After taking a week off, I never got around to talking about the Oregon-California game.
First, let me say I don’t want to take anything away from the Ducks. Nick Aliotti’s defense was as good as I’ve EVER seen it. I mean EVER. Against a team with real talent. The offense perked up, too.
But can I add one thing? California may have been the worst-prepared good team for a big game I’ve seen in a long time. That was a pathetic effort that just had to embarrass the Bear coaching staff. I mean, horrible.
The Beavers? Well, everyone is waiting for the inevitable turnaround but I’m not so sure it’s ever going to come this season. The skill position talent is OK, but the lines on both sides of the ball are really struggling and without that, the rest of the offense and defense are mediocre, at best.
And one more thing about Blount:
The thing I liked the least about what went down yesterday was the idea that Chip Kelly (with Mike Bellotti’s approval) decided to change the rules of Blount’s suspension because he didn’t think Blount would be able to do it without the carrot of playing football on the end of the stick.
See, this is EXACTLY the wrong message. What Kelly has done is change the rules in midstream, because he figured they’d be broken, anyway. He knew Blount wasn’t going to stick around under the original punishment (go to class, come to practice but never play in a game) so he changed the rules to make it easier on him.
What would you think about a U of O professor who gave Blount a history test but after seeing the player wasn’t going to pass it, yanked it back and handed him an easier one? It’s the same thing.
What are you teaching at Oregon? You can say you care about Blount but if you really did, you’d teach him that football isn’t the whole reason for college. Instead, Kelly gave in and basically admitted the only reason Blount is at Oregon is to carry a football. And, oh — by the way — Chip Kelly also acted in Chip Kelly’s best interests by allowing the guy a chance to come back and play.
And he’ll play. I’ve heard people say they don’t know if he’ll play much or not. My guess is, given the time to do so, Blount will be in excellent playing shape and will play A LOT. Kelly obviously likes the power back to go with the speed back — we saw that last season, and right now he doesn’t have a power back until Blount arrives.
And one more thing — why not make some of those “ladders” Blount has to climb public? How will we really know he’s climbed any of them? Are we going to have to take Chip’s word for it? Like we took his word that Blount would never play another game in a Duck uniform?
Tweet This Post
Tags: Chip Kelly, Dwight Jaynes, LeGarrette Blount, Mike Bellotti, Nick Aliotti, Oregon Ducks