SB Nation User Blog: anh_sc79

UCLA Dad Theriot is spinning his way out of Facebook fiasco

anh_sc79 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:10:40 -0000

So by now you all probably heard about Mr. Theriot and his thoughts on "Coach" Rick Neuheisel.

After some thoughts (or I imagine heavy dose of insults from likes of Mushroom and calls from UCLA AD), Mr Theriot is telling the world that it was some freaky hacker that posted those negative comments:

I am Brian Theriot and a loyal Bruin. My Facebook was hacked over 13 times in 72 hours with my password being randomly changed then sent to me via email on a reset code.

My facebook is very fun for me and my family but not given to comments or statements that were posted on it over the weekend. I have, as an NCAA Champion and UCLA Captain, a devoted love to UCLA Football And Track. I am a big fan of Coach Rick and the direction of the program.

In no way, shape, or form do I agree or condone what was put on my facebook.

And, for anyone that would like to speak with me personally.... My last post on my facebook prior to this mess was about my favorite.....Brett Favre.

I have spanked the Register and asked for a retraction. Frankly, I am just a dad riding out four more games and enjoying a great UCLA experience. Nothing more and nothing less.

Gee Mr. Theriot, you telling some crazy hacker hacked your account 13 times in 72 hours?? You believe we're really stupid? So you get password change notification and you do nothing? LOL. That's good spin, sir.

Here is where your post doesn't make sense: "My last post on my facebook prior to this mess was about my favorite.....Brett Favre.". According to OC Register blogger, there were posts criticizing "Coach" RN before and after your post about BF.

Adam Maya actually grills him on it:

Maya: There were multiple posts on your Facebook page attacking the program, beginning Saturday night and continuing through Monday morning. In-between there were multiple posts on Brett Favre and Halloween photos, which have not been removed. If you posted those, you would have seen the comments from Saturday night, which were still on your page as of Monday. Are those your posts from Sunday?
Theriot: “I’m a big Brett Favre fan. My last post I think was about 5:20 p.m., Sunday.”

Maya: Right. And the posts attacking the program came before and after that. The first ones were from Saturday evening, shortly after the UCLA-Oregon State game. The others came on Monday morning. You’ve admitted you posted Sunday. So if someone else wrote these posts on Monday, what about the posts from Saturday?
Theriot: “Those aren’t me. I don’t attack the program. I’ll be honest with you, do I disagree with the use of my son? Yes, but that’s irrelevant. That’s no reason to attack the program. In the midst of all this (on Monday), I was communicating with Bob Field, the associate athletic director, about the situation with my son.”

Maya: OK, but I want to make sure we’re clear on this: There were comments on your Facebook attacking the program on Saturday night. You said you posted the Halloween photos and comments on Brett Favre on Sunday. Did you write the comments from Saturday night?
Theriot: “I was in Corvallis. How would I do that?”

Maya: You still could have easily logged into a computer. You could have even done it from your phone.
Theriot: “You think I’m going to do that while I’m having a good time when I’m in Corvallis on Halloween night? There’s no time for that.

“Look, this is a newsworthy story. But I’m a true blue Bruin. I love the program and I love Rick Neuheisel. It’s not a big deal, but this thing steamrolled and now it’s in USA Today. I got hacked and that’s it. No big deal. Certainly I have differences as a parent but every parent does. I can’t win that battle. I’m not mad at anybody.”

Haha. So apparently the guys posts on his Facebook, sees 13 notifications of password change and doesn't notice the mess. Yeah, right... Looks to me, and few more CF fans (mind NON-USC fans, including some non-Mushroom worshipping readers at Ruined Nation), that Mr Theriot is just in "spin" mode. He looks incredibly bad in the eyes of UCLA AD and fellow Bruins, so he makes up a story on evil hacker.... Do you actually believe that??? Unless you are Mushroom-minded inbecile, you shouldn't.

