NCAA Football 2021

[Hrothgar]

NBC

The Jaguars’ interest in former Texans head coach Bill O’Brien is great enough that they’ll be bringing him in for an interview.
...
O’Brien was 52-48 in the regular stadium and 2-4 in four trips to the postseason while coaching the Texans. He was fired early in the 2020 season and joined Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama this year.

He is probably a good coach as long as he doesn't have GM powers like he did at Texas. That is what killed him.

I think he's a good offensive mind. To be a good head coach, he needs to fix the two glaring problems he had in Houston.

1. He needs to be able to get along with people better. He had an abrasive personality and a my way or the highway attitude. He made too many enemies on the team, the front office and in the press and community. On the team, he would put players in the dog house and then ship them out of town. Since he was intent on getting rid of them, he never got close to market value. Others just left at the end of their contract and never wanted to come back. It left Houston with a huge talent drain since his focus was on players who got along with him instead of maximizing talent on the team.

2. He was terrible at in game adjustments. He could come up with a whole new gameplan for an opponent if he had a week to prepare, but if it stopped working in the game, he had no answers. BOB often got bailed out because Watson was so good in the 4 minute and 2 minute offense when he was essentially calling his own plays. Maybe better offensive and defensive coordinators would solve that problem.

I haven't heard much about him at Alabama. Does he seem like someone who learned from his mistakes?

[Scuzz]

He also left the Texans with absolutely no cap space. He paid too much for players who didn't contribute and traded away players that did.

[msduncan]

NBC

The Jaguars’ interest in former Texans head coach Bill O’Brien is great enough that they’ll be bringing him in for an interview.
...
O’Brien was 52-48 in the regular stadium and 2-4 in four trips to the postseason while coaching the Texans. He was fired early in the 2020 season and joined Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama this year.

He is probably a good coach as long as he doesn't have GM powers like he did at Texas. That is what killed him.

I think he's a good offensive mind. To be a good head coach, he needs to fix the two glaring problems he had in Houston.

1. He needs to be able to get along with people better. He had an abrasive personality and a my way or the highway attitude. He made too many enemies on the team, the front office and in the press and community. On the team, he would put players in the dog house and then ship them out of town. Since he was intent on getting rid of them, he never got close to market value. Others just left at the end of their contract and never wanted to come back. It left Houston with a huge talent drain since his focus was on players who got along with him instead of maximizing talent on the team.

2. He was terrible at in game adjustments. He could come up with a whole new gameplan for an opponent if he had a week to prepare, but if it stopped working in the game, he had no answers. BOB often got bailed out because Watson was so good in the 4 minute and 2 minute offense when he was essentially calling his own plays. Maybe better offensive and defensive coordinators would solve that problem.

I haven't heard much about him at Alabama. Does he seem like someone who learned from his mistakes?

I bet if you ask 10 Alabama fans, 8 of them would say they don't mind if he goes. Granted, he has a young offense he's working with so it's hard to tell. All I know is that I hear people complaining about our lack of running plays, confusing play calls in some pretty critical situations, and our offensive line can't block a flea (except in the SEC Championship game). So if he goes, I will not weep.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

He was also one of the most conservative play callers. I seem to remember multiple games against the Pats where they needed just a few yards to win the game, he punted, and they lost.

[Lassr]

NBC

The Jaguars’ interest in former Texans head coach Bill O’Brien is great enough that they’ll be bringing him in for an interview.
...
O’Brien was 52-48 in the regular stadium and 2-4 in four trips to the postseason while coaching the Texans. He was fired early in the 2020 season and joined Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama this year.

He is probably a good coach as long as he doesn't have GM powers like he did at Texas. That is what killed him.

I think he's a good offensive mind. To be a good head coach, he needs to fix the two glaring problems he had in Houston.

1. He needs to be able to get along with people better. He had an abrasive personality and a my way or the highway attitude. He made too many enemies on the team, the front office and in the press and community. On the team, he would put players in the dog house and then ship them out of town. Since he was intent on getting rid of them, he never got close to market value. Others just left at the end of their contract and never wanted to come back. It left Houston with a huge talent drain since his focus was on players who got along with him instead of maximizing talent on the team.

