SB Nation User Blog: jtlight

NEW: Event Tagging (Use It)

jtlight — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:32:30 -0000

With football season upon us, we'd like to encourage everyone to use some of the new features that are available on SBN 2.0. Mainly this includes all the tagging features.

Basically, when you're writing on a team, player, or game, use the functions on the right side of the screen to tag appropriately, and then use

Our fearless SBN College leader, Peter Bean, wrote up an excellent synopsis at Burnt Orange Nation, which is quoted below:

While some of the features of SBN 2.0 might be considered 'take it or leave it,' depending on your preferences, one of the new site functionalities we'd really love to see everyone take advantage of is Event Tagging.

When composing a Fan Post or Fan Shot for SBN, authors will always have the option to tag the story using the various mechanisms on the right side of the posting page (shaded in blue). Note that one such mechanism is labeled "Events"; with it, an author can tag his story to a specific game/event in the site database. The beauty of the system is that all content tagged to any given event will appear on that game's event page.

For example, I've now tagged four stories to the Florida Atlantic-Texas game. By clicking on the "COMPLETE COVERAGE" button at the bottom of the "Upcoming Game" box in the left sidebar of BON's main page, a reader will be taken to the contest's game page.

Of all the tagging tools available on this site (there are many, they all are wonderful), this is by far the most useful. This site is driven in no small part by community-generated content; if all of you start event tagging when posting an item relating to a specific game, we'll all be the better for it by being able to browse pre-sorted game-relevant content in one tidy page.

And now, in case you struggle with basic drop down menus, some pictures. Hooray.

The only possible confusion might arise from that top right menu, which you'll need to change to 'Upcoming' for a game not yet played. If, however, you're writing on a Monday about the past Saturday's game, you'll leave the menu in the 'Completed' slot and choose the appropriate game before clicking 'add'.

It's that simple.

Obviously, this is is Texas related, but it works the exact same over at Addicted To Quack. If you're writing something about an upcoming game, tag that game, teams, players and anything else as you wish. For example, by clicking the complete coverage button for the upcoming Washington game will take you to a page that has everything written on that game (as long as it it tagged correctly).

There are lots of great features that we haven't taken advantage of since the site switchover a while ago, but with the season upon us, let's use everything the platform can offer! Thanks!

3 Days to UW - Remembering 2000

jtlight — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:12:52 -0000

With 3 days remaining, we look back to arguably the biggest UW-Oregon game ever, the 2000 battle. Both teams were highly ranked and it was the height of the Neuheisel hate era.

UW was No. 6 in the country, and had beaten eventual No. 2 Miami in Seattle early in the season. Oregon was No. 20 in the country and fresh off a 29-10 demolition of No. 6 UCLA in the first GameDay visit to Autzen.

Two stellar quarterbacks led the offenses and the defenses were top notch. With the defeat of UCLA, this game would determine the conference favorite

Despite some penalties on kick returns that would have blown the game open, Oregon was able to make up for those mistakes with solid offensive play. Over the game, they gained 229 yards on the ground behind Maurice Morris, and Harrington added with some great passes to Peele and Howry.

The Oregon defense clamped down as well, holding the Huskies to 3 points in the first 3 quarters. Oregon took a 23-3 lead in the 3rd quarter on a Harrington QB sneak. However, Washington would not go away. Helped by Josh Frankel missing 3 field goals and an Oregon offense that seemed content to bleed the clock, Marques Tuiasosopo brought the Huskies back, closing the gap to 23-16 and getting the ball back with minutes left in the game.

But that's when it ended. The Oregon D, led by Matt Smith (Mr. Turnover and one of my favorite Oregon defenders) forced a 4 and out, ending the game. Smith knocked down the final pass to go along with an earlier interception. Washington got one more chance after Oregon failed to run out the clock, but the "hail mary" went incomplete.

If you can handle a little Joe Giansante today, below is the video recap from the 2000 highlight video:

This was a great win against the last great Husky team, which made it that much sweeter.

3 days left! GO DUCKS!

Preseason Blogpoll

jtlight — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:13:04 -0000

OK, this is a little late, and due to that not in this years initial Blogpoll, but that's the way that is goes. For the season, I'll be posting that weeks poll on late Sunday/early Monday, to get thoughts and make any chances before the Wednesday morning deadline.

At this point, this is a purely speculative power poll. It will start to firm up after the first week or so. After the first 7 or so, it's mostly my gut feelings on these teams. Thus, this thing is probably waaay off.

