College Football - Postseason

[Derwood]

12 minutes ago, javy knows my name said:

Who won the toss? I hope OSU deferred

OSU and yes

[Andy]

Ohio State is the most talented team in the country and it was always a matter of if they felt like playing like it.

Notre Dame's 2 most important position group (the lines) were both crushed by injury all year and OSU is the first team good enough to take advantage.

Football isn't complicated.

[soccer10k]

[Derwood]

I'm happy that PSU lost a close semi-final game rather than get its doors blow off in the final

[BigSlick]

It’s a good day when Notre Dame loses

 

go buckeyes 

[Derwood]

We have a ball game

[soccer10k]

That FG was significant to a lot of people out there.

[UMFan83]

IM SO GLAD NOTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD HAPPENED TODAY EXCEPT THE BEARS HIRING A GREAT HEAD COACH

(sorry Andy)

[Andy]

17 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

IM SO GLAD NOTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD HAPPENED TODAY EXCEPT THE BEARS HIRING A GREAT HEAD COACH

(sorry Andy)

You had to go wake them up. 😛

At least they didn't wither and die, I guess. Will still be the highest poll finish for the team since 1993 (I assume they'll be no lower than #3).

Get a better quarterback (Riley Leonard will be fondly remembered forever but you aren't winning titles with guys like that unless you have Ohio State level dudes everywhere else), keep raising the talent floor, keep knocking at the door and maybe the next time you won't have to play a backup defensive line with your best offensive player visibly unhealthy and the other team won't have 3 first-round picks at WR.

[soccer10k]

46 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

IM SO GLAD NOTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD HAPPENED TODAY EXCEPT THE BEARS HIRING A GREAT HEAD COACH

(sorry Andy)

Good thing they expanded the playoff, right? Sorry, had to.

At least you can imagine a world where it's still a 4 team playoff and Michigan ended OSU's season once again.

[UMFan83]

40 minutes ago, soccer10k said:

Good thing they expanded the playoff, right? Sorry, had to.

At least you can imagine a world where it's still a 4 team playoff and Michigan ended OSU's season once again.

Honestly this title doesn't bother me (that much).  I might have said this earlier in the thread but if there was ever a time for an OSU title to happen, its after a year Michigan won the title and then beat OSU in the season they won the title.  I mean come on, OSU is the first team ever that has to literally wear the L from their rivals:

I mean it sucks but its also kind of hilarious

[soccer10k]

56 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Honestly this title doesn't bother me (that much).  I might have said this earlier in the thread but if there was ever a time for an OSU title to happen, its after a year Michigan won the title and then beat OSU in the season they won the title.  I mean come on, OSU is the first team ever that has to literally wear the L from their rivals:

I mean it sucks but its also kind of hilarious

2017 Bama lost to Auburn but won the title. That was the year Tua replaced Hurts in the title game at halftime.

[jumbo]

6 hours ago, Andy said:

You had to go wake them up. 😛

At least they didn't wither and die, I guess. Will still be the highest poll finish for the team since 1993 (I assume they'll be no lower than #3).

Get a better quarterback (Riley Leonard will be fondly remembered forever but you aren't winning titles with guys like that unless you have Ohio State level dudes everywhere else), keep raising the talent floor, keep knocking at the door and maybe the next time you won't have to play a backup defensive line with your best offensive player visibly unhealthy and the other team won't have 3 first-round picks at WR.

Maybe you have some insight as to why can ND not get an above average to great QB. Are they not paying the NIL money? Is the ND lifestyle something that turns off ALL the best QB recruits? 

Every time I watch them I'm amazed that their QB is the best one on the roster 

[I owned a Suzuki]

6 hours ago, soccer10k said:

Good thing they expanded the playoff, right? Sorry, had to.

At least you can imagine a world where it's still a 4 team playoff and Michigan ended OSU's season once again.

Not that I'm against the 12 team playoff, but I do feel that it does weaken the importance of regular season games some. Which is one of the reasons I enjoy CFB so much. 

[Andy]

2 hours ago, jumbo said:

Maybe you have some insight as to why can ND not get an above average to great QB. Are they not paying the NIL money? Is the ND lifestyle something that turns off ALL the best QB recruits? 

Every time I watch them I'm amazed that their QB is the best one on the roster 

The rumor was that ND picked Riley Leonard over Will Howard (who isn't elite either but did a good imitation of it last night) when transfer hunting last year, so there's probably some scouting there. (Note - I will love Riley Leonard forever and he was pretty good last night, so this is not shade on him.)

