NCAA Football 2015

[jimmy olsen]

I think AR's right to be upset. With that kind of talent they should be going 9-4 or 10-3, not 6-7.

[Eddie Teach]

I suspect Notre Dame does a much better job than Miami of recruiting "team players".

[grumbler]

Michigan fans won the Every Day Should Be Saturday Charity Day Drive again, so the EDSBS staff put together a list of insults for non-Michigan teams.  It's pretty good: http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2015/5/11/8586037/hatin-ass-spurrier
Money Quotes:

If Michigan State's the little brother, why didn't he use his family connections to get into a better school?

It's a good idea to play Minnesota football in the cold. You don't wanna smell any of that when it warms up and gets ripe.

They've turned that talent level around. Before 2013, the last team to draft a Minnesota football player was "The Marines".

Notre Dame players hit that "Play Like A Champion Today" sign, and dang if they don't look like a ten dollar sweatshirt you got in 1993.

Don't think Michigan fans should be torn up about the Notre Dame rivalry ending. If they want to play a religious school that goes .500 against USC, Boston College is free.

Rudy and The Lego Movie are basically the same story, except nobody pretends The Lego Movie is a documentary.

Andy Katzenmoyer's never been asked to dot the I because he'd need a map.

It must've killed Woody Hayes to know he'd be remembered for throwing something, not running.

If Urban Meyer wants to coach somewhere with three non-NFL grade quarterbacks and leave a toxic mess where no one will notice, the Cleveland Browns are ready when he is.

If defeating Alabama meant you deserved a playoff spot then obesity gets an automatic three seed at least.

The Terp's a fine mascot since it lays eggs and sleeps through most of the fall.

I'm joking, Maryland's not all bad. They remind me a lot of an SEC fanbase. Mostly the racial slurs, but other things, too.

I'd guess any valley with electricity is a pretty happy one in Pennsylvania, relatively speaking.

The Spartans are doing real well right now. Historically speaking, that run'll end with them going two thousand years without making another bowl game.

Condemned strays at animal shelters pay celebrities to make commercials to get Purdue football adopted.

Hitchcock never released North by Northwestern, the sequel where the crop duster fumbles twice and only scores two field goals.

What do Nebraska football and bad husbands both have in common? Even at their best, they both go down four times a year.

[sbr]

One of the  est stories I have seen in a while.  UConn has decided that they now have a rivalry with UCF, problem is UCF has no interest in the rivalry or the shitty trophy.

http://www.underdogdynasty.com/2015/6/1/8701483/uconn-ucf-is-now-a-rivalry-confusion-ensues

UConn-UCF is Now a Rivalry, Confusion Ensues

Look, the American Athletic Conference is a pretty new league. Apart from perhaps UCF-USF, there really aren't any matchups with any sort of historical significance to them. And hey, those kind of matchups are what college football is all about, right? So it would definitely be cool if a couple of teams developed some kind of...

First day back on campus for #UConnFootball!  And just 130 days until the next Civil Conflict with @UCF_Football !

wait what nooooooooooo UConn that's not how rivalries work

There are a lot of confusing aspects to this, namely the fact that UConn and UCF have no sort of history whatsoever. They've played twice, with the Knights trouncing the Huskies 62-17 in 2013 and UConn pulling a 37-29 upset in 2014. They're also not connected by any sort of geographic ties, and likely never would have played each other ever if not for conference realignment making for some really odd bedfellows. Also, the Civil Conflict sounds like in-laws bickering at a family barbecue.

To be fair, UConn head coach Bob Diaco did mention that he'd like to start some sort of trophy series with the Knights after the Huskies' win last season. It's nice to see Diaco is rewarding his team's one conference win accordingly.

UPDATE: UCF apparently had no idea about any of this. We're getting suspicious, Bob Diaco.

Just checked w/ @UCF_Football: "We have no involvement with the trophy or creating a rivalry game with UConn." They were surprised by tweet.

The best part is is that the new "rivalry" trophy has UConn's 37-29 score engraved on it but they didn't include UCF's 62-17 ass kicking the previous year.

[MadBurgerMaker]

 

[Valmy]

How about a West Virginia-Texas Tech rivalry? The 'Unbecoming Scuffle'.

[Ed Anger]

It's time to bronze another sweater vest. Ohio State announced Wednesday that former football coach Jim Tressel will be one of the 15 inductees to the university's athletic hall of fame this year.

O H

[grumbler]

Dumbest move ever by an athletic department?

The excellent web site Shaggy Bevo has been forced by the Texas athletic department to change their name to shaggytexas.com because they were supposedly  infringing on the name "Bevo."  Talk about making enemies out of your friends.  Just dumb.  Patterson really needs to go (I doubt Plonsky had anything to do with this, since she and shaggybevo.com have co-existed for a decade or so).

http://www.shaggytexas.com/board/showthread.php/161516-Shaggy-name-change

[MadBurgerMaker]

Apparently it all started pre-Patterson.  Also, they aren't exactly....Bellmont friendly...there.

[grumbler]

If anyone is interested in reading a really good book about college football in its early years, I just finished "Stagg vs Yost" http://www.amazon.com/Stagg-vs-Yost-Cutthroat-Football/dp/1442248254 and highly recommend it.

