Berlin is no longer the home to the world's biggest cylindrical fish tank. Someone needs to ask the lobby bar for a few more napkins to mop up the spill.
WaPo follows the grim fate of a Russian brigade from near the Arctic circle, from higher-end troops, to having 40% of their soldiers killed and lost 70% of their heavy equipment in the first 9 months of the war, and then backfilling only some of them with untrained mobiks. They can't get their soldiers to stay on the line because they know they're doomed to die because they'll never leave the line.
Someone who works in the cubicle next to mine. She's remarkably steady, she's been in the building almost every day during the pandemic just like I have. Angela has been a valued teammate, even if she has a different boss.
Angie was the name of one of my maids. She was very sweet. She went overseas to earn money. Her relatives raised her two daughters back in the Philippines. Her hope was to educate them so that they could escape poverty. The oldest daughter had a child young and it derailed her education. She was in her final year of working with me as she was getting to retire. I remember the day that she got the news that her youngest daughter got pregnant and would drop out of college as a senior. She paid for two kids to go to college for nearly the whole time, neither of which graduated. The sound of a woman crying - gut wrenching bawling - because her whole life's work and plans went went down the drain is something I'll never forget.
It supports one of my main mantras that I say to my kid: "beware of life altering event"
The first time I returned from living in Asia - main lessons learned about my time abroad and re-integrating. 1. No one really cares that much about your time in China. 2. Don't talk to people about airports - they really haven't been to ones either as nice or as bad as you have 3. Don't talk about your hired help.
Hah! I think #1 is almost universal to any experience. I remember in high school I studied abroad in France, lived w a French family. I was super excited to tell my friends back in Monterey about it when I returned at the beginning of junior year. But if I said anything more than “it was great” or some similar one liner, they would completely tune out. If you want to wax about stuff like that, you need to find someone that has done something similar and have a beer w them.
Re #3, the hired help stuff in Asia is hard for a gringo to comprehend. I visited a buddy from Cal at his place in Singapore and he had like a whole team of servants. He kept trying to tell me it was totally normal there but I was like, the servants don’t have servants tho right?
In Katie Noupoulous' Spaces last night, Elon argued with a journalist over one hard question, flounced off . . .and now there are no Spaces on Twitteer.
Yes but I think some of that decline has been due to Musk selling off so much of it this year. So I don’t think the inference that it is a vote of no confidence on Musk really holds.
Well knowing what I know about you from your WFC posts, and knowing what I know about me and the entire Chitwood clan, I’d bet dollars to donuts the O.O family is just a classier act. I can’t imagine there’s a lifelong Newellbany friendship dragging you down with it, either…
Fridge is a bit light on cheese at the moment, need to restock for Christmas break. And we're having the mac with the prime rib on Christmas night so it's gonna be a lot of cheese.
Contagion (2011) has been on HBO so I finally watched it. Meh. Seems to have been the Fauci COVID playbook, tho maybe that’s just the general approach to dealing with a pandemic.
Totally cool…and again, I didn’t hate it…meh and blah are still passing grades for me…Jimmy C is much more critical of Cal sports than movies. I probably like it better if I saw pre-COVID, as the response would’ve eerily reminded me of this…the one thing this flick did have going is Gwyneth Paltrow as patient 0…haven’t always felt so, but. rather miserable woman.
Pacing is weird, but otherwise I enjoyed the movie. My wife watched the movie about three or four times in 2019, saying "this world needs a pandemic to just shut everything down."
That was my issue…it needed to be a 2.5-3-hour movie to really tell the story, which it probably would have been in 2020. But in 2011, it was 100 minutes, and as such, it just felt rushed.
Cugel and I never agree on movies, tho, so the fact that we have such different takes is not the least bit surprising. We’re a little more in line on tv shows, but film wise, we’re pretty far apart. I gave it a solid C, maybe because I saw it after having lived it…just kinda blah. Outbreak was a better movie.
