Washington Waddler

Programs that are beginning to feel desperate take risks. Feels a bit like Arizona State rolling the dice on Herm Edwards, or Washington spinning the wheel on Rick Neuheisel. Might work; might not. Like Edwards, Sanders has a self-serving mouth; like Neuweasel, he appears to be a narcissist who respects only what serves his own interests. A bit of advice to him as he enters the P5 picture: don’t try to play the game beforehand in the media. No one in the PAC 12 is going to be the slightest bit intimidated. You’re going to be just another celeb among many: get in line.

Advice is cheap; that’s why it’s so rarely taken. While the automated response system undoubtedly was long over do, I’d nevertheless reserve, on rare occasions, the private email option for those instances where your instincts tell you this poster is worth a bit more nudging. Just a thought. Glad you used the article to vent and not vacate!

It’s difficult to grade a first year head coach who is going through a ‘sorting-out’ season, characterized by establishing his own culture, and allowing the safety net (otherwise known as the transfer portal) to catch those who perhaps are realizing they’re now going to have to work harder for their stars than previous head coaches had demanded of them. Because that process affects team focus, I’d give DL an A for effort, and a solid B for results. Does make me yearn at times for the cultural stability of the Brooks/Bellotti years when players knew what to expect and felt they could trust it to stick around. Hope we get to see something akin to that again!

Yeah, part of me wants to step-back and say, is the road to elite success that duh OSU and that other hand-full follow really where we want to end up as fans? On the other hand, two losses in a row to the Beavers?

Nothing lasts forever; at least that’s worthwhile. I’m admittedly old school, so I value the Rose Bowl just because it’s not like the new stadiums that cater to new habits of convenience, and try to replicate your temperature controlled indoor living room with 80” screen, cushy chair and frig just down the hall. For that matter, I like any decrepit outdoor stadium just because they’re trying to sell only one thing: football.

Once again, a great example of why winning teaches you one thing, and one thing only: you like it. We all do, and we suffer when it doesn’t happen. To paraphrase Bill Clinton, “We feel your pain.” But, unbelievably painful losses like we just experienced are also golden opportunities — if you’re willing to seize them — and I don’t see Dan Lanning as the type who backs away from a hard challenge. As much as we hate losses like these, they open the door to what we need to do, and where we need to go. The thing about the past is you don’t have to have lived it to learn from it, and if you know anything about the Ducks, you know we’ve been here before, learned from it, and got back on track — many times. It’s that type of Oregon smarts and tenacity that makes me cling to that old cliché when we hit bumps in the road like this: when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Thanks for some greatly needed perspective Eric. While inexperience can become too easy an excuse for poor performance, I still feel any first-time head coach who lacks any working knowledge of the league he is about to do battle in is at a great disadvantage when it comes to understanding the unique nature of what it’s going to take to win those inches and seconds in that league’s biggest rivalry games. Understanding the focus required from similar situations in another league certainly helps, but it’s only by experiencing the distinct nature of these new emotionally-charged rivalries that instills in a new head coach what it’s going to take and how to prepare. Lanning will get there, but you don’t walk into Washington or Oregon State games for the first time knowing what to expect.

Because of the loss of players to both the portal and injury, Kelly’s team remains in a ‘wait and see’ development stage as both Philly and the freshmen gain real time reps and get up to speed. I think Graves would agree with that. Kelly’s re-tooling of his recruiting philosophy — moving towards a leaner and faster approach that forces a higher degree of focus from a bench that knows it’s only minutes away from live action — has me excited as it appears to be gaining traction; but, unavoidably remains a work in progress because of the ups and downs of developing freshmen into consistent contributors. As AM suggests, the continuing offensive development of Kyei will greatly effect the focus of opposing defenses, and further free-up our veteran guards who we must rely upon for the foreseeable future. On my wish list is to see Philly develop a pull-up 5 footer that would freeze opposing bigs, and further disrupt attempts to contain our guards. She has a nice shooting touch, so practice could add that to her tool box.

I think anyone who finds themselves more engaged by the NIL process than by the process of finding high school students who identify and want to be a part of your university football program probably identify much more with the NFL process than they do the traditional college football process.

