There's A Lot of Good Out There

  A few days ago my family and I went for a bike ride to go get some ice cream.  We got ourselves all prepared and ready for a safe and fun ride.  We had two $2 gift cards to help with the cost of that yummy goodness that we were looking forward to on a warm summer day.  We all had our helmets on and my son even had elbow and knee pads donned.  The trip to Baskin Robbins is not quite two miles one way, so the kids would work up just enough sweat to earn their ice cream and be able to work it off with the ride back home.  When we arrived at the ice cream parlor there were only a few people inside getting their orders, including two attractive women with a cute, older teenager (maybe in her early 20's) tasting flavors and browsing a bit.  So, the young gal behind the counter finished with the departing couple to help me and my family.  Of course, my children either decide on something plain and boring or take forever deciding what special flavor they want to try.  My kids get their ice creams first and head outside so we don't leave a drippy mess on the floor of the shop.  My wife gets the ice cream that we will share and follows the children.  Then I'm left to pay the bill and open my wallet to get out my debit card when the young thing behind the counter tells me that they don't take any cards, only cash and check.  What?  Are you kidding me?  Are we living in the 80's?  I'm sure my face was priceless.  My head went wild thinking of alternatives of how to pay for this expensive treat.  I knew we didn't have the check book because my wife didn't want to bring her purse or wallet on a bike ride.  I knew that I hardly ever have cash in my wallet and if I did, it was for my pre-season college football magazines that I buy this time of year.  What the heck was I suppose to do?  So, with my best attempt of getting the retarded look off my face to try to save it, I hand over those two $2 gift cards and hope that the $4 will cover most of it.  The total now comes to $7.11.  As I slowly open my wallet, I offer a silent prayer that I had some cash in it.  I open to reveal a $5 bill and with a big sigh of relief, I draw the bills out to count the rest.  I count, five, six, seven....  Let me count again, five, six, seven....  Really?  I have $7 and knew that I don't have an ash tray on my bike where I keep loose change for parking meters, etc.  Crap!  To stall while I think of another solution to come up with $0.11, I check all 23 pockets of my khaki cargo shorts one at a time wishing I could gesture to my wife to come and help me out so I don't have to go through this humiliation alone.  I think my pathetic glance toward the window was too much to bare on one of those women, who was now finishing up their business, who said, "I think I have $0.11."  Oh, you wonderful woman!  I think I love you!  "Really?" I reply.  Then the girl behind the counter says that she has eleven cents too.  Now I'm rolling in it!  The lady next to me gets her wallet and shuffles through a bit and scares me for an instant when she says, "Nope."  Then quickly says, "Oh, here's some."  Phew!  I mention the extreme embarrassment of the situation and graciously thank this stranger.  She kindly shrugs it off as no big deal.  Well, yes, $0.11 doesn't seem like a big deal, but I went from thinking I had to march outside and take away my wife's ice cream and return it, to getting the whole bill paid for, it is a big deal (my wife would have killed me).  My gratitude for this kind act of service from a stranger made me wonder if I'm doing enough to help out people in need.  I questioned whether I'm being an example of good for those to see (and there were plenty of people to see this woman's kindness because the place was packed by the time I paid for the order).  Her small, simple act is what we are all capable of if we can stop long enough being self-consumed with our own daily problems and challenges and not being concerned whether someone is trying to take advantage of us or not.  I doubt this stranger will ever read this blog posted under the college football theme, but I will still say thank you, again, for showing me your kindness.  Even in a world of so much evil and extreme hatred that fills some people, I was reminded that there is a lot of good out there.

     I know you are wondering what this has got to do with college football, yet again.  The kind woman in Baskin Robbins showed me that there is good left in people, while observing a possible trend in college football recruiting shows me that there is good left in the Pacific 12 conference.  Well, as I browse through Scout.com (nearly) daily and seeing the latest on the college football recruiting scene, it has helped confirm what I feel is coming in the near future to change the outlook of NCAA football as we know it now. All the years that I've been following the recruiting process, the Southeastern conference has dominated like no other.  It is very clear that they have a strangle-hold on getting the top blue-chips in the country year after year.  Sure, occasionally there will be a Florida State, Texas, Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Oklahoma, or Notre Dame finding themselves at the top of the heap after the national letter of intent signing day in February; however, it is always the SEC schools jamming their football programs with excessive talent that carry two full teams of starters apiece that compete with elite teams across the nation.  When tallying the 4 and 5-star athletes each year, it is that conference that picks up roughly twice the number of elite athletes than the next best recruiting conference.  Double!  That is amazing!  The SEC is reaping the recruiting rewards by winning the championship annually for the past several years straight.  I don't believe anyone who claims that recruiting high school kids is not a big deal.  Just ask the SEC schools how they feel about the importance of recruiting.

