College Football In Season Thread

ummmm........ said:

No, that's just why I'm not as insane as the average college football fan. How many Georgia, Florida, Lehigh, Lafayette, Michigan or Ohio State fans have committed felonies in the past year in the name of fandom?

I'd argue that having a front row seat since birth to the most intense rivalry in all of American sport is what has taught me to see the broader picture . . .

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Nah, I've lived in Alabama and it really isn't that bad. Sure, since it's the South, the crazies - crazies that every rivalry has - are more visible, but the average person is still more than willing to abandon all that come bowl season because ESS EEE SEE.

Not sure why being in the South would make the crazies more visible -- Is it because they don't have to bundle up? But I'd disagree with you as to the second part. I pulled for Auburn in 2010 after they beat us, but I don't know of many other Alabama fans who did, nor do I know of many Auburn fans who pulled for 'Bama in 2011.

We do seem to have more conference pride generally than the other conferences do, but I think that's just a product of the fact that we always knew we played the best football and we're excited that the BCS has given us the opportunity to prove it. It's nice when we post a good overall bowl record, or get a good postseason or regular season record vs. another conference, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're pulling for our rivals when we're actually watching any particular game. Again, I always pull for the SEC, but I get a lot of crap for it locally, so I don't think it's as pervasive as you imagine . . .

You do make a good point that conference pride comes out a bit more during bowl season, because we like for the teams that we beat or that beat us to look as good as possible . . .

EDIT: A relevant question for Ohio State fans, who seems to be prevalent here: Michigan is opening the season vs. Alabama. Would you rather see Michigan lose, because they're Michigan, or win, because they'd be beating the SEC . . ?

ummmm........ said:

EDIT: A relevant question for Ohio State fans, who seems to be prevalent here: Michigan is opening the season vs. Alabama. Would you rather see Michigan lose, because they're Michigan, or win, because they'd be beating the SEC . . ?

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If it was any other Big Ten team, I'd happily root for them to beat Alabama. Like a lot of OSU fans, I'd prob root for any other team to beat Alabama period, since most OSU fans kinda hate the SEC, generally.

I don't want any good things to happen to Michigan though. I want them to lose.

It is weird for me in rivalries...

My dad played football for Wake Forest... been to their games since a young-un.
My uncle played for Wake too.
My other two uncles played at UNC.

One cousin played football at Duke under Spurrier, then went into the USFL.
Another cousin played WR for Duke.

When I was in my early teens my football/baseball coach at the Boy's Club was a die-hard NC State fans and took us to many football and some basketball games.

My daughter has only pulled for NC State since she was a child... she liked the Wolves.

In football, only go for Wake against all the others. In fact always go Wake first.
But I will pull for any ACC team against anybody else... but I don't like FlaSt or Miami very much at all. Funny... but I have always like Pitt since the Dan Marino days.
I almost walked on for Clemson baseball, but went to a small school in N.C. instead.

In basketball I go for Wake first... then it is a tossup. For some reason I don't like DUKE basketball (probably because they are usually good) and go for UNC over Duke almost every time. I don't really know why... maybe it is the pretty uniforms . I usually go for State over UNC... another I don't know why.
Any ACC team over anybody else. Sometimes I don't like VaTech, FlaSt, BC, Miami... but I don't care too much at all one way or another.

I have seen UNC, NC State, and Duke in baseball personally . And in college- we beat Duke and East Carolina my freshman year . My cousins were at the Duke game and I was playing against several of my High School former team mates vs ECU.

aka... Sport's Freak . I just like to compete... and to see competition .

Games start next Friday. What do we think about some of the big matchups in week 1?

Boise and Michigan State? Both sides hit really hard from graduation, but Michigan State still likely has a top 10 defense...

Notre Dame and Navy? Is Navy going to be any good this year?

South Carolina at Vandy?

Can Ohio beat Penn State? They will unquestionablly end up with more wins than Penn State....

Clemson and Auburn? Does Michigan have a prayer?

Games start a week from next Thursday, don't they? The 30th?

I'll comment on the SEC games, since those are the ones where others may find my opinion valuable:

South Carolina/Vandy should be all South Carolina. Vandy under Franklin may not be the Vandy of old, but South Carolina with Lattimore and Clowney healthy has at least a chance to beat anyone in the SEC, and Vandy probably won't be the ones to stand in their way.

Sammy Watkins being out for Clemson is just too much for them to overcome. Auburn may not finish in the top half of the West, but they should get the asterisked win here.

Michigan has a prayer, yes, but just barely. Alabama struggled mightily versus mobile QBs last season, but when we had a month to prepare for the title game we were suddenly unstoppable. So I think we'll have a plan that will keep Robinson bottled up, and a big game on the ground from him is Michigan's only chance. What they do have going for them is that Upshaw is a Raven now, and Hubbard is an unproven replacement at the Jack position. So I'd expect more success than Robinson would have had last year, but not enough to stay competitive . . .

I heard Clemson had several up and coming WRs who were top notch! One especially tho I can't remember the name right now.

