The Beavs -21 seems a little extreme. I’m taking the under. :)

Arizona, 41-21

Their QB is going to have a field day.

Go Beavs.

That last thread was getting long. Let’s move on to game week.

With the Thursday night game last week, Hall gets extra prep time to get in practice/prep time and formulate a game plan for Cal. Does it help?

I view this as a natural progression in confidence:

1. Tough loss vs a bad team (check, Colorado).
2. Tough loss vs a good team (check, Stanford)
3. Win vs a bad team (check? Cal)

It’s the next logical progression for this team. There is an even greater craving to taste the sweetness of victory after two bitter losses.

While I haven’t gotten the scores right, I have gotten ever W/L correct this year except for the MN game, and I’m going…

27-24 OSU

There’s a big movement to hire Cory Hall as HC because he had two good games. I get it.

The positives:

1. Played their two best games.
2. Went to the ground game/good game plan.
3. Good motivator, players are responding.
4. Young, black, energetic.
5. Very impressive how he’s held things together after a traumatic change.

Negatives:

1. His RB was not coached to have two hands on the ball with 2 minutes left vs the #20 team in the Country.
2. Hall is simply running the offense we all expected. Things might have looked this way earlier.
3. Colorado is a bad team; Stanford was in a malaise looking past us toward their big game vs WSU next week.
4. Botched clock management vs CO, and then last night he didn’t get the Timeout.
5. Small sample, and fans tend to fall for the coach who says all the right things (e.g. GA), yet it doesn’t mean they’re a good coach.

So, personally, I like Hall, but I need to see more. His actual in-game coaching moments (The TO, clock management, having the RB put two hands on the ball/fundamentals) he hasn’t impressed. He’s impressed with all the other stuff that isn’t true coaching…

Verdict: worthy of an interview based on these two games. Want to see more improvement with actual nuts and bolts coaching instead of the talking/motivation side. I feel fans are falling for his energy, rhetoric, and motivation too hard. That stuff is all great, but you need a coach who hammers home the fundamentals. Not sure Hall has that level of detail yet.

Go Beavs…

Definitely curious to see more of Hall and whether the improved play vs CO was a fluke.

I’m going Stanford 38-17. Stanford isn’t that great, so we should have a chance if we play a complete game.