2. He was terrible at in game adjustments. He could come up with a whole new gameplan for an opponent if he had a week to prepare, but if it stopped working in the game, he had no answers. BOB often got bailed out because Watson was so good in the 4 minute and 2 minute offense when he was essentially calling his own plays. Maybe better offensive and defensive coordinators would solve that problem.

I haven't heard much about him at Alabama. Does he seem like someone who learned from his mistakes?

I bet if you ask 10 Alabama fans, 8 of them would say they don't mind if he goes. Granted, he has a young offense he's working with so it's hard to tell. All I know is that I hear people complaining about our lack of running plays, confusing play calls in some pretty critical situations, and our offensive line can't block a flea (except in the SEC Championship game). So if he goes, I will not weep.

Agree. My complaint also was if a plan wasn't working he had a hard time adjusting. Also some baffling play calls in the red zone. I hate for young to have to get a new coordinator but it might be best for the offense. He seems to hate screens also which would be perfect when all these teams send pressure on the QB.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[Skinypupy]

Oregon State demolished their stadium today. Utah State won Twitter.

geez guys it was only a bowl game...

[Scuzz]

Oregon State demolished their stadium today. Utah State won Twitter.

geez guys it was only a bowl game...

Only the upper deck. The local sports guy showed this last night. They will still be playing there while a new upper deck is being built.

[Skinypupy]

USC QB Jaxon Dart has entered the portal. I think this all but confirms Caleb Williams is headed to SoCal. Bummer...was hoping he'd end up elsewhere.



Had a Bama fan client remind me this morning that the title game was tonight. I had honestly completely forgotten. I fully expect Bama to roll, and was quite surprised to see that GA was a 2.5 point favorite. Am I the only one who saw Bama absolutely take them to the woodshed a month ago?

[Isgrimnur]

No traffic five minutes in?

[Jaymann]

No traffic five minutes in?

On in the background with no sound. If things are close late I may sit up and take notice.

[Isgrimnur]

Ok, Dad…

[Jaymann]

Ok, Dad…

Damn straight:

[msduncan]

The loss of Williams is huge. Need someone else to step up. #Rolltide

[Pyperkub]

No traffic five minutes in?

On in the background with no sound. If things are close late I may sit up and take notice.

Maybe you should take notice?

[Jaymann]

No traffic five minutes in?

On in the background with no sound. If things are close late I may sit up and take notice.

Maybe you should take notice?

Nah, it's no longer close.

[Skinypupy]

I really thought Bama would have a similar performance to the SEC title game. Kudos to Georgia for turning it around. Looks they had one bad week on the year, and that was it.

Those were obviously the two best teams all year, and are likely to be again for the foreseeable future.

[Lassr]

Hate Bama lost but it was a a huge plus just being in the championship game this year with all the freshmen and injuries. Losing the 2 top receivers though just couldn't be overcome.

I'll take it for a rebuilding year! Losing still sucks but Georgia was the better team all year except for that one game.

[Pyperkub]

The way Bama was grinding out drives, hitting a few big plays and staying ahead of the sticks, I really thought they were going to take it, but then Stetson Bennett IV exploded. Hell a game by the kid to hang in there for three quarters and then take charge when it was needed.

[Pyperkub]

I really thought Bama would have a similar performance to the SEC title game. Kudos to Georgia for turning it around. Looks they had one bad week on the year, and that was it.

Those were obviously the two best teams all year, and are likely to be again for the foreseeable future.

I thought they might, but Georgia kept holding them to field goals. I thought for sure Bama was going to go up 10-0 after Georgia went backwards on their first drive, but the Georgia defense wouldn't break. It sure bent a lot tho.

[Isgrimnur]

[Skinypupy]

Not that this really matters, but here’s the final AP poll. No real surprises.

