OT- College Football Imponderables
College Football is just a weird sport as evidenced by the way they determine a national champion. I had some thoughts that I wonder if anyone had the real answer to because there doesn't seem to be one and if they had any of their own.(Some of these may or may not be really true they just sure seem that way.)
1. Why doesn't Wisconsin get the best RB in the country every 3rd year? Watching the BT Champ game and seeing Monte Ball run wild I wondered if they had any big name backs go there. If you look at their recruiting you don't see a 4 star rb for the past 6 years. How is this not the easiest recruiting pitch in the country? You'll play behind a great line, we'll give you the ball 25 times a game, if you stay upright for 12 games you will be a Heisman contender, we have recent Heisman winners and we're an annual top 10-20 team.
2. Why doesn't Spurrier know how to coach offense anymore? Imagine in 2 years RR is in Arizona running a power I and leaning on his top 10 defense to squeeze out 16-10 wins. He's been at SC for a while now and they have turned into a horrid offense and he can't get a qb to save his life. Florida just used to kill teams on offense and while he got top talent name a qb or wr that had a great NFL career under Spurrier? He used to move the ball at Duke for pete's sake. Doesn't compute.
3. Why do Michigan DB recruits slow down once they hit campus? When was the last time you saw a Mich db that played fast with that cat like quickness? They all seem fast when we are recruiting them as juniors but by the time they hit campus they are not. Some when they hit campus still time fast but don't play like it on the field. While we have had some very good ones since Woodson, you wouldn't consider any of them to have elite speed or quickness. Countess may be the chosen one to break the cycle.
4. How did John Tenuta's defenses get worse with better athletes? These things always confuse me. 5 years ago when Herbie announced Miles and Tenuta were coming to Mich we were thrilled. Tenuta was one of the hottest defensive coaches in the country turning Georgia Tech's engineers into one of the best defenses in the country. He goes to Notre Dame where he has better talent across the board and his d is subpar. Now I don't even know where he is at. WTF??
What are some of yours?
December 7th, 2011 at 9:47 AM ^
Why do teams seemingly ALL point at the Michigan game as the one where they pull out all the stops, run every trick play and generally go against what they've done all year against every other team?
For example, why does Frentz go for it on 4th down not once but twice against us when the week before and week after he punted in the same situation? And why does OSU show an offense they had largely under wraps for 11 weeks leading up to our game?
December 7th, 2011 at 10:02 AM ^
My buddy noticed that. It seems like everybody gets up for Michigan.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:46 AM ^
Fergodssakes!
December 7th, 2011 at 11:23 AM ^
Michigan apparel for Christmas. I got her a new hoodie and a couple of Tees, one of which says:
"Maize: (adj) - An arrogant shade of yellow".
December 7th, 2011 at 1:08 PM ^
Excellent choice!
December 7th, 2011 at 10:08 AM ^
Why are most Michigan kickers big fellas like Gibbons, Rivas, and Lopata?
<br>Why is MSU kicker U?
<br>Why does Vincent Smith do the finger guns?
<br>What exactly was GERG studying (besides hair tips) when he turned down recruiting in order to focus on scheme?
December 7th, 2011 at 10:10 AM ^
Because it's Michigan fergod's sake. Other teams can make their season just by beating Michigan. Even when we're the underdog, they often play like they are--nothing to lose, everything to gain with a win over Michigan.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:21 AM ^
Marcus Ray says we're everybody's bowl game, every year.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:20 AM ^
It's frustrating, but it is answerable. WE ARE MICHIGAN!
How about MSU and other teams always having a bye or a cupcake the week befoer they play us?
