Bowden's Lemonade Glass on the Porch Is Getting Warm

Ten (Or More..) Things I Know I Think

1. When Bobby Bowden starts to wax nostalgic about how awesome a game he lost must have been to watch, then it's time to go. I don't know many coaches who even think this way. Instead of seeing 38-34 as a "great game" like Bobby did, most coaches want to vomit thinking about why on earth they surrendered 38 at home.

2. There is no act of poor sportsmanship worse than strutting or posing after you have laid out a defenseless receiver. While I have real problems with the NCAA's new "point of emphasis" on this issue, I thought Reshad Jones of Georgia was a total jackass after hitting Justin Blackmon of Oklahoma State. Congrats, dude. You made the obvious play you need to make. Don't act like you just cured cancer. Especially when the guy you hit might be seriously injured. That said, I think the new interpretation of these hits is going to pose continuing problems.

3. I think I need to know how to pull and post high quality, quasi-HD clips like the one above to YouTube. Currently, I have a Pinnacle USB video converter that lays down video from composite inputs. It can accept my HD picture from my DirecTV box, but it does not lay down a 16x9 aspect ratio on the recorded video to my USB storage device. Instead, it crushes the video into a 4x3 aspect ratio file. I did find out I can "un-stretch" this video on a re-convert using Vegas Movie Studio Platinum. But the render time is somewhat tedious and cumbersome. The resulting video is quite good. Not "real" HD but at least crystal sharp standard def video in a nice widescreen format. This would be great for archiving and posting stuff to YouTube. (I hate nothing more than crappy YouTube footage, don't you?) But to date, I don't know of any way to capture what I am looking for without re-converting. Nerds, have at this one. I'll post the best responses later this week.

4. Speaking of "bad HD" I am insulted at the garbage ABC threw at us for the otherwise awesome VaTech v. Alabama game. It was clearly NOT true HD. Un-acceptable. They should be forced to label the video as STANDARD DEF WIDESCREEN, which I am convinced it was. PS: How come uncle Brent doesn't have more pull?

5. Last note on that game, I was glad to see Lee Corso back on the set after his stroke back in May. However, it's tough to notice immediately the 5-8% loss in function he still has. I know about strokes quite well. My dad's father suffered one, and it is such a blow to quality of life. For whatever reasons, everybody fears the ol' heart attack above all else. But at least if you survive one of those, you can go on to function pretty well.

6. ESPN's Wendy Nix is already the most cougar-riffic of ESPN female talent. But did you see her with the librarian glasses on Saturday? Ohhh... wow.

7. Not that anybody needed proof, but Northern Iowa losing an epic upset bid because of TWO blocked kicks in a row at the gun? Good grief, Charlie Brown. I think there are probably 5-6 good kickers in D-1 college football, everybody else is some kind of soccer team walk-on.

8. Did you see John Senden's albatross at the Duechebank? (Doushe-bank, whatever?) I was trying to remember the last time the rarest of golf birds, the ALBATROSS was caught on film in it's natural element? I couldn't remember. You only hear about them on tour, you rarely see one.

9. Mike Singletary has installed a giant ol' dirt hill at the Niner's training facility. Claims that any great football player has once done hill training to get in prime shape. He's probably right. I always heard about Walter Payton doin' that crap. The story on ESPN even said that Ladanian Tomlinson had a hill "installed" at his home so he could work out on it. I bet that hill also had a huge, sweet-ass, HD jumbotron installed at the top. Ohhhh, yeahhh.

10. One of my neighbors played for the 1961 Alabama national championship team. How do I know this? He wore an Alabama golf shirt, and his title ring to a little neighborhood social on Sunday night. And boy, did he have stories! He buttonholed me immediately, and said: "Now, are you some kind of sportswriter?" His name is Ed Versprille. Lean, fit, a thick head of white hair, and a penchant for invading your personal space when he gets fired up, ol' Ed had a problem with my initial questions about him having played. "You played?" I said. "Hell yeah, why does everybody say that!" "Nothing, I just think it's impressive. What position?" "Fullback!" be blurted proudly. And then without any prompting, he closed in to about 6 inch range from my face and growled: "And I would knock your dick in the dirt, too!" My man. Eddie! I think we're going to the Auburn game together. Stay tuned.