This season most of the episodes don’t even have Ian and Poppy together onscreen. Were they filming stuff that necessitated that? It’s notable because their relationship and interplay is the heart of the show. It is a significant step down in quality this season. The plot has also kind of vanished, but maybe they are just using the first few episodes to tune the piano. (I hate that kind dead air piano tuning though, if you are a professional writer you should be better than that)
Rob still has a ton of good will, so I'm hoping that the first (7!?) episodes are setting up a plot arc? I guess it's Brad coming back to become head of monitization and Jo moving up the power chain?
Yeah I guess. But you can set up the story arc and do characterization in a fun way (eg, beginning of Raiders of Lost Ark) or in a boring way, and they chose boring. Total bummer given how good prior seasons were!
For the past two weeks, the Raiders have been taking advantage of what appeared to be a loophole in the NFL rulebook, but they won't be able to do that anymore because the league has officially shut things down.
Back in Week 13, the Raiders started using a holder for their kickoffs, which was kind of odd, because teams will usually only use a holder when the ball won't stay on the tee due to bad weather. The Raiders past two games were both played indoors, so bad weather definitely wasn't an issue.
Along with Judge, the Yanks have guaranteed a lot of money and years to two talented players in their 30’s that have been hurt as often as they’ve been healthy. Rodon especially - he had a helluva season in the prove it year for the Giants, but that was just the 2nd time in 8 years he stayed healthy enough to even approach 30 starts.
It won't hurt them at all. They'll still be signing top-of-the-market free agents in another 4, 6, 8 and 10 years...but $500 million outlawed to injury prone guys is still nutty.
49ers clinch NFC West via 21-13 victory over the Seahawks. The game wasn't even as close as the score as the Niner defense stuffed the run, pushed the Seahawks into passing situations, and then unleashed their fearsome pass rushers to harass Geno Smith. Purdy is a good-enough game manager with skills beyond Mr. Irrelevant, but let's not pretend that he'd be a world beater on another team. It also helps that Shanahan doesn't call plays like Bill Musgrave.
Refs need to be better about interpreting this. Bosa started hitting the QB while the ball was still in his hand, and just completed the tackle after the throw was made. How is he supposed to avoid landing on him?
Bad rule, but unfortunately probably not a bad call. They've been pretty consistent that the DL can't fall on the QB with all his weight, tho not sure what else Bosa could have done to avoid it...bad rule.
Kneeled multiple times after reaching the 1 yard line. It was a 15 point win in actuallity.
Purdy is better than most realized, but it also helps to have a really good offense around him, and at least one of the best defenses in football, so you don't need to put up 45 to be confident of being able to win.
First time in a decade the 49ers have beat the Hawks 2 in a row.
It was a good evening to be a 9er, even at the expense of several of my cousins who are "12s".
While he’s probably not a world beater on another team, he could very well be the Niners franchise QB. Wild.
The Niners are likely punting that ball back to Seattle with just over 2 minutes left with Garoppolo under center, as that scramble and ball extension on the slide basically sealed the game…heady player.
Trump's big announcement? Super timely NFTs! Of himself! For $99!
(There's a lot of screenshots of Trump fans 1. being furious they were waiting all this time for THIS and 2. People buying them and not understanding how to access them.)
So, allegedly all 45,000 NFTs sold out in 12 hours. Look at the so-called sweepstake "prizes". They are all opportunities for you to pay your own travel and pay Trump for accommodations at Mar-a-Lago... and then you get some paltry face-time with him, some of which is already happening. And the proceeds go to Trump, not his election PAC. $4.5 million.
There's zero chance those dinners or golf are happening. In previous Trump giveaways, they've all not happened. I'm 99.9% sure they aren't following legal sweepstakes rules (there needs to be a way to enter without buying something otherwise you're running a lottery) and in the terms and conditions, the Trump Org says the back-up prize is . . . ANOTHER NFT.
So-called Freedom Caucus is leveraging their power to try to shake down the GOP to give them more power via Committees by delaying speakership power consolidation
Troy is having a Cheez-Its Bowl moment. First half 59 yards. They have scored 1 TD on an 80 yard drive that has netted 23 yards on 8 plays. The rest came from penalties and this fumbleception:
Cal vs UCLA twitter is unhinged. And all these super angry UCLA twitter people - I guess Bruins Nation posters - is so so weird. I have lots of UCLA friends in life and none of them are like this.