December 7th, 2011 at 12:44 PM ^
prior to MSU in 2013 and appears to also have one in 2014.
| 2 0 1 3 | |
| Date | Opponent |
| Aug. 31 | CENTRAL MICHIGAN |
| Sept. 7 | NOTRE DAME |
| Sept. 14 | AKRON |
| Sept. 21 | at Connecticut |
| Sept. 28 | Bye Week |
| Oct. 5 | MINNESOTA* |
| Oct. 12 | at Penn State* |
| Oct. 19 | INDIANA* |
| Oct. 26 | Bye Week |
| Nov. 2 | at Michigan State* |
| Nov. 9 | NEBRASKA* |
| Nov. 16 | at Northwestern* |
| Nov. 23 | at Iowa* |
| Nov. 30 | OHIO STATE* |
| Dec. 7 | Big Ten Championship Game |
| 2 0 1 4 | |
| Date | Opponent |
| Aug. 30 | APPALACHIAN STATE |
| Sept. 6 | at Notre Dame |
| Sept. 13 | TBA |
| Sept. 20 | TBA |
| Sept. 27 | at Indiana* |
| Oct. 4 | Open |
| Oct. 11 | MICHIGAN STATE* |
| Oct. 18 | at Minnesota* |
| Oct. 25 | PENN STATE* |
| Nov. 1 | IOWA* |
| Nov. 8 | at Nebraska* |
| Nov. 15 | Open |
| Nov. 22 | NORTHWESTERN* |
| Nov. 29 | at Ohio State* |
| Dec. 6 | Big Ten Championship Game |
December 7th, 2011 at 6:21 PM ^
How many years does mark dantonio have left at state? he has to be upset they shafted him for urban meyer. Does he wait the 3-4 years until urban quits at ohio and then push for the position or does he bolt for another job?
December 7th, 2011 at 9:49 AM ^
1. Divisions I-AA, II and III all have 16 team playoffs... yet they don't want to overwork the I-A "student"-athletes with a playoff.
2. Because overpaid fat guys in orange suitcoats want to wine and dine school officials across the country every year, in the name of keeping alive the wonderful tradition of bowls, like the Beef O'Brady Bowl.
3. The Beef O'Brady Bowl ...... ?!?!?!?!?!?!
December 7th, 2011 at 11:01 AM ^
20, 20, and 32 team playoffs (1-AA, II, and III, respectively). Lowest teams have to go 5 teams to win it all. They do have shorter regular seasons by a game or two, though. And their regular seasons do have shorter trips to away games in general. Still, weak argument for I-A students being overworked for the handful of teams that make the elite playoff.
December 7th, 2011 at 9:59 AM ^
The ol' ball coach can still coach. The problem is that it is a lot more difficult to recruit elite talent to South Carolina than it is to Florida. They might get one or two great players, but for the most part, their talent is average in the SEC. That will get you 4-0 or 3-1 OOC and 4-4 in the conference more years than not. Anything better than that is great coaching.
When Spurrier even gets South Carolina in contention for the SEC title game, it is a great job of coaching. Ask some of the many UF fans who want Jeremy Foley to fire Will Muschamp and hire Spurrier back if they think he can still coach.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:25 AM ^
I agree he has done a good job at SC, but it's been mostly on defense. Lattimore, Jeffrey, Sidney Rice but offense is still marginal at best . As for Florida he put up numbers at Duke as well.
Can it be his offense just doesn't work anymore?. That doesn't make much sense and you would think he would still be able to light up at least the lesser talented teams?
December 7th, 2011 at 11:38 AM ^
I have no empirical evidence to back this up but I would guess the overall talent level in the SEC has increased from when Spurrier was roaming the sidelines in Gainesville and the talent at his disposal is decreased at South Carolina when compared to his Florida teams.
December 7th, 2011 at 11:52 AM ^
Spurrier has changed his philosopy. I happened to hear him on Jim Rome a couple weeks back, and he basically said; Play good defense, run the ball, and don't turn it over is a PROVEN formula for winning football games. It was pretty bizarre to hear.
