I listened to Herbstreit on ESPN Radio today on Mike and Mike. He was on for ten minutes, mainly talking about the big games of the weekend (Texas/WVU, USC/Georgia, ND/Miami, LSU/Florida). He then briefly said his two upsets of the weekend are Northwestern over PSU and Purdue over Michigan. He said Purdue was the best team in the Big Ten this year, and are now his pick to go to the Rose Bowl.
Yikes.
Purdue and Oregon played a
Purdue and Oregon played a home and home in 2008/09. At Purdue in 2008, Oregon won in multiple overtimes. At Oregon in 2009, Oregon won on the final play. Purdue didn't go to a bowl game either year, while Oregon in 2008 demolished OK State in the Holiday Bowl and won the Pac 10 and went to the Rose Bowl in 2009. There's no reason to think an Oregon / Purdue mathcup this year wouldn't be another excellent matchup since Purdue is significantly better this year.
Just a hunch from seeing a couple games so far.
I watched all of Oregon/Arizon, most of Purdue/ND and was flipping back and forth while Purdue played Marshall. I just don't think it looks close, at all. I'm not saying I'm an expert on either team (like I said, I've only seen those few games), just that Oregon's offense looks like it will score a lot of points against anyone, and their defense looks like it could be improved as well.
Go Blue!
Oregon Offense
The Oregon offense didn't really start to take off both those years until the 4th/5th game. I don't think the results would have been the same later in the season. Purdue did play well in those games, I will give them that.
Member of Reggie Cleveland All-Stars
Have you watched Oregon at
Have you watched Oregon at all since 2010? Purdue wouldn't last more than 1 quarter. That game would probably be more lopsided than Illinois vs. USC back in '08.
It's been a lot. Its been a roller coaster that for some reason seemed like it would never get good. But you know what? We kept fighting. It's like that old saying goes, "Those Who Stay Will Be Champions." -David Molk
I think Stanford is hugely
I think Stanford is hugely over rated. Oregon is by far the best team in that conference. USC is a good team who had a bad game against Stanford
Cocaine's a hell of a drug.
Cocaine's a hell of a drug.
"The difference between a man and a boy is, a boy wants to grow up to be a fireman, but a man wants to grow up to be a giant monster fireman."
- Jack Handey
I'd like to think
I'd like to think that Old Greg gave Robinson the funk. Hopefully the funk has worn off by now.
I can only continue to reference the fact that I live in an onion factory.
Someone just showed me that
Someone just showed me that video on Monday. It's funny how things seem to be referenced a lot once you find out about them.
Least worst in the Big Ten
Least worst in the Big Ten may be the more accurate descriptor.
Herbstreit must not have
Herbstreit must not have watched the Purdue - Marshall game or read Ace's FFFF.
“What the mind can conceive, the mind can achieve and those who stay will be champions.” - Bo
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Still can't comprehend these
Still can't comprehend these divisional alignments. The Leaders has 3 championship-eligible teams (c'mon, IU doesn't count). The Legends has 6, including 3 of the best teams.
I know it's a rule that you need two have two divisions to have a conference championship game, but why don't they have all 12 teams in a single table style format, the top two going to the championship game?
The rule is...
twelve teams, two divisions, round robin within divisions. It sucks this season, but we're stuck with it at this point.
If it makes you feel better, Minnesota shouldn't count if IU doesn't, so it should really be 5-3.
Go Blue!
It would make so much more
It would make so much more sense to just dissolve the rule and have every conference go to a 12 or 14 team table. This would avoid the "but they didn't win the conference championship" argument because, what a novel idea, the best two teams would be playing the conference championship game (pending tiebreaker choices).
With the 8 game schedule,
With the 8 game schedule, however, you'd get all kinds of ties between teams that hadn't played each other, or who had only played some of the teams they were tied with. Good luck developing a rational set of rules for who goes to the championship game. At least this system creates clear winners of the divisions, even if the divisions are horribly misaligned.
to two too
to two too
“When your team is winning, be ready to be tough, because winning can make you soft. On the other hand, when your team is losing, stick by them. Keep believing” - Bo Schembechler
Really? Purdue? We'll crush
Really? Purdue? We'll crush them.
This weekend.
This weekend.
Really? Purdue? We'll crush
Really? Purdue? We'll crush them.
you love double posts
you love double posts
“When your team is winning, be ready to be tough, because winning can make you soft. On the other hand, when your team is losing, stick by them. Keep believing” - Bo Schembechler
Really? Purdue? You'll crush
Really? Purdue? You'll crush them
Your friendly neighborhood Sparty
In the BTCG.
In the BTCG.
We'll crush 'em - twice!
We'll crush 'em - twice!
This actually might be true.
This actually might be true.
Special Teams means special times!
?
What number on Herb Street, Mr. Kirk?
Nobody home...
I miss Peggy.
This season hasn't been as good without her/him.
No, Peggy,
his last name is "Herbstreit".
