Washington Waddler

Love the comments, if for one reason only: the energy and excitement is coming back into interstate rivalries (well, except for the distempered puppies up north) and the league as a whole. Remember when those games got circled early on, and how incredible it was when we won? Love it that the Tinseltown Trojans are getting their swagger back! Bring it! This is what’s healthy for the PAC 12.

Trojan’s new defensive philosophy? — bend, but don’t breeeeaaa - oops!

Canzano seems interested in fostering the notion that the NCAA’s investigation of Division St might be based on a very narrow reading of a numbers disparity between Oregon and OSU football players who benefit from NILS $, while ignoring the bigger picture of gender and program balance that exists at both universities in distributing those same dollars. It’s a murky read at best, his attempt to discern the investigative intent of an organization that now appears so unsure of itself, and afraid of being further diminished and embarrassed by the courts. Canzano hints at the idea that the NCAA may see Oregon’s high-profile connection with Nike as the best and easiest target for it to regain some prestige and stature in the fight for moral authority over college athletics. Or does he? As he points out, such a leveraging would have to come at the expense of cash-cow football, or there’d be no point to it. But, Oregon’s NILS numbers don’t back that argument, so why even bother with pointing the finger? Perhaps Canzano is asking us to jump to where he has already gone, and wonder at who the NCAA’s next target might be? Assuming that they already knew Oregon’s NILS numbers (a matter of public record), the NCAA may be simply making a public show of how a program SHOULD operate in this new sphere of NILS distributions. Once the balance sheet is on the table for all to see, it may not be much of a leap to compare Oregon to say, Texas? Canzano’s quoting of OSU AD Scott Barnes’ remarks that NILS doesn’t invite less, but more cheating seems to mirror such a comparison. One can only hope! In the mean time, only time — and nerve — will tell. So, do something RIGHT for a change NCAA!

For any OC out there willing to put on Mario’s collar, it’s more like yew than U. Come to think of it, the flack this guy is going to take makes some ex-White House press agent the perfect candidate.

And going up against Nyara and Sedona in practice is just the experience she needs to help develop her into the dominant force she shows flashes of becoming.

I must be missing something, but when I look at the physical distance separating the two benches, and the fact that placed between them are two media tables with scoring and time keeping officials between the two tables, Barnes must have some ears to be hearing a constant cussing coming from Kelly amid all that fan noise! Also, if he was going off as she insists, don’t you think at least one of the officials (who are closer to him) would have heard, and reported the outbursts to the floor officials triggering a warning and possible TF? I must be missing something.

Our relay potential sure looks promising.

I’m still floating on air! What I like best though is both programs seem to get that because of their early season losses, they have very little wiggle room if they want to get to the place they want at the dance. It’s all about effort. Like Maddie Scherr said, “It’s so simple, we’re getting stops.”

I agree that one option is to simply turn the SEC into a AAA league run by the NFL. But Alston does not effect rearming the NCAA from the vantage point of a booster-focused point of view. Alston effects caps on student-athlete benefits only; ie, academic related expenses.

Love the humor; have to, because it’s such a pathetic joke. The beauty of out of control situations is that they eventually run smack into a wall or drown themselves. Either way is fine with me. When that happens, the universities will once again have the chance to do what they should have done in the first place when this media-driven mad cash cow first started to raise its ugly head: funnel ALL sports-related income into general funds governed by boards of trustees who mutually agree to limit this arms race because they can now see it only leads to mutual self-destruction. Agree to a certain percentage for athletic departments reviewable annually, and allow the NCAA to once again have the teeth to deal with the back alley deals driven by boosters. If the Alabama’s and 5*s of this world bridle at such a decision, so be it. If the NFL wants some kid bad enough and the kid wants to go, go the basketball route, and let them have him. Education first; sports second. That’s the only way college sports can survive.

Not too many desirable recruits are going to have the vision to see through the glitzy surface being presented by some recruiters. But, it’s the ones who do — who think outside the box (football success only) — that will not only be drawn to Oregon, but will help others to see this important academic result, and end up being some of our best recruiters. Thib is a case in point. Not only is he a great athlete, but he has a vision of his own success after football. And, he’s not afraid to talk about how Oregon helps build its program-continuum to benefit the chances of the student/athlete to realize and grasp this later success. From the concrete emphasis place on athlete academic excellence demonstrated by the Jaqua Center, to the manifold Nike-driven benefits that athletes can take advantage of during and after their days at Oregon, this built-in molding of the entire person needs to be perceived for what it is: Oregon’s focus on not just using the athlete, but being of genuine use to the athlete afterwards. Thibs gets this, and gets that message out there. Thank you!

Yup, feels like the cop whose writing a loitering ticket for some panhandler while the mayor’s limo roars by at twice the speed limit.

Before going the cable tv commentator route, Miller was an assistant coach at ASU, Texas, Eastern Kentucky, and; yes . . . . wait for it — USC.

Like Dana said, it wasn’t like some magic pill; it was effort — playing harder, and that always starts on defense. No matter when it finally happens, it sure is exciting when Altman gets the engine tuned!

Think we saw it following that USC inbound pass on our end of the court that we jammed into a shot clock expiration. The camera went to Enfield, and you can read his lips saying, “what the f**k are you doing!”.

I pretty much agree with what Lanning said at the press conference. The kids you want are the ones who want to be here.

There is always a tendency to only see the negative rather than the positive anytime you lose a coach to another program — human nature. It soothes the pain, and makes the loss not seem so bad. That said, Mario is good people — period. He not only means well, he does well, to the best of his ability. His list of strengths is a lot longer than his weaknesses. Unfortunately, it was one of those weaknesses that was driving most of us to the looney bin. But in the end, I think most of us wish him nothing but the best.

About the only way that’s going to happen is if Miami forfeits all there time-outs.

Mario ‘what you see is not what you get’ Cristobal will do just as well if not better recruiting to his new program. What he won’t get are all those frustrated, untapped, hungry kids from the Miami neighborhoods that filled the roster in his playing days. They now get top drawer offers from everywhere. And with the inability MC has shown thus far to transform talent into players, that local source of hungry motivation will be sorely missed.

Anybody whose ever been on the other side of the fence knows you don’t get much juice from an orange you just stepped on. Like it or not, it’s a relationship between writer and coach that requires trust. While a HC has to be the public face that ooze sunshine from time to time, it’s that trust that gets the real comment.

Just happy Nix is already on campus. So many of the variables already mentioned are greatly affected by the off-screen chemistry developed off season between QBs and receivers. We’ve got a great - if young - stable. If Nix puts in the time with our receiving talent, it should be one heck of a competition come spring for the job.

Is what we are seeing the corrupting by players of what was originally intended to be a simple, one time side-ways move, into a form of leveraging playing power by playing the old program off against a potential new one, thereby transforming the Portal into a portal-ploy to gain traction or guarantees? God, I hope not.

Couldn’t agree more. The challenge for Lanning is to mirror Saban’s strategy, but not approach it as recreating, but simply to reclaim our offensive identity. Saban’s task was to maintain and not lose his defensive identity edge while in the process of establishing a new offensive image. Lanning’s job is a bit the opposite: to create a new defensive identity while at the same time reclaiming our offensive image that is already their in the minds of recruits.

They should officially change their name from Texas A&M to Texas ATM.

It’s a major part of what makes the great ones great: they don’t lose focus on the big picture, and they never sweat the small stuff.