The College Football Thread 12/20 - 12/30

[Edwin MacPhisto]

Virginia has hired recently-booted Bowling Green head coach Gregg Brandon as offensive coordinator. I look forward to the spread option arriving in Charlottesville just in time for the rest of D-I to figure out how to defend it.

[HarleyQuinn]

Speaking of coaching moves...

 

Illinois State hired DC Brock Spack (Purdue) as their new Head Coach.

 

North Carolina A&T hired George Ragsdale as their new Head Coach. He served as their RB Coach.

[Damaramu]

Alabama gets the chance to pound another ACC team going into next season.

It'd be cool if this was the first game of the season though. I remember when USC and Va Tech kicked off the season a few years ago. That was awesome and each Thursday night game has been progressively crappier each season since.

[Psycho Penguin]

I'd say both kickoffs the last 2 years have sucked real bad. LSU vs Miss State and NC State vs the other USC, I believe. I didn't even watch those and I'll watch almost any football.

[Psycho Penguin]

God dammit I thought this bowl started at 1. Just turned it on. 13-7 Navy. Navy going 2-0 against Wake this year would be something. NAVY IN THE ACC!

[Celtic Guardian]

God dammit I thought this bowl started at 1. Just turned it on. 13-7 Navy. Navy going 2-0 against Wake this year would be something. NAVY IN THE ACC!

 

Paul Johnson coaching Georgia Tech is sort of like having Navy in the ACC already.

[Psycho Penguin]

That's true, although I was saying it more so Maryland would be forced to play them once in a while.

[Bored]

For once I'd like to hear an announcer talk about how shitty a particular bowl committee was at hosting their event.

 

New Mexico Bowl has been fairly entertaining. The St. Petersburg Bowl is only interesting for the patchwork baseball turf they're playing on.

[Psycho Penguin]

For once I'd like to hear an announcer talk about how shitty a particular bowl committee was at hosting their event.

 

New Mexico Bowl has been fairly entertaining. The St. Petersburg Bowl is only interesting for the patchwork baseball turf they're playing on.

 

It doesn't make any sense for them to say a bowl committee was shitty at hosting the event. I missed the NM Bowl and it seemed entertaining, but I needed sleep. This USF bowl seems terrible. I don't understand the concept of putting a bowl game in a big ass dome. If USF can't draw a crowd, no one will be able to. They're lucky they got USF in there.

[Bored]

Just like last year, Memphis was the lowest ranked team in the country to play in a bowl game according to the BCS rankings. This year they were ranked 96th overall below the likes of four win teams New Mexico and Wyoming.

[Damaramu]

Wow, too many bowls. I really wish the qualifying criteria was changed to 7-5 and not 6-6 though. I think it kind of sucks you put a .500 team in a bowl and then if they lose they're sub-.500. A sub-.500 team doesn't belong in a bowl.

 

So ESPN had this debate earlier about whether the Heisman voting was fair or not. Apparently they thought Tebow was shafted for getting the most first place votes and not winning. I swear, they'll look for any bit of controversy to jump on and make something about. Any one of the three winning would've been completely fair.

 

Oh....nice job Spiders.

[Psycho Penguin]

I know some teams had to be 7-5, like Clemson, but it's because they had 2 wins over FCS teams and only 1 counts. I agree, with a 12 game schedule, it's completely ridiculous 6 wins makes you eligible.

[HarleyQuinn]

I was bored and here are the only bowl games that featuring 2 teams with 10 or more wins...

 

Poinsettia Bowl: Boise State (12-0) vs. TCU (10-2)

Rose Bowl: USC (11-1) vs. Penn State (11-1)

Sugar Bowl: Utah (12-0) vs. Alabama (12-1)

Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State (10-2) vs. Texas (11-1)

GMAC Bowl: Tulsa (10-3) vs. Ball State (12-1)

BCS Championship Game: Florida (12-1) vs. Oklahoma (12-1)

 

I was surprised there were only 6 games and even more surprised that two are "low" level tier bowls (Poinsettia & GMAC). I guess it's kind of fitting now that the GMAC is right before the BCS Championship though.

