College Football Thread

[TruFloridaGator]

That stat is a bit overrated, Auburn has been great so it's not much of a surprise for them to only lose 1 road game. UF has only lost 1 home game in 3 years, both will be pretty meaningless with how different the teams are this year and the different directions each team could go.

I certainly remember the last time Auburn came to the Swamp.
I was in the 2nd row of the end zone that Rex through the winner to Taylor Jacobs in OT, I could see his cleat digging out the turf to get the foot down. Sick game and hopefully will be another instant classic this time around.

[TalkingDonkey]

Let us gogogogogogo Michigan. That being said, yes we suck when ranked high, it usually involves us losing our second game to Notre Dame or some Pac-10 team.

Don't sleep on UK in the SEC. With Woodson, Little, and Burton they will have the best passing attack in the conference, and don't be surprised if they ring up 40+ points against some pretty good teams. The only problem is the defense keeping the other team under 50. Last year it was a very young unit, with mostly sophomores and a few juniors/seniors, so look for a marked improvement. Louisville vs. UK is shaping up to be one of the most entertaining and highest-scoring games of the season.

Clark - went to Gainesville last year for the LSU-UF game. Let me just say it was probably the sickest game day atmosphere I've seen at any school for any sport; just hope Florida wins when you go because that night will be insanity.

[damaniac]

With regard to Michigan, my concern is that the team is a mirror of last year's: strong O and mediocre D instead of a strong D and mediocre O. The problem is that the coaching staff does a much better job of strategically maximizing our output on D but a terrible job on O (punting from the 37 on 4th and 2, treating time of possession and avoiding turnovers as far more important than scoring points, etc). Also, my feeling is that teams with a few big offensive stars tend to get overrated because lazy media ppl just notice them (although the O is pretty strong all around, even on the line and deep at WR).

Still, the Big Ten should be down again and almost everyone has a new QB. How scary is it that Anthony Morelli may be the 2nd or 3rd best QB you face? Plus ND will be down, we have them, PSU, and OSU (and Oregon) at home...bodes very well indeed. We're not really in the same league as USC, and probably only about the fifth best team in the country, but on account of all these factors we have a pretty good shot at meeting them in New Orleans anyway.

[MyTurn2Raise]

The Big11Ten is way up from last year

tOSU lost alot on offense, but most everyone else is improved and the Buckeye defense looks monstrous. tOSU has the QB from Jersey ready to step in. tOSU will lose a little at receiver. Beanie Wells will be great if he holds onto the ball.

Wisconsin brings back nearly everyone.

Penn St brings back quite alot of stars and will be a force if Morelli improves.

Iowa will be better. Drew Tate was hobbled most of last year. Replacing him won't be much of a drop-off. In addition, Iowa finally found a break-out receiver in the bowl game.

Purdue brings back a ton and will be better. Painter might be the most accurate big11ten qb since Brees this coming year. With Dorian Bryant and 4 linemen returning, the offense is looking great.

Illinois will be one of the most improved teams in the country (#2 improved by Phil Steele's projections). They bring back 20 starters and added a ton of new, game-changing talent.

Big11Ten much stronger as Michigan, Wisonsin, and Penn St this year > tOSU, Michigan, and Wisconsin last year. Than the middle of the pack is so much better than the punching bags thrown out there last year.

Unfortunately, this will really hurt Big11Ten national title hopes as it will be much tougher to run the table with each team having many more losable games.

I think the Big11Ten this year = SEC or Pac-10 of last year. Just a boatload of returning starters across the league.

tOSU will be a little worse and Minny will be alot worse. Everyone else looks the same or upticking.

[Case Closed]

I love cubs baseball and all. But I can not wait for football season to start back up.

[Kos13]

[ QUOTE ]
The Big11Ten is way up from last year

tOSU lost alot on offense, but most everyone else is improved and the Buckeye defense looks monstrous. tOSU has the QB from Jersey ready to step in. tOSU will lose a little at receiver. Beanie Wells will be great if he holds onto the ball.

Wisconsin brings back nearly everyone.

Penn St brings back quite alot of stars and will be a force if Morelli improves.

Iowa will be better. Drew Tate was hobbled most of last year. Replacing him won't be much of a drop-off. In addition, Iowa finally found a break-out receiver in the bowl game.

Purdue brings back a ton and will be better. Painter might be the most accurate big11ten qb since Brees this coming year. With Dorian Bryant and 4 linemen returning, the offense is looking great.

Illinois will be one of the most improved teams in the country (#2 improved by Phil Steele's projections). They bring back 20 starters and added a ton of new, game-changing talent.

