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Cougar Football Saturday Eve
Written by Hooty   
Friday, 04 September 2009 06:34

Welcome to Cougar Football Saturday Eve, Cougies!

Kinda hard to talk about the Cougs right out of that gates, given the fact that the season started off with such a trainwreck of a game in Boise last night.  WOW!  Personally, I'm not sure what was worse, the performance by Oregon on the field, Blount's behavior after the game, or the assault on my eyes, just looking at those two teams on that turf.  It looked like Leroy Neiman got drunk at the county fair and decided to do some spin art.

There has been much debate over exactly who invented the game of "Gridiron" Football, but I think it's a safe bet that whomever it was, did not have THAT in mind when they did it.

So...thank you, LaGarrette Blount for giving us plenty to discuss today...

If you haven't seen it yet.....ESPN.com already had the video taken down.  But there is this pic:

Sutra said it online last night, "This is a real defining moment in the Kelly program. Lose Blount and you may lose the season, but you save the program. Keep Blount and the dismantling of Oregon has just begun."

Personally, I could not agree more....read on...

I've been on the east coast on the night of a big west coast game, so I know there were likely fewer people watching this game than there probably should have been - but there's no doubt that the sports world will be buzzing about this game today.  Had Blount and the Ducks held their heads up and walked off the field with an ounce of class, the story would be dead by afternoon.  Instead, we get to debate what should happen to Blount as a result of his meltdown and what it could mean to the Oregon program long-term.

I think it was Sutra again (dude's prophetic) who just a few days ago said something about what college programs go up, must eventually come down.  If LaGarrett Blount plays another down of football for the University of Oregon, the clock on their demise will start ticking (if it hasn't already.)  The only way to save face at this point would be to take a stand against tha thug life, and punt.  Having already been suspended from the team once this year, it would appear that LaGarrett Blount may be the second coming of Lawrence Phillips.

Now onto more important matters...

We gave it our all with yesterday's post so we don't want to beat a dead horse.  Besides that, Hawk is packing up the family for the trip over the Cascades; Sutra has gone into deep meditation; Longball is stationed outside Grippi's  Holiday Inn suite with his camera poised at the peephole; and I am busy getting the ol' RV ready for the drive to P-Town.

This is your day Cougies.  Give us your thoughts on the first Cougar Football Saturday Eve of the 2009 season!

Go Cougs!

PS - check back later and I'll give an update on where to find us for tomorrow's inaugural WSU Football Blog Tailgate Party!

 

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Terrible
written by SeanHawk, September 04, 2009
Not only will we hopefully never have to watch that horrific color combination on TV, but I think we're done watching Blount play football. Welcome to the big time Chip Kelly.

What I wonder is what happened during the game as well. IS Boise St that good? How in the world did they hold the prolific Duck O to zero first downs until 7 minutes left in the 3rd quarter?? And overall, just 8 points??

I'll tell you this much, and Hooty tipped it off yesterday in his football friday post - Boise State whipped Oregon up front! Ted Miller wrote about many concerns with Oregon's O-line coming into this year, that they had lost some good ones (including Max Unger), but their line last night looked awful. I guess the old axiom is correct, yet again. Can't block anyone, can't move the ball, no matter how much flash-n-dash, speed, spread offense you run!
...
written by Caleb Cherry, September 04, 2009
I feel like there should be "Hello My Name is" stickers for everyone to display the name they comment under for this blog.
Not a bad idea Caleb
written by SeanHawk, September 04, 2009
I am not sure we'll have a big enough turnout for something like that, but, we'll pick some up just in case. Free beer and hot dogs, you just never know who will swing by!
Moore
written by Hooty M, September 04, 2009
Oh yeah - and how good would Kellen Moore look running the Wulff/Sturdy offense?

In the first few series, the Oregon D looked great against the run. It was that quick, short passing game of BSU that put them on their heels and then opened up the running game late.

