Thought on a Crazy College Football Weekend
Posted on: November 30, 2013
Image from Getty Images (Photographer: Kevin C. Cox)
It was interesting day of college football. Some of things that stood out to me:
– Maybe didn’t get as much publicity but Penn State beat Wisconsin. I didn’t catch the game but it definitely shocked me when I saw the box score.
– Missouri only 2 years removed from the Big 12 and they’re playing in the SEC championship. We might joke about the hype of the SEC but hype or not that’s a big game that a lot of folks have their eyes on. Take a gander at Missouri’s team “star ratings” by the way. And they might have a lot of upper classmen but the fact is they’re finding athletes and developing them.
– tOSU almost fell to Michigan. I haven’t believed in tOSU all year and that certainly didn’t help.
– During the Iron bow I was texting back and forth with my buddy who is a former player and Alabama HS coach. And while he claims no loyalty I know deep down he likes Auburn (lot of his players get recruited by both programs and he prefers Auburn recruiters). He had pretty much given up when Bama hit that one-hitter quitter but I told him to keep the faith. I said it to be nice more than anything. I’ve seen Alabama impose their will on teams one too many times and I know Auburn has some young undersized guys in their front. I thought it was over too. But to my surprise Auburn kept holding up and kept finding space in the middle of the Alabama defense to run. It was just enough to keep them within striking distance and set up a miraculous win. Funny thing is, my buddy was meeting with a friend on the Auburn staff and he had told me that Auburn coaches were genuinely confident going into the Iron Bowl. Most football coaches aren’t stupid. They know when they’re outmatched.
– Very curious to see if this Auburn win has a long term effect on Alabama. Alabama just did not look “clean” all game. They didn’t look prepared which is uncharacteristic of a Coach Saban team. I think Auburn is going to start winning a lot more recruiting battles in the state of Alabama. I know there are a lot of coaches there that will sell Auburn to their kids. They just had a tough sell…up until now.
– Oh how cool is it that two Oklahoma HS kids will be in the SEC championship – Safety Khari Harding and LB Kentrell Brothers
– If NIU beats Bowling Green next week they’ll end up in another BCS game. Ugh. Here are the BCS rules on the matter:
3. The champion of Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, or the Sun Belt Conference (hereinafter “non-AQ group”) will earn an automatic berth in a BCS bowl game if either:
A. Such team is ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS Standings, or
B. Such team is ranked in the top 16 of the final BCS Standings and its ranking in the final BCS Standings is higher than that of a champion of a conference that has an annual automatic berth in one of the BCS bowls.
So this annoys me for many reasons. The most vexing reasons is – a team like Oklahoma could conceivably be eligible for an at-large bid assuming we beat OSU. With TAMU, Wisconsin and Fresno State going down Oklahoma is inching closer and closer to the top 14.
– TCU had a chance to create an interesting scenario in the Big 12. But a tip ball and an INT made sure that wouldn’t happen. I honestly can’t decide who I would rather NOT win the Big 12 championship. Baylor – annoying, Texas – super annoying, OSU – super duper annoying. But then again Baylor is super annoying too. I love Coach Patterson is a defensive mind but c’mon brotha!
– WVU wow. They used to roll into BCS games when they were in the Big East. And now?! They’re losing to Iowa State and Kansas. Good Lord.
– CBS’ Jerry Palm already has his bowl projections up and he’s got us playing Oregon in the Alamo Bowl.
– Could a 1-loss SEC team jump tOSU? How crazy would it be for the state of Alabama to have the last 5 NCs!
– And who exactly did FSU beat? Not debating the fact that they’re good…they seem to be very good. Just don’t really see a great win on their resume outside of the Clemson game which keeps looking worse.
Thoughts y’all?
16 Comments
Also another thing – anyone else notice that ND beat Arizona State and lost by a TD to Stanford without Nix?! I think we beat a pretty darn good team.
They are also the 1 loss on MSU’s record…
good point. I forgot about that
We are one year qb wise on being undefeated this year…think about it…if we had experienced qb play we very likely beat texas and the baylor game would be a lot closer if we can keep our D off of the field in the first half
So true. The fact that we’ve been able to run the ball as well as we have despite being anemic in the pass game for most the season is incredible.
Hopefully the tight end position will come along with Ijilana and the talent we have on campus being one year more seasoned. That way we can put Rip back at that traditional fullback position we need. I’m really hoping that Grant and McNamara come along with another year in the program.
I can nearly promise you that Tyler will be right in the thick of it and I can easily see him starting and living up to his billing. Sometimes kids aren’t 100% and try to play through things and it affects them. He’s still fairly young and has a lot of football to play for OU. Next year with Tyler on full burners and Ijilana we should be fine. I wonder if Grant will grow into an OT. He just has that frame. He could easily get up to 3bills and be another Lane Johnson type.
Being able to run the ball is great, but Josh Heupel has shown an undying propensity to go pass wacky the instant a run or two doesn’t work out(or even if it is working) and none of the QB’s have the skill set to chunk it all over the place. Let’s hope that stops…
Spot on Aunum. Coaches tend to go back to what they know. We’re hoping that this season will be the coaching experience Coach Heupel needed in RE calling a good run game.
Any news on an Orso offer from ‘barn?
Well Auburn is full at DE. But someone I trust told me that if they weren’t Orso may very well have received an offer. And my guess is we would have lost him to Auburn. As it stands now they don’t have room so nothing to worry about.
Lots of arguments how long for OU to be “relevant” again. I think Mizzou and Auburn this year make a strong argument that OU could be back in play big time next year.
Couldn’t agree more. With Phillips back healthy and Nelson back in the fold(Hopefully), Bond and Striker on the edges, we could have a filthy defense with a run game to boot.
Add a more confident in command TK running the offense. I really wonder where we might be if TK had started game 1 thru 11. The OL has played great since we committed to a scheme.
Yeah, if Trevor hadn’t gotten hurt, another start against Tulsa would have definitely helped the maturation process. On the one play he got in and ran the zone read against Notre Dame, they clearly weren’t ready for that at all. Good news is that he’s here now, and appeared against K-State that a hostile environment really didn’t phase him at all.
The injury may be a blessing in disguise. Seems like he JUST got healthy and that forced him to watch the game on the sidelines and have it slow down a bit for him. I think he got smarter and that bred more confidence that he should be the starter. It’s amazing what hunger does for people. Now that he’s healthy and his wr’s are actually coming back for balls and finishing routes, they will get the ball. Once Josh H let him just run, it opened things up in the way it did for UT when Mack finally told VY to just run what he wanted. TK has proven to be elite in his running skills and that’s what opens things up for the rest of the O as they have to take that extra defender and account for TK. They don’t have to do that for BB and THAT’S the big difference I feel.