Jenni Carlson

Opinions from The Oklahoman sports columnist

Predictions for the New Year December 31, 2008 | Comment on this article

Just a quick post to say best wishes to everyone in 2009. My bold prediction for 2009 — made earlier this week on The Press Row — is that the Thunder are going to make a significant off-season move. Not sure who it will be, but I believe that either by trade or by free-agent acquisition, the franchise is... Read More

Cowboys make quite a statement December 29, 2008 Let’s take a little trip back in time. It’s not a long journey. Just a few months. Perhaps you’ll remember the talk before this football season about Oklahoma State. The Cowboys looked like they were going to be better with an experienced offense and an improving defense. But where were the wins going to... Read More

Sidekick to Slingin’ Sam December 25, 2008 You might have seen his face or heard his name a week or so ago when Sam Bradford won the Heisman Trophy. Kelsey Cline was part of the Oklahoma quarterback’s traveling party. Some of you may have wondered who he is. Others may have wondered where you’d heard that name before. Cline is currently the golf... Read More

Naughty or nice in the sports world? December 24, 2008 He’s makin’ a list and checkin’ it twice. Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice. Yep, Santa Claus is comin’ to town, and if he’s makin’ a list of the good and the bad in the world of sports, well, those could be some interesting lists. There has been some very good and some appallingly bad this... Read More

More fun with Oklahoma, Florida fans December 23, 2008 The column that I wrote today about Florida fans has stirred a good number of folks. I’ll be sure to share some of those sentiments here on my blog later this week, but first, I wanted to share something fun that was run across in recent days. The Oklahoma fan site Crimson and Cream Machine and the... Read More

More from The Q&A: Lou Holtz December 20, 2008 Lou Holtz is never shy with his opinions. He dished in The Q&A about his choices for player and coach of the year as well as his thoughts on the national championship game match-up. But he had plenty more to say. Jenni Carlson: I’m sure you get asked this all the time, but is it time for a playoff in... Read More

New Heisman Park statue revealed?

December 19, 2008 A fun photo is making the electronic rounds. Oklahoma football fans should get a kick out of photo-shopped spoof. I suspect this won’t end up being the design for the Sam Bradford statue that will one day be dedicated outside the stadium in Norman, but no moment was more dramatic in this Heisman-winning season.... Read More

Blake Griffin Hype Machine Rolling December 17, 2008 Just ran across something fun. Oklahoma basketball star Blake Griffin is doing a video diary for ESPN.com, and his first installment is up. It’s a little bit dated; the footage is from the first days of practice. But you definitely get some fun insight. The locker room. The apartment. The practice gym. My... Read More

Not to toot our own horn, but … December 16, 2008 So, The Oklahoman sports staff did an exit poll of Heisman Trophy voters last week. We solicited the ballots of 100 voters and determined that Sam Bradford would win the award, Colt McCoy would finish second and Tim Tebow would finish third. Nailed it. Yes, our exit poll was right on the money with how the... Read More

Heisman greatness foretold? December 15, 2008 Let’s rewind for a minute to the summer of 2003. There was a quarterback battle brewing at an Oklahoma City high school. The football team had become known for producing good quarterbacks but for not starting them until they were seniors. At one point, they had the guy who set the state’s single-season... Read More

Thoughts on the Heisman December 08, 2008 HeismanPundit.com asked me to answer a few questions for a Heisman Trophy voter round table that will be posted on that website later this week. You can check out all the answers from around the country there, but because the questions were so good and so thought-provoking, I thought I’d share what I submitted... Read More

More from The Q&A: Tarrion Adams December 06, 2008 Tulsa tailback Tarrion Adams hopes to cap an already stellar senior season with a Conference USA championship today. Thing is, he knows that a conference title could’ve meant a whole lot more if college football had a different way of crowning its national championship. Here’s what Adams had to say about... Read More

Red River Rivalry boils over December 04, 2008 That plane circling Texas’ campus with a pro-Oklahoma banner is front-page news not only on our website but also on the Austin newspaper’s site. The Austin American-Statesman posted a story and a photo during the lunch hour of the banner that says “HEY MACK. QUIT WHINING U KNEW THE RULES,” and... Read More

And you thought the BCS was hard to predict December 04, 2008 The unopened package has been on my desk for a couple weeks now. I don’t need to open it to know what’s inside. Any time I get something in December with the return address of Deloitte and Touche Certified Public Accountants, I know that my Heisman Trophy ballot has arrived. I have yet to open it because,... Read More

What if Texas had finished higher? December 02, 2008 There has been an excessive amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth since the BCS standings were announced Sunday afternoon. As everyone knows, Oklahoma finished ahead of Texas, and that broke the three-way tie in the Big 12 South. Since then, college football has been in a tizzy. Fans are up in arms. Regional... Read More

Another flaw in the BCS mess December 01, 2008 So, let me get this straight — a team routing a bottom-of-the-barrel opponent at home is more impressive than a team beating down a top-15 team on the road. Doesn’t make sense, right? Neither do a couple of the latest human polls in college football. Voters in both the Harris Interactive... Read More

More from The Q&A: Desmond Mason November 29, 2008 When I went to talk to Desmond Mason for my Q&A before a game the other night, he was toting a Starbucks cup. Had to ask. Here’s more from my chat with the Thunder forward: Jenni Carlson: So, what’s in the Starbuck’s cup? Do you do coffee, or are you fancy pants? Desmond Mason: I’m fancy.... Read More

Happy Turkey Day, sports fans November 27, 2008 Thanksgiving is in the air. Even with all the madness going on in the sports world this week, it’s impossible to avoid that holiday spirit. Besides, there’s so much to give thanks for in sports. I’m thankful for college football. It might be maddening. It might be unpredictable. But it never fails to... Read More

Memo to Brooks: Run, Thunder, run November 25, 2008 Scott Brooks has only been on the job a few days, but I’ve got some advice for the new Thunder coach. Play faster. The Thunder has gotten off to an abysmal start, winning just once in its first 13 games. What’s worse, this team has looked like it was playing in sludge much of the... Read More

More from The Q&A: Linda Cohn November 21, 2008 SportsCenter anchor Linda Cohn loves to laugh. That quickly became obvious when I sat down to chat with her earlier this week in Norman. She was in town for the Delta Gamma Foundation Lectureship in Values and Ethics, and she answered all sorts of questions. Here are a few that didn’t make it into The Q&A... Read More

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Jenni Carlson

Want a different take on sports? Jenni Carlson provides her unique insight on everything from the pros to the college ranks to the preps and everything in between.