Priceless "shyt" from "out of countrol" OC (aka Randall Carroll)

anh_sc79 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:00:45 -0000

Stumbled upon this. For thos who don't know, The OC stands for Outta Control. It is Carroll's nickname - http://usc.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=886458

The first gem is here:

So if my translator interpreted this correctly:

1) Norm Chow is black

2) Randall is not happy with him

3) NC doesn't trust RC or RC doesn't trust NC...

4) Same "shyt" (losing?) is getting tiresome for RC

5) Like every Bruin, he was paying more attention to USC - ND game than UCLA game

6) He is whining about this to Ditrich Riley, who probably won't go to UCLA now

More priceless stuff from OC:

More "shyt" from OC

1) RC doesn't like school

2) RC realllllllllly doesn't like schoool

3) RC really reallly realllly realllly doesn't like school

But wait, I thought they were all Rhodes scholars in waiting, or at least that's what Mushroom told me...

UPDATE: Looks like RC is not getting any punishment for that "shyt". Just like Nikola Dragovic (or whoever it was), it was just a misunderstanding. From UCLA blog

After a meeting between freshman wideout Randall Carroll and offensive coordinator Norm Chow about the contents of a somewhat controversial Twitter post by Carroll to St. Francis of La Canada recruit Deitrich Riley, Neuheisel said that Carroll would not be punished.

This, after redshirt freshman cornerback Aaron Hester expressed his frustration about the handling of his return from a broken leg.

"In the midst of a four-game losing streak, there's gonna be frustration," Neuheisel said. "That's a natural byproduct. What we have to do is channel that frustration in a positive way. With respect to Aaron Hester, certainly he understands that coming off a broken leg we can't just rush him into the starting lineup. Maybe on that particular day, he didn't understand. If communication needed to be more thorough, I'll certainly take the responsibility.

"With respect to Randall, I think it's just an oversight with respect to the technology. I don't think it was intended for a public forum. He and Norm have talked and cleared the air."

UPDATE 2: Looks like the Bruin team is united and buying "Coach" RN's philosophy... NOT!!!

Here is another twitter gem from Chrstian Ramirez (yeah yeah I know about Gable, but he never tweeted the whole world about the injustice). Funny "shyt"

Too bad "equipment people .... tag football" doesn't count

anh_sc79 — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:16:15 -0000

Too bad "equipment people .... tag football" doesn't count

BE REAL: It seems most posters on this blog hate USC. What are your feelings about 'SC?
KEVIN CRAFT: I don't think any Bruin likes the Trojans. If we're playing them in badminton, I want to see us win. Our equipment people play them every year in tag football and from what I hear, we usually win it. So...I'mmmm just sayin...

Something terrible happened to Stafon Johnson

anh_sc79 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:14:10 -0000

Something terrible happened to Stafon Johnson

Hopefully nothing serious, but pray for Stafon
Speedy recovery and best wishes

A critical look into UW loss

anh_sc79 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:39:22 -0000

After fuming the whole weekend, I finally decided to put my thoughts together. I posted few comments on WeAreSC.com forum, but I want to present a comprehensive look into UW debacle and the negative vibe around the program. A healthy critique never hurts, especially coming from a big time fan.

I won't get into how much I love what Pete has done for the program and accomplishments. Yes, 118 other programs would die to have this kind of success. But this loss really hurts. I got over Texas loss fairly quickly. I even somewhat got over losses to Oregon and 2 losses to Oregon State. But a loss to UW, UCLA and Stanford really hurt. It really hurts to lose to a program that has no business of being within 21 points if the talent on SC's roster is properly developed and utlized. I can understand losing to Ohio State, Cal or even Notre Dame (EDIT: to clarify, I am talking about 2009 Cal, OSU or ND, not 2001 or 2003 Cal). But not UW nor 2006 UCLA nor 2007 Stanford.

Let's not forget, Bobby Bowden also had tremendous success in 1990s. But FSU's inability to maintain discipline and develop players (despite playing in weak ACC and Florida being mediocre in early 2000s) eventually led to a freefall.

