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2017 national title race preview (short)
TierbsHsotBoobs
Member Posts: 39,680
To @dnc
Here's why I disagree with you that UW should be viewed as having Top 3 relative odds in this year's preseason national title odds ... start by looking around the conferences. There won't be a non-P5 school that gets into the top 4 and Notre Dame is more likely to fire Brian Kelly than get in the Top 4. So that's likely going to come down to 4 P5 conference winners ...
SEC
Alabama is the clear favorite despite all of their losses as they reload. I'll believe Auburn when I see them although getting a transfer QB from Baylor may give them more of a passing game ... but Baylor QBs kind of suck. LSU is a QB away from being able to even think of beating Alabama and Ed O isn't in the same area code as Saban as a coach. Nobody in the East is worth a shit.
ACC
Florida State should be in the best pre-season position but they open with Alabama ... so that's going to likely immediately take either their or Bama's margin of error away. They should be able to run through the ACC (it will be down versus last year) but there are still challenging games against both Louisville and at Clemson to contend with. Francois needs to take another step to not be in a potential upset situation. Clemson likely loses too much to get through unscathed as a 4 week streak where they play Auburn, at Louisville, and at Virginia Tech will probably result in a loss. Louisville is a dark horse contender but their non-conference schedule isn't worth a damn and they are out of the picture if they get to 2 losses.
Big 10
Many are going to peg Ohio State as #1 or #2 preseason. JT Barrett is still their QB which puts them in a bad position (until proven otherwise) against any team that defensively can force them to throw the football. An early season game against Oklahoma burdens somebody with a loss and starts reducing their margin of error. The schedule also includes a tricky 3 week stretch late in the season where they play at Nebraska, home to Penn St, and at Iowa. Then they have the trip to Michigan. Pedo State has a game against Pitt that they should win easily before they enter their difficult portion of the schedule with a 4 game stretch of at Northwestern, Michigan, at Ohio State, and at Michigan St. They should cruise the rest of the way. Michigan opens with Florida, has a trip to Pedo State, and a closing 2 game stretch of at Wisconsin and home to Ohio State. I don't see any of the 3 teams in the East getting through the conference undefeated ... which likely means that the winner is looking at 10-2 plus a conference title game. Wisconsin is the team to look out for as their non-conference schedule is pretty easy (toughest game is at BYU), they play in the West (which generally sucks), miss Pedo & Ohio State, and get Michigan at home. The real risk is that Wisconsin gets through 11-1 or 12-0, is massively over ranked, and gives up a massive resume boosting win.
Big 12
I think that there's going to be a very good chance that the Big 12's depth this year is going to be stout. I don't think Oklahoma (or anybody else) is going to get through the league at 9-0 this year. 8-1 would be pretty good. So at that point, you're looking at needing to get through the non-conference schedule undefeated to be assured of being in. Oklahoma has the game at Ohio State (likely losing that game). Okie State should be ok playing at Pitt against Max Browne or whoever Pitt has ... but still a tricky game. West Virginia could be just as good as last year and starts with Va Tech. KState will likely be pretty good but plays nobody OOC ... so their margin for error gets that much smaller. TCU will be better but has to go to Arkansas. Texas should get a bump but has to travel to USC. That's 6 of the 10 teams that I expect to be varying forms of good and then with the Big 12 having a title game this year, that's another possible loss. I could see a 11-2 team getting in ...
PAC 12
USC's non-conference schedule includes both Notre Dame and Texas. They miss UW but will likely see them for the PAC12 title. But they'll win the South and should be able to get through their schedule with no more than 2 losses. If they do that and win the conference they'll be in. Problem is that they have to beat Washington to do that. The OOC is a layup drill. I'm not sure that we'll go 9-0 in conference but fairly sure that we won't go 7-2 in conference. An 11-1 regular season with a victory in the PAC12 title game over USC will be enough to get in considering that I think it's very likely that I think it is likely that 3 of the other 4 conference winners will have 2 or more losses.
So really, the bet for UW comes down to the following:
1) What are the odds that UW will beat USC?
2) Let's assume that the Final Four (in order) is Alabama, Ohio State, Washington, and Oklahoma ... what are the odds that UW beats Ohio State? Alabama? Oklahoma?
