Rednilla

So popcorn makes PBR acceptable early in the morning, then?

Bit early in the day for PBR, ain't it Golf?

I'm not entirely sure that the idea might not be for Tre to redshirt as a freshman in football while focusing on basketball his first year, then maybe picking up with the football team after he's been on campus for a year and seeing if he can't contribute. I mean, he's not the traditional redshirt because he won't be working out with the football team, but he'll still have the extra year of eligibility, so it works out the same way. I don't know that he was ever going to redshirt in basketball. I can't really think of a good reason for him to do so that isn't for the good of the team rather than the good of the player.

Honestly, "pro-style" is largely a misnomer these days, because the pros do what works, and that is constantly evolving as pieces get moved around the boards of play...but yes, both coaches mentioned have what would be considered a pro-style offense. They aren't particularly similar in their overall philosophies, but both are advanced enough that I would say they border upon professional complexity. I definitely think it's a good thing to learn from others in your profession, too. I always think about the movie We Are Marshall, how they decide to run the Veer and go to Bobby Bowden at their biggest rival's school to learn it, then they're watching the film to learn from it. "Well that's not stupid." I don't know why that line always stood out to me so much, but it's a great way of pointing out something to learn from.

Yeah, I don't know much about Karen, but I *do* know a little about Brett Favre, and he's just a country boy like any other I grew up with in my hometown of Slapout...except, you know, for that cannon on his right shoulder. I always liked him. My dad didn't like him too much because he beat Auburn while at Southern Miss, but he did respect him a great deal.

Karen Rogers...that's pretty good! I still don't like calling him A-Rod, however, even though I understand it with his name and all. I don't know about him being a diva, but that's just because I don't know, not because I'm disputing the claim. Wouldn't surprise me in the least...but I'd still rather not be reminded of the OG A-Rod.

...You *expected* a first year staff to come in and...OH!! I get it! You thought every coaching change was supposed to happen like it did with Gus, and now you're busy highlighting how much worse off we are than with the changeover to Gus. Right then.

Well, he's not been a QB coach, so he doesn't normally go out recruiting QBs, but he's done a pretty good job of putting receivers into the NFL. He recruited and coached Desean Jackson and Chase Lymon at Cal, and then at Boise he brought in Cedrick Wilson and Khalil Shakir. Had a few receivers he recruited to Colorado get drafted, too. Of course, none of this gives him a track record with QBs, so it's not exactly what you're looking for, but it at least gives some indication that he knows talent.

No, my source has requested anonymity, though I did tell @RunInRed about the contact way back last year when it was initially made, but he's part of the football staff. You can ask @bigbird if he's gotten around to calling the number I was asked to pass along recently, since BB has connections in Texas high school coaching. That would back up the claim that it came from the staff, I suppose. Of course, if I'm being objective, the fact that it came from the staff is not the same as a citation that you can take with you elsewhere to show that it did happen...and, quite frankly, I wasn't there, and this is just a story I was told a day or two ago, so I can't really vouch for it being more than propaganda put out by a coaching staff that wants the fan base to respect them. So take it as you will. Maybe Kiesau really does have an eye for QB talent. Or maybe AR was having the kind of day that any idiot would say, "Hey, he looks good, too!" Supposedly Kiesau was the main recruiter for the entire recruitment, so you might be able to look that up on one of the recruiting sites, I guess, but I don't know if they kept up with such things that far back.

You know, this is why I was slow to bring up the Rodgers connection. My contact brought it up that Kiesau had coached Rodgers (much as I understand why he's called it, I can't see A-Rod and not think of Alex Rodriguez), so I googled it and saw he'd been the WR coach, and then I went back and told him that's not enough, that there has to be some kind of legitimate connection to him. He came back with that story, which I can't imagine being untrue under the circumstances. The fact that he's the one who discovered him gives at least some indication that he's got an eye for talent. I was pretty explicit about insisting that this isn't suggesting that ZC is on the same level as Rodgers, only that there's a connection there, and that maybe he has something like that kind of potential. But seriously, what are we supposed to do all summer? Sit around and be morose about how the primary athletics program at Auburn is down? I'm sharing things that I think might cheer people up some, get some positive energy going into the season. It's not a matter of Kiesau having been the one to develop Rodgers, because that's pretty obviously not what happened. He does, however, have the legitimate claim of discovering a future HOFer when no one else was on him, so maybe he knows what to look for in a signal caller? The staff is who made the comparison between ZC and AR with regard to arm strength (which is obviously not *all* of Rodgers' game, but a critical element in it nevertheless), not me, and that was before it was explained to me why at least one member of the staff might have an idea about whether or not they compare favorably. So again, I'm not saying get ready for the second coming of Aaron Rodgers, I'm just saying that there might be a little magic in Calzada's arm, after all.

I always thought it was something about running as smooth as a Cadillac...

