NOLA

I am estatic about the Deuce signing and don't think it is harsh at all. He has always loved this organization and is one of the most unselfish players in our history. He wants to contibute and has kept himself in shape. We need a fullback after Heath Evans went out and Deuce is a great fit. Plus, Deuce deserves a ring after all he has given this organization. Class move by a class organization. Also, people just see our struggles lately and ignore just how injured we've been. The second half of the season we've largely been without both starting corners, Sharper, Fujita, Sedrick Ellis, Randall Gay, and Shanle...and that's just the defense. Also Reggie, Shockey, Lance Moore, Mike Bell, and Pierre Thomas are all now finally healthy on offense. I'd argue that the bye week helped the saints mentally and physically more than anyone in the league. I'm about to have a heart attack. I need a drink. Who dat?

I searched and didn't see this but feel free to merge with another thread. My friend and I are certain we heard Orel on the ESPN broadcast say that Jake Fox was going to the Instructional League in the offseason to learn SECOND BASE! :-k Did anyone else hear this or any other info about it? This really doesn't seem possible. I will now go back to my regularly scheduled program...

Aw come on. Maybe one day you'll see the light. As long as that light isn't highway construction barrell orange. Nah, that orange is closer to Auburn. We're the awesome orange fruit. "Can't spell citrus without UT" -Steve Spurrier

Aw come on. Maybe one day you'll see the light. As long as that light isn't highway construction barrell orange.

I'm still wondering why Arkansas was so quick to get rid of him. I don't want to derail a fine recruiting thread, so I will not get into it like I want to. I am an LSU fan with alot of ties to Arkansas and I can promise you it was about a TON more than just wins and losses. He is sneaky and not a good man. I actually think Ole Miss and Nutt are a good fit, as long as he doesn't become his own worst enemy like he did at U of A. BTW, that 16th ranking is per Scouts. Enough said. Check Rivals. :) edit: My bad, they make it to 17! Still don't like him! Yea, we shouldn't make this a major debate, but my response to problems being "more than wins and losses" is to ask: Why in the world did you then go to Bobby Petrino who's much shadier than Nutt? Really different issues there. Petrino and Nutt are both guilty of using other organizations/universities to advance their own salaries and careers. But Nutt's transgressions were much more petty and low down. Throwing kids under the bus, leaking bad things about kids to media, calling former players "cancers on the team" right before the NFL draft, running off kids the media liked then justifying it by publicly trashing them on their way out the door. And then there's the whole texting situation which was much worse than national media reported. His former players are pretty much even on either side. They either love him or they openly call him a liar and a "used car salesman." I honestly think the guy has serious problems. Oh, and he will flat out lie to make himself look better. Other than that he's fine. ;) Sounds a lot like Bobby Petrino. Lied on national television, slipped out of a commitment in the middle of the night with no remorse, openly flirted with numerous other programs throughout his collegiate career while telling his players he was sticking around, and I'm sure much more from his Atlanta/Louisville days that I don't know about. I just don't understand going from one coach with terrible character flaws to another coach with terrible character flaws and calling it an upgrade in character. I agree with what you say about Petrino. However, Nutt absolutely could not come back to UofA. That bridge was burned equally by him and the fans. Not necessarily an upgrade in character, but ANYONE else who could win was what Arkie wanted IMO. Also, Petrino is raked over the coals constantly while Nutt gets a free pass as some great leader of young men. There is a serious double standard. No one in Arkansas is saying Petrino is a saint, they are just sick of all the Nutt love for such a shady character. Now I will go back and talk trash to all my LSU friends who still rail against Les Miles. As the SEC turns... I say we both agree that neither is as bad as Nick Saban and move on. :wink: We absolutely agree there. But I still can't stand Rocky Top.

