OT- College Football Imponderables

Submitted by Ziff72 on

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?

 

 

 

saveferris

December 7th, 2011 at 12:54 PM ^

And since an NCAA college football tournament field could never realistically be as large as the basketball tournament field, that bubble team that gets the shaft will have a much more legitimate gripe than the basketball bubble team

Asgardian

December 7th, 2011 at 2:15 PM ^

I understand the Fewer Teams, More Games makes a big difference, but does anyone in the MLB or NFL honestly "feel shafted" when they miss the playoffs?  (I'm not even gonna address NHL/NBA where 50% of the teams are in.)

 

That's why I prefer:

Playoff of only conference champions, no at-large bids.  Pretty sure it's impossible to go undefeated and lose your conference.  Everyone controls their own destiny.

If you don't like straight up 8 team playoff, you could do 2 byes and a play-in round.

 

This has the other benefit of making Conference Championship games ALWAYS matter. 

Who cares if LSU "is better" than Georgia if they lose to Georgia!?

Who cares if Alabama is the 2nd best team in the country if they already lost to LSU!?

/end rant

kevin holt

December 7th, 2011 at 3:03 PM ^

I agree. They should be given the "regular season" title like in the CCHA. If they lose to Alabama, they should split the title with regular season and postseason national champions. It's like our split championship before there was an actual "national championship" game. Maybe there should be an AP NC and a BCS NC that can warrant a split some years (but not all). If there is no undefeated team, there would be less of an obvious choice, though.

I'm still mad at the coaches for Nebraska '97, and that seems like a stupid system that gets affected by Saban voting NTtOSU 4th or 5th or whatever, but if things were back to history, LSU would be the consensus champion and at least get a split after bowls.

saveferris

December 7th, 2011 at 12:25 PM ^

2a - It's easier to blame your misfortunes on a high profile symbol than to take a hard look at yourselves and examine what is wrong or lacking with your program.  A fan can be rationale and insightful; a fanbase is illogical, lazy, and juvenile.

2b - They hate Michigan.  They beat Michigan this year.  In their narrow vision of the world this is all that matters and for some unknown reason, they feel every media outlet should understand that and agree with their position.  It doesn't help matters that they have a coach who reinforces this attitude.

2c - One game does not define a season, unless it's the one game that matters more to you than any other.  The fact that Michigan and MSU don't count the same game as that particular game is a major reason they will always be pissed with us.

2d - Because deep down, every objective MSU fan knows their recent success is not sustainable and will ultimately be that odd exception to an overall continuation of futility against Michigan.  MSU benefited from a combination of a good coaching hire on their part, coupled with a tumultuous coaching hire on our part, coupled with massive attrition on our part, leading to a huge age/experience advantage on their part and parlayed that into 4 straight wins.  Any MSU fan can see that most of the issues with Michigan that was giving them the advantage in past seasons have been fixed, in fact much faster than expected.  Michigan has continued to recruit better talent than MSU and that talent is now getting excellent coaching.  Despite the 14 point margin this year, MSU fans know the Michigan game was one busted 4th down play away from being a coin flip result either way.  In short, the fun for them is about to end and their squeezing all the trash talk in that they can. 

Trust me, Brady Hoke will finish his coaching career at Michigan with a winning record against MSU, by a healthy margin.  Brady Hoke will win a Big 10 Championship game before Mark Dantonio.  Mark Dantonio will finish his career at MSU with a sub .500 record against Michigan.  It's not a matter of if it happens, but when it happens, and they know it.