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3 hours ago, LTtxfan said:

Better job than a lot of other places..... Not familiar with their AD though.

Will be interesting to see who the Buffalo's target.... Maybe Bryan Harsin or Mike Gundy??

Mike Gundy has turned down Tennessee twice, Florida, Arkansas, and Baylor. Unless Colorado just enjoys being told no, they’re not targeting Mike Gundy. 

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9 minutes ago, taybo20 said:

Gundy has basically leveraged those interviews. He’s not going anywhere until osu tells him to leave imo

Might be right..... but Okie Lite buddy of mine has been more worried about Mike Gundy leaving after this year..... says crap from AD saying recruiting needs to improve did not go over well with Gundy..... I think Gundy's contract is only till 2021 as well so buyout may be smaller.

https://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/06/27/oklahoma-state-ad-regrets-public-comments-about-mike-gundys-recruiting/

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Osu firing Gundy would be a bigger mistake than Kansas and Mangino. That’s exactly how you start a death spiral. Fire the coach who gave you everything. Tell the whole coaching community that you don’t care about anything but having the program run exactly how the AD wants it run. Seems to me that has worked 1 time in the last 50 years and that is with Barry Alvarez at wiscy. The only reason it works is because Barry isn’t above going down on the sideline and making it work himself if someone gets off track. Hilarious to see these AD’s demand their way when they have never coached in the big time. 

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there is tension with Gundy and OkState, but I doubt he would go to a shit pile like Colorado

you have to give credit to Kansas for shitting and getting it done instead of waiting because a lot of places that would love to have Les seem to be opening up

you have to think that "The Hawk" might talk to Harsin about the shittiness of the CU job as well......shit is almost like intramurals

my biggest hope in all of this is that tOSU and the brain eating amoebas fuck around long enough with corch irving mayor to the point that tOSU suddenly has an opening and jack shit to hire like an amped up wife beating Tennessee situation 

I wonder if Jim "Fuck Fish" McElwain would like to get back coaching in Colorado since the heat and sun in Florida sent him over the edge

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21 hours ago, Jhawk said:

Osu firing Gundy would be a bigger mistake than Kansas and Mangino. That’s exactly how you start a death spiral. Fire the coach who gave you everything. Tell the whole coaching community that you don’t care about anything but having the program run exactly how the AD wants it run. Seems to me that has worked 1 time in the last 50 years and that is with Barry Alvarez at wiscy. The only reason it works is because Barry isn’t above going down on the sideline and making it work himself if someone gets off track. Hilarious to see these AD’s demand their way when they have never coached in the big time. 

OSU is not firing Gundy. We’re going bowling for the 13th straight year. 

Also, Holder won 25 conference championships and eight national championships as a head coach. I’m pretty sure that he’s “coached in the big time.” 

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OSU is not firing Gundy. We’re going bowling for the 13th straight year. 
Also, Holder won 25 conference championships and eight national championships as a head coach. I’m pretty sure that he’s “coached in the big time.” 
That's golf and T Boones big arm goes all the way up Holders ass to his mouth. I'd be weary of an old guy with lots of.money and an ego to stroke.
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41 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

The names being bandied about at SC are fantastic.  Urban, James Franklin, John Harbaugh.  I even saw someone post that they thought they could pry McVay away from the Rams.  The delusion over there is priceless.

The mcvay was a joel klattism where he hypothosized the most outrageous and unlikely possiblity. 

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On 11/18/2018 at 11:41 AM, Walden Ponderer said:

Why on earth Holgo would want to go to Colorado eludes me. Harsin, on the other hand, I could see. And he would be an excellent hire for them. I would hate it, of course, because I like him, and hate Colorado.

The last Boise coach to go to Colorado worked out great

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On 11/18/2018 at 3:21 PM, LTtxfan said:

Might be right..... but Okie Lite buddy of mine has been more worried about Mike Gundy leaving after this year..... says crap from AD saying recruiting needs to improve did not go over well with Gundy..... I think Gundy's contract is only till 2021 as well so buyout may be smaller.

https://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/06/27/oklahoma-state-ad-regrets-public-comments-about-mike-gundys-recruiting/

Losing Gundy would be like Tech when they parted ways with Mike Leach.  We know how well Tech as done since then.  Look at Leach with WSU.  

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11 minutes ago, Dewey said:
6 hours ago, DejaVu said:
OSU is not firing Gundy. We’re going bowling for the 13th straight year. 
Also, Holder won 25 conference championships and eight national championships as a head coach. I’m pretty sure that he’s “coached in the big time.” 

