jjgman21

damn our punter for that matter.

blame rex for that one though.

Yeah that was Bernard's fault, but there were still 2 defenders over there. Not very happy with either of the guys on that play. if BB doesn't give up on the play and runs his route correctly, that ball is on the money. it would have taken a miraculous play by the DB to turn it into an incompletion without pass interference.

I'm bumping this to respond to Cuse. this is football. more importantly, this is college football. more importantly still this is, for the most part, non-conference college football against mostly patsies, or a t a minimum teams that are generally outclassed. I don't overemphasize either half. what I look for in these situations is dominance from opening kickoff until either the end of the game or garbage time. few teams of note were able to do that yesterday. some had better competition than others, some had lack of "emotion" working against them, some took teams too lightly. I don't care what the excuse, in these situations, all the top teams should be dominating in that way. I don't look for what Navy did last year, I don't look for the pride of Marshall, I don't look for a half of good football making up for a half of bad football and calling it a plus game. I may make mistakes about who might be good but unrecognized, like perhaps Wake, but I'm pretty good about recognizing who is overrated (ie. if OSU-UWash were later in the season I would expect the Buckeyes to win, but I think UW will win that game next week). I call them as I see them. I found pretty much the entire top 25 uninspiring yesterday. it goes for the conference I cheer for, the Big 10 (with the exception of Michigan), it goes for my alma matter, and it goes for every other conference and team. You make some interesting points but as you said, it is college football, and they are young men, not machines. Things can be adjusted and fixed by good teams and if they escape with a win over a less talented team, then they get away with it on that day. It is almost impossible to dominate over the whole 12 games no matter what type of talent you have because there is always that one game where things get tough for one reason or an other. yet you obviously have no trouble punishing Wisconsin and rewarding five Big East teams in your rankings.

no they don't. they usually play one good team, and almost always lose. they get credit for having a tough schedule for playing in the SEC, but people lose track of the fact that Kentucky, Ole Miss, Vandy, SC, are in the conference, just like NW, U of IU, and IU are in to the big 10. they miss that Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, MSU, Georgia and Auburn are often hit or miss, just as MSU, Purdue, Iowa, and Minnesota are in the Big Ten. same statement could be made about your precious Big East. all in all, you can say that the SEC gets too much credit as compared to the Big Ten, as the Big Ten does to the Big East. at the same time, it's pretty silly to continue to try to make the case that the Big East is better than the Big Ten top to bottom, or that their top teams are so obviously better than the Big Tens top teams. it would be like a Big Ten fan trying to make those cases about the SEC. you are right that conventional wisdom sucks, but you misuse the 'convential wisdom sucks' argument year after year.

I'm bumping this to respond to Cuse. this is football. more importantly, this is college football. more importantly still this is, for the most part, non-conference college football against mostly patsies, or a t a minimum teams that are generally outclassed. I don't overemphasize either half. what I look for in these situations is dominance from opening kickoff until either the end of the game or garbage time. few teams of note were able to do that yesterday. some had better competition than others, some had lack of "emotion" working against them, some took teams too lightly. I don't care what the excuse, in these situations, all the top teams should be dominating in that way. I don't look for what Navy did last year, I don't look for the pride of Marshall, I don't look for a half of good football making up for a half of bad football and calling it a plus game. I may make mistakes about who might be good but unrecognized, like perhaps Wake, but I'm pretty good about recognizing who is overrated (ie. if OSU-UWash were later in the season I would expect the Buckeyes to win, but I think UW will win that game next week). I call them as I see them. I found pretty much the entire top 25 uninspiring yesterday. it goes for the conference I cheer for, the Big 10 (with the exception of Michigan), it goes for my alma matter, and it goes for every other conference and team.

I don't get it. admit my guilt in not knowing about this game, but my point stands. it's bad enough doing seven degrees from Kevin Bacon, but to reach into last year to do so is just lame. doesn't change your unequal treatment of Georgia and Tennessee. you complain about the pollsters, but have no problem that Tennessee continuously is kept in the top 25 and goes to good bowl games despite 4 loss seasons. it's just not consistent. I think Michigan lost both their games because emotion helped App St and Oregon. why wasn't WVU just as emotional? or is it that Marshall's emotion helped them play good and WV's emotion made them play bad? whatever. are you ready to excuse OSU for playing flat against Akron under the same logic? it's a lame excuse. well you really didn't. all you did was complain that Florida is so benefitted by the pollsters, losing track of the fact that Louisville and their basketball offense/bad defense has been media darlings for two and a half seasons now. now if both of us could be consistent, maybe we wouldn't have to keep arguing this garbage.

no kidding. that will probably be the only game TCU loses all season unless they somehow make a BCS game. TCU is a very good team with a very good defense. I'll admit I don't know a whole helluva lot about TCU, and looking at their schedule, they should go undefeated in the Moutain West, but I gave my reasons, and they are pretty solid reasons. TCU had a 10 point lead at half, and was tied 10-10 going into the fourth. Texas didn't take a lead until TCU put the ball on the ground inside their own 15. TCU had a hundred yards in penalties, four turnovers, and three other fumbles they managed to get back on. yet Texas couldn't do much with that until the fourth quarter, instead matching TCU in sloppy play for much of the game. I think I demonstrated a lack of homerism here. as a Big 10 guy, I am fine with saying that PSU's win was less than impressive. why people look at the final score and determine whether a team was impressive or not, I have no idea.

