CalBear95

A few unrelated things/thoughts… First, for those hating on LA, with the kind of money these coaches make it can be a great place to live. I grew up there and detest the place but I’m also keenly aware of what kind of lifestyle that money can buy and why some would find it appealing Second, Chip was a little like Billy Beane in terms of innovation which is why they had success at first. What he did at Oregon was incredibly disruptive and gave the Ducks a huge edge. Billy Beane was an early pioneer of analytics which, like Kelly, gave him a massive advantage to help offset the small market (read: cheap) philosophy of the owner. Once everyone caught up to them that advantage disappeared. No doubt Chip is an offensive whiz but he no longer has the benefit of a disruptive system. He’s good of course but isn’t always better than really good DCs. Barring some massive new innovation like he had at Oregon, isn’t ever going to dominate like he once did when facing a team with relatively equal talent. That’s a large part of why he struggled schematically in the pros where talent gaps are far less pronounced and the quality of your scheme can have a massive impact So, Kelly should see a lot of success at OSU against most teams but less so with their peers. He’s definitely an upgrade at at OC but I don’t think he’s going to be this massive buzz saw that makes other teams’ defensive schemes obsolete.

Probably a way to say ‘see, we tried to include everyone but couldn’t come to a consensus’ when in 2 years they create a structure that cuts the little conferences out. Were I the Big2, I would push to do away with automatic bids all together. You think the B10 and SEC champs *aren’t* getting a bid? the G5 bid just steals one from a more deserving team so why enable that (I know it’s for anti-competitive optics but still). It also allows for the argument that the CFP is a meritocracy and not an exclusive monopoly by the power conferences The B12 would fight it of course but I like the 12 best philosophy.

I think this, on the whole, is a really positive development for the current state of CFB. No matter where you stand on unions, what is historically undeniable is that they create stability in the labor market which is exactly what is needed in CFB. Both the state of NIL (think of that poor kid with the UF group ghosting him or the general craziness created by an unregulated system awash in oodles of money) and the chaos of the transfer portal need to be tamed. A unionized player org across all of CFB or P4 or even P2 should usher in a degree of stability completely lacking in the status quo. Personally, I’m a fan of the university holding the NIL rights and any negotiations happening between the player and that institution. Get the shadow money out of the process (because it’s ripe for abuse as we’ve seen). I think that goes some way to solving the transfer portal but TBH I’m not so opinionated on a solution for that area.

@Nevada Dawg Totally! It’s why Jonathan Smith is a great coach. He develops his players to their maximum potential Like you, I’ve seen nothing to give me pause around DL and the staff’s ability to convert talent into results. The Ducks *have* improved y/y. This season should be telling as it’s year 3 and he’s got real talent on both sides of the ball. Their D should be nasty now that the secondary has some scary talent back there and the line is bigger, faster, and stronger (why yes, I use the Oxford comma). Next year will tell us a lot about the staff’s ability to develop a young QB (Moore). So a lot of information coming this season and next.

Bee’s Knees or, if A River Runs Through It is to be believed, that’s the berries! ’Fire’ is slightly passe. It was all the rage in 2019 but these days… I can go any number of ways and decades when expressing this sentiment in my everyday life but my go to is the full McConaughey: “right on, right on” (voice imitation is critical if ever used)

On the 19th On3 says Texas is the call. On the 23rd it’s Oregon. IOW, “I really have no meaningful insight into the young man’s decision or preference.” Or…how can I bid up my NIL like a boss? Love to have him (obviously) but it’s likely pointless getting too excited or worried at this point…unless it floats your boat in which case please continue

One, at least he’s honest (and given what he said at his UA intro press conference I suppose any other answer than the one he gave would be “yeah, sure Bub”) I also think his perspective is an interesting one as it relates to competing for the NC. There *are* 12-14 programs that are always in the mix and in many ways benefit from perception bias (e.g., Notre Dame) even if only at the margins. Once you are in that club, other than moving to another program in the club, why not stay? That isn’t to say UW is part of that club nor is it meant to exclude a sincere desire to rebuild a program that was once in the club but has fallen on hard times (like Florida). I don’t know that UW is in that club. I don’t even know if the Ducks are for that matter (at their current trajectory they will be soon if they aren’t already). What I do know, and what Fisch says, is that by virtue of being in the SEC or the B1G, if you aren’t in the group of 12-14 you are at least on a platform that makes it a lot easier to get into the PFC (vs the ACC or B12). Short thought long, it’s an interesting way to frame the issue.

All that matters is you finish at #11 or better (assuming G5 will take a slot while not being ranked in the top 12 which seems to be a safe bet) NGL, that’s going to be tough for the Ducks even though they likely will be a top 11 relative to all other teams in the playoff field (that is, ranking and actual quality may not be the same). I think they blitz UW (because beating the bag out of the Huskies feels like the right thing to do. That and the talent gap.). Assuming they hold serve everywhere else I think they are going to need to split the OSU/UM gauntlet. It’s a tough first year in the BIG for sure.

