Nevada Dawg

I was one who sharply criticized some of his in-game decisions (not always publicly) the first year I started following Duck football more closely. Some were dreadful to be sure. He doesn't seem to learn from mistakes but I'm thinking maybe it is time for us to FINALLY put this guy in the rear-view mirror.

Harvard and Yale are starting to show their cracks but it take a long time for them to become apparent. Academic reputations are often 20+ years behind the times.

The burnout factor and declining quality of life for head coaches will drive many, including some of the very best, from the college ranks in the coming years. Clearly it seems easier to "have a life" as an NFL Head or assistant coach than a college guy who, if not actively coaching on the field, is having to recruit, re-recruit the guys you already have, and to work at it 12 months of the year to achieve success you hope to have in today's college landscape. Head guys are going to have to be young, driven, and extremely energetic. Having a supportive family seems necessary as well. But I can almost guarantee you that we will see some apparent coaching superstars choose to walk away from their posts in the coming years because the required effort is too stressful. I have heard the story from several sources this year that, either before or immediately after the SEC Championship (after seems the more likely) Nick Saban leaned in to Kirby Smart on the field and said "Man I'm too old for this crap". Kirby claims to have been as surprised as anyone by Saban's sudden retirement, but I am pretty sure that he had a hunch that departure could well be forthcoming. It was pretty well known that Saban believed that portal- induced free agency and no regulations on NIL and roster tampering was ruinous for college football.

Early rankings mean squat in February. I remember one year, 2018, when Dawg fans were crying the blues in early April because the Dawgs recruiting class was in the 50s somewhere and one of its star gets thus far was a 3-star DB named Wildgoose (who ended up at Wisconsin and turned out to be a pretty fair player). The posters on the recruiting thread were asking what the hell is wrong with Georgia recruiting? Many were asking if Kirby and staff had lost their touch after being beat in OT the previous year in the Natty. Guess what. Recruits started snapping like popcorn over the summer and early Fall and the Dawgs ended up with the #1 class in the composite rankings that year. Many didn't see that coming, and the result illustrates well that early rankings really don't mean a whole lot.

Yeah I agree Jon--that's nuts and makes me wonder if these guys know what the hell they are doing. Florida actually has a tougher schedule than Georgia but I think there are few if any power-4 teams that would gladly trade schedules with the Dawgs. Also, as for the pickup TE from Stanford, he is a grad transfer I believe but will not graduate until May in Palo Alto. So he misses Spring practice, and it is hard to know how big a contributor he will be coming into a TE room that is stacked with talent, even after the exit of Brock Bowers. The kid looks like a very good football player however.

Well I have become a Niner fan again after my return from 42 years in Georgia in 2015. I thought that they played a decent game tonight overall but got beat in crunch time by the current best big game QB there is. That punt hitting the heel of the 49 player was a very bad break though, but we all know hat footballs can bounce funny. And he final nail in the coffin for this newly reminted Niner fan was that the game winner was caught by former Dawg Mecole Hardman who attended high school about 20 miles from the tiny hamlet (Royston) where I lived in Georgia. Happy for Mecole though.

This flip was a very strange one. Among Georgia's commits, Dylan was the lead recruiter and cheerleader. He helped, I am led to believe, in flipping his 5-star safety/WR teammate K.J. Bolden from Florida State to Georgia and constantly encouraged others to come play with him in Athens. His dad was an All American lineman at Nebraska in the 90s and is uncle is the current Offensive line coach in Lincoln. This is a case, I believe, in which Dylan was pressed upon to take one for the family perhaps sweetened by NIL and the prospect of playing much earlier than he could have behind Carson Beck and Gunnar Stockton in Athens. Was he happy about it? Well despite the commitment statement , almost certainly written by his Dad or the Nebraska Sports Information Office, we get a clue from his commitment photo decked out in Husker gear in which he looks shell shocked and anything but happy. Herbie, of course denies that he encouraged the Raiola family to induce Dylan to flip from Georgia to Nebraska and said on the Paul Finebaum program that it would have been crazy for him to do so. I don't know what went down and it really doesn't matter at this point what happened. Georgia is hardly forlorn as they also signed top-10 QB, Ryan Puglisi, in this class, a kid who is already impressing the Georgia coaches and teammates with his work ethic (they already knew he had an other-worldly arm).I just wish more helicopter parents would let kids follow their own inclinations as these are the kids' lives and their desires are important. If Dylan really decided, on a day he was to move into his dorm in Athens and begin bowl practices, that he REALLY wanted to be a Husker, more power to him, and good sportsmanship permits me to wish him well. He's a kid so I'll wish him well anyway. As for Herbie, he is welcome to his opinions but should never, as an allegedly neutral journalist, try to influence a kid's commitment decision, if, in fact, that is what actually happened. That is my opinion and I'm sticking with it.

