Oregon State is #1 in Sagarin's SOS. Pretty crazy that they played #1 Oregon, #3 Stanford, #4 TCU, and #8 Boise State (in addition to #s 22, 23, and 24).
exactly. plus, i'm told that they really, really hate us down there. like not even close to getting over the woodson/manning thing.
screw 'em. go blue.
okay, i write this as someone who is genuinely undecided about what to do with rodriguez.
if you believe that the decision should be made entirely on which coach would be best going forward, then "this offense will be great in the next couple of years" isn't necessarily an argument for rodriguez. it would need to be, "this offense will be great in the next couple of years, but it wouldn't be nearly as great with an alternative coach." that might be true. in fact, i can't imagine it being better with anyone else. at the same time, though, i think that a lot of the kids we have playing offense are just really good football players. don't get me wrong -- the offensive coaches deserve credit for developing them -- but i'm not totally convinced that a lot of those guys wouldn't be excellent with another coach, too.
do we know that andrew luck is leaving? he's only a redshirt sophomore, and every story about him is about how he's a remarkable student who's happy as hell at stanford. if luck and harbaugh decided that they'd both come back next year, stanford would be a totally legitimate national title contender. if harbaugh did stay for one more year, it might be more reason to give rodriguez one more shot at this before deciding what to do.
this is an excellent post about GERG (honestly). i think what's hard here -- and it's true for rodriguez, too -- is figuring out the criteria that we should use for deciding whether to retain or dismiss a coach. there's a big difference between the "he deserves another year" and "he's the best guy for the job going forward" criteria.
i agree that GERG hasn't had a fair shot here, and in that sense he kind of deserves a little more patience. but is he the best guy for the job? probably not. for rodriguez, it's kind of the opposite. it's really hard to say that he's earned a fourth year, but it's possible that he is the best guy for us going forward (though i think there's a good case for harbaugh).
maybe you can use different criteria for the two positions, but i don't think it's obvious how you make those decisions. although "who's the best guy going forward?" seems like the big question, i wouldn't be a fan of dumping a legendary coach as soon as the next hot thing struck me as marginally more promising for the future. in that world, you no longer have your joe paternos.
uh, i just looked through the box scores, and i see only one QB punt that was downed inside the 20 (denard against notre dame). correct me if i missed something, but otherwise, this is manufacturing data to make a point.
i didn't like either of those QB punt calls today. i think there's a place for those - maybe if you're in your own territory and the opponent really thinks that you could go for it. but when you have a good punter and are clearly within the range for either punting it out of bounds or bombing one skyward and hoping that your guys can run under it, why not have the punter do the punting?
i'm having a really hard time telling whether that was:
(1) one of the smartest, most insightful displays i've ever seen from a high school kid,
(2) an early glimpse at the next unbearable prima donna wide receiver, or
(3) both.
i'm leaning toward (1) if he chooses michigan, (2) if he chooses MSU, and (3) if he chooses any of the other schools.
Given what came out tonight, if you're Auburn, you couldn't really sit a guy because "we might have paid him a lot of money to come here."
This is going to be interesting. It feels like the beginning of the end for Auburn football. (Oh, and just because I'm kind of a dick... S! E! C!)
yes, and i would rather have a winning lottery ticket than these steak tacos that i just ordered, but that doesn't mean that i won't really enjoy these steak tacos.
speaking of "hot for harbaugh," i got an email this week from a (female) friend from UM who called harbaugh "super hot... one of the hottest guys on the planet."
i'm not sure why i'm sharing this, but i'm pretty sure that it got lodged in the "this is confusing - return to it later" part of my brain, and maybe someone here can help me with that.
i'm actually happy about that extra year. it means that we played this just right with our self-imposed sanctions. you want to find the sweet spot in punishing yourself where you go relatively easy on yourself but not so easy as to incur the wrath of the NCAA (e.g., USC). it looks like we hit that sweet spot.
if the NCAA didn't add anything to our self-imposed penalties, i'd have a strong feeling that we were too harsh on ourselves.
if you're primarily concerned about the next year or two, no one would ever change coaches. even if there are too many coaching changes now, this would take us way too far in the other direction.
i've also been thinking about how, exactly, to define the rodriguez question. in general, i agree that you look forward, not backward, but i'm not sure it's quite so absolute. do you run out a legendary coach the moment that your expected wins from an alternate coach exceed your expected wins from your current coach? maybe, but there's something nice and charming about the distinctly NCAA tendency to keep legends around. in my view, these past three years are a legitimate consideration, albeit a small one, beyond just how they affect predictions for the future.
My view on this is that the most important objective for this season is clarity on the program's future. Obviously, that ideally would be an outstanding season that leaves no doubt that RR is the guy. In the absence of that, though, I actually think we're better off knowing for sure that RR just isn't the guy.
Even more than another coaching transition, I fear another couple of just-good-enough-not-to-get-fired seasons that inflict serious harm on recruiting, program expectations, fan morale, etc. Truthfully, I think this season still could go either way: 9-3 or 8-4 with a win over OSU and only the anti-RR fringe would call for change; 5-7 or 6-6 with a few more ugly losses and only the pro-RR fringe would call for the status quo.
We're just in that awkward part of the season where it can go either way. As long as it goes one way or the other, I'll be satisfied and I think there will be peace among the fanbase (though most of us have an obvious preference for seeing the season end well).
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