Admittedly, I was disappointed by the elite talent that did not show interest in Oregon after they lost by three points to Auburn for the national title a couple years ago.  There was only a slight increase of 4 and 5-star players that had Oregon on their short list of schools they were interested in.  Only a small number of these great players ended up finally choosing Oregon to play for.  DeAnthony Thomas was a huge pick-up that year and was evident on the field where he demonstrated his electrifying speed and all-around talent with the ball.  USC has had to deal with players leaving and post season bans and now scholarship limitations due to some violations USC committed several years ago.  This has had an impact on how well USC has been able to draw in high-talented players to keep the program strong.  But it's still USC and some kids just want to go there.  There was a slight drop in quantity of talent with the fear of all the sanctions surrounding the program, but now the bowl ban is raised and USC will have a chance of increasing the amount of talent coming in, once again (except the limitations of 75 scholarships allowed in each of the next three years when it will then return to 85 again).  During the Jim Harbough days at Stanford, the recruiting efforts grew tremendously and saw the level of competitiveness jump up immensely.  There was fear of a drop-off in recruiting after Coach Harbough went off to the NFL, but David Shaw didn't miss a beat.  Stanford is still solid in the recruiting efforts.  Under Rick Neuheisel, the recruiting for UCLA was decent, but I think the high school kids noticed that those superstar athletes weren't getting on the field to play there in the Rose Bowl each Saturday.  I'm still asking myself where all those elite players went.  Now UCLA has Jim Mora who has come in with a winning attitude and will bring a "Harbough effect" on the program with better recruiting and ability to utilize the great talent to become great again.  The rest of the Pac 12 conference with respect to recruiting is just good to okay.

I predict that overall recruiting for the Pac 12 conference will improve dramatically over the next few years.  Not many people want to rush into programs that have new head coaches like Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA, and Washington State have all inherited this last off season.  These new coaches will have to prove themselves first before they can bring in some additional elite talent.  I feel that the offensively-minded athletes may lean a little toward Arizona and Washington State where Rich Rodriguez and Mike Leach have both excelled at with past coaching stops.  Rich Rodriguez will not have to chase off a Ryan Mallett-type talent at Arizona because the Wildcats will be better suited for his offensive needs.  Mike Leach has a great foundation, thanks to Paul Wolff and his recruiting efforts after he inherited a bare talent pool in Pullman (thanks to Bill Doba).  Mike Leach will be able to work around the talents of Jeff Tuel and Connor Halliday behind center and the superstar Marquess Wilson catching the majority of the passes thrown.  I've already mentioned UCLA and its immediate impact on recruiting, so that leaves Arizona State as the wild card and the unknown future of that program.  Todd Graham at ASU will have to earn his stripes in this conference with only a few significant coaching years in the Big East conference.

There are five schools I have not mentioned yet in regards to recruiting because you have the four universities that are holding their own with USC, Stanford, UCLA, and Oregon, while Arizona, Arizona State, and Washington State had question marks even before they brought in first-year head coaches, so that leaves California, Colorado, Oregon State, Utah, and Washington.  Jeff Tedford of Cal, Mike Riley of OSU, and Kyle Whittingham of Utah are each starting their eighth year or more at their designated universities (Tedford is the most senior in the conference with 2012 being his 12th year).  These three coaches are all settled and steady and consistent with what they bring to the table.  The Golden Bears have had some very successful years of recruiting under Tedford with some big names now in the NFL and having success at the toughest level.  Oregon State is a difficult place to recruit to.  Corvallis is not a big city with overwhelming social outlets for these young kids to flock to, but Portland is a couple hours' drive away from campus; however, Riley really knows how to get the best out of his athletes and makes me wonder what he could do if he ever did get a top ten recruiting class.  Now with UofO having a ton of success recently, most elite athletes in Oregon will go to Eugene instead of Corvallis.  This makes the hard for Oregon State even harder to recruit great prospects.  As far as the Utes are concerned, the move from the Mountain West conference to the Pac12 may have given them a recruiting advantage.  The automatic qualifying conference will lead some of the fence riders in Utah to choose red over the independent blue of BYU.