One, to date DeBoer hasn’t struck me as a great recruiter. That’s going to be death at Alabama. Yes, Bama has allure but with both NIL and the 12 team playoff, I would expect a greater deal of parity among programs as it relates to recruiting top players. A lack of recruiting chops is going to be a real disadvantage Two, how did the D coordinator job decision get made? I have to imagine it was part of the interview process (or it should have been). Succession planning had to have been decided prior to a hiring decision and contract signing (if not, that’s malpractice on the AD’s part). That would mean both DeBoer and the AD consciously let this happen. So, to echo @Nevada Dawg this would seem to be Harsin 2.0. The fact neither the AD or DeBoer could see that or anticipate or at minimum appreciate the downstream effects is mind boggling (and we know that because DeBoer immediately reversed course). Something tells me DeBoer’s questionable decision making isn’t limited to end of game situations in a National Semifinal game.

@Duckley Palace I saw an article on what Michigan might do with Moore and they cited ND as an example. It’s kind of a double bind when you think of it. Take Freeman. Popular with the players but unproven as a coach. The jury is still out on him (think of the game against OSU where they had 10 men on D for *the* critical play of the game not once but twice and after a time out. Yikes!) UM has spent years building to this point and while there will be a ton of turnover of the roster, the program is at its apex. So, do you take a risk with Moore because he’s popular with the players or do you go elsewhere, perhaps taking a run at KU’s coach? On the horns of a dilemma as it were. And if Harbaugh doesn’t leave this year it’s only a matter of time until he does. How many consecutive years can you interview for NFL jobs and not make it abundantly clear you are simply waiting for the right job?

This harkens back to a thread several months ago about DeBoer having a staff he had worked with for many years and how that was a big advantage over DL who was just standing up his organization. You have to love to see the bench and continuity

If OBD can get their secondary wired their D is going to be nasty. IMHO, the secondary has been the Achilles Heel of this team (from depth, experience and quality). Having two corners - with one being a lockdown - has to take pressure off the safeties and will allow the DL to get home and/or be stout against the run. That was why the Legion of Boom made the Seahawks’ D so formidable. Second, it’s great to see the ‘stability’ and ‘loyalty’ narrative start to take hold. The program has had a lot of HC churn and with DL making clear he is in it to win it over the long term, it will be interesting to see how that boosts recruiting even more. For example, how much of a factor did that play for Dante Moore? Development is a lot about having a consistent staff. IDK if it came up explicitly but I would be curious if it was an implied factor in the Ducks’ favor.

Oh…also cool to see the camaraderie between Dan and Kirby. Probably won’t be seeing that between Fisch and DL for no other reason than fan base revolt.

@amcdawg Here in Seattle we’ve had a stretch of high teens/low twenties but dry. Eugene (from what my aunt tells me) has fared far worse with snow and ice. Not too unusual for us in the PNW though definitely feel your pain. Fun science fact (or not based on what I’m about to write), you should expect more of that going forward because what’s happening is the jet stream is weakened (due to a warming planet) leading it to dip way South which allows all that wonderful Canadian weather to visit your doorstep. Totally counter intuitive but that’s the magic of our planet. Seattle goes into total panic mode and anarchy when it shows because we aren’t set up to handle it and the city is very hilly leading people to get snowed in. It’s a truly a thing of awe and humor to experience. Stay warm and safe!

I think this is a really good hire for the Huskies. Fisch can build a team. That much is clear. Whether he can sustain the degree of success he achieved last year is obviously TBD but there is no taking away that what he did in year 1 was very impressive. Zona was the 3rd best team in a conference that was loaded. The fact they were able to land someone like this during the worst period to hire a coach is amazing. Outside of KU's coach, this is probably the best possible outcome they could have expected. You have to give their AD a lot of credit for pulling UW's chestnuts out of the fire.

Wilcox to UW (and talking yourself into how it would be a good thing). That is EveRYthing

I’ve been consumed by a time sensitive situation and so have been oblivious to the outside world. On Thursday morning I did a quick scan and saw Pete was fired (a good thing I think) and read a cursory list of potential replacements. I have finally finished what I had been focused on to just now read DeBoer is going to Alabama (I didn’t even know Saban retired!) And I live in Seattle making my cluelessness all the more ridiculous Sometimes it’s good to be off the grid from time to time

While KD is far superior to Cristobal, that doesn’t justify giving him the benefit of the doubt as I’ve seen suggested in previous posts. In fact, it makes it worse. It wasn’t just one decision, it was a series of decisions starting with the 3rd down throw on the previous possession. It was clear they were playing for the FG as getting a two possession lead was the highest priority outcome. Yes, a TD would have been the best outcome but at minimum they needed TX to burn its second timeout. The time likely left after an onside recovery would enable kneeling down for the win. I am not a probability guru but I have to believe the win % was higher post FG and TX having one timeout left than the risk of TX scoring, recovering the onside, and then scoring again for the win. To then NOT kneel down post onside was insane. The risk of anything bad happening was astronomically lower than the path KD chose and that risk came to fruition. These aren’t heat of the moment mistakes and I can’t buy any argument that suggests grace for this reason. End of game scenarios and how to play them should be second nature and automatic for a coach of KD’s experience and skill. It was a colossal failure of decision making and by every right, comparison to Cristobal is both fair and warranted I should say that I like KD as a coach so the above isn’t meant to take anything away from him. It’s simply a willingness to judge his actions for what they were and what a coach of his caliber should be expected to do.