My main "fuming" points are as follows:

1. PC's stubborn decision to ignore special teams recruiting. Year after year, the special teams remains a problem. True, PC hired a special teams coach. But Schneider can't make a weak punters leg stronger. SC lucked out with Buehler, but aside from Buehler, we didn't have an impact kicker or punter forever. Danelo (RIP) wasn't a game changer, none of the current kickers are, and O'Malley is simply atrocious. You can check the punting average across the nation here. Well, what's the solution? You don't have to go far - look across the town. UCLA recruited their current kicker (Forbath) when another excellent kicker (Medlock) was approaching the end of his outstanding college career. Their current punter (Locke) was recruited as another solid punter (Perez, who was impactful during the 13-9 upset) was an upperclassman. There is no reason Pete can't plan out succession plans for kicking, long snapping and punting positions. It's very simple - recruit an elite specialist once in 4 years and if it means 1 less all-american RB, so be it. Matt Darr is coming next year, but it won't help our miserable punting average this year.

If anyone can name more atrocious punting in the Pac-10, please point me to that program.

2. Failure to clean up the penalties. Year after year, SC remains one of the most undisciplined teams in the country. What hurts the most, the penalties come at the worst time possible. With all the talent we have on the roster, it would not hurt one bit to bench anyone for a stupid, undisciplined play. Mindless penalties are becoming an important factor with struggling offense

3. Program's founding stones are becoming empty slogans. How many times we've heard about "it's all about the ball", "Competition Tuesday", "Turnover Wednesday"? Unfortunately, this is becoming nothing but a empty slogan. Prove me Pete, that it's all about the ball. Bench McKnight, Bench Stafor like you benched CJ Gable. If it's all about the competition, where are the practice and spring football all-americans during the gameday?

Paragon summed it up nicely:

I Love PC but I am tired of hearing how great guys do in practice only to see them languish on the bench.

If they are so damn good then get them into the game!

Pete had no problem saying that Flournoy (sic?) needed to learn the playbook or that Mustain is behind the others QB's in his development so why not tell us why the other guys are not cutting it?

Of course that opens up a whole other Pandora's Box...if they aren't that good they why did we recruit them...

Just my .02

4. Offensive talent development. I have no problem with what we're getting out of the guys on the defensive side. If you need a proof, check the NFL box scores from last weekend and see how dominant our x-defensive players are as 1st and 2nd year rookies (LoJack, Cushing, Maualuga, Rivers, TT). However, besides the OL, the talent development for WR, TE, and QB position leaves a lot of room for improvement. The RB position is hard to judge because none of the RBs gets sufficient amounty of carries.

But lets focus on WR position. Looking at the WR position I see a fair amount of highly recruited WR's on our roster (I am not even mentioning VH who left for Cincy). However, none of them became impact players ala DeSean Jackson, Percy Harvin, Julio Jones, A. Benn, Michael Floyd or AJ Green. Moreover, the guys who got away (Adams to Arkansas, Charles to UGa, Jeffrey to SCar) are becoming impact players as true or RS freshmen. What's the matter?

Here is an interesting take from GarryP at WeAreSC:

Q: Garry, since you mentioned that plenty of receivers were recruited ahead of guys like James Johnson [UW WR who led the team in receptions last weekend - anh_sc79] and also considering the fact that guys who got away like Orson Charles, Adams (Ark), Julio Jones, DeSean Jackson, AJ GReen, Percy Harvin, A. Benn become instant difference makes, is it fair to say that talent development (or proper utilization) at WR position hasn't been great since Steve Smith / Jarrett era?

A: This year will tell a lot about WR development, no doubt about that. Last year we got away with a trio of Damian, RoJo and PT as Patrick may not have been the All-American some predicted he would be but he did have a solid SC career. RoJo has developed into a nice threat but the shoulder injury has really been a blow to the team so far. I think Damian is our most polished, all-around receiver since Steve Smith.

That leaves a lot of guys who have been on the roster for a while and should be ready to go. Ausberry, Patterson, Butler, Carswell, Cameron. So far the results from this group have been minimal and you can point to play calling, inexperienced QB, game situations, etc as reasons for that so far this season. At some point, however, you need to look at players who have been in the system and expect them to perform. If they don't, then it is time for some questioning as to why that isn't happening.

