Sometimes It's Not The Right Fit

I've lived in my current house for over 11 years and with two children more since, it seems that our foresight when we chose this house so long ago, was not as insightful as we thought.  We thought we were so smart and so prepared to grow into a house that we didn't have to stretch too much to afford.  Over a decade has passed and my wife and I have found ourselves desiring a new and larger home to raise our growing kids.  We love most things about our current home, especially the neighbors we have and the neighborhood itself.  We are both close to our jobs and the two younger kids don't have to go very far for school.  It's just a great location with many other young families nearby.  If it were possible to uproot our current house and just place a more pleasing house in the same plot, we would be so happy and wouldn't have to lose the perks of great neighbors and convenient location.

So, with this recent desire of a larger home, we have tried to make efforts in seeing what is out there in regards to something larger, yet, still within our price range.  As you can imagine, this is not easy.  We see these beautiful homes which seem to be perfect for our family and turn out to be about $200,000 above our maximum price range.  This makes things difficult for seeking a dream house, so we may have to settling for what reality will give us.  There has to be a happy medium out there somewhere.

The first step was narrowing down the areas of town we were willing to settle down.  We searched particular neighborhoods that we feel would be desirable to live without being too far from our jobs.  The children are still young enough that a change of schools wouldn't be the "worst day of my life" worthy.  Our parental status should stay intact.

The second step was getting someone to get us into the houses that are for sale by using a real estate agent that has access to the information of all the homes and the key to get into all the homes that we may be interested in seeing.

The third step is actually going out and seeing the houses that fit our criteria of the next home that we think we need to make us happy.  In a short time, we have seen several houses and have opinions on all of them.  We get to look at the photos that are posted online prior to choosing if that might be a good fit for our family or not and then have the agent set up an appointment to go see it.

The fourth step is the next step that we haven't gotten to yet.  We need to select the new family home and put in an offer and hope that it's accepted and then start all the paper work and wait to be approved and finally close on the sale to move in.  This whole process is very nerve-racking and stressful.  We have to think about how each of the houses will fit for our particular family.  Our family is original and how we would like to utilize our home is unique, as well.  We have to think about past issues with the house whether there has been water damage to walls or floors or basements; or an underground pool in the back yard that was filled in; whether the sewer pipes have flow problems; or if updates were done properly and not done cheaply.  There are some prerequisites that my wife and I have going into the search that we have learned are necessary for the future.

Just a brief update of the houses that we have gone through and pondered upon; we have noticed that when we walk into a house, it may be real impressive in some regards and then disappoint in others.  For example, the entry of a house I saw was amazing with a high ceiling and a feeling of openness.  Then, I peaked outside and saw an open lot behind the fence where there will be a bunch of houses built in the future that will block the view and the yard didn't seem very big and no place to park a future boat or camper.  So, I looked at a house where there was a huge garage specifically for an RV to put that future camper, and after looking through the house, I had no desire to even open up the 16 foot tall doors to see inside.  Searching for the right kitchen alone, this time around, could be a make or break kind of deal for us.  Our current, small kitchen has lost its cuteness because we just need more cupboard space and counter space and just more room.  So far, in our search, it is hard to imagine that there will be a "perfect" house out there for our family that will be in our price range where we may be forced to "settle" on a house that lacks one or more of our initial criteria for our happiness.

Like the search of a new home can be stressful and make one feel they can't find the perfect fit, high school football players have a similar challenge when searching for the right university to begin their collegiate football careers.  As there are some good parts of a house and some not-so-great parts of a house that might not fit just right, there are schools out there that these young men are looking at that have some great qualities to them while other qualities may be less intriguing.  Finding the perfect fit in a new home and in a new school are challenges that warrant a closer look to educate the populous.

So, when these great high school football players feel that a college football career may be in the future, they need to find out their chances of getting a scholarship to various universities.  Some instances, the athlete has already gotten offers from schools that are near by; and in rare situations, the talent is so great that schools dotting the country may be interested and offer a full scholarship.

The first step, like narrowing down the area of town to find a new home, is that the athlete needs to narrow down (or expand) their view of where they would like to settle down for next three to five years.  Like a new home, this is a big commitment and should be looked at seriously.

Like a real estate agent that gets connections to the homes, the second step for the athletes is talking to coaches and assistant coaches to arrange official visits to the campuses of interest.  For football players, the way of getting contacts from coaches is sometimes sending video footage of their highlights in various games including information of measurements and statistics from the season.

The third step is getting the chance to make all of the official visits allowed, which may be five these days.  Like finding the right fit for a new home, searching for the right fit for a university in football should be essential.  If the program looks real good and has been successful, but the coaches don't seem to mesh to personalities, then it may indicate an improper fit.  Sometimes the coaches are great and accommodating, but the program hasn't been the top of the conference for decades, the fit may not be the greatest.  There are also times when the program is excellent and the coaches are top notch, but the particular position that the athlete is being recruited for is flooded with talent - this may not be the best fit either.

