NCAA football, 2013-14

[MadBurgerMaker]

   SWOOOOOOOOOOPES 

(got the first TD of his career just now)

41-16.  Fuck Tech.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Oh and Greg Robinson is the shit, apparently.  11 sacks tonight, only one TD on the D.  Nice job.

[alfred russel]

Has Mack Brown saved his job? A win against Baylor, and Texas has at least a share of the Big 12 title with a decent shot of winning it outright. The win isn't guaranteed, but that is a lot to be playing for in the last week of the season and Brown was in the national title game 4 years ago.

[CountDeMoney]

Of course he has.  That fool's never going anywhere.  Only the NCAA can get rid of him.

[alfred russel]

Of course he has.  That fool's never going anywhere.  Only the NCAA can get rid of him.

There is another man they said that about:

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=33c66u8&s=4

[dps]

Looks like UTSA just beat North Texas, giving them their 6th win and bowl eligibility.   

OK, Marshall beat ECU to win the Conference USA East.  If Rice loses to Tulane and UTSA and North Texas win their games, who wins the tie-breaker for the Conference USA West title?  All 4 teams would be 6-2 in conference.  UTSA would be 7-5 overall;  the others would be 8-4, but I don't know what Conference USA uses as tiebreakers.

[sbr]

I havent been this meh about a Civil War in a long time.

I'm not sure what happened to the Ducks in Tucson the other week.  Weird things always happen when the Ducks go down there, so I wasn't shocked by the loss.  I was surprised how badly they got their asses kicked though.  The Ducks haven't lost a game like that in soemthing like 6 years.  They beat the teams they are supposed to beat*, and have trouble against bigger better teams.  I don't know if they lose that game against Arizona with Chip Kelly as HC, but I do know that they didn't ever do it when he was here.  I don't want to join teh absurd dogpile on Helfrich, but sometimes (maybe more than sometimes) there is a reason a guy is a long time assistant coach.  Some guys are very good at scheming and game planning but don't have what it takes to run a program.

I have been a Ducks fan since the mid '80s when they were terrible, so I'm not too upset about a 2 loss Alamo/Holiday Bowl season, but the amount of q.q'ign around the state is insane.  The only reason we weren't the laughingstock of the Pac-10 was that the team 40 miles away was even worse.  I still remember how excited I was when the Ducks went to the Independence Bowl in 1989.  So exciting.  Now a non-BCS game is uninteresting to most people; to be fair it is a bit uninteresting to me, but that might just be due to my diminishing interest in NCAA football in general.

The Beavers are just not very good so Oregon should still win this game; and they shoudl win it rather handily.  You never know though with 18-20 year old kids and a very unproven head coach.

[sbr]

Oh my god both uniformsa re horribel this week.

[lustindarkness]

So with all the Iron Bowl hype, this was shared with me, and in a weird way, I kinda like it. LOL I am not proud of this fact, but what the hell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG6zYRTY5fw

[MadBurgerMaker]

Looks like UTSA just beat North Texas, giving them their 6th win and bowl eligibility.   

OK, Marshall beat ECU to win the Conference USA East.  If Rice loses to Tulane and UTSA and North Texas win their games, who wins the tie-breaker for the Conference USA West title?  All 4 teams would be 6-2 in conference.  UTSA would be 7-5 overall;  the others would be 8-4, but I don't know what Conference USA uses as tiebreakers.

Uhhhhhh. Well shit I don't know. UTSA lost to Rice head to head, so they'd lose that tiebreaker there, I assume. They did beat UNT and Tulane, so I guess they'd be second in their division.

E: well this says they'd win the west with a W over latech and a rice loss. http://blog.mysanantonio.com/utsa/2013/11/wild-wild-c-usa-west-utsa-can-win-but-it-needs-help-from-tulane/

[Valmy]

Has Mack Brown saved his job? A win against Baylor, and Texas has at least a share of the Big 12 title with a decent shot of winning it outright. The win isn't guaranteed, but that is a lot to be playing for in the last week of the season and Brown was in the national title game 4 years ago.

Not yet.  A four or five loss season with Texas' easy schedule is not cutting it.  He beats Baylor and shares the title?  Well yeah.

[Berkut]

I havent been this meh about a Civil War in a long time.

I'm not sure what happened to the Ducks in Tucson the other week.  Weird things always happen when the Ducks go down there, so I wasn't shocked by the loss.  I was surprised how badly they got their asses kicked though.  The Ducks haven't lost a game like that in soemthing like 6 years.  They beat the teams they are supposed to beat*, and have trouble against bigger better teams.  I don't know if they lose that game against Arizona with Chip Kelly as HC, but I do know that they didn't ever do it when he was here.  I don't want to join teh absurd dogpile on Helfrich, but sometimes (maybe more than sometimes) there is a reason a guy is a long time assistant coach.  Some guys are very good at scheming and game planning but don't have what it takes to run a program.

