WEBVTT - So Now What? Quirks Out West - Part 2 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:04.680 In Part one, we examined the crazy circumstances that the 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:08.320 PAC twelve overcame in order to play its fall football season. 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:12.120 We are announcing and introducing a regional. 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:15.200 Stay at home order in the state of California, fundamentally 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:19.200 predicated on the need to stop gathering with people outside 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.599 of your household. In fact, playing any version of a 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:24.720 season was a huge accomplishment. 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:29.040 California doesn't have the minimum number of scholarship players available 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.720 for the game because multiple players have to quarantine due 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:34.159 to contact tracing protocol. 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:38.480 Now we look ahead, what did players and coaches learn 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:41.080 from the experience and what can we as fans take 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:45.440 away from it? From the solid verbal This is a 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:50.120 special production, So now. 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:55.760 What Welcome back? 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:59.360 I'm Ty Hildebrandt, joined as always by Dan Rubinstein, our 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:01.360 resident Pack twelve afficionado. 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:01.680 Dan. 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:06.399 Part one, we looked at just a few of the 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.000 odd quirks that the PAC twelve had to deal with 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:14.920 during the twenty twenty college football season. Now we look ahead, 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:18.600 what did we learn? What can the PAC twelve, what 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:23.360 can college football do better in twenty twenty one and beyond? 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:27.039 Our interview subject again Yogi Wroth from the PAC twelve Networks. 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:32.000 A podcaster himself a documentary filmmaker, he found it to 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:36.000 be a rather educational experience. 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:37.319 I learned a ton. 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.400 I probably learned more about players this year than ever 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:43.880 before because you saw their actions, you know, really speak loudly. 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:49.320 You are the resident PAC twelve expert here, Dan Yogi 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:51.160 learned a lot about players. What did you learn? 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:57.520 I remember thinking that the PAC twelve never felt farther away, 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:02.160 further away than the set of the college football conversation. 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:07.240 And you know, USC has you know, long dominated with 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:12.640 Oregon their place in the broader college football conversation. USC, 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:14.360 you know, under Pete Carroll, and then you have you know, 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:16.400 Sark and Lane Kiffin, and you know a lot of 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:18.800 interesting talent at SC, but they can't really put it together. 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:21.720 And Oregon has their own ups and downs. But those 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:25.560 two schools have carved out parts of the college football 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:27.440 conversation that the rest of the conference has struggled to 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:31.080 do consistently. And so with teams playing four or five 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.600 games or whatever, while other conferences are playing more games, 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:37.239 and the PAC twelve has this reputation for having a 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:41.480 commissioner that is bumbling his way through for four or 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.160 five years or however long Larry Scott is there and 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:48.640 just falling further and further behind. It definitely felt that 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:53.240 that became more and more apparent last fall, where the 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:56.960 PAC twelve didn't cancel, but they just decided to delay 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:00.760 as long as possible, and a lot of it is 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:02.240 out of their hands, right, A lot of it is, 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:05.520 you know, the states and the counties making calls about 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:09.400 players gathering and groups of people gathering. But there definitely 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:13.040 was that part of like, you know, Oregon wins the 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.120 first couple games, and nobody's talking about Tyler Shuck, nobody's 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.360 talking about Noah Sewel or any of these guys that 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.480 are you know, popping early on, and it's a shame. 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:23.000 It's a shame to me as an Oregon fan. Shame 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:24.600 to me that, you know, people aren't talking about Jimmy 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.519 Lake and Dylan Morris or you know, Davis Mills is 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:29.280 a couple of good games after he comes back with 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:34.520 the false positive stuff. And I don't have a reason why, 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:36.720 I just know that the Packed weelve was already pretty 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:41.160 far behind, and there was that element of being marooned 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:42.360 on an island even further. 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:47.400 I think what I learned, and I'm sure part of 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.600 this at least was by design. You know, every conference 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.800 claimed to have player safety in mind, and I'm sure 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.480 at the core they all did. They all cared about 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:01.960 player safety, no doubt about it. Maybe it's simply by 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.760 virtue of being last to come back to football, but 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:11.000 there was certainly a layer of authenticity to the PAC 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:15.200 twelve's desire for players' safety that maybe didn't exist elsewhere. 