College football

[bs69]

I have watched Tua play and he looks really good, all I'm saying is he hasn't played against good competition yet, let's see how he does at LSU. 

 

Don't know where you thought I said Haskins played "decently", but I would say he did. The point I was making was that the crowd noise in a game like that hampers the offensive line. They weren't allowing Haskins (tOSU QB) time to go downfield. The game plan was changed to some shorter options and it worked. Penn state played their best game of the year and we still came out on top, I'll take it. Given their schedule, the only potential tricky game for Alabama is at LSU, the rest of their schedule is against mediocre to bad teams or at home.

 

By the way, do you think the balance of power is shifting in the SEC? Seems to me that the east is getting deeper and the west is not nearly as good this year. Saturday will tell a lot with LSU st Florida and Kentucky at A&M

[Rude]

LSU and A&M battle for hardest schedule in the country. LSU plays Miami, Florida,Georgia, bama, Auburn, A&M. That’s straight up brutal. Then they have Miss state and ole miss who are top 40 teams.  Losing to Florida won’t tell if the east is better than the west. The west is still far superior. UK will get smoked at A&M. 

 

Just watch. Won’t matrer what’s thrown at Tua. He’s got nfl receivers and reacts instantly 

[Rude]

Bama looks like they may be the best team in NCAA history. Here’s the telling stat. Their average halftime lead is 40-6. The starters rarely play any 2nd half plays. Bama is a bad 4th quarter team because it’s all 3rd stringers making their defense look worse than it is. When Tua and the defense were pulled vs Arkansas it was 48-14. They are on pace for the all time scoring in a season even with Tua not throwing a 4th quarter pass. He’s currently at a QB ranking 40 points above any qb in ncaa history. He was only 8 points away from the all time qb efficiency record ever last game and he didn’t break it because he threw 1 pass in the 3rd quarter-an incompletion before coming out. 

 

40-6 average at the half. U can say bama hasn’t played anybody but they smoked a good A&M team and they are the only team in the country who hasn’t let any team have a chance against them. They haven’t let Indiana’s get close or let Vanderbilt almost beat them. 34pt average halftime lead is by far the most of all time at this point. Yeah bamas 3rd string defense allows 4th quarter points like the 17 to Arkansas but the game is way over already. 

 

And the whole offense will be back next year with most of the very very young defense. Georgia will have more talent than bama (they got 8 of the 25 or so 5* players last year) but they don’t have Tua and his NFL receiving corps. I’d guess that bamas receivers are better than Dallas’. Dallas would drool to have a sophomore Jerry juedy on that team. Kid has hands like deandre Hopkins. 

 

 

Heres my rankings by tier. 3 tiers. 

 

Tier 1

Alabama 

 

tier 2

ohio state 

penn state 

Georgia 

Notre Dame

clemson

 

tier 3(no particular order)

lsu 

auburn

michigan

florida

texas A&M

oklahoma

west Virginia 

Washington

 

you could add a few more to tier 3. 

 

But the tier 2 are a head above the tier 3 schools. Tier 2 have more talent and or execute better than the tier 3 schools. Last year the tier 2 schools would have been tier 1 as bamas offense wasn’t good.

 

i think the funniest thing about the Ap poll is that 2 voters ranked bama number 2. Guess they haven’t watched them play yet. 

 

 

 

[DesertDead]

Fun season so far.

 

Can’t wait for the Committee’s initial rankings.  I just looked it up:  it’s on 10/30, 7:00 Eastern.

 

I’ll add that I expect my Irish to be either 2, 3, or 4.

[Rude]

Notre Dame deserves it. 

 

Id expect

Bama

2/3 osu/Georgia 

Notre Dame 

 

if was done today

 

clemson 5 based on less than convincing  games even though they won at A&M which is tough besides the horrible call on the touchback. The correct ref threw the mark down at the 1/2yd line and another way away called it a touchback. 

 

When bama beats Georgia I’d rather have Georgia out than a 1/4 sec matchup. Bama deserves to smoke 2 non sec teams and it’s not fair to have them whoop another conference team. 

