Meet The New Guy!

Crimson And Cream Machine is pleased to introduce our newest writer. Perhaps you know him from his contributions at the OU fansite Boomer And Sooner or perhaps you've even chatted with him in the comments section here at Crimson And Cream Machine. We're happy to introduce you to NateHeupel who will start making contributions here on our site in the very near future. To help him fill at home we subjected him to the mandatory Q&A right off the bat.  

* Rank your top three favorite OU sports.

1) Football
2) Women's Basketball (mmmm....Sherri Coale)
3) Baseball

* What is your earliest OU sports memory

My brother (then a senior in high school) got a free pair of tickets to see OU play Texas A&M from a guy who just didn't want to go.  This was considered normal at the time because it was 1997 and the game was in late November (read: bitter cold).  Just imagine the odds of that happening now.  They were nosebleed seats in the east upper deck.  When we got to the stadium, it was crystal clear that we were lost...and poor.  This old guy walks up, asks us if we have $50 for his tickets.  We mentioned something about being too broke to afford our free tickets.  So the guy says he's got pressbox access, and just gives us his seats.  We would find out later he played for Bud Wilkinson.  Turns out, they're under the upper deck and on the 45 yard line...with Santee Lounge access.  Looking around the lounge and walking the stadium concourse, even an 8th grader could feel the stir of history in that place.  I made my brother stay until the 4th quarter when DeMond Parker scored OU's only TD of the game.  Somehow, I knew we'd never get seats that good again.

* Tell us who your favorite Sooner athletes of all time are and why? Any chance that's where your screen name came from?

Favorite Sooners
1) Gerald McCoy
Showing my youth a bit, but name one Sooner who was as unequivocally balls out in support of the university during their time on campus.  This guy went to volleyball games and was screaming his lungs out.  Some guys play for the Sooners, other guys ARE Sooners.  GK was the latter.

2) Darrell Royal
Yeah, I said it.  Why, you ask?  If not for him, we don't have the 1980's Switzer era.  Not only was he an All American for Bud Wilkinson born in Hollis, Oklahoma, he pretty much handed over the wishbone offense on a silver platter when Chuck Fairbanks asked.  Also, consider this: the University of By-God Texas named their stadium after a guy from Oklahoma who played for OU.  I'll always consider Royal's tenure as a Texas head coach to be the single greatest act of subterfuge in modern history.  The state with the biggest collective case of penis envy known to man has permanently named their stadium after an "Okie".  Ha ha.  

3) The current OU twirler
My. God.

My screen name is one half inside joke and one half personal preference.  When I first started blogging over at the fantake network (then just called Barking Carnival), I was going back and forth with a guy named ChrisApplewhite.  While I considered other screen names (it was double tough to pass on the screen name Mario Speedwagon), the inverse opposite was too perfect.  

The unfortunate goat: Nate Hybl won a BCS game for OU (the 2003 Rose Bowl, which I attended) vs. Chris Simms was just UT's scapegoat for Greg Davis' attempt to improve upon futility.  Hybl was blamed for not being Josh Heupel or Jason White.  Chris Simms was blamed for being Chris Simms. 

And The school hero: Josh Heupel is the bad mf'er who brought you the 2000 national title.  Sponsored by Mike Stoops; vs. Major Applewhite, the poor schmo who had all of Heupel's moxie and none of his support in coaching.

* Tell us about your previous experience as a writer for an OU fansite and what Crimson And Cream Machine readers expect you to bring to this site.

Writing for the Fantake network was a lot of fun as I pretty much had free reign to go wherever I wanted to go in terms of topics.  I created the two sides of Landry Jones.  One was Landry, the other was Uncle Rico.  Damned 'stache.  

As for what C&C readers can expect, I'm objective to a fault.  I love OU and OU football, but I'm not okay with just shilling the company line for the sake of it being the company line.  I love analyzing patterns of behavior to find outliers.  For instance, I firmly believe to this day that Josh Heupel took over play calling in the 4th quarter of the Bedlam game.