tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102327997051254703.post1600467401738989757..comments2023-10-31T06:31:41.395-04:00Comments on Bottom of the Barrel: Gregg Easterbrook Solves the Money Crisis At UniversitiesBengoodfellahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09401971573776672570noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102327997051254703.post-35903855210008377422010-12-09T15:32:31.122-05:002010-12-09T15:32:31.122-05:00Martin, that's great. That's all I have to...Martin, that's great. That's all I have to say. Very few things Gregg Easterbrook says are consistent and that's one of them.Bengoodfellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09401971573776672570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102327997051254703.post-69894359986700395412010-12-09T15:25:43.050-05:002010-12-09T15:25:43.050-05:00If the O-Line can hold up the blitz for just an in...If the O-Line can hold up the blitz for just an instance...<br /><br />Would that be .15 seconds of an instance, or .50 seconds, or would we be talking a full second as part of an instance? And maybe that's why they time these guys at the combine to the hundredths of a second...Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02929927900897638100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102327997051254703.post-42478519050483527362010-12-09T13:34:46.397-05:002010-12-09T13:34:46.397-05:00Jeff, that was a good point wasn't it? I shoul...Jeff, that was a good point wasn't it? I should pay Rich for that information. I will send him a full case of Sun-Drop in return. <br /><br />I would assume Gregg doesn't know what it takes to run an athletic department or why there may be a need to have so many people working there. I don't know either, but what I do know is a comparison to the English department isn't a great comparison to an athletic department.Bengoodfellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09401971573776672570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102327997051254703.post-43884241238003410442010-12-09T13:11:49.712-05:002010-12-09T13:11:49.712-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01551752632881830012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102327997051254703.post-83863232812631225182010-12-09T13:11:19.427-05:002010-12-09T13:11:19.427-05:00Rich - great point on the ratios.
Easterbrook ge...Rich - great point on the ratios. <br /><br />Easterbrook gets paid to second guess and pontificate what it takes to run a football team or a university. He's probably never had a role in an organization that left him with real responsibility to make real decisions with outcomes that have impacts on people and the organization.Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01551752632881830012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102327997051254703.post-81523667927612966362010-12-09T12:37:29.731-05:002010-12-09T12:37:29.731-05:00Gregg Easterbrook doesn't believe this to be t...Gregg Easterbrook doesn't believe this to be true. He believes sust like there are pass-catching tight ends that can't block, Danny Woodhead is a running back that can't block. <br /><br />It's idiocy. If Danny Woodhead is to play AT ALL he has to be able to block. The Jets believed he would pick up the blitz because he can do this. <br /><br />Anon, you are right. I remember Woodhead picking up the blitz one time that I know of.Bengoodfellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09401971573776672570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102327997051254703.post-47422829160873465352010-12-09T12:02:35.802-05:002010-12-09T12:02:35.802-05:00Actually Woodhead blocked quite a few times in tha...Actually Woodhead blocked quite a few times in that game.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102327997051254703.post-13433018776378606622010-12-09T11:10:38.799-05:002010-12-09T11:10:38.799-05:00HH, of all the things I complain about concerning ...HH, of all the things I complain about concerning TMQ and Gregg, I think that's the worst. He is just so simplistic in his thinking. He says, <br /><br />"If A happens then B will also happen. If A does this, then B will do that, which will always lead to C. So A is bad and should never be done." <br /><br />He thinks when a blitz comes there is always an open man, so QB's love to get blitzed b/c that means there is an open man. Which isn't true. He has a Super Tecmo Bowl view of the world and it irritates me. <br /><br />Defenses know this stuff a/b blitzes, which is why they use strategy to prevent the hot read from immediately being open. This is why great QB's sometimes like to be blitzed b/c they can identify where the blitz comes from and find the open man. That's also why disguising coverages is so important when facing a guy like Peyton Manning.Bengoodfellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09401971573776672570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102327997051254703.post-22253578416667513072010-12-09T09:49:41.566-05:002010-12-09T09:49:41.566-05:00A quarterback who sees the blitz coming usually ha...<strong> A quarterback who sees the blitz coming usually has a man open -- all that's needed is for blockers to slow the rush for an instant. For a blitz to be devastating, somebody's got to come unblocked -- otherwise the ball will be gone.</strong><br /><br />What a great example of how simplistic Gregg's football thinking is. Yes, if a quarterback sees a blitz coming, there is usually a hot route with a receiver who looks back immediately to receive the ball. You know who else knows that? The other team. Which is why when a defense calls a blitz, they also call coverages that clamp down on receivers immediately, to prevent the outlet pass. It's a risky proposition: if you close on a guy near the line, you leave a lot of room behind you to be exploited if the blitz is picked up. However, if you can prevent that hot route pass, you buy your rush some time to get to the QB even if they're "slowed down for an instant." I simply cannot understand how someone who gets paid to write about football can't think past the simplest initial idea. "Blitzes are bad!" "Hot routes never fail!" "It's good to have good players!"HHnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102327997051254703.post-11862464189347636372010-12-08T22:20:57.193-05:002010-12-08T22:20:57.193-05:00Cory, I really believe