I'm still wondering why Arkansas was so quick to get rid of him. I don't want to derail a fine recruiting thread, so I will not get into it like I want to. I am an LSU fan with alot of ties to Arkansas and I can promise you it was about a TON more than just wins and losses. He is sneaky and not a good man. I actually think Ole Miss and Nutt are a good fit, as long as he doesn't become his own worst enemy like he did at U of A. BTW, that 16th ranking is per Scouts. Enough said. Check Rivals. :) edit: My bad, they make it to 17! Still don't like him! Yea, we shouldn't make this a major debate, but my response to problems being "more than wins and losses" is to ask: Why in the world did you then go to Bobby Petrino who's much shadier than Nutt? Really different issues there. Petrino and Nutt are both guilty of using other organizations/universities to advance their own salaries and careers. But Nutt's transgressions were much more petty and low down. Throwing kids under the bus, leaking bad things about kids to media, calling former players "cancers on the team" right before the NFL draft, running off kids the media liked then justifying it by publicly trashing them on their way out the door. And then there's the whole texting situation which was much worse than national media reported. His former players are pretty much even on either side. They either love him or they openly call him a liar and a "used car salesman." I honestly think the guy has serious problems. Oh, and he will flat out lie to make himself look better. Other than that he's fine. ;) Sounds a lot like Bobby Petrino. Lied on national television, slipped out of a commitment in the middle of the night with no remorse, openly flirted with numerous other programs throughout his collegiate career while telling his players he was sticking around, and I'm sure much more from his Atlanta/Louisville days that I don't know about. I just don't understand going from one coach with terrible character flaws to another coach with terrible character flaws and calling it an upgrade in character. I agree with what you say about Petrino. However, Nutt absolutely could not come back to UofA. That bridge was burned equally by him and the fans. Not necessarily an upgrade in character, but ANYONE else who could win was what Arkie wanted IMO. Also, Petrino is raked over the coals constantly while Nutt gets a free pass as some great leader of young men. There is a serious double standard. No one in Arkansas is saying Petrino is a saint, they are just sick of all the Nutt love for such a shady character. Now I will go back and talk trash to all my LSU friends who still rail against Les Miles. As the SEC turns...

I'm still wondering why Arkansas was so quick to get rid of him. I don't want to derail a fine recruiting thread, so I will not get into it like I want to. I am an LSU fan with alot of ties to Arkansas and I can promise you it was about a TON more than just wins and losses. He is sneaky and not a good man. I actually think Ole Miss and Nutt are a good fit, as long as he doesn't become his own worst enemy like he did at U of A. BTW, that 16th ranking is per Scouts. Enough said. Check Rivals. :) edit: My bad, they make it to 17! Still don't like him! Yea, we shouldn't make this a major debate, but my response to problems being "more than wins and losses" is to ask: Why in the world did you then go to Bobby Petrino who's much shadier than Nutt? Really different issues there. Petrino and Nutt are both guilty of using other organizations/universities to advance their own salaries and careers. But Nutt's transgressions were much more petty and low down. Throwing kids under the bus, leaking bad things about kids to media, calling former players "cancers on the team" right before the NFL draft, running off kids the media liked then justifying it by publicly trashing them on their way out the door. And then there's the whole texting situation which was much worse than national media reported. His former players are pretty much even on either side. They either love him or they openly call him a liar and a "used car salesman." I honestly think the guy has serious problems. Oh, and he will flat out lie to make himself look better. Other than that he's fine. ;)

Funny to see how wrong the talking heads of ESPN (that fine journalism institution) in predicting the fates of these new SEC coaches. In particular, I remember that idiot Mark May saying that Kiffin would not suceed at TN because he has never won as a coach. He and others also crushed Saban and Petrino saying recruits would never go there because of the backlash. Me thinks someone overvalues their own opinions.

I'm still wondering why Arkansas was so quick to get rid of him. I don't want to derail a fine recruiting thread, so I will not get into it like I want to. I am an LSU fan with alot of ties to Arkansas and I can promise you it was about a TON more than just wins and losses. He is sneaky and not a good man. I actually think Ole Miss and Nutt are a good fit, as long as he doesn't become his own worst enemy like he did at U of A. BTW, that 16th ranking is per Scouts. Enough said. Check Rivals. :) edit: My bad, they make it to 17! Still don't like him!

27 recruits. When your rankings are comprised solely of total number of points, you can rank high even if you have almost exclusively 3 stars. Also how teams like S Carolina and UNC are top 10 or close. 29 commits. Do they even have enough room for all those players (Alabama signed more than they could take last year, as I recall). Bama signed I think 32 players. So many didn't actually end up going that ND was retroactively named the top class by the major services after the dust settled. I don't know why schools do that, but if they can get away with it... The SEC is really bad about oversigning. Arkansas, South Carolina, Ole Miss, and Auburn. I know Ark has 3 kids that are not making their grades, and I think 2 commits count back to last year. Rumors are that Ole Miss and SC both have double digit academic casualties. If Ole Nutt stays true to form, he will tell some of these kids to get lost before they see campus or they will be exiled on the bench. Classy.

Mississippi as a state is loaded with high school talent and alot of kids stay close to home. Memphis high schools are loaded every year. If you have ever been anywhere close to Starkville, you wonder why ANYONE would choose to live in the middle of a cotton field. Keep in mind there are 3 universities in MS that recruit the state and they still get talent to play there.

