Bobby Petrino, Somewhat Smarter Than Your Average Bear?

SO yeah, I am a day late and a dollar short on this one. By now it should be common knowledge that Bobby Petrino bailed on the Atlanta Falcons to take the job at the University of Arkansas. Now, it is beyond question, that what Petrino did was shady, and low to the enth degree. When it comes to what he did to his team in Atlanta, and to his boss Arthur Blank, it is beyond reproach. I don’t necessarily disagree with his idea to go back to the college game. But, when it comes to the matter in which he executed his idea I do have an issue, and I tend to agree with Lawyer Milloy’s curt assessment of Petrino as a man.

Now the past transgressions of Petrino are notorious. My personal favorite being the clandestine attepts to ursurp power from Tommy Tubberville with the brass from Auburn flying in and meeting Petrino across the Ohio River from Louisville. This however has to take the cake, I mean, shit, he bailed on his team with 3 games to go. At least Saban had the balls to look everyone in the eye and lie to them while he finished a season before bailing out. Pat Forde, a man who is not prone to this type of linguistic destruction really laid into Petrino.

In the coming days and weeks, the disingenuous drifter will say what Arkansas fans want to hear.

He’ll look at them with blank shark eyes and tell them, in a monotone voice, how excited he is to be the coach of the Razorbacks. He will tell them how impressed he is by the tradition and the fan base. He will tell them that the Southeastern Conference is the place he always wanted to coach (and that might be the one true thing he’ll say, given how many times he’s tried to land a job in the league).

It will be a trumped-up stump speech, as sincere as a politician’s pledge to cut taxes. It will simply be the latest pack of lies in a career full of them.

There are two ways to look at this. The first way, the one currently in the employ of dozens of America’s finest College Football writers, is the tried and true line for Petrino. That he is a completely disingenuous hypocrite, a liar to the T, interested in his own self preservation above all else. That is the line toed by Forde, but he has more of a reason to use it than the others. Given his past history with the coach while he worked for the Courier-Journal in Louisville. But then again, this is pretty much what everyone else has been saying about Petrino, ever since plane gate in 2004. Anyone who has followed Petrino would know all of that, so it should come as no surprise.

The way that I look at this is really simple. Petrino is simply the latest in a long line of coaches to figure out what everyone else has. Namely that the Pro game, for all it’s fabulous riches and opportunities, simply doesn’t compare to the college game. It is, after all, the No Fun League, and there is no one for whom that statement rings truer than for head coaches in the NFL. But the lure for the next big thing, the desire to prove ones self runs very deep in coaches, and for a College Coach that runs very deep. So, many coaches make the trek to the NFL to see what it’s all about, only to realize that it is just not worth it. Yeah you get 3 to 4 million dollars a year. But in return, your employer only asks for 120 work weeks, constant dedication to the company line, but you get no say in matters of personnel, your staff is guaranteed nothing in terms of employment, oh and you’ll get to sleep in your own bed maybe twice a week. Does that sound good to you? There is also the matter that the professional and college games share little in terms of successful strategy. Risk taking and aggression are the hallmarks of good College Coaches. Look at Pete Carroll, the reasons that he is a success at USC, his personality, his enthusiasm, his Überaggressive schemes and his penchant for taking big gambles based on his instincts, more than percentages, are the exact same reasons he had a career record of 34-33 in the NFL. Good College coaches are rarely ever successes at the next level. It only took Petrino 13 games to figure out that coaching in the NFL sucks, and that coaching in College is much, much better. For figuring it out that fas, he should get some credit.
Will Petrino blow off Arkansas at some point in the near future? Yeah, probably, if you are playing his odds. We haven’t learned anything new about Pertino from his actions. Everything he has done in the past few days is predictable. But Petrino learned something new about the NFL, that it sucks, and that it really isn’t worth the money.

Chaos Reigns. Again. Once And For All.

And, at this point is it really any surprise at all?

