2010 SEC MEDIA DAYS: WHEN IS THE HAT NOT THE HAT?
by Holly Anderson on Jul 23, 2010 3:10 PM EDT
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PrintA momentary sidebar to what it means to see The Hat without The Hat: that we are treated to a close, personal view of Miles' obvious but impeccably-applied dye job. The contrast between the man before us and the coach in the blown-up photos on the screen is quite humorous, and a little sweet.
• Opens with a little family talk. "I'm in Baton Rouge to stay." Not having any ponies in this LSU race and just being in this for the entertainment value, we sincerely and fervently hope this is the case. "Can't wait. Football is here." US TOO, HATBRO.
• It takes us almost ten minutes to realize Miles has shifted into talking about actual football things. Defensively, he likes what he sees on the interior. Thinks he's got the finest corner tandem in the conference. Offensively? Jarrett Lee? "Has experience." Miles looks suspiciously jacked at this prospect.
• Asked to guarantee the number of wins this season. Chortles. "I love guarantees."
• Les Miles pronounces "mature" as "matoor." This tickles us, for some reason.
• Fearless Leader brings up the clock management. Miles is staring at us through his forehead. The answer: "We went through some of the situations we went through last fall. That did not go beyond my scrutiny. I scrutinized the coaching - me and others. I can promise you that those situations, some of those situations I'd never run into in coaching. Some of those situations I was, even though prepared for, had not envisioned the time constraints. [...] "It's not just lip service. We've changed."
• More: "[We're] going to be in two-minute really for about 45 minutes in two practices," This will not help his math. < --- CHEAP SHOT UP TOP
• And here's the Miles we love. He just called UNC's offense "excellent." UNC's offense was 108th in total offense in the NCAA last year. LSU's was 112th. You know what this means, right? YOU GUYS BEST CFA KICKOFF GAME EVER EVER. (We are also told that, in a TV interview this morning, he proudly reported that one of his players had "500 yards of footballs" last season. Working on getting video of this.)
And with that, we're out and barreling for home. It goes without saying that no one could have predicted heading into this week that Vandy's presser would be the toast of the league and Les Miles a snoozer, but you pays your money and you takes your chance. We'll have more wrap-uppy type stuff for you lovely monsters on Monday, and will return Digital Viking to its regular Friday slot (which is to say, to existence) next week in the absence of real actual footbally stuff to cover. Peace out, bro scouts.
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Nutt = Pauly D
"I'm colonel cool! And I'm the captain on this rocket to the stars!"
by psuphiman80 on Jul 24, 2010 12:21 AM EDT up reply actions
Yogi Berra Award Candidate on a very busy day for Nominees
“We went through some of the situations we went through last fall. That did not go beyond my scrutiny. I scrutinized the coaching – me and others. I can promise you that those situations, some of those situations I’d never run into in coaching. Some of those situations I was, even though prepared for, had not envisioned the time constraints
I am tempted to ask if the Hat really had never run into that very strange phenomena called, “the two-minute drill”. Which seems to happen twice a game, every time, in his coaching career. But maybe things are different down on the Bayou.
The COEXIST bumper sticker is ridiculous. How are people supposed to get along when one side is flying planes into tall buildings or wearing sweater vests full of C4 and nails? The faiths are MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.
Reminds me of Emmit Fitzhume
“Are there any Paraguayans here? No? Well, of course, their request for subsidies was not, uh, Paraguayan as it is, as it were, uh, the United States government would never have if the President, our President had not and as far as I know that’s the way it will always be. Is that clear?”
I was just checking the specs on the endline... for the... rotary girder...
by Minnesota Fats on Jul 23, 2010 4:29 PM EDT up reply actions
Yep.
Watching LSU under Miles is just beyond bizarre. One moment one of the many absurdly talented players he has makes some unbelievable play, and the next moment Miles has morphed into Forrest Gump on the sideline. Very shulaesque, his command of gametime strategy.
Even the typical successful high school coach goes over every aspect of the 2 minute scenarios before every game. I.e., get out of bounds, field goal team ready to go at a moment, don’t use a time out if we make the first down, use the timeout IMMEDIATELY if we don’t get out of bounds, spike the ball if we get the first but have no TO’s left, etc. This stuff is basic, and to think a mega$$$$ SEC HC drops the ball with it not once but twice is just amazing.
If a fan is continually hyping the alleged "academic superiority" of his conference, it's for one obvious reason: they're getting get their ass whipped on the field.
the ball spike is standard
and also probably wrong. Few terrible college coaching tactics have successfully survived evolution intact like the spike.
The new year approaching, click in. Let’s facelift bar! Open the wardrobe is not yet found love after another the right clothes? So, also waiting for? Immediate action bar!
Why? It’s second down, ten seconds to go, no timeouts, the receiver didn’t get out of bounds on first down, the clock is running.
You can stop the clock with a spike. What’s not to like in that scenario?
by An 'eer with a beer on Jul 24, 2010 11:25 AM EDT up reply actions
Much better to just call two plays on first down
You have a “if we don’t get out of bounds/get the first, run this”. Then, you don’t need to waste the time on the spike.
"I think so, Brain, but how are we going to get the bacon flavoring into the pencils?"
MikeLew nailed it
In the situation you described, ‘eer, it may be correct. I’m not saying the spike is always bad. But I’d venture to say that at least 90% of the time it’s used, it’s bad.
