BOWL SEASON and the MYSTERY of PREDICTIONS

Posted: December 17, 2011 in Social Commentary
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Every year for 100 years (something like that) I have made bowl picks with my friends. Even back in the 80s when I really didnt know much about the teams that didn’t possess the name Ohio State. Of course, back in the day, most of my forecasting centered around the NFL, for I was a HUGE NFL fan – when there was loyalty amongst players and management and a chance to build a real TEAM and not just rotating parts revolving around an overpaid “star”. I even called a bookie as a 12 year old to try to place a bet, not knowing there was an age minimum. Probably thankfully, I have never had much of an urge for gambling as an adult.

BUT, I have always been fascinated by the concept of Time and trying to see into the future – what works, what doesnt, and how much knowledge and intelligence can be used to solve this unknown. Even when I was a Physics Major back at Bucknell U, I was always questioning my Quantum Mechanics teachers about factors of time/space and predictability – much to their dismay – as for them and our whole Human race, these questions still remain an unsolved puzzle.

The first OBVIOUS QUESTION asked by most everyone the second they decide to take part in a “Pick-em” office pol,l or the like, is “what do I need to know?”, and/or “Does it matter how much I know?” Many times a lot of the fun is when members of said poll dont “have a clue” and actually get more picks right than those members who study furiously and/or brag of their knowledge. Still a mystery I am always observing and contemplating – “What part does knowledge play in the art of forecasting?”

I have some theories and observations that I will leave for another post at another Time. But for now, taking this simple concept, I will use this Bowl Season as a very “light” experiment. My good friend from Philadelphia, Dave, and I have been having a little two person poll since 1997. In the beginning I really didnt know much more than Dave. As the years went by and I ditched the NFL and became more of a College Football fan, the gap between our knowledge base widened like the Grand Canyon. Yet the overall numbers really didnt change much.

The bottom line was that I always tried harder and I ended up winning the 2 man poll every year except in the 2009 Season (I got my revenge last year :)). What does it all mean – its hard to tell, but ’09 was the first year where the temperatures dropped in the South and I got burned picking a lot of SEC teams who lost in cold conditions that year. I was really far behind Dave at one point, but adjusted accordingly and caught up to him the last week with the Title game as winner takes all! I lost when Colt McCoy went down after an early promising start for Texas making me wonder if it was simply in the “cards” that my streak had to come to an end some time and 2009 was the year.

But I do feel that a lot of what’s happening with constantly changing coaches/schemes and the battle between Old School and New School with these schemes, that we are seeing more unpredictability than ever before, which obviously helps to level the playing field. In fact, maybe the original 50/50 chance of any team winning any game at any time or place is in effect as much now as it was when they first started playing the game in the Ivy Leagues in the 1800s.

Or is it just a matter of understanding the Changing Face of Football – from weather conditions to schemes and the coaches who can implement and adjust the quickest? Does the forecaster now have to catch up to the times – like the coaches – and expand his knowledge base in an attempt to make the game more simple than it appears?

With that said, my knowledge base this year is unfortunately at its lowest since the 2001 Season when I first started getting the Phil Steele books and learning all the players and coaches for the upcoming year. I simply haven’t had time this fall due to entering the “Website Business”.

Ironically, this will also hurt Dave since I started offering Dave advice as a courtesy in recent years so that he would have more of a chance. I dont think that helped him much though in 2009 as Dave tends to be stubborn in his opinions, well informed or not, picks based on his “gut feeling” no matter how much I try to educate him. Though he says he does take my insight into account……hmmmm…..?

So here we are – Bowl Season 2011 and while I have accumulated a lot of knowledge over the years, I’m as clueless as I have ever been to a lot of the changes that happened in this particular year. Still, there’s a big enough gap between Dave and I (I think!) that it will still another year of experiment as to whether knowledge or the mystery of random luck has the upper hand in picking winners.

And, lastly, as a prelude to next year – I should be back to my usual obsessive College Football self in 2012, up to date on all the changes and happenings heading into next Bowl Season. Thus this is a general experiment in Half-Knowlege(Drew 2011) vs No-Knowledge(Dave Always) vs Full-Knowledge(Drew 2012).

Lets see if there’s any sense to be made of any of this??

PS!

~Drew

1ST PS STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

Posted: December 17, 2011 in State of the Union
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Before we get fully involved in yet another Bowl Season in College Football, I felt it necessary to inform our 2 loyal readers (Kurt, do we have that many yet?) on where PS.net has been and where its headed for the future. (No, we are not headed off a steep slope and into oblivion!)

