The Senator

I'm feelin' a little special myself

Even Belicheat* rests his veterans - he* just goes about it differently, illegally using the guys on IR - that he's* not allowed to practice - to give his* vets fewer reps and extra rest in practices... Cheaters never win: The risk of breaking rules not worth reward That's not to say that Jauron's not a soft coach - he is - but I'd rather have seen them work harder in camp than beating the crap out of the guys mid-season.

I'd say it depends on the score at halftime - if we're winning, it'll be a love fest. (Amazing what consecutive road-wins and a new QB will do for RW's health and mood, no?)

Here's a...

Sure, I can see RW opening up his wallet to the tune of $30+ guaranteed to see if Bradford ever fully recovers

Bradford is coming out... Sam Bradford plans surgery, to enter NFL Draft in April Sam Bradford plans to enter the 2010 NFL Draft

Leach is a beat writer's dream - you never know what's gonna come out of his mouth, but it'll usually be entertaining. "When I first met him," allows former quarterback Graham Harrell, "I thought, 'Is this guy really the head coach? This can't be real.'" Funny thing is, here's 6 pages of TTU gals, and I really don't see any fatties...

Maybe they would. Actually, I'm slowly 'coming around' Chef - coaching just may be the key to why they can't win more titles... Link - Pete Carroll is the common denominator in USC debacles

Um, OK - you go right on explaining what you thought KD meant, and then what I meant, then what he said, then what I said - - maybe even try to make a point of your own, if you care to. From 2002 to now, USC's failure to handle unranked Pacific 10 Conference opponents in the Carroll era has cost the Trojans possible national titles in 2006, 2007, 2008 and . . . 2009? Yep, it's time to hit the rewind button. In 2006, USC beat Arkansas and Nebraska, but lost to Oregon State and UCLA. In 2007, the Trojans handled Nebraska at home but not Stanford. Last year, Ohio State posed no problem at home in September but Oregon State posed a big one 12 days later in Corvallis. Link - LA TIMES: Pete Carroll is the common denominator in USC debacles

Kubiak says he's unsure, Johnson still day-to-day. Meanwhile... On Texans: Pass or run? Answer is blowin' in the wind Texans-Bills Preview

Er...um...read much, PilePusher? Or having a few reading comprehension problems of your own?

And possibly Cheatriettes* owner Bob Kraft, and the late Leon Hess, oner of the NY Jets - both of whom fired Carroll.

but very few - if any - National Titles - for the USC Trojans. At least, not while Pete Carroll is at the helm.... (Left to right, KD - try to read the entire sentence. I know, it's hard to read in the NFL...) Er...um...2000, but who's counting - certainly not you. Not counting OR reading today, KD - what gives?

Yeah, sorry, but I really do - one nat'l title 5 years ago and one disputed/split title 6 years ago is pretty much like the Patriettes* fans insisting that they're still champions because they won a Superbowl in '04.

Slipped my mind? I think you're losing yours, because I mentioned the 11 National titles in my third post of this thread... link I just wasn't aware that Carroll had been their head coach since 1928! Urban Meyer might argue that point.

Precisely - and Bill Belicheat* and WEO's Cheatriettes* have been 'going to school' on and implementing more of that offense every year. I'll stand by my belief that Leach will adapt his offensive scheme to the talents of his personnel, whether in the Big 12, PAC 10, SEC, or NFL... At least one N.F.L. head coach had taken a special interest in the Texas Tech offense and had been ordering its game tapes on Monday mornings. At least one N.F.L. defensive coordinator, Jim Schwartz of the Tennessee Titans, had stumbled upon Texas Tech accidentally and said, "Oh, my." The surprise runner-up in the search earlier this year for a new San Francisco 49ers head coach, Schwartz had scrambled to answer a question: if he got the 49ers job, whom should he hire? The 49ers had not bothered to interview college coaches for the head-coaching job in part because its front-office analysis found that most of the college coaches hired in the past 20 years to run N.F.L. teams had failed. But in Schwartz's view, college coaches tended to fail in the N.F.L. mainly because the pros hired the famous coaches from the old-money schools, on the premise that those who won the most games were the best coaches. But was this smart? Notre Dame might have a good football team, but how much of its success came from the desire of every Catholic in the country to play for Notre Dame? Looking for fresh coaching talent, Schwartz analyzed the offensive and defensive statistics of what he called the "midlevel schools" in search of any that had enjoyed success out of proportion to their stature. On offense, Texas Tech's numbers leapt out as positively freakish: a midlevel school, playing against the toughest football schools in the country, with the nation's highest scoring offense. Mike Leach had become the Texas Tech head coach before the 2000 season, and from that moment its quarterbacks were transformed into superstars. Whoever played quarterback for the Texas Tech Red Raiders was sure to create so much offense that he couldn't be ignored. Schwartz had an N.F.L. coach's perspective on talent, and from his point of view, the players Leach was using to rack up points and yards were no talent at all. None of them had been identified by N.F.L. scouts or even college recruiters as first-rate material. Coming out of high school, most of them had only one or two offers from midrange schools. Either the market for quarterbacks was screwy - that is, the schools with the recruiting edge, and N.F.L. scouts, were missing big talent - or (much more likely, in Schwartz's view) Leach was finding new and better ways to extract value from his players. "They weren't scoring all these touchdowns because they had the best players," Schwartz told me recently. "They were doing it because they were smarter. Leach had found a way to make it work." Link - NY TIMES MAGAZINE Leach will eventually get an NFL gig. I hope it's with the Bills because, to paraphrase one of Marv's and Leach's favorite quotes, "Those who do not learn from WEO's mistakes, are condemned to repeat them." Link - Mr. WEO

