Mike West

It takes most coordinators a half to adjust to what they’re seeing.

I think you misunderstood my point. You play to win. Doesn't mean it's necessarily good to win all your games. Beyond the pressure to continue winning, the odds of winning the next one diminishes . The odds of winning 16 games in a row is 65,535 to 1. The Cleveland Cavaliers won their 16th game in a row last week, and have lost four straight since. No one of significance is injured on their roster. Let's put that into Vegas numbers. After 12 games, every time Cleveland is favored those next four games, your chance of winning by betting they'll lose skyrockets. In fact, you could triple your bet after each loss and you're guaranteed to win money. I don't gamble like that, but I sure pay attention to it. One other thing, if you pay attention, not one sports book lays odds on any team going undefeated. They know no one will risk their money, despite getting favorable odds Playing to lose doesn't really matter in the long run. Your odds of losing pretty much takes care of it.

That’s a pretty good list in a very well thought out order. My concerns are as follows: I believe last year was about matchups. That said, we were literally missing a CB strong enough to slow down Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith. Muhammad had that assignment, and though he covers very well, he wasn’t big enough to stop Smith ( I believe injured Jalhil Florence was, which would have allowed Muhammad to take down slot Ebuke-someone he could handle much better). Another matchup was the way the LBs covered the TEs. You know my thoughts…look at the guy you’re covering and you take away the QBs options. On offense, it’s how fast the OL gels. It would also help if they don’t have to wait 5 weeks to play an elite team again and take 2 1/2 Quarters to get back to game speed. My other concern is separation speed at WR, and Stein’s unwillingness to use Sequential Plays for his favorite play: the Bubble Screen. Now that I have your list to work on, I’m going to look into matchups. Makes me wonder how coaching staffs and their analysts attack the off season. I’m curious about what priorities they deem most important. Is it personnel, scheme or which opponents they feel most threatened by?

Series Record: Oregon 1 – Montana State 0. On September 20, 1947. Oregon defeated Montana State 27-14. (I was six months old and have no recollection of this game.) I was today years old when I read that paragraph.

Normally I would agree with you, but history does not. The Miami Dolphins are the only NFL team to go undefeated in the modern football area start to finish. The Dolphins played 17 games that year. New England almost did, but had to play 18. Michigan, Georgia and Clemson all went 15-0. They all played in a two playoff game format. Now college football is in NFL territory, with at least a three playoff game gauntlet. It will be astronomically difficult in this era of parity at the elite level to win all your games facing at least four or five elite teams the same year. A loss, in my opinion reminds you how much you must focus just to be in the field of dreams. Ohio State, easily the most talented team in a number of years, lost by a total of four points last year. Those four points channeled more motivation-especially with the intent on embarrassing OBD-to prove their worth. Miami was so humiliated by their SuperBowl loss, they just went out and took it to every opponent the next year-and went undefeated. So…you know where I’m going with this. Will Lanning finally go to the specialist and fix his woes on defense against elite offenses and go undefeated? The past three years the title went to the team with an abundance of talent. This year will be the first where I believe NIL takes that away completely. Texas is probably the most talented team on paper, but even they lost a good chunk of talent. Penn State is an elite WR away from having an offense that would give everyone fits. So if DL and Lupoi can fix their problems with elite WRs…maybe just maybe.

We have one of the best coaches in the business. All three current coaches with a Natty had to take their lumps. And Kirby only beat Nick once . Same with Dabo. After pundits blasted Lanning for the Seattle loss, his words told me all I needed to know. The way he coached against Ohio State in October confirmed it in my eyes. I believe beating Wisconsin was unfortunate. We needed the sting of playing mediocre and losing about as much as Ohio State did losing to Michigan. It also might have helped to lose to Penn State. Losing truly forces a team to pay attention. Going undefeated bolstered the thought OBD didn't need to change much.

I finally watched the full first half. Sluggish is an understatement. One thing for sure though, every foundational weakness was exploited. Lupoi drags the DEs to middle of the box on the backside of the play-leaving the edge WIDE OPEN. I thought this was a player thing until I saw both edges routinely slide inside all year. Chip annihilated that opening, as every running TD attacked that strategy. However, it was clear the players were ‘running at half speed’ the entire half on both sides of the ball. The secondary literally ran like they had concrete blocks on their shoes. They were reading and reacting very slowly. Personally, I just don’t like the coverage rules, and of course you absolutely cannot cover your receivers if you look at the QB (Denzel Burke for OSU did so in October and nearly got burned again in Pasadena as well-so this isn’t just an OBD thing). I just don’t like the defensive front. In October, Lupoi ran more 4-3, but to little avail (the secondary got shredded, but it did shut their running game down). I like that and a 5-2 because it totally shuts down the edges. It does expose the back 4, but they don’t have good coverage rules as a practice-so in my ‘hack’ opinion it doesn’t matter until the coverage rules change ( I personally prefer matchup zone-which is what I think Lupoi actually installed, but seam coverage and overall coverage in the middle of the field was absolutely horrible). This seems to be primarily against elite offenses however-as this was the third year those teams found every weakness and went to town. I’m talking about having a party on the way to the end zone kind of attack. But again, I’m no coach, I’m just a hack. My whole problem with coaching today is scheme outweighs basic football. You can’t stop a great team if you don’t force running the ball inside the box, and you totally can’t cover elite passing games without all three LBs taking away options between the hashes (both the NFL and College hashes). It takes film study to explain that, but that’s my take. It’s also why if I’m a head coach, half my practice is forcing my coordinators to take the best of football on offense and defense and forcing each coordinator to defend and attack those elite strategies. Script the first 7-8 plays each game to attack the general principles of your opponent on each side, and then it’s simply attack what they’re actually doing that day (which means you have prepared for world class offense and defense in advance). My take of course (an NFL coach mentioned something to that effect in the Nineties without really saying that. I’ve thought about just that-preparing for the elite by being prepared for any elite football scheme known to the history of football ever since).

