The last time I saw GT win a bowl game Calvin Johnson was a freshman. The fact that it came against Kiffykins just made it all the sweeter.
Seriously, Clemson is the team that is going to beat an SEC team in this years bowl schedule. Well there is another 1-3 day. Stanford better fucking win the Rose Bowl or I am going to have to give up College Football. Well at least for this year.
I agree. I thought South Carolina was going to crush Michigan but it actually ended up being a good game. In other news, the 'Noles are finally getting points on the board and dominating the scoreboard as much as they have dominated statistically all game. I've been baffled by some of the play calling by NIU. Some of it has been awesome and gone swimmingly. However, some of it has been awful. These stupid QB runs up the middle need to stop.
That's the difference between linemen and linebackers in the MAC vs. a top tier college football program. Jordan Lynch made his living running like a fullback up the middle against UMass and Eastern Michigan this year. Though he led the nation in rushing, he was exposed as being a mediocre quarterback tonight. I have to give credit to Northern Illinois. They played with tremendous effort and the coaches went for broke. Unfortunately, the talent gap is too great at this point. As an alumnus of a MAC school and a follower of MAC athletics, I wish it were different. I think we are on the rise as four of our teams spent time in the BCS Top 25 at some point this year, but there is still a ways to go.
The problem is it is cyclical. And I think there are two reasons for that. 1) Coaching turnover. If I remember, you went to OU, so you are fortunate cause Solich isn't going anywhere at his age, but Kent and NIU just lost coaches, and Matt Campbell at Toledo is probably gone next year if they play well again. That makes it hard to maintain continuity cause you have to hit near HRs with each hire to maintain that level. Miami has had that problem following Hoeppner and Haywood leaving, BG was a near top 25 team not long ago that sucks again. NIU has been fortunate to reload, usually from hiring from within, so they've maintained some level of success. 2) Hit or miss talent. At the high levels, you can count on most of your 4 star and 5 star players to deliver. MAC teams are usually getting 3 star guys at best. So to get to a top 25 level, you hope a couple of those guys pan out, stick around (cause they aren't leaving early), and you make a run around a great senior class. The 4 and 5 star guys at top programs that don't pan out are usually still solid players, they just get recruited over. A 3 star player in the MAC probably isn't getting recruited over and there is then a weakness at that position. Basically, the margin for error is so small when the talent gap is as big as it is. Its hard to get consistently good talent when you are only nationally relevant every couple of years.
You also have to look at the NIU/FSU game as an aberration. FSU is highly athletic but highly undisciplined. I dont know what Jimbo Fisher uses for his play calling or offensive rotations. Does he pick from a hat? Use a psychic? NIU made no attempt to exploit FSUs weaknesses. They ran the same 3 or 4 plays over and over and over. And Clowney was offsides.
I agree with this 100%, but I do have to mention that I believe certain schools in conferences like the MAC have infrastructure for continued success in certain sports. There is no reason for a school like Toledo to not be a top mid-major college football program as long as they have a decent coach. They have a winning tradition, excellent facilities, they're in a somewhat urban setting, they have a passionate fan base, they play a home game against a BCS team every year (they're not just getting Kansas and Colorado any more. They play a home game against The U. in 2015), and they spend money to make money. For those same reasons, there's no reason why Ohio shouldn't be atop the MAC in basketball every year, (though we don't host BCS teams and we're not in an urban setting, but how many DI schools are?) FSU could have won last night by a lot more with better offensive play-calling. They didn't need to throw; their fullback was faster than NIU's entire defense. I cringe at the thought because it would give Herbstreit and all the other BCS apologists more "I told you so" ammo.
I don't care if he lined up next to he QB after that bullshit first down. I understand bad spots leading to first downs, I do not understand a ball that is clearly short of the chains after being spotted leading to a first down.
So we can basically retire the "but the Sec is the only real football!!!1!" argument for another year, right?
Called it. If they don't fuck things up, Louisville should get at least one national title contending season while Bridgewater is there.
Don't be butthurt cause Mark May said Oregon and Bama are the 2 best teams in the country. Oregon did what they wanted early, then when K-State managed to slow them down, they readjusted and played great D. They completely shut down a Heisman finalist. That was the best I've seen the Oregon D look in a big game.
A fast team with an explosive offense who's defense stepped up and played better than they did most season beat K-State? Wow that's crazy! There's absolutely no precedent for this at all! I'm so confused, my world no longer makes sense.
I get the Baylor analogy you are making, but I don't know why this is a matter of not validating Oregon. K-State had no problem with the explosive offenses of Texas Tech, OK St, or WVA.
WVA is terrible. And neither Tech or Okie State saw a significant step up from their defense. I think with both Baylor and Oregon APPEARED to have easily exploitable weaknesses on D and both teams took that away come gameday against the wild cats. In both games it appeared that K state was confused and had no real idea what to do when their game plan proved to underestimate their opponent. I will say Oregon showed a lot more resiliency on offense than I thought them capable of.
I'll say it right now, while fully acknowledging my homerism, I think it will be close like three points close, but I think the Irish are going to win Monday. The line calling me a deluded idiot starts here.
If Notre Dame's offense plays a decent game, they have a chance. Alabama's signature wins this year are an overrated LSU team and a game that Georgia would have won if their run defense had been anything but a soggy paper towel in the 4th quarter.