It’s never easy to gauge the effect on a coach who is being offered the chance to ride into his home state and alma mater like the cavalry come to save the day. You could call it the Mario effect. It probably tugs at such a guy like a magnet. And if enough money is being thrown at them it can tip the scale. You just hope that KD is as smart as they think he is, and lets the emotional pull and money wash over him until he can come to a clear understanding of what is at stake. If he does that, it’s hard to imagine him walking into that mine field.

It’s one thing to be an assistant coach focused on your own group in the super-charged atmosphere of a big time, over-heated rivalry game, and another being the head coach responsible for not letting those emotions take charge, and losing touch with the calm, cold focus which is what wins games like these. It’s likely Lanning experienced this type of atmosphere quite a few times with Smart, and observed how his head coach handled it — sometimes well, sometimes not so well. But in either case, it can’t really prepare you for the first time when you’re in charge of keeping a firm grip on the bull’s horns, and just how tough a task that is to do. But that’s how the good ones learn, and I’m in agreement with others: give Dan a bit more time in the saddle while assembling his pieces, and he’ll get there.

That’s what Huskies need to understand is meant when they say, “Bow-Down”.

I don’t wish the Cane fans any ill will. They’re just fans, like anywhere else. But the best advice to them or any other fan base when desperation to be a winner is taking over? Be careful for what you wish because you just might get it. Have to say as a Duck fan: glad you got your wish!

Sounds just like the I-5 traffic going into Seattle. And don’t forget, they’re also the ones with their heads out the window, slack-jawed with slobber running off their tongues onto the windshield of the car behind them.

As always, I’m interested in the subjective, non-quantifiable outcomes of games played. If you at all believe in the theory that winning teaches you that you like it, and losing teaches you everything else, then the Georgia game proved to be the ultimate focus tool for the coaches in their attempt to get the team’s attention. Judging from the results post Georgia, seemed to have worked.

Special arrangements aside, the tradition (not sure if it’s part of the rule book) has always been that away teams wear white jerseys, but the pant color is optional, in which case the puppies could wear purple.

Know how late this is, but when Saban talks it’s all careful, controlled, and — like a lawyer — knows the answer before he asks the question: pure but boring defense. When Leech talks it’s like a guy noodling for catfish or taking a swing at a hornets nest like it was a piñata: pure take my chances offense.

Similar to when Dennis Dixon was leading the team towards a championship date and Heisman recognition, this team’s offensive rhythm runs off both the legs and arm of Bo Nix, and — like Dennis — putting himself in harms way when necessary. Great rewards demand great risks. The eye test suggests Bo is not as physically vulnerable as Dennis was. He’s a smart guy who plays to win, and not to expose himself unnecessarily except when required. Still, there’s times I’m holding my breath and keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully, we’ve put being snake bitten in the past.

Didn’t Tennessee lose to Georgia?

What’s interesting about watching the entire sequence is he starts with the intention of making the throat cutting gesture, then catches himself in the act of doing so — thinks twice — and alters the gesture into a ‘no, no’ wave of the hand. I credit him with catching himself, but by not doing so before he makes the gesture should have been penalized.

Quite possibly. Match-ups of this quality are often won or lost on matters of seconds and inches which are certainly influenced by superior players. I guess what I was trying to get at was the non-statistical, non-quantifiable nature of team chemistry, and how those great teams in the past have over-come devastating adversity and found a way to win in spite of it.

Whether or not Seven is actually in the portal or awaiting to be, it’s interesting to consider how this player-empowerment device can also have the unexpected consequence of limiting the potential of a disruptive influence on teams to the time required to make the transfer as opposed to the way it use to be.

If team chemistry cannot overcome the loss of one player - no matter how important - then that team is not of championship caliber.

You know, there’s always, ALWAYS going to be that handful of players on any team that mature slower than others, and have a harder time growing out of that image of themselves from high school when they could do no wrong. Most work through it with the help of team mates, and the encouraging advice of coaches and family. But, all you can do is wish those well who aren’t quite ready yet to embrace the time, effort and commitment it takes to achieve at this level.

No problem understanding this guy’s anguish. A bit like how many of us felt when Travis transferred to USC. It’s hard not to feel like a dumpster fire with what’s happening there, and echoes how we felt when Mario left for Miami. Feelings of betrayal create bitterness. But, as always, it’s how you respond to adversity that makes all the difference. Can Aubern (that’s for referring to us as ‘OU’) respond as well as Oregon has? Time will tell.