Darren Perkins

I'm definitely looking forward to next year's team, this is kinda of a 'tweener year.

Yeah, being arm chair qb's that we are, they probably should have ran a play with some hard screening to get somebody open.

True. And, not sure Richardson has the "quicks" to really get his own shot on a regular basis.

Totally true. There's nothing wrong with Richardson, he's just not a goto guy. It's like putting an under-sized forward at center, it's just not their natural game.

Bold Prediction: Now that I've written this watch Richardson hit two game winners this weekend 😂.

I saw it as Richardson couldn't get a shot off with that 7-footer on him out top so I think he thought he could drive and dish, but when nobody was open he tried to draw the foul and make the basket..... and thud. I'll cover what i think is their top weakness tomorrow, which pertains to this exact moment in the desert.

Great stuff. It blows my mind how even in the NFL, come draft time, teams are often more in love with the "athletic" qb who still needs to develop in the area of reading defenses and actually throwing a nice, catchable ball (i.e. throwing the football in general) over the less athletic guys who can read a D, make quick decisions, get the ball out, and make NFL level throws. I mean, afterall, Mac Jones was the 5th qb taken last year and he's no doubt the best of them all. I saw a piece on him on tv and his work ethic in studying the game is amazing. I'm pretty sure Lawrence will come along and be good, but the verdict is still out on the other three more "mobile" qb's, for sure. Poor Zach Wilson having to play for the Jets. Point being, for college, ya gotta' at least try get an idea of a player's acumen in the recruiting process and not just rely on the physical ability.

I was going to bring up the 10 game scenario, while the Ducks woulda' had a punchers chance, Miami wins 8 out of 10 games.

I lived and/or worked in west LA/ Santa Monica for 11 years, very close to Westwood. So, I have some insight to the dynamics of LA. I hate to say it because I love the old stadium, but UCLA should really move to SoFi. Closer to campus, much easier access for students, and if they ever become a winner, a much better destination for celebrities. Not to mention more appealing to recruits. Just a better all around buzz, period. The trade-off being that the Rose Bowl Stadium would most likely have to close its doors. Yikes. But it should probably be done.

Just for fun I looked up the Trojans all-time win percentage against all Pac-12 teams. Of which, of course, they have a winning record against all. UCLA .590 ASU .622 UW .624 Ducks .629 Stanford .641 Utah .650 All else are pretty awful (Buffs 0-15, 100%, yikes), but the above 6 are pretty close together.

Chip just needs to coach at a lower level where accumulation top talent isn't a necessity. Where he can coach and teach and let his scheme do the winning while not being burdened by recruiting. I mean, he recruits to UCLA as if they were located in Pullman and not in the middle of a recruiting hotbed. You don't need look for diamonds in the rough in LA, but that's what he looks for. Maybe he''ll finish his career in a place like New Hampshire, or, maybe even New Hampshire. And, there's no shame in this, it's just who he is.

Yeah, this makes it even worse, bargain shopping his way to a Pac-12 title? Good luck, Chip.

In the hiring of his new DC, Bill McGovern (linbabackers coach for Chip in Philly), Chip just swapped out one of his old crony friends for another. A massively uninspiring hire by Kelly, but did we really expect anything else? Chip needed to at least try to make some sort of a "splash" hire, perhaps bring in a youthful up and comer who could inject some energy into the program and relate well to players, which could/would help recruiting. But, nah. Having said that, I could be totally wrong, I don't know much about McGrovern and could turn out to be a great hire, but given Chip's overall handling of the program to date, I have some serious doubts.

Thanks, Charles. I knew it would get a solid response but it was way more than I thought it would be. Without a doubt the juiciest of the off-season!!

Good stuff. And FSU and Miami are in the USC of the 2010's mode, meaning that they are underachieving. They could get back to greatness with the right coach. Though Miami won't get back to greatness under MC, he will absorb alot of quality recruits, while the verdict is still out on Mike Norvell at FSU, but he could be the guy.

Agree with this. Clemson won two Natty's over Bama, that puts to bed any "but they come from a weak conference" talk. And, obviously, they had to beat a quality opponent to even get to the championship game.

More likely a neutral site one-off. Preferably in Vegas. ☺

Jon, if you can guarantee me that the annual payout per school will increase, I'd jump on your side in a split second, but I still don't see it, and the SEC didn't see it. It doesn't matter what the rest of the country is doing, we can't make a move that will lower our per school payout. If there are jumbo conferences of 20-24, they are really two conferences under one hat. I think The Alliance plan takes precedence and if that doesn't work out we can possibly look at expansion later if that makes sense.

I agree with that, but i'm trusting they would have sense enough to limit Pac-12 teams like Oregon to one "marqee" matchup and one low-middling matchup.

From a Wilner article the other Day, George Kliakov said this, and I gotta' say, I like it: “My nirvana in football is eight conference games, one game against the Big Ten, one game against the ACC every year — each of those being either home or away — and the last two games to make the 12-game season would be up to the athletic director and the football coach to decide who they want to play. It will take a while to get to that eight-plus-one-plus-one because of existing contractual commitments.”

I still respectfully disagree. There's a reason the SEC stopped at Texas and Oklahoma, and that's because the rest of the schools didn't move the needle enough to invite in. None of the rest of the schools have a national brand, so they weren't invited. Simply increading revenue is not enough, you have to increase the overall annual payout per school. If it did make good business sense, I have no doubt the SEC would have invited more schools in, because as has been said here, the SEC makes smart decisions. And keep in mind, the BIG 12, minus Texas and Oklahoma, are not going to be able to demand nearly as much in their next tv deal, those current numbers above include Texas and Oklahoma. Plus, George can still invite teams in down the road if does make financial sense. We haven't seen the end of realignment. I read an Andy Staples article a few months ago, the big money generator in the eyes of the networks are football games that have at least 4 million viewers, The likes of Texas and Oklahoma will increase the number of these games for the SEC, the likes of Baylor and Kansas? Not so much. But, foregoing expansion for The Alliance, will generate more "4 million club" (i.e. Clemsion vs USC, Oregon vs Michigan) type games for the Pac-12 than playing Big-12 leftovers. From Staples article from last summer: " … if the plan includes a scheduling alliance to create more games in the Four Million Club for each league, then it could be a valuable partnership for all of them. It also could benefit the viewers by giving us more interesting games to watch. What’s the Four Million Club? It’s the group of football games that draw more than four million viewers. These are the games networks are willing to pay premium prices for, and they’re also the type of games the SEC’s addition of Oklahoma and Texas will add to that league’s inventory. In conversations with television executives and consultants, conference officials and athletic directors, it has become clear that the hunt for premium television product will drive this round of realignment (or, in the case of the alliance, rearranging)."

Yeah, no doubt I think USC will keep more blue-chips in the PAc-12. I mentioned, for example, Stroud, a guy like that and others may have stayed home in socal if USC was any good.

Yeah, and it is college, if kids wanna' do a little rebellin', they will fnd a way whether in the bright lights of LA or a cornfield in Nebraska. I know at that age I never let location or environment get in the way of having a good time. ; )

That's right! It is going to Oregon, so we gotta be prepared to beat a good USC for years to come.

The PAc-12 had been down for several years now, so it can really only get better, this is going to happen sooner or later, so it'll push the Ducks to up their game.