The previous OC was horrific at QB evaluation. For all his skills as a HC, Brian Kelly sucked at developing QBs unless they were low-ceiling guys. Supposedly CJ Carr (the presumptive 2025 starter) has the skills to be great, so maybe he'll be the difference, though I've heard that line before.

[Derwood]

I think there are reputations of which schools develop certain positions better and the elite high school recruits go where they think they will have the best NFL chances. Schools like ND, PSU, Michigan, etc. do not have that reputation when it comes to QB's.

Some schools can reset that reputation (i.e. Ohio State is now known as an elite school for WR's)

[jumbo]

3 hours ago, Andy said:

The rumor was that ND picked Riley Leonard over Will Howard (who isn't elite either but did a good imitation of it last night) when transfer hunting last year, so there's probably some scouting there. (Note - I will love Riley Leonard forever and he was pretty good last night, so this is not shade on him.)

The previous OC was horrific at QB evaluation. For all his skills as a HC, Brian Kelly sucked at developing QBs unless they were low-ceiling guys. Supposedly CJ Carr (the presumptive 2025 starter) has the skills to be great, so maybe he'll be the difference, though I've heard that line before.

Is Angellini a possible starter? He looked good in his short relief outing against Georgia

[Andy]

3 hours ago, jumbo said:

Is Angellini a possible starter? He looked good in his short relief outing against Georgia

Angeli will likely be competing with Carr (Kenny Minchey could be in there too but seems like the odd man out), but I think if Carr loses that battle that's a bad sign. Angeli is a very good QB in the Tommy Rees/Ian Book mold and with the talent ND will have on offense he could win 10 games, but he's not seriously competing for a title, while Carr has much more ability. (And similar to what I said about Leonard, Angeli probably saved the season vs Penn State, so I will never take a shot at him, just calling it as I see it.)

[CubColtPacer]

9 hours ago, I owned a Suzuki said:

Not that I'm against the 12 team playoff, but I do feel that it does weaken the importance of regular season games some. Which is one of the reasons I enjoy CFB so much. 

It does weaken the importance of some games, but I would argue it increases the importance of four times as many regular season games as it diminishes the importance of.  There were so many fun twists and turns because more games mattered.

[mul21]

I'm still baffled by the all out blitz and zero coverage on the 3rd and 11 that ended the game.  I get sending an extra guy but to leave the DBs on an island against that set of WRs just seems like a no win situation to me.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

8 minutes ago, mul21 said:

I'm still baffled by the all out blitz and zero coverage on the 3rd and 11 that ended the game.  I get sending an extra guy but to leave the DBs on an island against that set of WRs just seems like a no win situation to me.

I dunno, it makes sense to me. The game is similarly over whether they get 12 yards or 50, so force them into the lowest probability of a 1st down that you can, with a bonus for it being an incompletion in doing so.

[mul21]

34 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

I dunno, it makes sense to me. The game is similarly over whether they get 12 yards or 50, so force them into the lowest probability of a 1st down that you can, with a bonus for it being an incompletion in doing so.

I'd agree with you in most cases, but when you have 3 NFL WRs on the other team that are all going to be in single coverage it's just too much of a risk.  Send an extra guy to make him throw it sooner than he wants to and have a shell ready to tackle anyone before they get to the sticks.

[cwood218]

17 minutes ago, mul21 said:

I'd agree with you in most cases, but when you have 3 NFL WRs on the other team that are all going to be in single coverage it's just too much of a risk.  Send an extra guy to make him throw it sooner than he wants to and have a shell ready to tackle anyone before they get to the sticks.

Seems like giving 3 NFL WRs the chance to find the gaps in zone coverage would be just as much of a gamble.

If a bring the house blitz was unable to get to or pressure the QB enough to effect the throw then I doubt just bringing one extra and dropping the rest into coverage would have been much better.

Edited January 21, 2025 by cwood218

[Andy]

14 hours ago, mul21 said:

I'd agree with you in most cases, but when you have 3 NFL WRs on the other team that are all going to be in single coverage it's just too much of a risk.  Send an extra guy to make him throw it sooner than he wants to and have a shell ready to tackle anyone before they get to the sticks.

I mostly agree with you and wouldn't have sent the house, but there were few good options available. Ohio State was going to throw it to a stud receiver and I think ND knew it so just tried to force a mistake.

Aso worth noting that Will Howard converted several first downs on scrambles in the game and ND's front four (which consisted of 3 backups due to injuries and a guy who's been on a bad wheel all season) wasn't getting any push at all.

[Derwood]

Penn State poaches Jim Knowles from Ohio State