What about Blake Ayles as a #1 TE?

Now lets touch the most contentious issue - the QB position. Behind Matt Barkley we have 2 5 star recruits (Aaron Corp, Mitch Mustain) and a solid HS QB in Garrett Green. If Aaron Corp's performance last week is any indication of his development, I must ask the coaching staff: "What the hell have you guys been doing all this time with the super recruits"? I don't buy the inexperience factor. Jevan Sneed, Ryan Mallett, Tate Forcier, Tim Tebow, Tony Pike, Taylor Potts - the list goes on and on - are perfect examples of what talented QB mentors do with solid talent within short period of time. The lack of QB development totally falls on coaching staff. I always been an advocate of inserting backups early in blow outs. Yet our 1st string QB always remains in until the end of the 3rd quarter. The backups never get meaningful time to test themselves in the real game situation. Some may say, that Aaron Corp doesn't fit our system or he simply sucks. To first group, tell me why Aaron was recruited if he never fit? To the second group, I am going to point to GarryP's article on WeAreSC:

Quarterback Matt Barkley, fresh off leading a dramatic last minute drive last week, was also sidelined with a shoulder that simply wasn't ready to go. In his place, we entered the game with Aaron Corp. Not to worry, I thought, as up until a few weeks ago Corp was scheduled to be our starter and he would surely take advantage of his opportunity to show what he is made of. That didn't turn out to be the case. I've had a chance to cover Aaron Corp a lot over the years, primarily during his career at Orange Lutheran, and the player we saw yesterday did not resemble the guy I've seen in the past. Aaron Corp is a good quarterback folks. It's just a shame this might be the game people remember him by because it was clearly not his best effort. He seemed timid, unsure of himself and he made some poor decisions. That is not the player who was named California State Player of the Year. Again, I don't know what went wrong but it certainly did go wrong for Aaron on this day. In fact, his 110 passing yards were the lowest performance by a quarterback in the Pete Carroll era.

Which brings me to the next point

5. Playcalling needs to improve. I know some of you don't agree with me here. Paragon wrote that "playcalling is overrated", but I respectfully disagree. I firmly believe that playcalling must adjust to certain players strengths and weaknesses. It's hard to run a system that doesn't take advantage of what the player is capable of doing.

Aaron Corp will never have Matt Barkley's arm, but MB7 will never have AC15's mobility. I didn't see a single naked bootlet, no zone read options to take advantage of Aaron mobility. Not once did Bates called a deep throw downfield (put max protection if you are worried about a sack). The play calling is unimaginative with zero creativity.

You can only go so far with talent and poor playcalling. Several pundits and posters mentioned that a common denominator behind conservative playcalling by various OC's was Pete Carroll. I believe there is some merit to that. Play calling must be creative, not dumb. No one asks for a trick play on 4th and inches when you have a tall, strong QB behind All American OL, just sneak it. But once in a while, use an end around, reverse, flea flicker... Keep defenses honest.

Pete needs to let an experience college OC run his offense. Note I said college OC, not any OC. NFL offensive strategy is built on assumption that the other team is equally talented (more or less - at least the difference between the Steelers and the Lions is not as big as the difference between Florida and Florida International). That's not the case in college. Look what experienced OC such as Gus Malzahn did to Auburn's pathetic offense.

UW's defense is no 1984 Chicago Bears. Nate Enderle of Idaho passed for a lot of yards just a week ago. I watched the game and you can go vertical (or deep) on them. Especially when you have a 6"4 WR on a 5"9 true freshman. Play to win, not to prevent a loss.

This loss hurts. For the first time in the last 5-6 years the Trojans didn't serve crow to a trash talker. Every pundit on earth put the Trojans on the upset alert and yet we blew it. It pains me to say, but we lost a race with a full garage of Ferrari's to a 1970 VW bug.

Some things must change to avoid this crap again in future.

Can I take my prediction back????

anh_sc79 — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:27:36 -0000

Can I take my prediction back????

Before the season started, Paragon asked me about a sleeper team (and he used my pick for his blog roundtable).... My pick was Colorado...