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:19.359 Everyone said it, but the PAC twelve it seemed like 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.839 they were practicing what they were preaching. And that's certainly 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:24.120 not the kind of thing that you're going to be 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.720 able to use looking forward as recruiting tool. Players aren't 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:28.919 going to care about that a year from now. Maybe 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.400 that's a feather in the cap of administrators, who knows, 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:35.440 but at least from afar looking back seeing how this 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:38.400 whole thing played out, the PAC twelve, to some extent, 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:44.160 sacrificed potentially greater prominence as part of the college football 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:51.480 playoff or postseason and opted instead for this whatever we 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.760 saw through the month of November, this odd, quirky season 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:58.279 that didn't really benefit any of its programs on a 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:02.320 national level, but benefited players to the extent that they 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:04.960 at least had games to play. Yeah, they had games 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.920 to play, and I'll echo myself if that's allowed. It's 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:10.880 just that a lot of this was out of their hands. 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.000 A lot of this is not just you know, Stanford deciding, yeah, 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:16.880 we don't want to play until November, or Arizona State 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:19.760 or UCLA saying we want to hold off until November. 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.320 That's what all you know, four hundred people involved in 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:25.280 this decision, are involved in the program, feel that it 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.240 is just out of their hands, and you know, state 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.080 by state, it's just we just have different situations. 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:33.960 And so it ended up to me hurting the PAC 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.440 twelve on a national level. I'm certainly glad the PAC 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:41.599 twelve played, and it's not necessarily the playoff thing. To me, 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:45.840 it's we didn't get to see and we didn't get 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:47.479 to see this across college footble as a whole because 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:49.560 we didn't have, you know, a non conference light like 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:50.400 we're used to having. 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:50.720 We're not. 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.359 We don't didn't have a crowd, a full crowd in 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:56.080 every game like we're used to having. But it's there 0:05:56.160 --> 0:06:01.280 is that element of narrative and storyline, like what does 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:05.560 the college football nation at large think of you know, 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:10.520 Jaden Daniels, or think of ZTF at Washington, Like there 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.360 are certain sides of the ball, or certain players, or 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:15.880 certain systems or certain coaches or certain narratives that are 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.040 allowed to take hold. And even like Colorado's this unexpected 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:22.200 success story near one of Carl Derel. But like, no, 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.320 I mean, if I put you on the spot, could 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:27.280 you name Colorado's Like I know you could probably name 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:30.440 their leading rusher, but like their quarterback was a converted safety, 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.240 and like there was just there was no time for 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:38.400 people to familiarize themselves with PAC twelve storylines with such 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:43.200 a shortened, delayed season, it just started right right, it 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:47.280 just began. It almost ended as quickly as it began. 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:51.640 And that's what I mean. It's an attention economy that 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:55.039 everybody is fighting for attention. We know who's going to 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.160 end up in the postseason by and large, right it's 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.440 going to be whoever wins the SEC going to be 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.400 probably Ohio State out of the Big Ten. Oklahoma stands 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.279 a good chance most seasons. Clemson certainly has a flag 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:10.640 plant that people aren't removing it seems anytime soon. But 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.600 there's always that element of Oh, we're falling in love 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:16.720 with Wazoo's Run and Shooter. We're falling in love like 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:18.840 Chip Kelly's UCLA has taken a nice step forward. I'm 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.520 going to pay more attention to them. The PAC twelve 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.040 just didn't have a seat at that table that's sort 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:28.240 of attention table, and that's what I think is damaged that. 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:29.720 And this is, you know, we have a new commissioner 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:32.960 to pay attention to in the PAC twelve, and you know, 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.520 maybe that's a nice new step forward and there will 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.120 be some sort of innovative thinking in terms of broadcasting 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:42.840 and marketing whatever. But yeah, the twenty twenty season, and 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.200 the subtext of all of this is the PAC twelve 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:51.160 losing attention is not equally important to COVID nineteen, Like 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:55.080 this is all far below the most important thing that 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.840 happening in America. But this is the sort of lasting 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.040 element of the PAC twelve making the decisions that they 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:06.080 did nationally, is that there's just a vacuum in terms 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:10.400 of notoriety, in terms of storyline and terms of awareness 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:11.120 with the conference. 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:16.080 We asked Yogi, what specifically did you learn about players? 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:16.600 Right? 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:18.960 Every player I talked to to a man in the 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.280 fall prior to November seventh, and or now in the 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:25.120 spring value the game at a greater level. 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:26.560 They value us sprint. 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:28.240 I remember talking to her Edwards and he talked about 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.720 his Hey, my players love just running sprints now because 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:34.160 we get to do something. We get to be together, 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:36.079 we get to be around each other. They love waking 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.360 up at six am for a workout or a team workout. 