To me, I'll say it's no worse than 50/50 that we'll beat USC ... and to be conservative, I'll say 40% to beat Ohio State (I don't trust any Big 10 team), 25% to beat Alabama, and 50% to beat Oklahoma.
That puts the odds of winning the national championship as follows:
USC-Ohio State-Alabama route: 50% x 40% x 20% = 5%
USC-Ohio State-Oklahoma route: 50% x 40% x 50% = 10%
Depending on how you tweak the percentages obviously the likelihood of winning the title shifts. But one of the reasons that I put UW higher than most is that the path for them to be in the playoffs is much cleaner. The only cleaner route to me is Alabama as they will be in as long as they win the SEC and have 2 or fewer losses (barring all the other 4 conference winners having 0-1 losses). Florida St, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Ohio State will total 2 losses just because they play each other. The concentration of teams in the Big 10 East will make it hard for anybody to get through at 9-0 in conference. The title game in the Big 12 plus what should be a relative up year there will result in losses accumulating. There's a decided question mark of who will win the Big 10 and Big 12 ... it's far from a certainty. There's a path for more teams in the ACC than the PAC12 ... and perhaps more importantly the teams in the ACC are all accumulated in the same division ... so lose the division and you don't have a chance to win the conference.
You can't win the National Championship if you don't get into the Final Four ... and I have a hard time coming up with teams that are more likely than UW to be there in the end.
Here's why I disagree with you that UW should be viewed as having Top 3 relative odds in this year's preseason national title odds ... start by looking around the conferences. There won't be a non-P5 school that gets into the top 4 and Notre Dame is more likely to fire Brian Kelly than get in the Top 4. So that's likely going to come down to 4 P5 conference winners ...
SEC
Alabama is the clear favorite despite all of their losses as they reload. I'll believe Auburn when I see them although getting a transfer QB from Baylor may give them more of a passing game ... but Baylor QBs kind of suck. LSU is a QB away from being able to even think of beating Alabama and Ed O isn't in the same area code as Saban as a coach. Nobody in the East is worth a shit.
ACC
Florida State should be in the best pre-season position but they open with Alabama ... so that's going to likely immediately take either their or Bama's margin of error away. They should be able to run through the ACC (it will be down versus last year) but there are still challenging games against both Louisville and at Clemson to contend with. Francois needs to take another step to not be in a potential upset situation. Clemson likely loses too much to get through unscathed as a 4 week streak where they play Auburn, at Louisville, and at Virginia Tech will probably result in a loss. Louisville is a dark horse contender but their non-conference schedule isn't worth a damn and they are out of the picture if they get to 2 losses.
Big 10
Many are going to peg Ohio State as #1 or #2 preseason. JT Barrett is still their QB which puts them in a bad position (until proven otherwise) against any team that defensively can force them to throw the football. An early season game against Oklahoma burdens somebody with a loss and starts reducing their margin of error. The schedule also includes a tricky 3 week stretch late in the season where they play at Nebraska, home to Penn St, and at Iowa. Then they have the trip to Michigan. Pedo State has a game against Pitt that they should win easily before they enter their difficult portion of the schedule with a 4 game stretch of at Northwestern, Michigan, at Ohio State, and at Michigan St. They should cruise the rest of the way. Michigan opens with Florida, has a trip to Pedo State, and a closing 2 game stretch of at Wisconsin and home to Ohio State. I don't see any of the 3 teams in the East getting through the conference undefeated ... which likely means that the winner is looking at 10-2 plus a conference title game. Wisconsin is the team to look out for as their non-conference schedule is pretty easy (toughest game is at BYU), they play in the West (which generally sucks), miss Pedo & Ohio State, and get Michigan at home. The real risk is that Wisconsin gets through 11-1 or 12-0, is massively over ranked, and gives up a massive resume boosting win.
Big 12
I think that there's going to be a very good chance that the Big 12's depth this year is going to be stout. I don't think Oklahoma (or anybody else) is going to get through the league at 9-0 this year. 8-1 would be pretty good. So at that point, you're looking at needing to get through the non-conference schedule undefeated to be assured of being in. Oklahoma has the game at Ohio State (likely losing that game). Okie State should be ok playing at Pitt against Max Browne or whoever Pitt has ... but still a tricky game. West Virginia could be just as good as last year and starts with Va Tech. KState will likely be pretty good but plays nobody OOC ... so their margin for error gets that much smaller. TCU will be better but has to go to Arkansas. Texas should get a bump but has to travel to USC. That's 6 of the 10 teams that I expect to be varying forms of good and then with the Big 12 having a title game this year, that's another possible loss. I could see a 11-2 team getting in ...
