Kansas Jayhawks Need To Keep Clint Bowen

The almost should-have-been near upset of TCU would never have happened if Charlie Weis was still the Kansas Jayhawks head football coach. Clint Bowen deserved to keep the job before Saturday, he deserves to keep it just because of Saturday, and he will continue to find ways to deserve it the rest of the season.  Opposing coaches know it and everybody who’s seen KU football recently knows it, but the athletic director is still hedging. I suppose that's in case Peyton Manning decides to retire and become a college coach. But just in case you needed it spelled out, here are the five main reasons:

5.            He’s A Proud Alum

I don’t know of any potential coach out there who takes the success of KU football as personally as Clint Bowen. He wants the program to succeed as much as I do or any other long time KU fan. You can tell the losing and the jokes get to him. It can backfire because there’s a potential for burnout, but it would be nice if a KU football coach worked too hard.

4.            Recycled Coaches Don’t Work

Gary Barnett wants the KU job. Gary freaking Barnett. The former Colorado/Northwestern coach. Gary Barnett is 68. His reasoning as to why they should hire him? “Why shouldn’t they?” I’ll tell you why, Gary. Because you’re 68. You’re less than a decade younger than Bill Snyder (he’s 75). Also, Gary, you’re a recycled coach. Just like Charlie Weis. You know how well that worked. That is not a road to success.  

On a side note that is probably more relevant than it isn't, Gary Barnett is now a color commentator on college football radio broadcasts. I listened to him a couple weeks ago. Not only did he and the play-by-play guy pronounce the Oregon quarterback's last name as "Mary-ohta" the entire game which is is wrong, wrong, wrong, (it's "Marr-ee-ohta") Barnett's "this is what I would do if I were the coach" thoughts were also less than correct. To put it nicely. Gary Barnett last coached a college game in 2005. Joe Paterno last coached a college game more recently than Gary Barnett. By six years. Joe Paterno died almost two years ago. And Gary Barnett wants to coach again. At Kansas.

3.            Fan Base/Athletic Department Patience

Also, if Gary Barnett gets hired and things stay as they have been, in two years Gary Barnett gets fired and Clint Bowen is already head coach somewhere (like Washington State or Iowa State, etc. and so on). Then Bowen isn’t even an option. However, if Bowen gets hired, he has a built-in extra few years of leeway. At least, he better have.

2.            He’ll Never Leave

If Clint Bowen builds KU into a success, we know where he’ll be in ten years. And twenty years. And 25 years. He’ll still be at KU, trying to make it even better. He. Will. Never. Leave. Lawrence-born, Lawrence-bred, Lawrence-educated, Lawrence-married, Lawrence-worked…. And Lawrence-buried. Bowen’s a lifer if you give him the opportunity.

1.                   Seriously, You Have A Better Idea? 

Any other coordinator who wants to become a head coach might have better credentials on the field, but he’ll never have the passion and dedication to Kansas like Clint Bowen. Never. This was the job Clint was born to have.   

Our continuing feature, "Both Bowens."

photos courtesy: ljworld.com, celebritypost.net 

Kansas Jayhawks Football Game 9: The Last Best Chance

Skipped previewing the Kansas Jayhawks football game last week against Baylor because we all had better things to do than think about a guaranteed loss.

This is a home game for KU, which is nice, but what kind of advantage is it when there are barely 20,000 fans in a stadium that seats 50,000? In Clint Bowen’s first home game as interim head coach (second overall) the Hawks almost beat Oklahoma State, which is nice, but that was a month ago and they haven’t looked remotely competitive since.

This week is not only a home game, it’s easily KU’s last chance to win a football game this season. As a proud alum, I want to give them a chance in the rivalry game against Kansas State that ends the season, but…. Well, I suppose anything’s possible. Not likely, but possible.

Both KU and Iowa State come into this week’s game with identical 2-6 and 0-5 records. Both nearly lost by the same score last week, KU to Baylor 59-14, ISU to Oklahoma 60-14. Most other team stats are really comparable, except that ISU’s offense is averaging almost ten points a game more than the Hawks. I think teams without football programs are averaging more points per game than KU, so that’s really not a shocker.

Where KU has some sort of advantage, bizarrely, is defense. The Cyclones are giving up close to 38 points and 500 yards a game, KU is right around 32 and 450. I could throw numbers out that give the Hawks a fighting chance here, but I’ve been a KU football fan too long to try and talk myself into thinking victory before the game starts.

