With a new year we almost bound by media laws to produce some sort of list of predictions for the coming year. Much like “giving a monkey a shower” on Phineas and Ferb, it has to be done. ( If you get that, I applaud you for your fine viewing habits )

So, keeping in mind that these predictions must be both bold and brave, here goes. We’ll check back this time 2013 and see how close we got.

12.  In March, Lubbock’s Tent City will incorporate. Tent City will then vote itself wet, and further drive down beer and liquor prices in the Hubbaplex. Seeing the huge success of Tent City, Lakeridge will secede from Lubbock, incorporate and name itself “GeorgeBushStickersStillOnOurTahoes”. It too will get wet, but only from 9-to-midnight at Market Street and only for the Methodists. Cards will be issued.

11.  Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt will find the secret panel on the desk in his office that Gerald Myers had installed years ago. Inside the panel Hocutt will find a book revealing all the secrets in the last 75 years regarding Texas Tech Athletics. Artifacts will include the pictures Bob Knight had on David Schmidly, a letter from Mike Leach to Donald Trump admitting he made up all the stuff about liking pirates just because it sounded better than telling folks what he really enjoyed was puffy, white shirts as well as the post-it note containing Jerry Moore’s play-book. Hocutt will find the actual number to Chad Glasgow’s cell phone the most interesting part of all. Turns out they’d entered it into the company directory wrong after-all. . . what a misunderstanding.

10.  Tommy Tuberville will mention the wind blowing during spring practice at Texas Tech and still somehow manage to sound shocked and amazed.

9.  Texas Tech Lady Raider Head Coach Kristy Curry will replace the phrase, “it is what it is” with, “I told you I could coach, now start coming to the games and supporting these kids-they’re damn good!”.

8.  Jerry Jones will do what he’s always wanted to do. In July he’ll announced he’s cloned himself and will serve as both Cowboys head coach and quarterback for 2012. With Jones leading the team the Cowboys fall one game shy of the Super Bowl losing in the NFC Championship game to Washington. The Tony Romo-led Redskins complete a 21-point comeback in the 4th quarter on a Romo to Daniel Snyder TD pass.

7.  Someone, anyone, will finally notice that a gallon of orange juice costs more than a gallon of gas and that oranges actually do grow on trees and don’t require drilling for dead dinosaur guts. . .

6.  Roger Goodell will suspend James Harrison 3 games and fine him Bolivia for slapping Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger too hard on the rump after a pre-season scoring drive.

5.  Dan Beebe will return to be the commissioner of the Big 12 after changing his name and sneaking past the hiring committee of Deloss Dodds, Deloss Dodds id, ego and super ego. The interview will be televised on The Longhorn Network to the delight of its subscriber, Mrs. Dodds. Upon his return to the Big 12, Beebe will announce that he’s invading the SEC in an attempt to regain Texas A&M and Missouri. Beebe’s forces advance as far as the hotel ballroom at SEC Media Days before being rebuffed by the hotel kitchen staff, all former SEC defensive players, proving once again the Big 12 can’t handle real defenses. . .

4.  The Texas Rangers Cy Young winner Yu Darvish will announce he hasn’t understood a damn thing Ron Washington said all year and that he’s demanding a trade to be with his homie and soul-mate, Ozzie Guillen ( the only one who really gets me, Darvish tells Eric Nadel in a gut-wrenching interview )

3.  Keith Olbermann will finally quit calling Dan Patrick late at night asking if he wants to come over and play, “read the teleprompter”.

2.  NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart will go vegan. Repulsed, Andy Lally orders a steak and says the hell with it…

1.  On December 31, 2012 Dick Clark will be wondering once again why he even bothers to do this thing if it means working with Justin Bieber and Ryan Seacrest. His New Year’s Resolution for 2013–Host the Rockin’ New Year’s Eve on The Playboy Channel–life’s too short–even if you’re 112 years old!

Happy New Year y’all. Be safe and make the most of it. It should be a grand one!

Hyatt

5 THINGS WE KNOW ON A FRIDAY

1.  I don’t care what his ranking is or where he is on the leader board at the U.S. Open right now. The person I’d least like to play for cash would be Phil Mickelson. He’d end up driving my convertible away from the bar I’m afraid.

2.  While I’d still have no problem if Nolan Ryan replaced Ron Washington at any time, the biggest cog still missing from last year to this year for the Rangers is Clint Hurdle. I think he brought something to that clubhouse much more than just letting guys know there was something called the “opposite field”.

3.  It is great to have Texas Tech Basketball legend Bubba Jennings back in the fold after all these years, uh I mean months. . . er, days? No. Seriously, I think it is great that new coach Billy Gillispie didn’t feel like he had to reinvent the wheel at Tech the way so many coaches do when they come to a losing program. Sometimes you have to look around and realize you have some great people that may not be being utilized the best way or even in the right job spot. Business folks could take a less from that as well.

4. The Windy Man sculpture is back in Lubbock. Surely this means we’ll get no rain and be punished even harder right? Of course if it rains this weekend. . .

5.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. is gonna win at Michigan again. It just isn’t going to be this week. If he can get some Sunoco Fuel into that #16 Greg Biffle is going to Victory Lane this Sunday. If not, watch for Matt Kenseth to show up and blandly make everyone look like they have their learner’s permit.

