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Beaverblitz Looks Cassandra Today

178

I can’t read the threads, but the titles sound Cassandra!

http://oregonstate.rivals.com/forum.asp?fid=1248

Maybe they will finally admit difficult truths.

You know, this reminds me of 1999 with the internet stock bubble, housing bubble (1.0 and the current 2.0), and perhaps the most recent Bitcoin bubble. “They can never go down!” and other logic-defying rationalizations. The people knowingly entrenched in awful products have every motivation to perpetuate them. This is human nature. They will lie to themselves until the lie becomes so patently false that it’s more embarrassing to spew it than admit the truth. Based on the Blitz thread titles and the Gazette article, maybe these pea brains’ synapses are finally firing. Time is a great equalizer, and eventually the truth surfaces. It is never pretty, always painful, but life always moves on.

Even if the Beavs win the Civil War, it’s just more Lucy Van Pelt. The Riley story has ended–what you’re witnessing is the epilogue.

 

178 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks Angry! Schnell is the worst. Riley makes 1.5+ million per Coaches Hot Seat which likely will have Riley in its Top 10 to be fired this week. Yet she spouts this who will coach at OSU for 1 million shit which is total BS. Next coach will make close to 2 million and should only get a 5 year deal. No more extensions until towards the end of the deal when no more than 2 more years should be given. At that time even with a pretty good coach still better to start fresh. No one is ever morr important than OSU and new starts arr healthy for many organizations. This situation is completely messed up that BDC and Riley have us in and only the fresh start will fix it. I actually think OSU will get a very good result from change like USC and others did because it will clear out all the bad air.

    • Fresh starts don’t really fix things, at least in the short term. Out of all the new hires for this year, hardly any even have a winning record. Fantasizing about a new coach does relieve the stress, though.

      • Fresh starts neither fix nor break things.
        The people involved do these things. And it takes a couple years for a new hire to get their players and personalities into a system, so I wouldn’t conclude that all new hires are bad just because “hardly any” (whatever that means?) have a winning record this year. This is more apologist crap, and just as bad as Schnell.

        • Arizona St., USC, Ucla, Arizona, Wazzu and Colorado are all very happy with their coaching changes. A good conference with high TV money is attracting quality candidates. This is an excellent batting average and because Pac-12 right on the heels of the SEC as best conference to coach in.

          • OSU is undervalued and has potential. A big thinker will see what’s possible rather than impose crutches (“impossible to recruit, a bowl game is successful season”, etc). Small town, small thinkers. I’m thinking a creative/dreamer, bigger city guy as the next AD. OSU is so bland they won’t do it. Instead they’ll make a safe hire and whine about the self-imposed crutches.

        • How about Tennessee firing Phil Fulmer? They have been terrible ever since and had their least successful seasons in their history since firing him.

          BTW, I am not arguing we need to keep Riley. It is just not a quick fix to completely clean house and start over.

          • In change, you always take chances. With change, you have a chance. But without change, you are doomed. Which do you want?

            I cant believe the fools who want to stay on the sinking ship….

  2. There are two main problems with this program right now.

    1) Jovan Stevenson has poisoned the well. He’s a popular guy for some reason and he’s got enough players on the team believing that he’s been fucked over by the coaching staff. Discontent led to resentment and here we are. Team chemistry is fractured right now and will only get better when Stevenson leaves town.

    2) The embarrassment and humiliation, for Riley personally, needs to reach a tipping point where it overrides his personal attachments to the football program. Until that happens, there will be no meaningful change and “business as usual” will continue to rule the day. Create your own list of names, but there are four coaches that need to be replaced based strictly on lack of player development.

    Another issue not as big as the two listed above: team needs to change the way they practice. Both the intensity level and what they practice need to be overhauled. You shouldn’t practice like an NFL team when you’re not an NFL team. There hasn’t been any real work on fundamentals (mainly tackling and run blocking) since spring of 2012. Too much fear of injury.

