2009 College Football

[SnakeCharmer]

Beano Cook was on Cowherd the other day (maybe a couple weeks ago) and they were both talking about how ND was going to be in a BCS game.  All that would have topped it would have been Corso and Mussberger jumping in to slob ND's knob.

I hope they keep Weiss.  They'll continue to wallow in overhyped mediocrity as long as he's there.  I *really* don't want them to get Meyer.  I'd rather keep him in the SEC rather than having every talking head ND knobblower talking about how ND is 'back'.  I wonder just how much they'd pay to get Meyer there?  4.5?  5 mil?

[Paelos]

It doesn't matter what they pay him. Meyer has a stranglehold on Florida state recruiting, a possible dynasty SEC program, and a new 6-year $4M per extension. I don't care what the ties are, nobody in their right mind would ever leave a team who wins the most prolific conference in college football for a barely functional independent.

[SnakeCharmer]

I don't know.  I think the pay increase + not having to deal with the rigors of the SEC day in and day out would be the kicker.  He's a big fish in the SEC surrounded by several other big fish (although your point about the potential dynasty is a good one).  Up there he'd be THE fish.  The only fish.  So, there's that. 

The competition in the SEC is the best, no doubt about it.  And while Meyer seems well equipped to deal with it, very few are willing or able to put up with the absolute grind that the SEC is. 

I think he's going to have to do some serious soul searching after his once in a generation all everything QB graduates.

[Montague]

I'd think it's possible to get Meyer to ND but not likely.

Ron Zook and the competition in the SEC notwithstanding, Florida is perfectly set up to be a dominant team. They're in by far the best state talent wise, and FSU and Miami are pissing down their legs with coaching problems. The only way would be if Meyer's ego wants to take on that monumental challenge without having the crutch of being in the most talented state. I think he has too much common sense to waste time with that though.

[ghost]

I'm very, very stoked about football this year.  Got my University of Texas season tix and am ready to rock. 

[SnakeCharmer]

Ron Zook and the competition in the SEC notwithstanding, Florida is perfectly set up to be a dominant team.

Zook may not be the best coach, but he's extraordinary at evaluating and recruiting talent.  The cupboard was far from bare when Meyer took it over.

[Paelos]

ESPN ranks the conferences

Their rankings:

1 - SEC
2 - Big 12
3 - ACC
4 - PAC 10
5 - Big 10
6 - Mountain West
7 - Big East
8 - WAC

1 and 2 are no-brainers. The SEC won the BCS title against OU, and won the other head to head matchup with Ole Miss over Texas Tech. The rest of them are more debatable. First off, the ACC was and is still terrible. VA Tech's days in the top 10 are numbered when they lose to Alabama in the first game. They will be just as big of a disappointment as Clemson. GA Tech, UNC, and FSU are the only other teams in there that will compete to win it. I'd have them 4th.

The Mountain West is getting stronger and stronger with Utah, BYU, TCU, and Air Force. They also get no respect as a conference even though the Utes crushed Alabama, and always have a strong bowl record. Their out of conference record is also very impressive. I'd have them 3rd.

The PAC 10 drops down to 5th in my book because one team has won it for the last 7 years. USC isn't that good, the rest of the conference is that bad.

The Big 10 is 6th, because Penn State and Ohio State are the only teams worth a damn in the conference, and they both couldn't beat the better teams of the Big 12 or the PAC 10.

The Big East and WAC are tied for 7th because they are completely irrelevant in football. The fact the Big East is tied to the Orange Bowl continues to make it the biggest yawn of the year.

[Nevermore]

Bowl records vs. BCS opponents since 2005:

League     2008  2007  2006  2005  Overall
Pac-10     4-0     3-1     3-1     2-2     12-4
SEC         5-1     5-2     5-3     3-3     18-9
Big 12      4-3     5-3     3-4     4-2     16-12
Big East    2-2     1-2     3-0     1-3     7-7
ACC         2-6     2-5     2-4     4-2     10-17
Big Ten    1-6     2-5     2-5     3-4     8-20
non-BCS   1-7     2-6    3-5      2-3     8-21

Bowl records in the Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, Orange and national championship games since 2005:

League     Record
SEC             5-2 (3 championships)
Pac-10         3-1
Big East        3-1
Big 12          3-3 (1 championship)
ACC             1-3
Big Ten        2-6
non-BCS       2-1
Notre Dame  0-2

[Paelos]

The PAC-10 BCS record is misleading because it's all USC games. Nobody else in that suck-ass conference has been to a BCS bowl game since Washington State in 2002. I like to look at which conferences have teams that have been to two or more BCS games in the last decade. It shows who has consistent performers in the national arena, and it tosses out the teams which had one fluke year.