Like making an offer on a house, recruiting needs the athlete to commit to a university to try to seal the deal and eventually complete the paper work which creates the contract of the athlete and school.  Some athletes verbally commit early in the process and some wait until the National Letter of Intent Day to make their awaited decision and fax in their signature to the school's athletic department.

I'll say it up front:  I was never an uber-athlete that had various schools frothing at the mouth before I left high school.  So, I have no clue what these kids are going through at such a young age and influential time in their lives.  It must feel real good being wanted so desperately and difficult to stay grounded and not letting all the attention go to your head.  Again, I wouldn't know anything about that!  So, I can only ask questions and wonder what each athlete is thinking without knowing anything about their personal lives and background and interests beyond football.  As I ask some questions, (mostly, "Why did he chose that school over any other school?) I look to see where they live currently and the position they potentially will play in college and see their short list of schools of interest and try to imagine where I would prefer to go from those standpoints.  Many times I am wrong and left wondering why a different route wasn't taken.  When I can't figure it out and see only negative reasons why that athlete chose that particular university, I put them in the Shrine Dog Award classification because the choice doesn't make any obvious sense.  The Shrine Dog Award is explained in a previous post in this blog, which can be referred to if it's confusing in this post.  Basically, the Shrine Dog Award goes to clueless kids that are not listening to the right people in their lives and jump into a situation that was based on something influential that didn't include common sense.

Let me clear things up by demonstrating what I see, which is available to the public without cost, and explain my point of view.  When I see a highly touted athlete that plays running back in Indiana, first I think that he might want to stay close to home.  As a 4 or 5-star football player, I immediately think he could go to any FBS school if his studies are up to par.  Indiana is very close to many Big Ten schools that would most likely recruit a local running back with certain skills.  So, this kid would most likely have close contact with the likes of Indiana Hoosiers, Illinois, Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Boston College, to name a few.  Then there might be some schools recruiting this Indiana kid from outlying members of the conference(s) that have closest ties with him, like Nebraska, Wisconsin, Virginia, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Syracuse.  The interest may dip into other conferences by measure of taking away a great athlete from other conferences just to secure their weakness of recruiting, like West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and even USC or UCLA.  So, when I think of these factors just based on where he currently lives, it takes just a couple seconds to process the thought of where he might want to go that's close to home.  Then I look at his specific position that he is being recruited for and think of who has done real well at recruiting that position recently and what they do to prepare the kids that play that position for the NFL.  For example, Ohio State usually puts out really good running backs and can recruit that position to bring in blue chip athletes each year, so if the Indiana kid wants to start right away, then he may lean toward another school who may not be as strong or hasn't recruited high caliber talent in that position for a couple years.  So, I look closely into that on scout.com and look up to four years prior to see who the competition might be for the incoming freshman.  Is(Are) the starter(s) from last year coming back?  How many upperclassmen will there be when he gets to campus?  Now, when signing day arrives and this top 20 running back in the nation from Indiana, who could go anywhere, signs his letter of intent to play for Kansas, my first thought becomes, "Did he get confused with basketball?"  Did he really choose to play for the Jayhawks?  Does he have family there or does he not care about winning?  He will definitely be the starter from the get go, but life is so much easier on running backs if there is an offensive line significant enough to break open holes to allow you to demonstrate why you were so highly recommended coming out of high school.  Indiana boy just claimed himself a Shrine Dog Award!  Congratulations and good luck in Kansas!

Now, the Indiana kid was just a made up example of what I see and what I'm looking for when I'm tracking the recruiting process of these top notch high school players; however, there are real examples in the past and near future who appear to have claimed this Shrine Dog Award from me.  Let's look back a few years!  I have a good example in 2011 recruiting class with Notre Dame recruiting so well in recent years that every athlete in the nation looks hard at South Bend, IN, and knows of the deep tradition of the Fighting Irish.  Sometimes these great schools that are tradition rich can get a huge load of players at certain positions, and in 2011, one of those positions happened to be at defensive end.  Scout.com keeps track of the date of the verbal commitment that each player announces to the public who they have verbally committed to.  Early on, the first two DE commitments were a couple of 3-star guys #66 and #50 in the nation at that position.  Then with less than a month before the National Letter of Intent Day, ND started reeling in the DE's in a large kind of way.  January 14, Notre Dame received a verbal commitment from the #4 guy overall, then the very next day received the commitment from the #2 DE overall bringing the position count to four.  Then, low and behold, two more days later, the #97 DE commits to the Fighting Irish, only to be outdone two more days later with, yet, another DE commitment from the #10 defensive end in the country.  Does one team need six defensive ends?  Yes!  In the same recruiting class?  Probably not, unless all the upperclassmen at that position suddenly died.  This scenario leaves me with no choice to give a Shrine Dog Award to one of them six defensive ends that kept his initial verbal commitment.  Do I choose the #50, 3-star from Florida?  He committed second, so he shouldn't feel bad, but he is coming from so far away only to be a practice dummy behind the three 5-stars that will play ahead of him.  Should I choose the #97, 3-star guy from Ohio?  Yes, Chase Hounshell could definitely deserve such an honor of Shrine Dog being the lowest ranked of the five (at the time) DE's that had committed.  Maybe, the Shrine Dog Award would go to #10, 5-star Stephon Tuitt because he is the sixth DE to commit in the same year for the same team who recruited three DE's the year before and traveling all the way from Georgia.  He may have a shot at a starting position in a few years.  I suppose he thinks he's better than the #2 and #4 DE's of that year.  I don't know!  Maybe both of the last two DE commits should each earn the award because they probably didn't consider if this is the best fit for them.  This is how it's done!  This is how it works!  The Shrine Dog Award will call them out and maybe someone will change their mind before it's too late, or just get the transfer papers filled out now if it is too late.

