TheBootleg.com®
Posts of the Week
Each week, we will
highlight a few entertaining and/or informative posts from the
previous week. Please keep in mind that it is hard to keep
track/prioritize all posts so we would welcome input from all
Booties. You can make a "Bootie Selection" post as a
response to any post that you deem worthy or you can email a link
(to the nominated post) to me at lars@thebootleg.com.
Below are the posts that
made this week's list:
Poster: Long Winded
Subject: He Wears A White Hat
Date: 10/21/01
the Nike guy, that is( I keep forgetting his name,
Knight?...). Anyway, he walks into Autzen on the sideline about
45 minutes before kickoff. Interestingly, he gets a nice round of
applause from the UO students. There's also some TV/Radio types
hovering around him with a microphone. I doubt Stanford's
equivalent--Mr. John A.--would get such conspicuous acclaim.
Later, I run into him on my way up to one of the luxury boxes for
a halftime meeting with a friend. Seemed kinda short in person...
For those of you who haven't been to Eugene--and I hadn't--UO
looks great in the Fall, with the leaves turning gold and red. A
real collegiate feel. Kinda reminded me of the Midwest or New
England. The stadium itself is away from the main campus in a
more barren setting. From the outside, it's ugly, surrounded in a
wall of earth. Stanford has it all over UO for the atmosphere
outside the stadium, with tailgating ambiance and the like.
Basically, you tailgate in the parking lot at UO, although a lot
do it in style.
Inside, UO kills us. Their vision/replay board is the best I've
seen. And they show ALL of the replays, even the controversial
ones. I like the way they introduce the team onto the field, with a barrage of replays from great Duck football moments. The
crowd-pleaser is Wheaton taking that interception the distance
against UW a few years back. Then, the Ducks take the field, and
we all got to wave our free pom poms. At least my young son did.
Anyway, I don't think the noise is as bad as Husky Stadium.
There's no shaking. I don't think it's intimidating. But it's
enough to disrupt. The seats are all superb. If you gave me a choice of endzone at Autzen versus my 40 yd line at Stanford, I'm
in Eugene. Thought the Oregon fans treated the sparse Stanford
turnout very well.
AS for the game, well, I've read about 30 posts. Looks like volume
has picked up a little. I would be shocked if I said anything
new, so here's a short summary, by my standards:
1. Most exciting win in an important game since USC in '99, maybe
the most exciting win since the '90 Big Game, and maybe our most
significant win since just about a longtime...imo.
2. Fasani was the best I'd ever seen him prior to the injury. I
winced every time he tucked it under, of course, but he was
brilliant. Add Harrington to the mix, and the 1st Qtr was the
best QBing I've ever seen in college...But Teejers and many
others here saw this injury coming. Whether it was Diedrick or RF
himself, this was predictable...And not smart/prudent, imo.
3. Didn't like Tank at LB and Jason White at FS. Don't know why
we did that. Worried about the preview for next season. Glad we
got Tank back where he can help out a secondary that needs a
play-maker. FWIW, I thought Tank's interception was the key play
in the game. Allen had just fumbled. We're down by 14. If UO
scores there, it's over. Great close by Tank, although Harrington
threw a little behind the TE. Still think Tank would have made the
pick. BTW, Tank's later blitz was bigtime. He did something other
Stanford blitzers fail to do: Shed a blocker. Generally, Stanford
is still looking for a pass rush, although Coy Wire created a
little confusion late by delaying his blitz until the blockers
had committed. Coy is fast enough to still get close...
4. I liked the way Chris Lewis didn't get down on himself after a
poor start. I thought he threw well in the 4th qtr. He also
showed a willingness to throw to Teyo even when #5 was covered.
Again, WRs were struggling to get open much of the game. I think
Diedrick is adjusting to that reality by increased use of RBs and
TEs as receivers. Powell and Teyo are the men, though, and I have
yet to see Teyo resist from taking a pose over the fallen DB
whenever the opportunity is there. He's big time...Question: Who
backs up CL against UCLA?
