Get out of the way, Beavers.....

CIVIL WAR KEYS TO THE GAME:

OREGON
The keys for Oregon will be to distribute the ball evenly amongst all their offensive weapons -- their three running backs including Byron Marshall coming out of the backfield to receive passes; their corps of tight ends even without Pharoah Brown; their endless supply of excellent receivers; and of course the one who makes it all happen, Heisman front-runner Marcus Mariota.

On defense, they need to watch out for the Beavers two weapons, the long passes down the center, and Coach Riley's patented tool -- the always dangerous, tried, true, and traditional Fly Sweep.

NO. NOT THE FLY SWEEP!!!

OREGON STATE
The keys for Oregon State will be to run fast, jump up and down, flap and wave their arms, and gosh dang it, just try their darndest to be the best they can be and work really hard to believe in themselves. As long as they show good sportsmanship, their moms will be proud.

On defense, they need to feel privileged that they have front row seats to view the best offense and single best football player that they have ever had the honor to be on the same field with. It'll be a great story to tell the grandkids. 

"Gee Wally, That Marcus Mariota sure is good."
"Ya he's really nice too. He saw me crying as
he ran by me to score and said 'Sorry'."

PAC-12 TITLE PICTURE
Oregon will play for the Pac-12 Title December 5th regardless of what happens tomorrow. Their opponent will be decided as UCLA hosts Stanford and Arizona State travels to Arizona. Both games start at 12:30 today.

UCLA, a 4-1/2 point favorite, will go to the Pac-12 Championship if they beat Stanford. If they lose, the winner of Arizona - Arizona State meets the Ducks.

The Ducks aren't concerning themselves with who wins. They are completely focused on just taking care of their own business to get to the big dance. The Beavers are an obstacle. The Pac-12 South Champ is an obstacle.

SEC CRUMMY OPPONENT OF THE WEEK AWARD WENT TO...
Last week it was #1 best-in-the-nation Alabama's turn to host a crummy opponent in late November as the playoff polls get more critical.

Two weeks ago you'll recall we had SEC teams scheduling a church (Ole Miss vs. Presbyterian) and a labor union (Missy State vs. UTM) . Last week Alabama played against Western Carolina.

OK now they're just making teams up. You got North Carolina and South Carolina. There IS NO West or Western Carolina. Yet there they were, from the WTF league I guess. The Catamounts, they call themselves.

Here we are in late November,
and the #1 team in the nation
played this team:
The Catamounts.

This coming Saturday is no exception to SEC teams scheduling cupcakes. Florida will be going up against what I am convinced is the most overrated team in the nation, Florida State.

Last week Florida State squeaked by a mediocre 6-4 Boston College 20-17 at home with a last minute field goal. This can't last. Eventually they will come up against a complete team capable of playing a full 60 minutes and get blown out.

It'll be a shame if it doesn't happen until the playoffs and locks out a more worthy #5 team, whomever that may be.

ALOITTI SHOULD TAKE THEIR MONEY
This story from The Oregonian's John Canzano last week:
 NFC East teams try to hire Nick Aliotti as consultant to combat Eagles
Former Oregon Ducks defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti said on Monday that he's been contacted by NFC East teams that want to hire him as a consultant to help them solve the Philadelphia Eagles' offense.
Not an NFC East team -- every one of the NFC East teams.
"I have been asked by everybody in the NFC East ..." the retired Aliotti said on Monday. "The Giants asked me to come back when Chip got the first job. I didn't feel right doing that. Some teams have called when they're getting ready to play the Eagles and they call and have certain questions on the thing. Unless I know the guy and he's a good friend, I don't get involved with that."
The Eagles (8-3) are tied with the Cowboys (8-3) on top of the NFC East. [Dallas got crushed.]
Aliotti, who coached alongside Eagles head coach Chip Kelly, saw the offense every day in practice. He turned down the requests, he said, but Aliotti said he's talked scheme with some of his coaching friends such as USC defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox, who played under Aliotti.
"Sometimes it's about scheme, sometimes it's about how you handle what's going on with a situation," Aliotti said. "I have quite a few good friends ... mostly it's X's and O's or how you handle a situation or a player."

I think Nick Aliotti should set up a Pay Pal account and take their money. Once the transaction clears, he could give them the following valuable information. . . . .

1) You need to condition your defense to be ready for snaps every 17 seconds for an entire game. If you start conditioning now, you may be ready for the Eagles in 2015.