[Scuzz]

I didn't really care who won this game. I have grown to respect Alabama enough to appreciate how good they are and what Saban has done there. I was just happy this was a close game until almost the end, and it was nice seeing Georgia win for a couple reasons. One, for Kirby Smart, he needed to beat Alabama in a game that mattered, and two, someone besides Alabama winning is good for the sport, even another SEC team.

Did anyone else think Georgia lineman #54 almost cost him team the win though. Twice that idiot dove into piles after the whistle was blown, once hurting an Alabama player. The announcers didn't mention it the first time but did the second time. The first time would have cost Georgia 15 yards at an important point in the game. It was like the refs just didn't want a call like that to decide the game.

[Carpet_pissr]

I didn't really care who won this game. I have grown to respect Alabama enough to appreciate how good they are and what Saban has done there. I was just happy this was a close game until almost the end, and it was nice seeing Georgia win for a couple reasons. One, for Kirby Smart, he needed to beat Alabama in a game that mattered, and two, someone besides Alabama winning is good for the sport, even another SEC team.

Did anyone else think Georgia lineman #54 almost cost him team the win though. Twice that idiot dove into piles after the whistle was blown, once hurting an Alabama player. The announcers didn't mention it the first time but did the second time. The first time would have cost Georgia 15 yards at an important point in the game. It was like the refs just didn't want a call like that to decide the game.

Not sure about that particular player costing the win, but I vaguely remember quite a few no-calls after the whistle (certainly some late hits on QB that weren't called, but that happens all the time).

[Lassr]

they did swallow the whistle a lot which I think is OK as long as it goes both ways.They didn't call an obvious Georgia player lined up in the neutral zone in the game. They were more lax on pass interference than other ref crews, and they didn't call holding much, even missing some obvious ones but it seems to go both ways so it evened out I think.

But yes, #54 did hurt Mathis on one of his late pile ons, looked like a dislocated shoulder the way the were working on it.

[Carpet_pissr]

they did swallow the whistle a lot which I think is OK as long as it goes both ways.They didn't call an obvious Georgia player lined up in the neutral zone in the game. They were more lax on pass interference than other ref crews, and they didn't call holding much, even missing some obvious ones but it seems to go both ways so it evened out I think.

But yes, #54 did hurt Mathis on one of his late pile ons, looked like a dislocated shoulder the way the were working on it.

Having dislocated a few things myself, quite a few times over the years, and at least one collarbone break, 'sploded elbow, etc, that was my first thought as well (dislocated shoulder). Though I do remember holding my arm exactly like that after breaking collarbone, so 50/50.

[Pyperkub]

I didn't really care who won this game. I have grown to respect Alabama enough to appreciate how good they are and what Saban has done there. I was just happy this was a close game until almost the end, and it was nice seeing Georgia win for a couple reasons. One, for Kirby Smart, he needed to beat Alabama in a game that mattered, and two, someone besides Alabama winning is good for the sport, even another SEC team.

Did anyone else think Georgia lineman #54 almost cost him team the win though. Twice that idiot dove into piles after the whistle was blown, once hurting an Alabama player. The announcers didn't mention it the first time but did the second time. The first time would have cost Georgia 15 yards at an important point in the game. It was like the refs just didn't want a call like that to decide the game.

Georgia committed a lot of dumb penalties - they killed anything they had resembling an offense in the 1st half especially.

[Pyperkub]

Hate Bama lost but it was a a huge plus just being in the championship game this year with all the freshmen and injuries. Losing the 2 top receivers though just couldn't be overcome.

I'll take it for a rebuilding year! Losing still sucks but Georgia was the better team all year except for that one game.

Eh, Metchie's loss was in the SEC Championship. With a month to work with the replacement 4/5 star WR's Bama has, I don't see this as too much of a factor. Williams is more impactful because it happened during the game, but honestly, it was Georgia's pressure all game on Young which limited Bama's offense more than the WR injuries IMHO.