 

As for the 6-6 issue, I think it's made to be more dramatic than usual in part because some of the usual solid teams finished at 6-6 and made bowls (Notre Dame, Kentucky, Vanderbilt). There are only 8 teams who finished at 6-6 and made Bowl Games out of 68 or whatever total teams.

 

Note: NC State made it and had the 10th best record in the ACC of 6-6.

Note: Northern Illinois are 6-6 but went 5-3 in their conference to push them ahead of Bowling Green (4-4 IC, 6-6 total).

Note: Notre Dame at 6-6 made it because of sheer name value.

Note: Vanderbilt and Kentucky made it at 6-6 from the SEC but co-owned the 7th best total record. Kentucky went 2-6 IC...

Note: Florida Atlantic made it in at 6-6 largely because they beat UL Lafayette (6-6 but 5-2 IC).

 

If you went with the 7-5 benchmark here's the # of teams that would've made it.

ACC: 9

Big 12: 7

Big East: 6

Big 10: 7

CUSA: 4

Independent: 1

MAC: 4

MWC: 5

Pac-10: 5

SEC: 6

Sun Belt: 1

WAC: 4

 

So that'd be 59 totals teams (So you'd have to hand select a 6-6 team to fill out the 30th bowl or shaft a 7-5 team to fill out 29) and you'd have to cut down the 34 Bowls to 30 or 29. What if you finish with too few teams at 7-5 to fill out those slots? Then you run into the same situation where you select "undeserving" 6-6 teams and this hoopla gets raised all over again.

[Psycho Penguin]

I think the easy solution is DON'T HAVE SO MANY BOWL GAMES. I like them as much as anyone, but maybe an Independence Bowl with Louisana Tech vs NIU is proof that maybe there's too many bowl games. Over/under on how many fans being in the stands for that game?

 

Also, you left out the money aspect. And when the hell has Vanderbilt been consistently solid? This is their first bowl game since before I was born.

[Bored]

Southern Miss receiver Deandre Brown broke his leg in the New Orleans Bowl. What was freaky, if you dare watch the video, is it happened without being hit. He was attempting to make leaping catch and then *snap*. He was one of the top freshman receivers in the country and definitely has the size and talent to be an NFL wideout so hopefully he can recover.

 

 

Unrelated, I think Shaun King went to the Paul Maguire School of Broadcasting where laughing after every other play is used as substitute for doing any actual analysis.

[RepoMan]

I think the easy solution is DON'T HAVE SO MANY BOWL GAMES. I like them as much as anyone, but maybe an Independence Bowl with Louisana Tech vs NIU is proof that maybe there's too many bowl games. Over/under on how many fans being in the stands for that game?

 

I find it kind of sad that Independence Bowl is stuck with such a crappy match up when it's one of the more established non-New Years Day or BCS bowl games. I don't know why they felt the need to add any new games like in St. Pete and DC.

[iggymcfly]

Jesus Christ. I'd heard that injury mentioned and I had to see it for myself, and it's even more horrifying than I imagined. Just absolutely disgusting to see someone's leg do that.

 

On the "too many bowls" thing, I agree wholeheartedly. They need to at least cut it down to the point where less than half of the teams make bowls. These are the bowls this year they could easily eliminate:

 

New Mexico Bowl: 7-5 Fresno State vs. 6-6 Colorado State

St. Petersburg Bowl: 6-6 Memphis vs. 7-5 South Florida

Independence Bowl: 6-6 Northern Illinois vs. 7-5 Louisiana Tech

 

Then, on top of that, they could do some consolidating, eliminating the following teams from the pool:

6-6 Southern Miss (I don't care that they beat Troy, they didn't belong in a bowl)

6-6 Florida Atlantic

6-6 NC State (no, they're not really that bad this year, but it should be tough luck for you when you finish 10th in your conference, especially when said conference hasn't won a BCS game in a decade)

6-6 Kentucky (no team that goes 2-6 in conference deserves a bowl game)

 

That would leave Rutgers/East Carolina in the Liberty Bowl and Central Michigan/Troy in the New Orleans Bowl. The Motor City Bowl and the Papajohns bowl will be eliminated. I know the Motor City Bowl has a little more tradition than the New Orleans Bowl, but I like the idea of a southern bowl for the Sun Belt champ to go to. No one on earth wants to go to a bowl game in Detroit.

