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SL Xpress

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Everything posted by SL Xpress

  1. You mean the Vince Young that Greg Davis insisted take snaps under center and be a drop back passer while trying to change his throwing motion? That Vince Young?
  2. I'd be okay with taking a step back from making the semifinals as long as we don't fall into the purgatory of irrelevance like from 1984-1997 and then again from 2010 to 2022. Since I don't foresee that happening, especially in this NIL/portal era, I'm not terrible concerned about it. My key thing regarding OL is bringing in enough quality bodies. That has been our issue for decades prior to Flood/Sarkisian. We simply didn't recruit enough OL. Many of them aren't going to pan out, but it's difficult to know until they're on campus for a couple of years. If you're only fielding 12 or so on the roster, that's simply not enough to field high end OLs year after year. I don't see the same issue with our current roster and talent acquisition strategies. The current coaching staff developed the current offensive line after years of it being dogshit. I have confidence they can do it again. Maybe next year is a bit of a downturn, but that's okay.
  3. Allegedly. It's not actually clear what the impetus was for running so many counter running plays. The speculation from PFF was that it was the running backs coach, Carlos Locklyn, because of his association with Florida State head coach Mike Norvell. However, that association consisted of being a weight room assistant, an analyst, and the director of high school relations - one year at Memphis and then another year at Florida State. He was the running backs coach at Oregon for two years, and Oregon also runs a relatively high percentage of counter plays, and HC Dan Lanning is also part of the Mike Norvell coaching tree from his two years at Memphis, but I don't know of any commentary from Buckeye sources, and certainly nothing official, as to what the source was for the change in the running game, or who was responsible for the change or implementation. Not that it's wrong. But I don't think we're being accurate to just throw it out there as factual, when PFF themselves said it was pure speculation on their part. It should be stated within that context.
  4. I don't understand the wringing of hands over some kind of mythical "win now" mentality. I feel like people think this is professional sports, with either some kind of salary cap/luxury tax, or the need for an owner who is so wealthy and so driven to win that they don't care what it costs. There is no salary cap. We'll have to see how it looks after the settlement, but anyone who thinks that will be the final rule set college sports plays with for the next few years is kidding themselves. And until some capable enforcement body is set up that can actually investigate where the money is going and who it's coming from with a high degree of accuracy and can defend their actions successfully in a court of law - both factors whose chances I find negligible in terms of actually becoming reality - we're going to continue to have the wild wild west in terms of compensation for college athletes. The limiting factor really is how many deep pockets see an emotional return on investment from contributing to talent acquisition, specifically on an ad hoc basis. General NIL can be used to budget and provide minimum levels of compensation. But the kind of talent acquisition some of you are so worried about - "have to take advantage of Arch!" can only be provided by whales. I can't speak to each whale's ego, how it's fed, what makes it compelling for them to grant large dispensations to individual players. What I can say is that creating a sense of urgency with "have to take advantage of Arch!" or whatever other artificial sense of urgency that can be created, is effective. If someone is constrained with limited personal wealth to where they can't afford to invest in a college player one year without bankrupting themselves in investing in a college player the next year, they're probably not a good candidate to be approaching in the first place. I know that everyone has a limit. Phil Knight has a limit, and I doubt there's anyone spending as much on a single athletic program than he is at Oregon at every level. If he didn't have a limit Oregon would sign everyone they go after, but that's not what happens. They manage the team budget. They have a very sophisticated operation going on with a list of donors to approach. They make sure if a potential player is throwing off the budget for the entire team they can justify internally, both to the people putting up the cash, and the players already on the roster. Someone like Dillon Gabriel gets a premium, but it's easily explained to the players why that's the case. Someone asking for an absurd amount of NIL money to sign isn't automatically signed. They have to make sense to the roster, both in terms of contributing and in terms of what the overall payment structure is. Same thing with Texas, except Texas has a much deeper bench of donors. But even then, when someone is ponying up the money to grab a special talent, it's an emotional appeal that secures the deal. Not some kind of rational NFL GM approach. Honestly, that's why NIL isn't sustainable as a college football model. There's no guardrails. There's always going to be a Phil Knight type whose emotional fulfillment regarding his alma mater winning a national championship supersedes whatever financial sense it makes to compensate the players. It's still the market driving prices, but it's a market of 17th century tulips. In the meantime, I'm all in favor of going as all in as the big donors are willing to from one year to the next. Next year will take care of itself. And let's face it, the rules are highly likely to radically change from one year to the next, with no effective overseer trying to enforce them. For the foreseeable future, really.