For more info on the BlogPoll in general, check after the jump.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	25
2	Oklahoma	24
3	Georgia	23
4	Ohio State	22
5	Florida	21
6	Missouri	20
7	Clemson	19
8	West Virginia	18
9	Penn State	17
10	LSU	16
11	Texas Tech	15
12	South Florida	14
13	Oregon	13
14	Auburn	12
15	California	11
16	Texas	10
17	Virginia Tech	9
18	Arizona State	8
19	Kansas	7
20	Brigham Young	6
21	Wisconsin	5
22	Utah	4
23	Oregon State	3
24	Michigan	2
25	Fresno State	1

Dropped Out:

WHAT IS THE BLOGPOLL? It's basically the AP poll except with bloggers. It's a poll and so fall prey to all the things that polls fall prey to, but if you're so inclined these are the reasons the BlogPoll might be superior to other polls out there:

Everyone watches a ton of football. It's ironic that the two most prominent polls survey perhaps the two least qualified groups of people to vote: journalists and coaches. Both spend their Saturdays laser-focused on one game. Thanks to Gameplan and DirectTV, bloggers can suck in as many as 20 games every weekend.

Biases are disclosed and closely monitored. Every voter has to have a favorite team; voters without are laughed at and told to watch something soulless. The poll closely tracks each voter's level of bias and uses stern disapproval to keep would-be homers in check. (Would-be negative nancies are not quite so easily dissuaded.)

The poll's goals are clearly stated. The AP poll is full of voters who vote team X super high in the preseason because of its schedule; this is strongly discouraged by the BlogPoll. Preseason polls are supposed to be exclusively about how good a team is thought to be, and postseason polls are supposed to be exclusively about how much a team has accomplished on the field.

Now... it is impossible to separate the former from the latter in late-season polls because college football provides such a sparse data set, but at the very least BlogPoll voters know they shouldn't vote a 9-2 USC team #1 even if they think they're the best team unless that 9-2 includes three killer nonconference matchups.

Voters have more time for consideration. The poll comes out Wednesday morning, allowing voters to catch up on everything that happened and discuss it in the blogosphere. Other polls come out Sunday, and almost never take other's arguments into account.

It's weirder. The poll has some definite wackos in it, but they are relatively few and act as a net positive, forcing more mainstream voters to argue things like "Kansas probably shouldn't be #20 at 11-0" or "why rank Hawaii at all?"

It's more fun. No one really cares, so we can just vote and not have garments rent.

Utah State Preview

jtlight — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:03:53 -0000

Utah State Preview

Yep, they are really really bad.

Thompson on his way to Eugene

jtlight — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:38:14 -0000

Thompson on his way to Eugene

Apparently the holdup was due to some incompetent JC school not being able to process grades. Rickert sums everything up well. He's ready to contribute, and will hopefully be playing by the 2nd or 3rd game.

At this point, I'm not to worried about the defensive tackles. Not too many big names, but plenty of depth, which is most important.

4 Days to UW - Remembering 1997

jtlight — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:25:38 -0000

Another day, another great moment from the UW rivalry.

1997 wasn't going as planned. After a 3-0 start, Oregon found itself at 4-4, teetering on the edge of a winning season. Oregon needed a victory over the No. 4 ranked Huskies in Seattle. With time running down, Oregon was down by 4, 28-24, and drove into Husky territory. But Patrick Johnson and Akili Smith made a play that would define the season. Both had been questionable: Johnson battling drops and Akili unable to really beat out Jason Maas. But at 3rd and 20 with the season on the line, they came up with one of the most beautiful throws and catches in UO history.

Smith, defying coach's orders, threw a perfect pass to where only Johnson could get it. Johnson then made a perfect catch, laying out to get it in the Husky end zone.

Not only was this a huge win that made the season, but it was also that much better that it knocked off a highly ranked Husky team in Seattle.

4 more days! GO DUCKS!

Also, here's a video recap on this game, with a different view of Johnson's catch, narrated by Jerry Allen.

OSN/TV Questions Answered

jtlight — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:37:48 -0000

OSN/TV Questions Answered

From the guys at DSN, all your TV questions are answered.

5 Days to UW - Remembering 1995

jtlight — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:03:27 -0000

This week we're gonna be running down some of our best memories of the Oregon-Washington rivarly in the lead-up to game day.

Today we look back to 1995. Oregon had not won in Seattle in 15 years. But after the previous years victory, and with a 6-2 record, things were looking good.

And then, on the opening kickoff, Patrick Johnson made his first mark on Seattle, breaking a return outside after he had been stuffed and taking it to the house.

With that spark, the Oregon offense, led by Tony Grazinai would roll up over 300 yards and 17 more points to take a 24-0 halftime lead.