Yeah they lost Raiola but already had another high 4-Star QB coming in who is already turning heads in voluntary workouts with the receivers. Said to have an even stronger arm than Raiola, so no one is crying over the team's misfortune. I've come to trust Kirby Smart to always have some kind of acceptable contingency plan for just about any eventuality.

Boy it sure is interesting to look now at Tray Scott's first couple of years in Athens. He had recruiting misses on the two highest profile DLs in the state and faced calls for his firing at his misses. Then he recruited a couple of lesser luminaries, Davanta Wyatt and Jordan Davis, and turned them into first-round NFL draft choices. Add Trayvon Walker, Nolan Smith, and Jaylen Carter to that exalted list and now recruits are eager to meet the guy and hear his pitch.

When you have a great class, you tout it, and it is always nice to have a great one than one that is pretty average. OSU always has great recruiting classes and does a pretty fair job of developing recruits who choose to stick around. But they haven't got over the hump to snatch the brass ring for many years now (of course the same could be said of Georgia until recently). Development of talent is paramount! Rhule at Nebraska is a very good coach and I have commented before that I expect him to make the Huskers respectable again. But with the roster he has at present (including the incomers) I think it is far to much to expect a talented Freshman QB like Raiola to lead them within sniffing distance of the promised land. I think that they will be lucky to keep the kid on his feet if they try to start him as a first-year QB in the B1G. Had he stayed at Georgia, he'd received virtually no first-team reps as a Freshman behind Carson Beck (but that's not the major reason he transferred).

I will simply caution (again) to all the star gazers out there that star ratings only matter if the players holding the honors have their heads screwed on right and can get developed in their new homes. Certain schools in recent years have looked like the Milky Way for all their talent without accomplishing much between the lines---which is really all that matters. Notable examples of underachievers IMHO are T$M and the U in Miami in recent years. There will be more such examples, but I am not terribly worried at this point that Oregon will be one of them. If properly evaluated, talent is the lifeblood of success But that success is not pre-ordained.

I think the 3/4 placements above reflect the suppositions that Utah will win the Big-12 and FSU the ACC and, hence will enjoy a Bye week. Yet even with a bye, both these teams will be extremely vulnerable IMHO in the coming second round matchups. But what do I know? As we have not had a 12-team playoff with Bye teams, maybe the Bye is more advantageous than I think it is. The biggest advantage I can see at this point is giving the Bye teams an extra week to get more fully healthy for the games to come. I don't want to sound like Cryin Day here, but I sure wish there had been a week between the last regular season game and the SEC championship game last December. Both Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey played for Georgia, valiantly limping around all over the field doing their best to help their team, but they were far from themselves that day. At the end of a tough season time to heal could be tremendously important to a team's fortunes. Sorry to get off track here from the point of the thread. Just free associating in the late evening I guess.

My father-in-law, who was a big Dallas Cowboy fan, had an interesting take on Neon. I used to call him the world's biggest hot dog. He liked that characterization and coined a new nickname for him: Mustard. Interestingly, all his many friends knew of whom he spoke when first hearing Dad's characterization for the first time, and they started using it themselves.