5. I think Freeman played 1-2 series. I don't think Leonard's
absence hurt the run defense as much as the fact UO went option
frequently. We didn't look ready for it, although Hodari was
there in position on the Maurice TD. Simba is reminding me a
little of Focht in that he often gets in the right position but
can't "finish." I assume that's the difference between
an athlete like Tank and some of our other safeties.
6. Loved the O-Line, especially the middle. We ran almost
everything behind Quaccia, Heitmann, and Weinacht (who looked to
play more than Schindler). Quite frankly, I think Carter did not
maximize the push that the blockers gave him. Lots of carries,
few yards, nothing longer than 7. He looked to be running very
straight up again, giving tacklers a lot of target space, losing
momentum frequently after first contact, getting stood up a lot. I
assume others have noted that last TD was scored by the O-Line.
Kerry did have one lower run though that showed his potential:
The 4th-and-one dive. I wish he would torpedo like that more
frequently.
7. The Oregon papers are being most critical of the decision to
pass on third-and-one late, wherein Tank made the great blitz.
8. Heard Shuler on a post-game radio show up there. Very happy.
Noted our obvious resilience ("took their knockout punch
early") but also moaned about losing Fasani. He spoke in the
past tense about Randy, it seemed to me, just as I've heard a few
others do about Matt Leonard. All we can do is hope they get
another shot...
9. UCLA will be tough. I think Fasani gave us a chance. He was
the MVP of this team, imo. I don't know about CL in this
situation. He still gets hit several times each game during his
rather elongated release, twice that I can recall Saturday. There
WILL be hits against The Bruins. BUT, he has poise, he has decent
feet, and he has touch. Is that enough? I don't know. But the UO
game reminded me that nothing is certain, that winning even one
game is enjoyable. In fact, being away from a computer and
reverting to the old days of being a Stanford football fan,
enjoying it in the moment, unencumbered by dialogue or a bigger
picture, has its virtues...
Poster: Jeff83
Subject: polls, computers, BCS (long)
Date: 10/21/01
I see lots of well justified railing against the polls, but
I'd like to point out the same thing I said during basketball
season.
The ESPN/USA Today coaches poll is a JOKE in both sports. The AP
Poll is the poll of record. It has been around forever, all the
newspapers not owned by Gannet use it, the voters are
sportswriters who see FAR more games than the coaches. Last but
not least, the voters are given a day to digest the scores. The
problem is EVERYBODY watches ESPN and uses ESPN.com and USA Today
is a national paper. When their poll was for entertainment only I
didn't care, but now that it contributes to deciding what schools
get the Big Bowl $ payoff it really pisses me off.
Mel Kiper made a great point about the polls. Why the hell does
the voting have to be in only hours after the last game was
played ? The polls now have influence over millions of dollars
yet they are not taken seriously by the people voting for them.
espn.go.com/melkiper/s/20...62621.html
BCS - what's REALLY annoying is that the ESPN poll actually ties
with the AP poll as the single biggest factor in determining the
BCS standings, which is not readily apparent from simply looking
at the formula.
Polls + Computer + Schedule + Losses = Total
That LOOKS like the polls are 1/4 of the figure, making each one
worth 1/8, but that is NOT the case. Look at the range of figures
for last year's categories:
Polls: 1 - 16
Computer: 1.29 - 14.43
Schedule: .04 - 3.80
Losses: 0 - 3
Total: 3.30 - 33.17
Schedule strength and # of losses are almost insignificant by
themselves. Granted they usually are part of the computer
rankings, but the point is the final BCS standings align almost
perfectly with the polls - the computer and the schedules mean
squat. Difference in poll average to final BCS from last year:
1 Oklahoma 0
2 Florida St. -1
3 Miami, Fla 1
4 Washington 0
5 Va. Tech -0.5
6 Oregon St. 0.5
7 Florida 0
8 Nebraska -0.5
9 Kansas St. -1
10 Oregon 0.5
11 Notre Dame 1
12 Texas 0
13 Ga. Tech -3
14 TCU -0.5
15 Clemson 0.5
When only one team varies by more than 1 place why even bother
with all the stuff that supposedly eliminates bias in determining
the bowl payouts ?