Here’s the truth: you finish top 3 in the B1G or SEC, you are in the playoffs. Finishing 4th isn’t even automatically disqualifying The Ducks are a top 4 team in the B1G and maybe even top 3. If DL gets his defense where he wants it they are going to be fine (i.e., won’t look like Iowa or Penn State)

A little of topic but DeBoer made end of game decisions that should have cost his team the game. It was serious cognitive dissonance to see someone who is such a good coach (1) not force Texas to burn their second timeout knowing that recovering the imminent onside post a Texas score would enable victory formation and (2) running any non-kneel down thereby enabling the injury stoppage risk. Flat out terrible coaching and he got really lucky to escape

Wanted to pull this out to expand on thoughts. If you hang with foodies they will say sous vide is played out and...that's true in terms of the pros. Everyone was using sous vide on everything and it got a bit overkill. But it isn't any less magical for us home chefs with the 'pick the temp and nail it' goodness. Fish? Check. Pork? Yessir. Even custards and duck confit. Never overcook again and tackle things that are really hard to get right from a temperature standpoint. And it still renders fat which is a huge deal. As I mentioned in another thread, the only issue w/sous vide for anything that requires a good searing is the water content the process imparts to the meat. Even if you dry off the steak post water bath, there is still a bit of moisture on the surface and that causes the pan to lose heat when boiling it off. That loss of heat slows the onset of the Maillard reaction ever so much causing it to kick in at a slightly non-optimal temp. Reverse searing offers the same temp control but better browning as there is no moisture on the outside steak's surface. The downside of reverse searing is the timing and that isn't an immaterial concern. It isn't an exact cook time making it hard to land any other dishes concurrently with your steak. Sous vide, OTOH, has a very definite, chef defined end time which allows for easy side dish coordination. Ultimately, I find it comes down to what you are willing to trade-off (timing and managing a full 3+ dish mean is probably the hardest thing to do especially if you are the only one cooking as everything tends to culminate at the same time). If you do try the reverse sear, I would definitely suggest a Bluetooth thermometer like the Meater which helps reduce some of the ambiguity around the cook time. But given the choice between cooking in a pan or on a grill end to end, I'll definitely take sous vide.

@DrJacksPlaidPants if you are grilling then absolutely the simpler the better. A couple things to suggest (and I’ve done) when cooking steaks. Reverse searing and finishing off (i.e., searing) however you like. The science on this cooking method is literally undeniable. Keeping the cook within the temperature band that enables a tender and juicy steak for as long as possible cannot be beaten. Also, for pan, induction is far superior to open flame because the temperature control is insanely accurate. And if there isn’t a sauce you are making with the pan drippings, butter and aromatics are the way to go (and bear in mind any sauce will have some type of dairy cream so you’re getting it one way or another). I used to own a BGE and am definitely a fan of using that to sear off the reverse seared or sous vide steak (the major downside of the latter method is the moisture on the steak’s surface which will rob the heat source of its initial temp as energy is expended to boil it off. Reverse searing, by contrast, yields a dry surface and immediately initiates the Maillard reaction and optimizes its outcome). Total aside, the best Prime Rib of your life is to salt and pepper it 24 hours before cooking, let it dry on a wire rack in the refrigerator, when you want to cook it put it in the freezer and let the first ⅛th inch get to ~36 degrees, pan sear it for texture and then cook it at 275 until about 120/25 internal. It works for the very same reason reverse searing does. All about the staying in that enzyme temp band for as long as possible. Do I spend a lot of time on this and the science of cooking? Yes. Yes, I do.

Slow your roll there…a pan fried steak can blow the doors off one cooked on the BBQ. Ever had Onglet or the piece de resistance of pan fried, Steak au Poivre? And since you opened the door to this question let’s talk best cuts. For me the top 3 are in ascending order: 3) Skirt 2) Ribeye (especially the lip) 1) Hanger If you don’t know what Hanger steak is you need to get yourself educated. It is a blend of the best aspects of Skirt, Ribeye, and Filet. Easily the best steak on any list, walking away

@Just Ducky No way do college coaches put in more hours than their peers in the NFL. And even if we were to agree the total hours invested were equal (and they aren’t), those hours are not made equally The NFL is a full time business ranging from player evaluation, roster construction, player development, motivating well paid men with huge egos, scheme development and, of course, game day coaching. Outside of the game day coaching, that’s the job 365 DaY. And bear in mind the salary cap and the degree of parity it enables makes that job all the harder The NFL is just at another level of intensity and it’s why I think college coaches can’t make the transition and why the coaches in the league come from within that system. My take anyhow

So, so many successful college coaches have gone to the NFL only to come back with their tails tucked between their legs. Kirby’s mentor is exhibit A of don’t forget how good you’ve got it. I would be shocked if Kirby went to the NFL. He’s got a sweet gig.