Washington Waddler

Success can expose hidden insecurity, and if one is not ready to handle it, those bright lights can blind one with self doubt. When someone is responding publicly to your action, it’s always best to step back, take a deep breath, and evaluate the reply in terms of who the intended audience really is. Lanning’s reply to Locklyn’s action seems pretty clear to be moving past the situation, and addressing any interested parties as to how he deals with adversity: let it go, and keep the ship sailing on a positive course. There may well be hidden issues we’re not privy to, and one of those could be the simple mistake of taking something personal that never was intended that way.

Getting harder to avoid thinking that the pitching staff is missing the influence of Jake Angier.

Another of those things that set Lanning apart is that he doesn’t go after name brand assistant hires who may be already resting on their laurels. He wants young, motivated up and comers. He wants them growing, not grown.

Don’t know if it’s still a thing, but at one time, speed training in track focused on what was termed the ‘fast twitch’ muscle group. Bowerman sometimes used a pick-up truck on the Hayward cinder track and, sitting on the back with a high jump bar in his hands, slowly take his runners around while moving the bar up and down with the runners expected to keep their knees at whatever level it was at. No idea if it worked.

Looking back, it’s like night and day. From the unbelievable feeling that Oregon was on the verge of being coached by the next Gene Auriemma to . . . Jimmy Lake? It’s an unfortunate comparison, but Kelly Graves seems to have more in common with Mario Cristobal than any one else: great recruiter, lousy coach. The waste of all that talent is beyond comprehension, especially in light of how well so many of them are doing since leaving the program. Like rubbing salt in a wound. Aside from the unavoidable conclusion as to how important a role Mark Campbell played, two names that shed some light on this are Courtney Vandersloot and Sabrina Ionesco. Both players elevated Kelly’s programs and career. Both played the same role for him: defacto head floor coaches who operated his teams as field generals while he sat quietly, legs crossed, on the sideline. With the departure of Campbell, I now wonder if the promise of all that talent in coming to Oregon was lost to the single-minded sacrifice of a meat grinder whose only purpose was to search for Kelly’s next defacto head coach, and keep his career on track.

To simplify may be a challenge because the attempt to get something ($$) for nothing lives in the legal world of smoke screens. Complication and convolution are the friends of legal minds whereas simplicity is their enemy. However, it does seem to boil down to one word: theft.

There’s probably some truth to play-by-play comments regarding JC slowing the tempo past half court in order to catch a breather. Irregardless of how effective those minutes might be, when you’ve four players unable to spell the others, a DOT play-off game means you’re going to run out of gas.

When all is said and done, sports commentators and bracketologists (ie: fans with a microphone) are no different from you and me, except in one way: they have the advantage of nudging the teams they’ve picked over the ones they’ve not..

Think they’re still smarting from dropping the last two.

Nuance is easier to find when there are less moving parts and more opportunities to describe it.

The open door to CFP’s further expansion is reflective of March Madness and its ongoing battle between the inclusionary and limiting forces which characterize the two opposing philosophies that battle over the fate of what makes college ball special. Clearly, college football cannot operate a 64 team playoff and still have a regular season. The toll of football’s physical reality aside, it still begs the question: how do you retain the essential spirit of college sport (grounded in the exciting possibility of the unknown underdog upsetting the big dog) without including the little guy in any future version of a play off? It’s quite possible that football itself precludes (unlike in basketball) the potential for that. The Libertys of this world may always face the same fate dished-out by an Oregon. But, don't tell Boise State or BYU that. However; yet again, that begs the question of what can help keep college ball from the death sentence of becoming NFL Jr. other than making room for the unknown? Left to the number crunching, dollar-driven, play-it-safe logic that always supports stacking the odds in favor of the Haves, it would inevitably deliver any new CFP version into the hands of the P2, and the deadening, NFL reality that encompasses, which always lives in fear of surprise. College ball thrives on surprises. It may not work, but the only way I see to avoid that NFL dullness is to include those who are still young enough to dream in any new play-off version.

Seems they went extinct around the same time their head coach Rod ‘Dodo’ Dedeaux stepped down.

Kim, give the same thorough focus to your recovery as you’ve done to the forum, and this thing doesn’t stand a chance. Get well soon!

Graves acknowledged from the get go that this team would not be good offensively. That prediction has proved correct. When you continually can’t capitalize on defensive turn-overs, it guts a team. Despite the losses, this team still competes. That tells me they’re putting in the practice hours trying to improve the offensive production. It just hasn’t happened. Is that Grave’s fault? Dunno. When you’ve been to the Covid-altered top, and are now at the bottom, it makes me curious what could be next? I’m not ready to give up on the guy.

The true origin of Washington’s wave claim is rooted in their effort to teach their mascot how to sit up and beg; something all Husky fans are quite good at mimicking. Other than that, the wave can be a pretty amusing exercise in grudging annoyance. I find it kinda funny to watch the entitled donor section on the third go around finally feeling forced to put down the DOW report, rise from their bucket seats and feebly wave their arms. Such an effort!

Nice first step, especially laterally. Will need to work on his fast twitch muscles to be a dominant college edge.

If I were Swift, I’d just zip it, sit back, and enjoy the show.

So, we alter the tee shirt slogan to, ‘The Grass is Damn Plastic in Pasadena’, and ‘The Grass is Damn Brown in Brownsville’?

There’s rules in auto racing? Could’ve fooled me.

Wow. Coast to coast Harbaughs. Just what the world needed.

In fairness, DeBoer is no different from many other newly hired head coaches looking to create a vision for his team through the control he’s use to asserting, including assistant hires. However, head coaching also requires knowing when to be a vision control freak, and when not to. Being sure of what will work allows for a tight rein, but being ignorant doesn’t. Thus far, DeBoer’s error appears to have been not taking his time to properly avail himself of those who could help him void pit falls in a culture he knows little about. Knowing you’re in a whole new world is one thing; adjusting to it is another, .

Yeah, from Bear Down to bare down, as in an empty locker room.

“It’s rare in sports, especially college football to see a coach demonstrate as much loyalty to a team as Dan Lanning has shown to the Oregon Ducks.” Pat McAfee In this conversation, it’s useful to point out how competitive college football coaching has become. These guys quickly accustom themselves at the start of their careers to change - with a capital C. It’s how they learn their craft and make the connections so necessary to their long term success: they move; they learn. But they also know that same dynamic works against them, in that the central internalized message of wins and loses is what will determine their staying power. And the higher they climb, the lesser the margin for error becomes. That’s why, as McAfee points out, we’re developing a relationship with a rare one - one step at a time. Lanning didn’t knee jerk into the expected response of, ‘striking while the iron was hot’ as our neighbor to the north did. For DeBoer, it’s business. For Dan, it’s personal. That is indeed rare in the world of CFB coaching.

Up here in kennel country, my street is about an 80%-20% mix of Husky to Coug fans. I’m the only Duck. Those first two days following Saint Saban’s announcement were gut wrenching - to put it mildly. Now, with the shoe on the other foot, pure pleasure walking around the neighborhood.

Interesting how bama is now suffering some for their success. It’s that old rule of physics: for every action, there is an equal and opposite action. What successful coach in his right mind would walk into that bear trap? At least for the time being, you can Roll over and die Tide.