Can I take it back please?

Review of every Week 1 game

anh_sc79 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:52:55 -0000

Note: I will try to make this a regular weekly feature (time permitting). This review will have a brief summary of every FBS game (I try to watch every game, or at least check the recaps, message boards, and stats). It will not focus on "big-time" or USC games since you probably watch those anyway or read about them in the paper / online. Big-time games will have an "outside of the box" commentary and small games will try to identify stars in making (I think we were one of the first to point out Michael Crabtree's insane numbers few years ago). Updates will follow as games are played.

S. Carolina 7 - NC State 3: I just hope voters don't rank SCar next week. There was some bad football on both sides. If not for Baker's fumble, SCar doesn't score that lone TD. NC State doesn't have great receivers and it showed. SCar: show me more before you deserve to be ranked.

Bowling Green 31 - Troy 14: A small upset. Troy was favored to win the Sun Belt and got bombed away after leading 14-0. Tyler Sheehan has an NFL size (6'4, 225) and could be one of those next 3-4 year MAC starters that successfully make it to NFL. Interestingly, Josh Jarboe, a highly touted troubled Troy player who was kicked out of Oklahoma didn't have much of an impact.

Villanova 27 - Temple 24: First FCS over FBS upset (although a number of experts picked Villanova in the Mayors Cup). Al Golden still doesn't look golden (wonder if BN clowns still think he is a great coach). Villanova was down 10 points in the 4th and came back. If not for Bowling Green, MAC could have captured the title of worst FBS conference this weekend (always in perennial battle with Sun Belt for that spot).

Kent State 18 - Coastal Carolina 0: Nothing noteworthy except for the fact that Coast Carolina featured a RB named Tommy Fraser (just 2 letters off). Kent's Uegene Jarvis is supposedly very good (heard about him few times last year).

North Texas 20 - Ball State 10: Year 1 of post-Brady Hoke era at Ball State didn't start well. Riley Dodge, a highly recruited QB that had offers from Texas and Mizzou but decided to follow his Dad to North Texas, was very impressive and North Texas might be a big turnaround story this year after winning just 1 game last year. I watched parts of the game and if not for squandered red zone opportunities, North Texas would have won big. Watch for Riley Dodge, he may turn out to be pretty good.

Iowa State 34 - North Dakota State 17: Paul Rhodes era kicked off and Iowa State broke a long losing streak. NDSU is a decent FCS team, but it's hard to make any conclusions about Iowa State yet. This is a good recipe for a poor team like Iowa State - win 2-3 OOC games against cupcakes and build on it.

Indiana 19 - Eastern Kentucky 13: If this game is an indicator of anything, IU will certainly have a tough time beating anyone in the Big Ten. Watched parts of the game and IU didn't look good against a mediocre FCS team. Indiana was lucky that EKU fumbled the 4th quarter drive on IU's 5 yard line.

Utah 35 - Utah State 17: Watch out WAC, Utah State might be vastly improved compared to the pathetic team they had for the last 2 years. The new spread offense gave Utah fits. Utah looked good at times, especially Matt Asiata and their new QB (Cain) could be just as good as departed Johnson. The Utes may need to clean up sloppy turnovers, but if they do, I can see them running the table especially if Oregon plays like they did last night

Boise State 19 - Oregon 8: There is plenty on the web. My 2 cents:

a) None of these teams deserve to be in the top-25

b) Boise State should have blown out Oregon, but I can't believe how many silly miscues they had. It was as if they are trying to lose the game

c) I may be dead wrong, but I won't be surprised if Chip Kelly turns into a Steve Kragthorpe / Ron Prince and drives an established program into the ground. I saw 0 adjustments from this offensive genius and so many squandered opportunities.

d) It may be offending to Duck and Beaver fans, but lately, almost every freaking year, those clowns from the State of Oregon get humiliated on the National TV early in the season during an OOC game and then play their minds off against SC or other ranked Pac-10 team and destroy the credibility of the conference.

