concordtom said:

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StillNoStanfurdium said:

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sycasey said:

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BearlyCareAnymore said:

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sycasey said:

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I'm fine if people are upset with Ott's comments. I'm not, as I think they probably accurately speak to issues that exist within the program and need to be fixed, and Cal usually needs some kind of public embarrassment to actually act on anything anyway so this might actually help in a roundabout way . . . but I get it if you are.

Totally agree with Bearly that there is no way an NFL team will hold any of this against him if he's up for a draft pick in the future. They will evaluate him on his talent and that's it. You have to do a lot of worse things (like actual criminal stuff) before the NFL will worry about your personality.

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I agree that it is understandable if people are upset with Ott's comments. He shouldn't have made them. He could have said all the positive things about OU without bringing Cal into it. I don't think it is the worst offense, especially for a young person who is probably still learning, but I absolutely understand being annoyed with it. To me, though, I'm a lot more upset about the state of the program that leads a player to unwisely say what he undoubtedly feels but might have been best left unexpressed. Getting mad at every guy who leaves or says something critical is wildly missing the point in my opinion. Ott's comments are grain of sand on a universe of beaches compared to the negative impacts of the program that are done internally.

I do not think it is understandable at all to be upset that he transferred especially when people are so happy to take transfers. (excepting 4thGen for reasons already stated).

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Yes. I did understand being upset with the manner in which Mendoza transferred; seemed to give up on the team before the season was over and actively told a major recruit not to come, probably knowing he already had a foot out the door. Ott just said some critical stuff well after he left in the normal way.

(Though yes, it is ironic that Cal ultimately got the guy that Mendoza chased away, via Sagapolutele then subsequently breaking his commitment to Oregon, and no one here complains about that.)

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Well JKS only went to Oregon because he broke his commitment to us so this is a case of actually upholding his original word.

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Or because they offered him more money and he wanted to collect it.

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He didn't collect any money from Oregon because he transferred to Cal before the season. He only went to Oregon at the last minute because reportedly Fernando called him up and told him not to come to Cal, that he wasn't welcome. Then Fernando left and Sagapolutele came to Cal.

calumnus said:

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BearlyCareAnymore said:

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GivemTheAxe said:

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4thGenCal said:

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HearstMining said:

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For football players at Cal, football is the most important thing, but it's part of a whole. At Oklahoma, football is the ONLY thing. I can accept that because that's been Cal's sports culture as long as I can remember - juggling academics with athletics. So the challenge is to recruit and coach players who can excel in that environment. The lousy results over the last fifteen years speak for themselves.

I thought Ott's comment was careful, focused on the players and not the coaching staff. In particular, he did not dump on the school. What the comment does indicate is that Cal's football staff just doesn't hold some players accountable, whether for meeting attendance, physical training, or whatever.

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Yes - I personally moved him to different housing as at the time, He had a much different focus for football prep than his room mates. He was unique in his laser focus approach to be the best He could be. He got along with His teammates, it's just that He was more disciplined on and off the field. Flip side what was incredibly disappointing to several of us, who truly looked out for him/coached him/mentored him/put excellent NIL package etc was his impulsive nature to break his word - when deals had been re structured etc. Complex situation around his leaving - both sides had legitimate beefs. But an extremely good offer (better than OU offered) was agreed to with Cal, only to be broken literally w/in a few days. Ott did get his degree - impressive. And several factors nagged him including the medical staff misdiagnosis of a high ankle grade 3 sprain (came back too early), AT essentially not being retained (not fired but offered unacceptable terms) and then his frustration with promises of an improved Oline over the past couple of seasons that did not materialize.
Bottom line - it's in the rear view mirror- it's all about the current Cal football team/players/coaches/staff and the focus, to kick butt and excel this season. Best of luck to Ott and may He do well and get drafted high.

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i see from what has been said about Ott that there were at least two points of friction.

1. Ott's lazer focus on football. and his dissatisfaction with other players for whom this was not true. To me this has usually not been the situation with so many Cal players since at Cal the student athlete must be BOTH a student and an athlete. Of course at Oklahoma the reverse is true. So of course Ott would find the atmosphere would be more inviting to him at Oklahoma that it would at Cal.

