If Urban Meyer was a trainer, 99% of this board would be calling him a cheat. I wonder what he is feeding or injecting his players with to get a jump-up like that, especially with 3rd stringers. Anybody got an over/under on how many future death-row thugs he has on this team, similar to Hernandez at UF?
Incoming...
I likely have the most complete, real life perspective on this subject as anyone who is likely post.
To be clear, I\'m 61 years old and live in Nebraska. Prior to 1962 when Bob Devaney became the head football coach, the Husker program sucked..(Kinda like it does now). When Devaney had his first press conference and the press asked him how many games he wanted to win, he said, \"I don\'t want to win so many that we go on probation, but I\'d like to win enough to warrant an investigation.\" By 1970, Nebraska had won its first national championship.
When Tom Osborne took over in 1972 NU was plagued with playing the mighty Oklahoma Sooners and coach Barry Switzer. These were the original THUGS. NU played great football week in and week out, but was not able to beat OU until 1978, the fans of Nebraska wanted Osborne\'s hide. He couldn\'t win the \"big one\". That despite never winning less than 9 games for 25 straight years. Oklahoma was made up of David Overstreet (arrested on campus for wielding an UZI), Kerry Jackson (sent to prison during career for cocaine distribution), and a boat load of ultra-talent, ultra thuggish athletes. A known cheater, and head coach at several Division I Universities, Jackie Sherrill said, \"how can I compete with Barry Switzer? I show up in my pickup truck and Switzers giving out Chevis Regal from the back of a Lear Jet.\" Money was never an object, nor was character when Switzer was there. The people in Texas always said, \"The University of Oklahoma is the best Texans money can buy.\" They weren\'t wrong.
After NU\'s butt whippings from OU, us fans were then treated to several Orange Bowl appearance against the Miami Hurricanes. Most of the people on this board are well aware of their thug mentality. Sapp, Irwin, Lewis, etc. Impossible to beat.
NU then got a taste of Florida State for a couple times in the Orange Bowl and had trouble with Bowden\'s Free Shoes University. This was after NU was beaten in the Orange Bowl by that filthy cheater Danny Ford at Clemson. Man, as an NU fan, I was sooooooo sick of getting whipped by these type programs.
About 1992 Coach Osborne, apparently figured if you beat \'em, join \'em. Welcome to the party Lawrence Phillips, Abdul Mohammed, Christian Peter and that crew of thugs. Nobody could touch that group as they went about 62-3 over a 4 year period. The wins were great, decisive, and we (as fans) were able to extract a little satisfaction when we were on top. However, in those days, everyday you opened up the sports page or tuned into the local sports, you kinda held your breath until it was an uneventful day from someone in the football program.
Osborne retired and NU returned to normalcy. However, we haven\'t exactly ignored the thug types with our recent NU grads. Richie Incognito, Dominic Raiola and of course Detroit\'s Mr. Suh.
What I\'m trying to say is its really hard, maybe impossible to win a national title if you don\'t have these thug types. How many did USC turn out during their run with Reggie Bush and that bunch? I\'ve seen the \"types\" of players that is typically takes to win it all, and it ain\'t pretty.
This year Nebraska\'s most high-profile player is a really good running back. Ameer Abdullah. Great kid, never been close to trouble, comes from a great family in Alabama. Ameer is the YOUNGEST kid in a family of 9 children..
ALL 9 KIDS IN HIS FAMILY ARE COLLEGE GRADUATES. I don\'t care what anybody says, that\'s impressive in this day and age!! Quality kids like this that produce a lot of yards is a welcome relief. Ameer is graduating soon and in 4 years at Nebraska, the team lost 4 games every single year.
I guess you get both perspectives when you start with nothing, win everything, decide the price to win is too high, and then resort to normalcy.
Some of the high profile trainers in the horse business have tasted the good life and most of them are not going back anytime soon.
Thanks, and sorry for the length of the message.
Small timer.....fellow Husker here; born and raised in Omaha but living in Sunny Phoenix.
You brought back many memories for this Husker fan. Thanks Let\'s go Riley, and to keep this board on topic . . . can we some day bring back Ak-sar-ben?
I sure do miss it.
1. The 1st string QB @ OSU has been long rumored to want to transfer to Oregon waiting for Marriotta to declare.
2. Urban Meyer left a Florida program (broke his contract?) because he said he was tired of coaching and wanted to spend more time with his children while they were young. A day?, a week?, a month later he\'s at OSU.
3. The dim bulb 250 lb. QB @ OSU said he didn\'t understand why he had to attend classes with the logic... I didn\'t come here to play school!