It may seem that we are driving a car in a fog in the middle of the night and forgot to turn on the headlights, but be patient loyal fans, for there is more to come – a lot more.

Truth be told I am a professional Tennis writer also and I am trying to develop a professional Tennis Site for the new year. This has cut into my time for Football more than I would have liked. But I also have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes (A LOT! – ask Kurt) and will be implementing a lot of this work into the site during the following year in what will really be our first LEGIT season of College Football in 2012. We will continue experimenting and working behind the scenes during the CBasketball season so expect some fun stuff – especially as we get closer to March Madness.

But the main thrust of this site is the Changing Face of American Football and in line with this theme there will be some real changes to the site – from the home page design to all the categories and sub-categories. We wont stop until we are satisfied with what we believe is a suitable product for mine and Kurt’s grandiose ideas! We will also make the site more conducive to quicker posts, which will mean much more material along with more timely material. Eventually we will work in some “live” minute to minute action with the NYC Underground becoming totally immersed in the College Scene around the city.

Lastly, I have been working on a full “connect the dots” History of Spread offenses and where they actually started and how the Power Spread came to be. In fact, 2 weeks ago I worked 24/7 for a week straight accumulating information to add to what I already knew on the details of how it all began in the 50s(for the most part), grew in the 60s, exploded in the 70s/80s, solidified in the 90s and grew again from a passing spread to power spread in the 00s. It will take weeks and months to share all this info and I will slowly be leaving posts on the site – especially once the categories are more organized to enable quick access to the information.

For now, Kurt and I will share the Bowl Season with our excited reader(s) and work hard at producing a product for next season that we can all share in and learn a little, live a little and most of all, HAVE FUN with the great sport of Football!

~Drew

Steve Kragthorpe

Posted: December 15, 2011 in All Things Power Spread
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I was cleaning up the mess from last week and came across this interview with Kragthorpe in Nov,2003 about his first QB at Tulsa, James Kilian – a mobile QB that Kragthorpe structured his offense around.

In modern football, with the speed and athleticism of the defenses out there today you have to have a guy who can make some plays with his feet and James can do that as evidenced with the runs he made the other night. What it does for us offensively is that it allows taking advantage of his abilities and making people defend the quarterback. If the guy is just a pure pocket passer without the threat of running the football whether it is a little speed option, whether it is a zone read play, whether it’s a quarterback draw, or whether it’s throwing the ball back to the quarterback like we have done on a couple of occasions, then you have become a little bit easier to defend. So, I think that James and his abilities make it tougher on defenses in terms of preparation for our entire offense and then you know.

Before that he was a BYU boy (his dad a coach on the staff), but was thrown into the Texas A&M option offense, which the head coach wanted him to change to the “west coast” style byu offense. Then after Tulsa he inherited the complicated (both scheme wise and off the field issues) Petrino Louisville team. Then back to A&M under west coast Sherman, who had to give in to doing some power spread due to injuries and ineffective passing from the QB.

Now he’s basically went backwards with Old School College/Pro set Les Miles. Miles was actually a good OC himself – BUT THAT WAS IN THE 90s!! He wont progress. But Krags just does what the boss tells him – no really unique stye. But there’s no doubt that Tulsa was by far his best Offense – power spread!

I just cant help but wonder – if he had been paired with the next OC at Tulsa – Gus Malzahn. Brilliant QB mind with a brilliant Spread mind and Herb Hand as Oline coach bringing ideas from Rich Rodriguez’s PS at West Virginia. I venture to say that as great as the Malzahn Tulsa offenses were, they may have been better! Even if Meyer hired him as a QBs coach for OSU – I would love that. He has parkinson’s , but he is still a big part of LSU’s offense. He would help out young Tom Herman, an up and coming talent himself, but who has the job of QB coach along with OC. Of course, I have full faith in what Meyer’s doing at OSU and his moves so far have been practically perfect, imo.

Kragthorpe is a great qb coach – a good play caller and game planner – he has proven all of this everywhere he’s been. Even at Louisville, Brian Brohm had a HUGE senior season in Krag’s first year. This was the one place where Kragthorpe’s incredible flexibility got in the way as he tried to mesh his his less complicated BYU system with a very complicated NFL style Petrino passing game. In this one case a little bit of hard headedness may have paid off – trash the Petrino system after Brohm graduated and start new. But it was much more complicated than that. And with all the off the field issues there really was no hope.

