Trying something new here: When I make a new YouTube video, I’m gonna send out a newsletter to let you guys know about it.
Of course, you could get that just by subscribing to my Youtube channel. But in these newsletters, I’m gonna drop some CUTTING ROOM FLOOR facts that didn’t make it into the video.
So here’s my latest video, about new Oklahoma State head coach Eric Morris’ freakish ability to find elite quarterbacks nobody else was recruiting. It started with Baker Mayfield, then Patrick Mahomes — good start, but both guys were at least semi-recruited by some colleges. Then he moved onto Cam Ward and Drew Mestemaker — one of whom ran the Wing T in high school, and the other literally did not play high school football.
And I think that ability might be the most valuable thing any college football coach can have. I hope you enjoy it — if I’m gonna take these dumb pics of myself for the thumbnail, people better watch the videos lol.
First of all, thanks to Tom Prizeman for his work editing this video. Now, fun facts:
Here’s the link to one of those articles about Eric Morris hitting the game-winning shot in the high school basketball state championship. Forgot to mention he also hit a game-tying three to force overtime. Incredible quote from Morris, 22 years ago: “I don’t think y’all realize what this means to a town of little boys.”
You may notice the article about North Texas losing a game 66-7 to Portland State was written by me, slightly over 10 years ago! One of my roommates at the time was a UNT alum who did not care about football at all, and I remember coming back from the SB Nation office that night and telling her “you wouldn’t believe it, I actually ended up writing a lot about North Texas football today” and she was like “oh, we must have lost a game by a ton of points or something” and I was like “… actually yeah that’s exactly what happened.”
I forgot to mention the other notable thing about North Texas football: the fact that Mean Joe Greene played for the Mean Green. The school insists to this day that the team is not named after Greene, but rather that a) fans started calling the team, officially known as the Eagles, the Mean Green in the late 1960s, when Mean Joe Greene was on the roster b) that NFL reporters nicknamed Joe Green “Mean” after finding out about the college team’s nickname c) that in 1973, after Mean Joe Greene had become an NFL star, the team officially adopted the Mean Green nickname.
I refuse to believe this, even if it’s true. It is too complicated. Just say you named the team after the guy. It’s a better story and makes more sense.
Furthermore, none of this explains the fact that Mean Joe Greene’s birth name was Charles.
I kept saying in the video that North Texas was #1 in scoring offense this year, but more impressively: They were #1 in offensive SP+! Better than Indiana! That takes into account strength of schedule, efficiency, etc, and isn’t just demonstrating that they kicked the crap out of Rice and Temple. That doesn’t normally happen for schools like North Texas: The last time a non-power conference school even finished in the top 10 of Offensive SP+ was 2021, when Western Kentucky ranked 5th.
Anyway, thanks for watching, thanks for subscribing — and I’m hard at work at making more fun internet stuff with the Winter Olympics coming up!
