Things we have learned from 5 weeks of football...
- The B1G sucks this year and is a clear level beneath the SEC, Big 12 and PAC 12... but still above the MAC.
- There is no "clear cut" set of school who should be considered Elite top 10. We have an Elite 3-4... but after that it is a hot mess that seems to be shifting around more this year then I remember is years past.
Other thoughts?
September 29th, 2012 at 10:29 PM ^
The conference is down, but I wouldn't be surprised if the teams ralied a bit and actually had a good bowl season.
September 29th, 2012 at 11:20 PM ^
Not having 2 teams in the BCS will help..
September 29th, 2012 at 11:24 PM ^
There will be some shuffling up of bowls due to the OSU situation.
September 30th, 2012 at 12:34 AM ^
Which will work out poorly for the Big Ten.
September 30th, 2012 at 1:45 AM ^
September 30th, 2012 at 10:49 AM ^
Definitely. As will some teams simply improving as they get through the Big 10 season. Last year's two BCS teams were pretty good - that Oregon victory was by the skin of their teeth, as was UM's over VT. The problem has been with the depth of the conference, but teams like NW, Wiscy, and PSU are frankly playing better than I had imagined, and even Minny looks like a dangerous squad. Sure, Nebraska looks overrated but it is all about matchups.
September 30th, 2012 at 12:29 AM ^
After going 4-6 and 3-5 in bowls the last two years, I doubt this is the year the conf turns things around. Especially considering one of the league's best teams (Ohio State) is going to be sidelined. Almost any situation where you get a Big Ten #3 vs SEC #3 or Pac 12 #3 type of bowl matchup its going to go against the Big Ten.
Just face it: the league is bad this year. Maybe they will be better next year...
September 30th, 2012 at 10:52 AM ^
I'm not disagreeing the conference is down, but I'm also not sold that the #3 team in the Big 10 (which looks like MSU, UM, or Wiscy) wouldn't be able to handle the #3 in the SEC (which is what, Florida or Georgia) in a bowl game. Also, after USC and Oregon nobody in the Pac-12 scares me.
The Big 10 lacks the dominant teams at the top and that's why it looks so down; I do think the conference will play reasonably well this year.
September 30th, 2012 at 10:17 PM ^
Right now it's Georgia who also happens to be ranked #5 in the country. Considering MSU and UGA played an OT game last year and one team is better (Georgia) and one is worse (MSU) who do you like in that game?
The SEC may be top-heavy, but it's real heavy at the top with 5 teams in the top 10.
September 30th, 2012 at 11:12 AM ^
You are the kind of optimist that would believe that UM could lose a non-conference game to an FCS team and rebound to beat an SEC team in a bowl game played in that team's home state.
September 30th, 2012 at 12:11 PM ^
September 29th, 2012 at 10:34 PM ^
I agree on the lack of elite teams. Just look at the folks in the top ten right now. ND may have the worst offense of any top-ten ranked team in history, Stanford lost to WSU, and a number of others have struggled with unranked opposition. Really Alabama and Oregon are the only teams that have really shined to me. LSU is right up there, but has struggled a great deal on more than one occasion. Just an off year for football overall.
September 29th, 2012 at 10:40 PM ^
September 29th, 2012 at 10:48 PM ^
Regarding LSU, they gave up 22 points to Towson today....it's definitely not the same defense as last year
September 30th, 2012 at 2:20 AM ^
/the Ellerbe years
September 30th, 2012 at 10:54 AM ^
This. UM gave up 25 to Air Force and people were freaking out; LSU gives up 22 and everyone just figures it was LSU toying with them.
Outside of Alabama, there is nobody in the SEC who scares me. I truly believe that if UM had played LSU in the Jerryworld, it would have been much closer.
October 1st, 2012 at 10:07 AM ^
LSUs recent track record would suggest that the Towson game is an outlier.
September 29th, 2012 at 10:35 PM ^
Don't get it twisted. No one recognizes defense anymore. The Big12 and Pac12 don't play any. For a while there I was letting the media storyline about how the B1G is down and never coming back get to me, but no more. I agree that we will bounce back this season.