Wife is a UCLA alum and she were watching the Harry and Meghan Netflix reality show when she said the Megxit headline was really clever. She really chuckled when I told her about Calimony.
Honestly, I do not. He has no HC experience at the FBS level, neither G5 or P5. And stanfurd has no NIL, and while their players can use the portal to transfer out, they are severely limited with transfers in as all students have to go through the same application process. They already have 16 players in the portal including most of their starting OL.
There are rumors that there might be some modernization and common sense applied to the admissions process, which is needed there generally. But without getting NIL organized (its not like Stanford alums, friends, neighbors, business associates, etc. can't afford it!), nothing else is going to help much.
Maybe SBF and Elizabeth Holmes can get together and fund the Stanford NIL initiative. I’m sure all the players will get their money and what is promised to them.
They could easily get an NIL collective off the ground and have it well funded within seconds but there’s no way they change admission standards for transfer football players. That’s been their whole recruiting selling point, the prestige of being admitted.
They could have the best NIL in the country quite easily. But the apathy level of students, nearer term alums and folks on the Peninsula is on par with, or greater than Berkeley. Either the latest discovery, new startup, or folks getting funded and thinking about their options are the main things going on. The gridiron is a tertiary thought.
Yeah I have to admit a lot of the reason I liked him was bc he was a Cal great. Had he gone to Chico State I don’t think this message board would have been clamoring for him so much
But take away the Cal connection, and Stanford is still hiring a dynamic offensive mind with P12 play calling experience that just led his team to an undefeated FCS season. That makes them at least more exciting than they were under Shaw...your points about the portal and NIL though are dead on...I fear Taylor struggles on the Farm.
Drew Brees steps in as QB Coach for Purdue for the Citrus Bowl (sponsored by some cracker company) since coach Jeff Brohm left. Brees says he has no interest in coaching full time.
I only watch now to try and find the exact right time to tweet @ADCalbears “What are we even doing here, Jim.” Then I shut it off. Just watching Mark Fox’s idiotic scowl on the sidelines pisses me off…he’s got as punchable a face as Drew Peterson.
Lunch
Leftover Zackary's pizza: bacon, cherry tomatoes & garlic - so tasty.
Have not been there for a year maybe. Time to go back.
oh that sounds great! I need to get Zachs soon.
Berlin is no longer the home to the world's biggest cylindrical fish tank. Someone needs to ask the lobby bar for a few more napkins to mop up the spill.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-17/german-aquarium-bursts-killing-1500-tropical-fish-in-berlin/101784556
cheap sushi for a couple days though
Awkward!
WaPo follows the grim fate of a Russian brigade from near the Arctic circle, from higher-end troops, to having 40% of their soldiers killed and lost 70% of their heavy equipment in the first 9 months of the war, and then backfilling only some of them with untrained mobiks. They can't get their soldiers to stay on the line because they know they're doomed to die because they'll never leave the line.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/16/russia-200th-brigade-decimated-ukraine/
Angie, Angela, or other similar name
Someone who works in the cubicle next to mine. She's remarkably steady, she's been in the building almost every day during the pandemic just like I have. Angela has been a valued teammate, even if she has a different boss.
Angie was the name of one of my maids. She was very sweet. She went overseas to earn money. Her relatives raised her two daughters back in the Philippines. Her hope was to educate them so that they could escape poverty. The oldest daughter had a child young and it derailed her education. She was in her final year of working with me as she was getting to retire. I remember the day that she got the news that her youngest daughter got pregnant and would drop out of college as a senior. She paid for two kids to go to college for nearly the whole time, neither of which graduated. The sound of a woman crying - gut wrenching bawling - because her whole life's work and plans went went down the drain is something I'll never forget.
It supports one of my main mantras that I say to my kid: "beware of life altering event"
“One of my maids”
Living large, man!
We only had a weekly house cleaner...though she was basically family.
The first time I returned from living in Asia - main lessons learned about my time abroad and re-integrating. 1. No one really cares that much about your time in China. 2. Don't talk to people about airports - they really haven't been to ones either as nice or as bad as you have 3. Don't talk about your hired help.
