College Football Thread

[Clarkmeister]

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My friends and I have Certified Florida at LSU as The Big Game of the year and will be in attendance.

Last year's Big Game was Florda at Tennessee, and it didn't disappoint.

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Clark,
do you go to great games like once or twice a year? sounds like a decent idea.

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A small group of us decided last year to go to one big college rivalry game of national significance that year, per year, for as long as possible. This is year two.

Last year was obviously a resounding success on all fronts. Big rivalry, national title implications, national TV, prime time SEC game in one of the great CFB stadiums.

[damaniac]

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I still have an irrational fear that maybe Morelli will not suck against us. They gotta beat us sooner or later right?


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Penn State's season depends on Good Morelli showing up rather then Bad Morelli. He was much better in the bowl game last year then he was the rest of the year.

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That is what I noticed, too. So, has he turned a corner, or was it an aberration? I expect him to be decent at the very least, but given the surrounding talent "decent" probably leads to 8-4 or so, and not particularly scary to my Wolverines. Even if he turns into a "good" player, they'll still be a dog, but with a reasonable shot at the win, particularly if our secondary is as scary in reality as it is on paper.

This should be an interesting year for Michigan fans. There's some conventional wisdom that I think is largely true: Lloyd coaches every team like he has a strong running game and defense, whether or not he actually does. Last year we basically did. This year, the running game should be strong(er), especially when we have 2 tackles instead of 1 plus a guard who was hopeless as a tackle, but the passing game should be strong and the D should be questionable at best. If he tries to "protect" the D by possessing the ball instead of maximizing the number of points we score (the better way to protect the D, obv), I'm going to be apoplectic. The odds of this are very, very high. I defend him more than most, but if he squanders this great O by playing for possession rather than points, I'll...well, I won't do anything other than be mad and whine about it.

[orange]

Clark,
sounds like a fantastic idea. I wish my friends had more $. How much do tickets/hotel/airfare usually cost (given it is a huge game typically) ? Do you just leave on that friday and go to the game/leave on saturday?

[Clarkmeister]

My share of costs from last year (from memory)
$250 roundtrip to Nashville
$40 car rental (we met a friend who flew in from Chicago in Nashville and 3 of us drove in to Knoxville together. The 4th flew straight to Knoxville).
$80 two nights hotel rental
$300 ticket (3rd row Florida bench (too close, but fun taking trash to Gator players), 40 yard line)
$50 Tenn shirt
$250 food/drinks/cabs.

Seems a little light, I recall thinking it cost me about $1,200 when it was done, but that's what I can think of off the top of my head.

[MicroBob]

Clark - Group I worked with had season-tickets to Tennessee and arranged for a group trip to a game one year.
Really cool atmosphere there.
We were 8th row on the 45 or so. Wow!
(still too low, but better than being 3rd row I suspect).

It also turned out to be an amazing game in 2002 in which Tenn/Ark played 6 OT's.
Turned out to be the best thing that happened out of my brief stay working for those morons.


I also went to a game at LSU way back in 1990 and thought Death Valley was just freaking awesome.
You are going to love it.
Some pretty wacky fans down in 'dem 'der parts.

[time4adrank]

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Clark - Group I worked with had season-tickets to Tennessee and arranged for a group trip to a game one year.
Really cool atmosphere there.
We were 8th row on the 45 or so. Wow!
(still too low, but better than being 3rd row I suspect).

It also turned out to be an amazing game in 2002 in which Tenn/Ark played 6 OT's.
Turned out to be the best thing that happened out of my brief stay working for those morons.


I also went to a game at LSU way back in 1990 and thought Death Valley was just freaking awesome.
You are going to love it.
Some pretty wacky fans down in 'dem 'der parts.

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though i am a bit biased, i definately think that death valley is the optimal place to experience SEC football.

[Clarkmeister]

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i definately think that death valley is the optimal place to experience SEC football.

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We'll definitely hit Bama, Auburn and Florida before we die.

SEC not only has the advantage of being the SEC, but ticket costs and costs in general are WAY WAY cheaper than games like ND-scUM, tOSU-scUM, Oklahoma-Texas. We will be living in the southeast for a while.

