ArizonaLonghorn

From our good friends at The Athletic

I don't get the "hate" for Beard. Given what he did at Tech, taking them to the championship game, he could have been the best coach Texas has had in many years. Yes he screwed up and got fired with cause from Texas, but that's no reason to "hate" the man.

Could be worse. Rutgers signed two of the top three recruits in the 2024 class, probably paying several million $. They played well enough to go # 2 and # 5 in the 2025 draft but Rutgers had a losing record and didn't make the tournament. Talk about a waste of talent ...

They actually signed two of the top 3 basketball recruits (per 247) in the 2024 class, Dylan Harper who was selected # 2 overall in the 2025 draft by the Spurs and Ace Bailey who was selected # 5 by the Jazz. I'm sure those two didn't come cheap. What did Rutgers BB get from those two? 15-17 overall record, 8-12 in conference.

A little chilly here in the Arizona desert with 40 F for the low, mid-60's and up for the highs. Ten day forecast attached. Might have to skip wearing shorts early in the day. The cold front started a couple hundred miles east of here, so we're good - even have yellow wildflowers starting to bloom in the front yard. Sympathy for those getting hit by the ice especially - lived thru two days of -42 degrees F in northern Idaho one winter so even the weeks of 110 - 115 F in July and August are bearable by comparison.

Grizz ... he likes to fish but doesn't take well to a leash

They paid $5 million for THAT ? I know Tech talks a lot about their "advanced metrics" etc but looking at Ojo and Micah Hudson you gotta wonder ...

Johnny "Ham" Jones. running back on the 1977 team, which went undefeated and was ranked # 1 in the regular season before losing to That Team Up North in the Cotton Bowl, featuring Joe Montana (still the most painful game I ever watched almost 50 years later). He was Earl Campbell's blocking back (lol) though he was just 5'9" and weighed 184 lbs per the official roster. Earl outweighed him by about 40 lbs. He was always overshadowed by Johnny "Lam" Jones, the electric Olympic Gold Medal winner in (I think) the 4x100 sprint relay. "Lam" was from Lampasas and "Ham" from Hamlin, hence the nicknames. The stars of that team included Earl (Heisman Trophy winner), Brad Shearer (Outland Trophy winner as best lineman), Steve McMichael (all around bad ass, in college and pros), Olympian "Lam" Jones, punter and place kicker Russell Erxleben, and Cinderella QB Randy McEachern who rose from 5th string in August to QB1 early in the OU game when the last two QBs in front of him were injured. "Ham" Jones just showed up every day and did his job. Stats for that golden 1977 regular season include 489 yards rushing on 92 carries (5.3 ypc) with 6 touchdowns. Always had a lot of respect for Johnny "Ham" Jones.

Watching the Oregon - Indiana game late and there's a pass aimed at DM, with a safety zeroing in on his chest - he short arms it, barely tries. The announcer says something like "he didn't seem invested in trying to catch that one with the DB looming". And I thought "we dodged a bullet when Moore went to Oregon".

At least they still have Micah Hudson ...

Thanks! Very illuminating.

Great post, thanks for the insights. Couple of questions, if you can generalize without indicating who the player was. How much NIL/Revenue Share did he end up with? How was that split? Did the school get involved with the NIL part or just hook him up with the NIL dudes? What level of player was he? I assume he was a starter. Did he make All-Conference? All-America? Honorable Mention anything? Just trying to get a feel for what value coaches put on performance. "now playing professionally" - NBA or elsewhere? If you don't feel comfortable answering these Q's I understand. Thanks

The talent discrepancies between Indiana and the top rosters is amazing. Here's the recruiting rankings for their rosters. This is probably the best coaching job I've seen in college football

Six sacks against the five ranked teams combined, including some top defenses ... and six sacks surrendered against 4-8 Florida. Hard to understand the Florida meltdown.

What was the total sacks number against those 5 teams? Seems to be missing from the text