Maybe if he can keep the Parkinson’s at bay we will yet see some more surprises by this coach who shocked the world at Tulsa a decade ago. But it wont be with Mile’s old school schemes. It will be with one of the multitude of brilliant coaches out there today experimenting with the POWER SPREAD!

~Drew

Urban the Delegator

Posted: December 14, 2011 in Buckeye News
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First, Herman at OC combining like minds with WRs coach Stan Drayton (former Florida asst under Meyer) and HC Urban.  Now Coach Withers, who will continue to grow his impressive resume, teaming with another top “up and coming” defensive mind in Luke Fickell. Apart from getting Charlie Strong to leave his HC position with Louisville and join our staff, this couldn’t be a more impressive list of assistants that Meyer is accumulating.

Meyer, by his own admission, spread (no pun) himself too thin trying to manage every aspect of the huge Florida football program. While Tressel never admitted the same, its pretty obvious that he did the same. Not only with all the problems inherent in today’s modern big college football program, but just in the way his offenses went sour after Troy Smith left – especially evident in the whole Terrelle Pryor debacle, where, not only were the offenses during this time never able to really take advantage of Pryor’s skills, but the off the field problems that Pryor was a part of arguably led to Tressel losing his lofty position a top the College Football mountain.

Tressel was a great coach with one serious flaw that contributed to problems in his offensive schemes and even more tragically problems off the field. That same flaw, while present in Meyer at the end of his time at Florida, really does hold the same validity when comparing his career path with that of Tressel. Meyer worked his way up the ladder at BIG SCHOOLS. Tressel also was an assistant at some big schools (mainly OSU in the 80s when he missed coaching with Meyer by one year), but once he took over Youngstown State his “up the ladder” progress was basically over. He ran Youngstown State – I mean RAN every aspect on the field as well as off. He was the “Senator” way before that moniker was used at Ohio State.

Ironically, the same success that got Tressel the GRAND OSU job is the same success that ultimately led to his ignominious and truly tragic ending. Tressel is a good man and a great coach – everyone who really knows the man says the same thing – but he took on too much at OSU and it caught up to him – first with his anemic Offense, then with his bungling of “off the field” issues. Coach Tressel needed some better assistance with his offense – maybe a new mind, or just a little less control. He seemed to be giving a little more freedom to Darrell Hazell near the end with some decent results. But he could never totally let go of the control that he has always had since YSU. The story is tragic because Coach T is a smart man and with some new influences from other like minds may have once again been able to show his prowess at putting together good offenses. Don’t forget the incredible jobs he did with a very poor thrower in Craig Krenzel and a very raw product coming out of High School in Troy Smith. Even the way he used lanky Todd Boeckman needs to be commended. The real trouble started with Pryor and the insistence of using him in a pro passing/multiple scheme offense, forcing a very round peg into a square hole – a lot of room for mistakes.

I do not expect the same tragic error from Meyer for two reasons. First, Meyer has had a long coaching history in big programs under big coaches. He has had a lot of influences before taking the head job at Bowling Green, let alone the head job at BIG SCHOOL Florida. In other words, Meyer knows the value of assistants and HELP! Not that Tressel didn’t – all good coaches understand this – but his wisdom in accepting help seems to have gotten away from him after YEARS of the TRESSEL WAY. Not necessarily ego – maybe more of a lack of practice – as the demands at OSU were far greater than YSU and have even become greater since the infamous Maurice Clarett days. Urban has had the advantage of “growing” into a Big College Head Coach – an advantage that Coach T never had as he was basically “thrown” into his big position. The autonomy that worked in the early 00s didn’t quite do the trick as we approached a new decade at what seems like warp speed.

Second, Meyer already had his spell of over managing and luckily got out before Florida suffered years of bad offenses, mediocre teams or bowl bans and coach dismissals. Not to say that is the scenario that Florida was headed, but their last offense was a bungled attempt to pull away from Meyer’s own successful Power Spread and there were plenty of rumors of off the field issues and discontent among the players during his last two recruiting classes. Now, with a year away from the game and seeing what happened with Tressel, Meyer has some perspective never afforded our former great coach. We already see in the way that Meyer is assembling his staff that he’s ready for new blood and like minds to help him in all aspects of running a major college program. For all the talk of Nick Saban’s brilliance in defensive schemes and recruiting I always felt his best attribute, bar none, was his ability to delegate. On the field as well as off.

One last note on Meyer and his overall awareness of all things football. He was a Special Teams coach in the past in addition to his job as a WRs coach. He LOVES Special Teams – just like another former great coach at OSU. And I can bet you he will not stop until he is satisfied with the quality of EVERY SINGLE MEMBER OF HIS STAFF including our Special Teams coach.