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.520 So I think there was that, like a real appreciation 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:46.160 for the craft. I think you learned that you were 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.520 maybe done with college right. Stanford had one of their 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:52.120 starting safeties just retire. He just got a great job, 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:53.640 and he's like, I'm good. I know I can get 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:55.920 a bonus year, maybe start again, but I've been here 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.640 for five years. Keep it moving. I think you learned 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:02.640 a lot of principles that you'll apply when you're our age, 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:06.440 right when you're family men. I think all of these 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:10.960 young men will learn how much they love the game, 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:14.319 how much they love their teammates, and how college football 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:19.280 fed their soul or didn't. To be really honest with you, 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:21.240 you know, were they just playing because they loved the crowd, 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.079 or they just planned because they had a scholarship, or 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:26.000 man did they really did it? Did it matter if 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:29.240 there was one fan in the stands or sixty five thou. 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.760 I think that's something that every player, when reflected upon 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:36.040 in their own journey, they'll say, Yeah, I learned that. 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:37.520 I learned how much I loved it. 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:40.959 And I also learned how somebody and how some teams unite, 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:44.320 and how a leader all of the head coach leads 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:47.280 imide dramatic chaos and adversity. 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:51.760 And what's really interesting to me, Dan is we came 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:55.520 up with the idea to do this type of look back, 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:57.680 I want to say, at the end of last year 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:01.240 and the thought process for so now what was always 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.560 we're going to take a look in general, look back 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:08.000 at what happened around a certain topic, and then we're 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:09.520 going to take a look forward in part too, try 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:11.480 to figure out what we learned. That's what we're doing now. 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:15.079 What did we learn And at the time, to me, 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.880 I was expecting that there will be more big picture 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.360 things that we learned, a lot that we could take 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.360 away from this, a lot that we could learn from 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.360 and grow from. In Part one, we didn't really find that. 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:31.079 With conference decision making, the takeaway was we didn't learn anything. 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:35.600 We didn't formulate a playbook. We learned a lot about 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:38.360 the powers that be and the people who make decisions 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:42.000 and how they make them, but ultimately it doesn't seem 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.360 like there's a whole lot that we can glean from 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:46.720 this that's going to make things better. I think we 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:50.000 learned more from the player and coach level than we did, 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:52.719 certainly at the conference level. But what strikes me is 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:58.160 that players and coaches mirrored to large extent what went 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.200 on around the rest of society, and that is maybe 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:04.760 there weren't any great takeaways that applied to everybody in 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.040 the conference or on the team. It was on a 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:11.720 very individual level that I think is going to resonate 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:12.960 with a lot of people listening to this. 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:16.120 Frankly, you know what I took away from talking to 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:18.240 Yogi something I thought about a little bit but not 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:22.400 a good amount, is I went in thinking, Okay, he's 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:24.560 going to talk about how players had a really tough 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:28.400 time just being on campus but not being in classrooms 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:33.560 in the facility. The fact is college football players, more 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.720 than a lot of people. Now, it's not a blanket 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.680 a lot of people, but a lot of people were 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:43.400 able to have human contact with even if it's just 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:45.560 a position group, even if it's just you know, Friday 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:48.600 walk through Saturday games, a lot of people are working 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:51.320 from home, you know, maybe seeing each other if they're 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:55.000 more conservative in terms of their COVID precautions. You know, 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:57.160 you see somebody on a driveway or a backyard or 0:11:57.200 --> 0:11:59.360 something like that, but you're not eating at restaurants. That 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.880 I think college football players and college coaches were afforded 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:10.160 an obviously successful human thing, of human contact for prolonged 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:13.720 periods of time, and treasured those times that a lot 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:15.920 of people, depending on what you do for a living, 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:18.800 if you're working an office job, you were probably working 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:20.880 from home and not seeing your coworkers and maybe not 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:23.840 seeing extended family members if they were across the country 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:26.840 for a good amount of time. That college football players 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:30.520 were still leading even if it was just amongst themselves 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:32.840 and not on campus or at you know, bars and 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:35.920 restaurants around a college town. They're still seeing each other, 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:41.079 and they grew to appreciate those moments in the way 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:43.120 that I think a lot of us have as things 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.120 have opened up and we see more friends and family 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:47.640 members and things like that. That they were some of 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:51.679 the first people to be able to appreciate human contact 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:54.920 and having a social life and having you know, camaraderie 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.880 with friends or in this case you know, fellow players 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:01.280 or coaches or whatever staff members. I thought that was 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:03.600 really telling that they were one of those groups of 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:07.320 people who were able to just hang out with a 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:09.360 few other people at a time. That was telling. 