Yeah I am cautious about making any firm predictions for my Dawgs given their regular season schedule with three really tough SEC road games Bama, Texas, and Ole Miss, a neutral site with Clemson and Jon's anticipated playoff schedule should they successfully navigate the regular season. But if the teams with the deepest rosters are advantaged (they are IMO), the Dawgs are about as well-positioned in this regard as anyone.

But where do you get your beer and hot dogs? (Sorry for the facetious comment but I just couldn't help myself as I sit here sipping a bourbon)

Well I am not in the habit of calling out my dumb predictions, but I blew it on this game. Not only were the Chiefs able to run effectively enough to keep the Ravens off balance, but the Ravens patrons are all over OC Monken for giving up early on the run game when he had the best running offense in the AFC. Sometimes games just don't go as you had expected. On the other hand, I did call at the half the turn around shown by in the second half by the Niners, I texted my fervent Niners fans at the half that I remembered as an 11-year old a game when the Niners were ahead of the Lions 24-7 at the half and managed to lose the game, thus keeping them out of the NFL Championship game. Perhaps they could flip the script 67 years later and give some payback to those dreaded cats. TBH I was skeptical and Coach Shanahan is known for blowing Super Bowls, once as OC in Atlanta in 2017, and again a few years back as HC of these same Niners. But damned if the script didn't get flipped almost exactly from the 1957 game. Now a couple of these friends think that I am somewhat of a profound football sage and I'm certainly not going them think otherwise.

Gotta go with the Ravens and that defense. The Baltimore LBs will take away the Chiefs' running game and all-world LB Roquan Smith will not allow Mahomes to wander too long looking for receivers if Ro is in spy mode. Also, two-time Natty winner OC Todd Monken has rejuvenated that Raven offense (and Lamar Jackson) since coming over from Georgia this season. I suspected that would happen and, more importantly, so did Harbaugh.

Yes and I can assure you that the SEC has taken unbelievable heat from Georgia partisans for scheduling a Texas home game the week of the Grand Prix. Dawg fans travel very well, not that there was any risk of taking over the Longhorns' place like they did at Notre Dame in 2017. But now, many fewer will go I suspect and are likely to be driving in from Waco or San Antonio where they cam possibly get rooms at a more reasonable rate.

I would definitely say that OSU is the toughest opponent. They probably just set a record for NIL spending in a single year, almost as if they were saying to Michigan don't expect to beat us again in the foreseeable future. Plus Harbaugh just flew the coop with much of the coaching staff in tow I've been told, so it is unclear how much of Michigan's existing roster will still be there after the Spring portal season. OSU also has a very experienced returning roster, kind of like Michigan last year. They will be a tough out for anyone in 2024 I believe, not that It can't be done. But I do expect them to win the B1G. They are loaded my fellow Duck fans. They have to break in a new QB and that can be tough. But when was the last time they had substandard QB play (although I don't think the guy this year will be 5-Star freshman Julian Sayin).

I have been following some of the gab coming out of the Alabama boards and the commentary on the Georgia board Talk'n Dawgs about astounding missteps by DeBoer in Tuscaloosa. I am floored by what I heard about 5-Star QB Julian Sayin's transfer to Ohio State. Here's the story: The word is that Sayin and his family thought it best to stay at Bama after the retirement of Sabin. After all, DeBoer had had a good run with Penix and the Sayin family thought that a good sign for Julian's development. Yet multiple sources are reporting that Sayin wasn't encouraged to stay, in fact insinuating that Julian's future may be better served elsewhere. This is the guy that won the elite 11 competition for QBs in the fall over the other 10 highest rated QBs in the 2024 class. Sayin and his family wanted to stay at Bama multiple sources have reported but that the Deboer staff suggested his talents might fit better elsewhere. The reason, so the word is that Sayin didn't fit the physical size profile that the new staff likes in its QBs. This is unbelievable if true. Sayin is bigger than Heisman winner Brice Young at Alabama and a host of other very notable college QBs in recent years. Even if I had had the new staff's bias against Sayin's "size profile," I think I'd have kept him around at least through Spring practice to check out his moxie. Instead,they practically run off one of the top recruits in the nation for what I consider a misguided reason. Having said this, I must admit that former Georgia OC Todd Monken also passed on Sayin for the 24 class before jumping to the Baltimore Ravens. Why I don't know, but I suspect he liked future commit (and eventual flip) Dylan Railoa better.TBH.

