Post by nabeav on Oct 5, 2017 15:23:40 GMT -8
Man, it seems like it's been a month since we played Washington. All the angles from that game (good 1st half/bad 2nd half, Hodgins absence, etc.) have already been talked about, and we're so bad, nobody really even seems to want to talk about what's going to happen this weekend (do Nall/Togiai play, do we play 3 WR sets, did the D learn something from the first half of last week they can apply to this weekend, etc). So instead we spend the first half hour talking about Mike's love of the Dodgers/Rams/Lakers as a child and how he lost that love as he got older. Talked about how he might have the chance to go to Game 1 of the NLDS tomorrow night, but doesn't know if he's going to take it. I think he'd be crazy not to. I hate the Dodgers and still think of the Diamondbacks as a made up team (their jerseys look like something from a team in an HBO show), but Kershaw is pitching and it's a freaking professional sporting event. I'd always try to go if I got a chance, no matter how many times I'd been to Chavez Ravine or any other factors.
Rest of the hour is a great interview with Terrance Gray, former Beav (1999-00) and Director of Collegiate Scouting for the Buffalo Bills. Gray is a really well-spoken guy, and a great story. Grew up in New York, dreamt of playing D-1 college football, but didn't have the grades to qualify for a scholarship. Ended up going all the way across the country to Palomar JC, before being recruited up to Corvallis by Erickson. Told an interesting story about how a lot of the JC guys (Grant, Jackson, Houshmandzadeh, etc.) played against each other and took recruiting trips together. They all talked about playing together at the next level, and how much Erickson's arrival and his national championship ring created a buzz amongst recruits. Gray said his first exposure to OSU was seeing the OT game vs. UCLA in 1998 and seeing people rush the field. I'm guessing he meant the Civil War. Anyways, he loved his time in Corvallis, and after exhausting his eligibility, he volunteered with the athletic department serving as a mentor to incoming recruits and helping them adapt to balancing academics and football at a D-1 institution. His volunteer work got him sent to a seminar put on by the NFL, and that led to him getting an internship at the league office. From there, he went to the Chiefs and then the Vikings, spending 11 years as a regional scout before getting his current gig. Good story. Jon and Mike make sure to squeeze in their analytics question and how much that factors into stuff or if you take into account "real world" situations like what his girlfriend is like. They also reference Nall and him having "football speed" that maybe doesn't translate to 40 times or other straight line measurables.
Highlight of the interview is undoubtedly Jon Warren trying to ask a question - "Terrence, what was the difference, if you will, we've talked to other players who have gone...the crossover....but for you, when in the process and talking with the both coaches and getting to know them."
Terrence just says "I'm sorry Mike, can you repeat the question?" Mike Parker just kind of stutters for a while and then quickly changes the subject to talk about the excitement Erickson brought to Oregon State that wasn't there before. It was pretty amazing.
There's a brief conversation about Tom Petty performing in Gill, and how Jon moonlighted as a limo driver and actually his first gig was taking the women's basketball coaches to the Tom Petty concert, which was slightly embarrassing for him as voice of the women's team at the time. But, they invited him to watch the concert with them, so he got a free seat at the show. Good stuff.
They then go back to talking about Terrance Gray and how he was a half credit short for D1 because he took a sports literature course in high school, and how 23 of the 24 juco guys on the Fiesta Bowl team ended up either graduating or going on to the NFL.
Mike then discusses him possibly body surfing when he's SoCal, something he does almost every time he's down there. Apparently last time he was down there though, a lifeguard had to assist him because he got caught in a rip current. He's very clear it was an assist and not a rescue.
They briefly touch on Cam Newton laughing a female reporter asking about running routes and saying "it's funny to hear a female talk about routes," and of course Mike references Mike Leach having never played football. Anything to mention Mike Leach.
They then go on to talk about people piling on to criticism of someone and the echo chamber Twitter can become...how people who haven't even seen the actual interaction between Cam and this reporter are denouncing him unilaterally. (For the record, I did see it, and he did deserve to be denounced. It was a ridiculous thing to laugh about.)
Mike then tells how as a 13 year old, he wrote his own sports magazine for about six issues, and had an editorial on the back page about Jim Bouton being a jerk for criticizing Mickey Mantle in his book Ball Four without having ever read the book himself.