I suspect the genius's record will be close to the same as his predecessor's after three seasons. The difference is he will do it with flair and a couple of top 5 recuriting classes. Anyone even MENTION Ty Willingham and I'll punch them in the face. Do you know the extent of Notre Dame's senior class helping the team right now? Junior Jabbie - backup RB who's playing like 5 plays a game right now Joe Brockington - starting LB Maurice Crum - starting LB Ambrose Wooden - nickelback (who blows chunks BTW) Geoff Price - punter That's IT. Weis is working with a bunch of 20 year olds out there. The junior class is hardly any better. And that's because Willingham was too damn busy golfing to bother recruiting his last two offseasons as the coach. And his 2002 team was the luckiest in the history of sports as well as having a very good upperclassman group because Bob Davie actually didn't suck at recruiting. I swear, this is what I freaking hate about this crap. We start 0-2, get soundly beaten by two teams that should probably finish top 15 in the country, and everyone starts calling for the idiot coach who came before. This mess is still Ty's fault, and it will be until at least 2008. Derwood, Clausen's cockiness is a little thing called leadership. I don't know what you saw, but I don't remember seeing any mouth-running other than talking to his own team in the huddle. And yes, Charlie's playcalling was abysmal. We would have had a chance in the game if he'd taken the diapers off Jimmy sooner, because once he did was the only time we moved the ball all night. And Austin Scott was little but the beneficiary of a tired defense. What did ND's offense have, like, 6 three and outs in a row? They were beat by that time, and that's why Scott busted loose. First quarter, on the one good drive ND managed, Clausen ran for a first down on a broken pass play and was barking at one of PSU's linebackers. And why try to downplay Scott's performance? PSU's defense did it's job, which is to keep the other defense on the field so that the offense can take advantage. You seem to be acknowledging the ass-kicking but keep making lame excuses for it. The players aren't good, the coach didn't take many chances, the penalties were brutal. just an interjection here, if I were a PSU fan, I wouldn't be all that stoked about that victory last night. I think an argument could be made that Clausen outplayed Morelli, and Morelli had an offensive line and a running game and outstanding receivers to work with. the defense looked good, but considering what GT did to NDs offense, it really diminishes what their defense did do.

no, the Navy team that lost to Tulsa last year. interesting. Wake had their asses handed to them by BC last week, so through this twisted logic game we are obviously going to have to play again this year, how do you rank Navy, BC, Wake, and Rutgers? I don't dispute this, but Tennessee proves year after year that they are overrated. they are the Michigan of the SEC, always unable to convert great recruiting into great teams. so because the game was huge, it excuses a half of crap football? as others have said, giving up a bunch of points after sprinting out to a 40 some odd point lead is one thing, allowing a team to hang with you the entire game is another. but the point is your hypocrisy. you admit your bias in another post, why don't you just admit your bias in forming your rankings? and its jJgman.

apply the same logic you apply to Arkasas/Troy. because it was 10-10 going into the fourth quarter. because they managed about 100 yards of offense in the first half, including 2 INTs by Colt.

like the way Marshall outplaying WVU for more than a half of football, Middle Tennessee State hanging 42 on Louisville, and Rutgers less than impressive performance against the mighty Midshipmen makes no difference in your eyes? Nebraska and Texas had absolutely unimpressive wins. I agree with your comment about Georgia, but why doesn't it apply to Tennessee too?

what a wonderfully soul crushing loss for the Cardinals. here's to hoping it carries over.

When your proudest academic achievement is landscape archietecture, you'd better be good at sports. 1 Here's to rooting for a miserable failure for the french-rooters1 while I agree to an extent with the point you are making, landscape architecture, while not intellectually challenging, is a very rigorous program. was at UW anyway.

Nah, I followed online. I just have regular cable TV here. me too. seemed to be unable to stop the short passing game. all I kept reading was Nixon for, Nixon for 12, Nixon for 7, Nixon for 11. it was driving me nuts. IIRC, UNLV runs the basketball offense, and the Badgers always suck against the basketball offense. offense was terrible on third down.

For some reason, UNLV has given the Badgers fits for the past few years. One of the most miserable days of my life was when the Badgers lost to UNLV at Camp Randall in the pouring rain about 3 or 4 years ago. I didn't bring anything for the rain, got soaked, and was sick for a solid week afterwards. Blech. didn't see your post, but obviously I am aware. did you get the game tonight? BTN on Dish Network gave me every single Big Ten game that wasn't national today, except the one I wanted to watch (well, in retrospect, I don't think I would have wanted to watch).

