NCAA Football 2015

[MadBurgerMaker]

Sometimes it was merely bad. A few times it stood up and achieved mediocrity, but those were brief moments of glory.

So.....better than Swoopes.  A QB that can actually throw a pass and isn't a "mobile QB" who runs like he is wearing lead shoes would help that OL.  The guy got run down from behind by a 300 pound DL for fucks sake.  Sheldon Day is a good player, but the dude runs like a 5 second 40.  If Swoopes can't get away from that AND he can't throw, then....what's the point?

E:  Oh and someone needs to get some white out and remove the jet sweeps from Watson's playbook.  Stop it.

[Valmy]

Yeah Swoopes is about as mobile as I am. Looks like Vince, runs like Major.

But Swoopes is big and take a hit. Heard got obliterated. So I think Swoopes is just there to get beat up. Playing anybody else behind that offensive line is harmful to their health.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Hell Major with his busted knees and all might be able to run faster than that.  Like, right now, right this second.  If Swoopes is only in to get hit, Strong should be fired before he gets on the bus to the airport.   With two freshmen on the line, it can get better, but it won't matter if Swoopes is in there with them.  If Heard is out for a while, there are still other options.  There's Locksley (freshman), Merrick (freshman), Holtz (I wonder if he has a lisp), and Vinklarek.   Losing with Swoopes is the same as losing with some other QB.  At least you can see what you've got.

Fuck it.  Put that intramural guy, Greenwood, in if redshirts can't be burned.  At least it'll be fun. 

Heard got shaken up when he got blasted in the head while sliding, which wasn't on the OL (he was running and was looking like he was going to puke right after that).  He was looking a little fucked up when he came back in after that, which is when he got sacked twice.  Swoopes wasn't really hit, but also wasn't particularly hard to tackle for the domer D, nor was he really in a position to slide, since he was usually busy getting tripped from behind about a yard from the LOS or running OOB on 3rd and short.  He had that one run with the stiff arm that didn't really get the dude off him and didn't get him very far anyway, but not much otherwise. 

Anyhow, here's a thing:



http://lostlettermen.com/kansas-state-band-has-kansas-jayhawk-perform-fellatio/

[Valmy]

Heard looked like he was getting hit hard

Hey where was Jonathan Grey? I thought he was going to be the 'work horse'.

[MadBurgerMaker]

When was Heard getting hit hard?  He slid, got hit in the head, and looked like he had a concussion.  Other than that run/slide, he handed off and threw a pass.  Did he get blasted on the pass or handoff?  I didn't see.   After that, dude probably shouldn't have been in the game, but he came back in for two more plays that resulted in sacks that were definitely on the OL.  He looked weird when he came back in too.  I'm not confident.  He's probably done for the year.

Grey, man, I don't know.  Maybe they consider 8 carries to be a "workhorse" on this team?

[alfred russel]

Obviously I hope I'm wrong about this, but in the "is Notre Dame that good?" / "is Texas that bad?" debate I think the answer is more of the latter. The O Line of ND especially should be a strength of the team this year, but I was really surprised how ND dominated the lines of scrimmage. Probably no one has an easy time of recruiting as Texas, and while QB is hard to evaluate, Texas of all places should be full of big strong linemen.

There isn't a more misleading game to jump to conclusions than the first game, but ND's schedule suddenly looks rather soft. I wonder if the Texas fans agree that this team is going to struggle to have a winning record without significant improvement. Stanford lost to Northwestern and only put up 6 points. BC let Maine hang around. Crazy upsets happen of course, but I think the only 3 ranked teams on the schedule will be Clemson, Georgia Tech, and USC.

[MadBurgerMaker]

The reaction is like this because this is exactly what the O looked like at the end of last year as well.  They just kept on doing what they were doing.  The constant seems to be Swoopes.  Even the OL has two freshmen on it, so it has been changed up.

E:  Val, check out the "Last 38 Offensive Drives" thread over on the Shag.  38 drives, 24 3 and outs, 27 first downs, two TDs, two FGs, 3 defensive TDs (lolwtf the opposing Ds scored more TDs than the Texas O), 5 INTs, 2 fumbles.  That's 38 drives over three games.

[Valmy]

Obviously I hope I'm wrong about this, but in the "is Notre Dame that good?" / "is Texas that bad?" debate I think the answer is more of the latter. The O Line of ND especially should be a strength of the team this year, but I was really surprised how ND dominated the lines of scrimmage.

I wasn't.

Probably no one has an easy time of recruiting as Texas, and while QB is hard to evaluate, Texas of all places should be full of big strong linemen.