So what does this mean? It means more BCS bowl games, more Pac-10 titles, but very few - if any - National Titles - for the USC Trojans. At least, not while Pete Carroll is at the helm.... Link - WooHoo...we're PAC 10 Champions again!!!!!

Yeah you seem to keep missing my point over and over again I'm simply stating that the rich tradition, deep $$$pockets$$$, and illustrious alumni make it easier for Carroll to recruit top talent, whereas Leach has always had to settle for tier 2 and 3 players that no one else 'scholarshipped' Four years ago, Hodges was a high-school senior with just one other offer to be a college quarterback, from the University of Wyoming. A lot of the players in the locker room had similar stories of rejection and redemption. In this part of the country, the University of Texas and Oklahoma University are the old-money football schools, with Texas A&M right behind. Those schools fish first in the local-talent pool. Tonight there would be very few players on the field for Texas A&M - for Oklahoma or Texas there wouldn't be a single player - to whom Texas Tech would not have offered a football scholarship. Conversely, the Texas Tech locker room was filled with players rejected by the old-money schools. And yet - look around! Hodges led all of college football in passing. Now, two-thirds of the way through the 2005 N.C.A.A. football season, and with a throwing arm so dead that he required a cortisone shot to move it, Hodges was the nation's leader in yards passed, total offense and touchdowns. The team's tailback, Taurean Henderson, had broken the N.C.A.A. career record for most passes caught by a running back. The top four receivers on the team were the four leading pass receivers in Texas Tech's league, the formidable Big 12. Most would concede that is a reflection on Leach's coaching ability. Link - NY TIMES: Coach Leach Goes Deep Other than that, I never said Carroll wasn't a great coach or didn't do a great job rebuilding the program - he is, and he did. Although not everyone is quite as enamored with Carroll as you and the apoplectic KD in CT... Link - USC Ya Later

Golly gosh - even I didn't know that! All I knew about Aggies is what your own Jackie Sherrill once said - and which you just proved - namely, "You know, you Aggies are like bullfrogs: most of you is belly and what isn't, is mouth!" Leach knows nothing outside of football? Really??? Sure sounds like sour grapes from one really pissed-off Aggie to me, 'cause the guy graduated with honors from BYU, has a Juris Doctor from Pepperdine Law School where he graduated in the top third of this class, and is generally regarded to be one of the most intellectually curious football coaches on the planet. Oh well...a least now I understand how there came to be so many great Aggie jokes... First Man: "Did you hear about the Texas A&M Aggie who could count to 10?" Second Man: "No." First Man: "How about five?" Have you geniuses figured out how to build a bonfire without killing anyone yet? (BTW - Texas Tech plays Kansas this week, not Oklahoma State )