Yet, in the second half this lead would dwindle as the Ducks couldn't put any more points on the board. Washington closed the score to 24-22 and had a chance to take the lead, but Husky John Wales missed his 3rd FG of the day with 1:06 left, and Tony Graziani knelt the ball the run out the clock.

Oregon was able to escape Seattle with its first win since 1980, and that win was key in their Cotton Bowl birth, which angered Husky coach Jim Lambright, making this a sweet victory indeed.

5 days left! GO DUCKS!

Morning Oatmeal: Weekend Roundup

jtlight — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:08:06 -0000

Well, we know as much about Costa as we did yesterday. The MRI results are back, but won't be released until the orthopedist gets back on Sunday. Everyone is keeping a pretty tight lip, but apparently the injury is "different" than it was last year. I'm not really sure what this means, but because of how its been handled, I'm leaning away an ACL tear. Now, it could be something just as harmful, but it's more wait and see.

And that shouldn't be a huge problem. Roper has been stepping up. In the scrimmage yesterday, he was 3/4 for 61 yards and had a 25 yard touchdown run. Granted, this was with most defensive starters out, but seeing 2 good performances in a row is very encouraging. And Roper is saying all the right things as well. He's been preparing to be the starter since Day 1, and he's ready to make the most of his chances, even under unfortunate circumstances.

One added problem to Costa's injury, which Rickert brings up, is that our depth takes a shot. Yes, there is a ton of talent, but these are players with weeks in the system, not years. I think with the talent around, we'll be better off than last year were we to lose a bunch of QBs, but if Costa is unavailable, that is quite a shot to the depth of the QBs.

In the rest of the scrimmage, Blount and the offense were "dominant". Blount had 87 yards on 4 carries, which was against the mostly 2nd string defense, but still quite impressive. The rest of the QBs played solidly as well, and Remene Alston drew praise for his 27 yards on 6 carries.

The only bright spot on defense was a Scott Grady 100 yard interception return for a touchdown off Darron Thomas.

However, despite the praises, there were also some criticisms. From the RG:

On the negative side, Bellotti ticked off a number of things that needed improvement.

“We had too many procedure penalties, too many snaps on the ground and too many missed tackles,” he said. “Our tempo needs to improve and overall, our kickers and punters did not have a very good day. I was disappointed in their performance and it hurt our ability to evaluate some of our return people.”

Defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti was even sharper in his criticism of the overall performance of his players.

“We played a lot of younger kids, but that’s no excuse,” he said. “I didn’t see a thing I liked ... we didn’t give a great effort, we didn’t give great focus, we didn’t pay attention to detail, we didn’t tackle, we weren’t mentally tough. We didn’t do anything that a great defensive team would do to win football games. The only good news is, we didn’t play a real game today. It was brutal, as bad as I’ve ever seen it.”

So there is definitely a lot of room for improvement. But with many of the top players on the sidelines today, that shouldn't be too difficult.

In other news, one of the things I am most excited for this year is the return of Jeremiah's stiff arm. With how much the team went through after he went down last year, it's easy to forget just how awesome it is. Ted Miller did a feature on him yesterday, and he sounds confident and ready, a great combination. I really like Jeremiah, and am excited to see what he will do as a team leader.

Bleacher Report has some good info on Jairus Byrd. The dude can play, and I am excited to see the secondary in action.

Well, we'll a mere 7 days away from season kickoff, and only 5 days away from college football in general. It's game week everyone!

GO DUCKS!

9 Days to UW - Remembering 1988

jtlight — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:36:30 -0000

Only 9 Days until our team takes the field under the lights at Autzen to take on the Huskies. Now, we've talked about the game itself, and we've been thinking about the matchups and all that for some time. So over the next week, let's take a look at some of the great plays of the rivalry.

I'm gonna kick things off in 1988. In Musgrave's sophomore year, Oregon had a nice 5-1 record going into the Washington game, but were still underdogs against a ranked Husky team led by Don James.

But Oregon held in there most of the game, making enough plays to stay in it, and got the ball down 10-14 with little time left. Musgrave led the team deep into Husky and the team found themselves in a 4th and 1 situation at the 5 yard line. With star backs Derick Loville and Latin Berry, everyone expected the dive, but OC Bob Toledo (yes, this was a loooong time ago) called the reverse, the 49 special to Terry Obee, and magic happened:

Pandemonium ensued. I grew up hearing about this play from my dad, and this was one of the first big breakthroughs against the Huskies after years of domination.

Unfortunately, this would be the last win of the 1988 season. In the next game, Musgrave broke his collerbone and the season was effectively over. If not for that, this play could be rememberred in the same vein as another famous play from 1994.

GO DUCKS!