[UZI Suicide]

That injury is gruesome. I doubt he'll ever be quite the same again even if he is able to come back. Crazy how it happened too. The guy was just running. If I was a football player, seeing shit like that would always be in the back of my mind when I was sprinting down the field.

[AboveAverage484]

That injury is gruesome. I doubt he'll ever be quite the same again even if he is able to come back. Crazy how it happened too. The guy was just running. If I was a football player, seeing shit like that would always be in the back of my mind when I was sprinting down the field.

 

Shit, it just happened while he was running! Any of us do that, that's what kind of freaked me out thinking that it could happen with any physical activity involving running.

[Psycho Penguin]

That's a million times worse than the HHH quad injuries. Hope the kid recovers.

[Psycho Penguin]

Boise vs TCU tonight, yay. And ECW is on a "best of" episode so I don't even have to worry about missing it. I think Boise will win, but it should be a good game.

[RepoMan]

That would leave Rutgers/East Carolina in the Liberty Bowl and Central Michigan/Troy in the New Orleans Bowl. The Motor City Bowl and the Papajohns bowl will be eliminated. I know the Motor City Bowl has a little more tradition than the New Orleans Bowl, but I like the idea of a southern bowl for the Sun Belt champ to go to. No one on earth wants to go to a bowl game in Detroit.

 

Esp w/ the MAC Championship Game being in Detroit. Often the MAC Champ gets "rewarded" with a return trip to Ford Field.

 

[Bored]

Now really ESPN, did a game between the #9 and #11 teams in the BCS rankings really need the input of JETSFAVRE4PREZ?

[Psycho Penguin]

I'm still not going to forget "A LOSS TO MIAMI (OH) MIGHT DROP BALL STATE DOWN THE RANKINGS."

 

TCU is dominating this game despite being down 16-7. Yay TCU and their shitty offense. This is why I picked Boise. TCU dominated Utah also and lost.

[Damaramu]

Did Notre Dame seriously just win a bowl game?

[Broward83]

...they played Hawaii. Let's not get overboard with it...when they beat say.. a solid SEC or Pac 10 team in a bowl game, I'll care.

 

..fucking Golden Domer bastards...

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Hey hey! Alright. 'Bout time they show up in a bowl game. This is the start of the big turnaround. Should be top ten in the preseason poll next year.

[HarleyQuinn]

Eh... Notre Dame beat up on a 6-6 (Now 6-7) Hawaii team that only made that bowl because it's their home turf. Hawaii also has a bad pass defense year after year, which is a shame because their D-Line and LB can make great plays but the whole team lacks that consistency on defense to make at least a solid play the whole game play after play.

 

Clausen threw 28 times and completed for 401 yards... that first deep bomb to Golden Tate came off a seriously weak route fake that the CB didn't have the pure speed to keep with afterwards. Any team with a halfway good CB would've been on Tate throughout that whole route.

[Psycho Penguin]

Hawaii was 7-6. This was the second team ND beat with a winning record this year (Navy being the other)

[Fökai]

Eh... Notre Dame beat up on a 6-6 (Now 6-7) Hawaii team that only made that bowl because it's their home turf. Hawaii also has a bad pass defense year after year, which is a shame because their D-Line and LB can make great plays but the whole team lacks that consistency on defense to make at least a solid play the whole game play after play.

 

Clausen threw 28 times and completed for 401 yards... that first deep bomb to Golden Tate came off a seriously weak route fake that the CB didn't have the pure speed to keep with afterwards. Any team with a halfway good CB would've been on Tate throughout that whole route.

 

It doesn't help that their secondary is undersized year after year. Hawai'i has a tendency to take solid two-way athletes from high school and move them to receiver, the obviously more glamorous position with the offense they run. This wouldn't be a problem, except that the Warriors run 5-wide with a depth chart that's sometimes 10-deep. What's left are fat running backs who can't run, and short corners who get beat on deep routes on a consistent basis.

 

I'll agree on the ND assessment, though - the Warriors have looked like an absolute mess all year under McMackin. I don't take any stock in what the Irish did yesterday, and I expect them to fail again next season after being pumped up all spring.