Texas is not the lineman treasure trove one might think. So many of our HS teams run Spread offenses. And you might notice none of our College teams have dominant lines. A&M is not shocking anybody in the SEC with their physicality. And why does Texas have an easy time recruiting? Why have we, as a state, been so bad for the last 40 years then? Any one of Florida's top three schools have enjoyed more success since 1970 than all of Texas's College Football teams combined. I doubt any of UT's players would crack the starting line up for Florida State. Maybe Malik Jefferson, presuming they start freshman linebackers. If you want easy recruiting I think Florida is where you want to look. Unless every single coach at every single Texas school has been incompetent for 40 years...which is possible I guess. There have been some stinkers. UT has been down, really down, for long stretches for multiple periods in recent history. Heck you saw what Miami did to one of Texas' best teams in the 1991 Cotton Bowl.

There isn't a more misleading game to jump to conclusions than the first game, but ND's schedule suddenly looks rather soft. I wonder if the Texas fans agree that this team is going to struggle to have a winning record without significant improvement. Stanford lost to Northwestern and only put up 6 points. BC let Maine hang around. Crazy upsets happen of course, but I think the only 3 ranked teams on the schedule will be Clemson, Georgia Tech, and USC.

Texas is a 5 or 6 win team. They are rebuilding the defense after losing some top players. The offense is a disaster because Mack Brown let the offensive line talent decay to nothing for some reason. It has not been competent since 2006 and I have been complaining about it for so long I am tired of hearing myself talking about it.

Until they get something going up front and find a QB the offense is hopeless.

[Valmy]

The reaction is like this because this is exactly what the O looked like at the end of last year as well.  They just kept on doing what they were doing.  The constant seems to be Swoopes.  Even the OL has two freshmen on it.

E:  Val, check out the "Last 38 Offensive Drives" thread over on the Shag.  38 drives, 24 3 and outs, 27 first downs, two TDs, two FGs, 3 defensive TDs (lolwtf the opposing Ds scored more TDs than the Texas O), 5 INTs, 2 fumbles.  That's 38 drives over three games.

Vahe got abused. But he is a freshman going up against a veteran D-Line.

Yeah Texas' offense is really bad. Everything the pessimists said about Shawn Watson turned out to be true. Swoopes is horrible, one of Mack Browns worst recruiting blunders.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Vahe got abused. But he is a freshman going up against a veteran D-Line.

Yeah Texas' offense is really bad. Everything the pessimists said about Shawn Watson turned out to be true. Swoopes is horrible, one of Mack Browns worst recruiting blunders.

Watson seriously seems to just randomly choose plays, like the Ask A Coach thing on Madden.  He really, honestly, doesn't seem to base any of the play calling on the situation or whats going on in the game.  3rd and 1 with guys getting into the backfield all the time?  Super slow developing jet sweep!  2 and 18?  Two dive plays in a row! 

E:  To be fair, he did finally call a couple of screens and shit to get the Domers to back off a little, and that cross where Swoopes overthrew the 7 or 8 yard pass to the wide open guy was just perfect and would have gone for a huge gain.  I think that was to Grey, and he had all sorts of green.

[alfred russel]

Valmy, I wouldn't bemoan the state of Texas recruiting too much. The state has 2 teams in the top five.

It is crazy to me that if you were ranking teams in Texas, the Longhorns would be no better than 4th right now (and I know some people would argue lower). It would be rather epic if they were to beat TCU or Baylor (or aTm if they were to play).

I have more profound thoughts that I will post tomorrow. I am drunk and tired.

[lustindarkness]

Looks like Auburn will give us another year of ugly wins. Why do we do this to ourselves? Choose a team to follow and raise our blood pressure.   

[PDH]

I would take ugly wins...

[lustindarkness]

 








I could not help myself. 

[alfred russel]

I have more profound thoughts that I will post tomorrow. I am drunk and tired.

I don't think defensive minded coaches are going to be getting so many head coaching jobs going forward. The idea of having a head coach focus on the defense and hiring a guru as OC to manage the offense has backfired in too many places. Some really obvious exceptions to this are Gary Patterson, Mark Dantonio, Bob Stoops, and Nick Saban, but those guys have been head coaches a long time and arguably learned to be more generalist head coaches before we got into the current environment (plus there will always be exceptions as some talented coaches will come up through defense).

The way the rules are now, I think a well coached offense with decent players is going to be able to put up points on anyone. If you want to win championships, you have to assume that your offense will be capable of winning shootouts--even with a really good defense, you can't assume that you can keep other good teams from scoring 30 in every game. "Offense sells tickets, defenese wins championships" has never been less true.

I really felt confident going into the ND Texas game, because I saw the matchup as probably:
B grade ND Offense with an offensive genius coach against a A grade texas defense with a defensive genius coach
D- grade Texas offense versus a B grade ND defense

I figured it would be tough for Texas to score 20 against any reasonably competent D with decent athletes, and it is tough to keep a Brian Kelly offense from scoring 20 no matter how good your D is.

In Charlie Strong's defense, he had a good offense at Louisville. But about the first thing he did as head coach was convince Teddy Bridgewater to switch his commitment from Miami to Louisville ( )--and then he left with Bridgewater. All credit to him for recruiting Bridgewater, but can he duplicate that, and soon, at Texas? He looks like he will be on the hot seat next year, so he doesn't have much time.