Rick Blaine

Don't forget Shawn Watson.

The League is clearly not in the midget's future. How many successful 5'5" QBs have there been since Eddie Lebaron? The Show? Well, that may be a different story.

Decide who to bash, then everybody pile on--it's the Surly way. It was the Shag way. It was ever thus and ever shall it be.

That cuts both ways you know.

Yes, yes, and yes.

That's for shit and for sure.

They're cockroaches.

I think he's just a soph. Has 3 years left.

Friends don't let friends subscribe to 247.

Don't forget Portapotty Girl.

Yeah, he's lost a bunch of the talent Willie Taggart left him with, too.

Permanently erected. Lots of strippers do that. Doesn't cost too much.

The following is the text of those parts of the interview that I found particularly telling when it comes to last year's Tim Beck-called offense. You hear this and you say, "Herman gets it. He's got to have seen how bad Beck was fucking things up. Why in the hell didn't he step in earlier?" Herman: And, and I think we’ve, we’ve got to get better at coaching them, too. We’ve got to figure out, you know, what we can do with them. We’ve got to narrow our focus. I think a little bit, coach, as you know, when you’re struggling, the first reaction is to grab-bag, is to just start grabbing at things—'well, maybe we can do this, and maybe we can do that, and maybe we can do this'—and the next thing you know, you have what I call a “book of plays” instead of a “playbook,” right? You have just a bunch of plays with no rhyme or reason, no system, no complements to each other. And so I think that was a big focus this offseason, was “This is what we believe in, this is what we think these guys can do, now that we know all of them, and we’re going to move to develop these guys in these areas.” Neuheisel: What is the formula at Texas? Do you hav—are you a system guy? Do you believe—as you just said, you’ve got a playbook now—or is it about what the skillset brings to the table, and you lean the offense towards what they uniquely have? Herman: I think it is imperative that you have some core beliefs: We’re going to run the football, we’re going to play-action pass, we’re going to be balanced on offense. We’re going to do most of it--I call ourselves, we’re a pro-spread, meaning all of our runs, routes, protections, everything, are concepts that you’ll see in the NFL; we just happen to do it from the shotgun, so you have to defend the quarterback-run element of it. And we don’t need a homerun hitter like Greg Ward or Braxton Miller. You can live with a singles or doubles hitter like Sam or Shane, or going back in my time, to Cardale or J T Barrett, you know, and you’ve just gotta keep those guys honest. So then you go, “OK, this is what we believe in. Now, what are we good at? What can we excel at, what do we maybe need a year or two to develop?” And so that’s where—and then the biggest thing too is, let’s get the playmakers on the field. Let’s get the ball into the hands of the guys who can make plays with it in their hands. Everything was going swimmingly and I was eating it up with a spoon until he dropped this little gem: Herman: We believe in defense; we believe in balanced offenses, but I learned a long time ago that “balanced offense” doesn’t mean you’re going to run it for 200 and throw it for 200 a game. That’s not what that means. “Balanced offense” means you can win the game, and this—Gregg Davis, my mentor, who I was a GA for here 20 years ago—told me this: "You can win the game however the defense dictates that you have to win the game." So, if they’re loading the box to stop the run, you can throw it to beat ’em. If they’re playing a little soft in coverage because you’ve been having a little success throwing it, now you can run it to win the game. And so, that’s what we want to be offensively. "--Gregg Davis, my mentor," (OTIS! MY MAN!)

Before the start of happy hour, truth be known.

Is there a setting for "enter" (paragraph return) that does not result in a double-space? Seems like it wastes a lot of space. (see?)

Hedley Lamar: Qualifications? Bad Man: Rape, Murder, Arson, and rape. Hedley Lamar: You said "rape" twice. Bad Man: I like rape. Taggart: He'll do! Hedley Lamar: Charming. Sign right here. (He should have said, "Charming. Sign your Baylor LOI right here.")

"Umble Oil & Refining Company" if you were in East Texas.

Amen. We need a subfourm for all that NFL shit; reserve this for CFB. Hell, maybe start a new board altogether for the NFL dweebs.

Oh, shit, did I do that? I can't decide whether I'm a terrible fuckup or extraordinarily prescient--probably the former.

Well, none of the other threads have disappeared, so . . .

What happened to the other 14? Could BL's successor just no longer countenance the inane bullshit that that thread had morphed into? If that's the case, count me definitely on his side.

I expect the offense to be better this year, but in spite of Beck, not because of him. Last year's OL was a shitshow and looking back at the big picture, not much could/should have been expected out of the entire offense. But if you watch game film with a magnifying glass you see the same old shit happening over and over: Failing to match play calls to the personnel on the field at the time. Failure to call plays to mitigate personnel weakness and/or take advantage of what few strengths we had. And as was mentioned above, calling the very same plays that were miserable failures in the series before. We were never going to be even average on offense, but with a decent playcaller we could have been a little bit better, and maybe that little better would have won us one more game. If we're improved this year it will be 100% attributable to better players, not better Beck coaching/playcalling. On the bright side, hopefully Hand will have a bigger input than has been anticipated by the 9.95'ers and, who knows, maybe TH really does take over the playcalling. Time will tell.

Didn't we used to be kinda good at baseball? Seems like I remember something like that but it's been so long ago . . .

fify.