 

Osu won’t play bama game 1 that’s for sure. If osu loses they prob won’t get in based upon who they can lose to. Michigan is only way they can lose and get in and that’s if Notre Dame and Clemson lose. OSU has 2 top 30 teams all year and they have to sweep and should easily do it.  Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, mich st, Maryland in a row should be cupcakes for a playoff team. Nothing in the top 35 to worry about there and will be 20+ favs in those.

 

Next year Georgia plays Notre Dame. That’s gonna be a bad time to play Georgia with all those stars no longer freshmen.  Georgia will be great besides the fact that bamas offense will be back in full. It’s like playing Michael Jordan. You are at a bad time in history to be the 2nd best team. 

 

[DesertDead]

10 hours ago, Rude said:

Notre Dame deserves it. 

 

Id expect

Bama

2/3 osu/Georgia 

Notre Dame 

 

if was done today

 

clemson 5 based on less than convincing  games even though they won at A&M which is tough besides the horrible call on the touchback. The correct ref threw the mark down at the 1/2yd line and another way away called it a touchback. 

 

When bama beats Georgia I’d rather have Georgia out than a 1/4 sec matchup. Bama deserves to smoke 2 non sec teams and it’s not fair to have them whoop another conference team. 

 

Osu won’t play bama game 1 that’s for sure. If osu loses they prob won’t get in based upon who they can lose to. Michigan is only way they can lose and get in and that’s if Notre Dame and Clemson lose. OSU has 2 top 30 teams all year and they have to sweep and should easily do it.  Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, mich st, Maryland in a row should be cupcakes for a playoff team. Nothing in the top 35 to worry about there and will be 20+ favs in those.

 

Next year Georgia plays Notre Dame. That’s gonna be a bad time to play Georgia with all those stars no longer freshmen.  Georgia will be great besides the fact that bamas offense will be back in full. It’s like playing Michael Jordan. You are at a bad time in history to be the 2nd best team. 

 

 

The thing that I could see with regard to the Committee’s rankings is if they do less eye-test and more based on resume, then I’d only be very confident about Bama being ahead of ND.  Not saying that I think ND is better than UGA or aOSU, for I am able to remove my green tinted glasses and attempt to be objective haha.

 

Also not saying that I think ND even really should be 2.  What I am saying is that would not surprise me one bit.

 

 

Yeah, the ND/UGA game should be something special.  At least I hope we can make it so lol.  They sure are strong and getting stronger all the time.  I expect us to take down a pretty good team, with very good players on both lines.  Perhaps that strong trench play and some breaks can help ND to keep that one close?  

 

Heck, maybe ND and UGA will meet this year somehow?  As dominant as Bama is, when they play Georgia, that is going to be a horse of a different color from Louisiana-Lafayette.

 

Fun stuff, indeed.  I’m just glad to be in the conversation for the playoffs.  Can’t win it unless you’re in it (note to self re:  Powerball).  We just need to beat Pitt and get to our off week 7-0.  I expect that we will.

[Rude]

Notre Dame played their tough part. Now they should cruise on in. Georgia is mortal for sure. Missouri outplayed them. Georgia got some big turnover scores. Any good team can have problems in any game. I just have seen nothing to show bama can be stopped and their defense is still a top 10. Their schedule hasn’t been gangbusters by any means but they are winning the 1st half by 34. No team in the country beats even div 2 teams by that type of 1sr half margin. The kid is special. He’s baker mayfield with a better deep ball and the best receiver corps maybe in the history of college ball. That’s scary. I think Georgia can keep bama within 21 but I don’t think closer. I think bama has 1-2 guys that could start for the cowboys right now lol. Jerry Juedy would for sure start. That’s not saying much as cowboys added cut players from other teams to fill their roster. When your number 1 receiver is getting paid $6mil and his previous team thought that was too much to pay and cut him, he’s a dog. 

[Rude]

Take the points today. 

 

Indiana +6 vs iowa(crazy high spread with Indiana at home)

lsu +7 at Georgia

tennessee +18 at auburn

misdouri +28 at bama. 

[bs69]

Lots of carnage yesterday, although I'm not happy with the way the Buckeyes keep playing at least they are winning. Not easy week after week no matter who you are playing. We are in desperate need of the bye week to get some things straightened out on the lines

[DesertDead]

27 minutes ago, bs69 said:

Lots of carnage yesterday, although I'm not happy with the way the Buckeyes keep playing at least they are winning. Not easy week after week no matter who you are playing. We are in desperate need of the bye week to get some things straightened out on the lines

 

I could post the same, only replacing “Buckeyes” with “Irish”.