It is the story about the legendary rvivalry between Amos ALonzo Stagg, head coach at the University of Chicago, and Fielding H. Yost, head coach of the Michigan Wolverines, between 1901 and 1905 (with major digressions int the periods before and after that).  Stagg, Yost, Henry Lane Williams of Minnesota, and Philip King of Wisconsin regularly vied for the championship of the (then) Big Nine and the title "Champions of the West."  The war between Stagg and Yost was especially bitter, as only they met every year.

The book is extremely well-researched, using archives from all the major schools (the Bentley Historical Libray in Ann Arbor is especially rich in "dirt and all" archives), as well as reports from major newspapers across the country, diaries of players and coaches, letters, and the like.  Kryk is able to make this period really come alive.

The thrust of the story is the increasingly frantic attempts by Stagg to derail what became known as "the Yost machine" (now known as the "Point-a-Minute" teams).  Stagg had gone 2-1 against Michigan before Yost's arrival, but fell in his first game against Yost 22-0 in a game not nearly as close as the score.  The Maroons never advanced past half-field.  Yosts's team went on to win the national championship at 11-0, outscoring opponents 550-0 (in fact, the defense was so good that the safety made only one tackle all season, and that was on a punt return).  Michigan was undefeated for four more years before Stagg finally got a 2-0 win at the end of the 1905 season.

Stagg would engage in increasingly dubious recruiting and admissions tactics to try to get the players he needed to defeat Yost's coaching.  That, and Yost's almost-as-dubious (in his cheating system, players got loans that had to be repaid, not cash gifts as in Stagg's cheating system, and at least Yost graduated his players), are pretty much what the book is about.  There's lots of good dirt on how players actually got recruited and retained back before there was an NCAA.

The book is really well-written on top of the excellent research and fascinating story.  It's the best college football book i have read that doesn't have the word "Bo" in the title.  If you are interested in the topic and don't mind the fact that it is a bit pricey I'd say it is a must-read.  Hell, get your local public library to order it if you don't want to spend the coin.

[Valmy]

Apparently it all started pre-Patterson.  Also, they aren't exactly....Bellmont friendly...there.

I find that hard to believe. It took them more than two years of effort to get that done? Nice use of resources there Bellmont.

Anyway I was not happy with this hire at all when it happened. Time has shown my concerns were greatly insufficient. Steve Patterson is destroying this Athletic Department. Just what we needed after the complacent days of the end of the Dodds era.

He goes out of his way to alienate everybody. It is like he does not understand what his job is. UT basically hired Dan Snyder to be their AD. I am starting to take this personally Football Gods.

The only nice thing is Steve Patterson can be fired so I don't have to just patiently wait for his death.

Here you go: http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/texas-longhorns-big-12-steve-patterson-toxic-culture-joel-klatt-audible-clip-081915

Starts at 1:30. If the Fox Sports dudes can see it then surely even the morons on the BOR will eventually.

I understand Michigan hired a similar dude with similar results so I think grumbler will understand a bit.

[Valmy]

As for this season...I have no idea.

Obviously Charlie Strong was not some immediate magic bullet but we will see how it goes after a season under his belt. I will be watching the offensive line closely and fretting...like I have done for most seasons since 2006.

[grumbler]

I find that hard to believe. It took them more than two years of effort to get that done? Nice use of resources there Bellmont.

Anyway I was not happy with this hire at all when it happened. Time has shown my concerns were greatly insufficient. Steve Patterson is destroying this Athletic Department. Just what we needed after the complacent days of the end of the Dodds era.

He goes out of his way to alienate everybody. It is like he does not understand what his job is. UT basically hired Dan Snyder to be their AD. I am starting to take this personally Football Gods.

The only nice thing is Steve Patterson can be fired so I don't have to just patiently wait for his death.

Here you go: http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/texas-longhorns-big-12-steve-patterson-toxic-culture-joel-klatt-audible-clip-081915

Starts at 1:30. If the Fox Sports dudes can see it then surely even the morons on the BOR will eventually.

I understand Michigan hired a similar dude with similar results so I think grumbler will understand a bit.

Yeah, Michigan had basically the same kinda guy, named Dave Brandon.  Very "brand" aggressive, raised a lot of money, but had a toxic personality and drove off a bunch of people in the department who had been there, doing great work, for decades (like their legendary equipment manager, who'd been there for 40 years).  Eventually, Brandon was driven out of town on a rail after the students staged massive protests to get rid of him.

Get this:  Harbaugh was willing to leave Stanford for Michigan in January 2011, but after talking to Brandon, "didn't feel the love," so he went to the 49ers and Brandon hired the guy he wanted all along, Brady Hoke.  At least Patterson doesn't have anything quite that bad on his resume.

So, good luck with Patterson, Texas.  Ann Arbor Torch and Pitchfork is having a going-out-of-business sale; maybe you can get some needed equipment cheap.

[grumbler]

And, for Michigan this year, I am calling it 9-3.  I see them losing the road opener to Utah in the first game, to MSU in the middle of the season, and then one more loss between BYU, Penn State, Minnesota, or Maryland.  I'm calling the defeat of OSU on November 28 right now.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Val, that's just what one of the admin dudes was saying in the thread about it.  Essentially that it started at toward the end Dodds/Mack "era" and finally reached this point now.  I think blacklab himself only said something along the lines of "fuck patterson" though so vOv.   

So, good luck with Patterson, Texas.  Ann Arbor Torch and Pitchfork is having a going-out-of-business sale; maybe you can get some needed equipment cheap.

Hell I'll swing by and pick some up before I head back down to Texas (I'm on the other side of the state at the moment at the in-laws place ).