December 7th, 2011 at 11:02 AM ^
Spurrier has always been harsh to QBs... he used to pull them frequently at UF. I believe the non-QB skill players at UF made the QBs look bette and Spurrier always got the top o-line recruits in the state of FL (Reggie Green, Donnie Young, etc.) IIRC....also, It doesn't hurt to have guys like Errict Rhett, Fred Taylor and Ernest Graham toting the rock either...and Reidel Anthony, Jabar Gaffney, Reche Caldwell, Jaquez Green, Ike Hilliard, et. al. at the receiver position. Spurrier's QBs were always over-rated because of the talent they had around them. Spurrier just insisted thatt they play mistake free...or he yanked them.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:00 AM ^
Why is when we hear about innovation in College Football it is always about Rockne?
December 7th, 2011 at 10:01 AM ^
how about Donovan Warren? Started as a true freshman, was thought to be a 1st Day NFL Draft pick (we know how that ended, but he was evaluated highly by some scouts). Other than that, yeah, you are correct :(
December 7th, 2011 at 10:08 AM ^
Meineke, AutoZone AND Maaco? Really?
December 7th, 2011 at 10:13 AM ^
If you think of Bowls as a giant advertisment...
with the economy not doing so hot many people have avoided buying new cars and are maintaining their old ones longer than they normally would. This has lead to "pent up demand" for new cars, which might be part of the reason new car sales have started to pick up like woah the last couple of months.
So (at least this year) it makes sense that auto-repair places would be advertising like crazy.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:33 AM ^
I know that one well enough. Still can't wait for the Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl and the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. I might even open an account at San Diego County Credit Union this month too and I live 2400 miles away from the nearest branch.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:46 AM ^
All I know is that the matchup of FIU-Marshall is going to get me to eat the sh-t out of some Beef O'Brady's "Award Winning Wings"! http://beefobradys.com/chicken-wings-boneless.aspx
December 7th, 2011 at 11:19 AM ^
Beef O' Brady's is a good place to watch NFL games and drink beer. That's it. The food sucks.
December 7th, 2011 at 11:39 AM ^
I had never heard of TicketCity.com before the bowl last year. Because of the name recognition from the bowl, I checked them out and have sold tickets to them. My business with them is directly attributable to the bowl affiliation.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:11 AM ^
It's not always athleticism/talent that makes a great player, but a combination of athleticism, drive, smarts, etc.
Maybe he was better at getting low 3*s to buy into his system than he was at teaching 5*s who thought they were awesome. How often have we praised Kovacs for being in the right place at the right time? That's not raw athleticism, that's something else. Maybe Tenuta's ND defenses had athletes, but no brains, or no drive, or no something else.
You see this disparity all the time in the NFL draft. GMs and coaches are drawn to the gaudy numbers (40 time, bench press, drills, etc.) without looking at the film. Ryan Mallet is actually an interesting case here. Everyone said he had 1st round talent, but they were worried about his "character (weed) issues" so he slipped. Jamarcus Russell could throw it 80 yards, but no one seemed to check if he loved football and had the work ethic to succeed. Actually, you see this with a lot of QB Busts. Guys who had all the physical tools but couldn't make it work. Maybe that was the case with a lot of ND's defensive players?
December 7th, 2011 at 10:14 AM ^
With db's it's not always about the fastest player being the best. Good db's have good coaching, instincts, study film well. The fastest guy on the team out of position looks slow as hell in the replay, because he's 2 yards behind where he should be.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:17 AM ^
You, sir, are a thread creating machine!
December 7th, 2011 at 10:20 AM ^
The only answer I can pose to why Wiscompshon doesn't get top RB's is that while great in college, they never seem to pan out in the NFL. That aside, it does puzzle me as well.
