sports sports sports sports

[dieblucasdie]

You guys like Alabama?  Jesus, why?  Is this just an SEC pride thing?  Lame.

[davy]

It would be an SEC pride thing if I wasn't actually a student there.

[davy]

I mean, Saban is fucking PISSED about the Gatorade.

[Thermofusion]

Alabama was the lesser of the two evils. And I rep the ACC and therefore don't ultimately give a shit about college football

[davy]

Why the fuck is Mark May wearing sunglasses?! I HATE MARK MAY.

[davy]

Oh, awkward! Somebody asked him about the Gatorade tackle in the postgame interview. I missed most of his reply but I heard "Not as mad as I would've been if I hadn't gotten one. You know, it's part of it, and I'm happy the players were happy, blah blah." Then he faked a smile.

[Andrew_TSKS]

weird game, but can't complain with the outcome. the alabama coach looks like someone just ran over his cat, not like he won a national title

Yeah, you can tell Saban is just a sour sort of dude. He's still too pissed about getting hit with the gatorade cooler to crack a smile over winning a championship. He's kind of a d-bag, I guess.

Look at how he acted when he left LSU. Dude is a total d-bag. Incidentally, so is Bryan Kelly if his departure from Cincy is any indication. Have fun with that guy, blucas.

Alabama was the lesser of the two evils. And I rep the ACC and therefore don't ultimately give a shit about college football

Huh? Are you casting aspersions on the ACC's own Virginia Tech Hokies? I can't condone that.

Other thoughts:

Davy, don't talk shit about Mark May, he was one of the original Hogs and is therefore forgiven for any and all transgressions. Actually, I don't even find him annoying. Not like Joe Theismann was when he was announcing. Every time that man opened his mouth on television, it was as if he were beating my childhood with a crowbar.

I have very mixed feelings about the Colt McCoy thing. Which are as follows.

1) The monetary losses he will incur due to that injury are probably in the eight-figure range. That's pretty fucked, and for the thousandth fucking time makes me question the whole thing about college players receiving absolutely no monetary compensation despite playing on a level just as popular, high-pressure, and most importantly just as LUCRATIVE as the professional version of the sport.
2) God-talk or no god-talk, I had to give the man respect for shouting out Alabama twice in the middle of a post-game interview. Takes a hell of a lot of humility to still be able to say such a gracious thing when you're staring down the barrel of having lost your entire livelihood.
3) I was hoping to learn something about McCoy's suitability at the pro level from watching the game, especially since word has it that Snyder scouted him personally as a possible Redskins draft pick. I doubt he'll be drafted before the third or fourth round now, if at all, but I am kind of bummed I didn't learn anything about him.
4) In the post-game interview I saw, he kept mentioning that he had no feeling in his arm. It didn't hurt, just felt like he'd fallen asleep on it. That to me says "nerve damage," and that could be far more serious than any sprain or shoulder separation. If he ends up with permanent nerve problems, he'll probably never throw a football again. And love or hate the guy, but that's fucking tragic. Honestly, I am not that interested in having him ever play for the Redskins, but nonetheless I hope he gets better and can play again.

[davy]

Takes a hell of a lot of humility to still be able to say such a gracious thing when you're staring down the barrel of having lost your entire livelihood.
3) I was hoping to learn something about McCoy's suitability at the pro level from watching the game, especially since word has it that Snyder scouted him personally as a possible Redskins draft pick. I doubt he'll be drafted before the third or fourth round now, if at all, but I am kind of bummed I didn't learn anything about him.
4) In the post-game interview I saw, he kept mentioning that he had no feeling in his arm. It didn't hurt, just felt like he'd fallen asleep on it. That to me says "nerve damage," and that could be far more serious than any sprain or shoulder separation. If he ends up with permanent nerve problems, he'll probably never throw a football again. And love or hate the guy, but that's fucking tragic. Honestly, I am not that interested in having him ever play for the Redskins, but nonetheless I hope he gets better and can play again.

I mean, the injury could be worse than it seemed, even if the x-rays were negative. But I think it's a little early to assume it's going to cost him his career...or even a 1st round pick. We'll need to pay attention this week--and I'm sure ESPN will help us with that--and see how he recovers.

[dumbfish]

Read somewhere that Alabama's gonna put up a Saban statue now.

Gonna be really funny when he bails on them to coach Michigan/ Florida/ USC in about three years.

[davy]

I don't know, man. If Alabama is really "back," I can't think of any place I'd rather coach. Alabama's history and tradition as a football program is right up there with Notre Dame and not another school comes close. I mean, he has a shot at being the next fucking Bear Bryant. Who wouldn't want that?

[dumbfish]

Wait until the NCAA starts sniffing around the boosters, and Saban's looking at his scholarships cut in half. Pete Carroll has many times said he'd never leave USC, and now he's the front-runner for the Seahawks job.

[davy]

I'd be sad to see Carroll go. He's one of my favorites, and I don't even like USC.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Yeah, seriously, you're dreaming if you think any amount of anything will ever cause Nick Saban to acquire program loyalty. That dude is a true blue dyed-in-the-wool asshole.