~Drew

Notes from the Underground: Nebraska Bar NYC

Posted: December 1, 2011 in All Things Power Spread
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Ah the sidewalk chalkboard calling all Huskers

It’s an indisputable fact that there are very few programs in college football with histories at rich and storied as that of the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers.  Another commonly held fact is that few other – if any – fan bases travel as well as that of Nebraska (former Husker Roger Craig said once that if Nebraska scheduled a game on Mars that their fans would find a way to get there to see it in person).  They’re also known to be the friendliest and most polite fans known to college football, something which today seems to almost be a complete impossibility.  While I wasn’t able to travel to Lincoln to see my Buckeyes take on the Huskers in their first Big Ten home game I set out to confirm these things for myself at their New York City headquarters: The Irish Rogue.

For its first season in the conference the B1G and Mr Delany gave Nebraska the most challenging schedule it could come up with: Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan State, Penn State and Michigan.  After a melt-down in Madison to kickoff B1G play they managed a miraculous comeback at home against Ohio State, then a few weeks later they thumped Michigan State at home and set back out on the road where they topped Penn State.  No team in the B1G since Penn State in 1994 had beaten Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State in the same season, on this Saturday I joined the NYC Husker faithful as they took on Michigan in an attempt to match Penn State’s feat.

The Irish Rogue

I will say that noon kickoffs can tend to be a bit rough, this is especially the case in New York City when you consider weekend subway commutes (any New Yorker will tell you weekends are even more difficult because of MTA repair-work schedules).  That said the crowd was a little late-ish to arrive and to a degree it never arrived at all.  I get that the Huskers are new to the conference and that they’re going through the whole getting to know the neighbors thing, but they were playing Michigan!

I was fortunate to find a spot at the bar and to quickly make a few new friends (one of whom was a Florida fan – that went to Florida State, strange world).  I was informed that that the lack of crowd was unlike most Husker game-watches at the Irish Rogue.  During the commercial breaks of the game on this Saturday we were made to actually watch and listen to them.  I was told that usually they do put music typical to the Nebraska Cornhusker culture on during breaks.  However this was the responsibility of the bartender and unfortunately this bartender was not going to be hassled with whatever Cornhuskers listen to.

A gathering of uber friendly Midwesterners

I was also disappointed to not hear a single Husker cheer, not even early in the affair when they were hanging with Michigan.  Based on what I understood from some of the patrons at the bar this may though have something to do with the culture of the fan base.  I asked what Husker fans are typically like and he asked what Ohio State fans are typically like.  We needed a common ground to sort this one out, we quickly arrived a Texas Longhorns fans, their former (hated) conference rivals.  He said Horns fans are total jerks.  I explained that in my experience from an OSU game in Austin (2006, Ohio State won 24-7) I found that they were anything but jerks!  My Husker friend went on to tell me that even when the team doesn’t play well in Lincoln the fans never boo or scream for a coaches head, but this also means that the stadium environment can tend to be quiet, just as I discovered at the bar.  He somewhat lamented this reality saying that he wishes at times Nebraska fans would be more intense.  My two cents: there’s nothing wrong with being too friendly and hospitable.

Ultimately and sadly there was very little for the Huskers inside the Irish Rogue to cheer about on this Saturday afternoon, the game slowly got away from Bo Pelini’s team and they badly lost to Michigan 45-17.  However I will certainly make it a point to get back to the Irish Rogue for a more lively game-watch experience and another opportunity to share company with the quintessential Midwesterners that are Nebraska Cornusker fans.

~Kurt

Urban Meyer

Posted: November 30, 2011 in All Things Power Spread, Buckeye News
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This is a guy I was studying back in 2008 when I was learning why Florida wiped out  a much more talented (and yes speedier) OSU team in Jan of 2007.  I also studied all the recruiting, talent and coaches in the SEC in 2008/2009 and quickly found out the wins over the Big 10 were not matters of talent and speed,  but coaches and schemes.  There’s a reason for the SEC having the highest paid assistants.

The Urban Meyer Schemes and Way changing OSU forever more – a foray into the future of the ever changing face of American Football!

