Arena 2024-25 NCAA Football Discussion

LOL @ Michigan

Come on Badgers! Don't pull a Michigan!

 

I used to pull for ECU until I actually moved to Greenville. Now that I'm surrounded by them, I pretty much couldn't care less one way or the other. It's one of those deals where I try to like the school in spite of their fans and it gets harder every year.

As for App., they probably just laid claim to the best college football team in NC. While that's not saying much, it's always enough to get the ACC fans in NC ticked off.

 

Apppa lachia State

 

I just got back from Alabama's beat down of Western Carolina... 52-6 (and it could have been much worse)... Finally the Alabama seems to have its head in the game, I realize that it was a stomping of a nobody but we looked very good, no stupid penalties (down from last year a lot) hard running, and good tackling, and best of all, no more Ken Darby up the middle for no gain... I am satisfied in Saban's revamping of the team, and would say it was money well spent.

Now on to a game I was fairly worried about: Vandy.

Also, I hate you Kansas State, couldn't yall have just held on for 5 more stinking minutes. (Go USF next week)

Ohh well, great week in Football: (K State notwithstanding)

Michigan goes down in flames to a nobody
Notre Dame is spanked by Georgia Tech (LOL @ Fatty)
Tennessee goes down to Cal (LOL @ Fat Phil/the Great Pumpkin)

 

Yeah ... Notre Dame looked pathetic today. And I didn't see the whole game, so can someone confirm this for me: Did Tennessee ever actually play defense in that game?

 

Rohniss, I'd probably wait until you play somebody other than Western Carolina before you definitively decide it was money well spent.

Whats sad is that I'm actually back in Columbia this weekend... and wasn't able to go to the game At least it was a win (28-14 over LA-Lafayette) but the defense struggled from what I heard and thats going to have to change next week against Georgia. And next week we get QB Blake Mitchell back... until he does something stupid again, at least. Can't ever trust Carolina QBs for some reason. Particularly not starting ones. *sigh*

Big game coming up Monday still...

 

Typical Tennessee loss... throwing two yard screen passes on third and long and giving up at the end of the game instead of laying it all on the line.

Did Tennessee ever actually play defense in that game?

No. I'm not sure if they even know how to tackle. Granted, the California offense has some incredibly quick players (one of them [I believe they said it was Forsett] ran track in high school and had the 4th fastest 100 meter dash time in the country)... but it was really pathetic. However, Cal had a touchdown on defense and one on special teams. Without those, it would have been tied.

 

Just thought I'd give a shout out to Kentucky's 50-10 victory over Eastern Kentucky. 256 rushing yards. Rafael Little looks like the NFL back we all thought he was two years ago. Andre Woodson goes 20-29, 250 yards, three touchdowns and no picks. And the first offensive play of the season was a 51 yard touchdown pass from Woodson to Dickie Lyons, Jr.! This could very well be an interesting year for my Cats.

 

No, I definitely see a 1000% improvement in terms of physicality and no mental mistakes, our red zone play selection was far better, and the team looked much better all the way around. (I am comparing Alabama vs Louisana-Monroe, Duke, and Florida International, not LSU, Auburn, or Tennessee). I also mentioned that I did realize that the team we played wasn't very good. Those 3 games last year were very sloppy and Duke hung in there with us until the mid-3rd quarter (actually leading once)

 

You know it, you tell the story. You tell the whole damn world this is BEAR TERRITORY!

'Nuff said.

Well not really. This wasn't just for Cal; this was for the Pac-10. This was truly a sweet victory. In your pathetic face, SEC!

I'd like to thank everyone who doubted the Bears' ability to play against the physical south. They made it that much more fun to beat up the Vols.

Cal's offense was above-par, if not superb. They have such an array of weapons each way you turn! Forsett was excellent (160 yards rushing), impact freshman Jahvid Best looked like a jet, and, well, DeSean was DeSean. I'm actually afraid he won't see another punt this season. The defense finally pulled it together in the end, which was a relief.

Speaking of physical, the Vols' game backfired. Dunno who it was, but that horrendous injury late in the game came from knocking into each other. They should be a little more careful when they're piling on top of someone.

Roll on you Bears!


[image=http://espn-i.starwave.com/media/apphoto/acd29785-1274-4b9f-98ec-a5c2387ed077.jpg]

 

Texas A&M 38
Montana St 7

Aggies started off slow (like we usually do). We've got some issues with our offensive line. They were not holding up tonight at all. McGee (QB) ran 60-some yds for a TD. I'm pretty sure he's invincible too. On another run, he flipped in the air landing awkwardly and still jumped right up. He also ran into a guy trying to tackle him (he didn't have anywhere to go around the guy) instead of going down.

Defense took awhile to get warmed up, but once they were warmed up, they did pretty well. They need to work on plays where the other QB throws close passes cuz we were awful at coverage on those.

Mark Dodge is going to be a beast on the field this year. He had a hand in 14 tackles.

 

Good solid win for Wisconsin. Started off a little slow. The defense needs to shore things up a little. But just keep that every game go 1-0 mentality and things should be pretty good.

 

They should be a little more careful when they're piling on top of someone.

Whoa...easy there...

Anyone who has ever played football knows that one of the worst things you can do as a player is let up or try to play more carefull. That is when you get hurt, just as bad. The CAL player (i believe it was Forsett) was not out of bounds yet. There was no piling on.

That being said...I am glad that CAL got the win. Forsett looked great. The defense could look better though. That would have been a losing effort against USC.

