Don’t worry, I am not pursuing medicine, but I’ll take the pistol categorization as a compliment. For context, there was an old study going around social media when I answered these questions that was being widely reported as fact. In the last 24 hours, several outlets have disputed it’s accuracy. So, I guess, go ahead and take your horse dewormer again, folks!! (And I am actually a Nor Cal native and recently moved back here from Texas — never even ridden a horse!)
Sep 10, 2021Liked by Piotr Le, Christopher Helling, Rob Hwang, Leland
There is a large chasm between a patient being administered ivermectin under the care of a physician as a trial, and what's going on in the US with *repurposing livestock medication*. This is not The Walking Dead, we can do better than that.
Also, I will note, there are no clear/direct studies on the effectiveness of ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19 yet. The study you have linked, for example, is a meta-analysis comparing different regions with different situations. It may indeed be a promising step, but within that study itself they say the following:
"The majority of trialed agents have failed to provide reproducible, definitive proof of efficacy in reducing the mortality of COVID-19 with the exception of corticosteroids in moderate to severe disease. Recently, evidence has emerged that the oral antiparasitic agent ivermectin exhibits numerous antiviral and anti-inflammatory mechanisms with trial results reporting significant outcome benefits. Given some have not passed peer review, several expert groups including Unitaid/World Health Organization have undertaken a systematic global effort to contact all active trial investigators to rapidly gather the data needed to grade and perform meta-analyses."
This is without addressing the fact that one of the major components of that study has been retracted by the publishing journal.
As for hydroxychloroquine, they are no good studies supporting it. No, Trump calling it "great stuff" doesn't qualify as a study. The most "famous" one is this retracted study:
Lets let the medical field do their job and test all avenues of treatment while deferring to their expertise. And while we're at it, lets help them (and ourselves) and get vaccinated since it's the most effective prevention available to us.
"I doubt I will ever read a review that tells the opposing team exactly which DB to target" -- I mean, it's not like coaches outside of Northwestern are reading blogs to determine strategy; coaches watch more than enough tape to know exactly which players they want to target. This is actually something I learned talking to Coach Wilcox in the preseason -- the players themselves are way more important than the scheme. You can have a team that plays perfectly, where everyone makes the correct read, everyone picks up the correct assignment, etc, but sometimes a player with that much more talent just blows through a double team or something and ruins an otherwise perfectly designed and perfectly executed play. So 100% coaches are designing plays against personnel moreso than scheme. That's the biggest difference between college and the NFL, and why I think some college coaches don't work out in the NFL and vice versa; it's a different mindset entirely.
Personally, I don't want to put any young players on blast, but it's usually pretty obvious if a team has a liability somewhere. Both Cal and TCU have a liability at the same position (the parallels between the two teams are unending), and I heavily hinted at who I think it is in tomorrow's defensive preview.
You vastly overestimate my qualifications; I'm not a coach or anything, I'm just a guy who watches a lot of football. I have no business designing an offensive gameplan, it's just obvious when you watch the same players enough to see that some are better than others. On one end of the field is a shutdown corner who sticks to his receivers like glue, and on the other is a corner getting beat on the first stutter-step of the wide receiver; doesn't take an expert to notice it. That said, I noticed with the play designs of Nevada that they'd try to isolate their big fast receiver (like Romeo Doubs) on a smaller/slower corner by having e.g. Doubs lined up to the outside running a post route, and the inside receiver running a route designed to pull safety help away from the corner on Doubs. I don't know how to draw up plays to do that, but I certainly notice it when it happens.
Gary is the type of coach who tells you that he doesn't read the press clippings but absolutely reads everything. We all hear about it when we are critical of players and coaches and if you pay attention in his post game press conferences, he almost always takes a shot at something that was written about his team going into the week -- especially when he proves that thing wrong.
As far as telling Cal who to target? Y'all, if you think that coaches aren't watching film and picking up 100x what a little blogger like myself is, then you don't know coaches. Ceasar got beat twice on double moves against the Dukes, I know 8 year olds that could watch that film and tell me who to pick on. And he's got plenty of tape to tell smart people his weaknesses. Football coaches are all OCD when it comes to game planning -- they will have dissected ever single play of every single game that every single player has played in up until kickoff. Neither myself or Christopher are going to be revealing trade secrets on the internet. Patterson is also the most paranoid coach on the planet so the only things we see are on game day -- practices are always closed and video/film is completely forbidden except for one practice in fall camp where we get to watch for 15 minutes.
