Posts Tagged ‘bcs’

Thoughts after Week 2

Some random thoughts about week after having a day to digest everything.

- Washington got screwed. I understand that the excessive celebration penalty was called as it is stated in the NCAA rule book, but I think the spirit of the rule was not upheld.  Did Locker toss the football in the air?  Yes.  Did he do it to taunt BYU or excessively celebrate?  No.  He was charged up from scoring in the final seconds of the game to seemingly send the game to OT and give his team a chance to win.  There is a lot of emotion in college football and as long as Locker wasn’t doing it in an unsportsman like manner (and he wasn’t), then it shouldn’t be called.  The game should have been decided on the field and not by a poor call by a referee.

- Why were Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno still playing late during their blowout of Central Michigan?  My guess is that it had something to do with padding their stats for thier Heisman campaigns.  But doesn’t Richt know what can happen when a coach foolishly leaves in his best player late in a blowout?  That was a dangerous move to keep those two in the game, especially when UGA is trying to make a title run.

- Notre Dame looked BAD (3-12 on 3rd down, 4 turnovers) against San Diego State. Jimmy Clausen didn’t look very good and they didn’t run the ball very well (3.1/carry).  And I LOVE it!!!!!  I HATE Notre Dame.  They won 3 games all of last year and they got more coverage than teams like BYU and Cincinnati, that actually had winning seasons.  This year, its more of the same.  They are undeserving of all the hype and media attention they get.  And I hope they fall on their faces again.  HARD!

- Miami is on its way back to being a dominant program.  They played Florida tough, but just ran out of gas at the end.  That is attributed to their lack of quality depth, but that will be solved with a few more recruiting classes like this past one.  Randy Shannon is going to turn them around.

- How about East Carolina?!?! They knock of their 3rd consecutive ranked opponent (going back to the bowl game last year) and their first top 10 team since 1999.  And they didn’t just squeak by West Virginia - they DOMINATED them.  Looks like Skip Holtz could be on his way to a Conference USA title and giving BYU a run at being this years BCS buster.  Keep your eye on ECU.

- If Alabama is going to be taken seriously, then they’ll need to have more games like the Clemson game and less like the Tulane game.  They didn’t score a single offensive TD and only had 172 total yards.  Sure, they were missing some O-Linemen, but they need to execute better to be able to beat the heavy weights in the SEC.

- The ACC didn’t do much to redeemed itself after being beat up in week 1.  Maryland was whipped by Midde Tennessee State, Duke lost to Northwestern in the Turd Bowl, Virginia managed to only put up 16 points against FCS team Richmond and Miami was beaten by Florida.  When they added BC, VT and Miami back in 2004, they expected to beocome the new superpower in college football.  We are still patiently awaiting that moment.

- Sam Bradford continues to put up better numbers than Matthew Stafford agasint similar (if not better) competition.  Why does he still not get as much Heisman love?

Filed under: Weekly Thoughts

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No Plus-One game

Well, it looks like there will be no plus-one game for college football.  And that sucks.  I think the plus-one format would have been a better way to figure out who the “true” national champion is and it would have been one step closer to a true play-off system.

I’m convinced that one day the BCS commissioners and Notre Dame will realize that they can have all their bowl games and they can have a play-off at the same time.  And I’m pretty sure that they could make more money than they do now.

Filed under: Conference News

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Georgia Lawmakers Strike Again

This makes me sick.

Congress is calling for the Justice Department to look into whether the BCS is an illegal enterprise. Is this really all Congress has to do these days? This and the baseball steroids investigations are monumental wastes of taxpayer dollars. With the other problems in this country that need to be solved (Social Security, illegal immigration, pork barrel spending, etc), you’d think that Congress could find something else to do with their time ad not waste my money on investigating the BCS and steroids in baseball.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the BCS is crap and needs to bew scrapped for a play-off system (which I’ll outline one of these days). But I think that is a change that should (and eventually will be) brought about by the demand from fans and the realization from college presidents that more money can be made from a play-off. It is not a change that should be legislated. Nothing good can come from the government interfering with the NCAA operations (no matter how flawed they may be).

The thing that really angers me about this is the timing of it. This was not the first year of the BCS. It’s year 10. Why the need to investigate now? I’ll tell you why: sour grapes. Check out who one of the bills sponsors: Lynn Westmoreland, Republican-Georgia. That’s right, a Georgia guy sponsors the bill the season after Georgia fans felt they were unjustly left out of the BCS championship game (which they weren’t). And this isn’t the first time lawmakers from Georgia have wasted my money to try and change the BCS. (Here’s the actual bill). The elected officials of Georgia need to cut this kind of crap out before they embarrass themselves any further. This kind of stuff only makes them look petty and childish. GET OVER IT! NEXT TIME WIN YOUR DIVISION!

Bottom line: the BCS needs to change, but involving the federal government is not the way to do it.

Filed under: Preseason news

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Triple the Fun

The question was posed to me today - “Can Georgia Tech succeed in the ACC running the triple option that Paul Johnson employed at Navy?”

I say yes it can.

Just about any offense can succeed in college football if you have the right players, the right coaching and excellent execution (except for the West Coast offense…but that’s another story).

We already know that Johnson can coach. Anyone who can make Navy football semi-relevant again has to have some coaching skills. He doesn’t have the perfect players to run the triple option, but that is easily remedied through recruiting (which will take a few years). And once he’s go the players, it’s simply a matter of repetition and good coaching and they will have the execution part down as well. So yes, you can succeed running the triple option.

The big knocks against the triple option are that A) you can’t recruit players for that offense (i.e. no one wants to play in that offense) and B) there is too much speed in the major BCS conferences to be successful.

The first point is ridiculous. Go watch any 5 high school games in your area on any given Friday night. You know what kind of offense they are running? A variation of the triple option. Nebraska was able to recruit top high school players to run that offense until they stopped running it in 2004. There are always going to be good players who will fit into and are willing to play in the triple option. And if Johnson can convince a kid to play football at Navy (and thus, enroll in the service) then I think he can convince a kid to come to Georgia Tech (despite the 600:1 guys to girls ratio).

The second point is even more ridiculous. Nebraska was successful up through 2003 (they won 10 games and even played in the 2001 BCS championship game) running a variation of triple option. The Big 12 has lots of speed and Nebraska was successful. If the speed thing were true, then all those spread options would fail as well. They are both based on the quarterback’s ability to read the defense and either pitch the ball or run with it. With the right QB, you can neutralize much of the speed issue with any iteration of the option.

What it boils down to is that Johnson can flat out coach, he’ll get the players to run the option and he’ll be successful in the ACC running the triple option.

If you don’t believe me, remember this: everyone said that Urban Meyer’s spread option wouldn’t work in the SEC because of all the speed on defense.

And I think things have turned out pretty well for Urban Meyer and his Gators thus far.

Filed under: Conference News

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