SEC folks - I didn't watch the SEC Championship, but did Georgia blitz that often in the first game? I'm thinking no, because their blitz package last night was incredibly efficient all game and all the reports indicated that Young had an extremely clean pocket and all day to throw in that game. He definitely didn't last night.

[Pyperkub]

Williams reportedly tore his ACL (which, as someone who has torn both ACL's, was exactly what it looked like happened to me):

Alabama star wide receiver Jameson Williams suffered a torn ACL on Monday night in the 33-18 loss to No. 3 Georgia in the College Football Playoff National Championship, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

[Lassr]

Hate Bama lost but it was a a huge plus just being in the championship game this year with all the freshmen and injuries. Losing the 2 top receivers though just couldn't be overcome.

I'll take it for a rebuilding year! Losing still sucks but Georgia was the better team all year except for that one game.

Eh, Metchie's loss was in the SEC Championship. With a month to work with the replacement 4/5 star WR's Bama has, I don't see this as too much of a factor. Williams is more impactful because it happened during the game, but honestly, it was Georgia's pressure all game on Young which limited Bama's offense more than the WR injuries IMHO.

SEC folks - I didn't watch the SEC Championship, but did Georgia blitz that often in the first game? I'm thinking no, because their blitz package last night was incredibly efficient all game and all the reports indicated that Young had an extremely clean pocket and all day to throw in that game. He definitely didn't last night.

they did blitz more, the last game they tried to use their line to penetrate and pressure and drop extra in coverage but Young had time to pick them apart even with extra coverage guys.

This time there was more pressure which caused Young to ditch the ball a lot instead of getting sacks. But he still hit several hands on long balls and td throws that the inexperienced receivers did not catch. Metchie or Williams probably would have gotten 80% of those throws.

Yes, there are replacement 4/5* WRs but they lack game reps and the timing was off. If Young had more time in the pocket it would have made the timing better but with the pressure, he had to get rid of it quicker and calculate where his receiver was going to be a little faster. So a lot of just out of reach throws. So the combination of pressure and inexperienced receivers was not ideal.

[Isgrimnur]

Williams reportedly tore his ACL (which, as someone who has torn both ACL's, was exactly what it looked like happened to me):

Alabama star wide receiver Jameson Williams suffered a torn ACL on Monday night in the 33-18 loss to No. 3 Georgia in the College Football Playoff National Championship, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Yahoo

However, after suffering the injury, Williams reportedly wanted to play in the second half despite the injury. Saban refused to allow that to happen, and in his press conference following the game, he explained the situation.



Saban explained that Williams requested to go out and play in the second half, but the medical team wouldn’t allow it to happen. He mentioned Williams’ future in the reasoning behind not allowing him to return to the field.

[Scuzz]

Hate Bama lost but it was a a huge plus just being in the championship game this year with all the freshmen and injuries. Losing the 2 top receivers though just couldn't be overcome.

I'll take it for a rebuilding year! Losing still sucks but Georgia was the better team all year except for that one game.

Eh, Metchie's loss was in the SEC Championship. With a month to work with the replacement 4/5 star WR's Bama has, I don't see this as too much of a factor. Williams is more impactful because it happened during the game, but honestly, it was Georgia's pressure all game on Young which limited Bama's offense more than the WR injuries IMHO.

SEC folks - I didn't watch the SEC Championship, but did Georgia blitz that often in the first game? I'm thinking no, because their blitz package last night was incredibly efficient all game and all the reports indicated that Young had an extremely clean pocket and all day to throw in that game. He definitely didn't last night.

He did have more time to throw in the first game, but Alabama also had a running game in the first game.

[Carpet_pissr]

Glad to see Saban seems to be the kind of college FB coach with the kids and their future as top priority. That was exactly the right answer IMO.

That attitude is not unique of course, but lots of coaches in the same situation would have let him play if he wanted to, or even ‘forced’ him to play if he didn’t. “You get your ass back on that field, we need you and this is the championship game!”

[LawBeefaroni]

Glad to see Saban seems to be the kind of college FB coach with the kids and their future as top priority.