This should also almost go without saying, but if we have a first timer in 2024, ideally it will be Lanning, and all the sweeter if the title win is over Cryin Day.

I really like ex-Alabama QB Greg McElroy and his podcast Always College Football. The man lives the sport and is very knowledgeable. If you haven't ever listened, I invite you to do so, especially during the Spring when he dissects the major teams' strengths and weakness and starts making season predictions. But...I heard one of his recent podcasts today in which he did something he doesn't ordinarily do: Wear his crimson tinted glasses, I bring it up now because it is relevant to is thread. He argues, not at all convincingly from my perspective, why Kalen DeBoer was about the perfect coaching hire at Alabama. His argument centers around the fact that DeBoer has been amazingly successful everywhere. Yet he ignores, IMHO, his unfamiliarity with that region of the country and how things work there. He may pull it together and make me look foolish for posting this piece, but he's likely to take some real hits in the process. At this point, color me skeptical about this hire.

I still remember the day I heard of Bo's transfer to Oregon and sent Charles a clip of his highlights at Auburn. My message to y'all was if I was right and Bo had his helmet on straight, you are going to like this guy. I figured that if Dan Lanning wanted him as is QB he would succeed admirably in Eugene. Now my predictions, with a few notable exemptions, usually have some merit. But after 49-3 at the Benz in Atlanta, I suspected to hear some flack on Bo. And I wasn't wrong as several of you were expressing some doubts about Bo and Dan Lanning. I remember jumping on the forum urging patience and caution about being too critical--several times that first week, saying that Rome wasn't built in a day and expressing the belief that ultimately you would feel much more positive about your QB, your Coach, and the direction in which your program was moving. Seeing the way that Duck partisans feel about Bo, Lanning, and the Duck program now, I feel good about my earlier predictions. Hey fellow Duck fans, here's my latest prediction: The best is yet to come!

I am told that DeBoer's biggest mistake was not immediately offering Alabama assistant coach Travaris Robinson the Defensive Coordinator's job upon landing in Tuscaloosa. Trob was immensely popular with the Tide players and noting his availability, Kirby Smart immediately snapped him up. This was a real donnybrook. After Trob accepted the Georgia job, Deboer suddenly offered the full DC position at Bama (he was only offered co-DC duties in Athens, Robinson went back to Bama, listened intently to Deboer's vision, and returned to Athens to take up residence, turning down the Bama offer. This is already having consequences in Tuscaloosa. Several of Bama's younger players, and very talented ones at that, have jumped into the portal, and some are strongly considering the Dawgs at this point. Saban's retirement is probably the major impetus for this, but Trob's association with Georgia is a strong pull for at least 2-3 portal entries to Athens. Nothing has happened yet, so we'll see how important the coaching connection proves to be. My first impression is that DeBoer is making some of the same mistakes Brian Harsin did upon moving from Boise St. To Auburn. Harsin brought his entire staff with him as has DeBoer. None of these guys have much knowledge of the SEC or in-roads with the high school coaches in the region, nor do they have much in the way of recruiting chops in the Southeast. This lack of familiarity and knowledge killed Harsin who insisted this stuff wasn't all that important. It was, and there were many around the Auburn program who wanted to "cut bait" with the man after one year. I know DeBoer is a very good football coach, but he'd better wise up lest he suffer the same fate as Harsin. And Bama partisans, if anything, may be less patient than Auburn's. Which brings me back to Trob who knows the South well and is a superstar recruiter. The list of guys he recruited to Tuscaloosa looks like it could be a group of future candidates down the road for the college football Hall of Fame. Not getting this guy to stay in town was, in my opinion, Deboer's biggest flub thus far and a real boon for Kirby Smart. The man has his work cut out for him and I wish him well.

Good luck on this one. Ducks could use a shut-down corner. Is there any positive feedback stemming from his visit? If so after visiting a rival, that may portend very well for the decision.