Back to the Future – Shotgun Football (A 100 year full circle starting early last century)

OSU’s failure to understand the full implications of the Spread and the BALANCE of the PS

The morphing of the Passing Spread into the Power Spread, seen as the illusionary death of the Spread Offense in College Football

A True Power Spread – The Florida Gator/Urban Meyer Offense

Urban Meyer – more than just Offensive Schemes  He has learned from a lot of coaches – yes, even the Power Spread.  And he was a great Special Teams coach before anything else.  He has always delegated well, recruited well and paid attention to all the details required to produce top teams.  In fact, he has a lot in common with a former great coach here at OSU named Jim Tressel.  And like Tressel he tended to take on too much and not let his highly paid assistants take over when needed.

Here’s a scary thought – as good as Meyer was, he may be better now. He has made mistakes in the past – even mistakenly moving away from his own gem of an offense!  He has the experience of years now.   And if there was one element as a Head Coach that a Nick Saban had over Meyer it was the ability to let his assistants do their job and not give into the obsessional need to take over ever phase of the team.  Meyer says he has learned from his time off – I BELIEVE HIM – expect this detailed, smart, open minded coach to be a Saban like delegator making him the Coach of the Year for 2012!

~Drew

URBAN MEYER TO OSU??

Posted: November 19, 2011 in All Things Power Spread, Buckeye News
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Kurt to Drew:

Read the link.  Skip to last bullet point if you wish.  Meyer has maintained a relationship with Coach Stud apparently…

Drew to Kurt:
I said it before and I will say it again – Miles is holding back Studs, just like he would have done with Krags and he did with Crowton.  With more control, Crowton would have most likely  ran more intricate passing spreads , but with only a little Power Spread mixed in – but at least he would have gotten rid of a lot of the once successful, but now outdated two back stuff and veer option football that Miles ran back as an OC at Oklahoma St in the 90s .  Krags would have also been more about the passing spread, but with a little more PS mixed in and staying more with one back sets.   Studs = PS ALL THE WAY, as he comes directly from the Urban Meyer lineage at Bowling Green.  

I know he’s an OL coach  and that could be a problem – but like I said – I keep an open mind –  he’s an individual and NO ONE has free reign to work the PS or any Spread at LSU with Miles in charge.

I tell you this – I like some of the stuff I have seen from LSU’s scheming and play calling this year -but then all of a sudden it sucks again.  I know that Krag supposedly still has influence , but I cant help but think that Studs is working some good stuff into the LSU offense this year, but  as always, Mile’s insists at sticking with what “he knows” over and over and over again.  Mile’s is very successful in many aspects of being a Head Coach, from recruiting to motivation, but he’s not the up and coming offensive mind that he seemed to be in the 90s with Oklahoma State.  If there’s been one and possibly his only flaw at LSU its in his lack of any real focus on offense and his inability to forge his old school concepts on offense with what is happening today.

Put it this way – Meyer/Studs or Tressel/Bolshit – to run an offense?  Remember that a former Meyer protege at Florida, Stan Drayton, is already our WRS coach! He hails from Allegheny College in my area of Western PA and where my cousin went to school and played Hockey!

ONE REQUEST TO URBAN —Please keep Fickell -who was turning into a heckuva Defensive Coordinator before the whole tattoo mess!

~Drew

Notes from the Underground: NYC Penn State bar

Posted: November 17, 2011 in All Things Power Spread
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Tonic East, Penn State HQ NYC

Penn State has been the text-book definition of stability for nearly half a century.  Many things have come and gone in the world of college athletics and more specifically college football, but Penn State has always had stability in their head football coach Joe Paterno.  All of that changed in less than a week. On October 29th JoePa notched his 409th win topping the legendary Eddie Robinson, a week later former Penn State player and coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested on allegations of child molestation.  The walls which Paterno had literally erected himself over the course of 61 years at the university were closing in on him quickly.  By Wednesday night the board of trustees were forced to fire him, students rioted in the streets and all of the fully over-caffeinated news outlets figured out where State College in on a map, then arrived in droves beaming news across the globe.  All this, and yet there was still a crucial game against Nebraska to be played on Saturday.

Tonic East, Murray Hill, NYC

Make no mistake, I’ve always liked, respected and admired Joe Paterno, being an alumnus and fan of a rival school made no difference to me.  So as much as it was for anyone else, I also found it quite difficult to come to grips with the events of the week.  I decided I needed to go to the Penn State bar on Saturday to discover first-hand what their thoughts and reactions to the events were.

Too much first-half shutout? Have some sun with that $7 beer.

Penn State alums and fans gather at Tonic East in Murray Hill.  It is among the larger CFB underground bars in NYC: it has two stories of internal bar space and a third story which is a semi-enclosed rooftop space with an open-sky terrace with views west to the Empire State Building.