SEC - 5 teams (5 Championships)
Big 10 - 5 teams (1 Championship)
Big 12 - 3 teams (2 Championships)
ACC - 3 teams (2 Championships)
Other Conferences - 3 teams
PAC 10 - 1 team (1 Championship)

[Nevermore]

The last decade isn't a good measurement because it includes teams that switched conferences and a number of teams that are truly bad right now.  But if you're going to, at least keep the team with the conference they were in at the time:

SEC - 5 teams (5 Championships)
Big 10 - 5 teams (1 Championship)
Big 12 - 3 teams (2 Championships)
ACC - 2 teams (1 Championship)
Big East - 2 teams (1 Championship)
PAC 10 - 1 team (1 Championship)
Mountain West - 1 team (0 Championships unless you're asking Abagadro and he'd have a compelling but futile argument)
Notre Dame - is Notre Dame (Jack and shit)

Here's something interesting.  If you include all 'fluke' teams, here's the number of different teams sent to a BCS bowl by each conference:

SEC - 6
Big 10 - 7
Big 12 - 7
ACC - 4
Big East - 7
PAC 10 - 7
Mountain West - 1
WAC - 2
Notre Dame - sucks

[Paelos]

I disagree with your assessment, but you are right about the Miami switchover after their national title. Out of that entire list of teams you could only really make a case that 4 of them aren't currently competitive forces: Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Wisconsin. More than half of the one and done teams don't compete on a national scale at all right now.

Washington, Washington State, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Stanford, Syracuse, Texas A&M, UCLA. They are all pretty much irrelevant currently.

[01101010]

I don't like sounding alarms before the smoke turns out to be a fire, buuuuuut it looks like Va. Tech's season just got the big bend over.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4392725

Sad when Ga Tech is the conference front runner.

[Paelos]

That's bad news for VA Tech indeed. I don't think they were an actual #7 team with Evans, and they probably would have lost the opener to Alabama anyway, but this takes all chances of them being ranked top 25 this season pretty much down the crapper. It's a shame that bad luck injuries don't happen to jackasses like Tim Tebow instead of a promising up-and-comer runningback.

[01101010]

That's bad news for VA Tech indeed. I don't think they were an actual #7 team with Evans, and they probably would have lost the opener to Alabama anyway, but this takes all chances of them being ranked top 25 this season pretty much down the crapper. It's a shame that bad luck injuries don't happen to jackasses like Tim Tebow instead of a promising up-and-comer runningback.

While I really dislike Tebow for many reasons, the new shift in the NFL to a mobile quarterback seems to dovetail nicely with his senior year. Some NFL team is going to set their playbook up to fit him coming out of college, I can feel it.

Evans has time to heal and still make a name for himself at Va. Tech... but he won't be the same.

[Paelos]

Some NFL team will take a chance no doubt. It'll just be one of the shitty ones with nothing to lose, or one of the really good ones where they already have a huge star that needs a backup to put in for a running series.

[Rasix]

the new shift in the NFL to a mobile quarterback

Huh?  A handful of plays a game being run out of the wildcat isn't a shift.  People will still want him to be a tight end or h-back most likley.

[SnakeCharmer]

Sucks about that VT kid.  Just made their opener against Bama a might bit tougher. 

[Paelos]

Georgia held it's first scrimmage yesterday, and the standout was a young kid named Richard Samuel. He's a Sophomore RB who's never started, but with Moreno going pro in the first round he's battling for the top spot. However, he did have over 100 kickoff return yards in one game last year, and he's showing potential as the standout starter.

If he can keep up with Moreno's sophomore efforts, and Cox can put up 75% of Stafford's numbers, we can beat any team in the East except Florida. Beating Florida will rely completely on our defense not being total suckasses.

Go ahead and ask Snakecharmer if we even had a defense last year.

