Program On The Line

Well, now that the hangover from last night has lifted, we now sit on the cusp of the most important week this program has faced in a long, long time. Lose this game this weekend @ the Mildcats and you can kiss it all goodbye. NO WAY do we even “sniff” respectability if we lose this game. The legacies of Doba and Brink will rest BIG TIME on this game. No ifs, ands, or buts about it…

With regard to the Conquest post-mordem, here are Brinkhater’s takes:

1. Southern Cal was GREAT. Relentless depth at tailback and the fastest most punishing play that I’ve seen in the LB corps and defensive backfield from a Pac-10 team in a long time. Man, do they hit people. And their physicality of both lines was, again, really, really impressive.

2. Our defense is just beyond awful. Credit Doba, his scheme is such that he is keeping teams under 60 points–hence no plays longer than 25 yards. But, correct me if I’m wrong, DOES ANYONE CARE IF WE LOSE BY 70? Brinkhater sure doesn’t, but I’d sure like to see us work a scheme that will allow us to win a game this season!!!! Like I’ve said, STANFORD will score 38 on us today, but I’m not sure we can score that much given our style of play….we just are NOT a quick hit team offensively…

3. Brink did not have a good game. But face it folks, what you saw yesterday is what you will see for most guys running for their dear life for the whole day. The only type of player who would do okay against a D like that is a top 5 or 10 NFL guy…and Brink is not that kind of player..if you ask him to do more than manage a game, he will fail you…Unfortunately, we are asking him to be too much this year….and frankly, it just isn’t fair…Again, if we had ANY type of defense, we wouldn’t be that bad…

4. Our special teams might be as bad as our defense…the formations stink, the players stink, the coaching stinks…..

5. Brinkhater’s main man, Gary Rogers, looked simply AWFUL running with the second team O. Simply put: we saw last night what next year is going to look like if GR or whomever doesn’t get some serious snaps this year. It made watching Brink seem like watching a Heisman trophy candidate.

The bottom line in all of this folks, is that last year was the year where we should have had our 1 in 3 year bowl game…Unfortunately, an array of injuries marred what woulda, coulda, shoulda been a Sun or Holiday bowl trip…and now, we are staring at a bleak season this year and next year as well.

So, feel free to start up the “its time to panic” engine, Cougar faithful. Win this weekend, and hope will continue for the coming weeks. Lose, and the whole darn program will come apart at the seems….Lose this game and there’s NO WAY that we beat ASU or Oregon…and start the conference slate 0-4 and heads will roll…

Lets hope we can leave Tuscon on Saturday with a W!