Just recently, USC picked up their final commitment that will be allotted them in 2013.  It is because they committed only 13 players in 2012, that they were able to get 18 commits for the following year and it seemed like almost a race at the end who would be the last athlete to pledge himself to the Trojans.  This is very cool and exciting!  According to Scout.com, USC has an oral commitment from only one single 3-star athlete; although, that player is rated #2 at his position.  The rest are 4 and 5-star athletes leaving the Trojans with an astounding 4.28-star average with its 18 commits.  If the top recruiting university is based on the star average, then Southern California would win 2013 with ease.  However, the lack of quantity will not allow USC to tackle the number one position in February (if all commitments stay firm).  This point system gives quantity a way of topping those who have better quality recruits overall.  The best part about the 18 athletes that have pledged to USC is that the Trojans didn't just pick up these young men from California.  Coach Kiffin was able to stretch out to Texas, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Maryland.  These are top athletes that are NOT choosing the SEC and being closer to home; but they want to be Trojans and play in the Pac 12 conference.

Last year's recruiting class from Stanford was an initial sign of what the Pac 12 has potential of doing, or taking away from other conferences.  Stanford pulled in top talent from places like Oklahoma, Minnesota, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida.  Even Oregon pulled guys from Colorado, Texas, and Ohio.  New Jersey and Pennsylvania were a couple other states that had top talent that chose the Pac-12 as well.  This is not a fluke!  I say that there is a trend that has begun and the Pac 12 conference will be able to reap the rewards of future talent that will flock from all over the country and be able to keep most of the local talent in the process.  Sure, the SEC will be keeping a lot of the talent in the Southeastern part of the US, but will see more and more of their targets heading West.  Now, with USC unable to pick up any more recruits, the benefactors should be the Pac 12 teams that are at or nearing the top of the conference, including Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, and Washington.  I would love to see more of the conference schools getting the blue-chip talent too, but these four programs will most likely be the top choices of the high school football players everywhere.

I can hear it now.  "The SEC rules and will never let go."  "The Pac 12 is the 5th best conference, at best."  "The SEC is so dominant that no other conference will come close to its worst teams."  Blah, blah, blah.  Uh huh!  Anyway, back to reality.  College football, like most things in life, is cyclical - meaning, there is a cycle that it will follow.  Even the BCS era has proven to be cyclical starting with the Bowden bowl (or Bowden Championship Series) each of the first three years, then it was the Big XII that couldn't be denied for a few years (or the Big XII Championship Series), then the USC era, and since it's been the SEC.  It's not to last forever (sorry SEC lovers).  It is a tremendous run (and I'm not sure if it's over yet) and will always be compared to from now on, but change is eminent.  I'm telling you now that there are signs on the wall - if you look hard enough.  I'm not saying that USC having six pledges from the top 19 athletes is the only sign, though a really big one, but that it is still early for the 2013 graduates to select their university of choice.  A game for the 2012 season hasn't been played yet and there is still over six months left before national letter of intent signing day and a lot of things can change in that time, but I am predicting more very highly touted athletes will make the choice to play in the Pac 12 conference when they also have offers from some SEC schools in the other hand.  I can see that there is a lot of good out there, like my experience at Baskin Robbins.

Oregon Road

The other day when I was traveling out of town for my job, I passed the tiny town of Elk, WA, and saw a road sign about a mile north of the single intersection of town that read, "Oregon Rd.". Of course, in my mindset, I immediately began thinking of college football and the Oregon Ducks and their "road" to get some respect and success in their 2009 season. How exciting it was for me to see QB Jeremiah Masoli and center Jordan Holmes on the front cover of Sports Illustrated! Then I thought again. "Oh no! Oregon on the front cover of SI!?" You guessed it, the SI curse. The last time the Ducks were beheld on the cover of SI was probably after they had beaten the #4 Michigan squad a few years back. Then, after beating the #4 team in the nation, they go and lose, what, the next four games in a row. The curse is horrible! I wanted to write this much earlier in the year, so, obviously, it's after week 1 of college football play and we already know what happened to the Ducks. I give props to Boise State for being effective most of the game offensively for being able to move the ball. Kellen Moore is a definite talent and is very accurate. The running combination of Jeremy Avery and D.J. Harper made me forget about Ian Johnson - especially in the 2nd half of the game. Before I continue, I just have to mention how impressed I am with the Oregon defense! Returning only 5 starters from last season; losing Patrick Chung, Nick Reed, and Jairus Byrd; and being on the field nearly the entire game, the defense gave up only 19 points when it could have easily been 40-50 some points. The Oregon offense did not help the defense by not getting a single first down the whole first half, and one series, it was only one play from their 5-yard line that resulted in a safety. So, huge props go out to the Oregon defense who, in my opinion, played better than the Boise defense.

