Message Board Idiots: Trahan = Willis

by Juco All-American on Apr 7, 2009 11:33 AM EDT Comment 10 comments

Wow, it's been a while since I've done one of these. But, now with the college sports lull that most people call "Summer" approaching, I will have more time to peruse Ole Miss message boards to get a finger on the pulse of everybody's favorite sector of the Rebel fanbase: the message board idiots.

After a brief few minutes, I've already found some real, grade-A stuff. For example: recently, some posters on everybody's favorite board have been stating that Patrick Trahan is now "on the same level" that Patrick Willis was at Ole Miss.

Please... explain yourselves...

This post, on the Rivals board from a poster named "rebeledge" is what put the gears of this post into motion. Here is the post in its entirety:

Can Trahan be the second coming of another LB named Patrick at OM? I think he is on the same level as P.W., hate we didn't have him for 4 yrs. He has a mean streak and loves to punish people when he hits them, so much, it got him afew late hit penalities last yr. None that I thought were dirty hits, it was like he couldn't throddle back his emotions of being in the game. Personal foul penalties are killers if you have their offense in 3rd and long and give them an automatic 1st down. If he can control his emotions, he could put up numbers that we haven't seen since P.W.

This post was a few slashes, emoticons, and "rotflmao's" away from being the most prototypical Rivals post of at least the last few hours. But, let's put aside all of the bizarre abbreviations and slaughter of proper grammar to refute the argument itself. Consider the numbers:

In the 2008-2009 season, Patrick Trahan had 29 tackles. In his junior season in 2005, Patrick Willis had 128. At the NFL combine, Patrick Willis ran a laser-timed sub 4.4 40-yard dash and weighed in at just over 240 pounds. Patrick Trahan runs a 4.5 (or thereabouts) and weighs in at (a generous) 225 pounds.

Patrick Trahan will never be the linebacker Patrick Willis was for us. Patrick Willis was in on every single defensive play. He deflected Chase Daniel's passes, chased down Darren McFadden, and stuffed LSU halfbacks... on multiple occasions... while injured.

I'm so damn sick of all of this this. If the "MBIs" had it their way, Gerald Harris would be the next Kellen Winslow, Cameron Whigham would be Greg hardy 2.0, Jevan Snead would become better than Eli by the time he graduates, and Jerrell Powe would somehow be able to step in for Peria Jerry just fine.

Do you realize how ridiculous all of that is? Do you realize how naive one has to be to think that those types of players have clones who come along to Ole Miss every year? Seriously?

Look, Patrick Willis is the best defensive player ever to play at Ole Miss. Patrick Trahan is not.

I'm sure he'll be better this year than he was last year. He may even be great, but he's not Patrick Willis. Willis was exceptional and stood out when he wasn't even seeing many reps. Willis was a consensus All-American. Willis won the Butkis Trophy.

What has Trahan done? Trahan stood out on a few plays. "But, hey, he did have that safety in the Cotton Bowl." Yeah, but only because Graham Harrell's back was turned to the open receiver. Watch the play again (Ghost and I do, in slow motion, very often... we're lame). Had Harrell seen the tight end who, according to Trahan, "never released," the safety would never have happened. Harrell would have completed the pass and Tech would have moved the ball to at least the 20. They could have driven the field and brought themselves within a field goal of the tie. It was a poor decision by Trahan which, as a result of dumb luck, worked. You can't praise a guy just because he makes a play when the COACHES ask him to stay on the tight end.

"But, he had FIVE STARS when we recruited him!!11" Yep, and that's exactly why you have an illogical boner for the guy.

Patrick Trahan is good and he will do good things for us. Unfortunately, "becoming the next consensus All-American linebacker for the Ole Miss Rebels" won't be one of them.

EDIT: Let me clarify. While I label the guy as a "message board idiot," he may be intelligent. Whenever I do these things I'm (usually) not actually calling the man behind the curtain an idiot. I just think that some styles of posts are "idiotic" but "idiotic posts" doesn't quite roll off the tongue like "Message Board Idiots."

I've made many an idiotic post myself. See: Most of my posts on this blog.

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From D Brandt:
“* Talked to defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix for the first time this spring, and he had good things to say about linebacker Patrick Trahan: “Trahan is much different. He’s in shape. (Strength coach Don) Decker has done a great job with him in the weight room. He’s faster and stronger. He’s actually striking people. I’m happy about Trahan. I’m fired up to see him be a starter.” It should be noted that Nix doesn’t throw around compliments very easily."

Also, here’s an interesting story about Trahan from a couple of years ago.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3361190

I don’t think there is much question that Trahan has the talent to be one of the premiere LB’s in college football this year. I’m expecting pretty big things from him The thing is though, I think our defense is good enough this year that he wouldn’t even have the opportunity to put up the same type of sick stats that P Willis did, because there are so many other playmakers on the defense. His Jr year stats aren’t incredibly impressive, but he was still learning the system.

by Charles2006 on Apr 7, 2009 5:09 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Don't misinterpret Juco's rant

He’s not saying Trahan isn’t a good or even great linebacker, he just thinks that opining that he’s at the “same level as” Patrick Willis with little or no evidence to support such a claim is illogical and characteristic of the dumber portion of our fanbase.

Take a picture, trick.

by The Ghost of Jay Cutler on Apr 7, 2009 5:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Also, Patrick wasn’t just the best linebacker in college football his senior year. He may have been the best linebacker for five years his senior year.

Pig Pen this here's Rubber Duck, and I'm about to put the hammer down.

by JimHalpert on Apr 8, 2009 12:17 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed. He still has a lot to prove. We have seen some good stuff out of him though. He played in 13 games as a freshman at AU. Tubs raved about his skills. It sounds like he showed up out of shape last year, which is something he has fixed this offseason.

by Charles2006 on Apr 7, 2009 5:32 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree, but at the same time a message board is place for people to post their opinions, right or wrong. So I find it a little juvenile for you to belittle them in a post when all they were doing was sharing their opinion, even if it may not be a realistic one. Treat your fellow rebel fans with respect, disagree with their opinion and write a post on rivals, but don’t bring it here and berate a poster for sharing what they think.

by dahdah10 on Apr 7, 2009 9:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

How was the poster "berated"

Aside from being lumped into a general group of “idiots” and having suggestions of being a naive thinker tossed about him, the poster was hardly attacked. Now, certainly, the ideas expressed within the post were attacked, but that’s what living in a free society is all about.

I certainly have no idea who “rebeledge” is. If I were to guess though, I’d say he’s a guy who’s as big an Ole Miss fan as the rest of us who either likes to shoot his opinions from the hip or is simply misinformed about the nuances of college football (or both). This doesn’t make him a terrible person, just a terrible message board poster.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Ole Miss fans are some of the conference’s dumbest. I don’t mean to suggest that we can’t read, write, or perform arithmetic; I mean that so many of us think we know football when we really don’t. I mean, why else do we have folks talking about “Kevin Sneed’s” breakout season, hootin’ and hollerin’ when “Gerald Pow” gets an encroachment penalty (“He’s just so aggressive!”), and thinking Coach O should have had another year at the helm?

This is exactly why we’re trying our durndest to “Change the Culture of Ole Miss Athletics.” It’s a long, brutal, and arduous process and there will be a few sacrificial lambs taken along the way. But trust us, it’s for the collective good.

Take a picture, trick.

by The Ghost of Jay Cutler on Apr 8, 2009 8:33 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs