Washington Waddler

Love how this group is learning what it takes, and evolving into the team they know they have the pieces to be.

Huskies have a premier brand alright; a ‘Duck’ seared and singed into their mutt butts.

While it’s not the real thing, any time I just need a Duck hit, my go to is the 5 minute ‘More Than A Feeling’ video of the 2008 C*v*l War game at Reser. Brightens my day every time.

How about a new regulation that inspectors who fail to be on site within 24 hours of the completed work are to be used as tackling dummies on the opening day of fall practice? Might hurry things up.

Good thoughts David. The attempt to redefine the psychology of post-season college football through the lens of basketball’s bracketed play-off system is going to run into some big walls on the road to any satisfying conclusion. Assuming some form of an expanded CFP is only a matter of time, BB’s focus on using the excitement of regular season games to build towards the highest possible tournament seed seems almost inevitable. The problem is football will never have the luxury of a 35 game season to overcome slumps. One or two bad games and you’re likely out of it. But, the challenge remains. Football - for both teams and fans - is going to have to adopt some form of basketball’s realistic attitude towards the post season in order to feel success at the end - win or lose. If you see yourself there, and the odds are you won’t get past the 2nd round - and that’s what happens - having BB’s mindset that already accepts that reality creates a sense of success and becomes a positive building block towards the next year. The over-riding-psychology is it has very little to do with the present moment, and more about always building towards tomorrow. That’s going to be a tough pill for football to swallow, but what other option is there if you want to feel good about yourself at the end, and you’re not the one left standing?

Right now, it’s good to be west of the Rockies

Hey, added it all up: substance abuse, hearing loss, traumatic brain injury and at age 74 still going strong enough to put it all to bed in, “The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time” AI got it right. Who could possibly be a better fit?

Decent, if not in depth article. Bachman quoting KC Keeler that people may now discover college football requires a CEO seems pretty far behind the times. Seems we’ve known that ever since the Sabin/Alabama era. What did seem to shed some light on Cignetti’s approach was her connecting of his detailed control of every phase to the smaller world of lower division coaching where hands on learning of all aspects of the game can still be developed.

Absolutely. And the way the corner and saftey sandwiched the receiver, it would’ve required a dime. Pressure situations can make you try a little too hard? Dunno, something went wrong for him.

It just felt like Cig’s time-out was mainly to firm-up secondary assignments on what was an obvious go-for-it passing down for Miami. It was just too predictable, and Indiana’s zone coverage allowed the time for their deep saftey to move under coverage to either side for a break up or int.

Since our CFP run is based on what I can afford, we’re headed for Las Vegas.

I’m excited! Will be interesting to see who steps up to replace the offensive production of the Luschar sisters and Paige Sinicki. Kaylynn Jones looks to be a good bet to take over the lead-off spot, while replacing Dezianna Patmon’s power could be by committee.

As always, great comments JJ, appreciate your insights. However, to limit the meaning of ‘lightening in a bottle’ to lucking-out is to limit the expression itself. The phrase is generally described to refer to achieving rare or unlikely success, often in a way that feels fortunate or extraordinary, and not easy to replicate. Luck certainly enters into that. As DM pointed out, he by-enlarge escaped the injury bug and portal losses as a result of a senior laden roster. However, the expression emphasizes not only being ‘fortunate’, but also ‘achieving’ as well. Whatever fell in his lap he not only didn’t take for granted, but knew how to take advantage of. While you can’t predict outcome, you can affect it by the choices you make, and that’s where we’re in agreement that his coaching experience and savvy played a huge part in helping to keep his stars aligned; ie, he couldn’t have predicted the “misfit” mentality his team would eventually acquire, but once they did, he knew how to take advantage of it. One item I would disagree with is Mendoza’s recruitment being the product of luck. While all coaches attempt to recruit players who love the game, and instill in them that the sum is greater than its parts (Sabin’s wisdom imparted to ALL the semi-finalist HC’s?), Cig appears to be a ‘recruit whisperer’ on another level from his peers. Once he set his sights on him, I’m not sure Mendoza ever had a chance of going anywhere else. In short, lightening in a bottle does involve luck, but then becomes making that luck work for you. It’s both fortune and achievement.

While there’s no doubt Cignetti caught lightening in a bottle, and that the stars aligned in all those ways they must for a 200 to 1 shot to win, we can still learn from some things he did. While you can’t duplicate the ways in which his team came together, his portal focus on unrecognized, but developing players has certainly opened the eyes of recruiters, and the desire to understand how he managed to assemble that many from beneath the radar, but with the same drive to prove themselves. It may well be a talent Cignetti has that no one else does, but that shouldn’t stop us from studying and trying to incorporate what he does into our system.

Add my congrats to you HD and the whole Hoosier family for a well-deserved championship that proves nothing is impossible, and for bringing a smile back to the face of college football.

Finally, a Mario time out. I was beginning to worry about the boy

Looking at the length of some of Miami player’s pants, think they’ll end up in speedos before too long

Was this his plan all along?

The patients are now running the asylum, and have created their own formula: 1) get recruited and sign letter of intent, but remember who also wanted you. 2) wait. 3) enter transfer portal. 4) sign with one of those who also wanted you (or someone else) for a boat load of NIL $$. And who can blame them? They’ve just flipped the script, and taken advantage of the greed that now has college football by the short hairs.

With the way the transfer portal has altered how players calculate their opportunities, it’s not just those going who see no playing time for themselves, but those now more than willing to go who see a big NIL pay day. Rather than just tumbling the SEC, we may instead be looking at a domino effect that will put us all in the same boat.

Signing a letter of intent by some highly recruited players seems to have morphed into a staging option to gain NIL leverage in the transfer portal if they fail to see the immediate playing opportunity they expect in the coming year - none and done. Don’t see this emerging reality changing any time soon with congress still arguing over the antitrust issues at the heart of NCAA/university control vs student rights.

I’m not sure any of these expanded play-off options would work towards the highest quality end product without serious thought given to reducing the number of regular season games. This isn’t basketball; it’s football, and the majority of those that would be playing are not pro material in either talent or physical resiliency. Injuries are always a major unknown, which is why we never mention them until they happen. But, we know what a factor they can be, and that just ratchets-up with the intensity of play-off mode. Yes, injuries are part of the game; and yes, ‘next man up’ is an equally intriguing and exciting part of that. I’m just not convinced the majority of college teams are built to take the beating of some of these proposals without something giving way if the number of over all games weren’t limited.

Nothing wrong with questioning so long as you follow-up your criticism with ideas on how to make it better.

Good news. I just prefer developing with in the system as opposed to changing partners after every season. Can be messy, but the benefits are numerous. Now we need to rebuild, and return the OL to Joe Moore status so Dante can continue to develop.

Got to be, unless your bay area or LA sensibilities delude you into being tempted by a time-share offer in Corvallis or Pullman.