In the 2012 recruiting class, there are a few glaring Shrine Dog Award winners that leave people scratching their head.  In my opinion, the most obvious decision made by an incoming freshman is one of the seven defensive backs that committed to Texas Longhorns.  Two of the DB's are #'s 11 and 17 safeties in the nation, while the rest were cornerbacks.  Four of the CB's are in the top 21 in the nation and all 4-star athletes and all but one of them committed before January.  The fourth CB to commit to the Longhorns happened to be Kevin Vacarro, the #136, 2-star CB from the state of Texas.  The first sign that maybe committing to Texas would be the three 4-stars that are ranked way ahead of Kevin.  Then to see yet another top 18 CB committing a month later and seeing the two top 20 safeties committed as well would be a red flag for most.  However, Kevin dreamed of being a Longhorn since he knew how to hold a football, he didn't dare put the time in to research his chances of being able to actual "play" for the team in a game.  To make things worse, four top 21 DB's were recruited from the year prior (only one safety), and four top 15 DB's the year before that (only one CB).  Kevin didn't realize that the defensive backfield would have so much talent and depth only among the underclassmen alone?  C'mon!  Did Kevin even think to look into all the information about the team he chose and the position he plays and really consider this the best fit?  Based on the information I have, I would have to say no!  Congratulations, Kevin Vacarro!  You earned yourself a Shrine Dog Award!

I have to laugh a bit regarding a particular university in the 2013 recruiting year.  We saw a Mississippi State team recruit six wide receivers.  The final WR commitment came from a 4-star WR ranked #23 in all the country.  Maybe he should get the Shrine Dog Award, but I figured that one of the five 3-stars should get the reward.  I don't thinks it's wrong that one school should recruit six WR's in one recruiting class, but I take into consideration the past reputation of great quarterbacks.  I do not think of Mississippi State as a passing prowess team.  The Bulldogs have been known as a running team that pounds the ball down the throat of the opposing defenses, but passing?  Holy cow!  Who is making mistakes here?  Is it the athletes or is it the actual coaches thinking this is a good idea?  Maybe the Shrine Dog Award should go to the offensive recruiting team.  This scenario just makes me chuckle because it doesn't seem like a good fit for most of the athletes.  The positive thing is that there was only one 4-star athlete that was wasted at that school.

Finally, as the beginnings of the 2014 recruiting class begins to unfold into what could be an interesting recruiting year, I have focused on the top 30 running backs.  This is a skill position that the most talented RB's should take a close look at where a good fit would be based on whether the ultimate goal is getting to the level after college - mainly, the NFL.  First, I try to consider which schools really know how to turn out successful RB's into the NFL on a consistent level.  The recent schools I think of that have had success are schools like Miami, Alabama, Ohio State, LSU, Oklahoma, California, and Tennessee, to name a few.  Then there are some universities that do a great job at making their running backs look really good in college, but not necessarily translating into NFL success are schools like USC, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Oregon, and West Virginia.  So, when the top athletes at the running back position look elsewhere to be the starters, that's all they'll be, the starters - nothing more.  They may struggle shining in certain programs that aren't known for their stellar RB play.

Let me start with the positive decisions that these young athletes have made and state the reason why I feel that those decision may be the best (or closest to the best) choice they could make as the top running backs in the nation according to scout.com.  First, the RB's that chose to stay close to home that will be playing in front of friends and family:  those are Joseph Yearby from Miami, committed to Miami; Jalen Hurd from Tennessee, committed to Tennessee; Bo Scarborough from Alabama, committed to Alabama; Parris Campbell from Ohio, committed to Ohio State, Dalvin Cook from Florida, committed from Florida; Jeffrey Jones from Minnesota, committed to Minnesota; Justin Jackson from Illinois, committed to Northwestern; Terence Williams from Texas, committed to Baylor; Donald Catalon from Houston, committed to Texas; Devon Thomas from Oklahoma, committed to Oklahoma State; Shaun Nixon from Austin, committed to Texas A&M; and Traevohn Wrench from Kansas, committed to Kansas.  I appreciate that these guys have chosen to stay near their homes and commend most of them for choosing wisely to make their mark at the next level.