PAC 12
USC's non-conference schedule includes both Notre Dame and Texas. They miss UW but will likely see them for the PAC12 title. But they'll win the South and should be able to get through their schedule with no more than 2 losses. If they do that and win the conference they'll be in. Problem is that they have to beat Washington to do that. The OOC is a layup drill. I'm not sure that we'll go 9-0 in conference but fairly sure that we won't go 7-2 in conference. An 11-1 regular season with a victory in the PAC12 title game over USC will be enough to get in considering that I think it's very likely that I think it is likely that 3 of the other 4 conference winners will have 2 or more losses.
So really, the bet for UW comes down to the following:
1) What are the odds that UW will beat USC?
2) Let's assume that the Final Four (in order) is Alabama, Ohio State, Washington, and Oklahoma ... what are the odds that UW beats Ohio State? Alabama? Oklahoma?
To me, I'll say it's no worse than 50/50 that we'll beat USC ... and to be conservative, I'll say 40% to beat Ohio State (I don't trust any Big 10 team), 25% to beat Alabama, and 50% to beat Oklahoma.
That puts the odds of winning the national championship as follows:
USC-Ohio State-Alabama route: 50% x 40% x 20% = 5%
USC-Ohio State-Oklahoma route: 50% x 40% x 50% = 10%
Depending on how you tweak the percentages obviously the likelihood of winning the title shifts. But one of the reasons that I put UW higher than most is that the path for them to be in the playoffs is much cleaner. The only cleaner route to me is Alabama as they will be in as long as they win the SEC and have 2 or fewer losses (barring all the other 4 conference winners having 0-1 losses). Florida St, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Ohio State will total 2 losses just because they play each other. The concentration of teams in the Big 10 East will make it hard for anybody to get through at 9-0 in conference. The title game in the Big 12 plus what should be a relative up year there will result in losses accumulating. There's a decided question mark of who will win the Big 10 and Big 12 ... it's far from a certainty. There's a path for more teams in the ACC than the PAC12 ... and perhaps more importantly the teams in the ACC are all accumulated in the same division ... so lose the division and you don't have a chance to win the conference.
You can't win the National Championship if you don't get into the Final Four ... and I have a hard time coming up with teams that are more likely than UW to be there in the end.
Comments
It will be important for UW to put themselves in positions where they always have a check down option(s) for Jake to get rid of the ball in a hurry. 4-5 yard gains against Alabama keep you ahead of the sticks ... that's important. LSU is actually a very important game to watch because it shows what happens when you have a good defense coupled with an offense that does not give Alabama EASY scoring opportunities. That's a good blue print for figuring out how you can stay competitive against Alabama. LSU's biggest problem in that game was that their offense and in particular the QB position was so inept that Alabama didn't respect the passing game much at all and was able to focus on the run game. UW is by far more balanced ... I don't think it's close to a stretch to say that they are the most balanced team Alabama has played all year by a long shot. That will cause some issues for Alabama.
Another thing I've noticed when watching some of the Ole Miss game is that Alabama almost always brings a slot corner or a MLB (or both) in a blitz situation against teams that spread them out. It not only helps to slow down any run situations that may come, but allows the secondary to squat on routes and not be concerned about plays down the field. Picking up those blitzes and giving a pocket will be critical because IF you can get situations where the WRs are 1 on 1 versus the Alabama secondary, you do have opportunities to create some chunk plays. And, the blitzes that Alabama runs really aren't that hard to figure out where they are coming from. They tend to tip the blitz location.
