heartofthebear;842041173 said:
I have played contact sports. Maynard could have thrown it away and still avoided contact. The pac-12 is very willing to throw flags for late hits on QBs. Maynard had nothing to worry about. It isn't the single play. It is the overriding attitude.
Very classy and typical of you to accuse somebody of being senile just because you disagree. Were you satisfied with the way Cal played this year? Would you prefer to have ZM and KA for another year if you could?
First of all, you used the word "senile", not me.
Second of all, how typical for a Cal Fan to blame a 3-9 Season on just two players, ZM and KA. To any neutral Football Fan with a brain that disappointing record points to an entire organizational top-down meltdown at Cal, from Head Coach down to 3rd String Special Teamer.
Attitude? Our team ran onto the field with the American Flag of all symbols. They did that 4th Quarter "jump around" huddle during games. Gould with his Rope looked like he was leading the in-game rallies.
I didn't see a "losing attitude" at all. The results pointed to a loss. The scoreboard did. Losing was caused by a lack of execution, X and O's, a lack of talent at many positions from QB to Oline to even cornerback if you want to get nit-picky (Jimmy and Joes), but the Players never gave up attitude-wise.
For example, Coach Gould is a pure winner, but that couldn't stop his RBs from fumbling at certain times. Isi Sofele is a pure winner and pound-for-pound one of the hardest RBs Cal ever had, but sometimes that ball came out. I don't see a lack of "attitude" at all though.
"Attitude" is chicken-or-the-egg stuff for over-analyzing couch potatoes that see events second- and third-hand and then apply their silly notions of what a "winning" attitude is composed of after looking at the scoreboard. Another example -- Colorado Players want to win as bad any Cal Players in terms of "attitude", but the results are similar.
Here's another example -- the same type of quiet person is "pouting" when he is losing (Maynard), but very "stoic" when winning (Mariota). Swagger is "confidence" when winning, but "thuggish" when losing.
Fans just make up BS to suit and reflect their own values and insecurities. I say take care of Talent and Execution first and then Attitude presents itself afterwards. You can have a "winning" attitude to begin with, but a lack of Talent and Execution will leave you in a position where you are unfairly judged to have a "loser" attitude based on sheer results,.
Once again, tell me how do we measure it? Your handy, dandy "attitude" meter or something?