September 15th, 2013 at 7:23 PM ^
People have already forgotten about our scare against Ball State a few years, coached by none other than Brady Hoke.
September 15th, 2013 at 9:59 AM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 10:15 AM ^
well, if you're gonna put words in my mouth, i might as well say them.
IDK about you guys, but i absolutely remember the Balls Tate game in 2006, which in hindsight fortold of bad things. Same with Toledo in 2008 and to a lesser extent Appy St in 2007.
Blowing up CMU (they lost their RB and QB in the 1st Qtr, IIRC) means absolutely nothing.
Beating ND the way we did absolutely means something (unfortunately Towson beat temple and purdue was even with ND for much of that game, so maybe ND isn't great either?).
Being literally 1 yard from a loss to a team who's among the worst 5-10 teams in DI-A football also means something.
every week is like a Bayesian data point.
September 15th, 2013 at 11:19 AM ^
I though the Ball State game was more Carr trying to not steamroll Hoke.
September 15th, 2013 at 11:56 AM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 12:17 PM ^
that our pass D was suspect. that our reserves/depth were pretty horible (hence 2008 being the crater that no one foresaw).
September 15th, 2013 at 1:54 PM ^
More specifically, it told us that Johnny Sears sucked. Which would go on to create The Horror.
September 15th, 2013 at 12:00 PM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 12:08 PM ^
Being literally 1 yard from a loss to a team who's among the worst 5-10 teams in DI-A football also means something.It is of course possible that Akron isn't quite as bad as we think. Terry Bowden's a pretty accomplished coach for a guy running a MAC program. Maybe he is starting to turn them around.
September 15th, 2013 at 10:39 AM ^
Wisconsin was jobbed by officiating at the end of their game and Penn State is probably going to be hit-or-miss until their sanctions are over. Nebraska was probably overrated to begin with and they did lose to a higher-ranked team, so there's a lot that's explainable about conference play.
The easiest way to not get bent out of shape over it is to simply stop caring about how other teams do. I care about Michigan. If they win I feel good. If they lose I don't feel so good. As for the other B1G teams, I could not care less. Think about it...as a fan there is only so much you can do to support your team, and most of it has little impact on the team's on-field performance. You can drive yourself crazy enough contemplating that, let alone how the performance of the teams you don't care about could affect how a group of pollsters feel about your team to the point of ranking them more favorably or less.
Understand that so much of what goes on is something you can't control and relieve yourself of the burden of caring. Go Blue (wear maize), and everything will work itself out for the best.
Having said that, I changed out of my Michigan colors before the game yesterday to mow my lawn and forgot to change back when I was done...so yeah, that effort yesterday was totally on me. Sorry, folks, it won't happen again.
September 15th, 2013 at 11:28 AM ^
as usual. I didn't put it out until around dinner time. So, I guess it's on me, too.
Next time I get a new roof, I'll have to make sure it's done by Thursday.
September 15th, 2013 at 10:48 AM ^
You kind of hint at it but if you look at those losses the only one that is really disappointing is the beatdown Nebraska had in their house. I would say Purdue and Illinois overperformed even in defeats and Wisconsin, well, they should have had a chance at a gamewinning field goal on the Pac-12's home turf.
You could maybe mention PSU as disappointing but it looks like UCF could be one of those sneaky good non AQ FBS schools.
Overall, I agree with you that if you look at win-loss record the conference did not do great yesterday. Win-losses are the only thing most people will look at so yeah for now the perception might not change. However, I do think the league has made some progress.
We are at a natural disadvantage since one of our marquee programs, PSU, is mired in sanctions that probably half of the SEC should have (hyperbole but I am so sick of the SEC I became a Michigan and college football fan in 2006 at the start of their dominion).
Anyway, the most important team is Michigan and right now I am hoping yesterday will be a wakeup call for them to dedicate themselves each and every week since they only have nine guaranteed games left on the schedule.
September 15th, 2013 at 9:48 AM ^
We can blindly blame the media, ESPN-SEC satanic marriage, being built for cold weather, oversigning, etc, etc, etc. But when it comes time to make a statement, evey year BIG falls short. The conference deserves all the ridicule it is getting.
September 15th, 2013 at 11:39 AM ^
Curious what your age group is. This is a recent phenomena.
September 15th, 2013 at 9:48 AM ^
What else is new?
September 15th, 2013 at 9:49 AM ^
Besides out game the biggest disaster was Nebraska blowing an 18 point lead at home.
September 15th, 2013 at 10:14 AM ^
Not just blowing an 18 point lead, but giving up 38 straight points.
Anyone think Bo Pelini will make it to next year?
September 15th, 2013 at 10:26 AM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 11:21 AM ^
He can't recruit (or be the guy in charge, evidently). Except for Taylor Martinez, who are his blue chip players? Lacking Jimmys and Joes, most coaches fall back to reality. At LSU, he had some of the country's best players, which made him look oh-so-much better as the DC.
September 15th, 2013 at 12:10 PM ^
In hindsight, Suh really should have won the Heisman his last year. He was good enough to make a Pelini-coached defense actually good.
September 15th, 2013 at 9:50 AM ^
Winning cures all. All it takes is another conference to win a couple and the SEC is best will even itself out. My complaint isn't that they win, but that the preseason rankings give the SEC an unfair advantage to hold onto top spots without always earning them. Rankings shouldn't start until week 4 or 5 so we can fairly assess teams baeed on performance and not where they finished last year or how they look on paper. Giving any team an unfair ranking only helps them to stay at the top after beating up on cupcakes.
