College Football Thread

[Biesterfield]

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I despise Brady Quinn and the rest of the ND team. I guess you either have to love them or hate them.


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Well I love them so here are my thoughts. If ND can get through its first 4 games unscathed (@ GA Tech, Penn St, Michigan, @ Mich St.), they will have a very good chance of playing for the national championship. The last game of the season is against USC, and if ND is undefeated at that point, that game would have some crazy hype leading up to it (like last year). We need to stay injury-free and stop giving up the big plays on defense. Our offense should be absolutely ridiculous though. I can't wait.

This could be a year where a team with one loss goes to the NC, however.

Its hard to be unbiased here, but in my opinion Ohio St. is the #1 right now - they scare me the most.

[damaniac]

As good as OSU has been, losing 9 starters off that defense (plus Santonio Holmes) makes it very hard to rank them first. Sure, they have tons of talent, but there's no way 1) there's no dropoff and 2) there aren't growing pains, especially with an early-season trip to Texas. No one really looks invincible this year, though, so you can make a case that Ginn/Smith and Co. are still better than anyone else, but 9 starters...that's a big gap to fill.

[Spellmen]

Hoping PSU can bring home the Big 10 again, but I think it will be tough with OSU around. Biggest setback for us obviously is losing Robinson and throwing in an untested quarterback, as well as losing alot of experienced Dbacks and Dline, though a great young receiving and linebacking core comeback. I haven't heard alot about Michigan, but they may also be back in the mix if there is still a team around Henne

[damaniac]

Michigan looks pretty solid. WR corps has a lot of potential with Manningham returning (bet you're excited for that as a PSU fan) and a senior in Breaston (hopefully Deboard gets him the ball with space to work). Bass (he of the "1 play a game at QB to run a QB draw/bootleg") is out for the year, but there's been a lot of star recruits at WR, so presumably someone can fill the void. Hart is healthy once again, and Grady and Brown behind him bodes well. The only real offensive issue (aside from Henne's consistency) is whether the O-line will be any better than mediocre. last year it was racked by injuries, but even so the lineup looks suspect.

Defensively, secondary should be strong, and the D-line should be very tough as well with Woodley, Taylor and Branch leading the way. Having Pat Massey gone should do wonders (he must've had pictures of Lloyd Carr doing bad things with animals-- there's no other way to explain how a guy who gets driven back 5 yards every play starts every game at DT). Main question is the whether the LB's are at all serviceable: hopefully the departure of Jim Hermann will help them stop sucking quite so badly.

I really can't see PSU doing much. Robinson had a beastly senior year: Morelli has, to my memory, been very mediocre thus far. Robinson had been too, but Morelli can't rely on his legs to do half the work, and I don't think QB's generally go from dud to stud passers in one year. Still, I'm very worried about that night game in Happy Valley. And the trip to Columbus. Strangely, I am quite confident about going to South Bend...no real good reason for that.

[Pinchot]

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I really can't see PSU doing much. Robinson had a beastly senior year: Morelli has, to my memory, been very mediocre thus far. Robinson had been too, but Morelli can't rely on his legs to do half the work, and I don't think QB's generally go from dud to stud passers in one year. Still, I'm very worried about that night game in Happy Valley. And the trip to Columbus. Strangely, I am quite confident about going to South Bend...no real good reason for that.

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I think it's funny how Morelli has been labeled mediocre so far. He's done all that's been asked of him. Robinson was a great leader and great football player for us, but a very average quarterback if that makes sense. Morelli has the tools to be a far more effective passer. PSU needs the oline to come together quickly to give Morelli protection. If he gets some time, I think he'll be fine.

Michigan will have their hands full at night against PSU. I think the atmosphere will be similar, if not crazier, than last year's PSU-OSU game. Michigan has PSU's number recently. I still like PSU at home though.

Going on the road to ND and OSU will be awfully tough in the first 4 games for PSU. We're breaking in a new offensive line and QB. Not two good places for some of your first starts.

I agree that there's a good chance that the eventual MNC winner will have at least 1 loss. No team really stands out to me. OSU's offense looked good against OSU towards the end of last year but it seemed that they did it against mediocre defenses. I can't see a Tressel coached team dropping 35 points a game. ND's defense is still has question marks. A bunch of other teams are in the mix too. Should be fun.

[MacGuyV]

Seems to me like Michigan every year is one of the or the most balanced team in the country. They always have good WR's, they can always run the ball, they always have a good defense, and generally they find a way to lose 2-3 games and luckily escape in a few others. I really think Lloyd Carr is a bad football coach. Of course, the most important aspect of college coaching in any sport is recruiting.

Anyway, the Cuse is going to rebound this year and win it all, i think everyone knows that.

[MyTurn2Raise]

Lloyd Carr's game coaching is that team's albatross.


I get to see the Cuse in person as they visit the land of corn and soybeans this year.

[MacGuyV]

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I get to see the Cuse in person as they visit the land of corn and soybeans this year.

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Any chance that'll be the primetime game on ESPN? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[JackWhite]

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Seems to me like Michigan every year is one of the or the most balanced team in the country. They always have good WR's, they can always run the ball, they always have a good defense, and generally they find a way to lose 2-3 games and luckily escape in a few others. I really think Lloyd Carr is a bad football coach. Of course, the most important aspect of college coaching in any sport is recruiting.


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The Lloyd Carr problem:

Last 6 road openers: 0-6
Last 5 bowl games 1-4
Last 5 against OSU 1-4
Last 4 against ND 1-3

Top 10, sometimes top 5 recruiting class every single year, yet they are eliminated from the NC race in September every single year. What a genius.

[Terrabon98]

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Seems to me like Michigan every year is one of the or the most balanced team in the country. They always have good WR's, they can always run the ball, they always have a good defense, and generally they find a way to lose 2-3 games and luckily escape in a few others. I really think Lloyd Carr is a bad football coach. Of course, the most important aspect of college coaching in any sport is recruiting.


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The Lloyd Carr problem:

Last 6 road openers: 0-6
Last 5 bowl games 1-4
Last 5 against OSU 1-4
Last 4 against ND 1-3

Top 10, sometimes top 5 recruiting class every single year, yet they are eliminated from the NC race in September every single year. What a genius.

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Sigh...unfortunately, you're right. I remember listening to an ESPN guy who said that, "No other team in the country has done less with more than Michigan. That's not an observation, it's a fact". He went on to give some very convincing stats...

Anyway, I think the fact that we always recruit sick high school athletes bails us out a lot of the time from an insanely outdated and conservative playbook. We still play primarily old-school Big Ten, grind it out, up the gut, football. We rely heavily on Oline maulers and a powerback, with a durable pocket QB. Unfortunately the game relies a lot more on speed and quickness now, and I think we are having a tough time adjusting.

We have some tough games as usual this year, interested to see how ND and PSU turn out this year after great rebounding years in 2005. OSU does look solid, but we are due for a win against them, so we'll see.

Outside of the Big Ten, I don't realy care right now...