    Stevenson issue will take care of itself. He won’t be sticking around Corvallis. If Riley doesn’t address the other issues, the same results can be expected as we’ve seen the last 5 weeks. Especially against the better teams where there is so little room for error.

  3. Looking at the thread list, my favorite titles:

    “YOWSERS!! I’ve been duped”
    “I will still go to games, but only because Im an idiot”

    • The gamut of human emotions and experience are well represented there:

      Betrayal: “I can’t believe” and “Puzzling”
      Anger: “no spinning” & “insanity”
      Self soothing by revising the past: “Dennis Erickson” & “it’s been a very long time since I was actually embarrassed to be a Beaver”
      Confusion: “puzzling’ & “I can’t believe” & “Riley?”
      Outrage: “email Bobby D”
      Denial: “larger picture and what should come next”
      Self-loathing: “I will still go to games, but only because I’m an idiot”
      Detachment: “Great news!! Baseball starts February 14th”

    • Which reminds me that it wasn’t so long ago, CK refunded a fan for an embarrassing loss.
      http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4496615

      Sure it was for Blount physically assaulting someone on the field, but the agitated consumer had a very familiar point.

      “The product on the field Thursday night is not something I was at all proud of, and I feel as though I’m entitled to my money back for the trip.”

  4. When will Oregon media call out the AD also? Wilner has had several articles about the blunders of Sandy Barbour and that she is on a very hot seat and in his opinion should be let go/fired. Where is the uproar or recognition from Oregon’s media about De Carolis and his epic blunders? Riley’s contract is looking ever more like one of the most ill conceived in NCAA history. BDC has got to go and then Riley can follow right behind him. Then with well chosen hires OSU can have a far brighter future with set goals and some expectations. Very bullish on OSU once these changes are made.

  5. It won’t happen, but I would at least tip my hat with a smidgen of respect if BDC came out after the Oregon loss and said that he had just met privately with MR and they mutually agreed that the automatic extension for a bowl appearance would not be executed this year based on team performance.

    • This does raise an interesting point. If we can posit, for the sake of argument, that DeCarolis could outwit the AD’s and WSU and Zona and get into one of the conference’s bowl tie ins (I don’t like those chances, especially vis a vis Moos and that bowl hungry fan base in the Palouse) but a Machiavellian DeCarolis could purposively lose out on the bowl shenangians, save OSU 1.5 mil
      or whatever Riles would get via an extension, and maybe make his life easier eventually, or his successor’s. Nah, won’t happen.

  6. A fresh start of ANY kind is better than the loser we now have as head coach. Cant do better than Riley? What trash thinking. Its always a crap shoot but we CAN do better. And in fact, if we just got the Riley of 15 years ago, we are better off.

    Dont lose sight of the fact that Riley NOW, is underperforming Riley of before.

    Something has happened and Riley can no longer cut it. He needs to go….

    • wow. that’s messed up. When i was that age and we were getting our asses handed to us we were pissed. We went back to practice the next week and worked that much harder because we didn’t want that to happen again. NO ONE was playing or joking around

    • I wonder if Marable was one of them? He might be the worst recruit in history other than Krebs brothers and Cade Cowdin.

      I wish this guy named names.

      • Been grounded in the past over there for calling out players but don’t think you have the same policy so here are the ones that I recognized and/or really pissed me off:

        Chris Hayes
        Kendall Hill
        Larry Scott
        Damien Haskins
        Brandon Arnold

        Oddly, the only thing they seemed to give a shit about was watching Chris Brown run the ball. Either he’s something special or the ringleader of the douchebag faction on the team.

        • Thanks.

          Arnold is a freshman safety.
          Haskins is a freshman rb.
          Hayes is a freshman cb.
          Hill is a redshirt freshman safety.
          Scott is a sophomore cb.

          While I’m not wild about what they were doing I’m somewhat relieved to see that they’re young guys and thus have time to be whipped into shape. But I don’t like the fact that a coach or a GA wasn’t on them about their behavior.

          I wonder who the senior is that another person mentioned? Stevenson perhaps?