Interlude:

This is what is happening in Columbus Ohio (rough approximation) 

And In The What The Hell Department

Like everyone else, I sort of had a feeling that an Oklahoma victory over Missouri was inherently possible, if not probable. That being said, I still picked Missouri to win the game, because I sensed some sort of tangible improvement last week over the team that took the field in Norman. As it turns out I was wrong about that. It is not entirely surprising. What was surprising, if not downright shocking, was Pitt knocking off West Virginia. But more on that later on.

Big 12 Championship

The game in San Antonio was the least interesting game of the “major” games of the day. The game played out, by and large, in much the same way that the first match up did. Oklahoma seized control early on, and they never really relinquished it. That is not to say that Missouri wasn’t in the game because they were, especially in the first half. They traded barbs early and often, the poise and control of Chase Daniel was evident from the onset, but Missouri was never able to completely seize anything more than a partial share of the momentum in the first half.

The second half was a completely different animal. Oklahoma made some adjustments to what Mizzou was trying to do, the Tigers did not do anything in anticipation for the adjustments the Sooners brought to the table. It was as if Pinkle and company, dipped as far into their bag of tricks as they could in the first half just to match OU. When the second half came around and OU showed some fresh looks, Mizzou had nothing to fall back on. Ponder this stat for proof, Mizzou had two second half drives that were not 3 and outs. One resulted in a punt, the other a field goal.

Backyard Brawl

Did not see this one coming, no one did. Honestly, who would, not even Pitt fans I dare say. First thing out the gate. Pat White going down was a problem, a massive, team crippling, upset rendering problem. There can be no doubt about that, but WVU was in serious, serious trouble long before he went down late in the second quarter. The bigger problem, the problem that manifested itself very early in the game was the play of the suddenly porous WVU defensive line. On the first play from scrimmage LeSean “Shady” McCoy busted a 12 yard gain. A harbinger of things to come. Pitt just wanted the game more up front, on both sides of the line. The Pitt defensive line, which has been very disruptive all year long took it to another level tonight. Pitt basically applied to same game plan that Cincinnati used against WVU, but with much better results.  If you watched the Cincinnati game, UC was constantly in position to make plays for loss or no gain, but they weren’t able to make the tackles. What was the most shocking element, and thing that should be particularly galling to WVU fans is the fact that Pitt won despite never being able to attack where the Neers were most vulnerable, in the secondary. Instead they just pounded McCoy into the teeth of the defense again and again with surprisingly good results. The game is tough to define, quantify, or even comprehend, especially given the way Pat Slaton has been able to shred much more talented Panther defenses the past two years. Mystifying on a USC Stanford, and Michigan App State scale. For those keeping track of this sort of thing, Pitt is 3-4 in the Big East, the two wins coming against the two best teams in the conference.

SEC Championship

All of the talk coming into this game has been about Les Miles. Originally he was announced as  hired at Michigan, at roughly 10:30. Two hours later it was announced that he had “agreed in principal” to a contract. With LSU? WTF indeed. Then, approximately one hour later, Les Miles unleashed the second instant classic Press Conference of the year.

While it certainly lacks the duration, and classic comedic effect of the epic Mike Gundy presser, it made up for it with Miles calling Kirk Herbstreit, more or less, a hack. Miles address was his 300, to Mike Gundy’s Troy. All in all, awesome. But there was a game to be played, an SEC championship to be won, and, though he surely did not know it, a statement to be made about the national championship. LSU went out, without Matt Flynn, and with a still hobbled and ineffectual Glenn Dorsey and took care of business in a very efficient, very methodical effort though, still lacking the sadistic streak that has come to be associated with this Tigers this year. though It’s been missing since the Auburn game, which coincides with the health Glenn Dorsey, consider that insinuation made.

ACC Championship

Did you notice that Virginia Tech won the ACC for the second time in four seasons? Did you care? Did you watch? I’ll admit it. I didn’t, I was too consumed with the UCF Tulsa game, and Kevan Smith’s breathtaking performance. So yeah, go Hokies.

