That’s essentially what The Oregonian’s Mike Tokito does here. And makes this statement:

Bennett, now 40, is young, charismatic and has great family recognition. The more WSU won, the more frequently his name was mentioned when a coaching job came open.

It induced a weird combination of angst, anger and resignation from Cougars fans, who knew their cash-strapped school and isolated location made keeping Bennett around for the long term a challenge.

So here’s Robinson, also young at 47, also charismatic, and also with great family recognition (if you haven’t heard, his sister’s husband is a big guy in the federal government). Robinson even eschews wearing a tie at games, something Bennett made his signature look at WSU (although he’s back to wearing ties at Virginia).

Sorry, Robinson is no Tony Bennett, and I don’t care who his brother in law is. (He’s also not “young” at 47.)

Look, this is still the same team that lost at home to Seattle U. by 51 points. The same team that lost at home to Sacramento State earlier this season.

Robinson is going to win some games in the Pac-10 this season, because that conference is downright miserable, but he’s got a ways to be before you worry about throwing a lot of money at him. Let him prove it a little longer, please.

And if he wants to take another job somewhere, I’m afraid that a new practice facility there or a few more bucks won’t keep him there, anyway.

Tweet This Post

Just a few quick hits:

– Did we think after the first weekend there would be concerns about the Duck offense? I don’t think so. I can’t get over how poorly Boise State played in the second half of that game Thursday night. Yet the Ducks’ offense couldn’t get much traction when the game was on the line. Strange.

– I was suprised at how well Portland State played in Corvallis. That wasn’t a bad performance at all, given the Vikings’ youth. I thought the Beavers would get to PSU’s quarterbacks but that didn’t happen. At the same time, after that opener, I have some serious doubts about the Oregon State pass defense.

– Wow, California. The Bears were really something against Maryland, which may or may not be a good team. Kevin Riley out of Beaverton? Sensational with 298 yards and four TD passes.

– Washington hung in with LSU for a while. . . could that mean the sleeping dawgs are rousing from their long sleep? I’m not ready to say that yet.

– Washington State drew about 22,000 for its home opener. That right there tells you what you need to know about that program.

Tweet This Post

A while back I wrote about cause and effect and what it has to do with Oregon’s quarterback situation. But still, I’d always thought the Ducks did a decent job of getting their signal callers ready to play.

Until Saturday afternoon. Wow — did the coaching staff really think Oregon was so much better than Boise State that it could slide through the game by just lining up and shoving the ball down the Broncos’ throats? Forget about injuries to the quarterback, what in the world was Oregon’s game plan? If you really want to play smash-mouth football, get out of that spread offense, put a couple of tight ends on the field and hand it to a fullback 30 times. Otherwise, use the spread to get your receivers isolated in space and throw the ball up the field! Don’t bring a baseball bat to a tennis match.

That was an expensive mistake for the Ducks, who couldn’t afford a nonconference home loss. But neither starter Jeremiah Masoli nor backup Chris Harper seemed capable of making anything but the most elemental of throws and while they were in the game, the capable Oregon receiving corps was totally wasted. Sure the fourth-quarter comeback behind Darron Thomas (finally, a quarterback who can throw!) was nice but for most of the day, that was a very ugly Duck effort.

And speaking of ugly efforts, my goodness — wasn’t Portland State-Washington State one of the worst games ever played? I realize the Vikings need every penny but $225,000 wasn’t enough to justify that whipping against the worst team in one of the worst major conferences in the country. Honestly, I think there are Big Sky teams that could give the Cougars a go — but not PSU. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Mouse Davis quarterbacks look so inept.

By the way, this just in — the Pac-10 stinks. And after a full season of playing in the Pac-10, USC will be hard-pressed to keep its edge for the BCS playoff to come.

Tweet This Post