Next, I will list those commitments that may not make much sense by seeing how much traveling those young men will be doing just to get to school.  These make less sense based on the information that I have, but there might be reasons of extended family members nearby the university or girlfriend or whatever unknown possibilities to choose where to play football.  These players are the following:  Sony Michel from Florida, committed to Georgia; Elijah Hood from North Carolina, committed to Notre Dame; Christian McCaffrey from Colorado, committed to Stanford; and Nick Wilson from California, committed to Arizona.  With Elijah Hood, I am assuming that he is committed to Notre Dame is because he attends a Catholic high school and would like to attend a Catholic college, so this may make some sense.  For Nick Wilson, Arizona doesn't always have a lot of great running backs within its state, so the Arizona schools must recruit hard in California for the best talent that is in very close proximity of the campus which makes some sense, too.  Now for Christian McCaffrey, the two main Colorado schools have not been real great at football as of late, and Christian may be very intelligent and searching to get a degree that he can use after football is all over, so Stanford makes sense.  It is tough to make the analysis on these athletes due to such randomness of choices; however, some universities like Notre Dame and Stanford are known for their ability to recruit nation-wide.

Finally, I would like to introduce the names, I feel, would make great candidates for the Shrine Dog Award for the running backs in the class of 2014.  I can't take any running back seriously when they are a top 30 RB in the nation and choose a university such as Minnesota, Florida, Northwestern, or Kansas.  Florida may surprise you to find itself here for me, but let me explain by saying that I can't remember when Florida had a great RB that rushed for over 1,000 in the season and just made an impact in the rugged SEC.  In the old Steve Spurrier days, the Gators were known for their high flying attack from great quarterbacks that flung the rock all day long.  The RB's are just used for short distance running and passing and didn't need someone super special carrying the pill.  Even lately, the best RB Florida has had was their QB who out-rushed everyone else on the team (Tim Tebow).  A true running back is not a luxury that Florida has had or they just haven't been able to utilize any talent at that position which would make playing for Florida as a highly touted RB a really unwise decision.  Minnesota?  Well, Minnesota hasn't had anyone special since their two best backs were sharing the field together back in 2003 and 2004 with Laurence Maroney and Marion Barber III, then Maroney shated duties with Gary Russell in 2005.  That's it!  Nobody since.  So, why (unless you're the biggest Gophers fan) would anyone choose Minnesota as a top 30 RB in the nation?  Same goes for Northwestern and Kansas.  Northwestern has had some flashes of great RB's in the past with stinky offensive lines that have still been able to get decent yards, but it's hard work.  Kansas is a school that doesn't stick out to me as a power football university.  I'm sure if I thought long enough and browsed through my college football magazines that date back to 1997, I might be able to name one or two Jayhawk RB's that made an impact at Kansas.  Now, with Charlie Weis as the new head coach and his ability to recruit was proven at Notre Dame, but also proven at Notre Dame was his ability to lose games as the head coach - and that was with excellent talent flooding in to play for the Fighting Irish not caring who the head coach was, but Kansas?  Wow!  That's one Jayhawk fan that will leave college his senior year with some possible regrets.

Before I crown Traevohn Wrench with the Shrine Dog Award for choosing Kansas, I would like to say that Traevohn is at least thinking that he is staying close to home and he will most likely be the starter within a year or two upon arriving on campus - if he doesn't make an immediate impact.  The unlikely candidate who I feel would be most deserving of this honor of one who is merely flattered by the scholarship offer and not looking thoroughly into what he is committing to is Bo Scarborough, who plans to attend Alabama.  It makes sense that a guy from Alabama who gets a scholarship offer from Alabama would just commit to Alabama.  That's in a perfect world, right?  Well, since when is it a perfect world?  If you dig a little deeper and find out who is currently on the running back roster for the Crimson Tide and who will be coming in the fall, Bo may have a change of heart.  Everybody knows that Eddie Lacy was the latest to pound his way through holes opened up by the beastly offensive line at Alabama who is now off to the NFL following his predecessors, Trent Richardson and Mark Ingram (who won the Heisman Trophy).  Eddie's backup last year was a true freshman, T.J. Yeldon.  Between Eddie and T.J., there never seemed to be much of a drop-off, if any, when one came out and the other went in throughout most of the season.  When Bo gets to Tuscaloosa, T.J. will only be a junior and playing for possibly his last year, but there was another RB recruited in the same class as T.J. (#8 in 2012), Kenyan Drake (#17), who may be competing for playing time.  They will have a senior, Dee Hart (#8 in 2011), that may have a chance at some playing time, as well.  Now the kicker is the 2013 class that will be sophomores or redshirt freshmen when Bo gets to Alabama, which brought in four top 15 RB's.  Let me repeat that - FOUR top 15 running backs were recruited in the class of 2013!  Not only will Bo be competing for playing time against the potential starter, T.J. Yeldon, but some talented backups in Dee Hart and Kenyan Drake, but the four guys one year ahead of him who include:  the #15 Tyren Jones, #14 Altee Tenpenny, #12 Alvin Kamara, and the #4 (5-star) Derrick Henry, who could plow over any linebacker and defensive end, standing at over 6'3" and weighing over 240 pounds.  Yes, Bo is currently the #7 RB in his class, but going up against a solid and deep backfield, I have to feel that Bo's early decision has not been a very good one and may not seem like the right fit for his football future.  There are many schools that tend to create great running backs that still make it to the NFL that Bo can choose from, so at this point, all is not lost (unless he stays committed to the Crimson Tide).  There you have it!  Congratulations, Bo!  At this time, as you remain committed to Alabama, you have the honor of receiving the Shrine Dog Award.

