Dear Supwitchugirl,

Thank you for the relevance.

Eternally,
Mark Morrison

Oregon’s biggest hit since LeGarette Blount just uppercut the world wide web last week. Supwitchugirl, whom we admittedly know nothing about and will freely fabricate backstory where needed, just released a sequel on par with Godfather II, Empire Strikes Back, Aliens and Breakin’ 2: Electric Bugaloo as creations that rival and perhaps surpass the original.

Supwitchugirl, though talented and creative, had not hit the proverbial tipping point until the Oregon trio released “I Love My Ducks” in the fall of ‘09. It went down as, perhaps, the best college football fan anthem ever created. I mean, “Holy moly, is that my boy Masoli? Cookin’ up the offense like he’s cookin’ ravioli” is truly inspired work…taking that to a Spicoli / E.coli rhyme and a 300 average when he goes Rose Bowling was some serious next level shit.

For the record, that was not Masoli cookin’ up the offense, that was Masoli breakin’ and enterin’, which is exactly unlike poppin’ and lockin’ (is that Van Damme?).

Here is the gritty og, aka “I Smell Roses”:

Notice the innovative nighttime and moving camera shots, the cell-phone quality “inside Autzen clips”, the limited and off-duty access to Donald the mascot Duck.

Flash forward, if you will, to late September 2010 and Supwitchugirl’s much ballyhooed and über-hyped follow up effort….”Return of the Quack”. The University knows a good thing when they see it, and by good thing I mean merchandising opportunity. Of the one million or so views of all the versions and remixes of the original, you know a chancellor of this or that watched, brought it to a dean’s attention who viraled it to a president who decided…all access passes to the field, the cheerleaders and the mascot were an order.

Anyhow, you can plainly see two things in this follow up effort…Joey Harrington is really awkward and Supwitchugirl are now some heavy-hitters in Eugene with a bit of Phil Knight-like backing. Oh my video production quality…

The video is such a bittersweet thing for us. On one hand, as serious Boise State fans, we find it really cute and wish our little brother-like Ducks well…and on the other we are super envious and almost inspired enough to get the man band back together. Almost.

Either way, Mark Morrison, you owe Supwitchugirl some love after your youtube relevance must have skyrocketed in recent weeks. I know I found myself watching and rewatching this gem. Is he from UK? If not, is his steering wheel? Enjoy, and think of rollerskating parties past…

Wow. Upon further review, both Kriss and Kross, at age 11, are harder than I was / will ever be.

If, somehow, the Big 12 is exceptionally persuasive and manages to stem the flow by not only retaining the Texas and OK schools, but also wooing the power from the MWC, I say Boise State roll the m-effin’ die and take their program independent for three seasons, or until all this settles and the BCS contract is done anyhow. How bold would that be? Suicide? Perhaps…but, honestly, the only reason ESPN bothers to sign a contract with the WAC is for BSU. Call me myopic, but I can see no meeting in which ESPN TV execs are clamoring and banging tables and outright demanding they land the Idaho – Utah St. game in a primetime slot. So, it seems, BSU would not be without TV money (and TV money they would not have to split with SJSU), and a TV deal that could even be more lucrative than what the current deal offers…or a move to the MWC and their stunning array of broadcast partners might be able to provide. If nothing else, BSU has become “Must-See-TV”™ on ESPN.

Free of most delusions, I am aware Boise State remains a circus in many people’s eyes (circus, get it)…an appetizer that deserves a slot on Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri evening and need not be anointed Saturday afternoon network royalty…both aware and certainly OK with this. I’ll ride the reputation of “upstart spunky trickster” right to the NCAA championship game. Gladly. Can you put a price tag on near weekly, national exposure on a stage void of competition for viewers’ eyeballs? Well, I’m sure people smarter than I could, but I cannot. I can’t tell you which is worth more to the BSU Football Broncos…the extra $3 million they’d receive in tv partnerships through the MWC and it’s affiliates (who are seen exactly nowhere in the US outside of Laramie, WY and a few hotbeds in central UT), or national exposure on ESPN at least every other week. Would BSU have landed New Jersey’s Kyle Wilson without its ESPN exposure?Texas’ George Iloka and his amazing Kwamé tribute do? If you don’t remember the hip hop superstar with a logo dedicated to his high top fade, here is an amazing video from “The Bone Age”.

Either way, Kwamé’s questionable fashion notwithstanding, as of this morning, University of Texas is toying with following Mizzou’s lead (what?) and pledging its allegiance to the Big 12. Hey Texas, the only reason Mizzou stayed is because the Big 10 jilted the Tigers at the alter. You understand they would leave tomorrow if the if the opportunity arose? Don’t get me wrong, I think a limited expansion to a Big 10/12 (what would they call this conference now) and a Pac 12 is perfect…if those conference do not poach the current MWC lineup. That would be ideal…however, the economics of the situation almost demand schools like Utah, TCU, BYU and BSU jump when they can jump…and though we’re fine blaming BYU for loads of other things, we couldn’t blame them for pulling a Jeffersons and moving on up…but we can hope it doesn’t happen.

Whatever. The entire future of NCAA Football and the tradition of “the little guy” hinges on the 2010 Boise State Campaign…and we just received word that though BSU fans will be outnumbered approximately 84,367 fans to 5,633 when Boise takes on VaTech in DC this Labor Day the Boise State Broncos opened as 2.5 point favorites. Wow. Much respect given Trickeration Nation.

We’ve heard rumors that U of O will be changing their uniforms (no surprise there) and logo in light of recent events, and it may look a little like this…

Honestly, we’re pretty sure this precipitous slide all started on a fine evening in Boise last September…yeah, the now famous night when the now infamous LeGarrette Blount-Force Trauma had his lunch handed to him during the game, and took out his frustrations afterwards on dude’s jaw.

