The Trend Begins - Oregon St and Memphis to Conduct Off-Campus Practices

Submitted by EastCoast Esq. on

According to a writer at AL.com, Memphis and Oregon State will be following Harbaugh's lead.

I wonder how the Emmert will react when everybody is doing this other than the ACC and the SEC.

 

Oregon State and Memphis following Jim Harbaugh's lead and will conduct scrimmages/practices off campus this spring. Hmm.

— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) February 19, 2016

Steves_Wolverines

February 19th, 2016 at 5:46 PM ^

And I was just pointing out a fact that LSU has enough gusto to come up north to play a game. 

Not sure why I was downvoted for informing people that blanket statements are typically false.

Yes it's rare for an SEC team to leave the south, but we can thank Les and LSU for trying something new. 

Mr. Yost

February 19th, 2016 at 6:41 PM ^

lol give me a break...well I guess FSU can still claim that one time they came to Ann Arbor.

When SEC teams routinely travel north, you wake me up and let me know. But one time is not a big deal.

I give Texas credit, not an SEC team, but they've done a great job of getting around the country over the years. I feel like Oklahoma has done as solid job as well. Oregon has and much of the Pac 12.

The SEC rarely leaves that SEC footprint.

If Les does it a few times, I'll tip my cap. Until then, this isn't a big deal in my eyes.

FLwolvfan22

February 19th, 2016 at 8:05 PM ^

It was a hot sunny fall day, I got sun burned, not hot by Florida standards but certainly not snowing. Noles took Miichigan to the woodshed that day.

I always think about that game and FSU practicing late summer in the brutal Florida head and humidity then came to the "cool" 78F (my estimate of the peak afternoon heat that day) Big House and ran wild on Michigan, must have been a nice break from the Florida heat.

Had it been November and wet and sloppy, might have been a differnt story.

Fun fact: first alcoholic beverage I ever consumed was at that game, a shot of Canadian Mist.

OC Alum91

February 20th, 2016 at 12:09 AM ^

We had just beat Notre Dame in a game vs two top 10 teams.  Desmond got his diving catch on 4th down from Grbac.  Going into the season FSU and UM were ranked #1 and #2.   FSU came up here and kicked our butts.  The game started out close, but then they just pulled away and destroyed us.  Tyrell Buckley was awesome and a major factor.  We looked overrated.  Like in so many of the Carr years, we started out ranked high and then fell throughout the season.  We had a good time doing the Seminole war chant by chopping with our middle fingers and saying F*** the Seminoles, f*** the Seminoles.  Of course, they had the last laugh cause they just took over the game.

Wolfman

February 20th, 2016 at 4:59 AM ^

it was Carr, not Mo at the helm? Reason I ask our then head coach recognized immediately our only chance to stay in that game was to go to the air repeatedly. I don't think Carr would have done this because no matter how many times being stonewalled at the l.o.s.,he remained adamant that in so doing something positive would occur and anything less than an intervention by a supreme being seemed to be insufficient for him to stop the madness.

The one positive I took from this bashing was it showed us how much distance we had to cover to play effectively with teams of this level, and also demonstrated that we possessed a passing game, not nearly at the level of FSU, but clearly superior to all other Big X opponents.

With the exception of ND, Lloyd almost always managed to display lack of sufficient preparation in at least one of our pre conference games, too often leading to a loss, and if we were fortunate enough to play above the game plan, far too many times, these games proved far more difficult than they should have. Also, I never understood his refusal, after recognizing a mismatch in our favor, immeditely forget about it and then use it as a last resort. Take, for example our mathup with Bama when Tom was slinging and David was catching. We actually could have and should have won that game by no less than 3 scores.

Don't get me wrong, Lloyd served UM well, especially under the conditions that made him our HC. However, I feel if he would have served under Gary for as few as three additional years,  he would have fully grasped the reaoning behind his change in priority as to recruiting targets, although he did follow the same blue print, I believe with a few more years watching Moeller's play calling, his recognized success as a head coach, might have been even greater.

While speaking with a friend, former NT for the wolverines, MIke Rheinhold, he told me something I never thought I would hear in describing any of our then coaches. He, and with conviction, stated, "Gary Moeller is absolutely an offensive genius." Given his position, and Moeller probably responsible for best trying to emulate the upcoming opponent, I am certain he probably came to this conclusion based on the number of times he would make the starting defense look rather inept.

willywill9

February 19th, 2016 at 7:28 PM ^

Not criticizing your point, just highlighting something that is a common thought on MGoBlog (which is a fair question.) How often do the warm weather schools play away in November at colder climates?  Not that often, with the exceptions of games like Texas @ WVU- which is in-conference anyway.

But, that said, ND is a very rare exception.

MJ14

February 19th, 2016 at 6:32 PM ^

Alabama would dominate. I never understand this. Alabama is built to beat teams on the ground and on defense. Winter games are won by the team that dominates at defense and running the ball. Plenty of Alabama players go into the NFL and play in cold weather and play extremely well.

LSAClassOf2000

February 19th, 2016 at 5:51 PM ^

True enough, although to be fair, I had thought that was due to renovations to Ohio Stadium which would have made having the spring game in Columbus rather inconvenient. It was right across the river from the fringes of SEC Country, of course, and probably did draw attention from areas that OSU possibly didn't prioritize normally, although to what extent is something I don't know. 

NittanyFan

February 19th, 2016 at 6:18 PM ^

(1) literally a day-trip: they bussed in the morning of.  Really wasn't an "extended road trip" of any sorts.  I know this because I happened to be coming down I-71 with the 3-4 busses at the exact same time.

(2) Cincinnati Bearcats fans were PISSED about Ohio State having the game there.  Bearcats fans didn't have a lot of leverage, but they were trying themselves to come up with some rule whereby OSU couldn't play in Cincinnati.  This was a hot-topic in Cincinnati sports talk for several weeks prior to the game.  

(3) On a side-note to (2) above: 2 weeks later the Reds invited John Calipari to throw the first pitch at a sleepy late April home game.  Then OHIO STATE fans got all angry: "keep Kentucky and Big Blue on his side of the river, the Reds should be ashamed of themselves, CIncinnati is in Ohio and not Kentucky!"  Never mind one can see Kentucky from the ballpark.  Point being, I guess we all get territorial when someone "invades.'

CorkyCole

February 19th, 2016 at 6:13 PM ^

The more the merrier. Anything to make Harbaugh's voice louder. He hasn't exactly had a lot of coaches/B1G commissioners take his stance publicly to this day. The SEC tends to get the loudest voice in these discussions, and that shouldn't happen if we want the rest of the conferences/schools heard as well.

MayOhioEatTurds

February 19th, 2016 at 6:14 PM ^

The more schools of any size that follow Harbaugh's lead, the more difficult it will be for the SEC or ACC to do anything about it. 

The NCAA is a parliament of cowards; the more numbers they see moving into Harbaugh's camp, the quicker they will back down. 

Raoul

February 19th, 2016 at 6:45 PM ^

I think that tweet in the OP is a bit misleading. It's not like those schools are taking cross-country trips for several days during spring break. It looks like both will just hold an in-state, off-campus scrimmage. I have nothing against what Harbaugh is doing; just wanted to point out what Memphis and Oregon St. are actually planning.

Tigers plan football scrimmage in Nashville