The BIZARRE DRAMA Between ESPN and Rice

Entering the 1992 college football season, Rice thought that their game against Air Force was going to be televised on ESPN, thereby giving running back Trevor Cobb some national TV exposure for a Heisman campaign. However, when ESPN spurned that game in favor of the battle between Texas and Mississippi State, let's just say that Rice was not too thrilled, especially after some bizarre reasoning given by the network
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#ncaa #cfb #espn #collegefootball #rice #owls #1992 #football #sports #highlights #college #espnnews #cfbhighlights #tv #heisman

[@curtisdavis2157]

#GoOwls?

[@RetroJR3379]

Jackie Sherrod just unsubscribe JG8

[@seastl142]

rice is close

[@erickennedy3322]

Meant Dee Downs

[@hunterwade9030]

Texas is a huge state too lol

[@erickennedy3322]

Dee Brown hot screwed out the Hesiem because he played for Air Force.

[@peacefrog0521]

1962: “Why does Rice play Texas? 1992: “Why does ESPN show Texas?”

[@jaylucien669]

**NOTE- This is the BACKSTORY for why ESPN chose Mississippi St at Texas over Rice at Air Force.. It is LONG. If you don't want read it, I get it. But if you do read it, PLEASE read the whole thing. Thank you.** Sure, Jackie Sherill never coached AT Texas, but he did coach IN Texas. Sherill was the Head Coach & AD at RIVAL Texas A&M from 1982-1988. His last 5 seasons at A&M the Aggies dominated the Longhorns and shifted the power in the sWc. Sherill's departure from A&M after '88 was controversial. Yes, A&M cheated and got hit with probation the day before the '88 season started. But every school in the sWc were cheating in those days, including Texas, who only got a slap on the wrist in '86. Anyway, it was obvious Texas' big money alums influenced the NCAA to threaten A&M with more penalties unless they parted ways with Sherill, which they did at the end of '88. In 1991, during Sherill's first season at Mississippi State, at practice the week of the Texas game, he had a bull castrated to get his players fired up. This act became a HUGE deal, and national news. SI covered it. ESPN covered it. Even traditional news outlets covered it, and it worked. Like you said, State upset them 13-6 (keep in mind Texas was the defending sWc champion going into '91). So, going into '92 that rematch was a big deal. Texas had a new coach in John Mackovich, and was favored by many to usurp A&M as the conference champ that season (which they did not). So, Jackie's return to Austin, with a personal 3-game winning streak there, and the then fresh bad blood from his A&M days, compiled with the castration and upset the year before, made 1992 Mississippi State at Texas a much, MUCH more compelling matchup for ESPN and the country. Nothing against Trevor Cobb, he was fantastic! But that's what happened when you played for Rice back then. Even Raycom Sports, who did sWc regional TV back in those days only aired one, maybe 2 Rice games every season. Sorry, man, but ESPN made the right call. Even if they had chosen Rice at Air Force, and Trevor had a huge day, it wouldn't have helped his Heisman chances all that much, and nobody would've watched, or even cared. That's just how it was back then.

[@davidroberts7282]

Actually, compared to SMU getting the proverbial, "death penalty" in 1987, both A&M and Texas got off very relatively easy. I mean, we are referring to an SMU team that had two top 10 finishes and won 10+ games in the early 80's and possessed a powerful dual running-back attack, "Pony Express" of Eric Dickerson and Craig James. They didnt have the same repoire though with NCAA officials to head off any NCAA investigations into paying players like other SWC schools did. The other SWC schools (and most Power 5) programs were better, more experienced at cheating and could cover their tracks better. It also didnt help SMU that their HC, Bobby Collins, didnt know about or eventually lost control of the pay-for-play recruiting pitch his predecessor had put in place but kept under the radar. He also recruited some edgy, emotionally unstable players, one of which ended up blowing the program to "death penalty" sanctions in 1987. He later died of a drug overdose. After watching the infamous ESPN 30 for 30 episode, "Pony Excess", I'm not sure Collins ever realized what he was getting into. In some respects, it's probably good and beneficial for NCAAF that SWC died out and got supplanted to history, because by the end of the 80's, it was a corrupt, dirty, highly unethical (even for NCAAF standards) conference that almost took pride in having its programs flaunt the roles, AD's continually cheat and dare the NCAA to stop them and the bigger the school, larger, more prominent the program, like Texas, Oklahoma, or even A&M, the less-harsh and stringest the penalties were. And the craziest, galling thing of all was that some of these same schools called programs like Miami Hurricanes dirty while presenting themselves as being holier-than-thou, and fully transparent.

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

I think you're confusing Texas with Texas A&M Sherrill still never coached at Texas. Can't publish a storyline without fact checking it.

[@jaylucien669]

@@runrafarunthebestintheworld I'm not confusing anything; you obviously didn't read my whole post. Which is understandable, because it is long. Even so, don't accuse me of "not fact checking," when you just glanced over what I said and decided to make a rush reply. Everything I stated is 100% FACT! If you're still skeptical, then it sounds like YOU need to go do some fact checking.

[@jaylucien669]

@@davidroberts7282 You're absolutely right, but don't forget SMU was given warnings and lighter probations, almost every year, from 1978-'87 ( I believe), and they just kept doing what they were doing. Pony Excess covered that too. That was a great 30 for 30!