I arrived a few moments before kickoff and found the first floor to be absolutely packed.  The general pre-game vibe was not incredibly different than any I would expect it to be for any other game.  Except for one moment, when both teams broke the pre-game schedule for a prayer at midfield.  This was really, the only significant moment at the bar.

In contrast to LSU folk, the Penn Staters like some techno with their Livin’ on a Prayer (slightly ironic), and then they also have a tradition of singing Hey! Baby by DJ Otzi.  Yes, we’re nowhere remotely close to Baton Rouge.

Nittany faithful cheering on a 2nd half comeback

Penn Staters do not have issues with wearing jerseys in public.  Similar to my Buckeye brethren, they’re selective about what the number on the jersey means and who it represents.  One of the guys I met at the bar was wearing a #11 home blue jersey, and he made it clear that it was Lavar Arrington’s number.

Generally, the people I spoke with agreed entirely with the board of trustees decision to fire Paterno.  It was clear that they were shell-shocked by the turn of events, and sad to see their idol go down so unceremoniously.  Though there was some historical perspective in the mess: like Woody Hayes arriving home in a police car or Bobby Bowden’s awkward forced-retirement/pushed-out-of-the-way, just to name a couple.  We laughed that like those guys, Paterno could have never heeded Batman’s advice, to simply walk-off as a hero well over a decade ago, at least.

Tonic East rooftop bar

The Nittany Lions were en route to being shut out in the first half, much to the dismay of a friend I had made.  After a particularly terrible sequence of i-formation runs off-tackle for little to no gain leading to a punt he screamed I SWEAR SOMETIMES PATERNO’S STILL AROUND!  Then we got back to discussing more relevant matters, such as rumors about Urban Meyer having contacted a real estate agent in the Happy Valley area.

Being inside that bar, that day (especially as an Ohio State fan – they dislike us quite intensely) provided a very strange and also historical moment to glimpse into the world of expat Penn Staters in New York City.

~Kurt

Notes from the Underground: NYC LSU Bar, Legends on 33rd

Posted: November 9, 2011 in All Things Power Spread
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Welcome to The Notes from the New York City College Football Underground!

The Empire State Building does not intimidate Mike The Tiger

This past Gameday Saturday I discovered that Dante was unaware of another circle of Hell: SEC football; number 1 versus number 2; late in the regular season.

LSU entered the game undefeated (8-0) on the season and ranked #1 in every major poll.  Their opponent Alabama entered the game undefeated (8-0) as well and ranked #2 in all of the same polls.  They both find themselves in the SEC West, making this game effectively an elimination game for the SEC Championship Game.  The winner would have full command of their own destiny en route to the aforementioned SEC Championship Game with the ultimate goal being the BCS Championship Game (which will coincidentally be played in New Orleans).

I joined several LSU friends for this game.  From my perspective as an Ohio State fan committing to step foot inside their New York City outpost was very difficult.  In my ideal world neither team would win and a bolt of lightning would strike them both down.

The bar in the city where all LSU folk gather is Legends on 33rd St across the street from the Empire State Building.  We heard the bar was expecting 500 people and the crowd reached that capacity an hour before kickoff.  A line formed outside on the sidewalk, and you could only get in if someone else came out–and no one was was going anywhere.

I dressed as neutrally as possible, jeans and a grey shirt, and of course my OSU ballcap.  This immediately ruffled the feathers of my friends who were naturally sporting their purple and gold in clever southern ways.  I’ve found that in the midwest we’re not subtle or particularly classy about how we display for the outside world our schools of allegiance.  Primarily we communicate it through the use of  jerseys.  In the south, it’s almost anything but a jersey.  And for women it’s all about the sundresses.  Old habits die-hard and it only takes a moment inside Legends, at the base of the Empire State Building in New York City, to become vividly cognizant of a complete and total culture shock.

While I am a general newbie to many things SEC, this was not my first experience of transplant SEC football in NYC (I’ve put in some time at the Auburn bar).  Who knew there were even a dozen LSU fans up here in Yankee Territory, let alone over 500!  Much like student seating in the SEC (or perhaps everywhere but Ohio State), there are no reservations at Legends, first come, first serve.  I arrived at 4 (4 hours before kickoff) and could not find a seat that wasn’t already spoken for.  I understood that people were showing up as early as 2, hawking the prime seating and tv viewing spaces in the bar.