          • Reynolds was spending some time in their circle. He doesn’t deserve as much guilt as those I listed but didn’t seem to be taking the loss terribly hard, either.

          • “… they’re young guys and thus have time to be whipped into shape”
            Begs the question……who is gonna whip ’em into shape? FWIW, of the ones mentioned, most are Rod Perry’s charges.

            Really disappointing to learn RR was in the area, supposed to be a co-captain and competitive guy; not one who’d need permission/encouragement to slap some sense into jackasses.

      • Marble attempting to tackle dude on that break away TD was comical!!!

        He looked like a JV player trying to hug his older brother. Love how Marc Jones called him out

    • Nothing wrong with miling on the sideline.

      Right?

      I mean, if it’s fine for our head coach and our DC to be standing at the end of the sideline laughing and smiling with their little jokes while we’re getting boat raced a couple years ago, it’s fine for the team to do the same.

      Yep… nothing wrong with smiling when losing.

      Why, I remember boot camp when we would be standing at attention and Senior would go down the line and yell at us, “Why aren’t you smiling?!!! Do you think this is serious?!!!! Do you think I look serious or something?!!!!” And then he would make us do stuff that made condensation on the ceiling fall like rain inside the barracks.

      But at least we were smiling.

    • Yea I noticed Storm and Rashad laughing it up on camera with one other guy.

      I remember thinking well if they dont care Im not going to be pissed off either and went and made myself another Makers and Ginger

  7. Lindsay Shhhnail tried to intimidate one of our readers for not having a ready made list prepared when making an obvious observation that our head coach has been under performing. So here goes… but now if stupid little old fan myself can come up with list… Hey do I get like 300k of BDCs $?

    No particular order, but I would object if we announced any of the following Head Coaching Staffs

    E. Illinois Dino Barbers
    NoDak St Craigh Bohl
    Maine Jack Cosgrove
    E Wash Beau Baldwin
    Montana Mick Delaney
    SE Louisiana Ron Roberts
    Costal Carolina Joe Magli
    Fresno State Tim DeRuyter
    Bowling Green Dave Clawson
    Buffalo Jeff Quinn
    UCF George O’Leary
    Houston Tony Levine
    Rice David Bailiff
    Ball State Pete Lembo
    Jonathon Smith & Lyle Moevao

        • My criteria was looking at coaches currently doing well in a lower division. Oregon State offers a great upgrade, big bowl potential with little pressure. Previous two head coaches went to NFL for OSU. These are staffs presently doing well in their respective divisions. And the main purpose of my list is to provide a response to ObjCritc types for when Lindsay Snail tries to turn her head to reasonable assertions.

          • Cheap lists are saying we can’t get an established coach to come to Corvallis (status quo). Someone show me a list of coaches that’ll come if someone ponies up the cash.

          • This was my first reaction to that list… with the exception of maybe DeRuyter… and Ruffin Mcneill, who is not on this list for some reason.

            It’s small time thinking just to answer a question borne of small time thinking. Besides, I think it’s a waste of time to think in these terms. The lifetime contract hamstrings this thought out of the gate. I can’t remember the last coach who was dismissed before the end of his or her contract without cause or due to gross professional negligence. Riley will never provide either. So we’re pretty much stuck with him for better or worse.

            But there are coaches who would come to OSU if we did pony up.

  8. Scout piles on Riley on its front page:

    “If the ASU drubbing the Beavs endured last week was, as Mike Riley said, like watching Jr. High School football at times, then Saturday’s loss at Reser made the Beavs appear a Pop-Warner team in search of orange slices.”

    Hell, even Goe suggested Riley (and Helfrich) need scrutiny now.

    Canzano’s throw away piece on the CW got plenty of comment (he doesn’t have to be right or write well, just get readers).

    I didn’t see any of the usual Schnell/Goe post-game video?

  9. Riley’s half time message on Saturday, with the Beavers’ trailing 27-0, was simple: “We’re not going to make it up in one drive. We just need to play some solid football.” Obviously, that never happened. His message postgame was more direct: “That’s not how we’re ever going to play again.”