USC

This is a team that is finally becoming what we all thought that they would be at the beginning of the season, and this is a team that no one wants to play right now. Not when they are healthy and firing on all cylinders up front and JD Booty is as efficient as he has been the past two games. I am very secretly wishing for a Georgia vs Southern California Rose Bowl, that would be an absolute slug fest.

Peace, I’ll post something when the bowls are announced Sunday afternoon.

Sunday Musings: November 24th

Missouri

This is a team that is without a question, very very good. But there is lingering doubt in my mind about their ability to fend off a charge from Oklahoma. Are they really and truly a National Title caliber team? I say yes, but they certainly don’t look it on defense, even though there has been a remarkable improvement on that side of the ball. Chase Daniel made an interesting point last night on College Gameday Final, or whatever that bullshit is called. Missouri was very close to winning that match up the first time around, and they were, but they imploded in upon themselves, like Missouri has been oh so prone to do under the Pinkle. I have to look more into this team, this week. If they survive against Oklahoma, the match up with West Virginia looks awfully entertaining from where I am sitting.

West Virginia

Holy Shit. This is becoming an absolute buzz saw of an offense. Given the circumstances of the game, I am not sure that West Fucking Virginia could have had a better performance. Given Connecticut a lot of credit in this game, they certainly played much much harder than they did in their last real game (playing Syracuse after all is a just a glorified scrimmage) against Cincinnati, where they were dominated from the onset and where never in the game, mentally or physically. The Huskies gave it a go, and were decidedly in the game for the first half. But after that, Pat White put the pedal to the metal. What resulted was a firm step on the throat of UConn’s dream season and a simply dominating performance. This is not a team anyone wants a piece of right now, the offense is playing at an otherworldly level and, unlike last season, the defense is playing at a very high level.

USC

Reminded us all what they can do when healthy on Thursday night. The defense remained as good as it has been all season. The difference was the offense, and most notably John David Booty, who looked vintage for a USC QB, which is a hell of a statement given what it mean, and what he has looked like since the Washington game. A defensive stat for thought. USC has given up 400 plus yards once this season, 300 yards twice and has held to opponents to below 190 yards three times this year. Another team that no one is going to want to play in a bowl, though a USC OSU Rose Bowl would be fantastic. Given of course that USC beats ever schizophrenic UCLA Saturday.

LSU

If the people of this state don’t hate overtime yet, they never will. There are couple of things that stood out to me right away. First of all, massive props to Darren McFadden, Payton Hillis and Felix Jones. All three were fantastic in their own ways on Friday. But there is a point that needs to be made about the game of College Football. The most important position on defense is defensive tackle. A good defensive tackle makes a good defense very good, and a great defense elite. A guy like Glenn Dorsey creates a monster out of a good defense. But if he is not good to go, he is dead weight. Not to make excuses, but does anyone think that Arkansas would run that wild with a healthy Dorsey? Of course not, but he was not himself, and that more than anything was why LSU lost. Not because Gary Crowton went to the well one to many times with the slant against corners who were jumping routes all night long. It was because a healthy Jonathan Lugis was able to dominate and injured Glenn Dorsey at the point of attack all night long. In the end, LSU’s luck was going to run out at some point. They had been living on the edge for far too long.

Games of National Relevence, November 17th

Ohio State at Michigan
I said early in the week that Michigan was going to win this game, and I am sticking by that prediction now. Ohio State did show cracks in their run defense last week, and they have shown cracks in their pass defense against Purdue, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The thing that separates last weeks game from the other three, is that Illinois was able pass the ball in addition to being able to run it. Their four touchdowns all came on the iffy arm of the Juice. Against Michigan, OSU is going to be going against a far more competent quarterback, at least in theory, with the added threat of a proven ground game. That statement relies heavily upon the assumed health of Mike Hart and Chad Henne, if Hart is out the offense will struggle, with or without Henne in there. I am betting on Hart playing no matter what, and I am better on him having a good game. I don’t think he is going to rip it up in Biakabutuka like fashion, but matching his performance from last year should be a given. The bottom line for the Buckeyes, don’t put the game in the hands Boeckman, it is not that he can’t win the game for you, because he can, but he can lose it just as easily with his penchant for throwing interceptions in bunches.

