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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Thursday, August 30, 2012
The 2012 College football thread!
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USC's offensive line is getting embarrassed.
Wow, Stanford is totally game, sans Oregon.
well, i don't know what today has to do with games in the past.
i am speaking to a head coach who is very comfortable pointing the finger at other people and declaring 'them' the problem.
now if you are suggesting that the guy can coach i acknowledge that he has his positives in terms of being a collegiate head coach. but i know him to be a person of low character and this season has highlighted his worst traits.
always shifting the blame for one
You'd think USC would put Barkley in the gun to try and protect Barkley and the center more. I think I saw one shotgun snap that entire series (of course Barkley was also sacked on that one from the edge).
the line has been much more active than i anticipated.
Side note: ND has 6 of their opponents ranked going into today(it'll be back down to 5 unless BYU picks it up).
I was thinking to myself earlier I should have gone down there. Definitely looks like a lot of fun.
OMG, Utah, WTF was that?
BYU qb not ready for shotgun snap, Utah runs it back for 6. A #### six.
Did you notice the play in Stanford's last drive where on short yardage, they faked into the middle and pitched to a tailback sprinting for the sideline? They made that work with line splits. The offensive line was jammed in there shoulder to shoulder, which is exactly what you want to do if you're going wide. If you want to bust it up the middle, you're better off taking wide splits.
*I would love to see footage of NIU v Army today. The Cadets lost, with 486 yards rushing and 3 pass attempts, 41-40. too bad.
CU's graduate programs are pretty good, especially in the hard sciences. I will now stop talking about the University of Colorado at Boulder's graduate programs.
worst (modern era, post WWII) program to ever win a MNC (a share of course)?
if not them, who? Clemson? BYU? Maryland, Cuse?
And Rae Carruth. SI has a story this week about his son, who has cerebral palsy (which they say is a result of the blood loss in the mother after the shooting). Disturbing story, to be reminded of the crime in such detail. Plus, after he was convicted, he sued for full custody of the baby (after many appeals he eventually lost). He still shows no remorse and claims it was a drug deal gone bad.
And now I'm sorry to have reminded you all of his existence.
I wish. That would mean they had a team.
The so-called football team plays USC, Oregon, and Stanford in consecutive weeks. Nice to give all those teams a bye week. I hope the Pac-12 doesn't have an out clause.
Bull to your bull. I'm a GI at the University of Minnesota -- a school with much tougher academic standards than any SEC school -- and when I've had a football and/or basketball player in my classes, I've received repeated phone calls from minders whose job it is, in theory, to "check up" on a student's progress -- but whose actual job is to pressure me to give them a passing grade. I never caught anybody cheating, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. There's not really any way to tell what happens outside your classroom.
coaches poll continues to show that none of them watch the games
The biggest difference, to me, is that VA Tech is 26th in the Coaches Poll. They'll be back in the rankings by next week. Just in time for Cincinnati to beat them I guess.
ND may have better wins than Texas, but that doesn't change the fact that if they played, Texas would win.
One of the problems with evaluating this is that, in 2012 eyes, it's difficult -- heck, nearly impossible -- to envision an ACC or Big East (soon to be ACC) school as a national champion unless they reside in Florida. Things were different then.
That may have happened at Minnesota but I was never pressured to change grades. Never, and I had players during the Franccione, Shula and Saban eras. I had academic progress reports to fill out, but that is it. I flunked athletes and never heard from the athletic department. One of the best students I ever have had was a gymnast (for some reason, gymnastics is the football of women's sports at UA).
the Big East doesn't have a title contender, but they also don't seem to have any absolute garbage like Wake or Duke (well, Syracuse is close).
I'm certain Vandy has tougher standards than Minny. Texas AM and Florida are probably on par with Minny. I wouldn't tout academics too hard at Minny on a sports message board considering the University of Minnesota has dusty Final Four banners buried in a closet somewhere because of a massive academic cheating scandal.
The best student I had in my class last spring was actually a second stringer (on scholarship) on our terrible football team. Mine never reached to the level of actual pressuring -- I never had a student who really came close to flunking -- but I have no way of knowing if there was cheating.
Was the kid you flunked on scholarship? I assume that makes a substantial difference.