For UW, the LT, LG, and RT are good enough to compete at this level. In the USC game, the LG was coming back from an injury and I do question how healthy he was. We "hopefully" learned a few things from that game that can help us going forward. UW's 2 most basic formations that they run are 2 WR, 2 TE, 1 RB and 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 RB. Alabama is very strong when you get them in a position where they line up and are able to easily identify their responsibilities. A staple of Chris Petersen's offenses though are shifts and motions and I suspect that we'll try to use those situations to either out-flank or confuse the Alabama defense and get a bust in their assignments. UW has at least 3 TEs that they rotate into the game that all are very good run blockers with Darrell Daniels a potential option if they decide to use him in the passing game (which I think could work very well for UW in this game). I expect our line to be in positions where we will be chipping at least one of the edge rushers each time with the TE before releasing ... the TE releasing should quiet some of the middle blitzes from Alabama. I'd expect the C + RG to combo block a fair amount and our RBs often stay in to block so I'd expect that whichever guard isn't being helped with combo blocking will get focus from the RB.
Alabama is very well coached and very fundamentally sound (that shows up big time compared to other SEC teams and the mistakes that they tend to make play after play). It will be important to use some of that against them by going against tendencies from time to time. To slow Alabama down defensively, you have to get them in a position where they are thinking versus reacting and getting them to question what it is that they are seeing. IF Washington can be successful in this, then you have yourself a ball game.
Defensively, the 3 DTs for Washington (Gaines, Qualls, and Vea) are stout and will be a handful for the Alabama middle run game. As others have noted here, the secondary will be as good as any that Alabama has seen this year. Budda Baker is as good of a safety as there is in the country. The weakness to the defense is at the OLB positions. To slow Alabama's offense down, you have to make Hurts a passer. Kiffin tries to limit the exposure of Hurts by giving him a lot of quick throws and screens to get the ball out and into the hands of playmakers. We're very familiar with that with Kiffin and Sark being from the same tree. The quick WR screens will be hard pressed to work against Jones/King on the outside ... as good of a CB tandem as Alabama has seen all year and one of the best in the nation. Not only are they good in coverage, but they are excellent tacklers particularly in the quick WR screen game. The defense has gotten better since they moved Taylor Rapp in to play S and moved Budda more into a slot corner/rover type of role. IF and this is a big IF Washington can keep Hurts from beating them with his legs, then Washington should be able to limit Alabama's offense.
You've noted in a few different areas looking at yardage totals as a measure of the UW defense and specifically cited certain games and yardage totals. One thing you have to understand about the PAC is that teams here like to push play totals upwards of 80-100 on a game by game basis. It's important to look at things from a yard per play basis when looking at the running and passing games. And I also think it's important to look at things from a conference only or P5 only standpoint versus your entire schedule because the entire schedule can be skewed by a few overmatched opponents.
Washington in conference has given up 4 yards per carry in the run game. The games where UW has given up over 4 yards per carry are as follows:
Arizona: 43 for 308 (7.2 yards per carry)
Oregon: 43 for 230 (5.3 yards per carry)
Oregon St: 30 for 177 (5.9 yards per carry)
Utah: 47 for 213 (4.5 yards per carry)
The Arizona game is unique and probably what they do is most similar to what Auburn runs in that the QB is a massive running threat. 176 of those yards came from Arizona's QB ... which is why I said that the biggest obstacle in this game for the UW defense is stopping Hurts in the run game. There's a lot of read option that Arizona runs and if there's a big weakness to the UW defense at times it is that it doesn't like to change what it does to start games. They will adjust at halftime if needed and against both Arizona and Utah the adjustments made really slowed down the opposition offense ... the only plays given up in the 2nd half to Arizona were really a couple of broken plays that hit big. Utah's run game dramatically slowed down in the 2nd half as we brought an extra body into the box and forced Utah to beat us with their passing game. The Oregon game was 70-21 ... I don't read a lot into that. And as for Oregon St, 75 of the 177 yards came on a jet sweep in the 2nd half of a blowout game ... although it was against the #1 defense ... a defense that came out very flat in the 2nd half.
In the last 5 games (Cal, USC, ASU, Wazzu, and Colorado), the yards per rush have been 3.7, 3.1, 0.6, 2.7, and 2.8.