September 30th, 2012 at 12:36 AM ^
As bad as the Pac12/Big12 may be on defense, the Big Ten is equally as bad on offense. Michigan State is like Baylor/West Virginia bad on offense.
September 29th, 2012 at 10:45 PM ^
B1G is down, and so is everyone else. Aside from Alabama and LSU, who does the SEC have? Arkansas was supposed to be elite. Georgia is supposed to be elite, but barely beat unranked Tennessee. What's the Pac-12 got? Oregon, maybe. USC lost against Stanford (again), and Stanford is apparently shaky after what happened earlier this week.
Everyone who is not Alabama, LSU, or Oregon gets a giant MEH from me right now. And heck, we don't really know much about LSU or Oregon yet.
September 29th, 2012 at 11:29 PM ^
Alabama is, in my opinion, the only real elite team in the country. That's a junior NFL team.
September 30th, 2012 at 1:17 AM ^
September 29th, 2012 at 10:47 PM ^
Honestly the Big 10 might be the 3rd best /deepest conference but all teams are middling. The PAC 12 would be a close 4th, Acc 5th, and the Big 12 is the clear second.
September 29th, 2012 at 10:51 PM ^
September 29th, 2012 at 11:42 PM ^
September 30th, 2012 at 10:22 PM ^
The SEC has FIVE teams ranked in the top 10.
September 30th, 2012 at 11:01 AM ^
Nothing about the Big 12 impressed my today. When teams are dropping 60+ points on each other, that's not a good sign. Honestly, if Baylor had picked off one pass or caused one turnoever against WVU, they would have won. I hated hearing people on Gameday talking up the offensive firepower they were seeing in the Big 12 while knocking teams playing defense like MSU and OSU. I'm not saying yesterday's game was magic, but watching WVU and Baylor play was equally offensive if you like to see teams at least try to stop each other.
September 30th, 2012 at 12:10 PM ^
I thought so too. To the pollsters it doesn't matter at all who you play, or how bad your defense is. You can play the weakest of cupcake schedules, put up 80 points a game and you stand out. It doesn't even matter if those cupcakes put up 73 points on you, so long as you put up 80. There is nothing to be gained for your season by playing good teams OOC. Maybe there's something to be gained from "exposure," the ADs bottom line, or some other intangible, hypothetical reason, but all of those are easily eclipsed by the benefits of going undefeated against 12 crappy schools. It gives you almost zero benefit for your season to play a tough schedule. Look at Boise. They've played absolutely nobody for the last 5 years and were consistantly ranked in the top 10. Even in the future with SOS being figured into the playoff formula it'll be a relatively useless stat because it'll likely only be used as a tiebreaker stat for the last few 2-3 loss teams to get in. If we win the B1G then we'll get in automatically and it wont matter if we played Alabama or Eastern to start the season.
September 29th, 2012 at 11:10 PM ^
Alabama is the only elite team, then maybe Oregon is after them. After that....?
LSU struggled with Towson
WVU can't play defense at all
Notre Dame doesn't have an offense
Georgia can't play defense
K State & South Carolina both seem solid but not elite
I still feel like the B1G is ours for the taking. The Big Ten sucks and we're a lot better than anyone is giving us credit for
September 29th, 2012 at 11:22 PM ^
September 30th, 2012 at 12:41 AM ^
Mistakes are just a part of what your team is. Denard has proven that for all of his great abilities, he is incrediblity error prone. You can't discount those turnovers just as you can't discount Denard's running ability. His pros and his cons have earned this team the proper amount of credit in my opinion.
September 30th, 2012 at 9:59 AM ^
September 30th, 2012 at 3:43 AM ^
I doubt we will see Denard turn the ball over again like he did against ND. All quarterbacks have really bad games once in a while. Hell, Peyton Manning threw three picks in one quarter a couple weeks ago.
September 30th, 2012 at 11:03 AM ^
That statement could be applied to virtually any QB in the country. Denard will not throw 5 INTs again,and his playmaking covers up a lot of sins of the offense.