Like Bob Davie said after the game, BSU "ain't pretty" but who cares? If they go 13-0, complaining about an ugly win or two is kinda like complaining about Megan Fox having a bad hair day.
...
written by LucasCoug, September 04, 2009
My thoughts on the Oregon / Boise game:

~Boise's defense looked good, but Oregon's offense looked like they had never played the game before (WSU, circa last year)

~Boise's offense was pitiful, they should have had Oregon buried by 21 at the end of the first quarter, and won the game by 35. But piss poor execution (see three fumbles on three consecutive plays) kept Oregon in that game well into the fourth quarter.

~Blount will get nothing more than a one game suspension, max! Granted, it was really bizarre, Mark Schlereth (sp?) was talking on ESPN this morning that this kind of stuff happens multiple times throughout the season, just usually not in front of the cameras. He believes Blount will be punished internally and that it really wasn't a program altering meltdown. Don't know if I particularly agree with it, but Schlereth is a pretty damned good source, even if he is a Vandal.

~It brings up the old Automatic Qualifier / BCS question again. Had Boise State lost that game, they would have zero chance to play in a BCS Bowl Game come January.
...
written by Hooty M, September 04, 2009
The fact is that this one WAS caught on tape, during a nationally televised game. What that means is that this case now gets played out in the court of public opinion.

If you're Chip Kelly sitting in the living room of a quality student athlete, how do you defend keeping a kid like this on the team (remember, it's not his first transgression)?

If he uses the old "he's a good kid who made a bad decision" argument "we stand by our players through good times and bad" blah blah blah...the only kind of kid he'll be able to recruit are the ones who NEED second chances.

That program will be walking a very slippery slope if they stand by their man.
One game??
written by SeanHawk, September 04, 2009
If that's the case, it's total BS. The guy flipped out, hell, he popped one of his own guys! And he's already not in the best of graces with the coaching staff. I know it just happened and the emotions are raw/overreacting, but what would we think if one of our players went bananas after a game like that? They shouldn't downplay cold-cocking another player with his helmet off, hitting his own teammates, and then goes nuts and has to be restrained by coaches and police. I sure hope he gets more than one game.
...
written by Coug-A-Sutra, September 04, 2009
There are four things REALLY going against Blount right now.

1) After hitting the player, he then gets into subsequent and perhaps equally egregious scuffles with TEAMmates, Fans, and the Police.
2) He has had previous incidents and suspensions
3) This is the first crisis facing a new head coach.
4) The game was on National TV

All of those things make his situation particularly dire. That said, I thought Belotti's quote last night of saying that HE would consult the Pac-10 before making a decision was (uncharacteristically) brilliant, because (a) he appears to be taking the decision away from Kelly (which saves him from wrecking his own locker room) and (b) looking for an outside source to provide both counsel and precedent.

One thing is for sure: That Purdue game is going to be crazy.. Lose that one and then you have another loss in Utah right around the corner. Imagine: we could be playing a 1-3 or 0-4 Oregon team at the end of the month.

Amazing..
Bad times in Duckland
written by '03CouveCoug, September 04, 2009
Lucas had some great takes...sadly, I too believe that Blount will probably not have to sit any more than one game (though I think he deserves to sit at least three). However, Hooty is correct in saying that ultimately, the court of public opinion will be the killer that lurks around the Duck program. I guess we'll get to find out just what kind of a coach Chip Kelly is right away! Assuming that the decision about Blount's status is left up to him, which may not be the case…

What's really disappointing about the whole fiasco is that even after popping the BSU player, Blount was still so fired up that he was about to go after fans! Can you imagine if that assistant coach (was it former Husker great Scott Frost?) had not been able to restrain him? It would have been like the Artest melee!

I'll be VERY interested to see how this whole thing plays out.
...
written by LucasCoug, September 04, 2009
Again, I wasn't saying my opinion is that he should only be suspended for one game. But I believe that is the reality of it. Don't want to go there, but to play devil's advocate, if the court of public opinion really mattered, wouldn't OJ have been convicted of murder?

I think the worst thing that happened, where he has some real explaining to do, is the shot he took at his teammate holding him back.

Now had he not been restrained and gone Palace at Auburn Hills on those awesome Boise fans taunting him, then maybe the situation would be different.

8 carries for -5 yards! Wow Oregon's offesive line is going to really, really hurt them. This could be like UWs demise after the 2002 season. Neuheisal stopped recruiting linemen, and focused solely on skill players and that is one of a few reasons the Dawgs are where they currently are.