I think even most SEC fans would admit that the QB play in the PAC is usually better than that in the SEC top to bottom in the conference. In conference games, Washington is allowing a completion percentage of 56.5%, 5.8 yards per attempt, and 10.3 yards per completion. In contrast, Alabama's numbers are 52.5% completion percentage against, 6.2 yards per attempt, and 11.9 yards per completion. If there's an area where you could look at the stats and question UW's secondary, it'd be in the completion percentage number as 6 times in 10 conference games have the opposition completed over 60% of their passes. But this also goes to show why completion percentage can be a very misleading stat because when you go back and watch the tape of UW, what you see from them is that they have no problem letting you check it down whether it be screens, rollouts, etc. What they do though extremely well is rally up and tackle those opportunities. Very rarely do you beat a team by making 15+ play drives going 80 yards ... somewhere along the line you're going to get a holding penalty or something to back you behind the sticks or you're going to try to push a pass, etc. that turns into a turnover ... which Washington has averaged over 2 turnovers per game the entire season (they've generated multiple turnovers in every game this season except for the 0 turnovers caused at Utah - hence why that game was relatively close).
The defenses that are probably most similar to UW in the SEC are LSU and maybe Florida ... and the funny thing when you look at those games is that Hurts wasn't really an effective passer:
LSU: 10 of 19 for 107 yards
Florida: 11 of 20 for 138 yards
The keys for this game from a UW perspective:
1) Field Position: Limit turnovers and force Alabama to go a full field on a consistent basis
2) Turnover Margin: +2 or better will give UW the chance to be in the game in the 4th quarter
3) Bring the Alabama defense out of its comfort zone by emphasizing motion and shifts
4) Contain Hurts in the running game and force him to win with his arm
5) Special Teams: Must play at least even here
I definitely think that UW can stay within 2 TDs in this game. The computer models are saying that UW has about a 1 in 3 shot to win the game ... yet the money line in Vegas is UW +575 or thereabouts. That's a lot of value. The public perception is that Alabama is so elite that nobody is in their class ... my perception is that the SEC was a really bad league this year. Alabama is rightly the favorite ... they should be. But this will be a game.
The Don James - I Have a Chance to Win a National Title in the PAC While Not at USC/UCLA Tier
Chris Petersen
Pete's easily the most accomplished coach in the PAC12 right now ... his dominance at Boise coupled with his strong turnaround of the toxic Sark culture in the UW program, shifting it to conference championship caliber in 2016, and then shifting in focus once again to get to a national level after playing Alabama is the kick in the ass the Dawgfather had in the mid to late 1980s. To have all of that done and in place after Year 3 while still looking at the program as a stock that you'd still feel very comfortable buying its upside is the definition of elite.
The Terry Donahue - I'm Not Terrible But Really Not Elite Tier
David Shaw
I'll be surprised if Shaw will ever get another QB as good as Andrew Luck ... and let's be honest, he shitted those years away as he focused on pounding the rock versus utilizing his best player. This will likely be a bigger discussion on a Summer edition of the TSIO podcast when looking into Stanford and the direction of their program as a whole, but to say that Stanford is a step behind UW at this point and on the 3-5 year arc of a program isn't a stretch. You can see some parallels between the Vermeil/Donahue arc at UCLA and the Harbaugh/Shaw arc at Stanford. You can definitely argue that Shaw's 1st 3 teams lived off of Harbaugh's recruiting. Since then, in 2 of the next 3 years, Shaw has thrown up a 5-4 and 6-3 in conference record. When you look at last year's 6-3, that included a drubbing by UW, a drubbing by WSU, and an ugly 10-5 defeat to Colorado.
The PAC12 Football Version of Gregg Marshall Tier - Elite (or close to) But Unlikely To Ever Win Big at Current Location
Kyle Wittingham
He's a really good coach ... his resume prior to Utah reaching the PAC12 in the MWC was solid including an undefeated season that culminated with beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. The transition to the PAC12 his first 3 seasons was rough and has been a bit better since then. He's won 9 or more games in 7 of his 12 seasons. I'm not sure how successful he'll be at Utah in terms of maximizing their potential because they still haven't completely unlocked the recruiting pipeline of being in the PAC12 and I'm not sure they will. While Utah has produced solid OL/DL units in the PAC12, they are largely lacking in the passing game (both QBs/WRs). The elite local guys even on the lines are hit and miss to staying home. Until they can keep the local guys home (just in last year's class they lost Jay Tuefele to USC and Ty Jones to UW ... and that doesn't even factor in BYU guys) and find a way to get solid QBs/WRs out of either SoCal or pull in from Texas, they'll always be a step behind in the PAC12. As @89ute mentioned, having Wittingham at a place like USC would scare the living shit out of me from a UW perspective.
