Posts posted by closetojumping
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1 hour ago, Red Five said:
I thought it was driving under the influence of a gummy, as opposed driving while intoxicated.
No clue. Sub in "injected a gummy" for the booze part. It's a dumb fucking take to say he wasn't out late and doesn't party. He was arrested after midnight, was he not? Even to college students, after midnight can be considered late night. If getting high isn't some version of partying to the source, the source fucking sucks. It read like gaslighting and they shouldn't have published that nonsense. It's no different than CJ Vogel telling his audience that there was no real issue with Goosby's health pretty much while Goosby was at the hospital undergoing surgery.
11 minutes ago, BurgleBro said:I'm hoping for clean deflection, possible tip drills, ints, and hopefully a pick 6.
Nothing wrong with hoping for any of that, but take a look at the CSU box score from last year. SJSU isn't the same team, but there are similarities between the approaches for each offense.
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8 hours ago, Anastasis said:
Ifs that the pay then double beans, extra gravy, and two flour tortillas is the order.
I have been on this spinning rock now for almost 5 decades and sadly today is the first time it hit me that I should be asking for extra sauce on my enchiladas. This post was a fucking epiphany.
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10 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:
Some team notes from IT
Let’s Start with Arch
One player who could certainly use the chance for quality reps is quarterback Arch Manning. Manning isn’t the sort to have his confidence shaken after a bad game, and he went right back to work this week. His mechanics were like they (almost) always are, and he was personally pretty sharp. However, each practice varied from good, to average, to questionable as far as offensive cohesion.
Right now, ensuring everyone is on the same page on the field is as much a part of Arch’s job as completing accurate passes. His wide receivers have to be in the right spot, his O-linemen have to pick up the right men, etc. Everybody has to see the same thing.
I’m personally curious to see how the offense responds to a defense that is going to junk it up, bring pressure, give Manning foggy reads, and play like it has nothing to lose. Texas could light them up, or Texas might have to solve them before lighting them up. Recall the Rice game ahead of Alabama in 2023.
Overall, it sounds like Arch had a good week, though the offense is still coming together and was a bit hit or miss this.
The Return Game
Another work in progress is the return game. Last week’s sloppy practices translated to the field against Ohio State, as we saw multiple poor decisions—whether bringing balls out of the end zone or letting punts bounce and roll.
This week, Inside Texas thinks there’s a good chance Daylan McCutcheon will get a look at punt return. This is exactly the type of opponent you’d play a freshman against. At kick returner, it sounds like Ryan Niblett will get the call.
Right now, the coaches just want people they can trust. Any return value-add is a bonus.
Aggressive Texas Defense?
It’s well known San Jose State likes to throw and has a quarterback with a pretty big arm. This provides the chance for Texas to play DBs close and get after the quarterback.
As you might expect, the defense had a consistently good week. They’re aided by some quality talent on the scout team offense giving good looks.
Bottom line: if SJSU plays to type, we should see sacks, turnovers, and plenty of three-and-outs. That accounts for heavy rotation on the defensive side of the ball. Texas played a “shorter bench” against Ohio State but still used a fair amount of defensive players. The rotation is going to expand this week.
Due to heavy rotation on defense, we’ll likely see more mental mistakes than normal—but that’s all part of the process.
Subject to Change
It sounds like Christian Clark is going to see his first career carries this weekend. As the most dynamic RB they have, it makes the most sense to start integrating him into the offense now. At minimum, he needs to earn the right to get 5–6 carries against good competition. The team needs him to hit like sources believe he can.
A good game from Jerrick Gibson wouldn’t surprise either.
Wardell Mack
The redshirt freshman isn’t a partier and he wasn’t out late. That doesn’t mean he didn’t make a questionable decision or two. While IT doesn’t expect him to play this week—when he would have played a lot—his arrest is a very minor blip on the radar.
I know they pay players for intel, but they have to realize that sometimes those players are pushing an agenda that isn’t accurate, right? The Wardell Mack bit is just fucking idiotic. Was he kidnapped by some evil cartel, injected with enough booze to register as drunk and then put him behind a wheel?