Tulsa 37 - Tulane 13: A rather decent game (with a poor, poor attendance) which featured 2 good QBs. Unfortunately, Tulane's QB had no OL to protect him, thus the difference in score. Looks like another Texas transfer QB (Tulsa's Kinne) is poised to have a great year. He ran well and threw well. He'd be a perfect replacement for the Golden Hurricane (reminds me of Kapernick). Tulane has improved from last year, but watch for Tulsa to make some noise.

Hawaii 25 - Central Arkansas 20: A close call and last minute TD saved Hawaii against an FCS team. Looks like things are going down fast at Hawaii after June Jones' departure (the Warriors used to blow up team like this). Hawaii fumbled 4 times, but overcame the turnovers.

Northwestern 47 - Townson 14: NW lost its best WR and QB from last season and still appeared good. But it's still Towson.

Michigan St 44 - Montana State 3: First ever game against an FCS team by Sparty. Sad. Now only 4 teams left (USC, ucla, UW and ND) if I am not mistaken. Not much to conclude from this game

East Carolina 29 - App State 24: App State was without Armanti Edwards and ECU barely beat them. Frankly, I don't think ECU will win the CUSA as many experts predicted. So many other CUSA teams looked great

Minnesota 23 - Syracuse 20: Probably all of you saw highlights from Paulus' debut. Other noteworthy stuff: Todd Marinovich's brother played for Syracuse (and he looked ok). Also, Minny was pretty lucky to win (a fumble on 1st play by Syracuse and INT in the OT by Paulus). Cal should easily pound them 2 weeks from now, but you never know. I'd even take Air Force over Minny next week

Kentucky 42 - Miami OH 0: Kentucky might be better than advertised (at least offensively). I really like those neutral site games where the host is a mid-major, but 70% of the stadium is visiting teams' fans. Since it doesn't make sense for Big Ten and SEC teams to play @MAC schools (because of their HS stadium sized places), this presents a viable alternative for home-and-home.

Ohio State 31 - Navy 27: You all saw the game (or at least the highlights). I personally would discount this game while analyzing Ohio State. Tressel made few questionable calls, but I think everything will be very much different against SC.

Penn State 31 - Akron 7: Penn State's new wideouts (they lost all 3 starters) turned out ok. I really like when coaches shut down in the second half after building a comfy lead in the first. PSU played their 2nd string players for the entire second half. As a contrast, I wasn't comfortable with seeing our 1st teamers late in the third

West Virginia 33 - Liberty 20: I wonder how long Bill Stewart is going to last. WVU didn't look good early (watch parts of the game). Liberty is not even a good FCS school.

Purdue 52 - Toledo 31: It was a debut for Purdue's HC. The game turned into a bit of a shoot out. One week ago, I thought Purdue will get crushed at Oregon. Now, I am having my doubts. Hopefully the Ducks won't embarass the conference two weeks in a row.

Iowa 17 - Northern Iown 16: You all have seen the highlights. What stands out to me and no talking is commenting on it is incredibly lame time and field position management by the UNI coaches (that's why they coach at FCS level). With about 20 secs to go and in field goal range, UNI coaches let the clock run on 1st down and call a TO with 7 secs left (they were lucky to get the ball with 1 sec left on the 2nd try). In my opinion, they should have run a quick play and position the ball right in the middle of the field instead of the left hashmark and then call a TO. Blocking a straight kick is much more difficult than one being kicked from the angle. App State coaches almost blew it 2 years ago against Michigan in similar situation.

Tennesee 63 - WKU 7: Good debut for Lane Kiffin. What was interesting to me is that many freshmen that Kiffin brought played excellent. On the other hand, Fulmer's players made a lot of mistakes (Hardesty, Crompton). UT is positioned well to smoke the Bruins

GA Tech 37 - Jacksonville St 17: JSU was without Perilleaux (not that it would have mattered) and GT shut it down after the 1st half to get ready for Clemson. Ga Tech might end up winning the ACC, they looked good

Pitt 38 - Youngstown St 3: LeSean McCoy's replacement Dion Lewis didn't disappoint, yet it's too difficult to make any conclusions about Pitt now.