Ask former Michigan State players about that.


It was a torn ACL. It's more like "not even Saban would send a kid back out there with a torn ACL."

[Carpet_pissr]

Glad to see Saban seems to be the kind of college FB coach with the kids and their future as top priority.

Ask former Michigan State players about that.


It was a torn ACL. It's more like "not even Saban would send a kid back out there with a torn ACL."

Heh, I did write "SEEMS", but I also almost wrote something to the effect of "of course, that could all be for show and the press, and for all I know he WAS screaming at the medical staff to let him play, etc." but I am already too wordy, and trying to correct that.

[Pyperkub]

Glad to see Saban seems to be the kind of college FB coach with the kids and their future as top priority.

Ask former Michigan State players about that.


It was a torn ACL. It's more like "not even Saban would send a kid back out there with a torn ACL."

The thing is, you can't 100% diagnose many torn ACL's without an MRI (and there's no way, even with an MRI machine in the building - there probably isn't - that they had time to do an MRI). The first time I blew out my knee, I couldn't walk on it until after surgery.

The second one however, felt fine after a few minutes, and I could still run on it, but cutting didn't feel right, so I stopped playing hoops that day out of caution. If I had been playing for a National Championship? Yeah, I would have wanted to get taped/wrapped/cortisone injection and go back out.

That night we had a party and ended up in the hot tub, and once I got out, my knee had ballooned.

I eventually got an MRI which showed it was torn, but I didn't have insurance and didn't get it fixed. Eventually I got insurance and through the pre-existing conditions window and went to have it fixed (in a different county with a different doctor as I had moved), and the first doc I went to examined me (but never saw the MRI from a few years prior), and said it wasn't torn, and I should do PT.

I went to a different doctor, who did a couple of knee tests and he immediately knew it was torn and said "when do you want it fixed?". I stuck with the second doc...

[Pyperkub]

Hate Bama lost but it was a a huge plus just being in the championship game this year with all the freshmen and injuries. Losing the 2 top receivers though just couldn't be overcome.

I'll take it for a rebuilding year! Losing still sucks but Georgia was the better team all year except for that one game.

Eh, Metchie's loss was in the SEC Championship. With a month to work with the replacement 4/5 star WR's Bama has, I don't see this as too much of a factor. Williams is more impactful because it happened during the game, but honestly, it was Georgia's pressure all game on Young which limited Bama's offense more than the WR injuries IMHO.

SEC folks - I didn't watch the SEC Championship, but did Georgia blitz that often in the first game? I'm thinking no, because their blitz package last night was incredibly efficient all game and all the reports indicated that Young had an extremely clean pocket and all day to throw in that game. He definitely didn't last night.

He did have more time to throw in the first game, but Alabama also had a running game in the first game.

Thanks. Many of those blitzes were also pretty good blitzes against the run. Dangerous if a good cutback lane was there, but it didn't really happen. They were definitely QB blitz packages, but in situations where a run was somewhat an option, they tended to be gap-aware blitzes, from what I recall.

[Skinypupy]

ESPN's final college football power rankings for the year.

[Pyperkub]

ESPN's final college football power rankings for the year.

Interestingly enough, it's very, very different from their FPI (tm?) rankings

EG. Baylor is #6, vs FPI of #15, Cincy #5 vs FPI pf #10. Iowa St NR vs FPI of #9.

[Lassr]

Glad to see Saban seems to be the kind of college FB coach with the kids and their future as top priority.

Ask former Michigan State players about that.


It was a torn ACL. It's more like "not even Saban would send a kid back out there with a torn ACL."

Younger Saban may have been different but while at Alabama there has not been one peep about him not caring about the players, their health, or their careers.

[Scuzz]

ESPN's final college football power rankings for the year.

Interestingly enough, it's very, very different from their FPI (tm?) rankings

EG. Baylor is #6, vs FPI of #15, Cincy #5 vs FPI pf #10. Iowa St NR vs FPI of #9.

BYU drops way down on the ESPN ranking.