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.520 A lot of the stuff is very relatable. Yeah, unrelatable 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:15.840 to all of us who have had to go through 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:17.360 this over the last year. 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.679 If you talked to Stanford players, not surprisingly, right, they 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:22.560 told David Shaw when he said, hey, how would you 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:24.840 describe the year? They were ones that didn't go to 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.319 a bowl game, They were off of their campus, They 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:30.960 practiced in a park in Bellevue. They won four straight games, 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:33.400 and they probably got hit hardest by COVID in terms 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:35.720 of on the field, in terms of their potential for 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.439 the season, because they were false positives before the Oregon 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.360 game with their starting quarterback, so it impacted their season. 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.640 And they said the word gratitude, right, They were so 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.600 grateful that people did whatever they could to get them 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:49.160 to play. 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:52.200 Just to be out there, Dan, just to be out there, Yeah, 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:54.679 to get out there to play the game. That they 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:58.200 love was a big deal to these kids. And you know, 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:02.719 despite the fact that it was an oddly shapen PAC 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.400 twelve season, a college football season really wasn't just the 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:10.120 Pac twelve. I think, despite our ambivalence, despite some of 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:14.040 the guilt that I know I referenced in our first episode, 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:16.800 it was good to have those games. It was meaningful 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:19.320 to us too. We share that gratitude to get those 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:21.520 kids out there, just to give us something to watch, 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:24.400 to distract from, you know, at the time, which was 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:28.320 not a great time in the country. 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:30.520 And most certainly wasn't. And it's one of those things 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:35.040 where we are hoping that normal also means watching games 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:37.280 at home with friends and family, are going to games 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:41.680 themselves more often, or in bigger stadiums or more packed stadiums. 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:45.560 That's it's one of those things that is always going 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:48.360 to be more meaningful than the football itself, is the 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:52.920 football experience. And that's long been the case with college football. 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:58.440 And I'm positive people are you know, chomping, champing at 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:00.920 the bit to get back to that experience. 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:02.840 Yo. 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.080 You mentioned David Shaw in that last clip. He told 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:08.160 a really good story about David Shaw and just how 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:11.440 coaches approached this whole thing what they learned. 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:13.880 You know, David Shaw told me a great story and 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:17.080 he said he read this book called Radical Acceptance that 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:19.040 I immediately of course picked up because anything he says, 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:20.960 I kind of just do it. And it's all about 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.440 just like accepting what's in front of you and not 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:27.080 fighting it. But Davids Mills is out. Okay, that was 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:29.600 five hours before the game. Jack West, you're going to start, 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:31.880 Tanner McKee, you just came off a mission in Brazil 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:32.840 the last couple of years. 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:33.880 You might play. 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:37.960 Oh and our top receiver can't go either, Okay, John Huffreys, 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:39.760 you're a true freshman. You might have to play like 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:41.440 or we're going to play a bunch of two three 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:44.840 tight end personnels. Like I just think that that leader, 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:47.000 that coach who didn't fight it. 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:49.280 I think those were brilliant examples. 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.680 Playing the cards you're dealt, Dan, playing it as it 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.920 lies was about all you could do as a coach. 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:58.760 That was the most preparation you could really afford yourself 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.720 because things changed. As we said in our last episode, 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.080 was a very fluid situation, right, Everything was changing at 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:06.280 a moment's notice. 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.760 And of course not exclusive to the PAC twelve. Every 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:14.040 team in every conference who played was dealing with the 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:16.760 exact same issues, and the coaches and the players were 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:19.720 able to adjust to whatever degree of success, you know, 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.080 without three or four offensive linemen, without starting receivers, without 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:26.960 whatever the situation. It was just a reality of the 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:30.720 twenty twenty season. And the PAC twelve did what it 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:33.720 thought was the right thing, and with the availability of 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:36.600 the rapid testing and then okay, we're gonna have a 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:39.200 PCR test once at least once a week. And then 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.120 the PCR test, did somebody test positive with the I 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.520 think it was called point of care testing. They did 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:48.640 what they absolutely thought they should do, and it didn't 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:51.960 always work, But I mean that the moral of everything 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:55.760 was it was a season more than ever, of everybody 0:16:55.840 --> 0:17:00.640 just needing to roll with unexpected circumstances, rolling. 