[Rude]

Osu is lucky they have until the last week to figure it out because Michigan looks pretty good. Wisconsin is about as slow as a defense as there is and their QB is really really bad(12 straight incomplete passes) but Michigan can score and osu’s issue is their defense and offensive consistency. 

 

This year is going to be if Tua is healthy or not. If he’s out, it’s anyones game. If he’s healthy, you don’t want to play them. 30 points in the 1st half was their worst showing so far. 265yds passing 1st half. Devonte Thompson went down too and that’s not good for bama either. 

[Rude]

On 9/23/2018 at 1:38 PM, Rude said:

 

 

Purdue is the best 1-3 team in the country. After watching Georgia not be able to run against Missouri, purdues effort at Missouri seems much better plus they whooped Boston college. 

 

 

 

 

Thats foreshadowing. I don’t give lots of props to big ten, but I watch a lot of football and even at 1-3 I could see Purdue was playing way better than its record. All Ohio state had to do was beat a bunch of below average teams plus Purdue and Michigan and they were eligible for a 50 point beating by Alabama. Dammit I prob won’t get to see it now.  When will osu ditch urban Meyer. Every year he doesn’t have his NFL team ready. He got lucky with Tim Tebow who was maybe the greatest college QB ever and it got him the job at Ohio state. Dan Mullen would have been a great coach for Ohio state to get. 

 

 

LSU has the best defense in the country. It looks like Bamas defense last year(not as good vs run but superior secondary) But.....they lost the best middle linebacker in the country for the 1st half vs bama b/c of a late targeting. See how it worked out for Ohio state losing Bosa. 1st round NFL defenders make a huge difference.  I wanted to see a full strength LSU defense vs bama in 2 weeks. Tua throws his 1st pick of the year in that game. 

 

Tua looked semi human for a few plays vs Tennessee. Tennessee will be a good team once the coach gets that talent and there’s a lot of talent on Tennessee straightened out. I actually saw Tua throw 3 balls that were very inaccurate. That’s rare. Then he throws a 50 yard in the air pass on the run to a double coveted receiver and it’s perfect. He’s on pace to set 3-4 NCAA passing records. Never saw a college kid have timing like him on deep balls.  They all seem to be perfect and he can put air under them and throw softly too. Kids a freak but his injured knee is definitely a worry. 2nd straight game he’s had 250yds 1st half passing. He played 33 minutes and bama was up 51-14 when he was taken out with 12:00 to play in Q3. Insane. I don’t think there’s been this big a lock on the heisman in no telling how many years. Kids just a phenom.  The whole receiving corps and Tua back next year too. I don’t see how they could actually be better than now as they are nearly perfect so that’s good news for the rest of the teams. 

[Tom Banjo]

Can you win the Hiesman without Hiesman moments?  

 

I agree he’s fat and away the front runner but he hasn’t been in a fight. He hasn’t had to make Hiesman plays. His games all look like the Varsity playing JV in Spring ball. 

[Rude]

Lol he hasn’t been in a fight because he scores TDs on 75% of his drives. I’d say being so good that you face no adversity makes you more heisman worthy than playing bad then making a comeback. Averaging 40 points a game in the 1st half is hard to fathom and there were several games he had them up 28-0 and was taken out in the 1st quarter. 

 

Heres a heisman stat. On 2nd and 3rd downs, Tua has thrown 19 total incompletions and 16 TDs. 

 

He also had had a string of 13/13 passing on 3rd downs to start the year and 2 times running for it. 15 consecutive 3rd down conversions. When it’s crunch time he delivers. 

 

He hasn’t played in the 4th quarter yet this year. Never saw a team that was impossible to stop like this one.....until Jalen hurts comes in and then they look normal. 

 

LSU In 2 weeks will be a test. I expect his 1st interception. They are safety university and this year is no exception. Bama is getting ready to play 4 of the nations top 10 defenses in its next 5 games. We may see a 4th quarter pass. 

[Tom Banjo]

I feel you but disagree somewhat. I just don’t see how you can be a Hiesman without some big 4th quarter moments. 