I have been a Ducks fan since the mid '80s when they were terrible, so I'm not too upset about a 2 loss Alamo/Holiday Bowl season, but the amount of q.q'ign around the state is insane.  The only reason we weren't the laughingstock of the Pac-10 was that the team 40 miles away was even worse.  I still remember how excited I was when the Ducks went to the Independence Bowl in 1989.  So exciting.  Now a non-BCS game is uninteresting to most people; to be fair it is a bit uninteresting to me, but that might just be due to my diminishing interest in NCAA football in general.

The Beavers are just not very good so Oregon should still win this game; and they shoudl win it rather handily.  You never know though with 18-20 year old kids and a very unproven head coach.

Obviously there was a lot of talk during the game about whether this means that Oregon is no longer an elite program.

I am not going to comment on whether that is true or not, except to note that in college football, even moreso than basketball, it is nearly impossible to maintain a program at the level of NC contender year after year. I don't see it as a Helfrich failing - I just see it as he probably is not the coach that Kelly is and was, but why would anyone expect him to be?

Kelly was something incredibly special, a very rare find. I hated him, of course, as any real American should, but as far as his ability to create and run a college football program, he was probably in the top 1% of all coaches.

I look at Oregon now and think that Helfrich is probably a pretty damn good coach, but what are the odds that he is a 1% coach? Almost incredibly thin, especially given his background. I think it was a mistake for Oregon to hire from within in this case. They were an established elite program, and should have tried to go out and get an established elite coach.

[Valmy]

   SWOOOOOOOOOOPES 

(got the first TD of his career just now)

41-16.  Fuck Tech.

I am glad we can laugh at this now:



Those two Texas players who just randomly run right by him allowing him to run was bizarre.

[alfred russel]

Obviously there was a lot of talk during the game about whether this means that Oregon is no longer an elite program.

I am not going to comment on whether that is true or not, except to note that in college football, even moreso than basketball, it is nearly impossible to maintain a program at the level of NC contender year after year. I don't see it as a Helfrich failing - I just see it as he probably is not the coach that Kelly is and was, but why would anyone expect him to be?

Kelly was something incredibly special, a very rare find. I hated him, of course, as any real American should, but as far as his ability to create and run a college football program, he was probably in the top 1% of all coaches.

I look at Oregon now and think that Helfrich is probably a pretty damn good coach, but what are the odds that he is a 1% coach? Almost incredibly thin, especially given his background. I think it was a mistake for Oregon to hire from within in this case. They were an established elite program, and should have tried to go out and get an established elite coach.

The problem with hiring from outside is that Oregon runs a relatively unique system and has current personnel (and a fanbase for that matter) geared toward that system. I can't think of a single established "elite" coach that you could bring in and keep the offense. Some guys that come to mind that run similar (but in many case different offenses) are Chad Morris, Leach, Rodriguez, Malzahn, and Briles. None of those guys are really west coast guys and that would raise recruiting red flags--I wouldn't count any as sure things / elite.

Even if Oregon pulled off the incredible and got a more traditional elite coach like say Nick Saban, I think the team would slip for several years as it converts to a more traditional style of play. Transitions are tough--even Nick Saban was mediocre and lost to Louisiana–Monroe when he took over at Alabama.

Sometimes promoting from within works--see Chris Petersen--and you avoid the pains of transition. In the end, in college football the coach is the driver of everything, and if you are replacing someone who is really special, your program will probably slip no matter which course you take.

[Berkut]

There are no sure things when transitioning an elite program. The head coach is so important that the odds are always slim that you are going to get someone else that is as good as the last guy.

As far as Oregon being unique, that is just bullshit. They run a spread, high tempo offense. There are a ton of other coaches doing the same thing. They are not that unusual, except in that they have done it incredibly well.

I look at Oregon replacing Kelly like Arizona replacing Olson (absent the tranistion mess off course). There was plenty of pressure at Arizona to bring in someone from the Oloson coaching tree, and there are plenty of guys out there who fit that bill. But the way I see it, for any given coach, you are rolling some dice to see what you get - you can never REALLY know.

And the odds that someone you promote from within having that special whatever that separates the good coaches from the truly great coaches are slim. Kelly was a incredible break for Oregon. Thinking you are going to have the lightning hit twice is foolish.

And moreover, the situation was not the same - when they promoted Kelly Oregon was a very good program trying to become elite. They weren't going to attract an already established top tier head coach, and given that, there was no pressing reason to roll the dice on someone unfamiliar with the program when there was a solid assistant who was a very good high potential up and coming assistant - and he turned out to be outstanding.  Now that is NOT the case - Oregon is no longer a pretty good program trying to become elite, they were an elite program trying to stay elite. They should have gone out and gotten themselves an established, high profile, proven commodity. With the Nike money and facilities that Oregon has, they could have done so, I would think.

Trying to imagine that Helfrich would just ve Kelly 2.0 was a pipe dream. Helfrich may very well be a pretty damn good coach, but Oregon needs an outstanding coach to remain at the level they've established. And that is very, very hard to do.