So Ronnie Wingo...I am hearing mixed reports about this guy that he is soft and scared of contact. Anybody got info on this guy? Also, the rich just keep getting richer (figure of speech of course). The SEC has 10 of the top 25 classes according to Rivals. Auburn is a surprise. I really thought the whole Chizik drama would hurt those guys. Petrino is building something really big at Arkie. No surprise: LSU dominates again. PROSPECT COMMITMENTS School TOTAL Commits Commits Commits Avg Stars Points 1 LSU 24 4 12 8 3.83 2,643 2 Ohio State 25 2 15 8 3.76 2,478 3 Alabama 24 3 12 9 3.75 2,472 4 Texas 20 3 11 6 3.85 2,375 5 USC 18 4 10 2 3.89 2,283 6 Florida State 20 2 10 8 3.70 2,163 7 Florida 17 3 10 4 3.94 2,149 8 North Carolina 29 1 13 10 3.34 2,084 9 Miami 21 2 9 9 3.57 2,021 10 Michigan 21 1 12 6 3.57 2,010 11 South Carolina 29 0 14 11 3.34 1,952 12 Georgia 17 1 12 4 3.82 1,909 13 Oklahoma 23 0 11 11 3.43 1,830 14 Arkansas 30 1 8 20 3.30 1,689 15 Michigan State 23 0 10 10 3.30 1,675 16 Auburn 28 0 9 16 3.21 1,599 17 Stanford 22 0 8 12 3.27 1,583 18 Ole Miss 35 1 7 21 3.09 1,517 19 Notre Dame 17 1 9 4 3.47 1,508 20 UCLA 24 0 8 14 3.25 1,426 21 Texas A&M 28 1 4 21 3.14 1,403 22 Tennessee 18 0 8 10 3.44 1,393 23 Virginia Tech 22 0 5 14 3.09 1,357 24 Mississippi State 27 0 7 17 3.15 1,332 25 Maryland 26 0 6 16 3.08 1,266

I understand tough to win on the road and all, especially for a young team, but the SEC West(similar to the Big 12 north for Kansas) is just so bad, that they should really be shooting for 9-1 in those games. I guess 13-3 was probably overstating things a bit, but Arkansas is definitely set up nicely. ETA: Pomeroy hates them though. The SEC is definitely way down this year, but it will not be a cakewalk. Trent Johnson has something building at LSU and has alot of young talent. I am amazed by Arkansas, but they have not done well outside of Fayetteville yet-they are very young. Kentucky will probably get 19 or so wins and of course get in. Vandy is not so bad, tennessee is obnoxious but still pretty good. Georgia beat GA Tech. Florida will be MUCH better by March. Mississippi State may be the sleeper team-varnardo is a beast.

Whatever it takes is what I would say. As a Saints fan, I remember this time in 2005 wondering if we would draft Vince Young. We signed Drew Brees out of the blue, which freed us up to address other holes. The Bears could sign McNabb, then draft Knowshon Moreno from UGA, or trade up for Crabtree form TTech. That fixes alot of problems. Now, I will resume sulking about my Saints. PLEASE let us draft Rey Maualuga from USC or Laurenitis from OSU! Why in the world would they draft Moreno? Crabtree is probably going top 5-7 where it would cost an awful lot to get into. Moreno is the prototype of that change of pace back that ppl have mentioned in this thread. He's a great receiver out of the backfield and a homerun threat. That seems to be something the Bears seriously lack outside of special teams...a threat to stretch a defense. Match that with McNabb, with Moreno being his new Bryant Westbrook, in addition to Forte...that' a nice offense! It would just be an awful use of resources. When your best player on offense is a RB and you have many holes to fill, it's not a sound decision to use your first round pick on a RB. My point is that Forte cannot take the beating being the only worthwhile RB, the offense badly needs big play ability that Hester hasn't delivered, and your offensive backfield would be set...with depth. Defense needs help, but there are alot of free agents out there to address this and plug holes. I just think Moreno is really that good especially that late in the 1st round. I guess I just think the Bears are closer than some are saying and he could put them over the top. The offense scares NO ONE right now.

Whatever it takes is what I would say. As a Saints fan, I remember this time in 2005 wondering if we would draft Vince Young. We signed Drew Brees out of the blue, which freed us up to address other holes. The Bears could sign McNabb, then draft Knowshon Moreno from UGA, or trade up for Crabtree form TTech. That fixes alot of problems. Now, I will resume sulking about my Saints. PLEASE let us draft Rey Maualuga from USC or Laurenitis from OSU! Why in the world would they draft Moreno? Crabtree is probably going top 5-7 where it would cost an awful lot to get into. Moreno is the prototype of that change of pace back that ppl have mentioned in this thread. He's a great receiver out of the backfield and a homerun threat. That seems to be something the Bears seriously lack outside of special teams...a threat to stretch a defense. Match that with McNabb, with Moreno being his new Bryant Westbrook, in addition to Forte...that' a nice offense!

