carolina's quarterback went over 4,000 passing yards and running back went over 1,000 rushing yards for the season.
This got me wondering about how many times a team has had a 4,000-yard passer and 1,000-yard rusher the same season. Arkansas got close in 2010 (Knile Davis had 1,322 yards, but Ryan Mallett finished with 3,869 - 131 yards shy of 4,000), but has never done it.
It turns out that is has been done 24 times...
- 1989 Houston: Andre Ware was the quarterback for the Cougars and won the Heisman Trophy. Houston was coached by Jack Pardee, who was one of Arkansas-native Bear Bryant's "Junction Boys."
- 1990 Houston: Houston was coached by John Jenkins, who played quarterback and running back at Arkansas from 1970-1973 and was a defensive backs coach at Arkansas from 1977-1978.
- 1998 Louisville: Louisville was coached by John L. Smith and its offensive coordinator was Bobby Petrino. I'm not kidding.
- 2001 Fresno State: David Carr was the quarterback for the Bulldogs and went on to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft by the Houston Texans.
- 2003 Boise State: Dan Hawkins was the Broncos' head coach. Hawkins joined the Boise St. staff as an assistant coach after Houston Nutt left Boise for the Arkansas job. In 2006, Hawkins left Boise St. to become the head coach at Colorado.
- 2003 Miami (OH): Ben Roethlisberger was the RedHawks' quarterback.
- 2004 Bowling Green: Omar Jacobs was the Falcons' quarterback. Jacobs was recruited to Bowling Green by future Florida and Ohio St. head coach Urban Meyer.
- 2007 Missouri: Missouri's season was capped with a dominating 38-7 victory over Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl.
- 2007 Tulsa: This was Gus Malzahn's first year as the offensive coordinator at Tulsa.
- 2008 Houston: Houston was coached by Kevin Sumlin, who is now the head coach at Texas A&M.
- 2008 Missouri: The Tigers (along with Tulsa) were the second team to accomplish the feat in back-to-back seasons.
- 2008 Oklahoma: Oklahoma is the only team to accomplish the feat with two 1,000-yard rushers. Sam Bradford, the quarterback, won the Heisman Trophy.
- 2008 Tulsa: This was Gus Malzahn's second and final year as the offensive coordinator at Tulsa.
- 2010 Hawaii
- 2010 Oklahoma: The Sooners' quarterback was Landry Jones and its running back was Demarco Murray.
- 2010 Oklahoma State
- 2011 Arizona State: Dennis Erickson was the Sun Devils' head coach. Erickson was the head coach at Miami (FL) from 1989-1994, where he compiled a 63-9 record, including a 31-3 victory over Arkansas in 1991.
- 2011 Baylor: Robert Griffin III was the Bears' quarterback and won the Heisman Trophy.
- 2011 Oklahoma State: The Cowboys were the fourth team to accomplish the feat in back-to-back years.
- 2012 Baylor: The Bears were the fifth team to accomplish the feat in back-to-back seasons.
- 2012 Fresno State: The Bulldogs' quarterback was Derek Carr, the younger brother of David, who was the quarterback at Fresno State the first time the Bulldogs accomplished the feat.
- 2012 Louisiana Tech: Kenneth Dixon was the running back for Louisiana Tech. Dixon is from Strong, Ark., and helped lead Strong High to a state championship in 2011. During his senior year of high school, he ran for 3,153 yards and 39 touchdowns in 13 games (242.5 yards and 3 touchdowns per game), including 348 yards and five touchdowns in the state title game.
- 2012 San Jose State: Mike MacIntyre was the Spartans' head coach. After the season, he left San Jose State to become Colorado's head coach (similar to Dan Hawkins).
- 2013 East Carolina
There are five other teams that could accomplish the feat this year, depending on how well they do in their bowl games.
- Arizona State: This is the least likely one to happen. Running back Marion Grice needs only four rushing yards to reach the 1,000-yard mark, but quarterback Taylor Kelly needs 490 passing yards to reach the 4,000-yard mark. The Sun Devils play Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl, which could benefit Kelly, as it will probably be a high-scoring shootout.
- Ball State: Quarterback Keith Wenning needs only 67 passing yards and running back Jahwan Edwards needs only 36 rushing yards against Arkansas State in the GoDaddy.com Bowl.
- Baylor: The Bears already have one 1,000-yard rusher (Lache Seastrunk - 1,060 yards), but a 156-yard performance by Bryce Petty and 138-yard outing by Shock Linwood against UCF in the Fiesta Bowl would make Baylor the second team with a 4,000-yard passer and two 1,000-yard rushers.
- Florida State: Quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston needs only 180 passing yards to reach the 4,000-yard mark. Running back Devonta Freeman needs 57 rushing yards to hit the 1,000-yard mark. The Seminoles play Auburn in the BCS National Championship game.
- Marshall: Running back Essray Taliaferro already has 1,059 rushing yards, but quarterback Rakeem Cato needs 421 passing yards against Maryland in the Military Bowl to reach the 4,000-yard mark.
Randy Johnson... the Photographer?
Randy Johnson is one of the most memorable baseball players from my childhood. How can you not remember a 6-foot-10, long-haired pitcher that threw 100 mph?
His perfect game when he was 40 years old in 2004 was the first perfect game I can remember. I also remember his 4,000th strikeout in 2004 and 300th win in 2009.
My fondest memory of him was probably playing Backyard Baseball on the computer. I always wanted him on my team because he was a dominant pitcher on the game, but he had to be the worst hitter on the game. (Ironically, I also vividly remember his first, and only, career home run in 2003.)
Knowing all of this, I was very surprised to see what his new occupation is: a photographer. It turns out that he majored in photojournalism at USC, where he pitched in college.
He has photographed concerts for Kiss, U2, Metallica and Pearl Jam, as well as extreme sports, such as surfing and auto racing. You can check out his work at rj51photos.com. If you go to his website, you'll see that he's actually very talented.
I don't know what I'd do if I saw him taking pictures, but I would immediately know it was him. You can't miss a 6-foot-10, long-haired guy.
A fun side note: Apparently he's also a sports memorabilia collector. He tweeted a picture of a baseball signed by Jimmie Foxx and said, "Got my Christmas Present early. 500HR+ club complete. All 25 members." He tweeted that he has autographs from all former Cy Young Award winners and 300 game winners, as well.
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