College Football Discussion

[Jew]

With one loss and the SEC title game still ahead, they are still very much in the title race. Best part of that: Alabama fans now have to become USC fans.

[Hilltopper39]

^Yeah, there is a LOT of football left to be played, Notre Dame still has USC, Oregon still has Stanford, Oregon State and probably USC, Kansas State still has Baylor and Texas, then Alabama still has to play a one loss Georgia in the SEC title game.

 

Don't sleep on Georgia, they're arguably playing some of the best football in the country right now, and if they can pull off an upset over Alabama, then I would think they would get the BCS Championship bid over other 1-loss teams.

[Jew]

^Agreed. In terms of BCS computers (whether I agree with it or not ), the SEC team would be the strongest 1-loss team followed closely behind Oregon (after they lose to USC ).

[CoasterGuy06]

I'm still shocked that #4-#9 in the BCS are all SEC teams. That's quite the logjam.

[Hilltopper39]

I never had a real dog in the fight so at this point I'm just pulling for complete mass chaos where about 8 teams finish with 1 loss. The match up I really wanted to see was Alabama vs. Oregon but that may or may not happen at this point.

[Meteornotes]

I'm just having a good time watching Notre Dame. As always, I hold out for the best match up in the championship game: Two teams that are actually competitive so it's not a boring blow out.

 

dt

[Hilltopper39]

^Notre Dame is kind of a funny team to me personally, even though they are a top 5 team with a legit chance at the National Championship I don't think I've watched them play one quarter of football all season. I watched about 5 minutes of the game in Ireland just to check out that whole scene, but other than that they're a team that for whatever reason I just don't really care about. I'll probably watch the USC game because at that point it will have some major implications on the BCS Championship race, but otherwise any other team that is on tv seems more interesting to me at this point.

[Meteornotes]

^My ex-wife is a huge ND fan, and I went to a lot of games with her, so I kind of turned into a fan. I've decided that I'll be following them from now on, since I can't really support the team I was a fan of at this point - Penn State.

 

dt

[Hilltopper39]

^Yeah, it's nothing against Notre Dame, I like their coach, they have a lot of really good like able players, and they have a great program, they're just very uninteresting to me at this point for whatever reason.

[Jew]

Someone had to have sold their soul to Touchdown Jesus to make Notre Dame's season possible. So many close games and not a lot of offense. Hope USC can end that run!

[SmokiesFriend]

I'm just having a good time watching Notre Dame. .... dt

 

Just to jump in for a second, I have to like ND (usually just FB). Having my whole family born & raised in SB makes one a natrual fan...But we can still love other teams as well.

[larrygator]

Someone had to have sold their soul to Touchdown Jesus to make Notre Dame's season possible. So many close games and not a lot of offense.

 

Very similar to Florida's season.

[Hilltopper39]

^You Florida fans never cease to amaze me, the Gators are 9-1 right now but everyone around here in Gator Country acts like this is the worst team in two decades and the season is already a failure! I mean yeah they kind of scrapped by against ULL (who is actually a pretty good team) but they have a cupcake this week then a huge game against FSU for a BCS bowl bid potentially maybe even a BCS championship! Sit back and smell the roses for a few more years before you wind up on probation and the season really is a waste .

[Jew]

^It's the SEC. They'll be fine.

 

Seriously though, this is another example of all the shady people around college football and basketball.

Edited November 15, 2012 by Jew

[CoasterGuy06]

And Alabama is right back in it without having to cheer for Kiffin!

[Jew]

^Sad but true.

 

I'm not even really sure I can cheer for Kiffin anymore. I'm definitely at the breaking point...beating Notre Dame, winning whatever crappy 3rd tier bowl USC gets sent to, and having his dad "retire" will change my mind. He's a great recruiter and offensive mind, but probably too wrapped up in calling offensive plays for his own good.

[ernierocker]

^I could of helped you come to that conclusion a couple of years ago.

 

Sounds like it is official, Dooley is out at Tennessee. Pretty much the only home run hire for us right now would be Gruden, but I can't fathom why he would turn down his cushy ESPN job and come to Tennessee. Still there is some connections there that would make him interested in the job.

[Jew]

^To be fair, Tennessee fans were pretty upset when he left because they realized the program finally showed a tiny bit of life for the first time in ages in that one year. He definitely would have done better than Dooley!