This of course leads Jon to talk about creating his own basketball league, the SBA - street basketball association. It was a 2 on 2 league with jerseys and everything. Jon's team was the Sunset Suns, and the kid he played with was terrible, but the team did alright, presumably because of Jon carrying the Suns. It's actually a fun story - he recorded his mom playing piano music to mimic the organ music that was played in stadiums at the time, and recorded his car horn to be the final buzzer.
I remember doing something similar - buying materials to build a higher fence in my friend's backyard to approximate a whiffleball field and putting distance markers on his fence, having to fill out major league rosters and hit or pitch the same hand as whatever player you had in the game at the time, and having someone else keep accurate stats. We had a standings board and kept season leader stats...it was a great time.
DFT calls in to talk about not much - he once saw the Huskies play Notre Dame and the Mariners play the Yankees in the same day. Neat story.
Then they talk to Steve Lopes, who played for Ad Rutschman at Linfield and has worked in the USC athletic department for 30 years. His son Matt is on the Trojan team right now as a defensive back. They talk about how smart and how kind Rutschman was, how he was on a plane flying into Portland during the Mount St. Helens eruption to visit Linfield, and all the things he's seen at USC during his time there. Talked about how his son walked on under Kiffin, saw him fired, played for Ogeron in the interim, played for Sark, saw him fired, and now Clay Helton. Also talk about how USC sees everyone's best shot because a lot of the kids at other schools weren't offered by USC and they're out to prove they should've been.
Mike makes sure to reference the 2006 and 2008 victories, saying "you've seen first hand that things can be good here in Corvallis." (I like to call those good times "the Riley Years," Mike) Lopes says "these things go in cycles, so you can't get too high or too low, because it's going to switch.
Picard calls in to talk about planes and volcanoes, and also to let Mike know the oceans are warmer than usual in SoCal. "You know what that means..." Jon says, "....sharks." *sigh*. Picard says he saw some kid get treated for a sting ray sting.
More Cam Newton talk. Paul calls in to reference the wind direction during the Mt. Saint Helens eruption, and then to say that Cam's getting a raw deal because he's an athlete being held under a microscope for an innocuous comment. I disagree - he's being railed on because what he said was "women don't understand football." Mike says that he isn't a "bad dude" because he feels that way, but also agrees that he's wrong to think that and he has to live with the consequences - in this case losing a sponsorship deal with Dannon Yogurt.
They close with covering an article Scott Wolf wrote in the LA Daily News: 10 things USC needs to fix vs. Oregon State.
Rest of the hour is a great interview with Terrance Gray, former Beav (1999-00) and Director of Collegiate Scouting for the Buffalo Bills. Gray is a really well-spoken guy, and a great story. Grew up in New York, dreamt of playing D-1 college football, but didn't have the grades to qualify for a scholarship. Ended up going all the way across the country to Palomar JC, before being recruited up to Corvallis by Erickson. Told an interesting story about how a lot of the JC guys (Grant, Jackson, Houshmandzadeh, etc.) played against each other and took recruiting trips together. They all talked about playing together at the next level, and how much Erickson's arrival and his national championship ring created a buzz amongst recruits. Gray said his first exposure to OSU was seeing the OT game vs. UCLA in 1998 and seeing people rush the field. I'm guessing he meant the Civil War. Anyways, he loved his time in Corvallis, and after exhausting his eligibility, he volunteered with the athletic department serving as a mentor to incoming recruits and helping them adapt to balancing academics and football at a D-1 institution. His volunteer work got him sent to a seminar put on by the NFL, and that led to him getting an internship at the league office. From there, he went to the Chiefs and then the Vikings, spending 11 years as a regional scout before getting his current gig. Good story. Jon and Mike make sure to squeeze in their analytics question and how much that factors into stuff or if you take into account "real world" situations like what his girlfriend is like. They also reference Nall and him having "football speed" that maybe doesn't translate to 40 times or other straight line measurables.
Highlight of the interview is undoubtedly Jon Warren trying to ask a question - "Terrence, what was the difference, if you will, we've talked to other players who have gone...the crossover....but for you, when in the process and talking with the both coaches and getting to know them."