So, as I continue my search for a new home and try to find one that will actually be the right fit, there will continue to be the high school athletes that make decisions that will not make sense as far as the right fit with where they live and the position that they play and where they end up committing themselves.  I feel that these blue chip football players should try to do more research on where they are thinking about going and find out for himself whether it would be the right fit or continue looking at universities that would be a better fit.  Sometimes you just have to find it yourself and feel right about it.

The Shrine Dog Awards

I went to college at Southern Oregon State College (now Southern Oregon University) and have to admit that I never found too many of the serious students that attended classes and studied in the library daily and focused on all that was academic.  My time was spent going to classes and studying occasionally at the student union and focused on socialization and learning where the cute girls went on Friday and Saturday nights.  I know it doesn't sound real aspiring for someone about to begin their university studies without an idea of what to study, but it's tough not to learn something.  There are so many activities that students can be involved in, especially if they live in the dorms for a year or two, that at the very least one can learn much about oneself.  I participated in many extra curricular activities, such as; the Greek Games, pageants, talents shows (with zero talent), etc.  It was fun getting involved with the student body and campus activities!  One cool thing about college, is you can take sports classes and get actual credits for them, so I enjoyed taking volleyball classes all the time.  Then finally, I tried something really different that I never intended.  I had a friend in the residence halls that was a rugby player.  He and I became good friends and he encouraged me to come to rugby practices and try it.  So, I went, and I liked it.  I played for the SOSC rugby club for a while until a shoulder injury kept me out.  However, Kai and I remained close friends throughout the year and I learned things about him and his quirks.  The thing that stuck with me was that he was from Beaverton, Oregon, and he lived close to a Shriner's Hospital.  It's a weird thing to remember, but I found out when I asked him why he kept calling people a Shriner.  He would tell me and all who would listen that he escaped from the Shriner's Hospital and that's why he acted the way he did with an awkward gait and eyes crossed.  Sensitive people will get offended, but it was just Kai and who he was.  Since leaving college, I have adopted the term Shriner and mostly calling myself such a name.  These days, I'm known at work by some by the nickname, "Shrine Dog".  It is a term of endearment because my other nicknames would have to be edited out of this post.  So this is how the title has come about.

Now, the Shrine Dog Awards is not necessarily a term of endearment in the sense of my meaning.  This self-acclaimed award will be what I give to recruits coming out of high school who may make a decision to attend a university that wouldn't really make sense to anybody but the coach recruiting the young man.  Before I go into some examples of who would be ideal candidates for this award and why I feel they would deserve this honor, I want to make sure that every reader knows that this term and type of award is solely for poking fun and helping me keep track of those schools who horde players at certain positions.  I have no intentions of offending anyone because it would offend me above all else due to the nickname I have gained at work - and I don't think it wise to call an award after my given name (that may be even more offensive than most other things).  So, from here on out, when I mention "Shrine Dog Award" or "Shrine Dog Candidate", my readers will know from where it derives and the meaning behind it.

