College Football

[cubweiser03]

John L Smith has not been able to get any discipline in Michigan St. They will probably start out hot again and than faulter and he will be fired and we will be on our 3rd coach since Sabin. I am not trying to start a nasty feud with the ND fans but it wouldnt surprise me if MSU beat ND again, than lose to Mich two weeks later and be lucky to go 7-5.

 

About Mich and Carr. At least Carr has finally realized that Herrmann is a lousy Def coordinator. Well I dont know if Carr figured it out or he was forced to figure it out. This is unlike Dusty who still has all of his lousy coaches from last yrs disaster

 

Dont be surprised, the team last year almost beat OSU and should have. Drew Stanton is the only person to save JLS....and he just might.

 

Carr didnt figure it out until he was forced by gun point.

English-Im going to coach the Chicago Bears secondary.

Carr-How bout i promote you to assistant def coordinator?

English-Do i get to call the plays?

Carr-No

English-Im signing the dotted line and going west to Chicago.

Carr-Here's the playbook.

 

Dusty would just insert 'dude'.

Edited July 3, 2006 by cubweiser03

[SouthSideRyan]

However, I know they will find some way to lose a few games; but hopefully they can make it to another BCS game.

 

Which only takes about 7 wins for ND, right?

 

I wish it were still that way. Instead they have to have a good record now. I guess its one of the disadvantages of not being in a conference.

 

Oooh I hope we can start this debate again.

[jjgman21]

my two college football teams are the Badgers and the Irish.

 

Badgers - I fear from the lack of comments from my Badger brethren that there isn't much to look forward to this year. and I'm not too confident that the D coordinator who hasn't been able to stop NU, MSU or Iowa for years is now the head coach. then again, much like the Cubs, it's a helluva lot more difficult to take when you start out with high hopes, things go well for awhile, you get some national recognition, then fall flat on your face. it's more fun and easier on the blood pressure knowing you're mediocre and hoping for an upset here or there, which the Badgers always manage to accomplish.

 

Irish - I'm a big fan, but sorry, they don't require much more than 7-5 to get to a BCS bowl game. the polls are still a huge part of the BCS process, and you don't need a good record to be ranked highly in the polls when you are ND or a few other select programs.

[SouthSideRyan]

Twice a 2 loss ND team has not been taken by the BCS.

[hawkeyecub]

However, I know they will find some way to lose a few games; but hopefully they can make it to another BCS game.

 

Which only takes about 7 wins for ND, right?

Which is a hell of a lot harder to get than the ACC's automatic berth.

 

LOL please tell me you didn't say that. In the ACC you have to beat out FSU, Miami, Va Tech, Virginia, BC, Georgia Tech, Clemson and Maryland. All Notre Dame has to do is win all of the games they're supposed to win and go .500 on the others. Yeah that sure is tougher.

 

I wish it were still that way. Instead they have to have a good record now. I guess its one of the disadvantages of not being in a conference.

 

What changes were made? Do they not have to win just 9 games or finish in the top 12 anymore? As far as disadvantages of not being in a conference, come on. How is it a disadvantage? I don't want to get into another ND debate but you know that ND has far more advantages than disadvantages of not being in a conference and that's why they won't switch. If they were in a conference it wouldn't be as easy to get into the BCS and they wouldn't have nearly every home game televised nationally.

[hawkeyecub]

Cubweiser I dont think you should be so hard on Michigan. I really think that last year should have been a serious wake up call to this team. They most certainly have top ten talent. They should beat everyone on their schedule with the exception on ND and OSU. As much as it pains me to say this I can see them winning one of those 2 games and going 11-1. Am I mistaken by saying that their road Big Ten games are OSU, PSU, Indiana and MInnesota. With a improved Chad Henne and a healthy Micheal Hart and a growing Manningham to go along with an always solid offensive line and Steve Breaston, Michigan can be pretty good. They also can underachieve and go 7-5 like last year.

 

So what's new? Michigan has top ten talent almost every year. Under Lloyd Carr they usually find a way to lose a close game or two and underachieve most years. So I don't know that they "should" beat everyone but ND and OSU. At Penn State and home games with Iowa and MSU will be tough also. What suggests that Chad Henne will be improved? He was worse last year than he was his freshman year and needs to prove that Braylon didn't make him.