I was very diligent to make sure people understood I was NOT suggesting he's going to be Aaron Rodgers. If you noticed, I responded to the comment about we should be happy if he's half the quarterback Rodgers has been by saying I would take that and run. The point is not that he's definitely going to be great, it's that he has legitimate potential. Anyone who knows their physics will tell you that potential is nothing but unused energy, but the potential has to be there in order to get where we want to be.

Actually, I said Carver, but I think he actually plays for Catholic and I just got mixed up. But yeah, I've heard good things about him coming our direction, but I didn't remember his name. I haven't watched film or anything on him...not that I do much of that kind of thing, anyway. LOL

Yeah, I'd take that and run.

I know Glenn is making his decision before the final Elite 11 camp. Is Cobb the kid from Montgomery Carver, or am I thinking of someone else?

So, I have to share a little tidbit I literally just found out: Kiesau is the coach who found Aaron Rodgers for Cal two decades ago. He went up to Butte Community College scouting a stud TE, decided he was more interested in the gunslinger (who, according to the JC coach, didn't have any offers at the time) and continued as his main recruiter through the entire process. And he's the one who decided to primarily pursue Calzada in the portal. That's not to say ZC is anywhere near the legend that is Aaron Rodgers. It's just an interesting side note. *EDIT* Reading back over this, I was a little unclear; Calzada's obviously got a long, long way to go before he'd ever be mentioned in the same breath as Rodgers, but my source on the staff said they compared him to Rodgers or Brett Favre (didn't ask if anyone had a connection to him or if they were just throwing in another gunslinger type) in arm strength. So it's not like I'm really trying to downplay Calzada's skill set, it's just that I don't want to put the bar quite so high for him.

About a week ago, several military men--a Seal, two Rangers, a Green Beret, and one from Israeli Special Forces--came in and put the players through what was referred to as a two day "grinder crash course in leadership and completing the mission." They apparently did a video that's being edited right now, slated to come out in a couple of days. Wonder how it'll look. It's supposedly in "post-production" right now, which I guess means maybe it's already done being edited and they're just waiting a bit. I'm not in video production, I don't know what kind of steps might be involved when...

Compared to a fair number of NFL quarterbacks, ZC has elite arm talent. I'm not suggesting he's John Elway reincarnated or anything, but there is absolutely no throw in the college game that he cannot make.. if he gets his footwork down. Throwing the football properly takes your entire body, not just your arm. And right now, he's put out at least one clip of his workouts this offseason, showing off his arm strength to anyone who knows what they're looking at (I don't, I'm trusting someone else's analysis of his arm). To put some numbers in, I believe I saw where he was throwing the ball 55 miles per hour. The highest velocity recorded at the Combine in the last decade or so is 60 mph. Now, the velocity on his throws in this setting are optimized, when he's doing his best with footwork (or, at least, I would presume it is, because why would you put out training videos of less than your best?), so that's showing us what he has the capability to be. Whether he can maintain proper ball placement when 300 lb behemoths are bearing down on him (with a hopefully-not-too-porous OL as protection) is a different matter...but when it comes to pure arm talent, Calzada has everything he needs and then some.

Actually, the new guys are supposed to be pretty danged good. Now, whether that's pretty danged good compared to what we had, or if it's actually pretty danged good, time will tell, but unless I'm being fed a line, the new receivers are looking stout. Three names were mentioned as standouts in the skeleton drills: Worsham, Brown, and Moore.

Also, if we have 3 new starters this year, that means that 2 returning starters got beaten out, because 4 of last year's starters are back this year, I believe.

I was under the impression Council was the best lineman on the team? I mean, I realize that may not be saying a whole lot, but...

Well, I could see one of last year's true freshmen maybe making that kind of splash in year two just based upon the fact that O-linemen almost always need at least a year in the weight room before they're ready...except the only two linemen we signed were rated pretty low, so probably not all that likely. Eston Harris, Jr. might have a slight shot to play as a true freshman if he deserved his 4 star rating, but I doubt it for the aforementioned reason.

Different offensive systems. Supposedly, Jimbo's system requires the offensive line to be exceptional so they can hold out the rush for a relatively extended period of time in order for the pass routes to run their course so that the QB has an open target who's looking for the ball. The hope is that Harsin's offense, which I don't think we've *really* seen yet, because I'm pretty sure the playcalling was mostly Bobo based upon the familiarity it took on...I think Harsin was pretty involved in the opening scripting of plays, but once they got off script, it was mostly Bobo's call. I'm sure he was calling plays from Harsin's playbook, but Bobo's patterns were painfully obvious. The hope is that Kiesau and Harsin are a little more in tune (and there is every reason to believe they are, considering Kiesau came with Hars from Boise), and that they have more checkdown routes than Jimbo has in order to be able to maybe make something even if the pass pro breaks down

From what I've picked up on here, the AU system is pretty much a better fit for every QB...unless TAMU has an outstanding O-line, in which case it is very QB-friendly. But that's almost entirely from people who may or may not have any idea what they're talking about (I have no clue), so...