Bring Your Playbook Chuck Bullough, Coach Needs To See You

Although he is not the only one that needs to be served his walking papers(SEE Chow, Norm), he is the larger part of the overall issue. You can't just look at the score of the $C game [28 pts allowed, 2nd lowest point total scored by the "trogans" (SEE Ambles, Markeith for spelling) in a Pac-10 game this season, but allowed 212 yards to Bradford] and say that CB has done a decent job overall.

I will say this, we are young on defense, no one can deny that. Any time you have 3 true freshman starting in your front seven, there are going to be problems. As highly recruited as they are, they are still only 18 years old with 18 year old muscles and an 18 year old understanding of the game. With that being said, you need to coach accordingly.

We all know that it is IMPOSSIBLE to win a game, let alone be competitive if you don't get pressure on the QB (the reason why Mario Williams was drafted ahead of Bu$h, when, at the time, Bu$h was more accomplished). So if you have 3 frosh in your front seven, you need to bring pressure in creative ways (our only effort was to line up Ayers at DE). But we didn't...all season. Too many times, we tried to get pressure with just our front 4, which I will remind you includes 2 freshmen. To add to that, our corners are playing 10-15 yards off the ball (I'm assuming CB knows there will be no pressure and is protecting against getting beat deep). That is a bad combo. With no pressure at the line of scrimmage, and WRs running free in the secondary, the opponent is essentially running against a skeleton defense. It might as well be practice for the opposition. To add insult to injury, we can't tackle!

Why is this a coaching problem? Simple. The scheme just isn't working. Period. 8 losses, 6 coming in the last 7 games, countless blowouts (giving up 31, 35, 35, 60, 29, 24, 55, 28 in 8 losses and 28 in a victory to the doormat of the conference). Don't be delusional and think that $C scoring 28 points had anything to do with CB. It was a rivalry game. That's what happens in rivalry games. That had everything to do with the players reaching down trying to make something happen, in spite of having CB as a coordinator.

Plus, Barkley was a shell of himself hobbling around on one leg and running a fever last night. Not to mention, they had a SR walk-on as their kicker (just earned a scholarship this season because they had no one else) who has only made one FG over 40 yards his whole career (only 4 other kicks over 30 yards). If they had a serviceable kicker at their disposal who could kick field goals and not snatch away their offense's momentum after each failed attempt of a 4th down conversion, it would have been a lot uglier. I give our coaching staff very little credit for Saturday night.

So next year will be better because our team will be more experienced and CB will loosen the reigns a little, right? Wrong! The product that we are seeing on the field is who CB is. It's what he does. It's his MO. Bend but don't break, umbrella-using, keep everything in front of you, we'll let them catch it, but lets hope they don't run too far defense.

Compare his calls with this year's "young" team to last year's veteran-laden team. Siewierski & Price at DT (Sr & Jr respectively), Bosworth & Stokes/Jones at DE (Sr & Jr/So). Akeem Ayers, Reggie Carter, & Kyle Bosworth at Linebacker (So, Sr, Sr.). ATV, Price, Dye, & Moore (Sr, Fr, So, So). Lots of vets, SOS. Send 4 (which actually worked when Price was in the game because he was such a force), 10 yard cushion, and don't get beat deep. You can really only point to one weak link in that entire unit (Fr CB Sheldon Price). Everywhere else, we were either solid or All-American. Sure, the Bosworth bros might have been a little short on talent, but someone tell that to the two NFL teams that they are a part of right now (practice squad or not).

We had the makings of being a dynamic defense last year, and still nothing. Statswise, we were decent. I believe finished near the top of the Pac 10 (only because there weren't many dominant defenses) and in the top 40 in the nation. But we were better than that, way better. So if CB can have ATV playing 10 yards off the ball (he doesn't even do that in the NFL!), and be using a vanilla, protective scheme with those horses in the fold, what makes us think he will change. He won't, and that's why he needs to go. End of story.



Rick, You're next...

Do Real Kings Ever Switch Cities?

WOW! I thought this whole summer free agent frenzy would be pure hype, ultimately ending with most of the major pieces staying where they were. That was not the case. In efforts of saving time, let me first begin by saying, I agree with pretty much everything that Dan Gilbert has been saying, including the bit about self-promotion, crowning himself "King", and him quitting on the team in the playoffs. I will say though that an owner can't come out and make that kind of statement. Your level of class should be above that of trash-talking your former star. Moreover, I find fault with two other pieces that he mentioned. One, this event shouldn't have been able to motivate him more, as he said in his statement. If there was room for more motivation & effort, and he wasn't doing everything in his power to improve the team, then LeBron was well within his right to leave. Two, he is delusional if he thinks he will bring a championship to Cleveland sans LeBron. He couldn't lure anyone there with one of the best and least selfish guys on the court, how are you going to get anyone there without all of this?

Now listen to how he released the news. "This fall I'm going to take my talents to South Beach to play with the Miami Heat." Please understand gentlemen that we are dealing with a big, big, BIG, kid. Being a follower of of College football recruiting, I immediately had thoughts of National signing day in February and kids all across America holding pressers because this is the only thing significant that has positively happened with their families. It was complete with the same corny line of, "I will be taking my talents to...". I'm just surprised he didn't have 3 hats on the table, pretend to pick up the Cavs hat, and then grab the Miami hat (I promise you all that when Mohsin chooses to be the 2nd coming of Maurice Jones Drew and go to UCLA as a 5 star rb recruit, there will be no press conference or hats or whatnot. I digress. The only difference between the two situations is, he is a 25 year old man pulling the same act as 17 year olds! How sad is that?

His next statement that I love: "I gave alot to that organization and taken them places where they have never been before." Where exactly did he take them? What has he accomplished? He has done nothing and he left them with nothing. All that he accomplished were individual awards (MVPs, etc.). I think that he is too self-absorbed to realize that though. He went on to commit the cardinal sin of self-absorbed athletes, speaking in third person. "LeBron's gotta do what is best for LeBron!" M#$%*$F%$%(* , you ARE LeBron!

Okay, let me land this plane. LeBron made his bed, and now must lie in it. Him painting himself as a hometown boy, the whole "Witness" campaign ($5 says that building has been painted over already!), the two year-long speculation, the press conference, the going to Miami to be DWades bitch, etc. LeBron was well within his right to leave. Thats his choice. People do it all of the time. What he did wrong though, was to make a huge spectacle of it. I think we all would have respected him a lot more if he simply ended his time in Cleveland and said he wasn't coming back. Then quietly went about finding a new team. No primetime specials. No recruiting process. No team LeBron holding interviews in basketball shorts and t-shirts with business execs. No pretending that, "this is a hard decision...". No "I woke up this morning and felt that this is the right thing to do." None of this. The only thing that he did accomplish was, he made us all "Witness" the real LeBron. A self-centered little boy who desperately needs to grow up. He's that same kid who preened and posed with his teammates before every game. He's the same guy who refused to shake hands with the Celtics ('08) and Magic ('09) because he "doesn't shake the hands of people who beat" him. He's the same guy who in high school, selfishly took jerseys and lost his eligibility as an amateur (ultimately being reinstated) and let down his teammates. He is the same guy who in High School, after creating the controversy of tooling around in a new Hummer as a high school student with no J-O-B (nor did his mom), decided it would be good form to sit under the basket while his team was warming up for a game being shown on ESPN, and drove around his remote control replica Hummer as an in your face move. He is who we thought he was.