Spit Blood: Aug 19, 2010

Thursday, August 19, 2010

The Purple People Seaters Campaign - 2010

Most of you are aware of our successful Purple People Seaters campaign last year where we were able to send 200 kids to the New Mexico game towards the end of the season. We set our goal at $5,000 and nearly hit it with only a month to do so.

This year we are going to step it up a notch. Our goal at Spitblood is to raise $10,000 by seasons end. We already have a good base from the proceeds from our successful Inaugural Spitblood Scramble golf tournament, and I have come up with a challenge to you to help us reach our goal.

The Challenge:
For each Spitblood reader out there, I want you to make a pledge to yourself to donate a set dollar amount for every point that we win by this year. Each week that the Frogs are victorious on the field, the PPS fund grows. I have pledged to donate $1 for every point that we win by, and i'm broke as shit. So, whether you can afford half a dollar for every point or $5 for every point, it doesn't matter as long as we all get involved and stick true to our pledge.

For example, if we win 10 games (i've come to expect it), by an average of 4 points per game (conservative), we only need 250 Spitblooders to pledge $1 per point to hit $10,000 by season's end. I think this is a very realistic goal for us.

So, think about your pledge ability over the next 16 days, and lets get ready for a magical season for both the Frogs and the Purple People Seaters Foundation.

Koozie Sightings Update

I continue to receive koozie sightings pics from all over. I have lost a few along the way, so if you don't see yours in the web album, please resend them to koozies@spitbloodtcu.com . This should help me keep track of all of them.

If you purchased koozies after 8/2, you will be getting them shortly. I am sending out a large shipment today. I apologize for falling behind on these if you are anxiously awaiting their arrival.

Here are a few highlights from the newly added photos:

National Cathedral, Washington, DC

The White House, Washington, DC

Start Em Young, Calgary, Canada

Banff, Canada

North Jetties, Galveston, TX

#25 Marvin White

It is non-other than the Gator himself. The creator of the "Great White Hit", a player that was described as having a "suddenness about him and a violence in him", a player that was one of the most punishing tacklers in Frog history.

As a junior in 2005, Marvin started just nine games, but that included the last seven of the season. He ended up being a large contributor to TCU's conference championship in their first year in the MWC. After the season, White was named Second Team All-MWC. During his senior year, Marvin led the Frogs in both interceptions and tackles, and he was also honored with First Team All-MWC.

Despite his relatively short tenure as a Frog, Marvin's unmatched intensity on the field earned him a spot on this list, and he will go down in history as have creating the most deafening roar to ever come out of The Carter.

What's that you say, GP?

With all of yesterday's drama, including BYU threatening football independence and MWC Commissioner Craig Thompson reacting by plucking Fresno State and Nevada from the WAC (essentially killing that conference and eliminating BYU's contingency plan for their other sports as well as for filling out their football schedule in future years), who knew it would be the usually tight-lipped Gary Patterson possibly dropping the biggest bombshell? I'm sure we were all quite intrigued with this post-practice quote:

"All I can tell you is this: Just wait and see in the next two weeks before you make any judgments and see what happens in the national landscape," Patterson said. "Things that I know that maybe you don't know. That's all I'm going to tell you."

Say Whaaaaaaaat!?! What TCU fan (or college football fan in general) could hold back their imaginations from running wild after reading something like that. What does GP know? Let's speculate:

The optimistic portion of my brain wants to think...is there a Big 12 invite looming? With just ten teams, wouldn't it make sense for them to add a former SWC member who's churning out Top 10 teams and NFL Draft picks left and right? TCU donors just dropped $110 mil on a re-do of our aging stadium, and that money was raised in an incredibly short amount of time. Perhaps those donors were motivated by knowing that the Big 12 was just around the corner? I'd LOVE for this to be the case, but it just seems to good to actually be true. The Big 12 has said they don't want to add another Texas team, and TCU- as good of an athletic program as they have- isn't a huge TV draw.

Or was GP referring to the additions of Fresno and Nevada to the MWC (which pulled the rug out from beneath BYU's plan), not knowing that the public was already aware of that development? This is possible, although it's certainly less of a splashy 'ace up your sleeve' than most of us were hoping for.

But also, remember last year, when Patterson talked about pitting the MWC champion against the WAC champion the first weekend in December to determine who would go to the BCS, essentially allowing those two leagues to share an automatic bid? Well, with the WAC now all but dead, could the Mountain West be looking into a "Non-BCS Championship Game" with Conference USA? If the Mountain West can't get it's own automatic bid (and I'm not saying that that can't still happen), sharing one would be of interest, right? And while MWC vs. CUSA wouldn't be the kind of TV draw that, say, the SEC Championship is, it would would have some appeal because the two teams would be playing for something tangible, and would generate some revenue for both leagues.

Clearly I'm just guessing here, so please, share your thoughts in the comments section.

History of the World 8/19

Happy Birthday!!
Bill Clinton, 1946
Kirk Herbstreit, 1969

On this day:
In 1909, the Indianapolis 500 race track opens.
In 1942, the first American offensive begins in the Pacific during WWII at Guadalcanal.
In 1984, the world record for crawling is made at 27 miles.
In 2010, most frog fans are having panic attacks due to recent comments made by coaches and conference realignment.

Weird News of the Day!!
Fine Point of Florida Law: David Lowe, 47, was convicted in Brooksville, Fla., last year of "lewd or lascivious exhibition" after he sat in his car, masturbating, outside a convenience store while ostentatiously holding a large dildo to his mouth in front of a woman and her child. In July 2010, a Florida appeals court reversed the conviction and freed Lowe, pointing out that conviction under that particular statute requires "sexual activity," which is defined as occurring between two or more persons. [WKMG-TV (Orlando)]

#26 LaMarcus McDonald

The captain of the 2002 CUSA Championship team, LaMarcus dominated the 2002 season. In '02 alone he led the team with 118 tackles, 8.5 sacks, and 30 TFLs. The 120 yards lost on those 30 TFLs broke the school record which had previously been held by Aaron Schobel. LaMarcus is second all time in Yards Lost Tackling in a career with 236.

After his standout '02 season LaMarcus was honored by the conference as first-team All-CUSA and Defensive Player of the Year. He also was named second-team All-American by the AP, and first team All-American by College Football News. LaMarcus also received the Rogers Trophy in '02 which is awarded to the TCU MVP.

Up next:

This bayou native led the team in INTs and tackles during his senior year, but he is forever engraved in Frogdom for one great white demolition.....