Clemson is impossible to ever bet on. I can easily see them beating Auburn by 17, then crapping the bed against Virgina or something. I have no idea what they're going to be like.

I am cautiously optimisitic about the Franklin era at Vandy. I don't think either of us have been alive long enough to remember Vandy having any kind of swagger, and they return a lot of pieces from a decent team that just couldn't close out games. What kind of QB play is SC going to have this year?

Michigan has a 1000 yard running back in addition to Robinson, but I don't think they can win unless Denard doesnt turn the ball over at all. His judgement still kinda sucks.

I believe in Denard!

I think Michigan can beat Alabama if they have the same insane luck they had last year.

Did anyone want to host this year's pick'em?

dt already made a thread.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=472517

Auburn/Clemson seems like the toughest call of the three games mentioned involving SEC teams. I think the Watkins loss will be enough to let Auburn pull through, but they've got new coordinators on both sides of the ball this year, so I could see them struggling early in the year to put the pieces together. I'm just saying my money would be on Auburn in a pick 'em. I think Clemson is actually the slight favorite on betting sites.

South Carolina still has the same Connor Shaw they had last year, which should be fine with Lattimore back. Franklin won't bring Vandy back. If he's good enough to do that, he'll be gone to another job before he can make it happen.

Michigan may be returning a 1000 yard rusher, but Alabama is returning a guy who has averaged 7+ yards per carry the past two years. Regardless, I'm not at all worried about Michigan moving the ball on Alabama with a RB. The only way that could happen is as a byproduct of Robinson's success on the ground.

Finally, just because I know no one here appreciates it, here's yet another ESPN article on the mind boggling success Alabama's defense had last year. Every stat it lays out is more impressive than the one before. My favorites: 1) Alabama allowed 75 plays of 10 yards or more, 47 fewer than their closest competitor. 2) When opponents left the ball in the air for 20+ yards, an interception and a completion were equally likely. It really was an incredible, once in a lifetime type unit, and there's no way this year's team will be comparable. Happily our offense shouldn't suck

So who thinks Oklahoma State can repeat their national championship?

I want to see Barkely eat the dust this season. Hope Chow will pull something out of his hat and stun the Trojans early in the season as revenge.

contre said:

So who thinks Oklahoma State can repeat their national championship?

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It'll be hard without Grandpa Weeden and Blackmon. I just want them to humiliate OU again.

downtown said:

Games start next Friday. What do we think about some of the big matchups in week 1?

Boise and Michigan State? Both sides hit really hard from graduation, but Michigan State still likely has a top 10 defense...

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Michigan St is really nice in the front seven and I'm really not too sure about Boise St in the trenches this year. I'll say Michigan St, but if BSU wins, they're going 12-0.

downtown said:

Notre Dame and Navy? Is Navy going to be any good this year?

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If by any good you mean bowl eligible, yes. Looking at their schedule, I count eight wins (though Penn St is fairly unlikely). However, I have Notre Dame in this game (and one of seven wins for them).

downtown said:

South Carolina at Vandy?

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Vandy won't beat UT this year, much less South Carolina.

downtown said:

Can Ohio beat Penn State? They will unquestionablly end up with more wins than Penn State....

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Penn St is just going to have a horrid year (looking at the schedule, I count 4), but this will be one of them.

downtown said:

Clemson and Auburn? Does Michigan have a prayer?

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Auburn/Clemson has been best explained by ummm. As for Michigan, they have more than a prayer, they have a chance. They have weapons on offense (obviously Robinson). However, Bama has a very fast 3-4 man defense, the kind that just kills the speedy fast QBs. Bama wins, but it won't be a blowout, more like 20-10 or somesuch.

I know we've got a couple of UVa guys on here. How's Sims looking at QB . . ?

ummmm........ said:

I know we've got a couple of UVa guys on here. How's Sims looking at QB . . ?

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He's slow to learn the offense. It seems that Rocco will stay at top QB (for now). But Sims and Watford (last year's #2) will make Rocco's seat hotter as the season goes on. We also had a '12 QB recruit enroll early (Lambert) and two more QB recruits in the '13 class.

STL's take on the QB battle

Also, while I can jizz all over UVa, we got our first 5* recruit since Eugene Monroe in Taquan Smoke Mizzell today!

edit: also, shouldn't we start a new thread for the new season right about now?

madviking said:

edit: also, shouldn't we start a new thread for the new season right about now?

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Yeah, I was sort of waiting for someone else to do it. I mean, we've got six straight national titles, we don't need the CFC College Football In Season Thread as well. I think you should go ahead and kick one off.

Not surprising to hear that about Sims. In a lot of ways he's not unlike an incoming freshman who doesn't enroll early for spring ball. Just no way for him to be ready in time, as far as understanding the offense goes. I'm not sure what Rocco's like, but I wasn't hugely impressed with what very limited game time I got to see from Sims before he left Alabama. I think the one word I would choose to describe his performance would be 'overwhelmed'. That said, I didn't think he was really given a fair shot in game situations compared to McCarron, but OTOH there may have been a good reason for that. Time will tell. I hope he does well, as I do for everyone who leaves the program, for whatever reason.