2. i was very troubled by the comments that Ott was perceived as having an impulsive nature to break his word 'AFTER' an extremely good offer (better than OU offer) was 'agreed to' with Cal.

Many young kids are impulsive. I would guess that many young athletes might be impulsive. But a young kid (in his early 20's?) who will be involved in many contract negotiations in football and outside football must learn that being impulsive and after agreeing to an extremely good (better than OU offered) can come back to haunt him. [Nothing was said about whether other parties - parents, agents, etc.- were involved in the discussions.]

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1. It is not going to come back to haunt him.
2. Adults of all ages come to agreements all the time only to get an offer they perceive as better before things are finalized and switch. Hell, companies do that all the time.

3. I suspect better offer in this case means more money. That is only one part of the offer. Most people would take an unpaid internship at Google over a paid position as fry cook at McDonalds. Even if we offered more money than OU, OU has more to offer outside of money.

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100%
If Cal offered Ott more money than OU and he was planning to come back, then it really must have been the new offensive staff that caused ALL our RBs, WRs and our starting TE to leave, at least in Ott's case, in spite of Cal offering more money. But sure, Cal fans rally around the coaches and instead blame and criticize the fellow Cal alum that is only making the best decision he can for his own life. That is what many did with Mark Fox too, at least until we finally fired him. Then no one claimed to ever have supported him, and now that Matt Bradley is coming back to Cal as a grad assistant no one will own up to having criticized him for finally having had enough of Fox and leaving like most of his teammates had already done.

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4thgen also mentioned the misdiagnosis of Ott's high ankle injury as an additional reason for his exit. That would really tick me off if I was in his shoes. Maybe not during the season, when you're caught up in the weekly pressure and want to live up to yours and the team's expectations, but post-season when you look back and wonder why things didn't work out as planned. I'm not arguing that it was THE reason, because obviously the whole RB room chose to exit so there were other factors. But if I couldn't trust the training and medical staff, that would be a major issue, especially if I knew I had a real shot at the NFL.

ducktilldeath said:

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sycasey said:

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ducktilldeath said:

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sycasey said:

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BearlyCareAnymore said:

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sycasey said:

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This is an example of the kind of culture/perception that the new Cal football leadership needs to change. Not gonna be easy.

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They don't need to change perception. They need to change reality. Ott isn't an outsider judging by outside reports.

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The outside perception is being generated by how people like him talk about the program.

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lol what? The outside perception is generated by results on the field. Good grief!

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There's been some further discussion on this thread in which I have further clarified my views. Try to keep up.

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lol again. As if you read entire multi-page threads before replying someone's dumbass statement. What you did is called backtracking.

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ducktilldeath said:

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sycasey said:

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ducktilldeath said:

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sycasey said:

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BearlyCareAnymore said:

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sycasey said:

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This is an example of the kind of culture/perception that the new Cal football leadership needs to change. Not gonna be easy.

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They don't need to change perception. They need to change reality. Ott isn't an outsider judging by outside reports.

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The outside perception is being generated by how people like him talk about the program.

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lol what? The outside perception is generated by results on the field. Good grief!

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There's been some further discussion on this thread in which I have further clarified my views. Try to keep up.

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lol again. As if you read entire multi-page threads before replying someone's dumbass statement. What you did is called backtracking.

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Maybe forums shouldn't maintain all comments on a thread, since you apparently think it's a waste of time to read them. Your statement is another example of why all the smart Oregonians I know went to Oregon State.

You guys are hilarious. He made a stupid statement. NOBODY outside of CAL fans will even register his comments, and here we go again with academic smack. It's embarrassing.

ducktilldeath said:

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You guys are hilarious. He made a stupid statement. NOBODY outside of CAL fans will even register his comments, and here we go again with academic smack. It's embarrassing.

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Let it go, dude. It's one comment on a message board of a team you don't even root for, and I already went back on it in the very same thread. Not sure why you're so obsessed about this.