by John Walters

 

MEDIUM HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Tweet Me Right

Reminiscent of Alabama-Notre Dame in 2012 https://t.co/29oM7w1Vg3

— Medium Happy (@jdubs88) January 2, 2019

Couldn’t resist…

Starting Five

1. Mad Cow!

Someone thought it would be a good idea to pose Bevo next to UGA (clad in a red sweater) prior to the Sugar Bowl. What they got instead was a harbinger to Texas’ upset of Georgia (you know, the school whose fans spent all of Saturday whining that they belonged in the playoff).

Skycam was invented for this moment pic.twitter.com/5illRc8Xso

— Richard🇬🇾Johnson (@RJ_Writes) January 2, 2019

 

Texas, behind some Tebow-esque quarterback play from Sam Ehlinger, raced out to a 28-7 lead and thoroughly outplayed the Dawgs for the game’s first 50 minutes. Meanwhile, the SEC remains undefeated in OOC/bowl games it actually cares about. Remember that.

The Longhorns sent a message to the world this year. Here are their 3 losses outside Austin:
• 🇲aryland
• 🇴klahoma State
• 🇴klahoma
That message is MOO.

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) January 2, 2019

2. Tyler Trent

Moments after Ohio State had dispatched of Washington, 28-23, in the Rose Bowl, the news spread across Twitter that Purdue student Tyler Trent had passed away due to complications from bone cancer at the age of 20. It was Trent whose presence at the Boilermakers’ prime-time game versus the Buckeyes in October seemed to possess the team into playing at a heretofore unseen level. Purdue wiped Ohio State by three touchdowns that night.

Here’s Indianapolis Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Trent and his passing.

3. The Bad Beats Bowl

We missed this outcome until we saw it on the SVP SportsCenter last night. For the second time in the past six years, the Bahamas Bowl featured an incredibly, gut-wrenchingly painful Bad Beat.

Here’s the scenario: Florida International leads Toledo, 28-25, with less than three minutes left. The Over/Under line is 66.5. If you took the under, you’re feeling good. You’ve got 13.5 points to play with.

FIU has the ball and barely, I mean barely, converts a 4th and 6 at the Rockets’ 27. Three plays later, on 3rd-and-1 at the 18, you figure they’ll either convert and run out the clock or fail to convert and kick the FG. Wha do the Panthers do? A run up the gut goes for a touchdown!

35-25. You’re still fine. It’s 60 points and there’s less than a minute to play.

Now there’s less than 10 seconds to play and Toledo is at its FIU’s 43. QB Eli Peters launches a—what else?—rocket that Jon’Vea Johnson hauls in on a dead run just before stepping out of the back of the end zone. Argh!!! But it’s 35-31 (66 points) and the game is over, right?

Wrong! There’s :01 on the clock and by rule Toledo must attempt the PAT. They do, and convert and the game ends 35-32. 67 points. If you took the Under, YOU LOSE!

Ouch. Gruesome. As we’ve noted here before, the 2014 Bahamas Bowl cured us of casual wagering, after Western Michigan (we took them minus-2) blew a 35-POINT FOURTH-QUARTER lead and only won by one point.

Forget the Bermuda Triangle, kids. STAY AWAY FROM THE BAHAMAS BOWL!

4. McChrystal, Romney and Trump

We’ll get to Mitt Romney another day. Over the New Year’s holiday retired four-star general Stanley McChrsytal granted an interview in which he said of the president, when asked if he thinks if he’s a liar and immoral, answered, “I think he is” both times.

McChrystal said, referencing his colleague James Mattis’ resignation, that it would be important for him to work for someone who tells the truth. That he could not work for someone who doesn’t.

But John Kelly did, even though privately John Kelly has told friends and associates the same things McChrystal said. Who’s the more heroic soldier here? For us, it’s no contest: McChrystal. All Kelly did, by being a presence in the West Wing, was help to legitimize an illegitimate leader.

Trump responded by tweeting that McChrystal has “a big, dumb mouth,” rhetoric that falls somewhere short of the Gettsyburg Address.

5. Safe Streets

The number of traffic-related deaths in New York City fell to 200 in 2018, which is the lowest number in one year since the Big Apple began recording the statistic in 1910. That’s crazy, when you consider the proliferation of Uber and Lyft drivers, pedestrians hypnotized by their cell phones, folks on Citi-bikes and E-scooters, motorized skateboards and pedestrians camping out on 57th Street in June to glimpse Manhattan’s version of Stonehenge.

This is the living embodiment of a statistic not fitting the prevailing narrative. Next you’re going to tell us that Texas beat Georgia.

 

Music 101

Holiday In Cambodia

Just another schmaltzy, sweet Seventies song from Jello Biafra and Dead Kennedys. It was actually released in 1980 and criticized idealistic, moralizing college students (snowflakes) who were oblivious to the horrors of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Just another love song.

Remote Patrol

Nova

9 p.m. PBS

If you’ve been paying attention, something called New Horizons, a spacecraft, is zooming past Ultima Thule, an object that is located 4,000,000,000 miles from Earth. Hoping Ultima Thule has restrooms and Slim Jims.