2) Because the Eagles QB is just letting the movements of your defensive players decide where the ball is going, you need to have all your men play straight up and honest. Don't lean to the right or left. Don't cheat up or back. Play your position, mind your own gap and territory. If you don't have 11 players on the field that can handle their own for the entire game, Kelly will exploit your weakness. And so your best chance is to just find better players in the next draft.

Really, do you think Chip would care if
Nick offered his opponents some "secrets"?
I think they both would just laugh.

In short, there's no trick. No scheme. No gimmick. If you're worried that Kelly's Eagles are going to shred your defense, you need a better defense.

That's it. Thank you for your business. Good luck.

--Nick Aliotti.

Civil War game time Saturday, 5pm Pacific on ABC.

--KB

While Ducks play Buffs, Seminoles play all of us.

Lunch at Autzen. Saturday at 1:30. Buffalo Burgers.
Colorado has lost 23 consecutive road games. But don't let that fool you. They've lost some very close games.
They've lost six games in a row. But two were in overtime.
Statistically they're average, but not terrible. Out of 105 teams, they rank about 120th in scoring defense. But they try hard.
They'll lose to the Ducks, but not without putting up some sort of a fight. You know, like a wiggling salmon in a grizzly bear's mouth.

It'll be a successful day if Oregon just gets the win and stays healthy. Center Hroniss Grasu is out for at least this game with a slight leg injury. Tight end Pharoah Brown is out for at least this season with a clean torn off leg.
Mariota should just unleash to track champion Devon Allen about five times in the endzone, then retire to the sidelines before he trips on a dent in the turf and thrashes his knee. Thank goodness SI so far hasn't decided to put him on their wicked cover for the fourth time.

Pleeeeeze just staaaay healthy stay healthy stay healthy
stayhealthy stayhealthy stayhealthy stayhealthy stayhealthy.

Oregon is currently #2. Alabama leaped over them. Florida State slipped to 3rd because in nearly every game, they've had to come from behind to beat the girl scouts they play.

There's another problem with Florida State . . . .
FLORIDA SHAME UNIVERSITY

DEAR FLORIDA STATE,
 WE REQUEST THAT YOU STOP USING OUR NAME FOR YOUR FOOTBALL TEAM. IT'S NOT ABOUT INDIAN DISCRIMINATION. WE'RE JUST EMBARRASSED TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR QUARTERBACK.
SINCERELY,
SEMINOLE INDIAN NATION

FSU QB Jameis Winston was accused of sexual assault nearly two years ago. Two of his friends who were at the scene of the alleged crime were given a hearing in May. Winston was not. One friend was cleared, while the other was given one year probation for filming the alleged assault without the alleged victim's permission.

So there's a film of Winston assaulting the victim? No. It was deleted before investigators could see it.

Winston's hearing had been scheduled for November 17th to discuss four charges against him. I'm getting my info from The Sporting News Story, "Shame of Jameis Winston and Florida State: Football above all else".
Here they say,
Winston is accused of four violations of the code of conduct; two considered "sexual misconduct" and two "endangerment." Punishment for any or a combination of the four ranges from probation to expulsion.
There's also the very real possibility that Winston could be charged with the lesser of the four violations — sexual misconduct defined as "conduct that creates an intimidating, hostile and offensive environment for another person" — and still play the remainder of this season

A letter of reprimand might be the hammer of justice in that case. The idea was he would have that hearing in front of a former Florida State Supreme Court judge (which wouldn't surprise me at all if that meant a Supreme Court judge who graduated from Florida State). The judge would then take up to 10 days to decide, or more if needed for "additional consideration of evidence and deliberation".

In any event, that would still leave time for a decision that allows suspending him from future games including their game against Florida on November 29th, the ACC Championship December 6th, the final College Football Playoff selection on December 7th, and of course the playoff and champion games to follow.

Guess what? His lawyer asked for an extension because he hadn't gone through all of the evidence yet. Here was Florida State's chance to say that two years was plenty enough time, and the matter at hand was more important than football.

Guess what? Free Shoes University granted the extension and set the new date for December 1st. That means that a decision doesn't have to be handed down until December 11th at the earliest, long after the regular season is over and the four playoff teams have been selected.

Life is good for the Winstonator.

