Biggest game of Jonathan Smith’s career? Big time statement possible (but not probable). Nonetheless…

Go Beavs!

Note: Washington’s D is anywhere from 40th to 57th depending what list you look at, so while they appeared physical in the games I watched, maybe they’re not so good after all. That seems pretty middle of the road. Let’s see if the stats lie.

Has anyone been able to pull the complete Washington injury list? That might help in picking the game. Right now I’m thinking Washington should be +15 favorites. But if key guys will be out that can change.

I watched a lot of the Utah game. Washington looked physical, but not as physical as Utah, and Utah really banged up their team. Eason had a terrible habit of rolling opposite the pocket and then throwing against his body. I’m not sure if he always does this, but it made me view him more negatively. Also, Peterson was making some coaching errors. I’m not sure what’s going on there, but they didn’t look like the team I saw earlier this year.

Still, the Beavs lack depth, and if Washington plays physical that’s what I see as the big difference here. I’ll still go +15 for now, but we’ll see what the injury report says. I get that everyone is high on the Beavs due to some nice road wins, and I like what I’m seeing, but there’s a difference between beating backup QBs and bottom half teams and beating Washington. Until I see them take that step, I can’t expect or predict it. I’m thinking more realistic is we see a 2 step forward (Cal, AZ), one step back (WA) situation play out.

Washington 35, OSU 20

As I mentioned in the comment section of the prior thread, the big takeaway for me was that the Beavs finally beat a starting Pac-12 QB. Tate is a legit starter, and their backup (who seemed to have played most of the game) is even better.

I see people complaining about the yardage given up and the point total. The yards are consistent with the “bend but don’t break” style we’ve seen all year. The points are high, but when you score 56 usually you do that quickly, so to have a thin D coming back out so often is bound to result in some failure. Refs cost the Beavs 7. So all in all, about what you’d expect. They did enough, and that’s all that matters.

That was the best win by far. Beating a starting QB, road win in a warm, dry climate, and just dominating (granted a very week defense) on offense.

I don’t see another win this year. People are saying ASU and WSU…eh. That seems like emotion and people getting ahead of themselves. That ASU QB is good. WSU will short pass us to death. That would be incredible if we get to 6 wins (we should be at 6 were it not for Smith’s coaching blunders…). But even if we end here at 4 wins you can see with the guys returning from injury next year, a QB upgrade in Gebbia, future stars like Lindsey catching on, etc there’s finally a reason to be excited. Hodgins with the injury scare yesterday might seal his fate to the NFL. He’s not going to want to mess around unless he really loves OSU and takes out a large insurance policy.

Go Beavs!

This got little discussion yesterday, but it’s worthy of it’s own thread and discussion. Here is a synopsis.

Can anyone think of a positive way this effects the Beavs, or any other small market team? California pushed the issue, and that makes sense since every CA school has deep pockets. It should give those schools an advantage.

This take by a Vol’s blog is disturbing, but worth a read for some National perspective.

This will go down the inevitable rabbit hole where marketing departments usurp athletic departments. We will see 18 year old multi-millionaires with their own reality TV shows, etc. A college degree is already a watered down joke, but this will add to that. And of course the obvious that any smaller market team will not be able to compete.

I don’t understand the arguments for this change. Players are already paid via scholarship, free food/training/medical, room and board, tuition, etc. NCAA football is supposed to be an amateur sport. What this change does is take the worst of both worlds — we will have the poor product that is NCAA football combined with the inflated egos of young, rich people. Add it it a litany of new ways to cheat.

Yuck.

Can anyone come up with a realistic counter as to how this at all helps college football? The only thing I can come up with is we get contraction from this and the smaller teams split from the power 5 and form their own conferences.