Hump Day Harrumphs & Hurrahs: 8/31

foot1Hurrah: Tomorrow is kickoff. Just over 24 hours until toe hits pigskin.

How dandy that the U of L Cardinals are among the few who play Opening Thursday. Which shall allow we obsessives not to miss any of the other boffo games on the first weekend’s slate.

Harrumph: Teddy B goes down. Not much more to say about this.

Just too sad for a great kid, who is a warrior but seems injury prone.

What makes it even sadder from my perspective is the report from NFL Pundit Laureate Peter King, who just finished a month long tour of all the NFL camps. In his report at MMQB, he weighed in on the best this and best that he observed during the look see.

He wrote this:

MOST BEAUTIFUL THROW OF THE TOUR. In Cincinnati, in combined practices with the Vikings, Teddy Bridgewater’s deep rainbow to Stefon Diggs over the lunge of Adam Jones. “F—!” Jones said. That happens when you get beat by a perfect throw.

This was looking like it was going to be Teddy B’s breakout season.

Now he’s down and out until at least next year.

To which I say, asterisk-free: Fuck!

Hurrah (Or perhaps Harrumph): Claude Bassett lives. Kentucky football’s somewhat famous bullshitting bloviator is still in the game.

When I was still at LEO, I tracked him down after his fall from grace in Lexington during the Hal Mumme interlude, and provided weekly updates. He was the head coach of Robstown (Tx) HS, where he led a perennially mediocre team even farther down the tubes.

When he was fired from that gig, I lost track.

But thanks to an inveterate reader, whom I’ve dubbed thanks to his dogged research, Billy the Bassett Hound, we’ve picked up the scent of the man whose name shall live on in infamy in the annals of Wildcat football.

After his less than stellar reign in Robstown, it seems as if “Coach” Bassett roamed the sidelines — as best he could given his corpulence — at Calhoun HS in Port Lavaca (Tx).

But he has moved on from there, and this season is the OC for the Elgin (Tx) Wildcats. His charges fell to Harker Heights, 35-14 in their opener, but are looking for a better outcome in the home opener this Friday against visiting Brenham

So it goes for Claude, who somehow keeps landing coaching gigs, despite an obvious lack of coaching ability.

But there’s hope. Elgin, it seems, is a hotbed of cinematic activity. Among the well known movies made there are “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” “The Great Waldo Pepper,” “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” “Varsity Blues,” “25th Hour,” and “Terminator 4.”

Surely Claude’s big personality can finagle its way onto the silver screen, when he runs out the string on the gridiron.

At any rate, thanks to Billy the Bassett Hound, I intend to keep in touch, and advise you, my loyal readers, of any further developments in the fascinating career of Claude Bassett.

— Seedy K