That's true, and I love hearing later about the super subtle things they picked up on tape. Something like the way the wide receiver positioned his feet or if the QB left his mouthguard in could be a tell if it was a run or pass. Watching the way the receiver trots out to his position, and some of them half-ass it when they know they aren't getting the ball. Knowing the way a defensive back likes to turn his head after 14 yards, so they draw up a dig route right before that point, etc. It's a whole different level.
Wow, the head of the TCU blog says that TCU drops 30 on Cal before the Bears score two garbage touchdowns late. That's just not much respect at all. My what a difference a week can make. No way she says that if Cal had played a decent game last Saturday.
The irrational confidence of a week one win over an FCS opponent coupled with Cal’s disappointing performance against Nevada certainly played a role. Had the Bears handled business I would have probably gone with 24-20, and honestly, would not be surprised with a bounce back performance by the Bears. Patterson has raved about y’all’s defense, so Saturday is a far bigger test than what we’ve seen. I feel good about the Frogs but if this thing is super tight at the half, someone will need to talk me off the ledge I’m sure 😂
Seems reasonable to me. I don't see Cal scoring > 20 points and I'm being generous. If our offense sputters, yet again, the frogs will have lots of possessions. Their QB is solid, WRs are big and the RB is very good. And Cal did not play a "decent" game last Saturday. I think 100% of Cal fans will be shocked if we win this game.
Nice interview. Can't fault them for being optimistic. I've said elsewhere I give Cal about a 10% chance of victory. Epic day from Garbers and our D remembers how to defend. Hey, even a blind squirrel finds a nut right?
Just popping in to ask you to please serve the big helping of crow I am about to eat warm and with an adult beverage. Wow. I am shocked. But Wilcox and co had a great game plan and have completely stifled the TCU O. That and Caesar has been appropriately picked on. I’m not happy but this is a straight up ass kicking early.
Don’t worry, I am not pursuing medicine, but I’ll take the pistol categorization as a compliment. For context, there was an old study going around social media when I answered these questions that was being widely reported as fact. In the last 24 hours, several outlets have disputed it’s accuracy. So, I guess, go ahead and take your horse dewormer again, folks!! (And I am actually a Nor Cal native and recently moved back here from Texas — never even ridden a horse!)
There is a large chasm between a patient being administered ivermectin under the care of a physician as a trial, and what's going on in the US with *repurposing livestock medication*. This is not The Walking Dead, we can do better than that.
Also, I will note, there are no clear/direct studies on the effectiveness of ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19 yet. The study you have linked, for example, is a meta-analysis comparing different regions with different situations. It may indeed be a promising step, but within that study itself they say the following:
"The majority of trialed agents have failed to provide reproducible, definitive proof of efficacy in reducing the mortality of COVID-19 with the exception of corticosteroids in moderate to severe disease. Recently, evidence has emerged that the oral antiparasitic agent ivermectin exhibits numerous antiviral and anti-inflammatory mechanisms with trial results reporting significant outcome benefits. Given some have not passed peer review, several expert groups including Unitaid/World Health Organization have undertaken a systematic global effort to contact all active trial investigators to rapidly gather the data needed to grade and perform meta-analyses."
This is without addressing the fact that one of the major components of that study has been retracted by the publishing journal.
As for hydroxychloroquine, they are no good studies supporting it. No, Trump calling it "great stuff" doesn't qualify as a study. The most "famous" one is this retracted study:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31180-6/fulltext
Lets let the medical field do their job and test all avenues of treatment while deferring to their expertise. And while we're at it, lets help them (and ourselves) and get vaccinated since it's the most effective prevention available to us.
Excellent analysis -- specific and relevant. Keep up the great work!
Go Frogs!!!!
"I doubt I will ever read a review that tells the opposing team exactly which DB to target" -- I mean, it's not like coaches outside of Northwestern are reading blogs to determine strategy; coaches watch more than enough tape to know exactly which players they want to target. This is actually something I learned talking to Coach Wilcox in the preseason -- the players themselves are way more important than the scheme. You can have a team that plays perfectly, where everyone makes the correct read, everyone picks up the correct assignment, etc, but sometimes a player with that much more talent just blows through a double team or something and ruins an otherwise perfectly designed and perfectly executed play. So 100% coaches are designing plays against personnel moreso than scheme. That's the biggest difference between college and the NFL, and why I think some college coaches don't work out in the NFL and vice versa; it's a different mindset entirely.
Personally, I don't want to put any young players on blast, but it's usually pretty obvious if a team has a liability somewhere. Both Cal and TCU have a liability at the same position (the parallels between the two teams are unending), and I heavily hinted at who I think it is in tomorrow's defensive preview.