Big11Ten much stronger as Michigan, Wisonsin, and Penn St this year > tOSU, Michigan, and Wisconsin last year. Than the middle of the pack is so much better than the punching bags thrown out there last year.

Unfortunately, this will really hurt Big11Ten national title hopes as it will be much tougher to run the table with each team having many more losable games.

I think the Big11Ten this year = SEC or Pac-10 of last year. Just a boatload of returning starters across the league.

tOSU will be a little worse and Minny will be alot worse. Everyone else looks the same or upticking.

[/ QUOTE ]

It does look really strong. All of my friends at Wisconsin are pretty confident that they're going to win the conference. No argument from me.

My Boilers look decent this year. The offense should be good...I really think Painter will emerge this year as one of the better QBs in the conference. I just hope Tiller stops running the same stupid draw play on every 2nd and 10. Bryant is a good receiver, but he's a punk...I've still never forgiven him for fumbling against Michigan my freshman year. I really wish I had been here during the Brees era. I've had some classes with Painter, Sheets, Williams, etc. They seem like nice, normal guys, but they certainly don't compare to Brees. Plus, it doesn't help that the team has sucked since 5 3/4 games into my freshman year.

I'm probably going to the Purdue-Michigan game in Ann Arbor this year (to watch my Boilers get beat). Are there any hot spots that I need to check out before or after the game?

[damaniac]

My concern, MT2R, is that almost everyone has to replace a QB (Michigan, PSU, Purdue have theirs back, and while I will not be shocked at all if Morelli turns the corner and looks pretty good, he hasn't proven anything yet, and Painter isn't anything special either). I do think Wisconsin will be excellent. Otherwise, though, that QB thing just gets me...that's a pretty big thing to replace. In particular, the OSU fans I know have told me they are not particularly thrilled with their options.

Of course, maybe I'm just projecting: bad quarterbacking is the most important thing to get my Wolverines through unscathed. Secondary will be the weakness (although the whole D lost a lot).

[orange]

Sidenote:

Have any of you guys ever found a place/site to purchase CFB games on dvd? Any recommendations? I just purchased a few off sell.com and will tell you how it is.

[damaniac]

Reviving this thread (stopped reading the UM Schedule one, but I'm guessing it can die any time now) to point out that Charlie Weis lost his medmal lawsuit.

No real opinion on the outcome, since I didn't follow it and lack the qualifications to make a judgment. However, I am slightly annoyed at Weis' post-trial comments. He blamed the jurors for the outcome, which I guess isn't entirely illogical but seems a little bitter (should just say you disagree and move on). The real issue, though, is his donation to charity thing. He made a big point about how disabled kids lost money because of this, because he was going to donate the money he won, if he had won, to charity.

Now, I do not doubt his sincerity at all. What annoys me is his attempt to get credit for donating money that he didn't donate. He seems to do that a lot, puffing himself up for stuff that probably doesn't merit it. For ex, he talks about self-scouting like it's some revolutionary concept that only a sooper-genius like Weis does, instead of something everyone does. Or his obnoxious act of "taking responsibility" for a loss, wherein he says stuff like "the players did all this stuff bad, but I'm the coach so I have to take responsibility for it", which is really blaming the players and then trying to get some credit for "stepping up" and taking responsibility.

Don't get me wrong, he's a good coach (and possibly an excellent one, we'll see what his teams are doing 2-3 years down the road when the talent he's recruiting now are older), but I don't particularly care for his attitude (although this is undoubtedly colored by my contempt for Notre Dame).

[damaniac]

More stuff (since I'm bored at work).

Don't know if people have discussed the Big Ten Network yet. Very interesting/exciting concept if this takes off. A few football games (mostly the stuff that was on ESPN+/Regional, Indiana/Purdue, Michigan/App State and the like), many basketball games, probably some non-revenue sports (really hoping for a lot of hockey), plus a bunch of old games. I really like the idea.

My concern is of course will I get to see it? The negotiations are bogged down now, as the BTN wants $1.10 per subscriber in the Big Ten footprint (8 Big Ten states) and something like a dime per elsewhere. They also want it on the regular/expanded basic cable tier instead of a special sports tier, so more people get it. Comcast (in particular) doesn't want to pay that much so we're stalled. If they screw this up and no one has BTN by kickoff (think UM/AppSt is on it) people are going to be ready to kill someone. I'm lucky b/c I have season tickets but it'd be a nightmare not to see a couple games (like BSU last year being on ESPNU which no one got).

In conclusion, cable monopolies suck.