this year's rants:
how can OK be ranked behind Miami ? the defending national champs
have beaten UNC, K State and Texas, the only close game was K
State but that was a VERY deceiving final score. Miami has played
a joke schedule with FSU the only decent win.
Nebraska has crushed a bunch of patsies, VA Tech's schedule is
simply ridiculous. UConn, W Michigan and Central Florida ? How
can anyone reward them with a ranking ahead of UCLA ?
UCLA will be #1 in most computer polls for good reason. The OSU
win is losing it's luster, but Ohio St, Wash and @ Bama are still
nice. If they run the table and don't end up in Pasadena we
should call Fox Mulder.
How can WSU be ranked BEHIND Oregon and Washington ? Any clue ?
Washington has pulled out 3 point wins vs the WORST 3 teams in
the conference, opened by pulling off a miracle win vs Michigan
even though they were dominated (did not score an offensive TD,77
yd blocked FG return and INT return), and got killed by UCLA.
Oregon has zero- 0 - wins vs top 30 teams, losses to use and we
are 9 spots BEHIND them ?
If we get spanked by UCLA, which is possible given our health,
the emotions of yesterday and of course the way UCLA is playing,
we could finish 9-2 and end up out of the top 20. Our computer
ranking would be top 10 and we'd be a conversation topic when the
bowls are announced and we're playing for $800k million instead
of $4 million.
Poster: Hulk01
Subject: A Guide to The Bootleg
Date: 10/21/01
A Bruin poster below seemed perplexed by the widespread view
on this board the Cardinal was doomed this weekend. As a service
to that poster and others new to this board, it's worthy knowing
that this board sometimes seems written by Sartre, or that the
Bootleg's guiding spirits are Jackie Vernon and Steven Wright,
that any moment a debate about the half-fullness or emptiness of
the glass will be interrupted by someone pleading, "What
difference does it make, the DAMN glass is CRACKED and
leaking!"
So here's a useful summary of posts here, as a general guide:
1. We're in real trouble this weekend. (Someone posts this on
every Monday of football season. It's actually happened preceding
a Saturday on which we had a bye.
2. The sunny side is too hot.
3. The shady side is too cold. And quiet.
4. I know their record looks worse than ours, but they could
kill.
5. I know their record looks better than ours; we're toast.
6. Our QB looks down his receivers too much. (Yes, I know, every
board says that.)
7. The band back in our day was funnier.
8. Post-loss: we got beat.
9. Post-win: we got lucky.
10. Our opponent's coming off a big win, they have momentum.
11. Our opponent's coming off a big loss, they're fightin mad.
12. Our opponent's coming off a bye, they're well-rested.
13. We're coming off a bye, our timing will be off.
14. Opponent's home field advantage: At least 8.
15. Our home field advantage: 1 if temperature's below 69. -3 if
it's over 80.
16. There hasn't been a Great Dollie since Cathleen Caballero.
17. OU (our Admissions Office) is going to kill us again this
year.
18. Why can't LW be more optimistic?
19. Which Hulk is Hulk, it's too confusing.
20. Wasn't the old board a lot faster?
21. How come we have to pay now?
22. Where are the #$% practice reports???
23. It's impossible to win in Autzen.
24. Okay, but it is really and truly impossible to win in
Seattle.
Welcome to our board, and I hope this guide is helpful to you as
you navigate it.
The Hulk.
(As opposed to Oxford Hulk and Hulk of Clovis (aka Younger Hulk)