You vastly overestimate my qualifications; I'm not a coach or anything, I'm just a guy who watches a lot of football. I have no business designing an offensive gameplan, it's just obvious when you watch the same players enough to see that some are better than others. On one end of the field is a shutdown corner who sticks to his receivers like glue, and on the other is a corner getting beat on the first stutter-step of the wide receiver; doesn't take an expert to notice it. That said, I noticed with the play designs of Nevada that they'd try to isolate their big fast receiver (like Romeo Doubs) on a smaller/slower corner by having e.g. Doubs lined up to the outside running a post route, and the inside receiver running a route designed to pull safety help away from the corner on Doubs. I don't know how to draw up plays to do that, but I certainly notice it when it happens.
"it's not like coaches outside of Northwestern are reading blogs to determine strategy"
Well, actually...
“I’m sure he was not happy,” Patterson said, referring to Bears coach Justin Wilcox. “Their kids weren’t happy. I read all their articles over there.”
Gary Patterson is reading Cal articles to scout us?
https://www.si.com/college/cal/news/press-conference-gary-patterson
Well now I really regret telling new sign up member "Pary Gatterson" all of Cal's secret plays.
Gary is the type of coach who tells you that he doesn't read the press clippings but absolutely reads everything. We all hear about it when we are critical of players and coaches and if you pay attention in his post game press conferences, he almost always takes a shot at something that was written about his team going into the week -- especially when he proves that thing wrong.
As far as telling Cal who to target? Y'all, if you think that coaches aren't watching film and picking up 100x what a little blogger like myself is, then you don't know coaches. Ceasar got beat twice on double moves against the Dukes, I know 8 year olds that could watch that film and tell me who to pick on. And he's got plenty of tape to tell smart people his weaknesses. Football coaches are all OCD when it comes to game planning -- they will have dissected ever single play of every single game that every single player has played in up until kickoff. Neither myself or Christopher are going to be revealing trade secrets on the internet. Patterson is also the most paranoid coach on the planet so the only things we see are on game day -- practices are always closed and video/film is completely forbidden except for one practice in fall camp where we get to watch for 15 minutes.
That's true, and I love hearing later about the super subtle things they picked up on tape. Something like the way the wide receiver positioned his feet or if the QB left his mouthguard in could be a tell if it was a run or pass. Watching the way the receiver trots out to his position, and some of them half-ass it when they know they aren't getting the ball. Knowing the way a defensive back likes to turn his head after 14 yards, so they draw up a dig route right before that point, etc. It's a whole different level.
You laugh, but Pat Fitzgerald said he wasn't prepared for Cal in 2014 because our bloggers didn't report that we had a dual-threat quarterback.
I had no idea and that is incredible. We really are powerful ;)
Many Cal games have driven me to drink in disgust. Precisely one game has made me put my drink down in disgust. Truly a legendary performance.
Wow, the head of the TCU blog says that TCU drops 30 on Cal before the Bears score two garbage touchdowns late. That's just not much respect at all. My what a difference a week can make. No way she says that if Cal had played a decent game last Saturday.
That's pretty much what the betting line would suggest. Unfortunately, I think it's realistic.
The irrational confidence of a week one win over an FCS opponent coupled with Cal’s disappointing performance against Nevada certainly played a role. Had the Bears handled business I would have probably gone with 24-20, and honestly, would not be surprised with a bounce back performance by the Bears. Patterson has raved about y’all’s defense, so Saturday is a far bigger test than what we’ve seen. I feel good about the Frogs but if this thing is super tight at the half, someone will need to talk me off the ledge I’m sure 😂
Seems reasonable to me. I don't see Cal scoring > 20 points and I'm being generous. If our offense sputters, yet again, the frogs will have lots of possessions. Their QB is solid, WRs are big and the RB is very good. And Cal did not play a "decent" game last Saturday. I think 100% of Cal fans will be shocked if we win this game.
We just need to get to 21 first... I won't be shocked, just a little pleasantly surprised.
Well, there is a big gap apparently between the expectations for the two teams. I just hope we prove them wrong.
Nice interview. Can't fault them for being optimistic. I've said elsewhere I give Cal about a 10% chance of victory. Epic day from Garbers and our D remembers how to defend. Hey, even a blind squirrel finds a nut right?
The TCU mascot dog is certainly more appealing than their horned frog. Having both in play is certainly a good call.
Just popping in to ask you to please serve the big helping of crow I am about to eat warm and with an adult beverage. Wow. I am shocked. But Wilcox and co had a great game plan and have completely stifled the TCU O. That and Caesar has been appropriately picked on. I’m not happy but this is a straight up ass kicking early.