 

I can live with what you said except for the Henne comment. He had nearly identical numbers last year than as a true freshman with Braylon. He didnt get much better but he most defintly didnt regress.

 

After looking at the numbers I guess you're right. He just seemed to be feast or famine and really struggled (and was a big part) in their losses. He had terrible games against Notre Dame and Minnesota, and had a poor game at Wisconsin.

He did play well at Iowa, MSU and OSU though.

 

I guess it's kind of like people thinking Tate wasn't as good last year because we weren't as successful. He actually threw 2 more TD's, cut his INT's in half from 14 to 7, had a half yard more per attempt and had the same completion percentage.

[TruffleShuffle]

Now to be fair, Notre Dame did play Pitt (5-6), Michigan State (5-6), Washington (4-7), Purdue (5-6), BYU (6-6), Tennessee (5-6), Syracuse (1-10) and Stanford (5-6) last year. Those teams all used to be really good! Like remember how Pitt went to the Fiesta Bowl in 2004? Or how Washington went 12-1 and beat Miami in 2000? What about Jim McMahon at BYU, and their undefeated season in 1984? Tennessee won the national championship as recently as 9 years ago. Donovan McNabb went to Syracuse, and John Elway went to Stanford! Boy, what a schedule.

[SouthSideRyan]

Now to be fair, Notre Dame did play Pitt (5-6), Michigan State (5-6), Washington (4-7), Purdue (5-6), BYU (6-6), Tennessee (5-6), Syracuse (1-10) and Stanford (5-6) last year. Those teams all used to be really good! Like remember how Pitt went to the Fiesta Bowl in 2004? Or how Washington went 12-1 and beat Miami in 2000? What about Jim McMahon at BYU, and their undefeated season in 1984? Tennessee won the national championship as recently as 9 years ago. Donovan McNabb went to Syracuse, and John Elway went to Stanford! Boy, what a schedule.

 

Good thing ND has a time machine to find out which historically good teams would have bad years. That way they can keep their tough scheduling charade going. Let's burn the school down and then make them join a conference.

[B]

I'm going to say this for the first of many times this year...Geaux Tigers!

 

seconded.

[adamb0719]

However, I know they will find some way to lose a few games; but hopefully they can make it to another BCS game.

 

Which only takes about 7 wins for ND, right?

Which is a hell of a lot harder to get than the ACC's automatic berth.

 

LOL please tell me you didn't say that. In the ACC you have to beat out FSU, Miami, Va Tech, Virginia, BC, Georgia Tech, Clemson and Maryland. All Notre Dame has to do is win all of the games they're supposed to win and go .500 on the others. Yeah that sure is tougher.

 

I wish it were still that way. Instead they have to have a good record now. I guess its one of the disadvantages of not being in a conference.

 

What changes were made? Do they not have to win just 9 games or finish in the top 12 anymore? As far as disadvantages of not being in a conference, come on. How is it a disadvantage? I don't want to get into another ND debate but you know that ND has far more advantages than disadvantages of not being in a conference and that's why they won't switch. If they were in a conference it wouldn't be as easy to get into the BCS and they wouldn't have nearly every home game televised nationally.

 

The ACC has sent some pretty average teams to the BCS. Just look at FSU last year.

 

Changes were made and ND and the BCS reworked their contract. It has been thoroughly discussed on this board and you can find all the changes at the BCS website. To sum it up, they have to finish in the top 8 to get an automatic bid. And they have been passed over twice for BCS games with 9 wins. Never have they been in a BCS game with less than 9 wins. I was not saying that not being in a conference is a disadvantage, but that is one disadvantage of it. They can't win 7 games and go (see the ACC). Also with the new BCS agreement, winning a conference does not guarantee a BCS berth. Strenght of conference comes into play.

 

 

I really don't want to turn every college football thread into a ND thread, so maybe this season we can have a weekly game thread, and then an ongoing ND thread. That way every thread won't turn into 10 pages about ND's schedule or their not being in a conference, or anything like that. I know a lot of people were sick of reading constant debates about ND.

[adamb0719]

Now to be fair, Notre Dame did play Pitt (5-6), Michigan State (5-6), Washington (4-7), Purdue (5-6), BYU (6-6), Tennessee (5-6), Syracuse (1-10) and Stanford (5-6) last year. Those teams all used to be really good! Like remember how Pitt went to the Fiesta Bowl in 2004? Or how Washington went 12-1 and beat Miami in 2000? What about Jim McMahon at BYU, and their undefeated season in 1984? Tennessee won the national championship as recently as 9 years ago. Donovan McNabb went to Syracuse, and John Elway went to Stanford! Boy, what a schedule.

