UMFan83

I had low expectations for this press conference but its still worse than I expected

One more Michigan brag. They’ve been so good lately that their 3rd most common lineup has been their garbage time scrubs lineup

Still the worst Kenpom team in the Big Ten though Speaking of, currently obsessively hitting refresh on KenPom and barttorvik

This franchise sucks

Clever lol

Theoretically, if Pace and/or Nagy were fired, how would you rate the appeal of the Bears compared to the other teams with available openings? Other HC openings: Atlanta Detroit Houston Jacksonville LA Chargers NY Jets Philadelphia Other GM openings: Atlanta Carolina Denver Detroit Jacksonville Really not sure how the Bears fit in there. They theoretically play in an attractive market, though they would be joining a franchise that is run like a mom and pop shop. But they don't have a QB, their current draft position doesn't make it likely they can get one of the top 4 QBs without trading. They aren't talent devoid, but they are not in a particularly good place with the cap right now. On the plus side they control all their future 1sts.

One of the final hurdles to just admitting they're a minor league development system? Why do people keep suggesting this? You can't tell 18-year-old kids where they are and aren't allowed to go to school. It's a ridiculous concept. Similarly, I've seen cutting football scholarships again as a suggestion, and that's just not going to happen. The optics of yanking 1,300 scholarships (10 x 130 FBS schools) overnight are awful, and even if the NCAA mandated those 10 scholarships go to other sports instead, it's just not going to get through the court of public opinion. You aren't telling them where they can and can't go to school. If Bama doesn't have room, they can still attend the school they just won't be able to play football. They probably won't because they want to play football. Just like if a normal high school student doesn't get into the med program of their choice, they can still attend that school if they get accepted into a different program, they just can't study medicine. They probably won't because they want to study medicine. But regardless schools have enrollment limits just like football programs have scholarship limits. That said, I dont think the idea will work for a few other reasons.

Based on my OP above, my point is that 5 star players want to get the most exposure and play in the biggest games. By far the most exposure is with the CFP. Since Alabama only needs to be a top 4 team, they can sell every recruit on the possibility of playing in the CFP 2-3 times guaranteed. Other fringe CFP type teams cant sell that. Previously with 2 teams, I think there was more emphasis on the prestige of playing in games like the Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl among others. Now it seems like CFP or bust. With 8 teams the hope is that 5 stars will take a closer look at some of those fringe teams that have a much better shot of getting in...and a clearer path, just win your conference. I guess the counter argument is Bama can virtually guarantee making the CFP every year now, but maybe now they aren't the only school that can sell that dream. An example is Najee Harris. Committed to Alabama, but ended up visiting Michigan and was serious enough about the school that Michigan had assigned a dorm room and roommate to him as an early enrollee, which doesn't happen if a prospect is only a possibility. But ultimately he took that plane to Alabama, in large part because of the opportunity to play for championships. Other reasons for expanding the CFP: -Gives conference titles a heck of a lot more meaning, and gives schools with 1-2 losses an incentive to keep playing for a championship. You might need to readjust conference divisions though since the BT West is currently sending teams like an 8-4 Northwestern. -Allows it so that you can now realistically say every team actually has a shot to win a title going into a year. About 50% of college football goes into every season with 0 shot of making it even if they go undefeated. If the argument is that they aren't on the same level as P5 schools, then create a subdivision and let them play for a title -Overall just widening the net of schools that can actually make the playoffs...increases excitement, increases the odds for upsets. What I love about college basketball is that there are so many ways to consider a season fulfilling besides winning a championship. If Michigan made the CFP as a wild card and got blown out 77-0 to Alabama, that would still be a more enjoyable season than basically any season since 1997. As college football stands today, I've never had less interest and I think others are starting to feel that way.

