k9cane
Senior
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2011
- Messages
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OK, another great week of college football. Spent a few days in Las Vegas, then drove b on early Saturday morning for another 'Footballpalooza' at Coach JB's Touchdown Lounge and Cigar Bar. Some thoughts on what I witnessed (which was capped off by Canelo-Crawford)...
- UCLA might arguably the worst P4 program this year. Despite playing two Mountain West programs (UNLV and New Mexico) and a very good Utah club, they have trailed in every game this season by at least double-digits to begin those games. They are now a laughingstock, and at this point, everybody wants the Deshaun Foster experiment to be ended. Right now, its basketball season in Westwood.
Michael Ray Richardson once said, ''this ship be sinking." Well, at the moment the Bruins are the Titanic and UCLA AD, Martin Jarmond is John Edward Smith. They may not be favored in another game this season. The school has to make a decision if football is actually important to them and if so, are they willing to make a real investment into it?
- A lot of focus on the struggles of Colorado and their three-headed monstrosity at quarterback. But once again Willie 'putting on the' Fritz is once again rebuilding another program in Houston. The Coogs are getting solid QB play from Conner Weigman and Carlos Allen is a big hoss that anchors their defense inside
- it's clear that pundits overrated Clemson coming in, and overlooked Gatech, who once again showed that they are among the toughest teams to play against. They grind the clock, shorten the game and are very clever offensively. In the past 10 months they beat a highly ranked Miami team, beat Clemson, and had UGA on the ropes last year in Athens. Haynes King takes more hits than Arturo Gatti but the guy keeps battling. Brett Key is a serious football coach.
- The rumors of Georgia's demise were greatly exaggerated. That was a gut check win for the 'Dawgs. But I wanted to focus a bit on how I thought Huepel (who I think very highly off as a coach) seemed to get a bit conservative on two key drives in the 4th quarter.
First after causing a sack-fumble, they could've gone up two scores up 35-30, but instead settled for a FG. Then at 38-38, Joey Aguilar leads them down the field in the final minutes. They get into field goal range but they started to work on placing the ball instead of continuing to work on getting some more yards. I understand the risks involved but you are still depending on a college kicker here. I still recall thinking Ohio St did the same thing against Georgia in the playoffs a few years ago after getting into FG territory.
But again, I realize it's easy to second guess, and Georgia Tech and Key look like geniuses because Aidan Birr made a 55 yarder, while Max Gilbert misses a 43 yarder and Tennessee will have a few sleepless nights.
BTW, you think if Tennessee had a choice that they'd ''trade'' back Aguilar back to UCLA? Seems like they actually upgraded at that spot. Yeah, Chris Brazzel made plays on the ball, but he could do so because he wasn't being overthrown by 5 yards. Aguilar gave his guys a shot to make plays.
- USC overcame a protracted weather delay to take care of business vs Purdue. Yeah, this may not seem like a big deal, after all, the Boilermakers won all of 1 game last season. But in '24, the Trojans broke (don't you hate when that happens?) versus the likes of Maryland and Minnesota on the road. There's a good chance that they are undefeated as they go to Illinois in a couple weeks
- Notre Dame has now lost two games of the walk-off variety. Lets say the Irish run the table, and Miami and the Aggies have strong seasons, do they somehow sneak into the playoffs? Again, this is Notre Dame
- INT Lagway threw five picks. There's no doubting his arm strength but right now he's Nuke Laloosh before Crash Davis mentors him(for you young whipersnappers this is a 'Bull Durham' reference). 'Million dollar arm..
- Victorious coach, Brian Kelly, got a bit chapped at the local LSU media as they questioned the offensive performance vs the Gators. This guy is a highly accomplished coach (the only thing really missing from his resume' is a national title) but good grief, this guy is the reddest of red asses
- Arch Madness is over. At this point, Texas fans are pining for the days of Shane Buchele. Now, do you finally have an appreciation for 'the Mighty' Quinn Ewers? It's not that Manning hasn't been great or spectacular, but he's making the routine throws. At what point he had a stretch where he had 10 straight incompletions. Where have you gone Tyrone Swoopes (there it is)
Now, Steve Sarkisian may not know what kind of faces reporters make when doing their business on the can, but he has to admit Manning played like.... well, y'know....
- As for Miami, they were in control throughout vs an upstart USF squad who had wins over two top 25 teams. They were never really in this one. The Canes won 49-12, but really could've put up 60 if they played a cleaner game. UM had five pre-snap offensive penalties, as it looked like the Bulls were doing some stuff upfront that was causing some false starts. It was almost like a reverse-cadence situation going on upfront.
Great to see the bench empty out and see young players like Josh Moore continue to develop, while more experienced ones like Chase Smith carve out a role after some frustrating years with injuries.
I wanted to focus on the defense. Thus far defensive coordinator, Corey Hetherman, has been as advertised. This unit is playing fast and decisively. And they just looked structurally more sound than last season. This is a much more complete and well-rounded team Miami has last year, from offense-defense-special teams, it's just tied in much better in '25.