The Citadel put up 76 points on Webber today. Better watch out. :D I saw that, and I had a moment of concern, until I realized that Webber International is to the Citadel as Citadel is to Wisconsin. Webber isn't even if the division formerly known as I-AA. UNLV has always given the Badgers trouble. they even lost to them one year. why they chose them again as an alleged patsy I have no idea. for some reason they always take these teams lightly, and have had their asses handed to them before.

outside of OU and LSU, most of the top 25 was less than inspiring this week. Auburn, Georgia, and Boise St. go down, many had scares of one sort or another (UW, Louisville, Cal, Hawaii, Nebraska, A&M), even those who won by healthy margins played a half of lousy football (WVU, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, UCLA). craptacular week there. how's about not sucking so bad against the bloody Citadel next week Badgers.

I think he had a terribly built team. despite the HRs, they finished ninth in the league in runs scored. the pitching was some of the best in the league, which was accomplished by a staff that had no history of pitching so well. Jenks was a nice move. other than that, he got lucky. look at how far out of line most of that pitching staffs numbers were from their career numbers, and if someone can honestly tell me they would have predicted it, than I posted too late, because I would have gotten the MegaMillions and Powerball picks from them.

like I said, it will all come down to whether the decide to re-engineer how they go about placing their votes, and I think that is quite likely. but again, I don't think we will ever know because from the beginning they were o-ver-ra-ted.

while it makes it a helluva lot more difficult, I don't think this loss even kills Michigan's chance at a national title, unless the voters do what they did last year and re-engineer how they do things just because they don't want them in the championship game again. despite people in this very thread stating prospective outrage if they are still ranked, they are Michigan. their overratedness will not change. if they are out of the top 25, they'll still get some votes. beat Oregon next week, and they are back in the tip 25. win the next two against ND and PSU (probably both on national tv), they're top 15. keep winning, they keep passing teams. go into the final two weeks against a top 10 Wisconsin and a top ten OSU, win those, they are top five. conference championship game upset or two, they are top 2 or 3. suddenly, that silly upset at the beginning of the year is forgotten, and if the voters do what they usually do, bump losing teams 4-7 slots, and Michigan is there waiting to move up, they very well may. but I would not doubt if the the voters did change the way they vote, not forgetting that loss (like last year they wouldn't forget about their loss to OSU), and will change their vote to suit the national media sentiment. now I certainly don't think this is likely, because I don't think they are good enough, but it's really ironic that it's more detrimental losing a late season game against a good team then losing an early season game to a non BCS conference opponent. if they went undefeated all season and lost to UW or OSU in the final two weaks, there's no chance they make the BCS because there would be too many teams to jump over with too little time left.

I haven't seen the play, but that sounds alot different than the way it was described earlier in the thread. however, I believe as long as the runner doesn't make any deliberate attempt to interfere with a throw, the ball is still in play after it hits him. if he deliberately interferes, it should be interference, runner out, play dead. those that remember the mid 80's might remember Wally Backman throwing his arm up to block the ball while in a rundown. ump ruled he didn't attempt to interfere, ball rolled away, runners ran. whether the runner being out at the time makes a difference, I have no idea, but don't know why it would. but bottom line is the fielder has to pretend there's no runner there and throw the ball. now if Pujols is just standing there and let's it hit him, I think a strong argument could be made that is a deliberate attempt to interfere with the throw. if he attempts to duck and it hits him, no interference.

if Rothschild doesn't come up with a new plan for Luis Gonzalez this series, I may have to have some speaks with him after the game. they dealt with him well in LA this year, but from 04-06 his OPS was 1.176 against the Cubs (1.257 at Wrigley), mostly due to Roths refusal to let any pitcher throw anything inside to him.

it's so satisfying beating bad umpiring, as well as the opposition. not sure if it has been mentioned elsewhere on the board today, but today is the anniversary of when the umpires took the second game of the DH away from the Cubs on that call down the third base line, the first game being won on a Sosa dinger. much like I applauded Alf belly bumping the ump, I liked Aram's arguing the bad strikezone, even though it made winning the game less likely. I haven't watched alot for the past month, but ever since the Phillies and Mets series it seems the Cubs have been getting hosed fairly regularly by the umps when I have been able to watch. while there is always the danger of the "Moises Alou double secret probation," I am of the opinion that umps will continue to hose a team until that team stands up for itself. despite the Cubs losing that game back in 2003, they were in a funk of bad umping at the time, and although the umping in Puerto Rico a few days later was horrendous as well, that game seemed to be the swan song of the bad umping, and it propelled them on a little winning streak that sent them hurtling toward the division championship. hopefully Aram's outburst and Lee's blast today will do the same, just like Sept 2, 2003 did for that Cubs team.

I like that you cheer for your conference though. I find it amazing how many Big Ten fans would rather Michigan and OSU lose in non-conference games. Not realizing this only make their school look even crappier. of course he said nothing about Florida. you think Tennessee and Georgia fans would not revel in Florida losing to one of the nonconference patsies they line up, you would be wrong. you think Oregon and UCLA fans wouldn't love it if USC lost to Idaho last night, you would be wrong. I personally rooted for every Big Ten team to win yesterday, except Michigan. it's about their over ratedness, the calls they routinely get, their fans sense of entitlement, AND the fact that if tied within the conference, the second tie breaker is overall record.