4. I hope Marcus Marriotta the Heisman winner eschews the NFL and becomes a movie star.
It is about greed and the money not sport. Just like Horse Racing. Further when Oregon didn\'t make an easy lead due to drops & penalties it was like Bayern, GOD or Trinniberg not on the lead. OSU behind by two scores needing dim bulb to do something other than run over smaller lb\'s loses I speculate.
Oregon football has changed the game making for an improved fan experience. TCU, Baylor, UCLA et al. OSU congrats on winning the battle, now pay those student-athletes.
I don\'t want to get too far off point since we are both NU fans.
I loved Aksarben, a shame it closed. Was really one of the nicest tracks around. Man they used to put 30K in the place on bigger days. Met and became friends with Mike Smith when he was an apprentice. That was the first time I really hammered a horse, about $300.00 at the time across the board on a horse that Mike rode. Brazen Bold ran 4th and I was really pissed cause Mike really liked him. (No, the horse wasn\'t wide either!!) He and I remain friends to this day.
I had a friend that told me to bet a horse called Quote Rosie. I told him I couldn\'t bet that pig based on the PP\'s. My friend assured me the \"Form will lie today.\" I reluctantly put $ 5.00 across the board and was shocked when Quote Rosie won and paid about $ 200.00 to win. So much for Past Performances.
What Aksarben fan could ever forget Amadevil, Ogataul, Comet Kat, Bersid, Who Doctor Who, Gate Dancer and a lot of other greats. I never forget the day the great East coast sprinter Dave\'s Friend came to run in a sprint and packed about 130# and ran 1st or 2nd, can\'t remember. I remember thinking that he looked kinda small.
I loved driving in from G.I. and grabbing lunch with my wife in the cafeteria, much of the time we spent in the ole Coliseum area with the big screen that had such a lousy picture.
It was a great facility and the state of racing died when they closed the doors.
I\'ll give Riley a chance. I had no regard for Pelini as a coach, miserable man. Coaching for a slimeball like Tressel really fits him at Youngstown.
Good luck out there. Sorry to shorten up this reply, I\'m sure 99.9% of the board members could care less about what happened 30 years ago.
Tavasco Wrote:
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> Further when Oregon didn\'t make
> an easy lead due to drops & penalties it was like
> Bayern, GOD or Trinniberg not on the lead. OSU
> behind by two scores needing dim bulb to do
> something other than run over smaller lb\'s loses I
> speculate.
You either bet on Oregon, have no clue about football, or were watching a completely different game than the rest of us.
Ohio St dominated both the OL and DL. They pounded the ball down Oregon\'s throat, and manhandled the Oregon OL. This shouldn\'t have come as a surprise to anybody that has watched these 2 teams. Ohio St also turned the ball over 4 times to Zero for Oregon (I\'m not counting the last play INT).
They won 42-20 with a -4 TO differential. Chew on that for a minute. That game could have been a lot worse. That was a thorough ass kicking.
If Oregon jumped out 14-0, you really think they would have won? Please.
Oregon was down 21-10 at half, cut it to 21-17 on a 70 yd pass after an INT. Then after yet another turnover kicked a FG to make it 21-20.
So mid 3Q its a one point game. Not 2 scores, but one point. And then what happened?
\"Dim Bulb\", after turning it over on consecutive possessions, drives his team down the field again. A 12 play drive where he goes 4 for 4, with Elliot finishing it off for a 28-20 lead on the last play of the 3Q.
Jones was in complete control of that game. Oregon went right down the field to take a quick 7-0 lead, and after an exchange of punts, he leads them on a 10 play/97 yd drives featuring a beautiful 26 yd dart from his end zone on 3rd and 8.
He did far more than \"run over smaller LBs\".
Let\'s not kid ourselves here, NCAA football is big business, played by young men that know exactly how big this business has become. Its about money AND sport. And if you were a college athlete, and saw how much money your participation was generating, you might be singing a different tune.
Its easy to stand on your pulpit and get sanctimonious about greed and money, when you\'re not the one in the trainer\'s room getting treatment after the game.
You think running a gimmick offense has made for an improved fan experience? Really?? Thats like saying you would rather watch beer league softball because they hit more Home Runs.
Same old Oregon. Pile up the points against average defenses, then when they face an actual defense that hits them in the mouth they wilt.