Yeah, they upgraded the defensive back spot significantly, but I dont think it's just that. Coaching mattes
- Finally, as for the fight, I had it 116-112 Crawford. Coming in I picked 'Bud' for two reasons, this guy unlike Canelo's last few opponents isn't just superior, but he would actually come to win. Also, you saw signs that Alvarez was there to be had back in May. By the end of the fight, Crawford was actually winning the battle inside the pocket vs the bigger man. I'll have more on this fight in my upcoming column for SNAC
- UCLA might arguably the worst P4 program this year. Despite playing two Mountain West programs (UNLV and New Mexico) and a very good Utah club, they have trailed in every game this season by at least double-digits to begin those games. They are now a laughingstock, and at this point, everybody wants the Deshaun Foster experiment to be ended. Right now, its basketball season in Westwood.
Michael Ray Richardson once said, ''this ship be sinking." Well, at the moment the Bruins are the Titanic and UCLA AD, Martin Jarmond is John Edward Smith. They may not be favored in another game this season. The school has to make a decision if football is actually important to them and if so, are they willing to make a real investment into it?
- A lot of focus on the struggles of Colorado and their three-headed monstrosity at quarterback. But once again Willie 'putting on the' Fritz is once again rebuilding another program in Houston. The Coogs are getting solid QB play from Conner Weigman and Carlos Allen is a big hoss that anchors their defense inside
- it's clear that pundits overrated Clemson coming in, and overlooked Gatech, who once again showed that they are among the toughest teams to play against. They grind the clock, shorten the game and are very clever offensively. In the past 10 months they beat a highly ranked Miami team, beat Clemson, and had UGA on the ropes last year in Athens. Haynes King takes more hits than Arturo Gatti but the guy keeps battling. Brett Key is a serious football coach.
- The rumors of Georgia's demise were greatly exaggerated. That was a gut check win for the 'Dawgs. But I wanted to focus a bit on how I thought Huepel (who I think very highly off as a coach) seemed to get a bit conservative on two key drives in the 4th quarter.
First after causing a sack-fumble, they could've gone up two scores up 35-30, but instead settled for a FG. Then at 38-38, Joey Aguilar leads them down the field in the final minutes. They get into field goal range but they started to work on placing the ball instead of continuing to work on getting some more yards. I understand the risks involved but you are still depending on a college kicker here. I still recall thinking Ohio St did the same thing against Georgia in the playoffs a few years ago after getting into FG territory.
But again, I realize it's easy to second guess, and Georgia Tech and Key look like geniuses because Aidan Birr made a 55 yarder, while Max Gilbert misses a 43 yarder and Tennessee will have a few sleepless nights.
BTW, you think if Tennessee had a choice that they'd ''trade'' back Aguilar back to UCLA? Seems like they actually upgraded at that spot. Yeah, Chris Brazzel made plays on the ball, but he could do so because he wasn't being overthrown by 5 yards. Aguilar gave his guys a shot to make plays.
- USC overcame a protracted weather delay to take care of business vs Purdue. Yeah, this may not seem like a big deal, after all, the Boilermakers won all of 1 game last season. But in '24, the Trojans broke (don't you hate when that happens?) versus the likes of Maryland and Minnesota on the road. There's a good chance that they are undefeated as they go to Illinois in a couple weeks
- Notre Dame has now lost two games of the walk-off variety. Lets say the Irish run the table, and Miami and the Aggies have strong seasons, do they somehow sneak into the playoffs? Again, this is Notre Dame
- INT Lagway threw five picks. There's no doubting his arm strength but right now he's Nuke Laloosh before Crash Davis mentors him(for you young whipersnappers this is a 'Bull Durham' reference). 'Million dollar arm..
- Victorious coach, Brian Kelly, got a bit chapped at the local LSU media as they questioned the offensive performance vs the Gators. This guy is a highly accomplished coach (the only thing really missing from his resume' is a national title) but good grief, this guy is the reddest of red asses
- Arch Madness is over. At this point, Texas fans are pining for the days of Shane Buchele. Now, do you finally have an appreciation for 'the Mighty' Quinn Ewers? It's not that Manning hasn't been great or spectacular, but he's making the routine throws. At what point he had a stretch where he had 10 straight incompletions. Where have you gone Tyrone Swoopes (there it is)
Now, Steve Sarkisian may not know what kind of faces reporters make when doing their business on the can, but he has to admit Manning played like.... well, y'know....
- As for Miami, they were in control throughout vs an upstart USF squad who had wins over two top 25 teams. They were never really in this one. The Canes won 49-12, but really could've put up 60 if they played a cleaner game. UM had five pre-snap offensive penalties, as it looked like the Bulls were doing some stuff upfront that was causing some false starts. It was almost like a reverse-cadence situation going on upfront.
Great to see the bench empty out and see young players like Josh Moore continue to develop, while more experienced ones like Chase Smith carve out a role after some frustrating years with injuries.
I wanted to focus on the defense. Thus far defensive coordinator, Corey Hetherman, has been as advertised. This unit is playing fast and decisively. And they just looked structurally more sound than last season. This is a much more complete and well-rounded team Miami has last year, from offense-defense-special teams, it's just tied in much better in '25.
Yeah, they upgraded the defensive back spot significantly, but I dont think it's just that. Coaching mattes
- Finally, as for the fight, I had it 116-112 Crawford. Coming in I picked 'Bud' for two reasons, this guy unlike Canelo's last few opponents isn't just superior, but he would actually come to win. Also, you saw signs that Alvarez was there to be had back in May. By the end of the fight, Crawford was actually winning the battle inside the pocket vs the bigger man. I'll have more on this fight in my upcoming column for SNAC