Hah! I think #1 is almost universal to any experience. I remember in high school I studied abroad in France, lived w a French family. I was super excited to tell my friends back in Monterey about it when I returned at the beginning of junior year. But if I said anything more than “it was great” or some similar one liner, they would completely tune out. If you want to wax about stuff like that, you need to find someone that has done something similar and have a beer w them.
Re #3, the hired help stuff in Asia is hard for a gringo to comprehend. I visited a buddy from Cal at his place in Singapore and he had like a whole team of servants. He kept trying to tell me it was totally normal there but I was like, the servants don’t have servants tho right?
Twitter
Musk is raising capital for Twitter. He's asking the same $54.20/share he paid.
.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Good luck with that, Rocketman.
https://www.semafor.com/article/12/16/2022/elon-musks-team-is-seeking-new-investors-for-twitter
In Katie Noupoulous' Spaces last night, Elon argued with a journalist over one hard question, flounced off . . .and now there are no Spaces on Twitteer.
What is Spaces?
Twitter bans the accounts for CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, NYT Ryan Mac, WaPo Drew Harwell and other who follow Twitter as a company.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/media/twitter-musk-journalists-hnk-intl/index.html
All those people who told us Elon Musk was all about free speech have to be feeling pretty foolish right now.
j/k, they don't care. They always just wanted to own the libs.
Tesla's stock (which is a proxy for Elon Musk) has underperformed the S&P 500 by about 60%, making it one of the 10 performing stocks out of 500.
Yes but I think some of that decline has been due to Musk selling off so much of it this year. So I don’t think the inference that it is a vote of no confidence on Musk really holds.
Btw I saw the LVMH dude passed him as richest person. Twitter seems like Musk’s Waterloo
Last chance to join the W4C bowl pick 'em league. Entries close today when the first bowl game kicks off at 11:30amEST/8:30amPST.
https://writeforcalifornia.com/p/bowl-pick-em-league-2022
Unsweet dairy
I’s a sucker for sour cream…
Same but I think crème fraiche is a skooch better. Maybe just because it is fancier sounding and I am an idiot
Well knowing what I know about you from your WFC posts, and knowing what I know about me and the entire Chitwood clan, I’d bet dollars to donuts the O.O family is just a classier act. I can’t imagine there’s a lifelong Newellbany friendship dragging you down with it, either…
Cheese, yo.
Curds.
Usually Provolone for sandwiches.
1/3 of Scootie's fridge.
Fridge is a bit light on cheese at the moment, need to restock for Christmas break. And we're having the mac with the prime rib on Christmas night so it's gonna be a lot of cheese.
Whey isolate is a brilliant snack. Filling, boosts your protein intake, easy on your stomach, doesn't spike your blood sugars.
DBD AV Club
Contagion (2011) has been on HBO so I finally watched it. Meh. Seems to have been the Fauci COVID playbook, tho maybe that’s just the general approach to dealing with a pandemic.
I usually agree with you on movies and shows but I have to disagree with you here. I really liked Contagion.
Totally cool…and again, I didn’t hate it…meh and blah are still passing grades for me…Jimmy C is much more critical of Cal sports than movies. I probably like it better if I saw pre-COVID, as the response would’ve eerily reminded me of this…the one thing this flick did have going is Gwyneth Paltrow as patient 0…haven’t always felt so, but. rather miserable woman.
Meh? We thought that movie was very good. Well run, all too believable.
Pacing is weird, but otherwise I enjoyed the movie. My wife watched the movie about three or four times in 2019, saying "this world needs a pandemic to just shut everything down."
That was my issue…it needed to be a 2.5-3-hour movie to really tell the story, which it probably would have been in 2020. But in 2011, it was 100 minutes, and as such, it just felt rushed.
Cugel and I never agree on movies, tho, so the fact that we have such different takes is not the least bit surprising. We’re a little more in line on tv shows, but film wise, we’re pretty far apart. I gave it a solid C, maybe because I saw it after having lived it…just kinda blah. Outbreak was a better movie.