I am hearing it in my head now, "You just said that Boise didn't allow a first down in the whole first half, allowing only 14 yards of offense," yadda, yadda, yadda. I know what I said and saw. I'm not belittling the Boise defense and what they accomplished (besides the ignorance of DE, Mr. Byron Hout, who should know better than to touch (let alone smack someone's shoulder pads) an opponent after a very emotional game). I'm just stating, based on offensive production and the results, thereof. The Broncos were affective offensively with some really good play calling and execution; however, they still only managed 17 points (the other 2 belong to the defense). Boise should have scored in the 40's, at least. It could have been really ugly for the Oregon faithful, but the defense stepped up when it was necessary. They were dog tired and must have substituted some stellar players to give the starters a breather occasionally. That's a good sign for depth. The Boise defense never had a chance to get tired - they were always fresh. I can't completely give credit to the Bronco defense for staying off the field all day, I have to give most of the credit to offensive coordinator and first year head coach Chip Kelly. I felt that the play calling was absurd! I felt like Coach Kelly was trying too hard to keep the Boise defense guessing, that he forgot to actually use plays that worked that helped them gain those 484.9 yards per game a season ago. What was he thinking? Besides one series in the 2nd half, Jeremiah Masoli was ineffective. His passes were way off, his runs were choppy and sporatic, and a few times he appeared robotic (I described it to my friends like I was the one actually controling Masoli with my Xbox 360 controller that I don't have - I suck it up by hiking the ball for a pass and stop paying attention to my QB because I'm waiting for a WR to get open and then throw, but I forgot about the defense coming at me and it's too late - interception). Why wasn't Darron Thomas put into the game again? He rallied against Boise last year with 3 fourth quarter touchdowns and barely lost. This time, they didn't need 3 touchdowns due to the defense playing like they were inspired by the angelic-looking wings on their shoulder pads. Oregon needed someone to manage the ball, offensively. Thomas would have brought that, as he proved so last year.

Okay, I have to talk about this, I can't hold back any more. I felt frustration before the end of the first half for LeGarrette Blount. Here you have a 1,000 yard rusher as a back up in 2008, and the nation, including myself, was wondering how many yards he would be capable of as the premier back. Well, with 8 total carries in the game, I felt like that punch should have landed on Chip Kelly's jaw. What's the deal? You have a bruising beast of a back that drags defenders as he gains a couple extra yards and you don't exploit that? The call: oooh, the call, that call that makes me cringe every time I see the "low"lights - when Boise State punter pinned Oregon down on their own 5 yard line, and Coach Kelly wants to use his big back to... smash mouth right into... uh... to the... sideline? What? What kind of call is that? Of course they expect Blount to run it up the gut. The 230 pounder is suppose to do that! Sure, he's fast, but to race along the endzone toward the sideline is asking for a safety. Was Coach Kelly setting Blount up for failure? As Napleon Dynamite would say, "I was T.O.'d." I became numb by the waning minutes of the 2nd quarter. I think Darron Thomas would have given the Ducks the spark they so badly needed. The robotic QB needed to sit on the bench and let his batteries recharge so the offense could be used effectively like Oregon fans are used to. As we see it now, Oregon will lose to Purdue who showed that they have an offense in the first week; and another loss to Utah, who always gives Pac-10 teams fits. Starting 0-3 before conference games will not bode well on the first year coach. Mike Belotti knew before halftime that Oregon needed to run the ball more and should keep a close eye on the coach. Coach Kelly had better realize his mistakes and fix things in a real hurry, which may be a little more difficult losing his most experienced back that was about to put up about 1,600 yards this season! This "road" that Oregon has traveled on so far is not quite the direction the nation anticipated it would go - I want Sports Illustrated to leave Oregon alone in the future.