[@mkepioneet]

"It's not a matter what you know, but who you know" I prefer what the former head coach of my alma mater (who coached JG9's TE2, Dan Arnold) said in a football coaching class I took - it's not who you know, but who knows you. This was in a lecture where he mentioned he had shared an elevator ride with Nick Saban, which is a funny mental image because they're both shorter guys (5'6") and how besides being short and head coaches (at the time), they were much different - one was known for contributing to the spread offense in a small part and got the only playoff win in program history, while the other guy is, well, Nick Saban (and a defense guy)

[@msarzo]

I could've understood Lorne Matthews if he simply said Texas and Mississippi State had bigger national profiles as his justification. Ot would be accurate at least

[@davidroberts7282]

It would be an accurate statement, but said in the manner you just framed, it also cruelly tells both Air Force and Rice's programs, "You don't matter, even if you have great, potentially Heisman candidates like Cobb, you're irrevalent and both of your programs should thank us for even considering airing one of your regular-season games on Wednesday or Thursday nights". That's also an accurate generalization that ESPN can subtly express and infer through its actions, but you couldn't say it out loud without fear of offense or fearing possible blowback now and especially, even more so back then. There's a price one pays for telling or repeating uncomfortable truths, and a large, media sports conglomerate like ESPN can't afford to appear so openly to acting and talking like elitist jerks.

[@davidhardman4787]

Many hardcore college football fans did not care about watching an excellent running back like Cobb on Saturday night. In the deep south & state of Texas this game was loaded with "theatre". There was deep resentment between Jackie Sherrill & teasips. If you lived back then, you would know. Rice was not on "the map". This really had nothing to do with Cobb. Football is & was religion in this part of the country. It was almost like Texas A&M vs tu, not Longhorns vs Bulldogs!!!

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

So did they care more about watching a Running back like Reggie Bush on Saturday's instead?

[@jaylucien669]

@@runrafarunthebestintheworld 1. Two completely different eras. 2. Cobb played for the smallest school/worst program in a then much maligned and dying conference. Bush played for blue blood USC during the period were that program dominated all of college football, which of course included the Pac 10. Hey, Run, you really don't know what you're talking about, man. I advise you to go get yourself educated on the history of college football before rushing into these arguments.

[@chrisp679]

But here's the thing. Yes, you had a bowl winning Air Force team and one of the better running backs in the country in that Rice matchup. But this is also a matchup between one of the SWC's also-rans who hadn't been relevant in quite some time and the one military academy that, even though they were consistently decent for most of the previous ten years, doesn't bring in eyeballs. Whereas, even though Texas sucked by their standards and Mississippi State was coming off a bowl loss, it's the SWC vs. the SEC and kinda by default that's a bigger draw.

[@arizonawrestlinginterviews1040]

I'm always down for new JG9/JG8 🏈/JG7⚾videos

[@arizonawrestlinginterviews1040]

I like the fact that you decided to make the newspaper clippings more visible

[@RetroJR3379]

I think that also screwed Marshall Faulk out of the Heisman cause San Diego St was nowhere near ESPN in 1992

[@mgb4692]

They played Miami in what The Rock called the bucket of dogshit game

[@raytul12]

Everyone hates ESPN. Why does Rice get their own video???

[@TheSonicsean]

I mean I think it's pretty obvious why they went with a game between two power 5 (even though that wasn't the name of them back then) schools, one of which was ranked and the other of which was Texas, over two mid majors. Even if Rice did have future Chicago Bears Legend Trevor Cobb.

[@marcus813]

There were more than 5 high-major conferences back then (Pac-10, Big Eight, Big Ten, SWC, ACC, "old" BIG EAST, ACC, and SEC). Rice was part of that group in those days.

[@tommykeeran6776]

Rice was literally in the same conference as Texas. If Rice was a mid major, so was Texas.

[@jasong428]

It ain't like San Diego State got tons of media coverage. I only saw M Faulk on highlights here in Michigan.

[@Know26874]

They played on ESPN 2 then

[@templefootballforeve]

Paul Palmer (1986, Temple,, 2d in Heisman voting_ was the much better Owl back than the Rice guy. Don't think Temple had much national exposure either but I will take Palmer's 86 stats over Cobb's 1992 ones: As a senior in 1986, Palmer led the Division I in rushing yards (1,866) and all-purpose yards (2,633), breaking Marcus Allen's single-season all-purpose yardage NCAA record. He also registered 346 carries and 15 touchdowns. Against East Carolina University, he tallied 349 rushing yards (school record), 3 touchdowns and tied the single-game record for all-purpose yards with 417. In his next three games he rushed for 239, 187, and 212 yards respectively, setting NCAA records for rushing yards in consecutive games, three straight contests and four consecutive games. Paul was the runner-up to Vinny Testaverde for the 1986 Heisman Trophy award, even though Temple did not have nationally televised games.

[@marcus813]

Didn't Prime have a national deal with the SWC? If so, it could've taken Mississippi State/Texas instead. Texas would've had plenty of other national spots along with some Raycom appearances, which would've been seen both inside and beyond the SWC's footprint. Rice could barely get on Raycom on a consistent basis and Cobb could've used the exposure.

[@americanidol30]

When are we going to see a new Jaguar Gator 8 video? It’s been over a month since you made this video.

[@JaguarGator8]

It’s coming in the next few days. Been caught up with a ton of other things outside of work which had to put this on the back burner for a bit

[@stevengrvp]

Saturday afternoon video let's go

[@thomascrowley9122]

You can say that again

[@WhtAbtBob10]

Thanks for the Philadelphia Eagles love this week.

[@AutismSingsHD]

First comment!

[@rngfootball759]

Rice Stadium could use a renovation. Also I played as Rice in dynasty mode in NCAA football video games.

[@mpf4114]

Very interesting video. I watched college football back then and I've never heard of Trevor Cobb.

[@Tampafan33]

Love all your vids man. Subscribed to all 3. You have the perfect voice for this stuff.