Taking it one week at a time
That purd(haha)iction is
That purd(haha)iction is comical. Purdue would be the fifth or sixth best team in the conference WITH their starting qb, but he tore his ACL. This pick makes no sense to me
Purdue's QB ALWAYS tears his ACL.
A couple things...
1. By this point their offense must gameplan around a serious knee injury to a skill player each week. In fact the guy might play even with his injury.
2. Personally I agree with you about Purdue's standing in the conference, but... see next point!
2. The B10 is pretty down, and Purdue only has one decent eligible team in their division, if you think Wisconsin is even decent. I'd put their chances at reaching the conference title game at, shoot, 39.75%, maybe better than that. That's better odds than I'd give any of Michigan, Nebraska, or MSU for reaching the game from the "We aren't quite as bad as the other division" division - they are all lurking around 25%, and those could drop if Iowa shows a little more life. And you have to make the title game to play for the title. So I don't think Herbs is that out to lunch here.
After looking at their
After looking at their schedule and thinking about it a bit more I can actually understand where Herb is getting this from. The only two games left on their schedule that I see them losing are us and Wisconsin. After that their schedule looks pretty easy. That would put them at nine losses and depending on what Wisconsin does they could be in the championship game and anything can happen there. Purdue also payed @ Notre Dame and only lost 20-17, which is very interesting because if they manage to beat us or Wisconsin, Purdue could be a two loss team. Wonder when the last time that happened was.
You see them beating Ohio
You see them beating Ohio State?
If you notice
He din't even count Ohio as a "tough game"
How can you kill that which has no life
Northwestern over PSU
is not an upset, PSU over NU would be.
Regardless, NU will roll.
FWIW,
Yahoo has Penn St -3; probably due to game being played in Happy Valley.
Taking it one week at a time
Penn State also rolled
Penn State also rolled Illinois last week, but Illinois is just bad. This will be the first game since the Ohio game that Penn State's shaky secondary gets tested.
That's one of the worst
That's one of the worst predictions I've ever heard. Hope he backs it up on Gameday so I can watch him back track the next week. He'd probably pick Ohio if they were eligible. If Michigan loses on Saturday I'm moving to Bolivia and becoming a monk.
Hail to the Victors!
I have a feeling we're going
I have a feeling we're going to smack Purdue into bolivian this weekend!!
What exactly makes it such a
What exactly makes it such a terrible prediction?
If you take your homer glasses off, they looked WAY better against our one mutual opponent (ND), and had a close game against Marshall (which i'd put on par with our game against Air Force).
You may not like it, but Herbstreit is a neutral observer, and knows a hell of a lot more about college football than we do
WAY better?
We had the better completion percentage and YPA passing, more yards and more YPC rushing, more first downs, more total yards and more YPP.
We held ND's offense to less points, first downs, yards passing (by a factor of two), and forced more turnovers (two INT's for us, none for Purdue).
We lost by more points, and you can't discount six turnovers, but I'm not sure it's fair to say they played way better than we did. You could make an argument that we had the better game, to be honest.
Go Blue!
Michigan will win the big
Michigan will win the big ten. everyone wants to write michigan off because they lost 13-6 @ notre dame with six turnovers! State has no offense, wisconsin is a mess, and as long as taylor martinez is nebraskas quarterback they will always be an underdog IMO
I love Denard as much as the
I love Denard as much as the next guy, but this season I would trade him straight up for TMart Thus far
Martinez has been much better than DRob through the first 4/5 games.
foo! shut yo mouth!
foo! shut yo mouth! Blasphemy!
Uh
something something level of competition.
No excuses. Play like a champion.
Michigan wins the Big Ten...
I still think Michigan will win the Big Ten. If they had scheduled a tomato can instead of Alabama, they would be 3-1. We could reframe the ND loss to a positive instead of a negative by saying that a top ten team had to get six turnovers to win by a touchdown and "ruin a possible undefeated season."
It's all perception, and I think the non-conference part of the schedule gave the coaching staff a great opportunity to fire this team up for the Big Ten portion of the schedule. Hoke and Co. will be able to play the "no respect" card for nearly every game the rest of the year.
It might not help, but it certainly can't hurt.
Ridiculous
Herbstreit doesnt know what he's talking about.
Hail! to the Victors Valiant Hail!
Is anyone going to the game?
I have never been and will be going with a group of fellow Michigan fans from Northern Kentucky.
Yes.
I'll be making the trip to West Lafayette from Cincinnati. Going with a group of 5. Should be a good time. Go Blue!
This is MICHIGAN
Yup. Group of 4 from
Yup. Group of 4 from Indianapolis.
Yep,
With wife and son. She likes this way better than Wife Day!
Yessir, going with some
Yessir, going with some friends and family.
See it through.
The Big Ten's Rose Bowl chances don't look great even if you believe that Nebraska and Michigan haven't played up to their potential (and that one will get their act together). Purdue facing Stanford or USC would be brutal, and I'm not sure anyone would watch more than a quarter of Oregon/Purdue.
Edit: I guess the game would get plenty of viewers up in Eugene.
Go Blue!