Boston College 54 - Northeastern 0: BC is picked last in their division, but I think they will make some noise. Judging from highlights, their new QB (David Shinskie) looked good, but he is still competing for a starting spot. We'll find out more about BC in 2 weeks @Clemson

Air Force 72 - Nicholls St 0: I know it's Nicholls State, but it is still hard to score 72 running a triple option. I really think AF will create a trouble for a BYU, TCU and Utah this season.

Oregon State 34 - Portland State 7: Rodgers brothers on fire. Again, this game tells me nothing. OSU better watch out for UNLV and Cinci.

Wyoming 29 - Weber State 22: An ok debut for D. Christensen (WYO's new HC). The game was close. Wonder how Wyo fares against Texas at home

USC 56 - SJSU 3: Paragon hit all the nails, my only complaint is the punting game. O'Malley may cost us field position in important games down the road. I'd go with Harfman

ND 35 - Nevada 0: So much for the upset. Jimmy looked great, but what was shocking to me is Nevada's complete ineptitude on O (or ND's solid D by Tenuta). ND is very improved

Michigan 31 - Western Michigan 7: WMU was supposed to be a better MAC team. Great showing by Michigan

Baylor 24 - Wake 21: Robert Griffin (Baylor) showed some flashes last year, but this might be his coming out year. Art Briles is a great coach and they beat a solid Wake team in Winston-Salem. Won't be surprised if Baylor makes it a bowl game this year

Oklahoma State 24 - Georgia 10: That's what happens to an SEC team if it plays a solid OOC game on the road. Don't think UGa's offense is there this year. Still a statement game for Mike Gundy

Miss State 45 - Jackson State 7: Oh my God, Miss State scored 45 points!!! Something they haven't seen in Starkville in ages. First game between SEC and SWAC.

Mizzou 37 - Illinois 9: Might be a rough year for Ron Zook. Mizzou's new QB (Gabbert) may end up to have a better career than Chase Daniel

UAB 44 - Rice 24: Was bit of a shocker to me. Rice lost its QB and WR from last year, but UAB never been productive on offense in the last 2 years. Their dual threat QB (Webb) might open some eyes this year.

Marshall 31 - S. Illinois 28: Another close call against FCS team for CUSA member. We'll find out more about Marshall when they play @West Virginia.

North Carolina 40 - The Citadel 6: Yates was solid, but this was expected. Wake me up when UNC team plays someone with a pulse

Clemson 37 - Mid Tenn 14: CJ Spiller was hurt, that's the only notable thing about this game aside from the fact that highly recruited QB Willie Korn of Clemson still hasn't won the starting QB job.

William & Mary 26 - Virginia 14: Wow, what's going on in Charlottsville? This might be Al Groh's last year. This was 1st of 2 losses to FCS teams by the ACC.

Luthur Brown is back!

anh_sc79 — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:18:08 -0000

Bumped...Awesome News!!!! - P

RipsIt blog just posted that Luthur is back.

BREAKING NEWS: Brown reinstated By Ben Malcolmson on September 3, 2009 1:09 PM | No Comments Linebacker Luthur Brown has been fully reinstated and will practice today for the first time this fall, Coach Pete Carroll announced this afternoon.

Brown, who sat out all of training camp, has regained his academic eligibility and will be available to play in Saturday's season opener. Brown adds versatile depth to the linebacking corps, as the redshirt senior can play all three positions.

This is certainly excellent news and will help to add depth among our LB corps. It's been good 2 days for SC football after all these injuries.