In conclusion, I will give one example from a couple years ago in the class of 2011.  There were some pretty good quarterbacks out there that year and the number one, according to Scout.com, was Jeff Driskel.  He was the man to get and the Florida Gators picked him up.  Well, the National Letter of Intent day arrived and passed and Mr. Driskel signed his letter of intent and waiting to be the next starter for the Gators.  Then, a few days after the NLI day, the number nine guy, Jacoby Brissett, wanted to finally end all speculation to sign his letter of intent.  Now, instead of signing on with the school that his mother begged him to sign with (Miami Hurricanes), who did not have a single quarterback sign with them that year and hadn't had a quality signal caller in a few years, Mr. Brissett signed on to Florida.  My thought immediately was, "Get your transfer papers ready, Jacoby."  Why would you sign on to a team that already has the number one guy in your class if you want to play and start for that team?  At the time, it did not make sense.  Even now, with Jacoby not with Florida anymore, it makes less sense.  So, for me, Jacoby Brissett is a Shrine Dog Award winner.  He should have listened to his mother and signed with Miami.  Someone needs to educate these high school kids about these huge decisions in life that may make a huge difference in their future.  So, if any of my readers have access to influence any of these highly sought after young men, I will be around to call them out to give them a Shrine Dog Award if they have not thought carefully and analyzed their decision of where to spend their college football career.  This decision making is not something new and I don't see it going away as I look at the 2013 class and the makings of the 2014 class shaping up.  I have some awards to pass out and you will be able to read them in my future blog posts.

Oregon Ducks Need Love

Currently living in Spokane, WA, I was pleasantly surprised recently when I heard a friend of mine relating a story about running rapids in Southern Oregon on the Rogue River.  This wild and scenic part of the Rogue River remains my favorite white water rafting river that I've had the privilege to manipulate in my youth.  When Mat spoke about a very well known rapid, Blossom Bar, I knew exactly where he was referring to.  This particular place along the river wasn't always available as a river running possibility.  In the days when there was much mining and wood cutting in the area, the workers needed a pathway for the logs to flow down and not get hung up there.  Dynamite was necessary to create a small crease for logs, and later, rafters to flow through this scattering of large, house-sized rocks.  I recalled all the times we climbed the shear cliffs to scout the rapid before we plunged into unknown outcomes - whether we live another day or tip and drown or smash into one of the jagged rocks that infest this garden of boulders to puncture our raft and be left stranded.  The cliff that represented the bank of the river at this point was the final destiny of peace and calm before the terror and anxiety of this maneuvering challenge.  One last breath is always taken in the eddy on the left hand side of the river that leads the waters through the safest route of the first drop, then all chaos blurs the vision and intensity soars when you hope you remember the discussed oar strokes and shifting to point the front of the raft directly toward the next obstacle so you can use your power reverse stroke to pull you and your passengers away from the eminent danger of flipping - oh, and there's the next obstacle.  The adrenaline rushes just thinking about it!  My friend, Mat, probably had a different experience than all my trips because he wasn't in a cushy raft, but a small, vulnerable kayak.  At the time, his white water skills weren't equivalent to this real life test.  After a couple flips and a small delay, he was able to make it through to the end and have a story to tell about for years to come.  He wasn't sure whether he was wanting to continue this crazy trip or not, at one point or another.  He had a moment when he could have chose to get in the guide raft and just float the rest of Blossom Bar with the skilled guide, or get back in the water and brave the rest of the obstacle-laden rapid.  As the man that I've become to know, he chose the tougher decision and went for it.  Now, though he did not mention it, I know that he must have stopped at the lodge that rests a few kilometers down the river from Blossom Bar rapids called Paradise Lodge.  After surviving Blossom Bar, anything would be paradise.  Paradise Lodge is a nature feast with large fish swimming near the bank before climbing the trail to the building, and possibly seeing the black bear that they feed in the fenced area, and wandering deer passing through the property.  It's a thing of beauty - especially if you made it with all your gear intact and passengers in one piece and a raft that's not destroyed.  The Rogue River in Oregon is definitely my future destination spot some day where I would love to bring my kids along to show them, as I was shown, how wonderful it is.  Now, I don't want to take away any greatness from the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, because that is truly an amazing trip and quite overwhelming and intimidating, but the many little things in Oregon on the Rogue makes that place more special.

White water rafting is not the only special and meaningful thing in Oregon for me because I really enjoy college football from the small town of Eugene.  The Oregon Ducks have had quite a solid run, themselves.  Coach Mike Bellotti really got things started from an inconsistent program and worked many years into something more steady and dependable.  Then the four years with Chip Kelly saw all that potential really come together to find success in the Bowl Championship Series era.  Unfortunately, Oregon hasn't become the home of many elite athletes nationwide and missed out on big wins against significant teams.  Oregon's potential still looms and the football program has yet to peak.  Sure, the Ducks get the occasional star athlete that comes in and makes an impact, like Haloti Ngata and Dennis Dixon and Jonathan Stewart and T.J. Ward and Patrick Chung and Jairus Byrd and even back several years when Dan Fouts was the starting QB for Oregon.  Now we are seeing more and more Ducks being successful at the next level.  This shows that Oregon is really coaching up the talent they get from high schools.  Not so much now because the Ducks are able to recruit more highly skilled talent recently.