I like Bryant, I'm hoping Dickey is fully recovered from a very serious injury in high school ( if he is, I think he's going to shine). Newbie Moore looks like the real deal, he's got a burst like Tez J. McClellan looks promising as well as Super tall Kyler Kasper. They all need to step up asfar as I'm concerned. Make it really tough to choose a consistent rotation. Not to mention attrition has now reached college football. Sadiq though... That dude is faster than most of the WRs. I'd put him at slot against safeties/ nickel backs, as well as chomping on the LBs. Sadiq is a generational talent and should be used accordingly.

I LOVE both of your takes. He did his job though didn't he? My question is who is going to step up in the WR room? Stewart isn't enough. Not to mention Penn State's shortcomings were directly related to weak WR play. I believe the QB, OL, and RB positions are above average to excellent. My question is who are the two F22s in the room ( can I get two supersonic pass catchers please?)

This is a very good read... Oregon Assistant Coach Confirms Major Roster Woes as Dan Lanning’s Plans for Dillon Gabriel’s Successor Announced - EssentiallySports WWW.ESSENTIALLYSPORTS.COM Oregon coach airs reservations about his side of the football after second spring... Issues to ponder my Dick friends. Are OBD in position to exceed last year's intro to the B1G?

Hythloday1 is very thorough. I really like his analysis. He is more about statistical performance, but he provides an analysis that provides a keen sense of what is happening and what may happen. It’s a shame he derides us here though, because I’ve learned more here than what he provides ( I overwhelmingly agree with his analysis skills and what he believes by the way). I doubt I’d be the analyst I am without the feedback I see and sometimes receive on this site. It is more insightful, more balanced, and frankly we like Hyrthoday, refuse to suck up for preference with the University. More often than not, we have a vision other sites seriously lack. And you can’t suck when you provide analysis here. We might not run you out of town, but you’ll get dressed down if you offer up a weak analysis. That’s why I don’t subscribe to other sites. I’m not paying ten dollars a month to witness a bunch of ill written analysis that frankly sucks. Though there are times I’d like to tell a bunch of weak analysts that insults and deflection is not an analysis. All I know is I’ve been dressed down, and frankly we are all stronger, better analysts because we have to present solid arguments here.

Fortunately, we live in a free market society. So stupid people pay marginal people (.most times) stupid money. The NCAA needs to stick to player health and welfare however. If Michigan is stupid enough to throw away $5M on a potential QB, let them. That's money they can't sprinkle to the rest of the team. The downside to all this is other sports are going to suffer due to poor decision making. Not to mention alienating the fans. It's also why I have no sympathy for the players. They get paid handsomely to deal with the rigors of the sport. So idc if they travel to Pluto from now on. It's part of the territory. Greed has consequences.

Didn't they have remote classes during COVID? Class time should not be a problem. Not to mention access to professors shouldn't be a problem. This is what happens when you want to get paid. You're a professional now. Comes with the territory. Not to mention, those six to eight hours on the plan is ample time to study. You do what you have to do. I know I would jump at the opportunity to be tired and earn $50-100k while earning a degree. I have no sympathy or empathy for these players. They worked their butts off to get that "scholarship". It doesn't change...ever.

Very astute observation. I'm not sure how many people currently recognize they are on the butcher block. I foresee many media companies suffering without access to pharmaceutical ads ( talk about a growth line item the last ten years). Of course, that would be disastrous financially for college football if trends remain the same. Old geezers like most of us here pine for the good old days. Will younger generations pick up the slack? Fortunately college football is huge compared to other live TV, so media companies have a better shot at replacing the pharmaceutical gauntlet. It's looking more and more likely the super conference concept will take hold in the future. I'm interested in whether the P2 are beta testing that concept by adding inter conference matchups to see what and who gains traction (for example, we already know Ohio State, Alabama and Texas draw well nationally. Who else will in a super conference?). I'm not sure College Football has the capability of handling unfettered free agency the way the NFL can. I think the private equity leadership will probably help the colleges and universities navigate this passage much better. Hopefully they have a solid grasp of what truly makes college football tick.

This!!!!!