    Riley understands fans are frustrated. So is he. His coaching staff and players can be added to that list, too. He also knows that if Oregon State can get its act together and play its best game of the season against a reeling Oregon team, there might be some redemption for his guys.

    “Your first or last game, it can be at least part of your identity,” Riley said. “A win doesn’t erase (past losses) but it would feel great for this team.”

    There it is again. This team’s fucking identity. How fucking lame

    http://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/index.ssf/2013/11/oregon_state_insider_beavers_w.html

    • Well if the first game of the season was part of their identity (according to “Riley speak”) then the current performance shouldn’t really be that surprising, right? They started the season being one of three ranked teams in FBS history to lose to a FCS opponent and they will end the season getting their asses handed to them by their in state rival.

    • After the results of the short week of prep for USC, this does not look promising. This week would probably be a good time to close practices for the first time to get everyone focused and at least try and have the team somewhat competitive this Friday.

      I fear losing is becoming a habit for this team and that if they haven’t packed it in, they will in short order in Autzen if the game gets away from them early.

    • He keeps using that word. I do not think it means what he thinks it means.

      Seriously though, I think what he means to say is legacy, not identity. We already know this team’s identity. We know it every year going into each season. They are never “searching” for their identity… never. They always have one, and it is what their coaches instill in them. Riley’s teams have an identity which varies widely because he has some loosy-goosy laissez method of team leadership. But it’s still an identity. I think what upsets us is that identity can vary so widely that it just isn’t consistent from day to day, let alone week to week or month to month.

  10. A Q&A with Riley from the Portland-Tribune:

    “• Do you think you underrated or overlooked the Huskies?

    “We talked about that after the game and this morning as a (coaching) staff. I can’t imagine that. Our practice week and lead-up to the game was good. I don’t think there was any thinking like that whatsoever. We had a good work week and felt like were well-prepared.”

    Interesting. Post-UW, Riley said they were not prepared at all, in any phase. Part of that’s probably the emotionalism of getting embarrassed in the last home game of the season, but how do you go from un-prepared to well-prepared?

    “Tight end Connor Hamlett, who had nine catches for 119 yards and a touchdown against ASU, was blanked by the Huskies.

    “I hate that. We had a pretty good plan to get him the ball, but (the Huskies) covered him pretty aggressively. We had some shots to him that either went elsewhere or (Mannion) didn’t get the ball out. That was very disappointing.”

    I think the inability of OSU’s receivers to get open was not just the result of good Husky DB play, but play calling predictability. There were some things UW simply did not have to worry about, and as OSU’s plays slowly develop, opponents (like USC) know the routes and are sticking OSU’s receivers. Anyone notice the lack of separation even Mullaney was not able to get? I know he’s not a burner, but he was usually well covered. I think the play-calling predictability has a lot do with it.

    • Chris Brown fumbled, but he also had seven carries for 73 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Does he merit more time at tailback?

    “We were impressed, too. He has some ability, for sure. I don’t know we’re going to open up an opportunity now, but we will in the future. I like him.”

    Brown needs more carries in the CW. He’s the only back with second level speed at this point, and he gets to the hole much quicker than Woods. Nobody respects the play action if you’re starting back can’t get past the line of scrimmage.

    Woods has become Stevenson -1, good pass catcher, but plays upright and light, and his tentativeness probably makes him less effective than Stevenson in his better games. Ward remains tough, and they should try and find something for Anderson to do – is he injury limited?

    More and more, local writers are starting to call out things that have been called out here for months.

    • I commented a couple times during the game that it looked like UW knew what play the Beavs were going to run every time. Different than other games where I thought the play calling was good. It did seem too predictable, and UW d-backs did have our guys blanketed, and predictability would contribute to that. Plus, it did seem like there was a lot of pushy pushy pattycake between the secondary and receivers all night all the way through their routes.

      • DC’s Justin Wilcox vs Mark Banker…. One of them adjusts and schemes to defeat the team they are playing, then puts the players in the right positions to do that. The other….does what he’s always done….