The I'm Different Than Everybody Else So Go Fuck Off Tier
Mike Leach
Say what you want about him ... but he's consistently above average. He's quirky. He's different. He's a nut job. He's also in the perfect location for what he does. His offense is different and because of it's long term success he's guaranteed to get competent QBs and WRs to be interested in WSU. He'll also never win big at the elite levels because there are too many little details of the game that matter that he doesn't give 2 shits about. The fact that he's a Top 5 coach in the conference tells you how shitty the caliber of coaching is in the conference at the moment.
The Larry Coker/Gene Chizik Being In the Right Place at the Right Time Tier
Clay Helton
He's got talent. He's going to live off the bump that he has for the short term to deliver some solid recruiting classes. There's plenty of examples of questionable to downright head scratching results to leave you really wondering from the debacle against Alabama to starting Max Browne ahead of Sam Darnold to giving up TDs on 7 straight possessions in the Rose Bowl to not being smart enough to realize that Ivan Lewis is a shit S&C coach to allowing yourself to get punched in the face by one of your players (allegedly) to having a career resume that in no way, shape, or form shows that he's ready to be a success head coach. As @Dennis_DeYoung can't help but point out any chance that he gets ... but USC for all the hype that they are getting didn't even win their division last year. Given the general dreck in the conference and in particular the South he'll be able to throw great results up and fool everybody for years. I also expect that UW will likely win 2 out of every 3 games against USC while Helton is there ... I'm not worried about Clay Helton ... and neither should you.
The Hugh Freeze You're Suspect Tier
Gary Andersen
Mike MacIntyre
I actually think Andersen is a good coach. There's evidence that suggests that he should be higher. I don't have anything against him going from Utah State to Wisconsin ... that move makes sense. Going from Wisconsin to Oregon State? I'm really struggling to see the logic there. I get that by all accounts Barry Alvarez is a jackass to work for. But Oregon State fucking sucks. The only job in the PAC12 that it is in competition with for worst job in the conference is Washington State. My gut says that as soon as he turns Oregon State around he'll hop to somewhere else.
MacIntyre I don't think is a terrible coach. Colorado was a dumpster fire when he got there. He turned around the program at San Jose State (not a great job) and delivered a 10 win season and then turned in a miracle season at Colorado. They are likely at a stable point now where they shouldn't go too far backwards and be bowl eligible for a while. The problem though is that anybody that has followed the story regarding their defensive coach that had a domestic violence situation and how MacIntyre and the University appears to have handled it makes one seriously question how long he has left in the job either by his own choice or the decision made for him.
The Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Man's Version of Chip Kelly Tier
Dick Rod
He was once innovative ... he took a big boy job at Michigan that was a bad fit from the start ... he went to a better fit in Arizona and while having some initial results is in a spot where the program may or may not be in a complete free fall. There's probably reason to wonder whether or not he's got the fire in him any more. The 2014 season where they won the South and lost to Boise in the Fiesta Bowl is an outlier in his 5 seasons in Arizona as the other 4 seasons resulted in below .500 records in conference. Like Chip, Dick Rod's offenses are no longer innovative and defenses by and large are now built to stop exactly those kinds of offenses. Another example of a how is he actually this high on the list coach.
The I Wish I Had Dick Rod's Resume Tier
Todd Graham
Like Dick Rod, he's hopped around the country from Rice to Tulsa to Pitt to Arizona State. Like Dick Rod, he's had past success. Like Dick Rod, he's been trending downward. Graham won the South in 2013 with a 8-1 conference record. Since then, Graham's conference record has been 6-3, 4-5, and 2-7. Yikes. We're two thirds of the way through the dreck of the South coaches.
The I Make The 8 UCLA Football Fans Long for Karl Dorrell and Rick Neuheisel Tier
Jim Mora
We have enough evidence at this point to conclude that Mora's really not a good coach. He got worse each of his 3 years in Atlanta. He lasted one season 5-11 season with the 12s.
He benefited from Slick Rick redshirting Brett Hundley to winning the South in his first year in 2012 with a 6-3 conference record. He's basically the LA version of Sark in that his conference record with UCLA has been 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, 5-4, and 2-7.