My question is how Kansas State can be ranked in the top 10. I've had the misfortune of watching several of their games this year (as my wife grew up a fan of them since her mom went there (I'm slowly converting her)), and they are just NOT GOOD. They put up a whopping 120 yards against Texas and won. They beat 6-6 Miami after Miami had an apparent game winning touchdown overturned. They beat FCS team Eastern Kentucky 10-7. It took them 4 overtimes to beat 6-6 Texas A&M. Since they're ranked ahead of us, my inlaws are giving me grief about Michigan getting picked over them for the Sugar Bowl. While we undoubtedly were picked in part due to our fanbase, we're also, well, just a better football team.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:29 AM ^
after his first six seasons were:
2-9
3-8
6-4-1
6-5
5-6
2-8-1
And don't say he survived because VaTech was a crap program before he got there—the previous coach was Bill Dooley, who up to that point was the most successful coach in VaTech history, and went 9-2, 8-4, 6-5, and 9-2-1 in the four seasons preceding Beamer's start.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:44 AM ^
That is actually very interesting. The internet not being around during that time was probably a big help, but after that 2-8-1 6th year he must have had a helluva story for the AD.
"We return 22 starters next year and we had our top 3 qb's get hurt in the 1st game of the year. Gimmee 1 one more year. Please?"
December 7th, 2011 at 12:02 PM ^
We lived outside of Richmond, and since my family was never going to listen to Rush L. or "The Sounds of Your Life," we listened to a lot of sports talk radio. Trust me, the people who called in to those shows hated Beamer. It's crazy that he got through that stretch. This is a genuine imponderable.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:43 AM ^
Everyone probably read about the NFL's refusal to show TV footage from the cameras that give full 22-player views (if not, here's a link to one of the articles: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203716204577015903150731054.html),
"While this shot makes the players look like stick figures, it allows students of the game to see things that are invisible to TV watchers: like what routes the receivers ran, how the defense aligned itself and who made blocks past the line of scrimmage."
My question is why do they not show this kind of footage during broadcasts of college football games? Do they not have the same camera angles due to different stadium designs? Or is the NCAA protecting the "information" in the same manner as the NFL? OR is it some kind of government conspiracy?
December 7th, 2011 at 10:56 AM ^
Pretty sure it's a government conspiracy. I think colleges break down the same tape angle. We broke down the same tape at a high school level so I'm sure the colleges do the same.
It does seem bizarre. I asked Brian before to request a sitdown with Moeller or one of the old coaches like Hanlon and go over an old "game tape" so he could gather more insight for his UFR's and he didn't feel he had any chance of getting one of those.
I'm hoping when Brian gets back with Bacon he will open up about what went on during those sessions.
One of those things I would just love to do. Be a fly on the wall while coaches 1st go over the tape with no players around. The comments from the coaches have got to be beyond classic. Can you just imagine a guy like Parcells with no sleep, pissed off after a loss going thru a tape just hammering guys? I would set the over/under of homophobic slurs and f bombs in those sessions at 473 per hour.
December 7th, 2011 at 12:44 PM ^
and can assure you that a tape like that would win the internet for all time. If you think posters are harsh on players, you haven't been in a coaches' office watching film after a loss. I've heard (and said) some really, really awful (yet hilarious) things in my day. When the feelings of anger, frustration, disgust, and helplessness combine like Voltron..sometimes you just vent.
December 7th, 2011 at 10:48 AM ^
1) Why would we schedule a rematch against app state?
2) Why is Gibson still allowed to coach DBs
December 7th, 2011 at 1:04 PM ^
I'm gonna take a guess here and say your profile pic will get you quite a lot of upvotes
December 7th, 2011 at 10:51 AM ^
I think your CB question is just short-term memory. Since Woodson, Michigan has had Marlin Jackson and Leon Hall go in the first round, Jeremy LeSueur was a third-round pick, and Morgan Trent was a sixth-rounder. I may also be missing a few from the late 90s post-Woodson.
Could we have had more for how much talent we brought in? Yes. We also had 3 season that basically don't count because our D was so atrocious that you needed to be a Brandon Graham standout to get drafted.
December 7th, 2011 at 11:06 AM ^
I said we have had several good db's. You may think differently and it's all relative they obviously had to be fast, but I wouldn't consider any of the guys you listed as burners or cat quick.
