Empty the Call Sheet (Nov. 17)

From the plane home back to the West Coast, Yogi's weekly Sunday newsletter

Walking through new airports each weekend offers new experiences, new coffee shops, new conversations and new flight patterns. There are also similarities from past Sundays in college football season. People yearning for conversations with a human instead of a device, individuals hustling from one flight to another to make it home, and fans proud or frustrated with their alma mater's recent performance. 

Watching the Oregon Ducks last night and thinking about them as I Empty The Call Sheet on my flight from Chicago to LA, I find myself reflecting upon my time on the staff at USC and smiling at the similarities that exist with this year's undefeated Ducks. 

The Trojans and current Ducks were led by defensive minded head coaches. If you ever followed Pete Carroll back in the day then you know that his willingness to go for it on 4th down, run a trick play or play aggressive, not only prompted the student section to break out into chants but will also remind you of Dan Lanning and his modern-day Ducks.

I get that some football minds exploded when Lanning called for a fake field goal on a 4th down, up 3 points on the road against Wisconsin and your criticism is fair. But what none of us know is the daily mindself that Lanning imparts on his team. He preaches being aggressive, taking chances and to take a line from Coach Carroll, “letting it rip.” 

As a fan of the game, I love when teams reflect what they preach and as a player, I love it even more. Not because of the “risk,” but because of the consistent mindset, or as the Ducks say, their DNA.

If you watch Big Ten Network, you would likely hear me say “the Oregon Ducks DNA traits” one too many times but to remind you they are Connection, Growth, Toughness and Sacrifice. The only reason a head coach calls for trick plays or aggressive ones like Oregon did on Saturday night is because he has tremendous trust in his staff, roster and overall “progrum”. That goes right back to DNA trait #1 for Dan Lanning – connection. 

The same could be said for those elite teams at SC. We were so connected that Coach Carroll was willing to take big time chances because he trusted that the players could handle big time success or perceived adversity, and he wanted to build his teams to enjoy playing on the razor's edge of peak performance. But to maximize your potential you MUST be willing to go to the edge… fall over it…and at times, drop into flow state. But regardless of the outcome, your team evolves from it. Or as Coach Lanning might reference, DNA Trait #2 - growth.

As the clock struck zero last night as Oregon won, BYU fell from the unbeatens and Arizona State made a case for story of the year out West, it also hit me how challenging it is to not only win games, but to go undefeated. Pressure rises, opponents play their best, and as a coach or player you can tighten up and hope to just make it through the game. I call those “Exhale Games.” 

When you win, you let out a big exhale in relief of not losing the game vs the thrill of having the opportunity to win the game. It's a fine line and something to track with the nation's undefeated trimming to only three teams: Oregon, Indiana and Army.

A few other takeaways on my way back to 72 & sunny:

• The College Football Playoff Committee should penalize the SEC for the embarrassingly weak schedule late in the season that most teams in that league have. I refused to watch Mercer, New Mexico State, UL Monroe and Murray State compete against a conference that touts itself as the nation's strongest. This week, college football needs to make this a bigger storyline as 2-win UMass visits UGA as Kirby Smart’s team makes their CFP case, 2-win UTEP is off to Tennessee, FCS-level Wofford visits South Carolina and La Tech heads to Arkansas. I mean what are we doing folks? Look, if I was the head coach of any school in big time college football I’d love a game like this in late November. But with the amount of dollars going into the CFP, the ever-growing media rights deals, conference expansion and the SEC only playing 8 conference games I hope the CFP committee penalizes these teams for the dramatic inequities in scheduling when comparing other CFP caliber teams.

• In addition, the CFP is, at least to me, about the 12 best teams, not the 12 best rosters. Simply, the games and where in your schedule they land matters. Anyone with me?

• While I’m on the subject, the ACC finds itself in a similar scenario this weekend as 1-win Charleston Southern visits 1-win Florida State and FCS-level The Citadel heads to Clemson. With so much at stake, we need something in college football, at least among the two super conferences to be similar and an equal amount of conference games isn’t asking for too much.

• Coach of the Year? Clearly Curt Cignetti is the overwhelming favorite and in my eyes, has locked it up already. But we need to continue to talk about Kenny Dillingham and his ASU squad. What they have done is more impressive than most, and yes, more impressive than Colorado. They don’t have the high-end talent the Buffs have and according to most Big 12 experts, were predicted to finish last in the new-look Big 12. ASU enters this week as a likely CFP top 25 team and legit contender for the playoff if they can win out, which is entirely possible.

  

  (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)

• Which brings up the fun question: who are the top 4 teams in the old Pac-12? Oregon sits at the top but who is next? Let’s talk about it…

• It was heartbreak for the Cougs late on Saturday night. Jake Dickert’s squad had CFP hopes and the program I often referred to as “America’s Team” lost a brutal road game at New Mexico after being up 28-14 at the half. Their CFP dreams are dashed, but a big time bowl game is not. Remember, the Pac-12 will slot teams with historic “Pac-12 bowl tie-ins” over the next two postseasons. So it’s entirely possible for the Cougs to end up in the Alamo, Holiday or Las Vegas Bowl. This weekend, they will have to be at their best as they head to Corvallis to face a proud Oregon State squad in a unique conference game among the lone two members of the current Pac-12. Stay tuned to Y-Option this week as we dive into this one.

• We ran a poll this week that asked social media who needed a win more, Arizona or USC? The Trojans won out but I think both teams were desperate for victory. Thankfully for Brent Brennan and Lincoln Riley their teams were celebrating this weekend.

• Speaking of celebrating, Jedd Fisch got UW bowl eligible late Friday night. For a team that had to replace over 40 members of a roster that lost in the National Championship, the job he and his staff have done this year is worthy of an award. I have a feeling Jim Thornby will have us playing “Bowl or no Bowl” this week on the Y-Option podcast.

• Whatever is the next level of celebrating, the Stanford Cardinal are likely still doing that after pulling off a remarkable upset over #19 Louisville on The Farm. Meanwhile, I must imagine that whoever was sitting next to Louisville head coach, Jeff Brohm, had a miserable flight back to Kentucky. And I don’t blame them, as that was as bad of a late game meltdown as I’ve ever seen. Welcome to ACC football, I guess???

• Finally, some inspiration for the young coaches out there. One of my favorite things to do is meet young coaches in college football and at times, offer counsel to them on their journey. Coaching is a hard job, oftentimes thankless and not fruitful to start from a financial perspective. The success of young coaches also can provide a blueprint toward success and most young coaches expect it to happen as fast as it did for Dillingham, Lanning, Riley or many others. But Curt Cignetti is a much more realistic tale and one that is noteworthy. He made the big time where he was, never tried to be anyone else and when he got his shot at the “Big Time” he crushed it. Just another reminder for all of us to wake up each day, empty the tank, pour into others and trust that the path will appear. 

  

  (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

• I’m off to our final NFL Youth Flag Football game of the season. It’s been such an honor to coach our son’s team (Mar Vista Lions) this fall and our roster has taught me so much about youth sports, fatherhood and scheme. More on that this week. And big love to Jared Goff – he sent our team a message this week and safe to say there are 10 more Detroit Lions fans on the West Coast.

Much love and many thanks to all of you who have supported this endeavor, we hope you are enjoying this bespoke lens from the West Coast in the sport we all love.

Yogi