That's golf and T Boones big arm goes all the way up Holders ass to his mouth. I'd be weary of an old guy with lots of.money and an ego to stroke.

Mike Gundy is finishing up his 14th season coaching at Ok State. Forgive me if I forget to panic over this possibility.

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On 11/18/2018 at 4:13 PM, Jhawk said:

Osu firing Gundy would be a bigger mistake than Kansas and Mangino. That’s exactly how you start a death spiral. Fire the coach who gave you everything. Tell the whole coaching community that you don’t care about anything but having the program run exactly how the AD wants it run. Seems to me that has worked 1 time in the last 50 years and that is with Barry Alvarez at wiscy. The only reason it works is because Barry isn’t above going down on the sideline and making it work himself if someone gets off track. Hilarious to see these AD’s demand their way when they have never coached in the big time. 

Haven't seen posts about Okie Lite wanting to fire Gundy...... But have read and heard that Gundy was unhappy about AD Holder's criticism of Football recruiting at Okie Lite. 

Some Alums at Okie Lite still nervous that Mike Gundy would listen to offers from other programs....

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USC insiders on the current situation:

The elephant in the room

It may be USC vs. Notre Dame week but Trojan fans are not focused on this rivalry game. All anyone can talk about is will this be Clay Helton’s last game coaching the USC Trojans?

We have talked to countless sources over the past two weeks and the answers we are getting couldn’t be any more diametrically opposed.

"He’s gone... it's a foregone conclusion."

"He’s coming back, it has already been decided."

So which side do you believe?

We feel a lot of this comes down to the lack of leadership at USC, with no permanent president, an inexperienced, if not aloof athletic director and a Board of Trustees dealing with several other more pressing issues. The message coming out from donors, administrators and team sources conflicts at various junctions.

Depending on who you talk to, you are going to get a different story. And sometimes you are getting a story shaped to fit the agenda of the source you are talking to. So we have to sort of break things down and look at who is saying what and why.

Most of the sources we talk to inside the program or working very closely with the program feel that Clay Helton is coming back. Folks that are on the USC payroll are obviously interested (and some are concerned) about what Helton’s future will be, and most of that group have told us that in their mind Helton is coming back.

The Swann song

We have talked to numerous sources who have interacted with Lynn Swann and come away dissatisfied with encounters. A Hall of Famer, four-time Super Bowl winner, Swann knows who he is. He carries his Super Bowl rings in his pocket ready for any impromptu show-and-tell opportunities.

Similar to USC’s previous athletic director Pat Haden, Swann feels like he knows what’s best for the program and he isn’t very receptive to any feedback, suggestions or advice from those around him. Whether that be former players, USC fans or even some big-time boosters.

His radio address a couple of weeks ago spoke volumes if you listened to it. Not even the words, but how they were delivered. He went on a USC-run radio show talking with USC employees and left many fans feeling patronized. The intent was to inform USC fans that they shouldn’t be overly critical. Clay Helton has done good things, so just keep buying tickets and merchandise and let USC handle the complicated business of running the football team.

What Swann has not done is talk to the media, despite numerous requests from us and we are sure other media outlets. We were informed on Monday that there were no plans for Swann to address the media this week and they referred us to his radio show where he addressed the coaching situation.

So why does Swann want Helton back when everyone he talks to says he should make a change? Part of it is he doesn’t like or want to be told what to do. He knows best and if he makes a decision, that’s basically it. He also granted Helton a contract extension back in February, so firing him nine months later would essentially be admitting that he was wrong.

Why was Helton extended? You have to look to the agents side for that and Helton has a great one in Jimmy Sexton. Super agents can eat experienced athletic directors for lunch, so you could imagine what may have gone on behind closed doors for this negotiation.

We don’t feel that the $15 million buyout number is legit, however. Keep in mind when those numbers leak it typically comes from agents. So it could be Sexton’s people providing an exaggerated number to reporters to help and protect their client in the public eye. If Swann did give Helton a buyout that big when there were no other programs interested in poaching their head coach, that would be a fireable offense in our opinion.

Who has the power?

The other side of the coin is some of our sources that feel very strongly that Helton will not return, especially if the Trojans lose badly to Notre Dame on Saturday.

That is mostly coming from the boosters, which could be, at least in some cases, wishful thinking after a disappointing season. But there are also sources close to Board of Trustee members who feel strongly that a change is needed. From the sources we talked to the BoT was mostly split at one point, but after losing to Cal and then UCLA, there is even less support there for Helton.