Whatever it takes is what I would say. As a Saints fan, I remember this time in 2005 wondering if we would draft Vince Young. We signed Drew Brees out of the blue, which freed us up to address other holes. The Bears could sign McNabb, then draft Knowshon Moreno from UGA, or trade up for Crabtree form TTech. That fixes alot of problems. Now, I will resume sulking about my Saints. PLEASE let us draft Rey Maualuga from USC or Laurenitis from OSU!

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3790141 So much for building through their farm system.

I have scanned this thread and cannot find the scenario by which Chicago makes the playoffs. Bears win next two games and Vikes lose next week and Chicago wins the division? Can the Bears still win a wildcard spot? ESPN still doesn't have playoff scenarios anywhere yet for the conferences. Thanks in advance. EDIT: Nevermind. Found it. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3711069

And yet more bad response from Auburn writers over Chizik. WOW, if you follow the SEC or any conference for that matter, this guy has ZERO chance now at Auburn. You think Saban, Richt, Les Miles, etc won't kill this guy in recruiting? Auburn...welcome to competing with Miss St, So Miss and Troy for recruits! http://bleacherreport.com/articles/92832-jay-jacobs-is-auburns-dirty-santa

You're right. I'm pissed. Jacobs managed this whole process poorly. ...but the ISU writers are downright jubilent. HOLY CRAP! This writer really disliked the new Auburn coach! :shock: http://iowastate.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=889020

HORNETS vs CELTICS...epic PG matchup. Chris Paul and Rajan Rondo are going at it! Seriously, matchups like this are why the NBA is so much better than years past. CP3 just got a steal in his 103rd straight game, 2nd only to Alvin Roberson. THAT dude was a bad man.

Just slapped some numbers into a spreadsheet, and what came out was this. As-is, Marshall ought to get in the neighborhood of 22 starts, assuming 20 for Harden and 30 each for Zambrano, Dempster, Lilly, and Marquis. (Now we know in reality a few of those guys will get 33 or 34, and one or two will get 25 or something, but the average of 30 seems OK.) If Marquis and Marshall both go, and Peavy comes in, then you need Peavy and a Mitch Atkins type to provide the 52 starts you just lost. So do you prefer Marquis 30 + Marshall 22, or Peavy 30 + Atkins 22? Obviously those 22 Atkins starts could be painful but IMO it'd be worth the upgrade from Marquis to Peavy. I agree with just about all of that, but then when you factor in losing DeRosa and Vitters on top of that, and then throw in Pie, Castillo, whoever...just too much. What if then God forbid a position player gets hurt midseason, further damaging a suspect offense? We would have NO chips left to trade to plug that hole. I'm saying our margin for error would shrink dramatically for a luxury meaning Peavy.

The disadvatange dome teams have is that they inevitably have to play in bad weather when it counts the most. Also, it seems like most dome teams are offense first, pass first. St. Louis proved that a dome team could win the superbowl but they could run the ball when they had to. True, this when this team was great in the early 90's, we had servicable Bobby Hebert at QB, but we had a great ground game in Dalton Hilliard and a number 1 ranked defense with The Dome Patrol LB core (Jackson, Mills, Vaughn, Swilling). It can be done. It seems we don't have any hardnose tough philosophy.

I live in New Orleans and am surrounded by all things Saints, so I realize that I am not the most objective fan in the world. Alot of ppl around here are really concerned that this team is soft and will never win. Yes, we were close 2 years ago, but the makeup of this team is not built for a Super Bowl run. Can we just plug in some decent linebackers finally, maybe a big running back? WHY DID WE NOT DRAFT HOMETOWN GUY FORTE?!? Saintsland is divided about whether we really are a player or 2 away or we need a change of philosophy. Lots or rumbling about SPayton's play calling. I don't want to be just the dangerous team no one wants to play, I want a SUPER BOWL! Sorry, back to Bears discussion.

With the question marks surrounding our staff, Marshall is much more valuable than he seems at first glance. No, Marshall is not a deal breaker, but him plus looting our depth along with our best prospect was a bit much for another starter. Our bench was a huge asset to us last year. IMO, the proposed package for Peavy would only be acceptable if it were for a stud power right fileder, not another arm no matter how good. Our weakness is our offense, and right now it cannot compete with the bats of Philly, or even the Mets.