I meant to emphasize school with the lowest program stature (historically) to win a MNC post WWII. If I were to pick the worst single team to claim a MNC, then I'd say either BYU, Minn '60, though GT and CU were quite a dubious pair in '90.
Maryland '53 despite losing to OU in the Orange was pretty damn good team. That was the early portion of OU's 47 game winning streak.
There are ranked team showdowns between:
Michigan - ND
Kansas State - Oklahoma
Clemson - FSU
Arizona - Oregon
And some more interesting matchups besides:
BYU - Boise State
Oregon State - UCLA
Rutgers - Arkansas
Vanderbilt - Georgia
etc.
I suppose on one hand, you can say they've exhibited holes in their game -- a defensive debacle against Syracuse, an anemic offense in the first half against Vandy, and red zone problems against BC -- but, then again, I also think they've shown more than just flashes on both sides of the ball. They look like they have two pretty good RBs, with nicely contrasting styles, in Trumpy and Martin. The defense looked REALLY strong against BC virtually all game -- in particular, they controlled the line of scrimmage against a very big Eagle O-line and really did it without a whole lot of blitzing. Ordinarily, I wouldn't think a QB rotation would work -- but Fitz seems to be perfectly mixing Colter and Siemian and the offense as a whole seems entirely comfortable with both.
I'll grant that Syracuse, BC, and Vanderbilt is no buzzsaw -- but it's hard for me to see how NU (assuming they don't stumble against South Dakota this weekend) doesn't come out of the pre-conference schedule looking better than everyone else in the conference. If nothing else, I think they've got as many wins against BCS conference foes as the rest of the league combined.
After watching the Spartans get handled so easily by the Irish - I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibilities that the MSU-NU game in November decides the Legends rep for the title game and there's no one in the other division (remember that OSU is ineligible) I don't think they can beat in the conference title game. Wonder what Delaney would think of a Purdue-Northwestern title game ;-)
Don't get me wrong - I'm not thinking they're a top 10 team or anything, but I really don't see anyone in the conference they'll be significantly undermanned against... maybe that's more a statement of the B1G10 than anything else, but it would be interesting where a fantasy 12-0 NU B1G10 champion slots in the BCS. Assuming the other conferences play out with Stanford, FSU, Alabama, OU/Texas, and who cares -- figure Alabama and maybe one other team (I'd guess FSU) being undefeated, I wouldn't presume to make the case for the Cats playing for a title.... but it would be interesting.
How good is Clemson this year? They've easily beaten who they have suppose to, and struggled against a terrible Auburn team but without Watkins. I haven't seen a snap of a game though, so I really have nothing much to go on.
I also have trouble accepting that THIS IS THE YEAR that FSU is a title contender. I've had that tale told to me for a decade now.
For CP and myself, WVU finally plays a team from a BCS conference.
Absolutely! I have no idea how good anyone in the Big 12 is since the entire conference played no one. Start to find who is who out on Saturday!
For CP and myself, WVU finally plays a team from a BCS conference.
Heck yeah! Although playing MD ain't what it used to be. I hope they get back on their feet soon.
BTW, how about that goal line stand in the 3rd quarter against JMU? Best moment of the game on Saturday IMO.
What's the O/U on that one going to be? 100 points?
picked the wrong weekend to go on vacation. Wife gave me no choice. should have access to games at night though.
I had trouble determining the categorization label of MD this week. BCS team, while true, is really a deceiving statement.
Yeah, Geno had a couple nice throws, but the stand was the best part. I still have little-to-no faith in the defense. Good news, the Baylor game should be exciting and have a 90 O/U.
I did have a little trouble reacting when WVU went Punt, EOH drive, and turnover on downs. 3 possessions without scoring?
They've got home games coming up against South Dakota and Indiana, so they could very easily be 5-0 at that point. Then road games against Penn State and Minnesota, so 7-0 is a possibility. The Cats haven't opened a season 7-0 since 1936.
Interestingly, MarQueis Gray may miss a month -- which would make the NU game his first back. The Gopher backup had an effective game - perhaps more than effective, but Gray makes their offense go. I have little fear of going into Happy Valley at this point.
Figure if everything breaks right, that Nebraska home game looks likely to be the marquee B1G10 matchup in week 8. They'd still have the the Michigans (Iowa looks awfully down this year), but I really am liking this team's versatility.
