Solar

I find it shocking that Riley's house is in Malibu. That's about a 2-3 hour drive each way to the USC campus in typical bad LA traffic. Even worse with I10 shut down. Every time he goes home he is falling behind other teams' coaches in work time. I'd have to think that during the season he simply never goes home. But if he indeed does, OMG.

Great! Can we all now move on to talking about ASU?

This is the argument a wise man makes. 7 mil vs. 10 mil, so what compared to living your life the way you want for you and your family. Oh and the old bird in the hand..things are going well for him at Oregon. It's a fine line between success and failure. 7 mil x 10 years vs. 10 mil x 3 years. Which is more?

DO NOT RUN UP THE MIDDLE AGAINST ASU FOR SHORT YARDAGE PLAYS. UCLA was 0 for infinity doing that, and we haven't been doing so hot in that department lately either. I was also happy to see Dillingham run the swinging gate formation/play during a regular set of downs. Why not?

If someone would have told me at the beginning of the season we would be running the clock out with a 35-26 lead and sideline shots would show USC feeling good about how they played and Oregon would be feeling and talking bad about how we played, I would have thought they were nuts. I'm going to enjoy the win. Yeah, playing like this will allow Texas and Bama to pass us like two drafting cars on a racetrack, but I'm not going to get upset about a stupid 4 team playoff. It's unfathomably restrictive for a 130 team league.

P E N A L T I E S ! ! ! They are killing us this half. Need to clean it up in the second half. PAC12 after bedtime is dangerous to the best of teams. I'm nervous but not worried.

Well, we got the result we wanted. Yuk.

Ridiculous. Laces towards the kicker and he just shanks it into the linemen's backs. 1:45 for Utah to do something they haven't done all half. Drive the length of the field and score.

This is the toughest game of the year to pick with a defensive overhaul the week before we play. Personnel changes are what give me pause. Maybe SC leads at the half in a worst case scenario, but I don't see SC hanging for anything close to 4 quarters. Oregon 42-38 3 5 368

One thing I caught on USC article comments was that there is a strong perception that Grinch was playing his guys rather than the best guys. If that was truly the case then we might see some improvement in their D just by having better players in the game for often. I'm a little skeptical about that being a significant issue, but we'll see.

3 games in a row in business suits. I'm not complaining, but was hoping for more flash against USC

Yeah I agree. I think this is going to go like an exaggerated version of very unevenly match teams where the underdog punches for all they are worth at the beginning of the game taking a lead for a while but then the exhaustion kicks in and you realize it's just been a game of "ropado" to quote Muhammad Ali and the real beating commences.

The flip side is our defense gives us more possessions per game to do our damage. Well, assuming USC opponents don't drive the length of the field faster than Oregon can force a 3 and out, which I probably shouldn't assume!

I think the next thought after seeing the 12 team playoffs is to get rid of conference championship games. Most at large berths will be the loser of the conference championships, so they played an extra game for nothing, other than to get seeded a little lower and still have play an extra wildcard game to get into the real playoffs. Meh. While they are at it, how about scattering OOC games through the season against comparable teams so we can actually better compare strength of conference by the end of the season?

That show was a tough watch. Mostly seeing Greg McElroy reverting to conference assumptions of SEC being the best and PAC12 being the worst. The only redeeming thing was watching Kirk Herbstreit shake his head with a "you don't know what you are talking about" look on his face when Greg said it should be Bama Texas then Oregon. Oregon's SoS is low but some of the PAC12 teams under 500 would be over 500 in the SEC. It's like the OOC preseason never happened. And it's a self reinforcing slide of ranking PAC12 teams. Like when you have a jar full of different rocks and the longer you shake the rocks around, the bigger ones (SEC long term + bias) rise to the top and the smaller ones (PAC12 long term - bias) move to the bottom. I mean would Jaden Daniels be in the Heisman conversation on a 3 loss team in the PAC12? Of course not. Looking for a little more respect in the B1G, but this year will still be insufferable until the end, or until Oregon or Washington beats somebody in the Playoffs on that slim chance they actually get in.

CW is going 1st overall in next year's draft. You can't teach the gifts that guy has.

One thing I'm noticing is the OOC play is too far in the rearview mirror and people are reverting back to their conference pecking order biases a bit. I certainly note the change with the media and fans talking about things.

A few more games with the accuracy shown against Cal and it could become a reality.

People putting "their money where their mouths are" should be the "smartest people in the room", but this shows they can be pretty slow learners too.

I continue to regard this game as USC having a punchers chance because of Riley and Williams, but that's all. I fail to see how we would come out unready to play USC at home. We've played well in the 3 statement games so far-CU, UW, Utah. Screwy thing happen late in the evening, but it's usually the away team that gets the short end of the stick as it pushes them further out of their comfort zone. I expect this to go like most games with uneven competition where they put up a good fight early, keeping it close or leading, but by midway through the 3rd quarter the dominance of the better skilled and athletic team just takes over.

Woah! Ferentz was fired? AD finally stepped in and did the right thing. Sports is supposed to be a meritocracy. I'm sure the boosters gave the AD an ultimatum. He goes or we go.

I saw 99 on the field for at least 1 play, FWIW.

Every situation is different, but Deion Sanders took away play calling duties from the OC last week and they turned in their worst offensive performance of the year (other than against the Ducks of course) this weekend.

TT played well. My sense is he is like DJU, and his ceiling is similar. Actually I think TT's mechanics are better, but accuracy is still suspect. There was one throw to the outside that was off enough to delay the RB getting up field in time to pickup the first down. There was another receiver out wide with the ball landing at his feet. Like others say, Bo will be tough act to follow. I'm spoiled. But it's a legitimate question if we could be playoff caliber with DJU level of inconsistent play. We have fantastic talent but not tOSU or Bama levels of talent. Next year could be rough. We need to enjoy this season.

Well, the firing of Grinch is a bit of a wrinkle to my original post, putting an asterisk on it to say the least. There is only one week here, so the scheme can't be changed to any substantial degree for Klein to worry about, the players can't be developed. Maybe a few stupid calls during the game gets changed. Some tendencies may change. Perhaps they simplify the scheme to focus on attacking the ball. My biggest concern is USC having a hope as a result of a fresh start and coming out on fire. Football is so mental.