The OFFICIAL 2020 College football RANDOM THOUGHTS thread

invincible1914

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Somebody with a subscription give me a quick summary
Summary: As long as Saban is leading marches, coach master plan of concentrating on football and staying out of it ain't hitting. We have a deplorable and obnoxious segment of our alumni and fanbase that coach. Coach O has always get by on playing politics, but that shyt ain't gonna fly with the players who want to protest (Ryan Clark got them gassed up.)

Here'sa 247 article:
Orgeron opens up on LSU's steps towards social justice
BySHEA DIXON Sep 1, 2:46 PM

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The LSU football team cancelled practice on Friday, instead choosing to join together for a walk across campus to meet with LSU Interim President Tom Galligan in hopes of voicing their thoughts on the nation's battle for social justice and how it impacts campus and the student-athletes in Baton Rouge.

The team, led by players like senior safety JaCoby Stevens and senior defensive end Andre Anthony, were able to have conversations with Galligan, LSU Athletics Director Scott Woodward and head coach Ed Orgeron, who met with the team at Galligan's office.

"We want to hear their voice," Galligan told reporters following the meeting.

Stevens, who passed up the chance to enter the NFL Draft so he could return for his senior season, also spoke out after the meeting.

"I'm not saying we don't need law enforcement. What am I saying is that we need to have conversations about social injustice," Stevens said. “We need to have this conversation and admit there is racism out there. I feel like if we have those types of conversations as people — I think we're very intelligent people and a very intelligent nation. I think if we have that conversation and actually admit it, I think we can make a lot of improvements.”


On Tuesday, Orgeron met with the local media and shared even more details surrounding the event, as well as what's transpired in the days since.

"I didn't even know they were doing it," Orgeron said of the team's decision to meet with university officials and forgo the day's scheduled practice. "I wasn't informed on anything. I sent some coaches over there to see if they were going to come to practice. I walked into the 1:30 meeting and there wasn't a lot of people there. I went upstairs and I got a call that the team would like to meet you, and they were in the President's office. That was the next thing I heard. As far as a march through campus, I wasn't informed on all that. I didn't know anything about that. It was a players-only deal. I went with them when they called me, and that was in the President's office, and I'm glad I did.

"It was different. At the end I had a meeting with the players and they voiced their opinion and I voiced mine. That was all handled in-house. I thought it was a good growing experience for both of us, for me as a head coach and for our football team. For me to listen to what is going on with them and why they did it, and being a part of the solution. I thought it ended up being a very productive day."

Four days later, Orgeron said the team has taken even more steps towards understanding the mentality of the student-athlete's on roster ahead of the 2020 season.

"When I say block out the noise, I mean come into work and take care of the task at hand. But I don't mean be oblivious," Orgeron said. "Over the weekend we had a lot of time to think about things that are going on. I talked to the team (Monday). I talked to Pete Carroll, my mentor, on how he is handling things outside the football facility and social injustice and racism. And we talked about it as a team, getting more educated about it and letting our guys voice their opinions and talking about the things that they are going through and how we can be part of the solution.

"I thought it was a great, great day. Tremendous leadership on our football team led by JaCoby Stevens and Andre Anthony and Myles Brennan, those guys are doing a great job of leading our team."

On Tuesday, former LSU defensive back and current ESPN analyst Ryan Clark shared a photo of him speaking to the team's unity council, which includes Stevens, Anthony, quarterback Myles Brennan, right tackle Austin Deculus, safety Todd Harris, and a handful of others.

"Excited to start the conversations," Clark said in a post to his Twitter account. "Always willing to listen, learn, and let live! Much (love) to (JaCoby Stevens) and (Myles Brennan). New locker room, but same Tigers. Keep leading fellas."

Stevens later chimed in on the tweet.

84COMMENTS
"Thank you for giving back," he said. "This is how we can make positive changes for the next generations."
 
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PortCityProphet

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Damn I'm right smack in the middle of all this. Josh Pate is a legit dude and he doesn't sugarcoat shyt. This 9 minute segment was damning.

What do ya'll think?


I think he dling a whole lot of speculation from the POV of somebody's whose job it is to cover Big 10 football.
He talkin all that shyt but not once did he mention all the clusters of outbreaks and practice shutdowns SEC and ACC and Big 12 schools have had since students have been on campus.

Remember if their pockets are dependent on CFB these writers, bloggers, etc are gonna make it seem like aint nothing wrong with playing.

It's all about the money. Nobody has said a peep about any other fall sport playing cause they don't make any money off of em.
 