 

He’d still get my vote btw but I hope LSU or sometime in the playoffs he gets tested. Love to see someone come out and punch Bama in the face. If the team your playing is more talented than you, the only way to win is to want in more and most of the time, I just see teams roll over on their back for Bama. Nobody brings the intensity necessary to play with them. 

[Rude]

How can you stop that group of wide receivers with a QB who throws like a video game quarterback. Too many weapons and 1 will get open. Too good an offensive line. Then you have great running backs and a fantastic tight end in Irv Smith. If you left that current team together, in 5 years it’s the best team in the nfl.  That team has like 12 1st rounders with several top 5’s and Jerry Juedy and Tua are linked by telepathy. 

 

The biggest tbing to me is that Bama is throwing the ball most of the time. They know they are a great passing team and they aren’t stubborn trying to run like they did last year every play. They are playing to their strengths and that’s how you win in college and the pros. Saban was even asked about bama not running it much and he got snarky and said I didn’t know you got more points running for TDs vs throwing for them. 

 

Lsu

miss state

auburn 

georgia 

 

Thats what’s left. All are top tier defenses. Auburn and Miss states offenses have faltered but their defenses are all loaded. Tua definitely won’t be scoring TDs on 75% of his drives in that stretch. Well I don’t think so. He’s just like Saban. He looks for his faults and doesn’t compliment himself.  Will be fun to watch 

[Rude]

This weekend looks packed with good games. 

 

Florida at Georgia (Georgia switches to the freshman Justin fields at QB this week if Florida defense is wreaking havoc on Georgia)

Iowa at penn state(Iowa will crush even on the road)

 

really can’t wait until  week after bama at LSU. LSU has already beaten the current FPI 3,13,15,18 and lost to the 11 and plays the 1 next week. 6 top 20 in 1st 9 weeks. Geeze. If they lose to bama and go 10-2 I tbink they make a good case for playoffs. They still have a game at A&M to finish the year. Brutal schedule but their defense is for real. Top safety in college. Best middle linebacker. 3 1st round defenders with that safety maybe top 3 overall. Those are game changers. Gonna be a little different for Tua.

[Tom Banjo]

Georgia is out with two losses. 

[Rude]

Georgia is too young. Bama, LSU amd Florida I think ate all better than Georgia. Those defenses are all loaded. LSU will finish 10-2 and rhe best team denied a playoff. I just don’t think Bama is beatable this year. 

[bs69]

Georgia took care of Florida, now it's on to Lexington for the east title. I sure would love to see Kentucky and LSU win at home this weekend so we can get that Ky. v LSU matchup in the SEC championship game, take the under in that one.

 

The way I see it, there are maybe 9 or 10 teams left that control their destiny for the playoff, the rest need help. Bama, LSU, Georgia, Kentucky in the SEC, Clemson in the ACC, Notre Dame, Michigan and tOSU in the big ten, Oklahoma and maybe West Virginia in the big 12. Everyone else needs help.

[Rude]

UK is the 30th best team in the country.  They get routed.  The AP poll is nonsense.

[gr8fulpair]

1 hour ago, Rude said:

The AP poll is nonsense.

 

I agree. I mean how are my gamecocks gonna get in the playoffs if they aren't even ranked. That's a fucked up system.

[Rude]

The UK game every year kills the gamecocks. High hopes dashed by the lowly wildcats. Then you have to play us in basketball. That’s like losing at home then having to go on the road to play the next game. Luckily you are on the tar heel hoops bandwagon. It’s a great school to get a degree at without having to actually go to class as an athlete. That would make it appealing to me for sure. Sports and partying and a tutor doing my online classes. Trifecta!!

[bs69]

That probably explains why Carolina has less one and dones, why leave school early? Thank God that rule will be changed soon.

Back to football, the top of the initial rankings don't surprise me at all, some of the further down teams do. I know it's early and there is plenty of time for movement but the teams that are ranked in the lower part of the standings give the committee reasons for ranking the teams at the top higher. Having four ranked ACC teams and only three from the big ten really scares me about this committee.  NC St.? 5-2 without beating anybody? Syracuse has a good record, but who did they beat? Who did BC beat?

[PoetryGirl]

Did you all see the end of the Texas Longhorn and West Virginia game? Wow, what a coach for WV! What a win!