The problem is that you have to get set to run a spike. At that point, you might as well run a play, as the average college football play is 4-6 seconds anyway. As you suggest, sometimes you might actually need that 4-6 seconds more than you need the down. But those situations are rare indeed. If you could spike the ball without having to get set, you would gain a lot of time back. But that’ s not the case.
Watch how many 1 possession games end with the losing team turning it over on downs. Way, way more than end with time expiring. It’s absolutely mind-boggling to watch a team spike the ball on second down, turn it over on downs, then the other team still has to drain 40 seconds left. Dumb, dumb dumb.
The only forgiveness in college comes from the communication problems that run rampant. Head coaches have so little practice time in college that they may not be able to practice the 2-minute drill enough to get the signals down fast enough from sideline to huddle (or no-huddle). In the NFL, this is not the case, and the spike is less forgivable.
The new year approaching, click in. Let’s facelift bar! Open the wardrobe is not yet found love after another the right clothes? So, also waiting for? Immediate action bar!
smartfootball covered this well
Conference homers are the lowest form of fandom. That is why the SEC has so many of them.
by gtne91 on Jul 25, 2010 1:57 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Article on this
http://smartfootball.blogspot.com/2008/09/importance-of-clock-offense-and-why.html
Some good quotes from it:
Coach Smith also makes the further point that the spike play itself uses time off the clock
That seemed on topic.
So when does the spike make sense? Coach Smith’s answer is simple: “When you are out of timeouts, [the spike] stops the clock to get fieldgoal personnel onto the field for an unhurried kick.”
However, refer to the earlier quote first.
Conference homers are the lowest form of fandom. That is why the SEC has so many of them.
All you're really saying
is that many coaches use the spike inappropriately.
The spike is a pass play that can’t be intercepted and always ends in an incompletion and quickly stops the clock. It’s designed to do that. (As an aside, I find it sad that a football blog marks the word incompletion as a misspelling.) I will agree that a coach who calls a spike, turns the ball over on downs, and ends up giving the opponent 30 or 40 seconds to run off the clock has indeed called the play at the wrong time.
It’s not a “terrible tactic” in and of itself — it’s just misused a lot.
by An 'eer with a beer on Jul 25, 2010 7:14 PM EDT up reply actions
That’s why I didn’t call it a “terrible tactic,” and instead called it a “terrible college coaching tactic,” and criticized its use (“standard” and “wrong”).
You’re right though: using a play inappropriately doesn’t mean we should fault the play. Rather, we should fault the coach who uses the play wrongly. Of course, this makes it hard to call any play inherently bad. Theoretically, for any possible play, we could cook up a situation in which it would be a good play.
But rather than go through that mumbo-jumbo, it’s a lot easier just to say the play sucks. This is a blog, not academia, and we can sacrifice some intellectual ingenuousness for the sake of efficiency.
The new year approaching, click in. Let’s facelift bar! Open the wardrobe is not yet found love after another the right clothes? So, also waiting for? Immediate action bar!
If it's stupid and it works
it ain’t stupid
by PalmettoTiger on Jul 26, 2010 11:42 PM EDT up reply actions
"We went through some of the situations we went through last fall."
“And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future.”
by MnM Enterprises on Jul 24, 2010 7:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Theeenks!
I’m about half dead, but we had a blast.
________________________________
I will give my shirt for Tennessee today.
by Holly Anderson on Jul 24, 2010 11:19 AM EDT up reply actions
Can't decide . . .
. . . which moniker I like better, Hatbro or Les “The Situation” Miles. But as entertaining as his word salad responses are, they also shed some light on why the LSU sideline is so disorganized. Christ, Les, get your shit in one sock!
by NeverSawMollyHatchet on Jul 23, 2010 10:29 PM EDT reply actions
Oh yea-ah
Miles he so cajun alt you can heat the kewl ’ ’ around the words when he talks. Dat is one chill hatbro dere, ’chere.
"I like the taste of danger most of all." - Jonatha Brooke
by MtnEer_in_SC on Jul 26, 2010 10:10 AM EDT up reply actions
I think the LSU sideline wants to be organized but they just can't understand the directions from their Fearless Leader
But, really, we are putting this under way too much scrutiny because me and others have already scrutinized the coaching.
Even though we were prepared for Less Smiles answer about The Situation, well, no one could really have anticipated that answer about the Two Minute Thingie happening like that – with so little time and everyone all up in a hurry and stuff. It’s just all so unique – something I’d never run into in coaching – hadn’t happened before – well, it was just a different, once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing.
The COEXIST bumper sticker is ridiculous. How are people supposed to get along when one side is flying planes into tall buildings or wearing sweater vests full of C4 and nails? The faiths are MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.
If I'm twice lucky in this lifetime...
Les Miles will coach Michigan someday. It would still be an upgrade from their current moron, but still leave them a rudderless ship wandering aimlessly in the great lakes, about to run aground.
As our friend Gord once sang ...
“… they’d have made Whitefish Bay if they’d put fifteen more miles behind her.”
And if I'm lucky, he'll be at LSU forever.
Roll Tide
If a fan is continually hyping the alleged "academic superiority" of his conference, it's for one obvious reason: they're getting get their ass whipped on the field.
Is that really that hard for any decent SEC team?
OSU= 0-9 vs SEC in postseason
If a fan is continually hyping the alleged "academic superiority" of his conference, it's for one obvious reason: they're getting get their ass whipped on the field.
Yeah, but HURR YOU'RE ALL FAT AND LAZY
[insert academic standards post here as well]
"...when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to."
— Martin Luther
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