Trust Me

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BATON ROUGE, La. — As Ed Orgeron attempted to figure out how to navigate some of the trickiest waters he’s seen in years, he called his mentor. He called Pete Carroll.

Times are tense at LSU. Orgeron compared it to the days after the 2017 home loss to Troy. He compared it to the “black clouds all over” that first season. He knows he has a situation to handle, and he needs to do it correctly.

He has star players opting out. He has others transferring. He had a players’ protest on societal issues during scheduled practice time that he wasn’t told about. He had COVID-19 temporarily taking most of LSU’s offensive line out of practice. He scolded a reporter Tuesday for reporting stories with anonymous sources.

A section of the locker room was upset when he went on Fox News and said “I love President Trump.” There’s an ever-growing national discussion on racial justice amid police violence, and there’s a perfect storm building, a challenge for Orgeron as a title-winning head coach. How will he handle it? It’s a test of the traits for which he’s most praised.

This outlet — maybe more than any other — has praised Orgeron for his ability to adapt, for his ability to listen, for his ability to see what he’s doing wrong and make a change for the better. Those traits are how he went from a well-documented failure at Ole Miss to the national coach of the year in 2019 on the way to an undefeated national championship.

And now Orgeron truly needs to listen. He needs to adapt. He admitted that repeatedly to reporters in a Zoom news conference Tuesday. He said it’s been a weekend of thinking and talking and learning.

He called Carroll, a Super Bowl- and national championship-winning coach who took Orgeron under his wing at USC in the 2000s. Carroll also happens to be one of the most open-minded and vocal coaches in football on societal issues. Orgeron asked his mentor about how he’s handling everything going on in the country with social injustice and racism.

Orgeron’s catchphrase is “block out the noise,” preaching a focused program that ignores outside influences. After his call with Carroll, he said:

“When I say ‘block out the noise,’ when we come into work we’re focusing on the task at hand. But it’s not being oblivious to what’s going on out there. Because obviously it’s affecting our players. If it’s affecting our players, I need to be educated on what’s going on, why it’s going on, listen to them, open up some dialogue and find some solutions.”

That’s step one.

Friday was a tricky day for Orgeron. He went into the room for LSU’s 1:30 p.m. team meeting only to find that six players showed up, people familiar with the matter said. The players didn’t tell him about a protest — organized by safety JaCoby Stevens and defensive end Andre Anthony — taking place outside of Tiger Stadium. They skipped the meeting to demand change in the wake of police violence against George Floyd, Jacob Blake and countless others. Once Orgeron knew about it, he asked assistant coaches such as Corey Raymond to go talk to the players and figure out what was going on as they marched to the LSU president’s office.

“I got a call, ‘Coach, the team would like to meet you. They are at the president’s office,’” Orgeron recalled. “That was the next thing I heard.”

He then made his way to president Tom Galligan’s office, and Orgeron and his players spoke for more than an hour about what was going on inside the locker room and in the country. When it was over, Orgeron told reporters he needed to listen, and Stevens and Anthony said they were proud of Orgeron for starting to dive into the discussion.

Still, whether fair or not, criticism of Orgeron grew when other premier coaches such as Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley and Alabama’s Nick Saban led protests with their teams and marched with them.

Politics and football. Many want athletes and coaches to avoid mixing the two, but that’s off the table in 2020. Most people close to Orgeron say he’s generally an apolitical person who doesn’t speak much about right or left. Former LSU linebacker and first-round pick K’Lavon Chaisson, likely the player Orgeron has the closest relationship with and who he described as “like a son to me,” criticized Orgeron after his Trump comments by tweeting: “Coach O is a great man and I know he didn’t mean any harm by this but he is the definition of only know and care about football. He is blind to everything else.”

But Orgeron has also become quite close with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat. He’s appeared at Edwards’ re-election fundraisers. He’s been Edwards’ point man for promoting COVID-19 awareness. Orgeron doesn’t speak on political issues, per se, but he works closely with somebody like Edwards, who wields great power in the state.

None of this needs to be about politics, though. It just needs to be about being empathetic to a roster of primarily Black student-athletes who are in pain right now. Orgeron said of his meeting with the players Friday:

“It was different, obviously, but in the end, I had a meeting with the players. They voiced their opinion. I voiced mine. That was all handled in-house. I thought it was a good growing experience for both of us, for me as a head coach and for our football team. For me to listen to the things going on with them and why they did it and being part of the solution.”