        I don’t know if JW is ready but he’s one of those up and coming coaches OSU should look at as a possible head coach. Clearly he’s been effective as a DC. It appears he recruits well, with ties to the PNW. Only downside…former duck, but I can overlook that if he brings a winning and tough minded attitude to OSU.

    • Why did they feel they were prepared AFTER their meeting while having realized BEFORE the meeting that they were unprepared?

      Same reason I’ve been pointing out over and over. It’s a staff made of industry best friends. Nothing negative is ever pointed at one another. It’s a primary failure of BDC, there is not a single guy on staff willing to call out the others. Just friends working on a hobby together.

    • My god Storm Woods looks terrible. And, to be honest, he didn’t really impress me last season either.

      Chris Brown is the next starting tailback. It makes me crazy to see quotes like “He has some ability, for sure. I don’t know we’re going to open up an opportunity now, but we will in the future.”

      Some ability? The one guy who has shown more ability than anyone else in the RB ranks this year and you don’t know if you will put him on the field? I’m sure Riley is afraid about ball security but that will fix itself with some more experience.

      • Fix itself with more experience? That is most definitely not guaranteed…see Agnew, Malcolm. Or McCants, Ryan.

        Agree that Woods is not the answer. I think Ward is superior though still has limitations. Frankly I think Stevenson is (or was) a better RB than either. Brown…we’ll see. Wouldn’t mind seeing more of him but I wouldn’t be so cavalier about fumbles.

        • True, it is certainly not guaranteed that Brown will improve his fumbleitis. However, I feel the “normal” RB experience curve shows a positive correlation between maturity / experience and ball security. There are a few who have completely bucked this trend on the positive end (Jacquizz) and negative.

    • More from Riley, per Eggers, “I have a lot of respect for our players. I would be shocked if we didn’t have good work this week and get ready to play.”

      Angles Eggers chose not to explore: 1) But are they showing respect for you and your staff? and 2) Yes, and you said you had a good work week prior to UW. Why doesn’t it translate into results?

  11. Mike Riley post-Washington: ‘It’s up to us to do our best coaching job this week’

    Hey coach….Oregon State Fans expect you to do this every week.

  12. Lack of accountability. It’s obvious. And it’s important. Ed Ray does not hold BDC accountable. BDC does not hold MR (or CR) accountable. MR does not hold Banker accountable. And — crucially — the local media gets along by going along, making no effort to hold Ed Ray, BDC, MR, or Banker accountable.

    Which brings me to Lindsay Schnell, the Oregonian’s beat reporter on OSU football. A beat reporter is supposed to become an expert on the organization or sector they cover. “Beat reporters build up a base of knowledge on and gain familiarity with the topic, allowing them to provide insight and commentary in addition to reporting straight facts.” Good beat reporters “become passionate about mastering that beat”, and “are able to gain both knowledge and sources to lead them to new stores relating to that beat.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_reporting

    Lindsay Schnell does none of this. She is an enabler and apologist for BDC, MR, and Banker. She spends her time lazily excusing their failures, rather than working to uncover and disclose what’s really going on in the program, and in the locker room. Long-suffering OSU football fans are hungry for critical analysis. Lindsay instead delivers fluff. http://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/index.ssf/2013/08/oregon_state_football_beavers_32.html

    So, Lindsay, what do you think now? Is anyone having more fun than the OSU football team?

    • From the posts above, it sounds like a good number of players were indeed having loads of fun at the WA game. Practice makes perfect, and looks like it paid off. Our guys are 1st in the nation in having fun during a historic beatdown by a rival.

  13. Juvenile joke of the a.m.as I ponder the low probability the Beavers will tackle in practice this week – Beavers new tackling technique: “Slap and tickle” for the way they “tackle” and slap at the ball. What Beaver doesn’t enjoy a lil’ slap and tickle?

  14. So excited after the duck game…..We have a chance!
    So deflated after the Husky game…We are going to get our asses kicked!
    Here comes another CW beat down.

