College Football In Season Thread

Way, way more pompous. I mean, I'm not even trying yet . . .
i like how umm has completely ignored my points on how terrible lsu's offense has been in other big games that don't involve bama
Like I said, I conceded the point because I don't think y'all will benefit from further discussion and the season's over anyway. But if you're looking for edification, you can compare the stats for yourself. cfbstats is good, but it only goes back to '07. The official NCAA stats site isn't as good, but goes back to '89. cfbdatawarehouse is good if you're just looking for wins and losses, and it goes back all the way. ESPN has a fairly accurate play-by-play of this year's games on its website, or if you want a little more detail & accuracy you can find official box scores at individual team websites . . .
 
Just because I'm a stat whore and tonight was the first time I saw it: Alabama's first missed tackle in the BCS title game came with 9:15 left to play in the 4th. Can you be nostalgic for something that happened last week?

Barrett Trotter done at Auburn. Presumably not in the mix for serious playing time next year and having already graduated, he's just moving on from football.

ESPN reporting that Washington's Nussmeier is Alabama's new OC. "Official" announcement to come tomorrow, apparently. Washington's offensive performance trailed Alabama's by a fair bit this season, but Saban digs those West Coast guys from out there where they do the calculus, so I suppose I'll defer to his judgment just this once.

Hopefully coincidentally, Washington has also granted Montana's kid a release. I know he had a passing interest in Alabama during recruiting, but that seems like more baggage than talent to me. ESPN's report indicates he's focusing on two-year colleges.

Alabama LB coach/associate HC Sal Sunseri leaves to become DC at Tennessee. Tennessee's Lance Thompson, who left Alabama for Tennessee and was replaced by Sunseri, leaves Tennessee for Alabama to replace Sunseri. Incestuous.

The SEC's new recruiting rules are starting to take effect. Originally described as a 'hard cap' of 25 commitments per year, no grayshirting, no school-sanctioned medical scholarships, etc., seems to still have some holes. Alabama's class stands at 27 verbals right now, including Landon Collins. That would appear to be a problem since 27>25. But apparently the rule about not counting players back to previous years hasn't taken effect, so out of eight 2012 recruits who enrolled for classes last week, three are being counted back to last year's class, leaving us one spot open with three weeks to go.

What's more interesting is that one spot doesn't seem to be enough. Alabama RB commitment Justin Taylor -- who has been committed to Alabama since February of last year -- was asked to grayshirt anyway. The twist is that Alabama was prepared to sign a commitment that his scholarship would still be available when he did enroll. At first Taylor reaffirmed his commitment, but has now backed away. Alabama has two 'better' RB commits in this class, and Taylor did not play this year due to injury. So this may be the first test to see whether the SEC's new, less lenient recruiting rules will wind up benefiting the player or the school . . .
 
Yes, TATM to the West, Mizzou to the East, at least for 2012.

I've heard the rumor that would send both Auburn and Alabama to the East as well, and it makes sense from a rivalry standpoint -- both of those schools have more 'traditional' rivalries with the current East division than they have with the West, not counting each other -- but if you moved both of them East and put TATM & Mizzou in the West that would leave you with a six team West and an eight team East.

I'd like to see Auburn move east without Alabama, to restore the Auburn/Florida and Auburn/Tennessee games annually, but the SEC has just recently reconfirmed its commitment to an eight game conference schedule -- which I think is a good idea -- and that would mean only two inter-division games each year. The SEC will not consider a schedule that doesn't include Alabama/Tennessee and Alabama/Auburn every year until the current CBS deal runs out -- if then, even -- so moving just Auburn to the East isn't going to happen either.

I sort of feel like what they're hoping for is that the inevitable expansion to sixteen makes this more manageable, and they're just kind of holding on till then.

Meanwhile, the big news in CFB to me seems to be the deal with Venables. Clemson with OU's D should dominate the ACC, I'd think . . .
 
I'm still waiting to see a major news source announce it, but I've read sources saying Joe Paterno has passed away today.
 
I find it so weird how the will to live is a real thing.
 
The Bryant parallels are eerie. The passing of a (the last?) legend . . .

Short article from an Alabama beat reporter before this year's Alabama/Penn State game, speaking with Paterno about Bryant breaking Stagg's record back in '81, the week after we beat Penn State. Worth a read if you love college football. You younger folks should probably give it a pass . . .

EDIT: Oh, also: This year's Super Bowl is a rematch, as downtown has already noted . . .
 
No one cares anymore umm, we proved you were wrong months ago.
 
The super bowl isn't going to suck because it's a rematch. It's going to suck because nobody likes either of those teams.

The BCS should have just put Pittsburgh and Green Bay in the Super Bowl though, huh?
 
EDIT: Oh, also: This year's Super Bowl is a rematch, as downtown has already noted . . .

I didn't realize those two teams played in the same division and were voted to play in the Super Bowl by a committee. Must have missed that among all the silly allegations that CRAIG JAMES KILLED FIVE HOOKERS while at SMU.

As downtown said, the matchup sucks because everyone hates both of those teams.
 
The BCS should have just put Pittsburgh and Green Bay in the Super Bowl though, huh?

Nah, Green Bay and New Orleans. Patriots had a weak SOS, and the Saints just look like a better team, you know?
 
Well, fwiw, I would rather have seen a good defensive team vs an offensive one. The fact that both the Ravens and 49ers got beat kinda dampens the old claim that 'defense wins championships' doesnt it?
The Giants' defense won the NFC championship. Yeah, they had a good offense to, but the defense shut down the 49ers.
 
Well, fwiw, I would rather have seen a good defensive team vs an offensive one. The fact that both the Ravens and 49ers got beat kinda dampens the old claim that 'defense wins championships' doesnt it?

Defence does win championships, but special teams loses them.
 
Amazing how quickly we moved on from Paterno's passing.

I was pulling for Ravens/Niners, but really, it's the NFL, who cares?

@MobBoss: The NFL has intentionally altered the rules to increase scoring in an effort to increase ratings. This is why defense doesn't win championships in the NFL . . .

Senior bowl rosters with measured weights and heights. Always fun to compare to college rosters, with claimed weights and heights . . .

EDIT: Still @MB: If you're losing faith in the value of defense at the college level, here's a link from an anonymous CFCer on another forum that might reassure you. Of course, you've got to buy in to recruiting rankings for that to make sense, but :dunno:
 
The Giants' defense won the NFC championship. Yeah, they had a good offense to, but the defense shut down the 49ers.

No, they didnt 'shut them down'. Hell, the 49ers had 150 yards rushing for the game and actually did slightly better than their offensive per-game season avg.
 
No, they didnt 'shut them down'. Hell, the 49ers had 150 yards rushing for the game and actually did slightly better than their offensive per-game season avg.
The 49ers were 1-for-13 on third down. If you can only convert one of thirteen third downs, you're shut down.
 
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