I have been studying the recruiting process more and more and have found many interesting trends that have happened in the past and what we find in today's recruiting practices.  The sure thing I found is that the Southeastern Conference definitely has the strong hold of elite talent every year.  I've said it once and I'll say it again, "The SEC should dominate every non-conference team they play every year and leave no doubts on the field who the better team is."  The non-conference games shouldn't ever be close, unless it's against USC or Ohio State or Florida State.  Based on recruiting and the pay that the coaches receive and the capacity of each stadium, the SEC schools are expected to dominate every facet of the game - in my eyes.  Luckily, they don't and I can find fault in their inadequacies and make claim that the conference is not as deep and powerful as advertised.  I can look at the previous decade of recruiting on scout.com and rivals.com and see exactly why the SEC has won the national championship game seven years running.  Anyone with a brain can figure this out and it can't be denied, but how can there be any team out there that can be competitive with an elite SEC squad?  Yet, a few years back when the undefeated Auburn Tigers played an inferior Oregon Duck team in the national title game and Auburn needed a last minute field goal to break the tie and win the game by three points.  How could that game have been so close?  Very improbable, was the thought prior to the game.  Interesting to note, that since that year, the head coach of Oregon has been promoted to be an NFL coach the same year that Auburn's head coach was fired.  It reminds me of that song from that 80's group C+C Music Factory, "Things That Make You Go, Hmmm."

So, why is it that according to rivals.com, that of the last 11 years, an SEC school was ranked #1 or #2 or both in 10 years?  To me, it's obvious, but it may have something to do with the schools' locations are considered to be in the best parts of the country and the coeds are prettier there than anywhere on earth.  I suppose I was just born in the wrong part of the country.  That's too bad!  There is talent galore in so many states in the south like Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.  Plus they can dip into Texas and the Carolinas for additional talent, but sometimes California kids are swept away to the East coast.  Who wouldn't want to?  They win championships over there, right?

The other research that I've been doing is trying to determine which schools are recruiting hot-beds and get athletes to flock there for football and determine why.  I wanted to know whether a winning tradition is a huge part, or whether it is the coaches that work so diligently for elite recruits, or if it is consistency and an upward trend to improve that has these kids picking one university over the others.  I looked up on stassen.com for some statistics that might enlighten me with a brilliant discovery, but found more confusion than anything else.  I also found that stassen.com is very up to date on its information because when I searched to find the highest winning percentages over the last 16 years, schools that were penalized with sanctions and had to vacate wins in the past, like USC, Alabama, Ohio State, North Carolina, and Penn State (hit the hardest) were already calculated in the percentages.  The 16 years represents the BCS era and seemed like a good starting point to search for consistency in a program.  Now, with Boise State at #1, TCU at #10 and Utah at #17, the rest were huge schools with a great winning tradition in the top 20.  I saw some surprises due to the current trend of winning or losing in recent years, for instance, Alabama was not found in the top 20, but probably would have been without the vacated wins that would have put them just above Utah.  Another example was Tennessee at #20.  With it's current state of winning, or rather, not winning, they didn't seem to be someone that would be found so high up in the rankings, but I reminded myself that there were a few years early on in the BCS era when they won a national title and came close a couple other years.  Another surprise was seeing Oregon all the way up at #8.  Even without the vacated wins, USC would still show more losses than Oregon during that span.  Interesting.

With this discovery of information that I have searched, pondered, and p... wait, that might be heading somewhere else.  Anyway, I find it very interesting that Oregon has fewer losses than USC during the BCS era; even fewer losses than Alabama and Michigan and FSU and LSU.  All those aforementioned schools, with exception to Michigan, have won the national title at least once during this span.  This is crazy!  So why is it that Oregon has only been able to break the top 20 in recruiting classes since 2003 only six times and the top ten only once according to rivals?  Over that span of recruiting for Oregon, the Ducks have never topped the conference in elite athletes.  The Ducks have had the second best recruiting efforts in the Pac-12 three times behind USC each time.  On average, Oregon places at fourth or fifth in conference in recruiting each year.  The recruiting dilemma is why so many SEC schools repeatedly have several schools out-recruiting Oregon every year - even, Tennessee, Ol' Miss, and Vanderbilt recruited better than the Ducks this year in 2012.  Vanderbilt?!?  Really?  Is Oregon that bad?  Maybe it's the thought of Chip Kelly leaving for the NFL that has gotten recruits nervous about the program, or the potential sanctions that may be coming to Eugene soon.  Maybe these high school athletes are feeling a little like Mat's kayak, vulnerable and not in a cushy place and afraid to tip over a couple times.  Or maybe they don't think they can work as hard in practice as the Ducks do when they get dozens of repetitions every practice.  Maybe they are just afraid to win lots of games in college and choose Mississippi (remember how good Jeremiah Masoli was at Oregon, then his stupid off-the-field acts got him kicked off the team and he transferred to Ol' Miss where he wasn't effective at all and appeared like he lacked quarterbacking skills).  These recruits shouldn't have any reservations about Oregon and the potential Paradise Lodge that draws near after the hard fought battle of Blossom Bar's rocky sanctions.  Maybe the athletes are up on that high cliff and looking down on Oregon and analyzing the future and what's in store.  When in reality, even if there are a couple of flips in the early rapids, all one needs to do is what Mat did, that is, get back in the water and finish the ride and set your sights on that Paradise Lodge to celebrate the victory.  Mike Bellotti blasted that place with dynamite many years ago and now the Ducks are in easier flowing waters now with Chip Kelly departing and now Mark Helfrich finds himself in the same position Coach Kelly was in four years ago - Chip had never been a head coach and merely an offensive coordinator.  The last 16 years should prove that Oregon is here to stay with its longevity and consistency.