maybe Gregg has run out of ...Cory, I really believe maybe Gregg has run out of ideas. I feel like he has started repeating himself and is bringing up issues that not only aren't interesting but also aren't supported by very good points. <br /><br />I agree with you. I don't know how big of a staff he suggests, but most staffs are bigger to be more efficient and get the work done. You pretty much sum up his entire attitude in that one paragraph. <br /><br />Gregg has his pet issues and loves to beat them down our throat. What's most interesting is when he latches on to stupid or boring stories and then beats them down our throats. <br /><br />Yeah, math and science seems to be the biggest problem for American students, not English.Bengoodfellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09401971573776672570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102327997051254703.post-91870006188644374942010-12-08T17:19:23.602-05:002010-12-08T17:19:23.602-05:00I have been reading TMQ for 10 years, and never ev...I have been reading TMQ for 10 years, and never ever has it been worse than it is this season. Honestly. I don't if its his opinions or his arguments for those opinions, but something just isn't clicking with him this year. I'm surprised Gregg didn't come out and say "There should be one person who does everything. They are the coach and the general manager and the offensive coordinator and the defensive coordinator. If I can do it with my middle school pee-wee team then it can be done in college. And they damn well better have a salary of five figures or less and no body guards or an entourage in any way, because by doing that they only care about themselves, the miserable sons of bitches that they are."<br /><br />I'm thinking next week Gregg will go on a 20,000 word intro that is basically an extended "Unified Theory of Creep" or why politicians who use bodyguards are fucking assholes. That would be so terrible it would be good.<br /><br />Gregg has to be the biggest moralists I've ever known to exist. He just doesn't want to understand the an athletic department makes big bucks for a school, just because it does not directly apply to every single student (but they still have to pay for it). <br /><br />And one could make an argument that Americans are inadequately educating in nearly every subject.Corynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102327997051254703.post-70029131125422927112010-12-08T14:29:55.469-05:002010-12-08T14:29:55.469-05:00Rich, that doesn't seem like a high price to p...Rich, that doesn't seem like a high price to pay at all. Compared to nearly every other charge at a school it is a massive steal...especially when compared to books, which are related to academics, and not sports I believe. Where's Gregg's outrage at that?<br /><br />Gregg has a lot of logic problems in this argument, one of the biggest ones being that the English departments need more help. You are right. It should not be a college's responsibility to adequately train a person in English. That's a high school issue. <br /><br />Gregg has to make up statistics or else he has no point. What it is all about is who benefits from the services to how many instructors there are. The idea of the football program is that a greater amount of people benefit from it, while like you said, all of the students are taking English classes at the same time. <br /><br />It's just a bad argument.Bengoodfellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09401971573776672570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102327997051254703.post-75933793209233081662010-12-08T13:49:21.694-05:002010-12-08T13:49:21.694-05:00USA Today reports that in the 2008-09 school year,...<b>USA Today reports that in the 2008-09 school year, colleges charged their students $795 million to support athletics.</b><br /><br />I haven't seen the study (and frankly I don't care to), but I'm guessing that at least part of that 795 million is charged as a "recreation" fees that allow students to use the gym and sports facilities. <br /><br />Even if no, that 795 million is also spread across a ton of students. A quick wiki search shows that there were 18 million college students in 2007, so what college charge 50 bucks a year to the average student? Compared to book prices, tuition and housing, that's a steal.<br /><br />Just to repeat Gregg got upset that colleges charge on average 50 bucks a student. No mention that universities charge well over 100 bucks for certain textbooks. At Penn we used a "special" version of the book (it had two extra chapters) and ended up paying 250% retail value for the book b/c we had to buy it through the school.<br /><br /><b>Americans are inadequately educated in subjects such as English</b><br /><br />I'm sorry, but if you're not educated in English by the time you reach college, you don't deserve to be in college. If more people want to play sports and it recoups some of the associated losses, why would the school spend that money on an another department.<br /><br />Moreover, just because the football program gets more money than the English department doesn't mean that the English department is underfunded. It could just be that the English department doesn't need that much money to fund or that the football program is overfunded.<br /><br /><b>while in English, the staff-to-student ratio is 1-to-280</b><br /><b>That's a 1-to-296 ratio of staff to students</b><br /><br />Another fail in logic. This would be a good comparison <i>if</i> English professors had to teach all 280 kids at the same time. Football has a high staff to student ratio b/c all of the students basically practice at the same time. Unless it's an introductory course, the odds of having more than maybe 30 kids in a class at a given time is slim.<br /><br />Adding to your argument about how many kids benefit, sure Cal has 30,000 kids, but how many of them are taking those classes at any given time? <br /><br />You can't say the football staff to football ratio is lower than the English staff to the entire student body, they're comparing two vastly different things. If you use those numbers, Cal has a football staff to student body ratio of 1 to 1200 or so. Now it doesn't seem so insane does it? No, which is why Gregg makes up his own statistics to prove his points.FormerPhDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12837594679660975599noreply@blogger.com