 

What does this have to do with anything? Should ND just not make a schedule until a few weeks before the season so they can have all good teams. I don't think you will hear many ND fans saying that ND's schedule was as tough as it looked before the season started. Would you say that their schedule this season is tough?

 

S 02 @ Georgia Tech

S 09 PENN STATE

S 16 MICHIGAN

S 23 @ Michigan St.

S 30 PURDUE

O 07 STANFORD

O 21 UCLA

O 28 @ Navy (Baltimore)

N 04 NORTH CAROLINA

N 11 @ Air Force

N 18 ARMY

N 25 @ Southern Cal

 

I think it is pretty decent. Probably about as tough as most-but definately not all- conference schedules.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Obviously Notre Dame isn't trying to create a mirage with their schedule, and obviously it's made well in advance of the season. The problem with them picking their opponents(read: not being in a conference) is that what happens last year can happen pretty easily. Last year Notre Dame looked like it had a pretty brutal schedule, and it ended up not being much to write home about at all. With a conference schedule(read: opponents that play each other in addition to you) you're much less likely to have everyone fall apart(intentional exaggeration) because of basic math, someone has to win. Sometimes you have a bit of a regression to the mean, but most times a hierarchy will develop.

 

As this pertains to Notre Dame, they don't really need a strong schedule to make the BCS because of how well they fare in the polls. So if their schedule turns out to be mostly garbage(intentional exaggeration) they can still make a New Year's Day bowl by only losing to the few strong teams remaining, which really isn't all that fair to those in conferences with tougher schedules and less respect at the polls.

[Andy]

Carr and JLS deserve an assist to all the ND haters due to the fact that their teams always end up with a much worse record than their talent indicates thereby making last year's schedule look even worse than it actually turned out to be.

[NewUserName]

good point about Carr and Jl Smith.

 

Didnt CArr used to have like a 15-3 record against top ten teams? He would always lose to MSU, ND(when they werent that good) or some other team during the season that they should have beaten but than always play the top teams well. Now they still lose a couple they shouldnt lose and dont play the top teams well.

 

Like I said MSU doesnt have any discipline. Stupid penalties, blown assignments have just killed them the last couple of years. I would put this right on the head coaches shoulders. Talent they have discipline they dont. He also took the running option away from Stanton which was not a good idea. Stanton is a fine passer but what he really is is a good athlete and taking the running away limits his overall ability.

[soccer10k]

Now to be fair, Notre Dame did play Pitt (5-6), Michigan State (5-6), Washington (4-7), Purdue (5-6), BYU (6-6), Tennessee (5-6), Syracuse (1-10) and Stanford (5-6) last year. Those teams all used to be really good! Like remember how Pitt went to the Fiesta Bowl in 2004? Or how Washington went 12-1 and beat Miami in 2000? What about Jim McMahon at BYU, and their undefeated season in 1984? Tennessee won the national championship as recently as 9 years ago. Donovan McNabb went to Syracuse, and John Elway went to Stanford! Boy, what a schedule.

 

What does this have to do with anything? Should ND just not make a schedule until a few weeks before the season so they can have all good teams. I don't think you will hear many ND fans saying that ND's schedule was as tough as it looked before the season started. Would you say that their schedule this season is tough?

 

S 02 @ Georgia Tech

S 09 PENN STATE

S 16 MICHIGAN

S 23 @ Michigan St.

S 30 PURDUE

O 07 STANFORD

O 21 UCLA

O 28 @ Navy (Baltimore)

N 04 NORTH CAROLINA

N 11 @ Air Force

N 18 ARMY

N 25 @ Southern Cal

 

I think it is pretty decent. Probably about as tough as most-but definately not all- conference schedules.