[NoPoHustler]

Oregon Ducks Fan here. It is going to be an interesting year for my Ducks. We are coming off the most underachieving year in memory. We have a new offensive coordinator. We had a top ten (listed by Scout and Rivals as such) year in recruiting last year. We definitely have the tools to get the job done it is simply going to come down to how the players execute.

Our schedule works in our favor in all but one game as all of our tough games are at home except one. We get USC, Cal at home. UCLA will be a tough road game but we should win that one. We get ASU at home who should be much improved with the hiring of criminal player magnate Dennis Erickson. We get WSU at home this year which is nice for a couple reasons. 1st we have played in Pullman 6yrs running, WTF? 2nd is they will be a decent team this year. Stanford, UW games are no worries games wherever they are. We get Fresno St at home, which if you are familiar with their program, is a huge benefit because playing in Fresno is a major biatch (we have played tough games there and who remembers that USC game from their a couple years back!!!!!). We get creampuff houston at home and our last home game is, of course, our little brothers from up the freeway Oregon State. THe civil War (what we call the game here) is always that, A WAR. They hate us and we hate them. For you historians out there it is the 4th oldest rivalry in D1 football if I am not mistaken. The one tough road game we have will be Very tough because it is at Ann Arbor against those Wolverines. I am sure they want revenge after we beat them in Eugene a few years back.

I see this year going two ways, either we win 10+ games or we barely make a bowl at 7-5. We have issues that need to be addressed, and if they are we are looking good and if not, CRAP!!

1st issue is at QB. Our returning starter Dennis Dixon was on fire the 1st half of last year and then completely unraveled for the 2nd half of the year. They say he seems like his confidence has returned. Damn I hope so. When he is good it is something to watch, but when he is bad... It will be interesting to see how he fares with the new OC.

THe new OC situation is what I am most excited about. He held the same position at the U. of New Ham. He apparently is a spread offense genius who adapts very well to his personnel. This is a must because our last OC (who left for the same job at LSU) does not adapt at all. He calls the same few plays frustrating the players and fans alike. Good luck with that scenario LSU. Odds are he will leave there within a couple years. One positive indicator is our new OC, Chip Kelly, led two of his players to be the D-2 offensive players of the year.

Our receiving core is as good as ever. We have some real studs at WR and got a top 20 frosh coming in to boost that lineup. Currently on the team we have 2 top 5 prospects at WR so the new kid will help out. The WR success depends on how our QB situation unfolds. I have my fingers crossed.

Our RB situation is arguably the best 1-2 punch in the nation. Remeber that I said this, watchout for Jonathon Stewart and Jeremiah Johnson from Oregon this year. They will both most certainly log over 1000 yards each this year barring injury and tewart has the potential to have a 2000+ yard year.

Our O-line has been banged up but is solid.

Defensively is where we got some immediate help from the recruiting class this last year and a few of those frosh kids may play ASAP. We got 2 of the top 8 D-lineman in the nation last year. One of them is the cousin of Oregon Alum and current Ravens stud Haloti Ngata. We got a very good MLB who also may see early PT this year.

We have the pieces to make a run this year and for the next few. Realistically without knowing where the QB's head will be at this year We will probably get 8 wins and go to a crappy bowl game. If his mind is right the sky is the limit for this team. And to throw one more factor in about the QB and where his mind may be note he was just drafted by the Atlanta Braves as a centerfielder in the 4th round of the recent MLB draft, so who friggin knows?

[DCWildcat]

Bama fan guy, is Brown really better than Prothro? I don't think I saw one Bama game last year so I have no idea.

UK beats UT this year!! Please God make it happen just once...

[TruFloridaGator]

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Clark - Group I worked with had season-tickets to Tennessee and arranged for a group trip to a game one year.
Really cool atmosphere there.
We were 8th row on the 45 or so. Wow!
(still too low, but better than being 3rd row I suspect).

It also turned out to be an amazing game in 2002 in which Tenn/Ark played 6 OT's.
Turned out to be the best thing that happened out of my brief stay working for those morons.


I also went to a game at LSU way back in 1990 and thought Death Valley was just freaking awesome.
You are going to love it.
Some pretty wacky fans down in 'dem 'der parts.

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though i am a bit biased, i definately think that death valley is the optimal place to experience SEC football.

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What's the student seating amount in the stadium these days?