My friend and I just always comment that our db's don't look fast. We keep waiting for that ball hawking safety that just closes ground(Dorsey type) or the shutdown corner who is just super quick/fast. One of the best examples was Cissoko. His hype was off the charts after some of his combine work. The only question anyone had was his size. Then as he got closer to campus doubts surfaced about his top end speed. Then he got here and nothing.
Think of a guy like T. Mattheiu from LSU.
December 7th, 2011 at 11:38 AM ^
to do with the 5 fakes out of 5 speed rating given to high school athletes?
December 7th, 2011 at 12:19 PM ^
Your example of what you want is the best DB, if not the best defensive player in the country? Why can't Michigan have an elite QB every year? I'm thinking Tom Brady or Peyton Manning...only more accurate...
December 7th, 2011 at 10:57 AM ^
Why does Notre Dame still have that home game contract with NBC despite the fact they have a combined record of 3 wins and 31 losses against top ten teams since 1994?
December 7th, 2011 at 10:59 AM ^
Why does ESPN make me endure commentary from former Buckeye's during Michigan games?
December 7th, 2011 at 7:35 PM ^
This. I was at The Game but watched the tape when I got home. Spielman was just awful but his complete silence at the end of the game was awesome.
December 7th, 2011 at 11:20 AM ^
Wisconsin may have trouble getting top level kids to want to be in Wisconsin.
Florida may have had an easier time getting elite talent and QBs to want to go to Florida than to South Carolina.
December 7th, 2011 at 11:40 AM ^
1. Why are there still some people that insist the BCS is an awesome system when it has done nothing but produce controversy about 90% of the time? Why is it that corporate America and the Almighty Dollar dictate who gets to play in a BCS bowl? (Of course, Michigan is a beneficiary this year, which I like...but that doesn't make it right.)
2. Why does Sparty insist on being all like "Sparty No!" I mean, it was always a fun joke, but it's something that inexplicably keeps happening. Why is it that once this happens, life isn't fair and it's all Michigan's fault? Why is it that they can't fathom that Michigan's season and MSU's season are pretty comparable? That one game does not define a season? Why are they incapable of getting out of their little bro complex even after beating Michigan 4 years in a row?
3. Why do Notre Dame, Florida, and Florida State all get huuuuuuge hype to start the season when they have done NOTHING to warrant this hype? Why does fricking FLORIDA get hype when they have a fricking first-year coach?!? (They were preseason #23).
4. Why in the hell is Texas still in the top 25? They are an average team at best. Surely we can find another team with a better resume than 7-5. Why the hell were they preseason #24 when last year they had a terribad 5-7 season? While I'm at it, why is Auburn in the top 25? They're 7-5 and almost lost to fricking UTAH STATE if not for a miraculously lucky comeback. How can people think the BCS is legit when things like this happen...
5. How in the hell did PENN STATE almost get in the B1GCG? How in the heck could a team with absolutely no offense win 9 games? I mean...fricking McGlovin at QB? HOW IN THE HELL DID THEY SCORE 41 POINTS AGAINST US IN 2010 ARRRGH I WILL NEVER GET OVER THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 7th, 2011 at 11:43 AM ^
A week or so ago I was complaining about the BCS and someone said (can't remember who) that it's a great system because it does its job pitting #1 vs #2 every year. The problem is, as has been shown this year, that not everyone agrees who the #2 team is or should be. It is not clear cut who should be playing in the MNC game.
December 7th, 2011 at 11:49 AM ^
We'll never know if that is true. Then again, would we really ever know with any other system?
December 7th, 2011 at 12:10 PM ^
No matter what the system is, one team will always feel shafted. There has to be a cut off somewhere. All the bubble talk for March Madness is the proof. The talking heads will always say somebody got the shaft and didn't make it into the tourney field. I'd still probably prefer that, but it's something to consider, at least.