Water, I think Leach would tailor and adapt his offense to suit the situation and the personnel - but I have no doubt the he'd do that and whatever else it takes to succeed. Kind of like what he did at Texas Tech.. Mike Leach saw when he came to Texas Tech, that there was no way he would ever be able to match up with Texas, Oklahoma, A&M and the big boys by doing more of what they were doing. He was always going to have to settle for the second and third tier players. He focused on bringing in fast, smart kids that were maybe a bit undersized or odd shaped, kids that maybe didn't look like football players. How do you win with talent like this? He widened the offensive line splits, so his diminutive quarterbacks would have lanes they could see and throw through as well as to make the edges so far outside that his quarterbacks would have more time against the incredible athleticism many Big 12 Defensive Ends have. Over the course of a game those long pass rushes tire out these monstrous defensive ends so by the fourth quarter his quarterbacks have all day to throw. The offensive line splits vary dramatically from 3 to 9 feet. This also gave his smaller offensive linemen nice angles for those big defensive linemen aligned in the gaps. He committed to passing the ball first, with most seasons averaging over 55 throws per game. He committed to throwing the ball with just a few concepts, All Curl, 4 Verticals, Y-Stick, Shallow, Bubble Screens and Mesh, The laminated play card for his quarterback had just 26 offensive plays on it for the Texas Game. Coach Leach does NOT have a huge play card filled with hundreds of plays and down and distance material, he has a simple piece of non laminated paper usually folded up into fourths, like some kind of crumpled up crib sheet, with about 30 plays on it. He committed to running those few concepts out of many formations and looks. So while Leach may be called the "Mad Scientist", his playbook is relatively simple. Link - Youth Football the Texas Tech Mike Leach Way I kind of think of him as Belichick*-like, only with a personality and a sense of humor. Believe it or not, their philosophies are quite similar... "Ken was really smart," Belichick says [of his mentor Kenn Shipp]. "He had an answer to everything. No matter what the situation was, no matter what the defense did, or we'd see something on film. The offense was very thorough. It was very simple, but there were a lot of variations. Similar to the run-and-shoot, where they didn't have that many pass plays but they had adjustments on every pattern based on coverage." Sounds remarkably similar to... "There's two ways to make it more complex for the defense," Leach says. "One is to have a whole bunch of different plays, but that's no good because then the offense experiences as much complexity as the defense. Another is a small number of plays and run it out of lots of different formations." Leach prefers new formations. "That way, you don't have to teach a guy a new thing to do," he says. "You just have to teach him new places to stand." Texas Tech's offense has no playbook; Cody Hodges's wrist and Mike Leach's back pocket hold the only formal written records of what is widely regarded as one of the most intricate offenses ever to take a football field. The plays change too often, in response to the defense and the talents of the players on hand, to bother recording them. (Interestingly, Leach has no offensive coordinator - he calls the plays himself, and gives the QB the option to change them based on what he sees across the LOS.) That lesson -- the theory of constantly adjusting while keeping schemes relatively simple -- stayed with Belichick. At various times as the Cleveland Browns' head coach, Belichick called the offensive plays. And that's the side of the ball with which he's been heavily involved in New England. Link - Shipp shaped Belichick's thinking: Pats' coach credits NFL offensive guru who 'had an answer for everything' Link - Coach Leach Goes Deep, Very Deep So yeah, I do think Leach's offense, whatever scheme he comes up with, will be successful in the NFL - mainly because Leach is a very smart guy who knows how to adapt to his personnel, who knows that is all starts with the offensive line, and who is extremely committed to perfect execution from all his players, but particularly his QBs and WRs.

Thanks for the article, self-proclaimed unoriginal moron Didn't really seem too scathing though, at least not as bad as this one... USC Ya Later

And I won't argue that Carroll is a great coach and has done a great job rebuilding that program - but I'll still maintain that the $$$$ and rich football tradition of USC (10 national championships before he arrived, and alums are also a big help in the recruiting process - just just look at the names on those lists above) give him a huge edge over a guy in Leach's situation, who has always had to settle for 2nd and 3rd tier players. And Leach - being the entertaining fellow he is, but also somewhat of a 'loose cannon' - didn't make his job any easier now that his potential recruits have a vision of "fat little ol' girlfriends" in Lubbock, while USC has these... Again with the Song Birds

It's no secret I preferred Losman over Edwards - but Losman's gone, so I'd prefer not to go down that road since it would just turn this into a JP v. TE debate - which is possibly what Fanning-Fan's FanBoys would like (But, just to do a 'level-set' here, Losman had 8 starts in his first 2 seasons, Edwards had 23) I'll stand by the 'new math' Bill - 2 and 0 > 1 and 4 After 3 years as an NFL starter, we've seen enough of Edwards to know who who is, and what he can and can't - or won't - do. It's all about winning - and right now I think Fitzpatrick gives us the better chance to win games. GO BILLSSS!!!! 15 and 4 baby!!!!!

So you think Trent's really good-looking, eh? Most NFL QBs are better looking than me - try again.

If only Dick Jauron could figure that out! But Bill Belicheat* does a run college-style 'spread' offense, and used it to put up 59 points against Tennessee in snowy Foxboro. And you're right - he uses it because he has the personnel that can execute it; Brady's extremely accurate, works well from the shotgun, makes good decisions and makes them quickly, while Wes Welker was coached by... Mike Leach "Right now, we've been contacted by a minimum of three NFL teams who want to implement a spread element," Urban Meyer said last month. "They're going to do it." "It's already here," said Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski, head coach at Boston College the last two seasons. "A lot of teams have it." Maybe more need to, given what the New England Patriots have done with the spread passing game since Bill Belichick began making annual off-season treks to Gainesville (and Meyer to Foxboro, Mass.) the last three years. And it's probably safe to say more will use it, considering all the Sunday cameos of the so-called "Wildcat" formation — with the same base power off-tackle play Tim Tebow runs so magnificently — made around the league last season, especially with the Miami Dolphins. "Everyone knows how I feel about Bill Belichick," Meyer said. "How is it that Tom Brady and this guy (Matt Cassell) who never even started a game in college can make it work? Because Bill Belichick adapts. ... And the Miami Dolphins were 0-and-whatever (in 2007) and they adapted to what they had. All of a sudden, the running back was taking snaps and they were winning games." Link - NFL teams eyeing spread offense Link - The Spread Offense: Coming to an NFL Franchise Near You?