I say: Michigan 27 – Ohio State 24

West Virginia at Cincinnati
This is the toughest game left on the schedule for West Virginia. Going on the road, in prime time, facing a team who views this as the biggest game in the history of the program. That scenario did not work out so well last time for West Virginia.

There are a lot of similarities between the defenses of South Florida and Cincinnati. Stellar pair of NFL caliber CB’s, deep and talented defensive lines, and good solid and consistent play from the linebackers. There is a crucial difference though when it comes to the prior history with the Mountaineers. South Florida played them very well in both 2005 and 2006. Cincinnati, not so much (2005 and 2006). Cincinnati should keep this game very close. The great weakness of UC’s defense is the pass defense. The secondary is boom or bust, they make plays in the form of interceptions or they get toasted. They struggle with offenses that push the ball deep with consistency. If there is one thing WVU does not do well on offense it is throwing the ball over the top. Cincinnati should be able to move the ball well with Bionic Ben Mauk, I just don’t think UC scores enough to win.

I say: West Virginia 31 – Cincinnati 24

Kentucky at Georgia
Right now, few teams are playing better than the Georgia Bulldogs. They are doing pretty much everything right. They are playing physical football with the running of Knowshon Moreno, hitting big pass plays with Matthew Stafford and the defense that was such an unknown coming into this season has been phenomenal as of late completely dominating Auburn and limiting the Tebow led Gators to one of their worst performances of the year. Kentucky has gotten back into the top 25 in a very sneaky way, by beating Vanderbilt after losing three of 4 in the stretch of a month. The question is whether or not Kentucky is as good as they were to start the season. I say no, the thing that still sticks in my mind is losing to South Carolina, Mississippi State and Florida, and looking very bad in the process, not the once in a lifetime win over LSU. Kentucky is not good against the run, and will be powerless to stop the Moreno, and UGA will put 40+ on the board again. Andre Woodson will put up yards and points on that secondary, just not enough of them.

I say: Georgia 41 – Kentucky 34

Boston College at Clemson
The image of two teams going on completely divergent paths right now. Clemson is embarking on their typical November trip to save Tommy Bowden’s job, and I must admit that it is going quite swimmingly for them. I really do like this team and the way that they are playing right now. The defense has been phenomenal all year long, who would have thought the defensive line of the Tigers would be almost as well as it did last year without the presence of Gaines Adams? Certainly not me. Clemson is on the up and up, Boston College, on the other hand, is falling from their lofty perch of just three weeks ago, falling hard. Those four minutes of exquisite play against Virginia Tech by Matt Ryan, and his sturdily average group of WR’s have been forgotten. Whipped away by two horrible performances by the defense in general, and the running backs in particular. You know you are in trouble when your defense gives up 450 yards plus in consecutive weeks against throughly average offenses. Clemson on the other hand is not average, far from it they are very balanced and very explosive. Another case where a truly stellar QB won’t be able to overcome his average peers.

I say: Clemson 38 – Boston College 28

Bonus Coverage
Another game to keep an eye on is Iowa State at Kansas. Seriously. Iowa State has been playing much, much better since getting throttled by Texas. They limited Oklahoma to their lowest non Colorado offensive output, and they put the breaks on the Missouri offense better than anyone else has this year, acctually outgaining them. The defense has continued to make plays for them in wins over Colorado and Kansas State. I am not calling for the upset, but it is a game to keep an eye on.