 

Obviously a school has to make it's schedule early and doesn't how how every team is going to fare that year. You can't hold that against Notre Dame. But the fact is, that even though Notre Dame tried to create a tough schedule last year, as the year played out it was obvious that their schedule actually ended up being extremely weak. And herein lies the problem. Nobody in the media bothered to look at how Notre Dame's opponents actually fared on the year and instead just saw the names "Michigan", "USC", "Tennessee", "Michigan State", "Purdue", and remembered that Pittsburgh was ranked in the preseason (but conveniently forgot they lost to the University of Ohio). Nobody in the national media bothered to realize that all of those teams, with the exception of USC, were average at best last year. Notre Dame beat a bunch of below average and average teams and because they are darlings of the media, were ranked higher than they should have been. Because of the caliber, or lack thereof, of Notre Dame's opponents, very few people realized that their defense was actually horrible - something that was exposed in the Fiesta Bowl loss to Ohio State. Notre Dame did not deserve a BCS bowl last year - and no I'm not going to get into another debate over this so nobody try to spark one - but received one solely because they are Notre Dame.

 

I'm not saying other schools haven't been overrated as well solely because of reputation, but Notre Dame is overrated more often than anybody else. I'm also not trying to say Notre Dame is overrated this year, because I don't think they are. But they are given the benefit of the doubt more often than virtually any other school.

[Slugger_16]

I can't stress how happy I am that this year's college football thread has turned into the Notre Dame-talk thread just like last year's!!

[CaliforniaRaisin]

I can't stress how happy I am that this year's college football thread has turned into the Notre Dame-talk thread just like last year's!!

 

You'd figure poor Todd Walker is gonna get tired from all that bat swinging.

 

I bet Johan hates ND too.

[soccer10k]

I can't stress how happy I am that this year's college football thread has turned into the Notre Dame-talk thread just like last year's!!

 

I detect sarcasm. As I stated, I'm not going to debate Notre Dame all the time. I have my point of view and that's not going to be changed anytime soon.

 

Who is your team Slugger? We can discuss them instead?

[BigSlick]

I can't stress how happy I am that this year's college football thread has turned into the Notre Dame-talk thread just like last year's!!

 

I detect sarcasm. As I stated, I'm not going to debate Notre Dame all the time. I have my point of view and that's not going to be changed anytime soon.

 

Who is your team Slugger? We can discuss them instead?

 

Notre Dame? More like Notre Shame! (heckling)

 

Anyway, who's the team to beat in the SEC now?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Slugger's such an instigator. You never see me bad mouthing ND. :^o

[Slugger_16]

I can't stress how happy I am that this year's college football thread has turned into the Notre Dame-talk thread just like last year's!!

 

I detect sarcasm. As I stated, I'm not going to debate Notre Dame all the time. I have my point of view and that's not going to be changed anytime soon.

 

Who is your team Slugger? We can discuss them instead?

 

I wasn't talking about you. Not sure if you were reading NSBB during last season, but the ND talk got old very quick. I wanted to vomit.

 

And my team? The REAL USC! :D

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Discussion of Slugger's team should begin and end with "Sidney Rice is very very good".

 

 

 

 

It's also acceptable to add "Mizzou owned them in the Independence Bowl last year".

[soccer10k]

I can't stress how happy I am that this year's college football thread has turned into the Notre Dame-talk thread just like last year's!!

 

I detect sarcasm. As I stated, I'm not going to debate Notre Dame all the time. I have my point of view and that's not going to be changed anytime soon.

 

Who is your team Slugger? We can discuss them instead?

 

Notre Dame? More like Notre Shame! (heckling)

 

Anyway, who's the team to beat in the SEC now?

 

I like Florida in the East and Auburn in the West.

 

Tennessee isn't that good, South Carolina still doesn't have the players to win under Spurrier's system and Georgia lost Shockley. Florida returns a good core of players and Chris Leak. I think this is the year they make the SEC championship game.

 

Auburn has the scheduling advantage this year and they will get LSU, Florida, and Georgia at home. They do have Alabama and South Carolina on the road but their out of conference schedule (Washington St., Buffalo, Tulane, Arkansas St.) is weak. LSU will play both Arizona and Fresno St. at home but will have to go to Florida and Auburn. That will be the difference.

 

EDIT: The college football conference championship comes down to who you play and where you play them so often that I have begun to use that in my analysis.

Edited July 4, 2006 by soccer10k

[soccer10k]

Oops. Double post. Edited July 4, 2006 by soccer10k

[CaliforniaRaisin]

And my team? The REAL USC! :D

 

You mean the school with all those criminals?

 

(You know, you really can't go wrong saying that about either USC.)