But wait, there's more! Don't forget about the appellate process after the decision has been made which can be scheduled who-knows-how-long into the future. To sum it up, Jameis Winston is going to play every game whether he's a rapist or not. Florida State is seeing to that.

To make this a bigger pile of BS, this alleged crime -- although plenty bad enough -- isn't the only thing he's being investigated for. In his October 30th game against Louisville, Winston had a bad first half. A TERRIBLE first half. Two interceptions and less than 50% of passes completed -- one of his worst halves ever. Florida State trailed 21-0 going into the locker room.

One Winston fan was happy about it though. A high school classmate and family friend of Winston's bet a whopping $5500 that his buddy's Seminoles would trail in that first half. He won $5000. And magically, Winston improved tremendously in the second half and won the game.

The question to ask here isn't "Did Winston actually sexually assault that woman?" or "Did Winston shave points in a game?"  And the question isn't "What is Florida State's position in all of this?" We know that answer already. FSU has no shame.

The question I have is "Where is the NCAA?" Why aren't they outraged? The NCAA, who gave Joe Paterno the death penalty -- he literally died from their sanctions -- when they stripped Penn State of hundreds of wins. This same NCAA who stripped Ohio State of an entire season of wins including a Sugar Bowl victory when they determined the great QB Terrelle Pryor had sold football memorabilia and driven several nice cars that he didn't buy. Why aren't they raising any kind of concern over how these "investigations" are being conducted.

The part that leaves a bad taste is that those wins by Penn State and Ohio State, including bowl wins, were vacated. The trophy didn't go to the losing team. It was just taken away, forever to be a blank spot in the history books.

These investigations on Jameis Winston won't amount to anything until months or years after this season is over, long after he has bolted to the NFL. And yet why doesn't the NCAA see the hand writing on the wall that this could end badly? Why are they not upset that the first College Football Playoff -- their first attempt at making us forget all about the BCS -- could end with vacated wins? The chances are disturbingly high that a Winston-quarterbacked FSU team could make a mockery out of their inaugural new playoff system.

How does that affect the other three teams? What does that do for the #5 team sitting on the outside while Winston plays?

It seems to me that the NCAA president Mark Emmert would very much want to avoid "vacates" (Vacancies? Vacations?) of major bowl games including and especially THE Championship Game. It smashes the remainder of college football's already dented credibility.

[CLICK HERE FOR A TOUCHING LETTER ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE BY MARK EMMERT]

Why doesn't he see the train wreck coming and order FSU to hurry up instead of delaying these investigations? Or better yet, why doesn't he tell FSU and other teams that players cannot play while investigations are under way for certain heinous crimes? 

Which crimes? Off the top of my head, sexual assault and fixed gambling come to mind as two pretty good examples.

If December turns to January and Winston is still playing football, the shame belongs to the whole system.

Colorado at Oregon game time: Saturday, 1:30 pm on the Pac-12 Network.
If you still don't get the Pac-12 Network, drive to your nearby television channel provider. Ask to speak to the supervisor and KICK THE BASTARD IN THE NUTS!!!

--kb

Heisman Trophy? How 'bout the Mariota Trophy?

I wasn't able to put up a post about Oregon's sweet victory over Stanford the week before last. So shall we just take a moment to enjoy these photos of Stanford losing?

 

UTAH TO BE KIDDING ME!
The greatest touchdown in Oregon history, of course, is The Pick. They're calling this The Pick-UP.


This single play has gone super viral. It immediately hit YouTube from several different angles. Twitter and Facebook blew up. And last Sunday night, there it was on both the ABC and CBS Evening News with the anchor saying something smarmy like, "Let that be a lesson to you kids out there."

Ute Kaelin Clay could not wait to drop the ball so he could begin his dance. In the press conference after the game, he said he took "full responsibility" for that.

Well GREAT, Clay. Was there someone else trying to steal the blame for that one?

And here is a reaction from a Utah fan . . .


This game was a battle. A cage match. It was so nice to have beaten Stanford the week before with the Cardinal putting up little fuss. But these Utes were particularly fussy, sacking Mariota four times and forcing him to fumble once.


Cheaters!

Down goes Marcus.

Injuries were huge. Guys on both sides were dropping right and left. Utah's starting QB and wide receiver. Oregon's center Hronis Grasu, then Tight End Pharoah Brown went down.