  15. What about Sweater Vest? It seems like he’s been completely forgotten about by everyone?

    Anyone have reservations about him? I honestly don’t know that much about him except that he did well at a traditional power (which I imagine Riley could do too.)

  16. What do you guys think of Riley stepping aside but going into more of an advisor role….and BDC going after one of these young DII coaches. Not sure what to do about the rest of the assistant coaches….some are worth keeping.

  17. I’m going to be doing a blogging with the enemy Civil War piece. Need 5 questions for the Duck blogger. If you want me to ask anything specific let me know soon.

    • 1. OSU has a terrible run defense. Do the Ducks have any sort of run game?
      2. The Ducks’ defensive line doesn’t do well against good offensive lines. How does it do against poor ones like OSU’s.
      3. OSU’s special teams have been atrocious this year. Do the Ducks employ any dynamic players which might be able to take advantage of that?
      4. What’s your sign?
      5. Are you going to bother watching?

  18. What are the odds that Riley / OSU split amicably with a retirement (or as amicably as possible) and BDC immediately hands the reins to Mark Banker?

    I vaguely remember there was an interview a year or so back where Banker expressed interest in taking a head coaching position eventually.

    This is the stuff nightmares are made of.

    • Yes, when both your AD and head coach are incompetent, replacing that head coach might just continue the disaster. But at least its a change. And no chance Banker does better than Riley, so wouldnt be long before he, too, gets replaced, right? LOL — no, not at OSU, where mediocrity is rewarded.

  19. LOL @ Riley talking about having a good practice or doing a good coaching job….

    Sorry, coach, thats what you are supposed to do all the time. Riley seems to think he needs to let every team find its own identity…..and doesnt realize they are usually adopting HIS personality — weenie, wimpy and disconnected.

    And talk about performing against UO, …..LOL!! UO could run thru and around this OSU team with its eyes closed.

    The CW should be out of reach by the end of the first quarter. We will see…

    • On the “thats what you are supposed to do all the time “front, Connor reports, “…players look particularly focused for a Monday. Not a lot of light-hearted chatter.” FOR A MONDAY?? So normal Monday’s show less focus?

      BTW, Connor seems to be more likely to point out flaws than does LS. Couple possible reasons: He has little history with the program and his job isn’t likely to be secured by any gender bias issues.

      • No gender issues for Schnell, it’s just that OSU is not a “destination job”…so after 3 years of success covering the Beav she’ll likely be moving on to ‘Bama, Texas, USC, or some such destination, where she’ll be a beat writer for a LONNNNGG time.

        Can you see her in the SEC: “Who says football and fashion are mutually exclusive?!? [selfie with GF]

        Fanbase: “Get a rope.”

    • Like their coach, too many players end up standing around waiting for somebody else to define the identity…that’s not true. They do SELF define; they don’t block, they don’t tackle consistently.

      Identity by default.

  20. You know what cracks me up about the “there is no alternative to Riley” argument, is that if you extend that argument far enough, as BDC has done with what is essentially a lifetime contract, and what others do through intellectually lazy arguments, you have to sort of plan for ending the football program upon Riley’s death. Nobody else can coach the team as well. A Sun Bowl Victory or Alamo Bowl loss is the HIGHEST that can ever be achieved. A .500 winning record is as good as it gets. How does it sound when you match absurdity with absurdity….absurd.

    • I’ve rarely, if ever, seen anybody actually say that Mike Riley is the best we can do. The argument I’ve seen is that we can’t afford to do significantly better without risk in taking a step back. And that argument is flawed only because the argument isn’t that we CAN’T afford it, but that we WON’T afford it. DeCarolis will not fire Mike Riley and pay for it out of the athletic department budget. Period. He needs a big donor to get pissed off to the point where they cut a massive check to get rid of him. At this point, we don’t have a ton of donors who have that kind of money and the few we do have would rather spend their money on infrastructure improvements.

      That said, it doesn’t take $7-10 million to buy a massive improvement in assistant coaches. I expect that comes this off-season, particularly when we get boat-raced by Oregon.