  5. If the screen pass doesn't go for a touchdown we kick a field goal there. And yes, the toss sweep was retarded.
  6. I'm not holding the defense to a higher standard. They played awesome. So did Ohio State's. But it wasn't just a boneheaded play. Allowing Ohio State to score on a screen pass right after the kickoff from the 25 yard line with 20 seconds until half goes a little beyond a boneheaded play. Because it was such a low scoring game, that made a huge difference in the outcome. Ohio State had two touchdown scoring drives. Texas had two touchdown scoring drives. So the difference in the score was the screen pass and the fumble recovery for a touchdown. You don't have the screen pass, you don't have the fumble recovery for a touchdown because we're attempting a field goal there. That's just the facts. It doesn't take away from how awesome the defense played all year long. They especially put on a showcase in short yardage situations, including this game. I'm not willing to dismiss it as "a boneheaded play. Oh well. They're allowed one of those." It changed the entire complexion of the game. It was arguably the key play of the entire ball game. You could see four players take bad angles trying to tackle Henderson around the 50, instead of simply trying to keep him from scoring. That's because they're aggressive and they thought they could cut him off, but it meant that no one tackled him and they get 7 points out of the deal. To me it feels like a "other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?" sort of moment.
  7. I will point out if we don't give up the TD with 20 seconds left in the half from the 25 yard line on that screen pass, the score is 14-14 there and we kick the field goal. Well, try to kick the field goal in any case. Then it's on the defense to stop them. That TD on the screen pass changed the complexion of everything.
  8. I agree. But that screen pass for a TD with 20 seconds left until half was pivotal. It's going to be tough to compete with programs like Ohio State, Texas, and Oregon year after year in the portal era. I expect us to have a significant talent advantage against most teams from now on until congressional legislation is passed. And who knows when that will be or what it will look like. It's a shame this wasn't for the national championship. Probably will be in years to come.
  9. Just to point out it hasn't happened, yet.
  10. Yeah, it seems like if the betting is as one sided as that little snapshot makes it out to be, Vegas will be rooting for Texas. My only thing is that I don't think that twitter pic is reflective of the actual betting, otherwise we would have seen the line move in the other direction.
  11. I hope Sarkisian has a long heart felt talk with him prior to a game winning field goal.
  12. You'd be amazed at how little I care about Ohio State football. As far as I'm concerned college football wasn't even played from 2010 to 2022 other than the 2018 season. And that one was like enjoying a mirage. Since you're not a Texas fan you have no idea really what I'm talking about. But no one gave Texas a chance in 96 against Nebraska, and more surprisingly, USC was practically crowned the champion prior to the game after the 2005 season. That one made no sense to me. I at least understand why everyone is picking Ohio State in this game. I just know Texas is an extremely talented team, and if they put it together Ohio State could be the ones wondering what truck just hit them the same way Tennessee and Oregon felt after their games with the Buckeyes. Especially Ewers. If the Ewers from the Alabama or Michigan game shows up, it could spell real trouble for Ohio State.
  13. It feels like Nebraska '96 and USC 2005 all over again. As long as it's not Miami 1990. But this is a different Texas team than that one. They absolutely belong on the field with this Ohio State team, regardless.
  14. When you say it's not working, what do you mean? There is no question there are fewer helmet on helmet collisions. We're not going to have zero. Maybe we should have a ceremony in the middle of the field where we cut the offender's right hand off right after it happens. Or send them to the prison. We still see facemasks occur, too. We're paying large, fast men to collide into one another as hard and as fast as they can. There's an inherent danger to that. We can minimize some of the risks, but at the end of the day there is always going to be a health risk, both short term and long term. It's like road safety. There is no question if the speed limit on all highways were reduced to 50 miles an hour and strictly enforced, there would be fewer traffic accidents, injuries, and fatalities. There's a tradeoff involved. Same thing with football. There's no question in my mind the sport is safer now than it was 20, 30, 40 years ago. But the risk and physicality is part of its appeal. I also don't think targeting is ever going to be consistently applied as a call, any more than holding or pass interference will be. Maybe we'll see improvements, but I predict it's always going to be a controversial call in the future no matter what is done. Some of this is CYA in any case. "See? We're doing something to make the game safer! Now purchase the advertised products, pay for tickets, and buy lots and lots of concessions and merchandise!"
  15. The curse is real. No one has ever won a game with the mudhole curse upon them. OSU's doom is sealed.
  16. SL Xpress

    MUKUBA

    The 4th and 13 touchdown pass seemed like a big deal at the time as well.
  17. The reason Carter turned the Panama Canal over to Panama is because his administration came in with the mindset that the US policy was way too pragmatic and not focused enough on humanitarian issues. We were supporting too many bad guys (e.g. the Shah) and needed to be more of a good guy ourselves. Handing the Panama Canal to the Panamanians felt like the right thing to do.