The board is dealing with several non-football issues like lawsuits against the university and finding and vetting a new president. If the USC football team could have beat UCLA and made a crappy bowl game then it would have been easier to delay dealing with this Clay Helton problem until next year.

But as you know, USC lost to the 2-8 UCLA squad that hired Chip Kelly and that was NOT a good look. If Clay Helton is let go, losing to a bad Bruins team will be the catalyst that made it happen.

So that leads us to the power struggle within the board and with the athletic department. There are a lot of people who are afraid of losing their jobs and would rather not make some of these big decisions, especially before the new president is in place. We heard some mixed messages when it comes to who has what power, but we believe the BoT charter does include football in its oversight as it is a university operation that reports directly to the President.

Some sources we talked to feel that Swann is the ultimate decision maker and could make the move with approval from Dr. Austin. But others disagree feeling Swann is more of a figurehead for the BoT, which has a more expansive agenda. That agenda has been almost solely focused on fundraising the past few years, but with so many non-football issues undermining the university's mission, the BoT has received criticism for being too consumed by enriching the endowment and ignoring how the present day institution was being run.

Granted, a losing season would be extremely costly for the university. Back in 2000 when USC went 5-7 under Paul Hackett donations plunged and that would likely happen again, especially if Helton is retained.

Also having a half-full newly renovated Coliseum is a nightmare that the powers that be would very much like to avoid. Keeping Helton could cost them, but so would buying him out. Perhaps this is just a matter of crunching the numbers for a financially myopic university.

The final answer is we simply do not know what is going to happen and who will eventually win out. The only thing we know for sure is the poor hiring practices and actions of those in power in the past have put the USC football team and the university into another absolutely perplexing situation.

Just 'blow it up' and start over

From an expert who would know and does know what's going on at USC, here's where USC has to start in fixing the football program: "In my opinion the first thing that needs to be done is blow up the nutrition and strength and conditioning program, (emphasis on nutrition). It doesn’t matter what coach comes in. If that’s not fixed, you’re running this race with a high ankle sprain."

Maybe wait until next week

Hearing from a source close to the team that Clay Helton was so impressed with the battle his guys put up in that physical game against UCLA, he offered them some time off this Thanksgiving/Notre Dame week but to their credit, the USC players turned it down. Most coaches in this situation with unbeaten Notre Dame coming to town would wish they could have an extra day or two to prepare. Oh well.

In need of support

When it comes to recruiting, we have mentioned numerous times that there are members of the USC coaching staff who are part-time recruiters. To pick up the slack, the coaching staff relies heavily upon their recruiting support staff.

The problem is, the support staff is bare bones at the moment, with three members plus one graphics designer. Other programs have much larger recruiting support staffs, with numbers well into double-digits, while at USC they are asked to do more with less.

One name you may have heard before is Alex Rios. He was profiled by 247 last year along with fellow recruiting support staff member Eric Ziskin. Well it turns out Rios is no longer on the support staff, which is why they have three bodies and not four. He left after the UNLV game and so far no one has been hired to take over his position.

From what we are told his departure was more for personal reasons and he was looking to do something else after working in that profession for several years. The more pressing concern is why he wasn’t replaced right away and why there aren’t more members of the support team to help this staff with their recruiting duties.

We told this story to one source close to the situation and he thought the parallels were uncanny. Back in the mid-2000’s we interviewed then USC strength and conditioning coach Chris Carlisle. This was in the gym below Heritage Hall in his office that literally looked like a converted broom closet. We were a few feet away from Reggie Bush bench pressing and Carlisle was very candid when he talked about the resources he had at his disposal.

He had requested upgraded equipment for the team and he said he was told that they would accommodate him after the team won a conference championship. Well, USC did that and then he was told they would after the team won a national championship. Well, USC did that and then he was told that he obviously didn’t need better equipment because they won a national championship with what they already had.

Our source told us the reason USC hasn’t expanded the recruiting support staff is because they were already bringing in top-5 recruiting classes so why would you need more resources?

Those guys work extremely hard and don’t collect huge paychecks. If this recruiting class suffers because of the poor record and coaching uncertainty, maybe they finally make the investment needed to help that department. Or of course if a new staff comes in, maybe they would demand an expansion of the support staff. We shall see.

When you’re not one of 78

Here’s the deal about time off for the Trojans. There will be 78 college football teams going bowling in December and January. And unless USC pulls off the upset of the year, not one of those 78 will be named USC – at least not one named the University of Southern California. Not with a 5-7 record even though in past seasons, you could get an exemption without a winning record but not this year. Not in the Pac-12 where that was voted down. Go 6-6 or you stay home. Lose three straight in LA to Pac-12 underdogs and you get to stay home and get plenty of rest. Not that USC would have used all their bowl practices even if they were in one.