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:05.000 With unexpected circumstances, rolling with the rules that the conference, 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:06.960 in this case the PAC twelve, had put in place. 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:10.479 As Yogi said in Part one, coaches were awesome about it. 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.800 But nobody pretended to be a doctor. Nobody pretended to 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:16.040 have an opinion on what you should or shouldn't do. 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.200 Nobody pretended to call out a school on a false 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:23.280 positive or a positive or a late positive. Like nobody 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:26.040 was riding like that. Like everybody had great respect for 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.520 what they were going through. But man, they're not trying 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:33.600 to go through it again, you know, I obviously, and 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:35.720 I think they probably learned a lot about like the 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:40.880 consistent nature of what successful coaches do, which is they're 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:42.240 uncommonly consistent. 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:46.240 One thing I know that is of particular interest to 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:50.000 you and I, especially with regard to coaches moving forward, 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.399 is this whole issue of roster management. Now, keep in 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:55.840 mind that there are a lot of guys who qualified 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:58.800 for a bonus here be a six year senior. In 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:04.040 some cases, freshmen coming into programs may have a little 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.280 bit more of a log jam than they once expected. 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:11.360 In many cases, kids couldn't visit the schools that they 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:13.720 committed to, so there are a lot of zoom calls 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:15.880 zoom recruiting became a thing. We talked to our friend 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:19.200 branded Hoffman about that time, and again there's a lot 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:25.680 of concern that this could have some longer lasting repercussions. 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.320 Like we asked Yogi, is transferring going to be more 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:30.040 of a problem. 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:32.639 I don't think it'll happen immediately. I think in a 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.000 year or two we'll see it. I think the super seniors, 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:37.880 it's kind of like the general term we're all giving 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.080 everybody who has a sixth year or a fifth year 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.400 or took that bonus year of eligibility. You know they're 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:44.760 going to come, they're gonna play, They're gon do the 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:49.239 thing that the challenge will be freshmen this year and 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:51.400 freshmen next year. To me, and that's why I think 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:56.040 you're seeing teams signed small classes, right. Jonathan Smith often 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.560 says they want to do common things in uncommon ways. 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:00.000 Roster management is one of them. 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.240 I think they signed eleven last year, maybe less than that, 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:05.399 but they know they're going to work the portal, and 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.520 they wanted to split up some of the bottom portion 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:11.879 of their roster when it comes to age and experience 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:14.480 and academic grades. And I think that's a smart move. 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:18.040 You know, getting some veterans, excuse me, getting some transfers 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:20.520 like Arizona to State's doing a great job to me, 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:22.119 as good of a job as anybody in the country 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:25.119 with roster management and making sure that there isn't a 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:29.000 dramatic logjam. Like I'm so curious because I think Oregon 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:31.680 is the most talented roster top to bottom out here 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:33.480 in terms of sheer talent. If you went in a 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:35.960 field and paths or shorts and a T shirt, you'd. 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:37.600 Be like, WHOA, these guys are loaded. 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:40.000 Now the management of that is going to be really 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:43.000 interesting because of the last two classes, two best classes 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:45.720 in the history of Oregon football ever, right, So what 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.159 does that do for upperclassmen? Do they bolt? Or do 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:50.160 some of the young guys say, Man, I don't really 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:51.840 want to sit anymore. So I think it's a wait 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:54.120 and see for me. And probably the thing I'm most 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:57.640 excited about this coming year and coming years is watching 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:00.720 these head coaches manage their roster almost like they're an 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.880 NFL team and free agency, because we all know that's 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:05.560 basically what the portal even is. 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:08.040 So Organ's got a challenge in front of it, Dan 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:08.479 doesn't it. 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:12.239 So I was looking while Yogi was talking about that 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:15.800 when we spoke to him. Oregon had two seniors started 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:19.320 wide receiver last year, Johnny Johnson and Jalen red They 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:23.120 both decided to come back. So Oregon, who has been 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.480 recruiting receivers as if there were going to be normal 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:29.080 cycle after normal cycle, now has like six or seven 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:32.359 starter quality receivers. If you look at some of the 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.560 promising younger players and now the seniors who've decided to 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:38.800 come back, there's you know, three or four I think 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.960 good to really good looking tight ends, which is very strange. 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:45.280 You know, whatever position group. I'm sure Notre Dame has 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:48.359 a specific position group. You're like, well, there are more 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.320 good players here than there normally are. And I don't 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.320 know what that is for Notre Dame, but it's definitely. 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:58.320