Oklahoma ended it's spring practice this past week with the same concerns it had coming into the sessions. What's going to happen in the kicking game?

     We all saw the disaster of a year ago. Special teams just weren't special. It's really amazing to think the Sooners actually got into a national championship game with the problems they had in this important area.

     After watching that Red-White scrimmage I'm convinced that the kicking game could be a major problem again. The return game should be fine with Ryan Broyles bringing back punts and he'll be joined by DeMarco Murray bringing back kickoffs. Who knows how the cover teams are going to be. It can't be worse than it was a year ago.

     Now what about kickoffs and punting? Tress Way, the redshirt freshman, had problems in both areas in the scrimmage. You could tell Bob Stoops was a little perplexed by the situation. He said Way had kicked well in practice.

     Things change when there are a lot of people watching. Who knows what's going to happen?

     The key freshman this year will be a walkon. Yep, a walkon. Everybody who watched Bryce Easley kick at Norman North swears by him. They said every kickoff was just sailing out of the end zone. He is needed to come in and win the kickoff job from day one.

     And what about placements? Yeah, they were bad a year ago. Will it be the returning veteran Jimmy Stevens or will it be Way?

     The kicking game has to be a huge concern for the Sooners. And we probably won't know much more about it until the open Sept. 5 with BYU.

     What's happened to this Oklahoma basketball team?

     There have now been three out of gfour losses. This was a team that was on cruise control. This was a team that some thought was as good as any other in the land.

     That was until Blake Griffin got hurt. And more importantly that was until the Sooner guards stopped showing up. It's not easy to understand.

     And it's not easy what the Sooners have left. Tomorrow afternoon they host an Oklahoma State team that has shown great improvement over the last three weeks. It's an OSU club that could give you trouble if the guards are playing well.

     Then comes the Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma City. After that it's the NCAA tourney. If the Sooners can beat the Pokes and then win the Big 12 title it will most likely get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA event. But right now that's a big if.

     What has happened to Austin Johnson? What has happened to Willie Warren. What has happened to Tony Crocker. There has been a great disappearing act.

     And then there's Juan Patillo. He was playing so well coming off the bench. He gets disciplined. Has to sit out a game and now he's in a funk. This isn't a good time of year to be in that kind of state of mind.

     You know what you're going to get from Blake Griffin. You know what you're going to get from Taylor Griffin. The problem Jeff Capel's team has it this moment is it doesn't know what it's going to get frrom anyone else on the team.

     How does this guy keep his job?

     Was that not an incredible fisaco in Lubbock this week? There was Mike Leach ready to sign a new, five year contract. And then there was Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Meyers trying to put some clauses in the pact that he obviously knew his football coach wouldn't buy.

     The Red Raider administration came away looking like fools. They have the best football coach in their school history and they're trying to play games with him. That didn't make any sense.

     Leach is a pretty smart guy. He's not your average football coach. How many football coaches have law degrees from Pepperdine? He toyed with the Raiders, particularly Meyers.

     The question reamins, how does Meyers keep his job? The Red Raider athletic program has major problems, other than football. The men and womens basketball programs are in shambles.

     Remember it was Meyers who hired Bobby Knight. And it was Meyers who allowed Bobby to name his son Pat as the new coach. Texas Tech is probably the worst team in the Big 12 and the future isn't promising at all.

     Leach is laughing right now. He won the big battle. But how tough was this fight? You had a guy with a law degree go after an athletic director who used to be the basketball coach at the school.

     It was simply a no contest!

     Was anyone really surprised when the report came out on Alex Rodriquez? Come on now!

     Just look at him compared to when he broke into the big leagues. He used to be slendor. Now he's a beast. And of course he's a steroid beast.

     The media has given A-Rod a free pass. That's because they like him. It's nothing like the witch-hunt that has been chasing Barry Bonds. The problem with baseball is that everyone has been doing steroids. Yeah, Sports Illustrated said that 104 players tested positive in 2003.

     It obvious that many of the players are now doing HGH. That's because baseball doesn't test for it. Just look at most of the super stars of today. They look like they are all juiced, and they probably are.

     Baseball has known it's been going on. The owners didn't blink. Home runs puts money into their pockets. They just look the other way.

     I never did see ESPN show clips of A-Rod when he broke into baseball to what he looks like now. They did it all of the time with Mark McGuire and Bonds. A-Rod is no saint. He just appears to be a juiced up steriod guy like so many players that play the game that used to love so much growing up as kids. 

     It was a Super Bowl that I just wasn't that pumped up for. Maybe because I just didn't think it was going to be a good game The Pittsburgh Steelers were just going to be too much for the Arizona Cardinals.

     For three quarters the game was a yawner. I was just waiting for the Steelers to officially end the thing by getting up by three scores.

     Then came the fourth quarter. When it was over we simply had one of the great Super Bowls off all time.

     There was Kurt Warner ready to stake his claim to a Hall of Fame berth when his playing time was ended. He led his team to two great scoring drives to take the lead. But even after the Cards took the lead, I thought there was way too much time left for the Steelers.

     And then there was Big Ben. He was Mr. Clutch. Somehow he avoided the rushes Arizona sent at him. He didn't have a great game, that is until the final drive. He wanted no part of an overtime.

     He was truly on target. And his receivers made big time plays. The final drive was one of the great ones in Super Bowl history.

     The sad part about the game was that there had to be a loser. There was all kind of story lines about the game. But the final one was the most important--the Arizona defense couldn't stop Big Ben when it needed to the most.