New Slow Horses - will watch after my job interview
Very, very good, and my wife was sure of the surprise before it happened.
Dude. DUDE! So good. S2 is amazing, a step up from S1.
i will need no luck to watch Slow Horses - I got it dowloaded and everything.
the cause of getting you a job?
Mythic Quest has downgraded from a must watch immediately on drop to "regular sitcom" for me - but I still really enjoy the Poppy/Ian/David dynamic.
Still thoroughly enjoying the show, but . . . it does miss F. Murray Abraham.
We didn't even complete season 1 - didn't think it was that good.
This season most of the episodes don’t even have Ian and Poppy together onscreen. Were they filming stuff that necessitated that? It’s notable because their relationship and interplay is the heart of the show. It is a significant step down in quality this season. The plot has also kind of vanished, but maybe they are just using the first few episodes to tune the piano. (I hate that kind dead air piano tuning though, if you are a professional writer you should be better than that)
Rob still has a ton of good will, so I'm hoping that the first (7!?) episodes are setting up a plot arc? I guess it's Brad coming back to become head of monitization and Jo moving up the power chain?
Yeah I guess. But you can set up the story arc and do characterization in a fun way (eg, beginning of Raiders of Lost Ark) or in a boring way, and they chose boring. Total bummer given how good prior seasons were!
Episode 7 is the big turn / out of time episode like in previous seasons. It's already starting out really fun.
(young poppy is PERFECT)
Will watch!
PRO
Similar to the Holy Roller play, the NFL changes the rules after something the Raiders do.
NFL shuts down rulebook loophole Raiders had been exploiting for past two weeks, per report
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-shuts-down-rulebook-loophole-raiders-had-been-exploiting-for-past-two-weeks-per-report/
For the past two weeks, the Raiders have been taking advantage of what appeared to be a loophole in the NFL rulebook, but they won't be able to do that anymore because the league has officially shut things down.
Back in Week 13, the Raiders started using a holder for their kickoffs, which was kind of odd, because teams will usually only use a holder when the ball won't stay on the tee due to bad weather. The Raiders past two games were both played indoors, so bad weather definitely wasn't an issue.
Steeler WR wants Mason Rudolph to start if Pickett can't lead the charge
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35258640/steelers-wr-diontae-johnson-supports-mason-rudolph-start
Tyreek Hill - who had 159 targets in 2021 - left the Chiefs because he wasn't getting enough targets.
https://twitter.com/ClubShayShay/status/1602400397770969089
To put that into perspective, that's that's 7th most in the league and 11 away from being 2nd.
[ESPN] Carlos Rodon to Yanks 6-years $162m
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/35260565/carlos-rodon-joining-yankees-6-year-162m-deal-sources-say
Along with Judge, the Yanks have guaranteed a lot of money and years to two talented players in their 30’s that have been hurt as often as they’ve been healthy. Rodon especially - he had a helluva season in the prove it year for the Giants, but that was just the 2nd time in 8 years he stayed healthy enough to even approach 30 starts.
This baseball model is untenable.
Two teams can afford to do that: NYY and LAD. I don’t think it will really hurt them that much long term
It won't hurt them at all. They'll still be signing top-of-the-market free agents in another 4, 6, 8 and 10 years...but $500 million outlawed to injury prone guys is still nutty.
That's at least a week of profits from Yankee merchandise and merchandising!
Yup. Those two are the only teams that can afford these deals going south.
It’s wild how much of a 180 the FA market is this year compared to last year. Whoever negotiated that one year opt out for Correa is a fucking genius
49ers clinch NFC West via 21-13 victory over the Seahawks. The game wasn't even as close as the score as the Niner defense stuffed the run, pushed the Seahawks into passing situations, and then unleashed their fearsome pass rushers to harass Geno Smith. Purdy is a good-enough game manager with skills beyond Mr. Irrelevant, but let's not pretend that he'd be a world beater on another team. It also helps that Shanahan doesn't call plays like Bill Musgrave.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35261232/brock-purdy-49ers-breeze-seahawks-clinch-nfc-west
"Kyle Shanahan is a bad coach" takes not doing so well lately.