2009 Academic Rankings of the Conferences

anh_sc79 — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:36:30 -0000

Note: Of course I had to write this at the same time as the big announcement reg QBs was made

We always like to have fun with numbers here on CC. Last year, we ranked FBS conferences in terms of average academic rankings (and no, unlike our friends at Berkeley or Stanford, we don't bring up the number of Nobel prize winners or rankings when we get clownstomped [which we never do] by a 3rd rate academic school in SEC or MWC :) )

Ok, back to fun. US News & World Report just came out with its 2010 Rankings. And as expected, there is little movement. The only scary things... SEC is moving up. Imagine what happens to voter, schedule, and image manupulation if SEC becomes #1. So here is the standing, and rankings by conference is after the jump

	2009	2008	2007
ACC	48.7	48.3	50.0
Big Ten	50.2	50.1	51.4
Pac Ten	72.8	72.3	73.3
SEC	103.3	101.6	105.0
Big 12	104.2	99.4	97.7
Big East	114.3	112.1	111.0
Mountain West	132.5	143.0	142.7
C-USA	162.2	154.1	160.1
MAC	177.3	174.1	174.4
WAC	181.3	199.6	192.4
Sun Belt	231.5	228.0	228.0

Here are the rankings (basically very similar), based on scoring by academic councelors (5 best, 1 worst ). Thank God, SEC didn't make a move yet here...

ACC	4.18
Big Ten	4.16
Pac Ten	4.06
Big 12	3.88
SEC	3.78
Big East	3.71
Mountain West	3.66
C-USA	3.59
MAC	3.41
WAC	3.34
Sun Belt	3.17

ACC
Atlantic
Boston College	34
Clemson	61
Florida State	102
Maryland	53
North Carolina State	88
Wake Forest	28

Coastal
Duke	10
Georgia Tech	35
Miami FL	50
North Carolina	28
Virginia	24
Virginia Tech	71
AVERAGE	48.7

ACC: Solid across the board. FSU is pushing the average up

Big Ten
Illinois	39
Indiana	71
Iowa	71
Michigan	27
Michigan State	71
Minnesota	61
Northwestern	12
Ohio State	53
Penn State	47
Purdue	61
Wisconsin	39




AVERAGE	50.2

Big Ten: Solidly bunched together. No bottom outliers.

Pac Ten
Arizona	102
Arizona State	121
California	21
Oregon	115
Oregon State	167
Southern California	26
Stanford	4
UCLA	24
Washington	42
Washington State	106





AVERAGE	72.8

Pac-10: Top and bottom heavy.

SEC
East
Florida	47
Georgia	58
Kentucky	128
South Carolina	110
Tennessee	106
Vanderbilt	17

West
Alabama	96
Arkansas	128
Auburn	88
Louisiana State	128
Mississippi	167
Mississippi State	167
AVERAGE	103.3

SEC: ESSEESEE! ESSEESEE!! ESSEEESSEE!!! Too many bottom feeders. No great schools besides Vandy (that's why Vandy never wins the SEC)

Big 12
North
Colorado	77
Iowa State	88
Kansas	96
Kansas State	167
Missouri	102
Nebraska	96

South
Baylor	80
Oklahoma	102
Oklahoma State	167
Texas	47
Texas A&M	61
Texas Tech	167

AVERAGE	104.2

Big-12: If they could put Rice instead of Baylor, they'd be #4

Big East
Cincinnati	167
Connecticut	66
Louisville	167
Pittsburgh	56
Rutgers	66
South Florida	167
Syracuse	58
West Virginia	167







AVERAGE	114.3

Big East: Another reason why BE is practically no different than MWC in football. Academics suck compare to other BCS conferences.

Others: Probably not very relevant.

UCLA football... a gift that keeps on giving...

anh_sc79 — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:11:47 -0000

Made me chuckle...

First, from Cassius Marsh, a highly recruited DL from West Lake Village:

What About The Bruins?

“I have a little interest in them but it’s hard for me. If it all goes well this season they really begin to get things together, I will reconsider but I’ve always wanted to play for a big time program. A winning program but UCLA is not it.” Marsh said

Of course Mushroom will just find a way to accuse the kid of something...

Next, Jon Wilner of all people:

Best stadium: The Rose Bowl
Since this category was about the facility and not the fans, I took this approach: If every stadium were filled to capacity, which would be the best place to watch a game? After much back and forth, I went with the Rose Bowl over Autzen and Husky. Nestled in the Arroyo, with the mountains in the background, it’s awesome.

Exactly. Because the presence of powder-blue puke ruins (no pun intended) the football experience :)