[Montague]

That's bad news for VA Tech indeed. I don't think they were an actual #7 team with Evans, and they probably would have lost the opener to Alabama anyway, but this takes all chances of them being ranked top 25 this season pretty much down the crapper. It's a shame that bad luck injuries don't happen to jackasses like Tim Tebow instead of a promising up-and-comer runningback.

While I really dislike Tebow for many reasons, the new shift in the NFL to a mobile quarterback seems to dovetail nicely with his senior year. Some NFL team is going to set their playbook up to fit him coming out of college, I can feel it.

Tebow would have to be scraped off the turf if anyone tried that single-wing business in the NFL. Defensive guys are way too big and fast to do that stuff consistently. Nowadays it seems the NFL wants guys that are mobile in the sense of shifty in the pocket but don't want them actually runnning.

[Paelos]

To be fair, the NFL hasn't wanted mobile QBs in 2 decades.

[Abagadro]

Hmm, Utes just named a true Freshman as #1 on the QB depth chart over our backup for the last two years and the transfer JC Offensive Player of the Year. Either he is a wunderkind or they are writing this year off to get him some experience.

[SnakeCharmer]

Go ahead and ask Snakecharmer if we even had a defense last year.

wat

[Paelos]

Go ahead and ask Snakecharmer if we even had a defense last year.

wat

Um, you know. That whole 41 point Tide demolishing us thing at home. Remember that? Yeah.

[SnakeCharmer]

To be fair, I think the our defense (or special teams) put a score or two on the board.  So it wasn't entirely your D, which if memory serves, had some pretty bad injury issues early on and got better as the year went on.

[Paelos]

Georgia Tech was at Thanksgiving. They beat us 45-42.

Our D never got better. It got worse.

Points against by game:

21
17
7
10
41
14
14
38
49
38
13
45

I won't put opponents up there, but let's just say those last 6 games were AWFUL.

[SnakeCharmer]

17 DAYS 8 HOURS 41 MINUTES

[EWSpider]

17 DAYS 8 HOURS 41 MINUTES

/schoolgirl squeal

[SnakeCharmer]

Yeah, pretty much.

Was laying in bed wide awake at 1 am this morning putting a gameday menu together.

[01101010]

i got the minifridge cleaned out and plugged in down in the big screen tv room... ready for the beer and salsa.

[Paelos]

I'm already mentally putting together the Signature Drink Menu for our tailgate that corresponds to the teams we play at home. So far it's:

South Carolina - Carolina Ice Tea (Rum, Vodka, Peach Schnapps, Sweet Tea, Lemon)
Arizona State - The Red Devil (Vodka, OJ, grenadine, Sloe Gin, Triple Sec, SoCo Peach)
LSU - Hurricanes
Tennessee Tech - Lynchberg Lemonade
Auburn - no idea yet
Kentucky - Mint Julep

[SnakeCharmer]

That Carolina Ice Tea sounds freakishly good.  And a helluva recipe for a major hangover with all that sugar.  What's the mix ratio?

Auburn?  Hrm.  Alabama Slammers?  Eh.  Nah. Only real connection is that AU is in Alabama...

Natural Light out of a can is kinda fitting for Auburn

[Paelos]

The Carolina Tea is:

1 oz Rum
1 oz Peach Schnapps
1/2 oz Vodka
5 oz Sweet Tea
Splash of lemon

Stir or Shake quicky, pour into a tall glass with a lemon wedge.

EDIT: I also thought about doing Red-Headed Sluts for Auburn as a joke.

[01101010]

I plan on many of these during the U of Miami's games...Only in the hopes that by half time I am comatose or in the hospital as to avoid watching the travesty any longer. I hope LSU fairs better.

[Paelos]

So the first nationally televised football game of the year is going to be on Thursday, Sept. 3rd @ 7 EST: South Carolina v. NC State. That's followed by Oregon v. Boise State at 10:15.

Predictions? Do you even care? Personally, I hope South Carolina wins, because I want them coming into Georgia cocky. And yes, that's a horrible pun. Also, I want Oregon to win because they are my pick for the PAC-10 and I don't like Boise State.

[Chimpy]

Thankfully, as an Illinois alum (and local to Champaign still), I don't have anything worth following in college football so I can sleep in on the weekends.

Zook proved how terrible a coach he was in the Rose Bowl against USC 2 seasons ago. A retarded lemur could figure out that running inside to the same side 15 unsuccessful plays in a row would not work on the 16th try, Zook, nope.