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22 minutes ago, Codaxx said:
Given the injury history and lack of experience, it would not have been bad to bring in a proven RB. I did not see any great runs. Mostly got what the OL blocked. Texas used 2 RBs in the game and one of them is not 100%. Great blitz pick up by Baxter in this game though. I assume Baxter will show more with the football in hands as the season goes on, I doubt he is 100%. Of the 6 RBs only 1 came into the season trusted and healthy (Wisner). Clark had 0 experience and was coming off major injury. Gibson came in with major trust issues. The other 2 are true freshmen. Its room with potential, but also a lot of questions.
My post was what non-autists know as “sarcasm”. No shit you have whines about the RB room. Strong work ignoring the consequences of actually bringing in this ethereal quality, proven, healthy back from the portal as well.
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4 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:
Check the edited post you initially quoted. Is that assumption correct about the money? Also it’s like 833-875k a month through 2031 depending on when fired from the above article.
Alabama is poor right now as it relates to NIL and renovations, but they're not a poor university. Allowing an employee to insist that you escrow the money due to their concerns about your solvency would get someone fired. They're unlikely to get pushed around by an agent/lawyer trying to force them into an escrow account. The whole point of negotiating something like a monthly payout is to avoid something else, like cash crunch by having to fork over the bulk of $60M to someone or a neutral account controlled by a third party.
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11 minutes ago, MuellerHorn said:
Why is this injury so hush hush? Obviously, you don't have the answer to it, but it makes me think it's not something standard. Otherwise, why don't wee know what it is?
It's a hamstring injury, supposedly.
4 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:LOL, can we give a little grace to CJ Baxter? The dude tore his ACL, spent a year rehabbing, came back earlier than anticipated, and had a positive performance in his first game back against an excellent Ohio State defense.
Assuming he stays healthy, I expect him to be more aggressive and break bigger runs as he regains trust in his knee and overall ability.
Nope. What you see against Ohio State in Columbus in his first game back is what you're getting for the next two seasons, or just this one after Small Game Steve pushes the dude onto the trapdoor and pulls the lever, dropping him into the portal due to his lack of explosiveness.
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Just now, BurntOrange&White said:
So you don’t even want to do the math yourself either. Glad we’re in the same boat.
His contract runs through the end of 2031. I refuse to do simple math for a suspected adult. Even you should be able to figure it out using your jumbo indigo crayon and Big Chief tablet.
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1 minute ago, Brian Fantana said:
Without reading any of that I would guess that their revenue isn't that high as an athletic department and they don't really have many giga-wealthy alumni donors willing to fund the bag now that Saban is retired and everyone else is doing it as well. It was easy for them when they were the Big Bad Bag Men of the CFB world.
Correct. I asked my buddy involved there at the dawn of legal NIL if $5M was too much for them to handle in the new era and they said "there is no way we could handle competing with that."
Now, $5M seems quaint these days, but the problem hasn't really changed for them as the numbers have grown. They used to win recruiting titles each cycle with a budget between $500k and $1M depending upon the year. Ohio State and a few others had more than that, but Saban did actually get a discount most of the time.
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5 minutes ago, Red Five said:
I'll go first. They weren't horrific by any means, but they generally got about what the play was blocked for, against a light box much of the time. I thought Wisner was a lot less physical than what we saw last year (think atm) before he tired out in the playoffs.
We clearly do not have a Bijan or Jonathon Brooks on this team. But like I said, Baxter will only get better and he may be our volume back by midseason.
They were playing Ohio State with an ultra conservative gameplan. I just don't think you can take too much away from that one.
Also, is there a Bijan in all of CFB this year? Or most years? I know you're a big Reuben Owens fan and that others here have been stanning for Jadyn Ott, but I don't see it.
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6 minutes ago, Red Five said:
I kinda thought that the lack of a portal RB was due to Clark's recovery. But then he didn't play against OSU.
During the game I turned to my friend and said "We have seven RBs if we're including Niblett. Are these two really far and away our two best, to the extent that none of the others even see the field?"
Wisner is Wisner. Tough dude who will get you four yards when four yards are there for the taking. Baxter has a shot to be the guy, as I thought he looked like he was going at about 75% last weekend.
I don’t take a whole lot away from the Ohio State game on the offensive end. The OL looked better than I hoped. Endries looks good. Other than that and Manning shitting his pants, not much there to consider. On the RBs, they just used their comfort guys, probably by plan.
1 minute ago, LTtxfan said:Definitely missing some explosiveness at RB if only Wisner and CJ getting all the carries...