  18. The only thing making Oregon elite really is Phil Knight pouring in a massive amount of his wealth into the athletic department in general and the football program specifically. They don't have the talent instate or even regionally to compete on a national basis, even if they secured every one of the best players in the Oregon/Washington/Idaho/Montana region. There's not enough money in the state, or the alumni base. The student body is not massive, and neither is the alum base. The area is geographically gorgeous. There's all kinds of mountains and streams. Outdoor activities galore. There's snow skiing. The beaches are spectacular, even if the water is too cold to recreationally swim in. Hiking opportunities. Coming from Houston, the demographics are stupefyingly white. Especially in Eugene and the rest of rural Oregon. The town itself is nice. The metro population is about 200k. It's very much a college town. It doesn't compare to Austin or any college town next to a sizable city, but it's also not a tiny burg. It's a similar population size to Lubbock, without feeling like it's out in the middle of nowhere. Knight has thrown so much money into the athletic department, it's unbelievable. The Hayward Field has to be the nicest track and field facility in the world. It's absolutely gorgeous, and it's right in the middle of campus. The Matthew Knight Arena is a nice multipurpose sports facility for the basketball and volleyball teams. It's also right on campus. The football, baseball, softball, soccer/lacrosse facilities are all bunched together on the other side of the campus, about a 10 minute walk through a beautiful park area and over the picturesque Williamette River. Their big problem is how do they increase their revenue? The stadium only holds 54,000, and they can't increase it a great deal without carrying empty seats for a lot of games and giving up tons of seats to visiting fans for the big name opponents. They have a real dearth of luxury seating, both in the football stadium and in the basketball arena - which has none. They're very much limited by the economics of the region, the alumni base, and the populations they're working with. One thing they do have is culture. Athletes there are treated like royalty. I'd say it's a bigger deal to be an athlete at Oregon than it is at Texas. Whatever the sport. I don't know if their facilities overall equal Texas, but they come close in many sports. And there's no question who has priority on campus. They've torn down the science center this past year to build a brand new 170,000 sq ft football only facility, which should be completed in the next couple of years. The cost has not been revealed, but everyone knows who is paying for it. They also have a problem keeping their coaches. Rich Brooks left for the NFL after a 17 year career. Mike Belotti retired and became the athletic director after 13 years, so he didn't go anywhere. But Chip Kelly left for the pros after 4 years, Mark Helfrich was fired after 4 years, Willie Taggart left for FSU after 1 year, and Cristobal left for Miami after 5 years. It's so challenging finding the right guy to be the head coach, which makes it paramount to be able to keep them when you do. Dan Lanning already refused to listen to Alabama's overtures, so maybe he's there for the long haul. Dunno. I also don't know what happens to them when Phil Knight passes away. He's leaving a large largesse to the athletic department - at least, that's what he's told them - but suddenly it's a relatively fixed number being provided each year rather than Phil Knight being able to dip as deep as he wants to go into his vast fortune, and that will change things. Also, they're getting 1/2 the television funds of other Big 10 members, but that changes with the next contract in 8 years, or however long it is.
  19. It's a court settlement that hasn't even been approved yet. With more lawsuits in the works. State legislated NIL rules don't supercede federal law or federal court settlements, but in their absence they do. And there's a lot of absence. What they do do is supercede NCAA regulations. At least until a lawsuit is filed and it's deemed otherwise. The only legislative body that can create any real stability is the US congress. So far there's been no appetite in the current political climate for congress and the president to wade into college athletics. Maybe that changes, although it's difficult to see how. Until then we'll veer wildly from one court case to another, with no real enforcement mechanism other than bringing another lawsuit. There have been some enforcement mechanisms proposed with the upcoming settlement approval, but I haven't seen anything to make me think they'll be at all effective. If you don't have effective enforcement, you don't really have a rule.
  20. He's told the athletic department he's leaving $6 billion.
  21. NSIAP, but this youtube video from the guys at PFF college football has a very interesting analysis on the change in Ohio State success from Michigan to the Tennessee/Oregon games. A chief attribute was going from primarily a Chip Kelly inside zone team with an offensive line that wasn't capable of successfully executing it to a counter team. According to these guys OSU ran 50% of their running plays as counters, when the teams during the regular season that ran counter the most topped out about 35%. It also allowed success in the passing game building off of different looks in the counter attack to go play action. It's a bit Ohio State heavy, but not overly so. I enjoyed the analysis:
  22. There are several national championships I find questionable. There are a few I find highly questionable. BYU's national championship being towards the top of the list. They still count. The President, Congress, the Supreme Court, the United Nations, the alien race from the nearest settled star could all come together to poo poo Texas winning a national championship this year as not being all that impressive and I will give no fucks whatsoever. There's no asterisk for this shit. Why anyone would waste a second thinking about it is beyond me. Now, retrospective national championships granted by obscure publications reading through box scores can fuck right off. Those are the ridiculous ones.
  23. Phrasing.
  24. Georgia could have really used Vince Young on that 4th and 5 there.
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