To name a few of the 78 who will be bowling, they are: Nevada and Southern Miss: Louisiana (Lafayette) and SMU; Arizona State, Louisiana Monroe, Ohio U., Appalachian State and UAB (no, really, they dropped their program a couple of years back after a guy named Neil Callaway was the head coach there but here they are back); Memphis, Middle Tennessee and Tulane; Florida Atlantic and Eastern Michigan (yep, Eastern Michigan); Cincinnati, Buffalo and Florida International (yep, FIU and FAU); Toledo, South Florida and Troy; Houston, Army, Georgia Southern and Northern Illinois; Marshall, Hawai’i, North Texas and San Diego State; Texas Tech, Duke and Stanford; Iowa State, Wyoming, Arkansas State and Virginia; Cal, Fresno State and Temple; Tennessee (yep, Tennessee!), South Carolina (the faux-USC from the SEC) and Oregon. But not the real USC.

Here’s what will be so hard to take. While USC could be staying home, bowl projections have all the folks above extending their seasons, getting all that extra practice not to mention another game on national TV – and not a late night game. And getting as much as $500 in bowl swag for each of their players plus a trip to a place maybe they haven’t been for a game against a team maybe they’ve never played from somewhere else in the country.

And who knows, with all that extra practice, USC might have been able to figure out how to get enough reps at the other inside linebacker spot for freshman Palaie Gaoteote, no worse than the second- or third-best tackler on the team (with Cam Smith and the injured Talanoa Hufanga). And then USC could have gotten him into a game like Saturday’s against UCLA when having another big, strong, fast and physical tackler might have just been what a D-coordinator needed against record-breaking Joshua Kelly and his 289 yards on the ground. Only no way to get a “one-position” guy like “IE” on the field, we were told. Maybe next year.

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28 minutes ago, Underdog said:

Incredible.  I've seen UK lose in some shitastic ways, Bluegrass Miracle topping all, but that's just a stunningly moronic way to lose a game.  Herm Edwards thinks that's stupid. 

I really think Steele was going to be at least mildly successful at Baylor.

Then that happened. It was a program-defining loss. He never overcame that.

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On 11/19/2018 at 6:22 PM, Sbbruin said:

The names being bandied about at SC are fantastic.  Urban, James Franklin, John Harbaugh.  I even saw someone post that they thought they could pry McVay away from the Rams.  The delusion over there is priceless.

A. Wouldn't want Urban

B. Not sure if James is from that area, but would you rather live in LA or Happy Valley?

C. Harbaugh's name popped up in our search too.  Maybe not too delusional

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6 minutes ago, Goodman said:

Times have changed for SC, LA is now a Rams town. SC wants a return of the PC days, that ship has sailed. Chip at UCLA and the Rams being one of the best teams in the league take away from the SC fanbase which are largely t-shirt fans. 

Prisoner of the moment right here

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15 minutes ago, Goodman said:

Times have changed for SC, LA is now a Rams town. SC wants a return of the PC days, that ship has sailed. Chip at UCLA and the Rams being one of the best teams in the league take away from the SC fanbase which are largely t-shirt fans. 

LA is a "whichever team is winning" town for the most part. The only teams that get steady support are the Lakers and the Dodgers. And not the Chargers.

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23 hours ago, SimonBolivar said:

Let's hope he learned the victory formation.

 

 

One of the greatest moments of the sports fan part of my life was the immediate aftermath of this game. I was actually in Vegas for the first time when this game was played and we watched the local post-game coverage. Watching Kevin Steele sob while stating that he’d do it the exact same way if he had it to do all over again was fucking hilarious. I mean, we were actually rolling on the floor with laughter watching his interview. I don’t care what that dumb motherfucker has done since - he has to be the coachiest coach to ever mouthbreathe up and down a sideline. I hope he gets a prominent job in which I can regularly cheer his shitheaded failure. 

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2 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

One of the greatest moments of the sports fan part of my life was the immediate aftermath of this game. I was actually in Vegas for the first time when this game was played and we watched the local post-game coverage. Watching Kevin Steele sob while stating that he’d do it the exact same way if he had it to do all over again was fucking hilarious. I mean, we were actually rolling on the floor with laughter watching his interview. I don’t care what that dumb motherfucker has done since - he has to be the coachiest coach to ever mouthbreathe up and down a sideline. I hope he gets a prominent job in which I can regularly cheer his shitheaded failure. 

He also cried on Mack's shoulder. Mack loved him.

 

imgur

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