Sometime around the third quarter of the Heart of Dallas Bowl, we tweeted this line, asking readers to complete the sentence: “Oklahoma State is beating Purdue like a ……….”
The Pingtweet offered a visual clue. We coupled the tweet with a photograph of “The Worlds’s Largest Drum,” the gigantic bass drum that travels with the Boilermakers.
“Beat like a drum” … as we used to say in my sports-playing days. Ha … one buddy tweeted back “like a red-headed stepchild.” I liked the answer, but I think the OSU Cowboys were more unkind than that. Man, The Cowboys kept “beating the drum” slowly … in a game that seemed to last forever, pouring it on, even running razzle-dazzle halfback pass trick plays when the game was way out of hand.
But we kept on tweeting … “We,” I say, because thanks to my colleague, we were able to keep the dialogue flowing on Twitter from the pressbox and the sidelines simultaneously. Oh the power of social media …
Enough about the grid, and back to the gridiron … Welcome to the modern era of college football, where messed up BCS formulas require coaches to leave nothing on the table … this new football of 2013 is an era where bigger is not necessarily better. College football today is increasingly a skill-position game … brain over braun, if you will. “Big/uglies” as they are called are getting circles run around them by faster more athletic, spread, hurry-up offensives and “air raids” (Thank you Mike Leach). The 2013 HOD Bowl was a microcosm of the modern game … the smaller, faster, more precision team picking apart the bigger stronger, grind-it-out team.
In the press conference the day before The HOD Bowl, the OSU players alluded to the fact that the Boilermakers were some of the biggest guys they would face all year. And when Purdue first took the field, on appearances only, I might have guessed the huge Indiana boys were going to kill them some Cowboys. This was not to be. On the contrary, OSU raced to an early lead and never looked back as they rolled to a 58-14 spankfest.
So dismal was the day for Purdue, I think the obvious highlight of their latest bowl appearance was halftime when their giant drum orbited the halftime show with a band member tethered on top wearing a space suit – to honor the 2012 passing of Purdue Alumnus Neil Armstrong. To paraphrase … the bowl game was one small step in the season for OSU and one giant leap of faith for Purdue fans to travel to Texas … only to be humiliated.
And to think, this was the fourth place team from the Big 12 having its way with a storied program from The Big 10. Remember when conventional wisdom said the Big12 couldn’t hold a candle to the Big 10 or the SEC. Think again.
By the numbers, the game was not as lopsided as the score indicates … the difference was big plays … the byproduct of the faster/smarter game mentioned above.
For instance, OSU had only one more rushing first down than Purdue. But, when passing, the Cowboys moved the sticks twice as often as the Boilermakers, 14 to 6 first downs. In net yards passing, OSU had the edge 311-212.
Third-down conversions — almost dead even. In total offense, the difference is more apparent – 524 to 367 total yards. Then add four turnovers that went in the direction of Oklahoma State.
The biggest stat of the day was one that The Boilermakers would have liked to have left alone. In the HOD Bowl, OSU set a new record for the most points scored in the old Cotton Bowl stadium during a bowl matchup. The previous dubious honor was owned by Texas Tech who were humbled by USC in The Cotton Bowl ’95, when the pre-Leach Red Raiders were drummed to the tune of 55-14. That is one Texas Tech record that can now be laid to rest.
Note: I was at that Cotton Bowl and it only offered two bright spots for me. One, I found solace in reading that about 2/3 of USC’s players were from Texas. Two, the crowd in the section of the bleachers where I was sitting all stood and applauded as two drunken Texas A&M students were handcuffed and escorted out of The Cotton Bowl after heckling us all day long. I digress …
Needless to say, I had no vested interest in this 2013 game in the old Cotton Bowl. My Red Raiders won a perhaps less significant bowl down in Houston. Doubtful that many Tech types were at the game. However, I was on the lookout for old friends at the game. As fate would have it, from my old PR days, I had friends on either side of the ball … a friend in PR for T. Boone Pickens (benefactor of both OSU and this bowl’s charity) … and an old buddy — “Fio” — who works at Purdue.
I wanted to visit with both for old times sake, and concerning the Purdue connection, I was selfishly hoping to get the chance to smack that big drum – a treat that is usually reserved for celebrities at Purdue games. Well … I never found either of the communications pros, so I had to take drum beating into my own hands. It took some fancy footwork, but during the game, I befriended the Boilermaker drummer who wielded the big stick, and then after the game … YES … she let me whack the world’s biggest drum … Once for every time Purdue scored. It didn’t take long. Bucket list checkoff.
Lay Lady Lay Across My Big Bass Drum
Speaking of footwork … during the game, I almost made the ESPNU highlight reel I’m sure. I had a hunch some plays were going to go to the far side of the field, so I headed that way. As I crossed dangerously close to the back edge of the end zone, looking around for the next photo opportunity, a second photographer to my side knelt down. I didn’t see him. Then he tripped me as he folded his leg back behind him. Ha … ever lose your balance and refused to let gravity win? You know, so funny. You sort of stumble for about a 10-yard gain, potentially going down with every step, and then finally you pull it out and act like nothing happened. Yes that was me, at the back of the end zone with an announced crowd of about 48,000 watching. Didn’t see that coming …
Second favorite moment … when the OSU band played a medley of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Fat Bottom Girls.” Ha … I even recorded their marching version on myPhone. This, the same band that deserved a tweet during the game. After the game was out of hand and they were just having fun … the OSU rhythm section kicked in with some funky dance beat … ha … and as the rest of the band danced, the clarinet players were aiming their woodwind horns down at the field, as if they were firing rifles. Funny. Nice irreverent disregard for political correctness … and for this we salute them.
Ha … I guess I had to do something to be more of a part of the game … since this blog is about Wi-Fi … and can you believe this? There was no Wi-Fi in the old Cotton Bowl pressbox, nor down on the sidelines. We were forced to tweet using the slow, overburdened 3&4G cellular service covering the stadium or hardwired in the pressbox.
One e-mail I had rather of not received … someone messaged me that they think I look like old school country singer Don Williams. Ha … now that was a first. I wonder, did they see the plastic-head Cowboy mascot on TV and think that was me? I mean … Cowboy Pistol Pete (love the name) sort of looks like Don Williams … sort of. Me? Not so much.
Know what I sayin?