So today we hear that after an offseason filled with a star quarterback’s fraternity thefts (season-long suspension) and a star running back’s girlfriend choking (a few game suspension…odd in-house sentencing), U of O has dismissed the QB that makes that shitshow go, Jeremiah Masoli, for a “failure to adhere to obligations”. We shudder to think about how stringent those obligations assuredly were. I mean, even LGB got himself reinstated. We can’t decide if Chip Kelly has absolutely no idea how to keep that program afloat, or if Bellotti saw the monster he had created/recruited and ducked out (pun totally intended) while they were only 0-1 against BSU. He did make a curious exit from coaching and an even curiouser exit from his 9 month stint as the AD.

This post really has no point, other than to let you know we still Love Our Ducks and that Bad Moon Over Autzen remains a hot seller in the 541.

In a season that would rival any other in Syracuse basketball history, this surprise Orange team won the hearts and minds of all SU faithful…even after dropping an exhibition game to LeMoyne. Leading that charge was the charismatic, high-flying Wesley Johnson. A quiet kid, with a big smile and even bigger hops wowed fans all season long with improbable finishes and monstrous blocks. We heard good things about this Iowa State transfer before the season began, but couldn’t have expected anything close to what Johnson brought to the table.

Today Wes declared for the NBA draft, and will not waffle as an agent hiring is in the works. We cannot blame him, and must assume he just never got our emails or voice messages imploring him to stay one more year to work on his dribble-drive game. So it goes…guess he can do that next year while on the job.

So, with only 35 games in an Orange uniform, Wesley will go down as one of the greats…and the team as a group of over acheivers that somehow came up just a bit short, if that is possible.

And with that, we close the door on this season and begin looking forward to next. After the US wins the World Cup, of course.

Go Orange.

In taking his unranked team to the #1 spot in the polls (and recording his 32nd 20-win season in the process), Jim Boeheim was voted the AP Coach of the Year. Boeheim worked wonders with a team that lost its top three scorers from the previous season…that said, it remains a bitter disappointment not to be in Indy this weekend. We have no doubts now that Syracuse was the best team in the country, when we had Arinze. He completes us. Sorry. Getting weepy again. And using pronouns like “us” and “we”.

In the meantime, this video explores a day in the life of Jim Boeheim’s big cardboard effigy. Honestly, it only really comes together in the last few scenes.

It’s so hard to say goodbye. Andy, you and your ridiculous 3’s and at times horrifyingly bad hair cuts will be sorely missed. A.O., you and your dominating post presence and FG% (career 67%) will be missed so, so much…but be sure to pack your FT% (career 39.5%) and give it to Goodwill or something. Please don’t just leave it around the gym where some incoming freshman might find it.

And, with just the Wesley Johnson announcement remaining, we close the doors on one of the most exciting and enjoyable seasons ever produced by Jim Boeheim and Syracuse Basketball.

That said, when it came time to fill out our brackets, it was no surprise that ours was rather close to Lunardi’s…and we based this on the fact that he obviously studied every team all year long and should have a good handle on who was over/underseeded. Let it be known Joey Brackets is a fraud. Our brackets are an irrefutable disaster…and the only saving grace is that we chose Syracuse to be cutting the nets down in Indy this year (no surprise there…we pick them to win the NCAA tournament every year…even when they’re in the NIT).

We stumbled across an amazing story today about a Chicago area teen, Alex Hermann, who has both autism and a perfect bracket through two rounds! No kidding! You may have picked Cornell to be this far (we did), but you were probably drunk and picked Murray State to be here too (we were). Do you have any idea what the odds are of picking the entire first two rounds correctly (we do)? They happen to be 1 in 13,460,000. We don’t know why or how, those are just the odds. We read it on the internets, so we are pretty sure it’s true. The odds have to be pretty high, because we’ve never done it. So that’s good enough for us. Read the article here.

I feel for the kid, because he can’t possibly go perfect for the whole tournament as he has Purdue winning it all and Syracuse bowing out to K-State this weekend. He let his heart get involved (we always do too).

Here is Alex’s perfect bracket…if you want to follow along at home (we do):

First of all, we admit, freely, that Syracuse has been on the wrong end of some disastrous, embarrassing losses (Richmond and Vermont certainly come to mind). There is no debating this fact. What program hasn’t, however? Has Syracuse had more monumental tourney collapses than, say, Kansas? Arizona?

Doug Gottlieb, the man that Syracuse fans love to hate, has made a living calling out Syracuse basketball as being overhyped, underachieving, overcoddled and undercoached. All of these barbs are, quite simply, thinly-veiled attacks on coach Boeheim. Honest. That’s not just our unparalleled paranoia. It’s true. And relatively well-documented on the internets. What we really want to hear is Doug admit that Jimmy has done more with less than nearly every coach in the country. Both Gottlieb’s Oklahoma State and perennial cinderella Gonzaga have nearly as many alums currently in the NBA as does Syracuse…but no one is calling out those programs for not getting it done. Boeheim has over 800 wins in his career, and we at 4th & Forever would venture to say he has accomplished this feat in a consistently top-tier conference with decidedly less talent than the Kentuckys, Dukes and UNCs.

2010 is no different. Syracuse was one of only a handful of schools (6) ever to start the season unranked and reach the top spot in the country…Kansas was the last to do this…over 20 years ago. So, we feel that regardless the outcome of this weekend’s games…Gottlieb owes the Orange a big, fat, “You’ve got to at some point laud Jim Boeheim for the incredible work he has done with these kids, and for the premier program he has built at Syracuse. I wish he would have recruited me.” We’re just saying, that’s all.