Good God, man. They’re not going to be the only guys getting carries. Those guys are high on quality P4 backs nonetheless.
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Here's an article by one of their writers that goes into a little depth around the money situation at Bama. (Spoiler alert: it's not good) And that they won't be buying Deboer out any time soon.
SpoilerScarborough: Back away from the ledge -- for now -- to see how DeBoer and Alabama respond
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Alex ScarboroughStaffPosted on 4 hrs, V I P, User Since 93 months ago, User Post Count: 1007- 4 hrsVIP
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I won't sit here, less than a week removed from a disastrous season-opening loss at Florida State, and preach optimism to Alabama fans. No one wants to hear that right now, and with good reason.
What we saw in Tallahassee was bad. The issues with scheme and personnel were alarming, but mostly the problem was a lack of effort and toughness, and that's inexcusable.
I will sit here, now that we're far enough removed from the 31-17 final score and the avalanche of hot takes that followed, and write that it's time to step back, settle in and let the situation develop.
There's a game on Saturday against Louisiana Monroe, and no one needs to bring their pitch forks to Bryant-Denny Stadium. You're not running Kalen DeBoer out of town -- not yet -- as much as some of you might relish the thought.
Alabama's athletic department can't afford to redo Coleman Coliseum. Greg Byrne is looking for cash under mattresses these days, pimping out the grass on Saban Field to raise a few bucks. Do you really think he can snap his fingers and build $70 million worth of buyouts into the budget?
Think it through: even if Byrne did come up with the money and pulled the trigger, what would be the implications of that? The money for buyouts and new contracts would have to come from somewhere, and my fear is that non-revenue generating sports would be the only offset available to balance the checkbook. Good luck to swimming, tennis and track.
If all you care about is football, fine, but consider how DeBoer's knee-jerk firing would scare off candidates to replace him. No one worthwhile is going to take a job with no sense of security. See: Auburn, Bryan Harsin. A coaching change would also throw the roster into turmoil yet again, sending the best players and top prospects for the exits. Boosters feel tapped out as it is. Good luck getting them to donate even more money toward NIL for a total rebuild.
Look, I'm not saying that Alabama is stuck with DeBoer long-term. I just think it's way too soon to call a divorce attorney and start negotiating alimony payments.
The man's coached 14 games for the Crimson Tide. That's it. And while there are certainly some worrisome through lines during that time, particularly the team's performance on the road, 9-5 is an awfully small sample size to go on versus, say, a 113-17 career record.
Maybe we'll look back and say FSU was the beginning of the end. Maybe it was just a bad fit from the moment DeBoer was picked to replace Nick Saban. But it was only a season ago that we saw Notre Dame fans calling for Marcus Freeman's head after losing to Northern Illinois, and now they're ready to build a statue for him after making the national championship game.
Less than a year ago, DeBoer beat Georgia and everyone jumped on the bandwagon with both feet.
Less than a week ago, Alabama was a popular pick to make the national championship game.
I get the impulse to hit the panic button after one bad game. I really do since some of the issues feel a continuation of what we saw last year. But every season is different, it's just one game and we need to see how DeBoer, the assistant coaching staff and players respond. If they can get over whatever mental hurdle they have going on and start playing the game with an edge again, that would go a long way in righting the ship.
DeBoer still believes in this team. He said it after the game, he said it on Monday and he said it again last night.
"In our program – and this is big picture – we talk about toughness, accountability and a family or brotherhood," DeBoer said on his weekly radio show. "This is when you need it more than ever. You got to stick together. You got to have that group and that brotherhood. It's doing your job and not letting your brother down, right? That meaning something. That's the challenge there, whether it's practice or games, whatever it might be – on or off the field.
"Then the toughness piece. That's where we got to continue to grow. There's so much work and there's a lot of areas where a lot of people would crumble doing what these guys do each and every day, year-round. These guys – they just got to carry it on the football field. And they will, they will. I really believe in them."
You may read that and roll your eyes. Maybe you're done with all the talk after an offseason of what feels like broken promises.
That's understandable.
This column may fall on deaf ears, too, but what I'm saying is there's really no choice but to let the season play out. If DeBoer doesn't pull Alabama out of this tailspin, maybe you'll get your wish and he'll be fired, the consequences be damned.
But there's a game on Saturday and it's only the second game of the season.
Then there's Wisconsin, followed by a bye week and then Georgia.