September 30th, 2012 at 9:35 AM ^
I absolutely agree with this, in fact I was going to say the same thing until I saw your post. LSU, FSU, WVU, they are all a step below oregon, who is a step below bama
September 30th, 2012 at 1:06 PM ^
September 30th, 2012 at 10:29 PM ^
How so? The team is 2-2. They beat an unranked Air Force team by 6 at home (an Air Force team that proceeded to lose to an AWFUL UNLV team the next week) and a blowout win over new I-A member UMass.
Can they win the B1G? Sure . . the conference is a POS right now. But this team hasn't shown anything yet after a third of the season.
It's not a good sign when a loss (to ND) is what gives you hope.
September 29th, 2012 at 11:11 PM ^
October 1st, 2012 at 4:18 AM ^
September 29th, 2012 at 11:25 PM ^
September 30th, 2012 at 12:55 AM ^
with a quarter to play. Zona's D is more the problem than their O.
September 30th, 2012 at 7:54 AM ^
September 30th, 2012 at 2:07 AM ^
Arizona puts up 35 points and 545 yards on Oregon State, in their 4th game under RR. (Arizona was 4-8 last year.) Wisconsin put up 7 points and 207 yards on Oregon State this year. And we're moving to that MANBALL, Wisconsin, 1990s UCLA offense with Borges, right? (Not the 2002-2003 Borges Indiana offense, or the 2005-07 Borges Auburn offense, etc., etc.) Watching the good offensive teams today, did any West Coast offenses stand out to you?
September 30th, 2012 at 2:43 AM ^
You know what's really funny? That MANBALL is what Bama used to put 41 on us including 31 in the first half.
September 30th, 2012 at 11:04 AM ^
Remember Stanford last year? They were pretty damn good on offense...must have been the spread, eh? Oh wait.
And as the poster above said, Bama put 41 on us.
Wisconsin's offense sucks because Wisconsin's offense sucks...not because of their scheme. Remember RR in year one here? Can we conclude from that that his offensive system sucks too? It's all about having the right personnel to run what you run best...Wisky is struggling because they're weak at QB and not as good up front as they were a year ago.
September 30th, 2012 at 11:10 AM ^
The problem with Rich Rod is that you have to take the bad (defense) with the good (offense). They've given up 600+ yards twice in the first five games this season.
Oregon State was held to 10 points by Wisconsin, but dropped 38 on Zona last night.
September 30th, 2012 at 11:38 AM ^
Yeah, they should definitely get rid of their accomplished defensive coordinator after 5 games and one recruiting season.
September 30th, 2012 at 12:25 PM ^
I'm not saying that at all. Casteel has a good track record.
At some point, maybe we have to acknowledge that it's not the DC that's the problem. Shafer, Robinson, Casteel - that's three DCs in the past four seasons he's had, and all have fielded terrible defenses. And all three guys have pretty good career résumés. Maybe the fault actually lies with their boss (and perhaps, the position coaches he keeps hiring over and over).
If Rich Rod wants to be a championship coach, he's going to have to swallow his pride and recognize that he doesn't know how to handle the defensive side of the ball. He needs to leave his DC alone in all areas, including hiring of position coaches. I'm not sure if he is capable of accepting this.
September 30th, 2012 at 11:10 AM ^
Stanford won a BCS bowl last year with an offense similar to the one Borges will run. Alabama seems fine running a classic pro style offense.
Any offense will work in college with the right personnel and schemes - hell, Air Force can put up 30 points on virtually anyone and they run an offense that high school teams think is archaic. Yes, WVU dropped a bunch of points on Baylor - they also gave up 63 and its not like Baylor has ever fielded anything approximating a defense. And sure, Oregon State shut down Wisconsin, but they still only won by 3 points (And scored 10 themselves) with that crazy spread offense they run. Teams win and lose based on have a defined scheme and following it. RR is running his offense at Arizona and it works fine; on defense, Casteel is still installing his plays and it will take some time.
September 30th, 2012 at 11:38 AM ^
Glad you could confirm you are the pathetic human being I always knew you were :).