Oh, and did anybody see Bob Davie's in the booth? He forgot to wear a belt with his dress pants. I was a broadcast student at WSU, and we only wore shirt, tie, and coat when we were sitting. I loved Bob Davie's comment about Masoli, "Unfortunately you need more than a rocket arm to be a good QB." That kid was telegraphing his passes the entire night to his first read! Did anybody find his pause in the play action very predictable, he literally came to a full pause, his body would freeze.
...
written by Longball, September 04, 2009
Is Schlereth drinking the same moron juice Condotta is? That is some seriously stupid analysis. One game? Ha. There is not a single poster on the Ducks own message boards who want that guy on the team anymore.
On the road again...
written by Hooty M, September 04, 2009
I'm out!
sutra's hope or nope edit
written by excited coug fan, September 04, 2009
If oregon can play that terribly against us thats an extra win for the cougs. But if we won who would blount punch? Anyways, did you hear the jokes they made during halftime? My favorite was : oregon has an O on both sides of their helmets. they can use that as a running total of their 1st downs and points.
Hear ya Lucas
written by SeanHawk, September 04, 2009
I don't think you are defending Blount or the situation, just sadly stating what could happen. I sure wonder about the example they would set if they let this go with a hand-slap. But if Jerramy Stevens can get 2 quarters of suspension for slamming a car into a nursing home, drunk, and fleeing the scene, nearly killing someone in the process? Anything is possible!
Excited...
written by LucasCoug, September 04, 2009
Last year at the Homecoming game against Oregon, we were down 21-0 very early. I was standing in the student section portion of the west end zone when a group of three Duck fans stumbled by. One of them came up behind me, completely unprovoked, and began spouting off (an Oregon fan, imagine that?).

He was wearing one of those Oregon hats with the "O" logo on it, that all of their fans seem to wear. So my response was "Excuse me sir? Is that your IQ on your hat?" That was all I said, and I stood there smiling, waiting for a response.

The other two guys with him, who were much more sober and nicer, walked back to their seats a few sections away; they even chuckled at my comment as they walked away. The drunk guy whom I had clearly offended, couldn't come up with a response other than "You wanna fight?"

It is my favorite Oregon story, as I have chosen never to make the trip to Eugene. UO fans in a nutshell!
I knew what you were getting at, Lucas
written by '03CouveCoug, September 04, 2009
I understand that you think a one game suspension is not enough, but I agree with your sentiment that one game is probably all Blount is going to get.

And Longball, as for the Duck fans calling for Blount's head on a platter...well, I'd be interested to know how many of them are basing that stance on 8 carries for -5 yards...I'm guessing that if Blount had rushed for 120 and a TD, they'd be singing a different tune!

That is why it'll be so very interesting to see how the Oregon program handles this mess...no matter what they do, it'll be seen as too harsh or too lenient. Regardless of Blount’s performance last night, there is no denying that he’s a vital cog in that option attack. They likely can’t afford to lose him…but can they play well through the distractions and the assured controversy if they keep him? Talk about being between a rock and a hard place!

Interesting doings
written by PCHogs, September 04, 2009
Anyone else think it was interesting that Mike was down on the sideline during the game to "help" out. That fact is getting buried in the Blount mess. Another sign of a program in trouble. Blount needs to be suspended for the season (and since he is a senior that means his career.) If anyone of us did something like that outside of the football field, there is a good chance someone goes to jail. If Kelley wants to put his stamp on the program, this is the moment. If he does not, Oregon will have a new coach in two years.
Hey Lucascoug!!!!
written by laughing cougar, September 04, 2009
great story about the oregon fan. I have read it many times all ready and i laugh every time.
...
written by LucasCoug, September 04, 2009
$100 says LeGarrett Blount is the new Maurice Clarett. Takes Oregon/Pac10/NCAA to trail and loses. Tries out for the NFL and winds up somewhere absurd like Denver or Cincy. And then he winds up in jail. Any takers?

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4446898
Blount is OUT...
written by Cougmom, September 04, 2009
It's official...Blount is out for the rest of the season. Oregon got something rightsmilies/smiley.gif

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