Hyatt

No professional sport puts their fans closer to the action and gives them more access to the participants than Nascar. It is one of the reasons there is so much loyalty amongst the fans. With that as a back-drop, 2-time Cup Champ Tony Stewart hosted his annual charity races last night at Eldora Speedway and if you missed it on PPV, you missed out on a great night of dirt track racing for great causes. With the money going to four different regional children’s hospitals Stewart’s “Prelude To The Dream” event brought in some of the best drivers in the world and let them put on a show for the fans.

Clint Bowyer won the feature looking just like a guy that had spent a little time on mid-west dirt coming up, but it was the children, the hospitals, the fans and even the drivers themselves that really won. For a such a pressure-packed week-in and week-out sport you can tell by the looks on the drivers’ faces how much they love racing just for fun. We need more of that in sports if we can get it.

For Tony Stewart, a guy oft criticized over the years for his temper, his behavior and surliness with the media, it shows a side of him as a track-operator, promoter, water truck driver and a guy with a big heart that many of his non-fans never see. You get the feeling he’s come to love this week as much as anything he does.

Too often professional athletes get criticized as selfish and uncaring about the fans. To me that’s unfair. Many do things that fans and media never know about. Many more put together events leveraging their wealth and fame that the average person with a big heart just wouldn’t be able to pull 0ff. That’s the great thing I think when I see an athlete or celeb realize that they do have a bully pulpit to do great things for other folks. Stewart gets that. Now, just don’t tell anyone that he may actually be a nice guy after all. We don’t want to ruin his image.

TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL RECRUITING

Texas Tech has added some more oral commits on the recruiting trail over the past week. Don Williams has a great round-up here in the A-J.

Make no mistake, there is more interest in Texas Tech this time of year in the recruiting process by top players than we’ve ever seen. Part of it is the success of the program over the past several years that has caught the attention of high school kids but a lot of it is the commitment by Tommy Tuberville and his staff to go toe-to-toe with the top programs in the Big 12 and in particular in Texas. Tuberville has brought a higher level of expectation to recruiting, the likes of which we may not have seen since Jim Carlen in the early 1970′s around here. It is fascinating to watch.

Today on the show we’ll examine the impact of the process of recruiting that Tuberville and his staff have put together. Look forward to talking to you on that Domino’s Fan Line starting at 3p.m. at 1-866-984-5326.

For what it is worth, I think Snyder couldn’t be more wrong, but I’m glad he’s paying attention to NASCAR and not just that open wheel stuff with his fine wine and cheeses!

Now, the question to you: What should NASCAR do to Richard Childress? As for me – I’d give him an award and have his watch maker release an ad saying,” The watch so good, you’ll wanna take it off before going to beating on Kyle Busch”.

UPDATED: 2:21 p.m. More nuttiness from Snyder at The Fan.

Hyatt

Trying to pick the winner of the Daytona 500 is an exercise in folly but why not give it a shot! It is always a crap-shoot as to who’ll have the best power, best timing and who’ll stay out of The Big One. This year should be even wilder with the increase in horsepower thanks a little larger restrictor plate and better downforce on the cars.

I think a lot of it will come down to who can be aggressive and smart at the same time. Who can take advantage of the power and make some moves like Kevin Harvick did in the Bud Shoot-Out and maybe put some slide-jobs on some people like Juan Pablo Montoya did the other day in the Duels.  So, that of course rules out Kyle Busch. . .

Ok, those are my picks, now get yours in and let’s see how we do. If you happen to nail the winner correctly I’ll get you set-up with some free Domino’s Pizza, the Official Pizza of The Williams and Hyatt Show!

Good luck,

Hyatt

NASCAR Chef and motivational speaker Virgil Cain dropped back in on The Show Friday with some “great” Super Bowl and Daytona 500 food ideas. Try ‘em at your own risk.

Virgil Cain can be reached at Facebook.

Corn Dog Recipe

Virgil Cain is on Facebook and can be reached at virgilcain@consultant.com

1. I’m still not buying into the idea that LP&L should have bought out Excel Energy. I really don’t think the citizens of Lubbock want the City buying out private business, eliminating competition and doing it all without voter review. That Mayor Tom Martin and others are doing a full-court press trying to spin how great an idea this is after the fact reminds me of how the Obama Administration tells me Health Care reform is really good and that I’m just too stupid to understand and that I just need more “education” on the matter. We’ll see.
2. The Flatlanders are back in the Hubbaplex Saturday night at The Cactus Theater. It goes without saying, but if you haven’t seen them you need to. Living, breathing Lubbock musical history and talent.
3. OSU’s Dez Bryant is entering the NFL draft. Shocker. Wonder if Eugene Parker will be his agent? Something still doesn’t smell right on this story. If all he did was “lie” to the NCAA I can’t see how that should be a full-year suspension while programs like USC and others wait years and years for “justice”. Right. The NCAA needs to come out with more on this story for me to believe it is justified in the punishment.
4. It is sad that college football player Brandon Spikes of Florida has more maturity and integrity than his head coach Urban Meyer, the SEC Commissioner and anyone else associated with his program. Spikes has extended his suspension from one half against Vandy to the full-game for trying to gouge the eyes of a Georgia player. Urban Meyer has no code. He’ll fit in well at Notre Dame soon.
5. I’ll take the #14 to win at Texas this weekend. Just so long as it isn’t a repeat for the #24 I’ll be a happy man getting back on the RV late Sunday.

MORE LATER

HYATT