There isn't a lot of hope right now, but there are opportunities to get things turned around.
There's still time for the situation to develop and, perhaps, change.
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6 minutes ago, Not a Sock said:
I can see Ryan Williams ending up on a similar path to Harold Perkins. Be a 5* recruit, play absolutely out of your mind during a game your freshman year, be declared a generational talent and then proceed to not do much and play out of position while being a massive NIL resource sink.
The guys on XM 84 have been bragging about Perkins all week after the Clemson game. Maybe he has a bounce back season. Not discrediting your thoughts because I am also a skeptic and he was absolutely a resource drain last year. Arkansas better be on the lookout, though.
5 minutes ago, Noozak said:A guy like Worthy is also around 170lbs, so it's certainly possible with the right development and scheme. I suppose someone will be stupid enough to pay that much money for him despite his market value being a bit more questionable. I'm sure there are numerous examples of egos for those involved (player/agent/parent) that won't swallow a smaller offer with a better promise of development.
Regarding Worthy, the guy was ridiculously strong. He could also throw the ball like a QB. He's gifted, physically.
On the NIL side, one of the most common reasons players leave programs is that they want more or the same money as the prior cycle and the program doesn't see them as worth that. They threaten to find someone who will pay what they ask and the school tells them "you should go do that". Obviously, Iamaleava is the best example of that drama, but closer to home is Amari Niblack, who wanted a re-up after a lost season. ATM was dumb enough to offer to make that happen after Texas passed.
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58 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:
We’re 3-3 in our last 6
HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!
You're intentionally drawing a comparison between 3 close losses to Georgia, Ohio State and Ohio State to losses to Vanderbilt (7-6), Tennessee (10-3), OU (6-7), Michigan (8-5) and unranked FSU? Can you elaborate on your thinking?
1 hour ago, Noozak said:What's interesting to me is that all the commentary on Ryan Williams is that he hasn't improved. Lazy route running, bad pad height, etc. AJ McCarron went off on him the other day. People are saying he doesn't look any bigger or faster this year either. I guess that goes to the comments up thread about the lack of S&C work. Someone like Williams is likely to be fielding offers from other schools constantly. At what point does he start taking those seriously?
Williams, per consensus on the Bama boards, is making $2.3M minimum this season. If you didn't get a chance to see him in the back half of last year or in the FSU game, that payout might make sense, but I don't see him being worth that. He weighs 170 pounds. Teams after the Vandy game last year started bullying him at the LOS and he struggled to get loose. The back 6 games of last year plus the FSU game, Williams has caught for 246 yards, 35 ypg, and 1 TD (another TD against mighty Mercer running the ball as well). SCar was their 6th game of last season and they were the first defense to fully mug the guy at the LOS.
They devised a really smart solution heading into this season of putting him in the slot and having him run middle of the field slot routes. He went 5 for 30 and got knocked out of the game. He was a complete nonfactor even though, with 11 targets, Bama damned sure wanted that to be the case.
So, yeah, maybe he heads elsewhere for more money, but I sure as shit hope it isn't Texas being willing to pay it.
To the point about S&C, I do think the guy needs to add significantly more upper body strength, irrespective of whether that's a lot of additional weight (doesn't have to be). If S&C is broken at Alabama, him going somewhere else might really work, but I still wouldn't say that if $2.3M+ is the asking price.
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20 minutes ago, Skipper said:
Even if the FSU game was a precursor to a 6-6 season, does Bama have the $$ to buy him out? That's $60MM+ after the season as I understand it.
Some journalist, and I don't remember who, posted on X the other day that the payments would be monthly until the contract expired. If that's true, there's no lump sum to worry over, therefore canning him might actually be doable. I don't know if what that person wrote is true or not, but I thought that was plausible.
If you're a coach and Bama fires a proven winner just 2 years into his deal, and Saban still looms large over the program, does being the next guy sound that appealing? Any coach on the list of candidates would know fully well that Bama didn't have the same NIL as other programs, putting significant risk on recruiting and retention. Yeah, they have a highly ranked class now, but their retention has been trash. They're always going to have to push and pull in one direction or the other.
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Am I the only one here who thinks that, ironically, if Nebraska had stayed in the Big 12 and Texas and OU left for the SEC anyway, that Nebraska would be the program benefitting the most in the new structure? They'd be playing in Texas every year, so recruiting would be vastly improved with that and games regularly in Florida as well. They'd be the sole blue blood within the conference and they'd have a lot of say. They'd likely also be primed to win at a higher clip.