Terrence just says "I'm sorry Mike, can you repeat the question?" Mike Parker just kind of stutters for a while and then quickly changes the subject to talk about the excitement Erickson brought to Oregon State that wasn't there before. It was pretty amazing.
There's a brief conversation about Tom Petty performing in Gill, and how Jon moonlighted as a limo driver and actually his first gig was taking the women's basketball coaches to the Tom Petty concert, which was slightly embarrassing for him as voice of the women's team at the time. But, they invited him to watch the concert with them, so he got a free seat at the show. Good stuff.
They then go back to talking about Terrance Gray and how he was a half credit short for D1 because he took a sports literature course in high school, and how 23 of the 24 juco guys on the Fiesta Bowl team ended up either graduating or going on to the NFL.
Mike then discusses him possibly body surfing when he's SoCal, something he does almost every time he's down there. Apparently last time he was down there though, a lifeguard had to assist him because he got caught in a rip current. He's very clear it was an assist and not a rescue.
They briefly touch on Cam Newton laughing a female reporter asking about running routes and saying "it's funny to hear a female talk about routes," and of course Mike references Mike Leach having never played football. Anything to mention Mike Leach.
They then go on to talk about people piling on to criticism of someone and the echo chamber Twitter can become...how people who haven't even seen the actual interaction between Cam and this reporter are denouncing him unilaterally. (For the record, I did see it, and he did deserve to be denounced. It was a ridiculous thing to laugh about.)
Mike then tells how as a 13 year old, he wrote his own sports magazine for about six issues, and had an editorial on the back page about Jim Bouton being a jerk for criticizing Mickey Mantle in his book Ball Four without having ever read the book himself.
This of course leads Jon to talk about creating his own basketball league, the SBA - street basketball association. It was a 2 on 2 league with jerseys and everything. Jon's team was the Sunset Suns, and the kid he played with was terrible, but the team did alright, presumably because of Jon carrying the Suns. It's actually a fun story - he recorded his mom playing piano music to mimic the organ music that was played in stadiums at the time, and recorded his car horn to be the final buzzer.
I remember doing something similar - buying materials to build a higher fence in my friend's backyard to approximate a whiffleball field and putting distance markers on his fence, having to fill out major league rosters and hit or pitch the same hand as whatever player you had in the game at the time, and having someone else keep accurate stats. We had a standings board and kept season leader stats...it was a great time.
DFT calls in to talk about not much - he once saw the Huskies play Notre Dame and the Mariners play the Yankees in the same day. Neat story.
Then they talk to Steve Lopes, who played for Ad Rutschman at Linfield and has worked in the USC athletic department for 30 years. His son Matt is on the Trojan team right now as a defensive back. They talk about how smart and how kind Rutschman was, how he was on a plane flying into Portland during the Mount St. Helens eruption to visit Linfield, and all the things he's seen at USC during his time there. Talked about how his son walked on under Kiffin, saw him fired, played for Ogeron in the interim, played for Sark, saw him fired, and now Clay Helton. Also talk about how USC sees everyone's best shot because a lot of the kids at other schools weren't offered by USC and they're out to prove they should've been.
Mike makes sure to reference the 2006 and 2008 victories, saying "you've seen first hand that things can be good here in Corvallis." (I like to call those good times "the Riley Years," Mike) Lopes says "these things go in cycles, so you can't get too high or too low, because it's going to switch.
Picard calls in to talk about planes and volcanoes, and also to let Mike know the oceans are warmer than usual in SoCal. "You know what that means..." Jon says, "....sharks." *sigh*. Picard says he saw some kid get treated for a sting ray sting.
More Cam Newton talk. Paul calls in to reference the wind direction during the Mt. Saint Helens eruption, and then to say that Cam's getting a raw deal because he's an athlete being held under a microscope for an innocuous comment. I disagree - he's being railed on because what he said was "women don't understand football." Mike says that he isn't a "bad dude" because he feels that way, but also agrees that he's wrong to think that and he has to live with the consequences - in this case losing a sponsorship deal with Dannon Yogurt.
They close with covering an article Scott Wolf wrote in the LA Daily News: 10 things USC needs to fix vs. Oregon State.