Watching the replay of Brown's injury the next day, I listened to the announcers say the guys in the truck had a camera angle on the injury, but thought it best not to show it. So I checked YouTube. Here is a 3 second video of what happened to Pharoah Brown. Warning: This is not pretty. If you're eating, stop for a second. If, during this cold and flu season, you're already battling nausea, don't even watch it.

But when you do watch it, you'll instantly understand why he was in so much pain, why he spent days in a Salt Lake Hospital and is now recuperating in his hometown in Ohio, and why the coaches said, "Obviously he's out for the season."


Here is what I don't get. The four big injuries mentioned above -- they were all non- or otherwise little contact. They were all weird twists between the person's leg and the ground. I'm looking at all of them wondering "What is with that turf?"  It's like it has funny seams or a sticky surface that suddenly grabs a foot and won't let go. Maybe just bizarre coincidences.

Pharoah Brown scores in 2nd quarter.

MARIOTA AND OREGON'S #2 RANKING.  
ANOTHER COINCIDENCE?
After the barrage of sacks he had received from Washington State and Arizona, It appeared to me that Mariota finally came to full acceptance of what everyone was telling him. If he didn't play like Super Mariota, Oregon would lose. If he didn't dedicate himself to doing EVERYTHING he could to make the plays needing to be made, Oregon would not go anywhere. No Pac-12 Championship. No College Playoff. No Heisman. Nowhere.

Granted he could not have done it without his offensive line suffering through their own wake up call. But together, they all regrouped and rededicated themselves to the cause. In this latest stretch of wins, I think Mariota has kept the ball and run it more often than he did all last season.
*(If I were a responsible journalist, I would actually research the stats and compare how many rushes he's had then and now. But I'm too lazy and it's easier just to offer that point and say it's true -- you know, like Fox and Friends.)
 The result is Oregon is on target for the College Football Playoffs, and Marcus Mariota is on target for the Heisman Trophy.

I mean is there any doubt? At this point in the season, does anybody see Oregon playing at this level without Mariota? Does anyone not see any other team with Mariota suddenly vault to the upper slots in the polls.

Not only should they give Mariota the Heisman already,
but they should recreate the Heisman
in this image of him.

The rest of this season is just hoping nothing terrible happens. Word is Mariota has got this. Here is an excerpt from USC's SB Nation blog "Conquest Chronicles".

But the biggest takeaway from this week's update of the college football odds is that Marcus Mariota is now dominating the Heisman Trophy odds. After another four-touchdown performance (239 passing yards, 3 TD; 114 rushing yards, 1 TD), Mariota's odds are now an overwhelming 1/5.

Everyone else on the Heisman odds list dropped with the exception of Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett and TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin. Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott is second but dipped for the second week in a row. His odds are now down to 13/2.

 

It's his to lose. 

 

HEY SEC, QUIT BEATING UP ON CHURCH LADIES

I propose a new rule in college football. If you play a patsy lower division school in November, it counts as a loss regardless of the score. Last week two SEC teams, Ole Miss and Mississippi State played football opponents in the loosest sense of the words.

 

#11 Ole Miss played a church, Presbyterian, and beat them convincingly 48-0. And then #1 Mississippi State got by a team called UTM 45-16. I've checked around, and I still don't know who UTM is. I think they're a labor union.

 

Although they have beaten every SEC team they've played, Missy State's strength of schedule rating is tied with Oregon's at #7 thanks to their scheduling very weak non- league teams.

Missy State vs. UTM
"Ha ha. We're KILLING these guys!"

Meanwhile in that same strength of schedule tally, Florida State is ranked #14. Being a member of the Atlantic Conference, they have played only one other ranked ACC team, Clemson. And their tough win over Notre Dame now looks suspect after ASU just slaughtered the Irish. That explains why Oregon passed them in the Playoff poll. Oregon has beaten three ranked teams this year (Michigan State, Stanford, and at UCLA) and they lost to a currently ranked Arizona team. Pollsters tend to see that as a "good loss".

 

I point this out because when I see these allegedly awesome teams schedule unbelievably weak teams, it just pisses me off further knowing that Texas A&M had a perfectly good home-and-home series scheduled against Oregon, and they pulled out. Now let's hold our breaths to see what cupcakes Jack Boot U. schedules in those open slots.

Oregon is bye this week in perfect time to heal and finish strong against Colorado, Oregon State, and then the Pac-12 Championship.

In a few days, I will post a special report about a different team. Which team (mentioned above) best comes to mind when I say the word "shame"?

--kb