30Duck

Yep. The 4 I remember were the Orange, Cotton, Sugar and the Grandaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl. No players sat out of those games, and fans across the country watched those games. The winners of those games were voted N0.1. Sometimes there was disagreement if the two different Voting bases disagreed, and that was great. It turns out that Oregon was involved with it all going crazy. When the computer Picked Nebraska to play against Miami, despite everything saying it should have been Oregon, the cast was set. Now, instead of fanbases across the country being interested the whole season, 5 of them now wait until the Invitational, and 5-7 teams can play in a Bowl.

Justin Herbert would be the exception. I couldn't resist the Herbert reference. I agree with your thinking regarding Cristobal & AB, I've said before I felt like Cristobal believed that AB fit his idea of a QB better than the freshmen did, that's why he stuck with him. I don't think though that AB & Nix compare. AB was a scrapper at BCU and at Oregon. Nix played in the SEC and to have comparable stats against the defenses he faced and the environment of the SEC vs, what AB had at BC and Oregon, puts Nix ahead for me.

Saban really is a great coach. Initially he was all against the up-tempo offense. But, he saw that to keep winning he had to get with the program. Now Alabama scores, the AJ McCarron's and Greg McElvoy's are gone from 'Bama. The last two Heisman winners are an Alabama WR, and an Alabama QB. And, in what might be his biggest skill. With all these great players, Alabama is still Hungry for more Championships. I expect it will take Alabama to say, "I'm full" for Saban to retire.

Not only Paul. ESPN would need their graphics staff to change everything they've set up for the championship game.

It's definitely not, "Go West, Young Man"! anymore, can't even get them to stay now.

It's Alabama's world and the rest of the teams are just playing games.

Okay, so now Texas joins USC and Washington in their obsession with Oregon. My Psych 101 professor termed this active inferiority complex.

Great point, A lot is said about continuity being a plus in a coaching staff. That would be actively worked against with a coach from the old staff staying with a new one.

Come on, Brett Shad Kahn, an Illinois alumni . Kahn is an Illinois alumnus, maybe an alum, (singular), not an alumni, (plural)

Thanks for this LADuck. I don't need to tell you or anybody else here how a topic like this one would go at other sites, where listening to a droning presentation would be a pleasant alternative.

Great article, Alex, reading it, and all the responses, had me thinking all sorts of ways. I finally find myself applying Occam's Razor, and come the opening game against Georgia, start the best quarterback. It might be Nix. It does seem strange that none of the other QB's could grasp the offense last season, except that they wanted to go beyond Cristobal's constrictions, and it suited Brown better, so he stayed. Nix will have a familiarity with schemes at the start. But I'm hoping that all the QB's will get time and be evaluated before the starter is decided.

I miss both. Have no interest in Participation Bowls unless I have a rooting interest in at least one of the teams, and I haven't been able to watch an NBA game from start to finish for 30 years. The fact that BlazersEdge has as much traffic as it does just amazes me.

I agree, in-game momentum is very real, it was a huge component of Kelly's offense, whil Mario's offense stifled any momentum from the start.

And yet Todd McSham gets paid millions by ESPN for his QB analysis!!!

I would hope it's the portal. And probably not bad, as you suggested have so many bigs makes it hard for all of them to contribute to the team.

Oregon State only played the first 5 minutes of their game.

Thanks for remembering that!. A small move in itself, but huge in what it meant.