Unfortunately, they still won't have played anything close to a ranked team. 3-0 against BCS-conference teams sounds best if you don't have to mention that the teams are Syracuse, Vandy and Boston College.
No doubt it is possible. But whenever programs of the caliber of Northwestern start checking off automatic wins weeks in advance, they usually fail to materialize.
Calling something "a possibility" is not at all the same thing as calling it "automatic."
I do suspect that NU will be favored in each of its next four games.
Oh sure, hey -- I distinctly recall the 1995 and 1996 toe stubs when they were looking ahead, so it wouldn't at all shock me if South Dakota ends the fantasy before it really even starts.
That said, I think it's fair to say that the Cats at this point are a mid-tier program in the conference. It's been nearly a two decades since they've been perennial conference doormats. They've got a stable Head Coach still two years shy of being 40 who will probably be around (barring epic scandal) for another 20-25 years. The trustees just this past weekend signed on to an expensive and shiny new lakeside training facility. With both Penn State and Ohio State looking at a couple of trying years due to probationary issues - the time is now for the program to make its move.
Specifically to this season, though -- this team just looks top to bottom better than I expected. They graduated an awfully strong class, but there's nota facet of their game that looks particularly weak. Like I said originally, they all looked problematic in stretches, but from the running game to the passing game to defending the pass to defending the run to special teams, they've also all had more than just flashes of being pluses.
Northwestern may be a bit up and the rest of the Big 10 down, but Northwestern just doesn't have the same talent that most teams in the league have. I don't see what's going to be too much different from a couple years ago where they started 5-0 and then struggled in conference play. Sure anything is in the realm of possibilities, but they are significantly out-talented by Nebraska, Michigan, and MSU, and will probably drop one of the Iowa or Illinois games too.
I don't know... Venric Mark's size would probably make most other teams shy away from him, but I think Mike Trumpy is a legit back. Demetrius Fields is a perfectly fine receiver that I could see getting rotation time just about anywhere, and while USC transfer Kyle Prater never lived up to the hype, I think he's still uber-talented (he just hasn't stayed healthy). They have more question marks defensively, but Chi Chi Ariguzo is a player. Trevor Siemian was relatively well-recruited.
It's mostly in the trenches that they can't really compete with the Huskers, Wolverines, etc -- but that BC O line was supposed to be pretty decent, and the Cats' front just stuffed them most of the day without really much in the way of stunting, blitzing, and scheming.
Considering the turmoil with Wisconsin's line, the fact that Nebraska has just made an in-season switch to a 4-3 on the other side of the line, and Michigan's O-line looks subpar compared to their (old? some time ago?) usual... again - it's the right season for things not to go according to script.
It was actually a 4-3 defense to a 3-4 defense, but that still isn't as radical as people think. They have played some 3-4 over the entire Pelini era, and practiced it quite a bit this spring/summer.
I do agree w your larger point though about Nothwestern.
Why not, the Navy-Notre Dame game earlier this season was a home game for the Irish. I would be willing to bet that the crowd at the UCONN-ND game at Fenway would be at least 90% ND fans.
EDIT: unless you were just speaking of crowd partisansip - in which case it was definitely an ND crowd.
My bad, I didn't watch enough of that game to determine who was the home team, etc., I just assumed it was an ND home game. You're right that most of the crowd was for Notre Dame.
vs. OU
vs. WVU
@TCU
@KSU
vs. UT
The 5 toughest teams, probably, in a row. I guess they get arguable the 3 best at home, but I think they'd have to feel really happy to finish that stretch 2-3.
Then why did Lundquist/Danielson do the game for CBS?
What, as opposed to losing their lives?
Then why did Lundquist/Danielson do the game for CBS?
You're right. I'm an idiot.
Great slate Saturday, heavily concentrated at night.
In the big games, I like Oregon along the lines of 50-30. I like ND by a touchdown in a medium scoring game. I like Oklahoma by 17+, and Florida State by a couple of touchdowns. Unfortunately, in all of the big games the favorite is at home.
Yup. Went through my pick 'em league for this weeks games, and noticed that all my initial instincts were for the favorite. Went back through the picks again, and just could not find an underdog I really liked. I think Michigan makes it within 3 or 4 points, but that's it. I don't think K-State, Clemson or Arizona come within 14.
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