September 15th, 2013 at 11:23 AM ^
The conference that takes down the SEC will be the ACC. Demographics being what they are, as long as students wish to be close to home, southern schools will have an advantage.
September 15th, 2013 at 9:51 AM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 9:54 AM ^
I had the same one... but in the crowd there were nothing but unicorns with shark teeth, and apes with machine guns. We dodged bullets last night.
September 15th, 2013 at 9:57 AM ^
Well, UCF would probably finish 5-3 in the B10 and ND probably 3-5. At this point OSU is the only B10 team who would go 8-0 in the MAC.
Ill, PSU, Wisc and Neb killed the B10's rep yesterday. Purdue at least put up a fight. MSU took a week off from killing the B10's rep, congrats to them. I don't think winning all 4 of those is resonable, but 2-2 should have happened and 1-3 should have been worst case. The league is ASS-tastic.
September 15th, 2013 at 10:45 AM ^
How did the 2nd highest ranked team in the B1G squeaking by Akron not kill the rep of the conference more than those losses? Illinois played better than I though they would and Wisconsin and Nebraska lost to the two best teams in the Pac South. Only Indiana's loss to Navy and Purdue's loss to Cincinnati are more embarrassing to the conference right now.
September 15th, 2013 at 10:51 AM ^
well, i didn't really feel the need to bring up the M game.
September 15th, 2013 at 11:31 AM ^
Really? Illinois is a basket case.
September 15th, 2013 at 11:35 AM ^
that was a big game for them at Soldier field. Wash is good, not great. I wouldn't expect a win, but I thought they could be in the game, which they never really were. Vegas got that one right on.
September 15th, 2013 at 10:09 AM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 12:54 PM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 10:18 AM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 11:06 AM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 12:13 PM ^
Our staff as a whole was hardly a cheap hire. Coaching hires go beyond the head coach. We are one of only a few programs in the B1G that understand that.
September 15th, 2013 at 10:23 AM ^
Michigan's performance aside Wisconsin got robbed of a possible win and some of the losses were much more competitive than I thought it would be - especially Illinois.
The ones that really hurt were ours and Nebraska :|
September 15th, 2013 at 11:03 AM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 11:36 AM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 1:21 PM ^
He downed it poorly...but he did. And the refs clearly thought so, or else the play wouldn't have been blown dead just before the ASU players jumped on the ball.
September 15th, 2013 at 11:04 AM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 11:09 AM ^
They will not slap or even breathe on the schools that bring in their cash load. The SEC, a couple of teams in the Big 12 and OSU rake in the $$ for the NCAA. The playing field is not even close to level. If everyone signed 32 players a season and weeded out the weakest of the the previous year's recruits each year, then things might be a little different. The B1G eliminating D-1AA games starting next year will only widen the gap as the perception of SEC dominance will continue to snowball as their schools never play in snow and cold weather.
Speed is the major difference and we don't have it and they do.
September 15th, 2013 at 11:25 AM ^
http://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/ranking/overall-power-ranking-by-conf
The difference from #5 Big 10 to #6 AAC is pretty significant (13.4), but the difference from #1 SEC to #5 Big 10 is larger (15.3).
September 15th, 2013 at 11:28 AM ^
The unfortunate, but really true thing in all of this is that OSU was the only high-end team that showed up and did what it was supposed to do yesterday (okay, maybe Northwestern too, but for argument's sake). Sure, it wasn't a true blowout and their defense needs some work, but that game never really seemed like it was out of their control. The one thing I will say in Meyer's defense is that he's a master motivator. You'll never have to worry about his team not showing up, whether they're playing Michigan or Florida A&M.
Unfortunately, weeks like this are only going to keep fueling the perception that Urban Meyer and his team are the only hope this conference has, and that everyone else is just fighting for the second place scraps. We lost a ton, and I mean a ton of ground yesterday in terms of changing that perception. Obviously, the only cure for that is to continue winning and, hopefully, to beat them at the end of the season. But if we continue to play like we played yesterday, then we won't beat anyone left on our schedule. UConn included.
We all know what this team is capable of doing, so unless we have another poor showing next week, I don't think its time to hit the panic button just yet. I've said this before: many great teams, at some point, have one of those types of games that we had yesterday. They just don't let it become a trend.
September 15th, 2013 at 11:46 AM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 11:48 AM ^
If what NEB did was a pathetic display what would you call what we did? At least NEB played a team with a pulse....we played a combined 3-33 team in the last 3 yrs with 20+ road losses.
September 15th, 2013 at 11:53 AM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 1:12 PM ^
UM was pretty embarrassing, yes, but so was Nebraska. The B1G in general did not have a good day.
September 15th, 2013 at 1:56 PM ^
If what NEB did was a pathetic display what would you call what we did?We won our game. It may have been a very, very ugly win, but I think every Nebraska fan in existence would take a nail-biter over Akron over a 20-point loss. Besides, they had their own "Akron experience" against Wyoming.
September 15th, 2013 at 11:53 AM ^
Sad to say but the savior in Hoke has yet to develop any real talent. Yes he gets great recruiting classes but doesnt seem to get much out of them. We really blew it getting Harbaugh, we should of pulled the trigger a year earlier and gotten Harbaugh. I guarantee we would be a power house already. Mattison and Hoke both Dline coaches havent gotten shit out of this dline with all those great recruits. My opinion is most of them are from the weak midwest. If you take a top player from the midwest Id rather take a lesser talent from the south which is why urban meyer will rule this conference. He gets those down south recruits to come up north and were gonna pray the day he leaves this conference.
September 15th, 2013 at 12:02 PM ^