Betting on Oregon was like betting on the front runner that wins by 8 and posts a big TG number. Then when he faces a little competition, he spits the bit and runs a far worse figure. Oregon\'s sheet isn\'t smooth, featuring big performances mixed in with lesser ones. Ohio St was the team with the superior TG number, and at minimum paired their top. A beautiful forging line, and a sure bet to run another big figure. Plus 7 points? Talk about an overlay.
I would much rather watch Ohio St, dominating with a punishing ground game, throwing on the perimeter with explosive athletes. A defense that dominates the line of scrimmage and has players coming from everywhere.
For me, Ohio St plays a beautiful brand of football. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Just like the young kids of today that listen to the utter crap being produced enjoy listening to it.
You may not like the state of today\'s college football, but unfortunately you let it cloud your view of this game. You couldn\'t have been more wrong about it.
The notion of \"college\" football is an incredible misnomer. For the majority of major football programs, the relationship they share with the institution that shares their name, other than financial, is mostly one of geographical proximity. It is akin to saying the shopping mall on the Gulfstream property is really part of the race track. Graduation rates often hover only slightly above 50% and many of those graduate through \"made for football/basketball\" majors.
The WSJ has valued the Ohio State program at 1.1 billion. I didn\'t mistakenly type a \"b\" there. These programs are clearly subsidiary business entities of the university. Their enormous financial growth, to a certain extent, parallels the growth of ESPN, and is not entirely independent of sports wagering. All of this is accomplished without overtly paying the athletes who provide the \"entertainment.\" Yes, they receive scholarships and are ensconced in comfort for four years, but for many, the opportunity for a college education is merely a pretense, because they have no more business being in college than a 10K claimer has running in the Triple Crown. For their efforts and life-shortening injuries, roughly 2% will make a livelihood from the sport, and of those, it has been reported that anywhere from a half to three-quarters of them will be bankrupt in five years.
When he was at Florida, Urban Meyer coached a team that had 31 arrests in six years, and, miraculously, that didn\'t include Aaron Hernandez. Inherent in that number is the reasonable assumption, emphasized by reports of what transpires at their neighboring school in Tallahassee, that many football player-related crimes go unreported, or are just not pursued. Few of those arrested were ever disciplined within the program.
Having said all that, I happily put all principled concerns on hold, and would vastly prefer watching the college game to its officially designated professional counterpart seven days out of seven. I agree with most of P-Dub\'s assessments of Ohio St., but for a team that earlier on lost to Va. Tech, and barely escaped Penn St. in overtime, to end the season by burying a good Wisconsin team, beating a perceived invincible Alabama team, and dominating a flash-and-glitzy Oregon team, all with a 3rd string quarterback, is a move up performance that would be the envy of all of our own sport\'s usual suspects. However, no drugs were involved, at least no more than usual. It was just a helluva coaching job, and if history is any indicator, which I suspect all of us would believe to be true or why else would we be here, Ohio St., with all its returning stars and starters, will be the best bet against on the board for next year\'s national championship. Billion dollar business notwithstanding, it\'s still a great game.
\" Coaching for a slimeball like Tressel \"
If a guy does a million good things in life and 1 day he lies to the NCAA and becomes a slimeball.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/12141880/jim-tressel-bill-snyder-selected-college-football-hall-fame
Did your son play in the Big Ten conference when Tressel was there? My son did.
First time NU played the Canes for the championship in the Orange Bowl was when Schnellenbrger[sp] was the coach.Canes won on a missed 2 point conversion and got their first National Championship.
Schnellenberger was the first to recruit the inner city but he did not bring the inner city to the UofM..
Now when Jimmy Johnson took over well that is a different story..
Now everyone recruits the inner city and the inner city is all over TV..
Their is a very good series on ESPN 30n30 on the Canes..
Seen the series on ESPN, it was very good. Schnellenberger did a great job with the Canes. At the time, especially the NU fans, did not know exactly how talented the Canes were. Their wideouts were awesome and RB Alonzo Highsmith tore NU a new one. Very sophisticated passing attack. Its a shame Schnellenger had such a battle with the bottle cause he really hurt his image at OU and then I think at Louisville?
I remember Calhoun (Miami DB) just got the tip of his little finger on the two pt conversion. It was a great finish.
Odd that NU and Miami(Fla) played in Lincoln this year and NU won by about 10 pts or so. It was amazing to watch the NU crowd in the last couple minutes, they were yelling for blood after all the butt whipping that had been administered by the Canes. The Canes didn\'t help themselves when part of their team was flipping off the NU crowd on the way into the tunnel. The nastiest I\'ve ever seen a crowd in Lincoln.
Have a good one!
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TGJB Wrote:
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> End of string.
Can you do the same for the name that horse string??