That take only applies to him in the Super Bowl.
Horrible Bullshit roughing the passer call; should have been an interception run back to the 1 yard line.
Mitchell Schwartz disagrees with you
https://twitter.com/MitchSchwartz71/status/1603605681654964225?s=20&t=rgecjMKeJhshIJQxC2MfRg
Refs need to be better about interpreting this. Bosa started hitting the QB while the ball was still in his hand, and just completed the tackle after the throw was made. How is he supposed to avoid landing on him?
Bad rule, but unfortunately probably not a bad call. They've been pretty consistent that the DL can't fall on the QB with all his weight, tho not sure what else Bosa could have done to avoid it...bad rule.
It was ridiculous. At least it proves that atrocious officiating is not confined to the Pac-12.
Joey Bosa said it was the right call.
Kneeled multiple times after reaching the 1 yard line. It was a 15 point win in actuallity.
Purdy is better than most realized, but it also helps to have a really good offense around him, and at least one of the best defenses in football, so you don't need to put up 45 to be confident of being able to win.
First time in a decade the 49ers have beat the Hawks 2 in a row.
It was a good evening to be a 9er, even at the expense of several of my cousins who are "12s".
While he’s probably not a world beater on another team, he could very well be the Niners franchise QB. Wild.
The Niners are likely punting that ball back to Seattle with just over 2 minutes left with Garoppolo under center, as that scramble and ball extension on the slide basically sealed the game…heady player.
but but but Trey Lance! I still insist that was a horrific trade. Results so far back me up
I agree that the Trey Lance trade was a terrible trade. I don’t think Lance will be very good and that was before the injury.
Niners might have beat the Bears this season with Purdy starting.
I’ll bet you both a nice steak dinner that Trey Lance turns out to be a fine NFL QB.
Steph Curry will be out "a few weeks" with a shoulder subluxation
i saw this happen. it didnt look so bad, but you could tell he was in pain right away.
before that he had 35-ish points or so and was single-handedly keeping the W's in the game.
was single-handedly keeping the W's in the season
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
I don't know what's sadder, that there is a company that makes bulletproof backpacks for American kids
https://tuffypacks.com/
Or that they're rated IIIA, which only stops handguns but not assault rifle ammo.
Trump's big announcement? Super timely NFTs! Of himself! For $99!
(There's a lot of screenshots of Trump fans 1. being furious they were waiting all this time for THIS and 2. People buying them and not understanding how to access them.)
www.collectrumpcards.com
So, allegedly all 45,000 NFTs sold out in 12 hours. Look at the so-called sweepstake "prizes". They are all opportunities for you to pay your own travel and pay Trump for accommodations at Mar-a-Lago... and then you get some paltry face-time with him, some of which is already happening. And the proceeds go to Trump, not his election PAC. $4.5 million.
There's zero chance those dinners or golf are happening. In previous Trump giveaways, they've all not happened. I'm 99.9% sure they aren't following legal sweepstakes rules (there needs to be a way to enter without buying something otherwise you're running a lottery) and in the terms and conditions, the Trump Org says the back-up prize is . . . ANOTHER NFT.
So-called Freedom Caucus is leveraging their power to try to shake down the GOP to give them more power via Committees by delaying speakership power consolidation
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/15/mccarthys-ongoing-speaker-battle-paralyzes-house-00074148
Uncle Rudy in trouble again:
D.C. bar panel finds Giuliani violated attorney rules in bid to overturn 2020 election
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/15/d-c-bar-giuliani-attorney-overturn-2020-election-00074117
Elsewhere in college
Friday, I'm in Love!
It's the Cure Bowl featuring UTSA (11-2) vs. Troy (11-2).
Troy is having a Cheez-Its Bowl moment. First half 59 yards. They have scored 1 TD on an 80 yard drive that has netted 23 yards on 8 plays. The rest came from penalties and this fumbleception:
https://twitter.com/SickosCommittee/status/1603866777737433088
OH LORD, IT'S GETTING MORE CHEEZ-ITSY. negative yards. More turnovers.
Going into Q4, Troy has 89 yards offense if you don't subtract 22 yards in penalties. 2 turnovers and one failed fourth down. And they're leading.