LSU had Ryan Clark, the former LSU safety and current ESPN analyst, speak to the leadership council on Tuesday. Orgeron is entering this week with a different understanding of how he should approach these problems. To date, quite frankly, Orgeron has simply “blocked out the noise.”


But this is where we must give Orgeron the benefit of the doubt, because history says he does listen. He does adapt when things get tough. When he was fired at Ole Miss, he completely changed his coaching style and how he manages a program. When LSU lost to Troy his first year, he changed his approach and became a more enjoyable coach who delegates and focuses on bigger tasks. LSU became national champions.

“People with egos, to me, that’s just a sign you can be very dumb, meaning people with egos don’t want to take any information,” LSU trainer Jack Marucci said in October. “They think they know it all …

“(Orgeron)’s the most innovative, and he’s been head and shoulders above other people, because if it makes sense he will change it. He’s not set in his ways.”

Early indications are he’s making gestures to try to ease tensions and be a part of that solution. Now LSU sits less than a month away from a Sept. 26 season opener against Mississippi State.

And it does it with an entirely new looking roster. The Tigers already had to replace 15 starters from the title team due to the 2020 draft and graduation. Add in Ja’Marr Chase, Tyler Shelvin, Kary Vincent and Neil Farrell opting out, and LSU is without another four key pieces. Add in several other transfers, and only five starters remain from the 2019 season. And it’s not even clear if the opt-outs are over. A few more are still considering it.

“I don’t want anybody else to opt out,” Orgeron said. “I wish (Shelvin) might be the last one, hopefully, but it may not be, but we’re going to deal with it.”

From a football perspective, LSU will be fine in the grand scheme of things. This season just became more challenging, but the departures have hit areas of strength. LSU loses arguably the best receiver in the nation in Chase, but it still has Terrace Marshall Jr. and his 13 touchdowns and a five- or six-deep room of talented receivers. It loses Shelvin and Farrell, two of its best three interior linemen, but it still has starter Glen Logan, rising star Apu Ika and a talented freshman class. It loses Vincent at corner and defensive ends like TK McLendon and Justin Thomas to transfers, but LSU recruits at a high level and should be able to fill in behind them.

LSU’s ceiling certainly just dropped quite a bit. Its chances of winning the SEC, for example, declined dramatically. But I’d still consider the Tigers a favorite in at least seven games. They’re still talented.

“That’s why we gotta recruit,” Orgeron said. “That’s why you’re at LSU. You’ve got some good, young players who can play. I know our guys are gonna step up. It is a lot of turnover, but it’s a great challenge for our staff.”

And he’s right. Ed Orgeron is facing one of the most challenging stretches in his LSU tenure. He’s won a national championship. His leash figures to be plenty long. But if he wants to continue to get the most out of his team, if he wants to continue to build this program and continue recruiting the kind of talent he normally does, he needs to empathize with his roster.

Orgeron needs to once again display what he does best. He needs to listen.
 

DropTopDoc

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Damn I'm right smack in the middle of all this. Josh Pate is a legit dude and he doesn't sugarcoat shyt. This 9 minute segment was damning.

What do ya'll think?


I mean it’s one of those scenarios where if you want to play the support And frame work is there, but what are you doing to cover yourself on the back end, the NCAA set it up where you can chalk this season up to a wash, so there is no rush to have a season, what a lot of these presidents/institutions have to worry about is 5-10 years from now if someone comes back calling for blood, and they are the ones holding the bloody knife. I’m even more worried if trump is pushing because he works from an ulterior motive constantly, so what’s his angle to be so gracious and what will it cost you as a conference and university. If I’m an athlete i look at this two ways, i have an extra year to get better, or i take some wear and tear off my body heal and maybe add another year or two to my career in the nfl
 
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Silkk

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Damn, JT Daniels must've went out there with a fire under his ass



Watch that mofo go out there and suddenly develop his grown man body, Put on 20 lbs of muscle, and light it up :aicmon:
 

invincible1914

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O must have dropped that n bomb :scust:
Naw man, Coach is good. Our white fanbase are some a$$holes who say some of the most foul racist instigatib=ng crap, you'll ever hear. The ad and the coach can try to smooth it over all they want, but these dudes live on social media and the "shut up and dribble" they are getting from their own fanbase aint helping.
 

O.iatlhawksfan

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Naw man, Coach is good. Our white fanbase are some a$$holes who say some of the most foul racist instigatib=ng crap, you'll ever hear. The ad and the coach can try to smooth it over all they want, but these dudes live on social media and the "shut up and dribble" they are getting from their own fanbase aint helping.
Don’t tell em that tho or they’ll start rambling about freedom of speech
 
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