If the running joke about your teams is that you are soft ... that's not a positive. If you move your pre-season training camps to make your team TUFFER ... that's amusing. If you move your pre-season training camp back on campus because that TUFFER training camp thing wasn't working ... that's evidence of how clueless you are regarding holding people accountable and the culture that you've established. That there's a long standing joke about when you and your program will fully implode ... that's why you're 10th in my standings. That there are two clowns below you in the rankings is pathetic.
The I'm Trying to Out-Sark Sark in Free Pub Tier
Willie T
I'm calling for @Dennis_DeYoung and @CokeGreaterThanPepsi to completely fact check this and add/subtract to this list for Willie T since being hired at Oregon ...
Hired S&C Coach ...
First Week of Offseason S&C 3 players end up in the hospital with serious/critical situations
S&C Coach Suspended for 30 Days
S&C Coach Fired
During a recruiting weekend, Asst Coach gets pulled over for a DUI (another assistant coach was in the car with him) ...
DUI coach gets fired
Filled out entire coaching staff (save Jim Leavitt) with recruiters ... thank you Uncle Phil and your checkbook
Tells a reporter that you won't talk to him going forward because of his story about S&C coach
Didn't go visit any of the players in serious/critical situations
It wouldn't shock me if Oregon in the next 2-3 years actually passes Stanford ... but he's a fool ... his program is going to absolutely implode at some point ... it's going to be fun to watch.
The Keith Gilbertson How Did He Get a Head Coaching Gig in the PAC ... Oh That's Right It's Cal Tier
Justin Wilcox
Need I say more?
it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief,
it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light,
it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way— in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.
It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster. Even the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this very year last past (supernaturally deficient in originality) rapped out theirs. Mere messages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects in America: which, strange to relate, have proved more important to the human race than any communications yet received through any of the chickens of the Cock-lane brood.
France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it. Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained herself, besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards. It is likely enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to come down and be sawn into boards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history. It is likely enough that in the rough outhouses of some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts, bespattered with rustic mire, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in by poultry, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution. But that Woodman and that Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently, and no one heard them as they went about with muffled tread: the rather, forasmuch as to entertain any suspicion that they were awake, was to be atheistical and traitorous.
In England, there was scarcely an amount of order and protection to justify much national boasting. Daring burglaries by armed men, and highway robberies, took place in the capital itself every night; families were publicly cautioned not to go out of town without removing their furniture to upholsterers’ warehouses for security; the highwayman in the dark was a City tradesman in the light, and, being recognised and challenged by his fellow-tradesman whom he stopped in his character of “the Captain,” gallantly shot him through the head and rode away; the mail was waylaid by seven robbers, and the guard shot three dead, and then got shot dead himself by the other four, “in consequence of the failure of his ammunition:” after which the mail was robbed in peace; that magnificent potentate, the Lord Mayor of London, was made to stand and deliver on Turnham Green, by one highwayman, who despoiled the illustrious creature in sight of all his retinue; prisoners in London gaols fought battles with their turnkeys, and the majesty of the law fired blunderbusses in among them, loaded with rounds of shot and ball; thieves snipped off diamond crosses from the necks of noble lords at Court drawing-rooms; musketeers went into St. Giles’s, to search for contraband goods, and the mob fired on the musketeers, and the musketeers fired on the mob, and nobody thought any of these occurrences much out of the common way. In the midst of them, the hangman, ever busy and ever worse than useless, was in constant requisition; now, stringing up long rows of miscellaneous criminals; now, hanging a housebreaker on Saturday who had been taken on Tuesday; now, burning people in the hand at Newgate by the dozen, and now burning pamphlets at the door of Westminster Hall; to-day, taking the life of an atrocious murderer, and to-morrow of a wretched pilferer who had robbed a farmer’s boy of sixpence.
All these things, and a thousand like them, came to pass in and close upon the dear old year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Environed by them, while the Woodman and the Farmer worked unheeded, those two of the large jaws, and those other two of the plain and the fair faces, trod with stir enough, and carried their divine rights with a high hand. Thus did the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five conduct their Greatnesses, and myriads of small creatures—the creatures of this chronicle among the rest—along the roads that lay before them.
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