PAC Ten Media Daze

Only slightly OT, and wwaaayyyy too earlier in the life of this blog for cross conference sniping, but I just came across this story from ESPN’s Ted Miller that begged for comment.  Seems new PAC 10 16 12 commissioner Larry Scott Ari Gold decided to take his head coaches on a road trip to the Big Apple.   Team building exercise?  Perhaps.  Ropes courses and campfires?  Possibly.

Since even bad publicity is better than the media Sahara that is PAC 10 football (home of the 1:00 am eastern kickoff), the conference decided to stage a photo opportunity in front of the NASDAQ billboard.  No, there is no relation between the PAC and the DAQ, and yes we are in a recession caused, in part, by Wall Street, but Ari apparently likes the visual association of the PAC with unearned, undeserved money (he’s thinking of YOU, Kiffin).  Witness:

 Left to right with the observations here:

 First, Mike Riley looks affable, friendly . . . and lost.  You know what they say about how a team takes on the personality of its coach? Well, Oregon State 2009 defense was a quick study.

Next we have Neuheisel.  His pants are tenting, and he’s leaning into Erickson a little too much for our liking here.  Dennis, on the other hand, appears intrigued.

Then we have the guy from Cal (Medvedev . . . whatever) and what appears to be a random, portly, tourist (further research indicates that the old guy is actually Oregon’s Chip Kelly on a particularly bad hair day).

OK, Ari Gold in a cheap suit, then Sarkisian in a very tight, very put together, look.  Stoops beside him, looking like a Neanderthal.  Sark and Stoops side by side is such a striking juxtaposition of the ying and yang, the Apollonian and the Dionysian, the (and we mean this in the most innocent of ways) feminine and the masculine that it jars the senses.

But the next two are the best:  Stanford’s Harbaugh and USC’s Kiffin.   First, both look miserable, which further jars the brain by simultaneously evoking sympathy for Harbaugh and high-five-slapping joy in the direction of Lame Lane.  The photo is made all the better by the threatening below the belt hand gesture that all UT fans wish Harbaugh would consummate, accompanied by his best Gene Hackman from Unforgiven voice, “I’m gonna hurt you. And not gentle like before… but bad.”

-tbone