The last couple years of recruiting for Oregon have been solid and saw a couple shining stars changing from one great university to decide on signing with the Ducks on National Letter of Intent day.  I feel that Oregon has been on the brink of recruiting greatness but hasn't found that last springboard to get to that level of recruiting that is found in the SEC.  Oregon has needs at certain positions that can get them to win those big games, especially defensive tackle.  Haloti Ngata was the last dominant DT Oregon has had that is big enough to plug the holes in the middle and strong enough to push the offensive line back to cause a large disruption in the backfield.  With the 3-4 scheme the Ducks use, it would be ideal to get that beast-like athlete in the center of the trenches because there is so much speed flying around everywhere else.  I feel that Oregon needs to go after more tackles similar to Ngata and get depth.

Currently, Oregon has not offered scholarships to very many of the kids of the 2014 recruiting class that I feel they should be going after.  Coach Helfrich has decided to stay closer to home with most of the recruits and find the future starters in Washington and California.  California is an ocean of talent waiting to be discovered and Oregon has had much success with the players they pick up there.  The state of Oregon is not very helpful when it comes to elite high school talent that can demonstrate their skills at the next level from day one.  Arizona is another state that Oregon can tap into for many blue-chippers; however, I have noticed on scout.com that most Arizona kids who look at the schools in Oregon, seem to favor Oregon State and not even have the Ducks listed in their schools of interest.  I find that really strange.  I don't want to question Coach Helfrich and his tactics on recruiting ideas, but knowing that Oregon is #8 in average wins over the last 16 years tells me that it is time to expect the blue-chippers from all over the country to want to attend the University of Oregon and play football.  Don't undersell yourself, Coach!  It's a great university and it's in the Conference of Champions where football is gradually improving to be a consistent shareholder in the most anticipated BCS bowl games.  The facilities are in place to attract the best of the best.  It's time to be confident that Oregon will manipulate the obstacles and maneuver around the large boulders and get to Paradise Lodge, or that national title that has been elusive to the Ducks' consideration of being a powerhouse football program.

I can't compliment the perks of floating the Rogue River enough with mention of the Blossom Bar rapids and there's also a stop at Zane Grey's cabin, and touring the Rogue River Ranch is a must-see when you ascend to the lush, green field that you cross to reach the main house; however, I don't hear much about this river from river runners from most parts of the country and yet it remains this solid, technical river that should be ran by the best rafters.  Now, the same can go for Oregon Ducks and the nationwide blue-chip football players coming out of high school in 2014, where Oregon is solid and technical and should be getting those most elite players from anywhere.  Players like Da'Shawn Hand (DE from Virginia), Cameron Robinson (OT from Louisiana), Lorenzo Carter (DE from Georgia), Tony Brown (CB from Texas), Braden Smith (OT from Kansas), Leonard Fournette (RB from Louisiana), Jabrill Peppers (CB from New Jersey), Kain Daub (MLB from Florida), Khairi Clark (DT from Florida), Jamal Adams (S from Texas), Malik McDowell (DE from Michigan), Sam Mustipher (OG from Maryland), Elisha Shaw (DT from Georgia), and Deshaun Watson (QB from Georgia) should be giving Oregon a serious look because a combination of a few of them might make the difference between playing in a BCS bowl and playing in the BCS National Title game and winning it.  Oregon is now one of those programs that impact high school youth when they receive an offer in the mail.  The choices are difficult and the pressure is great for these young athletes to make such an enormous decision, but it seems that you can't go wrong with a solid, consistent program that has set the dynamite into the obstacles and blown the path to Paradise and will allow anyone a chance to start and play at any time, like Oregon has become.

So, to my friend, Mat, I thank you for your story of your experience on the Blossom Bar Rapids because of the fond memories that I have of that same place.  I am glad that your experience was similar to mine even though your trip was years after my most recent trip.  Like Oregon's football team over the years, the Rogue River has remained constant and solid.  As I am sure that Paradise Lodge was a welcomed sight for you and me both, Oregon is now ready to welcome those elite blue-chippers to get that elusive crystal ball that the BCS title games offer the winning team each year.