Ferrum Aeternum

I don't expect much out of Ole Miss this year, but at least there's a glimmer of optimism. The NCAA mess is finally over, and both coordinators are mercifully gone, replaced by the most overqualified pair in all of CFB (RichRod and Mike McIntyre). Unfortunately the team is so young at so many key positions, that expecting visible improvement this year is dubious. Our de facto starting QB is a redshirt freshman, and every other scholarship QB is a true freshman. Lots of potential in that group, but zero experience. Yikes. That's kind of the story for the whole offense - plenty of talented youngsters, but very little meaningful experience. Out of all those newcomers, I'm most excited about RB Jerrion Ealy, a two-sport superstar who turned down pro baseball and draws comparisons to Saquon Barkley. Unfortunately I don't even know the names of most of the guys who'll be trying to open holes for him as - yup, the OL is also loaded with freshmen. The defense should be much improved, which isn't difficult when you're the literal worst in the P5. Lots of upperclassmen, and for the first time since 2016, a defensive coaching staff with a working grasp of football fundamentals. I'm eager to see my favorite team's players do things like "line up properly," "take correct angles," and "tackle the ballcarrier." It's been a while! Record-wise - man, it's a shame, because as our typical schedule goes this one isn't bad. Non-conference opener at Memphis and home vs. Cal are the only challenging games out of conference, and the SEC draw isn't too awful either. Unfortunately I don't think it will matter in the final results. I'm seeing us as a 3-6 win team depending on how a few games shake out. Just getting to a bowl would be a stellar success given all the adversity around the program. PS - speaking of RichRod, it's interesting to see how the dynamic among he and the other coaches is already shaping up. Our HC Matt Luke is a really good dude, and was probably the right person to lead the program through the last couple of years, but his coaching acumen pales in comparison to the top guys in the league. According to our inside guys, RichRod is basically running practice and appears to be the de facto coach-in-waiting, which I suppose is fine. He's at least got high level experience and some pedigree.

The Walmart thing is a token gesture. Walmart, like GameStop and other brick-and-mortar retailers, does a fraction of the physical game sales it once did. Video game displays at Walmart stores now consist of one endcap and maybe 3/4 of an aisle in the electronics department. Knowing how they operate (because I used to work for them) they were likely already planning to reduce the cost of in-store advertising for games anyway. This way they can claim to be "doing something" while making no adjustments to their existing firearm sales policy, since unlike physical video game sales, that part of their business isn't shrinking.

Prolific use of a bubbler can lead to that side effect.

Best tweet I saw last night - "This offseason is undefeated."

It's baffling to me how many fans grouse about the possibility of extending the nets. It's not as if it affects visibility to any measurable degree (the eyes and brain adjust pretty quickly). This is not even something that should be up for debate. It's a very easy fix. Also has little or nothing to do with smartphones and people not paying attention. A line drive traveling 100+ mph is not easy to dodge even if one is paying full attention and has elite reflexes. It's the dumbest of dumb arguments.

The cynic in me says the new front office had nowhere to go but up. Still, this is very exciting as a fan. The rebuild is going about as well as anyone could have hoped.

Yes, the tutorial is a little slow. I didn't really notice how much so until my 2nd playthrough. I definitely got hooked the further I went. Things get really interesting once you start uncovering clues about the big picture, i.e. how things got this way.

Pretty sure Trisk meant AAC.

I am really stoked to see these new-look Grizzlies in action. Grit 'n Grind is officially dead and I for one could not be happier.

It's one of those open world games that's as long as you want it to be. You could probably finish the main story in 20 hour or so, maybe less? I think my first playthrough took about 50 because I tried to do all the side quests and collectibles. It's one of those games that really encourages exploration. The environment itself is really cool, but the backstory is even better. I wanted to turn over every rock, so to speak, just to get a bit more information about the world and how all the past events went down. ETA: I'll also add my endorsement for the Frozen Wilds expansion, as others mentioned upthread. It's a superb addition to the base game.

That is mind-blowing. I mean, for the average fan all these NBA cap shenanigans are difficult to grasp sometimes. But a team's front office!? No excuse.

I consider HZD to be a master class in video game design. Nothing else released in the last 10-15 years checks every single box for me the way that game does.

I think I'm a Facebook fan of that blog? I'll check it out. I've been a fan of the team since '82.

Agree on all. No need to give away too many of those young tradeable assets on bullpen help, but it still feels like something is needed and that the right guy at the back end could make a world of difference. Minter was so awful to start the year that I'm still not sure I trust him at this point to be the guy. Your point on Ynoa is a good one; someone needs to emerge from among all those power arms we have floating around AAA. I had, and still have really high hopes for Wright and Sobotka, but they've both struggled this year.

They must fix the bullpen if they hope to challenge for a title, but yeah, the way they're playing lately is pretty exciting from the perspective of a fan. The prevailing wisdom is they'll pick up a closer (at least) by the trade deadline, but I'd rather they go ahead and make a move now if one is on the table. They can't afford for Jackson, Minter or whoever to blow 3 or 4 more games before the end of July.