  21. Geezus, listening to Parker today is sickening. He’s ‘allowing’ callers the ability to vent ‘without commentary.’ Which basically involves listening when someone says anything remotely unflattering about the team’s recent woes, and making excuses and agreeing when anyone calls in and defends the recent bullshit.

    Fuck you Mike, go eat a pile of napkins and choke yourself out already.

    • Hey, Mike Parker is awesome. Yes, he’s a pollyanna, but he has to be. And I’m not sure I’d even want him NOT to be.

      I was more bothered by the majority of the first callers who didn’t seem to really have a problem with the program and were “meh”. I ended up calling in to shake things up a little.

  22. OT – who do you like for the Heismann and why? How would you choose a player? I think the pressure and lack of forgiveness (“he lost a big game on the road, they’re just 9-1, he’s out of contention now!”) is ridiculous.

  23. Jaynes says what happened last Saturday was the worst OSU football since Fertig/Avezzano/Pettibone days (sorry PBH), and that if it happens again Friday, Riley should shake up the assistants.

    BUT, he says OSU is right where the should be in Pac North, that it gets what it pays for, and fan expectations are unreasonable given Riley’s circumstances:

    http://www.csnnw.com/beavers/what-going-oregon-state

    • OR had higher expectations for the season. The image of Huff crying during the Stanford game, subsequent comments about “already been to the Rose Bowl”, and the AZ game effort……

      Do you think the two losses are a result of the coaching change?

      Do you think OR gives the same effort if CK is still coach?

      Do you think the OR team and/or the fans have reached a state of entitlement?

      Do you think Helf has what it takes to be the coach and continue the high level of success or do you anticipate a decline?

      If OSU beats U of O……never mind.

    • It’s difficult to come up with meaningful questions. This CW does not look competitive or compelling. I expect it to look like that one where Gunderson played QB at Autzen; there was no real hope, and Gunderson served up INTs to compound a bad situation….but I’ll try:

      Are there any aspects of the game, including motivation, where you think the Beavers might be equal to, or possess an advantage over the Ducks?

      What is the extent and intensity of Duck injuries, and are they being accurately portrayed? (This is tough since UO policy is not to talk, but he may have some insider info)

      Many fans critical of DeCarolis/Riley think Riley has lost this year’s team. Given the unproductive, unfocused remarks of players like DAT (“we should score 40 on Stanford, rose bowl remarks), is their a sense that Helfrich is losing this team and the intense focus it maintained under Kelly’s tenure?

    • Good find. I can now see what makes our special teams so special… it’s the fact that we’re paying Bruce Read $260,000. The second highest paid assistant at OSU. He must have photos that belie the family atmosphere.

      • Well, the highest paid assistants are Riley’s best friends (Banker, Read, Langsdorf & Locey). Of course, we could spend more to get top assistants but why when we can have Riley’s best friends. The rest of the salary is relatively low because we have a significant number of young guys receiving a small wage (Brasfield, etc). The only guys on that list who probably should make more relative to their experience (not necessarily ability) are Cav, Perry and Seumalo. This may or may not be a cost issue. But we can be sure that it is a Riley’s best friends issue.

      • He does play the rube by commenting on a snapshot of data as if it were a trend.

        If we are to take what he says to heart, we should be firing our top four highest paid assistants and replacing them with bargain basement salaried coaches. The three more egalitarian payrolls within the Pac are now all spending less per win, and one is spending less period. UCLA isn’t as equal, but they are also spending less per win. And for an extra kick, the winner of the CW will be spending less per win as well. And you can probably add two or three more for the 2011 season. And remember this escalation in assistant salaries only really started recently in the Pac.

        So it would appear our less is actually more… more often than it is less.

        We can be both the most egalitarian and the lowest payroll by dumping Banker, Read, Langsdorf and Cav and replacing them with newbies.

        Good talk.

  24. Read a funny line today that when modified applies pretty well to the Beavs last Saturday:

    You know how in the “Rocky” he prepares for the fight by punching sides of beef? Well, Saturday was as cold as that meat locker he was in.

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