kirklandduck

It's that time of year. My wife and I made sure to get our flu/covid vaccines because schools are petri dishes every Fall.

Thank you Mike for the analysis. That begs probably the most important question about the defense: is Chris Hampton really any good at being a DC or even the safeties coach?

Make that 27-0!

But it's still funny!

I'd also like to see the safeties brought in closer to help cover the middle. Also it would be great for the LBs and DBs to stop staring at the opposing QB and pay attention to the receivers (as @Mike West has harped on many times).

Sounds like a perfect day to me!

This pretty much validates the current state of college sports. In this nutty world of NIL, the amount of sheer effort needed to build and retain rosters is both mentally and physically exhausting more than ever...making this a young man's game. That makes it so much more difficult to build a winning program as you need coaches that both have the energy to keep up but also has enough years of relevant experience to win on the court/field. Dana just couldn't keep up any more and I don't blame him.

Not surprising. While it could have been worse, concussions are no joke either so I expect the medical staff to take their time with Dante. I wouldn't be shocked if he's out for up to 4 weeks.

I'm not sure lazy would be the right word for it. I think the program got complacent. Lots of success overall the last several years and internal hires belied the difficulties in replacing both coordinators because they had been with the program for a while.

It’s not the worst idea. The last few years the most common thread behind OBD’s losses have been opposing coaches that were long in experience.

.500 team at best. Especially poetic given their QB’s off-season situation.

Saw a comment on a YouTube reaction video for this game and I laughed out loud 😂

Fusky/Condom game went about as well as I would have wanted. Both looked terrible and SuC struggled to put away an unranked and incapable UW team, barely beating them in a low scoring affair.

This is exactly the Fusky vs Condom game I was hoping for. Complete and utter disaster showing for both teams.

Just watched Minnesota put in a 2nd solid win in a row.

NW’s rush game is tearing PSU to pieces!

I had that same concern. I would've preferred a most experienced QB coach like David Yost.

Can't get a much better learning opportunity than hanging out with the coach of the defending Superbowl champions. Additional bonus is that Fusky fans caught wind of this and weren't happy that DL was hanging around their neck of the woods with such a benefit 😂

Admittedly, I haven't looked into Chris Hampton's coaching background in depth until now. I figured since he had recent, successful experience as a DC at Tulane that he'd have fewer issues than Meringer taking over those duties in Eugene. Seems that's an obvious wrong call on my part. Taking a cursory look over his coaching career, he's had plenty of years as a DB positional coach but only 2 years as an actual DC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hampton He was there for the 2021 and 2022 seasons (the later of which they beat USC for their bowl game win). Tulane was a pretty bad football program leading up to his hiring and is reflected in his first season stats (opponents scored 34 ppg on average on them): https://tulanegreenwave.com/sports/football/stats/2021 They did significantly improve in his 2nd season, opponent scoring average dropped to 22.2 ppg: https://tulanegreenwave.com/sports/football/stats/2022 I found a couple of analysis videos of the Tulane defense during his time there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLkuGFhOiuY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7EO2hLdwjU So I guess DL hired him on given his potential based on that 1 instance of season-over-season improvement in the AAC? I'm not informed enough to know if that was the correct decision or not. Personally I would've liked a couple more years of DC experience that showed consistent, positive impact before taking someone on.

It makes me wonder if the weakness on defense is primarily due to changes in scheme from last season. Feels like Coach Hampton has moved stuff around just for the sake of it (it's not uncommon for a new boss coming in to want to put their stamp on things even if it's not necessary).

It's always an uphill battle to beat distance even against programs that are clearly floundering like USC. The Condoms are more organized from a recruiting standpoint which is why they're now clawing back more of the local recruits. That being said, NIL and a recent history of winning will always give OBD a fighting chance at winning those recruiting battles.

It would really depend. No one doubts his offense bone fides. The problem right now is his ego and attitude. If he gets knocked down a couple pegs and allows himself to check those things and work under a no-nonsense guys like DL then it could work. Otherwise it's a pass.

I saw this! Pretty genius way of marketing the football program without saying a word!

The defense was visibly better, different schemes and play calls. Still don't like having either of the edges dropping back into coverage, a 270 lb guy just can't be expected to cover receivers in the middle of the field. OL was performing better as well. Neither was at an elite level yet but incremental progress is key. I'm hoping by mid-season they'll be good enough to compete for the conference championship game. That'll be the indicator that they're ready for the CFP.

I recall watching that last USC possession. I don't think LR gave up so much as his players on the field were completely inept and lacked urgency. That's on him. Then again I could be wrong and his players just lost all motivation at that point.