I don't know how anyone could say that the Pac-10 is a soft conference, with USC, CAL, UCLA, Oregon, and Arizona State. UCLA is getting better, and ranked. The rest I mentioned have been regulars in bowl games and BCS conversations. Anyone remember when Oregon got screwed in favor of a two loss Nebraska team that played in the national title game? Only to get blown out. The same Nebraska team that is about to get spanked again by USC.

 

That's what I've been trying to say all along. But I did feel extremely bad for the DE when he was injured.

 

The PAC-10 IS a soft conference. Cal is probably the second or best team in the PAC-10 this year, Tennessee isn't the 2nd best team in the SEC by a long shot. (Tennessee is a mid-major SEC team this year on the lower end: along with Arkansas, us (Alabama), Georgia, Kentucky, SCAR, etc. the mid majors are still very good, and capable of knocking off LSU or Florida (who is probably the two most talented teams in the SEC and country this year). Also, USC had MAJOR (for "the greatest team eva !1111!") struggles against a no-body (Idaho). There is also a MAJOR talent drop off from Cal-USC to the "rest" of the PAC-10.

In short, beat Florida or LSU and then talk trash. Just because you were humiliated by Tennessee last year (who BTW wasn't all that great then either (see bowl loss to Penn State)) Don't get me wrong, I love to see the Great Pumpkin go down but you are acting ridiculous.

The SEC is clearly a much superior conference, top to bottom, to everyone else. Full Stop. End. Always has been, always will be, and we prove it in the bowl games not week 1. The reason that ABC/ESPN and the PAC-10/Big-10(+1) are so anti-Playoffs is because they know they will be exposed as frauds, therefore ABC will lose money.

The Hierarchy is SEC, Big XII, Big 10(+1), PAC-10, ACC, then the "rest".

 

I have to agree with Rohn, here. Tennessee just isn't what people think this year. It's a name, and nothing more. And with Ainge hurt, they're even more vulnerable. This year in the SEC, there are 7-9 teams that are legitimately better than the Vols, and would have put up more of a fight. If you look at other games, Auburn played awful and still be a Big 12 team. Georgia looked sharp and beat Oklahoma State. For God's sake, even KENTUCKY beat Clemson, a team that was good enough to compete for the ACC title in a bowl game last year.

That says it all. The SEC is the best conference in the nation, and the debate's not even that close.

 

I wouldn't call being two time Defending National Champs a 'nobody', especially in a division that, unlike D-1, went through a playoff to determine the national champions. I think this showed that Michigan, more than anything, still hadn't managed (much like their Rose Bowl) to actually focus on anything more than their own argument why they should have had a second chance at OSU in the title game instead of Florida.

And on that note, a thought for UM: Admittedly, OSU got embarrassed in the national title game. So with this loss to the 1-AA champs (even though it's not "1-AA" any more), how badly do you think you would have been embarrassed if you'd played Florida? I don't think you'd want to know. Especially after this loss.

 

There's so much crap up there it's making me suffocate.


Anyways, DeSean Jackson's punt return TD made that his sixth career. In 27 career attempts.

In other words, that's a TD almost every 4 returns.

 

This year in the SEC, there are 7-9 teams that are legitimately better than the Vols

who?

LSU
Florida
Georgia
Auburn
Alabama ?
Arkansas ?
South Carolina?
kentucky ?


while being a very good conference the SEc is always overrated.

also Kansas State is somewhere from 6-8 in the Big 12, so not an impressive win for Auburn

 

If they were to play a series of some kind, I personally would take the SEC against the PAC-10, but overall all the major conferences are of roughly equivalent strength, especially at the top. (The Big East and the ACC are probably the weakest of the BCS groups, but there are some teams in those conferences that would certainly worry me if they were on my team's schedule.)

Consider the two best teams in each conference:

ACC: Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech
Big 10: Wisconsin, Ohio State
Big XII: Oklahoma, Texas
Big East: West Virginia, Louisville
Pac-10: USC, Cal
SEC: LSU, Florida

Those are some pretty darned good teams, and any of them could beat any other. Sure, the worst in some conference might be better than the worst in another, but who honestly cares if Baylor or Vanderbilt stinks more? The conferences are close enough to be competitive with one another when a team in one conference is playing a team that has a similar standing in another conference, and that's about all that matters. I think it's safe to say that nobody who's a fan of a conference is going to have their opinion swayed, so what's the point of arguing?



(Oh, and about Jackson's punt return: I sincerely hope it doesn't mess him up. After Antonio Perkins ran back three against UCLA a few years ago, he was next to useless. He always tried to break a big one, and he forgot that the best way to do that was to actually run forwards. It wasn't like those were his first TD returns either.)

 

FSU is probably better than GT

 

Yeah but many of the Big XII games last year were close. I think Kansas St. lost to the Aggies in the last second of an overtime game with the Aggies blocking a field goal. I'm pretty sure they almost beat Texas last year as well.

So as far as looking at their record from last year, meh, the Big XII did a lot of beating up on each other and a lot of close games.

The three games the Aggies lost, one occured with a Tech TD at the last second of the game, the other two were lost by a total of 3 points and also went down to the wire. If it weren't for bad coaching decisions on our part we would've had Oklahoma.

 

I'd say it's a push. I gave the nod to GT because they played well against Notre Dame and were better then the 'Noles last season.

 

Don't worry. If you've seen his returns last year (which most haven't), he does that almost every time. That's his "specialty," his trademark move(s). For him, whatever works works. Sometimes running forward can't get it done. Eventually, after juking out a few defenders Jackson makes his way to the end zone, so this last one was a little different.

But come on, you have to admit that backstep he did was awesome.

 

before I leave

FSU 24, Clemson 17. I hope not but I don't have much confidence in the currnet team