I don't know, maybe I'm crazy. I like thinking about that, though. They're effectively trapped in some nightmare regardless, I guess.
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4 minutes ago, Not a cat said:
I recall the slam dunk hire at the time was Gary Barnett. I forget what poster with inside knowledge said it at the time but the sentiment was generally "I'm stunned, I'm pissed, it's Mack Brown."
That was texlarry. Yeah, the olds were all pissed on GoBig12. I was a lurker and not a poster during that period. Various candidates were brought up and rumored to be interviewing. A contingent of people wanted Mack Brown but didn't think he'd take the job because he was set up pretty well in Chapel Hill. My view was that that dude was a dream hire. I was pretty excited when he was hired. I never wanted Barnett and a lot of folks were "meh" on him.
I wanted no part of Steve Patterson, Barnes, Strong, Herman (I'd slightly interacted with Herman and we lived near each other and folks who lived by him had nothing nice to say about the guy), Pierce or Sarkisian. I thought CDC, Garrido, Brown, Shaka Smart, and Schlossnagle were awesome hires. I'm pretty "meh" on Miller. Somewhere along the way, like I said earlier, I have realized that skepticism is always warranted and that personally, my initial reaction is to be ignored.
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1 minute ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:
It's a bit too early to throw in the towel on the Deboer era... but I thought the guy would be a slam dunk hire.
College football is so odd that the guy who seems perfect for the job rarely turns out to be. Tom Herman was the hottest coach in the country when we hired him. Pete Carroll was like USC's fourth or fifth choice. Sark wasn't anybody's first choice here.
Good points. Mack Brown was a slam dunk hire that worked out. They're out there, but it happens far less than surface thinking would tell you. These days, I just basically start with skepticism, because I've been wrong in either direction so many times.
Like you, I thought Deboer would just keep Bama winning and I still wonder if he can pull that off, but time is not on his side. The Bama 247 site is an abattoir for all things Deboer. The writers are slamming him, boosters are sharpening their knives and talking to the $9.95ers, and ex-players are publicly running the current players and staff over. In the meantime, Deboer states yesterday to the press that he's "proud of his team" and "has their back". The "proud" comment is being shredded because that is the antithesis of something Saban would say after a humiliating defeat.
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The backup for the injured DT, Keenan, was Jeremiah Beaman. Beaman was a high 4 star in the 2024 class. He tore his knee up yesterday in practice and will be out for the year.
On top of everything else, injuries are starting to mount for Bama. You hate to see it.
The Crimson Tide are down to 6 healthy DTs. They have a junior starter in James Smith, 2 freshmen, a redshirt sophomore who has been a disappointment, a transfer from Florida who's done nothing and wasn't on last week's depth chart and then some other dude who didn't even travel last week. Thin isn't a descriptive enough word.
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3 minutes ago, cactusflinthead said:
You've going to have to put up with a lot of Drew. Would not recommend
Just now, Js1 said:Need a week 1 NFL thread for the non-cowboy fans so we don’t have to read Drew or look at Vic’s dumb memes from Facebook
Who is this Drew character?
I like the non-Cowboy fan NFL thread idea.
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2 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:
Yeah, we're stuck with watching the Cowboys getting embarrassed during prime time. Spike to me head
I expect to have a pretty good time tomorrow night watching that one, pretty much enough to be okay with not having CFB. Do Cowboys fans post a game thread? I might have to check that one out.
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- Popular Post
3 minutes ago, UTEE97 said:The thing about belief is that there is no right or wrong because the future can't be proven at present. You can believe in the bright future whereas many others may not. It was a deflating game for most of the fans. Sure, we can bounce back and run the table. I am just not wearing my UT hat in public until other fan bases forget about the game for the same reasons Sydney doesn't want to read negative posts about the game.
I have never put my UT or Astro stuff away, for any reason. Don't be a coelenterate. My affiliation with Texas runs way, way deeper than any outcome on a playing surface. Holy shit.
CFB Week Two Preview: The Eye of the Storm
in Football
I missed it somewhere along the timeline, but what is the story behind the name "El Assico" for the Iowa vs ISU game each year? Is it just because those games are usually so ugly? What's the origin story?