Among other things that I did not know about LSU was their love of all songs (primarily country) involving keywords such as Baton Rouge, Louisiana, cotton, Eye of the Tiger and Don’t Stop Believing.  They really love them some Garth.  My ears were subjected to several renditions of Callin’ Baton Rouge.  Everyone sang it, and they sang EVERY.  SINGLE.  WORD.

Legends, lower bar

Finally, after hours of waiting, the game was about to get underway.  Per typical televised football game protocol, CBS introduced the viewing audience to each teams respective head coach.  When they popped up on the screen the face of Nick Saban, Legends sent off a chrorus of booing that could be heard from the top of the Empire State Building.  Then when they introduced us to Les Miles, well, Les is up there with Garth from what I gather.  The love-hate relationship from an outsiders perspective is a beautiful thing: Nick Saban rectified the program, and delivered their first National Championship in 45 years.  He was Saint Nick.  Now they hate his guts, and they’ve found a new love, Les Miles.

It wasn’t long before I started to piece together why this fan-base loves their current coach so much.  Jarrett Lee is not such a mobile type under center, so it wasn’t long into the game when he started feeling some intense heat from the Bama defense.  So on one particular play, with a Alabama defensive lineman about to put a punishing on him, Lee desperately heaved the ball out-of-bounds.  He still took a serious hit, but he did not take a sack and negative yards.  Tactically, a smart play.  One of my friends however, was not pleased with the play at all.  He said, “LEE’S GOTTA TAKE THAT HIT LIKE A MAN!”  To me, this explains everything they love about Les Miles: it’s not really about doing the smart or tactical thing, it’s about doing the manly thing.  The quarterback doesn’t just hand the ball off, they pitch it to the halfback then block the backside defensive end; his punter doesn’t just run the fake field goal in for a touchdown, he taunts defenders as they score – THE PUNTER!  They love Les because he’s created an alternate universe where the objective is just as much about kicking ass (as they chant after every first down) as it is about actually, winning.

So the game was billed the Game of the Century, and I wasn’t about to argue the topic with anyone Saturday night.  By the end of the fourth quarter Alabama was content to go to overtime.  LSU basked in the intensity of the game.  LSU held Alabama to a field goal attempt which was blocked.  They could taste victory, they had been outplayed on the night (again, a topic I was not about to bring up with anyone), but they knew victory was close.  Within a couple plays of their overtime possession they thought they had it won on a great run by Michael Ford.  The bar erupted and it took several plays for everyone to realize it wasn’t over yet.  Les appropriately centered the ball for the kicker.  Then this:

LSU won the Game of the Half-Century (as I’m calling it…this year).  Legends went through the roof.  And the bolt of lightning I had hope would strike down each team never came.  So I made my way through the jubilant Tiger faithful to the door where I re-entered New York City.  After experiencing Legends on this Saturday night I almost wonder if I really need to actually, you know, go to Baton Rouge!  Then I recalled what Legends had on their menu…and what I’ve heard about LSU’s tailgating food.  Yes, I hope someday soon I’ll be able to make a pilgrimage to Baton Rouge, although I’d really prefer to wait until a certain Ohioan is no longer their head coach.

~Kurt

Preview: Alabama vs LSU

Posted: November 6, 2011 in Weekly Previews
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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SEE THIS:

This is what LSU needs to be doing with Jordan Jefferson to win the game —– POWER SPREAD —-  with the QB as a dual threat  —-  and this is the main reason I feel Alabama wins a defensive struggle.  Nick Saban’s Defense will not have trouble with the multiple Cluster of schemes that LSU runs.  And Les Miles will again do just enough to cost his team a crucial win.

BREAK DOWN:

OFFENSE – Alabama lost the big 3 at QB, RB and WR, but McCarron is a bigger recruit and talent than was McElroy and just lacks experience, Richardson is a MUCH bigger recruit than Ingram and an absolute monster and while those no way to replace Julio Jones, Haze and Hanks are fine in the multiple offenses skillfully handled by OC, Jim McElwain.  Plus, according to Phil Steele, Alabama has its “most exp’d OL in 3Y.”  Counting Richardson as a returning starter (since he’s a Heisman Candidate), Alabama has 8 starters returning on offense.  

