Implications of Utah-Oregon game

Submitted by west2 on

Haven't seen much about Utah's 62-20 throttling of Oregon at Autzen Stadium.  Watched some local sports shows yesterday and BTN and really no discussion that maybe Spartys signature win wasn't all that impressive.  I think this game has huge implications that maybe Sparty isn't as good as advertised.  What say you?

saveferris

September 28th, 2015 at 12:03 PM ^

We appear to be better than predicted.  Sparty appears to be not as good as their #2 ranking would indicate.  The polls will adjust accordingly in about 3 weeks after we beat them in Ann Arbor.

FauxMo

September 28th, 2015 at 12:17 PM ^

Phil Knight asked Oregon for his $17 billion donation back?

Oregon doesn't get to change its uniform color until it stops sucking?

Chip Kelly now has a soft landing spot when the Eagles fire him?

The Oregon cheerleaders were so sad they cancelled their weekly bra-and-panty pillow fight?

 

kalamazoo

September 28th, 2015 at 1:52 PM ^

We did well versus a road weary, 10am MST game time (hard to play that early), smaller BYU who had a few stupid first-down providing penalties early to UM, and we did great to not turn the ball over, but still long ways to go. Remember all the concern one week ago when we didn't cover the spread vs. UNLV who was supposed to be much worse than Oregon State. We're trending up but MSU will be a super tough game with utmost preparation and focus required for a win.

DonAZ

September 28th, 2015 at 12:03 PM ^

This is why Harbaugh's outlook is so healthy ... he disregards all talk like this and says the only thing in his mind is what's in front of him.  So right now, it's Maryland.  Then Northwestern.  And then we'll see how good Michigan State is.

Everyone Murders

September 28th, 2015 at 1:22 PM ^

Godzilla once told me "never mess with Bambi - it ends poorly". 

But to DonAZ's point, you'll note a lack of countdown clocks in Harbaugh's team facilities.  I think all coaches nod and wink at the "we're just focused on next week" concept, but some are more sincere about the concept than others.

(OTOH, Bo did circle the OSU game in red on the schedule.)

SoDak Blues

September 28th, 2015 at 3:07 PM ^

Did they really remove the countdown clocks from Schembechler Hall? I was there last fall (obviously under a completely different regime), and all were still in place. I thought they were kind of cool at the time, but there wasnt much else to be happy about. Good for Harbaugh - one game at a time.

(obvious exception being OSU)

Dawkins

September 28th, 2015 at 1:16 PM ^

This. Check out this quote from a David Shaw interview from right before the season;

 

On how Michigan will do under Harbaugh:

"They’re going to win, I have no doubts about it."

But will they win the ultimate prize down the road?

"That’s the question only Jim can answer. But he won’t answer it. Because Jim is not looking five, six, seven years down the road. Jim is looking at this year. Some people say that’s coachspeak, but that’s how he is. He sees this 2015 season as an opportunity to restore Michigan to where it should be, and I’m telling ya, he’s not thinking about anything else."

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/88944/david-shaw-on-jim-harbaugh

 

Blue_sophie

September 28th, 2015 at 12:04 PM ^

It's big news on the west coast. I think the implications for the PAC12 are far greater than for the B1G so that is the prevailing narrative... for now. That said, I think the Utah-Oregon game will be discussed all season and will lead to multiple reevaluations once people get accustomed to these teams' new identities and the new west coast hierarchy.

marti221

September 28th, 2015 at 12:46 PM ^

Not only that, but I think this will also get more coverage when the playoff rankings start to come out. There will be more comparisons done between common opponents. Right now it's just a little too early to tell how good these teams are. I mean, most conferences haven't even started conference play yet.



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BlueKoj

September 28th, 2015 at 12:05 PM ^

Sam discussed that on the web and WTKA and stated it changes the perspective on both UM and Sparty. I've not seen a national acknowledgement of how it affects Sparty, but one of the half-time shows acknowledged UM's only loss "to a Utah team that is beating OR."

Ghost of Hoke

September 28th, 2015 at 12:05 PM ^

Has not slowed down the amount of shit posts on the board. Yes I didn't have to click on it or care enough to comment. But, I felt the need to do so. Go Blue!

alum96

September 28th, 2015 at 12:29 PM ^

Agree 100%.  If UM loses to MSU all you will hear is "don't use transitive in football!" which is generally true. 

For the next 3 weeks it will mean something.  And then it will mean nothing - except for Pac 12 folks.  It will also mean MSU wont be sneaking into the playoffs if they somehow get thru the season with just 1 loss to OSU as their only quality win then would be UM.

But hopefully it doesnt come to that.  I just wish more of the teams they played this year had good QBs - as that secondary is ripe for the picking.

alum96

September 28th, 2015 at 1:11 PM ^

OSU won the Big 10 last year with a conf championship game to boot.

I am talking about a 1 loss Sparty whose only loss was to OSU and they were a non champion with no championship game to play in..  If they beat say 4 ranked teams and then lost 31-28 to OSU on the road you could see the argument being made by some.  But now with Oregon exposed (recall Eastern Washington put up something like 45 on them as well) that is not going to work.

evenyoubrutus

September 28th, 2015 at 12:07 PM ^

The other thing that hasn't been discussed... none of OSU's wins look all that impressive either.  Virginia Tech is looking like a .500 at best team, WMU is certainly not as good as people thought they would be.

It doesn't mean either team can't improve, early season struggles that yield big turnarounds midyear happen all the time, but both of these teams were supposed to be improved coming off of last season. If it were my team I would be nervous.

Ronnie Kaye

September 28th, 2015 at 12:19 PM ^

If you want to hear about Sparty's signature win not being impressive, BTN is the last place you want to look. They will bang the drum for the rankings being legit because of who are in the top 2 slots.

NRK

September 28th, 2015 at 12:07 PM ^

ESPN Article today:

 

"The importance of an early "big" win: The wow factor of Michigan State's victory over Oregon continues to erode, as does Ohio State's win at Virginia Tech. For now, those wins are enough to keep the Big Ten mastheads Nos. 1 and 2. But when the College Football Playoff committee votes for the first time, a meeting that's still more than a month away, will it value the weight, emotion and ranking of those victories at the time, or will the real-time loss of luster subtract style points? I mean, Va Tech lost to ECU and Oregon's only wins so far are against an FCS team and Georgia State Not Southern. (OK, shameless Bottom 10 plug.)"

 

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/13758563/michigan-ucla-o…