Sunday Musings: November 10th

Ohio State
Just as I was starting to believe in this Ohio State team, what do they do? They go out there and choke down a sure fire chance at a national championship. What is most shocking to me is the way in which Illinois won the game. All of the touchdowns came on the arm of Juice Williams, but the game was won with the legs of Juice Williams and his backfield mate Rashard Mendenhall, and to a lesser extent Daniel Dufrene, while he certainly had the most yardage, his stats were padded by an 80 yard run. Illinois ran they absolute, most basic plays, zone reads, sprint options, QB powers, really basic single wing stuff and the Buckeye defense couldn’t do a thing about it. The final drive for the Illini was awfully impressive, they only gained 42 yards on that drive but they ate up 8 minutes of clock. Ron Zook channeled his inner Les Miles, going for it on 4th and inches, on his own 33. This was one of those rare games where Jim Tressell was absolutely powerless to manufacture an answer. It happened against Texas in 2005, and against Florida last year, and it happened again last night. Long live the Zooker, the Dick Vermeil of College Football. The BCS is in complete disarray, embrace the chaos.

Connecticut
And so it ends. It was fun while it lasted, but really, it was going to end at some point, and end it did, emphatically so.

UConn, the team that has lived on the good side of the turnover margin all season long, even in their previous loss to Virginia, ended up on the wrong side of the margin yesterday, but that was not half the problem. The biggest problem for the Huskies was that they couldn’t run, and if ever there was a run to win team it is the UConn Huskies. That is how they play, very conservatively and very, very physically. The problem is what happens when another team is more physical? A loss is what happens, the end result of 22 yards rushing for the game, and a second half with a grand total of 46 yards of offense. Cincinnati is still alive for the Big East championship, needing to win out, and for WVU to beat UConn. The Battle Royale for the Big East championship takes place next Saturday at the Nip. Good times, good times.

Georgia
This team continues to impress me, and not just because they looked fucking sick in their Blacks.

I am continually amazed at how well, and how disciplined this team is week in and week out. They do commit penalties, and lots of them, but they don’t turn the ball over, and they don’t make stupid mistakes. Even this week they didn’t play their best game, or anything close to what I still view was their best effort, the thrashing of Florida in the worlds largest outdoor non cocktail party. But they gutted it out with Moreno and Stafford leading the way, and that excessively young and jovial defense absolutely pounding Auburn into submission. Knowshon Moreno is a guy who, at some point in the near future, will not have his greatness questioned, like Glenn Dorsey and Darren McFadden now. Everyone will just know how good he is. Get it, know. As it stands right now UGA is being set up for a BCS party like LSU was last year. They do not control their own destiny for the SEC East birth, much like LSU last year, but they do control their own destiny for a BCS bowl. Meaning they win out and they get a BCS bowl, if they get in to the SEC Title game there is a distinct possibility that their BCS bid gets flushed down the toilet ala Arkansas, circa 2006. So Georgia fans, which do you want the SEC East division title, or 17 million dollars? Decisions, decisions.

Michigan
I know that Henne and Hart were hurt for this game, and I know that you had a freshman QB calling the shots. But how does an offense this powerful get shut down that completely by a defense that can best be described as selectively permeable, like the cells in your body. 30 percent of Michigan’s production came on one play, a 97 yard slant. But the thing that is most alarming is that Michigan couldn’t run the ball, with anyone back there. Which is something that Michigan should just be able to do behind that offensive line, but they couldn’t. UNLV ran for more yards against Wisconsin than Michigan did. The question to be asked is whether or not this is a one game apparition, or is it further proof that Michigan is the throughly average team with the famous name that it was at the start of the season. I tend to favor the former over the later, because we have plenty of conclusive evidence out there that a Michigan team without Henne and Hart is not the same as one with Henne and Hart.

Kansas
Do the Jayhawks deserve a national title spot if they win out? I say yes, but I will follow that statement up with another, they deserve a spot, but that game won’t be pretty. They do not have the talent that the other teams in the discussion have, but they play at such a high level that they can play with anyone, and they can, in theory, beat anyone. The thing is that Kansas is maxed out right now, they can not possibly play any better than they are right now, and they have been doing that from the start of the season, their ability to maintain this level of play is rather astounding. But, in a one game scenario, I wouldn’t take them against anyone else in the top 10, simply because other teams capabilities are far superior to that of Kansas. That is not to say that they couldn’t win, but playing the odds I would bet on Oregon or LSU getting up, and playing at a level that Kansas couldn’t match.