Heart of Dallas Bowl update: "Lean Panther" glad to be home, Chelf prefers Blue Man Group to Mavs
Published: 12/29/2012 9:45 AM
Last Modified: 12/29/2012 9:45 AM
Checking in with an update from Dallas, where Oklahoma State will face Purdue in the Jan. 1 Heart of Dallas Bowl:
--When bowl pairings were announced, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said there was some initial disappointment that his team (which finished in a third-place tie in the Big 12) fell so far in the bowl pecking order. But Gundy said the right things on Friday and there are players on his team who are genuinely excited to be playing in Dallas instead of a warmer-weather city.
Here’s what Gundy said after a Friday practice: “The players have enjoyed their couple of days down here and the hospitality has been really good. The accomodations have been excellent (and so have) the people. Everything has been a great experience for us.”
Who is excited to be in Big D? Players who got to return home.
Senior center Evan Epstein (alias the "Lean Panther," or at least that's what he called himself during a Football 101 for Women clinic last summer) is from Bishop Lynch High School in McKinney, Texas.
“I get to see a lot more people than I would have necessarily gotten to see if we were in Arizona or San Diego or something like that,” he said. “This is my city and my home. I love Dallas. I haven’t been back since May, so it has been a really great opportunity for me to come home and see the sights and show my friends around my town and, like I said, to play my last game here, it’s a great feeling.”
Therefore, Epstein said he wasn’t disappointed when he found out OSU would be playing in the Heart of Dallas Bowl against a 6-6 Purdue squad.
“A bowl game is a bowl game,” he said. “A game is a game. We get to play against a Big Ten opponent. They are a good team. They have a good defense. They have good players and we are excited to play them. I don’t get disappointed about things like that. And coming home to Dallas, I knew my mom would be happy and I was excited about it. I knew about this bowl. A lot of guys didn’t know about it or hadn’t heard about it. I had heard about it, being from here. So I was excited and I still am. They have put on a great show for us so far and we are loving it.”
Junior receiver Charlie Moore is from Bullard, Texas, which he says is about two hours from Dallas. He said playing in Dallas will allow him to spend time with his girlfriend (she’s a former Arkansas soccer player from Allen, Texas) and will allow a lot of friends and family from home to see him play -- some for the first itme.
--OSU players had the option of attending a Dallas Mavericks-Denver Nuggets game Friday night at American Airlines Center. Cowboy quarterback Clint Chelf did not sign up for the trip.
Chelf is a big Oklahoma City Thunder fan and he said a Mavs-Nuggets game really doesn’t interest him that much. Plus, he hasn’t completely forgiven Dallas for being a former thorn in Oklahoma City’s side. The Mavs knocked the Thunder out of the playoffs in 2011, though the Thunder returned the favor in 2012.
“We got them back last year, so (my feelings about the Mavericks have) kind of died down a little bit,” Chelf said. “I think they realize we are the better team now.”
Chelf said he doesn’t dislike the Mavericks, adding that he likes Dirk Nowitzki. But he said he wasn’t a “big fan” of some of their players.
Just because Chelf declined the NBA game doesn’t mean he will be a recluse. He said he is signing up for a trip to see Blue Man Group perform.
--Is the Heart of Dallas Bowl flying under the radar in Dallas? Unless someone was incognito, there were no newspaper writers, radio reporters or TV reporters from the Dallas media market at OSU’s post-practice interview session Friday. I couldn’t find a sentence about the game in Saturday’s Dallas Morning News.
Written by
Jimmie Tramel
Sports Writer
