What the heck happened last night in Boise? Just 151 yards for the Ducks? Only eight points? Eight carries for -5 yards for LeGarrette Blount?
Oh, and speaking of Blount, there was this little thing ...
I do not want to be Chip Kelly this morning. First game as head coach, and not only does your team throw out a stinker on the field, the nation now has the impression that you've got no control of your team. Absolutely brutal way to begin a head coaching career.
If there's any bright side to this, it's that it's distracting from the fact that the team that was supposed to be second or third best in the Pac-10 -- with potentially the league's best offense -- got its butt handed to it by a WAC team. The best case scenario here is that Oregon ends up being terrible, because if the Ducks rebound to do something like beat Cal or USC, that's simply going to make the conference look that much worse.
So, what should be done with Blount? On the one hand, I think the other guy shares some of the blame. But you can't ever -- EVER -- punch a guy. I really don't know what an appropriate way is to handle this, but the public perception problem is going to be overwhelming. That it happened on a Thursday night and not a Saturday (on ESPN and before the NFL season, no less) means that it's going to get full play in the news cycle today, with little to compete with it.
My take? Unless there are more issues behind the scenes that we don't know about, those that are calling for him to be kicked off the team are overreacting a bit. I think a suspension in the two- to four-game range is more than enough.
Thoughts?