[davy]

I mean, I guess NFL is more prestigious than college, but I don't really see it that way. And if you're gonna coach in college, where can you go from Alabama?

[Andrew_TSKS]

Yeah, well, you may not see it that way, but MONEY sure sees it that way.

[Thermofusion]

that's why they call it MONEY

[dumbfish]

Saban will stick around as long as the cupboard is full. He bailed on LSU to sell high, he bailed on the Dolphins when he realized he'd blown the Culpepper/ Brees decision, and he'll bail on Bama when it's convenient for him. At this point, you can't even get mad at him for being a lizard. Fool me once, etc.

A little disappointed by Carroll. This profile made him out to be some overcaffeinated holy man, a real interesting dude. But moving on when it looks like USC's gonna take a hit makes him more like a rat on a ship (ie, typical of his profession).

The money at a top NCAA school is comparable to an NFL job, with much shorter hours. The reason to move up to NFL is ego/ challenge, not money.

[davy]

Jesus Christ, how much more can you make coaching anything at any level?! 4 million dollars a year is already WAY beyond the pale.

Seriously, what do premier coaches in the NFL make?

Sorry, x-post.

I'm gonna withhold judgment on Carroll until that whole thing is finalized. Too depressing.

[dumbfish]

Shanahan just got $7mm per, but that's the 'Skins, who overpay everyone.
If you think people are above wanting money they don't need, you think more of humanity than I do. Also, there's the argument that they want more money not for the money itself, but for the respect it represents. I generally dismiss that, but YMMV.

Again, tho, the money diff isn't the reason. It's the (not unfounded) perception that the NFL is the highest level of coaching.

[davy]

Again, tho, the money diff isn't the reason. It's the (not unfounded) perception that the NFL is the highest level of coaching.

In the sense that you're dealing with the cream of the crop, maybe. But as for what it takes to put together a championship season, I'm not at all convinced that it takes a better coach to do it in the NFL than it does in the NCAA.

[C of heartbreak]

Pete Carroll in the NFL reminds me of the fake spike play (at least dumbfish will know what I'm referring to here), so I wish utter failure upon him.

Really though, the guy wasn't amazing his last two times as a head coach in the NFL, and Seattle isn't a good situation to go into. The guys an idiot for leaving USC, despite the rule changes.

[dumbfish]

CotH: Oh Marino. You never got me a title, but when you stomp on the Jets' hearts like that, I wanna have your babies anyway.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Again, tho, the money diff isn't the reason. It's the (not unfounded) perception that the NFL is the highest level of coaching.

In the sense that you're dealing with the cream of the crop, maybe. But as for what it takes to put together a championship season, I'm not at all convinced that it takes a better coach to do it in the NFL than it does in the NCAA.

Of course it does, when you're coming from a program like USC. At USC he could have a successful recruiting year and pull 15 to 20 of the most talented high-school players on the west coast, who could then all spend four years working and developing together, and by the time they all graduated, win 2 or 3 titles. By which I of course mean the 2002-2005 era USC team. New York Steve Smith, Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, Matt Cassel, LenDale White, Terrell Thomas, Sedrick Ellis, Lofa Tatupu, Winston Justice, and Fred Davis were all on the 2004 USC squad. They're all playing in the NFL now, and most of them are starting. All of them have been impact players at some point or another. And that's an average year for USC. Also, I only picked marquee names. According to wikipedia, 53 players who were on USC's national championship team in 2004 went on to play in the NFL. To put that in perspective, 53 players is the total active roster of an NFL team.

In the NFL, Pete Carroll will never be able to assemble the quantity and caliber of talent around him that he had during his best years at USC. It's not going to happen. So coaching in the pros will automatically be more challenging for him. This is even more true because in the pros, every team you play is at least half-decent on both sides of the ball. There is much more parity between teams in the NFL than in college football. As Steve Spurrier learned the hard way, you can't run an offense in which you pass on every down in the NFL. You also can't run an offense where you never pass. There's just a lot more work involved in winning football games on the pro level. I know a lot of college fans have various reasons for their preference of the college game over the pro game, and that's fine, but no college fan is allowed to claim that the college game is more difficult or more challenging, because those claims would be factually incorrect.

And by the way, Pete Carroll's coached in the pros before, and he was mediocre. I have no reason to think that his skills have improved since. A lot of what he did at USC won't work in the pros. Which is why neither Bush nor Leinart is a star at the pro level. But whatever, let the Seahawks learn it for themselves. Carroll can't make them a consistent playoff team, but he can make a shitload of money on which to retire, so good for him I guess.

[davy]

I don't know if I can really follow that logic. For every obstacle that's exclusive to coaching in the NFL, there's another for coaching in college. For one thing, you're not dealing with a bunch of teenagers on an NFL squad, and while that doesn't mean they'll never do stupid shit, it does suggest an entirely different social dynamic than one in which you can basically say, "Here's a fuckton of money. Go do your job."

[davy]

Man, I'm not saying college football is harder to coach. I'm just saying that in my view, the opposite ain't necessarily true, either.