LSU also has 8 starters returning on offense, but has had a switch at QB and OC this year as star QB recruit, Jordan Jefferson, found himself in a world of trouble in the offseason and former starter Jarrett Lee has seen most of the playing time.  The transition has been smooth as LSU returned 9 out of 10 Offensive Lineman, 2 starters at WR and their usual plethora of RB talent.  The big change is really at OC, where Gary Crowton never saw eye to eye with Miles and was supposed to be replaced with Spread master, Steve Kragthorpe, but he had to step down due to Parkinson’s.  Out went any real chance at consistent Power Spread with talented Jefferson as Miles is a former successful OC himself, but prefers to cling tightly to the old stand by schemes, only giving over slightly to the PS, because of Jefferson’s great running ability at QB.  With Pro Sets and some spread passing with Lee , this is easy pickings for Saban – the master at defending the passing spread. And Pro Sets are easy for any decent DC.

DEFENSE – Simple – 2 great Defenses and defensive minds. Saban is recognized as a defensive genius and Kirby Smart (DC) is his protege. John Chavis had as much to do with Tennessee’s great success in the last two decades as their head coach,  Phillip Fulmer.  His small, but speedy aggressive defenses were often overshadowed by the likes of Petyon Manning and other offensive stars.  He came to a great situation at LSU as they also use small, but speedy Linebackers and with Miles great recruiting and LSU’s traditions can actually get Chavis more talent than he even had to work with at Tennessee.  This year, according to Phil Steele, this is the most experienced LSU DL in years after several years of graduation and decline. Unfortunately, LSU lost possibly its greatest CB ever in Patrick Peterson (#1 DC ARIZ), but have 3 of 4 excellent starters back in the secondary.  With a total of 7 returning starters, LSU has had a top 3 defense all year long.

Unfortunately for LSU, Alabama has 10 starters back and has been the #1 defense all year!  With only one graduated starter on defense replaced by top notch JUCO DL, Jesse Williams, this defense is formidable and possibly better than the 2009 version. As good as LSU is on D this year, without Peterson, you have to give the nod to Alabama.

SPECIAL TEAMS – Always a staple of the detail oriented Saban teams – this year could be special as all the STeams performers are returning!  Again, LSU is hurt more by graduation as they lose a lot from their #2 ranked STeams of 2010. Miles surprisingly has had many good special teams during his head coaching career – not as much due to his attention to detail as with Saban, but more due to his all out aggressive nature and risk/reward mentality that permeates his teams.

COACHING – ALABAMA HANDS DOWN. Not necessarily because Saban is so great (overrated?) or Miles is so bad (underrated?), but because of 2 other factors

1 – Continuity – Two great DCs, but while I wouldnt call McElwain of Alabama a great OC, he’s solid, works well with Saban, and has been there a while. The OC at LSU is their OL coach under Miles and Crowton, Greg Studrawa. He also served as OL coach under Urban Meyer and Dan Mullen at Bowling Green, before being promoted to OC when Meyer left.  As OC he continued the success of  the Power Spread under Mullen and with Omar Jacobs as his QB.  I cant imagine what a PS guy like Studrawa must have felt being stuck in between Crowton’s passing spreads and Mile’s more conventional 2 back offenses. Its hard to know what Miles is thinking as Kragthorpe is a Spread guy as is Studrawa, but the problems with Jefferson changed whatever ideas any of these men might have had for LSU this past Spring.  A lot of potential with Studrawa, but a mess compared to Alabama’s solid situation and still not enough POWER SPREAD!

2 – DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS – While Miles is a great recruiter (possibly better than Saban, imo!), he doesnt adhere to the details that Saban does – almost no one does. He also doesnt have the organization that Saban promotes – again, almost no one does.   AND Miles will tend to take crazy risks during big games.  All these factors have lead to big losses in the past for Miles, where Saban probably wins the same type of game. Even the great LSU team of 2007 almost blew it with much disorganization, lack of detail  and crazy risk taking throughout the whole season!

BOTTOM LINE – Alabama has  lost a great leader at QB and a great WR (they replaced their Heisman RB with the same quality). LSU lost a great CB, dang good LB and had all kinds of problems this summer with their multi-talented QB.  Plus, more than anything, the OC situation is still shaky.  The losses are pretty even.

But the overall experience is on Alabama’s side.  Especially on Defense (slight edge) and Special Teams (Big Edge). Even if you give LSU the edge on offense – its only slight. Add in the coaching edge and  Home Field advantage for the Tide, plus Mile’s penchant for blowing big games and this is just too many obstacles for LSU and Alabama should win a great defensive battle

ONE CHANCE FOR LSU? – I will finish how I started:

POWER SPREAD WITH JEFFERSON (like OSU needed to do with this guy below!)

BUT WILL MILES FINALLY CATCH ON AND LET JEFFERSON AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, OC STUDWARA , LOOSE!  

-Drew

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