 

I don't think he's a bad coach, I just think he's still learning on the job. This season he basically caved under the pressure of being #1 and went away from everything that worked so well the previous season. Went from playing to win to playing not to lose, which NEVER works. All the stupid things like the injury reports and switching jerseys were completely unnecessary. The biggest problem, however, I think was returning to a policy of limiting tackling in practice to prevent injuries.

 

He's going to get a chance to finish the season on a high note and enter his biggest off season yet. Hold the recruiting class together, keep the top draft eligible people on the team (top RB, CB, and WR), have his dad retire, and learn from this season...and we'll see what happens. USC won't even be favored to with the PAC-12 south next year with a new QB, center, free safety, defensive end, and potentially those other loses. Given the failure of this season, he's gone next year unless USC wins the PAC-12.

Edited November 18, 2012 by Jew

[ernierocker]

To go from preseason #1, to likely losing 5 games heading into the bowl game, I would say that is a pretty poor job of coaching. Were the expectations set too high? Definitely, I said that from the beginning.

 

And your facts are little off about Kiffin providing the first bit of success to UT for the first time in ages. Look at the records for UT before Kiffin started. 7-6 was the third worst finishing record UT had had since the 80's. The only thing Kiffin did for UT was come right in and hit some home runs with recruiting. Nothing different than Fulmer had done for years, but he definitely raised some eyebrows with Tennessee fans that he was able to do so well his first season and for the 2nd season before he left to go west.

 

I definitely will not argue with you about Kiffin being able to do a better job than Dooley has. Dooley is just clueless. Good man though. Bad coach unfortunately.

[Jew]

^No question it is horrible coaching. USC is by far the most predictable team in the country and probably one of the least prepared too. Talent kept them around in all the loses, but the same tendencies reared their ugly heads every single time and prevented USC from winning. I can count on Barkley throwing a pick or two trying to force the ball to someone (looking right at him the entire time) while another receiver is wide open, Marquise Lee not protecting the ball, and the defense giving up a 3rd or 4th and long because of that soft zone and poor tackling. Yet despite all that, USC is so talented they were still in a position to win all those games when they were actually playing aggressive...but never could sustain it before one of those bad habits came back. Which falls on the coaches.

 

Like I said, the rest of this season and the offseason is the defining time of Kiffin's career. Change has to happen or he's done. He needs to fire his dad, go back to full contact practices, and get his head out of the damn playsheet so much. I'm OK with him calling his plays, but sometimes he needs to just ignore that sheet and stick with what is right in front of him if it is working.

[ernierocker]

^That is pretty much what we experienced with Kiffin at Tennessee. Monte's defense just doesn't work on the college level.

 

Well here we go again. 3 SEC teams in the top 5 of the BCS standings.

 

If, USC beats Notre Dame, Alabama beats Auburn, Georgia beats Georgia Tech, and Florida beats Florida State, we will have two SEC teams in the NC game again.

[Jew]

^Yeah, it will definitely be bittersweet if USC beats Notre Dame. One on hand, I'd love for nothing more than for USC to spoil ND's season. On the other hand, I would hate seeing an all SEC title game again.

[larrygator]

^You Florida fans never cease to amaze me, the Gators are 9-1 right now but everyone around here in Gator Country acts like this is the worst team in two decades and the season is already a failure! I mean yeah they kind of scrapped by against ULL (who is actually a pretty good team) but they have a cupcake this week then a huge game against FSU for a BCS bowl bid potentially maybe even a BCS championship! Sit back and smell the roses for a few more years before you wind up on probation and the season really is a waste .

 

Well I'm not one of those fans. I certainly don't feel this is the worst team in two decades and none of my Gator friends think the season is a failure, we love this over achieving team that doesn't give up. Was Florida even ranked pre-season, sounds like you are associating with some insane Florida fans with ridiculous expectations. I remember the Zook years. I also take nothing for granted as I was a student in the late 90's before Spurrier. All I said was we had an underperforming offense.

 

And Joey, I'll be rooting for the Men of Troy this weekend.

Edited November 19, 2012 by larrygator

[ParkTrips]

If notre dame and uga both lose (very plausible), Alabama vs another SEC team who didn't win their division (Florida)?

 

I think it will still be Alabama vs Oregon, any other predictions? However after watching Stanford slow down Oregon, I'm not sure bama-Oregon is appealing as it once was..

[Jew]

^Oregon has NEVER done well against teams with a solid front 7. I've said it a few times in this thread already: get a push up the middle and read option offenses can't do anything. But assuming Oregon beats Oregon State and then UCLA, I think that will give them enough of a jump in the computers to be #2 vs the winner of the SEC title game.