I'm a huge fan of expanding the CFP to 8 teams or even 12/16 teams, but I'm starting to even consider that maybe 2 teams is better than 4. It seems like with 4, its virtually guaranteed that 2 of Clemson, Ohio State and Alabama gets in every single year. If I am a 5 star talent and I want to go somewhere with the most exposure, I am going to a school that gets into the CFP 75% of the time. Clemson earned their way into the elite, but now they are pulling ridiculous recruiting classes. Ohio State often drawfs the rest of the Big Ten in recruiting. And of course Bama has so much talent that when their 5 star QB struggles in the first half of the title game they can bring another 5 star in to help the team come back and win. I also hate to cave into this theory because it annoyed me so much when the NCAA wouldn't cave on a playoff but the other Bowls games including the NY6 have reached complete irrelevance. I didn't even watch the last time Michigan was in one (2018 vs. Florida in the Peach Bowl), and it seems the only schools excited about them are the G5 teams that get in because its their one chance to show they can compete with P5 schools. Im not sure how the CFP would cause these games to lose luster...it just seems that way. That's just my unresearched hypothesis. It could be other factors that have shifted the parity of the sport to 3 teams unrelated to the CFP, but either way this horsefeathers is boring. In the first 10 years of the CFP, 9 different schools won the title (Tennessee, FSU, OU, Miami, Ohio St., LSU, USC, Texas, Florida). In the first 7 years of the CFP just 4 teams have (Bama, Clemson, OSU, LSU)

lovie was fired on new year's eve 2012-13, which was a monday. The season before, Jerry Angelo was fired on a Tuesday after the season, but Monday was New Year's Day so that may be why

That seems to me like the most likely outcome but my confidence level of any of them returning is less than 100%. Regardless of what happens, the Nagy/Mitch marriage has to end. Theres no magical way that Nagy is going to find a way to make a Mitch led offense average or better.

What is the possibility of going after someone like Darnold? I’d love to give him another young QB with upside and have him prove that the struggling offense was due to Mitch and not his own inadequacies. But the price might be too high if there are other suitors (knowing that the Jets have to get rid of him if they take Fields or another QB at 2)

Illini dropping a tough one at home to Maryland. They seems like a team that might take their occasional lumps in the regular season but have the talent to dominate in the tourney

Just for fun. The Bears played a playoff team 7 times this year. They scored 131 points in those 7 games, an average of 18.7 per game. Bad but not as bad as I expected. BUT Looking at it further, 50 of those 131 points were either defensive scores or garbage time TDs (I defined as TDs scored after 7 mins remaining in the 4th and the Bears down 12+ points) So if you take those points out of the equation, the Bears scored 81 points in 7 games against playoff defenses. And I think I’m being generous in only counting 50 points as there was at least 2 FGs in those games where the Bears defense got a TO and the offense didn’t move the ball at all and kicked a FG. There was also a TD the Bears scored in the 2nd quarter against GB when they were down 27-3 and at least one other TD scored with prevent defense (1st Saints game the Bears were down 10 with 5 mins left)

They changed the rules a couple of years ago so that they don’t play the PAT play if it doesn’t effect the game. I think this happened after a few situations where they had to wait 5-10 minutes for the other team to come back from the locker room to line up for a meaningless play.

They played bad teams, then they played good teams, then they played bad teams, then they finished with 2 good teams They also had a couple of miracle comebacks in games they were outplayed in. They should have finished 6-10 (we’ll call the 2 Lions games a wash since both teams blew one) But basically they played a 3rd place schedule and managed to win almost all the games against bad teams and almost none against the good teams

So it’s great that Nagy got the Bears to 2 playoff appearances in 3 years. But less great that the Bears have scored 1 total TD in 7.5 quarters of playoff football.

So many people said that everyone’s jobs could depend on how they responded to playing non-bottom feeder teams again. So far they lost by 19 and are losing by 18 while scoring a combined 19 points. I’d say that is probably not what you the McCaskey’s were hoping for, injuries or not

It’s almost like they played like a 5-6 win team that had a couple miraculous comeback wins and almost exclusively beat bad teams

The common defense is that Nagy isn’t giving him an opportunity to be good because of his conservative gameplan. But there’s a reason why Nagy thinks he needs to be super conservative (rightly or wrongly)

After giving up a long demoralizing TD drive the last thing the defense needs is to come back out after a 3 and out lol

6 first downs for the bears offense. Conservative offense or not that is pathetic. Nagy not really showing why he deserves to come back

Eddie Jackson such a disappointment today

In the first game, the bears used a TO at the end of the half while up 10 in an attempt to get the ball back before halftime. The Saints took that extra time and used it to score a TD before halftime. In this game the Saints used a TO at the end up the half while up 4 in an attempt to get the ball back before halftime. The Bears...ran up the middle with their 3rd string RB on 3rd and 2