They finally broke the mark of having more offensive yards than interception yards, but it took them to their 12 possession to achieve that.
The 7 combined turnovers and 2 failed fourth down conversions is spicy.
Bahamas Bowl featuring two 6-6 teams: Miami (OH) vs. UAB
Cal vs UCLA twitter is unhinged. And all these super angry UCLA twitter people - I guess Bruins Nation posters - is so so weird. I have lots of UCLA friends in life and none of them are like this.
get a load of Mr "I have friends in the real world" over here
well i don't friends with UCLA twitter for sure.
Online UCLA fans are surprisingly awful. It doesn't fit the real-life atmosphere of the place at all.
Wife is a UCLA alum and she were watching the Harry and Meghan Netflix reality show when she said the Megxit headline was really clever. She really chuckled when I told her about Calimony.
College football coaching carousel: Tracker, analysis, grades on coach changes, 2022-23 hires
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-coaching-carousel-tracker-analysis
They didn't much like the Troy Taylor hire- though they didn't mention his stint as OC for Pac12/UT. Pretty sure we all have more faith in TT.
Honestly, I do not. He has no HC experience at the FBS level, neither G5 or P5. And stanfurd has no NIL, and while their players can use the portal to transfer out, they are severely limited with transfers in as all students have to go through the same application process. They already have 16 players in the portal including most of their starting OL.
There are rumors that there might be some modernization and common sense applied to the admissions process, which is needed there generally. But without getting NIL organized (its not like Stanford alums, friends, neighbors, business associates, etc. can't afford it!), nothing else is going to help much.
Maybe SBF and Elizabeth Holmes can get together and fund the Stanford NIL initiative. I’m sure all the players will get their money and what is promised to them.
They could easily get an NIL collective off the ground and have it well funded within seconds but there’s no way they change admission standards for transfer football players. That’s been their whole recruiting selling point, the prestige of being admitted.
They could have the best NIL in the country quite easily. But the apathy level of students, nearer term alums and folks on the Peninsula is on par with, or greater than Berkeley. Either the latest discovery, new startup, or folks getting funded and thinking about their options are the main things going on. The gridiron is a tertiary thought.
Yeah I have to admit a lot of the reason I liked him was bc he was a Cal great. Had he gone to Chico State I don’t think this message board would have been clamoring for him so much
Exactly this. Take away the Cal connections and are we losing sleep over this hire? Probably not.
That’s how Cal fans felt when Stanford hired a guy from USD to be the coach…
Nope.
But take away the Cal connection, and Stanford is still hiring a dynamic offensive mind with P12 play calling experience that just led his team to an undefeated FCS season. That makes them at least more exciting than they were under Shaw...your points about the portal and NIL though are dead on...I fear Taylor struggles on the Farm.
Updated link: https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-coaching-carousel-tracker-analysis-grades-on-coach-changes-2022-23-hires/
Drew Brees steps in as QB Coach for Purdue for the Citrus Bowl (sponsored by some cracker company) since coach Jeff Brohm left. Brees says he has no interest in coaching full time.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/35258601/drew-brees-serve-purdue-assistant-citrus-bowl
Can Tony Gonzalez coach our tight ends?
Not a bad guy to have in your alumni base to have fill in!
Yeah - he's gotta keep up with his MLM activities.
[VB] #1 Texas will face #4 Louisville in the national championship.
CAL
Go Bears!!!
[WBB] UC San Diego @ Cal 7 pm Pacific. Game will be available here:
https://pac-12.com/live/university-california
Might drive up for this one.
[MBB] Cal plays at Santa Clara on Sunday @ 2pm Pacific.
I only watch now to try and find the exact right time to tweet @ADCalbears “What are we even doing here, Jim.” Then I shut it off. Just watching Mark Fox’s idiotic scowl on the sidelines pisses me off…he’s got as punchable a face as Drew Peterson.
I feel this way about watching the Cubs when they are tanking. It just makes me angry, so why watch?
Probably will record it. Hard to watch these days though.
I just Boxscore Billy the games now and read the recaps.
Why waste dvr space?