The Hawks could win, and it would be a nice thing for Clint Bowen and the rest of the team, who have been searching relentlessly for something that clicks long enough to put a W up there. But they could easily lose.

On the bright side…. It’s basketball season! 

Weekly guaranteed "Bowen" picture returns

photos courtesy: kuathletics.com, popsugar.com

5 Reasons Budweiser Bought 10 Barrel: One Beer Drinker’s Thoughts

The sale of Bend, Oregon-based 10 Barrel Brewing to Belgium-based InBev, which now owns Budweiser among others, sent shockwaves through the beer drinking world and angered many an Oregon beer fan. “How dare they think they can reach in here and take what’s rightfully ours,” is an echo of every takeover/sale that’s ever happened, from New Amsterdam (the territory, not the gin) to Stax Records and on and on and on. That’s not surprising. What should be surprising is that it’s the first time a Central Oregon-based brewer sold out to a major firm. Here are five reasons 10 Barrel sold to InBev, which shall be known as “Budweiser” for the purposes of this article. 

5.            Location, location, location

The most prestigious beer address in the country, if not the world, is Bend, Oregon. Budweiser couldn’t build a plant in the shadow of Pilot Butte without drawing protests and injunctions (real and imagined) every step of the way. The only way Budweiser was getting a Bend address was to buy one. It’s still not that easy to find a beer made in Bend east of Colorado. With Budweiser’s massive distribution network, 10 Barrel will be in all 50 states plus Rio, Madrid, Rome, Moscow, Tokyo, Perth… and Bend’s beer reputation will only grow because of it.

I guess the location is all right.

4.            Straight cash, homey

The noted philosopher Krusty the Clown, in possibly my favorite Simpsons episode ever, “Kamp Krusty,” was asked by Bartholomew J. Simpson why he sold his name and likeness for so many products. Krusty’s response could very well apply here:

“They drove a dump truck of money up to my house! I’m not made of stone!”

Guess what 10 Barrel’s now-former owners never have to do a day in their life ever again? Go to work. Isn’t that why people start their own business? It’s not to work 90+ hours a week, it’s the payoff! This is the payoff. They can do whatever they want. Yeah, I know they all say they’re sticking around. How long do you give all three at the new company? I say less than a year till somebody steps away, voluntarily or not.

3.            Nobody else in town was going to sell

How many times do Bend breweries get offers from companies to sell out a year? Once a month? More? Yet most of them want to keep doing what they’re doing the way they're doing it. Crux Fermentation Project wants to keep it small. Boneyard is on a big expansion for them, but has found that “enforced scarcity” creates more demand than they could have ever hoped. Cascade Lakes figures that owning pubs and stocking them with your own beer is the way to go. Reason #2 made 10 Barrel the place most likely to sell.

2.            The big expansion and big summer recall happened too close together

Here’s a potential hidden factor. In the video announcing the sale, the founders say “we’ve grown really fast in the past two years.” Unchecked expansion is fine until something goes horribly wrong, and in 2014 it did. 10 Barrel voluntarily recalled at least a million bottles of their summer favorite, Swill, because of possible overcarbonation that could have caused the bottle to explode. Imagine the costs. Not only is all the product you had for sale now unsellable, now you have no product on the shelves. All your summer profit projections are gone. You’re banking on that money to pay back the loans you’ve taken to grow really fast. And there’s no way it’s coming back. You’re looking at big, big trouble. Then Budweiser backs a dump truck of money up to your door. Bankruptcy or Budweiser? Easy choice.

1.                   Deschutes Brewery is only going to get bigger

As of right now, Bend’s signature brewery is in more than half the country and continuing to head east, the latest expansion coming in DC and Virginia. No doubt they’ve been offered by big brewing companies time and time again. But why sell? They are a major reason that small breweries have popped up everywhere, and by keeping tied to their roots, they keep tied to the idea that they’re small.

From the FAQ:

"We are not owned by, or selling to, any large brewer or other entity, nor do we have any plans to. We’re having too much fun to change." — Gary Fish, Founder and President

The sale of 10 Barrel isn’t going to drive down beer production in Bend. If anything, it will encourage people who couldn’t find Oregon on a map to seek out Central Oregon brews. “A rising tide lifts all boats” is the proper response for the sale of 10 Barrel, even if it should really be some kind of beer metaphor.   

Meanwhile, have a beer.

10 Barrel logo courtesy wweek.com, all other photos by the author.